Behold the reasoning with your own eyes!

Thanks, Jenny.

Just in case you needed another reason...

As if any of you needed more convincing after all I've told you and the videos I've shown you here on my blog, I have this new story that will pretty much seal the deal.

I dare you not to support him now.

You pretty much have to.

You have two days.

Some good things can happen on Mondays.

Exciting news from earlier this week. Stephanie is now officially a Stewart. We recently got our official marriage license back so we went and got her name changed. She is now Stephanie Denise Burdette Stewart. And we think that's pretty darn cool.

Counting the ways

You know how earlier I promised to never be a Democrat? Well, now I am giving you permission to shoot me if I ever do.

"What are they up to now?" you may ask. Well, I'm glad you did.

They are trying to censure a private citizen for saying something that they don't like. What's worse, they even took what he said out of context. It wasn't actually bad at all.

Many of you are probably going to have at least some sympathy for the man, or at least until I tell you his name: Rush Limbaugh.

Now, whether or not you agree with or even like the man, you have got to admit that it is very frightening to know that your own Congress, the people (some of) YOU elected to represent you, would be ok with censuring you, a private citizen with free speech rights, for saying something that they don't like. And they accuse Bush of ignoring the Constitution? Anyone else reminded of 1984 and Big Brother? "Newspeak?"

You can read the story here: Ken Salazar says he'd censure Limbaugh

So if they're doing this to a man who supposedly said this about only some of the soldiers, why no action being taken against all the radio hosts and other private citizens, who must number in the multiple thousands, who go so far as calling all of them things like "murderers?"

It's also great knowing that they'd rather waste their time on this than actually get anything important done. But they haven't shown that they like to actually accomplish things. Just look at what Pelosi promised for their first 100 days, and the none of it they accomplished. And remember what the Dems said that they won the Congress for back in '06? To get the troops out of Iraq. How's that goin?

Maybe this is why Congress has a lower approval rating than Bush.

Seriously, someone needs to be censured. And it's not a private citizen.

Game over

It is now official: I have the greatest wife in the history of everything.

Today she went out to get a haircut (which is beautiful, btw) and stopped at the grocery store, and to get us some lunch. When she got home, I saw that she had bought me a six pack of Samuel Adams Octoberfest (!!!) AND got food from City BBQ (!!!!!)

Like I said, game over.

VOTE FOR THIS MAN!!!

He's the guy who brought you such quotable gems as, "I'm a conservative, but I'm not mad at everyone over it," and on how he got so much of the black vote in AK as a Republican, "Simple. I asked them for it." He's the bass player in the band Capitol Offense. And now he's asking you a simple question. It's the title of this first video:

"Want to see the IRS disappear?"

No, he's not a magician. It's former Gov. and current, and possibly the darn nicest, Republican Presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee.

Interested?

Just watch...



Sounds pretty good, wouldn't you say? Just keep watching. It gets better.





And now some words from the guys who wrote the book on this stuff:


So go check out the Fair Tax link on the left there. Go ahead. You know you want to.

They shall indeed. I guess.

Here's that video I told some of you about. Apparently you can put custom songs in Guitar Hero II. Here's a song by Poland's own Behemoth. It's pretty crazy. Enjoy.



And that's another reason whycome black metal is awesome.

I also love the character playing guitar in the game. It is so not his style.

There are also a lot of videos on You Tube of people doing this with other songs, as well as some tutorials on how to do it yourself. Some pretty cool stuff.

Notch

I consider myself to have had several great, or at least very interesting, jobs and duties over the course of my life. I've worked at a dairy. I've been a carny. Even worked a little in the horse racing industry. But as of last night, I have become something else.

A jazz drummer.

And quite unintentionally.

