Mitt Romney not the only one Campaigning

Everybody knows the media is incredibly liberal and that they push Obama's qualities and Romney's shortcomings every chance they get but the most recent spin on the presidential campaign seems low even for them. Several news outlets have posted stories similar to this one from NBC News illustrating what the candidates are doing after hurricane Sandy. The articles are all the same: Evil Mitt Romney is back out campaigning because he doesn't care about the American public while saintly Barack Obama is visiting storm ravaged areas because the common man is more important to him than winning the election.

The facts are technically correct, Romney is in Florida, Obama is in New Jersey. The spin is ridiculous. To call public appearances with storm victims is as big a campaign activity as you could hope to do. No, the president isn't speaking to hundreds of people in Ohio about how their corn crops are going to save the world. The president is in New Jersey posing for pictures and giving speeches to journalists to be shown to millions of people across the nation.

I hope nobody who reads this is stupid enough to think that what Barack Obama is doing is not campaigning no matter what the liberal media would have you believe.

Windows 8 - Not as Intuitive as it Should Be

 The New York Times recently published an article about the upcoming release of Windows 8. I'm sure that everybody remembers the fiasco that was Windows Vista only a few years ago. If you're like me, it was hard to forget. I don't ever want to go through anything like that again.

I know a software release is not as big a tragedy as a hurricane or earthquake but those things are meant to destroy and we are just trying to keep out of the way. A computer operating system is meant to help the end user, to make life easier. We should not be trying to keep out of its way.

Probably the biggest fear that end users have right now is the influence Microsoft has over computer vendors. During the release of Windows Vista all PC vendors stopped offering the XP operating system. You could still get it if you bought it separately (for a significant price increase) but it was not offered with new computers as soon as Windows Vista was released. I don't think the market's changed and I am sure that Microsoft will strong-arm the market into selling only the new version of Windows. I just hope that Windows 8 is not as big a failure as Windows Vista.

I have to admit that I haven't used Windows 8 yet (I'm still scared) but there are a few things that are obvious to anyone with the time to look. First, the operating system is obviously set up for use with a mobile device. I realize that tablets are fun to play with and that a large part of the market is taken up with tablet sales but if I got as much work done on my computer at work as I do with my iPhone at home, there would be a lot more solitaire playing and a lot less document writing.

Second, there is a 'desktop' mode to placate people like me who have spend hundreds of hours learning to optimize my interface with the machine. I think we all recognize this for what it is 'bull crap.' You either have a tablet based operating system or a desktop version. Only someone as stupid as the Microsoft marketing department would believe that two is really better than one.

Finally, this new operating system is obviously trying to compete with better (or at least more popular) operating systems like those provided by Apple and Google. Microsoft has gone on and on about how easy this net operating system is to use and they offer tutorials for anyone too stupid to use it properly. I firmly believe that if you need a tutorial to navigate your device, it's not intuitive. My two year old son didn't need a tutorial to learn how to operate the iPhone and my mother didn't either. Come on Microsoft, can't you copy Apple better than that?

Dancing with the Stars - The Shocking Retainings

We're now past the third week of eliminations on Dancing with the Stars and some results are more shocking than others. Nobody was shocked when Pamela Anderson was eliminated in week one. Her dancing was so terrible that not even her past good looks could save her. This week's eliminations of two past champions: Drew Lachey and Helio Castroneves were sad. They danced well but in a season of all stars we expect to see even good dancers get voted out regularly. I was personally shocked when Joey Fatone, and more importantly, Kym Johnson were voted out. I'll miss Joey but the real tragedy there was missing out on Kym and her, mostly non-existent, clothes. I mean, really, she looks like George Clooney's girlfriend Stacy Keibler only hotter.

The biggest shock this season isn't who has been voted off but who is still around. Bristol Palin. Seriously, Bristol Palin. I can't believe that past champions have gone away and Bristol Palin is still around.

