Another Christmas has passed, and I have again controlled my desire to beat the living shit out of Reno's TV-news robots, who mindlessly proclaim the joys of a "white Christmas."
My problem might be that I can't stop from actually listening to what these intellectually challenged people say, instead of letting it roll past my brain, as most TV viewers seem to.
It would be fun to put the bag on every "white Christmas" wisher, and chain-gang them into shoveling every inch of sidewalk and walkway at my house, including the four-car-wide driveway. That's about 2 inches of snow tonight.
"White Christmas" that, moron.
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26 December 2008
16 December 2008
If the shoe fits
G.W., irony-free President: Bush ducked the ultimate insult the other day in Baghdad, and he doesn't comprehend the insult.
On the other foot, if that reporter called Barbara B. a rude name, W. would have called him out, Texas style. Fightin' words are sacred to faux-Texans.
Wipe those boots off before you come in to the bunkhouse, cowpoke.
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On the other foot, if that reporter called Barbara B. a rude name, W. would have called him out, Texas style. Fightin' words are sacred to faux-Texans.
Wipe those boots off before you come in to the bunkhouse, cowpoke.
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25 November 2008
McCain got it right, then got it wrong
A friend just showed me a copy of “The Best and the Brightest” by David Halberstam, 1972, which has a foreward by John McCain. The last couple of paragraphs are utterly wise about why the U.S. lost in Vietnam, but they also apply directly to W’s Iraq misadventure, which McCain facilitated. If only McCain had re-read his own insights before sending Americans off to die in the desert ...
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Devils of their better nature
I continue to sneer at the pathological need by religionists to control everybody in the world. However, the rules they make — and break — do have a benefit: Promise of screaming in Hell forever seems to deter possible bad behavior in some people.
The Reaganites and Bushies deregulated everything in sight, and that freedom from rules let bankers, traders, insurance execs and pretty much the entire population of the U.S. financial sector go greedily wrong.
If somebody had put the fear of God into AIG, would it be such a disaster? Fannie and Freddie? Citi?
The sign of a responsible adult is doing the right thing when nobody is watching. Nobody watched Lehman Brothers. Or Charles Keating so many years ago.
If manmade laws don’t work, eternal damnation might.
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The Reaganites and Bushies deregulated everything in sight, and that freedom from rules let bankers, traders, insurance execs and pretty much the entire population of the U.S. financial sector go greedily wrong.
If somebody had put the fear of God into AIG, would it be such a disaster? Fannie and Freddie? Citi?
The sign of a responsible adult is doing the right thing when nobody is watching. Nobody watched Lehman Brothers. Or Charles Keating so many years ago.
If manmade laws don’t work, eternal damnation might.
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14 November 2008
Biting back
Everybody's way too delighted with the video clip of Barney the White House black dog biting that reporter.
The reporter asked Barney's "handler" if he could pet the pooch. Mr. Handler said OK.
However, the reporter did not ask Barney.
Canine rule No. 1: Don't touch without asking the potential touchee.
Woof.
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The reporter asked Barney's "handler" if he could pet the pooch. Mr. Handler said OK.
However, the reporter did not ask Barney.
Canine rule No. 1: Don't touch without asking the potential touchee.
Woof.
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05 November 2008
The greatest sacrifice
What if John McCain's pathetic excuse for a presidential campaign is actually his greatest heroic act?
He knew that the U.S. needs a new direction, which the GOP cannot supply, so he shouldered aside his platoon-mates and threw himself on the Obama grenade.
Country first.
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He knew that the U.S. needs a new direction, which the GOP cannot supply, so he shouldered aside his platoon-mates and threw himself on the Obama grenade.
Country first.
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22 October 2008
Wardrobe malfunction
The GOP laid out a pile of cash to clothe the Palin family for the Lower 48 campaign … well, of course; replacing Alaska plaid with clothes that are not lined with fur has got to cost a lot.
ooo
Polls say Shockin’ Sarah’s stock with women voters is way down. As it should be. Personal experience taught me that women are tougher judges of other women than of men.
When a female manager screws up, her female workers will judge her harshly, but let a man with the same error off easy. After all, he’s a man. And she’s a bitch.
ooo
Gotta say, every Alaskan I met on my 2000 cruise from Anchorage-Seward to Vancouver was pleasant and helpful. They live on the coast, however. Inlanders might be meaner.
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ooo
Polls say Shockin’ Sarah’s stock with women voters is way down. As it should be. Personal experience taught me that women are tougher judges of other women than of men.
When a female manager screws up, her female workers will judge her harshly, but let a man with the same error off easy. After all, he’s a man. And she’s a bitch.
ooo
Gotta say, every Alaskan I met on my 2000 cruise from Anchorage-Seward to Vancouver was pleasant and helpful. They live on the coast, however. Inlanders might be meaner.
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The first month of my Presidency ...
If I were Obama … in the first month of my Presidency, I would:
1. Order Gitmo closed within three months; transfer all prisoners to the D.C. area; publish their names, arrest data and current location; reclaim all farmed-out for questioning (torture) prisoners; publish all trial transcripts.
1a. Give Guantanamo back to Cuba; saves lots of money.
2. Order withdrawal of all U.S. military from Iraq, with deadline.
3. Order changes in airline passenger screening: shoes stay on; disabled people stay in wheel chairs; no touching the passengers; no detaining anybody for longer than 30 minutes.
4. Suspend the no-fly list so it can be reduced to a reasonable number of names; remove non-terrorists; limit who can add to the list.
5. Restore habeas corpus, no exceptions.
6. Ban warrant-less searches by any agency.
7. Ban warrant-less phone taps, in the U.S. and out.
7a. Destroy recordings of pillow-talk, etc., conversations.
8. Buy the Afghan opium crop. Destroy it. Hire Afghan farmers to grow ethanol-yielding crops. Same for Colombia, Mexico.
9. Rehire people who were kicked out of government service because of sexual orientation, especially Arabic-speakers.
10. Suspend the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule. Cancel any pending expulsions. Tell the homophobes to get over it or get out.
11. Assign special prosecutor to investigate claims of voter fraud.
12. Establish one-payer health-care experiment; sign up poverty-level uninsured, plus people 15% over poverty level. Tell insurance companies to shut up.
13. Freeze all foreclosures, retroactive to people who have not yet moved out, or whose houses are not yet occupied so that they can move back in. Roll back mortgages to the first-year interest rate and payment level.
14. Freeze all student-loan liens; restructure.
15. Tell California that if it still wants tougher auto-emission standards, it can have them; order EPA to comply. Tell Detroit puppets to get stuffed.
16. Freeze No Child Left Behind act. Tell companies profiting from testing to shut up.
17. Suspend all death-penalty prosecutions; study application of capital punishment as applied to race, mental status, poverty, specific crimes.
18. Remind everybody that “you can’t use the government to make people live by your religion.”
19. Offer two tax-free years to builders of solar farms and wind farms if they get permit process started within six months. Two more tax-free years if they begin construction within nine months.
19a. Offer tax-free years to builders of electricity storage and transfer systems if they start permit process and building within nine months.
19b. Whack states up longside the head if they screw around with permits. But, monitor environmental impacts, etc.
19c. Offer tax-free years to fuel-cell inventors and start pilot programs.
19d. Offer incentives to towns that create plug-ins for electric cars.
20. Suspend daylight saving time for two years to see if it actually saves anything.
21. Speed up handling of immigration requests. Shorten waiting periods. Reduce time for re-entry of people deported but now applying for visas.
21a. Introduce a form for illegals to fill out that becomes a reapplication for an expired visa or for a first visa. Available at Post Offices, other federal offices. No blow-back for applying.
22. Eliminate the deal whereby war-zone mercenaries aren’t covered by any laws, U.S. or Iraqi.
23. Spotlight the frequency of oil leaks and other dangers of off-shore oil drilling; clear the way for drilling.
24. Offer incentives to companies to build new oil refineries in the U.S., linked with alternative energy projects.
25. Increase aid to cities for mass-transit projects.
26. Go surfing.
1. Order Gitmo closed within three months; transfer all prisoners to the D.C. area; publish their names, arrest data and current location; reclaim all farmed-out for questioning (torture) prisoners; publish all trial transcripts.
1a. Give Guantanamo back to Cuba; saves lots of money.
2. Order withdrawal of all U.S. military from Iraq, with deadline.
3. Order changes in airline passenger screening: shoes stay on; disabled people stay in wheel chairs; no touching the passengers; no detaining anybody for longer than 30 minutes.
4. Suspend the no-fly list so it can be reduced to a reasonable number of names; remove non-terrorists; limit who can add to the list.
5. Restore habeas corpus, no exceptions.
6. Ban warrant-less searches by any agency.
7. Ban warrant-less phone taps, in the U.S. and out.
7a. Destroy recordings of pillow-talk, etc., conversations.
8. Buy the Afghan opium crop. Destroy it. Hire Afghan farmers to grow ethanol-yielding crops. Same for Colombia, Mexico.
9. Rehire people who were kicked out of government service because of sexual orientation, especially Arabic-speakers.
10. Suspend the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule. Cancel any pending expulsions. Tell the homophobes to get over it or get out.
11. Assign special prosecutor to investigate claims of voter fraud.
12. Establish one-payer health-care experiment; sign up poverty-level uninsured, plus people 15% over poverty level. Tell insurance companies to shut up.
13. Freeze all foreclosures, retroactive to people who have not yet moved out, or whose houses are not yet occupied so that they can move back in. Roll back mortgages to the first-year interest rate and payment level.
14. Freeze all student-loan liens; restructure.
15. Tell California that if it still wants tougher auto-emission standards, it can have them; order EPA to comply. Tell Detroit puppets to get stuffed.
16. Freeze No Child Left Behind act. Tell companies profiting from testing to shut up.
17. Suspend all death-penalty prosecutions; study application of capital punishment as applied to race, mental status, poverty, specific crimes.
18. Remind everybody that “you can’t use the government to make people live by your religion.”
19. Offer two tax-free years to builders of solar farms and wind farms if they get permit process started within six months. Two more tax-free years if they begin construction within nine months.
19a. Offer tax-free years to builders of electricity storage and transfer systems if they start permit process and building within nine months.
19b. Whack states up longside the head if they screw around with permits. But, monitor environmental impacts, etc.
19c. Offer tax-free years to fuel-cell inventors and start pilot programs.
19d. Offer incentives to towns that create plug-ins for electric cars.
20. Suspend daylight saving time for two years to see if it actually saves anything.
21. Speed up handling of immigration requests. Shorten waiting periods. Reduce time for re-entry of people deported but now applying for visas.
21a. Introduce a form for illegals to fill out that becomes a reapplication for an expired visa or for a first visa. Available at Post Offices, other federal offices. No blow-back for applying.
22. Eliminate the deal whereby war-zone mercenaries aren’t covered by any laws, U.S. or Iraqi.
23. Spotlight the frequency of oil leaks and other dangers of off-shore oil drilling; clear the way for drilling.
24. Offer incentives to companies to build new oil refineries in the U.S., linked with alternative energy projects.
25. Increase aid to cities for mass-transit projects.
26. Go surfing.
14 October 2008
McCain’s humor woes
The AP quotes Sen. J.S. McCain, R-Ariz., on Oct. 13:
"The national media has written us off. Sen. Obama is measuring the drapes," McCain told a few thousand supporters. "My friends, we've got 'em just where we want 'em."
“We've got 'em just where we want 'em” … is a variation on the punchline of an old joke (no joke is old if you’ve never heard it before). Naturally, I can’t remember the joke verbatim but it might go something like:
A hunter tracking a bear is suddenly jumped by the critter, knocked down and thrown about. His hunting partner yells, “Mac, how can I help?”
