Married to government??

One of my great pet peeves is the general condesension I get from married women, who feel free to remind me in no uncertain terms that I'm an immature child, even at my advanced age, because no one ever wanted to marry me. I'm obviously too stupid to be considered adult, unlike their august selves, who haven't so much as changed a lightbulb in years because they have a man to do it for them (note to self: if I'm ever young and cute again, don't admit to men I can change a flat tire by myself--makes them think I don't want them around).

But lately, I'm starting to see where the stereotype comes from. I've read a couple of articles like this over the past year, but I was hoping it would go away...

Unmarried women, it turned out, were more likely than respondents in general to want the president and Congress to pay attention to health care, the economy and jobs, and Social Security and Medicare. They were less likely to want the president and Congress to pay attention to terrorism and national security, illegal immigration, energy and gas prices, taxes and spending, and moral values.

...it's just too obvious to point out that all those people killed on 9/11, and the thousands more killed by illegal aliens every year since, aren't going to reaping the benefits of Social Security, Medicare or socialized medicine. I'm not very organized on my poli sci, but I'm pretty sure the number one obligation of a government is to keep its citizenry from being destroyed by hostile invaders, not to pay their living expenses.

Unmarried women are also ready to support socialized medicine, the pollsters say. "American voters in general may shy away from 'radical' steps such as importing a Canadian-style system," the pollsters reported. "Unmarried women, however, embrace such a powerful step."

*bangs head against the wall* Ladies, don't expect any sisterhood sympathy from me while you're waiting 18 weeks to start chemotherapy, or when you give birth alone because the system can't afford sufficient staff (aside: the worst offender is a hospital named for Milton Keynes?).

Unmarried women, the pollsters said, "reject the Bush supply-side approach to economics" and agree by 58 percent to 32 percent that America does better when "our government helps create conditions so that many can prosper, not just a few," as opposed to when "we have a limited government that keeps taxes low so that businesses and individuals can prosper."

This is interesting, because more people prosper when a limited government makes it easier for individuals and businesses to succeed without punishment. The only people who "prosper" under a system where the state redistributes goods, money, services, benefits, etc to all regardless of input are the people who run the system; the "many" stand in line to purchase their allotment of toilet paper once a month. I read this as "unmarried women are unsuccessful and jealously vindictive," which I have no trouble believing. I'll even cop to being unsuccessful, largely because I've made some dumb career moves. OTOH, I've pretty sure bankrupting families doesn't improve my life, and hey, I could be successful in ten years if I figure out what direction to work toward and the government doesn't punish me for working.

I'm not sure the analogy of the government as "husband-provider" is entirely apt. Wives have responsibilities and obligations to their husbands, but the picture of unmarried women painted here doesn't show them giving anything back. They're more like children; they want Daddy to take care of them and keep them secure without doing anything in return. Not an attitude to be encouraged in anyone older than 10 or 12, but let's watch Hillary Clinton pander to it for the next year to get this "crucial voting bloc" in line.

Not even sure it's a bloc: in 2007 you can't lump all "unmarried women" together. Old maids with cats (it's not right to intentionally deprive a kid of his father...) are different from widows with children, divorced women with children, divorced women with cats, lesbians of assorted coupling status, and "single mothers by choice," which is a varied spectrum (career women getting IVF at 42 have different lives than women who dropped out of high school when they had their first baby at 15). I have zero interested in being "married to government"--government does not provide for me, it impedes me. If I had four kids with different fathers and a GED, I might feel differently.

Ready for some fußball...

I'm looking forward to Packers@Cowboys tomorrow with disaffected interest. Should be a great game, a great QB vs. a QB who could be great himself in a few years, and I expect either team to take on the F-Pats in the Super Bowl (I think I prefer GB to the SB because the Cowboys have already shown they can't play against the F-Pats). I like and dislike various aspects of both teams and their fans about equally...but a GB win makes work less unpleasant on Friday, so GO PACK. :)

I've been waiting to repost this link to IowaHawk's coverage of the Lombardi Cartoon Riots of 2006: Seething Midwest Explodes Over Lombardi Cartoons

But by far the fiercest demonstration took place in Green Bay's Lambeau Shrine parking lot where throngs of Packer faithful burned Texas flags and effigies of Roger Staubach as Lutheran pastors led them in chants of "Those who defame the Vince suck" and "Favre is Great." Many of the frenzied demonstrators were seen ritualistically beating themselves with mozzarella sticks.

Mmm. Mozz sticks.

I've considered making an iconic--and reverential, of course--Lombardi needlepoint. But he's queued up behind a bunch of embroidered Christmas presents.

Anyone can vote in Iowa!

I've been beating myself up for the past year over moving out of Iowa just ahead of a presidential election with no incumbents in the running...but it turns out all I have to do is prove I'm 18 and lie about my residence. I get U.S. mail at my parents' house--you and I know that's not residency but if the Post Office, a branch of the U.S. government, believes I'm Santa Claus....er....

Unfortunately, I get 10 unpaid days off at Christmas so I gotta be in the office January 3 to make rent. Boo-hiss.


My Fred08 T-shirt arrived today. I have a feeling it's all over by the WI primary, but it's stylish enough to wear throughout the spring.

I'm ba-ack.

Other than drastically overestimating the availability of bar food Thursday night, which resulted in a $50 turkey dinner and a maitre'd who did not appreciate my Marvin Harrison throwback jersey, I had a nice weekend. The pictures from Crown Hill Cemetery are especially nice. See them here.

I think I'm caught up on reading after four days with no Internet (and assiduously avoiding political discussion that might alienate road trip buddy), but nothing's really standing out tonight.

My favorite Thanksgiving poem.

The novelization of "A Peanuts Thanksgiving" isn't literature per se, athough I do enjoy the traditional feast of popcorn, toast, and jelly beans....

James Whitcomb Riley
"When the Frost is on the Punkin"
1883

WHEN the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here—
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
And your cider-makin's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!...
I don't know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me—
I'd want to 'commodate 'em—all the whole-indurin' flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

More at LostIndiana.net. The best view of the Indy skyline really is from his grave.

Thanksgiving Links

The Onion breaks down tomorrow's Lions-Packers game.

The first Thanksgiving

Heh, yesterday I saw the headline "2 Turkeys Pardoned by White House" and I actually had to click on it before I realized they meant birds and not some combination of Bonds, Simpson, or Vick.

"Going Home" for the holidays

The most annoying part about this week is all the people who ask me if I'm "going home" for Thanksgiving and then seem confused when I tell them that my home is in Milwaukee and I will visit my parents at Christmas.

My parents have moved three times since I graduated from college, each time moving to a new town in a different part of Iowa than where I grew up. I'm finally used to their current town, but it's not really "going home" when you need Mapquest.

They also moved to successively smaller houses, to keep any of us from moving back. Now that there are more sons-in-law and grandchildren than spare rooms, guess who is relegated to sleeping in the unfinished unheated storage closet in the basement? (Could be worse: it's the only room in the house where you can't hear a baby scream all night.) It's a nice house, and some of the furniture is familiar, but it's not "home." Especially when I wake up in the morning frozen solid and surrounded by boxes.

I don't know if the assumption is that never-married people (more likely, never-married female people) still belong to their parents, or if most empty-nesters don't change jobs and move, or what exactly the cultural phenomenon is...I don't understand why I have to explain over and over that I have my own "home" here, by myself, in my apartment. But at my age, I shouldn't have to explain.



I'm not staying home for Thanksgiving, either. I'm going to Indianapolis with a friend from work, which will be interesting because I'm not used to traveling with other people.

Depressing start to the day

Chugach, one of the Kodiak bears at the Indy Zoo, was euthanized. He was near the end of an average bear's life and suffering from a debilitating joint disease, but it's sad anyway.

I have this great memory of a redneck flannel-clad moron taunting the Kodiaks to amuse his half-dozen mullet-haired brats; the bears stood up and I swear they were mentally measuring the the moat and the fence and working out a plan to teach the guy (and the tasty mullet morsels) a lesson. I think I was as disappointed as the bears when the moat was insurmountable and they left unscathed...

My other favorite Indy Zoo memory was the day the lions were enjoying a little oral sex. I'm not a pervert, it was just highly entertaining watching how the humans reacted.

*Limbaugh kid voice* "Mommy! Mommy! I wanna see the lions!"
*Mommy voice* "They're over in the--Timmy! We're going to look at the giraffes instead!!"
*kid* "Mooo-ooom!"
*Mom* "Giraffes! Now!"

Heh heh heh.


Further depressing: More than you ever wanted to know about Marvin Harrison's bursa sac.

Every day is Black Cat Day around here...

My brother sent me this.

ROME (Reuters) - Saturday is "black cat day", in Italy, an initiative by an animal rights group to try to stop the killing of thousands of the cats by superstitious citizens convinced they bring bad luck.

Black cats have a bad name in many countries, but nowhere more so than Italy, where a papal edict in the middle ages declared they were instruments of the devil.

I'm not convinced that pope was entirely wrong.


"Excuse me. You weren't planning on using this tonight, were you? It's mine now. Thanks."

Hey, Milwaukee's not so bad!

When did North Charleston become a "city"?

Most dangerous cities in America study: Detroit, St. Louis, Flint, Oakland Calif.; Camden, N.J.; Birmingham, Ala.; North Charleston, S.C.; Memphis, Tenn.; Richmond, Calif.; and Cleveland.

I'm very pleased to not see Milwaukee, although I note they analyze stats from September.

This last graf should immediately follow the list, though:

The study excluded Chicago, Minneapolis, and other Illinois and Minnesota cities because of incomplete data.

I'd not go walking around N. Chas alone at night, but there's parts of St. Paul a woman without a headscarf should avoid during the day.

Ugly, but we'll take it.

The attempt sailed through the uprights with three seconds remaining, capping what Vinatieri – long considered one of the NFL’s most reliable clutch kickers – later called an “interesting” day.

Apparently there was a stiff breeze in the Dome during the first half.

Steyny stuff.

Mark Steyn:

The U.S. Constitution is not only older than France's, Germany's, Italy's or Spain's constitution, it's older than all of them put together.

Which is probably why so many people think Europe is so much better than America, even though "new" doesn't always mean "improved."

Even in a supposedly 50/50 nation, you're struck by the assumed stability underpinning even fundamental disputes. If you go into a bookstore, the display shelves offer a smorgasbord of leftist anti-Bush tracts claiming that he and Cheney have trashed, mangled, gutted, raped and tortured, sliced 'n' diced the Constitution, put it in a cement overcoat and lowered it into the East River.

*snicker* And if any of that were true, the books wouldn't be on the shelves and the authors wouldn't be walking around freely enjoying the royalties. Don't let facts get in the way of a good feel...

But on this Thanksgiving the rest of the world ought to give thanks to American national sovereignty, too. When something terrible and destructive happens – a tsunami hits Indonesia, an earthquake devastates Pakistan – the United States can project itself anywhere on the planet within hours and start saving lives, setting up hospitals and restoring the water supply.

Not much point reminding the self-loathing anti-American left of this, is there? The mere fact that we HAVE technology and resources to share with other nations is an indictment of how horrible we are.


OK. I think I'm grouchy enough to go watch football.

Indiana plays 13!

Indiana gets a bowl game for the first time in no one can remember how long (probably not long after they started playing Purdue for this bucket, which they won again yesterday), after dedicating their season to Coach Terry Hoeppner, who died of brain cancer of the summer.

They make a sweet contrast to a certain other Big 11 team I shall not mention who goes to a bowl game every year they can scrape up six wins even though they don't deserve a bowl game.

"Our rights come from God, not from government."

That's one of those things I don't understand how people can't/don't/won't understand.

Like pi, or the commutative property.

Indy-MKE musings

A couple months after I moved here last summer, I went down to Indianapolis for a weekend (the IMA had just opened their new textile gallery, which was exciting until I realized the inaugural exhibit was wedding dresses *gag*). Sunday morning I'm in a really good coffee shop with a friend, reading the paper, and there was an article about the exploding Indy crime rate--they were "approaching Milwaukee levels"--they actually compared Indy to Milwaukee--next step Detroit. Same leitmotif: convicted felons released too early, gangs, illegal aliens, "stop snitchin'."

Then, earlier this year, there was a property-tax kerfuffle, with increases 2-4 times larger than the MPS and Gov. Doyle increases up here. City income tax (which is just wrong, IMO) also increased 65%. People were already abandoning the city for Hamilton County in droves...

Queue up the 2007 mayoral election. Democrat machine was expected to re-elect the incumbent who presided over the crime wave and tax increases, as usual; GOP nominee was an underfunded retired Marine unbeholden to other politicians.

Heh. Congratulations, Mayor Ballard. :) Cartoon by Gary Varvel.

Every analysis I've read (here's a sample) is all excited about how the people realized socialism and its adherents ruin lives and voted for change. I really hope they're right, and that it turns into a national trend.

Not a single one mentioned Indiana's new Voter ID law. No buses from precinct to precinct, no ineligible individuals voting under eligible voters' names, no dead voters, fewer registrations from people claiming residence at non-existant addresses...

That has to have had an effect on turnout and results.

Maybe Wisconsin should try it.

Lombardi Trophy Quilt again

On display at Houston, with nearly 400 others. 11th photo from the top, second row.

Don't try to post haiku while drinking.

The haiku are great, but the HTML didn't work. I'm so embarrassed.

Tom Brady supine
Five layers of protection
Can't keep out Freeney

13 sacks, 8 starts
Best rookie right end evah
In the NFL

Four years in a row
Double-digit sacks recorded
Strahan only dreams.

The snap, the dropback,
Immediate blinding pain.
Better Straub than me.

Thank you! I'll be appearing downtown on Sunday! Tip your waitress!

Valpo, anyone?

If you are, or know, a high school student looking at small private Christian universities for 2008, I have a coupon that will allow you to waive the application fee at Valparaiso University. Drop me an e-mail Real Soon Now; the deadline for application with scholarship consideration is January 15.

They have built a new "information center" (back in the day, we called it a "library") and student union since I was last on campus. And I need to call them about getting tickets in the visitor section when they play at UW-Milwaukee in basketball...

Early caucus date hampers vote fraud.

How sad for them.

Ames, Ia. - Efforts to inspire, encourage and cajole young Iowa voters to attend the 2008 presidential caucuses have lost some - but not all - of their steam with the news that Iowa's marquee event will occur when most college students are away on winter break.

This is a problem?? Are you kidding me?? Actual Iowa college-age voters can register to vote at their permanent address and go to the caucus with their neighbors or parents. If their permanent address is at school, they can toddle back early from wherever they're binge-drinking and resume drinking on the 4th. The Wisconsin and Texas voters quoted in the article can participate in their states' primaries.

And people who are surely educated enough to know better think schools should open just so people who do not live in Iowa can participate in the caucus. Intentionally voting out of your district is fraud, people! (Dan Savage didn't go to jail, but he should have) The caucus workers are supposed to check your voter registration--there is no same-day registration in Iowa, although anyone with a valid registration is allowed to change party affiliation at the door--and if you're not registered in the precinct they're supposed to show you back out.

I was an ISU student in 2000--and Ames was my permanent address, since my parents kicked me out years before--and several precincts held their caucus in one of the engineering buildings. When people walked into the wrong room because they wanted to vote with their friends, they were sent down the hall to the correct precinct.

This all feeds into my general annoyance with unprosecuted fraud from 2000 and 2004, where thousands of students in Milwaukee and Iowa (and probably schools around the nation, those are just the places I was reading newspapers in those years) admitted to pollsters that they illegally voted twice after registering their campus and parents' addresses. Numbers-wise it's on a par with buses going district to district, but since most states don't cross-check voter rolls across county or state lines, it's easier to keep under the radar...

The other part of the article that annoys me is the whining about having to beg people who don't really care about the race to show up. We're all better off when only people who are informed go participate--caucuses, primaries, and general elections. The American people are not served by sheeple checking the box they're told to.

This vehicle powered by recycled sanctimony.

Car stuff at Michelle Malkin reminds of this conversation I forgot to blog last week...

A friend of mine sent me a link to the "SmartCar" (yes, those are sneer quotes) with raves about how awesomely eco-friendly they are.

I replied with an inquiry as to the MPG rating on the wheelchair-accessible van that would take her to physical therapy three times a week for the rest of her life after she was paralyzed if her "SmartCar" was T-boned in a parking-lot intersection by anything larger than a bicycle.

She pretended not to understand the question.

