Swamp Musings

Making up a big batch of red-hot curried slop for supper isn't always too bright. Woke up at 3:30 AM with Chernobyl-grade heartburn so bad all a soup spoon of bicarb did was make me foam and froth like a freshly cast batch of homebrew. Finally got back to sleep for a couple of hours.

Saturday is housecleaning (HAH!) day but I always start by reading Uncle Al's weekly essays with morning tea. No new ones posted so just surfed around for a while before tackling the kitchen. There are 2 drain systems here, one greywater, one septic, and I haven't cleaned out the greywater grease trap in a long time. Wound up with about a half-gallon of used sink water on the floor before noticing and since the mop was in the shop, wheeled over the wet-vac to clean up the mess. It hasn't been used since Jeanne and I thoughtfully hadn't emptied it. Such a wonderful aroma. Well-aged wet dawg hair, mildew, and essence of something that died horribly a long time ago.

This day isn't starting out too well. I think I'll postpone installing that nice, new hard drive that was on today's agenda.

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Well, the rest of the day went pretty decent except for the hole burned in my innards. I gave the rest of the curry to the dawgs (they needed worming anyway). Went for a walk with them and Cindy (my loppers) to clear a bit more of the access lane and decided to visit my mailbox. Been over a week and got the usual huge haul of future fireplace fuel, a couple of bills, and a PAYMENT! It was due the first week in September. Now I can afford some more red beans & rice to go with the squirrel, bark, and ramps.

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A good read.
Letter to Europe
Hi. Are you nuts?
by HERBERT E. MEYER

Forgive me for being so blunt, but your reaction to our reelection of President Bush has been so outrageous that I’m wondering if you have quite literally lost your minds. One of Britain’s largest newspapers ran a headline asking “How Can 59 Million Americans Be So Dumb?”, and commentators in France all seemed to use the same word – bizarre -- to explain the election’s outcome to their readers. In Germany the editors of Die Tageszeitung responded to our vote by writing that “Bush belongs at a war tribunal – not in the White House.” And on a London radio talk show last week one Jeremy Hardy described our President and those of us who voted for him as “stupid, crazy, ignorant, bellicose Christian fundamentalists.” (snip)

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Another good read but Mr. Krauthammer is always good.
The myth of the bigoted Christian redneck

Charles Krauthammer
November 12, 2004
WASHINGTON -- In 1994, when the Gingrich revolution swept Republicans into power, ending 40 years of Democratic hegemony, the mainstream press needed to account for this inversion of the Perfect Order of Things. A myth was born. Explained the USA Today headline: ``Angry White Men: Their votes turned the tide for the GOP.''
Overnight, the revolution of the Angry White Male became conventional wisdom. In the 10 years before the 1994 election, there were 53 Nexis mentions of angry white men in the media. In the next seven months there were more than 1,400.
At the time, I looked into this story line -- and found not a scintilla of evidence to support the claim. Nonetheless, it was a necessary invention, a way for the liberal elite to delegitimize a conservative victory. And even better, a way to assuage their moral vanity: You never lose because your ideas are sclerotic or your positions retrograde, but because your opponent appealed to the baser instincts of mankind.
Plus ca change ... Ten years and another stunning Democratic defeat later, and liberals are at it again. The Angry White Male has been transmuted into the Bigoted Christian Redneck. (snip)

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And now for something completely different:
Carling Beer ad (748 KB wmv)

Beer Bitch ad (668 KB wmv)

Michael Moore OnStar ad (216 KB mp3)

For more of the same time-wasters, go to IMAO

Who says there are no technological benefits from the space program?
NASA shuttle glass

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Time to start supper. Tonight it'll be chicken and dumplings with a hint of basil & bicarb!