Shasta, after having tripped over The Equuschick's massive copy of Grey's Anatomy that was lying on the floor (The Equuschick would explain what it was doing on the floor, but it is a long story that involves visiting relatives with the flu over Christmas and the general deterioration of household standards)stubbed his toe to the point of removing the nail.
(Apologies to squeamish readers.)
He's been expounding to The Pirate ever since on the folly of literature, though it seems to The Equuschick that proper lesson here is that Christmas presents should be Put Away on Christmas Day. No exceptions. Let it be a lesson to your young tots.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
What Was Going On With Flight 253 After the Detroit Terrorist Attempt Failed?
From passenger and Michigan Attorney Kurt Haskell:
Haskell believes one of the following is more likely:
Taking a blogger's laptop, threatening his writing contracts- yeah, that makes me feel so much safer.
The FBI insists this is not true, although at times they have admitted that there was a man detained for immigration issues. However, the FBI says this man Haskell saw detained was from a different flight. Haskell and the other passengers say that passengers from other flights were NOT allowed to mingle with them, as they were kept isolated, refused permission to even eat or drink, or use cell phones, let alone mingle with passengers from random flights."Today is the second worst day of my life after 12-25-09. Today is the day that I realized that my own country is lying to me and all of my fellow Americans. Let me explain.
Ever since I got off of Flight 253 I have been repeating what I saw in US Customs. Specifically, 1 hour after we left the plane, bomb sniffing dogs arrived. Up to this point, all of the passengers on Flight 253 stood in a small area in an evacuated luggage claim area of an airport terminal. During this time period, all of the passengers had their carry on bags with them. When the bomb sniffing dogs arrived, 1 dog found something in a carry on bag of a 30 ish Indian man. This is not the so called "Sharp Dressed" man. I will refer to this man as "The man in orange". The man in orange, who stood some 20ft away from me the entire time until he was taken away, was immediately taken away to be searched and interrogated in a nearby room. At this time he was not handcuffed. When he emerged from the room, he was then handcuffed and taken away. At this time an FBI agent came up to the rest of the passengers and said the following (approximate quote) "You all are being moved to another area because this area is not safe. I am sure many of you saw what just happened (Referring to the man in orange) and are smart enough to read between the lines and figure it out." We were then marched out of the baggage claim area and into a long hallway. This entire time period and until we left customs, no person that wasn't a law enforcement personnel or a passenger on our flight was allowed anywhere on our floor of the terminal (or possibly the entire terminal) The FBI was so concerned during this time, that we were not allowed to use the bathroom unless we went alone with an FBI agent, we were not allowed to eat or drink, or text or call anyone. I have been repeating this same story over the last 5 days. The FBI has, since we landed, insisted that only one man was arrested for the airliner attack (contradicting my account). However, several of my fellow passengers have come over the past few days, backed up my claim, and put pressure on FBI/Customs to tell the truth. Early today, I heard from two different reporters that a federal agency (FBI or Customs) was now admitting that another man has been held (and will be held indefinitely) since our flight landed for "immigration reasons." Notice that this man was "being held" and not "arrested", which was a cute semantic ploy by the FBI to stretch the truth and not lie.
Haskell believes one of the following is more likely:
1. Customs/FBI realized that they screwed up and don't want to admit that they left flight 253 passengers on a flight with a live bomb on the runway for 20 minutes.In the comments to this post, one KH, I presume Kurt Haskell, says:
2. Customs/FBI realized that they screwed up and don't want to admit that they left flight 253 passengers in customs for 1 hour with a live bomb in a carry on bag.
3. Customs/FBI realize that the man in orange points to a greater involvement then the lone wolf theory that they have been promoting.
I had a visit from the FBI yesterday. They brought in several photos including one I casually identified to them as "The man they won't admit exists that they detained in customs." Amazingly, they changed their story and admitted that this 2nd Indian man was still being held in customs on "immigration issues." (i.e. no passport) last night.Meanwhile, our transparent government is issuing subpoenas to bloggers who informed their readers that in the wake of the Detroit bombing attempt, the TSA was increasing security measures:
TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.
Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.
Taking a blogger's laptop, threatening his writing contracts- yeah, that makes me feel so much safer.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
New Year's, Trivialities, and Stream of Consciousness Nonsense
I had some important, thought provoking, explanatory things to say, comments to make, probing questions to ask, in short, a really, really DEEP post, at least I thought I did. Then I clicked new post, stared at the blank screen a while, went away and played a word game, wrote a post for Associated Content, read a couple pages from a book I need to review, looked at a blank screen again, and decided to let this post just sort of dribble out of my fingers, willy nilly, and here you are.
NEW YEAR'S EVE
by Charles Lamb, writing as 'Elia'
Thoughts: Two new words in one paragraph, oh, JOY!
Only children celebrate natal days in Lamb's time? Is that a sign of how childish we are become?
Okay, three thoughts. Lots of people seem to regard the first of January with indifference. Does this mean anything? I dunno.
He continues:
Me: I wish I knew how the New Year's peal of bells he speaks of sounds.
I had to read that last sentence of his two or three times before I realized that he was saying "it wasn't merely poetical fancy talking when a mate of mine said he saw the skirts of the departing Year."
He goes on to explain that he misses and regrets the passing of the old year far more than he welcomes the New Year. He does not like change, and the New Year is proof positive that he can't make time stand still.
On the one hand, bummer, dude. On the other hand, if'd I'd been able to make time stand still all the times I wanted to, there'd be no new grandson, no wonderful sons-in-law, and, to be honest, my youngest two children wouldn't be here either- a thought not to be borne, so let us ignore this horrible thought and quickly move on.
Standing still is stagnation.
-------------------------------------------------------
I have some new articles up at Associated Content:
Actually, I think a couple of those are not new, but I can't remember what I posted about and what I didn't. At any rate, I do SO appreciate it when you kind, kind people click through. Oh, and to become a 'fan,' you click on 'follow,' but I do think you have to be a 'member,' which is free, other than the time ti takes to sign in.
------------------------------------------------------------
I am still coughing. It got better, then it got worse again. I feel like a couple of very fuzzy caterpillars live inside my chest and they are taking up too much space, and they tickle.
------------------------------------------------------------
New reading project for this next month or two- The Education of Henry Adams. Reading with a friend. We both agree that if either of us hate it after two chapters we will pick something else.
------------------------------------------------------------
The bed is unmade today, but the laundry isn't awful. Of course, I am drinking cough syrup by the bottle so nothing except my cough seems that awful.
Yes, yes, I should go to the doctor, but here's the thing. Going to the doctor requires so many things that I don't do because I find them insurmountably overwhelming. It exhausts me to think about doing them:
1. Use the phone to call the doctor and make an appointment.
2. Drive myself to the doctor (we have to go some 40 miles away. I tell myself that if we could only see a local doctor, I would go more often, but the heart is deceitful above all things)
3. Sit in a waiting room of sick strangers waiting for the doctor.
4. Talk to the doctor.
5. Drive somewhere else for my inevitable prescription.
6. Drive home from the doctor's.
I do not LIKE to go to the doctor. See post on acedia.
Okay, plus, my cough was much better yesterday, but much worse today. Staying up until 2 or 3 a.m. watching silly sci fi shows with my fifth daughter was fun, but probably not the wisest thing for me to do.
Um, especially not two days in a row.
But I was being frugal. I have a two week free trial to Netflix and I'm trying to get my money's worth.
------------------------------------------------------------
In case you are wondering, the cough syrup I am chugging does not contain any alcohol. Do cough syrups still have alcohol? They used to, nearly all of them. What's my point?
I have a point?
-----------------------------------------------------------
You know in the last few chapters of 1 Samuel where Saul goes into the caves where David is hiding, and Saul is said to go in 'to relieve himself' or 'to cover his feet,' depending on your translation? And David sneaks up and cuts off a part of his garment and Saul does not find out until David comes out of the cave later to tell him?
This is a great boy story. It appeals to every fiber of their boyish nature.
Has it occurred to you how SHARP that knife had to have been for David to cut off some of Saul's robe and Saul never hears or feels it? There's no point to that either, it just interests me.
Actually, there is a point. It's just not mine. It belonged to David.
Hahahahaha.
--------------------------------------------------------
This is known as Cranial Vandalism.
You're welcome.
NEW YEAR'S EVE
by Charles Lamb, writing as 'Elia'
Every man hath two birth-days : two days, at least, in every year, which set him upon revolving the lapse of time, as it affects his mortal duration. The one is that which in an especial manner he termeth his. In the gradual desuetude of old observances, this custom of solemnizing our proper birth-day hath nearly passed away, or is left to children, who reflect nothing at all about the matter, nor understand anything in it beyond cake and orange. But the birth of a New Year is of an interest too wide to be pretermitted by king or cobbler. No one ever regarded the first of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam.
Thoughts: Two new words in one paragraph, oh, JOY!
Only children celebrate natal days in Lamb's time? Is that a sign of how childish we are become?
Okay, three thoughts. Lots of people seem to regard the first of January with indifference. Does this mean anything? I dunno.
He continues:
" Of all sound of all bells—(bells, the music nighest bordering upon heaven)—most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year. I never hear it without a gathering up of my mind to a concentration of all the images that have been diffused over the past twelvemonth ; all I have done or suffered, performed or neglected—in that regretted time. I begin to know its worth, as when a person dies. It takes a personal colour ; nor was it a poetical flight in a contemporary, when he exclaimed,
"I saw the skirts of the departing Year.""
Me: I wish I knew how the New Year's peal of bells he speaks of sounds.
I had to read that last sentence of his two or three times before I realized that he was saying "it wasn't merely poetical fancy talking when a mate of mine said he saw the skirts of the departing Year."
He goes on to explain that he misses and regrets the passing of the old year far more than he welcomes the New Year. He does not like change, and the New Year is proof positive that he can't make time stand still.
On the one hand, bummer, dude. On the other hand, if'd I'd been able to make time stand still all the times I wanted to, there'd be no new grandson, no wonderful sons-in-law, and, to be honest, my youngest two children wouldn't be here either- a thought not to be borne, so let us ignore this horrible thought and quickly move on.
Standing still is stagnation.
-------------------------------------------------------
I have some new articles up at Associated Content:
Economizing with Space and Funds While Traveling
Actually, I think a couple of those are not new, but I can't remember what I posted about and what I didn't. At any rate, I do SO appreciate it when you kind, kind people click through. Oh, and to become a 'fan,' you click on 'follow,' but I do think you have to be a 'member,' which is free, other than the time ti takes to sign in.
------------------------------------------------------------
I am still coughing. It got better, then it got worse again. I feel like a couple of very fuzzy caterpillars live inside my chest and they are taking up too much space, and they tickle.
------------------------------------------------------------
New reading project for this next month or two- The Education of Henry Adams. Reading with a friend. We both agree that if either of us hate it after two chapters we will pick something else.
------------------------------------------------------------
The bed is unmade today, but the laundry isn't awful. Of course, I am drinking cough syrup by the bottle so nothing except my cough seems that awful.
Yes, yes, I should go to the doctor, but here's the thing. Going to the doctor requires so many things that I don't do because I find them insurmountably overwhelming. It exhausts me to think about doing them:
1. Use the phone to call the doctor and make an appointment.
2. Drive myself to the doctor (we have to go some 40 miles away. I tell myself that if we could only see a local doctor, I would go more often, but the heart is deceitful above all things)
3. Sit in a waiting room of sick strangers waiting for the doctor.
4. Talk to the doctor.
5. Drive somewhere else for my inevitable prescription.
6. Drive home from the doctor's.
I do not LIKE to go to the doctor. See post on acedia.
Okay, plus, my cough was much better yesterday, but much worse today. Staying up until 2 or 3 a.m. watching silly sci fi shows with my fifth daughter was fun, but probably not the wisest thing for me to do.
Um, especially not two days in a row.
But I was being frugal. I have a two week free trial to Netflix and I'm trying to get my money's worth.
------------------------------------------------------------
In case you are wondering, the cough syrup I am chugging does not contain any alcohol. Do cough syrups still have alcohol? They used to, nearly all of them. What's my point?
I have a point?
-----------------------------------------------------------
You know in the last few chapters of 1 Samuel where Saul goes into the caves where David is hiding, and Saul is said to go in 'to relieve himself' or 'to cover his feet,' depending on your translation? And David sneaks up and cuts off a part of his garment and Saul does not find out until David comes out of the cave later to tell him?
This is a great boy story. It appeals to every fiber of their boyish nature.
Has it occurred to you how SHARP that knife had to have been for David to cut off some of Saul's robe and Saul never hears or feels it? There's no point to that either, it just interests me.
Actually, there is a point. It's just not mine. It belonged to David.
Hahahahaha.
--------------------------------------------------------
This is known as Cranial Vandalism.
You're welcome.
Why It Can Be Difficult to Recommend a Book...
[M]ost of what one reads and does has no effect at all; but there are certain things that have a peculiar significance for one, and they open a petal; and the petals open one by one; and at last the flower is there.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915).
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.
~ W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (1915).
Personal Finance Quote
Personal Finance is really about learning how to live your life, figuring out what you really cherish and value, then putting your money behind those goals and beliefs.
The New Frugality, by Chris Farrell, page 4
I'm received a free review copy through Library Thing, and it looks interesting so far.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Betrayed Again- Republicans Failed To Call for Reading the Bill and Amendments
And Republican Mitch McConnell is lying about it. He says Republicans used all procedural methods available to them to slow down the bill, but this is flatly dishonest.
Secondly, if reading them aloud is too tedious, too confusing, and too overwhelming for our legislators, they need to stop creating bills that are too tedious, confusing, and overwhelming to read out loud, let alone force the rest of us to suffer under forever.
I looked up reading the bills aloud on google, and found news agencies and bloggers alike referring to this as a threat.
A THREAT? Really? Think about that.
If these bills are so noxious and toxic that merely requiring its authors and those who will be voting on it to sit through a single oral reading can be called a threat, then these bills are too dangerous to be passed, and our legislators are too dangerous to be permitted to remain in office.
This is supposed to be standard procedure, but hasn't been in decades. The fact that it's seen by most as a 'threat' to simply expect the government to live by its own rules and merely read the bill they want to impose on the rest of us is an indication of just how far Congress has fallen from the vision of the Founding Fathers. That those who wrote our Constitution fully expected that responsible legislators would WANT to read bills aloud before voting on them can be seen by the fact that unanimous consent is required in order to bypass the requirement that all bills be read on the floor. The fact that this unanimous consent has been taken for granted doesn't prove there is something wrong with a Senator or Congressman withholding that consent- it proves there's something wrong, and has been for ages, with the crop of permanent politicans who routinely give that consent and are shocked and disgusted that anybody would 'threaten' them with having to listen to their own bills!
This rule, by the way, is over 200 years old. When did it become standard procedure to consider the bills passed by the Senate and Congress too horrible to listen to?
Every day the Congress or Senate is in session, with every bill presented, men and women who allegedly represent us, every single one of them, Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Independent, every one of them, consistently choose to maintain Congressional customs protecting their own power and privileges at the expense of voters, at the expense of doing the right thing.
It's wrong. Every bill and every amendment should be read aloud in it entirety before a vote, and no unanimous vote should be permitted to dispense with this necessary check on our legislators. If the bills they are writing are too horrible to hear, they are too horrible to pass.
McConnell ... shut down Tom Coburn’s attempts to have all 3000 pages of the legislation read in an effort to tie up the Senate for, potentially, more than a week.Before Thanksgiving, Sen.Tom Coburn, R-Okla., backed off a threat to force a reading of the healthcare bill. But appearing miffed, he made clear he did so reluctantly at the request of leadership.
This is about far more than slowing down a bill I happen to find dangerous. This is about the due diligence all legislators have to actually read the bills before they pass them, and reading them aloud is about the only way we have to be sure they do this.
Secondly, if reading them aloud is too tedious, too confusing, and too overwhelming for our legislators, they need to stop creating bills that are too tedious, confusing, and overwhelming to read out loud, let alone force the rest of us to suffer under forever.
I looked up reading the bills aloud on google, and found news agencies and bloggers alike referring to this as a threat.
A THREAT? Really? Think about that.
If these bills are so noxious and toxic that merely requiring its authors and those who will be voting on it to sit through a single oral reading can be called a threat, then these bills are too dangerous to be passed, and our legislators are too dangerous to be permitted to remain in office.
This is supposed to be standard procedure, but hasn't been in decades. The fact that it's seen by most as a 'threat' to simply expect the government to live by its own rules and merely read the bill they want to impose on the rest of us is an indication of just how far Congress has fallen from the vision of the Founding Fathers. That those who wrote our Constitution fully expected that responsible legislators would WANT to read bills aloud before voting on them can be seen by the fact that unanimous consent is required in order to bypass the requirement that all bills be read on the floor. The fact that this unanimous consent has been taken for granted doesn't prove there is something wrong with a Senator or Congressman withholding that consent- it proves there's something wrong, and has been for ages, with the crop of permanent politicans who routinely give that consent and are shocked and disgusted that anybody would 'threaten' them with having to listen to their own bills!
This rule, by the way, is over 200 years old. When did it become standard procedure to consider the bills passed by the Senate and Congress too horrible to listen to?
Every day the Congress or Senate is in session, with every bill presented, men and women who allegedly represent us, every single one of them, Republican, Democrat, Socialist, Independent, every one of them, consistently choose to maintain Congressional customs protecting their own power and privileges at the expense of voters, at the expense of doing the right thing.
It's wrong. Every bill and every amendment should be read aloud in it entirety before a vote, and no unanimous vote should be permitted to dispense with this necessary check on our legislators. If the bills they are writing are too horrible to hear, they are too horrible to pass.
2009 Survey for the New Year
1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Became a Grandma. Although that isn't really something I *did* as much as something that happened to me.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No.
Yes.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth or get pregnant?
Yep, the Equuschick.=)
4. Did anyone close to you get married?
Yep, the HG.
5. Did anyone close to you die?
No.
6. Travel?
My traveling days are over.
7. Did you move anywhere?
I think my moving days are over, too.
8. What was the best month?May was pretty fun. The HG graduated, Strider stepped forward. Of course, in September I got to be a Grandmama, and in October I got to be the Mum In Law again.
9. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More self discipline.
10. What date(s) from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Well, nothing stays etched in my memory that long anymore, but April 1st is when Strider asked the HG if they could pursue a more serious relationship,
September 19 ~ The Pirate was born
October 16 ~ Strider and the HG were married.
11. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I hope it was making an impact for good in Blynken's and Nod's lives.
12. What was your biggest failure?
I do not think I am doing all I could for their mother, and I am not sure how to do what needs to be done or if it's even possible.
13. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Colds, flu, tooth removals, root canals, undiagnosed aches, pains, and various physical limitations.
14. What was the best thing you bought?
I do not know, which prompts another question- was it worth buying if I cannot remember what it was?
15. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Shasta's, for his blue ribbon, incredible, amazing role as the wonderfully supportive, loving, and totally involved labor coach in the Equuschick's labor and delivery.
Strider's for finally being brave enough to ask the HG out.=)
16. Whose behavior made you appalled and/or depressed?
Congress, all of them, and the media.
17. Where did most of your money go?
House payments, van payment, groceries, and utilities.
18. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Having a grandbaby, having another son-in-law.
19. What song will always remind you of 2009?
I really cannot think of one.
20. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
ii. richer or poorer?
i. That's a complex question for me. On one front, the one I never blog about except obliquely, the same, only a little sadder because it is the same.
On other fronts, happier, because who could not be happier with a new grandbaby and a second delightful son-in-law? Well, to be honest, sometimes me, because the happier things only make the sad, unblogged about things all the sadder and harder.
ii. As far as expendable income, much poorer, as far as getting a grip on handling that, richer.
21. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Reading.
22. What do you wish you'd done less of?
I wish I could do less thinking about the complex and bleakly unbloggable thing behind 20i, but I do not see that happening.
23. How will you be spending New Year's Eve/Day?
I think Eve will be a very small family party, and Day will be games and snacks with the HG and her husband and the rest of the family, except Jenny who is visiting a lonely friend.
24. What was an unexpected surprise?
Strider.
25. Did you fall in love in 2009?
with the new grandbaby.=)
26. What was the best concert you've been to this year?
I do not think I went to a concert.
27. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't watch it, except on DVD. This year some favorites on DVD were Stargate, Eureka, Firefly, and Monk.
28. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?
Personally? No. Oh, wait. There is a person I find tedious in the extreme, and I complicate that frustration by feeling incredibly, horribly, terribly guilty and ugly about finding said person so unspeakably, impossibly, wretchedly tedious, and I dislike feeling guilty about people so it's a vicious cycle.
29. What was the best book you read?
Psalms. The picture books Pelle's New Suit and a Day's Work. Also The Quotidian Mysteries.
30. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Doc Watson=)
31. What did you want and get?
I know you all expect me to say grandbaby, and while it is true that I have looked forward to the day I would be a grandmother, and am perfectly content with what we have, I would have been equally content with our lot in life if we'd had to wait longer. Either was good. I am deleriously happy that the HG is married to somebody who loves her and appreciates her as she deserves, that is something I have long desired for her because I know she has long desired to be married. Had she been perfectly happy as a single, I would have been content to have her continue in that state.
32. What did you want and not get?
Lots of nonphyiscal things I have no intention of discussing. In the physical realm-
A shelf to replace the broken one in my refrigerator (the one that covers the meat and cheese drawer and holds the now removed fruit and vegetable drawers and renders all attempts to organize and use the fridge an exercise in a deep state of general malcontentment and tears).
33. What was your favorite film of this year?
I can't really think of one.
34. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 47, and I don't really remember. I assume it was a quiet family birthday at home, but I don't recall what we ate or what we did.
35. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Paying off the van, or getting a functional shelf back in that refrigerator.
36. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Comfort.
37. What kept you sane?
Sanity is highly over-rated.
38. What political issue stirred you the most?
The fact that neither party reads the bills they vote on, and the permanent ruling class we have.
39. Who did you miss?
Old friends from old places
40. Random Memories from 2009?
Houseguests, new grandbaby, more houseguests, and wedding stuff (which involved yet more houseguests). And a housefire, which, of course, involved more houseguests.
Became a Grandma. Although that isn't really something I *did* as much as something that happened to me.
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No.
Yes.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth or get pregnant?
Yep, the Equuschick.=)
4. Did anyone close to you get married?
Yep, the HG.
5. Did anyone close to you die?
No.
6. Travel?
My traveling days are over.
7. Did you move anywhere?
I think my moving days are over, too.
8. What was the best month?May was pretty fun. The HG graduated, Strider stepped forward. Of course, in September I got to be a Grandmama, and in October I got to be the Mum In Law again.
9. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
More self discipline.
10. What date(s) from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Well, nothing stays etched in my memory that long anymore, but April 1st is when Strider asked the HG if they could pursue a more serious relationship,
September 19 ~ The Pirate was born
October 16 ~ Strider and the HG were married.
11. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I hope it was making an impact for good in Blynken's and Nod's lives.
12. What was your biggest failure?
I do not think I am doing all I could for their mother, and I am not sure how to do what needs to be done or if it's even possible.
13. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Colds, flu, tooth removals, root canals, undiagnosed aches, pains, and various physical limitations.
