Cutie Pie

Here's a darling little figurine I found today. I'm calling him Cutie Pie. Very nice, except for the little brown stain under his cheek.

In other news today I came across a video tape that I shot over 20 years ago. I didn't remember the tape and it wasn't labeled very well. I didn't think it was labeled at all. It all seemed blank, but then under the plastic on the insert that came with cases, it was one I took with a camera at the end of '88 and beginning of '89. We watched some of it. It was of our family, looking 20 years younger and it was definitely a different world from everything we're used to now.

It reminds me that none of this stuff is being remembered very well. We need to document every move we make, so that someday, when presumably we've quit documenting every move we're making, we'll have time to watch what we were doing way back when. Sometimes it's fun to see yourself looking completely different.

Jindal Admits Lying

I think this is pretty big.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, getting his big introduction to the American public as the voice of Republican idiocy in response to President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, actually lied ... and now the details are admitted.

It's one thing to lie about policy differences. We expect that, because you can always say it's just a matter of opinion. But it's a different animal to lie about your biography. In Jindal's case it was especially egregious because it put him in the midst of the Katrina hurricane as a hero along with some populist type of sheriff. Whether the sheriff really was all that, I don't know, but now we know Jindal wasn't right there with him, risking arrest for sending out unauthorized rescue boats. The entire rescue effort was on Jindal's shoulders -- only now it turns out it wasn't.

No one's going to forget this. Remember this is his big introduction. Jindal is a potential candidate for president in 2012. That's the rationale for putting him out there. And what do we take away from the experience? 1) The guy spouts right wing crap; 2) He projects all the strength and authority of a wet noodle; 3) His emotions are contrived and false; 4) He makes himself the hero of his own stories; 5) He's a liar. We shall remember!

Caught, just like that! I love it!

No Do-Over Elections

Norm Coleman lost the Senate race in Minnesota. But it's all tangled up in red tape. And now, right from the horse's mouth we have the suggestion that they might need a do-over election.

This is ridiculous. Haven't we always known that elections could be decided by a narrow margin, and that's why "every vote counts"? Just because it's within a certain percentage, that's no reason to cast out all the votes from election day. That is the reason to have a recount, which has now been done. Get Al Franken in the Senate. Don't delay another day with this fool, Norm Coleman.

They don't want to disenfrancise anyone. But that's exactly what they'd be doing, because you're not going to get 100% of the people who went out to vote on election day at a do-over. So that means the votes they voted on that day wouldn't count. Their voices would be set aside just for the ego (and bad will) of this terrible guy.

We ought to hold Norm Coleman accountable. He said on election day or the day after that if he were behind, as it appeared Al Franken was at that point, that he would concede, in order to save the taxpayers money and trouble. But now that Coleman is behind, he's using every means -- hook AND crook -- to drag it out and perhaps to steal the election after all. Hold him accountable. The standard he set that day ought to be the standard we go by now.

Minnesota is being cheated out of representation. And they are, to a certain extent, cheating themselves. This ought to be something everyone's up in arms about. Norm Coleman is a scoundrel. The Republicans are scoundrels. He needs to be declared the official loser, then run out of town and perhaps the state on a rail.

No do-overs!

The Jindal Joke

That was a great speech last night, by President Obama. It was a hard day personally and by then I was getting fairly tired. But I wanted to watch the whole speech, and I made it. It was something that connected with me at an emotional level, to think this guy is actually our president! Finally, we have someone in office who gets it, who's on our side, who thinks good things can happen and not just more disaster! I was greatly cheered. Obama's got it going on!

It was hilarious watching the Republicans trying to sit on their hands and be obstructionists, even at a major speech. But finally they too must have got the message from the hinterlands that the speech was going over at 89% approval so far, so they faked their way into some fake enthusiasm. Gosh, how I'd love to see those creeps go down. Republicans. Bah.

Then it was time for the joke of the day, Bobby Jindal's response. Remember, I'm tired at this point. And the last thing I need to see is someone poking holes in the emotional connection we have, our sense of optimism in tough times... So what do we get? The idea that government can't do anything useful. All is lost, except for the repeated refrain that "Americans can do anything." Yeah, anything except band together with leadership to get good things done in a common cause. By "Americans can do anything," Jindal means small tribes of us moving about independently, two here, maybe up to a dozen, living off the land, striking out, accomplishing a raiding party on a neighboring tribe to steal their boat ... or something. Then to live happily ever after.

