Texas

My good friend Lori in SFO sent this to me today. I thought I'd share it with you - it's ALL true!

When you're from Texas, people that you meet ask you questions like, "Do you have any cows?" "Do you have horses?" "Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?"

They all want to know if you've been to Southfork. They watched Dallas.

Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Look at Texas with me just for a second. That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and the Red River and the Rio Grande is as much a part of you as anything ever will be. As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at it they know what it is. It's Texas. Pick any kid off the street in Japan and draw him a picture of Texas in the dirt and he'll know what it is. What happens if I show you a picture of any other state? You might get it maybe after a second or two, but who else would? And even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in you?

In every man, woman and child on this planet, there is a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride off in a pickup. There is some little bit of Texas in everyone.

Did you ever hear anyone in a bar go, "Wow...so you're from Iowa? Cool, tell me about it?" Do you know why? Because there's no place like Texas.

Texas is the Alamo. Texas is 183 men standing in a church, facing thousands of Mexican nationals, fighting for freedom, who had the chance to walk out and save themselves, but stayed instead to fight and die for the cause of freedom. We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and James Bowie and Crockett and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and they decided to cross it and be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is the Spirit of Texas.

Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto.

Texas is "Juneteenth" and Texas Independence Day.

Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crockett National Forest.

Texas is breathtaking mountains in the Big Bend.

Texas is the unparalleled beauty of bluebonnet fields in the Texas Hill Country.

Texas is the beautiful, warm beaches of the Gulf Coast of South Texas.

Texas is the shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.

Texas is world record bass from places like LakeFork.

Texas is Mexican food like nowhere else, not even Mexico.

Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass Hall, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Astrodome.

Texas is larger-than-life legends like Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley, Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Landry, Darrell Royal, ZZ Top, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Sam Rayburn, George Bush, Lyndon B.Johnson, and George W. Bush.

Texas is great companies like Dell Computer, Texas Instruments and Compaq. And Lockheed Martin Aerospace, home of the F-16 jet fighter and the JSF Fighter.

Texas is NASA.

Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops.

Texas is skies blackened with doves, and fields full of deer.

Texas is a place where towns and cities shut down to watch the local high school football game on Friday nights and for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, and for the Night In Old San Antonio and their River Parade. Texas is ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies, and modern cities.

If it isn't in Texas, you probably don't need it. No one does anything bigger or better than it's done in Texas.

By federal law, Texas is the only state in the U.S. that can fly its flag at the same height as the U.S. flag. Think about that for a second. You fly the Stars and Stripes at 20 feet in Maryland, California, or Maine and your state flag, whatever it is, goes at 17 feet. You fly the Stars and Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in Longview or anyplace else at 20 feet, the Lone Star flies at the same height: 20 feet. Do you know why? Because it is the only state that was a republic before it became a state

Also, being a Texan is as high as being an American down here. Our capitol is the only one in the country that is taller than the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., and we can divide our state into five states at any time if we wanted to! We included these things as part of the deal when we came on. That's the best part, right there.

Texas even has its own power grid!!

Song of the Day

Today was a great day...warm enough to drop the top (mid-70s) and take a long, long drive north and east into Texas, just to clear the cobwebs. I was gone for about five hours, and as luck (or stupidity/forgetfulness) would have it, I forgot to take the camera. I can rationalize my oversight by saying "well, there wasn't much to photograph, anyway." Wrong. There's always something to photograph...always. But I digress.

While I was motoring and thinking today, the thought occurred to me to add a new "feature" to the blog: the song of the day. I'll post the artist, album title, song name, lyrics, a link to the song (if available), the source (radio, personal collection, other) and perhaps something or other about the song, ranging from a simple "I just like it" up to and including a long, drawn out and most likely boring war story. There probably won't be too many war stories. You should be glad.

I keep about 15 or so CDs in the car. The really good ones seem to stay there permanently, the "B" list gets rotated every two weeks or so. Matchbox Twenty's "Yourself or Someone Like You" is one of the CDs that hasn't seen the inside of El Casa Móvil de Pennington for at least two years. It got a lot of airplay today. It always does, it's one of my favorite albums. And here comes a war story.

"Yourself" is, in a way, the last gift The Second Mrs. Pennington gave me. The album was released in 1996; we broke up in 1998. I first heard the album while visiting my youngest son in the Fall of 1998, shortly after TSMP left Rochester and moved back to Detroit. I visited my son at TSMP's house. TSMP put my boy down for a nap and we went into her kitchen to talk. She put "Yourself" on her little boombox CD-player and said "I think you'll like this; it's a great album." I half-listened to the music while we talked, but I bought the album on my return to Rochester. She was right: it is a great album, and it's one of the best musical chronicles of a broken relationship I've ever heard. I have a tendency to project feelings into or on music (whichever is the appropriate usage), and it's like Rob Thomas was a fly on my wall when he wrote half the songs on "Yourself." I lived the situations he describes in most of the songs on the album, and most particularly the situation in today's Song of the Day: "Hang."

Artist: Matchbox Twenty

Album: Yourself or Someone Like You

Released: 1996

Song: Hang

Track available here. (Click the album on the far left; last track on the drop-down list.)

Source when heard today: Personal collection.

Lyrics:

She grabs her magazines
She packs her things and she goes
She leaves the pictures hanging on the wall, she burns all
Her notes and she knows, she's been here too few years
To feel this old

He smokes his cigarette, he stays outside 'til it's gone
If anybody ever had a heart, he wouldn't be alone
He knows, she's been here too few years, to be gone

And we always say, it would be good to go away, someday
But if there's nothing there to make things change
If it's the same for you I'll just hang

The trouble, understand, is she got reasons he don't
Funny how he couldn't see at all, 'til she grabbed up her coat
And she goes, she's been here too few years to take it all in stride
But still it's much too long, to let hurt go (you let her go)

And we always say, it would be good to go away, someday
But if there's nothing there to make things change
If it's the same for you I'll just hang
The same for you

Well I always say, It would be good to go away
But if things don't work out like we think
And there's nothing there to ease this ache
But if there's nothing there to make things change
If it's the same for you I'll just hang

"I'm Gonna REPORT you!"

The WaPo reports Iran will be reported to the UN Security Council as a result of negotiations between the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany, that just concluded in London.

The agreement to report, rather than "refer," is less than Washington wanted and gives Iran another chance to negotiate a way out of the crisis. Had the matter been "referred," it would have become the immediate domain of the Security Council.

Winning the support of Russia and China to report the matter to the Security Council does not guarantee what action the council might take. It also does not guarantee that Russia and China would vote to support sanctions or other action proposed at the council.

Iran now has six weeks to meet the requirements of the IAEA.

Iran blustered in response:

"We consider any referral or report of Iran to the Security Council as the end of diplomacy," Iranian state television quoted Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and its chief nuclear negotiator, as saying on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

"This statement does not discuss referral but I believe that the Europeans should be more careful," the semi-official ISNA students news agency quoted him as saying. "We have asked for talks with the Europeans which shows that Iran wants to try all amicable ways to achieve peaceful nuclear technology."

So, we’ll do a few more turns around the diplomatic dance floor while the Iranians continue to dig deeper and disperse production to more and more locations, making the ultimate resolution of this problem much more difficult. In any event, Iran won’t be “reported” to the Security Council until early March, rather than immediately. That’s great, guys. Give them more time to offer a few more unconvincing gestures, or outright lies, to the “international community.” Lord knows we can trust them to do the right thing since their past-performance has been so outstanding and cooperative. (/sarcasm)

It’s highly doubtful the Security Council will do anything meaningful once the IAEA delivers its report, considering its 12-year record of dithering on Iraq. Passing weasel-worded resolutions wouldn’t deter your average nine-year old, let alone a certifiable madman Hell-bent on bringing on the Apocalypse.

Tick-tick, tick-tick, tick-tick…

Warning!

Don't get in her way! Whatever you do!

P.S.: You'll like it, I promise.

Cloture Passes...

...72 - 25. Samuel Alito most certainly will be the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

All Rise!

New Zawahiri Videotape

And while we're waiting for the outcome of the cloture vote (still in progress), there's that new Zawahiri videotape, broadcasted by Al-Jazeera today.

Walid Phares has a translation and analysis. The lede:

The new Zawahiri videotape released by al Jazeera today shows a sophistication in the propaganda war waged by the Jihadists worldwide against the US and its allies. Designed to "crumble" the morale of the American public and "boost" the commitments of the Jihadi forces, the tape is another attempt to score points in the War of ideas and media. The results were immediate in the West. The Associated Press immediate leads were stunning: 1) Zawahiri proves he wasn't killed by the US strike, therefore he scored one point against the US. 2) He labeled his enemy, the US President, as "butcher of Washington," hence attempting to rally the widest anti-American axis as possible AP lead. But the tape is not just that, another message from the number two in al Qaida. It is a very well orchestrated political offensive aimed at the nervous centers of the "enemy's public. A shot that may preceed action or asking for it.

Interesting reading, to say the least. Al Qaeda knows information warfare. They see our strings and are very adept at pulling them. Too bad the Western media plays along.

Punctuality...

...apparently isn't a requirement in the Senate. The cloture vote was delayed about ten minutes due to Frist exercising his "majority leader's time." The vote is on-going as senators stroll in to the chamber...

Hillary just voted "no." Lieberman voted "aye."

Results as soon as I hear...

15 Minutes to Cloture

Kennedy survived his rant. Amazing. I really thought he was going to implode, or explode, whatever.

Frist, or his representative, is supposed to summarize prior to the cloture vote. But nothing is happening, no one is speaking as I write. A quorum call has been issued.

This is serious high drama!

Watching Kennedy...

...on C-SPAN2 right now, and he is in full-rant mode. An amazing display. His face is red, he's shouting; I'm afraid he's going to explode. Seriously. His gesticulations are absolutely WILD. I wish the camera would pan over the rest of the Senate, it would be great to see the reacions of the other senators to this display.

I hope there's a doctor in the house.

Update, 1/30/2006, 1740 hrs.: Michelle Malkin was watching Teddy, too. Links to video of Teddy's rant there, too. I tell ya, it was a spectacle!

USAF and the QDR

Steve, over at LinkedInUSAF, has written a good post defending the U.S. Air Force’s position in the DoD pantheon. I want to add my thoughts, too.

It’s interesting that airpower is under severe pressure at the moment, largely because of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). The QDR is a good idea, in principle, because every organization needs a periodic “bottom-up” review to validate its raison d'être. The current QDR, however, has devolved into a budget cutting exercise. I’ll quote:

The Pentagon’s first three post-Cold War strategic reviews—staged with great fanfare in 1993, 1997, and 2001—generally have been viewed, and accurately so, as budget-cutting drills without much supporting analysis. Things were supposed to be different the fourth time around.

A year ago, officials pledged that the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review, now nearing an end, would assess US forces and policies and let facts dictate the conclusions. DOD first would establish the requirements, it was said, with budgets to come later.

That, as they say, was then, and this is now. Today, there is much evidence to suggest that QDR 2005 has mutated into something fairly familiar: a search for a way—any way—to clamp down on military spending.

The editorial I’m quoting is from Air Force Magazine, and as such, represents a parochial point of view. I’m sure there are similar editorials in the journals of associations of the other services defending their particular “turf.” The Navy is also being hit very hard in the current QDR, if one reads the tea leaves correctly. One should also note all the current comment is merely speculation; the actual QDR has not been published as of yet. All that said, it’s hard to deny the truths contained within the AFA’s editorial.

The danger, as I see it, is the tendency to be focused on the “here and now,” as exemplified by the near-term emphasis on Special Operations forces, and supporting components of SOF, required to prosecute the War on Terrorism effectively. History, however, is replete with rapid and dramatic geopolitical changes. It would be very, very hard to point to a specific instance in the past where this, or any other, country went to war with optimum forces in place to meet the threat at hand. I speak strictly of defensive measures, aggressors always go to war with forces tailored to achieve their objectives. It has been ever so.

So, and the point is? I’ll provide the closing paragraphs of that AFA editorial:

…“traditional” threats are alive and well. Pentagon planners have included in the QDR three major combat scenarios—most particularly China. “The enhancements ... of the Chinese military [do] cause concern,” Gen. T. Michael Moseley, USAF Chief of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In general, the QDR is not the best place for preparing detailed budgets. It is intended to provide a broad, 20-year view of DOD needs and not delve deeply into programs. It would make quite a lot of sense to give each service a budget figure, and then let uniformed leaders forge the most workable plans.

The real issue is not even so much the size of the budget, but whether the defense program as planned and projected is adequate to provide for national defense. Getting that part right is critical. It is a legitimate task for Pentagon civilians, working in close cooperation with the armed services and Congress.

It’s all about considering each and every threat to the nation, and the force structure required to meet and defeat those threats. Allocating the money required to build and maintain the forces required to meet the threats is the second, not the first, step in the process. The current QDR appears to put the cart before the horse.

This Just In!

Scrappleface:

(2006-01-30) — Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who parlayed the death of her soldier son into a successful public speaking and writing career, will join Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Tuesday night to deliver the Democrat response to President George Bush’s State of the Union address.

“Our choice of Cindy and Hugo demonstrates our commitment to diversity, and personifies our platform for the future,” said Howard Dean, chairman of the Democrat National Committee (DNC). “Plus, they’re among the few well-known progressives who didn’t vote to support the war in Iraq while publicly attacking the Bush administration for its policy toward Iraq.”

Follow the Scrappleface link and read the comments to Ott's post. Much truth there. It boggles the mind what some people consider "acceptable dissent." Sheehan is nothing but the moonbat's moonbat, true. At the same time, she's also perilously close to becoming an outright traitor. Just sayin'.

Tell ya what: There's no one, and I mean NO ONE, who does political satire better than Scott Ott. You can take that to the bank!

Monday Meanderings

You ARE clicking on the “Carnival of the Insanities” logo in the sidebar every Sunday, aren’t you? (It’s that little image of the famous Munch painting, “The Scream.”) What? You’re not? Well, then, you’ve missed stuff like James Lileks’ “Simple rules for making a fool of yourself on the Internet.” Some of the work-up before giving us the rules:

Ever since Bush imposed martial law and shot the cast of "The View" -- sorry, since Bush won the last election, hard-left nuttery seems more mainstream. Bob Dole did not post on bulletin boards that claimed Bill Clinton would soon use FEMA to herd everyone into U.N.-run camps where everyone would get Mark of the Beast bar codes on their necks. John Kerry, on the other hand, has posted at the Daily Kos, whose neck-vein-popping contributors seem to think Bush spends his nights getting hammered and ordering Halliburton to poison Iraqi water so he can get kickbacks from the Pepto-Bismol Crime Syndicate.

Debra Burlingame is a former attorney and the sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. She writes an impassioned op-ed on the PATRIOT Act in today’s WSJ Opinion Journal titled “Our Right to Security; Al Qaeda, not the FBI, is the greater threat to America.” Excerpt:

We now have the ability to put remote control cameras on the surface of Mars. Why should we allow enemies to annihilate us simply because we lack the clarity or resolve to strike a reasonable balance between a healthy skepticism of government power and the need to take proactive measures to protect ourselves from such threats? The mantra of civil-liberties hard-liners is to "question authority"--even when it is coming to our rescue--then blame that same authority when, hamstrung by civil liberties laws, it fails to save us. The old laws that would prevent FBI agents from stopping the next al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were built on the bedrock of a 35-year history of dark, defeating mistrust. More Americans should not die because the peace-at-any-cost fringe and antigovernment paranoids still fighting the ghost of Nixon hate George Bush more than they fear al Qaeda. Ask the American people what they want. They will say that they want the commander in chief to use all reasonable means to catch the people who are trying to rain terror on our cities. Those who cite the soaring principle of individual liberty do not appear to appreciate that our enemies are not seeking to destroy individuals, but whole populations.

The PATRIOT Act expires in five days. This editorial, written by a woman who knows and understands the magnitude of what’s at stake, couldn’t be more timely. I, for one, am not confident this essential legislation will be renewed in a timely manner, if at all. One can only hope.

And meanwhile… The Senate “debate” on Judge Alito drones on. I’ve been watching C-SPAN2 off and on all morning and it’s (the debate) more of the same. The Republicans and the Democrats are trading debate time off amongst themselves, an hour at a time. I’ve heard the same arguments, from BOTH sides, over and over, ad nauseaum. My feelings? Vote, already! The cloture vote is scheduled for later today, I WILL watch that vote. The Left hasn’t given up on the filibuster fight, haranguing the faithful to call, fax, or send messages via carrier pigeon to their senators to give the American public a “full, open, public debate on Alito.” Yeah, right. Here’s what The Boston Globe thinks of that idea:

In Massachusetts, old liberals never die.

They just keep tilting at windmills.

At the last minute, Senator John Kerry called for a filibuster to stop the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. Senator Edward M. Kennedy joined the fight.

The initial reaction from fellow Democrats was tepid. Tepid it should remain.

Alito is conservative. But radical? The Democrats failed to make the case during hearings which proved only one thing beyond a reasonable doubt: their own boorishness.

You can’t get anymore Blue-State than The Globe, now, can you? Kerry and his friends on the far-left fringe are simply posturing. And that's a good thing, because it's a beautiful illustration of just how incompetent and unfit for leadership they truly are.

Sunday Stuff

The Left is busy this weekend. The major Lefty blogs are undertaking a full-court press in support of Kerry’s, and now Kennedy’s (D-Chappaquidick), call for a filibuster against Judge Alito. You have to give them credit: they appear to be dedicated and well-organized on this one. See what I mean at dKos, firedoglake, and TalkLeft. I find virtually no comment on this activity on the Right side of the blogosphere; there is one exception: (Political) Circus Coming To Town at The Jawa Report. Perhaps there will be other right-side comment as the day progresses.

Speaking of Lefty blogs…Jane Hamsher at firedoglake (bio and selected Huffington Post posts here) apparently reads only “selected” blogs on the Right. Here’s her comments on the proliferation of Right-side blogs:

Every time I look at my Technorati links these days there are a lot more wingnuts than there used to be. You're never quite sure what they're saying since it's always misspelled but you're pretty sure it's supposed to be insulting, in that sort of ham-fisted, remedial, back-of-the-class monobrow humor that finds its apex in the word "booger." Anyway, these are the people who are usually castigating me for my awful language and doing their part to spread the meme "sandpaper snatch" such that Kate O'Beirne will most assuredly never walk into a room wearing tafetta again.

I don’t know just WHO she’s reading, do you? Credit where credit is due, however. The taffeta line is a good one, even if taffeta is misspelled. Pot, meet kettle.

The news from Iraq ain’t all car-bombs and other assorted terrorist acts of mayhem. There’s good news, too, but you wouldn’t know it from reading the MSM or watching the network or cable news. Yes, that includes Fox News. Want to read about some positive developments in the war? No End But Victory has lots. Keep scrolling!

Too frickin’ funny. From the Beeb’s site: US plans to 'fight the net' revealed. My reaction? Duh! We’ve always had information war plans, and we’ve executed them in every war we’ve ever fought, albeit in an awkward sort of way most of the time. It only stands to reason the DoD would update info war plans to reflect advances in technology. Nonetheless, the funny part is the reaction from a couple of our friends in the “reality-based” community. See Hoffmania and Brilliant at Breakfast, who obviously isn’t. Comment at BaB is sparse, mostly just a reprint of Auntie’s article. The proprietress of BaB closes with:

You knew they wouldn't allow blogs to stay online forever...not once the power of bloggers became known.

This country is being led by some pretty crazy-ass m*****f****ers.

Those black helicopters constantly buzzing around her house have GOT to be annoying as Hell.

On Cars

That “Which Sports Car Are You?” quiz got me to thinking right after I took it. Bad thoughts. Thoughts about replacing the Green Hornet with a new Miata, even though the current one, with only 38K on the clock, is in immaculate condition and is eminently serviceable in each and every respect. I did all the usual things: went to the Kelly Blue Book site and found out what the Green Hornet is worth (always a shock), what folks are paying for new Miatas (also a shock), and fired off a request for a quote to the nearest Mazda dealer. Yesterday I came to my senses and put those thoughts out of my head. Why replace a perfectly good thing with something that’s gonna cost you a lot of money, relatively speaking, and provides only limited advantages over what you currently own? Crazy, is what that is.

What I really need is a new motorcycle!

But back to cars. How well traveled is your car? I’ve owned some cars that have been exceptionally well-traveled. The Green Hornet is probably typical. I took delivery in SFO and have driven it as far north as the central Oregon Coast, south to the Mexican border, east to Houston, and lotsa points in between, especially in New Mexico. My Corvette, on the other hand, didn’t get out a lot. I took delivery in Detroit, and drove it all over Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, west to South Bend, IN and east to New York. The ‘Vette was a toy, pure and simple. The most well-traveled car I’ve ever owned was a 1983 BMW 320. I bought it while living in London, took delivery in Munich, drove it through Germany, Holland, and all over the UK before bringing it back home. Once in the US, that car took the Second Mrs. Pennington and me from coast to coast, New Jersey to Los Angeles, all over Michigan, south to Oklahoma City, and more than a few points in between. I owned that car for nearly ten years, getting rid of only after it had well over 100K on the clock and maintenance costs began to exceed operating costs. I replaced it with a SAAB 9000, which was one of the worst cars I’ve ever owned, and my first and last front-driver.

So, apropos of nothing, here’s the inventory of cars I’ve known and loved or hated, from first to current, with a few comments on each.

1950 Buick coupe, yellow with a black top, straight-eight with a slush-o-matic Dynaflow transmission. The engine never changed pitch and there were no perceptible shift points in that car. Very weird, very geeky. Like its 18-year old owner.

