Metablogging

To quote Bob Uecker, I've been "longhand blogging"--keeping a paper journal--which kind of removes my need to bitch in length online when I have time/access. Sometimes I write "blog this!" at the top of the page, but hours or days later, I've lost interest.

I might also be a little depressed, between the fascism and the 800 miles from home and cat. And the tedium--the job is much less interesting than advertised. I've lost interest in food and fabric...I'm still trying to see as much new stuff as possible on weekends, but I'm tired of feeling like a cultural anthropologist every time I leave my apartment.

I'm still taking pictures, at least, even if I'm not uploading and annotating them like I used to.

Speaking of cultural anthropology, I'm not entirely sure what this sign from along the 1000 Islands Parkway in Ontario means--shape and color indicate warning, but it sure looks like an invitation to me... :)

41st IBCT Update

Apparently war has stopped being "boring."

My brother's unit is protecting supply convoys, and he was in one of two trucks hit by an IED last week. No injuries--they're using "new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles" and apparently they work. Quick, nobody tell that clown who quadrupled government spending and now claims we have to cut defense programs...

Heh.

My second-favorite designated driver (meine bayerische Fruend) dropped by New York this weekend to take me to the 1000 Islands region and Ontario. Was quite lovely until we got back to the U.S., where the Border Patrol flagged us for a vehicle search. I had been joking all weekend about being on the DHS "right-wing terrorist" list (I DID attend a Sarah Palin rally last fall...), and there we were. Perhaps when they asked if we bought anything to bring back with us, I shouldn't have said "stuffed animals for my niece and nephews*"--but they're trained to recognize the signs that people are lying, right?

While we were sitting on too-small hard plastic chairs in a holding pen with no bathrooms, surrounded by smugglers and terrorists (who knows, right?), watching the agents drilling people between breaks, all I could think was, "I can't WAIT until this government controls and portions out all our healthcare."** I'm going to smack single-payer** advocates double-hard from now on.

Eventually we were released, and proceded directly back to Syracuse and the Dinosaur BBQ, where a bartender at least 10 years younger than I am carded me when I ordered a beer. I showed him my passport and thanked him for cheering me back up. :)

* Mooses dressed like Mounties. Very cute.
** And wow, did I feel like a nerd when I realized normal people don't have thoughts like that.
*** Unless the "single payer" they advocate is the person receiving the care or their legal guardian. I don't mind that sort of system at all.

Wordless Wednesday

We're Number Four!

Maxim Magazine picks Syracuse as worst football team in the BCS

Iowa State fans everywhere rejoice, as for once, it's not us.

Wordless Wednesday

41st IBCT Update

My brother's unit arrived in Iraq last Tuesday. On Friday a report about three servicemen killed in Basra, no names given totally freaked me out...until I got home from work, accessed my e-mail, got out a map, and realized he was actually hundreds of miles away. Spent the weekend feeling really stupid. I need a big black-and-white outline map of Iraq to color in provinces and label cities, like you do with the U.S. in grade school (or used to, anyway).

Chatted with him on Facebook for an hour or so tonight, mostly about Star Trek (don't ask). Here's a photo of him (bald spot and glasses, he says) and some of his fellow soldiers hanging out in Kuwait.

Everything's been quiet so far--he says "war is boring"--and it can just stay that way as far as I'm concerned. :)

Heh heh heh.

It's worse than I thought.

I'm pretty much Bob here (except I couldn't find a quote in WI less than $420/mo, even explicitly requesting pregnancy not be included, and that's waaaaaaay more than I spend out of pocket in a year)--I'm going to be fined a couple months' rent and still have no health insurance (which is not the same as "no health care"...but that confisicated money would certainly come in handy when I see a doctor or a dentist, assholes).

Worse, if I start making more money and decide to purchase health insurance, insurers won't be allowed to sell it to me. The public option is the ONLY option.*

How the hell am I a criminal requiring punishment for not purchasing a product no one is legally allowed to sell to me?!

I got "unfriended" on Facebook this week when I pointed out to someone complaining that his doctor's office charged him for filling out and mailing some paperwork that office overhead needed to process his request--the woman who took his call, the woman who dug out his records (and/or the computer system that holds his records--for a one-doc practice, that software run high six-figures) and copied his info into the form, the phone, the copier, the electricity, the postage to mail his paperwork, not to mention the malpractice insurance--was not free. Apparently this guy is one of those assholes who thinks doctors and their staff should be providing their services to him for free, at a loss to themselves.

And that's where I'm getting stuck. How did we get to a point where everyone believes they deserve free services at a loss to everyone else, and believes punishing people who don't want to pay other people's way is just?

*Now taking bets on how long it will be before hospitals and clinics are legally forbidden from seeing uninsured patients in exchange for cash, thereby forcing everyone into buying the public option or leaving the country to be seen (or, in case of an emergency, being left to die on the street). If I was a doc with a private practice, I would totally be financing an MRI machine and relocating to the Bahamas.

Wordless Wednesday

So much for creating or saving

Congress steps up to deliver another job-killing, economy-stifling totalitarian regulatory bill to The Won for signing--and it will be pushed through partially-read so Nancy and Barry aren't late for their vacations, like that $787B fail in February was.

Imagine trying to explain to any Founder that the government is going to fine him percentage of his income unless he purchases a specific product (...and some of them will be fined anyway for the crime of "household income over the NFL league minimum").

Downtown Syracuse

Photowalk Saturday...started at the Erie Canal Museum, where I learned exciting stuff about Syracuse's place in history--the shot clock, traffic light, and Brannock Device were all invented here. Jokes aside, it's a lovely little museum--they have a nice exhibit of antique postcards of the canal, paintings by local artists, a replica barge, and a nice children's activity area.

Then a long walk around part of downtown (the parts not blocked off for the Blues Festival, which was fun until the thunderstorms), with some urban decay, some contemporary bizarro crap, and some fabulous preserved/restored Victorian building frosting, including gargoyles.

While researching some of the buildings, I came across the "Yestercuse" website, which chronicles how the 'cuse used to be a real city, and then it all went to hell starting in the 1960s, much like all the (one-party-controlled) high-tax government-strangled cities along the Great Lakes. Kind of confirming everything I've pieced together over the past three months:

Marvel at the glory that was Syracuse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mourn for the treasures lost over the decades to neglect, corruption, waste, incompetence and indifference.

Government blues

Was going to go downtown to take pictures this morning, stopped to see if there was anything interesting going on...turns out there is:

The mission of the New York State Rhythm & Blues Festival, Inc. is to preserve, protect and promote blues music and culture. This is achieved through education in school programs, community events, and workshops, culminating with the production of an outdoor festival uniting our diverse citizenry in a celebration of American blues-based music. The Syracuse, New York based festival entertains while educating on the role of the blues in the development of popular music in the United States and around the world.

Can't just "play some kickass music and have a good time downtown"--have to "educate" "diverse citizenry" blah blah buzzword gimme a grant!

(I'm also cranky I missed the craft beer festival last night, 'cause I didn't know about it--but that's probably just as well because I don't have my designated driver out here this weekend.)

41st IBCT Update

I didn't take this photo, obviously. :)

The 41st IBCT is still doing some training in Kuwait.

The Iowa Army National Guard 186th Military Police Company was deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and again in 2007.

Wordless Wednesday

A propos of nothing

The national attention span has really dwindled in the past 25 years, hasn't it...

