Finally: Good News from Iraq

U.S. commander urges lower expectations in Iraq
By Claudia Parsons
Reuters-

The U.S. military reported three more combat deaths on Wednesday after the man tapped to take over command of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Americans may have to lower their expectations for Iraq.
Full story here.

I'm happy to see Bush finally hired a guy who thinks the way I do. I've always told people that if you keep your expectations low, you'll rarely be disappointed. This will aid in making the war in Iraq a lot more acceptable to folks in this country. Things are looking better already. Don't you feel good about it? I know I do.

Just keep in mind that we'll also have to lower our expectations that our soldiers will be coming home alive.

Vonage Sucks !

It's great to be back online. I feel like I have so much bottled up inside that needs to be said.

First and foremost, thank you to all of my loyal readers for your patience. My biggest fear of not having the ability to be able to post on a regular basis is loss of readership. I'm sure I've lost several readers over the past few weeks, but I'll just have to try that much harder now.

And now, on to Vonage. If you're considering signing up for Vonage, please reconsider, or at least look a little further into it before signing your online and telephone life away. I blame myself for not doing more research on it. I should've known certain basic things, like the fact that DSL only works when you have an active phone line attached to it. Trying to set up Vonage on a DSL system is like trying to invent a perpetual motion machine...while drunk...and blindfolded...with both hands tied behind your back...and an elephant sitting on your chest.

And yes, I'm still desperately trying to think of a way to blame this whole Vonage experience on George W. Bush. No such luck, as of yet, but I haven't given up.

While I can say that the customer service reps at Vonage were very friendly and helpful, it was in dealing with their "tech support" that convinced me, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that I absolutely did not want this service even if it was for free. They actually sent me out to the store to purchase a router. One night, after about an hour of futile "troubleshooting" the lightbulb above my head suddenly turned on and I explained to the "technician" that DSL does not work without a working phone line attached to it.....complete silence on the other end of the line. That was the turning point. I then quickly and purposefully decided to dig myself back out of the hole that I had dug, and called AT&T to sheepishly explain the error of my ways and asked to come back to the fold. Want to know what AT&T did? They gave me a $50.00 gift certificate for coming back.

One other interesting thing that I discovered while doing after-the-fact research is that there is a registered site under the domain name, vonagesucks.com. Go ahead and click on it. I guess they knew there'd be problems in starting a VOIP company without tech support.

Weekend Music Video

Still haven't gotten my internet service restored (thanks, Vonage). I'm posting from a borrowed computer. Watch this video until I get back, OK?

I got hooked on Boingo while I was in the military. Danny Elfman, in my humble opinion, is a musical genius.

Enjoy.

Oingo Boingo - Stay

My Apologies

We are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Our technicians are feverishly working to resolve this issue. We thank you for your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.


Hello, readers. Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. I'm attempting to install Vonage as my phone service and, due to a snag, this has temporarily disrupted my internet service. I'm typing this on a borrowed computer. At any rate, I hope to have things up and running by the end of the week.

In the meantime, please check out this piece which I watched on the local news last night about my good friend, Spocko. Very David and "Goliathish". I'm extremely proud of what he's done standing up to the media giants the way he has. Not too shabby for a Vulcan. He even made the front page of Daily Kos. Please take a moment to visit and congratulate him.

See you soon...

This Just In From Pat Robertson

Associated Press-

In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in "mass killing" late in 2007.

"I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."

Of course God didn't say "nuclear", Pat. Everyone knows that the correct pronunciation is "nukular", which, as George W. Bush will tell you, is the way the good Lord intended it to be spoken.

When asked for the reason behind this "mass killing", Robertson replied, "You know, the Lord doesn't give me all the answers for why He does these things, but I can tell you one thing: I have a strong suspicion that it's a direct result of feminism and homosexuality."