Perception Is Reality...

SHARES TUMBLE AROUND WORLD...

DOW DOWN 416...

WORST 1-DAY DROP SINCE 2001...

(All from the Drudge Report.)

(Along with THIS one...)

MAG: Did the Drudge Report Help Tank the Stock Market?

Well, did it?

The first paragraph from the article about the Drudge Report helping to tank the Stock Market says "Greenspan warns of likely U.S. recession." That was the headline right near the top of the widely surfed Drudge Report yesterday afternoon and this morning, referring to a speech that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made the other day via satellite to a business conference in Hong Kong. Many market watchers are blaming those comments– along with a weak durable goods report and the plunge in the Chinese stock market – for today's stock market sell-off."

Wait just a Cotton-Tailed minute...

Didn't Alan Greenspan retire last year?

What in the World gives him the power to come in off the Beach and crash the Stock Market whenever he feels like it?

You want an even better angle on the same story?

Here you go...

From the Tugboatcapn News Service...

Stock Market Experiences Worst One-Day Drop Since 2001 Only Two Months After Democrats Reclaim Congress...

How about this one?

Stock Market Crashes Following Al Gore's Oscar Win...

Or this headline...

Dow Down 416 Points Following News Of Democrats Opposition To Bush's Iraq Troop Surge Plan...

These things have nothing to do with the Stock Market Plunge, you say?

Oh, Yeah?

I have as much evidence that Al Gore, or the Democrats taking Congress, or their opposition to Bush's Iraq plans causing the Stock Market Crash as the Left has for Mankind's role in Global Warming...

Perception is Reality...

Conversion At The Point Of The Sword...

When New Blogger came for ELAshley, I remained silent; I was not ELAshley.

When they forced Mark to convert, I remained silent; I was not Mark.

When they came for D.Daddio, I did not speak out; I was not D.Daddio.

When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.


This is just great.

I have been forced over to the dark side.

New Blogger has finally come for me.

And there is nothing that can be done. Resistance is futile.

I have been assimilated.

Please tell me, those of you who have already converted, because I don't know...

Is it better?

Worse?

About the same?


P.S. I promise that I will write a Political Post soon...

Right now, I just don't care...

Requiem For A Friend...

I've just returned home from a funeral for a man I did not know.

He was killed in an ATV accident this past Sunday. He was 30 years old.

He lived about 30 minutes from me, he was a truck driver, he loved video games, he built race cars and model cars, had a really nice Corvette, and was a really nice guy.

He and his wife were both close friends of my Wife's when they were all in High School, and now he is gone.

And I never met him.

Until today.

I have spent the afternoon making friends with his friends, listening to stories about him, the way he thought, the way he reacted to different situations, his attitudes, his beliefs, what was important and unimportant to him...

I would have liked him. A lot.

He was a good guy.

But now he is gone.

And I am sad that I never met him.

I am sad for his widow, alone after only seven years of marriage, wondering whether she should sell their house and move back in with her parents...

I am sad for his dogs, who will not understand why he will never come home to play with them again...

I am sad for his friends, who will never enjoy his company again, or benifit from his unique skillset, his knowledge, his point of view, his sense of humor...

And I am sad for myself, that I never had the opportunity to laugh with him, talk with him, help him with the projects that he was working on, and that I was not able to develop a relationship with him.

We would have been friends.

Rest in Peace, Donnie Bailey, my friend whom I never met.

You are missed.

By George, I Think He's Got It!

Joe Leiberman is a genius!

He has figured out a way to make the Democrats finally get behind the war on Terror.

They will support ANYTHING that they can tax!

Brilliant!

The Last Action Hero...

Did you ever have one of those days when you just want to leave your husband and your children, put on adult diapers and race against a jet airplane 900 miles across the country so that you could kidnap and murder your boyfriend's girlfriend with a B.B. gun and a steel mallet?

Me neither.

