Thursday, January 25, 2007

Just...uh...Stuff

Last night’s NHL All-Star game ended the way I wanted it to: with the West on top, and by a considerable margin, at that. The final score was West 12, East 9. It was the first All-Star game since 2004, what with the lock-out in 2005 and the NHL taking a hiatus during last year’s Olympics. It’s good to have the game back, as the All-Star game showcases the best players making the best moves in the game, be they passing, shooting, or goal tending. That, and the fact it’s obvious the guys are really, truly having a great time.
Highlight of the evening: Marty Turco, the West’s goalie in the third period, was “mic’d up” and provided some hilarious in-game patter, even as he was making (and not making) saves. It was a classic “you had to be there” sort of moment, but Turco is a very poised and funny guy. I’d be scared sh!tless speechless if a bunch of guys were firing frozen hard rubber biscuits at 100 mph right at me. That could damned well hurt, pads or no!
Lowlight of the evening: Nothing to do with the game, but you couldn’t avoid the ads: The return of Smilin’ Bob, again, and again, and again. I thought those ads had gone away for good, but it’s obvious they haven’t. It’s probably only a matter of time before Smilin’ Bob is literally put away, what with a 112-count indictment (for fraud, false advertising, and a number of other criminal activities, including credit card fraud) brought by the US DOJ on September 20 of last year. Go get ‘em Alberto!!
For that other hockey fan that reads EIP, here’s a very interesting bit of speculation: Forsberg to Detroit? Assuming Forsberg is healthy (and that’s a BIG assumption): Hello, Stanley!! But then again, he could go to the Rangers…if he goes anywhere at all.
One of the most irritating things (if not THE most irritating thing) about the Firefox browser is that message you get when attempting to view an on-line vid using a format other than Windows Media, to wit: “Plug-in required. Click here to download plug-in.” You click, of course. Then you see “No plug-in found. Click here to manually install plug-in.” But…you don’t have a frickin’ CLUE as to WHICH plug-in you need. I’ve installed Flash, I’ve installed QuickTime, I’ve installed RealPlayer, and a couple of other players as well, yet I STILL get that frickin’ message from time to time. Computers are much more difficult than need be. Still. Perhaps always. (Ed: buy a Mac. But I don’t WANT a Mac.)
What prompted the rant above? The DoD DVIDS site, which has some pretty good videos. If you can get them to play. The (very brief: 1:03 min) “F-22 to Japan” vid features some airborne footage of the F-22, including a too-brief sequence of an F-22 approaching a KC-10 for refueling.
A couple of good op-eds from the WSJ… The first, via Real Clear Politics, is Daniel Henninger holding forth on the Doom ‘n’ Gloom crowd:
The United States is talking itself into defeat in Iraq. Its political culture is now in a downward spiral of pessimism. In the halls of Congress, across endless newspaper columns, amid the punditocracy and on Sunday morning talk shows--all emit a Stygian gloom about America.
Yes, on any given day on some discrete issue (Prime Minister Maliki's bona fides, for example), the criticism of the American role is not without justification. But the cumulative effect of this unremitting ill wind is corrosive. We are not only on the way to talking ourselves into defeat in Iraq but into a diminished international status that may be harder to recover than the doom mob imagines. Self-criticism has its role, but profligate self-doubt can exact a price.
[…]
Our slide to a national nervous breakdown because of Iraq is not going unnoticed. Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has been visiting across the U.S. this week. "I've been pretty worried about what I've heard," Mr. Downer said in an interview. Walking on Santa Monica beach Sunday before last, Mr. Downer said he encountered a display of crosses in the sand, representing the American dead in Iraq.
"What concerns me about this," he said, "is that it's sort of an isolationist sentiment, subconsciously, not consciously, and that would be an enormous problem for the world. I hope the American people understand the importance of not retreating and thinking the world's problems aren't theirs."
And the second concerns itself with the Constitutional prerogatives of the Commander-in-Chief and the Senate’s attempt to usurp same:
To understand why the Founders put war powers in the hands of the Presidency, look no further than the current spectacle in Congress on Iraq. What we are witnessing is a Federalist Papers illustration of criticism and micromanagement without responsibility.
Consider the resolution pushed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday by Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel, two men who would love to be President if only they could persuade enough voters to elect them. Both men voted for the Iraq War. But with that war proving to be more difficult than they thought, they now want to put themselves on record as opposing any further attempts to win it.
Their resolution--which passed 12-9--calls for Iraqis to "reach a political settlement" leading to "reconciliation," as if anyone disagrees with that necessity. But then it declares that the way to accomplish this is to wash American hands of the Iraq effort, proposing that U.S. forces retreat to protect the borders and hunt terrorists. The logic here seems to be that if the Americans leave, Iraqis will miraculously conclude that they have must settle their differences. A kind of reverse field of dreams: If we don't come, they will build it.
[…]
In Iraq, all of this undermines the morale of the military and makes their task that much harder on the ground. When John McCain asked Lieutenant General David Petraeus that precise question during his confirmation hearing Tuesday, the next commander of Coalition operations in Iraq said, "It would not be a beneficial effect, sir."
And when Joe Lieberman asked if such a resolution would give the enemy cause to believe that Americans were divided, he added, "That's correct, sir." Several Senators protested and demanded that the general stay out of domestic politics, but his only offense was telling the truth. Of course the enemy would take comfort from any Senate declaration that Mr. Bush lacks domestic support.
Yep. I’m simply amazed…amazed, I say…that our illustrious congresscritters don’t get it. What ever happened to leadership? In the sense that leaders explain, in the clearest of terms, what must be done and why we must do it. Explain. Motivate. Execute. It’s a simple concept, really. It appears, however, that the Congress isn’t acting with the best interests of the nation at heart…they only stick their fingers in the air to see which way the wind is blowing and then follow the crowd. Disgusting.

