I've always liked George Clooney. He seemed to be a decent, likable sort of guy.

I'll never watch anything associated with him again.

Here's the money 'graf:

. . . As first reported by syndicated columnist Liz Smith, Clooney opined at a National Board of Review event that "Charlton Heston announced again today that he is suffering from Alzheimer's."

When asked by Ms. Smith if the remark went over the line, Clooney replied: "I don't care. Charlton Heston is the head of the NRA; he deserves whatever anyone says about him."

Now, people can have disagreements on issues while still acting civil. This is beyond the pale. It is indecent and dishonorable.

I am sick unto death of actors and singers thinking that just because they're famous, they can solve all the world's problems. On the bright side, I should be able to retire early with all the money I save from not buying CDs & DVDs and going to movies.

I'm not going to post what I'd really like to say about Mr. Clooney, but you can go here for a close approximation of my sentiments.

This has to be a Candid Camera Moment: Iraq to chair U.N. disarmament conference.

Let me get this straight: first, Libya heads the U.N. Human Rights group, then Syria heads the Security council, and now this. Talk about an Axis of Evil! One is tempted to think that the U.N.'s movements are being written by Douglas Adams. But you can't make up stuff like this.

The League of U.N.'s time is officially D-U-N done. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, "Mr. Bush, tear down that building!"

Names have been changed to protect the hopelessly confused.
Yesterday, my wife informed me that a coworker of hers, who we'll call Jane Smith, had seen the infamous Fox "documentary" which claimed that we never went to the Moon. Jane, who taught my daughter Algebra last year, believed every word of it.

Now, before you think "well, that's public education for you," let me note that the school where my wife teaches is one of the finest in the state of Texas.

Well.

Someone who believes we didn't go to the Moon, in my book, is just as idiotic as someone who believes that the world is flat. If the school board interviewed a flat-earther for a job, they would excuse her with prejudice once that became clear. If someone (who has a college degree!) has judgement that faulty, would you want her teaching your child?

After calming down slightly, I told Jill (my wife) that I would be contacting the school board to inform them of this idiot in their midst. She prevailed upon me not to do so immediately, but I sent her this link debunking the Apollo Hoax idiotarians, and this one about critical thinking. She can at least share these with Jane because she obviously needs to work on her critical thinking skills.

Do you think that I should:
a) contact the school board, or
b) shake my head at such stupidity and move on.

There. I feel better now.

Via comments at Blogcritics, the best illustration of moral equivalence I've ever seen. Perhaps some of the lefty loonies could learn from it? Naaaah.

Moral Equivalence:
Two men stand at the side of a road.
An old woman tries to cross it;
suddenly a semi-truck races down the road toward the old woman.
One man pushes the woman in front of the truck,
but the other pushes her out of the way.
Both are guilty of pushing the woman.

Over the past year or so, Dell has offshored most of their tech support to Bangalore, India. Now I understand that a company has a bottom line, and must make a profit to survive. But. Dell may teach their support folks (some) English, but they are woefully tech-ignorant, and are obviously going from a scriptbook.

Example: a work-related call two weeks ago. Video is bad. It's built into the motherboard, so I need a new motherboard. After going through the name, address, number rigmarole, I told him the problem, and what I needed. The following conversation ensued:

Tech: (long pause)That model has integrated video.

Me: Yes.

Tech: (another long pause, visions of flipping pages)Have you tried re-seating the video card?

Me: *sigh* The video is integrated.

It went downhill from there. An hour and a half later, I finally got him to send the motherboard I needed. "Lather, rinse, repeat" for the second PC for which I needed a motherboard.

Unfortunately this has become typical for Dell. I think that this kind of short-term thinking is going to come back and bite Dell, and other companies who implement the same policy, in the butt.

I love Dell computers, but, for just this reason, I won't recommend them to non-techies anymore.

Dell may save money in the short run, but will that make up for the long-term loss of customer loyalty/return business?

UPDATE: Dell has moved their support department back stateside. ALL HAIL THE POWER OF THE BLOGOSPHERE! heh.

Matt Rosenberg opines that it's beginning to, and goes into detail while discussing Bill Cosby's recent NAACP speech. Took'em to woodshed, he did!

Via Instapundit

I have always admired the talent and work of Ray Bradbury. I enjoy good writing whether in print or screenplay form. That's one of the reasons that no-talent hacks like Michael Moore get under my skin. Apparently Mr. Bradbury doesn't think too highly of him either. Secular Blasphemy didn't have permalinks, so I'm posting the relevant part that he was kind enough to translate(bold is the interviewer, italics is SB's commentary, plain text is Bradbury):

"Michael Moore is a screwed a**hole, that is what I think about that case. He stole my title and changed the numbers without ever asking me for permission.

When The Day After Tomorrow was released, Beloved Bride expressed an interest in seeing it. For some odd reason, she couldn't understand the spluttering reaction that she got from me. I steadfastly refuse to give any money for that movie, but I couldn't really articulate why.

Well, Pejman has taken care of that for me, and in a (typically) far more eloquent fashion as well. The money graf:

...the reason this movie has brought about a visceral reaction is, as explained above, because it is being used as a vehicle for setting the parameters of the debate about an important and very high profile public policy issue. Given that, and given the fact that in discussing said issue, it matters whether or not we have our facts straight, it is entirely right and proper to wonder whether a blatant propaganda piece will unfairly skew the debate in one particular direction by demagoguing through a lousy film plot and some fancy special effects.

As they say, RTWT.

I found this in an e-mail from a friend:

We believe in the United Nations, and Kofi Annan, the maker of international legitimacy.

We believe that the UN inspections worked.
We believe that SCUD missiles fired at U.S. troops minutes after the war began doesn't change anything;
We believe that 3 liters of sarin gas used against U.S. troops doesn't change anything;
We believe that finding evidence of mustard gas doesn't change anything.

We believe that the war in Iraq conducted by a Republican president was unjustified because it lacked UN approval;
We believe that the "military action" in Kosovo conducted by a Democratic president was justified without UN approval.

. . . it looks like Barney Fife is alive and well in Harris County (Houston area), Texas. Excerpt:

Cops Make Major Hibiscus Bust

Texas cops thought they'd made a major drug bust when they raided a home northwest of Houston last Tuesday. After all, it looked like there were huge marijuana plants growing in the front yard.

You never can tell what kind of freaks are going to show up at these things! This would certainly explain the Democratic meltdown, though. It's just a glitch in the system.

Whoa.