What's a Body To Do?

Our weather just went all to hell overnight, as far as the temperature and our normally brilliant blue skies go.  It's pretty chilly out (about 55 degrees or so as we type, with 100% relative humidity) so that precludes any sort o' outdoor activity for YrHmblScrb, seein' as how we are soft in our old age.  Yeah, I COULD put on a sweatshirt, dump the collected rain water out o' the camp chairs (we did get some a lot o' rain, which is a great good thang), and sit outdoors for Happy Hour... but the only thing I would get out of THAT would be a wet ass and a bad disposition.

So we had a better ideer.  We mashed up four avocados that hit their ripeness peak just today, sliced and diced half a sweet onion (and that dicing was finer than frog-hair), squeezed half a lime's worth o' juice into the mix, and finished it off by adding two tablespoons of El Pinto Green Chile Sauce, after which we mashed some more.  The result went into the fridge so the various ingredients could become acquainted with each other.  That was two hours ago, this is now:

Some Happy Hours are better than others, Gentle Reader...  this one's pretty good.

Scary Stuff

Three items from the Usual USAF Source that should concern every American... the first is from this past Tuesday:

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.)

Gutting US Military Capability: The Air Force is flying "at the ragged edge." The Marine Corps is not equipped to handle a contingency if it were to arise in the Pacific theater. And, the Army doesn't even have enough resources to fulfill some of its "most basic needs," warned Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), House Armed Services Committee chairman Monday. "These problems will rapidly intensify as projected budget cuts start to take their toll," said McKeon during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. "Even more dangerous is the sword that is hanging over the Congressional super committee," he added. The newly formed committee has until Thanksgiving to come up with $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in savings or an automatic cut will kick in that will decimate the US military, said McKeon. "Fifty percent of the mandatory cuts associated with the [automatic] trigger are from the Defense Department. Fifty percent. That's a deeply unbalanced number with defense accounting for less than 20 percent of federal spending," he said. "If enacted, the trigger would not just cut our military, it would close it for business."

—Amy McCullough

And these two items from yesterday's AFA Daily Report:

Carter Goes Before SASC to Discuss Nomination: Ash Carter, current Pentagon acquisition executive, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday he'd be willing to consider relocating and re-stationing overseas-based US military forces, including moving some back the United States, if he becomes deputy defense secretary. This would include addressing the proposed realignment of US troops on Guam and Okinawa, Japan, he told committee members during his nomination hearing for the Pentagon's No. 2 post. He also said he'd work with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to find across-the-board savings for the Defense Department, including potential cuts to military personnel accounts and healthcare. Carter said the Pentagon would submit a plan to Congress this year outlining areas where DOD could absorb cuts so that the new Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction could take it under advisement. If that panel fails to reach a consensus and, instead, the Budget Control Act of 2011's automatic cuts kick in, Carter said those cuts would "devastate" the military. "Just the scale of it alone would lead us to have to consider truly draconian things—abandoning major weapons systems, furloughing civilian employees, and abruptly curtailing training because we couldn't pay for fuel, and so forth," he explained. (See also Carter's response to advance questions.)

Passionate about Defense: The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said the fiscal situation faced by the Defense Department is so dire that he may even consider voting for a tax increase for the first time in his political career. "I have never voted for a tax increase. I don't ever plan on voting for a tax increase," Rep. Buck McKeon (Calif.) told an audience during his speech Monday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. "But if it came down that I had only two choices: one was to make a tax increase, one was to cut defense over and above what we already are, I would go to strengthen defense." The six Republicans on the new Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction likely will press for cuts and stand against a tax increase, while the six Democrats on the panel likely will argue that one is not possible without the other. The challenge will be reaching a compromise before the automatic cuts outlined in the Budget Control Act of 2011 kick in and the Pentagon's budget is slashed beyond repair, said McKeon. (See also the joint committee's new website.)

—Amy McCullough

I don't think Rep. McKeon or Mr. Carter are being the least bit hyperbolic with their statements.  It is to worry, especially now that Obama wants the Joint Select Committee to fund his latest round of Stimu-less.   "Interesting times," as the frickin' Chinese say.

Found While Labeling Old Stuff

From a couple o' years ago: Secret Messages in the USSR national anthem...

