Meeting the Overloard

I know that it has been awhile, but I thought I'd take a moment to simply state that I had the pleasure of meeting our master, lord of the blogoverse, Kos. That is all....


















................for now anyway.

Bird eating Bullfrog? Who knew?

Up early, check in on a recent thread, and run into some interesting nature tales. Possum skulls, opossums, catfood eating opossums, coyotes, cats, cat eating coyotes, squirrels, hummingbird ambushes, hummingbirds, grackles, grackle harrassing chipmunks, grackle eating frogs and chipmunks, made up the balance of the show (from the beginning at 4:47 to around 6:12).

But the star of the show was undoubtably the grackle eating bullfrog

Props to Central Scrutinizer and bad jim for the early morning entertainment.

I've got Threads

A 1/4 X 24, a tailstock to leadscrew handwheel adapter and a 1/4 X 28 thread. Better pictures follow.



1/4 X 24


And per Central Scrutinizer, and Trout, a 1/4 X 28

Young fresh Republitude.

I have been meaning to post this for a few days, but then I have been meaning to to a number of undone things this week. Anyhoo, by now you may well be aware that the College Republican had a national convention over the last weekend (I believe). The fun started when the General started Operation Yellow Elephant another phalanx in the attack, to expose the cowardice of the ruling elite, and the velvety soft fruit, of their republican, war supportin', loins.

I caught wind of the conventioneer/conventionette at Steve and Jen's place, the News Blog (name possibly in a state of flux). They have a full rundown of the festivites and shared several interesting observations, and spoke with some young Republican Folk about why they are republicans. Fealty to authority from the young is alarming on its own. But coupled with a wispy grasp of history and a boatload of inaccurate preconceptions, it can become downright frightening.

JiaMei Chen is a Chinese Republican from California and a student at American River College (also in CA).

Me: What makes you a Republican?

JC: Well my family is a big influence on it, but also all the different stuff I’ve seen and stuff. You know what, you probably gotta excuse my language when I talk about liberals. I grew up in Shanghai, right, and China's a Communist country, right? When I got over here I saw there’s a two party system, liberals and conservatives, democrats and republicans, right? But all the liberals really stand for is social welfare, support all the laziness, socialists, free this and free that – tax all the hardworking people, give it away for nothing, you know? People just sit around, just sit on their butt all day and don’t do nothing. They drive a brand new Cadillac and stuff! What about the hard-working-class people? And we get taxed 50% out of our pocket, you know? I mean that’s socialist, right? So, that’s the reason I just think that you know what liberals just don’t make sense. Also probably the religious belief. I won’t vote for a single person that is pro-choice.

Where does one start, I mean it is all so very wrong. But I have to admit that when I first saw this over at Steves place (can't find the link as the archives are buggered) it sent chills down my spine. In essence you can boil this sentiment down to "Democrats are in favor of taking my money away and giving it to lazy niggers". It took me back twenty years or more when I first heard the canard "Cadillac driving Wellfare Queens".

Conservative politicians have a talent for telling memorable anecdotes that capture the essence of their beliefs on any particular issue. One of the most enduring of these came from Ronald Reagan on the subject of welfare. He cited a Chicago "Welfare Queen" who had ripped off $150,000 from the government, using 80 aliases, 30 addresses, a dozen social security cards, and four fictional dead husbands. The country was outraged; Reagan dutifully promised to roll back welfare; and ever since, the "Welfare Queen" driving her "Welfare Cadillac" has become permanently lodged in American political folklore.

Unfortunately, like most great conservative anecdotes, it wasn't really true. The media searched for this welfare cheat in the hopes of interviewing her, and discovered that she didn't even exist.

As a bit of class warfare, however, it was brilliant. It diverted public attention from insider traders in their limousines to Welfare Queens in their Cadillacs, even though the former were stealing thousands of times more from the American people than the latter. Just one example of the cost of white collar crime would become apparent a few years later, when President Bush bailed out the Savings & Loans industry with $500 billion of the taxpayer's money -- enough to fund 20 years of federal AFDC.

That was an example of Reagan at his race-baiting best. Untrue, but what the hell, those shiftless niggers were going to bleed us dry.

That this bit of flotsam managed to take hold in this young chinese immagrant, or any mind, as the gospel truth, disgusts and sickens me.

Shitting in the bed.

The History channel just had a program on the Yellowstone National park. I only managed to wake up in time to catch the last ten minutes or so, which dealt primarily with snow mobile issues. Images of crowds stinking up the place with their two-stroke offal, and nervous buffulo trying to dodge, run away from, herds of nylon and down coveredsnow mobilers was a sickening one. A narrarator was discussing the importance of fat in the buffulo and how the unneccesary activity might mean the difference between survival and not for the beasts who call the place their home.

