Happy Mother's Day!

Ah…dog poop. Probably one of the (very) minor reasons my second marriage failed…coz The Second Mrs. Pennington was largely in charge of the particularly odious chore—following behind three dogs, including two pretty good-sized ones—let’s say about 90% of it. And she never hesitated to point out that fact to me. But then again, maybe not. TSMP killed both dogs that were left in our home the week she found out she was pregnant with SN3 (not literally, of course. The vet did the actual dirty work.) She left two years later and hadn’t picked up a whole helluva lot of dog poop…none, in fact… during the intervening time. But I digress. Even though there’s a story in there.

The Mom’s Day image comes from new-to-me blog TGAW…who has great pics of Glacier National Park, in addition to providing me with this “wouldn’t it be great but it would NEVER frickin’ happen in real life” Mom’s Day illustration. Thanks, TGAW!!

Remind me to write about Glacier…some day.

But, seriously. Happy Mother’s Day to all my favorite Moms, and even to those who aren’t my favorites. I’ll remain cryptic on that last.

Back in a bit with hockey stuff you probably won’t read. But you know there may be more, Gentle Reader.

Squids

So. On my way home from the base early this afternoon I passed a young guy on a sport bike going in the opposite direction. As is customary, we waved at each other as he flew by…he was probably doing 80+ mph. I was doing about 75. What immediately caught my eye was the way he was dressed, or to be more specific, the way he was under-dressed. He was in shorts and a tank top. With no helmet. I didn’t get a look at his feet, but if the rest of his clothing was typical I’d guess he was wearing sneakers. We used to call guys like that "squids."

I don’t know who that guy was…but if I did I’d e-mail him this. Here’s a little excerpt:

My name is Chris Young and I live in Auburn, Alabama.

[…]

I was getting gas in my Montero-Sport. And after filling up, I had realized that I left my money at home. So I exchanged my cell phone to the cashier for minutes for me to leave and go home to get some money for the store. While at home, I thought about how nice the evening was and figured I would ride the bike to pay the gas station. (In shorts and t-shirt!!!) I made it to pay the lady but never made it home. Well, not until 26 days later. The cause of the wreck is still a blur to me, but not the crash and the aftermath.

[…]

I think I was traveling around 100 mph on the interstate, because I told the police I was doing 70 - 90 mph to make it sound better, but you know how us "BAD SPORT BIKER'S" are, and had only passed two vehicles, one car and one trucker. The trucker did notice my high rate of speed, according to the police report and he was also the one who saved me.

[…]

This experience has changed my life. While I was in the ER, My blood pressure got down to 60/30, average is 120/80, and I was put on lots of pain meds that night and they continued for almost 3 weeks. I shook like crazy all the time for three weeks, some from pain of my skin and some because coming off the pain meds towards the end. I had 600 cubic centimeters of skin grafts, taken from my left thigh and a broken collarbone. 25 days in the hospital and 7 surgeries. Most of the surgeries were to change the dressings on my arms and legs. Due to the pain of the cleaning of my skin, I had to be put to sleep. One surgery was to cut away the dead skin, and one more was to graft and the last one was too take all the staples out of the grafted skin. My collarbone was never really looked at, it is healing ok, I guess. They wanted to fix my skin before they could do anything to my collarbone.

More at the link, including some pretty gruesome pictures of the physical damage Mr. Young endured. If you think leather is too hot, try wearing anything, and I mean even the lightest tee shirt, over severe road rash or your brand-new skin grafts (see those photos if you want proof). If you think leathers are too expensive…compare a $450.00 set of leathers to a $46,000.00 hospital bill. Not to mention the pain and suffering you and your loved ones would go through. Or, as Mr. Young says:

“Hospital bill has been totaled to $45,892.66, (Maybe More) I did have insurance, but wearing leathers would have been a lot better and cheaper.”

What he said.

About the pic…that’s the world-famous Rollie Free setting the land speed record for motorcycles on the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1948. He was on a Vincent Black Lightning and hit 150 mph. Dressed like that. NOT recommended. Here’s the story.

Winning Ugly

The Western Conference Finals are off to a good start… Helene St. James writes:

The Red Wings paid as hard a physical price as they have all playoffs as they started the Western Conference finals.

From Chris Chelios to Henrik Zetterberg to Pavel Datsyuk, the Ducks took aim and hit, almost as often as they threw pucks on Dominik Hasek and crashed around his crease.

It took a superb effort from Detroit's penalty killers and two power-play goals to beat the Ducks, 2-1, Friday night at Joe Louis Arena in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series. Game 2 is Sunday.

[…]

What really killed the Ducks was Detroit's penalty killing. From nullifying nearly two minutes when the Ducks were up two men to a 4-on-3, the Wings held Anaheim 0-for-7.

Special teams, in other words. Detroit’s were superlative…especially the penalty-killers…while Anaheim’s weren’t. In a strange turn of events—for the Wings, anyway—the Ducks out-shot Detroit, 32-19. But the Hockey Gods smiled upon Detroit last night, nullifying Anaheim’s shot advantage by allowing Detroit to score one seriously fluky goal and another that got lost-in-the-traffic in front of Anaheim goalie J.S. Giguere and trickled across the Ducks’ goal line. Both were power-play goals. The first Detroit goal was as ugly as I’ve ever seen, and the second wasn’t much prettier. Barring those two bits of luck the score could have been Ducks 1, Red Wings 0. But I’ll take it, as anyone would. Here’s Freep columnist Drew Sharp on “ugly:”

Ugly was unacceptable until fans discovered something even more grotesque: not advancing beyond the second round of the playoffs. That had happened each year since 2002 because the Wings were ill prepared to wallow in the muck that's often demanded during a long playoff run.

There's nothing pretty about Nicklas Lidstrom admitting that he doesn't know how his game-winning blast from inside the blue line got through Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere after hitting Tomas Holmstrom and getting an inadvertent assist from an Anaheim stick. And there certainly was nothing artistic about Henrik Zetterberg pretty much banking a shot off a sliding Duck defender's leg for another goal like he was playing a game of eight-ball pool.

But it should be understood now that this is how it must be for these Wings. They no longer play as though they're posing for a hockey magazine centerfold. They'll happily wear the smudge that comes from doing the necessary dirty work.

I’ll take ugly if it means being in the third round and on their way to The Cup over a “pretty” first-round loss…any time. Every time.

Anaheim brought their vaunted physical game into The Joe last night but it didn’t seem to do much good, in the sense that the Wings were not intimidated. And the Wings gave as good as they got. The hits were even at 22 apiece, and Detroit’s Kirk Maltby was the leading hitter on either side, with 6. These Wings are physical, too.

