Incentives, Please

So. Above is a screen shot of an e-mail I received from the Giuliani campaign last evening…click for larger to read. The most interesting bit, of course, is the plea for me to support John McCain. And I probably will after I’ve given this a little more thought. I’m of the opinion we’ll probably know who the presumptive Republican nominee will be after Super-Duper Tuesday’s results are in.

In the mean time note the “This space For Rent” notice in my sidebar… my support IS available. I’d even consider supporting someone other than a Republican, if the incentives were right. For those of you too clue-impaired to read between the lines: Every man has his price and I can be bought. Think: money, drugs, and sex. Preferably all three, and my required incentives aren’t necessarily listed in order of importance. Be creative.

(Note to Hillary: While “every man has his price” is most certainly true, my price would be substantial in your case. The requisite money would far exceed what you have budgeted for advertising in all media, there’s no room for a semi-trailer full of useful substances on my lot, and just don’t go there where the third incentive is concerned. Unless you intend to offer up some nubile staffer, of course. I’ll remain “open minded” on that count, and others, as well. Assuming you can find a safe and accessible place to park that semi-trailer.)

Hump Day. Yet Again.

An interesting thought posted by Erick at RedState:

Tonight was not a failure of conservatism, but a triumph of military voters who have made their home in the Republican Party because we are the party of a strong national defense.

In both South Carolina and Florida, they won it for McCain. In the grand coalition of the GOP, we've talked about social conservatives and fiscal conservatives. We've all ignored the military voters, except John McCain. And he won them big. His message resonated.

And the man still has an +80% conservative rating. I shed no tears.

That may, in fact, be true. It’s just that a “military vote” isn’t widely discussed, although it is mentioned from time to time. I remember hearing Fox News analysts invoking the fact that SC has the largest numbers of military retirees in the country and the polling (such as it is) indicated they were breaking for McCain. I heard the same sorts of comments about voters in the Tampa area, which also has a large number of military retirees and active-duty types. Not mentioned on any broadcast I saw was the Florida panhandle, which also has a large military and retired military population…think Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, and Destin. BIG military presence. So this could very well be true.

Strange, for a country with so few people who actually serve in the military these days. But, that wasn’t always so and there are a lot of former military folks from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s still around. That and the fact us retirees tend to live a lot longer these days. And we tend to vote Republican, although there are exceptions to each and every rule.

Old Farts are like that. See also Sir Churchill, Winston…False Attributions Dept.

―:☺:―

Truth:

Detroit Red Wings defenceman Brett Lebda lay in a heap on the ice, propelled head-first into the boards by a check from behind delivered by St. Louis Blues winger Ville Nieminen.

The incident occurred late last season and though Nieminen was ejected from the game and later suspended, in old-school fashion, he wasn't forced to answer for his crime within the arena.

In the press box, former Blues tough guy and current team radio analyst Kelly Chase scowled.

"When I played, I didn't have to call (National Hockey League commissioner) Gary Bettman to find out what the punishment was for running a guy from behind in Detroit," Chase said. "The punishment was (Bob) Probert and (Joe) Kocur." According to popular logic, the reason why this form of capital punishment is no longer delivered is the instigator rule.

Bob Probert and Joey Kocur, aka “The Bruise Brothers,” were mythic sports heroes in Detroit back when I became a hockey fan (that would be 1985, Gentle Reader). And “mythic” ain’t hyperbole in the least. Even I considered building an altar in my basement to these guys. I’m only half-kidding. Twenty years on the Bruise Brothers are still revered in Detroit and just across the river in Windsor, Ontario, where Probert lives today. And in certain parts of New Mexico, I should add.

I’ve written about Probert before, and probably should devote a post to Joey, as well. After all, Joey came back to the Red Wings and played on two of three Stanley Cup-winning teams of the recent era, most notably the ‘96 – ‘97 season, when Joey was signed as a free agent just before the play-offs began. Prior to the signing Kocur had been playing hockey in a seniors league in suburban Detroit. A seniors league! How’s that for a comeback, eh?

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: “Why I Love Japan.” Beer. In vending machines. On the street, unattended, 7x24x365. You pays your yen, you makes your choice. Note the Budweiser in the Suntory machine. I’ll have a Kirin, thankyouverymuch. Or I’ll walk down the block and find a Sapporo machine. There’s another beer machine in the second pic, lurking behind that pole on the right.

December, 1991. The Second Mrs. Pennington and I spent Christmas with friends in Japan that year, on our way home from Beijing. This street is near the apartment of TSMP’s girlfriend Junko. That’s the girl TSMP raised Hell with during her senior year in high school, and continued raising Hell with in the years to follow…although Junko became a married lady (with children!) and wasn’t into the Hell-raising biz all that much after becoming a mom. It happens like that.

Aiiieee.

After tonight I’m thinking I should put a “This Space For Rent” sign in my sidebar where the “Rudy” logo sits at the moment. Speculation is Rudy will drop out before the end of the week and will deliver an endorsement for either McCain or Romney. Rumor has it he’ll endorse McCain. I hope so.

Well, now. I have a fairly tough decision to make. Should I begin drinking heavily, or have just one more and go to bed?

What did you FredHeads do? I won't ask the Ron Paul folks, because their suggestions might prove to be both physically and anatomically impossible. Besides that, they're all “bitter end” sorts and will probably still be campaigning come the second week of November.

―:☺:―

On the good news reading front… Blog-buddy Morgan lost a great good friend this past week. But she had a long, happy, and productive life…expiring at exactly the 341,092.4 mile mark. And Morgan was the only man she ever loved. Read the story here. It’s a remarkable tale.

Tuesday's Trivialities

So… I watched Dubya’s final SOTU last night, the Democrat “rebuttal,” and the associated reek that passes for commentary on same. My opinion? A journeyman-like speech… nothing truly impressive, but nothing truly horrible, either. Dubya’s best line of the evening for (heh) my money was his throw-away about the IRS accepting checks and money-orders if you absolutely, positively feel compelled to pay more taxes. (OK, I added the adjectives. He didn’t.)

As for Governor Sebelius, her opening paragraphs gave me hope we would hear something other than the same-ol’, same-ol’ partisan Democrat bromides and general rejection of anything/everything President Bush said. But after promising “an American, rather than a partisan response” she launched into a rather ridiculous “join us, President Bush...” kind of speech that was just what I feared it would be: partisan carping. And a lot of Democrats were less-than-impressed, too.

Ah, well. Plus ça change…

―:☺:―

Today’s Quickie…

Saw a billboard that said

'Need help, call Jesus. 1-800-005-3787'

...Out of curiosity I did.

A Mexican showed up with a dump truck.

From a Bud, via e-mail. This reads like Rodney Dangerfield. And it’s just as funny.

―:☺:―

I’m not the only one… In “Kamikaze Republicans,” a column published by Townhall.com, Wynton Hall writes:

Some unsatisfied Republican voters, especially conservative ones, have threatened to sit out the Republican primary in protest. Indeed, within GOP circles it is not uncommon that one may hear the refrain, "I'd rather have Hillary or Obama win and start fresh than to vote for a RINO (Republican in Name Only) or some half-committed conservative."

Rants of frustration such as these, while understandable, are baseless. More than that, they belie and betray the Republican and conservative arguments regarding the existential battle of our time-the long term threats posed by radical Islamic terrorism. In a time of war, the temptation toward "Kamikaze Republicanism" is both intellectually and ethically bankrupt. Worse, such sentiments stand to pose grave danger to the 2.4 million soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who stand ready to do violence on the nation's behalf so that Americans might live freely.

To argue that there is not a "dime's worth of difference" between a President Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama vs. a President McCain, Romney, or Giuliani negates the entire range of national security arguments waged since September 11th. In one rhetorical swipe of tongue, Kamikaze Republicanism reduces the singular security threat of our age to rubble, for implicit in the argument is the notion that presidential leadership is impotent in effectuating military and geopolitical change. But as the enormously successful "surge" in Iraq continues to demonstrate, the strategic and tactical decisions leaders make affects the direction that events will take. Indeed, to suggest that General Petraeus's leadership and counsel would have been equally followed by a president beholden to and political dependent upon groups who smear and denigrate such a patriot with cries of "General Betraeus" is intellectual laziness in the extreme.

Even though my excerpt is long, it’s just the beginning of a wise bit of advice from Mr. Hall. His principal point is the wide gulf that separates the Democrat candidates and the Republicans (with the notable exception of that guy from Texas) pretty much begins and ends with national security. There’s obviously more differences than national security…things like the composition of the Supreme Court, taxes, economic freedom, etc. … but the over-riding issue in this campaign IS national security. Unless you think like a Democrat and don’t believe… never believed… we’re at war. A Democrat administration in peace time is one thing; we’ve survived those debacles in the past, and quite well, thank you. But a Democrat administration in these perilous times, given ALL of the Democrat candidates’ position on The Surge and the war in Iraq generally, is like putting Dr. Kervorkian in charge of the patient. I dunno about you, Gentle Reader, but I’d like a fighting chance. We probably don’t get that chance if Republicans/conservatives stay home on Election Day. History is already against the Republicans holding the White House for another four years…we don’t have to increase the odds against us any more than necessary.

Further in the same vein…John Hawkins of Right Wing News, in a column titled “The Ten Most Annoying Things About the Race for the Presidency,” writes:

The Intra-Party Blood Feud on the Republican Side: I'm all in favor of taking a hard look at the candidates and getting all their flaws out in the open during the primaries. Moreover, if a few sharp elbows get thrown in the process, that's all well and good. Heck, I've even thrown more than a few of those elbows myself.

But, the childish pouting, hysterical tantrums, and bitter carping are starting to get out of control. Conservatives would be a lot better off if they stepped back, breathed deeply, and took Reagan's 80% rule to heart -- "My 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy" -- before they help create rifts that may take the GOP years to heal.

Put another way: Grow Up. Reasonable people can disagree, reasonably. And no one agrees with any one person about everything. That’s a life lesson that’s supposed to be learned somewhere between kindergarten and the fifth grade. Some folks appear to have missed a lot of school.

―:☺:―

I missed this last Friday, but as it’s said…Better Late Than Never. Fisking is kinda-sorta out of vogue these days. But…if you’re a guy, and if you’re fed up with all the rules, regulations, stipulations, and tribulations the opposite sex…or more appropriately, the media, ostensibly speaking for the opposite sex… seem to lay on us these days, then you should read “Relax, sugar-tits.” By Rachel Lucas. Let me repeat: that’s RACHEL Lucas… not Raoul Lucas or Robert Lucas. Rachel. (Hint: women just might wanna read this, too.) Here’s a taste:

One of these days I will write an epic about one of my biggest pet peeves, which is how in every commercial on TV that features a couple, the guy is retarded and the woman is sassy, clever, and dismayed with the retard. Really? We’re still doing that cliche?

But for now, kinda along the same lines, this morning I saw this article, 10 Things You Should Never Say To A Woman, that is, if you want not to offend the budding-flower tenderness of the ladies. Maybe I’m messed up in the head, maybe my parents just did something right, but I read stuff like this and I am so glad I’m not a man because being a man would mean being forced to put up with this shit without fighting back because that would make you a sexist pig jerk. So as a woman who isn’t inflicted with The Crazy, I’ll fight back for you guys. Because I am helpful like that.

And I’m helpful about providing entertaining and useful links, even if it’s stuff you may have already read. You’re welcome.

(h/t: Conservative Grapevine)

―:☺:―

In the “Wish I’d Said That” Dept…here’s K-LO at The Corner:

It goes on. But I can't. Where's room for parody in the world, when you have liberal feminists?

She’s talking about the National Organization of Women’s (NY chapter) denunciation of Teddy Kennedy (D, Chappaquiddick), in the wake of Teddy’s Barack endorsement. There’s a link to the NOW press release at NRO. And K-Lo’s right. The press release reads like Scott Ott wrote it, but he didn’t.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: A preview of my next scanning project: illustrating my four-part tale (first installment here) about doing business (and a lot of other things) in the Peoples Republic of China in 1991.

Two of these three pics were taken on the segment of the Great Wall that’s been largely restored for the tourist trade…about 40 miles or so outside of Beijing. It was cold that December day, Gentle Reader. Too cold for the way I was dressed, let me tell ya. But… I left my arctic gear at home, unfortunately. Still and even, the place was simply swarming with tourists, even for a cold late December’s day.

And: I’m a man, in Chinese eyes. Our interpreter told us there’s an ancient Chinese saying that says “one isn’t a man until one has walked the Great Wall.” Or something like that.

The third pic is of TSMP and a very young soldier of the Peoples Liberation Army, taken in Tiananmen Square. The boy was not impressed, was he?

A Strange Sort of Monday

So…didja watch the All-Star game? If you did you might agree that it was one of the better…if not the best…All-Star games in quite some time. You could be forgiven if you watched and decided to move on to something else after the first period was over…coz it looked like the game was gonna be a blow-out kind of snoozer, and blow-outs are always snoozers, right? The East led after the first period, 5-1. But, as they say, things got interesting in the second period when the West narrowed the lead to 5-3. The game turned into an edge-of-your-seat affair throughout the third period, when the West tied it up at 5-5, scoring two goals just a little less than two minutes into the final period. The final 18 minutes of the game saw both sides scoring a total of five goals, culminating with the East’s 8-7 win with just 21 seconds left on the clock in regulation time.

It doesn’t get a lot better than this, Gentle Reader, even considering the game meant nothing (other than lotsa fun for all involved) and not a single penalty was called. As a matter of fact, there hasn’t been a penalty called in an All Star game since 2000. All in all, the game was a fine way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon in January.

―:☺:―

We’re having rather strange weather here on The High Plains of New Mexico this morning. It’s relatively warm for a late January morning, but the wind is blowing whatever warmth there is outside to points north and east. But Hey! The folks north and east of us need a lil bit of warmth after getting their butts kicked with all that ice Friday and Saturday last. As for us…we hit 67 degrees yesterday. I considered, oh-so-briefly, uncovering Miss Zukiko and taking her out for a run before the game yesterday afternoon. The wind was all that stopped me.

―:☺:―

Is there anything in this country that goes un-analyzed? Anything at all? I ask, Gentle reader, because I think this is just a lil over the top. A quote:

Obama's type is contemporary, fresh, very polished and professional. The serifs are sharp and pointed; clean pen strokes evoke a well-pressed Armani suit. The ever-present rising sun logo has the feeling of a hot new Internet company. His sans serifs conjure up the clean look of Nike or Sony. This typography is young and cool. Clearly not the old standards of years past.

