Paging Al Gore ... Paging Mr. Al Gore!!!

Would some please tell Al Gore that I have over seven inches of his global warming outside my back door ... AND IT ISN'T EVEN OFFICIALLY WINTER YET!!!



Too bad it missed Christmas by a week. It's been a long time since we have had a white Christmas. It's still pretty though.


Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Until next time,

-VoR-

Remembering Rusty

Last Friday, July 3, my Better Half and I lost one of our most loyal feline friends. Rusty left us early that morning. We don't know exactly how old he was, but my best guess was around 10 years old. He adopted us about six years ago, when he showed up on my front porch. You could tell that he had a rough start to life. He was covered in scars from fighting with the neighborhood dogs. But, even with his fighting background, he always had a laid back style and a trusting soul. He never knew a stranger. He always met everyone at the door (whether he knew you, or not) with a hearty meow, as if to say, "welcome to our home". He was also my personal recliner buddy. Every time I kicked back in the recliner, he would jump up in the chair with me and curl up for a nice nap. Yes, he became overweight when he moved in and became an indoor cat, but I always told Better Half he wasn't just fat. He was fat 'n' happy ... and I truly think he was.

He took the kittens in, when they came along, and treated them like his own children. He looked after them and "corrected" them when they needed it, but he never acted out of anger toward them. Most of all, he taught them that it was okay to trust us (humans). I will never forget when the kittens first showed up, Better Half was trying to coax them into the house, but they wouldn't let her get too close to them. Rusty slipped out the door and disappeared into the bushes where they had been hiding. A little while later, here came Rusty with four kittens in tow right behind him. He led them right to the porch, and soon after that, Better Half was able to bring them in. Even after they grew up, they continued to look at him as a father figure. When Rusty got up to go somewhere, they all got up and followed him.

There are so many funny stories and good times ... fond memories that will live on forever. Rusty, you will be missed by all of us. We will never forget you.

-VoR-

Well said, Sven.

Thank you, Sven. You said it better than I ever could:

I’m eating breakfast Friday and I catch on CSPAN President Obama doing this town hall thingie in Strasbourg, France at some sports arena. I watch, I listen, and realize that this feller is never going to grow on me. It goes beyond his mannerisms, his style of speech, his intense desire for popularity; it’s his words. Do I take them at face value? Yeah, I do. I have to; he’s the POTUS speaking in a foreign land, representing America.

Some of what he said that day in the question and answer part of this event got picked up on the Conservative blogs and raised an eyebrow or two. The part about his predecessor and Iraq and America’s standing in the world. That was in response to this question: “I just want to know what do you expect from the French and the European countries regarding the war on terror?”

I was surprised that he didn’t respond first off by correcting the questioner: it aint the war on terror, it’s overseas contingency operations against manmade disasters, but I guess he was tired.
As usual, President Obama’s answer was long and rambling but he found time to remind everyone that his name is Barrack Hussein Obama, that Iraq was a mistake, toss a jab at George Bush, lie about closing Guantanamo Bay, and end by saying all future contingency operations would make America and its allies feel good about what they were doing.

As others noted, he just can’t help himself with that “inheritance” thing. Can’t waste an opportunity to bash George Bush and the last 7-8 years; can’t help but remind anyone who will listen that every bad thing out there is the fault of Bush.

But examine this statement from his answer, talking about 9/11: “All of us have a stake in ensuring that innocent people who were just going about their business, going to work, suddenly find themselves slaughtered — all of us have an interest in preventing that kind of vicious, evil act.” Juxtaposed with “we got sidetracked by Iraq”. For the life of me, I can’t wrap my mind around how blind he is. We apparently have a stake in ensuring that innocents aren’t killed, except when we actually did something about it in the last eight years under a president named Bush; except when our actions go beyond UN resolutions and sharply worded statements. (Not to mention how I would suddenly “find myself slaughtered” being dead and all-but I guess that’s Obama going metaphysical….)

Not that it matters, but I didn’t fully support the Iraq war when it was announced. I didn’t think it was a great idea at the time, but I didn’t think it was totally a bad one either. I believe now, based on what I’ve read, that mistakes were made but that no lies were told or intelligence manipulated to drive us to war. I believe that once we were in, we were committed. I’m disappointed that we didn’t handle the aftermath of battle better and hope that we learned some lessons there. I’m in awe of the American military and the bravery of the Iraqi people, and yeah, I think they are better off now than they were than say 10 years ago under a butcher like Hussein. America saved thousands of innocent people who were just going about their business from getting slaughtered in Iraq and gave opportunity to millions more. It probably wasn’t our original intention to do so, anymore than it was Lincoln’s original intent to free the slaves during our own civil war, but there you go. Iraq now has a chance; to continue to ignore that, to refer to that as a “sidetrack” dishonors not only ourselves but Iraqis as well. Obama cannot accept that, can’t understand that, and for that he deserves nothing from me but scorn.

Listening to the speech, I wondered what kind of world does President Obama envision; what does the future look like to him? It is clearly not an American vision-it’s a global vision. It’s the world of the peaceful geek. It’s the world of Microsoft and Apple and Pepsi and Nike and can you hear me now. Technology and communications enabling the global village run by cooperative big governments everywhere; where want and fear are things of the past cuz they somehow just get provided. That’s the to-be vision.

