Opining Online

At least some of us get it. No, wait. I think the majority of us get it. Follodor points out why gun buybacks don’t work - people are not as stupid as the government hopes they are.  I think I might substitute “most politicians” for “government” in that statement, but meaning is near the same.

Then again, why do we not-so-stupid people keep electing stupider-than-us politicians?

It’s noisy. I hate it. All of it. Well, not old movies. Maybe not Emeril. But pretty much everything else, I hate.

I hate commercials. When did advertisers decide that Loud, Annoying, Obnoxious brain-cell-penetrating music was a good sales tool?

Even the music isn’t as annoying as continuous talk, which is why I equally hate the droning of C-Span.

What I really hate is that I’m not watching TV, I’m not even in the same room with it, yet it permeates the entire house, it’s always on… even if my DH has gone outside to play.

If I could only get him interested in Jericho or Trading Spaces… but no, it’s cable news and C-Span he likes. Oh, and shows that feature snakes.

Otherwise, I love him dearly.

If there’s one thing I’ve got, it’s an opinion about nearly everything. I’ve decided to take advantage of this trait and try to earn a little money by signing up to write paid blog reviews.

This does not mean that there will be less original, unpaid content here. It doesn’t mean you won’t be subjected to more photos of my darling grandchildren and cute little puppy. I will still write about whatever catches my eye.

In fact, writing paid reviews requires original, unpaid content; lots of it. Perhaps more than I’ve been doing lately. Keeping my blog interesting in order to get paid will likely make it better.

One thing I learned about myself years ago is that I’m not a good salesperson unless I truly believe something is worthwhile, worth the money, and a good deal overall. This attitude will limit my reviewing opportunities. For example, you probably won’t find any reviews of internet dating services here. I am simply not interested in them and not a good enough writer to fake it.

On the other hand, if I find the opportunity to write about a product I’ve already used and like, or one that I’m considering using and know something about, I’ll jump on it.

I suspect I will also find out about products and services that intrigue me enough to further investigate them. I may actually learn something and if I do, I’ll try to pass that knowledge along to my readers. That would be a win, win, win situation.

Hope dims that Earth will survive Sun’s death.

I believe in being prepared, so I think we’d best start working on how we’re going to arrange that “fly-by of a nearby asteroid.” If I remember correctly (school was a long time ago), the earth is about 5 billion years old now.

Will there even be life on earth 7 billion years from now? Will it be human? Will those humans be something we might recognize? There may be life, Jim, but not as we know it.

I think I’ll find something more immediate to worry about.

What I didn’t expect from my trip to Arizona was Green. Compared to Louisiana, Phoenix is green this time of year. Green grass (if it’s watered) and, of course, all colors of green cactus (including blue-green). And sun…

The day I got back to Louisiana was overcast, all the deciduous trees were nothing but grey limbs… it was dreary.

But… the brightest thing about Arizona was my granddaughter. Here she is finishing off her first birthday cake. Ain’t she cute?

No, her Nonna is not biased at all. I’m not sure she actually ate any of the cake, but she had a grand time squishing it and rubbing it into her hair. It was a lot of fun seeing her play will all her pals from Gymboree and the local Mom’s group.

Other highlights of the trip were The Temper Tantrum - Nonna spent almost an hour laughing at the sweet angel as she threw a big one, then finally sighed loudly and decided to play with her toys and books. She has earned her nickname “Stinkerbelle” honestly.

Then there was the raw tuna. My favorite son-in-law (don’t confuse him with my other favorite sons-in-law) will eat almost anything. I got him a sushi kit for Christmas, but this was a sort of raw tuna salad. His mom and dad loved it. I tried it. I didn’t love it. It didn’t really taste bad, but raw tuna is very, very chewy. Very.

At the last minute, I decided to fly rather than drive. I had a nightmare about my car (10 years old, 150,000+ miles) breaking down between Pecos and Van Horn, where I know my cell phone does not work… and then there’s that long stretch between Van Horn and El Paso, where I can’t remember if my cell phone works, or not.

