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I was listening to the morning news, as usual, on my way into work this morning. At the end of the newscast, the local station gives preliminary results of their online opinion poll question of the day. This morning’s poll had to do with the Obama stimulus package, and whether we thought it would be effective or not. The fact that they run these polls in the first place is not at issue. What I found astonishing, however, were the results. 30 something percent thought it WOULD work, 60 something percent thought it would NOT work, and about 6 percent didn’t know. 6 percent DIDN’T KNOW!!!

Now, I’m not omniscient, so I don’t know whether the package will or won’t work. I have an OPINION, that it WON’T work, but I don’t know for sure. If I logged in and registered my opinion, I’d be with the 60 something percent. Remember, folks, this is a VOLUNTARY poll. You have to take the time to go to the website, and weigh in on the issue du-jour. So … what that means is that 6 percent of those respondents were people who took the time to go to their computers, go to the website, and read the question, then actually check the “I don’t know” button.

IT’S A VOLUNTARY POLL, PEOPLE. IF YOU DON’T KNOW, OR HAVE NO OPINION, STFU AND DON’T REGISTER YOUR IGNORANCE OR APATHY WITH THE POLLSTERS!!!

Well, it’s official. As I called it in my post “prior” to election day, we now have President Obama. I wish him well, and I can only hope that he does GOOD things for our country … but by MY definition of GOOD, not by Karl Marx’s. I hope that he governs from the center, but I have this fear that he, along with a Democrat led House and Senate, will try to move this country to the left.

I listened to his address this evening. It was pretty good. But, then again, we all know that he’s a good speaker. There were some really good areas, but I also heard a whole lot of socialism in there.

I heard that Senator Byrd had some sort of medical emergency today at the luncheon. Given that he is a (possibly) former KKK grand dragon, he probably had a stroke. One news article said that Byrd “became emotional” at the luncheon … Yeah, I bet he did. He just got scared cause he figures his day of reckoning has come!

Well, we shall see what the coming days bring … Hold on to your wallets folks, I think Robin Hood may be on his way.

So the President-elect has picked some of his cabinet members …

Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State … Well, she might just work, if she ever gets over being pissed off at being relegated to a secretary. Then she can get down to the real business of helping to eliminate our financial crisis. She could just designate which countries have attained “most favored nation” status based on their “contribution” to the cause of getting our country out of debt. I think to give all a fair shot at the award, the “gift” should be rated as a percentage of the donor’s GDP.

Timothy Geithner for Secretary of the Treasury …Hmmm I kinda like this one. Who better to put in charge of the Infernal Revenue Service than a man who willfully scammed them…. aka a tax cheat! They’re saying that he’ll be confirmed, but the confirmation will likely be well after Obama takes office. In the meantime, he’s nominating an interim Treasury Secretary.

We’ll see how his other picks pan out.

Watching the U.S. Conference of Mayors on CSPAN … wow … I didn’t realize that puffery could be as boring as it appears. The mayor of Charleston, SC is speaking now, good old southern gentleman, rambling on about Guy Smith, and how he would be tickled pink that we had elected a black man as president, and that this proves that we aren’t a racist country. hmm, my thought is that since he referenced the skin color of the president-elect, we probably arean’t as far along as he would like to believe…

OK, here’s an idea: I’m going to write a post on what I feel are STUPID hollywood scenes, sometimes bordering on cliche’. I know that I won’t have all of them nailed down, so anyone who thinks of one, post it in the comments section and if it’s legit, I’ll approve it.

1. This is probably my newest pet peeve as far as scenes goes. Scenario is that there is a computer (usually a laptop) that is executing a program to (delete critical files, destroy the world, activate a weapon of mass destruction, cause trains to collide, etc …). The people discover the computer when the program’s execution is like 75 ot 90 percent complete and the first thing they do is get on the keyboard to try and stop the program from executing … alas, to no avail. Here’s a thought DUMBASS … pull the plug (desktop) or pull the battery (laptop). Both of these methods have a 100 percent success rate in stopping program execution, and stopping it IMMEDIATELY!!!

2. Tracing a phone call in the age of caller ID. OK, I can understand way back when I was a kid, and there was no such thing as reverse lookup, or caller ID. When the police wanted to find a person when they were calling, they would put a trace on them. BUT … I still see that happening on current law enforcement shows such as “Law and Order”. When someone calls our office, we can usually tell who it is, if we recognize the number, because we have …. CALLER ID… How come the police can’t use that neat little feature of new technology????

3. Hot-wiring a car … This may have been fine back in the 1960’s or earlier, but cars today have steering column locks that are integrated with the ignition switch. Turning the key unlocks the steering colum, and also starts the starter motor… If you hot-wire the car, yes, you can start the motor … but … that doesn’t unlock the steering column … try it …

4. having someone hang up the phone on you… and the phone immediately goes to dial tone …

any more ????

So, from all that I have heard, everyone is awaiting the economic stimulus package that President-elect Obama is going to propose. Many media types are praising his promise that this bill will contain no pork. The Democrats will not allow any earmarks. No Pork … ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????????

