Smart Devices

A Smart Vacuum Cleaner?

My daughter is smarter than I am, and I am okay with that.
Then I bought a computer that is smarter than I am. A little disturbing.
We now have a automobile that is smarter than I am. Scary.
Our 2-year old TV and its remote control are 
definitely smarter than I am. Embarrassing.
And I just purchased a phone that is smarter than I am. 
Why didn't I keep my old stupid phone?
I mean, having something in common,  my stupid phone and I 
were able to communicate.


And that is why we are not getting a dog. 

I know damn well that the dog will be smarter than I am.

But, on the other hand, there is Smart Water. That's ridiculous.

I must be smarter than water.

I hear tell that there are now smart showers and toilets. 
Now that's not right; a smart toilet? I definitely don't want to know 
what it does. But I suspect it does know "shit from shinola."


Recently I was told some genius is selling "smart bras."
God knows, I have nothing against bras,
but why does someone need a smart bra? 
What is the difference between a smart bra and and a dumb bra?
Does a smart bra unclasp itself when one says "open sesame"?


I recently saw one of those robotic vacuum cleaners,
 but although it is smarter than I am, it did not have enough common 
sense to get out of the way when I dropped a 100 lb. anvil on it.
I suggested applying that same anvil test to our other smart things,
but my wife suggested I visit an institution -- 
and it was not an institution of higher learning

Lenten Resolutions of a Sort

Lent (the Teutonic word for springtime) begins on Ash Wednesday (this year, 3/9) and many Christians around the world will begin observing 40 days of prayer, penitence, alms-giving, fasting and self denial.


For many,  Lent's main component is depriving one's self of things one enjoys. It is a period of "giving up" things like chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes or other pleasant activities.


Then, there are those who "give up" doing things that they should have never been doing in the first place. Some of those activities are:


1. starting wars.
2. listening to Rush Limbaugh.
3. believing what Rush says.
4. wearing crocs in the snow.
5. selling automatic weapons to Mexican drug lords.
6. swimming with sharks.
7. reading Donald Rumsfeld's memoir.
8. watching "Dancing with the Stars."
9. waiting for the wealth to "trickle down" to the middle class.
10. thinking that your 748 Facebook "friends" are really your friends.
11. building bonfires on a frozen pond.
12. believing the US Supreme Court makes "non-political" decisions.
13. selling Super Bowl tickets for non-existent seats.
14. purchasing a tattoo of Ann Coulter on your derrière.
15. damaging your credibility by repeating something you heard on Fox News.
16. making fun of the child obesity problem in the US.
17. asking Brett Favre to email you photos of himself.
18. sending out your wedding invitations on Facebook.
19. answering questions with a question.
20. naming your daughters Bristol, Willow and Piper.
21. using the electric hair dryer in the shower.
22. suggesting that "death panels" are part of the new Health Insurance Law.
23. blaming public employees  for budget deficits.
24. going to a casino and gambling with your rent money.
25. writing your memoir when only 20 years old.


Personally, my Lenten resolution is to stop making up stupid lists. We'll see how that goes. If you would like to add to the list, do so in "post a comment" section below.

GOP Budget: Defund Gov. & Subsidize the Wealthy

Ol' Money Bags: "We love the Republicans.
They are so easy.
 Just throw money at their feet,
and they will fall over themselves
picking it up."

Today (3/2/11) Congress kicked the budget can down the road to avoid a government shut-down. The Republicans don't want that to happen. The last time, when Newt Gingrich shut it down, the country became dramatically aware of how important the government really is.


But the budget problem will have to be solved. The Republicans while protecting their special interests and their subsidies want a $61 billion reduction, and as is so often the case these days, refuse to negotiate. The Democrats today went along with some mutually agreeable cuts, but cannot tolerate the cuts the GOP is proposing. These are just some of the cuts directed at the working middle class and the working poor by the GOP, their lobbyists, and the Koch brothers:


1. They want to defund the new health care law. The result - health insurance companies would decide whether you get coverage and how much you will pay. It would eliminate a provision that at least 80 % of your health care premium would be spent on health care. The insurance company could spent as much as it wanted on CEO salaries and golf outings.


2.This budget would eliminate funds for the homeless veterans. No matter that these men and women put their lives on the line and suffered a wide array of psychological and physical injures and are now wandering our streets and sleeping under over-passes.


3. This budget is under-cutting enforcement of  new food safety reforms. Their donors at the large agricultural corporations do not want the government preventing them from selling suspect or tainted foods.


4. The Republicans in the House want to cut the budget for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by 40%, thus reducing its ability to protect consumers from abuses by financial institutions who are a favorite Republican charity.


5. They also want to defund  NPR and PBS in an attempt to eliminate a news source which examines issues in depth and from various perspectives.  If they could eliminate these guys, corporations like Fox News  would not appear so ridiculously biased.


Obviously this is just a very short list of what the Republicans want to cut or defund. On the other hand, consider just two of the things they want to subsidize.


1. Agricultural subsidies, long recognized as "welfare for the wealthy," are not being eliminated. They want to continue to subsidize these fat cats, perhaps because these guys dump tons of money into their campaign war chests.


2. While they want to defund  programs to develop clean energy and renewable energy, they are hell-bent on subsidizing giant oil companies ($4 billion) and providing them with tax breaks.


There seems to be little doubt that the plutocrats  have chosen to declare war on the middle class and the working poor in order to confiscate more of the country's wealth for themselves, and they are funding the Republican Party to be their mercenaries.