While Detroit’s penalty killers were superb, they need much less work. Detroit took 11 penalties last night. Four of Detroit’s infractions were offset by simultaneous Anaheim penalties—resulting in more 4-on-4 play than I’ve seen in a playoff game in a long time—that’s way, way too many penalties to be successful against a team like the Ducks.

Tomorrow’s game will be most interesting!

At the end of an ESPN article that mostly says “So, what?” about the Ducks’ loss last night, Scott Burnside asks…

... Just wondering why it is that in Buffalo, another border community, the Sabres acknowledge their cross-border neighbors by singing "O Canada" at every playoff game regardless of whether the Sabres are playing a Canadian opponent. In Detroit? Only the U.S. anthem is played.

Maybe it’s because the games are played in Detroit, and not Windsor? I know that says nothing about why the Sabres’ management feels the need to play/sing “O Canada.” I don’t be believe I’ve ever heard “The Star-Spangled Banner” played at a Canadian rink when two Canadian teams were going at it in the play-offs, but then again, there aren’t any Canadian teams in “border” towns…unless you count the Leafs, or the Canucks. That’s a stretch for the Leafs, coz (a) Toronto isn’t in the play-offs (this year) and (b) Toronto is a long way from the border (relatively speaking). (Vancouver didn’t play a Canadian team this year either…and I don’t recall hearing our national anthem played there or in Calgary, for that matter, when the teams met in the play-offs in 2004.) And Montreal? The Canadians are lucky “O Canada” is played at the beginning of games there…let alone “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Just sayin’.

And now…it’s a beautiful day with light winds. I’m gonna go for a quick ride out to the base…and perhaps beyond.

Photo: The Old Man was good last night, stopping 31 of 32 shots.
Photo credit: Detroit Free Press

Mostly Filler

Christopher Hitchens, writing in the June issue of Vanity Fair (Londonistan Calling):

In the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, which killed 52 civilians (including a young Afghan, Atique Sharifi, who had fled to London to escape the Taliban) and injured hundreds more, I found that American television interviewers were all asking me the same question: How can this be? Britain is the country of warm beer and cricket and rain-lashed seaside resorts, not a place of arms for exotic and morbid cults. British press coverage struck the same plaintive note. One of the murderers, Shehzad Tanweer, was a cricket enthusiast from Leeds, in Yorkshire, whose family ran a fish-and-chips shop. You can't get much more assimilated than that. Yet Britain's former head of domestic intelligence, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller (and you can't get much more British than that, either), said last year that there are more than "1,600 identified individuals" within the borders of the kingdom who are ready to follow Tanweer's example (including those in whose honor we now all have to part with our liquids and gels at the airport). And, according to Manningham-Buller, "over 100,000 of our citizens consider the July 2005 attacks in London justified."

[…]

In the 1960s, many Asians moved to Britain in quest of employment and education. They worked hard, were law-abiding, and spent much of their time combating prejudice. Their mosques were more like social centers. But their children, now grown, are frequently contemptuous of what they see as their parents' passivity. Often stirred by Internet accounts of jihadists in faraway countries like Chechnya or Kashmir, they perhaps also feel the urge to prove that they have not "sold out" by living in the comfortable, consumerist West. A recent poll by the Policy Exchange think tank captures the problem in one finding: 59 percent of British Muslims would prefer to live under British law rather than Shari'a; 28 percent would choose Shari'a. But among those 55 and older, only 17 percent prefer Shari'a, whereas in the 16-to-24 age group the figure rises to 37 percent. Almost exactly the same proportions apply when the question is whether or not a Muslim who converts to another faith should be put to death …

As usual, Hitch nails it…and damns multi-culturalism as the principal “prime mover” in turning London into Londonistan. I know I’m preaching to the choir, Gentle Reader, but do go read.

And lastly (on this particular subject), I’ll offer you this: The “Islamization” of London has been going on a lot longer than most people think. One small piece of anecdotal evidence: when The Second Mrs. Pennington and I arrived in London in 1980, all wide-eyed and positively amazed at our great good fortune to be assigned…for three whole years!… in the crucible of our cultural inheritance, one of the first things we noticed was the amount of graffiti written in Arabic. And there was lots of it. We then began to notice other things…such as women dressed more appropriately for Riyadh than the West End (no burkhas, but lotsa veils) and many, many more than one or two men walking about in jalabiyas, and certainly not last…the HUGE numbers of kebab stands and shops where English was spoken only to customers, but not amongst the help. (We patronized those kebab stands willingly and often, too, food being what it was—or wasn’t, more appropriately—in 80’s London.) Other than considering the phenomenon(s) passing strange enough to remark upon, we gave them no further thought. But, 1980 was indeed a different time. It all begins in the most innocuous manner, now doesn’t it?

(h/t for the link: Chap)

Dang! I just glanced at my watch and it’s now 1137 hrs (as I type) and my self-imposed posting deadline of “sometime before noon…usually” is hard upon me. And, aside from the one paltry entry above (paltry, in terms of quantity…not quality), I have nothing to show for the last three hours of link-chasing and reading. So, that said, Gentle Reader, you could do a lot worse than clicking on the “Chap” link above…as the greatest part of those three hours of which I speak was spent chasing links from his site. Great, good stuff in great quantities.

Apropos of nothing, and simply to fill space, as it were… I’d be interested in knowing how all y’all blog. Your mental and physical processes of blogging, that is. Most folks post single entries on discrete subjects, one at a time, and make several entries over the course of a day. I do what I call “omnibus posting,” which is to say I usually put up a single post a day with several discrete subjects, all included in the same post. If I come across something that just won’t wait until tomorrow, I’ll post again…but that’s not too common.

So anyway…My modus operandi, in condensed form, goes like this:

1. Open my monthly blog file in MS-Word, if’n it isn’t already.
2. Open a new tab in Firefox and begin my daily reads, usually with Lou, Laurie, Lex (that does it for the ells), the two sons, and the rest of the blog roll as I see fit. Most days I don’t come close to hitting them all.
3. Open new tabs in Firefox to chase linkies.
4. Cut ‘n’ paste excerpts and linkage from interesting stuff into the aforementioned Word file.
5. Write my comments to said linkage.
6. Save often.
7. Rinse. Repeat.
8. Open my image editor and peruse the photo galleries for a candidate for “Today’s Pic.”
9. Agonize greatly over the lack of good pictures and swear I’ll take a bunch of new ones, today.
10. Select something, anyway (most of the time).
11. Or not.
12. Copy from the Word file.
13. Paste into Bogger and publish.
14. View post.
15. Edit. (I always miss something…)
16. Close it all out and go do something meaningful, like finish the coffee and smoke a cigar or small portion thereof. Or go riding. Or do laundry. All of which are on today’s agenda, by the way.

