The Stupidest Stuff

Recently we’ve been hearing a lot about an octuplet mom who already had 6 kids… now for a total of 14. (Editorial note: After 6 kids that US taxpayers are no doubt paying for… what’s 8 more.) Apparently, all 14 children are under 8 years old and conceived by in-vitro fertilization. (Editorial note: This is the Peitre Dish Fertilization, not the Turkey Baster version— which is in vivo fertilization.)

This woman is clearly delusional, Apparently the father of all 14 wants to marry her, but she’s refused saying she wants to raise the children herself. Sounds like a stand up guy— but not to bright— because he actually wants to marry her. (Editorial note: Dude, I can’t find your name anywhere… but apparently this gal your dating has infertility problems of some sort and coitus interruptus is not only unnecessary, but that might be where she’s getting all the necessary resources to to have all these kids. Next time “get lost in the moment” or simply “forget”.)

On the same page where you can find a videotaped interview you can find a quote from the grandmother…

“To have them all is unconscionable to me. She really really has no idea what she’s doing to her children and to me.”

Woman, are you stupid? First off, you’ve got the daughter living with you with her 6 kids, she’s not married, and she gets Pregnant again with 8 more… and they are still living with you? I know blood’s thicker than water, but at some point you’ve got to ask yourself if you are enabling this behavior!

Lastly, The context of the what she said leads me to believe that the grandmother thinks she should have had a reduction, which is a fancy relabeled name for abortion. So, which of the 8 new babies would you prefer the mom would have killed. Clearly, she made a huge error in judgment— and even should probably seek phsycological help.  However, Killing off some of them once they’ve been implanted isn’t the answer.

Today begins a new era at stupideststuff.com. An era where we should have no shortage of political commentary, an era where stupid stuff will likely happen on a daily basis, and yes an era where we’ll be able to get the stupidest stuff news from virtually any source on the net.

Finally, we can get behind us the concept (and excuse, in my opinion) that an African-American person is completely blocked from attaining any great position in this country by racial bigotry. We can get behind us the country wide perception that all blacks are somehow discriminated against because of the color of their skin. I have believed this for some time and simply been told I was blind to the real situation, didn’t understand the deep seated racial tensions because I wasn’t African-American, or simply right wing.

Clearly, as a country as a whole—the color of a man’s skin is not a factor in choosing a president, so why would it be a factor in every other situation. Now we can (hopefully) get to the root cause of an inequality that may exist. Meaning, individual circumstances of bigotry— which are no less terrible. But not a mandate that you are barred from achieving the goal you aspire to attain—just that you won’t achieve it in that particular situation and the hope that the opportunity is there. Or now we’ll have to look at the circumstances that revolve around the individual like; was there a better candidate, was the person not qualified, did the person simply make a bad impression, or was there some other reason.

This is good for the country. As much as it pains me to say it because I don’t believe Barack Obama was the candidate that was the best fit for the Job. Had he lost, we would have had to endure weeks of pundits claiming America wasn’t ready to elect a black president, America by and large was racist, and that would have continued the false impression that African-Americans are somehow oppressed as a whole by the country. That would have created a ton of racial tension, that frankly didn’t need to be there because it wasn’t a valid analysis of the reasons most people hadn’t voted for him.

Last Month, Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Omama tapped Deleware Senator Joseph R. Biden this morning to be his Vice-Presidential Running mate. Shortly before the announcement was made the decision was leaked to the press causing aides to have to scramble to get the promised text messages out to supporters who handed over their phone numbers (Editorial note: Could this be used by Republicans as yet another broken promise by a democrat?)… some of which ended up getting a 3am Eastern Time text message about the choice, for those in California it would have been a Midnight wakeup call.

So, I began doing a little research on the Senator and for that research I have decided to wrote this blog entry where we interview the senator from his past statements to the issues or questions–with quotes from the Senator in bold, followed by a link to where the quote appears, simply because you just can’t come up with a better entry than using the senator’s own words on his views.

On the college front the senator doesn’t care much for Princeton.  “I really didn’t like Princeton, Biden told Alito. I was an Irish Catholic kid who thought it had not changed. I admit, one of my real dilemmas is I have two kids who went to Ivy League schools. I’m not sure my Grandfather Finnegan will ever forgive me for allowing that to happen. But all kidding aside, I wasn’t a big Princeton fan.” here

In 2006 he seemed to really like shopping at 7-11 but by what he said, “In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.” here

His policy on the middle east seems a bit clearer too, “I think it gives suits and not the turbans — the way it’s referred to in the Shiite sector — an opportunity to make their case that they have to, in fact, bring in specifically Sunnis into the Cabinet” fromFox News Sunday, here

In 1975 when he advocated a measure to ban the use of busing to school integration. He argued that busing was counter-productive. here

He voted against the Bush tax cuts here…. then when asked about billion dollar vehicles for our troops he said “I will not cut one single solitary cent of the money that we need to build those vehicles to protect these kids and they cost billions of dollars.” here

Voted against Republican Supreme Court nominees William Rehnquist, Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito here

He clearly believed Sadam had WMD’s, “One thing is clear: These weapons must be must be dislodged from Saddam, or Saddam must be dislodged from power.” here