Today’s Pics: Anyone who has raised kids understands these shots. Kids will push every button you have, climb anything, go anywhere…anytime. With no concern for their own safety, of course. SN3 discovered the pass-thru between the family room and the kitchen almost immediately after he went mobile. And we were concerned, of course. We solved this lil problem by putting a baby gate in the pass thru, which prompted a major tizzy and howls of indignation from SN3…but kept him from falling into the sink, or worse, turning on the garbage disposal and then falling into the sink.
July, 1998.
Update 01/25/2007 1530 hrs. Becky, in the comments, says "LOL!!! Love the pictures of SN3! Boy can I relate to those days! Somewhere I have pictures of Cody sitting in the sink "driving" the faucet."
Like this?

15 comments:

  1. LOL!!! Love the pictures of SN3! Boy can I relate to those days! Somewhere I have pictures of Cody sitting in the sink "driving" the faucet.

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  2. I hear you with the congresscritters with their fingers to the wind, but something you might want to consider with Sen. Hagel is the following Newsweek article:
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16501666/site/newsweek/

    It's really interesting to gain some insight into why exactly Sen. Hagel feels the way he does. I've got a little more respect for him after reading this in that I think he at least feels he's following his principles.

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  3. Dammit, well, here's the full url:

    Http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16501666
    /site/newsweek/

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  4. I read the article, Mike. And while I agree with you about Hagel "following his principles," I also believe his principles are wrong. And then there's this:

    "The Republican Party has to go through an election next year, the president doesn't," says Hagel. "There are a lot of Republicans in this conference that are very scared."

    If that doesn't smack of holding one's finger in the wind, I don't know what does.

    The article presented an interesting contrast between McCain, painted as being from the "professional warrior caste," and Hagel, presented as the "citizen soldier, like Cincinnatus." (I'm paraphrasing that last bit from memory.) I consider myself to be a part of the "warrior caste," and as such, I guess our views on life and everything differ a bit from the general population.

    My bottom line: Principles or no, Hagel is flat frickin' wrong.

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  5. A very enlightening article, Mike, thanks. This bit was especially clear:
    Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is close to both men (but sides with McCain on the war), lays out the basic differences between them. "Chuck believes the war in Iraq has deflected from the war on terror, that it was a war of choice," says Graham. "John sees Iraq more like Bush, in that he sees it as the central front on the war on terror, and it was unavoidable."

    McCain's view is how I see it, too. It's harder to explain to others because there is nothing you can immediately point to in order to justify your position.
    My only quibble with the article is that it relies on the citizen soldier vs warrior a bit too much. I'm not of the warrior class and yet I can see McCain's and Bush's position as the more realistic one in today's world. This is not to say that Bush has been without fault, mind you. It's just a hell of a pickle we're in right now, whether we fully understand it or not. My view.

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  6. Oops, I published by accident - before I could comment on those great pictures! Boys are so adventurous and curious about EVERYTHING. They're a challenge but they're so much fun.

