http://alexhenry.com/blog2/ What I Think en-us Nucleus CMS v3.23 Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://alexhenry.com/blog2//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://alexhenry.com/blog2/ http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=50
I encourage you to watch the documentary. It is entertaining. Here are, in my estimation, some of the things you should watch for:

1. Dean Richardson's description of performing orthopaedic sugery on large animals. He said it's like being a glorified carpenter with a little knowledge of biology and anatomy. Yikes.
2. The outpouring of well-wishers, particularly kids, after the incident.Don't get me wrong, I wasn't one of them, but I do admire the affection a person can feel for an animal they've never met. Hell, I admire the affection a person can feel for an animal they reside with. One elementary classroom in New York wrote a book about it and sent it to Barbaro's owners, the Jacksons! That's thoughtful, repsectful and kind, and if it takes an incident, (I hesitate calling it a tragedy-- you call that insensitivity, I call it real) for kids to learn about kindness, thoughtfulness and respect, then I say a million dollar horse is a small price to pay.
3. The sling that they put the horse in after surgery, the pool that they use for his recovery and Dean Richardson's description of how and why they do this. Modern medicine is truly amazing! And acutally very logical. Don't misunderstand, I'd have never thought of it, but it makes great sense!
4. Along the same lines, please pay close attention to the helmets that the staff tending to the horse are wearing while the horse is blindfolded, coming out of anethesia, suspended in midair and about to be dropped into a recovery pool. They are totally awesome, and although they never came right out and said it, I think they're probably worn because the the thought of being rocked in the skull by a thoroughbred horse does not really appeal to many. Those helmets are just another on the long list of reasons that I chose not to pursue a career in veterinary medicine. they're right behind my indifference to animals from all walks of life, and how you can never really be sure what animals are thinking.

In the hours since viewing, I have wondered about a few statements made throughout the course of the program.
First and foremost, who's job is it to nickname sporting events? Who the hell named the Kentucky Derby "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports"? That guy should be fired...
The last two minutes of the Cleveland/ Detroit playoff a few weeks ago were a lot more exciting than all 132 Kentucky Derbys. And the 3rd round of Tyson vs. Holyfield where Tyson bit Holyfield's ear off was 3 minutes, it was 1 minute of legit boxing, then 2 minutes of bush league, guerilla tactic, jungle warfare, insanity-influenced, dirty, chaotic, no-holds barred street fighting all of which are way more exciting than the Kentucky Derby.

OK, I get it, the horse looked like a good racehorse should look as soon as he started to walk, and it won all 5 races it ran before the Kentucky Derby, (which you can look at as a great thing because he was so inexperienced at racing, or you can look at it like it's only 5 races, he only had 5 times to lose, but didn't) but how does that mean he looked good to win the Triple Crown? There are two more races after the Kentucky Derby, he won the first one, and that made him a shoe-in for the last two? The fact that that hasn't happened since Affirmed in '78 should be the first indicator that everyone should wait until, say, the horse wins maybe 2 of 3 races before talk of a Triple Crown winner starts. Am I wrong? Or do people in horse racing circles relish in the ridiculously overstated and stupid-looking?

Maybe this picture answers that question.



]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=50 Fri, 8 Jun 2007 07:16:41 -0400 http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=49


Seriously...after looking at this, is there any question that some brutal shit goes on at Gitmo? What kind of torture was this guy subjected to? No wonder he admitted to plotting 9/11, they probably promised him a chance to wash his hair for the first time in 6 years if he confessed. ]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=49 Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:15:57 -0400 http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=48
James Van Iveren, a 39 man from Oconomowoc, WI says he broke into an apartment with a cavalry sword because he thought he heard a woman being raped, but the sound actually was from a pornographic movie his upstairs neighbor was watching.

"Now I feel stupid," said Van Iveren,who lives with his mother in the building, and has been charged in the case. "This really is nothing, nothing but a mistake."

The neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning damaging the frame and lock.

"Where is she?" Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the sword at the neighbor, the complaint said. "Where is she?"

