Merchants of Deception

Here's a cool, and free, book. Click on the link to download it right now! Recently a friend's girlfriend approached me about joining Quixtar. She set up a meeting, with me and her "mentor" or whatever he was styled. Neither of them, of course, copped to the company being Amway, even during the meeting. It's going as "The Team" these days*, and it wasn't until I Googled some of the names in the literature that I found out the skinny.

The ex-president of Amway, Dick DeVos, is running for governor of Michigan. Until I read this book, there was at least a chance that I'd have voted for the guy. I'm all in favor of cults, of course---in my book you get to pick your own form of stupidity. Also, if people want to spend their money, it's theirs to spend, that's what I say. Still, this cult is really fucking stupid. I mean, I read the book and I feel bad for the author, and his wife too. But he had to notice that he was only making $600 a month instead of the $3000 he was supposed to be getting, for SIX YEARS so in a way it's evolution in action, right?

I mean, I don't feel superior---much, anyway, because I joined a few mlms myself, and probably went through much the same process. You get really excited, everyone else is excited, you're going to get off the wheel and make TONS of filthy lucre! You're gonna take baths in all the swag! Honey, tonight we're havin' biscuits! Although, quite frankly once you can't pay the rent, a little light bulb should be lighting up. The slogan, "We make our losses up in volume, and pass the savings on to You!" should be a tipoff. So, it's not just that it's a scam---(though it IS, a stupid cult scam--- "You have the right to remain stupid." Mel Gibson said that, I think, or his attorney did) it's all the stuff about how God wants you to vote republican and all that. Resist alien orders.

Kids, the point is that being up front about your addiction would be more polite. Invite your friends out for sex and drugs, but not Amway. Also, I figured out that Ryan gave out my phone number, and we'll be friends again almost as soon as the casts come off his kneecaps. Jon Baraga, you are avenged.

*Formerly the Team of Destiny, until they got a bad rep on the web.

Now, with comments!
(I finally fixed the code to enable comments, which haven't been on for three years or so.)

At last, the Wall Street Journal has learned what I've been saying all along. However, you have to read until the last three sentences of this editorial to see it:

Without Restraint
Tides of confusion have washed up Mark Foley.

BY DANIEL HENNINGER

Note to the control freak bastards, both Republican and Democrat, who voted to ban internet gambling: You All Suck!

Drawn Together

I saw the first episode recently. It has some clever bits, and might be worth another look. One of the characters who isn't shown (named Captain Girl) dies. At the cemetary, the lead character eulogizes her: "We're giving Captain Girl a Mormon burial. Not because she was one; but because she hated them, and it would make her happy if we buried one."

Which was worth the watch for me, because that's a great line!

Wild and Wacky ALGORE
has joined Big Head Todd and The Monsters?
Claims cigarette smoke "significant contributor to Global Warming"?

Ok, he's off the deep end on this one. Drudge has removed reference to this story from their search function, but here's the URL.

My favorite recently seen bumpersticker:

Republicans For Voldemort

Also, I'd like to see:
Go Democrats!
And Take The Republicans With You!

Something New

There's a new anonymizer available for use with Firefox, called Torpark. It's a free download and may prevent various snooping activities your ISP carries out. What with the nastiest features of the government's wiretapping plans approved by the House, you can expect that your ISP will be required to save your online activity and searches for two years. I don't know how well Torpark will work if the NSA decides to have at it, but it probably won't hurt. Also, it has a good ad blocker (better than the standard Firefox, about as good as Opera) PLUS the program can be placed on your USB drive and used at any public terminal. Torpark slows down your browsing, but not horribly so.