Never, have I ever intended to write an article solely about a Florida Gator player, much less Tim Tebow, but after reading a comment on huffingtonpost.com (link found here ) I felt inspired to put my two cents in. Normally I would just throw in my reply to their comment, but I want to be sure that everyone sees in a more up front manner what I think about the situation. The first thing I’m going to address is the Bible verse on Tebow’s black eye. It’s just the book and verse number, it’s not like he’s reciting the verse to you. You actually have to go pick up a Bible and flip to that page to even see what it says. It’s not being forced on you, stop wining. Now let us move on to the main topic.

 Machiventa68 says:

“When Tebow started crying at the very end of the game against Alabama, I was dismayed by his emotional immaturity. Tebow is one of the most famous college athletes of all time, but his lack of self-control was infantile. Alabama dominated Florida from the first play of the game and outplayed them for all four quarters. Tebow should have understood he was going down to defeat long before he started sobbing on the bench. Losing gracefully is part of being a first class athlete.”

I agree with this person on one aspect of this quote; that Alabama dominated Florida from the first play of the game and outplayed them for all four quarters, other than that I find that this person has no experience with playing in a sport where you’re limited by time. There was no doubt in my mind that Tebow was a world-class athlete and after his words at the end of the game, he only confirmed what I already knew was true. Tim Tebow plays for a team that everyone in the nation knew was capable of repeating a National Title. As a senior you have no greater wish in athletics than grasp this title. This is considered the ultimate way to go out. Tebow, being the man that he is, felt it was his responsibility to get the Gators to that game. The SEC Championship block killed his hopes and dreams while also possibly making him feel like he let down not only his team but all the Florida fans as well. I know if I were in his place, and all that pressure was on my shoulders, I would come to tears as well. All Tebow did was show emotion. He was saddened by not only the loss of a single game, but the true end of his season (He has a bowl game left but it will not be remembered in a week barring something amazing/horrid happening). If he had been bawling his eyes out and sobbing like an infant, I would be with everyone making fun of him, but he did not. Only a few tears rolled down his cheeks showing how emotional the game really was to him. Sure people tell jokes, and some are funny, some are horrible, but deep down, everyone repeating these knows deep down the real reasoning and has some sort of respect for that. For those who criticize him and call it an act of infancy, please step back and look at how little class you have before you begin to say something about someone with so much more class yourself.

The ex-Bank of America ‘customer advocate’ got tired of saying no to the people she was supposed to help when they fell behind on their payments….Ms. Ramos, who lives in Fairburn, Ga…started to deal with trouble she had from doing her job by ……” I stopped denying people,” said Ramos. “I helped people get on programs that they didn’t necessarily qualify for but who definitely needed the help.”

Now Ramos admits she didn’t follow all the companies rules…and she so far isn’t mad at them (she’s mad at the credit card system)…but she did do a YouTube video and uploaded it on November 27th, two days after she lost her job……

This young lady after hearing people drowning in debt everyday tried to help….And yes she didn’t follow the company’s line…and yes they let her go…..But we can all understand why she did what she did…..

I hope someone hires her to help people somewhere…..

Bank of America didn’t……..

Not Sara Palin, she’s the one with the glasses……..who is the other mystery lady in red?.…..

Hint: She’s married to a former Federal Reseve Chairman……

Note …Please go to the home section of the site for the quiz picture…..the right picture has Palin, a cop, and the mystery lady in center…..

This site is full of propaganda, and is too conglomerated of a mess for me to stare at and figure out what blogs/articles I want to read. Too many images/ topics, and no it’s not because I can’t handle this much information. It’s more a long the lines of we are being bombarded with tons of information and it is more important too never forget that everyone that writes has a bias and agenda. So great job at getting all these people to your site, but i’m sorry that most of them are probably brainwashed and wouldn’t actually be able to hold “real” conversations and “debate” in real life. Thnks bye.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Dall’ Huffingtonpost:

techcrunch.com:
Ever since last summer, Twitter’s growth in the U.S. has been stalling. But in October, the number of people who visited Twitter.com from the U.S. actually declined for the first time by 8 percent month-over-month. Estimates released today by comScore put Twitter’s domestic unique visitors at 19.2 million, down from 20.9 million in September.
Read the whole story: techcrunch.com

I like to think I’ve changed in many ways as the years pass. This is one way that I see the difference. I was once the guy that was driven purely by profit. Money, Money, Money!!! But I’ve since become involved in a life of service and dedicated myself to the non-profit sector. It’s a way to give back and impact the lives of many and I love to help people. The HUFFINGTONPOST did an article this morning on the “ultimate game changers” in MEDIA & PHILANTHROPY. There are links to the related topics simply click on either media or philanthropy to go to the respective list of “game changers.”

