... i mean, they are constantly going out, and shit. I mean, WTF, i don't remember having to re-light them eigthteen times to smoke the whole fucking thing

Store is looking at security video to figure out who made the announcement

Wal-Mart officials are looking at security tapes after an announcement was made for "all black people'' to leave a store in South Jersey.

A man used the public-address system at the Route 42 store in Washington Township Sunday night and calmly announced: "Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now.''

Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington were inside the store when it happened and told the Courier Post that customers and store employees looked stunned when they heard it.

"In 2010, I want to know why such statements are being made because it flies in the face of what we teach them [our kids] at home, and that's tolerance for people," said Ellington.

Ellington and other customers let store management and police know they were upset.

They asked the store to use the same announcement system to apologize to customers that night, which it did.

Wal-Mart management called the incident "unacceptable," and said it's working to make sure nothing like this happens at any other stores.

Washington Township police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office are investigating the incident as a possible bias crime.

"I can't believe it in this day and age," Covington told the paper. "Wal-Mart needs to be more responsible."

Covington and Elllington are boycotting the store.

That's frickin' hilarious. I wish I could have been there.

If they catch the guy, he probably will be charged with a hate crime. Got to be careful with ones practical jokes these days. It's dangerous to have a twisted sense of humor when your fellow citizens do not.

The nation's chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, 'It's the right thing to do, to tighten the grip around folks' who commit crime.

Tighten the grip around THIS, motherfucker!

What is it with this guy, and "folks"? He says "folks" more than Grandpa Walton, for chrissakes.

I'm one of those types who is, as a matter of principle, opposed to any law requiring involuntary action. Sure, if a person puts himself into a position of having to act (as in driving, running a business, making money) well then, you have to adhere to the laws. But for just doing nothing more than existing, to be compelled by law to do certain things... well, again, it's a matter of principle.

Which is why I find the census question, "What race do you consider yourself to be?" offensive.

Last time the census came around, I just entered the names of the people in my household. Other than that, I left the rest of the form blank, and nothing came of it. No canvassers, no letters, no fines, no nothing.

This time, I'm going to write in an answer for the "race" question. I'm going to enter, "NATIVE AMERICAN". They don't have that as a selection (they have "American Indian") to prevent smart asses like me, I suppose. But you can write one in.

Technically, that's not lying, because I was born and bred in the states. And I'm always welcome to becoming a "test case" in the courts should it come to that.

It should be amusing to see the statistics, when they come out, for my area. 90% white, a handful of brothers and sisters, plenty of hispanics... oh, and a couple of Native Americans. heheheh

If you have any appreciation for The Dark Side of the Moon at all, and have not seen "The Making of the Dark Side of the Moon", you need to do this:

Find a spare hour or so. Google "making of the dark side of the moon" (or, preferably, stream it from Netflix). Click the "videos" tab and watch the video. It's a good fifty minutes... not just some youtube trifle.

You will find new appreciation for the album (sounds impossible, I know, but trust me on this). Interviews and demonstrations of how it was made, with all the players... actual videos of the Floyd as they were making it. It'll give you goosebumps (or make your nipples get hard... it did me, but I'm peculiar).

Plus, it's for free!

Eclipse (Waters)

All that you touch,
All that you see,
All that you taste,
All you feel.

All that you love,
All that you hate,
All you distrust,
All you save.

All that you give,
All that you deal,
All that you buy,
    (beg, borrow or steal).

All you create,
All you destroy,
All that you do,
All that you say.

All that you eat,
      (and everyone you meet).
All that you slight,
And everyone you fight.

All that is now,
All that is gone,
All that's to come,
And everything under the sun is in tune,
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark.

The toner on my LJ 1320 is running low, and I'm figuring on re-filling it myself.

Anyone have any experience with toner refill kit sellers? It's hard to figure out who sells a quality product and who sells crap just by googling.

In an interview with ABC News, the president said Medicare and Medicaid costs are on an "unsustainable" trajectory and "the federal government will go bankrupt" if they are left unchecked. Without reform, he said, "nobody argues with the fact that healthcare costs are going to consume the entire federal budget."

OK, I have tried to behave myself. I have tried to be calm. Seeing the right wingnuts making ugly. Not wanting to be like them. Keeping my mouth shut about this guy (on-line, anyway).

But I can't take it any longer. That was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

:: ahem ::

Who IS this guy? I don't give a FUCK that at least he's not McCain or what Bush did or how much of a retard Palin is, and that ANYTHING is better than THOSE jokers.

How did THIS GUY get to be president? I mean.... REALLY!

Thank you. I feel much better now. Before I have an aneurysm, I'll shut the fuck up now about this guy for another year or so. I promise.

Tiger just wanted to let it be. His woman with the golf clubs sure did.

