Posted 2/21/2011 05:03:00 PM by Douglas

Every find yourself walking around thinking about John Mellencamp's 1982 rock anthem, "Hurt So Good?" Sure you do, so here's a taste:



But what really got my mind on "Hurt So Good" today, other than the fat, rockin' intro guitar riff, was an record I had when I was kid. I was somewhere less than 10 years old and I got my hands of a copy of K-tell's "Blast Off." What a beautiful piece of vinyl. These kids today have no idea what K-tell was. Hell, they have no idea what vinyl was. Luckily, there's this guy to straighten us out and take up back to day when we listened to our music six songs at a time. Then flipped it over for the other six:

Imagine yourself an 11-year old boy in 1982. You’re starting to get a little – if not much – taller. Starting to notice girls a bit. Starting to realize that the world at large isn’t just meant for grown-ups, but for you, too. Like movies. And music. And then, one afternoon while you’re watching TV (and remind me to tell you about life before cable or satellite TV, kids… that’s another story altogether) you see a commercial. I wish YouTube had the damned thing, because I’d show it to you now. From another commercial with two mom-age women conversing happily about kitchen floor cleaners, there’s suddenly this explosion of THE ROCK MUSIC. Guitars, synths, drums… it’s loud and it’s fast and it’s catchy as hell and it’s… it’s speaking to you, oh 11-year old boy. “K-Tel presents: Blast Off!” you hear, and then as the commercial rapidly flips from one song snippet to the next (and really, you only recognize one or two of the songs but it doesn’t matter because it’s THE ROCK MUSIC AND YOU MUST HAVE IT) they show band head shots and then the album cover and…

That's pretty much it. But let's finish off with Johnny Cougar:

The final song on the album: John Cougar. Now, kids… keep in mind this is John Cougar in his pre-Mellancamp days, before he realized that he could extrapolate the Dylan/Springsteen 101 of “Jack & Diane” into songs of legitimate complexity and artistry. John Cougar long before he began marrying supermodels and moving them to the middle of nowhere, Indiana, and then ditching them for… uh… Meg Ryan. (Yeah, kids, I don’t think that one’s ever gonna make sense.) This is all way before then. This is 1982, and when 1982 you hears the strains of “Hurts So Good” echoing across the tiny confines of your little bedroom, pushing at the limits of the tiny little speakers attached to the tiny little record player your parents bought you at Zayre’s and your foot starts stomping in time with the rhythm and you feel the bass rumble down in your… uh… abdomen… and you can only imagine what love feels like, how it can feel so great and act so destructively and somehow, in the process, hurt so good…

Man. That was when discovering music meant discovering life.

Do people get this excited about Justin Beiber or whatever crap Gaga Lady is droning on about? Maybe they do. I just can't imagine.

Posted 2/20/2011 11:50:00 AM by Douglas

Tired of hearing about the union dispute in Wisconsin? So am I. I can't figure out why there's a reason for any labor unions in the 21st century, but in times like these, it's important to ask, what would FDR think?

"The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service," Roosevelt wrote in 1937 to the National Federation of Federal Employees. Yes, public workers may demand fair treatment, wrote Roosevelt. But, he wrote, "I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place" in the public sector. "A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government."

That's gotta take some wind out of the argument when America's foremost leftist doesn't think government employees need unions.

Posted 2/20/2011 11:43:00 AM by Douglas

When green building fails.

A 700-by-50 foot section of a roof over a parking area buckled on Feb. 13 at a garden pond construction and supply company in St. Charles, Ill., west of Chicago.

Mr. Beaulieu said that the area had received a record snowfall and then, two weeks later, temperatures climbed above freezing. “The collapse happened right at the beginning of the thaw,” he said, leading to speculation that ice on the roof might have prevented meltwater from draining off. “But right now no one really knows.”

Not to say that a roof garden can't work, but obviously this one didn't.

Posted 2/13/2011 04:50:00 PM by Douglas

The Conservative Political Action Conference met this weekend, and as usual, it's a Republican's greatest fear: An actual Conservative won the straw poll for President in 2012.

Texas congressman Ron Paul won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference for the second straight year Saturday and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second.

Paul got 30 percent, while Romney got 23 percent of those who cast votes at the conference in Washington. Paul is a hero to libertarians and has a fiercely loyal following.

Ron Paul is unelectable as President, especially as a Republican. Let's just accept that. But the fact that his name keeps getting as much attention as it does and the Republicans can't ignore him fast enough. Makes ya wonder why they can't win when they're so quick to throw their core principles under the bus. Get ready for four more years of Barry.

