"Change?"

Yeah, right. Even some among his pet media don't buy it anymore!

I saw bits of the same speech and I was not impressed. Especially in light of the biography I'm reading; rocket engineering aside, von Braun was pretty typical of many well-off Germans: patriotic, concerned about his country, carried along by the waves of his time, unwilling to look too closely at what his government was up to and ultimately in over his head. Can't happen here? Ha.

I was never very happy about the "detainees" at Guantanamo: if they're bad dudes, shoot 'em and have done with it; if you're not sure, find out. (The West has an interesting tradition about playing "better safe than sorry" with people)[1]. But at least it was understood to be an unusual situation, limited in scope and only barely justified. Now, the present rat under the floorboards of the White House[2] proposes comin' up with some airtight, Constitutional (!) legal justification for "indefinite detention." Habeus corpus? Who he? And wanna bet it won't eventually be used on citizens?

Just remember, the first to the camps are the folks nobody likes. Eventually? Eventually nobody's allowed to like members of any group selected for the camps and we're all complicit.

Is this the "change" or the "hope" the voting public expected?
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1. And don't miss Professor Volokh's related discourse.

2. To borrow a phrase that got a CBS reporter canned when he used it to refer to Richard Nixon. Me, I think it'd be good to use a few times a year to remind whoever is Prez that we don't vote 'em to be our Gods or King and winning the election doesn't make 'em any more special than the guy who won't shut up at the cinema.

He's A Star!

Someone we all know is featured in a slideshow at NRA Blog!

The Bad Aunt

She is me. Having a nice sushi lunch with Tam, Turk and Shootin' Buddy last weekend, I had just realized I'd put entirely too much wasabi on my last bite when a slender, fair-haired teen-aged woman walked over and said, "Hi, Bobbi!"

I went blank. Who do I know who's that young? Names fled me, as they so often do.* I knew her from somewhere....

Between wasabi and panic, my expression gave it away. She looked a bit let down and said, "I'm your niece, remember?"

Right, riiight.... I have two nieces of nearly the proper age except neither one of them is especially light-haired, geeesh, okay, it can't be the one that lives a couple hundred miles away, can it? So that leaves, um, she has an older brother.... I have by now retrieved nearly all the names of relatives in her generation and those of most of their spouses. But she looks much too old to be one of those two; and just who let one of my young nieces out unchaperoned, anyway?

"Sure?" I smiled, "It's good to see you..." Name, name? Nothin', oh, geesh, yes! Got it! She has the same first name as two other cousin's spouses, "K--"

She cut in, "I'm here with some friends and just wanted to say hi!"

About then, a missed bit of wasabi hit the back of my throat, so I simply nodded and she returned to her table. Oh, that went well.

As I returned to my meal, I did a quick mental run-through of ages and....the nieces I remember playing tea-party like, ummm, last week maybe? Wrong. Majorly so: Startin' college. Driving cars. Prolly payin' bills, even.

E-mail from my Mom about not spending enough time around the family arriving in ten, nine, eight.... Wasn't quite that quick showing up but she's right.

They grow up so fast! And they won't wear name badges or even have a consistent hair color, either.
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* Sadly, I need to interact with someone fairly regularly over several months before I am able to reliably associate faces and names. This is a lack of aptitude that leads to no end of embarrassment and social awkwardness. And when it comes to the young and growing, I might as well give up and make a crib sheet with recent photos and names.

P.S. Either I can't spell "wasabi" or both spellcheckers available never heard of the stuff. Hmpf. And it's one of the best things about sushi.

Reading

...A biography of Wernher von Braun by Micheal J. Neufeld, a well-researched and somewhat agnostic account that neither idolizes or demonizes the man. I'm about halfway through (von Braun and the other members of Operation Paperclip are just about to move from Ft. Bliss to Huntsville) and it is remarkably engrossing. As an example of the dangers and rewards of never taking one's eyes off the prize, Dr. von Braun's life and career can hardly be bettered.

I heard him speak and met him briefly, very late in his life and very early in mine. His charm was undeniable even then, even to a small child seeking an autograph.

Our Civilized Pals In Saudi Arabia Dep't

Remember The Prisoner? No need for that horrible blobby thing -- a clever inventor's come up with a tracking microchip that can dose you with poison!

You first, d00d.

Da-yum, and I had just put my tinfoil hat up for the season, too.

Who Needs An Assault Weapon?

I've no sympathy for the "need" argument -- who needs to read Reason or the New York screamin' Times? That argument is well-trumped by the Bill of Rights. But the next time some ninny whines about how "assault weapons" are "only good for killing people," you send him or her to Frank W. James. See, we've killed off most of the predators of the dear little critters that eat our food (and nerf-worlders, those predators are not especially huggable or child-safe); the 'yotes and hawks are doin' what they can but the hungry rodents breed like, well, rodents, and they are eating your food or what your food eats, perhaps even your fuel including your heating supply.

It's us or them; Farmer Frank and I vote "us." With an AR-15. Bye-bye, gopher!