I was drifting during the sheriff's story, sorry. But I believe it had this basic point, that a sheriff and Bobby Jindall, alone, together, cleaned up the Katrina mess. No help from anyone else. Government, except for him as congressman and the sheriff as an elected official, had nothing to do with it! The example was given to keep us encouraged as we're foraging with those post-apocalyptic little bands of people told about above, and how much pluck we will need.

In short, the Republicans sent this yahoo out there to let us know they got nothing. They're serving in government ... why? ... because of their deep abiding belief that government can do nothing.

I would love to see President Obama manhandle them like a Hefty garbage sack ... and I believe I did see it.

Apologize Already

I'm on record in several places on the internet as saying that politicians shouldn't apologize. And I basically mean it. Like in an election, you say something, people pounce on you to apologize, I always think it shows more weakness to apologize than to just say, "I said what I said. I stand by it. So there."

But I'm also on record saying that if it's some real slight, like you're a politician at the grocery store and you run over someone's foot with a grocery cart, you should apologize. It's not in the realm of weakness and exploitation at that point. It's a human mistake. (The big thing about not apologizing in the first instance above is that the opponents are never actually offended. They are just ginning up false outrage to make you look bad. That's when you don't apologize.)

Here, though, I think we have a sad case of the grocery cart on the foot. And the idiot should apologize. The idiot is Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, who predicted in public that Ruth Bader Ginsberg would be dead in nine months or less. Maybe she will be. Maybe he will be too. Maybe I will be. But it doesn't sound very nice to be saying, especially since she has this terrible cancer. What harm would it be for him to hold his fool tongue on a deal like this? Now, as far as I know, he's not up for election next week. So it's not a matter of partisanship to say, "Apologize, moron."

Well, he did, sort of. One of those stupid apologies that isn't really one:

"I apologize if my comments offended Justice Ginsberg," Bunning said. "That certainly was not my intent. It is great to see her back at the Supreme Court today and I hope she recovers quickly. My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family."

I apologize IF my comments offended HER in particular. Why is it so hard just to suck it up once in a while and say, "I apologize for my comments. I regret them. I hope Justice Ginsberg recovers quickly. My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family." ?

That would be an apology that's short, sweet, to the point, has some grace, and shows actual regret. More class.

The Daily Republicans Post

I'm not going to write a daily post lambasting the Republicans. But I think it'd be an interesting concept if there were a million blogs and each one wrote a daily post doing just that. Pretty soon the internet would be nothing but page after page skewering the Republicans, thereby leading to their great final demise. Then we'd have nothing to write about. We would just sit around archiving all our articles on the Republicans and burying them in a time capsule.

There used to be this guy in Congress. He might have been Fulbright of Arkansas. In the Congressional Record every single day this guy had an article in opposition to genocide. I used to work at a place where we got the Congressional Record. I heard about it, that he did this. So I used to go get it, look it up, and see what he had to say that day. Maybe his staff wrote it. I never documented them in any way so I don't know if they were literally different everyday, but I always assumed they were. When I think about writing about the same topic over and over, like lambasting the Republicans, it's those articles about genocide that I think of. I'm sure the guy has to be dead or retired by now; that would be a given.

But what is it about the Republicans? They're simply hateful. Hateful toward the President. Hateful toward the people. Hateful toward our traditions and our well being. It's absurd. Don't they live here too? Don't they have children and grandchildren? How can one part, ostensibly that could represent half the populace, be such pinheads and still be able to maintain a modicum of power. It's weird, because it seems like the less power they have the more we hear from them.

Now we have President Obama's valiant attempts to get the economy harnessed again. And the Republicans are out there on a daily basis trying to do a work of political genocide on the guy and all of us (since I'm thinking of that word.) They think if they can sink America that will do them good two or four years from now when they swoop in to make it worse yet. That's weird. They want power so they can make it worse yet! Again, where are their grandchildren? Do they club them to death so they won't be around to witness their shenanigans? Probably.

