If you're wondering who's next on our list, my money's on a certain little country in northern Africa.
Can we say 'genocide'?
I think we will.
Here's a photo from the area in which I grew up. It looks like it's taken from the Hwy. 65 pulloff at the top of Backbone Mtn., which is just south of the Marshall city limits. The town itself is to the right of the photo; what you see is really just part of the valley in which it's located. The end of the big mountain you see jutting out in the background is called 'Point Peter'.
I was always afraid to ask how it got its name.
In light of the recent Supremes' ruling, the Guantanamo Bay prisoners may be moved.
U.S. officials may move hundreds of prisoners from a base in Cuba to facilities within the United States after Supreme Court rulings that granted military detainees access to U.S. courts, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
Pentagon and Justice Department officials said they were considering moving all the prisoners from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a conservative judicial district within the United States, according to the newspaper.
Let's go forum shopping!
Seriously though, you sure as hell wouldn't want to move them into say, the 9th Circuit's jurisdiction. Or do an Andy Jackson and say "The Supremes have made their ruling. Now let's see them enforce it."
As tempting as that might be.
I still think military tribunals are the best for captured non-citizen combatants. Any U.S. citizen captured should have access to the U.S. court system....where they can be tried for treason and executed.
For isn't that really what they've done?
My daughter was approached at our local post office yesterday by a young lady who wanted her to sign a petition to get a 'legalize medical marijuana' proposition on the ballot. The young lady appeared shocked at my daughter's refusal and asked why.
My daughter politely told her that it was because she didn't believe it should be legal, and walked away. She later told me that while she had seen some evidence that it did help some people with the nausea associated with chemo, she thought that the legalization drive had the ultimate goal of legalizing marijuana for general use, which she was against. And that she believed once legalized, it would be impossible to limit its use to just medical purposes.
She then opined that the petition drive might be more successful if the people asking for signatures didn't look so obviously like stoners.
Heh.
Smart kid.
Susanna was right, there is more to the story of the Marine currently being held hostage in Iraq.
The American marine who is being threatened by his kidnappers with beheading had deserted the military because he was emotionally traumatized, and was abducted by his captors while trying to make his way home to his native Lebanon, a Marine officer said Tuesday.
The officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he believed that Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was betrayed by Iraqis he befriended on his base and ended up in the hands of Islamic extremists.
Apparently instead of smuggling him out of the country, the Iraqis turned him over to his current captors.
Regardless of how he got there, he's likely to end up just as dead as the rest.
We've expelled 2 Iranian UN security guards.
The U.S. government has expelled two Iranian security guards at Iran's U.N. Mission, citing activities "incompatible with their stated duties," a U.S. official said Tuesday.
The language is reserved for cases involving espionage.
The Iranians were caught on three occasions taking photos of infrastructure, transport systems and New York City landmarks, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
My only question is why we waited until the third time they were caught.
I have few regrets about my life, but this makes me really wish I could've gotten that local assistant prosecutor's position last year. They have yet to excavate a hole as deep as the one in which I would've buried this bastid.
I'd do it my way.
I haven't gotten to all the detainee opinions yet, but what I've read about them seems to indicate that the Supremes have left the military with a three-way Hobson's choice.
1. Detain combatants in the usual way, and try to interrogate them while dealing with endless court/tribunal hearings.
2. Let other countries detain them, whose interrogation methods may or may not be as humane or as effective as ours.
3. Kill them and lose any information they might have.
Thoughts?
(I had a really nice post planned for this, but by the time I got 'round to it I discovered Steve had already written it for me. Day late 'n a dollar short....the story of my life.)
Frank had a contest which asked his readers "what question they would ask John Kerry if given the chance." Here's the winning question, but at first I thought this runner-up should've won:
"We all know you served in Vietnam. Which side did you fight for?"
But then I realized the answer would be "I fought FOR the U.S. before I fought AGAINST it" so that was too easy.
Why yes I am in a caustically sarcastic mood this morning.
What's it to you?
The Supremes have spoken.
Four of the nine justices concluded that constitutional due process rights demand that a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant must be given "a meaningful opportunity" to contest case for his detention before a neutral party.
Two more justices agreed that the detention of American citizen Yaser Hamdi was unauthorized and that the terror suspect should have a real chance to offer evidence he is not an enemy combatant.
Interesting wording there..."held in the United States" and "meaningful opportunity".
I'm withholding comment until I read the opinion. Which is what FoxNews should've done before posting their earlier Breaking News headline "Bush Can Hold Detainees." Oopsie.
Wishing don't make it so, boys.
In this day and age, when most children's books are infested with tree-hugging humanistic liberal claptrap, it seems almost odd to find the following in one:
"Crispin's Crispian was a conservative.
He liked everything at the right time--"
Just one of the classics I've been reading to WildChild lately.
YAY!!! SHE PASSED! SHE PASSED! My daughter's officially a R.N.
We're so proud of her.
Still no results on my daughter's nursing boards....she came by to check last night and I checked again this morning. Though I suspect last night's visit was more a result of her day from hell at work....including her first experience of finding a patient coding. And after having one of those days, she came out to the parking lot only to find that some jackass had hit her car and left without leaving a note.
Bless her little heart, she was almost in tears from the stress. So we listened while she unloaded and Mike told her funny stories until she was once again my laughing cheerful baby girl.
Parenting doesn't end when they're all grown up you know.
I knew there was a good reason I'd never taken a Tulsa area case. (link via Fark)
This was painful to just read and I'm not even a guy....truly the ultimate "Hey Bubba hold my beer 'n watch this" moment.
What a moron.
This is torture. The Abu Ghraib allegations are abuse. This is neither.
If you don't see the difference, then I can't help you.
Maybe this will help.
If not, try a freaking dictionary.
Frankly I fail to see what all the fuss is about.
Rumsfeld's Nov. 27, 2002, memo approved several methods which apparently would violate Geneva Convention rules, including:
— Putting detainees in "stress positions," such as standing, for up to four hours.
Having worked several jobs where I was required to stand for 8+ hours, I don't see a problem.
— Removing prisoners' clothes.
Ok this is wrong, unless they're making them put on clean drawers.
— Intimidating detainees with dogs.
Ever watched Cops or see a police dog in action?
— Interrogating prisoners for 20 hours at a time.
Bullshit. Cops do this all the time.
— Forcing prisoners to wear hoods during interrogations and transportation.
Yeah, let's make sure they can see everything and report back when they get out.
— Shaving detainees' heads and beards.
Head lice. They're gross and carry diseases.
— Using "mild, non-injurious physical contact," such as poking.
Especially if you say "Hey! Hey! Hey!" with every poke. That drives my daughter nuts.
Rumsfeld issued a new set of approved interrogation methods later that month, disallowing nakedness and requiring approval for four techniques: use of rewards or removal of privileges;
[my kids were severely abused then]
verbally attacking or insulting the ego of a detainee;
[I confess. I have tortured witnesses on cross-examination]
alternating friendly and unfriendly interrogators in a "good cop, bad cop" method;
[this is too stupid to even comment on]
and isolation.
[Time-outs for terrorists. Too cruel for words.]
Let's get a firmer grip on reality here people. You'd be hard pressed to even work up a decent civil rights violation based on these rules.
This is a war, not a freaking tea party. I don't think we should torture these prisoners, and we should treat them decently but come on.
Objections to these rules are ridiculous.
This could not be more wrong.
If you're squeamish about what my mother politely calls 'female problems', don't click on the extended entry.
If you're a woman or care about one, read on.
This is just bullshit.
Nearly half of the 22 million American women who have had their cervix removed during a hysterectomy continue to get unnecessary Pap smears to test for cervical cancer, a study has found.
"This a problem because Pap smears are uncomfortable, and we don't want them for women who can't benefit," said Brenda E. Sirovich, who co-authored the study published in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Bullshit. Pap smears, when done properly, are about as uncomfortable as getting your hair cut. (Ever have your stylist use a razor to thin your hair? Ye-ouch!) I found being diagnosed with cancer and having a partial hysterectomy when I was 26 a helluva lot more uncomfortable. That's right. At 26, a Pap smear saved my life.
For several years afterwards though, I didn't have one done. My doctors told me repeatedly that it wasn't necessary, and I believed them. Until one day, I visited the college's health clinic for an unrelated 'female problem', and the gyn doc asked me if I still had regular Pap smears done. No, I told her. Everyone tells me that they're not necessary.
She then told me about a patient she'd had, who had had a similar operation. Following standard protocol, subsequent Paps weren't performed. The patient's cancer returned, but because she wasn't being checked yearly, the cancer was too far advanced for treatment by the time it was discovered. The patient died.
She went on to say that the odds of something similar happening to women like me were very small, but she recommended the annual test to all her patients and it was up to me whether or not I was willing to take that chance.
I'm not. Although there have been times when I've almost had to bitchslap certain doctors to get them to perform it, I insist on having an annual Pap smear. And I highly recommend that you do the same, whether you have all your bits & pieces or not. Your life is more important than a $20 test.
And that so-called 'study' is a big pile of irresponsible bullshit.
Paper's done, just need to do an outline for my class presentation. Am I nervous? Let's see, give a 5 minute presentation on a subject about which my audience knows even less than I do, to about 30 people I don't know and don't want to. And the outcome of the presentation isn't going to drastically affect anyone's life, including mine.
I could do that in my sleep.
I also have a test tomorrow night. It's open book. The rest of my life should be so easy. Once I get all that out of the way, I have a whole week before the next summer semester starts. A whole week! Whatever shall I do? Teach myself VB6 prolly....just so I don't forget how to program over the summer.
On the other hand, my daughter sits for her state nursing board exam tomorrow. She's very nervous. She's here studying right now. She's been working under a temporary license for a couple of weeks now & hasn't killed anyone yet. So I think she'll do fine as long as she doesn't get that test freakout brain freeze thing like she does sometimes.
Keep your fingers crossed for her.
The South Korean abductee has been murdered by his captors.
An Iraqi militant group beheaded its South Korean hostage, officials said Tuesday, just hours after a go-between said the execution had been delayed and there were negotiations for the man's release.
Glad to see the AP still insisting these murderers are 'militants'. Let's call them what they are. Sociopathic murderers. It takes a cold-blooded person to saw off another person's head.
While it would be satisfying to nuke 'em til they glow and shoot 'em in the dark, that's not very practical. Where are you going to nuke? They're everywhere, not just in the Middle East. And if you can't get them all, and you can't, then the remainder will just use your actions to recruit more members.
Refusing to negotiate is a good start. Another would be to take the best of the best from several countries and team up with the Mossad, et al. Then start hunting them down and shooting them like the dogs that they are. Thin out the ranks fast enough and soon there won't be many eager to take their places.
Best way to kill a snake is to cut off its head.
Just now Sollie & I were returning from the mail box when a young man came jogging up behind me. As the kid passed us, Sollie suddenly turned into 22 lbs. of snapping, snarling attack pug. It was like I had the Black Knight on leash.
"Running away, eh? You yellow bastard! Come back here and take what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!"
Heart of a lion, brain of a bird.
That's my pug.
I have a term paper to write today, so here's some new photos....and tales of the 'Crazy White Cow'.
Niall Ferguson has a sobering article about what may happen if the ultra-liberals' dreams come true. If history shows us anything, it is to be careful what you wish for.
There's some dark days ahead for us all, I fear.
Mass media generally does a piss poor job of covering Supreme Court decisions. Take today's headline:
Supreme Court Rules Police Must Be Told Names
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that people do not have a constitutional right to refuse to tell police their names.
The 5-4 decision frees the government to arrest and punish people who won't cooperate by revealing their identity.
[snip]
The justices upheld a Nevada cattle rancher's misdemeanor conviction. He was arrested after he told a deputy that he didn't have to reveal his name or show an ID during an encounter on a rural road in 2000.
Not entirely accurate. Let's apply that famous law school maxim, R.D.C. (Read. the Damn. Case.), shall we?
First of all, the rancher wasn't just some randomly stopped individual. Here's what really happened.
The sheriff’s department in Humboldt County, Nevada, received an afternoon telephone call reporting an assault. The caller reported seeing a man assault a woman in a red and silver GMC truck on Grass Valley Road. Deputy Sheriff Lee Dove was dispatched to investigate. When the officer arrived at the scene, he found the truck parked on the side of the road. A man was standing by the truck, and a young woman was sitting inside it. The officer observed skid marks in the gravel behind the vehicle, leading him to believe it had come to a sudden stop.
The officer approached the man and explained that he was investigating a report of a fight. The man appeared to be intoxicated. The officer asked him if he had “any identification on [him],” which we understand as a request to produce a driver’s license or some other form of written identification. The man refused and asked why the officer wanted to see identification. The officer responded that he was conducting an investigation and needed to see some identification. The unidentified man became agitated and insisted he had done nothing wrong. The officer explained that he wanted to find out who the man was and what he was doing there. After continued refusals to comply with the officer’s request for identification, the man began to taunt the officer by placing his hands behind his back and telling the officer to arrest him and take him to jail. This routine kept up for several minutes: the officer asked for identification 11 times and was refused each time. After warning the man that he would be arrested if he continued to refuse to comply, the officer placed him under arrest.
Puts the entire 'refusal to tell name' situation in a different light, doesn't it?
Next, he was charged with“willfully resist[ing], delay[ing], or obstruct[ing] a public officer in discharging or attempting to discharge any legal duty of his office” in violation of Nev. Rev. Stat. (NRS) §199.280....said legal duty of the police office is found in Nevada statute Section 171.123, which states:
“1. Any peace officer may detain any person whom the officer encounters under circumstances which reasonably indicate that the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime. .....
“3. The officer may detain the person pursuant to this section only to ascertain his identity and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his presence abroad. Any person so detained shall identify himself, but may not be compelled to answer any other inquiry of any peace officer.”
In other words, a Nevada cop can ask for your name and what you're doing and you have to tell him your name. They can't stop you randomly, but only if there's suspicious circumstances.
The Nevada courts (traffic, district & appellate) all agreed that this requirement didn't violate the rancher's 4th or 5th Amendment rights. (This guy spent a helluva lot of money appealing a $250 misdemeanor didn't he?) The US Supremes, after a long and rambling exposition of the history of the 4th Amendment right of protection against unreasonable search & seizure, agrees, saying:
It is clear in this case that the request for identification was “reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified” the stop. Terry, supra, at 20. The officer’s request was a common-sense inquiry, not an effort to obtain an arrest for failure to identify after a Terry stop yielded insufficient evidence. The stop, the request, and the State’s requirement of a response did not contravene the guarantees of the Fourth Amendment.
May I just say "Well, Duh". This case wouldn't even make a good Constitutional Law 4th Amendment exam question. It's hard to imagine how this guy could've been any more suspicious.
Next, the rancher argues that requiring him to give his name violates his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination. Justice Stevens tries to argue in his dissenting opinion that it is, because you can find out all kinds of information about someone if you have their name. A name can lead to all kinds of incriminating evidence, he says, and so falls under the protection of the 5th Amendment. Interesting reasoning, but he lost. (Thank goodness. That particular little 'penumbra' could be extended to cover just about everything.)
Answering a request to disclose a name is likely to be so insignificant in the scheme of things as to be incriminating only in unusual circumstances.....Even witnesses who plan to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege answer when their names are called to take the stand.
I would also have pointed out that the policeman could've also legally ran the truck tags and found out even more information than just the guy's name. But then I'm not on the Supreme Court.
So far.
In summary, if the nice policeman asks you, tell him your name. And don't believe everything you read in media reports.
If you had a license for McAfee VirusScan versions 3 or 4 and are a US resident, you should immediately go read this. (Warning: an annoyingly slow .pdf)
It took a little looking, but I eventually found that yes, I did own at least version 4....I still have the software and documentation in its original box.
Sometimes it pays to be a packrat.
A new study seems to show a traditional hillbilly diet is much better for you than so-called 'health foods'.
The food with the heaviest concentration of antioxidants turned out to be the "small red bean," according to the study, followed by "low bush" — or wild — blueberries, red kidney beans and pinto beans.
They soundly beat the competition, which included ballyhooed health foods such as carrots, broccoli and oat bran.
Huckleberries and pinto beans. Good and good for you. Rounding out the list were many other common hillbilly foods: red delicious apples, red-leaf lettuce, pecans, walnuts, cinnamon, cloves and prunes.
But not artichokes. No real hillbilly eats artichokes....or even knows what one is for that matter.
Not that we're adverse to adding new foods. I bet this would be real popular down home. Of course, we'd have to figure out a way to batter dip it and deep fat fry it.
Heh.
If you don't read anything else today, go read this.
Thanks, Cuzz.
Those bastard sons of pigs have beheaded U.S. engineer Paul Marshall Johnson.
I hope there's a special place reserved for them in hell.
Perhaps the Saudis should work a bit harder to send them there.
Young squirrels, much like young men, are arrogant little twits. There's one in particular this year that thinks I'm nothing to be feared. I've been rapidly disabusing him of that notion. Like the other day when I was going out to my car, this little twerp had been digging in my flower bed. When I came out, he ran to the top of the fence behind the bed and sat there smirking at me. As I got closer, he jumped onto a tree and was motionless. What he didn't realize, being a stupid squirrel, was that his back half was still visible above the fence. He couldn't see me, so he thought I couldn't see him.
Heh.
Utilizing my superior hillbilly/Cherokee stalking skills, I snuck up on him & goosed him in the ribs with my car keys. He jumped so high he fell off the tree.
Double heh.
So this morning, as I'm sitting at my desktop working on my term paper, I notice movement at the bird feeder outside the window. There was that damn squirrel, hanging upside down & gorging himself on birdseed. I went out to move the feeder (again) and he ran up on the branch & sat there smirking at me.
Bad move.
I quickly grabbed the end of the branch and gave it a couple of hard jerks. He tried to run, but the second one got him. He fell out of the tree and hit the ground really hard. Thump! Didn't kill him but at least I gave him a headache.
Heh.
There's been a prehistoric fish discovered off the coast of Brazil....and it's rather bizarre-looking.
I suppose that's to be expected from a ratfish.
There's a tribute planned for Senator Kennedy on the opening night of the Democratic Convention.