Well. The evocations of “a well-pressed Armani suit” (is there any other kind? Do you normally see guys in rumpled Armani suits?) and “hot new internet company” (again: any other kind?) apply to Obama’s campaign logo. There are other, similarly vapid analyses of the fonts used in all the candidates’ logos…if you’re interested. And you just might be interested… Hell, I was. There was a time, believe it or don’t, when I argued the finer points of serif fonts and other such nonsense. All in the name of “effective communications” and “presentation value.” Arghhh…

―:☺:―

I awoke this morning and noticed it’s a Monday…right off the bat. That may sound somewhat strange to those of you who remain in the traces and are slaving away in an office, a cube, or whatever/where ever your place of business may be. The fact it’s Monday isn’t lost on you, I’m sure. But it’s unusual for me, because one day is pretty much the same as the next. That happens when one is retired. What’s even more unusual is I felt a brief twinge of something… something very much like a longing… that I wasn’t heading off to a workplace of some sort this morning. About which… is the first time I can recall feeling that way in a long, long time. What I mean is… how, exactly, does one miss…

• getting up at oh-dark-thirty (normally between 0400 and 0430 hrs),
• tossing down a cup (or two) while checking my corporate e-mail to ensure nothing blew up while I was sleeping,
• hitting the shower,
• pouring your third cup in a travel cup,
• getting in the car,
• driving six miles to the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station,
• riding 45 minutes into The City, while reading most of the WSJ in the process
• walking three minutes from the Montgomery Street BART station to Starbucks to buy the first of about four cups,
• riding the elevator eight floors up to “the office,” arriving about 0615 hrs
• spending anywhere from ten to 11 to 12 hours or so doing “really important stuff” to keep the inter-tubes free for commerce,
• returning to the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station from which you began,
• driving home, stopping somewhere along the way to pick up dinner,
• arriving home somewhere around 1930 (or later),
• eating dinner while doing another two hours (or so) of work you didn’t have time to do while AT work,
• watching a little teevee,
• going to bed, and…
• doing it all over again the next day

Rinse, repeat, for a little over two years. There were variations on this theme. As an example, I lived in Berkeley for the first year I was in SFO… so the BART ride was shorter (much shorter) and I walked from my apartment to BART and back. Same, but different. How, exactly, does one miss this kinda…umm…stuff? Am I crazy? That’s what I felt I was missing this morning, Gentle Reader.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: Keeping with the theme of “Missing the Working World,” three pics of YrHmblScrb at his place of business. Well, two pics at his place of business, and one where I’m less than 20 minutes removed from the office and enjoying a beer in the rooftop bar of the Mandarin Hotel in Singapore. That bar had a magnificent view of the city, but let's not digress.


Note the difference in corporate cultures… as if you could miss it. The first two photos were taken when EDS was the most buttoned-down of all button-downed companies in America (before they gave in to the “corporate casual” movement sometime around ’96) and the third was taken in my company’s Site Operations Center (SOC). I was the SOC Director.

Wanna guess which company I liked better? You might be surprised at the answer, Gentle Reader.

At a Loss for Something to Do This Afternoon?

Well, then...there's this. Kicks off in about an hour and 45 minutes on the Versus network, which most cable companies carry. Or so I'm told.

You won't see any fights...but you WILL see a lot of goals, a lot of pretty plays, and the world's BEST hockey players, bar none. Including...

On defense, Red wings blueliner Nicklas Lidstrom, a five-time Norris Trophy winner as the league's best defenseman, will make his 10th All-Star Game appearance. The 37-year-old Lidstrom leads all NHL rearguards with 46 points and is also first in the league amongst all players with a plus-40 rating.

I'll be there with lotsa beer (there's no Labatts in the house, unfortunately... but note the splash screen at the web site. Cool, eh?) and popcorn. One could do a lot worse where Sunday afternoon teevee's concerned.

Me too! Me TOO!

OK, I'm probably the 1,432nd blogger to post this...but it's too good NOT to post!


Heh. I'm sure Bowie is quite proud...
(h/t: Lex)

We Were Soldiers Cowboys Once… And Young

Today’s Pics: Talk about long ago and far away! What I know: these pics were taken in the Sacramento, CA area, most likely in base housing on McClellan AFB (the Christmas pics) and in the house my parents bought somewhere near Mather AFB. What I don’t know: The exact year. I’m probably between four and five years of age in these pics…that’s my best guess.

These five pics were taken on at least two different occasions, but they reflect my very young boyhood obsession: cowboys. Hopalong Cassidy, in particular, but Red Ryder, Wild Bill Hickok, and Roy Rogers were up there on my list of heroes as well. My shirt, pants, and boots are Hopalong Cassidy signature items, as is the small table radio and the camp chair in the Christmas shots. I kept that radio until my teen-age years…the rest of the stuff sorta disappeared, as stuff tends to do when you move every three years or so.

My memories of this time are pretty faint to non-existent. I do remember my mother taking me to the “Kids Matinee” at the base theatre nearly every Saturday. The “show” was free and featured one “B” cowboy movie from the 40s and a few…usually three… “shorts,” that could have been about nearly anything. The moms on our block in the housing area rotated “kid duty” and took a gaggle of small boys on these outings every Saturday morning. That outing was the highlight of my young life at the time.

I also remember that we had one of the first televisions in our sub-division after Dad and Mom bought the house near Mather AFB, which was quite the Big Deal. Sacramento didn’t have a TV station when Dad bought the teevee, and he and his friends erected a 20-foot mast (at least, more than likely taller) and a huge antenna on our house so we could receive broadcasts out of San Francisco…badly. All the kids in the neighborhood and quite a few of their parents would gather to watch teevee in our living room. That was a real social event for the times, even though there wasn’t a whole helluva lot to watch. I also remember getting out of bed in the morning, running into the living room and switching on the teevee to wait for the morning shows to begin…impatiently waiting for the test pattern to disappear and the programming to begin.

Our family stayed in the Sacramento area until 1953, at which time Dad was reassigned to London, England. Dad was the recipient of one of those infamous “short-notice” assignments, and he preceded us in England by several months. My Mom, my sister and I followed about six months later. The trip from Sacramento to London…via Mom’s home in Atlanta, Georgia… was quite an adventure for an eight year-old boy, not to mention Mom… who drove across the US of A with my sister and I all alone. That was quite daring in 1953. I’ve told the tale of the move and subsequent adventures in three installments… here, here, and here… if you’re interested, Gentle Reader.

Rippin' Up the "Big Tent"

Some of the more interesting things I read yesterday had to do with Peggy Noonan’s column in the WSJ. Buried, quite literally, at the very bottom of Ms. Noonan’s column was this lil gem:

On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it!"

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.

And this needs saying, because if you don't know what broke the elephant you can't put it together again. The party cannot re-find itself if it can't trace back the moment at which it became lost. It cannot heal an illness whose origin is kept obscure.

Hoo-Boy. Bull. Pasture. Red Flag. (Trying on another metaphor instead of my UCR “Jane, You ignorant slut!”) Captain Ed sez “no, it wasn’t Bush…”

It doesn't mean we don't have trouble, but Noonan's wrong to lay the whole thing on Bush. While it's true that he hasn't provided much in the way of fiscal discipline, he didn't run for office as a Steve Forbes conservative, either. He spoke of compassionate conservatism, a code for big-government approaches for center-right policies, and he delivered. Bush talked about working on bipartisan solutions to national issues, and he pretty much did that before the Iraq war turned sour. Republicans elected Bush knowing what they were going to get, and Noonan can't seriously claim shock over the result.

The seeds of Republican discontent took root in Congress, not the executive. It was the succession of Republican Congresses that refused to cut spending, and instead blew wads of cash on non-defense discretionary spending. Bush led in some of these efforts, but he didn't multiply pork exponentially; that came from House and Senate Republicans. He didn't climb into bed with K Street, either -- that project started before Bush ever arrived at the White House with Tom DeLay and others.

While Billy Hollis at Q&O sez:

And the GOP faithful are still out there attempting to scare folks with "What? Any Republican is better than Hillary! If you small-government types know what's good for you, you'll get behind the GOP nominee, whoever it is. Otherwise, it will be a disaster!"

Well, it will be a disaster - for the political insiders and those whose life revolves around winning. The Democrats already suffered through theirs. In 1994, the entire Democratic political establishment was shell shocked when the GOP took Congress, by a big margin. The GOP has not yet faced their own disaster, mostly because they've been blessed with stupid enemies.

But I think it's coming, sooner or later. Sooner, if McCain or Huckabee are the standard bearer. Later, if the GOP squeezes out one more victory, but just can't internalize the need to stop selling the spending, stop the earmarks, and get serious about their core small-government principles.

As for me, I found James Joyner’s commentary more in alignment with my take on things political:

And, frankly, Reagan’s record — as opposed to his rhetoric — isn’t exactly what those who pine for the Good Ole Days seem to think it was. Reagan did virtually nothing to advance the socially conservative agenda he talked about. He appointed Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy, two moderate swing votes, to the Supreme Court to go along with Antonin Scalia, his lone conservative appointee. And he signed the biggest illegal immigrant amnesty bill in the country’s history. He allowed spending to skyrocket under his administration, leaving the country saddled with historic debt.

It’s 2008, not 1980. Most women work outside the home. There hasn’t been a military draft in more than a generation. There are significantly more than three television channels. We’ve completed the shift from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. Our political climate has, understandably, changed a little. Goodness, there’s a serious chance that a woman or a black man will be our next president; that was the stuff of stand-up comedy routines in Reagan’s day.

The campaigns of Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul, Tommy Thompson, and Fred Thompson never got off the ground. If you thought they’d be great presidents, you were virtually alone. Sorry for your loss but it’s time to move on.

The president represents 300 million-odd Americans and is selected through a grueling process that ensures he’s vetted by widely varying constituencies. The primary process runs potential nominees through a gauntlet and then the general election requires appealing to pluralities in enough states to get at least half of the votes in the Electoral College.

Ms. Noonan is fundamentally correct in her brief conclusions about Bush’s record regarding the war, spending, and small government. But Bush’s missteps hardly qualify as “destroying the Republican Party.” I’m more or less inclined to agree with Mr. Morrissey when he lays the blame on Congress for the GOP’s failure in the mid-terms… yet he, too, is off the mark by claiming the seeds of GOP destruction were planted in Congress. Dubya could have exercised more and better leadership in that space…like finding and using his veto pen about five years before he actually did, and engaging in some creative arm-twisting with the GOP congressional leaders.

And then there’s The War, which (IMHO) has been about as badly managed as any of our previous wars, and worse than most. Still… you go to war with the administration you have, not the one you wish you had… to paraphrase some former administration official. Dubya changed course in Iraq at the Eleventh Hour, or perhaps later than that. The War may be out of the headlines now, but Dubya’s lack of success up until May/June of 2007 certainly had a LOT to do with Republican dissatisfaction, and almost everything to do with Democrat angst.

So. Is the GOP falling apart, or what? Yes and no. I’ve seen and heard the term “healthy debate” used a lot this past week to describe the internecine warfare within the GOP, and healthy debate is good…when it’s healthy. I’ve also read a lot of opinion that smacks of “I’ll take my ball and go home if we don’t play by my rules” kind of talk as well. There’s always this sort of talk during an election cycle, and it’s usually just talk. Except in 1992. And you know what happened then. Could 2008 be déja-vu all over again? We DO have some…umm… rather familiar Lefty faces in this year’s race that make me wonder. Especially when I get e-mails like this:

From: Draft Bloomberg Committee reply-toinfo@draftbloomberg.com,
To: buckpennington01…at…gmail.com
Date: Jan 15, 2008 4:20 PM

Subject: The Draft Bloomberg Petition

Draft Bloomberg Committee Launches Petition

If you believe Mike Bloomberg should run for president, then now is the time to tell him!

America needs and deserves a president with vision and a proven track record of solving tough problems and delivering real results, a president who can bring America together through true leadership and fine character.

With a recession looming, we believe that Mayor Bloomberg, a proven successful businessman and public servant, is that leader to help us rebuild our country.

Join the Draft Bloomberg Committee on the ground floor by completing two important activities that will help bring Mayor Bloomberg into the presidential race:

1. Sign the petition to draft Mike Bloomberg: Add your name to the list and stay informed about our draft movement. Sign online now!

2. Publish the petition on your blog: The more voices we have shouting Mike's name, the more likely he will be to enter the race. Publish the petition on your blog!

So… either we get it together as a party, or some idiot will decide to jump in and tear it all apart (I appreciate the irony involved in calling a billionaire an idiot, believe me), no matter if it’s Mike “I’m NOT running for President” Bloomberg, Ron “Isolationism is Good!” Paul, or anyone else who thinks a third-party candidacy is viable in the US of A*. But there’s danger for conservatives even in the absence of a third-party candidate, and I’m speaking of the “a pox on BOTH their houses, I’m staying home” crowd. If you fall into the latter category, then I suggest you get ready for another Clinton administration. Or worse.

Another thing: you forfeit your inalienable right to bitch, piss, and moan if you stay home on election day. That should be important to at least some of you. Unless, you know, you lie about not voting... but you wouldn't do that, now, would ya?

In the meantime… Mr. Joyner has it right: let’s discuss our differences and support the guy we prefer. But after all the hootin’ and hollerin’s done in St. Paul come September, let’s get behind our nominee and work to win.

* Unless Nader or someone like him decides to run again, in which case: Yes. It’s all about where the votes come from, eh?

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: A much younger me (a 30-year old me, to be exact) doing what I used to do before Algore invented these here inter-tubes, and doing it in TSMP’s student apartment in Mushashi-Koganei, a borough in metropolitan Tokyo. I think the photo captures my inner geek pretty well, doesn’t it?

Sometime in 1975… I’m thinking it was winter, coz I have my GI long-underwear shirt on. There wasn’t any central heat in that apartment and it could get very cold, as in ice-on-the-inside-of-the-windows cold, see-your-breath cold. The general chilliness, of course, was a damned good excuse for TSMP and I to crawl into her futon and get warm. Kinda. Sorta. As a by-product.

USAF PME, On the O-Side

So. Dunno if I’ve mentioned this or not, but SN1 is off on another boondoggle attending an advanced Professional Military Education (PME) course, this time at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. This particular course’s acronym is AMMOS, which I think stands for Advanced Material Management Officer (Something)... which should tell you I really don’t know what the Hell I'm talking about.

Anyhoo… the course is for guys people in the USAF logistics biz and SN1, being a Maintenance Officer, falls into that category. He sent along this lil vid, which I thought I’d share with you, Gentle Reader. We all need to know what sort of training our troops and their officers must go through in order to defend the country. So, without further ado… here's Captain Pennington operating some of the USAF's state-of-the-art support equipment:

The Good News: USAF has finally taught its ossifers to clean up after themselves.

The Bad News: They required instruction. Further... this event came much too late for me to profit from it.

Further Good News: This new development should result in less wear and tear on the E-side of the USAF house. The development also demonstrates the AF is quite unlike the other armed services. Case in point:

The Marine C.O.'s Morning Briefing:

The Commanding Officer of a Regiment in the U. S. Marine Corps was about to start the morning briefing to his Staff and Battalion and Company Commanders. While waiting for the coffee machine to finish its brewi ng, he decided to pose a question to all assembled. He explained that his wife had been a bit frisky the night before and he failed to get his usual amount of sound sleep. So he posed the question of just how much of sex was 'work' and how much of it was 'pleasure'?

The X.O. chimed in with 75-25% in favor of work.

A Captain said it was 50-50%.

The Colonel's Aide, a Lt., responded with 25-75% in favor of pleasure, depending on his state of inebriation at the time.

There being no consensus, the Colonel turned to the Lance Corporal who was in charge of making the coffee. What was HIS opinion?

With no hesitiation, the young LC responded, "Sir, it has to be 100% pleasure."

The Colonel was surprised and, as you might guess, asked why?

"Well, Sir, began the LC, "if there was any work involved, the officers would have me doing it for them."

