I only saw the 3 minute snippet of Sen. Arlen Specter's townhall meeting. Of some dope who stood up and railed at him for being corrupt, having cronies, etc.
And as much as I can't stand Sen. Specter, and hope he loses in the Pennsylvania primary, at least he let the old fart speak his mind. Of course it turned out he didn't have much on his mind, just a lot of generalized griping. But the guy got to leave of his own freewill, so that was something.
Try that at a Republican rally, by the way. He wouldn't have gotten in in the first place, like the old Bush rallies. Even if he had a T-shirt that seemed anti-Bush, or even a bumper sticker on his car in the parking lot(!) he would've been ushered out or excluded. (And these are the loudmouths these days complaining the most about access to their representatives.) And as for speaking his mind -- which he did -- the Republicans would've drowned him out with "USA! USA! USA!" That's how much they believe in free speech.
Now, in addition, we have some clown -- excuse the language, actual clowns -- who thought it'd be a good idea, something allowable, to take a gun to see President Obama speak. A gun! I don't remember that policy in the Bush years either, for all their crowing about Second Amendment rights.
The short story is this, cut to the chase. These people are rabble, hooligans, and obviously very selective in their outrage. Bush was overtly -- with malice -- trying to trample people's rights and they didn't let out a peep.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
It's Interesting Being Old
I've never had a problem with old people or the eventuality of getting old.
Right now I'm old if I'm thinking of ages I used to think of as old. I'm not 60 yet. But I think I read that Richard Nixon resigned the presidency when he was 61. Wow, that was young, and the guy seemed like he was around forever when I was a kid. Because he was.
I have a theory that no one is really old, but people are always the same kid they always were. You see a 90 year old person -- and if everything's functioning right, the same kid's in there somewhere.
This theory I think helps me relate to older people. Because I'm always thinking they have the same buttons we all have -- or had as kids. Just relate to them as much as equals, because we are, and everything is fine. There's no condescension and no kissing up to them based on age.
(I might've said some nasty things about John McCain's age in the campaign. But that was just political mischief.)
Right now I'm old if I'm thinking of ages I used to think of as old. I'm not 60 yet. But I think I read that Richard Nixon resigned the presidency when he was 61. Wow, that was young, and the guy seemed like he was around forever when I was a kid. Because he was.
I have a theory that no one is really old, but people are always the same kid they always were. You see a 90 year old person -- and if everything's functioning right, the same kid's in there somewhere.
This theory I think helps me relate to older people. Because I'm always thinking they have the same buttons we all have -- or had as kids. Just relate to them as much as equals, because we are, and everything is fine. There's no condescension and no kissing up to them based on age.
(I might've said some nasty things about John McCain's age in the campaign. But that was just political mischief.)
Sunday, August 9, 2009
The Intelligence of Dogs
I saw an article earlier this morning about the intelligence of dogs.
They did some experiments with dogs as to their ability to figure out basic arithmetic problems, and, according to what it said, they can handle number up to around 5. Like if you have five pieces of meat, maybe, they can keep track of how many they have left.
Maybe that's not the best example. Since my dog could keep track of a whole truck of meat.
As to the linguistic abilities of dogs, they can learn the meaning of somewhere under 200 words. And of course they can pick up your tone of voice, anger, all that.
An interesting detail is they don't seem to understand equity, I think the word is, like equal or lesser or greater values of things. Like say you gave one dog a steak and your dog a biscuit. The fact that each got something makes it OK, but if the one dog got a steak and your dog got nothing, that would not be good.
I like to think my dog is very very smart. But it sounds like, from the article, that if they have the level of a two or three year old child, you're getting about the best they can be.
They did some experiments with dogs as to their ability to figure out basic arithmetic problems, and, according to what it said, they can handle number up to around 5. Like if you have five pieces of meat, maybe, they can keep track of how many they have left.
Maybe that's not the best example. Since my dog could keep track of a whole truck of meat.
As to the linguistic abilities of dogs, they can learn the meaning of somewhere under 200 words. And of course they can pick up your tone of voice, anger, all that.
An interesting detail is they don't seem to understand equity, I think the word is, like equal or lesser or greater values of things. Like say you gave one dog a steak and your dog a biscuit. The fact that each got something makes it OK, but if the one dog got a steak and your dog got nothing, that would not be good.
I like to think my dog is very very smart. But it sounds like, from the article, that if they have the level of a two or three year old child, you're getting about the best they can be.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Microwave Popcorn
Microwave popcorn. What'll they think of next?
I'm loving this. The popcorn's in a paper bag. You take the plastic wrap off. You put it in the microwave. You wait a few minutes. And voila! It makes popcorn.
As far as I can tell, it's about the same as regular popcorn. Comes out hot. Tastes good. Not much difference. But talk about convenient!
We live in exciting times.
Maybe next time I go to the movies I can sneak my microwave in and save money. Movie popcorn seems fairly expensive.
I'm loving this. The popcorn's in a paper bag. You take the plastic wrap off. You put it in the microwave. You wait a few minutes. And voila! It makes popcorn.
As far as I can tell, it's about the same as regular popcorn. Comes out hot. Tastes good. Not much difference. But talk about convenient!
