Scenic Portland, OR

My sister and I are visiting our brother in Portland for a few days before he deploys.

I have a whole lot of interesting things to say about Portland when I return.

(Also, I left my parka in the trunk of my car, and I lost my had somewhere between MSP and dinner last night, so I expect Milwaukee to be subzero when I get back--sorry about that, everyone.)

I hope this gets as much attention as PeTA...

NBC is refusing to air, during that game on Sunday with that name trademarked by the NFL, a pro-life commercial that notes Barack Obama wasn't aborted, even though his childhood was a NARAL template for "why we need more abortions, and women shouldn't be expected to pay for them--the government should."

It's quite tasteful and well within FCC regulations, unlike women masturbating with vegetables (no, I'm not linking to that).

...although with the lies and the "stimulus" and the foreign abortions and the scuttling of national defense, it's very hard to believe Stanley Ann made a good choice. Good for Barack, not so hot for a lot of other people. I'll have to think about this. God knows I have too much time to think these days.

Huh.

When you run for president as a community organizer, and a writer, or even a professor of constitutional law, perhaps it's politic to hide a few salient details about your actual lifestyle that might mess up the "savior of the downtrodden" narrative. It's important to keep up the fiction that only spoiled, indifferent, wealthy Republicans have personal servants.

I swear, everytime I read about things Michelle Obama does or says, I respect her even less. There has to be a bottom here somewhere, right?

Also some blather in the link about "locavore eating." I assume those wagyu steaks our smarter, Earth-caring-er betters were served last night were raised in Georgetown...

Heh.

Ow.

Shut up and read the lines someone else wrote for you

Gillian Anderson blogs.

And how the hell do you clean the house and make the dinner and do the shopping? I know I am sounding like a complete idiot here but I’m telling you, every last one of you from the beginning of time should be given a medal, and free health insurance, and food coupons, and a government subsidized housekeeper that comes in one day a week per child.

I thought Britain already did that for "long-term unemployed" single mothers. Maybe it's only for the wives of Wahhabist imams...

The Sarah Palin icon brings up another interesting thing I did not comment on today because there's really no point...one of my Facebook "friends" posted a link to the announcement of SarahPAC with the usual "she's so stupid, she should shut up and stay home" commentary.

I really wanted to highlight the absurdity of an unattractive woman, pushing 40, divorced after her husband preferred someone else, childless, working dead-end clerical jobs as long as I've known her--and I'm not being catty, except for "divorced" and "clerical" I could be describing myself--thinking they're smarter and less irrelevant than an attractive sitting governor with a nice family, including a son in the Army protecting us from people who would just as soon kill American women as look at them (and don't treat their own women and children any better).

But there's no point in arguing with that sort of self-absorbtion, is there?

[I would like the SarahPAC website to list some specific policy ideas related to "Sarah Palin's plans to build a better, stronger, and safer America in the 21st century." Sounds nice, but I want substance. But I look forward to seeing what sort of local candidates the PAC supports.]

The Endive

Headline: 'Doomsday Machine' Might Indeed Destroy World
Riff: Otherwise, it'd be a pretty crappy 'Doomsday Machine.'

Ooooh.

I trust you've all pre-ordered your Obama fleece panel to make cuddly no-sew throws.

I understand documenting the election/coronation with a commemorative quilt, but wrapping up your loved ones in The One is pathology.

Of special interest to me

Coach Dungy will be on Rush Limbaugh this Thursday.

Maybe Rush will ask him about his support of Obama.

Only YOU Can Save Teh Planet™

Iowahawk, of course:

As an eco-aware, planetary resource parasite, you will eventually want to kill yourself to spare the environment any further damage that your personal existence has already caused. However, it is important that you plan your suicide carefully as not to disturb the ecosystem’s delicate balance. Self immolation, while poignant, can release up to 50 kg of airborne fluorocarbons. Why not try the the hot new Malibu trend, ritual Japanese sepukku? it’s exotic, elegant, and your intact corpse will make a great compost pile addition!

Excellent advice for anyone who really believes carbon dioxide is evil.

Oh, if you're one of those drooling unenlightened hicks who still thinks that ball of fire in the sky emitting energy at the Earth might affect the Earth somehow, still no sunspot activity.

Huh.

Indiana, Michigan job losses deeper than Wisconsin's

I didn't know Michigan had any jobs left to lose. *srednop*

Meanwhile, looks like I won't be going back to heavy off-road automotive software anytime soon, now that the market has a glut of Caterpiller and Deere workers. And my friend in Bavaria got axed in the Texas Instruments purge yesterday.

Too bad I didn't get laid off a week earlier, I could have signed up at MATC to learn some sort of useful skill that can't be outsourced to Russia.

Good grief.

Youngsters of both genders avoid careers that involve math and science because they lack confidence in those topics, "despite the fact that the largest number of kids ranked math and science as their favorite subjects."