1957 Triumph TR-3. God, I loved that car! It was a chick-magnet! It had a short life, and very nearly ended my own. I managed to toss it off a 50-foot embankment just outside of Lompoc, CA. Rolled it three times, once laterally and twice end over end before it came to rest.

1964 Chevy Impala. Technically not my car, it belonged to the First Mrs. Pennington. But it was the family car for a few months after we were married. I walked between totaling the TR and marrying TFMP.

1965 VW Beetle. A thoroughly utilitarian, forgettable automobile, no matter what Bug-lovers say. Cramped and underpowered.

1967 Chevy Malibu SS396. 350 hp, three-speed Hydramatic, great looking, wonderful car. One of the few automobiles I wish I still owned.

1970 Dodge Dart Swinger 340. 275 hp, four-speed. The best way to get more than 275 hp out of that car was to turn the ignition key to the right. VERY quick. Sold it during the First Great Oil Crisis, coz it got all of ten mpg, highway.

1972 (maybe 1973, I don’t really remember) Mazda RX-3 station wagon. Very powerful and very smooth, for its size. About as reliable as a hand grenade; Mazda put two replacement engines in that car under warranty, TFMP put one in it on her dime.

(Following my first divorce I went about three years without owning a car at all. I had a succession of motorcycles for basic transportation. An interesting period in life, to be sure.)

1972 Chevy Nova, bought used in 1977. Straight-six, three-speed stick. Best value for money in a car I’ve EVER had. Bought it for $750.00, sold it in 1979 for $500.00. It took me from South Bend, IN to North Dakota, to Florida, back to ND, and out to Oregon. I sold it once I could see my feet while looking down into the trunk. Serious rust-bucket, but it sure worked.

1978 Ford Courier pick-up. Another utilitarian vehicle. Four-banger, four-speed. Took The Second Mrs. Pennington and me from Oregon to the East Coast and all over the UK for a year or two.

1983 BMW 320. See above. Another car I wish I still owned.

1984 Nissan pickup. TSMP’s daily driver. Utilitarian. Forgettable.

1991 SAAB 9000. Four-banger, five-speed, hatchback. Front-wheel drive. I seriously disliked this car, even though I kept it for four years.

199X Mercury Cougar. TSMP’s daily driver; I drove this car rarely. Don’t even remember what year it was.

1992 Corvette. I owned this car for seven years and I LOVED it. Technically TSMP’s car, I inherited it in the divorce.

1996 Chevy Impala SS. The last big-assed, RWD, ‘Vette motored Impala. Great road car! Another one I wish I had back.

1999 Dodge Durango. TSMP’s vehicle, I rarely drove it.

1953 Cadillac Four-door sedan. Hobby car, money-sink. TSMP christened it “The Smokin’, Drinkin’, Partyin’ Car.” And so it was. It was fun, but I won’t go there again.

The Green Hornet. 2000 – current. Reliable, fun, good looking. This car STILL gets approving comments and glances from all sorts of people, from nine-year old boys to Sweet Young Things, to Grandmas.

The bold-faced cars were my favorites. And there you have it.

Update 1/29/06: I forgot the "other 'Vette." The Corvette was TSMP's daily driver and she didn't want to drive it during the Detroit winters. So I bought a "winter car," as lots of Michiganders do, and the 'Vette was garaged "for the duration." The winter car was a 198X Chevette, maybe an '85, maybe an '86, I don't know. It's hard for me to express just how BAD that car actually was. A Chevette would give the Yugo a run for its money for the title of "Worst Automotive Abomination, Ever." If ever there was a reason to be glad to see Spring, it was the fact I didn't have to drive the Yu...er...Chevette again until November.

More needs to be said about that Cadillac, too. That thing was HUGE inside. TSMP and I used to joke that if we fell on hard times and lost the house, we could always live in the Caddy. I also imagine a lot of kids were conceived in full-size American cars of the early and mid-'50s. TSMP and I split the back-seat upholstery of that car one afternoon (the upholstery was old, we were "exuberant"), and that became an inside joke between us concerning "the best thing about the Caddy."

Insomniac Reading

Good stuff for the light of day, too!

Ralph Peters, in Condi's Revolution, writes a good editorial about Ms. Rice’s efforts to reform the State Department. I saw her speech, and the Q&A session following Ms. Rice’s speech was just as, if not more so, enlightening as the speech itself. If you’re into this sort of thing (sometimes I assume too much, no?) you can watch the speech on C-SPAN. The title of the video is “Sec. of State Rice on Transformational Diplomacy;” and is the third entry on the page I link to. No direct link is available; I tried.

Michelle Malkin is encouraging folks to submit “alternative” Google logos for their new Google.cn search site. Some pretty cool and creative graphics work!

Tax cuts actually work! Imagine that.

Further on the subject of my “Fratricide” post, Tom Bevan writes in Big Media, Big Problems:

While little more than a nuisance at the moment, the aggressive hostility displayed by hard-left liberals demanding “more balanced” coverage from big media is a potentially ominous sign. The mainstream press, which already leans to the left, can’t afford to lose its appeal to such a core constituency. But lurching further to the left will only alienate more readers and more viewers living between the coasts, significantly impeding the ability of large media outlets to appeal to a broad national audience.

In other words, big media has big problems.

Further discussion at The Claremont Institute’s blog. Excerpt:

If a Tim Russert raises serious questions with liberalism, it could well mean not only that he is an honest man, but that liberalism for him has lost some of its lustre, or some of its spokesmen are seen as less than principled. The hard left's rage is thus not surprising. It smells heresy.

Powerline weighs in, too.

And that's it, for the moment. I'm gonna try and get some sleep!

Challenger Remembered

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy. Go read Dr. Sanity for a first-hand account. She was the Crew Surgeon for Mission 51-L.

Fratricide?

No, it's a campaign.

I didn’t say anything this past week when the Lefty blogs all got their knickers in a twist about Tim Russert asking Barack Obama about Harry Belafonte’s anti-American remarks. The cries of “racist!” seemed too typical to be of any note. Ditto when the moonbats went ballistic about Chris Matthews comparing bin Laden to Michael Moore. While I was mildly surprised about Matthews’ comment, given the fact Zell Miller wanted to kill him (well, OK, duel him) during the Republican convention, I just didn’t think Matthews deserves any attention from me. At all. I have an active dislike for Matthews and MS-NBC, in general.

But the Left sure jumped on Matthews, big time. I read some of the Left’s self-righteous outrage and thought “fratricide; how droll” and let it go. But I did think it somewhat strange the Left would go after one of their warhorses, and not just one or maybe two of the smaller Lefty blogs, but it was the Biggies, and a lot of ‘em, too. And then there was that whole WaPo blog flap…more of the same outraged cries about right-wing bias from the Left. WTF? RIGHT-wing bias? Washington-frickin’-POST?

Then I read The Left's Revolution Against the Media in NRO. Bingo! Now it all makes sense, doesn’t it? Typical liberal left reaction when they hear something/anything they disagree with, or simply don’t like, even if it’s said by a brother-in-arms. Toe the line, guys, or we’re gonna kick your a$$. So what exactly are the Lefty bloggers saying?

Here’s some of the action at firedoglake: Get Katie Couric. Get the WaPO. Get Chris Matthews. Actually, I should have just given you the url for the blog and you could simply scroll down. About every third post is anti-media this or anti-media that. Over at dKos, the meme is pretty much the same. Here’s Crooks and Liars; just scroll.

So the Left is now whining the media is overwhelmingly right-wing? How quickly they forget. Here are the major newspapers’ presidential endorsements for 2004:

Kerry--The New York Times, the Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Miami Herald, Kansas City (Mo.) Star, St. Petersburg (Fla) Times, Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal, Florida Today, Palm Beach (Fla) Post, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Nevada Appeal, Grand Forks Herald, Sacramento Bee, Jackson (Tenn) Sun, Duluth News-Tribune, Charlotte Observer, Hawk Eye (Iowa), Free Press (Minn), Daily Camera (Boulder), the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and the Portland Press-Herald in Maine. The Oregonian in the other Portland (which had backed President Bush in 2000), and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Detroit Free Press, Columbia (Mo.) Tribune, the Daily Star in Tucson, Ariz., and both of the big papers in Seattle -- the Times and the Post-Intelligencer -- have announced their support.

Bush-- the Chicago Tribune, Indianapolis Star, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press and Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, El Paso Times, San Antonio Express-News, Dallas Morning News, San Diego Union-Tribune, Las Cruces Sun-News, Other endorsements are generally by small town newspapers in uncontested states, the WP reports.

Bush had exactly three major market endorsements as of October 18, 2004. And that's just an example of print media political leanings. For a comprehensive look at the liberal tilt in all media, see the October 2004 archives of OH, THAT LIBERAL MEDIA! Sure, it's a right-wing blog, but facts is facts, folks. Chase a few links, they speak for themselves.

This is the “right-wing media.” I think NRO is on to something here.

Bad Ethernet Connection

The SAME damned problem just reoccurred. I immediately got on the phone with the tech support guys at my ISP and did some troubleshooting on the phone. It turns out that my problem is probably a weak connection on the back of my PC. A little judicious wiggling of the ethernet cable on the back of the PC made the problem go away...for the moment.

Another great thing about small-town life: I'm on a first-name basis with the tech support guys at my ISP. They're friendly, helpful, and above all, knowledgeable. It is so VERY cool to be able to make a phone call, get connected to tech support by a real live person, and have your problem seriously considered. No "make an appointment," no damned voice response systems with a menu that would confuse Einstein, no hassles, no problems.

Life is good.

Written Last Night

Everything is back to normal, it appears. I received an automated reply from Blogger when I sent my "Help!" e-mail; one of the suggestions was to delete my Blogger cookies. I dutifully did so and Voila!...I'm back in the blogging world!

So, what follows is the post I wrote last evening and added to VERY early this morning, like 0300. Read this with a grain of salt; it's a lesson in PANIC.

Boy, all HELL must be going down in Palo Alto. Blogger is down. G-Mail has slowed to a snail’s pace, if and when it decides to load at all. This has been going on since around 10:30 p.m. MST, and it’s 1:30 a.m. as I write (in Word). I feel like a fish out of water as I’ve put all my eggs in Google’s basket. Now that’ll teach me, won’t it?

I also spent way more time than it should have taken writing the post that will be either immediately above or below this one, depending on which I decide to post first…assuming Google comes back to life. And why did that post take so long to write? Check out the sheer quantity of links in that post, all of which were obtained in an excruciating slow manner, from Google, of course. Things were SO slow I got paranoid and downloaded Firefox, thinking IE had succumbed to some sort of nefarious nastiness, which it is prone to do, so I’m told. But no, Google and all its apps run just as slow in Firefox. I’ll write more about Firefox in another post, after I’ve used it for a day or three. I’m probably the last guy in the US to download and use it, but that’s me: a late adopter.

I’ve just tried to load a few Blogger-based blogs and all the results are the same: nothing. Or rather, the connection times out. There’s gonna be about 14 million people seriously upset at Google later on today, say in about three hours, when they get up at 0500 on the Right Coast and attempt to read their favorite blogs, or worse yet, post to their own blog.

Boy, am I ever glad I’ve taken to writing my posts in Word and then pasting them into Blogger’s “Create” window. I’d have had a serious case of the a$$ if all those links in the post above (below) had vanished into the ether because I couldn’t connect to Blogger.

OK, I’m done bitchin’ about Google.

Truth-telling time, Guilty Pleasures Division. Yesterday (which is still in progress at 0200, for all practical purposes) I put on Sky FM’s All Hit 70s channel (“All Hits All The Time” no kidding, they actually SAY that in the WINAMP channel listing) and left it there all freaking day…it’s been on for about 14 hours straight, with an hour or two off to watch the news. Average White Band; Pointer Sisters; Bee Gees; KC and the Sunshine Band; Earth, Wind and Fire; Donna Summer; Barry White; A Taste of Honey; Hall & Oates; Commodores; Kool and the Gang…you know what I’m talking about, right? All the music us politically-correct wanna-be hippies wouldn’t have ever admitted listening to back in the day. I love that stuff, and I know ALL the words. Now you know one of my deepest, darkest secrets. That, and the fact I bought the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Don’t tell anyone, OK?

This just in (three days ago) via Scrappleface:

Bush: NSA Won’t Listen In On Senate Alito Debate

by Scott Ott

(2006-01-24) — President George Bush today promised Senate Democrats that the National Security Agency (NSA) would not secretly listen in to their floor speeches during debate over the Supreme Court confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito, even though Democrats have promised to make the legality of NSA wiretaps a major issue during the debates.

“We don’t want to impinge upon the Democrat’s civil rights,” said President Bush, “So I’ve received assurances from the NSA and most other government agencies that no one will listen in on their speeches.”

The president said that Democrat Senators could “speak their minds without fear that anyone will ever hear a word they say.”

{smirk}

Google Update, 0300 hours, 1/27/06: Google Web Search, Blog Search, Froogle, Image Search, and other services seem to be up and running well. If I click “preferences” on the Google main page, the page loads slowly; saving the preferences has taken at least six minutes, so far. Blogger is still down, as is my G-Mail. Interestingly, I received two e-mails at 1230 and 0130 hours. I was able to access those notes, provided I waited at least half-hour for them to load. Searching for “Google Outage” on Yahoo search reveals nothing but the May, 2005 outage.

I’m going to bed. I hope this stuff is over by the time I get up later today.

Well Now. This IS Strange.

I see the post I attempted to put up with the desktop around noon got partially published before the connection failed. I'm going to delete that post.

And it's obvious I can publish from the laptop. I'm going to boot up the desktop and work on it some more. But first I'm going to send a "HELP!" message to Blogger; I'm not sure what, if anything they'll be able to do since Blogger obviously works from my laptop.

Like I said below, I HATE computers sometimes.

Weirdness

I can't publish from my desktop, I can't even get a solid connection to Blogger/home. So, I drug out the laptop, fired it up, and I'm gonna try and publish from here.

This all began last evening around 9:30 pm. Everything Google began to slow down, and painfully slow. Searches took forever. Sometime around midnight everything went to Hell in a handbasket. I couldn't access ANY blog hosted by Blogger, I couldn't post, and I couldn't even access my blog. Everything else worked fine: Yahoo searches, my WinAmp Internet Radio player, all other websites. Anything Google, however, failed to work at all.

I freaked out. I downloaded and installed Firefox, thinking IE had caught some nasty disease. But, no. I installed Firefox and things remained the same: no access to anything Google. This has continued all day. I ran a Norton AV full system scan, nothing. I did a full system scan using Ad-Aware SE, nothing. I downloaded and paid for another spyware/malware program, and it caught three trojans Norton and Ad-Aware missed. I rebooted. Same thing.

There's SERIOUS nastiness involved here. If this post goes up I'll know I have a severe problem with the desktop. Damn but I HATE computers sometimes!

Posting may be infrequent and irregular, as the saying goes.

Well Now

That last post seems to have broken the blog template. You can't see my profile, my "Greatest Hits," or "Recent Posts." I have a feeling that the photos encroached upon the space allocated for all those things that just went missing.

I don't really care, actually. I like the cars better than the profile, et al. So it is what it is. And it'll stay that way, too! Eventually the car post will cycle through and stuff will get back to "normal."

Actually, I'm NOT

I'm a Honda S2000!

You live on the edge, and you live for the adrenaline rush. You don't need luxuries, snob appeal, or superfluous gadgets. You put your top down, get your motor revving, and take all the curves that life throws at you at full speed. So what if you spin out occasionally?

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.


Close enough. I'm actually a 2001 Mazda Miata, going the wrong way. As usual. The photo was taken the day I bought the Green Hornet (October of 2000), in California's Oakland Hills.

I used to be a Corvette. Photo taken In Letchworth State Park, New York. October of 1999.

Just A Few Things...

Just a quick post with a few things I think are worth reading, and then I’m going to bed. It’s late, ya know!

First off, there’s Christopher Hitchens, in Slate, this past Tuesday: Al-Qaida Is Losing. Excerpt:

The fratricide within the insurgency offers a perfect opportunity, which one hopes is being fully exploited, for infiltration, for the spread of damaging rumors about secret negotiations with one faction, for sabotage and for provocations that will increase the misery and distrust now infecting the ranks. It also offers an occasion to reverse the questions that we have been so anxiously asking ourselves. It is for the murderers and video-beheaders to ask themselves: How long can we sustain this effort? How many casualties is too many? Was our postwar planning adequate to the task? Are we winning hearts and minds? Are we endangered by sectarian strife within our own camp? And they have to pursue these discussions in secrecy, with superstitious reference to dreams and omens and prophecies, whereas at last we can pursue our argument in the open.

Here comes Dr. Sanity, with The Political Paranoia Of The Left - Part I. Excerpt:

While there is merit in debating how best to go about achieving our objectives in the war in Iraq and the GWOT; believing that terrorism is a conspiracy cooked up by Bush and Co. to consolidate power and institute (take your pick) a fascist state; a theocracy; or both; is simply a paranoid fantasy that consoles those of the liberal left who cannot cope with their loss of power and influence.

The hallmark of the paranoid individual and the paranoid style is constant anticipation or expectation of either attack or personal betrayal. Paranoia finds causal connections everywhere and in everything; for them, nothing is coincidental. They can develop complicated conspiracies about innocuous behaviors and seemingly irrelevant events. Their paranoia makes them constantly on guard, searching for hidden motives and meanings in everyone else's behavior. (Just go check out the Democratic Underground, where these fantasies on every action or inaction on the part of the Bush administration are immediately converted into conspiracies and plots). The tragic death of a reporter -- Bush et al had him killed because he knew too much. Osama's most recent tape -- a Rovian plot to show how frightened we should be. And so on.

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred comments on Dr. Sanity’s post and points us to Shrinkwrapped’s superb post in the same vein. All three of these posts are as right as rain (no pun intended, of course).

The upshot of these three posts is that the Left is pretty much an answer in search of a question. The answer may have been appropriate 30 or 40 years ago, but it certainly isn’t today. To be more specific, I don’t like the answer and I’ve not asked the question, at least not in the last 25 years or so. I say this as a former liberal, and like most reformed ex-anything (smoker, druggie, you-name-it), those of us who have seen the error of our ways are often the most outspoken opponents of whatever it is we left behind.

Dr. Sanity observes that the Left had successes in the past, and rightly so. Roosevelt arguably did good things for the country in the '30s and the '40s, but there are lots of conservatives who will argue THAT point. The Democrats were the civil rights champions of the ‘60s and they deserve credit for those successes. But that was then, this is now. The question I have for today’s Democratic party is the classic “What have you done for me (us) lately?” I mean, other than to be obstructionist in all aspects of American politics, undermining the war in Iraq while giving (inadvertent?) aid and comfort to the enemy, insist that I be politically correct in all aspects of my life, tax the living Hell out of me, and… Oh, what’s the point?

My bottom line is pretty simple: If the Democrats ever expect to get MY vote again, they better come up with something a lot more powerful than NO!

Good Idea, Cleaning, and "Stuck"

Now here’s a good idea: Researchers Launch Anti-Spyware Site. You can bet I’ll bookmark this site when it becomes available. Spyware is one of the internet’s most despicable curses, every bit the equal of spam, and a lot more dangerous. Related: Washington State Sues Over Spam, Spyware.

Got all motivated and did some serious cleaning today. I have a question for the Domestic Engineers among my readership. I use Johnson and Johnson’s “Scrubbing Bubbles” bathroom cleaner. The directions don’t specify whether to use the foam on dry or wet surfaces, i.e., should I wet down the shower stall before I spray the cleaner all over everything, including me? I’ve done both wet and dry, but I seem to use two or three times as much cleaner on dry surfaces. The results seem to be about equal, with slightly better results by spraying on dry surfaces. Can’t let this thought go by without saying “I hate housework!”

Here’s something I’ve always wondered about: Why do most people seem to get “stuck” in a particular era when it comes to music? I’m a sucker for threads on music; I’ll read most anything on the subject. I recall one commenter in a “70s vs. 80s” music thread saying “The best music ever made was made when you were a senior in high school.” I don’t agree. I graduated in 1963 and the music was pretty damned lame during that time, what with the Beach Boys’ paeans to hot-rods and beach bunnies being the most popular stuff at the time (in LA). That era gave us such luminaries as Leslie Gore (It’s My Party”), Bobby Vee, Bobby Vinton, and other eminently forgettable pop artists. There were exceptions, and some great ones, like the Girl Groups (the Crystals, the Ronettes, the Chiffons, Martha and The Vandellas) and just about anything and everything classified as early “soul,” e.g., Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, The Drifters, and James Brown, just to name four. So, with exceptions as noted, the early 60s sucked. QED.

I don’t believe I’m stuck in an era, but I could be wrong. My boys will probably disagree immediately, simply because I don’t like hip-hop, and they do. I have my favorite eras; it's hard to beat the 70s and 80s for sheer variety and creativity. I still buy new music, but not nearly as much as I did back in the day, say the 70s and 80s. But, back to the question at hand. Do people get stuck because they drop out? Music begins to slide down the priority scale once one begins raising children and gets serious about a career. But that’s not a good answer, because my Mom never got “stuck.” She maintained a cutting edge taste in music until the day she died. As a matter of fact, my Mom turned me on to quite a few artists, from her “old days” and from the at-the-time-present, too. My last girlfriend was/is about my age, and that woman was stuck! On Elvis. No one could possibly be better. I may have changed her mind when I introduced her to Van Morrison, who, by the way, isn't a 70s artifact. Van released a new album in 2005, and it's not bad. Yes, I bought it.

