Blocked

So…how was your weekend? Things were low and slow around El Casa Móvil De Pennington this weekend, but there’s absolutely nothing unusual about that. It’s always low and slow around these parts and it’s news when it isn’t. Low and slow.

I am experiencing something rather unusual, though… a massive case of writer’s block (WB). Every so often I’ll get a minor case of WB, events where my words just don’t look right to me, or instances where I’ll pound out three drafts of the same post and ultimately reject all three before moving on to something else. It happens to everybody, in greater or lesser degrees. But this case of WB is different, in that I look at my usual sources and don’t see a damned thing I think is worth commenting on, or posting about. Or, to be somewhat clearer, I don’t have anything to say about the things I see. There are alternatives to musing over the news and one of my alternatives is the usual, customary and (sometimes) reasonable re-telling of a war story. But that doesn’t seem to be working, either. My fickle Muse has apparently decamped and left me wondering what the Hell is going on here. Maybe she (my Muse) hooked up with Lin’s Muse and the two of them are out gallivanting around dusty northern New Mexico honky-tonks, flirting with the cowboys, showing a little leg, and getting said cowboys’ hopes up. But she sure as Hell has left ME high and dry… the bitch.

There were times past when that ol’ bugaboo WB would literally scare the livin’ BeJeezus out of me, times when writing was my rice-bowl, I was on deadline, it was 0230 hrs in the morning before a big piece was due and… nothing. That kinda thing is really scary, Gentle Reader, and the current case of WB is a nit by comparison. We’re not talking about continuing employment here, after all. It’s just a blog.

But I miss my Muse.

―:☺:―

Here’s one small item, just to save this post from being a pure whine. Today is June 30^th, and such is the title— “June 30^th, June 30^th” — of one of my favorite books of poetry by Richard Brautigan. Here are two examples of the 77 poems you'll find at the “June 30^th” link:

"Cat in Shinjuku"
A brown cat lies
in front of a Chinese restaurant
in a very narrow lane
in Shinjuku.*

The window of the restaurant is
filled with plastic models
of Chinese food that look good
enough to eat.

The afternoon sun is pleasantly
warm. The cat
is enjoying it.

People walk by, very close to the cat
but the cat shows absolutely no fear.
It does not move.
I find this unusual.
The cat is happy
in front of plastic Chinese
food with real food
waiting just inside the door.

Tokyo
The middle of May, 1976

*a large district in Tokyo

"Taking No Chances"
I am a part of it. No,
I am the total but there
is also a possibility
that I am only a fraction
of it.

I am that which begins
but has no beginning.
I am also full of shit
right up to my ears.

Tokyo
June 17, 1976

Brautigan wrote “June 30^th, June 30^th” while in Japan in 1976 and the book was published in 1978. There are multiple coincidences in play here… first of all, Brautigan and I shared the same geographical space (Japan generally, and Tokyo, specifically) when he wrote these poems. Second, The Second Mrs. Pennington and I met during this time frame, and Brautigan published this book the year we were married. Third, TSMP and I shared a love of most things Japanese, so Brautigan’s observations were of great interest and brought joy to both of us, even given the fact he was (still is) one of my favorites. And finally… Brautigan’s been dead for quite some time now… as has my love affair with Japan, among other things.

It’s still nice to remember, though.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: TSMP and I in a Tokyo sushi bar, December, 1991.

A Few Good Links...

There’s more comment than you could possibly stand on memeorandum today about yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment. I think Althouse and Volokh (and Volokh, again) have the best takes, but your mileage most certainly may vary. Pick and choose, at your leisure.

―:☺:―

The best thing I’ve read today… so far: “Cheer up. We're winning this War on Terror; Al-Qaeda and the Taleban are in retreat, the surge has worked in Iraq and Islamism is discredited. Not a bad haul.” That’s the title to a piece by Gerard Baker in today’s Times (UK). Mr. Baker’s lead grafs:

"My centre is giving way. My right is in retreat. Situation excellent. I shall attack!”

If only our political leaders and opinion-formers displayed even a hint of the defiant resilience that carried Marshal Foch to victory at the Battle of the Marne. But these days timorous defeatism is on the march. In Britain setbacks in the Afghan war are greeted as harbingers of inevitable defeat. In America, large swaths of the political class continues to insist Iraq is a lost cause. The consensus in much of the West is that the War on Terror is unwinnable.

And yet the evidence is now overwhelming that on all fronts, despite inevitable losses from time to time, it is we who are advancing and the enemy who is in retreat. The current mood on both sides of the Atlantic, in fact, represents a kind of curious inversion of the great French soldier's dictum: “Success against the Taleban. Enemy giving way in Iraq. Al-Qaeda on the run. Situation dire. Let's retreat!”

Since it is remarkable how pervasive this pessimism is, it's worth recapping what has been achieved in the past few years.

And the recap is good. Most EIP readers will nod their heads north and south while reading this piece because we know the things Mr. Baker enumerates are true, particularly this:

The second great advance in the War on Terror has been in Iraq. There's no need to recapitulate the disasters of the US-led war from the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003 to his execution at the end of 2006. We may never fully make up for three and a half lost years of hubris and incompetence but in the last 18 months the change has been startling.

The “surge”, despite all the doubts and derision at the time, has been a triumph of US military planning and execution. Political progress was slower in coming but is now evident too. The Iraqi leadership has shown great courage and dispatch in extirpating extremists and a growing willingness even to turn on Shia militias. Basra is more peaceful and safer than it has been since before the British moved in. Despite setbacks such as yesterday's bombings, the streets of Iraq's cities are calmer and safer than they have been in years. Seventy companies have bid for oil contracts from the Iraqi Government. There are signs of a real political reconciliation that may reach fruition in the election later this year.

I find it oh-so-interesting that The Obamanon is still running on a platform that highlights “ending the war.” He also refuses to acknowledge the progress that’s been made during the past 15 ~ 18 months and continues to focus on “George Bush’s failed policies.” Obama might be correct if he’s speaking of the earlier missteps and outright bad decisions made by the administration during the war’s early days and those decisions, viewed with the luxury and clarity of hindsight, really DO look abysmal. But that was then, this is NOW. The president changed his strategy and the results speak for themselves, as Mr. Baker and many others have noted. Except for those on the Left, who would rather change the subject at this point in time. As far as I can tell, Obama and his supporters still think withdrawal and defeat are our best options.

This, of course, is yet another reason NOT to vote for The Obamanon… unless you really believe it’s in the best interests of the United States of America to concede the war in Iraq to al Qaeda. I don’t. And I don’t believe the majority of Americans do, either.

―:☺:―

Remember that “show us your workspace” meme? Well… you just gotta go see Morgan’s place o’ bidness, Gentle Reader. Waaay-cool, it is.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: An F-101 Voodoo interceptor, sitting quietly on the grounds of the Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin AFB in the Florida Panhandle. I had a “close encounter” with an F-101 back in the day… an encounter that left me jes a lil bit wobbly in the knees. I was lucky I didn’t have to go home and change my pants, actually.

(First-generation digital pic taken in November of 1999. The usual, customary, and reasonable disclaimers about quality apply.)

Decisions, Decisions...

Interesting… From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:

Putting Money Down: Following BRAC 2005, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico has made good on a pledge to provide money to ensure the Air Force can improve and expand operations at Cannon Air Force Base--and keep the new western base for special operations off any potential future base closure lists. In a June 24 release, noting the state's $5 million investment, Richardson said, "We are fulfilling a promise I made to modernize Cannon Air Force Base and increase its military value to the Air Force." The money is to go toward transfer of state land to the Air Force to expand the Melrose Bombing and Gunnery Range, which was one of the prime features that attracted Air Force Special Operations Command to select Cannon for its western base. New Mexico Finance Secretary Katherine Miller signed a memo of understanding with Air Force installations chief William Anderson this week. The land has yet to be identified, according to the release, but Miller said state offices would "work diligently" to identify "potential land that meets Air Force requirements." Base officials planned to begin using the existing range for AC-130 gunship training earlier this year. In addition to the AC-130, AFSOC plans to place the new CV-22 and a proposed light gunship, in addition to other SOF aircraft with the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon. (Read Special Operators Head West)

OK… the money’s there, but expansion of the Melrose Range may take some time, as the land required to expand the range hasn’t actually been identified yet. That apparently isn’t stopping USAF from bedding the Special Operators down at Cannon, though. Last week while I was out at the base I counted five C-130s on the ramp, as opposed to the one or two I usually see. Which doesn’t mean a danged thing in and of itself… the planes and their crews could have been TDY to Cannon for training. Still, I like it when I see lotsa aircraft on the ramp. That’s a good sign.

―:☺:―

This just in (via the WaPo), and it’s good news from the Supremes, for once in this term:

The Supreme Court, splitting along ideological lines, today declared that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns for self-defense, striking down the District of Columbia's ban on handgun ownership as unconstitutional.

The 5 to 4 decision was written by Justice Antonin Scalia, and went beyond what the Bush administration had counseled. It said that the government may impose some restrictions on gun ownership, but that the District's strictest-in-the-nation ban went too far under any interpretation.

Scalia wrote that the Constitution leaves the District a number of options for combating the problem of handgun violence, "including some measures regulating handguns."

"But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table," he continued. "These include the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home."

The Court “split along ideological lines” yet again. And I’ll repeat my Presidential Election Mantra yet again: “It’s all about the Court!” And dead terrorists too, of course.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: Three more items from Mr. Dalley’s windmill collection. One of the more interesting things about Mr. Dalley’s windmills is the variations in the fan designs one sees in the collection. The first picture is a close-up of the “classic” windmill, and by that I mean the most commonly seen version; the second is a more aerodynamic fan; and the third is two more variations on fan design.

One has to think the “classic” fan won out because it’s basically a simple design that would cost much less to manufacture. And lower manufacturing costs always translate directly to lower sale price. I’d also assume there wouldn’t be much, if any, gains in efficiency with the more esoteric designs. But those other designs are aesthetically pleasing, aren’t they? If you have other thoughts I’d love to hear ‘em…

Beer in Russia

Blog-Bud Pat sent this vid along via e-mail as a stand-alone wmv file and I thought it was cute. So, I searched for it... thinking there's not much out there that ain't already on YouTube. And yep... there it was. And here it is:



Those sexist Commie Pigs. Shouldn't they have a lil bit more respect for people of the female persuasion? No? You don't think so?

Me neither. I kinda really miss the days when Male Chauvinist Pigs ran wild in our advertising industry. It seems the Euro-Weenies have it ALL over us when it comes to mildly titillating and humorous eye-candy. I don't think there's a single solitary thing wrong with that, ya know. YMMV, especially if you're a woman. But hopefully not.

Yet Another One of Those…

…apropos of nothing moments, sparked yet again by Pandora. I’m listening to the “Bob Dylan” station this morning as I make the rounds, and this just finished playing:

Understand, Gentle Reader, that I’m not telling the entire truth whenever I post these “nothing” moments. Something about these songs I put up strikes a chord (ahem…) in me, and this tune is simply one of the most beautiful and poignant songs about inter-generational strife that’s ever been penned… or sung.

Hell, “Tea for the Tillerman” is just packed with little gems of song and this is but one. TftT is one of my all-time favorite albums, actually, from a period in my life that was also one of the best....and that would be 1971 and thereabouts. Too bad Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam went over to the Dark Side. That seems to happen a lot, doesn’t it?

Lotsa Rain Last Evening...

… for an oh-so-brief period of time. The two shots in this post were taken within two or three minutes of each other last evening, around 1945 hrs. It had been raining for about ten minutes before I decided to throw the door open and shoot a few pics from inside. About five minutes prior to the time these pictures were taken it was raining so hard you couldn’t see across the street... there were literally sheets of water descending from the skies. It had slacked off quite a bit when I took these shots:

35% re-size

100% - cropped detail from the pic above

And then… just normal rain:

35% re-size

100% - cropped detail from the pic above

And this is what the radar picture looked like over and around P-ville around this time:

We really needed it… and it was fun to watch, too. There's nothing like a good rainstorm, and most especially its immediate aftermath. That's when things smell SO fresh and you can go outside and stomp in the puddles...

Socialist Art is Alive and Well, Thankyouverymuch

From Reuters:

People drink wine at the unveiling ceremony of an enema syringe in a sanatorium in the southern Russian spa town of Inozemtsevo June 18, 2008. A health spa in Russia has unveiled a bronze monument of three cherubs carrying an enema, a design inspired by the 15th century Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli.

I was gonna post this straight up, without comment. But one just knows Botticelli is spinning, not rolling, in his grave. Good Grief.

(h/t: Barry)

New Life Triumphant

Back in March I posted a photo of one of those instances where I dodged a bullet… or, more specifically, El Casa Móvil De Pennington dodged a bullet when this old forked tree came down during one of our better windstorms this past winter. The tree wasn’t old, actually. It was relatively young (at about 15 feet tall) but was most certainly diseased; the fork that came down had been dead for quite a while. The other half of the tree, however, looked pretty healthy and provided me with shade in the summer.