The neighbor told police Van Iveren became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he had heard a woman being raped. The complaint said that, with the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Van Iveren throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone.

Van Iveren was charged with criminal trespass, criminal damage and disorderly conduct, all while using a dangerous weapon, and is scheduled to appear in court March 5. Together, the misdemeanor counts carry a maximum sentence of 33 months in jail.

Van Iveren said Tuesday that he heard a woman "screaming for help," grabbed the sword, bounded up the stairs, kicked in the apartment door and confronted the man who lived there.

"I intended to hold it behind my back and knock. But I froze and instead, what happened happened," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Contesting his neighbor's account, Van Iveren said he didn't look anywhere in the apartment except the front room, and that he never threatened the neighbor with the sword.

"I had the sword extended, but that was all," he said.

Van Iveren, who lives with his mother in the downstairs apartment, said he did not call police when he heard the noises because he does not have a telephone. He said he barely knew the upstairs tenant.

Police seized Van Iveren's sword, which he said was a family heirloom. No word yet on the status of the neighbor's "extended sword", which he also claims to be quite valuable.

And there they stood, respective swords in hand.

I have a few questions:
1. When going to wreck shop on a neighbor you believe to be raping a woman, who grabs a sword?
2. Is it any surprise that the guy can't distinguish between porn and rape? he's 39 and lives with his mother.


"If loving swordplay, awkward confrontation, breaking and entering and my mother is illegal, then lock me up and throw away the key" says Van Iveren, above]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=48 Thu, 22 Feb 2007 13:28:11 -0500 http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=47
Where do we go from here? How do we pick up the pieces? I'll tell you how, you define the limits of your grief, you confront it head on and then you move on with life. Because life, after all, goes on. I know it's hard, I know it's almost impossible to believe that you'll ever recover from the pain you feel when you remember Anna Nicole Smith and her unintelligible, psychotic, drug-induced crazyspeak at any number of red-carpet functions over the years. I know that it's hard to get over the betrayal we all felt when word came down that there was cheating in NASCAR. I know that any advantage gained was based on one diabolical man playing physics and aerodynamics and thrust vs.wind shear or whatever, to his own advantage and I know that even though I will never pretend to be interested in aerodynamics, or NASCAR for that matter, I know this pain ain't no fleshwound, it goes much deeper. I understand that it feels like Brittany's hair is never going to grow back, I know her nod to Telly Savalas has left us all feeling a bit screwed over. I know. I know.

It's out of concern for you, my pretties, that I'm opening the forum to you opinions, it's all in the name of healing. The question, fair readers, is this:
How do you rank these news stories in order of importance?
For me, it works out like this:

1. NASCAR- Sure, cheaters never win, but I actually read an article about the scandal, talked with a friend about this on a Friday night over a beer, and watched a few laps of the Daytona 500 this weekend just to hear the commentary, which was painfully boring and could've been in a different language for all I know. True, I still could care less about NASCAR, and I shudder when people call it a sport, just like I shuddered when I saw Secretariat on SI's list of 100 Greatest Athletes of all time. It's a fucking horse! But hats off to the cheater that he figured a way to almost beat the system, because it peaked even my discriminating interest. By far the most newsworthy.

2. Anna Nicole Smith- I don't know why people are surprised that she died, I guess it was sudden, but she was a drug-addict. Longevity isn't really a calling card of drug addicts. What's most offensive about this story is that she's being played in the media as a stand-up, respectable woman. She did drugs while she was prego! I don't care what anyone says, I've seen a few pictures, and forgive me, but I call 'em as I see 'em, that baby is cock-eyed. Which is, I'm willing to bet, just the first in a long line of bullshit the kid is going to have to deal with because her mother was not stand-up or respectable.

3. Brittany's hair. Who gives a crap? Seriously...it GROWS BACK! why do we even need to know about it? I could care less if she's cracking up, she's crazy, I get it. She was crazy when she had hair, she's crazy without it. She's crazy. Who cares?

Go ahead, now...let it out, people, let it out.]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=47 Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:43:20 -0500 http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=46
]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=46 Fri, 9 Feb 2007 09:19:44 -0500 http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=45
I guess it's not the asinine, completely incoherent blathering of the religious right that really gets me. It's pretty much the only reason I read or listen to anything the religious right has to say, it's so completely off the wall and retarded that it makes for good comic relief during a long stressful day. Take for example Reverend Tim Ralph, part of Haggard's crack team of homo-converters/counselors, and I quote " He is completely heterosexual, that is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing." First of all, that doesn't even make sense, it sounds like a stonewall kind of answer and a half-assed job of stonewalling at that, and second of all, is he insane? Uh...if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, pays for sex with a man like a duck and smokes meth like a duck...

What really gets me is that after the counselors announced Haggard as "Healthy, Healed and Heterosexual" they suggested he find work in another arena, and move out of the area. Far far far away from them.

Read all about it here

I'm certain he's "completely crazy"
]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=45 Thu, 8 Feb 2007 10:55:06 -0500 http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=44
Let's forget for one minute, that the Easy Bake "Oven" is electric and the "baking" is done by a light bulb, and move on using my own personal experience: when I was a kid, not only was I eating the raw batter that I mixed by the spoonful, but also i was reaching in the "hot" oven and "checking" the brownies with my index finger as they baked time in and time out. I'm sure I was "burned" a few times, a few hundred times is probably more accurate...I sure did love to bake in my younger days...but did I go running to my parents screaming that I just got burned? The answer, ladies and gentlemen is NO, I did not.
Here are 3 reasons why.
1. Eating brownies always wins out over risking a potential light bulb burn. Always. If you're me, and you're not that lucky, but if you were, you'd have known since you were 5 or 6 that eating brownies basically wins out over everything... a sunburn, a blow torch burn, or a really errosive chemical of some kind. Furthermore, a light bulb burn is like the bunny slope of burns. A little perspective, people...
2. That said, I repeat...IT'S A LIGHT BULB. It's not like these girls are sticking their hands into pirranha-infested water to pull out baked goods. It's an oven, an oven seriously lacking in go-power, but an oven nonetheless. I don't understand what parents thought was going to happen in the easy bake OVEN to turn out minicakes and brownies. I guess you could say i'm surprised that people are surprised.
3. The pain felt I felt in my younger years from a mild burn during a hard day's work at my 'ol EBO, paled in comparison to grinding each and every one of my fingers in the Snoopy Snow Cone Maker, which, if we're going by risk to bodily harm, should have been taken off the
market years ago. Unless the goal of the SSCM was to produce blood-flavored snow cones, because I DEFINITELY mastered that recipe.

Now, chubby adolescent pre-teens of America, take a little advice from a distinguished and pedigreed predecessor and suck it up. ]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=44 Tue, 6 Feb 2007 10:22:50 -0500 http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=43 but the backlash from my last obama post has been far-reaching, and i feel the need to continue. that's right, folks, alexhenry.com is cause for a celebration across the nation. this comes from one of my loyal readers in the north carolina area, we'll call him Skidz to protect his identity. If I believed some of this stuff, I wouldn't want people to know my real name, either...

AH.com: i don't hate president bush. i oppose many of his policies, both foreign and domestic. but i DID appreciate the $200 check i got when he first moved into office.