Did I say “condensed form?” Yeah, I did. Disregard.

So…how do you do it?

1157 hours…time to POST! (Insert smiley-face here.)

Thursday

You find the coolest things on these Intertubes… Yesterday while I was reading the Miata newsgroup I subscribe to I decided to check out one John McGaw’s web site, and Lo! What a find. Aside from the fact that we both drive Miatas, we have a lot of other stuff in common. We’re both retired USAF Master Sergeants, we both “fell” into our respective careers, we both are life-long photographers, and we’ve both traveled extensively. Mr. McGaw is a whole helluva lot better at archiving his photos than I am, however.

Mr. McGaw, at one point in time, set a personal goal of driving around the periphery of the United States. He’s not quite made the entire tour as of yet, but he’s done about three-fourths of it…in his 1991 Miata. His touring narratives begin in Anchorage and document his travels down the ALCAN into the Northwest. A few years later he filled in the east coast, all the way up to the northeastern-most point in the US. The narratives are superb, as are the accompanying photos. Here’s his intro:

There came a time in my life when major changes were the rule rather than the exception—I had turned 50, retired from my job with the State of Alaska, my house was sold, and it was time to move on. As a way to shake off the dust of the old life and make way for the new I decided that a serious trip was called for. Eventually I decided that a drive around the edge of the USA would be an admirable goal. I knew from my electronics and programming experience that boundary conditions are the most interesting and surmised that it might be true in other areas.

Thus it came about that I drove out of Alaska in my beloved 1991 Mazda Miata carrying a laptop computer, digital camera, and GPS navigation hardware and software to guide me. Winter was fast approaching and there was no time to spare if I was going to make it down the Alaska Highway safely in my highly unsuitable car. My original intent was to drive from Alaska and then "on the edge" of the lower 48 states from northwest to southwest to southeast to northeast, always staying as close to the perimeter as humanly (and automotively) feasible. I failed to complete my quest due to lack of time and Florida-induced emotional fatigue but still found it one of the more interesting chapters in my life.

The travel narratives are quite long, too, and I cannot claim to have read them all. But I’m working on it. His photography is excellent and there are many, many galleries worth a visit or six. All in all, an excellent site and one I felt the need to share.

Do go.

Speaking of cool things…Steeljaw Scribe has an entertaining, illuminating, and very-well-told sea-story over at his place today, and it’s but one of many such. This particular story has to do with unsung heroes, foul odors emanating from places unknown on the bridge of the USS Dwight D Eisenhower (CVN 69), and The Man’s dreaded command: “Fix it!” And SJS was the guy carrying the ball…or rather, directing the play.

Once again: Do go!

Well, it’s official…Tony Blair is announcing his departure date (June 27^th) as Britain’s Prime Minister today, ending a fairly successful ten-year run as both leader of the “New” Labour Party and as the UK’s Prime Minister. Only the date is news, as Blair announced his intention to step down last Fall. The Times has an extensive article with lots of commentary and a few rather ugly political cartoons. Here’s The Guardian’s take…and here’s one article from the rabble-rousing, ultra-Left-wing The Independent.

One would be hard-pressed to say who is more unpopular as the leader of their respective countries…Blair or Bush. A shame, that, as both are effective and principled politicians. If such a thing isn’t an outright contradiction in terms. I, for one, find it absolutely amazing that a Labour prime minister turned out to be America’s most steadfast ally in these troubled times. Who’d a thunk it?

Godspeed, Mr. Blair.

And finally…a heart-felt plea from one of the writers of the famous Iraq the Model blog, published in today’s NY Daily News:

The cost of liberating Europe in the last century was enormous in blood and treasure. In fact, it took half a century of American military presence thereafter to protect those nations from subsequent threats. If that made sense during a Cold War, and it did, then I don't understand why anyone would demand a pullout from Iraq (and maybe later, the entire Middle East) when the enemies are using every evil technique, from booby trapped dead animals to hijacked civilian aircrafts, to kill innocents.

And so, my friends, I will call for fighting this war just as powerfully as the bad guys do - because I must show them that I'm stronger than they are. The people of America need to understand this: the enemies of a stable Iraq are America's enemies, and they simply do not understand the language of civilization and reason.

They understand only power. It is with power they took over their countries and held their peoples hostage. Everything they accomplished was through absolute control over the assets of their nations through murder, torture, repression and intimidation.

What he said…in frickin’ spades. It doesn’t get any clearer than this. Read the whole thing.

And now I’m off to The Big(ger) City^TM, again. Still shopping for next week’s trip to Utah…and points east. More about that, later.

A Blast From the Past. Literally.

Here’s a great lil story about Bob Probert…one of my past heroes (until he got busted for transporting cocaine in his underwear from Windsor into Detroit…but that’s another story altogether).

Bob Probert, the former Detroit Red Wing and Chicago Blackhawk from Windsor, returned home Monday after joining a group of National Hockey League alumni on a tour to visit Canadian soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

While there, he got an up close and personal view of what Canada's fighting best deal with on a daily basis.

"Our second night in Kandahar, they took us over to see the spy planes," Probert said. "We were in the one of the rooms getting briefed on the spy planes and all of a sudden the sirens start going off."

"They came in an escorted us right to the bomb shelter. The bunker, they called it."

While there, Probert looked around at his fellow retired NHLers and spied Dan Daoust, Mike Pelyk, Lou Franceschetti, Dave Hutchison, Dave (Tiger) Williams and Kevin Maguire, all of them former Toronto Maple Leafs and decided to add a little levity to a tense situation.

"I said, 'Apparently, they found out the Maple Leafs were here,'" Probert said. "That didn't go over too well."

As for the missiles, they missed their target.

Good on Probie. And I’ll bet those ex-Leafs kept their peace when Probert cracked wise about the Leafs being in Kandahar. There’s one thing you DIDN’T do back in the day, and that’s piss Probert off. I’ll give you a dollar to a donut that it’s still true. Why?

There was absolutely, positively no one, and I mean NO ONE, who could best Probert back in the day when he was known as The Heavyweight Champion of the NHL. I’ll quote the Wiki:

Probert will always be remembered as one of the NHL's toughest players, and many enforcers considered him the toughest and most feared fighter in the NHL.^[1] Several web sites, such as Hockeyfights.com, chronicle his long list of fights with other league enforcers. He saw it as his job to protect his teammates, especially Detroit captain Steve Yzerman. In a recent news story, he recalled a time that he sucker-punched enforcer Kevin Maguire of the Buffalo Sabres while Maguire was fighting with Yzerman.^[7]

Some fights in Probert's career:^[5]

· Two long fights with Craig Coxe of the Vancouver Canucks in the mid-1980s.

