UncleBad's Amazon Emporium http://astore.amazon.com/uncl-20
Last year's holiday shoppers spent $4,000 at my Amazon store, netting me a tidy $160.
This year, I expect consumer confidence a bit lower, but for more people to "remember" to shop with UncleBad.
None of the proceeds are going to charity. They do directly into my pockets. Thank you.
Roman Polanski is facing extradition to the United States for his 1977 crimes of drugging and raping a 13 year old girl. In case you are not familiar with the case, in which Polanski pleaded guilty, you can catch up by reading the facts of the case over at The Smoking Gun.
Over 100 in the film industry have signed an petition demanding immediate release of Polanski.
Here are the names as of September 29th: LINK Names on the list include Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and (surprise!) Woody Allen. [Update: The list is up to 138 names.]
Too bad these people couldn't include their reasoning for seeking release of this pedophile. I'd love to know what is going through their twisted minds.
Rape of a 13 year old girl isn't something I can personally look the other way about, no matter how much time has passed.
"French philosopher and writer" Bernard-Henri Lévy is gathering support from writers and other artists: LINK
"Poland’s Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski told the Polish news agency PAP that he and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner would ask U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to offer Polanski clemency." source I can't imagine Hillary would entertain this idea for a second. While I dislike Hillary, there's no way she sides with the French on this. Speaking of the French...
"French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday in an interview with France-Inter radio that he hoped the 76-year-old director would be released."
"French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand ... the nephew of former president Francois Mitterrand, said Polanski had been "trapped and thrown to the lions" by the Americans and their Swiss collaborators." source
Ah, the French. Exactly why don't the French have an extradition treaty with the US? Apparently in their culture, great works of art can balance out reprehensible, criminal behavior.
I know the rape victim doesn't want all this stirred up again, so perhaps the media can leave her alone. However, I doubt that will happen.
No matter what happens to Polanski, I hope people keep signing the petition and outing themselves. Knowing exactly who are the Godless monsters among us is always a good idea.
What in the world?
This seems contrary to everything he stands for! Why else would I spend hours making my own baked beans when I could simply open a can of them? Why did I spend an entire afternoon drilling and chopping coconuts with the goal of making a coconut cake from scratch when I could simply bake a boxed cake mix or buy a cake at the store? Alton Brown was the reason! He has preached to me about avoiding the pre-packaged and the bland for years. He taught us that with a little extra effort, you can enjoy something grand! This is the last thing Alton should be endorsing.
Miller Lite is a horrible beer that I would never serve to guests, much like a store bought apple pie. The very idea of adding Miller Lite to a "Holiday Feast" is an insult to whatever holiday you might be celebrating.
I realize that everyone has their price, but this particular endorsement is a betrayal to his fans and his profession. How embarrassing. Someone get me a beer. No, I mean a real beer.
This is from the Telegraph:
'Drunkorexia slimmers skip meals for alcohol'
By Rebecca Smith, Medical EditorLast Updated: 2:42am GMT 18/03/2008
Women are increasingly skipping meals in order to "spend" their daily calories on drink in a phenomenon known as "drunkorexia".
Gram for gram alcohol has more calories
than carbohydrate or proteinWith pressure on young women to drink but also remain slim, many are now swapping dinner for a large glass or two of wine.
Slimming clubs where food items are given points and dieters have to stick to a daily limit may encourage the practice, according to experts.
They said the habit, widespread in America, is becoming more common in Britain.
Prof Janet Treasure, the head of the eating disorder unit at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, said the practice was very dangerous as it was effectively combining binge drinking and disordered eating patterns.
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"They get fully hooked, it is an extremely noxious thing. It is more common with bulimia than anorexia but you get the combination of empty calories with no nutritional value and the risky behaviour that goes with being drunk."
Gram for gram alcohol has more calories than carbohydrate or protein and a small 150ml glass of white wine can contain 150 to 170 calories.