Don't Blame Me

...For what happens to your televisor come 0725 this ayem -- or at 1225 or 1825 today, either. I didn't do it. Well, only a little of it.

P.S.: Your Curtisony Questrinitrcavox TV, the old one with the 4:3 CRT? It's gonna turn into a buggywhip next month! Except there won't be any video Amish to still use it.* Better getcha a nice, cheap DTV converter, before the rush is on. Mortgage the kids and get a big, hi-def flatscreen!

Or you could, you know, read a book.
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* Not entirely true, low-power TV stations will still be on the air in analog for awhile longer. Not for forever, so watch 'em while you can -- if you can.

Fotos As Promised!

Teapots aghast at the Broad Ripple Art Fair:Tamara does not wish to be photographed: (Note brand-new tellyphone!)May Blogmeet. Note bloggers and readers chowing down on first-rate chow!Pretty amazing that scene is deep in the heart of a major city, hey?

Dayton 1: Sunburn. Ow.
Dayton 2: The Meter.
Who can't figure this out? There are even instructions on the back! (See Sand, Boot, stored in). Kinda kewl gadget, no?

Dayton 3: My Begali bug.
And that's it for this morning!

Content?

...I needs it. Alas, yet another busy morning (I'd love to tell you what broke but, well, it's one of those things we dassn't admit to 'til it is fixed) and a bit of an early one. Content later, I promise!

Turk Turon has a photo-essay on our weekend expeditions!

For now: Mains Plugs and Sockets of the World! Ooooo. Then there's that hobbyist fave (outside the U..S), the Belling-Lee coaxial connector. Or RF connectors generally. Enjoy!

Late add: A Brief History Of Professional Microphone Connectors. Focused on the XLR and ancestors; locking DIN types, etc. are not covered.

Back To The Grindstone

Or is it a whetstone? Somethin' abrasve. Had a wunnerful weekend, despite not getting to Phoenix and now, a bizzy week.

Speaking of sand in one's drawers, more whining from the print media. Or their attorneys. Looks to me like they just wanna be government's little lapdog. Awwww. It's so cute you could just barf. (Found via Radly Balko)

Danger Mouse?

Yeah. Danger Mouse. Found 'im via Boing Boing. If the rest of it is like the cut I'm hearin' now in terms of quality & weird, ooooooooweeee. Yowza. (Be careful lissenin', y'might get some NPR on ya. OTOH, might as well: it washes off).

Plus, go read the Boing Boing article, which describes a neatly snarky a welcome-to-the-Intarweb-Age yuck foo for EMI.

(Update: here's a little treat for those who were hoping it was the animated Danger Mouse. In this episode, oh noes! Britain's got no government! C'mon, Danger Mouse, that's a feature, not a problem).

A Very Fine BlogDay!

The day dawned bright and early, with Shootin' Buddy and Turk Turon calling at Roseholme. A deee-lightful breakfast at LePeep (hey, we did Cafe Patachou the other day, but 'Peepers is close to the range) (Tam: "There is nothing wrong with LePeep." Me: "Did I say there was? It's a fine place." Which it is. I had French Toast and bacon. Yum!) and we were off.

A bit of chill but nothing a sweatshirt didn't solve; Turk had his fightin' .45 and .38SA, I had my trusty Ruger/PacLite .22, an EAA Witness Compact in .38SA and -- of course! -- the Sistema 1911A1 .45 (ummm, who has any to spare? I'm plumb out!). Tam had an assortment of centenarian semiautos and wheelguns and SB had -- well, what he always has: everything. Lovely clear skies, good light, and we turned time and money into smoke and noise with a certain flair and elan -- to be joined by none other than Nathan, with his shooty wonders!

From there to the Broad Ripple Art Fair, with a stop by the cottage to scrub and and return irons to the safes and lockboxes. Art, she is not dead, nor do practitioners thereof insist on it's being obscure or inaccessible. --Look, many, maybe even most artists are tryin' to give you a glimpse through their mind's eye and in my brief blitz through the fair, I saw many who more than succeeded. (One of the photographer's work was especially striking for me -- wonderfully lit cityscapes of abandoned buildings and neighborhoods left to scrawl and ruin, lit and photographed almost as though they were flowers).

...And from there to the BlogMeet! --Y'all missed food. Food so good that it defies adequate description. Salmon, asparagii, pork barbecue, tomato salad, coleslaw: all of gourmet caliber. Enjoyed alfresco under a sky as clear and burnished blue as a fine ceramic bowl. Exotic soft drinks plus apple, rhubarb and sugar cream pie. And y'missed excellent conversation -- Joanna, Shermlock Sr. and Jr. (Hagbard Celine), Old Grouch, Turk, Shootin' Buddy, Tam, Mad Saint Jack...and a visiting blogreader from Milwaukee who was visiting in town and suddenly realized he was mere blocks away from the BlogMeet!

I have photographs to move from camera to computer. Lots of them!