The Evil Sandmich

Colorado Thoughts #1

2012-02-02T00:46:00.001-05:00

I'm sure it's only a reflection of the few places that I've been between Denver and Boulder, but this place sure seems crowded. While driving in initially the place seemed like Cleveland, with fewer blacks, more Mexicans and mountains instead of lake. I have to say though, the traffic is better in Cleveland, so I guess it's more like Chicago... ...with a green mafia instead of a real one. At

Birthday Cake

2012-01-19T21:59:00.000-05:00

I've long not been a fan of cake. They're generally bland and lifeless for a desert with none of the charm of their 'pie' cousins. A few times for my birthday however, my mom made me a German Chocolate cake, which is the greatest cake ever (at least among cakes which don't also have the word 'cheese' in front of it....unless it also has the words 'German Chocolate' in front of the word 'cheese'

PC Leadership

2012-01-19T21:29:00.000-05:00

My current study material is, um, yes, "Fundamentals of Organizational Behavior". Try sticking your teeth in that doughnut and not hitting the hole! Anyway, being college material it is, of course, PC to a 'T'. However this humdinger from the 12th edition of Organizational Behavior by Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy A. Judge can't go uncontested: The terrorist attacks of September 11th brought

The Lucas Bombers

2012-01-12T20:52:00.000-05:00

Instapundit links to this article about the trouble George Lucas had in getting his movie made about the Tuskegee Airmen. It notes: And still, over the course of 23 years, Lucas could not find a single one of the Hollywood studios that would be interested in the project. Did the studio gatekeepers deem the material not “marketable” enough? Lucas certainly seems to think the studios saw the

Know Nothings

2012-01-09T10:04:00.000-05:00

Not in the classic sense mind you, but in the literal sense. Hot on the heels of passing a law of dubious constitutionality that allows for the military to round up U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and detain them indefinitely (basically because the bunch of pussies in our government can't bring themselves to shoot/hang the goons in Guantanamo), Congress is looking to put the smack down on the

That is a Great Line

2012-01-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means

No Takers

2011-12-26T18:47:00.002-05:00

This is an interesting article that tries to set out the idea that the 'lost decades' in the Japanese economy are a lie. The author writes: I feel so strongly about all this that I have more than once over the years challenged the principal proponents of the "lost decades" story to a debate. I first tried in 1998; and then again in 2002. On each occasion there were no takers. He appears to

Printing Coins

2011-12-13T17:24:00.000-05:00

ZeroHedge notes that the Treasury is moving away from 'minting' dollar coins. It seems that a large percentage of the coins have been landing back at the Treasury because no one wants/needs them. The best suggestion I see around this is to mint dollar coins that actually carry some 'melt value' rather than a small, metal, inconvenient version of a dollar bill. (What I'd heard, but am too lazy

Facebook

2011-12-12T21:53:00.001-05:00

I can't take one more minute of pretending that I care about Facebook and people asking me if I'd read stuff on it that was posted months ago. What's worse is the stuff that I post there is even more worthless than the stuff I post here, which boggles the mind!* Anyway, I've nuked my account and don't care to be back on. That is all. *Like Facebook birthday greetings. If you do not get a

Hoochyana

2011-12-08T17:39:00.000-05:00

Mission successful! I was able to brew up about seven gallons of hard pear cider in this last run: This will get added to what I have left of my last batch of pear cider, the couple bottle of beers that I have left, and the two or so gallons of hard apple cider that I have bottled. It sounds like a lot, but myself and Dr. DrinkingBuddy had no issue knocking out a gallon and a half of the

Pearl Harbor Day

2011-12-07T14:55:00.001-05:00

Nothing makes me happier on Pearl Harbor day than to have my Japanese Uniqlo clock back on my blog! A funny story on the radio this morning came from a sports announcer who told how moving it is to go to the Pearl Harbor memorial. His story started out "First you get on a boat to go to the memorial, and you will be the only non-Japanese person in the boat...". He was harsh about it, but I took

Poor As Cover For Rich Looting

2011-12-06T19:55:00.001-05:00

From Glenn Reynolds, Megan McArdle notes: Runs on financial markets, as far as I can tell, do not righteously limit their damage to rich jerks who didn't need the money anyway. In fact, the people who suffer the worst from a rapid contraction of the credit markets are the poor. They're the ones who actually end up hungry and on the street when companies start failing and they can't get jobs.