Guess no one at the Democratic National Committee took a close look at the calendar: That July 26 salute to Teddy just happens to coincide with . . . the 35th anniversary of Chappaquiddick.
It was on July 25, 1969, that the senator appeared before a Massachusetts district court judge and, in a proceeding that lasted all of seven minutes, pleaded guilty to one count of failing to report the accident that resulted in the death of 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne.
A little too ironic, don't you think?
Why do I keep getting personal recommendations for jobs for which I'm not qualified, but I can't get interviews for jobs for which I am qualified? I was recently offered this job for which I hadn't applied but one of my instructors had recommended me. If I had known anything about php or Perl, I would've taken it. But I don't.
I think perhaps I should pay for a professionally-done resume, because the ones I'm sending out obviously suck. I don't even get call-backs from them.
It's very frustrating.
Drug use is NOT a victimless crime. (Link via Fark)
A would-be thief had an unusual pursuer at the Fort Worth stockyards yesterday.
Authorities say the incident started when someone noticed a man trying to burglarize a vehicle.
Professional cowboy Ron Sitton jumped onto his tame, saddled longhorn -- Buckwheat -- and galloped away to help in the pursuit.
So what was his faithful sidekick riding....a big boar hog?
There's new photos up. I apologize for the lack of quality. My hands are not steady enough for good close-ups. But I think they're plain enough to see the hideous horror that's been prowling around our yard.
I think he's an escapee from one of the university's fiendish experiments. I've never seen anything quite like the mutant creature I call....
Fugly Bird.
So Kerry was giving a speech in Ohio yesterday about how we need 'universal health care' and more 'after-school care' [and who'd pay for that hmmm?] when he was interrupted by "the faint tunes of an old familiar song."
Seems a couple of enterprising-yet-immature Republicans had set up some speakers across the street and....
blasted toward Mr. Kerry the theme song to the 1960s family TV show "Flipper," presumably a criticism of Mr. Kerry's taking more than one side of issues.
"They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning / No one, you see, is smarter than he," screamed the music set to its happy jingle.
Childish really.
But oh so funny.
A whole bunch of bureaucratic poobahs have issued a statement condemning the President's foreign policy. Nothing much new or interesting....the same liberal B.S. we've been hearing for months. Except this.
"Never in the two and a quarter centuries of our history has the United States been so isolated among the nations, so broadly feared and distrusted," it added.
Ol' Niccolo had something to say several hundred years ago about whether it was better for a nation to be feared or loved. Them boys should read it sometime.
Hey, it worked for the Medicis.
This sounds really cool and all....but I would prefer my ions remain unentangled. Thanks anyway.
I do not have the vaguest clue how this works. Maybe our ol' buddy Physicist Bob would be kind enough to explain.
Cuz it sounds like a variation on the shell game to me.
Mike and I are pleased to announce the pending nuptials of my daughter and her fiance on September 17, 2004. The ceremony will take place on a Jamaican beach at sunset. How romantic is that?
I just got our tickets today. I can't wait!
We're going to Ja-mai-ca!
We're going to Ja-mai-ca!
We're going to Ja-mai-ca!
Note to self: Dogs do not understand conga line.
Kerry's not playing too well in New Jersey, a former Democratic stonghold.
But several polls this year show the state's voters — largely New York City commuters and blue-collar workers — are about evenly split between Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, with one poll showing Mr. Bush in the lead.
Speculative reasons include that New Jersey was hit hard by 9/11, its economy is on an upswing, or (more likely) that Kerry doesn't connect well with its bluecollar workers.
"It's hard," said William T. Mullen, president of New Jersey's building trades union and a fervid Bush detractor. "Bush wraps himself in the flag from 9/11 and the war. He knows how to play that to his advantage."
Even Mr. Mullen, obviously a card-carrying member of the new A.B.B. (Anybody But Bush) party, admits that Kerry has problems connecting with the working class.
Asked whether Mr. Kerry's patrician — some say French — face and wife worth an estimated $550 million hurts his ability to relate to the working class, Mr. Mullen replied, "Yeah, but he's our rich French guy and we got to stick with him."
Now that's party loyalty.
A new company, HelpingAmericansVote.org, helps companies inform their employees about how to vote early in their respective states. Great idea. We always vote early. It's so much easier. Here we don't even have to apply for an absentee ballot; just show up at the county clerk's office with a photo I.D. And starting this year, the clerk's office is open on Saturday mornings from 7:30 to noon, so Mike doesn't have to miss work to vote. Pretty sweet.
It's a growing trend....and the demographics are interesting.
Election surveys show that early voting is growing and that early voters tend to be more conservative, better-educated, wealthier and better-informed and vote Republican.
