McAfee Internet Security Suite Special Edition From AOL Now PAY!!!

So my mother tells me that she's thinking of switching from Juno to All2Easy. All2Easy is about the cheapest dial-up you're ever going to find - $5/mo., but you have to find your own virus scanning program.

I'm thinking no problem - a year or so ago AOL was offering probably the best deal I've seen in a long time - all you had to do was sign up for a FREE AOL email address and they would let you download a version of McAfee for FREE.

I thought that was a deal that was too good to last.

I go to the AOL Security Page and I find the bad news. Pretty much if you're not a paid AOL customer you have to pay $40/year for the McAfee Internet Security Suite.

Actually this is NOT all that good of a deal considering that you can get presumably the same program including install media for $41.49 from Amazon and then one of their resellers claims to be selling the CD only for $12.99.

So off we go to re-examine the free virus scanning world.

Of course for many years the standard for free virus scanning was AVG Free. Well, guess what - a close look at their web site reveals that if you want a version of this software that does something USEFUL, like "real-time" scanning of web surfing, downloading, instant messaging, etc., you're going to have to cough up $54.99/yr.

F*ck THAT.

I took a look over to see what Google Pack was up to.

They're offering Norton Security Scan, but, guess what, if I'm reading this correctly - again - no free real-time scanning. To get that you have to upgrade to Norton Internet Security 2008, which will cost you a whopping $50.

F*ck THAT.

All Yahoo has to offer is Norton 360. They want $60/yr.

F*ck THAT!

It looks like the ONLY comprehensive free anti-virus package left is Avast 4.x Home Edition.

Now some quick hunting around seems to show some reviews indicating that this package may be a little heavy on system resources, but what choice do you have, gang?

If you're a RoadRunner subscriber they are still offering the CA 2007 package for free, but I have never in my life seen such a heavy-handed firewall.

Yes, my friends, it looks like the days of free Internet security may be over ...

Carl Sagan On - Making Organic Chemistry Interesting

It had been a while since I had watched this clip.

It really does have some similarities to the Paul Johnson "Ethanol" Video.

Now, it's not obvious on YouTube, but I remember from having watched this on video - the Sagan clip was shot on video. It's not well known outside of the media "biz", but parts of Cosmos were shot on video and parts on film. Of course now that we have such stuff as the new Battlestar Galactica that is shot on video but computer processed to look like film, I wonder what Cosmos would have looked like had it been made in the early 21st century.

Of course the first thing that struck me is that there is a VERY long cut right after Sagan goes into the studio, but he keeps it interesting.

Oh, and that brings up the first point - STUDIO ...

Of course the Sagan piece, in turn, in somewhat reminiscent of the works of Julius Sumner Miller - but what Sagan adds is a little trick called a "hair light" that keeps things looking a little more "professional". A hair light is a 2X overexposed light from the back that tends to make a bright line at the edge of a person's hair and separates them from the background. Considering Sagan went for the "eerie" black background, that hairlight is CRITICAL.

And shooting such scenes in a studio or at least indoors is generally good advise - that way you don't have issues with turning blue on partly cloudy days.

Of course what this video really may have to lend to the Paul Johnson video is detail and plot.

Sagan takes all these things meant to represent the atoms and small molecules that make up a human body - charcoal for the carbon in our DNA, liquid nitrogen for the nitrogen in our proteins, chalk for the calcium in our bones, rusty nails for the iron in our blood, 100 pounds of tap water, and some trace elements, and mixes it all together and makes a mess - particularly with the liquid nitrogen bubbling.

What Paul Johnson needs to do for version 2 of this video is see if he can really literally get down in the dirt.

He may, in fact, need to enlist the help of PBS types - possibly even David Brancaccio himself.

There's two ways to do this video as I see it.

The one would be starting with some unsuspecting E85 pump somewhere in the Northern Kentucky / Southwest Ohio / Southeast Indiana area, wait for the tanker to come by and then follow the tanker back to where it picks up the E85, and then, of course, follow the ethanol components back to their origin.

The other way would be to start from a corn field and work your way forward.

Either way you'll discover, whether a gallon of E85 truly costs $7, $10, or $20/gallon, the whole thing is a tremendous deception because in addition to the gasoline that you need to run the machines to even make the ground useful for growing corn and then transporting to the refining facilities, you have this issue of the STAGGERING amount of natural gas that goes into the fertilizers that make modern farming possible.

Yes, although Paul Johnson's numbers may not be exactly right, on the topic of ethanol as automotive fuel, we been had, we been took, we been hoodwinked - led astray, run amok - BAMBOOZLED ...

Senator Sherrod Brown: Defender Of Child Rapists?

A few weeks back when I heard about the Kennedy v. Louisiana case where the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to impose the death penalty on a child rapist, I was utterly incensed.

A very dear old friend of mine, who was herself a victim of child rape, once told me she thought an appropriate punishment for a child rapist might be having their privates bound in barbed wire and then submerged in battery acid.

I'm not sure I would go that far, but how, as a human being, you can possibly say that raping a child is a crime deserving of a lesser punishment than popping a cop or a convenient store clerk, is quite beyond my capacity to understand.

So, I immediately sent a note to my Congressperson and Senators saying essentially, "Please tell me what actions you are planning to take to adopt a Constitutional amendment allowing the execution of child rapists."

The only reply I've gotten back so far is from US Senator Sherrod Brown.

He says, "I will certainly keep your views in mind should the Senate consider relevant legislation."

Wow.

I certainly hope I have legislators in the Congress one day who can show a little more emotion than that on the topic of CHILDREN BEING RAPED.

How, for the love of God, is Paul Johnson ever going to get the time of day on his ENERGY ideas if you can't get more than "I'll keep your views in mind," on the subject of CHILDREN being RAPED???

Paul Johnson's "Ethanol & the Energy Freedom Revolution" Video

Here it is at last, ladies and gents ...

Now, for some reason I can't quite figure out at the moment, this video is putting me in mind of the segment from Carl Sagan's Cosmos when Sagan was demonstrating the elements and simple compounds that make up the human body.