The bad part about that is that I did not get to try the traditional Chile Relleno at Dos Compadres in Midland, or Odessa. That means that, so far, the best Chile Relleno I’ve ever eaten is at Papa Poblanos in DeQueen AR. That’s right… Arkansas. I was born and raised in SW Colorado and NW New Mexico, but Papa Poblanos, well… it’s one hell of a Chile Relleno.

via Volokh, PreCYdent is up and running in an ”alpha” version. This should interest 2 or 3 of my readers. (ed. - you have readers?)

For myself, it’s absolutely wonderful. I like being able to go to the source of something and reading it in context rather than having to rely on someone else’s choice of excerpts and their interpretation.

I’m even dorky enough to have read law review journals other than the one my daughter edited a while back. (Note to new editors - time to update the site!!)

Now, maybe someone will work on getting medical research freely available and easily searchable.

Then, I’ll never leave the computer!

Sadly, Jill died the day after I flew to Arizona. Jack, however, is doing fine. He only stayed at the vet’s for one day. I took him to a new vet yesterday for more puppy shots and they say he’s doing fine. He’s gained 2 1/2 lbs in a little over 2 weeks and is much more coordinated.

My darling husband and sweet son spent the week I was in Arizona sanitizing the doghouse and pens. The vet had told us not to allow Jack to be on the grass for seven days, and after that not to allow him anywhere Jill might possibly have pooped or vomited until it was sanitized.

After reading about the hardiness of the Parvo virus, the only way to sanitize the outside dog areas we could come up with was fire. All the bedding, the insulating hay, etc., was raked out of the house (it’s huge - it used to be a storage building) and burned in the two smaller dog pens. There’s a huge pen (hubby built it for goats, but we never got any) that Jill had never been in, so at least Jack had a place to do his number. 

The front yard is the problem. Some of the leaves they both played in on the side of the house got burned, but we really didn’t want to burn the St. Augustine we’d recently spent so much money on getting thick and healthy again. So, our front yard is off-limits to puppies for a year. The vet said Jack could go there after he’s had all his puppy shots - in about 3 months.

In case you’re wondering why we went to a new vet after Jill died, it was not because she died, but because of the way the staff treated us. We’re quite sure they treated the dogs better, as this is the vet we’ve used for years. A message to all vets - and docs for humans too - surly staff drives people away.

I’ve been visiting my granddaughter and thought I would post some while there… but I forgot my login and password. oops.

More tomorrow. I’m exhausted now.

From a forwarded email, some of my favorite insults with a note about today’s language:

These glorious insults are from an era when cleverness with words was still valued, before a great portion of the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words, not to mention waving middle fingers.
 

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, “If you were my husband I’d give you poison,” and he said, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”  

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: “Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.” “That depends, Sir,” said Disraeli, “on whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”  

“He had delusions of adequacy.” - Walter Kerr

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” - Winston Churchill

“A modest little person, with much to be modest about.” - Winston Churchill  

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.” - Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”  - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)  

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” - Moses Hadas

“He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.”  -  Abraham Lincoln

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” - Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” - Oscar Wilde

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend…. if you have one.” - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.” - Winston Churchill, in response.

“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” -  Stephen Bishop

“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” - John Bright

“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” - Irvin S. Cobb  

“He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others.” - Samuel Johnson

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” - Paul Keating

“There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.” Jack E. Leonard

“He has the attention span of a lightning bolt.” - Robert Redford

“They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.” - Thomas Brackett Reed

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.” -  Charles, Count Talleyrand  

“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” - Forrest Tucker

“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?” - Mark Twain

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” - Mae West  

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” - Oscar Wilde

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination.” - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)  

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” - Billy Wilder

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening But this wasn’t it.” - Groucho Marx

I could vote for a McCain/Romney ticket - put Huckabee on it anywhere and I am OFF. I could vote for an Obama ticket, but put a Clinton on it and I am OFF.

