Funny E-mail

I got this in an e-mail from a friend, I assume this is all true as that is his dog:

Have you ever heard that a dog "knows" when an earthquake is about to hit?

Have you ever heard that a dog can "sense" when a tornado is stirring up, even twenty miles away?

Do you remember hearing that, before the December tsunami struck Southeast Asia , dogs started running frantically away from the seashore, at breakneck speed?

I'm a firm believer that animals - and especially dogs - have keen insights into the Truth.

And you can't tell me that dogs can't sense a potentially terrible disaster well in advance.

Simply said, a good ol' hound dog just KNOWS when something isn't right . . when impending doom is upon us . . The other day while I was walking through my neighborhood with my dog, Fritz, he suddenly became agitated and pulled his head right out of his collar. I thought it was a cat. Lucky I had my cell phone camera with me....

How to open a pool

Opening a pool is quite simple yet some places charge up to $400 to do it. Once temperatures reach 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and stay there, you can open your pool.


First, remove your cover. I have a "safety cover" which allows water to pass through the mesh during the closed season. This results in very terrible looking, and smelling, water in the spring/summer. Removal of this 16' x 32' cover takes 20 minutes and requires the assistance of my 8 yr old.


That looks good right? You can see the cover at the top of the photo, it is upside down and I hose it off and let it sit in the sun to dry before rolling it up and storing it. Hosing takes 10 minutes, drying takes one day, and the folding/storing process takes five minutes. I have also put the ladder back in even though the pool is unusable. This is a safety precaution in case someone were to fall in.


Next, I remove all plugs from the returns, vacuum outlet, and skimmer. I REPLACE the plugs in the pump and filter and fill those two devices with water. Yes, you have to stick your hand in the nasty water. Worse than that the skimmer basket had 10 or 12 giant hairy spiders in it.


Fill the pool to the appropriate level. Notice the dark stuff on the bottom of the pool. These items are the occasional leaf I missed during the last vacuuming, and this year tons of worms.


After the water level is up, and the pump and filter are running I add six pounds of shock and six 3-inch chlorine tablets. You can add more shock if you want to speed up the process but my yard gets direct sun all day so any more than this would burn off before the benefit was realized.

48 - 96 hours later vacuum up the crud and check your chemical levels. Mine needed one pound of pH+ and the six chlorine tabs were gone. I added three chlorine tabs, replaced my cartridge filter and the pool is 76 degrees Fahrenheit and ready for our first pool party Friday. FYI when a pool party involves more than five children I always increase the chlorine level quite a bit. Yes, that ruins their swimsuits faster but it's worth the "accident" payoff.

Movie Review (Breach)

Last night I headed over to the dollar movie to see Breach. I was familiar with the story and wanted to see how Hollywood adapted something that was in the press only a few years ago.

Overall, the movie was good, yet slow paced. A young FBI intern trying to become an agent is assigned as a clerk to Agent Robert Hanssen. Agent Hanssen was, by then, well know for his reputation as a patriot and fantastic agent. When Hollywood tried to show how brilliant Agent Hanssen was I believe they fell a little flat in the scenes that should have impressed you with agent Hanssen's ability to read people and the like. It was definitely the screenplay or the direction that caused this to fall flat as the actors certainly delivered in their respective roles. I also didn't feel the tension building appropriately as the scenes progressed, but this is perhaps because I knew how the story ended. The only other irritating thing was a scene with Eric O'Neil (Ryan Phillippe) and his wife Julianna (Caroline Dhavernas) where she asks him to betray his mission because she wants to know why he is gone all the time. Having spent a bit of time working in environments which require discretion I can say that when your wife says "Don't you trust me enough to tell me?" The answer is "No." Even better she followed that sentence with "Do you think you would be betraying your country by telling me?" The answer is "Yes." This is simple and should not be taken as a matter of trust or personal preference, you simply don't share these types of things with people who don't need to know regardless of their trustworthiness or good intentions.
This movie is decent but should only be seen at the dollar flick, or a rental. I would say the main detractor from making this true story absolutely fantastic would be the pace of the film.
Let me throw a quick shout out to one of my favorite guys Gary Cole who was in the movie but will always be Bill Lumbergh from Office Space to me.

Reverend Jerry Falwell

Reposted from Mike's soapbox.

I know this is about a week late, but I just read the Ann Coulter column that followed Jerry Falwell’s death and thought it was worth reprinting. It’s somewhat lengthy but well worth the read. It’s entitled: “Jerry Falwell -- Say Hello to Ronald Reagan!”

