It seems old Teddy Kennedy is off his medications again. Then again, maybe he's on his own medications. Ted is in a total fit of rage because Senator Rick Santorum dared to step out and tell the truth in print, and then actually stand by what he wrote (so far).

The words of the head loon and chief drunk of the Democrat Party:

His [Santorum's] outrageous and offensive comments -- which he had the indecency to repeat yesterday -- blamed the people of Boston for the depraved behavior of sick individuals who stole the innocence of children in the most horrible way imaginable.

Teddy is simply wrong about what Santorum said, and he's wrong about disputing what Santorum really did say! So, what, exactly, did Santorum say? more...

Posted by: Ogre at 09:55 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Although I am not a Roman Catholic, I agree with Santorum. Since Teddy does not live his faith as evidenced by his actions and votes, he really had to find something to rail against. You're right, what a maroon.

Posted by: Pat in NC at July 14, 2005 12:04 PM (b98AN)

2 No doubt Ted is off somewhere in la la land. Off the reservation. Bats in the belfry. PS: no link to the American Flag league? Truth laid bear is wacko. Think it is dropping lots of links. Should show several to you from me. Crazy

Posted by: William Teach at July 14, 2005 12:30 PM (Pzlrt)

3 He's really out there -- I can only hope it's the last dying throes of liberalism. Sorry about the American Flag League -- you might notice I'm missing a lot of the blogrolls. It's on the top of my "must do this today list" -- and has been for days. It's coming, I promise!

Posted by: Ogre at July 14, 2005 12:59 PM (/k+l4)

4 ain't no thang. This whole css and html formatting thing is the main reason that I have stayed with Typepad, rather then moving to mu.nu, the times I have been asked. I do not feel like playing with it.

Posted by: William Teach at July 14, 2005 02:47 PM (Pzlrt)

5 I have a brother in law like 'the Diver Ted'. He's in a drunken stupor 24-7 but if the booze runs out even for a short time he goes totally nuts and will say or do anything.

Posted by: scrapiron at July 15, 2005 12:08 AM (M7kiy)

6 Maybe that's what it was -- Teddy's booze supply was running low and he needed some ammo for a fundraiser for the loony liberals in Boston.

Posted by: Ogre at July 15, 2005 05:26 AM (L0IGK)

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I don't understand. The Charlotte Observer is socialist. They have very, very socialist and collective views on what Charlotte and North Carolina should be. They are very seriously heavily anti-freedom. They support nearly every socialist and collectivist idea that exists and cheer relentlessly when those ideas are implemented. They also have their friends in power -- in the Charlotte City Council, the Mecklenburg County Council, in the State Legislature, and in the Governor's seat. They are overjoyed this year since all of those groups raised taxes. But they are very unhappy now.

The Observer whines and complains that there is a state agency that has a goal of "slowing the proliferation of annoying [state] rules." You see the N.C. Rules Review Commission exists to "make sure proposed rules comply with N.C. law," and that absolutely infuriates the Charlotte Observer.

The Observer does not like pesky things like Constitutions, procedures, or laws. They want committees, groups, commissions, and "authorities" to be able to make their own rules, even if those rules violate basic rights or any other law. The Observer complains that this commission "has rejected rules that state commissions spent years carefully drafting." In the mind of the Observer, is a commission spends years drafting rules, it doesn't matter what the law or the Constitution says.

Just keep that in mind when you're reading "news" stories -- usually just opinion pieces on pages other than the page labeled "opinion" -- in the Charlotte Observer. If you like freedom, they honestly hate you.

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The Alliance (remember The Alliance), this week asks:

How will the British retaliate for the London bombings?

Well now, I'm quite sure that actual, real residents of that place can answer this one better than I, but I'll take a shot anyway.

I like visuals:

Oh wait. I think I mis-read the question. I thought it said, "What would YOU do to retaliate."

Maybe they could call the UN. After all, we all know how well that works.

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Every week Lennie of Cross Blogging posts a question. It's a carnival similar to the Homespun Bloggers weekly question, but usually focused on something to do with real life instead of politics. He encourages everyone to join in answering the questions on their own blogs. So come on, if you've got that writer's block and need a little nudge, head on over, or just post on your blog your answer!