14. What was the best thing you bought?
I do not know, which prompts another question- was it worth buying if I cannot remember what it was?
15. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Shasta's, for his blue ribbon, incredible, amazing role as the wonderfully supportive, loving, and totally involved labor coach in the Equuschick's labor and delivery.
Strider's for finally being brave enough to ask the HG out.=)
16. Whose behavior made you appalled and/or depressed?
Congress, all of them, and the media.
17. Where did most of your money go?
House payments, van payment, groceries, and utilities.
18. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Having a grandbaby, having another son-in-law.
19. What song will always remind you of 2009?
I really cannot think of one.
20. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
ii. richer or poorer?
i. That's a complex question for me. On one front, the one I never blog about except obliquely, the same, only a little sadder because it is the same.
On other fronts, happier, because who could not be happier with a new grandbaby and a second delightful son-in-law? Well, to be honest, sometimes me, because the happier things only make the sad, unblogged about things all the sadder and harder.
ii. As far as expendable income, much poorer, as far as getting a grip on handling that, richer.
21. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Reading.
22. What do you wish you'd done less of?
I wish I could do less thinking about the complex and bleakly unbloggable thing behind 20i, but I do not see that happening.
23. How will you be spending New Year's Eve/Day?
I think Eve will be a very small family party, and Day will be games and snacks with the HG and her husband and the rest of the family, except Jenny who is visiting a lonely friend.
24. What was an unexpected surprise?
Strider.
25. Did you fall in love in 2009?
with the new grandbaby.=)
26. What was the best concert you've been to this year?
I do not think I went to a concert.
27. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't watch it, except on DVD. This year some favorites on DVD were Stargate, Eureka, Firefly, and Monk.
28. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn't dislike this time last year?
Personally? No. Oh, wait. There is a person I find tedious in the extreme, and I complicate that frustration by feeling incredibly, horribly, terribly guilty and ugly about finding said person so unspeakably, impossibly, wretchedly tedious, and I dislike feeling guilty about people so it's a vicious cycle.
29. What was the best book you read?
Psalms. The picture books Pelle's New Suit and a Day's Work. Also The Quotidian Mysteries.
30. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Doc Watson=)
31. What did you want and get?
I know you all expect me to say grandbaby, and while it is true that I have looked forward to the day I would be a grandmother, and am perfectly content with what we have, I would have been equally content with our lot in life if we'd had to wait longer. Either was good. I am deleriously happy that the HG is married to somebody who loves her and appreciates her as she deserves, that is something I have long desired for her because I know she has long desired to be married. Had she been perfectly happy as a single, I would have been content to have her continue in that state.
32. What did you want and not get?
Lots of nonphyiscal things I have no intention of discussing. In the physical realm-
A shelf to replace the broken one in my refrigerator (the one that covers the meat and cheese drawer and holds the now removed fruit and vegetable drawers and renders all attempts to organize and use the fridge an exercise in a deep state of general malcontentment and tears).
33. What was your favorite film of this year?
I can't really think of one.
34. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 47, and I don't really remember. I assume it was a quiet family birthday at home, but I don't recall what we ate or what we did.
35. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Paying off the van, or getting a functional shelf back in that refrigerator.
36. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Comfort.
37. What kept you sane?
Sanity is highly over-rated.
38. What political issue stirred you the most?
The fact that neither party reads the bills they vote on, and the permanent ruling class we have.
39. Who did you miss?
Old friends from old places
40. Random Memories from 2009?
Houseguests, new grandbaby, more houseguests, and wedding stuff (which involved yet more houseguests). And a housefire, which, of course, involved more houseguests.
Think The Would-be Bomber in Detroit is Funny?
Every time I tell anybody about Abdulmutallab's failed efforts to blow up a plane over Detroit, they laugh. I do, too, because it's hard not to be amused at a would-be terrorist succeeding only in setting his underwear on fire- while he's still wearing those underpants.
And there is something to be said for ridicule- Abdulmutallab and his friends in Yemen do look pretty incompetent and ridiculous.
However, he had 80 grams of the explosive PETN in his pants (the same explosive the shoebomber Richard Reid was using).
ABC has very sobering video footage of what only 50 grams of such an explosive would do to an aircraft.
We dodged a freaking big bullet, and only because of a faulty detonator and a quick thinking Dutch passenger.
And there is something to be said for ridicule- Abdulmutallab and his friends in Yemen do look pretty incompetent and ridiculous.
However, he had 80 grams of the explosive PETN in his pants (the same explosive the shoebomber Richard Reid was using).
ABC has very sobering video footage of what only 50 grams of such an explosive would do to an aircraft.
We dodged a freaking big bullet, and only because of a faulty detonator and a quick thinking Dutch passenger.
The AP's Whitewash on Climate Gate
The AP claimed that they investigated the Climate Gate emails, including asking three scientists for their input, and concluded that there was nothing to see here at all. Numerous news outlets obediently and unquestioningly passed on the AP report, but not, fortunately, the Washington Times. They actually asked the three scientists quoted in the AP for their input, and found an interestping spin put on their statements by the AP - all three, in fact, believe there should be independent investigations of the scientists involved. Click through for more.
Public Service Announcement, Tylenol Recall
Tylenol has issued a recall of their Arthritis capsules in the red easy open bottles:
Here is the press release:
Click through the link to see the lot numbers for that recall.
Here is the press release:
In consultation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a Division of McNEIL-PPC, Inc., is voluntarily recalling all currently available bottles of TYLENOL Arthritis Pain Caplet 100 count. These bottles can be easily identified by a distinctive red EZ-OPEN CAP. In November 2009, 5 lots of this product were recalled due toconsumer reports of an unusual moldy, musty, or mildew-like odor that was associated with nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The recall is being expanded, as a precaution, to include all TYLENOLArthritis Pain Caplet 100 count bottles with the distinctive red EZ-OPEN CAP. Only the TYLENOL Arthritis Pain Caplet 100’s are affected by this action. All other TYLENOL Arthritis Pain products remain available. McNeil Consumer Healthcare will reintroduce the TYLENOL Arthritis Pain Caplet 100 count product by January, 2010.
The uncharacteristic smell is caused by the presence of trace amounts of a chemical called 2,4,6-tribromoanisole. The source of 2,4,6-tribromoanisole is believed to be the breakdown of a chemical used to treat wooden pallets that transport and store packaging materials. The health effects of this compound have not been well studied, and to date all of the observed events reported to McNeil were temporary and non-serious.
If you have purchased TYLENOL Arthritis Pain Caplet 100 count bottles with the EZ-OPEN CAP, you should stop using the product and contact McNeil for instructions on a refund or replacement. For these instructions or information regarding how to return or dispose of the product, please call 1-888-222-6036 (Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time, and Saturday-Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time) or use our email contact form. If you have medical concerns or questions, please contact your healthcare provider.
Click through the link to see the lot numbers for that recall.
New Year's Eve Party for Bookworms
Click here to see my latest Associated Content article, Recipes and games for a New Year's Eve Party with a literary theme.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Of Human Nature, Naive Leftists, and Terrorists
(some of the following adapted from previous posts)
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's first public response to Nigerian wealthy banker's son and terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his failed attempt to explode a plane of innocent passengers over Detroit:
"The system worked."
Jonah Goldberg points out:
Today Napolitano says she was taking out of context and the system didn't work so much after all (hence the changes to the previously working system which would now make illegal the heroic actions of the Dutch passenger who tackled and subdued the wouldbe killer ). But HotAir says not so fast on the out of context spin, there, because thanks to the magic of them-thar newfangled recording devices we can actually see and here the context for ourselves, and "Power Line has the quote from yesterday:
Whitehouse's Robert Gibbs wants us to understand that governing is, like, really hard, man, and after all, the guy's name was on a watch list, it's just that the watch list is really, really big.
To those who wonder how a guy who is that watch list of half a million names gets to buy a one-way ticket with cash and no baggage without some serious screening, well, we should just feel pretty darn good that the system worked and anyway, the President has ordered some review procedures to look at the list of names and how it could be managed better.
As a reader says to Jonah Goldberg:
I believe terrorist attacks are acts of war, and more than the that, the acts of war taken by an enemy composed of evil, unreasonable fanatics with an unholy desire to murder innocent people, the more of them the better in order to subjugate and this desire is something that cannot be 'reasoned' or appeased out of them, whereas the President and his staff and supporters imagine these are reasonable folks, possibly misunderstood, certainly with legitimate grievances, who can be charmed out of their fondness for raising children to immolate themselves and sweet-talked out of attaching explosives to themselves in murderous attacks on civilians, and, at worst, civilian criminals in need of rehabilitation (two of plotters behind this latest act, which the President calls the act of a lone extremist, all evidence to the contrary, were released from Gitmo on Bush's watch in 2007 after going through 'art therapy!'). Andrew McCarthy explains:
Eric Erickson at Redstate writes about the dangerous naivete of the POTUS:
I think this is a fundamental difference between so-called 'progressives,' many libertarians, and grown ups,
Without a realistic understanding of the pure bloodymindedness of which the humanbeing is capable, we'll continue to have small disappointments, like Wikipedia, and large tragedies such as the one we just missed thanks primarily to a faulty detonator and Providence.
It is a frustrating but true fact of life that people will sometimes act on the most pig-ignorant, boorish, and self-defeating impulses, and there is just no reason in expecting them not to. They will do it. Sometimes it goes beyond impulse and the actions of a few seem to be almost deliberately self-destructive, and the single fixed idea some idiot seems to have is to hew the path of widest destruction and harm he possibly can. It seems that way because it IS that way, and sometimes, it is much worse than that.
The President's comments remind me something I've written before and that I've written about before : the (admittedly young) British member of an email list I was on in September of 2001, who rhetorically asked us all, "When all the people in the Middle East have food on the table, a decent home, a good job, and democratic control over their own lives, who among them is going to be convinced to sacrifice his life by crashing himself into a tall office building?"
Although she did not acknowledge it, she was quoting Michael Moore in 2001- just a few days after the 9/11.
There's a lot of irony here, since giving the people of the Middle East Democratic control over their own lives pretty much sums up the Bush Doctrine and was one of the foremost goals of the military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I am pretty sure my young friend was quite hostile to Bush's efforts. And Bin Ladin, the 9/11 bombers, a number of others, and the latest would-be murderer were all wealthy- rich by any standards, and quite capable of helping to put food on the tables of the poor is that was really what motivated them. But apart from the irony, supposing that murderous suicide attacks can be fixed by an improved diet and better political system is also a tragically irresponsible and dangerously naive view of human nature.
This is how I answered her rhetorical question about who would be willing to destroy himself in a murderous attack on others if only everybody had food, shelter, and democracy:
"The same ones who already were convinced to do this very thing.
All the terrorists in this attack [the American 9/11 attack, although I am quite sure the same was true for the murderous attacks in London in 2005, in India a year ago, and we know this is true of the wealthy banker's son who attempted to blow up the Detroit plane] had food on the table, decent homes in nice neighborhoods (several 9/11 murderers lived in gated communities) and jobs.
Since they were in this country they had democratic control of their own lives. It didn't stop them. Osama Bin Ladin had all of these blessings as well, and he chose to leave the country where he had them and live the life of a terrorist instead.
It is, I believe, a serious fallacy to believe that if all human beings just had these simple things, then there would be no war, no crime. ...Some people want raw power. Some are not satisfied with food on the table, they want to control the food on everybody else's table, even to the point of starving those they dislike. Selfishness, greed, lust for power- these are very real parts of human nature and they motivate some people more than others, and no amount of wishing otherwise will change it."
It is incredibly ironic to me that the people claiming to be part of the 'reality based community' are the same people who think that if everybody just had enough food, clothing, and shelter and democratic freedom, then nobody would do vile things. People are not cows.