Heh.

(h/t to Blog-Bud Loosy-anna Andy)

Social Security (and Innocent Little 12 Year Old Girls!)

A couple o' toons from the Usual Source...

In regards to Mr. Kelley's cartoon... I have mixed emotions about means testing.  I'm generally in favor of the proposed practice on the one hand, especially when I heard Warren Buffett say he draws $30K a year in Social Security.  Mr. Buffett is entitled to recoup what he paid into the system but I feel he should draw a reduced rate while doing so.  On the other hand I know from personal experience that the Feds tax 80% of my Social Security, based on the fact that I make too much money (according to the IRS).  Who's to say my income won't be reduced if Social Security goes to a means-testing scheme?  I damned sure ain't Warren Buffett!  

As to Mr. Allie's toon... here's David Limbaugh, writing about Rick Perry, the other GOP candidates, and the Ponzi scheme angle:

It is very disheartening to see Republican presidential primary candidates racing to out-demagogue one another in denouncing Texas Gov. Rick Perry's accurate description of Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. It used to be that Republicans at least waited until the general election campaign to pander to liberals.

I admire Perry both for telling it like it is and for having the guts to stand by his statement when under fire. That shows character.

Honest people have been warning for years that our entitlement programs, as structured, are imminent train wrecks. Democrats were even saying it for a while, as Bill Clinton and Al Gore made a phony fuss about placing Social Security in a lockbox.

It's nothing short of outrageous that our politicians' instincts are to attack those who are talking realistically about entitlements instead of join them in talking realistically. I understand Democrats not doing so; I don't even expect them to anymore. But it's unacceptable for Republicans to pile on.

More here.  I watched a little of Monday night's debate, but I came in late because of confusion on my part about the start time and left early to take an extended phone call.  That said, I DID catch Romney trying to score points on Perry about Social Security and it turned my stomach.  D. Limbaugh is correct: a GOP candidate attacking another GOP candidate for telling the truth is nothing short of outrageous.

Speaking of outrageous... Michele Bachmann scored her points on Governor Perry Monday night about his executive order mandating Gardasil vaccinations for Texas schoolgirls.  Perry did a mea culpa on that point, admitting his decision was a mistake, and Bachmann really should have left it at that.  But she didn't (from Ace):

So now an anti-vax lunatic buttonholes Michelle Bachmann (or so she claims, at least) and tells her the story of how Gardasil caused her child's autism. At age 12. Late onset autism, I guess. And despite there being absolutely no connection between Gardasil and late onset autism (whatever that is), she broadcasts her new medical findings out to the public.

Well. She did used to style herself "Doctor Bachmann," I guess.

Michelle Bachmann is desperate. She's an ambitious, egotistical woman who started running for President just two short years after she first ran for Congress. In the past two months her support went from 13% and rising to 4% and falling.

So she needs something, doesn't she, and Rush Limbaugh warned her off her planned Social Security demagoguery. 

While we're on the subject, there's this, from Leon H. Wolf, writing at Red State:

I wasn’t informed until yesterday that believing vaccines are a bad idea and cause autism (or, if you’re Michele Bachmann, mental retardation. You know, basically the same thing.) was a prerequisite for supporting the TEA Party. Apparently, judging by the applause Bachmann received from a purportedly TEA Party audience for defending INNOCENT LITTLE TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRLS from the horror of being vaccinated against cancer, I missed a memo somewhere. Sarah Palin piled on the attack as well, and I am repeatedly assured by her followers that whatever Sarah Palin thinks is the Law in TEA Party land. It turns out, Sarah Palin is or at least was an anti-vaccination theorist herself. According to emails from 2008 (via Twitter), Sarah Palin wrote in response to the Department of Education’s announcement of a new vaccination policy (including vaccinations for diptheria, tetanus, polio, pertussis, measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and rubella):

(Palin e-mail quote)

First of all, it deserves to be noted (as is clear from the context of the entire email exchange) that the Most Courageous Politician who Ever Lived™, when confronted with a policy under her Administration’s ambit, bravely passed the buck to her underlings while attempting to assauge anti-vaccine activists by letting them know that she was one of them. Second, the connection between autism and thimerosal was always pretty tenous and given the immensely salutary effect on the public health of mandatory vaccination against the highly contagious diseases listed above, only a reckless person would have based actual public policy on it.

