Plugging on

I've been a bit detached from the political world, only skimming RCP and House of Eratosthenes.  Need to check my good friend Severian's blog, too.   Life has been hectic.   To throw another monkey wrench into things (though it's a much bigger problem for her than it is for us) my mother in law got a bad eye infection the weekend after the housefire and required 24 hour care there by my wife for a while.  She still needs a lot of attention.

One thing I was going to mention for some reason we got this catalog in the mail, Northern Sun - Products for Progressives since 1979.  

Now... I'll go out on a limb and say this is because we supported NPR for about 18 years and used to order out of Wireless and Signals.    Now I have my hippe tendencies... big Grateful Dead fan.  Love Santana.  Used to wear a lot of Tie Die.  Read a lot of Alan Watts (and even contributed to a movie made about him this year to get it made.)    But clearly, my libertarian leanings put me on the right side of the political spectrum these days, and I do have strong sympathies with much of social conservatism  as well.

Mostly T-Shirts, bumperstickers, and posters.  Some of which are actually pretty cool. Some of which are begnign.  Some of which are dangerously simplistic.   Some of which sound quite profound but actually say nothing at all. And others of which ... they would consider downright mean if they were aimed at someone other than Christians. 

There's a T-Rex eating a Christian Symbol fish.  The ubiquitous Che.   COEXIST crap.  Various platitudes about Peace (don't get me wrong, I like peace and all ... just on my terms).  Ho hum, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" (ever get the feeling that they should add "to me" to the end of that?)   ... Oh, how about this one ... "I'm already against the next war." 

And then the fun ones.  A spoof on the Fox News logo "News for Dumb FUX".    Picture of Palin or Beck with "Shut the Hell Up" over it.   Walmart bashing.  Ha Ha, Ho Ho, "I'm a Marxist" shirts (Marxists have no class, pictures of the Marx bros "Sure I'm a Marxist") --- "Where's Robin Hood When We Need Him"?   A "Mad Tea Party" Alice in Wonderland spoof with all the Left's favorite people to hate.   A whole calendar of Sarah Palin bashing.   Witches date books.

Anyway, just thought that was kind of an interesting peek behind the curtain.

Austerity

Huffpo wants us to "Stop The Austerity Trainwreck".

Austerity.  You keep using that word.  I donnot think it means what you think it means.

What austerity?

Here in Asia

A conservative does this, he/she is an idiot, obviously unfit to hold the office of President of the 57+2 states.

But Hawaii is "here in Asia" from Obama? Nope, he's still Teh Messiah.

And you're a racist for even noticing.

It's Just Stuff

Well, after that trip where I wasn't posting, it looks like it may be slow around here again, at least as far as philmon goes.

Yeah, the house caught fire.  Lots o' damage.   So I got my hands full.  Can't live in the house until it's fixed.   I had just thrown a bunch of stuff out in the attic a few weeks ago, so all that was up there was stuff I had decided to keep for some reason.

Shouldn't have bothered, I guess.  The whole attic is literally toast.  Kitchen roof is gone.   Garage roof might as well be gone.  Whole cross section of the attic has the rafters severely charred.

Scary thing is this all happened in about 45 minutes, including the 15 minutes it took the firefighters to put it out.

So.... staying with relatives.  Talk to insurance adjuster tomorrow, plus back to work as well after 10 days off.

Life throws you curves.

Present!

Decision time. Mr. President, how do you vote on the Keystone XL pipeline?

Who would have thought?

It looks like Newt thought of this too (before I did), so he must be right.

Baby It's Time We Got Back, To the Basics ...

Been out a while.  Off the grid, for the most part.  WAAAAY off the grid.   Even stopped by a place that is most famous for being nowhere.  We were visiting family down in Texas Hill Country, and I couldn't go there without stopping by to say "hi" to Waylon and Willie and the Boys.

Now I need a little time to catch up on what's been going on outside in the big "out there", and see if I feel like there's anything I need to add or point out.   Mean time, good to be back.  32 hours driving in 6 days' time is enough.

Next time I leave I might oughtta let jeffmon know so mebbe he could pipe up and say "hey" while I'm out ... but ... you know, like Severian, I guess this is my way of saying "SNUL".  Which is less of a "sorry" and more of a "yeah, I'm still alive" when I say it.   Just thought I'd bring that up in case Morgan started gettin' an idea to put out some snul baits and finish 'em off.

The Caning of Cain

Scott Ott, on the caning of Cain.

'Journalists' Slam Cain First, Ask Questions Later

"Politico.com rocks the Republican Presidential primary race with allegations from two unnamed women that back in the 1990's Cain made un-quoted, unwelcomed remarks and non-specific, non-sexual gestures.  The anonymous women were so uncomfortable, they quit the National Restaurant Association where Cain was then executive Director.   Several Association Board Members contacted by Politico said they'd never heard those claims and couldn't imagine Cain behaving inappropriately toward anyone.   Later Cain said the women had made allegations which were proven false.  But before his denial, hundreds of news outlets immediately ran the Politico story, to avoid the embarrasment of waiting until they could document and corroborate the evidence.  After all, nothing's more damning to a news organization than being labeled as a heel-dragging fact-monger."