The as-is reality for President Obama is the world, not America, but the world at a crossroads. Time to choose. He wants a world without nuclear weapons; he wants us to get rid of ours because while we have them we have no moral authority to say to others don’t acquire them. Being the smartest president eveh, he sees the interconnectedness of our problems and it’s all global: global climate change, global terrorism, global financial networks. A bear can’t fart at the North pole without causing a big wind at the equator. Of course, America shares the blame in creating these global problems, but we’ll look forward towards solutions not backwards toward blame, cuz that’s just the kinda guy he is.

Beyond the blame America bullshit, and BTW, I’d love to hear his examples of us being arrogant-dismissive-derisive, the common theme again from President Obama is this: these are unprecedented times requiring unprecedented cooperation and wait for it….CHANGE. Climate change again- the big lie of the environmental movement that will catch up to them sooner or later; that every single environmental problem is the result of “climate change”. But how is he addressing that particular problem? He’s appointing a “special envoy”. Goody, that should fix things right up. Perhaps the next step will be a panel and then a commission and then a study and a report…..

President Obama closed his speech by saying that he wants to make the world a more peaceful place and he KNOWS this “transformational change” is possible for three reasons: 1) we all share common values, 2) we are persistent, 3) there’s young people around. (Applause. Fainting. Panties thrown on stage.)

Words matter, as President Obama is so very fond of saying. I read his words and I listen to him speak and I see the masses cheer and I shake my head. I don’t get it, but then again I don’t get the popularity of American Idol either. Apparently though, there’s a whole bunch of folks lining up behind Obama’s vision of the world to come and his version of where it’s been. OK then; time to choose. Millions are choosing yes; I’m choosing no.

Sven

What happens when Atlas shrugs???

I found this bumper sticker at cafe press. It fits my current mood very well.

Until next time,

The blogger formerly known as -VoR-

Now you can just call me John Galt.

"First they came"

First they came to tax those that make $2,000,000,
and I didn’t speak up because I didn’t make $2,000,000.

Then they came to tax those that make $1,000,000,
and I didn’t speak up because I didn’t make $1,000,000.

Then they came to tax those that make $500,000,
and I didn’t speak up because I didn’t make $500,000.

Then they came to tax those that make $250,000,
and I didn’t speak up because I didn’t make $250,000.

Then they came to tax me,
and by that time there was no one left to speak up.

Until next time,

-VoR-

Final Score: Deer One ... Plastic Econobox Zero

I had a very valuable physics lesson on Saturday night. I had a close encounter with, possibly, the biggest deer that I have ever seen. He ran full speed across the highway and tried to occupy the same space, at the same time as my car. The outcome was not pretty. He, miraculously, got up and ran away and I wasn't hurt either. Unfortunately, my car didn't fare quite as well.

My daily driver is a cheap, old Saturn. I bought it several years ago for next to nothing, back when I was commuting back and forth from Atlanta to North Carolina on a fairly regular basis. It has 220,000 miles on the odometer and doesn't look very good - faded paint, scratches, and lots of squeaks and rattles - but it still gets great gas mileage, and it's paid for.

Now ... Saturns are known for their plastic body panels. These panels are great for preventing dings in parking lots, but they don't fare very well in impact situations. The deer got up and ran away ... and I got a shattered fender and headlight, a cracked bumper, and a crumpled hood (which is just about the only metal body panel on the car). It isn't worth taking to a body shop so I decided to have a little fun and take a page from MacGyver. It's true ... there isn't anything that can't be fixed with a little duct tape and a big enough hammer.

:-)

If duct tape is good enough to go 200 MPH in a NASCAR race, I guess it is good enough for me. Hopefully I can find replacement parts at the junk yard in the near future, but for now, I guess this will have to do.

Until next time,

-VoR-

Funny Videos !!!

This has got to be one of the funniest cat videos I have ever seen. A few parts were cringe-worthy, but, for the most part, it was funny as heck. Turn the sound up and enjoy!

The aquarium scene at 2:05 brings back memories. I "had" an aquarium about that size until a certain black and white cat that I know (see my profile picture) decided to perform a similar maneuver. That was about the time that I learned cats and aquariums aren't necessarily a good mix. :-)

This one is pretty funny too.

Until next time,

-VoR-

Oh Good Grief ... Not Again!!!!

It is starting to look like this is going to be a very long winter. Here is my forecast for today:



We had snow as far east as Greensboro, NC. Take a look at these videos from the local news station. I apologize for not embedding them, but they don't seem to have that option on their website, and my trusty Firefox download helper doesn't seem to work on their site - so I guess I will have to give them some linky love:

Winston Salem snow

Greensboro snow

Thirty-one closings and delays this morning, and winter weather advisories for at least six counties that surround me:



And it isn't even December yet!!!! This is starting to get ridiculous. I'm not supposed to be having to scrape snow off my car in November. Someone please tell Ol' Man Winter to lighten up a bit.

Until next time,

-VoR-