A sign above one of the gates states "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people". The operator of a local snow mobile concern discusses the economic impact of laws governing the use, type, and quantity of snowmobiles at the park, "It'll kill us" or somesuch is provided, and I think of the owner of the linens concern, who has done a booming business with "Shit the Bed Lodge™", crying to whomever will listen when the Hotel is closed as a Public Health risk.

Kurtz is a Jackass, but you knew that allready.

Went to see what was going on at the The Whiskey Bar and to my pleasant suprise it would seem that the man is posting quite a bit these days. WoooooooHooooooo. Anyway stumbled into this post, about the adorable fool Howie Kurtz and his penchant for the whitewash of history, to wit: nobody could hear the republicans during the early Clinton years cause they were out of the loop, or something.

I sympathize with Pelosi about the Democratic position being reduced to two sentences in many stories. With Republicans running everything in D.C., the minority party often gets short shrift. The Republicans had the same problem in '93 and '94. Lacking that White House megaphone makes a huge difference.

I don't seem to remember the wailing and pulling of hair, and the gnashing of teeth, that could be heard on every sunday news show. Don't remember any of it; the changing of house rules to hang Rostenkowski in specific, and the Democratic party in general.
I don't remember the "Contract with America" and us snarky kids at the time had most assureadly not referred to said document as "The Contract on America". And I most certainly cannot recall seeing the big-assed, whitetopped, red-faced, gasbag named Gingrich, given every opportunity to enlighten us about the evils of healthcare that might go to niggers and gays in the Military. Sure enough, had there only been a Republican in the WhiteHouse (IMHO there in fact was, but that is for another day),
we could have heard the other side of the story.

I am sure you have the picture, no need to continue flogging the dried up bones of that old pony, but it might be time to flog Kurtz about the head and shoulders with a thighbone from the dearly departed beast. Billmon follows:

Of course: that must have been why Clinton's health care plan was such a PR triumph -- nobody was listening to the Republicans!
......[snip]........
I don't know, maybe the RNC has filled Howie's brain with the memories of Newt Gingrich's niece. But I was there, and while many of my memories may be somewhat dimmed by time and alcohol, on this pointI can assure you: Kurtz once again is spewing complete horse shit -- as even a cursory examination of the coverage will demonstrate.

The reality is that the Republicans had no problem whatsoever getting their POV across in the corporate media during that brief period of Democratic hegemony -- even when they, too, were peddling complete horse shit.

I certainly can't remember the gnashing of teeth, replete with hair pulling (ones own) and wailing, lots of wailing about how the foundation of civilization would be irreparibly damaged if Queers were let loose in the classrooms and Military, The hew and cries about universal health care, because god forbid the niggers get any. I do not recall snarking about the "Contract with America" in calling it the "Contract on America". I most certainly do not remember the big-assed, white topped, red-faced, glowering gasbag, Gingrich holding court and peddling lies, on all the Sunday chatfests, nope I didn't see or say any of it. Allright time to stop flogging the poor and long dead pony, bones bleached in the sun. Better to grab a femur and beat some sense into poor old Howie, about the head and shoulders.

In reality, I spent alot of time bending ears about it at the time. Billmon was a journalist at the time, and I was a bicycle mechanic and amateur Cassandra, telling anyone who would listen, that this Republican Party had shuffled loose of the coil of "Eisenhowerian Moderation". Somwhere, someone (as a gregarious mechanic in a busy bike shop, in a decent sized college town, one tends to make many aquaintances) might be saying to themselves "You know, that guy was on to something".

In any event, I happened across the perfect articulation of something I have tried to point out many times, and if I had a buck for each time a similar version had passed my lips, I could buy some stuff, not a paper, but then again, I am not so smart as to ask for the big bucks™, like Billmon.

I wish I had a dollar for every Republican quoted in the papers or on the boob tube predicting the economic collapse of the United States as a result of Clinton's tax hikes. Or the destruction of Western civilization because of gays in the military. Or the death of morality because of the Whitewater "scandal." Or he postalization of the American health care system because of Hillary.

I'd have enough money now to buy the Washington Post Co. and fire Howie's sorry ass.

Now that would be cool. But it does put a bit of light to the canard of "the Liberal Media". I've been screaming at the TV for many a year, I can't stand conventional wisdom, or listening to those those trying to peddle that snake oil. I knew that the majesty of the fourth estate was in jeopardy when prior to, or during our little Panamanian adventure to "take care of Noriega" (blowback anyone) Tom "Greatest Generation" Brokaw referred to Noriega as "Pineapple Face" during a primetime newscast. I was absolutely shocked, and will never forget that moment.