Well, that went away when the caretakers at Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park came out and cut the whole danged tree down in the process of hauling away the dead fork. I wasn’t home when the crime was committed and I would have objected (strenuously, even!) to losing that tree, had I been home. But…new life triumphs, as you can see… and what you see is about four feet worth of new growth sprouting out of the stump. I won’t get any shade to speak of this year, but in two years time? Should be good, methinks.

A Brief Comment on the FISA Deal... and Color!

The first sentence of this op-ed (“The Intelligence Deal”) in yesterday’s WSJ is right on the money:

The best news about yesterday's White House-Democrat deal on overseas eavesdropping is that the ACLU and the anti-antiterror Internet mob are apoplectic. This can only be good for U.S. national security. Too bad the compromise also comes at the cost of a further erosion of Presidential war powers.

The deal would extend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to cover eavesdropping on terrorist communications overseas. A six-month extension – the Protect America Act – expired earlier this year and surveillance authorization on al Qaeda targets will start to expire in August. The new deal – assuming it isn't defeated by liberals on the House floor – would last for six years. It is thus a gift to the next President, who won't have to spend capital battling those who think that letting our spooks read al Qaeda's email inevitably means that Dick Cheney is bugging your bedroom.

The moonbats are literally wetting their pants over this… while ignoring the stuff that “benefits” their side (read as: hamstrings, to a limited extent, monitoring efficacy)…and none more so than that idiot Glen Greenwald.

This scandal began by revelations that the President broke the law -- committed felonies -- when spying on our calls and emails without warrants, because he believes he has the power to break the law. The scandal all but concluded yesterday, with the Democratic Congress (a) protecting the President, (b) permanently blocking the lawsuits which would have revealed what he did and would have ruled that he broke the law, and (c) legalizing the very illegal spying regime that he secretly ordered in 2001. Only in the twisted world of Washington can that be described as a "compromise."

Note my highlights. There’s more BDS on display in Greenwald’s rant, as in Bush “committed felonies,” than cold hard facts. But the rich part? Those were “our” calls and e-mails that the gub’mint was monitoring and/or recording, not the calls and e-mails of frickin’ terrorists. I dunno about you, Greenwald, but I’m not in the habit of phoning up or e-mailing AQI, Hamas, Hezbollah, or any others of their ilk.

There’s some good news in all this leftist gnashing and thrashing, though. I read LOTS of comments to the effect of “I’ll never vote for these Democrats again! I’m going Green/Libertarian/Whatevah…” There’s a lot of Rage Against the (Dem) Machine out there (and a lot of it is illiterate, too… such as this, posted as found).

Well that tear’s it, Obama is 3 strike’s your out in my book..First he’s for the continuing war. back’s Israel all the way and now the fisa bill..No way will my vote go there..Remember when I said there wasen’t a dime’s worth of diffrence between him and Hillery…Atleast with her and I wasent for her BTW but with her we would of got a twofer..Her and old Bill..Ha!

I’m gonna go with write in’s and the green party..Kucinich is still my guy…..No more Dem’s except the handful of good one’s…Gonna go be a puppy now, anything I don’t like gonna piss on it…Blessings

Good. I hope you and your comrades-in-arms put your money where your mouth is. That’s all I ask.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics are, predictably, of another of Mr. Dalley’s windmills. This particularly colorful example must have come from one of those “New Age” farms I’ve read about. Who else woulda thunk of a tie-dye-inspired color scheme? I'll bet this thing was simply mesmerizing in a stiff breeze... Psychedelic, Maaan! But it's pretty danged cool, too. I must have some hippie left in me…

The Dalley Windmill Collection

Anyone who’s traveled on the American Great Plains knows that the landscape is dotted with windmills... most of which are still functioning, drawing water for cattle and other livestock. In some parts of the country the standard joke is the windmill is the Unofficial State Tree. That’s probably true here on The High Plains of New Mexico, as trees of any sort are in very short supply.

One of Portales, New Mexico’s minor claims to fame…and they’re ALL minor, come to think on it… is The Dalley Windmill Collection. From Southeastern New Mexico (The Arts, Museums, and Must-See Sites):

The Dalley Windmill Collection
One of the residents of Portales has a collection of 75 windmills from around the world. You can drive by and see all of the beautiful windmills. On a good and windy day they will be turning and charming the eyes of viewers.
Address 1506 Killgore St., Portales, NM
Phone (505) 356-6263

“A good and windy day” would be nearly any day in P-Ville, except for today. I took a ride out to the Dalley’s place earlier this afternoon to take the pictures you see here. I had hoped to talk to Mr. Dalley and get some background on his collection but no one was home…alas and alack. I was able to take pictures, though… and this post contains three such.

This is the first of what may be many windmill photos. I also put up more (and different) photos of Mr. Dalley’s windmills at The Summer Photo Project 2008. And, apropos of nothing… You’ll be able to tell when The Muse goes off to wherever it is she goes from time to time… coz there’ll be more windmill photos.

As always...click for larger.

Après le Déluge

We got a lil rain last night, finally. It rained pretty violently for about ten minutes, 15 at the most, but it was enough to leave some good sized puddles all over Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park this morning. We also got some penny-sized hail in the bargain, along with the usual, customary and (un)reasonable wind. I stepped outside after the worst of it had passed (around 1945 hrs or so) and snapped some pics. Here are a few…

These ain’t mammatus clouds, but they sure look like they wanna be. This was taken from behind El Casa Móvil De Pennington, looking NNW.

The view looking ESE.

And the view looking SSW.

Piece O' Cake

(Click for larger)

You can’t beat me… but you can tie me. Take the quiz here.

h/t: Blog Bud Morgan.

Workspace

Jenn, the proprietress of new-to-me blog “I Hate Whine!” posted a pic of her workspace with the oh-so-intriguing title of “Now Show Me Yours!” Well, OK. Here it is:

This is a pretty quick, easy, and fun sort of meme…so play along if ya want. Jenn has only stipulated one rule: Don’t clean up first. Let’s see it, warts and all. My warts include an exhausted blister pack of Nicorette gum (still on it, better than cigarettes), my Swiss Army knife, a couple of paper towels, miscellaneous Very Important Papers (under the monitor and on my treasured “Directors Bitter” ashtray, which was purloined liberated from an Oxford, UK pub on New Years Eve of 199x and is now a catch-all for various and sundry things), my magnifying glass (on top of the pile under the window) for reading the oh-so-small print in my new camera manual (behind the coffee cup, on the left), a couple of pens, q-tips, a can of office implements, canned air for dusting, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Not too bad, I guess. It could be worse. ;-)

Update, 06/19/2006 1910 hrs: Not to worry, Jenny. Delicious!

The Plot Thickens

Yet another black eye for USAF and its senior leadership… Yesterday the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a three page press release titled “GAO SUSTAINS BOEING BID PROTEST; Agency Recommends Air Force Reopen the Bid Process,” which upheld Boeing’s protest over the Air Force’s award for the multi-billion dollar next generation tanker aircraft to Northrop-Grumman/EADS. This is not good news following the cashiering of the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff, let alone the fact this is the second major procurement program that has been successfully protested in two years (see: CSAR-X. Boeing lost that one.). From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:

Back to the Drawing Board: The Government Accountability Office yesterday (July 18) recommended that the Air Force throw out its selection of the KC-45 aerial tanker contract to Northrop Grumman and seek revised proposals from that company and Boeing, which protested the choice in early March. The GAO cited seven "significant errors" (see below) in the Air Force's handling of the $40 billion contract award and determined it would be unfair to let the award stand. "We recommend that the Air Force reopen discussions with the offerors, obtain revised proposals, re-evaluate the revised proposals, and make a new source-selection decision," the GAO said in a three-page release articulating its ruling. Furthermore, it said the Air Force should pay Boeing's legal and administrative costs in bringing the protest--potentially tens of millions of dollars. The GAO suggested that if the Air Force doesn't think the original solicitation "adequately" states the service's needs, it should re-write the document prior to beginning new talks with the two competitors. A similar ruling in the Air Force's combat search and rescue helicopter competition has led to a two-year litigation delay in getting that program under contract, suggesting that the launch of the tanker program could be delayed at least that long, as well. A GAO official told the Daily Report that the recommendations do not suggest that the Air Force "start over," that is open the competition to other bidders, but rather refine the way that it asks for information and evaluates the answers it gets. The GAO said that it also denied some of Boeing's complaints--without saying which ones--because records failed to show that the Air Force had done anything wrong "with respect to those challenges." Further, the agency pointed out that its ruling shouldn't be construed as a comment on the relative merits either of Boeing's KC-767 or Northrop Grumman's KC-30 tanker models. The GAO's decisions focused only on the process.

Further:

Air Force Response to GAO Decision: Air Force acquisition executive Sue Payton issued a statement late yesterday saying USAF "will do everything" it can "to rapidly move forward" now that the GAO has recommended that it reopen the KC-X tanker contest to revised bids from Boeing and Northrop Grumman (see above). "As soon as possible, we will provide the Air Force's way ahead," she said. "We appreciate the GAO's professionalism and thoroughness in its assessment of the protest of the KC-45A source selection." USAF is currently reviewing the GAO's decision and, once that process is complete, it said it will be in a position to determine the best course of action. The service has 60 days to respond to GAO's findings of June 18, which sustained Boeing's legal complaint. Looking forward, Payton said, the Air Force "will select the best value tanker for our nation's defense, while being good stewards of the taxpayer dollar."

While the GAO’s decision isn’t legally binding, the atmosphere in Washington at the moment, coupled with the Air Force’s seeming incompetence at running major procurements, makes a re-evaluation of the bids likely…at least according to the majority of the defense analysts I’ve read on this subject. This is not good news for our war-fighters, as it’s likely the AF will kick the tanker can into next year (as noted above, too):

Loren Thompson, a defence analyst at the Lexington Institute, said it was important to realise that the GAO was challenging the process, not the result of the competition, a point also made by Louis Gallois, the chief executive of EADS.

Mr Thompson and other analysts suggested that the result of the GAO assessment was that the decision over which tanker to finally choose would be up to the next administration.

“This being an election year, we doubt whether any decision will be made rapidly,” said Rob Stallard, an analyst at Macquarie Securities. “Political support for both sides is vocal and entrenched, and in our opinion we would not be surprised if the DoD [Department of Defence] ultimately buys both Airbus and Boeing tankers.”

Emphases mine. It’s clear this fight will continue for some time, and the political ducks are already lining up, as we speak.

It’s a damned shame the Air Force couldn’t or wouldn't comply with its own acquisition process and left itself open to so much criticism by making fundamental errors that could and should have been avoided, assuming I’ve read the GAO’s critique correctly. What’s worse, though, is the fact the program is going to experience significant delays, regardless of whether Boeing or EADS wins. The KC-135 airframe’s (USAF’s current strategic tanker) average age is 47 years… and that’s simply too damned old for any machine, let alone a military aircraft.

This whole ugly story stretches back to September, 2001… and Reuters has provided a timeline with all the significant milestones in the tanker saga. What with unethical conduct involving military-industrial-complex “revolving door” issues, investigation upon investigation, prison terms, the downfall of a Fortune 50 CEO, and one high-level USAF acquisition official’s suicide, this reads more like a frickin’ soap opera than a military procurement. Or a high-tech version of the Keystone Cops, at the very least.

Dang. What’s happening to my Air Force?

(image by Northrop-Grumman)

Testing, Testing... 1... 2... 3...

This has been a test. If these were real photos being posted to these here inter-tubes you would have derived pleasure from them…rather than shock and dismay. Be that as it may, the instrument has landed. I returned from the dentist’s office about an hour ago (where everything was hunky-dory, thanks for asking), worried that FedEx just might have come by in my absence. But… nothing attached to my door, so I assumed they had not.

Ha.

I decided to check FedEx’s tracking site and Lo! My package was “left by the front door.” And so it was, tucked unobtrusively behind my lawn chair and in front of the RV’s rear wheels. Big and immediate sigh of relief!

So: I assembled the instrument, figured out how to turn it on and such, set the self-timer, pressed the shutter, and assumed the pose. What you see above is my first picture, shot in full-auto mode. The original sized photo is cropped in the second pic to show only my ugly mug. The whole image was re-sized to 30% of the original in the first. Big files, to put it mildly…3.68 Mb for this one... and this is a jpeg, not a RAW image.

It’s too danged hot outside to go play, so you and I will both wait for more interesting stuff…which will come later rather than sooner.

In the meantime, I’m gonna play around with the thing and try and get more of an intuitive feel for the controls and such. I was dead-wrong when I said I didn’t think “the learning curve will be all that steep” in my post this morning.

Ha. Yet again.

While I'm Sitting Here... Waiting...