As the bear goes for his throat, Mac says, “Don’t worry, I’ve got him just where I want him.”
Or something like that.
And the MSM doesn’t laugh? McCain’s a funny guy.
Politically a nightmare for the country, but at least as funny as Letterman.
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"The national media has written us off. Sen. Obama is measuring the drapes," McCain told a few thousand supporters. "My friends, we've got 'em just where we want 'em."
“We've got 'em just where we want 'em” … is a variation on the punchline of an old joke (no joke is old if you’ve never heard it before). Naturally, I can’t remember the joke verbatim but it might go something like:
A hunter tracking a bear is suddenly jumped by the critter, knocked down and thrown about. His hunting partner yells, “Mac, how can I help?”
As the bear goes for his throat, Mac says, “Don’t worry, I’ve got him just where I want him.”
Or something like that.
And the MSM doesn’t laugh? McCain’s a funny guy.
Politically a nightmare for the country, but at least as funny as Letterman.
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09 October 2008
You read it here first
Obama's poll numbers are stronger, swing states are tilting his way, Gomer Palin's empty mind is evident ...
John McCain's gonna win.
The country and the world needs to be shed of the GOP's base, which is steeped in hate and superstition. Naturally, their "leader" — who can't figure out how to lead — will prevail. That's not just my natural pessimism talking.
McCain knows how to capture Bin Laden? Why doesn't he just DO it? In the next three weeks. No need ... enough stupid voters will believe his bullpucky.
John McCain's gonna win.
We're so screwed.
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John McCain's gonna win.
The country and the world needs to be shed of the GOP's base, which is steeped in hate and superstition. Naturally, their "leader" — who can't figure out how to lead — will prevail. That's not just my natural pessimism talking.
McCain knows how to capture Bin Laden? Why doesn't he just DO it? In the next three weeks. No need ... enough stupid voters will believe his bullpucky.
John McCain's gonna win.
We're so screwed.
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08 October 2008
Seeing red ... urh ... pink
Saw a TV clip of a McCain rally where the senator was standing in front of supporters holding McCain-Palin signs ... colored pink.
Pink.
For a military hero.
Pink.
For the man who wants to be leader of the free world.
Pink.
As in p-whipped. And I don't mean pink.
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Pink.
For a military hero.
Pink.
For the man who wants to be leader of the free world.
Pink.
As in p-whipped. And I don't mean pink.
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07 October 2008
Where's Herb Caen when we need him?
The U.S. Treasury tabbed a guy named Neel Kashkari to run the $700 billion bailout and rescue operation for those reckless fools in finance.
Kash kari ...
Cash and carry.
Ah, man ...
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Kash kari ...
Cash and carry.
Ah, man ...
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06 October 2008
Ahead of their time
So now Shockin' Sarah's beating the dead-horse fact that Barry O'Bama served on a committee with a former member of the Weather Underground, when they lived in the same neighborhood.
Some 35-38 years ago, the Weather Underground bombed the Dean Witter stock brokerage office in downtown Reno. That's not terrorism, that's political commentary, but three decades too early. Now's the time to get them brokerages.
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Some 35-38 years ago, the Weather Underground bombed the Dean Witter stock brokerage office in downtown Reno. That's not terrorism, that's political commentary, but three decades too early. Now's the time to get them brokerages.
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05 October 2008
W. got a sex change
Shock of realization, conceived a couple weeks ago but unwritten then: Sarah Palin is loved by the GOP "base" because she is George W. Bush, with tits. Fortunately for my sanity, I'm not the only person who noticed.
The inability to speak in coherent sentences that haven't been fed to her, the Wasilla valley accent that's almost a parody of W's mush-mouthed fake-Texas accent, the cocky smile and winks, the utter incuriosity about the world beyond America, the flinging-about of cliched buzz words with patriotic coating ... I'd go on, but I have to barf now.
And she's going to win the election for McBush.
Will somebody loan me $40,000 so I can emigrate to New Zealand? Please?
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The inability to speak in coherent sentences that haven't been fed to her, the Wasilla valley accent that's almost a parody of W's mush-mouthed fake-Texas accent, the cocky smile and winks, the utter incuriosity about the world beyond America, the flinging-about of cliched buzz words with patriotic coating ... I'd go on, but I have to barf now.
And she's going to win the election for McBush.
Will somebody loan me $40,000 so I can emigrate to New Zealand? Please?
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02 October 2008
Tap that keg
"Sarah six-pack?" Speaking for Joe Six-pack? if Shockin' Sarah's talking about six-packs of beer ... Joe Six-pack is on his way to alcoholism, if not already there; he's usually drunk off his butt all weekend. I don't want Joe Six-pack in the White House.
If she's talking about the six-pack of muscles, men with six-packs are narcissistic jerks who prefer to watch themselves in the mirror rather than participate in real life.
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If she's talking about the six-pack of muscles, men with six-packs are narcissistic jerks who prefer to watch themselves in the mirror rather than participate in real life.
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True calling
Shockin' Sarah P. is a classic beauty pageant contestant, projecting a blank slate on which her audience can paste any personality it imagines. This quality creates movie stars such as Tom Cruise and Errol Flynn, as compared with actors such as Dustin Hoffman and Robert Downey Jr. Tommie is always Tommie, while Dustin disappears into a character.
Gov. Palin fakes answers like a Miss America competitor, tapdancing in her own bullshit.
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Gov. Palin fakes answers like a Miss America competitor, tapdancing in her own bullshit.
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01 October 2008
Johnny, Billy and Sarah
Quick thoughts:
It's not the time, it's the wear and tear. John McCain might be 72 chronologically, but we should add 5.5 years to account for the mental and physical toll the POW years piled on. Compound interest, so to speak. He's way too old for the Oval Office, wear and tear wise.
Can Bill Clinton's weak start supporting Obama be attributed to the fact that WJC is from Arkansas, a fine, fine state centered in that bastion of racism, the American South? No matter how decently his grandparents treated everybody, Billy grew up steeped in the bone-deep race hatred that thrives in Southern towns ... it's inescapable. Few people ever manage to shed it completely.
If I find the courage to watch the Biden-Palin debate and she says anything so stupid that I throw something at my TV and break it, can I sue the GOP for damages?
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It's not the time, it's the wear and tear. John McCain might be 72 chronologically, but we should add 5.5 years to account for the mental and physical toll the POW years piled on. Compound interest, so to speak. He's way too old for the Oval Office, wear and tear wise.
Can Bill Clinton's weak start supporting Obama be attributed to the fact that WJC is from Arkansas, a fine, fine state centered in that bastion of racism, the American South? No matter how decently his grandparents treated everybody, Billy grew up steeped in the bone-deep race hatred that thrives in Southern towns ... it's inescapable. Few people ever manage to shed it completely.
If I find the courage to watch the Biden-Palin debate and she says anything so stupid that I throw something at my TV and break it, can I sue the GOP for damages?
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25 September 2008
It was a joke ... let it go
So Sarah Palin is qualified for Veep because she can see Russia from her house? She must be joking ...
The Russian western border is 1,000 km away from Anchorage, Alaska, and Palinville Heartland is a couple hours' drive northeast of Anchorage (roughly measured on a Googlemaps.com map). Two-thirds of Alaska is between Wasilla and Siberia.
Either Shockin' Sarah's got a really big house, or a really good telescope on the roof.
Or, she was joking! And nobody got the joke! It happens to John McCain a lot ... he makes a weak joke, and super-serious tight-ass bloggers, webbers and media spend days dissecting it for truthiness and accuracy.
Fess up, Sarah ... you're no Paula Poundstone, in the comedy department.
Yuck yuck yuck.
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The Russian western border is 1,000 km away from Anchorage, Alaska, and Palinville Heartland is a couple hours' drive northeast of Anchorage (roughly measured on a Googlemaps.com map). Two-thirds of Alaska is between Wasilla and Siberia.
Either Shockin' Sarah's got a really big house, or a really good telescope on the roof.
Or, she was joking! And nobody got the joke! It happens to John McCain a lot ... he makes a weak joke, and super-serious tight-ass bloggers, webbers and media spend days dissecting it for truthiness and accuracy.
Fess up, Sarah ... you're no Paula Poundstone, in the comedy department.
Yuck yuck yuck.
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16 September 2008
Fascism past the doorstep, into the house
Today’s RGJ includes an AP photo from Golden, Colo., of Shockin’ Sarah Palin speaking at a GOP campaign rally Sept. 15.
A banner behind her reads: Country First.
Fascism is defined in my Merriam Webster’s as a “political philosophy, movement or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”
McCain’s ready to continue the Cheney-Bush philosophy:
Exalt nation, check.
Dictatorial leader (imperial presidency and veepidency), check.
Economic regimentation (tax cuts for the filthy rich, zippo for the rest), check.
Social regimentation (eliminate abortion, birth control, sex ed; insert creationism and prayer in school), check.
Suppress opposition (protesters herded out of sight in St. Paul), check.
Old fascist, female fascist, GOP fascist … who the hell stole MY country?
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A banner behind her reads: Country First.
Fascism is defined in my Merriam Webster’s as a “political philosophy, movement or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”
McCain’s ready to continue the Cheney-Bush philosophy:
Exalt nation, check.
Dictatorial leader (imperial presidency and veepidency), check.
Economic regimentation (tax cuts for the filthy rich, zippo for the rest), check.
Social regimentation (eliminate abortion, birth control, sex ed; insert creationism and prayer in school), check.
Suppress opposition (protesters herded out of sight in St. Paul), check.
Old fascist, female fascist, GOP fascist … who the hell stole MY country?
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09 September 2008
Pale Palin
AP photo caption: Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chooses bottles of salsa for himself and his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, during a visit to El Pinto restaurant Sunday afternoon in Albuquerque, N.M. Sept. 7, 2008. Palin's husband Todd looks on at right. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
Questions:
Did McRaisin have to explain salsa to the Alaskans? Did they want salmon-flavored?
The campaign shields Shockin' Sarah from real news media ... is it because she will sob like a baby at the tough questions, or because she will tell the truth (as she sees it) and McCain knows her truth will scare the crap out of non-base voters?
The McBush campaigners are gonna pop a hernia while twisting Palin's reality.
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Questions:
Did McRaisin have to explain salsa to the Alaskans? Did they want salmon-flavored?
The campaign shields Shockin' Sarah from real news media ... is it because she will sob like a baby at the tough questions, or because she will tell the truth (as she sees it) and McCain knows her truth will scare the crap out of non-base voters?
The McBush campaigners are gonna pop a hernia while twisting Palin's reality.
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08 September 2008
Spying in the swamp water
The TV series "Alias" has a cult-ish following, so I picked up the DVD set, to see what's what.
So far, the spycraft is repetitive and cliched, while the characters and their personal woes are engaging.
Season 3, however, is driving me bats. A U.S. senator — and father of the traitor-mole — is in the CIA office in Los Angeles, and is giving orders.
Does Ted Stevens know that the CIA will take orders from him? Fictionally. Sigh of relief.
"Alias's" credibility is nearly destroyed by this nonsense. CIA is Executive Branch; Senate is Legislative Branch. Legislators don't give orders to the other branches of the federal government. Dick Cheney would rip this fictional Senator a few new orifices.
In a side matter, the two-man writing team that's working on the new "Star Trek" movie wrote a bunch of episodes for "Alias." Alas, their writing, however manhandled by the showrunners, sucks swamp water, just as it did on "Hercules The Legendary Journeys," one of their first gigs.
James T. Kirk's screwed. Again.
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So far, the spycraft is repetitive and cliched, while the characters and their personal woes are engaging.
Season 3, however, is driving me bats. A U.S. senator — and father of the traitor-mole — is in the CIA office in Los Angeles, and is giving orders.
