Delftsman

Citizen Soldier

You just won a million dollars, what would YOU do? Sgt. Wayne Leyde decided to volunteer for a THIRD tour of duty in Iraq.

"For right now, I'm going to hold off [spending] and let reality sink back to earth. This is a true blessing. I'm going to turn it around and see if I can bless other people with this," Leyde said. (emp. mine-D)

THIS is the kind of attitude is typical of our citizen soldiers today...one of self sacrifice and worrying about the people around them rather than themselves. I can only say I am in awe of such people.

JUST FOR GRINS

To Catfish

National Guard

This video says it all.

We are truly blessed that we still, despite all the efforts of the Liberal Progressive hate America first and foremost efforts, there are enough altruistic young men and women willing to risk it all for their fellow citizens. They give more than we deserve.

To Chrissie

Quote of the Day

"Some people are like Slinkies. They’re really not good for anything; However, They still bring a BIG smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs." L.C. Guido

R.I.P.

Conservatism lost it's staunchest voice today and it will be a loss felt for a long time to come. My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends; remember there are many of us who share in the pain of your loss.

There is a reason I cited the NY Slimes story of his passing rather than any other. That reason is that even though he represented the anthesis of everything the Slimes stand for, they still respected Mr. Buckley for the great thinker and writer that he was. You would expect The National Review to write a glowing truibute, but that the Old Grey Slut wrote a respectful piece is a true measure of the man and the respect that even his political foes had for him.

ISLAMIC REFORMATION?

One of the criticisms many of us in the West have had against Islam as it is widely practiced today is the fact that it is, essentially, a religion "stuck in the 7th century". Unlike Christianity, which underwent major reforms in the time of Martin Luther, Islam is essentially the same as it was practiced in Mohammed's time.

It seems that Turkey, the most secular of the Muslim states, is attempting to effect a Reformation by government committee by attempting to streamline and reinterpret the Hadith, the second holiest scripture after the Koran itself in Islam; and the writings used the most in the formation of Shari'a Law.

This is something that NEEDS to be done, no religion can be practiced for over 1300 years without being re-examined in the light of modern knowledge. I fear however, that Islam as practiced by the Islamofascists sects is highly resistant to ANY new interpretation; that is one reason that it is so virulent an enemy. Turkey may just have bitten off way more than it can chew.

The question is: will the West provide aid in this endeavour, or will Turkey have to try to go it totally alone. If it does go it alone, it may find itself as the new "great Satan"; almost as bad as the U.S. and Israel. If we attempt to aid them, we may just be hurting the chances for real reform on the basis that Turkey is being "seduced by the Great Satan" and give even more justification to the Islamofascist POV. Either way, we are damned.

My view is that True Reform can only come from within. I believe that we as a people can only wish Turkey the best of luck in this endeavour, and hope and pray that it is successful. If we can provide support at a later date, we should, if asked, provide it; with the proviso that we maintain neutrality in the Reform itself.

Motivational thought of the day

This little animal is called the Naked Mole-Rat and is from Africa .

So if you are having a bad day and feeling sorry for yourself, remember:You could look like a dick with buck teeth!

to Catfish

!

Well, really I consider it more of a second Birthday, really.

It was on this date in 1957 when My parents, second oldest brother, and I landed upon these fair shores to begin a new life full of promise and hope.
We may not have achieved all we hoped to in the intervening years, but it sure wasn't because of a lack of opportunity. For that, and all the happiness I've experienced in the last 51 years, I thank you America from the bottom of my heart.

Energy Policy

In line with some prior posts I've made about Progressive ideology and feel good-inane proposals I wanted to talk today about something thats crucial to us all . . . Energy. How we use it, where we obtain it, and most important of all, the future of collection and utilization of energy.

The majority of energy used in the U.S. is derived from fossil fuels: it's estimated that 40% of the nation's energy comes from petroleum, 23% from coal, and 23% from natural gas. The remaining 14% was supplied by nuclear power, hydroelectric dams, and miscellaneous renewable energy sources.

We are currently experiencing a crisis in the cost of most of these fuels; whether because of OPEC pricing policies; restrictions on allowing recovery of these fuels, or unduly burdensome environmental policies. All of these factors are raising the cost of these vital energy sources to the point of unsustainability.

We are keeping ourselves tied to the volatile sources of petroleum in the Middle East and South America; while disallowing resource recovery in our own baliwick. We have cut down our refinery capacity by over 75% over the last thirty years, and there are no current plans to boost capacity anytime soon.
We have reduced overall refining capacity and increased the cost of using petroleum products by mandateing so called 'regional blends' of gasoline. We have forestalled building new coal fired electrical generation plants by imposing draconian regulations on all new capacity, in the name of clean air and water, even though new technology makes such new facilities compatible with meeting that goal. it's not good enough that the majority of pollutants are controlled; the Green lobby insists that NO pollutants be produced at all, clearly an impossible mandate.

Most, if not all of the well-meaning folks of the Green Revolution simply are naive when it comes to the nuts and bolts reality of energy production/consumption cycle. They advocate conservation, which is a worthy goal that should be pursued at every opportunity. They also advocate using more electrical power in lieu of fossil fuels, which sounds good on the surface; but they forget the fact that electrical power is generated in large part through the use of fossil fuels. They seem to think that putting outlets in the walls of their homes somehow magically causes electricity to exist.

They tout the use of so-called alternative bio-fuels...again, a worthy aspiration, until you delve into the economics and the unintended consequences of these fuels.
"Use Ethanal/bio-diesal/(choice of poisen here)" they cry. The fact is that if we converted our entire current years worth of corn/soybean production to such fuels, the resulting amount wouldn't keep an industerial nation like ours running for more than three months or so, and the environmental damage may even be higher than our current fuels today. And the demand of bio-fuels versus the need for food production pitts the different uses of the same agro-products against each other in an ever upward spiraling cost cycle.

Solar energy is simply too inefficient with todays technology to be even close to cost effective.

Wind Turbine technology holds promise, at least to limited local use, but it keeps running into the NIMBY attitude. Yes, use it, but don't put the turbines in MY backyard. Home use? A typical American home uses about 10,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year. Depending on the average wind speed, a 10 kilowatt turbine with a 20-foot rotor diameter could supply most of the electricity for a house. Such a system will likely cost around $40,000.
According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), a person who is living in a windy area (about 10 mph average wind speed or better) — and is eligible for certain government rebates or tax credits — could expect a payback time of 15 years on their small wind system.
It's like you are prepaying your electricity bill for two decades.... but by the time you break even, it's time to replace the turbine. Just...NOT....practical.

Hydroelectric is the best of the current "clean" technologies, but just how many dams are you willing to erect, with the concurrent change in ecosystems? And don't forget that there are maintainence requirements attendant with such systems. Hoover Dam requires constant cleaning of it's water conduits to prevent build-up of marine flora and fauna that threaten it's viability as a power generator. Cost? Several millions of dollars annually. (gee Blanch, I don't know if I can pay the cleaning lady this month....LOL)

Nuclear energy is the best short term solution, but the political considerations attendant make it unviable at present, and the long term environmental costs will be large.

My favorite fuel, Hydrogen, is too costly to generate large scale (that problem of needing a fuel to produce a fuel again) and too unwieldy to ship/store at present, although I feel that future technology can overcome most if not all of those objections.

So, what can I suggest as my solutions? If I knew THAT; I'd be the next Rockefeller and Ford rolled into one. But Hubris leads me to what I think are some common sense stopgaps in the interim:

I. CONSERVE, CONSERVE, CONSERVE

2. Drill ANWAR/ Fla. Coast reserves

3. Relax the restrictions on new refineing facilities for petro-products and power generating plants, no matter the fuel used to run them.