C'mon, what are you waiting for? Early voting. All the smart people are doing it.
Check out this headline from our local NBC station:
Spellcheck doesn't catch everything, people. Good proofreading does.
BTW, no, we don't normally have gators up here. So it's not surprising the Game & Fish boys are having problems catching it.
No worries. If they don't get him, the winter freeze will.
Now that's efficient recycling.
Waste not, want not.
In a glaring example of 'just because you can do something doesn't mean you should', FoxNews has redesigned their website. They need a new slogan to go with their new look:
FoxNews Online. It not only hurts your eyes, it also hurts your brain.
The US Supremes, in an 8-0 ruling, have dismissed the Pledge of Allegiance case on procedural grounds.
The court said the atheist could not sue to ban the pledge from his daughter's school and others because he did not have legal authority to speak for her.
Frankly I was surprised the case got that far. A noncustodial parent normally doesn't have standing to sue on behalf of a child.
A long-standing tenet of the law that comes in right handy when an upper-level court wants to sidestep a controversial issue, a cynic would say. But it also means that they avoided making a ill-considered ruling on the real issue of the case that would in turn had the unintended consequence of creating the right of a noncustodial parent to sue on behalf of a child.
It's those unintended consequences that'll bite you in the ass every time.
Summer is pert near here, so it's berry picking time. We went to a u-pick place up past the Rogers airport Saturday for blueberries. They've a bumper crop this year (blackberries too which should be ready in a couple of weeks), so we filled our buckets in short order. Though I did discover my fingers aren't nearly as nimble as they were when I was younger.
After we returned home, Mike started cooking blueberry syrup and I decided to go harvest our dewberries that grow on a steep bank by our mailbox. Unlike blackberries, dewberries around here grow on a vine....an evil thorn-covered vine that also is covered in little hair-like stickers much like those on a cactus. They grow in the same places other evil vines grow, like poison ivy. But Mike loves them, so I got a bowl and waded in. 30 minutes or so later, I had about 2 cups, which Mike ecstatically pronounced just enough to make dewberry syrup.
While Mike was cooking his beloved dewberries, I sat down to get all the nasty stickers from the dewberry vines out of my hands. Mike said "You know, if I could figure out how to bottle this & ship it safely, I'd send Steve some of this."
"The hell with Steve," I replied. "I didn't wade through the stickers, chiggers and poison ivy for Steve."
"Oh no," he quickly said. "I meant the blueberry syrup, not the dewberries."
Nice save.
I have to say that this surprised me:
Terry Nichols avoided the death sentence Friday when an Oklahoma jury deadlocked, which means he cannot be executed under Oklahoma law for the Oklahoma City bombing which killed 168 people.
Though I suspected as much when I heard last night that the jury was still deliberating after 3 days. That's usually not a good sign for the prosecution, especially in a case like this.
Just goes to show that you can never predict what a jury will do.
So WildChild spent the night last night and we're finishing his bedtime routine. One movie then lights out. He picked out a tape and I popped it in his VCR. Nothing but static. I started fiddling around checking for loose connections when he exclaimed "Oh no! My tv broke!" He ran over, threw his arms around the tv & snuggled his cheek up against it....and started wailing "MY TV! MY TV!"
"Fix it, Ma, fix it!" he urged.
I tell him that we may have to get Pa to fix it because I can't find anything wrong with it. "Pa! Come fix my tv!" he called.
Pa is in the other bedroom watching tv, so of course he doesn't answer.
"Pa! WildChild is talking to you!"
By this time I'm trying not to crack up. He took off to get Pa, yelling his head off. "Pa! Come fix it." I finally figured out what was wrong** and went to get him.
"Ma fix my tv?"
"Yes," I replied. "Your tv is all fixed."
"YAY! MA FIXED MY TV! THANK YOU MA!"
Big hug and cheers for Ma.
Sheesh. They're so dramatic at that age.
**The stupid tape wasn't rewound, that's all that was wrong. I hadn't checked that because his VCR automatically rewinds when the tape ends. Apparently, someone had taken this tape out before that happened.
D'oh.
I can't believe someone paid $50,000 for this.
PT Barnum was right.
The Return of the King Bottom line: Cut about an hour out of it and it'd be a pretty good movie. Waaay too much mushy stuff. There's no kissing and mooning about in Tolkeinland. Sheesh. Fighting 'n killing, defeating evil: that's what it's all about, innit?
And what's with the hobbits not fighting? What are they, French? Sure, they're always running about, getting into scrapes but they always depend on someone else to get them out. And when one of them finally gets the nerve to get into the battle and kill a bad guy, what does he do? Promptly drops his sword and runs away. Thanks for all your help, twerp. It's just a battle for the existence of civilization as you know it. Hope you didn't strain yourself.
