I believe our nation’s founding fathers were incredibly wise when they wrote the U.S. Constitution.  I suspect you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who disagrees with that.  They set up a government with built-in safeguards that protect our innate natural freedoms, including freedom of speech as outlined in the first amendment (”Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech…”).

So, needless to say, stories like these really disgust me.

I am a McCain-Palin supporter.  I hope that you are also a McCain-Palin supporter.  However, if you are not a McCain-Palin supporter, I cannot and will not do anything to force you to be a McCain-Palin supporter.  I’m not a fan of Obama-Biden, but if you are an Obama-Biden supporter, I believe you have that right and I respect your right to be an Obama-Biden supporter.

As a McCain-Palin supporter, I have the right to put a bumper sticker on my car, a sign in my yard, and so on.  If you are an Obama-Biden supporter, you have the right to put a bumper sticker on your car, a sign in your yard, and so on.  I won’t mess with your signs.  I trust that you will not mess with my signs.

Whoever you support in this election, you have the right to support them any way you see fit (and, of course, that is legal).  But you DO NOT have the right to vandalize, steal, or otherwise damage the signs and property belonging to other people.  You DO NOT have the right to that, and you NEVER will have the right to that!

(sorry, but this just infuriates me so much that I can barely find the words for it.  I don’t care which side of the election you are on- we can all agree that this is WRONG on so many levels!)

This is another local story that fascinated me.

A few days ago, we heard on the morning news that a local steakhouse, the Hereford House, had burned down overnight.  There was a rumored explosion, but at the time they had not determined the cause of the fire.  The restaurant was massively damaged (over $1 million dollars).

Now they haved confirmed that there WAS an explosion AND it was arson.

So that brings me to this curious question…

Who would want to burn down the Hereford House?

Seriously, it was just your run-of-the-mill steakhouse.  Was this someone’s reaction to a steak that was overcooked?

It’s just a steakhouse!  Who would want to burn down a steakhouse?

Here’s one local story that piqued my interest tonight.

A local gentleman who happened to be African American returned a pair of shoes to a Journeys store.  After he got home, he discovered a racial slur printed on his receipt.

The employee who printed that receipt, an 18 year old lady, has been interviewed by our local press.  She says that she had no idea that the racial comment was printed on the receipt; she just pushed the appropriate buttons for a return and handed the receipt to the gentleman.

Having worked in retail before, I must say I think I believe this young lady.  I know that, when you’re doing returns, nowadays the process is VERY automated.  You push buttons, but you never really have an option in which you have to type in any kind of personal input.  I suspect that, at some point, a manager or supervisor programmed that comment into the computer.

Either way, this story is enough to turn me off.  I will definitely NOT be shopping at Journeys again.

Tonight I was watching this show called Life on Mars.  I’m not a crazy fan of that show or anything, but nothing else was on and the show has an interesting premise.  Anyway my thought has very little to do with the show… the show just brought it to mind.

At one point, the show’s time-traveling character makes a comment to the effect of, “It’s looking more and more like a hate crime”.  The 70s era chief of police says, “What, as opposed to an I really like you crime?”

He makes such a good point, I think.  I mean… here’s the wikepedia definition of hate crime:

Hate crimes (also known as bias motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation.

But the thing about crime, particularly a crime against people, is… regardless of what “type” of crime it is, there’s always a motivation.  And rarely is that motivation “because I liked him so much”.  There’s always a reason why a person chooses to commit that crime, and often, that reason is quite hateful.

I’m not trying to discount “hate crimes” in any way.  Crime is wrong, crime is always wrong, and crime always will be wrong.  But I wonder if there is any reason that a “hate crime” (as defined by that wikipedia definition) should be considered worse than a “crime”.

Scientists have found a link between physical warmth and emotional warmth.

They discovered that people who were exposed to physical warmth (either by holding a cup of hot coffee or with a heating pad) were more likely to be emotionally warm to strangers.  That’s definitely an interesting discovery.

But, I’d like to know exactly how they rated the warmth.  For example, would my chronically-cold toes cause me to be more or less emotionally warm to strangers?  Furthermore, have they figured out a way to cure the cold toes?

Somehow I highly doubt that this is what our founding fathers were thinking of when they created freedom of speech.

Larry Flynt has created a porno film starring a woman who looks suspiciously like Sarah Palin.  The character’s name is Serra Paylin.  The film is titled “Nailin’ Paylin”.

The plot involves two drunk Russians whose tank runs out of gas in front of “Paylin”’s home.  It’s a porno.  You can fill in the blanks from there.

Sometimes I’m really, really glad that I’m not famous.

I am right now debating what I will eat for lunch.  I have some leftover spaghetti in the fridge, which is what I SHOULD eat, but I am totally craving McDonald’s nuggets.

I think I’ll go log into my bank accounts online, just to remind myself that I can’t afford McDonalds!

Have you heard about the latest news on the government bailout plan?  It just passed the House a few moments ago, and passed the Senate earlier this week.  I’m not sure if I’m relieved or massively concerned.  I see why they chose to do this bailout plan, and I don’t entirely disagree.  But I also think there has to be a better way to rescue the market.  I don’t know what it is, but surely there’s something!  What do you think?

From Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, via Little Green Footballs:

“‘Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into obama is derided or flat out ignored. The fix is in, and its working.’ I asked permission to reprint without attribution and it was granted.”

How interesting… and not surprising.  Obama is clearly a media darling… but is he prepared to be the president?  I do not believe so.  What do you think?

Okay… so it’s really a bad excuse.  But it’s doggone funny…

Girl kills “best mate” with eyebrow tweezers.

PETA asks Ben & Jerry’s to use breast milk.

As in, human breast milk.

I find this article so stunning that I can’t even find words for it.

I am an absolute believer in kindness to animals.  Animal cruelty is WRONG, no two ways about it!  But I also believe that animals were given to us to nourish us and to make us happy.

I respect a person’s decision to be a vegetarian.  I’ve actually thought about going vegetarian, just for the health benefits.  But at the end of the day, I LOVE a good steak.  Or give me a burger, with a nice thick patty.

PETA’s cause - treating animals ethically - is, at its core, a good cause.  But they’re going about it in an entirely sily way!  Get with it, PETA!