I then wondered how it was "eco-friendly" to make twice as many trips to the grocery store because the car can't simultaneously hold a week's supply of human food/toilet paper AND a week's supply of cat food/litter.

Apparently it's the thought that counts. Like the no-flow toilets that have to be flushed thrice so no one else has to look at your output.

OTOH, it's probably a logical car for people with no friends, family, or pets.

Anyway. IowaHawk has forgiven me for driving a used Buick that will seat myself and three people who shouldn't be driving in their condition, for the low low price of $9.95, so it's all good.

ISU! ISU!

Iowa State has an all-time record of 0-54-2 against teams ranked among the top six in the Associated Press Poll. The fourth-ranked Jayhawks are 10-0 for the first time since 1899, and remain in the hunt for a BCS bid.

Unrelated, I can't figure out how the F Shawn Haluska gets to play basketball at ISU. OK, new coach, new AD, not his fault his brother's an asshole...I still want to spit.

Also unrelated, the ISU women have signed a home-schooled player for next year. I'm sure the NCAA will find a way to keep her from playing.

You realize, of course, that THIS means WAR.

JammieWearingFool ruins my day.

A worldwide scarcity of malt and hops means price rises are on the way for German beer, both in Germany and in its principal export market, Italy, a national breweries leader warned Tuesday...

Speaking in the southern city of Nuremberg just before the November 14-16 beer trade fair Beviale, he said the world price of aromatic hops had doubled in the past two years and the price of brewers' barley had tripled.

World barley reserves had been run right down as world demand for grain soared, harvests contracted and pressure grew on farmers to grow for energy sales rather than food.

!*#&@ bleeding heads! Curse you, al-Gore!! Look what your lies hath wrought!!!

This is particularly devestating in the midst of rumors that Marvin Harrison's leg injury is more serious than disclosed and likely to end his career, and verification that Dwight Freeney's season is over. I need good beers to sustain me through the dark weeks months years ahead.

Panama City, FL

It's not Lake Michigan, but I suppose they make do.

Didn't have a lot of time for photos but there are more here.

Just back from Florida. Plane was late, freeway was closed, cat is plotting revenge--yup, everything's normal.

Iowa Caucuses same night as Orange Bowl.

And? Turkeys are 6-5 and will get a bowl game somewhere even though they suck moose, but it's not going to be a January game, and ISU's season is done this week (although I'm really proud of them for winning TWO conference games--they really turned it on mid-season). Oh, wait, national media might be devoted to the game instead of the caucus...

At least Hillary won't be telling people how she always loved the Turkeys growing up in Illinois, where she also loved the Yankees.

(Only thing I'm going to say about SNF is that when Al Michaels said it was "crazier than the Iowa caucus" I was still sober enough to laugh. After the wedding we did a lot of shots...)

Why does this stuff always happen right before I go somewhere?

I avoid O'Hare on general principle (I like to get to my destination within 18 hours of my scheduled arrival time...yeah, I'm a prima donna) anyway.

CHICAGO — Nearly two dozen illegal immigrants were arrested Wednesday, accused of using fake security badges to work in critical areas of O'Hare International Airport, including the tarmac, authorities said.

Mexicans and Guatelmalans...this time. I imagine Yemenis and Pakistanis are laying low.

Mary Gurin, 36, of Carpentersville, and Norinye Benitez, 24, of Franklin Park, were each charged with one federal count of harboring illegal immigrants for gain

Wait...that's a crime?!? Can we get some enforcement?!?


Anyway. I managed to successfully avoid Florida for almost 10 years, but this weekend I'm going to a wedding in Panama City (3 p.m. Sunday--why do people hold weddings during football season? Such flagrant disrespect for their loved ones...). Ich trinke, Du trinkst, Wir trinken.

Hrm.

There was a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to bitch about, but by the time I got home from work I'd forgotten what they were.

Basketball starts tomorrow. My expectations are fairly low, and I'm bummed I'll miss the special anniversary coverage on the Cyclone Television Network.

I'm also irritated by the NCAA. Kid who didn't get paid to play basketball in Germany isn't allowed to play for ISU because of something his teammates did; kid who played for pay in Turkey...no problems getting to play for Texas. They seem to be all sorts of arbitrary...unbecoming in an organization that holds a monopoly on intercollegiate sports. I wonder if the House Ways and Means committee is still threating to revoke their non-profit status.

Too...many...ellipses.

What day is it?

Holiday decorations are up at the Habi-trail...er, Bayshore Mall.

It still seems really bizarre that I live in Milwaukee.

Secret Service better keep an eye on this one...

While searching for something unrelated, I came across...The White House pets, India, Miss Beazley and Barney, get ready for a Boo-tiful Halloween Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007, as they sit for photos on the South Lawn of the White House.

Awwwwww. How cute. But let's look at India a little more closely...
I know that look. That cat put in a call to Putin as soon as those stupid humans released her from that silly demeaning costume. They're going to find dead mice laced with polonium on their pillows...

...and it's all George Bush's fault.

This is the first time I've ever seen a polemic liberal refer to the sexist, conformist, lockstep, Stepford, artifical, scary, "McCarthy Witchhunt Era" (also known as the 1950s) as "paradise lost." Usually they're bitching about all that oppression, what with the men working and their wives making babies and Jello salads in the cookie-cutter Hell of Levittown.

I'm amused by the juxtaposition of "America sucks because people are less socially mobile than in Europe" (not sure I believe that) with "America sucks because people are less socially secure than in Europe." (which I believe, since "socially secure" means "gov't welfare supports a middle-class lifestyle") Just come out and say "America sucks and it's all George Bush's fault" without the window dressing.

Mostly, I'm impressed as hell with anyone who gives a book talk and requires the audience to purchase a copy of the book at the door. Especially impressive when the book is bitching about how Americans just can't get ahead. This message is not for people who use the library because books cut into the grocery budget. Nice. (Do married people purchase two copies of books both of them are interested in reading? Besides Bibles...)

As entertaining as I'm sure Krugman's talk will be, I have to clean the cat's "Zen Garden" tonight, which will probably be more edifying.

Heh. Heh heh.

Somehow yesterday I missed Michelle Malkin reporting Tom Brady's girlfriend in a Marxist-terrorist-thug-glorifying bikini.

Heh.

Giving back...

OK, my blue-and-white funk has dissipated (it helped that WE Energies blew up a network server at my work yesterday, so I got an--unpaid, sadly--afternoon off to sew), but I'm only strong enough to consume football-free media. Like Thomas Sowell's column on NRO. Today he writes on people I like to call "bleeding heads"--it's not their heart that makes them dangerous, it's the hole between their ears.

Among the many mindless mantras of our time, “making a difference” and “giving back” irritate me like chalk screeching across a blackboard.

I have a friend who eats school lunch with "underprivileged" junior high kids once a month during the school year because she wants to "make a difference." As far as I can tell, the difference she makes is that she feels less guilty about being white and graduating from high school without getting pregnant than she did before she started doing "Lunch Buddies"--not that anyone should feel guilty about either of those things.

Very few people have mastered anything that well beyond their own limited circle of knowledge. Even fewer seem to think far enough ahead to consider that question. Yet hardly a day goes by without news of some uninformed busybodies on one crusade or another.

I miss the good old days of liberals screaming "government out of my bedroom!" instead of "ban incandescent lightbulbs to save the Earth!" Government out of MY bedroom--I need 150 unflickering watts to read without physical pain. Government out of my paycheck would be even better, but I'm willing to start small.

If we are giving back to society at large, in exchange for all that society has made possible for us, then that is a very different ballgame.

Giving back in that sense means acknowledging an obligation to those who went before us and for the institutions and values that enable us to prosper today. But there is very little of this spirit of gratitude and loyalty in many of those who urge us to “give back.”

Indeed, many who repeat the “giving back” mantra would sneer at any such notion as patriotism or any idea that the institutions and values of American society have accomplished worthy things and deserve their support, instead of their undermining.

Sowell doesn't specifically mention the U.S. armed forces, but most of the "give back!" group that wants to blind me whilst redistributing my earnings to people who didn't graduate high school without getting pregnant is vehemently anti-military. Ironically, the military would be the one group of people who truly do "give back" in the way Sowell describes--they put their families on hold and their lives on the line and volunteer to defend the "institutions and values" that have made America great and allow us to prosper.

This segues nicely into...Project Valour-IT is having a fundraising drive this week. All the money goes to getting accessible laptops to soldiers with hand, arm, and eye injuries so they can communicate with their friends and family (and read football media, if it makes them feel better). I distributed some of my earnings there yesterday (in the "Air Force" pool because that's where my dad served). It's not really "giving back"...I just feel grateful for their service and kinda schmucky for not doing more. Especially knowing how many people refuse to support--hell, actually work toward hurting--our armed forces at all.

If anyone needs me, I'm avoiding all media until the Pro Bowl. Geez.

WTF.

Was checking if the "newspaper Iowa used to depend on" mentioned native-son Sage Rosenfels at all (when Seneca Wallace, California native, gets a start it's front-page news) and ran across this lovely article about a woman who had two children removed for abuse by age 20 and had the next two--she's 22--removed immediately after birth (disclaimer: my folks work at the hospital where the third baby was born and my dad routinely gets called away from family events to give a newborn their first check-up but he only tells funny stories about cute babies and happy parents). It's really challenging my beliefs about government intrusion into people's reproductive decisions; surely the best way to keep this woman from breaking babies' bones is to keep her from making more victims (of course, "decision" implies a level of cognition about reproduction this woman doesn't seem to have...).

I'd already read a NY Daily News story about an unmarried professional woman who conceived her son with purchased sperm.

Once more, I am struck by how horribly unfair the universe is. Stupid, STUPID worthless women have no trouble finding men to live with them and father multiple babies doomed to repeat their mother's life ("Jaidan Rai"?? Can you put that on a business card or a college application?!?); responsible educated women who support themselves get nothing...and whether or not they take the turkey baster into their own hands at the end of their fertility THEY get charged with ruining society.

And yeah, I'm thinking about myself.

Paulnuts like football?

Ron Paul is running radio spots on Sirius 124, NFL Talk. I wasn't paying full attention until I heard "opposes nation-building overseas" and got confused--what's that to do with Cowboys-Eagles...?

The ads make him sound vaguely reasonable--who doesn't want Congress to stop mandating and regulating every aspect of life instead of sticking to their enumerated powers?--if you overlook the "capitulate to our nation's enemies" bit.

Zombie has some photos of Paulnuts at last weekend's anti-US rally in San Francisco, among the usual excellent and chilling coverage (note the suburban-looking kids waving the Hamas flag). If you look in the background of some of the pictures, you see a guy with an ice cream cart. Capitalism infiltrates the socialist/Communist/Bolshevik rally!

Oooh, we beat the spread.

No matter what happens tomorrow, it was a good football weekend.

Tomorrow I might need someone to remind me I said that.

Milwaukee Lakefront

More here.

Meant to take pictures of buildings; took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up down by the Summerfest grounds.

"I didn’t start the war, but I was going to finish it."

Obituary of Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets, one the thousands of people who've done more to bring peace to the planet than al-Gore can even dream of doing. I love that quote.

Back when I was a young skull full of mush I came home from school and told my dad America was bad and wrong for dropping the bombs on Japan in 1945. Took him about ten minutes to explain, in that "disappointed in you" voice no one ever wants to hear, that Grandpa fought the Japanese in the Pacific in 1945 and would have been sent into an invasion of the mainland, which most likely would have killed him and a million other American men. And then both of us would have never been born.

Couldn't argue with logic like that. Still can't argue with logic like that. Imagine what a crappy place the world would be without me. *snicker*

It's incredibly sad that Tibbets refused a funeral and even a headstone because he knew assholes would use them as a meeting place for protests. People have no shame anymore.

Note to self: Make no plans for July 25

Official release date for X-Files movie.

I'm torn between ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG and "they killed off the Lone Gunmen, so what's the point of a movie?"

Take me out to the whine fest

Filed under "call a waaaaaahmbulance":

Barry Bonds would boycott Cooperstown if the Hall of Fame displays his record-breaking home run ball with an asterisk.

That includes skipping his potential induction ceremony.

"I won't go. I won't be part of it," Bonds said in an interview with MSNBC that aired Thursday night. "You can call me, but I won't be there.

I saw this on a soap opera once. We're supposed to run after him, pleading with him to stay and promise to change our heartless ways. Someone's probably already doing it.

"I don't think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball, and I don't think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk," Bonds said. "You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can't do it. There's no such thing as an asterisk in baseball."

History? A baseball is not history, it's an historical artifact, and newsflash: They can be altered (cheap Sandy Burglar joke here), and museums will still purchase them if there is significance in the original or significance in the alteration. If for some reason Cooperstown passes on owning this baseball (they won't), the Smithsonian might take it; if they pass there's a dozen smaller theme museums who'll take it.

Not to mention "altered history" is big business the past few years. Pretty much why I dropped out of school and went back to being a corporate drone--I wanted to work with historical objects and facts, and historians don't do that anymore. They "view the past through a lens" and "re-interpret their significance" via that lens, the lens being feminist, Marxist, African-American, etc. If I'm going to sit around shoveling manure all day, I'm going to get paid decently.

Trying to imagine how a Marxist-feminist historian would view this baseball. It's obviously a symbol of how evil corporate America has kept the proletariat from revolting by distracting them with superficial spectacles, and the branded asterisk is a racist reminder of antebellum slave-holding...that crap writes itself.

Back to the sad part of the story, the part that made me want to blog about it in the first place:

Matt Murphy, a 21-year-old student and construction supervisor from New York, emerged from a scuffle holding the ball. He said he decided to sell it because he couldn't afford to pay the taxes required to keep it.

Something's really wrong with this country when a kid can't keep a free baseball because it's so punatively taxed. Good God.

Shameless Self-Promotion

The International Quilt Festival opened today in Houston, so I can finally post pictures of the "Journal Quilt" I made that is in one of the special exhibits.

Ta-da!


Why, yes, those are Colts hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in Miami. That was the most interesting thing that happened to be in 2007, until the quilt went on display. As usual, I liked it while I was working on it but six weeks later I see all kinds of things I wish I'd done differently.

You can see pictures of good quilts in this year's show on their website. Most of the quilts displayed in Houston this weekend will be in Chicago in April.

Behold the power of blogs

Iowa repeals pumpkin tax after "the story whipsawed around the Internet and drew scads of derisive comments."

Here's what stands out:

"Food and food ingredients are defined as substances that are sold for ingestion or chewing by humans and are consumed for their taste or nutritional value," the release said.

I demand the tax on beer, which is consumed by humans as a source of folate, niacin, magnesium, potassium and niacin, be repealed immediately!

I like this...

Kyle-Anne Shiver at the American Thinker.

We Republican women are far, far too smart to fall for Hillary Clinton's ruse. We are not the mindless ninnies that vote with the Special-Interest Express. We think for ourselves and vote for the candidate of our choice based on merit. We cast our precious votes for the candidate we believe would be the best President, not the one with an "emotional" appeal aimed at our womanhood.

I'd love to vote for a woman for POTUS. Just not THAT woman. Even if some joker made her the Mary Louise Smith Chair at ISU...Smith was "socially liberal" for the 70s, but she wasn't a socialist.

When I attended Elizabeth Dole's Mary Louise Smith lecture in 1999, I was hoping she'd announce she was running. She didn't that day, but it was still exciting. Yeah, she was married to a Senator, but she had a long career in Washington and with the Red Cross. Certainly better qualifications than "was married to a President before buying a Senate seat in a state where she did not reside."

Happy Halloween

Filed this one under "Good grief."

Previously, pumpkins had been considered an edible squash and exempted from the tax. The department ruled this year that pumpkins are taxable — with some exceptions — if they are advertised for use as jack-’o-lanterns or decorations.

Iowans planning to eat pumpkins can still get a tax exemption if they fill out a form.

They're not entirely wrong--the orange pumpkins aren't very good for cooking and eating--but the "fill out a form" just trips my Unnecessary BS Meter. WTF business is it of the state what I do with a vegetable when I take it home?? I use them to grow fuzzy mold colonies, but they're still vegetables...

The state is collecting 20-40 cents on each pumpkin. The cost of processing the form (nevermind the cost of creating it and distributing it to retailers) is going to exceed the---OH. YEAH. They expect most people (including the retailers) to be ignorant of the procedure and/or too busy to get their dollar back (or too polite to hog a cashier lane filling out the form at Hy-Vee on a Saturday morning while a line forms behind them).