So. Why DO people get stuck? Inquiring minds wanna know!

(Now playing: Devo's “Whip It!” Just before: Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark’s “If You Leave”)

Just Ramblin' On...

So. Just had to get the Stein thing out of the way earlier. In one respect, it’s not a pleasant thing to begin your day by reading some such twit. On the other hand, it does get the blood and bile flowing, especially when you see that many, many others share your view.

Now it’s on to mundane, hum-drum, everyday life as I know it.

Today’s soundtrack is being provided by KXLU, the Loyola Marymount college radio station in West LA. I’ve written before that one of the best things about going back to a desktop as my primary computer is I can listen to internet radio again. The laptop’s tinny speakers just didn’t cut it. The desktop’s audio is adequate in terms of volume and fidelity, even if it doesn’t come close to my stereo. And adequate is sufficient as background, as opposed to serious listening.

I love internet radio, especially the college variety. College radio exposes me to stuff I’d never hear on commercial radio, some is lame, most is good. Commercial radio is entirely lame. If you disagree, give me an example. I’m willing to change my mind. In the mean time, here’s a good resource for college radio, 77 stations from which to choose, to be precise.

I was first exposed to college radio back in 1967. I’d come home after a swing shift up on the radar site and wasn’t quite ready to go to bed. So I flipped on the stereo, grabbed a beer and began twiddling the dial, winding up on KCSB 91.9FM, Santa Barbara (Isla Vista, actually). And my life was changed forever. No hyperbole here, I really mean it. I stayed awake the entire night listening to the most amazing music I’d ever heard, groups like Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield. While it sounds strange today, those groups got next to zero airplay on commercial radio at the time. The sun came up, the First Mrs. Pennington walked out of the bedroom, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and said “You’ve been up all night?” Indeed I had. We had breakfast and within an hour we were on the road from Lompoc to Isla Vista. I dropped an obscene amount of money (for a poor USAF three-striper) in the campus record shops that day on music I’d heard the night before. Hearing KCSB was an epiphany quite unlike any other, before or since. My politics changed, my circle of friends changed, my outlook on life changed. If that ain’t epiphany, I don’t know what is.

Two more college radio anecdotes. First: If you didn’t click on the KCSB link above you don’t know that Sean Hannity was fired from his student DJ gig on KCSB for making a “disparaging remark” about homosexuals. The great irony is the ACLU came to his defense and KCSB offered him his slot back. Hannity refused, demanding more air time. The A-C-frickin’-L-U, one of Hannity’s biggest targets these days. The ingrate. Second: The great thing about college radio? Earlier this morning, the 20-something female KXLU DJ played Joni Mitchell’s “Song for Sharon,” off of Hejira, quite possibly my favorite Joni album. Why is this unusual? Joni turned 62 back in November. I find it amazing a 20-something would even listen to someone old enough to be her grandmother, let alone play her on the radio. But that’s college radio. And by the way, the First Mrs. Pennington and Ms. Mitchell share birthdays: November 7th. I had a thing for older women back in the day. They could buy me beer.

Last year around this time I wrote a 14-page illustrated story titled “When I Was Eight” for my youngest son and my grandson on the occasion of their eighth birthdays. Sean, my grandson, is five months older than my youngest son. I’m thinking of serializing that story for the blog, but I haven’t made up my mind one way or the other. The most interesting thing about my eighth year? I attended the third grade in three different countries: Atlanta, Georgia; London, England; and Paris, France. I also was victimized by a cross-country road trip from Sacramento, CA to Atlanta, GA, including an unprogrammed three-day layover in Salome, Arizona when the family car broke down. This was in 1953, well before Interstate highways criss-crossed the country. A road trip back then was a serious adventure; it was a lot more serious for a young Mom, alone, with an eight-year-old and a two-year-old in the back seat. I had an “interesting” childhood. In a lot more ways than one, lemmee tell ya!

Well. Enough for now.

Seriously Clue-Free and Offensive

The Big Item on the right side of the blogosphere today is the unbelievably offensive column by Joel Stein (titled Warriors and Wusses) in the LA Times. Joel Stein is a serious tool:

But when you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you're not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you're willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism, for better or worse. Sometimes you get lucky and get to fight ethnic genocide in Kosovo, but other times it's Vietnam.

When you get this much reaction from the blogosphere, you can be sure you’ve stepped on your most sensitive body parts. Here are links to just some of the people kicking Stein’s ass:

Media Blog on National …, Hugh Hewitt, The Glittering Eye, Captain's Quarters, Patterico's Pontifications, Power Line, Gina Cobb, RedState, Dean's World, One Hand Clapping, Mark in Mexico, Flopping Aces, Michelle Malkin, Argghhh!, JunkYardBlog, Sister Toldjah, aaron, AMERICAN FUTURE, The Middle Ground, The Sundries Shack, WILLisms.com, BLACKFIVE, euphoricreality.net, Myopic Zeal, The Officers' Club, tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com, The Corner on National …, TigerHawk, the evangelical outpost, The RCP Blog, Brainster's Blog and Iowa Voice

The milbloggers are particularly entertaining reads. Even the Left is upset. According to Editor and Publisher, Atrios at the liberal blog, Eschaton, dubbed Stein "Wanker of the Day." Radioblogger has the transcript of Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Klein on Hewitt's radio show, and an mp3 file of the interview so you can listen.

Apparently Mr. Stein’s mom never told him “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Or if she did, he didn’t listen, further evidence Stein is seriously clue-impaired. It’s one thing to hold an offensive opinion, it’s quite another thing to publish said opinion in a major newspaper and have the whole United States read it. The other cliché that comes to mind is Mark Twain’s famous quote: “It's better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.” Truer words were never spoken.

And before I leave this topic: Just what the HELL were the editors of the LA times thinking when they published this offensive drivel? Their circulation is in free-fall at the moment; it’s gonna get worse. A LOT worse.

Update, 1/29/2006: Changed everything"Klein" to "Stein." Some days you just can't get it right. I apologize.

Good News, Bad News

The good news: the F/A-22 went operational earlier this month. (The link is to a nine-page photo essay in PDF form) The bad news is the USAF apparently won't be able to buy and field the number of F/A-22s it says it needs.

USAF will be prohibited from acquiring more than about 183 F-22A fighters, the aircraft USAF considers the heart of future aerial combat. That is about half of the 381 Raptors needed for the minimum deployment of one squadron for each of the service’s 10 air expeditionary forces. The decision kills plans for building an FB-22 bomber, too. In effect, DOD reaffirmed last year’s sudden program cut, though it extended production to 2010.

From what I read, it appears the F/A-22 fell victim to competing budget priorities. Current DoD focus is putting more "boots on the ground," that is, increasing the size of the Army and Marines. All those soldiers and Marines will need air support and they most definitely will require the USAF establish air superiority to protect them from air attack. While it's true that al Qaeda doesn't present an air threat, the next adversary just might. Especially if that adversary is spelled C-H-I-N-A. Or even I-R-A-N. The Iranians have an Air Force (they have TWO, in fact) and unlike the Iraqis, I believe the Iranians will fight. They'll lose, but they will fight. And the Iranian air defense environment is formidable, and about to get better. All the more reason for the stealthy F/A-22. Just sayin'.

I can't find the "official" results of the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review; I don't think it's been published and sent to Congress yet. The Air Force magazine editorial quoted above is certainly pessimistic, but it ends on a "good" note. I use scare quotes because I don't believe it's the best of all possible worlds to have DoD go head to head with Congress over competing priorities. But, if DoD is wrong, then Congress is the last hope to right that wrong.

Images of New Mexico - IX

Sunset Bat Flight, Carlsbad Caverns National Park. A most amazing spectacle. If you follow the Bat Flight link, you'll read that the bat population has declined dramatically in recent years. One can only wonder what it was like to see millions, rather than a couple hundred thousand, bats emerge from the cave mouth at sunset.


Previously, in the archives:
Shiprock (I)
Very Large Array near Soccorro, NM (II)
Flightline, Cannon AFB (III)
Taos Church (San Francisco de Asis) (IV)
US 84 Roadside (V)
Valley of Fires (VI)
Brazos Cliffs (VII)
Main Street Portales 0328 hrs. (VIII)

Just Catching Up

I’m obviously catching up on my reading, in case you haven’t noticed. There’s just SO much to read, and even though I have all the time in the world, what with no job and no child to raise (not in a direct, hands-on manner, anyway), I still find it difficult to read everything I want to read. Tonight I’m catching up on the OpinionJournal. And there’ll be others to catch up on, as well.

So. Also in the WSJ, Peggy Noonan’s Not a Bad Time to Take Stock: Thoughts on the decline of the liberal media monopoly and the future of the GOP is worth reading on several levels. She begins with pointing out the liberals have lost their mouthpiece, the Mainstream media. She ends with advice to the GOP: you better clean house. Right now. At least that’s the way I read Ms. Noonan. Her final paragraph in the linked article reads:

Republicans in Washington struggle with scandal and speak of reform, and reformation. They would better think of words like regain, refresh, rebuild. If they don't, if Republicans don't choose to lead well, and seriously, and with principle, they should ask themselves: Who will? Seriously: Who will?

And that, to me, says “Clean house.” Return to being the party of Reagan, guys. You, and we, have a lot at stake.

It IS a time to worry, if you’re a Republican. I’ve tended to vote Republican for national offices for the last 25 years, but there have been exceptions, most notably in local races up to and including governor. I’d forsake the GOP in a heartbeat if there were a viable Libertarian party in this country. There’s too much about the Republican social agenda I don’t like. But I won’t trust the country to the Democrats in war time. Not even, no chance. But still, I’m not a straight party-line voter. As an example, I won’t vote Republican in the Texas gubernatorial race this year. My vote is going to Kinky Friedman. As he says on his web site, “Why the Hell Not?” I will vote to return Kevin Brady, my congressman, and Kay Bailey Hutchison to Washington this year. Both are Republicans. If Tom DeLay were my congressman he’d be OUT. But, he’s not.

This is probably way too much information for ya, innit? {he said, with a big ol’ grin}

Here's a Switch

A reasonable, clear thinking Democrat. One with good advice for his party. I doubt they'll take it, but that's good news for conservatives, in the end. This is Dan Gerstein, a former communications director for Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, on the dismal performance of the Democratic senators during the Alito hearings, in the WSJ:

And that's the heart of the problem with our party and its angry activist base. It's not so much that we're living in a parallel universe, but that we have dueling conceptions of what's mainstream, especially on abortion and other values-based issues, and our side is losing. We think that if we simply call someone conservative, anti-choice and anti-civil rights, that's enough to scare people to our side. But that tired dogma won't hunt in today's electorate, which is far more independent-thinking and complex in its views on values than our side presumes.

While I disagree with Mr. Gerstein on the "parallel universe" thing, the rest of what he has to say hits the mark.

Here It Is...

...the link I promised in the post immediately below. Not that all y'all couldn't find it yourselves. Just trying to be helpful! As I noted below, the Q&A session is priceless.

Gen. Michael V. Hayden, Principal Dpty. Dir. of Nat'l Intelligence
General Michael V. Hayden, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, talks about what the intelligence community and the NSA are doing to protect the country.1/23/2006: WASHINGTON, DC: 1 hr.

Great Briefing

Another reason I love C-SPAN: I just finished watching General Michael Hayden (Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence) give a briefing on NSA’s “domestic spying” on C-SPAN this morning. Gen. Hayden used to be the Director of NSA before assuming his current duties; his talk on NSA's intelligence gathering activities was about as straight-forward as can be expected, given that he was discussing a highly-classified program. There should be a video of his speech and the subsequent Q&A session up on C-SPAN’s web site later today. I’ll post the link if and when I see it.

One highlight of the Q&A session was a moonbat who pointedly asked Gen. Hayden if “the Bush Administration was /is spying on domestic opponents of the Bush Administration.” When I say “pointedly,” I mean this guy was clearly exercised. He identified himself as a member of “World Can’t Wait,” a virulently anti-Bush organization*. This individual was obviously deep in the throes of Bush Derangement Syndrome, bordering on paranoia. Something to ponder: Does this guy have a legitimate fear, or is he and/or his organization doing things that MERIT monitoring by the government? Just wondering, ya know. God, but we do seem to have more frickin’ nut cases than we really need.

* Any organization who’s supporters include individuals such as Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte, Sean Penn, Cindy Sheehan, Ward Churchill, Mumia Abu-Jamal and organizations such as Code Pink, the After Downing Street Coalition, and the Impeach Bush Coalition has to be seriously suspect. If I were the NSA, I’d monitor them. And shame on the Rev. Al Sharpton, Bobby Rush (US Representative, Chicago), and Maxine Waters (US Representative, D-CA) for even being associated with this rabid organization. Shame.

Just Another Manic Monday...

...not really; I just like the song and the title popped right into my head as an appropriate post title.

Via Lex: What's your perfect major? A fun quiz, and in my case, almost accurate.

You scored as Journalism. You are an aspiring journalist, and you should major in journalism! Like me, you are passionate about writing and expressing yourself, and you want the world to understand your beliefs through writing. English 83% Journalism 83% Theater 75% Mathematics 67% Philosophy 67% Psychology 58% Linguistics 58% Sociology 58% Anthropology 50% Chemistry 42% Engineering 42% Art 33% Dance 33% Biology 33% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

So anyway. Math? You've got to be kidding! Past, present and future: I hate math. I failed second year high school algebra, the only course I ever failed in my entire life. Paid the price for it, too. My Old Man was the martinet's Martinet. My pennance: Summer school and being placed "on restriction" all summer. Not a single date for three months, and this while my 16 year old hormones were raging. Not that there was much chance for a geeky 16-year old to relieve those pressures back in the day. We're speaking 1961 here, and things were different then. Trust me.

I made up for that teen-age deprivation later in life. (Note to self: this subject deserves an extended post. There was a finite "window" of time in which the much-discussed sexual revolution took place. I speak of that brief (relatively speaking) "post-Pill, Pre-AIDS" era. It didn't last long. And I was oh-so-there.)

Lileks looks at Iran in the latest Screedblog. Excerpt:

The American left believed in Iraq’s WMDs and terrorist links in the 90s because it gave them much-needed hawk cred; it was Viagra for their dovish side. Also, it was true. But they've spent the last two electoral cycles preaching defeat, insisting that the Administration says something’s a threat, it’s a lie, a diversion tactic, an election ploy, a floorwax AND a dessert topping. Oh, they’ll suggest that Iran should have been the main target in the first place, but if the US had invaded Persia in 03, we’d be looking at huge casualties, an occupation that continued to this day (quaqmire!) and evidence that the Iranians were still years away from a bomb. Years! And we invaded on that slender pretext? Impeach!

More on Iran: The BBC reports Israel "will not accept an Iranian nuclear capability." Biased BBC doesn't like the Beeb's tone and suggests we look to Fox News for a "fair and balanced" approach. Agreed. I read the BBC's web site and occasionally watch the Beeb's half-hour newscast tailored for Americans. They ARE biased.

In case you missed it, The Grey Lady had an article yesterday titled "Why Not a Strike on Iran?" Interesting that the leading anti-Iraq war print outlet publishes an analytical article about a pre-emptive Iranian strike. Are they daring Dubya to act? Captain Ed explores the possible motives behind the NYT's sudden interest in pre-emption. Sample:

Beyond the Times' inability to give an honest rendition of history is an interesting political question: why has the newspaper become so interested in covering pre-emption when the matter has not yet even come before the UN Security Council? After Hillary's speech at Princeton earlier this week, it seems a little more than coincidence that the Paper of Record suddenly finds pre-emption a valid diplomatic tactic for debate, especially given its vehement opposition to the doctrine entirely when it came to Iraq.

You got it, Cap'n!

It's gonna be warmer today (55 and sunny) than it was yesterday (46 and sunny), but it's jes a lil bit too chilly to take the top down! Nonetheless, I'm cruise on over to Clovis later this morning to get a fresh supply of Mobil 1 for the Green Hornet (plus a wash!) and see what's goin' on in The Big(ger) City.

More later. In the meantime, there's coffee to finish! (and Babs, you can come on down anytime, Hon!)

Checkin' In

Ameriprise Update: I checked site meter this evening around 9:30. Eight of the last 20 hits were looking for “Ameriprise guitarist” in one form or another. I had one hit from British Columbia, one from Connecticut, two from Missouri, two from New York, and one from an unspecified US location. I also had one person come looking for “NHL on NBC theme music.” Nice to get a little variety.

Just my opinion: the NFL is boring. I watch the playoffs in just about any and every sport, even if I’m not a fan. And that’s true for the NFL. I watch football every Saturday during the season; never on Sunday. But, anyway…here’s my point. Today’s NFL games were remarkable only for the fact Pittsburgh won. I didn’t have a dog in that fight, but since I don’t particularly care for Colorado (in general, and the Avs in particular), the Broncos’ loss made me smile a bit. The Seahawks killed Carolina; it wasn’t even close. I predict the Super Bowl will be just as lopsided – Seattle by 10. Just sayin’.

If you were wondering: the beans are excellent. I ate two large bowls today, and there's enough left for two more bowls, maybe three, tomorrow.

Never Mind

Still fooling around. The template changes seem to appear now when I click on November's archives. I swear they didn't work, before. Strange. Very strange.

Strange Behavior

I was playing around with my Blogger Template, a dangerous thing to do if you don't know HTML. Or if you don't know what you're doing, in general. I added a "Greatest Hits" section to the sidebar and changed "Links" to "Blogs I Read." Didja notice?

Pretty easy stuff, right? Well, sorta. In the "unexplained occurances" division, I noticed the "Greatest Hits" section appears when I click on the January and December archive links, but NOT when I click on the November archive link. And "Blogs I Read" is still "Links" in the November archives. I'm not gonna fool around with the template any more. The changes I made appear on the current page and in two of three archives. Close enough, I suppose.

Still, it makes me wonder. How can HTML edits only appear in two of three archives? This doesn't compute, logically speaking. I've also thought that since November is the first month of my blog there are no previous archives to reference. Weak, I know. But it's the only thing I can think of. But then again, I'm NOT a coder. Oh, far, far from it!

If either of my readers have any ideas, I'm ALL ears. I want things to work right. I'm also something of a perfectionist, a curse I've had to endure all my life. It is what it is, however.

Up Early, For a Change

Went to bed early, thus I’m up early this morning. Way early…like 0500 early. Spent the first 45 minutes of the day getting a batch of Navy Bean soup started. El Casa Móvil de Pennington already smells pretty good! Here’s the recipe I use, from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. I couldn’t find a date, but the intro talks about “…you, the cook of the ‘90s.” It’s sorta old.

Ham and Bean Soup

1 cup dry navy beans
4 cups water
1 to 1 ½ pounds smoked pork hocks or one 1 to 1 ½ meaty ham bone
1 ½ cups chopped celery
1 cup chopped onions
¾ teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
½ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf

Soak beans overnight in a covered pan. (Alternatively, you can combine the dry beans and water in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for two minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand for an hour.)
Drain and rinse beans. In the same pan, combine beans, 4 cups fresh water, pork, celery, onions, thyme, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Cover and simmer for about one hour or until beans are tender. Remove meat. When cool enough to handle, cut meat from bones and coarsely chop. Discard bone and bay leaf. Slightly mash beans in sauce pan. Return meat to sauce pan. Heat through. Makes four main dish servings.

OK…that’s the basic recipe. I begin with five cups of water and simmer the beans for at least four hours, sometimes longer, stirring occasionally to ensure the beans don’t stick. I also chop two or three habanero peppers (depending on size) extremely fine and add them to the mix. If my grocery store is out of habaneros, as it was yesterday, I add about a tablespoon of crushed red pepper. I also use three bay leaves, rather than one. I leave the meat on the ham hocks and don’t mash the beans.

You simply can’t beat Navy Bean soup on a chilly winter’s day. My favorite soup!

The Better Homes and Garden cookbook is the only cookbook I retained from my previous life when I moved into the RV. I kept that particular cookbook because it’s a very good general purpose reference book. One of the things I regret, in retrospect, is getting rid of all the other cookbooks I had. I particularly miss the Time-Life (don’t laugh!!) French cookbooks, of which I had at least three. Lotsa great recipes in those books, and they were used a lot back in the day.

Missed an opportunity to flog the blog on C-SPAN this morning. I had Washington Journal on as I was chopping onions and celery, and the initial discussion topic was blogs. The call-in question was “do you read or contribute to blogs?” C-SPAN apparently attracts a lot of moonbats, Democratic Underground and dKos were frequently cited as the blogs most read. When I say I missed an opportunity, I mean the moderator kept saying the Republican line was completely open. I have my priorities, though. Soup over calling in to Washington Journal. Kinda surprises me the Republican lines were open…I always thought Republicans were pretty civic minded and early risers.

C-SPAN doesn’t get a lot of respect, it seems. I recall reading an editorial during the Alito hearings that said something to the effect that since the major news networks have cut-off times for live coverage (usually around 5:00 p.m.), “only about 7 shut-ins watching C-SPAN actually saw…” the event or remark the editorial was commenting on. Well, I‘m one of those “shut-ins.” I watch C-SPAN a lot. And it seems to me I’m not alone, either. I could never get through to Washington Journal on those rare occasions I’ve felt motivated enough to call in. Seven shut-ins, my a$$.

