A Timely Reminder...

Climaquiddick...

I'm not going to link anything here; if you want the details, head over to Wattsupwiththat.com, or hell, just throw "CRU" "Jones" and "Mann" into a search engine. Even google can't suppress this story; throw Climategate in and you'll hit paydirt. (Of course, you won't get autosuggested.)

If you haven't read the emails, you should. They're yummy; salacious and gossipy. No, if you've any familiarity with the sort of cliquishness that goes on in academia, they won't really shock you. We've all seen stubborn bullheaded people blinded by their beliefs before, nothing new there.

But what you really need to read are the code files.

It's all a scam, anthropogenic "climate change" is bunk. We've all been had, to the tune of millions of dollars in grant money.

I started reading this crap a week ago and it's still fascinating. This is Piltdown and Lysenko all rolled into one.

If only the journalists would, you know... do a little journalism. They can spare a dozen fact checkers for Sarah Palin's book, but they can't find a few folks who know Fortran to do a little investigating?

More fun with the farm bill

You know, the more I learn about how our congress operates, the more concerned I become. Frankly? I'm starting to think amendments, insertions, and riders should be prohibited from bills under consideration. I'm also starting to think that no bill should be permitted that cannot be read by your average congresscritter in an hour. Furthermore, I think the buggers ought to be tested on every bill before they're allowed to vote on it; no pass, no vote, your constituents are shit out of luck and should've voted for a smarter human being. Better luck next time. Hey Barry, didn't you promise me that I could look at every bill coming up for vote before it hits the floor? How's that coming, any sort of ETA on when I can expect that "change"?

Just FYI, y'all ought to be checking your furniture for place-of-origin and tree species. Supposedly this asinine idea includes labeling for all wood products, including paper. I wonder if they'll have to tell us where our printer paper comes from. Or our paperback books- will they have to leave room on the back cover to tell us "this book printed from pulped garbage and 100% domestically grown American sprucewood"? Oooh. Wonder if they'll have to label the ginormous bills that congress votes on, too. Ooh. Rubber trees- will rubber stuff have to be labeled as well? Will those quarter bouncy- balls in the machines all have to have a sticker on them saying where their rubber comes from? THE LABELS! Will the label stickers all have to say what they're made out of, too?

It's about time...

Okay, I'm a little late to the party, I know. But I want to pontificate on Roman Polanski for a moment. Be not alarmed, gentle reader- I shall not make apologies for the man. "Brilliant director," I keep hearing. Alas, I've seen a grand total of three of his films- Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, and Tess. Mind you, I loved Tess, but then I love Hardy, so I would've seen it regardless. Anywhoo... it occurred to me today that in all three of these movies, there is a recurrent theme. Some innocent young girl is always being taken advantage of by some wicked man. So I got to wondering, just how many of this man's movies involve rape?

So Hollyweird wants his sin expiated. Or at least some of the louder and less sane parts of it do. Sorry, for that he needs apply to his priest, not fellow perv Woody Allen. Never has the divide between middle America and the entertainment elite seemed so vast. I rather want to grab some of these folks and shake them. "Have you daughters?" I wonder, "Would you trust this man with your child?" Or is there some sort of karmic sliding scale these "compassionate" people would employ? One murdered wife and child exchanges for one rape of an underage girl?

Yes, he's old, yes, she forgave him, yes, the judge was an imbecile and the case was wonky. But it was wonky from the get-go; he should've gone to trial. What sort of people craft a plea bargain for drugging and sodomizing a thirteen year old girl? And yes, Ms. Goldberg, it WAS "rape-rape." What is described in the victim's statement is not just statutory rape, it's rape by coercion and force.

I told you this was coming...

Law of unintended consequences and all that. Damn CPSIA law strikes again. They're coming for the craigslisters, and the ebayers, and the thrift-shops, and your yardsale is next, bub. Nobody sells kiddie crap without first crossing federal palm with the requisite silver. Walmart's already prepaid for the right to sell cheap shit to the public; you haven't. And you can't afford to.

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Cash for Clunkers... the ugly truth.

Let me preface this post with my own car-owning history. My mother bought a brand newDodge Omni in 1985; this is the only new car I ever remember our family owning. When I started driving in 1992, it passed to me, and was my first car. It was followed by an 87 toyota corolla (bought in 94), and a 95 corolla (bought in 97.) This year, I reluctantly parted with the 95, replacing it with a 2000 Mazda MPV (which lived less than a month) and finally, my current car... I've gone oldschool; she's a 92 Toyota Corolla, with 25000 less miles on her than my old 95. The point to this is: I buy used cars. I am the used-car market, and until this year, I bought cars that were slightly used- a couple of years old when they came to me. New enough to be reliable, and used enough to be affordable.