Imperial Tunes

2011-12-04T14:34:00.001-05:00

Steyn Notes on the stories about strip searched grannies and other TSA horrors: US airport “security” serves no serious purpose except to accustom free-born peoples to behaving like a compliant bovine herd. America is now a land where 85-year old grannies are strip-searched without probable cause. You’re extremely naive if you think that, once government acquires a taste for that, it will remain

Music Notes, Tre

2011-11-19T00:03:00.001-05:00

We saw Mindy Smith tonight and it was a great show, especially seeing her (play by herself!) in a cozy venue. During the show she played the great song Out Loud, only, now that I hear it on YouTube I realize that I'd only ever heard it live and that the studio version has had it's heart chopped out. Some songs, like that one in particular, have a much better sound when the artist can bring

Transformers 3

2011-11-14T22:49:00.001-05:00

Simply dreadful; but at least the price was right. ;-) What was always aggravating about the other two was how...well "good" might be a bit strong, but, acceptable the movies were outside of their human performances. When it was robots beating each other up they were pretty entertaining. Michael Bay seemed to realize this and puzzled over how to fix this oversight, so for the third one he gave

Financial Hole

2011-11-08T23:31:00.001-05:00

In light of the leeches of the state of Ohio killing off SB5, I post this chart: &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="#"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img alt=" " src="http:&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#47;public.tableausoftware.com&amp;amp;amp;amp;

Putting the Academic Damage On

2011-11-03T21:51:00.001-04:00

I handily passed a writing assignment that I had for my college course (of course). During the...course of researching the paper I was reading one of several books about ancient Greece when I came upon an odd section. The book itself (as I recall) was an academic work that was being related by an American field researcher in Europe who was explaining his findings and how they matched up with

Predigested Viddles

2011-10-30T21:40:00.000-04:00

Glenn Reynolds links to this video on 'meat glue'. I have to admit to being disgusted at first, but then the thought of those perfect little meat glue filets kept drifting back into my mind (the 'glue' being a powdered digestive enzyme). Then I did the math of <"stew meat"+"meat glue"="filet mignon"> and it seemed like a no-brainer: I need to find out where to buy meat glue! And if you think

Cultural Lag

2011-10-25T10:07:00.000-04:00

In a college course that I went through, at some point they were comparing and contrasting the ancient civilizations and they made a point to single out the inefficiencies of the Egyptian hieroglyphics and (I paraphrase lightly) how idiotic and backward they were as they'd write their inefficient symbol (which was bad enough) and then right next to they would write the phonetic version as well.

Illegals

2011-10-25T08:45:00.002-04:00

This post from Mark Krikorian about Mexico complaining about Mexicans returning home is pretty delicious: Along these lines, the recent Associated Press story about President Calderon complaining that we’re deporting Mexican criminals back to Mexico (a complaint that takes some real huevos, since they’re his own people)... That goes along well with the stupid sparing between Romney and Perry

Don't Watch It

2011-10-19T17:38:00.002-04:00

I've seen some disturbing stuff on the Internet; DISTURBING stuff that I wish I could unwatch, but the video in this post by Mish about a Chinese girl getting hit by a van is probably the worst thing I've ever seen on the 'net, and that's saying something. It's not so much the visual disgust, as it is the apparent soullessness of what should be normal people NOT helping the girl who had been run

College Loan

2011-10-16T19:00:00.003-04:00

Glenn Reynolds links to this Zero Hedge bit on the student loan racket. What struck me most was that besides debts incurred due to breaking the law, every other loan except for student loans can be discharged in bankruptcy (at the Federal level). It was also interesting to see the timeline where the terms for loans got more restricted over time. What's interesting of course is that if the loan

Academic Cheat

2011-10-02T19:35:00.001-04:00

Since I'm enrolled in an online degree program, my free time will be even more crimped than it is already. However, when I was going through the orientation and the inevitable screed about plagiarism came up I came across this method of plagiarizing that I hadn't heard of: Using work previously submitted for credit I can plagiarize...myself? That makes a lot of sense, and I must confess that I

Mr. Booze

2011-09-22T17:11:00.000-04:00

My next project. I've used the Mr. Beer once before, and I was pretty happy with the results. The fresh beer tasted great and didn't give me near the odd side effects that I can get with 'factory beer' (head aches, congestion, etc. It's not consistent enough to get me to stop drinking it though). As well, I've got a line on some excess pears, so I'm going to try and make a batch of hard fruit

Unwelcome Weather

2011-09-17T17:18:00.000-04:00

Signs are pointing to a bloodbath in the market. It may (continue to) be a slow burn off, but it's looking rather unfavorable. First, Greece is about to blow, and although their economy is not all that big, exporters in Europe (mostly Germany) has been dependent upon the 'paper' growth generated by Greek (and the rest of the PIIGS) debt spending, and that's the good news. The bad news is that

Ban Me Three Times Babe!

