Six Word Saturday - 12/12

Nutcracker tonight - with three granddaughters dancing.

____________________________________________
Photo from:
http://missyaculpepper.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/im-in-the-mood/nutcracker-ballet-balletbc/

Quote out of context.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Kwak R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!!

Sounds shrill, I'd say. 

Though I love the craft. 


Update:  Context!


Update 2: More Context!
.

Friday Hope Blogging

OK.  On a lot of fronts, things look pretty grim.

But, there is hope.

And as a follow-up to that link, I'll add this vignette.

Recently the lovely wife and I were traveling north on I-95 in VA.  We stopped at Exit 118 to get a coffee at the McDonalds there.  At that same moment, it was engulfed by a group of 5th graders from North Carolina, on a field trip to Washington D.C. - 200 kids, and a bunch of parents.

As we got in line, about a half dozen of them - all girls, as it turns out, and one dad were in line ahead of us.  In this group of kids were one of Asian extraction, at least one Latina, an African-American, and the very white-bead looking girl with her dad.

They were traveling together, eating together, and treating each other like human beings.  Remember, they were from NORTH CAROLINA.

When I was a kid, this wouldn't have happened in the mid-west.  Recognizing the fundamental human dignity of someone who does not look like you is the first step towards peaceful coexistence.  This gives me hope.
.

What the Hell? Friday

Words whose definitions I can never remember, no matter how many times I look them up:

Amanuensis

Defalcation

Epistimological

Hagiography

Heuristic

Quotidian

And, no, I am not looking them up again.  At least not now.

Sports thoughts

Officiation in all sports, at all levels is abyssmal.  Has the quality of officiating deteriorated in recent years?  If so, why?  Does intense sports coverage simply make it easier to observe?  Is the pervasive incompetence of sports officials simply a reflection of the inability of the human race to consistently perform a difficult job well?

Does every team in major league baseball have a Cabrera on the roster?

Detroit Sports Thoughts

Seeing the Tigers deal off Curtis Granderson is horribly painful.  Seeing him go to the Yankees is simply unbearable.

The Red wings have got to stop hanging their goalies out to dry.

And they need to score the occasional goal.

The shoot-out is the most stupid, ghastly idea ever to disgrace a major sport.   Boo, Hiss!

Lions quarterbacks can't seem to perform very well when they have thier buttocks and shoulder blades firmly pressed against the arificial turf by several hundred pounds of defensive linemen.

Good luck Daunte.  You'll need it.

Also, they'll never be winners as long as they are dead last in muliple defensive categories.

Sky Shot Thursday - 12/10

Two views of the early morning sky from a turnpike plaza in Ohio.

Looking East- Southeast into the post-sunrise sky on 11/30/09 at 8:49 a.m.

Then, looking Northwest, across the turnpike, at the same time.

.

Unemployment

I ran across this a couple of weeks ago, then lost the link, and it wasn't obvious to me how to embed it, at the time, anyway.

It is now on YouTube, which makes it easy.  Here is the YouTube link, and here is the original link, where you can see it full screen.  Highly recommended.





Here is a different, perhaps even more dramatic illustration.  Also highly recommended

Hat tips to Ari at Edge of the West, and Paul J in comments there.
.

Global Warming Hoax Continues

Just when you thought it was safe to go back out onto the permafrost, Sarah Palin comes out with details of how global climate change has directly affected Alaska.

That's not to say I deny the reality of some changes in climate -- far from it. I saw the impact of changing weather patterns firsthand while serving as governor of our only Arctic state. I was one of the first governors to create a subcabinet to deal specifically with the issue and to recommend common-sense policies to respond to the coastal erosion, thawing permafrost and retreating sea ice that affect Alaska's communities and infrastructure.

Wha-a-a-a . . . ?!?  Oh, but then she goes on:

But while we recognize the occurrence of these natural, cyclical environmental trends, we can't say with assurance that man's activities cause weather changes. We can say, however, that any potential benefits of proposed emissions reduction policies are far outweighed by their economic costs. And those costs are real.

Double Dip Recession Possibiliy

There is some concern expressed in what I have been reading recently abut the possibility of a double dip recession. 

Conventional wisdom (left) is that stimulus spending is deeply inadequate, and (right) that any raising of taxes will put a sever damper on the economy.  In my view, the left has it right.  But what about taxes?  First off, States and municipalities are in trouble, some of it severe, and it's only going to get worse.  Job loses and depressed property values take a big bite out of governmental revenues.  My property taxes have gone down about 12 %, along with the assessed value of my home.  And, like many others, I accepted an incentive to retire a bit earlier than I had anticipated.  Since my home state does not tax either Social Security or pension income, they are losing quite a bit from me there, as well.  How these entities can recover without raising tax rates and cutting services is a mystery to me.

Meanwhile, the richest 1% in this country have been further enriched by $$$ many billions over the last decade, or so.  It is very hard for me to believe that taking taxes on the wealthy back to the levels current during the Clinton administration is going to do significant damage to the economy.  In fact, money redistributed into the hands of people in the lower economic strata will get spent on goods and services, to satisfy basic human needs.

DEEP STUPID # 13 - I am So Sick of the Right Wing

Charles Krauthamer is living proof that the nuts have become the psychiatrists.  I can't do a DEEP STUPID on this WaPo Op-Ed, because it doesn't quite meet the criteria.  (Upon further review - Yes, I can.)  Instead, it's just mean-spirited, wrong-headed, lame, and - you know: nuts.  Let's check it out.

Uncertain trumpet

By Charles Krauthammer

Friday, December 4, 2009 

We shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the hills -- for 18 months. Then we start packing for home.

We shall never surrender -- unless the war gets too expensive, in which case, we shall quote Eisenhower on "the need to maintain balance in and among national programs" and then insist that "we can't simply afford to ignore the price of these wars." 

We could pretty much just stop right here, having established that the right wing, after recieving at least 75% of everything they wanted from this outcome, and left with nothing of substance to whine about, have to resort to criticism based on style points.  But Chuckie goes on, at great, tedious length, and, alas, so must we.

More Heffalumps!

Great gray pachyderms

Old, wrinkled, weather-worn, wise.

Please share your wisdom.

But, maybe they are Mûmakil.
 

.

Happy Birthday to Jean Sebelius

Who is 144 today.*

And, coincidentally, to me.  I'll be performing his 2nd Symphony in ten more days.

Meanwhile: Misusing Slang.**

_______________________
* That's gross.  Really.
** Randall Munroe of xkdc.com allows this stuff to be shared, without requiring permission.  Really.

Free Enterprise in Somalia

1)  You can invest in Somali pirate enterprises on the local stock market.

2)  You have no idea how much I wish I were making this up.

Aaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhh!