Pass the Popcorn

23. September 2008 · Comments Off on Pass the Popcorn · Categories: General

Professor Larry Sabato on what happens if the electoral college is tied, throwing the contest to the House.

Summary: it’s going to be a rannygazoo bigger than a three-ring circus featuring Siamese elephants joined at the trunk and a three-legged ringmaster. And an international embarrassment.

I don’t get that last. What in the world is embarrassing about a representative democracy operating according to the rules? Okay, yes, turmoil, dreaded turmoil. But that’s part of the fun and a result of the system being what it is.

Loosen up, Prof, get the popcorn out and enjoy the show.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Coal – it’s awesome. Except when it’s not so awesome.

23. September 2008 · Comments Off on Coal – it’s awesome. Except when it’s not so awesome. · Categories: General

Senator Obama: We’re for clean coal – it rocks.
Senator Biden: We sure are and it does!  What’s that sweetie? Oh wait, you’re a Green?  Aw man. Coal is the E-vil.  It’s bad.  Seriously.

You just know the guys running the war room at Obama for President’s Global Headquarters cringe when they watch ol’ Loose Lips on the news.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

The Bandar-Log

23. September 2008 · Comments Off on The Bandar-Log · Categories: Ain't That America?, General, My Head Hurts, Politics, Rant, sarcasm, World

Here we sit in a branchy row, thinking of beautiful things we know;
Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do, all complete, in a minute or two—
Something noble and wise and good, done by merely wishing we could…

In following the current twists and turns of the current election season, with particular attention to the hackerish little creeps who think it is an excellent thing to break into email accounts… tell me, why is it a Good Thing and entirely justifiable for people in sympathy with the Obama campaign to break into Governor Palin’s yahoo account, looking for incriminating evidence of dark plots and deeds… but it was a Bad Thing for Richard Nixon’s cabal of plumbers to break into the Watergate looking for incriminating evidence of dark deeds and plots? Oh yes, that was before you were born, probably. But they made a movie about it, so you must have heard about Simply Teh Greatest Political Crime EVER!!!! Just sit down, and think about this real hard. And look up the definition of hypocrisy, while you are at it.

Bottom line, for those of you whose moral sense is situational – if it is a crime for free-lance or paid operatives to break into another party’s HQ, operating office, personal email account… whatever, on a fishing expedition – than it is a crime all the way around, no matter how justified you think you are in your motivation. Those of your friends, teachers, college professors and fellow Kossacks who may have been insisting otherwise? They are wrong. I would advise you to stop listening to people like that.

I would also stop paying much attention to our Major Media Creatures and those who keep popping out of their ol’ golden rolodex to screech about Sarah Palin. Just a quick look down some of those crazier rants (especially the ones by foreigners) about the suddenly front-and-center Governor of Alaska — her relative inexperience, all around tackiness, blue-collar-ness, lack of capital-F feminist credentials, religious beliefs, et cetera gives cause for serious head shaking. Jeeze, people, get a grip! Take a valium. (In the case of Heather Mallick, take a lot of valium. In the case of Sandra Bernhard, a lot of valium, a lot of scotch and please review a basic human anatomy text.) Pouring all this vitriol on someone you probably didn’t even know about three weeks ago seems kind of… I don’t know, unbalanced? She’s only been front and center on the major American political scene for three weeks, and she is already attracting a degree of odium usually reserved for someone who has been around for a bit, and done some bad things. Like a reckless, grandstanding, philanderer with a taste for shady friends. But enough about Bill Clinton.

And then there the not-terribly-surprising discovery by Rusty Shackleford at The Jawa Report that certain alleged and dubious factoids about Governor Palin which suddenly began sprouting like toadstools after a rain were actually planted by the minions and employees of a well-known and well-connected publicity firm, in the sure and certain knowledge that the howler monkeys of the KOSsacks left would fall on them as if on a tasty treat and repeat them incessantly.

All the talk we ever have heard, uttered by bat or beast or bird—
Hide or fin or scale or feather— Jabber it quickly and all together!
Excellent! Wonderful! Once again! Now we are talking just like men!

Of course, once this precious little piece of Astroturf was tracked to it’s originating point, everything got yanked, with the speed of a cartoon character at the end of a long piece of elastic band. Note to self – every time I start to notice the same poisonous little factoid appearing spontaneously and simultaneously in – blog entries and blog comments, from out of the mouths of the dumber Hollywood celebs and the sort of TV commenter who goes from rational to spittle-fleck rant in thirty seconds flat, I will assume that some busy little astoturfers have been at work, behind the scenes. And that someone like Rusty or another enthusiast will be able to track it back to the originating source. It’s not like you can launch damaging rumors without leaving any marks, people. The internet never forgets. The tracks are always there, especially when someone does a screen-capture or downloads a file.

