Just got back from the FL trip! Man is it good to be home. The trip was fun though, no doubt. It was nice to see Abi have such a good time at Disney World.

Well, here we are in sunny Florida. The drive down wasnt too bad. Lets hope the theme parks live up to their hype. SeaWorld is tomorrow, followed by two days at Magic Kingdom.

Click here for a terrific .mp3 file of a Techno remix of Sen. Ted Stevens very concise, knowledgable speech about the Internet and the Net Neutrality issue.

Ben Stein has a great piece written in the American Spectator in support of the military action taken by Israel agains Hammas last week and continueing today.

Click here to read this excellant, thought provoking column.

Finished the first book of the John Rain series, Rain Fall, by Barry Eisler. (mentioned earler in my blog) Barry weaves a very cool tale with so much detail of the Tokyo setting that I feel like I was there! Its always been a wish of mine to visit Japan some day, and this book only confirms that.

You can check his webpage for more information at www.barryeisler.com.

In an audiotape aired on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television less than an hour after his Beirut home and offices were destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah addressed himself to Israelis, saying "You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war."

"Look at the warship that has attacked Beirut, while it burns and sinks before your very eyes," Nasrallah said. Soon after the broadcast, Israeli Defense Forces reported a naval vessel was lightly damaged by rocket fire.

Hezbollah is getting itself into a fight it cant win. Not alone at any rate. I would be willing to bet this conflict spreads to Syria and then Iran will get involved.

Israel today has stepped up its attacks on Hezbolah in Lebanon. Its good to see Israel with the chains off, but its driving the cost of gasoline up to new heights. $79.10 per barrel of crude, as of right now.

I wonder how long we will continue to let the MidEast set our oil prices? The answer is that we will put up with it so long as we have linguini spined politicians who bow to pressure from the environmental left to keep us from drilling our own crude oil. We have the oil under our territory. It is outrageous that we should have to watch our prices go up just because the Arabs cant leave Israel alone.

Net Neutrality expert Senator Ted Stevens analyzed by the always funny John Stewart

The news media never ceases to amaze me.

There is a full blown war broken out between Israel and Lebanon, one that is surely going to spill out to other MidEast countries. Oil has this morning gone above $76 a barrel. Iran has left the negotiation table yet again on its nuclear ambitions. Yet what do I see on the big cable news network? Headlines of "Where's Suri Cruise?". Why do we care so much about Tom and Katie's baby being seen? Its a baby. Maybe the same time and energy should be being used to ask "Where's Husseins Weapons?" or "Where's North Korea's Sanity?". How about "Where's the Oil under American Territory". Should we maybe ask "Where's our newest Oil Refinery?". My question would be "Wheres Americas Priorities?".

Let start asking these questions rather than trying to get a glimpse of some cradlerobbing nutcases' kid.

Just got done returning my Apex Digital MP-2000. It was a nice unit, played ALL the DivX media that I had, event the Snapstream recorded stuff. But the battery just doesnt last long enough, nowhere near the advertised length of time.

I think though at some point instead of getting another portable media center, I am going to get a Nokia 6682. I need a decent cell phone that i can actually charge, and this one can work with my PDA to get network access via Cingular/Edge/Bluetooth.

PSP: A Black and White Issue

Sony's latest PSP ad on billboards in the Netherlands has sparked controversy in many places outside of Holland. The ad, which shows a white woman grasping the face of a black woman, has led many to believe that it has racist implications (intentional or not). It's certainly not the first controversial campaign from Sony. We take a look. - http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/adwatch/?id=13192



This is a hilarious example of what can happen when popular culture (ie, advertizment execs working for Sony) doesn't even follow their own politically correct rules. I find it fascinating that this happened in Holland, of all places, the Liberal Mecca!

Online Gambling - Unsafe??