2011-09-10T14:56:00.000-04:00

A couple days ago the Plain Dealer posted this story on Cleveland.com about a husband who was wanted for killing his wife, stuffing her in a closet and running off. In the original version one thing was missing from this story, especially a story about a wanted man: a picture of the perp that's being sought. It being the Plain Dealer, and me being me, I automatically put two and two and

Dr. Union is in the House

2011-09-09T14:43:00.000-04:00

In what is sure to be a failing of common sense in Ohio when Issue 2 passes, government unions will at once spell doom for the state and for themselves in turn. Rather than sustainable wages and benefits, the extortion will continue until the state and communities run out of money and an extreme haircut is put into place. Government unions (and most unions for that matter) don't care about the

Mac - First Impressions

2011-09-07T17:55:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I'm two grand poorer and all I have to show for it is this giant Cadillac of a computer. I actually waited years to make this purchase as I couldn't get off the fence. I couldn't bring myself to spend Mac money, and I couldn't make myself buy another Windows computer because of the two things I could really live without when it comes to Windows: The Device Manager. As a computer tech I'm

Global Warming

2011-09-07T16:36:00.000-04:00

Well that's no fun (from here): Even during its current life in the main sequence, the Sun is gradually becoming more luminous (about 10% every 1 billion years), and its surface temperature is slowly rising. The Sun used to be fainter in the past, which is possibly the reason life on Earth has only existed for about 1 billion years on land. The increase in solar temperatures is such that in about

Just to Clear It Up

2011-08-19T13:42:00.000-04:00

What our Federal Government is up to: The ATF sells guns to criminals so that they can commit crime. No one is punished of course. Welfare queen determines to break weight barrier on taxpayer dime. Still better a person than the ocotomom. In the "kick 'em while they're down department" we have the overlord issuing two executive orders before going on yet another vacation. Diversity for the

Presidential Theme...

2011-08-12T09:04:00.000-04:00

From here: The answers White House officials have provided don’t make it clear what Obama’s priorities are when it comes to this issue.I don't know what's worse, Obama's clueless dingbattery, or the occasional far left, expensive, often racist, idea that he pours himself into every now and then.

Top Ten Work Tune List

2011-08-10T09:56:00.000-04:00

I've been using Winamp at work for years now, and I was mildly amused by the 'most played' list that I found in the menus as they weren't all dance tunes: 10) Tori Amos - Marianne 9) Evanescence - Tourniquet 8) White Zombie - Super Charged Heaven 7) Chicane - Bruised Water 6) Snow Patrol - If There's a Rocket Tie Me to It (remix) 5) George Michael - Cowboys and Angels 4) Roland Orzabal - Bullets

Teen Mob

2011-08-08T22:29:00.000-04:00

From the PD: The teens came by cars, vans and busloads. A crowd of 250 descended on Bedford, Walton Hills, Bedford Heights and Oakwood Village on July 25. The police forces and fire departments were put on alert to ensure everyone's safety. The mob left one elderly woman in tears. She stood in her driveway crying at what the teens had done to her house.Uh oh! Fortunately for the

Lack of Cleveland Culture

2011-07-30T23:58:00.000-04:00

There is no Tilted Kilt or Hooters in Cleveland while in Columbus, they have one of each in the same parking lot :-( ....

Captain America

2011-07-21T16:44:00.000-04:00

This was a fun movie to sit through, even a little bit funner than Thor which I thought was decent itself. Much like Thor though, once was enough. One of the things the newer Batman movies have going for them is that they're scripted like a car going around a race track, once. There's slow turns, fast dips, blind hills, speedy straight aways, etc. With the Marvel movies they seemed to be

Debt Limit Lock

2011-07-13T08:01:00.000-04:00

From here (in relation to Republican threats over the debt ceiling limit): As former Senator Phil Gramm once told us, never take a hostage you're not prepared to shoot.Would Republicans do such a thing? Kevin Williamson doubts it as he notes that the GOP is profoundly unserious about the whole situation (though not quite so much as the Democrats, for what that's worth): Federal spending in 2012

Locking in Gravy

2011-06-22T17:40:00.000-04:00

This story is interesting: Budget problems in school districts and the state's new collective-bargaining law, which limits the power of public employee unions, are driving the dramatic shift in the timing and terms of contracts, both school and union officials say. Contracts reached by July 1 won't be affected by the new collective-bargaining law, regardless of whether there is a referendum to

2011-06-20T17:32:00.004-04:00

So my world travelers snap the following shot in China of a tshirt being sold there: Kid Sandmich: "Ha ha, they're making fun of Obama"Sally: "No they're not"Mrs. Sandmich to Kid Sandmich: "shush" Although, it appears that the Chinese authorities believe Kid Sandmich.

