Less Ordinary 2009 Christmas Gift Tips

Edition 1 – Stuffed Animals

When buying for young girls and many women, especially so for young-at-heart women of all ages, I have found that stuffed animals often make great gifts. And when it comes to less ordinary gifts I have found adorable looking very small to oversized stuffed animals can be real attention grabbers. The final choice usually comes to down to balancing the woman’s style versus your pocketbook. Less ordinary gifts tip for the day- when the choice of oversized stuffed animals is the correct direction – forget having any beer money for a while! Also tip two for the day from an experienced purchaser– if you are lucky enough to find an oversized stuffed animal locally – buy it there and always, always take a bodyguard! While walking down the middle of a large superstore or mall, with your purchased treasure, does manage to make you popular with lovely ladies of all ages. It can be a dangerous trek from the store to your final destination, where you can secure the safety of your stuffed critter. These critters create some sort of hormone inducing effects that will make you the target of every female who secretly longs for a huggable $90 Giant Pink Rabbit, or that adorable and cuddly lifelike $250 Panda Bear (or whatever other lovable creature you have purchased) yet figures she is probably getting a toaster, iron or vacuum for Christmas from her honey. For that reason I highly recommend taking a big burly bodyguard along. I can testify from experience it is best for your personal safety. (Also, for my fellow “of the still clueless variety” males out there in Internet Land- toasters, irons, vacuums… non-personal items are not what your sweety is normally hoping for Christmas. For you guys, I highly recommend reading O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”. It is a short story so it will not rob you of too much football time.)

Now you say you don’t want to spend megabucks for a less ordinary gift for your young daughter, lovely wife, sexy fiancée, wonderful mother/mother-in-law etc… Okay maybe you are understandably short on cash or like me have occasional outbreaks of Ebenezer Scrooge disease.  Well you can still find a very cute less ordinary stuffed animal gift without breaking the bank account over at build-a-bear. They won’t be Goliath, but they are very pleasing adorable creatures, which for a few dollars more you can choose from added extras that will make the critter less ordinary and more affectionate for the gift-receiver.

That’s all for this edition of theScoundrel’s less ordinary Christmas gift tips.

Black Friday Avoidance 2009

Ho-Ho-Ho! It is once again Christmas Season. So for those of you looking to avoid the madness known as Black Friday Christmas shopping day here is another installment of theScoundrels version of less ordinary Christmas Gifts.

It seems what was a popular item last Christmas,  is once again an Internet shopping favorite. The Hillary Clinton Nutcracker seems in shot supply again. According to the purveyor – the 9″ version of Hillary with stainless steel thighs to crush your nuts is available in limited quantities and currently selling for $29.95. Hmm, it seems inflation must have hit Hillary now that she is Secretary of State, as I do believe these were being pimped out at $19.95 last year. Also available is the matching 9 1/2 ” Bill Clinton corkscrew, also currently selling for $29.95. Also available at the same site is the Barack Obama 6″ action figure. The president is available for only $24.95.  I am not sure how the fact that a Hillary Nutcracker and a Bill Clinton corkscrew are more valuable than & physically dwarf the Barack Obama action figure reflects on the current rank and file value of Obama administration. But they are all less ordinary Christmas gifts for your holiday gift giving! Link – to the tools.

Action dolls seem to be a growing industry for political and media figures. Over at Hereobuilders you can get your favorite past and present politicians including less ordinary choices like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Turbo Tax Tim Geithner, Obama the Joker, Joe the Plumber, Nancy Pelosi – complete with waterboard, multiple Sarah Palin figures – including Schoolgirl Sarah Palin. Not to be forgotten is your favorite media personalities like Beck, O’Reilly and Ogreman/Olberman. Plus special collector editions like Bernie Madoff and Illinois favorite Rod Blagojevich both only $149.95 each. (Perhaps proceeds are going to their defense funds – but I hope not.) Link to Political Action Dolls.

