Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Civics
The Angry Old Broad is back to regular blogging and that's a very good thing:
Right on, sister.
...
So what we have seen take over instead is a lack of social responsibility,a tendency to nurture greed,hate,fear,destructive forms of competition,humiliation,(all of which are now even a part of our entertainment via "reality TV"), sexism, racism, compassionless religion, lying,cheating, and stealing. It's ok,as long as you don't get caught, and even then,if you're on the "right" side,you can get away with it AND be rewarded for it. So much for citizenship, civics, and a sense of community.
This is NOT Patriotic. In fact, it's downright UN American, if we're to believe our own mythology. Being the biggest bully and most selfish doesn't make you the Best, and it certainly does not make you Good. Whatever happened to the satisfaction that comes from operating with integrity? From doing a good job through hard work and being as fair as possible? [my em]
...
Right on, sister.
Immigration and Economics
Paul Krugman with some good thoughts on immigration:
Too late, Mr. Krugman: Our "moral and democratic principles" have already been sold rather than betrayed. Oh, they're still there - it's just that if you invoke them you'll be accused of being a radical and asked why you hate America.
Go read Mr. Krugman's complete post. I had to exert what little will power I have to not post the whole thing, it's that good.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," wrote Emma Lazarus, in a poem that still puts a lump in my throat. I'm proud of America's immigrant history, and grateful that the door was open when my grandparents fled Russia.
First, the net benefits to the U.S. economy from immigration, aside from the large gains to the immigrants themselves, are small. Realistic estimates suggest that immigration since 1980 has raised the total income of native-born Americans by no more than a fraction of 1 percent.
Second, while immigration may have raised overall income slightly, many of the worst-off native-born Americans are hurt by immigration -- especially immigration from Mexico. Because Mexican immigrants have much less education than the average U.S. worker, they increase the supply of less-skilled labor, driving down the wages of the worst-paid Americans. The most authoritative recent study of this effect, by George Borjas and Lawrence Katz of Harvard, estimates that U.S. high school dropouts would earn as much as 8 percent more if it weren't for Mexican immigration.
That's why it's intellectually dishonest to say, as President Bush does, that immigrants do "jobs that Americans will not do." The willingness of Americans to do a job depends on how much that job pays -- and the reason some jobs pay too little to attract native-born Americans is competition from poorly paid immigrants.
Basic decency requires that we provide immigrants, once they're here, with essential health care, education for their children, and more. As the Swiss writer Max Frisch wrote about his own country's experience with immigration, "We wanted a labor force, but human beings came." (my em) Unfortunately, low-skill immigrants don't pay enough taxes to cover the cost of the benefits they receive.
Worse yet, immigration penalizes governments that act humanely. Immigrants are a much more serious fiscal problem in California than in Texas, which treats the poor and unlucky harshly, regardless of where they were born.
We shouldn't exaggerate these problems. Mexican immigration, says the Borjas-Katz study, has played only a "modest role" in growing U.S. inequality. And the political threat that low-skill immigration poses to the welfare state is more serious than the fiscal threat: the disastrous Medicare drug bill alone does far more to undermine the finances of our social insurance system than the whole burden of dealing with illegal immigrants.
Realistically, we'll need to reduce the inflow of low-skill immigrants. Mainly that means better controls on illegal immigration. But the harsh anti-immigration legislation passed by the House, which has led to huge protests -- legislation that would, among other things, make it a criminal act to provide an illegal immigrant with medical care -- is simply immoral.
We need to do something about immigration, and soon. But I'd rather see Congress fail to agree on anything this year than have it rush into ill-considered legislation that betrays our moral and democratic principles.
Too late, Mr. Krugman: Our "moral and democratic principles" have already been sold rather than betrayed. Oh, they're still there - it's just that if you invoke them you'll be accused of being a radical and asked why you hate America.
Go read Mr. Krugman's complete post. I had to exert what little will power I have to not post the whole thing, it's that good.
Baghdad? Bul!
Go see the picture of "Baghdad" that the cat that's running for the Dukester's congressional seat in San Diego County claims to have taken on a recent trip. What a fuckin' idiot. Just for fun, from Attytood.
Voter Demo: More o' Dem's Dems
Editor & Publisher
Good.
In a (perhaps) historic shift, more Americans now consider themselves Democrats than Republicans, the Gallup organization revealed today.