This week's question:

Read this article, then answer the following questions:
1. Why has our society become less loving, so selfish, so intolerant, so uncommitted to anything outside of individual gain?
2. Why are we so full of selfish ambition and vain conceit?
3. Is this “perfect” society a place where any of us would want to live?

My answer is in the extended entry:
more...

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I'm working on the next layout that will appear for this blog. I know that there are still about 20% of the readers of the blog that view using 800x600 settings on their monitor. I usually use 1280x1024. I know there are many blogs that simply do not fit on an 800x600 screen -- they are too wide and you have to scroll horizontally to see all the blog.

I hate having to make the blog fit in only 800x600 when there really is so much extra space out there. I'm seriously considering making 2 different designs, one for people with the 800x600 layout and one for people with larger screens. For you who use 800x600, do you care? Does it matter to you that you have to scroll horizontally on some blogs? Would you tend to visit a place less or do you avoid blogs that are too wide to fit on your screen? Do you just accept the fact that you are using a small screen and you expect to scroll horizontally often?

Thank you for your input.

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VW Bug, over at One Happy Dog Speaks has a neat new site design and new home (mu.nu). I mention this because if you're not visiting there every Wednesday, you're missing the Humor for Dreaded Wednesday post series. If you're like the majority of us working class slaves slobs subjects proletariats people, Wednesday is the halfway point through the work week, so you might like a few laughs on your Wednesday.

I know I look forward to that post every week.

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Not yet? Certainly very soon. This article in Medical News Today -- a web publication from the UK with no actual names of real people associated with it, for what it's worth -- complains about the lack of ability for people to force others to stop smoking.

They cite a University study that mentions that local health department directors across North Carolina are unsure if they can ban smoking outdoors. Of course, they quickly moved to change the laws in North Carolina, despite the billion-dollar tobacco agreement that limits government from passing such laws, because there are "exceptions" to that "agreement." So very soon, if you smoke outdoors, you will go to jail.

Of course, they claim that these policies are important because "studies have proven that secondhand smoke can increase the likelihood of lung cancer, asthma attacks, heart disease and numerous other serious illnesses." Of course, I can find just as many studies that prove the opposite, but those, apparently, do not matter when you have an agenda.

Second-hand smoke may be unpleasant. It may make your clothes stink. Personally, I cannot stand it. However, it will not give you cancer. It's simply not true, no matter what the "health departments" and others may want you to believe. They are lying to you, because they want to control your life. And you will be punished if you do not conform to their idea of society.

Oh how I seriously yearn for freedom. The Free State Project looks better and better every day.

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I hope that there are days in which new readers who have never seen these pages nor my writing appear and start reading. For those of you who are new and are seeing some strange and rather odd-seeming posts. These are often related to The Alliance. I described The Alliance a number of months ago, but since (I hope) there are new readers since then, a brief introduction seems in order:

From the Duties and Responsibilities Page:

The goal of the Alliance is to replace Instapundit as the biggest thing in the blogosphere by means of links, hits, and humor, thereby helping Alliance members evolve upward through the Ecosystem .

To help accomplish this, various members of the Alliance attempt to promote traffic and links to other members, through various exercises and blogrolls. Down the left side of this blog, you can see the now rather huge Alliance blogroll -- these are all other blogs that are participating.

In my opinion, one of the most fun things about being in the Alliance is the Alliance assignments. Twice weekly, on Wednesday & Friday nights, the home page of the Alliance is updated with new assignments. Once it is the "Filthy Lie," and the other day it is the "Precision Guided Humor." You can spot those posts of mine by looking for strange and obscure references to Evil Glennn (most of the time) and other silly answers to questions (occasionally at other times and in other posts, too!) -- usually there's a link somewhere back to the Alliance as well.

So, if you want to have some fun, join a fun group of bloggers, and have more subjects to write about (keeps that writer's block at bay pretty well), head on over to the Alliance and read about How To Join. If you have other questions, see the FAQ page.

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Time once again to offer the correct an answer for the weekly Homespun Blogger Symposium. This is a group of bloggers who simply aren't professional (there's professionals?), and they have a weekly question, linkfests, best-of posts, and even a radio program. If you're a non-profit blogger just blogging for the fun of it, check them out.

In the meantime, their question for this week:

This week saw terrorism raise it's ugly head in London killing more than 50 people, wounding over 700.

Based on this recent attack...do you feel that we're winning, losing, or holding our own in fighting the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT)?

