As many of you already know, the Salvation Army was unceremoniously asked NOT to put their red kettles in front of their stores. They claim that they’re now enforcing a company policy that’s been in effect for years. I think they’re being Scrooges.

According to The Salvation Army’s national spokesman, Major George Hood, the Target store ban is likely to cost the Christian charity $9 million in lost holiday collections. This is going to directly screw up lives. We have to help!

Head over to http://www.redkettlecampaign.org (a Lotus Domino site) and make a donation. Even if you don’t normally donate, please help! In the ‘Company Name’ field, put my URL (http://bilykspride.servehttp.com) so they know that I sent you there.

Thanks for caring this season!

By now, all of North America and most of the rest of the world has seen or heard of what happened at the Palace of Auburn Hills with the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers last Friday night. If you have been living under a rock, take a look here and click on FIGHT VIDEO. According to WDIV-TV aka clickondetroit.com, they have identified the guy responsible for causing all of this. I knew who it was all this time…it was Ron Artest!

Every professional athlete knows that there is this invisible wall between the fans and the athletes. They get paid millions and millions of dollars to get cheered or booed by fans. That’s why they get paid what they do. You don’t cross the line and get over into the crowd. On an interview this morning, Chris Chelios of the Detroit Red Wings even said this…and he’s getting beer thrown on him all the time. You know, what makes Artest an even bigger idiot is that he ended up attacking the wrong person! What a jackass!

I have another take on this… You have a rap album that you can’t promote because you have a ‘day job’. You want to be known as a tough thug, but your NBA career is getting in the way. You even ask for time off, but get laughed at by everyone else for even thinking about it. What do you do? You add to your ‘thug’ persona by beating up on some fans who are much smaller than you. You get suspended, so now you can spend more time working on promoting your album. Good luck in your new career, Ron. Please don’t come back to basketball!

Oh, and if John Green of West Bloomfield, MI was indeed the man that threw the beer and Artest, THANKS, YOU JERK! You’ve put Detroit behind the 8 Ball again. Even if the Pistons play in Auburn Hills and you’re from West Bloomfield, they’re blaming Detroit, so you owe Detroit (and the Pridelands) an apology. I hope you have a good attorney…you’re gonna need him or her! [UPDATE 11-23-2004 14:42 EST: According to ClickonDetroit.com, the police have talked to the guy once, and he’ll probably lose his season tickets and face charges. (See Rich, wishes DO come true!)]

Every so often you get an ‘urban legend’ e-mail. This is NOT the case here!
I’m getting a lot of hits about Rebekah Tauber, so anyone interested in this TRUE story should take a look here for more information:

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/children/tauber.asp

While you’re stopping by here, leave a comment, and tell us where you’re from and how you originally received information on Rebekah.

Bob Congdon beats me to the punch in this blog entry about Tim Burton’s remake of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. The original movie was called ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ but the book was called ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. It is supposed to be closer to the book than the first movie. Based on this movie poster, it looks that way.

Many of you have downloaded the Beta 2 release of ND7 by now. Some of you might even be using it on their servers, blogs, etc.. So, with that being said, “Riddle me this, Batman…”:

What features do you like in ND7? What items make you go, “Ohhhhh” and “Ahhhhh” like you’re watching fireworks?

This is a call out to all of the friends of the Pridelands:

Rebekah Tauber is a 15 year old from Houston who is presently undergoing cancer treatment. She is a fierce Christian who attends Memorial High School. Rebekah is wearing a “prayer pager” (1-800-250-6939) that is being sponsored by Second Baptist Church in Houston.

Please take a minute out of your busy day to say a quick prayer for Rebekah, her family and her doctors asking for God’s guiding hand to be with them through this ordeal and then call the toll free number (1-800-250-6939). It will vibrate letting Rebekah know that someone has prayed on her behalf.

Feel free to pass this email on and thanks for your support and prayers.

Call…. it just takes a second or two!

This has been verified by Snopes, plus I actually did this. I don’t know this girl, but if my prayers can help her, and a toll-free call to a pager will make her feel loved (and maybe better), then I’m in!

Take a moment out of your day and let this girl know that we care in the Pridelands! Thanks!

Once again, thanks to Greyhawk68 for bringing this to my attention:

You Are a “Don’t Tread On Me” Libertarian

You distrust the government, are fiercely independent, and don’t belong in either party. Religion and politics should never mix, in your opinion… and you feel opressed by both. You don’t want the government to cramp your self made style. Or anyone else’s for that matter. You’re proud to say that you’re pro-choice on absolutely everything!

Oh, and in case you haven’t tried this one yet, here’s The World’s Smallest Political Quiz!

Great news! Mozilla Firefox 1.0 (the IE Killer) has been released today! Get it by clicking on any of the following links below:

Spread Firefox…click here first! I get credit for it!
Download site
FTP Site

It looks like I will NOT be one of the many attendees to Lotusphere 2005. I’m pretty bummed out about it. It looks like the only way I’ll make it is if one of the abstracts I wrote gets picked.

I have much more to say about this, but the public nature of my site prevents me from saying more.

Oh well, I guess I’m learning everything secondhand….

I took something called ‘The World’s Smallest Political Quiz’ and discovered that I was a Libertarian. Last night, I went to a meeting of the Libertarian Party of Wayne County and was welcomed with open arms. They are a wonderful group of men and women who want to get government off of our backs and out of our pockets. I will be joining the party officially next week. If you want to know more about the Libertarian Party, check out their site at lp.org.

To my Libertarian brethren, thank you for welcoming me. I look forward to working with you all!