We all lost a dear friend today. Chazzy Puppy was a tremendously loyal friend to all who met him, protector of the house, sometimes-biter of blond children and Uncle to our Elway Puppy. Chaz never ran out of love to give and was fortunate enough to have been rescued in 2000 to live with a wonderful Mundle family. He was wonderful; a dog with more personality I have yet to meet.

We miss him so much.

Labels: Chaz, deaths

George Carlin, easily one of my favorite comedians, has 'expired'. So I leave you with what I believe to be his best routine, about language:

You can't be afraid of words that speak the truth. I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Because Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent a kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it. And it gets worse with every generation. For some reason it just keeps getting worse.

I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum, can't take any more input. The nervous system has either snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables. Shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves.

That was 70 years ago. Then a whole generation went by. And the second world war came along and the very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to be as hard to say. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock...battle fatigue.

Then we had the war in Korea in 1950. Madison Avenue was riding high by that time. And the very same combat condition was called Operational Exhaustion. Hey we're up to 8 syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase now. It's totally sterile now. Operational Exhaustion: sounds like something that might happen to your car.

Then of course came the war in Vietnam, which has only been over for about 16 or 17 years. And thanks to the lies and deceit surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Still 8 syllables, but we've added a hyphen. And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I bet you, if we'd still been calling it shell shock, some of those Vietnam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I bet you that. But it didn't happen.

And one of the reasons is because we were using that soft language, that language that takes out the life out of life. And it is a function of time it does keep getting worse.

Give you another example. Sometime during my life toilet paper became bathroom tissue. I wasn't notified of this. No one asked me if I agreed with it. It just happened. Toilet paper became bathroom tissue. Sneakers became running shoes. False teeth became dental appliances. Medicine became medication. Information became directory assistance. The dump became the land fill. Car crashes became automobile accidents. Partly cloudy became partly sunny. Motels became motor lodges. House trailers became mobile homes. Used cars became previously owned transportation. Room service became guest room dining. Constipation became occasional irregularity. When I was a little kid if I got sick they wanted me to go to a hospital and see the doctor. Now they want me to go to a health maintenance organization. Or a wellness center to consult a health care delivery professional. Poor people used to live in slums. Now the economically disadvantaged occupy sub-standard housing in the inner cities. And they're broke! They're broke. They don't have a negative cash flow position. They're f****n' broke! Because a lot of them were fired. You know, fired. Management wanted to curtail redundancies in the human resources area. So many people are no longer viable members of the work force. Smug, greedy well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill people anymore, they neutralize people, or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The pentagon actually measures radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos. Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part of it to us, do they?

And some of this stuff is just silly. We know that. Like when the airlines tell us to pre-board. What the hell is pre-board? What does that mean? To get on before you get on? They say they're going to pre-board those passengers in need of special assistance ...cripples! Simple honest direct language. There's no shame attached to the word cripple I can find in any dictionary. In fact it's a word used in Bible translations. "Jesus healed the cripples." Doesn't take seven words to describe that condition. But we don't have cripples in this country anymore. We have the physically challenged. Is that a grotesque enough evasion for you? How about differently-abled? I've heard them called that. Differently-abled! You can't even call these people handicapped anymore. They say: "We're not handicapped, we're handy capable!" These poor people have been bullshitted by the system into believing that if you change the name of the condition somehow you'll change the condition. Well hey cousin ... doesn't happen! We have no more deaf people in this country. Hearing impaired. No more blind people. Partially sighted or visually impaired. No more stupid people, everyone has a learning disorder. Or he's minimally exceptional. How would you like to told that about your child? 'He's minimally exceptional.' Psychologists have actually started calling ugly people those with severe appearance deficits.

And we have no more old people in this country. No more old people. We shipped them all away and we brought in these senior citizens. Isn't that a typically American twentieth century phrase? Bloodless. Lifeless. No pulse in one of them. A senior citizen. But I've accepted that one. I've come to terms with it. I know it's here to stay. We'll never get rid of it. But the one I do resist, the one I keep resisting, is when they look at an old guy and say, "Look at him Dan, he's ninety years young." Imagine the fear of aging that reveals. To not even be able to use the word old to describe someone. To have to use an antonym.

And fear of aging is natural. It's universal, isn't it? We all have that. No one wants to get old. No one wants to die. But we do. So we con ourselves. I started conning myself when I got in my forties. I'd look in the mirror and say, "Well...I guess I'm getting ...older." Older sounds a little better than old, doesn't it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer. I'm getting old. And it's okay. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won't have to die. I'll pass away. Or I'll expire, like a magazine subscription.