This is Paul Johnson - I've been trying to figure out a good short description of him - sort of like Denmark Vesey calls himself the Blackest man in America - I'm tempted to say Paul Johnson is the Americanest man on the planet, but I'm sure that would get a fight started.

Onto this specific video.

Now, despite the fact that I disagree with Paul Johnson quite a bit of the time, I'd have to say he's probably on the right track with this one.

I'm not sure if his numbers are exactly right, but I'd have to say I'm pretty sure of the fact that it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than you'd ever get out of it.

In Paul Johson's video, however, he demonstrates how you've got an energy, and therefore fiscal negative on EVERY gallon of ethanol produced.

He starts out with a gallon of E85 - the 85% ethanol blend that can be used in certain newer "flex fuel" vehicles - selling for $4.00/gallon at the time this video was produced.

To make that gallon of E85, you need 1/3 bushel of corn worth $2.50 + 1.12 gallon of gasoline to refine it worth $5.50 + $2.50 for labor and overhead = $10.00/gallon. Paul Johnson says the $6.00 difference comes from Uncle Sam picking your pocket every 15th of April.

Like I said - I don't know if his dollar figures are exactly correct, but, having done the experiment myself when I was in a special physics program for gifted high school students at Xavier, at this latitude the solar flux is only 700 watts/square meter and that's on a completely clear day in full blazing sunlight.

I don't think there's any way on God's green Earth that CORN is a terribly efficient solar energy converter. I've been told that in Brazil, where the solar flux is closer to 1000 watts/square meter, that sugar cane does a much better job, but I'm having difficulty believing that too.

Paul Johnson goes on to say that we ought to have "energy rallies".

Uh huh.

I sent a letter to Senator Sherrod Brown asking what steps he could take to begin work on a Constitutional amendment so that CHILD RAPISTS could be EXECUTED and this is the utterly lackluster reply I got:



No wonder people have given up trying to influence their legislators. If this is all the reaction you can get about CHILD RAPISTS, I'm betting you couldn't get a PULSE about ethanol.

Now - back to Paul Johnson's video ...

Well, in my first post about Paul Johnson I was saying I couldn't tell from his 55KRC radio spots if he was trying to sell insurance or trying to be elected to office - now I'm starting to wonder if he's really trying to be a history professor. Although, I think he's on the right track showing some of the things the Revolutionary War patriots fought with. If I ever do get my documentation together to join the Sons of the American Revolution I may have to borrow some of Paul Johnson's farm implements.

However - note to Paul Johnson's production crew - pick a white balance and stick with it, people! The shifts from blood red to pale blue ...

[[Light bulb]]

Is Paul Johnson starting to turn into the Hulk???

Also (don't you love all this free production advise - I have a degree in this stuff you know :) ) - get a 2nd camera, people - they're cheap now.

I know the syncing is going to be a little rough, but it SHOULD be possible even with MovieMaker. Some of the jump cuts in this thing are JARRING.

Don't get me wrong - you're on the right track - in some ways it looks better than some of the early stuff I produced for Public Access, but I only had TWO VHS MACHINES and a PRIMITIVE edit controller to work with, y'all. You have COMPUTERS.

But, all in all, a good first effort ... I'll have to set up an RSS feed on the YouTube ID "pauljohnsoninsurance" to watch for more of these ...

Related:
MillionEnergyUserMarch - by Personal Injury Attorney Eric Deters

Explanation Of The Fabricated Barack Obama Birth Certificate

This is a really great YouTube video explaining exactly why the Kos/Smears JPEG of the "Obama Birth Certification" is likely an absolute fabrication.

Obama Birth Notice From Honolulu Sunday Advertiser August 13, 1961

Although, again, this is by no means unimpeachable evidence as it IS on the Internet, after all, someone did post this birth notice that was in the Honolulu Sunday Advertiser on August 13, 1961.

Now, is there anyone in Honolulu (or making a trip to Honolulu sometime in the near future) who might have time to stop by the library to hit the microfilm to try to get a good image of the entire page this came from?

Oh, also ... does the Honolulu library have a good newspaper index? Are there any mentions of anything of IMPORT (or at least worthy of mention) that Obama's parents were doing around that time period?

Oh ... and ...

Can anyone make out that address?

Is the building that was at that address in 1961 still standing?

Obama Born In Hawaii: New York Times

Well, although this is certainly not conclusive, since all y'all have been unable to produce a single piece of reliable evidence documenting where Obama was born, I started digging around Google Book Search, and, having found nothing significant there, I started digging in the New York Times archive.

There is an article there from the February 6, 1990 issue titled "First Black Elected to Head Harvard's Law Review".

The article is about a certain then 28-year-old graduate of Columbia University who spent four years heading a community development program for poor blacks on Chicago's South Side and then went to law school.

They name his late father as Barack Obama, who had served as a finance minister in Kenya, and his mother as Ann Dunham, an American anthropologist who was doing fieldwork in Indonesia at that time.

The next sentence says, "Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii."

Oh, interesting.

Now, I suppose it's possible he thought even back then he was going to run for President, I don't think it particularly likely.

Obama was at least under the impression that he was born in Hawaii in 1990.

Now - one more question - assuming somehow that Obama actually WAS born in Kenya and he was somehow led to believe that he was born in Hawaii, where the heck would someone go to challenge his swearing-in??

Obama Birth Certificate Fraudulent?

Someone calling himself Polarik sent me a really great link with some speculation on how the "birth certificate" on Kos and the Obama Smear Page might have been faked.

I have to admit, looking at the "Patricia Decosta" specimen in light of a few documents I have scanned myself, I'd have to say at this point that the .jpg files on Kos and, more importantly, the Obama site, are absolute fabrications.

However, contrary to the typical kneejerk reaction, that doesn't tell us ANYTHING. All it tells us is that someone out there created a .jpg file meant to look like a birth certificate. I understand this sort of thing goes on every day, for instance, for illegal immigration purposes.

Of course, we're not just talking about someone looking for an ordinary job illegally.

We're talking about someone who, come 20 January 2009, is going to have unfettered access to weapons of mass destruction.

Now, that the birth certificate is not genuine does not take us to the conclusion that Obama was born in Kenya. It pretty much takes us NOWHERE - in other words we have no reliable documentation that Obama was even BORN.

He could be a golem for all we know.

Now, since NOBODY has been forthcoming with so much as a newspaper notice or a grocery receipt putting Obama's mother in Hawaii on 4 August 1961, does anyone have anything substantive putting her in Kenya on that date? Photograph? Passport stamp? Newspaper account?

Does anyone have ANYTHING indepedent locating any of these people anywhere credible in August of 1961??

"Tolerating" Asperger's Syndrome

Someone left a comment on one of my Michael Savage posts saying "I don't think there is such a thing as ASD, its just a natural variation that is not tolerated by parents who want it easy."

I think they meant to say that they don't think Asperger's is pathological. In other words that it's not a "disease". Of course that would potentially put this person in the same camp as the "Neurodiversity" crowd and John Best won't like that I tell you.

I will tell you this though - Asperger's Syndrome is very real and can be VERY disabling.

No - I've never been able to get The Old Man an "official" diagnosis. From what I can tell, one of the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome is a reluctance of the patient in many instances to have his or her atypical behavior labeled as being pathological - the result of a disease.

But I think such language as "natural variation that is not tolerated by parents" is language that is too trivializing.

Aspergian behavior is "not tolerated" very well by adult children of those afflicted either.

I'll give you an example. I was an only child but I have two first cousins who I am very close to. One of them got married in Middletown and I got The Old Man to go to that one by arranging for one of the very few people he trusts outside the family to pick him up and take him home after the ceremony because he can't tolerate the "noise" and activity of a wedding reception. A couple of years later my other first cousin got married in Dayton and The Old Man freaked. I mean straight out freaked. If I understood him correctly he was saying that there was no way he could go as far as Dayton out of the mortal fear that he was going to get stranded there. He also was terribly upset that he had gone to the first wedding because now he was afraid he would think he was showing favoritism towards the cousin who got married in Middletown.

Now, I never thought I was going to get married myself, but Mrs. Axinar had other ideas. We planned on getting married in Key West and then having a reception here. Obviously The Old Man would be unable to travel as far as Key West. He can't even go to Dayton any more he's so freaked out by travelling. And of course he couldn't make it to the reception because it would have been too loud for him.

I was really torn by what to do.

The only logical thing I could think to do was to not tell him we were getting married. I figured if I didn't tell him, he'd have no decision to make and it would be physically possible for the circumstances to come about that my Old Man was SO f*cked in the head that he would not show up at his own son's wedding or reception. If he didn't know, he couldn't diss me.

Of course particularly my wife's family started freaking the f*ck out that I wasn't telling my dad. Then the peanut gallery started chiming in that my in-laws might interpret this that not telling my dad would be interpretted by my in-laws that I was "ashamed" of them or something of the sort.

I swear to God I got to the point that I thought of calling the whole thing off.

Pretty much you don't get much more Aspergian than my Dad without needing to be locked the f*ck up for the rest of you life, and you don't get much more neurotypical than my wife and her mother without needing slapped silly on a daily basis and how in the world I could do right by everyone simultaneously I still don't know.

But Asperger's is real - very real. And, in some ways, it's almost WORSE than severe autism. At least with more severe autism people tend to NOTICE that something is wrong. With Asperger's you can be very, very impaired in all sorts of relationships, but because you may be very articulate and have a very high IQ, people tend not to even take you seriously ...

Would You Trust The Government To Pick YOUR Career?

There's a great article running on Slate about how ten years ago the U.S. Department of Labor published this tidbit about how - get this - MAKEUP ARTISTS were in one of the fastest growing occupations.

Technically this was correct - but there were only something like 2000 makeup artists in the US at that time.

Of course, on the other hand, I'm inclined to cut the Department of Labor some slack.

Having tried to make some money on the stock market for about the last 12 years I've come to the conclusion that trying to predict the future any further out than the end of the week is virtually impossible.

Of course, what really makes me livid is that you're allowed to guess wrong on starting a business pretty much all you want, but God forbid you should make a mistake picking a major in college.

You see ... if you start a business that fails, you can file for bankruptcy.

But if you pick a major that turns out to not be very marketable when you graduate, THE GOVERNMENT WILL HUNT YOU ALL THE WAY TO THE GRAVE TO GET EVER LAST DIME OF THEIR STUDENT LOAN MONEY BACK and often double, triple, and quadruple what they originally lent you if you get into some sort of temporary problem.

Yep ... the government can be useful for some things, but forecasting is definitely not one of them ...

People Bidding Over $1000 On eBay for iPhone 3G

Yes ... People have lost it ... I'm seeing reports of bids over $1000 on eBay for the iPhone 3G.

People ... The cotton picking thing doesn't even have KEYS ...

Michael Savage Says He Was Taken Out of Context

Well, as I tried to explain in the post I tried to leave through Jott, Michael Savage was trying to say that his comments about autism were taken out of context - that he merely meant to say that there's a tremendous amount of overdiagnosis of autism going on.

Uh huh.

Right.

He seems to be saying that autism is being overdiagnosed for the same reasons ADD and ADHD are being overdiagnosed - in order to give the drug companies the opportunity to push their wares on kids as young as 4.

Interesting idea - but I was unaware that the first-line therapy for autism was drugs.

Now, I suppose there may be other lines of business that are improved by diagnosing more and more children with autism.

Actually, at this point, I suppose I need to get educated.

Yes, I'm one of those types quick to label my own father as having a scorching case of Asperger's, and myself with something even milder.

However - fill me in -

If you have a child who has been diagnosed with autism, particularly in the last few years, what symptoms got your child's physician thinking along those lines, and what course of treatment had your child's physician recommended?

For those of you uncomfortable even in leaving an anonymous comment here, please send me an email at axinar@gmail.com.