· A career-spanning series of battles with Tie Domi of the New York Rangers and other teams.

· A memorable fight on December 17, 1993 with former teammate Joe Kocur of the Rangers, during a brawl involving several players from both teams. Probert and Kocur had grabbed the nearest opposing player without realizing who it was, and continued trading punches even after they identified each other.

· A fight on February 4, 1994, against Marty McSorley, then of the Pittsburgh Penguins, lasting nearly 100 full seconds.

In his career, Probert took part in many other classic hockey fights against noted enforcers such as Todd Ewen, Troy Crowder, Tony Twist, Donald Brashear, Stu "The Grim Reaper" Grimson, Bob McGill, Dave Semenko, and "Big" Jay Caufield.

It would have broken my heart to watch Probert and Kocur mix it up. Those guys were known as “The Bruise Brothers,” back in the day when they were Detroit’s top enforcers. And what memorable days those were… Nobody ran the Wings’ stars in those days. The price to be paid for that was simply too frickin’ high.

But. It’s good to see Probert has grown up a bit and that he’s giving back. As for me, IF I were still in the Air Force, and IF I were in Afghanistan, I’d have been pissed to find out Probie was visiting the Canadian troops and not us fans from Detroit. And believe me, Probert had legions of fans in Detroit. Just sayin’.

A Couple of Google-Things and a Short Rant

Interesting: “My life without Google.” A lot of people bitch about Google and all the data they collect about us, but James Thomas is actually doing something about it.

How much did I use Google? Apparently a lot more often than even I could speculate. For the last two weeks, I've had google.com blocked at both work and home. The amount of data they're gathering on me is frightening. Not because of Google, but because I'm positive the government will legislate their way into Google's database sooner or later and start labeling people as suspicious. Political paranoia aside, let us look at the fact here; Life on the internet without using Google is hard. (My emphasis)

I’ll say. If I were to emulate Mr. Thomas I’d have to (a) change my e-mail address (b) find a new blog host and (c) quit watching YouTube…just for starters. The latter would be tougher than you might imagine. There are alternatives to YouTube, and a lot of people use ‘em. But a lot more don’t. I’d hate to have to give up all those cool plane pr0n videos that take forever to load, given the state of my ‘net connection.

Speaking of Google: You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well. Or so sez the WSJ.

In the age of Google, being special increasingly requires standing out from the crowd online. Many people aspire for themselves -- or their offspring -- to command prominent placement in the top few links on search engines or social networking sites' member lookup functions. But, as more people flood the Web, that's becoming an especially tall order for those with common names. Type "John Smith" into Google's search engine and it estimates it has 158 million results. (See search results.)

For people prone to vanity searching -- punching their own names into search engines -- absence from the first pages of search results can bring disappointment. On top of that, some of the "un-Googleables" say being crowded out of search results actually carries a professional and financial price.

I’ve done my share of vanity searches in the past (pre-blogging days) and was always semi-disappointed with the…uh…non-results. “Buck Pennington” does pretty danged well now, after a year and a half of blogging. Not so with “Norman Pennington.” I gave up after going 12 pages deep with no results… Hello, Reality Check. I’m still a prole—always will be.

So. I’m generally “off” politics as far as the blog goes but, as I’ve mentioned frequently, I’m still keeping up with my reading. An article in the NY Sun caught my attention this morning, as did commentary on that same article from Ed Morrissey over at Captain’s Quarters…one of my favorite reads. The Sun sez “Islamist-Left Alliance A Growing Force.” Excerpt:

Over the past year, multiple international conferences have featured leaders of the anti-global left and Islamist groups working together. Go to any anti-war or anti-globalization demonstration in the West and chances are you will see the flags of Hezbollah and Hamas waved by people wearing Che Guevara T-shirts. And at some of these meetings, members of such radical Islamist groups as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Hezbollah have enjoyed starring roles.

The roster of Islamist-left alliances quietly grows every day: Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguistics professor Noam Chomsky praises Hamas and denounces America on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television. London Mayor Ken Livingstone invites a leading Islamist, Sheikh Yosef Al-Qaradawi, who is known for supporting suicide attacks, to visit his city. Iranian President Ahmadinejad calls for a world without America even as he plays host to a Tehran peace conference attended by American Mennonites, Quakers, Episcopalians, Methodists, and leaders of the National Council of Churches.

This article simply fleshes out and adds detail to what any casual observer of “peace” marches and demonstrations has already noticed. I mean, how could you not see all those bright yellow Hezbollah banners borne by kaffiya-bedecked protesters and their pro-Hamas/Hezbollah, anti-Israel messages? And how could you not ask the question “WTF does this have to do with Iraq?” The simple answer is plain, unadulterated anti-Americanism… a modified “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” logic that just boggles my mind. But I digress, yet again. Here’s Captain Ed taking down Noam Chomsky, one of my favorite “people I love to hate actively dislike:”

In the case of Noam Chomsky, this seems particularly egregious, but not terribly surprising. Chomsky can talk about Enlightenment ideals out of one side of his mouth, as he did in Imperial Ambitions, and then warmly support Hamas, which completely rejects those ideals of freedom, liberty, and individual conscience. In that book, he told David Barsamanian that "No other industrialized country has anything like the degree of extremist religious beliefs and irrational commitments like you see in the United States," and yet he has aligned himself with violent religious extremists like Hamas, and does so on the television network of the equally violent and extreme Hezbollah.

People like Chomsky love Hamas and Hezbollah not for their supposed "Enlightenment ideals," but for their hatred of America. That's the one thread that follows through all of these alliances between the Western Left and the Islamist nutcases who, on a philosophical basis, should be their ultimate nightmare. The people who drop brick walls on homosexuals get praise and support from the Chomskys of the world because the US cannot decide between allowing civil unions or gay marriage. Chomsky frets over the fact that "Large majorities are convinced of miracles, the existence of the devil, and so on," but then praises those who believe that infidels are agents of Satan and must be destroyed in jihad.

What he said. Chomsky and others of his ilk come perilously close to treason and sedition, IM(not so)HO. The Left is quite fond of their “gulag” and “fascist” fantasies, invoking them at every turn…but Damn! What are we to do with people that openly support and collaborate with our enemies? The fact that we tolerate “dissent” such as this is mind-boggling on the one hand and ultimately mysterious on the other. While I don’t think we should shoot them (gratifying as that might be), I’m ALL over alternate solutions…such as deporting the bastards to Palestine, Iraq, or Iran…and allowing them to live and work within the societies (and I use that term oh-so-loosely) they so admire.

