Barnson.org

Soooo I heard some interesting banter yesterday on talk radio. The slightly right-wing host (‘slightly’ as in Shag is slightly tall) was discussing the topic of Maryland’s courts hearing testimony on the constitutionality of restricting marriage to a man and a woman. He had a guest come on who has written a book about marriage and the new American caste system (http://www.city-journal.org/printable.php?id=1921). The synopsis is that in the past three decades, women who go to college have followed the traditional “woman meets man, women marries man, they have baby” scenario in life, while women who don’t go to college more often have babies out of wedlock. As you can probably predict, the college-educated women who marry are better off than their single-mother counterparts.

The host kept trying to turn this into an argument against same-sex marriage, but the guest kept resisting it. And I agreed. Same sex unions who raised kids would presumably be better off and give their children better iving conditions just like their traditional counterparts. It’s not the fact that they’re man and woman, it’s the fact of having two adults pooling their resources to raise a child.

Then I wondered: Why do married couples get a tax break anyway? Perhaps in the past once marriage came, there would be a purchase of a house, and therein a need for a tax break. But we get tax breaks on mortgage interest anyway. So…why not do away with the tax break for marriages, create a civil union status for non-standard couples, and then give more tax breaks for those raising children. Because face it: the drain on your pocket when you get married in negligible compared to the drain on your pocket once you reproduce.

So allow same-sex unions, but don’t get any tax benefits to them (or married couples either). Just give the benefits to those raising children (married and civil parents alike). Because in the end, the purpose of life is to propagate the species. Otherwise, why do I have all those nerve endings in the reproduction areas?

My $.02 Weed

YIKES! In Oct. I decided it was time to go back to school. I’ve chosen Walden University which has online programs. My Master’s will be in Mental Health Counseling.

I figured Oct. was a good time to apply. Get the application process over with, enjoy the holidays, and start school in Jan. That would seem normal, right? RIGHT?

So I got accepted and class started on Dec. 4th. Yeah, before the holidays. –heavy sigh. So as if I wasn’t busy before with home improvements and holiday preparations, I’m a full fledged student now! I’m finding it’s a lot like last time I was a college student…I’m not getting much sleep these days.

Next comes figuring out how to pay for it. So why do graduate programs cost so darn much? I think they figure you’ll be making more money with your degree so they’ll charge you more to get the degree.

Now if only I didn’t have to wait my turn to use the computer to do homework. (hehehe) Santa might be bringing me something small and white with an apple on the back of it!

So over on Jen Gagne’s Live Journal Page, she’s spreading an interesting meme:

Ask me any three questions. Any at all, as probing as you like, and I’ll answer them as honestly as I can. If the answers are too personal, I’ll make the thread Barnsonians-only.

What three questions would you ask of me? Or of one another?

I challenge you to do this wherever you have your space on the Internet. The questions — and your answers — may surprise you. Or bore you. Or both.

Sorry Matt – we’re picking on your state today.

Only in Utah could they conceive of a way to make a 13-year-old girl a sex offender AND victim for the same act!

Under Utah’s statutory rape laws, consensual sex between a 13-year-old girl and her 12-year-old boyfriend means that she both raped him and was raped by him, statutorily speaking. I’ll be the first to say that 13 and 12 is too young to have sex. However, it’s ridiculous to criminalize this sort of thing.

Reminds me of the story of the 15-year-old girl arrested on child pornography charges because she had nude pictures OF HERSELF on her computer.

Thoughts?

Mormonism, kidnapping, everything that makes a great Barnson.org read:

No wedding for you!

My $.02 Weed

— A crazy story i read on Fox News…

FOXNews.com’s Michael De Dora, Jr. contributed to this report.

Mother Has 12-Year-Old Son Arrested for Opening Christmas Gift Early

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

A 12-year-old South Carolina boy got an unexpected stocking stuffer — a pair of handcuffs — after he snuck into his Christmas gifts a few weeks early.

After a mother discovered her son had unwrapped a Nintendo Game Boy Advance that was meant for him as a present from his grandmother, she called the Rock Hill Police and had the young man arrested for petty larceny, according to the police report filed this week.

“He took it without permission. He wanted it. He just took it,” the boy’s 63-year-old great-grandmother told the Rock Hill Herald.

• Click here to read the original story at Rock Hill Herald’s Web site.

• Click here to read the Rock Hill Police Department report.

The great-grandmother said in the filed complaint that she wrapped the gift and placed it under the tree at her house — then specifically told the boy not to open it.

But when she checked under the tree Sunday, she found the box unwrapped and opened. The great-grandmother relayed the news to the mother, who is 27-years-old.

When the boy claimed he didn’t know where the present was, the mother threatened to call the cops. On that threat, the boy went to his bedroom and grabbed the $85 Game Boy, according to the report.

But mom still called the police.

And the boy “showed no remorse” when the police came, mother said.

The boy was charged as a juvenile and released the same day, said police spokesman Lt. Jerry Waldrop. He was never in jail.

“We wouldn’t hold a 12-year-old,” he told the Rock Hill Herald.

On Monday night, the mother said she didn’t know what else to do but call the police in hopes it would be a wake-up call for her son.

The mother told police that the boy has a history of bad behavior, including shoplifting from stores and stealing money from her. The mother said he even punched a police officer last month and was arrested for disorderly conduct for it.

“I’m trying to get him some kind of help,” she told the Rock Hill Herald.

Proving once again that India is about 75 years behind the US in most things…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061203/film_nm/india_bollywood_kiss_dc

He’s a regular guy. Works at a newspaper. lives with family, newly married, typical suburban Baltimorean..

Oh, and he’s a B-Movie icon – especially in Maryland.

This guy has the kind of career i think about when I imagine leaving the quest for stardom.. he just lives his life.. and makes fun, cheap movies that struggle to make a little profit, if any – but eventually… yes, they do.

And so it is that his name is mentioned in books and articles.. and people come in droves to kiss his ass and try to get in his movies.

And he picked me, with his right hand man, Joe, to be the tough guy in an upcoming Zombie movie that never mad it off the ground. I did get to play the hero in his next movie, the upcoming Crawler, and the villain in the upcoming Dead Hunt.

But he also gave me the chance to make music for his films.. scoring them.. and it was in this that we got to know each other. We argued, sometimes bitterly about themes and context, and whether a scene should be played straight or tongue in cheek.. and we fought for our ideas.. and he tempered my inexperience into scores i am proud of.

I also learned something.. he’s not a huge horror movie fan. he loves West Side Story. He’s a guy who hits you first with his almost monotone deep voice on the telephone.. and then, laughs easily. He seems to be always on his work..

Sure.. I probably have details wrong.. but this is how I see Don.. He has a good little life. The kind I might one day really want. I admire this guy.. and I look to him as – well, not a role model – but a model for how life could one day be not what I had dreamed at 20, but just fine, and still doing what I love.

I hope you’ve read to here.. because I need to change all of this to past tense. See.. Don died today after a short but fierce bout with cancer. I’m not stunned. I knew it was coming. But I’m sad. Resolutely sad. And because I wasn’t his best friend or anything, I don’t want to give you the pain and loss story. I want to just tell you about this guy I met.. and spread a little about what he was like.

Either you liked him.. or you would have. Glad I met ya Don.

• If two hermaphrodites marry, are they able to do their taxes “Married Filing Jointly”?
• If God is omniscient and omnipotent (meaning knows-all and all-powerful), how can free will exist? We’re all part of his plan, so he must already know what we’re going to do. And since he made us all, we’re only doing what he made us to do? So how can I be blamed if I’m only becoming what God made me? Basically, how can free will co-exist with an all-powerful God?
• We need a third political party with clout, line-item veto in the white house, loser-pays tort reform with damage caps, legalized drugs and prostitution, and parental liability for their children’s actions, in my humble opinion and no particular order.
• Life is a sexually-transmitted disease which is 100% fatal.
• True Story: Family Feud, head-to-head buzzer part. Question is: What is the worst thing you’ve left upon the top of your car when you’ve driven away? First person answers: my drink. That’s the #2 answer, so the other team can steal. Second guy answers: MY CAR KEYS
• Oil is mined from far-away countries, from deep in the earth, put into barrels, shipped across oceans, refined into gasoline, then shipped across the country to your gas station, where you pay $2.25 a gallon for it. Contrast this price per gallon to milk and water, which is much easier to obtain.
• When you look at the exploits of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera, could you possibly be a good parent and let your kids ever be in TV for Disney? Who will fall next: Amanda Bynes, Raven, or Hannah Montana? And I feel like a dirty old man for even typing this.
• First kid: Congratulations!!! Your life is gonna change. Second kid: Congratulations!!! Now it gets hard. Third kid: It’s a tie between a) Was this planned? or b) Are you crazy? Here comes the zone defense
• For the 4,756,443th time last night, Thomas was able to warn the signalman to change the points and save the new station from the runaway trucks, Swiper was prevented from swiping, Jeff fell asleep, Lofty thinks they can fix it, Larry reminded Bob he has no hands, and no I didn’t watch Heroes Or the Office last night thank you very much!
• Of the 4 major pro sports, only one team who led their league in payroll has won the championship during the past 5 years: the 2001-2002 Detroit Red Wings. Money can’t buy you love or championships, it seems.

My $.02 Weed

In an effort to clean up my registry, yesterday I bought, installed and ran Ace Optimizer Utilities from Acelogix for my office Compaq Presario desktop purchased back in the spring of 2004.

Registry files cleaned: 1,147.

Though a sophisticated user of consumer technology, I’ve always been wary of manually cleaning up my registry for fear of permanently damaging the box. Sure, I could back up my data and certainly restore or, worst case, buy a new disposable Wintel computer if I committed unrecoverable damage. But the disruption time and cost are not desirable. So I issue patience during lengthy boots, double-clicks, and even during hiccups at every right-click for menu draw-down, all the while contemplating the drawbacks of going in and taking on the registry myself.

Of course, I don’t even know how to find the registry.

I haven’t used any other software, so I can’t compare, but I heartily endorse Ace Optimizer. The suite of tools and interface is easy to use. Plus, it goes far beyond the rote “Administrative Tools” and “System Tools” that come with Windows OS. These tools are a joke, except for defrag, and I’m assuming there are plenty of 3rd-party COTS apps for this function as well. (As an aside, I found a free registry defrag utility that works great. I tried to attach but barnson.org won’t allow the upping of .exe files. Email me if anyone wants this utility.)

I especially love the fact that this software erases all my history, duplicate files, junk and residue from prior installs. For $40, including a lifetime version license, it’s worth it to speed up the system while having a resident watchdog app maintain efficiency.

Anyone else have any registry advice?