I was working my sound guy job at Rohs Street Cafe last night. A jazz group called Made in Brazil was playing. Really nice guys, and incredible musicians. There were four of them: keyboard player/singer, bassist, saxophonist/flautist, and a percussionist/singer. While setting up, I happened to mention that I was a drummer, and I forget why, but it came up that my set was right in the next room. So they played their first set, which was really cool. Then, during their break, the bassist, Andre, came up and asked if I would like to sit in.

Now, I have absolutely zero real experience in jazz drumming. But, I hadn't really played drums in so long, and any chance is a good one. So I agreed.

I must admit, I was kind of nervous. But it was really fun. And since jazz drumming has much less structure and "rules" than the style I'm used to playing, it almost seemed like it was harder to mess up. But I still wasn't sure about the whole meshing with the band thing. For instance, I don't really what I'm supposed to do when other guys are soloing, like if I'm supposed to hold back a bit or just keep doing my thing, or what. And I think I had a solo, but I just kept doing what I had been doing, since compared to what I usually do for normal beats, it was like soloing.

Maybe that's why I didn't get another solo.

I dunno, but afterwards, the guys said they really liked it, and even invited me to sit in with them again next time they come. I'm going to be out of town that day, but I might be back in time to sit in for at least a while. I hope so, anyway.

Another cool thing was my cousin JE, his daughter, Olivia, and my aunt Edith and her new husband, Hank all stopped in to hang out. That was really cool cos I don't get to see them very often. (You might remember JE as the videographer at our wedding - there may be some pics of him and his kids in my Facebook albums)

Now if I could only find a job that actually wants me to start working for them...

As Good as it Gets

Last night I had one of the most awesome experiences of my life. I was sitting in our office room at our house watching my Ozzy Osbourne Live at Budokan DVD enjoying a Samuel Adams Brown Ale while my wife fed me leftover meat from City BBQ.

This, my friends, is the life.

Announcement:

I love my wife.

More dream stuff

As I was making my dream band for that last entry, I realized that I had several people in mind for each spot, but it depended on what style of music (metal) they were. So here are some more specific Super Groups (as if you care):

Death/Black Metal:
Vocals: Eric Clayton of Saviour Machine (clean) and Peter Espevoll of Extol (grinding)
Guitars: Ihsahn of Emperor, Chuck Schulinder of Death, and Galder of Dimmu Borgir
Bass: Jason Wisdom of Becoming the Archetype
Keyboards: Nathan Van Hala of Saviour Machine
Drums: Gustav Elowson of Crimson Moonlight

Thrash Metal:
Vocals: Luke Easter of Tourniquet
Guitars: Aaron Guerra of Tourniquet, Kurt Bachman of Believer, and Kerry King of Slayer
Bass: Cliff Burton of Metallica
Drums: Ted Kirkpatrick of Tourniquet

Rock/Heavy Metal:
The original Black Sabbath

Barnes had a boffo idea.

Boffo, I tell ya!

I took this idea from Barnes's latest blog entry and made it my own.

Tommy's Worldwide Traveling Adventure (in place of the wrestling thing)
Scotland
England
Germany
Norway
Sweden
Ireland
Iceland
China
Japan
Israel
Egypt
Australia
Alaska
Yellowstone


Tommypalooza (Dream Music Festival)

Black Sabbath
Saviour Machine
Emperor
Tourniquet ca. 1992 or 1997
Crimson Moonlight
VNV Nation
Alice Cooper
Johnny Cash
Rammstein
Antestor
Meshuggah
Clutch
Zao
Joy Electric

And, this Super Band made of:

Vocals: Eric Clayton of Saviour Machine (clean) and Peter Espevoll of Extol (grinding)
Guitars: Ihsahn of Emperor, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society/Ozzy, and Aaron Guerra of Tourniquet
Bass: Jason Wisdom of Becoming the Archetype
Keyboards: Nathan Van Hala of Saviour Machine
Drums: Ted Kirkpatrick of Tourniquet


Tommyuk-yuks (Dream Stand-up Comedy Show)

