It is 2008

...where the filk is my atomic powered personal jet pack?

...my personal roof landing ornithopter?

...my amphibious Cadillac?

...my sub-orbital super sonic shuttle so I can race sunrise for a real night out?

...my Great Wheel in the Sky turning to the strains of Also Sprach Zarathustra ?

...my Turing Tested AI personal assistant?

...my County Fair Real Rocket Rides for a sawbuck?

...my Replicant Android double?

... my household robot/coffeemaker?

... my hand held phase disruptor?

My point (and I might just have one somewhere) after the flip...

Things Not to Do in November...

* Don't sit still for a minute if Rahm et. al. try to claim even a tenth of the credit for the coming blowout. This may well be the death of the GOP of the last generation or two, and it should be the end of the DLC.

* Don't think it will be easy. The true shitstorm of mammoth proportions has yet to arrive. Even with a progressive leaning congress and competent President, you will still have arrayed against you the same powerful forces that screwed up by backing Bush and his ilk thus far.

* Don't think for even a minute that that last bit is a reason to feel the other side is bound to fail through stupidity. It's taken eight years too long to end this nonsense, hasn't it? Stay on your feet.

(More on the flip)

...The Prime Minister said Mr. Bernier decided to resign yesterday afternoon after he realized he had left classified government documents in an insecure area.[his girlfriend's apartment]

"She found it and she returned it," the source said.

Ms. Couillard was thrust into the headlines earlier this month when it was revealed she had been married to a member of a Quebec biker gang in the late 1990s and had dated another biker before that.

On catching the eye of U.S. President George Bush at a reception in New York:

"Mr. Bush had a reception at the Waldorf Astoria hotel and we were invited. I had a chance to meet him.… As I approached, Mr. Bush said, 'Maxime, well, well, well haven't you been keeping good company.'"

Both from the National Post

When I was a little kid, we didn't have a lawn. We lived in tenement apartments until I was nine or ten.


The grass was mostly a four block walk away.


My Dad and Mom scrimped, saved, and worked, and got us enough savings to first rent, then buy a Duplex with actual front and back yards.


Bored yet? Meet me on the flip.

"Hope is a good thing - maybe the best thing, and no good thing ever dies"

Stephen King

The only Crusty Old Fart Rant that you will read this week that is guaranteed 100% John McCain free.

(Except for onelittle part in the beginning, and you're safely past that!)

On with the whining!

But first, the "legal"...

WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?

and... hey, you kids - get off my lawn!

I wrote this last year. I can't think of anything that has changed appreciably in the interim.

Remember that thou art dust and unto dust thou shall return.

From the prescribed service for Ash Wednesday

Them's Good Eatin'

WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here. Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?

41 CE Caligula [Gaius Caesar Germanicus], Roman emperor (37-41), assassinated at 28 by his Praetorian Guard.

Note: Check the links.

Really.

In "Madam President" Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian correspondent, has written a book about Hillary Clinton that is worth reading. But first, in all honesty, though I can claim to never have met Suzanne Goldenberg, correspondent for the Guardian, I must admit that 25 years ago I knew Suzie Goldenberg, Editor in Chief of the McGill Daily ("The Red Rag"). I was once young enough to wrestle an old fridge up to her loft apartment. My how time flies. On to the book after the fold.

It is in the juxtaposition of facts of historic excellence and timeless mediocrity that one most clearly approaches that nadir of nausea and vertigo.

Come, join me, as we examine why, specifically, today - January 17 - blows dead bears

Today on Why Today Blows Dead Bears we deal with irrevocable decisions. Not that these decisions in themselves blow, but there's that damn uncertainty over them.

I mean - what separates a visionary bit of boldness from a lucky guess? I ask (with trepidation) if George's "Surge", even his whole fumble in Iraq, could one day gain a new sense of historical necessity if not inevitability.

That would truly blow dead bears.

More after the flip.

"A second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience."

Samuel Johnson

January - a whole new month in a whole new year.

New beginnings, new resolve, new hopes and dreams.

..and how is that working out for you so far?

Today's theme on WTBDB is the

Triumph of Experience over Hope.

(Note - I was going to post WTBDB as usual on Thursday, but I'm starting something new tomorrow. I'm very hopeful about it, needless to say.)

Sacajawea reportedly died on this day in 1804. All deaths are sad, but it would be truly sad if that lady hadn't died, if you think about it for a minute.

Imagine if she hadn't died? She'd be more than 200 years old by now. Imagine the poor life of a 200 year old Native woman today in America. From all the evidence of native life today, it would probably not have been a good one.

Maybe it would have been a happier outcome if she told them two Yinglish explorers, Lewis and Clark, to go get lost on their own.

In 1809, on this day, Jane Todd Crawford became the first recorded survivor of abdominal surgery in America when she was relieved of a 22 pound ovarian tumor... without benefit of any anaesthesia.

I know just how she feels. Today is just that kind of day.

WYFP is our community's Saturday evening gathering to talk about our problems, empathize with one another, and share advice, pootie pictures, favorite adult beverages, and anything else that we think might help. Everyone and all sorts of troubles are welcome. May we find peace and healing here.
Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?

Prejudice.

prej·u·dice (prj-ds)
n.
1.
a. An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts.
b. A preconceived preference or idea.

2. The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions. See Synonyms at predilection

I admit it, I'm prejudiced. I feel no real need to change, as this benighted condition appears to work well for me.

Those who know me, both here and in what amounts to my real life, know that I am a somewhat unlapsed left wing Roman Catholic, spending this lifetime (undeservedly) with a too good for me devotee of Chogyejong Buddhism.

They also have probably heard that I like to joke and say that we are both compromising our belief systems and raising our daughters as Mormons.

Today this little unwitty throwaway line gained resonance for me. More on the flip.

Those who know me, know that I am Canadian. If I were to find myself one day being American, I suppose I would have to be a Democratic party member. I mean, since the Progressives haven't had a prayer since LaFollette, there isn't much choice, is there?

But, you see, I'm a Knee Dipper, and according to the prevailing political wisdom in your country and media, I would be considered to be slightly to the

left of Mao Tse Tung.