It's just so weird that while George Bush was running his criminal presidency the Republicans had nothing to complain about. But they're in a Bizarro world. He could do any kind of foul deed, and tended to exceed himself time and time again, and he was a patriot to them, a great guy. They certainly offered nothing to suggest they had any problem with him. But now we get a smart, honest, decent guy, and the Republicans are completely up in arms. Before The President = The State, now he can do nothing right. You tell me.

My Sincere Hope

It is my sincere hope that the Republicans, in all their obstructionism and blatantly evil slams against President Obama, are simply cutting their own throats. That would make it worth it.

Surely the country is paying attention now even if we weren't before. We have a brand new president, with a sense of optimism and hope, who is doing good things for us, who has the best interests of the country at heart. Then we have the Republicans who are banging the drum for failure, praying for failure, and not even being quiet about it. They literally want four years of abject misery on all of our part, so that it might do them some short term political good down the road. Disgusting.

Notice this, country. There is one leader who is looking out for our interests, and all these scummy evildoers praying for our demise. The Republicans are beyond the pale. If they're indeed cutting their own throats in the long run, that alone will make it worth it. Leave them to their misery, and leave us alone. Thank you.

Now That's What I Call Music - 8

I went back and got that CD that I wrote about yesterday, "Now That's What I Call Music - 8." I would like to have the full set without paying full price, and as long as I can get them occasionally at the thrift store, they're very cheap.

I was reluctant to buy this one, as I have others, because of its scuffed up condition. I'm just naturally finicky about wanting my stuff in good condition. But then sometimes I wonder why, just take a chance, you can always put toothpaste on it, transfer it to your Ipod and live happily ever after. You never know when another one will show up anyway. And there have been a few that I've passed up because of condition and haven't seen again.

I went back and it was still there. So I hem/hawed around about it and finally got it. And I'm happy so far, because I ripped it and it sounds good so far. Haven't heard any skips. I wasn't listening to popular music in 2001, the year of this CD, so most of the songs aren't familiar. But they definitely sound good -- they're new to me -- now. The last track is "Walk On" by U2, which I'm hearing right now (I started in the middle somewhere), and it sounds like a cool song. I've never heard it before.

Music is very cheap, if you're willing to wait a few years!

Miscellaneous

Put another quarter in the vibrating bed, dear, 'cause there's not much life left in you. Possibly a good country song for some creative composer.

Stopped by a rubbish sale today. Didn't find much.

Learned at Dairy Queen: They sell enough bananas each year for banana splits that it would meet the needs of 43,552 monkeys for one full year. It's been a long time since I've had a banana split. Years in fact. So thanks to me there's at least a few monkeys who are still being fed.

I saw the CD "Now That's What I Call Music" number 8 today, but it was pretty messy, so I didn't get it. I really didn't recognize many songs on it but would like to have the entire series. I only have a few so I know it's not realistic that this rate. I looked at the notes and it was dedicated to Aaliyah, someone I'm not familiar with. She has a song on it and it said she died in a plane crash. They also listed the others who died at the same time. By saying I'm not familiar with her, it does seem to ring a bell that a celebrity singer died back then (2001) and I do remember seeing the name somewhere. The name I think of for someone who died, and again I think in a plane crash [turns out it was a car wreck], was Left Eye Lopes, from TLC. Anyway, I didn't get the number 8 CD, but that doesn't mean I won't go back tomorrow and get it. A little toothpaste on it, rub it around and it might play OK.

I don't mind sneezing two or three times. But today, with a cold, I've sneezed at least 20 times. It gets old after a while.

That banana trivia from DQ reminds me of an article I read a month or so ago, that bananas (as we know them) are endangered. Because of something like this: they had to breed bananas in a particular way to get them the way we want them. But it might be that the strain is too narrow and thereby threatened by disease or other negative conditions. So eat up now while you still have the chance!

Obama's Reviews

I think Obama is getting pretty good reviews as president. I'm not reading any right wingers, because I know they can't be satisfied. Somehow they were satisfied with that criminal rat we had for eight years, but get a competent, honest guy in there and they can't be pleased.

