Get ready for an interesting week!

I'm driving back up to Virginia tomorrow and through what looks to be Hurricane Gaston...should be fun. Wish me luck.

Anyhow, if you're not under a rock, you probably know that the RNC convention is being held in New York next week. I don't know about you, but I love this stuff. I love watching both sides duke it out. But what I'm most looking forward to is the chaos on the streets. I just can't wait for the tear gas bombs to fly...and I wonder if some of the undecided voters out there will eventually decide that a vote for Bush is a vote against the thousands of marxists, sociopaths, and anarchists who will be causing a ruckus in NYC.

I already know someone from NYC and 5 of her friends who are leaving for Miami next week. Probably a good time to take a vacation.

Back in Jack

I'm back in Jacksonville. It was a long drive from Miami, but somewhat productive (business-wise). We got to Orlando a little too late for any of the theme parks, but we may end up going back tomorrow if we're in the mood. My brain is mush now, but I'll leave with a few pictures of our view from the condo in Miami.


Miami Beach (Hallandale)


This place is right out of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Free Boobies!

Well, I guess I finally saw it for myself: Miami's beaches are very similar to the coastal Mediterranean region. I never thought I'd see a topless beach on American soil, but they do exist. I'm here in the Hallandale area spending my last day (night, rather) in Miami at a beachfront condo. Tomorrow, I'm headed up to Orlando for the day, then back to Jacksonville, and, finally, Buttcrack (Dahlgren), Virginia. So, you see, this is why I've not been able to post for the past few days. Now, that leaves only a few more states to where I've never been...

Let he who is without sin...

From the John Kerry website today:

“Thirty years ago, official Navy reports documented my service in Vietnam and awarded me the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. Thirty years ago, this was the plain truth. It still is. And I still carry the shrapnel in my leg from a wound in Vietnam ... Of course, the President keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on.'
“I'm not going to let anyone question my commitment to defending America - then, now, or ever. And I'm not going to let anyone attack the sacrifice and courage of the men who saw battle with me. And let me make this commitment today: their lies about my record will not stop me from fighting for jobs, health care, and our security - the issues that really matter to the American people.” – John Kerry, August 19, 2004

Now, for the rant:

I'm tired of this Vietnam crap. Yeah, he served in Vietnam...for about 4 months. Then he quits his unit early, then goes on a campaign to denounce the US soldiers in Vietnam and gain publicity for himself; starting his public service life. Now, if you think about it, how can someone who bitched and moaned about having been in the Vietnam war, rally in anti-war protests with the likes of Jane Fonda, throw away his medals, ribbons, or whatever, look back on it so fondly and recall his glorious service? John McCain lets his service speak for itself. Wesley Clark lets his service speak for itself. John Kerry makes sure his service get shoved down the throats of Americans who have already heard it from him about a thousand times.

If George Bush wears his religion on his sleeve, then so does John Kerry with his military service. Though I'm willing to bet George Bush isn't going to salute the Lord Jesus Christ when he steps up to the RNC podium saying he's reporting for duty.

I especially think this Kerry comment deserves some analysis:

"Of course, the President keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on.' "

Right. What about the many Democrat-funded attack groups out there putting millions and millions more into misleading and hateful attack ads? What about John Kerry never denouncing Michael Moore? His movie didn't just criticize the president, it bashed the soldiers bravely serving in Iraq. I guess Kerry's not too far removed from Moore.

Once again, I have to respect the brass cajones of President Bush; despite all the slings and arrows hurled against him, he maintains his poise. He's never cried out in frustration like Kerry did today.

Stupid Blogspot...

Ack! Blogspot messed around with its blog engine, and now my template is all hosed up...this may take me some time to figure this out. Will post again after it's fixed.

Update: Okay, I give up for now. Blogspot is all screwed up. When I preview my blog, it does what it's supposed to. But when I publish it, the text margin isn't correctly spaced and doesn't move to the right no matter what I try. It doesn't help that I'm trapped in Asscrack, VA with dinosaur dialup. Ugh.

Buttcrack, Virginia

Ahh, Dahlgren. How do I describe this place, exactly? This is the best way I've come up with thus far: I grew up in the city. I can now completely understand the mentality of small-town kids after being here only about a week. When the biggest store you've got around town is a Food Lion, you know you're in trouble.

It's about time to get back to California. I'm paying the state taxes there now anyhow, and my place is sitting, gathering dust.

And now there's another thunderstorm outside. Well, at least that is more interesting than California weather. :)

Yup. It's Happening.

CNN and Kerry are the first ones on my sh*t list for saying President Bush is using the Hurricane to his political advantage. I just heard Kerry on CNN say that Bush is visiting Florida too soon; his visit will supposedly take away some needed law enforcement for the disaster zone.