It gets better. Iowa Dept. of Revenue:

Pumpkins are exempt in the following circumstances:

* The buyer completes a sales tax exemption certificate stating they will be used as food, or
* The pumpkins are a specific variety used to make pumpkin pies and are advertised in that way, or
* They are purchased with Food Stamps.

It's OK to use taxpayer money to pay for your decorations; people using their own money to buy a pumpkin must be taxed.

And if food isn't really a food unless it's eaten, I expect to see a tax on cucumbers and bananas used in sex classes, eggs used for vandalism, and all those government surplus carrots in school lunchroom garbage cans (the barrel where we dumped our uneaten slop in elementary school still haunts me).

Gary Varvel

The first comment on the blog is priceless:
Maybe for Thanksgiving, you could draw the Democrats anxiously waiting to nominate their big turkey.

Thank you for the much-needed belly laugh, Paul Walorski, wherever you are.

Practice makes perfect

After reading Dr. Sanity for lo these many years, I think I've learned a thing or two about psychological defenses. Particularly The Wonderful World of Denial.

It works so well for moonbats I've decided to give it a try: I'll be employing them the rest of the week, in case I need to use them for real later on. New England Patriots? Never heard of them, are they a baseball team?

Cheaters, thugs, and scumbags: Not worth my time or attention.

I don't actually hate Brett Favre

I just expect ESPN to show the football game being played live in front of them instead of a Lifetime Original Movie about high school sweethearts and breast cancer.

Apparently this is too much to ask.

Yes, I know I'm the only straight woman in Wisconsin who would rather watch Jay Cutler throw to Brandon Stokely than look at Brett Favre's wedding pictures (there may be someone who wanted to see AJ Hawk in action instead of prom pics from 1987; I would like to meet her). If it was a local broadcast, I would understand the market strategy. But ESPN is a national network broadcasting to fans of all 32 teams. They own several 24-hr sports stations and they're affiliated with ABC and several other networks; surely they could have found a way to air The Brett and Deanna Love Story AND show the Packers-Broncos game in its entirety.


I don't want to see The Peyton and Ashley Love Story instead of Tom Brady getting sacked on Sunday, either; fortunately CBS usually manages to keep the sideshows on the side. Their problem is they can't keep Phil Simms from verbally fellating Brady for four hours. :P

I am anonymously famous!

This is me.

I met Jonah Goldberg after he gave a talk at UW in March; that's about the time I decided I should write my own blog instead of just commenting on others.

Anyway, a few hours later I was poking around the Des Moines Register to see if they've mentioned Dallas Clark or Sage Rosenfels, and I found an article about the Dodd ad. The owner of the barbershop where it was filmed is a Republican, and I can't believe I forgot to mention the slam on Silky Pony's haircuts!

Mostly I was bummed I didn't see any Fred signs. Or anti-Hillary signs.

36 Hours in Iowa

• Total miles: 600
• Miles trapped behind someone going 61 passing someone going 60 (in a 70-mph zone): 8.
• Dead deer: 12.2
• Hillary2008 signs: 6
• Ron Paul 2008 signs: 3
• Signs for all other candidates combined: 0 (this worries me)
  
• Points Iowa State beat the spread: 14
• Drunk Turkey fans stumbling around my hotel screaming all night Saturday: Infinite.
• (Hotel's distance from Kinnick Stadium, in miles: 23)
  
• Casey's coffee and donuts consumed Sunday morning: 48 oz, 2.
• "Thomas the Tank Engine"-themed presents my nephew got for his birthday: 7, including big-boy underpants.
  
• Candles on his cake: 3
• (Age he gave when asked: 8. Gotta see some ID, kid...)
• Bites he took out of the center of the cake before any responsible adult (i.e., not Aunt Heather) noticed: 3.
  

Heh heh heh.

That's a pretty bad ROI.

The guy who beat his sick dog to death with a baseball bat--said he didn't have the $50 or so for euthanasia and didn't bother to check the Humane Society for a reduced-price option--was charged with felony animal abuse. Bail $500; maximum sentence 3.5 years in prison and $10k fine. I'm sure he'll plead guilty to a lesser charge in return for probation. Still, could have saved himself some cash by not being an asshole.

No doubt you and I will get to pay for his defense lawyer, just like we pay for lawyers for all the scum who beat people to death.

Interestingly, was talking about this at lunch at work yesterday with a couple of guys who grew up on farms, who wondered why he didn't take the dog out back and shoot it. Merciful and cheap, and probably also illegal in Cudahy.

Check out the pictures of Laura Bush on a visit to the Middle East at A Tangled Web. I'm pleased she didn't succumb to the pressure to cover any more of herself than American standards of decency require (unlike, oh, say, Nancy Pelosi and Julia Carson).

The part that slays me is the multicultural apologists who say these women are just "modestly dressed" and it's better than the alternative, which is to dress like Paris Hilton/Britney Spears. That's always the example of the alternative to the burqa. So much for "liberals" being better at tolerating ambiguity and flexibility...millions of women around the world go out every day dressed neither like streetwalkers nor like slipcovered furniture--and I'm sure there are "sex workers" who wear more clothes to the office than Ms. Spears. I'm always "modestly dressed" in jeans and T-shirts or sweatshirts, but since my hair and face are always visible, and occasionally my arms show above the wrists, I'd be at risk for an arrest and/or beating. Even though, believe you me, the "passions" of straight men are not "enflamed" by the sight of my hair.

Bleah.

All religions are not identical.

The Dalai Lama is in Indiana.

The Dalai Lama, 72, is scheduled to deliver 12 hours of teachings and two public speeches this week. His 15-minute chat Tuesday was a teaser he used to talk about the world’s religious diversity.

It was an appropriate topic for an interfaith service that featured a procession of Buddhist monks and Dominican friars, recitations from Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Sikh scriptures and a prayer from a pipe-smoking Shoshone sun dance chief.

Hrm. There seems to be a major world religion (with a terrorism-affiliated spokesgroup up the road in Plainfield) not represented here.

“There are differences. But these differences have the same purpose — to strengthen and educate us on the importance of compassion,” he said. “All religions use different methods and different ways of approach. But they have the same end.”

Maybe, at the level of the individual believer and his relationship to the divine. But on the earthly level, one religion has very different goals than the others. If you can cite a authentic text where the Buddha tells a devotee to kill the unbelievers where he finds them, or that he wants his followers to conquer neighboring territories until the whole world is united under a global Buddhaphate, I'll buy you a beer.

The concept of war in the name of faith, he said, brings sadness to God.

Unlike God, Allah demands war in his name.

“True followers of God must express compassion.

“The concept of war is out of date,” he said. “Killing your neighbor is not your victory but your mutual self destruction.”

Nice philosophy. Lousy national defense policy. If you roll over for the neighbors bent on destroying you for the glory of Allah, the self-destruction is pretty one-sided.

The whole thing reminds me of the Mark Steyn column where he noted that if a military power ever tried to actually free Tibet from the ChiComs, all the "Free Tibet" bumperstickers would be replaced overnight with "Invaders out of Tibet Now!" stickers.

I probably have more to say, but I have to go to work so I can pay for worthless shit around Wisconsin. Looks like brewpubs got the shaft yesterday, too. Apparently the state legislature wants to encourage folks to drink and drive, instead of getting a growler to take home.

This is the saddest animal story I have ever read.

Do not click this link if you are eating dinner or cry easily. (trust me on this)

The really sad part is the Wisconsin Humane Society or any veterinarian would try to work something out cheap/free, if you take the time to call and ask, just to end the dog's suffering as kindly as possible.

This sucks, too.

Every morning about 4:30 I tell Satan's Little Helper I'm going to sell him to a tennis racket factory if he doesn't knock off the !#*^% pouncing and meowing and let me sleep, but seriously, this close to Halloween we don't even go outside with the leash (we don't really "walk"; I follow along as he investigates the hedge and yank him back when he runs toward the street), in case he gets away and ends up in the hands of assholes.

And I should not have looked at the WHS's available cats. There's a fine line between "old maid with cat" and "ammonia-scented crazy cat woman" I'm trying to avoid crossing.


What I put up with around here...

Go Go Go Bobzilla

Can't find a picture of Freeney's safety, but I'm sure they'll be up tomorrow.

Monday factoid

Only two teams in NFL history have opened three consecutive seasons with records of 6-0 or better. The Colts could become the third tonight.

