New Grumpy Sites

If you want even more "grump," check out this site, and this site.

Cardinal Clocks. When a "free" Clock is too Expensive.

We were shopping for a new office clock three months ago and picked up some "China Junk," in the form of a Cardinal wall clock for $9.95 from Staples. (See this earlier posting about "china junk.") While doing our Daylight Savings Time business to the clock, we dropped it two feet onto a soft, fuzzy, pile-up-to-your ankles plush carpet while springing the clock's time forward. The clock stopped ticking, without even taking a licking. Definitely not a Timex. So, we dug out the warranty card and yes, it would be covered under the warranty. All we had to do was send a check for $8.00 to Dorso Optics, 3760 Ashby Street, St. Laurent, Quebec, H4R 2C1. After paying another $2.25 in postage to send the clock back it would now cost a total of $10.25 to get it repaired or replaced. Not to mention finding a box, some tape, brown wrapping paper, scissors and a crayon to write out the address. So, we did what any other bright person would do. We took that throw away clock and threw it away and went to Staples to buy another exact copy. Right down to the color. Hey, it was the cheapest clock we could find.

Catholics, and non-Christians against Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI

Enough, is enough. All that we have heard for the past 24 hours is so called Catholics whining that the new pope won't be pushing for same sex marriage or allowing women to become priests. We have a number of friends who are among these whining Catholics and we wonder why they just don't leave the Catholic Church. If they can't agree with the church's teachings, which are based on the Bible (and tradition), then why not be honest and give up their pretense about being Catholics? (For the record, we aren't Catholics and find problems with some of their teachings. If we were and had these problems, then we would be honest and leave the Catholic Church.)

We can understand non-Christians razing the new pope, they find it hard to understand why the church won't bend and take on their own non-Christian brand of relativism. They find it hard to understand that there is an institution that won't change its' beliefs to suit non-Christians. Excuse me? We don't usually engage in such high-brow discussions and will end by noting two links to other freak sites who look at this whole issue of "relativism" or the belief that has permeated and denigrated society to the point that there is no real right or wrong. Or if it is wrong, there are many who want to make it a right. A push to make "rights" right and wrong right. (One link is to our freaks inc. site and their discussion on the issue. The other is to our FIG site and their more "spiritual side" of the discussion in a posting Relativism. Enslaved by Freedom.)

Biting the Google Adsense hand that feeds us?

All bloggers on the Google site should be thankful that this company hosts us, at no cost. Yes, we complain about uneven service at times but it's in Google's interest to ensure that service is quick and clean, because it reflects poorly on them when it isn't. And, they are pouring resources into Blogger to ensure stable service. What do they ask in return? Nothing. So, it was to help them out that all of the Freak sites in our stable, with the exception of FIG or Freaks into God, (see freaks inc. for all the sites) decided to sign up for the Google Adsense program. We knew we probably wouldn't make much money doing this, but every time the Google name shows up in these ads, it is a reminder to our visitors that Google is a good bunch of people. But some of the ads! Thankfully, there is a place where we can go to filter out ads. (This is the link.) Some of the ads we find quite obnoxious, such as a free dating service which we have added to the filter but it still keeps popping up in our ads. The solution? Well, we have four ads per page and if the ads we don't want keep popping up, we'll knock the number of ads per page down to two. Then, we'll knock it down to one per page. This should ensure a better quality of ads. If not, we'll quit the program entirely. This is nothing against Google. Hey, they are just trying to recoup some of the expense of hosting the millions of blogs they host for free. Can't blame them for this.

A "front" for the Conservative Party of Canada?

After yesterday's posting, some think this. Today's freak inc. posting addresses this.

A Conservative Canada

See our new posting on the freaks inc. site, which we fully support, United for a Conservative Canada.

Freaks on Retreat. A Manifesto. Of sorts.

Where do the Freaks go from here?
It’s been a little under a month since our first Freak blog was published. Since then, we have grown to 12 blogs which are linked through our freaks inc. site. Now is the time to put our feet into the ocean for a few days to see where we go from here. So, as of tomorrow, April 14, there will be no postings until about April 19 as all the Freaks associated with all the sites go on retreat. We will be asking ourselves these questions, among others:
1. Do we continue as blogs or go to a full Web site? Or, both?
2. Will all the Freaks, from all the blogs, join in the upcoming election to lobby against all those politicians who support Bill C-17? Or, do we concentrate our efforts on the Liberals and the NDP and ignore the Bloc and the Conservatives? (If we go after the Bloc, we will have to recruit a French speaking Freak.) And, do we really want to go after the Conservatives? Truth be told, although we have picked on the Conservatives along with all the other parties, most of the Freaks are supportive of the Conservative Party. If this party wins the next election, we are sure they won’t be as anxious to support the spread of non-medical drugs, as are the other political parties. Or, do we remain completely apolitical?
3. How much money do we pour into the upcoming election campaign? Do we try to raise some cash? How many Freaks will put their lives on hold to fight this campaign?
4. How do we fight the campaign? Do we use news releases and telephone interviews with media that are situated within the targeted ridings, as well as updates to our blogs or web page (the latter depends on the time we have before an election to get a Web page up) or do we also use billboards and other mass advertising? This, of course, depends on our finances and would probably necessitate some fund raising. Are there any rich Freaks (or not Freaks) out there, who support our fight against the spread of non-medical drugs, such as pot?
5. Will we finally have an Executive Director to co-ordinate all our FAD (Freaks Against Drugs) business? It is important to have a "front man" for all media contacts. We have two Freaks here who are capable and have the experience to do this, but they are a bit leery of becoming front men because of some of the language, in the past, used on many of our sites. Not only what we have said, but how we have said it is bothersome to both of them. Each site is independent of the other and even within sites, particularly the FAD site, there is more than one person posting. If we are to be taken more seriously, our candidates for Executive Director have said that all postings (at least on the FAD sites) would have to be cleared by them. Some of our more anarchist Freaks have a problem with this.
6. Do we disband? Say, "it was nice to get our feelings out but, there is more to life..." and just let the country go to pot?
7. That’s about it. If you have feedback, please email us at freaksinc2@hotmail.com.
8. Until next week, this is Peter wishing you peace. Freak peace