Monday, January 31, 2011

One of These Two


One of these two is too feminine to be doing a man's
job, and the other one is welder Melissa Peters.

Too much? Hey, notice that they've got her wearing safety goggles under the welding mask? That road can lead to ouchtown if you use the head flick method to lower the mask and your goggles slip off in the process. That's when it's nice to have goggles that taste good.

Climb Faster





***Related from izi:



Why Not Take Two?




I feel bad, promoting kittahs while my auxiliary dog is at the vet for to have his wobbily-dangleies made wobbled and gone. Truth is, I had nothing to do with it. The wife made the appointment and took him down to the vet. I pretended to still be asleep when he jumped on my head this morning and informed me, "Guess what? I'm going for a ride!"

Dog One had already taken that ride so he pretended jealousy, "Oh gee, wish I could go, let me know how that works out for ya." Then he rolled around on the floor laughing once they were out the door.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Mubarak's Missteps


If you've paid any attention at all to what's been going on in Egypt this last week, you know president Hosni Mubarak is in big trouble. I'm going to get out ahead of my president here and say Mubarak should get out now. This will all be over before Obama has a position on it.

Mubarak made several fundamental mistakes. Here's an example of his failure to control the press:



No, he couldn't have shut down the New York Times. But if he'd had the tiniest bit of media savvy, he would have infiltrated the crowds with a few antiabortion protesters... and voila:



Protests? What protests? His media problems in this country would have vanished overnight.

Cracking heads was wrong. Shutting down the internet was wrong. Oppressing his people was wrong. Get out now. And let's hope Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood are afraid enough of Israel to stay out of it. (I know they aren't frightened by anything the Great Glowing Negotiator might do to them)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Fueled Up and Ready


Andrews AFB, Md., President Obama stands ready to go on
his strafing run as soon as he determines which side we're on.


On a tip from JG, this photo was supposedly impossible to manipulate in any way. (or maybe they were just denying me permission to manipulate it; yikes, if that's it: sorry) I think it's cool so long as you apologize at the same time as you transgress.

Remember Independence Day though? When the prez was a fighter pilot?


That was just fiction though. Couldn't really happen in real life...



March for Life Pictures 2011


As promised, pics from the Wonderkid, er, Thunderkid, no, Lumberkid. They started off this year in the DC Armory because the Verizon Center was full. She took a picture of the ceiling because of all of the "holes". I think the explanation they settled on was, "Well it's an armory, they must shoot the guns through the roof sometimes when they get bored.











It's really kind of spectacular. These kids, getting up at hours that I have successfully argued with previous employers don't exist, or riding buses all night, or flying in, all to make a statement about what they know is right. They slept on floors, or didn't sleep. They ate church sandwiches. They shivered. They marched.

All so silly men like Arthur Ochs Sulzberger can pretend that they don't exist. I'm sure that it's the digital age killing the once great newspapers, but I can't help but wonder if abandoning real news in favor of an agenda didn't hasten their downfall. Maybe there was once a time when being ignored by the NYT meant obscurity. Now I think it's a badge of honor.

Something is happening here but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Sulzberger.

Thanks for this kids. You're my heroes.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Not Now, I'm Busy





How to Kiss a Woman




You younger folk won't remember, but it used to be that whenever you'd kiss a woman in the old days, music would start playing. This worked everywhere, at the beach, at the movies, in the city park. That bit at the end is just Sir Shatner mixing it up I think.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

I've Got That Same Reflection





via: santyaho91

The Fly




Best part of winter: no flies.

Keeping in Tip Top Shape




Finally someone has applied science to keeping fit. That doesn't sound right. It's like they spread science across keeping fit like it was peanut butter. The science, I mean, is the thing getting spread. There, that explains it.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Couldn't Resist




I was going to have them leaving a Rohypnol super store, but I don't know if there is such a thing.

