Sorry for the lack of posts

I have decided to suspend my blog posting until Congress is able to put together a financial bailout package to save our nation's economy.

Either that or I've not had anything worth sharing. Such is life these days, as I'm spending spare minutes working on the den (still!) and watching Jen expand.

"America's Most Wanted" is in town filming this week ...

http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2008/09/26/news/news01.txt


And Tony Alamo was arrested ...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iM_k_Z5_nC3gb0btse0fgEAFl4RAD93EKF201

Pastafarians 1, Westboro Baptist Church 0

For some odd reason, the Westboro nutjobs decided to protest in downtown Little Rock today. They're the family/cult devoted to Fred Phelps who go around protesting at the funerals of homosexuals, soldiers and anybody not in their cult.

But in Little Rock, they were met with a band of Pastafarians. Dressed as pirates, they counter-protested. And the Phelps whackos packed up and left.

Bonus points for the Pastafarians: Today's protest was held on Talk A Like A Pirate Day.


http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2008/09/way_to_go_matie.aspx

Road trip!

The surviving members of the Grateful Dead and the Allmans will be playing a benefit for Obama at Penn State.

If nothing else, Obama's musical tastes are better than McCain's.

How to protect your car in a hurricane

Photo from KTRK's Web site ...

They've declared war on the media ...

and it's time for the media to fight back. Or so says a Philadelphia Daily News blogger.

So how do we fight this war? Let's change the rules! Here are some suggestions:

1) From now through Nov. 4, let's not make fact-checking a secondary task, but our No. 1 duty -- the thing that belongs on Page One, not on A17 (and in the upper corner of our Web sites, as soon as a new ad or dubious claim hits the airwaves.) In an era when campaigns have enormous control over the message and the news cycle, fact-checking in the one value-added service that only a newsroom can bring, a real contribution to the democratic process. We've seen in 2008 that we're not keeping the candidates' honest, but WE can go over their heads to the public.

2) Now is the time to lose our pathological fear of the word "lie." It's not only a perfectly good word in the English language, but it's the best word when a politician says "red" and the undisputed truth is "green." We talk and talk and talk about our right to a free press in America -- well this is what a free press is all about, when we are free to decide when someone is empirically dishonest and to tell our community all about it.

3) This one isn't my idea -- it was Marc Ambinder's, I believe -- but it's a great suggestion so I'm going to pass it along. Increasingly, campaigns are developing "commercials" that aren't even broadcast but appear only on their Web site, with the main purpose that we then write stories about them. Let's not. If they want people to see their video press releases, there's plenty of ways to do that without involving us.

4) Ditto for the candidates' families. They don't want us to cover their kids -- so we shouldn't. That means no more stories about Bristol Palin's pregnancy, but also no more stories about Palin's son fighting in Iraq, or puff pieces about her raising a special needs child (like this one) or cute photo spreads of the Obama kids, etc. A rule is a rule.

5) In our diminished state, journalists need to think of ourselves as less as competitors and start thinking of ways that we collaborate more often, with our common goal of amplifying the truth and reaching as many voters as possible in the next seven weeks. When one news organization has a scoop that peels away the layers of deception and spin, 2008 is the time to stop the old games of ignoring it or cutting down, and let's all push it forward. (It's too late for this time, but in 2012 I'd love to see something like the Arizona Project for presidential elections, when newsrooms pool their resources to get the full measure of the candidates.) The ability to divide and conquer is one reason that candidates get away with their lies.

6) Think outside the box -- way outside the box. Make truth-telling our crusade, but don't make it deathly dull -- call ourselves "The Truth Party" and post our own Internet "campaign ads" disproving THEIR campaign ads on our Web sites -- and for God sakes make them funny. Remember what Janice Joplin/Kris Kristofferson said, that freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. If there was ever a time to be free, to experiment, to be in a war and actually fight back, that day is today!

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Theyve_declared_war_on_the_media_--_so_its_time_to_fight_back.html

Can I get this on a shirt?

I might need to order this

Found this logo at an online tee shirt shop ...

@#$%&* Construction Masters!!!

So we're having a closet built in the den for extra storage. I thought about doing it myself, but decided to hire it out so it'd be done right.

As usual, dealing with Construction Masters is maddening. Here's a summary of my day today ...

"Sure, Scott, we'll be there Monday morning between 8-9." - Friday at noon.

