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Travel
What’s Wrong With Hampton
May 17th
What’s Wrong With Hampton, a photo by BelchSpeak on Flickr.
Seriously? Who duct tapes a telephone pole? This is just one more piece of evidence that the city of Hampton is in a chronic state of entropy and disrepair. That, and the public works department are hilariously redneck.
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Loading ...Awesome Women’s Service
May 3rd
Awesome Women’s Service, a photo by BelchSpeak on Flickr.
Feel like eating out? Or did you bring your lunch box?
Is this the most awesome sign for a women’s spa or what?
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Downtown Boise Directory
May 3rd
Downtown Boise Directory, a photo by BelchSpeak on Flickr.
This is an awesome mural in downtown Boise showing the local directory of businesses at a prominent downtown intersection. If you look closely, you can see this is painted over brick and can understand that this painted directory is a couple of dozen yards long.
I used the iPhone App of Genius Scan to photograph it and true-up the trapezoid to create what looks like to be a straight-on picture when I was originally at a 45 degree angle, and level with the bottom of the sign.
And yeah, I’ve hit most of these bars by now. And the Reef Restaurant, like most in Boise, is simply top notch.
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Idaho Has Good Wine- Snake River Winery
May 1st
It has been a while since I wrote about visiting a winery, and honestly, I havent had the chance to visit the Snake River Winery in Idaho, but they have a tasting room in downtown Boise with friendly staff and free tastings. You know, once upon a time you could get free tastings at Virginia wineries, but that is becoming very rare. And rarest of all when you encounter free tastings for wines that are this good.
The Snake River Winery has a huge selection of wines, and it seems that it would be hard to do a lot of different wines well. But Snake River manages it okay. Their Chardonnays are good, and their Merlots are good too, but neither are spectacular. Wonderful wines for the prices, however. But they have 21 blends or bottles to choose from. I only had the chance to tast 5 of the wines.
I settled on the Zweigelt, an Austrian grape that seems to grow quite well in the higher elevations of Idaho. It is a dry wine, but very light bodied with soft tannins, and it is quite drinkable alone or paired with- in my case- Idaho Barbecue Spareribs. Absolutely delicious!
The vintner at the tasting room told me that Snake River sells a Spanish grape, the Barbera. The last time I had one of those, I was in Australia. He mentioned that the gift shop at the Boise airport still has a few bottles of the Barbera and I’m planning on taking that one home with me as I fly out.
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Key West Bed Races 2012
Apr 30th
Just when I think I’m up on my Key West culture and lifestyle, here come the bed races. The cops plow the road leading racers down Duval Street in their own makeshift beds, pushed by runners in various types of costumery.
Funny, they were racing right past a boutique where I purchased this fine chili-pepper chicken.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Lincoln in Boise
Apr 30th
Lincoln in Boise Capitol, a photo by BelchSpeak on Flickr.
Boise is a great and beautiful town, and its residents are justifiably proud of their little city. I was snapping photos outside of the Idaho State Capitol and noticed this monument to Lincoln who brought Idaho into the Union as a Territory.
The plaque below is on the side of the pedestal.
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Boise Has the Most GoldenTee Coverage
Apr 29th
I had thought that Wichita had a lot of Golden Tee Golf machines. Nay nay. Its Boise. I will be looking forward to hitting the GTG links over the next week while I’m at Boise.
A bit about Boise- so far its a lovely town. A bit disappointed that they didn’t give me a free bag of potatoes when I deplaned. I should speak to someone about that.
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TSA Agents Are Retards- Threaten to Shut Down all Airport Traffic Over 4 YO Hugging Grandmother
Apr 24th
The key to risk management is being able to accurately identify what is a real risk and what is not. This is why TSA continues to fail to stop any terror attacks and why they waste billions and billions of dollars on security theater. In the latest instance, at tiny airport Wichita, a little four year old girl went backwards through the screening check to hug her grandmother. TSA agents, being totally retarded to a man, claimed Granny had passed a gun to the little girl and threatened to shut down the airport because tiny Isabella was now public enemy number one.
