Life, Politics, Technology, Humor

Do you need new prescription sunglasses for summer? You know, for those days when your contacts are acting up, or when you just don’t feel like putting them in? Zenni Optical has a great selection of prescription glasses including a wide variety of frames, and many different kinds of lenses. Oh, and you can’t beat the great prices you will find at zennioptical.com.

In a treasonous move, today the United States Senate passed H.R. 6304: FISA Amendments Act of 2008 thanks to a number of traitor Democrats.

One of my Senators, Dianne Feinstein, voted Aye. I let her know how I felt about it through her web contact form. I suggest you do the same.

“Senator Feinstein, your vote today on H.R. 6304 is treasonous and embarrassing. It’s obvious who you work for, and it’s certainly NOT the People of California.”

Oh, and by the way – Obama also voted Aye.

Today in a speech in Kuala Lumpur, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (allegedly mortal enemy of the United States) stated that he sees no possibility of a war with the United States or Israel.

Additionally, Ahmadinejad also stated that Bush’s successor (if there even is one – my words) “would need at least 30 years in order to compensate, renovate and innovate the damages done by Mr. Bush.” He also stated that “the greatest threat in the Middle East and the whole world … is the United States’ intervention in other countries.”

Can any sane person argue with this? Except for Neocons and Zionists (same thing, I know), I have no doubt that the rest of the world feels this way too. The problem is that just about the only world leaders with enough guts to say these things are Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez.

Take a look at the rest of the story about Ahmadinejad’s speech and see what you think. Is he really the evil tyrant and terror sponsor that we are supposed to believe he is? No.

When peaceful activists carrying signs that should not be offensive are asked to leave public property, there’s a problem. What the hell is going on here?

This is a video of a 61 year old librarian being cited and removed from public property for holding a sign that says “McCain = Bush.” Wow. What a country we live in.

Whether you’re a soldier of fortune or a weekend car camper, you know that having gear that can stand up to the rugged outdoors is essential to any successful raid or camping trip. The Tactical Assault Gear found at LAPoliceGear.com is perfect for any application where you need rugged and reliable tactical gear. They carry everything from bags to backpacks to slings and holsters, all for under retail price.

LAPoliceGear.com also has a great deal going right now where you can get free ground shipping and a free Nalgene bottle when you order over $150 of tactical gear. Just put “tag” in the coupon box at checkout to take advantage of this deal.

If you’re pondering upgrading your iPhone to the iPhone 3G when it comes out of Friday, you are most likely planning on transferring all of your data from your first generation iPhone to your iPhone 3G. If this is the case, Apple has a great article on exactly how to accomplish this quickly and easily. At the end of the article, they also tell you how to restore your first generation iPhone to the factory defaults so that it can be given to someone else to use.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2109

For the August 2008 issue of Vanity Fair, writer Chris Hitchens bravely subjected himself to a waterboarding session. His article on the waterboarding experience is available here, as well as a video of the torture session. It hopefully won’t surprise anyone (except Bush and friends) that Hitchens decisively concluded that waterboarding is indeed torture, no matter what they tell us.

A week or so ago, just for fun I sent ExxonMobil an email about what assholes they are, and essentially asking how they live with themselves. Here’s a copy of the reply:

—===—===—

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your recent communication expressing concern about higher
prices for gasoline and energy products.

We recognize that energy price increases have put a strain on many
household budgets. We also know that some hold the oil and gas industry
directly responsible for these price increases and quite frankly, this
conclusion is not correct. There are several factors that are helpful to
consider as we look at what is causing higher gasoline and energy prices.

Crude Oil

Crude oil, the world’s foremost energy source – is a true global commodity,
traded freely in markets worldwide. Prices for crude oil, which now
account for well over 60 percent of the price Americans pay at the pump,
are set on competitive global markets. No single company sets the price
for crude oil or even influences how these prices are set. Even as the
largest private energy company in the world, ExxonMobil only represents 3
percent of global oil production. We also buy nearly two times more crude
oil than we produce, as we do not produce nearly enough crude oil to keep
our ExxonMobil refineries and plants supplied. Also, our crude oil supply
costs are higher partly due to the weaker value of the U.S. dollar.

