Pollywogs!

I recently purchased three Cyberpower CP685AVR UPS units for work.

This unit happens to have a wide range of excellent qualities, and found Amazon had the best price after shipping was factored in. I chose free shipping as I wasn’t in any particular hurry, and figured I may see them before the end of the month. That was yesterday afternoon…

Choose a shipping speed:

“FREE Super Saver Shipping (5-9 business days)

Estimated ship date for these 3 items: August 21, 2007″

Ahh, so it’ll be about a week before they ship, and then another couple days after that. I can handle that…

UPS just dropped them off.

Amazon said they wouldn’t even get around to shipping the items until the 21st, and then there would be the slow ass transit in the mean time. What they meant to say was I got free overnight shipping. If I had chosen overnight shipping, it would have cost $111. Yes, you read that right, over a hundred dollars to ship three UPS devices from some warehouse in Kentucky. Or free, dependent upon the lunar phase…

I don’t understand the disconnect, I don’t understand how a business model can operate down both paths simultaneously:

If you are going to punish the customer for not paying for shipping, you damn well better take their order and stick it on the shelf for a week, and THEN fill and ship it.

If you are UPS, and you get a ground shipment in the afternoon that has to cross four or five states and a thousand or so miles, you damn well better not stick it next to your RED items, you better make sure it lingers around in some warehouse for a couple days.

What is the point in paying for preferential treatment if you do not need to? How could it cost $100 for the same service I just received for free? Is it all a big sham or if there is nothing in the queue ahead, do little shits get the executive treatment?

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/sneaky-syrup/

“High fructose corn syrup is incredibly cheap, partly because the U.S. government artificially fixes sugar prices and partly because corn is heavily subsidized (not so much “free market” anymore as “free lunch”). Clearly, your federal government loves you and hopes you get obesity and diabetes really soon so you can take advantage of all the great medical care that we don’t have. High fructose corn syrup is also terrible for you, and not even the most conservative of nutrition experts disagrees with that.”

I have impaired fasting glucose, as measured by a home diabetes test kit on three different occasions. I am scheduling a test with my doctor to confirm. Two pure fasting read 128 and 157, the one after having a glass of OJ an hour earlier read 197. I sure don’t feel like I eat poorly, and while I don’t get 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, I do get at least some exercise every day…do I have HFCS to thank?

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The FDA loves you baby…err, if you define baby as a gigantic billion dollar pharmaceutical corporation:

“…But AstraZeneca had a big problem. The patent on Prilosec was expiring in 2001, meaning the company would have to compete with cheaper generic versions and could no longer charge whatever it wanted…

Nexium is nothing more than one of the two mirror images that make up Prilosec. AstraZeneca carried out clinical trials comparing Prilosec and Nexium. The most charitable interpretation of the results is that at equal doses Nexium is 3 percent better at relieving symptoms.

The results were so weak that the FDA case officer assigned to review the data concluded that AstraZeneca’s contention that Nexium represented a “significant clinical advance” over Prilosec was “not supported by data.” The top management of the FDA approved Nexium anyway in 2001.”

Oh, and it costs HOW MUCH MORE????

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I LOVED this line: “Americans are losing their war hard-ons faster than a fag in a whorehouse.”

“The Iraqis rose all right. But not against Saddam, against us. They got a lot more upset about foreign troops in the streets than they ever did about not having “democracy.” When did Iraqis ever give a shit about democracy? All they know is the air conditioning doesn’t work, they have to get their water off the back of a truck, and some scared GI manning the .50 on a humvee just blew half the shacks in the village to kingdom come because he mistook a garden rake for an RPG tube.”

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Yes, those creepy cocksuckers are EXCELLENT at manipulating sheeple into thinking they’re on our side.

“In recent years, however, a new picture of leadership has emerged, one that better accounts for leadership performance. In this alternative view, effective leaders must work to understand the values and opinions of their followers—rather than assuming absolute authority—to enable a productive dialogue with followers about what the group embodies and stands for and thus how it should act. By leadership, we mean the ability to shape what followers actually want to do, not the act of enforcing compliance using rewards and punishments.

Given that good leadership depends on constituent cooperation and support, this new psychology of leadership negates the notion that leadership is exclusively a top-down process. In fact, it suggests that to gain credibility among followers, leaders must try to position themselves among the group rather than above it. In his use of everyday language—such as “hunt down” and “those folks”—Bush portrayed himself on 9/11 as a typical American able to speak for America.”

