Unconnected thoughts and observations which don\u2019t rate separate blog posts, but when aggregated together might just amount to something:<\/p>\n
Much was made of Stephen Colbert’s rescue of the US Olympic speed skating team, and the Colbert Nation patches<\/a> they were wearing in practice.\u00a0 Has anyone seen a US speed skater wearing one in the Vancouver Winter Olympics so far?\u00a0 I think NBC is hiding them; either that or Olympic officials are forcing team members not to wear them.<\/p>\n Speaking of NBC’s Winter Olympics coverage, could it be any worse<\/a>?\u00a0 Sadly, it could . . . they could totally show only events with US athletes in them, or continue to jack off over the video clip of the Georgian luger getting killed, or gloat even more than they already have over Lindsey Jacobellis’ fall in the snowboard cross (oh well, at least now they have a newer video to show over & over than the one from the Torino Winter Olympics in 2006).\u00a0 Hurry up, internet TV, we’re starving out here!<\/p>\n A few months ago one of my sisters, no doubt suffering from an overdose of Fox News and AM talk radio, posted something on Facebook about taking pride in “white culture.”\u00a0\u00a0 Such talk makes my skin crawl, because Nazis & the KKK are always behind it. I reminded her that US culture, and for sure everything we learned in school in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, was<\/em> white culture, and that to this day 90% of what you learn in school, see on TV, hear on the radio, or read is still<\/em> white culture.\u00a0 I should also have said, “Just wait a few months for the Winter Olympics and you’ll get all the white you can stand,” but I didn’t think of it then.\u00a0 Okay, enough about the damn Olympics already.<\/p>\n Is it just me, or are Facebook phishing scams growing exponentially?\u00a0 Lately, there’s been an onslaught of news feed advertising for Facebook fan pages making improbable promises.\u00a0 They’ll restore your home page to an earlier version.\u00a0 They’ll tell you who’s looking at your profile.\u00a0 They’ll grant you free access to “premium membership” (psst . . . there’s no such thing, peeps).\u00a0 The fan pages all have this in common: I’ve been wrestling with the notion of being both a gun owner and a card-carrying ACLU member.\u00a0 A friend recently told me he was a big supporter of the Second Amendment.\u00a0 I responded that I’m a big supporter of all the amendments . . . and now that I think about it, that’s the answer to my moral conundrum.\u00a0 I’m finally at peace with myself.<\/p>\n It’s time for an update on my venture into activism<\/a>. Quick summary: I sent a letter to the USAF chief of staff protesting the airing of Fox News on public area televisions on Air Force bases and the broadcasting of Rush Limbaugh on Armed Forces Radio to US troops overseas.\u00a0 I never got a response, so I asked my congressional representatives for assistance.\u00a0 My congresswoman, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, took this on and sent a follow-on inquiry to USAF Chief of Staff General Schwartz.\u00a0 Now that my letter’s turned into what the brass calls “a congressional,” I’ll at least get an answer . . . no idea when, but it’ll happen.\u00a0 By the way, neither of my senators, John McCain nor John Kyl, saw fit to acknowledge my letter.\u00a0 Guess they’re too busy counting corporate donations.<\/p>\n Caught a few moments of Rachel Maddow’s show<\/a> last night during Winter Olympics commercial breaks.\u00a0 Rachel’s great strength is her investigative reporting, particularly her uncovering of the corporate sponsors behind anti-health care reform groups, the Teabaggers, and the Republican and Democratic senators who’ve been working together to block legislation.\u00a0 But now it seems her producers want to jack up ratings by introducing personal feuds, \u00e0 la<\/em> Keith Olbermann & Bill O’Reilly on Countdown<\/em>.\u00a0 Big mistake, Rachel.\u00a0 Please don’t go there.\u00a0 You can’t win fights with the likes of Glenn Beck.\u00a0 It’s like wrestling with a pig . . . you both get covered in shit, and the pig likes it.<\/p>\n There’s a church down the road called “The Cool Church.”\u00a0 If you have to say you’re cool, you’re not.<\/p>\n Our pool<\/a> is done.\u00a0 We hired an unlicensed contractor to do the work . . . the licensed guys were way more expensive, they wanted to sub out a critical part of the work, and if we’d gone with them we’d probably be only halfway through the job by now.\u00a0 Yes, we vetted the unlicensed crew first, looking at several local pools they’ve refurbished.\u00a0 It’s beautiful, and we can’t wait to start using it again.\u00a0 Some pix (click to enlarge):
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\nIf you haven’t learned how to spot scams & phishing attempts by now, I suppose you deserve everything you get. I know the owners of Facebook would like to figure out a way to make money off their universally-popular concept, but if this is the way they’re going to do it Facebook will be the next AOL, a has-been backwater populated with oldsters and small-brainers.<\/p>\n
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