I'm the market that will be adversely affected by Cash for Clunkers, a program which rightly should be called Handouts for Rich People; as it helps buy cars for the wealthy, at the expense of the poor. Poor people don't buy new cars, they don't get new cars every couple of years. No, my fellow struggling students, single mamas, etc; we buy a car for cash, and we drive it until pieces start falling off in traffic. Or even after; the 95 hadn't had left windshield wiper in a year when I said my goodbyes.

So I'm more than a little put out over this. Have a look-see at what becomes of the "clunker" after Obama buys it. I must say, I was a little sick looking at such colossal waste. If he HAD to buy these things in order to prop up the new car market, why not at least make the clunker available to the used car market? or if it can't be sold as a driveable car, why not part it out to keep other cars running? Why this need to destroy perfectly good, drivable cars?

These are not "clunkers" in any sense of the traditional understanding of the word. Every one of these cars has to have had insurance on it for the previous year; clearly, that means most of them were driving until they went in to be killed. Let's make this very clear: public tax money, spent to destroy saleable merchandise, during an economic recession/depression. Who on EARTH thought this was a good idea?

The brilliant minds who thought up this swindle are right now hard at work overhauling our healthcare. Feeling under the weather yet?

Completely Non-political genealogy post

This will be a completely non-political post. I'm putting it here because Googlebots can pick this up and make it searchable, whereas they miss a good bit on the various genealogy boards. Besides, I'm not sure where I'd put a post like this on those anyway...

I have been researching the family history since 1997. Over the years, I've made contact with dozens of cousins all over the country. I've also lost contact with them the same way. People switch providers, people get divorced, people lose contact. Life happens, and we lose each other. 

My phone number has changed, but my name's the same and so's my physical address. And my nonphysical one.  I'm Nmissi at aol dot com. If you write me there, I will get it.  I've had various other addresses through the years, but that one has never gone away. I still get feedback there on really bad fanfic stories I wrote more than ten years ago; I KNOW y'all can find me! 

Here's the thing... I'd like to try to arrange a get together at some point for all the various cousins. A meet and greet, swap recipes and photographs, kind of thing. Nothing massive that needs advertising- we'd meet at my home, and by way of hospitality I might be persuaded to make lunch. I can cough up a few local relations, but for the distant cousins, I'm gonna need some help. So... I know they're out there somewhere: Leslie Shover, Karen Collier, Bobbette Givens, Ruth Prewitt... drop me an email? Let me know how to find you! 

This message has been brought to you by the DEVER/LAMBERT/HARNESS/DIAL/JONES/TINGLE/TERRELL/FORD/BRADEN

/ATHERTON/BETHUREM/HALL/WRIGHT/WARNER commission to put names on all my photographs.

Emergency post- Blood Donors Needed

If you're in Texas, and eligible to donate blood, please consider making a donation for my friend Aaron. He is in the hospital recovering from a heart bypass. Click for more details.
Please keep Aaron and his loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.

Obama, translated

Oh, good lord...

This man was our president for eight. years. And he's a moron. Don't they teach Biology in Arkansas high schools? Isn't he supposedly a Rhodes scholar? WTF?

Bad legislation on the horizon

More bad regulation on the horizon...
Is this the CPSIA for CSAs and Family Farms?


I should point out that I'm not unbiased here. Currently I supplement my child support by making cakes and pies out of my kitchen, and catering the occasional meal. In the past, I have sold off "extras" from the garden (a folding table out front with tomatoes and peppers on it, and an honor box to pay what one can) and even sold grape jelly and strawberry preserves out of my backyard. I have to wonder how this will affect churches as well- Our donated cakes and jams for the summer picnic are sold to the public. Once, a man in my parish donated a truckload of watermelons that we sold for 2.00 apiece. While Walmart and Kraft can afford these costs (and potential fines,) we can't. And I can't see myself welcoming government busybodies into my kitchen.

Bad form, Mr. President

I'm not going to bitch abt the President's policies right now. No, I don't approve of them, but that's not what this post is about. I'll deal with the politics later, right now, I'm dealing with the etiquette. At this moment, I'm heartily ashamed and embarrassed for our country.

Gordon Brown gave our president incredibly thoughtful and personal gifts, demonstrating thought and taste. His wife brought presents for the president's daughters that show class and forethought. A good gift takes into account the preferences of the recipient, and the closeness of the relationship between giver and receiver. What does it say about our president, then, that the first family gave the prime minister and his family tacky giftshop crap?