No man in the last century better illustrated Jesus' warning that "All men will hate you because of me" than the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who left this world on Tuesday. Separately, no man better illustrates my warning that it doesn't pay to be nice to liberals.

Falwell was a perfected Christian. He exuded Christian love for all men, hating sin while loving sinners. This is as opposed to liberals, who just love sinners. Like Christ ministering to prostitutes, Falwell regularly left the safe confines of his church to show up in such benighted venues as CNN.

He was such a good Christian that back when we used to be on TV together during Clinton's impeachment, I sometimes wanted to say to him, "Step aside, reverend -- let the mean girl handle this one." (Why, that guy probably prayed for Clinton!)

For putting Christ above everything -- even the opportunity to make a humiliating joke about Clinton -- Falwell is known as "controversial." Nothing is ever as "controversial" as yammering about Scripture as if, you know, it's the word of God or something.

From the news coverage of Falwell's death, I began to suspect his first name was "Whether You Agree With Him or Not."

Even Falwell's fans, such as evangelist Billy Graham and former President Bush, kept throwing in the "We didn't always agree" disclaimer. Did Betty Friedan or Molly Ivins get this many "I didn't always agree with" qualifiers on their deaths? And when I die, if you didn't always agree with me, would you mind keeping it to yourself?

Let me be the first to say: I ALWAYS agreed with the Rev. Falwell.

Actually, there was one small item I think Falwell got wrong regarding his statement after 9/11 that "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians -- who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle -- the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

First of all, I disagreed with that statement because Falwell neglected to specifically include Teddy Kennedy and "the Reverend" Barry Lynn.

Second, Falwell later stressed that he blamed the terrorists most of all, but I think that clarification was unnecessary. The necessary clarification was to note that God was at least protecting America enough not to allow the terrorists to strike when a Democrat was in the White House.

(If you still think it isn't Christ whom liberals hate, remember: They hate Falwell even more than they hate me.)

I note that in Falwell's list of Americans he blamed for ejecting God from public life, only the gays got a qualifier. Falwell referred to gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle.

No Christian minister is going to preach that homosexuality is godly behavior, but Falwell didn't add any limiting qualifications to his condemnation of feminists, the ACLU or People for the American Way.

There have always been gay people -- even in the prelapsarian '50s that Jerry Falwell and I would like to return to, when God protected America from everything but ourselves.

What Falwell was referring to are the gay activists -- the ones who spit the Eucharist on the floor at St. Patrick's Cathedral, blamed Reagan for AIDS, and keep trying to teach small schoolchildren about "fisting."

Also the ones who promote the gay lifestyle in a children's cartoon.

Beginning in early 1998, the news was bristling with stories about a children's cartoon PBS was importing from Britain that featured a gay cartoon character, Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubbie with a male voice and a red handbag.

People magazine gleefully reported that Teletubbies was "aimed at Telebabies as young as one year. But teenage club kids love the products' kitsch value, and gay men have made the purse-toting Tinky Winky a camp icon."

In the Nexis archives for 1998 alone, there are dozens and dozens of mentions of Tinky Winky being gay -- in periodicals such as Newsweek, The Toronto Star, The Washington Post (twice!), The New York Times and Time magazine (also twice).

In its Jan. 8, 1999, issue, USA Today accused The Washington Post of "outing" Tinky Winky, with a "recent Washington Post In/Out list putting T.W. opposite Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche, essentially 'outing' the kids' show character."

Michael Musto of The Village Voice boasted that Tinky Winky was "out and proud," noting that it was "a great message to kids -- not only that it's OK to be gay, but the importance of being well accessorized."

All this appeared before Falwell made his first mention of Tinky Winky.

After one year of the mainstream media laughing at having put one over on stupid bourgeois Americans by promoting a gay cartoon character in a TV show for children, when Falwell criticized the cartoon in February 1999, that same mainstream media howled with derision that Falwell thought a cartoon character could be gay.

Teletubbies producers immediately denounced the suggestion that Tinky Winky was gay -- though they admitted that he was once briefly engaged to Liza Minnelli. That's what you get, reverend, for believing what you read in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time magazine and Newsweek. Of course, Falwell also thought the show "Queer as Folk" was gay, so obviously the man had no credibility.

Despite venomous attacks and overwhelming pressure to adopt the fashionable beliefs of cafe society, Falwell never wavered an inch in acknowledging Jesus before men. Luckily, Jesus' full sentence, quoted at the beginning of this column is: "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."

Game of the Week

Age Of Speed Master the race tracks of the future as you tackle huge jumps.

Play this free game now!!

Get a platform please

I caught Mrs. Clinton on Good Morning America today where she continues her Anti-Bush platform. I guess I should be happy that this is where she stands and is choosing to focus her efforts on someone who will not be running, but it gets so irritating. Today she was calling for a DEBATE WITH GWB. Honey, debate your opposition; that being the people who will oppose you for the office of President of the United States. I am glad she continues to prove that her only qualification for the job is that she lived in the White house for 8 years and already knows how she will re-decorate.

Read my Reviews on Epinions

Stop by and read the Captain's reviews on Epinions! Every click gets me some pennies.

I would be happy to review products by request, no requests from the VelvetMantis or Teddy Bare please.

Fandango is prejudiced?!?!?!

From a buddy's blog, spread the word:

http://jubalingen.blogspot.com/2007/05/not-fandango.html

Why I dislike Oprah Winfrey

I have several reasons. For all the good she does, she is wishy washy on so many issues. She claims to be Christian, yet thinks marriage is an unnecessary institution, when she is fat she talks about how it's ok to be fat, when she is skinny she talks about how to get skinny etc.. This past week really took the cake. I figured I would call it out since so many people are getting canned just for talking these days.

Speaking about her Grandmother:
"She used to say, 'I hope you get some good white folks that are kind to you.' And I regret that she didn't live past 1963 to see that I did grow up and get some really good white folks working for me," Winfrey said, to laughter and a loud applause.

Double standard in action.

Great Headline

Nudists Seek to Attract Younger Members, Finding it a Tough Sell

I wonder why all the fat, wrinkly naked people can't make friends. I also wonder why they refer to anyone willing to run around nude as "enlightened."

How to be a complete loser

Vegan Couple Gets Life in Prison After Baby Dies of Starvation

If you choose to not eat meat or animal products someday, more power to you. Your body needs what animals provide when you are developing. Don't push your crap on the innocent.

Cant we all just get along?

Not even the animals can get along. What is the world coming to? The sad thing is, none of those people even tried to stop this violence. I am sure it's the President's fault.

Bear Kills Moose in Alaska Driveway as Residents Watch

More Gun Control in the news

The shirt above says it all. It was this article that got me on the subject again. Washington DC does not currently allow guns for it's residents. Washington DC has a ton of crime and murders every year, all the time. What a shining example of what gun control would be like. The left is slowly getting rid of free speech and now guns too.

Global Warming (Real or Al Gore)

It seems to me a lot of really fantastic claims are made by some scientists with relatively little data or with little to no solid proof of their theories. While this stuff is actually pretty common in science it has begun to irritate me with respect to Global Warming. I decided to pole around and see what both sides of the story were. I will link you to several different articles, make your own informed decision:

http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1281

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/4/6/212631.shtml

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0605/S00001.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/

http://www.globalwarming.org/

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

After some reading I found just as many or more sites that refute the current alarmist trend and seem to use better science than what I see from Mr. Gore. Additionally, the whole aim of the current scare does not actually seem to be to help the planet, but to vilify the United States and in particular Automakers and people who drive trucks/SUVs. How is it helpful to do that? So much of the hype centers on anthropogenic (man-made)global warming. If you do a little digging you can learn that humans don't produce near as much CO2 as nature does all by itself. The scales and units of measure used in the hype are also incredibly tiny. These tiny units of measure are overlayed with dramatic music and horrific images lending more impact.

Enjoy the reading, get a hybrid if you want to. Stop telling people there should be no ice cubes, or that they have to use a certain light bulb. Certainly don't go torching cars you don't like.

Knoxtronics.com

Yesterday as I was driving to work I stopped at the intersection of Dutchtown Road and Mabry Hood Road. To my left 40 yards away was a car approaching at 40+ mph, speed limit is 30 right there, so I decided to let him pass before making a right turn onto Dutchtown. The jackass behind me decides he is in a terrible hurry and shoots off through the small construction zone and onto Dutchtown right in front of that oncoming vehicle. I turned onto the road and went 32 MPH and met him at the stoplight about half a mile away. It was then I noticed he had a huge sticker on the back windshield of his Maroon Ford Expedition. It said:

WWW.KNOXTRONICS.COM

I find it interesting that people drive like this tool anyway, let alone when they advertise who they are when they do it. What a moron! I encourage everyone to give him a call.

Sky Golf Flash Game

I will start posting some nice flash games for when you need a "break" at work. This one is pretty nice, I would like to see the ability to replay the previous hole instead of just a full restart.

Sky Golf Play this futuristic golf game on floating holes in the sky!

Play this free game now!!

I Have Been There

I have been a huge fan of Mark Schultz for years, this is my favorite cd/dvd combintation here:

Mark Schultz Live CD/DVD