Further to Monday’s post about the AP/copyright flap… In what might be a first for EIP, I’m going to link Markos Moulitsas Zúniga with no reservations, qualifications, and/or disparaging remarks:

Lots of blogs are calling for boycotts of AP content. Not me. I'm going to keep using it. I will copy and paste as many words as I feel necessary to make my points and that I feel are within bounds of copyright law (and remember, I've got a JD and specialized in media law, so I know the rules pretty well). And I will keep doing so if I get an AP takedown notice (which I will make a big public show of ignoring). And then, either the AP -- an organization famous for taking its members work without credit -- will either back down and shut the hell up, or we'll have a judge resolve the easiest question of law in the history of copyright jurisprudence.

So Kos has a law degree, eh? I knew that. But I didn’t know he specialized in media law, but that’s neither here nor there. I agree with his approach: keep quoting the AP…consistent with Fair Use… and let ‘em come on down. Seems like the appropriate thing to do.

It’s been noted elsewhere today that this is one of those all-too-rare moments in the ‘sphere where the Left and Right are united on an issue. Everyone agrees the AP is being absolutely stupid, and James Joyner of Outside the Beltway has screen shots of just how stupid they actually are. I’d really be interested in knowing if someone… anyone… has plunked money down for the privilege of quoting the AP. I sorta doubt it, yanno?

―:☺:―

One of the recurring themes sounded by ALL of the Democrat candidates during their primaries… and one of my favorite peeves, as well… is the economy is going to Hell in a hand basket. We’re ALL suffering, doncha know. Most of us are unemployed and for those of us who remain employed, well…it’s just a matter of time before our jobs are outsourced to India, China, or Mexico. Hell, the Great Depression (Part Deux) is just around the corner, right?

Wrong.

Ask Americans how the economy is doing, and their answer is stark: It is not just bad, it is run-for-the-hills terrible. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in almost 30 years. Only 12 percent of Americans think the economy is in good shape. On the Internet, comparisons to the Great Depression are widespread.

But the reality is different. According to most broad measures of how the economy is doing, it's not all that grim.

Soft? You betcha. In recession? Quite possibly. And a crisis in the financial markets has rattled nerves for months now. But so far, the economy is holding up better than it did during the last two recessions in 1990 and 2001. Employers haven't shed as many jobs, the unemployment rate is still relatively low, and gross domestic product has kept rising. Things are nowhere near as bad as they were in the Great Depression, or even during the severe recession of 1982-83. The last time consumers were this miserable, in May 1980, the jobless rate was 7.5 percent and inflation was 14.4 percent. Now those numbers are 5.5 percent and 4.2 percent respectively.

Even the article quoted above (“Why We’re Gloomier Than the Economy” by Neil Irwin in today’s WaPo) only gets it half-right by saying we’re “quite possibly” in a recession. We’re not, if one observes the generally-accepted definition of recession… which is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in GDP. We haven’t quite hit that point, yet. Mr. Irwin goes on to list his reasons why we feel so bad about the country’s economic prospects and cites the real risk of self-fulfilling prophecy… as consumer spending drives the greatest portion of the economy.

I’ll add there’s yet another, greater danger: people will begin to believe what Obama’s saying and…worse yet… that he’ll be able to fix our tired-ass economy (he sez) with Change! and Hope! McCain can’t do the job, coz his Buds in the White House are putting the final touches on “Great Depression, Part Deux” and McCain is nothing but BushCo’s third term, right? That’s the bit that worries me. YMMV, of course.

―:☺:―

So… my new camera body arrived yesterday, my lens is supposed to be delivered today, and the memory card is due to arrive tomorrow. Not a bad delivery sequence, that. If the lens arrives on time, and IF it arrives while I’m not at the dentist (I have another follow-up early this afternoon), I should be able to begin playing with my new toy today. I’ll just take the memory card out of my G5 and drop it into the XTi… and Walla! I’ll look like a photographer!

I’ve charged the camera battery, loaded the bundled software on my PeeSee, and given the owner’s manual the once-over, so I’m basically good to go. I don’t think the learning curve will be all that steep with the new camera. There’s a lot of consistency between the new camera’s controls and menu functions and those on the old one. That’s to be expected, as both cameras are Canons. My old G5 wasn’t exactly a “point-and-shoot,” either. One of the reasons I bought that camera four years ago was its versatility… it has aperture and shutter speed priority modes, plus full manual control of all exposure parameters and focus. It just wasn’t an SLR.

But anyway. Cue up Tom Petty, eh? With Eddie, too!

Something Happened...

… 30 years ago today. Here are the two prime movers in that event:

That would be The Second Mrs. Pennington and I on our wedding day. And don’t we look oh-so-very ‘70s? Well, the groom does, anyway…dressed as he is in an off-white tux (“cream” is the proper term, methinks) with brown velvet (!) trim. That get-up is the ONLY thing I regret about that day. But, being the perceptive sort of individual I was and still am, I rolled with the flow… said flow controlled by TSMP, who thought that tux was The Cat’s Meow. Who was I to disagree, especially after my initial outburst (something to the effect of “I’m NOT wearing that thing!”), to which TSMP replied “Oh yes you are, assuming you still wanna get married.” End of objection.

We were married in the backyard of TSMP’s parents’ house on the Lake Huron shore in Harbor Beach, Michigan. What follows are a few shots of the setting. TSMP came out of the French Doors (underneath the awning) on her father’s arm and joined the wedding party under the large tree on the right (in the second pic), where the ceremony took place. The front of the house is in the last picture. That’s TSMP crouching in the flower bed (she’s actually sitting on the doorstep).

Here are a couple of interiors. The first is TSMP in the dining room (which has a magnificent view of Lake Huron); the second is my Best Man and Good Bud Chip at the piano, probably noodling out Wagner's “Bridal Chorus.” Or not.

It was a beautiful wedding… aren’t they all? The marriage was pretty good, too, all things considered. We had at least 22 good years together... 20 of them married... and one year of absolute Hell once the handwriting was on the wall. I refused to acknowledge that handwriting then and kinda-sorta still do today, albeit at a much lower level.

It's said “time heals all wounds,” but I don’t agree. Some wounds just refuse to heal, even when you wish with all your might they would. But, Hey! I’m not dead yet, so there’s still hope.

comments off

Small Stuff

So… the rounds have been made and I was gonna put up one of those typical “I got nuthin’” posts today (coz I really didn’t have anything…), but decided to give memeorandum a glance to see if there was any blog fodder lurking therein. And yeah… there is. Something that’s near and dear to my heart, as it were:

The Associated Press, one of the nation’s largest news organizations, said that it will, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.’s copyright.

The A.P.’s effort to impose some guidelines on the free-wheeling blogosphere, where extensive quoting and even copying of entire news articles is common, may offer a prominent definition of the important but vague doctrine of “fair use,” which holds that copyright owners cannot ban others from using small bits of their works under some circumstances. For example, a book reviewer is allowed to quote passages from the work without permission from the publisher.

Fair use has become an essential concept to many bloggers, who often quote portions of articles before discussing them. The A.P., a cooperative owned by 1,500 daily newspapers, including The New York Times, provides written articles and broadcast material to thousands of news organizations and Web sites that pay to use them.

Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to remove seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words.

On Saturday, The A.P. retreated. Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P., said in an interview that the news organization had decided that its letter to the Drudge Retort was “heavy-handed” and that The A.P. was going to rethink its policies toward bloggers.

The quick about-face came, he said, because a number of well-known bloggers started criticizing its policy, claiming it would undercut the active discussion of the news that rages on sites, big and small, across the Internet.

[…]

On Friday, The A.P. issued a statement defending its action, saying it was going to challenge blog postings containing excerpts of A.P. articles “when we feel the use is more reproduction than reference, or when others are encouraged to cut and paste.” An A.P. spokesman declined Friday to further explain the association’s position.

After that, however, the news association convened a meeting of its executives at which it decided to suspend its efforts to challenge blogs until it creates a more thoughtful standard.

“We don’t want to cast a pall over the blogosphere by being heavy-handed, so we have to figure out a better and more positive way to do this,” Mr. Kennedy said.

OK. I’m the smallest of small fry in the blogosphere, yet still… it is to worry, no? Not yet, perhaps, but one wonders just what sort of guidelines the AP will come up with. I consider EIP to be under a pall, for all that.

I’ve always tried to stay within the bounds of “Fair Use” (ill-defined as it may be) and rarely, if ever, post anything in its entirety when just a snippet will do. And I always link. The one area where I might be vulnerable is in the use of photographs. But if the AP, or any of its members, wanna come after me for my postings, well then…come on down. Coz there’s always Reuters, AFP, Auntie, and the NYT, of course. The AP ain’t the be-all and end-all in the news biz. Big, yes. But there are alternatives.

Much, much more on memeorandum… and 99.2% of it reads like “Go jump in the lake, AP.” That’s being quite kind as far as characterizations go, Gentle Reader. And some of the best is here… including this: “One last bit of advice for the AP before I get on my plane: Back off.”

What he said.

―:☺:―

And then there’s this… in the “Suspicions Confirmed” Dept:

Three horrors await Americans who get behind the wheel of a car for a family road trip this summer: the spiraling price of gas, the usual choruses of "are-we-there-yet?" -- and the road rage of fellow drivers.

Divine intervention might be needed for the first two problems, but science has discovered a solution for the third.

Watch out for cars with bumper stickers.

That's the surprising conclusion of a recent study by Colorado State University social psychologist William Szlemko. Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other "territorial markers" not only get mad when someone cuts in their lane or is slow to respond to a changed traffic light, but they are far more likely than those who do not personalize their cars to use their vehicles to express rage -- by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior.

It does not seem to matter whether the messages on the stickers are about peace and love -- "Visualize World Peace," "My Kid Is an Honor Student" -- or angry and in your face -- "Don't Mess With Texas," "My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student."

Dunno if I agree with that last paragraph. I give a clear berth to vehicles with bumper stickers which clearly illustrate someone of the moonbat persuasion is driving said vehicle. Simply because it’s my experience that moonbats seem to exhibit a LOT more passive-aggressive behavior than your average bear. One good thing, though: Chances are they’re not armed. And that’s a Great Good Thing.

Along these same lines…and those lines would be road safety… Fire Fox has a good post up today about watching out for bikers while you’re off on your Great American Vacation this year, or even if you’re just driving around town. Good stuff it is, and…speaking as a biker who was victimized by a clue-free 17-year old in the waaay-back… I hope you go give it a read. Someone’s life might be saved for it…and that life just might be mine.

A Very Good Year

From Bucky Gleason, writing in today’s Buffalo News:

How long has it been since the NHL enjoyed a season like this one? The NHL hasn’t been this appealing — this right — since the early 1990s, when Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr were winning the Stanley Cup with the Penguins and Wayne Gretzky was resurrecting the Kings.

[…]

It seemed the only dent in this season was the one suffered on the Cup itself after Lord Stanley’s trophy was dropped last week in Chris Chelios’ restaurant in downtown Detroit. No problem. It was smoothed out and sent on its merry way. It’s how the season played out, a series of minor bumps and immediate repair.

Here are five reasons you should have enjoyed the NHL in 2007-08:

• The right team won it all. Detroit became the first team since the 2001-02 Red Wings to win the Presidents’ Trophy and the Stanley Cup. If it happened every year, it would become tiresome. But every now and again, it’s nice to see the best team in the league confirm as much in the playoffs. The Red Wings for years have had the best organization. Their players earned the Cup in the end.

• Sid the Kid. The NHL couldn’t have asked for much more than Sidney Crosby and the Penguins reaching the finals. Crosby is the face of the new NHL, and he was brilliant in the postseason while showcasing the league. The Pens play an exciting up-tempo style that the NHL has been trying to push since rewriting the rule book following the lockout. Sid sells the game to kids.

And there are three more reasons in the linked article, all good. I can’t vouch for the regular season, being as how P-Ville is the very definition of “hockey wasteland.” I think I saw six games…at the very most… until the playoffs began. And, not to be redundant or anything, the 2008 playoffs were literally the best I’ve seen in years. That’s not only because The Beloved Wings won it all this year (which was THE icing on the cake, Gentle Reader), but because of the very high quality of the games… from the first round knock-down, drag out battles between Calgary and San Jose, Anaheim and Dallas, and the Habs – Bruins… all the way to the Final. And it only got better. And better yet, as we moved through the second and third rounds on our way to what was acknowledged by all the hockey pundits as the very best Final in years.

Yep… 2007 – 2008 was a banner year for hockey; let's hope the sport picked up a few new fans. The NHL deserves that, at the very least, after this brilliant season. Let’s also hope next year is just as good, and there’s simply no reason to think it won’t be…

Fathers Day

Whether you call him Dad, Da, Daddy, Papa, Pop, Pa, Pater, Father, or simply “The Ol’ Man…” today’s his day.

So…Happy Fathers Day to the Dads out there. Here’s to ya!

Flag Day

I'd forgotten, at least until I visited Cynthia's place and took in her remarkable post titled “Flag Day - Flags Across America.” Some wonderful photos there... do go.

As for me... Ill give you a re-run of one of my favorite flag pictures:


That's Old Glory on the stern of USS Mason... one of SN2's former rides. So to speak.

