Tagged

...I have been tagged with a meme. As happens, I am right now a little over halfway through working 2.5 shifts in two days with insufficient sleep, and as satisifying the geas* requires tagging several others (hide now. You have been warned), I've not had a chance to do so. Startin' ta itch me.
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* Look it up!

I'm Pretty Sure Someone's Being Insulted Here

It's the anniversary of MLK's assassination. While most of his political views were worlds away from my own -- at least I agree on the importance of judging people on their own merits and not their genetic heritage -- no one bein' peaceably political, indeed, no one not presenting an immediate physical threat to others, deserves to be shot down. Dr. King was the victim but a degree of civility was lost as well.

On that very day, Robert Kennedy spoke in Indianapolis, and addressed the news. Local media delights in pointin' out how, on that day, Indianapolis had no riots. Peace was maintained. --Probably barely but it was. Okay; that's a good thing. And there were riots in some other cities. Not all, but some.

On the other hand, I'm not so sure we should hand quite so much glory to any politician. It seems to me that level-headed individuals of every color were the folks who made the difference that day. To assume that lacking the blandishments of one of our Great Leaders the streets would have run red with blood is to give ordinary people far too little credit. It is an essentially racist belief based in speculation.

Choose your myths carefully.

Cutting Off Your Wings To Spite Your Culture?

Indianapolis-based ATA Airlines has gone belly-up. Parked the planes and sent everyone home. News reports cite record fuel prices and loss of military charter business but I’m wondering, too, at the additional ongoing impact of TSA’s let’s-make-air-travel-inconvenient policies security theatre. Certainly it has made me far less likely to take commercial flights.

Well, that’s one way to fix the highjacking problem we’re not having: run all the airlines outta business. That’ll show those evildoers!

Won’t it?

The Social Whirl

Yesterday noon, Tam and I enjoyed a delightful lunch with Alan of Snarky Bytes (The father of the Annotated Future -- optics + GPS = informational popups!). He's a fascinating conversationalist with an interesting career and hobbies. I was sorry not to have more time to spend.

It's been a busy couple of days -- we'd met a reader of both our blogs at Broadripple Brewpub the evening before and he, too, was an intelligent gentleman with a unique perspective on world events.


Profiling?
I've noticed a number of shared interests and habits in many gunbloggers/readers. We tend to self-select, so it's not unexpected but it is interesting.
Partial list:
- Fond of spicy food
- coffee/caffiene
- chocolate
- Science Fiction
- Military History (and related historical fiction)
- Own an unsual amount of books in the previous two categories and many more; will pretty much read everything within reach.
- "They all carry knives" IMO, that's just practical good sense, though as a group, we seem to tend to unusual and/or high-quality steel.
- Eclectic taste in music
- motorcycling (et vehicular cetera)
- a tendency to "do the homework:" read manuals, get training, learn from others.

Could be my results are skewed by sample size.

Like An ATM For Lowlives*

A few years back, they put in a Starbucks at College Ave. and Fall Creek Parkway. It's a hardscrabble kind of neighborhood, caught between gentrification a couple blocks South side of Fall Creek and the slow, inexorable growth of Broad Ripple (Actually, SoBro, the Southern boundary of Broad Ripple being either Kessler or 54th St., depending on who you ask).

Fine, fine, there was a lot of blather about revitalization, nobody forced Starbucks to open up at that location, there's plenty of traffic and it's got a drive-through so commuting yuppies can feel all nice about helpin' the poooor without having to so much as set foot on the ground. Good for them and no bother to me, since I won't drink Starbucks brew. (I drink coffee, not bizarre concoctions frothed up in a machine, flavored with heaven-only-knows and served hot enough to parboil a mouse).

As inevitably happens when you go to a tough neighborhood and put up a nice shiny whatever patronized by yuppies and other outsiders, the place got robbed last night. Local television news is expressing great outrage of the "how dare they" sort, cloaked in a thin veil of suburban we-tried-to-help-them amazement.

...Grow up, vid-kids. Most of the people in that neighborhood are nice, law-abiding folks; perhaps reticent with outsiders but having lived in like areas, I know it's not without reason: the suit'n'tie on a Lexus is like as not to be shoppin' for dope or what is politely referred to (listen up, politicians) as a "date," quotes and all.

Most people everywhere are good and decent. And some are not. When a nice, shiny business shows up amidst the downtrodden, not everyone there will react to the opportunity thus offered in quite the same way; not everyone will welcome it with open arms and some few will look on it in the same manner that a small boy looks at a cookie jar. And with the same end result.

What's surprising is that this surprises anyone.

Update:
Thanks for linky-love! ...Seems a blog about "neighborliness" (as defined, established and policed by large committees in our metropoli, well-known havens of the open hand, friendly smile and cheerful lending of a cup'a sugar) has cited the media coverage as an example of reactionary badness. Initially I took umbrage, thinkin' my (snarky) take was being looked down upon; the blog's owner says au contraire, 'twas not the case. Okay; thanks for taking the time to explain.
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* Tam's title. I offered to not use it but she threatened to cry have the cats throttle me in my sleep. Gonna hafta get her to take her own temperature -- I fear she's come over all altruistic or somethin'.

