miniluv is putting together a week-long Good-News-a-Thon, starting October 4th. They’re asking other bloggers to join in posting at least one “good news” item a day. I’m in!
Go join up. C’mon, it’ll be an exercise in variety. ;)
The homicidalManiak has some observations about income and spending that are brilliantly simple.
If people have more money they will spend it.
When people spend more money on products, more products need to be produced to keep up with demand.
To produce more, companies need to hire more people.
More people working means less people on unemployment and welfare.
There’s more to it, but the point is, as she says, “Kind of odd how the left consistently bashed Bush for his tax cuts but now that they’ve gone through spending has gone up, which is a good thing for our economy.”
Harvey asked himself the question: “Which are you more afraid of: cancer or impotence?” (By the way, I’m not going to think about what it means when he starts asking and answering his own questions.) He comes up with several equally difficult choices, including:
Tetanus or prison sex
…
Listening to any Jesse Jackson speech or having duct tape removed from my very hairy forearm
…
Being dropped into a pool of pirahna or an Al Gore presidency
But the one that made me gasp in surprise and disappointment was this:
Watching “Trading Spaces” or watching “While You Were Out”
Heresy!! Now, granted, While You Were Out is an abomination. It’s a sad, stupid effort to capture the greatness of Trading Spaces which is, simply put, The Shit. Trading Spaces is what gave me the balls (euphemistically speaking; I still have only girl-bits) to redecorate my son’s room.
I guess I’ll have to forgive Harvey this one little error, since the rest of the post was so damn funny.
A four-year-old boy has killed his 5-year-old sister and wounded his 7-year-old brother. This is a tragedy of immeasurable proportions. Police spokeswoman Diane Richardson called it “a terrible situation that probably could have been avoided.” It most certainly could have been avoided. Leaving aside the fact that the children were home alone, with no supervision from adults, all guns should be locked up when not in use or on your person.
This is not a tough concept. If you can’t afford a locking gun case, you should not own a gun. This doesn’t apply only to gun-owners with children, either; my local paper recently reported on a series of burglaries, and some of the items stolen were shotguns that were kept in an unlocked garage, not in locking gun cases. Absolutely inexcusable. I’m all for gun ownership; I’m even all for concealed carry for responsible, authorized individuals, but you must be responsible when you own a weapon as deadly as a gun.
Ok, people, maybe you doubted when IHarvey said I was
America’s #1 pin-up girl, but now I have
unequivocal
proof! No, the link isn’t me naked. Or is it?
I should start by saying I’m a happily married woman. Mike and I have a marriage that works (mostly due to mutual respect), and have produced two beautiful children. That said, I think fantasy is a healthy thing. :) These are the guys (I happen to be hetero) who, for the reasons explained, make the Dream Team. They are in no particular order. Think I could get em to wear little see-through genie outfits?
Frank J. - This guy’s the total package - he’s smart, funny, compassionate, and he owns more guns than I do. I’m amazed he’s still single, and must assume it’s because he’s extraordinarily picky, and I’m already taken.
Harvey - He’s got a naughty sense of humor (if you don’t believe me, just read the explanations for almost any of his Graffiti Currency entries). Confident, quirky, and former military (uniforms make me HOT). Oh, and he thinks I’m America’s #1 pin-up girl. :)
Glenn - Aside from the fact that he’s got the whole Enough-Traffic-To-Choke-A-Horse thing going on, he’s SMART (smart=sexy). I only lament that I can never keep up with his level of posting. Plus, it’d be cool to have both him and Frank stabled. Then, when they fought, I could just pick one, and watch the other get all jealous.
Jon - He’s just adorable! Another brain, and with a sassy, sarcastic flip to him. I haven’t seen any pictures (that goes for lots of these guys, actually), but I have a mental image. No, I won’t share.
Bill - Even though I’d have to share with Alice, Bill’s a right juicy plum. Arrogant yet self-deprecating, funny, irreverent, and dead sexy. Always love a man who doesn’t take himself too seriously.
LT Smash - Man. In. Uniform. Principled, honorable, intelligent, and in love with his wife. Does it really get any better than that? (Incidentally, think he’ll change his domain name when his promotion comes through?)
Will - Uniformed. Friggin hilarious. Unattached. And again, doesn’t take himself too seriously. Plus, his writing skill is virtually unmatched.
Scott - Hands down, the master of dry-wit, sarcastic humor. I’ve no idea what he’s like personally, but any man who can make me laugh that hard, that consistently, is one worth keeping around.
Ed - Ed’s the shy, quiet type, at least in my envisioning of him. But his political commentary is spot-on. He consistently puts out fantastic material, without whoring for links. And that look he has on his picture, with that raised eyebrow, just makes him look so… so… commanding!
Michal - My new webhost. This guy, besides being smart and funny, was endlessly patient with me when I migrated my site over. Patience during intense, stressful times has other useful applications. ;)
Mike and Court - Ballsy. Not afraid to call it like they see it. But deep down, a couple of sweet, nice guys.
