AN ENGINE THAT WORKS
When I buy a car, it's nice to be able to get in, turn on the key and hear the engine start, put it in gear and find that it moves forward or backward, turn the wheel and find that it goes left or right as you wish. That's what it is supposed to do, right. If it falls apart too soon, then you're angry and you take it right back to the dealer and demand that he fix it. You demand the factory pay for the repairs, that is, if the problem is not that you ran it into a bridge support at 80 mph.
Computers also have an engine, most of them one that is developed by Microsoft and called Windows 95, 98, ME, XP or some such other terminology. This engine, first developed by a so-called genius named Bill Gates is supposed to satisfactorily operate your computer when you turn it on. Right? Well, some do, some don't, at least not the way you expect them to do. You want something dependable, but son, to me that ain't what you get.
With Windows 95, I often got that damn infernal, stupid moronic message "This program has committed an illegal operation and will now shut down."
Oh, how I hated that message. How frustrating. If I wrote one email, I wrote 50, to Microsoft, saying: "The only illegal operation I know is an abortion, and the use of this terminology is an abortion." They would always reply, saying they'd received my message, but finally a manager called and said that she was going to bring up my letters at the next supervisors meeting. I spoke with at least 50 people about that message and everyone said it was scary and that they hated it, thinking they'd done something wrong. Well, I don't know what results my message produced, because no one ever wrote me about that meeting. I hope the coffee and cookies were good, anyway, so that it wasn't a total waste of time.
I also wrote about the "fatal" message.
But, Windows ME is another real abortion. We've been saddled with Microsoft's misscarriage this time, the afterbirth clogging up the innards of our computers. I have wasted more time trying to keep this program going than all the others (3) put together. I have spent more money on a guru solving some of these problems than Michael Dell got from me for the computer and ME program. You turn the key to this engine and it sputters and dies. Now that's real Mierda del Toro to me.
Dell wants me to uninstall and then install again Windows ME. Now, to me, that is like a mechanic getting a hoist, liftring the faulty engine out of your car, leaving it suspended over your car overnight, and then dropping it back in the following morning, cinching up all the bolts, connecting up the plugs and hoses, saying it is fixed, then turning the key in the ignition and guaranteeing that you've made some progress.
Wow. Thanks Michael Dell. Thanks a lot. I'm now going to be a loyal devoted Dell client for life, believe me. Mierda del Toro! Meet me in downtown Solvang and I'll buy you lunch at the Danish Inn. You're a real buddy, believe me.
I've lost hours and days trying to figure out the glitches. Now, perhaps some is due to my stupidity, but then, I am not a computer genius. They're selling these things to us old fogeys and telling us that we need one, that we can operate it, that it is worth our time and money.
Michael, if it is not as warranted, then put a label on it: THIS PRODUCT IS FOR AGES 8 TO 52. OPERATORS 53 OR OLDER, BEWARE. CAUTION. YOUR SANITY IS AT STAKE. ALSO DANGEROUS TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.
SHUT DOWN ALL WEEK! HOW I HATE WINDOWS ME.
Oh, how I hate, really hate WINDOWNS ME! (Damn, untentionally there I created a good pun.) Windowns ME. That's what Windows ME does, it is always breaking down: Windown. Damn. I like that. A typo turns into something good for once, like the time I mistakenly typed out "compouter". My fingers think better than I do.
I've sent them (DELL) huge postcards complaining about my problems. The guy who called me (finally) wants me to un-install and then install ME all over again. Screw that. I've grown to hate Windows ME! Why go to all that work and do something stupid like putting ME back into my DELL so that I'll have the same problems all over again? If I uninstall it, I expect to have something better to replace it, but they don't agree with me. Cheap buggers. Inconsiderate. Michael Dell, CEO, earned over $4 million in 2003, so he should care, eh?
At times it keeps sending me a message that I do not have a modem connection and refuses to dial up, then five or ten repeated tries down the road, it dials and connects. It also is only delivering 16 colors now, so today all my photo files are useless, and we cannot get it back up and running right. What crap. I've had more than two years of this crap now. Oh how I hate Windows ME.
