American Warmonger

Blogging For Belonging

If you cruise through the blogosphere you can't help but notice that nobody really blogs alone. Sure, you can find the occasional blogger that doesn't belong the this group or that group, but for the most part bloggers tend to be found in packs. Groups of similarly inclined bloggers that want to speak to other similarly inclined bloggers for a feeling of camaradarie.

There are tons of them out there, Blogs for Bush, Munuviana, Blogger News Network, Blogcritics, American Flag League, Grand Centrist Station, The Wide Awakes, Homespun Bloggers, Progressive Bloggers Alliance, The Alliance of Free Blogs, Mind and Media, The Liberal Coalition and The blogdom of God just to name a few. They're all giving you something that you went to blogs to get in the first place, a sense of belonging. It is a form of tharapy that mere counseling can not begin to relate to.

Because there are these groups you have the capability to do something functional with your collective blogging abilities. It's like the Voltron metaphor that has been used. One blogger alone can not make a great impact, but when you gather several bloggers together with the same purpose in mind you can form Voltron...or at least make an impact on the world.

The beauty of these groups is that even though each one has a focus the range of groups available are quite possibly the most diverse thing I've ever seen. There is a blog group for nearly every topic you could think of. Just bounce through a few of the groups above if you don't believe me.

Interview with...

Crooks and Liars

Me: So, are there any Republicans you like?

Crooks and Liars (CNL): Just the dead ones in Iraq. We should never have been there. Go read this. They're finally admitting defeat.

Me: Right...I guess I'm afraid to ask who you hate in the Republican party.

CNL: Since you asked I...

Me: I didn't.

CNL: Don't interrupt me, wingnut! I won't be treated like Ted Kennedy getting interviewed by that liar Hannity!

Me: ...

CNL: What's your problem?

Me: Nothing, I didn't say anything.

CNL:

Me:

CNL: Whatever, screw you and your religious right nuts. What was I talking about?

Me: Republicans you hate.

CNL: Don't try to put words in my mouth...I do hate republicans though, just like Howard Dean.

Me: He did say that, didn't he?

CNL: What did I tell you about interrupting me?

Me: Sorry, go ahead.

CNL: Powerline is my nemesis. He's an idiot.

Me: Why is he your nemesis?

CNL: Well, he's Kos' nemesis so he's my nemesis too.

Me:

CNL: Kos is my hero.

Me: Umm...okay. I think that should about wrap things up.

CNL: Good I have a real interview to do on MSNBC.

Me: I wouldn't dream of stopping you.

CNL: Better not even think about it. Just go back to your 101st fighting keyboard brigade and lube your keys or something.

Me: Enjoy your alone time with Kos.

CNL: What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Me: Nothing...bye.

***This has been a completely fake interview.***
***The purpose of this interview has been to show an extremist at his or her most extreme.***
***No spite, malice or personal vendetta is involved.***

Crossposted at: Grand Centrist Station

United Airlines May Strike This Labor Day Weekend

An source has stated that there is a very real possibility that United Airlines workers will strike either Friday or Saturday because of a recent court decision to allow UA to terminate the union's pension.

This source has overheard managers stating they would need to "pick up the slack" when the baggage handlers and customer service agents strike this Memorial Day weekend. It is believed they are foregoing the recent rulings in reference to the machinists union and striking at the most opportune moment.

It is projected that nearly 800,000 passengers will traverse LAX alone this weekend. O'Hare and Midway international are expecting over 1.8 million passengers.

Hat Tip: Mad Tech Speaks

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

The Coke – Pepsi Challenge Goes Splenda

A new artificial sweetener has been making its way into your soda bottles. Something called Splenda is making its way into the main stream of diet soda drinking. For a while now it could be found in Crystal Lite sodas and select specialty brands, but the majors, Coke and Pepsi have stayed away. Well, this month all that has changed. Pepsi One and Diet Coke now have Spenda based varieties.

So lets start with what this means.

Previous versions of Diet Coke and Pepsi used Aspartame. Aspartame is a known cancer-causing agent. Cancer is not good. I’ve heard it is a great diet, but it can kill you, and that would be bad. Above death it also brings into play a popular dietary trend: Atkins and the South Beach diet. Both of these diets require little to no carbohydrate intake.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

Well, what does this have to do with diet soda then? Well, even though Aspartame contains no calories your body recognizes it as a carbohydrate-like substance and you will have a harder time reaching what is known as ketosis. Ketosis is the change where you stop processing the sugar coming into your body and you start to consume your body fat. This is what makes these two diets so miraculous.

So now that we have a basic idea of why Spenda, let me explain why me. I am a hardcore diet soda junkie. I work twelve-hour night shifts and refuse to go to coffee. I drink a lot of soda. As I sit here I am looking at the empty 2 liter bottle of Pepsi One with Spenda that I started about six hours ago. Today I didn’t drink that much. If calculations are correct with what I normally drink of the Aspartame tainted diet stuff I should have acquired cancer last year. (Just to clarify, no, I don’t have cancer.)