I’m watching Bruce Laingen, the former US Charge d’Affaires in Iran, on C-SPAN right now (somewhere around 0700, as I wrote). Mr. Laingen was one of the captives that were held for 444 days during the seizure of the US embassy in Teheran during the Carter administration. He began speaking about four minutes ago, but his thinking seems to be classic State Department Lifer, which is to say Liberal-Left. He began the conversation by saying we need to have a “dialog” with the current Iranian administration and “get closer” to them. Mr. Laingen says: “I’m a diplomat, I was a diplomat. My prejudice is towards talking. We NEED to talk. I’m sorry, but that’s the way I feel.” (quote paraphrased, check the transcript on C-SPAN’s website later. You can bet I’m close enough!) Anyway: Bullhockey. We need to kill the bastards, not talk to them. (Sorry, I’m feeling a little belligerent this morning.)

If you don’t remember, Thursday was the 25th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. Here’s the text of Reagan’s first inaugural address. I remember the event pretty well. I was a relatively new Republican at that time, and I voted for Reagan. His inauguration was a time of renewed hope for America. We had NO idea just how profound a change was about to take place in America, and the rest of the world, for that matter. January 20, 1980 was the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and marked the beginning of one of the most prosperous times, economically speaking, this country has ever enjoyed. Quite a change from Mr. Reagan’s predecessor.

The 20th of January was also the 25th anniversary of the release of the US hostages in Iran. Here’s the BBC on the anniversary of the hostage crisis. Some believe Iranian president Ahmadinejad was a key player in the hostage crisis. And some don’t.

Time to stir the beans!

Hockey Day in Portales

The title is a play on words concerning the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s (CBC) “Hockey Night in Canada.” And it is Hockey Night in Canada, as it has been every Saturday night throughout the Great White North since, well, since forever! I sure do miss Channel Nine out of Windsor, one of the BEST things about my ten-year sojourn in Detroit. But I digress.

Today was a real treat; I got to watch the beloved Red Wings beat arch-rival Colorado, in Denver, 4-3. It wasn’t as close as it sounds, however. Detroit beat the PANTS off the Avalanche in every single category that’s measured in hockey: final score, shots, scoring opportunities, face-offs, you name it. But it was a good game, well-played. David Aebischer, the Avs goalie, is the sole reason the score wasn't 7-3 or 9-3. If a lesser goalie had been in the Avs net, the score would have been much higher. There’s not a team in the NHL that can beat Detroit when The Great Red Wings show up. And that means consistency has been a bit of a problem this year. But not today.

Iran update: The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is crazy like a fox, or so says Victor Davis Hanson in The not-so-mad mind of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr. Hanson has a point (or three. or four.). Excerpt:

But for now, barring divine intervention, Ahmadinejad's task poses two small hurdles: getting the bomb and preparing the world for Israel's demise.

Oddly, the first obstacle may be easier. An impoverished Pakistan and North Korea pulled it off. China and Russia will sell Tehran anything it cannot get from rogue regimes. Ultimately, Moscow and Beijing will probably veto any punitive action by the United Nations.

Impotent European diplomats will always defer to such an important global figure, "ruling out" force to stop the Iranian nuclear industry as they offer money and trade deals if Tehran will just act sanely.

The United States has a growing anti-war movement, and 180,000 of its troops are busy birthing democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq. And the unpredictable President Bush has less than three years in office anyway.

As it’s said: read the whole thing.

In A Date With Destiny…, a guest posting at Ace of Spades HQ, WunderKraut is getting all depressed at the options, or lack of same, we have in dealing with Iran. He catalogs what he sees as “all available” options. Most aren’t good (as I’ve mentioned before), but he does have a novel option that many of us have left unsaid, but have certainly thought about: Threaten to turn Iran into a sea of glass. Also in the “unsaid” department regarding this particular option, my thoughts/daydreams have revolved around that ol’ Nike advertising slogan: Just do it. But then again, I’m just a little to the right of Genghis Khan, when you come right down to it.

Web 2.0

Many of you have encountered the term "Web 2.0" whilst cruising the 'net. Some of you understand what it means. I thought I knew what the term meant; it was only this morning I discovered I had absolutely no conception of the true meaning of this buzzword. Enlightenment follows!

In “What Is Web 2.0, Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software” Tim O’Reilly discusses and explains the significance of the next generation of web applications. Don’t let the sub-title put you off. Although O’Reilly is the geek’s geek, he writes in a way that makes even the most esoteric information technology concepts accessible to the layman. Here’s an excerpt from this five-page article:

But as with many areas of Web 2.0, where the "2.0-ness" is not something new, but rather a fuller realization of the true potential of the web platform, this phrase gives us a key insight into how to design applications and services for the new platform.

To date, iTunes is the best exemplar of this principle. This application seamlessly reaches from the handheld device to a massive web back-end, with the PC acting as a local cache and control station. There have been many previous attempts to bring web content to portable devices, but the iPod/iTunes combination is one of the first such applications designed from the ground up to span multiple devices. TiVo is another good example.

iTunes and TiVo also demonstrate many of the other core principles of Web 2.0. They are not web applications per se, but they leverage the power of the web platform, making it a seamless, almost invisible part of their infrastructure. Data management is most clearly the heart of their offering. They are services, not packaged applications (although in the case of iTunes, it can be used as a packaged application, managing only the user's local data.) What's more, both TiVo and iTunes show some budding use of collective intelligence, although in each case, their experiments are at war with the IP lobby's.

…

This is one of the areas of Web 2.0 where we expect to see some of the greatest change, as more and more devices are connected to the new platform. What applications become possible when our phones and our cars are not consuming data but reporting it? Real time traffic monitoring, flash mobs, and citizen journalism are only a few of the early warning signs of the capabilities of the new platform. (emphasis mine)

You’ll have a pretty good understanding about why Google is well on its way to owning the world after reading this essay. But don’t sell your Microsoft stock just yet. MS has some powerful minds working on Web 2.0, as well.

Boy, do we ever live in interesting times!

Haircuts, Past and Present

I forgot to tell you a couple of things about my barber shop experience yesterday, chief among which is the price. Inflation being what it is, the price of a haircut in Portales went up from nine dollars to ten. Still cheap, after all. But I pay about half again as much as I used to, when I patronized the sheep-shearers at the Cannon AFB Base Exchange. The upside is I get a much more personal experience and better service, to boot. The average time-in-the-chair at the BX was about seven minutes, on the outside; I spent at least 45 minutes in the chair yesterday. Yesterday my ten dollars (plus tip, of course) bought me a beard trim, too. The downside is Jay doesn't quite have the physical attributes of my former barberess, who occasionally treated me to inadvertent and unintended, in a lascivious way, brushes with her soft bits. Those were nice.

Which leads me to tell you about the best haircut I ever got in my life, a birthday gift from a very eccentric friend of mine from days gone by, Rick Hovarter. Before I tell you about the haircut, let me digress and give you a flavor for what Rick was like.

I first met Rick in Klamath Falls, Oregon. We were both stationed at Kingsley Field, he a meteorological equipment technician, me a radar guy. I’m not quite sure how we first met, but I’ll never forget the first time I walked into his room in the dorm. Rick was a bit older than the average young enlisted troop, being in his mid-twenties. Old, for a two-striper. Rick was also, to put it mildly, a bit strange. He had a fascination for antique Americana, and by that I mean his prized possessions were, just to name three, a fully-functional Underwood typewriter, circa 1925; a beautifully finished and immaculately lacquered propeller from an old Jenny biplane; and an original and pristine 1941 Mercury two-door sedan that had been in his family since it was new. The prop and the typewriter were prominently displayed in his dorm room. I used to love riding around in that old Merc, too. Rick had an antique 30-caliber revolver in the glove box of the Mercury and had the disconcerting habit (to me) of occasionally pulling off to the side of the road while we were riding around the Oregon countryside to pop off a few rounds at gophers and other assorted varmints. Out the window of the Merc. Most of the time he’d fire out of the driver’s window, other times he’d lean across the seat and fire out of the passenger window. Drove me nuts, that did.

Anyway. We became fast friends. As is the case in military life, I left Kingsley Field and was reassigned to Yokota AB, Japan. A few months after I arrived at Yokota I walked into the dining hall for lunch and who did I see in the line ahead of me? Rick. A great and good surprise, and we took up where we left off.

Fast forward a couple of months, to my birthday. I had the day off and was lying in my bed in the dorm early in the morning, wondering what I was gonna do, when someone knocked on my door. I got up, answered the door, and let Rick into the room. Rick told me to get dressed and come with him; he was going to give me my birthday present.

We went to breakfast first, brunch, actually (Rick bought), then got into Rick’s old Toyopet Cedric and drove off-base into The Ville (Fussa City, right outside Yokota’s main gate.). Rick parked the car, we got out, and he said “follow me.” We then walked down an alley and into a barber shop. There waiting for us was an old man, the barber, and two young Japanese maidens, all three smiling broadly. The old man waved me into one of the barber chairs, and I dutifully sat. The old man reclined the barber chair and I stretched out, fully supine. One of the girls then proceeded to take off my shoes and socks, while the other fetched a large handful of steaming towels from a container. She artfully wrapped my entire head in those towels, leaving a small space for me to breathe through. All the while this is going on, the other girl is washing my feet. After a few minutes, the second girl unwraps my face and the barber proceeds to shave me. The first girl is still working on my feet, giving me a pedicure and ending up with a prolonged and wonderful foot massage. After the barber finished shaving me I was escorted to a wash stand where the first girl washed and towel-dried my hair. Then it was back to the barber chair for the actual haircut while the two girls gave me a manicure. The whole experience ended with both girls massaging my entire upper body. I walked out of that place feeling like a million bucks, and I’ve never had a “haircut” like that, ever again. A truly unique experience, and classic Hovarter.

I lost touch with Rick after leaving Yokota and have often wondered what became of him. We certainly had some wild times, equal to or exceeding the haircut experience. I miss the boy!

Friday's Child Is Loving And Giving

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child born on the Sabbath Day,

Is fair and wise and good and gay.

I’m supposed to be “fair of face,” according to Mother Goose. Wha’ happened? I must be the exception that proves the rule… Don’t know on which day of the week you were born? Go here.

So. I was up until 0400 before the ol’ eyes got too heavy to read another line. I slept the sleep of the just even though the jury is decidedly out on my “justness.”

What an Instalanche does to site traffic: I was reading Glenn Reynolds early this morning. As you probably know, Glenn is one of, if not the, leading lights of the blogosphere. Glenn had numerous links to folks who are blogging about a UCLA Alumni group looking into radical-left proselytizing by UCLA professors, a subject of interest to me (see the SC&A links, below). One such article is “It's About Time: UCLA Professor Radicalism Gets a Closer Look,” by Gina Cobb. Good article; Gina has an interesting and well-written blog. The illustration above shows the impact a simple one-line mention in Instapundit has on traffic to a blog. Here’s the mention, in its entirety:

UPDATE: UCLA Alumna Gina Cobb says it's worse than I think.

Amazing, isn’t it? I checked out another blog’s site meter after reading a Glenn-linked article on terrorism. This guy had an average of 1,500 hits a day, quite respectable in his own right, and his Instalanche took traffic over 40,000 hits on that day. Never underestimate the power of exposure!

Ameriprise update: eight hits in the last 24 hours, from Arkansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia, and two from Washington (state).
Just for the record: the song in the commercial is “Gimmee Some Lovin’” The guitarists are Spencer Davis and Steve Winwood. (Yes, THAT Steve Winwood.) The album was released in 1967 and was titled “Spencer Davis Group, Featuring Stevie Winwood.” The Spencer Davis Group Official Web Site has a complete recording of “Keep On Runnin’” as the site’s theme music. I hadn’t heard that particular track in a long, long time, and it sounded GOOD! And by the way, you don’t have to be “of a certain age” to like this song, it rocks!

Late Night Reading

My noctural ways persist. I've spent the better part of the evening as I usually do, cruising my favorite blogs. I did take an hour off to watch The Simpsons and South Park, though! One needs some relief from all the sturm und drang that's been the biggest part of my reading of late. South Park is great for this purpose.

So, anyway. The inimitable Dr. Sanity provided the links to the following three articles. Actually, she provided two, I got the third from following links in the Sigmund, Carl and Alfred post the good doctor directed me to. There are worse things you can do with your time other than reading what's linked below!

The Coming of the Bomb, at The Belmont Club. Since this is a relatively old post (this past Tuesday), the comments section is long and extensive. It is also, for the most part, enlightened and informative. Wretchard runs a tight ship, in more ways than one. Some heavy hitters weigh in in the comments section; don't miss it. You can always scroll through and cherry-pick. Very provocative, and, in my eyes, required reading.

And here’s two interesting nuggets, if only for a change of pace!

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred encounter “reality” on a college campus.

Also by way of SC&A is commentary (What I Told Pennsylvania's Academic Freedom Hearings) by David Horowitz on another of my hot-button issues, academic indoctrination. Horowitz’s article is a relatively long read, but it is damning testimony about the level of left-wing indoctrination that passes for “education” in academia today. Horowitz is the leading proponent of a movement to guarantee students’ rights against academic indoctrination. He describes the movement thusly: “The Academic Bill of Rights is furthermore an attempt to express and codify as student rights what are already recognized as faculty responsibilities in regard to academic freedom.” Horowitz isn't about silencing the left side of the house, he's all about equal time.

Here’s a sample from the article:

Here is a comment taken from an interview we conducted with a Temple student: “The Chairman of the History Department, who is my adviser, told me during advising that ‘If Bush gets re-elected we will have a fascist country.’ He [told me] he will be scared for his survival and will consider possibly moving to Canada. That’s scary coming from a history professor.”

It is also entirely unprofessional. This student was in his adviser’s office for a “graduation review” – that is, for advice on the courses he needed to complete his major and graduate. This particular student also observed in the interview: “All the professors had Kerry [election] signs on their [office] doors…. Every single door to the offices, all the professors had a Kerry sign….We also have ‘God Is Not A Republican’ signs all over campus.”

I wonder what will be the outcome of the Pennsylvania hearings? There is positive movement in this area: Colorado, Ohio and Tennessee have all changed their academic policies as a result of academic freedom efforts spearheaded by Mr. Horowitz. And that is good news, indeed.

Out and About Today

Finally got that haircut. I'm pretty sure I've written about my local barber shop before, so stop me if you've heard this. The place I go is a real, down-home, traditional barber shop, complete with a great selection of men's magazines, like Field and Stream, Popular Science, and so on. You need the magazines, too, because you're gonna be in the shop for a while. All the barbers take their sweet time cutting hair, and that's a positive comment. Case in point: I walked in to the shop at 1:30 and walked out at 2:45. I was first in line. There's lots of banter going on all the time, and the guy that cuts my hair, Jay, likes to talk politics with me. We have a shared political point of view.

Today Jay asked: "Well, ya think we're gonna get into it with Eye-Ran?" And we were off to the races. General consensus in the shop: the sooner the better. With the exception of the university, Portales is pretty much Red-State. The U is a big exception, however. No one from ENMU in the barber shop today...

I also met a retired AF fighter pilot in the shop today. We discovered we had quite a few duty stations in common, most which were/are in Asia. We swapped a couple of war stories and he made me think of an incident that may make the cut for the next installment of "Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine." That remains to be seen, however.

Wrapped up the day with a cruise out to the base to do my monthly "big shopping" run to the commissary. My timing was perfect...four F-16s were taking off upon my arrival at the base, and there's not a lot in life that's more thrilling to watch than high-performance fighters taking off. My entry point into the base is just beyond the end of the runway; you take the base perimeter road from the gate around the end of the runway to the main part of the base. Thus: those jets took off right over my head. And it was a nice day; my top was down. O, the noise! I love jet noise!

All in all, not a bad day...

Who Are Your Heroes? (updated)

In a comment to my "Reunion" post the other day, Becky said (in so many words) her heroes are Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill. She and I have a mutual admiration for those two great men. I have more than a few heroes, actually.

It's not fashionable these days to have heroes. I've asked this question to a few people in the recent past and have received mostly blank looks in reply. I don't think it's passé at all to have heroes; I've always had them, from early childhood down to this day. Perhaps we should just refer to our heroes as "role models;" that may be more socially acceptable.

I've laughingly referred to the "A" rank and the "B" rank of my heroes, and that's my way of discerning between those people I try to emulate and those I have a great deal of respect for. In actuality, the people in the "B' rank have the same sort of traits as those in the "A" rank, they're just not as well known, or the jury is still out, historically speaking. And what are these traits? Strength of character, moral vlaues, accomplishment, intellect, persistance, and, to no small extent, an extraordinary command of the language. Having led a "good" and productive life is also important, to me.

So. Here's my "A" rank:

Ronald Reagan
Winston Churchill
Harry Truman
Sir Thomas More
William F. Buckley
Margaret Thatcher

And the "B" rank:

Steve Yzerman
Kenny Roberts
George W. Bush
Ivan A. Pennington
Samuel E. Pennington
The First Mrs. Pennington
The Second Mrs. Pennington

"C" Rank

Joni Mitchell
Van Morrison
Lyle Lovett

Lord knows there are many, many people in the world that could qualify for my list(s). The individuals above are just a few.

Update, 1/19/2006, 5:20 p.m. Added Maggie to the "A" list (I can't believe I left her off in the first place!) and the two Mrs. Penningtons to the "B" list. The First Mrs. Pennington gets 90% of the credit for the way my two adult sons turned out and she's a hero to me for that alone, aside from her other sterling qualities. The Second Mrs. Pennington almost literally saved my life. I was headed down a bad road when I met this woman; she turned me around and is, in large part, responsible for who I became and who I am today. Besides that, anyone who put up with me for 23 years deserves to be a hero.

And the "C" rank? Three musicians who made, and continue to make, my world considerably brighter, besides being minor philosophers in their own right.

My Buddy Ed in Florida e-mailed to tell me his hero is George "Bud" Day, Colonel, USAF (Ret). And there could be no better choice. Colonel Day's bio is here, and here's an amazing tale about Col. Day from Air Force Magazine's "Valor" series.

More on Iran

In The Case for Invading Iran, Thomas Holsinger provides in-depth analyses of the justifications to invade, the military strategy and methodology of invasion, and the costs. Mr. Holsinger makes a convincing case, including the high probability Iran already possesses nuclear weapons. After reading this essay and the supporting collateral information, I believe invasion makes sense, as opposed to bombing known Iranian nuclear facilities.

There’s just one little problem.

It’s doubtful we, and by “we” I mean the collective body-politic, have the resolve to act quickly and forcefully given the political climate in this country right now. The President simply cannot order an invasion of Iran and let the chips fall where they may. Our system requires Congress to give its assent. It’s highly unlikely the President could make a case to initiate another war, what with the perception that Iraq is a “quagmire.” When it comes right down to it, how would the President make the case for war? Given their past failures, our intelligence services have serious credibility problems. Any intelligence, no matter how reliable the source, no matter how recent the information, no matter who or where it came from, would be viewed as suspect by “certain parties.” It’s almost to the point where one would need to drop (and I mean “give” or “place”) an actual, functioning Iranian nuclear weapon, gift wrapped, into the laps of Reid, Pelosi, et al, before they would believe it’s time to act. And even then, I suspect they’d not believe their eyes.

Aren’t the bellicose, threatening statements of the current Iranian regime enough? History seems to say “no.” Isn’t there adequate evidence at the moment to intervene, what with the IAEA going on the record as stating the Iranian’s intentions are “suspect?” It takes a lot to make a skeptic out of Mohammad El-Baradei, and he is skeptical about the true intentions of Iran’s nuclear program. Even the Germans and the French acknowledge the EU negotiations were a failure, and they are advocating referring Iran to the UN Security Council. As I wrote last evening about the efficacy of the Security Council: Yeah, that will work.

It’s apparent there is a clear and present danger. I hope we, collectively, recognize it as such and have the will to ACT.

More Gore, and Iran

First, more on Gore's speech from an op-ed in the Investors Business Daily: Al-Qaida On Line Two. Excerpt:

Saying the "very nature of our government" was threatened and that "the Constitution was in grave danger," the hyperbolic inventor of the Internet told an audience at Constitution Hall in the nation's capitol: "If the president has the inherent authority to eavesdrop, imprison citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can't he do?"
Now, before anybody goes looking in the White House basement (the place where Gore's boss had the FBI files of Americans stacked) for citizens on the rack or being loaded into an iron maiden, just which citizens have been plucked off the street on Bush's say-so and shipped off to East Bongastan or wherever to be tortured?

The whole piece is worthy.

I’ve been watching the Iranian mess get…uh…messier. It seems like there aren’t many, if any, good options vis-à-vis the Mad Mullahs in Teheran. From what I can tell, the U.S. position is to dump the whole mess in the lap of the UN Security Council and place our bets on sanctions. Yeah, that’ll work. In the meantime, there’s been a lot of ink spilled on this subject, and the views and suggested actions are many and varied. What follows are four different opinions on Iran. All of these op-ed pieces are worth reading in their entireties.

In The Iran Charade, Part II, Charles Krauthammer simply tells Britain, France and Germany “You wasted two years of our time with futile negotiations. Thanks a lot.” Actually, he does go a bit further, illustrating the hard place we find ourselves in:

Indeed, the threat here works in reverse. It is the Iranians who have the world over a barrel. On Jan. 15, Iran's economy minister warned that Iran would retaliate for any sanctions by cutting its exports to ``raise oil prices beyond levels the West expects.'' A full cutoff could bring $100 oil and plunge the world into economic crisis.

Which is one of the reasons the Europeans are so mortified by the very thought of a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. The problem is not just that they are spread out and hardened, making them difficult to find and to damage sufficiently to seriously set back Iran's program.

