Scoop’s Views

When last Wednesday, October 1, rolled around, online life changed for me. It was the day that Comcast began capping bandwidth at a maximum of 250 gigs per month for each account. While it sounds like a lot, it can be used up very quickly if you buy and download software online, especially large programs, such as office suites, commercial photo and video editing packages, and if you’re involved in beta testing a product with an aggressive patch-and-update policy.

The next morning I woke up, did my normal morning routine, and when my eyes were finally caffeinated and ready to deal with life in the ether, I fired up my computer, downloaded my email, and the first email that caught my eye in the batch of 200 that I downloaded was one from Comcast. It caught my eye because the word “newsgroups” – as in Usenet newsgroups – was in the subject – and said the communications company was delivering a doubly-whammy to customers in October.

Tags: Comcast, customer service, download software, Email, emoticons, flaming, Internet, Internet charges, Internet connectivity, Internet history, mainstream media, morning routine, newsgroups, Newsguy.com, online costs, online life, Philadelphia, service benefits, service cuts, texting, The Political Scoop, Usenet

How do you know the air conditioning at work, in the local department store, in your favorite grocery store, or anywhere else, is working a little too well? That’s easy! Check nature’s finest thermometers and see if it’s nipply.

Is nipply always an accurate gauge of the air conditioning. In my feeble thing, until this morning, it was the only gauge of the breast, um, best temperatures.

Tags: air conditioning, blogosphere, breasts, CoffeeBear.com, cold, department stores, grocery stores, nipples, nipply, perverted mind, thermometers, work

Beloit College’s Class of 2012 Mindset List has been released. It’s a list of things that incoming freshmen – most of whom were born in 1990 – are familiar with, but things they also don’t know or comprehend. For example, Harry Potter could very well be one of their classmates, the Class of 2012 Mindset List notes.

The list was started by Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, providing insight into the life and realities — as they exist — for incoming freshmen. It provides cultural touchstones that shape the lives of the incoming students, sometimes making it easier for a professor to understand why some students don’t grasp course content. one such example, for which I must be an exception, is this year’s item #20.

Tags: American Gladiators, Balsamic vinegar, Beloit, Big Macs, Burger King, caller ID, cappucino, charter schools, Clarence Thomas, Class of 2012, Club Med, Coca-Cola, Coke, college grads, color umber, conditioner, Crayola, crayons, credit checks, diapers, eavesdropping, electronic filing, family, fashion scene, films, flat tires, french fries, gas stations, gay rabbis, George Bush, George H.W. Bush, girls, Goosebumps, GPS, Grandma, Green Bay Packers, Haagen-Dazs, Harry Potter, head scarves, Home Alone, hospice, Hubble space telescope, IBM, IBM PC, ice cream, iced tea, IRS, Jay Leno, just don't get it, karaoke, kindergarten, League of Nations, Lenin, Leningrad, living wills, Macaulay Culkin, Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart Living, McDonald's, Mexican border, Mexico, Michael Millkin, Mickey, Mickey Mouse, Microsoft, Mindset List, multi-culturalism, multiculturalism, Muscovites, mustache, national anthem, NC-17, Nintendo Game Boy, off-shore drilling, off-shore oil drilling, oil drilling, Orlando, parties, PCs, Pearl Jam, Pee-Wee Herman, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Pepsi, Pepsi-Cola, personal privacy, philanthropist, philanthropy, prostate cancer, prostate cancer research, quarterbacks, quidditch, radio stations, recycled plastic bottles, research, resorts, Rock the Vote, Roseanne Barr, Royal New Zealand Navy, rum, Russia, satellite navigation systems, schools, SCotUS, Seinfeld, shampoo, soft drink refills, style, Supreme Court, tax returns, tax revenue increases, Teach for America, The Tonight Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, TV, typewriters, Universal Studios, vegetable oil, walkers, Walt Disney, Warsaw Pact, Wayne Newton, whatever, Windows, Windows 3.0, World Wide Wrestling, www, XXX

It’s no surprise I hold utter contempt for politicians who have been in office for more than two terms. In fact, I despise most politicians who are serving their second term in office, as these people are generally on the road to a lifelong career as a politician.

In a perfect society, this probably wouldn’t be a problem, but in our less-than-perfect society, a first-term politician learns many of the “tricks” of the political trade, and in their second term, if they wait that long, they begin practicing and honing those tricks to their benefit. Things that typically benefit politicians generally do not benefit the American public (a.k.a. voters or constituents).

Tags: 2008 Presidential election, election 2008, Internet crowd, News, presidential candidates, presidential election

There are at least a handful of people arguing the U.S. government needs to “do more” to regulate online pharmacies. Sure, that may be true, but right now, face the facts: most in Congress are older people who are technologically-challenged. In fact, look at legislation about most any aspect of life and you’ll see most of it is at least 10 or more years behind the times. I won’t even touch on the health care crisis in the U.S.

In a story on CNN.com, one woman cried to the cable news channel that she found her husband on their marriage bed, dead, in a pool of vomit. He allegedly died from what the woman — the widow — declares was an accidental overdose of drugs the now-dead husband received from an online pharmacy.

Tags: American Fork, anonymous, carisoprodol, Carmen Catizone, clinics, CNN.com, dead, death, depression, drugs, Elavil, European Medicines Agency, European Union, fitness, Health, husband, Illegal Drugs, Kareem Tannous, Long Island, Mental Health, Mood Disorders, Nancy Fitzpatrick, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, online pharmacies, online pharmacy, pharmaceuticals, Prozac, Rusty Payne, Science and Technology, side effects, Soma, Sweden, Technology, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Utah, Valley Stream, Websites

As I wrote on July 10, in the post, Rev. Jesse Jackson is irrelevant in today’s society, it seems he really needs to learn to shut hit mouth, stay out of the public spotlight, give up being a public figure, and not give any interviews — to local, nation, international, or even target-market publications — ever again.

