House Minority Leader (that mean’s he’s a Republican for those keeping score at home) John Boehner was refreshingly candid when talking about the Immigration Bill currently up for a vote.  Speaking to a group of fellow republicans on Tuesday night, the Representative from Ohio said “I promised the President I wouldn’t talk bad about this piece of s***.”

The Bill in question allows for all the people who decided to break into our nation rather than wait in line to stay.

Since Bill promised George I guess he’s not going to make the talk show rounds to say it louder, but it was nice to hear someone who represents the people echo what the people are screaming at the top of their lungs.

Welcome to yet another Sunday Sampler! I’ve actually been working on this one all week long, collecting little tid-bits I’ve found just to bring them to you.

Before we get started though I want to point out that I am now number 3 on google’s search results when searching for my first and last name. Take that all you other Jeremy Hohns out there. Soon I will rule the internet! (Update: I took a closer look. The 2nd result on Google is actually me too, but its not a result for this site.)
With that out of the way:

• The good folks over at the j-walk blog have a parody of a new, fake google service, the Google Content Blocker. While we’re on the subject of google fun, back in 03 during the run up to the war in Iraq the people at albinoblacksheep made a site dogging France.
• I get a lot of pleasure out of looking down on people who park in handicap spots without permits. I always dream of having the power to have their vehicle towed away while they ‘just run in for a minute’. This is a better idea.
• This week was my birthday and my sister T asked me if I received any Lego’s. I didn’t - which is okay. I really don’t have a place to play with Lego’s right now. But she did get me thinking about Legos again so I headed on over to the Lego site to discover they’ve now got Batman themed sets. I will have a Batman Mini Figure if nothing else, thought the Two-Face one really excites me too.
• And finally a question to round out this week’s sampler. When did the word gay stop being an adjective and become a noun. I am speaking of the trend of saying someone is ‘a gay’ instead of just gay. I’ve heard this mostly on NPR but its also come up when speaking to my gay friends. Is PC invading grammar now that it has finished with our vocabulary?

This was a question on Jeopary tonight. It seems rather profound even thirty-four years later.

We will have peace with the Arabs when they will love their children more than they hate us.

- Golda Meir

I was stumbling around the web this evening and came across a blog that wasn’t all that interesting but had a neat flashing link that took me to this site, a Blogger’s Disclaimer. I won’t ask you, my loyal reader(s), to read this entire thing. Instead, I’ll give you some of the best bits and my thoughts.

If you have a real life relationship with the writer, remember that communication is very important. View weblogs as online journals, no less sacred than a diary hidden between the mattresses.

Sorry kids. If you think your blog is as sacred as your diary, you probably need to go back and read up on how the WORLD WIDE WEB works. There is no privacy - you should not expect any.

If they do not want you reading it, or suddenly stop posting entries, ask them why and if necessary, stop going to the site. It is important that as a friend, relative, co-worker or whatever you may be to the writer, that your presence at their weblog not impede their ability to express themselves.

Once again, if you post something on the web, your rights to have any say over who reads it are pretty much gone. If you don’t want your mom reading about what you do alone in your room, best not post it on the web there chum.

Never use anything off a person’s site, be it writing, images or html code, unless they say otherwise. People are very attached to their work and don’t usually respond well when others help themselves to it.

This one I really don’t have an issue with. I just thought it’d be ironic.

Now I am well aware that griping about government waste doesn’t do a bit of good. Our elected leaders really don’t care about their wasteful ways. But when I hear stories of government agencies actually working against each other, I’m more than a little annoyed.

A group of volunteers are in Arizona are fighting against a non-native grass called buffelgrass, going on foot plant to plant and manually uprooting the invasive species. It seems that back in the 1960s it was decided that to control erosion and to provide a hearty crop for cattle they brought some buffelgrass from Africa and set it up to thrive in the American southwest. Seguir leyendo »

There was this girl I went out with for a little while named Diana. Diana was cool as all get out, though I recall few details for some reason. We met at Pellissippi State in Knoxville in the spring of 97. It was an English Composition class, 201 maybe? But I digress.

