So Wrong, But...

     I just can't help it.

     Did you see the news conference with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and President Obama?  Did you realize how much -- how amazingly much -- they resemble Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy?

     (To both men's credit, they weren't blaming each other.  And why should they?  Post-Katrina, you will never see the Feds treat calamitous weather in a casual or routine way.  Especially in an election year.)

Oh The Horror (Geesh)

No sooner had Indiana's Republican candidate for U.S. Senate thrown his head at his opponent than the Dems started throwing it back; he's now become The Devil in other races including various House battles and, most strikingly, the contest over the Governor's office.  At one point, Republican (and, to be fair, very Religious-Right) Mike Pence -- who was quick to speak out against what Mr. Mourdock had said -- faced only genial joshing from Democrat also-ran (and, to be fair, not actually a walrus, despite what you may have heard) John Gregg; now ads for Gregg open with Mourdock's voice intoning, "...even in that horrible situation of rape, it is something God intended to happen..." and then a worried-sounding female voice exhorts voters to "Stop the Tea Party!  Vote for John Gregg!"

     Oh, that's appealing. I have noted with interest partisan efforts to paint the various persons and small groups energized by Rick Santelli's impassioned rant on CNBC as some sort of sweeping, Margaret-Atwoodian-nightmare conspiracy to keep women barefoot and pregnant and minorities just barefoot -- and I have found it fascinating that the very people uttering strident warnings about a movement that is, at its core, economic rather than social are also the first to chide the public about "the politics of fear."  --Except the fear they're selling, that is.

     Rule of thumb: any time any Party, group or individual keeps pushing the "fear these horrid people" button with loaded words urging immediate action, they're trying to stampede the public.  The bunch you're being urged to fear may or may not be "mean, nasty ugly-looking people," but you can be darned sure the group waving the bloody shirt doesn't want you to stop and think things through.

     Social Conservatives and the various and sundry "Tea Party" groups are not the same thing.  They're not even all that uniform among themselves.  Go read up on the candidates; it's fun to just let the PACs and Parties slap tags on 'em, love the ones you've been told are loveable and hate the ones portrayed as loathsome, but you're mere moldable putty in the hands of your would-be masters if you take that easy course.

     Do your darned homework.

     Oh, and Rick Santelli?  You know what else he said?  "I want the new [Obama] administration to win this one," Santelli said. "We are all Americans. ... It's a question whether spending our children's money is going to make us win or not, or is it going to take its own time to heal, like a cold going away?"  What set him ranting him was the policy, not the person.

Feds Declare NYC A Disaster Area!

...About A Hundred Years After Rest Of Country Came To The Same Conclusion.

     All kidding aside, my thoughts are with everyone in the area getting hit by Sandy.  They can cope -- pick on NYC and the coastal states (PA counts, too!) all you like, but they've proven they dig in and deal with it when the chips are down.  This will be the worst they've seen in decades and recovery may be a lot longer than anyone in the brainless media expects.  (Look for whining on the network morning shows, along with brave promises to "hold out as long as the better hotels and network cafeteria remain open."  OMG, Matt, they're out of your brand of bottled water.)

     Here in the Midwest, all we are getting so far are very high winds -- and with most of the local power utilities having sent off emergency relief crews to the East, that could yet be a problem.  (H'mm, the modern "efficient and lean" arrangement of keeping maintenance crews small and moving them around when needed may not have taken really big event into account.  I may yet be wishing I'd bought a little genset.)

Quote Of The Presidential Election Year

Dustbury, anent the Electoral College and What It Do:

"I’m getting to the point where I would much rather everyone were vaguely dissatisfied with the system as it is than have some ecstatically happy at the expense of everyone else."

     Y'see, kids, a republic is a lousy form of government -- and all the other forms are even worse, many of them by huge margins.  Ours? You're not supposed to like it, just not be too frikkkin' inconvenienced by it.  Which is the point of most of goofier-looking parts of our system.  Read the whole thing.  And then get back to work, dammit!

Oh! The Insensitivity!

Calling it "Hurricane Sandy" -- and it only has one good eye!

Tasty!

From the I Did Not Know The World Worked Like That file:

Pride Goeth Before A Fall; Elections Arrive During Them

     Dispirited though I am by the "choices" (and by the lack of coverage the few real choices receive -- Rupert Boneham exempted), it would be unfair (or at least unsporting) to pass by the poor ol' dead windmill without tilting at it a little.

     My favorite contest is a de-selection of State Supreme Court Justices.  Two of them are on the bubble and there's a way to send a very clear message: Justice Robert Rucker wrote a strong dissent to the dreadful majority decision that claimed a police "right" to enter your home on any grounds -- or none at all -- and denied your right to resist.  Conversely, Justice Steven H. David wrote the decision itself, and defended it by saying you could always sue for redress.  Justice Rucker should be retained; Justice David should be sent home.  With a note from the electorate explaining that he has been a Very Bad Boy.

     Then there are the other contests -- for Governor, the current front-runner is the urbane $DEITY-botherer Mike Pence who, sly nods and winks to his fellow-worshippers aside, is reasonably good when it comes to minding the till.  If he can manage to avoid the temptation to get into spats over wanting to redecorate the promenade deck in Social-Conservative purple and instead focus on keeping the Titani- er, Indiana afloat, he can do very well.  His folksy-college-president Democat opponent, John "Walrus" Gregg, seems to have been put on the ticket to fail gracefully; he's actually not a bad fellow but his running mate is a classic Carrie Nation, pinch-faced with certainty that she knows what's best for you and brooking no refusal to comply; she should be kept as far away from public office as possible, if you ask me.  In third place and with his own sort of grace is the forementioned Rupert Boneham, 1860s beard and all.  He's my sentimental favorite.