Republicans had gained the upper hand in recent years, but 33% of Americans, in the latest Gallup poll, now call themselves Democrats, with those favoring the GOP one point behind. But Gallup says this widens a bit more "once the leanings of Independents are taken into account."
Independents now make up 34% of the population. When asked if they lean in a certain direction, their answers pushed the Democrat numbers to 49% with Republicans at 42%. One year ago, the parties were dead even at 46% each.
This shift indicates, Gallup says, why its polls show Democrats leading in this year's congressional races.
Good.
Got Irony?
Ironic Times
Plenty more where those came from. Go have some fun.
PRICE TO MEET PRESIDENT CUT FROM $25,000 TO $19,995
Discount prompted by drop in demand.
Report: Cheney Gets All His Information From Fox News
Which gets all its information from Cheney.
Thousands Take to Streets to Protest New Immigration Law Proposals
Nobody available to clean up after protests.
Bush's Popularity Drops to New Low of 33
Only 33 people like job he's doing.
Plenty more where those came from. Go have some fun.
The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll
Make sure your tinfoil hat is planted firmly on your head and go read this article in New York Magazine:
The article is quite long and quite disturbing. There will probably always be more questions than answers about 9/11, but it's good to know what they are.
A new generation of conspiracy theorists is at work on a secret history of New York's most terrible day.
For Tarpley and others, this was a slam dunk: September 11 was a holocaust-as-ordered by the neocon cabal Project for the New American Century, which, like its Svengali, Leo Strauss, recognized the U.S. masses to be meth-addled, postliterate, post-logical lard-asses, a race of "sheeple" that would never rise to inherit the mantle of post-Cold War world-dominators without "some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor." In other words, a new Pearl Harbor like the old Pearl Harbor, which Roosevelt was supposed to have known about and used as an excuse to get us into World War II.
Pearl Harbor, the Reichstag fire, take your pick. What mattered was that 3,000 human beings were dead, freeing Manchurian Candidate Bush to decree his fraudulent War on Terror, a Social Darwinian/Hobbesian/with-us-or-against-us struggle to corner the planet's dwindling bounty - a global conflict without end in which only the strong, the white, and the Republican would survive.
The article is quite long and quite disturbing. There will probably always be more questions than answers about 9/11, but it's good to know what they are.
'Splain it
Okay. We've been going back and forth on this immigration debate this week. Needless to say, on such a complicated issue, there is a great difference of opinion about what the outcome should be. One thing I'd like to know is, and Gord touched on it a bit last night, can folks tell the difference between legal and illegal?
Ladies and germs, 'illegal' means you have broken the law of the land. I realize we have become desenitized to 'illegality' after dealing with the Chimp and his entourage for the past 5 years but the definition is the same. So, in dealing with illegal immigration, let's first get that fact straight. The illegals' first act of setting foot in this country is to break the law. An auspicious beginning.
Next, it is these same people who are making demands of the United States. I doubt, because I've researched it in anticipation of retirement outside the U.S., many other nations would even consider the wishes of folks who are not citizens, let alone in the country illegaly. A jail term at worst, deportation at best, are the current reactions by others toward illegal entrants. So when these folks march down the streets in U.S. cities waving flags of their own nations, making demands of our government, it naturally chaps my ass. Not because I'm a white boy and they're all brown, but because they don't vote and don't pay taxes (don't wave the sales tax at me, not when I pay close to $40,000 a year in state and federal income taxes). I give a damn if they're British, German, Indian, Asian, or Canadian.
Next, this is the only time in the past 5 years I have agreed with the Chimp. Read my lips: It is a slap in the face to my parents and all the other immigrants who came here to make a better life and achieve the American Dream in a legal manner, and you can't tell me otherwise. Maybe those folks who think we should just hand out amnesty should read the history of Ellis Island before running off at the mouth. Amnesty for illegals is an insult to immigrants who arrive here in a law-abiding manner. Besides, it was tried 20 years ago and the problem was exacerbated five-fold.
Next, the jobs illegals take are not 'jobs Americans don't want to do'. They are jobs corporations don't want to pay competitive wages for. Not when they have a ready and willing pool of cheap labor just across the border. Illegals are being exploited, period. If corporations would feel some pain for hiring illegals, enough pain for them to feel it in the bottom line, they would change their tune, quickly.
