Christmas 2012

My Christmas status report...

Well, it seems we are all still here, Mayan calendar not withstanding.  I kept telling people that their calendar stopped because they ran out of numbers!

I've been living here for about a year and a half now.  Doc Deb was gracious and invited me to move in when I lost my job last year.  I'd been doing maintenance stuff in exchange for my keep, until she lost her job in March.  She decided to move down to Texas to be with her parents, who are getting a bit frail.  I'd pulled the pin on my retirement benefits (such as they are), so now I'm staying in the house, making the mortgage payment.

The last three months have been exciting - I started working as a contract writer for a company called Remilon.  I'm writing on-line classes on programming for them, for starters.  The idea is, you could take a full class on one of many subjects for free, and then take the CLEP exam, and get college credit for the class.  It's an inexpensive way to clear out a lot of undergrad requirements, given that the cost of a CLEP exam is usually under $100.00.  My first lesson is finished, and I just uploaded the video for my second one yesterday.

Given that I live at the main crossroads in Red Lion, there is a *lot* of traffic, and traffic noise, which makes recording my lessons pretty much impossible.  I went to the local library, and asked if I could use one of their conference rooms as my recording studio.  I wound up talking with the director, Don, about it.  One thing led to another, and I wound up hanging a projection screen in the board room for them.  We are working on starting some computer skills classes there.  I use the library as my office sometimes, as it gets me out of the house and away from potential distractions (like Baxter helping me type).

Got the heater working, and think I've located the leak that flooded the basement.  It's not the boiler, nor is it the water heater.  I believe that it's in one of the pipes going through the cellar wall to the heater in the kitchen.  That means, the kitchen floor will have to come up in order to locate and repair said leak.  Fun.

I got an estimate on getting the old siding replaced.  The Home Depot guy (also named Don) was mostly worried about the sagging laundry room.  I did a little poking around, and it looks like there is no really code-grade footing for it.  The floor will also have to come up for diagnosis and repair, and possible jacking/shoring.  Yay.

Christmas... I'm going to get the place picked up and cleaned up this weekend.  My plan for Monday is to bake.  Current projects are to be two pumpkin pies and weapons-grade fudge topped brownies.  (I may do soft oatmeal cookies before that, just to get me through the weekend.)  Christmas day will be my Christmas movie marathon: The Ice Harvest (John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen), The Holiday (Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Jude Law), Scrooged (Bill Murray, Karen Allen), and a new one, the 200th episode of NCIS.  I think of as a take on "It's a Wonderful Life", with Gibbs taking George Bailey's place in the center of things.  And maybe, if I can find them, the "Eureka" Christmas episodes, too.  Dinner will be turkey tamales and Caesar salad.  And french vanilla ice cream laced with brandy (from the book "Ice Cream Happy Hour").  And, of course, I hope to chat with my daughter.  She is on the road from L.A. to Billings, Montana as we speak.  She expects to arrive today, and will be staying with my cousin and his wife until she can get situated.

Update - pictures!!

Living room with tree, candles, and Baxter

Dining area/work area

Bar, red hat, and Dakota

Kitchen work station, with pie!!

Close-up, workstation and pie!  Kitchen composting happens in the green bins on the left.

And that's about it for year end here in PA.

Merry Christmas to all!

Steve...

...is unwell.

Go and offer sympathy and condolences!

"We're screwed..."

...okcupid has a wicked sense of humor!!

We’re screwed. You should be too!

This was in my in box right now, followed by a link to a potential match.

Oh, my!

Muir. Nail. Head. (and Nibbles)

No assembly required.

"Safety" and "the children" are the "nibbles" that are and will be used to diminish our freedom, one victim (and one nibble) at a time.

Gotta say, I say I saw this kind of thing coming back in the 70's, when the park rangers banned BASE jumping and hang gliding from the top of El Capitan in Yosemite, because someone got themselves killed. I did not connect the dots from that to basic constitutional rights, though, nor did I see malicious intent behind it.

And they used to call me "cynical".

Update:  Joan of Argghh, who is posting at Primordial Slack, has this:

My comment there:

A few years back, the school I worked at had a near miss with this – neighbors complained about one of our students who lived in their apartment complex, cop came out to the apartment, and discovered that our student was planning a shooting spree at the school. The BCPD came out and talked with us a couple of times – the gist was, lock door, lights off, gather (he didn’t say “huddle”) in a corner out of the line of sight from the window by the door (each classroom had one). He clearly told us not to run, because of the possibility of being seen by the shooter or a potential accomplice.

And yes, we were a “target rich environment”, er, “gun-free zone”.