Paul - Read his Dating Tips for Men to find out why he’s so sexy: he’s considerate, but not a pansy. His writing is fantastic in the way it flows. He’s taken, alas, so this is another I’d have to share.
So there you have it. My very own private testosterone-filled Stable of Love. Yee-haw!
UPDATE: How could I possibly have forgotten Alex and Paul? They’ve been on my blogroll since… well, since forever! They’re witty, sharp, and always find fun, out-of-the-way links. Their site design is one of my favorites - understated and functional. Capable, solid, mature men are always an asset to a love-stable.
A few days ago, I posted a comic in response to something posted on miniluv. Today, there’s a new chapter to the story. Check it out.
Even though Stryker called me a stupid bastard, I’m going to forgive him, because he made me laugh twice.
I almost hate to admit it, but Paul’s only too right:
Women want a confident man. If you re not confident in yourself, they can read it in your body language. If you walk around with your hands in your pockets staring at the ground, you re in trouble.
…
Women want a guy with a sense of humor. Funny is good. Smart funny is better.
When Alice was having her sexiest male blogger contest, I (and it turns out, several other female bloggers) emailed her with the message that Funny = Sexy. FWIW, I nominated Frank J.. There are others I would nominate now, in addition to Frank.
You need to be a real man, which means that you treat women with respect. There is a difference between being respectful and following their every command like a puppy dog. Learn the difference, it will serve you well.
Gospel.
Steve H. reports on the deplorable reading available at his urologist’s office, including an article in Ebony that “said something like, “A gang-bang may seem like a great way to enhance your ’street cred,’ but is it worth the jail time?” That’s just unbelievable. I share Steve’s shock that the Black community isn’t outraged about this.
They made it clear they didn’t think a hell of a lot of black women, either. They had an article about mistakes black women make on first dates. One piece of advice: “don’t ask for money.” I’m having a hard time coming up with a comment on that. I’ve been out with black women; none of them ever tried to break the ice by handing me an electric bill. Call me wildly optimistic; I doubt your average black woman is going to pull that one on you.
Alright, now Dean has officially crossed the line. In last night’s debate:
Mr. Dean responded [to Gephardt, who accused Dean of supporting Gingrich’s 1995 cut in Medicare], his face tense with anger: “That is flat-out false, and I’m ashamed that you would compare me with Newt Gingrich. Nobody deserves to be compared to Newt Gingrich.”
He continued: “To insinuate that I would get rid of Medicare is wrong, it’s not helpful, and we need to remember that the enemy here is George Bush, not each other.”
This bastard just needs to shut the fuck up. Whatever happened to him being the guy who was going to “bring everyone together"? Ed nails it:
The enemy isn’t Osama bin Laden, it’s not Saddam Hussein. It’s not the African AIDS crisis or North Korean missiles…Whoever is elected in 2004 will have to be president of the entire country, not just the Democratic party or the Republican party. Does calling the American president, during war time, “the enemy here” seem like a good start toward uniting the nation?
Would be funny if it weren’t so true. Well, still funny, but only in hindsight.
When a human is holding the newspaper in front of him/her, be sure to jump on the back of the paper. Humans love to jump.
There’s more.
Scott Ott’s been at it again. He now relates an interview with Jacques Chirac.
Q: Was it a mistake to overthrow Saddam?
A: No, absolutely not. I did not approve of the way he was overthrown. I felt it could have happened in another way.
Q: Such as…?
A: Perhaps with a series of levers and pulleys and heavy weights that drop onto spring-loaded catapult triggers.
A new project, which was the brainchild of Frank J., has now been launched. Its mission is to present first-hand accounts by military servicepeople about the conditions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other theatres of the Global War on Terror. I’m participating (in what capacity, I don’t yet know, other than contributing stories I come across), and I encourage you to, as well. At least go read.
OK, now I don’t feel so bad about contemplating my little “Dream Harem” post.
From a letter to the editor published in my local paper, the Whitman County Gazette:
When I went to school - “with our parents permission” - we did have Christian people come to school and also went to Churches once a week for a lesson etc…
Wouldn’t it be great if you and your child had that option now? And all the Churches could share and work together in serving this need?
OK, that wins this week’s Scariest Use of Quotation Marks™ Award.
This post is over a week old, but it still merits reading.
My cats and I have come to a bizarre crossroad in our relationship. Things have been getting weirder and weirder, but I think I have finally figured things out and I have come to grips with how things really work- at least according to my cats.
That’s just the lead-in… go check it out!
Replace “message boards” with “weblogs” and who hasn’t felt like this? (Editor's Note: I did have a link here to an image file, but it didn't survive the migration. Sorry.)
Look at that title ^. Doesn’t that just give you the giggles? No? Hmmm… then you haven’t read this:
Personally, I think McClintock did the best, sounding very professional and staying out of the silly bickering. I kinda now wish Arnold would drop out and support him. Arnold could always try some other job… like maybe a doctor!
That just gave me a giggle fit.
This is just a little bit excessive. I understand having a hobby and all, but … show some restraint!
’s’this thing on?
Hooray! OK, I’m pretty sure I’m all set now, and really *can not* give enough kudos to my web host, Michal, for all his help, above and beyond the call. He is a genius, and if I were not already happily married, I would offer to have his love child. Hmmm, actually, that might make an interesting post someday… “Dana’s Dream Harem.”
I’ll be gone this morning (I’m on the Left Coast), but will fix templates, links, etc. when I get back, and then I’ll start posting again. If you got here from Harvey’s blush-inducing link, howdy! I’ll be back this afternoon, and will dive in then.
This article appeared in my local paper, the Whitman County Gazette (which is website-less). The article is reproduced here as is. Accompanying the article are two photographs. One is captioned “Chief Master Sgt. Paul Zaring, son of Keith and Lelia Zaring of LaCrosse, with Mustafa, an interpreter at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan” and the other is captioned “Zaring hands out school supplies to youngsters in Afghanistan as part of the Air Force ‘Adopt a Village’ program which provides school supplies and basic necessities donated by American service personnel and Americans at home.”
I thought I would send this article to you since the 9/11 anniversary was last week as a way to update your readers of our accomplishments since we undertook the Global War on Terrorism. I am a 22-year veteran of the Air Force and Air National Guard. I now work for the Federal Aviation Administration as an Air Traffic Controller in Denver but hail from LaCrosse [Washington].
Following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, I deployed to Qatar, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in November of 2001. My job in supporting the global war on terrorism is to set up and operate air traffic control functions at forward operating locations. In February 2002, I was directed to go to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Our task was to set up Air Traffic Control services at one of the most heavily mined areas in the world amid pockets of Taliban and Al Queda resistance. You may remember this time-frame as "Operation Anaconda." Upon arrival in Bagram, I met Mustafa, our interpreter who greatly aided in our communications with Afghani Nationals and restoring air traffic control service in the midst of airfield attacks.
Today, I find myself back at Bagram Airfield after the second anniversary of 9/11. My job has been the same and includes setting up Air Traffic Control functions in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan.
We are able to receive news via satellite, and I have to say what I see on the news and what I see on the ground here are two different stories. I hope you are able to print Mustafa's story as a way of letting readers understand that we are making a difference over here. In speaking with several Afghanis, I have found (from my perspective) we have the support of over 90 per cent of the population and the situation is improving every day here.
Interpreter Mustafa relates Afghanistan survival tale
I am Mustafa, and I am an Afghani citizen. I was born in Kabul in 1980 and went to school there. When I was a child Russians occupied our country and I remember them a little bit. I remember their convoy's crossing by our house. The point that I will never forget is when they were leaving I was very happy they were leaving. I didn't know why, but now I understand why I was happy. I never met any of them because in our family nobody liked them.
When the communist regime took over the country they killed my grandfather and his two brothers. They also confiscated all our property. Some of our family escaped to Pakistan and then to the United States. My cousins now live in Los Angeles, and I have an aunt in New York City. They have been there more than 23 years.
In 1979 my father tried to find his father. He stayed in Afghanistan after a year. When he wasn't successful he married; so that's why nobody in our family liked the Russians and communist regime of Afghanistan. When the Russians left the Mujahedeen took over and a civil war started, during the war I was in Kabul and I exactly remember the rockets and mortar that killed about 25,000 civilians during five years of the war.
I will never forget my parents, brother and I were in the house, early one morning. My father woke up and went outside to the backyard, he came back in and was worried and said to my mom "do you know that last night two rockets exploded in our backyard?"
During the night there was lots of fighting, and we didn't know who hit whom. Most of the time we were in the basement of the house, in an effort to be safe from the rockets. After three years of civil war we heard the news of the Taliban, and everybody was bored of fighting and most of them were looking for the Taliban to take over and bring peace.
Finally they surrounded Kabul. We heard that they have some really bad rules, and most people were leaving Kabul. My father told me to leave Kabul and escape to Pakistan, so we did. When we started our trip we had no passport or visa. When we arrived at the Pakistan border following the 13-hour trip the Pakistani police didn't let us cross. We stayed by the border for one night I met a man, he guided us over the border through the mountains. It was a very hard hike, my family and I walked more than 12 hours to arrive in Pakistan.
In Pakistan there was no job for me to do because I had no passport or visa. My father got a job in the United Nations office. He worked there for a year and a half. During this time my brothers and I kept going to school. Most of the time I was sitting in front of the television, practicing my English. One of those days, while I was watching the television, I heard of the bad news of September 11, 2001. We returned to Kabul after the Taliban had gone and had complete freedom. We came back and I was looking for a job. In that time the Kabul airport was closed and some friends of mine and I tried to get a job with the journalists during that time all the planes were landing at Bagram Air Base.
We traveled to Bagram Air Base, about two or three miles from the base there was a bridge out, we had to cross the river. There was a lot of water in the river and we couldn't figure out how deep it was. As we attempted to drive through the river our car started to take water. We jumped out but there was nobody to help us. We waited seven hours. When we saw a red pickup truck come toward us I shouted "can you find some people to help us," the truck stopped by the river. We went up to it and I saw some people that had some very long beards and were tall and strong. I said to my friend "Russians again" we had no choice except to ask them for help.
