Conservative Corner (my brother, Dan)
Naked and Unashamed (my brother, Scott)
Crazy Aunt Purl
(my friend Laurie)
There's Pie In the Lunchroom
(my friend Chuck)
Too Fat For Ponies
(my friend Sam)
Nashville Junk
(a Tennessean insider)
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Dec. 16, 2005
Had the company Christmas dinner last night. We went to a fancy new restaurant called Cabana in Hillsboro Village. It was an interesting experience. Lots of beautiful people milling about. They make their own mozarella in house, so I ordered a pizza with italian sausage and "Tennessee prosciutto."
Little did I realize that "Tennessee prosciutto" is country ham. Regardless, it was a fun time. We're a small group, which makes it seem like a family. The boss's wife told me that I make the company a better place and that my presence has lowered the level of cursing both around the office and at the boss's home.
"Wow," I said. "What must it have been like before?" See, before coming to work here, I spent seven years at a public institution where no one would think of using bad language out loud. You may get the occasional "damn" or "shit" but it was kept to a minimum.
When I moved to Bridgestone, the department head was a guy who just didn't talk that way. My current gig is with a private company with a dynamic boss who doesn't limit his language at all. He thinks nothing of yelling out expletives when his computer doesn't work or if he gets some bad news.
Fortunately, he's level headed enough to just blow off the steam and move on. He doesn't let these little tragedies ruin his day. He yells like a sailor during fleet week and moves on.
This works well for me because on the (rare) occasion when I've messed something up, he cusses at me and moves on. There is no lingering resentment or reminders. A quick verbal dressing down and it's "get back to work."
I love it here.
One of Bush's big talking points in his series of speeches on Iraq is that the Congress looked at the same intelligence he did and came to the same conclusion. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) asked the non-partisan Congressional Research Service to find out if what Bush was saying was true.
Did Congress see the same intelligence that Bush saw? The report from the CRS is out and guess what? It was a lie.
I know, I was shocked too.
By virtue of his constitutional role as commander-and-in-chief and head of the executive branch, the President has access to all national intelligence collected, analyzed and produced by the Intelligence Community. The President's position also affords him the authority which, at certain times, has been aggressively asserted - to restrict the flow of intelligence information to Congress and its two intelligence committees, which are charged with providing legislative oversight of the Intelligence Community. As a result, the President, and a small number of presidentially-designated Cabinet-level officials, including the Vice President in contrast to Members of Congress have access to a far greater overall volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods. They, unlike Members of Congress, also have the authority to more extensively task the Intelligence Community, and its extensive cadre of analysts, for follow-up information. As a result, the President and his most senior advisors arguably are better positioned to assess the quality of the Community's intelligence more accurately than is Congress.
Yet another of Bush's excuses bumps up against the wall of reality and crumbles.
One of my little running jokes around my friends is to pretend that John Ashcroft (and now Alberto Gonzales) is spying on me. If I say something overly critical of the government, I'll say out loud "Just kidding, Mr. Ashcroft."
Little did I realize that Bush has secretly lifted some of our protections against domestic spying. Will wonders never cease.
The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval represents a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches.
Now, if we had a Congress that took seriously it's duty to provide oversight of the Executive Branch, we could determine whether this amounts to Bush authorizing illegal activity -- an impeachable offense. But because the Congress is run by Republicans, Bush can pretty much do what he pleases and never has to pay the price.
"Just kidding, Mr. Gonzales."
Now that I've kicked him a couple of times today, let me give credit where credit is due. Bush has finally decided to come around on the whole torture issue. He held a press conference with McCain to say that he strongly supports McCain's bill to ban the U.S. from torturing anyone in our custody or giving prisoners to other countries if we suspect they will torture them. That's the good news.
The bad news is that Lindsey Graham is drafting an ammendment which would limit the right of habeas corpus for Gitmo detainees -- thereby undermining what McCain (and now Bush) support.
Trent Lott is suing State Farm because they won't pay off on his insurance claim on his beachfront house that was leveled by Katrina. The argument being made by insurance companies is that if a hurricane causes your house to flood, that's water damage, not wind, so if you don't have a flood policy, you're SOL.
This could get interesting.
Cobb County Georgia's decision to put warning stickers in science books that say "Evolution is a theory, not a fact" has lead to a court fight. A court order to have the stickers removed has been reversed by the 11th Circuit.
