In Today's News

French President Chirac has officially raised the French terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide".

There are only two higher levels in France - "Surrender" and "Collaborate".

The rise was precipitated by a recent fire which destroyed France's white flag factory - effectively crippling their military.

- Reuters

Best Line Heard On TV Today

"You want to play 'Army'?"
"How do you play that?"
"I salute and you blow the hell out of me."

-- Tripping The Rift, Season 2, Episode 1: Cool Whip

Damn This Weather!

It was nice this morning... Only about 85F. Around lunchtime it was warm... About 91F. This afternoon it was hot... Over 100F. And I had the top down on the car the whole time.

However, it went from nice to torrential downpour in just the past 10 minutes.

I can't wait to see the thunder & lightning that is generated this evening but the hot air, the humidity and the free electrons running around. Come to think of it, I should probably turn off my computer... Nah...

That's just paranoid. I mean it's not like I'm going to lose power in the middle of this post, right? That'd be just si

The Flip Side of Comic Book Geeks

Um... I'm just not deperate enough to attend Comic-Con to pick up on the ladies... On the plus side, there is a mention for the new Transformers movie.

And in other news... There was an announcement today that there will be a Voltron movie.

Yes, I'm afraid it's true. Hell has frozen over and the world is coming to an end.

From The Depths Of The 80s

Hahaha!! Oh man... This has got to embarrassing...

Convertible Weather

Oh wow... I've been having a great time rolling around with the top down, the tunes cranked and enjoying the sunshine.

This weekend, I put 100 miles on my car just running around and enjoying myself.

It's not as good as having a motorcycle but I expect to have that issue resolved shortly.

Important Health News

Dark chocolate may have positive health benefits.

Breaking News

As it approaches the US-Mexico border, the ACLU has declared hurricane Emily a Minuteman conspirator trying to prevent Mexican citizens from gaining (illegal) entry to the United States.

Today's Joke

Bravery is arriving at home late after a boys' night out, being confronted by your wife with a broom and having the guts to ask:

Are you still cleaning or are you flying somewhere?

-- Bob Rivers

Oh, My Head...

One of these days (hopefully soon), I'm going to stop binge drinking.

Seriously.

Well, It's Not As Bad As Hoped

Tonight, I bought a car. Nothing new, fancy or exciting.

Heck, who am I kidding?!? I've always wanted a Chrysler Sebring Convertible and now I've got one! :-)

Now, gas prices are going to be a bit of a shock versus what I'm used to in the old Civic but having driven home from Westminster, MD with the top down, I'm absolutely ecstatic. It's not brand new but it's in really good shape for a 2001 with only 36,000 miles on it. Did I mention that I saved $10,000 by purchasing it slightly used?

My neighbor seems to think that it was a silly purchase decision considering the problems I've had with the Civic... And my house... And well, everything else. But screw it. I wanted it, life's too short and I wanted to buy something that I could enjoy on a regular basis. So, I've got a slick, attractive car and now I just need to hurry up and find a place to move to with a garage.

On The Futility Of Being

There are times I just can't stand it all...

Times when I feel that my life is worthless and wonder what I've done to contribute to humanity.

Times that the only things I can see as being worthwhile are the things that I haven't done anything with.

If I sound depressed, it's because I am definitely feeling a little out of sorts. What's the point of being a good person, successful and a productive member of society if I can't share it with anybody?

A good friend was taken away from me about a year ago. She made the cross-country move a lot less painful and helped me with adjusting to everything "Bawlmer".

Since then, I almost feel like I've been adrift. Yes, I have friends but none quite as special as her.

So, as I sit here pondering over all of the thoughts and images running through my head, I am happy for the people out there who are happy, in love and otherwise satisfied with what fate has seen fit to give them.

Me? I'm still working to find out what it is that I'm supposed to do to move on to the next step of my development.

Until then, I guess I'll have another beer and revel in the fact that I can at least sing karaoke better than some people!

Another Sign of Armageddon?

We report, you decide.

And I Thought That I Had An Ego...

This guy's completely out of touch with reality.

London Hit... What Next?

Unless you've been sleeping under a rock, you've probably heard about the bombs rocking the London Underground earlier today.

What people (including President Bush) don't seem to understand is that our enemy is an ideology. not a people, country or faction.

They don't answer to shareholders, they don't have quarterly reviews and they don't have TPS reports.

Let's consider what their grievances are:
#1: Remove US military presence from Middle East and Muslim holy sites.
#2: Leave them alone to run their contries as they see fit.
#3: US support of Israel
#4: Perceived Israeli militancy and interference

#1: Why not? If Middle Eastern oil is so important to US security, why don't we eliminate our dependence upon it. The technology is available today to make a difference in our country and free our dependence on others within a couple of decades.

#2: Fine. If people want a religious government (*cough* *cough* *Vatican City* *cough* *cough*), let them have it. If people want to kill each other off for ideological or ethnic differences, so be it. Leave your country if you can, just don't come here. We can resurrect the Iron Curtain but this time seal off these countries from the rest of the "civilized" world.

#3: Guilty. Then again, so are most nations in the Western World who were all instrumental in the creation of the Israeli state after World War II.

#4: So you gave up a dry, dusty piece of dirt for a song and then people came and turned it into a viable land that was producing great results. Get over it.

So in conclusion, let's tell the rest of the world to screw off and bring their problems to the UN. Let's focus on the self-improvement of our great nation and become self-suffcient to the point where we do not need to worry about the dwindling nonrenewable sources of fuel and energy.

Recent Events...

Eeew... The heat and humidity have returned with a vengeance. Saturday, Sunday and Monday were all quite nice.

Today, however, was a completely different story. There was a little bit of rain throughout the day which only helped turn a slightly warm and humid day into a friggin' Turkish bath.

So, I need some feedback from my many readers. Given a choice of the following languages, which should I learn?

• Czech
• German
• Hebrew
• Polish
• Russian

I await your responses.

Important Announcement

It's been a while since I've had an opportunity to redo the website. However, I think that it's time that I share with everybody the new direction we're going to be taking here at McKinleys.net. I'm going to use this website as a means to filter the news, analyze editorials and show everybody what the world looks like through my eyes. In light of that revelation, it is my pleasure to unveil the new mission for all of us here at McKinleys.net...

McKinleys.net - Spreading common sense to the masses, one click at a time.

Now With Less Waste!

Hmm... How about that!? I can make blog entries right from my mobile phone.

Where does it all end, I wonder...?