I asked one of them 'can you speak English?" He said yes. Then I ask "where are you from?" He said "America" I couldn't believe it. I told my friend they might need a couple of interpreters. Then we asked them if they needed some. They said yes and come to our base, and we got his name. After we got the truck out of the river we thanked them for their help. The next day we came back to Bagram Air Base and they hired us as interpreters. The post that I was assigned to was at the Air Force Village gate, then I was sent to the control tower. When I got to the tower it was a cold day there, there was a big hole in the ceiling and there was no door or windows.
I started working at Bagram Air Base in late 2001 and I am still there. I have worked with several different groups of controllers, Missouri, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, Wyoming, and Colorado. I love working here but the thing that I don't like is when they say "we are leaving." This sentence makes me sad; I hope to meet all my friends in America some day. I hope to become American college student and finish my higher education there.
I haven’t mentioned lately how much I love Frank J.. Recently, he’s started this thing called “Bite-size Wisdom” where he posts short little snippets (often random) instead of full-fledged paragraphs. Think “Stream of Consciousness” blogging. He’s good at it. My favorites from his latest:
* Some poll says Clark is tied with Bush. Are there really that many mindless Bush haters to make that possible? What we need to do is put out a bunch of shiny objects on Election Day to distract those people from voting.
* There are supposed to be shark attacks down here too, but I’ve yet to see one of those either. Then again, I never bother to go to the beach. You probably won’t find many at the Wal-Mart.
I really hope this program takes off, and they expand it countrywide.
The idea is simple - donate used, or even new, cell phones for repair, recycling and resale. The profits go to help troops coming home from Iraq.
For those of you in NYC, the program is already in effect there, so dig out those old cellphones!
XM Listen: “Chicks Dig It” by Chris Cagle
Hurricane Isabel didn’t get Bill down. He spent the time making Hurricades.
To make Hurricade, take a generous amount of vodka, some Clamato juice, a splash of Worstershire sauce, and a few shakes of Old Bay seasoning. Then walk to your front door, open it and add a splash of Isabel. Don’t stand at the front door too long because it could result in your death or worse, it’ll water down your drink.
Via Baseball Crank, it looks like the Dixie Chicks have finally decided they don’t want to be country music singers anymore.
Going home empty-handed from the Country Awards ceremony also made them decide to break with the scene, Maguire said.
“Instead, we won three Grammys against much stronger competition.
“So we now consider ourselves part of the big Rock ‘n’ Roll family.”
Well, let’s see. We got a whine, a jab, and a presumptuous, pompous little flounce in there. Maybe this means the country music stations will finally quit playing their damn songs, and I can listen to Toby, Kenny, and Chris in peace again.
By the way, I’ve decided to start posting what I’m listening to at the end of each post. Now that I have XM satellite radio, I’m pretty much constantly listening to something, be it music, Fox News, CNN, comedy, E!, or something else.
XM Listen: “If I Were You” by Collin Raye
This is just outrageous. The Justice department - who announced that their policy is to go for the most serious offense provable for “regular” criminals so they spend the most time in jail, and who are seeking the death penalty wherever possible (both positions I agree with) - has let Merrill Lynch off scot-free.
Merrill Lynch & Company, in an agreement with prosecutors that let it avoid criminal charges over its role in the Enron debacle, promised today not to engage in business deals even ones that appear legal that it believes might be used to mislead investors about a company’s financial condition.
The Wall Street firm also agreed to allow the government to monitor portions of its business for the next 18 months.
John does a good job of ripping this one, so I’ll leave it to him.
Well, at least somebody noticed that I was gone. Love ya, Harvey, but I draw the line at drinking the poison or stabbing myself in the breast, k?
I’m sorry to say it, but there are countries where people are not overly constrained by common sense or respect for human life, and it seems like we’re always hearing horror stories about large numbers of people dying from things that wouldn’t even send Americans to the bathroom for Band-Aids. But how does an American manage to die in a hurricane?
There’s more; check it out.
“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one.” - George Bernard Shaw
Overheard at the gas station today:
“Oh, yeah? Well I remember the eighties, that’s how old I am!”
Kill. Me. Now.
I meant to blog about the soldiers guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns refusing to abandon their post during Hurricane Isabel, but my bloglessness prevented me from doing so. Luckily, Sgt. Hook was on the ball, and he blogged it. Now, he has a follow-up comment from one of the soldier’s mom.
Via LTLCDR Smash, there
is a drive being conducted by Chief Wiggles
to collect toys
that he can hand out to Iraqi kids. I’m excited about this, and plan to
buy a few things while I’m out tomorrow. Pay attention to the rules,
though; we don’t want to do more harm than good. An excerpt:
Some no no toys:
Any guns of any kind
No violent action hereos
No violent toys
No barbie dolls or dolls skantily dressed
No toys that shoot something, no projectiles
No water guns
Lets just keep it simple, simple toys, just the basics, these kids have
nothing.