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Now yesterday I planned on a little levity for this morning's post, and lo and behold, Harvey beat me to it. It seems he's becoming facinated with llamas as he discusses Cindy's post of llama birthing. I think Harvey's career plans appear to be moving more towards llamahood. So, for those who still haven't managed to stumble upon it, I provide you yet again with:

The llama song.

And the words, just because I can:

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Is there any person, any agency, any company, any government "program" that has enough money? It certainly doesn't seem so. Two different, apparently unrelated new articles point out one of the absolute absurdities of government and government spending.

Article #1, horribly titled "Education Wins Again," absolutely celebrates a NC Supreme Court decision that all fines collected by government must go to the school systems. The author can barely contain his excitement that over $500 million of new money will be given to the school system. At the same time he lamented the quite obvious natural reaction of the legislature -- just shift the spending from one area of the budget to another, making quite literally no different in funding.

At the same time, Article #2 laments that the very same court decision says that the University of North Carolina system cannot keep the fines they collect, and instead must give them...to the schools. And to compound the utter stupidity, the school has been setting aside these collections since 2001 in anticipation of this decision, but they will adamantly fight having to pay the money.

Government is way to big and far too out of control. Nothing about this setup makes any sense. Since the government schools are now going to very suddenly get $500 million in new money, will the lottery disappear? That was supposed to only generate around $300 million for schools. Will the government schools get a sudden influx of over $800 million? How much of the $10 million that the University needs to give to the government will the government turn around and give back to them?

We need a new government. A Constitutional Republic would be nice. Anyone want to start one with me?

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A pile of carnival links for this week. If you're floundering around with nothing to do this evening, feel free to take a perusal of a pile of links to other people's opinions and just neat areas to play.

A relatively new carnival, the Carnival of Liberty, is up this week with just their second edition. If you like freedom and liberty, you can read lots about it (or the lack of it) there.

Tarheel Tavern #20 is up at Scrutiny Hooligans. He makes it an all-pirate theme, and does an absolutely excellent literary job here. An absolute must read!

For a litter little on the lighter side, take a peek at Carnival of Cats #68. Man, that's a lot of...cats.

More animals for fun viewing at the weekly Friday's Ark of Animals -- not just cats, either.

Another week of the Christian Views Symposium. Come on folks, join up and add your opinion to the pile. You don't have to be a professing Christian or anything like that. Feel free to disagree or just add your own silly opinion.

Another week of the Homespun Blogger Symposium, this week up to number XXVII.

More lighter fare can be found at the Carnival of Kids over at Iowa Geek.

Finally, the New Blog Showcase appears over at Bad Example -- read the newest entries into the Blogosphere!

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Found over at Combs Spouts Off (he found it at Dean Esmay), a link to We're Not Afraid. From the site:

Werenotafraid.com exists to give people a voice online to tell the world that they are not afraid, intimidated or cowed by the cowardly act of terrorism. Terrorism will not be effective against the British people, and it won't be effective anywhere else.

Lots of pictures, lots of messages. Prepare to spend some time reading and viewing.

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1 That was lovely. I looked at the next few pages to see if there were entries from any French people, but there were none. Oddly..

Posted by: Sally at July 12, 2005 12:41 PM (crWt/)

2 None? Not even one? You sure there's wasn't one from France? I thought I saw someone holding up a white flag...

Posted by: Ogre at July 12, 2005 12:57 PM (/k+l4)

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From The Relentless Pursuit of Wisdom and Liberty, I present the words of the leader of the Democrats in 1993, while performing his duties as a Senator:

Then-chairman Sen. Joseph Biden told Ginsburg, "You not only have a right to choose what you will answer and not answer, but in my view you should not answer a question of what your view will be on an issue that clearly is going to come before the court in 50 forms probably, over your tenure on the court."

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It used to be that a felony was a serious crime. Then again, it used to be that there were only laws against actual crimes. Of course, today that is not the case. Laws are now used as hammers to socially adjust you if you are different. There are so many laws that it is quite literally impossible to obey all of them, and just as impossible to enforce all of them -- so the law-enforcer is empowered to select which laws they want to enforce.

Felony:
1. One of several grave crimes, such as murder, rape, or burglary, punishable by a more stringent sentence than that given for a misdemeanor.
2. Any of several crimes in early English law that were punishable by forfeiture of land or goods and by possible loss of life or a bodily part.