Next, I don't want to see millions of illegals rounded up and deported. As I've said in the past, the U.S. has taken a peculiar pleasure in dicking over the part of this hemisphere where most of them come from. We are a major reason their economies and societies (maybe an economic package of the type we give to say...Israel or Egypt, instead of propping up tinhorn dictators, might make more of them stay at home too) are in the desperate state they are and we do owe them something. Those here should be allowed to stay, but they should feel some pain too. They did break the law, after all, and while we scream for accountability from our leaders, we should also expect it from regular folks. Maybe a tax surcharge for a number of years, or some sort of probationary period. I don't know but that's for better minds than mine.
And finally, secure borders. Not this joke-and-a-half we call Homeland Security. Can somebody honestly tell me with a straight face we shouldn't know who and what comes across our borders? I want to know that the people coming across the borders (and that means our northern one too) have at least as much hassle as I do coming into JFK from Europe.
Now, I don't flatter myself to think I know what the answers are, but I know this nation, first and foremost, is a nation of laws. It's time we started enforcing them for everyone, from the war criminal in the White House to the poor bastids putting their lives on the line to get across the border.
Ladies and germs, 'illegal' means you have broken the law of the land. I realize we have become desenitized to 'illegality' after dealing with the Chimp and his entourage for the past 5 years but the definition is the same. So, in dealing with illegal immigration, let's first get that fact straight. The illegals' first act of setting foot in this country is to break the law. An auspicious beginning.
Next, it is these same people who are making demands of the United States. I doubt, because I've researched it in anticipation of retirement outside the U.S., many other nations would even consider the wishes of folks who are not citizens, let alone in the country illegaly. A jail term at worst, deportation at best, are the current reactions by others toward illegal entrants. So when these folks march down the streets in U.S. cities waving flags of their own nations, making demands of our government, it naturally chaps my ass. Not because I'm a white boy and they're all brown, but because they don't vote and don't pay taxes (don't wave the sales tax at me, not when I pay close to $40,000 a year in state and federal income taxes). I give a damn if they're British, German, Indian, Asian, or Canadian.
Next, this is the only time in the past 5 years I have agreed with the Chimp. Read my lips: It is a slap in the face to my parents and all the other immigrants who came here to make a better life and achieve the American Dream in a legal manner, and you can't tell me otherwise. Maybe those folks who think we should just hand out amnesty should read the history of Ellis Island before running off at the mouth. Amnesty for illegals is an insult to immigrants who arrive here in a law-abiding manner. Besides, it was tried 20 years ago and the problem was exacerbated five-fold.
Next, the jobs illegals take are not 'jobs Americans don't want to do'. They are jobs corporations don't want to pay competitive wages for. Not when they have a ready and willing pool of cheap labor just across the border. Illegals are being exploited, period. If corporations would feel some pain for hiring illegals, enough pain for them to feel it in the bottom line, they would change their tune, quickly.
Next, I don't want to see millions of illegals rounded up and deported. As I've said in the past, the U.S. has taken a peculiar pleasure in dicking over the part of this hemisphere where most of them come from. We are a major reason their economies and societies (maybe an economic package of the type we give to say...Israel or Egypt, instead of propping up tinhorn dictators, might make more of them stay at home too) are in the desperate state they are and we do owe them something. Those here should be allowed to stay, but they should feel some pain too. They did break the law, after all, and while we scream for accountability from our leaders, we should also expect it from regular folks. Maybe a tax surcharge for a number of years, or some sort of probationary period. I don't know but that's for better minds than mine.
And finally, secure borders. Not this joke-and-a-half we call Homeland Security. Can somebody honestly tell me with a straight face we shouldn't know who and what comes across our borders? I want to know that the people coming across the borders (and that means our northern one too) have at least as much hassle as I do coming into JFK from Europe.
Now, I don't flatter myself to think I know what the answers are, but I know this nation, first and foremost, is a nation of laws. It's time we started enforcing them for everyone, from the war criminal in the White House to the poor bastids putting their lives on the line to get across the border.
Leopards and spots
In November, and throughout this upcoming campaign season, you'll see a lot of Republicans saying "Bush? Who?". When you do, keep this quote in your mind:
They own Bush, they own the disaster this nation has become, and this November they're gonna pay for it.