In democrat style likes to throw money at a problem when he said, “I support immediate financial assistance to the newly elected Palestinian president. Now, I don’t know what those numbers will be, and I don’t know how it’s going to be framed.” here

Clearly has an eye for the future, “And I think Hillary Clinton is able to be elected president of the United States.” here

Clearly likes the idea of an airline bailout when he said “This is absolutely bizarre that we continue to subsidize highways beyond the gasoline tax, airlines, and we don’t subsidize, we don’t want to subsidize a national rail system that has environmental impact.” here

Last month John McCain named Meg Whitman, former Ebay CEO as a person who he would consider as a top advisor. With my moaning and griping of her ebay policies and the constant squeezing of sellers for more and more money via fees– my question is, does that make me a Democrate?

Another infant died recently according to cnn, due to tainted formula imported from China. You would have thought the Chinese companies rolling these crap products out would have learned after the fiascos mentioned in this rant that touched on chinese products that are not safe… nope.

Clearly, they don’t understand the impacts of their lack of concern for the people buying their products. I know it’s not that they aren’t smart– I’ve had chinese people in math class, their sharp as tacks. (Editorial note: some don’t speak “good to engwish of” but we find that they either understand or move out of the way if you simply speak loud enough.)

The article says the “taintedness” of the formula is from a chemical called Melamine, Melamine is a metabolite of cyromazine, a pesticide people… what would make you think it was safe?

Clearly something needs to be done about this problem. Where is congress? Recess? Time to come in off the playground organizing communities Barrack, time to cut down on the sauce and take some exceedrin for that head ache Teddy K. Either fix the problem or bomb them into submission, clearly diplomacy isn’t working. McCain… can you step in here? I’m sure Sara has a 30/30 she will let us borrow, just give it to Dick Cheney and send him to China on a Panda safari… Send a few Justices along for the trip.

In a article at MSNBC, entitled Airline removes life vests to save weight, fuel the Canadian Airline, Jazz, has decided to remove Life Vests from it’s aircraft. This in itself isn’t stupid– though if a plane ever goes down in the water they might wish they hadn’t done so.

What is stupid is their logic. They claim that the life vests add weight to the aircraft (Editorial Note: We’re not disputing they do… read on.) and By removing the 50 life vests from the airplane they will save 55 pounds… this saving fuel says Manon Stuart, Jazz spokeswoman. Ummm…. sweetheart, that’s not going to save much fuel at all, I’d bet people are carrying 55 pounds of stuff in their pockets when they get on, not counting carry on bags… just stuff in their front and back pockets like keys, change, cellphones, etc! You guys run your company how you want, but don’t go skimping on safety features and billing it off as being Green or saving fuel… that’s a crock of crap.

If you want to save weight, how about mid-flight jettisoning people who are drunk and beligerant. Maybe expand that policy to those that smell bad– heck, give the people that won’t shutup while I sleep the boot out the cargobay hatch at 30,000 feet. Another thing that would save weight is to remove the auxilary landing gear wire harnesses… but, good God woman– what are you thinking when you consider getting rid of a safety device!!!

This is no huge concern for me personally, planes in the states have not had life vests for as long as they remember. They always say “in the event of a water landing your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device”. Well, I always think… any chance we can follow the Mississippi river down from Minnesota to Louisiana? Seriously, most times planes are flying over GROUND… anyone ever thought about that??? How about next time you ask if, “In the event of a crash, can the pilot aim for water?”

Alison Duquette, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said “if you are an airline and you fly an airplane over a body of water, you have to have a life preserver or an approved floatation means.” She went on to say a seat cushion would satisfy that requirement but she was not aware of any U.S. airline getting rid of life vests on their airplanes to help with weight issues… I want to know what airline actually HAS them none I’ve flown on do. And if they do… where do they put them?

Jazz, congratulations… you’ve made it onto the stupideststuff!

Do you really need instructions for this device?

I have to just share my complete frustration with a technology in use these days entirely to much, in my opinion. CAPTCHA!

That technology is the use of the automated images that are shown on pages that you have to enter the text shown in the image. I can never get them right the first time, but this one takes the cake!

This has simply got to be the WORST one I have ever seen! I mean, I see gsp there– but what are those other letters? tun? tia? tian?tim? lun? I gave up.

Most sites do this so that scripters will not be able to write scripts that automatically post comments to discussion boards, like spam e-mails, with no real person actually doing the posting. It’s supposed to “verify your humanity”– however, you’ll have to take my word for it– I am human! If your reading this and you own a site that does this to us or are considering it– please find a better way to protect us from the spam bots!

Some other ways they do this is with multi colored text. And while I’m not color blind, they generally do it with reds, greens, and blues– three colors that are hard to see if you are color blind.

All this trouble simply because some yahoo thinks he’s going to get rich by posting comments and sending e-mails about prescription drugs, a stock tip, or some other stuff. (We’ve all seen them, so I don’t have to go into detail here. Thankfully.)