UPDATE: It turns out now that the military has stopped shipments of toys going to Chief Wiggles. The volume (440 packages received as of Oct. 10) is just too much for them to bear, on top of the normal mail load. They’ve got alternate shipping arranged, someone has donated warehouse space, and now they need someone in Baltimore to coordinate the shipping from the warehouse to the Chief. If you can help, email Operation Give. I guess I’ll just hang on to the packages I have for now, until there’s more info. Thanks to Citizen Smash for the heads-up.
Well, hot damn! I’m finally back in the saddle again. *trying hard to shake the mental image of Anna Nicole Smith on that mechanical bull*
Anyway, for the record, edatarack sucks some bigtime ass. I’ll leave it to Mike and Court to elaborate on it (Linking! I’m linking! God, I’ve missed this…), but suffice to say, I won’t miss them (edatarack, I mean, not the miniluv boys, whom I love dearly). Speaking of miniluv, I’m glad to see they finally got a chick on board.
If you ever need a web host, I really can’t recommend my new one highly enough. Michal (who owns the joint) was unfailingly patient with me, and even gave me his AIM account name so I could chat with him and get things changed. He handled moving the DNS, setting up all the account changes, and downloading the database from edataless for no extra charge. The monthly hosting fees are a lot more than I was paying before, but still competitive with other hosts, especially considering the (truly) unmatched service he offers.
Now, things are bound to be broken. I’m trying to make sure pictures are in place, and links are working, but if you see something amiss, please let me know. I have a huge backlog of things to post, too, so be ready for a flurry in the coming days. And if you missed me, give me a holla!
I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed right now. I'm behind on email, I'm 3 days behind on housecleaning (might have to let those days go and start over, though it'd be the same chores as I "let go" last time, and I hate to do that), I've signed up for four different committees (I'm co-chairing two, secretary for one, and committee chair for another) and am behind on ALL of that work, my desk/scrapbooking area is a mess (covered with all the stuff I need to do), and I've launched a new business. Forgive me if posting/responding to email is sporadic/light/infrequent for awhile, mm-k?
“A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.” - Robert Frost
Harvey has hit the bit 3-7. Doing so is something I aspire to, myself.
Weird timing, but after reading Mike’s post - Virgin Scandal Shocks Hamas Martyrs - I saw this. (Graphic and link lost in the migration.)
Probably one of the very few non-satirical posts you will ever see at IMAO:
It s a terrible thing to call for vengeance, but if our response falls even slightly short, we will only encourage more acts like this. We must take the terror to the terrorists, hunting down all we can find and punishing anyone who would harbor them to the point that a country would fear even the possibility of terrorists resting in their borders.
From Matthew Hoy, a poignant reminder (see the entry entitled “Remembering 9/11) of why the fight against terrorism must continue.
As the days pass, we need to remember what it was that awakened America from its contented slumber. As the fight against terrorism shifts from Afghanistan to Iraq to the horn of Africa - or wherever radical Islamists try to hide - we must remain vigilant. They have not abandoned their efforts to destroy America and the freedom it represents. They have not resigned themselves to defeat at the hands of superior military force.
They hate us, and they will cease to be a danger when they’re dead - not before.
To that I would add words from our President:
“We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.”
And we will not forget.
Congratulations to Paul Muller on his engagement.
“A satirist is a man who discovers unpleasant things about himself and then says them about other people.” - Peter McArthur
Via Bad Money, this parody of CNN’s reporting on Iraq.
CNN Reporter: Ok, we need to do an update on the lack of progress in Iraq, ya know, talk about the constantly worsening security situation, native unrest, that sort of thing…
Camera Man: We’ve been saying the situation is “constantly worsening” since about 5 minutes after they pulled down that statue of Saddam. I mean we’d practically have to see alien mantis people walking down the street, kicking in doors, pulling out small children, and eating them in the street for things to have been “constantly worsening” for that long…
Oh, yay! I’m back in action. OK, my ISP was having troubles again, but it seems they got it fixed… again. I have a lot to say, so here goes!
Several of the weblogs I read are on Blogger. Heck, I started there myself! But Harvey has an illustration of what Blogspot does to you.
Pssst, Jon, this means you! *wink*
Adam is a very bright boy. Today, in the truck on the way into town to run errands, Mike and I were talking about the fact that tomorrow would be the first day of the new session of preschool. Adam was doing his own thing, and I assumed he was oblivious. Just now (8 hours later) when I was changing his diaper, I asked if he knew what tomorrow was. He said, "Yes, Thursday! First preschool day!" Stunned, I asked, "That's right. How did you know that?" He replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "First of all, in the car!" Wow. Little pitchers.
My housecleaning proceeds apace. I got behind a couple of days because of the fair and other things (mostly Kayla's being sick; more on that in a bit), so I've decided instead of trying to catch up I'm going to just pick up with tomorrow's chore: cleaning the bathrooms. We did buy a new mop today, since the (very) old one was quite worn out. And just how sad is it that I'm telling you about my mop? Sigh.
Last night I went to a scrapbooking class. This was only my second one, ever. It was about fibers, and while I can't really say I learned anything new, I did have a good time and met a few people. I'm also going to be selling some of the shaker tags I make there, and maybe some of the paper I've been making. Not sure about that last, since paper takes a long time to make, and so would be correspondingly expensive, but we'll see. After the class, I went to see Freddy vs. Jason. It was pretty miserable, especially since it was preceded by thirty minutes of previews. Nothing new, and the plot was completely predictable. In hindsight, I should've just come home. Live and learn. Now, I like watching previews; it lets me know what's coming. But thirty minutes?? That strikes me as a BIT excessive.
Monday was the first meeting for the new session of my quilt guild! I'm really quite excited about this year, despite the fact that there may be some organizational difficulties. I'm co-chairing the Community Services Project committee with a very dear friend, so that should be fun. It also got me inspired to sew again, so Monday night and Tuesday afternoon, I made a new quilt, then gave it to Kayla to use for her babies. It's the first quilt I've ever made for her, I'm sad to say. She wasn't real impressed with it. I'll post a picture later.
In addition to everything else I've got going on, I dug out some cross-stitching that I've been working on for years. I had forgotten how much I loved it.
Kayla got sick a week and a half ago, and ended up in the hospital. Her fever had gotten up to 104, with no apparent cause. Let me just say that being committed overnight to the hospital with a feverish, clinging one-year-old who refuses to eat or drink but wants to nurse at every turn sucks in ways that I cannot even communicate. After being discharged from the hospital after her fever seemed to break, we ended up back in the ER after it spiked again. It was then they did the chest Xray and found that she had pneumonia. They gave her amoxicillin, but after a few days of that she either started to react to it or developed roseola, so the doctor switched her to Ceftin. A day and a half before that round was done, she developed odd little red bumps the day before her follow-up checkup. I showed the bumps to our regular doctor, and he advised we discontinue the Ceftin, on the assumption she'd had enough antibiotics to knock down the lung infection. She seems happy and cheerful now, and everyone else in the family has run through a cold. Think that'll set us for the rest of the year?
Be sure to check out Bruno in Baghdad, and spread the word about this great site! I found out about it by an email I received from Bruno (LCpl Brunhoff): "am a United States Marine who just returned from the war on Iraq. I have created a website dedicated to the personal photography of United States Military Personnel which was taken during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. I have two simple ideas to the site: One is to provide military personnel, who didn’t have cameras, with pictures so they can also have some keepsakes. The other is that coming back from a war there are memories that you suppress, I was taught that if you suppress them it isn’t healthy. So I hope that these photos can act as story tools for military personnel to better help them overcome bad memories and be at ease with themselves. I would like more personnel’s photos and am having trouble getting the word out about the site. I can’t afford a lot of advertising because I am married and have 1 child and 1 more on the way. If you know anything about the pay in the military, it isn’t great, but the benefits of pride and other intangible things make up for it. I hope that if the word gets out about the site that more people will donate their pictures."
Last weekend was the Fair! Adam absolutely loved it, and we went every day but Sunday. Saturday even Mike and Kayla went, and we got some pictures. I'll end with those.
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Today I heard a radio ad for something called GuruNet. This is a little utility that runs in the background on your computer, then when you alt-click on a word or phrase, it pops up with all kinds of information about that phrase. If it’s a place, they have the local weather, a map, geographical description, and other information. If it’s a phrase, you can use their dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia. If it’s a celebrity, you can get a bio and pictures (the pictures are through integration with Google Images; I’m sure there’s a lot of integration going on here).
This thing is truly amazing. They have a free version and a paid ($40) version. The free version includes the dictionary, thesaurus, spell-checker, and word translation. The free version also has a 7-day trial of all the premium features, which is REALLY making me want to buy this thing. Lord knows I’ve blown $40 on worse!
I am in no way affiliated with them, but this was too cool not to share.
Alrighty, folks; time to mobilize the blogosphere for Good. I received this email yesterday (probably because of this page, which I maintain):
To Whom It May Concern:
I am a United States Marine who just returned from the war on Iraq. I have created a website dedicated to the personal photography of United States Military Personnel which was taken during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. I have two simple ideas to the site: One is to provide military personnel, who didn t have cameras, with pictures so they can also have some keepsakes. The other is that coming back from a war there are memories that you suppress, I was taught that if you suppress them it isn t healthy. So I hope that these photos can act as story tools for military personnel to better help them overcome bad memories and be at ease with themselves. I would like more personnel s photos and am having trouble getting the word out about the site. I can t afford a lot of advertising because I am married and have 1 child and 1 more on the way. If you know anything about the pay in the military, it isn t great, but the benefits of pride and other intangible things make up for it. I hope that if the word gets out about the site that more people will donate their pictures.
Thank you for your time,
LCpl Brunhoff, Joshua P.
http://www.brunoinbaghdad.com
OK, people, you know what to do. Let’s help get this site known, linked, visited!
