http://2010rapture.org/thedayandhour.html

I guess you didn’t notice either….so that must mean that we’re all left here to fight…right?

Why does no one call these crazies out about this stupid shit. I mean really.

I wonder if these people are crazy enough to think that maybe they didn’t do everything they were supposed to, and therefore they were “Left Behind” as well.

Oh wait…there’s a disclaimer at the bottom of the page:

“This web site looks for the best scenario of the coming time in light of the Bible and history. It is not an absolute prediction.”

Damn. And I was all about to buy his book…a little late I know…but still, maybe he was off by a year.

If i thought I could sell a few books, I’d be registering all the domain names possible: 2011Rapture, 2012Rapture, 2013Rapture…i mean…eventually he’ll be right, except it won’t be the rapture…it will be the big damn asteroid or comet that ploughs into the earth in a couple of hundred-thousand years. But who’ll be laughing then….well…not him….but his great great great great great great great great <you get the picture> grandson who is still running and updating the website.

Loser.

The full article is posted here.

I can’t do it much more justice than the article itself, but the fact that Fox and Republicans can convince people to vote against their own interests astounds me more every day.

I am constantly shocked by Right-wingers ……

who carry signs that read “keep government out of medicare” (a government program)….

who advocate for personal freedoms and smaller government EXCEPT in the cases of personal choices like woman’s right to choose, when they somehow argue for more government inside our bodies…..

who believe that homosexuality is a choice and still are against it, all the while fighting for their own rights to live freely as they choose…..

who are steadfast in the claim that the country should get back to the constitution, and do exactly what it says, EXCEPT when it comes to the amendments that grant birthright citizenship, all the while refusing to acknowledge that the right to bear arms was not in the original constitution…hence the word AMENDMENT….

who regularly claim that this country is and always was a Christian nation, but refuse to admit that they don’t believe in their neighbor’s flavor of Christianity when it suits them….whether it be Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox (thanks Wikipedia)….

who will willfully ignore the fact that the current democratic administration has lowered taxes on them more than George W. Bush, while rallying as part of a Tea Party to lower taxes, all with the idea that “when I become rich, I won’t want to pay that much tax,” …. which ends up keeping people in poverty and widens the income gap even more.

Like i said…it makes me crazy.

Someone made a few tshirts that sum up a couple of good points too:

The one on the left is a little bit far…but replace the word “homeless” with the words “animals from a plane” and you’ve got an accurate slogan there too.

takeoff from cole rise on Vimeo.

I mean…we can all look out the window, but this is a really good angle. (It gets good around 45 seconds in).

Wait…that’s not the coolest video i found today:

Bluegrass cover of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl”

Although it’s a little weird with a guy singing it, considering it’s supposed to be about the taboo of a girl kissing a girl…..but at least the audience enjoys the humor.

Peoplewill say they found one, and it turns out to be a gyro, or a shawarma….which is sacrilege to compare to a doner kebab.

Here’s a picture of one, and although it might look familiar to you, and you’ll be tempted to compare to other wrapped foods (burritos, gyro, shawarma etc), it would be a mistake to do so.

I’m not kidding when I say I would go abck to eating meat in a second if i had a Doner Kebab in front of me right now. I would drive to Charlotte on the weekends to get one, if they had them in Charlotte. But they don’t.

The only place in America that I’ve had one, was a block from Times Square when Melody and I were there in 2004.

So my search for one closer to home continues.

The schedule got off to a rocky start, with me sleeping in a little longer than I intended, but it was really nice to wake up naturally instead of to an alarm at 6am (which is my typical routine during the work week).

I did get a lot of cleaning and dishes done though before heading over to Garrison’s to watch a couple of movies. On the agenda were “Drag Me to Hell” and “The Collector.” Both movies were just weird. Not awful, not great, but weird. But….the reason for watching with Garrison was accomplished: Melody won’t watch scary movies like that, so i’ll take the opportunity to watch with someone else.

After that, we headed out to Zebulon (we being Garrison, Amy, Cameron and I) to play Disc Golf. It was a beautiful day too…with the temperature sitting around 85 I’m guessing. I didn’t check, because it was so nice for once that I didn’t think about the temperature all that much. The course at Zebulon was nice too. Really long (a couple of holes were over 600 feet from tee to hole), but pretty well laid out. There were a couple of really open holes too, which is good for me, because I can’t really throw accurately…or far for that matter. But given enough space, I can throw one or two good discs per 4 or 5 throws

I scored a 83, which I’m pretty happy with. The course was a par 57 or 58…i think….which puts me at about 25 over. Not quite bogey golf, but not close to double bogey.

It was a really nice day to be outside. I’m hoping tomorrow is just as nice. I need to mow the lawn in a few spots….but only after I check for snakes, alligators, and small elephants. The grass is really that tall

The schedule got off to a rocky start, with me sleeping in a little longer than I intended, but it was really nice to wake up naturally instead of to an alarm at 6am (which is my typical routine during the work week).