Eddie Izzard
Bill Cosby
Jim Gaffigan
Dane Cook
Lewis Black
Jerry Seinfeld
Christopher Titus
Patton Oswalt
Carlos Mencia
Dave Chappelle
Brian Posehn
Zack Galifianakis
Nick Swardson


The Stewart Network (My own television network with shows that are currently on air/in syndication)

Mystery Science Theater: 3000
The Office
The Simpsons
Family Guy
Seinfeld
24
Sealab 2021
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
South Park
Titus
Chappelle's Show
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Metalocalypse
Mythbusters
Man vs. Wild


Best Movie Ever (The Title)

Starring:
Anthony Hopkins
Tom Hanks
Jack Nicholson
Wilford Brimly
Mel Gibson
Marlon Brando
Morgan Freeman
Natalie Portman
Jackie Chan
William Shatner
Sean Connery
Bruce Willis
Julianne Moore
Hugo Weaving
John Rhys Davies
Robert DeNiro
Betty White
Will Ferrell
Christopher Walkin
Christian Bale
Jenna Fischer
John Heder
Patrick Stewart
Dennis Haysbert
Michael Cain
Steve Carrell
Walter Matthau
Samuel L. Jackson


Feast of the Tommy (My Dream Meal)

Appetizer: Mozzarella sticks, rosemary sour dough bread with olive oil and fresh pepper, hot dogs, Bavarian pretzels, and a Woodchuck Amber draft cider

Main Entree: thick sirloin cooked medium over a charcoal grill with bbq pulled pork
Sides: corn on the cob with copious amounts of butter, glazed carrots, bacon, fried cinnamon apples, steamed broccoli, and a cornish game hen
Beverage: large stein(s) of Samuel Adams Boston Lager/Scotch Ale

Dessert: warm, gooey brownie a la mode with caramel and hot fudge, caramel apple pie, generous wedge of Steph's "Super Cake," and a Long Island Iced Tea

After Dinner: Auchentoshan single malt scotch on the rocks with an Arturo Fuente Opus X cigar

And now the post that will get me disowned by some members of my family:

I think that Michael Moore makes some good points.

Now that you're conscious again, let me explain.

Take his new movie, Sicko, for example. Now, I've basically been brought up to shudder at the very sound of his name or the mention of universal health care. And I do disagree with a lot of his points and the methods he chooses to employ in making them. But I do not view him as pure evil anymore after watching some interviews with him about his new movie. Say what you want about the man, but he has good intentions, and a bigger heart than most of us. He sees an imperfect system in which so many people in need of medical help go without it simply because they can't afford it and wants to do something about it. I know you're saying, "But universal health care would have so many problems of its own," but you can't pretend that the current system is without problems, as well.

It's a tough decision for me. I guess you could say I'm currently against universal health care, if only because that's where my thinking began and so, having not made a concrete decision, I am here by default. I guess I realize that both will have their issues.

Universal health care will be sub-par compared to ours, and would have things like women having miscarriages in waiting rooms because the lines are too long (which has actually happened).

But, one could argue that under our current system, things like that still happen, just not in hospital waiting rooms. They happen outside hospitals because the people know they wouldn't be able to afford the care, so they don't bother. Or they do try, but are denied.

One major benefit to our current system is that we've been able to use the great amount of money we've made to make incredible advancements in medical science. A lot of the free health care service that others enjoy may not even be possible were it not for people like our doctors and researchers. This is also why in America, far fewer people die from serious diseases like cancer than in countries that have universal health care. Again, it may not be free, but it's sooooo much better.

But you have to admit that the idea of everyone having access to medical attention no matter how much money they have is pretty attractive. And the idea that it is possible for someone to be too poor to be healthy in this great, filthy rich nation of ours seems borderline ludicrous, if not way over the line.