You say you are looking for something that makes your special honey standout from the crowd? Well I used to have a boss that kept a picture of himself taken with Gerald Ford, hanging behind his desk. So why not consider investing in a lifesize political card board cutout. They could have their picture taken with the image or just keep it around to take out as a wingman for a night out on the town.  Picture your special honey walking in to his or her favorite Quad City party or pub with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George Bush, Sarah Palin, Elvis Presley, Old Abe Lincoln or maybe even Marilynn Monroe in their arms! They would be the talk of the town! And all for only $90! Link to Dream Dates.

And finally, direct from the White House Gift Shop you can order White House charms, watches and jewelry. Perhaps you are looking for presidential baby items. White House Coins could make special stocking stuffers for those little coin collectors. Or maybe something for your family members to impress their friends and neighbors with: some special playing cards with the Presidential Seal or White House on the back – they would be great conversational pieces when pulled out to play with on poker night.  Those or many other selections are available without leaving your house today,  from the White House Gift Shop.

For those of you that have to work today, for those of you shopping at home or amongst the madness, for those of you just recovering from Thanksgiving misbehavior and for those of you whom just have a normal day planned – be well and have a great day. Have a safe and very Merry Christmas season. And for those that do not celebrate Christmas, may whatever you do or do not celebrate this month – bring your life joy and happiness.

Happy Thanksgiving

I will be busy most of the day making Thanksgiving Dinner and visiting with relatives – this Thursday. I have a Turkey ready for roasting -that missed the annual Presidents pardon – and all the necessary accessories to go with it. I hope everyone else has a Happy Thanksgiving and are able to be with their friends and family. If not – there are local open festivities available to the public. I hope there are similar options available for those looking to escape solitude wherever you are. I hope everyone seeks out those opportunities unless solitary reflection is your holiday preference. I do think we often tend to get wrapped up in the festivities and forget that the most important parts of any celebration are not the keep-em-busy activities but the holiday fellowship and moments shared with those we love. Those are the slices of life that we carry within us and can pass on to generations as the today fades into yesterday and changes into future tomorrows. Let not these memories become tarnished and rust away, forever lost in time.

QC Thanksgiving happenings:

Link 1

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Link 3

Or if you are just looking for some Internet distraction between times to baste your turkey – other than the regular media sources and wish to stay away from us doom and gloom bloggers for the day – Sean Leary has a site up called  –> Get Your Good News I have been reading – that seems pretty interesting.

 

Have a Very Happy Thanksgiving

Chimp This Chimp That Hypocrisy

It is hard to decide whether to laugh or just shake my head over the hypocritical outrage being dispersed around the Internet by progressive whiners over a widely circulated repulsive photo of Michelle Obama altered to give her chimp features. The hypocritical screams of bigotry are mostly coming from the same channels that have for years cheered on chimp like illustrations or any other attempt of character assassination, through grotesque images of George Bush for the eight years he was President. Hell, the Democrat Party members still take great pride in imaging Bush as a chimp and any other derogatory comment that they can get published on numerous Progressive hate fest blog posts. So when I see the Michelle Obama image, am I supposed to be shocked that someone on the Internet might actually ridicule her image? Hardly, she has made herself into a political figure and cartooning political figures –in good taste or bad taste- has been the standard operating procedure from the beginning of our political system. During the Jefferson-Adams contests that Thomas Jefferson tried to demean John Adams by politically marketing Adams as a hermaphrodite. You say she is a first lady not a politician – not true. She is an activist first lady, which makes her a politician foremost. Lady Bird Johnson was the butt of jokes forever more because she wanted to beautify America by stopping littering. She was even lampooned over it following her death. You say well she is black and should not be exposed to being compared to a chimp. Hogwash, she is a primary focus politician and thus, unless we rewrite the rules, is fair game to both good and bad political image portrayals. Well its bigoted! Maybe, maybe not, with humor bigotry -is or is not- in the heart of the purveyor and unable to be determined unless it is admitted by that individual. And since we are on the discussion of chimps – if we are to believe the progressive Darwinians and PETA People, we are all just one big happy family of primates so why wouldn’t we all look like a monkey in the first place! The current braying is basically a  “Chimp This – Chimp That” created through  Progressive hypocrisy and hatred of anything that challenges their conception of the world we live in.  There are two ways to have equality in politics – either every politician is fair game or we live in a Demolition Man PC World saying have a Joy-Joy day, eating non-spicyfoods at Taco bell while aspiring to become 47 year old virgins that have long distance sex via mechanical devices .