Holy !*#&$(!

I finally get offline/no media (except SportsCenter this morning...) for 30 hours or so, and all hell breaks loose.

I figure Steyn is right, as usual, and I just feel sick and sad. And I hope it's not because of something about Trig's health.

Sigh.

My first NY wedding was lovely and fun. Friend's bride is a total sweetheart, wedding was sweet, resort and meal were fabulous. The fire alarm went off during the cocktail hour and the hotel had to be evacuated--so they just had their picture taken with the fire truck (false alarm, thank God). *grin* And my best moved-from-Milwaukee friends were there, we had a great time.

Still homesick, but less depressed. Onward.

Read the whole thing, as they say

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

I'm bummed because I'll be going to a wedding this weekend instead of getting to go to a tea party, or even more forts and battlefields. The peach-fuzzed infantryman at Ft. Stanwix who spent a good half hour showing me assorted light and heavy weaponry (alas, not letting me try them out...) mentioned that for the Fourth they read out the Declaration twice, just like people used to do in civic celebrations of the past.

There had better be an open bar...

Wordless** Wednesday*

* I stole the concept of Wordless Wednesday from the textile arts blogs. I stopped reading them altogether when I realized there were only two on my list that didn't feature cartoony stitched shrines to Obama every entry...who needs that garbage?

**These words don't count.

I am depressed.

Walt Whitman, "Song of the Road":

From this hour, freedom!
From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute,
Listening to others, and considering well what they say,
Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.

I inhale great draughts of space;
The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.

...until this time next year, when gas is $10/gal and everything made or grown or sold in America has sky-rocketed in price, including little tin cans with golf-cart engines. And I'm in a camp somewhere for treason or terrorism or just being too fat.

Everything comes down to I just can't believe how fucking stupid people are.

Pvt. Joel Taylor

I got an e-mail this afternoon from my brother, during a layover in Leipzig en route to Kuwait. So the 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry Regiment, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Oregon Army National Guard is on their way.

At the family reunion last week, someone finally got around to getting me a picture (never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tape drives minivan full of CDs). I believe it's from when my folks went out for the mobilization ceremony in May.



We're dorks, but we're patriotic dorks, dammit.

Got some spare cash?

Move America Forward will take it to send care packages to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I've already donated myself--wouldn't it be a riot if my brother or one of his squad* got my box? :)

I couldn't care less about the (unconfirmed as of this writing, but burning up Twitter) death of Michael Jackson, but the Gold Star Mothers and other essays at Big Hollywood today have me bawling like a baby. Totally the opposite of 95% of American society. I need to stop thinking about that or I'll never settle down enough to sleep tonight.

* They're in Ft. Stewart, GA, and will be shipping out to Iraq "any day now." I'll let y'all know when I find out.

Senseless.

The head football coach at Aplington-Parkersburg, Ed Thomas, has been shot and killed by a former player in a weight room at the high school, in front of a couple dozen current players. Very shocking, very sad...

I'm more of an avenger than an empathizer. To me it looks like another data point for allowing licensed and permit-ed teachers to carry to work--I don't know if Coach Thomas would have chosen to do so, but why should the state make his decision for him*?--and to commenters at the Des Moines Marxist-Register the perp is simultaneously an evil right-wing nut (because he had a gun) and an obvious victim of abuse (because high school football is the same as child abuse, duh!). Don't ever read the comments.

The part that intrigues me is the perp was arrested for a minor crime spree over the weekend and instead of being jailed until bail was posted, he was turned over to a local hospital for a mental health eval--apparently they concluded he wasn't dangerous to anyone, because they released him after 72 hours and didn't bother to notify the arresting agency. Nice work.

* I thought had a post from last summer asking the same question with regard to women in Wisconsin whose ex-husbands promised to kill them, then followed through, but I can't find it. Sigh.

P.S. to the Obamas

This is how you eat ice cream.




My thanks to nephew "Dewey" (of Huey, Dewey, and Louie) for the demonstration. :)

Compare, contrast.

From last week: Michelle Obama lies with impunity to gin up fear about the "obesity crisis" among children, so we all feel warm and fuzzy about her husband and Congress taking over every aspect of our lives, right down to what we're allowed to feed our own children.

From the weekend: Michelle's husband and children eat ice cream.

Other than their father being crowned a god-king by the American media, how are Sasha and Malia any different from any other child in America?

I suppose this isn't any different than sending the children to private schools while insisting other parents should not be allowed that choice...I'm no longer fazed by self-appointed aristocracy living lives they would forbid everyone else--restrictions on food and fuel, sumptuary laws for the 21st century--but I'm getting more and more fed up with the people who clamor to be ruled by these tyrannical hypocrites. The hell is wrong with you people?!?! Can you honestly not see what they're doing here?!?

I'll be damned.

Turns out Iowa really *is* flat. All those years, I never noticed...and then today I about fell asleep on U.S. 30 between Cedar Rapids and Tama.



View from my great-grandparents' farm.

Mildly crappy weekend due to travel re-arrangements beyond my control; missed the Rose Festival, but popped into Watson's Grocery and bought a pictorial history with a picture of my grandmother in elementary school (and had a nice chat with some octogenarian friends of the family and the guy who bids up all the State Center postcards on eBay...). And my niece and nephews are all here for the weekend in one sticky herd, which is fun.

All the buildings on Main Street that were empty when I was a child have stuff in them now; I'll have to come back sometime when there's nothing going on and just hang out.

(I would have taken an extra day off if I'd known about this.)

President Rimmer

So this afternoon I read Jim Geraghty's posts about Obama promising to sit down and have tea with Achmadinejad despite the regime's wholesale election fraud and slaughter of protesters (that second linked post is particularly disturbing). Then I was looking up some quotes from Red Dwarf, and found the following:

Rimmer: Look, just because it's an armor-plated alien killing machine that salivates unspeakable slobber, doesn't mean it's a bad person. What we've got to do is get it round a table, and put together a solution package, perhaps over tea and biscuits.

So I looked up the scene, and holy crap, O really is Rimmer (the guy with the metal H on his head, for those of you unfamiliar with the awesomeness that is Red Dwarf):



Scary shit.

Funny because it's true...

Despite the list of policies/actions I disagreed with, I miss him.

Happy Flag Day

Yet Another Porkulus Fail

The waste, the fraud, the whole un-thought-through-ness of signing a bill no one even read...it's been obvious for months now that the stated purpose of the "stimulus" bill as creating jobs was at best a joke and more likely a lie, but another data point to hammer it home...

New York state expects to spend 84 percent of its $26 billion in federal money on Medicaid, unemployment benefits, school aid, nutrition, public health programs, one-time Social Security payments, Head Start, college grants, and other social and school support.

I'm not sure whether to call it a "wealth transfer" or "welfare bloat"--it's waste AND fraud!--but it looks like the only jobs created will be in the bureaucracy and social-work industries.

I mention this because it's borrowed federal dollars--aka, the money they'll be taking from me for the rest of my working life, no matter where I live. And you, too, if you're stupid enough to be working and/or have retirement investments instead of collecting government checks...

Well, I'm useless in a Revolution...

Went to Fort Ontario today. When greeted at the entrance by an English sentry with a bayonet and informed the fort was under the control and protection of the King and all who enter it declare their loyalty to His Majesty by doing so, first thing out of my mouth was, "Uh...sure..." Hey, I'd just paid four New York-issued dollars to the guy at the ticket table...I did not, at least, sign a paper pledging my loyalty to the crown, despite being offered a photocopy of a schilling for doing so.

