Have any? Me too. When I started this post I tried my best to separate my pet peeves from things that irritate me. Old codgers like me get irritated by many things but a pet peeve; now that’s a different matter. I only have three. One has been with me most of my life. The second started about 10 years ago while the third might still be in the irritant stage.

Remember during the G8 when Mr. Bush was blustering to Mr. Blair and let slip a phrase that none of us have ever used in our entire lives? While he was bloviating he was chewing his food as if he had no upbringing at all. I was embarrassed for him, and us.

I would like to imagine that one of his fathers’ 1000 points of light may have included teaching your children etiquette but, maybe not. Apparently not. On the other hand he was talking like a tough guy (why do people think that adding profanity makes them appear tough) so maybe he was acting tough as well by showing Mr. Blair that he (Bush) don’t need no stink-ing manners, esse.

I have a nephew, 3 years my younger, and he has chewed food with his mouth open all of his life. Back in the day when poverty forced the clans together for a few years I hated his doing that. Chomp, chomp, smack, smack. Oh yes. My number one pet peeve is people chewing with their mouth open. I haven’t seen my nephew in many years but Mr. Bush brought it all back for me. Thank you Mr. President.

Number two began as an irritant but quickly advanced to pet peeve status. How, dear reader, do you pronounce this word: E T C E T E R A ? And the abbreviation, ETC? Not too long ago I was reading the crawl on some channel and I noticed the abbreviation ECT. (Even this computer won’t let me type it! It keeps correcting me). So, people who use a word like E K C E T R A are what? Lazy? Uneducated? Sloppy? I have no idea but I do know that I hear Ekcetra a lot more than I hear Etcetera these days. I liken it to the beginning of a total collapse of linguistics as it applies to our language; grammar, vocabulary and syntax having long since rode off into the sunset.

Number three, for me, is right on the cusp of becoming a pet peeve and it is somewhat associated with my number two. I am certain that you have posted or edited one of your entries and when you do a screen comes up which has a light green rectangle in its’ center.

Next time you do that, read the words in that green rectangle. You may have to read it a couple of times (especially if you say ekcetra a lot). Does that sentence make sense to you? Is it really just me? I sent a couple of ‘contact us’ messages but it remains; so it must make sense to someone.

Ah! I feel much better having purged those pet peeves to you. So now perhaps you will share with me, and the occasional visitor, some of your pet peeves. I know you have at least one. Leave a comment and share it, or them, with us.

This past Wednesday Billy and Geraldo Rivera (you remember Geraldo: The man without a home) were lambasting the coverage by the media surrounding the Mel Gibson fiasco. On and on Bill went, ranting and raving; but not about the Olberman fellow over at MSNBC. They have had some sort of word play for years. No Bill and Geraldo demeaned those whom they called the ‘masters’.

Bill opined that mentioning Mr. Olberman, I guess, would only give them more exposure. Bill wanted to hunt down the fat cats (not his word) who were the real evil doers. Mr. Olberman was merely the slave. It’s the corporate masters that let their slaves go on and on about Mr. Gibson. Enough was enough! Bill was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore! Call them out, he concluded, call out these mogul masters.

On Thursday Mel Gibson was talked about on two separate occasions on FOX programs. Thursday evening Mel wasn’t on O’Reilly but neither was O’Reilly. More on that later. On Friday Mel was one of the topics on Neil Cavuto’s program. So there you have it, Mr. Ailes. There you have it, Mr. Murdoch. Bill has called you out. Why are you permitting your slaves to continue talking about Mr. Gibson? Bill O’Reilly has called out your type of evil mastering.

Mr. O’Reilly has laid the endless coverage of Mel Gibson directly at the feet of the masters behind NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC and, in a move I would perceive as biting the hand that feeds him, you. Two weeks ago Bill O’Reilly criticized ‘myspace.com’ even going so far as to say he wished it removed from the internet, calling it a shopping mall for predators.

Hello! Isn’t ‘myspace.com’ also a subsidiary of, uh, News Corp? Isn't FOX a subsidiary of, uh, News Corp? Good heavens, gentlemen, how much more evil can you direct? Bill has called you out with a fervor second only to Cicero calling out Cataline in his commentaries.

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel. When Mr. O’Reilly commented on ‘myspace.com’ he was absent from his program the next evening. Mr. O’Reilly called out the masters on Wednesday and was absent on Thursday. It’s 30 minutes until Friday’s edition and I have my fingers crossed, in a way.

How much more, I can but wonder, of the created being greater than the creator? When I started this blog I wrote about the contradictions and out right lies of Bill O’Reilly. I even gave him some slack when he went on about Jessica’s Law and the poor judging in Vermont, all the while fumbling with his own luffa sponges.

When I wrote Spin IX, or X, I was done with Billy. He had convinced me that he was way to big for his britches and needed more of the comeuppance he had earlier experienced in his career and tragically forgotten. I would miss Bill-O. His program has become rife with inane spin and is a plethora of topics about which can be written endless hours of sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek ridicule.

The Factor has just begun and...NO BILL. Could it be? Two evenings in a row? But guess who their going to talk about? Mel Gibson!!

BOO! Evil Broadcasting Magnates/HOORAY BILL!!!

Time now for the most ridiculous item of the day: slave ridicules masters and survives. Mr. Ailes, Mr. Murdoch, can you hear me now?

There is a blog titled Gaza Dreaming. The author is a supposed Dr. Mary. I visited it the other day and left a comment. No response. I put the blog in my favorites list. Give it a click and see what they are talking about.