Skidz: You didn’t GET it, it was your money in the first place. Don’t ever assume that the government has a right to your money. It is yours, and the contract we make as civilized people is for government to be entrusted with a SMALL proportion of it to help maintain our rights as outlined in the first 10 amendments, which means they should defend the nation from internal and external threats. It does not mean they should use that money to fund stem cell or any other type of medical research. It does not mean they should be involved in public education through NCLB (no where in the Constitution), it does not mean they should provide for the indigent, old, sick, or homeless (Medicaid, Medicare, prescription drug programs, social security are all unconstitutional) or play Robin Hood with our money. Bush is a centrist. He has not controlled spending and has been soft on immigration. We do need a return to conservatism of the Reagan type, but we have no candidates even close to that this time. Reagan got it. He knew that government at its best is a necessary evil and at its worst is dangerous and oppressive. He knew that the free market takes care of meaningless legislation like the minimum wage (although I’m sure a lot of teenagers who can’t vote appreciate the pay raise if they don’t get fired first for raising business labor cost, which interestingly enough also encourages employers to hire illegal aliens who don’t complain to the ACLU about labor abuses). Reagan knew, like Bush, that lowering taxes increases government revenues which makes me wonder why democrats always vote to raise them knowing that it NEVER helps to balance the budget. It retards economic growth, thereby lowering revenues. Interesting. I could write books about how democratic policy (and liberal republican policy) over the last 70 years has turned our free market democracy into a socialist state. I am so frustrated how government has replaced fathers in the home. I am so frustrated at how French we have become in our outlook toward national defense. I just pray that we come to our senses in time to not cut and run in Iraq and the world inviting terrorism on our soil


See, I told you not to get me started

AH.com: see, this was my point:

1. i am opposed to NCLB, i have been since day 1.

2. i am frustrated by the lack of fathers in the home.

3. i do not believe we should cut and run in iraq.

4. i am frustrated by our national defense planning.

there are many things on which we agree, as different as our personal ideaologies are, we share common beliefs. i believe that barack obama sees these common beliefs, and wants to change them for the common good. i read all the time that this is "pandering to the center." if it works, and we all get what we want, who cares? for the record, i do not believe that this is pandering to the center, i say this is a moderate liberal platform. My hope for you and your family is that you never find yourself on the losing end of life, and you don't need to use the social programs that you call "unconstitutional." and I take issue with your Robin Hood analogy because I pay these taxes and trust me, I ain't wealthy. And although i AM saddened by the disintegration of the American family, and the abscence of fathers in our children's homes, I cannot fathom blaming liberal politics for it.

Skidz: Liberals since FDR’s great society (or was that LBJ) have taken the feel good approach of giving money from our pockets to the less fortunate. I’m not talking about private charity which I wholeheartedly support, I’m referring to confiscatory taxes. The unemployed, the mentally ill, the sick, the old, the too lazy to work, the single mothers,etc. It’s as simple as this, give a man a fish, feed him for the day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. The policies of the left are exactly what has caused the disintegration of the home. For many in the cycle of poverty, there is no incentive to get out. If I want to leave my home, the best thing to do is get pregnant, then I can qualify for public assistance and section 8 housing. If I marry the father, then they cut off my subsidy. And I am not over simplifying this. This is precisely the cause. What happened to the rugged individualists who founded this country; those that would provide for their families and were too proud to take a handout. They were replaced by people who feel entitled to a certain standard of living for doing next to nothing. And the men are caught on the outside. They were raised by single mothers, have no sense of responsibility themselves, and are dating girls who only need them for their sperm anyway.

And of course we want the same thing, Alex. Everyone wants peace in America, better schools, less crime, a better quality of life. But it can’t happen when we open up the public treasury for everyone to take a piece. I don’t know what Obama stands for so I won’t argue ignorantly with you. Here are some other charismatic leaders though. Louis Farrakhan moves people but he is anti-Semitic. A person can have leadership qualities and charisma but not be fit to serve. Again, I don’t know that that is Obama, but I do know that he leans to the left, wants universal health care, and supports pulling our troops out of Iraq and I need to know more than he makes me feel good.


Anyway, I’m not putting all of the blame on the democrats. I’m putting the blame on liberal policy makers including many Rebublicans in the House and Senate. We had 6 years to cut spending, we didn’t do it. We had 6 years to put something in place at the borders, we didn’t do it. We had 6 years to start drilling off shore and in Alaska to make ourselves non-dependent on foreign oil but we gave in to the environmentalists. We had 6 years to lead and we chose instead to make nice with the left and the press. Frankly I don’t get it. I have become a great supporter of term limits so that when in office, politicians can again act on principles rather than on getting re-elected, which they do by how much stuff they can get for their constituents from the public dole.

Liberalism is just too easy and short sighted. Do what feels good now without looking to future aftermath.