Finally, the recent request from the Big O for his minions to really get out there and go all righteous in confronting those of us who are less than fully enamored – great idea! Yeah, people just love getting hectored and bulled, and called names like ‘racist’ and ‘hater’. My suggestion – put on a leather teddy, spike heels and fishnet stockings. Brandish a leather crop, too. You might not get anywhere politically with that scenario, but at least that part of the audience who is into playing kinky submissive games will get some cheap thrills, while the rest of us look on in amusement.

Damn, did this election season get interesting all of a sudden. Who’d a thunk it possible, back in January, 2008.

iTunes Genius

22. September 2008 · Comments Off on iTunes Genius · Categories: General

I finally got around to playing with the iTunes Genius feature last night.  Basically, you pick a song from your library, Apple then recommends new music from their store which will go good with it.  I mostly ignore this part, because it mostly recommends music I already own, although I may not have purchased it from the iTunes store.  Click the genius button, and it will suggest a playlist of 25, 50, 75 or 100 songs from your library.  You can save that playlist or refresh it a couple times to see if there aren’t other matches.

Most of the time I got some really good songs that I may not have put together myself.  As far as I can tell, the “Genius” makes it’s matches from “similar artists,” “year song was released,” “beats per minute,” and “genre.”  “Jersey Girl” by Tom Waits gave me everything from Springsteen’s “Nebraska” to “Romeo’s Tune” by Steve Forbert to “Stuck Between Stations” by The Hold Steady to “Not Fade Away” by The Crickets.  Those feel right.  But it also gave me “Angel From Montgomery” by Bonne Raitt/John Prine, “Handbags and Gladrags” by Rod Stewart, and “Tumbling Dice” by the Stones.  And Dylan…lots of Bob Dylan.  So maybe there’s a “Gravel In Their Voice” category in the database that doesn’t show on the front end.

I basically like Genius.  I’m lazy.  When I try to make playlists myself, I over-think my way into complete paralysis.  I’m not completely in synch with the Genius, but it does give me a good starting point.

The initial setup takes some time, so before you download it and set it up, understand that depending on the size of your collection, you’re probably going to need at least an hour.  And Apple will read your entire library before it sends a copy of that list to itself.  If you’re afraid of Apple knowing what’s in your library, you’re not going to choose to do this.  Personally, I bought and paid for all of my music, not all from iTunes, but it’s all bought and paid for so I don’t much care if they know or not.

Cowboys beat Packers like kettle drums

21. September 2008 · Comments Off on Cowboys beat Packers like kettle drums · Categories: General

I had no idea that the Cowboys had so many large holes playing for them on the offensive line.

9/22/08 - Felix Jones by you.
‘I looked up and .. I saw a hole. And I stopped for a second – I didn’t know we had any of those playing for us.‘

Good job, Cowboys.  Packers … well y’all showed up for the game and gosh darn it, you tried hard. Yes, of course we’ll stop for dilly bars on the way home.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Texiana – Three Roads

20. September 2008 · Comments Off on Texiana – Three Roads · Categories: Domestic, General, Literary Good Stuff, Old West, Veteran's Affairs

Wander my freaks

19. September 2008 · Comments Off on Wander my freaks · Categories: General

We’ve committed to a re-commitment ceremony. We’ve settled on a style that fits us, the monkeys are thrilled with the formal wear we’ve settled on ..

Kilts! And bagpipes!

That’s my daughter. She is fifteen.

Oh … my … gawd you people are freaks! I’m the only normal person here!

Phht: Kilts are cool. And it’s not bagpipes plural – just a recording [1] that I’m mulling over for the set [2] you play when you’re getting ready for the show to start.

Nothing set in stone – and we’ve got a year to nail this sucker down.

Anyway – she’s my coolth gauge.  When she goes high and to the right, I know that I’m spot on.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

[1] I like this one too.  The opening is a bit .. heavy .. for an intimate gathering, perhaps.

[2] The themes that run through the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack really hit me in the gut.  Redemption, Reunification … hey it’s a re-commitment ceremony, right?

The Persistence of Plastic Turkey Memory

17. September 2008 · Comments Off on The Persistence of Plastic Turkey Memory · Categories: Ain't That America?, General, Media Matters Not, My Head Hurts, Politics, Rant, sarcasm

A running gag at Tim Blair’s blog over the last five years or so has been reports of the appearance of the eternal bird in the dribblings of various writers, entertainers and columnists. That is, a sneering reference to the pictures of President Bush holding a supposedly plastic turkey, in a series of pictures taken at his surprise Thanksgiving visit to troops in Iraq five years ago. Explained and debunked over and over again by eyewitnesses that it was a real turkey, for display at the steam tables where the main entrée was being dished out, put together by the mess-hall staff and that such displays are actually commonplace at military mess halls… the plasticized version of this meme appears yet again, unscathed, rather like a turkey-shaped Freddy Kruger. The bird is not only the word, it is eternal. (Spotted yet again this very morning, as I contemplated this essay while being dragged around the block by the dogs.)

