pa_rancont

I have what might be a solution....

Sat, 11 Jun 2005 04:04:22 GMT

No wants to hear is, but I have it.

The solution isn't to "raise awareness" in the richest countries (how many Billions of dollars does the US send to African countries in the form of food, medicine, or straight cash?).

It is treating the so-called "war on hunger" as a military operation. It is pretty well known that the "aid" is never getting to the sick starving kids we see celebrities hugging whilst they plead for you to send the monetary equivalent of "just a cup of coffee a day". The "aid" stops with the warlords and corrupt governmental players, and either sits and rots, or is converted into weapons via black markets and arms dealers.

So, we want to make a difference? Stop supplying the thugs. Once they start to feel the pinch, move the military to the areas the celebs go to in order to find these poor famine stricken kids. Once there, set up a defensive perimeter, and train the natives in defense, farming, irrigation, and crop management. Various tribes have survived in Africa for millennia without the Christian Children's fund. It may well be that a few need to be reminded of how.

Cut the supply line, and take things from there. Teach the villages "how to fish" so to speak (certainly while delivering food, medicine, and the like directly to them), and how to fight off the warlords who are fat, lazy, and heavily armed.

It seems that throwing money at the problem hasn't worked. My idea might well not work. But we will never know unless we try, and it would certainly be a damn sight cheaper.

Fri, 20 May 2005 02:26:53 GMT

You are a Villain. by wolfbaronxylo

Username

Are you evil?

You are

The Deadly Bulb AKA Pigleg.

Your top henchman

weasel2000

Hero who foils you

clowkitty

Your badness level: 99%

Quiz created with MemeGen!

I KNEW I could count on you, Weasel. But I have to watch out for my own sister?

Sheesh.

This is prtty interesting, actually...

Wed, 04 May 2005 03:00:41 GMT

Your Birthdate: August 3

Being born on the 3rd day of the month is likely to add a good bit of vitality to your life.

The energy of 3 allows you bounce back rapidly from setbacks, physical or mental.

There is a restlessness in your nature, but you seem to be able to portray an easygoing, "couldn't care less" attitude.

You have a natural ability to express yourself in public, and you always make a very good impression.

Good with words, you excel in writing, speaking, and possibly singing.

You are energetic and always a good conversationalist.

You have a keen imagination, but you tend to scatter your energies and become involved with too may superficial matters.

You are affectionate and loving, but sometimes too sensitive.

You are subject to rapid ups and downs.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Habemus Papam

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 02:34:56 GMT

There is a new Pope in the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict XVI (I am still not used to typing "John Paul II" after "Pope") was elected today. The church has new leadership, but not necessarily different. The next few weeks will be interesting, as he new pope settles in, and the world gets used to the idea of a pope who is not John Paul II.

Will Benedict XVI travel as much? If so, will he speak in the language of whatever country he is in? Will he be as well liked in this country, especially by the youth of this country, as his predecessor? Will he change the church drastically, or maintain the status quo?

No one knows for sure. But to hear the more liberal (read as: anti-Christian/religion/Catholic) elements in this country tell it, the new pope is worse than a terrorist. There is no thought to "understanding" what may or may not come from the new pope, as there is an attempt to "understand" why terrorists hate and want to kill those of us who live in the USA.

No this pope is simply too conservative for the tastes of the libs, based upon past actions. He wants to keep beliefs that are "intolerant" (engaging in homosexual behavior is a SIN), and "archaic" (birth control by artificial means is a sin, be it by device or abortion) intact. These beliefs are based upon CENTURIES of tradition and law. These are core values to the Church.

Here's a heads up from a Catholic. If you can't wrap your heads around the idea that the Church won't change to suit your desires, there are other religions out there, many of which perform gay weddings, allow any/all forms of birth control, have priestesses, and change the core beliefs of the faith based upon current political situations.

In short, if you don't like how the Catholic Church does things, LEAVE.

But before the decision is made to stay with the Church, or leave it, based upon the new pope's activities, how about we give the man a little time to run things, and get a feel for what he will do NOW, not what he DID whilst a Cardinal (or bishop, or priest, or unwilling conscript in the German military).

Zombie Knights...

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 04:23:34 GMT

I just love the internet. Where else can you take a test to see if you could survive a zombie attack, or what your job would likely be in 1400?

Thanks to Weasel2000 and clowkitty for getting me started on this silly tests. Now I have something to do with my free time.

Oy.

Anyway, awaiting the tax refund to get my computers fixed (upgrading one with Windows XP, and re-loading XP on the other). Once that comes in, I shall be unreachable for a day or two.

If you plan on making a whole bunch of charitable donations, I recommend getting a program called It's Deductible from the makers of Turbo Tax. It will figure out fair market value for donated items, and add up all your donations for a year, and the data can be easily imported into TurboTax next year.

Here's a quick activity...

STOLEN FROM dance_shiva:

If you read this, even if I don't speak to you often, post a memory of me. It can be anything you want, so long as it happened. (Even virtually)

Then post this to your journal (if you like). See what people remember about you.

Snagged from Weasel2000

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 03:08:21 GMT

I scored a little TOO well on this, I think...

Armed and Dangerous
Congratulations! You scored 82%!

You made it out, alive and well supplied. You probably even kept most of your party alive too. You know what to look for, what to take, and when to just run. You even feel a strange inkling to go back. If you did, you'd probably do just fine.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on survivalpoints

Link: The Zombie Scenario Survivor Test written by ci8db4uok on Ok Cupid

This is the winter that never ends....

