June, 2007 archive

A truck went past me today and caused me to break out laughing.

In the lower right corner of the rear window was a decla that said

“Ex-Republican.”

I needed a laugh.

The box is now on the network.

Now comes the real work: replicating the website and making sure everything is working before cutover.

Cutover should happen sometime this decade.

Remember when I got plumbed?

Today I replaced the step that the plumbers had to cut through. Six 80 pound bags of concrete mix and two heart attacks later, I’m stepped. As you can tell from the angle of the picture, I can barely lift my camera phone straight.

I’m not lifting anything else all day.

(Don’t you love where they put the clean out? I think I’ll paint it puce.)

I’ve mentioned the copout before. When “conservatives” get power and their policies fail, the wingnut noise machine starts to say that “X (whoever it may happen to be) is not really a conservative.”

The problem with that rationale, of course, is that “X (whoever it happens to be)” is really a conservative. It’s the policies, not the politicians, which are failures.

Now, when I say “conservative,” I do not mean the conservatism of, say, Teddy Roosevelt, who actually believed in, gosh!, conserving things.

I mean the policies of those who, under the label of conserving, want to fundamentally undermine alter American society, the American economy, and, most of all, American freedoms. (Ironic, ain’t it, that those who most vocally claim that someone else hates our freedom are the first to violate the basic rights that the framers established in the Constitution of the United States of American?)

(I guess that’s why they call themselves “neo-conservatives,” to distinguish themselves from actual conservatives.)

Neo-Conservatism is founded in, well, air.

Air and wishful thinking. The wishful thinking that told us that Iraq would be a “cakewalk” and that Iraqis would welcome us as “liberators.” (I’m not even going to bother to cite sources for those quotations. They are too well known, it’s too late, and I’m too tired–but the link below was too powerful to let wait until tomorrow.)

And whenever it’s proponents get in power, they prove that through the failures of their policies.

Bush and his enablers are no exception.

Follow the link to read more:

The problem of course, is that Bush has upheld the principles of the (neo–ed.) conservative movement, and all of these so-called conservatives who are suddenly so disappointed in him had been cheering him on all along while he did all these things they supposedly didn’t like. And the thing is, they still haven’t repudiated the actual policies – just the outcome.

For example, none of these people are complaining about the fact that he lowered taxes in wartime, an unprecedented policy in all of history. They can complain all they like that he hasn’t been “fiscally conservative”, but they not only supported his war and his tax cuts, but they refused to so much as question the fact that he ran it in the most expensive way imaginable – not just pseudo-privatizing the functions of the armed services, but actually giving the private companies they outsourced to incentives to overspend and generally waste resources. (And they let him force them to pass the drug-benefit bill with a clause forbidding negotiations to keep prices down.)

Via Atrios.

What’s this Republican fascination with animated special effects, anyway?

I’ve often been told I have a Super Ego.

You Are the Super Ego

While some people may think first and act later… you often don’t act at all. You rather be safe than sorry, and you take ethics pretty seriously. Like everyone, you have some pretty crazy desires. But unlike everyone, you restrain yourself. You have high standards for your own behavior. And you happily exceed them.

Via Susie.

My brother did a little informal survey today.

He asked everyone at work if they knew the significance of June 6.

Only one person did (interestingly enough, one of the younger staff-members).

We need to know our history. Not knowing our history leads to things like this.

Yeah. Right.

Listen here, from today’s Fresh Air on NPR:

Journalist Scott Shane writes for The New York Times about terrorism and the CIA’s interrogation techniques. His article “Soviet-Style ‘Torture’ Becomes ‘Interrogation'” describes how the United States has adopted interrogation techniques that it decried when they were used by the Soviet Union.

Protecting the American Way by emulating the KGB.

Addendum:

Brendan. Read it. I’m not even going to try to summarize it.

Yesterday, I bugged out of the cooling tower place early. When I went down there, I had not realized that the Circular Soiree had been postponed because of rain and I wanted to be on the road and past Dover before the traffic hit.

I missed most of it. A lot of people left Sunday because they weren’t able to stay an extra day. I’m told the stands were only half full (that’s 70,000 or so people, I think).

The presence of the Monster Mile draws a lot of money to Delaware.

People stay as far as 50 miles away, and big box stores, such as Walmart, allow the fans to park their RVs on portions of their lots.

