Blog Closed... Moving On

The curtain has come down on A Word From The Right.



Please join me at my new blog, Of Eagles And Dawgs.




It's more general in nature, a little less political.

Netwinner, Blingo and Winzy - Play and Win Online For Free

Here are a few simple, totally free online places you can win cash and prizes. We've joined them, we use them. You probably won't get rich. You probably won't win fabulous prizes. But you could pick up a bit here and there.

Netwinner
Netwinner is a lotto style game that's absolutely free to play. You choose four numbers between 00 and 99, and one number from 0 to 9. There are compared to pre-selected numbers and, if any match, you're a winner. Obviously the more you match, the more you win. You can win cash or points.

The points accumulate and are redeemed for gift cards to stores like Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Barnes & Noble, Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. It's advertiser supported, which is how they keep the cost at zero. There's also a pretty good referral system: you get points when people you refer sign up, and you receive a percentage of whatever cash and points they win. It doesn't come out of their winnings; it's in addition to them. Remember, this program has names like Target and Wal-Mart behind it. Those gift cards make great gifts for birthdays or Christmas.

Important note: After you sign up, you should immediately verify your email address. Don't worry, there's no spam. I've only received two emails from them. Just go to the "My Account" page and click on "Verify Email". This ensures that you and your referrer get the payouts you earn.




Blingo
You're probably already using Google for your web searches. Now, you can get the same search results, and maybe win a little something. Blingo is a Google-based search engine. Each search is a chance to win prizes or cash instantly. These range from movie tickets and Amazon.com gift certificates to LCD TVs and cash. Invite friends to join, and if they win a prize, you win the same prize.




Winzy
Winzy is a search engine that gives away free prizes when you use it to search the web. You can win iPods, gift certificates, X-Boxes and cash prizes up to $100,000. Each time you search on Winzy, you earn points. Each point is an entry into monthly prize drawings. There are also instant prizes, like Amazon.com gift certificates. They have a referrer program, also. If someone you refer wins a prize, you also win that prize. Winzy uses the search services of Ask.com.



Give these a shot and see what you think!

Just So Wrong

Seems that Hamas has its own television station. And on this station they've been airing a program aimed at Palestinian kids, featuring a Mickey Mouse-like character that urges children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination.

Top 25 Meltdowns

While celebrating its 25th anniversary, USA Today has listed the 25 Biggest Public Meltdowns. See how many of them you remember.

The Most Remote Place In The U.S. ?

In the continental U.S., with the exception of Alaska and the Louisiana swamps, the farthest distance you can find yourself from a road is 22 miles. The only place you can be that far from a road is a spot in the southeast corner of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

How's That?

A teenager in Nebraska is charged with felony motor vehicle homicide for a accident that killed two of his friends who were passengers in his car. He had been driving less than a year, was on an unfamiliar road, in the dark, possibly drunk, and driving 101 miles an hour.

His lawyer sure has guts. His defense... charges should be reduced because 101 miles an hour doesn't qualify as "reckless driving".

G.O.P. Debate

The Republican Presidential candidates took part in a debate tonight. Here's a transcript of the event, should you care to read it. The first portion of the debate stuck to the usual topics... the War on Terror, Iran, President Bush and his Cabinet. Later, though, it got strange. There were questions like...

What do you dislike most about America?

Do you have a plan to solve the shortage of organs donated for transplant?

If a private employer finds homosexuality immoral, should he be allowed to fire a gay worker?

Is Karl Rove your friend? Would you employ Karl Rove?

What’s with your party and all this corruption?

Do you believe in evolution?

How do you take a debate seriously with questions like this?

My favorite comment of the debate came from Rudy Giuliani...

And the reality is, in the 1990s, we were on defense in dealing with Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. When you had this debate last week and all the Democrats were up here, I never remember the words "Islamic fundamentalist terrorism" being spoken by any of them.

All in all, though, it didn't really help me out. Too many candidates, sorry moderating and questioning by Chris Matthews and the others... in some ways just a mess. At least the candidates seem more serious about this nation's defense and fighting terror than their Democratic counterparts.

