My Sick Mind

As a child (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) I remember the local gas station selling petrol for 29 cents a gallon. Actually, it was 29.9 cents per gallon, which is where this little rant is going. Now that gasoline costs more than crack, I think it's time to do away with the point nine cents at the end of the price. Here's a little exercise for you to try the next time you're drunk and/or pissed off: Go to your local filling station and ask for a gallon of gasoline. When you pay for it, ask for your point one cent change. Watch and learn. I know the psychology of the 99-cents at the end of every price. $1.99, $5.99 ... it makes you think it's a dollar less than you're actually paying. But that's OK, if you're stupid enough to think that $5.99 isn't six dollars, you deserve to be ripped off. At least the penny is an actual unit of measure. I haven't seen a Point Nine-cent piece, unless the mint is making sets and keeping it to themselves. Do y...

This is another of those times when I realize I've spewed out just about every thought that has come across my [sick] mind. I realized it when I was thinking up an essay on the NFL draft, and suddenly (beer inspired) realized that I had already done one . Click on the link and change the date. Like all of this junk, it's inspired thought. Wesley Snipes just got three years in prison for tax evasion. That sounds like a phyrric victory for the Federal government. If he's in prison, he won't be paying taxes, so they're out for 36 months. The judge said that he was "making an example" out of Snipes by giving him a harsh sentence. Isn't justice supposed to be blind? This is a nation of laws, not a nation of men and no one, no matter how rich or famous, should be made an example of. We were all created equally, according to that Declaration paper. I think the judge should be removed of his duties. Let's make an example of him. There has been a big drop...

Wendell: It's a mess, ain't it, sheriff? Ed Tom Bell : If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here. - "No Country for Old Men" Today , I'm more sure than ever that this Democrat race for the White House is going to be a giant mess. As we have seen in past elections, there is a difference between the delegate count and the popular vote. Popular vote can be translated to "what the people want", and we all know what happens to what the people want. We have at least two sets of numbers working, and maybe three if you count political spin... This is the delegate count: Obama - 1724 Clinton - 1593 A candidate needs 2024 to get the nomination. This is the popular vote count: Obama - 14.4 million Clinton - 13.9 million or Clinton - 15.1 million Obama - 15 million Or? There's an or , folks. There's always an or. Clinton is including Michigan and Florida , primaries she won after all the candidates agreed to boycott the states for holding votes...

"Some people ... said to drop out," she said, "but the American people don't quit, and they deserve a president who doesn't quit either." - Hillary Clinton after her victory in the Pennsylvania Primary last night. The problem is that the American people may not be deciding whom the Democrat nominee will be. After her victory in Pennsylvania yesterday, Hillary has 1,557 delegates, trailing Barack Obama by only 140 with North Carolina and Indiana voting on May 6. The bigger problem is that Hillary seems determined to carry this fight to the convention in Denver in August. That's a problem because there are still 245 so-called Super Delegates who are currently undecided. What that will amount to is a lot of arm-twisting and deal-making to insure that they decide one way or the other. Should Hillary still be trailing in the popular vote and the delegate count as she is today, a significant amount of political wrangling could bring her the nomination. That...

Today is Earth Day . I don't know. It strikes me as being a little like Valentine's Day. One of those days where we are supposed to do something nice for someone that we should be doing nice things for all of the time, but we forget. Anyone who stops here regularly knows how I feel about a myriad of subjects vis-a-vie the Earth . I hate excess packaging , gas-guzzling wasteful vehicles and anything that spews smoke into the air or dribbles seepage into the ground. It's pretty simple, really. It will even rile me to see someone throw a cigarette butt out the window of their car. I see that just about every day, so you know how often I get riled. Earth Day was founded by John McConnell in 1969. It's a day set aside to remind us that the Earth is a fragile place and we're supposed to treat it as such. Good luck. I stopped at the grocery store (another of my favorite places ) yesterday. I needed two things. A salad for dinner and soap for my morning shower . Be...

Fortune magazine just released the latest Fortune 500 . The top 10 is dominated by big oil, credit cards and automobiles. Happy Earth Day. 1. Wal-Mart Stores 2. Exxon Mobil 3. Chevron 4. General Motors 5. ConocoPhillips 6. General Electric 7. Ford Motor 8. Citigroup 9. Bank of America Corp. 10. AT&T Evil empire Wal-Mart is at the top. For all the whining I hear about their unfair labor practices and the various lawsuits filed against them, one thing remains constant: We like low prices. So much so that we're willing to overlook some labor injustice because toilet paper is twelve cents a roll. That's why I don't get too worked up over such nonsense. The reason the prices are so low is because they (a) don't pay high salaries and (b) don't waste money on benefits for their workers. When I stop seeing them at the top of these lists I'll start thinking that people are finally paying attention. Meanwhile, my conscience is clear because I don't shop...

These "Car-free Sunday's" are getting easier to take, now that the price of unleaded regular (is there a leaded regular?) is close to $3.30 a gallon here in the Garden State. It helps that ( a ) we had a nice weather day and ( b ) I had no particular place to go. That'll save money all around. Yesterday's wedding took its toll on me emotionally. For a while, I can keep up the facade, but eventually the idea that I'm at a social event alone wears on me. It seemed like I was there for a lifetime, but I found myself out the door and in my car by 9:15 - shortly after finishing dinner and watching the dance floor fill. I'm not a dancer and don't understand the need to do it, so at a function like that I'm left in the chair looking a little like a potted plant. It doesn't take long for that to wear me down and I find myself quietly slinking out the door, figuring that the alternative is being a drag on the event and (more importantly) on myself. A...