Sunday, December 30, 2007

Stupid Bumperstickers

This one on the guitar case of a young woman whose lesson was right after mine:

"The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love."
- Che Guevara

Well, my little self-aggrandizing anti-western budding communist, he also said:


"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate."
- Che Guevara

Huh. Two-faced, too. My next bumpersticker might just be:

"A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate."
- Che Guevara


This one wouldn't be bad either:


"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary."
- Che Guevara

Friday, December 14, 2007

Still for Fred

Fred has been the most promising guy to me, not necessarily to win, but to support most of the issues I support and use some of what we used to call "common sense" in running things and negotiating with our enemies. Within and without.

But I'd kinda written him off early. But after yesterday, I'm gonna say "Not So Fast".

Show of hands -- who thinks Giuliani or Huckabee will win the nomination?

Republicans "Like This War" - Pelosi

So I get this thing from Bob Parks where he tips me off to Nancy Pelosi's latest assault on reason, truth, and history:
"They like this war. They want this war to continue." ... "We thought that they shared the view of so many people in our country that we needed a new direction in Iraq." ... "But the Republicans have made it very clear that this is not just George Bush's war. This is the war of the Republicans in Congress."
And it doesn't take long googling for news outlets that that indeed is what she said. That Republicans like the war and want it to continue.

I do not for one minute believe that George W. Bush or any other Republican "likes" this war or wants it to continue. They do want to finish it. But finishing it and ending it are not the same thing.

But then in today's continuing pattern of getting your PR soundbytes out (Clinton Campaign: The Republicans are going to rake our poor friend Obama over the coals for his former drug use. Ooops, did we say that? Well we aren't saying it, but they will. - snicker- ) she later "takes it back":

Well, when I said like, I used a poor choice of words. The fact is: They support this war. They support the president's execution of it, even though any objective observer of it would say that a war that we've been in much longer -- more than a year longer -- than we were in World War II, going in on a false pretense without a strategy for success, without a reason to stay, against the wishes of the American people does not deserve the support of the Congress of the United States.
It's a war America is in, Nancy, and one you voted for. Adults, once they start something even if they find out later some of their premises were wrong -- finish what they start. You got your PR soundbyte in, then you try to have it both ways by "apologizing" -- just like Shaheen & Huckabee.

What was the strategy for success in WWII, anyway? Whatever it was, if there was one, it sure wasn't to minimize every success we had and amplify any setback or any wrongdoing by a handful of our troops. Which has been the political strategy of the Democrats ever since we crossed the Kuwaiti border. Which I believe has a lot to do with why this war has gone on for longer than WWII.

Pelosi, et al have given aid and comfort to the enemy practically since the war began. You know what we used to call that? You know what the peanalty used to be?

And what's all this stuff about no change in strategy? Remember the Surge that the Democrats were so against and were so sure it wouldn't work that they declared it failed before it even started? (Probably because they were afraid it might succeed?) After the big "change in direction" (which, incidentally is not synonymous with "withdrawal", Nancy) was allegedly asked for, America got one in just a few months. And a few months after the change took place, things in Iraq started getting much much better. Which is why you're playing a misdirection by screeching the same tired charges over and over and over and over and over trying to nurture the anti-war "Availability Cascade".

Without a reason to stay? Without a reason to stay? We stormed somebody's house to take out an abusive parent and left it pretty messed up. In the mean time, some of our worst enemies came in to make it as bad as they possibly could for us. If we leave before we should, we do a great disservice to the Iraqi people. If we leave before we should, we hand a PR victory to Al Queda. Don't give me this "no reason to stay" schtick.

I see through you. You're trying to convince us what you say is true by repeating it and having the press repeat it for you.

We did not go to war against the wishes of the American people, and while naturally the American people wish we could leave and have our troops home ASAP, we know that it isn't a good idea.

Apparently you think it is. Or maybe you're just afraid of Code Pink.

Monday, December 10, 2007

The A List

Passed along from my good buddy Morgan, via Buck.

I thought I was doing pretty well until I read Buck's.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree

10. Bungee jumped (don't plan on it, either)
11. Visited Paris

Expand to see the rest
[]


12. Watched a lightning storm.
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise

14. Seen the Northern Lights (I'd love to!)
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg (be cool to see one first hand. Not in the same way the Titanic did, but...)
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne

24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can

32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run

36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking (if it still counts when you're drunk)
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day (well... kind of ... for a lot of the day)
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country ( I have, however danced with the two guitarists from an all-girl punk-rock band. Once again, there was alcohol inovled. But that's another story.)
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero

58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud (not a big fan of getting muddy)
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater

66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas (through it but not to it)
86. Recorded music (not professionally)
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date

89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth (was up to my elbows in the back of a cow trying to situate a calf in the right position to come out at 2:00 am, following a vet's instructions)
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (every single one, baby!)
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse

119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days (I'd love to do this, too)
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read (I'm going to guess Jimmy Buffett doesn't count)
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream (for brief moments in the mountains, yes. but in genral, I take life as it comes rather than dream big)
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life



Thursday, December 06, 2007

Good Sign

At our "December Shindig" at the office, I talked to a woman who just bought a gun and was getting her CCW license, and another piped up and said she was doing the same.

And I work on a college campus.

Of course, these ladies aren't on the academic side and were raised with rural-esque midwestern values. But still. Good for them. Good for America.

Merry Christmas :-)

A Random Thought From Sowell

His "Random Thoughts" posts aren't his normal well-developed dissertations. But they sure are fun. And often pointed.

Now that the British television documentary, "The Great Global Warming Swindle" is available on DVD, will those schools that forced their students to watch Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" also show them the other side? Ask them.