Does Ted Stevens know that the CIA will take orders from him? Fictionally. Sigh of relief.
"Alias's" credibility is nearly destroyed by this nonsense. CIA is Executive Branch; Senate is Legislative Branch. Legislators don't give orders to the other branches of the federal government. Dick Cheney would rip this fictional Senator a few new orifices.
In a side matter, the two-man writing team that's working on the new "Star Trek" movie wrote a bunch of episodes for "Alias." Alas, their writing, however manhandled by the showrunners, sucks swamp water, just as it did on "Hercules The Legendary Journeys," one of their first gigs.
James T. Kirk's screwed. Again.
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13 August 2008
Russian to war in Georgia
I've got to join the parade of people commenting that it wasn't Georgia that the Bushies pushed into a showdown with Russia. The Bushies pushed Putin into action as a favor to sword-rattler McCain, so he can show off his military chops. As for the fate of the country and people of Georgia, Dickie and Georgie could not care less.
(Also posted on Fraywatch, slate.com.)
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(Also posted on Fraywatch, slate.com.)
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11 August 2008
Hitchens' good news from Baghdad
<<< From Slate.com:
Iraq’s budget surplus scandal
WHY DO WE HAVE SUCH A HARD TIME HEARING GOOD NEWS FROM BAGHDAD?
By Christopher Hitchens
Updated Monday, Aug. 11, 2008, at 6:53 AM ET
So, yes, major combat operations appear to be over, and to that extent one can belatedly say, "Mission accomplished." If there is any Iraqi nostalgia for the old party and the old army, it is remarkably well-concealed. Iraq no longer plays deceptive games with weapons of mass destruction or plays host to international terrorist groups. It is no longer subject to sanctions that punish its people and enrich its rulers. Its religious and ethnic minorities—together a majority—are no longer treated like disposable trash. Its most bitter internal argument is about the timing of the next provincial and national elections. Surely it is those who opposed every step of this emancipation, rather than those who advocated it, who should be asked to explain and justify themselves. >>>
OK, Hitch, here goes.
Emancipating sovereign countries is not why I pay federal taxes. Making life better for people in foreign nations is not the business of the U.S. government. While I’m just so thrilled that things finally seem to be going so well in Iraq, I will not ignore the fact that King George II and Dickie C. lied their way into invading and occupying a sovereign country.
Just for starters, their lies produced:
The bleeding U.S. economy and bankrupt federal treasury
The depleted U.S. military (multiple thousands of mutilated or dead Americans and their broken families)
Murder, rape and other crimes by Blackwater, under the protection of the U.S. government, on foreign soil
Gutting the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights
Torture and other war crimes
Death by electrocution of U.S. military personnel in the war zone, caused by the greed and incompetence of the U.S. megagobble for whom Cheney shills
Government-sponsored assault on American liberties
Castration of the U.S. Department of Justice
When England's North American Colonies wanted freedom from greedy rulers, the colonists started it. Yes, European powers hostile to England helped out, but we started it. France didn't decide to rescue us from a despot. And Holland didn't make illegal contracts for tobacco plants.
It’s so nice that Iraq’s “religious and ethnic minorities—together a majority—are no longer treated like disposable trash.” That honor has been transferred to the people of the USA.
By the way, Christopher, I usually agree with much of what you say, other than Iraq. But how does an affirmed atheist such as you cope with being named for Christ?
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Iraq’s budget surplus scandal
WHY DO WE HAVE SUCH A HARD TIME HEARING GOOD NEWS FROM BAGHDAD?
By Christopher Hitchens
Updated Monday, Aug. 11, 2008, at 6:53 AM ET
So, yes, major combat operations appear to be over, and to that extent one can belatedly say, "Mission accomplished." If there is any Iraqi nostalgia for the old party and the old army, it is remarkably well-concealed. Iraq no longer plays deceptive games with weapons of mass destruction or plays host to international terrorist groups. It is no longer subject to sanctions that punish its people and enrich its rulers. Its religious and ethnic minorities—together a majority—are no longer treated like disposable trash. Its most bitter internal argument is about the timing of the next provincial and national elections. Surely it is those who opposed every step of this emancipation, rather than those who advocated it, who should be asked to explain and justify themselves. >>>
OK, Hitch, here goes.
Emancipating sovereign countries is not why I pay federal taxes. Making life better for people in foreign nations is not the business of the U.S. government. While I’m just so thrilled that things finally seem to be going so well in Iraq, I will not ignore the fact that King George II and Dickie C. lied their way into invading and occupying a sovereign country.
Just for starters, their lies produced:
The bleeding U.S. economy and bankrupt federal treasury
The depleted U.S. military (multiple thousands of mutilated or dead Americans and their broken families)
Murder, rape and other crimes by Blackwater, under the protection of the U.S. government, on foreign soil
Gutting the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights
Torture and other war crimes
Death by electrocution of U.S. military personnel in the war zone, caused by the greed and incompetence of the U.S. megagobble for whom Cheney shills
Government-sponsored assault on American liberties
Castration of the U.S. Department of Justice
When England's North American Colonies wanted freedom from greedy rulers, the colonists started it. Yes, European powers hostile to England helped out, but we started it. France didn't decide to rescue us from a despot. And Holland didn't make illegal contracts for tobacco plants.
It’s so nice that Iraq’s “religious and ethnic minorities—together a majority—are no longer treated like disposable trash.” That honor has been transferred to the people of the USA.
By the way, Christopher, I usually agree with much of what you say, other than Iraq. But how does an affirmed atheist such as you cope with being named for Christ?
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30 July 2008
Marriage is between who?
Before they can continue their hate campaign against marriage for homosexuals, the hard-core Christers better get a handle on this: Reno dogs are getting married.
PETCO in Reno and Natural Balance pet food sponsored weddings for dogs July 26, with the ceremonies performed by Van Scott of Antique Angel Wedding Chapel.
Sure, these folks were just having a laugh, but if dogs can get married, then gays can get married.
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PETCO in Reno and Natural Balance pet food sponsored weddings for dogs July 26, with the ceremonies performed by Van Scott of Antique Angel Wedding Chapel.
Sure, these folks were just having a laugh, but if dogs can get married, then gays can get married.
-30-
No escaping the Nanny State
I thought, until recently, that California would be a good place to escape to, when the 21st Century Dark Ages sweep over the rest of America, despite the frequent comment that California leads and the rest of the USA follows, in trends, economy, growth and so on.
Wrong, I was. California is officially a Nanny State. First the ban on trans-fats in restaurants and retail foods, now a ban on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles. Ban No. 1 courtesy of Gov. Arnie and the Legislature, Ban No. 2 courtesy of the City Council.
Which brings me to this clipping, faded and tattered, on my cork board:
“I sometimes feel that the most conspicuous attribute of liberalism* that distinguishes it as much from conservatism as from socialism is the view that moral beliefs concerning matters of conduct which do not directly interfere with the protected sphere of other persons do not justify coercion.”
— From “Why I Am Not a Conservative,” written in 1960 by Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, a leading expositor of the many merits of free markets and of the dangers of socialism and winner of the Medal of Freedom (presented by President George Bush).
* “Liberalism” in the 19th-century, European sense: assigning highest value to individual freedom.
The free market profits from trans-fats and fast-food restaurants; Nanny states feel the urge to protect people from their own stupidity. Not government’s job, though.
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Wrong, I was. California is officially a Nanny State. First the ban on trans-fats in restaurants and retail foods, now a ban on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles. Ban No. 1 courtesy of Gov. Arnie and the Legislature, Ban No. 2 courtesy of the City Council.
Which brings me to this clipping, faded and tattered, on my cork board:
“I sometimes feel that the most conspicuous attribute of liberalism* that distinguishes it as much from conservatism as from socialism is the view that moral beliefs concerning matters of conduct which do not directly interfere with the protected sphere of other persons do not justify coercion.”
— From “Why I Am Not a Conservative,” written in 1960 by Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, a leading expositor of the many merits of free markets and of the dangers of socialism and winner of the Medal of Freedom (presented by President George Bush).
* “Liberalism” in the 19th-century, European sense: assigning highest value to individual freedom.
The free market profits from trans-fats and fast-food restaurants; Nanny states feel the urge to protect people from their own stupidity. Not government’s job, though.
-30-
Not stolen, actually
On the drive home tonight, I turned a corner a little too fast and heard a scraping noise in the purple Saturn's door. Waiting for the green light, I looked down, and there was the car's cigarette lighter, in the little pocket on the door.
The scum-sucking sociopath who stole the car last month didn't take it, after all.
Why I didn't hear it sliding around before, I don't know. AC fan on high and radio on loud, I guess.
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The scum-sucking sociopath who stole the car last month didn't take it, after all.
Why I didn't hear it sliding around before, I don't know. AC fan on high and radio on loud, I guess.
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29 July 2008
Random abuse of freedom
In a do-gooder’s drive against recreational and performance-enhancing drugs, Reno’s McQueen High School wants to launch a program of random testing for all football players this season, making it the first area school to do so. McQueen's in an affluent part of northwest Reno.
Green Valley in Henderson and Battle Mountain High in, uh, Battle Mountain, started testing a few years ago.
This is the “guilty until proven innocent” treatment so popular in the “freedom loving” US of A these days.
However, it won’t do a lick of good unless parents and siblings are tested, too. Drug abusers, such as drunks and tobacco hounds, get their first clues at home. Family values start in the home.
If parents pop pills, kiddies will, too.
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Green Valley in Henderson and Battle Mountain High in, uh, Battle Mountain, started testing a few years ago.
This is the “guilty until proven innocent” treatment so popular in the “freedom loving” US of A these days.
However, it won’t do a lick of good unless parents and siblings are tested, too. Drug abusers, such as drunks and tobacco hounds, get their first clues at home. Family values start in the home.
If parents pop pills, kiddies will, too.
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30 June 2008
Radio stylings of a car thief
A closer examination of my stolen-found purple Saturn, during the Monday-morning drive to work, revealed:
The bastard took the tire pressure gauge and changed the seat-belt height adjustment. Short little sociopath.
Did I forget to mention in the first post that the slimeball folded up the spring-loaded sunscreens and left them in the back seat? I don't have the manual dexterity to fold them. Sheesh.
The unkindest cut of all: The pond-scum-eater changed a bunch of settings on the radio. Apparently he/she/it likes FM stations 93.7, 102.9 and 92.9 better than my choices, including KUNR 88.7. Sociopaths don't like NPR! Or classical music.
However, the (insert your favorite George Carlin noun here) left 106.9 FM and 1270 AM. Go figure.
-30-
The bastard took the tire pressure gauge and changed the seat-belt height adjustment. Short little sociopath.
Did I forget to mention in the first post that the slimeball folded up the spring-loaded sunscreens and left them in the back seat? I don't have the manual dexterity to fold them. Sheesh.
The unkindest cut of all: The pond-scum-eater changed a bunch of settings on the radio. Apparently he/she/it likes FM stations 93.7, 102.9 and 92.9 better than my choices, including KUNR 88.7. Sociopaths don't like NPR! Or classical music.
However, the (insert your favorite George Carlin noun here) left 106.9 FM and 1270 AM. Go figure.
-30-
Stolen purple-car adventure
Somewhere in Northern Nevada, there should be a very confused car thief. He parked a stolen purple Saturn, went into a casino … when he came out the stolen car was gone.
I hope that’s what happened after I drove my stolen-found purple coupe home Sunday. Unless, of course, he dumped it because it was out of gas. It’s easier to steal another car than pay $4.22 a gallon for gas. For this bastard, it’s easier to steal a Saturn than steal gasoline.
The blow-by-blow:
2 p.m. Sunday, June 29, 2008: I open my front door, pick up the newspaper and notice that my driveway is empty.
