Ron's Log

Corruption Of Our Youth

Senior year is that special time of life when kids should be practicing drunk driving, experimenting with illegal drugs and behaving in a generally surly manner. But in some parts of Ohio our children are being ripped away from those childish pursuits by the siren song of NAKED WATER-GUN TAG! Horrors. The game is to pursue other high school seniors and get them wet with a squirt gun. It wasn't long before some kid figured out that if you are naked, it's hard to prove you got squirted. So now we have naked youths running and cavorting down the streets and across the lawns of otherwise respectable towns.

Terry Nichols Sins Against God Daily

Yes, that Terry Nichols, the one convicted in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. But he's not talking about THAT sin against God, or the sin of Onan, or any of the usual sins you might think of. No, it's that God intends for people to consume an unrefined diet and the diet of "unhealthy dead and refined foods" being served up in the ADX Supermax prison is "causing him physical, mental and spiritual torment, and to sin against God." It's also violating his 14th, 8th, 1st and 5th amendment rights. But wait, that's not all. Mr. Nichols "has been dealing with chronic constipation, bleeding, hemorrhoids, along with pain and suffering, for over 30 years." He had rectal surgery in 1984.

Mr. Nichols's opinions on health and sin are backed up by famed health expert Eric Rudolph. You may know him better as the Atlanta Olympic bomber.

Considering his delicate intestinal condition, Mr. Nichols should have done some research on the menus at federal supermax prisons before committing himself to bombing a federal building. The knowledge that internet access in prisons is very poor and that the cookies served in prison cafeterias are notoriously stale are all that have kept me from committing an unending stream of felonies.

Bragging Rights

I just want to squeeze this in here while I can. If you go to the Relay For Life site today, this is part of what you'll see:

Now, I know that won't hold true through the weekend, as there are a lot of people piling up the contributions who haven't reported them yet. But for the last several days I've been sitting in the #1 spot. I haven't reached my goal yet, and any contribution goes to help the American Cancer Society.

An Idea Even More Outlandish Than Permanently Docking The Queen Mary In Long Beach

And that idea is to restore her and return her to the seas. Estimates are $1.5 billion and four years to do it. There are a couple of big challenges (besides the obvious).

(1) The proposal is coming from Cairngorm Entertainment Group, which has no experience at all with this sort of thing. They are a distributor of television programs including "Home and Garden Show," "Sport Fishing with Dan Hernandez" and "Police Rescue" plus "classic series' reruns targeted at cash-rich baby boomers ready to gobble up the same television fare they feasted on as impressionable youths" [their words] such as "Ozzie and Harriet," "The Danny Thomas Show" and "My Mother The Car."

(2) The City of Long Beach and Cunard signed an agreement that the ship would never be used "for trade at sea or as a commercial cruise line," which, of course, doesn't mean she can't be used that way. It only means that Cairngorm Entertainment Group will also have to pay a big bundle to Cunard to make them happy, too. So it's gonna be more than just $1.5 billion.

Tim Cook, president and chief executive of Cairngorm Entertainment Group is trying to negotiate a good deal the same way you negotiate over an old house or a used car: "The Queen Mary is in disrepair. She is at that stage in life when she could implode at any moment. Instead of rivets, nuts and bolts, she is held together by crustaceans."

How very exciting! The City of Long Beach should charge people more to board the ship when the weather is stormy. Imagine the thrill of being on a great ocean liner as she goes down...in about 12 feet of water.

Improving Spotlight

Mac OS X Tips has suggestions for improving the performance of Spotlight. Most, but not all, involve using Terminal, including how to run Spotlight directly from Terminal (in case you need to enhance your nerdness): "just type mdfind query where query is what you want to search for."

I Was Right! (but I don't know why)

Just as I had queried a few days ago, the Desert Stonewall Democrats have called off their boycott of Garff auto dealerships in the Coachella Valley. "Why?," you may ask. "Dunno," is my answer.

"We recognize that our members have diverse opinions on this subject and we want them to be able to have the freedom to choose whether they wish to participate," George Zander, chair the Desert Stonewall Democrats said in a news release.

"While the discussions to end the ongoing boycott are important, the primary goals of The Desert Stonewall Democratic Club continue to be increasing Democratic voter registration and electing Democrats."

And how is that any different from when they started the boycott back in March? The boycott where they didn't explain their goals or reasons for restarting the national boycott which itself had been ended for vague reasons.

John Garff credited the news Wednesday to "good dialogue" with the Desert Stonewall Democrat leadership.

"Honestly, it's just a better understanding of issues on both sides," he said.

"Good dialogue," huh? Does that mean Garff got the Stonewall Democrats to pull their heads out of their asses and listen? Maybe so.

New Hampshire Legislature Approves Gay Marriage

The N.H. Senate passed the bill today with some amendments banning polygamy and incest (but I think I could still marry my pet iguana). The bill goes to a conference committee to resolve differences with the House version. Then it's on to Governor John Lynch, where we will find out if he's a better man than Governor Schwarzenegger and Governor Douglas (of Vermont).

Live free or die, boys!

Entertainment Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Thursday, April 30, National Organization for Marriage ("A Storm, She's A-brewin'") will release a new ad featuring Miss USA California, Carrie Prejean. The ad will be titled No Offense. Clear your schedule and dust off your video editor.

I'm afraid it won't be as good as this little bit of history that I never tire of watching.

66028 12th Street

Here's that house near 12th and West that Mayor Pro Tem Baker was complaining about last week:

Graffiti, broken windows, trash, a disappearing roof, it's got it all. More photos here.

General Plan Open House

[PDF]

Saturday, May 9, 10 to 2 at the Skyborne Recreation Center. More info on the General Plan Update here.

And, in case you were wondering (as I was) about that warren of little roads shown southwest of Skyborne, they really do exist as shown on this Google satellite view: