Friends

A friend is a person who, when your world is falling down around you, is standing with you helping keep things together.

I think I just found the meaning of this by losing one.

-Bart

Erick Wujcik Stands Before the Final Curtain

Erick Wujcik - the gaming legend and all around great guy - has cancer.

Any and all who see this, please pray for him.

-Dennis

Women

I have had a significant number of intimate relationships with women over the course of my life. Over time, all of the serious ones have devolved into abusive and evil situations where I am treated very badly by the woman I am with.

I am starting to wonder if the problem is in fact me and not the women.

I have a tendency to not want to fight with the lady I am with, so rather than fight, I accept garbage from her when she's angry. Over time, this results in her thinking she can be rude, mean, or harsh to me whenever she wants and not expect any response. That causes her opinion of me to sink lower and change her view of me into something secondary and subservient.

The problem here is that I am buying into these situations and allowing it to happen. I put most of the blame for that upon myself. I have heard it said that it is better to be the person who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than to be the person that sold it - but after the second or third time that you buy the Brooklyn Bridge (but this time it came with a deed and title insurance and everything!) it becomes your fault, not theirs.

It is because of this that I find myself wondering why I continue to allow myself to become intimate with women.

Currently, I am in the middle of a relationship that is collapsing. My wife cannot or will not bring herself to see the good aspects of my personality. She only sees the things she hates about me. She is consistently rude to me and tears me down with every chance she gets. I don't fight with her about it because I don't want to tear into her in front of the kids, but I fear that they will get the idea that this is how one treats one's spouse.

I do good things in my life. I'm supportive of her mother. I like her family. I used to buy her flowers a couple of times a week and used to bring her cards about once a month. I used to send her love notes via email. I adopted her three great nieces and welcomed them into my home after I got a vasectomy because I didn't want children (I have since changed my mind - the girls are fantastic and I want about ten kids now). I earn good money. I worked two jobs for a while, running my own business (full time) and working full time in an effort to make it so she could be a stay-at-home mom.

I stopped doing many of the things above for good reasons that I will not go into, but suffice it to say they're good reasons.

I am not so much mystified about why she acts the way that she does...she's selfish and only sees her perspective on things. What surprises is me is that I never see things like this coming after it has gone too far.

What has happened to this world where human beings act like this on a regular basis?

She has her own side of the story too and she has her reasons for being angry. I don't see her reasons for behaving hatefully to me.

-Bart

The Supreme Court

I have been considering the basis of many of the decisions of the Supreme Court of late, and have realized the fundamental problem I have with most of the justices thereon.

They have seemingly reached the conclusion that The Constitution derives its power from them and from their decisions. This is, at best, erroneous and stupid, and at worst criminal. All of their power is derived from The Constitution and all of the Constitution's power is derived from the People. I think that until our government realizes this, there is going to be a significant disconnect between them and what they do and We the People, and what we appreciate.

So, to quote Clarence Thomas; "Something has gone seriously awry with this court's interpretation of the Constitution."

-Bart

I have learned many things...

I have learned many things from marriage. Some of them good, and some of them bad. This weekend, a fire was kindled in my stomach. This fire is not unlike the fire I get in my stomach when I think of Dan Quayle or Al Gore appointing Supreme Court Justices.

This fire was kindled by more harsh words from the mouth of the woman who claims to love me. I hate lying, and realized this weekend that not only does she not love me, but she hasn't for at least five years. I wonder if she ever did - I wonder if her frequent jokes of, "At least I got my house out of it!" were not jokes at all, but were statements of fact that accurately describe what her goals were when marrying me.

Compromise on anything of significance is unknown to her. With an item of significance, it is an all or nothing proposition, and if she doesn't get her way on an order of completeness that is well over 90%, then you are trampling her, domineering, uncaring, and inflexible. Contrariwise, if you ask of her what she asks of you (ask for her to sacrifice something), you're bothering her and being unreasonable because it is clearly too much for her to do.

So, my lovely wife, when you told me, "It doesn't always have to be roses" when I brought home flowers, when you told me, "Call me and let me know what they say" when I was told to go to the ER for an emergency EKG, and when you told me that I create an aura of tension in the entire house by my very presence, you made things absolutely clear.

