Song of the Day: Eminem - Not Afraid (live at T in the Park)

Eminem - Not Afraid (live at T in the Park)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8V2W_mRVVc

Did you catch Eminem on 60 Minutes last week?
CBS News: "Eminem's Incredible Rise to Stardom"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/07/60minutes/main6936406.shtml

I find Eminem to be one of the most honest and talented artists alive today. I normally don't like rap, yet I find his music to be heart-felt and compelling. Watch the interview, see what he has to say about swearing in his house. He may surprise you.

The video I linked is from a concert in Scotland earlier this year. Based on what I heard in the 60 Minutes piece, this is something of a comeback tour for Eminem, and this song reflects his journey back from addiction. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it. Either way, I like the song.

The left supports vote fraud

The left supports vote fraud. I'm sorry, but it is true. We all know about the Acorn scandals. We know that the Left gives lip service to the issue, but doesn't care to address it because they benefit from it.

Here is a story from Milwaukee that clearly demonstrates the point. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"Groups protest voter fraud ads"
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/104816414.html

Most of the comments after the story "get it." So I'm going to let them do the commenting in this post.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/104816414.html?page=1

"Ummm, last time I checked voting illegally *is* a felony and does take away a vote from someone who voted legally. And these billboards are designed to scare people into not voting illegally. So what's this group's problem? Unless of course they are pro-voting illegally....but that can't be, right?"

In response to these signs targeting minorities:
"There's one in Pewaukee and one in Waukesha on Hwy 164 that I know of. High concentration of minorities.....yeah right."

Finally, again from the comments, here is a great question:
"If a person were to see a billboard that indicates that an illegal vote is a felony, and that person didn't vote at all because of that billboard... should that person be voting anyway? If that hypothetical person is swayed by a billboard that doesn't tell him/her not to vote, how can that person thoughtfully vote for his/her best candidate?"

Adios, GOOG-411

From the Google Blog:
"Goodbye to an old friend: 1-800-GOOG-411"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/goodbye-to-old-friend-1-800-goog-411.html

Sad to see this very innovative service go away. Even so, I can understand why. Using GOOG-411 people could access Google when they were away from their computers. Nowadays "smartphones" surf the internet directly so there is little need for it.









10/08/2010 11:00:00 AM
Back in 2007 we launched 1-800-GOOG-411, a voice-powered directory assistance service that connects you quickly to businesses across the U.S. and Canada. On November 12, 2010, we will shut down the service.

GOOG-411 was the first speech recognition service from Google and helped provide a foundation for more ambitious services now available on smartphones, such as:
Voice Search - search Google by speaking instead of typing.
Voice Input - fill in any text field on Android by speaking instead of typing.
Voice Actions - control your Android phone with voice commands. For example, you can call any business quickly and easily just by saying its name.
Our success encouraged us to aim for more innovation. Thus, we’re putting all of our resources into speech-enabling the next generation of Google products and services across a multitude of languages.

If you don’t use a smartphone, and you’re trying to call a business, you can send a text message with the name and location of the business to 466453 ("GOOGLE") and we’ll text you the information, or on Gmail you can use the new phone-calling features to call any U.S. business free of charge. Also, if you don’t have the free voice search app pre-installed on your phone, you can download it here.

Thanks for all the calls, and keep an eye out for all the innovation to come.

Posted by The GOOG-411 Team

Quote of the Day: Warren Buffett on converting thought into action

As I watch the strong reaction against the Left's policies enacted in the past two years I cannot help but be reminded of one of Warren Buffett's famous sayings. From the 2001 Berkshire Hathaway annual report:
"Predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does."

It is simply amazing to see the number of people try to claim they were against this health care debacle we have gotten ourselves into, or against the ridiculous levels of spending to try to support the economy without realizing that government spending produces exactly nothing (every penny spent on something was taken from someone else). Even Republicans, so-called fiscal conservatives, are guilty of this (voting yes on bailouts, for instance). Bear in mind that George W. Bush bailed out GM before he left office.

Well, it's not enough to say that you knew this would happen. Or that you support different actions now. Now it's too late. Actions count, not words. Actions when you could have done something. How did your representatives vote? Who did YOU vote for? Did you vote for "hope and change" without considering what it really meant? Shame on you if you did.

Don't just predict rain, build arks. Don't just talk, educate yourself and vote.

The State Fair Diet

If you find yourself losing too much weight and need to pack on a few pounds, you might want to try the State Fair Diet!

I traveled to Tulsa Oklahoma recently, and had a chance to drop by the Tulsa State Fair. I had been told that they had Deep Fried Butter, among other things! It wasn't quite a dare, but I guess I had to see (and taste) for myself. Luckily (?) we ended a little early on Friday and I had a little time to swing by the Fair on my way to the airport.

Here's what I found.

This is a booth that sold Krispy Kreme "donut burgers." They're like regular hamburgers except instead of hamburger buns they have Krispy Creme glazed donuts, top and bottom. Really.

Here is the Deep Fried Butter booth.

Here is the deep fried butter. Just a ball of butter that is breaded and deep fried. The butter melts out so this is just a hollow dough ball with a well-buttered interior. It's not that much butter, since most melts out. Not that exciting and not that great, ultimately. Checked it off my list, no need to eat that again.

Finally, this is the circumcised corn dog I ate. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Other stuff I saw included deep fried Oreos and deep fried Twinkies.


Now, I don't mean to pick on the Tulsa State Fair. Any state fair is going to have it's share of great greasy food. My favorite is the deep fried cheese curds I first had at the Minnesota State Fair.

Feel free to add your favorites. I know people will eat all kinds of crazy shit if you either deep fry it or put it on a stick.

I'm not a big fan of the State Fair Diet. I like to do things a bit differently. I prefer to gain my excess weight by eating good food, but lots of it!

Daniel Henninger: Capitalism Saved the Miners

At this point we have all heard that the trapped miners in Chile have been rescued. Great story. But what made it possible?

Here is a great column in the Wall Street Journal that discusses how capitalism, vibrant businesses continuing to innovate, contributed to their rescue. Without the products that people produce (with a profit motive!), this rescue would never have been possible.

Daniel Henninger: Capitalism Saved the Miners
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550322091167574.html

Read the article quickly! The Wall Street Journal doesn't make all its columns available for free for very long.

More garbage from the left

So there was another rally at the National Mall. It was a small union rally, officially called the "One Nation Working Together" rally, on Saturday, October 2.

Not surprisingly, they trashed the place. I've posted about this before ("The difference between the right and the left - an example", September 5, 2010)

Here's the story, from the Patriot Post:
http://patriotpost.us/perspective/2010/10/05/one-nation-rally-results-are-in/

One of the comments following this article nailed it:
"It's indicative of the left that they do not clean up after themselves. It's a function of their mindset. Everything is alway someone else's problem."