"Well, I don't know where the crew is I gave the job to. I'll send a second crew right over." -10 a.m.

"Sorry, we got hung up at the shop getting supplies." - 1 p.m.

"Well, looks like we'll need to go get some extra 2x4s. We'll be back in half an hour." - 1:45 p.m.

"Did the boss say this would be a one day job?" - 3:10 p.m.

"That's about all we can do for today. We'll be back tomorrow morning between 8-9." - 4:37 p.m.

You know what "That's about all we can do for today" means? Carrying in some drywall and paneling. Stacking 2x4s outside. Pulling quarter-round and molding. Taking some measurements.

For that, I spent a vacation day.

We Are Everywhere II

No matter which party wins the November election, a Steelers fan will be VP.

That's right, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin both share a rooting interest in the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers.

Palin ...

She relishes moose burgers because "they taste better than beef with no chemicals, steroids or hormones." She adopted the Pittsburgh Steelers because of the team's success in the 1970s and because there are no major professional teams in her state.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/vassilaros/s_517252.html

Biden ...

On Friday night, when Obama and Biden met Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, Biden recounted how "Old Mr. Rooney" -- Steelers owner Dan Rooney -- dispatched some players from his championship team to the hospital room in Wilmington where Biden's two toddler sons, Beau and Hunter, were recovering from the accident. They brought the boys an autographed football as a Christmas present.

"And I have been a Steelers fan since that day," Biden told Tomlin.

"Not much has changed," Tomlin responded.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/31/AR2008083101954_2.html?referrer=emailarticle

Who says there isn't common ground between the two parties!?!

I heart The Daily Show

Especially when it points out the hypocrisy of political hacks ...

Never Again

What'd you do Wednesday night?

I spent two hours in Hell, or as it's known in Fort Smith "The Growing Kids Consignment Sale."

Angie said we just had to attend. There were bargains galore. Strollers that go for $300 new sell for $50. Kids' furniture, clothes, diaper bags, you name it they've got it.

On the plus side, the people running this thing are sticklers about what they accept for the sale. Teeny little stain? Nope, won't accept it. Missing a button? Sorry, no thanks. And, thanks to Angie putting Jen's name on some of her own kids' clothes, we got to go on Wednesday night before it was open to the general public.

On the minus side, it was overwhelming. Here's a photo of the setup from the sale's Web site (yes, it has a Web site) ...




(Click on the photo and you can get a bigger look at it.)

Now if Wednesday was like that photo, I'd have been fine. But imagine a few hundred women, dozens of kids running loose and a sprinkling of men carrying the piles of clothes being bought. And I do mean piles. People were using 50-gallon trash cans as shopping carts and were filling them up.

Naturally, these women were ruthless too. They'd nudge you with the strollers they were buying to get you to move when they wanted to look at something. I had one woman ask me if I was going to buy a diaper bag ... that I was holding in my hands! (We did buy it. Laura Ashley, $10 and in perfect condition.)

Luckily, the next time there's one of these sales I won't be attending. I'll pull a Jason and say "Sorry, but somebody has to stay home with the baby."

I thought of Sean (and Sean)

On storm stories, TV reporters are required to interact with the weather and become, potentially, human sacrifices to it.

This makes weather reporting different than every other kind of breaking TV news story. No one covers a house fire by rushing into the burning building, or reports on a war by doing stand-ups in the middle of a tank battle.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102740.html?hpid=topnews

So TV guys, why do y'all insist on standing out in the rain and wind? I mean, aside from the ratings.

I'll miss you most of all, Comfy Chair

When I was a kid, we had a hound dog named Red. One day, he was gone and Mom said Dad had taken him up to the cabin. Our yard, despite being a double lot, was too small for him she said. And at the cabin, he could chase rabbits and have more fun.

I never did see that dog again.

Hopefully, the same won't happen to Comfy Chair.

I loaded her up on the Jeep today for the trip to the cabin.



Once we got there, I put her in a place of honor in the bedroom my branch of the family sleeps in during hunting season. In fact, she's right next to my bunk now.



So after years of dedicated service, countless football games on TV, hours and hours of PlayStation, thousands of meals eaten while sitting on her and lots and lots of naps, she's now retired to the country. Where, hopefully, she'll have several more good years serving as a spot to sit while putting on hunting boots and post-hunt napping.

(And yes, Jennifer is horrified the slip cover was that grungy.)