The Zombieslayer

I’ve been saying it for years now. Do not buy anything from China. Now, Mattel is recalling tons of toys because the Chinese are still using lead paints.

You probably haven’t heard of this because the American media rarely covers anything important outside of its own borders besides natural disasters, but Panamanians have reported 365 deaths due to poisoned cold medicine from China.

I already wrote about the toxic pet food that causes kidney failure and a slow, painful death. I hope none of your pets ate any pet food from China. And I already reported the poisoned toothpaste that was coming from China. What more do we need to report before Americans start taking this stuff seriously?

The good news is America is finally getting her head out of her ass when it comes to pet food. The FDA recently banned wheat gluten from China. Why not go all the way and stop getting pet food, period? There are over 200 nations on the planet Earth, why buy from China? This is just stupid.

I’m not even talking about the trade imbalance, the unfair trade practices, the sweat shops, the billions in debt we owe Chinese banks, etc. I’m just talking about toxic chemicals in the food, medicine, and toothpaste, and lead paint on their toys.

Many of you have children. We all know kids put things in their mouths. Lead paint causes mental retardation in children. So do not buy any toys made in China. Before buying a toy, verify what country it’s made in.

Alternatives

This is what I don’t get. Mexico has tons of good farmland. So do most of the countries in South America. Why can’t we do more trade with them? They’re all good people. We complain about illegal immigration. Don’t you think if they had jobs in their own countries, they’d be less likely to have to come here in search of jobs?

If you could go back and time and say thanks to one person, who would it be? The only rule is, it can’t be a relative. There are a lot of people I’d thank, but the one that immediately comes to mind is Speech Therapist dude.

When I was a little kid, I had a real bad speech impediment. I also had an accent, and supposedly, I was hard to understand. I did my assignments well and was well-liked by the teachers, but I remember some of them having problems understanding me.

I think it was in the 2nd grade when my school brought in an outside Speech Therapist. I forgot his name, but we called him by his first name. There were several of us in the class, and each one of us had a different speech problem. I couldn’t pronounce R’s, and had a thick accent.

Mr. Speech Therapist dude fixed the problem, and also got rid of most of my accent. By junior high, my accent was completely gone. If you’re a teacher, you know that the junior high years are probably the most crucial years of all when it comes to growing up. It’s the time you start figuring out who you are, and you have to learn to fit in.

For me, junior high was the best time of my life (until college, and until some years after that, but those are other stories). I was on top of the world and had a great three years. Had I had that speech impediment and that accent, I imagine I would have turned out insecure about my voice.

My immediate job doesn’t require social skills. As you know though, I’m doing some work on the side. That does, especially the sales aspect of it. I’ve also been 6 for 6 in my last six interviews. It’s not only for my software skills, but mostly because I know how to interview. If it weren’t for the Speech Therapist, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this. So thanks Speech Therapist dude!

This is a d*** good read

Read Scott Bob’s post on War and Economy.  Click here and go down to his August 07th post.

Do It Yourself Home Energy

Are you a redneck with some land and a bit of extra cash? Does your land get either sun or wind? If so, you’ll love this website:
http://www.homepower.com/

It reviews everything from solar panels to wind generators. Me personally? My anti-zombie compound will have both. Imagine having a $0 energy bill because your house is that efficient. Yes, some months you’ll achieve that.

Like it or not, energy will be a problem in the future as this country gets more and more overpopulated and illegals come in and breed like rabbits, thus increasing the energy demands. Also keep in mind that China and India, the two most overpopulated countries in the world, are now economic powerhouses and everyone in their middle classes will want cars. The days of gasoline under $2/gallon may be over for good.

Don’t quote me on that though because my crystal ball is broken. Science may or may not keep up with demands. Predicting the future’s not a safe business to get into, but at this rate, it’s more than likely our energy problems will just get worse.

So if you have the means, do something about it. Me, I’ll be going back to biodiesel shortly (which that website also explains how to do) and I’ll have both solar and wind on my anti-zombie compound. Plus, as a Capitalist, I like things for free.

