Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Comment on congresscritter gone wild

Spending my words
 
As I was posting a comment over at Curmudgeonly and Skeptical, I thought to myself, “Self, why are you ‘wasting’ (heh) a perfectly good blogpost in someone else’s comments?”
 
(Rabbit trail: a large piece of me wanted to start the sentence above off in a way such that is scanned with the tune to “The Streets of Laredo.”  You can thank me now for averting that catastrophe.  You’re welcome.)
 
So, here:
 
May I humbly offer my own suggestion concerning what to do about congresscritters and their ilk?
 
A grass roots movement for one (penultimate–the sixteenth and seventeenth amendments need nullifying) more Constitutional amendment establishing a limit on federal holidays and defining the last federal holiday as National Potomoc Day, when the citizenry is invited to descend upon Congress and dunk the entire mess in the Potomoc. Repeatedly. Until only the gasbags rise to the top for their *auto da fe* Their burning corpses would provide the light for the all-night barbeque to follow.
 
Now, note: I do NOT suggest any vigilantism here but a Constitutional amendment, brought forward by the states, to accomplish this worthy goal.
 
Enough pressure brought to bear on our congresscritters, and the thing could get ratified, followed by mass resignations before the first such holiday.
 
Ahhh… the sweet, sweet sounds of silence on Capitol Hill…
 
Of course, I’d welcome modifications to such an amendment that would include all bureaucrats, administration officials and judges.
 
(No, I’m not an anarchist, but our current crop of politicos–including the judiciary–are beginning to show me that anarchy has *some* merit… *sigh*)
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“Rules? We don’t need no steenking rules!”

Roger Schultz “speaks truth to power”  (heh)
 
via a post over at Kim du Toit’s A Nation of Riflemen, this gem:
 
I was thinking.  Umpires are a necessary part of baseball, and their duties are well defined. They decide whether each unswung upon pitch is a ball, or a strike.  The umpire’s authority is absolute in this area.  Four balls and the batter walks to first base. Not 3 balls, not 5 balls; four.   Three strikes, and the batter is out.  Not 2 strikes, not 4; three. So, umpires have the power to enforce baseball’s rules, but not change them.  Ever.
 
Judges are umpires.  Too many of them have decided that they can change the rules willy-nilly, and when they do that, they disturb the balance and harmony of the game…
 
Just toodle on over to Curmudgeonly and Skeptical and read the whole thing. 
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So, Spurs wants a look at my movie collection

Coyses! Tagged again!  🙂
 
Spurs, sitting in over at Sissy’s old place (though I understand she’s making noises about guests and old fish–heh) tagged me with the movie meme tag thingy, so here goes, Spurs.  you asked for it.
 
1. The number of DVD’s I own:
 
Hard one. :-) Five. (My wife owns more–and hers are relatively recent flicks.  Mine are all old movies–EARLY Scarlet Pimpernel, some Bob Hope/Bing Crosby “Road” flicks, etc. 😉
2. The last DVD I bought:
 
A Mannheim Steamroller Christmas DVD. Can’t even say the title. I’m more impressed with the MS CDs.
3. The last DVD I watched:
 
Hard to recall. We watch mostly videotapes, cos we mostly rent for one-time viewings and out local Third World County™ video store has difficulty getting their investment out of DVDs cos of the rough treatment they recieve. So, last movie/DVD I know I viewed (as DVD) Parts of Star Wars Eisodes I & II.  Memory kicked in. Last moview viewed front to back: National Treasure.  Nicholas Cage as a cut-rate Indiana Jones character. Yawn.
4. 5 movies that  I watch a lot or mean a lot to me I like:
 
Have to go with favs here, cos few movies mean much to me and I don’t do repeats of many movies at all. So, in no particular order:
 
Matilda. 
 
Surprised?  Don’t be. I like this movie enough that my daughter gave me the Roald Dahl book for my birthday.  Love the book. Still, Mara Wilson was delightful in this movie. De-light-ful. I have watched this one several times, and, yeh, eventually I’ll end up buying it.
 
