Archive for December, 2009

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I’d like to clean her pipes.

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

So yeah, on Sunday night the drains in the parlor got clogged up. When mom did laundry the next morning, more water came in to the parlor while we were milking. So instead of calling up the plumber man right away, we spent about two hours pushing a long metal rod in to the pipes to knock out the clog. So at that point the boss man called the plumber man and he couldn’t make it yesterday. So he finally came today and the tool he used was better and it worked right away. I was told the final bill was almost $400. I find it hard to believe they’ll spend 6 figures on a new combine, but bitch about a 3 digit bill to fix something we use every day. We only use the combine for about two months a year and yet the pipe cleaning was a rip off, even though we use the drain pipes.

Speaking of the man, I had a weird dream last night where Dad and Ed were playing World of Warcraft and they were totally kicking my ass and stuff. I was ready to get a new character and not tell them about it. Speaking of getting my ass kicked, I got killed 6 times today by other players. Once early this morning. Once at lunch time and four times by these jerks who were raiding Tarren Mill tonight. They sucked.

So yeah, I suppose that’s all for now. Just been playing lots of World of Warcraft and sleeping and working. But that’s about it.

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Bush Tax…cuts?

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

It’s amazing to me that during the Bush years and in the year since he left office that the one thing the media blames the recession on is the so-called “Bush Tax Cuts”. And now that Obama is president, we got the tea party people out there finally acting outraged about taxes because Obama and the Democrats might raise taxes. But you see, Bush raised taxes too. There were no “tax cuts” during the Bush years. The fact is that in the final budget submitted by Bush for FY2009, the federal government collected $2.7 trillion in taxes. In 2002, the federal government collected a little under $2 trillion in taxes. Um, doing the math here, it looks to me that Bush increased taxes by $700 billion annually.

So what exactly do the Paul Krugmans of the world mean by tax cuts? They just mean the amount of money that the federal government collected was less than they would have collected had Bush not rearranged the tax code. And we’re talking about a relatively small amount. They use the term tax cut the same way that they use the term budget cuts. You see, the government doesn’t cut the budgets for most programs. What gets cut is the expected increase in the budget. So if in 2004 a government program cost $5 million and they asked for a $6 million budget the next year and only got $5.5 million budget, they’d be the victims of budget cuts.

But it is incredible that on one side are the tea party folks who complain about tax increases when they just saw the federal budget and the amount of money collected by the federal government skyrocket in the last 8 years. And at the same time, the pro-government left complain about the anti-government bias on the right by pointing to Bush’s 2009 $3.1 trillion government.

Paul Krugman and other Keynesians loves blaming the economic downturn on “tax cuts” because they have a vested interest in making cuts in the government look like the bogeyman that caused the recession. The recession was caused by easy credit, excessive spending and low savings, all of which were encouraged and subsidized by the federal government. At the end of the day, the last 8 years just throughly debunked Keynesian economics as a viable economic theory, but it continues on because it empowers the people in the government and that’s why it just won’t get a whole lot better any time soon.

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More Christmas stuff.

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

So on Friday we went to my grandparents place for Christmas lunch and stuff. It looked to me like all but five or six presents were for our grandparents. One was for me, one for Sean and two for Amos and maybe a few other people got stuff too. The great thing about what Sean and I got, it was both World of Warcraft stuff. I got the Burning Crusade expansion pack and I got him a playing time card.

But the one thing that stuck out in my mind was having a three and a half year old jump on my lap from a chair about two or three feet away. She didn’t say she was going to do it. She just did it and I was looking some where else when I look back over and see her in mid flight. I thought for sure that she’d hurt me. Turns out, everything was fine and I didn’t get hurt or anything. But it was a little scary.

Also, on Thursday night I was looking through the Dubuque Advertiser to see what the Church situation was and if I wanted to go or not. Turns out none of the times the Catholic churches had really fit with my schedule. I was either, working, at parties or sleeping. Meanwhile, I started looking through the other churches that aren’t Catholic. One of them had a 7:00 PM service on December 23. Now I like that church. They get it, I mean let’s move mass to when people would actually have time to show up. That’s something I could get behind there. No wonder most Churches are losing parishioners, they just aren’t any good at customer service.

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Christmas: Chapter 30.

Friday, December 25th, 2009

So yet another Christmas is pretty much done for the year. Gonna go to Grandma’s tomorrow and then everything will be back to normal. And yet, I still haven’t watched Christmas Vacation this year. Thankfully, tonight I saw approximately 15 seconds of A Christmas Story which is exactly 13 seconds too much.

I basically got enough Steelers stuff as it is. I really don’t need anymore. But I did get a lamp and snuggie with Steelers on it. But my favorite this year is the Pirates blanket I got. So nice to get a Pirates thing instead of Steelers, which I have way too much of. I also got some iTunes and World of Warcraft gift cards, which everyone needs.

Speaking of the Pirates, Matt Capps, who the Pirates non-tendered, was signed by the Nationals. I almost get this feeling that the Nationals are striving to be MLB’s version of the Washington Redskins. A team with a bunch of stupid free agent signings that do nothing to put the team ahead. That being said, it was stupid to give up on Capps, Although he was expendable, I think it would have been smarter to keep him, give him a chance to improve and then trade him in July. If he doesn’t non-tender him next year instead.

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I dare you to find anything better.

Monday, December 21st, 2009

I dare you to find a better, more awesome picture of Santa Claus. I doubt you could find it. This is the single greatest picture taken of him ever and I want this picture blown up to like 10×8 (I mean 10 foot by 8 foot) and when I get my own place some day. I’ll hang this picture on the front of my garage so that everyone can see it when they drive by.