4. Fund research into more cost effective ways of generating, transporting, and storing Hydrogen.

5. Fund further research into solar and wind technologies.

6. USE solar and wind technologies wherever economically feasable; streamline environmental policies and put the onus on so call "Green" to prove that the technology shouldn't be used in a particular area because of DIRE consequences, not just because "it would spoil my view" or "it's for the birds".

7. Explore/Open new areas of OUR continent to mining and drilling of gas,oil, and coal.

8. Require that all energy production restricting legislation be sunsetted after five years; requireing revisitation at that time as to efficacy/results.

Just my .02 worth, for what it's worth.

Patriotism Outlawed in the UK

"To love what is corrupt is itself corrupting, not least because it inclines us to ignore, forget, forgive or excuse the corruption. And there's the rub for patriotism."

That is the warning that the Institute of Education has for those teachers wishing to instill any native pride of country in their students.
And as Old Limey goes, so goes our own Leftist "Education groups, calling for
"...requireing textbooks and other instructional resources to cast a positive light on homosexual ‘marriages,' cross-dressing, sex-change operations and every other facet of homosexual and bisexual lifestyles." in SB777, and SF examining the prospect of using a new "anti-war" textbook in the education of their local young skulls full of mush.

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines patriotism simply as "love for or devotion to one's country." The Left has tried to redefine the term to "whatever is any convenient argument for our side and against (the) Conservative pov."

Moral equivilence and multiculteralism is coming home to roost in our society, and soon there will BE no society for us to worry about.

Patriots, prepare to lock and load, the Tree of Liberty is getting mighty thirsty.

Berkely Buzz

MoveAmericaForward.Org has released it's latest ad calling on Berkely to renounce it's anti-troop message of "...they are uninvited,and unwelcome, guests ; and should leave" :

Join Move America Forward and sign their petition. Let the Pusillanimous Pissants of Progressive of Palifornicate know how the rest of us feel about our troops and that they can take their protests and shove them where the sun doesn't shine along with where the rest of their self-deluded notions of intelligence are.

Health Care

Here is a set of questions on health care that both Democratic candidates should be asked in their debate tonight.

SHOULD be asked being the caveat; I'm positive that such hard ball/plain speaking questions WILL be asked. More likely, the candidates will be asked what their favorite ice cream flavor is.

As Neil Boortz has stated on numerous occasions: 'many of the "uninsured" are uninsured by choice (or by making poor choices)'.

WHY should the populace at large be responsible for the health care of any individual? There is no person in these United States that isn't treated for any medical condition if that treatment is needed; true, the cost in the aftermath of treatment can be steep, but that is still a responsibility of the individual if he/she wishes to remain an individual with free choices.

Look to the conditions of treatment of care in any country where Socialized Medicine has become the rule and you will find a drastic fall in not only the amount of treatment availible to the individual patient, but in the quality of treatment as well.

Climate Change

GLO-BULL Wormening? HERE"S your Global warming!

Let the Goracle and aqll of his acolytes rant and rave all they wish, it sems that the facts just seem to keep refuting their contentions at every turn. What blows my mind is the facility they Goracles have in taking ANY fact as a sure sign of the drastic climate change they espouse: wintger cold? Global warming, winter warm? global warming. Too much rain? global warming; too little rain? global warming. See a trend here?

Look behind the curtain of their proposals and it all boils down to ONE end conclusion: Progressive's KNOW BEST; they need total control over every aspect of life to 'save' us from a disaster of our own making, and any that balk at such overwhelming hubris are actively trying to kill all of us.

CASTRO QUITS !!!!

In a (to them, I'm sure) heartbreaking announcement, the NY Slimes have reported that Castro has made it official and is stepping down from the position of leadership he has held for 49 years.