Back in April of this year, Randall Hoven at The American Spectator wrote:
Despite all evidence to the contrary, too many of us persist in behaving as though there were more rational reasons behind such atrocities, and reasoned discourse will talk those who wish to annihilate us into their senses. Mr. Hoven finds this as bewildering a reality as I do:
I understand why a 20 year old might still be convinced that what is true is that people would never kill each other in vicious suicide bombings if only they never saw poverty. I find it deeply disturbing when grown up men and women who have reached their forties are still so deliberately and willfully blind to this reality, and it appears that our President is just such a dangerously naive man, refusing to face the reality of human nature and man's inhumanity to man for ignoble reasons like powerlust, regardless of the facts and deaths, that stare him in the face.
Thus, the President's Barack-Come-Lately assurances of today that:
This administration was unable to acknowledge the heinous murders by Muslim radical Major Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood for the radical Islamic acts of terrorism they were (Hasan and Abdulmutallab both may be linked with radical Muslim Anwar Awlaki in Yemen), and has preferred the term 'man caused disaster:'
We've had two attacks on American soil in two months- one of them far too successful, and one failed only because of a failed detonator, not because of anything American forces charged with protecting the country did.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's first public response to Nigerian wealthy banker's son and terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and his failed attempt to explode a plane of innocent passengers over Detroit:
"The system worked."
Jonah Goldberg points out:
It is her basic position that the "system worked" because the bureaucrats responded properly after the attack. That the attack was "foiled" by a bad detonator and some civilian passengers is proof, she claims, that her agency is doing everything right. That is just about the dumbest thing she could say, on the merits and politically. I would wager that not one percent of Americans think the system is "working" when terrorists successfully get bombs onto planes (and succeed in activating them). Probably even fewer think it's fair that they have to take off their shoes, endure delays and madness while a known Islamic radical — turned in by his own father — can waltz onto a plane (and into the country). DHS had no role whatsoever in assuring that this bomb didn't go off. By her logic if the bomb had gone off, the system would have "worked" since it has done everything right.Ace has more on what this 'system working' looks like in Napolitano-world.
Today Napolitano says she was taking out of context and the system didn't work so much after all (hence the changes to the previously working system which would now make illegal the heroic actions of the Dutch passenger who tackled and subdued the wouldbe killer ). But HotAir says not so fast on the out of context spin, there, because thanks to the magic of them-thar newfangled recording devices we can actually see and here the context for ourselves, and "Power Line has the quote from yesterday:
Cassy Fiano wonders if the President, who went to the gym fifteen minutes after hearing of the incident and did not make a public statement about the December 25 attack until December 28th, could have possibly handled this situation any worse. I think that yes, he could have done much worse, but then, unlike the leftist she quotes, I do not expect the President to treat me like a child, nor do I need to be informed of such an attack and also 'hopefully calmed' by the President specifically. So while I don't think he needed to make a public appearance 'calming' us all down, I do expect him to be publically visible doing more important stuff than going to the gym, golf course, and the beach. He had a much bigger public response (and faster reponse time) to the arrest of a black college professor by a white cop than he did to this.NAPOLITANO: What we are focused on is making sure that the air environment remains safe, that people are confident when they travel. And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action.'"
Whitehouse's Robert Gibbs wants us to understand that governing is, like, really hard, man, and after all, the guy's name was on a watch list, it's just that the watch list is really, really big.
To those who wonder how a guy who is that watch list of half a million names gets to buy a one-way ticket with cash and no baggage without some serious screening, well, we should just feel pretty darn good that the system worked and anyway, the President has ordered some review procedures to look at the list of names and how it could be managed better.
As a reader says to Jonah Goldberg:
I also have noticed Gibbs and others claim that his name was on a watch list data base of 550,000 names. They make it sound like this is a monumental task to query a match. When I make a purchase using a credit card, I swipe my card and within seconds that information is accessed from a data base of millions and my purchase is approved. Now that the US government is in the banking business, what's their excuse?But those are piddly details. The bigger underlying issue is a fundamental difference in what we think about human nature and how this translates into different actions.
I believe terrorist attacks are acts of war, and more than the that, the acts of war taken by an enemy composed of evil, unreasonable fanatics with an unholy desire to murder innocent people, the more of them the better in order to subjugate and this desire is something that cannot be 'reasoned' or appeased out of them, whereas the President and his staff and supporters imagine these are reasonable folks, possibly misunderstood, certainly with legitimate grievances, who can be charmed out of their fondness for raising children to immolate themselves and sweet-talked out of attaching explosives to themselves in murderous attacks on civilians, and, at worst, civilian criminals in need of rehabilitation (two of plotters behind this latest act, which the President calls the act of a lone extremist, all evidence to the contrary, were released from Gitmo on Bush's watch in 2007 after going through 'art therapy!'). Andrew McCarthy explains:
The people now in charge of our government believe Clinton-era counterterrorism was a successful model. They start from the premise that terrorism is a crime problem to be managed, not a war to be won. Overdone "war on drugs" rhetoric aside, we don't try to "win" against (as in "defeat") law-enforcement challenges. We expect them to happen from time to time and to contain, but never completely prevent, the damage.Here, no thanks to the government, the plane was not destoyed, and we won't get to the bottom of the larger conspiracy (enabling the likes of Napolitano to say there's no indication of a larger plot — much less one launched by an international jihadist enterprise) because the guy got to lawyer up rather than be treated like a combatant and subjected to lengthy interrogation. But the terrorist will be convicted at trial (this "case" tees up like a slam-dunk), so the administration will put it in the books as a success ... just like the Clinton folks did after the '93 WTC bombers and the embassy bombers were convicted. In their minds, litigation success equals national security success.
It is a dangerously absurd viewpoint, but it was clear during the campaign that it was Obama's viewpoint.
Eric Erickson at Redstate writes about the dangerous naivete of the POTUS:
On September 19, 2001, writing in the Hyde Park Herald Barack Obama attributed 9/11 related terrorism to, “a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.”
Even more so, Obama went on to say:
“They see poverty all around them and they are angry by that poverty. They may be suffering under oppressive and corrupt regimes and that kind of environment is a breeding ground for fanaticism and hatred.”
“It’s absolutely critical that the U.S. is engaged in policies and strategies that will give those young people and these countries hope and make it in their self-interest to participate and create modern, open societies like we have in the U.S.”
Obama has, in fact, held to this position for the better part of a decade despite the evidence that the 9/11 attackers were, in fact, mostly rich kids.
I think this is a fundamental difference between so-called 'progressives,' many libertarians, and grown ups,
Without a realistic understanding of the pure bloodymindedness of which the humanbeing is capable, we'll continue to have small disappointments, like Wikipedia, and large tragedies such as the one we just missed thanks primarily to a faulty detonator and Providence.
It is a frustrating but true fact of life that people will sometimes act on the most pig-ignorant, boorish, and self-defeating impulses, and there is just no reason in expecting them not to. They will do it. Sometimes it goes beyond impulse and the actions of a few seem to be almost deliberately self-destructive, and the single fixed idea some idiot seems to have is to hew the path of widest destruction and harm he possibly can. It seems that way because it IS that way, and sometimes, it is much worse than that.
The President's comments remind me something I've written before and that I've written about before : the (admittedly young) British member of an email list I was on in September of 2001, who rhetorically asked us all, "When all the people in the Middle East have food on the table, a decent home, a good job, and democratic control over their own lives, who among them is going to be convinced to sacrifice his life by crashing himself into a tall office building?"
Although she did not acknowledge it, she was quoting Michael Moore in 2001- just a few days after the 9/11.
There's a lot of irony here, since giving the people of the Middle East Democratic control over their own lives pretty much sums up the Bush Doctrine and was one of the foremost goals of the military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I am pretty sure my young friend was quite hostile to Bush's efforts. And Bin Ladin, the 9/11 bombers, a number of others, and the latest would-be murderer were all wealthy- rich by any standards, and quite capable of helping to put food on the tables of the poor is that was really what motivated them. But apart from the irony, supposing that murderous suicide attacks can be fixed by an improved diet and better political system is also a tragically irresponsible and dangerously naive view of human nature.
This is how I answered her rhetorical question about who would be willing to destroy himself in a murderous attack on others if only everybody had food, shelter, and democracy:
"The same ones who already were convinced to do this very thing.
All the terrorists in this attack [the American 9/11 attack, although I am quite sure the same was true for the murderous attacks in London in 2005, in India a year ago, and we know this is true of the wealthy banker's son who attempted to blow up the Detroit plane] had food on the table, decent homes in nice neighborhoods (several 9/11 murderers lived in gated communities) and jobs.
Since they were in this country they had democratic control of their own lives. It didn't stop them. Osama Bin Ladin had all of these blessings as well, and he chose to leave the country where he had them and live the life of a terrorist instead.
It is, I believe, a serious fallacy to believe that if all human beings just had these simple things, then there would be no war, no crime. ...Some people want raw power. Some are not satisfied with food on the table, they want to control the food on everybody else's table, even to the point of starving those they dislike. Selfishness, greed, lust for power- these are very real parts of human nature and they motivate some people more than others, and no amount of wishing otherwise will change it."
It is incredibly ironic to me that the people claiming to be part of the 'reality based community' are the same people who think that if everybody just had enough food, clothing, and shelter and democratic freedom, then nobody would do vile things. People are not cows.
Back in April of this year, Randall Hoven at The American Spectator wrote:
When dealing with other men... you need to deal with what is inside their heads, which has almost nothing to do with "reality" in the sense of man against nature. If the other man thinks you are a devil who must be vanquished at all costs, it does you absolutely no good to know that you are, in fact, not a devil. And the things that might convince the other man that you are not a devil have nothing to do with, say, evidence, the scientific method, or looking up "devil" in the dictionary.
...You share a planet with six billion humans who could, under the right circumstances, either butcher you and your family, or help you grow next season's crop. Next to dealing with them, knowing how to go from seed to fruit is a footnote....If you think man-against-man problems went away in ancient times, recollect the 20th century. One hundred million deaths can be attributed to communism alone. Add in perhaps 21 million more thanks to Hitler. R.J. Rummel tried to count 20th century human deaths caused by governments, not including wars between nations. His count: over 260 million. That was before the Congo (3.9 million), Sudan (2 million), Rwanda (937,000) and recent "famines" in North Korea (2 million), all since 1990.Millions dead. Tens of millions. Hundreds of millions. Yet modern governments are more concerned about sheep farts than, say, terrorism.
...
Despite all evidence to the contrary, too many of us persist in behaving as though there were more rational reasons behind such atrocities, and reasoned discourse will talk those who wish to annihilate us into their senses. Mr. Hoven finds this as bewildering a reality as I do:
But when the adversary is not nature, but fellow men, rationality as normally considered is out the window. We live in a world where Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank are taken seriously. Where Libya is given the chair on the Human Rights commission at the UN. Where heads of state genuinely believe sheep farts are dangerously heating up the planet.
As Vladimir Lenin was commenting on "all those starving people who are starting to eat each other, who are dying by the millions," Walter Duranty was the New York Times Moscow bureau chief saying things were just wonderful there. He won a Pulitzer Prize for that.
Here is the awful truth: it's not what is true, it's what you can convince others to believe.
I understand why a 20 year old might still be convinced that what is true is that people would never kill each other in vicious suicide bombings if only they never saw poverty. I find it deeply disturbing when grown up men and women who have reached their forties are still so deliberately and willfully blind to this reality, and it appears that our President is just such a dangerously naive man, refusing to face the reality of human nature and man's inhumanity to man for ignoble reasons like powerlust, regardless of the facts and deaths, that stare him in the face.
Thus, the President's Barack-Come-Lately assurances of today that:
“We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,”are less than reassuring, since in the same speech he referred to this as the work of an 'isolated extremist,' contradicting the man's own claims that he was trained by others in Yemen, and that there are many others being trained for the same purpose. Al Qaeda in Yemen also claims responsibility for this attempted attack. Furthermore, the President's actions show that what he means by 'hold them accountable' is 'treat them like criminals in American civilian courts.' And meanwhile, the government seems to be making the most bizarre of excuses, given the huge blinking warning signs, complete with buzzers and sirens and bells ringing, that they ignored:
The family of the suspect, 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, said Monday that they had been trying to locate him for weeks and had sought help from Nigerian and American officials. They said they would cooperate with an investigation.Uncle Jimbo says we know what's wrong with airport security and how to fix it:
His father, a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official, phoned the American Embassy in Abuja in October with a warning that his son had developed radical views, had disappeared and might have traveled to Yemen, American officials said, but the young man’s visa to enter the United States, which was good until June 2010, was not revoked.
Instead, the officials said Sunday, embassy officials marked his file for a full investigation should he reapply for a visa. And when the information was passed on to Washington, his name was added to 550,000 others with possible terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags.
The failures have been well documented everywhere, the question is what to do about them. DHS has already made a number of asinine changes to upgrade their already efficient system for hassling air travelers who don’t have bombs.They refuse to take substantive actions that might actually make us safer. like oh maybe screening high risk passengers rather than pretending this is a random problem.I admit that sounds distasteful and uncomfortable to me, but let's be realistic, here. We have a description of the people who want to blow up civilians in this country, and it's exclusively been tied to radical Islam for years. And while our government is perfectly happy to issue warnings about possible (and thus far mythical) terrorist actions from pro-life, former military, homeschooling conservatives, and tea-party terrorists, they are strangely chary about calling terrorism by Muslim extremists what it is (Obama couldn't even bring himself to use the words Muslim or Islam in his speech today, and, again, he claimed that this was the act of a 'lone' extremist, when the extremist in question and Al Qaeda in Yemen claim otherwise, and the guy did not get 80 ounces of explosives from nowhere).
This administration was unable to acknowledge the heinous murders by Muslim radical Major Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood for the radical Islamic acts of terrorism they were (Hasan and Abdulmutallab both may be linked with radical Muslim Anwar Awlaki in Yemen), and has preferred the term 'man caused disaster:'
This past February our new Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told the European press she didn’t want to talk about terrorism anymore because it scared people. She’d rather address terrorism as a "man-made disaster." She also said she'd like to switch the discussion point over from "prevention" to "preparation." Even at the time, the new rubric was absurd. Here was a new administration appointing a Secretary of Homeland Security and announcing she wasn’t going to help secure our homeland against terrorists, but instead prepare it for an undefined set of man-made disasters.Since her focus is 'preparation' rather than 'prevention,' her statement about the system working makes perfect sense, now. It just is even more disturbing,
We've had two attacks on American soil in two months- one of them far too successful, and one failed only because of a failed detonator, not because of anything American forces charged with protecting the country did.
877 New Snowfall Records This Week
Watt's Up With That notes the new snow records for this week, as well as the over 800 new snowfall records for two weeks ago.
Weather may not be climate,
To celebrate, The Boy has taken Blynken sledding next door at Granny Tea's three days in a row. It is, Blynken says, the first (and second and third) time he has ever been sledding in his life, and he loves it. He and the Boy* can stay out in it for hours. Nod can only tolerate it for about an hour, at best. He dislikes the cold immensely. Happily for Nod, the FYG is also not interested in the sled festing marathons that the FYB and Blynken enjoy, so she goes along, sleds a few times, and then brings an exhausted, somewhat chilled Nod home for hot cocoa, stories, and a nap.
The FYB and Blynken come in much later, rosey cheeked, cold, snowflake bespangled about the eyelashes, eyes shining like lights in the Christmas tree, full of good spirits and glee at their sledding adventures (the best part, Blynken tells me, is crashing into the tree), and, I suspect, equally stuffed with hot cocoa and cookies from Granny Tea's house, but not so stuffed that they don't enjoy seconds here as well.
*Speaking of Blynken and the Boy, today the little boys were following him around, helping him to do his kitchen chores, helping him sweep, always two steps behind him wanting to do everything he did, and he laughingly said, "You guys are always following me!"
"That's coz we yike you," said Nod.
"And we want to keep an eye on you to make sure you don't get hurt," said Blynken, grinning mischieviously.
Weather may not be climate,
but ultimately it provides the only meaningful way to verify climate models. Did the climate models predict the cold, snowy weather which has been seen across much of the US?Well, no, it turns out (if you click through the story), that climate models from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center predicted higher than normal temperatures for October through December.
To celebrate, The Boy has taken Blynken sledding next door at Granny Tea's three days in a row. It is, Blynken says, the first (and second and third) time he has ever been sledding in his life, and he loves it. He and the Boy* can stay out in it for hours. Nod can only tolerate it for about an hour, at best. He dislikes the cold immensely. Happily for Nod, the FYG is also not interested in the sled festing marathons that the FYB and Blynken enjoy, so she goes along, sleds a few times, and then brings an exhausted, somewhat chilled Nod home for hot cocoa, stories, and a nap.
The FYB and Blynken come in much later, rosey cheeked, cold, snowflake bespangled about the eyelashes, eyes shining like lights in the Christmas tree, full of good spirits and glee at their sledding adventures (the best part, Blynken tells me, is crashing into the tree), and, I suspect, equally stuffed with hot cocoa and cookies from Granny Tea's house, but not so stuffed that they don't enjoy seconds here as well.
*Speaking of Blynken and the Boy, today the little boys were following him around, helping him to do his kitchen chores, helping him sweep, always two steps behind him wanting to do everything he did, and he laughingly said, "You guys are always following me!"
"That's coz we yike you," said Nod.
"And we want to keep an eye on you to make sure you don't get hurt," said Blynken, grinning mischieviously.
Cool Archaeological Find
A third-century Chinese tomb has just been uncovered by archaeologists. It's believed to be the tomb of a legendary Chinese leader, although more research has to be done. I'm wishing there were more pictures in the article, as the architecture is absolutely beautiful.
Our Christmas Tree Topper
Above we have a few Bionicles put together by the Boy and Strider. The FYG rather objected to this, and one night while she was wrapping presents in another room, the Boy got up on a chair and replaced it with a Christmas angel in red velvet and white and gold trim.
I think he's getting the hang of the Christmas Spirit.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday Hymn Post
Sion’s daughter, weep no more,
Though thy troubled heart be sore;
He of Whom the psalmist sung,
He Who woke the prophet’s tongue,
Christ, the Mediator blest,
Brings thee everlasting rest.
In a garden man became
Heir of sin, and death, and shame;
Jesus in a garden wins
Life, and pardon for our sins;
Through His hour of agony
Praying in Gethsemane.
There for us He intercedes;
There with God the Father pleads;
Willing there for us to drain
To the dregs the cup of pain,
That in everlasting day
He may wipe our tears away.
Therefore to His Name be giv’n,
Glory both in earth and Heav’n;
To the Father, and the Son,
And the Spirit, Three in One,
Honor, praise and glory be
Now and through eternity.
Cyberhymnal
Though thy troubled heart be sore;
He of Whom the psalmist sung,
He Who woke the prophet’s tongue,
Christ, the Mediator blest,
Brings thee everlasting rest.
In a garden man became
Heir of sin, and death, and shame;
Jesus in a garden wins
Life, and pardon for our sins;
Through His hour of agony
Praying in Gethsemane.
There for us He intercedes;
There with God the Father pleads;
Willing there for us to drain
To the dregs the cup of pain,
That in everlasting day
He may wipe our tears away.
Therefore to His Name be giv’n,
Glory both in earth and Heav’n;
To the Father, and the Son,
And the Spirit, Three in One,
Honor, praise and glory be
Now and through eternity.
Cyberhymnal
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Christmas Gifts
From youngest to oldest, everything was either home-made or came from a secondhand source:
The young Pirate received (from us)- a board book of the Real Mother Goose (found at the thrift shop in excellent condition), a couple other picture books, around 8 wooden blocks for later, and a baby proof mirror in which to admire his adorable self.
Nod: I scored a big box of matchbox cars at the thrift shop, so we cleaned them and packed them each individually in boxes made from Christmas cards. He got about 7, in addition to some sidewalk chalk, a Clifford the dog book, a Curious George book, a book about the snow, and a set of viewmaster cards about Curious George, and two small toy whales, and a home-made scarf from Jenny.
Blynken: Matchbox cars like his brother's, a set of viewmaster cards about reptiles, two satisfyingly realistic toy sharks, a picture book about sharks, The picture book White Snow, Bright Snow, and some sidewalk chalk.
Both boys got about a bazillion stickers in their stockings, prompting the FYB to claim that there's a stickerpox plague around here.
The Boy: a dinosaur put together by magnets, a sweater and pair of pants, a set of cards about the night sky, a set of cooking/recipe cards for kids, and some model paint in military camo colors, a bicycle horn which is causing me to question my sanity, and the remote control car from Grandma, as well as a set of camouflage gloves from her, which totally made his day.
All the girls received a box of Good Earth Tea:
The FYG: A hippy skirt she's been coveting at the local thrift shop, some giant daisy clings to go on her wall, a book, a hot pink blouse with flowing sleeves, a bright orange metal basket for her room, a tiny antique teacup and saucer, lime green pajamas with hot pink trim, and a music box that plays "I'd like to teach the world to sing." I brought up the youtube video to show her, an act of cranial terrorism which rendered the HG incapable of singing anything else for nearly 24 hours. Grandma gave her a jacket and a pair of fuzzy pink and orange socks.
Pip: Pip scored big because I discovered a stash of items intended for her birthday but which I could not find on her actual birthday. Ordinarily when this happens (yes, it's not that uncommon), I just save them for the next birthday, as we have a mess of b-days through the spring. But Pip's is a fall birthday, and I did not want that stuff hanging around my closet for 9 more months. So:
A gargoyle statue (about 8 inches tall, I think), a magnet with her dog's photograph, two teddy bears (she collects them), flannel pajama bottoms with puppies all over them, a photo album, a huge and wonderfully interesting, largish, and cool Lord of the Rings plaque for the wall, a large framed picture of a massive dog, several bags of dog treats for her furbuddy, map paper for the printer, a metal tree hung with crimson crystals with a spot for a candle in the center, and a deep crimson candle with a matching hurricane lamp for the top, a necklace, a red leather headband, an eyeglass repair kit and a couple other small items I can't recall.
Jenny: A Wordle of her name that turned out particularly well, a couple of different blank journals, one for Bible study, one for travel (she's planning a trip to somewhere, possibly Moravia, with one of Strider's cousins), a cute pig picture, blue candles, dark blue velvet pajama bottoms, a music box that plays "I could have danced all night," a blank book in which to write recipes, and an eyeglass repair kit.
The Cherub: a great toddler book of pictures of 'At Home' things, a See and Say of animals, a warm and snuggly pair of footy pajamas, a hair brush and hair things, and some candy she can eat (no corn syrup!)
Together the married couples received a wordle of Song of Solomon two, framed, one in greens and blues and one in greens and greens, matching coffee mugs and a bag of instant chocolate cake in a mug, and each son-in-law received a special, one time only Big Christmas Gift of a very nice dolly (the kind with wheels, not the sort that says Ma-ma), because the Headmaster regrets that we were married over ten years before he owned one of his own, and because he hopes to see them put their dollies to use doing projects for him.=)
Individually:
The Equuschick: A Dorothy Sayers mystery, Gray's Anatomy (book, not t.v. show), chains for a potrack, clothes for the Pirate.=)
Shasta: a mask for when he's refinishing furniture, special handcleaner, some bungee cords, and they got a DVD of Amazing Grace.