Obviously, this is a convenient short-hand for the people who enjoy sneering at George W. Bush and are too damned lazy to rustle up something a little more current than the old plastic turkey story. Tim Blair and his commenters get a lot of mileage – and a lot of hearty chortling – but the fact that the meme is still current after five years and a ton of energetic debunking is kind of depressing. It proves that Joseph Goebbels was on to something when he observed the effectiveness of telling a big lie and sticking to it… even at the cost of looking ridiculous. If a story is repeated often enough, it will be believed by a depressingly large number of people: 9/11 was an inside plot by the Bush Administration, Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans was completely blameless in the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the 2000 election was stolen, the Swiftboat veterans’ claims about John Kerry were all debunked, that US government were Saddam Hussein’s biggest supplier of military equipment… oh, add your own favorite here, the list is practically endless.

Such memes persist because they are repeated incessantly by all sorts of people, against all available evidence to the contrary. The most depressing aspect is that in a lot of cases they are repeated by media figures that once I would have expected better from – and applauded by audiences that I also expected better of. (Garrison Keillor being a particular offender. I can barely stand to listen to Prairie Home Companion these days, and I used to love that show.) Now I only hope for better. Sad to say, that hope is growing fainter and fainter by the hour… especially over the last two weeks. As if it wasn’t bad enough to suspect our very own dear media folks of being lazy and careless in vetting stories in the last election cycle, as if it wasn’t bad enough that 60 Minutes could air a blatant hit piece just before election day, based on shaky fact-checking and dubious memos in an attempt to throw the election to John Kerry… as if the hurricane of vitriol this time around didn’t reach a new and unexplored depths with the Palin-faked-pregnancy story, now it looks as if mainstream media has moved solidly into place as a propaganda arm of the Obama Democrats.

Not just the dirt-digging on Governor Palin – it’s the asymmetrical dirt-digging. Plus the final edit of her interview with Charles Gibson, with her answers judiciously edited to put the worst complexion on them… (sample of it here) plus the staging of it in the studio, plus his hectoring manner, so very different from his interview with Senator Obama. Really, it does give one pause. Then consider the cover shoot of Senator McCain, for the Atlantic Magazine, with such very artistic and well-considered outtakes doctored by the photographer….

Just some examples from the last couple of weeks… but still, very revealing ones, about the various aspects of the current political scene. I wouldn’t go so far as to make a blanket insistence that the whole lot are in the tank for the Obama campaign… but I sure as hell wouldn’t assume anything about their impartiality, either. Were I a media advisor to a Republican nominee to high office, I’d certainly be advising a quick pre-interview google-search of the interviewer’s name… and for the nominee to bring along his or her own own camera crew.

(Thanks Sigivald – corrected!)

CONGRATULATIONS, AND THANK YOU!!! Day by Day Fundraiser ends early

16. September 2008 · Comments Off on CONGRATULATIONS, AND THANK YOU!!! Day by Day Fundraiser ends early · Categories: General

Click on the cartoon for more details….

I love you moooore . . .

15. September 2008 · Comments Off on I love you moooore . . . · Categories: General

Is it the training or do they bring that attitude to the service, fully formed?

Sugary Sweetness (YouTube Video)

Via.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

If You Like Michigan’s Economy, You’ll Love Obama’s

15. September 2008 · Comments Off on If You Like Michigan’s Economy, You’ll Love Obama’s · Categories: General

If You Like Michigan’s Economy, You’ll Love Obama’s

Mr. McCain will lower taxes. Mr. Obama will raise
them, especially on small businesses. To understand why, you need to
know something about the “infamous” top 1% of income tax filers: In
order to avoid high corporate tax rates and the double taxation of
dividends, small business owners have increasingly filed as individuals
rather than corporations. When Democrats talk about soaking the rich,
it isn’t the Rockefellers they’re talking about; it’s the companies
where most Americans work. Three out of four individual income tax
filers in the top 1% are, in fact, small businesses.

In the name of taxing the rich, Mr. Obama would raise
the marginal tax rates to over 50% on millions of small businesses that
provide 75% of all new jobs in America. Investors and corporations will
also pay higher taxes under the Obama program, but, as the
Michigan-Ohio-Illinois experience painfully demonstrates, workers
ultimately pay for higher taxes in lower wages and fewer jobs.

Mr. Obama would spend all the savings from walking out
of Iraq to expand the government. Mr. McCain would reserve all the
savings from our success in Iraq to shrink the deficit, as part of a
credible and internally consistent program to balance the budget by the
end of his first term. Mr. Obama’s program offers no hope, or even a
promise, of ever achieving a balanced budget.