Labels: deaths

Matt Harding has the enviable job of traveling around the world for free. Years ago, he posted a video that a friend took of him dancing poorly and it caught fire. Stride Gum got wind of it's popularity and sent Matt on not one, but two additional tours.

He's been to countless countries and has just released his latest video from his 42-country trip (at the end). It is the best one yet, and for some reason it touched me. Watch all of them. They're great.

2008:


2006:


2005:

Labels: viral video

Absolutely amazing.

Labels: soccer, viral video

Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life. -Tom Wolfe

Labels: holiday

Credit card companies are out of control. They should not be able to apply payments to balances with lower interest rates when there are balances with higher rates on the same account. Customers should be able to apply their payments to whichever balance has the highest interest rate if they choose.

For example, Kerri and I have a 3.99% rate on one of our cards for balance transfers and 11.90% on purchases. Every time we make a payment, they apply more to the balance at 3.99% than they do the 11.90%, costing us more money in finance charges. Although it doesn't amount to very much cash, it still pisses me off. It's predatory, chicken-shit, and dishonest.

Bastards.

Labels: rant

Labels: funny, viral video

We drove to Anaheim, California on Saturday afternoon, and arrived at our fancy hotel (which Jeffry got a great deal on). We had some delicious food at the brewery next door and had an early night.

On Sunday we met up with my good pal Devon, her brother Mason, and her three friends, Emily, Diane, and cousin Steph. The park was very busy, but the lines moved pretty quick (other than the Indiana Jones ride, good grief.) We had a super fun time. It's always nice to see Devon and I loved all her friends. We got along great and had lots of fun conversations.



For drinks, we headed to the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney. We stayed out late and had fun. Of course Jeffry hurt his foot, and is limping like a one-legged pirate now. But we were really happy we went, and I can't wait to see Devon again in August when we head up to Red Deer.

I am going to genuinely try to keep this blog from being an ObamaFest but I can't help it - each day he makes me feel like I'm backing the right guy:

By banning federal lobbyist and PAC money from the DNC, Obama sought to avoid an inconsistency with his own campaign's fundraising policy. The ban applies to future fundraising, meaning the party won't have to return money it has already raised from lobbyists and PACs.

"Today as the Democratic nominee for president, I am announcing that going forward, the Democratic National Committee will uphold the same standard - we will not take a dime from Washington lobbyists," Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Bristol, Va.

It's another step in the right direction. Read more here.

(Obama post hiatus begins NOW)

Labels: obama, politics

John Hodgman, known popularly as the PC guy in those Mac ads, is actually a great writer who makes some great points re: Clinton's refusal to exit gracefully from the race. Sadly, Bill and Hillary Clinton have come to embody everything I distrusted and disliked about the Republican (or any other major) Party. They are overly aggressive, dishonest and ruthless. Those videos floating around of Hillary supporters vowing to vote for McCain only solidify the choice I made many months ago.

IT IS NOT THAT I DIDN'T expect her to be tenacious. But I think anyone who gives it real and measured thought must conclude that she overplayed her hand.

TO VIGOROUSLY OPPOSE and even undermine your Democratic opponent in the heat of a hard fought primary contest is one thing.

...TO WITHHOLD her support, as she did last night, and indeed to actually undermine his legitimacy in public is pretty poor form in itself.

BUT IF SHE REALLY IS SEEKING TO LEVERAGE HER VOTERS against a VP slot, or some other prize, how is openly blackmailing her own party's nominee going to help her?

...IRONICALLY, (actually ironically), if she had held her cards a bit longer--if she had conceded and congratulated and endorsed Obama last night, she would have looked great. She could have easily conducted the same negotiations behind the scenes in private, and arguably from a much stronger position.

AS SUSANNAH MEADOWS knows all too well from my rantings yesterday in the park, as of 24 hours ago, I was even feeling that, should Clinton make a graceful exit, adding her to the ticket would be unavoidable, appropriate, and smart.

NOW, HOWEVER, I think caving to her open bullying would be disastrous to an Obama campaign and presidency.

Read the rest of the article here. It is well-written and 100% correct.

I realize that Obama is not the antithesis of modern politics as we know it. That the two party system is inherently undemocratic and corrupt. But he is the first viable alternative to the status quo that we've had available to us in a long time and I'm happy to support this step forward.

Labels: obama, politics

Labels: obama, politics

This should pretty much sum things up for people who've been living under a rock for the past year: isbarackobamamuslim.com.

Labels: obama, politics