Shock...and A Cautionary Tale

Shocker: Tim Russert died yesterday… at age 58… and that’s waaay too young to leave this mortal plane. He died with his boots on, so to speak, collapsing at work while editing voice-overs for this Sunday’s Meet the Press. It was very clear yesterday just how respected…if not loved… Mr. Russert was. Both my “must-see” news programs (Special Report with Brit Hume and The News Hour) ran touching tribute segments on Mr. Russert, his career, and his considerable impact on American political journalism. Not everyone is conceding the media’s right to eulogize one of their leading-lights, however:

MSNBC has been running nothing but a 5 hour (and presumably it will go until 11 pm or beyond) marathon of Russert remembrance. CNN has done their due diligence, and Fox news has spent at least the last half hour talking non-stop about him.
But let’s get something straight- what I am watching right now on the cable news shows is indicative of the problem- no clearer demonstration of the fact that they consider themselves to be players and the insiders and, well, part of the village, is needed. This is precisely the problem. They have walked the corridors of power so long that they honestly think they are the story. It is creepy and sick and the reason politicians get away with all the crap they get away with these days.

Tim Russert was a newsman. He was not the Pope. This is not the JFK assassination, or Reagan’s death, or the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. A newsman died. We know you miss him, but please shut up and get back to work.

Yeah, and MS-NBC’s tribute lasted only a few hours on the very day Mr. Russert died, too. You’re a small, small person to begrudge them their grief and their tribute, Mr. Cole. But that’s entirely in character for you. Frickin’ moonbat.

RIP, Tim Russert. You’ll be missed.

―:☺:―

Sound familiar?

WASHINGTON — Thanks in no small part to Justice Antonin Scalia’s dire warning that granting Guantánamo detainees access to habeas corpus “will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed,” the Supreme Court finds itself on the verge of becoming something that it has not been for many election cycles — a campaign issue.

Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, opened a town-hall-style meeting in New Jersey on Friday morning by telling the crowd of 1,500 people that the Supreme Court “rendered a decision yesterday that I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

Mr. McCain’s initial response to the court’s 5-to-4 ruling in Boumediene v. Bush had been considerably milder. The decision “obviously concerns me,” he said on Thursday afternoon.

But overnight, the prospect of using the decision as a rallying point seemed to occur to many conservatives simultaneously. The ruling has “teed up the Supreme Court issue nicely for the G.O.P.,” Curt Levey of the Committee for Justice, a group that advocates for Republican judicial nominees, wrote on his blog. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page quoted Justice Robert H. Jackson’s famous observation that the Constitution is not a suicide pact and added, with reference to the author of Thursday’s majority opinion, “About Anthony Kennedy’s Constitution, we’re not so sure.”

Well, it should…assuming you’ve been reading EIP for a while. The war on Islamic Fascism is the defining issue, as far as I’m concerned, in this year’s presidential election…or, to put it another way… who’s gonna bring me more dead terrorists, McCain or Obama? But filling Supreme Court vacancies is my second defining issue, for reasons that should be entirely obvious now, even to the clue-impaired. From the WSJ:

The court split along typical ideological lines, with Justice Kennedy, the maverick conservative, writing the majority opinion joined by the four liberal-leaning justices, Mr. Souter along with John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Chief Justice John Roberts dissented, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

[…]

The two senators running to succeed Mr. Bush had different reactions to the ruling, reflecting the differences they have with the president's detention policies. The ruling may highlight to voters the president's role in appointing Supreme Court justices.

Republican John McCain, who supported the Military Commissions Act provision struck down Thursday, said of the ruling: "it obviously concerns me. These are unlawful combatants, they are not American citizens." He added that since the court had spoken, it was time "to move forward. As you know I always favored closing Guantanamo Bay and I still think we ought to do that."

Democrat Barack Obama praised the ruling as "an important step toward re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus." The Illinois senator said he had opposed the Military Commissions Act in part "because its sloppiness would inevitably lead to the court, once again, rejecting the administration's extreme legal position."

One of these two men… Obama or McCain… depending on the outcome of this November’s election, will nominate at least one, if not three, members to the Supreme Court. Justice Stevens is 88 years old, Justice Ginsburg is 75, and Justice Kennedy is 71. At least two of these three have mused about retiring in the very recent past. All three sided with the majority in Boumediene. If the tea leaves are correct and the congress becomes overwhelmingly Democratic, Obama’s nominations will sail through virtually unimpeded. We’ll survive a single-term Obama presidency, if push comes to shove. But will we survive a liberal Supreme Court that will last at least one generation, if not more? I’m not willing to roll the dice on that one.

Americans have a God-given right, enshrined in our Constitution, to vote for whomever they please. Americans have a God-given right to be stupid, too. I’ve read a LOT of stupidity...and there's no other word for it... emanating from the mouths of so-called “conservatives” of late…stupidity in the form of “I’ll vote Libertarian” or “I’ll vote independent” or “I’ll stay home, rather than vote for McCain.” Any one of those actions is nothing more than an Obama-enabler, coz that’s the way our system works… like it or not. And by enabling Obama, you enable a Liberal Court.

Think about that… long and hard. You have a God-given right to be stupid, but I hope you choose not to exercise it. To say “there’s a lot at stake in this election” belabors the obvious.

Further: Lex put up a good post yesterday on the impact of the Boumediene decision on the war and the military, specifically.

The fact that two co-equal branches of government co-operated to create the Detainee Treatment and Military Commission Acts does not in itself overthrow the principle of judicial supremacy. Justice Kennedy gets to be The Decider.

The fact that of the many detainees who challenge their detention in court, some will be released and some of those find a way back to the killing fields is neither novel, nor, really any barrier to those who interpret law: If you cannot prove forensically that a terrorist committed a crime, you may not legally restrain him for what he might do. So, tighten up those chain-of-custody procedures, soldier.

The fact that the Supremes have decided, having offered the President and Congress the opportunity to get it right, that they hadn’t after all does rather smack of a hubristic declaration that, “We don’t actually have a plan, we just know that we don’t like yours.”

It just sucks.

Good stuff.

Happy (Early) Fathers Day!

This my Fathers Day gift… from me, to me:

I just now finished placing my order with Amazon for this lil puppy and a few other items, besides. It’s a Canon XTi digital SLR (body only)…in silver. I prefer black and would have ordered one in black, but the silver body was $80.00 cheaper. That fact alone appeals to my inner tightwad frugal being. So, silver it is. I decided on this particular Canon camera and lens combo after much gnashing and thrashing through various digital camera sites and such, in addition to having followed Becky’s experience with her Canon XT, which she really likes. I’ve lived with my Powershot G5 for four years and really, really like it. But I’ve been lusting for a digital SLR for a couple of years and I guess it's time to take the plunge. So, plunge taken... time or not.

As for the lens… I bought a Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (the “IS” meaning image stabilization). Nearly all of the digicam sites took issue with the standard kit lens which was bashed for build quality, among other things. This particular lens got good reviews and isn’t “break the bank” expensive. It remains to be seen just how much I like it, but I’m pretty sure I will. Like it, that is.

Wow. Excitement ‘R’ Us!!

A Different Sort of Hockey Post

Didja know The Onion has a sports section? No? Well, neither did I…but they do. And here’s a sample of their writing:

LOS ANGELES—Sources within the Red Wings organization confirm that goalie Chris Osgood, who is currently engaged in accompanying the Stanley Cup on a victory tour of talk shows and publicity events, has repeatedly and insistently claimed to have gotten as far as third base with hockey's championship trophy during the past week.

On Tuesday night Osgood, teammate Nicklas Lidstrom, and the Stanley Cup made an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno during which Osgood was seen repeatedly touching and attempting to hold the Cup. Witnesses say that after the segment had taped, Lidstrom left for the airport, while Osgood and the Cup left together for the Four Seasons Hotel.

Housekeeping staff said Wednesday morning that the Cup's room had not been slept in.

You can read the rest here… “Chris Osgood Gets to Third Base with Stanley Cup.”

Heh. Just another “Kiss and Tell” piece...

Update: Forgot to give credit where credit is due for this post, and it's your Usual Hockey Suspects... the folks at Kukla's Korner. Where you'll also find stuff like this:

OK... that's a bit much, doncha think? I mean, I love my Wings...but wearing red tennies with a "2008 Stanley Cup Champions" logo?

I don't think so...

Glass Art and Strangeness in Different Flavors

So… as luck would have it, I stumbled into a fascinating show on PBS last evening directly following The News Hour (which is a daily habit of mine). The show was ostensibly about glass and glass art, but focused primarily on Hans Godo Frabel, one of the world’s best glass artists, ever. And Mr. Frabel has a web site, which is just totally mesmerizing. Here’s the introduction from the splash page of said web site:

The Frabel Glass Art Studio was founded in 1968 by Hans Godo Frabel and is widely considered to be the first glass art studio completely focused on creating glass art sculptures out of boron crystal. Some of the world’s most outstanding glass artists are collectively creating the most incredible works of glass art in the Frabel Studio in Atlanta. The glass crystal sculptures of this internationally famous studio with its contemporary glass artists are in the hands of many museums, private collectors and corporations worldwide.

And that’s understatement of the highest order. It’s extremely difficult to capture glass art…with all its nuances and ability to capture and play with light… in static photography. Which is why the web site is mostly video. But, Boy Howdy!… is it ever good! The only reservation I’d have about urging you to go is if you’re on dial-up. I’ll take that back, actually. While the video might be problematic, the catalog of “for sale” pieces is not. But otherwise? What’s keeping you? Go!

In the meantime…God Love YouTube… here’s a two-minute segment on Frabel’s display at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, which was featured prominently in the show I watched last evening.

And finally… There was a brief segment in the PBS show concerning the source of the glass used exclusively by the Frabel Studio, which is produced just outside of Prague in the Czech Republic. I’d long known the Czech Republic was renowned for its glass art and I made it a point to visit several museums and galleries featuring glass art during The Great European Divorce Tour of 1999 (an earthier taste of said tour here). As a matter of fact, I bought all the members of my EDS team small objécts (blown glass globes, in the map sense, in various colors) and several larger pieces for myself during said tour. All those pieces are gone now…surrendered due to space limitations in El Casa Móvil De Pennington.

More’s the pity.

―:☺:―

A strange coincidence… Both of you Gentle Readers know my real name is Norman, not Buck. Someone stopped in to EIP yesterday after googling me by my real name vs. my nickname. As is my wont, I checked out the google query and was surprised to find this as the first entry:

Master Sgt. Norman Pennington, Retired U.S.A.F., 73, of 2011 Azalea Drive, died Thursday morning at his home.

Norman was born in White Top, Va., to the late Ed Pennington and Stella Riffey Pennington. He served his country in the U.S. Air Force for 22 years which included service during the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War.

Wow. The two of us are both Normans, both retired USAF, both MSgts, both with the same time-in-service. So very strange, eh? Looks like I’ve got ten years left if the coincidences continue apace.

―:☺:―

Gentle Reader Amy got tagged with an interesting meme Monday, a meme that got me to thinking. One of the questions in the meme was “places I’ve lived.” About which… My father and I worked for hours…literally… in the waaay back when I had to complete my first DD Form 398 (Personnel Security Questionnaire). One of the questions requires the person filling out the form to list all residences, complete with address, in chronological order. I ultimately submitted the form with several “address unknowns,” simply because my father couldn’t remember the address of various and sundry places we had lived. I didn’t worry a whole helluva lot about those “address unknowns” since my father, being career USAF, provided the ultimate “get out of jail free” card when it came to background investigations. None the less, I used every bit of allocated space for addresses on that Form 398 and one full page of typewritten addendums for same… and that was when I was a young pup of 18 or so. The list has grown considerably since.

So…just for grins and giggles, here’s a list of places I’ve lived in, from the beginning up until the present. I cite the metro area, with the actual suburb and/or other place I lived (like an air base or air station) in parentheses.

• Atlanta, GA (birth to about age three)
• Sacramento, CA (various AF bases… from 1949 - 1952)
• London, England (age seven)
• Paris, France (age eight – 11)
• Ankara, Turkey (age 11 – 13)
• Washington D.C. (Forrest Heights and Marlowe Heights, Maryland. Age 13 – 14)
• San Jose, CA (age 14 -15)
• Culver City, CA (age 15)
• Torrance, CA (age 16 – 18)
• Biloxi, MS (Keesler AFB… age 18-19)
• Lompoc, CA (Vandenberg AFB… age 19 – 22)
• Biloxi, MS (Keesler AFB again. A recurring nightmare.)
• Wakkanai, Japan (Wakkanai AS. age 22 – 24)
• Boron, CA (Boron AFS, near Edwards AFB. One year…we’ll dispense with the ages at this point)
• Wakkanai, Japan (again…for way too short a period, i.e., six months. Or so.)
• Sinop, Turkey (one miserable year… or so I thought at the time. It was quite good, in retrospect.)
• Klamath Falls, Oregon (Keno AFS. three years)
• Tokyo, Japan (Yokota AB… two-plus years)
• Fortuna, ND (Fortuna AFS. one year, three days, eight hours and ten minutes)
• North Bend/Coos Bay, OR (North Bend AFS. Two years)
• London, England (RAF Uxbridge. Three years… my favorite place in all the world)
• Oklahoma City, OK (Tinker AFB. Two years. I lived in Moore and Choctaw.)
• Detroit, MI (Birmingham and Ferndale. Ten-plus years)
• Rochester, NY (Perinton/Fairport. Three-plus (four?) years.)
• One wonderful year (ten months) on the road in my RV… coast to coast and border to border.
• Berkeley, CA (one year)
• San Ramon, CA (one year)
• Portales, NM (five years. And counting.)