Now, I will not indulge in the obvious P.M.S. or Menopause jokes, because that would get ME killed with a B.B. gun and a steel mallet. Besides, anyone who has dealt in close quarters with a woman in the throes of a P.M.S attack knows that this Astronaut situation is relatively mild by comparison...

Sorry. I said I wasn't going to do that.

The real tragedy here is the destruction of the perception of Astronauts as sort of "Super Human" Heroes. They are supposed to be the best and the brightest of all of the best and brightest. I'm no Rocket Scientist, but THEY ARE.

And now this one single nut has destroyed the last bastion of the real American Hero.

Over a man with whom she claims she wasn't even romantically involved. (Rrrriiiiight....)

The American Soldier as a Hero has been over with since about the Viet-Nam War. Everyone has known that the President, whoever he may be, is a lying, cheating power-mad scumbag, and has been ever since Nixon.

Terrell Owens has almost single-handedly transformed professional athletes from Heros into something more akin to Rodeo Clowns.

We lost Cowboys as Heroes last year... although we all sort of knew about Cowboys for a while. (Men walking around in leather chaps and shiny boots? Come on, now...)

And now, we learn that Astronauts are actually human beings, and are prone to random nuttiness as well.

And even Rocket Scientists do stupid, wierd things sometimes. (Probably more often than we know about.)

Which pretty much leaves Rap Artists as the example for all of us to look up to.

So, Yo. This is Tug, an' I'm Audi.

Peace out, yo.

Aaa'ight?

Yeah.

Cheater, Cheater, Odor Eater!!

"My computer can beat me at Chess... But it is no match for me at Kick-Boxing..." - Emo Phillips.

Tonight I made an amazing discovery...

My computer cheats at "Scrabble"!

Last weekend my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were over here to hang out with the Wife and me. My Wife and her brother were playing "Mario Smash Brothers Melee" on the Game Cube, and my sister-in-law was playing "Brain age" on her Nintendo DS Lite, so I was left with nothing to do.

I decided to go to "Yahoo Games" on the internet and see if there were any games there that I liked.

I found "Scrabble" and downloaded it.

And was immediately hooked.

I have played "Scrabble" against my computer for several hours every night this week.

I noticed that the computer would occasionally deny me a word that I knew was legitimate, but it didn't bother me until I tried to use the word "Jews" on a triple word score for 42 points.

The computer denied it.

Then I started to notice that the computer was using some really funky words like "xi" and "emmend".

Tonight it used the word "smews" for 27 points.

I used the Dictionary function and looked up the word, and it said that a "smew" is a Eurasian duck.

Okay... I remember this from when I was a kid playing this game. This is the opponent who sits on the Dictionary and challenges YOUR words, but makes up his own words and won't let YOU look anything up. (Because it's HIS Dictionary.)

Now, maybe a "doit" actually is an out-dated Dutch coin... but I cannot be sure of that. I either have to take the word of the computer, or go out and buy my own copy of Mirriam Webster's Official Collegiate Dictionary, and even that would not explain why the computer can use "noir", but I can't use "que".

And I don't have the same option, even if I had my own Dictionary. I can't put down "queijrx", and then tell the computer that it is a Turkish Cockroach or something. The computer either allows the word, or it doesn't. No argument whatsoever.

I can usually beat any human opponent at "Scrabble", but I can't stand a cheating computer, and I have caught mine red-handed.

Maybe next we'll see how well it does playing Dodge Ball.

On The Road Again!

Used Freightliner Century Class road tractor... $29,500.00.

210 gallons of highway diesel fuel... $524.00

Brand new hard hat... $6.24.

Actually being excited about getting out of bed at 3:30 in the morning to go to work... Priceless.

Some people say that the best things in life are free...

But that's hogwash, and you know that already.

The really good stuff costs you everything you have...

Everything you think you are.

So you have to decide.

What do you want?

How much does it cost?

Can you afford it?