I can’t help but to admire him in a way. face it, the worst moment of his life was splattered all across national television, radio, the internet (now I am guilty of that too… but I am trying to defend him here) and endlessly satired. The guy easily could have profited from his misfortune seven ways from Sunday, turning his misfortune into a goldmine. To be honest, if that happened to me, I would have done everything I could to make as much money as possible from it. If I were persecuted to the extent he has been, well, what have you got to lose at that point? Might as well take advantage of a bad situation and make it as good as you possibly can. Yet, he simply minds his own business and goes his own way… truly admirable I must say.

Also, I think it’s important to point out that during the entire Chicago Cubs playoff run that season, Steve was only part of one play that was taking place in foul territory, and who’s to say that Alou would have even caught the ball?.. his fielding skills are not that impressive. Plus, in case you didn’t notice, Steve wasn’t the only one going for the ball, he had help. Others around him were making a go of it too. He just happened to be the one lucky/unlucky enough to get his hands on it.

Not that we will ever forget his mishap, how can you after all that has been made of it? But the guy’s life has been forever altered to the point where he might want to consider entering the witness protection program. All for attempting to catch a foul ball during a playoff game that just happened to be headed right towards him… any fans dream!

In Steve’s defense, the Chicago Cubs blew the series, not Steve Bartman. Chicago had nine guys on the field who were being paid to win the game as well as the series. Instead the events that followed Steve’s attempt to catch the foul ball was your text book domino effect; Moises Alou threw a temper tantrum that was enough to rattle any athlete’s mental state making it hard to focus on the game and task at hand. Starting pitcher Mark Prior then complimented Alou’s tantrum with a wild pitch for ball 4, which advanced the runner (Juan Pierre) who was on 2nd over to 3rd while putting Luis Castillo on 1st. However, all was not lost, a double play ball could have easily ended the inning. Sure enough, a ground ball was hit directly towards Alex Gonzalez, a perfect situation for the sure handed Gonzalez and almost Heaven sent, except Alex had a hell of a time handling it and blew the play. From there, well, no need to relive the entire 8th & 9th inning.

Having Alou catch the infamous foul ball would have simply been one play and one out, essentially leaving 4 more outs for the Cubs to contend with. It was not even a game winning situation that Bartman interfered with, it merely would have been out number two in the eight inning, far from the guarantee of a win… as I have seen the Cubs blow bigger leads with two outs in the 9th, any of which I am positive that Steve had nothing to do with.

JT-

Mind you I that I do not typically agree with about 60% of what Michael has to say, but to his defense he was not attacking kids that really are afflicted with the disease, but instead he was taking shots at the medical profession (read my blog about that too if you like) as well as poor parenting. What I see his point as being is that this modern era of medicine is worse than all the crack and heroin dealers combined, that kids are being labeled as something that they are not just to shove drugs in their face. The drug companies want to deal their drugs and what better target market than to appeal to overcritical and under informed parents that think the problem lies with their child, not with their own lousy parenting, a medical misdiagnosis or the possibility that their kid just might be anti social and would prefer to be left alone, in my day it was called; being a loner - I was one of those kids. 

A good friend of mine knows an “Autistic” child, I use quotes because she isn’t convinced that the little boy is actually Autistic. He runs, plays, laughs, gives hugs, loves watching his cartoons, yet he is on drugs to manage his “Autism.” His parents both work long hours including weekends, he spends most of his time with a daycare provider as well as his grandparents. Sometimes he plays with the other kids at daycare, sometimes he doesn’t. But his parents are certain that their boy has the disease because he doesn’t quite relate to them, is distant and tends to act up while in their presence… hmm, I can’t help but to wonder why?

Of course we can’t have a statement like the one Michael said without people crawling out of the woodwork to protest. I have to ask though, what are they protesting?.. the disease itself or the fact that these people have no idea how to interpret their child’s actions as well as a statement made more or less on their own behalf? Either way it’s no surprise to me. We are a people that no longer choose to help ourselves, instead we rely on others to make our decisions for us, at least for the most part. I.E. we need a drug to manage our cholesterol while proper diet and exercise are merely secondary if not optional all together. 

It seems Autism is being taken much too lightly and labeling a child as such is becoming much too quick and easy. What really irks me though are the people who constantly feel the need to go out of their way to protest mere words spoken by one man indirectly at no one specific. In this case, Michael was simply describing his distaste for the ignorance of a public that seems all to eager to diagnose a child with a life altering disease, speaking on the behalf of those who cannot. Seems admirable to me. Instead, his words have been twisted and deformed, the meaning was lost and those waiting to protest something are out in full force… speaking of, where the hell is Al Sharpton?