From the DailyMail here:
Isabella then, according to her mother, ‘excitedly ran over to give her grandmother a hug, as children often do. They made very brief contact, no longer than a few seconds.’
The young girl was immediately detained by security agents, who apparently shouted at her that she would have to be frisked too, and refused to let her mother explain what has happening.
Ms Brademeyer wrote: ‘It was implied, several times, that my mother, in their brief two-second embrace, had passed a handgun to my daughter.’In her terror, Isabella tried to run away rather than face a full body pat-down, which unsurprisingly enraged the TSA officers further.
One officer even told the girl’s mother that the airport would have to be shut down and every flight cancelled if the four-year-old did not co-operate.
They also apparently described the little girl as a ‘high security threat’.
As Isabella was taken into a side room for a pat-down, accompanied by her mother, she could not stop crying and refused to let the agents touch her.
An officer repeatedly said she had ‘seen a gun in a teddy bear’ in the past, in an apparent attempt to justify the situation.
Ms Brademeyer continued: ‘The TSO loomed over my daughter, with an angry grimace on her face, and ordered her to stop crying.
‘When my scared child could not do so, two TSOs called for backup saying, “The suspect is not cooperating.” The suspect, of course, being a frightened child. They treated my daughter no better than if she had been a terrorist.’Isabella continued to cry, and officers said the family would have to leave the airport as the TSA was unable to frisk the four-year-old.
When a manager was called, he decided that the distraught Isabella could be checked alongside her mother, and let the family pass through security at last.
If TSA agents cannot determine what is and is not a risk, then the entire purpose of their existence is a sham. And I’ve seen the handgun in a teddy bar too. Its on a poster in the TSA’s training room.
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I Like My Ketchup-Covered Crazy KeyWest Homeless Guy With a Side of French Fries
Apr 16th
Heh, this blog post title is longer than the story I can quote. But there are indeed a lot of crazy homeless lunatics roaming Old Town Key West. They are usually pretty harmless, but if you get ketchup on one, watch out!
From KeyNews.com here:
The island just isn’t what it used to be.
A man who was covered in ketchup, sprawled in the middle of an Old Town street and screaming profanities about tourists ruining his town was arrested early Wednesday.
The 42-year-old homeless man was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and misdemeanor resisting arrest.
Should have covered him in hot sauce from Peppers of Key West!
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Reason Teases DC Metro Over Busted Escalators
Apr 14th
As previously noted, the DC Metro employees are 97% black, union operated, and nothing seems to work correctly. Metro used to hire outside contractors to keep the escalators running but thought they could do it themselves cheaper and better. Shows what they know.
From Breitbart here:
Metro, the sprawling 106-mile rapid transit system that serves 3.4 million D.C.-area residents, is notorious for a lot of things, but nothing so much as the squeaky disrepair of its 588 escalators. On any given day, about one out of eight moving stairs are out of service. Yet Metro’s escalator and elevator maintenance division has a $22.5 million operating budget and 214 staffers, which works out to about one employee for every four escalators and elevators systemwide. In 1992, Metro got rid of the private contractors that repaired and maintained the system and started hiring and training its own escalator mechanics. The rationale was that government employees would do a better job for less money.
I’m so happy I don’t have to use the Metro for a commute.
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TSA Agents Will Steal Your iPads
Apr 14th
Meet Clayton Dovel. He was a TSA agent that was screening checked luggage. When he found iPads in them, he stole them. Looks like he didn’t get a chance to reset one of them to factory default before the onboard tracking program led police to his home.
From the DailyMail here:
A baggage handler has been charged with theft by a public servant after he stole tablet computers from the luggage he was tasked with checking for security threats.
Clayton Keith Dovel, 36, of Bedford, Texas, was busted in February after he was found to have eight iPads believed to have been stolen from passengers.
Dovel worked in a ‘resolution room’ at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, where checked bags are examined before they’re placed on a flight. He was suspended from his position as a TSA agent.
Police were led right to Dovel’s home in Bedford by one of the theft victims, who was able to track his stolen device.
