Juxtaposition

Hrm.

No good news in
economic numbers

Brewers on brink of single-day sales record

Maybe someone can explain this to me, 'cause I got nothin'.

Chicago Tea Party Chicago Protest reports

Wish I could have made it.* Off-topic, as soon as I have a paycheck again I am totally going down there to photograph that American Gothic statue--some elite sophisticated city, ripping off Iowa to decorate itself...*bah*

I marked this one as a Favorite on Flickr:


Here's the blog to go with it.

There's a whole Chicago Tea Party group on Flickr.

Here's a report from "The Un-Liberaled Woman", who I must start reading regularly.

Children at The Intolerant Fox.

Bonus pics from Portland, because that city fascinates me now that I've been there (in the same way I'm fascinated by flesh-eating bacteria and Hawkeyes being arrested...).

* I hate spring; the migraine action is worse today.

"this money isn't free."

Scott Walker in the Wall Street Journal.

Key point:

The stimulus is a classic bait-and-switch. Once the highways are built and social-service case loads have increased, Wisconsin will be left with the bill to maintain the new roads and services.

Once you start providing "schoolchildren" and their parent(s) with three meals a day (plus "after-school snack"), any cut "hurts the children."

It's so friggin' obvious, I don't understand the objections.

(I've posted the link to Facebook, just to see how fast the Obamatrons who know me from high school unfriend me. Hee hee hee.)

Well, meh.

Sinus migraine made driving down to Chicago unwise, so no first-person report from the Tea Party. I have been lying quietly in the dark, as befits my status as jobless loser scum.

(Jeff Saturday's back for three more years...oh, wait, sorry, didn't mean to participate in the world with my working betters. Won't do it again.)

This seems unnecessary

$1.125M federal funds to to add on to the Ice Age Trail.


I like the Ice Age Trail, but surely the people who find it important can throw their own money at it instead of expecting working stiffs around the country to provide it for them.

Yeah, I know.

In which I ♥ the PeoplesCube

I haven't laughed this hard in I don't know how long. Thank you!

Thomas Jefferson

A little long for posterboard:

"To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father's has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association--the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his
industry and the fruits acquired by it." -- Note in Tracy's "Political Economy," 1816.


"With all [our] blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens--a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities." -- 1st Inaugural Address

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy." -- letter to Thomas Cooper, 1802

Chicago Tea Party Protest

Kicking around the idea of hitting Daley Plaza tomorrow morning.

On one hand, I've been depressed and grumpy since Limbaugh spent his whole first half hour Monday ripping into people who continue to be alive after being laid off--how DARE we not give up our non-work interests to concentrate 24/7 on our status as utterly worthless drains on society!--so it might be a good idea for me to leave the house for something other than lifting weights in the glow of a dozen TVs showing CNN tongue-bathing Barack Obama.

(I have no idea why people schedule conservative protests during normal business hours; if I was working I couldn't even consider this.)

On the other hand, Chicago. *shudder*

Please leave suggestions for signage.

Bizarre.

Two adjacent TVs at the gym today (which was a zoo--anyone around here work or go to school during the day anymore?).

On one, some white supremecists are showing off their 88 tattoos to CNN. (Is there a reason is news this week?)

On the other, retrospective footage of Marvin Harrison.

Ah well.

I enjoyed this article about a small Appalachian school making the Kentucky state basketball tournament (their leading scorer wore a Brewers' ball-and-glove cap for the top photo...), until the reporter felt the need to bring Obama into it.

Is there going to be halftime obeisance to O during the Final Four as there was during the Super Bowl?

In which I lack understanding.

Everything “unacceptable” about the last 8 years is now “acceptable.”

I'm also wondering why the hell Barry O's vow to "halve the deficit in four years" is a masterstroke of leadership when he signed a bill tripling it just last week. Even Nigerian bank account scams aren't that obvious.

Hah! We WISH.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

Gary Varvel is having a caption contest. I've got nothing "suitable for a family newspaper"...except Lucy's usual "That'll be five cents."

My year gets worse and worse

Jeff Saturday and Hunter Smith are bailing. As is Marvin Harrison, but I expected that.

(Happy Birthday, Chele...)

"Math class is sure hard!"

...and this is why I believe that having a lot of formal education doesn't mean you're smart. How can you have a math class with no right or wrong answers?

From the linked essay by Jay Schalin:

And if somebody is better at language skills than quantitative reasoning, and therefore less interested in scientific matters, it is often best for all concerned if he or she does not study to be an electrical engineer.

Heh. My favorite anecdote from my least favorite EE lab was when my assigned partner for the week was the other chick, and we both arrived at the wrong answer in the pre-lab assignment and thus wired our transformer backwards--instead of stepping down from 120V to 6V, we stepped up to 2400V--and overloaded some capacitors, which caught on fire and shot across the room, narrowly missing some guys who got the right answer. (We were never assigned to work together again, which I'm sure was coincidence. ;)

But it really hammered home the fact that there are right and wrong answers, and you can't accomplish anything by assuming all answers are equally valid as long as they're written up properly (also made me realize I wasn't as smart as the "educators" in Podunk Community High School told me I was...alas).

Key graf:

Perhaps the key to producing more scientists in our society is not some sort of feminist Manhattan Project to produce more women scientists, but rather to promote science universally to all young students, and let those who have talent and inclinations in a given field pursue them.

Yup.

Hrm...

In the spirit of fairness, I note that Obama "rejected his transportation secretary’s suggestion that the administration consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive instead of how much gasoline they buy."

Good call.

But don't forget, Obama changes positions more often than Jenna Jameson (Jamison? I'm not going to Google to check the spelling, I'm trying to eat breakfast). Also, he objects to the tax-on-mileage, not to GPS units in private vehicles reporting to the government (hmm...why aren't there GPS units in government-owned vehicles, as a means to prevent/prosecute government employees abusing public resources?).

And individual states are still considering the scheme.

Socks, RIP

19-20 years is a good run.

I still envision him lurking by the Rainbow Bridge for a chance to slash to ribbons the two-legged assholes who used him as a prop and then dumped him when they didn't need him anymore. Cats have long memories.

I'd better go give Satan's Little Helper some treats.

Speaking of hypocrisies

The CIA wanting to listen to the overseas phone calls you place to numbers known to be connected to terrorists, to glean information that could save American lives, was a fascist invasion of your privacy.

State and federal governments tracking your every move so they can charge you money--no problem!

Another blow for restaurants, gas stations, speciality retail small businesses as people stop non-essential travel like "shop hops" and "scenic drives" and "visiting Aunt Ethel". Then we'll have to tax something else to make up for the missing income taxes, and to give more people more government assistance.

And who knows what sort of restrictions will be placed on vehicle use once Al Gore's devotees get their hands on the government's data?

And no, I don't believe those are "unintended" consequences.

(As soon as I get a job, I'm going to visit any remaining quilt shops in WI and buy something at each one. Not that I need any more fabric, but I can always use more thread.)

Kayne West, call the White House.

The economic stimulus signed by President Barack Obama will spread billions of dollars across the country to spruce up aging roads and bridges. But there's not a dime specifically dedicated to fixing leftover damage from Hurricane Katrina.

No, I don't I think we need to be throwing any more money down that particular hole. I just want to point out what complete lying hypocrites Democrats, race-baiters, and the media are.

Uh, um, uh, uh, um

We're all citizens of the world now.

"It's a great pleasure to be here in Iowa - Ottawa."

I'll admit--it's a nice change to hear a whole new stupid remark instead of the same old Buckeye gaffe everyone makes.

P.S. Canadians, if you think he's so great, how's about you keep him?