Related:
Michael Savage defends autism remarks - Newsday.com
Radio host Michael Savage incites protests with autism comments - NY Daily News
Protesters Decry Radio Commentator Michael Savage's Remarks About Autism - Fox News
Apology to Michael Savage - Hating Autism
Savage Stands By His Autism Slam; Invites Parents to Call In And Speak Their Mind. Will You Accept His Invitation? - Lisa Jo Rudy @ About.com

Michael Savage Is Not Making Any Friends Today

Michael Savage is not making any friends today.

First, he said that there is a real autism that some very small number of people have. But, he says it can't be treated and that nobody knows what causes it.

John Best is not going to like that either.

He believes that people who merely have Asperger's Syndrome should not be listed on the Austistic spectrum.

He's not making any friends either.

Listen

Powered by Jott

(And edited by Axinar)

About.com Blogger Says "Don't Waste Your Time On Savage"

Whilst reviewing my fellow Google page 1 hits on various "'Michael Savage' +autism" type Google searches, I stumbled across a certain Lisa Jo Rudy who wrote a piece on About.com that basically said, "Don't wast your time on Savage.". She seems to be criticizing the efforts, in particular, of a blogger named Cindy Sue Causey who put together quite a good piece on some of the planned Michael Savage protest events.

Lisa Jo Rudy seems to think that the time and effort people are putting into protesting Michael Savage would be better spent spending time with one's autistic children.

Well ... maybe ...

No, I don't think an UNDUE amount of time need be put into Michael Savage, nor do I think he should be taken off the air.

I do, however, think that, yes, a great deal of attention and scrutiny needs to be brought to this man.

Why?

Because he's willing to say the things that certain other very powerful people don't feel comfortable saying.

Michael Savage's comments need to be taken VERY seriously and people need to make it a point to as many people as possible just how wrong Michael Savage is.

Although - I'm beginning to wonder if Michael Savage's rantings might actually have been a backfire of his reading some of the works of John Best.

You see - if I understand this correctly, John Best is convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that, in particular, there are two young ladies in New England who are very vocal on autism issues who are absolutely, 100%, utterly fraudulent. This of course in spite of the fact that at least one of the two young ladies has posted her medical records in more detail than the average Presidential candidate.

But, let's entertain the notion for just a second that these are the two best actresses in North America. That still doesn't account for certain two-year olds I've run into who have tempers so bad they will beat their head bloody on the pavement and, yes, John Best's son, Sam.

In fact, John Best himself left a comment on my blog saying so much as Michael Savage was mistaken ... that there are some "fakes" and some very real cases of autism.

Actually, as psychotic as this suggestion may sound, I'm thinking the only expedient solution to this problem is to try to get John Best and Michael Savage on the phone - or - better yet - get them together in person. They both seem to have a similar view of the world. Perhaps John Best could at least convince Savage that Best's own son is autistic. I'm fairly sure Michael Savage would never doubt Best's ability to be a harsh disciplinarian and to try every draconian "training" method that has ever crossed the imagination of humanity.

Yes ... I'm thinking that might be what we might want to try, as crazy as it sounds.

We need to get John Best booked as a guest on Michael Savage's show ...

Uncle Jay Explains - This Week's Word: "Plummet"

The UNEDITED First Appearance Of The Incredible Hulk

Well, my friends, I FINALLY found that linked to a SCANNED copy of The Incredible Hulk #1.

Now, of course, on the subject of color, any scan is QUITE subjective. There's the matter of what sort of color the scanner is picking, what sort of artifacts might be added in the JPEG encoding, what sort of "balance" your monitor has, and then, most importantly, how your eyes and brain picks up color.

HOWEVER, you can see it IMMEDIATELY how the color on the pages is absolutely nothing like the nice neutral gray on the cover.

Oh, and, by the way, there are a number of scans of classic comic books at the site I was looking for: The Classic Comics Reading Room.

So the next question of course is - where did the green come from?

Well, actually the appearance on page 1 looks a little green, and the frame towards the center of page 9 ...

But wait a second - here's something I never noticed before ...

As I mentioned yesterday, that despite the fact the story of the television version of The Incredible Hulk was QUITE different from the comic book version, the plot element of the Hulk getting shot in the shoulder made it into the pilot of the TV show. AND - check this out - the Hulk clearly has WHITE EYES on pg. 11 of The Incredible Hulk #1.

But my guess is that the green must have come from page 18. If I had to guess that must have been some sort of attempt to represent some sort of "shadow" lighting.

Now that same frame from the Illustrator-happy people at Marvel shows the Hulk as that same bluish-gray color from the rest of the issue, but, as it was originaly printed, the Hulk definited looked green in the right center frame of page 18.

Of course the Hulk I have always found fascinating. In The Origins of Marvel Comics Stan Lee was talking about wanting to create a character that was both the good buy and the bad guy. He admits to borrowing elements from Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. The TV version of course was inspired by The Fugitive, which itself was inspired by Les Miserables, and Les Miserables, in turn, was based upon a real-life person named François Eugène Vidocq, who, over the course of his life, was both a good guy and a bad guy.

Of course with the gray color one wonders whether or not Stan Lee ever heard the Jewish story of the Golem - a semi-human creature created by the rabbis to protect the Jewish community.

As a matter of fact, there is some downright fascinating language in the Wikipedia article about the Golem - that in the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b) it says that Adam was first created as a golem when his dust was "kneaded into a shapeless hunk". Of course the Talmud being written in Aramaic, I suspect another perfectly valid English translation of this section would be that, at first, Adam was formed into a "disorganized hulk".

If that is a potentially valid translation (anyone? anyone?), I would suspect the shiver up the spine factor would be pretty high by now.

Although, if you REALLY want to start freaking yourself out about the Hulk not just being a simple comic book story but rather a deep-seated part of the human consciousness, there is this matter of some people who believe Jesus to be a manifestation of the Egyptian god Horus (now you tell me that bird piece from the Louvre couldn't have morphed into a crucifix), and the father of Horus is Osiris.

Osiris ... is GREEN ...

And according to the Wikipedia article, green in ancient Egyptian culture symbolized rejuvenation.