The Saturn is gone. Vanished. Through the stargate. Beamed up, Scotty. It was there when I finished watering the yard at sunset Saturday night. As to why I hadn't looked outside earlier in the day ... I'm NOT a morning person.
2:15 p.m.: Call Sparks Police Department. Lady on the phone asks, “What kind of car is it?” Saturn, I said. “Uh oh,” she said. “We’ve had several Saturns stolen lately.” I supply details for her questions.
2:30 p.m.: Two police officers arrive in a squad car. More questions, more details. I actually find the current insurance papers, with the VIN, despite being 10 months behind in household-bookkeeping filing. They said there’s a serial Saturn thief at work in the Truckee Meadows. If it’s dumped in Sparks, we’ll find it, they said. If it’s dumped elsewhere, we can’t guarantee anything. Yori and Grove streets seem to collect stolen cars, but don’t go there at night.
3 p.m.: Linda comes in with her Z and we proceed back to Lockwood with stops at the Post Office and at Kragen to get a mirror to stick on the empty driver’s side wing mirror. The original mirror departed the car on the freeway a few days after Linda got the Z. I drive the borrowed Z home, while Linda helps her neighbor with malfunctioning water sprinklers.
3:30 p.m. Back at home, I start the laundry running and use my computer for homework. In my mind, I’m putting together the equipment to waterboard the bastard.
5:30 p.m.: Sparks PD calls. Saturn is in the parking lot at Rail City. Can I come get it? The Z and I head for Rail City, after I call Linda. We are both amazed. Terrible's Rail City casino is 10 blocks west of my home.
5:45 p.m.: I find officer Schreiber and the Saturn, on the east side of the casino. He asks me to look through the windows, without touching the car. Candy wrappers, brown Starbucks bag, 12-pack of Coca Cola (one can open), 7-Eleven receipt. Under the driver’s seat, a CD case full of discs with Mexican titles. He bags the Coke can, not-my-stuff from Saturn’s trash bag, candy wrappers, etc. He dusts the rear-view mirror and door around the handle, but finds only a lot of smudges. On the floor in the back seat, there is a black plastic tray that doesn’t fit anything in my car. The passenger seatback is tilted as far back as it will go. The RGJ parking sticker is gone from the front windscreen. Also, the worn-out seatbelt pad. I sign a release, he radios SPD to take the car off the stolen list, and I’m ready to head for home at 6:20 p.m. However, the gas tank is empty, so I stop at the Chevron at Victorian and 16th, where I notice the cigarette lighter is gone. Fill-up costs $42.
6:55 p.m.: Whittlesea cab takes me back to Rail City ($7.10; gave him a $10) and I drive the Z home. First gear is my nemesis, now and forever.
11:30 p.m.: Writing this reminds me of something else to check.
11:34 p.m.: The insurance and registration forms are OK, still in the owner’s manual in the glovebox.
12:20 a.m.: I should be more shook up, but the reason I have the Saturn is that its predecessor, a 1980 280ZX, was stolen in 1996. I remember the absolute blankness of my mind as I wandered around the parking lot, trying to get my brain around the fact that the car I parked there a couple of hours ago was nowhere to be seen. I remember the shaking knees, the stomach ache, the battle not to barf. The Reno PD found my sports car 35 days later, after I bought the Saturn. I compared the less-than-peppy but brand-new, air-conditioned Saturn to the 16-year-old zippy Z in need of new tires, a third paint job and repairs for all the little things the bastards who stole it broke. The Z got sold.
I do miss that car. However, the air conditioner in Linda’s old Z doesn’t work and, boy, was it hot Sunday. Driving the Saturn home with the air cooling … I’ll keep the Saturn.
With The Club on the steering wheel and not in the trunk.
-30-
I hope that’s what happened after I drove my stolen-found purple coupe home Sunday. Unless, of course, he dumped it because it was out of gas. It’s easier to steal another car than pay $4.22 a gallon for gas. For this bastard, it’s easier to steal a Saturn than steal gasoline.
The blow-by-blow:
2 p.m. Sunday, June 29, 2008: I open my front door, pick up the newspaper and notice that my driveway is empty.
The Saturn is gone. Vanished. Through the stargate. Beamed up, Scotty. It was there when I finished watering the yard at sunset Saturday night. As to why I hadn't looked outside earlier in the day ... I'm NOT a morning person.
2:15 p.m.: Call Sparks Police Department. Lady on the phone asks, “What kind of car is it?” Saturn, I said. “Uh oh,” she said. “We’ve had several Saturns stolen lately.” I supply details for her questions.
2:30 p.m.: Two police officers arrive in a squad car. More questions, more details. I actually find the current insurance papers, with the VIN, despite being 10 months behind in household-bookkeeping filing. They said there’s a serial Saturn thief at work in the Truckee Meadows. If it’s dumped in Sparks, we’ll find it, they said. If it’s dumped elsewhere, we can’t guarantee anything. Yori and Grove streets seem to collect stolen cars, but don’t go there at night.
3 p.m.: Linda comes in with her Z and we proceed back to Lockwood with stops at the Post Office and at Kragen to get a mirror to stick on the empty driver’s side wing mirror. The original mirror departed the car on the freeway a few days after Linda got the Z. I drive the borrowed Z home, while Linda helps her neighbor with malfunctioning water sprinklers.
3:30 p.m. Back at home, I start the laundry running and use my computer for homework. In my mind, I’m putting together the equipment to waterboard the bastard.
5:30 p.m.: Sparks PD calls. Saturn is in the parking lot at Rail City. Can I come get it? The Z and I head for Rail City, after I call Linda. We are both amazed. Terrible's Rail City casino is 10 blocks west of my home.
5:45 p.m.: I find officer Schreiber and the Saturn, on the east side of the casino. He asks me to look through the windows, without touching the car. Candy wrappers, brown Starbucks bag, 12-pack of Coca Cola (one can open), 7-Eleven receipt. Under the driver’s seat, a CD case full of discs with Mexican titles. He bags the Coke can, not-my-stuff from Saturn’s trash bag, candy wrappers, etc. He dusts the rear-view mirror and door around the handle, but finds only a lot of smudges. On the floor in the back seat, there is a black plastic tray that doesn’t fit anything in my car. The passenger seatback is tilted as far back as it will go. The RGJ parking sticker is gone from the front windscreen. Also, the worn-out seatbelt pad. I sign a release, he radios SPD to take the car off the stolen list, and I’m ready to head for home at 6:20 p.m. However, the gas tank is empty, so I stop at the Chevron at Victorian and 16th, where I notice the cigarette lighter is gone. Fill-up costs $42.
6:55 p.m.: Whittlesea cab takes me back to Rail City ($7.10; gave him a $10) and I drive the Z home. First gear is my nemesis, now and forever.
11:30 p.m.: Writing this reminds me of something else to check.
11:34 p.m.: The insurance and registration forms are OK, still in the owner’s manual in the glovebox.
12:20 a.m.: I should be more shook up, but the reason I have the Saturn is that its predecessor, a 1980 280ZX, was stolen in 1996. I remember the absolute blankness of my mind as I wandered around the parking lot, trying to get my brain around the fact that the car I parked there a couple of hours ago was nowhere to be seen. I remember the shaking knees, the stomach ache, the battle not to barf. The Reno PD found my sports car 35 days later, after I bought the Saturn. I compared the less-than-peppy but brand-new, air-conditioned Saturn to the 16-year-old zippy Z in need of new tires, a third paint job and repairs for all the little things the bastards who stole it broke. The Z got sold.
I do miss that car. However, the air conditioner in Linda’s old Z doesn’t work and, boy, was it hot Sunday. Driving the Saturn home with the air cooling … I’ll keep the Saturn.
With The Club on the steering wheel and not in the trunk.
-30-
10 June 2008
Who's punished now?
The Midwest is under water, the South has twisters ... whose evil actions have brought the wrath of God down upon thousands as punishment for the actions of a few?
I'm sure there are whacko preachers out there with lists of names of sinners ripe for smiting.
Too bad their deity has such bad aim.
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I'm sure there are whacko preachers out there with lists of names of sinners ripe for smiting.
Too bad their deity has such bad aim.
-30-
05 June 2008
RIP, RFK
June 5, 1968 ... Everybody of my generation remembers where they were when they heard of the murder of Jack Kennedy. Bobby K., not so much.
I was near the end of my first year as a clerk-gofur-reporter at the Reno Evening Gazette. Already I didn't enjoy reporting.
June 6 sealed the fact. I was ordered out for a person-on-the-street story. I did OK until I stopped a 60ish foursome on the sidewalk to ask for their reaction. They were from Boston. Hadn't heard.
One man stood there and cried, silently.
One woman turned pale — ghost white — and fainted. Her husband caught her before she hit the ground.
The other woman screamed. And screamed. And screamed. Heads turned. A police car slowed down as it rolled past.
I doubt they heard my apology as I slunk away.
The on-the-street interview was shorter than my editor expected ... I left out the Bostonians.
-30-
I was near the end of my first year as a clerk-gofur-reporter at the Reno Evening Gazette. Already I didn't enjoy reporting.
June 6 sealed the fact. I was ordered out for a person-on-the-street story. I did OK until I stopped a 60ish foursome on the sidewalk to ask for their reaction. They were from Boston. Hadn't heard.
One man stood there and cried, silently.
One woman turned pale — ghost white — and fainted. Her husband caught her before she hit the ground.
The other woman screamed. And screamed. And screamed. Heads turned. A police car slowed down as it rolled past.
I doubt they heard my apology as I slunk away.
The on-the-street interview was shorter than my editor expected ... I left out the Bostonians.
-30-
30 May 2008
Experiencing experience
John McCain has much more experience than Obama, an independent voter just opined on NPR, so she probably will vote McCain.
Hannibal Lector has much more experience than I do as a gourmet chef, but you'd enjoy my cooking more, because you know the meat chunks in the stew are not made from that loud-mouth guy up the block.
McCain's salted decades of fibs ... Obama's got a clean chef's apron.
-30-
Hannibal Lector has much more experience than I do as a gourmet chef, but you'd enjoy my cooking more, because you know the meat chunks in the stew are not made from that loud-mouth guy up the block.
McCain's salted decades of fibs ... Obama's got a clean chef's apron.
-30-
27 May 2008
Surrender, Dorothy
The Associated Press quotes John McCain on Barack Obama: "He really has no experience or knowledge or judgment about the issue of Iraq and he has wanted to surrender for a long time," the Arizona senator added. "If there was any other issue before the American people, and you hadn't had anything to do with it in a couple of years, I think the American people would judge that very harshly."
"Surrender" ... When U.S. troops finally leave Iraq, who will there be to accept the general's sword, a la Appomattox? A radical cleric? Al-Qaida? There's nobody to surrender to, in this desert bowl of Bush-Cheney war crimes.
-30-
"Surrender" ... When U.S. troops finally leave Iraq, who will there be to accept the general's sword, a la Appomattox? A radical cleric? Al-Qaida? There's nobody to surrender to, in this desert bowl of Bush-Cheney war crimes.
-30-
Rising to the thought
TV commercial for Viagra advises, "Ask your doctor if you are healthy enough for sex."
If you have to ask, the answer is probably "no."
TV commercial for "male enhancement" says millions have benefitted. No, millions have paid the low, low fee for the starter kit, experienced no enlargement and hid their shame at having been bilked.
After all the "feminine hygiene" products of the '60s and '70s that had my mother all worried about her body's natural odors — she bathed daily, slathered her armpits and had no offending body odor — it's good to see snake-oil salesmen screwing over their fellow men, at last.
-30-
If you have to ask, the answer is probably "no."
