Given that the French are being such a royal pain in the arse, is it unpatriotic to like some French music?

Ah, who cares.  They have to have some redeeming qualities, right?

I know that war is supposed to be a deadly serious business and all, but sometimes a bit of humor is called for.  Kim du Toit brings us this gem from one of his readers:

“Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion.”

Has anyone besides me noticed an increase in meanspiritedness in commercials of late?  I know that businesses have been more cutthroat in their advertising with regards to each other, but it seems to be spreading out from the competitor to other entities now.

As an example, there was a recent Compass Bank ad series (I think it was them, it’s been a week or two since I heard this one) that was touting the result that 98 percent of their customers would recommend their bank to someone else.  That’s an impressive result (if true), but they seemed to feel that it wasn’t enough.  The whole point of this series of commercials was to disparage the “2 percenters” as nuts.  The one that I remember most was one where they asked the lady why she wouldn’t recommend them and her reply was that if she did then people would constantly be asking her for advice.  The commercial, at least on its surface, was treated in a humorous fashion.  Maybe I’m being over sensitive here, but it came across the wrong way to me.

A second example (which is what prompted this entry) was some commercial on TV where they said that “4 out of 5 dentists” would recommend their product (I don’t remember what it is right now).  Once again, they tried to be humorous about it, with a skit where one dentist was swatting a fly with a clipboard, hitting the last one, causing him to pass out and hit the “No” button.  Even so, it still came across as mean-spirited.  It also comes across to me that the company isn’t secure in its use of “statistics.”  It’s like they feel some need to explain away any and all possible dissent (i.e. there can’t be anything wrong with our product; there must be something wrong with the person who didn’t like it).

Damn, and I liked Janeane Garofalo.  I always liked her smart-ass attitude.  But then I guess I hadn’t been paying attention to her politics. 

This idiotarian parade just keeps marching on and the celebrities are dropping like flies.  If this keeps up I won’t have any movies or music left.  Bah.  I guess I’ll have to read more (provided there are any authors left as well).

I’m beginning to wonder if this foul contagion that has settled upon me might be more than a cold.  I’ve been alternating between hot and cold, but not yet to the level of chills (*crosses fingers*).  Maybe it’s just a really mean cold virus.  Anyway, it has addled my brain to the point of near uselessness, leaving me little interest in writing blog entries.  However, I have been reading other sites and I have a few thoughts left.

First, Rachel Lucas opened a can of worms by commenting on homosexuality, HIV, and the Thacker nomination.  The thread is currently up to 108 comments.  One thing that distressed Rachel (and me as well) was the number of people who seem to think that quoting the Bible is sufficient to end debate on the subject.  For me and Rachel and many other people the Bible is simply a book.  I certainly don’t have a problem with people who wish to base their lives on its teachings, but I do take umbrage and exception when they try to apply it to the rest of us.  I have had a number of gay and lesbian friends over the years.  From conversations with them I can only conclude that homosexuality is inborn in most cases.  There are cases where people make a choice—this was the case with one lesbian I used to know who was raped as a teenager.  Regardless, though, this does not prove the argument that all gays are that way by choice.  When confronted with an argument from someone that all homosexuality is by choice and the statements from actual homosexuals who always knew that they were that way from their earliest recollections, I tend to believe the gay person.

On another topic, I was glad to see this.  Those damn fools at DARPA shouldn’t even have considered something as outrageously unconstitutional as Total Information Awareness.  Let’s hope the House goes along and nips this in the bud.

Finally, I thought the “Axis of Weasels” was hilarious.  It’s a good thing I wasn’t drinking anything at the time.

I went to the range tonight, despite this damn cold.  The range I usually go to is the one at Bass Pro Shops in Grapevine.  Because of safety concerns they can’t connect the range to the store’s heating and cooling system.  Instead, they have large fans pulling in outside air and filtering it before sending it back out.  Once a month or so they replace the filters, which makes the inner door nearly impossible to open (the range has an “airlock” to isolate the people outside from noise and contamination; the range is built so that air is pulled in, but the inner door opens out).  I mention all this to point out that my entire range session was spent in a 40F room with an annoying draft (I suspect that the range qualifies for a windchill reading).  Of course, if it were summer I’d be complaining about the heat.  I went in there one day last summer when it was 99F outside and I thought I was going to die.  I spent half the time cleaning my shooting glasses because they kept fogging.

As a public service I should let people know that applying Carmex while chewing Orbit gum is a dangerous experience (yeah, I know you’re not supposed to get it in your mouth, but sometimes you forget and lick your lips).