They wouldn’t last a week.

Today’s Pic: Another shot of yesterday’s lonely iris; a close-up this time. I originally thought about titling this photo “snug as a bug…” but thought better of it. Too cute by half.

AARs, Crime, Rain, and Ducks!

Laurie is back from the MilBlog conference in Dee See and has a narrative and pictures. Good stuff, there! It seems like all I’ve been doing this morning is reading After Action Reports from the conference. Lex has a good narrative, too, and lotsa links to others writing their own reports, as well. Partying went on well into the night this past Friday! Dang! Wish I woulda been there!

Damn. I committed an “eco-crime.” And what would that be, you ask? I have three children…one more than is good for the planet. How uncaring of me!

HAVING large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a 4x4 car and failing to reuse plastic bags, according to a report to be published tomorrow by a green think tank.

The paper by the Optimum Population Trust (OPT) will say that if couples had two children instead of three they could cut their family’s carbon dioxide output by the equivalent of 620 return flights a year between London and New York.

John Guillebaud, co-chairman of OPT and emeritus professor of family planning at University College London, said: “The effect on the planet of having one child less is an order of magnitude greater than all these other things we might do, such as switching off lights. An extra child is the equivalent of a lot of flights across the planet.

“The greatest thing anyone in Britain could do to help the future of the planet would be to have one less child.”

In his latest comments the academic says that when couples are planning a family they should be encouraged to think about the environmental consequences. “The decision to have children should be seen as a very big one and one that should take the environment into account,” he added.

Guillebaud says that, as a general guideline, couples should produce no more than two offspring.

So. There you have it. I wonder if there’s a statute of limitations? Coz I committed my crime in the way-back (well, two out of three, anyway). Back then we were worrying about an impending Ice Age, not so much about global warming climate change. So I think I should get a dispensation. But then there are those plastic bags…

Watching the WX Channel with one eye while I take care of my Daily Reads with the other…it’s been raining—hard—all morning. I was awakened this morning by the sound of rain on my roof, which, as I’ve mentioned many times in the past, I dearly love. I drifted in and out of sleep for about an hour once I awoke since the rain was steady and not of the pounding variety. Bad move, that. I should have gotten up immediately…because then I could have prevented the soggy mess that is my bathroom. Yep…that pesky roof vent in the bathroom was wide-open. Again. No real damage, mind you. Just terribly, terribly soaked. Everything.

So anyway…that line of intense rain (the bright red bits) to the east of us is apparently causing quite a bit of havoc. No tornadoes (Thank God!), but 55 mph wind gusts. And VERY heavy rain. We’re under a flash-flood watch, and I’ll bet P-Town is awash. As usual. It’s a great day for ducks.

Speaking of Ducks…

The Ducks last faced the Red Wings in the first round of the 2003 playoffs. At the time, Detroit was the defending Stanley Cup champs and there was talk of dynasty in Hockeytown. But that talk was indefinitely put on hold after the Ducks, under then-coach Mike Babcock, swept the Red Wings. Babcock, of course, is now behind the Detroit bench and has helped the Wings beyond the second round for the first time since the team's last Cup win in 2002.

To get here, the Wings had to dispose of a San Jose team many picked to win the Cup. They did it without defenseman Mathieu Schneider, who broke his wrist early in Game 5 on Saturday, and did it with relative ease. It's a testament to the sand this Red Wings team possesses.

This series will feature three of the finest defensemen of their generation in Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger of Anaheim and Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom. Then, there's Chris Chelios, who was one of the finest defensemen of the last generation, but refuses to acknowledge time and continues to be effective at age 45.

Both teams possess great goaltending in Hasek and Jean-Sebastien Giguere, and both are deep up front. In other words, this one should be a dandy.

Last night’s game was a dandy…the Wings were “large and in charge” from the moment the puck dropped at the beginning of the first period right up until the horn sounded at the end of the third. And Ladies and Gentlemen…what you see in the third scene in the video below is one of the finest defensive plays I’ve ever seen in hockey…bar none. Simply brilliant.

I’ll defer to Mitch Albom’s description of what happened in the vid above:

Here's what happened: The Sharks' Mike Grier chased a loose puck down the ice, with Lidstrom following in hot pursuit. The crowd rose. Goalie Dominik Hasek came out and swept the puck behind him, but Grier got to it and swooped around from behind the net, which was now as empty as a beggar's pocket.

And then Lidstrom. I don't know how he does it. Somehow he stretched that reedy body and surged his stick across the mouth of the goal a shaved instant before Grier released the puck. It hit Nick's stick and frittered away, and the Sharks' optimism frittered away with it.

"So you play goalie, too?" Lidstrom was asked in the locker room afterward.

"I try to help out a little," he said.

“I try to help out a little.” The defensive play of the century and it’s “helping out a little?” But that’s hockey players for you: supremely modest. Oh, and by the way…the rest of Albom’s column is very good today.

So now it’s the Ducks. Most all of the hockey writers are probably going to call this series for Anaheim…but haven’t we heard that one before, and recently, at that? San Jose was too big, too fast, too young for Detroit, right? And now the Sharks are lining up tee times while the Wings prepare for the Conference Final. To steal a football quote from Berman: “They could…go…all…the…WAY!!”

Let us pray.

Today’s Pic: One lonely iris blooming in the flower bed outside the door of El Casa Móvil De Pennington. That flower bed used to be a riot of color in late summer…until the “gardeners” came through last Fall and ripped out ALL of the perennials that previously graced my premises. Those idiots didn’t have the slightest idea about what they were doing…taking “weeding” to an entirely new, uninformed, and undeserved level. So now I’ll get weeds, and only weeds, later this year. Twits.

Yesterday. P-Town.

Update: Replaced the hockey video (originally from TheNewsRoom) with a highlight video I found on YouTube. I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I couldn't get the previous video to play consistently; the YouTube vid works fine. Lidstrom's play is now the third scene in this four-minute video...plus you get to see both Detroit goals, several saves by Hasek, and at least one brilliant save by Nabokov.

(Very) Briefly

An American Institution, as seen by the Brits and written about in The Times (UK): “Kentucky shows off its racy side to the royals.” It’s not a bad article…not bad at all!