Mr. Obama would stimulate the economy by increasing
federal spending. Mr. McCain would stimulate the economy by cutting the
corporate tax rate. Mr. Obama would expand unionism by denying workers
the right to a secret ballot on the decision to form a union, and would
dramatically increase the minimum wage. Mr. Obama would also expand the
role of government in the economy, and stop reforms in areas like tort
abuse.

The states have already tested the McCain and Obama
programs, and the results are clear. We now face a national choice to
determine if everything that has failed the families of Michigan, Ohio
and Illinois will be imposed on a grander scale across the nation. In
an appropriate twist of fate, Michigan and Ohio, the two states that
have suffered the most from the policies that Mr. Obama proposes, have
it within their power not only to reverse their own misfortunes but to
spare the nation from a similar fate.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Maybe it’s not the camera…

15. September 2008 · Comments Off on Maybe it’s not the camera… · Categories: General, General Nonsense

My mom spent my entire lifetime taking family pictures. And we have photo album after photo album filled with pictures of people missing either their heads or their feet.

Finally, in the early 90s, my mom invested a couple hundred dollars in a 35mm point & shoot camera (most money she ever spent on a camera). Oddly enough, the new, fancy camera still cut off people’s heads or feet in the pictures she took. Mom blamed the camera.

We laugh, of course, because it was obviously Mom who was cutting off the heads or feet of the folks in the picture, not the camera. It was all in how she framed her shots.

Reader’s Digest had a story once, in one of their humor sections… a famous photographer had some folks over for a slide-show presentation of his trip to somewhere exotic (Alaska, Antarctica, wherever). As the guests were leaving, someone’s wife said to him – “Those are wonderful photographs. You must have a very expensive camera.” He smiled and thanked her. A while later, he was invited to a dinner party at that family’s house. He attended, and enjoyed a delicious meal. As he was leaving, he said to the hostess: “That was a delicious dinner. You must have very expensive cookware.”

It’s absurd to think that fancy cookware is all that’s needed to make an excellent dinner. Why then, do folks think a fancy camera is all that’s needed for good photos? It’s not the camera, it’s the photographer. A skilled photographer can take excellent photos with a crappy camera. Granted, good photos are easier with a good camera, but it’s ultimately the skill of the photographer that counts.

Case in point… for years, I had a 2.1mp digital camera. Folks would talk about how important it was to have higher megapixels, and faster shutter speeds, less lag between the time you click the shutter button and when the picture is actually taken. People would talk about how they missed shots because their camera wasn’t fast enough. And they needed more megapixels so they could print bigger pictures, because a 2.1mp camera just can’t give you a good 8×10 picture.

Now, I’m not against better cameras, don’t get me wrong. But I printed many good quality 8×10 photos from my 2.1mp camera. And I got many good action shots (in bright light) from my impossibly slow camera.

Because I knew how to take pictures. I had learned over the years, by practice and by reading everything I could get my hands on about the art of picture-making.

If you want an action shot, you don’t wait until the last minute to try and get it. You anticipate it. If your camera is slow, then not only do you anticipate where the action will be, you half-press the shutter button to set the focus, and keep it there until the action happens.

For instance, each of these photos was taken with my very old, very slow, 2.1mp camera, using the method I just mentioned:

Every time I’m on a message board and I see someone post “Wow, great pictures! What kind of camera do you have?” I cringe, because asking that question implies that the CAMERA is the reason the photos are so good, not the photographer. If they’re asking me, I smile politely and answer the question. Maybe they’re in the market for a new camera, after all.

But I know for a fact that there are people in this world who think that if they can only buy the correct camera, all their picture taking problems will be solved. And it’s NOT true. A camera is only a tool, not a miracle-machine. It’s up to the person using the tool to create the good picture.

UPDATE: The camera I used for the above pics, as well as my current camera both have a “fully manual” mode. My original digicam was an Olympus C2100-UZ (ultra zoom). Lens by Canon, 10x Optical zoom, 2.1mp. And yet I printed some very nice 8×10 pics (and 11×17, as well) with it. A lot of the print quality rests in the processing of the photo before sending it off to print, in my opinion.

My current is a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ20. Leica lens, 5mp, 10x optical zoom (maybe 12x? Don’t remember off-hand). It supports additional lenses/filters, has a hot-shoe for external flash, costs 1/2 to 1/3 what a dSLR would have cost me at the time, and I don’t have to lug around a bunch of lenses. My back loves it. Yeah, I’d love to have the newer FZ-whatever, with slightly shorter lag-times, and more ISO equivalencies (mine sucks at low-light shooting), but this one is good enough for now.

I have another Panasonic that I take on business trips – it fits in my backpack or my pocket, and does what I need. It’s their Lumix TZ-1. Lens by Leica, 10x optical zoom, 5mp.

I won’t invest in a dSLR until I’m ready to go back to the world of manual shooting, and I’ve really enjoyed using the auto feature and letting my camera do the thinking for me. But my FZ20 supports fully manual mode, so as long as it’s doing what I need, why change it?

Fringe

14. September 2008 · Comments Off on Fringe · Categories: General

Just watched the encore presentation of the first episode.

And if I’m not mistaken, Doll House will be on Fox as well.

Why is Fox doing better SciFi than The SciFi Channel?

Yet Another Explaination of the Palin Appeal

14. September 2008 · Comments Off on Yet Another Explaination of the Palin Appeal · Categories: General

OK, so I laughed so hard at this I almost shot chardonnay out of my nose…

Courtesy of Rantburg, my source for all things sarcastic and political.

Later – this interesting Youtube version of a certain Disney movie. Watch it quick, before the Mouse Kingdom begins carrying on about copyright infringement… (also courtesty of Rantburg… www.rantburg.com)

MSM v. Palin

14. September 2008 · Comments Off on MSM v. Palin · Categories: A Href, Domestic, General, Politics

MSM v. Palin

Looks like the cartoonist should have added another wolf named “Air America.” Or maybe a coyote/jackal would have been a better critter choice for that.

h/t Baldilocks for the cartoon, Hot Air for the additional wolf name.

Is anyone doing research at Obama for President Headquarters?

13. September 2008 · Comments Off on Is anyone doing research at Obama for President Headquarters? · Categories: General

Senator Obama: John McCain doesn’t know how to use a computer or send email.  How out of touch can you be?

Mary Leonard: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

Senator Obama: Whoops.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Sarah Palin and Charlie Gibson

12. September 2008 · Comments Off on Sarah Palin and Charlie Gibson · Categories: General

One minute on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgMWhrCzbdk

Steve Perry

Gibson asked her about the Bush Doctrine. Look at her face. She had no clue what he was talking about. He fed her enough so she could vamp, and she did, but she still didn’t know.

I think she got it. What I see a lot of subtle errors in communication between the two.

You know where the confusion comes from? She’s being interviewed by a guy who patronizing her. Which is never fun. And she’s got enough steel to return the favor with the contempt it deserves.

Win or loose in November, the Press is in for an interesting time with this lady.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Barack Obama – equal pay for equal work

12. September 2008 · Comments Off on Barack Obama – equal pay for equal work · Categories: General

Senator Barack Obama: “Now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work, I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.”

I’m sure they will. As long as they don’t work for the staff of … Senator Barack Obama.

Obama’s 28 male staffers divided among themselves total payroll expenditures of $1,523,120. Thus, Obama’s average male employee earned $54,397.

Obama’s 30 female employees split $1,354,580 among themselves, or $45,152, on average.

Stay classy, Senator.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Dear Anglicans

11. September 2008 · Comments Off on Dear Anglicans · Categories: General

Have you people lost whatever passes for common sense in your teeny-tiny brain housing group?

The Church of St. James the Great in Dursley, Gloucestershire has a new curate. She like lager, the Sex Pistols and wears hot pants and biker boots to church.

Which isn’t, really, a problem. The Anglican’s have so many, many problems that a priest wearing hot pants is like an inch of snow at the North Pole.

The problem is something that was only noted in passing.

Miss Denno moved to the town with her partner Joel and their two young children last month to take up her new role.

An unmarried priest.  With a partner.  And two young children.  For the love o’ Pete ..  what?  Oh. She is married, as other articles are at great pains to point out.

Well, that’s okay then.  Carry on, Anglicans.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Seven Years

11. September 2008 · Comments Off on Seven Years · Categories: Ain't That America?, General, GWOT, History, World

Supposedly, seven years is the time it takes for a human body’s cells to regenerate, to have new cells completely replace the old cells. I don’t know that factoid is true, strictly speaking, or if it just applies to the skin. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that it’s not true at all, but is just one of those curiosities which seems right, if somewhat startling at first thought.

Seven years; long enough for the scar tissue to grow over, for the breaks in the solid rock underpinning our universe to calcify, to heal over – and for us to become accustomed to living in a world without the silhouette of a pair of silver towers gleaming in the sunshine of a cool September morning. Long enough to become used to the absence, and accustomed to the wrenching changes, to acclimate ourselves to a new reality. But not long enough to become used to the absence, to the space in a life where a husband, a wife, a son or daughter, or a friend used to be. Never long enough to forget the sight of a tall building – first one and then the other – falling into itself, dissolving into a dark blizzard-cloud of smoke and debris, and taking the lives of thousands of people with it. No, never forget that; it’s the vision I see now, whenever I listen to Mozarts’ Requiem.