High Speed and Government Run


My incredibly good friend (depending upon your interpretation of 'incredibly good friend') Jonah Goldberg posted this Simpson's clip:



In the SOTU Obama says:

Our infrastructure used to be the best, but our lead has slipped. South Korean homes now have greater Internet access than we do. Countries in Europe and Russia invest more in their roads and railways than we do. China is building faster trains and newer airports. Meanwhile, when our own engineers graded our nation’s infrastructure, they gave us a “D.”...

... Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail. (Applause.) This could allow you to go places in half the time it takes to travel by car. For some trips, it will be faster than flying –- without the pat-down. (Laughter and applause.) As we speak, routes in California and the Midwest are already underway.

There he goes with his China envy again. I think it's great that China is building newer airports. China still needs airports. We don't. In fact, remember the John Murtha airport to nowhere?:
Inside the terminal on a recent weekday, four passengers lined up to board a flight, outnumbered by seven security staff members and supervisors, all suited up in gloves and uniforms to screen six pieces of luggage. For three hours that day, no commercial or private planes took off or landed. Three commercial flights leave the airport on weekdays, all bound for Dulles International Airport.

Lets see China match that: personal airports.

And high speed rail. Well, it's great and all but 80% of us having access to it isn't the same as 80% of us using it. In my head I'm thinking, "yes, I might use high speed rail if it was fast and clean and reasonably affordable." But this is the government. How far have the gotten in making Amtrak fast and clean and reasonably affordable?

BTW - we checked the rail option for getting the Lumberkid home from college: it was more expensive than flying.

Liability Lottery Winner


Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a man who should take one step back,
and realize that his life is way better than he ever deserved.

See? This is why everything is so expensive:
Rep. Dennis Kucinich has sued a U.S. House of Representatives cafeteria for selling him a sandwich wrap that caused dental damage when he bit into an olive pit, according to a Jan. 3 lawsuit filed in Superior Court for the District of Columbia.

The Cleveland Democratic congressman's lawsuit seeks $150,000 in damages from companies that operate the Longworth House Office Building's cafeteria.

I don't begrudge him seeking reimbursement for the dental work; even though those teeth were probably a little weak already from years of carrot munching. What frosts my dental mirror is the pain and suffering jackpot he expects.

True Love




Dexter has the same pink pig my dogs have. And he loves her. Is that so wrong?

SOTU Analysis


The genius of the plan lay in convincing the Democrats
that it was their idea to sit with Republicans.


It's a little early to come up with a complete analysis of the State of the Union Address, but I will say this: Having someone speaking on TV for well over an hour really makes it easy when you're trying to train your dogs to bark at them.

One observation, from WaPo's Jonathan Capehart:
And then, well, the speech started. Not President Obama's best. Then again, his best is anyone else's extraordinary.

Um, think about it... think about it... See?

And truth is, I only paid attention for a second. I came in as the president was talking, and I'll paraphrase: "and in Korea you know what they call their teachers? They call them nation builders..." as in "see how they have such a better attitude than us?" But does he want me to have a better opinion of teachers? Or does he want to throw more money at the teachers unions? I can assure you that I have a great respect for most American teachers... don't ask me what I think of their unions.

(and last note: that photoshop was awesome before I changed the paper on Kerry's back. Can you guess what my first choice was?)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Hokey Dokey Ladies and Genlemen




Stopleak

Heard about the Palestinian document kerfuffle, aka Palileaks? No they weren't part of Wikileaks. And there is some question about their authenticity.

But reading about them reminded me of my first reaction upon seeing accounts of American diplomatic cables in the news. It seemed to me that the only way to fight Wikileaks would be to poison the forest. There are hundreds of thousands of trees out there and you don't want people seeing them, and you can't make them go away, so what can you do? My thought was that you could toss in several thousand of your own, ersatz, trees. (ersatz- it's a kind of conifer) That is, add fake cables. Some just weird, some to counter information already leaked, some inconsequential, some preposterous.