This man is a genius. He never fails to make me laugh. OK, not EVERY post makes me laugh, and the whole blog war thing is just silly, but still - he makes me laugh almost every single day. This time he has an installment of a regular feature - In My World, a kind of political sketch, usually featuring members of the Bush administration, the press, and fictitional characters (Buck the Marine, Chomps - the World’s Angriest Dog, among others).
“It’s tiring me carrying a gun this heavy,” Rumsfeld stated, pulling out his luger, “Maybe I should lighten it.”
“No no!” the reporter shouted, “Question withdrawn!”
The money quote? Well, ok, but it only makes sense if you read the whole thing:
“God, they’re gullible,” Condi laughed, “Now they’ll all be distracted by this while we steal us some oil.”
Rumsfeld looked a little sullen. “Really did want to smite someone, though.”
The fine folks over at Sgt. Stryker’s Daily Briefing have a new member to their fine blogging team. Go check out Radar’s first post. It’s quite touching.
In the course of making the obligatory small talk that goes with being packed into cattle class, she told me that she was headed for Fort Leonardwood for basic training, and that she was absolutely terrified. The light came on - she and her travelling companions did have something terrible in common that they could not discuss - fear of the unknown.
The host for this site has been having some trouble with connectivity (blamed, of course, on the “upstream"), so I apologize to my readers (all 23 of you!) for the lack of posting. I’ll make up today, since I’ve had plenty I WANTED to say, just no way to say it.
Erasmus from Civic Dialogues has asked people to post their answers to several questions, profiling what their ideal tax policy should be. I’ll bite. :) For the sake of brevity (and because I have neither the time nor the inclination to write something that covers all bases) I’m sticking to federal taxing and federal spending. Maybe I’ll come back to state spending later.
- What should be the goals of public expenditures?
I’ve been mulling this for some time, actually, and I think I’ll rephrase the question for my purposes: What are legitimate government expenditures? I think the federal government should limit itself to these roles: national defense; interstate infrastructure, post offices, and transportation; mediating disputes between states and citizens of those states; negotiating treaties with other nations; prosecution and punishment of perpetrators of “national” (for shorthand) crimes (to include impeachments); interpretation of state laws for Constitutionality; regulation of immigration; issuance and regulation of the national currency; and issuance and maintenance of patents, copyrights, and trademarks. I think those are the ONLY legitimate functions of our federal government - not welfare, not education, not healthcare; those are all functions that should be handled at other levels.
I’ll answer the next question later. Post your own answers - I’d love to see real thought and consideration come out of this.
Much like the Dixie Chicks, Depp has issued an apology after his comments about the U.S. being a “dumb puppy” were published.
“What I was saying was that, compared to Europe, America is a very young country and we are still growing as a nation,” he said. “My deepest apologies to those who were offended, affected, or hurt by this insanely twisted deformation of my words and intent.”
Ahhh, ok. So now it’s “we” are still growing as a nation (what nation isn’t?). Depp claims his remarks were taken out of context, but I fail to conceive of a context in which saying he wanted his kids to “’see America as … a broken toy’ that they should explore, get the feel of, then ‘get out’” doesn’t constitute the anti-American sentiment he’s disavowing. France is a good place for him.
So all the Dean supporters like to point to the fact that the NRA has given Dean an ‘A’ rating, and proclaim that this makes him a gun advocate. Court of miniluv delves into this score, and draws some interesting conclusions.
However, in addition to proposing ineffective ideas towards gun control, Dean also wants to:
I believe the federal gun laws we have – like the Brady Bill – are important, and I would veto any attempt to repeal or gut them. The Assault Weapons Ban expires next year, and it should be renewed.
Oh, yeah! I’m sure all us gun nuts would just be THRILLED to have a Dean administration!! The assault weapons ban is a farce. It’s stupid, ineffective legislation, and it should be repealed, not just allowed to expire. As Frank J. put it, “For those who don’t know, in 1994 the evil Clinton passes a bill banning magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. ‘Oh, he only shot me ten times. Thank god for that law which… Oh no! He’s reloading!’”
I HAD been intending to see this movie. In fact, I went to see it once with a friend, but because of a squirming, babbling infant, I left after about 10 minutes. Everyone I knew who had seen it gave it great reviews, and I had been looking forward to watching it. Then this:
“America is dumb, it’s like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, aggressive,” he [Depp] said.
Boycotting is an American tradition. We can boycott businesses OR entertainers. I still refuse to watch any Dixie Chicks videos or listen to any of their songs, and I similarly won’t go see any Johnnie Depp movies (which is really too bad, since the upcoming Depp/Banderas/Hyak movie looked pretty good). I’m all for freedom of speech. Entertainers should be allowed to say anything they want, but once you make your political views known - and particularly when you are so odious and offensive about it - you have to be prepared for repercussions.
I have a business of my own, and a few months back I sent an email to my subscribers, expressing my support for the troops serving in the Middle East and offering to be a penpal to any family members who were deployed. I got several positive responses, but I also lost several subscribers who objected to my position. So be it; I’m ready to deal with that. I wouldn’t change what I did, and I don’t fault those with opposing views from not wanting to associate with me or my site. I talk the talk, and I’m willing to walk the walk. Depp should, too.