As I am peripheral to you and a blockade to your entire life, and all I ever did for you was provide you with a house, I'd like to present you with a middle finger. I'd like to thank you for having taught me to hate.

-Bartleby

Meeeee

Scooter Libby and his ridiculous sentence

So I'm going over the news and notice that Scooter Libby has been sentenced to thirty months.

OK - so he's busted and will have a rough time in the near future.

The problem is that part of his sentence comes from something he wasn't charged with, wasn't a fact admitted to evidence (in fact, the prosecutor specifically fought to keep it from being brought into evidence!), and wasn't established as a criminal act!

So let me see if I understand this correctly...if I get convicted of the crime of...say...stealing cars, and they decide that I've stolen more cars than I've been proven to have stolen, they can enhance my sentence? That's illegal and wrong!

Our country is slipping.

Badly.

To this slippage I say:

"Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the people's liberty's teeth."
-George Washington

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can excercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."
-Abraham Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
-Abraham Lincoln

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
-Abraham Lincoln

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
-Thomas Jefferson

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
-Thomas Jefferson

Something needs to be done about the garbage we've been seeing of late. My suggestion is to vote out every incumbent in every office in every election until things start working the way they should...AS A WHOLE. I don't give a crap if the incumbent 'tried' to fix things...fix them or get out.

-Bart

Murder, war, and The Bible

The Bible tells us, 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'. I have been told on more than one occasion that the more direct translation is, 'Thou Shalt Not Murder', which is a significantly different word with vastly different meaning than the first. It allows for killing in self defense, in war, and other situations as well.

It is because of that difference, that I have started to think that Mafia style gang wars do not qualify as murder in a Biblical sense. When these laws were written on the stone tablets, groups as small as families and tribes and as large as nations would go to war with each other. If families back then could go to war with each other, can no families today also go to war with each other? I submit that war was accepted as being a declaration of armed hostilities between two recognizable groups, and that functions of violence between them would not amount to murderous behavior. To commute that to modern terms, the current day crime organizations account as a confederation of people that can in fact declare war against each other and also act as a small scale governing body for the members. Furthermore, they can be said to be at war with our current government, as they have differing goals and are regularly in direct conflict with one another.

So, is a gangland killing a murder? I don't think it is in a Biblical sense, though it almost certainly is in a legal sense.

-Bart

Tommy the Soldier

Clearly we've come a long way in our respect and honor of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, but we're also a bit lacking in our appreciation of them as well. Why are the salaries so pathetic that a corporal with two children qualifies for food stamps? Why are the retirement benefits being squeezed so much that it is detrimental to dedicate twenty or thirty years of your life to the service of one's country? Why are people who are disabled from combat or retired with a medical discharge being granted such pathetic monies for their sacrifice?

It is because of these questions I have that the poem that follows is in fact my favorite poem:

Tommy
By Rudyard Kipling

I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away"
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me!
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! They’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside"
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap!
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind"
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

My desktop...

I was asked what images I use on my desktop. Well, here they are:

Monitor 1:
























Monitor 2:























Yes - I own the originals for both images. :P

/Sub

My chosen character portrait.

Belkar. :)

Arguing with a friend

I have a semi-friend that speaks of his child in less than glowing terms. He hates her, he doesn't like her, he thinks she should've been adopted or aborted, and so on.

I'd heard that he said such things to her in the past, but never directly from him.

Today I heard him actually say it, though not in her presence. I said I might call CPS about it. I then got the address of the house and called to find out if he's legally abusing her.

An associate of mine (I will no longer call him friend) ran and 'told' on me, and interestingly, I'm being treated as the bad guy here.

So here's my question...if you truly believe someone is abusing a child, is it wrong to report it? Also, should I expect people close to the situation to treat me as an evil person for my reporting it? I don't think I should have such an expectation and I am shocked...SHOCKED...that I am being treated as such.

I'm not the bad guy. The person telling his child that he hates her is.

-Bart

*sigh*

Out from the depths I cry out to thee o' Lord.

My tattoos

Basic disrespect

I am losing my fucking mind.

My wife, who continually shows me disrespect in anything in which I disagree with her, is giving me more fucking shit. I have *HAD* it. I am not putting up with it ANYMORE.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

I am plenty sick and goddamned fucking well tired of her horseshit and it is going to stop NOW.