You'd first have to take down the Wikileaks servers, then add your own -- serving doctored files. Then add whistle-blower-whistle-blower sites, trumpeting the presence of fakes and purporting to expose the bad cables. And then sites claiming to expose disinformation sites.

Most citizens wouldn't have the energy to sift through the mess; I mean, most people don't read past Yahoo headlines, right? Just muddy the water until it's impossible to tell what is real and what is not.

There's probably a flaw in my plan. And it may only work going forward, on what Sir Julian releases in the future. Plus there's the risk that some of your wildest fakes will come to be regarded as true - "Hugo Chavez has on several occasions expressed romantic interest in Rosanne Barr. See what the embassy can do to make this happen."

Still, something to think about.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Wake Up Call




Imagine my surprise when I noticed this post had gone all Multiplicity, and appeared a half dozen times. I was tempted to leave them all up, but pixel depletion issues shamed me into getting rid of most of them. I planned on deleting all the duplicates but I couldn't decide which one I liked best.

So I left these two up. You probably have a favorite; many people would pick this one because it has more writing, and seems like more value per page load. Those who appreciate direct, uncluttered, minimalist posting might favor the other.

In America you have the freedom to have an opinion. Exercise your freedom by picking your favorite. E-mail it to your friends. Maybe buy one of my "I Like the Second One" t-shirts from Cafe Press. Just don't abuse your freedom by... well, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure how you'd go about abusing the freedom to have a favorite. The whole area of Opinion Freedom Law is kind of murky.

via

Wake Up Call





via

Too Soon?





found

March Over




Well, my kid is back on her bus for a 6 hour ride back to school.

I can't bug her to send me photos of the march because she'll be busy making up for the lost day. But if I get any, I'll post them.

March for Life 2011



The March that Isn't There for 2011 is spooling up and non-coverage has already begun.

The Lumberkid is in this march, just as she has been every year since she was tall enough to not get stepped on. This is the first year she had to come to DC from out of the area though. She boarded a bus at midnight last night and rode through the night to get here. Now she's out in the bitter cold with many tens of thousands of others in The March They Pretend Isn't There. She couldn't get a seat in the Verizon Center so this year she'll rally at the DC Armory.

Imagine that, the Verizon Center and the Armory full of protesters, with even more people joining in for the march, and still the grudging news coverage is dwarfed by Jon Stewart's Lets Have Fun Rally.

When I was the Lumberkid's age Pravda could make news events disappear by just not covering them. These days, with alternative media everywhere, even Pravda can't get away with it. But still the main stream media in the US resists acknowledging the biggest recurring yearly protest in the nation's capitol. The New York Times did not print a single word about last years march. Not one.

If you're interested in the March you can tune into EWTN. The web feed seems to be overwhelmed at the moment but that may change through the day. Chances are your local cable provider carries EWTN, too.

Stay warm Lumberkid.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Christiane Amanpour You a Nice Alcoholic Beverage




JFK was killed by a nasty little Marxist and Bobby by an anti Israel zealot. They have nothing to do with political discourse today; and they certainly have nothing to do with that crazy kid in Tuscon.

The only way the JFK and Gabrielle Giffords shootings were alike was in the attempt by the media to score political points from the tragedies. Dan Rather got away with the lie that Texas school children cheered at JFK's assassination. Christiane Amanpour and her despicable friends tried to paint the entirely un-centered Jared Lee Loughner as right of center.

But Amanpour hides her mendacity behind common garden variety stupid: She claims that the Kennedy assassinations were "so traumatic that the country never fully recovered.." (at 19 sec.) What? In what area did we not recover? What aspect, what tiny slice, what minuscule bit of America is still diminished because of the assassinations? Of course we fully recovered, you ignorant cow. It's what we do.



Friday, January 21, 2011

Some Guys are Indoor Guys





Some guys are outdoor guys.

What the Hell is Wrong with These People?



