Chamblee54

Once again, when I don’t have anything to say, there is an online quiz. Today, the subject is “What year do you belong in”?
Thanks to Homo Sweet Alabama and Shirley Heezgay for steering me onto this. When there is a contest for best blog name… the current titleholder is “Glitter for Brains“… you will both be considered.
HSA belongs in 1950, and SH should stay in 1988.
Since I have the time and inclination, I am going to repeat the quiz here, with my comments following.

 
 


What TV show are you most likely to veg out to? Family Ties, I Love Lucy, Mork & Mindy, The Brady Bunch, 90210

The only one of the five I have ever seen is I Love Lucy.

When you think of a classically beautiful woman, you would have to choose: Marilyn Monroe, Cheryl Tiegs, Cindy Crawford, Twiggy, Christy Brinkley

The only one I can see in my mind is Marilyn. On the blogthings home page, there is a picture of Albert Einstein. Mr. E was a boyfriend of Miss Monroe, according to Shelly Winters.

And the coolest guy: Dennis Hopper, John Travolta, Cary Grant, Brad Pitt, David Hasselhoff

You wind up going for the least offensive selection a lot in this quiz. I picked Dennis Hopper, and try to ignore “Blue Velvet”.

What is your pet cause? Fair Trade, Women’s rights, the environment, Peace, Hygiene

Hygiene? I once took a friend to a party, and was reprimanded by the host about his body odor.
As someone who came of age during Vietnam I would say Peace, even though I was late for that party.

Favorite Movie: The Godfather, Casablanca, Say Anything, The Graduate, Forrest Gump

I picked Casablanca. I am shocked, simply shocked, that a manipulative piece of drivel like Forrest Gump is on the list. I only saw part of The Godfather and The Graduate, although Dustin and Mrs. Robinson is on my yardsale video shelf, and I have every intention of seeing it. I have no idea what Say Anything is about.

What type of music do you prefer?: Swing, Alternative, Pop, Oldies, Classic Rock

This is another fuzzy choice. I am not sure what Alternative is, so I picked it. It sounds like something that Fundies would not like.

What’s your ideal first date?: Hanging out at the lastest dance club, all dressed up, skipping the date and going straight to the hookup, dinner and a movie-dutch, taking off to a rock festival, sharing a milkshake and fries at a diner.

I think that is a typo in the first choice. As out of it as I am, lastest may be the hip compliment of choice.
I opt for going DIRECTLY to the hook up.

You’re cruising down the coastal highway…what car are you driving? A bitchin’ Camaro, A classic Caddy, A convertible BMW, A new model VW Beetle, A sweet cherry red Mustang

Good Grief. Just as long as it doesn’t break down on the south side of town. I chose the Camaro, but pass on “bitchin'” as a modifier. It is rather unfair to mama dogs.

What is your favorite comfort food? Meatloaf, Pop Tarts, Mac N Cheese, Red Bull and Vodka, Fondue

I go through phases of missing mom. Bad. She made the best Meatloaf, and it has been 1988 since I ate any. I had knee surgery, and spent a couple of days at the house recovering. She made this meatloaf, which used dried onion soup.

Finally, how was this quiz? All that and a bag of chips, what a trip!, awesome, far out, a total blast.

I sure am glad that is the last question. All of those phrases are tiresome, with the exception of awesome. The use of awesome should be punishable by death.
I don’t remember which one I chose.
Spellcheck suggestions for this feature:
zcbyrnes- byrne, soberness, clearness, barnes
heezgay- wheezy, wheezily, wheeze
mork- cork, dork, pork, fork, work, bork, york, mark, monk, more, mort
Tiegs- ties, tings, tiers
blogthings- playthings, somethings,underclothings, nothings, underthings
Travolta- Voltaire, gigavolt, megavolt, voltage, votaic
Hasselhoff- Tallahassee
Gump- ump, sump, rump, lump. dump, pump hump, dump,grump, gum, gimp, gulp,
Fundies- undies, funnies
camaro- calamari, amrgo, camacho, cameron,

You Belong in 1955

You’re fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold . Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline. When it gets warmer gasoline expands. When you pump in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline plays an important role.

When you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)stages: low, middle, and high. You should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less fuel for your money.

Fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The more gas you have in your tank the less air is occupying the empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you might imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.

If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop , DO NOT fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered. You might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia . Just buy from gas companies that don’t import their oil from the Saudis.

Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill-up the tank, I am sending my money to people who are trying to kill me, my family, and my friends.

I thought it might be interesting for you to know which oil companies import Middle Eastern oil.

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:

Shell…………………….. . 205,742,000 barrels

Chevron/Texaco……… 144,332,000 barrels

Exxon/Mobil…………… 130,082,000 barrels

Marathon/Speedway… 117,740,000 barrels

Amoco……………………….62,231,000 barrels

Citgo gas is from Venezuela.

Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:

Sunoco………………0 barrels

Conoco………………0 barrels

Sinclair………………0 barrels ;

BP/Phillips………….0 barrels

Hess………………….0 barrels

ARC0…………………0 barrels

Here is a video of “Mookie” Sadr discussing events on Al Jazeera. The chat is in Arabic, and I don’t understand a word of it. Gestures and body “English” ( what a chauvinistic phrase) only tell so much.
But then, the more I read about Babylon, the less I know.
Abbas, formerly Iraqi Konfused Kid, supplied the link to the video. He is not impressed by Mr. Sadr.
Abbas is a source of much information about Babylon. Nor is he impressed by Mr. Maliki, the purported president of Iraq.
Mr. Maliki ordered an attack on various militias in South Iraq recently. Apparently he did not achieve the results he wanted. After the militias ignored his suggestion to surrender, someone…possibly Mr. Sadr…proposed another ceasefire. The fog of war has spread across eight time zones and has engulfed America.
The view of Babylon from the Iraqi Blogs is very different from the view from the radio whiners. The phrase “IslamoFascism” is not heard. The idea that we are in Iraq to kill Al Queda before they come to Mayberry to kill Aunt Bee and Opie seems very silly.
Spell Check Suggestions for this feature:
mookie– rookie, cookie, bookie
Jazeera- Gazetteer, peerage, Jeralee, Azerbaijan, steerage
Abbas- abba, abbeys, adabas.
Maliki- Malice, Malibu, malign
blogs- logs, slogs, clogs, flogs, bogs, blobs, blots, blows,
Opie-pie, odie, obie, opine,
sadr- sad

There is power involved in returning letters.
I wrote a bit yesterday about military service, the draft, and the War in Babylon. I sent Mike Gallagher an email about it, since it was a comment on his radio show that inspired the feature.
This morning I got to work a bit early, and checked my email before I got started. There was a message from Mr. Gallagher, which gently corrected me on something I said. (The man was born in 1960, not 1961). This is still too young to worry about Selective Service, but facts are facts.
And I felt a bit better as I started the day.
I have written four radio talkers over the past two years: Gallagher, Neal Boortz, Laura Ingraham, and Michael Medved. Gallagher is the only one to send a reply.
What is puzzling about this is the software that will send an automated answer to an email. It is not always necessary to send a detailed reply, but letting you know that the message was received and that someone will read it would be appreciated.

Before the War in Babylon started, I thought it was important to go on record in opposition. Once the fighting started, it would be a matter of supporting the troops, and I am going to do this. I will support the fighting men and women no matter how ill conceived and executed the battle plan is.

As an aside, I am happy to see these braves folks referred to as men and women. During the Vietnam disaster, there was a lot of “Back our Boys” talk, and that always annoyed me. If you go overseas and face death, you are a man (or woman).

Back to the letter I sent before the invasion. I sent a letter to my representatives in Washington to the effect that the impending invasion of Iraq was not a very good idea.
Zell Miller never sent a reply. Of course, my letter said, ” you were elected to represent me”, and Zig Zag Zell was appointed to fill the term of a Senator who died in office. The Senator…I believe his name was Tysinger…was a Republican, and yet the Democratic Governor of Georgia appointed the Democratic Zell Miller to finish his term. Mr. Miller showed his gratitude by giving the keynote address at the Republican Convention.
Saxby Chambliss sent a reply a few months later. He talked about how important the war was, and what wonderful progress was being made by the troops. I wonder if his staffer even read my letter.
Denise Majette was my representative in the House. She defeated the notorious Cynthia McKinney in November of 2002.
I got a three page letter from Ms. Majette. She said that she essentially agreed with me about the war, but that there was little that could be done about it at that time. She also said that it was important to support the troops once the fighting started.
For some reason, Ms. Majette ran for the Senate, and got badly beaten. Ms. McKinney regained her seat in Congress, to the embarrassment of many.
Cynthia McKinney is another person who does not answer my letters. The fact that I have never written her is not important.

One of the radio whiners was talking about taxes today. ( That sentence could get a lot of use). There was some kind of economist guest, and the consensus was that lower taxes stimulated the economy.
The thought occurred to this reporter…why have taxes at all?
If lower taxes would stimulate the economy, then what about no taxes at all?
Now, I am no economist, but I suspect this would not work. To begin with, we have to pay the interest of the debt we already have.
If we don’t pay this interest, then no one will loan us any more.
Second, we have the War in Babylon to consider. Our Government tried to pay for this war with a tax cut before the invasion. The budget deficit went over 400 billion bucks a year. The economy was stimulated, though, and there was regime change in Baghdad.
Our army was not greeted as liberators, though. However, the tax cut was greeted as a liberator in certain circles here.
It would seem to this slack Georgia Blogger that the issue is not whether or not to have taxes, but how to assess them, and and what rates.
I have written a few times about the “Fair tax”. These can be found hither dither and yon. I think the FT has the potential to work, but there are a lot of doubts remaining. And no, I have not read the book. I did read “Barry” Obama’s speech about race, and feel much the same about it. “The speech”has the potential to work, but there are a lot of doubts remaining. At least Neal Boortz does not talk about his grandmother.
Getting back to the matter of how to set the tax rates. It is a mess. Tax deductions and Tax write offs have produced many jobs and done much good work. The powerhouse economy of the last seventy years has been a product of many factors, with the combination of deficit spending, a print happy federal reserve, and baffling tax laws important components. Should we throw the baby out with the bathwater?
Maybe we can go back to an emphasis on tariffs to raise money. This would have the dual effect of bringing in money and protecting what the industries that have not gone south of the border. Nevermind this was a minor cause of the war between the states.
A tax on the rich would bring in revenue, and is a crowd pleaser at election time. However, some of these people are entrepreneurs who create jobs. Besides, they give political contributions, and are protected. ( Never throw away your dead tree dictionary. I screwed up the spelling of entrepreneur so bad that spell check did not know what I had written)
Maybe we could tax political contributions, and other forms of prostitution. Legalizing certain controlled substances would add to the tax digest.
In short, I don’t have a clue. I am just a slack georgia blogger who doesn’t get campaign contributions.
That’s right, I was talking about tax rates, and I was about to go back on the clock. Gotta go earn some more money, so we can kill terrorists over there before they kill us here.