This, however, is beyond comprehension…Lileks:

My column will end a week from this Friday. (There’s a series of pieces I can’t wait to write.) After that, it's just-the-facts-ma'am - and I'll no longer be telecommuting, either. This means I will start burning my share of hydrocarbons like a good American. Hell, I may leave the vehicle running all day outside the building just to make up for lost time. Maybe I will put a green roof on the car to balance things out. Some turf, some switchgrass. It's murder on the paint but we all must do our part.

Would it matter if you contacted the paper? It very well might. Here's the reader's rep's page.

If I can get my column back and / or a nice big Online gig, that would be a satisfactory conclusion. Reporting on internet start-ups as opposed to joining an internet start-up – eh, not so much.

There’s not a soul amongst us who doesn’t have a horror story about mismanagement in corporate America…and I have a boat-load of those stories, myself. But MY stories pale by comparison to this one. James’ new job? Writing straight news. Now there’s a classic mismatch of skills-to-assignment if ever there was one. Incredible.

I’m not sure what good, if anything, can come about if non-Minneapolis residents write and make their feelings known to the Strib’s Reader’s Rep. But…it doesn’t hurt to try, eh?

Abbreviated entry this morning for the usual reasons plus one. Up too late, slept in until mid-morning, and then received a call from the Suzuki store before the first cup was poured. The parts are in to restore the ‘Zuki to its gleaming, pristine, pre-pratfall condition. Just one problema…the first available service appointment is not until June 5^th. Even math-challenged persons such as I understand that is nearly a month from now, to the day. I can live with a scratched fairing, but I cannot live without my turn signals on a nearly 1,800 mile trip to Salt Lake City and back. And the service personnel were duly informed of that fact when I told them “Hey! This is a safety issue!” The response was “Just a minute,” followed by “we can do the turn signal…just bring it in anytime.” Thanks, Guys. I’ll do just that.

So. It’s off to the Big(ger) City^TM immediately, if not sooner. Right after I post this.

Back later today…

A Bit of Sunday Nostalgia

A John Hiatt song popped into my mind as I read this way-cool article in the NYT’s Travel section this morning. First, the Hiatt lyric (“Ride Along” from 1988’s “Slow Turnin”):

You get the Sunday paper
On Saturday night
You read the travel section
Until you’re all uptight

’cause it’s almost Monday
Jack you know that song
You ain’t going nowhere
You just ride along, ride along, ride along

I suppose Hiatt popped into my mind because I know “I ain’t goin’ nowhere” near Istanbul in the foreseeable future, but Dang…I sure wish I could spend 36 Hours in Istanbul (or much more). The article is way too short and is more of a (typical) list of not-to-be-missed places in Istanbul, from a Travel editor’s perspective. Not that there’s anything wrong with these sorts of lists…it’s just the assumptions that (a) you’re either familiar with the city or (b) you’ve already made up your mind to go and (c) here’s some cool places you should add to your to-do list, once you get there. OK, noted…and filed away for future non-use or until such time as I get off my ass and renew my passport… which I really, really should do.

Istanbul is one of my three favorite cities in the world—the other two being London and Bangkok—for its supremely beautiful physical location, its mystically magic skyline, the friendliness of its people, its history and incredible architectural treasures, and the food. The city was also Number One With A Bullet on the list of places I wanted to take The Second Mrs. Pennington…but we separated before we took that trip. I can still see myself going there, even with the political situation being what it is these days, and even if the journey will most likely occur only in my imagination. But: Ya never know.

It’s been over 35 years—1971—since I was last in Istanbul, and that occasion was my departure from Turkey after spending a year in Beautiful-Sinop-By-The-Sea. I took the White Boat from Sinop to Istanbul, an overnight passage of some eight to ten hours that simply beat the Hell out of any alternative transport options available then or now. I spent about 36 hours in Istanbul after disembarking from the White Boat and prior to catching a Pan Am flight “back to the world.” That time was spent eating, drinking, and doing last-minute shopping for friends and family. I should have spent much more time in Istanbul…say at least a week…before I left, what with hindsight being 20-20 and all that. But I thought I had covered all the bases in previous visits and the desire to get back home was incredibly strong. Ah…the impetuousness impatience of youth, eh?

(About that White Boat link: there are more photos of GI life in Sinop taken by James Bedner here, if you’re interested. Great stuff…including (and especially) the “Belly Dancer” pics, which are NOT work-safe, what with bare breasts visible in the last pic. And the Istanbul skyline photo is from the NYT slide-show that accompanies the article.)

France has its presidential election today and the contest is interesting on any number of levels, not the least of which is the nearly black-and-white choice between Socialist Ségolène Royal and Gaullist Nicolas Sarkozy. While the NYT has an article on the election (here), the best reporting (IMHO) is from London…specifically the pieces from The Times and The Telegraph. Say what you will about Les Français…but their voter turn-out—75%, by some estimates—is to be envied. Would that we had that same level of voter participation here.

Short post today. I wanna go for a ride before the wind gets too high and it’s already 1100 hrs and I haven’t even finished the coffee or hit the shower. Yet. I’d best get a move on…

Wings Up 3-2

Well, the weather sure sucked today, but the hockey was excellent:

DETROIT -- Dominik Hasek slowly skated out of his goal, bent down and inspected the octopus late in Detroit's 4-1 win over San Jose on Saturday.

Red Wings fans have been tossing the eight-legged sea creatures on the ice for decades as a symbol of their team's quest for the Stanley Cup.

If Detroit keeps playing the way it did on Saturday, another title might not be out of the question.

Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg each had a goal and two assists, leading the Red Wings within a victory of reaching the Western Conference finals.

Ahead 3-2, Detroit can end the conference semifinal Monday night in San Jose.

There’s a dark lining inside that silver cloud, however. The Wings lost another defenseman (a total of three on the injured list now) when Mathieu Schneider broke his wrist during the first period of game five. Schneider is out for the remainder of the season…and that hurts. Schneider is an integral part of the Red Wings’ power play and is also the guy that scored the overtime winner in game four to even this series. Big loss, and that’s an understatement.

Still and even, Schneider went out during the first period when Detroit was down 1-0. And it’s obvious his absence didn’t affect the Wings’ game…which included two power play goals. Big Mo is all Detroit right now, and it would be oh-so-sweet to see the Wings close out San Jose, in San Jose.

I’ll go light a candle now.

Oh…wait. One more thing. Mitch Albom:

When the going gets tough, the tough go stealing. Here came Pavel Datsyuk chasing a slow puck as it glided toward goalie Evgeni Nabokov. Usually, a play like this is a nothing, a throwaway, the goalie gets it first, swats it away, and things go the other direction, right?

