Personal Musings category archive

Jury Duty December 1.

I’ve wondered how they missed me all these years.

First Daughter got called three times while she was living in Georgia and Alabama.

First Son got called when he was in Iraq.

They finally noticed me. Guess I’ll get to finish that long boring book on CSS after all. Or that other long boring book on MySQL.

I’m not saying I agree with its premise, but it’s worth thinking about; I commend the column from this morning’s local rag to your attention.

The Big Three automakers want the federal government to fix them even before regulators buy their first distressed mortgage-backed security. It’ll only take $25 billion to $50 billion to get the motor started again.

Why consider a bailout for the automakers when we have a perfectly adequate system for restructuring companies in dire financial straits? It’s called bankruptcy.

The nation’s steel industry, long considered crucial to “national security,” has been totally reorganized through bankruptcy and consolidation. It’s a much smaller domestic industry now and much of it is foreign-owned.

What makes General Motors, Ford and Chrysler any different from Bethlehem Steel, LTV and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel?

(Here’s an opposing view.)

Clearly the American auto industry has done little more than demonstrate its incompetence and its inability to see farther than the next quarter’s returns. Autoworkers are already taking it on the chin; why protect the empty suits?

Frankly, I think a lot of the hysteria over the auto industry is as much a result of Americans’ emotional attachment to big, loud, fast Detroit Iron (even though, these days, much of it is Mexican and Canadian Detroit Iron–the cars may be assembled in the US, but many of the parts are manufactured abroad) as it is a rational attempt to protect jobs and industrial output.

All the infusions of money in the world won’t help the American auto industry unless someone figures out a way to infuse some smarts into auto executives’ heads.

I think that dried habanero I just added to the chili was the final touch.

Now to keep my hands off it for half and hour or and let it just simmer in its own juices.

It’s November 9. I have neglected my roses for the past couple of months. And they are still hanging in there. I picked these today.

The last time I visited Pine View Farm, I took down the flag. (I already have a new one in my truck to raise on my next trip.)

According to the Flag Code, burning is the only proper way to dispose of a flag, although, as an alternative, it may be donated to the American Legion or the VFW. (The American Legion would not have been an option, because of this.)

(I urge you to follow the link and read the Flag Code. It is not proper to wear flag-patterned clothing. Nor to autograph the flag, as both George the Wurst and Candidate McMaverick have been photographed doing.)

Now, there was no problem with its being up all the time, as it was permanently illuminated by a mercury-vapor light, but the flag was too tattered to be left in place.

So Second Son and I have folded it up as best we could, as it is no longer regulation length. When we have our first fire of the winter, we will burn it ceremoniously.

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Someone I know wants me to mail her a copy of today’s paper.

The first four places I went, all the newspapers, local and imported, were sold out.

I would have expected that if the Iggles had won the Superbowl. Guess it says something about how people feel about this election.

At one place, I walked past an unhappy looking guy sitting in a pick-up. I could hear Rush Limbaugh’s dulcet tones through the closed windows. (I tend to avoid purveyors of hate such as that; I see enough hate without inviting it into my life.)

I wonder whether Limbaugh was explaining how 52% of American voters must hate America.

If Obama can get elected President, dammit, I can stop smoking cigarettes.

Voting is not a right.

It’s a duty.

I get to flip over my girly calendar today.

just came by here tonight.

I need more ghouls. I’ve already eaten four Snickers bars.

So, after five hours, 200 miles, and the usual depressing–depressing because she’s so ill–visit with my mother, I get here, check in, and fire up the computer.

First, Linux tells me that the file system has been rebooted 27 times without a disk check and, dammit, it’s checking the disk whether I want it to of not, so go away for 15 minutes.

Then, I fire up the innertubes, get ready to listen to the news, and the MP3 server at the Best Public Radio Station in the Country ™ tells me that it’s full. Then the Real Audio server tells me the same thing, so I’m stuck with listening to the second best public radio station in the country.

And they’re not going to talk about the Phillies.