Mike, Meet Mr. Griffin

I'm thinking that Mike and Robert Griffin III should get together for a chat, based on Mr. Griffin's remarks in USA Today:

 "For me, you don't ever want to be defined by the color of your skin,'' Griffin said at the end of Wednesday's post-practice news conference in reference to a question about Martin Luther King, Jr. "You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That's what I've tried to go out and do.

"I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don't have to be defined by that.''

Aapparently, ESPN's Rob Parker doesn't like the sort of honesty and forthright talk that Mr. Griffin delivers.  NRO quotes Parker as saying

" ...'my question, which is just a straight honest question, is [Griffin] a brother, or is he a cornball brother?'"  

That was Sunday.  Today, CBS DC reports:

 "(Those comments)  led to the commentator’s suspension.  Shortly after Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch broke the news of Parker’s suspension via Twitter, ESPN made a statement on the issue.

“Following yesterday’s comments, Rob Parker has been suspended until further notice,” ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys tweeted. “We are conducting a full review.”

Good man 1, urban plantation 0.

Heh.

Mike Explains It All

Stolen from Gerard.

I've been thinking lately that we should seriously consider replacing the word "race" with the word "culture".  Not all blacks are professional victims.  Not all Moslems are Jihadists.  But there is a culture of victimhood prevalent in black society.  There is an alarming culture of brutality and murder in the Moslem world.

Gerard. Park. Out of... (Updated)

...and the park is Yellowstone!

Go.  Read!

(Update - got the frikkin' link right.  Sheesh!)

Elevating Thought

 It's been a month since the election, and I'm still trying to re-group.  What upset me the most (after the outcome)  was the encroaching lack of civility and clear, useful journalism on the Right as well as the Left.  I find that disheartening, since one of the Big Deals we made about the Left was and is their lack of civility, and the mendacity of the MSM.

One writer who comes to mind is John Nolte, at Breitbart.  Here is his opener on the Zimmerman/NBC suit:

"Though it might feel like a hundred years ago, it was only last April when the media joined Barack Obama's cynical crusade to gin up his base in Florida through the artificial inflaming of racial tensions. And there was no question NBC News was the worst of these co-conspirators after the network was busted editing a 9-1-1 call to make Trayvon Martin's suspected shooter, George Zimmerman, look like a racist. Today, Zimmerman filed suit against the Peacock Network."

Now, I gather that his basic assertion about NBC editing the sound track of the 911 call is factual.  But I don't think anyone would deny that the inflammatory nature of the paragraph.  I'm not suggesting that Mr. Nolte do anything differently - he has his "bully pulpit", the editors must like the way he's writing, and the First Amendment applies.  You go, John.

But I think this kind of writing only helps to maybe put an up-tick in the pitch fork, torch, tar, feather, and rail markets.  Which I don't think is really helpful at all, even in the short term.

My metaphysics training has taught me to stand guard at the doorway of thought.  In a nutshell, this warning is based upon the idea that we see and become what we think and believe.  If we don't pay attention to what we are admitting into our thoughts, we can start to slide downhill.  A practical example - repeat a lie often enough, and it (seems to) become true.

My distress is in no small part to my own slippage.  Looking back over my pre-election and near-post election posts, I'm struck by how they could have been less, well, vulgar, and more informative and thoughtful.  Fortunately, Gerard turned on a light for me, and gave me a glimpse of what I've been seeking.  It has apparently been wending its way thru the web.  One full copy of it is at The Thinking Housewife.  I'm excerpting the first section here:

A Plan for Traditionalists

AT The Orthosphere, Kristor offers a reasonable guide to survival and affecting the culture. In the immediate future, he recommends:

1. Resolve to pay no more PC jizya (beautifully spelled out in the Solzhenitsyn essay that has been discussed a lot lately in the wider orthosphere). Tell the truth, and call a spade a spade: calmly, politely, and without being obstreperous about it, but nevertheless firmly. Without making a big deal about it or calling attention to yourself, fail to appear for the public rites of Moloch. If you must thus appear, quietly fail to meet the requirements of the rite.
2. Write, read, blog, talk: join a book club, an apologetics roundtable, a bible study group. Learn the arguments for reaction, for Christianity, for theism; learn the arguments against them, and how they may be defeated. Speak up: fearlessly, scandalously, but always humbly and politely.
3. Live a virtuous, upright life, at home and in business. Speak the truth, and do the right thing. Whatever it happens to be, don’t let it be about yourself; let it be about the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.
4. Beware; and be prepared to move, quickly. Get rid of stuff that you don’t need or that is not positively beautiful to you in some way – especially debt and belly fat, which are likely going to cost you as the financial and medical sectors of the economy devolve over the next ten years.
5. Maintain tradition in small things: e.g., dress more formally than is customary these days, practice old-fashioned manners, refrain from swearing; read old books, and then discuss them around the family dinner table; join together in regular and serious family prayer, if only to bless each meal; remember your family holiday traditions, and observe them gravely and with joy.
6. Pray without ceasing. Pray whenever your attention is not wholly consumed with the task at hand. Work toward praying even when it is. Nothing is so convincing as sanctity, or so attractive, or so authoritative. Without it, personal rectitude can seem like Pharisaical arrogance (and risks becoming just that). You can’t push sanctity. But you can work at allowing it to happen.

