Friday, April 29, 2005
Let’s play another game
No, really! A real game. A kick-ass game.
Just for the halibut… Go play.
I’ll see you there. (I’ve been in room ‘Quandary’ if you wanna look me up. My record stands at 30 wins to 2 losses. And quite a few people quit before they get to the final round, which doesn’t get counted towards me, but those who quit an ongoing game lose 100 points.)
Seriously. Go have some fun.
UPDATE: My record now stands at 135-12, and three ties.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Let’s play a game
It’s called “Let’s Spot The Media Bias!”
Starting with this…
Iraq’s National Assembly on Thursday approved the country’s first democratically elected government, a Shiite-dominated body that excludes the Sunni minority from meaningful positions and could hamper efforts to dampen the deadly insurgency.
Note the subtle shift from the FANTASTIC news that Iraq’s VERY FIRST democratically elected Parliament approved the Prime Minister’s choice for a government to the vaguely threatening tone of the second phrase. While true in and of itself, the author fails to point out that the Parliament roughly matches the ethnic makeup of the nation, and that the rules require some sort of agreement between the parties, since none of them have a real majority, and even when phrased along “Shi’a/Sunni” lines, the Shiite majority is still short of the amount necessary to run the government. There has to be some cooperation between the groups, much like we have in our current House membership (which roughly represents the actual political makeup of the nation as a whole, by forcing the apportionment to be based on population).
So our young writer is showing a bias, trying to downplay the incredible news - that Iraq has more of a government than Canada does (right now, anyway) - by including threatening sounding phrases, gambling that the people who actually read the story won’t know how amazing an achievement it actually is. Well, that’s why I’m here.
Moving on…
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Well….like Drummy and most of the other bloggers….
...I’ve been off as well. And, I can tell you what I’ve been doing.
I’ve been e-fedding and playing Age of Empires.
Read on, homey.
I had this great rant
About nuclear power, linked to articles about Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, mentioned all the safely operating nuclear plants on Navy ships of many nations (except France, of course), and when I went looking for a picture of Homer Simpson “at the office”, my ‘puter crashed.
Dammit.
I even mentioned some alternative power sources, and linked to a nice picture of the Palm Springs wind farms. Power scales, inversion layers, and I thought it was relatively well written, too.
All gone.
Dammit.
*Sigh*
Short version: Nuclear power is about the only alternative we have to cut oil demand. They can be run safely, if procedures are scrupulously followed. We should seriously look into it, especially here in California.
Nuff said.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
I’ve been taking too much time off recently
I need to get back to blogging again.
But for some reason, I just can’t get worked up enough to put out a good rant. Even as I type this (and this is about the thirtieth time I’ve started a post like this), my mind is saying, “Ah, why bother telling them about this?”
But hurting pretty bad over the last few weeks, topped off with a bit o’ depression (although I contend I have a good reason to be depressed), makes it kinda tough to sustain a “mad” long enough to type it out.
Lotsa things worth mentioning in the world, but other than the not infrequent abduction, rape and death of little girls in Florida (wtf is UP with you guys? Compact thy feces, ere Dubya gets forced to overstep his Constitutional authority - again - and start passing Federal Laws to fix things), most of it has been either good or neutral.
Except for school bus drivers. Those guys are idiots.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Mexifornia
Imagine being stuck in traffic, which is already bad enough, only to look over to the side of the freeway and see this staring you in the face:
This is what one commuter who went by the name of “PA” had to say about it.
I travel every day to and from work on the 605 freeway. By the sand quarries and the river wash there are many billboards. I have noticed that it seems more and more of them are in Spanish.
Last week, I thought I noticed something strange on one of billboards. The 605 moves fast usually at that point, so I went by again the next day and verified that the CA was crossed out and replaced with MEXICO.Still not wanting to believe my eyes, or hoping they were playing tricks on me, I went by again, Sunday afternoon the 24th. I went home and retrieved the digital camera. I drove north on the 605 past Ramona and there it was on the right-hand side. I pulled off the road and took this all too sad photo.
I guess they don’t have to hide their intentions anymore.
Wait a second --- you mean to tell me that a Spanish-language television station is catering to the agenda of the massive influx of illegal immigrants, most of whom are from Mexico, now residing in the Southern California region? Surely you jest.
Jeff Goldstein brings teh funny
Still chuckling, and no, dammit, I won’t tell you how I voted!
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Summer’s coming, part the third
My regular reminder to anyone and everyone who wishes to join in on the Patriot’s Journey with me this year.
Nothing major, just a single original post per day regarding something good about America, every day from Memorial Day (May 30 this year) through Independence Day (July 4).
We’ve got a few people already, and anyone reading this (who has their own blog or LiveJournal) is welcome to join in. I won’t be riding anyone to make sure that you post.