We all love it in Family Guy when Peter is describing how horrible their equivalent to our Chuck E. Cheese's is and the man behind the counter tells the little boy with 13 tickets, "I'm sorry, Timmy, but you need 15 tickets...to live," and opens a trap door beneath the kid. Well, replace the man with a doctor and tickets with money, and it's kinda scary how accurate it is.

I love what Michael Moore said during an interview on CNBC. A lady was asking him about his movie and said what so many of us have, "I would rather get sick here in America than any other country." And, to what may have been the surprise of many, Moore replied, "So would I." But then he continued, "But that's because people like you and me could afford it."

As I thought about it, it did seem a little odd that government is in charge of just about all public services except medical. I mean, they do security, fire, education, sanitation, public safety, etc. Why not this area? Again, we can go back to how private companies can make so many great developments not possible under a socialized system. This also made me think how kick-ass our fire fighting equipment would be if they'd been run by private companies competing for our attention. But then again, our military is obviously government-run, but is the most advanced in the world. Could our universal health care system be the same if it had enough money?

Everyone also talks about how inefficient government programs are because they cost so much more to do the same things that private citizens could do for a fraction of the cost. But apparently, our own version of socialized health care (Medicare) has a much lower cost for overhead and profits and such than private companies. Now, would that continue if nationalized? I don't know.

And that's how I'll end this. I don't know.

Just one o' them things

Ok, I saw this little gem of a quote while parousing one of those Facebook boards of people arguing with each other (because all important issues in the world WILL be solved by Facebook posts) and this was one girl's response to someone stating that there was more historical evidence of the existence of Jesus than the existence of Julius Caesar:

"Little Caesar's has some pretty kick-ass breadsticks. I don't see no Little Christ cookin' up anything delicious."

It's so brilliant, just thought I had to share it. She was somewhat of an idiot, but this made me laugh.

Oh, this world of ours

We've all heard about how malaria is killing people by the millions around the world and ravaging communities and economies, mostly in Africa. And we've heard about how us people of the West have eradicated the disease by use of the wonderful pesticide known as DDT. So you've probably also heard that thanks to people like Rachel Carson, it's use has been restricted because they had "findings" that stated how bad it was for the ecosystems and did more harm than good, etc.

But I bet you didn't hear about how we now know how very WRONG Carson was. Really. So while her ilk have falsely convinced us that the use of DDT is an abomination, millions of people have died from malaria while we refused to use our best defense against it.

And it is effective. Very effective. Did I mention we don't have malaria problems in the US anymore? Well, thank your good pal, DDT.

Now, am I saying that Ms. Carson is responsible for all these deaths because she misled people into banning the use of our best defense? Well...

Now some still say it does have proven adverse effects on the environment. Also tends to be bothersome to some birds, or something. And yes, that's bad. But you know what else is bad? LETTING 300 MILLION PEOPLE DIE FROM SOMETHING THAT IS EXTREMELY PREVENTABLE.

This is just a tribute.

In exactly two months from today, I will officially be Mr. Thomas and Stephanie Stewart.

On a sadder, but equally not-sinking-in-yet, note, Eric will be leaving us on Thursday. I really don't have the words, even in writing, for this, except I love ya, buddy, it's been awesome, and you will be severely missed. You're simply one of the greatest people I've had the pleasure of knowing. And I'm sure many would agree with that.

And that's not even vaguely adequate.

So now, in honour of his time here (in a very small way) here's a little video of Eric and Ed doing their demonstration of the famous CSI: Miami Home Game:


And now something completely different, but is good for cheering you up when things look down. Here's German metal band Accept, with their hit song, "Balls to the Wall!"


The only thing as cool as the song's name is the singer's name: Udo Dirkschneider. Enjoy it! And seriously, watch the whole thing. At least the chorus and the end, anyway. You will LOVE it!

New-to-me

Oh, come on, people. No love for the Emperor?

We have a house now. 216 Bosley St.

Celebratory cookout in our new back yard tomorrow (Friday) at 5. Do come.