 (Debt isn't the huge problem it was five years ago.  The belly fat, though continues to be tough.)

There's more, all worth read, pondering, and incorporating into our lives.  Go!

The New Revolutionary War

The ever-suave and lucid Steven Green has a post up about Michael Cannon's article in the LA Times.  The gist is, many states are not implementing the exchange infrastructure required to make Obamacare "work" (sorry).  He posits that this will make the true costs of the monstrosity visible  to all, causing massive sales in torches, pitchforks, rails, tar and feathers.  (OK, he didn't say the part about increased sales.  But it's a happy dream... .)

Vodkapundit doesn't think this has much of a chance.

This all got me to thinking (uh-oh), which started to coagulate what's been ricocheting around my cranium since the election.  Here's my comment:

"I've been contemplating may navel since the election, and I'm coming to the conclusion that the only way to stop this frikkin' nightmare is to fight and beat it at the state level.  (And by "frikkin' nightmare", I mean the whole greedy, bloated Federal Government!)

State laws prohibiting state enforcement of Federal mandates.

Lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits.

States, start to wean yourself off the Federal dime.  Keep your own tax money.  Don't send any money to Washington.  Pay for your own schools and roads.

Keep as much activity and business in-state as you can, to circumvent the commerce clause.

Make yourself business-friendly.  Low taxes, right-to-work.  Train literate and numerate workers - teach them reading. writing, arithmetic, history and computers; art, literature.  Yeah, world art & lit, but make sure there's a solid foundation in American and Western history, lit and art.  Give the kids their heritage, not someone else's.

It doesn't have to be a shooting war, but it is a war."

If we aren't going to start a shooting war, which, I think, is a really bad idea, we need to entrench and start resisting through the "system" at the state level.

But we must fight back, because it is a war.

Like I said...

"...God, family, friends, country."

Getting The Poverty

Sippican has a post up about splinters and poverty, which prompted me to comment.  As often happens, my comments are turned into posts...

I too have caught the poverty. Ten years ago, I was a well paid contractor at a Major Aerospace Company in Southern California.  Now, I'm trying to get along on Social (in)Security and what little pension I have from said Major Aerospace Company; renting my friend's house in SE Pennsylvania from her so she doesn't get foreclosed.

I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything, except, perhaps, to hear from my daughter on a more regular basis.

Updating a bit, from a second comment:

A further thought.  I infer from the comments here, that we all are relatively safe and dry (if not as warm as we might like).  I presume we have enough to eat, lights in the house, and (obviously) the interweb.

We are not impoverished, just broke.  Yes, the lack o' cash does focus the mind, as V-man says.  It seems to focus it on the more important things, like God, family, friends and country.
 

Caught on Tape...

I particularly like the guy who tackles the robber.  Did something like that, once.

I was working in the note department at the local bank, when I heard, from the teller area, some guy shout "Put the money in the bag!!"  I looked up, and saw a guy take off out the door next to our area.  Being young, stupid and immortal, I hit the alarm and took off after him.

About a block later, I came around a corner, and there he was.  My first thought was "Oh great.  Now what?!"  I think I yelled at him to stop.  Just about that time, the LEOs rolled up and apprehended him.

When I got back to the bank, I was thanked, and told never to do that again.

Benghazi Four

I'm bumping this one, in the wake of the election and Petraeus' kerfluffle.

Keep your eye on the ball... Eisenhower had a mistress during WWII.  So the fuck what?

Click == Bigger

Via Pundette

Blogs for Mitt...

...should have had a final post that just said:

"Well, shit."

But I'm sure they won't.

Be funny, tho...

OK... (Updated)

...more than a little gin.  (Ouch.)

Impeach him??

I'm going to take down the yard signs and re-arrange the furniture.

Wal-Mart has a decent price on .45 ACP - $39.95/100 Winchester, 230 grain.