It's getting to be the theme that the Republicans are obstructionists. I read it in my local paper today in an editorial. I like it when it takes root like that. We have a national crisis and all they can say is "No." It's funny, though, that now we have the spectacle of Republican governors who were opposed to the stimulus but are put in the position of not taking the money (against the likely wishes of their state) or taking the money (and looking like full blown hypocrites.) It's no coincidence that the Republican governors thinking about running for president next time are the ones dallying with the idea of refusing the money. I love it.

Personally I liked the idea someone in a comment floated that the law could have been written to send the money to whichever states had their representatives vote for it. As it is, they're reporting at Talking Points Memo, there are representatives out there who are taking credit for the extra cash for their districts even while they voted no! Something like that ought to be shouted from every rooftop. Look at these hypocrites!

To me, Obama is looking better everyday, and I already liked him a lot. And the Republicans are shrinking, shrinking, shrinking ... hopefully to the point that they wither and blow away entirely.

Burris

Maybe I rushed to this guy's defense too soon. The dam has been breaking of all the bad stuff he supposedly did.

Makes you wonder why he didn't just rise above some of this stuff. But he's asking everyone not to rush to judgment, which seems fair.

Whatever, whatever, whatever. Just get someone in there we can count on.

Big News For Real Estate

Wow, this is an incredible number. It's up there in government spending territory, and that's as high as you can get.

A scientist from the Carnegie Institution of Science, Dr. Alan Boss, says there could be 100 billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy!

Even though our telescopes have only detected 300 planets besides the ones we already knew about, Dr. Boss estimates that each Sun-like star has an Earth-like planet. I suppose that's on the average, but who knows.

A reasonable conclusion to draw from that would be that there must be life of some sort on at least one of those planets, even if it's a single mosquito.

The good news for us is ... if we can get up there, that's an awful lot of land. Free land for everybody!

Illinois GOP Leader Calls On Burris To Resign

The headline says it all. He's a GOP leader. Who, exactly? I'm not even going to look because it doesn't make any difference. These Republicans are interchangeable.

But he's an Illinois guy, who ought to leave well enough alone. But that's something the Republicans seem to be incapable of doing. These guys sicken me quite thoroughly.

In other Republican news, we have a loudmouth out there who's familiar to us all, John McCain, still doing his angry old man schtick. He can't get over it that Obama beat the pants off him. After he squarely told the Republican convention, "I won't let you down!" Obama, on the other hand, has been nothing but gracious to the old loser. But McCain's like a rabid dog, so I don't suppose shots would help at this point.

The Republican plan is to keep Franken out, deny Minnesota representation. Now call Burris into question. They can't beat the Democrats fair and square, how about going behind the scenes and making a commotion?

Very sickening creatures ... Republicans.

McCain's Loss Such A Blessing

John McCain used to command some respect in a bipartisan sense. Then he decided to run a desperate campaign based on lies and the politics of personal destruction, and of course the respect dried up.

Yet, President Obama (then President-elect) reached out to him, and just like all through the campaign, was gracious to the point of being nauseatingly so, as far as I'm concerned. He called McCain in, let him sit in a nice chair, then said nice things about him. McCain sat there in a nice way. He's a lot like a delinquent child. As long as they sit quietly they seem pleasant, but it never lasts long.

Now, with the economy ("The fundamentals of our economy are strong") completely tanking -- and there's an obvious need for bold leadership, to get this stinking thing raised from the dead -- McCain is only there with carping, complaining, and the usual venom that comes from his mouth. At least in the campaign he was usually just the Old Man Shaking His Fist Against The Clouds. Now he's back hoping to sink the entire country.

What a blessing McCain lost. As he has shown since Jan. 20, he's not looking for something new, something that might help. He voted to continue the Bush economic agenda, even after eight years of proven failure! With all the disgusting things that happened under Bush's mismanagement, McCain says Let's have more of the same! This is what we could have had had McCain become president!

So thank God John McCain didn't win the presidency. No, really, thank God: "God, thank you that John McCain did not win the presidency. We are so much better off with Obama."