Emperial Wrath

Recently I remarked on the lack of Emperor fans among you. I thought about it just now, as I watched several of their videos and basked in their glory, and it saddened me a bit. So now, I wish to dedicate this entry to them and to trying to make more people enjoy them as much as I do. Here are a bunch of their videos. Watch, and enjoy one of the world's best, and fastest, metal bands!





Some lovely singing on this one, if you're not a fan of the screaming:


This one, too. Lots:




And there you have it. If you don't love them now, I don't know what else to do.

Oh, these times we live in

Well, we did it. It was said to be impossible, but it was done. It was said that none of us could pull together enough funds to do it, but it happened.

Barnes got drunk.

And he's a happy, polite drunk. Which is good.

It only took and entire bottle of SoCo, 1 1/2 Samuel Adams's, and roughly 1/2 a pint of Red Stripe to pull it off.

Also, I have discovered the greatest ice cream of all time: Ben & Jerry's Cinnamon Bun. Go eat some! I will right now! Bye!

But best of all, as of yesterday, Stephanie and I have been together for 2 years! We rule!

Finding my last nerve

Thanks to a moment of utter bullshit in the midst of our otherwise pleasant relationship with US Bank during the loan process, we are no longer closing on the house today. Apparently, the bank needed a copy of the inspection report and decided to let us know YESTERDAY. And then they decided to let us know THE DAY OF CLOSING that there were some things around the house that needed repaired, like a back step and exposed wire, etc., before we can proceed.

They also said the problem was "nothing major."

My ass.

So, since we cannot just repair the problems ourselves because we don't own the house yet, we need to either re-negotiate with the owner to get those repairs included, or find another lender. Maybe a lender that realizes that this is more an issue to be had with our insurance company, NOT the them.

This is pretty much the last thing I need right now.

A little bitta this...

Tomorrow, Stephanie and I will be closing on our new house.

!!!

If you haven't, check out the pics on Steph's Facebook page.

Back on a political note, why are people blaming Bush for a bad economy? Not to mention, why do people think that the economy's even bad in the first place? I guess people don't notice things like low unemployment (lower than under Clinton - who presided over a "good" economy), high home ownership, and the DOW breaking records almost on a regular basis.

Oh! And one more thing. People also railed Bush's tax cuts because he made them in the middle of a huge deficit, along with the usual "wealthiest 1%" BS. But, you know what happened? I bet you don't. TAX REVENUES INCREASED. Imagine that! Bush decided that leaving more money in the hands of the people meant that businesses could be more successful and people could earn more, meaning they can pay more in taxes, and everybody wins. Everyone puts him down for being stupid, but this shows that he is actually quite brilliant when it comes to economics. He can look past how things would appear to those who don't bother to really put thought into it and would make judgments, and can look far ahead to see the long term.

It's called Reaganomics, my friends. Bush gets it. Unfortunately, the Dems STILL want to get rid of Bush's make-everybody-happy tax cuts.

So while I'm not sure if I can promise that I'll always be a Republican, I can assure you that I will NEVER be a Democrat.

Obviously, no personal offense to my Democrat friends. I just disagree. It's like how most of you can probably promise that you will never be an Emperor fan.

While we're on that whole thing, I don't see how anyone can claim it moral/immoral to lean in any direction politically. It's not about morals. Essentially, it all comes down to what you want the government to be in charge of. People blame my ilk for not caring about certain problems. It's not that I don't want them solved, it's just that I don't trust the government to solve them. And some of you do. That's cool.

Sort of.

Hehe.

CGN...U

Me?

The other day, I found out just what happens when I get mildly intoxicated in the middle of the day. I buy Gregorian Chant CDs.

