2010 archive
The Real Thing 0
Wankery, that is.
“Raging Hormonal Imbalances” 0
“I couldn’t help it” doesn’t carry much moral weight.
If they cannot control their own behavior, they cannot be trusted to control other persons’ money.
The link between testosterone and the charging of escort services to corporate hospitality accounts remains unproven by modern science, as does the association between the male sex hormone and the exclusion of female employees from the golf courses of middle America.
QOTD 0
Robert Benchley, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.
Kompozer HTML Editor 0
Kompozer was one of the tools I used to update my boating website over the past week.
I’ve written a review of it at at Geekazine.
Once More All Over Again 0
Paul Jablow, writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer, remembers:
Which all goes to show how little changed between the death throes of the segregationist South and today’s Mosque Madness.
Read the whole thing and contemn the demagogues.
Voting Is Not a Right. It Is a Duty. 0
Or we all shall be ruled by whackadoodles.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
3,000 is not such a big deal, but grasping at straws etc. (emphasis added):
Initial jobless claims dropped by 3,000 to 450,000 in the week ended Sept. 11, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast was for a rise to 459,000, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The total number of people receiving unemployment insurance fell, and those getting extended payments plunged.
Horsing Around 0
I doubt this would work at a public school; no place to park:
It’s not often you see a kid riding his horse to school on the Main Line.
Geeking Out 0
I have updated the my boating website. It’s down the hall, second door on the left (here, there are no doors on the right).
There’s a little in the way of new content, but most of what I did was internal to make it easier to use and compliant with current web standards and practices.
I have converted it to HTML 4.01 with CSS, fixed or deleted broken links, added a few new links, and sharpened up some of the pictures.
Martin’s Mole 0
Ernest C. Withers, celebrated photographer of the Civil Rights movement and intimate of many civil rights leaders is revealed to have been a paid FBI informant.
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the story is buried deep inside, that persons trying to make real the vision that
were–and may still be today–considered “subversive”:
Shaun Mullen shares his take on the story at Kiko’s House.
Blue Ridge Blues 0
The local rag finishes up a four-part series on the Blue Ridge Parkway today on the year of the 75th anniversary of the road, reviewing its history and previewing its future.
I have ridden most of the road, not all at once, but in bits and pieces. It would probably take three days to drive the whole thing because of the slow speeds and almost-constant curves
The Blue Ridge Parkway and the Shenandoah Drive combined are easily the most beautiful legacy of the New Deal.
Rather than post the links piecemeal, I decided to wait until the print series was finished; the last piece came out today and is scheduled to hit their website tomorrow.
Read it here.
QOTD 0
O. Henry, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irritate your conscience.
Virginia Beach Democratic Committee Third Thursday Dinner 0
Two hours earlier than usual to allow persons to attend Virginia Beach City Council Candidates Forum at 7 p. m. at Thalia Trinity Presbyterian Church, 420 Thalia Road, Virginia Beach
- What: Third Thursday Dinner
- When: September 16th, 5:00 PM
- Where: Kelly’s Hilltop Tavern, 1936 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23454 (map)
Show up, order off the menu (separate checks), socialize, and talk politics–or whatever else interests you.
I have attended several of these. They tend to be smaller gatherings, highly informal, and a lot of fun.
For more information, email VaBeachBoy@aol.com
Why Do They Lie? 0
WMDs. Trickle-down economics. Birtherism. And so on.
Why? Because “Making the rich richer and the poor poorer” is probably not a vote-getter.
John H. Richardson theorizes:
I have two theories about this. One is that the conservative intelligentsia is deliberately training the Republican base to be irrational. I can almost see them chortling: “If we can get them to believe the earth is only 6,000 years old, we can get them to believe anything!”
But while this theory provides a little consolation, I don’t actually think it’s true. Far more likely is theory No. 2 — that Republicans have lost all confidence in their ability to convince the American people with honest arguments. Their triumphalism about November conceals a stink of desperation.
Read the whole thing. His email exchange with celebrated fabricator Dinesh D’Souza is worth the price of admission by itself.
Via Balloon Juice.
Roger. Out. 0
Now he’s back in again:
Roger, an African sulcata, was last seen by pet store employees about 2 p.m. Friday, sitting on a patch of grass outside the store in the 100 block of Greenbank Road, where he was chomping on grass.
Follow the link for pictures
And We Wonder What’s Wrong 0
Offered without comment:
Children’s wear accounted for 5 percent of Burberry’s 1.28 billion-pound ($2 billion) sales last year and may double to 10 percent “over time” . . . .
QOTD 0
H. L. Mencken, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
It is the dull man who is always sure, and the sure man who is always dull.