The room fell silent. God Bless the enlisted men.

I rest my case.

(h/t for the joke: FHB)

Sadness, An Astute Observation, Not-So-Astute Observations, and My Motto

My God…HOW did I miss this?

Suzanne Pleshette was a lot saltier than Emily Hartley. She’d be the person you’d want to sit next to at a party because you’d be sure to hear some choice comments, delivered with sass.

Pleshette died Saturday at age 70 of respiratory failure. She had been treated for lung cancer two years ago.

[…]

Time had given her this way-out-there vitality. With her deep voice, hearty laugh and intense stare, she could have taught the Golden Girls — or female impersonators — a thing or two. You might remember that ribald quality if you ever saw her chatting with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.

She wasn’t the glamorous young actress anymore; she was an earthy dame, an Auntie Mame who wasn’t afraid to tell a dirty story.

Aside from being one of the leading comedic actresses of our time, Ms. Pleshette was exquisitely beautiful. And she seemed to embody everything I admire in women…self-assurance, strength, courage, brashness, unabashed sexuality, bawdiness, and beauty. In other words, I was in love with this woman…or as much as one can be “in love” with someone you don’t know. I saw her just last month on a re-run episode of the PBS series “American Masters,” where she was featured prominently in the episode on Bob Newhart. She looked wonderful, and I had no idea she was seriously ill. Then again, I don’t know when the Newhart episode was filmed, either.

I don’t keep up with celebrity news (obviously), but I am deeply saddened by Ms. Pleshette’s passing. She brought joy into my life and convinced me it was possible to find a woman who had all those qualities she projected so effortlessly. I did find that woman and spent 23 years with her. And she was a lot like Ms. Pleshette…or at least very much like Ms. Pleshette’s public persona.

RIP, Suzanne. And thanks.

(photo credit: CBS)

―:☺:―

So…last night I was watching the Winter X Games on ESPN…and these guys were doing extreme snowmobile racing (“speed and style”) and…wait for it… back flips… on snowmobiles, no less. Gad. “Only in America” and all that, but it was fairly riveting teevee. You know what caught my ear, though? The commentators, remarking on the aerial derring-do of one of the winning snowmobile guys: “That was something you’d expect to see from the Thunderbirds…not a snowmobiler.” Note he said “Thunderbirds.” He didn’t say “That Other Team,” who…umm…come around every now and then with outstretched hands (or open mouths, kinda like baby birds. You choose.).

There’s a lesson there.

―:☺:―

The NYT has come out with their endorsements for New York’s primary and they’re predictable, if nothing else. First: John McCain:

We have strong disagreements with all the Republicans running for president. The leading candidates have no plan for getting American troops out of Iraq. They are too wedded to discredited economic theories and unwilling even now to break with the legacy of President Bush. We disagree with them strongly on what makes a good Supreme Court justice.

Still, there is a choice to be made, and it is an easy one. Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe. With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field.

I didn’t quote the Rudy bashing bits, or the general Left-Wing angst that runs through the whole endorsement (I use the term loosely)…which damns McCain with faint praise. But, at least the editors are up-front and open about their biases and discredited theories on the war. (I had to work that “discredited theories” phrase in here, somewhere.) Speaking of discredited… here’s their Democrat endorsement:

The early primaries produced two powerful main contenders: Hillary Clinton, the brilliant if at times harsh-sounding senator from New York; and Barack Obama, the incandescent if still undefined senator from Illinois. The remaining long shot, John Edwards, has enlivened the race with his own brand of raw populism.

As Democrats look ahead to the primaries in the biggest states on Feb. 5, The Times’s editorial board strongly recommends that they select Hillary Clinton as their nominee for the 2008 presidential election.

We have enjoyed hearing Mr. Edwards’s fiery oratory, but we cannot support his candidacy. The former senator from North Carolina has repudiated so many of his earlier positions, so many of his Senate votes, that we’re not sure where he stands. We certainly don’t buy the notion that he can hold back the tide of globalization.

By choosing Mrs. Clinton, we are not denying Mr. Obama’s appeal or his gifts. The idea of the first African-American nominee of a major party also is exhilarating, and so is the prospect of the first woman nominee. “Firstness” is not a reason to choose. The times that false choice has been raised, more often by Mrs. Clinton, have tarnished the campaign.

Sounds like the inane sort of comment we get from sportscasters, doesn’t it? As in “it’s too bad one of these teams have to lose…they’re BOTH winners!” or some such fluff. Another interesting thing…the McCain endorsement fits on one NYT page, the Hillary endorsement runs two (web) pages. Because there’s just so much more to say about The Good Guys! Then again, if you took the Bush-bashing out of the Democrat endorsement, you wouldn’t have much left. I think the NYT is really gonna miss Dubya when he goes, along with the NBC, ABC, and…oh Hell… I don’t really need to flog this dead horse yet again.

Pssst! NYT editors! Bush. Is. Not. Running.

―:☺:―

Today’s (From The Archives) Pics: A Brit pub sign that could very easily have been my motto back in the day. Hell...it was my motto.

Somewhere in the UK... sometime between June of 1980 and June 1983.

Update 1/25/2008 1235 hrs.: re: Today's NYT Republican endorsement. The Corner at NRO catches the NYT talking out of both sides of their mouth about Rudy. Good stuff. And a better point... NRO asks the rhetorical question "Which editorial is right?" And delivers an appropriate answer, too.

Well, I Was Gonna Go Do Laundry...

...but I think I'll wait. There's BIG ol' lazy flakes drifting down outside at the moment. It's pretty neat watching this stuff come down and turn the world all white and pretty and clean and such, sitting inside where it's warm and cozy... with a nice hot cup of coffee spiced up with a wee dram of Scotland's Finest.

Looks like it's gonna be a pretty good day, all things considered. The laundry can wait.

A Couple of Milestones...Plus Ruminations on the Past

It’s the eclecticism… Or, yet another reason I listen to RP almost exclusively these days. From RP’s play list this morning:

8:21 am - Frank Sinatra - The Coffee Song
8:19 am - Bottle Rockets - Coffee Monkey
8:14 am - Dire Straits - Expresso Love

“Coffee Monkey” kicked off just as I was draining my first cup; I come back to the desk with my second cup and Sinatra’s on. Oh, Yeah! I just don’t have this sort of wide variety in my music collection. Bill and Rebecca do. And they use it, too.

―:☺:―

A couple of milestones passed me by this week…milestones that should be noted.

First: to use the military vernacular, SN2 is working for half-pay as of this past Friday, the 18^th of January. That means he has over 20 years of service now, for you non-military types. One is eligible to retire at 50% of base pay at 20 years, ergo: working for half-pay. He won’t retire anytime soon, though. But with the passing of this milestone, planning for his post-military life has begun. Transitions, and all that. Not to mention the fact I’m feeling pretty old, yet again. To think I have offspring that could retire…Aiiieee!

Second: Yesterday marked the passing of one full year since I lit my last cigarette. I still miss ‘em, too. Badly. But I ain’t going back…

―:☺:―

Long-time readers of EIP know there’s a guy by the name of Dan who hangs around EIP and comments occasionally. Dan and I go back nearly 40 years and he is my oldest friend (speaking of the duration of the relationship and not his age…although he can qualify in that space, too). We met at Wakkanai AS, Japan in 1968 or 1969 and we were both in the same racket, job-wise…which is to say we were both 303X2s, the USAF job code for aircraft control and warning radar technicians. We were also drafted by the Air Force for a “special duty identifier” job that took us out of Air Defense Command’s radar business and into USAFSS’ spook biz, beginning in Wakkanai and leading a couple of years later to Sinop, Turkey. Dan and I worked together, drank together, rode motorcycles together, and raced ‘em all over Hokkaido, too. Here’s a pic of Dan sitting along side of a road somewhere near Wakkanai at some unknown time in ‘69, framed by his Yamaha DT-1 (on the left) and mine… on the right.

Dan and I both loved Wakkanai for a number of reasons, not the least of which was, in retrospect, the nature of the job we did. And the bike racing and associated carousing, of course. We both managed to wrangle second tours at Wakkanai after we rotated back to the US in 1970, and we returned to Wakkanai in 1971. Alas, the Air Force had other plans for Wakkanai and for us. In a strange turn of events, USAF announced Wakkanai would be closing shortly after Dan and I returned there in late 1971. The unusually rapid base closure (lights out by the end of 1972, as it were) meant all personnel would be re-assigned to other bases, and Security Service flew in a team of personnel specialists in to handle the short-notice re-assignment process. Dan and I got the short, dirty end of the re-assignment stick. We had two choices: take an assignment to Sinop, Turkey and remain in USAFSS, or turn down Sinop and “get released to Air Force.” While Sinop wasn’t exactly a garden spot assignment, the possible alternatives that came with being released to Air Force for world-wide assignment were decidedly worse. Much worse…like Alaska. So, we opted for Sinop…returning to the US for a short leave before heading off to Turkey for a one-year remote tour in Beautiful Sinop by the Sea.

After our leaves were up Dan and I met in New York and caught Pan Am’s legendary Flight 002 for Istanbul…with an interim stop in Frankfurt. Dan is pictured below in a shot taken during the short layover in Frankfurt.

After Istanbul we caught a THY Fokker to Samsun, Turkey, and then lucked out and caught the Army’s twin-engined Cessna mail plane to Sinop. I say “lucked out,” because the alternative to the 30-minute mail plane flight was a four-hour bus ride over the tortuous and quite scary mountain road between Samsun and Sinop. Dan and I would make that bus trip a couple of times later on during our tour, but that’s quite another story…and one that won’t be told outside of the bar and amongst good friends. To protect the innocent, of course. Not to mention the guilty…

So. There we were…on the beautiful Turkish Black Sea coast for one long, long year. This is the view of the town of Sinop from The Hill, as the base was known.

The base at Sinop was officially named “Sinop Common Defense Installation (CDI),” which was a euphemism meant to imply the American and Turkish armed forces operated the installation jointly. Which was sorta true, as we had a small Turkish Army garrison collocated with us, but the Turks were separated from the “US side” by high chain link fences, topped with barbed wire. NO ONE got into the US operations compound without some serious security clearances…period. The things we did in there were among the most sensitive of all US intelligence activities at the time. The base itself was run by the US Army Security Agency (ASA) and was otherwise known as TUSLOG Detachment 4. The Air Force was a tenant unit on the base, and had the dual designations of TUSLOG Det. 204 and 6934^th Security Squadron…but you never saw the 6934^th designation… anywhere… even on base at Sinop. But…that was work. Let’s not go there. Here’s a pic of a small portion of the antenna farm at Sinop, taken near the USAF barracks. That water-tower looking thing is actually a large electronically-scanned antenna array, and was part of the system Dan and I worked on.

And speaking of the barracks…this was our home away from home…

And this is the dorm room Dan and I shared…

So. Our year at Sinop passed rather uneventfully and oh-so-slowly, it seemed…at the time. Now that I’m gifted with hindsight, it was over in the blink of an eye. Dan I went to work, drank a bit lot more than we probably should have, went exploring in the town of Sinop…which has some remarkable ancient ruins and an even more remarkable history. We both hired on to the local closed circuit radio station as volunteers and hosted a late nite rock ‘n’ roll show interlaced with snappy patter and the like. We spent lazy weekend days during the summer on our very own (Army-run) private beach, drinking beer and lusting after what few American women there were in the area. We went down to the Yeni Hotel on the weekends and drank lousy Carlsburg beer while watching European tourists get off the White Boat and walk around Sinop for an hour or two before continuing on their cruise of the Black Sea. And we took that bus ride to Samsun a couple of times for wild nights of raki-fueled debauchery. To quote Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In spades, Gentle Reader, in spades. I may have had better years in my life, but danged few…and none come to my mind at the moment. Such is the nature of nostalgia, eh?

To close…Here’s another good Sinop-related site…best I’ve found, actually… that focuses on the military (albeit Army) side of Sinop. The owner of this site preceded Dan and I by about a year and has written a detailed narrative about life “on The Hill” supplemented with lotsa good pictures.

Strange

Forgive me this momentary bout of introspection, Gentle Reader. But since this blog is my de facto journal I’m going to talk a little bit about a strange experience I had last night. From an e-mail I sent The Boys today:

Speaking of dieing... This isn't to alarm either of you, coz I'm fine this morning. But the strangest thing happened last night. I ate late...around 2300. I had nuked one of those Stouffer Flatbreads (steak fajitas...in name only), and had finished two of three slices when I was overcome...very quickly... with this strange "flushing" sensation in both my arms...down to my hands, which quickly spread to my neck and shoulders...on both sides. Then I got a ringing in my ears and became extremely dizzy. I quickly stood up...thinking WTF!??! And almost fell over. So, I sat back down. Then my vision began to blur and I got severe tunnel vision and was unable to focus on anything. All of this in the space of about a minute. I thought I was having a stroke. My vision almost went black, and I thought "Wow. So this is how it ends, eh?" In a rather strange sort of move, I decided it would be best to die lying down, so I moved to the couch and did just that...Laid down, that is.

As soon as I hit the couch I was overcome yet again, this time by a wave of nausea...severe nausea....violent nausea. I got off the couch, staggered to the bathroom as best I could (remember: tunnel vision) and threw up, violently, followed by about five minutes of dry heaves. My vision cleared almost immediately and the flushing sensation went away. I washed up, returned to the couch, laid back down, and immediately fell asleep.

I'm fine this morning. The only thing I can think of is severe, radical food poisoning. I base that theory on the fact everything cleared up after I threw everything up. I had NO pain, and my breathing was normal...aside from being a bit quick, because I was about as frickin' scared as I've ever been.

Weird, eh?

I’ve been thinking about this lil episode off and on all day. A couple of amplifications and clarifications are in order, though. When I said I had a “strange flushing sensation,” I meant flushing as in “warmth.” I got downright hot…which is why I described the feeling as “flushing,” as in being flushed. Second, I wasn’t all that frickin’ scared, in retrospect. I didn’t panic, I didn’t grope for the phone so I could dial 911. I did think exactly what I said to the boys in my note, i.e., “Wow. So this is how it ends, eh?”

And this is where the introspective bits come in. Why didn’t I think to dial 911? Why was I ready to just lie down and die? I’m not being melodramatic in the least, Gentle Reader. This was a serious event…with some serious danged symptoms, especially the progressive, yet quick, loss of vision and hearing. I’ve never had an episode like this in my life…nothing even remotely close. I was rational enough to eliminate the possibility of a heart attack (wrong symptoms), and rational enough to realize something was very, very wrong. Yet the only thing I thought was “so this is how it ends?”

I didn’t think about the event at all last evening after returning from the bathroom and laying down. I was simply glad my vision and hearing had returned, my temperature was back to normal, and the nausea was gone along with my dinner. My brief thoughts before falling asleep, which happened almost immediately, were about food poisoning. And that’s pretty much where I am today.

I got the UCR response from SN1: get thee to a doctor. And I will. I usually have my annual physical in my birthday month, but this weirdness will move that Happy Event up on the schedule. But I’m still perplexed over my reactions last evening.

Strange.

