Please Pass The Porn

A recent study has shed some interesting light on who is checking out the Porn. Now, I have nothing against porn and, in fact, have enjoyed a bit of it myself from time to time.

What is interesting about this study is that it shows that the biggest users of porn live in Utah. Yep! The Mormons! The anti-sex, anti_gay Mormons.

It doesn't end there. More interesting results:

• Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election
• Six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama
• Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage
• States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed
• A similar difference emerged for the statement "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour

So, next time you hear conservatives talk about family values, remember the porn.

Those that protest the most about something, may be the ones most involved it.

Why?

Why are we being so much harder on GM than we are on the bankers/investment yahoos? We kick out the GM CEO, but give bonus's to the very people who got us into this mess in the first place?

Money and Power?

Follow The Money

Do you wonder why we, as the richest nation in the world, are the only one of the industrialized nations that does not have universal health care, why our health care costs outstrip everyone else's, and why we have 10's of millions of citizens without health care insurance?

Clinton tried in the early 1990's and got her ass handed to her. Since then, actually since the 1990 election cycle, the health insurance industry has contributed to the current members of Congress $39.5 million. And that's only to the members that are currently in congress. It does not include the ones that have been, but are no longer, in the congress, so the amount is even higher. In addition, Obama has received $1.4 million with $1.3 million of it coming from the 2008 election. Top collectors are:

Chris Dodd (D-Conn)	S	$767,841
John Boehner (R-Ohio)	H	$737,260
Hillary Clinton (D-NY)	S	$697,351
John McCain (R)	S	$684,787
John Kerry (D-Mass)	S	$680,184
Max Baucus (D-Mont)	S	$655,899
Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)	H	$611,554
Ben Nelson (D-Neb)	S	$522,546
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky)	S	$520,327
Charles B. Rangel (D-NY)	H	$490,098

Why? Why is the health insurance industry allow to contribute large sums of money to the very people who make law and regulations that affect them? Why do these politicians accept money from the very industries that they make laws and regulations for?

Do you really think serious change is going to come about when so much money is coming from the very companies who are at the heart of our health care problems? They don't want change. They are very invested in the status quo.

And the man spouting the need for change...the largest recipient of the money.

No wonder he does not support a single-payer plan.

An Evening With The Granddaughters

Last night we took two of our granddaughters out to dinner while their parents went out with friends. The girls are 3 and 9. The 3 year old thinks she is 9. I guess that's what happens when you have an older sister that you idolize.

The kids were really good at dinner. We got a booth so they were somewhat contained. It seems to work out much better in a booth, than sitting around a table. We put one girl on each side and then sit on the outside. They have lots of fun ordering for themselves. Even the 3 year old is able to explain what she wants. In fact, in many ways, she seems more mature than the 9 year old.

The 9 year old is the granddaughter with scoliosis. She wears her brace most of the time now and she is starting to have fun with it. She will ask me to try to tickle her or hit her in the stomach. Of course she cannot feel a thing because of the hard brace. It is thin and goes under her clothing so no one knows she is wearing it unless they actually touch her,

After dinner we came home and watched Bolt. The kids enjoyed it. Personally, I think Disney has lost a lot. Their current animated movies don't compare to their old classics. But then, maybe I am just showing my age.

Speaking of age, I was ready for bed by the time their parents showed up at midnight.

Quote of the Press Conference

Whether it is true or not, this is the quote of Obama's press conference last night. Read or listen to the whole thing here.

QUESTION: But on AIG, why did you wait -- why did you wait days to come out and express that outrage? It seems like the action is coming out of New York and the attorney general's office. It took you days to come public with Secretary Geithner and say, "Look, we're outraged." Why did it take so long?

OBAMA: It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak.

Too bad more politicians don't follow that thought.

Stuff Happens

Stuff happens! I hate to quote our illustrious former vice president, but he said it before me. Stuff does happen. Not like letting us get attacked by terrorists, ignoring hurricane victims, torturing people, spying on us, That's not the kind of stuff I am talking about.

In the last week I had to replace our water heater. It was 23 years, so it was not entirely unexpected. Stuff happens, but it does not have to be unexpected. Fortunately I noticed that it had started leaking a little bit. The water heater is inside the house, so if it let go, then there really would have been a mess. At least it only cost me a new water heater. I didn't have water damage to fix also.

On Monday, I was driving to Costco. I had just made a left turn onto the street that leads directly to Costco which was about 4 blocks away. I start up the street and someone decide to pull out of a parking spot just as I am driving by. SCRAP! The whole left side of my car gets scrapped up from the front wheel to the back wheel. A young girl was driving. She didn't look as she pulled out of the parking spot. I felt kind of sorry for her. She was shaking like a leaf and said that her father was going to kill her. I felt sorry, but not enough to agree not to report it to my insurance company. Besides, I doubt she could come up with the $2000 it is going to cost to repair. Stuff happens. The good side of it is that I am getting to drive a Prius for a week while to car in is the shop. I've been thinking about buying one, so this is a great test drive.