And there you have it… my life history condensed into 28 bullet points. What made filling out that first DD Form 398 difficult was the fact that there were multiple addresses at each of the earliest locations. The same would hold true for the later locations, as well. I’d hate to have to fill one of those damned things out today. So… I won’t.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: The scanner has sat idle for way too long, and I really need to get my motivation back and scour the archives for suitable blog fodder. So… here’s a start: Two pics from the one and only time I’ve ever performed in public, karaoke aside (and we won't go there, Gentle Reader). The occasion was the Fourth of July picnic at Fortuna AFS, ND in 1977. That’s my Bud Chip at the keyboards, the wife of a co-worker on guitar (whose name I don't remember)…and me trying my very best to croak out Warren Zevon’s “Carmelita.” My friends humored me with “not bad” sorts of comments, but Mom was right: I couldn’t carry a tune…even if I had a bucket. Which I didn’t.

Never again.

Aiiieee!

I'm just back from Cannon Airplane Patch and I was wonderin'... just how hot is it? The answer: It's frickin' HOT! Some might say it's too danged hot and at this point I'd be inclined to agree.

According to the WX Channel... and note the wind... which was blowing The Green Hornet all over the road out and back to the base:

Which would be a record, if one believes this:

I believe. But...it's nice and cool inside. So far, anyway.

Oil, A Missed Opportunity, and More Freakin' Wind

Larry Kudlow has an interesting article at Real Clear Politics titled “Voters Say Drill.” Excerpt:

Public worry number one is now oil, jobs, and the economy, with the inflationary woes of the U.S. dollar right underneath. The candidate who can connect with these issues will win in November. But so far neither Obama nor McCain are dealing with the new political reality.

In fact, it's all about oil right now. The price has doubled over the past year while the economy has slumped.

But here's an eye opener. Recent polling data from Gallup show the percentage of voters blaming oil companies for skyrocketing gasoline prices has dropped from 34 percent to 20 percent over the past year. At the same time, support for more drilling in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas has increased to 57 percent from 41 percent.

And the candidates remain blind to these shifts.

Obama continues to lambaste oil companies while congressional Democrats push for cap-and-trade. They're missing the point, big time. The public wants more energy and more fuel to cut high prices and spur economic growth. But the costly cap-and-trade plan would produce less fuel and less growth. It would only raise gas pump prices while mounting a Gosplan-type taxing, spending, and regulating program that would be the moral equivalent of Hillarycare on nationalized medicine.

Sen. McCain has an opening here. Yet he, like Obama, would have voted for cap-and-trade, which went down to defeat in last week's Senate vote. And while Mr. McCain favors some off-shore production and has been strong on nuclear development, he is against drilling in ANWR Alaska.

On the one hand this is reassuring, assuming the Gallup numbers Kudlow’s quoting are correct. Reassuring in the sense that the American public gets it, “it” being the relationships between supply and demand, the fact that oil prices are not controlled by Big Oil, and there are existing solutions that will mitigate—not solve— the impact of foreign oil. On the other hand, both candidates’ positions are out of touch with reality as we know it today. Obama is unlikely to change his position—there’s too much liberal dogma involved— but I strongly suspect McCain ain’t stupid and will change his policies on drilling in ANWR and cap-and-trade. And that would be a relatively easy thing to do. McCain could simply say “I opposed drilling in ANWR when oil was trading at $50.00 a barrel. That was then, and this is now…” The same goes for expanding off-shore drilling, the decision for which, I believe, McCain advocates leaving to the individual states.

Much has been said over the past week or so about congressional Republicans having a bona-fide opening where drilling for American-owned oil is concerned, an opening that could reverse the party’s downhill slide. This isn’t rocket science… siding with the voters is usually the correct thing to do, as is opposing liberal stupidity.

Related editorial in USA Today… “Our view on energy policy: Alaska drilling is no quick fix, but it needs to happen.”

Further still: The Heritage Foundation’s “What Is Driving the High Oil Prices?” Their conclusion:

High oil prices are here to stay due to heightened political risks, irresponsible behavior by oil-producing governments and growing global demand outside U.S. control. Oil is a finite resource which is produced by a partially cartelized imperfect market. Consumer countries should expand cooperation in order to level the playing field and reduce prices by increasing investment and production, promoting conservation, and diminishing geopolitical risks. Yet, in the long term, high demand, inadequate supply and severe geopolitical risks combine to make oil a problematic transportation fuel.

Translation: Don’t expect a return to $2.50/gallon gasoline prices, ever. Ain’t gonna happen. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hope for prices to stabilize at current levels, or perhaps slightly lower.

(Image by Michael Ramirez, via Townhall.com)

―:☺:―

So… Red Wings captain Nick Lidstrom (left) and goalie Chris Osgood (right) were on Leno last night…

An audience member from New York asked Leno, “I know you have Justin Timberlake on the show tonight. In his movie (Love Guru) he plays a hockey player. Who trained him to play hockey?”

Leno said, “I understand that he did have a few guys teach him about hockey. It’s so funny that he asks this question, because we have those guys here tonight. From the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings, Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Osgood. Come on out here boys!”

After Lidstrom set the Cup down on the stage, two audience members – one in a No. 17 Gerard Gallant jersey -- stood up and applauded, drawing the attention of Leno, who asked them “are you guys from Detroit?”

The two Detroiters were then asked if they had ever seen the Stanley Cup in person. There response was, “not that close.”

Leno then invited the two up on stage with the Red Wings.

Leno said he knew that the Wings had won the Cup before, but asked if winning it again was just as thrilling.

“It never gets old,” Osgood said. “It was a big thrill not only for Nick and I and our teammates, but for the city of Detroit. It really lifted the spirit of the area.”

Leno that gaffed when he mistakenly said, “I know Justin taught you some things about hockey. Did he teach you anything that he knows?”

Lidstrom than picked the Cup over his head, turned to band leader Kevin Eubanks and said, “hit it.”

While the band played Timberlake’s “Bringing Sexy Back”, the Red Wings’ duet changed the lyrics to “We’re bringing Stanley back!”

Would you believe I missed it? I wrote myself a Post-It and put it on my monitor. I even told SN2 about it around 1800 hrs last night when he called. As late as 2200 hrs. I said to myself “Don’t Forget!!” And then I fell asleep on the couch while reading, and missed it.

I’m such a putz sometimes. (ed: sometimes?)

―:☺:―

In the “Bitch, Bitch, Bitch” Department:

It’s the frickin’ wind that gets me, Gentle Reader. I can deal with the heat.

Insight

So… I stumbled on this neat YouTube feature (that’s a screenshot, above. click for larger) as I was uploading those B-2 crash animations yesterday. I’m late to the party (as usual) coz Google rolled out the “Insight” product on my birthday this year…and the bastids didn’t even say “Happy Birthday! Here’s your analytics!”

I don’t upload a whole lot of vids… as a matter of fact I’ve only put up nine in approximately 18 months since I established my YouTube account. (“Nine,” sez you? “I only see seven.” That’s because I posted the B-2 vids yesterday; Insight works a day in arrears.) I was sort of surprised the vids I’ve uploaded got as many views as they have. But that’s neither here nor there…

Look at the “Demographics” section in the screenshot. Is it just me, or do you find those demographics worrisome? By that I mean how does Google know the age and gender of YouTube viewers? I don’t believe I’ve ever given Google that information about myself, so how do they get it? I googled (heh) “Insight” and went six pages deep into the results, looking for some “under the hood” information about Insight and came up empty… all I found were press releases and one Google/YouTube video telling you what Insight does, but NOT how it works.

Enquiring (and paranoid) Minds Wanna Know…

(Added: Since Blogger is a Google product, it occurs to me that I have given Google a lot of personal info... including my age, gender, etc. But not everyone has a blog, and not everyone blogs on Blogger. Just sayin'.)

Warning!

My Buddy Ed in Florida sends along the following:

Liquor manufacturers have accepted the Government's suggestion that the following warning labels be placed immediately on all varieties of alcohol containers:

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell happened to your bra and panties.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you are whispering when you are not.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like a retard.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to believe that ex-lovers are really dying for you to telephone them at four in the morning.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are laughing WITH you.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause pregnancy.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to believe you are invisible.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause a disturbance in the time-space continuum, leaving you unable to account for large chunks of time.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you have mystical Kung Fu powers, resulting in you getting your ass kicked.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to roll over in the morning and see something really scary.
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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is the leading cause of inexplicable rug burns on the forehead, knees and lower back.
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WARNING: The crumsumpten of alcohol may Mack you tink you kan tpye reel gode.

I have first-hand experience with every single one of these (with the exceptions of the “bra and panties” and pregnancy items), so I know they are fact…especially the third from the last. About which: Aiiieee! (And if you read this, Dan, keep your trap shut!)

I don’t think warning labels will do ANY good, though. Those dire gub’mint warnings on cigarette packs had ZERO effect on me. But… apples and oranges, perhaps.

More on drunkenness from an old post I put up back in March of '06:

Apropos of nothing, as is my wont, of late. Quite some time ago I read Dan Jenkins’ novel “Baja Oklahoma,” which was a good tale…funny, creative and full of little folk gems. One of those gems impressed me SO much I took the trouble to transcribe the list and pin it to the wall above my desk. This, of course, was in the way-way-back. But…it’s a very relevant piece of work. Here, for your illumination/edification, are Dan Jenkins’ “Ten Stages of Drunkenness:”

1. Witty and Charming
2. Rich and Powerful
3. Benevolent
4. Clairvoyant
5. Fuck Dinner
6. Patriotic
7. Crank up the Enola Gay
8. Witty and Charming, Part II
9. Invisible
10. Bulletproof

I don’t believe I’ve ever made it to “Bulletproof.” Evidence of that fact is: I’m still alive. I have, however, been “Witty and Charming, Part II” on a few occasions and “Invisible” once or twice. The most common state I arrived at was Number Four and perhaps Five…achieved nearly every Friday night whilst I was living in SFO. Ah, nostalgia!

Truer words were never written or spoken. I usually only get to Stage Three these days. But Stage Five is not unknown...

That B-2 Crash and Other Things

From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:

More on the B-2 Crash: While the lessons learned from the crash of a B-2 bomber in February aren't applicable to the Air Force's other stealth platforms, the F-22 and F-35 fighters, there are "other systems being deployed" that will benefit from the insights, Maj. Gen. Floyd Carpenter, vice commander of 8th Air Force, who led the B-2 accident investigation board, told reporters June 5. However, Carpenter declined to elaborate on what the other platforms might be, although a best guess would be next-generation long-range strike prototypes. Whatever the case, the AIB found that distorted data introduced into the B-2's flight control computers during takeoff from Anderson AFB, Guam on Feb. 23 caused "an uncommanded, 30 degrees nose-high pitch-up" resulting in a stall and subsequent crash. Both pilots ejected. Moisture in port transducer units--which are essentially air data sensors also called pitots--during air data calibration led to faulty readings for which the flight control computers then tried to correct, leading to the pitch and stall. Carpenter said the aircraft lost, named Spirit of Kansas, was one of the best-performing and least problem-prone of the B-2 fleet, now down to just 20 aircraft. It had accumulated about 5,200 hours of flying time. Carpenter said the AIB doesn't assign culpability and any disciplinary measures will be up to unit commanders to determine. (Click here for Air Combat Command's Web page on the accident investigation, which includes the AIB documentation and videos of the actual mishap.)

I took the liberty of uploading the AIB’s animations of the crash to YouTube. And here they are:

There are also security camera videos and an amateur video of the crash at the “Click here” link above, but they’re not all that good. I suppose it takes skill to remain calm when viewing a catastrophe, and the person that shot the amateur vid didn’t have the “right stuff.” The security camera videos are a lot better. A fully-fueled B-2 creates a helluva fire when it goes down…

In case you hadn’t heard, both pilots ejected safely and had only minor injuries.

―:☺:―

Via Doc, a most useful and entertaining site: WikiQuote’s “List of Misquotations.” Sample:

“Play it again, Sam”

· Actual quote: "Play it Sam, for old times' sake, play 'As Time Goes By'." - Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca)

· Actual quote: "You played it for her, you can play it for me. ... If she can stand it, I can! Play it!" - Humphrey Bogart (Casablanca)

· Note: Woody Allen paid homage to Casablanca under the title Play It Again, Sam, which is likely the source of much such misquotation.

· The line first occurred in the Marx Brothers' film A Night in Casablanca (1946), another possible source of the misquotation.