Exchange Student Notes: Addendum

2011-06-14T13:15:00.002-04:00

(We had the pleasure of hosting an International student from China for the past two school years. Sally is her fake American name. Previous editions are here, here, here, here, and here) I must now admit dear reader that I've come to realize some things, things that generally can only be experienced and though difficult to explain, I'm going to try. Sally and I are pretty different, but we had

New Blogger Template

2011-06-10T16:45:00.001-04:00

I finally sucked it up and switched over to the new template tech that Google uses ('new' being relative since it's been bugging me about it for years). I have to say that A) the new format is much easier to use and B) Is a hollow, empty shell compared to Wordpress. Update: They do now allow 'gifs' for image profile pictures, but I had to do a force reload in IE (ctrl+F5) to get my image to

Exchange Student Notes: Final Edition

2011-06-09T17:25:00.000-04:00

(We had the pleasure of hosting an International student for the past two school years. Sally is her fake American name. Previous editions are here, here, here, and here) Anyway: Sally has a pretty nifty phone that had a very adept translator on it. During her first week with us she had that phone out all the time punching stuff into it. I don't think I saw her use it as much her whole second

Lamest Hits

2011-06-04T21:47:00.004-04:00

In the process of ripping music for a long trip of Mrs. Sandmich's, I popped in the greatest hits disk from the band ELO (the band that dreamt it could be Boston) and discovered that clap trap factory thought that they had 20 songs that registered as greatest hits! In the meantime, I caught a greatest hits MP3 album on sale at Amazon from Ladytron and they didn't even have room for all their

Missing Disks

2011-06-02T14:09:00.003-04:00

I was cleaning up around my office, sorting through my never used stack of disks. The audio disks in particularly abused, having all been ripped 10 or so years ago, never again to see the inside of an optical drive. I've misplaced many of them apparently, one to the extent that I found two copies of it because I apparently lost it once:I, of course, do not have a disk for either case (and the

All About the Ad Revenue

2011-05-13T13:35:00.003-04:00

Back when I used to read Dvorak (sp?) he would puzzle over tech company Microsoft wanting to be an advertising firm. I guess no money is more easy than ad money (even though no money is more fickle as well). Even Home Depot is getting in on the act by running Google ads for competitors on their own stupid web site (?!?!?)And yes, my search for a heat gun has 100% to do with my broken PS3.

My PS3 is Dead

2011-05-13T13:20:00.002-04:00

Before PSN came back for me to once again enjoy some co-op multiplayer the ol' Sandmich fat PS3 went belly-up during yet another marathon gaming session of 'Oblivion' by Kid Sandmich.I figure I'd give the solder re-flow procedure that's floating around on the net a shot, but if it doesn't work I'll be stuck wondering who to bequeath my estate to....

Thank God They Can Vote!

2011-05-03T17:55:00.003-04:00

In a horrendous case of the further balkanization* of this country, Hispanic activists (mostly Puerto Ricans in this case) through their tools in the Federal Government and assorted Democrats have made everything (signs, ballots, etc) having to do with elections in Cuyahoga county be bilingual.In other news, a huge chop-shop/stolen car ring is broken up on the near west side of Cleveland, let's

Video Game Review

2011-05-02T17:20:00.000-04:00

I haven't done a lot of video game reviews because I haven't played a lot of games where there's been something left unsaid. I actually went on a bit of a binge the first part of the year and have played several games.I didn't do a write-up on Uncharted 2 since it's awesomeness has already been broadcast across the net (though it's excellent co-op multiplayer doesn't get the attention it deserves

I've Figured It Out

2011-04-22T20:37:00.003-04:00

Between installing spyware ,taking the service that makes their hardware work on repeated cruises, and generally having a deaf ear when it comes to product development I have to wonder what the heck Sony is smoking, but I got it:They don't think that they have any customers.A bunch of people at Sony show up for work every day, and sometimes enough checks come in to cover the wages of the people

Rockets

2011-04-22T10:36:00.001-04:00

I truly am sad to see the space shuttle go. It started out with so much promise, watching those fancy shuttles launch in grade school! It turned into a bit of a travesty though with around 130 launches and two complete failures; it never went beyond an experimental space craft.Going back to the Saturn rocket would be pretty cool. I'd heard a rumor though that Congress, in order to press upon the

Gas and Such

2011-04-21T13:35:00.000-04:00

With all the moves to restrict the oil supply domestically, and while fanatically printing dollars it's no surprise that the price of gas is getting ridiculous. This veritable tax on the economy is going to cause a further contraction and there's nothing to be done. The Federal government can try to paper over the contraction (some more) by issuing more debt, that's covered by money printing at

Cleveland Police Report For Duty

2011-04-10T08:42:00.003-04:00

From here: None of the four Cleveland police officers charged with assaulting a man during a New Year's Day arrest submitted paperwork required when non-deadly force is used, records obtained by The Plain Dealer show ... Henderson, who has a history of mental illness, was arrested after a chase and later accused officers of handcuffing him and holding him down while kicking him and kneeing him in

Worker's Comp Mistakes

2011-04-05T17:10:00.000-04:00

From here: William J. Wahoff, a lawyer who represents employees in issues involving [Ohio] workers’ compensation and safety, will speak about ways businesses can avoid mistakes that could adversely affect their businesses. The first mistake that can be easily corrected is to relocate out of Ohio to get out from under an odious worker's comp regime that requires you to attend legal self defense

Business 101

2011-03-31T07:51:00.000-04:00

When I saw that Harry and David were in bankruptcy I figured it was just a sign of the times, that there wasn't quite enough gravy to go around to keep a higher end mail order food company in business. However, I thought the timing was a bit off and that if market forces were a factor that the place would have been in bankruptcy protection much sooner. After reading the article my suspicions were

Black Love

2011-03-30T07:56:00.002-04:00

From here: About 1:30 p.m. Ashley Jackson 21, of Elyria, and Toni Duncan, 49, of Elyria, assaulted the 71-year-old man at the store on Chestnut Ridge Road after he asked to see their receipt, which they did not have, police said. According to the report, the women became upset after not receiving help at the customer service desk and attempted to leave the store. When the greeter asked them for

Kasich: Corporate Whore

2011-03-22T07:24:00.000-04:00

Quickly proving every evil thing said about him during the campaign, Ohio governor John Kasich has a brilliant idea to sell several decades worth of liquor tax money so that he can hand out corporate welfare today: Kasich last week unveiled his state budget proposal, which includes a plan to lease the state's liquor distribution operation -- which of late has drawn record profits -- and use the

Video Game Movie

2011-03-14T17:59:00.000-04:00

I didn't know much about Battle:Los Angeles when I went to see it yesterday, but I already knew something I didn't like about it. This is a mild slight, but any movie that takes place in LA automatically gets me thinking that it's primary mission is navel gazing by the movie's makers. I can almost see a guy on the set telling a post production person to make sure that his apartment shows up in

Canned Pig

2011-03-04T17:32:00.000-05:00

I recently had the lovely experience of sitting in Parma traffic court due to a B.S. traffic ticket written by the overtime extortionists that pass themselves off as police officers. I was pissed off granted, but as I sat there I grew even more pissed off, but not about my situation. I was able to make the trek over to court from work during my lunch hour and thus didn't have to take any time

Voting Power

2011-03-02T11:10:00.003-05:00

The PD notes on a woman suffragist: In 1911, when California women achieved the right to vote, she was lauded as the spiritual leader of Southern California's suffrage movement. The following year, at the age of 92, she cast her vote for president -- after working for more than 60 years to earn that right. Now of course correlation is not causation, but it looks like it was all uphill for the

Collective Idiocy

2011-02-18T15:31:00.004-05:00

In yet another ham fisted move, Obama is sending his goons to Wisconsin to harass their elected representatives over a bill to curb the power of government unions in the state. I'm rather surprised by this since this means that he is blowing political capital on a fight that cannot be won. Just to clear: there is no money. None. If the unions lose, they still get pay and benefits far above what

Oligarch Summary

2011-02-17T07:11:00.001-05:00

The French Revolution's reign of terror begins to make sense when you soak in a story like this, from Matt Taibbi: Criminal justice, as it pertains to the Goldmans and Morgan Stanleys of the world, is not adversarial combat, with cops and crooks duking it out in interrogation rooms and courthouses. Instead, it's a cocktail party between friends and colleagues who from month to month and year to

Back to the Future in Design

2011-02-04T17:30:00.000-05:00

I always thought that the look below was ugly, but I had to live through the tail end of it in my childhood. With enough time having now passed, I have to say that I find the look fascinating (though still ugly):He has others in this series that are nice, but don't carry the same weight. It seems like, in hindsight, many designers of that era were looking to modernize the Frank Loyd Wright look,

No Defference

2011-02-04T07:37:00.001-05:00

So what if the family of a slain man want the killer spared the death penalty? Criminal punishment is there to protect everyone in society, not just it's victims.

