The Generik Brand: December 2004

Hey, I Rhyme!

I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout out and a link to the King of Zembla for this wonderful xmas poem. As I mentioned in the comments section there, I haven't seen anything comparable since Herb Caen died. Personally, I'm very touched to have earned a mention therein. Check it out, y'all. Yes, I know xmas is over; go check it out anyway.

Vacationing

Just a note to let you folks know that posts will be sporadic at best (more likely nonexistent) this week, as I am spending the time off from work -- the whole company is shut down as a gift to the employees -- at the Resort of Mom, down here in scenic, historic southern California.

Mom's Last Resort, in beautiful, sunny Alta Loma... where it's been overcast and sprinkly since I got here, and the prediction is for a big rainstorm the whole time I'm here. Which is actually fine, it makes me feel at home.

So I don't think I'll have too many comments on the terrible earthquake in Sri Lanka and Indonesia and that part of the world, or on the renomination of previously rejected judges by Chimpy McJingo or really much of the outside world at all for a few days, as I'm being kept quite busy eating Xmas pie and visiting with friends and family. I assume that a lot of you are similarly distracted right now, so let's just enjoy it as much as possible while we can, and all get back together next week or so, shall we? All right then.

GI, Phone Home

John over at blogenlust talked about this last week, but it certainly bears repeating. It seems that our maladministration, in its (extremely) finite wisdom, is making wounded GIs at Walter Reed Army Hospital pay for their long distance phone calls home. Here's a great way to show that we support the troops (but not necessarily the war) this holiday season: buy some phone time for these guys and gals, who have already paid a huge price for their participation in a war that never should have started. You can send your phone cards or donations to:

Walter Reed Medical Family Assistance Center, 6900 Georgia Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 20307-5001

In a related item, today MoveOn.org sends out a link to the USO site asking for phone cards to be delivered to military personnel currently in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would encourage all of you with a little extra cash to contribute to this worthy cause. Because who doesn't think of friends and family when they're thousands of miles away and it's Winter Solstice time back home?

***Update*** It would appear that GIs at Walter Reed are well-fixed for phone cards, but that they could use other items if you're feeling generous. Apologies for the mistake; guess I should spend more time researching before posting. (Thanks to the King of Zembla for that -- again, just shows that I should do more reading!)

A Little Trick

Here's something I like to do: If you're like me, and I know I am, you get lots of unsolicited credit card offers in the mail. You know the ones -- promising low introductory rates, low annual percentages on transfers from other cards, and blah be blah de fucking blah blah blah. Not to mention yadda yadda. Hidden in the fine print is often something about how the percentage rate swells to 93% and the blood of your first-born if you are a day late with one payment, ever, and how they will be happy to share all your personal information with every marketing company in the world unless you jump through a series of flaming hoops in the proper sequence. Lovely little pieces of correspondence, in other words.

To make it easy for you to apply, they always include a postage-paid envelope with which you are supposed to send back your filled-out application. By law, they must pay for delivery of that envelope, regardless of what's inside it. I've heard of some people taping the envelopes to a brick or something equally heavy and awkward, but personally I think this tactic only alienates your mail carrier, and makes it more likely that mail you are actually looking forward to receiving will somehow disappear in the future. So what I do is print up a page or two from my favorite political comic strip, Get Your War On, stuff it in the reply envelope and send it on its way.

And you know, funny thing, but since I started doing that, the number of unsolicited credit card offers I receive has dropped dramatically. Whether there's a direct correlation or not, I can't say, but... well, try it yourself and see what happens.

A Place of My Own

Hiya kids.

Just getting the feel of this place... pretty roomy, decent interior, rent's cheap... I'm hoping the HaloScan comments continue to work; I had a few problems with them in the initial set-up, but they seem to be doing all right now. Guess I'll stay for a while.

If you're here reading this now, you are aware that I've decided to set up shop on my own. I'm flying solo in the blogosphere for the foreseeable future -- at least here I am -- so the only one responsible for content on this site is yours truly.

Once again I'd like to extend my thanks and grateful appreciation to Citizen Daryl for getting me started in this crazy world, for giving me a forum in which to rant and expound and play the fool. Now it's time for me to strike out on my own (and grab some pine, meat!). So that's what I'm doing.

There's so much to talk about, so much to write about and reference and link to, I hardly know where to begin. The Merry Christmas Crisis shows no signs of abating before next Saturday; maybe Bludney Plud from I Can't Believe It's Not News will have a word or two on that front. (We hear that Bill O'Reilly has declared a "big victory for the Baby Jesus!")

Nearly half of all Americans surveyed want to restrict the civil liberties of American Muslims. Not foreigners -- American citizens who happen to worship in the Islamic persuasion!

The maladministration wants to throw good money after bad on a missile defense system that doesn't work, never has worked and never will work.

Preznit Chimpy McJingo held just the 17th press conference of his accursed reign yesterday, and showed once again why Big Lies are always the Best Lies. There are also noises being made -- albeit not very loud ones -- that he is the ultimate signer-offer on the torture and mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners, according to some documentsrecently obtained through FOIA requests; though whether that story has any legs or not will probably depend on how much time the networks decide they still need to spend on that woman who stole a fetus in Missouri. Donny Rumsfailed, even after his flippant "fuck you" to the Army and rubber-stamp crisis, is still Secretary of Defense, boggling nearly every mind capable of rational thought around the globe.

And, of course, there are good Americans and innocent Iraqi civilians still dying every day in the War That Didn't Have To Be, thanks to the blunder-headed macho idiocy of the aforementioned pair of dickheads.

*sigh*

So yeah, we've got our work cut out for us... or should I say I've got my work cut out for me. First person singular. Who you talkin' to? There's nobody here but me.