-Dennis

The Bitter Potion that is Divorce

Well, the divorce is confirmed. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, where I'm going to go, or anything...

I keep realizing stupid things that really bother me. Last night, I realized I'm going to need to buy a fridge, and for some reason, that deflated me. I took a walk late last night and sat by one of the ponds by my house for a long time. I won't be able to do that much longer.

No more taking the girls to the zoo whenever I want. No more having the girls come up and give me a hug when I get home. No more taking them fishing whenever I want.

Divorce sucks big ones.

-Bart

Again I am saved...

The last time I was extremely depressed, I was saved by three things.

1. God
2. Friends and family
3. The Beatles

I don't know why number 3 is on the list...they're commies AND hippies...and yet their music takes me places where healing can occur.

Anyway, thanks to God, Laura, Jim, Dave, Rick, Kevin, Lennon, McCartney, Starr, and Harrison.

I owe you more than I can say.

-Bart

I've got a surprise...

I've got a surprise for a friend of mine. He should be getting it in about a week and a half. It's a piece of art that I had commissioned for him and is displayed below...

Thoughts, ideas, or comments?

-Bart

The Divorce Weight Loss Plan

I've lost thirty or forty pounds in about a month. The divorce weight loss plan is pretty effective.

I don't believe...

I don't believe in love anymore.

I believe in convenience, ease, untruth, and abandonment.

...but love doesn't exist.

-Bart

Life, love, and marriage

My wife and I have been on rocky ground for quite some time. More particularly, things have been pretty rough for the past four years. I've tried and I've worked at it, but I cannot seem to make her happy.

She's done a number of questionable things during this time, and I'm finally worn out. As of now, I am sleeping in a separate room and cannot stand to be near her. It hurts too much to know that the person that should love me and cherish me can't even talk to me on the phone after a couple of weeks of not seeing each other.

So - my question is this:

What in the world is the purpose of marriage?

I've found it to be lonely, demanding, hurtful, depressing, and difficult. It's reinforced everything bad I've ever thought of myself and has brought out the very worst in me.

Life sucks.

-Bart

A (Mostly) Open Letter to Lucy Dalglish

Recently the Roanoke Times published the names and home addresses of 135,000 people who have a license to keep and bear arms. Lucy Dalglish supports their 'right' to do so on the basis that people who are granted a 'privilege' in this country by a government body.

Following her logic, I should be able to publish her name, home address, and photograph, because she has a drivers license and driving is a privilege. Keeping and bearing arms is a right...so it's only rational to assume that her privilege to drive should allow for the same thing...right?

Here is my letter to her regarding this issue. I have omitted her work address out of consideration for her safety.


Ms. Dalglish,

I recently saw your commentary on the publication of the names and home addresses of people who exercise their right to keep and bear arms by acquiring a license to keep and bear arms.

You said: “Who is licensed and who is given a privilege in this country by a government body is information that the public should be able to have.”

Following your logic, I should be allowed to publish your name and home address on a website. You almost certainly have a license to drive a car, and that is a privilege. We have the right to keep and bear arms just as much as we have a right to free speech and religion.

So – if I were to run a background check or title search (either are freely available on the internet) to find out your home address, would it be acceptable for me to publish it? As a media personality, I’m sure that you’ve upset some people in your time. I mean, your exercising free speech is as much of a privilege as the right to keep and bear arms…and if others can be exposed to threat for exercising their rights (what you call a privilege) then there should be a similar allowance for you as well, right?

I’d love to hear the logic behind your position. If you decide you’d like to reply, I can be reached at:



Thank you for your time,

Dennis Hughes

Children, school, and recess

So I'm talking with my oldest daughter and she tells me about lunch at her school.

It starts at 10:40am.

She doesn't get home until 4:00pm.

Somehow this works out to be appropriate for her. Somehow she's supposed to go from 10:40am to 4:00pm without eating, and still be able to focus on her schoolwork.

Oh yeah - she has twenty minutes to eat.

Wonderful, isn't it?

My middle daughter frequently misses eating her entire lunch because she eats very slowly and 20 minutes is not enough for her to finish lunch.

It gets worse.

They get 30 minutes of recess every day.

Thirty minutes out of eight hours. That's how much they get to run, play, and get exercise until after school. Because their teachers pile homework on them to the roof, they're doing homework from the moment they get home until about 6:00pm.

