March 30, 2006
If you are 30 with no retirement savings, you will be better off if you smoke a pack a day rather than saving this money for retirement.
See, for about $3 a day, you can knock 10 years off of your needed savings in retirement. If you want to retire at 65 and plan to live until 80, you've got to save a lot. But if you smoke, you'll knock 10 years off of your life, and you only have to save for 5 years of retirement - because you can plan to die at 70.
It ends up being a better deal. Run the numbers and see what you get. Financial planning is very important at this stage of life. When I ran the numbers I did not account for Social Security income or medicare, but you should make your own decision on this.
| By Mello | 11:05 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
March 09, 2006
If things were fair, everybody would be in the highest quantile for income, and I am going to keep whining until everyone is there.
And everyone should be a doctor too.
| By Mello | 05:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 24, 2006
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of
Next time I get a traffic ticket I am going to pull this one out
| By Mello | 11:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 15, 2006
Goodbye Carlos Arroyo. I am happy that you are leaving. You will fit in well in Orlando, where you can run wild with Steve Francis and not worry about actually running the offense.
| By Mello | 10:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 03, 2006
Does anyone else think that Rickie Lee Jones looks a lot like Paula Abdul?
| By Mello | 10:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 26, 2006
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and...
... particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
| By Mello | 12:23 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
If you truly believe in democracy as a foundational principle, then you can't complain about Hamas being elected. I don't, so I can. Democracy just means that the people's desires are represented, but most people's desires are wrong.
| By Mello | 11:55 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
January 13, 2006
Contrary to popular belief, more education does not lead to fewer abortions. Well, that's not exactly right. It doesn't lead to less female feticide, though.
| By Mello | 05:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 04, 2006
Is Lindsay Lohan cast as Covenant College student Jessica Blankenship in the upcoming "Chapter 27" movie about Mark David Chapman (the Cov student who killed John Lennon)?
I wonder if she will take up "courting" in order to get into character?
Perhaps all of the covenant grads around here should give her some tips on how to really portray a Covenant girl.
Here's the film story, andhere's an overdramatic telling of the story, but Covenant gets mentioned.
| By Mello | 08:40 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
I made an invitation for someone to post here, so here is the spot to do it if you want to.
| By Mello | 07:26 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
January 03, 2006
From the WSJ: "U.S. consumers are on track to have spent about $39 billion more than they earned in 2005. The last time spending outstripped earnings was in 1933."
| By Mello | 12:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 09, 2005
So I gather that the essence of Christianity is never to substitute the word "holiday" where Christmas could possibly be used, and to hold to the idea that gaps in our understanding of the beginnings of the universe could be accounted for by a divine forc
Well sign me up - that's a cheap ticket to heaven.
| By Mello | 12:24 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
December 05, 2005
I think that those who want to shop at Walmart should be allowed to shop there, and those who don't want to shop there should not have too, and I also think that the aforementioned groups should be allowed to endlessly bicker.
That is all.
| By Mello | 03:27 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
September 29, 2005
Intelligent Design is a load of crap
I am an evil liberal trying to make your children blush at their silly religion and become little heathens. We are totally polarized - you being right and I being wrong. You should believe this lest I and my evil cronies win and really mess things up.
Now that that is out of the way...
I hate it when religious language is used after being gutted of any meaning that it could possibly have. "I am for morality, and justice, and for building up walls that were torn down, and for tearing down walls that were built up, and for faith, and communities of compassion, and for fairness and opportunity." Great. Who isn't?
And now the next thing being gutted and stripped until it becomes fairly meaningless is Genesis. What happens if the ID people win, and are allowed to present this viewpoint to kids? "Hey kids, a generic thing may also have created things, and a lot of what we cannot understand could have been made through generic higher power."
That's a load of crap. The central point of Genesis 1 is that our relationship with Yahweh is so personal that we came to life from his very breath, and that the world was created through his very word. The focus is extremely relational from the very beginning - we walked and talked with a very personal God named Yahweh, then we forsook this relationship, and he promised to fix it.
Can you reconcile that with ID? Yeah, but why would you want to? It's an empty philosophy being paraded around by conservatives with good intentions, but who have forgotten something important. It's the same folks who believe that moral problems come from the "deviants" of society, and that family values can fix about anything.