Global Supply and Demand

The market forces of supply and demand are the fundamental factors that
influence crude oil prices. Growing demand for transportation fuels, in
developing nations like China and India alone have driven demand increases
at twice the historic average in several recent years. Americans drive
around 3 trillion miles per year, almost twice as much as we did in 1980
(1.5 trillion miles), now demanding about 400 million gallons of gasoline a
day. On the supply side, geopolitical developments have curtailed
production and driven up prices at various points in time.

Industry Earnings in Context

In a high commodity demand/price environment, which currently exists,
industry earnings will generally rise. However, the oil and gas industry
profits are comparable to other U.S. industries, 9.5 cents for every dollar
of sales compared to an average of 8.2 cents for all U.S. manufacturers in
2006. You also might find it interesting to know that 70 percent of
ExxonMobil revenues are generated outside the U.S. And, with respect to
the price you pay at your local service station, independently owned
operators set those retail prices in competition with one another.
ExxonMobil owns and operates less than 900 of the 170,000 service stations
in the United States; that is less than 1 percent.

Investing in Tomorrow’s Energy

In our view and probably your own as well, another important question is
what are we doing with the money we earn? In the past twenty years, we
have invested about $280 billion worldwide on capital and exploration
expenditures to develop new energy supplies — a figure that exceeds our
total earnings over that period.

Looking ahead, the International Energy Agency has estimated that the oil
and gas industry will need to invest at least $20 trillion in new oil and
gas production and infrastructure through 2030 to meet the future growth in
global demand. Much of this projected growth in energy use is attributable
to improving living standards for billions of people in the developing
world. Only profitable companies will be able to make the investments
needed to compete in global energy markets and to develop the energy
supplies we will need in the future.

Government Taxes

Stable and impartial tax and regulatory policies are critical to companies
looking to invest on the scale noted above. You most likely are not aware
that for every dollar of ExxonMobil’s revenue, on average around 25 cents
is paid to governments, while ExxonMobil earns just over a dime. In 2006,
ExxonMobil earned $39.5 billion, but paid over $100 billion in taxes
worldwide. Over the past five years (2002-2006), ExxonMobil’s U.S. tax
bill was nearly $60 billion, exceeding our total U.S. earnings during that
time by over $20 billion. Without question, we are one of the world’s
biggest taxpayers and are therefore very concerned about the harmful
impacts of current proposals to impose even higher taxes on our industry.
Our government can help meet America’s growing energy needs by ensuring
reliable and impartial rules for all energy investments that will allow
American companies to compete internally.

Your email is important to us. We know price increases and our company’s
earnings have raised questions and deserve explanation. While we hope that
this response provides you with a better understanding of our company’s
challenges and of the global energy markets in which we participate, we
would encourage you to look at our web site www.exxonmobil.com as well as
the web site of the American Petroleum Institute www.energytomorrow.org for
more information.

At ExxonMobil, we’re committed to pricing responsibly and investing for the
future. Please know that every day our 82,000 employees worldwide are
working extremely hard to provide energy supplies to consumers at
competitive prices.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Sincerely,

Ashley Galbraith
Exxon Mobil Corporation

Note: When responding to this message, please use reply to keep the email
thread intact. We need to see the information on previous e-mails to
better assist you. Thank you.

I still can’t believe he’s gone. This is a truly unfortunate loss.

Not only was he insanely funny – he was also intensely intelligent. A sort of modern societal philosopher, if you will. Anyway, check out some truth from our man George:

Man, it’s been a rough week. It all started with my major car trouble last week. Today I should find out how much it’s going to set me back, after a week of waiting. It’s looking like it will be a short-term fix, and that I will most likely need to replace my vehicle. After paying it off just three weeks ago. You’ve got to love the irony. I wish I could, but I’m too bummed and upset to. If you could appreciate it for me, I would appreciate your efforts.

And apparently I was too busy wallowing in disappointment yesterday to pay attention to the news. So this morning I just found out that George Carlin has passed away. We have lost one of the few comedians (or maybe the only comedian) who is producing original and cutting-edge content, and wasn’t afraid to criticize the things that most people won’t touch. He will be missed.

Hopefully the week will get better. We’ll see.