There’s lotsa stuff there that I’ve misused for years and years now. Which, I suppose, all goes to prove “common knowledge” isn’t common. And it’s wrong sometimes, too.

―:☺:―

Some hockey notes… First, from Tony Gallagher of Canwest News Service… a critical view of the officiating in the Stanley Cup Final. Excerpt:

VANCOUVER -- Now that the Stanley Cup has been awarded to the Detroit Red Wings and any emotion from any one particular game has faded, we would be remiss if we didn't seriously ask some questions about what actually took place in that final series with respect to the officiating.

Having been around the NHL pretty much since the dawn of man, I have watched a lot of games and have seen a lot of good and bad calls by good and bad referees, and I rarely address this topic.

By and large the NHL officials are outstanding individuals whom any corporation would be thrilled to have represent them in almost any situation.

[…]

And when the most important games were played, the most experienced, senior officials were front and centre.

And even though the referees of the day would frequently call virtually nothing once the third period began and the game moved into overtime, there was never any sense of anything fishy.

The breaks involved in officials' judgments always seen to balance out over a series of games. There was no such feeling at this year's final.

While nobody really wanted to say so, how could you have possibly watched the calls in that series and not had the feeling that somehow, consciously or more likely unconsciously, there was a slant toward favouring the Pittsburgh Penguins?

Read the rest here. SN1 and I definitely thought the officials were biased, and not only in the Finals. The NHL needs to seriously re-evaluate the “goalie interference” rule. Bad calls by the officials waved off at least two Detroit goals due to goalie interference, one of which occurred during Game Five of the final…and Fleury was clearly NOT interfered with. There might not have been three overtimes had that goal been allowed, as it should have been.

That said… there’s another POV here. Sorta. The implications of the photographic evidence provided at the link aren’t suitable for a PG-13 blog, but it IS work-safe. And funny.

Second… about that Red Wings victory parade in Detroit. From The Freep:

On a day that began on one knee and ended with arms -- and a Cup -- raised, Detroit boasted over and over: Regardless what anyone else says, this is Hockeytown.

That was rarely more evident than Friday, when an entire region turned out to honor the Stanley Cup champion Red Wings with a parade and rally on a stunning 92-degree day.

The team estimated 1.4 million fans came downtown for the event, while the Detroit Police Department simply sized up the crowd at more than a million. Fans started gathering on Woodward Avenue early in the morning, with lines extending north of the I-75 bridge. The parade ended with thousands spilling into Hart Plaza for a 1:15 p.m. rally that lasted a half-hour.

The human mass stood seven or eight deep in most spots, with not a chunk of sidewalk to be seen along the route. Fans young and old flooded the avenue's sidewalks with red and white.

They came from across Michigan, Ontario and the surrounding states, skipping work, missing school and just spending a day thanking their heroes for the enjoyment of the past season, and the two-month playoff run, in particular.

Over a million people turned out on a sweltering day to celebrate their team! Hockey may be a minor sport in the great grand scheme of things, but I don’t recall reading about a million people turning out for the winners of any frickin’ Sooper-Dooper Bowl… I could be wrong, of course.

Last… Wings goalie Dominik Hasek, two-time winner of the Hart Trophy (League MVP), winner of the Conn Smythe (SCF MVP), and God-Only-Knows how many Vezina trophies (six, actually…Best Goalie) announced his retirement today. Hasek shared goal-tending responsibilities equally with Chris Osgood during the regular season and played four games against Nashville before Osgood replaced him for the remainder of the playoffs. Hasek’s name appears on the Stanley Cup twice…once for 2002 and again this year, both times as a Red Wing.

A Few of My Sunday Reads...

Interesting, and offered without (much) comment… “Yes, Dear. Tonight Again.” Excerpt:

LET’S say you and your spouse haven’t had sex in so long that you can’t remember the last time you did. Not the day. Not the month. Maybe not even the season. Would you look for gratification elsewhere? Would you file for divorce? Or would you turn to your mate and say, “Honey, you know, I’ve been thinking. Why don’t we do it for the next 365 days in a row?”

That’s more or less what happened to Charla and Brad Muller. And in another example of an erotic adventure supplanting married ennui, a second couple, Annie and Douglas Brown, embarked on a similar, if abbreviated journey: 101 straight days of post-nuptial sex.

Both couples document their exploits in books published this month, the latest entries in what is almost a mini-genre of books offering advice about the “sex-starved marriage.” The couples, though, are hardly similar. The Mullers are Bible-studying steak-eating Republicans from Charlotte, N.C. The Browns are backpacking multigrain northerners who moved to Boulder, Colo. The Mullers’ book, “365 Nights,” is rather modest and circumspect in its details. The Browns’ book, “Just Do It,” almost makes the reader feel part of a threesome, sharing everything they used to stimulate sexual desire (it’s hard to visualize and even harder to explain).

I’m entirely serious when I say the article is interesting. What it’s not is titillating…it’s simply informative and illuminating in a clinical sort of way. Sex is probably everyone’s favorite subject, and there’s definite interest even if it’s not a fave, eh? After all, this story is today’s “most e-mailed” article from the NYT. It doesn’t crack the Top Ten in the “blogged” category though.

―:☺:―

Also from the NYT:

THE sandwich was perfectly executed: an overgenerous helping of fresh Dungeness crab meat, dressed in a gossamer coating of mayonnaise and piled between two warm slices of sourdough bread that had been scrubbed with garlic and griddled crisp. The drinks were excellent, too: a split of Laurent-Perrier Champagne for my girlfriend; a tall, ice-cold glass of hoppy Anchor Steam Beer for me. And the view at our walk-up, alfresco table was impossible to beat: palm trees swayed, sailboat masts bobbed and, in the distance, the Bay Bridge stretched out across foggy San Francisco Bay.

The service was unobtrusive, except for one thing: we were encouraged to put down our sandwiches and stand up when the national anthem came over the public address system. We were, after all, dining in the company of about 40,000 other people, at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

I spent a few weekends after opening day this year bopping around to 10 American cities, where I ate my way through 12 major league ballparks. My mission: to hoover down a shameful number of hot dogs and to sample the increasingly ambitious and occasionally delicious world of ballpark cuisine beyond peanuts and Cracker Jack.

Mmmmm! Sushi! But I digress... Great ball park food? Who’d a thunk it? I was hungry after finishing “Buy Me Some Sushi and Baby Back Ribs.” SFO and Seattle get kudos, NYC’s ball parks don’t fare so well.

―:☺:―

Lotsa folks are linking Fred Kagan’s “Voting for Commander in Chief” today… and I’ll pile on, too. The contrasts Mr. Kagan paints between Senators Obama and McCain are both stark and revealing. There are lotsa links and lotsa quoted sources that substantiate and re-enforce Mr. Kagan’s analysis. Excerpt:

For any voter trying to choose between the two candidates for commander in chief, there is no better test than this: When American strategy in a critical theater was up for grabs, John McCain proposed a highly unpopular and risky path, which he accurately predicted could lead to success. Barack Obama proposed a popular and politically safe route that would have led to an unnecessary and debilitating American defeat at the hands of al Qaeda.

The two men brought different backgrounds to the test, of course. In January 2007, McCain had been a senator for 20 years and had served in the military for 23 years. Obama had been a senator for 2 years and before that was a state legislator, lawyer, and community organizer. But neither presidential candidates nor the commander in chief gets to choose the tests that history brings. Once in office, the one elected must perform.

Those are the final two grafs in Mr. Kagan’s excellent article. The meat is in how he came to these conclusions, though. Do go.

―:☺:―

And finally… I was watching the Journal Editorial Report on Fox News Channel yesterday and did something of a double take when they got to the “Winners and losers, picks and pans, ‘Hits and Misses,’ best and the worst of the week (their words)” part of the program. One of the Talking Heads said “Winner…the Detroit Red Wings, for winning the NHL’s Stanley Cup. Detroit, and Michigan in general, have been losing a lot lately. The Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup makes them Number One in something, at last…and it’s a great morale booster for Detroit and all of Michigan.” Complete with video of a couple of Wings’ goals and Nick Lidstrom raising the Cup. How very cool. And very unexpected. I love it when that happens.

(Note: FNC hasn’t posted a transcript of yesterday’s show, yet. I’m quoting from memory, but I’m reasonably close.)

So Politically INcorrect. But Funny.

Via Blog-Bud Morgan... "Sensitivity Training."



Heh. The next thing you know we could all be forced to wear these things. "We" meaning us of the male persuasion. Assuming they get the power level problem worked out, that is.

MFC

I just made that up. It stands for “Moonbat, First Class.” A couple of few days ago I asked the rhetorical question “What the HELL is wrong with these people?” vis-à-vis the Democrat Party and Obama securing the party’s nomination for president of these United States. And then, yesterday… in a very mystical way (well, not really. memeorandum ain’t all that mystical), along comes San Fran Chronicle columnist Mark Morford with the answer to end all answers. Obama’s a Lightworker. Really. Or at least Morford thinks so. I’ll quote:

I find I'm having this discussion, this weird little debate, more and more, with colleagues, with readers, with liberals and moderates and miserable, deeply depressed Republicans and spiritually amped persons of all shapes and stripes and I'm having it in particular with those who seem confused, angry, unsure, thoroughly nonplussed, as they all ask me the same thing: What the hell's the big deal about Obama?

I, of course, have an answer. Sort of.

Warning: If you are a rigid pragmatist/literalist, itchingly evangelical, a scowler, a doubter, a burned-out former '60s radical with no hope left, or are otherwise unable or unwilling to parse alternative New Age speak, click away right now, because you ain't gonna like this one little bit.

Ready? It goes likes this:

Barack Obama isn't really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.

This is what I find myself offering up more and more in response to the whiners and the frowners and to those with broken or sadly dysfunctional karmic antennae - or no antennae at all - to all those who just don't understand and maybe even actively recoil against all this chatter about Obama's aura and feel and MLK/JFK-like vibe.

To them I say, all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people from all over the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of the culture normally completely unaffected by politics?

No, it's not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn't have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity.

Dismiss it all you like, but I've heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who've been intuitively blown away by Obama's presence - not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence - to say it's just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their suddenly evil, cackling overlord.

Oh Shit, Oh Dear. I’d long suspected my karmic antennae were on the fritz, but I don’t have a clue as to how to get them back in fine working order, like they used to be…say back in 1976, or so. You know: when I voted for Jimmuh, who I really believed was sort of the Godfather of Change!… to mix my metaphors. Nope, it’s apparent my karmic antennae are hopelessly out of whack and will forever remain so. OTOH, perhaps I’m a “rigid pragmatist/literalist.” I’m certainly not “itchingly evangelical,” nor am I a “burned-out former ‘60s radical,” the last being close, but no ceegar. It’s hard to be a radical while you’re in uniform. My superiors wouldn’t have taken kindly to that. I was just a garden variety moonbat. Kinda like Morford, except Dear Mark is at least a Moonbat, First Class if not a frickin’ Generalissimo d'Moonbat. More:

Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such a brutal, spiritually demeaning stage as national politics. This is why Obama is so rare. And this why he is so often compared to Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., to those leaders in our culture whose stirring vibrations still resonate throughout our short history.

Are you rolling your eyes and scoffing? Fine by me. But you gotta wonder, why has, say, the JFK legacy lasted so long, is so vital to our national identity? Yes, the assassination canonized his legend. The Kennedy family is our version of royalty. But there's something more. Those attuned to energies beyond the literal meanings of things, these people say JFK wasn't assassinated for any typical reason you can name. It's because he was just this kind of high-vibration being, a peacemaker, at odds with the war machine, the CIA, the dark side. And it killed him.

Ah. So that’s it! Obama is gonna help us evolve! How’d I miss that, anyway? It can’t only be my malfunctioning karmic antennae, coz this appears to be REALLY BIG! But wait. If Obama is speaking to the souls of all his supporters, how in the Hell could I miss that? There must be larger issues at play here. Maybe I’ve been assimilated by The Dark Side and didn’t even know it. That must be it. I was a life-long cog in the War Machine and I still respect it. I think the CIA is pretty cool, not evil. So... I must be impervious to messages sent directly to my soul. Either that or I don’t have one (a soul) and I don’t think that’s likely.

But, Hey. It’s a minor Good Thing Morford has done here. I asked a question and Morford’s fully-functional, highly-tuned karmic antennae picked it up (all the way out in San Francisco, too! He’s got GREAT karmic antennae!) and he gave me a lengthy answer.

Who knew, eh? Well…millions, I guess. Obama’s still the nominee. And moonbats run amok throughout the land. God Save Us.

Oh. By the way. You, too, can be a Lightworker. It's easy. Just go here and sign up.

More at The Corner, Outside the Beltway, and elsewhere.

From the Parade…

…which was live-blogged, after a fashion (read as: from in front of his teevee), by Shawn Windsor, a Freep writer. Speaking of which: all photos below (and their captions) from the Detroit Free Press. But I couldn't agree more with this bit of commentary:

It's unbelievable. It's unreal. It's special. It's incredible. All these people. All this red. The players are all saying the same thing. Goosebumps.