Wed, 09 Mar 2005 01:11:29 GMT

Well, here I sit. Huddled to the computer for warmth as I post. Because we have single degree wind chill and a few inches of light drifting snow on the ground.

Yesterday we had temps in the 50s, and the last of the LAST snow we had was finally starting to melt.

*sigh*

I just hope that SOME of this snow melts by the Ides of March.

The enigmatic wound on my foot is healing, even if the medical profession cannot identify its cause.

When did the news become "whatever the Clintons are up to, what's going on in the Michael Jackson trial, or did Martha take out her garbage today? I mean, I would think that what is going on in Lebanon would trump Bubba's medical condition, but no. The lead story on the news tonight was what Bill is going in to have done. The leader of Hezzbollah speaking at a pro-Syria rally in Lebanon today was the third story or so.

Nice to know that the priorities of this country's media have returned to pre-9/11 levels.

Old McDonald aged in the hospital, ER-ER-O.

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 01:56:42 GMT

Yesterday, on the way home from work, I felt a burning, like a chemical burn, on the top of my left foot.

Since I work with chemicals, this didn't seem outside the realm of possibility.

When I got home, and took a look at it, I found what appeared to be an aggravated, healing sore.

That wasn't there that morning. One call to my boss about identifying a severe chemical burn in appearance, and an ER trip later, I still have no idea what it is, but I have ruled out athlete's foot and a burn from work (to get to where it is on my foot, it would have either gotten through my rubber boot, which is still intact, or traveled down my boot which comes up to just under my knee, without touching anything else, including my sock).

Anyway, the ER trip is the reason for the title.

I get to the ER, driving myself there, as my non-driving foot was hurt, and sign in at about 8:10. The most previous signing-in to mine got there at 7:20, and was still waiting.

About 20 minutes later, I get called, and have my blood pressure taken, and get asked why I was there. Then I go back to wait.

I read a bit of an e-book on my palm pilot, and cat-napped. I caught bits and pieces of Fox's new show, "House", this episode about a kid with leprosy, and was called up to the desk to be asked about my address, insurance, and things like that. Then I go back to waiting.

Finally, I am asked to come with a nurse, to a gurney in the hallway (all the rooms were full), where the doctor will see me. While I was waiting, I learned a LOT more about an 86 year old lady named Clara who was on the next gurney down, than I needed to. So nice to know that HIPPA is being followed so carefully.

Anyway, the doctor came by, asked me a few questions, listened to my breathing, looked at my foot, and went away. All in under 2 minutes.

Then the nurse comes back, gives me a tetanus shot, two antibiotic pills (to prevent infection), and two Darvocet, for the pain, even though I said I had none. Nice to know that narcotic painkillers are so easily accessible. I asked about what they thought the problem was, and I was told that they didn't know. the antibiotics and tetanus shots were to hedge bets against any infection setting in and/or spreading.

Final tally: 2 1/2 hours at the hospital to get a shot, a couple of antibiotics, and two narcotic pills that I didn't ask for or need.

Whatever conversation that I had with a doctor or nurse in the "treatment area" was pretty much public knowledge. I waited over 2 hours to see a doctor (in the hallway) who checked my breathing for a problem with my foot, and was gone in less time than it takes to tell about it.

I think the operating entity of our local hospital will be getting a letter about this experience.

Well, that was an unexpected solution...

Mon, 28 Feb 2005 01:57:08 GMT

Lately, my wife and I have been trying to figure out how to get Sprout to eat her supper without a huge fight.

We tried taking away TV, withholding desserts, raised voices, early bedtimes, just about everything short of force-feeding.

Tonight, I don't know what got into me, but I tried one more approach. I appealed to her Rancont family sense of competition. You see, members of my family compete, on a purely unconscious level. I appealed to that, by betting her that she couldn't eat her bite of food before I ate mine.

I'll be damned if it didn't work. We ended up with a clean plate with no yelling, threats, or tears.

Now if we could just work on tantrums in public. The kind that could get Daddy arrested, caused simply by her not getting her own way... *sigh*

People for the Ethical Treatment of Supermodels....

Sun, 27 Feb 2005 04:10:02 GMT

I saw a billboard today, with a picture of Pamela "Sure, I have videotapes of half the men I've had sex with, but I got Hepatitis C from a tattoo needle" Anderson, encouraging people to boycott KFC.

Just KFC. It seems that PETA, the folks who paid for the billboard, have no problem with the killing of and serving of animal parts by other fast food places, just KFC. Their website, www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com, even goes so far as to say that McDonalds is "making progress" in the proper treatment of animals prior to their slaughter and processing into Big Macs. Just in case you don't recall, a couple of years ago, someone found a fried chicken head in a box of McDonalds Mighty Wings (a product that has since been discontinued).

Apparently, the "McNoggin" as it has been called, isn't enough to upset PETA for too long, but the "cruelty" that KFC supposedly submits poultry to is enough to have the likes of Pam Anderson and Al Sharpton become spokespeople for the critter nuts. Even though the only chicken parts ever found in KFC food are the parts that are SUPPOSED to be there.

Is it too much to ask that these people who decide they MUST stand up for something, to make a little SENSE every once in a while?

My First Entry

Tue, 15 Feb 2005 04:14:53 GMT

This is going to be a spot for ramblings. I may rant for several paragraphs for no reason whatsoever, about virtually nothing.

For tonight, this is just to get me started.