"To my dear compatriots, who gave me the immense honor in recent days of electing me a member of parliament ... I communicate to you that I will not aspire to or accept -- I repeat not aspire to or accept -- the positions of President of Council of State and Commander in Chief," Castro said in the statement published on the Web site of the Communist Party's Granma newspaper.

I don't think too much will change too quickly in Cuba with the change of leadership from Fidel to his brother, Raul; they are, after all just the same in their views. The one bright hope is that Raul may not be as personally revered as his brother, and when the promises of a brighter new future under the Comunists continue to go unfullfilled, tghe populace may finally begin to wake up and push for REAL reform.

To say the least, the next year or two may prove to be really interesting....

I do find it sad however, that, at a time when the Cuban people might have a real chance to get rid of their Socialist overlords;.....WE in the U.S., however, seem hell bent on suborning ourselves under the grip of the same type of overlords. May G-D have mercy on us all.

just for grins

A grasshopper walks into a bar

The bartender looks at him and says: "did you know that we have a drink named after you?"

The grasshopper replies: "what, you have a drink named Steve?!?"

#################################################

Two men are walking down the street when they observe a dog in the middle of the road licking his balls. One man says to the other:" I wish I could do that !", to which the second man replied: "maybe you should pet him first!".

#################################################

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, "What is politics?"

Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I'm the breadwinner of the family, so let's call me capitalism. Your Mom, she's the administrator of the money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you the people. The nanny, we'll consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we'll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense." So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So the little boy goes to his parents' room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed. The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now." The father says, "Good son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about."

The little boy replies, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit."

#################################################

A taxi passenger tapped the driver on the shoulder to ask him a question. The driver screamed, lost control of the car, nearly hit a bus, went up on the footpath, and stopped centimetres from a shop window.

For a second everything went quiet in the cab, then the driver said, "Look mate, don't ever do that again. You scared the daylights out of me!" The passenger apologized and said, "I didn't realize that a little tap would scare you so much. "The driver replied, "Sorry, it's not really your fault. Today is my first day as a cab driver. I've been driving a funeral van for the last 25 years."

#*#**#*#*#**#*#**#*#**#*#**#*#***#**#*#*#*#**#*#**#**##*#*

Liberalism is a mental disorder

it's been said many times before by many of us on the Right side of the aisle, but now a well respected clinical psychiatrist makes it official...as Dr. Rossiter puts it "(the)kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder".

I've never been that big a fan of the psycho-babble crowd, but hey, when they support my contentions, then they are brilliant LOL.

Update to Progessives hate the Military

Here's a video of the fine folks patchouli smelling socialists of Code Pink in action on Tuesday in front of the Marine Recruiting office in Berkely CA:

The police took no action, saying "we wish to remain neutral".... so tell me Bubba, just how is allowing any group free reign to blockade a legitimate and legal enterprise from being able to conduct business "neutral"?
Code Pink has a legal right to protest, but they have no right to physically block people from conducting legitimate and legal business in such a manner so as to (almost)constitute a civil disturbance. (that means RIOT, for those from Rio Linde, or "graduates" of governement schools)

Pali Propaganda

Poor Progressive Politics

Without a doubt, the LAMEST pesidential ad EVER!:

H/T to the folks at Hot Air

Cold War 2 beginning?

Two Russian bombers played cat to the aircraft carrier Nimitz's mouse over the weekend.

As noted in the story, such events were all too common during the (not so)Cold War, but haven't occurred since 2004. Nothing to panic over as yet, but the increasing Soviet activity in the Western Pacific is a little troubleing.

With Putin stepping down in March to his "elected" (and hand picked by Putin)successor, Dmitry Medvedev, (and presumably taking over the post of Prime Minister) it seems that the Russian government is trying to rattle the saber a bit to divert attention away from Russian internal politics.