The laugh of the day came right before the "demonstration of battle" (not a re-enactment of a specific battle). When a member of the British 24th Regiment was exhorting the crowd gathered on the ramparts to cheer for the "good guys" shouted--"We're here to protect you! We're trying to save you from that Congress!" a older guy in a red-white-and-blue tie-dyed shirt with five-pointed stars yelled back "You're too late!" Cheering all around.

I will upload pictures later, but this is too good not to share immediately:



Heh!

Gather ye Timbits while ye may

I've been too depressed to blog lately, because everything I do has an undercurrent of "this will be the last summer I get to do this." Eat donuts, drive in a car on a Sunday while listening to podcasts of radio shows, eat at small local diners, have a beer when I get home...

Everything I do is about to be outlawed, fined, or taxed until it no longer exists.

But according to the people making these changes, if I wanted to have unprotected sex with a different stranger every night, that would be my right as an American, and the government should provide me with all the antibiotics, anti-depressants, HIV cocktails, I might need (and free housing, food, education, and medical care for any spawn). WTF!?

It's like a badly-written dystopian sci-fi, except it's all real.

Off to Wegmans for more Harpoon.

Biggest Hide Ever Tanned in Milwaukee

There was some good stuff at the postcard show.

This one's for the ladies...

ThePeoplesCube features some feminist protection. I assume these will be free to all womyn under Obamacare.

By free I mean "women with jobs and/or husbands with jobs are going to be taxed to the point they have to ask for 'em because they can't even afford store-brand", but you knew that.

Oz

Got a slow start this morning due to migraine, so opted for Oz-stravaganza (closer, later in day). Now I remember why I don't go to small-town festivals--I always come home feeling like Sayyid Qutb (that I actually thought of Qutb while waiting for the parade frightens me). I haven't seen so many 350-lb people since the last family reunion I attended, but we have the good sense not to leave the house wearing only camisoles and short-shorts (especially the men). And then the pregnant teenagers/teenage mothers smoking on the sidewalk and covered with tattoos (easily visible when you're half-naked)--how can they afford cigarettes and tattoos!?!? Also spent some time wondering how 300-lb women with mullets and no teeth have babies and I don't...maybe I was just too picky with my dating requirements back in the day ("basic hygiene" and "literacy"--shameful snobbishness).

Cranky old maid ranting aside, the festival was disappointing--the parade was short, the "history tent" mostly empty--but I had a nice lunch, and there were a lot of cute kids in costume.

So I'm really bummed I couldn't get up earlier and gone to see Sarah Palin. Although better than a short speech in a crowd would have been to be at the Women's Rights National Park* yesterday when she was there. I'm impressed at the ignorance of the people insisting she's some sort of hypocrite for being interested in the first-wave feminists--Elizabeth Cady Stanton had seven kids, including a change-of-life baby, and Susan B. Anthony opposed abortion and once voted (illegally) for Republicans. I bet Gov. Palin had all sorts of interesting things to say there!

* I visited in 2005, and may again; it's open year-round so I'm not in a hurry. In addition to abolition and women's rights, the first-wave feminists were also anti-alcohol, and that's where we part ideological ways, but other than that I find them quite inspiring.

Meanwhile, in East Syracuse...

What to do this Saturday? I was originally planning to hit the Oz-stravaganza in L. Frank Baum's hometown of Chittenango--hit the craft show, eat some fried festival crap, see some original movie Munchkins (I preferred the books as a child, but hey, Oz). OTOH, Sarah Palin will be speaking in Auburn, at a festival honoring the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood (the Seward of "Seward's Folly" was born there). The towns are far enough apart I won't be able to see both parades, and the special tickets to have your photo taken with Gov. Palin are sold out...

(I had considered driving up to Ontario, where Red Green is having book signings, but he's doing it again next weekend.)

I will probably flip a coin tomorrow night after Taste of Syracuse (I would probably rather sit home alone sewing while listening to the Brewers, but I was invited and I can feel all this time alone without even a cat to talk to making me weirder than usual).

Sunday there's a postcard show in Oswego; don't know if the vendors out here will have the stuff I collect (places I've lived in the Midwest) but there's always something to see at a postcard show.

And I still haven't uploaded my photos from last weekend's excursion to the Sodus Bay Lighthouse Museum.

The other guy on my project at work who was laid off in MKE with me (they laid off 30 more yesterday...) hasn't left the metro area since he got here. He watches TV and plays video games on weekends, and doesn't seem interested in anything else. I don't know how people live like that.

Cyberthreats to Air Traffic Control

Came across this, dated last month, while looking up something else at work today:

Federal investigators were able to hack into an air traffic control tower, weather systems and traffic flow management computers as part of a wide-ranging cyber security audit of the US FAA's air traffic control infrastructure.

Yeah. GREAT.

I had no idea critical safety systems were linked to the Internet at large; and I feel like I incorrectly intimated that there were no electronic terrorists threats in my post last week. My apologies; I've been doing more reading than posting lately, and it looks like I need to do even more reading.

There's scary stuff out there, but Obama's proposal to give an appointed bureaucrat access to every privately-owned network in America (and to tell private enterprises what software they can and can't have installed by only bureaucrat-approved geeks) is still fascistically bad and wrong. And I stand by my assessment that Obama's not interested in protecting critical infrastructure that can be accessed via meatspace (even more so after this morning's "America sucks" speech to the "Muslim world"), and even less interested in improving "technology education" by insisting progenitors* actually care for their own damn children instead of leaving it to the state.

The ATC security audit was requested by Republicans John Mica and Tom Petri (WI-6). I find that interesting.

* I'm trying to distinguish between actual parents, and the people who fuck a baby into being but don't let it cramp their sex-and/or-drugs party lifestyle, then all of a sudden when they can't read in eighth grade or get arrested shortly thereafter get pissed at "the schools" or "the system" for "not teaching them right." Because I'm like that.

News you can use

It's not just Accordian Awareness Month, it's the twentieth anniversary of Accordian Awareness Month.

Free advice for small local historical societies

If you're going to go through all the bother and expense of having a website, please put the days and hours you are open somewhere on that site. And if your site lists a phone number, your answering machine should list the days and hours you are open. "We are on our winter hours" does not help the tourist who has never been to your village--doesn't have a reason to go there, since you didn't give her one.

(And what's the deal with opening sites on June 1 instead of Memorial Day weekend?)

Meanwhile and unrelated: Onondaga County has a frost advisory for tomorrow morning. I realise frost at this time of year sucks for the miles of orchards south of town (and the Weather Service lies), but if this is "global warming", I want more of it!

Alright, now I have to find something else to do indoors--contra the Weather Service, I was awakened by heavy rain--that's actually open before June 1.

Ignorant AND Arrogant...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is calling digital security a top priority, whether it's guarding the computer systems that keep the lights on in the city and direct airliners to the right runway or those protecting customers who pay their bills online.

Yeah, because in forty years, none of the nation's engineers or IT professionals or corporate lawyers ever gave electronic security a thought. Thanks, Barry! (I thought health care was a top priority...no, saving[sic] the planet is our highest...no, the economy is paramount...no, "racial justice"...if everything's a priority, Barry, nothing is.)