MATTHEWS: Let`s start with the connection between political rhetoric and violence.....

What?

For two weeks they contend that centering symbols on a map incited an horrific shooting spree. But now it's OK to depict actual cross-hairs and a target on the capitol building?

I mean, what's going on in Chris Matthews' head? Is this "Oh no, that's not our graphic, that's what the Republicans would do."?

I think the tingle has gone up to the man's brain.

Friday Pix









from several places

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Well I Post it Here Then


Don't you hate when you read an article, have a relevant comment to make, post it, and then see that there are already 19 pages of comments? I hate that. And, I just did it again on this article:

by Mark Weaver
WMAL.com

WASHINGTON -- The Governors Highway Safety Association says pedestrian deaths increased in the first half of 2010 and the First Lady's program to get Americans to be more active could be partly responsible.

Governors Highway Safety Administration spokesman Jonathan Adkins told 630 WMAL that Michelle Obama is "trying to get us to walk to work and exercise a little bit more. While that's good, it also increases our exposure to risk."


So OK, I accept that my comment will be lost in the multitude of less enlightened postings. But that doesn't mean you should suffer. Here, have some wisdom:

(1/20/2011 5:57:16 PM)
The article is misleading because it assumes that people have listened to Michelle and are walking more because of it. It's just not true.

It's true that on Michelle's organized walking events there have been more fatalities than you would expect, but that's because she dares people to dash across streets with their eyes closed. Most people won't try it but after near constant taunts of "chicken" someone will usually give in. The resultant accident always stops traffic; at which point Michelle will close her eyes and run past the scene shouting, "See? I can do it. I told you, I do it all the time."
- lumberjack


Unions


Richard Epstein gets it:

I just read this scary story in the Daily Caller, which confirms my worst fears about the Obama Administration and its relationship to organized labor. About two years ago, I wrote a book length study on behalf of employer organizations called The Case Against the Employee Free Choice Act, which sought to explain the enormous dangers of any efforts to strengthen the statutory protections of labor monopolies.

In working on that book, I was struck by how little success unions had had in winning labor contracts at the bargaining table under a set of stable labor rules that have been tilted in their favor for the past 50 or so years. The gist of the situation is that workers are now keenly aware that the short term promise of union riches often leads to a loss of jobs in an ever more competitive global economy.


Just look what unions did for Detroit.

BTW- I'm not against all unions. One of my first jobs was at District Photo, a company that sorely needed a union. I worked on film processing equipment that was manned by a vast army on single mothers and college students. They were paid peanuts, denied bathroom breaks, and had little prospect of advancement. They needed a union. And a couple of friends and I tried to start one.

Fast forward 20 years and I'm working in a union shop for a supermarket chain. I still do repair work but it's only because I like to. I could take the attitude of our shop steward, who comes in every morning, takes a repair job that should take an hour to complete, and milks it for 8 hours. The supervisor has learned not to suggest he go on to accomplish other work, because a union grievance would result. So the supervisor swallows his anger; even when he knows that there's nothing wrong with the equipment this guy is "fixing".

So this guy was getting paid roughly double the going wage for our industry and was doing one-eighth the work. (oh, and stealing food as well) What a perversion of the concept of unions protecting the worker. Who protects the company?

Not Obama.

How to Cook Good


  1. Cut the green pepper in half and remove the ribs and seeds.
  2. Go out and get a big bowl of ice cream swimming in a sea of butterscotch syrup.



It Was Cold That Day


Not my picture, but my photoshop.


I'm not pretending to be the guy in the middle, he's pretending to be me.

Talented Prez





The man can paint.

Note to followers: I don't want to find out that these photoshops have incited any of you to riot, break flower pots, or yawn.

***From the comments: "he needs a marlboro hanging from his lips. as a one time 30yr smoker, i *know* he couldn't concentrate without one."