The Random Firing of Synapses

Apropos of exactly nothing…except for the firing-off of long dormant synapses… Here’s The Lovin’ Spoonful:

And those synapses of mine? Kind of a long story, but here’s the Readers Digest version. I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB back in ’65 when this tune was on the charts. I also entered a “DeeJay for a Day” contest run by the local radio station (whose call letters I’ve long forgotten) at that very same time. And I won that contest… drawing, actually…one of the very few things I’ve “won” in life, to be frank. “Do You Believe in Magic?” was the very first tune I played during that “DeeJay For A Day” outing. Which, to be frank yet again, was one of the most anti-climatic experiences in my life, ever. “DeeJay For 45 Minutes Sitting Alone In An Auxiliary Control Room Back-Announcing Records That I Sorta Got To Choose As Long As They Were On The Oh-So-Abbreviated AM Playlist” would be much more accurate, but I’ll spare you the details. Later on in life I became a real DeeJay at KBOK in Sinop, Turkey. Sorta.

Anyway. You don’t forget things like that.

Is This COOL, or What?

From the ever-popular Viral Videos...

Party On, Garth

A few random thoughts for starters… First (and second, and third…): I watched about an hour of the Terrible Triumvirate’s gab-fest in South Carolina last evening. It was pretty much more of the same, as I expected. The “debate” was on CNN, moderated by Wolf Blitzer, another one of those pundits/anchor people I love to hate actively-dislike. Just this on Blitzer: he sucks as a moderator, as in little-to-no control over the participants.

The situation got out of hand early, with Clinton and Obama cherry-picking negative items from each other’s voting records, past quotes, resumés, yadda, yadda, yadda, and beating the snot out of each other. Interesting, if you like that sort of thing. I don’t, and Obama got what few points were available (from me) last evening when he said “American voters aren’t interested in political sniping” or some such. The Breck Girl was feeling pretty left-out and let the audience know that, to moderate applause. Silky Pony got real old, real fast, proclaiming “eliminating poverty is my life’s mission” with every other breath. Somehow, the spectacle of a multi-millionaire tort lawyer proclaiming he’s on a crusade to eliminate poverty sticks in my craw. But his supporters eat it up, which says a lot about them, eh?

But. (heh) The biggest (heh, yet again) take-away from last night?

Hillary has a BIG ass. BIG.

That’s not a comment about Hillary the candidate, Hillary the Democrat, or Hillary the Anything Else. It’s just an observation. It’s been widely reported (although I can’t find a link) the Clinton campaign has put reporters on notice there are certain “prohibited camera angles” when it comes to photographing Hillary. CNN didn’t get the message, though, because there were several…many, actually…shots of the candidates from behind. Last night was the first time I’ve seen that camera angle, by the way, so I’m inclined to believe the “don’t shoot her from behind” stuff. To say Hill is “broad in the beam” is an understatement of massive proportions (ed: OK, enough, already.)…

Last: Watching the Terrible Trio’s repeated genuflections to MLK’s memory last evening (the debate was co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus) made me think of the Law of Unintended Consequences. It’s an unfortunate yet true fact that MLK’s memory these days serves primarily to warn out-of-towners which neighborhoods to avoid when visiting a strange city. As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen an MLK boulevard, avenue, or street in any American city I’d walk alone after nine o’clock in the evening. There ain’t no McMansions on said streets.

―:☺:―

The market is not doing all that bad this morning—much better, actually, than I thought it would. The Fed’s Emergency rate cut seems to be holding off the blood-bath. For the moment. The Dow is down about 140 points as I tap this out, with a couple of hours left in the trading day. As it’s said: “It could have been worse.” A lot worse, judging from the European and Asian markets’ performances these last two days.

―:☺:―

It’s been nearly six months since I put that NeoWORX widget in my side-bar…I’m talking about that “Are We Global Yet?” thingie that shows the number of visits one gets from all the different and various countries. It’s my favorite widget. It took about four months to break the 100-country mark, and the counter held at 95 countries for the looongest time, but we’re up to 110 countries at the moment. Being as how I’m fascinated with geography, the ‘net, and technology in general, I find it simply amazing that someone… anyone… from Djibouti, Estonia, Korea, or Romania would read my scribblings. But, to be real about it, they’re probably only looking for pissing stories. As I’m fond of saying: “Imagine the disappointment…”

―:☺:―

Interesting…

Some 3 billion fortune cookies are made each year, almost all in the United States. But the crisp cookies wrapped around enigmatic sayings have spread around the world. They are served in Chinese restaurants in Britain, Mexico, Italy, France and elsewhere. In India, they taste more like butter cookies. A surprisingly high number of winning tickets in Brazil's national lottery in 2004 were traced to lucky numbers from fortune cookies distributed by a Chinese restaurant chain called Chinatown.

But there is one place where fortune cookies are conspicuously absent: China.

Now a researcher in Japan believes she can explain the disconnect, which has long perplexed American tourists in China. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan.

Everything you could conceivably want to know about fortune cookies… and then some. I used to save my favorite fortunes and tuck ‘em away inside my wallet. I was gonna quote you some of my faves, but I apparently went through my wallet and threw ‘em out sometime in the past. Probably around the time the fortunes proved demonstrably false, say 1998.

But, Hey! The article is interesting, and I still read my fortune(s). I just don't save 'em any longer.

―:☺:―

Today’s (From the Archives) Pic: The Second Mrs. Pennington will probably put out a contract on me for this, but…

That’s the lady as Rotary High School Exchange Student in Tokyo, circa 1972 or perhaps ‘73. She was a senior at the time and the fact she was required to wear a uniform really grated on her. And don’t she look oh-so-innocent? Heh. You should hear some of her stories about her and Best Bud Junko’s sub rosa exploits in Harajuku, Shinjuku, and other such points in Tokyo. As I said: heh. The girl knew how to party.

(Terrible Trio photo credit: AP)

Huzzah!

I’m surfing the ‘net this evening at these sorts of speeds:

Yep. My broadband connection, which I first mentioned back in March of 2006, is finally…finally! … a reality. I was loath to even mention the fact I had an installation appointment until such time as (a) Yucca Telecom showed up and (b) the installation was successful. I’m happy to report both (a) and (b) came to pass this afternoon. Yucca was on time, the installation proceeded successfully, and…

I am a Happy Camper! Yay!

No longer (hopefully) will I have to deal with stuff like this:

I know: never say “never.” But tonight I’m infected with joy and incurable optimism.

Thanks, Yucca. Better late than never.

Happy MLK Day

Hang on to your hats…it looks like the markets are in for a wild ride tomorrow. And it won’t be a fun sort of ride, either:

Global anxiety about the prospect of a recession in the United States triggered steep stock market declines Monday, pushing the Toronto Stock Exchange down more than 600 points, or 4.79 per cent, by mid-day.

[…]

The losses were felt across the board: In London, the FTSE 100 index plunged 5.48 per cent to close at 5,578.20 points. In Paris, the CAC 40 index lost 6.83 per cent to close at 4,744,45 points and in Frankfurt the DAX shed 7.16 per cent to close at 6,790.19 points, with both markets seeing the biggest single-day losses since the 9/11 terror attacks.

The European markets followed the Asian markets in posting steep declines.

In Asia, India's benchmark stock index tumbled 7.4 per cent, while Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng index plummeted 5.5 per cent to 23,818.86 – its biggest percentage drop since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Ouch. The market is off nearly nine per cent already this year… and tomorrow looks like a bloodbath-in-waiting. Enjoy your Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, folks.

―:☺:―

In other financial news… I had my propane tank refilled this morning. Total cost: $31.34 for just a wee bit more than 11 gallons. Two weeks ago I bought eight gallons for a mere $22.00. It looks like it’s gonna be a long, cold winter. And it’ll be a more expensive winter, too.

―:☺:―

So. I’m seeing a lot of this sort of talk lately, as exemplified by Bill Quick:

I will not vote for any ticket headed by John McCain or Mike Huckabee. If McCain is the nominee, I won’t vote for any candidate. If Huckabee is the nominee, I’ll vote for the Democratic candidate. Yes, I would vote for BJ & Hillary Clinton before I’d cast a vote for that constitution-rewriting Christian reconstructionist theocrat in the making, Huckabee. In fact, I won’t vote for any ticket of which he is a part.

At the moment, probably the best I can hope for would be a Giuliani/Thompson ticket. I think that, absent Fred, Rudy would have the best leadership talents. My only problem is where he would try to lead us. But I’d vote for him. I’d vote, but with less enthusiasm, for a Rudy/Romney ticket, in whatever order, and I would vote for a Romney/Thompson ticket.

But McCain or Huckabee? Either one is a deal-breaker, and neither will get my vote. The only difference is that Huckabee will cause me to vote - for his opponent.

Which is only partly offset by this sort of talk, coming from William Kristol writing in The Weekly Standard:

Conservative editorialists, radio hosts, and bloggers are unhappy. They don't like the Republican presidential field, and many of them have been heaping opprobrium on the various GOP candidates with astonishing vigor.

For example: John McCain--with a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 82.3--is allegedly in no way a conservative. And, though the most favorably viewed of all the candidates right now, both among Republicans and the electorate as a whole, he would allegedly destroy the Republican party if nominated.

[…]

So the conservative commentariat should take a deep breath, be a bit less judgmental about these individuals--and realize that there is not likely to be a second Reagan.

[…]

So conservatives might think of John McCain as our potential TR, Mike Huckabee as our potential FDR, and Mitt Romney as our potential JFK. Support the one you prefer. But don't work yourself into a frenzy against the others. Let the best man emerge from a challenging primary process. And if there is no clear-cut winner, then the delegates at the GOP convention can turn on the fifth ballot to an obvious fallback compromise candidate, one who would be just fine with conservatives--Dick Cheney!

I like Bill Kristol, always have. His “take a chill pill” advice is good advice. People like Mr. Quick, who says he would vote for Hillary rather than Huckabee, amaze me. There is at least one Supreme who will either retire or die on the bench during the next administration, and two more who are likely to retire. An administration lasts eight years at the most, the Supreme Court lasts for generations. My “eight year” figure doesn't consider the Second Coming of the Clintons as a continuation of a previous administration, and I probably should, coz the “new” Clinton administration will be a continuation of the old. Aside from the “who will bring me more dead terrorists?” question, the composition of the Supreme Court is the second most pressing issue that will be decided this November. And people like Mr. Quick would prefer Bill and Hillary over John McCain?

You have to be shitting me.

I think Huckabee is out of it, so I won’t talk about him, specifically, and that sort of kills half my argument. But the members of the “I’ll stay home if McCain is the nominee” crowd, and that crowd appears to be substantial in size, would only be cutting off our collective noses to spite their own small-minded faces. And, the Supremes aside, I have another question for the people petulantly stomping their feet about McCain… who would you really want as Commander in Chief? Billary, who presided over one of the largest draw-downs of the nation’s military and intelligence organizations in recent times, or a bona-frickin’-fide war hero?

Oh, wait…I forgot. Billary ain’t a lock, now, are they? Well, given that we know hardly anything about what Obama would actually do… absent detailed plans, policies, and the like… are you comfortable putting the security of the nation in the hands of a guy whose platform is limited to “Change!” and “Trust me?” Hell, that applies to any Democrat, actually… but it looks like Billary and Obama are the only two left standing. Whatever. Both want to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq, increase your taxes, ratify Kyoto (more accurately: its successor protocol), give us mandate a “single-payer” health care system a la the British National Health Service, and change the composition and tenor of the Supreme Court. So, if that’s your idea of what America needs, then go ahead and stay home if McCain is the GOP nominee.

Excuse me if I don’t think that’s real frickin’ smart.

―:☺:―

Today’s (From the Archives) Pic: The only photo I have… or rather, can find at the moment… of The First Mrs. Pennington in her youth. This picture is of TFMP and SN2 in our off-base apartment in Wakkanai, Japan…sometime in early 1969. Quite the sultry wench, isn’t she? (“Sultry wench” is the archaic form of “hawt,” and is in no way derogatory.) There really should be more photos from this time period hanging around somewhere, and I hope there are. About which…

SN2 and I spoke on the phone last evening and he’s going to poke around in the boxes he’s holding for me to see if there are any other photos, slides and the like lurking within. I cannot believe, figuratively speaking, all the stuff that’s missing from my photo archives. Literally speaking, it’s easy to believe… given the state of flux life was in when I collected, boxed up, and sent SN2 all that which I absolutely, positively wanted to retain. It’s entirely possible a lot of stuff got thrown out inadvertently. And that would be a shame.

On Any Sunday...

Well, it’s Sunday. Big Doin’s for NFL fans today and for masochists from all over the US, if not the world, who will tune into the NFC game just to watch people suffer. In a good way, of course. Hell, I might even watch. I watch the playoffs in nearly every other sport, but rarely pro-football. That might change today. There’s sure to be lotsa crowd shots of people in Green Bay whose sensibilities and/or sanity I question. Am I being redundant by sayin’ that? I mean…you have to be jes a lil bit “off” to live in that part of the world, dontcha?

―:☺:―

Before I move on to (arguably) “bigger and better” things…there’s this… Best comment on a blog I read yesterday:

· Comment by happyfeet on 1/19 @ 7:06 pm #
Is that different from muesli? I like muesli. Kashi is kind of like muesli plus you get interracial lesbians. Yay!

Yes, it really is a comment. There’s a link hiding up there.

―:☺:―

So, it’s Sunday. And once upon a time, in another world, another time, another season, and another life, I would be doing this:

The pic is of YrHmblScrb and several dedicated competitors on the starting line somewhere in the wilds of Hokkaido, sometime in the summer of 1969 or perhaps 1970. The time period is before motocross caught on as a Big Time Sport in the US, and is exactly the point in time when the Nipponese fielded their very first purpose-built MX bikes. Up until about 1971 (or so) if you wanted a competitive MXer you didn’t buy a Yamaha, a Honda, or a Suzuki…you bought a CZ, a Maico, a Husky, or maybe a Bultaco. European, in other words. Or…you could do as most of us did (at least those of us who raced in Japan), you bought a stock dual-purpose bike, tore it down, and rebuilt it with factory “race kits” and after-market items. Like my friends and I did with Yamaha’s immortal DT-1, an example of which I’m sitting astride in this starting line shot.

Motocross in Japan was interesting, to say the very least. Especially in Hokkaido, where the races were generally held on ski slopes, which made for fine MX tracks… what with the changes in elevation, off-camber corners, and relatively wide open straights. That was just the physical aspect of the racing…there were also cultural differences which made for some “interesting” times, not to mention great good learning experiences. And lots of drunken evenings with the local club(s) after practice on Saturday. First and foremost, though: the Nipponese were fierce competitors, and they were competitors with a great sense of honor. There was very little, if any, “dirty” racing; we were all in it for the fun of it. The “fun of it” is pretty much the way amateur racing is anyway, no matter where you go.

Lotsa fun. And lots of memories, too many of which have faded away, unfortunately. One memory that sticks in my mind, though, is of the evening my friends and I were at the public bath in some small Japanese town after either a hard day of racing or a hard day of practice before the race. Japanese public baths are segregated by gender, with the larger baths having separate facilities for men and women. The smaller baths, however, usually only had a partition (think: movable wall) that separated the men’s and women’s areas in the large soaking bath. And that partition was less than effective. If one really wanted to look into “the other side” from your side…well, it wasn’t hard to do.

