Wag the Christmas Tree ...

Some days I immensely enjoy The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly. And some days, I wonder what got into him. He has railed for what seems an eternity about the "secular progressives" and lately has whined about the "war on Christmas." Are you shittin' me? How friggin stupid. I mean, does he just pull this stuff out of a hat? And if so, why are Sean Hannity and the rest of the folks at Fox News wearing the same hat? Today's Radio Factor was another episode of him whining about what stores say "happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." According to Mr. Falafel, the phrase "happy holidays" offends Christians, but Muslims, Jews, and the rest of the world should have no problem with "Happy Holidays." Um. What? I'm sorry. This is stupid. I celebrate Christmas. But if you want to celebrate something else, so be it. And if you wish me "Happy Holidays," I won't be offended in the slightest. Just thought you might want to know. Is the War in Iraq going soooo poorly that O'Reilly needs to invent new wars to distract people? Like the War on Christmas? Give me a break, O'Reilly. There is no War on Christmas. It's all in your head. And it's very lonely for that matter.

Know who's a ho?

She's always with Bluto and then with Popeye ... and you know she's all "with" whichever one's around once the lights go out. I don't know why Popeye don't kick her to the curb.

Sorry. Kids were watching cartoons earlier.

Now that THAT's behind us ...

Now that the wretched Thanksgiving holiday is behind us, it's time to go spend some money. I'm off to KB Toys and maybe Circuit City and who knows where else.

Later.

Morning thoughts ...

Just some thoughts about the day ahead.

1) I'm glad Cercone lost in Niagara County's 15th district. I'm not a "journalist," I'm a "talk show host." There's nothing that says I can't be openly in favor (or opposition) of one candidate or another.

2) Note the wording of #1 - I'm glad Cercone lost. Not that I'm happy Apolito won. Harry has lots of catching up to do to make me happy as a constituent, but Scott's bow to the dark side lost my vote. Considering the small margin of victory, one would have to wonder if he coulda pulled it off had he stayed positive. He would have had at least one more vote - mine.

3) In the 12th district, it looks like Ceretto beat Johnson. That means the GOP picked up a seat overall and are closer to world (or at least county) domination. And I'm a step farther from GRIDLOCK. (I should have t-shirts made).

4) Governor-yet-to-be-elected, Eliot Spitzer wants to remove the privelidge of drawing their own districts from the New York Assembly and Senate. I support that entirely. He called it "unconscionable." Hard to disagree with that. I'll talk more about this at 11.

5) Watched Star Wars Episode III again last night (this time with my wife). She thought it was as good as I did. I may be better than Empire. And that's saying alot.

6) I started a "group" on MySpace: Niagara Libertarians. Gotta spread the ideals. Hopefully some of you will help.

7) Today's interview is with Bernard Von Nothaus, architect of the Liberty Dollar. Should be interesting. All of my "the Fed is evil" listeners will love this guy.

8) More later.

Back to the ... Back to the ... PoTell ...

Another day. Another dolla.

Yep, it's Monday and as I said last week, we're getting back to politics on "the show" today. The absentee ballots in Niagara County's 12th and 15th legislative races are to be opened at the Board of Elections and those absentee ballots will be the deal maker/breaker in each race.

What won't change is that the Republicans will control the County Legislature. But that hardly makes the races a moot point. It's HOW MUCH control the GOP will have that matters. It could work out at a 4 vote swing - the difference between a "victory" and a the ever popular "mandate." Can the Elephants steamroll the rest of the legislature even moreso than they have been? Or do they need to use some due diligence?

I'll be honest, I'm hoping the Dems take both races. Not that I'd really trust the Dems running the county any more than the Republicans, but the closer we are to 50/50, the better off the public will be. Yes, I believe that GRIDLOCK is a good thing. You see, quite simply, I believe that the less government, the better ... and what better way to ensure less government than to keep elected officials busy arguing with each other rather than creating jobs for their cronies. Ooh. Look. Something shiny.

To make a long story short (too late), I'm looking forward to getting back to local politics ... and politics in general. If you want more, make sure to tune into Dialog on WLVL AM 1340 at 11:10 this morning or download the podcast later.<

Good morning Sunday ...

I have a horrible habit - regiment. It's Sunday, but I still set the alarm for 7. Saturday too. During the week, I get up at 6. Just cause. That's the time to get up.

So here it is 8:30 and I've already read two newspapers and looked at all the good ads (weak this week) and I thought I'd come blog and spill my guts.

Saw the new Harry Potter movie last night. It was excellent. Parts of it were better than any other HP movie I've seen. Parts of it were weaker. I wouldn't say this was the best movie yet, but I wasn't disappoined - as my wife was. It was a little scarier than the previous ones, but my 5 year old slept just fine when we got home. Ron said "hell" a few times, but other than that, the PG-13 is unneccesary (in my opinion). We tried to go to the 5:10, but when we got there (at 4:40) it was already sold out. So was the 6:20. So we went to the 7:20. The kids stayed up very well. I was a proud dad.

To kill time we went to ... ... the new super center in Claramherstiamsville - whatever that is there. Very nice. A little more high class than the one in Springville. More Wegmans than Tops, if you caught my analogy on the show the other day. At one point, we overheard some guy talking on his cell phone he said, "Oh, you're in Walmart. Me too. Where you at?" Thought that was funny. We ended up buying a little thing of coffee as a present for my wife's boss (don't tell him) and a bag of potatoes for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Today's ads, as I said, weren't that great. I figure the good ones come out on Wednesday. Most of the entertainment ads (Circuit City, Best Buy, etc) feature the new War of the Worlds movie with Tom Cruise, which I think looks dreadful. BUT - alongside it, I noticed that the old show, War of the Worlds, has released season one. That was one of my favorite shows EVER. I'm jazzed. Told my wife I'd like it for Christmas. *crosses fingers*

Well, I'm off to get ready for my part time Sunday job. I have a long day ahead of me. TTYL.

Working out ...

Last year (or maybe early this year) I bought a Gazelle. No, not the animal with the big horns ... the excercise machine (you can doit).

One of the best purchases I ever made. The secret to excercise equipment is to USE IT. (who knew).

I had been doing 5 miles a day (takes an hour - burns 500 calories) and eating healthy. Then I blew my knee out in drunken bowling accident. Couldn't work out any more, but still stuck with the diet (lots of celery and salads. No beer -- except Tuesday (bowling night) -- ). Well, eventually, my eating habits got worse again (although not as bad as they had been originally (I can eat like a MoFo)). And whaddya know ... of the 38 pounds I had lost, I regained about 11.

So here's me with a pre-new-years resolution.

My knee will never be the same ... but it's better than it was right after the fall. So I pop some ibuprofrin and jump on the Gazelle. I'm going to try to get back up to 5 miles a day ... I just did 2 1/2 and I feel great (that's the funny thing is it feels GREAT to excercise ... but we procrastinate).

I'd like to get back down to 180 by the end of the year. That way I won't need any New Years resolutions. (maybe to swear more ... or drink more ... waste more money at strip clubs ... I'm not sure)

So there you have it. Aren't you sorry you just wasted three minutes reading it?

Show notes (Naked black man in my bed)

Um, yeah. So today's show was officially all over the board. We talked about free tuition to college. We talked about the Niagara Power Project. We talked about Harry Potter. I played a bit with George W Bush and Dick Cheney being picked by the sorting hat. Funny stuff. We talked about the man who woke up next to a naked guy he didn't know. At least the naked guy had Blue. A woman yelled at me for swearing in front of her kids. Said I'm a model teacher. (scary). PC Tony told me off air that he'd co-host the show with me some time soon. Should be fun. A woman talked about National Fuel giving 5 years free gas to Pakistanis. (For the record, I spoke to a National Fuel representative this afternoon who said the claim is false. "No one gets free heating fuel. Employees don't even get a discount.") Monday we get back to politics. Local even. The Cercone/Apolito race and Johnson/Ceretto race should be finalized* Monday.

*barring lawsuits and challenges - which are both actually likely.

It's snowing ...

It snowed today.

I love the snow.

It's cleansing. Invigorating. And oddly - cheery.

I've always liked the snow - and cold weather in general.

I had asthma as a child (I don't have problems any more). But the cold air just opened up my lungs and allowed me to breathe like I was breathing for the first time.