Below are links to a list of “Ultimate Game Changers” in:

PHILANTHROPY

STYLE

ENTERTAINTMENT

POLITICS

GREEN

MEDIA

SPORTS

BUSINESS

3

Arianna, come on!
I mean, you can’t be serious that Joe Biden should “resign”. The man hasn’t been in office a year, and before you judge a book by it’s cover, we seem to remember (newsflash) you were a Newt Gingrich Supporter!

Remember? Unless someone else said “Newt Gingrich can be the ideal standard-bearer for the Republican Party at this moment”,

UPDATE: (6:15 EST)  @CNN “Colorado Sheriff says boy was found in box in garage attic.”

UPDATE: (5:28 EST) Officials saying the basket was seen seen falling! No reports as to whether or not boy was inside.

UPDATE: (4:55 EST) @amyCNN “Reports: basket attached to the balloon is missing.”

If you visit Twitter right now, you’ll see #SaveBalloonBoy trending. Don’t know the story? Well here’s a quick summary:

Reportedly, six year old Falcon Heene entered his father’s homemade aircraft in Colorado and let it loose, taking authorities two and a half hours to chase it down. The mylar aircraft, over 20 feet wide and filled with helium, eventually brought itself to a halt in an open corn field. From there authorities discovered that there was no child inside.

So where is Falcon? Was he really in the balloon to being with? Some are saying this is a publicity stunt planned by his risk-taking family, who also happened to be featured on ABC’s Wife Swap. Or perhaps we should look at Falcon’s 8 year old brother, who reported seeing Falcon enter the aircraft. Was he being truthful?

Regardless, I have to wonder why the parents seem to be so clueless as to where their son is.

Visit the Huffington Post story for more details.

Photo from CNN.com

Photo from CNN.com

I read this op-ed piece on Huffingtonpost, and I think that the guy who writes it makes some really valid points about the whole deal. I especially like how he addresses the many arguments and concerns surrounding health care reform. Of course there is the obligatory anecdotes about his experience with American health care and his wife’s family’s experience with Italian health care, but so what? Just because it is anecdotal does not make it untrue, and living in the Czech Republic, I have first hand experience of how state sponsored (subsidized) health care works, and you know what? it’s not too shabby.

When I was mugged and had to go to the emergency room (here in the CZ) I was without insurance. This was only because I had not yet received full time work visa and my traveler’s insurance had expired. At the ER they asked me if I was insured. I told them no. They then asked me if I was employed in the CZ. I told them yes, but that I was not quite fully legal because of the pending visa. They treated me anyway, giving me an x-ray and charging me 90kc for the copay trip to the emergency room (that’s about 4.5o US dollars at the time). They then told me to return to the hospital on Monday (the incident happened late Saturday night/early morning) for a follow up exam. They wanted to make sure that no serious damage (aside from the broken nose) had been done.

So on Monday I went to see a general practitioner at the hospital because I did not have a private (clinic) doctor of my own. They treated me, found that there had been no permanent damage done, but wanted me to come back in a few days just so that they could really be sure that there was no jaw/cranial damage.

Then they asked me to pay for my visit. This time it was a little more than the 90kc I had been charged at the ER. In fact it was something like 1500kc, which was about 75 US dollars. This price included the uninsured trip to the ER that I had taken a few days earlier. I told them that I was not able to pay because I had not yet received my paycheck. They told me that was fine, but that I needed to pay as soon as possible.