*sigh*

My kids need more time to be kids, but I don't see how it can be accomplished.

-Bartleby

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday Mom,

Tomorrow will be your first birthday since the day you died. Two days later will be the first anniversary of your death. I still miss you terribly, and not a day goes by that I don't try to pick up the phone to give you a call and tell you something funny, ask your advice, or just see how you're doing.

I had to go to a funeral yesterday. A family friend had committed suicide. When I was listening to his family speak of him, I remembered my efforts to speak of you at your funeral. I'm sorry I didn't do very well, but I tried...and that was usually good enough for you.

I'm watching my girls grow up and watch their accomplishments with a level of awe that until recently was reserved for events such as when Moses spoke with a burning bush.

Anyway Ma, happy birthday.

I love you,

Dennis

A fine quotation

“Democrats are talking about an increase to $7.25 an hour, and they’re promising to push it through in the first 100 hours of the Democratic majority rule. Bush has said he supports an increase, but won’t haggle about the numbers in public... Bush has said that he also wants to be sure that the increase is done in ways that won’t hurt small businesses. Which is, of course, impossible. Regardless of where you stand in the intense debate over whether increases in the minimum wage reduce the number of jobs available to low wage workers, an increase in the minimum wage will hurt small businesses. Do the math: Suppose you employ ten people, full time, at minimum wage. A two dollar increase will cost you about $40,000 a year. How would we react to a tax of the same size imposed on the same scrappy entrepreneurial grocer or clothing store owner?”

~Katherine Mangu-Ward

(Source: The Patriot Post)

North Korea plans tests of nuclear weapons in North Korea

North Korea is reportedly planning tests of nuclear weapons within North Korea. George Bush says he agrees with the idea, and has similar plans to test nuclear weapons within North Korea.

Kim Jung Il is a madman, and must be stopped.

NOW.

I suggest that we put a price on his head and on that of each of his lieutenants. A billion dollars for him and a hundred million dollars for each of his lieutenants sound like nice round numbers that should result in a number of deaths and/or arrests that will hopefully convince the people that are acting like dangerous madmen to stop it.

-Bart

Growers are having difficulty hiring enough illegal aliens...

BOO FREAKING HOO!

Apparently growers in California are having difficulty finding enough people to pick their crops because we are finally STARTING to enforce our immigration laws. They are whining at the government to allow them to break the law because it's inconvenient for them to pay enough to hire legal workers to do the job they're offering.

Well, I'm terribly sorry, but if you don't rely upon illegal labor, you won't have this problem. If you pay a wage that is equal to the job being done, you won't have this problem. If you have a job that is equal to what you are paying, you won't have this problem. The only time you have this problem is when the job and the wages do not have a comparable market value and the wages are worth less than the effort and knowledge that you are requesting.

So either you can raise the pay or ask for less. What I am shocked by is when you cry, bitch, and moan because you cannot hire enough illegals to do your work.

One of the jackasses in that article has the audacity to say that he is willing to pay up to $150/day for the services he is requesting. To that I cry bullshit. If he's willing to pay $150/day, the schmoes that are working at McDonald's would be quitting to go pick their fruit. It's more likely that the average wage is closer to $80/day, which isn't SQUAT in that area, in addition to requiring you to do back breaking labor in the heat of the sun.

So - if you can't find workers and are losing money as a result...pay more or quit bitching. You have to adapt to changing market conditions. Until you do, you will be in trouble on a regular basis.

-Bart

But they were CERTAIN that Terry Schaivo was unaware!

It's interesting - people the world over screamed that there was no way at all that Terry Schaivo was at all aware of her surroundings. They INSISTED she should stop being fed. They pounded desks, sued, and went to court - all for the right to stop giving her food. They trumpeted that it was absolutely impossible for her to have any chance of ever hearing the voice of a loved one again, or to see the beauty of a spring rain or a winter snowfall.

Now - later - when we can't go back and fix it, there are findings that show that these folks were wrong...again.

More evidence that people in a persistent vegetative state are at least partially aware of their surroundings have come up. Despite this fact, the people who were wrong before are still sticking to their original position and are saying that the new evidence is bogus. I say that now that we have rational uncertainty, that we should NOT kill these people - with or without a living will!