TV commercial for "male enhancement" says millions have benefitted. No, millions have paid the low, low fee for the starter kit, experienced no enlargement and hid their shame at having been bilked.
After all the "feminine hygiene" products of the '60s and '70s that had my mother all worried about her body's natural odors — she bathed daily, slathered her armpits and had no offending body odor — it's good to see snake-oil salesmen screwing over their fellow men, at last.
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22 May 2008
Everything old is new again
John McCain's pet preacher, John Hagee, calls the Roman Catholic Church "the great whore," and U.S. "news" media throw a snit.
Americans' usual ignorance is showing ... the English church started calling Rome "the great whore" somewhere around the time that King Henry VIII needed to dump his first wife because she failed to produce a surviving male heir. Katherine's sin: She was a human, not a cow.
By the time the Protestant movement revved up, it was a standard insult, although I doubt pious monk Martin Luther himself could utter the word "whore."
Hagee's using unimaginative, old-hat terminology.
Get over it, media. Rome did.
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Americans' usual ignorance is showing ... the English church started calling Rome "the great whore" somewhere around the time that King Henry VIII needed to dump his first wife because she failed to produce a surviving male heir. Katherine's sin: She was a human, not a cow.
By the time the Protestant movement revved up, it was a standard insult, although I doubt pious monk Martin Luther himself could utter the word "whore."
Hagee's using unimaginative, old-hat terminology.
Get over it, media. Rome did.
-30-
20 May 2008
This is entertainment?
It's enough to make me seek happy pills ... the season finales of the TV shows I routinely watch are, so far, a total bummer.
"CSI:" Warrick murdered by a cop, in a cover-up of dirty dealings.
"CSI Miami:" Caine shot and dying, betrayed by team member Wolf.
"House:" Amber, the first person who was Greg's mental match, dies of prescription-drug poisoning. And what's this pseudoscience nonsense about hypnosis helping House access his trauma-wiped memory?
"Bones:" Sweet young uber-geek Zach revealed as the apprentice to a cannibalistic serial killer.
"NCIS:" Haven't yet seen it, but somebody's going to be killed ...
Oh, how I miss Gene Autry.
-30-
"CSI:" Warrick murdered by a cop, in a cover-up of dirty dealings.
"CSI Miami:" Caine shot and dying, betrayed by team member Wolf.
"House:" Amber, the first person who was Greg's mental match, dies of prescription-drug poisoning. And what's this pseudoscience nonsense about hypnosis helping House access his trauma-wiped memory?
"Bones:" Sweet young uber-geek Zach revealed as the apprentice to a cannibalistic serial killer.
"NCIS:" Haven't yet seen it, but somebody's going to be killed ...
Oh, how I miss Gene Autry.
-30-
Cabinet post ahead?
Nev. Gov. Jim Gibbons, a Republican, has hied off to Iraq, to visit Nevada's soldiers, leaving his eventually ex-wife in command of the Governor's Mansion.
Gibbons has plenty of war experience, courtesy of Vietnam and the Gulf War, and his predecessor, Kenny Guinn, also a Republican, visited Iraq in 2006 with other governors.
What's different this time? A presidential election in progress.
Secretary of Defense Jim Gibbons. How does that sound?
-30-
Gibbons has plenty of war experience, courtesy of Vietnam and the Gulf War, and his predecessor, Kenny Guinn, also a Republican, visited Iraq in 2006 with other governors.
What's different this time? A presidential election in progress.
Secretary of Defense Jim Gibbons. How does that sound?
-30-
06 May 2008
Shut up already
An interview by a news-media type of another news-media type is like a doctor operating on only other doctors … a chef cooking only for other chefs … a musician playing only for other musicians.
Barbara Walters being interviewed on NPR is a waste of air time. (May 7, I think the promo said.)
Same with talk-show hosts appearing on other people’s talk shows. Sean Hannity on Bill O’Reilly’s show, for example. Chris Matthews on Jon Stewart's show.
If I were a booker or a producer, I could certainly find fresh faces for my show, not the same old potato-heads.
Baba Wawa I’ve seen, again and again and again. Show me somebody different!
Truth in blogging: I rather liked B.W., until I bought and read a book she wrote, 25 years ago or so. Her ego was so oppressively, massively worthless that I wanted my money back. Since then, I avoid her like the plague.
-30-
Barbara Walters being interviewed on NPR is a waste of air time. (May 7, I think the promo said.)
Same with talk-show hosts appearing on other people’s talk shows. Sean Hannity on Bill O’Reilly’s show, for example. Chris Matthews on Jon Stewart's show.
If I were a booker or a producer, I could certainly find fresh faces for my show, not the same old potato-heads.
Baba Wawa I’ve seen, again and again and again. Show me somebody different!
Truth in blogging: I rather liked B.W., until I bought and read a book she wrote, 25 years ago or so. Her ego was so oppressively, massively worthless that I wanted my money back. Since then, I avoid her like the plague.
-30-
Sprechen sie freedom?
So now, Oklahoma’s passing an English-only law, which will be a problem not only for Hispanics but for Oklahoma’s many American Indians with their own languages.
How do we convince these terrified, terrorized yahoos that you can’t control something like the language somebody thinks in?
The Christian patriarchy is so trapped in the delusion that force will make people stop making or selling drugs, stop desperate people from crossing the Rio Grande ... And they get off on pretending it’s a “war.” A war they don’t fight. Neither do their children.
Force does not make a person follow orders. Force gives that person a reason to bid his time, and use force, too, when the time is right.
Laws have to be enforced. Maybe the CIA's black ops have finally bred mind-readers.
-30-
How do we convince these terrified, terrorized yahoos that you can’t control something like the language somebody thinks in?
The Christian patriarchy is so trapped in the delusion that force will make people stop making or selling drugs, stop desperate people from crossing the Rio Grande ... And they get off on pretending it’s a “war.” A war they don’t fight. Neither do their children.
Force does not make a person follow orders. Force gives that person a reason to bid his time, and use force, too, when the time is right.
Laws have to be enforced. Maybe the CIA's black ops have finally bred mind-readers.
-30-
29 April 2008
Can I get an 'Amen?'
Few churchgoers notice, but all religious services and ceremonies are Theater.
Roman Catholicism stages spectaculars for Christianity, while the hajj at the Al-Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca is the Super Bowl of Islam.
Mormon Sunday services are barely enlivened by music, while Quaker meetings are a snooze-fest.
On the other hand, black people bring the joy, in the U.S. anyway.
Which brings me to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, putting on his personal Theater act in Washington, D.C., this week. Give me Wright over Billy Graham any time. Wright’s a showman. Whitey's preachers are bores.
Amen.
-30-
Roman Catholicism stages spectaculars for Christianity, while the hajj at the Al-Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca is the Super Bowl of Islam.
Mormon Sunday services are barely enlivened by music, while Quaker meetings are a snooze-fest.
On the other hand, black people bring the joy, in the U.S. anyway.
Which brings me to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, putting on his personal Theater act in Washington, D.C., this week. Give me Wright over Billy Graham any time. Wright’s a showman. Whitey's preachers are bores.
Amen.
-30-
24 April 2008
Rock me, baby
At 3:55 p.m. today, by my Mac’s clock, Reno rocked and rolled through a respectable earthquake.
It’s no fun riding through a ’quaker alone. Everybody’s reaction is subjective, and an earthquake gets the ol’ heart a-pumpin’.
It's silly ... everybody knows it was an earthquake. Unless the building fell on top of you, there's not that much to discuss, but people will discuss how it sounded, if they were seated or standing, what fell or didn't fall.
The 100,000 or so people who felt the 4.4 temblor will chatter about it for days, unlike the 5,000 or so residents of the Mogul-Verdi-Somersett area (between Reno and the California state line), who have rocked and rolled multiple times daily for weeks now.
For them, the thrill is gone, but the danger lingers on. Stress rises.
Today, meanwhile, there were upward of 30 temblors in a two-hour period, including the biggies at at 3:47 p.m. (3.0), 3:51 p.m. (4.1), and 3:55 p.m. (4.4). I felt only the 4.4. Dang this solid ground I sit on.
Not reassuring was a geologist quoted on KUNR FM 88.7 an hour after the 4.4; he said it's unusual for a good-size quake to be followed by larger and larger quakes. Usually the aftershocks are smaller.
Swell.
-30-
It’s no fun riding through a ’quaker alone. Everybody’s reaction is subjective, and an earthquake gets the ol’ heart a-pumpin’.
It's silly ... everybody knows it was an earthquake. Unless the building fell on top of you, there's not that much to discuss, but people will discuss how it sounded, if they were seated or standing, what fell or didn't fall.
The 100,000 or so people who felt the 4.4 temblor will chatter about it for days, unlike the 5,000 or so residents of the Mogul-Verdi-Somersett area (between Reno and the California state line), who have rocked and rolled multiple times daily for weeks now.
For them, the thrill is gone, but the danger lingers on. Stress rises.
Today, meanwhile, there were upward of 30 temblors in a two-hour period, including the biggies at at 3:47 p.m. (3.0), 3:51 p.m. (4.1), and 3:55 p.m. (4.4). I felt only the 4.4. Dang this solid ground I sit on.
Not reassuring was a geologist quoted on KUNR FM 88.7 an hour after the 4.4; he said it's unusual for a good-size quake to be followed by larger and larger quakes. Usually the aftershocks are smaller.
Swell.
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17 April 2008
Wilderness at war
Another battle in a neverending war has begun, with residents of west central Nevada riled up over proposed plans for protecting the land.
Reporter Jeff DeLong (jdelong@rgj.com) writes that, “Environmentalists pushing a proposal to label as wilderness nearly 700,000 acres in Lyon, Mineral and Esmeralda counties said they're just initiating discussions. But residents suspicious of them and federal representatives are mobilizing to block a proposal they said could damage their economy and cherished way of life.”
Some 700 people turned out at a meeting in Smith Valley, most of them against the whole idea. Smith Valley’s population is just over 1,400, so around 50 percent of its residents showed up. That’s a lot of suspicion.
Delong’s report continues: "Basically, the commission has said we don't want wilderness, we don't need wilderness. We'll just see if that sticks," Mineral County Commissioner Jerrie Tipton said, adding that she and others are worried coming changes could affect mining, outdoor recreation and military training, which are all important to the economy.
Well … 15 years to 20 years from now, when there are 150,000 people living in the three counties — up from today’s 61,000 — Tipton’s constituents going to need wilderness, and want wilderness.
Tipton and the others should invest a hundred bucks in gasoline and drive north to the Truckee Meadows, where they can see what off-roaders have done to the base of Peavine Peak, what dirt bikes have done in the hills above Spanish Springs, look at the trash that trashy people dump in the hills because they’re too hillbilly-stupid to find the public landfill.
The lizards are dead or gone, along with the bees, birds and sagebrush.
There’s one thing that every group of people creates, everywhere in the world: a damaged ecosystem.
Nevada needs a little wilderness. Now.
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Reporter Jeff DeLong (jdelong@rgj.com) writes that, “Environmentalists pushing a proposal to label as wilderness nearly 700,000 acres in Lyon, Mineral and Esmeralda counties said they're just initiating discussions. But residents suspicious of them and federal representatives are mobilizing to block a proposal they said could damage their economy and cherished way of life.”
Some 700 people turned out at a meeting in Smith Valley, most of them against the whole idea. Smith Valley’s population is just over 1,400, so around 50 percent of its residents showed up. That’s a lot of suspicion.
Delong’s report continues: "Basically, the commission has said we don't want wilderness, we don't need wilderness. We'll just see if that sticks," Mineral County Commissioner Jerrie Tipton said, adding that she and others are worried coming changes could affect mining, outdoor recreation and military training, which are all important to the economy.