It’s an odd phenomenon. A lot of the fans set up their RVs, set out their portable TV satelite dishes, and watch the race from their lounge chairs under their RV awnings. That way, they can drink unbroken from morning till night.

Sadly, a certain percentage of them are not very good advertisements for civility. This can happen when you cross large numbers of persons with large quantities of alcohol.

Dover residents pretty much stay in their homes except when the time trials or the race is actually going on and the fans are either already passed out or otherwise occupied.

In other news, NASCAR is concerned that its popularity has sort of plateaued. In particular, they are trying to attract more minority fans.

In the words of one citizen of Dover, (I am not making this up), “Fat chance, as long as they have a bunch of drunken, obnoxious rednecks waving the Confederate flag surrounding the track.”

Oh, back to my commute. I got caught in the first wave of RVs fleeing Dover. From the way they were driving, they were trying to get back home Sunday night. I saw one RV so big the driver was towing it with a semi-tractor.

That’s another side effect of the Monster Mile. It give out-of-state drivers an excuse to come to Delaware and drive badly.

Tangier, 18th and Lombard, Philadelphia, tomorrow, 6 p. m.

By the way, Tangier’s hamburgers got honorable mention in the local rag’s hamburger search.

I-76 to the South Street Exit. East on South Street and look for a parking place around 18th. It’s Philly, you may have to circle a few blocks. Bring quarters.

Lombard is one block north of South next to Jeff.

Plan (God willing) to see you there.

Addendum, 6/5/2007

God wasn’t willing.

I was an occasional, but not a regular reader of The News Blog.

But this post on the passing of Steve Gilliard by Jon Swift affected me deeply.

The death rate is constant: One per person.

But it is always sad when a good person passes away.

Depreciation.

Via rubber hose.

Phillybits describes what those of us whose children serve honorably for a dishonorable regime try not to think about.

Addendum, later that same night:

Oh, my. I missed this earlier (it’s been a long week, and it’s only Monday).

I mentioned IThings.

El Reg now warns us, be careful what we mail.

Cheneyesque.

Read the entire post.

When I’m not being disgusted by what the Current Federal Administration has done to the American dream, I’m being sick, or protecting myself by being in denial (yeah, I know, that’s a river in Eqypt) that we have allowed such evil to be done on our names.

And we are stuck with these villains for another 18 months.

President Bush lashed out at Iran yesterday for detaining American citizens and called for them to be freed “immediately and unconditionally.” White House aides said the president broke his silence because of Tehran’s decision to charge three of the four detainees.

And this is the guy who claims he can imprison anyone he wants, for as long as he wants, just on his say so, because he’s never wrong, and he’s always right.

Tell me, my friends, how is his malfeasance any different from their (meaning the Iranians’) malfeasance?

Indeed, his malfeasance undercuts his complaints about their malfeasance.

One can’t talk from the moral highground when one is wades in the moral mud.

. . . we used brownies. Then, again, in the olde days, this wouldn’t have happened in the ninth freakin’ grade:

On Thursday, eight ninth graders became mildly ill after eating homemade chocolate chip and sprinkle-covered cookies that, police believe, contained more than the usual ingredients.

A male student, whom police would not identify because of his age, supplied the troubling treats.

I’ve heard his whiny voice on the radio all week talking about “goals” for climate change.

Dan Froomkin points out the difference between goals and action. Why should I rewrite what someone else has nailed so well?

The White House yesterday showed that it still knows how to play the American press like a harp.

President Bush yesterday put forth a new proposal on climate change that is most newsworthy for its attempt to muddy the debate about the issue and derail European and U.N. plans for strict caps on emissions. Bush’s proposal calls for a new round of international meetings that would nearly outlast his presidency. The purpose of the meetings would not be to set caps on emissions, but to establish what the White House — uncorking a bold new euphemism — calls “aspirational goals.”

(snip)

(Quoting Andrew Gumbel of the Independent as he paraphrases the whiner Decider; follow the link for citations–ed.)

“‘In recent years, science has deepened our understanding of climate change and opened new possibilities for confronting it.’

“Translation: In recent years, my refusal to acknowledge the reality and seriousness of global warming has turned me into a laughing-stock and contributed to my record low poll ratings. So now I have to look interested.”

The Current Federal Administration, when confronted with any issues other than making fraudulent war and cutting taxes for the wealthy, has consistently been all talk and no action.

My friends, that leopard ain’t changing its spots anytime. Not “anytime soon.” Anytime.