Randomness and Rage

Good Sunday morning, gentle readers, and welcome to The Corner. I've been a bit busy of late, so forgive my paucity of postings. I am discovering the joys of trying to type with a kitten in the room, so if any strange typos find their way in it's because Starbuck thinks the cursor is something for her to play with, and the keyboard makes an excellent platform on which to stand.

Ok, onto the things on my mind today. First, a very unpleasant one. On Thursday a jury found Joeseph Smith, a 39 year old mechanic, guilty of kidnapping, raping, and murdering 11 year-old Carlie Brucia. Most of you know I am in that category of liberal most commonly referred to as 'bleeding heart', but in this case I'd like to offer my electrical expertise to rig 'Old Sparky', Florida's electric chair, with a special dimmer just in this animal's honor. This reprehensible creature, I refuse to allow that he is even remotely human, kidnapped the little girl, raped and strangled her, and then left her broken body outside of a church. Smith has an arrest record a mile long, and was in violation of his probation at the time of the murder. Most of the time I have mixed feelings about defense attorneys. I know that it is their duty to make sure that everyone gets a fair trial, but it must have been excruciating for them to defend this miserable piece of filth. It seems even more so since they didn't even make a hint of appellate proceedings after the verdict was read. Now they are just trying to keep him out of the death chamber. I know it's their job, but I have to wonder if any of them would like to put a gun to Smith's head right now. Personally I can't decide if the death penalty is best for him or not. The automatic appeal process will take years to peter out before they fry the bastard, whereas if he gets life without parole he'll get the same treatment he gave his victim every day, and quite possibly get beaten to death in a shower stall like Jeffery Dahmer. Personally I think we should get medieval on this waste of DNA, and treat him to a good, old-fashioned public disemboweling.

Now for some fun stuff. I'd like to share some web sites that I enjoy almost daily. Some came from friends, like Pikaresque, other's from former students, and others from various other web sites.

First is a very useful site if you have a computer, and since you are reading this it's a pretty good bet that you do. It's Kim Komando's site at

www.komando.com

Kim Komando, the self-proclaimed Digital Goddess, has made her living out of teaching ordinary shlubs like me how to make the most out of this box of wires and cards. Her site is a complement to her weekly radio show, and is full of hints, tips, and help on the ins and outs of your computer. It has an excellent search feature, and she makes a point to keep the information as accessible to the non-technically minded as possible.

This next one is hilarious. The Japanese are as fascinated with us as we are with them, but their grasp of our language is somewhat shaky. This site:

http://www.engrish.com/

consists of numerous photos of Engrish, the often amusing ways the Japanese attempt to translate warnings, slogans, tee-shirts, and advertisements into English. And before you go all ACLU on me, it's very tastefully done, and not insulting at all.

Next is http://www.damninteresting.com/, and the name says it all. This site features news that never quite makes it to the front pages.

I'm a big Dilbert fan, but I have found that Scott Adams' recent compilations that feature his own commentary are even more amusing and fascinating. If you're like me, and you find the creator as interesting as the creation, check out Adams' blog at

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/

This site was sent to me by Tink, and is called the Event Horizon Rider. This guys opinions on religion are spot-on, in my universe anyway, and well worth a read.

http://elroy.net/ehr/index.html


And now, a question. As the proud parent of a new kitten, I am in a quandary about dry food versus wet. I know that if I start her on a regimen of canned food for breakfast I can kiss sleeping in goodbye, but is it healthy to keep her only on dry food?

And finally, another entry for Let's Purge the Lexicon. Today's bitch is about the phrase 'for free'. This is grammatically abhorrent to me. Free is short for 'free of charge', so to say that you got something 'for free of charge' doesn't quite work. Lately I have heard this misuse on the radio, TV, and even NPR. Drop the 'for' people. It is unneeded, and incorrect. And this bit of grammatical advise is totally free. ;-)

Love and kisses,
Marius