~FREE ENTERPRISE~

I tell you... it's like a power that can not be denied. That man on the green mile who put the breath of life back into the mouse... he was just saying something that God had in mind. Same here. Some things really aren't meant to be commercial. Here's the link:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21141340-421,00.html

Bob

~COWARDS~

Academic liberalism is actually just the residue of failed Marxism. In the meanwhile, guys like this are saying it like it is. Here we go again:

Recent surveys confirm that university faculties have been tilting steadily leftward, but I think it is wrong to assume they have been tilting toward “liberalism” as is commonly assumed. Liberalism worthy of the name emphasizes freedom of the individual, democracy and the rule of law. Liberalism is prepared to fight for those freedoms through constitutional participatory government, and to protect those freedoms, in battle if necessary. What we see on the American campus is not liberalism, but a gutted and gutless “gliberalism,” that leaves to others the responsibility for governance, and arrogates to itself the right to criticize. It accepts money from the public purse without assuming reciprocal duties for the public good. Instead of debating public policy in the public arena, faculty says, “I quit,” but then continues to draw benefits from the system it will not protect.

-----------------------------------------


I like this guy at Neptunus Lex. Keep it up!


Bob

~A JOKE~

The folks over at Mostly Cajun sent out a Joke---

A young boy, about eight years old, was at the store picking out a large box of laundry detergent.

The grocer walked over and, trying to be friendly, asked the boy if he had a lot of laundry to do.

“Oh, no laundry,” the boy said. “I’m going to wash my dog.”

“But you shouldn’t use this to wash your dog. It’s very powerful and if you wash your dog in this, he’ll get sick. In fact, it might even kill him.”

But the boy was not stopped by this and carried the detergent to the counter and paid for it, even as the grocer still tried to talk him out of washing his dog.

About a week later the boy was back in the store doing some shopping. The grocer asked the boy how his dog was doing.

“Oh, he died,” the boy said.

The grocer said, “I tried to tell you not to use that detergent on your dog.”

“Well,” the boy replied, “I don’t think it was the detergent that killed him.”

“Oh I’m sorry. How did he die?”

“I think it was the spin cycle.”



Cute.


Bob

~RIO~

I was watching Discovery this afternoon and they had a program about the iPod phenom. It was pretty good, but it didn't get to the core of the thing for me. I own an iPod. In fact, I own (I should say used to own) one of the new units that has a mass of memory onboard and plays videos... it's nice, but has the same limitations as the Gen 1 iPod had... by that I mean, you still have a fragile hard drive hanging on a string that you have around your neck. I don't know about you, but that's not the best thing to go jogging with.

The folks at Apple went into the MP3 market with a product that did a great job of opening up the concept, but when the price of memory dropped a couple years ago the whole idea of using little hard drives got blown away. I learned that lesson when I had to replace a 60 gig drive when it popped out of my back pocket while jogging and self destructed on the sidewalk. Ouch! All I really wanted was to carry a pile of podcasts and audiobooks around with me that I could access during my spare time. You know... fill the time that I have been wasting driving and jogging and other stuff. I was happy with the iPod except for its fragility. So I repaired it then gave the Apple thing to my daughter and bought myself a Rio MP3 player. It has a full 20 gigs of storage onboard with no moving parts to spoil my attitude while on a jog around the lakefront on the weekend.

Besides, the earbuds provided by Rio are much cooler than the iPod's and I don't get sprained earbones after a while. Plus the Rio unit goes into a nice stretch band that puts it on my arm, a nice touch for a guy driving on I-4 and holds the dingus still to fiddle with. Plus... the whole unit costs about a fourth of the iPod. Like my daughter says... gee, Dad! You're really cheap.

Bob

~WARI~

This is a ceremonial skull that was found in Peru of the Wari Empire, a group that predated the Inca by 1,o00 to 1,500 years. What's interesting about it was that it was used as a trophy. Mounting holes are clear. Hard core... eh?

Here's the link: http://www.livescience.com/history/070124_trophy_skull.html

Bob

~FLOOD?~

I'm reading about the Army Corp of Engineers trying to assure the citizens that even if the old and frighteningly dangerous dam at Lake Cumberland (is that spelled right? I don't want Eric pouncing on my proofreading again... it seems I can't spell my grandfather's home town). They say that there is not much risk of a failure of the dam which would put a whole lot of Kentucky and Tennessee under water. Hey, Eric... you down stream from that damned thing? Hope not, but I can lend you some water wings if you need them.

Here's the link: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-dangerous-dam,0,3848746.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

Of course, this was an AP story. Those guys may have their heads up their keesters again...they seen to have it up there most of the time.

Bob

~DENNY DOHERTY RIP~

Main male voice of the Mamas and Papas Denny Doherty died Friday of kidney failure. He had been on dialysis for a while and finally lost. So long buddy.

Here's the link -- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2007/01/19/entertainment/e133017S15.DTL

Bob

~LOCAL NEWS~

There's a local guy who is butt grabbing at a local mall who has managed to get into the paper. No injury, just butt grabbing. So this is news? Here's the link:

http://www.local6.com/news/10781796/detail.html

Ah, only in America.

Bob

~Paradise Point~

I'd like to think that this was one of those movies that caught the spirit of those times. What ever... Bravo found the money to put it on the box. Now ask me about my dreams this evening. Bravo!