Let's leave aside for a moment that the scientific definition of "theory" is much different than that of common usage and look at it from another angle
Suppose a bunch of rabblerousers kicked up enough of a fuss at the city council to demand that all Bibles in public places (libraries, hotel rooms etc ...) contained this warning sticker:
There is nothing technically wrong with what the sticker is saying, but the sentiment is beside the point. Yes, evolution is a theory, but so is gravity. That doesn't mean it isn't true. It means that it has achieved a certain level of acceptance within the scientific community. Yes, the Bible contains stories of the supernatural. But that's beside the point as well isn't it?
Dec. 15, 2005
I met with Max's teacher and the special ed teacher today to discuss some strategies for getting Max back on track. It was a very positive meeting and the teachers came up with some ideas to help him focus and improve his spelling.
I went in dreading it and came out very pleased assured that these two professionals had Max's best interests at heart. After talking with the special ed teacher I feel a little bad about how hard I've been on Max lately.
She seems to think that his behavior problems are due to frustration which comes as a result of him not picking up some basic phonelogical awareness skills. He can read sight words well. He comprehends what he reads, but if you ask him to divide words into syllables, he has troubles. He can't identify a digraph from the sound.
For example if you asked him which letters make the "shhhh" sound, he can't tell you. But if he sees the word "shovel," he reads and pronounces it correctly.
The way she explained it was that smart kids with good memories can fool their teachers into thinking they've mastered skills they don't have. So instead of learning that your pronounce "shovel" using the "shh" sound, he just memorized the word and moved on.
She said kids can sometimes fool their teachers on into fourth grade, by which point it becomes much more difficult for them to go back and learn these basic skills.
I'm just happy we've moved on from the whole "maybe it's ADD" thing.
On a somewhat tangential note, we've been giving Max a fish oil supplement along with his daily vitamin. The fish oil extracts are supposed to help him to focus. The brand I bought says the capsules are chewable and have a "great strawberry taste."
Max disagrees. He chewed one the first time and while the waxy outer shell may have been strawberry, the oil inside was pure fish. Now he just swallows them.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Republicans are losing the support of seniors by a 65-19 margin.
In a period of broad-ranging public discontent, that among senior citizens stands out as most worrisome for Republicans aiming to keep control of the House and Senate in the fall.
"They're a pretty cranked up bunch and they've got to be handled with enormous care by incumbents," says Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who helps conduct the Journal/NBC survey. So far, adds his Democratic counterpart Peter Hart, "the Bush administration has done more to alienate them than to gain their support."
The results can be seen in Americans' attitudes toward Congress 11 months before Election Day 2006. By a 65%-19% margin, Americans age 65 and above disapprove of the performance of Congress; those under 65 are also negative but less lopsidedly, 58%-27%. Moreover, senior citizens say by 47%-37% that they want Democrats rather than Republicans to win control of Capitol Hill. Those under 65 prefer a Democratic victory by a narrower 45%-39% margin.
The NPR ombudsman has put to rest the notion that NPR leans leftward:
Here's the tally sheet for the number of times think tank experts were interviewed to date on NPR in 2005:
American Enterprise - 59
Brookings Institute - 102
Cato Institute - 29
Center for Strategic and Intl. Studies - 39
Heritage Foundation - 20
Hoover Institute - 69
Lexington Institute - 9
Manhattan Institute - 53
The score to date: Right 239, Left 141.
Okay, so the GOP passed four more tax cuts less than a week ago costing more than $100 billion. These tax cuts were for rich people, so they won't have to pay more than 15 percent on the dividends paid on their investments. Dig?
So how does the Republican congress celebrate this auspicious event? Why, they cut funding for education and medical research. Weeeee! We're going to have a country full of sick stupid people, but at least the rich will be okay, yaaaaay!
So about 114 protestors from religious groups got arrested yesterday in Washington. They were protesting the budget cuts being pushed through the Congress that hurt programs for the poor, elderly and sick.
114 protestors from several Christian organizations. Guess who wasn't represented: Jerry Falwell, James Dobson or Pat Robertson. Why? Priorities:
Conservative Christian groups such as Focus on the Family say it is a matter of priorities, and their priorities are abortion, same-sex marriage and seating judges who will back their position against those practices.
"It's not a question of the poor not being important or that meeting their needs is not important," said Paul Hetrick, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, Dobson's influential, Colorado-based Christian organization. "But whether or not a baby is killed in the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy, that is less important than help for the poor? We would respectfully disagree with that."
Jim Wallis, editor of the liberal Christian journal Sojourners and an organizer of today's protest, was not buying it. Such conservative religious leaders "have agreed to support cutting food stamps for poor people if Republicans support them on judicial nominees," he said. "They are trading the lives of poor people for their agenda. They're being, and this is the worst insult, unbiblical."