Simon Jenkins, a columnist for The Guardian (UK) predictably says we should just give up:

Iran is the regional superstate. If ever there were a realpolitik demanding to be "hugged close" it is this one, however distasteful its leader and his centrifuges. If you cannot stop a man buying a gun, the next best bet is to make him your friend, not your enemy.

Let's give Iran some of its own medicine, says Mark Steyn, in The Telegraph (UK).

The majority of Iran's population is younger than the revolution: whether or not they're as "pro-American" as is sometimes claimed, they have no memory of the Shah; all they've ever known is their ramshackle Islamic republic where the unemployment rate is currently 25 per cent. If war breaks out, those surplus young men will be in uniform and defending their homeland.

Why not tap into their excess energy right now? As the foreign terrorists have demonstrated in Iraq, you don't need a lot of local support to give the impression (at least to Tariq Ali and John Pilger) of a popular insurgency. Would it not be feasible to turn the tables and upgrade Iran's somewhat lethargic dissidents into something a little livelier? A Teheran preoccupied by internal suppression will find it harder to pull off its pretensions to regional superpower status.

Simon Heffer, in another Telegraph (UK) op-ed titled Doing Nothing in Iran is Not an Option, comes much closer to a realistic point of view:

Any military action against Iran, whatever it is and whoever takes it, is likely to be provocative to the wider Islamic community - but none is likely to be quite so internationally combustible as a unilateral decision by Israel to bomb - by conventional or possibly other means - Iran. This seems to leave only one feasible option, which is for a United Nations-endorsed series of air strikes on suspected nuclear installations in Iran, made after due and reasonable warning and only as a last resort. All that must be made clear - but it must also be made clear, by the united powers of the United Nations, that any insistence by Mr Ahmadinejad on pursuing his present policy will be met with such a response.

I would sincerely hope the combined intelligence agencies of the US, UK, France, Germany and Israel have been working diligently during the last two or three years on Mr. Steyn’s proposal. We’ve known for years that there’s a restive, rebellious element in Iranian society. The possibility of open rebellion is pretty small, however, given the opposition’s embryonic state, the (apparent) absolute control of the Iranian police state, and the mullah’s “govern by fear” approach.

The Iranians certainly aren’t afraid of sanctions, in the unlikely event the Security Council authorizes any sort of sanctions. When it comes to sanctions, the Iranians can hurt the West much more than the West can hurt them, simply by cutting off the oil tap, by whatever means.

We’re in between the largest of rocks and the hardest of hard places. A pre-emptive strike, our best option, is pretty scary. The good news is a lot of intelligent people have anticipated this situation, contingency plans have been drawn up, and our military is capable of implementing those plans. The bad news is no one can adequately predict the outcome, beyond delaying or, hopefully, eliminating Iran’s nuclear program. The bad news? There are always unintended consequences. But, as Mr. Heffer says, doing nothing is not an option.

Wednesday Wanderings

A week ago today I said I needed to go get a haircut. Still haven't done it, dunno why. While I'm never again gonna look like I do in the picture above (at work in SFO, circa April 2002), I can't seem to bring myself on down to the barber shop and get shorn. And, by way of explanation: I was in the military the entire time long hair was en vogue. When I retired in 1999 I decided to grow it out, just to see what it's like. I went nearly three years before I got back into the mainstream. It's interesting how one's appearance affects the perceptions of your personality in others. Oftentimes strangers would engage me in conversation during my long hair days, assuming I had the classic, liberal-left moonbat world-view. Boy, were they ever surprised when reality smacked them upside the head! This was especially true during the year I lived in Berkeley and hung out in coffee shops and such.

I am so nocturnal these days! I was up again last evening until the wee, wee small hours. A part of me feels guilty about this, the other part of me sez "Why?" Listening to the internal argument is interesting. To me, of course, certainly much less so for you. At some point in time I'll probably become a day-lady again. But in the meantime, it is what it is. ("Day-lady" is a term USAF shiftworkers used to describe those folks working normal hours, i.e., 0730-1630, by the way.)

Good comments to the post titled "A Conundrum," below. Thank you, BB and Sam. I also added my POV.

Just one link for you, at the moment. Lileks is good today, as he usually is. I particularly like the way he describes the interactions with his daughter. The man is a gifted writer and is always the first thing I read, every day.

More later, assuming I get motivated. BIG assumption, at this point!

Today's Ameriprise Update

Three hits, from Southfield, MI; Columbus, OH; and Smyrna, TN (a repeat?).

One reader asked how I know about these hits. It's all in Site Meter. Just click on the Site Meter icon at the bottom of the blog, then click on "By Details" under the "Recent Visitors" section in the left-hand side bar. From there you have to click on the individual visitor numbers to get the visit details. Sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't...it's just click-click-click, then hit the back button on your browser and go to the next entry. You can do it faster than you can read this. All y'all can check my Site Meter if you find this unbelieveable.

OK...am I being obsessive about this? I'd really like to know what the HELL this is all about!

Gored

Well. Aside from ruminating about forgiveness, I've spent the better part of my day communicating with my sons, generating and responding to about a dozen or so e-mails between the three of us. That, and reading AlGore's speech to the Fringe Left and reactions to same.

Here's the transcript of Gore's speech. Here's Byron York commenting on Gore's speech in National Review. Wondering why I categorized Mr. Gore's audience as "fringe left?" Well, since you asked, here's Mr. York on the subject:

Gore's speech was sponsored by the American Constitution Society, a group founded in 2001 to be the liberal counterpart to the Federalist Society, and by an organization called the Liberty Coalition, a little-known group created last year, in the words of its mission statement, "to help organize, support, and coordinate transpartisan public policy activities related to civil liberties and basic human rights." To show its "transpartisanship," the Coalition claims as partners the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Conservative Union; MoveOn.org and Americans for Tax Reform; Democrats.com and Townhall. It's not entirely clear just how broad the Coalition is — the American Conservative Union, for example, says it is not affiliated with the Coalition and had nothing to do with the Gore speech — but in any event, organizers tried hard to suggest that the day's program was not about Republicans or Democrats.

Whatever the case, the crowd at Constitution Hall was not at all transpartisan, or even bipartisan. From all appearances, it was a classic MoveOn-style gathering; indeed, MoveOn's political chief, Eli Pariser, had sent out e-mails inviting members to the event. The crowd gave Gore a standing ovation when he walked to the podium, and thunderous applause when he accused the president of breaking the law. There was more heartfelt applause — and one shout of "Right On!" — when Gore referred to "the shocking decay and degradation of our democracy." Whatever the crowd was, it wasn't transpartisan.

And since Mr. Gore spent the better part of his time criticizing the President and flat-out accusing him of consistently breaking the law, vis-a-vis the NSA "wiretapping" wannabe-scandal, I spent a LOT of time going from link to link chasing down the latest on that subject.

I'll save you a lot of time by simply pointing you to The Anchoress, who was engaged today in the same sort of activities as I, albeit earlier, and better. Amazing linkage! If you choose only ONE link to follow at her page, go to AJ Strata's comprehensive posting on the NSA's activities and the clue-impaired reporters at the New York Times. Mr. Strata does excellent work!

I'm left with the overwhelming impression that SO much has been written about this subject by SO many people with SO little direct knowledge. The subject at hand is one of the most highly-classified programs in the intelligence community today. Aside from the folks at the NYT who have the benefit of discussing this subject with their anonymous sources, who have undoubtedly revealed no small amount of classified information, the rest of the pundits know precious little from whence they speak.

To their credit, most of the President's supporters have issued the required caveats when discussing this issue; this is not so true with the President's detractors. While the President's more moderate opponents have hesitated to use the I-word, those less inhibited are clamoring for his impeachment. Interesting, to say the least. The jury is out regarding the legality of the NSA activities and I've read arguments on both sides. ALL of the arguments have been based upon "informed speculation," to be kind.

I'm with the majority of Americans when it comes to passing judgement on the President, based on what little we know at the moment. It's very, very hard to fault the Chief when he seems to be doing what must be done, and doing it based upon competent legal advice obtained from the Justice Department. On the one hand, I think it's amazing the Left jumps to such negative conclusions so easily. On the other, the answer is obvious: it's Bush Derangement Syndrome. Or perhaps it's all those damned black helicopters buzzing about.

A Conundrum

and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Is there such a thing as an unforgivable trespass? I've been mulling this over for a few days, at least, more like a week. Truth be told, the subject is a recurring question and has been for quite a while.

An old friend called me recently. I inquired about a mutual acquaintance during the course of our conversation; my friend told me that he hadn't spoken to this person in years and, frankly, doubted if he would ever speak to them again. It seems there was a serious betrayal of confidence and a line was crossed that, in my friend's eyes, was simply unforgivable. I listened to his tale sympathetically, and I understood what he was saying.

I'm not a religious man, yet I respect that religion has codified the moral values we hold to be correct and accept as "the rules" for our interaction with fellow human beings. Thus the excerpt from The Lord's Prayer, above. I could have just as easily quoted the Golden Rule. When one truly doesn't know, or understand, what course of action is appropriate in a certain situation it is helpful to turn to The Word for guidance.

While it's easy to acknowledge the correctness, or lack of same, in our everyday actions, living up to The Rules, in practice, can be very difficult. Forgiveness isn't easy when your core values have been violated with malice and forethought, and that was my friend's point. His closing argument was "some things in life are simply unforgivable."

I've spent a lot of time wondering about that. I believe he may be right.

That Ameriprise Thing, Reprised

OK, this is getting just a bit strange. No, more than a bit...a LOT strange. This morning I remarked I'm getting a lot of hits from people googling that lame Ameriprise ad. Today I got three more, this time from Overland Park, KS; Houston, TX; and Smyrna, TN. And the day's not over. What am I missing here? I'll admit to being out of touch, pop-culturally speaking. But, boy-howdy, this is more than passing strange, it is!

And while we're on the subject of co-opting the music, check this site out...a pretty comprehensive list of rock 'n' roll sell-outs. (Hat-tip to one of those anonymous googlers) Some of the ads I've never seen, but all advertising, like all politics, is apparently local. My vote for the worst of this particular list? Cialis and The Ronettes "Be My Baby." I LOVE that song! Gotta admit the sentiment is appropriate for the product, but...

Please, stop ruining my songs! Please?

Monday, Monday...

..."~~can't trust that day~~" Another earworm. I'm very susceptible to those things, and I'm liable to have Mama Cass and the rest of the crew in my head all day unless I take counter-measures. So I put Van on the box..."Dweller on the Threshold" will remove the earworm, posthaste! I have "Live at the Grand Opera House," "Poetic Champions Compose," and "Back on Top" all queued up in the CD player. It's a Van kinda day at El Casa Móvil de Pennington.

The coffee tastes strange this morning. I'm near the bottom of the current bag, and I think a couple of those FrenchVanilla/MochaHazelnut/AsparagusBroccoli or some other flavored bean got mixed in with my oh-so-loved Foglifter blend. I'm a coffee snob, I'll admit it, but not to the extent where I have my own grinder and a $1,500.00 espresso machine. I like coffee, not dessert, in the morning! I always take great pains to clear the store grinder before I put the Foglifter in, but something happened with this last batch. Oh, well...

So...up late again last night. My site meter was stuck on 999 for what seemed like forever, but then, at 11:16:54 p.m., visitor number 1,000 came by. Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. 1,000 is from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan...and they were googling for "Regina, Sask." They were probably disappointed. But I wasn't. One thousand hits in about 45 days is oh-so-modest compared to the mega-bloggers, but it sure works for me! Many thanks to all of you who honor me by stopping by to read my scribblings.

Speaking of googling, I'm getting a fairly large number of hits from people googling for "new ameriprise financial commercial guitar player" and variations on that theme. And it ain't just the same guy, either. The hits have come from Virginia, Colorado, and Washington, among other places. Way back in November I wrote:

Ameriprise (We're the new financial consultants from American Express!). Oh-so-wrong, on so many levels. Blatant pandering to the overly-absorbed-with-themselves Boomers, what with the kitschy 60s video clips and "oh weren't you COOL" voice-overs. And they ripped off the Spencer Davis Groups great "Gimmee Some Lovin'," an unforgiveable sin.

I was writing of my distaste for really bad commercials, and the whole Ameriprise schtik is one of the worst, for reasons stated above. I particularly hate it when one of my favorite songs are used to sell something, anything. I don't know who I'm mad at more...the Madison Ave types for including the song in their ad, or the artist (or current copyright holder) for selling out. Both have my scorn, for what that's worth. I'll go on the record right now: I will not buy any product that uses/abuses music in an advertisement!

A change in the weather...going from brilliant sunshine this morning to scattered fluffy cumulus clouds to gray overcast to rain and snow later this afternoon. Accompanied by another wind event, of course. Portales, and this part of the world, in general, is the windiest place I've ever lived! Number One Son commented on this while he was in town over the holidays, saying "I'd forgotten just how annoying this damned wind can be!" Yep. You got it. Some days are worse than others, but a calm day is a rarity here.

Well...time to hit the showers and get my day going, as Van sings:

If you see her
Say, "Hello"
Well she's someone that I surely know
When I was young she made me roam from my home
In the County Down

She lifts me up
She fill my cup
When I'm tired and weary, Lord
And she keeps the flame
And she give me hope
[To] carry on

Reunion

Eastern New Mexico University's two-week Christmas Break is over; the student population of La Hacienda trailer park all came home today. My neighbor across the way is a single woman student at ENMU, but she has a live-in boyfriend. How do I know this? Well, I really don’t, strictly defined. But I have windows, and I have eyes. I’ve watched this relationship unfold since late August. It began with the dissolution of her old relationship, a very public screaming match between her and the old boyfriend as she broke it off within two days of her moving in to the trailer park. Then there was the first arrival of the current boyfriend’s vehicle and the steady progression of occasional over-night stays to the current semi-permanent living relationship. She’s from somewhere else in New Mexico, he’s from Texas.

Lest you think I’m one of those prying-spying neighbors, let me assure you: I am not. I live in close quarters with my neighbors, I have windows, and I’m simply observant. That’s it.

Back to our tale. They arrived back at her place late this morning, about 30 minutes apart. He got home first and spent the 30 minutes wandering around her fifth-wheel, playing with his dog and generally looking things over. Eventually I looked up and out the window to see him standing in the driveway with his phone to his ear. He put the phone in his pocket as she wheeled into the driveway. He was opening her door before her truck came to a complete stop.

I felt like a voyeur as I, observing from my window across the street, watched an all-too-familiar ritual unfold. He stood with his arms held wide and enfolded her as they met. Her arms circled him underneath his shoulders and he reciprocated, pulling her close, as close as possible. They stood there for at least ten seconds, swaying gently, before he took her head in his hands and kissed her. It was a long kiss. He broke the embrace and pulled back ever so slightly. They stood there briefly, looking at each other, before kissing again. Then they separated and stood apart, just looking at each other. I know what was said, if anything was said at all. Words about separation, reunion, joy, love. The whole tableau lasted about two minutes before they disappeared into the fifth-wheel. And I know what happened next, too.

My vision went a little blurry as I watched them walk arm-in-arm towards the trailer, and I realized I was a bit…uh…misty. The scene was too familiar, almost painful to watch. Memories of homecomings past flooded my brain: airport scenes, driveway scenes, train station scenes. I had many such, from trips near and far, over the years, and the reunion was always sweet beyond belief.

I miss being in love sometimes.

Welcome to Demopedia!

"...the collaborative information clearinghouse from Democratic Underground."

I’ve been slumming again. And I never cease to be amazed at the things I find on the Left side of the house. Demopedia is almost like science fiction, in that you can explore the alternate-universe inhabited by the self-described “reality-based community.” But this isn’t fiction. There are a sizable number of people that actually belive this stuff, as demonstrated by the commenters on DU. Demopedia is the collective result of a group of people who have aggragated all the beyond-the-pale memes currently circulating on the outermost fringes on the Left. Want the latest conspiracy theory? Need a laundry list of Bushitler crimes that justify his impeachment? Need an exhaustive history of ALL the horrific things the United States has done in and to the world? Well, look no further, as a matter of fact, you can forget Google and just bookmark Demopedia. Every moonbat theory ever conceived is in the process of being itemized, described, and explained in excrutiating detail right here.

Here are a couple of articles just to get you started…all links within the quoted bits have been left intact so you may explore at will.

Impeach George W. Bush, A detailed, semi-legalese “Articles of Impeachment” (there are five), with associated laugh-a-minute “discussion” threads. And a lot of this stuff is OLD…this excerpt is from a discussion thread in May, 2005:

The little turd from Crawford:
Lied us into an Illegal Invasion, War and Occupation.
Lied when inventing phony Saddam-Osama connections.
Lied about intelligence cherry-picked to build casus belli.
Lied about not knowing about 9-11 before it happened.
Lied about letting Osama family fly out of USA after 9-11.
Lied about not knowing James R Bath.
Lied when holding hands with Dick Cheney in front of 9-11 Warren Commission.
Lied when asked: "Who outted CIA agent Valerie Plame?"

Then there are the "little" lies that still qualify as "High Crimes and Misdemeanors"
Lied about HARKEN Energy insider trading.
Lied about fixing things for bidness as governor of Texas.
Lied about tax cuts helping everybody.
Lied about not knowing Ken Lay.
Lied about Social Security.

I know there are ten billion more lies to come flying out of the crazy monkey's drunken coke-whore's pie-hole of a smirk what's his. An idea: Let's give the impeachment prosecution a head start.

What else did the liar pretzelnut George Walker Bush LIE about?

This one is just too, too precious. Jury of Conscience of the World Tribunal on Iraq fascinated me in all its hysteria and arcane “knowledge.” e.g., chemical-biological warfare, “popular national resistance,” and “obstructing the right to information.” This isn’t a very popular Demopedia page, as demonstrated by the hit counter that claims “This page has been accessed 305 times.” I assume the content herein is little known, and that is probably a good thing. So here’s a few excerpts…

From the Introduction:

The attack on Iraq is an attack on justice, on liberty, on our safety, on our future, on us all. We, people of conscience, decided to stand up. We formed the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI) to demand justice and a peaceful future.

From “Overview of Findings”

4. In pursuit of their agenda of empire, the Bush and Blair governments blatantly ignored the massive opposition to the war expressed by millions of people around the world. They embarked upon one of the most unjust, immoral, and cowardly wars in history.

9. The illegal privatization, deregulation, and liberalization of the Iraqi economy by the occupation regime has coerced the country into becoming a client economy that is controlled by the IMF and the World Bank, both of which are integral to the Washington Consensus. The occupying forces have also acquired control over Iraq's oil reserves.

11. There is widespread opposition to the occupation. Political, social, and civil resistance through peaceful means is subjected to repression by the occupying forces. It is the occupation and its brutality that has provoked a strong armed resistance and certain acts of desperation. By the principles embodied in the UN Charter and in international law, the popular national resistance to the occupation is legitimate and justified. It deserves the support of people everywhere who care for justice and freedom.

From “Charges”

10. Re-writing the laws of a country that has been illegally invaded and occupied, in violation of international covenants on the responsibilities of occupying powers, in order to amass illegal profits (through such measures as Order 39, signed by L. Paul Bremer III for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which allows foreign investors to buy and takeover Iraq's state-owned enterprises and to repatriate 100 percent of their profits and assets at any point) and to control Iraq's oil. Evidence was presented of a number of corporations that had profited from such transactions.

11. Willfully devastating the environment, contaminating it by depleted uranium (DU) weapons, combined with the plumes from burning oil wells, as well as huge oil spills, and destroying agricultural lands. Deliberately disrupting the water and waste removal systems, in a manner verging on biological-chemical warfare. Failing to prevent the looting and dispersal of radioactive material from nuclear sites. Extensive documentation is available on air and water pollution, land degradation, and radioactive pollution.

13. Obstructing the right to information, including the censoring of Iraqi media, such as newspapers (e.g., al-Hawza, al-Mashriq, and al-Mustaqila) and radio stations (Baghdad Radio), the shutting down of the Baghdad offices of [Al Jazeera]] Television, targeting international journalists, imprisoning and killing academics, intellectuals and scientists.

15. Committing a crime against peace by violating the will of the global anti-war movement. In an unprecedented display of public conscience millions of people across the world stood in opposition to the imminent attack on Iraq. The attack rendered them effectively voiceless. This amounts to a declaration by the US government and its allies to millions of people that their voices can be ignored, suppressed and silenced with complete impunity.

Excerpts from “Against the Major Corporate Media” These are particularly RICH!

1. Disseminating the deliberate falsehoods spread by the governments of the US and the UK and failing to adequately investigate this misinformation, even in the face of abundant evidence to the contrary. Among the corporate media houses that bear special responsibility for promoting the lies about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, we name the New York Times, in particular their reporter Judith Miller, whose main source was on the payroll of the CIA. We also name Fox News, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, the BBC and ITN. This list also includes but is not limited to, The Express, The Sun, The Observer and Washington Post.

From “Recommendations”

3. That all laws, contracts, treaties, and institutions established under occupation, which the Iraqi people deem inimical to their interests, be considered null and void.

5. That there be an exhaustive investigation of those responsible for the crime of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Iraq, beginning with George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, those in key decision- making positions in these countries and in the Coalition of the Willing, those in the military chain- of-command who master-minded the strategy for and carried out this criminal war, starting from the very top and going down; as well as personalities in Iraq who helped prepare this illegal invasion and supported the occupiers.