"You never get used to this," Holmstrom is saying.

He just said it will be even more fun next year. I'm not sure, but that sounds like a guarantee. And who would be surprised if they did? Just about everyone is back. The key players show no sign of slipping. In fact, the best two offensive players, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsuyk, are entering their prime.

I guess what I'm saying is, this parade could go on for years.

And now... pics!

Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom hold the Stanley Cup high as he travels down Woodward during the team's victory parade.

Red Wings forward Valtteri Filppula and his guest (ed: WOW!) waves to the crowd during the Stanley Cup championship parade.

Fans gathered at Hart Plaza to wait for their hockey heroes, the Red Wings, travel down the parade route on Woodward.

Red Wings fans lined Woodward early this morning for the Stanley Cup championship parade.

More photos at the link.

News You Might Could Use

Unprecedented: “Moseley and Wynne Forced Out.” This certainly got my attention yesterday…beginning with a short note from SN1 early yesterday morning, asking if I’d heard the news. Well, no. No, I hadn’t. On the one hand, perceptive people that are still in the loop might have seen this coming. From the linked article:

While the simultaneous removal of a service’s top civilian and uniformed leaders is unprecedented, there has been speculation for months among defense insiders that Moseley, Wynne or both could be in trouble.

The Air Force has been rocked by a series of missteps during the past year, and Moseley and Wynne’s relationships with Gates, England and members of congressional defense committees have steadily eroded.

[…]

“This [is] the final chapter in a long list of grievances between OSD and the Air Force.”

Those grievances include criticism of the Air Force’s nuclear weapons handling, two major acquisitions programs that have been stalled by protests, the service’s inability to rush more surveillance drones to the war zones, apparent conflicts of interest of current and retired senior officials related to a $50 million contract to produce a multimedia show for the Thunderbirds, and repeated clashes with Pentagon leaders over the number of F-22s the Air Force will buy and other budget issues.

And that’s just the Big Stuff. God only knows what other things have gone down in the Five-Sided Wind Tunnel. There is also speculation that the high-profile firings are only the beginning and more heads are gonna roll. We’ll see.

In the meantime, the Air Force Association put out a release yesterday that was mentioned in today’s Daily Report:

AFA Reaction to Wynne and Moseley Resignations: The Air Force Association noted "with the utmost regret" the resignations of Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley on June 5 (see above). In a statement, AFA said both men "made significant contributions" to the Air Force during their tenure. AFA Chairman of the Board Bob Largent said "their visionary leadership in articulating legitimate Air Force requirements is precisely what our Air Force needs during these challenging times."

Not surprising, that. SecDef Gates maintains the nuclear surety issues were the only reasons for the firings, but still and even, one wonders.

As for my opinion…I don’t have one. I’m too far removed, in both space and time, from the Air Force to offer any comment at all. And besides that, I was too far down the food chain when I was on active duty to offer a qualified opinion. I will say this, though: I’ve not been pleased or impressed with the Air Force’s leadership of late, which, IMHO, is much too politically correct and careerist. I realize careerism and politics have always existed in the military’s higher echelons. My father complained about it all the time, and so did I during my years on active duty. I think the problem is MUCH worse these days and USAF needs a little shaking up. What I don’t know is whether firing the Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Air Force is the right and proper way to effect the required change. It sure as Hell got everyone’s attention, though.

―:☺:―

Boy… the weather sure has sucked this week. It seems like the Wind Gods are extremely displeased with those of us who live on The High Plains of New Mexico… case in point from Wednesday afternoon:

It’s been like this all freakin’ week. Steady winds in the 30-mph range, with gusts approaching 50 mph… and HOT. Or, as Jenny sez: “blow dryer weather.” The Wind Machine is supposed to be turned off today, if one believes the WX Channel. It’s relatively calm this morning, so I hope they’re right. We need a break!

―:☺:―

Primarily for SN1…because he and I are both big D-Mac fans…here’s Darren McCarty interviewing Chris Osgood in the locker room after Wednesday night’s Stanley Cup-clenching victory:

I don’t think the WDIV reporter has to worry about her job. McCarty did a bang-up job, true, but the lady is MUCH better looking. And teevee IS a visual medium, right?

―:☺:―

The parade begins in a little over half an hour… and in Today’s Understatement: I wish I was there! But this will have to do.

In the Meantime...

OK. I know you're sick to death of all this hockey stuff. It's almost over. Really. That said, I wanna give you something besides my Hockey Obsession, so here’s a link to “The 25 Funniest Analogies (Collected by High School English Teachers).” Examples:

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

[…]

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

Ooooh. The mind boggles, it does.

Via Blog-Bud Morgan, who got it from Bookworm.

Still Reading, Still Watching...

The UCR Team Pic. (Detroit News Photo)

I slept in this morning…primarily because I can…but also because I was up until at least 0300 hrs, trying to read everything written about last night’s game (<=== this column in the LA Times is particularly good) as the articles and columns were filed and published during the wee small hours. And I’m still reading. Here are a few things worth passing on…

A cool little playoffs montage that ran at the close of last night’s Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Hockey Night In Canada broadcast, the Gold Standard of hockey coverage. There’s not footage of every team that competed in the playoffs (the Avs are conspicuously absent, for one), but you’ll see Rangers, Bruins, Habs, Flames, Flyers, Sharks, and Stars. And Red Wings and Penguins, too…lots of Wings and Pens. It’s pretty cool!

And then there’s this pic of Conn Smythe winner Zetterberg celebrating with his Honey… taken from the Swedish newspaper Afton Bladet:

And by the way… The Freep’s servers are getting hammered today. If you try and open the numerous photo galleries at their site all you get is “500 – Internal Server Error.” Jeez… I wonder why?

A BIG tip o' the hat to Kukla's Korner for the CBC vid and the Zetterberg pic. If you want ALL the SCF coverage and only want to go to one place, then KK is your ONLY choice!

The Detroit Red Wings

2008 Stanley Cup Champions!

Detroit 3, Pittsburgh 2.

The game was every bit as close as the score would indicate…right up until the last three seconds, when Pittsburgh damned near tied it again. But they didn’t. Details here.

Congratulations are in order for the Pittsburgh Penguins, too. They had a great season and were half of the most memorable Stanley Cup Final in years. This year's series was the second-best I've ever seen, exceeded only by the Wings' win in 1997. And that one was best simply because it ended that infamous 42-year drought. But... as far as the playing and the competition goes? NONE better than this year. My hat's off to the Pens for that.

At Least One Important Contest Is Still Goin' On...

Yesterday the AP (and others, but they were first) reported The Obamanon has enough pledged delegates to claim the Democrat nomination. Hillary hasn’t conceded, yet, but all the talking heads went on last night as if Obama is a done-deal. And he probably is. This, of course, leaves me feeling just a little bit perplexed about my fellow Americans of the Democrat persuasion. William J. Bennett, writing at NRO’s The Corner, captures my thoughts exactly:

And thus the Democratic party is about to nominate a far left candidate in the tradition of George McGovern, albeit without McGovern’s military and political record. The Democratic party is about to nominate a far-left candidate in the tradition of Michael Dukakis, albeit without Dukakis’s executive experience as governor. The Democratic party is about to nominate a far left candidate in the tradition of John Kerry, albeit without Kerry’s record of years of service in the Senate. The Democratic party is about to nominate an unvetted candidate in the tradition of Jimmy Carter, albeit without Jimmy Carter’s religious integrity as he spoke about it in 1976. Questions about all these attributes (from foreign policy expertise to executive experience to senatorial experience to judgment about foreign leaders to the instructors he has had in his cultural values) surround Barack Obama. And the Democratic party has chosen him.

So, what’s going on in the country, anyway? Is there something in the water? Should someone…anyone…contact the EPA about this? Is this an outgrowth, or the final stages, of BDS? What the HELL is wrong with these people? Let’s take just one point in Mr. Bennett’s thumbnail description of the why-nots… Obama’s resume is so thin I’d be arrested for indecent exposure were I were to wrap myself in it, solely, and go for a stroll around the Roosevelt County courthouse. The Democrats are gonna nominate a one-term US Senator? A man who’s primary claim to fame is being a “community organizer?” A guy who’s voting record in the Illinois legislature is laughable? This election, for all intents and purposes, is there for the Democrats’ taking. And they’re going to nominate Obama?

I suppose I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, cf. McGovern, Dukakis, and to a lesser extent, Kerry.

―:☺:―

From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:

Desert Touchdown: Holloman AFB, N.M., received the first two of its 40 planned F-22s on June 2. "It's a big day. We're very proud to have the aircraft finally here," said Lt. Col. Mike Hernandez, commander of Holloman's 7th Fighter Squadron, who flew in one of the two Raptors. Col. Jeff Harrigian, commander of the base's 49th Fighter Wing, piloted the second F-22. "I'm really proud of what everyone did to make this happen," Harrigian said. Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, will hold an official arrival ceremony at the base on Friday (June 6). Holloman is the third of four bases on tap to host combat-ready Raptors under the Air Force's current 183-aircraft program of record. Already Langley AFB, Va., is home to two fully populated squadrons, and Elemendorf AFB, Alaska, is in the midst of standing up its two units. Hickam AFB, Hawaii, early next decade, will be the last base to receive its Raptors--in this case, just one squadron. The 7th FS is the first Holloman unit that will receive its complement of 20 F-22s. More aircraft are set to arrive at the beginning of 2009 en route to the squadron achieving operational status by November 2009. The yet-to-be-reactivated 8th FS will then receive its 20 F-22s, according to a 49th FW spokeswoman. The 7th FS and 8th FS (as well as a third unit, the 9th FS) formerly operated F-117 stealth strike aircraft from Holloman. The base retired the last of its F-117s in April to make way for the new F-22s. (Includes Holloman report by Amn. Sondra M. Wieseler)

So…Raptors in New Mexico! Cool, eh?

―:☺:―

An interesting…and short… essay by Rick Hills at PrawfsBlawg: “Why I am an anti-intellectual.” Excerpt:

But to continue: My confession of being an anti-intellectual requires a bit of explanation. Being anti-intellectual is not the same as being anti-intellect. My beef is with a particular social class -- the "intelligentsia" -- and not with the practice of using one's intellect to reflect on experience. In my experience, intellectuals (as a class) are ideologically intolerant, easily offended by ordinary humor, and pretentious in their prejudices, which they disguise as universal truths. (Whether any of these adjectives applies to Professor Heller's response to my little poke, I leave it for others to judge).

Moreover, I find a direct relationship between the academic obscurity of self-consciously "intellectual" writer's prose and the willingness of that writer to justify the unjustifiable.

It takes the convoluted abstractions of a Carl Schmitt or a Heidegger to offer apologetics for Hitler; a Sartre, to temporize about Stalin; a Foucault, to defend Khomeini. In this respect, I stand with George Orwell who spent the 1930s and 1940s denouncing the obscurity of intellectuals' prose as a cloak for tyranny (and, incidentally, who was also accused of being an anti-intellectual). Intellectuals spray polysyllables like squid ink, to evade the democratic decencies of conversation. I'd like not to be one of their number.

Yep. The whole thing is well-put and it’s a quick read. Do go.

―:☺:―

Just a lil hockey in anticipation of tonight’s game…

Where’s the pressure tonite? Depends on who you read… or where you live. First, Bob McKenzie, writing at TSN:

Everybody seems to think that all the momentum in the series has shifted towards the Pittsburgh Penguins. I don't necessarily see it that way.

Is Pittsburgh excited that they lived to fight another day in Game 5? Absolutely; but do the Detroit Red Wings have to do a lot of navel gazing and say 'Boy oh boy are we ever in trouble.' I don't think so.

[…]

I've got to believe that the Red Wings are looking back to their series with the Dallas Stars where they were up 3-0 before Dallas came back to win two straight. At that point everyone was talking about how the momentum had shifted heading to Game 6 in Dallas. Well the Red Wings came in and obliterated the Stars in their home arena.

I'm not saying that Detroit will obliterate Pittsburgh in Game 6, but this is a team with a lot of composure and I don't think they are very happy right now.

And if you happen to write for a Pittsburgh newspaper, you see it like this:

The Red Wings still lead it, three games to two.

But it was the Red Wings who lost The Marathon.

And recent history is replete with examples of teams that end up losing such games being unable to recover.

And those teams, unlike the Red Wings, didn't belong to AARP as well as the NHLPA.

[…]

That's the emotional and physical baggage the Red Wings have dragged with them into Game 6 tonight.

This wasn't just a loss after 49:57 of OT.

This was a shot right to the octopus.

The truth is out there…and will be revealed tonight, beginning just after 8:00 p.m. (EDT), on NBC.

What was the cost of Game Five and its two and a half overtime periods? From NHL.com:

The physical toll of Game 5 was truly staggering.

The teams played almost 110 minutes of hockey, combined to score seven goals, give and received 69 hits and block 43 shots before Pittsburgh emerged with a 4-3 victory at the 9:57 mark of the third overtime early Tuesday morning at Joe Louis Arena.

The game lasted a staggering four hours and 36 minutes.