Seven years of change since that morning, the morning when our world shuddered and for many of us, wrenched itself onto a new track. The changes have come so thick and fast, that the glorious September morning now and again seems to have happened a couple of decades ago. Two wars, one which seems now to be perilously won and the other still in balance, two presidential elections, the rise of a new media, the slow implosion of the old – the aftermath of a violent hurricane devastating the Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf Coast, (and another one which at this very moment seems destined to hit the Texas coast like a pile-driver) and any number of other events which strutted and fretted for their moment on the national and international stage; all of this moved the events of one day, the day of 9-11-01 away from a current event and into the pages of history.

But for today, and just for today, we set down the burdens of today for a moment, and remember.

(The letter that I wrote about that day is here, in the old MT archive)

Per Diem and the World’s Verdict

10. September 2008 · Comments Off on Per Diem and the World’s Verdict · Categories: General

Jonathan Freedland: The world’s verdict will be harsh if the US rejects the man it yearns for.

Well, golly, if the world yearns for Barack Obama they can damn well invite him to run for office there. Although somehow I doubt the son of an African would even be in the running for the top job in, say, England.

Perhaps I’m wrong. But England has plenty o’ black people. Have there been any in slots comparable to Secretary of State, let alone in the running for Prime Minister?

But the headline is not the only bit o’ nonsense.

She (Governor Palin) even seems to have claimed “per diem” allowances – taxpayers’ money meant for out-of-town travel – when she was staying in her own house.

We have this thing called research.  Doing a modest amount of this is revealing.  Her own house is in Wasilla.  The state capitol is in Juneau.  The distance between the two is what is commonly called ‘a whole bunch’ – call it 600 miles.

Per diem is used to offset additonal expenses incurred living away from home. It’s pretty common – I’m surprised Mr. Freedland seems unfamiliar with the concept – which is usually the case when an author wraps something in scare quotes.  Perhaps he needs to talk with his HR rep at the Guardian – I suspect he’s earned some during his travels for his employer and might be owed some money.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.

Timmer’s post got me thinking….

10. September 2008 · Comments Off on Timmer’s post got me thinking…. · Categories: General

Timmer’s upset at the media attacks on Gov. Palin. So am I.

As a fairly strong, successful woman, I took offense every time Hillary played the victim card during the primaries (”you’re picking on me because I’m a woman”). Either you’re strong enough to run this country, or you’re not. The presidency is not a place for thin-skinned victim-mongers.

Sarah Palin got to where she is without playing the victim card, so far as I can tell. And I respect that.

I’m not a politician (nor do I want to be), but I am my own person, who got where I am without playing any victim cards. The most common phrase I heard when I was growing up was “girls don’t do that.” Girls don’t play drums (pre-Karen Carpenter). Girls don’t work on cars. Girls don’t drive tractors. Girls don’t take shop class. Girls don’t take vocational agriculture, but we have a very nice home-ec program if you’d like, or maybe the horticulture class? So I don’t play drums, but I learned how to change my own oil, I helped my dad bush-hog the fields, I took wood-shop in summer school. Today, I can build or repair computers, recently built my own rain-barrels, swapped out regular light-switches for motion-sensor light switches, swapped out ceiling light fixtures, and all kinds of other things that “girls don’t do,” according to my early childhood.

My grandfathers were coal-miners. One was also a share-cropper. I have no idea about their fathers/grandfathers — none of us know anything much about our families before the most recent generations. Although I do know that on my mother’s side, the family was split during the civil war – one brother wore blue, one wore gray.

Neither of my parents graduated high school. Mom dropped out after her junior year so she could get a job and help out at home. Dad dropped out because he didn’t like school. My dad joined the Marines at 17 so he could stay out of the coal mines. Mom got married at 18 to get away from home. Her first husband thought she’d make a good punching bag, so she left him. She and my dad were together for 2 years before they married, and she was 3-4 months pregnant with my brother when she married my dad (in 1954). She hid that for 20 years because she was so embarrassed about it. When she died in 2003, they’d been married 50 years.

I’m the youngest in my immediate family, and I was the first one to go to college. When I wanted a college degree, I found financial aid, and joined the National Guard (dad was handicapped and folks had no money). When I needed to pay off college loans, and figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, I joined the Air Force. When that stopped being fun, I got out and figured out what I really wanted to be when I grew up, and started pursuing those types of jobs.

I survived two years of unemployment while living alone, 500 miles away from my family and 1000 miles away from my best support system.

I have spent the last 25 years working in career fields that are mostly male-dominated (military, IT), and have never needed to play any kind of victim card, or gender card. All I’ve needed to do is learn my job, do my job, and be a grown up. I learned early on that whining at work was NOT the way to get ahead.