Crisis Exploitation

2011-02-02T17:53:00.000-05:00

That Denninger kook notes that the Republicans have Obama over a barrel and they would be fools not to exploit the situation. Every indication though is that the Republicans will sell their opposition (if it can be called that) to increasing the debt ceiling for some very, very modest cuts, which will no doubt be budgetary slight of hand, and not cuts at all.In my mind, at least, the Republicans

State of the Circus

2011-01-26T08:05:00.002-05:00

I learned early on that our exchange student Sally had to watch the State of the Union for a class assignment and I set my mind to figuring out a way where I could continue to play my video game while Mrs. Sandmich and Sally watched that crap on the less glorious TV in the basement. It was a fun exercise, but I knew how it was going to end since Mrs. Sandmich stays intentionally clueless about

Central Planning

2011-01-25T17:16:00.000-05:00

Back in the U.S.S.R. their central committee would develop 'five year plans' wherein the bureaucrats would come up with all the magical production numbers for their economy; a bunch of idiots in a room being much wiser than the people actually, you know, doing the 'producing'. The results, as you may recall, were less than spectacular to say the least.Not to be outdone in the idiocy department,

Non-Snow Day

2011-01-12T09:14:00.003-05:00

What brain dead idiot in Parma city schools decided that today wouldn't be a good day for a snow day? I guess the amount of snow matters less to them than whether or not the day on which it is snowing is a Friday or a Monday.

Lunatics on the Loose

2011-01-10T09:38:00.007-05:00

I just can't muster much concern or outrage in connection to the Arizona shooting. It's unfortunate and I'd rather it not have happened, but I figured the lefties would politicize it to such an extreme that such an event would best be left ignored (much as when the elites feel free to ignore when their policies lead to the deaths of those that they oversee). True to their vitriol, lefties and

Self Inflicted Violence?

2011-01-06T07:46:00.000-05:00

The Domestic Violence Center of Cleveland is launching a month long campaign to draw attention to itself and it's mission. This years speaker for their luncheon (a luncheon at which my attendance is usually compulsory, but the excuse factory is working overtime!) is Melissa Moore author of "Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer's Daughter". Hmm. Anyway...The Plain Dealer notes on

Point Taken

2011-01-05T07:32:00.000-05:00

A comment left on that article linked by Drudge about the 'snake sexual assualt':These are not Eau Claire people. One is from Racine, and the other is from Milwaukee, hundreds of miles away. They are in Eau Claire only because HUD and the Eau Claire Housing Authority have been working with Milwaukee's housing authority to move Section 8 people out of Milwaukee and into "non-traditional" areas

In Other News

2010-12-16T07:03:00.000-05:00

Making people pay for stuff that they're taking is racist.Unsurprisingly on the PD site:"Comments are now closed for this entry."As if they were ever open.On a wholly unrelated note John Derbyshire calls out 'W' for his B.S. AIDS welfare in Africa quest.

Non Delivery Report

2010-12-14T07:31:00.000-05:00

I'm so distressed over the looming pay-day loan bill (i.e. the grand 'tax cut' compromise which is no such thing, but rather a massive additional $900,000,000,000 charge up on the ol' Federal credit card) and the DREAM amnesty-for-law-breakers act that I left mild rant for my elected federal legislators. George Voinivich got off the lightest since so far as I know he's not a huge amnesty fan and

THIS is what I'm worried about

2010-12-07T22:20:00.002-05:00

Home owner refinances with a different lender, paying off their old loan, but their old mortgage is tied up in a security after it's paid off and now the servicer for the now non-existent loan (Bank of America) is foreclosing.There's noise out there about getting a 'free' house not just a free house over the course of say, a year and a half to two years, but one stuck in legal limbo forever

Cleveland Judiciary at Work

2010-12-04T23:06:00.004-05:00

From the PD: A Cleveland man was arraigned this week on attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery and felonious assault charges for an assault on a Cleveland couple last year. Last year being February '09, better late than never though!Ryan Miday, spokesman for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office, said DNA from a jacket found at the scene of the assault led police to charge Rodney Lomax with the

One Leads to the Other

2010-12-02T17:26:00.001-05:00

From How I Joined Teach for America—and Got Sued for $20 Million : It is a state of affairs that Philip K. Howard vividly describes in his recent The Collapse of the Common Good: parents sue teachers and principals for suspending their children, for allegedly meting out corporal punishment, and for giving failing marks.No surprise then that stuff like this happens:Florida student get pummeled

Paraphrasing TSA News

2010-11-23T13:53:00.003-05:00

Quotes as I basically recollect them from NBC news last night in relation to the TSA brew-ha-ha: Europeans are less likely to have an issue with such actions if they believe that it's for the common goodThose level headed Europeans and their deference to the powers that be: they all know they're looking out for the common good! On a completely unrelated note, I was wondering recently which reason

Credit Where It's Due

2010-11-19T17:33:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago the banking lobby got a horrible bill through Congress which would have allowed them to notarize property transfers, etc., where ever they pleased. Part of this has to do with the 'robosigning' scandal where Bank of America and others signed off on foreclosure documentation 'in bulk' and outside of the law of the municipalities where they were foreclosing. The icing on the cake

Techno Song Title of the Year

2010-11-19T07:35:00.000-05:00

Well, Techno Song Title of Last Year, apparently: I've Sold Your Organs On The Black Market To Finance The Purchase Of A Used MinivanI wouldn't watch/listen to it though, the actual song issignifigantly less amusing.

Better to Not Travel

2010-11-16T08:48:00.002-05:00

Hahaha....Maybe if they spent more time protecting our borders and less time groping kids and nuns Homeland 'Security' might actually mean something.

American Justice in Seven Words

2010-11-11T14:07:00.001-05:00

HP pays bribe to end bribe investigation

Uncommentable

2010-11-06T16:40:00.001-04:00

The Plain Dealer has a story up on some Muslim/Christian interfaith dinner and SHOCKED I was to find that a local Episcopal church was behind the scheme. This led me to brew up another (surprise) snide comment to post to their venerable website:Why am I not surprised that the Episcopalians brewed this up. Only a matter of time before they cash their chips in with the mother church and convert

Election

2010-11-03T09:02:00.003-04:00

As the Cuyahoga county results prove, the problem isn't the politicians, but the voters who put them there. After all the corruption from Democratic single party rule of the county, the voters chose...single party Democratic rule, BRILLIANT! And Dennis Kucinich? Sure it was the tightest race that he's had recently, but really. I wonder how the Democrats even vote for him in the primary, it's not

Getting Clean

2010-11-02T13:54:00.002-04:00

Not the first thing I'd think of when seeing (or smelling) a donkey:Hecho en Meh-hee-ko!

Photo Association

2010-10-30T19:31:00.003-04:00

Did anyone else have the same, unfortunate reaction to the MSN headline photo below?TWO WEEKS

Gardening 102

2010-10-28T13:30:00.000-04:00

Here's a sample of goodies taken from the garden this year:Despite my garden being smaller in size I could still pick a container such as the one on the right every two or three days. Some notes from the photo:At the bottom left are cherry tomatoes, and nestled in with them is a funky green pepper. This pepper was grown from the seeds of one of those small, colored sweet peppers (looks like a hot

Report From the Old People Front

2010-10-13T20:29:00.003-04:00

Metamucil = Tang flavored slime. If you like Tang (which I do) this can be good, if not, then that's your own fault.Walmart's Equate Metamucil knock-off = Off-Tang flavored grit. Apparently making something slightly not-foul tasting is harder than it seems.Sugar-free pink lemonade Metamucil = In a word, disgusting. It is somehow every way inferior to every individual piece of it's ingredient

Final Fantasy Does Casual

2010-09-27T07:47:00.000-04:00

Final Fantasy VIIIYeah, I only just played the game on the re-release on the PS3, but judging by the sales it's the first time a lot of people have played the game. With so much separation of time (the game was originally released in 1999) I figured that it would be easy to separate it from it's big brother Final Fantasy VII, a game which dominates any role playing game conversation. However,

Almost an Idea

2010-09-23T21:24:00.003-04:00

From Steve Sailer's page on 'The Pledge':It's basically a George W Bush Redux. It advocates no useful policy on enforcing the borders. It merely advocates (buried way down on page 20) to reaffirm the right of states to enforce immigration laws - a right they already have.And I'm gunna go out on a limb and wager that it says nothing about eliminating racial preferences or CRA.And that's the long

Upside-Down

2010-09-17T17:57:00.000-04:00

From here:There’s an effort underway amongst Democrats to re-brand the Bush tax cuts...as “the Obama tax cuts“....Under the "Obama tax cut plan," your tax rates would either stay the same as they were before or go upNo surprise there, it sounds pretty much like anything good that might have the word "Obama" in front of it (or behind it).