Now that we have come to the conclusion that by the amount I consume I should be a relative expert in the field of soda taste-testing we can get down to the verdict of both sodas.

Diet Coke with Splenda

I have drunk Diet Coke as my primary soda for several years now. I actually liked the taste. Trying this one was a moment of hope for me. Alas, I was let down. I was hoping the flavor would not change or move towards what some call “the hard stuff” or Classic Coke. Unfortunately for me they went the other way. To compare this to another soda I would have to put it on par somewhere between Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. If that’s your thing then this drink is for you. If not, you may want to start looking for a bottle of something else.

Something to note is that although it went away from what I was expecting it wasn’t horribly bad. I’m not a fan of Pepsi, so it’s not for me. It might be for you.

Pepsi One with Splenda

This being the only Pepsi product I am fond of I was pretty happy. It’s like the Coke of the Pepsi family. It’s also a good idea to keep this product in mind when Pepsi runs better sales than Coke does. Anyone else out there notice the sale pattern? Luckily, I was not too disappointed with the new Pepsi One with Splenda. It was just slightly sweeter than the original, but by far less Pepsi-like than what Diet Coke with Spenda was. I would still go to the store and buy this product without thinking twice. Plus the two liter bottle has this cool black light effect for the Star Wars Episode III release so it looks snazzier than its contender.

The verdict on these two products

If you like Pepsi you will like the new Diet Coke with Splenda. If you like the old Diet Coke and can handle a bit of variation then by all means switch to Pepsi One with Splenda. You could almost say that these products switched sides. But don’t take my word for it, taste test them for yourself.

Music meme

Alright, I've been tagged again. EVERYBODY BACK THE HELL OFF!!

We don't want a repeat of what happened on the LAST time I got memed.

Anyway, here we go:

Last CD I purchased: Linkin Park, Jay-Z - Collision Course

Song (CD) playing right now: None! I'm at work!..I'll be listening to Ludacris - Chicken & Beer on the way home. I'm in the mood for some window shaking.

Five songs that I listen to alot or that mean alot to me:
Pinball Wizard by The Who
(Don't know why. There's some weird connection between this song and Gemini's)

More than words by Extreme
Yesterday by The Beatles
(These two wongs have gotten me swoon power at Karaoke.)

The whole Jar of Flies album from Alice in Chains
(Something about the way the whole album is layed out has helped me through some rough and lonely times.)

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen
(You can't tell me that you haven't bopped your head to this one.)

Okay, I'm tagging people. Hrm...let me think...
Raven, you're off the poetry hook if you do this one.
Ogre, you're it as well. I keep getting tagged by people that have been tagged by you. Time for some payback!

What Jedi Women Want...

Okay, it's sorda blogless Wednessday. I'll get back into the swing of things, I promise.

In the meantime, go HERE. Talk about Wookie envy!

Knocked his head clean off.

Silly Quiz number 9837495

Stolen from Tammi who stole it from Ogre.

A Growing Community

Down here in Chesapeake Virginia we have been experiencing a boom in population. It seems like everyone who lives here is from somewhere else. People have migrated from just about everywhere to live in Chesapeake. It's like there's some sort of magnet here. One of those magnets is the school system.

The high schools in Chesapeake are better than most in the state. In the Hampton Roads area even the worst Chesapeake schools are better than the best in other areas, like Portsmouth. Even in Chesapeake we are diligently observant of which school is better than the others. Currently, the lead school is called Hickory High.

Hickory is like the Yale of Hampton roads high schools. All of the best SOL (Standards Of Learning) scores come out of Hickory. The rich quickly buy up houses down here. Well, because everyone is buying up the housing down here and new developments are being pushed, there is a need for another high school in the area. This has put the district zoning on its ear. Parents have been holding protests against the school board rezoning commission. It's been a real site.

The new school promises to be another elite school, similar to Hickory called Grassfield High. The area where they're putting it centers around the mansions of Chesapeake. Congressman Randy Forbes lives in that area. It's destined to be the Harvard of Hampton Roads high schools.

The other high schools in the area are still nothing to laugh at. The lesser high schools, Deep Creek, Great Bridge and Oscar Smith, could all be considered like the Brown University of local high schools. They're borderline Ivy League high schools.

The reason I bring this up is the rezoning commission made a five to four vote in favor of finalizing a plan over which schools were to be going where. You can read all about it in our local liberal paper, The Virginian Pilot.

So where did we get placed? Unless the plans change for 2011 my son will be going to Yale. Yes, I am relieved.

(I'm also sure that pretty much none of you out there care about this, but I do. It has a much greater priority for me than some stupid vote on judicial nominees.)

Keith Thompson - Leaving The Left

I made a promised to myself never to do this but I'm going to do it anyway.

