Musings and Meanderings

Conservative Columnists now reposted - was the blog of last wednesday Whenever I am somewhat sleepy in the morning, or full of the milk of human kindness, I go over to read Ann Coulter latest column. It wakes me up, and gets me mad. This reminds me how small minded the right wing of the Republican Party can be. With the fall of Rush Limbaugh this woman is the leading purveyor of lies and deceit. I'm convinced that the only way for the "cons" to keep their sheep in line is to lie and slander their way through an election. (Not to mention the actual stealing of elections.. but we won't get into that.... old news.. we know what they do). We have already seen that the latest Shrub commercial in Iowa directly attacks the patriotism of any individual who is foolish enough to challenge this bit of Ornamental Shrubbery who is in the White House. Coulter takes it right to the edge calling the entire line up of Democratic Contenders the "Treason Lobby...

You decide. I think that the President going to the place that our troops are stuck is a great morale building thing. However I ask you, this sudden decision to go, could it have had ANYTHING to do with the fact that Hillary was already over there? I for one, having a long history with Repbulicans ( at one point I was the founding member of the Santa Clara County Teen Aged Republicans ) know that this is EXACTLY what a Karl Rove would do. But you decide, either way it was good for the troops.

Blog back to normal Ok the graphics are back. (5pm 11/29) Now I just need to contribute something... Maybe tonight

Its not your computer The site that holds my graphics is not responding to the net now (Sat 11/29 @ 2:12 east coast time). It goes down periodically. But its not your computer. Mike

Trotting with the Turkeys. Ok thats kinda mean. The 40th Annual Turkey Trot is Troy's all city health event on Thanksgiving day. Alex ran for his second year in a row. Alas Alex has been experiencing the side effects of a cold and cough so he was not in his best form. For the Presidential Physical Fitness Award he did the mile in 7:25, but due to his cold he did the mile today at 10:39. The pic below is him coming to the finish line, which Liza took. I used the 35mm and got a few shots including his time with him crossing the line.

Today's Blog Removed 11-27-03 So as not to offend those friends and family members from the other side of the Aisle, I have removed my mutterings from today. They will be returned next week. I do this so that those of you who have not read the blog in a while will not be put off and continue to read of the our fun and games the last week or so. If you are bound and determined to hear my liberal leanings I suggest clicking on the archive to the right for this month and find November 11 and 12th's entries. Happy Holidays

Blogger up and down Ive been having problems accessing blogger recently, don't know if its my computer or their site. Anything written between Friday the 21st and today (the 25th) has been backdates so you probably have not read it yet.

Good bye Honda Civic I have been going back and forth with a business associate of Liza's for the past few weeks on an appropriate dollar figure for him to drive up from the southern part of the state and take away the 92 Honda Civic that has been sitting in the back yard for the past year and a half. We put it there after it sat for another half a year on the road, not being driven, just moved back and forth, as Liza had gotten herself a company car and HER car had AC. So we finally fell on a price of $500. I thought this was pretty good for a car which frankly didn't look so hot any more (it had not been washed in two years) and had not been started in a year and a half. So Saturday Am I got up and began to clear away the leaves (see Sunday) and detritus around the car. Then I opened the back gate. Then I washed the car down. Turns out the discoloring of the finish was completely MUD and not any blemish to the finish. This was my first good news bad news. Good...

The Leaf thing It was made clear to me on Friday night after the Moody Blues concert that there was "no time to do all the things I have to do" by my better half, due to her massive work load. So the intrepid and loving husband I am I set out to do the impossible. I raked the yard. Now this is a big deal for me. One I usually don't like doing this. In fact this is the most heinous chore in home owning in the "autumnal area" of the US in my book. I'd rather have a root canal without anesthesia. Well maybe not but you do get the idea. So Saturday AM I went out very early (ok early on a Sat for me is 10 am, those busy bodies who are out at the crack of dawn doing chores at 8 or 7am drive me crazy. Don't they know they are supposed to sleep in?) I digress. So Saturday AM I went out and cleared the area around the Civic (see Monday's entry). Then started the heinous job. About an hour later I got an inspiration. The old back (which I ...

Oklahoma!! Pre show publicity shots to be found here Please take the time to check out the site if you have the time!! So my second entertainment event of the weekend was the LHS production of Oklahoma! The lead was played by my wife's cousin Liam, and damn well at that. Now I know that both family and friends read this blog, and I could skew my blog today away from my full impression of the show, but I won't. First of all, that Liam can ACT!. Now this is important, for those of you who have seen HS productions before. I felt that in his portrayal of Curley that he was actually "being" Curly and not Liam doing Curley's lines. That’s the essence of acting, suspending the belief of the viewer so that the viewer does not see the actor but the role. Second of all, that Liam can SING! In the year since I heard him last his voice has matured greatly, and he is carrying those difficult notes well. I think he is a tenor, but I'm never sure of t...

The Moody Blues After a two year hiatus I saw the Moody Blues again at the Palace Theater in Albany tonight. What a wonderful show. They play all the "favorites" that they always do. This year they are supporting their new album called December which is a combination of covers of old Christmas Tunes and new ones they have written over the last two years. The band consists of only three original members now a days, Ray has retired from touring due to gout or something awful that makes standing and walking very painful. His flute playing, especially in Timothy Leary will be sorely missed in my book. Of course Mike Pinder left after the "core 7" albums and his place on the tours have been filled by various well and not so well known keyboardists. At 62 the oldest member of the band is Graeme (the drummer) who did all those wonderful poems, such as the one after Nights in White Satin. Justin (guitar) and John (bass) are in their late 50's. To fi...

The past few days..... The house situation Well we finished up the debt restructuring this weekend with our retiring of 2/3 of our revolving and other debt to be paid off in five years max. Feels really good. The house needs some help. Well we have been here five years and really have done nothing to it except live in it. So the roof needs some work. And the house needs repainting. And both chimneys's need to have new mortar. Yes we have two chimneys, the original from the 1800's has the furnace exhaust going through it, originally it was the kitchen cooking fireplace. The other is a real fireplace, which we cannot use due to the mortar situation, worries that an ember could come out the mortar holes and set the roof on fire. That would be bad. So anyway we have a year or two of work to do. More robust concepts from my better half will include insulating the sun room, removing part of the wall that connects it to the kitchen, and redoing the "pantry...

Absurd Ad Campaign of the Season Award Goes to Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC as they now brand themselves. (Whats wrong with the original name I want to know). Anyway the new campaign positions KFC as a Health Food . How funny is that? They are trying to cash in on the low Carb diets out there. Do you know how much fat and cholesterol is in a 3 piece KFC box? Ooodles. Some health food....

Big Brother thought of the day I remembered this after re reading my piece on the "Patriot" act below. One of the forms we signed during our ReFi today (please read on) was our "Patriot Act" disclosure form. Yes that is right folks. We have now been offically passed by the Shrub Adminstration as not being terrorists. Apparently terrorists are not allowed to purchase homes. Each new Mortgagee is run against a "Known Terrorist Database". The Notary Public dryly noted that she was not too sure what she would do if she actually had a name come back as one. So we can rest at night knowing that the known members of Al Quada will not be buying homes in their real names..... Sheesh

Amusing thought of the day Driving to work today I heard the Bush people were "brainstorming" on what to do with Iraq. Immediately the song Oklahoma came to my mind. "Ohhhhhhhklahoma where the wind goes whipping down the plain"... I will let you figure out the correlation.... Amazing what 1% will do. Finally signed the papers for the ReFi today. Took close to an hour and a half not counting the waiting for the Notary Public to come in with all the copies. We went from 6.5 to 5.5 and are saving 127/mo. And the Christmas present which was not at all expected is that we don't have a December mortgage payment. Not bad for two months worth of work. Actually its been a comedy of errors mostly surrounding the ReFi company. I called my present mortgage company nie on two or more months ago and started the grinding wheels in motion. Finally the local office sent me the paperwork for the ReFi and a consolidation loan. I dragged my feet a bit ...

I enjoyed that so much I think I'll do it again.. In the News Bush Warns Extremists Seek to Rule Iraq WOW what a News Flash. What more can I say? I love it when the guy you want to defeat gives you the bullets for your own gun. Of course they want to rule Iraq Mr. Shrub, your poorly planned post war operation has guaranteed that this country will be the hot spot of terrorist cells and activities for years to come. Nice planning. Now go back to Texas. A village is missing its idiot. Yea I'm a liberal (and proud to be) but I am also balanced. So I'd like to focus on the the Kerry Campaign . If anyone was pre-made to make a run for the White House it was Sen. Kerry. War Veteran, Moderate Liberal, Strong in the Northeast and the Left Coast. But what happened? I don't feel the answer is "Gov Dean". Howard Dean is a phenomenon unto himself, and does not make the other candidates look worse by himself. If Kerry or Edwards or god forbid Gepha...

In the news.... Condy Rice is beginning to irritate me. Ok I know.. "Beginning?" you say. Actually I almost like her on the talking heads Sunday shows. Anyway this attempt to play semantic games with definitions of war really irks me. It's bad enough that the Shrub Administration has no clue what they are doing "post war", but now they are demeaning the deaths of our young men and women by splitting semantic hairs. "Major combat operations have not resumed in Iraq by really any stretch of the imagination," is the line that caught my eye. Well first of all, I don't actually think it ever began, the memory is hazy but I don't remember really any major pitched battles on the way to Baghdad. It seems to have been "insurgency" since day one. Listen you Shrubbers....., if soldiers are dying, then its a war. Doesn't matter what you call it. Not too hard to understand. And to marginalize via semantic hair splitting the ef...

Matrix or is the plural Matricies? No Spoilers here. Alex and I saw the final installment of the Matrix trilogy today. Overall I am quite pleased with the full Trilogy and each movie has its positives and negatives. Ok well actually the first installment has no negatives in my book.... The problem with the final installment is that the ending was not well done. I felt that they were so close to getting it right, but too many things were left unexplained or just dangling out there in the breeze. The comments by the Slate writer about the long monologes miss me completely. The best part of Reloaded to me were the dialoges between Neo and the Oracle and Neo and the Architect. To me the trilogy revolves around one simple concept. Choice. This theme is examined from different angles and perspectives throughout the three movies but Reloaded hits it best in my mind. I have mentioned before that the Smith's fight scene in Reloaded does not work for me at all, as the C...

Rambling Bad trend rearing its ugly head. Skipping daze (sic) blogging. Must find a discrete time in each day to blog. Who am I, or more importantly what do I believe. I believe I'll have a good drink! Not really, in fact I really don't drink. I also do not eat red meat. I try to stay low carb but its not easy. Organized religion leaves me cold. I do believe in a god, but more of the deist (sp?) The clockwork universe is God, but I am not a believer in predestination. I am an existentialist, but I believe that a "Judeo-Christian" value system must be adhered to in order for society to hang together. Fundamentalism is similar regardless of what religion you adhere to, and is the single biggest threat to world peace. There is nothing wrong with the basic religion, be it Christian, Judaism, Moslem, Hindu etc. But men of power pervert and corrupt the teachings of their real or mythical prophets in order to attain their aims. Put another way: ...