Phil Hare Puppet on a String

According to information located at Gov.Track.us,  our specially selected Congressman Phil Hare’s legislation record suggests that the blusterous one is a rank and file Democrat that tends to follow the leaders by cosponsoring other Congressmen’s legislation, whom in return do not cosponsor the Philobluster’s handful of sponsored legislation. Of the 22 bills Phil has sponsored since January of 2007, 18 never made it out of committee and three were enacted. The site also provides us with the link to OpenSecrets.org which listed Phil’s campaign contributions as being 64% PAC contributions. An interesting number included in the totals, was that Phil evidently decided Phil Hare, Congressman for the 17th district of Illinois, was a bad investment – as self-financing totaled $00.00!

No real big secrets in any of those numbers. Those of us displeased with the Rock Island Co. Democratic Politburo hand-selecting of our Donut munching Congressman have long noticed that Phil was selected over voter preferred candidates because he was a party puppet. And his goose-stepping voting and speaking record –constantly mimicking the RICO and East/West Coast Democratic Party Elitist Politburo rhetoric- over the best interests of his Central Illinois constituents- displays he is out to be their puppet on a string.

Performers seem to adopt a theme song reflecting their projected façade so I hunted through the Internet and hopefully I found one for (as QCExaminer likes to say) our very own specially selected Congressman, Phil Hare.  Philobluster I found this one for you! Hope you like it.

Let Confusion Reign

I just read an interesting article by Jessica Yellin on the CNN website. The article discusses a push by Congress to simplify the comprehension of contract term problems faced by practically every credit card carrying member of the public. I am sure the overwhelming majority of credit card customers would cheer such measures of clarification. Ms. Yellin quotes Chris Dodd of the Senate: “Americans deserve to receive clear and accurate information, to be protected from hidden fees and abusive terms, and to know that the financial products that they’re being offered are safe”. Still I am only able to laugh uncontrollably at the irony involved in the article and the Dodd statement. Let’s see the same Congressional government whom gives us piece after piece of unintelligible legislation crammed full of lawyereze, including the most recent mafia tactic efforts to pass the  2000 plus page Obamacare nightmare — the same group of legislators that hide away from the public in smoky back rooms devising that same legislation — the same group of legislators that continuously preach about transparency yet lie about and spin the translation of their legislation — that same group of legislators that lecture about governments accountability to the voting public while constantly selling out their votes to special interest groups — this same group of legislators that are masters of misdirection, lie, cheat and steal now tell me that they are going to write legislation that will simplify and clean-up contracts in the credit card industry!!! The only response I can say to that load of gibberish is — Let Confusion Reign!

2012 the End is Near

I took Thursday as an escape from normalcy day and went to Great Escape Movies Theater in Moline to watch the new movie 2012! I was not disappointed.

I really like the Moline theater for the most part. The Davenport Showcase Cinemas should feel ashamed and must feel bathroom envy. The GEM parking is adequate though not great. I do think they really need a stoplight located at the their shared intersection with Wal-Mart. Though if I were an advertiser with the location I would be screaming holy hell at the film quality of the pre-movie advertisements. I could barely view some of the paid advertisements. Now on to the show.

The movie 2012 could have spent a great deal of time dealing with ethical questions on how man and government should proceed during times of catastrophic disasters. They didn’t. The  science, religion and moralizing is kept to a minimum in this movie. It is a big budget disaster movie along the lines of Independence Day. There is a lot of action in this movie. The movie was a hold in your breakfast rollercoaster moment from start to finish. Leave your thinking cap at home –you do not really need it to enjoy this flick.

John Cusack (my favorite Cusack Movies are America’s Sweethearts and Grosse Pointe Blank) has the lead role and his character eats up most of the screen time as the divorced dad trying to get his ex-wife, played by Amanda Peet, and kids to safety. But the English actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor (he was the assassin/operative in Serenity) and Oliver Platt really have the juiciest parts in the movie. Ejiofor plays a soul-searching scientist fighting with his emotions while trying to save what he can of the World. And Oliver Platt plays a hard-edged politician selling seats on the rescue arks to finance a world wide rescue project for a minimum amount of survivors and whom calmly lies to his elderly mother on the phone, informing her all is right with the world and he will see her next week, at the very moment he is he preparing to abandon her and the majority of the world’s population to the ravages of a natural disaster. Woody Harrelson plays a shaggy-haired pickle-munching doomsday prophet who is transmitting government conspiracy stories from his radio mounted in a recreational vehicle located in Yellowstone Part. Harrelson’s final scene in the movie is memorable. The special effects are awesome. I really enjoyed the movie.

Team Obama Still Wagging that Dog

I have been thinking about the reasons why Team Obama member Eric Holder insists on bringing the terrorists stateside to prosecute. Some are suggesting that it is a profit motivated event for Holder and his lawyer cronies. That would not surprise me as politics has become all about the grab for money. It certainly not for the terrorists personal safety, because they are already located in a safer place for them to be incarcerated, than being tossed among some of the various already overcrowded stateside prisons. It is certainly not because it is safer for the public with the terrorists awaiting trials near rural and metropolitan communities. It is certainly not because they can receive any justice stateside that they cannot receive where they are already located. It is certainly not a cost factor, as I heard estimates that cash-strapped New York will be saddled with millions of dollars in expenses -that they cannot afford- to prosecute the terrorists placed in their system. So what does that leave for the rest of Team Obama’s reasoning? Wag the dog? Team Obama’s Marxist agenda has been meeting with considerable public resistance, so much so, that the Obama personal  ratings have plummeted and he has even discussed the possibility of not running for a second term. What better way for Obama to stir up his electorate than putting the terrorists on trial here inside mainland USA? It is a good gamble for Team Obama. The trials will be a high profile media circus and if they mange to successfully prosecute the terrorists, it will certainly boost his public image. And if they get off through some legal technicality – Team Obama will still win some support as they will spin the loss to Blame GW Bush. That would incite the core of Team Obama’s base – the Bush Deranged. And should a terror event arise from out of the wag the dog operation; Team Obama would still find a way to Blame Bush. It is what they have done from day one since they took office. It is how they fuel their followers. And places surrounding the prisons containing the jihadists, like the Quad Cities, will face terrorist danger all for Team Obama’s quest for glory and poll ratings.

Quinn and Durbin Throw Out Welcome Mat to Terrorists

In what seems like a full-court press by the Dispatch/Argus, QCOnline has posted rah-rah articles from Illinois Politicians, a Brandy Donaldson rah-rah article and even a D/A editorial-parroting of our local politician’s cheerleading ovations about the idea of locating Muslim terrorists at the Thompson Prison located in our district. According to the D/A editorial (which was basically Pat Quinn talking points) it is a huge opportunity to add great paying job/s to the area, while actually having prisoners sited in an expensive prison the State does not use – despite considerable overcrowding in other Illinois prisons.