I found out about Jon’s blog via a comment he posted over at IMAO. He’s funny, so I’m blogrolling him. Here’s a sample:
There are as yet undiscovered tribes in the heart of the Peruvian jungle who know this guy is running for President. “John Kerry is running for President", they say “and he was in Vietnam".
Erasmus from Civic Dialogues asked if I had any thoughts about a possible 2004 candidacy by Gen. Wesley Clark. I posted the following in the comments to an earlier post (links removed), but I decided it deserved its own entry.
Erasmus - I hadn’t really seen much about Gen. Clark, so I decided to do some research. I found a rundown on his professional career before I moved over to Draft Clark for President 2004. The very first article I read there started off with the usual blustering and bullshit, which let a sour taste in my mouth from the beginning.
The Democrats are sore afraid. The Republicans have control of the battlefield and stand nearly unchallenged, hurling foul oaths. They stand behind their champion, and until the Democrats muster the courage to challenge him, the Republicans can plot their destruction outright.
Those poor, defenseless Democrats! They’re going to get squashed by the big, bad Republicans. I mean, come on, “plot their destruction"?? I realize this can’t be attributed to Gen. Clark, but it IS an organization who considers him representative of their views, so it matters. I read on.
That was the day the general received a phone call from a friend of his, a Republican in Arkansas who’d heard talk that the general was contemplating running for office in his home state as a Democrat. “You going to come over to our side now?” is what the general remembers his friend saying…Are the Democrats such a lost tribe that they could come to count on a man of war?a man who is virtually the embodiment of military force?to muster their challenge? Are they so hapless and defeated that they would pin their hopes upon a man who has known nothing but war for thirty-four of his fifty-eight years?
Wait… back it up… so a close friend of Gen. Clark calls and asks him, probably at least half in jest, if he’s “coming over to our (the Republican) side", and that’s supposed to speak for the entire Democratic party? If I call up Clinton and ask him to speak to my local quilt guild, does that mean the entire Republican party is now begging for Clinton’s presence? Let’s not overstate our case here, folks.
This statement, in particular, observed me. It’s a quote from Gen. Clark: “It’s (the military) very good at knocking things down. But now we have to build things, and the military’s not very good at building things. It’s not about building things. It’s about allowing what you’ve built to be destroyed. It’s about allowing people you love to be killed.” Who rebuilt Europe after WWII? What exactly is the purpose of the Engineer Corps, if not to rebuild? Sure, the infantrymen and the Special Forces might not be best suited to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, but there are other units whose purpose is just that. And… the military is “about allowing people you love to be killed"? I’d say that’s a very unfortunate consequence, but not what they’re “about.”
“So far, he has outlined his principles but not his platform, and his principles?shorn of mystique?are not so different from Howard Dean’s.” Well, I must say, that puts me on my guard. I decided to skip the rest of this long entry and try to find some assertion of what either his principles OR his platform actually were.
I found this. Pretty vague, but it seems like the usual Democratic line - “a foreign policy of generosity, humility, engagement, and of course force where it is needed. But as a last resort” (no argument there, but of course defining when you’ve reached the point of last resort is a matter of some contention); “This is an administration which really hasn’t respected our allies. If you really want allies, you’ve got to listen to their opinions, you’ve got to take them seriously, you’ve got to work with their issues” (Our administration’s ultimate responsibility is to the protection of its populace. If they can achieve this through multilateralism, all the better, but when nations like France and Germany serve to block multilateralism because it’s in their own interests, we still must act to defend ourselves.); “the administration has squandered a lot of the international goodwill that came our way after the attacks and is now squandering our domestic energy by forcing us into Iraq” (same ol, same ol. Deposing Saddam needed to happen. Bush I should’ve done it, but he didn’t. Clinton should’ve done it, but he didn’t. So now it falls to Bush II, and this generation. So be it.); “When I go back and think about the atmosphere in which the PATRIOT Act was passed, it begs for a reconsideration and review” (now THAT, I agree with. But that’s a matter for the legislature, not the President); “Clark told Michael Tomasky of the American Prospect in an interview that he favors both abortion rights and affirmative action.” (BOTH positions I disagree with); “I would not have supported [the tax cuts]. They were not efficient in terms of stimulating the kind of demand we need to move the economy back into a recovery mode, a strong recovery and a recovery that provides jobs.” (another position I disagree with. It’s too soon to draw firm conclusions, but from almost every indication, the economy is slowly recovering. On a personal level, I see that I (a self-employed business owner) am better able to subcontract more of my paying work to others as my tax burden decreases. I can only imagine this holds true for larger businesses); “I mean, the people that need the money and deserve the money are the people who are paying less, not the people who are paying more.” (Huh?? The people who DESERVE the money are the people who’re paying LESS? “This does not compute.").
So, I guess all in all, I’m not really impressed. Seems to me that Gen. Clark is Howard Dean with a military record.