» Musings

I’m not sure which is the more enraging right now.

That a hotel seems to have a company policy to refuse accommodation for any service member in the UK.

Or that the (parent?) company has the gall to call itself “American Amusements” with such a policy in place.

What

The

Fuck?

Such a policy sure as hell isn’t “American” (unless you count certain unmentionable crazies who qualify as “American” solely on the fact it’s their citizenship, not their philosophy).

From “American Amusement”’s website:

American Amusements Ltd is one of the UK’s fastest growing and most successful Leisure Company’s.

Once upon a time, I thought Ryanair took it to extremes when it came to “no frills” flying - but not even they have come up with this idea …

Both the BBC News and CNN.com websites report on the decision by regional airline Air Canada Jazz to remove life-vests from their planes, citing Canadian regulations that say they’re not needed when flying within 50 miles from land.

Apparently, Air Canada Jazz thinks seat cushions are sufficient flotation devices for their passengers’ safety over water.

Umm …

What

The

Fuck?

Since everyone appears to think they’re somehow experts on the subject, here are my predictions for the upcoming Presidential Elections pre-game rally - the conventions.

• Hillary Clinton will try to steal the nomination for Democratic Presidential candidate at the convention.
• John McCain will announce Joe Lieberman as his running mate at some point.

There. With a side note that it’s a pity there isn’t a Paris Hilton/Stephen Colbert ticket. The political system is a joke, so the pair of them are far more qualified!!

There must be something in the water at Sci-Fi Channel headquarters - and if there isn’t, there should be, because that’s the only explanation I can think of that covers the total mess that is BSG Season 4.

Season 4 of BSG has felt like an amateurish rush job at the best of times, but come on guys, not even I could put this many choppy deus ex machina plot twists into a storyline!

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen runs a blog on Time Magazine’s website, “Work In Progress“, which sometimes can be almost close to approaching nearing the level of cynicism I occasionally use here.

Recently, she ran a blog entry, “Equal pay isn’t a partisan issue. Is it?“, explaining that the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act had been filibustered in Congress by the Republicans.

The Act was intended to be

Steve Ballmer is reported to suggest Microsoft’s Windows XP’s life may be extended beyond the planned termination of sales and some support soon.

To be honest, it feels like a lot of spin by Microsoft.  Ballmer is quoted as saying:

“If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter”

If this is the source of media speculation XP may be extended, they’re being rather hopeful, as it’s so vague as to be nonsensical.

Ballmer does seem to be continuing the spin with other comments in that report.

But Ballmer was adamant that “most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista.”

It’s amazing just how low some TV “celebrities” will sink to exploit controversy in order to boost ratings. The question is, where do we draw the line between the “entertainment” of covering such controversies, and potentially creating those controversies by encouraging people?

Once upon a time, the Jerry Springer¹ TV show was the last word in “trailer trash”, with most viewers tuning in just to watch the fights, and bouncer Steve jumping in to separate the combatants (Steve himself managed to get his own show).

Then you have “Dr Phil”².

To the guy (or gal) from Stuttgart, Germany using an army.mil address, thank you for visiting - and thank you for your service!

Stay safe, and keep the faith.

It must be one of the few times something has made its way across the Atlantic with the UK coming first.

Over there, it’s called Happy Slapping - video taping assaults at random for distribution, usually using cell phones.

Most people by now are familiar with the latest US emulation of this particular brand of nastyness, especially with the widely publicized case of 8 teenagers in Florida. There are other cases, but they all have one thing in common - the results of these attacks are filmed, then posted to the ‘Net.

Blogs are hopping today it seems with stories about Judge Marvin Arrington Sr in Atlanta, Georgia.

The judge is reported to have ordered everyone in his courtroom who wasn’t black to leave, and then gave the blacks present a “lecture”¹.

For some reason, everyone has decided that the judge (who is black himself) was racist in doing so.

I disagree with them, though.

It’s common knowledge that a judge controls his courtroom, end of story. The judge was totally within his rights to exclude anyone for any reason. In the courtroom, the judge is law, after a fashion.