...You've got to be kidding me. They've gleefully hitched themselves to his bandwagon for the past five bloody years! It's not as though they'e been futilely resisting his utter decimation of traditional conservative principles - they are the majority party who has been aiding and abetting his criminal enterprise every step of the way. And now that whatever stupor enthralled American voters, and made voting for Captain Incompetence seem like a good idea, is wearing off, the MeToos want to moan about how they don't want to be "W Brand Republicans" anymore? Tough titties!
...
They own Bush, they own the disaster this nation has become, and this November they're gonna pay for it.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Caspar Weinberger Dies at Age 88
Caspar Weinberger Dies at Age 88
"The wind doth smell so bittersweet
Like jasper wine and sugar
It must have blown through someone's feet
Like those of Caspar Weinberger"
"The wind doth smell so bittersweet
Like jasper wine and sugar
It must have blown through someone's feet
Like those of Caspar Weinberger"
Border blues...
I took the pup next door to introduce Tami to my neighbor dogs. They got along really swell.
My neighbor, Bill, told me that while I was gone there was a "Thousand Mexican March" here locally. He said they flipped him off for bein' an Anglo, and held up signs saying "Without US, you are nothing".
His idea for a counter-sign was to put periods after the 'U' and 'S'.
I went a little further: "Without the U.S., who & where the fuck d'ya think you'd be?" I'm not politically correct at the best of times, let alone at less than the best.
I think there's a lot of confusion over the difference between 'legal' and illegal'. Sure, there are racists who don't want anybody but whites to come here, but that ain't the way it's gonna be. Get over it.
I think when legal immigrants take the side of the illegal immigrants, perhaps out of pride in their heritage, or maybe fear, then we have a problem that goes beyond the difficulty of immigrating legally. It may be that Mexican culture exists pretty much unchanged on both sides of the border and ours doesn't. They feel this is their home.
It's nobody's right to be here unless they were born here. Others have to work for it by jumping through a bunch of hoops. Hey, if it was easy, what good would it be? What to do with family members who are here illegally is a huge part of the problem, seems to me. Blood is thicker than the Rio Grande.
The Koreans jumped on the bandwagon right along with the Latinos. I had no idea there were enough illegal Koreans that it would be an issue. Maybe they just need employees.
When one of ya figures out what to do, lemme know, willya?
By the way, if ya wanta know why 500,000 people showed up in L.A. on a rainy day when they only expected 20,000, read this.
My neighbor, Bill, told me that while I was gone there was a "Thousand Mexican March" here locally. He said they flipped him off for bein' an Anglo, and held up signs saying "Without US, you are nothing".
His idea for a counter-sign was to put periods after the 'U' and 'S'.
I went a little further: "Without the U.S., who & where the fuck d'ya think you'd be?" I'm not politically correct at the best of times, let alone at less than the best.
I think there's a lot of confusion over the difference between 'legal' and illegal'. Sure, there are racists who don't want anybody but whites to come here, but that ain't the way it's gonna be. Get over it.
I think when legal immigrants take the side of the illegal immigrants, perhaps out of pride in their heritage, or maybe fear, then we have a problem that goes beyond the difficulty of immigrating legally. It may be that Mexican culture exists pretty much unchanged on both sides of the border and ours doesn't. They feel this is their home.
It's nobody's right to be here unless they were born here. Others have to work for it by jumping through a bunch of hoops. Hey, if it was easy, what good would it be? What to do with family members who are here illegally is a huge part of the problem, seems to me. Blood is thicker than the Rio Grande.
The Koreans jumped on the bandwagon right along with the Latinos. I had no idea there were enough illegal Koreans that it would be an issue. Maybe they just need employees.
When one of ya figures out what to do, lemme know, willya?
By the way, if ya wanta know why 500,000 people showed up in L.A. on a rainy day when they only expected 20,000, read this.
Time to Talk War Crimes
Robert Parry
In a perfect world, they'd behind bars as we speak. However, late, and pretty late at that, has to be better than never. I'm sure glad that some of the people who have the info we need - it ain't what you know, it's what you can prove - are telling us what they know. It'll be way too late for a lot of people, but Bush&Co. may get their just due yet.
I'm glad folks are talkin' Impeachment and I'm glad folks are talkin' War Crimes. When they start talkin' Necktie Parties, I'm liable to get aroused!
