Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Multi-Million Dollar NFL Slaves Unhappy

After Viking's Adrian Peterson said being in the NFL was like being in the slave trade, a friend of mine on Facebook was pretty upset with the pro football players, and she claimed she was done with those cry baby players. Recently, a South Park episode on Comedy Central called Crack Baby Basketball poked fun at Cartman's newly created sport being exploitative like slavery, and the big joke was he compared it to the NCAA.
I don't like throwing a word like slavery around lightly, but if you're comparing pro and college athletes then Matt Stone and Trey Parker used it correctly. Now, college that's a slave trade millions of $ to the colleges, but only a few of the athletes get scholarships. NCAA caps those. How about giving all the team members full paid scholarships, and they could pay a set amount of players capped small stipends. College athletes have to risk injury, attend classes and practices, but don't buy them a hamburger if they're hungry might lose their scholarship. The NCAA don't really care if they graduate as long as they keep all the $. Only the fans care if college players leave early to avoid injury or they need the money. After all that, they decide to go pro so they can make some money, pay some bills, and buy mom that house only to be locked out because some pros already knee deep in cash wants more. The funny thing is they want the new players to take smaller contracts so they can take more. Greed does not become football players. I love the game, but I'm starting to dislike the pro players.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

FOLLOW THE LINK TO CREDO AND SIGN THE PETITION

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=7861&id=21125-3916483-5PQSwyx&t=1

Tell the Senators from Big Oil: Stop putting Big Oil subsidies ahead of the American people.


On Tuesday night, 48 Senators, including three Democrats and all but two Republicans, put Big Oil before the American people and helped defeat a bill that would have ended tax breaks for the five biggest oil companies.
How could anyone vote against a bill that would have kept $21 billion of American taxpayers' money out of the pockets of cash-rich oil companies?
One big reason is oil money in our political process. A lot of it. Oil and gas companies spent $39.5 million lobbying congress in just the first quarter of this year, and have donated nearly $18 million to the 48 Senators who voted to protect oil subsidies.1
But make no mistake. Even though we didn't get the 60 votes required for passage, our pressure to end oil subsidies is already working. More and more legislators are acting defensive about their support of Big Oil over the American people.
In February, similar legislation to repeal some oil subsidies got only 44 votes. Yesterday, we got 52 votes. That comes after CREDO Action members sent more than 225,000 petitions to the Senate and made more than 1,000 calls yesterday to 11 key Senators, six of whom flipped their position and voted to end tax breaks to Big Oil.
Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said yesterday that despite this defeat, he will continue to push for ending oil subsides as part of negotiations on the budget and to raise the debt ceiling.2
We need to keep the pressure on. And one key to breaking Big Oil's grasp on our legislators is letting Congress know that we know about the millions of dollars that Big Oil has given them.
Let's make sure that our Senators' votes to protect oil company profits don't go unanswered by those of us who actually pay the price.
1. "Senators Opposing End of Oil Subsidies Received Five Times More in Big Oil Campaign Cash," Oil Change International, May 17, 2011
2. "Senate rejects bill to cut oil tax breaks," The Hill, May 17, 2011
Here are the 48 Senators who voted against ending Big Oil subsidies: Alexander (R-TN), Ayotte (R-NH), Barrasso (R-WY), Begich (D-AK), Blunt (R-MO), Boozman (R-AR), Brown (R-MA), Burr (R-NC), Chambliss (R-GA), Coats (R-IN), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Enzi (R-WY), Graham (R-SC), Grassley (R-IA), Hatch (R-UT), Heller (R-NV), Hoeven (R-ND), Hutchison (R-TX), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE), Johnson (R-WI), Kirk (R-IL), Kyl (R-AZ), Landrieu (D-LA), Lee (R-UT), Lugar (R-IN), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Moran (R-KS), Murkowski (R-AK), Nelson (D-NE), Paul (R-KY), Portman (R-OH), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Rubio (R-FL), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Thune (R-SD), Toomey (R-PA), Vitter (R-LA), Wicker (R-MS)

Monday, May 16, 2011

Meter and Feet Cheat Sheet

Although I'm not a big fan of forced poetry, see previous post I've Got Rhythm or Not, I've prepared these easy to follow tables because some of you asked for an easy to follow cheat sheet for meter and feet.