Now, for the second time in a month, he is under fire badmouthing presidential candidate Barack Obama, running as a democrat.

Tags: apologies, Barack Obama, castrate, castration, Chicago, Chicago Illinois, Christian, civil rights, commercial break, Fox and Friends, Fox News, n-bomb, n-word, Obama, open microphone, Operation PUSH, presidential candidate, protests, Rainbow Coalition, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Barack Obama, sit-ins, testicles

Senate is rewarding telecommunications providers for breaking the law
York Times is reporting that the United States Senate, by a vote of 69-28, approved a bill overhauling the rules covering secret government eavesdropping and granting immunity to telecommunications companies that aided in the wiretapping of Americans without warrants. Doing Chicago-style two-stepping, Barack Obama, who originally spoke harsh words against the illegal wiretaps, voted today in favor of granting immunity to the telecommunications companies. His former presidential contender, Hillary Clinton, stayed true to her original position and voted against the immunity.

Tags: Barack Obama, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, David Stout, domestic spying, due process rights, eavesdropping, Eric Lichtblau, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigations, federal courts, FISA, foreign, Hillary Clinton, Homeland Security, illegal wiretapping, immunity, intrusions, mismanagement, National Security Agency, No Such Agency, NSA, phone subscibers, re-election, Senate, senators, telecommunications companies, telecoms, terrorist attacks, terrorists

Imagine someone you know going into a coma tomorrow. With the November 2008 Presidential election several months off, they’d have no idea the outcome when they wake from the coma, if ever.

Trying to remain eternally optimistic, though, let’s suppose that person wakes from the coma in 2015, about seven years from now. Can you imagine what a different world it could be?

Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Campaigns, Christians, churches, devil, economy, evil, gasoline prices, health care, Hillary Clinton, Iraq, Michelle Obama, Muslims, national health care plan, president, religions, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, terrorism, videos, wars, White House

One TV show I used to watch, and have watched since it was introduced about three years ago, The Unit, has had its current season halted, and despite pulling in high ratings before the writer’s strike, may be axed by idiots in CBS’ entertainment division.

It seems an online petition has been started in an attempt to “save” The Unit from the proverbial TV show scrap pile. Although I’m not a big fan of online petitions, I’ve seen several TV shows that were “saved” as a result of such actions by viewers. Since I already said I enjoyed the show, I will push others to sign the petition in an attempt to keep the show on-the-air.

Tags: Are You Stupider than a 5th Grader, armed forces, Big Brother, Bones, CBS, CNN, combat veterans, Comcast, Comcrap, Delta Force, Fox 29, headlines, House, knowledge, Lost, Military Channel, military families, National Geographic, NCIS, News, online petition, Philadelphia, renewed, research, Season 4, Special Forces, Survivor, The Unit, Troop Space, Two-and-a-Half-Men, veterans, Weather, writer's strike

April 4 has a couple of interesting items that have made an impact on society. One that’s helped lead mankind forward digitally, the other helped lead mankind forward, somewhat, through civil rights.

Tags: April 4, Books, federal government, Government, History, interesting history, Internet, Life, making history, People, Society, Technology, U.S. Government, what makes history interesting

The ever-unwinding story about former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey is once again becoming a half-interesting episode to follow. As if past headlines and news stories about Jim McGreevey and his gay lover, and with the current sex fiend, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and his prostitutes, in the news, it seems the New York-New Jersey political bed is filled with nothing but wanton lust in gay, hooker, and three-way sex.

Three-way sex? That’s right. It seems that one of the now-former governors had three-way sex, and it’s only now that the embers of being stoked in the coals.

Tags: 3-way, aide, bi-sexual, dating, Dina Matos-McGreevey, driver, Eliot Spitzer, gay American, Golan Cipel, governor, homosexual, homosexuality, James McGreevey, Jim McGreevey, kinky sex, marriage, mayors, McGreevey, New Jersey, New York, New York Post, Newark, perversions, queer, resignation, Sex, sex acts, sexual acts, sexual trysts, Silda, Silda Spitzer, Silent Partner, Star-Ledger, three-way sex, traveling aide, Woodbridge NJ

The attorney for former high-priced Washington, D.C.-based call girl, “Kristen”, seems to have forgotten something he may have learned in law school. Perhaps he didn’t learn it, which is why he’s flapping his gums so much, basically trying to intimidate newspapers and TV news stations.

It seems this attorney, Don D. Buchwald, is trying to say the media has “thrust” — interesting choice of words, especially given his client’s employment history — into the “public glare without her consent.”

Tags: Ashley Dupre, call girl, callgirl, Chris Peterson, copyrights, defamation, Don D. Buchwald, Eliot Spitzer, ex-call girl, ex-hooker, Facebook, FBI, general purpose public figure, Gertz vs. Robert Welch Inc, Heidi Fleiss, hooker, hooking, Internet, investigation, journalists, Kristen, lady of the evening, laws, lawsuits, libel, limited purpose public figure, Mafia, media outlets, Ms. Ashley Dupre, MySpace, New York, New York Governor, New York Times vs. Sullivan, News, newspapers, privacy, private public figure, prostitute, prostitution, prostitution illegal, prostitution laws, public figure, public official, recordings, slander, sloppy seconds, social networks, tape, television, Time vs. Firestone, TV, Washington DC