 

I’ve only linked “Fellowship” here, but they’re all good. I first read LOTR in 1967 (late bloomer), and it is an enduring fav.  Was in the top ten on a waiting list in a major metro area for The Silmarillion when it was published in 1977, and have read everything by Tolkien I can get my hands on. So, even though the movies took some (probably necessary, though disappointing) liberties with the books (Where’s Tom Bombadil???), they were still wonderful versions of the Tolkien epic.
 
Die Hard II—and for those who know me, no surprise.  Silly plot.  So-so acting. Nice filming (though continuity is… not good). but what sells it to me is Finlandia played when the planes are landing.  heh  I love that scene… cos Finlandia was perfect for it. And cos Finlandia was THE piece of music that
 
 
“hooked” me on music.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bean What can I say? Rowan Atkinson is the physical comedy champ of this millennium.  He saves an otherwise flat and nondescript movie from oblivion through his genius.
 
 
 
 
 
Name any Jackie Chan movie. If it at least has English dubbed, I’ve watched it.  And I’d be likely to watch it again.
 
5. Tag 5 others
 
Tagging… man.  This is the part I hate. I’ll update as folks agree to serve…
 
Update #1: Richard, over at Random Rambling, tagged himself off this post last night.  What a mensch.  Here’s his post.
 
Update #2: Christine, of Morning Coffe & Afternoon Tea, knocks back a twofer with A Carnival and a Meme. Commented on the Carnival of the Recipes #41 and then knocked off the movie meme-ish thingy. If she’d fit one more topic in she’d have had a hat trick.
 

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It’s no “Wind in the Willows”

Miss Mousy wasn’t home, so…
 
Last minute jitters.  For so long he’d pretended her zaftig form and coy charm (not to mention her cute drill sergeant’s parade-ground voice) held no real appeal for him. 
 
But he could no longer deny his feelings. *sigh*  He knew she cared for him, too—well, as much as she could care for anyone but herself.  Yes, he knew her faults, but he no longer cared. 
 
At last, he’d asked her out and she’d accepted (of course–she’d only been waiting and waiting… :-).  Now, if only he’d had something other than this old green suit…  Oh well.  Maybe the chocolates would distract her.
 
She’s opening the door.  Oh, no! She’s looking at the suit. No! It’s the chocolates!
 
“Kermit, you shouldn’t have!” she proclaims disingenuously.
 
Good. Chocolates were the right opener.
 
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
[Yeh, I know this is violates continuity in the Muppet World.  So?]
 
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Brain Wave

Shades of Poul Anderson…
 
Reading this article in New Scientist, I flashed on Poul Anderson’s Brain Wave. (Who can explain how memory works?) The article, “11 steps to a better brain,” traces eleven things you can do to increase your mental acuity.
 
Hmmm… doesn’t praise coffee highly enough (or really, at all).  Oh, well, it was a pleasant thought. As a country, however, we could substantially raise the IQ of our society as a whole by throwing out all professors of education and public school administrators.
 
It’d be a start…
 
h.t. to Ed, a correspondent on Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor in Perspective, Current Mail.
 
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One of the chief problems of civilization…

…is not what you may think
 
Yes, America as a bulwark of Western Civilization is in danger.  Yes, our society appears to be crumbling from within—schools become prisons for kids while politics, law, the arts and even science seem to be succombing to savagery, stupidity and banality.
 
But all of those signs and symptoms of a dying civilization pale in comparison to the horror (the horror!) I am about to bring to your attention.  This problem is ubiquitous in our society.  It is evidence of evil incarnate walking—or more rightly, driving—the planet. 
 
It is the 99 out of 100 licensed, bone-uh-fied drivers on our streets and highways who have less intelligence—collectively!—than God gave a head of cabbage.
 
(With apologies to cabbages worldwide for the association.)
 
What depraved indifference to a civil society, to the travails of Western Civilization itself, causes governmental bodies to give these cretins license to drive a motor vehicle?  How can so much evidence of a society peopled by those who switch off whatever few brain cells they have and drive in a persistent vegetative state be ignored?  How can a society survive when such idiots are allowed on the highways, instead of being planted (alive or dead, I care not) in a corn field somewhere, where at least they might do some good as fertilizer?
 