In a world where might did not make right, George W. Bush, Tony Blair and their key enablers would be in shackles before a war crimes tribunal at the Hague, rather than sitting in the White House, 10 Downing Street or some other comfortable environs in Washington and London.
While many Americans think of the Nuremberg trials after World War II as just holding Nazi leaders accountable for genocide, a major charge against Adolf Hitler's henchmen was the crime of aggressive war. Later, that principle was embodied in the United Nations Charter, forbidding armed aggression by one state against another
The British memos, combined with public statements by Bush and his senior aides, represent a prima-facie case that Bush, Blair and others violated the Nuremberg Principles and the U.N. Charter, to which the United States was a founding signatory.
While Bush has insisted that his invasion of Iraq was "preemptive" - defined as an act of self-defense to thwart an impending attack - his argument is not only laughable in the case of Iraq, but has been contradicted by his own advisers, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
In a March 26 interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Rice offered a different rationale for invading Iraq. She agreed that Hussein was not implicated in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks nor did she assert that he was conspiring with al-Qaeda on another assault.
Instead, Rice justified invading Iraq and ousting Hussein because he was part of the "old Middle East," which she said had engendered hatreds that led indirectly to 9/11.
"If you really believe that the only thing that happened on 9/11 was people flew airplanes into buildings (Gee, who could have predicted that? - G), I think you have a very narrow view of what we faced on 9/11," Rice said. "We faced the outcome of an ideology of hatred throughout the Middle East that had to be dealt with. Saddam Hussein was a part of that old Middle East. The new Iraq will be a part of the new Middle East, and we will all be safer." Rice's argument - that Bush has the right to invade any country that he feels is part of a culture that might show hostility toward the United States - represents the most expansive justification to date for launching the Iraq War.
Yet Rice's new war rationale, combined with the British memo on Bush's determination to invade Iraq regardless of the facts, should be more than enough evidence to put Bush, Rice, Blair and other U.S. and British officials before a war crimes tribunal.
In a perfect world, they'd behind bars as we speak. However, late, and pretty late at that, has to be better than never. I'm sure glad that some of the people who have the info we need - it ain't what you know, it's what you can prove - are telling us what they know. It'll be way too late for a lot of people, but Bush&Co. may get their just due yet.
I'm glad folks are talkin' Impeachment and I'm glad folks are talkin' War Crimes. When they start talkin' Necktie Parties, I'm liable to get aroused!
I'm ba-ack
I'm home with the new puppy. We found out that her previous owners put her in a crate every day when they went to work, and then were too tired or otherwise preoccupied at the end of the day to play with a puppy that had all day to charge its batteries. She wants to play, play, play and will chew anything in sight. She has already improved, thanks to a rolled-up newspaper and my Drill Instructor voice. This is gonna take some work (did I mention that she's smarter and a lot faster than me? Heh.), but she's just adorable and very affectionate and sweet in between times of trying to chew her way to freedom. I think it will be well worth the effort.
The drive to L.A. was in inclement weather the whole way, which is a little less than 500 miles. It was snowing when we left, and we got on I-80 under chain control over Donner Summit. Chain control was only up for about twenty miles. It's a pain in the ass to chain up and 'sling iron' for short distances, so that's why everybody around here has 4WD with snow tires. Also to get to work or the store, unless somebody important lives on your street so they keep it plowed.
A few words about chain control: There are three conditions, R-1 - chains or snow tires; R-2 - chains or 4WD with snow tires; and R-3 - 4WD with chains on all four wheels, aka stay home. There is a Caltrans check point at the place where the chain control starts and on freeway on-ramps. This is a guy or gal with an orange van and a bunch of flashing lights who may check your tires for an "M + S" (Mud + Snow) or to see if you have chains installed. Sometimes there's a CHP there to chase down idiots who run the chain control. They're serious about this shit, because a spin-out or accident can close the Interstate for hours. Jackknifed big rigs are the worst, because a lot of times they'll tip over and are hard to remove to get traffic going again. I've seen traffic backed up, stopped stock still, for twenty miles. There's usually no place to turn around, although CHP tries to close the road at ramps when they can so folks can go back the way they came. It's a mess. In a snowstorm, people run out of gas trying to keep warm, get asphyxiated in their cars for the same reason, freeze to death, get out of their cars to play in the snow and get run over, all kinds of shit. I'm fairly sure there have been whiny kids stuffed head-first into the snowbank during a three-hour road closure. A lot of 'em are on their way to play in Reno or Tahoe and don't even bring a jacket. I got stopped for over an hour once because folks who got by the chain control who should have chained up and thought they could "make it", or were just lazy, couldn't climb a hill on the freeway and were using three lanes to slide and spin backwards to the bottom. Finally they got a bunch of tow trucks in there to tow 'em to the CHP scales at the top of the hill, located precisely where the trucks they want to weigh and safety-inspect are going their slowest, where the drivers were charged for the tow and then ticketed for no chains.