OK, the actual headline that got�us thinking was “American Airlines sez sked ready for takeoff” at the New York Daily news site. Of course, the not even close attempt at coherent communication in English got our attention —F7 in Microsoft Word is your friend. (Editorial note: we all make mistakes, but at least try to form words.)

Apparently, American Airlines canceled another 200 flights yesterday. Now, I haven’t been keeping track but that should bring the number of canceled flights this week pretty close to 2500 flights. Once they get them airborne again– anybody want to actually fly on one now? Lets see…

According to Boeing, The MD-80 models were built between 1980 and 1999 so these planes are at least 8 years old (not to bad) and at most 28 years old. So, basically a plane that would qualify for antique plates, if it was a car, is flying you and your loved ones around the country at over 500 Miles an hour almost 7 miles above the ground. (Editorial note: with the doors locked and no parachutes–Plus you paid at least a C note for the privilege and all they can do is say “in the event of a water landing your seat cushion can be used as a floatation device”. Great! I’m flying from Minnesota to Louisiana… Mind following the Mississippi down?!?!?!) Oddly enough, people don’t like to hear these statistics right as your screaming down the runway, generally you end up getting the row to yourself by the time the captain turns off the fasten seat belt lights.

American Airlines operates the largest number of MD-80s, a fleet of 275 planes and the planes have a max capacity of 139 passengers. These are smaller planes that I’ve flown on a few times, when you fly on one it’s generally pretty full. (Editorial note: Dare I say packed to the brim, not counting that lady who’s trying to bring a swing set on board as a carry on– who just happens to want to stow it over your head in the compartment smaller than the gas tank in a Yugo so when you hit turbulence it comes out in your lap. Every Yugo by the way is NEWER than the plane we’re talking about– and they had to tighten the bolts at 50,000 miles.) But, for the sake of argument. lets assume all these planes were an average of 75% full�that would be just over 104 people on each of the canceled flights.

Basically, American Airlines destroyed travel plans for over 260,000 passengers this last week alone. (Editorial note: This doesn’t include the the number of passengers that had tickets on planes that were over booked and made it off the ground BEFORE the fiasco started.) Way to go American Airlines!

Now, American made an attempt at fixing some of it’s planes 2 weeks ago but apparently that attempt either didn’t work or wasn’t enough. “About 300 aircraft were inspected for faulty wiring on the auxiliary hydraulic systems and 149 needed repairs.”, according to the Atlanta Business Chronical.(Editorial note: Auxiliary hydraulic systems is airplane technical lingo for what a layman would call landing gear, this writer my not be in the know about this– but I’m not certain there is anything auxiliary about that!)

My guess (that has no inside information or basis in fact) is they fixed some so they would have to� shut down completely– but why wouldn’t they have used the last two weeks to fix them over a period of time? (Editorial note: If you flew with them 3 weeks ago, how are you feeling right now? My guess is 50% of you need to find new boxers.)

Folks, you can expect to see some form of whining by them at some point in the future for a (yet another) government bail-out or bankruptcy court. Why, When you think of an American Lines plane, you are likely visualizing a MD80! Not to mention 260,000 passengers who got refunds, payroll that was paid to employees that did little more than accept chewings from irate customers.

The airline industry is just stupid! I can’t imagine other industries following suit:

• A bus charging $100 to ride downtown instead of $2.00 because you didn’t make plans 2 weeks ahead.
• A Movie theater selling 300 tickets to the latest hit movie for a single showing when they only have 200-250 tickets.
• For those folks that didn’t show up on time, a surcharge would be charged to change their ticket, if any sort of refund was given at all. Likely, see item one above.
• For the folks that did show up, but before the theater was filled would wait to see if any of the people already in the theater were willing to give up their evening plans.
• The folks that would give up their movie going plans would be offered free movies (at likely another over sold venue), free dinner vouchers, and possibly cash.
• Imagine a cruise ship loading the boat, pushing off the dock 300 yards and then making you wait 9 hours while the boat was repaired. (Editorial note: They would of course offer you all the 8oz sodas and tiny bags of peanuts while you waited. If you caused a stir on the plane because of it, they would have the police come and jail you.)
• Imagine a restaurant Taking the tables and decreasing the size of the tables and chairs, along with the distance between them by around 6 inches each. (Editorial note: to compensate for this potential customer service nightmare they would buy all new�seats and call it an interior�upgrade.)
• Lastly, when a restaurant is about to go out of business because it serves less than standard food or offers terrible table service– the government will pay their debts with low cost loans or even grants.

Amazing isn’t it? Right, it’s downright stupid!

This approved patent for Method of use for a water pipe�was a bit much…. Don’t believe me? Read the full patent here, heck you’ll even see related pattents linked there– tons of patents for bongs up through 1999. So much for the war on drugs!

War on Drugs? What about the War on terror? This patent for an Electronic Device with Concealed Firearm System (full patent here) was granted in 2004— less than 3 years after 9/11/01!

Does anyone atually expect to make money off these patents? Or are they hoping for the big payday in a patent infringement lawsuit. Seems to me that’s where the money is these days. (Editorial note: unless you’re the plaintiff or�the defendant.)

Take some time, browse the patent site– you’ll see what I mean. It’s just stupid!