We live in exciting times.
Maybe next time I go to the movies I can sneak my microwave in and save money. Movie popcorn seems fairly expensive.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
I don't know about Twitter. It doesn't seem to be going well. At some point if you don't actually know the people, isn't it pointless?
Plus I'm wondering what the Twitterquette is about how many posts you should make. Wouldn't everyone get sick of it and "unfollow" a person if he, say, posted 1000 tweets in a day? It might be interesting to try.
Plus I'm wondering what the Twitterquette is about how many posts you should make. Wouldn't everyone get sick of it and "unfollow" a person if he, say, posted 1000 tweets in a day? It might be interesting to try.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Standing Up To The Republican Mobs
The Republican party is shameful. This message against their vile rabble rousing ought to be repeated over and over.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
More Cash For Clunkers
The Republicans have decided to allow a vote on more money for the "Cash for Clunkers" program.
I think the turning point came when Harry Reid told a little white lie, that the cash would go for the Senate Republicans' reelection campaigns. Because, of course, that would be cash for clunkers.
[Allow laughter to die down. Heh heh...]
Speaking of clunkers (cars), why don't we, the taxpayers, buy up all the clunkers, then put them in a huge storage facility and just keep them till they're classics, then sell them at a huge profit?
I've seen it plenty of times that a farmer will have an old 1919 Ford or something in his field, worthless as can be. But then a collector will show up and give him a few thousand dollars just for the old carcass.
There was a place I was at in Nebraska that had old cars lining the river bank, at a bend, to keep the river bank from washing away. It was ugly as can be but apparently effective. I always wondered if some of those cars would've been classics by now had they not been stuck on the river bank.
I think the turning point came when Harry Reid told a little white lie, that the cash would go for the Senate Republicans' reelection campaigns. Because, of course, that would be cash for clunkers.
[Allow laughter to die down. Heh heh...]
Speaking of clunkers (cars), why don't we, the taxpayers, buy up all the clunkers, then put them in a huge storage facility and just keep them till they're classics, then sell them at a huge profit?
I've seen it plenty of times that a farmer will have an old 1919 Ford or something in his field, worthless as can be. But then a collector will show up and give him a few thousand dollars just for the old carcass.
There was a place I was at in Nebraska that had old cars lining the river bank, at a bend, to keep the river bank from washing away. It was ugly as can be but apparently effective. I always wondered if some of those cars would've been classics by now had they not been stuck on the river bank.
Monday, August 3, 2009
We're Out Of Iced Tea
Hey, hey, how's this for a daisy chain of blogging? I just wrote a blog post at Dada Boheme explaining my blog posts at Grandma Slump. And now I'd like to comment on one of the true elements in the Dada Boheme post. About the iced tea.
We really were out to eat at a fancy restaurant -- fancy by local standards. And we really were having iced tea, which was pretty good too. Not like the crappy iced tea you get at Burger King, which tastes like some kind of powder three or four generations from any DNA connection to actual tea. This was good tea.
I was scrunching the lemon down with my straw, poking at it, terrorizing it, trying to extract all the juice I could, then swirling it so that lemon pulp was clouding my glass. That's beautiful, and incidentally, a pretty nice description of what I was doing. Then I was taking sips, so much so, in fact, that after a time of drinking it -- I wasn't rushing -- the glass became progressively emptier, and I'm an optimist about half-empty, half-full glasses ... but no amount of optimism could deny that this glass was finally ... empty.
The waiter, who seemed pleasant enough, saw me flagging him like he was a cab. He saw what I wanted and indicated to me these terrible words, "We're out of iced tea." OK. I might've looked disappointed but not overly so. He listed off the brands of soda pop I could get but I settled on water, which he brought.
Pretty soon there were a few individuals in the process of moving from one table to another and they came by us with a waiter accompanying them. So we could hear them clearly make their drink order, which was "Iced Tea." We looked at each other and chuckled, "They're going to be disappointed."
Maybe five, eight minutes went by. And coincidentally our own waiter was coming to our table. I said to him, chuckling, "How is it you run out of iced tea?" He's starting to explain, "We brew it in the morning and----" He doesn't have a chance to explain further, because we and he can see those folks' waiter approaching their table with a tray that has four full glasses of iced tea on it!
[Insert that it was an uncomfortable moment for someone, our waiter. It was also uncomfortable for me, because I hated to see him in that situation.] He excused himself, saying something like he would go check on the tea situation, but I didn't catch the exact words because I felt embarrassed. I'm a compassionate person, which is no secret.
He brought the new glasses of iced tea, didn't say "Sorry about that" or anything, which was just as well, because I preferred to overlook the whole thing.
Anyway, I wasn't really even in the mood for another whole glass, having already drunk the water too.
We really were out to eat at a fancy restaurant -- fancy by local standards. And we really were having iced tea, which was pretty good too. Not like the crappy iced tea you get at Burger King, which tastes like some kind of powder three or four generations from any DNA connection to actual tea. This was good tea.