Particularly in the television series of course the Hulk was known for tremenous recuperative abilities.

Yes, the further you dig, the eerier it gets ...

Denmark Vesey On The Kennedy Assasination

All in all a really good piece ...

With one exception ...

I can't recall ANYONE even CLAIMING they heard SIX shots ...

Related:
J. F. Kennedy talks about secret devils,(Masons& Illuminati)

The First Appearance Of The Incredible Hulk (Yep ... He Was Supposed To Be Gray)

Last weekend whilst Mrs. Axinar left me totally unsupervised while she was at a party with her friends, I stumbled across a REALLY neat web site that had scans of some of the first issues of the classic comic books - Action Comics #1, Fantastic Four #1, and of course, The Incredible Hulk #1.

Of course now for the life of me I can't find that site.

What I found quite remarkable is that the scan really picked up why they decided not to go with a gray color for the Hulk. Because of the offset process involved with comic books, there simply weren't enough color dots to get that gray color consistent.

You see - with an offset press you only have cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to deal with. Trying to keep a consistent color that involves all four of those is virtually impossible.

Well, in my trying to re-find that web site, I did find out that Marvel itself has posted a version of The Incredible Hulk #1, and, despite the fact that someone has clearly gone Illustrator-happy with this thing, they DID capture the color that originally came through in the first run of the comic book - a gray-ish blue.

Now on pg. 8 you'll see a page that is supposed to be a night scene where the Hulk looks decidedly green and I supposed that's where they got the idea to change the Hulk's color to green.

The comic book Hulk origin story is quite fascinating to review - for instance you'll notice part of the plot is that The Hulk gets shot in the shoulder, and, although of course the TV story was INCREDIBLY different [[ahem]], they worked the shoulder wound into that story as well.

All in all, quite fascinating ...

Now where in the heck is that web site that had the scans of the original of this thing? ...

Michael Savage On Autism

Oh my God - it's as if John Best had gotten a nationally syndicated talk radio show.

Sometimes people wonder why I post stuff like this.

As a matter of fact, sometimes I get frantic emails from people asking why I post stuff like this.

Answer: ALOT of people think this way who make MAJOR business decisions (including hiring decisions) but who make deliberate attempts to keep as low of a profile as possible.

There are a great number of people on this planet who think that every action is very carefully acted out. Perhaps they have good reason to think that way because every action they take and every statement THEY make is very carefully crafted in an attempt to communicate some sort of message.

It's almost as if they're in a stage play 8 - 16 hours/day 4 - 7 days/week. I mean, if you're in a run of Hamlet you do put on period clothing, heavy make-up, and, as DeForest Kelly once said, if you're doing your job right you DO experience some of the thoughts, feelings and motivations of your character.

On talk radio or TV your "character" can have life for four hours or so. For instance, as I've been thinking of doing for quite some time now, although Brian Thomas on the 55KRC morning show sounds like a very nice, professional young man, he just doesn't sound credible. No, I don't think he's secretly a card-carrying member of the ACLU, I don't believe he is personally ANYWHERE as conservative as he tries to sound on his show.

Morton Downey, Jr., God rest his soul, ADMITTED in an interview that the person he portrayed on his WOR show was a character.

But I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how people can possibly stay in character 8+ hours/day 260+ days/year.

However, apparently there are people who can do just that, because when they do see behavior associated with Autism somehow they automatically assume it is some sort of "act" carried out in the attempt to get something they might not otherwise be entitled to.

What of course is absolutely fascinating about some of this criticism is that, yes, okay, bring on the flaming emails, but it is POSSIBLE for a sufficiently motivated 30-year old adult to "fake" being unable to speak, unable to successfully use the facilities on a consistent basis, and unable to cook/clean, etc., in order to avoid having to put up with the b*llsh*t that goes on in pretty much EVERY work place, but how in the WORLD would a TWO-YEAR-OLD who gets so angry and frustrated that he beats his head on the pavement until he bleeds be "faking it"?

I suppose Michael Savage would propose that the two-year-old be beaten senseless until he stops "acting out".

No ... autism is real, people ... and it takes many forms ...

Related:
Savage on autism - Media Matters
Michael Savage Autism Apology! - AutismParents.Net
Michael Savage: Autism is a fraud (yeah right, idiot) - Big Blue Wave
Idiot of the Week: Michael Savage - Blogging Blue
"I hate the Michael Savage Show." - Marcia Mickelson
Radio talkshow host call autism a hoax and fraud - The Chronicles of C.J.
Action Alert :: Talk Radio's Michael Savage Trashes Individuals With Autism.. - Six. Almost Seven..
Savage Successfully Sucks Time, Money and Energy From Autism Community - About.com Autism Blog

Paul Mooney On 9/11

Is this Paul Mooney a friend of Denmark Vesey maybe?

Wisdom Teeth Extraction And Dry Socket Update

For those of you who have been wondering, I had my wisdom teeth out something like 3 1/2 months ago, which was followed a week or so later by pretty nasty case of dry socket.

Well, the healing process has been continuing slowly but surely. I haven't needed to irrigate the socket for six weeks or so and it looks to be about 3/4 healed.

HOWEVER, maybe a week or so I started to feel what seemed to be part of a popcorn kernel stuck back near the socket from my left lower wisdom tooth.

Now, those popcorn kernels can be NASTY, and I've had dental hygienists extract them from my teeth after having gone MONTHS without eating any popcorn.

I tried the irrigator and everything else I could think of.

FINALLY I got hold of the thing and it wasn't a popcorn kernel.

It was a BONE FRAGMENT.

Yes, boys and girls, getting your wisdom teeth out can be MESSY.

It feels much better now though.

There's no real pain at this point - just a little tenderness on that side if I'm eating something particularly hard.

I still for the life of me can't figure out why the left has been healing so much more slowly than the right.

The right had erupted about half way and the right was completely submerged, but the oral surgeon had MUCH more trouble removing the right one.

On the other hand, I've had friends tell me it takes every bit of four months for wisdom tooth sockets to heal completely and we are not quite to the four month mark ...

