Mixed Bag

The first of February is a wonderful day since my beautiful first born daughter made her entrance on that date.

Yet, in 2001, the Columbia burned up in the atmosphere during re-entry and today I heard that Molly Ivins died.

Yet, my beauty still rules this date and so happy birthday, my love!

You Rock!

Pwnage

This made me giggle.

How terribly clever! Of course, when taking the oath of office, all congress critters and senators have to do is raise their right hand and swear to uphold the constitution. (All they have to do? Pretty big double-dog swear, that.)

I wonder what other members would swear on, if given the chance.

Their blueberries? Their contracts with lobbyists? Their favorite novel? Magazine?

What would you swear on?

Digital Bill

We got the news two days ago that Bill died. I am constantly amazed at how life will turn on a dime.

David was in NJ for continuing education, I was supposed to fly to CA the next day, and Dad was supposed to come down from PA to cover the kid front until David got home.

All those plans got scrapped and now David is looking to fly to FL to take care of Bill's stuff and make arrangements.

Keep us in your prayers as we learn to live without our brother and "tech guy".

For a great tribute from his friends Nitrozac and Snaggy, go to Geek Culture.

testing, testing

Hello? Anybody there?

Fascinating

Here's a little tidbit from Mainstream Baptist that's worth a read. Go ahead. He doesn't bite.

Blow Hard

I'm sitting here listening to Tony Blankely on the "News Roundup" on NPR's Diane Rehm's show. I think that the point of current political commentary (maybe this has been true all along, but I've only been listening for about 8 years now and of course, it's all about me) is to be the last one talking.

I am reminded of a game that we play in youth ministry. You clear everything off the top of a table and put a bunch of ping-pong balls in the middle of it. Everyone gathers 'round and at the signal, you start blowing as hard as you can to push the balls off the table. Every ball that goes over the edge is reckoned as a point for you. You blow so hard in this game that you get dizzy and the spectacle of people turning purple and blue and blowing inches away from a competitor is truly a bonding experience.

So, as I was listening to Mr. Blankely I thought to myself, "What a blow hard." And then I realized that I was completly in error. He is not a blow hard. He is a blow harder.

God save us all.

Birthday Girl!!!

My beauty is 14 today!!!




The cat is happy about it, can you tell?



So's the dog!

And these snow students on spring break!

Yay!!!! Everybody's happy! We love you, sweetie!!!!!

I Just Don't Get It

Wouldn't you think that, as a leader, one would be inclined to give voice to protests in order to keep the lid from blowing off the whole thing?

Oh, wait.

That's what mature people do.

Silly me.

Oh, SNAP

Will Bunch discusses the Washington Post.

Why George Can't Govern

I posted a while back about the authoritarianism of the Bush administration. Josh Marshall puts another piece into the puzzle that is our leadership when he equates authoritarianism to incompetence. I had seen both but had not made the connection. I think Marshall is right on.

Look at it this way: you have an individual who is elevated to a position of responsibility when he has had very little success with responsibility to that point in time. He doesn't want to muck up this at bat so he surrounds himself with solid, dependable people who he can tap when his expertise runs thin - which, to give him credit, is an unusually self-aware thing to do.

Yet, these "solid, dependable people" all have their own ambitions and desires and agendas and prove to be pretty darn good at getting what they want. The individual may or may not be aware of this but it is darn certain that he is too incompetent to do anything about it.

Because the incompetent does not understand the rules, he reveals himself as powerless to stop abuses. The manipulators are without power because of the rules and must abuse them in order to get what they want. Together, the insecurity of incompetency and the lust for power combine to run our rules through the grinder and pad the nest of this group.

The only way that the public can allow this to happen is to buy - hook, line, and sinker - that the administration is doing this for our own good. What is truly pathetic and scary is that there is still about 39% of them out there that still do.