Rusty Syringes

Beer was put in the mail yesterday.

They have a crazy response to everything. I've only engaged with them because of the alarming rise in people who believe this baloney. I've seen estimates that 1 to 2 percent of people believe the Earth is flat. A lot of it has been attributed to there being so many baloney-science videos on YouTube. The video surge has been so alarming that scientists have responded by putting up videos explaining why the Earth is round. You can't argue with stupid or crazy, because they just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience. Pin one of these idiots into a corner, and they just start playing that Jesus card and spitting out Bible verses they interpret to support their beliefs. One of them told me yesterday that I needed to repent for challenging their beliefs, even though you won't find any preachers in mainstream Christianity talking about how the Bible says the Earth is flat.

The ones I'm trolling right now present themselves as persecuted Christians as spit out Bible versus they swear are proof of a flat Earth. I'd buy into Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster before I'd ever entertain the idea of a flat Earth. I noted all the countries on this round-as-fock planet that have put satellites in orbit, and that includes countries such as Iran and North Korea. I said, "Why would a bunch of countries that hate each other conspire to keep a lid on this whole flat-earth stuff." And their response was that they all just happened to agree on some Antarctica treaty. WAS THAT JUST A COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!

Like "Shark Dance"!

It just bothers me that they'd be so ignorant. They've got an answer for everything and think this whole spherical Earth thing has been a well-orchestrated conspiracy for more than 2,000 years. What's disturbing is how quickly people are gravitating to it. I wonder if the people at the top this thing are profiteering from it somehow. Somebody yesterday on Facebook posted a screen shot from this website: https://ourwayisthehighway.wordpress.com/2017/04/01/12-actual-landmarks-that-can-only-be-seen-on-a-flat-earth/ They said being able to see the Statue of Liberty from 60 miles away proved that the Earth was flat. We live near Dallas, and the town of Canton on Interstate 20 is about 60 miles away. There is a water park there. So I laid down this challenge to her: Go to Canton. Take the stairs up to the top of the tallest water slide. Look west. Dallas is 60 miles away, and its tallest building is more than 900 feet tall, while the Statue of Liberty is only 300 feet tall. If you believe the Statue of Liberty can be seen from 60 miles away, surely from atop a high place being able to see a 900-foot-tall building from the same distance. She responded by saying she "would need special equipment." I asked her what that equipment was, and she didn't respond. Jeebus.

A year or so ago, someone told me that a guy I knew believed this whole flat-earth baloney. My first thought was how fun it would be for the Geek Club to saddle up once again and go jihad some flat-earth forum, which I still think would be hilarious. But also started to think about how to argue and insult a flat earther should I run across one, which I did yesterday on social media. The first thing they do is play the Jesus card and that their Christian beliefs are under siege. Then out come the links to baloney science videos and all that. These people are SERIOUS, and arguing with them is like arguing McNair vs. Pennington or like those ancient political debates that raged here and wore out everyone. Crazy shite!

Having spent 30 years as a newspaper journalist - 20 in management as an editor and 10 of it as a reporter - I haven't picked up a newspaper in almost five years, and I rarely look at a newspaper website. Newspapers started struggling after the 1970s but found ways to remain financially strong until about 2007, when the industry realized it was in a death spiral from which it most likely would not survive. So began the cutbacks, layoffs and "do more with less" philosophy. I had to pull employees, some of them who were friends, into an office and tell them their services no longer were needed. I horded responsibility in order to make myself invaluable, but the ax fell on me in August 2014. I got laid off and replaced with someone with 20 years less experience, and that position has since been cut altogether. What you have left are a bunch of inexperienced journalists running the show, and the most important thing of all - content - takes an enormous hit. Journalists just run with whatever news release comes along and don't bother to hunt down all the other angles. For example, Walgreens a couple of years ago put out a news release naming my city as the nation's flu capital. The local newspaper just ran with it, not bothering to talk to local health-department officials, the CDC, anyone affiliated with a local health-care outlet or even anyone who had or recently had the flu. If you're going to do a flu story, you need to talk to real people who have it or have had it. Super easy to find in today's social-media world. Walgreens based its news release on Tamiflu sales, and if the newspaper journalists had done some digging, they would have discovered that the two major hospitals here had prescribed Tamiflu to all of its employees - thousands of them - as a pre-emptive measure. They also failed to report that local doctors would prescribe Tamiflu to an entire family if even a single member of it came down with the flu. It was a terribly reported story - and Walgreens got a ton of free advertising - but that's what you get today. Newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and New York Times still put out excellent work, but the industry as a whole is barely a shell of a shell of itself. Television news is in just as bad a shape. Who makes time to sit down and watch the news at 6 or 10? Yet both newspapers and TV continue to use their busted business models, hoping doing the same thing over and over will somehow get different results. Insanity. The only survivors will be the big outlets that remain a vital source of community news. And the small-town newspapers that don't have to compete for precious advertising dollars with local television. It's sad, but fock 'em. I started at a time when newspaper organizations enjoyed a 30 percent profit margin while paying peanuts to its journalists. And then they went and gave it all away for free online, thinking the ad dollars would just follow from print to the website, but it turned out to be only pennies on the dollar, because online advertising was far more competitive than they expected, and anyone could start a website and slap revenue-generating ads on it. I wouldn't be surprised if half the newspapers operating now are gone in five years.

Cersei is SMOKING. I liked her better with the long hair, though.

In the preview for the next episode, Euron is looking into the sky, presumably searching for the dragon. I wonder if the focker can swim underwater ...

My predictions: Danny and her dragon get killed in action. Jaime takes out Cersei. Arya and Hound take out The Mountain. Jon Snow takes over Iron Thrown.

Would anyone drop Josh Gordan to pick up Golladay?

It's amazing how these women go on these shows and have the uncanny ability to deny even the slightest corn shot.

Wiffle, my love How the hell are you?

Kind of a bummer to see some of these Silverbacks in such hardships.

Wow, I seem to have missed a lot.