The TSA has still yet to catch a terrorist. But they steal iPads.
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Even the GSA Interns Had Luxury Trips
Apr 13th
Being an intern is equivalent to being a modern day slave for the government. You are either working for free or damn near nothing, performing duties that regular salaried government employees are too lazy to do. And while it is nice that the interns get treated nicely, a week’s vacation in Palm Springs on the taxpayer’s dime is taking things way too far.
From the AP here:
Congressional interns often work out of storage areas or even in hallways, but the General Services Administration interns fared much better.
About 120 interns and 20 GSA executives attended a five-day conference for the interns in May 2010 at a Palm Springs, Calif., resort, according to information provided by the GSA inspector general to a House committee.
The executives used one of their tricks to get around a $71 daily expense allowance, by concocting an awards ceremony that included light refreshments, or finger food.
“And I estimated out of my mind that they spent $100 a person on finger food, and nobody had to deduct it off of their voucher,” the employee said.“GSA has been spreading the taxpayers’ wealth, providing luxurious junkets not only for high-level executives but for its interns as well,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the Transportation committee.
“Interns in congressional offices often work out of small storage areas or spaces cleared out in a hallway – they do not get sent to resorts and spas for a week on the taxpayers’ dime.”
Government bureaucrats who deliberately waste taxpayer money are more evil than TSA agents.
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TSA Agent in Craigslist Orgy
Mar 29th
So what do TSA agents do when they get bored groping people all day long? They go to Craigslist orgies at night.
From WTOP here:
A former Transportation Security Administration employee is facing prostitution charges after police busted a sex operation in an area hotel.
Bryant Livingston, 39, of Manassas is facing five counts of prostitution-related charges.
After a manager called 911, police found naked women in a Silver Spring hotel Feb. 15, along with men in various stages of undress.
Livingston was seen escorting men and women out of the hotel room, police said.
One man told police he paid $100 for a sex act and he found out about the “party” on Craigslist. Livingston was a floor manager at Dulles International Airport.
A spokesman with the TSA confirmed Livingston is no longer employed by the TSA.
Livingston pleaded guilty to a second degree assault charge in 1999.
So what is the Venn Diagram of TSA agents and Prostitutes? Glad you asked.
Fox News reports that Livingston was arrested while on duty at Dulles! I would have cheered loudly if I was there to see that.
Bryant Jermaine Livingston, 39, was arrested while on the job as a supervisor of TSA agents at Dulles International Airport.
Here’s his photo:
Why is TSA hiring anyone with an assault record to perform patdowns on Americans? Elsewhere in the news, two TSA agents partied down and were shooting guns out of a hotel window in South Beach.
Thanks to Mary for the tip!
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Crappy Metro Service Explained
Mar 27th
Washington DC’s Metro system is chronically broken. The trains are dingy, mechanically unsound, and the escalators never seem to work. Ticket and parking prices are outrageous, and the commute in or out via the Metro often seems more inconvenient than a viable alternative to driving. Now we know why-
From the WashTimes here:
Ninety-seven percent of the bus and train operators at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority are black, with only six white women out of more than 3,000 drivers, according to Metro documents — a lack of diversity at one of the region’s largest employers that has led to an acknowledgment of failure in affirmative-action documents and spawned a series of lawsuits.
The homogeneity, interviews with dozens of current and former Metro workers indicated, is a proxy to a clubby culture of favoritism in which merit has little to do with promotions, and accountability, such as noting safety violations, is a career death knell. In typical examples, court and Metro records show, a black man who spent eight years in prison for dealing PCP was promoted to a high-level management position soon after his release, and whites in the same positions as blacks with far less seniority are inexplicably paid less.
“When the accident happened in 2009, I called a supervisor and said, ‘Is this the one we all dreaded?’ The way workers do their jobs, we all knew it was a matter of time. … The inept get promoted, and the capable get buried. Smart people were put in the corner, ostracized and given nothing to do,” said Christine Townsend, who sued Metro for discrimination and won.
Ms. Townsend had a college degree and a decade of experience as a schoolteacher when she was passed over for a training job in favor of a man who had taken some community college courses and, it turned out, could barely write a sentence.
Also rising rapidly to senior supervisor was Robbie O. McGee, who spent eight years in federal prison for felony distribution of PCP while on probation for another crime. He received five pay increases at Metro in two years.
Go read the whole thing. The Metro is funded by the Federal, Virginia and Maryland Governments and it is rotting with nepotism, mismanagement, and favoritism over qualified managment.
Thanks to @jtLOL
Metro derailed by culture of complacence, incompetence, lack of diversity – Washington Times: wtim.es/HeGQKG via @washtimes
— ‘Jim’ ‘Treacher’ (@jtLOL) March 27, 2012
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Metro to Install Suicide Booths
Mar 21st
A fifth person since January has suicided themselves under a DC Metro Train, snarling the commute for thousands of Metro riders. The situation has become intolerable for WMATA so they are going to make it easier and more convenient to purchase a farecard and die on their system. They are installing “Suicide Booths.” This is a technology whose time has come.
From WashExaminer here:
A man was killed Monday morning in the latest suicide attempt on the transit system.
The man, an adult, jumped into the path of the Red Line train at White Flint around 10:15 a.m. He died under the train.
Metro closed down the station briefly but reopened it shortly after 11 a.m., though trains continued to share a single track. Delays occurred along the Red Line.
The man was the fifth person struck by a Metro train in a suicide attempt so far this year.
What if all of these suicides were because gays haven’t been paying attention to the “It gets better” Youtube video series? Five gay suicides and no one is yet to be charged with a “Bias Crime” like Dharun Ravi?
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(1 votes, average: 6.00 out of 6) Loading ...TSA Agents Are Retards: Swabbing Handicapped Child’s Hands for PipeBomb Residue
Mar 19th
Those Blue-shirted jackboots for the TSA, who have still never prevented a single terrorist plot, detain a family so they can swab a three real old cripple boy’s hands for explosives residue. Apparently these goons are too stupid to understand that tiny crippled children aren’t even potty trained, much less trained at assembling pipe bombs.
How much longer are we going to pay grown people a good salary to harass travelers? The TSA is a massive budget drain and they have never, and never will, accomplish anything.
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...TSA Lampooned on SouthPark
Mar 15th
Yep, this is the TSA I know and loathe and have to deal with on a semi-monthly basis when I travel for work. In this week’s SouthPark, Craig’s mom dies when falling in the toilet without checking to see if the seat was down. So the Toilet Safety Administration is born requiring seatbelts, strip searches and asshole inspection by huge fat black women with little to no education. Just like in real life!
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(No Ratings Yet. Rate It!) Loading ...Enigma Machine at RSA Conference
Feb 29th
Crypto, a photo by BelchSpeak on Flickr.
I got to get a close look at the German Enigma machine at a booth at the RSA Conference. Fantastic crypto device! Of course it was ultimately cracked by some nerds at Bletchley Park.
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(1 votes, average: 6.00 out of 6) Loading ...Dock of the Bay
Feb 29th
Dock of the Bay, a photo by BelchSpeak on Flickr.
Taking a break from the noise of the RSA Conference floor, so I headed to the old Ferry Building where I had a fabulous Boccalone Meat Cone. I was also able to take a few touristy-type shots, with this one showing Pier 14 and the bridge to Oakland in the background.
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Power of Positive Tweeting
Feb 29th
I’ve been at the RSA Conference this week out in San Francisco. And yes, there are hobos and smelly homeless people everywhere shaking their paper cups at me. But since I’ve been here I decided to tweet that I’ve been winning prizes at the vendor booths, with each prize becoming progressively better and better than the last, beginning with winning a pair of free movie tickets. Read the tweets from the bottom up.
And while I’ve been having fun with that, the most amazing thing happened. I really did win something, much to the chagrin to my friends.
Freakin’ hilarious! Haven’t had much chance to play with the new laptop yet but I’m still stunned that I really won a great prize.
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