So…there we were…several of us Yankee GI bike racers, soaking in the bath, and there she was…on the other side of the partition, doing the same thing, yet coyly coming into our view every so often. And she was pretty well-built for a Japanese woman, who are generally not known for being…um…well endowed. One could NOT help but notice, and we were certain she was noticing us, as well. But nothing was revealed, really…until one of us, and I really, truly, do not remember who…stood up and gave the lady a lil show of sorts. And she reciprocated, knocking us back on our collective asses, figuratively speaking. It wasn’t blatantly erotic or meant as a come-on, or anything else in that space…just an unobstructed 360-degree view of the “goods,” so to speak, and such very fine goods they were, too. And just as quickly as it began, it was over. She exited the bath with her towel wrapped around her and a big smile on her face. Made our day, she did.

(I’ve told this story elsewhere on the blog, but damned if I can find it…and I looked, too.)

So, anyway. I continued my racing career for a brief time after returning to the US (to Boron Air Force Station, a great assignment for a dirt biker!) and here’s a shot of YrHmblScrb after a Hare and Hounds somewhere in the great Mojave desert. The pic was snapped immediately after I pulled into the pits, and I’m exhausted…which is fairly plain to see.

My racing days came to an end when I (a) got assigned to Turkey for a year and (b) got old and slow. MX is essentially a young man’s game, although there are classes for “Over 40” and “Seniors” and the like. But that ain’t me. It was a LOT of fun at the time…but times change.

By the way…that woman with the captivating smile behind me in the mud picture? That’s The First Mrs. Pennington. Lovely, isn’t she?

Why I Can't Be Too Hard On SN3

Or rather…why I shouldn’t be too hard on SN3, who is exactly the same age now as I was when I received this report card. “Orly Field American” was the name of the school I attended. The school was located, strangely enough, here. I'm thinking Orly Field might have changed somewhat since I went to school there. Maybe.

Looking at this report card I thank the Lord the year was 1956 and not 2006. Can you say “Ritalin?” I thought you could. While Ritalin wasn’t a part of my life at that time, I sure spent a lot of time in my room on “restriction.” You can only imagine the terror I felt bringing a report card like this home. It wasn’t the grades, Gentle Reader…they were almost good enough. Nope…it was my teacher’s comments that caused all sorts Hell to break out in my house.

As ever, click the pics for the larger legible versions.

Coming Attractions

The archives arrived in the mail today (BIG Thanks, Sam and Alisa!!)…and here are the fruits of my labors first few scans. There’s a LOT of work to be done, not the least of which is simply going through two boxes of old stuff, the contents of which are in NO earthly way…ummm…organized. And then there are literally hundreds of slides that have to be reviewed, a major project in and of itself.

So. I’d best get started, eh? In the meantime and with no particular reason in mind, other than these shots were among the first pics “out of the box,” literally… I give you:

Dad, Mom and I around 1949 or so. I was but four years old, Dad was still in his Army Air Force tans (he’s a 1Lt here), and Mom was lovely.

The Second Mrs. Pennington and I, at my retirement ceremony in February 1985. That’s my commander with his back to the camera, shaking my hand immediately after pinning the usual, customary, and reasonable Meritorious Service Medal on me. A bitter-sweet day, to say the very least. (and a damaged photo)

Three motorcycle pics, beginning with the first formal pictures of the RD-400, taken in the back yard of my house in North Bend, Oregon in 1979. These pics are followed by a shot of my RD-350LC, taken the day I sold it in late May or June of 1983. My tee shirt says “I ride the world’s fastest production 350cc motorcycle…Yamaha RD-350LC.” Note the pallor of my skin. That comes after living in Ol Blighty for three years.

More to follow…including some embarrassing sorts of photos, like this one from 1975. And yeah, I was in the Air Force...but I was on leave. SN1 on the left, SN2 on the right. Note my cool specs. We called these RPGs back in the day...as in “Rape Prevention Glasses.” They sorta worked, too.
As ever...click the pics to view the larger images.

Skewering Those Insufferable Mac-O-Philes

Courtesy of BadBob, aka b2...constant commenter at Lex's Place:


Of course I think the metaphor is...umm... just slightly misplaced. But, other than that...
There are few things in life as obnoxious as Mac people, once the conversation drifts to computers. As it invariably does in this day and age.

Update 01/19/2008: Well, now. Only 7.6% of you Gentle Readers happen to use Macs...if my Site Meter stats are to be believed. And of course, a couple of my favorite people gently poked me with "Hey! I use a Mac!"

Oops.

S'cuse Me, But I Gotta RANT

There was an interesting lil screed in yesterday’s WSJ. At the risk of being considered a “spoiler,” I’m only going to quote the last paragraph:

In the end, we have to face the fact that political intolerance in America -- ugly and unfortunate on either side of the political aisle -- is to be found more on the left than it is on the right. This may not square with the moral vanity of progressive political stereotypes, but it's true.

As with most things in life, it ain’t the destination…it’s the journey. And so it is with this particular article. It goes without saying (yet I will say it)… “Read The Whole Thing.” The methodology used to reach the conclusion stated above, as well as comparative samples of intolerance and perception on both the Right and the Left are much more than interesting…they’re instructive.

My personal experience leads me to believe intolerance on the Right is increasing, rather than decreasing. I’ve long ago given up on Liberals and their intolerance…which was one of the principal reasons for my conversion from moonbat Liberal to conservative politics over 25 years ago. While Ronald Reagan was the catalyst for my political conversion he also brought my uncomfortable feelings and thoughts about Liberals into razor-sharp focus, partly because of his optimism. Another factor was the oft-related tale about how he and Tip O’Neil, his political nemesis, could sit down at the end of the day and have a couple of drinks together, regardless and in spite of their political differences, which were as significant in their time as the differences that exist between our current president and Speaker. But…outside the realm of science fiction or satire, can you seriously envision SanFranNan and Dubya having cocktails at the end of the day? Dubya, yeah. Nan, no.

But. Let me go back to intolerance on the Right. Ann Coulter is my lightning rod in this space. Coulter routinely demonizes the Left, insults them, slanders them, etc. etc.. And she’s quite good at what she does…her use of language is excellent, her metaphors and analogies are well-crafted, but in the end? Her message only widens the political divide, it doesn’t do a thing to narrow it or reach some sort of consensus. I suspect her intent is to incite, rather than inform. And entertain, of course. It helps me to think of her as an entertainer, rather than a serious commentator. I feel essentially the same way about Michelle Malkin. Ms. Malkin is every bit as good as Ms. Coulter, and every bit as annoying, in my book. And lest you think I’m only bashing women conservatives, I’ll add Michael Savage and Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs…just for balance.

Why isn’t it enough to point out the inconsistencies, illogic, and lack of success in the Liberal approach to something, anything? Lord only knows there are enough facts on the ground to discredit most Liberal cant, and one can offer up alternative arguments…cogently and dispassionately…without resorting to insults and demonization. Demonization is what the Left is (very) good at and from my quite possibly naïve POV, we conservatives should be above that shit…waaay above it. But we’re not, unfortunately. At least in my experience.

I need more Victor Davis Hansons, Christopher Hitchenss, and Mark Steyns in my life, and much less of the Coulters and Malkins. Yeah, Mr. Steyn can be insulting as Hell when he wants to be, as can the others. But insult isn’t the stock in trade of the three pundits I’ve cited. You may not agree with their politics, but at least they don’t consider you an evil being. Stupid, perhaps, but not evil. Stupidity, after all, can be cured, and Lord knows those guys are trying.

So. I wish we, as a people and a culture… on both the Right and the Left… would start trying to see people as people. We all differ from time time, but MOST of us aren’t evil, and MOST of us want what is best for the United States of America. You sure as Hell don’t get that impression from reading the worst of both sides these days.

One other thing before I go: stop sending me all that insulting and lowest-common-denominator humor shit about the other side. I’m sick of it, and I don’t want to get sick of you. Coz I really like you when you’re not so intolerant. If the shoe fits, and all that.

And let me add: there's a difference between political humor, which can be pointed yet funny (e.g., political cartoons), and insulting, demeaning crap. There is a difference. If you don't understand that difference...or, in other words, if there's any doubt in your mind... then don't send it. To me, anyway. Thank you.

/rant

Here and There

Cannon AFB in the news…

A Reaper for AFSOC: Air Force Special Operations Command will be adding a new squadron to its roster at Cannon AFB, N.M., where it plans to move its current one-and-only unmanned aerial vehicle unit, the 3rd Special Operations Squadron. The 3rd SOS is up and running at Creech AFB, Nev., but AFSOC spokeswoman Denise Boyd says that plans already are in motion to move 3rd SOS from Creech to Cannon by June. Joining the 3rd SOS, which operates MQ-1 Predators, will be an AFSOC MQ-9 Reaper UAV unit, according to the just-released USAF roadmap for new system allocation (see above). Boyd did not specify a timeframe for the Reaper unit standup; however work is under way in the next few years to prepare permanent maintenance and hangar facilities to house ground control stations and UAV airframes when they return from Southwest Asia operations. AFSOC got its first 21 MQ-1s last May and some UAV-trained personnel from Air Combat Command to jump-start its UAV operations.

-Marc V. Schanz

It’s hard to tell an MQ-1 from an MQ-9 just by looking. But the Reaper ain’t just a Predator with more ordnance capacity— the Reaper is quite a bit larger and has much more power and range than the Predator.

Oh…that “roadmap for new system allocation” referenced in the quoted news item? It’s here (four-page PDF) and it’s interesting, not so much for what it says…but for what it doesn’t say. In the words of the Air Force Association:

One Last Word: Although senior Air Force leaders won't say so in so many words, the service's new bed down roadmap (see above) is a map of constituencies and effectively puts members of Congress on notice that if they want an Air Force mission in their district, they better support the buying of the new systems. If they don't, and inventories continue to shrink, the missions—and the bases, and Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command units associated with them—will surely go away.

I suppose the military has always been political. But the military as a whole (not just the Air Force) seems much more so these days, and “senior leadership” is pretty blatant about it, too. But then again… they have to be.

For my “civilian” readers… if you go read that bed down document… the way to tell an Air National Guard and/or Air Reserve Base from a Regular Air Force base is to look at the name of the facility. If you see “AFB” in the name (e.g., Cannon AFB, Davis-Monthan AFB)…it’s regular AF. If you don’t, it’s either Guard or Reserve. There are exceptions, of course, but not many.

―:☺:―

Got a few hours to kill and want a laugh or six? Then go peruse the “Best of Dilbert” among other comic strips here. 837 separate strips, at 100 strips per page. That’ll keep ya amused for an hour or three.

And there isn’t a single solitary soul in corporate America who hasn’t related to Dilbert at least once in their working lives. Not one. Most especially in IT. (h/t: Morgan)

―:☺:―

The WX about the time I woke up this morning…

Need I say more?

―:☺:―

From The Smithsonian Magazine:

"We are all of us resigned to death: it's life we aren't resigned to," novelist Graham Greene once wrote. A growing number of Americans of all ages are embracing that idea by renewing a resolve to live life to its fullest.

Exhibit A is the recent popularity of "life lists"—itineraries of things to do and places to go before taking the ultimate trip to the Great Beyond. Bookstores brim with titles such as 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die and—for the high-minded—Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die. A cottage industry of Web sites has also popped up, enabling life list enthusiasts to exchange ideas ranging from learning Japanese to getting a tattoo. Now even Hollywood has gotten into the act, with the release this month of the film The Bucket List, in which two cancer patients, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, break out of their medical ward and embark on a life list road trip that includes dining on expensive caviar and gambling in Monte Carlo.

Life list experts (yes, there are such beings) advise people not to set themselves up for disappointment by trying to accomplish too much. (When's the last time you completed your daily to-do list?) With the entire world to choose from, the maxim "so much to do, so little time" takes on added meaning.

To that end, the staff of Smithsonian—as diverse a group of travelers as you're likely to meet—put their heads together to come up with an exclusive list of 28 places the Smithsonian reader might wish to visit before …it's too late. Some of the sites are portals into the past—ancient cities so well preserved that visiting them is like stepping into a previous century. Others feature feats of engineering or sublime works of art—or, in the cases of the Taj Mahal and Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, both. Travelers can visit temples and churches so breathtaking they must have been built with divine inspiration. For the more adventurous, we offer rewards beyond mere sightseeing—from a three-day hike across the Grand Canyon to a ride along China's Yangtze River.

The list is here…and you’ll not find a more eclectic list, assuming you’re in to such things. Another great thing about this particular list is there are links to thumbnail sketches of each and every place…such as the Zen Gardens of Kyoto and The Great Wall. And unlike a lot of these types of lists… I have some work to do. I’ve only “done” a third of the places and things on the Smithsonian’s list. I might add one or two places from their list before… it’s too late. Or not.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: Sort of a re-run. I posted a similar photo of a storm approaching P-Ville about 45 minutes before sunset; this is another shot from that same series of photos I took this past June, right outside my back door. My only door… actually… but it’s in the back of the RV.

The Other Side of Hip-Hop

Via the inimitable Chap...


Well, now. Who knew?

It's Always Sumthin...

Mystery explained…sorta. “Mystery” in the sense of why all those hits yesterday from LockMart on the F-15 situation. There was this lil blurb in AFA’s Daily Report this morning:

Juggling the Numbers: Building F-22s at a faster pace is one option under review as the Air Force mulls how to mitigate the impact of having about 40 percent of its F-15 air superiority fighters sit idle, reports the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Maj. Gen. Mark Shackelford, director of Global Power Programs in USAF's acquisition shop, told the newspaper that one possible course of action is to consider "should we or could we accelerate the rate at which we buy F-22s." He added the caveat, however, that it remains "too early to speculate" on the decision. USAF is in the midst of a multiyear contract with Lockheed Martin for three annual lots of 20 aircraft that will bring the fleet size to 183 in 2011. But the Air Force's leadership has been clear that the service would like permission from OSD to buy more-ultimately 381 F-22s. To acquire the remaining Raptors would cost about $40 billion at a rate of 20 per year and keep the production line active until 2019, the newspaper said. Conversely, boosting the rate of manufacture to 32 aircraft annually would cost about $5 billion less and keep production going until 2016, it said, citing Air Force figures. One impediment to continued Raptor production beyond 183 aircraft remains Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, the newspaper states in a second article. England is regarded as a staunch proponent of the F-35 over the F-22 because the former features newer technology, the newspaper said. Need we say that the two are different platforms for different roles?

I really should have made the connection last evening, which all goes to prove one shouldn’t attempt any sort of analysis after having a few. Which, of course, doesn’t mean I was physically impaired, Gentle Reader. Lord knows we would never drive under those circumstances. Now that we’re grown up.

By the way... AFA's Daily Report is available to the general public, if you're interested in newsy notes about your United States Air Force. Just go here.

―:☺:―

So, apropos of not much… I pour my first cup of coffee this morning, fire up the ‘puter and check my Site Meter stats. When I went to bed early this morning SM said I had a total of 170 visits yesterday; this morning SM sez I had 37. 130+ visits just went missing, including nearly all of the LockMart visits. WTF? Is this evidence of the black helicopter gang at work? A real, live, bona fide conspiracy? The military-industrial complex covering its tracks?

Not quite.