7. That people throughout the world launch nonviolent actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war. Examples of such corporations include Halliburton, Bechtel, The Carlyle Group, CACI Inc., Titan Corporation, Kellog, Brown and Root (subsidiary of Halliburton), DynCorp, Boeing, ExxonMobil, Texaco, British Petroleum. The following companies have sued Iraq and received "reparation awards": Toys R Us, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Shell, Nestlé, Pepsi, Phillip Morris, Sheraton, Mobil. Such actions may take the form of direct actions such as shutting down their offices, consumer boycotts, and pressure on shareholders to divest.

8. That young people and soldiers act on conscientious objection and refuse to enlist and participate in an illegal war. Also, that countries provide conscientious objectors with political asylum.

9. That the international campaign for dismantling all US military bases abroad be reinforced.

Thank GOD this is fringe thinking. Never underestimate the power of the fringe, however, to influence and affect the opinions and thought processes of the young and impressionable. In all seriousness, it’s good to understand who we, as rational and sane people, are up against and how they think. The bonus is this krep is good for more than a few laughs, as well.

Good Looking Kids, Eh?

Appropos of nothing; just thought you'd like to see The Boys.

The top picture was taken sometime before 1991. I know the approximate date because Buck isn't sporting his Gulf War I ribbons. From left to right: Sam, as NROTC cadet; your humble scribe, six or so years post-retirement (and the uniform fit perfectly); and Buck, as a Senior Airman. I hesitate to say Buck, Jr, as he isn't a "junior." "Buck" just happens to be the common nickname given to us both. Buck is the older of the two.

The middle picture of Sam is old; in this shot he's a Lieutenant, Junior Grade (Lt, J.G.). Sam is now sporting an additional whole, not half, stripe, making him a Lieutenant Commander. I don't have his current official mug shot.

The picture of Buck at the bottom was taken this week, so it's about as current as it gets!

I wish I had a picture of my father in uniform to add to this collection. And I further wish the Old Man had lived to see his grandsons following in his footsteps. Unfortunately, my Dad died before both boys entered service. But, somehow I know he knows. And I know he's proud. As I am.

Resisting the Urge...

...to launch a rant. I won't, though I'm powerfully tempted. Today is the premier broadcast of "NHL on NBC," with three regional games on tap: Rangers vs. Red Wings, Dallas vs. Boston, and Colorado vs. Philly. Guess which game I want to watch? Guess which game I get? Colorado is up, 2-0 at the start of the second.

Stupid hockey quote of the day, so far:

Bill Clement to Ray Ferraro - "Is there any team better than the Flyers right now?"

Ferraro: "No" (albeit with much rationalization)

That said after the Red Wings handed Philly their (heads) last night, 6-3. And the Flyers are down 2-0 as I write. But this is the new NHL, where even a three goal lead ain't dog-poopie.

Saving grace for today's game: Dave Strader, one of the best commentators in hockey, is providing the play-by-play for the Avs-Flyers. Dave used to be the play-by-play guy for local Red Wings broadcasts on channel 50 in Detroit. Dave's obviously one of my favorite hockey guys, aside from the commentators on CBC's "Hockey Night in Canada." Could ya tell?

Gotta go get more cold drugs today. I thought I was getting over this krep, but no such luck. It's a persistent cold, this one! I labored under the delusion I was getting "better," all evidence to the contrary, before taking the last of the TC&F-S late last evening. So, a resupply is on the agenda today, after the game (such as it is).

Small Towns I've Known and (Sometimes) Loved

I’ve lived in a wide variety of places in my life, big and small. In America I’ve lived in big cities like the megalopolis of Los Angeles, sophisticated, moonbat-infested San Francisco, hot and humid Washington, D.C., and gritty, industrial Detroit. I’ve also lived in medium-sized cities like Oklahoma City and Rochester, NY. Internationally, I’ve lived in Tokyo, London, Paris, and Ankara, the capital of Turkey. I’ve also spent a year or longer in garden spots like Wakkanai, Japan, and Sinop, Turkey. When I say “lived,” I mean a minimum of at least a year, two years or more is better yet. It doesn’t count, in my book, to simply visit a place for a week or two, you have to live there to know it. Of all the big cities I’ve lived in, London is my favorite, by far. But that’s another story!

The place I live, Portales, is a small town. (I’ve written about Portales before; here’s the link to a city profile, and here’s a couple of pics.) I like small towns at this stage in life for a lot of reasons, chief among which are: no traffic, friendly people, low crime, and much less complexity in day-to-day living. There are drawbacks, to be sure. I’ve mentioned a few annoyances in the past, when I’ve compared living in Portales to, say, living in San Francisco. I don’t have a broadband internet connection, there are precious few good restaurants, and I can’t get a decent cup of coffee anywhere NEAR Portales. My local shopping options are also severely constrained. Nearby Clovis (pop. 30K) provides more options than Portales, but they’re still limited. I have to drive over two hours to either Lubbock, TX or Albuquerque to get into “mainstream” America as we know and love it. But, all that said, I love living here, for the moment. Things can, and do, change. I may wake up tomorrow morning and decide to hit the road. It’s good to have options!

I’ve lived in a number of other small towns besides Portales, and I have the Air Force to thank for that. Air Force bases aren’t generally located near big cities, but they usually are close to medium-sized towns, at the least. My career was different than most, in that I was in the radar business for the greatest part of my 22 years in the Air Force, and that meant being stationed in some very small towns. Here are a few of the small places I enjoyed.

When I was stationed at Fortuna Air Station, North Dakota, I lived in the smallest of small towns: Westby, Montana. Current population figures for Westby, MT are 153 people; there were (supposedly) 250 people living in Westby when I was there in 1977-78. The first three months I was at Fortuna, I lived in neighboring (30 miles west) Plentywood, MT, which had probably less than the current reported population of 1,855 people. I could have lived in the town of Fortuna (pop. 31), about three miles away from the radar site. Or there was Crosby, about 25 miles east of Fortuna, which now has all of 1,067 souls, again, probably a lot less in 1977...or perhaps there were more. One of North Dakota’s biggest problems is out-migration. People don’t want to stay up there. Obviously, there aren’t a lot of people living up in the Great White North of the United States!

Westby was great. You could walk the whole town in 15 minutes. There was a grain elevator, one gas station, two bars, four churches, a small grocery store, and a combination beauty parlor-laundromat-City Hall. There was no cable TV; we got two TV stations out of Williston, ND, and radio out of Regina, Saskatchewan. The nearest McDonalds was either in Regina, or Minot, ND. We used to go to Minot to party, which is why I laugh at Air Force people when they go on about how bad being assigned to Minot was. All in all, I loved my time in Fortuna/Westby, but I don’t think I’d live there again. It’s just TOO cold, and I mean TOO cold!

And then there’s Boron, CA. Current population is listed as 2,025 people, but once again, there were probably a lot less people there in 1970. I spent a year in Boron, and this place is probably the least favorite of all my USAF assignments. Smack in the middle of the Mojave desert, the best thing I can say about Boron is there was wonderful dirt-bike riding to be had! I could literally push my bike out of my garage and be in open desert in less than a minute. The second-best thing about Boron is that it was less than three hours from Los Angeles, and four hours to the ancestral home of the First Mrs. Pennington. She and I spent every available moment AWAY from Boron as was humanly possible.

A much, much better small town is North Bend, OR, population 9,620 people. The city of North Bend and its twin, Coos Bay run together. Coos Bay has 15,374 people. Since the two cities run together you have to say the total population is about 25,000. This is on the very fringe of what I’d call a “small town.” North Bend was one of the best assignments I had in the Air Force. Living on the Oregon coast was very, very pleasant, all things considered. The weather is mild, the location is beautiful beyond belief, and the people were very friendly. I’d live there again.

Klamath Falls, OR , on the other hand, is east of the Cascades and has an arid, almost desert-like climate. K-Falls currently has 19,000 people. I was stationed there from 1971 until 1975. I’ve been back once, and once was enough. Nothing remarkable there.

And finally…there’s Lompoc, CA, with a current population of 46,000 people. The city (?) had more like 25,000 when I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB from 1964 until 1967. Both of my adult children were born at the VAFB hospital and the First Mrs. Pennington still lives in Lompoc. A nice, quiet little town back in the day. My kids tell me Lompoc has gang problems these days and is suffering from growth problems, e.g., housing cost inflation. I’ll always remember Lompoc fondly; I had some great times there!

So. Small towns. Love ‘em, or leave ‘em. I’ll love mine for a while longer, thank you!

Update, 01/13/2006, 2:30 p.m. I forgot Biloxi, MS. How could I forget Biloxi? Like all other Americans, my heart aches for Biloxi these days. This small town on the Gulf Coast is home to Keesler AFB and has suffered more than most from hurricanes. I knew Biloxi before and after hurricane Camille, having been to Keesler for training in 1963, 1967, 1972, and 1980. All told, I spent the better part of two years in Biloxi, if you aggregate the time I spent there on four PCS/TDY assignments.

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Biloxi. I spent a good portion of the "wild" days of my youth in some of the best and worst dive bars in all of North America. I lolled on the beach. I played with my kids in various parks in and around Biloxi. I made the short trip from Biloxi to New Orleans more times than I can remember. I ate some of the best seafood I ever had in Biloxi and neighboring towns. Yea, I have fond, fond memories of Biloxi. And I wish the residents of this lovely town all the best in their efforts to rebuild their city and their lives.

TGIF. Again? My, How Time Flies!

TGIF is simply a remnant expression from past lives...every day is Friday at this stage in my life! Don't mean to rub it in, you know, but it is what it is! I used to look forward to Fridays with real anticipation, not simply because it was the end of the week, but because it meant the Usual Suspects at the work place would congregate after work at one watering hole or another. I miss those gatherings tremendously!

So, today's agenda includes cleaning up a not insignificant portion of eastern New Mexico that deposited itself in the form of fine grit and dust on every horizontal surface in my humble abode. It's the usual ritual after a dust storm, and one I'm still not used to. I never cease to be amazed at how much dirt manages to work its way into the house during these storms.

Here's a round-up of some of the best from this morning's reading...

The 20 Most Annoying Liberals in the US, 2005 Edition. John Hawkins, at Right Wing News. My favorite moonbat wins the “Most Annoying” title, well-deserved.

Green House Gasbags, or “Conspicuous conservation is a huge waste of energy.” A treatise on 4,000+ square feet dwellings that are “green.” You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. “Touch the earth gently,” indeed.

Here’s a good roundup of comment on the Alito hearings. Many tasty links to follow, including the one to John Hawkins’ blog (below), which merits an entry all its own. My favorite comment from this segment: “Attacking Alito is like eating Chinese food: An hour later, you're angry again.” Actually, this installment of “Best of the Web” has SO many good entries it’s hard to pick which one I like the best. Read it all!

The Kos Kidz Go After Alito’s Wife. John Hawkins, again. I haven’t been to dKos in a while, and that’s probably a good thing. Here are a couple of sample comments Mr. Hawkins dredged up from the sewer that is the comments section of dKos:

fugue: CRY...CRY...WTF???
My question. This is not some rated 'G' family oriented hearing. This is how the nation gives somebody the right to interpret it's constitution for the next decades.
WILL SHE INFLUENCE HIS ABILITY to JUDGE????
next thing we know, this guy will do whatever the wifey is crying for. (omg, omg, they are killing unborn baby...waaa waaa....)
WTF?
GO HOME...
This is the MOST blatant attempt to manipulate public emotion. She should go f*ck herself."


Maine Atticus: WTF is she doing there, anyway! She should be home baking cookies and making more home-made clothes!
Why do wives, or husbands for that matter have to hang around, looking like complete *sses at these hearings?
Another stupid cow married to another Nazi motherf*cker.
Cry, you cow. You moron. You sh*thead married to a man who would destroy this country!
Cry? You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Despicable. Simply despicable. Sometimes I'm at a loss for words after reading comments like these. Why must we demonize and insult each other? What's the point? The interesting thing about these commenters is most all of them use pseudonyms. Perhaps the discourse would be more civil if people were required to use their REAL names when commenting. Feh.

Turbulent Thursday

The post title refers to the weather...the High Plains, which includes most of eastern New Mexico from the I-40 corridor down to Roswell, is under a "severe wind advisory" until 5:00 p.m. In addition to the usual verbiage about high-sided vehicles being susceptible to cross-winds, the National Weather Service also includes advice to "postpone all outdoor burning." Good advice, since our winds are a constant 32 mph at the moment, with gusts to 45 mph. Lord knows we've had "issues" with the landscape bursting into flames of late. Not so much in New Mexico as Texas and Oklahoma, but enough to justify worry.

I'm still fairly low and slow today. I'm not up to anything that, however remotely, could be called intellectually challenging. Of course there are those folks who would respond with "What's new? Are you ever up to being intellectually challenged?" Uh, no. Not at all! {shaddup}

I've had C-SPAN on all morning, semi-watching the last Q&A session (read that: inquisition) between Judge Alito and the Senate Judiciary Committee. No high drama today. Move along, nothing to see here.

I haven't scanned the news so I'm blissfully unaware of what's happening in the world. Exception: I did read that 345 people were killed and over 1,000 injured in Saudi Arabia's Annual Hajj Stampede, despite new and improved anti-stampede measures introduced this year. It's probably all Bush's fault. Or, at the very least, the ineptitude of his political appointees responsible for coordinating international protocols for The Running of the Bulls, Hajj Stampedes, and Black Friday Wal-Mart Sales.

I spent the better part of this morning reading old posts from the archives of Neo-neocon. I love the way this woman writes. We (obviously?) have a shared POV on most things political. Although my political conversion from Liberal to Conservative pre-dates her conversion by 20 years or so (late-70s vs. 2001), the conversion process was/is remarkably similar. My "earlier" conversion is more a function of age than of prescience. Her series, "A Mind is a Difficult Thing to Change," is HIGHLY recommended reading!

Today I discovered one of Neo's heroes is Winston Churchill, another shared trait. My journey into Neo's archives began with this post containing Robert Frost quotations, and led, predictably, to the Churchill post and other subsequent links. In a previous life I used to append a "Daily Quote" to the Daily Operations Reports I disseminated (daily!) to corporate Senior Management; Ol' Winnie was a reliable and very-well-used source for many of those daily quotes. Reading Churchill quotes brought back some pleasant memories of employed-days-gone-by.

I'm working on putting up a post about one of my oldest, most nagging pet peeves in life, but am stuck. I've done a lot of Googling and reading up on the subject, but here's the crux of my problem: I feel one shouldn't complain about anything in life unless one has a suitable alternative course of action. And I don't have an alternative. So, do I violate my principles and essentially say "Here's something I don't like" and leave it at that? Or just fuggedaboutit altogether? Decisions, decisions...

And so it goes...

A Poignant Moment...

...during the Alito confirmation hearings. Senator Lindsey Graham delivered an apology to Judge Alito on behalf of his Democratic colleagues, which is a left-handed way of saying Graham politely beat the living dogshit out of Senators Schumer, Kennedy, and Feingold for their incredibly disparaging remarks and innuendo about Judge Alito's character. (Background here)

So, that's poignant, you say? No, it wasn't the apology that was poignant, it was Mrs. Alito's reaction. The TV camera, while focused on Judge Alito, also caught Mrs. Alito trying to control herself as the tears came. She eventually got up and left the hearing room, obviously distraught.

Mrs. Alito had obviously had enough of listening to partisan hacks, disguised as senators, besmirch her husband's character with absolutely no valid reason to do so. Senator Graham's apology simply brought her emotions to the breaking point.

I find it amazing there are good, decent men and women left in this country who remain willing to undergo trial by innuendo in order to serve the nation. WHY would a rational person consent to this sort of ordeal? Every nominee knows what's coming, yet they continue to volunteer. I just thank God they come forward, and hope they continue to do so.

It's hard for me to lose respect for Schumer or Kennedy since what little respect I had disappeared long, long ago. Feingold is another story, but he's rapidly getting to "moonbat" in my book.

More here, here, here, and here. Un-freaking-believeable.

A Wednesday Warble

Nice day, today. We’ll be in the low seventies by the afternoon, so it’s warm, and breezy (as usual). Nothing much on the ol’ plate today. I may go get a haircut. Or a dog license. It’s a toss-up, at this point. If I opt for the license, I’ll have to buy a new collar to go with it, so I’ll prolly do the haircut.

Lileks has a new Screedblog up. It’s a good one, as usual. Perhaps the day will come when I’ll say “New Screedblog, don’t bother.” But I doubt it. Here’s the lede paragraph:

The story made every Blue Stater sit up straight and hiss: the mask has dropped. It’s begun. A college student at the U of Mass. requested a copy of Mao’s “Little Red Book” from the library, and was subsequently visited by Federal agents. A professor vouched for his tale. The news wires picked up the story. Blogs frothed. Columnists great and small rent their garments. Finally, the true face of Chimpy W. Pretzelchoker’s Amerikkka had shown itself. Today, goon-squads bracing innocent Mao scholars; tomorrow, the Reichstag burns. No, that was 9/11. Tomorrow, Kristallnacht! The worst has come true, and things are looking up!

And since we’re talking links…The Anchoress provided tasty links to the following two articles…and she has LOTS more!

Mark Steyn, in the Chicago Sun-Times: U.S. shouldn't have to do tap dance over bugging. Sample grafs:

It shouldn't be necessary to point out the obvious. But, unmoored from reality, wafting happily into fantasy land safe in the hermetically sealed Democrat-media bubble, Sen. Barbara Boxer and her colleagues are apparently considering impeaching the president for eavesdropping on al Qaida calls made to U.S. phone numbers. Surely, even Karl Rove can't get that lucky.

By the way, I'd love to see the witness list for that trial: Muhammad al-Jihad testifying that a week before he blows up a Bali nightclub he always makes a perfectly innocent call to his cousin in Milwaukee to ask how the kids are; Abu Musad al-Zarqawi testifying that he only called Howard Dean to issue a formal complaint about congressional Democrats stealing his rationalizations. Etc.
The Democrats and the media want to upgrade every terrorist into O.J. Simpson, insulated by legalisms and entitled to his own dream team. (Their figleaf, the court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which previously denied not a single request, has turned down hundreds in the years since 9/11.) The practical effect of the Dems' approach is to extend the protections of the U.S. Constitution to any dodgy character anywhere on the planet who has a U.S. telephone number in his Rolodex.

Intel, Lies, and Treason, by Ralph Peters in the NY Post (registration required, or you could go here to avoid giving out your e-mail addy) The lede:

January 9, 2006 -- ACCORDING to the Democratic Party's leaders, we all have been betrayed by the Bush administration's Big Brother intelligence tactics as evil government operatives invaded the privacy of innocent Americans.
Stop lying. Show us the victims.

Name one honest citizen who has been targeted by our intelligence system. Name one innocent man or woman whose life has been destroyed. Come on, Nancy. Give it up, Howard. Name just one.

And then…

I worked in the intel field for 22 years and still give occasional lectures at various agencies, and the truth is that analysts and technicians work in cubicles that would make Dilbert run screaming. Recent recruiting efforts mean that more-senior officials work in cubicles, too.

Our intelligence professionals could make more money in private industry. But they serve because they believe in our country and their mission. And not one of them goes to work in the morning asking, "How can I do a bad job for my fellow citizens today? How can I subvert the Constitution?"

I’ve been trying, rather half-heartedly, to watch the Judge Sam Alito confirmation hearings on C-SPAN. Emphasis on trying. The bottom line is that I’ve been unsuccessful. I understand watching would be good for me, sorta like cod-liver oil for the brain. But I can’t seem to pay attention in my current state. Which brings us to…

Cold Update. Still here, still suffering. Yesterday morning I ruined my coffee by taking a dose of TC&F-S immediately upon waking up. Bad move. That stuff is so strong it screws up your taste buds for an hour or more. So today I opted for coffee over medicine. The coffee is nearly exhausted, so it must be time to relieve the headache and incredible congestion. Boy, will I EVER be glad when this shite runs it course…

And so it goes....

Just Checking In...

Blogging will be light to non-existent today because I've entered Third-Stage cold-ness. By that I mean colds are predictable in their development and progression, at least that's my experience. The First Stage is awareness...you're off-center, slightly congested, and ill-humored. You know there's nastiness coming in the very near future. The Second Stage features all symptoms in full-bloom: sore throat, cough, and full-frontal mucous attacks. For me, the Third (and final) Stage is when the cold settles into your chest, characterized by much hacking, wheezing, and general unpleasantness. When I'm in the Third Stage I lose interest in most everything. Third-Stage can last a day or two, at the most; worst-case is a Third-Stage cold turns into bronchitis. Let us pray...

Normal programming will resume in the near future. In the meantime, I'd like to share an editorial I read last night. Key grafs:

The real House GOP problem isn't about lobbyists so much as it is the atrophying of its principles. As their years in power have stretched on, House Republicans have become more passionate about retaining power than in using that power to change or limit the federal government. Gathering votes for serious policy is difficult and tends to divide a majority. Re-election unites them, however, so the leadership has gradually settled for raising money on K Street and satisfying Beltway interest groups to sustain their incumbency.

This strategy has maintained a narrow majority, but at the cost of doing anything substantial. The last year in particular was an historic lost opportunity. House Republicans were also the main culprit in watering down Medicare reform, while Ohio's Mike Oxley has run the Financial Services Committee more or less as liberal Barney Frank would. Beyond welfare reform and tax cuts (and perhaps health-savings accounts), the GOP has achieved little in the last decade that will outlast the next Democratic majority.

The WSJ, it speaks for me. In other words: WAKE UP, GOP!

