Keep At Them

There are Republicans who are ready to begin investigating the Administration's crimes.

And there are still Democrats who are afraid to.

Keep at them.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Persistence is a virtue."\\

Beatitudes For Educators

Kathe sent me this.

The soprt of thing that makes teachers want to "be-at" their heads against the wall.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Teach your children well."\\

AOL Wants to Sell You Out

MoveOn is most concerned about nonprofits and grass roots outfits having to pay for access to people, but I'm more concerned about the idea that, after we have paid for spam protection, AOL proposes to sell spammers access to our accounts.

In the most corrupt organizations, the lowest standard of ethics is to "stay bought". AOL doesn't even come up to that level.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Oy, vey!"\\

What a Guy

Proof that the Compassionate Conservative is not in any sense inconsistent when it comes to talking with Gold Star Mothers: he treats 'em all like this.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Bet you didn't know Magic 8-Balls could barf, did you?"\\

...and counting

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Thank you, Sir, may I have another?"\\

Please Do Train Them Like Rats

Suzanne Faye sent me the link below, as well as this one.

Cherry Potter* writes about "teen boot camps", mistakenly believing that these sadistic camps are in some sense related to B.F. Skinner's historic studies of behavior modification.

Potter also mistakenly believes that behavior modification therapy can only be used within a "strict regime of deprivation
of food and freedom". In reality, the most common form of behavior modification in use today is called "good manners", and it is routinely used to manipulate the behavior of people who are far more powerful than the people using the technique.

* (A real person, not a character in a fanfic about a spell that backfired.)

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Speak truth to power...politely."\\

Keeps on Ticking

The Human Clock (not a superhero).

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Next thing, someone is going to say I'm really a human being thinking these things up."\\

Lego Computing

Somewhere around here I've got a link to a guy who used Legos to customize his computer, and here's a hard drive made to look like a Lego brick, to go with it. Huh.

''The Magic 8-Ball says, "Huh."\\

Quick (or Slow) Draw

Cool at any speed, from x1 to x16.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Have you met my Cousin Etch-a-Sketch?"\\

George W. Bush Making the World a Better Place

Not through any direct action of his own, of course.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "You already know the answer."\\

Remember "Johnny Jihad"?

It's pretty flippin' cold up here in the lookout. But then it's cold downstairs, too, and from up here I can see that cuter little tree the steelworkers placed at the top of the new buiolding down by the river. Is that all the taller it's going to get? Well, fine, it's plenty tall already. Completely out of proportion with the rest of downtown.

Yes, it was a cold, but I'm mostly better now.

So, do you remember John Walker Lindh?

I wouldn't blame you if he did. His fifteen minutes were a loooong time ago.

Time was, though, he was a Rorschach blot for half the country.

Now he's just a blot.

What I can't figure out is how this guy's career with al Qaeda came to be thought of as some sort of outgrowth of his parents' liberal background?

He rejected liberalism, secularism and liberal democracy in favor of joining a right-wing faith based organization. That doesn't make him Michael Moore, Jr. -- it makes him David Horowitz's evil twin.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "You mean eviller, don't you?"\\

Tough Love For Iraq

[With thanks to Suzanne Faye]

It starts out tough...

...and just gets tougher.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Grrrrrr!"\\

That's Weird

A friend of Kathe's has a friend who has been given a painting by her aunt. She remembers the painting very well from childhood, but was surprised to find that in her memory it is reversed, right to left. There is no chance that she might have been seeing it in a mirror. Does anyone knows anything that could shed light on this phenomenon?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "What do I look like, a magic mirror?"\\

Why Cheney Fired

Well, here's one explanation, anyway.

It's not as though he didn't have options.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Don't walk out so far in front."\\

Pink Sweaters Everywhere

Funny, I don't remember this from previous Valentine's Days: all those people (mostly but not all women) wearing pink and red garments, as though they'd gotten their St. Valentines mixed up with their St. Patricks. Is this new, or did I just manage to miss it before?

This year, The Vagina Monologues came to OSU, although Lyndsey Shaver tried to stop it. Lyndsey Shaver says people who disagree with her are "lunatics". I'm not entirely convinced that she makes the world a better place by saying that.

Kathe sent me the original geek valentine:
Roses are #FF0000
Violents are #0000FF
All my base
Are belong to you

Here's something nifty: a cute little animation that gets down and boogies at the cellular level. Cool!

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Hell, yeah!"\\

Fair and Cloudy

Middle of the term, fair to middlin'. I think I'm going to pass, though possibly by just as slim a margin as last term.

My throat feels kind of raw after the long climb up to the lookout. Am I getting a cold? I'd really rather not.

Oh, well. Take C, hold a chewable in my mouth and let it trickle down my throat. Drink tea, put some pop in it for sweetener and flavor amendment, and more C. Appreciate the near-full Moon out the lookout windows. Go downstairs and kiss Kathe -- she already has all your bugs. Get some studying done.

[The following portion relocated from 4 February 2006, on account of an added link]

Fair is fair. Most people can agree on that. Beyond that, they will all have different ideas of what fair is, besides "fair".

But George W. Bush's idea of F.A.I.R. is one of the weirdest I've seen yet: he defines "fair" as "letting the asbestos companies off the hook for knowingly poisoning people."

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Gee."\\

Raising Taxes By Just a Mite

It seems like laying it on a bit thick to call it the "widow's tax".

On the other hand, that's exactly what it is.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "The truth sometimes hurts."\\

Dick Cheney Is So Evil...

How evil is he?

Just look and see.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Call a spade a bloody shovel."\\

Big Box of Japan

Kathe's son Jake sent us a link to JList, which was full of links to other Japan-related places.

My favorite was Japanese Streets, which features exceedingly cool street fashions as created and worn by Japanese kids who seem to have a lot in common with my son Waldy and his friends.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Konnichiwa."\\

GOP-to-English Dictionary

I've probably posted a link to this before, but....

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Efforts at communication are never wasted."\\

Bad President! Bad!

Presidents shouldn't break the law.

Not little tiny ones, and especially not big ones.

Looks like somebody is overdue for a long talk.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "You are the one who can make it happen."\\

Under Pressure

NASA is under pressure from the Administration to fudge that annoying science stuff.

My thoughts, in approximate order:

1) Why should NASA be exempted?

2) He mistook them for the NSA

3) He would have shut them down a long time ago, except he heard that they proved Joshua stopped the Sun.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Many a truth...."\\

Love to Eat Them Mousies

Mousies what I love to eat
Bite they little heads off
Nibble on they tiny feet

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Frequently mistaken for a meatloaf."\\

Catch of the Day

Deep-dwelling fish were washed up by a tsunami.

Some weird stuff swimming around down there.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "And how."\\

They Said It, Not Me

They call themselves Blackshirts.

It was their idea.

Nobody made them do it.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "No accounting for taste."\\

What?

A new planet?

Last week?

Bigger than Pluto?

I guess it's nursing school is doing that.

They can't go on calling it "UB313".

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "8-Ball is a nice name."\\

Getting What You Pay For

If you grant a special tax break to a corporation to entice it to move to your community, you're paying them for their presence, right?

Wouldn't it make sense to get something worthwhile for the money?

Seeing as how it's your money that's being given away?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Outlook promising."\\

That's a Relief

I checked. Coretta Scott King dropped dead before George W. Bush compared himself to her late husband in the State of the Union address, not as a result of it.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Do I know you?"\\