It isn't The Onion . . .

But it fits!

Funny...

see Sarah Palin pictures



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Listening to: America - Sarah
via FoxyTunes

Reasons I *love* Apple, # 1337

Doing the right thing . . .

Not just NO on Prop 8, but HELL NO!



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Now playing: Dave Chappelle - Gay Cali
via FoxyTunes

Roadkill on the Information Super Highway -- WoW style

WOW Politics

• the guild bank is fundamentally sound
• we need to take decisive action
• the NPC Reserve will inject a much need economic stimulus into Azeroth
• we're going to let the DKP system fail and let the markets work it out - guild leadership should not meddle in the market of DKP
• the Vendor reserve will buy up all the sub-prime Hearts of Darkness to get them off the books and get the Auction House working again
• our friends across the pond on the PvP servers will co-ordinate a Heroic Badge overnight lending interest rate reduction to send a clear message we have no idea what to do about this crisis
• we have nothing to fear but the expansion
• My opponents's proposal would reward the top DKP holders will access to the guild bank for over two weeks prior to the people who don't read this forum - that's not change - that's more of the same.
• I'm not going to discuss any success or failure in Sunwell Plateau - the real issue is we shouldn't have been there in the first place - and I had the judgement to say so in numerous guild votes - if I had been Guild Master we wouldn't been in Sunwell Plateau looking for gear of mass destruction - and we wouldn't be in the mess of having repair bills of over 200g everynight for the past 4 winterveil festivals - my opponent voted yes on Sunwell Plateau and therefore does not represent a meaningful change in guild leadership.
• Wellfare epics remove people's incentive to ignore family and friends and let them know it's ok to run low level content over and over and over again to obtain badges of justice - this degrades the accomplishments of the socially retarted and lessens the value of all gear - we have to restore the dignity of grinding - and help people play continuously so we can reduce the % of our population for which wellfare epics have become the only method by which they equip. their toon.
• I intend to propose a full range of health benefits for all the citizens of azeroth - I will pay for this proposal with a flat tax imposed on the top quentile % of DKP net holders - most citizens of azeroth will see no reduction in DKP accumulation rates
• it's very very important that all guild members vote - but please don't vote for anyone's opponent
• 12 party talks are the solution for negotiating with all ninja terrorists
• the 25 man raid surge strategy is working - and yet my ALT won't, even in hindsight, admit he has no idea what I'm talking about
• My Friends…
• I'm going to sound good while saying nothing…let me distract you with a story about how I lvl'd to 70
• less than 5% of DKP holders produce over 45% of the DKP value - but net returns as calculated against the original war-craft release date clearly show a decline in value for heavy-rune cloth health-per-second-squared rate of return - this clearly indicates that WOLK will be delayed - and thats why we need a reduction of total network lag right now and not 5 years from now - any fool can see that!
• I did not have /sexual relationship with that toon!
• History? What's my place in history? Hell that's all backed up on the blizzard servers and put in the tape archive!
• Achievements are overrated!
• It's the auction house stupid!
• We can not allow Horde characters to obtain 81-point talents - it would be a game changer
• There is a shadowy organization called "The GMs" that really run everything - they've always run everything - and this recent crisis is their fault, their creation, and their plan. Your life is an illusion of free will and we're all just electrons on this big universe called a "server farm" - pull plug from the wall and see the truth - or leave it plugged in and be comfortable in your illusion - you can handle the truth - can't you?
• All I'm saying is we need the experience of someone who's been held captive in Zul'grub - faced down Ragneros - and completed a 45 min baron in sub T1 gear - you want that steady hand that's been there before GM release dates - played the beta - and knows what's like to queue to login - sure my opponent has T8 gear and awesome gear artwork - but he wasn't playing when WOW was in beta!
• The G8 (the 8 wealthiest guilds) will set up a server wide lending pool to enable every citizen of azeroth obtain their lvl 80 mount - it's a fundamental dream of all toons to have these mounts - and to support these mounts I'm proposing a 90 day moratorium on account fees for ppl with less than 2 accounts - we don't need to help the people with 2 or more vacation accounts - but if your account is your primary account it won't be hacked for 90 days while you work out with the GM's how your going to get all your stuff back.
• we must not allow a DPS gap!'
• I will run instances with no attunements or pre-conditions - it's the only way to make progress and see the content - to do otherwise would simply allow the game makers to control my toon
• Listen to me very very closely here - if we have a world boss in sight and the gear to take him out - and the guild membership refuses to stop doing their dailies and come help me get my drop - I will PUG that world boss take him out and let that world Boss know PUG or no PUG he is a target and we'll do what it takes to get some loot!
• I'm so proud to announce that my running mate and future Vice-Guild-Master for all of azeroth will be Leroy Jenkins!
• Effective immediately all guild bank deposits will be insured against loss for up to item lvl 181 for each unique account holder - member BDIC return of item not guarenteed to have enchants and GEMS restored.