That's right -- theft of a single power tool from a construction site can now be punished on the same level as rape and murder. Steal a nail gun, go to prison with a child molester. I wonder what's next -- execution for public urination? I think it's time to throw out all North Carolina's General Statues and start all over again.

Posted by: Ogre at 04:34 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Chris Short, of Conservative Thinking (and other blogs), sends along this story about a potential cult in North Carolina.

Strangely enough, the group Chris mentions, the "Human Service Alliance," has a "seal of approval" of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, for whatever that's worth. In fact, Princeton even appears to approve of this group. There are various other individuals that certainly claim this is a cult.

Is it a cult? I don't know. Using the strict definition of "cult," you can show that the U.S. Military is a "cult," too. However, I certainly believe in full exposure. Read Chris' story, and research before you jump into things. As Billy the Blogging Poet said in the comments to Chris' post -- "I looked in to this very place about three years ago and decided something wasn't exactly as it seemed..." Trust your instincts.

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Conservative Cat has posted a bunch of pictures from Iraq that are simply too graphic for the media of this country to show. However, since this is the internet, anyone can post anything. So head on over and view some of those too-graphic-for-the-media pictures. You won't regret it.

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1 Holy God, you should put up a much sterner warning about the graphicness of them. They just tear my heart up

Posted by: Machelle at July 11, 2005 11:49 AM (ZAyoW)

2 Scary, huh?

Posted by: Ogre at July 11, 2005 11:55 AM (/k+l4)

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This one is for those liberals who actually believe it's patriotic to disagree with the President on foreign policy (it's not).

Do you know the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist?

A terrorist targets the population to affect change in their country through fear.

A freedom fighter targets the people in power to affect change through a change of the power base.

via Kender.

See a nice related post at Crosses Across American.

Posted by: Ogre at 09:32 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 Very well said. I've said it before, and now again...I'm sick and tired of the lefties sympathizing with the enemy. What we are fighting is nothing less that EVIL.

Posted by: Jay at July 10, 2005 09:00 AM (BKqRl)

2 I want you to see This post I did at CrossesAcross America.

Posted by: Jay at July 10, 2005 09:03 AM (BKqRl)

3 It didn't link... http://crossesacrossamerica.blogspot.com/2005/07/cross-we-must-bear.html

Posted by: Jay at July 10, 2005 09:04 AM (BKqRl)

4 Thanks for the linky lub brah and love the site design.....looks way effin cool and Ogrish Tough.

Posted by: Kender at July 10, 2005 03:56 PM (XO0yB)

5 Two points: it is not patriotic to disagree with the president on any policy because you don't like him(her?) or are of the opposing party. It is a patriotic duty to speak out against a policy one thinks is wrong-headed/immoral etc. I welcome debate; I don't beleive in name-calling or playing grown up versions of color-war. The difference between a terrorist (who may target the power base as well as citizens) and a freedom fighter is what they are fighting for. Saddaam Hussein was a master criminal who was terrorizing his populace into compliance, like Hitler, and Stalin and all the rest, his being deposed was for the betterment of the people as a whole. It was not to become the power, but to release the power to everyone. At least, that is my opinion.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at July 11, 2005 08:11 AM (3CBTm)

6 Hmmm... I'd be careful with that idea of defining a freedom fighter as what they are fighting for... However, I think you're dead on with that last part about "the betterment of the people as a whole." Now if we can just get others to agree on what the betterment of people is... Thanks for stopping by!

Posted by: Ogre at July 11, 2005 09:01 AM (/k+l4)

7 You may be right about the "what" part. As far as betterment, just follow me. I'll take as many adherents as I can get ;-)

Posted by: Rachel Ann at July 11, 2005 10:34 AM (PsfLN)

8 You just agree with me, and I'll follow you.

Posted by: Ogre at July 11, 2005 10:45 AM (/k+l4)

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Need a platform to run on for elected office? I think this one, although old and used, is perfect:

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents' interests, I shall reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can."

-Barry Goldwater, Conscience of a Conservative

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Sometimes it is annoying being so smart. I miss the bliss of the ignorance.

I'm trying to mix a small bit of concrete. I got the container and read the directions. They make no sense at all, probably because I'm thinking about it too hard. I am supposed to mix 5-1/2 parts of the mix with 1 part water. I have 10 pounds of mix.