I know the protests will not stop as those who feel the need to protest gay marriage think they are right and also think they have the right to choose what’s best for others. But I have to ask, what right does anyone have to tell someone (whom they don’t even know) that they can or cannot, should or should not do something that makes them happy? Especially if it’s something that is within their right and within the law.

I can’t stand people who have nothing better to do except harass decent law abiding citizens. I ask those people who protest gay marriage exactly how does it affect you and your way of life? What problems does gay marriage cause you and your family? How does it affect your finances? Does the tax payer get stuck with the cost of a same sex wedding in California? If you want to protest something that actually does affect you then protest the war or gas prices or even welfare, either of which affects your lives and finances.

I am curious to know, what good do you think will come out of protesting gay marriage? Do you think a gay couple who just got married will go home and sulk knowing they upset a person they don’t even know or care about? Or perhaps you might think that a couple who notices your protest sign on the way into a chapel will realize that they have wronged you and cancel their plans to wed.

I am not for gay marriage just as I am not against it. Basically, it doesn’t affect me or my family in the least nor does it bother us. Of all the things to be worried, concerned or angry about in this country, same sex marriage doesn’t come anywhere close to making my list. For those who are bothered or disturbed by same sex marriage - maybe if you try minding your own business or looking the other way, I think you will find your world to be a much better place.

JT-

So what can people do who dig music but don’t have the extra cash to spend on it? I have come to find that while you might not be able to download your all time favorite band’s music library, you can still find some very good & very free music on the Internet that is available for download, you just have to know where to look is all.

Independent bands these days are finding it harder and harder to acquire fans, it’s especially difficult to get fans to attend shows & concerts. The days of sleeping overnight in line to get tickets are gone! Nowadays people would much rather save their money on the cost of tickets, fuel and beverages and simply stay home and stream their entertainment. So in an effort to acquire fans, many independent bands & artists are offering free music as a way to entice their potential public.

So, in just a few minutes of surfing the net I came across a number of sites offering free and legal music downloads.

For instance: Typhoon Ferri is offering what looks to be an entire album, for free. A smooth-groove sounding band with a touch of light 70’s in their sound.

Then we have: Full Caliber - a good hard rockin’ old school-influenced band who is offering two free mp3 tracks just for subscribing to their emailing list! If you dig AC/DC, Sammy Hagar, Billy Squier…. you will most likely find that these guys suit your taste!

Or maybe your into country music? Well: Uncle Lucius is offering their music for download and it’s  free of course.

By all means, we can’t leave out the fans of something a little progressive, for you I found: Band Of Horses of which should suit your needs for good melodic rock.

Oh… Blues you say? Well, I think we can take care of that with no problem t’all, just check the Tommy Castro Band - listen and sing those blues to yer heart’s content!

I could go on and on but I think you have the idea as well as a good foundation to start with.

The only thing I ask is; not to exploit these fine and hard working musicians. By all means they are offering their music for free and if you enjoy it then go ahead and add it to your library. At the same time, perhaps you could offer them something in return? Instead of downloading and running off to the next site, give their websites a good look and take it all in. You could also send them an email telling them that you enjoy their music and appreciate them putting it up for all of us to download. Musicians typically find it far more satisfying when people take the time to thank them for making their music as opposed to having people simply purchase it and move on.

Allow to me add one final note, I would suggest avoiding sites like Kazaa (and others like it) for obvious reasons of spyware & malware.

How I found the sites that I listed was to look up actual bands and artists using Google with key words like: “mp3, free, band, download, artist, group, rock, blues” - of course I played around with the order of the key words and the phrasing, but the point is; go to actual band sites that control and distribute their own music, instead of using those all in one free sites for fear of malware, spyware and possible issues with legality.

Happy listening!

JT-

Of course I have nothing against deaf people, blind people or any person who was unfortunate enough to have ended up with or been born with any type of physical or mental disability… but to have your child engineered this way is beyond sadistic.

Mr. Lichy & Ms. Garfield are arguing that having their “right” to have a deaf born child taken away is discrimination against deaf people… (please, someone hand me a bag, followed immediately by a razor blade!) Can’t these people find a more appropriate way to teach their child how to handle adversity?  There are so many things wrong with their thought process and outlook on life in general that I’m completely beside myself that they are allowed to have children at all. If they think engineering a deaf child is not only a fine thing to do but the way it should to be, well, I guess it’s far too late for them.

In reference to how she felt about not being allowed to have a guaranteed deaf child, Ms. Garfield had the audacity to ask the public: “…what if you wanted to have a child who could hear, but were not allowed? It’s the same thing for us.” - Um, well, hearing is a God given gift you sadistic nut!.. so it’s not even close to the same thing. To even try to attempt an argument using that logic (or lack of it) is actually laughable. It did make for fine entertainment in my household.