This is purely voluntary, and if you’d like to join in, then by all means, just let me know so we can swap links.
So far, we have Scott Boone, Alex, and JimK Get the word out, and let’s see what we can do.
Global Warming proven correct?
Gimme some more o’ that Global Warming.
Snow and strong winds pounded southeastern Michigan and the Thumb for the second day in a row Sunday.
Total accumulation was expected to reach up to 18 inches in the northern Thumb and five to 11 inches in Detroit’s northern suburbs, said meteorologist Rich Pollman of the National Weather Service. The two-day storm was expected to taper off by the late evening.
“It’s covering the roads. It’s very winterlike up here,” Pollman said from the weather service’s office in Oakland County’s White Lake Township. The snow caused several spinouts on I-75 north of Clarkston, he said.
But by all means, let’s let the tree-huggers control our economy…
Saturday, April 23, 2005
From Manda’s Place
Your Linguistic Profile:
|
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75% General American English |
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20% Yankee |
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5% Dixie |
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0% Midwestern |
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0% Upper Midwestern |
With a carefully trained neutral accent, too. (I could pick up an accent fairly quickly, but I don’t want to limit myself like that...)
Friday, April 22, 2005
Been taking some time off
As if you couldn’t tell…
I appreciate John and Kevin and Helo for picking up the slack while I have been struck with Blogger’s Block, plus getting over some health issues (and I have an interesting theory about why Fibromyalgia causes random, undifferentiated pain).
I’ve been posting occasionally over at Lee’s, but not here. Sorry about that, but everyone has things they have to deal with from time to time. The last few days were my turn in the barrel, but hopefully we can stick the Dems back in there.
Lots of things going on in the world, from the Vietnam Vet getting even for all of his brothers (lots of Dems bitching about that who thought it was funny to assault conservative speakers with pies laced with God-knows-what) to an election of a new Pope to discussion of the so-called “nuclear option”.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Words That Should Never Be In The Same Sentence, Ever.
”Michael Jackson, jar of Vaseline, aroused “King of Pop”, and teenage boy.”
Now, excuse me while I go dump my brain in CloroxTM
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Sure it wasn’t
Remember not to use this excuse next time you end up butt-naked in someone else’s bathtub.
More Fun…
With our good friends, The Democratic Underground.
Well it seems the ascension of Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy has unleashed all kinds of lunacy in DU-Land, and of course this should suprise absolutely no one. So, come with me won’t you as we step, once again, into the Halls of Moonbatdom known as, The Democratic Underground:
Kind of makes you wonder if cardinals vote on Diebold machines.
Of course it does. Also kind of makes me wonder if you have a functioning synapse in your head.
Oh goody. Another neocon in power…
Hm.. and here I thought neocon was Lefty code for JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Never knew it could also be applied to a 78 year old German Catholic as well.
This is BS. Maybe we’ll get lucky he will “die in his sleep” like our 33 day “Progressive Pope” John Paul 1st, did.
Nice scare quotes. Of course that is an allusion to the conspiracy theory that John Paul I was assassinated. Nothing quite like wishing for a papal assassination to show tolerant the Left is.
It’s a sad day when the best aspect of a new pope is that he’s likely to die soon.
What, no well wishes for the new pontiff? No comparing and contrasting between him and say Pope Pius (pick a number)? Just that the best thing about the new Pope is that he is likely to die soon?
This is very sad news, indeed, for the Catholic church. Once again, the forces of evil triumph…
YAWN… You guys are losing me.
Hopefully, they’ll all die off soon.
I am not being entertained, dammit! I read this stuff to be entertained!
I knew he would be named. The rest of the names were just ROVE tricks to throw off everyone. He was placed there by the likes of BushCO. It sends a STRONG signal to the non white people of the world that “WHITE POWER” is the name of the game.
It was also a strong signal for WHITES to return to the church and be welcomed with open arms. They don’t care about the Hispanics and Africans that are devoting themselves to the church.
It is a sad day for the world in my opinion.
*Consults the Judges*
*DINGDINGDINGDING* We have a WINNNAHHHH!!! Thanks for not letting me down, Mr. (Mrs?) DU-Poster.
Of course every dark cloud has a silver lining…
If he hates fundie Protestants, that’s a GOOD thing
Just call this poster, Mr. Brightside. (Via Free Will)
Well, lookie here….
ol’ Andrew Sullivan is losing his mind about the new Pope, Benedict XVI.
Because of this, I bet this guy is a great Pontiff.
Andrew, get out of the Church, and quit trying to change it because you desire acceptance of homosexual behavior by Rome. See, that is the mantra...just like his problems with GWB, Sully has a problem with the new Pope because he’s like JPII...a conservative, who won’t liberalize the Church, i.e. proclaim homosexual behavior as moral.
Good Lord, give it a rest, Sullivan.