Like, for example, this one:

Addendum, after Tuesday’s DL:

I asked him tonight. He said, “Teh Google.”

I just heard the promo for tomorrow’s Fresh Air:

On the next Fresh Air: The making and remaking of presidential candidate John McCain. We talk with Robert Draper about his cover story for The New York Time Magazine, investigating why the McCain campaign hasn’t been able to settle on a central narrative.

(Jumping up and down, raising hand, and shouting, “Oooo! Oooo! Oooo! I know! I know!”)

In order to have a central narrative, one must believe in something over, above, and beyond just winning.

Phillies 10, Rays 2.

Phillies up three games to one.

Godwin’s Law states that

“As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”

A corollary to Godwin’s Law states that

If someone brings up Nazis in any conversation that has been going on too long for one of the parties, it can be used as a fair excuse to end the thread and declare victory for the other side.

Based on Godwin’s Law, the Republicans are toast.

General Powell’s endorsement of Senator Obama fell upon Left Blogistan with a resounding thud, as witness here and here and here, just to pick a few.

Some persons cannot forgive his hack sales job for the Great and Patriotic Glorious War for a Lie. Others think he has become, because of that, irrelevant.

Mithras injects some rationality into the discussion here.

Many years ago I worked for a retired Army bird colonel. I was chatting with him shortly after he lost a particularly bruising bureaucratic battle (he was on the side of the angels, by the way). He said, “I forgot what I learned in the Army. You fight like hell for your position, but, when the decision’s made, you shut up and follow orders.”

General Powell is a General, USA, ret. No doubt he learned the same lesson as Chuck. And no doubt this had a lot to do with his making his presentation at the UN.

I have a separate, unrelated story.

Well, not exactly unrelated, maybe tangentially related.

I used to work for a man–a good and honest man, the second-best boss I have ever had–who had been a very successful Sergeant in the Army, until he suffered an on-the-job (non-combat) injury and had to leave for medical reasons. He had the highest security clearance and knew persons in places the rest of us don’t know are places; indeed, he knew about First Son’s promotion to Sergeant before either First Son or I did.

He and I were standing out back in the designated smoking area chatting as the movement of men and material for the Great and Patriotic Glorious War for a Lie was just beginning.

“[Boss],” I said, “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

He looked at me and said, “Frank, it was going to happen anyway.” And, indeed, the warmongers had set the course for war from the beginning of the Current Federal Administration.

Now, you can argue that General Powell, rather than stage his dog-and-pony show, ought to have resigned, as Mithras argued last night.

And I will not disagree with you.

We cannot know, until and unless General Powell tells us, to what extent he was duped by the warmongers, to what extent he duped himself, or to what extent he he was consciously duplicitous.

How many of us have done something, perhaps something truly vile, by accident, to realize later that we should have done something else?

Persons in powerful positions are persons whose errors may have powerful consequences.

Here is my point: It is not right to dismiss the rest of General Powell’s truly distinguished career because of one powerful error.

Hold him accountable for his mistakes, but also give him credit for his accomplishments.

I cashed in some AmEx rewards points and got myself a toy. It’s a Garmin Nuvi 205.

It’s not that I need a GPS. I actually like maps.

One of my conceits is that, whenever I drive into a state, I’ll stop at the welcome center and get the current official state highway map (Va., Md., Pa., and NJ excepted, because I drive into them frequently).

So this is definitely a toy. And it was already paid for.

I took it for a spin today. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

No, I don’t leave it in the vehicle.

That’s another word for “underbelly.”

From the Booman, and he’s right on target. He describes the foundations of Republicanism. In all its slimy reality.

McCain has unleashed the dirty, ugly, secret-underbelly of the GOP’s base. It’s the base the enabled center-right rule on Wall Street and in the Capitol. It’s going to be a while before it can make a comeback. This is a total crack-up for one of the two major parties.

Addendum, Later That Same Evening:

Racist bastards.

Silverado is on AMC.