During the protest, about 300 Christian activists knelt in prayer and vowed to stay there until arrested. As they were lead off, they chanted this passage from Isaiah:
"Woe to you legislators of infamous laws . . . who refuse justice to the unfortunate, who cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan."
You're so wrapped up in getting Alito on the bench that you can't spare a representative to protest the cutting of funding for the poor? Lying is a sin, boys and girls.
Dec. 14, 2005
This was posted over at Tribe.net:
Meghan Thompson says:
"I saw this movie (Brokeback Mountain) with my husband earlier this week at the Toronto Film Festival. I didn't think it was good at all. It turns out that this movie is nothing but a perverted gay love story. I didn't know that before we saw it. My husband, on the other hand, couldn't stop raving about how great it was and how it really opened his eyes. Last night, he told me he wanted a divorce, and he was moving in with his best friend Erik. I think this movie turned him gay! I am so upset. He has never indicated anything about being gay, or behaved in a gay manner. When he found out that a friend of ours from church might be gay, we stopped talking with him. That's how straight he was!!! We had a great sex life as well. I know this movie changed him. When is Hollywood going to stop peddling this kind of corrupting perverted garbage? I'm sure this will win an oscar or something and now I have to start my life over because it made my husband turn gay."
I have to assume at this point that the poster is joking. How can any sane individual think that a movie is going to turn someone gay? Why, then, have we not heard of hoards of mincing marys flooding out of the theatres of Toronto? Why, do you suppose did Meghan's husband turn gay, but other "straight" men didn't?
"Brokeback Mountain" opens nationally today. Most likely, I'll wait for the DVD as Dollie and I don't get out to the movies very often so we have to pick and choose very carefully.
"King Kong" also opens today, so you have a choice: gay cowboy love and giant ape love. Enjoy, America.
No sooner did I post that we have good news about Max's schoolwork then he brings home an agenda with three marks against him. Three "OT"s. These stand for "off task" and mean that he's doing something other than what he was supposed to be doing.
One had a note "not working." Another had a note "dancing." The boy is dancing around the room instead of doing his work.
"I was getting out my wiggles," Max explained.
"Max, you have two and a half days left before a three-week break," I said. "You can get your wiggles out then."
We got his report card. He is making steady progress in all the academic areas, but the behavior scores are all bad. Across the board he got dinged for how well he uses his time, does his assignments, obeys the rules, etc...
I tried my best to explain to him that his behavior is leaving his teacher with fewer and fewer options with which to deal with him. It's also leaving his parents with fewer options. We discussed transferring him to another school.
His current school is an arts magnet school that integrates art education across the curriculum. He gets to experience theatre and music and art as part of his science, math and social studies classes. It's a small school and he has a lot of friends there. So, the idea of transferring did not make him happy.
We will have to wait and see if it will make him change his behavior.
Will Fitzmas come twice this year? There are rumors swirling around the blogs that Patrick Fitzgerald is gearing up to indict Rove. I'm all atwitter with anticipation. Come on, Pat, you know what Papa wants in his stocking this Fitzmas.
Robert Novak, the prince of darkness, says that he won't reveal who his source was for the Plame leak, but that President Bush knows who it is.
"I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak told a luncheon audience at the Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in Springfield on Tuesday. "I'd be amazed if he doesn't."
So we come to a new question. If Bush knows who it is and Bush says he wants to get to the bottom of it. Aaaand Bush says that anyone involved will be fired, what is he waiting for? The president doesn't have to wait for a criminal indictment to fire someone. In fact, it would show true leadership if he decided not to wait for whomever this is to get caught.
But asking for leadership out of this administration is asking for too much, I guess.
Now I've had my fair share of bad days at the office, but nothing like that poor bastard at Mizuho Securities Co. who messed up a stock sell order and cost the brokerage $331 million.
See the order was supposed to sell one share of stock at 610,000 yen (about $5,100). Instead, the order went through to sell 610,000 shares at 1 yed (less than a penny).
Ouch.
South Carolina picks up where Kansas left off. Evolution schmevolution.
I really don't know why the U.S. doesn't embrace the concept of the dollar coin. My initial resistance to it was because I felt it would increase the cost of coin-op videogames. But it's been years since I've played one, so I'm ready for a dollar coin.
Of course the Susan B. Anthony coin was too similar to a quarter. But the Sacagawea coin was very nice, yet still underused. Now the mint is going to produce 38 different dollar coins, each with the likeness of a dead president on it starting in 2007. Grover Cleveland, having served two non-consecutive terms, gets two coins. Go figure.
I'm just guessing here, but I'm betting Ford will make it 39 by then. His is 92 after all.