We do not have enough information to know what is going on with these people, or enough to know whether or not they're having beautiful and vivid dreams of a world where such horrors as killing a disabled human being for the sake of...convenience...do not exist.

We've murdered at least one person who did not deserve it. Let's not make that same mistake again.

-Bart

God's views on killing

As I understand it, The Sixth Commandment condemns the act of murder but not killing in and of itself, giving exceptions for self defense, defense of another, war, et al.

I've been considering this lately, because I'm not sure that it reflects that a state of war must exist between nations rather than between groups of like minded individuals. The Mafia wars within its ranks, as do tribes in primitive parts of the world, and there are civil wars and undeclared wars between nations. Also, one can have paramilitary actions against another nation, warlike behavior during a period that is otherwise peaceful, and may other things besides.

Here's the question:

Do privately declared wars - whether between families (feuds), businesses, organized crime families, tribes, or other subset that does not reflect a national organization - count as wars in the Biblical sense that the killing within the scope of said war is 'allowable'?

I mean, it's a virtual certainty in a mob war that you are killing in self defense, because sure as rain is wet, the other guy intends to kill you. Also - if you kill him before he sees you or even knows you're there, it's still defensive, because he fully intends to kill you. Furthermore - it is defensive if you kill him even before the war is declared between the families, because he'll surely be gunning for you in a few short hours/days/weeks, right?

So - is a war a war, or does it require a country and an official declaration of war?

/Bart

It's a beautiful world we live in...

It's a beautiful world we live in...

...it's not for me.

How is it that such ugliness can live in such a beautiful world?

How is it that such beauty can live in such an ugly world?

The dichotomy of evil within a shell that radiates goodness and morality has me stumped right now. How can evil have a beautiful side? It's insidious, and it draws you in, while you believe that you are with someone good and right.

Then you see the corruption. The under-side. The filth.

We all have our quirks, peccadillos, and demons that haunt us through our day to day lives. It is acting upon them that makes the difference between being good and being evil. How is it that an otherwise nice person can do such horrible things - to children, the elderly, the helpless, or to those who are not smart enough to be able to protect themselves against the predators in the world?

Also - why is it that otherwise ordinary human beings wish harm and death upon those who have done evil? Is there no room for hope that this person may repent what they have done? Is there no forgiveness for those who are genuinely sorrowful for what they have done? I hear people that call themselves Christian calling out for the deaths of others for the crimes they have committed, and all too often, I do not hear the voice calling out to help them when their punishment is complete.

I have to battle and struggle to forgive my niece and nephew every day. I know that I can forgive them someday if I try hard enough; I have a hard time though - these beautiful children deserved better than what they got. Heck, they deserve better than me.

With that said; I hope I can forgive my niece and nephew someday. I hope I can forgive Steve Decker for his predations. I hope I can someday forgive those who have wronged me, much in the same way God has forgiven me.

It became clear to me how far from righteousness that I was when my brother told me in no uncertain terms that God was sick of me. I've been trying of late - mostly working on forgiveness and giving to others. I think I've gotten better, and though I know I'll never be good enough for Him, His forgiveness can help me.

Sorry for the stream of consciousness posting, but I've got a lot on my mind.

/Bart

Wonderful...

This is absolutely horrible - I used to work with this guy and griped and told my stories of the horrible time I was having because of my kids, and now I find this:

http://www.kokomotribune.com/local/local_story_230141916.html

Man sentenced for child porn
By MIKE FLETCHER
Tribune staff writer

A Kokomo man was sentenced in federal court Friday to more than 10 years for distributing child pornography over the Internet.On March 13, 2005, Steven M. Decker, 31, became a target of a federal probe after he distributed computer images of child pornography to undercover agents through an Internet file server he configured and operated, said Susan W. Brooks, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana.

In May of last year, federal officials with assistance from Kokomo police seized computer equipment from First National Bank & Trust building in downtown Kokomo, where Decker had worked, and from his Kokomo residence, Lt. Donald Whitehead of the Kokomo Police Department said.

The probe was headed by agents of Immigration Customs Enforcement, which is under the direction of Homeland Security.

U.S. District Judge Larry J. McKinney sentenced Decker to 151 months imprisonment after Decker pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography.

This case resulted from an investigation by the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Indiana State Police, the Kokomo Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, following a lead from the German National Police (BKA).

According to Brooks, Decker distributed the images in an Internet Relay Chat channel used by offenders to distribute images showing the sexual abuse of very young children as well as older children.

Forensic examination of his computer showed that 754 persons visited Decker’s file server and could access his large collection of child pornography. During a search of his Kokomo residence, law enforcement officers recovered 341 image files identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as showing actual known victims of sexual exploitation.

Steven D. DeBrota, an assistant U.S. attorney, and Jill Trumbull-Harris, a Trial Attorney with the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice, prosecuted the case for the government. Judge McKinney also imposed a life term of supervised release following Decker’s imprisonment.

Decker also must register as a sex offender, must seek treatment in a sex offender program, and must not have unsupervised contact with minors. His use of any computer will also be subject to monitoring while he is on supervised release, Brooks added.

I worked with this jerk...I thought he was a great guy...I talked to him, liked him, and thought he was about the safest person in our entire department next to our managers, and now I find this! It's great that he was caught and stopped - but terrible that it ever happened in the first place!

What is the world coming to?

*sigh*

/Bart

Still more evidence of the MSM bias

It is almost hilarious when one looks at the lengths that the MSM is willing to reach to make Israel look bad. Luckily, they were caught again. I admit though, that it could be just a complete bungle combined with an absolute liar/camera whore.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3288406,00.html#n

The woman below has been used in two different stories with photos taken two weeks apart at different locations for the same "tragedy" - namely, her house was destroyed.

Here's the first photo:



...and here's the second one...

Doesn't she look just a bit familiar? See the scar on her cheek? Well, it's on the same photo above as well. She could be a camera whore, but I think that she is really a person trying to make Israel look bad. Apparently there are many instances of this - here's the truth about the 'bombed ambulance' - apparently it's horseshit too...

http://www.riehlworldview.com/carnivorous_conservative/2006/08/more_propaganda.html

There are other gaffes as well...more lies...



The above photo was reported to show an airplane shooting missiles. In reality it's dropping chaff and flares to EVADE a missile (presumably fired by Hezbollah). Not only that, but the top piece of chaff is identical to the bottom piece. Isn't that interesting? Yep - the same guy as before - Adnan Hajj got caught again.

So - these news companies are not only putting forth unbalanced 'news' - showing tons of pictures of Lebanese suffering while not even talking about the fact that Hezbollah started this fight, and showing darned few images of Israeli suffering - as if Hezbollah is not STILL firing rockets at Israeli civilians.

Scumbags.

/Bart

Happy Birthday Dad...

Happy Birthday Dad.

It's been 22 years now. Maybe you'll want to talk to me soon.

Bart

No bias in the MSM?

Umm...there's no bias in the MSM? Yeah - right. I'm a bit late in the game on this one, but this is deliberate alteration of 'news' to further an agendum. Here's a before and after pic of a Reuter's photo:


This photo is before...


This photo is after...



...after they got caught that is.

Do you see a difference? In the first one, more buildings are burning, there's more smoke, and the area appears to have suffered more devastation than in the second. They deliberately sensationalize the damage to Lebanon, while ignoring the damage to Israel, despite the fact that Israel didn't start this fight!

A second point to make: how many images of Israeli buildings are ever shown? How many images of the deaths caused by Hezbollah? How often is it reported that Hezbollah has been shooting rockets into Israel before Israel fights back?

How horrified does the MSM sound when they talk about Israeli deaths? How often do they speak of the terror of rocket bombardment by those scumbag terrorists? How often do they speak of the Israeli children dying?

Honestly - those Hezbollah scumbags are lucky I am not the prime minister of Israel. I'd have bombed them into the freaking stone age years ago!

-Bart

Innocent deaths in Lebanon

All over the media these days, you will see photographs of dead civilians that have been killed by Israeli attacks against Lebanon. In many cases, the pictures will include captions that implicitly or explicitly blame Israel for these deaths.

I am dumbfounded by this position. It is Hezbollah that is actively selecting civilian targets. It is Hezbollah that is using 'Operation: Human Shield' as their prime method of fighting. It is Hezbollah that picked this fight. It is Hezbollah that chooses to hide in civilian buildings.

Also - many (if not all) of these 'civilian' buildings are owned, controlled, funded, or storage facilities of Hezbollah. Sorry Charlie, but if you decide to store weapons in a hospital, don't be surprised when said hostpital becomes a target!

