LOL!! Nah, that was just an old prototype. The beta version more closely resembles an M.C. Escher drawing entitled "House of Stairs".

http://www.worldofescher.com/gallery/A23L.html

-Kerry O.

I'm very close to perfecting the first Virtual Treehouse where like-minded people can congregate and keep the riff-raff at bay.

To gain entry to a particular Virtual Treehouse, have the user type <CTRL> <#> <#> <#>. If the owner lets you in and you find it wasn't what you expected, type <CTRL> <ESC>. IF you want to throw an unwanted guest out of your Virtual Treehouse on their astericks, type <CTRL> <ALT> <DEL>.

Virtual Treehouse is brought to you by Uh-O Industries.

-Kerry O.

I think if you'll do the dilgence to check, there is no 'tightening of supplies', just the fearmongering meant to drive prices up at the expense of the working class. Thus, it doesn't matter how many new wells are drilled, there will STILL be a glut on the 'free' market.

This is the same faulty reasoning as trickle-down economics. We've heard for decades how that was the Holy Grail of Republican policies, yet here we are with millionaires being minted at a pace never seen before in American history, and the middle class is STILL losing ground. We heard how productivity is the single biggest factor that has kept the American worker stuck in place financially, yet last year the American worker was the most productive in the world and we STILL have 9% unemployment.

Maybe it's just me, but I think there's nothing more pathetic than an abused ox that loves its yoke and shows it by putting people like Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania in office with all his 'Club for Growth' hogwash theories.


-Kerry O.

What's this??? Conservatives calling for government regulation of that last bastion of freedom, the Wall Street speculators? Say it isn't so!

Whattsa matter, Wild West casino...errrr, free markets giving you heartburn in the wallet? $4.00/gal gas with record Big Oil profits doesn't taste so good with 9% unemployment?

Don't say nobody told you so when you put Republicans at least partially back in power again. BTW, where-oh-where is the Tea Party contingent in this whole affair? Hiding out? Elect Dr. No for POTUS, we need $5.00/gal gas.


-Kerry O.

I agree with a lot of what you say--- we stupidly keep ignoring blowback time after time and expect different results. We justify the indefensible and then act all surprised that we were the catalyst for the formation of rabid regimes bent on indiscriminate destruction.

On that basis, I feel that OBL's death was a circle completing itself. Reciprocity was done, he was paid back in the same coin for which he worked. But I feel no elation about it-- only relief that his death only served to make the world safer as when a rabid animal is euthanized.

Almost like this dialogue from 'Avatar'




-Kerry O.

I wonder if he minded being in a episode of Futurama?




-Kerry O.

Even with what is now known, a majority of the American public _still_ believe Saddam was in league with bin Laden. On this basis, a thought experiment bringing GWB to trial for war crimes can have only one result-- acquittal. Because a jury of his peers would be hopelessly deadlocked in its refusal to believe anything but what is most expedient to believe. And the Congressional Democrats sure aren't going to make waves because they bought into the expediency because of their desire not to get caught in the gears.

Sad to say, but History will be the only one able to portray the Blind Lady with the Scales in this affair. And as always, there are only three type of people involved-- those who start the wars, those who fight them, and those who are unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire.


-Kerry O.

Even with what is now known, a majority of the American public _still_ believe Saddam was in league with bin Laden. On this basis, a thought experiment bringing GWB to trial for war crimes can have only one result-- acquittal. Because a jury of his peers would be hopelessly deadlocked in its refusal to believe anything but what is most expedient to believe. And the Congressional Democrats sure aren't going to make waves because they bought into the expediency because of their desire not to get caught in the gears.

Sad to say, but History will be the only one able to portray the Blind Lady with the Scales in this affair. And as always, there are only three type of people involved-- those who start the wars, those who fight them, and those who are unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire.


-Kerry O.

That whole affair reminds me more of the Salem Witch Trials, where the righteos bring the 'evil' to God's justice as a cover for their own gain and nefarious purposes.

Or, this scene from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier:



-Kerry O.

The kind of God that people who think they are made in his image act like when they think He is only on _their_ side. The kind of god who is worshipped by those persecuted for their religion, but who become every bit as bad as their persecutors when THEY finally get their chance to sit in the catbird seat.

In other words, typical human beings...

-Kerry O.

I beg to differ. One can't swing a dead cat on Internet religion boards without hitting scores of Biblical Inerrantists who think the bible is THE Literal Word of God. Period. End of Discussion.

The last time I brought up the Midianites on a religion board on this site, one such apologist made a spirited argument that God Almighty answers to no mere human code of justice and that the Midiantite children were 'being saved from evil' by being slaughtered by Moses, et al. And that no mere Unbeliever really understands that logic.

Well, thank God for that.


-Kerry O.

Ah, but if that's true, that opens an even BIGGER can of worms for the Biblical Infallibility folks-- the fact that the author(s) of the Bible lied about history.


-Kerry O.

Did Moses 'look within himself' before he ordered the slaughter of his wife's own people on the flimsiest justifications?

I think not...


-Kerry O.

As usual, all the same, age-old excuses for the barbarism by God's Chosen, and the blatant contradictions in the holy books. "It was translations." "It was Satan!"

