Top This for Weirdness

My whole life I've had a birthmark on my left chest, just below the nipple. The other day, something about it dawned on me:

It's shaped exactly like Puerto Rico.

Musical Geography Question of the Day

A question for everyone EXCEPT VIC:

Where can you talk to God and listen to his casual reply?

Quote of the Day

"America-bashing is in fashion as it has not been since Ronald Reagan accurately described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire". Anti-Americanism is not confined to the usual radical chic suspects of the Left; here in Britain, it infects the High Tory Establishment, "good Europeans" and little Englanders alike. So why are we all anti-Americans now?

American stumbling on the rough road since 2001 has played some part. Yet had there, inconceivably, been no wrong steps, had America been positively obsequious in courting international support (and it has done more on that score than it critics admit), anti-Americanism would still be on the rise. The US is never less popular than when it is aroused and determined in defence of democratic freedoms, never less trusted than when the world is most reliant on its unmatched ability to project power.

Democracies are psychologically ill-adapted to open-ended confrontations where there can be no decisive victory, the essence of the effort to subdue global terrorism. Eternal vigilance is a wearisome business. The more vulnerable that Europeans feel, the more liable they are to shift blame across the Atlantic.

The strength of disdain is a measure of Europe's weakness. Smugness is one of Europe's great contemporary exports. We may all think that we know America, its music, its culture, its self-confident exceptionalism. We tend to forget that Americans fight only with extreme reluctance. We overlook their penchant for agonised self-criticism; everything bad we know about the US, we know because Americans inexhaustibly rehearse their society's shortcomings. There has never been greater transparency, whether than on the battlefield or the boondocks, and there has never been more open debate about the country's virtues and vices - the internet has transformed the quantity and, at times, the quality of the conversation.

Better than most, Muslims understand why Islamist terrorism is war at its unholiest, an existential threat to societies. Iraqis may resent occupation, but they fear a weakening of US resolve. Their fears should be ours. Were it to become politically impossible for a president to keep America's forces engaged from its shores, then the backbone of international security would be broken. America-bashing may be a popular sport, but its adherents prefer not to contemplate its consequences."

- Adam, a commenter at The Jawa Report

Musical Geography Question of the Day

If one hundred ten miles sure do make a difference, where did she get on?

As I mentioned earlier, The Mom is in town visiting. She's just finished settling my grandparents' estate, and is moving back to Michigan to be with my sister and her family. She brought with her quite a bit of memorabilia and heirloom items that belonged to my grandparents, and to my Grandfather's brother, Red. Among the things I've inherited are quite a few with far more sentimental than material value, but some of the things are collector's items, including a good deal of Reagan and Nixon gubernatorial and Goldwater presidential campaign paraphernalia. I also inherited some of my great uncle's service ribbons and medals, including his National Defense, Army of Occupation (Japan), and Korea service medals, as well as some unofficial lapel pins of the shields of the two units with whom he served:


The 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment

and


The 701st Ornance Battalion

Major Terrorism Plot Thwarted

I saw the breaking news on TV (of all places):

British police thwart major terror plot

LONDON - Authorities in London thwarted a terrorist plot to blow up an aircraft in mid-flight between Britain and the U.S. using explosives smuggled in hand luggage, police said Thursday.

But rememember, the GWOT is a fear-mongering construct of the evil neocons.

Musical Geography Question(s) of the Day

If a fair maid you did meet, and she asked you to see her home, four questions:

1. What city are you in?
2. On what street did you walk out?
3. On what street did she live?
4. When Martin Churchill took you in, where did he send you?

Lull

Sorry for the light blogging lately, TFR's parents were in town all last week, and this week I'm preparing for a visit by MY mom this coming weekend.

Quote of the Day

Thanks for the Memory to The Huffington Post via Right Wing Nation via It Comes in Pints?

"THE HUFFPO LIST OF THINGS TO BE FEARFUL OF!