I for one am sick and tired of the media's slant showing Israel as being evil. They write stories and print pictures talking about how horrible Israel is, and then they become very neutral or slanted toward praise when describing terrorist organizations. They go from being terrorists to 'government supporting militants' or 'resistance fighters'. HEZBOLLAH AND HAMAS TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS - STOP ACTING AS IF THEY ARE NOT!

Also - it is sickening how so many terrorist apologists say that Hezbollah is not *entirely* terrorist...that it has political and charitable arms. What in the world can they POSSIBLY be thinking? If you link yourself to a terrorist group, YOU ARE A TERRORIST! Consider - if you're an accountant for the Mafia, does that mean that you're not guilty of the crimes you've supported?

I can see it now: "Well, I'm a member of Islamic Jihad, but I'm a nice member! I don't blow anyone up! I just handle the books! The other guys in my building are the guys who blow up buses and schools!"

Sorry - it doesn't fly - if you ally yourself with terrorists, you're a terrorist.

Worse - if you ally yourself with france - they rub off on you too.

-Bartleby

Some of my art...

I made a couple of purchases recently that I've had framed, and I thought I'd share them with everyone!

...here they are!

They're all originals (well, technically, two of them are original concept art)...one is Spider Man, as captured by the genius known as Scott Johnson. The other is the concept art behind the Rifts: Ultimate Edition cover...also by Scott Johnson. The one with the red border is an original by Keith Parkinson - it was a color sketch done for the cover of Haunted Mesa (a Louis L'Amour book). The one with the Monkey Boy (technically a chimp) is obvious and is from the Ramon Perez Rifter cartoon series (and yes, he changed the lettering for the strip, but this is the original).

They're all absolutely beautiful and I thought I'd share 'em with you!

Bart

Another Father's Day gone...

Another Father's Day is gone.

Thankfully, this time it wasn't so bad. I am the dad of three beautiful girls on top of the kid who was abandoned 22 years ago, so I get to be the dad to these kids that I've missed out on for so long.

It was still hard.

Happy Father's Day...Don? Maybe someday you'll want to talk to me.

/Bart

Expulsion for a blog?

The Plainfield High School in Joliet Illinois is apparently run by people who do not understand the basis of the Constitution or its guarantees of freedom. The behavior being displayed by them is cretinous at the least, criminal at the worst, and absolutely morally bankrupt. A student created a weblog that was sharply critical of the school and its disciplinary policy. Nobody was threatened, nobody was mentioned by name, and all updates were performed from his home.

Let's consider this - a student was critical of his school administrators on his own time, in his own house, using his own resources, without committing libel or slander, and without threatening anyone and their response is to threaten expulsion and suspend him?

I'd be shocked if this happened in some third world dictatorship. I'd be floored if this happened in some socialist Eurocracy. In fact, the only place this would not shock me is communist China.

So - we've confirmed that the enemies of freedom are active and present in Plainfield High School. Are these the same geniuses that demand higher wages every year and threaten to go on strike for 'the sake of the children'?

What has to be done to get this intellectual weaklings fired? To whom does one write a letter to have these worthless hacks rendered unemployable due to their reckless and ridiculous abuse of power?

I've read a few stories about people like this. They wanted to regulate every aspect of people's lives, restrict what they could say and do, prevent them from speaking out against abuses of power, ignored the rule of law, and otherwise pushed their rule upon others. They even sang songs that divided people into the privileged and the unwanted folks. One of the songs started like this...

Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,

The people that followed this beastly ideology behaved much in the same way as this scholastic organization.


A message to the school administrators:

What do you plan to do to me? Suspend me? Expel me? I'm not a student at your school. I don't even live in your state. That said; my personal belief is that you are pathetic and small minded people who desperately need to establish your personal importance by expanding the tiny amount of power that you have managed to accumulate in the failures you call lives. I do not state this as fact, but as my personal opinion. It is further my personal opinion that people like you should find yourselves a nice dictatorship in which you can legally participate, since your attempts to establish one here will surely fail.

What do I hope for you? I honestly hope that you see the error of your ways, laugh hysterically at how phenominally stupid your previous decisions were, apologize, and move forth with your lives. Barring t