Yes, On The Damned Table

The impeachment of Dick Cheney.

Damn right.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Damn right."\\

My Little Cthulhu

There, I climbed up to the lookout tower and blogged about something before the end of the month.

True, there are more pressing things to blog about than My Little Cthulhu, but something is better than nothing.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Well, some somethings are better than nothing, anyway...."\\

Don't Look at Me

I wasn't one of the tens of thousands who wrote / telephoned / e-mailed Congress to get the worst bits removed from the misbegotten Lieberman-Kyl Amendment.

It's been a very difficult, unpleasant month, and I didn't do much of anything. I didn't even write this Saturday afternoon post until Sunday evening (no wonder the lookout seems even shakier than ever -- it's doubly imaginary).

But I'm so glad that we aren't at war with Iran.

Yet.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "At least, not officially."\\

Thank You, Adoptive Mothers

Mothers who adopted orphaned children in Botswana, Jamaica, Cambodia and Lebanon get a special letter of thanks from thepetitionsite.com

And by the way, Kathe gets a special thank you from me: Thanks for Waldy, Michu, Biftu and Tesfaye.

//The Magic Eight Ball says, "Give credit where credit is due."\\

Why "Kucinich Doesn't Have a Chance"

"Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel have low poll numbers -- because we don't include them in our polls."

Yep, that would explain it, all right.

The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Suspicions confirmed."\\

Uh... Yeah

Here's an idea: Maybe Congress, instead of perpetually going back and froth about drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, should instead decide once and for all to make it, like, a refuge for, y'know, wildlife.

Just a thought.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "There have been worse ideas."\\

Stiff-Necked, Inflexible, Intolerant

Come on, is it really necessary to be so insistent about this "equality before the law" stuff? Do we really have to be, you know, equal equal? All of us?

Well, yes. We do.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Yes."\\

Unmashed Radishes

Food Not Bombs cooked in our kitchen again, as usual, even though the Fall Festival was running in the park. They left us a huge bowl of radishes and a challenge to do something with them.

Reasoning that radishes are basically just a kind of turnip, we decided to eat them mashed. We microwaved them, which seems to have been a mistake, since they came out chewy rather than mashable.

Ah, well, live and learn. If we ever have occasion to try it again, we'll steam them.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Food is life. Treat it with respect."\\

Blog Like a Pirate Day

Ask me teh blog like a pirate, will yeh? Why, I'll have ye known that I blogged like a scourge o' the sea afores ye knew which end of a cutlass teh hold, ye hornswoggled bream!

Aye, 'tis a day fer piracy in word, which is a buggerin' welcome change from piracy in deed, o' which we've had far too much o'late, as well as sundry other offenses 'gainst the laws o' man an' God.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Oy, such a tzimmes you made out of pirate dialect, it shouldn't be read by a Tsarist!"\\

Good Ideas

Such as

Education for all -- even girls.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Good idea."

War Made Easy

The title of the film is War Made Easy. The subtitle is How Presidents and Pundits Spin US Into War. The question is, why do we keep falling for it?

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Good question."\\

Roofing

Most of the roof has been replaced in the last few years. One of the trickier sections has just been finished, done by Kathe and me, with the extremely valuable help of Peter, a student living next door, who made a first-rate human fly as he dangled from a rope nailing up shingles.

Soon comes the rain, but by golly the roof is sound at the northeast corner.

Not So Special

The Project For a New American Century, the group which provided the theory for which the Bush 43* Administration is the practice, is not really so unusual.

There are groups all over the country, people who sit down and talk about their big plans for reforming the world and/or saving civilization. They sit around and talk and give presentations, persuading one another that their Big Plan is foolproof, the most obvious thing in the world. PNAC was typical of such groups.

The big difference is, they got a country to play with, to test out their grandiose agenda.

Test it to destruction....

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Not quite, but getting there."\\

Alberto the Torturer Flees

I sat in the lookout tower last night and watched the beautiful full Moon in its splendor, and said to it as I often do, "Wait up for us, lady, we'll be back."

As the early-morning Sun warms the lookout's little glassed-in space, I feel at least a hint of hope that this country may yet recover from its current miasma of corruption and despair and reach into space again: Alberto Gonzales, one of the more conspicuously plague-addled rats, has deserted the sinking shi*.

Call your Senators and your Representative, let them know that he'd damn well better not make good his escape.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "From your lips to Allah's ear."\\

I Don't Know

I don't know what to do with myself.

I flunked out of nursing school in the third term. I audited the second term the next year, in order to be re-admitted to the program for the third course. But I didn't pass the skills test.

So now I've done nothing at all about getting back into school or about trying some other career path for the last six months and now it's time for school to start again and I'm not prepared -- academically, emotionally or financially -- to go back to LBCC or to Chemeketa Community College in Salem (the next-nearest nursing school, and allegedly more supportive than LBCC).

So what now? I don't know.

I surely don't know.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Do not despair."\\

|| John says, "What do you know?" ||

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "I do what I'm made to do."\\

Colonoscopy Today

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "What fun."\\

[Update: I survived :-) ]

Doubling Down

Philip Atkinson's answer to the failure of neo-conservatism:

Double all the bets and have faith that it will work this time.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "There is a word for repeating one's actions and expecting different results."\\

Sad Anniversary

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the death of an unique entertainer who changed our culture forever.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Also Elvis."\\

The Benefits of Procrastination

The scaffolding was delivered Friday, and with the help of Peter (a neighbor we've hired for the job), we got it assembled. The shingles had already been delivered, and with Peter's help we got them raised to the attic.

We were going to start tearing off the shingles on Saturday, but we were feeling lazy by then and didn't get started on it, instead doing less intense work like cutting up tree trimmings and doing laundry.

We feel better about that slacking now, seeing as how it rained most of last night.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "And are you going to tear off shingles today?"\\

Hello Again, Motorola

In response to my post about my Motorola Q phone, I received a very encouraging-looking e-mail from Matthew Greenberger at Motorola, saying he couldn't imagine why I was having such trouble with the phone, and offering a readable, detailed, illustrated set of instructions for sending e-mails.

Unfortunately, every time I go to Sprint's web site and try to log on to change the settings on my account, I always get "not available at this time1" when I try to move on to Step Three of Five.

Now I've received a phone call at home from Mr. Greenberger. Gosh, sounds like he's serious about straightening this out.

Okay, I'm not working tomorrow morning, so I'll call him back during business hours.

//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Wear a sword, but be ready to accept a pleasant surprise."\\