I could go on for hours about that stuff, but I'm leading up to something. The speed limit under chain control is 25mph, 30 on the Interstate. Chains, particularly the four or eight sets on a big rig, are hard on the taxpayer-funded road surface and higher speeds are unsafe for folks who hardly ever drive in ice and snow, not to mention what can happen when - not 'if' - the chains break at high speeds. A lot of folks will get past the snow and not want to stop and take 'em off. They do, however, try to keep up with traffic, but not for long. I've seen chains put themselves back in the trunk of a car, through the wheel well. If you're idiotic enough to be following too close under those conditions, they can come right in through your windshield. They can wrap themselves around axles, brakes, etc., break fluid lines, in general just fuck shit up. This stuff all happens anyway, but 60 mph just exacerbates it. I think you get the picture: Do what the nice chain control person tells you to do, and obey the law for the well-being of yourself and those around you. Take the chains off when they're no longer required.
Sometimes, when folks just don't use common sense, the worst result is a little entertainment. It was R-1 condition and you couldn't see the road, but the snow wasn't deep, mostly a little wet, heavy snow on top of packed. It was snowing pretty good. Mrs. G and me were just pluggin' along in 3rd gear at 32mph (we've done this before and feel we can fudge a little since we're locals) when a gal (sorry, ladies) in a bright yellow VW, one of the new Beetles, sailed past us at about 50. She must have had snow tires 'cuz she wasn't runnin' chains. She gave us a rare, exquisite moment about five miles later when we got to watch her, at the end of a really 'modern art' lookin' set of tire tracks, back out of the snowbank in the median. Priceless! No damage done, but no doubt embarrassing. Naturally, I tooted the horn as we chugged past, just so she'd know she didn't get away with it unseen. She had her windows rolled up so I have no idea what the inside of her car smelled like. I can only hope!
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, just 500 miles of varying degrees of rain. I would like to compliment Toyota for the best 5-position windshield wiper stalk I've ever seen, and you barely have to move your hand from the steering wheel to operate it. Settings for every kind of rain we encountered. The stalk is broke in now, trust me.
Please pardon the length of this nonsense, but my pup is asleep on my feet so I just kept typing. I'll end now because my feet fell asleep and I need a fresh cuppa.
The drive to L.A. was in inclement weather the whole way, which is a little less than 500 miles. It was snowing when we left, and we got on I-80 under chain control over Donner Summit. Chain control was only up for about twenty miles. It's a pain in the ass to chain up and 'sling iron' for short distances, so that's why everybody around here has 4WD with snow tires. Also to get to work or the store, unless somebody important lives on your street so they keep it plowed.
A few words about chain control: There are three conditions, R-1 - chains or snow tires; R-2 - chains or 4WD with snow tires; and R-3 - 4WD with chains on all four wheels, aka stay home. There is a Caltrans check point at the place where the chain control starts and on freeway on-ramps. This is a guy or gal with an orange van and a bunch of flashing lights who may check your tires for an "M + S" (Mud + Snow) or to see if you have chains installed. Sometimes there's a CHP there to chase down idiots who run the chain control. They're serious about this shit, because a spin-out or accident can close the Interstate for hours. Jackknifed big rigs are the worst, because a lot of times they'll tip over and are hard to remove to get traffic going again. I've seen traffic backed up, stopped stock still, for twenty miles. There's usually no place to turn around, although CHP tries to close the road at ramps when they can so folks can go back the way they came. It's a mess. In a snowstorm, people run out of gas trying to keep warm, get asphyxiated in their cars for the same reason, freeze to death, get out of their cars to play in the snow and get run over, all kinds of shit. I'm fairly sure there have been whiny kids stuffed head-first into the snowbank during a three-hour road closure. A lot of 'em are on their way to play in Reno or Tahoe and don't even bring a jacket. I got stopped for over an hour once because folks who got by the chain control who should have chained up and thought they could "make it", or were just lazy, couldn't climb a hill on the freeway and were using three lanes to slide and spin backwards to the bottom. Finally they got a bunch of tow trucks in there to tow 'em to the CHP scales at the top of the hill, located precisely where the trucks they want to weigh and safety-inspect are going their slowest, where the drivers were charged for the tow and then ticketed for no chains.