Back to the point, if their plan is allowed to be carried out, who’s to say that this is what their child would want? Can you imagine finding out years later that you had a perfectly fine chance to be born with the ability to listen to music, hear birds chirp on a spring morning or the ocean roar upon the beach,  but instead, your parents thought it would be best if all this was taken from you… surprise!

Life already has it’s fair share of uncertainties, to add to it by intentionally depriving your child of his or her gift of hearing (just because you are deaf yourself, and lets face it, that’s what it boils down to) - is selfish, evil and morally criminal.

JT-

But seriously, how much difference would it make if they had increased production? It would make very little difference at all and here’s why; China and India are growing by leaps and bounds in their own consumption of the world’s energy. The reason fuel costs are so high lately is mainly because of those two countries. And here’s the real kicker, we have no one to blame but ourselves! Well, not the average Joe per say, but rather our friends the big corporate giants who can’t stand to spend a few extra bucks out of their multi-million dollar salaries. Instead, they send our jobs overseas.

They are outsourcing a great many of our jobs to India (you know what I mean, if you ever had to call a customer service number and you end up speaking with someone whom you can hardly understand… then you have to do your best to translate your technical problem to them. Talk about your communication breakdowns!!) So, with this sudden burst of economic euphoria for India, they now have all sorts of money to run out and buy all the vehicles they can handle. Meanwhile driving up the cost of fuel AND pushing American workers out of jobs, how’s that for a double whammy?

As with China, well, where do you think 90% of our electronics come from? You guessed it! They too are enjoying a great big economic push from their pals over here in the states.

India gets our jobs and China gets our business, at the same time they are now fighting us for fuel and unlike 15-20 years ago, they are now able to put up a pretty darn good fight. Unfortunately the only chance we have that things might get better is first; things have to get worse… much worse. So grab onto to something and hold tight… it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Although I am probably drawing a target on my own back for what I am about to say, but I have to agree with Snipes and applaud his actions. The whole subject of taxes is a sensitive pet peeve of mine. It’s not that I completely disagree with the concept in parts, but it’s where the money goes, what the money does and ultimately, having to pay for the same things over and over again.

To clarify, let’s take the latter part of the above paragraph. You go to a car dealer, you buy a car… you pay taxes on it. Years later, you wish to sell the car privately, the next person who buys it then has to pay taxes on the vehicle, then you go to buy a car from another private owner, you then pay taxes on that. It’s an unfair fight to say the least. Every time you turn around, you are expected and required to pay taxes on items that have already had the taxes paid for.

Next, the money itself. Of course we need roads, sidewalks, schools, buses and so on. But how about this war? Like 68% of Americans, I want nothing to do with it and do not wish to finance it any longer. But I don’t have a choice, part of my tax money goes to fund it.
Then we have welfare, I have a hard enough time supporting myself with this deteriorating economy, why do I have to pay for people who are too lazy to find work while they keep popping out kids just so they can abuse the system even further?

Taxes are a hypocritical scam and again, I applaud Mr. Snipes for standing his ground. If I was him, I would take solace in the irony of the situation. As I have said to many people (had I the guts to do what he did), I would stand up in the courtroom when the judge asked if I had anything to say before serving my sentence, I would say something to the effect of: “Thank you your honor for paying my way for the next 3 years, providing food, shelter, a bed as well as light recreation. Because since I have not paid taxes, this sentence I am about to serve is 100% bought and paid for by you and anyone else who filed a return this year… now don’t you feel silly.”

JT-

To recap, she stated publicly, multiple times how she arrived in Bosnia under heavy sniper fire and fabricated an entire story of how she and her daughter Chelsea had to run for their lives as they exited the plane. As we all know, this is completely untrue. She arrived to a warm welcome, there was no running involved and with the exception of a rather exciting (and possibly intense) corkscrew landing, the only real danger she faced that day was the possibility of having some sand wedged between her eye & contact lenses.

Unlike her story in Bosnia, in her most recent debate she was in fact under heavy fire, as one of her lost sheep (in the form of a man who admitted that she lost his vote because of the fairy tale she told) - she was asked to explain once and for all, why she made up that story. Her answer started with “… I may be a lot of things, but I am not dumb.”  Well Senator Clinton, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

She starts to explain how she wrote about her trip in her book, (where she tells a far different tale of her Bosnia arrival). During the debate, Hillary simply admits that “… your right, on a couple of occasions in the last weeks, I just said some things that weren’t in keeping with what I knew to be the case and what I had written about in my book… and I have apologized for it and I said it was a mistake… and I hope that it is something that you can [look past].” Again, she fails to explain her reasoning and then turns the answer completely inside out by stating how proud she was that she went to Bosnia and that it “clearly was a war zone.” (Not sure about you folks but my Dumb-O’Meter is steadily rising).

