Yesterday, The Wife and I went out and about for our Anniversary drive to Mt. Rainier National Park to find some snow.
(clicken to embiggen)
We found a bit, though not as much as two years ago.
After punching through a few plow-made snow banks, we headed back west towards home. A quick detour made sure that Buddy didn’t stay that clean.
I’m going back to school!
Yep. Just like my man Rodney, I’m collegiate.
On the fourth of January I’ll begin attending classes at a college administered by the State of Washington, as a Geography major.
I’ll be lessening the impact on the universe (and my wallet) by taking nine to ten “part-time” quarters (aka: an Associates degree) at the local Community College before transferring to the University of Washington.
Unfortunately, this means I’ll have less time to post. But don’t think I’m not looking out for y’all. In the time between now and then you’ll see a couple new gentlemen helping David and I out here at RNS. We’ll do introductions when they’re ready, and I have high confidence that they’ll fit in quite nicely.
I’m thinking that this maneuver will mean “less linky, more thinky” from me. I hope folks don’t mind.
In fact, I plan on having quite a few unhappy words up by the end of the week about the Washington state college admissions process.
On a side note, I’m finding it most hilarious that my new situation has me attending is the state accredited version of the Evergreen College. The Wife has actually demanded I treat them gently so as to not figuratively flush my tuition by getting booted for making hippies cry.
Wish me luck. More later.
I love Halloween on TFLN
(407):i think a pirate just stole the rest of our fucking beer. what an appropriate costume.
I don’t care who yar, that’s funny.
I didn’t know that the left could be so tedious without causing a dimensional collapse.
First, they declare contrary legal opinions from private individuals to have “debunked” the idea that a mandate to carry heath insurance is unconstitutional.
An opinion couldn’t debunk a cheeseburger, even if said cheeseburger was in actuality a bratwurst, until it comes from a court of law.
And now every “independent” who voted for Obama and knows that he gets to appoint judges should understand why they deserve a swift kick in their genitalia (women can be independents, and I’m an equal opportunity genitalia kicker).
Not to be outdone, Bill Moyers put his head up his ass on public television
You’ll remember the (Washington) Post was a cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq, often sounding like a megaphone for the Bush-Cheney propaganda machine. Now it’s calling for escalating the war in Afghanistan. In a time of historic budget deficits, the paper said, Afghanistan has to take priority over universal health care for Americans. Fixing Afghanistan, it seems, is “a ‘necessity'”; fixing America’s social contract is not.
But listen to what an Afghan villager recently told a correspondent for the “Economist:” “We need security. But the Americans are just making trouble for us. They cannot bring peace, not if they stay for 50 years.”
Listen, too, to Andrew Bacevich, the long-time professional soldier, graduate of West Point, veteran of Vietnam, and now a respected scholar of military and foreign affairs, who was on this program a year ago. He recently told “The Christian Science Monitor,” “The notion that fixing Afghanistan will somehow drive a stake through the heart of jihadism is wrong. …If we give General McChrystal everything he wants, the jihadist threat will still exist.”
This from a warrior who lost his own soldier son in Iraq, and who doesn’t need animated graphics to know what the rest of us never see.
So here’s a suggestion. In a week or so, when the president announces he is escalating the war, let’s not hide the reality behind eloquence or animation. No more soaring rhetoric, please. No more video games. If our governing class wants more war, let’s not allow them to fight it with young men and women who sign up because they don’t have jobs here at home, or can’t afford college or health care for their families.
Let’s share the sacrifice. Spread the suffering. Let’s bring back the draft.
Moyers must feel pretty confident about there actually being an explosion of hellfire if the Obama Administration fired him, and I agree that there probably would be. However, having hurt the executive’s feelings, I wouldn’t put it past them pulling a “FOX” and banning their representatives from appearing on Moyers’ show.
Which is on public television.
The government banning itself from itself.
And that was how a black hole was begun in the Milky Way galaxy, on the third planet from the star Sol, in a city called the District of Columbia by a group of political rookies.
In a dying civilization, political prestige is the reward not of the shrewdest diagnostician but of the man with the best bedside manner.
–Eric Ambler, A Coffin for Dimitrios
Scary enough for ya?
Week Two!
The Wife’s been working me like some sort of indentured servant around the house this week. Yesterday I replaced nearly two dozen electrical outlets and switches and upgraded the bedroom A/V to HD.
So nothing fancy today. Just my last three downloads. All of which have been featured here before.
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There used to be a better version out of the studio track. There are some OK live versions if you like the song and don’t mind some bad audio.
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Speaking of live versions. This is the long version with the “kickass guitar solo”.
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I’ve been called crazy for saying that this is the penultimate pop song of the 80’s. And not just because it came out in 1978, because I’m not so sure that that should disqualify it.
Enjoy!
After seeing this video, I need to wash my brain too.
That is just disgusting. They’ve already got 50% of the children there losing sleep over their death cult fantasies.
I guess they’re trying for 75% now.
Found @ CCinZ
Me too.
I was clicking through this website looking at their “curiosities” section, when I realized that I didn’t really recognize most of the celebrities they had pictures of. I know who Lindsey Lohan is, just because I’ve been forced to watch the trainwreck that is her life at every checkout counter at every supermarket in existance. But Sophie Monk? Audrina Partridge? No clue.
And then I realized, that’s not exactly something to be ashamed of. Hell, I’m rather proud of that fact.
It’s not that I’m unhip. It is just that those people aren’t hip enough to even make it to my radar.
Lend us the means to steal an election?
This year, New Jersey’s registered voters can request a mail-in ballot for any reason. (Before 2005, voters needed to provide a reason for why they needed an absentee ballot.) The state received about 150,000 absentee-ballot applications this year.
On about 2,300 of those applications so far, the signature on the request form does not match the signature on the voter’s registration forms with the state.
In a development that is depressingly predictable, the New Jersey Democratic party is asking the state to provide provisional ballots for all these voters. Those ballots could, presumably, be used to overcome any narrow lead by Republican Chris Christie over Democrat Jon Corzine on Election Day.
A mass distribution of provisional ballots, at the request of a political party, would represent a significant change from established law. Currently, when a county clerk rejects an absentee-ballot request, the clerk tries to contact the voter — through mail, by phone, and in some cases, by attempting to contact the voter in person. And a person who has spoken to some of New Jersey’s county clerks says they’re granting wide latitude on signature styles; for them to reject a ballot request because of the signature, it has to be dramatically different from the one on file.
Could some of these cases be an election official misjudging the natural deviation in two handwriting samples from the same person? Certainly, and that’s why the current system has clerks reaching out to rejected voters (presuming they actually exist) to sort out the discrepancy. But Democrats want to short-circuit the established methods of sorting out the problem, and in fact to ban rejections based on signature mismatches entirely.
I wouldn’t put it past the NJ ACORNites to go about breaking people’s hands so they can’t sign their ballot properly.
