December 2004, Week 3
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December 2004, Week 3
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Monday December 13 , 2004 "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in an American flag" -- Huey Long, Senator (D-LA) Still trying for a loan, I think that even with 'Excellent Credit' we will have trouble because the house is a 'Manufactured Home' and it's 19 years old. The House and the property are worth what the appraiser said but there are so many other properties out there going for loans that we apparently have enough going against us that they don't need our business. Tuesday December 14 , 2004 "People see the figure of 1,200 dead. Much more rarely do they see the number of seriously wounded. And almost never do they hear anything at all about the psychiatric casualties."
DR. EVAN KANTER, a
psychiatrist at a veterans' hospital in Seattle. I spent most of the day in the van going from place to place picking up Pickeling Spice, Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Certified Organic", Monica's medicine, salt for the water softener, I made the mistake of leaving the lid off the tank two days ago and the cats used the salt as their litter box... had to vacuum out all the old salt and replace it... We talked to the new loan guy and he seems to think he can come through with the money. I have been thinking about what Rumsfeld said over the weekend....Where does he get off saying "you go to war with the Army you have...not the Army you might want to wish to have at a later time." and that Armor is irrelevant because "if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can still be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up." For him [Rumsfeld] to say that is an indication of how little he understands or cares about the safety of the troops and the dangers of the battlefield. He apparently doesn't think, or understand that having that armor increases your survivability much more than not having it. If I was a soldier hearing that I would think that according to the infallible Rumsfeld the next step in his logic is that all armor is a waste of money because the soldier is going to die anyway... Aside from the fact that it appears to be a fact that there was no actual reason to go to war with Iraq, I think any reasonable person would accept that the start of BWII was completely arbitrary, in other words, there was no urgency. It seems to me that George could have waited till there were sufficient soldiers to fight it, sufficient planning to ensure that we could secure the infrastructure, sufficient foresight to ensure that the soldiers would have the proper training, tools and armor to do the job. Why is it that this administration can't seem to assume responsibility for their mistakes? Here comes my litany again, No Al Quiada, No terrorists, No WMD's, No 'sophisticated, battle hardened, well trained Army', No Chemical Plants, No Nuclear bomb factory, No 'sophisticated Drone Biological Warfare Delivery System, No Mobil Chemical/ Biological Laboratories. Iraq was no threat to anyone but Iraq... that has never in the history of this country been sufficient reason to go to war. So why did we go to war? Four reasons pop into my mind:
Wednesday December 15 , 2004 I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race. Bertrand Russel (1872-1970), British philosopher, mathematician Christy took off about 1630 for Tehachapi to spend the night with a lady from the church up there. They are going to go shopping in Bakersfield tomorrow, she should be back by about 1600 or 1700. Picking up kids will be a logistical problem... It seems as though that getting older means getting increasingly irritated with tedium and it seems like damn near everything is one form of tedium or another. I have an awful time focusing lately, the slightest distraction destroys my concentration completely. I have always been able to lose myself in whatever I was doing but lately I it's as though I am afraid to relax and take a deep breath. the slightest little noise or movement instantaneously demands my 100% attention. I think I just need to get away for a day or two... Thursday December 16 , 2004
"The
real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in
accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from
terrorism but from laws such as these." Very windy today, not too cold though, this is the Santana Wind Season, It's the season that is the really scary from the wild fire perspective, if a fire starts, it doesn't stop till the wind does. Christy was in Bakersfield early so she should be home in the late afternoon... Not sure how getting the kids home is going to work... Christy got home about 1730, she left again with Calie and Monica to take some stuff to Christian... she got back about 2330. Whoever invented that hard, clear, plastic packaging stuff that secures everything from a $3 hair brush to cheap electronics crap should be jailed. I have scars because of this stuff. I think we should rebel... we need to make the employees remove the packaging before we take it out of the store... I am losing some strength in my hands, probably a combination of just getting older and arthritis and when the kids come to me to get the batteries out of the blister pack it can get embarrassing. Even some of the kids medicine can't be accessed without tools... Cool story from AP:
Friday December 17 , 2004 Holidelusion: Kidding yourself into believing that you still have plenty of time to finish holiday shopping. Advanced cases can be seen scurrying down toy store aisles at Midnight. Usage:I was so gripped with holidelusion that I actually believed my son would like the Mini-Mom Kid Kitchen more than the Cosmic Force Commando Action Set he asked for." Author Unknown but it sounds like one of Rich Hall's Sniglets Christy is doing some more shopping, better her than me... I am not fond of shopping... more tedium in an already tedious world...Christy has to pick up Christian in Newbury Park.... We gave up on the loan... We decided to borrow money from ourselves... it will put a dent in my IRA but we will be in a better position to pay off the house if we don't have to double what we owe on it to pay off the credit cards. I'm still thinking about Rumsfeld... why did the soldier have to ask those questions... where was the media? Saturday December 18 , 2004 All men dream, but unequally. Those that dream at night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake the next day to find that their dreams were just vanity. But those who dream during the day with their eyes wide open are dangerous men; they act out their dreams to make them reality. Thomas Edward Lawrence Now this is scary: The aide (a senior adviser to President Bush) said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." — Ron Suskind, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 17, 2004. Molly Ivins reacted to this quite adequately in her article but it bothers me a lot to realize that the people running this country truly believe that they can dictate reality. They have been doing it for 4 years and they show no signs of stopping... They truly believe that they can just say that there is no such thing as Global Warming, there really are Weapons of Mass Destruction, there has been a continuous stream of Orwellian gibberish coming out of the Whitehouse and what really makes me fear for the country is that the people believe them... Clear Skys, Clean Rivers, Sunday December 19 , 2004 I found some numbers that support your strategic plan. I had to take the square root of a negative number to do it. The timeline is on this mobius strip. Scott Adams, Dilbert Going to be a change this year, Wayne is going to go have Christmas with his father so Karen and Blaine and Grand ma and Grandpa are coming here... that's great but it means a lot of work, I need to finish the drywall and get it taped and plastered before Friday... wish me luck... I wish the lids would help but I'm afraid they are more of an obstacle even when they do help... "B" is about the only one who really tries, but he has a hard time with 'concepts' like measuring and stuff.
Articles I liked this week Here... a list of articles below, there were so many I had to put them on a separate page...
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