Writing Style
Type of Feet Used
Description
Iambic
Iamb
(u /)
Trochaic
Trochee
(/ u)
Anapestic
Anapest
(u u /)
Dactylic
Dactyl
(/ u u)
Amphibrachic
Amphibrach
(u / u)
Spondaic
Spondee
(/ /)
Pyrrhic
Pyrrhic
(u u)
Stressed =   /      and      Unstressed =   u


Meters
# of Feet


monometer
1
dimeter
2
trimeter
3
tetrameter
4
pentameter
5
hexameter
6
heptameter
7
octameter
8
enneameter
9
decameter
10



Understanding the names given to different types of poetry depends on the type of feet used and the number of feet; for example, a poem written in iambs (u/) feet would be labeled iambic. You then need to know how many times the foot is used to get the description for the meter; for instance, the use of five feet would be pentameter. You merely combine the two parts to get the complete description iambic pentameter.
For example, a poem using six Spondee feet (//) all stressed syllables would not only be loud and annoying, but easily described as Spondaic Hexameter. I wrote the example below using all stressed syllables to illustrate the loudness, and stressfulness of annoying traffic. I could have used pentameter, but it didn’t seem irritating enough. The poem works because whenever I verbalize it at a poetry reading the audience complains it is exactly that loud, annoying and stressful like traffic. It has even been accused of giving the audience headaches much like traffic does me. If you want to get rid of unwanted company, tell them your favorite poem is Traffic by Frank G. Poe, Jr., and recite it from memory. It is easy to remember, and clears a room.
Example: by Frank G. Poe, Jr. 
Traffic
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop,
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,
Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow,
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop,
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
Honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk, honk,
Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow,
Free, free, free, free, free, free, free, free, free, free, free, free,
Speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed,
Cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop, cop,
Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow, slow,
Lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights, lights,
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY

Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers. May your day be filled with love and joy.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Warning Beware of Butt Floss

In my house we try to conserve energy and water. My wife and I try to do what is right for the environment, but we don’t always agree on when it is time to save resources or when it time to throw in the towel. Let this serve as a warning environmental conservation disagreements stink.
My wife likes to reuse bath towels after we shower. She likes to hang them up and let them dry. If you ask her why she will answer, “You just wiped off water. You were finished taking your shower so the towel is just wet not dirty.” If you make the point that company might use drying towels then she will defend with they are expected to use the hand towels by the sink. Now there are four things wrong with this philosophy when it comes to towels.
First, my wife seems to have no time requirement for how long a bath towel should be used. If it hangs there for a week, the “clean” towel can start to have its own unique smell, and it’s not a “clean” smell.
Second, somewhere during this process of drying and reusing towels, one always turns into a floor towel to step on when we get out of the shower. If anyone else is like us that towel gets used like a mop for the entire bathroom as wet people scoot it along the floor to avoid getting water all over the place. Since it gets hung up to dry with the other towels, I often find it hard to remember which towel is the floor towel. The thought of drying off with the dry floor towel grosses me out, but if I protest by getting out new towel then I get grief for wasting towels.
Third, I personally dental floss my butt when I dry off. You all know what I’m talking about when you put the edge of your towel in between your butt cheeks and give it a few good tugs back and forth. I’m pretty sure many other people do the same. Women might deny it, but men do it. It is the last thing you do when you’re drying off. It’s like buffing the last bit of turtle wax, pun intended, on a car to make it shine. I just don’t want to reuse my butt floss. What if I forget which edge I used? This brings me to my final point.
Fourth, just because you expect company to use the hand towels to dry their hands and faces doesn’t mean they are going to do so. Without naming names, I saw a visitor at my house using my butt floss to dry his face and hands. I tried to stop him, but he just said, “What? What’s wrong?” What could I say in return? I simply told him those weren’t the hand towels, and they might be dirty. He didn’t seem to care, but I imagine if I would have said I used it on my butt he might have cared.
If this is happening in my house, I pretty sure it is happening in other houses across the world. So let this be a warning to everyone visiting others, “Use the hand towels!”

Monday, May 2, 2011

Obama Osama Joke Already Think This Will Help Obama's Approval Rating?

Why did it take an Obama to get an Osama? Because the Bin Laden family had Osoma hiding behind some Bushs.

I've already heard some Republicans try to give credit to Bush for Osama's demise and takes verbal shots at Obama for taking so long to get him. "Bush said we would get him and we did." Really? I remember Bush saying something like, "Osama Bin Laden is just not that important. He is not our top priority," after years of inability to capture or kill Osama. I recall Obama making a campaign  promise he would make bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice a top priority when elected. By my count that makes one big promise Obama has squarely kept just two years into his Presidency. Spin it any way you want. He got the job done. I'm just glad the families of the 9-11 victims finally got some justice, and all Americans, Democrats and Republicans, should just be happy justice was served.