Well … 15 years to 20 years from now, when there are 150,000 people living in the three counties — up from today’s 61,000 — Tipton’s constituents going to need wilderness, and want wilderness.
Tipton and the others should invest a hundred bucks in gasoline and drive north to the Truckee Meadows, where they can see what off-roaders have done to the base of Peavine Peak, what dirt bikes have done in the hills above Spanish Springs, look at the trash that trashy people dump in the hills because they’re too hillbilly-stupid to find the public landfill.
The lizards are dead or gone, along with the bees, birds and sagebrush.
There’s one thing that every group of people creates, everywhere in the world: a damaged ecosystem.
Nevada needs a little wilderness. Now.
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Birds of a (strange) feather
When I left home this morning, three crows, four pigeons and two ducks were chowing down on birdseed under the big tree in my front yard.
I put out that seed for house sparrows, finches, scrub jays, California quail ... I get crows, pigeons and ducks.
Ducks. I live at least a mile away from any body of water; Sparks Marina park is east and Paradise Park is west. I'm on dry land, in a 1950s-era subdivision.
Ducks. Bright-orange webbed feet. Male with glorious satin-green neck. Matching satin-blue chevron on wings of male and female.
Last spring, two males got in a fight — biting, kicking, quacking, feathers flying — in the street in front of my house, while a female ate my birdseed, ignoring the beakacuffs. Saturday, two males walked down the middle of the street, side by side, like human guys out for a stroll. No female in sight.
The pair this morning barely moved away as I restocked the bird buffet, the male grumbling threats. A crow bigger than a housecat sat on the birdbath and cawed at me.
Please, Mr. Hitchcock ... say "cut."
ooo ooo ooo
Candidates spur humorlessness in the screaming heads of cable TV.
It's got to burn McCain; he delivers funny lines but the cable guys don't get it. Clinton throwing back Crown Royal is the best laugh I've had all month; the cablers rolled out the tsk tsk tsk's.
Realization: Diabolical cable-TV managers remove the sense of humor as part of the hiring process. If the humor grows back, the talker is canned, or quarantined. Surgery or chemical castration? Laughstration, perhaps, or humorectomy?
Come on, people! Nothing is 100 percent serious, 100 percent of the time.
Especially politics.
As Roger Rabbit observed, sometimes a laugh is the only weapon we’ve got.
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I put out that seed for house sparrows, finches, scrub jays, California quail ... I get crows, pigeons and ducks.
Ducks. I live at least a mile away from any body of water; Sparks Marina park is east and Paradise Park is west. I'm on dry land, in a 1950s-era subdivision.
Ducks. Bright-orange webbed feet. Male with glorious satin-green neck. Matching satin-blue chevron on wings of male and female.
Last spring, two males got in a fight — biting, kicking, quacking, feathers flying — in the street in front of my house, while a female ate my birdseed, ignoring the beakacuffs. Saturday, two males walked down the middle of the street, side by side, like human guys out for a stroll. No female in sight.
The pair this morning barely moved away as I restocked the bird buffet, the male grumbling threats. A crow bigger than a housecat sat on the birdbath and cawed at me.
Please, Mr. Hitchcock ... say "cut."
ooo ooo ooo
Candidates spur humorlessness in the screaming heads of cable TV.
It's got to burn McCain; he delivers funny lines but the cable guys don't get it. Clinton throwing back Crown Royal is the best laugh I've had all month; the cablers rolled out the tsk tsk tsk's.
Realization: Diabolical cable-TV managers remove the sense of humor as part of the hiring process. If the humor grows back, the talker is canned, or quarantined. Surgery or chemical castration? Laughstration, perhaps, or humorectomy?
Come on, people! Nothing is 100 percent serious, 100 percent of the time.
Especially politics.
As Roger Rabbit observed, sometimes a laugh is the only weapon we’ve got.
-30-
25 March 2008
Fundamental lack of a human skill
Dick Cheney’s comment that the Iraq war has been hardest on Prez Bush, and Bush’s lack of empathy for the people whose deaths he caused, get to the heart of the sociopathic nature of fundamentalists and fundamentalism.
They insist that their fundamental belief is the only correct belief, because they lack the ability to put themselves in other people’s moccasins. They cannot follow a metaphor, the way lizards don’t switch attention from a hand to what the hand’s pointing at. Even chimps, bonobos and dogs can follow a pointing finger.
Fundamentalists lack the ability to imagine feeling as another person might; when as children they played “make believe,” they probably pretended to be Daddy, not a Native American or an astronaut or a homeless person. They thought of themselves as being exactly like the people who reared them, and nothing else.
Why are the worlds of music, fine art and performing art filled by a majority of politically liberal or leftist people? Empathy for the "other."
W. considers war “exciting” because he can’t imagine any alternative, buying into Hollywood propaganda begun in WWII, where the movies make a lie of war. And he thinks that his prayers can cure the grief of military families.
W. and the Dick: one-dimensional mental midgets.
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They insist that their fundamental belief is the only correct belief, because they lack the ability to put themselves in other people’s moccasins. They cannot follow a metaphor, the way lizards don’t switch attention from a hand to what the hand’s pointing at. Even chimps, bonobos and dogs can follow a pointing finger.
Fundamentalists lack the ability to imagine feeling as another person might; when as children they played “make believe,” they probably pretended to be Daddy, not a Native American or an astronaut or a homeless person. They thought of themselves as being exactly like the people who reared them, and nothing else.
Why are the worlds of music, fine art and performing art filled by a majority of politically liberal or leftist people? Empathy for the "other."
W. considers war “exciting” because he can’t imagine any alternative, buying into Hollywood propaganda begun in WWII, where the movies make a lie of war. And he thinks that his prayers can cure the grief of military families.
W. and the Dick: one-dimensional mental midgets.
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Silver Screen lies
Joe Pesci and Helen Mirren are in Reno this week, filming "Love Ranch," which the moviemakers say is loosely based on the lives of former Mustang Ranch brothel owners Joe and Sally Conforte.
Sally's gone to that great brothel in the sky, but Joe's living rich, fat and happy in Brazil, where the U.S. government can't touch him on tax evasion and other charges.
I really hope the movie is "loosely" based, because Joe and Sally are not nice people. I had the unpleasant experience in the late 1960s of watching to them claim in a UNR class (invited by the instructor) that they would soon start charities and help poor folks in Northern Nevada. Never happened, but they were great at P.R. bull.
However, Sally's nephew does continue her tradition of giving out turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas to people living in Mustang and Lockwood in Storey County.
During Mustang Ranch's last years, politicians and lawyers and other people served prison time because of Conforte crimes. Careers, reputations and families were ruined, while Joe and Sally got richer.
It is all about the money, and only about the money, with Joe and Sally ... money that came from uneducated and or desperate women who spread their legs for strangers. Oscar Bonavena died because he got between Joe and Joe's money.
There's no love in a whorehouse, just sex ... and money.
-30-
Sally's gone to that great brothel in the sky, but Joe's living rich, fat and happy in Brazil, where the U.S. government can't touch him on tax evasion and other charges.
I really hope the movie is "loosely" based, because Joe and Sally are not nice people. I had the unpleasant experience in the late 1960s of watching to them claim in a UNR class (invited by the instructor) that they would soon start charities and help poor folks in Northern Nevada. Never happened, but they were great at P.R. bull.
However, Sally's nephew does continue her tradition of giving out turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas to people living in Mustang and Lockwood in Storey County.
During Mustang Ranch's last years, politicians and lawyers and other people served prison time because of Conforte crimes. Careers, reputations and families were ruined, while Joe and Sally got richer.
It is all about the money, and only about the money, with Joe and Sally ... money that came from uneducated and or desperate women who spread their legs for strangers. Oscar Bonavena died because he got between Joe and Joe's money.
There's no love in a whorehouse, just sex ... and money.
-30-
23 March 2008
Lousy timing
An AP story today about middle-age children forced to move back home to take care of aging parents brings this inappropriate thought:
Thanks to global warming, you can never find an ice flow when you need one.
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Thanks to global warming, you can never find an ice flow when you need one.
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20 March 2008
Shades of JFK
So the scared-of-angry-black-men Pink Faces on cable news believe that Sen. Obama thinks in lock-step with his preacher/spiritual adviser?
The Catholic-haters of the 1960s said JFK would follow the Pope's orders in running the U.S. Didn't happen.
It's evident that the PF cable-blabbers don't have religious convictions, or they'd put themselves out of business to honor the seven deadly sins, plus the 10 Commandments, some of which they violate daily.
The Rev. Wright seems to speak Truth to Power, at least in the UTube clip.
Truth scares the BeJeezus out of cable-blabbers.
-30-
The Catholic-haters of the 1960s said JFK would follow the Pope's orders in running the U.S. Didn't happen.
It's evident that the PF cable-blabbers don't have religious convictions, or they'd put themselves out of business to honor the seven deadly sins, plus the 10 Commandments, some of which they violate daily.
The Rev. Wright seems to speak Truth to Power, at least in the UTube clip.
Truth scares the BeJeezus out of cable-blabbers.
-30-
13 March 2008
Puritans strike again
Buh bye, Gov. Spitzer.
Why do men do business with prostitutes? A friend who once worked in a diner near a legal Nevada brothel asked a young man who'd just left the bordello. Because, he said, when you want something special, your wife or girlfriend will say 'no!' and be offended. A whore can't say no.
ooo ooo ooo
The newest replacement for marijuana is salvia divinorum, an hallucinogenic drug sold at novelty stores, smoke shops and adult video stores. Native to Mexico, it has been used for centuries for healing rituals. Eight states now have laws restricting it and Florida might make it illegal, according to The Associated Press.
It's a pity. As long as lawmakers get free whiskey and Cubans, they'll support only the booze-tobacco industrial complex.
Anybody want to create the Salvia Divinorum Lobby?
-30-
Why do men do business with prostitutes? A friend who once worked in a diner near a legal Nevada brothel asked a young man who'd just left the bordello. Because, he said, when you want something special, your wife or girlfriend will say 'no!' and be offended. A whore can't say no.
ooo ooo ooo
The newest replacement for marijuana is salvia divinorum, an hallucinogenic drug sold at novelty stores, smoke shops and adult video stores. Native to Mexico, it has been used for centuries for healing rituals. Eight states now have laws restricting it and Florida might make it illegal, according to The Associated Press.
It's a pity. As long as lawmakers get free whiskey and Cubans, they'll support only the booze-tobacco industrial complex.
Anybody want to create the Salvia Divinorum Lobby?
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11 March 2008
Through California’s looking glass
California needs to have its right hand and its left hand text-message each other.
In Santa Clara County, the state recently ordered a couple to cut down decade-old redwood trees, citing the Solar Shade Control Act of 1978, because their neighbor put in solar panels that are gradually being blocked as the trees grow. There’s a similar case pending in Sonoma County.
On the other hand, California cities and the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency are fining people who cut down trees to improve the view or to increase the sale value of a house. TRPA’s fines surpass $1 million in California and Nevada.
I will admit that the bozo in Henderson, Nev., who downed 546 trees (at night, over a year) so he would have better views of the Las Vegas Strip and the mountains, went way too far.
If I lived on the California side of Lake Tahoe, I’d be putting in solar panels, and happily cutting trees to open them to the sun. If my view improved as a side-effect … surprise, surprise!
Take a hike, TRPA. Watch out for bears.
-30-
In Santa Clara County, the state recently ordered a couple to cut down decade-old redwood trees, citing the Solar Shade Control Act of 1978, because their neighbor put in solar panels that are gradually being blocked as the trees grow. There’s a similar case pending in Sonoma County.