Where do I stand? Does that make me a moderate, undecided, ignorant (don’t answer that…)

What’s up?

My strong point issues are the war  - I’m a hawk and ever so in favor for it and when are we going to do a surge in Afghanistan and… code pink can go to hell.

Then immigration - why do we want to punish 12 million (or however many) people because of where they were born? Amnesty is the only feasible answer. Close the border also, if you must, but give amnesty.

Healthcare? Hell, the high cost of health care is because we, the spoiled, demand so much of it. Regardless what medical scientists want us to believe, they cannot cure everything or always diagnose it in time. Too bad… but true.

So… again - the open-ended question that my attorney has advised me is not wise - Where do I stand when compared with the rest of America? Am I that different?

One of our little puppies, the female, Jill may have Parvo. We’ve talked to the emergency vet twice tonight and will have her at our regular vet by 8am tomorrow, but it’s so sad to see a sweet playful little puppy so lethargic, so still that you have to check if she is still breathing.

I haven’t posted yet that we decided to name them Jack and Jill, have I? Bonnie & Clyde got vetoed by the hubby and Robin Hood and Maid Marian vetoed by my youngest daughter.

Hopefully Jill will be fine. We’ve been feeding her Pedialyte and watching very closely for other signs of Parvo beside vomiting and lethargy. Poor thing…

UPDATE: Jill definitely has Parvo and the vet kept Jack too because he’s likely got it, just a few days behind in incubation period. He really didn’t give us a lot of hope, though I just read that with treatment 80% of puppies survive Parvo, without 80% die.

I have to say the vet wasn’t quite that positive. It’s $150/day to treat the dogs and he said he wanted us to know up front that they may die anyway. I think he was especially worried about Jill, although she did not seem quite as lethargic this morning. That could be my wishful thinking, too.

This is where we do not want to go. 

Bill Jempty of Wizbang has chosen Mississippi State Representatives W. T. Mayhall Jr, Bobby Show, and John Read to receive his Knucklehead of the Day award.

These three morons have sponsoring the following legislation:

An act to prohibit certain food establishments from serving food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the state department of health; to direct the department to prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese and to provide those materials to the food establishments; to direct the department to monitor the food establishments for compliance with the provisions of this act; and for related purposes.*****

(2) Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be allowed to serve food to any person who is obese, based on criteria prescribed by the State Department of Health after consultation with the Mississippi Council on Obesity Prevention and Management established under Section 41-101-1 or its successor. The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese, and shall provide those materials to all food establishments to which this section applies. A food establishment shall be entitled to rely on the criteria for obesity in those written materials when determining whether or not it is allowed to serve food to any person.

House Bill 282 was introduced Friday, Feb. 1.

Sandy Szwarc, of Junkfood Science fame asks:

Is this a tongue-in-cheek bill, meant to point out how absurd the war on obesity has become? Or do lawmakers actually believe the myths that gluttony is the cause for obesity and that it is the government’s role to force people to eat and live how it deems best?

Rep. Mayhall answered her question that the bill was serious, though regrettably (hallalujah!) he doesn’t believe it will pass. He hopes it will call attention to the problem and what obesity is costing the Medicare system.

What is obesity causing the Medicare system? Someone want to give me some hard figures on that? I don’t want “but it must be costing because fat people are unhealthy!”

This is what happens when a lawmaking body has too much time on its hands:

Berkeley Finds a New Way to Make War Politics Local

BERKELEY, Calif. — While the City Council here has little — read, no — sway over foreign policy and distant wars, local parking is a different matter. And so it was that a parking space directly in front of the recruiting station here for the Marine Corps was awarded on Tuesday night to an antiwar group in the hope of running the Marines out of town.

A city council that has nothing better to do has given a parking spot to a bunch of old ladies with nothing better to do. I have some sidewalk chalk, and I’m thinking of burning it in effigy. It would be so appropriate to do something extremely silly that won’t work to protest this Berkeley silliness, wouldn’t it?