You are looking at posts that were written in the month of October in the year 2006.
Posted on October 31st, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: News.
So far this campaign, the political parties have exposed voters to nearly $160 million in ads attacking congressional candidates. How much spent painting a positive image? About $17 million. That’s nearly $1 of nice for every $10 of nasty.
In 2004, the parties spent about $6 on ads in favor of congressional candidates for every $5 spent opposing candidates.
At this point, Republicans have spent $87.5 million to oppose candidates and Democrats have spent $72.6 million. But the edge on negativity, according to independent analyses of the ads, goes to the GOP.
This is what politics has become. Rather than expressing reasons why the public should vote for a candidate, that candidate’s campaign is instead giving you reasons NOT to vote for his/her opponent. It’s a pathetic commentary on the state of this country that we accept this nonsense. It gives new meaning to the phrase, “the lesser of two evils”. At this point that’s what they want to convey to you, they want you to know which of them is less “lousy”. Way to aim high. Way to lead. Is there really any wonder that our country is so out of sorts?    Â
Posted on October 31st, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: Uncategorized.
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Posted on October 30th, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: Just Dumb.
So here comes a little blurb about an incident Brad Pitt was involved in and when I read it I had a few questions about it. The first question I had was, why are we hearing about this now? This incident in Amsterdam is said to have happened while Brad was filming “Ocean’s Twelve”. Uhmmm… “Ocean’s Twelve” was released in December of 2004, which means this would have had to have happened well in advance of that date (movies take forever to hit the screen).  Here is the quote that describes the event, “I get a bike wherever I go and I went for a midnight ride around Amsterdam. There were some guys coming out of a bar having a good time. I said, ‘Excuse me,’ and swerved out of the way and they started screaming, ‘You f**king American. We’ll f**king kill you.’ “ Â
So this is Anti-American? Is it me or does it seem that the blurb is trying to infer that this sentiment is related to our politics? An incident in Amsterdam of all places is indicative of how unpopular America is across the GLOBE? How many countries has Pitt been to over the past few years, and this is what represents hatred towards Americans? An incident that occured 3 to 4 years ago?! Is this a slow news day or something? My wife got yelled at by a guy in England (or maybe it was Ireland) just for taking his picture without properly tipping! In the Bahamas in January of this year, we tried to take a picture of a guy making sculptures with palm fronds.  He yelled at us and said, “Buy something and you can take the picture!” We paid $5 for a grasshopper made from fronds and we got our picture. How much Anti-American sentiment abroad is just a symptom of how clueless we are about edicate?Â
Posted on October 30th, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: My Life.
Yeah, I know. How boring. This guy does nothing but mention trikkes when discussing his personal life. The assessment is a fair one. I mean I could go into how crazy it was to carve the family pumpkin last night, but that might be a little too intense *snickers*. 
Anyway, back to the trikke. There is something about the trikke that makes missing a day or two a bad thing. If you don’t regret not using the thing for the fact that it is so much fun and a worthy use of time on the days you miss, you will on the day that you go back to it. Why? Well the trikke is propelled by a motion that is not exactly second nature. You must lean, you must turn and you must use the muscles of your “core” (the ones that promote balance and equilibrium). To get the whole thing to happen is not exactly easy. It takes some effort to get used to it. Still being new to the whole trikke thing makes it difficult to jump back into it all.Â
I missed a couple of days a few weeks ago and man, the next two days of riding are a heck of a lot harder than the days prior to the lapse in usage. So I am cringing with the thought of having to tackle an incline with the trikke this evening. The wife and I promised one another we’d go no matter what, so there will be no skirting the issue. We’ll just have to sweat and gather ourselves, and rekindle the romance. I suppose that’s the best way to describe what it is to miss a few days on the trikke.  You know it’s going to take a little work to get back into the groove, but when you do it’s both comfortable and rewarding.
Carve diem!Â
Posted on October 30th, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: News.
Newsweek has published this story, which gives a soldier’s (Marine Capt. Robert Secher)perspective on the war in Iraq. I will reserve comments and not temper the piece with any kind of personal bias. I just suggest that everybody read it. This isn’t a Cindy Sheehan moment. This is a Republican and a warrior, not afraid to take action when it is required. He at one time believes in what he is doing while also realizing that the way in which the military is handling this war isn’t working.  He runs the whole gamut of emotions from upbeat, to discouraged and then back again.  He trained and worked with Iraqi forces that are supposed to at some point take control of the country from our military and his perspectives on that are also enlightening.Â
Sincerest condolences to Captain Secher’s family for their loss.
Posted on October 26th, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: Just Dumb, News.