Then there's the endless climatic drop-the-ring-into-the-fire scene. Enough with the tormented angst already. Before this scene was half finished, we were cheering for Sam to push them both in.
Finally there's the interminable final long goodbye, replete with countless longing looks between Frodo and Sam. You know, you could get the same message across in a short 3 minute act:
Frodo slaps Sam on the back and cautions: "Remember Sam. What happened in Mordor stays in Mordor."
"Right you are, Mr. Frodo!" winks Sam.
[Frodo turns and gingerly walks with a slight bowlegged gait towards the fairy ship. Fade to black]
We've been toying with the idea of buying a house before interest rates go up, so I've been checking around to see what's on the market in a couple of areas in which we're interested. Online of course; gas is too expensive to drive around looking. (Though I did fill 'er up when I came through Siloam Springs this afternoon at $1.849, which was pretty sweet considering it's $1.959 here.)
Anyway, I was initially delighted to discover there were several local realtors with websites, complete with exterior as well as interior shots of many of their listings. I say initially because I soon discovered there are a whole lot of people around here with seriously bad taste in interior design. I don't mean ones where you snicker, point and say "what were they thinking". I mean seriously bad like someone should buy the place and burn it to the ground to get rid of it bad. Scary, really.
But I have found one potential, though I think their asking price is a little steep. The house is no great punkins, but there's 15 acres of land with it. With a pond. And trees. And a big field. It's only a short drive away from Mike's work & my school. And there's a totally orgasmic organic garden.
Ha! I know how to fix that. If we weren't meant to use DDT, we wouldn't have invented it, right?
Better living through chemistry I always say.
Have you seen this? (Found via Drudge)
They Lord have mercy, as my granny would say. Ain't you ashamed?
Whomever is responsible for this should be.
We took WildChild to the Bentonville Hot Air Balloon Festival last weekend. Some of Mike's photos are posted here. (Start at the top and scroll down) WildChild was so excited he was just, well, wild. Wound up tighter'n a cheap watch is an understatement.
We had a blast.
A former RAF gunner certainly knows how to hitch a ride in style. The 86 yr. old New Zealander got on the wrong bus after the D-Day ceremony in France and ended up at a remote airport terminal. Being a resourceful chap, he found an important-looking official at the terminal, who made some phone calls & found him a ride.
The next thing the ex-RAF man knew, he told The Guardian, he was being driven "at more than 150 mph" to another airfield where two Gulfstream jets were parked. He was given a glass of what he said was "the best red wine I've ever tasted" before a vast cavalcade pulled up and Chirac stepped out.
"He came over ... I snapped to attention and gave him a little salute ... he put his arm round me. He said he would be happy for me to travel in one of the airplanes and gave instructions that I was to be driven to the door of my hotel in Paris," the veteran said.
It was the least he could do for one of New Zealand's finest, right?
It has become the fashion amongst a certain set, when a great figure has died, to take it upon themselves to show us yet again how our gods have feet of clay. So they stir round in the muck until they find evidence of transgressions to sling at the deceased.....an easy target that, the dead who are unable to defend themselves. And find such evidence they will, for there is good and bad in us all. The measure of a man is found in his relative proportions of each.
What motivates these societal nihilists? Are they compelled by their Nietzschean lives devoid of hope and joy to destroy those qualities in the lives of others? Or are they driven to construct a world in which good and bad are relative and 'who's to say what is right and wrong' in order to justify and normalize their own peccadillos and perversions?
I say it is the latter. And that in order to construct this world, heroes must be destroyed.
Heroes play an important role in every society. They give us hope that we too may someday do great things; that we too can overcome our baser instincts and do good in the world. In a heroless world, there is no such motivation. There is only the raspy voice whispering in your ear, "Why not do it if it feels good? Everyone else does, even your so-called heroes."
But they miss, in their nay-saying, two important lessons from the death of a hero. First, that such heroes accomplished great good in spite of, not in addition to, their failings. That in and of itself fuels our desire to do better than we are.
Second, that speaking ill of the dead reveals much more about the speaker than it ever could about the deceased. For it is by their words that their real motives are discovered. The normalization of evil.
I refuse to accede to their attempts to draw me down into the cesspit in which they live. Good men sometimes do bad things. But the latter does not detract from the former.
So when their evitable muckraking begins, as it has now with the passing of President Reagan, I am reminded of these words:
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
So should we all mourn the passing of heroes.
President Reagan passed away today at home. He was 93.
the more they stay the same, sayeth Cuzzin Rodger.
And he's right.
As usual.
