On the Lighter Side

The other day, the 4th grade curriculum covered latitude and longitude, and the lesson devolved into a game of ”Put Us Somewhere Random!”  We would take turns picking a number between 0 and 90, then North or South, then a number between 0 and 180, and finally East or West.  Then we’d find the coordinates on our inflatable globe.

I fared worst, earning the title “shark bait” with coordinates within the deep Atlantic or Pacific Oceans.  Younger son get closer to land, but still managed to put us in danger of getting killed by Somali pirates.  Older son adeptly put us on dry land:  the barren lands of Greenland and Siberia, that is.

Later in the game, I started putting the coordinates into Google Earth.  Buckle up and get ready for a ride, I told them before hitting “search.”  The dizzying effect of this program produced giggles and squeals.

Younger son put us off the coast of the Falkland Islands, and I started clicking on all the photo pins for that area.  The Falklands are beautiful, and reminiscent of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides.  One photographer in particular posted a ton of breathtaking images, and in the middle of all this breathtaking beauty was this:

Hee hee! I Sneakin In Yur Pitcher!

Bad Bad Blogger

Sorry for my lack of internet activity.  I’m still here, and reminiscing about England a bit.  This week, the homeschool curriculum included the story of The Sword in the Stone, and I’m all like, King Arthur!  We went to his castle!  Do you remember Merlin’s Cave?!

I got blank stares.

Argh, the boys were too young to retain memory of the things they saw, the culture they absorbed.  (Both do, however, retain an uncanny ability to fake the British accent, and both remember Peppa Pig and the Jimmer Jammers.  Does that count as culture?)

Tintagel is the name of the village purported to be Arthur’s birthplace, a right pretty little spot.  Of course, most UK villages are right pretty little spots.

I really miss those villages, as well as the cheeses named after them:  Stilton, Wensleydale, Davidstow . . . .  The Brits are dead serious about their cheese, as this macho marketing strategy can attest: 

In America, one must look to Axe and Old Spice ads for similar imagery.

Okay, enough rambling.  I fully intend to make the rounds soon, and see what fellow bloggers are sharing.  I also intend to write more substantive posts.  Maybe even get a chapter of that novel written /sarc/.

Ya’ll have a great week.

You've gotta park somewhere

Sunday, Linky Sunday

“Cleaning house” on my blog is easier than cleaning the really real house. 

Speaking of which, here is our new place on base post:

Home is where the Navy sends you

I’m learning the terrain and starting to get my bearings.  Leavenworth County has a home school service that I’m excited to stumble upon.  All Slabbed Up is the place to go for an entirely euphoric meat coma.  Folks at the Cushing Memorial Hospital ER are real nice, and while the application of dermabond does sting, it is still better than a shot (so saith the younger son). 

On to the links:

 

Donald Sensing has shared a slogan T-shirt that sums up my entire political philosophy.

 

Mayrant and Rave has another example of our President’s disdain for the rule of law.  Also, a pleasingly phonetic new acronym:  CWTSYGO.  (I can’t wait, either.)

 

PJMom reminds us how bad the education system has become, and she explains one of the reasons why:  Howard Zinn.

 

Daniel Hannan gave another great mini-speech in the European Parliament:  castles made of sand melt into the sea.

 

Via the Autonomous Mind, an amusing gun joke.

 

Via the comment section of The Conservative Hideout comes the discovery of another great blog.  Don’t let the name scare you off:  Hookers and Booze.  (Hmm.  Actually, a fair number of you will be attracted by the title, won’t you?)

 

Please be sure to read Samuel L. Jackson, You’re My Only Hope.  Comedic genius lies therein.  I’m almost jealous enough to buy a pet snake for my family, in the hope that similar humor will ensue.

 

This link is a bit old for blogospheric standards, but I don’t care.  If you are already aware of my weakness for trolls, then you know why I love Brian’s Story:  Portrait of a Liberal Troll.

 

Speaking of old, go help celebrate IMAO’s 9th Anniversary.  Wow.   I can only hope for such longevity.  (How old is that in blogospheric years?  Like, 108?)

 

I’ll end with some good news:  South Sudan achieves nation status.

 

That’s all I’ve got today.  So much other good stuff abounds.  Take a stroll thru my blogroll, ifn you’ve got the time. 

On Royal Weddings

Diana’s royal wedding provoked nothing more in me than a mild puzzlement at the length of her train.  I was ten, what did I care? 

Now that I’m forty my reaction has matured, evolved . . . into a serious stupefaction at the sight of those hats.

Yikesters.

And the daughters of Prince Andrew and Princess Sarah . . . oh dear, shall I admit it?  When I saw the photo over at Innocent Bystanders, here’s the first thing that came to mind:

 

I know, I know, I’m really mean.  But they are grown women, right?  They did choose their attire?  Who among you cannot see the similarity?  Well, except the cartoon hair accessories are less ridiculous.

In a futile attempt to make this post seem less catty, I’m not embedding the photo.  Hop over to Innocent Bystanders to see.

Really, I’m sure they are lovely young women.  The attire is the sole subject of my derision, not the humans beneath.

I love you too, Rand Paul

Sigh.

Ah, unrequited love.

Or is it?