Posted 2/12/2011 04:49:00 PM by Douglas

The film-nerd in me says this is going to suck, but the libertarian in me wants to see it, anyway:



Part 1? Yeah, it's probably going to suck, but what kind of movie is made these days with $15 million?

Posted 2/12/2011 01:30:00 PM by Douglas

As a nation, we're broke. We get it. We've been spending like a drunken sailor on leave, but now we gotta cool it. Enter a fiscally responsible republican with a non-Swiftian modest proposal. I was very disappointed to find out he wasn't proposing eating children.

My proposal would first roll back almost all federal spending to 2008 levels, then initiate reductions at various levels nearly across the board. Cuts to the Departments of Agriculture and Transportation would create over $42 billion in savings each, while cuts to the Departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development would save about $50 billion each. Removing education from the federal government's jurisdiction would create almost $80 billion in savings alone. Add to that my proposed reductions in international aid, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and other federal agencies, and we arrive at over $500 billion.

OK, $500 billion is nothing to laugh at, and a hellova good start. But read on to find out if he's really serious:

My proposal, not surprisingly, has been greeted skeptically in Washington, where serious spending cuts are a rarity. But it is a modest proposal when measured against the size of our mounting debt. It would keep 85% of our government funding in place and not touch Social Security or Medicare.

Well WHY? The budget cutters can sing and dance about how broke we are and how we have to reduce spending, yet these two sacred cows of government entitlement are completely off limits? Check out the 2010 budget, specifically the top seven government outlays. With the exception of the Department of Defense and interest on the loan, the five biggest expenditures are
social services. Social Security, Unemployment, Medicare, Medicaid and Health and Human Services make up 57% of the budget. A cut in those programs alone of just over 20% would get $500 billion, too.

If we're serious about cutting spending, we need to get serious about really cutting spending and not just programs in other congressmen's districts.

Posted 2/11/2011 08:52:00 PM by Douglas

I'm a little late to the dance on this one, but with all the fervor over the SuperBowl National Anthem screw up, I thought the real story worth of outrage is worth of attention.

At this year's Super Bowl, five Navy F-18s are traveling all the way from Virginia Beach, Virginia for the ceremony at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

The domed arena will be closed. The spectators inside will not see it. The five-second shot will be shown on TV.

The U.S. Navy says the cost to bring the formation of four planes, plus a backup, to North Texas is $109,000 in fuel. According to Department of Defense tables, the entire cost will be more than $450,000, based on the operational cost of the F-18 aircraft and the number of hours the pilots will fly.

The same kind of F-18 fighter operates out of the Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, less than 20 miles from the stadium.

So for a paltry half million bucks, we get some F-18s flying over a closed stadium. Here's what I want to know: If anyone that's upset that a pop star screwed up the lyrics to the national anthem actually noticed or knew what the correct lyrics were is equally upset with the government blowing half a million bucks on crap NO ONE in the stadium can see, because if it was for the TV audience, we could have seen the footage from last year for a whole lot cheaper.

Posted 2/11/2011 08:31:00 PM by Douglas

Marvin Sease, a.k.a. the "candylicker" is no longer with us.

Marvin Sease, a blues and soul singer known for his 1980s hit "Candy Licker," has died after a lengthy illness. He was 64.

Brett Bonner, editor of Living Blues Magazine, says Sease started in gospel music in South Carolina before moving to New York and eventually playing rhythm and blues. Bonner says after "Candy Licker" was released in the late 1980s, Sease became popular for his live performances in the South. Bonner says many of Sease's song were too dirty for airplay.

If you've ever had a friend say "Jody ain't got no bills" you have to appreciate this song. And if you have no idea who "Jody" is, I guess I have to feel a little sorry for you. Here's the song, in all its unairable glory.

Posted 2/05/2011 05:46:00 PM by Douglas

When state licensure goes insane:

After an engineering consultant hired by the city said that the signals were not needed, Cox and the North Raleigh Coalition of Homeowners' Associations responded with a sophisticated analysis of their own.

The eight-page document with maps, diagrams and traffic projections was offered to buttress their contention that signals will be needed at the Falls of Neuse at Coolmore Drive intersection and where the road meets Tabriz Point / Lake Villa Way.

It did not persuade Kevin Lacy, chief traffic engineer for the state DOT, to change his mind about the project. Instead, Lacy called on a state licensing agency, the N.C. Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors, to investigate Cox.

[...]

Lacy said he had told the group last year that it should hire an engineer to make its case. He said he was surprised to see engineering-quality work in a report that was not signed by a licensed professional.

Don't make too good of a case when questioning the government. You should be proactive and get an engineering/medial/legal/teaching/cosmetology license before redressing the government with your grievances.

