Brandon Starr's blog. Updated daily since March 2003. Welcome. Make yourself comfortable. Have a hot chocolate.

Brandon Starr's blog is not to be taken internally. All humor is intentional, unless indicated otherwise.
Do not read while operating heavy machinery. May cause intracranial short circuiting.
Not for children under four days of age.

If for some reason you wish to contact Brandon Starr, take a moment and reconsider.
No? Ah, well. His email is brandonstarr@yahoo.com.
It's your fault now, and don't blame me when it all goes terribly, terribly wrong.


New fiction story! Click here for "The Voice of Cassandra."

Click here for my ongoing novel: "The History of Magic in the 21st Century."

Click here for the lowdown on "The History of Magic"

Click here for my new investing blog, "Adroit Investor"

Click here for my anti-Bush shirts.

Click here for my favorite design: the 'tourist safety shirt.'

Brandon Starr is available in small, medium, and large. Contents may settle during shipping. Allow four to six weeks for delivery. Open carefully; contents under pressure. Do not incinerate. May be habit-forming--do not take if you are gassy or under the influence of mimosas. Improved; now non-staining. Ships in all colors, except puce. Prompt refund if not satisfied--simply return unused portion. All queries promptly ignored. Complaints resolved with deep, gut-blasting laughter, followed by posting complaints on nearest public wall. Not responsible for sunburns. All your base are belong to us. Act now. Beware cheap imitations. Insist on the original--Brandon Starr.

Update notification by email available below.

Some fun/useful/useless links:

The Internet Movie Database

My cousin back from Iraq, and how it changed me (my current favorite entry on this blog)

Zazzle.com

My Zazzle.com product page

Fun blogs:

infinitus opinio

Siren's Song

the mechanical jive

The Strange World

Thunderstorms in the Imajica

Librarianguish

Elven Sarah

Random Musings (Catcher)

Certifiable Princess (Sarah 2)
   

<< September 2004 >>
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08 09 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30

Email notification to Brandon Starr's blog has been shown to reduce bad cholesterol in two-toed sloths, and has been used as an effective exfoliant.

If you want to be updated on this weblog Enter your email here:



rss feed



Saturday, October 23, 2004
10 days until the election...starting top ten list

I'm starting a top ten list, one per day, ending on election day:

Top ten non-policy reasons to vote for Kerry over Bush

Some will be anti-Bush, some will be comparative, and some will be pro-Kerry.

All will be non-policy.

In other words, I won't be arguing the benefits of one health care plan over another, or whether there should be a cut or a raise in the capital-gains tax.

Why?

Well, there are plenty of issues out there that are important.  Very important.  But some elections aren't about the issues.  This happens when you have someone in power whose lack of ethics, lack of judgement, and extremism are so dangerous to our future that he must be defeated.

This is such an election, when the person trumps the issues.

So, here we go with the tenth reason...

#10:  Bush is lazy, Kerry is hard-working.

Bush's record before he started having corporations given to him by his dad and his dad's cronies is one of being a true wastrel.  After being given a "get out of Vietnam free" card by his dad's friends, he goes through expensive pilot training, then blows it off and does...well, no one quite knows, but it wasn't what he had signed up to do "for our country."

Kerry's early record?  While he probably could have figured out a way to weasel his way out of Vietnam, instead he signed up for military service.  And then, he volunteered for one of the most dangerous duties in his branch of the service--swift-boat duty.  After Vietnam, he works hard to try to get the public and the government to get the POWs out of Vietnam, and for everyone to see the policy errors of a war with no strategy for winning and no exit strategy.

After Vietnam, Bush goes through his "failed CEO" period...something for another time.  Later, he became the Governor of Texas--Texas has a "weak governor" system, so it wasn't too hard for him to do.  Then, of course, he fell into the Presidency after his brother made sure Florida went his way.

As President, Bush has spent more than 40% of his time outside the White House--at either of his two mansions, or at Camp David.

After Vietnam, Kerry becomes a very successful prosecutor, then a lieutenant governor, then a Senator.  He has never spent any long amount of time not working his butt off.

During the first debate, we found out just how much of a strain the Presidency is on a lazy man like George W. Bush.  Eleven times he talked about how he's doing "hard work" or how the Presidency is "hard work."  Once he talked about how loving his wife is "hard work."  And twice he talked about how he and others in his Administration are working "hard."

Kerry's first words in his nomination acceptance speech?  That he's "reporting for duty."  He's a man who was disciplined by military life, and worked hard ever since.

And that's reason number ten:  Kerry is hard-working, Bush is too lazy to do an effective job.
 

Posted at 02:55 pm by brandonstarr
Comments (7)  

Friday, October 22, 2004
Iran endorses Bush

Iranian hard-core theocrats endorse Bush for President (AP)
Despite Bush's rhetoric against Iran, they'd rather have him back for more:

Historically, Democrats have harmed Iran more than Republicans, said Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body.