Bob

~PASTY~

It seems that all the bloggers on my paper route have discovered cooking.

At least the love of cookery seems to be one of the key things in the lives of the pyjama wearing set. Anyhow, I decided to look into my own behavior and see if I fit. Now, I'm no cook in the Cooking With Julia fashion. I'm a guy who lives on a boat and don't have the kitchen skills necessary to be a chef. My cookery is mostly related to survival. I mostly just feed myself... and anyone who eats with me is just trying to avoid starvation. But I have traveled a bit. And there are several things that I like and have tried to master. One of them is the pasty.

Ah, the pasty. I went to Glasgow a few years ago and realized that they don't really do the fast food thing like Americans. Oh, they have all the obligatory pizza joints and taco joints and such, but the business of making working class chow to the English is rooted in the pie. Most working stiffs have something that is inherently local. A Cornish tin miner a hundred years ago wanted lunch to be quick, easy, and cheap. Ah, the pasty. As the British empire grew so did the pasty. And the Cornish pasty became the Scottish pasty and the Indian pasty and the Burmese pasty and every other place on the map. Here in America we still have fruit pies and they are still made by the truckload and sold to potential diabetics everywhere. But not like the Brits. We have our own system... McGobble. But that trip to the mother country affected my pasty eating bug. That and Jamaica... mostly the Jamaican version of the old Cornish fast food was a way of eating left overs without getting the grease on your shirt and still having lunch... the same as you get from McGobble.

Pasties are easy to make. Heck, all the things are is a place to put leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. The trick is to develop the skill of making good pie crust. Let me give you quick lesson: get a pound of ground beef (or fish, or veggies, or what have you), a small onion, a garlic clove, minced, some condiments ( the traditional Jamaican pasty has something like Cayenne Pepper sauce, curry power, thyme,maybe some egg beaten to hold everything together). Then...you are confronted with the pasty shell problem.

Want an easy out? Go back to Winn Dixie and just buy some ready made pie shell dough. Then tell your friends that you made it from scratch. It works just fine thank you. Then instead of making the typical pecan pie like your mom does every Sunday you make little pockets to fill up with whatever you've got, bake in your little boat stove at 450 till brown, and pour the wine.

Of course, if you live in Glascow all you have to do is go down to the local pasty shop and buy your dinner using the same system used here in America when you go through the drive thru lane at Wendy's.

There you go. Let's eat.

Bob

~BUM IS BACK~

My friends Pat and Ali completed their circumnavigation over Christmas and have been loafing around Grenada waiting for the snow to melt in the frozen North. And wating for their folks to fly down for Santa Day. Nothing like having your family join you in paradise for the holidays. Here's a picture of the boat as the pot of gold at the end of a raindow while the owners are out looking for something other than lobster pizza. What a life.

Bob

~Tenn. hunter~

These guys from Tenn. are really a hoot! Eric... you know this guy?

Here's the link: http://chattanoogan.com/articles/article_99710.asp

Bob

~50 cal ~

Just a typical sniper team in today's Corps. Let's go shooting.

Bob

~A SCOTSMAN~

This guy has decided to ride a surfboard from Scotland to the US, then ride it back. I guess that in it self is proof of where the guy is from. Ya gotta love it. Here's the link:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2151687.html

Bob

~Iwao Takamoto RIP~

Zoinks! The creator of Scooby Doo died yesterday. He was also a major actor with several generations of characters. Notably Cinderella, PeterPan,Lady and the Tramp... and The Flintstones. Imagine that! Sixty years of toons. Rest in Peace. You'll be misssed.

Bob

~41-14~

Yeah. That's right. For a moment there (like the first fifteen seconds of the game) it looked like it was gonna be classic gator football.. you know, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory... but the defense was too much. Ohio never got off the bus. This is sweet. National champs in football and basketball together in the same season. Life is good!

Bob

~AOPA Expo Tampa~

Even with the old paintjob... blue ribbon in the owner made experimental category. Automatic boner! Also, the 360 has been installed and we're up to about 180-210 mph now. The three spike prop makes this baby go straight up. It's like a jet. Like I said... autoboner.

Bob

~XMAS~

Like I say, Christmas is not my favorite time of year. No school, no work, nothing to do but sit around and goof off. Me... I can only hang around the airport for so long before I start going nuts. Besides, playing with bags of nylon wing chutes is actually more expensive than playing with sailboats. There I was trying to get to my buddy Tommy's place over in St. Cloud (he lives on a grass field) and my Volvo just gave up the ghost. Of course the mechanic lives on Holiday time. Not working. So my car sits for 10 days before he can even look at the damned thing. Now they're finally back to work but the part I need isn't stocked any more and Volvo says I have to get the aftermarket one. More delay. Damn, I hate Christmas. The whole world is taking a break. I hate it. I hate! hate it! Hate!

Bob

~DARWIN~

Elaine (the Redhead) accumulates Darwin Awards. I like this one:

AND THE WINNER: FROM G-E-R-M-A-N-Y is.... Overzealous zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt (Paderborn, Germany) fed his constipated elephant Stefan 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally let it fly, and suffocated the keeper under 200 pounds of poop! Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded on him. "The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground, where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him" said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective Erik Dern. "With no one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated."


Bob