Posted By Robert on January 12, 2010

Hmmm … if it’s going to take everyone sticking together (as a Kansan) as one woman stated on the news, and this is in response to the new sales tax proposal and possible tobacco tax increase, how is it compariable and fair to consider a 6.3 percent three year sales tax increase to increasing the tobacco tax from $0.79 per pack to $1.34 per pack. That’s a $0.55 tax increase per pack of cigarettes. It would seem the majority of the money made will reside on the backs of the smokers. Sure, some of you might say good, maybe they mean to do that to make more people quit. No, you give them too much credit. They just want money and they are running scared right now wondering where the 400 million budget downfall will come from.

Now, let me ask you this … if this tax increase on tobacco goes through and it is increased by $0.55 per pack, do you think this will cause more people to quit. Of course it will. However, this will eventually lead to the down fall of the tobacco industry and I don’t know about you, but the nation already has a 10.2 percent unemployment rate … what will it be after the demise of the tobacco industry. Keep pushing the buck onto the back of the smokers and see where that gets you. Right now every industry is precious and direly needed. If you want to make it fair, think about uping the sales tax by more than 6.3 percent … just to make it fair.

Oh, and then there is also a sales tax of 6.3 percent on top of the purchase of those cigs which are being uped by $0.55 per pack. Great job … hope no one quits smoking on you Kansas … this is what happens when politicians are short sighted in decisions.

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Posted By Robert on July 28, 2009

The movie The Haunting in Connecticut had a really cool limerick poem that I feel compelled to remember. There seems to be several variations and no one apparetently remembers who the original author was or which variation was the original, so I picked the one below as my favorite.

One bright day in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other,
drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman heard the noise
and came to shoot the two dead boys.
And if you don’t believe it’s true,
go ask the blind man, he saw it too.

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Posted By Robert on August 18, 2008

- The point is not that their names are actually “Harry and Lorna”, but rather that Cameron Mitchell even said he knew them. If he had known them and “Harry” was his Grandfather, then that would make Mitchell 69 years plus some to even know who “Harry” was.

- I figure “Harry” must be Cameron’s Father who in the altered timeline never had a boy named Cameron. So it must have been Cameron’s Mother who was the daughter of his Grandfather from the ship. That would explain the last name difference.

- However, if “Harry” was supposed to be the Grandfather of Cameron, then Cameron could never have known him because if he had known him that would make Cameron 69 plus in years when he talked to the old farmer. Cameron clearly did not look 69 plus years in age. If someone walked up to me and looked to be around age 40 in 2008 and said they knew Joseph Stalin, I would have a problem with their credibility.

- Another problem is they kept referring to the occurrence as an alternate timeline. I know this is arguing technicalities, but it is not an alternate timeline. It would be more accurate to call it an altered timeline. The timeline has been altered, not the placement of those within the timeline. However, we, as Humans, do not have the technology as of yet to travel through time and so we, as a majority, do not accurately understand the technical differences or terminology. For example, most people do not know how to properly identify the difference between a robot, an android, or a cyborg. A robot is a box-like or curved metallic exterior apparatus and clearly looks like a machine. An android is Humanoid in appearance and sensation, but is entirely machine and synthetic. And finally, a cyborg is a combination of machine integration with a Human or other sentient being. The later could also define those with prosthetic limbs and eventually robotic limbs, eyes, and so on. To say it is an altered timeline suggest that they are in another timeline and what ever they do in that timeline will not affect their own. Most would call this an alternate universe and those only exist in a displaced time vector outside our own time (existence). They are definitely not in an alternate universe and therefore it is an altered timeline.

- Back to the Grandfather Paradox, if Cameron was the only one to survive and travel back to 1929, while waiting 10 years, then stow away onboard his Grandfather’s Ship to stop Ba’al from destroying the ship which would keep it from ever reaching the U.S., then how could Cameron have a picture of himself with his Grandfather from 1939 in his locker at the end of the movie? If Cameron thwarts Ba’al’s plan, then none of those events would have happened. No one would have disappeared. No one would have had to run for the gate. No one would have died. Hell, Daniel would never have lost his leg. Like a big etch-a-sketch, it would have all disappeared and gone back to normal. I know what you are thinking, if it all disappeared, how do you explain Cameron going back in time and stopping Ba’al? It never would have happened. The moment Ba’al was stop in 1939 the plan would have failed and his Gao’uld Symbiote extraction in the future would have been completed successfully. Oh wait, that did happen in the movie didn’t it. The extraction at the end of the movie did take place and no one disappeared and no one had to run for the gate. No one died and Daniel did not lose a leg. Therefore, Cameron would not have travel back to 1929. This is why they call it a paradox. However, the moment Ba’al was shot in the head in 1939 Ba’al’s plan fails and the ship would continue to the U.S. Hence forth, establishing Stargate Command and the proper timeline that was altered. And so in conclusion of this point, the picture in the locker at the end of the movie … could not have existed because the moment Ba’al was shot in the head the altered timeline would never have happened. And yet it did … and so the paradox continues.