But no. That's not good enough for the Florida Highway Patrol.

Going for a search warrant.

People no doubt getting mugged every day in their jurisdiction. Robberies, rapes, any number of unsolved crimes there.

But they focus on Woods. Because they are more interested in headlines than actually serving the public. If I was one of the many unsolved cases in their jurisdiction, I would rightly be highly pissed.

The Man don't like to be denied. And they aim to make an example in this case.

The Highway Patrol obviously sees this as their 15 minutes of fame. They are not going to let Woods just say "go away, we are fine".

Law enforcement does this all the time, in high profile cases. The alleged victim and the alleged perp both say "go away, we are fine" but no.

They want to make national headlines. They intend to "make a point". No one tells the Florida Highway Patrol to go away.

Meanwhile, they divert needed resources from crimes that need solving. Because, basically, they want to be on CNN again. Bunch of hicks on a power trip.

And they wonder why people are, more and more often, likely to say "Fuck the police".

They are just another gang, worried about saving face, and getting pissed about being dissed.

"No one disses the Florida Highway Patrol, beyatchez"

I'll say it one more time for good measure.

"Fuck the police."

OK, one more time, with feeling:

FUCK THE POLICE

So Tiger told the Highway Patrol to take a hike when they came to his place the day after his wife took a golf-club to him. Twice.

Way to go, Tiger!

Said the Highway Patrol spokesbabe: 'Maybe somebody needs to call the agent and ask why they weren't available,' said Kim Montes, the public affairs officer for the Florida Highway Patrol. 'We wanted to give Tiger an opportunity to tell us what happened so we can include it in the crash report'

Pure, unadulterated bullshit. Kim, this is not an episode of "Cops" and Tiger and his woman do not live in a trailer park, and I'm sure the man can take care of his family issues without the likes of you sullying his carpeting. If Tiger wanted to press charges, he would.

There are a few reasons to talk to the police. Very few. Many more reasons NOT to, under any cirucmstances, talk to the man.

Sure, if some gangsta lookin' mofo jacked up my mom for her grocery money, I'd invite Officer Friendly in for a cuppa tea and a cruller. But my wife coming at me with golf clubs as I run to the Escalade and proceed to hit a fireplug and a tree? Naah. I'd have nothing to say.

To the police, anyway.

If you enter "i love" into Google, the first suggestion is "you man" along with a bunch of other stuff.

If you type "i hate" it has no suggestions. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Not a one. Which is strange, because I am sure that phrase is not all that uncommon on teh interwebz (I guess Google is starting to hard-code exceptions these days).

I tried it in my Firefox search box as well. It comes back with one suggestion. "i hate to recommend thompson quote". Which of course happens because Firefox remembers me searching for that before (long story).

The quote: "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."

Well, I do. And they have.

I was (and still am, in a way) looking forward to the re-make of "The Prisoner".

Ian McKellen's comments, however, have me worried.

But Two embodies, among other things, the drawbacks of capitalism, McKellen says.

"Capitalism offers you freedom, but far from giving people freedom, it enslaves them," he says. "That's part of the show's message."

(http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i8bL2em9fBarsfr4oqXaZUvYvCFQD9BTAI7G0

Of course, the original series had nothing to do with capitalism. I can only hope McKellen mis-interpreted the script. Which seems likeley... studying for his part does not seem to have been a top priority for him:

McKellen says he saw only enough "to get a flavor" of the original "Prisoner" series, which starred Patrick McGoohan as Six while shuttling numerous actors through the role of Two.

Depressing.

This is INSIDE the base. Where the only people there should be military, or cleared by the military.

NY Times pic

Interesting times we live in.

The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point to 1 per cent on Wednesday and announced that it would lend $30bn each to central banks in Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore to lend on to local banks.

The dollar loans, structured as currency swaps, are intended to help meet intense demand for dollars in these major emerging markets.

Only thing left is for the feds to actually PAY foreign banks to borrow.

"here you go! have a piece of America! What, you mean, you can't afford 1%??? Ok, have some on me as my guest, foreign dudes! help yourself! be my guest! there's more where that came from, believe me! first hit is free. get 'em while their red hot!"

You think that's a joke?

I sure don't. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

The dollar loans, structured as currency swaps, are intended to help meet intense demand for dollars

omg. roflmao. XD even. just priceless (so to speak). And to say that with a straight face! That takes some brass ones, a very prodigious set of brass ones.

And wtf is a "currency swap?" Not sure. I may have seen that on youporn, though.

I called it first, though. They will end up PAYING foreign banks to take their 'money'. They'll call it a "stimulus package" or something, though. And when that does not work... well, "they tried" they'll say, but it was "greed" that done did us all in.

