In Case You Were Wondering

(This is for those readers with whom I've developed a friendship. If you hate me or are just visiting, go ahead and ignore)

Job Interview Update -- Timeline:
3:30 PM PDT -- nerves begin to set in, constriction in throat.
4:00 -- Left work early to prepare for interview.
4:10 -- Arrived home, began began cleaning & changing for interview.
4:30 -- Combination of nerves and gag reflex conspire against me while brushing teeth -- toss cookies.
4:45 Manage to finish readying myself and head out for interview.
4:59 -- Arrive at interview location.
5:03 -- Begin pre-interview test.
5:15 -- Complete interview test. All the answers but one were easy, it I did not know.
5:16 -- Sit in waiting room, surrounded by people I recognize from work as better techs than I.
5:20 -- begin series of 3 short interviews with 2 supervisors each interview.
6:00 -- last interview ends. Am finall able to stop "holding it." Noone points to a door and says, "Go now and never darken our doors again!" This is on the surface a good sign, but I'm still not very confident in my odds. We'll see.

Because, Y'Know, We're Nazis....

Thanks for the Memory to Blogs For Bush.

Yup, more of the same. Right after I blog about intolerance in New Jersey, and then point out that it's at least not institutionalized, I am alerted to more evidence that it's increasingly rampant. In Madison, Wisconsin, a Bush supporter had his lawn vandalized -- and not just by having a sign stolen. This time, they used grass killer to burn a swastika into the yard.

But we're the Brownshirts. Riiiiiight....

Something Rotten In...

Well, in Sweden, actually, not in Denmark. but the Scandinavian connection still exists.

Thanks for the Memory to Beautiful Atrocities via Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0.

You all know how fond I am of documenting leftists oppressing conservatives in the name of Free Speech. Well, at least it's not as legislatively institutionalized here as it is in Sweden.

Yet.

Thar She Blows II

Thanks for the Memory to Rusty at MyPetJawa.

This is an update to my previous Mt. St. Helens post.

She blew again today, but so far it looks like just another steam & gas venting -- not the big one they're expecting. Rusty is covering this well, and has the live video feed on his blog.

Cascade Range volcanoes vary in type. St. Helens is a stratovolcano, and has a tendency towards pyroclastic events.

Rusty and his Washingtonian blogger pal Duane the Forester have better ongoing coverage of this, but if she really goes on us, I'll post the local reaction as best I can. I'm about 150 miles south of St. Helens, so unless there's a lot of ash, I probably won't be affected.

Can You Picture That?

Thanks for the Memory to Drudge via Vices and Virtues.

My friend Ricky V has clued me in to the most idiotic case yet of leftist persecution of a conservative. It may not be the most violent, or illegal, or mean-spirited, but it is without a doubt the stupidest.

A school teacher in New Jersey has taken flak for displaying a picture of President Bush. You may ask why this is persecution, since a teacher should not be using her classroom as a bully pulpit (no left-leaning teacher would ever do that, right?). Well the catch is, she posted pictures of ALL the US Presidents as part of a civics display in her classroom.

No matter what you think of Bush, he *IS* the President, and including him in such a display is appropriate. I would expect to find a picture of Clinton in the same display. and lo and behold, there was, if the article is accurate.

But that wasn't good enough for the parents. Three of them confronted her, demanding that she display a picture of Kerry as well. That's a bit premature, and not necessarily a given, wouldn't you say? According to the article, when she refused, she got in trouble with her vice principle.

This is getting old. I'm glad for once that, according to the article, some of the parents are standing up for her. I'll try to keep up on this article, and if anyone else learns anything new, please pass it on to me.

Touching a Soft Spot

The latest Strengthen the Good microcharity has been posted, and for obvious reeasons, I'm all for it. The charity is called Garden of Angels. It is run by a woman named Debi Faris, and it provides names and proper burials for the bodies of abandoned infants. She also actively lobbies for laws to help prevent such deaths from occurring.

Given my wife's pregnancy, I am more acutely sensitive to the welfare of the unborn and infants than I ever was before. I really cannot say anything more in praise of this charity, I think it speaks for itself. Please check out their website, or read more about them at Strengthen the Good, and if you can, please give.

Thanks for listening.

Confessions of a Sap

For all my political conservatism, for all my distrust of big government's ability to provide for us, for all my disdain for the welfare state and my belief that entitlement is actually disablement, I am in the end very softhearted. I'm willing to spend my OWN money to help those who are in need, and I'm easily moved by genuine displays of generosity and mercy.

Which is why I love my new favorite TV show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I haven't made it dry-eyed through a single episode yet. Last night's was no exception -- I was "complaining about the air quality" by the first commercial break. The family who received the new home was a shining example of the kind of people they choose -- people who are doing their best to pull their own weight, and even help others, but against whom circumstances have conspired. They were parents of four, and when his mother was killed by a stray bullet in a gang shootout in east LA, he took in his five minor siblings.

There are a couple of things about the show that really warm my heart. First of all, the families almost uniformly come across with the right attitude -- they ask very nicely in their videos, and they are grateful to those who help them in the end. This is at the heart of true compassion -- helping people because they need and ask, not because they feel entitled and demand. Furthermore, I appreciate deeply the amount of volunteer work they use in the construction crews, and the fact that big businesses like Sears and Shea Homes pitch in to help, and the fact that ABC and their sponsors do it on their own dime. Sure, they get tons of really good publicity for it, but considering the good they accomplish, more power to them. I know I for one plan to do business at Sears as much as possible (and for one more reason to do so, see my post on how well they treat their employees in the Guard and Reserve.

Finally, as I've already stated, I love the fact that almost all of the people they help are people who are doing their best to make it and to help others. When you see how hard they work to keep the dumps their homes are before the makeover, you get the feeling that these are people who won't squander this wonderful gift.

So, yeah, I'm a pushover and a sap and a wimp, but I don't care. Ty and his crew are my heroes.