Done:



***OK, another update - apparently I misunderstood. This should take care of that:




Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Apples, Oranges


Jonathan Martin, at Politico, has to know this is wrong:

In the span of a single news cycle, Republicans got a jarring reminder of two forces that could prevent them from retaking the presidency in next year.

At sunrise in the East on Wednesday, Sarah Palin demonstrated that she has little interest — or capacity — in moving beyond her brand of grievance-based politics. And at sundown in the West, Barack Obama reminded even his critics of his ability to rally disparate Americans around a message of reconciliation.

Palin was defiant, making the case in a taped speech she posted online why the nation’s heated political debate should continue unabated even after Saturday’s tragedy in Tucson. And, seeming to follow her own advice, she swung back at her opponents, deeming the inflammatory notion that she was in any way responsible for the shootings a “blood libel.”

Obama, speaking at a memorial service at the University of Arizona, summoned the country to honor the victims, and especially 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, by treating one another with more respect. “I want America to be as good as Christina imagined it,” he said.

It’s difficult to imagine a starker contrast.

I only caught a few minutes of the Obama rally, but I read the speech. At no time does Obama address accusations that his rhetoric caused the shooting rampage. Course, nobody had accused him of being an accessory to murder. See Jonathan, Obama and Palin were starting out from two different places; Sarah couldn't have taken the same path as the president.

Faster Daddy Faster




We Found Your Chainsaw



Now they want some sort of reward.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Ironically?




"Ironically it came from a hard core liberal"
That word, Geraldo, ironically. I do not think it means what you think it means. See: predictably.



Nicotine Kills, and Kills, and Kills, and Kills


EurekaAlert has the latest oh-no-it's-worse-than-we-thought:

Scientists are reporting that so-called "thirdhand smoke" — the invisible remains of cigarette smoke that deposits on carpeting, clothing, furniture and other surfaces — may be even more of a health hazard than previously believed. The study, published in ACS' journal, Environmental Science & Technology, extends the known health risks of tobacco among people who do not smoke but encounter the smoke exhaled by smokers or released by smoldering cigarette butts.

Yael Dubowski and colleagues note that thirdhand smoke is a newly recognized contributor to the health risks of tobacco and indoor air pollution. Studies show that that nicotine in thirdhand smoke can react with the ozone in indoor air and surfaces like clothing and furniture, to form other pollutants. Exposure to them can occur to babies crawling on the carpet, people napping on the sofa, or people eating food tainted by thirdhand smoke.

I like that: tying in babies. Yes, and they're crawling on the carpets of death! Well played sirs. But you neglect the biggest threat of all, which is fourth-hand smoke.

When you've heeded the Scientists' warnings, and you've quit smoking, and you've avoided secondhand smoke, and scrubbed your house clean of third hand smoke, you think you're safe. But in scrubbing that toxic house clean you have inadvertently contaminated yourself with third-hand residue, which will later expose anyone you come in contact with to fourth-hand smoke. Shake their hand = seal their fate.

And there's no way you can prove that fourth-hand smoke isn't the deadliest of them all.

But if you've accidentally exposed others to fourth-hand smoke, don't be to hard on yourself. Yes, you've probably caused a few deaths, but on the bright side, your impact was nothing compared to the damage done by the fifth-hand smoke spreaders you infected. They're probably out there right now, touching children's faces and petting baby ducks.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Mmm-mmm Good


Jonah Goldberg found Debbie, who found Paula Deen's recipe of the week:

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
  • 2 cans (14 1/2-ounces) English peas, drained

Directions

Melt the butter in small pot and add the peas. Cook over medium heat until peas are warm.


Which, ok, sure, it's no deep fried Snickers bar, but it's still genius cooking. Anyway, best bit: read the comments.

BTW- You would think this is the perfect recipe, but I've improved on it. Ready? Step 3: add salt. Oh yeah, now do the end-zone dance in front of the stove. Amazing that the Food Network hasn't offered me my own show, huh?

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

fighting101s.jpg