A Creationist's Nightmare: A Walking Fish

Oh, yes - this is going to send the Creationists into spasms ...

Not just one but TWO fish that "walk" on the ocean floor ...

Uncle Jay Explains - Iran Discovers Photoshop

Now, based upon the STAGGERINGLY dripping sarcasm, you just tell me Uncle Jay isn't somehow related to my dad's side of the family ...

And Mrs. Axinar Thinks *I* Have A Messy Desk

Courtesy MSNBC.

The Periodic Table Of Videos

Just stumbled across a REALLY fascinating web site put together by The University of Nottingham in the UK where they have a page laid out like the periodic table of elements with a short video about each element that will play when you click the individual elements.

Needless to say - kids - don't try this stuff at home.

I haven't gotten through all the videos yet, but there is some FASCINATING stuff showing that elemental cesium is solid at room temperature but will melt with nothing more than body heat.

They talk about how depleted uranium is quite dense, but that it's danger is not so much from the radioactivity, but rather because it is so chemically toxic.

The piece on plutonium basically went like this - no "ordinary" university is equipped to handle it. If you had a plutonium sample the size of a golf ball it would weigh half a kilo (about a pound), would be as hot as fresh cup of coffee from McDonald's just from the radiation, and would break several hack saws just trying to break off a small piece from a larger piece.

Plus there's alot of really great fires and explosions in these videos ...

Paul Johnson (or someone CLAIMING to be Paul Johnson) Checks In

For a very long time I thought the world was very carefully segregated into right-wing sales types who don't necessarily want to attract a great deal of attention to themselves from the general public and those who have wild, creative, usually left-leaning personalities who are known to be up until 4am on a regular basis (if not awake for five days staight) working on some project that may or may not have any commercial value.

Well, along comes someone who looks as if he may span those two groups.

Yes, I got comment at 2am this morning from someone claiming to be Paul Johnson, the insurance dealer from Northern Kentucky who has a spot on 55KRC pretty much every evening about 6:03pm that consists of about 3/4 political commentary and 1/4 attempt to entice you to get a quote on a health insurance plan including, along other things, "free PAP, PSA, and colonoscopy".

Now, this person claiming to be Paul Johnson says, "It's 2:00 AM July 2008 and I woke up as I thinking about the Energy Freedom Video we may have completed in a few days."

The hit came from a IP address listed as being connected to Fuse.net in Florence. Now that's plausible that it could be the real Paul Johnson - on the other hand I'm sure there are at least hundreds of other Fuse customers that go through the Florence node.

The computer that made that hit is running XP and IE7 at a resolution of 1024 X 768 - also a very common configuration.

The search that led to Axinar's was the phrase "paul johnson in kentucky" launched from Zoomtown's search page, which is actually run by Google.

So it's certainly possible, although not conclusive, that this was the real Paul Johnson.

I was about to say the one way to authenticate the comment would be for Paul Johnson to call my "News/Tip Line" at (513) 685-0554, but it looks like he's already done it!

The Caller ID on Grand Central DOES check back to Paul Johnson Insurance.

The voice sounds quite a bit different over then phone than it does on the radio, but I think it may very well be the real Paul Johnson:



Anyway - back to the comment -

The comment is saying the "Energy Freedom Video", which I presume is the same video he has been mentioning in his radio spots, may be completed in "a few days".

Okay - don't wait TOO long - next week the CNN special where Whoopi Goldberg is telling us that 50:50 odds are MUCH worse than 1 in 2 odds will be running and I may have to devote my precious limited blogging time to THAT show and not be able to properly review the "Energy Freedom" show.

"You sond(sic) like a sharp (I would assume young man)." I don't know about young any more ... :) As for "sharp", someone once referred to me as "a staff unto himself". Dean - care to fill him in? :)

This comment is also asking if I'd like to meet him for coffee sometime.

Perhaps - but I think this one I might turn over to The Dean if he's interested.

Dean, now, so far as I know, Paul Johnson doesn't hold any current political offices, but the positions he describes in his ads, IMHO, are VERY representative of many of the business leaders in this area. An interview with him MIGHT be very enlightening as to the point of view of many other members of the business community who might feel uncomfortable speaking publicly on certain matters.

In any event, we shall certainly be looking forward to the "Energy Freedom" video ...

Update:
Paul Johnson's performance of The Star Spangled Banner
Paul Johnson's "Energy" Radio Spot
Bill Cunningham interviews Paul Johnson about energy policy
The David Pimentel "Cornell Ethanol" article

CNN Presents: "Black In America" - Whoopi Goldberg Clips

Online Videos by Veoh.com


Online Videos by Veoh.com

Wait a minute ...

I think in the 2nd clip she said, "You got a 50:50 shot of getting pregnant if you have unprotected sex. You got a 1 in 2 chance of getting AIDS."

Uh ... hmmmm ... sounds like the same odds.

And, to tell you the truth I'm not sure which of those is the more frightening sexually transmitted disease ... :)

The show airs July 23rd & 24th at 9pmET/PT on CNN.

Black In America - Is The Dream Still Alive?

Black In America - Is The Dream Still Alive?
Uploaded by thatisalsofunny

And yet ANOTHER promo for "CNN Presents: Black in America" airing July 23rd & 24th at 9pmET/PT on CNN.

"Black In America" - Airing July 23rd & 24th On CNN

Black In America- A CNN Investigation-Airing July 23rd &24th
Uploaded by thatsfunny

Yet another promo for the "Black In America" special airing July 23rd and 24th at 9pm on CNN.

Taxpayers Bailing Out Freddie And Fannie?

Every now and again someone brings up discussion about the Federal Government owning stocks outright.

Usually people lose they minds within seconds of the subject being breached.

The usual way this enters conversation is when people try to figure out a way to save Social Security.

You see, there are some pretty huge pension funds in this country - CalPERS, TIAA-CREF, and so on, who DO own pretty signifcant equity positions (stocks) and arguably do a better job providing for their retirees than Social Security ever will.