She can't dance. She's not a movie or TV star. She hasn't even been on a reality TV show until Dancing with the Stars. Who are the dumb bums who are voting for her? I fail to believe that even tween girls are voting for Bristol. The only thing she's done to gain public recognition is to be Sarah Palin's knocked up daughter who can't even get her baby daddy to stick around.

All right. Getting rid of baby daddy was probably the smartest thing Bristol's ever done. I just think that Sarah Palin would have been a better contestant. She's hotter, actually famous and it would be hard for her to be a worse dancer than her daughter.

To all the stupid people with thumbs out there, 'Next week keep your thumbs off your phone!'

I really can't stand another week of Bristol.

Facebook Gang Members Dumbest People on Planet

Using Facebook to Catch Criminals

NBCNews.com reported recently that NYPD was using Facebook to catch gang members. This is hilarious. The high school and college age gangsters aren't even bright enough to not brag about breaking the law. Not only are these kids too stupid to do anything productive with their time, they are spending time away from their dumb friends incriminating themselves and everyone they know.

Police officers are not only viewing public information, they are also creating aliases and 'friending' known gang members in order to collect other information about crimes being committed. The only problem with this is the legality of obtaining information this way and the potential to use the internet for entrapment.

Internet Privacy a Complete Misnomer

I think that once you put something on the internet, whether it is for Facebook, YouTube or your own blog, it's public enough to get you in trouble. If you are caught doing something illegal, your right to privacy should go away.

Entrapment makes it sound like police officers are tempting good little boys and girls to do things that they would never do on their own. This fantasy doesn't accurately depict what is going on. Everybody knows what is right and wrong. If you know something is wrong, don't do it. Entrapment only works if you go out looking for trouble.

What Next

I applaud the NYPD for their efforts to use social media to catch gang members in their criminal acts. I just hope that society can shut up long enough about non-existent internet privacy to let them do their jobs.

MNF - The Referees got the call Right

The replacement referees for the NFL have taken a huge beating recently over their ability to officiate the game. These guys are new to their job in the national spotlight and the game would be better off if the regular refs were to return sooner rather than later but the most shocking thing we have learned about the absence of the regular referees is that NFL players and coaches are whiny losers.

I take as case in point the Monday Night Football game: Packers at Seahawks.

After the game Aaron Rogers had some very harsh comments for the officials. You could tell that he was upset. I don't blame him. He had just lost a game that he thought he should have won. In fact, Aaron Rogers and the rest of the Packers probably thought that the game shouldn't have even been close. After all, they are perennial favorites to play in the Superbowl and the Seattle Seahawks are a weak west coast team with a college football coach.

Aaron Rogers has a right to be mad but the person he should be mad at is himself. If Superbowl MVP Aaron Rogers wanted to win the game Monday night he should have put more than twelve points on the scoreboard during the previous 59 minutes of the game. He could even have maintained possession of the ball for the remaining seconds of the game. Aaron Rogers had an entire game's worth of opportunities to win the game but he has opted to take the easy way out and blame someone else. Don't talk to me about the integrity of the win if you are willing to blame someone else for your loss.

The other person who should be scrutinized here but hasn't is M.D. Jennings. You can talk all day about Jennings intercepting the ball but if he really had possession of the catch why didn't he walk away with the ball? You can see in the film that he tries to roll away but can't because Golden Tate had a better grip on the ball. Don't tell me you're a big tough football player if you can't come up with the ball.

The last thing I have to say about this play and why everyone else is wrong about it is this: The fraction of a second that Jennings had 'more' possession of the ball than Tate did doesn't count. Simultaneous possession, by definition, must be at about the same time. We can't measure anything with exactness, it all has to be within a certain tolerance. If we look at any two events one must come before the other. In this case the lens of slow motion film has distorted the truth so that we think that a simultaneous catch must happen faster than a few frames of film.

This is a simultaneous catch. The Seahawks won this game fair and square. The media and players have blown this all out of proportion.

The referees got the call right and anyone who thinks otherwise is WRONG.