I've had my Guru out here time and time again getting me up and running again. Now I am pissed off. So now I send cards right to Michael Dell, the last one had a cartoon of a horses hind-end and an arrow pointing to where I believe Windows ME originated.
DEATH IS A MORE EFFECTIVE WAY TO DEAL WITH TERRORISTS THAN IMPRISONMENT
Oh yes, we're squeamish about the subject, death. We're unable to even think about it. We simply do not kill our enemies. That's wrong.
Well, our enemies kill us. They're not squeamish about murdering men, women, children, babies, and even unborn babies. They're not squeamish about horribly wounding and disfiguring thousands of people. They're not squeamish about war. They're not at all effected by the sight of blood and gore and body parts. We are.
Well, it's unfortunate that the only ones who can face up to such things and retaliate are those who are strong, brave, patriotic and public spirited citizens. That's what your policemen are, your National Guard, your Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and any other branch of service. They're the ones who must take on the personal burden of defending YOU and in doing so, do the things you are too squeamish to do.
Unfortunately, that's the only way to stay out of the clutches of tyrants, to remain free. That's the truth. That's the only reason three countries in the mid-East are free today, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq. It took red-blooded Americans to do the job, their blood to do the job. They made the sacrifice for YOU.
Murderous tyrants like Saddam understand only one thing, force. Osama understands the use of force, and he has been using it against us. If he had his way, he would kill every person in the mid-East who did not bow down to Allah, and he would completely eliminate six and one half million Jews in Israel. He would spill the blood of millions of people to accomplish his purposes, including yours and your famlies blood. The middle eastern countries will not have peace until he is found and destroyed, as well as his top officers. If we come home without knowing he is dead we will continue to suffer losses for years. Our grandchildren will suffer for that mistake. That's how fanatics operate.
If you don't believe that fanatics must be killed, you're the weakest link in the chains of freedom, but the strongest link in the chains of slavery.
THE EVIL GENIUS & THE GENIUS OF EVIL
Take the night off, rent some movies, and sit back and watch 007 movies, stories about evil geniuses with untold wealth and how they can literally disrupt any powerful nation, or even the peace of the World. It is all laid out in fictional form, the same thing that is going on in the Mid-East, in the United States, in Europe, in fact all around the globe today. After each film, just sit back and think about it, see if the script has not already been written and now we are experiencing the same thing in real life! It is all there, clearly laid out for you or for any terrorist.
Today, we have Osama bin Laden filling the role of the evil genius, but where oh where is 007? Don't make any mistake about it, Osama is definitely an evil genius, most definitely. If he is the Mastermind behind each of these plots and bombing, he is beyond that, he is one of the greatest military geniuses of all time. If he has someone else doing the planning, then he has the world's greatest military genius of all time working for him. Either one or both of them must be blown off the face of the earth. There are no alternatives. We seem to think that every enemy must be brought to the Bar of Justice. It is more effective if they are dead, in fact, that is the most efficient and effective way to solve the problem.
OSAMA BIN LADEN: The Evil Genius & The Genius of Evil.
Yes, the planning that took place over a period of years to topple the Trade Towers was truly a great military feat, more precise, more deadly, and more costly than even Pearl Harbor, or Hitler's attack on Russia. It was a master stroke. Then, the bombing of the trains in Barcelona, Spain, was truly another master stroke, because it accomplished two major political goals, it brought Spain to its' knees first and they capitulated more quickly than Japan did to the Atomic bombs, and secondly, it has effectively begun the separation and isolation of the United States from its' Allies.
This is a military genius at work. We have no effective response, because we operate under rules of law and order, while they operate without any rules and with only a single goal in mind, to defeat the enemy. There is nothing that they would not try, nothing too evil to consider, and no personal sacrifice too great for them to make.
If we are not thinking outside the box, and without limitations, then we are very foolish. We are close to defeated right now, because the political opposition to what we need to do is too vehement, and the guts to do it is lacking. Jane Fonda and her ilk are close to succeeding in dimming the light of the best, most fearless, and most generous democracy that the world has ever known.