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/272-36.htm

“Section 36. Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.”

So baby Jesus was totally railing this hooker one day, when the Ghost of Princess Di showed up and…

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This is an interesting idea: http://www.opednews.com…

“Citizen discontent with 911 has been expressed in a number of public opinion polls. One of the most shocking surveyed citizens of New York City. The little reported August, 2004 Zogby Poll found that “Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9-11 Attacks and “Consciously Failed.” National surveys also show substantial skepticism about the efforts of “US Leaders.”

Other concerns of the strike include areas of strong public skepticism. As of August, 2007, 64% of Americans oppose the Iraq War and a majority says it should never have happened in the first place. Massive violations of civil rights are occurring with the aid of the U.S. Department of Justice, as reported by its former voting rights head. Confidence in the legitimacy of the Bush government has been voiced in polls in Pennsylvania and in a national sample of registered voters. Both Zogby polls showed that tens of millions of Americans have little faith in the fairness and results of the 2004 presidential election.

Reflecting the disquiet of the American public, Bush popularity is in free fall. As low as 26% approval in recent polls, his decline has been steady and unending since the peak after the 9/11 attacks (with an odd spike on Election Day 2004).

The strike campaign argues that these and other issues rarely covered in any depth by nearly all of the corporate media leave only one move for citizens - a general strike to protest the policies plus the lack of recognition and response.”

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Speaking of vampires in New York City:

• Command center? How much did it cost? Well, let’s not use it…
• Scoop and dump folks, scoop and dump…
• Just call me FDR…
• So that is what a police state looks like…

What do those little bits mean? You’ll have to read the article!!!

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How to use your digital camera. Not that I do any of those things, I just take one billion pictures so that four turn out OK.

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I’m a big believer in avoiding debt, never really before having a choice in the matter…not that I’m doing a wildly successful job of it at the moment…

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Reefer Madness: or, cause ≠ effect. Or, if the government tells you something, it can’t possibly be true.

Arabian Nights.

Scheherazade and 1001 Tales, by El Cid.

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Tale #2 – The Bish-Bish Incident.

J, Hamood and I are in the visitor living room of their apartment. J is explaining their idea for a hosh (courtyard) to me that would have it’s entrance in that room. I decide I want to look out of the window. Windows are generally large, covered with glass that is textured and opaque and covered with bars (very middle-eastern). Her window could be opened though, and being a self-proclaimed “trailer head” (no intention of insulting people who live in trailers – I have lived in one myself – merely the expression for one who has to look out of the windows at what is going on outside) I open the window to look at the space between the apartment buildings.

I put my hand on the sill and rubberneck for a minute or so. I feel something on my hand. I think it is the curtain and casually wave my hand. A bish-bish falls to the floor. I do a little panic dance. Bish-bish are big, hairy, ugly camel spiders. Ewwww!!!! J calls her dad for assistance. D comes in and a search party goes on for the bish-bish. I forgot to mention that bish-bish are FAST moving. We won’t be able to sleep knowing that it is in the apartment. A full scale (but cautious) search is in effect until the bish-bish is dispatched. D moves furniture, turns cushions, upturns chairs. Little Hamood is watching the entire proceedings carefully. The bish-bish is discovered and D “shoes” it. It goes in the garbage can. When D picks it out to take its picture it turns on him. Again it is “shoed” until it is rendered finally dead. Its picture is taken. Shudder!!

That evening M’s mom and dad come over to say hello and to meet us. We are having a nice time bridging cultural and language barriers when we mention the bish-bish. It is comforting to know (from Abu-Muhammed – M’s baba (father), that the one that crawled on me was small!! They can get as big as your hand (6” across). They won’t kill you, but it hurts when they bite and the bites can get infected. I am truly comforted.

Apparently we weren’t telling the story properly because Hamood enacted the entire scene for his Baba-Shems and Umi (M’s mom and dad) including the shoeing of the bish-bish, with himself as the actual dispatcher of the spider. Hamood continues to take the credit for the killing of the bish-bish and will enact it for anyone who cares to hear the story. He denies that his Pap had anything to do with it. I can see him 20 years from now telling his friends how he saved his Mema from a bish-bish when he was only two.

UPDATE: lots of interesting pics of wind scorpions here…