Wisdom From a Lufthansa Lounge Lizard

This just in: Drug lords got tanks...

In other news, Dallas won the NBA championship.  This news is actually third, behind "tanks" and the fact that the NBA season actually came to an end.  You see, this is what happens when the season is played simply to eliminate the worst team so that everyone else can "advance" to the finals.

Back to tanks...

What I don't understand is why the anti-drug people - you know, cops and the military - why these people don't just sit in their offices until a traffic cop spots one of these things.  They are hard to miss.  Imagine one of these giant things being parked in front of a building.  Since only the drug lords have them, I'd say this is a pretty good case of probable cause.  They are little more than big signs saying "drug lord coming through, everyone step aside."  We should actually give them tanks so we know where they are.

The fact that these tanks are not being used as a "Find a drug lord here" sign tells me there may be a bit of money changing hands.

Onward...

The Book of Mormon kicked some butt at the Tony's.  This is a musical written by the guys that created South Park.  I've heard the sound track (thanks to Jim Hill) and it's really good.  So far the only negative thing I've heard about it is that the tickets are hard to come by.  I once called for tickets to Phantom of the Opera.  When I said, "I'll take two for this Saturday night," the operator came back with, "How about two for late next summer."

I did get some culture this time in Europe; my wife insists on it.  We went to see the Hungarian Ballet.  They did about 5 different bits, all unique stuff.  The last one was so captivating that I would have sat through it again and again given the chance.  We had front row seats at the Hungarian Opera House (click on this link to see this place)

Elsewhere...

Hawaii just fired a bunch of TSA agents for not doing their job.  I don't find this hard to believe.  This is a group of people who re-scanned a banana I had in my briefcase because it was a "sharp" object.  The people in charge their say they weren't doing their job because they were overworked and thus, we should put more agents there.  This sounds like the work of the infamous Hawaiian Donut Cartel.  I can't imagine them fitting even 1 more agent around a donut box than they already do.

I saw the Pirates of the Caribbean last week; in Hungarian.  I could follow the plot just finewithout understanding any of the words.  While the movie was worth watching, the guy that played Black Beard was by far, the best cast pirate of all time.

I was at a mall the other day.  They have these escalators that only move when people pass by a light sensor at the start.  It's an energy-saving thing.  Anyway, I watch as this woman (blonde) starts to go "up" the escalator clearly marked "down".  She thinks it's either broken or maybe just some metallic stairs.  Anyway, it does not move until she is halfway up it.  Someone entered from the top and started it moving down.  The blonde continues to try to climb up, in spite of this; only giving up when the other people coming down get in her way.  Funny.

You know what else is funny?  That the GOP is trying to make political hay by bashing the Democrats over this Weiner thing.  I wonder what God was thinking as his party of choice cast the first stone, in spite of their own abundance of transgressions.

Did you know Budapest is actually two cities, divided by the Danube river?  Buda is to the west, and Pest to the east.  I went hiking in the Buda Hills a couple of days ago.  This is a forested area that feels like an isolated jungle with beautiful plants.  Seen from the sky, it's a patch of green inside a large city.  We walked for five miles and never saw a car or a building.  It was great.

I came across this site that had all kinds of "invisible" cat pictures.  The cats were there, but the other stuff was missing.  Like "toothbrush" cat showed a cat that looked like he was brushing his teeth but the toothbrush was "invisible."  Here was my favorite.

In Bahrain, a poet was given a 1-year jail term for writing a poem critical of the government.  These are out allies, at least until it looks politically more correct to cheer for the other side.

Apple is being sued for its use of the term "icloud"  by a company called "icloud communications."  This company has been doing, since 2005, what Apple is pretending that they just invented.  So, Apple is taking something that already exists and adding their own little twist - a price tag.  This feels a lot like the AOL model of "Let's charge people for stuff they can do for free because they don't know they can do it for free."  I have one last word on this - dropbox.

A quote for the day: “Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today” Mahatma Gandhi

I'm in Frankfurt, on my way to the California Bounce.  I end up in Kansas City sometime Tuesday.

I can't help but notice that most of you are asleep as I write this.  There is no rest for this superhero....