There is a good argument for adopting the dollar coin. A coin lasts a lot longer than a dollar bill, so it saves the country money. Since we don't have to keep printing new bills every year or destroying the old ones. That alone should convince Americans to use them. But they won't. Merchants don't have a slot in the register for dollar coins, so you get snarky looks from cashiers when you try and pay for something with one.
I can envision a time within by life when we're taken off cash completely and do everything with electronic currency.
It sounds like a set up for a joke: A guy meets a woman online. They exchange sexy chit chat for six months, getting to know each other and learning about each other's desires and dreams.
Finally, they decide to meet on a beach for their first face-to-face rendezvous. The guy spots the woman from behind, wearing the white shorts and pink tank top she said she'd be wearing.
He calls out to her, she turns around and . . . mom?
Eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww
Note to Jenna Bush, when you're out at a bar in Chinatown called "Happy Endings" don't run out and leave your wallet behind. Otherwise, some coke dealer might find it and claim to have spent some quality time with you.
Dec. 13, 2005
Well, we've got a couple of contenders for Mother of the Year in the news today. Locally, a mother in Spring Hill, Tenn. was indicted for first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated child neglect and reckless homicide of her 20-month old baby girl which she and her husband has just adopted from China 8 months ago.
In Kokomo, Ind. a mother spent her early Sunday morning in a strip club with her girlfriend drinking herself stupid while her 3-month old baby was face down in the back seat of her car. The temperature outside, according to police reports was "32 degrees at 3 a.m." The baby was checked out at a local hospital and is unharmed.
I don't know about the rest of you, but my kids are getting a big hug when I get home tonight.
Speaking of which, on my way home from work last night, I got a call from Dolls asking if I wanted to meet the family for dinner. I did and did. We had a nice meal with the usual screaming at the kids to "just sit down and eat, please?????"
After dinner we decided to try and finish up our Christmas shopping. The plan was for Dolls to go by the bank and meet me and the kids at the mall.
Tracey Ulman once said that having a toddler is like living with a drunken midget. That's as accurate a description as I've ever heard.
All the way from the table to the car, Rozzy stumbled along the route yelling "I'm gonna drive!"
"No, you're not."
"I'm big! I'm gonna drive!"
"You're not that big."
"I'm gonna drive!"
The people at the other tables were all very entertained, which only encouraged her. Max was no help, either. He kept yelling at me to let her drive.
When we got to the car, she latched onto the driver's door and wouldn't let go.
"I'm big! I'm gonna drive!" She cackled and grinned and squealed as I wrestled her away from my door and strapped her into her car seat.
"I'm want to drive! I want to drive! I want to drive!"
"You can't reach the pedals!" I argued. "You don't know right from left! You don't have a license!"
Nothing would disuade her of the notion that she should be driving. It is important to note here that Rozzy never got mad about it. She knew I would never let her drive. She just wanted to make a scene and get me worked up. That's the way her mind works.
Some good news to report on Max's academic front. According to the class newsletter, Max was one of only seven kids to complete his reading goals for the month. He has really taken to reading, lately. He'll sit quietly and read for hours if we let him.
I'm reminded of a young me.
I bought some new glasses today. My company did some PR work for this eyewear gallery in Hillsboro Village called SEE. It stands for "Selective Eye Elements."
It was an interesting experience. I went in and told them I needed a new pair of glasses and was handed off to a nice fellow dressed all in black. He stood back, looked at my face and started pulling frames off the wall.
Now, I've always bought my glasses at discount houses. They usually point to the wall and say "let me know when you find the ones you want." Not this time. He asked me a few questions about what I like and then started handing me all these wild frames that, as hip as I am, I just can't pull off.
I narrowed the "maybe pile" to about seven frames and began looking at them in earnest. He pointed out features and made suggestions and continued to pull more styles off the wall because, in his words "you've got to try these on."
I made my decision. Normally that would be it, but no. He brought out his manager and another female (a customer) and asked them to offer an opinion as well. It was a quite a social activity and, I have to admit, a very nice way to buy glasses. I wish I had the time to sit in there longer and try on more frames, but some of us work for a living.
Because of my work for the company, they gave me a discount. Plus, they're doing a charity promotion for the holidays where you bring in a can of pet food and get another $30 discount. They agreed to let me bring in my can later.
"We work on the honor system here," he said.
Bottom line, I can't recommend these folks enough. The frames they carry are exclusive to the store, so you won't find them anywhere else. Which is their hook, I guess.
I've decided, rather than go on and on again about the supposed "war on Christmas" to just use shorthand:
O'Reilly is an idiot. O'Reilly is a moron.