The HG: a green glassware fish that matches their bathroom and was an astonishing find at Goodwill, a cute little brass girl with a hat who holds her hands and arms out for her owner's rings, some matching Christmas candle holders (Mary Englebreit mittens), a necklace.
Strider: bungee cords, a penguin Christmas figurine (he has never celebrated Christmas until this year, and he loves penguins, some special sharpies, a smaller green glassware fish, and a penguin candle holder, and they got a DVD of The Inspector General.
The HM: a mug that says "Dad's Tea" on it with a pocket on the side for his teabag (he just started drinking tea a couple of months ago so I was incredibly excited when I found this at the thrift shop, and on half price day to boot!), looseleaf Irish Breakfast tea, a box of bagged English breakfast tea, clown make-up, clown shoes, a framed wordle of the last few verses of 1 Corinthians 13, a flash light, and two different kinds of work gloves (one loose, heavy duty for stuff like barbed wire and cleaning out old sheds, and one more tight fitting, leather-like for better gripping)
Me: a sweat shirt with a Mary Englebreit St. Nicholas picture, a warm sweater (very exciting, as I seem to have lost most of last year's sweaters), a nice blue and gold framed illumination of a few verses from Psalms, inkpens and small composition books, and the HM and I will be getting a calender the Progeny put together for us every year and have printed at Walmart, with family pictures for each month.
Granny Tea cleaned out her closets and gave me several sweet odds and ends- a picture book from the mid 1800s, a birthday girl storybook doll, a tiny perfume bottle shaped like an antebellum southern belle, and an Amazon gift card.=)
We have Blynken and Nod from Christmas Eve Day until January 3rd, because Blynken starts back to school on the 4th. We have the HG and Strider from Christmas Eve until tomorrow sometime. Shasta's lovely mother and his delightful brother are out for Christmas, too, and we have the Tea Chemist for a couple of days, too. Blynken's and Nod's mother came out for part of Christmas day, and may come back out for a day here and there.
The Cousins and my brother and his wife came to visit my parents for Christmas en route to their new home in Missouri, so we had a full crowd with lots of rambunctious children.
ShastaStrider, the HG, the TEa Chemist, the FYG, the FYB, Blynken, and Nod are all out sledding right now and have been for a couple of hours- it's been snowing all day long and is only snowing harder as the day goes on. Pip is at work at the library, Jenny napping, the Cherub looking at her new picture book over and over. The HM just got home and is doing the budget.
I am secure in the knowledge that I have done all my laundry, including folding and putting away all but the last load, which is folded, but not yet put away, and, with the Boy's help, cleared out my room of the explosion of wrapping paper, ribbon, bags, and various odds and ends, as well as empty boxes, baskets, wrapping supplies, packages, and totes that made my room an obstacle course of painful hissing, startled yelps, and occasional sharp cries during the nightly peregrinations of the nearly fifty. It's not perfect, but it's 85% better than it was (thanks to the FYB and FYG, the bed is even made).
Tonight we'll watch a Christmas movie from our overlarge collection, play Rage and Mexican Trains, eat leftover ham in a pasta casserole, and have the best part of Christmas- spending time together with my Progeny.
Note to self: explain to the Boy the difference between a pie pan, which I asked him to butter for the three minute microwave fudge, and a bread pan, which is what he did butter for the fudge, making the fudge about 4 inches deep and very hard to slice.
Additional notes: Stryofoam cups from egg cartons make lovely boats for small boys in the bath. Cut four cups at a time for a barge.
The young Pirate received (from us)- a board book of the Real Mother Goose (found at the thrift shop in excellent condition), a couple other picture books, around 8 wooden blocks for later, and a baby proof mirror in which to admire his adorable self.
Nod: I scored a big box of matchbox cars at the thrift shop, so we cleaned them and packed them each individually in boxes made from Christmas cards. He got about 7, in addition to some sidewalk chalk, a Clifford the dog book, a Curious George book, a book about the snow, and a set of viewmaster cards about Curious George, and two small toy whales, and a home-made scarf from Jenny.
Blynken: Matchbox cars like his brother's, a set of viewmaster cards about reptiles, two satisfyingly realistic toy sharks, a picture book about sharks, The picture book White Snow, Bright Snow, and some sidewalk chalk.
Both boys got about a bazillion stickers in their stockings, prompting the FYB to claim that there's a stickerpox plague around here.
The Boy: a dinosaur put together by magnets, a sweater and pair of pants, a set of cards about the night sky, a set of cooking/recipe cards for kids, and some model paint in military camo colors, a bicycle horn which is causing me to question my sanity, and the remote control car from Grandma, as well as a set of camouflage gloves from her, which totally made his day.
All the girls received a box of Good Earth Tea:
The FYG: A hippy skirt she's been coveting at the local thrift shop, some giant daisy clings to go on her wall, a book, a hot pink blouse with flowing sleeves, a bright orange metal basket for her room, a tiny antique teacup and saucer, lime green pajamas with hot pink trim, and a music box that plays "I'd like to teach the world to sing." I brought up the youtube video to show her, an act of cranial terrorism which rendered the HG incapable of singing anything else for nearly 24 hours. Grandma gave her a jacket and a pair of fuzzy pink and orange socks.
Pip: Pip scored big because I discovered a stash of items intended for her birthday but which I could not find on her actual birthday. Ordinarily when this happens (yes, it's not that uncommon), I just save them for the next birthday, as we have a mess of b-days through the spring. But Pip's is a fall birthday, and I did not want that stuff hanging around my closet for 9 more months. So:
A gargoyle statue (about 8 inches tall, I think), a magnet with her dog's photograph, two teddy bears (she collects them), flannel pajama bottoms with puppies all over them, a photo album, a huge and wonderfully interesting, largish, and cool Lord of the Rings plaque for the wall, a large framed picture of a massive dog, several bags of dog treats for her furbuddy, map paper for the printer, a metal tree hung with crimson crystals with a spot for a candle in the center, and a deep crimson candle with a matching hurricane lamp for the top, a necklace, a red leather headband, an eyeglass repair kit and a couple other small items I can't recall.
Jenny: A Wordle of her name that turned out particularly well, a couple of different blank journals, one for Bible study, one for travel (she's planning a trip to somewhere, possibly Moravia, with one of Strider's cousins), a cute pig picture, blue candles, dark blue velvet pajama bottoms, a music box that plays "I could have danced all night," a blank book in which to write recipes, and an eyeglass repair kit.
The Cherub: a great toddler book of pictures of 'At Home' things, a See and Say of animals, a warm and snuggly pair of footy pajamas, a hair brush and hair things, and some candy she can eat (no corn syrup!)
Together the married couples received a wordle of Song of Solomon two, framed, one in greens and blues and one in greens and greens, matching coffee mugs and a bag of instant chocolate cake in a mug, and each son-in-law received a special, one time only Big Christmas Gift of a very nice dolly (the kind with wheels, not the sort that says Ma-ma), because the Headmaster regrets that we were married over ten years before he owned one of his own, and because he hopes to see them put their dollies to use doing projects for him.=)
Individually:
The Equuschick: A Dorothy Sayers mystery, Gray's Anatomy (book, not t.v. show), chains for a potrack, clothes for the Pirate.=)
Shasta: a mask for when he's refinishing furniture, special handcleaner, some bungee cords, and they got a DVD of Amazing Grace.
The HG: a green glassware fish that matches their bathroom and was an astonishing find at Goodwill, a cute little brass girl with a hat who holds her hands and arms out for her owner's rings, some matching Christmas candle holders (Mary Englebreit mittens), a necklace.
Strider: bungee cords, a penguin Christmas figurine (he has never celebrated Christmas until this year, and he loves penguins, some special sharpies, a smaller green glassware fish, and a penguin candle holder, and they got a DVD of The Inspector General.
The HM: a mug that says "Dad's Tea" on it with a pocket on the side for his teabag (he just started drinking tea a couple of months ago so I was incredibly excited when I found this at the thrift shop, and on half price day to boot!), looseleaf Irish Breakfast tea, a box of bagged English breakfast tea, clown make-up, clown shoes, a framed wordle of the last few verses of 1 Corinthians 13, a flash light, and two different kinds of work gloves (one loose, heavy duty for stuff like barbed wire and cleaning out old sheds, and one more tight fitting, leather-like for better gripping)
Me: a sweat shirt with a Mary Englebreit St. Nicholas picture, a warm sweater (very exciting, as I seem to have lost most of last year's sweaters), a nice blue and gold framed illumination of a few verses from Psalms, inkpens and small composition books, and the HM and I will be getting a calender the Progeny put together for us every year and have printed at Walmart, with family pictures for each month.
Granny Tea cleaned out her closets and gave me several sweet odds and ends- a picture book from the mid 1800s, a birthday girl storybook doll, a tiny perfume bottle shaped like an antebellum southern belle, and an Amazon gift card.=)
We have Blynken and Nod from Christmas Eve Day until January 3rd, because Blynken starts back to school on the 4th. We have the HG and Strider from Christmas Eve until tomorrow sometime. Shasta's lovely mother and his delightful brother are out for Christmas, too, and we have the Tea Chemist for a couple of days, too. Blynken's and Nod's mother came out for part of Christmas day, and may come back out for a day here and there.
The Cousins and my brother and his wife came to visit my parents for Christmas en route to their new home in Missouri, so we had a full crowd with lots of rambunctious children.
I am secure in the knowledge that I have done all my laundry, including folding and putting away all but the last load, which is folded, but not yet put away, and, with the Boy's help, cleared out my room of the explosion of wrapping paper, ribbon, bags, and various odds and ends, as well as empty boxes, baskets, wrapping supplies, packages, and totes that made my room an obstacle course of painful hissing, startled yelps, and occasional sharp cries during the nightly peregrinations of the nearly fifty. It's not perfect, but it's 85% better than it was (thanks to the FYB and FYG, the bed is even made).
Tonight we'll watch a Christmas movie from our overlarge collection, play Rage and Mexican Trains, eat leftover ham in a pasta casserole, and have the best part of Christmas- spending time together with my Progeny.
Note to self: explain to the Boy the difference between a pie pan, which I asked him to butter for the three minute microwave fudge, and a bread pan, which is what he did butter for the fudge, making the fudge about 4 inches deep and very hard to slice.
Additional notes: Stryofoam cups from egg cartons make lovely boats for small boys in the bath. Cut four cups at a time for a barge.
Overheard...
Well, more accurately, overlooked at a private blog:
Person A blogged about the latest Congressional mess.
Person B opined that he or she was 'really glad I don't watch the news.'
Person C: Yeah, because if you don't watch the news, then it won't really happen or have any impact on your life.
Person A blogged about the latest Congressional mess.
Person B opined that he or she was 'really glad I don't watch the news.'
Person C: Yeah, because if you don't watch the news, then it won't really happen or have any impact on your life.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Failed Terrorist Attack on Detroit Flight 253
Scroll Down for Updates:
The White House confirms that there was an attempted terrorist attack on Flight 253 in Detroit. The plane and passengers are safe, with two claiming minor injuries last I found. The would-be terrorist is injured because he basically seems to have set his lap on fire when the bomb failed to go off.
Riehl World View reports the White House as saying:
As opposed to all the inappropriate measures previously taken to decrease security, I guess. Long term readers will recall that I am the mother of a mentally handicapped, 80 pound 23 year old who looks 9 and functions at the level of a 2 year old and cannot talk but nonetheless was whisked away by airport security in Denver behind my back, while I THOUGHT she was being safely cared for by an airport staff person who was pushing her wheel chair and I was six inches away watching my 11 year old go through security without me and my 13 year old being given grief over a freaking travel bottle of hand lotion, I hate to think what these increased measures will look like.
