New Orleans the Chocolate City

It is me or does this sound like the name of a Prince album? Anyway, Ray Nagin is an idiot...

Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country,

Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves.

Sure Ray, God just sent hurricanes to New Orleans to punish the whole country for being in Iraq... Right.

It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans - the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans.

These quotes are idiotic... Even more idiotic is the ridiculous attempt at explaining his comments the next day:

How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about. New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special.

Right... that's exactly what you meant, when you said "This city will be a majority African American city", I guess you were saying a little white chocolate and a lot of dark chocolate. The statement about New Orleans being a majority African American city doesn't bother me entirely because they are accurate. The thing that bothers me is this speech is divise and it hurts race relations in this country to have a mayor of a large city running around talking about the things that separate us, instead of the things that bring us together... Especially, on MLK day for gosh sakes. Does he remember any of the I have a dream speech?

Good Free Bible Software

BibleOcean.com has great free (supported by ads) windows and web-based bible software. IMHO, the web-based version is better because of the multiple translation support (I personally enjoy NASB). But both are good research and concordance tools. At church we were looking for new software that worked well for cutting and pasting... We found this software and it does the trick very well.

Another Reason Windows Occasionally Sucks

After recovering from a crashed display driver at my work PC... I am told to run windows update, (I already was current with updates!!!). Before being able to install anything else (which I can't think of anything I would need... I get this:

Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool (KB892130)
443 KB , less than 1 minute
The Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool enables you to verify that your copy of Microsoft Windows is genuine. The tool validates your Windows installation by checking Windows Product Identification and Product Activation status. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Once you have installed this item, it cannot be removed.

Now my copy is legit, so I don't care, but this is annoying nonetheless.

Thoughts on Lost

I'm feeling more and more confident on my prediction that the show Lost is set in some sort of Catholic church version of 'purgatory'. Last nights episode dealt with a lot of catholic stuff including a really weird scene where Eko somehow stopped one of the black-smoky things on the island by not being afraid. Apparently, I'm not alone on this thought, with other sources including E online.

One other thought about this show... I hate Michelle Rodriguez. (By the way, this pic is her mugshot). Everything time she is on the screen I cringe. It seems like she isn't acting, she plays the tough woman act in every role I've ever seen her in and it's getting old. I laughed outloud when I read what she 'allegedly' said after being arrested for DWI in Hawaii... I've copied the good parts of the article below:

The police reports also stated that Rodriguez was “very argumentative” with arresting officers and that she said, “I don’t (expletive) belong here! Why don’t you just put a gun to my head and shoot me? You’ve already taken my freedom! You might as well take my life, too! This is (expletive) bull--, baby! I don’t (expletive) belong here!”

The reports also state that after being fingerprinted, Rodriguez said, “I was only drinking, baby. I can understand taking away my car for drinking and driving, but I didn’t hurt nobody, so why do I have to wear these things? I feel like a slave, man. This takes away my freedom,” and grabbed at the leg irons she was wearing.

SPAM from church people...

Nothing bothers me more than receiving SPAM from organizations who try to pass themselves off as religious... or offering services help to our church. Since my business email address is my the churches website, it has been harvested by several 'religious services' groups. It seems to be really hypocritical of these organizations to use an unethical way of reaching someone (such as SPAM) and then saying 'God Bless' in there message...

I got fed up of receiving these and decided to reply to one... Here was my reply to one such organization (I removed both of our contact information for obvious reasons):

Bob,

I work for a software company and as part of that capacity I used to develop and manage email software, and now I speak on email marketing to not-for-profit groups and companies. I don't believe the email you just sent me is CAN-SPAM compliant. I don't recall opting in to your services, I'm not a customer and I have not opted in to receive partner emails. I also volunteer with my church and developed their website, which contains my email address. The only way this email address (which I've never provided to anyone unless it is related to my secular work, not church business) could have been obtained by your company is from it being harvesting from said website. I'm not neccesarily accusing you of doing this, but if you purchased a list, my email address was definitely harvested before being added to that list.

Again, regarding CANSPAM compliance, since I'm not a client of yours and have never opted in to your lists, shouldn't your subject contain the header "ADV:"? Additionally, since you are sending from the domain ws99.org, you are spoofing your outbound email address, because your server does not host email from hotmail.com. This is also a major problem.

If you help churches with outbound email and web sites, shouldn't you provide a website to view your information? Shouldn't your email address be a part of hosted package for your site, in addition to being at a real domain (and not being spoofed by your outbound email). All of this is very troubling.

Please remove me from your lists.

God Bless.

Signed...


-----Original Message-----
From: NetBob4Churches
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 1:08 AM
To:
Subject: Let me Introduce Myself to your Church or Ministry

Hello,

This is [Bob] with [Company].

I want to introduce myself to you and offer my services to your Church or Ministry. Your interest in my services is appreciated.

I am in the business of helping Ministries move to the Internet, or go further than they already are now in their web presence.

My specialty is helping Ministries to send email to their readership, members and web mailing list members. Many Churches & Ministries call this a Monthly Newsletter.

It is a great way to keep in touch with your contacts, at a very low monthly cost. Your subscribers will love staying informed on your latest news.

I have automated mailing systems that I use to mail.

I use my own servers and software and have the expertise to help you to launch or further your Internet Based Ministry Presence.

I offer reasonable fees so I can assist as many of you that want to reach your members, readers and even the lost.

I offer these services:

- Automated Email Sending (CanSpam compliant)
- Website Building and Programming
- Website Hosting and Search Engine Optimization
- Almost anything Internet Related

I work with another Ministry that sends out a daily devotion every Mon. - Fri. They have grown from 3,000 to 34,000 readers in
2 years using my system.

Thanks for reading and if I can offer my services to you, Please call me or email me and I will call you back.

If you are not the right person to be contacted, please forward this to right person.

Thanks and God Bless,
Bob
---------------
Please Note:
---------------
The Enemies of Christianity have had my Email Account(s) Closed in the past. If my Email Account gets Closed, Please call me and I will call you right back if you are in the US or Canada. (This is per my current calling plan)

P.S. I also offer my services to Businesses and Individuals

Too much stress...? go 'Fredding'

Geez, we live in a weird, wacky world...

Fredding begins when someone "baits" another person by getting him or her to say a word that rhymes with Fred.

When the target - a waitress in a diner who suggests bread when asked for an alternative to rolls, for example - falls into the trap, the Fredder calls out, "Bread! Fred! Who's Fred, ha!"