Does anyone click on this stuff...really?

If you use a free email client like Yahoo. You've probably seen these 'non-sequitor' type ads off to the side. This one just freaks me out! What's with the unkempt Jesus look-a-like? What, pray tell, does he have to do with Obama asking 'Moms to return to school'?

Does this guy represent what a stay at home Mom is supposed to look like?

Is this guy waiting for the Mom at school!? Yikes!

Is this what Mom's will look like if they don't go back to school

I'm struggling here.

R.

The internet...

...making those who had no more of a soapbox than...well little more than a soapbox in Boston Common from which to scream their drivel at passers-by, look positively Einstein-ian.


Thanks yet again to xkcd!

A laugh for a Monday morning...

Thanks as always to xkcd.

A prayer for Obama? Not so much...

So I was driving into work today here in Massachusetts. Ahead of me was a vehicle, a rather modern well maintained pick-up truck. On the right hand side of the bumper was the "McCain/Palin" sticker we all remember from 2008, faded but still easily identifiable. On the other side was was newer looking sticker on which was the message:

“Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”

Not being a biblical scholar, I had no clue what the passage the message was referring to said. However, for curiosity's sake, I made a mental note to look up the passage later on Bible Gateway, incidentally one of the few non-work related sites that seems to pass muster with employer's overly censoring firewall. As I continued my commute I started to ruminate a bit more. The owner of the vehicle bearing the two stickers could conceivably have been thought of as at the very least 'right leaning' and somewhat religious. With some more consideration I imagined that the owner had probably come to terms with Obama's election and was suggesting people of like mind 'pray' that God inspire Obama to righteous ,Godly and honorable leadership. Knowing what I do about the Psalms, how much the Catholics love them and how often I hear them quoted mostly in inspiration of some higher moral, I felt justified in smiling to myself and thinking, maybe there is some hope for us. Clearly, I'd given this person, and also the creators of this bit of bumper sticker rhetoric, too much credit.

At my lunch I looked up the passage referenced, this is what it says:

"Let his days be few; and let another take his office."

Cute. Were I to have read this alone I would simply have been let down from my previous view and then concluded that the owner of the vehicle was much more cynical and partisan than I 'd thought. Unlike most of the people who probably thought there was something somehow clever and 'Godly' about the application and context in which this quote is offered, I decided to read those lines before and after the one line referenced. Before you continue, remember this is being offered as a rumination on 'him', 'he'....one Barack Obama:

Psalm 109:1-20 (King James Version)

1 Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;

2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.

3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

6 Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.

12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.

13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

16 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.

18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

What touching and heart-warming sentiments for our duly elected President and best of all, by extension, for his mother, wife and two young daughters.

I am not a Democrat. I am NOT an Obama disciple. I am not at all that impressed with his 1st year in office but to apply this vicious little bronze-age misanthropic tirade to Mr. Obama is DESPICABLE and any one who calls himself an American or even human ought to rail against it. Those who would be proud to display this message ought to be ashamed of themselves. You don't care for Mr. Obama and his policies? Fine. That's your right of conscience. But we have a process for retiring leaders we don't like. Beseeching the almighty to destroy him AND his family is well....Un-American. The accepted process is outlined in the Constitution. Go to Wikipedia and look it up.

I don't for one second believe that more than a percent of those who would plague their bumpers with this drivel have EVER read this whole Psalm, even less so the Bible in whole or even in part. But perhaps they should do a just a wee bit of due diligence, lest they be thought of as nothing but 'bronze-age ethics' advocating neanderthals.

R.

Appreciation....

There are some moments in life that leave an indelible impression. The memories of which record themselves in our neural pathways forever for future appreciation. Human beings are gifted at recording all of the output of our senses in incredible fidelity within our heads. Today I returned from assisting a relative with a furniture move, I was hot, sweaty and generally pretty uncomfortable. Our home was quiet and the pool in the back yard beckoned. I slipped into the water reveled in the cool bliss of an empty and calm pool. There had been a soaking rain an hour earlier so the air was excessively humid, a condition which the pool provided much welcome relief. As I floated I gazed up towards the east. Against a backdrop of battleship gray cloud was the most complete and brilliant rainbow I had ever seen in my life. Every color perfectly rendered against the canvas of cloud. These are the images that inspire poets, artists, composers… I am not Robert Frost, Claude Monet or Mozart. I cannot convey the impression with anywhere near the artistic beauty of any of those just mentioned, though the image is rendered within my memory with no less majesty. I proceeded to think about what it is in the human mind that makes it possible for us the appreciate the sublime. There are animals that can no doubt perceive the colors the same as I can but the ability to make the image a part of a mental warehouse, that’s a hallmark of humanity. The ability to retain and appreciate experiences that touch us. For most of human history the there was absolutely no understanding of what a rainbow was or how it was painted across a humid sky. Many thoughtful and brilliant people proposed subtle and engaging explanations. John Keats wrote about science taking the wonder out of nature:

Do not all charms fly
At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings,
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line,
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine –
Unweave a rainbow

Some say our ability to understand the origin of such natural majesty detracts from the experience. For my part I feel nothing could be further from the truth. This ability to understand the world is the greatest tool for our survival that we have. There is something elevating and almost spiritual that comes with understanding. Something that goes a long way to show how interconnected everything in the universe is. The human brain allows us to be liberated from the mundane; to become more than instinct and survival. We can remember, deconstruct, analyze, and then understand that which our senses reveal. Then we can use what we learn to make a fulfilling and meaningful life for ourselves and help those around us to do the same. Who among us can possibly have complete appreciation of what else might be possible...?

R

Disingenuous?

As we continue to be accosted by voices pro and con on the subject of health-care reform. I have noticed that one of the statements I hear most often goes something akin to this:

"Do you want some bureaucrat deciding what medical measures you will receive?"

Having been a member of MANY different private insurer HMO's since I started my career. I find the question a tad disingenuous in that my health-care has been and always will be managed by bureaucrats!

Generally we don't call them bureaucrats when they are employed by for-profit insurers but bureaucrats they are in all but name.

Do I want to trust my health-care to the 'big greedy' corporations or do I want to trust it to the 'big scary' governments?

Can I have a third option please?

R.

It's been a while...

I know, I know! I got myself so wrapped up in the Book of the Face that I have sadly neglected my little home here at Blogger. Bad Bobby!

Well I am resolving to come back to my little slice of blogland.

That may or may not gladden your hearts.

R.

Grin!

Let's have one standard shall we?
Not two.
One for politicians and one for the mob.

A lesson in context,,,

Testing….

This is just a test to see if my neat little Word-based blog poster works.

R.

guffaw!

Lest we forget....

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

I don't pretend to know fully how we are to attain these goals; but it does seem that most of our elected leaders have forgotten that these are what they are supposed to be working to achieve.

Free Speech is sacred...

Hey everyone Pat Boone had a dream....!

"Isn't he ever so dreamy?"
*Swoon*

.....where he was President.

Now if the prospect of that doesn't make you break out into a cold sweat....then you are probably a loyal reader of the works of Ann Coulter and get your commentary from Rush Limbaugh.

But I digress....

Our favorite lunatics over at World Nut Net Daily have an article written by none other than Pat Boone, he outlines a dream he had where he is elected President. *Wretch* Pardon me had someting in my throat there. He goes on to outline his policies. It's quite an entertaining read in much the same way that is reading those Jehovah's Witness 'Watchtower" pamphlets that occasionally find their way onto my front door threshold.

Most of it is standard right-wing and populist dreck.

What I found must entertaining was the final two paragraphs. The first

"As a man who intended to be a teacher myself, I issued an ultimatum to the teachers' unions: They would return to basic math, including arithmetic, and basic English (the mandated official language), and basic science devoid of unproven theories like evolution, sticking instead to factual evidence and not discounting "intelligent design" as the more scientific basis for life and existence. All history books would again detail the reasons America was founded, and tell the stories of our Founding Fathers and national heroes – not latter day revisions. Teachers' pay and advancement would depend on the test scores and comprehension of their students. "

"basic English (the mandated official language)"?

How does it feel to be so threatened by the 'brown people' to our south? While I do feel that those who come here do bear some responsibility to try to acclimatize themselves to the culture they'd like to be part of; where begins OUR responsibility to try to communicate effectively with someone who does NOT share the language of our birth? In most European countries it is unusual that a person only speaks ONE language. If we are going to require immigrants to learn English why not require natural born citizens to learn another language too? Sort of a 'meet them halfway' policy. Maybe the rest of the world wouldn't regard us as so insufferable when we go over seas!

"basic science devoid of unproven theories like evolution"?

The SCIENCE of evolution is one of the most SUCCESSFUL intellectual constructs ever theorized by man. It's explanatory power with regards to the speciation of life on Earth is unparalleled. No other explanation, creationism, Intelligent Design or whatever misleading moniker you want to attach to the simplistic statement that 'God done it', comes anywhere close to explaining what modern evolutionary theory does so effortlessly. Sticking your head in the sand and pretending otherwise, does nothing to take away from that FACT. Keep the non-science based religiously motivated systems of thought where they belong; in religious philosophy class.

