Telling it like it is

So we're watching "I Love the 90s part deux" on VH1 at the moment, and I decided it would be neat to get hold of a copy of 2 Live Crew's "Me So Horny" after it was featured a couple of nights ago. First stop, the VH-1 website. They only have the whole album for $14. No thanks. Next stop iTunes. They don't have it at all. Next stop Napster. They have it but you need to put their spyware on your PC and cough up $9.95 to subscribe before they'll let you grab the tune for 99¢ Moving on to mp3.com - littered with pops and adverts (thank God for Adblock and Firefox!). Eventually they link to RealPlayer. Follow the link and again you need their proprietary piece of spyware installed, but now it's $14.95 before you can download the track for $1.50. ezmp3s.com - nice site but it forces your browser full-screen and forcibly tries to install its own software without you knowing. Again thank God for Firefox. If I'd been using InternetExplorer, no do...

So it's official. B*sh has been sworn in for another four wars. In his speech he vowed fight tyranny and oppression around the world. A valuable sentiment, undermined somewhat by the fact that he had all the anti-B*sh protesters along the parade route arrested and taken away.

I got an official looking letter this morning from some group claiming to be the "Lipuma Class Action Settlement" group, telling me that if I'd used my Amex card outside of America after 1997, I was entitled to money back from American Express due to some fraud or other. It all reads very clever, but then they ask for my name and address, telephone numbers, credit card numbers and a bunch of other stuff. Yeah right. Like I'm going to put all that info in an unsolicited mail. Still, I guess some morons somewhere will fall for it. Suckers.

When we bought our house in England, the government abolished tax relief on mortage interest payments the same year. Fortunately, they've not cottoned on to that plot over here in America yet. I was going through our tax return tonight using Turbotax, and lets just say when I got to putting in the mortgage interest and tax payed on our house, the little refund number Turbotax had calculated got much bigger very quickly. I like mortgage interest tax relief. It's A Good Thing. Even once I'd declared Paula's income from the UNPS and my Google Adsense income, we still got a refund, due exclusively to us owning a house. Sweeeeeet.

Well Dory, our cat, has indicated to us in no uncertain terms that she knows where home is now. She presented Paula with a dead bird this evening. This is nasty and nice at the same time. Nobody wants to deal with dead wildlife in their home, but it means Dory truly feels safe and at home with us now. Paula dealt with the corpse accordingly and our Dyson vacuum made short work of the remaining bits and feathers.

From the official list of things you cannot take to B*sh's innauguration ceremony: Firearms, weapons of any kind, ammunition (either real or simulated), explosives of any kind (including fireworks), knives, blades, or sharp objects (of any length), aerosol sprays, coolers, thermal or glass containers , mace, pepper spray, sticks, poles , pocket or hand tools (such as a leatherman), packages, backpacks, large bags, duffel bags, suitcases, laser pointers, posters, signs, placards (including supports structures), animals other than guide dogs or service dogs assisting handicapped individuals, strollers, chairs, umbrellas , alcoholic beverages, and any other items at the discretion of the security screeners that may pose a potential safety hazard. When you research deeper into it, they're also banning props, folding chairs, bicycles, papier mache objects, coffins, crates, crosses, cages, signs, portable balloons, cellphones, baby carriages, strollers, wheelchairs and get th...

US commandos are operating inside Iran selecting sites for future air strikes, says the American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. In the New Yorker magazine, Hersh says intelligence officials have revealed that Iran is the Bush administration's "next strategic target". That's nothing we didn't already know. Hersh says that American special forces have conducted reconnaissance missions inside Iran for six months. Naturally, the White House has described his article as "riddled with inaccuracies". But lets not forget that this is the same guy who broke the Abu Ghraib story, amongst many others, so I'm more inclined to believe him than the current administration. "President" B*sh has authorised the operations, defining them as military to avoid legal restrictions on CIA covert intelligence activities overseas. Source Unbelievably, the arrogant SOB also said this in an interview today: The public's decision to reelect me is a ra...

I got in to work this morning and checked out my spam-filtered weekend email. It seems this weekend's big craze is the "Hey, we're giving away a ......, want one?". The items vary from PS2s, Nintendo DSs, laptops etc. But they're all the same scam. I can't believe these retards just don't get it. Nobody buys anything from spam email. Nobody. Why do you keep sending it? Nobody clicks the links, nobody purchases anything, you don't make any money. And in my case, my spam filter eliminates all of it so it never even reaches my inbox. Millions of other users have the same ability. So why? Why not go play in traffic or something? At least then you'd be actually doing something useful - keeping the coroners and morticians busy.