The Cherub was placed ALONE behind a glass barrier and they walked off, telling her to stay there even though she could not understand a word they said. Dangerous mentally retarded 80 pound, four feet tall little girls who cannot talk get placed behind barriers. Grown men with bombs, they slip through.
Anyway, Michelle has more on the attempted terrorism on flight 253, pointing out specifically the similarities between the way the media and the WhiteHouse and Security (even though it is a different Whitehouse) treat this incident and the way the Shoe Bomber was handled.
The Shoe Bomber was also a December attempt:
--------------------------------------------
Update 1: The Times Online UK:
Further:
Reportedly, he has second degree burns and is being questioned in the hospital where he's being treated.
-------------------------------------------------
Update 2: Other reports give his name as Abdul Mudallad. The Belmont Club reports that Abdul chose his airline seat very deliberately:
Richard Fernandez has a diagram of the plain and Mudallad's seat (click on the Belmont Club link above).
Reports are that the bomb failed to detonate, but the man did set his pants on fire. Passengers called for water, put out the fire, and then an intrepid and noble Dutchman tackled the terrorist and held him until other arrangements were possible. Good for him, but, as Fernandez points out, the entire plane just missed being blown to smithereens- once the guy's pants were on fire it was really already past the zero hour point.
---------------------
12/26, 4:44 update:
Here's part of the new, updated, 'appropriate' measures to 'increase' security- you know how that brave Dutchman Jasper Schuringa left his seat to tackle the terrorist attempting to set off a bomb in his pants, successfully subduing him and preventing him from doing further harm? Well, we can't have that:
Meanwhile, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab? His father, a Nigerian banker, warned the US about his son months ago and is shocked the US would even allow his son to enter the country, let alone enter with explosives strapped to his legs.
Here's more on Shuringa, the hero of the hour, and if airport security forces have their way, the last such hero we will ever see:
The White House confirms that there was an attempted terrorist attack on Flight 253 in Detroit. The plane and passengers are safe, with two claiming minor injuries last I found. The would-be terrorist is injured because he basically seems to have set his lap on fire when the bomb failed to go off.
Riehl World View reports the White House as saying:
that Obama had conferred with White House counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan and National Security Council Acting Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and had instructed that "all appropriate measures be taken to increase security for air travel."
The Department of Homeland Security said passengers might see additional screening measures on domestic and international flights because of the incident and urged travelers to report any suspicious activity or behavior to law enforcement officials.
As opposed to all the inappropriate measures previously taken to decrease security, I guess. Long term readers will recall that I am the mother of a mentally handicapped, 80 pound 23 year old who looks 9 and functions at the level of a 2 year old and cannot talk but nonetheless was whisked away by airport security in Denver behind my back, while I THOUGHT she was being safely cared for by an airport staff person who was pushing her wheel chair and I was six inches away watching my 11 year old go through security without me and my 13 year old being given grief over a freaking travel bottle of hand lotion, I hate to think what these increased measures will look like.
The Cherub was placed ALONE behind a glass barrier and they walked off, telling her to stay there even though she could not understand a word they said. Dangerous mentally retarded 80 pound, four feet tall little girls who cannot talk get placed behind barriers. Grown men with bombs, they slip through.
Anyway, Michelle has more on the attempted terrorism on flight 253, pointing out specifically the similarities between the way the media and the WhiteHouse and Security (even though it is a different Whitehouse) treat this incident and the way the Shoe Bomber was handled.
The Shoe Bomber was also a December attempt:
The FBI is expected to focus on whether the Nigerian acted alone or had training from Al Qaeda or another network. There will be great interest also in the nature and destructive capacity of the explosive device and on how it got past airport security screeners.
Nigerians have not figured in many cases involving Al Qaeda, but the rise of violent Islamic extremism in that country, and in sub-Saharan Africa overall, concerns Western anti-terrorism officials.
The timing and description of the incident recall the attempted attack on a Paris-to-Miami flight eight years ago by "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid, a British Al Qaeda operative who was convicted in U.S. federal court of trying to blow up the American Airlines flight.
Soon after takeoff from Paris on Dec. 22, 2001, Reid tried to ignite explosives that had been packed into his high-top gym shoes in an attempt to blow a hole in the plane. A flight attendant and passenger subdued Reid and foiled the attack, which spread fear across the world just three months after the Sept. 11 attacks.
--------------------------------------------
Update 1: The Times Online UK:
He was identified by ABC News as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, an engineering student at University College London.
He was reportedly on a US intelligence “watch-list” but not on the US Government’s no-fly list.
Further:
According to ABC News, the suspect told authorities that he had explosive powder taped to his leg and used a syringe of chemicals to detonate the powder.
Syed Jafry, of Holland, Michigan, told the Detroit News that he was sitting in the 16th row when he heard “a pop and saw some smoke and fire”. Mr Jafry said that people ran out of their seats to tackle the suspect.
Reportedly, he has second degree burns and is being questioned in the hospital where he's being treated.
-------------------------------------------------
Update 2: Other reports give his name as Abdul Mudallad. The Belmont Club reports that Abdul chose his airline seat very deliberately:
Seat 19A is right over the wing and near the fuel tanks as shown in the diagram above, taken from an NWA passenger guide to seating on an A330. The shaded area represents the swept-back wing. Presumably, Mudallad timed his actions to coincide with the lowering of the landing gear, which signified that the airliner was over Detroit. Had his explosives worked correctly, the Airbus might have crashed into the city itself with incalculable results.
Richard Fernandez has a diagram of the plain and Mudallad's seat (click on the Belmont Club link above).
Reports are that the bomb failed to detonate, but the man did set his pants on fire. Passengers called for water, put out the fire, and then an intrepid and noble Dutchman tackled the terrorist and held him until other arrangements were possible. Good for him, but, as Fernandez points out, the entire plane just missed being blown to smithereens- once the guy's pants were on fire it was really already past the zero hour point.
---------------------
12/26, 4:44 update:
Here's part of the new, updated, 'appropriate' measures to 'increase' security- you know how that brave Dutchman Jasper Schuringa left his seat to tackle the terrorist attempting to set off a bomb in his pants, successfully subduing him and preventing him from doing further harm? Well, we can't have that:
Among other steps being imposed, passengers on international flights coming to the United States will apparently have to remain in their seats for the last hour of a flight without any personal items on their laps. Overseas passengers will be restricted to only one carry-on item aboard the plane, and domestic passengers will probably face longer security lines.
Meanwhile, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab? His father, a Nigerian banker, warned the US about his son months ago and is shocked the US would even allow his son to enter the country, let alone enter with explosives strapped to his legs.
Here's more on Shuringa, the hero of the hour, and if airport security forces have their way, the last such hero we will ever see:
The passenger, Dutch video director Jasper Schuringa, told CNN he heard a big bang that sounded like a firecracker, then saw smoke and flames.
Schuringa said saw the man's pants were open and he was holding a burning object between his legs.
"I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away," Schuringa said.
Schuringa grabbed Mutallab and pulled him to the front of the plane.
"He was staring into nothing," Schuringa said.
Schuringa said he stripped off the man's clothes to check for other explosives and a crew member helped handcuff him. Passengers apparently applauded his efforts as he walked back to his seat.
"My hands are pretty burned. I am fine," Schuringa said. "I am shaken up."
Testing. Screaming. Giving Up.
That's my to-do list. Still working on comments. At least until Rigoletto is over.
Was Jesus Wealthy?
The HG and I had fun picking this apart this morning, so I thought I'd share:
These first few comments Anderson reveals himself as an anti-scholar who apparently gets all the information he knows about the nativity story from childrens' picture books, and none of it from the actual source documents- the four gospels.
1. Jesus did not receive lucrative gifts at birth, at least not in any of the biblical tales. The wisemen did not show up until Jesus was probably around two years old, and he wasn't still at the stable. He was living in a house.
Gold, Frankincense and Myrhh were costly gifts, but we don't know how much He got, and I doubt it was enough to support Him in wealthy style for three decades. It might have been what sustained the family during their flight to Egypt, where they lived as refugees for a time.
As for the gambling, Roman soldiers gambled. The belongings of the executed were always up for grabs, part of the spoils of being a poor Roman soldier. The fact that they cast lots for his seamless garment does not prove anything about Jesus' general wealth.
As for the idea that Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem in style, the good Reverend might try reading the original accounts rather than the, admittedly, very charming, picture book versions, because there is no mention of Mary and Joseph riding a donkey in the biblical accounts. The first mention of a donkey I could find in any of the gospels is when the adult Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, who did have a donkey, which he uses to transport the victim of an assault to an inn to have his wounds tended. The other mention is in connection with the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, where He comes riding an ass, a colt, or a donkey, depending on your translation, but at any rate, it wasn't His. He didn't own one, but had to send his disciples into town to collect one. See Matthew 21 or John 12 for details.
The reason there is a 'tradition' that Mary and Joseph were poor is because of the sacrifice they made at the temple after his birth. According to Leviticus 12, the sacrifice after the birth of a child was to be a lamb and a pigeon or turtledove, or "If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons..."
And in Luke chapter 2 we find:
So we may conclude two things from this: Mary and Joseph could not afford a lamb, or they were chiseling cheapskates. One of these things is far more likely than the other one.
A third possible conclusion is that the gospel account is entirely wrong, of course, but then, where does Anderson get any information about his version of Jesus from, and why bother, anyway?
The article goes on to say:
That would be because of Jesus' own account of Himself in Matthew 8 and Luke 9:
What Anderson is preaching is, of course, the 'prosperity gospel,' which the article does mention:
Brown says Jesus was the richest man on earth, and it's obvious Jesus wasn't poor because Judas was his treasurer- Judas kept money that was donated to the group, so far as I know, and in Mark 6 and John 6, Jesus tells his disciples to feed the crowd, and they say they cannot, because not even 200 denari would be enough to feed that large of a group.
Anderson, as Strider says, seems to be taking the mass production, consumer oriented 21st century standards and values of westernized, industrial societies and retroactively applying them to Roman foot soldiers of the 1st century:
We don't crucify, people, anymore, either, and when somebody is executed, we don't have the soldiers out in public view publicly tossing dice to see who gets the late prisoners' stuff. Does it make sense to argue that the crucifixion could never have happened because we don't know anybody who would advocate for public crucifixions?
That just beggars belief. We could make a long, long list, of poor people who amassed a following, and as the HG points out, the fact that He raised people from the dead, healed the sick, made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, I don't know, might have interested a few people regardless of his income level or dress style.
There's a method to his scripture twisting, however:
What makes no sense is Anderson's strawman argument, and his 21st century picture book version of the 1st century.
Jesus did have wealthy followers, Joseph of Arimethea is described as a rich man in Matthew 27. Zaccheus the tax collector, who, after conversion, repaid several times over all the people he had stolen from and cheated. Lydia, Cornelius, Barnabus, and Philemon seem to have been people of means and position. One can be wealthy and be a follower of Christ, but it was never a requirement- far from it, as the rich young ruler found out when he claimed he had already kept all the commandments. Unlike His directions to Zaccheus, Jesus told that young man specifically to sell all he had and give it to the poor, a requirement he seems not have made of most of his other disciples, or else Mary would not have been able to annoint his feet with costly oils, and Joseph could not have donated the temple, and Mark's mother would have had no upper room in which the disciples could hide.
So far as I can tell from reading the gospels, Jesus doesn't care about your stuff- He cares about your heart. Sometimes, as in the Rich Young Ruler, that stuff is far too tangled up with your heart, and sometimes, as with Lydia and Joseph of Arimathea, it's merely stuff.
There is no great virtue in being rich or in being poor. The virtue is not in your possessions, but in your position in relationship with God.
Each Christmas, Christians tell stories about the poor baby Jesus born in a lowly manger because there was no room in the inn.