Well... a two-fer!  Mrs. Bachmann overplayed her hand and Mrs. Palin piled on, for unknown reasons.  I understand the need to score political points against your rivals in the primaries but I also understand bad politics and bad judgment when I see it.  Bachmann and Palin are guilty of the latter... in addition to being hypocritical about the issue (Palin as noted above and Bachmann here).  I don't wanna hear the phrase "innocent little 12 year old girls" ever again; I've heard it way too damned often in the last couple o' days.

The field narrows. 

Back To Our Roots

I considered an alternate title for this post, i.e., "Wherein Our Shirt Matches Our Beer."  Because...

That would be a New Belgium 1554, both on my shirt and in the glass.  Who said men aren't fashion-coordinated?

―:☺:―

In other news... we stopped by the future Casa de Pennington while we were out and about today and had a brief conversation with one of the guys working on my unit, which went sumthin' like this...

Me:  "Ya think you'll be done by Thursday?  Coz I'm told I can pick up my keys on Friday."

Workin' Guy: (Looks at me incredulously, laughs)  "Hell, they're not layin' the carpet until Thursday!" 

That was just the first exchange in what turned out to be a lengthy conversation, the upshot of which is my unit will NOT be completed by Friday.  So... the first order o' bid'niz when I got home was to ring up the furniture company and have my delivery rescheduled for Wednesday.  I have my fingers crossed that everything will be kosher by then; I'm in a whole lotta trouble if it ain't.  Well, it won't be the end o' the world... it'll just be a major pain in the nether regions.

Cool

You saw this today if you read the Shoebox blog... or you saw it sometime this past month if you're one of the three and a half million people (!!) who've watched this on the Tube O' You.  But you might not fall into either category, Gentle Reader, so...

I need one of these.  The shark, specifically.

In Today's Mail

This:

Heh.

Planning Proceeds Apace

This is actually kinda scary... everything seems to be going according to plan where the move is concerned.  Well, sorta.  I've yet to hear back from the moving company about my preferred move date, so we shall see how that shakes out.  Bekins will be executing the move, which contradicts earlier information I put out on the street.  Lemmee say this about that... DIL Erma ran into issues around cheap plane tickets and we both agreed that the Law Of Diminishing Returns comes into play here.  Neither she nor I were willing to pay full-freight for her ticket so she's not coming to assist, after all.  Cheap fares are good, when they exist... but full-freight from one small market to another is cost-prohibitive.

That said... we've arranged for satellite teevee to be installed on Wednesday (good-bye Comcast, and don't let the door bang ya in the ass on yer way out), my furniture will be delivered and set up on Monday, and all utilities have been contracted for.  I'll spend the coming days preparing for the move in small increments (like purging the contents of El Casa Móvil de Pennington of unwanted and unneeded items for to hold costs down, doing some preliminary packing, sorting, and what-not, etc., etc, etc.), which will prolly result in a crescendo of frantic activity this coming weekend... coz yanno there's always sumthin'.

The excitement mounts...

Delusionary Medico Tourette's Syndrome

The medical term for the condition that afflicts hordes of women and men on our teevees...

If Women's Medication Ads Gained Self-Awareness -- powered by Cracked.com

I knew DMT existed, I just didn't know it had a name.  I can rest easier now, knowing these poor souls are just sick and can't help themselves.

H/T:  Blog-Bud Morgan.

Remember

From the Usual Source.

Update, 1020 hrs:  Lex, strangely enough, uses the exact same one-word title on his 9/11 post... wherein he re-tells his "where were you?" 9/11 tale.  I strongly suspect the comments to his post will have many, many such tales before this day is done.  Here's mine, very briefly:

I came up out of the Montgomery Street BART station just a couple o’ few minutes after 0600 hrs, on my way to work at a web services firm where I was the Director of Site Operations. There was a gaggle of people watching a teevee in the darkened window of the Fidelity office on the corner of Market and Montgomery; I passed them by without looking. Someone burst into Starbucks as I was standing in line and shouted at no one in particular “The bastards flew planes into the World Trade Center!” There were maybe six of us in line and we all looked at each other and rolled our eyes… just another crazy person (there were LOTS of ‘em in SFO’s Financial District). The shouting guy saw our reaction and said “No! I swear! I just saw it on TV!”