She then tries to divert the attention from herself by focusing on General Wesley Clark who was sitting in the audience, saying how he was there as one of her “Major Supporters.” Then she shifts back to the question, describing how soldiers were policing the area and trying to keep the peace while wearing “total battle gear…” and continues to try to make her arrival in Bosnia (of which I have seen the footage), into a dangerous, chaotic and life threatening adventure. Once again, she failed to explain why she made up her story, and why she told her tale of sniper fire on multiple occasions. But more so, she tried to get us to believe that we, the public had it wrong, that what we saw of her quiet, peaceful arrival was not peaceful and quiet at all. (As I look over to my Dumb-O’Meter… it has broken due to capacity overload).

Senator Clinton, we all know this was not the case of your trip. Your damage control has now spiraled out of control. You had the perfect opportunity to explain your reasons for your tall tale and perhaps win back some of the supporters you lost due to your incompetence. Instead, you insult their intelligence yet again. This seems to follow the blueprint of another person I know of who tells blatant, obvious lies then tries to shift the blame and cover his tracks. I think he also has a famous saying that maybe you should adopt for your campaign, I think it goes something like this: “fool me once, shame on… shame on you… a fooled man can’t get fooled again.”

JT-

Fast forward to 2008, I am now working on writing my own software, partially for own enjoyment, entertainment and the challenge of it and partially to see if I can possibly cash in on the ever growing need for software based products.

And speaking of software, I have recently heard that Microsoft will discontinue it’s operating system of Windows XP, arguably their best operating system to date - including their feeble attempt at the Windows Vista operating system. I have given Vista a dry run (again, at a friend’s house), I was far from impressed and actually, a bit disappointed. I had read the reviews, heard the reports, but I’m the type of person who would rather not judge until I use a product or service myself. And I’m sorry to say, the reviews and reports as well as consumer feedback are just about dead-on accurate.

Currently there is an internet petition to save the XP platform, although I can’t disagree with this action, I find it ridiculous that it has come to this, Microsoft is basically making us get down on our knees, interlock our hands and beg them for mercy. I’ll tell you this, I beg of no man and I sure as hell refuse to beg of a corporation as wealthy as Microsoft! I do however, give credit to those signing the petition as well as the person who decided to put the petition in place. After all, if I had a problem with people voicing their concerns, frustrations and opinions.. well, I should give up blogging and go back to channel surfing instead.

But back to the point at hand, if this is the action that Microsoft has decided to take by discontinuing Windows XP and forcing their inferior Vista product down our throats, then I will travel one of two roads. Since I have all my computers custom built anyway (with the exception of my laptop), I will simply continue to run XP for as long as I can, while I downgrade from Vista on any future laptops that I buy, at least until Microsoft’s next platform (hopefully a much better system than Vista) is released, which is scheduled to happen in 2010.

My other option?.. Mac, here I come brother!

JT-

Of course it didn’t take long for the blame to shift from the obvious culprit, I mean aside from the teens themselves, but the parents should have to assume some responsibility here. Instead I am hearing more and more that free video sites such as YouTube and MySpace are taking the heat. Just as violence on TV was the big topic back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, free video sites have become the latest casualty of (what I consider to be) a foolish witch hunt.

Folks, the problem is not the internet, it’s not TV… it’s poor parenting, it’s poor education as well as a lack of moral substance. Lets face it, kids today simply don’t have the moral judgment that I had to learn early on in life. And if you don’t believe me, just go out to a restaurant, go to the grocery store, or the mall. More and more I see kids (albeit young kids, but that’s where the process starts) acting like maniacs, screaming, running all over the place, hitting on their siblings, their friends or even their own parents! And of course the parents do nothing at all. They either smile and try to shrug it off, ignore it all together or sometimes I will see them offer a quick (yet ineffective) reprimand in the form of a “Hush!” or “settle down!” or my personal favorite: “when we get home you are going to time out!” - non of which works in least to curb bad behavior.

I have nothing but the utmost sympathy for poor Victoria Lindsay and her parents. And I sincerely hope to see her attackers punished to the fullest extent of the law, but even more so, I would like to see the parents of Lindsay’s attackers forced to answer for the actions of their children. Although I doubt it will do much good since they already have their Scapegoat, their Red Herring that is quickly becoming the acceptable answer for their lack of parenting skills. After all, if it’s not the job of YouTube and MySpace to control our kids, then I guess all hope is lost, because parents these days don’t seem to be up to the task.

JT-