H'mmm?

What does it say about the Tam and Roberta household that we watched Boondock Saints last night and Topsy-Turvey this afternoon an' enjoyed 'em both?

"Better back off, d00d -- they're well-armed and erudite..."

Balkanization Now

Tam has posted about the California exodus; there are Vermont separatists, NH secessionists, folks lookin' to revive the Texas Republic an' plenty of people ready to run a sawzall down the Mason-Dixon line an' y'know what?

I say lets do it. It's time. IL (or perhaps just Cook County/Chicago and its ADI) really should be its own little hoplophobic police state; NY and CA ought to be able to follow their hearts to full membership in the EU.

Squeaky points to the Federal Reserve's presiding over what is surely an impending meltdown and that is but one of the many delightful ways in which the Federal Union has created more mess than utility. It's what they do.

This has not always been the case but it is now. I have a deep sentimental fondness for the nation created by the Founders and Framers, but it's outlived its usefulness and become a burden on the States. It's time to pull the plug. Oh, we'll set up some loose military alliance to keep the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines goin' but the rest of it, from NASA to HUD to the DEA, they can hold bake sales, ask for donations or just shut up shop.

The States will still be there; oh, they'll change, they'll form their own alliances -- perhaps we'll see Jefferson or Franklin reborn; perhaps southern Illinois will hook up with Missouri and the central regions will ally with Iowa. Who knows? --But it's gotta be better than the mess we've got now. Look, it's already like crossing an international border to go from IN to IL, or enter CA from anywhere; might as well go whole hog.

Balkanization now! Why not?

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(Posted mostly in jest but, y'know....?)

Still Sleepy

Maybe I'm fightin' somethin' off? --We've had various sorts of whooping whatever goin' around at the Skunk Works, including a variety that turns tenors into baritones. Presumably it would turn a contralto into Phyllis Diller but who wants to find out?

Whaddevvah. Pried my lazy self from the sack promptly at 0830, or was it nine? Ate what we had handy -- oatmeal, coffee. Scrubbed up, geared up, stuffed a magic-heat dealie in my sweatshirt pocket, got out the scooter and toodled to the bank, getting the usual surprised look from motorists, it being coldish despite the sunshine. Stopped off t'the market and picked up ingredients for basic breakfast hash (bacon, eggs, taters), returned home, cooked, ate, and have done zilch since other than laundry, which is not hardly really even work. Still sleepy!

Well, there's always Sunday.

Sleeeeeeepy

I'd post something trenchant and witty but
I
am
just
too
sleepy.

...Came home from work, hopped on the scooter and went to pick up dinner at Yats. Miss Tam said, "Pick up a pack'a smokes on the way, willya?" and off I went.

Rolled up to Neighborhood Petrol neat as can be, parked the Chetak, bought a pack, left 'em at the gas station and did not even realize it 'til I was parked at the eatery waiting for our order and Joe walked by sayin' Howdy. So I made up for it by abandoning two exotic soft drinks -- for which I had paid -- when they handed me the rest of dinner.

Impressive. Not.

Someone that spacey should not be operating a two-wheeled motorized vehicle on city streets, not even a little one, even more so as night is fallin'. It's a wonder I did not forget to breathe.

Which I just about did after dinner -- ran a tub, climbed in with an old Poul Andersen paperback and fell asleep for about a half-hour, with no harm to the book thanks to years of practice.

And so here I am. And I'm still sleepy. G'nite!

I'm So Chaste

Or something.


Yet in real life, I more than keep up with Tam. Go figure!

We Sprung Mom X

...Sprung her from hospital yesterday (and by "we," I mean my siblings, as I am pretty much stuck with work and long hours at present -- not happy about that but it is the nature of The Beast).

She'll be on the high-end anti-coagulants for a spell yet -- some of which combine expense and inconvenience in wholly new ways. She points out that this is infinitely better than the real-world alternative, which would be "none."

Her little dog -- supposedly a miniature doberman, though it's more like a black and brown beach ball with legs -- took to her bed and refused to eat the whole time she was away.

My thanks and Mom's as well for the kind thoughts and prayers. She's sounding really good and the docs are confident matters are under control.

The Calico Cat and the Gingham Dog

The spitball fight between Democratic candidates Clinton and Obama (which has a good many Democrat voters looking to John McCain -- small surprise there) was reminding me of something, it was right on the tip of my mind for over a day -- and then realization struck: Eugene Field's The Duel --

The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;
'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)
Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!
The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
Appeared to know as sure as fate
There was going to be a terrible spat.
[...]
The gingham dog went " Bow-wow-wow!"
And the calico cat replied "Me-ow!"
The air was littered, an hour or so,
With bits of gingham and calico,
[...]
Next morning where the two had sat
They found no trace of dog or cat;
And some folks think unto this day
That burglars stole the pair away!
But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: they ate each other up!

If your childhood reading didn't include this delight, you'll find the entire poem here.