I'm not sure how much I can say about the runway traffic product I'm working on right now, but I can assure you that to gain access, a terrorist would need employee-level access to the airport. Admittedly, illegal aliens and members of extremist mosques have been able to accomplish this at O'Hare and Detroit, but that's a meatware issue. And I can tell you that the last computer system that "direct[s] airliners to the right runway" was amply secure--to access it, a terrorist would have to be in the cockpit. Again, they could infiltrate the airport by applying for a job, but again, that's not an issue with the software.

The part about "protecting customers" is cute, though. "I wanna keep people from stealing your money because your money belongs to the me."

while depicting the U.S. as a digital nation that needs to provide the education required to keep pace with technology

Also meatware. Look at MPS's fluency and truancy rates. Can't hack Linux if you can't read or do arithmetic; can't learn to read if the people who bring you into being don't care enough to consistently take you to school and provide you with a home environment conducive to learning--stable, quiet at night, expect you to do sleep and study instead of watching TV all night, etc.

But I suspect this is all slight-of-hand covering the Gleichschaltung.

Random stuff.

Had a good time in Cooperstown, once we got there. Apparently I do not posess the ability to drive around scarps and drumlins in a hailstorm. The Hall of Fame was excellent (I enjoyed the Racing Sausages, the Hank Aaron exhibit, and the asterisk ball), and Monday morning the town had a Veteran's Day parade (which included some Canadians, although I don't know why because their float was in French) and a ceremony outside the VFW (which meets in an awesome 18th-century brick building) with a 21-gun salute.

In a fit of multiculturalism, we hit a Belgian craft brewery, and the beer was good. Was amused by an Obama tapper in the sample room. I suppose the brewery may not completely go out of business from Obama's business taxes, the cost of his increased business regulations, or even his special federal tax designed to diminish sales of their product, since they're wholly owned by a foreign company (were purchased by Duvel in 2002), but I found it ironic all the same.

Was a sunny cool day, so we took a long way back, and somewhere on I-81 between Birmingham and Syracuse we saw a big-ass painted plywood DRILL HERE DRILL NOW sign in a pasture. I really do feel right at home outside of the metro areas--except for driving where it's not flat--much like in OH and WI; it's really too bad Albany and NYC (and SYR, and BUF...) are taking the whole state down the shitter.

Unrelated...I've been reading a lot of software development blogs, so I may have something to say about that at some point. It's such a meritocratic field, and yet it's populated by so many Marxists...I don't understand, but I want to blame Linux.

Disturbing Thought for the Day

Federal law requires that gifts to the POTUS--that he and Worf's cousin don't decide to purchase from the government to keep--be transferred to the National Archives, until they can be transferred to the appropriate presidential library.

They're going to end up with a warehouse full of bras and panties (and boxers, although eventually gays might figure out he doesn't care about them enough to risk the larger black vote by doing anything they want him to do) tossed on stage by bobby-soxers.

And untreated delusional schizophrenics get to vote, just like us. Probably more often than us, since the nice volunteers at ACORN are filling out their ballots for them.

(On the bright side, think of how pissed Bill Clinton must be...he had to send law enforcement out to round up his action, and Barry's action comes to him.)

Memorial Day Again

Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend, and whatever else looks interesting in Otsego County.

Memorial Day

Photo taken last month at the Veteran's Memorial Park in Mansfield, PA.

Waterloo, NY is "sanctioned by the U.S. Government" as the birthplace of Memorial Day--apparently the Confederate ladies decorating graves during the war don't count 'cause they lost--and to pay tribute to those who gave their lives for our country, they're having a pizza-eating contest. (The solemn commemoration of the dead is on Decoration Day, May 30, which starts with a church service and looks kind of interesting, actually).

Memorial Day makes me miss my grandmother (the one with five brothers in the Pacific in WWII), who hauled us all out to the cemetery for the VFW ceremony every spring and bought paper poppies everytime she went to the grocery store. Which I realize is missing the whole point, but I think underscores the effects of family on people's values--most people my age and younger (at least, the ones I come in regular contact with) couldn't care less about American history or honoring veterans.

Starting tomorrow all the battlefields and other historic sites around New York are open for the summer; my inner American history nerd is like a kid with a $10 bill waiting for the candy store to open ("OK, I can get six of these and one of those...or five of those and three of these...").

I'm starting to like Lake Ontario

Today's shameful waste of energy on *gasp* non-essential travel: Chimney Bluffs State Park, which is like nowhere I've been before. (There's a freeze warning for SYR tonight; Al Gore and his disciples can kiss my fat white ass.)



The county roads between the lake and SYR look a lot like Wisconsin--tractors, spotted cows, rolling hills, farmhouses, yards full of broken appliances and vehicles on blocks, etc--except many of the buildings and Main Streets are 75-100 years older. Not surprising when you realize the landscape of both places was formed during the last glaciation. Wonder what it will look like around here during this next one...

Taxes have consequences

I liked this story from the local news here in CNY:

Billionaire businessman Tom Golisano is moving out. Citing high taxes, the three-time gubernatorial candidate and founder of Paychex is planning to move to a place where he won't have to pay taxes on his huge income.

It’s typically a place for the snowbirds from the northeast, but now the state of Florida is about to become the home of one of New York State’s best-known billionaires.

Golisano says he is paying nearly $14,000 a day in income taxes, and enough is enough.

“That kind of money can be put to really good use. I don't need money to play with, but say just for charitable giving or politics and lobbying to get something done. But, just to turn it over to New York state with the level of irresponsibility of the state?” Golisano told Rochester’s 13WHAM.

And look what the "greedy" rich guy is doing with the fruits of his labors:

Golisano's charitable foundation has distributed $12 million in grants on top of millions of dollars in other gifts to hospitals, Catholic schools, and charities.

I wonder if he'll keep donating to the local children's hospital--I suspect he will. Here's a link to his foundation.

Guess which cat voted for Barry O...

(Yes, I know cats refuse to vote for people.)

Idiots.

Yesterday I saw this bit about a baggage cart operator falling down on the job. I've been thinking about it at work today while I try to make sense of the math involved in predicting runway incursions. I had a professor back at engineering school who told us not to bother making every design completely idiot-proof, because nature is constantly designing bigger idiots.

I'm also mulling over the clip I accidentally heard this morning of Obama speaking at ASU, exhorting students not to pursue their own dreams of success if they involve a nice house, a respected occupation, producing goods or services that improve the lives of others, or enough money to take care of yourself instead of waiting for the government to do it, but instead to pursue his dream of them becoming servants of the state.

But...what if my professor is correct, and no matter how clever President Camacho* there thinks his system is, there are enough idiots out there to screw it all up?

We're probably all doomed, since the vast majority of idiots are eager to fuck themselves over doing his bidding, but maybe there's a little tiny nanovolt LED of hope.

* Everytime he takes a podium, he gives the audience a hearty "fuck you." Best analogy yet.

Get the popcorn...

Janeane Garofalo, call your office:

A group of Hispanic religious leaders is planning an anti-gay marriage rally on Sunday outside the Manhattan office of Gov. David Paterson.

...I assume they're doing it on Sunday so they can go directly from church and/or won't have to miss work, but I'm pretty sure a) Paterson won't be there and b) the real fight is in the Assembly.