But critical times, critical moves. The Red Wings and Sharks were locked in yet another wrestling match, body on body, stick on stick, barely a paper sheet’s distance between them. The score was tied. The series was tied. Something needed to snap.

And here it was: Nabokov had to come out beyond the crease, Datsyuk was charging, fans rose to their feet as if sensing a bullfight at the critical surge. The net was vulnerable. Now it was a race. Would Datsyuk get it? Would Nabokov get it? At the last instant — and this is what makes him a unique talent — Datsyuk gave up on the puck and zoomed left, playing the clearing pass instead. Nabokov was a blink slower. He swept the puck to his right before his eyes could tell his brain it was the wrong direction.

Smack! There was Datsyuk, like a net draping a fish. He intercepted the puck, knocked it down and chased it to the net. All Nabokov could do was watch helplessly, like a man who sees an important paper fly out the car window. Gone, baby, gone. Datsyuk flicked in the puck as if finishing a practice drill.

And that goal may have tipped the series.

As it’s said: Read the whole thing. There’s no better sportswriter than Mitch…and he’s been writing about the Wings for about 20 years. Albom knows the Wings like no other writer. And about that goal Datsyuk scored: I almost felt bad for Nabokov. Almost.

Now where’s that candle?

(Photo: Chris Chelios and Joe Thornton have a bit of a disagreement late in the third period. The game did get just a little chippy at the end. Photo credit: Detroit Free Press)

And why, you may ask, was the weather so bad? The wind, Gentle Reader, the wind. And when we have wind, we have lots of dust. And how bad is it? Well…here’s a screen shot taken while composing this post. It could have been worse: the forecast was for steady 30 – 40 mph winds with gusts to 55 mph. I don’t think we had any gusts close to what was forecasted…the trees are still standing.

And so it goes…

A Great Beginning...

Here’s a brilliant site for those of us who are in love with the language: World Wide Words. Michael Quinion, the site’s author, has quite the resumé, and here’s just a small part of it:

These days, Michael concentrates on writing World Wide Words and providing citations and advice for the Oxford English Dictionary. He also wrote a third of the entries for the second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of New Words and for a while compiled a weekly New Words column in the Daily Telegraph. His dictionary of affixes, Ologies and Isms, was published by Oxford University Press in August 2002.

World Wide Words provides etymologies for words and expressions such as protologism, balls-up, and the phrase seemingly on everyone’s lips these days… carbon footprint. Great and good stuff, this!

(h/t to one of the denizens of Castle Argghhh!!! who pointed us to Beyond the Pale… an expression whose origin I thought was rooted exclusively in the tsars’ geographical imperatives to Russian Jews…but now stand corrected. There’s English-Irish there, too.)

Ed Douhatshek of the Toronto Globe and Mail has become a daily read. There are a lot of hockey columnists out there, but Ed is rapidly becoming my favorite. Mitch Albom, of course, is still Numero Uno in my book, but Mitch has branched out…he’s now a best-selling author and a generalist…no longer “just” a sportswriter. But, back to Ed. Here’s his take on last night’s Anaheim – Vancouver tilt:

ANAHEIM -- In time, they may reflect back on a National Hockey League season that far exceeded expectations -- to a divisional crown, a trip to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the certainty they not only have a franchise goaltender, but he is signed for another three seasons.

Accordingly, there were a lot of positives to emerge from the Vancouver Canucks' 2006-07 season on the whole, but that offered little consolation in the immediate aftermath of last night's one-for-the-ages 2-1 double overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks in the fifth and deciding game of their best-of-seven Western Conference semi-final series.

With the win, the Ducks move on to face one of their ex-coaches, either the Detroit Red Wings' Mike Babcock or the San Jose Sharks' Ron Wilson, in the next round. The Canucks, meanwhile, will watch it unfold from the comfort of their couches and condos, where they can ponder how the formula that worked so well in the regular season -- play goalie Roberto Luongo and play him again and then play him some more -- wasn't enough to win in the playoffs.

The term “one for the ages” is certainly apt. Even if you don’t live in BC, or even on the Left Coast. I found myself pulling for the Canucks even though I knew in my heart of hearts they were doomed. The Ducks were just too big, too fast, and too talented. Luongo, like Calgary’s Kiprusoff, kept the Canucks in the series a lot longer than they deserved. The guy is a great goaltender and hockey fans will be seeing a lot of him in April, May, and (eventually) June in the future. Bet on it.

So…IF the Wings prevail against the Sharks they’ll face Anaheim in the Western Conference final. And that, folks, will be a series…the Stanley Cup final will be just a formality after the Western final…the winner will already be crowned. Take that to the bank.

I forgot to link this oh-so-appropriate guidance for young men earlier this week: The Man Code (h/t: Morgan). Two pearls of wisdom therein:

12. Before dating a buddy's "ex", you are required to ask his permission and he in return is required to grant it.

16. A man must never own a cat or like his girlfriend's cat.

There’s no corollary to #12…but there should be. Something along the lines of “it’s justifiable homicide if you take a (former) friend’s life for messing with your woman wife. Or you may severely injure him, whichever is appropriate.” Just sayin’.

Oh…and about cats: S’true, that. I know from experience.

My ambivalence about “current events” and politics in general continues apace. That doesn’t mean I’ve withdrawn altogether, as I’ve mentioned before, it just means I’m only semi- or tangentially interested, at best. Still and even, I caught a (very small) bit of the first Republican candidates debate and came away less than impressed…mostly with the sound-bite format and lack of depth in both questions and responses. It wasn’t long before the Weather Channel seemed a lot more interesting and relevant than the “debate.” {click}

Peggy Noonan has a pretty good comment piece on the debate over at the WSJ…and here’s an exceprt:

This is a piece about Thursday night's Republican presidential debates, but first I would like to note that the media's fixation with which Republican is the most like Reagan, and who is the next Reagan, and who parts his hair like Reagan, is absurd, and subtly undermining of Republicans, which is why they do it.

[…]

They should stop it already, and Republicans should stop playing along. They should try instead a pleasant, "You know I don't think I'm Reagan, but I do think John Edwards may be Jimmy Carter, and I'm fairly certain Hillary is Walter Mondale."

[…]

If we view the proceedings in vulgar and reductive Who Won, Who Lost terms, and let's, Mitt Romney won, Rudy Giuliani lost, and John McCain is still in. The moderator, Chris Matthews, seemed to think he was on "Hardball" and had to keep the pups, punks and rubes--that would be the candidates--in line. He cut them off--"Congressman, that's time!"--and occasionally hectored. One of the stars was the buzzing clock. It interrupted all thought.

And that’s just for starters. Good stuff, that. I like Peggy Noonan. As for the candidates themselves? Feh. Or…in other words…it’s waaay too early to tell.

Today began in a classical music sorta way…a not-too-infrequent break from my usual rock-pop mindset. I took my morning coffee on the verandah today (well, the first two cups, anyway), enjoying the early morning’s gentle breezes before they turn into the forecasted gales. While enjoying the relative quiet of the morning…everyone’s gone to work, the kids are off to school…it hit me that the moment was supremely right for Beethoven’s “Pastorale.” So… a quick hop, skip, and a jump into El Casa Móvil De Pennington, along with a brief shuffling about in the CD repository, and the sweet strains of the “Pastorale” were drifting out over beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park. Followed up with Copland’s “Rodeo” and “Appalachian Spring,” and then by Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Wow. A great beginning to what I hope will be a great day.

So far, so good.

Mostly Good News...Especially On the Hockey Front!

Justice prevails…according to Eric Duhatschek at The Toronto Globe and Mail:

SAN JOSE — Sometimes, justice can prevail, even in the fickle and occasionally unfair world of professional sport.

The Detroit Red Wings were 34 seconds away from falling into a 3-1 series hole to the San Jose Sharks Wednesday night. Despite dominating the play virtually all night, the Red Wings couldn't find an answer to Sharks' goaltender Evgeni Nabokov, who stopped 35 of the first 36 shots he faced in regulation and had his team seconds away from victory.

But a breakdown in defensive coverage in the final minute, with Red Wings' goaltender Dominik Hasek on the bench for an extra attacker, led to Robert Lang's tying goal on their 37th shot. Lang's shot squeezed under Nabokov's arm after defenceman Craig Rivet permitted him to close to within 20 feet of the net.

In overtime, Mathieu Schneider then capped the rally, scoring his first of the series on a power play to give the Red Wings a 3-2 come-from-behind victory. That win squared the series at two games apiece, with Game 5 scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Detroit.

It’s a standard hockey tactic…you’re down by a goal (or two) in the last minute of the game, your goalie skates to the bench and you add an extra attacker. Your six skaters then assault the opponent’s net in frantic desperation, shooting the puck at every opportunity. More often than not, this tactic usually results in your opponent either beating back your attack, or worse, scoring into your open net and winning the game. But last night? Justice!! Robert Lang, as noted above, ties the game in the final seconds and Mathieu Schneider gets the winner at 16:04 in the overtime period.

So. It’s another best two-out-of-three series. Let’s hope this one turns out the same as the last…

(photo credit: AP)

Daniel Henninger has a great rant in the WSJ today about my absolute favorite bugaboo: Political Correctness:

Don Imus, Bernard McGuirk, Trent Lott, Larry Summers, the Duke lacrosse team, Jimmy the Greek, the kid who yelled "water buffalo" at Penn, Howard Cosell, Jon Stewart, Chief Illiniwek, Jackie Mason and "South Park" all have in common only one thing: They have not been Politically Correct.

Some were brought down by it, and some have made a living from it. Today, there are people who even say that the satire on shows such as "South Park" or the "Daily Show" have made political correctness a harmless amusement. We have become so cool that we can simultaneously abide PC's merciless strictures against saying the wrong things about the right people even as we laugh at our subjugation to PC.

Despite the ironic mockery, political correctness still packs a punch. Say the wrong thing today and you can be gone tomorrow, your status as a top broadcaster, university president or politician obliterated. It happens in the small space of a sentence--defrocked, banished, gonzo. Outside a courtroom, I'm not aware of many other forces in American life that can do that.

“…still packs a punch” has got to be the understatement of the day. I’m of the opinion that Political Correctness is perhaps the biggest of the “little threats” we face as a culture. Political Correctness is insidious because it instructs us in “pure thought” and exacts harsh penalties should we not comply with the prescribed positions of “right-thinking” people. The phenomenon, while bad enough for us plodders at the bottom layers of the food chain, gets unbearably worse the higher up the ladder one climbs, in any endeavor. The end result is our leaders in government and business, as well as our cultural movers and shakers, are effectively—oh-so-effectively!—muzzled. It’s a rare, rare thing to hear someone in a position of power actually “speak his mind” these days; Group Think rules the roost. The PC phenomenon has cost us a lot…and yet I cannot see what benefits actually accrue from being PC, other than approving nods from our friends on the Left and a general dumbing-down of the culture.

Can anyone show me something—anything—good about Political Correctness? I’m all ears…enlighten me!

Ahhh..so this is why I felt compelled to post pictures of my scratched fairing…

Professor Crozier defines embarrassment as when we accidentally "contradict the identity we want to project, leaving a quite disabling sense of being exposed".

And the car-crash moment when it happens is like a "little death" - everything seems to stop, time seems to stand still and we talk about being "frozen" or "dying of embarrassment" or being "mortified".

But what do we do when it happens, and how best to recover?

"The best way to deal with embarrassment is to talk about it," says workplace psychologist Gary Fitzgibbon. "If you skulk off, you're left with it. You mustn't let the embarrassment dominate."

Once you admit to what's happened and talk about it, everyone will feel much more relaxed and they'll be laughing with you rather than at you.

I just wanted all y’all to laugh with me, rather than at me. Even though you would have never known about my pratfall had I not posted. Unless you were one of those 15 people in that San Jon parking lot when I “contradict(ed) the identity we (I) want to project.” Fat chance, that. But go ahead…you can laugh. It’s OK.

Our weather certainly was miserable yesterday, but not catastrophic as Spring weather can be. No, it was just gray, dull, and rainy for nearly the entire day. A perfect sort of day to “take it easy,” which I did…in spades. And, digressing as is my habit, I apparently did myself some good, too, as my back pain has greatly diminished this morning. I’m “cautiously optimistic,” as they say. This thing is beginning to resemble a strained muscle much more than a herniated disk. Thank You, Lord!!

But back to the weather…clear blue skies, light winds, and a temp of 64…on its way to a forecasted 86 wonderful degrees. Perfect you-know-what weather. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll give my back one more day or if I’ll go out and swing a leg over the bike. Too soon to tell.

Today’s Pic: While yesterday’s weather sucked, the day before was absolutely brilliant even if I wasn’t feeling quite that way myself. Every so often I take an “inventory” shot of El Casa Móvil De Pennington in its natural surroundings, and today’s pic is one such shot. If you look closely you can see the neck of a Fat Tire bottle sticking up out of the cup holder on my chair. That was strictly “for medicinal purposes only,” Gentle Reader, and it helped. Oh, yes. It did.

May Day afternoon. On the outskirts of P-Town.