Yesterday I went to the eye doctor. My vision has been getting worse more rapidly than it use to. I got new glasses about 6 months ago and now I need them renewed again. They told me that I have cararacts in both eyes and a thickening of the membrane that covers the retina in my left eye. I have to go to a ophthalmologist to have the membrane evaluated. They said that the cataracts are not too bad. It is something that happens to most people as they get older. Stuff happens. The upside? I'm not sure I have figured that one out yet.

So, that's been my week. How's yours? Remember, stuff happens. Of course it is not always bad stuff. Good stuff happens too.

I vote for the good stuff.

Scary Stuff

This is some real scary stuff. Executive Assassination Ring

Cy Hersh, an investigative reporter, says "After 9/11, ...the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it."

Note, the CIA does not have the authority to investigate domestic activities. Only the FBI does. CIA activities are suppose to be only outside the US.

Furthermore, he goes on to say "..known as the Joint Special Operations Command -- JSOC it's called. It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. They did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to Mr. [Robert] Gates, the secretary of defense... Congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on."

That's right. They reported to directly to Cheney and no one else.

And "Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving."

Sounds like murder to me. Cheney ordering murder under Bush's authority.


Why are these guys in jail?

Surprise! Surprise!

According to the LA Times, Bristol and Levi have broken up and are not getting married. I can't believe it.

Oh well. Just more republican family values -- do as I say, not as I do.

Here is an interesting video about how we got into the credit crisis.



The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

It is about 11 minutes, but it does explain a complicated situation is relatively simple terms.

Milk Or Beer?

Milk is good for you, right? I was pouring myself a glass of milk a couple of nights ago and noticed that on the carton is says that milk has 120 calories in an 8 oz serving. That works out to 180 calories for a 12 oz glass -- the size of a standard bottle of beer.

The average beer has about 150 calories per bottle. They range all over the place with light beers being around 100 calories and "real", heavier beers approach 200+ calories. If you want more details, check out here.

Given a choice, I would rather drink a bottle of beer than a large glass of milk. I now have additional incentive to drink the beer. It will save me calories.

Beer -- the new diet drink.

$5 Billion Buys a Lot of Influence

Like the title says, $5 billion buys a lot of influence. Have you wondered why the financial institutions were bailed out so quickly, with hardly any questions asked and no oversight instituted? Have you wondered why we are bailing out private banks?

Well, a recent report says "banks, investment firms and others made $1.7 billion of political contributions, and spent $3.4 billion on lobbying efforts in the last decade". Furthermore it details "more than a dozen political and regulatory decisions out of Washington since 1998 that favored the financial services industry and are now credited with contributing to the financial and economic meltdown".

It is time to put some limits on political contributions and lobbying by business. Look what they have done to us in the name of profits.

Party Weekend

This is party weekend. Two sons have birthdays this weekend.

It all started on Thursday, son #1's birthday. His wife had a party for him last night (Saturday), but of course we had to celebrate his actual birthday also. So, Thursday night it was off to his favorite restaurant for dinner. It was a fairly small group of family, about ten of us. We all had a great time and ate way too much food that was not good for us. There was also a bit of drinking involved.

Friday was son #2's birthday. We watched the kids so he and his wife could actually go out on a date. Date was dinner and a movie (or so they told us!). With three kids, they rarely get an evening off by themselves. They had a great time. We took the kids out to dinner at their favorite restaurant. So, of course, it was more food that was not good for us. Not a lot of drinking involve in this outing. The kids wore us out. They didn't stop going until the parents got home around midnight.

Yesterday was the party for son #1. They had about 50 people altogether. His wife rented part of a party club that included a room with Guitar Hero and a couple of bowling lanes. More food that was not good for us and of course much drinking since there was a open bar. I found out that booze does not help the bowling game, but it makes is more fun.

Today is the party for son #2's birthday. It is at his favorite restaurant. This will be a smaller group than last night, about 20 people. And it is only dinner, not an evening long party. The food should be better also. At least this restaurant has real food and some if it is actually good for you, like seafood. Of course there will be a bit more drinking, but booze makes you smarter anyway. Alcohol kills brain cells. Darwin says the strongest survive so obviously alcohol kills the weak brain cells, and the strong ones survive. Of course. the strong cells are the smart cells. Hence alcohol makes you smarter.

So, starting tomorrow you should see much more intelligent posts from me.