I don't believe that Russia is THE major threat to U.S. security at the present moment, but eternal vigilence is required to ensure that the threat level stays at the current low level. As the greatest leader we've had in the last century, Ronald Reagan, said: "TRUST, BUT VERIFY"

I Like Your Thinking

A teacher asks her class, "If there are five birds sitting on a fence and you shoot one of them, how many will be left?" She calls on little Johnny.
"None, they all fly away with the first gunshot."

The teacher replies, "The correct answer is four, but I like your thinking." Then Little Johnny says, "I have a question for YOU. There are three women sitting on a bench having ice cream. One is delicately licking the sides of the triple scoop of ice cream. The second is gobbling down the top and sucking the cone. The third is biting off the top of the ice cream. Which one is married?"

The teacher, blushing a great deal, replies, "Well I suppose the one that's gobbled down the top and sucked the cone."

"The correct answer is the one with the wedding ring on... but I like your thinking."

'Progressives' HATE the Military

It seems that the insanity is spreading among the 'Progressive" political elite.

First it was Berkely City Council telling the Marines they were "uninvited and unwelcome guests" and that Marine recruiting stations would be treated the same as if they were Porno shops in their placement.

Then the Mayor of Toledo got his panties in a wad and cancelled a prescheduled Marine Reserve Urban Warfare training session in his city because it seems that while every other pertinent department in the city was aware of the excersize, they forgot to tell the Mayor ;“The mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people. He did not want them practicing and drilling in a highly visible area.", according to the mayors spokesman.

Now it seems that one of the council members of Arcata, CA. (naturally california, land of fruits,nuts, and flakes...it's like living in a bowl of Granola!) has decided that Recruiters of any branch of the Armed Services shouldn't be allowed to actively recruit any person under the age of eighteen.

WHAT is it in the "Progressive" pschye that just doesn't "get it"? Truly they live in a dreamland of rainbows and Unicorns if they believe that our own Armed Forces are to treated as if they are the enemy.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) proposed legislation to rescind almost $2.5M in earmarks slated for Berkely in response to their actions in trying to "demilitarize" their city by booting Marine recruiters out. I Think Sen. DeMint should broaden the scope of his proposal and make it known to these smaller governmental units that if they want to participate in the money trough; they are expected to participate in the common defense. After all, that is one of the few Constitutionally MANDATED responsibilities of our government, unlike education, welfare, and a myriad of other federally funded programs.

That we have sunk so low as to have elected leaders ignore their duties, nay, not even KNOW their duties,makes me fear for our future. And this ignorance seems to reside for the greater part on the Left side of the aisle.
The last twenty years of "liberal"/PC education has left us with a large segment of the political class seemingly unaware of the realities of the real world. Theirs is a world of blaming the productive for their productivity and squeezing them dry to provide vote getting largess to spread among the unproductive and regarding our Military as, at best, a pesky relic from a past era.
After all, they reason, if we demonstrate that we truly wish only peace and harmony in the world (at OUR {taxpayor} expense, of course), no one can possibly want to bother us, much less want to harm us. And the World will gather by the fire and sing Kum-Ba-Ya as it roasts marshmallows in the ruddy glow.

Lord, save us from such perfidity and ignorance, for we seem incapable of doing it ourselves.

Brothers and Sisters, it may soon become incumbant to take it upon ourselves to water the tree of Liberty with the blood of those that would dessicate it with their ignorance and greedy lust for power, lest that tree wither and vanish from the face of the earth.

Gather your supplies and prepare to lock and load, I fear the time is all too near.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. Ronald Reagan

PROFESSOR TROUBLE

After having failed his exam in "Logistics and Organization" , an Ivy League
slacker student goes and confronts his lecturer about it.

Student: "Sir, do you really understand anything about the subject?"

Professor: "Surely I must. Otherwise I would not be a professor!"

Student: "Great, well then I would like to ask you a question. If you can
give me the correct answer, I will accept my mark as is and go.
If you however do not know the answer, I want you give me an "A" for the
exam. "

Professor: "Okay, it's a deal. So what is the question?"