No Censorship for You

2010-09-10T17:33:00.000-04:00

Google complains that blocking Internet content is a trade barrier: "Internet censorship is really a trade barrier, and is operating that way for US companies that are trying to do business abroad," he grumbled.You go Google! Why, not too long ago someone tried to hide the Lincoln Memorial and Pat Buchanan, I'm glad that they're fighting...oh wait that was Google.

Undo Influence

2010-09-09T17:59:00.000-04:00

The Parma/Parma Heights area suffers from over taxation, poor governance, sloppily run schools and an unfriendly business environment (my current workplace was threatened with not getting an occupancy permit by Parma because our water heater was set to a useful temperature that was still colder than that in most people's houses). Little surprise then that it is one of Obama's favorite places

Watching Movies

2010-09-07T18:55:00.002-04:00

I saw more movies this past week than I think I have the rest of the year (thus far)...Goldfinger (cable): the local cable co-op channel (no ads, uncut, etc) had the hi-def, remastered copy of this film on. I'm tempted to say that this film didn't even look this good when it was first released, and still so much fun!Zombieland (DVD): Good to sit through once, but the 88 minute playing time felt

Judging Poorly

2010-09-03T17:45:00.000-04:00

I'd not noted it at the time, but a little while ago the victim of a dreadful crime which I had posted about commented about it on my blog and rounded out the story with this bit: I have been trying to point the finger for over a year now and the kid who stabed me the judge let him go cause why?He was a minor and she did not want to ruin his life by putting him in jail. But what about me?...The

Salves to the Grind

2010-09-02T11:03:00.004-04:00

Staff workers for Ohio's largest teacher Union have gone on strike, apparently protesting the slave like conditions of their job: "OEA [the teacher's union] officers and managers need to practice what they preach. It's a pretty high form of hypocrisy for OEA officers and managers to be giving us this treatment when they expect us to protect OEA members from the same treatment out in the schools,"

Raised Eyebrow

2010-09-01T08:39:00.005-04:00

From here:Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo picked the sister of his longtime housemate to share supervision of the scandal-plagued county boards that decide appeals of property assessments.Housemate?Uh huh....

One Union to Rule Them All

2010-08-19T17:46:00.000-04:00

Mish notes that the Federalies are looking to nationalize unions over governmental safety positions, further bankrupting states that were wise enough to avoid such a trap (i.e. very few):The act would require all states to allow police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel to collectively bargain with taxpayers. If they don't create their own system, the federal government will impose one

Safety First

2010-08-18T11:41:00.001-04:00

From here:Police were on the lookout for a nude bicyclist yesterday in the area of James Day Park....Although the man was not wearing any clothes, police said he did have a helmet on.

More Econ 101 for Reporters

2010-08-18T09:12:00.003-04:00

Mark Gillispie over at The Plain Dealer writes:big drop in water usage led to Cleveland's Division of Water collecting $18 million less in revenue last year than in 2008, a state audit shows.That revenue loss, from $232 million to $214 million, occurred despite an increase in rates in 2009This ranks right up there with the 'crime drops despite crowded prisons' bit that the New York Times runs

Not Defending Us Here or There

2010-08-06T08:25:00.003-04:00

The Federal government's abject refusal to control illegal immigration (indeed their active efforts to keep it from happening!) is disturbing enough, but one would think that if they're spending billions in war they would get their 'i's dotted and their 't's crossed. From Andy McCarthy:Yesterday, after three months of delay, the State Department finally issued its congressionally mandated annual

Hardcore Bento

2010-07-30T17:16:00.004-04:00

An Indonesian entrepreneur runs a bento crafting service that features meals that have quite the level of craftsmanship: Nothing says Dora like hunks of eelI love how they locked down the photos of their bentos in Flickr. Does that mean that they've paid licensing fees to Disney,etc. for their food crafts? Or is that...don't ask, don't tell? I know where my money is at!

Over-engineering

2010-07-23T17:14:00.001-04:00

Let's see if we can tag the target age group for this product:It finally occurred to me one day while driving around that it's largely a waste of time for Toyota to spend a bunch of time and money desiging a car for whom it's drivers will not live long enough to see the end of it's warranty....not that I know anyone involced with it's American made manufacturing.