And there’s more… including Malone’s five stitches and chipped teeth from taking a puck in the face, Pens D-man Orpik’s need for intravenous fluids to alleviate cramping, and so on. Ya gotta be tough to be a hockey player.

And… if you missed Game Five, you missed yet another game for the ages. From The Hockey News:

This is what we envisioned.

Game 5 had everything:

Electricity. The crowd was pumped well before the opening faceoff, spontaneously chanting as the pre-game music played. They were quieted in the first period, but reached a zenith in the third when the Wings went ahead, and maintained their vigor through much of the overtimes.

An abundance of scoring chances. The offenses were on display early and often.

A frenetic pace. Obstruction, for the most part, was on holiday.

Comebacks. The Wings' surge in the third period was high drama; the Penguins shocker to tie it, then the stunner to win it was out of Hollywood.

Unbelievable saves. By both netminders, but in particular Marc-Andre Fleury. He was plywood between the pipes. The toe save he made on Mikael Samuelsson will be immortalized in highlight reels. Chris Osgood deserves kudos for remaining sharp when needed, despite long spells of inactivity.

[…]

How entertaining was the contest? The worn-out beat reporters sitting on press row – men and women who after two months of travel typically pray for the final to end in a sweep, regardless of who wins – were standing in OT ...for good chunks of it anyway. It’s the first game I can recall attending in years where I felt nervous energy as a paid neutral observer.

And that ain’t the half of it…

Once again: Game Six tonight…on NBC.

Detroit 3, Pittsburgh 4 (3OT)

Last night's game-winning goal. (AP Photo)

Aiiieee. Who’d a thunk it? Here we were… 35 seconds from the end of the game, 35 seconds from the end of the series, 35 seconds from becoming the 2008 Stanley Cup Champions, 35 seconds!… and Pittsburgh scores to tie. The “pull the goalie, add the extra skater” tactic usually fails, but last night it worked in spectacular fashion. So: to overtime… two complete periods and half of a third… and a conclusion that disappointed the entire city of Detroit and Wings fans everywhere. Here’s Bob Wojnowski, writing in the Detroit News:

DETROIT -- Party postponed. Put the Stanley Cup back in the box, for now.

On an incredible night of emotional swings, when the game seemed won and lost and won again about a dozen times, the Red Wings lost in crushing fashion, in the third overtime. As the clock ticked toward 1 a.m., Penguins right wing Petr Sykora fired a shot past Chris Osgood to beat the Wings, 4-3, in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Monday.

All of sudden, the pressure grows. All of a sudden, the Wings' lead is only 3-2, with Game 6 Wednesday night in Pittsburgh.

[…]

The Wings had their chances -- oh, my, did they have their chances. But Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury stole the game and killed the party, thwarting the Wings' furious flurries. The Wings outshot the Penguins by an astounding 58-32, but couldn't get the clincher.

[…]

Maybe the size of the moment hit the Red Wings flush in the face. Or maybe thoughts of parades and trophies danced too early in too many heads.

Or more likely, Fleury was just magnificent. The puck bounced crazily all night, off sticks, off crossbars, off skates. And yes, again and again, it hit Fleury, as the Joe Louis Arena crowd shrieked and gasped.

This was terrific drama, if you're into heart-stopping entertainment and ridiculous saves. The Wings overcame early nerves and a two-goal deficit with a furious rally and a relentless array of shots, but they couldn't get the winner, no matter how desperately they pressed.

Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Dan Cleary and others all had prime chances in overtime, and with every save, the exhausting tension mounted.

Mounting tension? It was unbearable tension! There were at least five or six occasions during the OTs where I thought the Wings had won it. But noooo… Fleury stopped each and every shot. I’ll hand it to him, grudgingly: it was a magnificent performance. And Fleury is the primary reason the Wings didn’t skate the Cup around The Joe last night. He’s also the reason there are literally thousands of long faces all over Deetroit today. Michael Rosenberg, in The Freep:

You know that feeling you have this morning? The wobbly stomach, the dry throat, the constant headache? Either you drank too much or you are just a normal hockey fan. Maybe both. Hey, it was a long game.

Red Wings fans showed up for a coronation. By the end of the first period, they were wondering if the emperor had no clothes -- clearly, he had no teeth. The Wings were down 2-0, and even if you weren't a worrier, you worried.

What if the Wings actually ... uh ... lose this game? They would have to go to Pittsburgh, where the Penguins have not lost since Mario Lemieux's first retirement (except for when the Wings beat them the other night). And when -- I mean IF -- they lose that one, they'll face Game 7 at home with those idiotic columnists asking if they're choking!

That fear became reality halfway through the third overtime. And the most normal feeling for a hockey fan -- constant nervousness -- came back to Wings fans for the first time since the first round against Nashville.

Boy Howdy! Rosenberg’s right on the MONEY! Game Six is tomorrow night in Pittsburgh, and as much as I hate to think about it, there will most likely be a Game Seven Friday night in Detroit. But…that’s hockey. Statistically the Wings are the better team in this series, by each and every metric… shots, hits, face-offs won, and total goals scored in the five games played to date. But those pesky Penguins absolutely refuse to be closed out, so far. So, yeah: Nervousness. In frickin’ spades.

We’ll see what we see.

What Must Pass for a Post....These Days

In my second “Amazon Marketing E-Mail” post in as many weeks… I give you the Krups B-95 Home Beer-Tap System. This was but one item in the first of what I suspect…strongly suspect… will be many Fathers Day love notes from Amazon. If I were still living my old life I’d have me one of these. Or two. Coz it’s foolish to limit one’s self to just ONE brand of beer. OTOH, the reviews say it only works with Heineken “draughtkegs,” so mebbe not. Actually, most definitely not.

As it’s said: “So many beers, so little time.” And Dutch mass-produced beer, while better than Bud, Miller, or Coors (ptui!), is still mass-produced, lowest common denominator beer.

Yeah, I AM a beer snob. So sue me.

―:☺:―

Bo Diddley is dead…

Bo Diddley, a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat and, with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ’n’ roll itself, died Monday at his home in Archer, Fla . He was 79.

[…]

In the 1950s, Mr. Diddley — along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and a few others — helped reshape the sound of popular music worldwide, building it on the templates of blues, southern gospel and rhythm and blues. His original style of R&B influenced generations of musicians. And his Bo Diddley syncopated beat — three strokes/rest/two strokes — became a stock rhythm of rock ’n’ roll.

There’s lots more at the link, above… including some fine history if you’re a lil bit short in that space.

All those named in the excerpt above (and Elvis! who is strangely absent) were my heroes as I came of age back in the mid- and late ‘50s. And they helped me drive the Old Man nuts, too, which, of course, is one of the prime objectives of teen-agers anywhere and everywhere. My Mom, on the other hand, was (at the very least) an accomplice in driving the Ol Man nuts, if not a partner-in-crime. Mom took to rock ‘n’ roll like the proverbial duck to water. That fact didn’t raise my eyebrows until much, much later in life when I realized what an exception she was, as compared to most moms her age, and most especially where rock ‘n’ roll was concerned. Mom would have hated actively disliked Tipper Gore & Friends.

RIP, Mr. Diddley…and thank you.

―:☺:―

So… here we sit, a little over four hours from the time the puck hits the ice at Joe Louis Arena, wondering if tonight will really be THE night, or if we'll we have to wait another two, four, or more days until the Wings raise the Cup. (Don't even say what you might be thinking, Gentle Reader.)

As for yourself, Gentle Reader, you’re probably glad all this Cup Craziness is coming to an end. After all, hockey has been about the only thing on the menu here at EIP since mid-April. I can understand how non-fans might think it’s getting just a wee bit old. So… I’ll promise you this: if the Wings win tonight there will only be one more hockey post until October.

Well, OK… that’s a lie. There will be at least two. I’ll have to post pics of the parade, ya know.

I Might Be a Lil Concerned About This...

Well, now. Theoretically I’m supposed to keep my awning furled if the wind speed is over 16 mph. But do you see tomorrow’s forecasted temperature, Gentle Reader? And the fact that it will be “partly cloudy” and 104? And Tuesday’s forecast is worse…sunny and 99. I just might keep my awning down and chance that wind if it’s steady and there are no gusts. Either that or buy some of that Mylar insulation Lin has been urging me to get. I could maybe live with a lil claustrophobia if’n the interior of El Casa Móvil De Pennington stays (relatively) cool. My AC labors on 95+ degree days as it is, even with the awning in place. I shudder to think what 104 is gonna be like… if I have to keep my awning up. Gad.

Do I panic now? Or later?

Detroit 2, Pittsburgh 1

Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg splits the defense of Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and Ryan Malone during 3rd period action between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins in game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals at Mellon Arena, Saturday, May 31, 2008.
(JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/DFP)

One more win—three more chances. And then the 2008 Stanley Cup Final will be history. The Wings can hoist the Cup on home ice tomorrow night, and the chances…statistically… of them doing just that are better than good.

I might have seen a more exciting, harder-fought game than last night’s masterpiece in Pittsburgh, but I don’t think so. The only possible candidate might be the Wings’ Game Four win in the sweep of the Flyers in 1997…but that would be for entirely different reasons, like ending a 42-year Stanley Cup drought. So yeah, that game in Philly was memorable (ed: played in DETROIT. So much for your memory.). But last night? Indescribably Delicious. It began with the Pens scoring their lone goal less than three minutes into the game and ended with the usual desperate, empty-net play of the team…that would be the Penguins… that’s down by a single goal with less than a minute to go. And I was on the edge of my chair for the whole 60 minutes of play… “exciting” is a woefully inadequate term to describe the intensity of this game. And it might have been a little bit too exciting, at times.

For instance: my “Heart In Mouth” Moment… a Pittsburgh 5-on-3 power play that lasted an eternity (1:26 —or 27— depending on who you read), described by Damien Cox in the Toronto Star:

Three days of insistent whining by Michel Therrien about alleged obstruction and a well-timed dive by Sidney Crosby combined to put the Pittsburgh Penguins in a wonderful position to keep their Stanley Cup hopes alive.

But the Detroit Red Wings would have none of it.

Instead, they absorbed an interference call produced by Crosby's clever lunge that gave the Penguins a long, 5-on-3 power play in the third period last night, grimly fended off every second of it without allowing a single shot on goal and rode that tremendous effort to a 2-1 victory in a hard-fought, bruising Game 4 of the 2008 Cup final.

[…]

Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Lidstrom and Niklas Kronwall combined to kill the critical two-man disadvantage, preventing Penguin snipers Marian Hossa, Evgeni Malkin and Crosby from getting a truly top-notch chance.

Zetterberg made the play of the game during the penalty kill, saving a sure goal for Crosby into an open net by quickly reading the play and tying up the Pittsburgh captain's stick.

A frustrated Crosby was grudging in his praise of Zetterberg's critical effort.

"He just got my stick," said Crosby. "I don't think he did anything out of the ordinary that somebody else wouldn't do on a 5-on-3."

In Zetterberg's defensive play, of course, lies the brilliance of the Wings, and why they can capture their fourth Cup in 11 years tomorrow night in Motown.

The Detroit Red Wings Henrik Zetterberg kicks away a puck delivered up by Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby during a 5 on 3 penalty play in the third period that goalie Chris Osgood helped kill helping to defeat Pittsburgh 2-1 in game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals Saturday, May 31, 2008 at the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, PA.
(MANDI WRIGHT/DFP)

Yes. Zetterberg definitely saved the game with that play on Crosby. But there’s something else Mr. Cox doesn’t mention… Here’s Ron Cook, writing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

A goal by Detroit center Jiri Hudler at 2:26 of the third period went down as the winner. But that's not what beat the Penguins.

The Penguins' power play beat the Penguins.

Everybody is talking today about the 5-on-3 advantage the Penguins had for 1:26 midway through the third period, an advantage they thoroughly wasted. Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg -- of all players -- had the best scoring chance. The Penguins didn't even come close to getting a goal.

If Detroit does go on to win the Cup, that 86-second span will be remembered as the time when the series ended.

Think about that for a moment. Pittsburgh is on a 5-on-3 power play and Zetterberg has the best scoring chance? That should tell you a few things: (a) the Pens’ stars either didn’t or couldn’t execute, (b) Detroit’s penalty-killers —including Ozzie— were god-like, and (c) Zetterberg should be wearing a big red “Z” enclosed in a diamond on his chest instead of The Winged Wheel. A cape wouldn’t be out of place, either, because Zetterberg can almost literally fly. And I think I know how the citizens of Metropolis felt when that guy with the big red “S” on his chest swooped in to save the day. Yep…it was just like that. Only it was on ice. Every single article and column in today’s hockey pages, no matter where they’re written, talks about what NHL.com calls “A Penalty Kill for the Ages.” And that’s not hyperbole, Gentle Reader.

Don Cherry predicts this series will be history tomorrow night. And I gotta agree. It’s in the cards. And this is what I hope we’ll see:

“The Red Wings' Tomas Holmstrom hoists the Stanley Cup…”
AP Photo from 1998.

Suh-weet.