Fear of a loss of individual liberty in response to the war on terror.
Fear that the paranoia over terrorism will erode everything this country was founded on.
Fear that liberals haven't degraded the education system enough so most people still know that Abraham Lincoln and FDR suspended many liberties to deal with similar crises

Fear of Mel Gibson
Fear that your angry denunciations of Mel Gibson will not detract attention from the rampant anti-semitism found at the Huffington Post.
Fear that Ari Emmanuel's "brave" attack on Mel Gibson said more about Emmanuel's opportunism than any sincere belief.
Fear that Emmanuel's client Michael Moore might be a bigger anti-Semite than Gibson.

Fear of George Bu$H
Fear that Bu$h is to blame for everything
Fear that Bu$h isn't to blame for everything
Fear that if you continue to blame everything on Bu$h, you won't actually figure out who really is to blame for your problems
Fear that your spelling of Bu$h reflects your intellectual prowess, in a nutshell.
And for that, you still blame Bu$h
And your parent$

Fear of Walmart
Fear of people who shop at Walmart
Fear that you might actually save money if you shopped at Walmart
Fear that Walmart has done more to help the poor than any social program ever created by our government.

Fear of all forms of energy except for the ones that don't work
Fear that people will realize the easiest way to cut back on greenhouse gases is to convert to nuclear energy
Fear that your activism will be exposed as a front for your narcissism
Fear that low taxes actually do create prosperous societies
Fear that people will find out what a hypocrite you are because you call for higher taxes while using tax shelters

Fear of mean people
Fear of judgmental people
Fear of appearing narrow-minded
Fear of intolerance
Fear that with your tirades against SUVs, Wal-Mart, meat, cigarettes, guns, whisky, and organized religion, you are the judgmental, intolerant one.

Fear of 3d ultrasounds that show fetal development
Fear that your children won't carry on your failed politics as religion/lifestyle

fear of being judged in the afterlife
fear of being judged in this life
fear of that dark facial freckle
Fear that your new age health practices won't be able to save you from that dark facial freckle

Fear of writers asking for fair compensation given there are ads sold by barry diller on the pages.
Fear that people will notice the contradiction between pushing for higher minimum wages and not paying the writers on your website.
Fear of not being invited to arianna/denton blog loft parties.

Fear of all country singers except for the ones that hate Bush

Fear that Deepak is laughing all the way to the bank

Fear that the exposure that you're being for the 'common man' is a joke considering you go to the only clubs and bars roped off to keep those people out.

Fear that when they take away your anger there will be nothing left.

Fear of free speech when it mocks your beliefs.
Fear of free speech when it speaks back to you.
Fear of free speech when it comes from Christians.
Fear of free speech when it comes from me.
Fear that your definition of free speech - that only you get to be heard-- won't fly with us Wal-mart shoppers.

fear of a police state unless of course it actually is a police state, like, Venezuela

Fear of Hugo Chavez dying
Fear of Castro Dying
Fear of Communism dying

Fear of Israel and their determined desire to blow up terrorists
No fear of Hezbollah and their pleasure in blowing up citizens

Fear of black Republicans
Fear that one day blacks will figure out you're the racist for always treating them like helpless victims instead of responsible individuals.

Fear that your comments are default responses to people who already agree with you

Fear that maybe shame is a good thing

Fear of rightwing "Repuglicans"
Fear of "crackpot Christians"
Fear that these fears do not measure up to the more legitimate fear of crackpot Islamists who blow you up in order to sleep with 72 virgins who are most likely lousy in bed anyway.

Fear of losing the next election
Fear that you'll have to put your support behind a candidate who was already exposed and rejected by the American public.
Fear that it might be Gary Hart.
And he still won't trim his eyebrows

Fear of Big Brother
Fear of group think
Fear that your lockstep obedience to progressive boilerplate is a purer example of subservience than anything you'd ever find in "Repuglican" circles

Fear that people will realize that a record of no terror attacks on the U.S. in five years, and liberating 55 million people in two Muslim nations, is not so bad.

Fear of having to come up with a new dehumanization campaign for the next Republican president.
Fear of not having to come up with dehumanization campaigns for radical islamists, kim jong II, the iranian mullahs and the EU and Russian oligarchs who took oil bribes from Saddam to keep him in power.