Student: "What is legal, but not logical, logical, but not legal, and
neither logical, nor legal?"

Even after some long and hard consideration, the professor cannot give the
student an answer, and therefore changes his exam mark into an "A", as
agreed.

Afterwards, the professor calls on his best student and asks him the same
question.

The smart student immediately answers: "Sir, you are 63 years old and
married to a 35 year old woman, which is legal, but not logical. Your wife
has a 25 year old lover, which is logical, but not legal. The fact that you
have given your wife's lover an "A", although he really should have failed,
is neither legal, nor logical."

H/T to Catfish

Support the troops, but hate the war?

There is a monotonous drone from the Left side of the aisle that they "support the troops, but hate the war". Personally, I don't believe that you can really do both and still be honest in your stance. That is NOT to say that you have to love war; NO ONE loves war, least of all those that have to be on the front lines.

A contributor to Blackfive that is a front line, boot on the ground type, says it better than I can:

If you don't support this war I'm calling you out. I've had enough of people sitting in their living rooms watching the lying media and jumping on the bandwagon against this war. Don't ever say to me, "I support the troops, but not the war." You might as well be telling me that I'm committing a crime. You are in effect saying that my cause is unjust and everything I believe in is a lie. I have held my tongue in the past, but I will never allow you to have it both ways again. You cannot support me if you do not support this war. I am this war. It embodies everything that I believe in. If you believe that what we are doing here is wrong then you are in effect supporting the evil we seek to destroy. If you believe I'm wrong for trying to stop evil people from taking more innocent lives then I fear there is no hope for you. If you choose to dishonor my service and the sacrifice of my fallen brothers by taking a position against this war you are free to make that choice thanks to guys like Mike and Nate, but don't expect me to sit idly by and bite my tongue while you do it. Do it in my presence and be prepared to try and support your feeble position while I enlighten everyone else on the reality of this war and the nature of the enemy we face. I will ensure that you look like the fool that you are.

He also has some to say about the nature and type of enemy we are facing in this conflict; do yourself a favor and go read his message from the front in it's entirety.

I for one will join Angry American and try to call out those that try to have it both ways and atttempt to (respectfully, for now) make them see the illogic and disrespect inherant in their position.

GuyK, a man I respect for his horse sense as well as his long service to his country, has stated on his blog several times that we are not really fighting a war in Iraq, and that we should take a decision to either REALLY fight a war as war should be fought, whole hog, or pull the troops out as soon as humanly possible and prevent any further causelties for a losing cause.

I believe we owe it to those that have already gave their last measure, and those that are risking giving that measure the TRUE support they need, and at long last "let loose the dogs of war" in truth and not just play at fighting a war; it is asinine to make our troops operate under unrealistic ROE's that place more empathis on "religious/cultural sensitivity" than on their own safety. We have to come to grips that war is a nasty, dirty, and often gruesome business, and go on and get business done. The Islamofacists seem to have no problem putting their Mosques and other religious centers to use in conducting their operations, so we should have no compunction in razing those places to the ground when we ascertain that they are part of an enemy action. We should have the same respect for their religous buildings that they exhibit...NONE.

The Islamofacists seem to have no qualms in using innocents to do their work or as shields to prevent themselves from being attacked. It's terrible to even think it, much less do it, but we must realize that our reluctance to allow ANY so called collateral damage is giving the Islamofacists much greater power and abilities to operate than they would otherwise have. If they knew that using innocents wouldn't protect them, maybe they would discontinue the practice, and a far greater number of innocents would be saved in the future. Furthur, the innocent ? civilians would be encouraged to work more in their own defense and against those that would put them in a fatal position in the middle. In other words, make hostage taking unprofitable to the goals of the enemy and it will occur much less; saving more lives in the long run.

No participant is left unsavaged by participation in a war; that is why war should never be undertaken lightly. But when it is decided to sound the drum and call the call, it is best for all in the long run to fight it as savagely as needed to win as quickly and decisively as possible.

We have tried to have it both ways in this conflict, trying to hold ourselves to a mythical "higher moral ground" while we fight an enemy that doesn't have any moral restrictions on accomplishing their goal ; that only leads to stalemate and higher causelties on the battlefront and alienation between the various segments of the population at home.

Truly, only our troops are at war, America at home is at the Mall. Until that changes, we are expending our best and brightest in an unwinnable, though just, cause. It is not the troops that will failed us, but WE will have failed our troops

overcoming disabilities, or where there is a will, there is a way...

Two deaf people get married and during the first week of marriage they find that they are unable to communicate in the bedroom with the lights out since they can't see each other signing, or read lips.

After several nights of fumbling around and many misunderstandings, the wife figures out a solution.

She writes:

'Honey, why don't we agree on some simple signals? For instance, at
night, if you want to have sex with me, reach over and squeeze my left breast one time.

If you don't want to have sex, reach over and squeeze my right breast two times.'

The husband thinks this is a great idea. He writes back to his wife if she wants to have sex with him, reach over and pull on his penis one time.

If she doesn't want to have sex, pull on his penis two hundred and fifty times.

H/T to Catfish

A 3-year-old tells all

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me and
my brother who is four years older than I am. I was maybe 1 and a
half years old and had just recovered from an accident in
which my arm had been broken among other injuries.

Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a get-well gift
and it was one of my favorite toys. Daddy was in the living
room engrossed in the evening news and my brother was
playing nearby in the living room when I brought Daddy a
little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups
of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came
home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch
me bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest
thing!!'

My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the
hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink
it up, then says, 'Did it ever occur to you that the only place
that baby can reach to get water is the toilet??'

H/T to my B-i-L Wayne

New computer blues

Well, it got to the point where we could get no access to the Internet on the old tower due to a recalcitrant Motherboard, so we decideed to bite the bullet and go for a new tower. You would think that the trouble would be over wouldn't you? WRONG The troubles were only taking a different turn.

Seems that the old Dynex wireless access point wouldn't play nice with the new tower, as it runs Vista as opposed to the old tower which ran XP....and the company didn't have any drivers to make it run on Vista...soo...off to the local rip-off joint Bestbuy to buy a new, compatible wireless access point....at three times the cost of the old one..oh well, that's life.....get it home, go through the steps to install the driver and hardware in the right places and get on the 'Net, right?

WRONG
Seems that the WAP couldn't find the router that was only 35 feet away in favor of someone else's wireless net..but at a signal strength that wouldn't allow access. (bad enough to be stealing piggybacking on someone else's net, but to not be able to get access too?!? )

Got a Geeksquad guy coming on Friday to try to get things straightened out (you'd think at the prices they charge, you wouldn't have to wait three days to get shorn of your hard-earned cash) I just hope that he can get things running as they should. Otherwise, we blew a lot of money for a fancy way to play Solitaire and Mah Jong, and the old stower had better versions of those in any case.

It really frosts my non-technological ass to pay good money and STILL not have a functioning piece of gear.

Gotta go, my 30 minutes on the Library computer is up.

OUTRAGE of the YEAR

Seems that the City Council of the Pepuls Soculist City of Berkeley Ca. have decided that they cannot in, good consciounce, support the Marine war machine and demand that the Marines remove their recruiting office from their
fair(ly repugnant) city, and to that end are trying to write city ordinances to require that any such recruiting office meets the same requirements as a pornograghy store does to exist (i.e. over 1000 ft. from any church, school, government buildings, etc) and giving Code Pink free reign to protest in front of the recruiting office at their discretion. They further stated that should the Marines remain in place that they should consider themselves as ""uninvited and unwelcome intruders" in the city.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has proposed that if Berkeley doesn't rescind it's fiat that ALL Federal earmarks for the area should be withheld. I wonder if any other of our "leaders" will show any such backbone?