Here's the excerpt:

I'm leaving the left -- more precisely, the American cultural left and what it has become during our time together.

I choose this day for my departure because I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives -- people who once championed solidarity with oppressed populations everywhere --

This came from the SF Gate!!!

Here's a link if you didn't get it the first time: LINK

Hat tip: Kender of Kender's Musings.

UPDATE: Keith Thompson has a BLOG.

Somewhere In The Middle

Many of you in my sphere of blogs already know that I don't make any bones about being in the middle of things when it comes to politics. I bother many people on the far right because they don't understand how I could come to some of the conclusions I do about social issues. I've actually been called a liberal once or twice before. You see, I'm what's called a centrist. I'm not really right enough to be considered a right-wing nut-job, but I'm not left enough to be accepted by the liberal wieners.

I'm not pro-choice, but I'm not 100% pro-life. I believe life begins when it is formed and has nerve endings; somewhere around the start of the second trimester.

I believe that the media is 100% biased. They're biased for the left. They're also biased for the right. The bias just depends on who's writing the news. Both sides have "misreported" things.

I could go on about some of my "middle of the road" ideas, but there's no point in that. He point I'm trying to make is that there is no central point for the centrists of the blogosphere, or at least none that I've found. That's why I'm starting one.

Yes, as of today there will be a place for those with views that decent from the party line to go and rant. Eventually there will be more to it than a simple blogger blog, but we have to start somewhere. We can start at Grand Centrist Station.

The idea of Grand Centrist Station was thought up by its two founding members, Jeremy H. Bol from American Warmonger, and Jesse Williams of LOSLI fame. We don't want to be too selective of who we allow in. Hit counters don't matter. Blogging frequency doesn't matter. The thing that matters the most is that you have a willingness to listen to both sides of an argument without locking out the other side of a rational discussion.

If you're one of those people drop me a line and I'll put you up for review. As we're just starting things up the only review will be a thumbs up from Jesse and me. More information will follow.

jeremy.bol@gmail.com

Star Wars - Attack of the Clintons

By now you've seen Star Wars III and heard the bemoaning everywhere about how it was a reflection of Bush. "Oh, he's trying to build an evil empire, just like the Sith Lord! He's making a political statement against BUSH! It's so funny! The neo-cons are gonna’ hate it!"

Well, my friends, that's a complete load of crap. Sure you could compare Bush to The Sith Lord. That would make Cheney, Darth Vader right? If you wanted to look at it that way it could appear that is what was happening. Will, you'd be both stupid and wrong.

Let's start with how old the script for this episode actually is. If anyone out there is a fan-boy you can back me up but I seem to remember that all nine (9) of the scripts were written long before Lucas had a producer for A New Hope. Maybe Bush is trying to follow Lucas' lead? I didn't think so either.

The storyline revolves around what happens when government becomes too powerful. It's the same sappy story that's been playing out in movies since people were doing plays. Probably the most original part of the plotline was to make both Anakin and Luke Skywalker whiney little punks. Well, that and the cinnamon buns attached to both Amadala and Leia's heads. (okay, that was a spoiler.)

Lets try a different sort of comparison. Maybe we could stick Hillary Clinton as the Dark Lord? She is the lead Democratic candidate at the moment and she's a member of...The Senate. Bush was never a member of the Senate. He was a Governor.

Maybe we could use Bill Clinton as Darth Gigolo? There's a strong rumor floating around that he could be replacing Kofi Annan in a year or two. Does anyone have any doubt that he could win them over with a smile and a quickie?

Now lets take a look at things, you get Hillary Sidious as president and Darth Gigolo as leader of the UN and that would mean master and apprentice controlling the galax...er..world. Wouldn't that fall in line a bit better than Bush?

Just for laughs, we would need Kennedy as Jabba the Hut...either him or Michael Moore.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

Hot Dogs and S'mores

Ahh, summer is almost here. Yesterday I was at a weenie roast. We took a bunch of scewers and roasted weenies with the kids. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. THe kids were blaying tag in the backyard and the adults were sitting around the small but effective fire drinking a few cold ones and having a good time.

Later, as it was getting dark, we started up the marshmallows. We had the graham crackers and cholcolate ready to go. The best part is watching all the kids turn their marshmallows into little torches. I think we ended up with a 3/1 loss ratio for em'. It was wel worth it though, just to watch the surprise on their face when they burst into flames. The s'mores were great too.

Now everyone smells like burnt wood and singed hair. I have no more hair left on the knuckles of my right hand. Nobody actually got burned so that's a good thing. We almost scalded the dog though...and yes, even the dog got a dog.

If you're reading this you either have a laptop or you need to get your butt out of the chair and go outside. Checking the map, it looks like to only ones with some cloud cover are Ohio, New York and Maine. Washington state is even pretty dry. Go have some fun.