Well Mary,
Since you have posted another blog while failing to respond to my last comment, I’ll assume you have no intentions other than writing your point of view. In America you are free to do so. Isn’t America a great place? Isn’t it a warm fuzzy? You can preach Jihad all day long with no fear that the Christians or Jews or atheists will come to blow you up.

Whenever people discuss, or in your case refuse to discuss, ideology they have plenty of statistics to support their points. That a cease-fire in the Middle East has been broken certainly is not news. How many does that make these past 60 years? Too numerous to count, eh?

On televison around the world we see Hezbollah marching in their uniforms and looking fierce and determined. Flying through the air and doing all sorts of things to instill fear into us all. Then trouble starts (by whom is irrelevant) and where is this army? Why has Hezbollah failed to show up at the battle ground?

Doesn't a Jihad require attendance? Is the Islamic Jihad a holy war or a holy hide-and-seek? I have no idea if Hezbollah uses women and children as shields and it doesn’t matter to me. The point is they run and hide. If they believe in their cause why do they not stand up and be proud? Why do they choose the shadows?

You are incorrect about this being a Christian country. Many residents of the United States do not accept Jesus, many do. Many proud Americans also accept Muhammed. Many proud Americans accept neither. But the vast majority accept God, whether named God or Jehovah or Allah. This country was founded as one nation under God, not Christ.

The God of my Bible wants me to share everlasting happiness with Him in heaven. He asks that accomplish that by being kind to others. The God of the Torah seems to want the same thing. The God of the Koran seems to want the same thing as well. But somewhere along the way the God of the Koran has become perverted and many Mullahs preach and endorse this perversion. Fortunately for all freedom loving people on the planet, most all Mullahs are as disgusted as I at this perversion.

The God of the Koran has upped the ante. The God of the Koran wants blood atonement. And not just killing Jews. Kill anybody, just kill. The God of the Koran says kill each other if you want to, just kill. How else can be explained the Sunni and Shi’ite killing each other? Aren’t they in the same church, different pew, so to speak?

You ask who are the terrorists. That depends on perspective. When the United States dropped their bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Japanese must have seen the US as terrorists. In the American Revolution I would imagine England saw the colonists as terrorists. In the American Civil War both sides saw each other as terrorists.

Within the current conflict in Lebanon both sides also see each other as terrorists. If a woman is raped in Italy isn’t the rapist a terrorist, to her? If a house is burglarized in Hong Kong isn’t the burglar a terrorist in the eyes of the homeowner? If a grocery in Finland is robbed isn't the robber a terrorist in the eyes of the grocery clerk? It doesn’t matter who the terrorists are, what matters is the terror.

You refer to our current president as great and fearless. Not in my mind. He’s insecure and unsure of himself. He frequently puts his finger into the air to see which way the wind is blowing. His decision to allow Israel to keep fighting is not my decision. I would wager you that the decision is against the beliefs of most American citizens. The whole notion goes against their God.

But we are not the President and no one much cares what the majority believes or chooses anymore. That’s a cold hard fact we all face everyday. We feed, clothe, shelter and provide medical care for illegal aliens in this country. We provide better care for illegal aliens than we do for our own countrymen. I don't like it but we do it. It isn't my decision. This country may have been founded on a principal of democracy but it has never come to fruition. As the years go by we drift further from, rather than closer to, it.

You talked about the suffering of innocents in Lebanon. Gosh, Mary, I talk of it too. It is deplorable and inexcusable. Missiles into Lebanon: inexcusable! Missiles into Israel: inexcusable. Don’t you think that Israeli mothers mourn the loss of a child every bit as much as Muslim mothers do?

Is the heartache any less because they are damned Jews? Is the heartache any less because they are damned Muslims. Was the heartache any less because they were damned Japs? Or damned Poles? Or damned Vietnamese? Or damned Bosnians?

Before Hezbollah blew down the Marine barracks in Beirut did they sit around and consider the husbands, wives and children of their soon to be victims? Do you think they did Mary? Do you believe that six months before 9/11 those 20 hijackers sat around and talked about the fathers and mothers and children they wanted to kill? Of the deplorable carnage?

Are you wanting me to accept the idea that while the planes were in flight the hijackers, even for a minute, thought about the women and children on the planes that had no desire to meet the Maker of the Universe that day? Is that the theology you want me to accept, Mary? Is that the God of the Koran?

You went on to say that you are a mother. Would you support your child if he or she chose the path of a suicide bomber? Would you encourage your child to strap on an explosive laden vest and walk into an open air market and blow themselves up along with as many others as would be unfortunate enough to have been in the area. With not so much as a passing thought as to young or old, rich or poor, Christian or Jew or Muslim? With no more directive than to just go kill?

With no consideration other than gaining eternal salvation for themselves and a few moments notoriety amongst his or her fellow Jihadists? Would you Mary? Your child? You cannot answer yes can you? Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Qaeda are all great and wonderful movements as long as it’s someone else’s child.

You closed your post by saying that revenge will come in it’s time. That’s the motive? This Islamic Jihad is all about revenge? I can’t imagine a more tragic and shallow motive. Nothing has ever been achieved when the only motive was revenge. Absolutely, positively, unequivocably nothing.

The God of the Bible says that “vengeance is mine”. The God of the Torah says “vengeance is mine” What does the God of the Koran say about vengeance, Mary? What does Allah say about revenge?