KSCR Friends

If you happen to be an affiliate of Amazon and live in California, you’re screwed.  Yep, Amazon, as of today, severed its relationship with all affiliates in California over a sales tax dispute with the wonderful law makers of California.  Amazon refuses to charge online sales tax but California demands that they do.  So the affiliates in California were left holding the bag as Amazon said they just won’t play ball in that state or any other state that demands they charge sales tax.

So again, California, in their quest to tax businesses out of this state has done it again.  You’d think after all the businesses that have left this state due to unfriendly practices that the last thing they would want to do is crush more business.  You see it’s not Amazon that will suffer, it’s the Mom and Pop websites and bloggers that are Amazon affiliates.  It is their business that will suffer and therefore their income will suffer and ultimately the state of California will receive less revenue due to a decrease in income tax and consumption tax.

So in their (lawmakers) quest to generate more revenue it looks like they lost much more.  Typical!

Mark Zuckerberg has publicly announced his new challenge for 2011 –only eating meat that he has slaughtered with his own bare hands.

“This year, my personal challenge is around being thankful for the food I have to eat,” Zuckerberg said. “I think many people forget that a living being has to die for you to eat meat, so my goal revolves around not letting myself forget that and being thankful for what I have.”

Agree or disagree, but I find this to be a novel idea.  Yet this statement by Zuckerberg has, of course, caused much controversy.  I have to ask, why exactly?  Why would eating the meat of an animal you killed vs. some No-Name butcher from SaveMart cause such a stir?

For some reason, when people think of hunting they think murder, yet they are more than willing to run off to their local grocery store and pick up a pack of chicken or a juicy porterhouse.  I will never forget a comment that was posted in an editorial regarding hunting.  It read, “Hunting is unforgivable and vile.  Why don’t you just get your meat at a grocery store where no animals were harmed?”  Really?  Hysterical!

Vegans, while I’m not one, are the only ones that have a leg to stand on when arguing the killing and consumption of meat.  They live a lifestyle completely free of animal products.  But anyone else who chooses to eat any type of meat has no argument against those that choose to hunt or butcher their own meat.  Before grocery stores, what did we all do?  Oh that’s right, we as individuals raised livestock to consume or we hunted.

The problem is, there is no accountability anymore. We now have farmers who raise livestock who sell it to the grocery stores who neatly package up our meat so we can be excused from the mess.  Convenient for sure, but it has made us ultra sensitive to something that is actually quite natural in the animal kingdom.  And in case anyone has forgotten, we belong to the animal kingdom.

So kudos, Zuckerberg.  Enjoy your meat, and I do agree that you will be more thankful for the food provided to you by your fellow animals.

When I sat down today to write a post I had so much juicy news to choose from.  Whether it be, again, Lance Armstrong’s battle to defend his championships amongst the continued doping charges or the early death of “Macho Man” Randy Savage.  But then I realized this was going to be my last post because, after all, the World is going to end tomorrow on May 21, 2011.

Jeez, I thought it was December 21, 2012.  Hollywood believes that right?  They spent millions of dollars creating crappy movies about it.  So what’s up with May 21, 2011?  And what’s up with the 21st?

Well, I guess for years now, 89 year old Harold Camping has been predicting the end of days based on scripture that the world would end on that particular day.  According to Camping and his followers there will be a cataclysmic earth quake worldwide and then fire will spread across the entire earth engulfing everything it its path.  Oh, and by the way this is all supposed to happen at 6pm.  Now is that 6pm GMT time or EST?  He didn’t clarify that.

For months, Camping’s supporters have been out in droves with their signs and billboards warning the general public of the coming of Christ and the end of the world.  Camping earlier predicted the world would end in 1994 but obviously it didn’t.  This time though he says, he is certain.

Well, should life go on tomorrow as usual we always have the Mayan prediction of the December 21, 2012 to look forward to.  I forget exactly how the world ends on that day but we can always refer back to that outstanding Hollywood production, “2012″ to take notes.

In the meantime, Happy Living!

You know sometimes I think school officials have their head so far up their you know what it is astounding.  The case of the boy being suspended for asking a girl to prom in a unique way reminds me of the story when a young 8 year old boy was suspended for school for a bringing a Lego gun to school.  Have you seen how small Legos are?

In Connecticut, a teenage boy with the surname Tate taped up a 12 inch tall sign outside the schools entrance asking a girl to attend prom with him.  You know every girl in that school was wishing their man had done something so creative.  But, leave it to the “stick up your @$*” school officials to suspend the boy for, what!? “posing a safety risk”.

Calls to Shelton High School Headmaster Beth Smith and Shelton Public Schools Superintendent Freeman Burr were not immediately returned on Wednesday.  Really?  Is this because they just figured out what bone heads they are?

Tom Murphy, a spokesman for the Connecticut State Department of Education, said local school officials “do have the authority” to investigate the incident and to determine what is a “fair and appropriate” disciplinary action

Young Tate is reported to be an exemplary student.  Scheduled to take an advanced placement test in statistics on Wednesday, Tate is at the top of his class.  His mother Tracey said he has never been in trouble before and the support Tate is receiving because of this incident has been overwhelming. There has even been a whole Facebook page created to announce the development of an alternate dance so Tate could attend.

Well good for Connecticut and the rest of America for seeing how ridiculous this is.

It hasn’t even been a week after the $65 million dollar royal wedding was on the cover of every newspaper, magazine and tabloid and already it seems as if America and the rest of the world have already forgotten the Princess to be, Kate.  Why? Well it seems as if her strikingly beautiful sister has stole the rug right out from underneath her, unintentionally I would presume.

Pippa Middleton, Kate’s sister, was hard to miss during the Royal nuptials.  In her form-fitting dress created by Sarah Burton, she captured the eye of Englanders and Americans.  Even Prince Harry seemed to be somewhat smitten with the fox.

And the offers are now flooding in.  Reported by TMZ, Pippa was offered a cool $5 million by Steven’s Hirsh’s Vivid Entertainment to do an “adult” film.  Really? Steven did you honestly think the sister of the Duchess of Cambridge would do porn?  What are these people thinking?

Although it hasn’t been reported what Pippa’s response was or if she is going to bother giving one but it seems as if Pippa is getting bombarded with offers.  And she doesn’t need the money to boot.  Her family is worth over 50 million dollars, so dream on Steven.  Five million is just a drop in the bucket to this common girl.