The spammers never give up, huh? That’s why it isn’t easy for legitimate responders to have their say on this blog. As usual, we’ve been inundated with creeps who want to use this blog as their personal toilet. They are sure you want to read about where the best porn sites are, how to get drugs easily, where the online card games are, and that you have no other way of finding out this stuff, except by reading this blog. They are so stupid, but apparently they have success with this practice, so they keep bugging us.

I can’t wait for the day that the internet finally becomes a little more civilized. But you know what that means — more rules, more enforcement of rules, forces in control making people behave themselves like good citizens. Maybe then, I won’t have to spend time deleting all these foul messages.

The Phantom

If you’re like me, you are very happy that the new year has begun. All the Christmas stuff is out of sight for the next 10 months. Yeah. It will be back before we even know it.

FYI: for anybody who wants to make a “legitimate” comment to this site, you’ll have to register. The blog spammers caught up with me again. They are a ghastly bunch. They spew their horrible ads for awful stuff all over the comment pages. I do not want to see their advertising for porn sites, gambling venues or cheap phony meds on these pages. So, as a result, we all suffer.

Let’s hope together we can make a better world starting this very year.

Happy 2008!

The calendar says it’s still summer, right. I live in California, right? So why does it feel like winter this morning? The forecasters are telling us that there could be snow in the mountains. It feels like there will be snow on my lawn. Let’s blame it on global warming, which is probably the root cause of the sagging arctic jet stream which is what is bringing on this weather.

It’s amazing to me that the conservatives in our midst, and there are plenty of them, are still saying the evidence is not in yet regarding global warming. Or they are saying it’s just nature,  their shorthand for we cannot do anything to change it. Haven’t they have had their way long enough?

When you think about it for more than a second or two, the conservatives have stood in the way of every good thing humans have ever tried to do. They push their self-serving arguments to the max to keep any progressive changes from happening.  And then when they are finally cornered and bullied into making small changes that turn out to be very good policy, they take all the credit for it.

Today is another cold day in hell.

For all of you creepy souls out there who think you can infiltrate this blog with spam, forget about it. It isn’t going to happen this time. Move on. It’s time for you to be somebody else’s problem.

No spammers, get it?

So I was listening to NPR the other day. They were talking about events leading up to the Iraq war — again. As usual, that Nigerian scam came up, you know, the one that the Bush administration fell for. Some phony Nigerian diplomat wanted millions of dollars to provide information, evidence even, about the Iraqi WMD program. Both Bush and Tony Blair bought into it. Why, because they are schmucks, right? I cannot help but wonder how many times they have fallen for those other Nigerian schemes. Does Bush reply every time he gets the email about the 14 million he’ll get to act as the go between for that Nigerian who wants some money laundered? Perhaps that’s what Bush’ll use for his vacation home in Albania. And, I’ve just gotta bet that a whole bunch of CIA agents are waiting for their Nigerian checks too.

It’s so hard to believe that Melinda Doolittle got booted off of American Idol last night. As we all know, she was simply the best singer on stage throughout the entire run of the show. What are these young kids thinking! They turn these shows into popularity contests, or deliberately try to undermine the point of the show by voting for the worst instead of the best. At least Blake and Jordin are good performers. We won’t have another Taylor Hicks, no matter which one ends up as the idol. My two cents is on Blake.

I was totally shocked and disappointed in the outcome of the latest Survivor last Sunday night. This was one of the more boring Survivors, with the exception of Yaoman. He carried the show from the start and certainly deserved to win. Who would have thought that Dreamz would turn into such a scumbag, after all his yammering on about what a good person he was. He was eager and willing to sell his soul for a truck. That proves just how much his integrity is worth — nothing. And now he’ll always be known as the easy sellout and a total jerk.

Now we can look forward to the outcome of Dancing with the Stars. The 3 finalists are all very good, so I won’t be heartbroken no matter who wins. It would be great to see a woman win it for a change. Hint, Hint!

Can’t believe the most interesting thing I’ve got going these days is waiting for the American Idol results show. Tonight, in just a few minutes, two more wannabes will get kicked off the stage. I voted last night for the first time ever. I figure my votes should count more than the others because I’m a brand new phone number, not one of the 30,000,000 regulars. I’m thinking Melinda’s the one. What a voice.

Wish I could sing like she does. I do sing in a chorus, a very big chorus, where we concentrate on singing like a unit, 135 women trying to sound like one voice, so different from singing a solo. I do admire these kids, they are all terrific, in spite of what Simon says. And I just love to listen to their coaches, who all seem to say the same thing, listen to the lyrics and make the story yours. That’s something our chorus always tries to do too. It’s not easy.

I am so hooked on reality shows, it’s hard to believe. I have to tape them all for viewing at a more convenient time, of course — right, due to my extremely busy schedule. Most shows are winding up their seasons, but not to worry, the summer realities will be coming at us before we even know it. Hell’s Kitchen, don’t know if  can stand to go thru that ordeal again. And there’s Last Comic Standing, hope that one runs again. I could do without America’s Got Talent, but who knows, maybe this year they’ll actually find some talent. There are others. Ain’t TV just the grandest thing…

I’m sick! I’ve got a cold, a sore throat and pink eye, of all things. Too much baby sitting, too much close contact with those little germ factories called “babies”. Ah well. Unfortunately for me, this is a relapse cold, one that I’ve had off and on for weeks now. I always assume that colds just run their course and go away after a few days. This one is more stubborn. I’ve tried my usual tactic of just ignoring it, but that’s not working, so I’ve given in to it. I’m in my second day of just loafing around, although today I actually got out of bed and got dressed. A tall order when you are seriously into loafing. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll start to feel better. One can only hope.

For those of you who actually read The Phantom’s blog, you know that we’ve been out of commission for awhile now. It was all due to technical difficulties, of course, but things are clicking along now. I’m no techie wizzard so I rely on “staff” to keep me up and running. But here’s the good news, the blog’s technical issues appear to be fixed. And, I’m making no real promises, but I do intend to write more often, with enthusiasm and hope. Stay tuned