Listening to Mozart’s Requiem right now.  I think that my favorite movements are Dies Irae and Confutatis.  Maybe.  I have a hard time choosing.  I’ve been known to put the whole thing on repeat for a couple of hours.

Final note: Still under viral attack.  Considering calling in heavy weapons (Nyquil).

Went to the video store across the street from UNT to see if there was anything worth renting.  At this time of year the place gets picked over by the incoming horde of college students, but I still like this little video store better than Blockbuster.  Our local Blockbuster is located inside the Wal-Mart super center.  Getting in and out of the Wal-Mart parking lot on a Saturday afternoon is an exercise in creative avoidance.  Given my misanthropic tendencies, it’s best to avoid such antics.

I selected Big Trouble and made my way to the counter.  The clerk, a young woman of 21 or 22 (she had an “Over 21” stamp on her hand from some club but she couldn’t be much over 21), was in the back room watching a video when I approached.  I don’t think that she realized that the screen was visible from the counter, since I caught a glimpse of a hardcore porno movie before she turned it off.  I didn’t say anything about it, although I couldn’t keep a smirk off my face.  At this point I think she realized that she’d been BUSTED.  Oh well, I’m not a prude about such things.  More power to her if she wants to watch a dirty movie.  For some reason it just amused me.

Unfortunately, my amusement was short-lived.  I stopped at a local barbecue place for some lunch.  When I came out someone had thrown a bottle of milk at my truck, splashing the passenger side.  I wish I knew who had done it.  My first impulse would be to shove that bottle so far up their ass that they’d be sneezing milk for a week.  Unfortunately, all those annoying “assault” laws would get in the way (and it’s also best to avoid conflict when armed).

Bleh.  That seems to be a pattern for my life.  Whenever I find myself in a good mood about my fellow man, some goon comes along and reconfirms my latent misanthropy.

I finally dragged my sorry self home sometime around 4:45 this morning.  I didn’t get stinking drunk, having put that behind me in my college days (*).  Although I wonder what is it about champagne that immediately sends the effects of it rushing to your head?  I had two glasses at midnight and it took me about an hour to shake it off.  I quit drinking at that point, so by the time I left (somewhere around 4:15) I was stone sober.  But it doesn’t really seem to matter.  I still felt like something that crawled out of the bottom of a particularly slimy stock tank when I finally got up.  I guess I’m not cut out for this night owl business anymore.  Bleh.

However, a bit of breakfast (or maybe that was lunch), some Tylenol and some techno (hat-tip to Instapundit for this one) and I’m starting to return to the land of the living.

* A few weeks after I turned 21 I suffered a burst appendix (complete with a really nasty post-op infection).  After that, I lost my tolerance for alcohol, which had been quite formidable.  I doubt there’s a direct medical explanation, but that’s what happened.  Of course, I guess that makes me a cheap drunk now .

Today I went to the range and shot the Kimber and the Browning.  Of course this means that I had to clean them.  My usual cleaning routine is to spread everything out on the coffee table and halfway watch TV while I’m doing it.  Maybe that’s why it takes me so long (that and being anal-retentive about getting every last bit of junk out of the gun).

Tonight I was watching the Discovery Channel, which was running a piece with the title Changing Sexes: Male to Female.  They examined a number of factors involved with male to female transsexuals.  The show reminded me of something I’ve always wondered about.  Why do some people get so upset about this?  I know that there are some people out there who object to damn near everything that makes anyone else happy, but I’ve never comprehended their arguments.  I guess for me it all comes down to this:  Are they harming anyone else?  If not, who the hell are we to interfere?

They also noted that transsexuals are sometimes attacked because of who they are.  Since I was holding a gun at the time (albeit one that was disassembled), I thought about the virtues of armed self-defense.  Unfortunately, the person being profiled lives in San Francisco in the wonderful People’s Republik of Kalifornia, where she’ll be treated like a criminal for carrying a gun to protect herself.  That’s too bad.  Bashing should be a Darwinian experience.  For the basher.

I just saw Enemy At The Gates (thanks, Tivo).  I don’t know why I’d never gotten around to seeing it before.  It amazes me at times just how tenacious the Russians were and just how close they came to defeat.  I thought that the movie was well done if a bit bloody (although it wasn’t nearly as bloody as Saving Private Ryan).  It kept my attention throughout, despite knowing the ultimate outcome.

Oh, and one more thing: Rachel Weisz.  ‘Nuff said.