A few days later I returned to the hospital for my second check up. Again, nothing was wrong, and again they asked me to pay. This time the total bill was around 1800kc (closing in on 100 US dollars). Again, I told them that I couldn’t pay, but I would as soon as I got paid. They agreed, but were unhappy, and told me that I could no longer receive treatment at that hospital until I paid my bill. I thanked them and went on my way. When I did get paid a few days later, I went ot the hospital and paid what I owed. Their response was: good, now you can get treatment here again.

I now have health insurance provided by the government (I pay taxes for it, of course) and thankfully have not had to use it. It is nice to know that it is there when and if I need it though. I will say that if I could speak the language I would use it more. It is not that I like going to the doctor, but it is a good thing to do. It has been a while since I had a check up, and while I think everything is running smoothly with my body, it would be nice to know for sure. Oh, and dental insurance is included in my health care as well, and considering I haven’t been to the dentist in forever this is something I would (and should) take advantage of. But again, I kind of need to know the language for that. I mean, I could bring a friend along, but the doctor (and the dentist to a lesser extent) are private things that I really don’t want to share with anyone, which would be unavoidable if I had a translator there with me (especially one who happened to be a friend of mine).

My point here is that I paid about 100 U.S. dollars for a trip to the Emergency Room, and two follow up trips to the hospital, and that was when I was uninsured. I do not know how much it would have been if I’d had insurance, but it is a safe bet to say that it would have been much much much cheaper.

So, like Evan Handler, I am having a difficult time understanding why America cannot have a government option (subsidy) when it comes to health care. It just doesn’t make sense to me, especially considering that the current system is broken and will continue to get worse as time goes by if nothing is done to fix it.

A recently leaked threesome sex tape, involving Grey’s Anatomy’s “McSteamy” Eric Dane and wife Rebecca Gayheart, has been circulating around the internet. And we all know that controversial stuff like these are often taken advantage of and used to distribute malware using techniques such as social engineering and SEO (search-engine optimization). Users of one particular website have been spotted to be talking about the sex tape. There was no video on the site itself so people wanting to see the video might be enticed to clicking the links posted by fraudulent users and are tricked into downloading and installing malware on their computers.

There’s one such post suggesting we go to hentaiplace.org to watch the leaked video:

Here the malware poses as a fake video codec Divxcoder that users need to install in order to watch the video.
hxxp://hentaiplace.org/play.php?id=Eric_Dane_and_Rebecca_Gayheart_sex_tape

Following the download link hxxp://hentaiplace.org/promo.php, we are redirected to hxxp://fiopolosa.com/download/7933547766773d3dd846130c20090815/FlashCodecPlugin.exe

The malware presents the user with a License Agreement while doing its dubious deeds in the background. And you don’t even need to agree to the License Agreent to install the malware!

The malware changes the affected computer’s DNS settings to use the following IP Addresses as DNS servers:
85.255.112.80
85.255.112.168

This means that the affected computer’s will have to contact these IPs for name resolution and this gives the bad guys a really good opportunity to redirect users to fake websites and steal passwords, login details and other confidential information.

PCTools Spyware Doctor detects the malware as Trojan.DNS_Changer.

This malware employs Rootkit.TDSS and Trojan.TDSServ in order to hide its presence on the infected machine.

I’m sure this happens to her in real life, b/c the internets have been very very cruel to Ms. Raymond. All masculinity aside, I might be the only person in the digital world who doesn’t think she’s unattractive. There are worse lookng people abound.

Anywho, she wrote a piece for the Huffington Post discussing the backhanded compliment phenomenon us darkies are subjected to, & I can dig it.

Image source: Rachelzoe.com

Rachelzoe.com, which launches today and was developed by OperaNewMedia.com, will feature one new apparel, accessory or beauty item Monday through Friday that Zoe has dubbed a must-have.

The entry will be followed by a link to buy the item online or, if it’s expensive, a “Parallel Universe” piece that is similar but less expensive. “I’m doing this because I’ve recently come to understand the importance of social media and I’ve become a little obsessed with it. I get addicted answering the questions that people ask me every day,” said Zoe, whose site subscribers (it’s free) also will get a daily “Zoe Report” e-mail highlighting more trends.[Huffingtonpost]

So, my wireless phone plan with Verizon ends tomorrow and I’m planning to buy an iPhone tomorrow night. Yea!