Give me a break. Too soon!? I'm sitting in a tornado warning area, and Kerry is arguing politics?

If Bush didn't go now, he'd be criticized for not going. Man, do I want to slap Kerry in the face.

When is Dean gonna go nuts again?

I swear to God, I will blast the first person I hear that goes on TV or radio claiming that he/she is suspicious of the political timing of Hurricane Charley. 2 to 1 odds it's gonna be Howard Dean, the psychotic raving lunatic.

Or maybe Kerry will visit Florida and recall...again...his Vietnam experience, saying he knows what it's like spilling blood fighting the charlies.

Waiting Out the Storm

I'm here in Virginia Beach waiting out the storm. I've been invited to attend the Fighter Fling, which is the F-14 pilot's annual 'bash', tonight. This will be the last one for the squadrons out here since they're retiring the F-14's forever. Apparently, it's quite the spectacle, so it should be fun.

Nothing more from my end here...though the wind is gusting fairly strong now.

Plane Crazy

As I type this, I'm flying nonstop on Southwest flight 593 from San Diego, CA to Baltimore, MD (BWI). I'm noticing a few more things about the particular quirks of a low-fare airline. The first gripe? Magazines. Okay, so you have the regular Sky Mall and Southwest Airlines "Spirit" magazines. That's all well and good. But, then you have the magazines that you should have in the rear-most luggage bins. Now, I expect to find Newsweek, Time, Car and Driver, or National Geographic at the very least. Instead, and I kid you not, I find a whole bunch of copies of Ebony and Golf Digest, and a single copy of "Shape en Español". So, I guess where in every industry, you expect to find some modicum of growth and possibly some advances over tens of years of service, this is what you get.

Shameless Plug for an Underrated TV Show

Stargate SG-1 is perhaps the best show on television right now. There are never any plot holes, it's intelligent with unpredictable story lines, and it has the quality of being self-deprecating when the obligatory techno-babble appears rears its ugly head (it's not that bad, I swear). Probably the only thing that would keep someone from taking a look at it would be that 'sci-fi' stigma associated with these types of programs...that, and you may need to begin watching the series from the beginning to fully grasp some references.

There's another thing unique about Stargate which isn't in common with a lot of other sci-fi programs: It's set in the present. Richard Dean Anderson (aka MacGyver) plays a main character, and he's also a producer. I'm not easily impressed by TV shows, but this one wins my vote as the best. I'm a slave to the Sci-Fi channel's 5-episode Monday marathons. I still haven't seen a lot of the earlier episodes. So, what I'm saying is if you've not seen Stargate SG-1, why not?

Ronald L. Rivest : Voting Resources Page !

One of the electoral college predictor websites I visit daily mentioned a link page full of resources about electronic voting, and I figured I'd plug it since I took his Computer and Network Security class (6.857) my senior year at MIT. Who is Ron Riveste? He's the 'R' in RSA Data Security (the crypto that makes you able to send your credit card over the internet, safely). What's Ron Riveste like? Well, he's smart, obviously, but he isn't the most entertaining professor at MIT.

Ronald L. Rivest : Voting Resources Page!

Well, That's the Navy for you...

I've just been informed today that I'm being sent to D.C. on temporary duty as part of the Navy team which will be evaluating the next generation ship of the US Navy's surface fleet, the Littoral Combat Ship. So, I'm going to be working with Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics helping to evaluate the design, engineer some mission modules and a training curriculum for the new ship. Looks like I get to go to the Pentagon.

Sounds interesting, but I'm a little upset that I've been given less than a week's notice to know that I'll be gone for a maximum of 6 months. There's a rumor, which I hope to verify tomorrow, that the time I'll be gone will actually be no more than 2 months (perhaps less). I really hope it's true. I've already been displaced from home (either ship deployments to the middle east or other operations) so much in the past few years, it would be nice to feel settled. Oh well, I guess that's the Navy for you. At least it's better than Baghdad, where they have been sending some US Navy people for temporary duty.

Anyhow, until I figure out what's going on, I may not be posting for about a week or two. Who knows, maybe I'll have good news tomorrow.

Oh, yeah. That likely means I can't go to Vicetivus IV. CRAP!

Blacklisting of Conservative Hollywood Celebrities

This morning on the Laura Ingraham talk radio show, a caller who claimed she was the mother of a popular Hollywood comedy sitcom star (who remained nameless) mentioned that the voices of some right-wing or conservative celebrities, including her son's, were being stifled due to some blacklisting of those who go against the John Kerry line.

This woman's son is afraid to speak his mind, though she says she is trying to encourage him to make his beliefs public.

