Going to the UK game

Little Miss and I scored 2 tickets to the UK-WKU game, thanks to my boss.

Little Miss has to go to class first, then we can leave for Louisville.

Just don't tell Milady we stopped at the Tolly-Ho for breakfast....

A comment made

AndyO said: I’m not worried that the “conservative” machine is angling to put up another easily manipulated idiot like Dubya as their candidate for president. I’m not worried that each of these idiots seems willing to march lockstep to the orders of Big Money.
I take no comfort in how they seem to have no worries about alienating more and more voters.
What scares me is that they expect to win. And there must be a reason they think they can win the next round of elections IN SPITE OF THE MAJORITY.

I know I'm sure looking forward to an administration where most of the people running Treasury, State, the Federal Reserve, the White House intellegence structure, and various advisory boards are filled by people who haven't worked for (or taken a lot of money from) Goldman Sachs. I certainly don't want a president who has taken over $1 million in donations from Goldman Sachs employees.

Oh, wait, sorry. I just described the Obama administration.

Big Money has made very sure that they own all of the significant politicians for both parties. If I dare say it, there's only one politician who might be free of the bankers (his initials are RP), and even he has been a politician long enough to accumulate a few earmarks.

Why rob banks? That's where the money is. Now, the banks rob governments, because we insist on letting the government have its hooks on so much of us.

Commercials, second half

Sorry, didn't care for any of them. Best of the game are all the first half commercials.

Good job Giants.

Commercials, first half

There's only been two really good commercials:

First, Mr. Quiggly: very funny dog running.



Second, the Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial:



Honorable mention: Sling Baby from Doritos.

If Ridley really cared about Lexington

If Ridley cared about the new 4th district, then he would tell everyone that he will resign in time to allow Stein to run for the seat this November. Instead, he wants to keep his seat for two more years.

Courtesy of your sold-out Congress

A loss in the state

I am running late again. This morning, Gatewood Galbraith died from complications of emphezema.

I have supported Gatewood in every election, and loved his book. The closest we came to Gatewood was when he (unknowingly) blocked Milady's dad's ambulance during a Woolly Worm Festival parade, and I was on the other side of Beattyville then.

I would turn the template on the blog black, but I don't know how to do so....

Thanks, Gatewood.

Happy New Year 2012

(Bloggers should never apologize for not posting. Sorry.)

Little Miss asked me who was the old fellow who looked like he was about to die. I had to point out that that was Dick Clark.

Carson Daly looks more like Dick Clark than Mr. Clark himself.

CBS should at least attempt to show something NYE. WKYT just replayed the UK-UL game.

Milady has told me that I cannot talk politics to anyone in the family. I still support Ron Paul, and the rest of the family doesn't. Since I told myself I couldn't blog politics until 2012, I can finally "cuss and fuss" somewhere other than home.

Happy New Year.

A fitting tribute to Steve

I hope you met Jesus before you left, Steve. Thanks for the MacBook Air.

Enough awesomeness to consume the whole universe

It's Bruce Campbell of course, apparently at Edinburgh Castle. I'm staying on his good side....

Solitary Man

I'm not quite a solitary man, since Milady, Number One Son, and Little Miss (and all 4 animals!) are all fine. I have just been changing jobs, and the new employer has me too busy to blog or comment a lot.

I got insomnia again a couple of nights ago, and was watching Stargate: Atlantis. Of course it's the same episode I've seen 3 or 4 times (and one of only 4 or so I've seen): "Vegas". They used this song.



(I was going to link to a "music video" with scenes from "Vegas", but the audio quality is so low I couldn't finish it.)

Once again, Johnny took another person's song and kept it.

