Thoughts

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- The date above the title is incorrect. That's when I started this foolish section. I've been adding to it as I can.

- If a cat were left outside to fend for itself, it wouldn't eat beef or other cow meat. It wouldn't eat fish. It would eat other small animals. Maybe the cat food companies could start making varieties of cat food to reflect this. I'm thinking mouse, pigeon, small birds...make'em all into cat food.

- And on a related note: Do the makers of my cat's treats really think the cat knows that the snack is shaped like a fish? Or a drumstick?

- Why is it that some states want to make a mandatory sex-offender registry? Why just sex-offenders? I would think that the neighbors would be equally concerned if a convicted murderer is living next door. Why don't we register them, too? What about the guy who has a penchant for breaking into houses? Why is it that he does his time, and then no one has to know about it? Throw his name on a public "bad boy" list! My point here is...Where does it stop once it begins? Our system is not supposed to work as who ever has broken the law is going to be branded forever after. If we're going to allow someone to get out, then we have to take the position that this person has "paid his debt." I'm not saying that dangerous people should be able to wander freely. Nor do I have an answer that would satisfy my own mind about how to keep creeps out of my way. But, once they're released based on societal convention, we can't still treat them as prisoners. Don't believe me? Think I'm nuts? Put yourself in that situation. Don't tell me that you'd find a way to accept it.

- Stop your whining about gas prices. Is it really that bad?

- (How do you like that H2 now?)

- How does anybody get hit by a train? Really...how do you not get out of the way of a train?

- I recently saw what I thought was a satirical poster which was planted on the wall of the company kitchen at work. It was about the Flat Earth Society, and the stuff on the poster was pretty funny. I decided to look up this organization and I found out they are for real. I went to their website, which has a discussion board. These folks apparently are convinced that the Earth is flat. Now, I'm all for intelligent debate and some of the posts by this org's members seemed sincere. However, none of them could support their belief by fact. There were plenty of posts from "round-earthers" that gave examples of why it's impossible for the planet to be flat, and they asked how anybody could believe otherwise. The answers were pretty much "Just because...we just do." What is it with some people that they have to take up contrary positions to proven knowledge simply because they want to believe what others don't?? Check it out and see for yourself.

- New twist on an old question:  If nothing is around to see an object, does that object exist?

- We hear the term "third-world nation" on the news a lot. What would be a "second-world" nation?

- Have you ever noticed that you never see thick chocolate covered mints?

- Why is it that we build up tolerance to some drugs but not others? The longer your drinking careers goes, the more of a tolerance you have for alcohol. The longer you smoke pot, the more you need in order to get as high. How come the allergy medication that I've taken every day for years does not hold that property? It always works at the same dosage.

- Did it ever occur to you that you don't feel wet until the source of the wetness is taken away? When you jump into a pool you feel cooled off, but you don't feel "wet" until you get out of the water.

- It's been almost four years, and I still can't believe that the bastards knocked down those towers.

- And on that subject...if your god created everything, then he also created evil, right? Think about that the next time you're praying to him.


- Why does swearing bother people? I know that sometimes it's the feelings behind the words that make it bad, but generally speaking, what's the big deal? What makes one word worse than any other? Who made up the rules? Call someone a paperclip and he looks at you funny. Call him an asshole and he gets mad. I don't get it. Words are words.

- And anyway, why the hell should you care if someone thinks you're an asshole?

- If you find "The One" and it turns out that you can't have that person for whatever reason, does it make sense to keep looking? I'm not sure I buy the whole "fish in the sea" story. I don't see the point in what I would consider to be settling for a lesser choice.

- Why can't the different manufacturers of the auto industry decide to have the gas cap location standardized? Put 'em all on the same side!

- I was thinking about the Big Bang today. Well, not exactly. Something related to it. I was thinking about how astonomers use the Doppler effect and spectography to determine if other celestial bodies are coming toward, or moving away from, us. The data they gather show that the universe is expanding, supposedly because of the "blue shift," which indicates that things are speeding away from us. I have a small problem with this, and here is where the Big Bang comes in. If everything started as a point and blew up, and we are but a spark in an expanding ball of whatever, that would mean that there are things behind us, as well as in front of us, and heading in the same direction. The things that are in front of us would appear to be pulling away, hence the blue shift. But are we to assume that everything the astronomers studied is ahead of us? Can't be. Those things that are behind, I would think, would appear to be either coming toward us, or at the very least, not moving. Think about it...the car behind you on the highway doesn't appear to be moving unless it's speeding up to you. So with the Big Bang, the things that took off immediately after our planetoid SHOULD appear to be motionless. This, of course, assumes a straight line from the point of explosion. This shouldn't be too hard to imagine.

- Why do people cough and sneeze into their hands? Don't they see how unsanitary it is? I pull the neck of my shirt up over my mouth.
- One of the best scenes in any movie is when Patricia Arquette and James Gandolfini fight at the Safari Hotel in "True Romance."

- Of all the incredibly stupid things humans do in the name of being humanitarian, one of the most foolish is this business of having the president pardon two turkeys on Thanksgiving, and then sending the fucking things to Disney World. Then the people there make one of these turkeys the honorary Grand Marshal of the parade. What is the point of this insanity? Does the turkey know what's going on? Nope. As a matter of fact, I'd wager the thing is sort of scared by all the noise. It's gotta be a guilt-freeing gesture for us.

- Why is it that every year, we, who live in the northern part of the country, hear about the same winter-related "tragedies?" People falling through ice on a pond that's not yet frozen...highway pile-ups after the first snowstorm...things like that. Why don't people learn? I don't mean that in a condescending way. I mean it honestly. Why can't people learn?

- If you're not moved by the way Sinead O'Connor sings "Troy" (Lion and the Cobra, 1988) then you don't have feelings. Even almost 20 years later, that song gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it.

- How come you generally don't find dishes that contain cheese in a Chinese restaurant?

- When I use my turn signals in my car, what is making that clicking sound?

- I don't understand something about our country's immigrants. Understand that I have no problem having them here, as long as they're here legally. Thank you for doing our shitty jobs that we ourselves don't want to do, and good luck to you trying to provide your family with the life you envisioned for them. I hope you succeed. And I'm not one of those fuckheads that yells "learn the language or get out." (If YOU are one of those people, go swallow a shotgun, asshole. It takes time to learn a new language, especially as an adult. You have no idea what the person you're yelling about does in his spare time. He may very well be trying. That's what OUR country is all about. Moron.) What I don't understand is the need for most (I guess) of them to hold on to their heritage, wave their flags, etc. Maybe I just see it in the media and I'm painting everyone in the group with the same brush, but it does look like they're unable to give up their pride in the countries in which they were born. I'm not the type of person who is brimming with patiotism, but I do get why people want to come here. What I don't get is this: There was a reason they left their homelands, so why the allegiance? Take your pick - they were miserable, they couldn't get ahead, there was no chance in the world that they could provide for their families. Fuck, maybe they were escaping from their governments' oppression. In essence, they left because their countries sucked. Listen, I'm not saying "rah rah America rules" here. I'm saying there was something about their countries that was not allowing them to pursue whatever it is they needed to pursue. Fantastic reason for getting the hell out of there and finding a place that would allow them the opportunity, and I am proud that this country can help out in that regard. But when they come here and fly the flags of the land they just left, and they demand that we recognize their holidays, etc etc etc, it confuses me. If something happened here in the US that compelled me to move to another country --and maybe even become naturalized in that country-- my relocation would be a huge statement saying that I reject what my country stood for. I can't imagine I'd be demanding the people there to "let me be an American" in my new home.

- I did not ever give Equifax, Experian, or TRW my permission to collect information about me. In fact, I was never asked for my permission. So why should I have to pay to view my own damn credit report?