However, there's word floating around just today that the Federal Government just might buy stock in Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N) to keep them from COLLAPSING.

Yes, boys and girls - pretty much what has happened is that the collapse of the housing market has finally taken ol' Fannie and Freddie by the throat. Sometime Wednesday going into Thursday various anlayst comments started making the rounds that these two are completely, utterly, and absolutely INSOLVENT. There's a particular Barron's article that seems to be the commentary of record on this topic - Failure Is Not an Option For Fannie and Freddie". It, in turn, appears to be based on commentary from former St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole who calculated that Freddie and Fannie owe $5.2 billion more than their assets are worth under fair value accounting rules.

There was pretty much NOTHING else on CNBC all day Friday.

Now, there's been an implied, although certainly not statutory, guarantee that if these two ever did start to go under that the Federal Government would bail them out and it looks like that's exactly what's going to happen.

But, let's consider precisely what this means.

Now, in the event of what's looking to be an unprecedented financial storm where people are losing their houses at a faster clip than they were in the Depression, you'd think the Federal Government would respond at least to the extent that they did at Katrina - at least provide some trailers or something of the sort.

Oh, NO - this bail-out is not about HOME owners, it's about BOND owners.

You see, with the explicit support of the Federal Government, Freddie and Fannie have been selling bonds based on mortgages that have very little remaining value at this point. For starters, alot of people don't have work to pay their mortgages. If people can't pay their mortgages, Freddie and Fannie can't pay their bond holders.

Now, is the Federal Government going to set up a program to help people pay their mortgages so that Freddie and Fannie can, in-turn, pay their bond holders?

HELL no.

They're going to pay these mainly super-rich bond holders DIRECTLY to keep them from going into an uncontrollable panic and completely seizing up the economy.

Of course there's only one way to do that - pretty much by printing money.

You think $4/gallon gas is bad?

You think $2.50/loaf of bread is bad?

You think $3/gallon milk is bad?

You ain't seen NOTHING yet.

I'm betting we see $10/gallon at the pump by July 4, 2009.

We may very well be headed for a Germany/Yugoslavia style hyperinflation.

This government has sent the undeniable signal they're going to keep pumping money into this system as fast as the fat-cat investors can waste it.

If we had the slightest bit of guts, we'd cut them ALL off. Get someone's hopes up that they can afford a nice house when they really can't? These investors DESERVE to be ruined and standing in the bread lines with the people they tricked.

Every last one of them.

Related:
Feds Open Credit Window to Fannie, Freddie - CNBC
Treasury, Fed to help prop up mortgage giants - MSNBC
Fannie and Freddie Update! Judgement Day Tomorrow - The Housign Time Bomb

Paul Johnson: Insurance Salesman Or Political Candidate?

As much as I hate to admit it, one of my favorite moments of the day hits about 6:03pm when, believe it or not, I will actually turn off my Star Trek soundtrack CD's in order to tune to 55KRC (550 AM - WKRC - Cincinnati) in order to listen to the diatribe of the day of from Paul Johnson of Walton, Kentucky.

Now, ostensibly, Paul Johnson is an insurance salesman - and with a HEAVY Kentucky accent will tell you how he can sell you health plans that include (and you'd get a kick out of how he pronounces these - puts you in mind of the late Kash Amburgy) free PAP, PSA and colonoscopy.

HOWEVER, generally speaking, on the WAY to trying to sell you insurance, he usually gives you a little lecture on ultra-right wing political topics.

The last few days before today he was actually singing the National Anthem.

My car speakers were considerably stressed.

He talks about his web site alot too - Paul Johnson Insurance - decidedly a Web 1.0 product - with a GLARING typo of his main sales phone number in a GIF file where he's imploring the Congress to drill for oil in ANWR.

His spot today was interesting and one I hadn't heard before. There was so much political content about the oil issue he didn't even take the time to remind me of the free PAP, PSA and colonoscopy.

He raved on for quite some time about how the Chinese were drilling for oil off the coast of Florida and that he had a YouTube video about his energy policy.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen - an insurance salesman from Walton, Kentucky is now setting U.S. energy policy.

I went flying to the web site of course and - yikes - no link to a YouTube video.

I also did extensive YouTube searches and found nothing.

Did 55KRC run the spot too soon?

Did Paul Johnson's crack web production team drop the ball?

He talks about the original 30' X 42' flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write Star Spangled Banner.

I saw the Star Spangled Banner up fairly close the last time I was in Washington when it was undergoing restoration.

It is somewhat impressive.

And it sometimes REALLY turns my stomach that so many young men and women have DIED so that the American people can be denied DECENT HEALTH COVERAGE so that YOUR hyper-inflated individual coverage dollars can be used to buy outrageous amounts of AIR TIME to spew reactionary propoganda.

Sometimes I swear to GOD they need to bring back the Fairness Doctrine.

But, until then, Paul Johnson certain has the right to say his piece.

Now where in the HELL is the YouTube video he was talking about???

Baby Huey - Git Along Lil' Duckie

Baby Huey - Scout Fellow

Baby Huey - Clown on the Farm

Baby Huey Pilot: Quack-A-Doodle-Doo

Now Mrs. Axinar says I put her ever so slightly in mind of Baby Huey ...

The Restaurant Enterprise

Classic SNL: The Restaurant Enterprise - View more free videos

A skit from Saturday Night Live (I'm guessing circa 1986) where the Enterprise is converted to a seafood restaurant.

Dana Carvey as Khan ... utterly hilarious.

And I don't think I've ever seen this before ...

Star Wars Deleted Scene: Biggs' Return

The Deleted Biggs & Luke Scene From Star Wars

The Original Star Wars "Jabba" Scene (With Human Actor)

Brent Spiner On "Night Court"

Yes, there was life before Data ...

Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan Promo From Rough Cut

This one is FASCINATING - a really long trailer for Star Trek II assembled from TOS music cues, deleted scenes and different takes than what appeared in the final film ...

Original Ending Of Star Trek: Generations

My God that WAS depressing ...