But Alex, I like you. Keep writing so that I can see what the other side thinks. It is good for me to be challenged and it is hard to be too irate because you make me laugh even when I disagree with you.

]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=43 Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:58:45 -0500 http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=42
Does Obama have a black snowball’s chance in hell of winning the general election?

I could write about how critical I feel it is that the top of the Democratic ticket never voted for the war in Iraq. Or I could talk about how I think that the pop-culture phenomenon of Obama – the exact reason that some use as an excuse to dismiss him -- is the hard and fast proof of his electability. Or I could talk about how "experience" in Washington, experience in the last eight years in particular, is going to be an albatross around the neck of every candidate with it. For me, it’s all about the way he articulates himself, the way he speaks. I’ve heard the criticism from the left on his "hollow platitudes," but I believe that its speeches like his are the exactly what moves the majority of Americans I am not ashamed to admit that I was moved and inspired when I listened to his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. His platitude, the idea that we have more in common than we have different, is important. The idea that we can improve our nation, right the wrongs, change for the better is important. Hope is important. Right or wrong, the people that are in the position to decide who will be our next president, people like me, are not interested in details, and you know why? Because even a simpleton like me knows that the will of the people is what drives politicians to figure out the details. The Gettysburg Address wasn’t about details; it was about moving the will of the people. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech wasn’t about details, and neither was JFK’s inaugural address. These were speeches made to inspire, to move, to change minds, a rough sketch of the blueprints for the future, not a scale model. The Democratic Party should know by now that a general election isn't going to be won by someone without charisma. For me, electability is about finding someone who can move the will of the people. For me, Barack Obama does that better than anyone.

But aren't his race and name going to kill him?
Well…I don't know. I suppose they could. But if we as a nation are so simple and shallow that we won't elect someone because they're black or because their last names rhymes with Osama or because their middle name is Hussein, then frankly, I think we deserve another four years of George W. Bush.

Obama is spending too much time pandering to the center. The Democrats should nominate Jerry Brown.

I’m the first to say that Obama doesn't believe in everything I believe in. A good example: I sincerely doubt that he's going to legalize, regulate, and tax "soft" drugs. I know there’d be a heavy and collective sigh of relief from many of my pot-smoking, soft-drug enjoying readers, and on paper, this concept makes a lot sense to me. But this country isn't a Porsche that can turn on a dime. It's a gigantic 18-wheeler filled with brick of lead towing a 45-foot boat filled with 100 ridiculously overweight people, and it's going way over the speed limit. Bush has moved us so far to the right that we're hitting the rumble strips on the shoulder. Most people on this truck/boat/fat person metaphor I have going aren't comfortable just jerking the wheel left as much as we can. We need to safely move back into the right lane before we can move into the passing lane, and that's going to require someone who can convince people that the right lane is a safe place to be. And that person ain’t Jerry Brown.

Obama realizes that rather than wasting time fighting over things that simply aren't going to happen anytime soon, we should look for issues that we all agree need to be changed and change them.
]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=42 Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:48:55 -0500 http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=41
Oh yes, I've been reading.

I've decided to share with you my thoughts on Ms. Carroll and her series of articles.

Now I shall pause and allow you to praise God, gather your thoughts, and to collect yourselves from the chills that have inevitably crawled up your spines.

Before I start, I want to get something straight: In no way do I want to minimize Ms. Carroll's ordeal. No one knows better than I that kidnapping is an awful situation through which no one should have to suffer. She endured her captivity, she outwitted her captors and her behavior during that time should be excused, even her treacherous disavowal of The Mother of Us All, America.

That said, what's with the Manic Panic? Let's be honest, vampire red is a rough look to pull off, even for the best featured 28-year-old. I never judge, but perhaps it's not the best choice for a gal with a look that's more, say, burka-friendly.


28-year old journalist Jill Carroll, above, is living proof that the wrong shade can hold one hostage just as effectively as an AK47-carrying dust-dweller...]]> General http://alexhenry.com/blog2/index.php?itemid=41 Fri, 1 Sep 2006 13:10:55 -0400