Up, up and away...

jim

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Viagra Warfare - Never run out of ammo...

This just in: Gadafeee has opened up his Viagra reserve account in an effort to encourage his loyalists to rape the rebel women.

I'm not sure of the rationale behind this.  Can he actually believe the rebels are thinking, "Hey, he's having our women raped.  Maybe we should all just go back to work."

Elsewhere...

Did you know that the Daily Show on Comedy Central ranks #4 among the news programs?  I think this is great.  It's been a long time since other news programs made fun of Jon Stewart.  I saw a 2008 clip of Bill O'Reilly talking down to Stewart as if it were ridiculous that people would take him (Stewart) seriously.  Now-a-days, it's the other way around and I love it.

Just for the fun of it, here is a funny picture:

Some elephants went on a rampage in India.  I saw one push a cow around like it was a Chihuahua (<- hard word to spell).  Speaking of which, I wish I had a pet cow.

I saw a sign that said, "Beware of Grizzly bears.  Wear a bell and carry pepper spray."  The sign went on to say you could tell if a Grizzly was in the area by examining piles of dung.  A couple of things to look for that is characteristic of Grizzly dung: "You may see small bits of bells and it will smell like pepper."

Onward...

A headline I saw online today: "Weiner must pull out."

China and India are starting to fret about the United States failing to pay its debt.  Both of these countries put the probable fallout square on the shoulders of the GOP.  Here is what is starting to happen as of right now.

• Companies around the world are holding back on hiring as they wait to see what will happen
• Countries are becoming reluctant to buy U.S. bonds as they fear a default.
• The U.S. bond rating is beginning to drop making the interest on our loans grow.
• Once we default, our rating will drop steeply, raising the return we must pledge on our bonds.  My math shows that a 5% increase in interest/rate of return will cost the United States $137 million dollars a day (that's just on what we owe China).  This equates to $50 billion dollars a year.

The GOP is causing this.  This being a global travesty that will change our place in the world - all to appease the Tea Party.  If I were the president, I would look for a way to disband the GOP; not to get rid of the competition, but to rid our country of Economic Terrorism.

OPEC cannot agree on a new level of oil production.  Here is the deal.  If I can produce more oil (like Saudi Arabia), I want to.  Sure, this will make the price drop but I will make up the difference with more volume.  However, if I can't produce more oil because I am at capacity already (Venezuela), then I don't want more oil on the market because it will lower prices and I cannot create more volume to make up the difference.

Also, Venezuela is run by a guy that wants to do whatever he can to make things bad in the United States.  He is, of course, welcome to do this.  It's not illegal.  It's no more immoral that us allowing Syria to kill itself.  The real fault here is that we allow ourselves to become dependent and thus put Chavez on his throne.

Embrace nuclear power and this will all change.  I know Germany is changing to fossil fuel power generation.  They do this out of fear.  One can never tell when a tsunami is going to hit Munich, so they prepare for the worst. (Reminds me of the line: "We cannot allow, a mine-shaft gap.  Let me know if you know where that came from)  The FACT is that the death rate per Terra-Watt of power generated is 4,025 times higher with fossil fuel that with nuclear power.

The two main things that are hurting job creation in the United States are gas prices and uncertainty.  The GOP blames Obama for unemployment even though they are the ones causing the uncertainty.  As far as gas prices go, Obama doesn't have a voice in OPEC and when he tries to crack down on oil speculators in the United States, the GOP blocks him.

The group that hacked Sony, LULZ also hacked a security company.  The security company offered $10,000 to anyone that could hack their site and change a specific photo.  LULZ did it quickly but turned down the money.

A computer repair guy installed software on computers that he was working on.  The software allowed him to remotely control the computers' video cameras.  So, women would take their computers home and he would be able to see whatever was in range of the camera.  He got caught when he got a little...ambitious.  He caused their computers to post the following message "Your lens is becoming dirty.  A suggested remedy is to put it in an area with steam for a few minutes."  The idea was to try to get them to take their computer with them when they showered.

A quote for the day: “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”  Thomas Sowell

Alas....there is a world to save.  Also, I need to get dressed - I'm off to the Budapest Ballet.  I get a discount when I wear my cape.

Up, up and away...

jim

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