Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
FACT Check
Friday
July 28, 2006
I'm heading to Nashville here in a little while, but while traffic is dying down I thought I'd give a quick update...
The whole "drink 64 ounces of water a day" thing is working out fine so far. I'm going through bottled water quickly, but because tap water here isn't the putrid stuff that I was subjected to in Tampa and St. Petersburg, it works fine as a substitute. In the morning in particular I can usually chug one or two full 16 oz. cups of water no problem. I never realized how dehydrated I was when I wake up until I started this.
The situation in the Middle East is one that I have been watching closely. It annoys me to no end that the United States, which is the bane of most countries most of the time, is the first place that people come crying to when there is a conflict. Why is it that we must be the authoritarian influence for the entire world. Can it not be Canada's turn to mediate? Or Argentina? Or Australia?
The fictitious war on terror (which is really a "war on freedom" under a mask in this country) is being battled by Israel, against actual terrorists and a country which (at best) allowed terrorists to roam free, and we are asking Israel to stop? Please. Here in America, the idea of a war on terror in the minds of some is allowing the FBI to snoop on everyone's internet use without a warrant. In the Middle East, Israel is trying to kill terrorists and refusing to put up with a border nation which tolerates them. Which side is making the world safer? I'd say Israel.
Charles Barkley is mulling a run for governor here in Alabama, and I for one would love to see it. Barkley commented that he was a "Republican until they lost their minds," which is actually not far from how I feel. Barkley can see through the neocon nonsense -- can you?
If there weren't enough reasons to be a fan of NBA center Paul Shirley, consider this, from his chat today on ESPN.com:
Michael (Brooklyn): Sir Charles wants to be governor of Alabama. Any political aspirations yourself? County Clerk Paul Shirley has a nice ring to it.
Paul Shirley: (1:22 PM ET) I think Insurance Commissioner. Perhaps I can slowly work my way up, then, to taking over for the worst senator currently in office, one Sam Brownback of Kansas. He's verifiable insane. And dangerous. And appears to wear a toupee, although that is unsubstantiated.
Brownback is the prototype of the direction that the Republican party has taken that has entirely turned me off to it. Government-knows-best to the tilt, allowing personal religious beliefs to sway his voting, etc. There's talk that he might run for President in 2008, which is a disaster waiting to happen. I bet you didn't know that I have held the domain BrownbackInfo.com for the past year? You know, just in case I want to do something with it...
Things at work have been going well as of late. I tell you, I've been much more effective since I quit taking Topamax. It's amazing how much simpler it is to understand things when your short term memory isn't on lockdown.
I've tried editing my .htaccess file on here to disallow people from hotlinking images from here (i.e. I post a picture of Scotty from Boogie Nights, and then some jerk links directly to that picture on a forum, stealing my precious bandwidth.)
If you haven't already, you really should e-mail your Senators and tell them to support Net Neutrality. Just go to Congress.org, type in your zip code, and you can write them directly from there. It's well worth your time and effort.
NFL training camps have opened, which means that the 2006 NFL season is just around the corner. To say that I'm excited about that would be a vast understatement...
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