Well there is no doubt the costly to build and upkeep Thompson prison without tenants was poor planning and implementation by our State government. The Dispatch/Argus readership displayed an unfavorable attitude towards moving the terrorists into a facility so close to the Quad City area in the QCOnline poll they posted. As I stated in my previous post – I personally think the risks far outweigh any possible gains. Still local and State level politicians, now joined by the Dispatch/Argus, continue to ignore the public’s discontent over the decision to pursue jihadist tenants for the prison. Is it a great opportunity to add high-end jobs in the region- probably, though the debate is still ongoing as to the real financial gains! The real question, which the editorial avoided – does the risk outweigh the gains? I suppose it all depends upon how you weigh the risks and gains. Why take the unnecessary risk,  is the real question!

I am not sure why the D/A is on the bandwagon to sell out our safety. But for members of the State of Illinois Government, it is all about the Benjamins.  I believe former Judge John Donald O’Shea hit a homerun in his article/evaluation of the situation. The State of Illinois is so cash strapped from years of reckless State Government waste and corruption that they are willing risk the safety of the citizens of this district and State to gather in the considerable cash the Obama administration will offer to the State that houses these dangerous criminals.

You say how can they be dangerous? After all they will be locked up under strict supervision by prison and military personnel. So what? That has never stopped any other dangerous criminals from operating their dirty activities from behind bars. Sympathetic lawyers can act as go between among locked-up criminals and outside criminal cohorts. Guards can make mistakes. Some guards could even be sympathetic to their causes. All it takes is one jihadist like the recent terrorist, whom murdered many military personnel in Fort Hood Texas, to create a similar event of terror at the local level. Plus once on mainland soil some hate on America organization,  like the ACLU, will be doing their best to make it possible for these jihadists to lessen any restrictions that prison/military/government  offcials attempt create. It is what they do. Those types of nutroot organizations motto is  -screw the average citizen and let the criminals can wreak havoc on society. It makes no sense to move these terrorists to mainland USA and create risk. There is no justice here that cannot be served in the more appropriate GITMO prison, where they are already located. But our greedy Governor Pat Quinn along with Senator Dick Durbin and many other government  that are supposed to be serving the citizens of the State of Illinois have got dollar signs in their eyes. The politicians are willing to throw out a welcome mat to terrorists and risk the safety of the citizens of this State and District for thirty pieces of silver from the Obama Administration.

NIMBY – GITMO – Gilligans Island

It seems that the GITMO detainees have once again popped up on his holiness Pope Barack Obama the First’s radar. That is good news and bad news. The good news is we need to quit pussyfooting around with these people being held in prison and serve up whatever portion of justice they have coming. The bad news is, his holiness still wants to remove them from their Cuba based prison and place them in prisons inside the main borders of the US for trials. Worse yet the Thompson Illinois Prison, close to the Quad Cities, is one of those under consideration for their relocation. Normally, I am not a big NIMBY person but in this case I say clearly – not in our backyard, not inside our state or not even inside the main borders of the US. GITMO is the best place to give them their complete justice.

Some are worried about the possible escape of prisoners or prison riot possibilities of these terrorists. Those are possibilities. I am more worried about the possibility of sympathetic criminal elements moving in to the area to get close to their jihadist friends and family and underground terrorist pipelines forming through that association made possible by the lunatic judges and hate on America organizations -like the ACLU- that toss away justice in this country by protecting criminals with glitches in the system. It only takes ONE Crazy Judge and ONE Bloodthirsty  Jihadist to make an act of terror possible. I am not interested in seeing multiple Pachino Hill-like opportunities created for a jihadist by some fringe judge that decides – because terrorist-X was too short, too fat or was not allowed to watch reruns of Gilligans Island while he was incarcerated, thus he should be set free and given the opportunity to reign violent destruction upon this district, state or country. In this case I am a strong proponent of NIMBY. No thank you Obama – I have no desire for jihadists to be relocated to my backyard! At least if they are freed on GITMO they can be dropped off anywhere in the World without ever entering the US. Perhaps someplace like  Gilligans Island could be arranged for their future home.