As far as history goes, Moses had a Midianite wife. One wonders if she was killed, too-- the Bible doesn't say and I'd bet Christian historians/apologists find it VERY inconvenient, so they just ignore it.


Just as you did in your rebuttal, that conveniently ignores genocide that the Bible reports. What does the Bible say about pointing out the beams in the eyes of others?

Not mention their forgiving Paul for being the ancient equivalent of a German SS officer...


-Kerry O.

It's pages contain stories of 'God's People' mercilessly slaughtering innocent Midianite children, yet its Believers have the audacity to complain about violence in the Quran?

Not to mention that it's a cobbled-together work, its 'books' being chosen by mortal men from among a whole plethora of ghostwritten works after that crucified guy's death. Most of the 'winning' works were allegedly written by Paul, a murderer.

And it's riddled with contradiction and inaccuracy.


-Kerry O.

"Captain, the most elementary and valuable statement in science, the beginning of wisdom, is 'I do not know.'" -- Lt. Commander Data


And to add that, just because someone is sure their view of the Universe is THE correct one does NOT make it so. Nor does it hold more sway by saying that agnostics have 'no idea'. It's faulty logic, known as a false dichotomy.


It's also pretty inaccurate to say 'they can't figure anything out, so they bow out of life.' If anything, it's the religious who have sandbagged research into the very roots and mechanics of life itself by trying to outlaw stem cell research and other such fields of inquiry on the basis of THEIR religious beliefs.


-Kerry O.

Second carny uses Obama's likeness
August 10, 2010
By Sam Wood, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

For the second time in a week, the use of President Obama's image in a carnival game has caused a bit of a kerfuffle.

A crude likeness of the commander in chief is one of several targets featured at a boardwalk game in the Jersey Shore town of Seaside Heights.

Calling the smiling likeness crude is an understatement. Carved with a chainsaw and attached to a foam body, it's a stretch to say it resembles Obama.

But players have been paying $5 for a bucket of balls to throw them at plates held by the caricature. Break a plate and win a prize. The game, called "Walkin Charlie," also features Osama Bin Laden, Michael Jackson, and Stewie from the animated TV series Family Guy.

By late afternoon Monday, the game's creator, Tommy Whalen, said a bag had been put over the Obama figure's head. The presidential target, however, will stay.

"I gotta leave it up just for the hoopla," said Whelen, the manager of Lucky Leo's Amusements which owns the game. "If they're going to keep sending film crews I'm leaving it up."

Whalen, 59, said he didn't mean to offend anyone by adding Obama to the game a month ago. It's all for fun, he said.

"Heck, I voted for the son of a gun," said Whalen. "But I'm not real happy with some of the things going on with the health care issue."

Though he's become a national target of criticism, Whalen has no intention of removing the figure.

"It's not like I have a bull's-eye on his head or on his private business," he said.

Last week, a carnival operator in the Lehigh Valley removed a game in which players shot darts at an image of Obama.

Irvin Good Jr. received a complaint from a Massachusetts woman attending a fair in Roseto, about 20 miles north of Bethlehem, Pa. Good said his company, Hellertown-based Goodtime Amusements, will not offer the game again.

"It was just a big, big mistake in judgment, and I feel sorry about it," Good said.

The game, dubbed Alien Attack, featured a large, painted image of a black man wearing a belt buckle with the presidential seal and holding a scroll labeled "Health Bill." Players could win prizes, including stuffed animals, by hitting targets on the image's head and heart.

Whalen said he's commissioned more political figures for the boardwalk game.

"Hillary Clinton will go up today," he said. "Sarah Palin will be up in a couple of days. She'll have her great big glasses on. She'll be great to throw at."

He's already planning his next batch of targets: cast members from MTV's Jersey Shore, which is filming in Seaside Heights. He hired the chainsaw artist to create a Snooki and Situation.

"Snooki will be 4-foot-7 and wide," said Whalen. "It will be a blast."

+++++++++++++++++++


So, the carnival folks aren't above a little political incorrectness themselves? Especially when there's money to made from it?

Hmmmm... methinketh someone doth protest a little tooo much. :)

As they say in the legal profession, 'those who seek relief through equity must come to equity with clean hands.'


-Kerry O.

The word IS in the dictionary, after all. And Obama's useage was correct. I find it pretty obvious that the people who are crying 'political correctness' are doing so with crocodile tears. Talk about desperation to get some negative spin!

On the other hand, I can see why someone might get offended at being compared to a Birther.

-Kerry O.

I think most everyone would agree that a restroom could be thought of as a safe space. But in this instance, who was the victim of aggression? Persons with XX chromosomes or XY chromosomes? And what's it say about doing violence just because the perps thought they could hide behind their gender while contending that " 'he' deserved it"?

-Kerry O.

I think it's very telling that Jewish men, to this day, still pray this as part of their morning prayers:



Sometimes the prayers will also express similar sentiments about not having been created a gentile or a slave. Other religions have similar male-centric sentiments.

If, as an unbeliever, I had to have a prayer, one part would be to wish for strong, dangerous women with whom to work with in taming the Universe. NOT dominating one's fellow beings.

I contend that one of the pillars of Abrahamic religions in particular is that of a mask for male d0minance games and unbridled ambition thirsting for ultimate power.


-Kerry O.