Me, I'm sick of the whole damn thing. I'd almost say give it to 'em, if I thought it would shut the !$&! bigot gay activists up, but they don't actually want to be married* (other than to mooch health and retirement benefits, which they could accomplish with a civil union, and to join the privileged class of "married people" without having to go through the hassle of convincing your beard it's a good idea). They just want to force everyone to admire and approve of them, probably because their parents don't, and when that doesn't fill the holes in their souls they'll be back throwing hate-filled tantrums for some new "right" we haven't imagined. Why settle for "equality under the law" when you can get money and privilege?

"Equality under the law" is for chumps like myself.

Tangent: Hispanic population of NYC by origin (pdf). I was pretty sure Puerto Ricans were the largest group, and now I know. Dominicans are a strong second. Although wouldn't it be nice if it didn't matter?

* I'm not sure I believe the "it will destroy marriage" argument, since civil marriage has already been destroyed by no-fault divorce and government subsidy of illegitimacy (more fatherless babies = more money, more programs, more attention...). But I agree with the "Canada and the EU ended up getting polygamy based on gay marriage, and polygamy is a feature of totalitarian Third World hellholes" argument, and the "even ancient Greece, where homosexuality was a celebrated part of public life and heterosexual sex was a household chore, held that marriage was between a man and a woman" arguments, and I especially like the "government can't force churches to do things that go against their beliefs" argument. I realize the government won't get out of marriage altogether and allow me equal status under the law, so avoiding Third World societies with state-mandated churches is the next best thing.

And now for something completely different

Yesterday my friend Joe and I went down to Ithaca. Same route I took coming up last month, but this time I got to look around while wolfing down Timbits. We got lost trying to find Buttermilk Falls, but picked up Robert H. Treman SP for the win. Did some hiking in the rain up to Lucifer Falls, which is 115 feet high. And on the trail, we met a guy wearing a Brewers shirt, completely dispelling Joe's theory that I am the only person in the state of New York who cares about the Brewers. Hah!

Next to Ithaca Commons, a douchebag hotspot like the Iowa City ped mall or Madison's State Street but without the panhandlers or empty storefronts (the Earth will not be destroyed if you shower once or even twice a week, I promise). We had some sushi and I bought a carved black cat box at Handwork, the local craft coop, conveniently located across the street from the live sex shows. Reminded me a bit of Portland OR.

And here's some charming graffiti on a bank at the Commons:

You know where spray paint comes from? Capitalism!

Last night we went to a local sports bar, where they turned on "the Cubs game" for us (I was offended, although I got over it pretty quickly), and I enjoyed Harpoon UFO Raspberry Hefeweizen, which was even better than the regular UFO I picked up last week. So now I know where to head when the playoff race heats up...

Biden Syracuse speech liveblog

I was flipping channels to see what's out there, and the Syracuse U graduation is live on the local ABC affiliate. Joe Botox has just been introduced. No one's laughing at his jokes.

Some blather about Mother's Day; no mention of his first wife, Syracuse native, or their child; a man-bashing joke.

Now he's started screaming about how horrible Vietnam vets were, and glorifying the student occupation of the campus when he was student. Students are glaring and rolling their eyes. On and on about how horrible the world was in 1968, and his generation was so shafted, but they knew they could change the world (thanks for nothing, guys). Yeah, these kids spent a hundred thousand dollars and 4-5 years of their lives to listen to Joe Biden talk about himself.

Now he's telling how he ended the Vietnam war by bullying Henry Kissinger.

And now, you kids inherit a shitty, ruined world (although we '68-ers didn't actual ruin it with our violent, society-altering changes, mind you), including "planet in peril!!"--my ass--

Now he's likening the class to a car wreck--they can further destroy the world with one wrench of the steering wheel. It's up to you!!!

"And the pessmists might point out we cannot guarantee exactly what our change might deliver." No, but I'm pretty sure I have a good idea...

Pan to students yawning, gossiping, texting.

Some sort of blathering about how individuals aren't important...inspiring!

"That's why Barack and I ran." Oh God, that's funny.

Now he's plagiarizing John Lennon...imagine this, imagine that, clean energy, "invest in every child from age three", guaranteeing free college to every 18-year-old regardless of ability, guaranteeing free health care to every person--kids applaud, obviously they don't realize they're going to paying for it--"imagine a country not destroyed by petty ideology"--give me a fucking break--more blather about socialist ideals and lyrics--"that's what you demanded of us in this last election"--really?--"They tell us this is all beyond us, beyond our scope: where they hell have they been?"--reading the Constitution, probably--fervently reassuring the crowd that the Constitution be damned, they will do these things because the American people want it--sadly true--

Joe is "more optimistic now than [he] has ever been in his whole life because of you Syracuse graduates." Now he's bitching that our soldiers in Iraq are "mostly under 30"--didn't see you volunteering, asshole--Pimping AmeriCorps--that'll pay back those six figures in loans--more pseudo-inspiring blather, plagiarizing someone--"if not now, when?"

Pan to parents looking bored and annoyed.

Blah blah, change the world, "it cannot sustain itself in the direction its going now"--the direction you and Barack have turned it, asshole--more lying about Amtrak, insinuation that the National Guard is racist--some asinine applause line I missed because I was getting a lecture from my houseguest about how Biden loves America--hope, mis-applied MLK quote about justice, usual blather about what a great place the school is for giving him an honorary degree

Conclusion--he's grateful for the chance to talk about himself, congratulations, "God Bless Our Troops" (Heather: "They're going to need Him with you and Barack in charge"), go party!

Heather gets up for a beer.

They're presenting an honorary degree to the guy who coined the phrase "frail elderly"--I want to see him get hit upside the head with a straw handbag by Estelle Getty--and an honorary degree for the "journalistic achievements" of liar Seymour Hersh.

Houseguest: "You know, there's paid programming for the Shamwow on one of those other channels."

Excellent idea!

Iowahawk strikes again

(Sexual content warning)

A Statement from the Speaker of the House


I will have real things to say tomorrow--my friend from Pittsburgh is here and we're about to go looking for the Brewers game and Canadian beer.

Old Maids with Cats

That's a whole lot of Satan's Little Helpers. Who, BTW, is doing just fine without me back in Milwaukee, the rotten beast. *sniff*

Fiberart For a Cause

If you have some extra cash you'd like to give to the American Cancer Society, please purchase a fiber-art collage--ready for framing--now through 5 p.m. CDT Thursday, May 7. All collages are a minimum $80 donation (they will take more!) until 10 a.m. tomorrow (May 6), when the minimum donation becomes $40 each, and will be shipped to you from the artist.

I didn't make anything this year--fear of rejection, the exemplars shown with the call for entries were intimidatingly awesome--so don't look for my name. But go take a look anyway...Mother's Day is Sunday...

More Indy 500 likage

I would totally go down to Watkins Glen in July to cheer for Dan Wheldon if I hadn't already agreed to watch on of the guys I used to drink beer and watch sports with in MKE get married in Rochester that weekend:

Dan Wheldon's Indy 500 car will be painted with National Guard ACU digital camo.

I could do without Dick Vitale, but it's May, so I'm a little Indysick. Begin the thawing of Jim Nabors!*

* Heh heh. Heh.

How...imperial.

Remember when the Taliban destroyed pre-Islamic Buddha statues so future generations wouldn't know there was any religion in Afghanistan before Mohammed, and liberals were (rightly) outraged at "erasing" history so it wouldn't interfere with official government propaganda?

