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Whole Grain Popcorn???

by ThePete 2:38 pm 2008-08-17
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Saw this at Target a couple weeks back and was very puzzled by the "WHOLE GRAIN" claim on the box.

I guess, based on a technicality, corn is considered a "grain" but is there any real value in calling it "whole grain" since the "grain" part would be the actual corn kernel? Thus making ALL corn "whole grain" since corn isn’t usually "bleached" and/or "enriched" like other grains. I’m not a nutritionist, so don’t quote me on this.

To top it off, this corn doesn’t pop well in our microwave. Stay away from this stuff.

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by ThePete 2:38 pm 2008-08-17 TheMiniBlog, ThePete.Com | $ |

I Faced My Manga

by ThePete 7:05 pm 2008-08-16
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I finally got around to swinging by FaceYourManga.com and I must say that I’m quite happy with the accuracy of this one. It took surprisingly little tweaking on my part and they even let me have facial hair that was a different color from the hair on the top of my head (the way it really is in real life).

It also pretty accurately matches my mood at this very moment :\ which is nice, I guess. :P

The only trouble I had was that the Flash UI kept freaking out–the labels on the customizing tabs would swap between their values and "UNDEFINED" over and over. Very strange. Then I stopped using Firefox 3 and pulled the FYM site up in Safari and it was fine. Sometimes it’s hard to be on a Mac ;)

(Not really.)

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by ThePete 7:05 pm 2008-08-16 TheMiniBlog, ThePete.Com | $ |

Bush Admin Fakes Iraq-Al Qaeda Connection

by ThePete 6:36 pm 2008-08-13
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The above is a screencap from DemocracyNow.org today. They did an entire hour with author Ron Suskind who’s new book, in part, quotes (and names) government officials as admitting that the White House ordered that a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda be faked in various ways.

Remember that letter from the head of Iraqi Intelligence explaining that the guy who lead the 911 attacks had trained in Iraq? Well, Suskind says that this was one of the things the USG did to fake an Iraq/Al Qaeda connection.

I know this is not coming as a surprise to anyone who regularly reads my stuff, but, like it or not, this is even MORE evidence that Bush and Co. should be impeached.

Please check out the whole transcript of the interview here: http://www.democracynow.org/…_world_ron

Check out Ron Suskind’s website here: http://www.ronsuskind.com/

Let’s just hope the House and the Senate do something about this.

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by ThePete 6:36 pm 2008-08-13 TheMiniBlog, ThePete.Com | $ |

Jesus Already Saved Earth, So Why Should We?

by ThePete 12:22 pm 2008-08-13
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The above screencap comes from an article at OneNewsNow.com (here: http://www.onenewsnow.com/…fault.aspx ) which I found after reading a blog post at StarTribune.com (here: http://politicalblogs.startribune.com/…stionblog/ ). It turns out that OneNewsNow.Com is a Christian news site so, it makes sense that they would include Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s comments on Nancy Pelosi’s quest to avoid new drilling in that third paragraph.

For the search engines and for anyone listening to this post, here are her comments again: " is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she’s just trying to save the planet. We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet — we didn’t need Nancy Pelosi to do that,"

This is why religion is such a freakin’ scary thing!!

Pelosi is talking about not making things worse for the environment and Bachmann, the idiot Christian, is claiming Jesus saved the Earth two-thousand years ago. This is a woman who votes for or against laws, people!!

First off, Jesus (if you believe) did NOT save the "Earth". OK? He saved US. He died for our sins–what does this do? It saves us from going to hell after we die. It doesn’t do shit for us now.

Did I mention I’m an Atheist? Yeah, so, when an Atheist knows Christianity better than someone invoking Jesus on the House floor, you know the invoker is one right moron.

So, if you’re going to be a believer GET IT RIGHT. Jesus promised us *eternal* salvation–but it will be our kids that suffer *mortal* damnation if we don’t get this planet in order.

Then again, Christianity pretty much gives us no reason at all to give a crap about anyone or anything since everything is cool in heaven–all will be forgiven after we die, right? So, why does any Christian care about the Earth?

On a completely unrelated note, I had to giggle when I first saw the name of that Christian news site. I misread it as "OneNewSnow.com"

Very odd name for a news site. :)

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by ThePete 12:22 pm 2008-08-13 TheMiniBlog, ThePete.Com | $ |

Fairness Doctrine’s Return to Control ‘Net?

by ThePete 11:52 am 2008-08-13
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Oh, so now we lowly bloggers are journalists after all?

