Clink Clink

2007-08-24 - 12:04 p.m.

Last night I took Brin to the airport. The weather was cool and cloudy, and they're calling for thunderstorms over the weekend.

We knew it - SHE brought the hot weather with her! It's all her fault!!

In all seriousness, it was still a nice visit. She comes down here every couple months and stays for several days. We've been friends for many years, now...even though we were out of touch for several of those years. Now we just get to hang out and spend time together, and it's a lot of fun.

Special thanks to her husband John for letting her come down here as often as she does.

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Anyway, after I dropped her off at the airport, I went to Ikea and got those seat cushions.

I also picked up two other items. One was a teapot. The other was a bookcase.

I'd been planning to get another bookcase for a couple weeks. The one I had bought last year is nice, but my other one (which you can see in that entry from last year) has been with me for almost 30 years. I've actually bought enough books that THAT one is overflowing. So while I was in Ikea I got another one.

After figuring out how to get it into my car, I got it home and up the stairs. I put the Angels game on, got out my tool kit, and popped the seal on the package. There I got a VERY rude awakening.

Usually stuff from Ikea comes with easy-to-understand instructions on how to put it together. This one came with three-and-one-half sheets of blank paper.

That's not a typo. The only thing on those instruction sheets was the lower half of Step #7. WTF was I supposed to do - GUESS?

So I called the store. Then came nightmare #2. The Ikea phone system is hopelessly convoluted. It took me about eight minutes of navigating their system before I finally got a human being - and she was in the wrong department. Finally I got someone in customer service, who informed me that most assembly instructions are on the Ikea website. She directed me to the proper spot, and I was able to download a PDF file that told me what to do.

So I got it put together and got my books rearranged. Then I flopped and watched several eps of the Muppets.

If any of you ever need to get instructions from the Ikea site, click here - it's easier than searching.

Or using their phone system.

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Seems that CAIR is operating two charter schools in Ohio...and according to the article, these are paid for with tax money. Also, "At least one of the taxpayer-financed schools has been used during the last school year to play host to an anti-Israel CAIR-OH 'teach-in'."

All the separation-of-church-and-state folk (even though the Constitution says no such thing) should be up in arms. Oh, wait - they aren't funding a Christian school.

Never mind.

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In Jacksonville, newspaper readers are up in arms over a cartoon that appears in the editorial pages:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- An editorial cartoon taking shot at those who fail to turn in violent criminals generated controversy, then a response from the Florida Times-Union.

The cartoon appeared on the editorial page of Friday's newspaper with a caption saying, "The new rule of law." It shows what appears to be a man shot, and a gunman standing over the victim wearing shirts reading "Don't Snitch."

Two young children depicted in the cartoon say "I didn't see nuttin'!" Then the gunman says, "Now that's a good little ho!"

The cartoon generated controversy on two levels: for using the slang word that got Don Imus fired from his nationally syndicated radio and television shows and for sending the wrong message.

The president of the local chapter of the NAACP said he found both the picture and the words offensive.

"I was stunned about it," said Isaiah Rumlin, president of the local NAACP chapter. "I was outraged."

Rumlin said he took calls from at least 20 angry people who also found this cartoon offensive. He said he called the newspaper and expressed his concern to publisher Carl Cannon.

"We're going to see how we can work together and alleviate this type of language in the paper," Rumlin told Channel 4.

In Sunday's newspaper, editorial page editor Mike Clark was quoted as saying he reviewed and approved the cartoon by longtime Times-Union cartoonist Ed Gamble.

"Using the word 'ho' was bad judgment, and I regret that I did not edit it out," Clark told the newspapers reader advocate. "The object of the cartoon was to comment on the rise of a no-snitching culture, something that is widely in the news today. There was certainly no intent to offend the many law-abiding Jacksonville citizens."

Gamble told the reader advocate that the term "ho" is demeaning to women, but said, "I was making a point that rappers are demeaning to women." In the background of the cartoon is a billboard displaying: "Rap your life away."

The comments in Sunday�s newspaper came after complaints about the cartoon flooded into both the newspaper and Channel 4.

"Why would you even put something like that in the paper in the first place?" one resident told the local station's Jennifer Bauer.

"That's not comical at all," another newspaper reader said. "That's poor teaching of children."

Of course it's "poor teaching of children", nitwit - but it's the rap culture that's doing the "poor teaching". The whole culture of "no snitch" if you see a violent crime, the whole women-iz-bitches-and-hos...that's what's being taught.

Oh wait...it's cultural. Like dogfighting?

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In the Well He LOOKED Like He Was Going To Pee In Public In The Next Thirty Minutes Dept.:

In England, a new law has been established that allows the police to "ban troublesome drinkers from town centres".

That's all well and good - people have been 86'd from bars ever since there have BEEN bars - but this law allows them to issue "directions to leave" even if they haven't had anything to drink. That's right - the "directions to leave" can be issued to people "whom police believe are about to begin consuming it".

"Officer, I haven't had anything to drink! I haven't done anything wrong!"
"Well, you LOOKED like you were going to start...so move along!"

I can't make this stuff up.

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That last item (and the sound of funtiture assembly) leads to today's title. The video is here.

"You can't beat the classics...you can only destroy 'em." - Kermit

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Laundry and more Muppets.

Be seeing you.

Bob - 2007-08-24 19:57:04 - http://shadowgm.diaryland.com
There's something about 'cultural values' that are comprised of disrespecting women, shooting police, and committing crimes. What's the word? Oh, yeah ... it's bullshit.

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