Curly Lambeau's Green Bay Packers did it by going 10-0, 8-0 and 9-0 from 1929-31. The St. Louis Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf" [my fat butt!] did it with 6-0 starts from 1999-2001.

The Colts would have the best victory total of the three. They opened 13-0 in 2005 and 9-0 last season.

The last time the Colts were at Jax I had to turn the game off at halftime.

Reason #473920547 Hillary Clinton shouldn't be POTUS

Cats aren't props.

Just you wait, Kansas...

Under first-year coach Gene Chizik, Iowa State took a major step forward in defeat.

I missed it; I was at a luncheon in Bay View for a co-worker I don't like all that much (and even less now).

I was really surprised by all the businesses on Kinnickkinnick; when I first started coming to MKE in 1998, I got dragged out to the Collector's Edge periodically, and it was the only open-looking storefront in a scary neighborhood of abandonment. Now there's coffee and antiques and tanning everywhere. On the way home I stopped at Downtown Books; I bought a German translation of Gone With the Wind. It's good to have goals.

Dungy on Whitlock, Baltimore Sun on Manning

Coach Dungy talks to Phil B of the IndyStar. Seems like Whitlock didn't get his "whitening" numbers correct, and I'm not sure Coach is up on the history of hip-hop, but otherwise no surprises. He's a better man than I am--same thoughts, less harsh words.

Don't read the comments--Baltimore fans are still behaving like spoiled children, even after the former Cleveland Browns' ignominous performance in last year's playoffs--but enjoy this article about Peyton Manning nearing Johnny U's franchise TD record. Especially the bit at the end where former players speculate about Peyton's parentage. I thought he sprang fully-grown from Zeus' forehead...

God Bless America, indeed.

I love that a 40-year-old mother of two can be a "trophy wife."

Not really sure what I think.

Until I started to analyze it, I thought I liked Jason Whitlock's column this week.

Filed under "Gee, you don't have to look far in the comments before someone calls him 'Uncle Tom'":

African-American football players caught up in the rebellion and buffoonery of hip hop culture have given NFL owners and coaches a justifiable reason to whiten their rosters. That will be the legacy left by Chad, Larry and Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and all the other football bojanglers.

"Bojanglers" is one of those words I wish I was allowed to use. It's succinctly descriptive. But I don't believe anyone intentionally sets out to "whiten their rosters."

In terms of opportunity for American-born black athletes, they're going to leave the game in far worse shape than they found it.

It's already starting to happen. A little-publicized fact is that the Colts and the Patriots — the league's model franchises — are two of the whitest teams in the NFL. If you count rookie receiver Anthony Gonzalez, the Colts opened the season with an NFL-high 24 white players on their 53-man roster. Toss in linebacker Naivote Taulawakeiaho "Freddie" Keiaho and 47 percent of Tony Dungy's defending Super Bowl-champion roster is non-African-American. Bill Belichick's Patriots are nearly as white, boasting a 23-man non-African-American roster, counting linebacker Tiaina "Junior" Seau and backup quarterback Matt Gutierrez.

Racial classifications are so silly. Gonzalez is Cuban-American; most surveys wouldn't consider him white, depending on what kind of point they wanted to make (he's also the next Marvin Harrison). He didn't mention how he classified Ramon Guzman...and I will buy a beer for anyone who can pronounce Freddy Keiaho's given name.

But it's not really about skin color or family name, other than race is the current, overused, (inaccurate) proxy for "culture":

Hip hop athletes are being rejected because they're not good for business and, most important, because they don't contribute to a consistent winning environment.

You don't say.

We are in the process of mishandling the opportunity and freedom earned for us by Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Doug Williams, Mike Singletary, Gale Sayers, Willie Lanier and countless others. And those of us in the media who have rationalized, minimized and racialized every misstep by Vick, Pacman and T.O. have played an equal role in blowing it.

It's so rare to see anyone in media accept blame for the role the media plays in redefining dysfunctional behavior as "just part of their culture."

By failing to confront and annihilate the abhorrent cultural norms we have allowed to grab our youth, we have in the grand American scheme sentenced many of them to hell on earth (incarceration), and in the sports/entertainment world we've left them to define us as unreliable, selfish and buffoonish.

Straight from Bill Cosby and Juan Williams. It's just shocking to hear it applied to professional football, to black men who have supposedly "made it", and to an occupation that's 70% black.

Hip hop is the dominant culture for black youth. In general, music, especially hip hop music, is rebellious for no good reason other than to make money. Rappers and rockers are not trying to fix problems. They create problems for attention.

That philosophy, attitude and behavior go against everything football coaches stand for.

I'm suddenly reminded of the clip from the Simpsons where Abe makes fun of Joe Namath's fur coat and sideburns. "Now, Johnny Unitas--there's a haircut you could set your watch to!"

If the piece was just an indictment of the hip-hop culture and its detrimental effects on NFL teams (not to mention its detrimental effects on black men who couldn't play at that level), why start off with complaining about rosters with white guys at the start of the essay? And why, for the love of all that does not suck, the unsubstantiated unnecessary suggestion at the end that Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are racists???

Whether calculated or not, the Patriots and the Colts have created settings in which Brady and Manning can lead and feel comfortable.

Is that the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down??

I'm also going to deduct style points for using the word "buffoon" three times in one essay.

This is amazing.

I'm impressed.

Stuff

• Got an e-mail from my cousin letting me know that Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids is hiring a skazillion engineers. I might need a new job in a few months (I've already ridden a 12-month contract 18 months) but I don't want to go back to being the only never-married non-mother non-lesbian over 25 living in the state. Milwaukee has its downsides but at least people ask me what I do instead of my children.
  
• Speaking of, Kay S. Hymowitz at City Journal has written a piece on how women around the world love being single. I must be doing something wrong. Maybe if I didn't hate shopping...
• On the other end of the spectrum, middle-school students getting hormonal birth control without the knowledge of their parents. I spent my afternoon imagining scenarios where any of the kids I know would be 11 or 13 and asking me about ANY birth control and every single one of them involves me calling their parents (several of them also involve beating the crap out of someone). I'm not anti-pill--if someone wants to put their young daughter on birth control pills for a non-medical reason, that's their prerogative as a crappy parent--but I'm very against government agencies going behind parents' backs, and especially when there are potentially dangerous physical consequences.
  
• The Packers have a bye and the Colts play Monday. What am I going to DO this weekend?
  

Hrm.

Ann Coulter today reminds me of an incident at UIowa (recently the subject of some articles about lack of diversity in hiring) when I was in high school. Black dental students received violent threats. Uproar ensued, until they discovered the perp was...wait for it...a black dental student. My recollection is that she had a legitimate mental illness and hadn't been taking her medication; not exactly the anti-racism warrior the other exemplars are made out to be.

I was going to blog about the latest UIowa flap, but the only way to fix the place is to burn it down and start over.

Why I hate Wikipedia

Iowa State Basketball Players.

Where's PAUL SHIRLEY?? JAKE SULLIVAN? Gary Thompson??? Stacy Freese? Elmer Robinson, Lafester Rhodes, Julius Michalik, Michael Nurse, Kelvin Cato, Victor Alexander, Justus Thigpen, Ron Bayless, Megan Taylor? And that's just off the top of my head.

And why the F is Adam *spit* Haluska on that list??


(I'm pleased that the football team managed to score against UT last weekend, but it's time for basketball now.)

Fred...

"Some think the way to beat the Democrats in November is to be more like them. I could not disagree more. I believe that conservatives beat liberals only when we challenge their outdated positions, not embrace them. This is not a time for philosophical flexibility, it is a time to stand up for what we believe in."

They're everywhere...

Thoroughly enjoyed three days away from a computer. Not sure if the cat is angry I left or angry I came back...



Saturday we were driving down an unnumbered road in the middle of nowhere, central Vermont, and got stuck behind a car going about 20mph...with an Illinois license plate. Felt right at home, I did. !(%#*!

Oh dear.

I was fairly "meh" about the proposed MillerCoors merger--I only drink their products when someone else is buying--but now I'm gravely concerned:

Area craft brewers worry that consolidation might limit their access to wholesalers, distribution system

I'm sure I'll be able to get Spotted Cow as long as I live in MKE, and the Sprecher brewery is on the way home from work--yes!--but I do like to try new beers without driving all over the country. And what happens if I move??

Better send a note home to their mommies!