The thing that is forgotten is that God made us to be with Him, and He has a name - Yahweh, sometimes translated as Jehovah - and he gave his son - Jesus, and that Jesus came to save us from our sins because we were unable to do that for ourselves, or anyone else.
Is that not language that will fit into schools? Who cares? It's not like we can't say it in pretty much any other place in our society. Why carve it down until it's totally acceptable to the general public, rename it as "intelligent design" and then lie and call it the truth?
I am nervous when Christians cut something out of the large picture of Truth and paste it as a "fix" on a problem that they see. This confuses not only Christians who are seeking to follow Jesus, but unbelievers who don't know Him in the first place
And that's a problem, because the one thing that recipients of this salvation are supposed to do is proclaim the name of Christ, and point to His Father Yahweh. Anything else is foolishness.
| By Mello | 12:13 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
September 28, 2005
Rockapella performing here! Yes, the Rockapella from Carmen Sandiego!
Oh those sweet harmonies and smooth dance steps. I hope they do "Where in the world is (deep bass voice) Carmen Sandiego".
Read about it at http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_73201.asp
| By Mello | 03:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
September 12, 2005
Michael Jackson joins the workforce
Michael Jackson has really turned his life around, and is putting his business education to good use at Skype! Good for him!
| By Mello | 12:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
September 07, 2005
If we don't act tough, then the hurricanes have already won
07 September 2005
Bush Vows to Continue Fight Against Nature, September 07, 2005
(Speech in O'Fallon, Missouri)
President Bush has promised that the United States will continue to hunt down Hurricanes and work to prevent dangerous storms from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
"[T]here are still thousands of Katrina trained killers on the loose," Bush said in a speech in O'Fallon, Missouri on September 07. "We will deny them sanctuary. We will keep them on the run. We'll disrupt their finances. No matter how long it takes, we're going to get 'em and bring them to justice."
Bush said the United States will make efforts to prevent future weather from developing weapons of mass destruction.
"We cannot...allow the world's worst weather to develop the world's worst weapons, and therefore hold the United States and our allies hostage," Bush said.
Following are excerpts from Bush's speech with comments about the war against Katrina and dangerous hurricanes:
|(begin excerpt)
And not only do we have a big job at home, we've obviously got a big job abroad, as well. We're fighting a war. And I want to share with you all some of my thoughts about this war that we fight.
First of all, you've got to know that we're fighting against a determined group of killers. This is weather that would rather die than surrender. These are storms that hate America. They hate our freedom. They hate our freedom to worship. They hate our freedom to vote. They hate our freedom of the press. They hate our freedom to say what you want to say. They can't stand what we stand for.
And, therefore, we have no choice but to hunt 'em down one by one to defend the very freedom we hold dear in America. (Applause.) And that is exactly what we're going to do. The enemy must have thought they were hitting a society that was so soft, so self-absorbed, so materialistic that we would sue them. (Laughter and applause.) They didn't understand America. They didn't understand our fiber. They don't understand our core. They don't know what we're made out of -- at least, they didn't. Now they do.
I made it absolutely clear when we first got going that if a country harbored a hurricane or fed a hurricane or hid a hurricane, they were just as guilty as the murderers who hit us on September the 11th. (Applause.) And now the weather knows exactly what I meant, thanks to a magnificent United States miliary and a vast coalition, we have routed Katrina in New Orleans. (Applause.) I'm proud of our military, and I'm proud of our country. We went into New Orleans not to seek revenge, but justice. And we went into that city not as conquerors, but as liberators. We have the New Orleans people from the clutches of one of the most barbaric, backward hurricanes history has ever known.
Later on this week, schools will reopen in New Orleans, and incredibly enough, for the first time, young girls get to go to school thanks to the United States and our coalition. (Applause.) And so the other day, in Washington, I declared that the first phase in our war against weather had ended. We upheld the doctrine of a nation harboring a hurricane, and the consequences we made clear.
But I want to tell you all, there is more to do. You see, there are still thousands of Katrina trained killers on the loose. And we will treat them the way they are, which is international fugitives. We will deny them sanctuary. We will keep them on the run. We'll disrupt their finances. No matter how long it takes, we're going to get 'em and bring them to justice. There is no cave deep enough for the justice of the United States of America. (Applause.)
........
