O Sweet Inevitability!

There's an Occupy Sesame Street (dot org), of course. With a blog.

...Frikkin' jackbooted Cookie Monsters....

I'm not sayin' the "Occupy $PLACENAME" meme has jumped the shark, but it better not drop the soap. Of course, that's been true since about Day 2. --Or Night 1.

"Dija Ever Wonder Why..."

...Why you listened to Andy Rooney even when you thought he was fulla malarkey?

He's gone now, passed away just the other day. And he will be missed. His was one of the voices in the back of your head, the one that spoke up when you encountered some insane-but-taken-for-granted part of daily life and suddenly realized how goofy it was. Most of us ignore that voice -- at least half the time, it's a little crazy not to* -- but Andy Rooney never did.

Not even once.

Ave, improbable pundit.
___________________________________________
* Tam, on hearing the news: "He'd gone more than a little Jimmy-Carter, the last few years." True, but a lot more entertainingly.

Not Feeling At All Well

Sorry about that. We do all have our off days -- mine's happened to hit on my day off, is all.

Update: Dammit, this is the "froze to death" phase of Blogoradosis, is what it is. Typhoid Tam, this is allllllllll your fault! I will be avenged from beyond the quilt! And the three layers of blankets! And the heating pad!

I'm still cold.

Ubiquity?

In my round of news sites this morning, I keep seeing the headline, "Crack found in Antarctic glacier."

I'm blamin' The War On (Some) Drugs -- you know that stuff would only be worth pennies if it wasn't illegal.

Protest Sign I Expect To See

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS GRAVITY
IT'S JUST THE 1% KEEPING US DOWN!
You know they'd go for it. It's just their style.

"Mook," Slang For "Melina"

Woke up determined to look up "mook," a favorite word of actor Jerry Orbach's character in Law & Order.

I was also planning to write something about Democrat candidate Melina Kennedy's latest flung mud at Mayor (and Republican candidate) Greg Ballard.

So you can imagine my delight at discovering that "mook" means not merely "henchman," but carries connotations of "dupe" or "bumbling lackey" as well, though you might wonder how it applies.

Wonder no longer: candidate's Kennedy's latest attack ads chide Mayor Ballard for not being a member of Bloomberg anti-rights group Mayors Against Illegal Guns!

Update, via Tam in Comments -- NYC Mayor Bloomberg has given Ms. Kennedy $25,000.00 American for her campaign, prompting the Hoosier pol to muse how sincerely she shares Mr. Bloomberg's loathing of firearms. This would be her deeply-held belief that, somehow, didn't surface until that $25K came waddling along.... [/Update]

Yep. Never you mind that MAIG has a far higher incidence of criminal convictions among its members than the population in general, or that in Indiana there's no such thing as an "illegal gun," (aside from certain short shotguns or un-tax-stamped NFA weaponry). Candidate Kennedy promises to sign right up -- and take aim, like her big buddy Bloomberg, at law-abiding gun-owners. Her promises mean the city would shortly find itself fighting -- and losing -- a series lawsuits challenging State preemption of local firearms ordinances and regulation. Not a smart move for a city already feeling the pinch.

L. Neil Smith's observation that a pol's attitude towards citizens owning and carrying firearms is "an X-ray," "...the one political issue which most clearly and unmistakably demonstrates what any politician—or political philosophy—is made of, right down to the creamy liquid center," is as true as ever. In that invisible light, the bare bones of Kennedy's ideas stand out: she doesn't trust you.

She never will.

I don't care who you vote for, Mayor Greg Ballard or Chris Bowen, his mildly interview-goofy LPIN challenger, or even some write-in, but for freedom's sake, please don't vote for Melina Kennedy. Not because of her party affiliation but because of her platform.

(Looks like Ballard has a slight lead, FWIW. All the more reason to get out there and vote. Hey, what'll it hurt?)

Comprehension Dawns

When they say "Nothing is too good for our employees" (or troops, or customers, unindicted co-conspirators, abductees, whatever), I always thought it meant there was no upper limit to the goodness due 'em.

But the more I see the actual practice, the more I realize the true meaning is that the speaker believes even nothing would be more than is deserved -- but it's too darned much work to hand out less than nothing, so a big fat plateful of zilch is what's in the offing.

