Geek at Play

Shark attack!

I’m out in Salinas this morning helping my girlfriend with a garage sale. The whole block decided to have one today, so the traffic is massive. The population here is dominated by migrant agriculture workers, so a garage sale is a great way to stretch one’s wage. But what I saw this morning was completely unexpected. I can only describe it as a feeding frenzy. The moment we opened the door, a dozen heads on surrounding lawns turned our way. In most cases, we were unable to get the stuff out and even set it down. I left the house with a dowel containing about 20 pairs of pants, intending to hang it between two bar chairs for display. I never made it. The dowel was litterally stripped bare in the first 12 feet I traveled beyond the front door. Frugal mothers grabbed wads of clothing out of my hands, ran to corners and horded over them like Smegal, defending their take as they sifted through hoping for a gem: that elusive good buy.

In the first 45 minutes, we were worn out. The big ticket items were gone. Clothes were strewn across the lawn and hangers stripped bare. Then the apparent hive mind shifted. They knew we were done for. The lawn became vacant, and only a few carrion eaters are picking through the meager selection of flip-flops and t-shirts (as well as something Liz keeps in insisting is a “fertility icon”).

Whew. That was freaky.

Swaggart, you’re cut

I generally stay away from controversy, but this is too much. Check out what Jimmy Swaggart, upstanding citizen, said from the pulpit:

I’m trying to find the correct name for it … this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men. … I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I’m gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I’m gonna kill him and tell God he died.

I have my own share of difficulties with my faith, but this is crazy. It’s hate speech. Not a boo-boo, not a poor choice of words: _hate speech_. It’s so clearly hate speech that a station that aired the show is under investigation for violation of hate-related broadcast laws. Know what’s worse? People laughed and/or cheered. Cheered! At the suggestion that someone be killed!

It’s time for this guy to step down. I’m just so flustered by the black-eye he puts on Christianity that I don’t know what to say. At the very least, he should go study at the feet of Tammy Faye to learn a thing or two about love. Apologize all you want but you’re still a jerk. You’ve missed a fundamental aspect of your faith, not to mention basic human civility.

Unfortunate

Ok, if you’re going to make a Linux distribution and you’re Polish, and you want it to be “for Poles and by Poles”, try not to come up with a logo that looks like a penis.

Moron alert!

I really hope the new Navistar truck sells like gangbusters, I really do. With the ubiquity of the H2 it was getting hard to tell who the really stupid, trend following sheep on the road were. It will once again be clear!