I got my coffee and hurried upstairs to work, where I had my night-shift switch our large-screen network monitor display to CNN. It was around 0615 hrs…

We all stared at the TV incredulously for about three minutes and NO ONE spoke… we just watched. Then reality hit and we began to launch our disaster recovery plan, preparing to relocate our emergency operations cadre to an alternate location. The rest of the day was a blur…

Well, it was and it wasn't.  My boss, the Operations VP, hit the door to the Site Operations Center sometime just after 0615 hrs.  We had our alternate SOC turned up and working before 1000 hrs; in the interim we had implemented our emergency telephone tree and called everyone in the company, advising them not to come in to work.  Those few who did come in before our calls went out were sent home.  We also called all our clients and advised them we'd gone to emergency operations.  My boss, myself, and one other person remained in our main SOC to take what calls might come in for the rest of the day... mainly because there's always someone who doesn't "get the word."  Things got really, really quiet from a business perspective around 1100 hrs.  We didn't take a single business call all day.

You might wonder why an IT company went to emergency operations on 9/11, Gentle Reader.  The simple fact: we were located in a high-rise building in the heart of SFO's Financial District (that's a pic of my building, above).  No one in those early hours knew if the WTC and Pentagon were the only shots fired or if there would be more to follow.  We viewed ourselves... and our general location... as a prime target.  Thus: emergency ops.

The strangest thing that happened to me on 9/11/2001?  The Second Mrs. Pennington called me early in the afternoon that day, just to talk.  That was the first and only time that has ever happened.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack: Re-Run

We're still in the process of labeling posts albeit in a MUCH less anal-retentive fashion, which is to say we're doin' a few at a time... a process that's likely to take a year or more at the current rate.  But, all THAT said, we came across this lil gem this afternoon whilst labeling posts, drinkin' beer, and smokin' cigars...

Thievery. Again. Still.

So, I thought long and hard about posting this... for all of about three minutes... because someone is sure to get the wrong ideer about why I did so.  Or perhaps the right one.  It's funny, nonetheless.  Explicit, too.  <=== a half-assed warning.

So Phlegmmy has this theory about scorched-earth types, which is how she describes the woman in this vid.  On the one hand she's prolly correct in her thinking; OTOH she discounts the obvious pleasures derived from thinking up amusing and/or appropriate retribution scenarios.  And this vid has some great ones.  Not that I would know anything about that -- I've just heard stories, yanno?

Heh.  I take particular pleasure in the line about how she comes in and finds him "fuckin' your sister."  Well, I substitute "best friend" for sister, coz that's what fits... and we're ALL about truth in retributive fantasy.  Speakin' o' which... the comments on the original post are pretty funny.

Broadening Our Horizons XXXII

I'm pretty sure I've never had a Shiner Oktoberfest and I'm semi-amazed at the oversight, mainly coz we loves us some beer from that lil ol' brewery in Spoetzl, Tejas.  Ain't it loverly?

My go-to guys for beer give Oktoberfest a B- and I think that's pretty harsh.  I'd give the brew a B+ if not an A-.  This beer is eminently drinkable.  Oktoberfest tastes superb... which is to say clean, slightly hoppy, with a very interesting and complex combination of flavors... and it goes down easy, almost too easy.  I'll have to be careful this afternoon.

―:☺:―

I don't have much else to report.  The weather continues to be most pleasing, which is to say today will be our fourth consecutive day where our windows remain wide-open and the AC is off.   We got a lil rain last evening, too, but only enough to make The Green Hornet look like The Green Leopard.  Spots, Gentle Reader... LOTS o' spots.

I did a lil shopping this morning at the Super Save, the IGA market that's within walking distance of the new abode.  DIL Erma told me that Wally-World would soon be a thing in my past as far as grocery shopping is concerned, once I move.  I think she's right.  I've stopped in to the Super Save occasionally in the past to pick up an item or two but I've never done serious shopping there.  We got serious today and there's a lot to like about the place... the produce seems to be fresher and there's a much larger variety o' same; the employees are friendlier, and the prices are generally on-par with Wally-World, if not better.