Peter at Texas Hold 'Em notes schools in Denver sending home notes with fat kids, telling their parents the kids are fat (I've never met a fat person who didn't know they were fat...didn't know they should wear shirts that cover their bellies when they leave the house, yes; didn't know they were fat, no...).

They're using the BMI, which is the old debunked height-weight chart disguised by a "calculator." It's touted as a "measure of body fat"--but there's no actual measurement of body fat, you just plug in your height and weight. It doesn't measure health or fitness, either. But it's good enough for government skrewls to use to label and stigmatize kids!

Using player bio information at nfl.com and brewers.com, I had a little fun with the calculator.

Brett Favre, at his listed stats, has a BMI of 28.5, which is on the high side of "overweight." Peyton and Eli Manning are both "overweight" at 27.5; Joseph Addai is pushing "obese" at 29.8; Ben Sheets isn’t far off at 29.0; and Prince Fielder’s 35.3 gets him packed off to a re-education camp.

The Prince does get thrown out a lot on double plays. But don't tell me any of those QBs are fat.

Books and planes

I joined Goodreads today. This could be time-consuming, or it could go the way of mycolts.net, I don't know.

I'm going to Vermont this weekend (nonstop, all hail Midwest) for the first time--I expect it will be culturally similar to Wisconsin, with taller rocks--and I could use some suggestions for something to read on the plane. I've already read An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England. Plenty of good tips in that one.

I have no idea about a hostess gift, either. I'm out of Iowa chops, and WI is problematic: can't get beer on the plane, no point in taking cheese. I'm down to honey (in 3 oz or smaller containers, I haven't forgotten what happened when I tried to fly with Play-Doh) or...uh....sausage?

I don't have cable TV...

Kathy Shaidle:

The so-called poor have cars and cable tv and free medical. They live in America in the 21st century, where school is free and libraries are free and a bus ticket to a better town costs less than a bag of crack. If they're "poor" it's because they were too lazy and stupid to a) finish high school and/or b) keep their pants on. Jesus had something to say about folks who didn't properly manage their money or other people's, and who squandered free gifts and good will. He told the adulteress to sin no more, not to find herself another baby daddy.

I was going to post my own thoughts, but they're not original and I have to go to work.

It's worth noting that all the girls in my HS class who had babies the summer after graduation are doing much better than I am--husbands who make enough money that they can stay home with their younger children, new houses, newer cars than I drive--and that's not counting the social capital automatically granted to mothers, even in stupid situations. Especially in stupid situations.

Is it 1787 already?

Barbara Boxers has proposed that immigration enforcement be suspended so "undocumented residents" (that would be non-citizens who aren't supposed to be here) can be counted for the purpose of doling out Congressional representation. And federal slush money, I'm sure.

I'd like to be the first to propose another 3/5 compromise. Illegal aliens can be counted as 3/5 a person in exchange for building the damn fence and stepping up other enforcement efforts. I think that's fair--the DNC gets 60% of the number of people the Census Bureau can find and ICE can't. Of course, that would only work if ICE was trying to find/process people....sigh.

Given all the pathetic, quasi-legal bribery the City of Ames did in 2000 to try to convince kids in dorms and graduating seniors to fill out census forms to be counted as permanent residents (that roommate who dropped out and went home, they count, too!) to qualify for more federal dollars, I don't feel a whole lot of love for the accuracy of people self-reporting to the Census Bureau (1 out of every 500 teenagers is a widow? in 2000??), much less the reports filed by people out looking for people to report on (see also ACORN).

Plus, it'll be fun to watch all the talking heads and lockstep lemmings pretend they've heard of the original 3/5 compromise.

...and they'll go for it on 4th and 3

If you're a Minnesota football fan looking for an inspiring team to follow this season, you don't need to lower your standards and root for the cheating, slacker-enabling Patriots.
...
How can you not like this team? The coach and quarterback are among the classiest and most accomplished figures in the game, and have we mentioned they don't cheat?

Not often I enjoy something in the Red Star Tribune not written by Lileks.

Oh, this is great.

Police urged not to check legal status

A policy Milwaukee police officials adopted recently prohibits officers from asking immigration questions or alerting federal authorities to suspected illegal immigrants, with some exceptions.
...
Milwaukee officers can question a person's immigration status or alert federal authorities only in cases of violent crimes, suspected terrorism, street gang crimes or other limited cases.

I agree that the city police have better things to do than to do ICE's work for them. But why wait until someone gets killed before turning over a name? They've been making a big deal all summer about making thousands of "citizen contacts", I'm sure they've turned up a few people who aren't supposed to be living here, why sit on this information? Given that thousands of people are killed every year by unlicensed illegal-alien drivers, I don't think it's at all unreasonable to pass on the alleged addresses of people without a valid license to ICE to ignore them as they see fit.

As illegal immigration has grown into a national issue the past couple of years, stepped-up enforcement efforts have produced deportation stories that rankled immigrant rights groups.

In 2004, a Waukesha County mother of two was sent back to India after she got a flat tire and police officers discovered that she had entered the United States illegally 12 years earlier.

Very sad for her, but the police officers did not put a gun to her head in 1996 and force her onto a plane without the proper approval.

(The J-S article used the phrase "illegal immigrant"? Someone's gonna get fired.)

They're starting to frighten me.

No Harrison, no Addai, no Sanders, no problem.

I'm disappointed Marvin's consecutive-games-with-receptions streak ended, but he's got two weeks to heal before Jacksonville, which is a) important and b) on MNF.

I've been indefinitely banned from watching football with the Real Men of Genius because the Colts have won more games than all of their teams put together--Jets (1), Dolphins (0), Rams(0), Broncos(2), and Bears(1). Heh. I didn't tell them I'm out of town the next three weekends anyway.

The stat I find interesting: the Colts are 4-0 against teams with starters who have Colts Super Bowl rings.

Blah blah SCHIP blah blah

Mark Steyn: if this is the face of the "needy" in America, then no-one is not needy.

My dad paid for health insurance for a family of six when he was self-employed for 15 years. But we had one TV, 1.5 bathrooms, and two pairs of jeans apiece. *srednop*

Basketball practice starts this week...

I'm getting a kick out of all the people complaining about how the Wisconsin football team suh-diddly-ucks this year. Top 25, lost one conference game...y'all wouldn't know suck if it walked up wearing blaze orange and popped a cap in Bucky's ass (now there's a mixed metaphor).

Here's some 99.44% pure, home-grown, corn-fed suck, for comparison.

It doesn't really bother me; I feel bad for Bret Meyer because he's a better QB than the record indicates, and I thought Chizik was too negative about the players at the halftime interview (at the post-game interview he blames the coaching, someone must have called him on it), but anyone who watched ISU football before the 2000 season just nods and hopes Kansas has a bad day so we at least get one conference win. When I say we suck, I'm about as emotional as I am when I say the sun came up this morning.

Gutfield:

The whole idea that you have to try something before making a judgment is moral laziness. This refusal to say something is wrong because you're trying to keep an open mind prevents you from seeing what's wrong with the world - or more important other cultures. Female Circumcision strikes me as wrong - but I don't need my clitoris removed to find out.... I find the whole idea of prison rape to be reprehensible. But I've never experienced that either.

He's right for the most part; I know a lot of women who went directly from their parents' house to marriage (via an all-women dorm) and I'm not allowed to point out their lack of experience with the old-maid-with-cat lifestyle when they sneer at it...and I'm not allowed to question their smugness about marriage, either.

I've also noticed people aren't even allowed to judge some stuff they may have tried and later realized was wrong, with the following exceptions: smoking, eating meat, being 'overweight' (see Mike Huckabee's plan to force us all to live his new lifestyle), driving a car (see al-Gore).

*srednop* Too much thinking for Saturday.

Department of Redundancy Department.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Governor Jim Doyle has declared Sunday as Favre Record Day in Wisconsin.

C'mon, that's EVERY Sunday in Wisconsin.

I actually think that game will be more interesting than the Colts game the local FOX affiliate refuses to show me, but I might be harboring some residual Super Bowl shadenfreude.

Heh. Heh heh.

Is it wrong of me to want one of these?

Today someone asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I want to get through Thanksgiving before I start thinking about Christmas, is what I want...

No crying in baseball

But this is really cool.

Besides their surprising 14-1 finish to the season, the Colorado Rockies are giving baseball fans another reason to cheer for them this postseason.