Da Goddess' post about names for one's naughty bits reminded me of an incident that happened last weekend. After having lunch with Mike's son, we'd gone up to the front register to pay on our way out. The hostess handed Mike the credit card slip and said "I just need you to put your John Henry on this."
I had to leave to keep from imploding with laughter. Neither Mike nor his son noticed what she'd said, so they came out asking me what was wrong. I explained, and Mike cracked up laughing, saying there was no way in hell he was gonna do that.
I think he was just afraid she might've asked him if he wanted to leave a tip.
So I'm playing around with the new Yahoo Messenger radio and run across a country song I like....."Walking the Floor", Hank Williams. Then I notice the name of the station. "Vintage Country". Vintage? Whattya mean 'Vintage'? Why I was just a young pup when I heard my first Hank tune....'tweren't all that long ago. If that song is 'vintage' then I must be....older than I feel.
Vintage. Like a fine wine, I've just improved with age. But we all know what happens to even the best of wines eventually.
They turn into vinegar.
I can't wait to earn the title "that cranky old biddy down the street".
Heh.
Sometimes I jump into the strangest conversations online.
Does that ever happen to you or is it just me?
Fox News is reporting that CIA Director George Tenet has resigned, citing personal reasons.
Reckon what that's all about?
This ol' Boone County boy is in a heap o' trouble. Not so much for this:
Authorities say more than 600 pounds of undelivered mail was found on the property of mail carrier Greg Huston.
Or this:
Sheriff's officials say a quarter pound of marijuana, materials to make methamphetamine and explosives materials were seized from the home.
But for this:
Meth materials and a firearm were found in Huston's mail delivery van that was parked on postal property at Harrison.
Meth makin's and a gun on federal property? The Feds'll stick him so deep in prison that they'll have to use a shotgun to shoot his daily ration of beans to him.
As we say down home, that boy ain't real bright.
Fayetteville continues its rush towards a not-so-friendly place to do business. Another restaurant has bitten the dust, joining the growing list of restaurants closing (Ozark Brewing Co., Jerry's, Cafe Santa Fe, Pete's) as a result of the smoking ban implemented in March.
Casa Taco closed Sunday after 33 years of business in Fayetteville. Delivery service has been transferred to the restaurant’s Farmington location.
Some of the eatery’s 30 employees have transferred there to assist, but many now are unemployed, said owner Alex Hunt.
Hunt pointed to the smoking ban in restaurants when talking about decreasing sales at the eatery in the Oak Plaza Shopping Center. "Business had fallen off quite a bit from the smoking ban, and that’s our biggest reason," he said. "That’s about the only thing I can attribute to the sales dropping off."
But hey, the smoking ban will be good for business, right?
And the City Council's been on a tear lately:
--Voted to end a hiring freeze that has been in effect since November 2001. The catch? Any new hires must be approved by the council. This will, for example, enable them to hire more city employees for the planning division, which is implementing the mayor's "Downtown Master Plan". Any other city division heads who think they need additional employees, well....all they got to do is ask the council. If the council, in its infinite wisdom, think it's necessary they will magnanimously grant the request, I'm sure. Pretty sweet little deal, isn't it?
--Made the first moves towards annexing 1,300 acres of unincorporated 'islands' within city limits. One affected land owner has already given notice of his intent to fight the annexation.
Gary Combs, who owns several hundred acres of unincorporated property in south Fayetteville, said in a letter from his attorney he does not desire to be annexed.
"His property is accessed by a bridge which we have been trying to get the city to repair since the Earth cooled with no luck; and he has no interest in being in the city of Fayetteville," attorney John Everett wrote on behalf of Combs.
Why fight annexation? After all, one would gain access to all the city services like water & sewer. The catch? While any present nonconforming use of the property would be allowed, the property itself would be zoned as "residential single family with a maximum of one unit per acre" (though the council allows as it might zone it 'residential-agricultural' if residents requested). Can we say 'subdivisions'?
--Banned gated communities. Existing gated communities may remain gated, but no new gated subdivisions may be built. No reason was given for the ban.
Coincidentally, guess what our mayor did in his former life?
Built subdivisions. Without gates.
I don't usually do this, but you should go buy this now while supplies last. Steve's long-awaited cookbook, Eat What You Want and Die Like a Man is finally available. And it includes his infamous to-die-for brownie recipe. (aka 'The Precious')
He's even offered to have sex with every purchaser.
I'll settle for an autograph.
If you look up "eclectic" in the dictionary, there'd be a picture of this, which we watched last night. Interesting mix of performances, some more interesting than others.
Excellent:
Cringeworthy:
Painful In A Way That Makes You Want To Puncture Your Eardrums With Chopsticks:
Rating: 3 out of 5 cicadas. Worth watching but not twice.