Judd Gregg

Judd Gregg is a Republican scoundrel. It's praiseworthy that President Obama is bending over backwards for the Republicans, going for any hint of a willingness on their part to act and serve as actual Americans, but now it's time to move on. He has taken all the first steps. In my opinion now it's time for him to yield to their intransigence, honor that as their political gambit, and govern simply as a Democrat.

We're actually lucky in a way that Gregg stepped down like he did. One thing we don't need is more Republican mucking up of the government. They had eight years of unbridled corruption and mismanagement and that ought to be enough; if it had been all some kind of innocent mistake, yes, bring them back into the fold and gently correct them, but it was all consciously malicious, an extreme, heinous case of malice aforethought.

Now that Gregg is out of the way, we don't have to fear a betrayal from within the Administration, at least from that quarter. It sounds like good news beyond that as well in this, that he says he's not going to run for reelection in 2010. So, yay! That's music to our ears. But, hey, the guy obviously lives on shifting sand and you can't trust anything that comes out of his mouth. He took the job, didn't he? Then he gave it up. Kind of a flip flop, and by '10 the other Republican scoundrels might talk him back into running.

The Lincoln Penny

This is Lincoln's 200th birthday. And 2009 is also the 100th birthday of the Lincoln penny. They honored Lincoln's centennial year in 1909 by putting him on the measly penny. Although maybe it was worth something back then, since you could buy a newspaper for a penny back then.

This site from the U.S. Treasury gives a fact sheet on the subject. The public didn't want portraits on coins but because of everyone's love for Lincoln, they said OK. Get us an artist. It turns out there was only one man for the job, Victor David Brenner. He was "the only person invited to participate in the formulation of the new design." So it's a good thing he did a good job, because if he had messed it up in some way, we'd all be ashamed of the penny.

They had the wheat design on the flipside, which most of us have probably seen. We used to get them occasionally, and I knew someone who would buy them for like a quarter apiece. Then in 1959, the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, they came up with the new flipside, the Lincoln memorial artwork that we still have to this day.

Now, it being the 200th year, I see they have some other designs. I only saw one on a photo, a log cabin.

A Snow Valentine

Valentine's Day is coming! I found this heart in the melting snow today. So even nature is wishing us all a happy one.

Stimulus Drags On

We've gone a long way from potentially having the bill on Obama's desk on Inauguration Day ready to sign. That's what I was looking for. Little did I know how overly optimistic that way. But why was it suggested and mentioned several times if it were outside the realm of the possible?

Instead, time drags on. The Republicans have all the glee of being obstructionists. They're in government for the purpose of -- no one knows exactly, except everything they touch tends to disintegrate. They're obviously not in power with any intention of actually doing anything good for the country. They showed that clearly in the Bush years, when they aided and abetted his criminality. Why anyone would vote for any of these Republicans is beyond me.

But now we have a stimulus bill through the Senate, thanks to three Republicans. If we had Al Franken on board like we should have they still would have needed one Republican, leaving Lieberman out of the equation. And yet that doesn't end it, because now we have to take it to conference and iron out the differences, blah blah blah. And I heard that Arlen Specter was threatening that he wouldn't support anything different from what he already voted on. That guy is such a twerp, as we've seen time and time again over the years. He's up in 2010, and it'd be nice to see him lose.

At this point, it seems to me we ought to pitch our support behind Obama and let him do what it takes to get us out of this mess. No one else is in a position to do it. Certainly not the Republican naysayers, bellyaching all the time. Their big idea -- more tax cuts for the rich -- we've already tried.

The Roaring 2000s

Here's an interesting blurb from a book I saw at Goodwill, a prediction that a guy makes. The book is called "The Roaring 2000s" by Harry S. Dent, Jr.

"Dent identifies opportunities, explores trends, and makes concrete predictions. Among them are: A Dow that will reach at least 21,500 and possibly 35,000 by the year 2008."

This book is no longer there; someone bought it. All I took away was this photo, wondering what went wrong.

Maybe George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress had something to do with screwing it up.