"history books would again detail the reasons America was founded, and tell the stories of our Founding Fathers and national heroes – not latter day revisions."

Really? What exactly does this statement mean? I think I had a pretty damned good education history wise. I was exposed to the all that was GOOD and BAD in our deep and nuanced history. I think what Mr. Boone is alluding to is the suppression of everything that would paint the founders as anything but the Godly and wise Christian men he has convinced himself they were. Sorry Pat it but it ain't so.... Blocking your ears and screaming 'I can't hear you, I can't hear you' does NOT change history.

And finally we come to Mr. Boone's final thought (if we can dignify it as such):

"And a final ultimatum was directed to the courts, from the Supremes on down to local judiciary: "Hands off religion, as the First Amendment dictates. And you will no longer legislate from the bench. Keep your personal ideas to yourselves, and enforce the legislated will of the people."

"a final ultimatum was directed to the courts"

Wow! Clearly Mr. Boone didn't pay much attention in his American Civics class. The President does not get to dictate to the Judiciary how they are going to do their job! That's one of the most amazing thing about our Constitution it codifies the concept of separation of powers and the 'checks and balances'. The courts do not answer to you, Mr. would-be President. If they did, well that would make you a dictator, wouldn't it?

"Hands off religion"

Yes by all means! Government, keep your meddling hands off of religion. And similarly, people of faith...keep your meddling hands off my government!

"enforce the legislated will of the people"

I LOVE this one!!! Really? Even if it means the degradation or the relegation to the status of second class citizen of a minority of people? Let me ask you this, Mr. would-be President; Would it have been a good thing to leave the fate of the proposed 13th Amendment to the 'will of the people' instead of the refined Legislatures of the states? Before you answer consider this more appropriate example: Would it have been RIGHT to allow segregation to continue in this land had the Supreme Court not ruled as it did in 1954? Should the 'will of the people' have been the only consideration as to whether or not the state of Kansas, or any state for that matter, should be allowed to continue a policy which can only be described as American apartheid?

Mr. Boone, one of the most important functions of the judiciary in this country is to protect a minority from the tyranny of a majority. If that is unclear to you then it is you who most assuredly needs remedial work in American History and Civics. You have NO business being President of a Mickey Mouse fan club let alone a President of a modern liberal democracy.

Do us all a favor and stick to what you know: nauseating Christian-ese music.

R.

The most telling statement EVER....

Said the card carrying creationist while touring The Smithsonian:

"Why should we be afraid to test our worldview against reality?" asked Bill Jack, a Christian leadership instructor who leads groups across the country for a company called Biblically Correct Tours.

Really? Is this person suggesting that what the Smithsonian contains is reality? If we can agree that the Smithsonian represents the naturalistic understanding of life on Earth as reality; then it makes little sense to label yourself a creationist. Talk about the mother of all slips.

Well Billy I can't argue with that! You go and have yourself a time, you and your Flintstone's version of natural history.

See this link for the full Washington post article.

R.

What does it mean? Part 1.

I recently re-watched HBO's wonderful "John Adams" miniseries based upon the book of the same name by David McCullough. One pivotal scene; John Adams, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson are gathered together in a room, presumably in Philadelphia going over Mr. Jefferson's draft of the soon to be Declaration of Independence. They are shown to be quibbling over some of the phrasing that Mr. Jefferson chose. Now whether or not this scene is accurately conveyed or historical at all is not really what I'm interested in.

What I am interested in, is the very first line of the "Declaration of Independence" as we know it today, that is the first line after the familiar preamble:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."

We have all been conditioned to, almost without thinking, ascribe our ascent to this cherished piece of American scripture. But, is it entirely worthy of such reverence?

What does this statement mean?

What did it mean to Jefferson? What did it mean to Adams or Franklin? Or to any of the other men who affixed their signatures to this document before sending it off to King George?

Perhaps most importantly what does it mean to US today more than 200 years later and is it necessary that what we think it means mirror what the founders think it meant?

The first part of the statement is so loaded its almost absurd; "We hold these truths to be self evident...", seems to me to be a qualifier of some sort, meant to convey unambiguity to what follows should be readily seen to be obvious. But obvious to whom, and on what basis? Seems very circular to me. There seems to be non-stated premise that there is some gold standard that we should all be working from that we all have to agree on. What is that standard and by what authority can we conceivably agree to it? Many of the founders were men greatly inspired by the works of John Locke, David Hume, Charles Montesquieu, and St. Paul. If you read the works authored by these men, you would come away with some very different ideas for that standard. That discussion that could take years! In the interest of sanity let's move on...