On the other hand, California cities and the bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency are fining people who cut down trees to improve the view or to increase the sale value of a house. TRPA’s fines surpass $1 million in California and Nevada.
I will admit that the bozo in Henderson, Nev., who downed 546 trees (at night, over a year) so he would have better views of the Las Vegas Strip and the mountains, went way too far.
If I lived on the California side of Lake Tahoe, I’d be putting in solar panels, and happily cutting trees to open them to the sun. If my view improved as a side-effect … surprise, surprise!
Take a hike, TRPA. Watch out for bears.
-30-
Drink deep
"Two veteran U.S. senators said they plan to hold hearings in response to an Associated Press investigation into the presence of trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans," an AP report says.
Time to dump my stocks in homeopathic medicine makers. A side effect of the hearings will be proof that homeopathy is quackery.
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Time to dump my stocks in homeopathic medicine makers. A side effect of the hearings will be proof that homeopathy is quackery.
-30-
05 March 2008
Where's Rummy?
It's probably just me, but TV clips of John McCain's philosophy of 'where we are is where we are' sound like a riff in the style of Donald Rumsfeld. Logic ... they'll bomb the O out of it.
-30-
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29 February 2008
Lighten up, already
So the big bad radio slug likes the name Barack Hussein Obama ... and it's all he can say, like a 4-year-old's sing-song rendition of "Old MacDonald." Over and over and over.
Laughter is the best weapon against bullies, including McCain's warm-up doofus, B.O., Rushbaugh, Coulterisis.
When Hillary laughs, she looks like mama Shirley Partridge. When Barack laughs, he looks like my eighth-grade crush.
Laugh it up, gal and guy! Bullies can dish it out, and take it too ... twisting it against you.
Change the game.
-30-
A 2-year-old enduring potty training: "Look, Mommie! I made a coulterisis!"
-30-
Laughter is the best weapon against bullies, including McCain's warm-up doofus, B.O., Rushbaugh, Coulterisis.
When Hillary laughs, she looks like mama Shirley Partridge. When Barack laughs, he looks like my eighth-grade crush.
Laugh it up, gal and guy! Bullies can dish it out, and take it too ... twisting it against you.
Change the game.
-30-
A 2-year-old enduring potty training: "Look, Mommie! I made a coulterisis!"
-30-
18 February 2008
Tired? I'll show you tired
Today's Reno Gazette-Journal noted the need of the Nevada basketball team to "recharge batteries" after playing five games in 10 days. A TV station called the team "weary."
Oh, please.
Nevada's performing twerps are treated better than any of the dogs in the recent Westminister show. They feed from the university trough, live on scholarships, get helped through classes.
Awhile back, some national educational group criticized the fact that most UNR students take at least five years to graduate. Since most UNR students take full-time classes and hold down full-time jobs, yeah it takes five years or more.
But the worn-out basketball team? They don't have a clue what real student life is.
The university is facing budget cuts in state funding — it's the economy, don't ya know. If I were in charge, the athletic department would be unemployed, the teams' gyms would be open to every student and the teams' restaurant would cater to the homeless. Budget crunch fixed.
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Oh, please.
Nevada's performing twerps are treated better than any of the dogs in the recent Westminister show. They feed from the university trough, live on scholarships, get helped through classes.
Awhile back, some national educational group criticized the fact that most UNR students take at least five years to graduate. Since most UNR students take full-time classes and hold down full-time jobs, yeah it takes five years or more.
But the worn-out basketball team? They don't have a clue what real student life is.
The university is facing budget cuts in state funding — it's the economy, don't ya know. If I were in charge, the athletic department would be unemployed, the teams' gyms would be open to every student and the teams' restaurant would cater to the homeless. Budget crunch fixed.
-30-
Crocodile tears
I’m not cold-hearted, but what’s with the hundreds of people in Reno rending their garments and wailing aloud over the death of Brianna Denison?
They’re building a Princess Diana-sized pile of stuff where her body was found: ribbons, flowers, balloons, teddy bears, etc.
Blue ribbons — after the fashion of AIDS ribbons, breast-cancer ribbons and a dozen other ribbons — are sprouting all over the valley.
A homeless man was hauled out of the Truckee River a couple weeks ago, drowned and frozen. No wailing then for a death just as tragic.
Are these people so enamored of grief that they have to horn in on the death of somebody they never knew? What chemically induced void makes them want to feel so bad?
It’s like hormone-soaked high school; when I was in 11th grade, a classmate was killed in a car wreck. Big school, but you’d think every student was his very best friend. Girls who didn’t even know what he looked like cried in class, daily, for a week. Boys stood silently in groups, gobsmacked. The day of his funeral, the school was nearly paralyzed with weeping.
Mourning the death of a famous person I can understand, from JFK to Princess Di. But Reno never even heard of Bri before that sicko bastard abducted her.
People don’t have enough emotional drama in their own lives? They have to steal it from the Denison family?
Her death is tragic, yes. And when the bastard is caught, I’ll gladly push the plunger that pumps poison into his arm. But I’m not wearing a Bri ribbon.
My sympathy to the Denison family, but no hysterics in an attempt to take over the spotlight.
ooo ooo ooo
A vigil was held a few days after Bri was abducted, with prayers and so on, and reassurances that she'd come home, somehow. How much better the world would be if people took action that helped, instead of fooling themselves into believing prayer will solve a problem. They don't actually do anything, but feel better performing a useless act. Raises self-esteem, fixes nothing in the real world.
ooo ooo ooo
A friend in Seattle found herself “Obamawhacked” the day that HRC and BO visited for a debate.
The turn-away crowd from an Obama speech descended on the Internet café where Mel was using the wi-fi, pinning her in her chair for an hour while they knoshed.
“Obamawhacked” … how can I get that into Wikipedia?
-30-
They’re building a Princess Diana-sized pile of stuff where her body was found: ribbons, flowers, balloons, teddy bears, etc.
Blue ribbons — after the fashion of AIDS ribbons, breast-cancer ribbons and a dozen other ribbons — are sprouting all over the valley.
A homeless man was hauled out of the Truckee River a couple weeks ago, drowned and frozen. No wailing then for a death just as tragic.
Are these people so enamored of grief that they have to horn in on the death of somebody they never knew? What chemically induced void makes them want to feel so bad?
It’s like hormone-soaked high school; when I was in 11th grade, a classmate was killed in a car wreck. Big school, but you’d think every student was his very best friend. Girls who didn’t even know what he looked like cried in class, daily, for a week. Boys stood silently in groups, gobsmacked. The day of his funeral, the school was nearly paralyzed with weeping.
Mourning the death of a famous person I can understand, from JFK to Princess Di. But Reno never even heard of Bri before that sicko bastard abducted her.
People don’t have enough emotional drama in their own lives? They have to steal it from the Denison family?
Her death is tragic, yes. And when the bastard is caught, I’ll gladly push the plunger that pumps poison into his arm. But I’m not wearing a Bri ribbon.
My sympathy to the Denison family, but no hysterics in an attempt to take over the spotlight.
ooo ooo ooo
A vigil was held a few days after Bri was abducted, with prayers and so on, and reassurances that she'd come home, somehow. How much better the world would be if people took action that helped, instead of fooling themselves into believing prayer will solve a problem. They don't actually do anything, but feel better performing a useless act. Raises self-esteem, fixes nothing in the real world.
ooo ooo ooo
A friend in Seattle found herself “Obamawhacked” the day that HRC and BO visited for a debate.
The turn-away crowd from an Obama speech descended on the Internet café where Mel was using the wi-fi, pinning her in her chair for an hour while they knoshed.
“Obamawhacked” … how can I get that into Wikipedia?
-30-
10 February 2008
Deterrent ... what deterrent?
Countries controlled by the great religion of Islam have criminals? What a (typing sarcastically) surprise!
Daily Kos today reports that "Iran's ambassador to Spain has compared chopping off the hands of thieves to a 'surgeon amputating a limb to prevent the spread of gangrene.'" Seyed Davoud Salehi also argued that the death penalty was necessary "to preserve the health of society as a whole."
"Our laws allow for the amputation of the hand that steals. This is not accepted by the West, but the field of human rights should take into account the customs, traditions, religion and economic development," he said in comments reported by the newspaper El Mundo.
Fair enough. What makes me laugh is that, with the chance of losing a hand, people in Iran still steal. And do whatever earns them the death penalty. Assuming that Iran executes more than just political activists.
Off goes a hand, or a head ... Iranian criminals must be as deep-down stupid as U.S. criminals. "I'll never get caught," is the apparent thought.
If I were running a medical company, I'd hire lobbyists to promote hand-chopping penalties in the U.S., just so I could sell more prosthetics.
Viva Mammon!
ooo ooo ooo
Pardon me while I Wiki the reference to Mammon. OK. Got it right on the first try.
Which brings me to a delightful story broadcast by NPR the other day. Mike Huckabee's stump speeches are full of biblical references, which fly right over the heads of non-fundamentalist listeners.
Your average Joe-on-the-Street doesn't get the point of The Rev's preaching.
Stephen Prothero, author of "Religious Literacy," was quoted about America's prodigious ignorance of things religious, including the Christians' Bible. History, economy, statistics, science, religion ... a goodly percentage of Americans are significantly dumber than Beavis and Butt-head.
Ignorance can be fixed; Stupid is forever.
ooo ooo ooo
House-cleaning last night, I found two bumper stickers I bought during the last presidential election, not for my bumper but for my sanity:
I Love My Country
But Fear My Government
People never lie so much as
after fishing, during a war,
or before an election
They're from www.northernsun.com, assuming it's still in business.
-30-
Daily Kos today reports that "Iran's ambassador to Spain has compared chopping off the hands of thieves to a 'surgeon amputating a limb to prevent the spread of gangrene.'" Seyed Davoud Salehi also argued that the death penalty was necessary "to preserve the health of society as a whole."
"Our laws allow for the amputation of the hand that steals. This is not accepted by the West, but the field of human rights should take into account the customs, traditions, religion and economic development," he said in comments reported by the newspaper El Mundo.
Fair enough. What makes me laugh is that, with the chance of losing a hand, people in Iran still steal. And do whatever earns them the death penalty. Assuming that Iran executes more than just political activists.
Off goes a hand, or a head ... Iranian criminals must be as deep-down stupid as U.S. criminals. "I'll never get caught," is the apparent thought.
If I were running a medical company, I'd hire lobbyists to promote hand-chopping penalties in the U.S., just so I could sell more prosthetics.
Viva Mammon!
ooo ooo ooo
Pardon me while I Wiki the reference to Mammon. OK. Got it right on the first try.
Which brings me to a delightful story broadcast by NPR the other day. Mike Huckabee's stump speeches are full of biblical references, which fly right over the heads of non-fundamentalist listeners.
Your average Joe-on-the-Street doesn't get the point of The Rev's preaching.
Stephen Prothero, author of "Religious Literacy," was quoted about America's prodigious ignorance of things religious, including the Christians' Bible. History, economy, statistics, science, religion ... a goodly percentage of Americans are significantly dumber than Beavis and Butt-head.
Ignorance can be fixed; Stupid is forever.
ooo ooo ooo
House-cleaning last night, I found two bumper stickers I bought during the last presidential election, not for my bumper but for my sanity:
I Love My Country
But Fear My Government
People never lie so much as
after fishing, during a war,
or before an election
They're from www.northernsun.com, assuming it's still in business.
-30-
09 February 2008
Annoying governmental theater
In Reno this week:
The family of murder victim Charla Mack took the court-sponsored opportunity to display their grief publicly while scolding a stone-cold sociopath for slicing their loved one to pieces.
A basic reason for laws, in this country at least, is to waylay revenge. Everybody is equal before the Law, and convicted killers are sentenced according to that Law.