There's more to the war on weather than one single individual or one single network. The nightmare scenario is for our nation to tire and weary, and allow a Mother Nature organization or a Mother Nature type organization to mate up with a storm which has developed weapons of mass destruction, a storm which has got a history of treating her people poorly, a dictatorial storm. We cannot -- we cannot -- allow the world's worst weather to develop the world's worst weapons, and therefore hold the United States and our allies hostage. We owe it to our children and our children's children to be firm and to be tough, and to say to those hurricanes - we will not let you stand and get away with blackmailing the world. (Applause.)
(end excerpts)
(end excerpt)
| By Mello | 06:10 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
August 18, 2005
Following Jesus: Rated E for everyone
"Transcending the blood and violence found in many popular video games, a small band of believers want to forsake guts and gore for God, trade bloodshed for the Bible." Clean and wholesome - that's the Bible alright. No hidden sex scenes or violence there. My favorite quote is "They don't have fights. You just have to follow Jesus and pick up little crosses for points." Now that this culture battle has been won, we can really get to work on getting Jesus on Blue's Clues.| By Mello | 10:18 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2005
laptops for $50
What would you do for a $50 laptop? Piss your pants? Beat someone with a chair? Run someone over? Well, in Virginia a$50 laptop sale sets off violent stampede.. If we had more guns on the streets this would all have sorted itself out.| By Mello | 05:07 PM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2005
The 51st state of Iraq
If we really believe that the United States is the best model of democracy and freedom etc... , wouldn't it make sense to not only try to model it in other places, but to expand it?
I mean, couldn't we just say "elect your representatives and your senators, get to Washington, and represent yourselves. You're State #51." The Iraqis could have access to all of our systems - social security, welfare, and on and on.
Or else we should just be honest, says "all we really wanted to do was get rid of Sadaam", leave, and quit messing around.
This may smell of colonialism, but for all if colonialism's evils, it's track record is probably better than the track record of "setting up democracies in countries and then just moving on because it's real easy and everybody will be peaceful from now on."
| By Mello | 10:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 04, 2005
oh lucy, you snorted all the meth again!
this article from slate claims that the meth epidemic isn't all it's cracked up to be, whichever way you look at it. It talks a bit about the widespread use of amphetamenes in the 50s, which was news to me. However, in retrospect, it explains a lot of I love Lucy episodes, like that one where ricky said " stay home unless you wanna get beat" in a funny cuban accent, and then lucy showed up acting all crazy. hahaha| By Mello | 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2005
I never got to the real world
Working in an office feels like school. And why shouldn't it? The same people are there. The smart kid, the cool guy, the pretty girl, the funny girl, the stupid kid.
But the weird thing is that the hall monitor is there too. I never feel like the managers actually care about getting work done; they only care about keeping the peace - making everything non-unpleasant.
This makes new ideas die, because others might complain, or feel left out, or be shown to be stupid.
Oh well.
| By Mello | 02:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 02, 2005
Guile from Street Fighter II is a weenie
After 15 long years and hundreds of ill-spent quarters, I have beaten Street Fighter 2 with every character. It came down to the wire, with Guile uselessly spinning his legs at a haughty Bison, but then coming back with an unexpected sweep to end it.
| By Mello | 12:21 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
August 01, 2005
Why causes suck (or, you're a flimsy pietist at best)
In my short lifetime, I've been told not to shop at Walmart, boycott Disney, eat organic chicken, blah blah blah. I have yet to see that any of this matters, except as it pertains to me. For example, if I don't go to Disney World, the only person getting anything out of that is me, since I feel great about myself. Disney doesn't care. They're not making any giant decisions based on my actions, or even 10,000 people's actions. This is because there are certain arenas where my voice is simply not going to be heard. This is probably because I haven't put the time into studying and contemplating the problem to get to a point where I am shouting anything new at the people who are making the decisions. (Or even more likely, I don't have enough money for anyone to care about my actions - financial or otherwise - at all.) This is just another reason to get on with life and love your neighbor. As you buy your chemically enhanced chicken breasts from one of the 20 walmarts in your hood, smile at the cashier and ask her how she's doing. She may need some love. The chicken is already dead.| By Mello | 05:00 PM | Comments (2)
see, ammilennials are right
The good get good and the bad get badder ("and that's bad meanin bad not bad meanin good").| By Mello | 05:00 PM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2005
It begins
I am joining the fray. Not sure if this will continue, but at least it will start.
| By Mello | 01:44 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)