At the time I was starting to see Diana I had a weird physically platonic, emotionally involved relationship with this girl named Heather. For some unknown reason I was driving up to Ohio to see this girl every few weeks, just to hang out and see the sites. Seguir leyendo »

The United States is the strongest democracy in the world.? The UK would probably have to be second.? In one English neighborhood, their freedoms are under attack.? I found this story on Tongue Tied.? It’s scary.

For a few weeks now, Muslims in the UK have been complaining about and vandalizing billboards in their neighborhoods featuring scantily clad women because the show of skin offends them.

Speaking to the the Indo-Asian News Service, Ahmed Shiekh of the Muslim Association of Britain said the issue is not one of free speech because ?because freedom of speech should end when you offend others.”

For more stories of political correctness run amock, check out Tongue Tied

For the past few years I’ve tried to temper my habit of conservative talk radio with daily visits to CNN.com.? The other day a head link caught my eye.? “The Actor Who Spent Three Months In Bed”? The article was about Javier Bardem, a Spanish actor who is getting some Oscar buzz for his role in “The Sea Inside”.? The film is about a quadriplegic Ramon Sanpedro who fought for his so called, “Right to Die” for some thirty years.

Mr. Bardem goes on for some time about his preparation for the role, then moves on to talk about how he things the American public will receive it.? The last few paragraphs are what got me all worked up.? I’ll quote directly from the article:

Although he is the only Spanish actor ever nominated for an Oscar, Bardem says winning an Academy Award “is not important for me. Not at all. It is more important that bombings stop in Iraq, that United States respect the Kyoto Accord, or that international observers be allowed to Guantanamo.”

“Maybe with this new government, half the country would not want to see it. The half that voted for Bush,” he said. “But honestly, I do not need them to go see it.”

Now I’m all for Mr. Bardem getting to say whatever he wants to say.? But this article, this interview, was not about U.S. politics, it’s not even about Mr. Bardem’s politics, it’s about a movie.

So why did CNN.com feel it appropriate to include his little rant.? Probably because they want to print these little jabs at whatever chance they get.? I promise you if an actor of the opposing view point had made such comments, CNN.com would not have printed it, if they ran any part of the interview at all.

So, I’m off CNN.? Now because I don’t agree with their politics, but because they have politics to disagree with.

Thanksgiving Memories

This year most of my family left town for the Holiday, so it ended up being just my parents and I. We went up to Pigeon Forge (think Vegas, only no gambling, sex, or booze and a lot tackier) to eat. Out first attempt at what I am sure would have been a delightful meal was foiled by a lack of reservations. Out second choice was a buffet style place.

Now I’d been to a Thanksgiving dinner at a buffet resturant before, and it really wasn’t all that crowded. But this place was packed. You waited in line to get in, and then had to get into a longer line to get food. What was most dissapointing, however, was the lack of TURKEY! I got lucky and managed to get the very last portion of what we have to assume was their last bird. It was maybe one o’clock. We left around two, all three of us dissapointed and far from ‘Thanksgiving Full’.

After lunch we went and saw The Incredibles, the new Pixar flick. It was good, but not nearly up to the level of comedy we’ve come to expect from Pixar Studios. All in all, it was an enjoyable day.

I had to work on Friday, so my knowledge of what occured at the malls and retail stores is mostly second hand. On the way to work Friday morning Hallerin Hilton Hill was talking about the crowds. He’d sent one of his people out for batteries at Best Buy and didn’t see him for over two hours. Another of his crew was sent to Khols (or rather went for a family member who couldn’t make it) and said she was in line (that’s IN LINE) to check out for over an hour.

Although working on the day after Thanksgiving sucks, I’m sort of glad I got to miss the madness. We’ve all heard stories about where this leads. The old ladies fighting over Cabbage Patch dolls, the lady biting the kid for the Furby. Insanity.

Christmas has always been about shopping, at least in it’s modern form. From the time we’re little children we’re asked what we want for Christmas, and those who were lucky would actually get it. (I remember one Christmas very vivadly where I recieved more G.I. Joe merchandise than I’d ever dreamed possible.)

As for Thanksgiving, I’m scared it’s too far gone. We may have to let Wal-Mark have it. But there are other holidays that are being moved in on, and it’s not too late to stop them.

Check back for more information on the threats your favorite minor holiday may be under.