Fear that Foucault is not holding up to scrutiny.
Fear that common sense is making a comeback.
Fear that all those colonics did absolutely nothing for you.
Fear that grad school did even less.

Fear of the death penalty actually being a deterrent.

Fear that you'd experience more happiness from a Big Mac than from that bag of overpriced organic produce you bought at Knoll Organic Farms in Brentwood.

Fear of school vouchers
Fear that school vouchers will enable poor minority children to attend your children's private schools

Fear of a Marine knocking on your Prius's window to discuss your bumperstickers.

Fear that your own sense of rebellion is a farce and every opinion you have is safe and only voiced among those who agree with you

Fear of your conscience telling you even though you are supposed to like it, you really think NPR - especially its self serious whispering, wimpy bumper music and simpering anchors -- sucks.

Fear that the right to free speech is being curtailed.
Fear that when you bravely proclaim you're speaking "Truth to power," those who live in countries where the right to speak is truly curtailed are laughing bitterly at you.

Fear that your anti-Americanism is becoming even boring to you.

Fear that you hate the right for the same reason you hate your dad because you know that he is right and that you are a loser and you will always be a loser and that you are sabotaging your life and those of everyone around you because that makes you that angry.

Fear that everyone will notice that other than incessant complaining you haven't come up with a single solution.

Fear of never having a bad thing to say against the real tyrants of the world while having a rich vocabulary against a milquetoast GOP congressman from Georgia.

Fear of someone sitting you down and forcing you to deal with the fact that even if global warming was absolutely manmade and as bad as Gore says it is, that the threat of islamic terrorists getting WMDs and using them is far greater and imminent and requires offering at least moderate allegiance to the current president of the United States and to Tony Blair and Sen. Lieberman.

Fear of people snickering at you when you use the terms 'sustainable' and 'indigenous peoples'.

Fear of Nascar
Fear of Nasa
Fear of Nas (rapper)
Fear of NA (narcotics anonymous)
Fear of N (nitrogen)
Fear of nothingness

Fear that even if the democrats win the 08 election, Europeans will still look down on us and Muslims will still want to kill us.
Fear that capitalism actually works better than any other economic system
Fear that America really is the freest country in the world
Fear that going it alone when you think you're right is more moral than trying to build a coalition with dictators, thieves and cowards."

Bourbon Blegging

This is a request for input from any and all readers who are also Bourbon drinkers: I've recently developed a taste for the stuff, and I'm still defining said taste. While I know exactly what I like in Scotch, and which malts deliver it (Ardbeg and Laphroaig), what I like in the Bourbons I've tasted so far is completely different. So far I've tried Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, and Bulleit, and have to say that it's a photo finish between MM and Bulleit. Unlike Scotch, where I prefer smoky, peaty, really boggy flavors, I like the delicate, sweet, almost floral qualities of the two Bourbons I mentioned above. Beam was ok, and better than no whisky at all, but it seemed to lack the depth and sweetness of the other two.

So what other Bourbons would you suggest? Woodford Reserve has also been recommended to me by a liquor store manager in Portland, in the same breath as he mentioned Bulleit, and the local store manager concurred, so I plan to try it, but any other suggestions would be just as welcome.

Gentlemen (or ladies, as the case may be)?

Seeing Red

Few things suck worse than going back to a restaurant you once adored, and being not only disappointed, but thoroughly pissed off by the experience. Such was our fate tonight.

As I mentioned before, The In-Laws are in town, and offered to take care fo The Lad for the evening whilst we got away. This is not something we get to do often, so we jumped at the chance. None of the movies listed at the local theatre sounded good, so we decided to just go out for dinner and drinks. After tossing out a couple of names, we settled on Red Agave, a local Southwest/Latin bistro that is considered one of the best restaurants in Eugene. We've eaten there before, as well as at another restauraunt owned by the same people, El Vaquero, and had been blown away by the food, the drinks (including a Caipirinha that will kick your hiney and leave you coming back for more), the atmosphere, the entire experience. Besides, the owner is friends with TFR's boss, so we got a 20% discount. We were looking forward to a wonderful evening.

We got there at around 8:15, well after the after-work crowd, and since it was a Thursday, we got a table right away, asking to be seated at a sidewalk table. About twenty minutes later, the waiter got around to taking our drink orders -- Bourbon and Coke for me, a mojito for TFR. Another 15-20 minutes later, our food order was taken. We decided to be frugal and just order appetizers -- I had the flank steak skewers with a jicama and orange salad, TFR had the crab and spinach stuffed Anaheim pepper.

HALF AN HOUR LATER IT ARRIVED!

In the meantime, we saw neither hide nor hair of our waiter (exctept for the one time he asked TFR if she wanted another Mojito) -- the bus staff took better care of us during that time. We WERE, however, treated to the entertaining antics of the hostedd who kept wandering down the sidewalk to smoke with a friend from the business next door. Later, when we mentioned to her how long our food take, she explained that the stuffed Anaheim pepper takes a long time to prepare.

THEN WHY THE HELL IS IT SOLD AS AN APPETIZER AND NOT AN ENTREE?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the point of an appetizer to be somehting light and quick to prepare to tide the diner over until their meal is ready? So why whould you present as an appetizer an item that is filling and time-consuming to prepare? Sorry, I just don't get that.

And there was more to the poor service than the time required to bring us our order. What really bothered us was the lack of service from our waiter, who came across as a superficial and inattentive. He had the conversational style of a used car salesman, and you got the impression that except for getting our order right, he really wasn't concerned with paying attention to a word we were saying.

Here's the real tragedy: The food was freaking delicious. The flavors were complex but not confusing, the flank steak was cooked to perfection, the textures and aromas were wonderful. But I don't go to a restauraunt that expensive just for the food. Hell, I know half a dozen cheaper restaurants that will serve you food that will blow your MIND when it comes to flavor. When you pay that much for food, you're also paying for service, ambiance, and presentation. The service was atrocious. The evening was delighfully cool, but we rapidly became too frustrated to enjoy the ambience. And by the time the food arrived, it was so dark that the only lighting provided, a single tealight candle, failed to provide the illumination needed to appreciate the presentation. I could have paid the same amount of money for more food, just as tasty, with the same presentation at Sizzler.

And the service would have been faster.

Awwww.....

TFR's parents, who are in town visiting, are known to all their grandchildren as Nana and Papa. But the Lad can't quite pronounce that yet, so he refers to his grandfather as "Ba-pa".

Help Those Who Help Us

A local TV station, KMTR, ran a story that broke my heart as soon as I saw it. Go to their website. Once there, under Top Local Stories, click on the story entitled "FAR FROM HOME: Soldier unable to see newborn child" and watch the video. I'm sorry I can't find a transcript, as soon as I can find more. The gist of the story is this: A young Oregon soldier is being deployed to Iraq in less than a month, and planned to spend his last leave visiting his young wife and newborn baby daughter. But because the Army holds him financially responsible for Army-owned gear that was stolen from him, he cannot afford to travel to see her.

I understand the need to be responsible for the gear issued to him, and do not blame the Army for maintaining discipline, but I can't help but hurt for a fellow father. I am asking mt readers to keep this young soldier in their thoughts and prayers, and to keep their eye on this blog. I will post more information, and if anything can be done to help him, please get involved. This young man took an oath to defend us, and many of us sport magnets and such that say "Support the Troops". Let's do as we say.

UPDATE:
My faith in my fellow Americans has been confirmed, and my pride in my home state grown. Go back to the KMTR site and check the top local story, " Anonymous Donation".

Join Us

Thanks for the Memory to Ken S of It Comes in Pints?

Really, Ken, thank you. I'm glad you made me aware of this wonderful project. The goal is to find 2,996 bloggers to each pay tribute to one of the victims of 9/11. If you have a blog, I encourage you to sign up. You will be randomly assigned one of the remaining unassigned victims. It is then up to you to pay tribute to them in an appropriate manner.

If you read me, and you have a blog, I implore you to get on board -- even if you hate 99% of what I have to say. This isn't about politics, it isn't about making a statement one way or another about what has happened since that terrible day, it's about remembering wht happened ON September 11, 2001, and it's about remembering those who are no longer here because of it.

My tribute will be a post, the next one I post, which will be post-dated to 9/11/2006, so that it remains atop my blog until the fifth anniversary of the attack.

Please, bloggers, sign up, make this wonderful tribute a success.

Yeah!

What he said....

Musical Geography Question for the Day

Where were you going when you met with Captain Farrell?

Al-Robin, Brave Sir Al-Robin

Thanks for the Memory to Ken at It Comes in Pints?

Another valiant blow was struck against the Zionist occupation of Cascadia:

Authorities said a man walked into the Jewish agency on Friday and opened fire, killing one woman and injuring at least five others in what they call a hate crime. Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, was booked into the King County Jail for investigation of homicide and attempted homicide, police said.
The gunman, who employees said claimed to be a Muslim angry at Israel, forced his way through the center's security door after an employee had punched in her security code, said Marla Meislin-Dietrich, a co-worker who was not at the building at the time.

Staff members said they overheard him saying "'I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel,' before opening fire on everyone," Meislin-Dietrich said. "He was randomly shooting at everyone."

Hog on Ice and Andrea at A Crafty Madness both make a point with which I agree -- this is just one more example of the cowardice inherent and explicit in Islamic terrorism (and all true terrorism, for that matter) -- This pile of pig dung was "Angry at Israel", so what does he do? Does he move to the Middle East, take up arms, and face the Israeli Army in combat? No -- he storms into a Jewish center in Freaking SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA, about as geographically AND climatically distant from Israel as possible, and bravely SHOOTS A BUNCH OF UNARMED WOMEN, including one EXPECTANT MOTHER. Wow, he's a regular Saladin, that one.

But I also feel that the Western Left deserves a rebuke for this incident. A lot is being said about the civilian deaths caused by the Israeli attacks in Lebanon, but the people who are most harshly critical of Israel about this seem unwilling to address the fact that Hezbollah intentionally places their military assets dead smack in the middle of civilian locations, specifically so that it is impossible to attack them without putting civilians at risk. This is in direct contrast to most Western countries, who try to keep their military facilities as remote as possible, or at least establish buffers around them, to reduce the risk of civilian deaths.

So we have one side that tries to protect its own civilians, and takes great pains to avoid causing civilian casualties on the other side, even to the point (in the case of the US especially, but most western powers) of developing smart munitions, and engaging in self-flagellation when the inevitable happens, and we have another side that hides behind women and children, exploits their suffering for its own ends, and routinely -- no, not just routinely, but as a matter of practice -- targets its enemy's civilian population. And guess which side the left vociferously excoriates, and guess which side the left routinely marches in support of?

The Jewish Federation shooting should be hung like an albatross around the necks of all those Nuts who march in suppport of Hamas and Hezbollah. Your vocal support of extremist muslim groups, and the incipient antisemitism that is part of that support (whether as a result or a cause of that support is irrelevant) serves to rncourage this kind of violent behavior.

Can I Get a "Hell Yeah!"?

I stumbled across this quiz today:

Take the quiz:
What kind of muscle car are you?

1968 Chevrolet Camaro Z28
You are a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro Z28. You love your car....your friends love your car and thats whats most important to you! Your car really hauls ass! You feel bad that they aren't making Camaros anymore....but don't worry...cuz you know they'll be back!

Quizzes by myYearbook.com -- the World's Biggest Yearbook!

Oh, yeah! As I've mentioned before (I think), my absolute FAVORITE muscle cars are the Camaros from 66 through 69. Regardless of who takes top honors with regards to speed, handling, or acceleration, the Camaros are good, all-around muscle cars, and they look SWEEEEEEET! So when I took the quiz, I was quite pleased with this outcome.

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

Round and round,
Round and round
and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round....

You Learn Something New Every Day

I was just watching a program on OPB called Oregon Field Guide, and they did a feature on a condor breeding center in Southern Oregon. I learned from it that the original range of the California condor included Oregon west of the Cascades, all the way up to the Columbia River. Very cool.