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  7. Adorable! My little cute boy turned 21 the other day. So tonight we are out to dinner and he decides he wants a beer with dinner. And I decide I don't want him drinking alone his first time legal so I order one too. We BOTH got proofed. LOL! I loved it, as I fished for my ID saying, but I'm his *mother*.

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  8. Some kids are just natural born climbers. They also tend to be independent thinkers, too. GBN1 scurried over the baby gate and up into the crib last week. Her plan was to "help" take care of her new sister.

    As a young teen-ager, I taught my baby sister to drag a chair to the sink and get her own drink of water - my mother was horrified.

    " Yep. I’m simply amazed…amazed, I say…that our illustrious congresscritters don’t get it."

    Me, too, Buck! Crowdfollowers are disgusting. Did you read Mike Fay's latest?

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  9. Bec sez: This is not to say that Bush has been without fault, mind you. It's just a hell of a pickle we're in right now, whether we fully understand it or not. My view.

    We have pretty much the same view, Bec. Bush's biggest fault, to my mind, is an on-going failure to articulate the importance of the war...the ol' "Why We Fight." If he couldn't do it himself, he should have engaged others who could. Perhaps it's too late now, but I hope not. Cheney is certainly giving it the ol college try, but his credibility is pretty much shot with everyone but the true believers.

    Laurie said: I loved it, as I fished for my ID saying, but I'm his *mother*.

    LOL! I can relate to that! Once upon a time, quite some time ago, I was in (nearly) the same boat, believe it or don't. I hope TSMP has the same sort of experience some day, but time ain't on her side, where looks are concerned. She'll be 61 when SN3 turns 21...

    Lou said/asked: They also tend to be independent thinkers, too.
    Did you read Mike Fay's latest?


    That independent streak is a tricky thing! On the one hand, you want to encourage it, but OTOH sometimes you want to yell "Just WHAT were you thinking!!?!!"
    Just finished reading Mike Fay, thanks for pointing me. I hadn't been by his place in quite a while. It's hard on my old eyes to catch up on his site...that white-on-black text is difficult for me to read. After about three minutes the words begin to swim in front of me and I have to look away for a moment to re-focus. That aside, MDF makes some great points. I wish I had the motivation and persistence to read the classics.

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  10. Cheat on the white on black pages. Copy/paste the text into Word.

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  11. Thanks, Laurie...I'll do that. Those white-on-black pages really do hurt me. And I don't know why I didn't think of this before!!

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  12. "I consider myself to be a part of the "warrior caste," and as such, I guess our views on life and everything differ a bit from the general population."

    That's the crux of the matter. And as for Hagel, don't get me wrong...I think he's flat out wrong as well. But as I'm from NE, I've followed Hagel pretty closely over the past several years and his recent political shifts have seemed to me to be complete opportunistic triangulation. It's nice to know that there is at least some sort of principle behind it, even if it is wrong.

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  13. Mike said: And as for Hagel, don't get me wrong...I think he's flat out wrong as well. But as I'm from NE, I've followed Hagel pretty closely over the past several years and his recent political shifts have seemed to me to be complete opportunistic triangulation. It's nice to know that there is at least some sort of principle behind it, even if it is wrong.

    Understand. I've read enough of your stuff, Mike, to have a pretty good idea of where you're coming from. I'd have been really surprised if you had defended Hagel. As for triangulation...I think you're first impression is the more accurate one. Principles are nice...and it's even nicer if said principles just happen to coincide with the way the wind's blowing at the moment. Just sayin'.

    And speaking of reading your stuff...I'm gonna correct a long-standing deficiency and add you to the blogroll. I read you everyday and have been meaning to add you. The Road to Hell, good intentions, and all that... :-)

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  14. Like this?

    Very much like that. I found them and will post them after I get back from the grocery store.

    P.S. I was playing with Google Earth last night, and I think I found you...

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  15. Dear LORD, amen to this. Man, it pisses me off. GRRRRRRRR!!! Thank you for voicing something that seems so trivial, yet is so monumentally RIDICULOUS at the time.

    "One of the most irritating things (if not THE most irritating thing) about the Firefox browser is that message you get when attempting to view an on-line vid using a format other than Windows Media, to wit: “Plug-in required. Click here to download plug-in.” You click, of course. Then you see “No plug-in found. Click here to manually install plug-in.” But…you don’t have a frickin’ CLUE as to WHICH plug-in you need. I’ve installed Flash, I’ve installed QuickTime, I’ve installed RealPlayer, and a couple of other players as well, yet I STILL get that frickin’ message from time to time."

    ReplyDelete

Just be polite... that's all I ask.