"We haven't seen anything good from Democrats," Rowhani told state-run television in remarks that, for the first time in decades, saw Iran openly supporting one U.S. presidential candidate over another.


Though Iran generally does not publicly wade into U.S. presidential politics, it has a history of preferring Republicans over Democrats, who tend to press human rights issues.

"We do not desire to see Democrats take over," Rowhani said when asked whether Iran was supporting Democratic Sen. John Kerry against Bush.

Now that's interesting.  Most of the truly democratic countries want Kerry, while false-front "democracies" and "republics" led by autocrats, like Iran, support Bush.  Democrats do more harm than Republicans to these kinds of rulers, who enjoy cronylike status among the Republicans.

Who do you want for your President?  Democracies' preferred candidate, Kerry?  Or Iran's choice, Bush?


Posted at 09:11 am by brandonstarr
Comments (4)  

Thursday, October 21, 2004
Getting in the Halloween mood

Here's some short zombie fiction stories from the Twilight Creations site, makers of the "Zombies!!!" board game.

Eat well.

(added later:)

One more thing to chew on:  George Romero is working on a follow-up to his other zombie movies, to come out next year.  It's called "Land of the Dead."  The plotline:  a few years have passed, and the living dead have taken over almost all of the Earth.  The surviving humans are in a walled-in city, desperately trying to survive each other as much as the zombies.  Meanwhile, the zombie threat, which had started fading as the zombies decomposed, is rising again as the zombies evolve into new threats...

Sounds like it could be good.

Posted at 09:13 am by brandonstarr
Comments (1)  

Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Pat Robertson: I warned Bush about casualties in Iraq...

...Bush's response?  "There aren't going to be any." (CNN)
Wow!

Bush thought there weren't going to be any casualties--as though invading Iraq was going to be like invading Grenada.

This is an amazing article.  It's also full of irrationalist gems like this:

Jesus may have told Bush to invade Iraq, but God was giving warnings to Robertson:  "I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy."

Robertson also believes Bush is blessed by God:

"Even if he stumbles and messes up -- and he's had his share of stumbles and gaffes -- I just think God's blessing is on him," Robertson said.

Amazing.  Bush is a goofball, self-assured for no reason, mistaken oh so many times, and foolish, yet his irrationalist buddies think "God" has blessed him.

Posted at 08:06 am by brandonstarr
Comments (2)  

Tuesday, October 19, 2004
I can't say it any better...

...so I'll just direct you to LowRentRat's two entries for today, Tuesday, October 19, 2004
One is about Sinclair and its advertisers, the other about the judge basically saying "so what?" in regards to the thrown-out Democrat registration forms.

Both are must-read, with excellent links as follow-up/back-up.

Posted at 01:09 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

Monday, October 18, 2004
Authoritarian supports Bush

"Democratically elected" leader Putin supports "democratically elected" Bush
Birds of a feather screw over their people together.

Putin, like so many idiots, seem to think the terrorists want Bush to lose.  This is, of course, false.  Al-Qaeda is already on record as thinking Bush is a fool and that Kerry would be a much more dangerous foe to them.  A lot of Bush's supporters choose to ignore this fact, as they ignore so many facts that fly in the face of what they fervently wish were true.

If you believe in fantasy right up until the moment of your death or the death of your first born, vote for Bush.  Osama'll thank you.
 

Posted at 09:01 am by brandonstarr
Comments (4)  

Sunday, October 17, 2004
Gather together the voter fraud...


Posted at 04:51 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

Bush Administration: torturers in two hemispheres

Torture:  it's not just throughout Iraq and Afghanistan--Guantanamo Cuba detainees heavily abused over long periods of time, guards and others charge

Be proud of your President...vote Kerry.

Posted at 12:52 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

Saturday, October 16, 2004
30 years of Dungeons and Dragons

Dungeons and Dragons, the father of all role-playing games, turns 30

As a longtime gamer--though I haven't played a formal game in about ten years, as I wrote recently--I still respect the genre.

(Technically, D&D evolved out of an earlier tabletop wargaming game, but D&D was the first where characters, not armies, were the focus, and therefore was the first role-playing game.)


Posted at 08:47 pm by brandonstarr
Comments (4)  

Federal appeals court: fear doesn't trump Constitution

Federal appeals court rules:  can't search protesters without some solid reason to suspect the protest has been targeted by terrorists

Or, as they put it:  "9/11/01...can't be the day liberty perished in this country."

Let's hope that Kerry wins so we don't get a Supreme Court even less well disposed towards civil liberties.

Posted at 05:56 pm by brandonstarr
Your thoughts?  

Next Page