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Never argue with an idiot…

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

…No matter how many times you win, they’ll keep arguing with you.

This week, Bob Smizik is obsessed with how Baltimore is taking Garrett Atkins and he asks why the Pirates didn’t try to get him. First of all, the Pirates got Andy LaRoche playing 3B right now and they have Pedro Alvarez around mid-season. 3B is full for now. Secondly, they got Garrett Jones and Jeff Clement at 1B, making the corner infield positions full. Why give up on young players to give it to a 30 year old. Thirdly, the Orioles needed Garrett Atkins, last year at 3B was 37 year old Melvin Mora who didn’t hit much, 31 year old Ty Wigginton and a a few other guys who didn’t do much at 3B. Essentially, the Pirates really don’t need Garrett Atkins, the Orioles do, especially since Josh Bell isn’t ready to take over full time at 3B yet. And finally, Andy LaRoche is essentially just as valuable as Garrett Atkins. Counting the fact that Garrett is a little better at hitting and Andy’s a lot better at defense means they’re the same.

But don’t tell Bob Smizik any of this. The Pirates need to spend money, no matter how foolish it is to spend money on players the team doesn’t need at positions that the team has plenty of players to “try out” at. In the same logic he would have benched Barry Bonds in 87 and brought in some veterans to handle the outfield since Bonds wasn’t perfect yet.

And the Steelers are funny. They can’t beat the Chiefs, Browns and Raiders, but they can beat the Packers. Hopefully they got things figured out. Although I have to say giving up 22 points in the fourth quarter is not acceptable. They were able to squeak out a win tonight and now they’re 7-7. I think they’ll finish 8-8. Watching the 79 World Series on MLB Network now. They had Rick Dempsey on there saying that it was a tough World Series because it seemed like in the last three games they just couldn’t get anything to go their way. Of course it didn’t help that Earl Weaver brought in five different pitchers to take care of the top of the 9th in game 7.

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Not For Long! Or The NFL.

Friday, December 18th, 2009

This is an interesting article about Dave Pear, a guy who used to play football for the Oakland Raiders in the late 70′s and early 80′s. Despite horrific pain, the Raiders urged him to play through major injuries. He won a Super Bowl, but today he can barely walk and his wife has to work 2 or 3 jobs to support him and their family. He’s not the only one, they mention Earl Campbell who was once the greatest running back in the NFL and today is confined to a wheel chair. These guys aren’t old, they’re my dads age. For every Brett Favre and John Elway in the NFL, there’s probably 50 or 100 guys who play five seasons and spend the rest of their lives sore, injured or disabled. I heard that in his final years, Johnny Unitas couldn’t even close his hand.

The NFL makes a fortune from TV. Not to mention all the money they make at the game itself from tickets that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to the food, beer, parking and concession stand sales, you’d think somewhere they’d do something to help the guys who made the NFL what it is today and are permanently disabled. I first heard about this a few years ago and it’s a shame that the NFL has done nothing to address this. Articles like this can help put pressure on the NFL to get them to do something to help these guys out.

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Make pizza, not Warcraft.

Monday, December 14th, 2009

So this afternoon I called up the credit union and asked them to unblock Blizzard so that I could get them the payment and start playing. And I got the person on the phone who could do that. So she said that they can now accept the charge and I went along and tried it and it didn’t work. She said wait a while and try again. So I waited 1/2 hour and that didn’t work so I’m now on hold again with the World of Warcraft billing department to see what the fuck is the matter now.

Who thought paying $5 for something could be so much fucking trouble. When the time comes, I’m just going to get the 60 day prepaid cards or use paypal instead of wasting my time on this shit again.

UPDATE 4:50 PM: It’s finally working. It was stupid. My credit union blocks charges from World of Warcraft, which I got lifted so I can finally get my regular account going and World of Warcraft was blocking my card because I had tried too many times and it had been rejected too many times. So after spending an hour on hold this afternoon, I got to a Customer Service Rep and the call dropped. She immediately called me back, which was nice. So now I have my plans ready for tonight. World of Warcraft until I fall asleep at my computer.

UPDATE 11:47 PM: Ok, change of plans. World of Warcraft until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. But I’m still awake.

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Fraud and Friends.

Sunday, December 13th, 2009
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Gretchen Carlson Dumbs Down
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Health Care Crisis

And having never looked up Gretchen Carlson on Google myself, I always thought she was just about the stupidest person working at Fox News. I suppose it’s all relative. There are lots of college graduate idiots and very smart people who never went to college. However, graduating from Stanford with honors and studying at Oxford is no accident. So it would seem her time on Fox and Friends is probably an act.

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Calendar of Madness

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

I was just looking at my 2009 Pittsburgh Pirates wall calendar. I just realized that with the incredibly odd and unpredictable non-tender of Matt Capps late last night that just three of the players in the calendar, Paul Maholm, Zach Duke and Ryan Doumit are still Pirates today. It could be down to one or two by opening day. I’m glad I bought the Despair calendar, it’s going to be valid all year long.

But yeah, Matt Capps being non-tendered is weird. Signing him for less than $4 million seemed likely and considering his age and his history before the 2009 season, it didn’t seem like a terrible way to spend money. Sign him and let him play this year. If he’s good you can get something in a trade. If he bombed, non tender him next year. I think the Huntington is taking a huge risk letting Capps go for nothing. But we’ll now have to wait and see what he does this year.

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