Sounds easy? Fine, you tell me if the "parts" are by volume or weight.

Do I take the ten pounds of mix and mix them with 1.8 pounds of water? Or do I completely ignore the fact that it weighs 10 pounds (then why include that information on the damn package) and pour the mix into a bucket to determine it's liquid volume, then calculate the proper ratio? And if it's the latter, why in all that is Holy couldn't they put the damn volume measurement on the package?

Posted by: Ogre at 02:53 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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1 Sorry can't help you only to tell you that susposedly "simple" instructions get me all the time...I over analyze EVERYTHING...

Posted by: Jody at July 10, 2005 01:47 PM (CEHvj)

2 I honestly cannot figure it out. The dry mix sits in my garage while I continue to ponder...

Posted by: Ogre at July 10, 2005 02:33 PM (L0IGK)

3 I have been working on tile in my house; mixing mortar to lay the tile, then mixing grout once the mortar has had time to set and grouting it. The instructions are far clearer with that. Mix ___oz. of admixture (instead of water) with ____ lbs of mortar/grout mix. My guess would be to mix them by volume, but that's just a guess, I take no responsibility for being wrong.

Posted by: Echo Zoe at July 11, 2005 09:56 AM (K+h36)

4 I even emailed the company and they haven't responded. I'm guessing it's by volume, simply because I can't imagine most people being capable of determining the weight of water...so as soon as the storm gets through, I think I'm going to try it...

Posted by: Ogre at July 11, 2005 09:58 AM (/k+l4)

5 I surely hope you are joking about this? Take a container, any container doesn't matter. Fill said container 5 and 1/2 times and empty it into larger container. Fill said container once with water and empty that into the afore mentioned container that has the concrete in it. Mix Use as inteneded. Your joking right?

Posted by: Machelle at July 11, 2005 11:52 AM (ZAyoW)

6 So what is the volumetric equivalent of 10 POUNDS? Why can't they simply put on the damn package: "mix with 2 gallons of water?"

Posted by: Ogre at July 11, 2005 11:56 AM (/k+l4)

7 Wouldn't it just be easier to measure it out in 5 1/2 containers and then add water then trying to rack your brain to figure out how much water to add to a 10lb bag? Men, you make things so much harder.

Posted by: Machelle at July 11, 2005 12:04 PM (ZAyoW)

8 Being smart can truly be a curse. And I don't have that many containers -- I want to use all the bag, so I don't know what size container will make 5.5 of them! I just want to dump the darn bag in a bucket and add some water!

Posted by: Ogre at July 11, 2005 12:51 PM (/k+l4)

9 Water weighs one ounce per fl. ounce, if that helps. So figure 29 oz of water for the bag of cement. I can't imagine that it'd be by volume of cement, since it's a powder & volume depends on how tightly it's packed. Of course, I'm not a construction worker.

Posted by: Harvey at July 11, 2005 04:32 PM (ubhj8)

10 Well thanks for the tip! As I read your comment, the nice people at Quikcrete mailed me back: "You should use volume for mixture ratio. The instructions are a starting amount of water. You should add additional water as require to achieve a peanut butter consistency." Now why couldn't they just add that sentence onto the darn package?

Posted by: Ogre at July 11, 2005 05:55 PM (L0IGK)

11 What the heck are you doing reading the directions for, anyway? Real men never read the directions, or ask for them, for that matter! I made the same mistake once, trying to make some hamburger helper. It said to brown the hamburger. To me, brown runs the full range from light tan to just short of charcoal. I stopped reading the directions and cooked it until it looked like cooked hamburger. It was just fine........

Posted by: Mr. Completely at July 11, 2005 07:24 PM (3mABg)

12 See what thinking will do for you? I'm one of those odd types who reads all the directions so I am free to complain a LOT when it doesn't work like the directions say they were supposed to work!

Posted by: Ogre at July 11, 2005 08:39 PM (L0IGK)

13 All I know is, whatever is used to mix it, is history. (^__^)

Posted by: mensaB at July 11, 2005 11:35 PM (TOHVc)

14 Nah, you ever watch those cement trucks? If you just spend an hour washing the stuff off before it hardens and you're fine. However, the ground near where you wash it? That's a whole 'nother story...

Posted by: Ogre at July 12, 2005 05:11 AM (L0IGK)

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