Still No Class Among Alabama Earhardt Fans

The fans of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. once again have given NASCAR and the state of Alabama a black eye. Just like April 2004, the hillbilly contingent of stock car racing fans yesterday peppered the racetrack, as well as other fans and NASCAR officials, with beer cans and other debris when their favorite driver failed to win a race. Obviously NASCAR, track officials, and the fans' own favorite driver have no control over these idiots.

Obviously beer cans need to be banned at the track. Still, more needs to be done to keep other items from being thrown. As I see it, there are only two real options available to put an end to this.

First, punish their driver. When it happens, deduct championship points from the race team. Then these fools would only be hurting their favorite star. However, that's not fair to the driver. Granted, Earnhardt has never gone out of his way to condemn the practice. Last week, he encouraged his fans to throw toilet paper instead of cans. Dummy. How about saying, "If you throw anything on the track, I don't want you for a fan." Still...

The second (and best) option is to take away the track's second race. Take one of the two Talladega races and give it to as track whose fans are more respectful to the sport and all its drivers. Maybe Kansas or Las Vegas.

Newspaper Circulation

I found this interesting, and thought I'd pass it along. From the AP, it the average weekday circulation of the top 20 U.S. newspapers. The numbers are for the six-month period ending in March, and the change listed is from the same period a year ago.

1. USA Today, 2,278,022, up 0.2 percent

2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,062,312, up 0.6 percent

3. The New York Times, 1,120,420, down 1.9 percent

4. Los Angeles Times, 815,723, down 4.2 percent

5. New York Post, 724,748, up 7.6 percent

6. New York Daily News, 718,174, up 1.4 percent

7. The Washington Post, 699,130, down 3.5 percent

8. Chicago Tribune, 566,827, down 2.1 percent

9. Houston Chronicle, 503,114, down 2 percent

10. The Arizona Republic, 433,731, down 1.1 percent

11. Dallas Morning News, 411,919, down 14.3 percent

12. Newsday, Long Island, 398,231, down 6.9 percent

13. San Francisco Chronicle, 386,564, down 2.9 percent

14. The Boston Globe, 382,503, down 3.7 percent

15. The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., 372,629, down 6.1 percent

16. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 357,399, down 2.1 percent

17. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 352,593, up 0.6 percent

18. Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, 345,252, down 4.9 percent

19. The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, 344,704, up 0.5 percent

20. Detroit Free Press, 329,989, down 4.7 percent

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Nightmare

I'm all about saving money, so I actually like the compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). I never knew about the danger and expense possible if we should break one. It seems the little energy-savers contain mercury. When one of them is dropped and breaks, that mercury is released into your room in dangerous levels. Mercury is very poisonous and, as a family from Maine discovered, the clean-up is very expensive.

I Want To Cry...

This is just disturbing. From TVSeriesFinale.com...

The A-Team: The Strangest TV Cast Reunion Yet

It's gotta be the most bizarre TV series reunion yet. The surviving cast members of NBC's blockbuster 1980s series The A-Team will reunite on a British reality show -- to try to contact their deceased leader and co-star.

That's right, Dirk Benedict, Mr. T and Dwight Schultz will appear on a special episode of Most Haunted later this year and will try to contact co-star George Peppard from beyond the grave. The A-Team went off the air in 1987 and Peppard died seven years later from pneumonia. Most Haunted presenter Yvette Fielding says, "We're all going to Los Angeles for a week to film it. It took a lot of doing to get those three together -- now we have to do the really hard part."

Perhaps the three want to contact Peppard regarding the on-again/off-again big screen adaptation of The A-Team. The film's tentatively scheduled for a 2008 release. Though no cast has been announced, Benedict, T, and Schultz will reportedly have cameo roles.

Excellent News For Delta and Atlanta

A bankruptcy court judge has not only confirmed Delta Airline's reorganization plans, but he also heaped praise on the company and its employees for Delta's turnaround. The airline plans to officially close the case and be out of bankruptcy next week. There couldn't be much better news for city of Atlanta and the folks at Hartsfield-Jackson.