William Shatner On The Mike Douglas Show 1969

There's some great stuff in this interview where Shatner is describing that the "evil" Captain Kirk from "The Enemy Within" was based on a cat and other fascinating stuff ...

Is Obama A Natural Born Citizen?

So I'm going through my RSS feeds and I see a great conspiracist post from my good buddy The Dean of Cincinnati rambling on a bit about the possibility that Barack Obama is not a citizen of the United States.

Oh that's heavy.

Now the "official" story at the moment is that Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, a couple of years after Hawaii became a state.

Now apparently there is a pretty savage rumor going around that Obama may have actually been born in Kenya.

Now Obama's "Fight The Smears" page (Obama's own personal Snopes - isn't that cute?) contains what purports to be an image of Obama's birth certificate, which of course looks remarkably similar to an image of Obama's birth certificate that appeared in a post on Daily Kos.

Now, it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to authenticate a JPG image. However, presuming for a moment that we're actually looking at an image of an authentic document, what I recognized immediately is that we're not looking at a birth certificate copy at all. What we're looking at is a birth certificate TRANSCRIPT - the Suitably Flip blog suggesting that they used the transcript rather than the actual birth certificate because the actual birth certificate may show Obama's parents were never married.

Now, mind you, if someone HANDS YOU IN PERSON a document like this with appropriate seals and signatures along with a picture ID or something else from "List B" of an I-9, you can legally put them to work. However, obviously Obama did not hand us this document in person, so the whole discussion is academic.

On top of that, we're not talking about hiring Obama as a law clerk or something of the sort - we are talking about some serious Article II issues here.

There are several sites that have been Photoshopping the hell out of the various JPG images to try to see if they can see a seal.

People -

You can't authenticate a seal through a JPG image.

You have to examine the actual document.

AND Obama has to hand it to you.

In person.

Along with his driver's license.

And that's just if you want to hire him to do your taxes.

I'm not entirely sure how this thing would go down if there does turn out to be some funny business going on.

Do we have to wait until he's elected?

Would we have to file suit with the Supreme Court to have the election annulled on Constitutional grounds?

And, for the purposes of blog-mongering, are there ANY other extant records that would put Obama and his mother in Hawaii at the time when he was supposed to be there?

And I'm not talking individual testimony - I'm talking medical records, gas station receipts, local newspaper announcements, phone bills - anything at all that would "paint a picture" of Obama's mother belting him out on the island of Oahu on August 4, 1961 ...

Or not ...

Oh, and connecting to another favorite topic of mine ...

Just as Mrs. Axinar walking the streets of Cincinnati is "Black", but walking the streets of certain predominantly Puerto Rican sections of New Jersey is "Cuban", so Obama in America is "Black", but in Africa is ARAB ...

Oh that's heavy ...

Obama: Read My Lips - We're Leaving Iraq

Soledad O'Brien Interview "Black in America"

CNN's "Black In America"

So I'm looking through the July, 2008 Ebony magazine and I stumble across this ginormous full-page ad for a special running on CNN July 23rd and 24th at 9pm called "Black In America".

The first thing I'm thinking is, "Uh oh, The Dean isn't going to be happy about this." Because it sounds to me like CNN is saying that there at least is such a thing AS the state of BEING Black.

I also wonder what University of Maryland professor of anthropology and genetics researcher Fatimah Jackson, quoted by Cassandra Franklin-Barbajosa as saying "race as a scientific concept doesn't exist" would have to think of this CNN special.

Yes, I'd have to agree that race is not a scientific concept, but it is certainly a cultural concept.

And that concept can vary quite a bit from culture to culture.

I never will forget the first time I showed a picture of Mrs. Axinar to my one friend from Puerto Rico. My Puerto Rican friend said, "Mrs. Axinar isn't Black - she's Cuban."

Interestingly enough, the CNN special is hosted by Soledad O'Brien. I once asked my Puerto Rican friend to give me her best guess on an "ethic ID" of Soledad O'Brien and my Puerto Rican friend said, "I'm not 100% sure, but she's got ALOT of White in her." Turns out María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien has Irish, Australian, and Afro-Cuban background.

Interestingly enough, there was another article called "Cuba and color" running in the July 2008 Ebony about the fact that in Cuba, another place where African slaves and European slaveowners crashed into one another, the concept of racial identity took a quite different twist than in the United States.

For one thing, for a very long time in the U.S., there was this concept that "one drop" of "African blood" made you Black. I'm thinking this has changed somewhat in the early 21st century. It seems like there is a "transition zone" in the 30 - 40% African admixture range where one starts to have a greater liklihood of being identified as "Black" rather than "White". Henry Louis "Skip" Gates had a couple of guests on African American Lives who tested about 20% African, but were clearly identified with the "White" community. Barack Obama and Halle Berry at presumably right around 50% African associate with "Black", and then we have Karyn Parson's children, Lonette McKee and Mariah Carey who we find in a deep, deep state of ethnic ambiguity at first glance, although Lonette McKee identifies with the Black community and, if I understand it correctly, Mariah Carey voluntarily obstains from ethnic identification.

However, in Cuba, according to this Ebony article, it's quite different.

First, as my Puerto Rican friend alluded to, the primary ethnic identification for both what would appear "White" and "Black" to U.S. eyes is actually "Cuban". There's a much looser association with "White" and "Black", but, in Cuban culture, "one drop" of EUROPEAN BLOOD makes you WHITE.

Oh that's heavy.

That also explains some references I've seen in other articles that when some Afro-Cubanos come to the Unites States they can become staggeringly confused rather quickly as they had primarily thought of themselves as "Cuban" and secondarily as "White" because they are what we might call in this area "light skinned", when they come to the U.S. they're thought of as "Black".

In any event, it will certainly be interesting to read The Dean's reaction to the CNN special.

That and I find it quite disturbing that Time Warner has made no provision to allow a person to program a DVR manually out that far.

All y'all WILL remind me a few days before the thing to record it?

Related:
CNN's "Black In America" - The Revealed Oasis (BTW - this young lady is a HUGE John Coltrane fan - okay in my book :) )