I’ve desperately wanted to upgrade from my two-year old KRAZR phone to something with more functionality. I liked my boyfriend’s iPhone but didn’t plan to get one since they’re exclusively with AT&T and I didn’t want to switch carriers. Then Verizon screwed up my text messaging for two weeks which resulted in my discovering just how extremely inept their customer service team is. Because of that, I decided to decree 07/24/09 “Screw You Verizon, Hello iPhone Day.”

The biggest selling point of the iPhone is of course, all the apps that are available. At last check, I think were about a billion apps out there. The possibilities are growing each day, and the potential to help us communicate, organize, or just relax and enjoy life is truly staggering.

Of course, some stupid stuff has been created too.

This was the subject of a recent posting on TheHuffingtonPost.com. In an online poll titled “10 Inappropriate iPhone Apps”, they showcased 10 apps and asked readers to rank each one on a scale from “Kind of Amusing” to “Inappropriate”. Some of the apps on the poll were: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, which shows photos of scantily clad ladies; Cannabis, a map of places that sell medical marijuana; Running with Scissors, which simply puts a pair of scissors onscreen; and, ranking #1 so far in the poll – iFart, which makes farting sounds.

If the HuffingtonPost was trying to point out that there are some seriously ridiculous iPhone apps, then I’d say they succeeded.

But inappropriate?  No.

These are not apps that come pre-loaded onto the phone. It’s not like some mother has to be concerned about buying an iPhone for their child, turning it on, and little Billy or Susie being immediately accosted by a Sports Illustrated model covered only in body paint.  (Cue Dad, who immediately confiscates the phone and authoritatively announces that he’s returning to the store and having a talk with that manager. Which of course means that Dad not return to the store and will instead secretly keep the phone for himself. No man would ever return a device that allows him to masturbate to SI models AND hear fart sounds whenever he wants.)

The point is, these apps can only be obtained by taking the time to manually download them to your phone. You can’t deem something inappropriate if the only way you have access to it is to specifically take steps to get it.

Are there apps that are vulgar? Insensitive? Upsetting? Yes. I still can’t believe some lunkhead at Apple okayed the “Shake the Baby” app. Even I, a non-parent who has zero patience for crying children and thinks spanking has gotten a seriously bad rap, understands the damage that shaken baby syndrome can cause. Making a joke out of child abuse is NOT cool.

I wouldn’t support any app that displayed or even remotely condoned mistreatment of animals. Same with any app that involved mistreatment of people based solely on gender, race, religion, sexual preference, etc.

“Kick the Cat.” “Beat the Wife.” “Dress Up the Queer.” “Fire Bomb the Mosque.”

Extremely irresponsible apps?
Yes

Anyone who would think they were cool apps?
Ignorant.

Inappropriate apps?
No

One last thing: if you are a person who believes the Dad would absolutely return the phone, do not under any circumstances put the “Running with Scissors” app on your iPhone. You might hurt yourself.

Yes, David Gregory has his own entry in the Dickopedia, and yes he deserves it.

This morning Mr. Gregory, who is driving the great Tim Russert’s chair right into the ground with his poor imitation, asked Obama political advisor David Axlerod about the question posed to the President by the Huffington Post’s Nico Pitney during his steller coverage live-blogging the events in Iran since before the election.

Gregory asked Axlerod if the White House had coordinated a question with a reporter when the President specifically seemed to ask Pitney about questions from Iranians.  Gregory’s contention was that if the Bush adminstration had ever coordinated questioning with a reporter in the White House Press corps they would have been crucified.

Gregory should know, he was one of the White House Press Corps who let President George W. Bush get away with murder (sometimes literally), during his tenure there as one of the “journalists” who are supposed to be watching the government for us.

If Gregory was as informed as Russert had been he would have seen Pitney’s positively peerless coverage, and known that Pitney declared his intention of asking the President a question/ questions from an Iranian or Iranians he’d been in open communication with during his coverage.

David Gregory is a joke, as a journalist.  Chuck Todd needs to be pulled off the White House Press corp and given the Meet The Press job.

Gregory could be sent back to the White House.  If that happens, a tip for Obama… just give the guy a funny nickname and he’ll let you do whatever you want.