Careful, Mr. FCC-man! You’re looking a little hypocritical!

Here is just another stupid government guy in a suit who doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about.

How in the world could the Fairness Doctrine even be enforced on the Internet? You’re going to fine EVERY blog that claims to be a news source? What about those that are news sources but don’t claim to be?

Just stick to regulating what you can control–the airwaves and business practices. I think the Fairness Doctrine is fine for corporations (who exist as government-recognized entities and are therefore beholden to the will of the people) but for individuals on the ‘net?

Oh yeah and Net-Neutrality has nothing whatsoever to do with the Fairness Doctrine governing the Internet. Both are about regulating big giant corporations with lots of money and power–power to convince thousands, even millions of people to buy Coke or support a war. When my blog has that kind of influence I’ll be happy with that kind of regulation.

If one day it is and I’m not, please point me at this blog post.

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by ThePete 11:52 am 2008-08-13 TheMiniBlog, ThePete.Com | $ |

SOMEbody’s Lying About the Georgian War

by ThePete 9:40 am 2008-08-13
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The above is a partial screencap of my Twitterstream from this morning. If you read it from bottom-to-top, you’re getting it in chronological order. However, it doesn’t matter how you read it to know that either Russia or CNN is lying about Russian troops invading Georgia (and that it rains a lot in the UK–sorry to drag you into this Jazzybam!).

Is it just me, or does it seem like Russia is trying to bait us into getting involved?

Or maybe Putin thinks he can do whatever he wants since theUSMil is too over-extended.

Either way, it’s a scary time to be a Georgian…

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by ThePete 9:40 am 2008-08-13 TheMiniBlog, ThePete.Com | $ |

If US Defends, Russia Nukes in Georgian War

by ThePete 2:35 pm 2008-08-12
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Snagged this off of DemocracyNow.org, specifically from the transcript of yesterday’s interview with retired Air Force Colonel, Sam Gardiner (read it all here: http://www.democracynow.org/…_killed_as ). He said some disturbing things in the interview regarding his take on the mess over in Georgia. For starters, he said that it’s Russian policy that if the US attacks them (ever) they’ll use tactical nukes in response. This, Gardiner says, is because we’re such bad-asses with the conventional weapons. This is the first time I ever thought I’d be happy to hear that. I NEVER want to hear that we’re bad-asses with the nukes. What’s frightening is that the Ruskies may earn that description themselves, if the USMil gets involved over there.

More from Gardiner, in the transcript (not pictured in the screencap above): "At a news conference on Sunday, the deputy national security adviser said we have noted that the Russians have introduced two SS-21 medium-range ballistic missile launchers into South Ossetia. Now, let me say a little footnote about those. They’re both conventional and nuclear. They have a relatively small conventional warhead, however. So, the military significance, if they were to be conventional, was almost trivial compared to what the Russians could deliver with the aircraft that they were using to strike the Georgians."

What that means is that if those SS-21 missiles were used with conventional warheads, they’d be less destructive than missiles fired from aircraft. So, if this is true, it’s only logical that the Russians have nuclear warheads on those SS-21 missiles.

Gardiner also mentioned that Russian Military forces have been training for situations like this one where America does get involved, thus forcing the Russians to follow through with their policy of using tactical nukes against the hypothetical US forces.

Ignoring all the other reasons for the US to not get involved in the current Russian/Georgian War, I think this is another good one. Something about Putin makes me think he’d actually use nukes. I don’t know if you can trust those ex-KGB guys…

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by ThePete 2:35 pm 2008-08-12 TheMiniBlog, ThePete.Com | $ |

I Can Haz Stoopid WhytHows gai at lympix

by ThePete 1:54 pm 2008-08-12
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I hope PixelFish sees this–I imagine she’ll get as big a kick out of it as I did. :)

For anyone who enjoys seeing the LOLcats treatment AND likes to see Bush made fun of, you might want to check the a collection of pictures at Guardian.co.uk (the above is just the first).

Check them all out here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/…12/bushlol

These days I feel kind of gross making fun of Bush since I feel like he’s such a horrible man. However, I also feel that laughing in his face can be somewhat pleasant, so I’m going in that direction for now.

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by ThePete 1:54 pm 2008-08-12 TheMiniBlog, ThePete.Com | $ |

Ad from 70s: Iran Nuke Power OK!

by ThePete 1:20 pm 2008-08-07
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The above image came from PixelFish first (here: http://www.utterz.com/…NTEyMTA0MQ ) and Shakesville second (here: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/…n-for.html ), finally originating at Dvorak.org (here: http://www.dvorak.org/blog/ ).