Madelaine Albright, in an interview on Fox last night, said two very important things: First, that the Clinton Administration firmly believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and secondly, that we must remain in Iraq until the job is finished. Anyone who believes that such a policy is wrong is working towards the destruction of their own country. If this country fails, then much of Europe will also fail, and the Middle-East will become the Middle-Ages once again, as Afghanistan was just ten years ago. Any American who wishes to live in a social vacuum can help bring it about by believing the Berkeley mythology. Even Socialism will be heads and shoulders above what we will experience in our future here should we fail in our mission.
America has too few brave men in the breach, taking all the responsibility, while millions who owe their country their loyalty and their service do nothing! We have reversed the order of things, allowed our enemies within (i.e. Jane Fonda's clique) to gain control, make no mistake about it. It is time for Congress to realize that we cannot place the full burden of what must be done on the shoulders of the few. The debt we owe them now is already overwhelming, and the only way to pay them back for their sacrifices is for more men and women to step forward to support them and to replace them in the front lines.
Each day I thank God that we have them, and each day I pray that they may return home safely to their families and to us.
WHATEVER THE COST, BIN LADEN MUST BE CAUGHT!
What if they gave a war and no one came? That's the most idiotic slogan ever conceived by a human mind, for I assume that it wasn't a chimpanzee that sat down and wrote it out. It takes a real simpleton to quote it, as well, or to tote it on a placard hanging down in front of them or held up on a sign.
This WAR began back in the early 80s, but we refused to recognize it as one back then. This war has been going on ever since, in a series of strikes in different parts of the world, but we didn't want to take note of it. We thought that by ignoring it, it would go away. We preached peace while our enemies practiced war. Like the human sacrifices made on the Mayan altars atop their pyramids to appease their Gods, we sacrificed lives here and there hoping that these offerings would appease the Gods of Terrorism, such as Bin Laden. Obviously, these were not enough for his needs, and so we continued to offer these sacrificial tributes in our vain efforts to temper his anger and satiate his cravings for revenge and tribute.
The havoc destruction wrought in Spain on March 10th are only the most recent strikes in what must be a well-planned and co-ordinated Al Queda hit list, one that I fear will be most difficult to bring to a halt. Only lucky accidents can interrupt some of them, but certainly not all of them. The death of bin Laden may bring a termporarily halt these attacks, but as intelligent and as wiley as they man is, his cadres will only briefly interrupt their activities, then reassemble elsewhere and once again take up the sword and campaign and strike again.
We must recognize EVIL for what it is, and we cannot afford to let such simplistic people with their inane mutterings deter us from the task at hand, to face Evil, to fight Evil, and to eliminate it. Peace, unfortunately, is not won by any other means. It would be wonderful were it possible to win all battles through peaceful means, but some men view that as a sign of weakness and they will sacrifice your life in order to prove you wrong. Then it is your children who will suffer because you were too weak to face evil and terror yourself, and to do what was necessary in order to eliminate it from the face of the earth.
WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?
Where does the time go, yeah, where? Here I am, pushing 80, and there still aren't enough hours in the day. Sure, everything takes longer today than it did. Some times it takes a minute or two just to get out of a chair and move ten feet across the room. Putting a book back on the bookshelf, or putting a tape in the VCR seems to be a major chore now, and yet for my age, I don't think I am in the worst shape one can be in. As long as the mind keeps functioning, all's okay. When that becomes too loaded up, don't count on me staying around.
I went to Santa Barbara today to conduct a Veteran's meeting, and looking around the room at all us old guys hobbling around, man. Jim Higman is 87 and he is as spry and alert as anyone can be. He and his wife are flying to Turkey in May. Jim's an old merchant seaman, began shipping out in the 1930's. My first discharge paper from a merchant ship is dated 1941, but I was only 16 then. These men, though, all with memories of a by-gone era, don't like many of the changes they see today. The lack of respect for the flag, government, and the laws both them considerably. More than that, the lack of patriotism worries them. They went through a lot to protect our liberty and those of European and Asian countries, and they'd all do it again without hesitation, but there is little solace in that when you read of student attitudes today.
I drove to Santa Barbara yesterday too, to go to church. Tomorrow I have to go over the pass again, to see the doctor. Here it is two a.m. and I need to get some rest. Before I head for S.B., I have to drive 20 miles in the other direction to do a TV show and I've not done one bit of work on it yet. Tomorrow morning is going to be a hassle.
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