What is it with Elmo and these kinds of stories? Earlier this year we had hysteria over 
Oh well, the good news is that this is a sizeable bust. The meth was worth $864,000 on the street and was enough for 4 million doses. Nice work to all of the agencies involved.
The story doesn’t indicate whether or not Mattel will be releasing a “Tweak Me”, Elmo. *snickers*
Posted on October 26th, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: Uncategorized.
File under VERY cool!
Mycroscope got a little mention in slate.com, (scroll down towards the bottom of the page) over the post made here regarding Brandon Flower’s comments on Green Day. Believe me I’ll take them where I can get them!
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Posted on October 26th, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: News.
Well when I read this story/interview, the first thought I had was that I hope other conservatives that spew the old tried but untrue, “The war is over! We won it!” were also reading it.  Â
But in the end, there is still that frustration with a level of violence that U.S. forces don’t seem able to control. The consequences tear at Bush every day, but he remains convinced that the war will ultimately succeed. “If we can’t win, I’ll pull us out,†the president said.†“If I didn’t think it was noble and just and we can win, we’re gone. I can’t — I’m not going to keep those kids in there and have to deal with their loved ones. I can’t cover it up when I meet with a family who’s lost a child. I cry, I weep, I hug. And I’ve got to be able to look them in the eye and say, we’re going to win. I have to be able to do that. And I’m not a good faker.â€â€œAnd so what I’m telling you is — we’ll win this.â€
We never truly won the war in Iraq, I mean sure we put up the flashy “Mission Accomplished” banner and watched proudly as the President announced that the war in Iraq was over, but it wasn’t reality. The reality is that the war never ended, not for one moment.  The country was never secured and peace was never had. It is nice to see that President Bush finally acknowledges it.Â
Every day there is another story about the military brass having enough with this endless war, this no win scenario. I think if not for those firm voices finally shouting out from the dark, the President would continue this pigheaded pursuit. No matter how noble a slant our Commander in Chief chooses to put on this endeavor, it is what it is, an ugly, painful and deadly experience that is demoralizing our troops and diminishing our stature in the world. There are some things worth dying for, at this point I don’t believe that Iraq is one of them.  If they want us out, so be it. We should withdraw to Kuwait and lend assistance when necessary and requested, but not without careful consideration. I’m not very keen on rushing in whenever this lame duck government we’ve installed requests it.
Water will find its own level.  Iraq will have to find its comfortable medium. George Bush isn’t going to make a democratic oasis in the desert no matter how hard he tries. If the people want it they will have it. Unfortunately, it will be a long and drawn out process if it happens at all. Regardless of the eventual outcome (which will be decades in the making), the burden of what it is that Iraq goes through and what it transforms into is on the shoulders of this President as well as the weakling Congress that allowed him to engage in such folly. Maybe next time they’ll actually listen to the likes of Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft who seemed to keep their expectations firmly planted in reality.Â
Posted on October 25th, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: Editorials.
I’ll make this fairly short and sweet. I’ve been cringing over how the Democrats have been handling their various leads in midterm races for weeks now. They’ve been cocky and they’ve been arrogant. I really think that people are turned off by this type of behavior. I am all for being confident, I am not for rubbing people’s noses in it. There are a lot of people that want a change, absolutely, and I am one of them. There are people that will switch sides for this election regardless of the rhetoric and “form” of the Democrats, it isn’t those voters that I’m concerned about. The voters that I am concerned about are the ones that were going to stay home. They were not going to vote for a Democrat but they weren’t going to vote for a Republican either. They were going to punish the Republicans and hope that the president took notice. It’s these folks that I feel are being brought back into the action by the tone that the Democrats have adopted. This is America and we love an underdog… I fear the Dems may have forgotten that… and taking themselves out of that role is just plain DUMB.
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Posted on October 25th, 2006 by Mark.
Categories: Entertainment.
The Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers is unhappy with Green Day over the fact that their DVD which features kids shouting along to “American Idiot”, was filmed in the UK. According to Flowers this is extremely anti-American, and that the kids in the UK will not take it in the spirit in which it is meant. Say what? “I just thought it was really cheap,” he explained. “To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren’t taking it the same way that he meant it. And he [Billie Joe Armstrong] knew it.” OK, that’s what I thought you said.Â
I would also like to remind you that you weren’t very kind to American youth when you said that you preferred to play in front of English audiences. That wasn’t a very pro-American thing to say either, was it? Now you’re undermining English audiences by saying they are too stupid to understand the song, “American Idiot”. Love your music, really I do… (I actually prefer it to Green Day), but you have a lot of growing up to do kid.
