The idiocy of government knows no end. Today marks the restart of Tennessee’s Click It or Ticket program. This program basically allows the police to setup checkpoints to ensure seat belt usage or to pull you over simply for not wearing a seat belt. Even though I wholeheartedly endorse the use of seatbelts, I don’t think it’s the government’s place to legislate against stupidity. This law also allows makes it easier for cops to have a reason to search your vehicle and person. The roadblocks that this program mandates also hinder our ability to move freely from place to place.

I just don’t understand why weraing a seatbelt is a law. If you want to increase your risk of dying in an accident, then that is your prerogative. It’s very similar to the motorcycle helmet laws. Everyone knows it’s dangerous to ride without a helmet but should you really be punished for being stupid enough to do it? I realize that part of the government’s mandate for existence is to protect its citizenry, but since when ddo they need to protect us from our own bad decisions. These decisions only affect the person making them and maybe their families, but that’s the problem. The government intrudes into our lives so often and no one seems to care anymore. Shouldn’t the police be doing something better with their time like investigating the rapes and murders that occur weekly in this town?

The best solution I’ve heard to this program is that they can go ahead and fine the people not wearing the belts, but if you go through a roadblock and you do have a belt on, the police pay you $50. I could see me driving around trying to find all the roadblacks in town. I need the money.

I use the title errata when I’m not feeling very creative. That way I don’t have to push myself to think up a title, and I can save my limited energy for higher level activities like breathing, racing fellow employees to the coffee machine before it’s empty, hitting the copy machine, writing sub-standard copy for clients, sending IM’s to Taranis about my naughty parts, and spamming our IRC room with completely useless messages about cosbysweater’s naughty parts.

According to wordtracker.com, these were the top 5 words typed into search engines last week.

1. mp3

2. games

3. hotmail

4. yahoo

5. cars

OK, here’s what I don’t understand. If you know you are looking for hotmail or yahoo, why don’t you just type in hotmail.com or yahoo.com? Why the fuck are you searching for hotmail in a search engine? That reminds me of a client I worked with last year. I do some free-lance web work with non-profit companies. I set up a web site, reg’d the domain, and pushed it all live. A few days later the president of this unnamed company called me saying she could not find their website. I asked her if she was typing the address in correctly, being careful to not spell it wrong. She said yes. So I asked, “what browser are you using?” She answered, “um… yahoo?” I questioned her further to find out what was going on. It turns out she was typing the URL in the yahoo search bar, then expecting the site to just pop up.

Thanks for Flash, everyone who thinks they are slightly funnier than a bowl of warm jello are making their own cartoons. Here is another site to that end. You probably shouldn’t click on it. Waste you’re time elsewhere, by staring at the sun for example.

I just have to bring your attention to Trillian - the ultimate chat program. This program does what Odigo always promised. It allows you to connect to MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and IRC at the same time using it’s clean and skinnable interface. I suggest you try it out. I am online at these names (MSN: sonvolt49, ICQ: 44001972, AIM: sonvolt49, Yahoo: Taranis49, and IRC: irc.dynamix.com:6667 - #spittingllamas). See you there.

Ellen Spertus, a college professor with a doctorate from MIT, was given the title of “Sexist Geek Alive 2001.” Who actually has the authority to bestow this title, I’m not sure.

Plus, I think the judges were drinking at the time they voted. I’ve seen plenty of g33ks that are alot better looking than her. Some days, my shoe looks better than her. Sure, it may be a bad photo, but they could have sent her to Glamour shots, instead of using a Polorid.

The other beauty queen of the moment, Andrea Yates, is being charged with five counts of capitol murder.

This has spawned a somewhat tongue and cheek discussion on our forums about punishment for criminals. I’m against capital punishment, but cases like this make it hard to be. I’m honestly not sure it’s a deterant to anything. If it’s really a deterant, why are more and more people put on death row each year? Hop in the discussion and let us know what you think.

As a side note, as part of Andrea Yates’ punishment they should shave her hair and donate it all to Locks of Love.com. Locks of Love is a charity that provides hairpieces to children under 18 who suffer from medical hair loss and are financially disadvantaged.

Interesting factoid: On this very date in 1982, Mark David Chapman confessed and plead guilty to murder. What is so interesting about that? Chapman is the man who killed John Lennon.

It was a beautiful night. Thunderstorms outside and Purple Rain inside as Prince kicked off his latest tour. The artist formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince is now, just Prince. And, last night, his Royal Badness sang, danced, played organ, guitar, and drums, and, I believe, worked the bar and souvenir stands. So, if you were wondering whether the 43-year-old Prince can still funk and rock, the answer is, “yes.” He can still “Gett Off” and “Go Crazy” with the best of them — all while wearing high-heeled boots.

Veteran bluesman John Lee Hooker and actor Carroll O’Connor both died yesterday. Hooker, known for his gravelly voice and songs like “Boom Boom” and “Boogie Chillen”, died of natural causes. He was 83. O’Connor, famous for his portrayal of Archie Bunker on “All in the Family” and Chief Gillespie on “In the Heat of the Night” died of a heart attack. He was 76.

My stink has stunk for nigh on many moons now. Basically, I need to clean my apartment like old folks need shoes. It is really starting to reek in there. My wife doesn’t seem to notice, or perhaps, she is waiting, like me, for the other person to clean up. I think I saw the dog wearing a gas mask or something.

All this brings me to my favorite website of the day, Mr. Clean. I love these unabashedly corporate websites. There is always some area where they have games and screensavers and Mr. Clean is no exception. I actually did enjoy playing the memory game done in Flash. I only wish they had different backgrounds.

If that wasn’t enough corporate bullshit for you, let’s take a look at the site for what is considered one of the best candybars ever, Snickers. After the horrifying Flash intro (if there was a reason to kill innocent bystanders, Flash intros would be it), we are presented with a typical boring layout. The real shining example of ass is the “video” section where can watch the fucking Snickers commercials. My god, what brainstorming moron thought it would be a good idea to show the commercials for the fucking product on the website. What, I didn’t get enough of their idiocy from my TV, I need to reexperience the pain of a full, swift chop to my nuts again online?!

What this brings me to is why do these products have websites? If I can’t order a carton of Snickers or a jug of Mr. Clean, why do they need a site? Anyone have any answers at all? Not just to this question but to any question about anything? For the love of god, someone respond.

ScreenBobbers.com is now one of my fav website. ScreenBobbers are a new form of screensaver for PC and MAC’s. Some of them may not be suitable for your work computer — depending on where you work that is.

My fav’s:

The Bill Clinton ScreenBobber

N’SYNC ScreenBobbers

Jennifer “huge ass” Lopez

They have about 15 to choose from. Enjoy.

I didn’t think it possible but it seems that Yahoo Serious, that bastion of Australian comedy, actually has a new movie coming out. Our only hope is that it never, ever gets released here in the states. If so, I think we should export Shannon Tweed. She’s burned out. I’d take Shannon Whirry any day as my fave B-movie actress.

A Houston, Texas mother is in custody after 5 children were found dead in her home. Police believe the children, ranging in age from 6 months to 7 years old, were drowned in a bathtub. Dubbya could get another hangin out of this one.

Full Story as it Develops