White House Permanently Deletes Bush-Era Twitter Archive

Presumably, destroying White House records violates some sort of law about national archives, but hell, no one cared when Clinton officials did it, so why start now?

The actual content has been permanently erased. So if you're a Communication scholar or historian studying early Presidential uses of social media technologies, you're screwed. Because fuck you that's why.

I've been wondering what it will be like to be an historian in a hundred years--if they will mistakenly think the contemporary newspapers are a reliable primary source of information about 2009 (especially "papers of record" like that NY Times) because that's what they learned from their historical research methods professors. The media's [insert sexual metaphor here, I'm too tired to think one up] of Obama and the Marxist left is going to have repercussions well past our lifetimes, even if they don't manage to "completely remake America" over in the next 3.6 years.

Hah!

"Bag check! We have another sausage search!"

Save yourself some time when you travel: take your beef/pork sausage out of your carry-on and put it in one of those little dog dishes they use for watches, keys, chains, etc. You'll have to wait while they check it for explosives anyway, but you won't have to wait for them to root through your whole bag.

(The screener at MKE knew what it was from the X-ray silhouette; I'm not sure if that makes me feel safer or not.)

In which I solve budget deficits again, albeit temporarily

There's a ton of money to made by some level of government if they just listen to me:

1) Send cops to the General Parking lots at Miller Park about an hour before home games. The anti-cruising task force would be well-suited.
2) Write tickets for underage drinking/serving to minors, drunk-n-disorderly, vandalism, etc.
3) Continue while people are stumbling back to their cars after the game and throwing beer bottles at passers-by.
4) Profit.

A DUI checkpoint, with big buses to hold people for mass processing later, could be helpful, but I think DUI costs more to prosecute than the fine, and we're trying to make money here.

Somehow yesterday we got funneled into the worthless twit section of the parking lot at Miller Park. While initially there was something amusing about hipster douchebags at a sporting event, they wore thin quickly. On the plus side, they were disgusted by old fat people in reclining camp chairs quietly eating bratwurst within visual range of their so-cool garbage cans of jungle juice.

Someone needs to explain to the state's Democrats that underage drinkers and chronic alcoholics don't drink just beer; if they're actually serious about collecting revenue (instead of just wanting to punish people for liking hops), there are better ways to do it.

Enemies Foreign and Domestic

My brother sends this photo from wherever he is in California getting some sort of Army training (yeah, I'm a civilian...) of "Jihadist squirrel trying to steal [his] weapon."

Had an...interesting...conversation at an art class tonight. While we were drawing (well, everyone else was drawing, I was making pencil marks that resembled nothing in front of me) one of the middle-aged women (a quilter, too) kept up a non-stop monologue about her life and travels. She segued from London to Vietnam to Iraq, and how happy she was Obama was elected, which led to "As soon as John McCain said we were going to be at war for a hundred years I knew we couldn't let him win. But Obama's going to stop the war." And dammit, I paid too much money for that class to sit and listen to crap like that for eight weeks.

When she paused for breath, I said--calmly and politely, because I spent too much money on the class to get kicked out on the first night--"He might not get a chance. The other side might not want to quit fighting." And from the look on her face, I got the feeling that it had never once occurred to her that wars don't end without an agreement by both sides (capitulation is a form of agreement...)

She said "I guess there have been wars that have lasted a hundred years," and moved on.

Later she had to mention how she hates Sarah Palin, but changed the subject to quilts when I said, "Really? I like her, she's everything I wanted to be when I was a kid." Heh.

I noticed this six months ago, but DAMN. It is truly impossible to be out in public and not have total strangers start worshipping Obama and/or bashing conservatives and expect everyone in the room to chime in. And I know I'm not alone; Jay Nordlinger at NRO has written several columns and posted a lot of reader e-mail to the same effect.

Although--I hope I didn't just jinx myself--the company I'm working has been safe so far. My desk is in an area away from engineers and populated by people who want to be management when they grow up, so I've heard all sorts of Machiavellian machinations for power and every detail of this one sales guy's girlfriend's first 11 weeks of gestation except the position they were in at conception (sweet Michelle's biceps, that man never shuts up), but not one bit of politics. It's a nice change from the last six months of my last job.

Sweet!

Disabled American Veterans (DAV), the non-profit organization dedicated to helping wounded veterans, will be honored by a special flyover of two vintage B-25 Mitchell bombers at the 2009 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on Sunday, May 24.

. . .
While modern military aircraft are standard for such flyovers, IMS chose the venerable B-25 "War Dog" as a symbol of the courage and can-do spirit of our veterans and active duty military throughout history.

I like this. I like this a lot.

Torture...

Who believes any of those children actually want to meet Joe Biden? Seriously?

I'm skipping the monthly lecture to the serfs--technical difficulties, mein Führer, the rabbit ears seem to have been disconnected...

Kathy Shaidle: "Difference between Obama blathering on and on, and waterboarding, is that waterboarding gave us important information..."

Whoops.

I have to have a background check done by the FAA, including my travel and associations for the last seven years, fingerprints, and mental health records. It's not the same as a military clearance, but it seems almost as invasive. I completely understand the national security implications of letting the wrong people have access to technical data about aviation electronics (look what happens when you let untrustworthy individuals have access...).

...but DHS has already declared me a threat to national security, so this could end badly.

(I'm not actually against immigration; I'm against illegal entrance into the country and illegal residence regardless, but apparently that makes me just as bad.)

Semi-related, I finally got a paycheck and picked up the Mark Levin book; what sort of trouble will I be courting if I take it on my flights this weekend? I'm still in the "rise" part of The Rise And Fall of the Third Reich, but it's got a swastika on the cover, and I don't have the time/funds to deal with hypersensitive open-minded tolerance, so I haven't been taking it in public places. Sigh.

Announcement

I hearby declare myself the leading migrant button-pusher on climate change.

Please e-mail me if you need a sound bite.

PSA

May 11-17 is American Craft Beer Week. Have a Cow, man (except Amy :)

Still looking for good NY beers. I hit the Sunday Blues Brunch at the Empire Brewing Company a week ago; the food was good, the hefe-weizen was acceptable, and the waitress's entire chest was covered with black tattoos. I'll return, but perhaps not with my parents.

I have no idea how I missed Sackets Harbor Brewing Co. on Saturday. *mutter*

Backlash

Andrew Breitbart:

Unless the gay community polices itself better and registers its displeasure against these pitiful and selective acts of political retribution, many tolerant Americans who hold the same beliefs on marriage as Mr. Obama and the Dalai Lama are going to begin to register their displeasure at the voting booth and through consumer boycotts against those who employ or support the thuggish tactics of Perez Hilton and his ilk.

I'm already there (too bad I don't matter, eh?). The tipping point was the hatred spewed against Christians, "breeders", and old people, in celebration of the Iowa Supreme Court ruling. I refuse to tolerate bigotry and toddlerific tantrums.

Oh, and "Islam is a religion of mercy." Note the hermaphrodite being abused by police is wearing a cross necklace. I find that interesting.

Saturday

If I had known before today that Hank Aaron was in Cooperstown yesterday, I'd have gone there. The Hall of Fame is in my queue of things to do, along with the Farmers Museum, but I promised someone I'd save it until he could visit. Ho-hum.

Where I did go was Sackets Harbor, to the Seaway Trail Discovery Center, where I picked up promotional literature for places all around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway and learned to always have my passport with me if I head north, since a lot of the islands are Canada. There is also a battlefield from the War of 1812, but the barracks and other buildings are closed until June (like most everything I want to see...).