Witness the trashing of the currency, friends. T-minus about a year before the Chosen One heralds in the One True Currency. And the end of the age of "greed" and the beginning of true beneficence, where all will be swell and we'll be protected from the greedy bastards who think only of themselves and don't care about the pathetic.

I can't wait.

I'm not saying it was Obama's fault. All I'm saying is the market is factoring in the effect of an Obama win.

When you have the words, "Marxist" and "President" being genuinely used in the same sentence, would you expect anything less? Would one expect the market to leap when those terms are being used? As the certainty of an Obama presidency has increased, the value of the market has decreased, in an almost amazing alignment.

My best guess is that we are seeing the intentional trashing of national currencies. Expect there to be calls for the dollar to go the way of the dodo, and for there to be a global currency.

A New World Order

"Often we learn more about ourselves from the demons who oppose us than from our friends" - Orlando

"Every man dies, but not every man truly lives" - William Wallace

Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible -- not to have run away. -- Dag Hammarskjold

Men are like parking spots..the good ones are taken and the only ones left are handicapped.

He who would be a man, must be a nonconformist. -- Emerson

In a world of universal deceit, telling the truth is revolutionary

"It is better to travel than to arrive."

A person who is not a peace officer may arrest another person when any crime has been or is being committed by the arrested person in the presence of the person making the arrest

"The intelligent want self-control; children want candy."
~ Mevlana Rumi

This secret spoke Life herself unto me: "Behold," said she, "I am that which must ever surpass itself." - Nietzsch

The time to learn a skill is before you need to use it. By the time you need it, it is too late.

"Don't hit at all if you can help it; don't hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep."--Theodore Roosevelt

That voice that tells us what must be done and what must be avoided is always there. In everyone. It is our human duty to learn how to listen to our own intuitive sense of right and wrong. If we don't do that, we deserve whatever consequences follow.

They are modest even in virtue-for they want ease - Zarathustra; of the herd.

The coolness of concious, obvious strength. Full tilt, and vibrant with danger. - Bob Dylan, on Johnny Cash

Some people (in WoW) are just into childish insectoid politics, being considerate doesn't even enter the picture.

"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty."
  - Thomas Jefferson

College isn't the place to go for ideas.
- Hellen Keller

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
- Niels Bohr

Anything anybody can say about America is true.
- Emmett Grogan

How many lesbians does it take to change a light bulb?
Two. One to change the bulb and another to reflect on how much more gratifying
it was than a man.

"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."

"Think for yourself, schmuck." -Robert Anton Wilson

Muriel Spark commented in "Memento Mori": "When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality.

"People don't want a champion. They want to eat cheeseburgers, play lotto and watch television." -Detective Somerset from the motion picture Seven

"Paranoia is only the leading edge of the discovery that everything in the world is connected." - `The Illuminatus Trilogy'

All truths are relative to place and time. - Unkn

"The Devil is often seen about town in a sharp looking suit." - Unkn

"Degeneracy can be fun but it's hard to keep up as a serious lifetime occupation." Robert M. Pirsig

"When you sit down at a table and can't work out who the fish are, YOU are the fish!" - "Rounders"

"It's a damned shame that so much so-called Buddhist writing seems intended to function like spiritual elevator music. Mix up some lullaby-style writing and a few well-worn Buddhist clichés or quotes from Yoda ("Let the Force flow through you!") or David Carradine's character in Kung Fu ("Patience, Grasshopper!"), if you don't know any real Buddhist sound bites--wrap it all up in a serene cover with a ripply-water picture and--Hey! Yer makin' Buddhism!" - Brad Warner

"Enlightenment is reality itself...if you want bliss, you'd be better off smokin' a fat ol' doobie, dude. Just brace yourself for a stiff dose of reality again when you've used up yer stash." - Brad Warner

The goal of computer science is to build something that will last at least
until we're finished building it.

What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I
definitely overpaid for my carpet. - Woody Allen

The question is, why are politicians so eager to be president? What is it about the job that makes it worth revealing, on national television, that you have the ethical standards of a slime-coated piece of industrial waste? - Dave Barry

It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.

"Just once, I'd like someone to call me 'Sir' without adding 'you're making a scene'." --Homer J. Simpson

Spouse, n.: Someone who'll stand by you through all the trouble you wouldn't have had if you'd stayed single.

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." - Mark Twain

"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed - where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once." - Judge Kozinski, 9th Circuit, Dissenting

"I used to jog, but the ice kept bouncing out of my glass."

He was born on third base and spent his entire life thinking he hit a triple.

