Today, under a deluge of spam and dictionary attacks, I retired the email address shane@jxie.com. I’ve used it for a little over 8 years now, and at first it was a neat thing to have; lately it has become a cesspool for spam. I knew this day would come and had completed moving all my important notifications to my gmail address. All my accounts, such as Ebay, Amazon, and my bank have all had their information updated with the same email address. I’m using gmail because it’s fast, ubiquitous, and seemingly has unending storage. It took me almost a year to start using gmail, but I’m hooked now.

If you need my email address, send me a message on AIM, screenname shanepbrady.

I am a dietary vegan, and so this Thanksgiving, my fiance and I will be enjoying a tasty Tofurkey this evening. In addition, we will hopefully be having a sweet potato pie, some delicious steamed vegetables, and a pound cake for dessert. All vegan items, and all tasty.

Many people assume I became a vegan because my fiance has been a vegetarian for over nine years and vegan for over three. They couldn’t be more wrong. I became a vegetarian and then vegan because of an evolution of personality. It all started on a flight back from Kansas City. A couple days earlier, I had indulged in an orgy of Kansas City barbecue, and my stomach felt like I had a large cancerous lump waiting to kill me. I was sweating what felt like grease. My asthma seemed to be acting up. I felt terrible, and it hit me like a flash: It was time to stop the meat.

Ever since then, I’ve been a vegetarian, and haven’t missed meat. My cholesterol has dropped over sixty points, my asthma is the best it’s ever been, and I’ve feel pretty good overall. Now that I have three dogs, a cat, and live on a farm where I regularly see cows and baby cows, the thought of eating meat grosses me out. I’ve seen a baby cow try to play with one of my dogs. I’ve seen cows playing with each other. On occasion, I’ve seen some wild turkeys gather in my front yard, gobbling up a storm. How could I eat the same animals I see every day, playing and frolicking like any dog or cat one might consider a part of the family.

So while its probably too late to change anyone’s mind for this holiday, I hope for Christmas, more people can take a second thought and consider something like Tofurkey. Just start simple, by saving one animal. See how it feels to know, no animal was harmed to give you a full stomach.

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was
walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the
sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he
noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one
belonging to him, and the other to the Lord. When
the last scene of his life flashed before him, he
looked back at the footprints in the sand. He
noticed that many times along the path of his life
there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed
that it happened at the very lowest and saddest
times in his life. This really bothered him and he
questioned the Lord about it. “Lord, You said that
once I decided to follow you, You’d walk with me all
the way. But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life, there is only one set
of footprints. I don’t understand why when I needed
you most you would leave me.” The Lord replied,
“My son, My precious child, I love you and I would
never leave you. During your times of trial and
suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it
was then that I Carried You.”
“Wait a minute Lord, when my parents died in Katrina,
were you there too?”
“Well, I uh….”
“And, Lord, when my brother died in the 9/11 bombing,
why didn’t you catch him when he fell?”
“Uh, see, I..”
“Lord, when my sister passed away,
after dying of cancer, were you there to ease her pain?”
“Uh…”
“So Lord, I have a few bad tests scores in college,
one slightly bad marriage, and maybe I’m a little fat,
and that’s what you carried me for”
“Uh…”
“Yeah, thanks a lot God, you let the rest of my family die off,
but golly you were there for my F.
Hey, Lord, get your hand off my ass!”

This week, Bush and Cheney haters delighted in a recent report concerning alleged overcharging by Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root. The report by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board outlines how 208 million dollars should be returned to the Iraqis because Iraq was overcharged. The total value of the contracts are 1.4 billion dollars. So in effect, we have a 14% overcharging. Not totally outrageous, but very serious.

However, I am amazed at the reaction of people here in America over 208 million dollars. We have billions of dollars funneled to programs that have no accountability, we have a three TRILLION worth of missing inventory at the Pentagon, andwe’re worried about 208 million all of a sudden? As John Stossel would say, Gimme a break! We’re wasting more money to build a bridge in Alaska to connect 50 people to the mainland. This is nothing but demagoguery to distract from real problems.

When I normally talk about liberal bias in the media, I rarely am talking about a deliberate bias. I don’t think the media takes daily talking points from the Democratic party. I just believe that the editors and reporters just don’t realize how left of center their beliefs are. I don’t even have a problem with the bias per se, if they admitted it. Should we be surprised about a liberal bias when so much of our media coverage originates in Manhattan?

However, this week the New York Times did something so blatant, that they should put out an apology and admit they screwed up. A November 2 story about the Iraq war included these sentences from a late soldier’s letter home:

“I kind of predicted this … A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances.”

Seems kind of innocuouss right? Only if you haven’t seen the whole paragraph from which the sentences come from. This is what the soldier wrote:

“I kind of predicted this, that is why I’m writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I’m pushing my chances. I don’t regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it’s not to me. I’m here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark.”

With the added sentences, the soldiers sentiments are entirely different. The New York Times should be ashamed. This was obvious cherry-picking to promote a particular viewpoint. Absolutely shameful. I urge people to write letters taking the Times to task for just disgusting actions.

Does comment spam work? Does anyone have any evidence it works? Ever hear of a success story with something like “We were doing nothing, until the comment spam campaigns began.” ? Surely, with the amount of comment spam my old blog site www.jxie.com received, it must be gaining critical mass. That old site gets lousy traffic, no one reads it anymore, but it gets 5-10 pieces of comment spam a day.

The spam is always centered around poker and drugs. Drugs doesn’t surprise me; poker does a little . I know it’s hugely popular, but I didn’t think companies needed to stoop that low. Of course, I don’t know if any real company does comment spam. Does any one know?