In fact the cozy relationship that the media have with government was illustrated a number of years later, during the Atlanta Olympics, when Brokaw, talking to Costas about the bombing, said (and I paraphrase) "my sources at the FBI are nearly certain that Richard Jewell is guilty". To Costas' credit he did state something about the presumption of innocence, which was nice, because Jewell had nothing to do with the crime.

But I digress, Clintons masterfull use of his Whitehouse Bully pulpit, kept TheoCorp from making big gains in congress, during the '94 midterm elections, and thanks to that, the Republicans have not held a majority of the seats in the house since, I don't know............Maybe Howie can enlighten me.

Is Britney Spears carrying Baby Jesus the sequal?

The People Magazine Cover screams "All about my Baby" and promises an interview with the mother to be, about her prescious, pre-born cargo. My first thought was "Is it not a little early to have this interview? After all, something could still go terribly wrong, and her child might not see the light of day, suffering a tragedy that befalls many expectant parents, misscarriage.

I then saw the arc of her carreer, bursting on the scene as the embodiment of the teenage school girl fantasy, pairing explicitly suggestive song, with equally, if not more explicitly suggestive, dance moves, reaching the apotheosis of pre-teen pornagraphy, with a song that might as well have been titled "Baby Fuck Me One more time".

She has made a carreer of selling the illicit fantasy, a career that may be effectivly at its end as the vacant, doe-eyed doyenne of the teeny bopper set, ages. It may be possible that she can morph into a doe-eyed dominatrix, but in the meantime we will get to suffer endless pictures of the bump, and interviews in screen and print, as she is groomed to become the Queen of Moron 'Merica.

Ok my head hurts, but in conclusion If'n Brittney gets her some Born Again™ the hyperbole suggested by the title of this post may well become reality. /shudders.

You can't argue with them, so you must Mock them.

The following was written last night and posted to the bottom of a (unbeknownst to me) dead thread, so I thought I might share it here, so another 20 people might get achance to see it.

Yep, Thers, even told him Wayne never served in the military but you can't use logic and facts with these people. He immediately launched into Kerry's service record - pure Swifty talk.
Arrrrrrrrrrrreeeeaahhhggggggg.

Took a trip to visit a local assembly of moron america™ (Lowes) yesterday, and quite frankly the "double-take, vaporlock, somethings burning, while it figgers out if I's a nigger, wetback, or 'kayda" reaction is getting tedious.

While I generally respond with a smile and a howdy, in an attempt to move myself (in their mind, into the former categories-less threatening as it must be), It just gets old.

Rip,

Your'e right.

There is no arguing, anything, with the "faithful". Your workmate listens to HaniRush for soundbitic rejoinders. Simple Willfull Ignorance.

There should be no argument, simply Mock Them™. When it all said and done, we have been the mocked, and the mockers rode the Mighty Stallion, Moron Merica™ to a nearly complete control of every reign of power.

I have always rejected "Mocking", or any form, of coercive or, manipulative forms of Attitude Ajustment. Pandering to the lowest commen denomiator is just not my style, but Jebbus H Christmas, the gloves are off.

Mocking requires a cool head. You cannot engage until the outrage has subsided. Better yet recognise that they will not take anything you have to say seriously, because, in their mind, we are the "mindless monkeys", dancing to our "organ grinders", when the reality is:

We give a damn about ourselves, and everybody else.They only give a damn about their "own", or even worse, engage in familial combat, while wreaking havok on the world.

I guess I'll have to read that book about the kids stranded on that Island
for some background on the most effective approach.

As a start, I might suggest that you embrace the concept, of laughing at whatever they pull out of their ass, shaking your head, and walking away.

If you take them seriously, you "embiggen" them. And After all we do have the "wind of truth" at our backs.

They employ a tactic of "Stungun Stupidity" designed to create the "That is so wrong on so many levels...." response. It works, early and often, and we get nowhere.

Mock them, laugh (with pointing, when appropriate), and walk away shaking your head.

You are actually "right as rain", with the added bonus of your heart being in the right place.

The Thrall of acumen and nuance, has left the building. Pointing and laughing at the stalwarts, may inevitably sway an enormous number of "buyers Remorse Republicans"

Disclaimer,

It's Ripley's fault. But seriously pardon for the inordinately long blogasm.........
.
kent #

Mr President

This is one of by buddy Kent's cats. His name is Mr President. He is a rather attractive beast in his velvety grey finery, and as you can see in the shot below, a very nervous boy. I have the pleasure of watching his beasts while he takes in the Indianapolis 500.



And in the next shot, he is not so much perturbed, as he is keeping track of the movements of another cat behind and to the side.