Picked up the somewhat new Star Wars: Battlefront II yesterday for Xbox. I'm still contemplating the Xbox 360. There are some technical issues which need to be addressed, not the least of which is the fact that many of my old Xbox games cannot make the transition to the new system.
Regardless, SW:BFII is excellent. I really liked the first one and the sequel, though I've only played it a short while, seems even better.
It's a battlefield simulater, much like every other one you've seen, but this one is set in the Star Wars universe. So, you can walk the trenches of Hoth and shoot at the snowtroopers or fly your snowspeeder around the legs of an AT-AT and watch it fall.
You can run and gun through the streets of Mose Isley or in the jungles with the Ewoks. You get to fly the ships and vehicles and choose either side to fight on.
It's nerdvana.
Dec. 12, 2005
The weekend was a sad one around our home as Dollie's grandfather, Raymond Guess Yates, died at the age of 97. He was one of the kindest men I've ever known and I know he will be dearly missed.
I learned quite a few things about him over the weekend, one of which was his first teaching gig.
Mr. Yates survived polio when he was a toddler, so he spent nearly his entire life on crutches. His first teaching job was in a one-room school up in the Mountains. He would walk seven miles from his home to the foot of the mountain, then walk up the side of the mountain to the plateau. The school was another seven mile walk after that.
He would head out on Sunday afternoon, board with his students during the week and walk home on Friday after school.
He was a tough old bird right to the end and he was adored and respected by a lot of people.
I can understand why so many people take comfort in the concept of Heaven. Mr. Yates outlived his wife by 15 years. The last few months saw him bedridden, unable to care for himself and unable to recognize many of the people he loved.
The idea that he walked through the gates of Heaven under his own power and met his adoring wife is powerful and provides great comfort. I imagine him doing backflips and cartwheels.
Rozzy has been trying to prank us lately. The problem is that, while she understands the idea of a practical joke, she doesn't know how to frame the gag. For example. the other morning she tried to convince Dollie that poop was delicious and she should eat some.
Meanwhile, Max has been telling the following joke:
A baby polar bear goes up to his dad and asks "Am I a polar bear?"
"Yes," his dad replies.
"Is mom a polar bear?"
"That's right," says his dad.
"Is my grandfather a polar bear?"
"Uh. . . yeah."
"Is grandma a polar bear?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure I'm a polar bear?"
"Yes! You're a polar bear. Your mother is a polar bear, I'm a polar bear, your aunts, uncles and cousins are all polar bears. WHY?"
"Because I'm COLD!"
Heh.
My nephew David, who is two told me this joke:
"Knock knock"
"Who's there?"
"Arch"
"Arch who?"
"God bless you."
The family had dinner on Saturday night at a cajun restaurant called Trisha's Treasures in Cowan, Tenn. I'm not a fan of cajun cooking. Being a supertaster, I pass on most spicy stuff just on principle. So, it wasn't to my taste, but I'm told by others that it was great stuff.
The appetizer menu included "alligator bites" that is gator tale in nugget form, coated in corn meal and deep fried. I asked Max if he wanted to try it. He said no. But he must have reconsidered it because when the guy came around to take his order (chicken strips and french fries, natch), he said "I want to try the alligator."
So, they said they'd bring him out a plate of gator bites.
"Are they going to bring a whole alligator out here and put it on the table?" he asked.
"Yeah," said Dollie. "They'll set a whole gator down there and hand you a knife and fork."
"They're wrestling it down in the back now," I added because there is nothing more fun than messing with Max. He thought that was the coolest thing ever.
They sat the plate of gator nuggets in front of him with two sauces, a stone-ground mustard and a shrimp sauce.
It turns out Max prefers his gator (and most everything else) with ketchup.
Something to think about this Christmas: MP3 players are causing people to go deaf sooner than they otherwise would.
But if you insist on buying that iPod, please be sure and pick up a pair of iPod-ready underwear.
We're losing New Orleans. The congress is grousing about paying the $32 billion to fix the levies, but have no problem signing off on a $95 billion tax cut for those who "earn" their living through dividend payments.
That's a shame. Bush promised those people so much and it looks like the congress is going to let one of the great American cities perish.
I should note the passing of Richard Pryor, one of the funniest and most creative minds in American history. I spent many hours listening to his genius, all the while hiding that fact from my parents who would never have approved of such behavior.
As I drove home Saturday evening, Raw Dog, the Sirius radio channel devoted to uncensored comedy, was having a tribute to Pryor in which they were playing cuts from his albums. People kept calling in to say the same thing: I used to sneak off and listen when my parents weren't around.
I watched his movies, listened to his recordings and laughed until I couldn't breathe. I'll miss him.