     Elsewhere, there's the nationally-famous Mourdock/Donnelly race.  For all the unfavorable attention Mourdock has received, Mr. Donnelly has an actual pro-life voting record.  Both men (and Libertarian stalwart Andrew Horning) are actually decent enough, all of them look good on Bill of Rights issues...and one of them is sure vote against throwing out the Federal health care mess, which is why I'm not voting for Joe Donnelly.  Mr. Mourdock seems to have a positively Agnewtonian gift for foot-in-mouth and any reporter covering the political beat ought to be rooting for him as a steady source of easy stories.

     Then we have Representative Andre Carson, a bit worried now his district has been moved slightly south.  A very personable man who dislikes me 'cos I am pale and blue-eyed, and he's a bonafide member of the hereditary ruling class.  He's up against Republican Carlos May; Carlos may but it is unlikely.  I no longer get to throw my vote away here; I've got a new wastebasket, the Scott Reske (D)/Susan Brooks (R)/Chard Reid (LP) set-to.  That's a Marine vs. a U.S. Attorney vs. a Libertarian.  The NRA -- shock, horror! -- likes Mr. Reske.

     In Indiana, the .gov wants you to have a cribsheet (or scorecard).  If you're wondering who you can vote against -- or, unlikely though it may be, for -- all you have to do is use the handy "Who's On Your Ballot?" website.

A Very Fine BlogMeet

...Yats was warm and uncrowded, with the usual menu of assorted Creole-over-rice dishes.

REFILLS ARE FREE.

In attendance: Joanna (yayy!), Old Grouch, Kerry (recent inheritor of a tabletop steam engine), The Jack (handgonne in hand), Don (a Cajun adrift amongst us sauvage savants) Tam and yrs trly, Roberta X.

     Conversation was all over the place, from cover stories in the copies of Concealed Carry Tam brought to pass out to Don's experienced judgement of the food ("Creole, not Cajun -- Cajun uses more tarragon and less pepper.") and Old Grouch's find of a perfectly wonderful Halloween event at the Old Centrum: silent movies!  First-rate ones!  With a real pipe organ! Johanna mentioned her latest writing projects, Kerry his search for a good "starter" ham HF transceiver (I'm at a loss; based on front-panel layout and user reports, I think highly of Icom -- their 718 looks nice -- but as a dedicated boatanchorist,  I have no experience with anything more recent than the Ten-Tec "Scout!") and it was, all-in-all, a fine old time.

     --The entree menu changes daily but I unreservedly recommend the sea-salt brownies, an extravagance of chocolate verging on heavyweight devil's food cake.

     I rode the mini-highwheel (in newsboy cap, double-breasted peajacket, jeans rolled up to just below my knees and fluorescent-yellow knee socks, 'cos if you're gonna, why stop half-way?). About midway through our gathering, a passer-by showed up, wanting to know whose bike it was and offering his compliments!  Despite being a lot of work to ride -- direct-driving a 28" wheel is not as easy as it sounds -- it's a lot of fun, too.

     At last, I have captured the essence of Tam in a photo:

Always in motion.  (But wait!  That's a white hat, not a black one.  Does this mean...other than hat color, the evil-twin Tam is exactly like the one we all know?  Eeeeeeeeeek!)

Overslept, Needed It

...But I'm much better now! (As the brilliant and likeable John Astin often said, in character as Gomez Addams.) (Ah, but see Comments: did the line only turn up much later, in his appearances on Night Court?  I thought it was a deliberate re-use but perhaps not.)

     Speaking of Mr. Astin -- still very much with us and teaching drama at Johns Hopkins University, if Wikipedia is to be believed -- it had never occurred to me that he bears quite a resemblance to Edgar Allen Poe.*  It had to him and he proceeded to -- ahem -- act on it.

     You might bear the unfortunate Poe in mind as election day approaches; there's a theory that he died of voter fraud: in the 19th Century, persons would be kidnapped off the street, drugged or liquored up, and sent forth to vote for a party multiple times, with a change of clothes (etc.) and another dose in between, going from one polling place to another.  It was called "cooping" and  worked best with alcoholics, drug addicts and vagrants.  Poe had been traveling from Richmond, Virgina to New York and was found in Baltimore, wearing clothing not his own, near a voting location and in a state of serious intoxication; he died without ever being able to give any account of how he ended up in such a condition.

     And you were wondering why in many states even now, the bars must remain closed as long as the polls are open? Now you know.
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* Possibly one reason he was chosen to play Gomez, s’il vous plaît?

Fame, Such As It Is

Fleeting -- and yet, my very favoritest Indiana State Supreme Court Justice keeps getting in the news, and always for the same thing.

    (Speaking of fame, lookit who got quoted!  Oooooo.)

     And remember, when the ballot asks, "Retain Justice Steven H. David?" the answer is NO!

October BloooooooogMeet!

Ghosties an' gobblins an' things that do The Bump! Or other long-vanished dance crazes, they're all verrry scarrrry....

Disturbing Juxtaposition

"Today's text is from the Book of Gregg..."

     (Fine, fine, it's a cult.  But their files are amazingly well organized and they keep asking if there aren't more forms they get to fill out.)