There was also an exhibition about a Dutch woman named An Keuning-Tichelaar, who was part of the Dutch Resistance to the Nazis. As a Mennonite, she would do no violence, but she hid Jews in her house, smuggled ration books, and other errands. After the occupation was over, she cared for Ukranian refugees fleeing Communist persecution of Christians. The exhibition was centered around quilts made by Mennonites in North America to help these refugees, some of which An saved after the refugees left to resettle in Paraguay.

The quilts were unremarkable as quilts; they were mostly vehicles for the story, which seems kind of timely all of a sudden.

On the way home, I stopped at Robert G. Wehle State Park, along Lake Ontario. Its namesake was an artist and dog breeder who donated his estate to New York for a park. I got some nice pictures of Lake Erie, but I have a feeling you need a boat for the really stunning pictures of the limestone cliffs. Also collected some fossils aggregated in sandstone, and made a note to pick up my "Wildflowers of Eastern North America" book when I fly home next weekend.

Today I'm staying inside covered in aloe vera. I hate spring, summer, and sunlight.

Heh!

Graphic from the J-S Online.

They miss me.

Happy Lenin's Birthday!

A day of action to save the earth from farmers, ranchers, mining, timber, oil, chemical companies, and anyone else who seeks to utilize the earth's resources to enhance, enrich, and extend the lives of Americans and others worldwide.

Unrelated, but sparked by the People's Cube, why the hell does Michelle Obama wear so many clown bows? And not just when she's pretending she knows how to work a shovel...see here and here and here. Why on earth would any middle-aged woman want to dress like a John R. Neill illustration of Dorthy of Oz?

Huh.

Newton's really changed since the last time I drove through central Iowa. I don't remember any sort of mountains there...



No word on whether or not Obama apologized to the Newtonians for not speaking Canadian.

UPDATE: Sweet Michelle's biceps, it gets worse:

Holocaust Rememberance Day

I've been listening to the Syracuse classical music station (don't ask, I don't know) in the car and at night. Tonight they've been playing songs from composers killed in concentration camps, including the premiere American performance of Marcel Tyberg's Symphony No. 3. Tyberg left all his hand-written scores with a student before he was carted off to be killed; this particular symphony had to be copied from the originals to be performed.

I don't know enough about symphonic music to give an informed opinion, but I'm enjoying it. And enjoying a beer, in anticipation of being dragged off to Right-Wing Extremist/Planet-Destroying Fattie Death Camp. Sigh.

Quote of the Indeterminate Time Period

"American Revolutionary history...porn for conservatives!!!"

Celebrate Diversity!

except veterans, small-business owners, practicing Catholics, gun owners, talk-radio listeners, tea-party attendees, Texans, smokers, limited-government proponents, pro-lifers, taxpayers, NASCAR fans, Boy Scouts, oil-company employees, secure-border advocates, capitalists, global-warming agnostics, Cuban refugees, school-choicers . . .

He forgot meat eaters, people who don't want their health care rationed by a bureaucrat, beer drinkers, women who choose to have more than one child with a husband instead of by serial casual sex partners, anyone living outside an urban area especially in "undesirable" areas like the South and Midwest, and people who get migraines from !#*&!&! fluorescent light bulbs.

Well this is interesting...

The Obama administration is again delaying implementation of a rule that would require government contractors to verify the immigration status of their employees. Contractors won’t have to use the Homeland Security Department’s E-Verify system until June 30, according to a Federal Register notice published Friday.

The really interesting part is there were only six results when I searched Google News for "Obama e-verify", and they were publications dealing solely in government or HR news (I learned about it from an e-mail from NumbersUSA). Either the MSM hasn't picked it up--note it was released on a Friday, for maximum disinterest--or no one thinks it's worth reporting. I'll check back tomorrow.

Plaintiffs in the court case, which includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argue the rule violates the law by requiring government contractors to use a system that is voluntary for other employers.

Haven't we already seen this with TARP? If you want that sweet gubbament money, you gotta dance for it. Granted, these businesses are provided actual products or services for their money, but I'm sure they make custom arrangements to please customers every day.

Plaintiffs also claim the rule is too vague and will force contractors to verify all employees to avoid potential suspension and debarment, which would be a financial hardship.

I'm not sure where they pulled that from, as the law says very plainly that only new hires after the date--now June 30--should be verified. Sneak 'em in now, boys. Businesses shouldn't have to enforce the laws, the laws should be enforced at the border and by police at all levels--but I don't believe this is a real motivation.

Quasi-related, here's a sob story from a mainstream newspaper about a citizen "forced" to seek welfare after her illegally-resident Haitian husband was deported, 16 years after entry. I'm having a hard time mustering up sympathy--she had a choice whether or not she married and had babies with this specific man, she chose to not work while knowing her husband could be deported, etc.

OTOH, I want to know when he "applied for asylum" because if it's taking 16 years to decide asylum cases, that's too long. Since the guy left Haiti, Clinton deposed Aristide, then he came back, then he was permanently exiled, then his friend was elected...the outcome could have been different at any point. I suspect he only applied after an earlier investigation into his status.

"Deportation is no different than any law enforcement action,'' said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies. "If people are not self-sufficient as a consequence of a spouse breaking the law, that's not a good reason not to enforce the law.''

(I was going to imagine what our cities would be like if it was, but they're mostly not married...nevermind.)

And finally--Ace writes up this sort of phenomenon as "government program works as designed, media outraged":

Recently, the mother of two [a different mother] went to Family Central to get state assistance for child care. She was denied, she said, because the agency determined she earns too much as a medical assistant.

Yeah, damn shame you can't take advantage of a program designed for people less able to help themselves than you are. She then goes on to bitch about student loans and credit card debt. I can be sympathetic about the loans to a point--Did she take out extra to buy a cool laptop? Did she go to the local community college or a swank private school? Did she really need the degree for her job? If the loans are through the feds, did she ask for a hardship deferment?--but credit cards? That's all on you, honey. You used the items or enjoyed the meals or whatever with the understanding that you'd be expected to pay for them at some point...and now you want other people to pay for your childcare so you can make those payments? Grow up.

Further, note the article doesn't mention any men who can't function after their wives are deported. It would be interesting to know why this is--could they find none? Does the public not feel the same sympathy for men who make dumb choices?

(Full disclosure: I racked up five figures of CC debt traveling and buying stuff when I was in grad school, then spent the next five years being broke and trapped and bored to tears while every spare penny went to paying it off. So I understand how CC debt is crippling, but I also understand it's a choice people make. And my student loans were about the size of a house downpayment--but again, that was my stupid choice. You'll notice I don't complain about repayment, only about the ways government wants to manipulate the housing market and the economy, and tax my wages, ensuring I'll never be able in the future to save up a down payment or find a monthly repayment I can afford on my one--when I have a job, I'm seriously exploring fields that can't be offshored--income. Sigh.)

Looks like I got out just in time.

Getting kind violent on the North Shore. Eh, I'm still going back.

Update: Work is good so far, I'm learning useful new things. I've joined a gym so I can keep lifting weights, and I'm signed up for an amateur adult art class in two weeks. Not much time for political blogging--can barely keep up with the reading. This might just be a geology/history blog for awhile. I got a lot out of the Wisconsin version of Roadside Geology, so I bought the NY version.