Random Notes

Talk about change. Saturday we had a high of 73 degrees with bright sunshine and a bit of wind; yesterday our high was 68, with the same bright sunshine; today it's snow flurries outside my window with a current temp of 36, on its way to all of 46. And it's gray, gray, gray. Not to mention cold, inside as well as out. I've mentioned this before: RVs are not very well-insulated. They're drafty as Hell, as a matter of fact! I'm gonna burn a lot of propane today and tonight...

Late last night or early this morning, depending on your POV, I was singing the praises of Tylenol Cold and Flu – Severe. I won't take it ALL back, but I have noticed TC&F-S isn't very good at eliminating sinus blockage. While I wouldn't call it pain, I am suffering from considerable pressure behind and below my right eye...pressure that makes me think I'll have a huge mess to clean up if and when the sinus dam breaks. It's that bad. But, otherwise, I'm thankful the stuff works as well as it does. My dosage had worn completely away by the time I woke up this morning, and the difference between being ON the drugs and OFF them is astonishing.

Here, via The Captain, is an amusing bit of alcoholic Aussie fluff. The site will prompt you to download an Active-X control to view the vid; I did and can vouch for its safety. The vid is quite clever, but I'm not sure it will sell any beer. Maybe in Oz...

And here, via my friend Catherine in SFO, are the results of the 2005 WaPo Mensa Invitational, where "readers (are asked) to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition." My favorites:

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an ass.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

There are 18 in all.

Ageism! I protest! As a semi-geriatric American, I find this offensive! (Just trying to see what it's like, you know, to be one of The Perpetually Offended.) (via Gerard Vanderleun)

Also from Gerard: Say Good-Night to the Dragon Lady. Hard to believe.

And it's still snowing. Kinda pretty, as long as it melts when it hits the ground. So far, so good.

Another Town Hall Intervention

Smash gives Congressman Bob Filner fits at one of those (by now) infamous "Town Hall" meetings. You just have to read the whole thing. Congressman Filner is on a par with Dubya when it comes to eloquence and use of the language. Unlike the President, however, Mr. Filner is totally bereft of ideas, beyond the usual "it's all about oil" and "send in the UN."

Smash sets the congressman straight, in fact, it's a total take-down.

(via Lex)

Images of New Mexico

(click for larger)

Main Street, Portales, NM. 7/21/2005, 0328 hrs. I stood on the corner, in the middle of the street, on the sidewalk...all OVER the place...taking pictures at 3:30 in the morning and saw nary a soul, nary a car, for over an hour. I kinda like that.

Previously, in the archives:

Shiprock (I)

Very Large Array near Soccorro, NM (II)

Flightline, Cannon AFB (III)

Taos Church (San Francisco de Asis) (IV)

US 84 Roadside (V)
Valley of Fires (VI)
Brazos Cliffs (VII)

Wal-Mart, Check Out Lanes, and Drugs

I woke up from a Tylenol Cold and Flu – Severe induced sleep around 11:30, raided the fridge, ate, and washed the day’s dishes. I then sat myself down at 12:15 to put up a post, clicked on “Create” and… nothing. The "create" page wouldn't load. So I’m writing in Word and will publish later, if and when Blogger comes back around. It may be a weekly maintenance period, Sunday nights are favored for this sort of activity.

So. Wal-Mart. I like the self-checkout lanes. I could walk right up to the self-checkout lanes, do my business, and get the Hell out of Dodge for about a month after they installed them in the P-Town Wally-World. In other words: no line. Things have changed; I had to wait in line for a self-checkout today. Technophobia has been cured in Portales. Well, sorta. You know how it is when you’re behind a doofus at the ATM? As in, the guy who has no idea how much money is in his checking account, and has to check his balance TWICE ("Hmm. That can't be right...") before unsuccessfully trying to withdraw 50 dollars, and then settles for 20? It’s an order of magnitude worse in a self-checkout line, especially if the customer is buying produce, i.e., no bar code. Take my word for it. I'd never make it as an assistant manager at Wal-Mart; my ability to deal with stupidity is pretty limited and my lack of tact is renowned. Bad juju when dealing with the public.

I had to get a supervisor’s approval before I could complete my checkout today. Why? Because I bought not one, but TWO bottles of Cold and Flu – Severe. One daytime, one nighttime. Makes sense, right? You’d think I was trying to buy a Schedule One Controlled Substance instead of cold medicine. It seems people have found out you can get by high by quadrupling the dose, or snorting it, or shooting it up, or something. Somewhere, in some State or Federal database, a small entry was made today: “Buck Pennington, Tylenol Cold and Flu – Severe, two bottles, 01/08/2006.” Sheesh.

You really should “feed a cold.” The Beeb sez so. I always get that stuff mixed up, never remembering if I should feed or starve myself, or both, when I’m ill. But thanks to the Internets, and AlGore, I can find the correct answer in .02 seconds. That AlGore is one smart fella, even if he does get his Unums and his Pluribuses confused.

Tylenol Cold and Flu – Severe really is good stuff. The running tap that is my right sinus cavity was shut OFF about a half-hour after taking the first dose, my head opened up, my throat became smooth and friendly, and my cough disappeared. I slept peacefully for a full six hours. Yea, verily: I histamine no more! No wonder TCF-S is a controlled substance.

I feel something like Navy guys must feel when doing "port and starboard" watches...six on, six off, rinse, repeat. Having a cold means I sleep a lot but sleep irregularly. My circadian rhythms are hosed to begin with, this cold will only make things worse. I know: bitch, bitch, bitch. I do it because I CAN.

Yep. It's a Cold.

Just finished the coffee and threw the third Viva paper towel sheet in the trash. Lord, I luv me some Viva! Paper towels non-pareil, they are...what with doing triple duty as cleaning cloths, napkins, and Kleenex, too. Their primary duty today is Kleenex. I'm also glad I have a new roll lurking in the kitchen cabinet; I'm gonna need it before this cold is done and gone.

And, speaking of which, I'm trying to work up the energy to make myself presentable and cruise on down to Wal-Mart to get some cold remedies. Before turning in early this morning I took a couple of Tylenols for this sore throat and was amazed to find all the bottles of pain relievers in my medicine cabinet were well beyond their expiration dates. I'm not quite sure what that means, beyond the fact that my medicine cabinet hasn't been cleaned out in quite a while. The Tylenol seemed to work, despite the fact it's expired. One pill bottle went directly into the trash; the prescription date was 11/30/19-freaking-94. Why would I hold on to pills for over 11 years, anyway? Clue: they were good drugs. Real good.

So. Off to the showers. Wally-World is calling.

Dammit.

I think I'm coming down with a cold. "I hate it when that happens," he said, displaying his immediate grasp of the obvious. I've been listing to starboard all day, being not quite right in that indefinable sort of way. Actually it IS definable. I originally thought I'd developed a minor sinus problem...stuffed up, unable to clear, etc. But in the last two hours I've also acquired that scratchy throat that is the harbinger of worse times to come. {sigh} Tomorrow will tell, for sure. I'll probably be off to Wally-World in the morn to load up on decongestants, Nyquil and the like.

A cold isn't all that unusual, right? Wrong. Portales has been an incredibly healthy place for me, especially compared to SFO, where it seemed like I was constantly inflicted with low-level colds that turned into the occasional bout of severe bronchitis. I attribute that unfortunate set of circumstances to my daily excursions on crowded BART trains and unavoidable exposure to all sorts of semi-lethal airborne microbes.

In the three years I've been in Portales I've had exactly ONE cold. That's it: one. And I'm certain I picked up that lil piece of nastiness at my grandson's school while attending a school play. Makes me wonder why someone hasn't invented some sort of general disinfectant system for elementary schools, which, as we all know, are the Mothers of All Colds. It should be pretty simple to load, say, ten gallons of a diluted Lysol solution into the overhead sprinkler system and spray the place down every night around midnight. Ditto for the kids as they walked in the door in the morning...sorta like a mini-CBR (Chem-Bio-Radiological) decontamination station...you'd just have the kids walk through a Lysol mist everyday and Voila! No more colds! (No need to thank me, unless you make money off of this.)

Anyway. As I said, Portales has been very healthy for me. Until today.

Blogroll Addition

Warrant Officer Michael D. Fay is the United States Marine Corps' Artist in Residence in Iraq; I stole the drawing above from his blog, Fire and Ice. Not only is WO Fay a superb artist, he is also an accomplished photographer and writer. His drawings are accompanied by straight-forward descriptions of his subjects and not infrequently by writing that is, in a word, poetic. Stop by and pay him a visit!

(Hat-tip: Neo-neocon.)

Speaking Truth to Power, Military Division

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) held a Town Hall meeting Thursday evening in Arlington, Virginia, as reported by the WaPo yesterday on page B-3. In a rather unusual move, Rep. Moran invited Congressman John Murtha to participate in the Town Hall. The WaPo reports:

Before a crowd of about 600 people that spilled out of the auditorium and into an overflow room and the street, Murtha accused the Pentagon of ignoring a drop in recruitment levels and tolerating such problems in Iraq as low morale and shortages of body armor and other equipment.

The Town Hall was very well-attended, thanks in part to an e-mail campaign by MoveOn.org to mobilize its anti-war members. FreeRepublic heard about the MoveOn campaign and launched a campaign of its own, urging pro-war individuals to turn out, as well.

But about Truth to Power… One member of the audience was less than impressed with Murtha’s military bashing. Former Army sergeant Mark Seavey stood up and delivered the following to Reps Moran and Murtha during the Q&A session (via Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette):

"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause)

"Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn't have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause)

The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.
"And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn't come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That's reprehensible. I don't know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high."

Moran - who is one of the few congressmen supporting Charlie Rangel's call to restore the draft - responded quickly: "That wasn't in the form of a question, it was in the form of a statement. But, uhh... let's go over here." And he took the next question.

That was not in the form of a response to Sgt Seavey in any way shape or form.

You need to read all of Greyhawk’s post, Murtha vs the Army, over at Mudville Gazette. In addition to the foregoing piece about former Sgt. Seavey, Greyhawk has lots more on Murtha, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Peter Pace’s comments on Murtha’s statement that he wouldn’t join the military today. And many, many links to what others are saying about Congressman Murtha.

Michelle Malkin has a link to a video file of Seavey’s comments Thursday evening, but I couldn’t get the link to work. I imagine the poor server hosting that file has been pounded into a molten puddle of aluminum from all the download requests it’s received. But, try it anyway.

I don’t understand Murtha at all. The man served 37 years in the Marine Corps, retiring as a colonel in 1990 (bio here). Prior to about eight months ago, Rep. Murtha was generally regarded by the Pentagon, and by the military in general, as one of the “friendliest” congressmen toward the military on The Hill. No more. Representative Murtha is certainly entitled to his opinions on the Iraq war. But when he gets his facts wrong (once again, see Greyhawk) and indulges in rhetoric that is clearly counter-productive to the war effort he comes across as a fuzzy-thinking old man who belongs in a rocking chair on his front porch, rather than in the congress of the United States. But he’s a hero to the anti-war Left. Go figure.

Update 01/07/2006, 1200 hrs: See also James Taranto in the WSJ's "Best of the Web." Taranto writes MoveOn.org actually sponsored the Town Hall. The last graf:

The good news is that the "antiwar" movement is not serious. If it were, it would not have to rely on fringe figures like Murtha, Moran and Cindy Sheehan.

"Simply Shocking"

Andrew C. McCarthy, in National Review, on leaks by anonymous FISA court judges, as related by the WaPo in this article: “Surveillance Court Is Seeking Answers — Judges Were Unaware of Eavesdropping.” Excerpt:

Even more mind-blowing, though, is to find them (ed: FISA Court judges) discussing what they see as the merits of the issue. Without having heard any facts or taken any submissions on the governing law — and in the cowardice of anonymity — here they are speculating for the media about what positions they might take depending on how the administration answers their questions. Here they are preliminarily weighing in on the validity of defense claims in cases where FISA evidence was introduced. This is an inexplicable judicial misconduct.

McCarthy is outraged; you should be, too.

Ariel Sharon is NOT Dead

Updated at 11:45 a.m., MST. Ariel Sharon is not dead, he remains hospitalized in a medically induced coma; the source for the post I wrote is the lead item at memeorandum, which quotes an article from World Tribune.com. memeorandum is not updated as of this writing. The lead sentence in the Tribune article:

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 77, the most powerful Israeli leader in 50 years, has died, Middle East Newsline reported.

I apologize for my incorrect item. My original post continues below, unedited.

This morning, US time, of complications from the massive stroke he suffered two days ago. Charles Krauthammer believes Sharon's death is a calamity of unimaginable proportions for Israel. Austin Bay is of the same opinion and provides links to significant analyses and opinions.

There will probably be rejoicing in Ramallah and other parts of Palestine. That rejoicing will be terribly misplaced, for Sharon provided Isreal with true leadership, leadership capable of moving towards a just resolution of the Israel - Palestine conflict.

Let us pray that things don't go back to "business as usual," that is, the never-ending cycle of violence that has come to pass as the status quo in that part of the world.

RIP, Ariel Sharon.

TGIF and Miscellanea

Dr. Sanity has a good analysis and rebuttal to Glenn Greenwald’s verbose dissertation on the Bush administration’s ability to engender fear and paranoia about terrorism in the public’s mind. A sample from Mr. Greenwald:

“…Bush opponents must finally overcome the one weapon which has protected George Bush again and again: fear. Fear of terrorism is what the Administration has successfully inflamed and exploited for four years in order to justify its most extreme and even illegal actions undertaken in the name of fighting terrorism.”

“Without pause, the Administration has sought to make Americans as frightened as possible about terrorism and has used that fear to justify its actions with regard to almost every issue.”

Dr. Sanity posits Mr. Greenwald has his own fears, and then asks:

The basic tenor of his fear is easy to deduce: while we are fighting this illusory enemy, Bushitler has been amassing power and will soon set himself up as a dictator and destroy our freedom. I will let you decide who we have to fear more--the President of the United States or the religious fanatics of Islam who want to obtain a nuclear weapon? Who do we have to fear more: those who are trying to prevent another 9/11 or those who would like nothing better than to do something even worse in our country?

A good read, and a good response when your liberal friends accuse you of succumbing to BushCheney-induced “fear.” As the ol’ saying goes: “It ain’t paranoia when the bastards are really out to get you!”

Via Powerline: A brief but unnoticed moment of sanity in the NSA surveillance kerfluffle:

Rep. Jane Harman, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Dec. 21:
As the Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, I have been briefed since 2003 on a highly classified NSA foreign collection program that targeted Al Qaeda. I believe the program is essential to US national security and that its disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities.

I’ve been watching the rerun of this morning’s Washington Journal on C-SPAN with one eye while doing my morning reading with the other. Brian Lamb interviewed the political editor from The Center for Public Integrity, who stepped the audience through various pages on the Center’s web site. There’s a wealth of information on this site about who’s lobbying whom, and how much the lobbyists spend, in an aggregated form. As an example, I was curious about the USAF. After a very quick search on the web site, here are the top ten organizations lobbying the Air Force:

1) Northrop Grumman Corp.
2) General Dynamics Corp.
3) Twenty-First Century Partnership
4) Northwest Airlines Corp.
5) Military Officers Association of America
6) Abilene Industrial Foundation
7) Federal Managers Association
8) Firearms Training Systems
9) Non Commissioned Officers Association
10) Lockheed Martin

No real surprises there, other than wondering just who, or what, the “21st Century Partnership” is? Another interesting aspect of this site is the ability to identify the lobbying firms, individual lobbyists (by name), the states doing lobbying (in the USAF’s case, Virginia was number one), and countries lobbying the USAF. Yes, countries. In USAF’s case, 99% of the lobbying is done by US-based organizations. But the UK, Israel, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Sweden (?) each had at least one instance of lobbying contact between 1998 and 2004.

The web site contains various “projects,” one of which is the Telecommunications and Media project. You can search the Telecom Project by zip code and get a comprehensive report of who owns the media in your neck of the woods, how many outlets (print, radio, TV) there are, and a complete listing of those companies. As an example, I found there are 16 radio stations, five TV stations, and two newspapers in the Clovis-Portales area. Interesting stuff!

There’s much, much more. One could spend hours exploring the various projects and features on this fascinating site.

Random Notes

Slept in very, very late this morning. I was surprised when I looked at my watch and saw it was ten o’clock and I was still a-bed. That doesn’t happen very often, even considering I didn’t get to sleep until around 2:00 a.m. Too much excitement, and by that I mean:

Texas 41, USC 38.

Won with 19 seconds left on the clock. Texas down by 12 with six minutes and change left to play. Vince Young pulls out the stops and scores two touchdowns AND runs for a two-point conversion; the Texas defense puts the full-stop on USC. Does it get any better than that? Well, does it?

I’m thinking the Heisman folks want a do-over on this year’s vote. As noted on ESPN:

Game Ball Goes To: Vince Young. May have been the greatest championship game performance ever. The Texas QB threw for 267 yards, ran for 200 more and scored three TDs -- including the game-winner with 0:19 left.

This game will be talked about for years to come; if you missed it, you missed The Best Bowl Game, Ever. And quite possibly the best college football game, ever.

Screedblog is back! The acerbic Lileks is the best Lileks, IMHO. Two entries in this year’s opener, one a riff on that must-read Mark Steyn op-ed in the WSJ, and the other with 2006 predictions. Samples:

I defy anyone to find anything in a modern newspaper as bracing or blunt – or as long, for that matter – as this much-discussed Mark Steyn piece on the decline of the West. I’ve felt the same things for the last few years, and it’s not out of some grim censorious distaste for eyebrow rings and wardrobe malfunctions. I do not worry about libertinism. I worry about libertines who think the greatest threat to the imminent Utopia is a Wal-Mart exec who refuses to stock a CD because the lyrics celebrate shooting cops in the head, or who think that uptight repressed Christers are six inches and five days away from replacing the Constitution with the plot of “A Handmaiden’s Tale.” The people who make a religion of environmentalism (I read “State of Fear” over the vacation break, and I can see why it horrified so many; it simply wasn’t helpful. While I don’t doubt that Crichton votes Dem – I just have a feeling – it was cruel & delightful fun to read a novel where George Soros Sees The Light, and Ted Danson is eaten by cannibals), the people who consider themselves enlightened but believe all sorts of pseudo-scientific nonsense (no pesticides for us! We only eat vegetables nutured by donkey offal), the people who regard the entire modern world as a giant horrid Cancer Machine designed by callous top-hatted industrialists. My father is 80 years old, healthy as an ox, Zorba-strong, and he’s been breathing petroleum fumes since 1952. They see threats and perils everywhere except where there are, you know, threats and perils.

And

The New York Times, fresh from reporting the self-destruct codes for the American spy satellites that had inadvertently listened into fifteen pay-per-view porn orders from cable subscribers in Omaha, revealed that US subs have been violating Chinese territorial waters to monitor military communications. The Times named the boat, the captain, his home address, and posted his credit report online. The boat was never heard from again, and was presumed sunk. Outrage was swift – but only when the Justice Department demanded the names of the people who’d leaked the secret information. “Not content with destroying the Fourth Amendment, this administration seems intent on demolishing the First,” said one legal expert who appeared on CNN but declined to give his name, fearing reprisals. (His name was later leaked to the Times, which printed it, but declined to name its sources.)

Chastened, The Administration begged the Times to put all its classified leaks in the “Times Select” online subscription-only service, guaranteeing no one will read them.

As it’s said: read it all!

A Good Man Goes Down. Another victim of Abu Ghraib:

General Sanchez has told senior Army officials that he plans to retire, probably this summer, rather than face a bruising Senate confirmation fight over any new assignment, said two senior officials who were granted anonymity because General Sanchez has not made his decision public. As recently as last summer, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was considering elevating General Sanchez to the four-star command overseeing the military's operations in Latin America. The general's promotion would have showcased the nation's highest-ranking Hispanic officer and his compelling personal story of growing up poor in southern Texas and using the military as a bootstrap out of poverty.

The USA loses one of its most talented generals at a time when we can least afford the loss. More’s the pity.

Hey! We’re Rich! An interesting blurb on American household wealth, which is greater now than at any other point in history. So much for all the angst about household DEBT, eh?

At a Loss, so It's Cars

I'm experiencing my first bout of blogger's angst this morning: what to write? I'm in no mood to consider anything political, as a matter of fact I'm resolved to completely avoid the NYT and the WaPo today. One of the best New Years resolutions I read this past week came in the form of a suggested action:

"Minimize negative input; cancel your subscription to the New York Times."

While I'm not a subscriber, I do have the Times (both the London and New York varieties), the WaPo, and the Guardian bookmarked. Reading the news invariably gets me exercised, which substantiates and validates the suggestion about minimizing negative input. So today I will take a break from all things political, even as The Usual Suspects return to Washington and gear up for confirmation hearings, investigative hearings, and other forms of ritualistic dung-throwing. A pox on their houses.

Yesterday was brilliant. I got a great night's sleep, awoke early, read some great stuff, exchanged New Year's greetings with old friends via e-mail, and drove over to Clovis in the early morn for breakfast. I drove over to Clovis with the top up; it was chilly at 8:30 a.m., somewhere in the mid-fifties. After a huge and very satisfying breakfast I ran the car through the car wash and motored on out to the base.

I got a huge and pleasant surprise on the base: I saw my first Pontiac Solstice. Portales/Clovis isn't the capital of American Kar Kulture, not by any stretch of the imagination, unless your particular niche is pick-ups. You'll see any number of ultra-new Dodge Hemi-powered pickups, Ford F-450 diesel dualies, and the like in and around Portales. But cutting edge cars? Nope. The new Corvette has been on the market for nearly two years and I haven't seen a single example on the local roads, nor has the local Chevy dealer had one on the lot, as far as I can tell. So it was a big surprise to see a Solstice on the base, especially considering I've read Pontiac's entire production run for 2006 is sold out.