The Man You Love to Hate

Like it or not, Barry Bonds is now the greatest home run hitter ever in the history of baseball. He has the record. Some of you may want to put an asterisk by it, but remember these 2 things:
1) He’s never been caught. That may change. Someone may speak up. In this country, you’re innocent until proven guilty. Or, he might be innocent. I don’t know one way or another, and frankly, I don’t follow baseball enough to care.
2) Baseball is a cheating game. In hockey, you have fighting, like it or not. In baseball, you have cheating, like it or not.

As a San Francisco Bay Area resident on and off for thirty years, I have personal stories of Mark McGuire and Jose Canseco that would make you hate them. They both now admit to steroid use. Sammy Sosa got caught with a corked bat when an inside pitch snapped his bat in two. Pitchers do a million things to cheat, from spit balls to wiping their greasy hair then wiping the ball to sandpaper. Baseball players cheat all the time, and get away with it. It’s part of the game, like it or not.

I used to care. Today, I don’t. I stopped being a baseball fan with their last baseball strike. In football, some ungodly percentage of NFL players retire legally crippled. In baseball, you may have a bad shoulder or a torn hamstring when you retire. Go cry me a river.

So if you want to put an asterisk by Bonds’ 756, more power to you. Me? I put my Barry Bonds action figure high up in the office just to piss off Dodger fans. It’s so easy (and fun) to do.

Ralph Nader used to joke that each Congressperson should have to wear their corporate sponsors on their suits, just like NASCAR drivers.  I don’t think that would be such a bad idea.

Lou Dobbs often asks a Congressperson or Senator what have they done for the Middle Class lately.  They often either sit there with that deer in the headlights look, or give some bullshit answer about how them helping corporations will trickle down to the Middle Class.  Yeah, we’ve all heard that before.

The average salary for men today adjusted for inflation is significantly lower than their father’s salary.  Ironically, men are significantly more educated than their fathers.  No, it’s not because of women.  It’s because the Middle Class is being assaulted on three fronts - oursourcing, illegal immigration, and special Visas to undercut Middle Class people.

There is no such thing as job security any more.  Corporations don’t give a flying fuck about Americans.  They have the audacity to ask Congress for tax cuts as they export our jobs overseas.  And guess what? Congress gave it to them.  Imagine that.  You get your job outsourced, and your company got a tax cut for it.  Have you ever heard more blatant bullshit than that?

You’d be surprised how many Middle Class people have handy skills.  A lot of us, myself included, would join a construction team when in between jobs.  You still can, but the money now sucks because companies would rather hire illegals because they can pay them less (and illegals don’t give them any lip because if they do, they’ll call Immigration on them).

The third assault is the foreign visa.  In my industry (software), the government passed the H1-B visa to import foreign workers.  At first, it was a good idea because there simply weren’t enough Americans.  Now, it’s flip-flopped.  Corporations prefer H1-B visas to American because they can pay them less, and if they get lippy, they can get rid of them easily.

What you can do

Pay close attention to your Reps.  We all know President Bush loves illegal immigrants more than Americans, because that ass clown is in the pockets of corporations.  Recently, Senator Obama called out Hillary Clinton for favoring Indians to Americans (she sold her soul to corporations long ago).  Props to Obama for calling a spade a spade.  I told you that we can’t trust Hillary.

Check out where candidates stand on the issues here.  Make sure your favorite candidate has you in mind, and not corporate interests.

So, I never thought this would happen in the San Francisco area. I’m sitting here at work with all four Harry Potter DVDs, and one of my co-workers came by and told me that they’re bad news. “They promote witchcraft!”

Uh oh. One of those arguments you just don’t want to get in. So I played along and she went away.

Just to let you know, I finished the 7th book the Sunday after it was released, so in 1 1/2 days I guess. Awesome book, not as good as #5 or #4, but still good. I won’t write a review though because it’s too hard not to give anything away.

Anyways, back to my original topic. I’m tempted to ask some Wiccans I know what brought them into practicing witchcraft. Was it Harry Potter? I imagine them giving me a look like I was smoking crack.