It's particularly troublesome when a group of individuals, ie, the Hollywood "elite", do not heed the basic tenets of our constitution's Bill of Rights. So, basically in this case, gays can come out of the closet in Hollywood and be embraced, but God help you if you're conservative. I sense double standards.

So, instead, we see prolific gamblers and womanizers like Ben Affleck...such wonderful role models and examples for the Democrats...campaigning on the road with John Kerry and John Edwards. John Kerry says this campaign is about values, so there you have his.

I hope they play this video on TV as many times as necessary to get the message out.

SwiftVets.com | The Real Story on John Kerry's Military Service

Democrats Shooting Themselves in the Foot, part II

Theresa Heinz Kerry. What a piece of work this lady is. She reaffirms a belief I hold that Kerry is shooting himself in the foot by denigrating the judgement being made by MILLIONS of Americans who support President Bush. This particular quote really pissed me off:

"It's vital for anyone with intelligence to acknowledge mistakes and change
positions -- hello."

Hello? Did you just insult my intelligence? Who said in her speech during the convention that she wanted women to be thought of as smart and well-informed instead of being called 'opinionated'? Ms. Kerry, I would have crapped on your statement even if you were a man. I think it's vital for anyone with intelligence to make a decision for him/herself, and not to be castigated or cajoled by an eccentric old woman who is behind the times.

I'm still looking for an incident in the past 4 years when Bush or Laura bashed on a collective number of voters like Theresa just did today. At most, you'll hear a quote like "I'm confident that the voters will make the right decision" or something similar. You know the media would be all over Bush if he were to invoke 'hell' in a comment about John Kerry. Why? Because he just doesn't spew garbage like that. Ergo my comment in my previous blog post: The reason why the public tolerates these idiotic statements is because the never-ending stream of garbage that continually comes out of democrats' mouths is like the proverbial fire hose.

Click the link above for the Reuters News Article.

Howard Dean an 'Embarrassment'

Howard Dean is such a tool. I find so much wrong with his comment that there's "a political angle in the heightened terror alert". Right, Dean...I think there's a political angle to your asinine comment, as usual.

How do morons like this make it to political office?

The radio and Hollywood, I understand. I mean, I truly started to understand ANYTHING in mass-media was possible with the continued success of such train wrecks as Anna Nicole Smith, Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson, etc..

But how do people the likes of Al Gore and Howard Dean and such hot-air spewing, blubbering idiots continue to stay in politics? Is the collective idiocy of actual voters much the same as those fools? Or is it because the never-ending stream of garbage that continually comes out of their mouths is like the proverbial fire hose; too much for the public to actually swallow?

"It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."
-- Mark Twain

Did you catch that quote, Mr. Dean? YAAAAARRRGGGGHH!

Monday, Aug. 2, 2004 5:10 p.m. EDT

New York's Gov. George Pataki minced no words in an interview today, making his distaste for the political ramblings of Howard Dean quite clear.

On Fox News' "Your World," interviewer Stuart Varney started off asking the governor about the costs for all of the extra security being put in place in Manhattan due to the heightened threat level.

Pataki said that he and Mayor Bloomberg are in favor of having "more of the Homeland Security dollars allocated" per a threat-based analysis, rather than the current system of handing out money equally to localities, whether or not they are high-profile targets.

"President Bush has been supportive, Director Ridge has been supportive, and we hope that Congress will be as supportive," he said.

Varney then asked: "Can you tell us if there was any political angle in this heightened terror alert. ... Governor Dean says there is a political angle to it. What do you say?"

"Governor Dean is an embarrassment," retorted Pataki. "To me, it's quite clear that there is specific information - with specific targets - like we've never seen before."

He said that New York would always be a target, but New Yorkers are stronger than the terrorists and their threats.

Pataki does not expect New York to empty out for the Republican convention, as did Boston for the Democrats' event.

He quipped, "I hope New York City fills up. ... We're going to have tens of thousands of Republicans, and hundreds of thousands of protesters - it's going to be the most exciting place in America."

This is precisely why we don't allow children to vote.

"Kids for Kerry". Ooooh, alliteration. I bet they thought that was pretty cute. Well, cute doesn't kill terrorists, babe.

Vicetivus IV -- Las Vegas, Nevada -- August 13, 2004

Show me a man with no vices, and I will show you a man with no virtues...

-- Abraham Lincoln

Get ready for Vicetivus IV, Ladies and Gentlemen!!! Everyone is invited to join us in Las Vegas beginning 11:59.59 on August 12, 2004. We will commence at the Imperial Palace. Twenty-Four full hours of vice. Activities are only limited by the extent of your imagination!

I'm a Porsche 911!

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Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.