I fired off a trouble ticket to Site Meter and had an answer within a half-hour, to wit:

Hello,

Thanks for writing. We are having a problem with the services that handle your account. We are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Thanks for your patience and patronage.

Andy
SiteMeter Support

Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: MND-895780
Category: Technical Issue
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed

Yeah…they are having problems. The missing visits re-appeared, my traffic stats have been re-adjusted to what they were when I went to bed this morning, but SM isn’t tracking today’s visits…at all. But Hey! It’ll be fixed in short order, of that I’m sure. And being a former IT guy, I know all too well that “stuff happens.”

I’ve been using Site Meter since December of 2005 and I’m pleased as punch with the overall level of service, not to mention their responsiveness. SM is the standard of the blogging world…for good reasons.

The Best-Laid Plans…

…of mice and men often go astray or are thwarted or however that saying goes. S’true, though. I really did intend to come back and put up another post today, assuming I found something of note in my aimless meanderings around these here inter-tubes. Fate, however, intervened in the form of a phone call from great good friends…inquiring if I might be free for the evening? “Well, no,” says I, “but I AM reasonably inexpensive.” Badda-da-BOOMP!

So…to make a long story short, I’m recently back from a wonderful evening out with old friends…the finest kind. We had a fair meal (Clovis being extremely short on good eating places) and great conversation, to say the very least. My friends, Ed and Bernice, were staying overnight in the Cannon AFB transient quarters on their way up to Taos and vicinity for a ski vacation. Ed, Bernice, and I go back to 1975… I met The Second Mrs. Pennington for the very first time in Ed and Bernice’s living room on Tachikawa Air Base in that same year. A Red Letter Day, if ever there was one. But I digress… the basic point is that it’s always good to catch up with old friends…

―:☺:―

So. Today was a banner day for traffic here at EIP. Nothing much to speak of in the great grand scheme of things, especially if you’re one of the Big Dog bloggers, who get more hits in an hour than EIP does in a month. But for us Small Fry…big doings. I knew something was up when I checked the blog stats first thing this morning and saw I had 75 hits by 0930, which is about 75% of my average daily traffic these days. A little poking around in Site Meter revealed something of a mystery. Nearly all of the hits were coming from Lockheed Martin Corporation, and were from Fort Worth; Washington, D.C.; and Denver…in addition to a couple from Boeing… and they were all going directly to last Friday’s post, specifically “A Grounding of Eagles.” I’m not naïve…I know how these things happen: someone reads something, copies the link and e-mails it to his buds, and they forward, and so on. Happens all the time.

But. Why would folks from LockMart be so interested in what is obviously open source material? I can understand interest on the part of folks from Boeing, as Boeing is the owner (prime contractor...since the acquisition of McDonnell Douglas) of the F-15 airframe. But then again, Boeing should be as dialed-in as anyone could possibly be on this subject. I’m including a couple of screen-caps to illustrate the mystery, including one of a visitor who spent 91 minutes on the blog and had 29 discrete page views…which is something of a record, in and of itself. All told, 64 of today’s visits were from either Lockheed or Boeing. (As ever, click the images for larger...i.e., legible versions.)

And not a single comment!

―:☺:―

To close the loop on the ELINT Crow…here’s a photo my Buddy Dan sent of his WAS jacket. I’d forgotten the bird was holding a Sapporo glass.

Pretty cool, eh? Wish I still had mine...

Another One of Those Beer Drinker Vids

...or, rather, videos that appeal to beer drinkers! This one is quite creative, to say the least.

Guinness: Tipping Point
Uploaded by Razorbuzz

Gotta hand it to Guinness. Or their ad agency, anyway. I'm not a big fan of Guinness, or any other stout, but I have been known to tip a pint or two...in the winter.
(h/t: Commenter xformed at Lex's place. And yeah: still making the rounds, I am.)

Musical Interlude

Stolen, after a fashion, from Phlegmmy… The 5 Browns doing a lil Gershwin for ya.

Phlegmmy posted “Flight of the Bumblebee,” which, speaking both as a composition and a performance, is just as good. I’d never heard of these guys before, and the premise (five pianos...on the same stage!) is just waay-cool. As is the music.

Back after the rounds are complete.

Basically Shallow and Not a Lot to Say...

Does today's post title ring a bell, Gentle Reader? It should...

―:☺:―

Of interest in today’s Air Force Association Daily Report:

Schwalier Injustice Reversed: The Air Force, in a major action, has officially reversed the 1997 DOD "verdict" against Terryl J. Schwalier, restoring his contested second star after a 10-year struggle. USAF Jan. 11 confirmed the action. According to independent sources, an Air Force Review Board recently reached the decision, noting that Schwalier had suffered "an injustice." Further, said the sources, the Air Force soon afterward issued an official order implementing the review board's decision. It is, in a sense, an exoneration of Schwalier, a USAF brigadier who had been scapegoated by the Clinton Administration and some members of Congress for alleged command failures in the 1996 terrorist bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. The blast killed 19 airmen and wounded hundreds more. Though the Senate had confirmed Schwalier's promotion to major general before the attack, and though critics produced no credible evidence of fault on the part of Schwalier, Secretary of Defense William Cohen in July 1997 stripped him of the second star, alleging the he "could have and should have done more" to defend the Khobar complex. Cohen's action was widely viewed as an attempt to mollify political critics on Capitol Hill. Schwalier suffered another reverse in 2005, when Pentagon lawyers thwarted an earlier board reversal. AFA has long viewed Cohen's 1997 action as an injustice and issued a statement Friday about the matter. The service has already changed the general's official biography to reflect the new situation, giving his new grade, promotion date, and retirement date.

Well, good on USAF. It took a helluva lot longer than it should have to correct the injustice, let alone the fact that it should NEVER have happened in the first place. But, Hey. You just can’t let stuff like this go by without hanging someone, right? I’m thinking the hanging should have taken place a lot further up the food chain…like at the top, given the policies and such in force at the time.

YMMV.

―:☺:―

Another item of interest from today’s Daily Report:

Dodging Space Bullets: Two US satellites had to be maneuvered in the past year to avoid colliding with debris left in space after China's anti-satellite test on Jan. 11, 2007, The Washington Times reports. Ground controllers repositioned the Orbcomm FM 36 commercial communication satellite in April 2007 so that it would not pass "within about 123 feet" of the debris field, the newspaper reported on the one-year anniversary of the Chinese test, citing information provided by the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Similarly, the NASA Earth observation satellite Terra was moved in June 2007 "to avoid coming within about 90 feet of the debris," the newspaper states. The Chinese used a direct-ascent missile to ram one of its old weather satellites, spreading a lingering cloud of debris in orbit. While the United States decried the test, some lawmakers believe that too little is being done in the aftermath to protect U.S. space assets. "It should have been a call to action, yet a year later, our policies and strategies do not reflect our increasing dependence on space," writes Rep. Terry Everett, (R-Ala.) in an op-ed in The Washington Times on Jan. 11. "We need a comprehensive space protection strategy, says Everett, ranking member on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces panel.

Of course, if you read Steeljaw Scribe you already know this. And more.

―:☺:―

Here’s that graphic I spent over an hour looking for yesterday…the ELINT Crow. Big, big thanks and a tip o’ the hat to correspondent Ron, whose googling skills are obviously much better than mine.

Now visualize (until such time as Dan sends a pic of the real thing) the crow with a couple of beer bottles under his arm and you have the Wakkanai variation on the theme.

(Full disclosure: "Raven" is the proper term for the ELINT guys. Some folks might get upset that I've only used the term "crow" in my past postings. But a Raven by any other name is still a crow.)

―:☺:―

Today’s Viral Video is pretty cool…

And Viral Videos is a pretty cool site.

Stuff

Well. I’ll bet this lil item is causing concern in “certain circles:”

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - When operators of sex-oriented Web sites gather at the Internext convention starting Sunday in Las Vegas, a major leak at a little New Jersey company is likely to be a big topic.

Freehold-based Too Much Media, which sells accounting software for adult Web sites, told its customers last month that a security breach on its computers allowed hackers to access various adult Web sites' subscriber lists.

Keith Kimmel of Norman, Okla., who runs two Web sites that feature porn, said the breach has the potential to embarrass.

"Would you really want a record floating around the Internet that you subscribe to hardcore bondage?" he asked.

No financial info was breached (like credit card numbers) according to the article. But later on down the page, we see this:

Jim McAnally, who has published porn on the Internet since 1993, said he'd never heard about such a serious breach in the industry.

C’mon, Jim. That isn’t your real name, now… is it? It is? Really? Well, I’ll be danged.

―:☺:―

I had an e-mail conversation with a gentleman by the name of Ron who dropped in to EIP looking for something rather specific, and something I didn’t have. Further research on Ron’s part turned up a web site (page, actually) about Strategic Air Command humor…which Ron was kind enough to forward to me and which I’ll share with you, Gentle Reader. Example:

"Hearts and Minds"
During the Viet Nam War, President Johnson proclaimed that his administration's goal was to "Win the Hearts and Minds" of the Vietnamese people, especially those sympathetic to communist North Viet Nam. SAC B-52's were then showering the country with bombs, and this resulted in the slogan being expanded to, "When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow." The airman eventually realized that SAC was applying the same philosophy to them by not permitting them to transfer from the command. That resulted in this unique patch.

Ron was looking for an illustration similar to the patch above. There were entrepreneurial millenary shops all over the Far East back in the day that would whip up patches like this in little or no time…and in mass quantities, too. Every GI worth his salt had at least two or three of ‘em. When I was in Wakkanai our custom patch was a variation on the Old Crow ELINT theme that featured the Crow with his usual lightning bolts in one winged hand, two bottles of Sapporo beer under the other wing, and “Xs” for eyes. The emblem was in keeping with our collective reputation for consuming insane amounts of Sapporo (THE beer of choice) when not intercepting Soviet electronic emanations. I’m hoping there’s a pic of my hat, jacket, and/or other such item lurking somewhere in the archives…coz I can’t find one on the ‘net.

Strange, that. (Note to Dan: Do you still have a Dozo Bird hat, jacket, or some such?)

What a 21st Century Witch Hunt Looks Like

Unbelievable, yet here it is. Just watch. The four videos total about 15 minutes (h/t: Gerard).

Back story and expanded narrative here. Once you read this link, click “Main” for more.

I really wouldn’t believe it’s come to this unless I’d seen it with my own eyes. And Mark Steyn is next. Just a lil quote:

Much of Canada's press and many broadcasters are already noted for politically correct blandness. Some fear that the case can only make that worse. Mr Steyn and others hope it will prompt a narrower brief for the commissions, or even their abolition. As he put it in his blog, “I don't want to get off the hook. I want to take the hook and stick it up the collective butt of these thought police.”

And I want to help him do it. Mr. Steyn, himself, weighs in here. And do go read the Greenwald link, as well. Greenwald takes offense at the Canadian hate-speech laws, to the sock-puppet's ever lasting credit, but… true to form… he simply cannot help but draw parallels with his favorite boogey-men. Oh, Glenn… you blew your chance, Buddy.

The Abbreviated Saturday Post

Just some bric-a-brac, loose ends, and miscellaneous stuff for a Saturday…

I’ve noticed, as have others who have commented on the same thing (albeit in different places), that it’s taking me longer and longer each day to “make the rounds.” I kept track of the time I spent reading blogs yesterday, and it was four hours…give or take 15 minutes or so. I spent this time exclusively with the folks on the blogroll, and that includes chasing quite a few of the links my blog-buddies include with their posts.

The time I spend reading blogs has increased a lot lately, and that’s mostly a function of the increased size of the blogroll. I’m not complaining, mind you, as I firmly believe the time I spend reading blogs is time well-spent. And it’s winter, so the mo’sickle riding has been severely curtailed, along with my other usual, customary, and reasonable outdoor activities. But what happens when the weather turns nice again? Dilemma happens…that’s what.

―:☺:―

Speaking of blogs… I’ve yet to mention that Lou is in Aberdeen, Scotland for two weeks and is posting her “Innocents Abroad” tales (along with great photos of Aberdeen) at her place. I can’t wait until she and Toby get out in the countryside. One would be hard-pressed to think of a country more photogenic than Scotland…even in winter. Do go visit Lou’s place, if you haven’t already.

―:☺:―

My new just over a month-old scanner has been sitting unemployed for the whole year. You may remember, Gentle Reader, that I mentioned I was gonna retrieve my photo archives from SN2’s custody when I went up to Omaha for the holidays and launch a massive scanning project upon my return to P-Ville.

Well, Omaha never happened. I canceled the trip when the time came for the go/no-go decision because of weather most foul (Read as: Snow. Ice. And lots of both.) on the entire route between here and there. “Not to worry,” said SN2… “we’ll box up the archives and ship ‘em to ya.” I slipped SN2 a gentle reminder this past Thursday evening and have been assured the archives will be in the mail NLT Monday, possibly even today. Which means the scanning will begin in earnest the middle of next week. Or so.

I can’t wait. But I will.

―:☺:―

Ooooh. That’s gonna leave a mark! (Sorry, TripleE…won’t happen again.) Gerard comes right out and says what a lot of folks have been thinking:

I've considered the matter of New Orleans carefully.

I've weighed the never-ending, and now maudlin, saccharine suffering of its people against my now limitless cache of compassion fatigue. They have been found wanting.

To be fair and just, here's what I propose we give New Orleans from this day forward. Nothing. Niente. Zip. Zero. Nada. And a full-scale barium enema just for asking for one more thin dime. Did you send money to this barrage of bozos? I did and I want it back. With interest.

I love N’Awlins and I wish its citizens well. But I also wish their government…state, parishes, and municipal…would get off their collective asses, get off the FedTeat, and get to work. I’m speaking in generalities here whereas Gerard really isn’t. Still and even, after arguing The Big Easy should just be bulldozed and turned into wetlands (my words, not his) Gerard makes a few valid points. Provocative, and all that.

There’s a lot of good work going on in N’Awlins, mainly in the private sector, but there’s more…much more…soul-sucking, begging, and cajoling…and outright graft… in play by all levels of government, as well. That’s what I’m p!ssed about.

BTW…Gerard also mentions there’s a lawsuit for damages against the federal gub’mint…filed by a Katrina victim, of course…in the amount of three quadrillion dollars. You read that right: quadrillion. My mind is boggled. Now there’s some real chutzpah. Must’ve took that “Go Big, or Go Home” thing to heart.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: Not all sunrises and sunsets in P-Ville are spectacular. I went out the other night and took elebenty-lebben pics of the sunset, and this was as good as it got.

And here I am: reduced to posting filler. This will change, Gentle Reader…when the archives arrive.

"We Need the Eggs"

Lin and I had this brief exchange about relationships in the comments of the “Advice for Women” post below. I mentioned that “school’s out” for me where relationships are concerned, she countered with (I’m paraphrasing) “Don’t give up; your new Best Friend is out there.” The exchange got me to thinking about relationships in general and my favorite quote about relationships, specifically. The quote is from Woody Allen’s best-ever movie “Annie Hall.” It’s the bit where Allen's character encounters a couple on the street, walks up to them and says something to the effect of “You look like a happy couple. What’s your secret?” The woman responds with “I’m basically shallow and don’t have a lot to say.” The man validates her statement with a “me, too” sort of response… taking the point about mutual compatibility to its (hilarious) extreme. That one quick scene has stuck with me all these intervening years. As have many, many other scenes from that movie, but that’s another story.