Spike Jones Records

Every once in a while I'm tempted to go to the trouble of recording old records on the computer. It's not much trouble to put one on the turntable and turn it on, but that's where the drudgery begins. Cleaning, making sure there aren't any big specks, volume, then keeping track of the details of the song. It all adds up, more or less, to a big waste of time. Unless you're going to be listening to them quite a bit on an mp3, which I don't generally do.

Once you've got it on the computer, you have to clean the beginning and end, and also wonder what to do with all the surface noise, clicks, pops, etc. I have an instruction sheet somewhere by a guy who had an extensive regimen for making the track sound as good as possible. But I'm too lazy really to go to too much work. For me it only sounds like a good idea for about the first 20 minutes, then I'm thinking my life's a'wasting here!

I only worked on two records tonight and that about did me in. Both were Spike Jones records, not that I was wanting them especially but they were in the first stack I reached for. The first one is a record I like, one side anyway, "I'll Never Work There Any More." I was looking up things on this song a month or so ago, not about Spike Jones exactly but just about the song. The Spike Jones version is especially cute, with the various voices of the City Slickers. According to the label, The Mello Men (they would be the consistent, nice background singers); George Rock (the child's voice), Ole Svenson (referring to the smorgasbord), and Dick Morgan (probably the racetrack guy; I don't know my Spike Jones names). This is a really good side. The flip is "I Went To Your Wedding," funny to listen to maybe every five to 10 years but that's about it. The vocal is by Sir Frederic Gas, and it's a laughing song. That's RCA Victor 47-5107.

The other one also has a really good side and one that's not bad but not the greatest. And in fact the latter is Side A, "Ya Wanna Buy A Bunny?" with George Rock as a child whose bunnies are multiplying and he's trying to get rid of them. It's cute as can be. But for me and this record I've always preferred the other side "Knock Knock," a series of cute knock knock jokes. There's again a series of Spike Jones characters reciting the jokes, which are pretty good jokes. Doodles Weaver, Sir Frederic Gas, George Rock, and Freddy Morgan. And I'm guessing Dick Morgan and the Four Fifths handle the vocals apart from the comedic singers. The record is RCA Victor 47-2894, a good one.

They're both good records. But it's tooooooo much work recording them off. So I guess I'll just keep my stacks of records and listen to them when the spirit moves me. With the record player.

Denying The Holocaust

There's some priest who might become a bishop -- his name is Richard Williamson, and he's British-born but lives in Argentina -- but they're not going to make him a bishop till he quits denying that the Holocaust happened.

A couple things come immediately to mind. Are we so short of bishops that we need to dangle a carrot in front of this guy's face? If, at his age -- he looks at least 60-65 -- he doesn't know the basic facts of World War II and the Nazis, does it really matter what else he has to say on the subject? Just move on to the next candidate and who cares what he believes? Another thing, how did he avoid hearing the evidence of the Holocaust all these years?

I was seeing film of it in high school, I seem to remember. And I took a course on the subject in college, having to read several books. These people didn't just vanish from the face of the earth in some benign way. They were rounded up, taken by train, held against their will, and murdered in terrible ways by the Nazis.

It makes you wonder. But maybe it's just like other conspiracy theories. Someone is always going to believe or not believe something, based on nothing. In some of this relatively recent stuff, though, if people don't believe what happened either in their lifetime or just a few years before it, what is history on down the years going to say? There's no way such horrible experiences should be forgotten on the earth.

Williamson says he will change his mind if he's satisfied by the evidence, but says, it "will take time."

Next Phony Controversy, Please

What, no stories of breaking off typewriter keys? This is the phoniness the Republicans have come up with this time? That not wearing a jacket in the Oval Office is a sign of disrespect for the office, the presidency, the constitution, motherhood, apple pie, and torture?

According to Andy Card, former Chief of Idiots in the Bush years, if Obama decides he works best in a shirt sans jacket, he's doing a bad thing. Leaving behind all questions of what business this is, precisely, of Andy's, since Obama is free to do what he wants; and leaving behind all discussion of how men's fashions have changed over the years, making it nothing close to a question of absolutes; let us wonder, is Andy 100 per cent consistent on this topic? For if he is, then the photo above of St. George W. Bush ought to give him pause. What is this my beholding eyes are witnessing? Could it be his jacket was at the cleaners that day? Did a terrorist steal it? After all, Bush was looking for WMD in the Oval Office, so terrorists could have been there...