Mark it well. It is the end of civilization, my friends. Slow-moving roadblocks and speeding unguided missles on the highways are signs of the same rot at the heart of our society.  And I fear it is too late.
 
(Yes. You got it in one.  I renewed my drivers license today.  For six years.  It is too late, indeed.)
 
Joust the Facts has a post in a similar vein. His observations are a little more finely focused, however:
“…It occurred to me that the bluest of blue states seem to correlate quite well with the worst of the worst driver states.  Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington, DC, Maryland, California, Connecticut were the bottom eight, and all very blue in the last two elections.  Coincidence?  I think not.”
No argument here, though it’s been over 30 years since I wantered into those strange lands…

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Carnival of Comedy 5

‘Tis a poor thing, but my own…
 
Yeh, I tossed my poor lil entry into the pool of participants in this week’s Carnival of Comedy.  Someone, please throw it a rope, please?  Meanwhile, check all the other entries out.  Some funny stuff there. (And then there’s my post.  Oh. Well. 🙂
 
 
Go ahead, say it three times really fast. Easy, huh?  Now try this one:
 
Fred fed Ted bread, and Ted fed Fred bread.
 
Harder, isn’t it, smartypants?
 
OK, this one:
 
Three free throws. Three free throws. Three free throws.
 
I thought so.  I’d better give you the easy one again:
 
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More Prisons for Kids

This ought to be at least a weekly gig
 
Lotsa resources all over the web, with people a lot smarter and better-informed than I deal with the problems of so-called public education in the U.S. of A.  One resource that has some of the brightest thinkers around—some teachers, some ordinary joes and some folks that are smarter than you and me put together—approaching this topic from time to time is Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor in Perspective Current Mail pages.  Here’s a (very) brief portion of one of Dr. Pournelle’s responses to a correspondant:
 
“Credentialism” is insane. I was once asked to be President of a local junior college to help get it back on an academic track. I thought I could do it, but it turns out I do not have an “administrative credential” and thus I am not qualified to be president of a junior college in California. I should thank God for that since it would have been a very bad thing for me to do, but the madness of the credential process remains. Air Force sergeants who have taught meteorology and math to young men and women for 20 years are not “qualified” to teach high school science, while imbeciles with no idea of science or teaching a “qualified” by sitting through some lamebrain courses that anyone could pass without attending the course.—Current Mail, Monday 05/23/05
Just pop over to Jerry Pournelle’s site and do an onsite search for “education,” “public schools,” “teachers,” etc. Be prepared for some reading.
 
And after perusing Dr. Pournelle’s site for a while, ask yourself what could drive a teacher to write an essay like the one described here.  Sure, I’ve known a lot of incompetent (and even some downright stupid) public school teachers, but most of them do their best to teach the children who are their charges. And many of them are bright, competent people who must endure administrators who are mostly dolts, poltroons, incompetents and bullies to boot, while attempting to civilize little hellions who have been ruined by excrebly bad or nonexistant parenting.
 
Our schools are worse than just bad curricula, bad teaching, *spit* politicians *spit*, hellions and well-schooled idiots and their “parents,” and venal administrators who are dumber than rocks (but crafty politicos) all added together and minmastered to carefully devised, stupid homogeneity.
 
The sum is far worse than its parts, I’m afraid.
 
I’m glad my youngest nephew is being homeschooled.  He’s far too bright to be subjected to the lobotomy-by-millimeters factories that are our public schools.
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I don’t think Harvey’s such a Bad Example…

For your weekly dose (OK, most think I need a daily dose) of blogaid, head to Harvey’s Bad Example
 
Today’s blog etiquette post by Harvey is but one of many examples of how I should behave when I blog and post on other folks’ blogs. And his Blogging Tips (upper righthand sidebar) section is one I consider a must read (I simply must read the rst of it… when I get a Round Tuit—cos everything I’ve read there so far has helped me).
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