Posted 2/05/2011 12:15:00 PM by Douglas

With rolling blackouts affecting many Texas cities this week, it's painfully clear the state needs to take a look at the grid. First stop, wind power. Even though we know they won't generate enough electricity to pay for themselves before they suffer failure, there's always some concern with what happens when the wind stops blowing. You guessed it, they stop generating electricity. But with all the wind from the winter storms this week, these prairie turbines must be replete with electrons, right? Well no. Turns out they stop generating power when the wind blows too much, too.

Turbines capture the wind about 300 feet in the air, where there is less drag from the surface of Earth, so the speeds are even higher. Strong winds can cause the turbines, which normally thrive on the gusty Panhandle breezes, to shut down. Some are programmed to shut down automatically when winds reach a certain speed.

Sleep tight, Texas. Next time you're shivering in the dark, rest assured that hundreds of millions of your tax dollars were spent buying these huge windmills from some European country.

Labels: wind power

Posted 2/05/2011 11:35:00 AM by Douglas

Consummate attention-whore Morgan Spurlock is at it again. Now he's soliciting your help to restore Times Square to its pristine pre-advertising configuration.

What inspired No Ad - NY? Sao Paulo, Brazil. Not the prettiest city in the world, but one with a striking feature: No outdoor ads. None. Since 2007, Sao Paulo has banned outdoor ads as a form of visual pollution. It inspired director Morgan Spurlock to think, why can't we do this in the US?

Even before his Super Size Me days when he was coercing girls to eat their own hair mixed with butter, it was obvious that this guy was an attention whore of the highest order. It appears to be working out pretty good for him. I just don't see his angel in this one. Times Square with no advertising? It's bad enough Giuliani got rid of the hookers, but would you even recognize Times Square without the garish advertising?

Posted 2/04/2011 09:22:00 PM by Douglas

Great VW commercial.

So I love this commercial because it captures the shared experience of Generation X. We like being home to make our kids peanut butter and jelly. You could not sell Baby Boomers with this. They think it’s lame to sit in a kitchen waiting for your kid to be hungry. We like having a male breadwinner and we’re not afraid to say it.

And we are surrounded by little boys in love with Star Wars.

It's almost enough to forget the crappy car they're hawkin'

Posted 2/01/2011 10:51:00 PM by Douglas

If you've ever designed a specialized suit for personal protection, at some point you have to address impact penetration. A good rule of thumb to use is what would happen if you got hit by a Ford pickup:



Great video for people that have a interest in personal protection, or who like to see people in body armor getting wailed on with boards.

Posted 2/01/2011 10:42:00 PM by Douglas

If you're in Mexico, Maine, and a guy with one arm pulls out a switchblade, don't worry about it. It's legal now.

MEXICO — A local lawmaker has proposed a bill to allow one-armed people to have and carry switchblade knives.

State Rep. Sheryl Briggs, D-Mexico, said Friday that she's asking Maine to comply with a federal law that allows individuals with one arm to own or carry any switchblade knife with a blade of 3 inches or less.

Ah yes, how is a one armed man going to open a pocket knife, much less kill Harrison Ford's wife, with a regular Swiss Army Knife? But who is going to stand up for the rights of those unable to open the corkscrew and magnifying glass of their pocketknife?

Briggs said one-armed Mexico lawyer Paul Dumas Jr. asked her to propose the legislation.

I suppose I should have seen that one coming.

Posted 2/01/2011 10:32:00 PM by Douglas

For those of you paying attention, it's still not ok to eat toxic nuclear sludge. Some of you might not understand why the word "still" in in the previous sentence.

The U.S. Government says candy imported from Pakistan called Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge is not safe to eat. Who would have guessed?

The Food and Drug Administration announced the U.S. distributor of Nuclear Sludge Chew Bars is recalling the candy because of lead contamination.

Not only did some FDA guy get paid to determine "nuclear sludge chew bars" were bad, but a marketing guy got paid to come up with the name. The take-away from this? Don't eat Pakistani candy.

Posted 2/01/2011 10:27:00 PM by Douglas

Eight years ago today is a day I will never forget. It's not every day a space ship on its way home doesn't come home, but for anyone connected with STS-107, it's a lot more personal than that. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, and we still don't have a reasonable direction fro the future of the American space program. The current program of record is hanging on by a thread with nothing viable waiting in the wings to replace it. But that doesn't matter today. Today is about the few brave souls that got the chance to do what only a handful of the billions of people on this green earth will get the chance to do, and didn't get to come home and tell anyone about it.

Here's a great picture commemorating those that died in the American space program.

Ad Astra Per Aspera - Semper Exploro!