I'll be in the market for a new car around the middle of next year, and right now the short-list includes the new Miata and the Solstice. I have had extreme good luck with my Miata (knock on wood); everything still works, it starts every morning right on cue, it's relatively cheap to run, and above all: it's a freaking BLAST to drive. And all this after over five years of ownership. Positive experiences like this tend to breed owner loyalty. The Solstice is in second place as a candidate replacement for the Green Hornet at the moment, especially after I did three parking lot walk-arounds of the shiny black-on-black example I saw yesterday.

To begin with, I'm not impressed with the car's real-world appearance; there's something about the car I can't quite put my finger on. The Solstice looks pretty good in pictures, but in reality the large expanse of front-end paint coupled with small grille openings are out of proportion. The car also has a high belt line that would appear to make hanging your arm on the door sill uncomfortable, if not impossible. Overall, I'm not impressed with the Solstice's design, now that I've seen one in the flesh. I don't think I'd trade my current Miata for a new Solstice, based on appearances alone. Appearance isn't everything, of course. I've not seen a new Miata so I can't make a direct comparison of the two cars.

I'm a "buy and hold" kind of guy when it comes to cars; I don't change cars every two years or so. Given that fact, I make my automotive purchases after a LOT of careful consideration. The process has begun, and the Solstice isn't in the lead. A pity, that. I SO wanted to want one, badly. The "Buy American" impulse is very strong at the moment, especially since GM is in such dire straits. But I won't buy second-best.

So. It was just after 11:00 a.m. when I left the base and the temp had climbed up into the mid-60s. The top came down and I enjoyed an alfresco 80-mph ride between the base and home. It's a wonderful thing when you can motor briskly down the road on the third of January with the top down. And not have to deal with traffic or assorted Weird-Os. Wonderful, indeed.

Greatest Hit

(click for larger)

It was a little over six years ago, November of 1999, to be exact, that I first dipped my toe into the retirement waters. I took early retirement from the company I'd spent 14 years with, bought a brand-new motorhome and a brand-new motorcycle to go with it, sold everything that wouldn't fit in the RV, loaded up the remainder of my possessions, and hit the road. I left Rochester, NY for points unknown and with adventure in mind. The extended road-trip lasted until July of 2000 (not even a complete year) before I went back to work. In the interim, I traveled from coast to coast and border to border, managing to find a little adventure in the process.

I maintained a journal of my travels during this period of time and shared parts of the journal with friends via an e-mail newsletter I called "The Trailer Trash Report." What follows is a rather longish piece on motorcycling that was originally an installment of the TTR. This piece got the greatest positive reaction from readers of the Trailer Trash Report, so I thought I'd share it with both of my "new" readers. Here it is, in its unedited entirety.

June 5, 2000

This week's Trailer Trash Report is all about motorcycling and moderately anti-social behavior on the back roads of Oregon's wine country. I've had a life-long, on and off love affair with motorcycles. I began at age 19, with a Triumph 500cc twin road bike. From there I went to off-road riding and racing, owning a succession of Yamaha 250cc enduros and motocrossers. Somewhere during the early '70s I bought my first sport bike, a 350cc Yamaha two-stroke twin. This was when I found my niche, and between 1975 and 1985 I owned about three RD-350s (I bought 'em used and fixed 'em up), a 1977 RD-400 (which is still in the family; my son Sam is restoring it), an RD-350LC, and a Suzuki GS-750 (an aberration, but a nice one). I rode fast two-lanes all over the West Coast, Japan, and the UK, but I hung my helmet up in 1987 after surviving a pretty bad accident. My bike was totaled in that accident, and I suffered two compression-fractured vertebrae...that hurt...for quite a while!! I decided biking's risk/reward ratio leaned decidedly toward the risk side of the equation, so I gave the things up for quite a while. Until this past year.

Bikes get in your blood. Every spring after I quit riding I'd see guys out for that first ride, and I'd be envious. I'd go into bike shops, look at the new models and think "Yeah, they're good looking, but...too much money, not enough time to ride...and I'm getting too old for this stuff, anyway..." Truth be: I missed it. A lot. So, when I decided to run away from home, I also decided to get back on a bike. This time I opted for a 225cc dual-purpose bike, something I could putz around town on and go trail riding on when the opportunity presented itself. My bike is small, light weight and does all of 80 mph, flat out. I decided against getting back into sport bikes because they're simply too advanced now days. Your typical 600cc sport bike will do nearly 150 mph, box-stock, right off the show room floor. Liter bikes (1000cc) are capable of 180 mph today. Too fast for an old man! Which brings us to today's tale...

In my last report, I told you my buddy Lee has three sport bikes: two of which are an RZ-350 two-stroke twin and a 400cc sporter. Saturday Lee, another friend named Dave, and I went for an all-day ride in Oregon's wine country around McMinnville. Dave rides a Harley Sportster, and Sportys are cruising bikes, not back road burners. I rode Lee's RZ, and Lee was on the 400. We took it easy on those nice two lane roads with the good twisty bits, and it was a safe and sane day. I don't think we broke 80 mph once. We stopped often to admire the scenery, had lunch in a nice pub, and took another break for a pint in the Oregon Hotel in McMinnville, which is The Official Location of America's First UFO Sighting, which is celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year, by the way. All in all, it was a good day out.

Now Lee has another friend, Steve Clark, who is a road racer with a garage FULL of bikes; I think I counted 12 of the things in various states of running order. Steve is in his mid-40s, has been riding all his life, and races 600cc modified production class on a VERY highly tuned Yamaha four. This bike puts out 89 rear-wheel horsepower, which moves that 425 pound bike (wet...with fuel) down the road at a damned fast clip. The bike's top speed is in the 150 mph neighborhood, or slightly above. Steve also has a lightly modified Honda CBR 900RR, which puts out 130 hp and weighs a bit over 440 pounds, wet. It's blindingly fast, and so quick it'll make your ears bleed. "I have s***-box cars," sez Steve, "but nice bikes!" He is absolutely right about the bikes. Lee, Steve and I went for a ride Sunday afternoon, and I'll not soon forget it.

We rode Steve's favorite road today... a road that leads out of Albany through farm land and up into the mountains...headed west toward the coast. The road is posted at 55 mph, and the State of Oregon was kind enough to post "suggested speeds" (warnings) at each corner, which range from 10 mph hairpins up to 45 mph sweepers and all points in between. The warning signs do double-duty as brake markers, of sorts. You hold your entrance speed constant and really hit the binders about 100 feet beyond the sign, downshift, snap the bike over on its side, hold the power steady for a moment then roll on the throttle, spinning it around 10,500 rpm while accelerating out of the turn...but, I'm getting ahead of myself, AGAIN! Back to the road...it begins in farmland, with wide sight lines down the road and from side to side. The road gradually increases in elevation, with gentle up and down hill sections that are increasingly wooded. The road tightens up a bit as you go higher, and the turns are a little tighter. The air gets cooler the higher you go. The day is bright, cloudless and about 80 degrees in the valley. This is a good time and place!

Every sport biker has his favorite road, usually very lightly traveled, well maintained, with good visibility and lots of twists and turns...from very tight turns to fast sweepers. The road is the challenge: you try to master it, find "the line" through all the corners (the line can change, but that's another story), and ride it as quickly and skillfully as you possibly can. You score extra points for form. When you're "on," when you put it all together, when you get it absolutely right, it's a glorious feeling that's nearly impossible to describe. It's exhilarating, and it can make you laugh right out loud in your helmet. You walk around for days with a goofy grin on your face after one of those rides where you get it right. Those rides don't happen that often, though. "Getting it right" means matching engine speed and road speed perfectly through the bends, holding the right lean angle, hitting the right brake points at the right times, clipping the apex of each curve perfectly, dialing in the right amount of throttle at the right time, and not missing a single shift, up or down, all while trying to stay out of jail and stay glued together the way you came out of the box, more or less. The activity demands total concentration...anything less than total concentration means a sloppy ride, at best. At worst, you could win a ride in a large Ford van owned by the Fire Department or someone like them.

We left Steve's place with Steve on the 900, Lee on the 600, and me on the baby bike...with the 14,000 rpm red line. Five minutes or so and we're out into the country, and Steve picks up the pace. We head into a series of right-left-right sweepers posted at 45 mph. I look down at my speedo going into the first turn and I'm doing 70. Steve and Lee are pulling away...quickly. I dial it up a bit and I'm doing 80 coming out of the last turn. Steve and Lee are dots down the road. The first twinge of fear hits...these guys are fast! I wind that little Yamaha out to it's red line in fourth, then fifth, and shift into sixth at 125, indicated. Those guys are still pulling away!! I have VERY brief thoughts about insanity, medical insurance, life insurance, and my kids...but hold it open. I keep it at 125 for what seems like a minute or so then throttle back, hit the brakes and downshift for the next corner, a 35 mph left hander. I'm feeling a little more confident at this point, so I lean a bit further, get a bit more aggressive with the throttle, and exit cleanly, pulling to red line once again through third, fourth and fifth. The bike is an absolute jewel above 10,000 rpm. Below that, there's next to no power at all, but in between 10K and 14K it goes pretty good for a 400. Up ahead I see Steve and Lee have slowed, waiting for me to catch up. I catch up and we repeat the process all over again for the next 20 minutes or so. They run away and hide, I get a bit quicker, they wait for me to catch up. I'm feeling better and better as every minute goes by. Finally, we go through a little town and stop on the outside of town for a break and a root beer. We bench race for about 20 minutes, and then we switch bikes and head out again.

This time I'm on the 600, Lee's on the 900, and Steve's on the 400. I understand IMMEDIATELY why Lee was pulling away so quickly. This 600 is a beast, a weapon. The power comes on around 7K and explodes to its 12K red line. Wheelies are no-brainers on this bike; it takes serious concentration to hold it on the ground through the first three gears. Steve is in the lead, and his road racing skills are such that he can stay comfortably ahead of Lee and I, even though we're on much more powerful bikes. This guy is amazing...smooth AND fast. We head back into the country, reversing our route back home. This time I'm more familiar with the road, but I'm on a bike with a steep learning curve. The bike is a pure racer with a tacked on license plate, and it's intimidating. I'm probably only using 50 percent of it's capabilities and it's awesome. Make that awe-inspiring. You don't want to screw up on this thing...you better know what you're doing. Five miles down the road and I think I have the brakes figured out. They're powerful and allow for serious late braking into turns. The throttle response isn't as easy to dial in as the brakes...the power is either on or off, with little or no ability to modulate the throttle. I'm riding pretty conservatively (it's not MY bike, after all), but I'm also riding a LOT faster than I was on the 400. I'm keeping Steve in sight, and we're losing Lee. I'm establishing a rhythm now, the road ahead is clear, and the bike is a willing and eager accomplice. The speed picks up, I look down and I'm doing 135 on the straight. OK...that's too fast...throttle back. A few minutes later I back it down to 75 or so for a moment or three and Lee catches up. He waves me over, asking if I want to trade bikes. I say "OK," we stop, swap mounts and head back out.

The 900 is a revelation. Where the 600 is brutal, abrupt and hard-edged, the 900 is smooth, comfortable and deceptively fast. It has gobs of torque and is incredibly quick...so much so it's scary. You twist that throttle and you ACCELERATE...no ifs ands or buts...pure, raw acceleration. Keep in mind, this bike puts out 130 hp at the rear wheel...and the bike and I together weigh only 575 pounds...or about one horsepower for every 4.5 pounds of mass to move. That sort of power-to-weight ratio is normally found in race cars, or sports cars costing six figures. It's more power than I can use, but DAMN did it feel good to let that sucker wail!!!

So anyway...we motored back on in to Albany. I explored the Honda's capabilities on the way back in, being respectful of its sheer presence. I'm not sure I'd want to own one of these things...nice place to visit, but ya wouldn't want to live there. It's an amazing piece of machinery, though. Quick, fast, light, comfortable, good looking, and, no...I'm not going to tell you how fast I went on that thing. I'm thoroughly impressed with how far the manufacturers have taken the product in the last ten years. It's been at least that long since the last time I rode sporting machines. Today's bikes perform as well as pure racers of comparable size did ten years ago. It's the motorized equivalent of the computer industry, I guess.

Safely back home after a great ride, and a good dinner (ribs and beer), I'm wondering how I can arrange frequent visits to my Buds and their impressive stable of sport bikes. I really, really, really like the company and the riding! This weekend was a tremendous amount of fun, but it taught me a bit, too. My personal state of tune isn't really high enough to be riding with these guys. It's been a long time since I was out carving up back country roads, and it was obvious I'd been away too long. You never really forget HOW to ride, but you need a lot of practice to keep the skills sharp, especially if you're going to ride at supra-legal speeds. I think I should probably stick to my little 225. Getting on my bike after riding the sport machines this weekend is...uh...boring. At least it's boring on the street. I just have to keep telling myself that 45 mph on a fire road or a logging trail is just as good or better than 135 on a sport bike, now, don't I? ;-)

So...it's Monday morning here in Oregon and I still have this goofy grin on my face...how was your weekend?

Well, It was Interesting...

...but not too rewarding. Ohio State dominated Notre Dame. Crushed them. The 34-20 score makes it look closer than it actually was. Aside from the first drive of the first quarter, ND came out flat. OSU ran and passed at will throughout the game; ND's defense lacked focus and look unprepared, surprising given all the hype surrounding Coach Weis and his meticulous game prep. Brady Quinn couldn't deliver the goods, either. Quinn's passing was a respectable 29 of 45 on the day...but no touchdowns. And that sort of sums up the game, right there. OSU delivered the big plays, ND didn't.

I had a flash of hope in the fourth quarter when ND drew to within a touchdown with five minutes left. Not to be...OSU came right back and scored on another big play, a 56 yard touchdown pass by Troy Smith. Smith is quite possibly the most under-rated quarterback in the college game this year. He certainly took it to ND. Ohio State deserved the win.

The other disappointing game (for me) was Texas Tech's three point loss to 'Bama with 00:00 on the clock. I was convinced the game was going to OT, but noooo. 'Bama's kicker put a 45-yard field goal just over, and I mean just barely over, the crossbar to take the win. A heartbreaker for Tech.

Oh, well! Sometimes your guys win, sometimes they don't. Yesterday was a "don't" day for me...

And Today It's FOOTBALL!

Currently watching Texas Tech and Bama; Bama leads 7-3 with 11 seconds left in the first half. I have a tenuous connection to Tech, my step-granddaughter attended Tech last year before transferring to a New Mexico college.

But my BIG interest is the Fiesta Bowl: ND vs. Ohio State. Ohio State is a 4½-point favorite.
ND coach Weis sez that's baloney:

"We're no underdog," he said. "We got two great football teams. I don't worry about underdog, point spread, those things are irrelevant to me. You have two teams that both have an equal chance of winning."

Agreed. I think ND will win by a touchdown. ND, by all rights, should be playing in the Rose Bowl, since they came oh-so-close to beating USC this year. And it was CLOSE. But, coulda-shoulda-woulda...it is what it is.

And now I'll get back to the game at hand.

Enough is Enough

Byron Calame, the Public Editor of the NYT, writes in Behind the Eavesdropping Story, a Loud Silence:

Protection of sources is the most plausible reason I've been able to identify for The Times's woeful explanation in the article and for the silence of Mr. Sulzberger and Mr. Keller. I base this on Mr. Keller's response to me: "There is really no way to have a full discussion of the back story without talking about when and how we knew what we knew, and we can't do that."

Taken at face value, Mr. Keller seems to be contending that the sourcing for the eavesdropping article is so intertwined with the decisions about when and what to publish that a full explanation could risk revealing the sources. I have no trouble accepting the importance of confidential sourcing concerns here. The reporters' nearly one dozen confidential sources enabled them to produce a powerful article that I think served the public interest.

Mr. Calame sent a list of 28 questions on the NSA story to Bill Keller, the executive editor and Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher. Both declined to answer Mr. Calame's questions. If, as Mr. Calame suspects, both the NYT's publisher and editor are adamant about protecting the NSA story's sources, we have the makings of a legal battle-royal.

The NYT went to great lengths to protect sources in the Plame story, although the NYT's senior management ultimately distanced themselves from Judy Miller, and Miller eventually testified before the grand jury. The current NSA story is a helluva lot more serious than the Valerie Plame disclosure. No one has ever claimed outing Ms. Plame jeopardized national security, or even jeopardized Ms. Plame, personally.

The NSA disclosure is quite another matter. I do NOT agree with Mr. Calame's assertion that "a powerful article that I think served the public interest" was produced, unless the "public interest" includes compromising US intelligence gathering methods and procedures. A general, high level description of an active US intelligence operation has been provided to anyone reading the NYT or with access to the internet, including both current and potential enemies of the United States.

The NYT has admitted omitting classified details about the NSA program from the stories it has published. I can’t prove it, but I’m quite certain Mr. Keller, Mr. Sulzberger, or any of the reporters working on the NSA story do not have security clearances with the appropriate “compartments” authorizing them access to information they’ve received and disclosed. Who else knows the omitted details of the program? What assurances do we have that these details haven’t been divulged on the cocktail party circuit? And for that matter, if the sources of this story revealed sensitive technical details of the surveillance program to the NYT, who else have they talked to?

It’s clear, to me, that a crime has been committed in publishing this story. I think it’s past time the US has a law equivalent to the UK’s Official Secrets Act. A key provision of the British law is there is no public-interest defence, and disclosure of information already in the public domain is still a crime. Journalists who repeat disclosures may also be prosecuted.

Granted, we live in an open society where free speech is both respected and protected. But we must draw a line when it comes to revealing information that seriously compromises our ability to wage war. More to the point, that line should be very bright and obvious about information that compromises our ability to interdict and render harmless the efforts of our enemies.

Enough is enough.

Happy New Year!

2006 literally BLEW into Portales this morning...at 8:00 a.m. this morning the winds were a steady 35 mph, with gusts to 41. Over the past two hours the winds have increased to a steady 44 mph with gusts of 56 mph. We're under a "wind advisory" until 6:00 p.m. this evening. As if I needed "advice" that the wind is blowing...I can tell THAT much from the steady side-to-side rocking of the ol' RV. And the dust clouds blowing past my window...

I awoke with a clear head this morning...one of the benefits of "maturity," I suppose. Last evening's imbibing was limited to a failed experiment with Drambuie and Soda, which, a trendy male model-spokesperson on TV assured me (falsely) I would enjoy. I managed to choke down about a third of the contents of an Old-Fashioned tumbler before tossing the remainder down the drain; replacing the contents of the glass with three fingers of Oban. (Ah! MUCH better!) Drambuie and Soda tastes a LOT like Nyquil, and that is not a favorable comparison. I like Drambuie, but in future I will continue to drink it neat, and in small quantities.

Midnight came and went, and I was in bed at a decent hour. For once this week.

Here are a couple of light-weight items from today's WaPo I found entertaining during my morning read...

The List: What's In and Out for 2006. The opening graf:

These things are starting to feel less like Lists and more like Dear John letters to the idea of mass culture. If you haven't heard, it's all over -- that American Top 40/weekend box office/Nielsen family notion of common experience, the way we gather 'round for important moments and horrific TV and the bad hairdos and the belted, pink overcoats that we all get around the same time. It's a heckuva job, Brownie, managing such a socio-politico-pop-culture disaster. We did the flyover this morning and it's all gone. It's all flotsam. It's Anderson Cooper on a pontoon down there, waving and crying and blogging.

A fascinating list, with various and interesting links to WaPo stories from 2005. I particularly liked the travel article on Buenos Aires...made me want to get up and GO. The other impact this list/story had on me was to make me feel incredibly out of touch with the culture. Which, of course, I AM...if your principal definition of culture is all about "personalities," movies, fashion, and TV shows.

And then there's A Year on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, by Dave Barry, who isn't as funny as I remember him being once upon a time. Barry constructs a year-in-review featuring riffs on Tom DeLay, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jackson, Greta Van Susteran, and Delta Air Lines. Samples:

(March) In economic news, financially troubled Delta Air Lines announces that it will no longer offer pillows on its flights, because passengers keep eating them. But the economy gets a boost when the jobless rate plummets, as hundreds of thousands of unemployed cable TV legal experts are hired to comment on the trial of Michael Jackson. Jackson is charged with 10 counts of being a space-alien freakadelic weirdo. Everybody agrees this will be very difficult to prove in California.

and...

But by far the biggest story in August is Hurricane Katrina, a massive, deadly storm that thrashes Florida, then heads into the Gulf of Mexico. For decades, experts have been warning that such a storm, if it were to hit New Orleans, would devastate the city; now it becomes clear that this is exactly what is about to happen. For days, meteorologists are on television warning, dozens of times per hour, that Katrina will, in fact, hit New Orleans with devastating results. Armed with this advance knowledge, government officials at the local, state and federal levels are in a position to be totally, utterly shocked when Katrina -- of all things -- devastates New Orleans. For several days, chaos reigns, with most of the relief effort taking the form of Geraldo Rivera, who, by his own estimate, saves more than 170,000 people.

FEMA director Michael Brown, after conducting an aerial survey, reports that "the situation is improving," only to be informed that the area he surveyed was actually Phoenix. For her part, Greta Van Susteren personally broadcasts many timely reports from Aruba on how the Katrina devastation will affect the ongoing Natalee Holloway investigation.

OK, maybe Barry IS as funny as I remember him being.