Why the hell is everyone so in awe of this man that they can’t see the forest for the trees??? His proposal is for, at a MINIMUM, 775 BILLION (WITH A B) DOLLARS. That is 775 THOUSAND MILLION DOLLARS. $775,000,000,000.00. What is the money going for?

Well, it’s likely going to various places … possibly another stimulus check for the general populace. Yeah, send me another 1200, and then bill me for it over the next 30 years, over and over and over again. Some is supposed to go to “building the infrastructure to support job growth in the civilian sector for the future.” Whatever the hell that means… and some of it is going to increasing the federal payroll by some 600,000 jobs. There will be some for health care and other areas …There is no pork? COME ON!!!! The whole friggin package is pork. No pork, my friggin ass.

My favorite part of the bailout saga, however, is the most recent development. It seems that the adult entertainment industry has been hit pretty hard by the recent financial “crisis”, and they are seeking assistance from the Feds. They, specifically, are Larry Flynt and Joe Francis. Now, anyone who’s been around the block more than a couple of times will know that Larry Flynt is the publisher of Hustler magazine, and is no stranger to the courts OR to constitutional issues such as the freedom of the press. Joe Francis, however may be a relative unknown to most. He was to me until he was identified as “the Girls Gone Wild guy”.

I laughed when I first heard that they were asking for a bailout. But the more I thought about it, the more I said to myself, “you go Larry” I know that they don’t expect to get the money. However, they are trying to make a point. I don’t know how big of a civil libertarian Joe Francis is, but Larry Flynt is pretty big on individual liberties.

I don’t expect that their request will get much attention, but it’s a shame, because it points out the complete illegality of the bailouts, PERIOD. My guess is that if it gets any print space at all, it will probably be on the third page of the second section of the local paper.

This post is kind of an Andy Rooney type rambling post.

I have a hard time of late listening to talk radio. I haven’t even listened much to Dave Ramsey. All of the “conservatives” are sounding a bit shrill as they rail against all things democrat.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our good governor, who ran on the promise of no tax increases or new taxes (ala GHWB), has yet again proposed a hike in the state cigarette tax to help with a budget shortfall of approx 450 million smackers. Of course, he only proposed the hike after the house and senate nixed the idea of allowing casino gambling.

In New York some businessman was convicted of running the largest ponzi scheme in history. Well, the SECOND largest one. The Federal Government runs the largest one. They don’t call it a ponzi scheme, though, they call it Social Security. The problems, however, are the same. sooner or later, when you rob Peter to pay Paul, either Peter runs out of money, or you run out of Peters to rob. I guess you could say that the money “peters out”.

Many of you may remember back in 2006, when our dog Alex developed an insulinoma, a form of pancreatic cancer. In 2007, we were blessed to be able to afford surgery to possibly remove the tumor, and, we got lucky. The tumor was in a good location, and was completely and successfully removed. Alex had a complete recovery, but the surgeon told us that once an animal gets an insulinoma, it is likely that he will develop another one, the only question is the time frame. He typically gave 1 yr as a benchmark.

Alex’s 1 year anniversary was last March, and he was still cancer free and loving life.

Unfortunately, this past December, he has started having siezures again, and when we had him at the vet’s office for his yearly shots, his blood glucose was 49 (that’s WAY low). His insulinoma is back. We won’t have the joy of his company for too much longer. Generally, the second time around, the disease progresses more rapidly.

I uploaded a video of our puppy playing fetch, his second favorite game. His most favorite game, by the way, is to get me to take a nap with him on the couch. Granted, it’s an easy game for him. He hops on the couch and falls asleep, and that’s how he entices me to do the same.

Well, a new year is upon us. Boy did it sneak up on me quickly! And it’s already January 2nd!

Have you made your resolutions ? I haven’t. Well, I haven’t made all of them. I’m still working on them. I didn’t even start until today. I WAS going to resolve to not procrastinate, but that went out the window yesterday. Well, it WOULD have, if I hadn’t put that off until today.

I, like many, plan to lose weight. I lost some last year, but found a portion of it again. I think I had it stuffed in the pantry.

I’m going to finish restoring our foyer again. Not finish it again, but resolve again to finish it. But “finish restoring our foyer again” sounds better. Like I am so efficient that I have completed the entire house and am looking for something to do.

I’m going to landscape around the outside of our home, now that we’ve got it painted. Well, more like, change the landscape. We now have some bare foundation stone that needs a little visual diversion, like possibly some roses. We have yews in front that are older than me, and that’s pretty friggin’ old. They need to go. We need some rhododendrons in their stead.

I will teach myself the secrets of ‘faux-bois’ … fake woodgraining. I’m talking old school here. Not the type you do with gelstain and a grain rocker. I’m talking graining combs, flogging brush, stipple brush, and glazes to make fake quartersawn oak grain that looks real. I’ll even post pictures of my progress.

I am sure that there are other things that I would like to accomplish or achieve this year, but either I don’t know what they are, or I’m not telling you, ’cause it’s none of your business …