I could go on for hours about that stuff, but I'm leading up to something. The speed limit under chain control is 25mph, 30 on the Interstate. Chains, particularly the four or eight sets on a big rig, are hard on the taxpayer-funded road surface and higher speeds are unsafe for folks who hardly ever drive in ice and snow, not to mention what can happen when - not 'if' - the chains break at high speeds. A lot of folks will get past the snow and not want to stop and take 'em off. They do, however, try to keep up with traffic, but not for long. I've seen chains put themselves back in the trunk of a car, through the wheel well. If you're idiotic enough to be following too close under those conditions, they can come right in through your windshield. They can wrap themselves around axles, brakes, etc., break fluid lines, in general just fuck shit up. This stuff all happens anyway, but 60 mph just exacerbates it. I think you get the picture: Do what the nice chain control person tells you to do, and obey the law for the well-being of yourself and those around you. Take the chains off when they're no longer required.
Sometimes, when folks just don't use common sense, the worst result is a little entertainment. It was R-1 condition and you couldn't see the road, but the snow wasn't deep, mostly a little wet, heavy snow on top of packed. It was snowing pretty good. Mrs. G and me were just pluggin' along in 3rd gear at 32mph (we've done this before and feel we can fudge a little since we're locals) when a gal (sorry, ladies) in a bright yellow VW, one of the new Beetles, sailed past us at about 50. She must have had snow tires 'cuz she wasn't runnin' chains. She gave us a rare, exquisite moment about five miles later when we got to watch her, at the end of a really 'modern art' lookin' set of tire tracks, back out of the snowbank in the median. Priceless! No damage done, but no doubt embarrassing. Naturally, I tooted the horn as we chugged past, just so she'd know she didn't get away with it unseen. She had her windows rolled up so I have no idea what the inside of her car smelled like. I can only hope!
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, just 500 miles of varying degrees of rain. I would like to compliment Toyota for the best 5-position windshield wiper stalk I've ever seen, and you barely have to move your hand from the steering wheel to operate it. Settings for every kind of rain we encountered. The stalk is broke in now, trust me.
Please pardon the length of this nonsense, but my pup is asleep on my feet so I just kept typing. I'll end now because my feet fell asleep and I need a fresh cuppa.
If you're making demands
And you're not in a position to demand anything, you might want to kiss a little ass...maybe? You know Jack:
I'm not favored of Draconian policies toward illegal immigrants, but good God, can't you fly an American flag? I mean, do you want to become American citizens or do you want to turn the southwestern Unted States into Little Mexico. If it's the latter, you won't get many supporters. Making the streets of L.A. resemble Mexico City isn't winning you any friends, idiots.
...
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf. You've got to love it. For years and years, this country has failed to enforce the existing laws on immigration, which is why we have 12 million illegal immigrants running around this country.
The problem is completely out of control, and it's getting worse every day. What do the politicians want to do about it? Why they want to pass more laws, of course. You see, it's an election year so they want us to think that they're actually doing something about illegal immigrants.
One wants a guest worker program. Somebody else wants to close the borders. Another one wants to make illegal immigration a felony. Meanwhile, the streets of many of our cities are clogged with people protesting immigration reform. These folks march around our streets carrying Mexican flags and complaining the United States may actually want to have some control over who comes here. Imagine that.
And at the end of the day, it's very much an open question whether anything meaningful will get done. If I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath...
I'm not favored of Draconian policies toward illegal immigrants, but good God, can't you fly an American flag? I mean, do you want to become American citizens or do you want to turn the southwestern Unted States into Little Mexico. If it's the latter, you won't get many supporters. Making the streets of L.A. resemble Mexico City isn't winning you any friends, idiots.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Sigh...
So, Mrs. F is feeling better...much...and now she's absolutely batshit insane from sitting around taking it easy. For those who haven't had the pleasure, she's one of those type-A, corporate Manhattan crazies who goes at a hundred miles an hour every waking minute. Personally, I'm surprised it took her so long.