This would mean a large pub glass of wine which is commonly 250ml would hold as many calories as an average light lunch.
A shot of vodka with a low calorie tonic mixer is a more modest 100 calories while some beer can be a gut-busting 250 calories a pint.
Susan Price, the spokesman for the British Dietetic Association, said missing meals in order to drink more was not an appropriate way to lose weight or remain a healthy weight.
"You are more likely to be binge drinking. What you should do is eat a healthy balanced diet and choose low calorie mixers and non-alcohol low calorie soft drinks."
Awesome. Does this mean there's a support group? I'd love to attend some of the meetings. You decided to skip some meals because you strictly budgeted your caloric intake to include nothing but cocktails? Awesome. I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. Your rationalization skills are on par with my own. Let me raise a glass to all the drunk but soon to be skinny chicks! The article doesn't indicate if this behavior is perfect or not. In a perfect scenario, the women skip a meal, have some cocktails, then seek out sexorcise.
For the most part, I'm hanging in there. Breakfast is easy, in that I enjoy the coffee and the fruit. While the idea of bacon, toast and jam, grits, omelettes, hash browns, ham, and a tall café con leche sounds like something I'd be interested in, I really don't have the time for all that. My weekday breakfasts suit me just fine. Lunch, however, is a little more troubling. My M-F lunch consists of escaping from work and hanging out at a restaurant for the better part of an hour. Since the beginning of the diet, I mostly sit at my desk eating celery and carrots. This makes the work day seem much longer, and infinitely more miserable. Yesterday's lunch was running errands and walking around the park, just to change up the routine.
The shedding of the extra weight was supposed to make me feel better. Not having a spare tire around my waist was supposed to make me happier. Getting to that point is making me feel depressed. I have little doubts that what's missing is the exercise component. My sedentary lifestyle needs to change a bit. Diet alone may shed some pounds, but it's not a long term solution.
Went to bed on Thursday night at about 8pm, so my batteries were fully charged for Friday. Sleep is an interesting diet strategy. While I'm busy sawing logs, there's little opportunity to stuff my face with pizza. Maybe I should aim for 12 hours of sleep every night.
Friday's breakfast consisted of fruit salad (blueberries, mango, strawberries) and Friday's lunch was my usual rabbit mix of celery, carrots and radishes. Friday supper was a slice of hickory smoked turkey (note: hickory is a bit too strong for the delicate flavor of turkey) and two slices of salami. I realize the cold cuts aren't exactly diet food, but that meat was the only solid food eaten on Friday night.
I brought home bags of citrus from work, so the juicing process started around 8 PM, and drank quite a few grapefruit and vodka cocktails. 
The ratio I like for this drink is the juice of one small grapefruit, one shot of vodka, three ice cubes, and two shakes of salt. Stir. I serve the cocktails in Old Fashioned glasses, and one would be amazed at the rate of consumption by the average guest.
Let's see what I was ingesting.
Vodka- 1 oz. - 60 calories
Grapefruit Juice - 6 oz. - 72 calories
That's around 130 calories per drink, and I tossed back 6 or 7, so most likely I drank around 500 calories. Maybe the alcohol isn't such a good idea. On the other hand, I stayed up until around 2 am, so I'm sure I burned more calories while entertaining I would from sleeping. Yes, the power of rationalization.
Before bed I popped two Phillips tablets. As of this morning I can report the good news. Gentle. Overnight. Relief.
The woman in the video is gobbling down the tablets like Altoids, but I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you would enjoy having a bathroom emergency while out to the movies. I looked into how the Milk of Magnesia works.
"Milk of magnesia is a saline type laxative. This means that the magnesia acts to pull a salt or saline solution into the intestines from the blood. This excessive fluid then provides a flushing or laxative action within the intestines."
So while the tablets won't give you explosive diarrhea or anything, your large intestine filled with water usually requires some corrective action on your part. There's no way I'd take three of those on a date.
Breakfast this morning was a piece of bacon. Once again, I know it's not a diet 