So…I went looking for that particular quote. And I found it, Gentle Reader, but the scene from the movie was overdubbed in Russian and the English is simply overwhelmed…you can’t hear it at all. Too bad, that. (But if you really wanna see the clip, it’s here.) These excerpts are from the same movie…and they’re not all that bad, but they’re certainly NOT what I was going after. The first clip is the ending of the movie, the second is the opening.

Ah yes, we need the eggs… except for those of us who are allergic to the damned things. Unlike eggs (in real life there are non-egg eggs), there ain't no suitable substitutes when it comes to relationships: it's the “real thing” or nothing. Aside from kidding yourself, you're only setting yourself up for massive failure if or when you settle for a “substitute” relationship. I don't have empirical proof of this “fact” from personal experience, this is simply my thought on the subject.

Now…the movie's intro:

Allen’s monolog kinda sorta reflects my current attitude, with the emphasis on “sorta.” Heavy emphasis on “sorta.”

“Annie Hall” is my favorite movie of all time, and it’s the only movie I’ve ever seen more than twice. The Second Mrs. Pennington and I, coincidentally, saw “Annie Hall” as a first run movie, we saw it again at a Notre Dame film night during her senior year, and watched it again and again as the years passed by. Aside from being brilliantly funny, it might be the most pertinent and poignant movie about relationships I’ve ever seen. Keep in mind, though, I went off movies about 15 years ago, so I’m not one to offer up criticism in this space. Not hardly — not at all, actually.

But…FWIW… Woody Allen never produced another movie equal to this one, IMHO. And I’ve seen most of his work.

A Grounding of Eagles

Frequent visitors to EIP know that I sometimes post tidbits I receive from the Air Force Association via their excellent “Daily Report.” The lead items from today’s Daily Report summarize the press conference the Air Force held yesterday on the grounding of the F-15(A-D) fleet. And the story isn’t at all pretty…

"This is Huge": About 40 percent of the Air Force's F-15A-D aircraft-182 aircraft-are grounded indefinitely until they can be invasively tested for cracks in the coming months, Air Combat Command chief Gen. John D.W. Corley said yesterday at a Pentagon press conference in which he formally announced the results of an accident board into the Nov. 2, 2007 crash of a 28-year-old F-15C. Corley had cleared 259 Eagles to fly on Wednesday, but said that the absence of 40 percent of the fleet will be a serious operational problem for some time to come. "This a big deal," Corley said. "This is huge." Corley said having such a large percentage of the fleet down "does not allow air sovereignty alert" F-15 operations over the US and means F-16s and F-15Es that have been filling in for the grounded Eagles will continue to be "pulled" from planned deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no estimate of how long it will take to inspect the grounded aircraft, even though the specific fault being sought is now known. In the meantime, training operations will be truncated, classes of new F-15 pilots will be drawn out or delayed, and the Air Force will have to make some hard choices about whether it's worth the money to fix some of the aircraft, which already average over 25 years of age.

-John A. Tirpak

Cracks: The culprit in the Nov. 2 F-15 crash was a crack in a longeron behind and to the right of the pilot. The longeron was supposed to have a design life of 31,000 hours, which is longer than the anticipated life of the airplane. The part was improperly made, having a thickness in some areas that was too thin by several thousandths of an inch, and years of fatigue stress have caused it to crack. Cracks similar to that on the mishap aircraft have been found on nine other F-15s, but there is no rhyme or reason to them-they did not come from a particular lot, batch of materials, and affect aircraft made from 1978 to 1985. Accident Investigation Board director Col. William Wignall said the pattern is "random." That, however, poses a dark question-what other bad parts might be lurking in the fleet? The Air Force expected to begin retiring some F-15s in the mid-1990s. Air Combat Command chief Gen. John Corley, observing the fact that his Eagles are long past retirement age, said, "100 percent of my fleet is fatigued." (AIB executive board summary; see The Document File for multiple-volume AIB report)

Lucky to be Alive: The pilot of the F-15 that crashed is "lucky to be alive," Air Combat Command boss Gen. John Corley reported. The pilot, in the second round of air combat maneuvers during the mission, was in a turn, pulling between seven and eight Gs. He realized something was wrong and relaxed back pressure, but the airplane was already coming apart, and seconds later, the nose separated from the aircraft, ultimately coming to rest about a half mile from the rest of the airplane. The canopy was ripped off the separated nose and struck the pilot's left shoulder, causing serious injury. Able to use only his right hand, he ejected from the tumbling nosecone in an inverted attitude. Upon reaching the ground, he elected to remain still until civilian rescuers reached him. The pilot performed well under the circumstances and was in no way responsible for the accident, Corley said.

Who's to Blame?: Add "vanishing paperwork" to "vanishing vendors" as another byproduct of the Air Force's operating an unprecedented old fleet. An improperly made part was to blame for the Nov. 2 crash of an F-15. But who made it? The aircraft was built in 1980 by McDonnell Douglas, and the company was to maintain the Air Force acceptance form, DD250, which it put on microfiche. Then Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas, and there was the Paperwork Reduction Act, leading to missing papers that are making it hard to trace the provenance of the longeron in question. Gen. John Corley, head of Air Combat Command, told reporters yesterday that it's "premature" to think about liability, especially when the culprit part had been subjected to years more hard stress than it was ever expected to bear. He also thanked Boeing for being forthcoming in helping with the investigation and noted that the company itself discovered the flaw that caused the accident.

The bottom line? It ain’t pretty. Especially the “dark question-what other bad parts might be lurking in the fleet?” bits. This whole scenario just has to cast doubts…however small… in the minds of our fighter pilots about the reliability of their planes. I dunno about you, Gentle Reader, but I’d be just a little bit hesitant about pushing the envelope in a 25 to 30 year old airframe that might come apart on me. And that's only about half of this issue. As noted above, USAF is required to make some very hard decisions, very soon.

Update: Via Lex, an animation of the F-15 longeron failure...and the results.



And hey! This doesn't happen a lot, but it certainly massages the ol' ego in exactly the right place when it does...

So Why Don't I Agree With Ron Paul?

Via The Anchoress, here's how I did on the world's shortest (and shallowest, according to The Anchoress) political quiz. (Click for larger)

So...to repeat the sentiment in the post title..."Why don't I agree with Ron Paul?" The answer is as I've oft stated: foreign policy. Add to that: restoration of the Gold Standard.

Other than that...not a lot of difference.

You can take the quiz here. And I apologize for my apparent Ron Paul fixation. But it's better than...say... a Hillary fixation, nu?

On an entirely different subject... What's for dinner? I found myself staring wistfully at the remains of last night's spaghetti in the garbage just a few short minutes ago...and thinking “Damn. Now that was a stupid thing to do...”

And here I sit, still thinking "What's for dinner?"

Advice For Women, circa 1955

Exhibit A

First and foremost: I stole Exhibit A from Lin…who has written a wonderful and provocative post about the guidance contained within Exhibit A and the mindset of the modern Pioneer Woman. Which, if you know Lin, is mostly tongue-in-cheek. And VERY few people “do” a post of the tongue-in-cheek variety than Lin. Do go if you haven’t been.

But let us continue. Here it is… 1400 hrs as I type (and 1500 hrs, as I post...this took a LONG time to write!) and I’m still working on my “morning” coffee and making the rounds, which are incomplete…still. But, time being of the essence and all that, I’ve decided to write today’s post and delay the completion of the rounds until this is done. If it gets done.

Now about Exhibit A, which you may or may not have already “clicked for larger.” If you haven’t go ahead and do it now…I’ll wait.

Back? Didja laugh yer a$$ off while absorbing that sage advice? Or did you read it while compressing your lips into that fine white line while muttering “The horror! The horror!”, assuming you’re a woman? Either reaction is normal in our post-feminist day and age, Gentle Reader. Especially if you’re younger than…say… forty. But reading this advice provokes an entirely different reaction in those of us…some of us… “of a certain age.” “Nostalgic” comes to mind. Or, the realization that the 1950s really were simpler times, a time when America had well-defined role models, there was little if any gender confusion, the term “glass ceiling” hadn’t yet been invented, and women were generally satisfied with their lot in life. That last statement most certainly will raise eyebrows. Let me digress just a bit and quote from the comment I left at Lin’s place:

Conventional wisdom aside, the world was largely populated with people of the female persuasion who didn't have a problem with the way things were. Really.

Things were different back then. One of my favorite memories of my adolescence is of standing in the kitchen with Mom, talking as she made the evening pitcher of martinis. There was a ritual associated with this act, and it was performed at precisely the same time, Monday through Friday... simply because Dad always arrived home at the same time, plus/minus five minutes, at the most. The penultimate act of this dance was Mom pouring the martinis into chilled glasses as Dad's car came up the driveway. She'd be at the door, martini in hand, as he walked in... (I could go on, but hey this is a comment... not my blog.) ;-)

I kid thee not. It really was this way, every single day. It was good to be the King, once upon a time.

The martinis weren’t the end of it, either. Dinner was already in its final stages of preparation, and it was dinner…not fast-food stuff. Mom and Dad always retired to their bedroom while he changed clothes and they emerged a few minutes later to sit down in the living room and have their second drink before dinner was put on the table. Children weren’t allowed to intrude on the adults during that period of time…it was Mom and Dad, only. But we kids had our moments, at the dinner table.

Dinner was a family-affair…none of this grazing stuff… we ate together as a family almost every night (there were exceptions to this rule, even in 1955). You might think that’s simply a ritual, and it was. But it was important ritual...family time, bonding, and all that. The family dinner is one of those items of conventional wisdom for the time that seems to have gone by the boards. I suspect if you dug deeper into any issue of Housekeeping Monthly in 1955 you’d find guidance on the hows and whys of family dinners. Among other things. But… digressions ‘r’ us.

There’s a bit of “over the top” sort of guidance that my Mom would have laughed at in Exhibit A (blood would have flowed freely had Dad stayed out all night), but there’s a lot more that she would have nodded her head up and down about. Some of the advice is simple common sense for any relationship, assuming you re-word the advice to make it friendlier to 21^st Century ears. Things like show your mate you value them. Do the “random acts of kindness” thing, like slipping off his shoes…or her shoes…and massaging their feet. Be happy and positive. I’m sure you get my drift.

My larger point is women generally bought into this type of advice back then. And, of course there were women in this age cohort that absolutely, positively rejected the conventional wisdom of the 1950s, and made very successful careers out of doing so. Women like Germaine Greer, Gloria Steinem, and Betty Friedan. That said, speaking as someone who grew up in the 50s and has watched the whole “feminism” movement unfold throughout the course of my life, I have to ask: Are we really better off today than we were back then? Really? Are our kids smarter and more successful in school? Are our neighborhoods safer? Are our marriages more, not less, secure? And…bottom line… are women happier today than they were back then?

Rhetorical questions, all. The answers might be yes, they might be no, they might be “sorta.” But as for me, I get a certain sort of sadness when I’m glancing at the magazine rack while in the checkout line at Safeway and see things like “50 Sex Tricks That Will Drive Him Wild” on the covers of Cosmo and other “womens” magazines. That, Gentle Reader, would be called smut back in 1955. And no…it’s NOT better. I’d much prefer to see stuff like Advice for a Good Wife, if’n I had my druthers.

And so endeth the (kinder and gentler) rant.

A Very Short Quiz

Q: What, if anything, is significant about the following photo, Gentle Reader?

A: Not a danged thing if you live a normal life. Well, other than the miniscule size of my sink, which makes a normal, one-meal-size drainer full of dishes look positively humongous. Nope…nothing to see here…but don’t move along just yet.

The pic is significant because it’s proof that I actually cooked dinner this evening (spaghetti, in case you’re wondering) as opposed to nuking it in the manner of the typical 21^st Century single-person household. First time in literally months for me. And for what it’s worth, “cooking” means getting pots and pans dirty. I still have to do dishes even after nuking dinner, just not as many of them.

I did something else unusual this evening. I threw the leftovers out. Immediately. My usual practice is to put my leftovers in some sort of container, carefully seal it, place the container in the fridge, wait a week or two (or until I think “what's that smell?” when I open the fridge), and then throw it out. There's a very, very small possibility the leftovers might get eaten... it has happened. But not usually. Hell, not ever. In my case the whole “save the leftovers” thing is a ritual designed to ward off guilt about starving kids in India, beaten into my head all those years ago (Thanks, Mom!). It also serves to clutter up my small refrigerator and take up space which can be used for other, essential stuff. Like beer. And Dr. Pepper.

So. Given that I've been both naughty and nice to myself…it's time for a reward, methinks. And here it is:

Two fingers of the emergency single-malt (Glenlivet). You know there might be more to follow…

A Minor Haunting

It’s come back to haunt me…

At her victory party, Hillary was like the heroine of a Lifetime movie, a woman in peril who manages to triumph. Saying that her heart was full, she sounded the feminist anthem: “I found my own voice.”

Aiiieeee. I saw Hillary deliver this pithy lil quote last night in real-time and nearly lost it. I mean seriously… “Lost it” is perhaps too kind, too gentle, too un-descriptive of my true state. “Ballistic,” as in “He went ballistic…” might work better. As soon as I heard those words I literally rose from my seat and paced up and down the room for a good three minutes, mumbling epithets the whole time, before I calmed down.

And why might that be, you ask, Gentle Reader?

The Second Mrs. Pennington somehow managed to work this phrase into her every rant about my faults and failings, her dissatisfaction with me, in general, and our life together, specifically, during the end-game of our marriage. I found that trait amusing at first, irritating soon thereafter, and unbearable in short order. I mean...your voice went missing for 22 and a half frickin' years? And you've just now found it? For the singular purpose of beating the crap out of me? Really? How absolutely droll, M'Dear.

I had hoped to never hear that particular phrase ever again after we were all over. And then last night: there it was.

Aiiiieeee.

(And in a first for EIP: the quote is from MoDo, writing at her usual place of business. Aiiee, yet again.)

(The pic is SN3 and TSMP in the Denver airport, July 2001.)

A Non-Parenthetical Post About Ron Paul

Just playing with a new widget thingie I got this morning, courtesy of Doc. As noted in the comments to yesterday's post, I revisited Glassbooth to see how my views matched up with other candidates. I found the "Ron Paul" results interesting, since I'm always slagging him.

And thought I'd share.

As for the others... Interestingly enough, Hillary and I aren't all that far apart (46%), which surprises me just a little bit, considering I think she has a "666" tattoo somewhere on her person. Obama and I are (gasp!) 54% in agreement; Edwards and I are together 45% of the time; and that gnome from Ohio and I are at 45%, as well. Sweet Jesus. It's the Kuchinich results that scare the Holy Hell out of me.

clipped from glassbooth.org Ron Paul shares a 66% similarity with your beliefs Representative, (R-TX) Ron Paul was born on August 20, 1935. He is a Republican from Texas. Paul has served 10 terms as a congressman from the 14th and 22nd districts of the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to that he was a general physician in Lake Jackson, Texas. Paul placed third in the 1988 presidential election with a 0.5% of the vote, running as the Libertarian Party nominee--while remaining a registered Republican. Medical Marijuana and Drug Policy very similar find out why Trade and Economics very similar find out why Environment and Energy similar find out why Immigration similar find out why Education similar find out why Taxes and Budget similar find out why Iraq and Foreign Policy different find out why Social Security very different find out why

Uh-Oh

Via Barry at his oh-so-excellent Enrevanche blog… a political quiz that’s better than most, although Barry’s commenters would seem to disagree with my observation about accuracy and veracity. (Click the images for the larger, readable, versions, of course.)