The toys they gave the boys sell for 15.00 apiece in the White House giftshop. I googled the most expensive boxsets of classic movies, and it looks like they sell for about 50.00 apiece. Let us assume the set consists of maybe 5 of such boxsets- they'd still be a bargain at 250.00. Here's hoping that the movies are in the right region-code, at least. Supposedly, it was a specially commissioned boxset-so at least some thought was expended in advance of the visit- but not much research, since apparently Gordon Brown is not big into movies.

Honestly, it looks as if about five minutes before Brown's arrival, someone went, "oh, crap, we're supposed to exchange gifts? Quick, somebody jaunt down to the giftshop and see what we can scratch up."

Mr. President, didn't your grandma bring you up better than this? Mrs. Obama, what kind of raising did YOU have? One does not put so little effort or thought into a gift for a treasured friend, and Britain is the best friend the US has in this world. You might say, we're more than friends, we're family, the UK is the mother country. Imagine that your mom comes for a visit. You know she's coming, it's not like it's a drop-in afternoon. Would YOU pick her up some junk at the giftshop five minutes before she walks through the door?

Obama can afford Wagyu beef for his cronies, but our allies get plastic crap. Lovely. This bodes Sooo well for our relationship with the UK.

Beverages as a hallmark of "Southern-ness"... a little food anthropology for y'all to enjoy.

I've always thought that a better indication of "southern-ness" than the Mason-Dixon line is what I term, "The Beverage Line." If you order tea in a restaurant and it comes on ice in a glass, you're in the south. If your waitress asks, "What kind of coke do you want?" and she's offering Pepsi products, you're in the south. I'm in Louisville, KY, and I'm rather partial to Twinings Lady Grey, hot, two sweet n lows, maybe a slice of lemon. But my mother keeps a pitcher of tea in the fridge at all times, and I have been known to refer to my beloved Tab, or my son's Mountain Dew, as "coke."

Imagine my surprise to learn that science is on the case- at least, as far as Virginia is concerned. Check this out. Don't just read the text, go to the data as well. Fascinating stuff. Myself? I'd like someone to codify those variables for KY and Southern IN.

Local response to the lead law from hell...

Even my local paper, the Courier Cage Liner, realizes that this law is having unintended consequences for small businesses and thrift shops. Of course, being the cageliner, they frame it as "trimming inventory." Because they suck that way.

This woman is an idiot.

Demint's idea is basically to halt implementation of this law until we can clean up what we mean for the law to do. There is no threat to the safety of children, here. But SC representative Cobb-Hunter has her panties in a bunch "for the children." Ten to one she's not even read relevant EXCERPTS of the lead law, let alone the entire thing. I'm pretty sure she's ignorant of Demint's response proposal as well.

I'm starting to think we need to pass a law to the effect that failure to read a bill means you're not eligible to vote on it. I can see it now- The house leader passing out little bubble-in sheets and a paper quiz. "Okay, you have to score above a 70 on this in order to cast a vote on the subject this afternoon. Does everyone have a number 2 pencil?"

Another wonderful entry on the Lead Law debacle. But even better, she has embedded a segment of Ray Bradbury talking about his love of books. Couldn't be more timely.

The CPSIA

Yes, it is a Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad, Day....

Here is this morning's round up of news on the lead law that is destroying kiddie books all over the country. (Not to mention, dirt bikes, baby clothes, and the careers of thousands of handicraft makers.)


And Overlawyered has responded to the NY Times' ridiculous editorial in favor of the law. You'll want to read both the original, and the response.

I didn't read a ton of kid's books as a child. I read what we had in the house, which was largely classic novels. The elementary school library, and the scholastic book club handouts, introduced me to all kinds of wonderful kiddie books. Just for the hell of it, I googled to see which of those I remember fondly have been out of print since 1985 or before. Under the new law, these books are now illegal to sell.

Confessions of a Toe Hanger by Christie Harris

Runaway Alice by Frances Salomon Murphy

The Bad Times of Irma Baumlein by Carole Ryrie Brink

Tee-bo the Talking Dog on the trail of the persnickety prowler and Tee-bo the talking dog and the great hort hunt, by Mary Whitcomb

The Resident Witch by Marion T. Place

This is just off the top of my head, a few books I loved in elementary and have either picked up, or been looking for new copies of, every since. This is to say nothing of my beloved Alfred Hitchcock and the three investigators, or Encyclopedia Brown- both of which are now "in print" again. But surely more copies were available at used bookstores around the country than are sitting on shelves at an Amazon warehouse. Those books will no longer find their way into the hands of children, and I find that tremendously sad.