I went to Newport with Danny and Lawshe to buy our tickets for the new Pirates movie (which was quite good, btw) and we had tons of time on the parking meter, so we decided to hang out there for a bit. We ended up going to The Claddagh, where I proceeded to have a beer and a scotch. Pretty good combo in a pub. But, unfortunately, all I'd eaten that day so far were 2 donuts. So I was quite happy. Then I saw that Barnes & Noble was having a "Buy 2 classical CDs, get 1 free" deal, so I bought a couple Gregorian Chant albums and a Bach organ album to go with them.

I tell ya, get a couple in me and I am out of control!

And no, I didn't just buy those because of the buzz. I do actually thoroughly enjoy that music and had intended for quite some time so get some.

I'm getting married in less that 3 months.

And now for something completely different.

Time for a non-political post.

I've had really bad gas almost all day.

Methinks it was because of my new creation: yogurt oatmeal, or oatmeal yogurt. Haven't decided. Tasted good, anyway.

I decided to add a little something fun on this blog. I'm going to have a featured link over on the left. Maybe anew one every week, maybe not. We'll see. Just a chance for you to see what websites I found interesting at the time.

Enjoy.

I really do <3 Huckabee.

Yet another reason to like Mike Huckabee. Tonight, someone asked him if he was maybe too nice of a guy to handle being President. His response: "I'm a conservative, but I'm not mad at anyone about it."

Beautiful!

That's what we need, a nice guy who's willing to still like people that he disagrees with.

Now here's my take on this controversial new immigration bill. I've heard good and bad things about it, some seemingly contradictory claims on both sides (as per usual), and I'm pretty sure I'm against it. Mainly for 2 reasons: one, people on BOTH sides hate it, and two, Ted Kennedy likes it.

I swear that this is not going to be just a political blog.

Really.

I come for the wuggas.

Yeah, new blog. And instead of doing the typical first-post-on-a-new-blog that just says, "Well, here's my new blog! Let's see what happens!", I'm going to actually make a post with substance.

And the substance: my views on the 08 Presidential election and the Republican nominee hopefuls.

At this point, I would accept a ticket with pretty much any combination of the following guys, and I'll tell you why:

Mike Huckabee - From the first time I saw this guy on The Daily Show, I really liked him. An actual conservative, good head on his shoulders, clear goals on moving this country forward - and this is key - in a good way, and just a really likable, personable guy. I watched him in the Fox News debate and even when he was slamming something, he was friendly. But here's the really big reason, and pay attention: Fair Tax. Look it up. Essentially, here's what it means: no more income tax, or any other kind of weird tax. It's all sales tax. You know what that means? NO MORE IRS. NO MORE FEARING APRIL 15TH. And all the prices you see listed is what you actually pay. So if the advertised price is $0.99, and you give the cashier a dollar, you get a penny back instead of the cashier saying, "You still need to give me a nickel." And you get a nice tax return check every month. BRILLIANT!

Rudy Giuliani - Obviously, the guy knows how important the current war on terror is and will make it a priority. That's pretty much the major issue in my mind. And he's good on other issues, too. Now, I know a lot of social conservatives get on him about his views on abortion, but I think I can get passed that. At least he does personally see it as immoral. And he does oppose federal funding of it, which is important. He is all for reduced abortions and more adoptions, both of which happened in NYC while he was Mayor. And I can look past his controversial stance when what he does brings about results like that. Because that's really the important thing, right? And although there are a couple guys I like more, I think that Rudy has a better chance of winning against a Clinton or Obama.

Mitt Romney - The guy just looks and sounds Presidential. Even his voice seems like it was chiseled out of stone. And his politics are sound. He really likes vetoing. He's all about a balanced budget. I see him as being quite electable, though maybe not as much as Giuliani. So far, just an all around good candidate.

Fred Thompson - Just watch him respond to Michael Moore:

Newt Gingrich - I must admit to not knowing too much about him specifically, but I hear a lot of good things and every time I hear him, he makes a lot of sense. And everybody likes Newt. Very electable.

So at the moment, I'm going to stick with my initial call of Gingrich/Huckabee 08.

Happy Birthday, Jennie! I got you my new blog!