The second part of the statement is very problematic to me: "that all men are created equal...". When you look at this statement in a vacuum without any context it does seem a logical truism. However, if you look at the world we live in putting aside man-made injustices and just focusing on the all too apparent differences in what skills and capabilities individuals possess this statement seems hilarious to the point of absurdity. Even the founders had to be cognizant of the plain fact that some do have the distinction of achieving greatness with meager means while others even with best of advantages barely rise to mediocrity. Clearly we are not equal in that regard; so whatever were the founders agreeing to here?

These are the thoughts I have when I am stuck in 'solar-glare' traffic on Route 2 eastbound in early March.

The meaning I ascribe to these words is that we should be equals in the eyes of the government we would choose to create. Equal regardless as to the privileges or liabilities of our respective births. Equal regardless of out mental capacities. Equal regardless of skin color, creed or philosophy.

Is this what Mr. Jefferson was thinking? I wish I could ask him, but I'm about 187 years late.

Discuss!!!

Robert

The maths....

The maths....
...you're doin' it wrong!

EPIC FAIL!!

How cool is THIS!?

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Research Articles holiday holidays

And in formerly puritanical Massachusetts no less!?

I'm sure Pat Robertson will say the famine and pestilence are on the way to the Bay State presently....

R.

How often do YOU....

Why should we suffer fools so?

Oh the ferric taste of the irony contained within...

From Ray Comfort's blog....

"So let’s be careful when we mock things of which we have no understanding."

This gem from the man who brought us the banana-based 'atheist's nightmare'.

Please see this link for full context:

http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2009/01/trillions-of-trillions-of-years-ago.html

Practice what thee preacheth indeed, RAY!!!

Thank you oh so much! I now no longer feel any reason to waste a single one of my brain cells worrying about ANYTHING that comes out of either Ray Comfort's or Kirk Cameron's respective cake holes!

R.

FAIL...

Silly, silly!! You airplane!!! Not boat!!! Get up in air...no go in wawa!

On a more serious note. To the pilot: Dude!!! You are Batman seriously! Landing a 30-ton airliner with NO engines, on the water, first try and NOT ripping apart the fuselage!? Stud! Sully!! I will be a passenger on Snoopy's sopwith camel if you are at the helm!

Could this guy rock harder? I submit that he could NOT!

R

Icky sicky poo.....

I have some abominable virus or viri (sp?) that has (have) taken up residence in my respiratory tract. I have been battling this for more than a week now. This all started New Years Day and has moved all over my body. First my sinuses which manifested in titanic headaches. Then it moved to my throat such that it feels as though there's a a knife in my throat.

This morning I completely lost use of my voice. So I am home drinking lots of a Tangerine Zinger tea with lemon juice and honey.

I may die...probably not....but it feels like it!

R.

Where is today's Barry Goldwater?

"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.' "

Barry Goldwater - 1909 - 1998, Senator R - Arizona
Source: Congressional Record, September 16, 1981

Two views of Nihilism...

Guess which one is me?! :-)

Sacrifice anyone...?

Many of my posts have a sarcastic or humorous cant to them. This post will not be one of them. I've been struggling to distill what's been going on in Israel over the past 2 weeks. The bottom line is I can't understand it. The basis for the fight is so alien to my sensibilities that I have come to the conclusion that I will NEVER understand what's going on.

Bear with me here for a little bit of a digression. I have an Ipod and I listen to many 'podcasts' from many different sources. Most are science or naturalist based resources. A couple are political. One of my favorites in the political genre is by a guy out in Oregon, his name is Dan Carlin and I believe I have a link to his site over on my side bar somewhere. His latest commentary as of this writing is called "The Samson Suicide Pact". I listened to it this morning.

You can listen to it yourself or not. Your choice.

The central question of his commentary was this:

"If God asked you to sacrifice your child, would you obey?"

The question is from the Bible. Abraham, considered by the followers of the three monotheistic faiths to be the patriarch of their respective faith, was presented with this very dilemma.

One of my better if not my BEST friend(s) in the blogworld, Deb, and I had a discussion about this very question a while ago. Deb is a deeply faithful and caring woman of whom I have a deep admiration for. We have come to sort of detente' on matters religious. She accepts who I am and I accept who she is. There is a mutual respect if not complete understanding. As a 'Christ-follower' it is Deb's deepest desire that God will reveal Himself to me in some meaningful way that will convince me of his existence and truth.