All told, 85% of kids say that they are not interested in an engineering career, according to a survey released Monday from the American Society for Quality.

The headline the J-S puts on this is "Girls shun engineering careers, ASQ study shows". As if anyone needed a survey to know that, or we already know why. But why don't boys want to pursue engineering careers? What are they being told to do instead? What's changed in the past 20 years?

ASQ cited numbers from the National Science Foundation, which projects that the U.S. shortage of engineers will reach 70,000 by 2010*, even as the nation's employers court talent from China and India.

Who cares what an engineer has between their legs if they're qualified and capable? Seriously, why does it matter? China and India don't make a big deal out of forcing women into science...

I suspect the "lack of confidence" in math and science has something to do with a) how it's presented in classrooms, in the seven minutes left in the school day after all the multicultural feel-good self-esteem social-services stuff by b) K-6 teachers who have no mathematical interest or ability. (In my weekend with Facebook, I've noticed a strong positive correlation between "couldn't pass pre-algebra without cheating on the homework" and "employed as a teacher.")

* In January 2009, there seems to be a glut of software engineers. Next life, I'm majoring in Lesbian Latina Deconstructionist Studies.

Modest proposal

It has occured to me that we could offset a fair chunk of this "stimulus"* bill by putting Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and all their greedy power-crazed followers in Congress into dunk tanks for a month or so (bonus: that's a month they can't give away more money for 'bicycle access' or 'unemployment compensation' for people who voluntarily quit their jobs).

$10 for 3 balls. Let 'em work the same sort of shifts military personnel do on deployment, and get fed the same.

Additional funds could be raised via pay-per-view.

Or a lottery to be able to pelt them with cream pies...oooh.

It's for the children!!

* "magically transforming pork into "stimulus" by sticking another three zeroes on the end"

Huh.

Someone I actually want to talk to found me on Facebook--the guy who started calling me "Radish" in high school, when we were both working at his dad's restaurant. He's living in Milwaukee, of all places, with his wife and three kids.

Small world.

In which I inadvertantly learn something from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Those winter thingies along the shores of Lake Michigan that fascinate me are called ice volcanoes.

And it happens on the other Great Lakes as well.

Apparently people in Wisconsin don't freak out about getting trapped under the ice like they do in Indiana. Except me. I can't get close enough to take a good picture because I can't convince myself that's not a stupid reason to die. :P

This needs a caption

I followed this from Kate:


You could accessorize your plastic pocket President with guns, swords, or lightsabers, if that flag is still too icky for you to have in your house.

Bloggers have been predicting plenty of spin-off merchandise will be sold to clothe the action figures, including miniaturised Chicago Bulls strips for the basketball-mad President, dancing shoes for State occasions, and even a jogging trousers and Nike trainers so the action figure can resemble Obama during his morning workouts.

He's only the second black fashion doll to become President:


but he's never been an astronaut or a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Yet.

Change!

Well. This afternoon, I was laid off (so were a lot of people...). Obama voters: send cash, cat food, or rum, or we're going to come live on your couch.

While I was being escorted out, my manager asked if I was going to remain in Milwaukee, and I laughed, because how the hell am I supposed to know? If someone in a less socialist state needs a slightly-used button pusher, well, I'll miss Spotted Cow. I don't have enough kids for any government to offer to pay me to stay unemployed in Milwaukee, so I'll have to work somewhere...

God love ya, Chuck!

Quilt historian Barbara Brackman has "designed" two Obama fabrics (quotes because she just copied 19th century designs and pasted his face with Photoshop) you can print off at home onto your own fabric. The first is a repeat featuring The One and some unimportant blurry dead white slave-owning oppressor bastard (PDF).

The second is a medallion featuring The One and Joe Biden (also PDF).

Joe Freaking Biden!

There's about 18 other things in my quilt queue, but I *will* make a Joe Freaking Biden piece before this is all over. And NOT with the reverence intended.

I will tell the story of Obamacles through my scribe Iowahawk.
But this poem is copyrighted, so reproduce at your peril.

(Yeah, I have to deal with this internet crush on Iowahawk. Maybe if I keep reminding myself he's a stinkin' Hawkeye...)

Hey, Ashton...

This morning when I was dodging claws and cold nose to try to get an extra five minutes of sleep, I realized that I've been a servant to a big-eared small-brained rather-annoying dude who's never held a real job since before you'd heard of Barack Obama because he hadn't gotten Jack Ryan thrown off the Illinois Senate ballot yet.



I can only handle one. Y'all gotta take a number.

Promote a culture of awareness of mentoring for the education of awareness of reduction of ignorance!

I've been dragged kicking and screaming into Facebook.

I seem to be the only person there listing "Mark Steyn" as an interest.

What is WRONG with kids today?

UPDATE: and everyone one of these jerks I know "in real life" is posting anti-Bush crap all over today. When Obama taxes my employer out of business, I'm showing up on their doorstep. With Satan's Little Helper and his litter box. Sheesh.