That revelation's going to make my daily life ever so much less disappointing!

Cripes.

But Not All Of The 99%?

Seen at The Unwanted Blog but too good not to, er, "borrow," it seems the homeless are showing up at Occupy Wall Street in significant numbers. Free food! A park you can crash in without getting rousted! -- and it's not a nice, neat Hollywood-movie bunch but the full panoply of folks who have fallen -- or leapt -- through the cracks.

The hot rumor is that NYPD is sending them; I suspect this seriously underestimates the resourcefulness and gumption of homeless people.

I'd like to think this would be a teachable moment for OWS participants but what I'm reading suggests that instead, they're aghast -- agog! -- that their privileged paleface protest/experiment in anarchy isn't being shielded from ugly reality by the strong arm of the State.

Not how it works, citizens. You tell us how you're out there in public space (privately-owned Zuccotti Park), speaking for the vast masses? Then you share that space, and you'd best do so with at least as much grace as the moguls and cubicle-dwellers whose public space you chose to move into with your protest. C'mon -- show us how it's done. Or admit you're mostly in this to pick up dates and outrage Mom and Dad in bleakest whitebread suburbia, grinding away to put your scrawny rump through college.

(Y'know, when the Sikhs set out a meal for all comers -- it's a religious obligation -- I've yet to hear any report of them whining about who shows up, or that folks ate too much. When the food runs low, they cook up more -- and it's all hands-on and self-funded: no hired help, no free money from the .gov. Oh, and the purpose of the exercise? "...[T]o uphold the principle of equality between all people regardless of religion, caste, colour, creed, age, gender or social status...." There's a message there, and one OWS participants are missing: be the change you want to see in the world. But I guess it's more fun to whine while someone else does the heavy lifting.)

Coincidence?

Twice now that I know of, conservative citizens of African descent, up for high office, have been accused of sexual harassment and the charges have proven to be more than a little....thin. Not well supported.

I'm not sayin' their opposition is racist -- but the choice of smear presents at least the beginning of a pattern. Mr. Fleming? "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."

Yup. Funny how nobody in the media has noticed, isn't it?

Maybe they're waiting for the third example?

Halloween And Halloween Stew

It was a pretty good All Hallow's Eve here at Roseholme Cottage, with a steady stream of very young Trick-or-treater's in full and fanciful costume -- and their slightly older siblings making only the least nod to dressing up.

We started the evening with three full bags of candy and ended with one (1) piece left; handed it out from a big colander and after I got home, I restrung Stingray's colander mask and wore it to do the handing out.

...As for Halloween stew, it was what I had for lunch today (and supper Sunday), improvised from what was in the cupboard: quinoa cooked in chicken broth, sprouted lentils, chickpeas, a crumbled strip of bacon, a little fresh celery and carrot and nice chunks of spam.But you could be forgiven for thinking it was tiny worms, lumps of long pig and assorted mysterious innards, the way most people seemed to. (Even Tam found it a bit much. I guess quinoa is an acquired taste, mild though it is).

Of Mayors And Challengers

Greg Ballard (R) has not been our worst Mayor, not by a long shot. He lost me over his choice of Public Safety Director (fire Frank Straub!) and he hasn't been stellar about armed citizens. We could do better but we've had much worse.

Melina Kennedy wants the job, wants it so badly she seems to have forgotten she's not running for Supreme Leader or Empress. So far, she's promised to "fix schools" (run by the School Board: not under the Mayor's control), "tighten up on guns" (preempted by state law: not under the Mayor's control) and "create jobs" (other than some appointments and minor new positions, not under the Mayor's control).

And I thought Ballard was a little inexperienced when he got the job? Kennedy's been a Deputy Mayor and she still doesn't understand what the Mayor can and cannot do!

If free elections mean we get the government we deserve, I can only conclude we have been very, very bad the past four years.

Update: check out the Marion County Voter Information Portal! --At least you can figure out who to vote against. (Bill Levin gets the Roseholme endorsement for City Council)

Random Blimp Photo

From the 2011 Indiana State Fair.
I'll bet you can buy flight insurance!