"The country is headed toward a single and splendid government of an aristocracy founded on banking institutions and monied incorporations and if this tendency continues it will be the end of freedom and democracy, the few will be ruling and riding over the plundered plowman and the beggar . . . I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a money aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. This issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of the moneyed corporations which already dare to challenge our Government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." -Thomas Jefferson

I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.
-- Ayn Rand, Anthem

"Even in the presence of others he was completely alone." ~ Robert M. Pirsig (1928-)US

"I go on living, more from force of habit than anything else." ~ Robert M. Pirsig (1928-)

I was pulled over in Massachusetts for reckless driving. When brought before the judge, I was asked if I knew what the punishment for drunk driving in that state was. I said, "I don't know... reelection to the Senate?"
Emo Philips

The way I understand it, the Russians are sort of a combination of evil and incompetence... sort of like the Post Office with tanks.
Emo Philips

You don't appreciate a lot of stuff in school until you get older. Little things like being spanked every day by a middle-aged woman: Stuff you pay good money for in later life.
Emo Philips

You have to run as fast as you can just to stay where you are. If you want to get anywhere, you'll have to run much faster. -- Lewis Carroll

Beauty is a bikini wax and waiting for your nails to dry.
Beauty is a colored pencil scribbled all around your eye.
Beauty is a pair of shoes that makes you wanna die. - FZ

Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.
Friedrich Nietzsche

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
Friedrich Nietzsche

No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant.
Friedrich Nietzsche

I don't have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem.
Ashleigh Brilliant

If you can't learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.
Ashleigh Brilliant

Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.
Ashleigh Brilliant

  Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove. - Ashleigh Brilliant

Do your damndest in an ostentatious manner all the time. - Patton

"Oh, bother," said Pooh as he chambered another round.

Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you'll be a mile away and have his shoes.

I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by. - Douglas Adams

The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.

Without deviation, progress is not possible. -- Frank Zappa

Compassion is really creating a kind of positive atmosphere, and as a result,
you will feel at peace and satisfied. With that kind of mental attitude...
wherever there is a compassionate person there is some kind of pleasant atmosphere. - H.H. The Dalai Lama

"You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your
dominant aspiration." - James Allen

"American Democracy is asking for a cup of coffee and getting to choose between Coke or Pepsi."

"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
    Hermann Goering, Hitler's Reich-Marshall
at the Nuremberg Trials After World War II

By all means marry: If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. -- Socrates

I knew I'd hate COBOL the moment I saw they'd used "perform" instead of "do". -- Larry Wall on a not-so-popular programming language

"Don't anticipate. Be cool." --Rod Nobuto Omoto

"Shall I show you the muscular training of a philosopher? A will undisappointed, evils avoided, powers daily exercised, careful resolutions, unerring decisions." --Epictetus

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" -- Albert Einstein

*Beauty walks a razor's edge*, someday I'll make it mine.
  If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born.
  "Come in," she said,
  "I'll give you shelter from the storm.
- Bob Dylan

You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a "realist," he is preparing to do something he is secretly ashamed of doing. -- Sydney Harris

Look at it this way: Your wife's spending $280 a month on meditation lessons to forget $26,000 of college education. And you're still drinking ordinary scotch?

"But also, part of me views the code the way a painter would view a canvas: it should be well done in every detail, including clarity and commenting. " Hans Reiser

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." Robert Heinlein

Prizes are for children. -- Charles Ives, upon being given, but refusing, the Pulitzer prize

~~~~~~
If you have the opportunity, go to Bali, Indonesia and get one of the locals to find you a bag of liquified mushrooms. Go to your hotel room and drink it. I kid you not, this is the red pill. You will not be dissapointed.

Yes, you are living in something very similar to the Matrix and there are signposts and clever little games designed in that will allow you to take a breather from the simulation and poke your head through to the other side. The primary rule of thumb is that the closer you get to the truth, the more confusing the alternate explanations start becoming. You do not have to be a zombie here, there are ways of finding the truth...

Think I'm kidding?
~!~~~~~~~

"No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion."--James Burgh,

"A real individual has a spark of danger in him, a menace to society. Quench this spark and you quench the individuality, you obtain a social unit, not an integral man. All modern progress has tended, and still tends, to the production of quenched social units: dangerless beings, ideal creatures!" --D. H. Lawrence,

A pacifist who calls the police isn't one; hired violence is still violence. -- Clayton Cramer

"Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person." ~ Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Notebooks(1935)

The more you know the quieter you get.

"I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strangely, I am ungrateful to these teachers" - Khalil Gibran

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig. - Clint

"I do not sanction the grotesque pretense of an organization allegedly devoted to world peace and human rights, which includes Soviet Russia, the worst aggressor and bloodiest butcher in history, as one of its members. The notion of protecting rights, with Soviet Russia among the protectors, is an insult to the concept of rights and to the intelligence of any man who is asked to endorse or sanction such an organization. I do not believe that an individual should cooperate with criminals, and, for all the same reasons, I do not believe that free countries should cooperate with dictatorships." - Ayn Rand, on the United Nations