My Sick Mind

I'm not sure where these Tea Party people came from, but they seem to have found a voice in conservative TV host Glenn Beck and professional embarrassment Sarah Palin, who both appeared at a recent gathering of followers in Washington, D.C. Here is a quote from Beck, who seems to have forgotten the years 2000 to 2008. "This is the day we can start the hearts of Americans again, and it has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with God," Beck told the crowd estimated at anywhere from tens of thousands to 500,000 . Oh boy. There's the God thing again. As though God has among his priorities establishing politics in America. How big an ego does somebody have to have in order for that to make sense to them? God will watch over me because I'm so much better than anybody else. Those are dangerous thoughts. "For too long, this country has wandered in darkness, and we have wandered in darkness in periods from the beginning," Beck said, at times pac...

As if you were interested, I'm typing this into Microsoft Word while watching a Phillies game on the TV. I can do that because Word 2007 links documents into ones blog, complete with spell check, although I think Pearalo isn't on the list. I giggled (quietly) to myself as yet another trip to the grocery store tonight was accompanied by the exact description I left of Thursday night's trip. Complete with the "I Love Lucy" product bunch-up at the end and the "thanks for bagging" finale. Art imitates life. I've been reading a lot about the Kindle , Amazon's electronic reading device. I'm a gadget guy, and if money was no object (which it always is) I'd have every iPhone and i-Thing that comes down the pike. I'd guess there are a lot of gadget-guy types, since the latest iPhone version brought about the same long queues that the original iPhone did, a scant year earlier. We're never satisfied when it comes to technology. Anyway ,...

As regular (or irregular) readers know, I enjoy my trips to the grocery store. It's nearby, and provides a nice walk and time to contemplate life and ... groceries. I'd hate to go so far as to say that the grocery store is my muse, but judging by some of the content, I'd say the end justifies the means. Anyway, one thing I noticed was that the cashiers do significantly less work than they used to. When I was a kid, they had to actually read the price tag on an item and punch the numbers into a cash register. As shoppers, we had to separate the taxable items from the non-taxable items, and the cashiers had to know which was which. Generally, there was a kid at the end of the line who put the items in a paper bag and another one who would walk out and help you put your groceries in your car. Now, all the cashiers do is drag the item over a scanner and drop it on that secondary conveyor belt, which transports it to a place that is out of my reach. The reason I have to reach...

Gee, all I need to get a $500 Apple gift card is $150,000! (or more) How can I possibly resist this incredible offer? It was all I could do to keep from clicking on the "Get Started" button, until I realized ... In a related story, I read that McMansion's are on the outs , as home buyers no longer consider them ... practical, and they aren't selling. Duh. In a recent poll, only 9% of Americans said they want to live in a home of more than 3,200 square feet. That's a 50' x 64' house. The real tragedy comes when they squeeze a 64' home onto a 100' wide lot. So much for privacy. I'd guess that what they really don't want are the high property taxes and air conditioning bills. Most of them probably have a big enough E-Trade account to get a $500 Apple gift card, so they can use the extra money for their monthly iPhone bill. It all goes somewhere. Speaking of big, I pulled into the local McDonald's (not nearly as big as a McMansion) bec...