2013 archive
The Rocket’s Red Glare 0
My local rag tells how you can watch tonight’s launch. It should be visible from several hundred miles away.
I grew up about 50 miles south of Wallops Island. I remember the family all going into the side yard (the left in the picture above, the darkest portion of the yard) to watch early satellite and space probes being launched from Wallops.
Tonight I shall probably sleep through it.
The Next Big Thing 0
I’m torn.
Should this be classified “too stupid for words” or “one born every minute”?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness begins at home.
Yes, I know that it’s tiresome. Old news. Happens every day. And, according to the NRA, more guns in more hands and homes will make everyone safer and keep this from happening.
Also, have you noticed it’s almost always the husbands or boyfriends? There’s a pathology there that bears investigation.
Not Retreating v. 2.0 0
Pre-emptive strike.
Florida Today reported on Wednesday that attorney’s for William T. Woodward had filed a motion asking for charges against him to be dismissed under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which says that gun owners do not have a duty to retreat in the face of an “imminent” threat.
He circled around behind them in the bushes and offed them while they were having a barbecue because, says he, he was a-skeert of them.
Gun Nut Paradise approacheth apace.
Alan Grayson’s Classic Description of Republican Health Care Comes to Life: “Don’t Get Sick. If You Do Get Sick, Die Quickly.” 0
Extending health care to the community, the Republican way.
War, Because, If We Don’t, Who Will? 0
I write mail in response to this news report:
The Honorable Tim Kaine
United States Senate
388 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510Dear Mr. Kaine:
I see in today’s Virginian-Pilot that you voted for intervention in Syria because, to paraphrase your statement as quoted in the story, “Somebody should do something.”
As it appears that “doing something” will not end the civil war in Syria, will not bring peace in any form, will not, in fact, accomplish anything other than to blow up more stuff and people, I submit, sir, that “Somebody should do something” is not a sound basis for policy formation.
Copied to my other elected representatives incongruously assembled.
Consider it cc-sa.
A Liberal Education 0
Reg Henry reflects:
And so did I become a paragon of learning and a pillar of decency? Er, not quite. I think I would have done better with a self-esteem program. Having watched corporal punishment applied brutally and arbitrarily, I became outraged by unfairness and skeptical of sternly imposed authority.
In short, I started down the road to becoming a liberal. Now you mockers of self-esteem wouldn’t want that to happen to any kid, would you? Old-school thinking deserved an F in some areas and that’s why the education world changed.
Job Creation 0
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
For all practical purposes, the patient is stable, but not improving.
(snip)
The jobless claims report showed the four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, declined to 328,500 last week, the lowest since October 2007, from 331,500.
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits declined by 43,000 to 2.95 million in the week ended Aug. 24. The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
In Republican World, democracy is all well and good, as long as it votes Republican.
“Unintentional Misfire” 0
As opposed, I reckon, to an intentional misfire.
“It has been revealed to us that the subject shot by one our DeKalb police officers was not associated with the burglary on Streamside Court,” Alexander said. “He was truant from school and began running when he saw police officers in the area.”
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
And you thought magazines were a dying industry.
Just as a point of reference, the county seat of James City County is Williamsburg (aka, at least when I attended school there, “Colonial Disneyland”).
Bad Hair Daze, Reprise 0
Students’ hair continues to make grown-ups stupid.
She’s a seven-year-old African American child who had dreadlocks .
The school’s policy states
“hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable.”
Of the ones listed, the only one that I could consider “faddish” is the mohawk, since it seems to reappear for a short while every other generation.
Oddly enough, the last time I saw a mohawk, it was worn by the virtuoso guest pianist at a concert by the Virginia Beach Symphony.
I am skeptical that this policy is “colorblind.”
I am certain that it is stupid.