So why did I title this post “Uh-Oh?” Simply coz I don’t want to change my allegiance away from My Boy at this time. It’s somewhat gratifying to note that Rudy and I are on the same page 71% of the time. I need to explore just a little bit to find out where we part ways, but I suspect it’s (a) on drugs (I’m on the record as being in favor of the “Dutch Model”) or (b) immigration.

(And what would an EIP political post be without the usual, customary, and reasonable Ron Paul parenthetical comment? Rep. Ron and I agree nearly completely on the subject of drugs. Paul's drug policies make him a wacko to most Americans, and that's a Funny Thing… to me. It's his isolationist foreign policy ideas that mark him as a wacko in my book, not the drug-thing. There are lotsa clichés that come to mind in this situation, no?

And no...I am not trying to set the world's record for "longest parenthetical comment." I think James owns that.)

I’d be interested in hearing/seeing your results, Gentle Reader.

Huckabee? Huckabee.

There’s a whole boatload of opinion on Mike Huckabee today… not the least of which is Bill Kristol’s opening editorial effort in today’s NYT. Excerpts:

Now it’s true that many conservatives have serious doubts about Huckabee’s positions, especially on foreign policy, and his record, particularly on taxes. The conservative establishment is strikingly hostile to Huckabee — for both good and bad reasons. But voters seem to be enjoying making up their own minds this year. And Huckabee is a talented politician.

[…]

In general, here in New Hampshire he’s emphasized social issues far less than in Iowa (though he doesn’t waffle when asked about them). Instead he’s stressed conservative economic themes, seamlessly (if somewhat inconsistently) weaving together a pitch for limited government with a message that government needs to do more to address the concerns of the struggling middle class. This latter point seems to be resonating, as headlines in local papers announce an increase in the national unemployment rate amid speculation about a coming recession.

The point made in the second paragraph above needs to be emphasized. Huckabee is playing good cop to Edwards’ bad cop when it comes to economic populism, and I believe the message is working. It’s an unfortunate but true fact-o’-life that Americans…especially the middle class (thank you, Lou Dobbs, you asshat, you)… are uneasy and fearful about the economy. Edwards, on the one hand, rails against “corporations” and “corporate greed” and proposes draconian solutions that amount to not much more than “get the bastards,” primarily through punitive taxation. I, for one, am not surprised Edwards' message resonates with the union types, as the us-vs.-them mindset has always prevailed in that milieu. The message seems to be expanding into other areas of America, as well, and more's the pity.

Huckabee, OTOH, reminded the GOP this past Saturday evening (and again last night) that one of the party’s largest constituencies has always been the small business owner, and that group of folks is feeling put-upon. No other GOP candidate (with the exception of Ron Paul) seems to notice…and I think this is one of Huckabee’s strongest points. His emphasis on the core values of the GOP…small government (e.g., less regulation, less bureaucracy, cut corporate taxes, eliminate the “death tax”) and radically reforming the very tax structure of the United States (e.g., abolish the IRS and implement the Fair Tax) should appeal to the middle class. Personally I’m surprised at the dearth of press on Huckabee’s support for the Fair Tax. I’ve heard at least one pundit describe Huckabee’s support of the Fair Tax as “the only ‘Big Idea’ coming from the Right.” But that’s about it… (Insert my usual parenthetical comment about Ron Paul here. But I said “Big,” not “wacky.”)

But let’s continue with the outpouring of Huck-a-words… Power Line’s post is simply an extensive quote from Mark Falcoff, a resident scholar emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute and Romney campaign advisor. Excerpt:

If Huckabee goes on to win more primaries he will have a reasonable claim to the nomination. He may, of course, lose New Hampshire, New York, California and Michigan. But let’s suppose that he manages to win enough primaries in the southern and border states to make the results in those three states irrelevant. It’s all a question of numbers. In spite of itself, the party might end up with him as its nominee, and with it, heading down the shortest road to disaster since the Goldwater debacle of 1964.

Make no mistake about it: an electoral defeat of these dimensions would represent a major watershed in the history of the Republican party. It would be faced with only two possible roads forward. One is to become the party of the religious right, a sectarian agglomeration somewhat like the small ethnic parties in inter-war Europe, perhaps capable of holding some governorships and seats in Congress but never again competitive in a presidential election. The other would be to cut itself free from the religious right and seek to appeal to the wide and growing tranche of independent voters who are socially liberal but economically conservative. In that case the Republican party would gradually resemble some of the “liberal” (that is, conservative) parties who periodically win national elections in Western Europe or Canada. These parties are friendly to market-based solutions to economic problems—that is, they are broadly libertarian.

This line of thought seems to be prevalent amongst the GOP establishment, and is echoed in a column by Stuart Rothenberg at Real Clear Politics. To cut to the chase: Rothenberg sees an Obama blow-out if the eventual match-up is Huckabee-Obama. And I’m somewhat sympathetic to that argument. There are a LOT of Americans who are uncomfortable with the religious-right, if not outright hostile to them. Huckabee’s association with that element of the electorate, and the fact he is a Baptist minister, is an insurmountable negative in those people’s eyes… right, wrong, or indifferent. (see today’s memeorandum for much more on Huckabee)

So. I’ll admit to being impressed with Huckabee’s performance in FNC’s GOP presidential forum last night. My favorable impression has much more to do with Huckabee’s directness in his answers compared to the other participants. While it’s true Huckabee did his share of tap-dancing, especially when Romney tried to corner him on the overall effect of his tax policies while governor of Arkansas, he was much more straightforward than the others. My Boy provided the most strident example of evasiveness when he launched into an extensive summary of his tax cutting record as mayor of NYC when Wallace simply asked him if he supported the Fair Tax. McCain, Romney, and Thompson were no less evasive on all too many other occasions. YMMV (most certainly), Gentle Reader, but that's my take.

I like Huckabee. I just wish he were an accountant, or a retired general, or a CEO. That preacher thing is a BIG problem.

Oh. In case you’re wondering… I’m not switching my allegiance. Yet. But I’m much less than impressed with the field than I was last week, lemmee tell ya.

In other “Don’t Miss THIS” news, John Hawkins has posted his annual “The Twenty Most Annoying Liberals in the US” for 2007. With supporting video! I think we need to modify the ol’ saw about a picture being worth a thousand words. If that’s true about a pic, then what’s an incriminating, you-see-‘em-actually-SAY-it video worth? I’m thinking Master Card here… “priceless.”

Go have a look.

Now That's A Line!

Via Gerard… 20 More Photos Taken at Exactly the Right Angle. Like the one above…Obama on the beach. They’re all pretty danged cool.

Debatable

Remember that sorry-assed web site that popped up right after the 2004 presidential election? I feel like starting a new blog in the same vein, but for New Mexicans only. Something along the lines of… “We’re Sorry, America. The rest of New Mexico isn’t as clue-impaired as Bill Richardson…” And I’d publish pics sent in by New Mexicans apologizing for inflicting Richardson on America. Sorta like the one you see on the right. But... umm... literate, ya know?

What a noob… second only to that gnome Kuchinich. Or maybe Ron Paul.

I danged near took a picture this morning of YrHmblScrb holding up a elegantly crudely drawn apology but opted for posting the sunrise, instead.

You’re welcome.

So, yeah, I watched the debates last night. Most of ‘em, anyway, and that’s a first for me. Whereas I’d watched only parts of the previous debates… snippets, actually… the time has come to begin paying attention. I picked a good place to start, as these two back-to-back Republican/Democrat debates were perhaps the best-run of the lot, so far. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. ABC’s Charles Gibson was an effective moderator, the questions were reasonable (for the most part), and the debate was gratifyingly snowman-free. As a matter of fact, even though the debates were co-sponsored by Facebook, the “new media’s” influence was subdued…hardly visible at all. That’s A Good Thing in my book, given the idiotic way YouTube was used in the early going. It looked like the adults were in charge last evening, and I like that. Thank you, ABC. You, too, Facebook.

I’ll have to admit I just couldn’t stomach the entire Democratic debate and switched off (by muting the teevee) about half-way through the second Democrat segment. It got pretty damned ridiculous whenever Santa Fe’s Village Idiot and John Edwards had the floor. OTOH, I could actually listen to Clinton and Obama and… they occasionally made sense (were you sitting down for that?).

I’ll assume you’re still sitting down when I say the Democrat portion of the debate was more enlightening than the Republican portion, which really amounted to little more than “Get Mitt.” While the attacks couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy (IMHO) and produced some great one-liners, they weren’t exactly informative or served to differentiate the candidates from each other. Time magazine’s Michael Scherer characterized the Republican portion of the debates as “The GOP’s High School Debate,” and I tend to agree with his metaphor, if not his conclusions.

My guy ain’t doin’ so well lately. But then again, neither are the other guys. Iowa aside, I think Huckabee will be a non-player as this mess continues, with the exception of South Carolina, where he’ll probably win. Romney’s too frickin’ plastic for me and is the very definition of “opportunist” in my political dictionary. I don’t trust Fred but I like the things he says about Federalism, small government, and dead-terrorists. Ron Paul has (a few) good Libertarian ideas, but his foreign policy approach defines him as a wacko nut-case. So that leaves McCain. I could go there… support him… with few problems, especially when viewed against the eventual Democrat nominee, no matter whom that might be.

Interesting times.

Red Red Red...

…that would be this morning’s sunrise (and a song by Fiona Apple). It sure was nice to walk outside this morning in shirtsleeves to snap these pics. While 47 degrees ain’t exactly warm, it’s pleasant. Especially for the first week in January.

Pics taken about 20 minutes ago... as ever, click for larger.

I’ll be back in a bit.

Dang.

It looks like they (and you know who “they” are...) were right about Global Warming Climate Change:

The bastards!

It's Over...But It's Just Begun.

Well. The Iowa caucuses are over, Praise the Lord. The Hawkeyes can go back to living normal lives now, away from the glare of the all-seeing eye. Much to their relief, one presumes. As for me… I spent last evening watching the Orange Bowl, which I’m quite sure was much more entertaining and a lot closer, game-wise, than the official kick-off to Election 2008. Things will get progressively more interesting as we move forward from here. But as for the outcome? No big surprises if you were watching the lead-up. But I’ll bet Hillary has quite the hangover today.

The best part of the caucuses? Iowahawk live-blogged the caucus he hosted at his house and didn’t have all that good of a time in doing so. Well, except for the first part of this, perhaps:

8:15 PM: That was weird. I heard the exhaust fan running in the upstairs bathroom so I went up to turn it off. When I opened the door Barack Obama was in there torching a one-hitter. "Hey man, want a hit?" he goes, with a big grin. I'm pretty toasted already so I said no thanks. "That's cool,' he says. Really seems like a nice guy. So then he shakes out some blow on the counter and offers me a line. "No thanks man," I say. "That's cool," he says. "Y'all Chase the Dragon?" he asks, pulling out a spoon, lighter and some rubber tubing. I declined again. I'm not sure how good a president he will be, but he's certainly a lot better house guest than Hillary.

8:31 PM: Shit, talk about a buzzkill. Down in the living room Huckabee has won the GOP caucus and his salvation freakshow is pouring all my beer down the sink (even the good stuff like MGD), shouting "Praise Jesus!" I yell at them to stop, but they crank some godawful Creed song on the stereo and tell me they're going to perform an exorcism on me. The Democrats are screaming in the basement, apparently because they can't decide on a candidate and how to divy up the shit they stole from my garage and liquor cabinet. I'm too high to figure out what to do.

Heh. Read the whole thing here.

Just a Lil Something...

I received this lil treatise today from a discussion group I subscribe to. I thought it was worth passing on.

Old Age, I decided, is a gift.

I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometimes despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.

I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon?

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60s and 70s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.

They, too, will get old …

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day.

(If I feel like it)

While I don’t subscribe to every thought in this missive, most of it is indeed true…especially the part about dessert. Seriously, though, getting old is liberating, if only mentally. I frequently find myself longing for the strength and stamina I had in my youth, and occasionally I think, rather wistfully, why am I so damned deliberative about everything? Where’s that impetuosity I used to be known for? Gone…along with about 15% of my hair. I don’t miss the hair (really), but I DO miss the spontaneity. Being “deliberative” might be what wisdom is all about, but I don’t think so. And finally… when the author says “You care less about what other people think” I think they might really mean you’ve come to realize your ability to influence what other people think is rather limited, and always has been.

At any rate…just a lil something to think about in this youth-oriented culture.

(h/t to Lorelei Siwierka, a member of the Fortuna AFS discussion group)

The illustration is by Thomas Cole. As ever, click for larger.

Don't Miss...

...Dave Barry's "Year in Review," which is the only column of this nature worth reading. The first couple of grafs:

It was a year that strode boldly into the stall of human events and took a wide stance astride the porcelain bowl of history.

It was year in which roughly 17,000 leading presidential contenders, plus of course Dennis Kucinich, held roughly 63,000 debates, during which they spewed out roughly 153 trillion words; and yet the only truly memorable phrase emitted in any political context was ``Don't tase me, Bro!''

It was a year filled with bizarre, insane, destructive behavior, an alarming amount of which involved astronauts.

Ah yes. In the immortal words of that long gone and lamented British teevee show (paraphrased), "2007... That Was the Year That Was."

(Apropos of nothing...I think the Wiki has this one wrong. I watched TW3 every frickin' week while I was in Britain during the early 80s. Or maybe I just thought I did...)

Time Waster...

...well, not really. It's educational. Via blog-Bud Morgan (who was oh-so-prolific with his posting over the weekend), here's the Traveler-IQ quiz, and it's moderately difficult. The greatest difficulty is the scale of the map you're supposed to push pins into to locate the places the quiz asks you to identify, i.e., the map is too small. The closest I got on any one question was 58 kilometers...and that was for the easy stuff. I should have been spot-frickin'-on, and would have been if the map was larger. While my score is pretty good, it ain't near the best. There are folks who have scored well over 400,000 points...and the size of the map is a common complaint.

Anyhoo...try your hand. I'm up for challenges. And I'll play this again. And again. This lil quiz sure put a crimp in my "making the rounds" this morning. Which are still not complete, as we speak type.

But I'm working on it. Right after I try and raise my Traveler-IQ score jes a lil bit.

Happy New Year!

I wish y'all the best of all possible years in 2008!



There's no mess to clean up this morning and I awoke with a clear head and a clear conscience...unlike the first morning on (some) New Years past. I hope the same things are true for you today as well, Gentle Reader. Or... in case you ARE in need of strong analgesics today, I hope you have good memories of how you got in this position.

The pics are from the last house party I'll ever throw (I know...never say "never.")... New Year's Eve, 1998. The first two photos are meant to illustrate the mess I had to clean up on the morning of January 1, 1999...but aren't nearly indicative of the real mess. The last shot is a group photo of a small band of merry friends. Needless to say, a good time was had by all!

Perinton, New York.