Gov. Palin is a grown up. She has my vote. And yeah, like Timmer says, they’re not just attacking Gov. Palin. They’re attacking me. I’m not a politician, or a former beauty queen, or a wife & mother, but I’m an independent, strong-minded, successful, conservative woman, who comes from “fly-over country.” Like Gov. Palin. Like Sgt Mom. Like my best friend in Texas, and most of the women that I know.

The media has no idea who we are. They may never know. But we know who we are. And we know who Sarah Palin is. She’s one of us.

Another Sarah Palin Post

10. September 2008 · Comments Off on Another Sarah Palin Post · Categories: A Href, General, Politics

Ran across this on OpinionJournal.com yesterday…

Notable & Quotable
September 9, 2008

Howard Fineman writing in Newsweek on the Republican vice-presidential candidate:

Democrats dare not issue [Sarah] Palin a pass—she’s too dangerous a foe. Normally vice presidential candidates fade into the background. Nobody is expecting that with Palin; indeed, her newfound celebrity has made even Obama look dull.

The usual rule is that voters don’t trust attacks from people they don’t know, but Palin is turning the adage on its head. Democrats are determined to attack her credibility, even if it gives her more visibility. “We’ve got to go after her, and fast,” a top Democratic strategist, who asked for anonymity when discussing strategy, told me.

The Discrete Charm of the Frontier Woman

09. September 2008 · Comments Off on The Discrete Charm of the Frontier Woman · Categories: Ain't That America?, General, History, Media Matters Not, Old West, Politics, World

I understand that some of our foreign observers generally are having a bit of trouble grokking the attraction of Sarah Palin amongst the blue-collar electorate in a variety of American locales not known for exhibiting that Olde Worlde Cosmopolitan Charm. Lord knows our very own dear political and media elite are having much the same kind of problem. Kind of fun to watch them twist and squirm in the icy cold wind, as they slowly realize that the rest of the ’08 campaign will not be a walk in the park for the Fresh Prince of Chicago – that the anticipated coronation might have to be put on hold… with luck for the foreseeable future. I ought not to enjoy the sight so much… but I – aside from the collection of Japanese prints and affection for Bach’s Brandenburg concerti – am a person with simple taste in amusements. This election season is turning out to be way too much fun.

OK, back to my main point – the reasons why we kind of like Sarah Palin. There are any number of considered reasons to not like her political stance. Some may be put off by the adamantly ant-abortion bit, or a distinct lack of enthusiasm for big-government solutions to real world problems, and a certain lack of experience with persistent and endemic problems in mega-big Americian cities. When I think of desperately broken inner cities with huge gang problems, endemic poverty and the occasional outbreak of rioting, Juneau, AK is about the last place which comes to mind. Something about extreme heat and extreme cold keeping people law-abiding, mostly because going out and breaking the law in a serious way is just too damn uncomfortable.

These days, when we turn on the tube or go to a movie, we get the strong woman whose personal life is a mess, or a strong woman whining about the glass ceiling, or having the vapors because someone said something, or some dithery and charming ingénue, eaten up with equally charming neuroses. Or any one of a number of other stereotypes… which are, frankly, getting a little boring. In real life, in flyover country, most of us know a Sarah Palin, sometimes a great many of them; strong and competent women with happy marriages, well-adjusted families, and a long career of service to their communities… or for the places where they worked. They are not nearly as rare as they might appear – it’s just that the job openings for governor and VP-nominee are not nearly enough to absorb them all, and to be honest, the interest of the media is a sometime and fleeting thing. So what it is it about a hitherto mostly obscure local politician, with a personal story arc that looks like something assembled from a collection of upbeat country songs and those Lifetime Channel made for TV movies which have a kick-ass happy ending? (Yeah, all three of them….)

Basically, it’s because she is an archetype – the frontier woman. Or the pioneer woman, and that’s a sort that we haven’t really seen front and center for a bit. Well, not on the national stage, anyway. In the military maybe; lots of that sort of woman. Tough as nails, do not take a lot of BS or give it out, supremely competent, unflappable, and amusing to hang out with, comfortable in her own skin. Now and again you might see that kind of woman appear briefly in a supporting role. But even in the 19th century, they weren’t especially thick on the ground… except possibly on the American frontier – although such marvelous women did make occasional appearances in other venues.

As I wrote a couple of months ago, about Lizzie Johnson– schoolteacher, cattle baroness, landowner, writer and bookkeeper – such women had no other habitat than on the frontier. Which was a tough place, despite many romantic notions about it; dangerous, devoid of the usual support systems that women of the Victorian era, no matter of what class were accustomed to. Women on the frontier died in childbirth, of various unpleasant illnesses to include spousal abuse, went mad, were killed in accidents and Indian raids… but many of them thrived in the relative social freedom. Some of them even went to the extent of putting on mens’ clothing, but many of them did just fine in their own.