Good stuff.

Now, I forget, did we put the Shah in power? Or did we get rid of him because he *had* nuclear power? I forget.

We’ve propped up and torn down so many middle eastern leaders, I can’t keep ‘em all straight!

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by ThePete 1:20 pm 2008-08-07 TheMiniBlog | $ |

Berobed Men on Subway

by ThePete 9:50 pm 2008-08-05
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My guess? Some sort of marketing campaign for a bathroom-related product. I think I saw the phrase "Shave Anywhere" in fairly small print on their backs as they entered the train. So, I guess it’s a *bad* marketing campaign since I don’t know, for sure, what it’s about.

Hm.

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by ThePete 9:50 pm 2008-08-05 TheMiniBlog | $ |

New Regs Allow Border Guards to Search Your Data

by ThePete 1:51 pm 2008-08-05
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I microblogged about this the other day (here: http://thepete.com/…e-us-bord/ ) but thought I should go into a bit more detail than 140 characters allows.

Back on August 1, 2008, Democracy Now reported (here: http://www.democracynow.org/…/headlines ) that the Washington Post reported that: "federal border agents are now allowed to take and search a traveler’s laptop computer, cellphone or other electronic device without any suspicion of wrongdoing."

The DN anchor added later that: "The policy covers any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form, as well as all papers and other written documentation."

So, this is the free country we live in. Even Americans can have their thumb drives, their iPods, laptops, and even hand-written notebooks searched by border guards. This is absolutely absurd.

As an American citizen, the only thing I should ever have to show at the US border is my passport unless a legal search warrant is shown to me.

What’s really disturbing about this is how it might relate to the slippery slope argument.

Is this just the beginning? Are we going to see STATE border guards soon that can stop you to make sure you’re not carrying any child porn or terrorism plans on your iPhone? Or worse yet, will we see police officers given the legal ability to search our thumb drives, our wallets, and our laptops without cause?

It’s these little examples of bits of our freedoms being chipped away that bother me. After all, if they were to simply yank all of our freedoms away in one fell (and obvious) swoop, we’d rebel instantly. But this tap-tap-tapping at the bedrock of our freedoms reminds me of the old frog-in-the-boiling-water story.

You know, drop a frog in boiling water and he leaps to safety. Drop him in non-boiling water and slowly heat it up and he’s frog soup.

Let’s not be frog soup, yeah?

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by ThePete 1:51 pm 2008-08-05 TheMiniBlog | $ |

US Attrocities Commited During Korean War

by ThePete 1:51 pm 2008-08-05
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Is there a single war where we DIDN’T do something horrible?? (I mean, aside from the horrible stuff that is already done in war.)

What makes the cynic in me laugh like Charlton Heston is that the AP headline has the word "massacre" in quotes, like it’s just being called that and that the killing didn’t happen or that the killing of these people shouldn’t really be called a massacre.

Merriam-Webster.com calls a massacre: "the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty" (source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/…y/massacre )

Just reading the first sentence of the article and you can see that there isn’t anything "alleged" about the massacres: "South Korean investigators, matching once-secret documents to eyewitness accounts, are concluding that the U.S. military indiscriminately killed large groups of refugees and other civilians early in the Korean War."

Said "documents" come from THE USG. Here’s a bit from later in the article: "Commission researchers have unearthed evidence of indiscriminate killings in the declassified U.S. archive, including a report by U.S. inspectors-general that pilots couldn’t distinguish their South Korean civilian allies from North Korean enemy soldiers."

Then there’s the caption of the picture to the left: "South Korean villager Cho Byung-woo recounts on April 22, 2008 what happened in January 1951 when U.S. warplanes dropped napalm bombs at the mouth of this cave, where hundreds of refugees had gathered."

Sounds like an actual massacre to me–not like one that belongs in quotes.

So, even after all these years, America can’t face its own demons, openly and bravely. Its government hides its own soldier’s dead from cameras, its press candy-coats "massacres" in the news while accused Marines go free after being accused of killing 25 unarmed civilians (that’s a massacre, right?) (source: http://www.democracynow.org/…utraged_as ).

Sheesh.

Sorry to be such a downer today.

The above screencapped article comes from AP.org and AP.Google.com and you can find the original here: http://is.gd/1fNe

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by ThePete 1:51 pm 2008-08-05 TheMiniBlog | $ |

KBR Employee Trolling My Site?

by ThePete 6:26 pm 2008-07-24
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Sorry about the pic above, check out the full size version here: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/…a8fc_o.png

At the top of my website, ThePete.Com, there is a little thing called "TheBlurb." It’s just a little bit of text anyone who visits my site can change, replacing what ever is there with anything they want. Of course, I mention on the "change it" page that "TheBlurb is NOT for having conversations" yet, sometimes even I ignore this rule. Regardless, like anyplace else on the web, it attracts a troll every now and again.

Case in point, the above image. The top part of it reproduces the interchange between myself and the troll and after he clearly didn’t take the hint that he had worn out his welcome, I decided to see if I could just ban his IP. It turns out, he’s got three different IPs that he’s posted from. The surprising thing is that one of them I was able to track to Halliburton subsid, KBR’s servers in Houston, TX. The other two IPs are from Amsterdam (the one in Europe) and Los Alamitos (the one in SoCal). And when I say that I was "able to track" the IPs, I mean, I was "able to do a simple IP lookup." Nothing spectacular.

So, is this guy really a KBR employee? Or is there some other explanation?

Either way, dontcha love it when people have nothing better to do than waste your time (and their own) trying to convince you their way is the right way on YOUR website?

Dude, it’s my site and you’re trying to convince me of something I patently do not believe. Catch a clue, give up the ghost on this one and move the hell on (like I’m trying to do).

Is your life so useless that you must turn to trolling to feel good about yourself?

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by ThePete 6:26 pm 2008-07-24 TheMiniBlog | $ |

There’s a Subway That Goes Up Broadway?

by ThePete 4:57 pm 2008-07-24
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Well, the other night there sure was.

I thought about asking for a lift but I couldn’t find anywhere to swipe my fare card.

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by ThePete 4:57 pm 2008-07-24 TheMiniBlog | $ |

You See the Strangest Things…

by ThePete 4:44 pm 2008-07-24
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…when you step outside your apartment.

This was literally just outside our apartment, in the lobby of our building. I was tempted to grab it–we could use a bit more cabinet space. :)

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by ThePete 4:44 pm 2008-07-24 TheMiniBlog | $ |

The Mystery Bug Drawing

by ThePete 5:31 pm 2008-07-23
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This is a "sketch" of a bug that was drifting about my desk today. Never seen anything like it and am now convinced I am a puss since I was unable to kill it. Sadly it has buggered off to its homeworld (I believe it was an alien bug as I was unable to kill it despite it not moving very quickly. Must’ve had some sort of invisible force field to protect it from my mighty tissue).

If anyone knows what this thing is, please let me know.

In other news, still no rain for us North-Islanders. :(

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by ThePete 5:31 pm 2008-07-23 TheMiniBlog | $ |

Going to Miss the Rain Again

by ThePete 4:12 pm 2008-07-23
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Well, we might get some tonight from that next big storm, but it’ll probably just drift south and miss the city like everything else that’s been in the area.

The good thing is that it has gotten cooler, but it’s still pretty warm in the apartment. So, we could still use the rain.

Now I’ve got this freaky bug drifting around my desk. This thing is unlike any bug I’ve seen before. I’ll try to get a pic of it. If I don’t post again you know the bug turned out to be an alien that got the upper hand on me.

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by ThePete 4:12 pm 2008-07-23 TheMiniBlog | $ |

TheWife and TheMe Waiting for "Dark Knight"

by ThePete 1:50 pm 2008-07-20
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Awwwwwww(fully dark! No flash on my iPhone–why is that?)

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by ThePete 1:50 pm 2008-07-20 TheMiniBlog | $ |

A General Time Horizon???

by ThePete 4:19 pm 2008-07-18
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Saw this today while on the subway home from a job interview and it just cracked me up.

It’s not a "timetable" for withdrawing troops from Iraq, it’s "a general time horizon."

As a person who now lives in New York City I feel I should be blunt when I say: Just who the fuck do you government guys think you’re kidding??

The *Iraqis* want us out and now it’s a general time horizon. Fine, fine.

Can we get one of those BEFORE we invade Iran, please??

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by ThePete 4:19 pm 2008-07-18 TheMiniBlog | $ |

Seeing "Passing Strange"

by ThePete 8:29 pm 2008-07-17
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…before it closes this weekend. :(

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by ThePete 8:29 pm 2008-07-17 TheMiniBlog | $ |

TheBlurb: If you're wondering if your input is appreciated, keep forcing it on people and find out that it isn't at all appreciated.
updated on 07/24/08 18:24:58 Change it! Archives