I was scrunching the lemon down with my straw, poking at it, terrorizing it, trying to extract all the juice I could, then swirling it so that lemon pulp was clouding my glass. That's beautiful, and incidentally, a pretty nice description of what I was doing. Then I was taking sips, so much so, in fact, that after a time of drinking it -- I wasn't rushing -- the glass became progressively emptier, and I'm an optimist about half-empty, half-full glasses ... but no amount of optimism could deny that this glass was finally ... empty.
The waiter, who seemed pleasant enough, saw me flagging him like he was a cab. He saw what I wanted and indicated to me these terrible words, "We're out of iced tea." OK. I might've looked disappointed but not overly so. He listed off the brands of soda pop I could get but I settled on water, which he brought.
Pretty soon there were a few individuals in the process of moving from one table to another and they came by us with a waiter accompanying them. So we could hear them clearly make their drink order, which was "Iced Tea." We looked at each other and chuckled, "They're going to be disappointed."
Maybe five, eight minutes went by. And coincidentally our own waiter was coming to our table. I said to him, chuckling, "How is it you run out of iced tea?" He's starting to explain, "We brew it in the morning and----" He doesn't have a chance to explain further, because we and he can see those folks' waiter approaching their table with a tray that has four full glasses of iced tea on it!
[Insert that it was an uncomfortable moment for someone, our waiter. It was also uncomfortable for me, because I hated to see him in that situation.] He excused himself, saying something like he would go check on the tea situation, but I didn't catch the exact words because I felt embarrassed. I'm a compassionate person, which is no secret.
He brought the new glasses of iced tea, didn't say "Sorry about that" or anything, which was just as well, because I preferred to overlook the whole thing.
Anyway, I wasn't really even in the mood for another whole glass, having already drunk the water too.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Cash For Clunkers
I'm just starting to notice signs at local car places about "Cash for Clunkers" and stories about it online. Now I'm seeing a story that John McCain will be opposing more money for "Cash for Clunkers."
Why McCain is opposed to it, I don't really know. His campaign was sort of a clunker and he got all kinds of cash for that.
When it comes to Brainiacs who know what good legislation is (or bad) I don't think we should be looking to McCain. After all, his idea of a great president (vice president who might have to step in) was Sarah Palin. And we know what a clunker that idea was.
I don't think my own personal clunker would qualify for this program. Not that I've looked it up, since I'm not in the market for a car. But I think it has to be a gas guzzler and mine gets fairly good mileage.
But I'm not opposed to subsidies for other people's cars, since it's all meant to stimulate the economy. They used to just send us a check. Now they're channeling the money into a program like this, which seems more efficient. Go right to the point of sale where someone is actually spending it.
McCain and the Republicans (clunkers every one) will be opposed to this. They are, after all, afraid that something might work. They're invested in the idea that Obama must fail. So they can stand back and complain about how he failed, i.e., precisely what they wanted. (Hint: The Republicans are no good.)
Why McCain is opposed to it, I don't really know. His campaign was sort of a clunker and he got all kinds of cash for that.
When it comes to Brainiacs who know what good legislation is (or bad) I don't think we should be looking to McCain. After all, his idea of a great president (vice president who might have to step in) was Sarah Palin. And we know what a clunker that idea was.
I don't think my own personal clunker would qualify for this program. Not that I've looked it up, since I'm not in the market for a car. But I think it has to be a gas guzzler and mine gets fairly good mileage.
But I'm not opposed to subsidies for other people's cars, since it's all meant to stimulate the economy. They used to just send us a check. Now they're channeling the money into a program like this, which seems more efficient. Go right to the point of sale where someone is actually spending it.
McCain and the Republicans (clunkers every one) will be opposed to this. They are, after all, afraid that something might work. They're invested in the idea that Obama must fail. So they can stand back and complain about how he failed, i.e., precisely what they wanted. (Hint: The Republicans are no good.)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Twitter Account
I'm a little late to the Twitter scene. I looked up an old friend of mine on there who has around 100 followers. The stuff he's got on doesn't seem extremely interesting to me, very tech oriented, but he has all these followers from somewhere.
So I have an account finally. Under the name of "dbkundalini" in case anyone ever sees this and is interested. Somehow I got two followers. Which could be like when you go on MySpace, how "Tom" instantly becomes your friend. Maybe these same two followers are followers of everyone. It would seem very strange to instantly have two followers when I barely said anything. But I've said a few things.
I'll try to say a few things once in a while, whatever. Right now I'm doing my Grandma Slump character thing. Which I think is funny even if it's all a tad diffuse. I don't know if this guy is supposed to be crazy, eccentric, or exactly what. Because it's all made up as we go along.
So I have an account finally. Under the name of "dbkundalini" in case anyone ever sees this and is interested. Somehow I got two followers. Which could be like when you go on MySpace, how "Tom" instantly becomes your friend. Maybe these same two followers are followers of everyone. It would seem very strange to instantly have two followers when I barely said anything. But I've said a few things.
I'll try to say a few things once in a while, whatever. Right now I'm doing my Grandma Slump character thing. Which I think is funny even if it's all a tad diffuse. I don't know if this guy is supposed to be crazy, eccentric, or exactly what. Because it's all made up as we go along.
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