And this might be a one-time-good-deal sorta thang, but there was this red-headed, 50-ish woman who kept smiling at me the whole time I was doin' my shopping.  We seemed to be in the same aisles at the same time throughout my shopping foray and she kept giving me these BIG smiles.  I looked around behind me the first time she smiled, mainly because I'm a member of that Over 40 White Male demographic and generally invisible to ALL women, regardless of age.  But... no.  No one behind me, or even near me.  Then again... it might have been my shirt:  

The message on the shirt has been known to make people smile.  But Hey!  It was nice, whatever the reason.

We Have a Date...

... a move-in date.  I was by the future Casa de Pennington earlier this afternoon and wandered about inside for a while before setting off on the rest of my errands.  While I was inside I took a few more really bad phone-camera shots which I feel I must inflict upon you, Gentle Reader.  So...

Notice I have a built-in industrial-strength nuker above where the stove will sit.  And the BEST thing of all: a dishwasher (never mind that GREEN color)!  Which will lead me to resume one of my favorite old habits: livin' out of the dishwasher.  You know... run a load of dirty dishes and then use them, transferring the used dishes to the sink until such time as the dishwasher is empty, then rinse, repeat.  Oh... YES!  And then there's the counter space, which should lead to a few cookin' orgies until such time as I tire of that sorta thang.  OTOH, I may never tire of bein' able to really cook again.  Let us pray...

So.  We then proceeded out to Cannon Airplane Patch to pick up this month's supply of meds, with the usual customary and quite reasonable stop at the Class VI store for still more beer.  On the way home I whipped into the property management company to see if 9/15 was still a realistic occupancy date and was assured I can take possession NO later than 9/16.  Huzzah, and all that!

So, Part II.  I've been severely beaten about the head and shoulders for the past week for not taking advantage of family when it comes time to move, what with me planning to engage professional movers to do the deed.  But, that said, last night I relented and allowed as how it would be OK if DIL Erma journeyed down to P-Ville from the Wilds O' Kansas for the express purpose of relocating me and my stuff from El Casa Móvil de Pennington to the non-Móvil Casa.

We discussed a 9/20 move date last evening... all that's left is to confirm same, buy Erma a plane ticket, and try not to chew off my fingernails while waiting for this thang to go down.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.  I think I'm gonna crack a beer or two to celebrate. 

I Feel Like This

Lifted from the Shoebox blog.  I plan to leave my teevee off this entire weekend, except for Saturday's football games.  That's really not an unusual occurrence, it usually stays off on the weekends.  This weekend, tho?  It's an imperative. 

Heh

From the Usual Source.

Tonight's ADWH Soundtrack

A one-hit wonder and the BEST of that particular genre, at that:

Oh, you don't know me, but you make me so happy
I tried to call you before, but I lost my nerve
I tried my imagination, but I was disturbed

I don't think I ever called a number written on a wall, any wall, but I sure as hell danced my ass off to this tune in the wayback.  There's quite a back-story to the tune, in case you haven't heard it.  I hadn't heard this tune in years upon years before tonite... and hearing it this evening made me smile.  A lot.

―:☺:―

In other news... I lied.  I said I wasn't gonna watch Barry's speech this evening but I did... watch it.  With my teevee muted, which is to say I watched but didn't listen.  The exercise was pretty instructive, in that a lot of my suspicions were confirmed.  

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

First and foremost among those suspicions was the speech was gonna be mostly a campaign speech; that suspicion was confirmed by the number of standing-O's the president received... from the Democrats.  The correct side of the aisle... the Republicans... remained seated, for the most part.  That told me nearly everything I needed to know.

Second: The Deity At Hand hates Democrats.  Why else would she make the great majority of 'em so damned ugly?  The camera panned into the audience periodically and we got to see Mrs. Pelosi (omigawd-ugly), Maxine Waters (jeezus!), Hillary (ecch!), Biden (heh), Sheila Jackson-Lee (yow), Charlie Rangel (nice suit, Charlie)... and on and on.  THAT was almost enough to make me turn the whole thang off, but I hung in there.  Why?  Because...