I love the snow.

Even now, if I'm in a heated room. A car with it's heater on, for example. If it gets too hot, I just can't breathe. I have to crack open a window. So there I am ... doing 75 with my heat full tilt and the window open. Idiot.

I love the snow.

Next stop - Christmas.

Show notes (Dolah Saleh) and more

I must admit, I was hoping for some phone calls today. I thought it was an interesting topic - and paticularly timely ... especially in Lockport. But sometimes you just never know. At least I had an opportunity to show off my wit. For Dolah's website, click here. It snowed out today, but it's not TOO cold. Could, of course, stand to be warmer. I keep pointing people to MySpace and slowly they trickle in. A lot of people are nervous about signing up for things. It's understandable, I suppose. Thanksgiving is in a week. *sigh* I can't believe how fast time goes. More later.

Show notes (Thanksgiving with NCHS)

Ann Marie seemed nice. It's always tough when John isn't around cause he can talk FOREVER and I don't have to worry about filling the gaps when he's here. I was kind of disappointed that we didn't get a reaction to the "pie" question. I think that makes for a good poll question. Look for it to appear in the next couple days. I was being honest about the Thanksgiving Dinner thing. We really are having turkey ... and that is kind of a big deal. I was also being honest about re-running the "I Hate Thanksgiving" show for Turkey Day. I'll also be running a "Worst of Leffler" (Volume 7) the day after Thanksgiving so I can get good deals and maybe see a movie. I think "Yours, Mine and Ours" looks good. Oh, and we're going to the new Harry Potter movie this weekend, most likely. More later.

Pre-show thoughts

So it's just before 11. Usually I'd be doing last minute prep for the show - making sure I have my facts, figures, news articles, etc. in hand. But today's guest is the Niagara County Historical Society. They come with topic in hand ... and I don't find out until they get here. So I'm just surfing the web and singing Evil Bastard by Gorilla Punch. My wife and I were talking this morning about having local bands come to WLVL and jam for half an hour ... playing that for a week or so in place of The Interview. That'd be cool. I'm in an exceedingly good mood. The kind of mood you're in when you just got lucky on a first date and think there's more in the near future ... but obviously, neither is the case. But that's the mood I'm in, nonetheless. Yet, at the same time, I'm apprehensive cause the Historical Society is usually a more laid-back show and I'm concerned it'll downgrade my level of chipperness (or would that be chipperdom?). I'm really hoping more people from "the forum" will find their way over here and get their own MySpace page.

Show notes (business deals)

Tuesday's show went pretty well. I sometimes worry that a topic can't sustain a whole hour - especially when I'm not carrying reams of papers, news stories, and documents about the topic (as I wasn't on Tuesday). Some good ideas for businesses to move into Lockport, including a few businesses I've never heard of. I wasn't making it up about the Olive Garden. As a member of the media, I've heard OG rumors for five years. I'll believe it when I see it ... but man, my wife would love it. We went to the Olive Garden for dinner on Friday. The kids like it too. That woman called again at the end of the show. It's like all the oxygen gets sucked out of the room. I feel bad talking smack ... but I'm thinking anyone who's reading this (is with-it enough to be on the internet) knows exactly what I mean. Tuesday's Interview (with Stephen Ives) was actually recorded on Monday - explaining the odd exchange in the middle about it "starting tonight" instead of "last night."

Show notes (fun facts about men)

Today's show was fun ... Fun Fact about Men. As stereotypical as it was, most of it was soooo true. The best part was the guy that knew the types of lettuce. I never woulda known. Click here for even MORE types of lettuce. The pension stuff - although not exactly jovial, was a good topic ... and it met the criteria of ANYTHING BUT POLITICS. That last caller ... the woman who's always "okay, I guess" ... will someone buy her a drink! She has the innate ability to SUCK THE LIFE OUT OF A SHOW!!! The bar I went to Saturday, BTW, was Gonzos. My buddy I talked to: Dennis Farley. Good man. Also, I didn't play the President's Weekly Radio Address cause I quit playing the real one - it sucks. And I didn't play the parody cause it wasn't exactly FCC friendly this week ... but it was very funny. I suggest you listen to it ... but only if you're not easily offended.

Click here for podcast of Monday's show.