Gotta get a few more clips, too.

(Update!)  Mags..., I mean mags!

Punting Election Night

Music.

A little gin.

Occasional look at the news on line.

Voter Turnout...

...in S.E. Pa:

I arrived just after 11 AM.

I guess signage around the  place is OK?  This isn't L.A. County, so I don't know.

Quiet as a church yard.  Oh, wait...

No pictures inside, of course, but they were doing a steady business.  One gentleman was waiting patiently for something to get cleared up so he could cast his vote.

There were only six items on the ballot: president/vice president, U.S. Senator,   U.S. Congressman, State Representative, Attorney General, Auditor and Treasurer.

Voting machine appeared to register my vote correctly...

Time to Focus on Tomorrow (Updated)

Click == Bigger

'nuff said.

Via Rodger

P.S. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Public Secrets has the definitive post on who was solely able to and responsible for sending a rescue team into Benghazi.  (Hint - he's running for president, and his name isn't Mitt Romney).

Obama hung those people Out. To. Dry.

Thank God Bush Isn't In Charge... (Updated & Bumped x3elebenty

...or Ray Nagin.

Update VI:  Jewel, over at Gerard's, tells a great story:  

"Today, my husband witnessed a wondrous act of resourcefulness. A man with a horse trailer hitched to his truck was filling up individual 5 gallon jugs of gas in order to transport them back to New Jersey. He went out into the wide world of American plenty that lies just beyond disaster. He didn't wait like a hopeless fool in a line of idling cars for gasoline that is rationed by the spoonful. His neighbors hired him because he had a big, gas eating truck, and gave him money and jugs and sent him to Lancaster County to go shopping. He brought back not only gasoline, but food, water, clothing, blankets, batteries, and other things they might need. Those people are heroes, because they used their God-given talents and brains and didn't go crying to the cameras, asking for the government to come and help."

It's easy to get "wrapped around the axle" in a mess like Sandy.  Jewel's post is a wonderful reminder that everything you need is available a couple of hours away.

Update V:  Daily Caller reports that the IBEW sent a letter to the Florida electrical utility demanding that the emergency workers join the (damned) union.  Class act, brothers!

Not to be out done, nanny Bloomberg answers THS's question.  Seems he disapproves of the National Guard's policy of carrying weapons, particularly guns.  He's afraid of "martial law". (Ed Driscoll at Instapundit)

Did I mention that truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense?  Yeah, 's true.

Update IV:  Tree Hugging Sister over at the Coalition asks:

FEMA Is Out of Water Redux ~ Anybody Ask the Army Corps of Engineers for Help?

Seems they are waiting to be activated, but none of the super-geniuses in charge have thought to do that.  So supplies that are pre-contracted (like water and ice) are gathering dust while everyone waits for FEMA to get a contract out.  Tomorrow.

And this, from the New York Post: "Some Rockaways residents who work as firefighters in The Bronx and Manhattan were fuming yesterday — sitting idly in their firehouses while their neighbors and family members miles away struggled to get help."


Update III:  The proverbial $64.00 questions that need asking are, "Why weren't Cuomo and Bloomberg setting up relief sites two weeks ago?  Why weren't they pre-positioning bottled water, MREs and blankets?  Who says you have to wait on FEMA to do it??  WHO??"

They have let down the people who have (foolishly) trusted in them.

Update II:  You have to, HAVE TO  be ready to live in isolation for at least a week after something like Sandy or Katrina or the Sylmar quake.  There just aren't enough Official First Responders to come and wipe your nose!!  So far, the only real assistance in Rockaway or Staten Island has been neighbors helping neighbors.  And that is how it happens - you take care of yourself, your family, and your neighborhood.

Update: Mary Katherine Ham at Hot Air has a great piece up about Federal vs. local disaster recovery management, and (of all things) "The Waffle House Index".

Previously:

From Drudge:

I am willing to bet that I am not the only one who was paying attention to the news, particularly the weather, in the last two weeks or so.  I made sure the truck had a full tank.  I made sure that I had propane for the camp stove, batteries for flashlights and camping lamps, a well-stocked freezer and fridge, a clean bathtub full of fresh water,

 Here's the money quote from nanny Bloomberg:

“We are, over the next few days, going to have to work out some procedures to make sure people can get food,” Mayor Bloomberg insisted.

Let that sink in.  Like New Orleans in Katrina, whose disaster preparedness plan amounted to "We should have one".

Yup.  He obviously took lessons from Nagin.

Sunday Funny

I miss those two!

Via Gerard