The widow of Rockies minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh, who died after getting hit by a line drive this season, will be granted a full share of the team's playoff winnings after a team vote.

Plus, they're two up on the Phillies, which pleases me in a "my brother-in-law who hates the Colts will be pissed" way.

Zombie strikes again!

The Zombster has a zillion disclaimers: The pictures from the Folsom Street Fair can be considered hard-core pornography (and Zombietime is experiencing heavy traffic; expect long load times). I admire Zombie's willingness to wade into the frays and the thoroughness of Zombie's reports (I think I know what pronoun Zombie takes, but I don't want to accidentally 'out' Zombie's identity). I would have gotten myself kicked out for hurting people's feelings with my cackling Hillaryesque laughter.

Really. The religious sex toys were disgusting (no Mohammed-shaped sex toys, I wonder why...), but mostly they all look kinda pathetic. Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!!! I'm so EDGY!!! LOOK AT ME!!!

(...says a chick with a blog. Ow.)

Dunno; if they were trying to shock right-wing cranks in flyover country, they failed. The "fetish lifestyle" is so mainstream anymore...CSI (I only watch the original) regularly has plots featuring extreme BDSM, furries, bloodsports, transvestites, perverting religious symbols, Elvisexuals, did I mention extreme BDSM? These poor deluded fools think they're being counter-cultural, and they're network TV.


Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, two gay guys have been sentenced to 7000 lashes for activities not conducted in public.

Wisconsin News of the Weird

STONE LAKE, Wis. — A man who went to a northwoods bank's drive-up window demanding money fled on his camouflage-colored all-terrain vehicle after the teller held up candy suckers and said that's all she had, authorities said.

*srednop*

This seems fairly normal to me--both the bank robber on the ATV and the teller apologizing for not having any money.

RESOLUTION

Thank you, "Jackson Bauer", whoever you are.

NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved by the Senate of the United States and its individual members that they

(1) Shall refrain from suggesting, without warrant, that our troops are murderers, liars, torturers, idiots, losers, and traitors

(2) Shall refrain, whenever possible, from making public statements about the troops, their mission or our country that are indistinguishable from statements made by Osama Bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or others who have vowed to destroy the United States of America

(3) Shall refrain from introducing legislation that would impede or impair the ability of our troops to defeat our enemies or that exceeds the powers granted to Congress under Article I Section 8 of the Constitution

Worth reading the whole thing, of course.

Scheiße!

Since I got home from work, I've had four otherwise rational people rant at me about how Bush hates children. They want free healthcare for their kid (because they deserve it, simply by virtue of spawning in the first place) and that mean child-hating bastard vetoed the bill that would give it to them.

They had no idea that the bill had provisions providing free insurance to non-poor non-children, much less that those provisions were added by Dems, and if they would have left well enough alone and just increased the money for poor children by 300% W would have signed the damn thing the way he signs all the big-government big-money bills, but even once I point this out, they don't care! They truly believe George W. Bush wants their child to DIE so he can continue spending billions to kill Iraqi children, too.

My personality disorder is acting up; I told them to move to Canada and let me know how long the wait is to see the allergist.


(My "Beginning German for Adults" class started tonight, so I now know more words than 'Scheiße' and 'Bier', but I'm all self-conscious about how I'm pronouncing all the vowel sounds.)

Clean your lint trap.

The worst part about living in an apartment is sharing laundry machines with people who are either ignorant of how to launder textiles appropriately or just don't care. If I had a dollar for everytime I opened a washing machine and found a bathroom rug, six bras, four pairs of jeans, AND a king-size sheet set, none of which should be washed together in the first place much less overloaded by that...

Anyway, when you take your clothes out of the dryer, clean the freaking lint trap.

Residents of a 10-unit apartment building evacuated safely when a small dryer fire filled the structure with smoke early today on Milwaukee's northwest side.

Milwaukee police said no one was hurt and the fire did only an estimated $100 in damage. The emergency call came in about 3 a.m. from 7105 N. Teutonia Ave., police said.

The suspected cause was a build up of lint inside the dryer, police said.

There were a couple of dryer fires around the city about this time last year that caused serious damage. I'm not just an old crank--I'm an old crank who doesn't want to get woken up and forced outside at 3 a.m.

Damn, I'm good.

Friday Michelle Malkin had a piece on underage kids being allowed into a sex fetish festival in San Francisco, and I commented "I'll bet money someone takes in a kid in a stroller."

Damn, I'm good.

I'll let everyone else handle the outrage about dressing babies up like a sex slave. Here's the comment that rankled in the original linked article:

Fathers Gary Beuschel and John Kruse watched over them closely. They were proud to show the twins off.

“They will see more than the kids with moms and dads in Iowa,” said Beuschel, who wanted to expose his children to San Francisco's diverse community.

1. "Exposing" your 2-year-old children to sexual fetishes is not a good thing no matter where you live. That really should go without saying.
2. They always go for the cheap slam of the Midwest, like your longitude is a marker of your worth as a person. Unoriginal.
   
3. On top of being a shitty parent and a drone, he's also ignorant. I've seen people exposing their small children to BDSM-type fetish stuff in Iowa City, which is, surprise, in Iowa.
   

5-10 years ago I used to attend a yearly gathering in Iowa City of people from an online community. Some of them would wear their BDSM gear to the park, and most of them would bring their children. I didn't actually see anyone masturbating, but people dropping their pants to show off new piercing was pretty common, as was leading people around on leashes and floggings. One guy made a hobby of getting a picture of every participant wearing handcuffs (there are probably still some of me, wearing handcuffs and looking annoyed; fortunately most of them are 404). One year there was a donkey. I've suppressed the rest of that story.

Not only did no one stop to think, "Maybe I should leave the kid with Grandma for the afternoon," no one stopped to think, "Maybe all these other parents using the park don't want to see the man in the fishnets lick my naked boobies." Well, I did, but I didn't have any influence over this group.

I don't even want to know what went on at some of the private after-hours parties.

So that's why I KNEW people were going to be bringing their kids to this thing in San Francisco. I understand these people. They've all got huge empty places inside and they do stupid shit to get attention to try to fill it.

Oh, and my sisters tell me that children over 2 years should not still be drinking out of a bottle.

Time to fill in the river...

Another drunk "college kid" died in the Mississippi River while drinking in LaCrosse over the weekend.

The incident marked the second straight year that a drowning occurred during the city's initial Oktoberfest weekend. Exactly one year ago Sunday, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student Luke Homan disappeared after a night of drinking. His body was found two days later in the Mississippi River.

Homan, 21, became the eighth college-age man since 1997 to turn up dead in a river after going missing from a tavern. The deaths led to persistent rumors of a serial killer roaming the area, but police and the FBI continue to insist there is no evidence to suggest the deaths were anything but accidents.

Last year when this happened, there were several "town meetings" to discuss the "epidemic" and how to stop it. Telling kids to stop binge drinking by the river wasn't on the table--townspeople wanted increased nighttime patrols in the area, free cab rides, big fences, etc. Great ideas, except it looks like they didn't work. I suggested filling in the river--yeah, it might slow down some barge traffic, but aren't the lives of these "good young men" worth economically crippling neighboring states? The only way to keep drunk "kids" out of the river is to remove the river.

Blaming Oktoberfest seems disingenuous; it's not like there's no binge drinking the other 51 weekends a year.

Anyway, I feel really bad for their mothers. While the sad fact that sperm has never hit my eggs makes me unable to comment on anyone else's children (or so I'm told, daily), I can imagine that it must hurt like hell when someone knocks on the door to tell you that the baby you carried for 9 months has killed himself by his own stupidity.

Harkin off his meds again...

Still pleased to be one of 6 Iowans who didn't vote for the man in 2002. Maybe I'm naive, but basic integrity is more important than committee seniority.

Maybe Congressional committees should be randomly assigned every two years, so senators are more equal. Some people might become proficient in one area after forty years of writing the legislations, but most of them don't seem to be doing any better now than they did in the 60s. Pathetically few Congress members had a real job (and most of them were lawyers) before their first elected position back home, so most of them can't claim a science, technology, education, business, medicine, etc background that would make them more suited for one committee than another. A couple of exceptions--Tom Coburn was a practicing obstetrician until the Senate made him quit seeing patients on breaks--but not enough exceptions to make the current practice the best practice.

What do I know? I just work.