Terror attempts in London

I came across another blog that had a good satire piece on the attempted car bombs in Piccadilly Circus. I wanted to repost a paragraph and give you the link to the source because I thought it was funny

 It’s a well known fact that Islamic jihadists hate circuses, as they feel clowns are a mocking representation of the Prophet Mohammad, not to mention their belief that scantily-clad female trapeze artists flying overhead are sexually taunting them to the point of madness. Let’s pray the Brits can  track down these carpet-kissers before they strike again.

Source: Free Republic 

101 years ago- 1906

Here are some of the U.S. Statistics for the Year 1906:

• The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
• Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
• Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
• A three-minute call from Denver to New York City cost eleven dollars.
• There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
• The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
• Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.

•  

  With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.

The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year.

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at home.

Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education. Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as “substandard.”

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
 1. Pneumonia and influenza
 2. Tuberculosis
 3. Diarrhea
 4. Heart disease
 5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars.

Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea had not been invented yet.

There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

Two out of every 10 U.S. adults could not read or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores.

Back then the pharmacist said, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.”

Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S.

The population of the US was 85,450,000

Dreamhost sucks

If you can read this post, Dreamhost doesn’t suck as bad as it normally does. Over the last few days, there have been problems with many of the sites that are hosted on Dreamhost (including this one.) We are plagued with errors such as “Firefox cannot find site such and such”, or the venerable Internal Server Error… Well, Dreamhost is an employee-owned company. Spend less money on beer and more on your servers

Carlos’s blog in Portuguese is complaining about the same thing Good luck accessing his blog.

My desktop

I was reading another blog about desktop screenshots, so I decided to post mine so he could see. Nothing interesting here lol. Click the thumbnail to view larger.

Today we said goodbye to our nine heroes

As you know, nine brave men lost their lives fighting a fire in Charleston on Monday.

Today, the city held a memorial service for them at the North Charleston Colliseum. It was attended by over 30,000 people. The worship team from my church, Seacoast sang “How Great Thou Art”. I watched the beginning of the service on TV and listened to the rest on the radio at my desk. I just wanted to say that the whole thing was very powerful, and I learned even more about how great these men were.  There were over 200 firetrucks from around the nation and from as far away as Alaska and Canada. (I have to think they must have flown the trucks in from Alaska!)

Photo Courtesy of The Post and Courier

Illegal immigrants

I know quite a few immigrants from Brazil, and I am certain that most of them are undocumented. I do various things for them such as teaching English and fixing their computers. Last night I went to a Brazilian’s house to pick up his computer up so I could do some work on it at home.

We got to talking about a few things, and he started to tell me about how cold American people were, how they weren’t happy, etc etc. He said that our food was bad because it seems like the immigrants only go to those chain restaurants such as Applebee’s, Denny’s, etc. I asked him if he knew what our local flavor was (Southern cuisine). He said hamburger and fries lol. So I told him about shrimp and grits, real Southern barbecue, etc, and he was clueless. I also told him that he never had a real home-cooked meal and never spent time with American families, so how could he make such an accusation that we were cold people.

The reason why we got into this discussion is because he asked me if the government was ever going to legalize illegal immigrants. I said, well, probably not because many American people want the illegals to go home… He asked why? So I told him about how illegal immigrants are driving up health care costs, straining social services, etc. I told him that our health care costs are being driven up because many of them get medical services and don’t ever pay for them. So who pays? Us…

Finally, I said, the reason why some immigrants are isolated from the rest of the American people is their refusal to learn English.  I told him, if you learn English, and make American friends, things would be a lot easier for you. He said that we should learn their language… I speak Portuguese, but don’t you think that if someone comes to live in a foreign country, they should learn the language of the land? I didn’t find so many people in Brazil that spoke English, nor did I expect it.

 Ok, enough ranting for now- you get the point.

Nine of Charleston’s bravest killed in Warehouse Fire

The American writer of this blog comes to you from Charleston, South Carolina (me).

 

Last night, our fine city suffered a tragedy. Nine firefighters were killed in a massive furniture store fire doing what they do best- disregarding their personal safety to save other lives. Well, they gave their lives for others, and we should pray for their families and loved ones.

 http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/19/charleston.fire/index.html

Hurry up and bid on Dubya’s watch stolen from Albania!

George Bush’s watch was lost/stolen in Albania.  Never fear!!!! You can own a piece of history by making your bid on eBay today!

Now you see it:

Now you don’t…

Pictures stolen from news.com.au just like Bush’s watch was stolen.

Jet Blue has integrated Google Maps into Flight Status

This is pretty cool. Jet Blue has integrated Google Maps into flight status. If your family member is coming to visit you, just go to Jet Blue’s site (flight status), put in your loved one’s flight number or departure and destination cities, and click view map (if the the flight is currently in flight.) Below is an example of a flight between JFK and SAN (New York JFK and San Diego)