Look, Lake Ontario!

There appears to have been a tea party out here, but the headlines go to Gov. Paterson deciding New York should have gay marriage (if you click on that tea party photo...I really hate seeing people staple stuff to an American flag. Disrespectful. Bah.).

...and the sales tax is 8%. WTF. Well, if my brother can spend a year in Iraq, I can spend six months in New York. :P

...and while I'm complaining

Some Communist git I know in real life told me I have "really bought a load of shit from the teabaggers." (I assume that's the tolerant open-mindedness they publicly congratulate themselves for having.)

Meanwhile, I'm at least 600 miles away from anyone who cares about me so I can earn a wage, most of which is going to be siphoned by government and given to people who can't even be bothered to read the paperwork after they've lied on mortgage application forms.

It must be really nice to have no sense of responsibilty.

Irony...

The Daily Kos has noticed that the Sadr militia--I assume the same Sadr militia that Kos support in their effort to liberate Iraq from evil imperialist soldiers from that hellhole of Christofascist gay oppression, the U.S., but please tell me if there is more than one Sadr militia--are torturing and killing gay men in Iraq.

Unsurprisingly, they are willfully clueless about the "why." Apparently it's W's fault, because everyone loved gay men when Saddam Hussein was in power. *blink*

OK.

I'm ready to go home now. *sigh*

Adventures With Bratwurst

Greetings from the land of bitter clingers! I-80 through western/central PA is probably very beautiful when it's not fogged over, and when there are leaves.

I can't take pictures of myself, so I brought a stand-in:



Had a good time in Ohio with Grandpa and his orange cats. Tomorrow, Syracuse.

On the road...

Going to spend a few days with my grandfather in Ohio before ending up in Syracuse to start work.

I'm really bummed about quasi-leaving Milwaukee, and not completely because Satan's Little Helper is staying here with his new best friend.

Don't they sell razor blades or rope in Canada?

A man suspected of stealing a plane from Canada, flying erratically over three states and attracting U.S. fighter escorts told authorities he was trying to commit suicide, a Missouri state trooper said Tuesday morning.

Call me a bitch, but I have no sympathy for drama queens who endanger innocent bystanders in their suicides. You want to die? Stay home and die, and let the rest of us get on with our lives.

I wonder how the WI National Guard decided he wasn't a viable threat...

Yeah, this grinds...

Victor Davis Hanson, on Obama bad-mouthing America to the European heads of state:

A modest suggestion: from now on, every president who wishes to go abroad and review all his lesser citizens' collective past and present sins, with accompanying apologies — to applause from foreigners — must first, in the spirit of New Testament atonement, review his own regrettable transgressions.

...although I have no idea why he thinks America is uniquely "guilty", besides his sheer ignorance (Heather hat Schadenfreude weil sie kann mehr Österreichish sprechen dann Barry*). I guess they don't teach European history in America anymore, but you'd think in the time he was growing up in Indonesia, someone might have mentioned the Dutch.

It's the 21st Century...no one alive in the U.S. today has been a slave, with the following exceptions that "progressives" do not care about: women and children smuggled over the border to work in the sex trade, illegal immigrants trapped in sweatshops to "pay off" their smugglers, and children forced to perform "mandatory volunteerism" to obtain the junior high or high school diploma formerly seen as their free right. So let's get on with it already.

* I make no claims to proper grammar/word order. My respect for people who learn English as an adult--especially if their native language wasn't in the same Indo-European family--has soared since I started trying to learn Deutsch. It physically hurts trying to figure out where to put prepositions when you've done it a different way your whole life...

Indiana Feticide Bill

A follow-up, of sorts.

The Indiana House approved a bill today that would impose up to 20 years in prison for crimes that lead to the death of an unborn child at any stage of development.

The catalyst was a bank robber who shot a pregnant teller in the stomach, killing her twins; murder charges could not be made because she wasn't seven months along. They still can't; the new bill just increases the sentence.

Yeah, I still want the death penalty for the bank shooter.

Well this is interesting...

The US Customs and Immigrations Services "Handbook for Employers" says

Providing a Social Security number on Form I-9 is voluntary for all employees unless you are an employer participating in the USCIS E-Verify Program, which requires an employee’s Social Security number for employment eligibility verification. You may not, however, ask an employee to provide you a specific document with his or her Social Security number on it.

It also says documents from List A (such as my U.S. passport) require no additional documents, employers cannot require more documents than are necessary, and employers cannot tell employees which documents they can present.

I am irritated.

Retweets.

Well, BHO suggested that we all needed to learn another language, maybe learning "Austrian" is what he meant.

(Reference.)

Aren't you glad we FINALLY have a SMART PRESIDENT? Good grief.

Well, !(*#$!

E-Verify went into effect today. My passport (for which I presented a birth certificate to the U.S. State Department) is no longer sufficient proof that I am legally entitled to work in the United States UPDATE: satisfies Uncle Sam but not my new employer.

They require a Social Security Administration-issued card. Which I had, once, somewhere, but can't find anywhere. No, it's not in my wallet--the SSA tells you not to carry it with you. It should be with my birth certificate/passport/car title/etc, but it's not. I've been through every box of paper in my apartment, and it's nowhere. I think the last time I saw it was 2003, or four moves ago. ("How did you get your last job?" "They never asked for it--I filled in the the I-9 form and faxed it to them.")

I can get a replacement...sometime, eventually, cards are mailed out of Baltimore in the order the applications are received. The E-Verifying has to be done before I can start work.

Yeah, I'm too stupid to live. I fully expect when I call and ask them what I'm supposed to do they will tell me not bother to show up, they will find someone else. UPDATE: This is someone else's problem now. :)

I wonder how much it would cost to get the guys who sell fake documents to illegal aliens to make me up one with my real number on it...hell, how do you find these people?

UPDATE: USCIS puts the I-9 directions online, where I can see it.

On the other hand...

I am amused by the irony in the phrase "gay marriage Mecca."

Huh.

Headline from this morning's Register:
Unanimous ruling: Iowa marriage no longer limited to one man, one woman

...guess the mere mention of polygamy wasn't really a "scare tactic."

I don't know enough about the Iowa Constitution to comment, really. The Iowans I know online are having literal orgasms about the ruling* (brain bleach). I suspect if it had gone the other way they'd be bitching about tyranny and oppression, although it seems more tyrannical to me to have laws implemented by a handful of judges instead of by elected representatives...

Hell, all they would have had to do was submit a bill to the current legislature repealing the old law. It would have passed easily, with no dissent allowed, like the new tax plan.

But I find the inference of polygamy the most interesting part. Don't know if it will be Muslims or "loving triads" who get first try at it...you can work up a good head of pathos for the latter, especially if there are half-siblings born from the relationship.

* They're also spewing all sorts of hatred, bigotry, and intolerance against Christians, nuclear families, and old people, as part of their celebration of "victory over hatred, bigotry, and intolerance!" and the irony is not amusing me.

I'll be damned.

I just complained about this...

Iowa Democrats want to tax Iowans on their federal taxes.

And they had the State Patrol throw out the audience who attended the session.

"Gross display of arrogance and disdain for taxpayers." Popular these days.

UPDATE: This may be the first time the comments at the DSM Register aren't full of ignorant crap.

I'm pretty sure the Nazis would have shot Failor in the lobby. I probably shouldn't give them any ideas.