In one the books on my shelf for research – a volume about cattle ranching – there is a picture of three young women in the corral of a cattle ranch in Colorado in the 1890s. Two of them are in properly modest, dark-colored, ankle-length dresses, and the youngest wears a light-colored dress with a ruffled hem that comes down to the top of her high-buttoned shoes. All of them are wearing straw boaters. The girl in the short dress and one of the older girls are holding braided lariats, drawn tight on the fore and hind legs of a cow laying on the ground. The third girl is holding a long-handled branding iron, as a small woodfire burns a short distance away. The three girls, according to the caption, are the daughters of a well-to-do rancher, who wanted to be sure that they had every necessary skill to carry on with the business of the ranch after his death – even those skills which were normally carried out by male ranch hands. Frontier women, god bless them. They could probably go into the parlor, after a round of calf-branding, and do a mean round of cross-stitch embroidery, and then host a meeting of the Women’s Library Book Committee.

In the end, it’s all about competence – not if you are male or female. Can you do the job and not whine, or ask for special treatment. So that’s why we like Sarah Palin – she’s a frontier woman, a hundred years after the frontier.

Interesting Take

09. September 2008 · Comments Off on Interesting Take · Categories: Ain't That America?, Domestic, Fun and Games, General, Politics, World

I remember the ’72 election well – and how the mad antics of some McGovern supporters really, really did horrify a lot of other people. It all reflected quite badly on him – who was otherwise a fairly well-thought-of and otherwise undistinguished politico. Those election-year stunts drove – so the conventional wisdom goes – a lot of people into voting for Nixon. Happening again? This blogger thinks so. Interesting take here – can’t remember where I found it. Not through LGF… to much madness among the lizardlings, these days.

Someone take back this song

09. September 2008 · Comments Off on Someone take back this song · Categories: General
Or take it away. One of those. It’s begging to be used.

Ann and Nancy Wilson didn’t like the GOP playing Barracuda[1]. Fine – it was a dumb choice and it hasn’t aged well.

If the GOP is going to reach back to the 80s for theme music [2] they could do worse than Lou Reed’s ‘There Is No Time‘.

It’s got a rockin’ beat to get the crowds on their feet and dancing. It’s got guitars and drums and frickin’ Lou Reed doing that growl-talk-sorta sing thing he does. I’ve listened to it like six times all the way through – the things I do for you people – and it’s still got my toes a tappin’.

And the lyrics are about perfect. If McCain is running the Maverick Express [3] and really is doing the hey we’re really sorry about the whole ‘we lost our stuff when we got the keys to the treasury in 1994’ thing … you couldn’t hardly improve on this:

This is no time for celebration
This is no time for shaking Hands
This is no time for backslapping
this is no time for marching Bands

This is no time for optimism
this is no time for endless Thought
This is no time for my country Right or Wrong
Remember what that brought

There is no time
There is no time
There is no time
There is no time

This is no time for congratulations
This is no time to turn Your Back
This is no time for circumlocution
This is no time for learned speech

This is no time to count Your Blessings
This is no time for private Gain
This is the time to put Up or Shut Up
It won’t come back this way again

(chorus)

This is no time to swallow Anger
This is no time to ignore Hate
This is no time to be Acting Frivolous
Because the time is getting late

This is no time for private vendettas
This is no time to not know who you are
Self knowledge is a dangerous thing
The freedom of who you are

This is no time to ignore Warnings
This is no time to clear the Plate
Let’s not be sorry after the fact
And let the past become out fate

(chorus)

This is no time to turn away and drink
Or smoke some vials of crack
This is a time to gather force
And take dead aim and attack

This is no time for celebration
This is no time for saluting Flags
This is no time for inner Searchings
The future is at hand

This is no time for phony Rhetoric
This is no time for political Speech
This is a time for action
Because the future’s within Reach

This is the time
This is the time
This is the time
Because there is no time

(chorus)

Lou Reed at Web 2.0 by ptufts.
Yes, I’m serious, Lou.

YouTube the song. There are no music videos there but there are some really lame cartoons done up with the lyrics – including one where the artist oh-so cleverly drew a Hitler mustache on George Bush.

Cross posted to Space For Commerce.


[1] On the other hand, they can hardly complain about the publicity. Heart .. whozat? people under 30 were asking themselves. If Ann and Nancy were savvy they’d cut a quick response song and release it on the internets.

[2] And why not? The 80s featured a lot of kick-ass music. Also really dorky music videos – but they were just learning how mix music and those new-fangled teevees so you can’t blame us them.

[3] Or whatever it is.

Question of the Day, 080908

08. September 2008 · Comments Off on Question of the Day, 080908 · Categories: General

Are “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” really that good or is the state of SciFi so bad that it seems better than it is?

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