The RNC / Palin Nomination

Just a few observations about this week's political convention:

1. I'm going to ignore the speeches. There is nothing that they have said or will say that I have not heard before, and staying out of thrown weapons range of a TV screen is a wise maneuver. Since I'm ignoring the speeches, I'll not comment on them. As Mom told me as a wee lad, if you cannot say anything nice about someone, you're probably going to grow up a blogger don't say anything at all.

2. As to the Palin nomination, which is something that has been blogged to within an inch of its life, I have this to say: the pick clearly was not vetted by John McCain, and even more clearly was a sop to the theocratic wing of the Republican Party. I agree with Barack Obama that the nominee's families should be off limits. Palin's politics and performance as Govenor of Alaska is not. Her resume is thinner than an anorexic starlet on a week-long purge, her management style makes Dick Cheney look like Barney the Purple Dinosaur by comparison, her record on reproductive choice is unsupportable and if, Goddess forbid it, the McCain-Palin ticket wins or steals the election, this 44 year old tyro will stand one 72-year old heartbeat away from the highest office in the land. Don't be fooled by her attractiveness, she's a hardcore Christian Dominionist in sheep's clothing.

3. One more thing about St. Paul and Minneapolis: I've been there, those towns are lovely places. Hard to imagins such a place overrun with riot cops and no-knock flying squads on pre-emptive raids. It's almost as though the cops are trying to provoke a riot. As for the violent ones among them . . . I'm willing to bet some of them are cops -- agent provocateurs sent in to discredit the nonviolent ones and to justify the $50 million price tag for "security."

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Listening to: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - I Won't Back Down
via FoxyTunes

My (Rather Delayed) Reaction to Barack Obama's Acceptanc Speech

As a political junkie for over 40 years and someone who has delivered speeches to big crowds, I have to say one thing about Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night: It was nothing less than a masterwork. I haven't heard such a speech in my entire life.

If you've never heard him speak, do so. Now.

The nomination of Barack Obama ensures that for the first time in my life, I am voting FOR someone. No "lesser of two evils" here, for me. Nor is it what has often been the case, the evil of two lessers. He has triumphed when people wrote him off, has persevered in the face of a multi-threaded smear-and-scare campaign, and has kept his cool throughout.

It feels good to support a winner, for a Change™

Finally, the song in my head:




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Listening to: R.E.M. - Imitation of Life (Live)
via FoxyTunes

Tonight's the Night . . .

. . . and not in the Rod Stewart sense of the phrase.

Tonight Barack Obama accepts his party's nomination. I *am* going to watch the speech live / streamed.

Of course, the stage setting at Invesco Field in Denver where Barack will speak has drawn some invidious comment from certain quarters because the backdrop looks like an ancient Greek temple(!). Well, people, lots of buildings are based on ancient Greek temples -- the Capitol Building in DC, Cali's own Capitol being just two. Where the hell do you think the word "democracy" itself comes from? Space fairies?

It's kind of ironic that the world has just wound down another cultural artifact that comes to us from the ancient Greeks: TEH FSCKING OLYMPIC GAMES!

OK, people, answer me this: What day is it? 28 August. On this date in 1963, another great American, also of African descent, also a great orator, gave a speech on the steps of a very similar building.

History's being made this week. The least we can do is watch it. Yes I can...and yes I WILL!



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Now playing: The Elders - Turning Point
via FoxyTunes

Impressions of the DNC

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Listening to: Neil Young - Lookin' for a Leader
via FoxyTunes I've been following the Democratic National Convention in Denver via teh innerweb. The national party conventions have been one of two exceptions to my "No teevee" stance / pledge -- the other exception is election night.

Without TV, I get most of my news from the various blogs and from newspaper sites. With little "drama" -- national nominating conventions have been almost drama-free since the 70s (Thank you Chicago 1968!) -- the press have been focusing on such matters as Sen. Clinton's formally releasing her delegates to vote for Sen. Obama, and the diehard Hillary supporters who are holding out inder the PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) banner and the vast congregation of A-list political bloggers covering the convention.

OK, impressions:
1. Senator Ted Kennedy -- a very very sick man with brain cancer and other painful infirmities -- gave a speech, a symbolic "passing of the torch" to a new political generation . . . MY generation. Demographers call us "Generation Jones" -- the late Boomers and early post-Boom GenXers. Born right in the middle of the Cold War, too young for the sociopolitical convulsions of the late 1950s and 1960s (most of us were in short pants), too young for Vietnam / the civil rights movement and too old (many of us) for Iraq and Afghanistan. For us, the seminal political event of our young lives was the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979-81, an event widely credited with delivering the Presidency to Ronald Reagan.
The Lion of the Senate, the man one of Styx's lyrics called "First of the 80s / and Last of the Sons / First in the Hearts of his Countrymen" roared again. Goddess keep you, good Senator!
2. Michelle Obama -- What a classy, smart, eloquent woman! While First Lady Laura Bush has not been the abject embarrassment her husband continues to be, I continue to be impressed by MichelleO. Comparisons to Jackie Kennedy are already being drawn.
3. Hillary Clinton -- I did not vote for her in the primary. If she ever gets the chance to run again -- say in 8 years -- I just might.
4. Karl Rove -- With respect to his commentary: As they say in the US Marine Corps, "Golf. Foxtrot. Yankee."
5. Internet application taking the political blog world by storm: Twitter.

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Listening to: Neil Young - Lookin' for a Leader
via FoxyTunes

It's Obama-Biden! YES WE CAN!

We Dems have ourselves a ticket!

Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware was not on my "Hope gets the call" list (John Edwards and General Westley Clark were . . .), but I was most impressed with his performance in the primary debates. It will be nice to have a Veep who isn't a Dick. Edwards' future political ambitions are now reactor waste thanks to that affair he was having and Gen. Clark is probably better suited for a post as SecDef or SecState in President Obama's Cabinet than as Veep.

Of course, Biden supported the Iraq AMUF (boo! Hiss!) and is a bit too tight with the banking industry for my comfort . . . but he has a depth of foreign policy expertise that is unbeatable and as a career Senator, he's well prepared to preside over the Senate if that's what it takes to get all that Change™ We Can Believe In® passed into law.



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Listening to: Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
via FoxyTunes

Figures . . .

McCain does not how to use a computer or teh innernets

I suggest a book



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Now playing: Emerald Rose - Summerland
via FoxyTunes

Un. Be. FSCKING-Lievable!

Hillary Clinton, today, about why she's staying in the running despite her being virtually mathematically eliminated from nomination contention:

Responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race, she said: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don't understand it," she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race.

This remark is utterly beyond the pale. Yes, Bill Clinton didin't wrap up the nomination till June, but back then we didn't have the front-loaded system we have today. I almost read this as an idle wish that her rival -- Barack Obama -- were to be assassinated to clear her way to the nomination!

Consider this: Senator Obama and his family have been subjected to death threats since he announced his candidacy over a year ago. Not to mention this: Inspirational American political leaders have all too often been the targets of assassins the last fifty or so years. Given the groundbreaking nature of his candidacy and the fact that too many people have too much to lose if Obama is elected, I'm not very surprised at the talk. Eight years ago, when Colin Powell was considering a run for the Presidency, the racists in my family said that "He dropped out because he's be shot like a dog for being black if he dared run."

Hell, a few months ago, when Ex#2 served me my divorce papers, I asked her who she supported. "Obama, of course. But I think he'll get assassinated."

Nonetheless, it's nothing short of reprehensible of HRC to even go there.

Kids, this shit has to stop, NOW!

Time to put on your magickal thinking hats. No, not the one with the stinky fish entrails. When you think about something, you feed it's thought-form. When you feed a thought-form enough energy, you make it real and give it impact in the world. How many thought-forms are dining on the thought-energy of the thousands of people out there this subtle but toxic meme is evoking?

Here's the counter: visualize Barack Obama taking the oath of office next January 20. Visualize him shielded from harm by the good wishes and the hopes of the millions who will have cast their ballots for the change he represents. Let THAT thought-energy protect and preserve him. Ask the God/s you reverence to ward him from the ill-actions of others.

And most of all, admonish Hillary for her ill-chosen words.

Assorted asshattery and some hope

Mixed bag of a day, all things considered.

Hope:
In this Tuesday's round of elections, the Republicans lost a congressional special election to the Ds. This didn;t happen in a district the Ds usually win; it was in Mississippi's 1st CD -- a district so nominally pro-R "red" that it isn't funny. Won it by over 10%, not in a squeaker. As in "kicked the elephant in the jimmies." Live by the warmongering moron, die by the warmongering moron.

Asshat:
Speaking of warmongering morons, Shrub gave this little speech to the Israeli Parliament on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel. In it he said something truly extraordinary:

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history,"

He was referring to, of course, Democrats, as the appeasers.
Why is this extraordinary? Because for the first time, a political figure serving as the American "president" (NEVER will I refer to the faux Texan empty suit warmongering bastard as MY president) using the occasion of a speech in a foreign country for crass domestic politics. Don't "politics stop at the water's edge?"
Further, by invoking Nazis, the Chimp fell victim to Godwin's Law.
Of course, this asshattery may just be a means of gaining the news initiative after that special election and John Edwards' dramatic endorsement of Barack Obama.

Hope:
I overheard one of my colleagues at work literally going off on another coworker about what an absolute dick GWB is. The second colleague is one of those people who is active in church and does not hesitate to invite you along -- repeatedly. Hardcore R. Since Church Guy is an asshole buddy of my manager, I'm not going to complain unless he invites me again. Last year I nearly throated Church Guy because of his utterances in a meeting about Al Gore and his Oscar-winning documentary. Glad to see him get a dose of reality.

Asshat:
Roomie. Say no more.

" . . . this is your brain on hillbilly heroin. Any questions?"

More delusions of adequacy and sheer criminality from Rush Limbaugh.

I dream of his well-fed carcass in a prison jumpsuit . . . .



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Now playing: Neil Young - Rockin' In the Free World
via FoxyTunes

Mediots, NIGYYSOB and America's future

The best illustration of the reason I don't watch or even own a TV set anymore: The ABC Democratic debate the other night.

I saw the coverage of the debate, and the consensus of the port side of the blogosphere is clear: The debate was little more than an exercise is what my freshman English teacher and Transactional Analysis fan, Mr. Davajohn, used to call "the game of NIGYYSOB" (Now, I've Got You, You SOB!).

*sigh*

OK, this country has BIG problems at the moment: an endless war, recession, inflation, income inequality and stagnation, the environment, the betrayal of our professed values with the rest of the world, the assaults on the Constitution, etc, etc etc... and for fifty plus minutes the two Democrats were compelled to debate minutia like flag pins and bowling. Gotcha, NIGYYSOB!

Why, OH WHY, cannot the so-called mainstream media treat Americans like adults? I remember a time, early in my life, when the media did just that. I was born too late for the McCarthy hearings, and I was in my early teens when media revelations brought down two presidents (Johnson, over the Vietnam, war and Nixon over Watergate). The media treated the American people like adults, even if the pols did not.

Berzerkeley was fun...

I went to visit my daughter and son in law in Berkeley today. Had a blast despite a sore throat that almost kept me home.
Highlights included a fine lunch at a very nice Chinese place (huzzah for Moo Shoo beef), a visit to Sam's school (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary), some geeking about on Sam's PC, MacBook and network and good coffee as Sophia showed me how to home roast with an air popper. I even saw a home movie showing Sam giving his first sermon. W00t! Then there was that tactical nuclear oatmeal cookie Sophia made . . .

They got a new car, a Volvo, to replace Soph's Kia. The Kia was named "Inga" and she wanted a name for the new car. Given that Volvo is Swedish, I suggested a male name: Gustav Aldolph. Yes, I was thinking of everyone's favorite 17th-century Swedish King, that most Lutheran champion, general, the Lion of the North. I also suggested his formidable daughter Christina as well.

I counted Presidential campaign signs and stickers while in Berkeley, starting with an Obama postcard Sophia had. The final count was 10 for BO, 3 for HRC, and ZERO for ANY Republican.


I'm starting my Earth Day / Beltane iTunes playlist; the song in the FoxyTunes sig is headlining that playlist. Not only is the song a good green / eco tune, it's easy on the ears as I grind in WoW.
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Listening to: R.E.M. - Cuyahoga (Live)
via FoxyTunes

WTF does bowling have to do with the ability to lead this nation?

Apparently, Barack Obama went bowling in Pennsylvania the other day as part of a photo op. Apparently, Barack Obama's bowling score of 97 at this photo op was, well, not very good.

The idios on TV teed off on BO for being, well, less than manly for bowling so "poorly," implying that he was not manly enough to be Commander-in-Chief. Chris "tweety" Matthiews actually said that he should have, to be considered man enough to be Commander-in-Chief, bowl at least 150

Sexist assholes!

First a word about bowling.

As someone who spent a good part of his early teens in bowling alleys and was a state individual, league and singles champion in my age bracket (12-13), with weekly league play I carried a 21-week book average in the high 180s. In tournaments I routinely got hot; my best game ever -- 267 -- was rolled in a singles event at a state tournament. My younger brother once 6-7-10 split his last ball and wound up three pins shy of a perfect 300 and also routinely shot 200+ with about the same average as me.
I can say I know a bit about bowling. Even fit adults who don't bowl every week will typically roll right around 90 to 100.

With a few weeks of bowling with his own ball (that makes a big difference) custom drilled in a pro shop and his own shoes on his home alley, Barack Obama could get 150-160 easy. My dad, who bowled leagues in his younger days also bowled 180+ consistently.

Then again, just what does the ability to bowl have to do with leading this great nation? NOTHING! Twisted punditoid games, again. Just reminding the knuckle-draggers that BO is, well, different and, in these troubled times, different is dangerous!

Then these bastards wonder why I refuse to watch them on teevee.

Finally. if I remember correctly, I am voting for a President. One of the President's Constitutional roles, and not his most important one, is Commander-in-Chief of the US military. If I were voting for a high military leader, I'd want to vet his or her grasp of military strategy. The candidate does not have to have been a soldier, sailor or airman -- experience in that role can provide insight, yes it can. But how does BOWLING test for this? If they want to vet candidates for this ability with a game, why not give them a D&D character and run them through a dungeon? D&D is a game of intense strategy and resource management; given the nation's issues, these skills could come in handy and should be better tested here than in a bowling alley.

This could be fun. Maybe I oughta bring BO, HRC and that icky Republican together for a run through one of Miresseia's garden spots like Mid-Thule (think Norway with nasty monsters that give Thor trouble) or Stygia (Sandworms! Orcish Jihadi! Psychoactive drugs! OHMY!).

I'd love to tell Hillary to make a Will saving throw or have McBush kidnapped and imprisoned by Orcs who do not comply with the US Army field manual for interrogations.

Then there's another way to test these abilities: World of Warcraft. Leveling takes strategy, as does doing those dungeons and especially raids.

Make them all roll blood elves; HRC rolls a warlock, BO a hunter and John McLame a paladin. Power level them to 70 and drop them in a 10-man raid dungeon like Karahzan.

Now that would be worth the eewtoobery!

"McCain, L2P ya noob! We wiped form the aggro you pulled on the boss!"



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Listening to: R.E.M. - Final Straw (Live)
via FoxyTunes

Bits, bytes, nybbles and other data constructs

Scenes from a geek's life:

1. My hip going "pop" as I was getting ready to leave the doctor's office. Tylenol is helping; two of the world's most awesome nurses *ever* making sure that I did not leave the doc's office until the pain had diminished. Valarie and Connie are a matched set (literally!). I've met more educated nurses, sure...but none who are so patient-centered.
(Gheekspeak follows)
2. I get my job satisfaction shots in strange doses. Few things make me happier than rescuing a customer from a mistake. One of my axioms of Mac Teching is "Walk non-technical customers through the start of an Archive and Install (preserving) because there are too many ways for a nontech to fsck it to hell and beyond." "Archive and Install" (preserving) is a common resolution for software issues on a Mac; what it does is move the /System/ folder to a new location (the "archive" part) and installs a new one. It does NOT overwrite the old /System/, /Applications/ or more importantly, /Users/ (the "preserving" part). The /Users/ folder is home to things like the Desktop, Documents, Music, Movies and all the stuff you store on a computer and want to not lose. Well, Ms. Customer made one little mistake: the did the archive and install with the "preserving" option disabled. When this happens, the /Users/ folder goes into the archive as well. Upon completion of the install, your system goes through first time setup as though out of the box and looks like all the data is gone! The call started out with my diffusing the customer's demand for scalps. I told her how I think it happened, without assigning blame (I care about happy customers, not the whys of breaking things or Who To Blame), and showed her the mystery of how to restore a archived /Users/ folder without hosing the file permissions. This customer went from mistrustful and hinting at legal action to wanting to fly me to the East Coast for personal Mac lessons. Long call, because this restore process is a bit delicate . . . but the call ended with a VERY happy customer.
(end Gheekspeak)

3. Last night, in semi-secret rites in Nygel's Point, Desolace, Dakatirr (my shaman) was passed the title of Guild Master for the WoW guild Legends Till Death . Yet another case of insufficient reluctance. I'd been looking at starting my own guild for awhile, but I literally could not buy nine signatures for a guild charter I took out for . I did not set out to take over someone else's guild, but now that I have it I'll be doing as much administrivia as I do actually playing.

4. A few days ago, Barack Obama gave this little speech about race, faith and a few other things. My inner Orator (the one who got free in speech classes in high school and college and earned the highest degree of distinction from the National Forensics League for oratory, debate, extemporaneous and impromptu speaking) was amazed. Presidents are supposed to be inarticulate boobs who cannot sting together two original thoughts without connective tissue. Presidents are supposed to be rhetorical embarrassments. At least that's been the lesson of the 21st centuty dark age that is the Bush / Cheney administration. BO was brilliant in laying out his vision for that nation, his view of this nation's historic and persistent racism. (geek sideline: while his first and last initial suggest something odorous, his full initials -- BHO -- is a Windows geek acronym: Browser Helper Object. Some BHOs suck, others are not so bad) Folks, Barack Obama (BTW, his first name means "Lightning" in Hebrew and was also the name of Ariel Sharon's armored brigade in the Sinai in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the name goes back to a military commander from the Old Testament) is the Real Deal.

4. Finally: to the piece of human debris who parked his or her car less than a foot from my van which was centered in it's space at Kaiser, forcing a buy with a sore hip and not-so-mild claustrophobia panic attacks to climb in through the cargo door: FSCK YOU WERRY MUCH, ARSEWHOLE! I was just one security camera away from keying the passenger side door of your PoSmobile. Please, for the sake of the people who must share the road and parking spaces with you, get a real license to replace the one you have courtesy of Cracker Jack and Learn To DRIVE and PARK, you miserable dollop of dog crap.

Hillary Clinton: You just lost my support. PERIOD.

I simply cannot believe what HRC said the other day with respect to her candidacy and that of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

This is mind-boggling that HRC would rather praise her all-but-certain opponent while the primary process is still underway than remeber who'se fscking side she is on!

With "friends" like her, who needs enemies?

I'm also incensed that Ms. Clinton has been playing the "fear card" -- "Vote for me or the terrorists will garotte us all in our beds!" How sick and tired am I of the politics of fear? The last seven years have been a living experiment in the Tarkin Doctrine; every time I hear a politician laboring to scare me with some news that Those Dark People Are Gonna Kills Us All!!! I just set that voice to my ever-growing "/ignore list."

The President's job is not to protect me from every and all peril in the world. The job is to "Support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United Stares against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to same." I do not expect the President to ensure my personal safety or that of the "nation," if it means giving up the essence of Americanism to obtain that safety. I expect the President and Congress to see to it that the US Armed Forces are as ready as they can be for credible threats to the national security.

I am FAR more afraid of what a McBush follow-on to Shrub will do to the tattered remnants of the Constitution and Bill o' Rights than I am of screaming hordes of jihadi conjured on demand by the scaremongers to frighten me into surrendering even more of my freedom!

Gary Hart, onetime Senator and Presidential candidate, has a few words for Hillary (via Huffpo). Is her lust for power so great that she'll cripple her own party? What use is getting the nomination if she gets creamed by John W. McBush in the fall?

Going for the NASCAR Dad vote, it's . . .

Ron Paul Racing!

And I don't have Van Halen's I Can't Drive 55 in iTunes.

More This 'n' That

1. American racial bigots adopt the term "Canadian" to refer to African-Americans. People from Canada not amused.

2. Speaking of race, sanity prevails in Florida Republican primary: Rudy "9/11" Ghouliani drops out, throws support to Florida primary victor Sen. McCain.

3. Sad day: my Dem candidate, John Edwards, also drops out.