Since 2007; Reviews, Comments, Humor and more...

No one could call these the best of times - the direst economic figures for fifty years, the grimmest climatic prospects for ten thousand. Troubles that play upon our fear of the unknown, like the potential flu pandemic, and troubles we know all too well: Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, North Korea... We are far away from that blissful era, a mere eighty years ago, when the BBC could announce to a waiting nation and Empire, "the news tonight: there is no news tonight."

Yet, on closer inspection, these are the best of times - or very close to them. Despite the many dangers we see around us, we are, on average, longer lived, better fed, better educated, and safer than we have ever been. Famine, disease, war, natural disasters, industrial accidents, death on the road, rails, or in the air - we have less personally to fear from all of these than at any time in human history. Why, then, are we sleeping so badly?

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I want to ask each of you to consider doing the following when you are talking on the phone to any US customer service representative that is based in a foreign country (like India). I have done this twice and it works! Any time you call an 800 number (for a credit card, banking, charter communications, health insurance, insurance, you name it) and you are transferred to a representative (like in India), please consider doing the following:

After you connect and you realize that the customer service representative is not from the USA (you can always ask if you are not sure about the accent), please very politely (very politely - this is not about trashing other cultures) say, "I'd like to speak to a customer service representative in the United States of America ." The rep might suggest talking to his/her manager, but, again, politely say, "Thank you, but I'd like to speak to a customer service representative in the USA ." YOU WILL BE IMMEDIATELY CONNECTED to a rep in the USA . It only takes less than one minute to have your call re-directed to the USA . Tonight when I got redirected to a USA rep, I asked again to make sure - and yes, she was from Fort -Lauderdale.

Imagine if tomorrow, every US citizen who has to make such a call and then requests a US rep, imagine how that would ultimately impact the number of US jobs that would need to be created ASAP. Imagine what would happen if every US citizen insisted on talking to only US phone reps from this day on. If I tell 10 people to consider this and you tell 10 people to consider doing this - see what I mean...it becomes an exercise in viral marketing 101.

Remember - the goal here is to restore jobs back here at home - not to be abrupt or rude to a foreign phone rep. If you agree, please tell people you know or share this article.

You may have been reading the torture memos – and if so, you will be feeling pretty sick. It's all there: the old Nixonian presumption that "it's not illegal if the President does it"; the mealy-mouthed cloaking of horror in the blandest of language (such as the "rare instances" where eleven days of sleep deprivation might produce "abnormal reactions"); the combination of legal strictures with weasel words and let-out clauses that allow the interrogators to do what they want, so long as their "intention" is to comply.

The whole episode is shameful – and not just because was crude, brutal and dishonest. It was also stupid: it's as if, blinded by the promise of limitless support and resources from the White House, the CIA's professionals forgot all their trade-craft and signed up instead to the simpler doctrines of the military's SERE program, in which participants are tortured because – of course – that's what other, less sophisticated, countries do. In particular, they set aside the lessons of what some call the inquisitor's Bible: John Tolliver's The Interrogator, a study of the Luftwaffe's Hanns Joachim Scharff.

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"With neither time nor money to find our first Festivus pole, a miracle has happened letting us know this move to Festivus from Hanukkah is the right one.
Goddamn shower curtain fell on my head. And again! Freaking cheap bast**d Target tension rod. Ouch!
Replaced today, and on the way to the trash with the old one realized the potential of what I was holding! It isn't regulation length but boy does half a shower curtain rod work GREAT!
I know it's not quite the thing to do but I did find an antique and requested glass doorknob in my garden which I stuck on the top. I made a Happy Festivus sign, taped in on the pole and stuck the grand thing in a flower pot on my front porch!
Festivus! Festivus! Festivus!... "

Happy Festivus!
"Happy Festivus" is the traditional greeting of Festivus a holiday featured in "The Strike" episode of Seinfeld. The episode first aired on December 18, 1997. Since then many people have been inspired by the goodness of the Seinfeld holiday and they now celebrate Festivus as any other holiday.

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The object of the game is to move the red block around without getting hit by the blue blocks or touching the black walls.

If you can go longer than 18 seconds you are phenomenal. It's been said that the US Air Force uses this for fighter pilots. They are expected to go for at least 2 minutes.

Give it a try but be careful...it is addictive (or share it with someone you want to frustrate)!!

The guy who came to install the new septic tank had some advice for the President – who, sadly, wasn't there, so he gave it to me to pass on in case Mr. Obama ever comes to visit. “It's basic,” said the septic-tank guy: “he just needs to ship back the illegals, cancel all bonuses, reserve jobs for Americans, cut taxes, increase defense spending, bomb Iran. Bingo: problem solved.” The words “it's not that simple” were forming on my lips, but it's rarely a good idea to alienate someone on whom depends the whole future of your plumbing, so I steered the conversation around to the job at hand: “say, why’d you mark the site way down the yard like that? Shouldn't you dig it nearer the house?” “It's not that simple,” he retorted: “you look like you got boulder clay at the top of the yard. Site it there, your tank‘s likely to back up in a couple of years. Down the way seems to me more like gravel, so you could get a natural leach field. I could be wrong; I won't know for certain till I get the backhoe in and dig down six or seven feet. Then we'll see where we stand.”

The septic-tank guy was doing what we all do, revealing a basic human quality that appears again and again, in lab experiments and real life alike: the less we know about a subject, the more cocksure we are about our answers. In one study, people who were actually betting against the researchers in real money insisted, at 100-to-1 odds, that more Americans die from homicide than suicide and that the potato originated in Ireland. It seems that the fewer close dealings we have with a topic, the more important it is to have a quick answer, even if that answer is wrong. This isn’t necessarily a sign of stupidity; it’s just another way our thrifty brains save on scarce mental resources. After all, when you’re certain of something, you can stop thinking about it – so, yeah, the capital of Colombia is Caracas. Of course I'm sure. Next!

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Dear American friends, Have a laugh! I am sure we have many comparable politicians in Canada. These are worth reading... unfortunately, they are probably all true.

Can you imagine yourself answering these questions? Couldn't possibly make this stuff up!!
A Washington DC 'airport ticket agent' offers some examples of 'WHY' our country is in trouble! (and I don't think Canadian politicians are any better!)

1. I had a New Hampshire Congresswoman (Carol Shea-Porter) ask for an aisle seat so that her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. (On an airplane!)

2. I got a call from a Kansas Congressman's (Moore) staffer (Howard Bauleke), who wanted to go to Cape Town. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information, and then he interrupted me with, ''I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Cape Town is in Massachusetts ..'' Without trying to make him look stupid, I calmly explained,''Cape Cod is in Massachusetts, CapeTown is in South Africa.'' His response -- click..[url moderated]

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Synopsis
A young woman's world is rocked when she discovers her dead grandfather was a demon hunter, and that now his unfinished quest is hers.

A 20 episode, made for the Internet original series. Written and directed by Drew Daywalt, and produced by MWG Entertainment.

Episodes are released weekly with the last installment on October 31st.

The Backroom review (may contain spoilers)
In the Horror Internet short flick "Camera Obscura" Reagan Dale Neis (Clara) is a young girl whose Grandfather just past the way and now she is going thru his belongings to find a book filled with pictures of demons so she decides to get ride of it causing their release… but she also found a camera that is capable to capture them.

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