Deb's answer was a wholehearted and emphatic: YES! I was taken aback by the certainty and confidence of her answer. I couldn't relate to it. The very notion of sacrificing my child is a game-ender for me. Nothing on this earth could compel me to do such a thing. Deb explained it to me as a test of faith. As a Christian you MUST love God above all else and that includes that which you would otherwise lay down your own life for. You must be willing to offer it all up to God at a moments notice. That is REAL religious faith! Deb's faith tells her that God's will and purpose are in her best interest. I will not presume to judge that this makes me some how better or smarter than Deb, she is bound by a covenant she takes very seriously, she submits her will to His. For all I know maybe she's right. But that's not how I am wired...

I have no such faith, I wouldn't do it. I am a person who bases his view of the world on naturalism and reason informed by my understanding of the world I perceive through my own admittedly imperfect senses. But there it is...

I have come to the conclusion that these are the two views of existence. Faith-based and naturalist-based.

My further conclusion is you cannot fence-sit; you are on one side or you are on the other. There are too many people who want to take the what they think is best of each and make some hybrid view. The problem is when both views are distilled down to their cores you find that they are mutually exclusive. Hybrids will be still born. You can't have it both ways.

What does this all have to do with what's going on in Israel?

I agree with Dan Carlin; No sovereign nation should tolerate any other launching attacks on it. Israel has a right and a duty to defend its people. If any nation started shooting missles at Iran or the Saudis they would raise holy hell! So the IDF's retaliation is justified from a state-craft point of view.

The question then becomes for ALL people on either side. Are you willing to sacrifice your children? Your grand children? Your great grand children. Are you willing to sacrifice the future for a strip of land? Is this conviction based upon faith in God?

If any one on either side cannot answer YES to those questions, they need to leave. This is not their fight.

Throughout history people have left many lands they called home some willingly and some not so unwillingly. My own Italian ancestors left their homeland because they wanted a better future for their children. I am sure they left Italy with great reluctance but the love for their children and their concern for the future of the same overrode any loyalty they had for their homeland.

Would commit your children and their future to a fight over a tiny strip of land?

People of faith on both sides of this conflict have been fighting and or spoiling for fight for 2000 plus years. Maybe it's time that those on either side who REALLY don't have a dog in this race to get out of the way and let those that do have at each other...

For my part I am tired of the whole bloody tedious saga!

I will choose to NOT sacrifice my children's future for faith.

R.

Senator Al Franken?!

Seriously?

No really.....Seriously!?

This guy?


Who was he running against?

Idi Amin? No. Pretty sure he's dead.

Pol Pot? Day-od!

Mussolini? Really REALLY DEAD. (I think my grandmother might have been the 3rd person to spit on his hanging body)

Al Franken? What qualifies him to be a senator? I may be somewhat liberal leaning but WTF!?

Did someone publish photos of Norm Coleman smoking a cigar in a hot tub with Satan?

WOW!

What do they put in the water in Minnesota?

R.

What comes to mind...

...when you see this man:

What comes to my mind?

Answer:

"Sugar-coated, chocolate-covered, Christianity."

R.

Resolutions....smez-o-lutions...

I'm back and hopefully i won't be so slack as i have been. The 'silly season' does take up lots of my time due to the 4 kids running around.

Well it's a new year! And I would know that even if I didn't have a calendar.

Working where I do I was fortunate enough to be on vacation from 12/24 till...well today. i got to stay at home spend time with the kiddies (which can be trying to the extreme, but it was still worthwhile). A treat for me was that during this period one of the channels on my local cable system, i think it was USA Network, ran a "House" marathon for 2 days! "House" is one of the few shows I actually like. I missed much of the first three years of the show so I got to see many episodes I hadn't seen. However, that pleasure was tempered by the torture of the commercials in between.

At this time of year we are beaten over the head with commercials for diet pills/supplements, new exercise/diet regimens and exercise/workout equipment. Invariably the models/aliens in these commercials promise that you too can look just like them if only you would use these pills or eat these meals or worked-out with this machine for 20 minutes, 3 days a week. GROAN! Clearly we have a long way to go in that these snake-oil sales pitches are STILL making enough money to air these commercials repeatedly all the live long day!

These companies all prey upon the average pudgy resolution making American by convincing him that the way to reduce the flab in his mid section is by spending their cash on some miracle product.

I love the fact almost all of these spots have "Results not typical" in very fine print on the screen while a model user of whatever is being hawked is offering testimony of their results.

Guess what Kevin! This stuff will not work. There is no quick fix, miracle drug or breakthrough machine that will shrink your waistline permanently. The only way to change your body is to change your life. I have seen this personally. It is about changing bad habits. This applies to smoking, drinking as well as weight loss.

I am so glad I live in an age where I can record video on the fly and zoom past commercials! I'd have probably gone insane after an hour otherwise.

R.