For those without eight minutes to spare, here is an important bit:

“We are not yet serious in Washington.  We have not yet here recognized the severity, the enormity, and the significance of how big this deficit is.  This deficit is going to have serious repercussions.  The Chinese have bought over a trillion dollars of our debt.  The Japanese nearly a trillion . . . Can they continue to buy our debt?  The other question is, how long can a government continue to exist that spends more than it brings in?”

I’m pretty sure that Rand Paul just said he loves me.  Me, the Tea Party.  Me, the average Jane.  Me, the dummy who’s fool enough to moan about the debt, the deficit, the overspending and blah blah blah whatever.

He loves me!  He does!  I’m not just some one night stand to be ignored.

Don’t make me boil the bunny, Rand.

China

The People’s Republic of China.  I don’t give ’em much thought.  But China keeps popping up lately, so I’m gonna share this stuff in a really shoddy, stream-of-consciousness-style post.

China Item #1:  My older is building a model of The Great Wall for Multicultural Day at school.  Someone Who Shall Remain Nameless had this to say:  “Well, who’s making the model of the forced labor camps?”

Yeah, yeah, I know.  But I mean, you know.  The Great Wall is one of the wonders of the world, so there’s no harm in learning about it.  Actually, more’s the harm in the way a school will micromanage your time by dictating that your child accomplish time-intensive, yet mostly-useless projects which cannot be completed without serious parental intervention.

I could write a book on the harm in that.

Turns out that The Great Wall was mostly accomplished through forced labor anyway, so . . . our son is making the model of a forced labor camp.

China Item #2:  Via Pileus comes news that the Chinese government recently restricted the use of time travel on TV shows.  I guess they won’t be showing Back to the Future on Chinese TV anytime soon . . .

Although this type of “guideline” might have prevented some of the worst Star Trek plots from surfacing, you gotta wonder what the Orwellian Chinese State Administration for Radio, Film & Television was thinking on this one.

Obviously, they were thinking about how much they hate that weird time loop thing that inevitably occurs in a time travel plot–you know, the past ends up as contingent on the future as the future is on the past, and your linear-minded brain just has to deal with it.

China Item #3:  Via Insty comes news that the Chinese real estate bubble may be popping.  After watching this video at By Design’s place a couple of weeks ago, I am hardly surprised:

The experts and the central planners will sort out an economy quite nicely, will they not?

Meet The Time Traveller

I stumbled on a new blogger last week, and he’s worth sharing.  Adventures in Time Travel is an Englishman’s blog, so the tagline shouldn’t surprise any Brit-humor fan:

Contains no actual time travel

The Time Traveller does a sound fisking of an eco-fascist news article in “Vegetarians are destroying the environment.”  Here’s a tid:

Article:  “After decades of conversion to cattle farming and agriculture, overwhelmingly soy, but also corn and coffee, only 20 per cent of pristine Cerrado remains, much fragmented between farmland.”

Time Traveller:  Hang on a cotton-picking minute! Earlier in this article you were claiming that 50% had been lost. Now it’s 80%. That really is a rapid rate of development, unless you suffered a particularly long bout of writer’s block after paragraph 3.

Snicker.  Read the rest if you have time.  At the least, do click over and scan for posts that pique your interest.  Yeah, some posts are couched in terms of British politics, but it’s easy enough to get used to.

Running Low On Rage

I’m having a hard time maintaining interest in current events.  Perhaps this is already evident.  All you folks out there are doing a bang-up job, but oh, how I struggle to think of something original or even relevant to add.

The thing is.

Politics never did interest me much.  This blog isn’t really about politics.  It’s about, well . . . outrage.  I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!  Rage is the primary fuel that keeps me posting.

As this post title mentions, I’m running low.

Maybe the astonishing level of predictability is to blame.  Predictable things are boring, and predictability abounds.

Let’s see . . . the Dems screaming like school girls with skinned knees over every little spending cut?

Check.

The bulk of the GOP still not taking the Tea Party or spending cuts seriously?

Check.

Real conservatives getting fed up with this pattern?

Check.

The new media finding stunning new proof of leftist bias, lies and nefarious Marxist strategies?

Check, check, and check.

The MSM ignoring the whole mess so they can keep waxing eloquent on the greatness of President Obama?

Check.

Sigh.

If my heart’s not in it, then my posts are gonna stink.  On ice.  So I’m gonna go off on some tangents for a while, until I am enraged anew.

You never know.  Could happen tomorrow.

In the meantime, here’s some stuff you might want to check out:

Missy Sandbox has noticed a striking resemblance between a certain journalist and a villain from Russian folklore:  heh.

The King of Eloquent Insults does some eloquent insulting:  ha.

Planet Moron explains the Libya situation in a manner reminiscent of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First.”  Genius.

Mr. Belvedere makes it clear why Newt Gingrich is so not on our GOP Presidential Wish List and adroitly works in a Holy Grail reference (bonus points!):  Snort.

Finally, a little seriousness.  The WORM is a nuke guy, and he’s been compiling and analyzing info on the Fukushima nuclear plant since Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.  The folks on site at that plant have endured a life-threatening environment for two weeks now.  God bless and keep ‘em.  Go see the WORM if you want to learn more.