I’m all for victim’s rights, but letting Charla’s grieving family have the spotlight, at taxpayer expense, to demonstrate their love and devotion, is over the line. Yes, the judge and jury need to keep the victim in mind. Yes, the prosecutors have to convince the jury that a living, breathing human being was harmed, and that the killer must be punished.
If the judge, lawyers for and against, jury and everybody else does their job, justice will be served. But putting the egos of the victim’s family on parade accomplishes nothing … Charla’s still dead. Her family still grieves. The public spotlight is soaked in tears.
Funerals are for the living. Trials are for Justice, not showboating. Charla's family isn't the first on the public stage and it won't be the last. But it should be the last.
In the Middle East, they know how to publicly grieve. U.S. Protestant and Catholic funeral rites are bloodless in comparison, which I'm sure stifles much emotion. However, when mourners vent, they should do it on their own time, not on taxpayer-funded court time.
ooo ooo ooo
In the wake of another probable murder, Northern Nevada citizens and foundations this week pledged or forked over $165,000 to the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office to fund the DNA laboratory, which has a huge backlog of tests.
Somewhere in the backlog, maybe, is evidence that will lead the cops to the scumsucker who abducted college student Brianna Denison on Jan. 20.
This is how we fund law enforcement now?
The government should budget adequate money to cover the work the Sheriff’s Office is expected to do.
Sheriff Mike Haley said the office was hit with an unfunded mandate to take DNA samples from sex offenders … about 350 a month.
How about a ballot initiative forbidding unfunded mandates? You make a law, you pay for it. At every level of government.
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The family of murder victim Charla Mack took the court-sponsored opportunity to display their grief publicly while scolding a stone-cold sociopath for slicing their loved one to pieces.
A basic reason for laws, in this country at least, is to waylay revenge. Everybody is equal before the Law, and convicted killers are sentenced according to that Law.
I’m all for victim’s rights, but letting Charla’s grieving family have the spotlight, at taxpayer expense, to demonstrate their love and devotion, is over the line. Yes, the judge and jury need to keep the victim in mind. Yes, the prosecutors have to convince the jury that a living, breathing human being was harmed, and that the killer must be punished.
If the judge, lawyers for and against, jury and everybody else does their job, justice will be served. But putting the egos of the victim’s family on parade accomplishes nothing … Charla’s still dead. Her family still grieves. The public spotlight is soaked in tears.
Funerals are for the living. Trials are for Justice, not showboating. Charla's family isn't the first on the public stage and it won't be the last. But it should be the last.
In the Middle East, they know how to publicly grieve. U.S. Protestant and Catholic funeral rites are bloodless in comparison, which I'm sure stifles much emotion. However, when mourners vent, they should do it on their own time, not on taxpayer-funded court time.
ooo ooo ooo
In the wake of another probable murder, Northern Nevada citizens and foundations this week pledged or forked over $165,000 to the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office to fund the DNA laboratory, which has a huge backlog of tests.
Somewhere in the backlog, maybe, is evidence that will lead the cops to the scumsucker who abducted college student Brianna Denison on Jan. 20.
This is how we fund law enforcement now?
The government should budget adequate money to cover the work the Sheriff’s Office is expected to do.
Sheriff Mike Haley said the office was hit with an unfunded mandate to take DNA samples from sex offenders … about 350 a month.
How about a ballot initiative forbidding unfunded mandates? You make a law, you pay for it. At every level of government.
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05 February 2008
Fighting the terrorists on U.S. shores
Yet another reason to celebrate the impending departure of W. from the White House: Even his warnings about war — aimed at terrifying Americans into letting him do anything he wants — are unoriginal.
Paraphrasing W.: We must fight terrorists over there so that we don't have to fight them over here.
Writer Michael B. Oren, in his 2007 book, "Power, Faith and Fantasy, America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present," discusses the Barbary pirates, their attacks on American ships in the Mediterranean and the "tribute" (money, guns, ships and more) paid to the bosses of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and other powers.
He quotes businessman Fisher Ames of Massachusetts: "Our commerce is on the point of being annihilated, and, unless an armament is fitted out, we may very soon expect the Algerines on the coast of America."
Oren goes on to report that President Thomas Jefferson was working on a way to start a war with Barbary without Constitution-mandated approval by Congress when Tripoli solved his problem — the U.S. Consulate was attacked and its flagpole cut down ... Tripoli's traditional declaration of war.
The World Trade Center towers had flagpoles and flags ... maybe W. can twist that into a declaration of war by Osama.
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Paraphrasing W.: We must fight terrorists over there so that we don't have to fight them over here.
Writer Michael B. Oren, in his 2007 book, "Power, Faith and Fantasy, America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present," discusses the Barbary pirates, their attacks on American ships in the Mediterranean and the "tribute" (money, guns, ships and more) paid to the bosses of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and other powers.
He quotes businessman Fisher Ames of Massachusetts: "Our commerce is on the point of being annihilated, and, unless an armament is fitted out, we may very soon expect the Algerines on the coast of America."
Oren goes on to report that President Thomas Jefferson was working on a way to start a war with Barbary without Constitution-mandated approval by Congress when Tripoli solved his problem — the U.S. Consulate was attacked and its flagpole cut down ... Tripoli's traditional declaration of war.
The World Trade Center towers had flagpoles and flags ... maybe W. can twist that into a declaration of war by Osama.
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17 January 2008
The cynic in me
Computers are just machines, no soul, no consciousness ... so how the bloody heck does the Mac I use at work know when "All Things Considered" starts a story I'm really interested in, so it can stop the signal and leave me hanging?
Three days in a row!
We can put robots on Mars but we can't keep me connected to KUNR-FM 88.7 Reno?
Golly gosh dang it all to pieces.
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Three days in a row!
We can put robots on Mars but we can't keep me connected to KUNR-FM 88.7 Reno?
Golly gosh dang it all to pieces.
-30-
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
I just love the photos and video of Prez W. and the Saudi King holding hands.
Maybe the tradition started because if you’re holding a guy’s hand he can’t shove a shiv in your back?
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Maybe the tradition started because if you’re holding a guy’s hand he can’t shove a shiv in your back?
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14 January 2008
The critic in me
I was looking forward to "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," but the opening minutes of Sunday's premiere were so bad that I channel-surfed away. Had a VCR running — picked up tonight's second episode, too — so I can go back and try again. Maybe.
The problem? Big action sequence that turned out to be a dream.
Hack writing 101.
Very disappointing.
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The problem? Big action sequence that turned out to be a dream.
Hack writing 101.
Very disappointing.
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Barack, life-size
The rock star candidate, Barack Obama, dropped by my newspaper-of-employment this afternoon to visit with the Editorial Board. On the way out of the RGJ, he posed for pictures, naturally, including with a boy with an arm in a sling, and way too many RGJ employees. Nobody from the Newsroom, though.
He’s tall and that smile is a mile wide.
Second-biggest crowd I’ve ever seen for a celebrity at the RGJ, topped only by Fess Parker.
Also naturally, there was an old guy complaining after Big O left that he’d been forced to park all the way across the parking lot and got caught in the Secret Service traffic jam. He didn’t give a fig for the fact that he’d seen an eventually-historic person. Only his own inconvenience mattered.
Govern that, Sen. O.
ooo ooo ooo
Sunday, I got a computerized phone call claiming to be an election survey; despite the quickly spoken disclaimer at the end, I could not figure out who commissioned the poll.
Several complimentary questions about Huckabee, though. And one “pro life” question.
Also:
“Do you have a high opinion of Sen. Harry Reid?”
Yes, I said.
It next asked if I supported Reid’s support of an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, “turning the country over to Islamic terrorists?”
Yes, I said.
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He’s tall and that smile is a mile wide.
Second-biggest crowd I’ve ever seen for a celebrity at the RGJ, topped only by Fess Parker.
Also naturally, there was an old guy complaining after Big O left that he’d been forced to park all the way across the parking lot and got caught in the Secret Service traffic jam. He didn’t give a fig for the fact that he’d seen an eventually-historic person. Only his own inconvenience mattered.
Govern that, Sen. O.
ooo ooo ooo
Sunday, I got a computerized phone call claiming to be an election survey; despite the quickly spoken disclaimer at the end, I could not figure out who commissioned the poll.
Several complimentary questions about Huckabee, though. And one “pro life” question.
Also:
“Do you have a high opinion of Sen. Harry Reid?”
Yes, I said.
It next asked if I supported Reid’s support of an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, “turning the country over to Islamic terrorists?”
Yes, I said.
-30-
09 January 2008
American Taliban ... really
It's easy to throw the insult "American Taliban" at boneheads who won't live and let live.
But is it an insult to call the people of St. Charles, Mo., American Taliban? The town, near St. Louis, is considering a law that will ban swearing in bars, along with table-dancing, drinking contests and profane music.
Die Gedanken sind frei!
The table-dance will cost you fifty bucks.
ooo
And now for something completely different:
If Hillary Clinton's been an agent for change for 35 years, why is this country so frellin' screwed up?
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But is it an insult to call the people of St. Charles, Mo., American Taliban? The town, near St. Louis, is considering a law that will ban swearing in bars, along with table-dancing, drinking contests and profane music.
Die Gedanken sind frei!
The table-dance will cost you fifty bucks.
ooo
And now for something completely different:
If Hillary Clinton's been an agent for change for 35 years, why is this country so frellin' screwed up?
-30-
03 January 2008
A wild prediction
For New Year's, the gang at "Talk of the Nation" on NPR had people making comical predictions for 2008.
I predict that the hosts of TOTN will one day spend so much time telling us what's ahead, what stories they're following, what questions might be asked on the day's topic, taking breaks for local stations, theme music and such that there will be no time left for the actual show.
-30-
I predict that the hosts of TOTN will one day spend so much time telling us what's ahead, what stories they're following, what questions might be asked on the day's topic, taking breaks for local stations, theme music and such that there will be no time left for the actual show.
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02 January 2008
The holiday stupids
What is it about holidays that makes people I work with go apeshit?
A dozen or more people create the materials I need for my job; after much, much pain, finally the computers work, the software works, the automated delivery works, day in, day out.
Except on holidays. Do they think, "I've done this chore the same way 43 times straight ... It's New Year's Day! I'm gonna do it a different way! Screw everybody downstream of my work ... ?"
Come on, computer wizards ... write software that doesn't allow options in the workflow. Do it one way, and one way only.
When I'm King of the World ... look out!
-30-
A dozen or more people create the materials I need for my job; after much, much pain, finally the computers work, the software works, the automated delivery works, day in, day out.
Except on holidays. Do they think, "I've done this chore the same way 43 times straight ... It's New Year's Day! I'm gonna do it a different way! Screw everybody downstream of my work ... ?"
Come on, computer wizards ... write software that doesn't allow options in the workflow. Do it one way, and one way only.
When I'm King of the World ... look out!
-30-
01 January 2008
A bad good thing
1 January 2008
According to the Reno Gazette-Journal's Lenita Powers, Dove Zugarramurdi, 61, a December graduate of UNR, has always wanted to be a doctor. She has applied to National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Ore., which teaches clinical science and holistic health and healing, creating doctors of naturopathic medicine.
So, Dove's going to learn to be a quack. Couldn't she study real medicine?
As the saying goes, there are two kinds of medicine ... medicine that works, and everything else.
-30-
According to the Reno Gazette-Journal's Lenita Powers, Dove Zugarramurdi, 61, a December graduate of UNR, has always wanted to be a doctor. She has applied to National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Ore., which teaches clinical science and holistic health and healing, creating doctors of naturopathic medicine.
So, Dove's going to learn to be a quack. Couldn't she study real medicine?
As the saying goes, there are two kinds of medicine ... medicine that works, and everything else.
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