Google Knows All

A fugitive wanted for murder in Arizona has been captured in Toronto after his girlfriend Google-searched his name, finding him listed on the America's Most Wanted web site.

One Tough Beauty Queen

Venus Ramey was the first redhead to win the Miss America crown, way back in 1944. Now, at age 82, she's back in the news. After confronting a man she said was stealing from her Kentucky farm, Ramey pulled a gun and shot out a tire on his truck so he couldn't leave, allowing police to arrest him and two others.

She had to balance on her walking stick as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.

"I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it. If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be 6 feet under by now."

I think I have a new hero...

Not A Square To Spare

In what is perhaps today's most ridiculous story... in order to save the world from itself (by way of Global Warming), singer Sheryl Crow has proposed strict limits on the use of toilet paper. On her web site, the songstress writes...

I propose a limitation be put on how many sqares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required. When presenting this idea to my younger brother, who's judgement I trust implicitly, he proposed taking it one step further. I believe his quote was, "how bout just washing the one square out."

Eewww... The cure might be worse than the disease.

More Liberal Hypocrisy

Abortion is not a topic I like to discuss, and it's one I do not write about here. Period. What I will point out, though, is hypocrisy. And I have a really nice example here...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a law that banned a type of late-term abortion, so-called "partial birth abortions". The CNN.com story I just linked to states that Justice Samuel Alito voted to uphold the law. Alito, you might remember, replaced Sanda Day O'Conner on the bench.

In the article, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is unhappy with the Supreme's decision. He says, "A lot of us wish that Alito weren't there and O'Connor were there." I find it funny that Reid is upset that Alito voted to uphold a law that Senator Reid voted for.

Sweeping Tax Reform Proposed For Georgia

Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson has proposed unprecidented legislation to overhaul Georgia's tax code. His plan would eliminate all state, county and city property taxes and all taxes on fuel, insurance premiums and estates. In their place, a 5.75% income tax and a 5.75% state sales tax. It would also eliminate the positions of county tax receivers, collectors and commissioners. The bill has several high-ranking co-sponsors and could come to the floor next year.

I Like It

The Texas Senate looks ready to pass a bill that would permit the death penalty for offenders who repeatedly prey on children. Personally, I can't think of a much better use for the death penalty.

Freeze Damage In Georgia

I've had the opportunity the past few days to visit with fruit growers from across Georgia, to discuss the damage they've suffered from the Easter weekend freeze that hit the state. Depending on the crops, things are either pretty bad, really bad, or devastating.

It looks like the Middle Georgia peach crop could be down as much as 60 to 70% from normal. A Peach County grower I spoke with says he's only seen one year with worse freeze damage since he's run his family operation. The warm weather in the weeks leading up to Easter had the trees blooming like mad. The fruit was developing well, then the freeze hit. But he will have some peaches. Growers in North Georgia seem to have lost all their peaches, along with pretty much any other soft fruits that were developing.

The apple crop in North Georgia suffered a similar fate. Early reports from state Ag Commissioner Tommy Irvin said the crop had been wiped out. Looking at the trees in FanninGilmer Counties yesterday, there are still some trees with live blooms. There are some trees that hadn't started blooming that should still produce fruit. One of the growers I spoke with hopes to have as much as 20% of his normal production, although it may come from just a few of the 40 or so varieties he grows.

The freeze caused considerable damage to pecan trees in Middle and North Georgia. In some cases, whole orchards saw complete loss of the season's crop.

Wine grapes are a growing business in North Georgia, and a big money maker. A county agent I spoke to said the early developed vines suffered bad damage, but it will be a while before growers know how secondary growth will develop. In some vineyards, the temperature dipped as low as 19 degrees.

All in all, a lot of growers will lose a lot of money because of this late freeze. It might not be as bad as originally thought, but it will still be a very difficult year.

University of Oklahoma Lockdown

With university administrators on edge all across the country, it's no surprise that a report of a person with a suspicious object would lead to a campus lockdown. It happened today at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. As things turned out, the suspicious object turned out to be... an umbrella.