Here is the HR that is currently being looked at for government run health care. Anyone that knows me-knows that I am completely against such an action. I recommend you read this and try to analyze it yourself-to see if you agree.

More things come out about this bill daily. I recommend you call your congress person to tell them if you have concerns for this bill. To contact the House of Representatives call (202) 224-3121; you can always write them as well.

The cost alone is going to give us more debt than we are already facing. Adding more debt is just completely irresponsible, especially for such a quack of a plan. This was a hastily written bill that the president is trying to get passed as quickly as possible. I hope that everyone realizes before it’s too late that this bill isn’t what we need to reform health care.

Resources: HR, House of Representatives, Liberty Counsel review of HR

For a few months now, I’ve been using NewsGator products for my RSS feeds.

I was using NewsGator Inbox as a plug-in to Outlook, so my RSS feeds came in like emails. I absolutely loved it.

Then, I was also using NewsGator online from my laptop.

The best part was that the online and Outlook versions would sync up. So if I read an article through Outlook, it no longer showed up in the online version. Same goes for the reverse.

Yesterday I got notice that they are discontinuing these products, and I’m supposed to use Google Reader instead. Well, I don’t want to use Google Reader. It’s not as good as NewsGator. Plus, it doesn’t plug in to Outlook. Plus, did I mention that it’s not as good as NewsGator?

So… any ideas out there? Or am I stuck with Google Reader?

Unless we bust out a serious number of posts today, this July and last July will be our lowest blag posting months so far. At least even in these dry months, we’re still over an average of 1 a day to keep our “something new every day” name (mostly) accurate.

noun – the act of destroying part of a country, in order to make it more eco-friendly and sustainable. Specifically as advocated by President Pantywaist’s “Science Czar.”

There is lyric in Sweet Home Alabama that specifically mentions Neil Young. I’ve never known what that was about, until I accidentally tripped on that knowledge last night.

It turns out that SHA was an “answer song” to two of Neil Young’s songs: Alabama, and Southern Man, both dealing with racism/slavery in the South.

The boys from Skynyrd took offense to Young’s broad characterization of southerners, specifically Alabamans, being racist. So they wrote a song about it.

Turns out there are many Answer Songs, mostly from the Country and Hippity Hop genres. I don’t know if I’ve heard of any of them.

Classic. Your stimulus dollars at work…

In Oregon, where lawmakers are spending $176 million to supplement the federal stimulus, Democrats are taking credit for a remarkable feat: creating 3,236 new jobs in the program’s first three months.

But those jobs lasted on average only 35 hours, or about one work week. After that, those workers were effectively back unemployed, according to an Associated Press analysis of state spending and hiring data. By the state’s accounting, a job is a job, whether it lasts three hours, three days, three months, or a lifetime.

Or so the Feds just discovered…

With the budget deficit soaring toward $2 trillion, the Department of Justice has figured out how to play its part: double-sided photocopying.

But wait! There’s more!

There are other acts of national sacrifice. The Forest Service will no longer repaint its new, white vehicles green immediately upon purchase. The Army will start packing more soldiers onto R&R flights. The Navy will delete unused email accounts.

Again, I’m all for saving money, but some of this stuff is just a joke. Why did someone have to tell you to delete unused e-mail accounts to save money? Or to use both sides of the paper.

But alas, with all the focus on belt-tightening, it just won’t be enough:

If the administration produces $100 million in savings every 98 days for the rest of Mr. Obama’s term, the savings will total $1.5 billion, or three days of interest on the federal debt, said Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Awesome.

… when the brothels have to stoop to using crazy promotional strategies that are usually reserved for Macys, Kohls or a used car lot…

Brothels across Germany have seen their client numbers plummet since the start of the credit crunch — despite prostitution being legal in the country.

So many have now turned to advertising discounts.

Including a flat-rate “all day” special!

Local bleeding hearts are not amused.

Authorities there are trying to shut down the brothels, arguing the new pricing plan “violates the human dignity” of the women.

Ulrich Goll, the state’s justice minister, said: “If you look at the way these brothels advertise, then there’s a violation of the human dignity of the prostitutes who work there.”

He is seeking an outright ban on the bargain-basement sex dens.

So, let me see if I understand… women selling sex is OK, but only as long as they charge an imaginary minimum amount (determined by a bureaucrat somewhere) that allows the women to “maintain their dignity.”

Prostitutes = OK, Discount Prostitutes = bad. Now I understand.

If Marilyn Manson doesn’t like this post, he’s gonna git me!

He recently posted on My Space (My Space is so 2008!):

“If one more ‘journalist’ makes a cavalier statement about me and my band, I
will personally or with my fans’ help, greet them at their home and discover
just how much they believe in their freedom of speech,”

“I dare you all to write one more thing that you won’t say to my face. Because I will make you say it. In that manner. That is a threat.”

Manson, whose career was one of the casualties of Columbine, is apparently A) in a band and B) is still talked about in the media.

Source: Dave Ryan and here.

Yowza.

The average temperature for July will be 98.2 degrees. That includes the morning lows and afternoon highs. The previous record was 97.6, set in July 2003.

This July will also set the record for the highest average minimum temperatures for the month. The average low will likely be 87.1 degrees.

The average high temperature is expected to be 109.4, the third highest on record.

But it’s only supposed to be 108 today. So, things are looking better.

If only I hadn’t bought that SUV, maybe my carbon footprint would be smaller, and it would be cooler around here.