I did get a lot of cleaning and dishes done though before heading over to Garrison’s to watch a couple of movies. On the agenda were “Drag Me to Hell” and “The Collector.” Both movies were just weird. Not awful, not great, but weird. But….the reason for watching with Garrison was accomplished: Melody won’t watch scary movies like that, so i’ll take the opportunity to watch with someone else.

After that, we headed out to Zebulon (we being Garrison, Amy, Cameron and I) to play Disc Golf. It was a beautiful day too…with the temperature sitting around 85 I’m guessing. I didn’t check, because it was so nice for once that I didn’t think about the temperature all that much. The course at Zebulon was nice too. Really long (a couple of holes were over 600 feet from tee to hole), but pretty well laid out. There were a couple of really open holes too, which is good for me, because I can’t really throw accurately…or far for that matter. But given enough space, I can throw one or two good discs per 4 or 5 throws

I scored a 83, which I’m pretty happy with. The course was a par 57 or 58…i think….which puts me at about 25 over. Not quite bogey golf, but not close to double bogey.

It was a really nice day to be outside. I’m hoping tomorrow is just as nice. I need to mow the lawn in a few spots….but only after I check for snakes, alligators, and small elephants. The grass is really that tall

awesome. nuff said.

I say that up front, because when you watch the video below, you’ll wonder how the hell this person could get elected to the president of a Home School PTA, let alone elected to Governor of a State.

Now…anyone could freeze on camera. It could happen to anyone. What’s so shocking to me though, is that this is a politician who is ahead in the polls, who has gone head to head with the federal government over immigration reform, and who is reported to be a strong candidate.

Unfortunately for her, this shows her to be just another talking head, who reverts to party-line talking points when she cant remember her prepared remarks.

I always wonder, in a debate, why you need prepared remarks, especially for the opening statement. It would seem like you could introduce yourself, your platform, and get all that from memory. If it’s too hard to remember what your position is on things, or too hard to remember your prepared remarks, maybe you don’t really believe in them in the first place.

On the flip side though, when startled, and she realizes that she’s forgotten everything, she reverts to the talking points routinely heard on Fox News and Right Wing conservative talk radio….

“we cut the budget…we balanced the budget” — ummm….was that before you accepted stimulus money from the federal government, when you railed against wasteful spending? or after you accepted federal stimulus money, and posted “stimulus spotlight” stories on your www.az.gov website?

“we pushed back against the federal government, we filed suit against Obama Healthcare...” — oh…you mean the healthcare reform bill that was passed that you gave no alternative for? You mean the one that attempts to give healthcare to everyone, for as cheap as possible, while you still argue that we should leave healthcare as a “for profit” industry, where decision are made based on profit margins, rather than health? That one?

“we passed senate bill 1070” — oh…the one where you get to racially profile people to determine if they are in the country legally? The same one that has a training video that states that even if racial profiling is happening already, there’s just more of a spotlight on it now, so be more careful when you racially profile? The same one where it’s explained that in order to NOT racially profile, you look for things like: “people in vehicles riding in tandem, vehicles that are overloaded, people being very nervous, not talking to you, no eye contact.”

So….basically if you’re riding with someone in a car, you could be here illegally. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of white guys riding in tandem being pulled over and asked to prove they are here in the country legally.

She provides good cannon-fodder and good belly laughs, but at the end of the day, I can’t believe that she’s in charge of several million people in that state. If she shuts down in front of a camera during her prepared remarks, then how good can she be at having intense policy discussions that affect the lives of everyone in Arizona. Or…maybe she just waits for the talking points to be delivered on the radio each morning before she’s ready to actually speak. Maybe that day was a re-run day and she didn’t know what Rush or Hannity or Rove wanted her to say just yet.

Facepalm.

Oh yeah….the day after this event, she said that she won’t be doing any more debates. She says “I don’t believe that things come out in proper context in an adversarial atmosphere.”

Yeah…i might say the same thing if i just saw my political career reduced to a youtube clip that made it’s away around the internet faster than double-rainbow. Funny though….I didn’t see any adversarial atmosphere…unless you count her versus facts and reality.

My parents had come to visit for a few weeks, and we took them out to breakfast before their flight. We ate at the Flying Biscuit Cafe in Raleigh (Cameron Village). I had the Flying Eggs Benedict, which is an open faced English Muffin topped with two awesomely sunny-side-up eggs, canadian bacon, and moon-dusted potatoes on the side. I’m a big fan of bacon. I was back then. I still am now. I just haven’t eaten it since then.

I don’t really know why, but at lunch time that day, I decided that I would try going vegetarian for a while. My goal was a month. Melody is and has been a vegetarian for 5.5 years now. She stopped eating meat sometime in the middle of 2005.

To clarify, we don’t eat any food with a face, or any food that had a mother. I had to include that 2nd stipulation due to mussels, oysters etc. That means no beef, pork, chicken, fish, lamb, venison, goat, alligator, kangaroo….you get the gist.

So, I stopped eating meat originally because i thought it would be easier on our shopping and cooking processes. Melody doesn’t eat meat, so therefore everything we cook at home was pretty much vegetarian already. If the dish allowed for it, I would have meat cooked separately, and then i’d add it in afterwards. But, if we went out for dinner, or if i bought lunch, I would eat meat then too. So…basically I was a home-vegetarian, and away-from-home omnivore.

My ulterior motive was to lose some weight. I’ll give the ending away now and say that didn’t work out as a bonus result from this dietary choice. Having said that though, I do feel like i eat a whole lot more healthily than i did prior to this past year. I make better choices at lunch even though there’s only a minuscule benefit gained from cheese pizza as opposed to pepperoni pizza.

My biggest problem causing the lack of weight loss, is that I have not been exercising as much as i should be. Maybe if i still ate meat, I would be even heavier than I am now. That’s a scary thought. Moving on….quickly.

The biggest benefit over the past year is that I’ve begrudgingly become a much less picky eater. Melody will attest that I still have a really long way to go, but I am much more apt to choose pasta now, or some other vegetable dish than what I previously would have. One of my favorite meals now, is a pasta with a sauce that melody makes from mushrooms, garlic, wine, cream, and other things that make it into awesome-sauce. I would have requested or made a meat portion for that type of dish previously, which I now know is not necessary.

I am very surprised that I made it a year. Anyone who knew me before then would be very surprised too….which was proven when i met up with friends in April who i haven’t seen in a few years. They couldn’t believe that I…Nick Young….had not eaten meat in 8 months. It’s probably even more surprising to them that I made it another 4 to round out the year.

I don’t know where I’ll go from here. I have toyed with the idea of going back to meat….and I’m sure I will one day. But i don’t think I will just yet. It’s much easier at home when we eat the exact same thing (or close to it). And I know that if i go back to eating meat, i’ll be tempted by the cheesesteak and burger places that are about 70 yards from my office building. At least if im still vegetarian, I have a distinct intestinal reason to stay away from those places.

I have also toyed with the idea of going off soda for as long as possible too. I think i’m going to do this one…although with me not drinking beer or wine, when I go out for a drink, I don’t really want to relegate myself to drinking straight liquor….i’ll need a mixer in there on those occasions. But i think i’ll give up soda for 99% of occasions, and that’s got to be a good thing. I think the last statistic i saw said that the average american drinks the caloric equivalent of 13 pounds per year of soda. That could easily account for my weight gain since college on it’s own.

The documentary “Food Inc.” gave me more resolve to stick to this dietary choice, as it’s very difficult to watch millions of animals get slaughtered so inhumanely, and be drenched in chemicals, antibiotics and preservatives just so they can be shipped to my dinner table. There are responsible ways to consume meat, but typically people aren’t using them. Most people are buying commodity meats that come from massive feed lots, factory farms, and run the risk of outbreaks of salmonella and who knows what else. Just 2 weeks ago, there was another food recall of over a billion eggs…yeah…a billion…with a B….due to salmonella poisoning that could be traced back to 2 farms. The fact that we still call a place a “farm” when it produces that many eggs….that tells you what state our food industry is in. Everything is based on quantity…not quality.

Anyway…before i continue on that rant about food safety, organic farming and all that good stuff (which is separate to my recent vegetarianism)….i’ll get back to my original subject.

I still like the smell, and can still imagine the taste of the meats I used to enjoy. Bacon, Pork, Ham, Canadian Bacon…and the magical animal it comes from…….beef, venison, chicken….i love them all.

When I pointed out to Melody that it had been a year…her response was to hold up 5 fingers…..demonstrating to me that she isn’t all that impressed with my feat of non-meat. She’s been without it so long…a year seems like nothing to her.

I cannot picture being old, grey, and not having had a steak in 40 years….so that tells me that i’ll go back to eating it at some stage.

It might be soon. It might not be. Right now, I’m happy not eating meat.

It’s been a challenge, and I can’t remember ever going this long without anything (that I like). If for no other reason, it’s been a triumph of will power. I’m happy with myself for getting this far. But now that I’m here, I’m not sure where to go next.

The only reason to devote blog space to this moron, is to point out how damaging he is to the public discourse. Here’s a glenn beck quote generator that i stumbled upon:

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/bl-glenn-beck-quotes.htm?PS=171%3A12

Some of my favorites are:

”I have been nervous about this interview with you because what I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies. … And I know you’re not. I’m not accusing you of being an enemy, but that’s the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.” —Glenn Beck, interviewing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim U.S. congressman, Glenn Beck’s show on CNN’s Headline News, Nov. 14, 2006

”If you log onto this (Cars.gov) at your home, everything in your home is now theirs.” —Glenn Beck, arguing that the Cash for Clunkers program was nothing more than a secret government plot to gain access over your computer, July 2009

”I haven’t seen Jesus and what he would do on a talk show on Fox, but I’m going to try.” —Glenn Beck, FOX News Channel’s Glenn Beck show, April 21, 2010