A big story the last couple of days has been that the Hous of Rep's passed a bill to outlaw online gambling, or in one story I heard it was outlaw credit card payments to online gambling sites. For those who dont know, this issue has been around for as long as I have been involved profesionally with the Internet. I still remember Cencom having some dealings with some off-shore cyber gambling sites. Anyway, the politicos are claiming that "Online gambling is UNSAFE!". Really? It hadnt occured to me that Washington thought gambling was unsafe. You would think they thought the opposite what with all the casinos, off-track betting, lotteries, etc out there. But they ARE concerned! Let me tell you what they are concerned about. They believe they are entitled, yes Entitled, to tax online gambling. For those who didnt know, politicians belive they should be able to tax the very air you breathe, simply because it hovers over the U.S. soil. They have been salivating over this since the conception of online gambling sites back in the day. But of course, every site I have ever checked out has been off-shore. As in, in another country. What this gets back to at its core is that these spoiled children-like law-makers want to squeeze every drop of money from us they can. (and, btw, this is not just a Republican Vs Democrat, or Conservative Vs Liberal issue) And believe me, if they do manage to find a way to tax this, it will be in the course of their larger war on the Internet's freedom, and will be its death knell. (But that is a topic I will expand on soon)

David Hasselhoff is not a good singer...There. I said it.

(The radio station I listen to just played a segment from some rock song by big DH)

I sent off an email the other night to the author of the newest book series I am reading, Barry Eisler and he actually wrote back. Very cool:



Out of the country -- Spain, Italy, then back to the States on Wed. Get some sleep!

:-)


-- Barry

http://www.barryeisler.com


On Jul 10, 2006, at 7:38 AM, Timothy Grossner wrote:

> LOL, either you are out of the country or you have just as much trouble sleeping as me!
>
>
>
>
> __________
>
> Tim at grossner.net
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Barry Eisler
> To: Tim Grossner
> Cc:
> Date: Monday, July 10 2006 03:17 AM
> Subject: Re: Tour
> Hi Tim -- thanks for your email, and I'm glad you've been enjoying Rain Fall. I won't be back in St. Louis this year, but should be next summer when I'm on the road promoting #6. I'll keep you posted, and hope we'll get a chance to meet then.
>
> All the best,
>
>
> Barry
> http://www.barryeisler.com
>
>
> On Jul 9, 2006, at 11:57 PM, Tim Grossner wrote:
>
>> I just picked up your first book, Rain Fall, after seeing the newest book on the shelf. So far, I am hooked. I even went to your website to see if your tour was coming to the Saint Louis, MO area and it appears I just missed you on the 19th of June. Any chance you will swing back by this way again soon?
>>
>>
>>
>> Tim Grossner
>>
>>
>>
>

I played softball last night, and did pretty well. I went something like 4 for 6 for the night. Two doubles and a couple of singles.

Since my friend Mike Bishop is on vacation at this time, and he plays for a team on Tuesday nights, I got invited to play tonight for his team. I am really looking forward to this. It would be very cool to get a permanent spot on this other team.

Just did some of my regular browsing on digg.com. I love that site, and have ever since it first started up. But it never ceases to amaze me the level of Anti-religious, Anti-conservative spin that EVERYTHING gets on there. I realize alot of geeks are liberal atheists. I guess my problem is that the vocal majority of them verbally assault persons of faith. They truly believe we all suffer from some sort of mass halucination, that we believe in a fairy tale. And you know what? That is fine. But dont be insulting about it. Its not your business to denegrate me because I dont wish to cast away my faith or belief in God for the sake of Science and Technology.

I actually read a post where somone was belittleing someone that said "smart people are athiests and liberal, so it must be right" or something to that effect.

Dude, I am not a Mensa member, but I rank up there with the techno-elite and I have a FIRM belief in God.


To see some of the ridiculous religion bashing, click here

OK I am restarting my Blog. I had not done anything with it for about 3 years.

Last night I started reading Rain Fall, by Barry Eisler. Its a thriller set in Japan, about a half American half Japanese assasin. So far its pretty good. I have only made it to chapter 9, but its kept me reading it. Some books just dont even last that long.

I am playing softball tonight, hopefully, if it doesnt rain.

Well, I better get back to work.