Third:  Boehner.  He may cry at the drop of a hat but his poker face while The One was going on and on... and on... was just fan-fuckin'-tastic.  I watched intently for eye-rolls but saw nary a one.  BIG props to the Speaker for that feat; I couldn't have pulled it off.

I still haven't read any post-speech reax, mainly coz I had other priorities... like After Dinner Whiskey Hour.  Never let it be said I don't have my head screwed on properly.

Miscellanea

We're right in the middle o' Happy Hour and took a break to come inside and put up yet another post, this time to celebrate the third consecutive day o' NO AC here at El Casa Móvil de Pennington , mainly coz there's no need for artificial cooling.  Witness:

We have all our windows and door (one each) open to capture as many of the soft breezes as we can, for it is GORGEOUS.

―:☺:―

And then there's this: Incentive...

I only wish ABQ wasn't a four-hour drive from ECMdP coz this is powerful incentive to make the trip.  And then there's this from the link in the screen cap above:

Red Chile Fields: Secrets for growing the best chile from Salsa Twins on Vimeo.

"Holy Cow!" sez the guy in the video and I agree... them's a LOT o' chiles!  Tasty, too.  You can order New Mexico's best chile here; but lucky me:  I can buy it at Wally-World here in P-Ville.

―:☺:―

About tonite's "Big Event"...

The great danger facing Mr. Obama tonight is that the public simply tunes him out, viewing his pronouncements as either irrelevant or annoying. 

It's been a dramatic fall for a man who was, his supporters assured us in 2008, America's best orator since Abraham Lincoln. Now he's reduced to a warm-up act for a football game.

That would be Karl Rove, writing in today's WSJ.  Mr. Rove is correct, at least as far as YrHmblScrb is concerned: I tuned the president out quite some time ago.  No surprise, eh?

Over the Top

From the USAF Usual Source:

First Over the Top: An aircrew with the 69th Bomb Squadron at Minot AFB, N.D., became the first to fly a B-52H bomber over the North Pole. "The flight was actually quite unusual because no one has ever done it before," said Maj. Patrick Small of Minot's 5th Operations Support Squadron. "The jet was designed for this type of flight, but [it] was never practiced. It took a lot of mission planning and coordination to make this happen." The airmen made the trip last month en route to Russia to participate in the 2011 Moscow International Air and Space Aviation Salon as part of a US contingent of aircraft and personnel. The B-52 did not require in-flight refueling to reach Moscow since the polar route is a lot shorter in distance than flying more traditional routes to Europe, said Minot officials. (Minot report by A1C Jessica McConnell)

The fact that no one ever flew a BUFF over the North Pole before surprised me but I suppose it shouldn't have.  The Rooshians are quite sensitive about their ADIZ, having shot down civilian airliners crossing the line, not to mention the many USAF and USN reconnaissance aircraft shot down during the Cold War.  About which, this:

That's the plaque at the Strategic Air and Space Museum honoring reconnaissance airmen who gave their lives during the Cold War.

It Feels Downright Chilly

Here's what we look like at the moment...

I'm thinkin' I might have to break out the flannel for this afternoon's Happy Hour unless it warms up right quick like.  I kinda doubt we'll make the forecast high o' 77 at the rate we're going.

I had to get up at oh-dark-thirty again this morning, what with The Green Hornet having yet another crack o' dawn car doctor's appointment over in The Big(ger) City™.  So... up at 0600, shower, shave, toss down a couple o' cups so as to be caffeinated enough to safely pilot a four-wheeled conveyance on the public thoroughfares without endangering the civilian populace, and out the door at 0730 hrs.  And back by 0900, having spent all of 20 minutes at Rembrandt's Auto Body getting TGH's top latch replaced and then moseyin' over to the car wash to get her cleaned up a bit.  She was REALLY looking quite shabby, what with not bein' washed for at least two weeks... on account o' because it just ain't smart to drive a convertible with a leaky top through the car wash.  Like this:

Would you believe that video has been viewed 812 times?  S'true, Gentle Reader.  I think it's coz of my wonderful harmonizing with Keef on rhythm gee-tar.

Sunny: Tolerate Intolerance

Damn.  I LOVE this woman.