Comments Elsewhere: Freakonomics and the Market Meltdown

One of the posters at Freakonomics told us why he thinks the market meltdown is crazy. I just had to disagree. They moderate comments, so in case it doesn't appear, here it is:

A. There are millions of houses in default or being intentionally left pre-default (90+ days in arrears), so that their lien holders don't have to mark them down as foreclosed. Until these are dealt with, the entire housing market is one big sham.
B and C. You are double-dealing here. If Mark to Market was in effect, then the banks would still be failing because their assets are crap, not making a profit. If the banks are making a profit by lying about the value of their assets, then they're zombies, not healthy entities.
D. Driving the shorts out of the market makes a warm fuzzy feeling, until there's a large downturn and you don't have anyone with incentive to buy. The shorts stop downslides by needing to close out the short by locking in gains.
E. We've had 8 months of record government borrowing to make that GDP growth. It's not sustainable without private GDP growth, which hasn't happened yet.
G. The debt ceiling debacle masks a more sinister problem: the US Government has no intention to ever pay off its debt, and probably isn't able to do so. It's the world's largest ponzi scheme ever, and it will eventually collapse. If Moodys and S&P were honest, the 10 and 30 year T notes would be junk.
H. Companies are sitting on their largest cash piles in history, even adjusting for inflation. Why do they all think they need that much cash, versus spending it ahead of a jump?
I. Tell that to the person paying 3.50 at the pump and the equivalent jump at the grocery store. Gas prices hurt the poor and middle class most directly.
K. We destroyed an entire year's worth of used cars with cash for clunkers, and now it's nearly as cheap to buy new as used. Imagine that!
The big winners in the new car game: Kia and Hyundai. IMHO, that's because they're cheap but good. US car makers need people buying SUVs and luxury cars, not Focuses and Accords.

Of your items, A, B, and C still aren't fixed. D isn't a real problem. We're only out of the E recession because the government borrowed our way out, and that's why it's facing a credit crunch itself.

Sorry, I don't see the improvement.

Sorry, guys

To the cops doing theft patrol in JC Penney: I made you. Next time, don't spend a lot of your time hanging around the bras. Two dudes in lingerie stand out. You both look either creepy or like closet cross-dressers.

Anyone got a spare furnace?

Last week, we pumped $800 into the heat pump, and it was working, mostly. Then it let out the magic smoke. This time was the fan motor, and we were looking at another $700, minimum. That was it.

Fortunately, we got some mercy from our store: they gave us almost half-credit for the repairs (which means they made WAY too much money off the repairs), and we got a good efficiency for the money. I'm still hoping that we might get the tax credit for it, but I sure wasn't bumping 1 SEER for a $300 credit.

Now we're hot until Monday, and broke after that.

Hania Videos

I've posted about Hania Lee before, but there's two videos (one older, one newer) that take her songs to a new level.

First, Alice is Dead. The video's by xmillsa.



(Safari and YouTube5 get rid of the Flash)

Now, the newer video, for Two's a Party, by Chupydo. Not quite as artistic, but still striking:

Quote of the day, from Jastrow

"For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries." - Robert Jastrow

John Edwards is not guilty -- of campaign law violations

Now I'm depressed. I have to defend John Edwards.

John Edwards couldn't keep his pants zipped. It's a common problem, but not excusable. His buddies had no business aiding and abetting the lying.

However, they most certainly did NOT commit election finance fraud. The Justice Department has no business stretching finance laws that far.

Edwards may be guilty, but he's not guilty of that.

I'm starting to sign on to the "more disasters" camp

We've had 2 major metropolitan tornados in a week, and three in a month. What kind of idiot does it take to quit supporting the Palestinians and reject our stealing of our kid's future?

Mr. Obama, quit backing the terrorists. Period.

For a certain someone

I was reminded of this again...



(Normally, I don't do the passive-aggressive, whine-on-a-blog thing about people. Especially since my family doesn't read here. However, I had to vent this feeling just a bit.)

Taking the good drugs of the day

I'm not sure who exactly thought that this was a good idea, but it sure wasn't me:



Not only is this product not shipping, the design isn't even finalized. ASUS is advertising a pre-alpha prototype!

This is so sappy and over-the-top, it has to be self-satire. Or insanity.

(Remember, Safari and YouTube5 will save you from Flash.)