- Another good point that I read on one of the forums trying to figure out if “Harry” was the name of the Grandfather, I never could decipher if that was the Grandfathers name, is what about Ra. The original Stargate movie revolved around Ra. The first mission was almost a disaster because of Ra. Yet no one ever mentions Ra or the original reason the Stargate was buried to begin with. Perhaps Ra was just buried under years of scripts and plotlines. However, when the timeline was altered that would mean that Ra would still be alive and would have been part of the whole System Lords invasion. In fact, Ra would have had a lot of information about the Tau’ri to offer Ba’al. Even is Ra was a very minor System Lord, wouldn’t Ra still be part of the invasion. He certainly hadn’t been killed by Tau’ri (Earthlings).

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Posted By Robert on June 26, 2008

I have never given any credence to propaganda of Global Warming. Not when the Sahara used to be a tropical forest instead of a desert. Not when the polar caps of Mars were being purported as melting because of solar activity … not Global Warming.

What of the recent news about a cooling phase for the next 10 years. As a friend of mine said, “If Global Warming were actually true, then how could a cooling phase sneak up and take everyone by surprise?” What about NASA’s news in the last year about the Artic Ocean changing currents? Then there was the record snowfall this year.

In any case, my friend sent me this piece he found on Fark and I felt I needed to preserve it. So here it is:

“jepzilla 2008-05-05 04:37:32 PM
There’s a great survey on global warming research, The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change, which basically finds that there is no disagreement with global warming in the scientific literature, “Remarkably, none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position.” There were no papers published with alternate explanations or disagreements? I’m sorry, but I find that exceptionally disturbing. You can find papers disagreeing with General Relativity, and if you believe that global warming is more rigorously established than general relativity, I have a bridge to sell you. This isn’t indicative of the reliability of the theory, it’s indicative that something has gone terribly wrong with the process.

Science isn’t handwaving and fudging your models to match observations. If you don’t make testable, repeatable and correct predictions, you don’t have a theory. Required reading: Confounding variables, overfit, dredging. Karl Popper is rolling in his grave.”

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Posted By Robert on June 5, 2008

I should have taken better care of my teeth. I have had one extracted and there are several others that will follow in the next few years or months. Many items of culinary pleasure I have had to forego for the sake of comfort. For one, I cannot drink ice cold drinks without a sudden reminder of why I cannot do that as jutting pain rips through the bone and deep into my facial cavities.

Sometimes a slow, dull, throbbing sensation antagonizes me through hours of joy. And I say that sarcastically. Although, I will say, in that scenario, I have discovered the wondrous miracle of Orajel. Let no one say that Benzocaine doesn’t do its job. I like it, I love it, I want some more of it … yeah!

However, my main purpose for this post is that I have come to a realization tonight:

I recently went grocery shopping with my oldest son and he wanted Post Raisin Bran Cereal. I used to eat that once upon a time myself … when I was able to eat it. Well, tonight, I stared intently at the box illuminated by the dull, yellow kitchen light. The evil purple box taunting me to devour its contents like some deranged “Yo Gabba Gabba!” video. So I caved in and fetched my bowl, spoon, and fiddlers three.

In a surreal delirium, where reality blitzed in and out like a strobe effect, I found myself pouring cereal and milk into the bowl and carrying it off to the sacrificial alter I call a computer desk. I gazed longingly into the milky white brew. The brown flakes of whole grain and bran sunk just below the surface of the milk. Raisins stranded within clusters of small auburn islands. I raised my spoon to take the first bite.

The taste was incredible and then it struck me down. Pain sheered through one of my teeth and through the cheekbone. For one moment I was frozen within a vortex of the fourth dimension with both pleasure and pain. The ramblings of Rod Serling could be heard filling as background noise to the palindrome of my pain. Then through my addled state of dismay a realization dawned in all its brilliance.

“You can have pleasure in pain.”

I was in pain, yet I could not stop engulfing each spoonful with delight. As I continued to put myself through this torturous hell I could not help but wonder how the Marquis de Sade came to such revelations. Of course, his ideologies were a little more twisted than cold cereal upon a decaying tooth.

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Posted By Robert on January 31, 2008

I received this in my e-Mail one day and could not with good conscience go without sharing it with everyone who might come across my website. I cannot help but think that these are some of the reasons why our economy continues to worsen.

—————————————–

The next time you hear a politician use the word “billion” in a casual manner, think about whether you want the “politicians” spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let’s take a look at New Orleans It’s amazing what you can learn with some simple division … Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number, what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.
B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.
C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

Washington, D.C. HELLO!!! … Are all your calculators broken??

Tax his land,
Tax his wage,
Tax his bed in which he lays.
Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes is the rule.
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
T ax his shirts,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his booze,
Tax his beers,
if he cries,
Tax his tears.
Tax his bills,
Tax his gas,
Tax his notes,
Tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know that after taxes, he ha s no dough.
If he hollers,
Tax him more,
Tax him until he’s good and sore.
Tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he lays.
Put these words upon his tomb,
“Taxes drove me to my doom!”
And when he’s gone,
we won’t relax,
we’ll still be after the inheritance TAX!!
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Perm it Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax),
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax),
Liquor Tax,
Luxury Tax,
Marriage License Tax,
Medicare Tax,
Property Tax,
Real Estate Tax,
Service charge taxes,
Social Security Tax,
Road Usage Tax (Truckers),
Sales Taxes,
Recreational Vehicle Tax,
School Tax,
State Income Tax,
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA),
Telephone Federal Excise Tax,
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fe e Tax,
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax,
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax,
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax,
Telephone State and Local Tax,
Telephone Usage Charge Tax,
Utility Tax,
Vehicle License Registration Tax,
Vehicle Sales Tax,
Watercraft Registration Tax,
Well Permit Tax,
Workers Compensation Tax.
STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened? Can you spell ‘politicians!’

And I still have to “press 1″ for English. I hope this goes around THE USA at least 100 times.

What the heck happened????

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Posted By Robert on January 24, 2008

Sounds bring about a visual concept and thus style our learning patterns. The mere mention of a series of words can form a state of mind in which a person will envision those words in a particular pattern:

Tall
Dark
Black Cape
Sharp Teeth

But if I disregarded the previous set of words and considered a new visualization pattern of words:

Blood
Castle
Night
Romance

Although both sets of words can be used to describe vampires, the second set would be less likely to bring about that visualization. However, because the words chosen to describe any particular scenario can shape our educational experience and visualization, we often find ourselves using the societal norms of language makeup to avoid being singled out. This makes it even less likely that any of us would ever choose the second batch of words to describe a vampire.

As words can paint a picture, each piece adds color and nuance to the canvas of our paper and speech. If we change the way we construct a sentence, then we change the contextual conception of those words in sound and imagery. If we do that, then we also change the way our neurons fire when we process thought patterns and thus change the way we think. For example, the three statements below describe the same situation, but change the mental imagery of how we visualize each of those statements:

The rain falls down.
It’s raining outside.
Water from the sky is falling.

The words themselves have no meaning other than our individual and collective concepts of those words that shape their definitions into perception. Without conceptualizing the visualization of the sounds that form words you might as well call a chair, a griblah. If sound had never come to exist, these concepts that formed into words would have to be interpreted by the individual through one or more of the other senses.

Not only can the meaning of words be shaped, but their origins forgotten. The sounds used to form a word can have the values of their meaning changed through an alteration in social standards. What was once absolute or tried and true, not so much anymore.

The word gay used to mean happy and the queer used to strange. Although these words still have the potential to retain their original meaning it is how they are commonly used that has changed their initial meaning. It is also the emotional state of mind that influences the context of these words and changes the imagery of the sounds.

Was it said in comradery or hatred? It is those accents that highlight the word and where they are placed that impact the words interpretive value. If we change the words we use to describe something and the way we say those words, then we change the way those words paint a picture and inevitably our way of thinking.

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Posted By Robert on January 5, 2008

Here’s a neat little quiz my friend Zach found. He he, I beat his score of 54 … I’m sure it was pure luck though. This is a tough test LOL!

Your Score: 64 credits
You’re a major sci-fi geek! Do you speak Klingon?

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Posted By Robert on August 14, 2007

Finally a new post … nothing exciting though; just thought I would make mention of a few things I wanted to remember for myself. But hey, if anyone else gets a kick out of what I put in this posting … all the better!

First, I would like to mention a few words that just make me happy with the way they sound. In fact, it would be the concept of the words that make me smile too. I mean how can anyone not appreciate these words:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Chimichanga
Fellatio
Cunnilingus

Second, there was a passage sent to my e-Mail some time ago and it was just a very good piece to hang onto. So, I have finally decided to simply post it so that I will always have a copy and now I don’t have to worry about where to place it while organizing … lol … I know, I’m cheating … leave me alone:

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn’t supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it’s harder every time. You’ll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You’ll fight with your best friend. You’ll blame a new love for things an old one did. You’ll cry because time is passing too fast, and you’ll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you’ve never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you’ll never get back. Don’t be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.

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Posted By Robert on July 16, 2006

Thought I would share with the world the Star Wars Quiz results from Liquid Generation for myself and my family.

First there’s me. I think it adequately descibed me … I liked it anyway (LOL)!

Then there was my wife and my son Cody. Although I find myself in question over these current finding … I suppose I will just have to use a line from the Jimmy Nuetron movie and say, “Never argue with the data”.

And as my daughter is still too young to take this quiz … my oldest son was not. I like his … I think it fits him perfectly at his current stage in life (LOL).

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