So, I get home from work today and she's standing at the top of the stairs with a look on her face I know well. "I'm tired of this shit," she says. "I'm tired of lying in bed, feeling like an invalid. I want to go downstairs and sleep in my own bed. I want to use my own shower and shave...finally."
Me: "You know what the doctor..."
Her: "Fuck him, it's been three weeks since the surgery."
Me: "Three weeks tomorrow..."
Her: "Shut up."
Me: "Maybe you should wait until you see the doctor next week?"
Her: "Fuck you too."
Me: "I'm going to empty the dog."
So now it's forty five minutes later. She's been downstairs, showered and shaved (I stood by while she did that), and in and out of the waterbed with no problem. So I guess we're moving back downstairs...sigh...
Shayna: "Yay!"
You know I ain't the CO in this barracks.
So, I get home from work today and she's standing at the top of the stairs with a look on her face I know well. "I'm tired of this shit," she says. "I'm tired of lying in bed, feeling like an invalid. I want to go downstairs and sleep in my own bed. I want to use my own shower and shave...finally."
Me: "You know what the doctor..."
Her: "Fuck him, it's been three weeks since the surgery."
Me: "Three weeks tomorrow..."
Her: "Shut up."
Me: "Maybe you should wait until you see the doctor next week?"
Her: "Fuck you too."
Me: "I'm going to empty the dog."
So now it's forty five minutes later. She's been downstairs, showered and shaved (I stood by while she did that), and in and out of the waterbed with no problem. So I guess we're moving back downstairs...sigh...
Shayna: "Yay!"
You know I ain't the CO in this barracks.
Fuck them
Seems bloggers aren't worthy of attribution:
Look, you elitist dickheads, I'll 'splain it real simple. Publishing original content by anyone requires you giving them credit, period. Personally, I think a lot of these news outlets would have to credit Republican talking points memos for most of their content if it really came down to it.
...We contacted an AP senior editor and ombudsmen both and both admitted to having had the article passed on to them, and both stated that they viewed us as a blog and because we were a blog, they did not need to credit us...
Look, you elitist dickheads, I'll 'splain it real simple. Publishing original content by anyone requires you giving them credit, period. Personally, I think a lot of these news outlets would have to credit Republican talking points memos for most of their content if it really came down to it.
Thanks to Shakes for the link
Let's see...
What did he say last week? "No President wants to go to war." Lying sack of shit. Our esteemed colleague and pal Sizemore points me here:
The war in Iraq was destined to happen before the 2000 elections. 9/11 was a gift from Allah, allowing them to pull off their subterfuge. And you know something, the more we learn about this administration's dishonesty, it wouldn't surprise me if it were found they actually allowed 9/11 to happen after that 6 Aug 2001 brief warned Condi of the possibility. Tinfoil hat or no, I wouldn't put it past 'em.
Update
The lovely Jillian says what I've been thinking for years:
...
But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.
...
The war in Iraq was destined to happen before the 2000 elections. 9/11 was a gift from Allah, allowing them to pull off their subterfuge. And you know something, the more we learn about this administration's dishonesty, it wouldn't surprise me if it were found they actually allowed 9/11 to happen after that 6 Aug 2001 brief warned Condi of the possibility. Tinfoil hat or no, I wouldn't put it past 'em.
Update
The lovely Jillian says what I've been thinking for years:
...
now if we could get awol to go sleep with someone other than laura so that politicians and the american public will pay attention.
Finally...
An unbiased, calling-it-like-it-is, report (or rather a series of reports) at ABC News. Yesterday evening, they actually called bullshit on the oil company and White House propaganda about Global Warming. Even exposed 4 WH and oil company scientists shills who still try and shovel the crap to the general public. Kudos to them for getting off the pot. The series will be going all week on World News Tonight.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Heartburn
So, I got this wireless router see...And it works really good except you can't connect to the Internet now...And I'll be back when I get it figgered out.
Update
Well, I got the connection back on the laptop and the wireless works fine now...But the desktop PC can't connect to its own ass...job for tomorrow...mmmmm...beer...
Update
Well, I got the connection back on the laptop and the wireless works fine now...But the desktop PC can't connect to its own ass...job for tomorrow...mmmmm...beer...
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