Good grief, imagine, Andy's looking to GEORGE BUSH for the standard of what's right! Ha ha. Who are some of his other heroes? Capone, Dillinger?

Republican Taliban

This sounds about right. I for one am sick of constantly hearing about the Republicans undermining our government and country, wishing for another terrorist attack, hoping that Obama fails, etc. If we could have another election right now and wipe the slate clean of these cretins, that would be fine with me.

Following Limbaugh as they do they're going out on a worse ideological limb than they did in the Bush years, which is hard to believe is possible. But out and out rooting for national disaster, that is about as bad as anything I've ever heard of.

Now we have a congressman, Republican Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, actually saying (actually saying!) that he thinks they ought to model their opposition to the Democrats on the Taliban's example! That they ought have an insurgency response that would be like the Taliban's!

"And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person's entire processes. And these Taliban -- I'm not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that's not what we're saying. I'm saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with."

You get your inspiration where you find it, I guess. Personally, I think this sounds very over the top or devious. The Taliban were/are evildoers, we might recall. So if the Republicans want to pattern their own role in the government after them ... they've now declared themselves.

Pete "Taliban" Sessions shall lead the way!

NY Times May Charge Again

They had Times Select for a couple years ... and that's been probably less than two years ago ... then it was done away with and the New York Times website became free for all again.

I was a subscriber for a while, but my interests come and go and so I dropped it. It's nice to see it free, but if they feel they need more money and want to charge, that's their business. Go for it.

I'm not a big reader of it anyway. Once in a while I'll catch a column. I'm not too interested in Maureen or Brooks or Kristol, who I understand is now gone. Who are the others? I don't even know. I like the liberal ones, Frank Rich?

The rest of the news sections might be for charge though. And sometimes I see some things in there. I'm having a hard time working up any objection to it, though. Whatever they want to do. It belongs to them. Charge if they want to.

American Idol 1969

I see tonight's episode of American Idol is at 8:00 p.m., and I thought it was a new one, but, no, this is a rerun from Dec. 31, 1969. I think I remember that one. Wasn't Jim Morrison the vocal coach that night?

(Graphic from today's TV listings at Yahoo.)

A Plumbing We Will Go

I was watching the Three Stooges' classic "A Plumbling We Will Go" this morning. I notice it always gets 4 or 5 stars, whichever is the best, from critics and fans.

I like it too. It's got lots of cool things, including the Stooges appearing in a magician's magic box. They're mistaken for plumbers, since they've stolen a plumber's truck, and when they come in to work on the plumbing, that's the last of the plumbing.

Curly is in the bathroom, and he doesn't realize that hooking up a piece of pipe to another piece of pipe that has water pouring from it will also soon have water pouring from the new pipe. He's very surprised. But he manages, with some extra work, to make a complete pipe trap, and there he is in the middle.

Larry thinks a lady's girdle is a straitjacket. But whatever it is, it makes a nice patch on a hole in the heating pipe he accidentally made. Moe is in the basement, directing the others in some of their labors, including Curly pulling the wires out of electrical pipe. They think a pipe is no place to keep wires.

An interesting bit in this show is the lady of the house demonstrates her new television. I don't think it's an actual television, but it at least looks like one. The announcer sends them to Niagara Falls, and it's exciting for the guests to see it. But then, because the Stooges have mixed the electricity and the water pipes, soon the TV screen is punctured and water comes pouring out.

At the end the magician is back and this time they have a nice special effect to have the Stooges plus motorcycle cops coming from the magician's box. You can see it faded out at the edges because it's some kind of overlay, but it seems like a nice way to end the comedy.

Punxsutawney Phil

This is one of the first years I've thought about Punxsutawney Phil before Groundhog Day actually got here. Usually it's here, then I see the news, the groundhog and all the guys in top hats, and think, well, there it is!

But today I'm thinking they're getting ready at Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, for the big day, their one and only day in the spotlight. And the poor groundhog has to crawl out of his hole for his one day of fame. Ya ha!

He predicts the weather and this is how we know that winter will eventually expire.