But the Rev. C. Thomas Anderson, senior pastor of the Living Word Bible Church in Mesa, Arizona, preaches a version of the Christmas story that says baby Jesus wasn't so poor after all.
Anderson says Jesus couldn't have been poor because he received lucrative gifts -- gold, frankincense and myrrh -- at birth. Jesus had to be wealthy because the Roman soldiers who crucified him gambled for his expensive undergarments. Even Jesus' parents, Mary and Joseph, lived and traveled in style, he says.
"Mary and Joseph took a Cadillac to get to Bethlehem because the finest transportation of their day was a donkey," says Anderson. "Poor people ate their donkey. Only the wealthy used it as transportation."
These first few comments Anderson reveals himself as an anti-scholar who apparently gets all the information he knows about the nativity story from childrens' picture books, and none of it from the actual source documents- the four gospels.
1. Jesus did not receive lucrative gifts at birth, at least not in any of the biblical tales. The wisemen did not show up until Jesus was probably around two years old, and he wasn't still at the stable. He was living in a house.
Gold, Frankincense and Myrhh were costly gifts, but we don't know how much He got, and I doubt it was enough to support Him in wealthy style for three decades. It might have been what sustained the family during their flight to Egypt, where they lived as refugees for a time.
As for the gambling, Roman soldiers gambled. The belongings of the executed were always up for grabs, part of the spoils of being a poor Roman soldier. The fact that they cast lots for his seamless garment does not prove anything about Jesus' general wealth.
As for the idea that Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem in style, the good Reverend might try reading the original accounts rather than the, admittedly, very charming, picture book versions, because there is no mention of Mary and Joseph riding a donkey in the biblical accounts. The first mention of a donkey I could find in any of the gospels is when the adult Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, who did have a donkey, which he uses to transport the victim of an assault to an inn to have his wounds tended. The other mention is in connection with the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, where He comes riding an ass, a colt, or a donkey, depending on your translation, but at any rate, it wasn't His. He didn't own one, but had to send his disciples into town to collect one. See Matthew 21 or John 12 for details.
The reason there is a 'tradition' that Mary and Joseph were poor is because of the sacrifice they made at the temple after his birth. According to Leviticus 12, the sacrifice after the birth of a child was to be a lamb and a pigeon or turtledove, or "If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons..."
And in Luke chapter 2 we find:
"When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord" and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons."
So we may conclude two things from this: Mary and Joseph could not afford a lamb, or they were chiseling cheapskates. One of these things is far more likely than the other one.
A third possible conclusion is that the gospel account is entirely wrong, of course, but then, where does Anderson get any information about his version of Jesus from, and why bother, anyway?
The article goes on to say:
Many Christians see Jesus as the poor, itinerant preacher who had "no place to lay his head."
That would be because of Jesus' own account of Himself in Matthew 8 and Luke 9:
Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
What Anderson is preaching is, of course, the 'prosperity gospel,' which the article does mention:
They say that Jesus was never poor -- and neither should his followers be. Their claim is embedded in the doctrine known as the prosperity gospel, which holds that God rewards the faithful with financial prosperity and spiritual gifts.
A clash of gospels?
The prosperity gospel has attracted plenty of critics. But popular televangelists such as the late Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin and, today, Creflo Dollar have built megachurches and a global audience by equating piety with prosperity.
The prosperity gospel, however, clashes with the traditional depictions of Jesus as poor. That's because the traditional image of Jesus as destitute is wrong, says the Rev. Tom Brown, senior pastor of the Word of Life Church in El Paso, Texas.
Brown says Jesus was the richest man on earth, and it's obvious Jesus wasn't poor because Judas was his treasurer- Judas kept money that was donated to the group, so far as I know, and in Mark 6 and John 6, Jesus tells his disciples to feed the crowd, and they say they cannot, because not even 200 denari would be enough to feed that large of a group.
Anderson, as Strider says, seems to be taking the mass production, consumer oriented 21st century standards and values of westernized, industrial societies and retroactively applying them to Roman foot soldiers of the 1st century:
The New Testament reports that Roman soldiers gambled for Jesus' clothing while he hung on the cross. They wouldn't gamble for Jesus' clothing unless it was expensive, Anderson says.
"I don't know anybody -- even Pamela Anderson -- that would have people gambling for his underwear," Anderson says. "That was some fine stuff he wore."
We don't crucify, people, anymore, either, and when somebody is executed, we don't have the soldiers out in public view publicly tossing dice to see who gets the late prisoners' stuff. Does it make sense to argue that the crucifixion could never have happened because we don't know anybody who would advocate for public crucifixions?
Anderson says Jesus never would have had disciples or a large following if he was poor. He would not have been able to command their respect.
"The poor will follow the rich, the rich will follow the rich, but the rich will never follow the poor," Anderson says.
That just beggars belief. We could make a long, long list, of poor people who amassed a following, and as the HG points out, the fact that He raised people from the dead, healed the sick, made the lame to walk, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, I don't know, might have interested a few people regardless of his income level or dress style.
There's a method to his scripture twisting, however:
When he first preached that Jesus wasn't poor to his church, Anderson says he "ruffled some feathers."
Now, he says, his church has 9,000 members and a global ministry.
"That's so pathetic, to say that Jesus was struggling alone in the dust and dirt," Anderson says. "That just makes no sense whatsoever. He was constantly in a state of wealth."
What makes no sense is Anderson's strawman argument, and his 21st century picture book version of the 1st century.
Jesus did have wealthy followers, Joseph of Arimethea is described as a rich man in Matthew 27. Zaccheus the tax collector, who, after conversion, repaid several times over all the people he had stolen from and cheated. Lydia, Cornelius, Barnabus, and Philemon seem to have been people of means and position. One can be wealthy and be a follower of Christ, but it was never a requirement- far from it, as the rich young ruler found out when he claimed he had already kept all the commandments. Unlike His directions to Zaccheus, Jesus told that young man specifically to sell all he had and give it to the poor, a requirement he seems not have made of most of his other disciples, or else Mary would not have been able to annoint his feet with costly oils, and Joseph could not have donated the temple, and Mark's mother would have had no upper room in which the disciples could hide.
So far as I can tell from reading the gospels, Jesus doesn't care about your stuff- He cares about your heart. Sometimes, as in the Rich Young Ruler, that stuff is far too tangled up with your heart, and sometimes, as with Lydia and Joseph of Arimathea, it's merely stuff.
There is no great virtue in being rich or in being poor. The virtue is not in your possessions, but in your position in relationship with God.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
12 Days of Christmast Chaser
Thanks to our buddy Andrew in Colorado for the link. I'd not heard of this.
At one point it got a little, um, busy for me, and I thought I was going to have to take ibuprofin to finish it, but then it calmed down a bit. Very clever, very skillful.
Another Inexpensive Last Minute Gift Idea...
Stationary: Few people do write letters these days, so you can raid your own stationary stash, pull out 5-10 envelopes and matching notecards, put them in a ziplock bag topped with a cute printable gift bag topper (if you look at these, you could make your own if you're not too pressed for time), and have a nice little gift or stocking stuffer in just a few minutes.
If you have rubber stamps, you already know how to stamp on blank paper to make stationary, and, of course, you can download dozens and dozens of free printable stationary patterns and print them out.
Here's a sample of some of my home-made stationary:
If you have rubber stamps, you already know how to stamp on blank paper to make stationary, and, of course, you can download dozens and dozens of free printable stationary patterns and print them out.
Here's a sample of some of my home-made stationary:
Last Minute Christmas Gift- Make Fudge In 3 Minutes
3 minute microwave fudge-
Put these ingredients in a glass bowl in the order mentioned. Do not stir, melt, or mess about with it in any way. Just put the stuff straight into the bowl!
1 pound powdered sugar- you can sift it to remove all lumps, but that's the most messing about with the ingredients you're allowed to do.
1/2 cup powdered cocoa (or more if you want a richer flavor)
dash of salt
stick of butter (just set it right on top of the mound of sugar and cocoa powder. Don't stir, chop, or mash it up- just put the stick of butter down and continue the recipe).
teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup milk- Do NOT stir this in, just pour it over the top.
Cook in microwave on high for three minutes.
NOW you can stir. Stir quickly,
pour into a pie pan, either greased or lined with waxed paper.
Cool in the fridge. Score and eat.
To make the most decadent hot fudge ice cream topping you have ever had in your life, melt the butter first, use 1/2 a cup of milk instead of 1/4 cup, and stir it all well before microwaving and then again after microwaving. Spoon over ice-cream while the fudge sauce is still piping hot.
I have, or rather, had, another fudge recipe even easier than this one, only I've forgotten some of the proportions.
As I recall, it had 1 bag of chocolate chips, about 1 cup of wheat germ, a cup of peanut butter, and a few tablespoons of butter. You melted the butter and chocolate chips together, then quickly stirred in the peanut butter and wheat germ, poured it all into a buttered pan, and refrigerated it until the chocolate had hardened. This stuff was yummy, firmer than the 3 minute microwave fudge, with a light crunch from the wheat germ, and of course, unless you are my daughter Pip, chocolate and peanut butter are always perfect together.
Mix up a batch of one of these fudges in no time flat, let them cool, cut them up and wrap with waxed paper and then wrapping paper for a sweet Christmas treat!
The microwave fudge sets in a very short time. While you wait, you could make one of these folded boxes from a Christmas card to package the fudge in!
Updated to add: This box is even easier. The Boy and I just made three boxes with lids in about three minutes!
Put these ingredients in a glass bowl in the order mentioned. Do not stir, melt, or mess about with it in any way. Just put the stuff straight into the bowl!
1 pound powdered sugar- you can sift it to remove all lumps, but that's the most messing about with the ingredients you're allowed to do.
1/2 cup powdered cocoa (or more if you want a richer flavor)
dash of salt
stick of butter (just set it right on top of the mound of sugar and cocoa powder. Don't stir, chop, or mash it up- just put the stick of butter down and continue the recipe).
teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup milk- Do NOT stir this in, just pour it over the top.
Cook in microwave on high for three minutes.
NOW you can stir. Stir quickly,
pour into a pie pan, either greased or lined with waxed paper.
Cool in the fridge. Score and eat.
To make the most decadent hot fudge ice cream topping you have ever had in your life, melt the butter first, use 1/2 a cup of milk instead of 1/4 cup, and stir it all well before microwaving and then again after microwaving. Spoon over ice-cream while the fudge sauce is still piping hot.
I have, or rather, had, another fudge recipe even easier than this one, only I've forgotten some of the proportions.
As I recall, it had 1 bag of chocolate chips, about 1 cup of wheat germ, a cup of peanut butter, and a few tablespoons of butter. You melted the butter and chocolate chips together, then quickly stirred in the peanut butter and wheat germ, poured it all into a buttered pan, and refrigerated it until the chocolate had hardened. This stuff was yummy, firmer than the 3 minute microwave fudge, with a light crunch from the wheat germ, and of course, unless you are my daughter Pip, chocolate and peanut butter are always perfect together.
Mix up a batch of one of these fudges in no time flat, let them cool, cut them up and wrap with waxed paper and then wrapping paper for a sweet Christmas treat!
The microwave fudge sets in a very short time. While you wait, you could make one of these folded boxes from a Christmas card to package the fudge in!
Updated to add: This box is even easier. The Boy and I just made three boxes with lids in about three minutes!
New Articles Up
Nine Ways to Enjoy Your Children in the Kitchen This was fun because after I wrote it my mother wrote and told me that HER great-grandmother never let children in the kitchen at all, ever, for any reason, and so when her daughter grew up and had children, she said she would never do that, children would always be welcome in her kitchen, and that is how she raised her four, including MY grandmother, who certainly did let me in her kitchen when I came along. And I have inherited a LOT of my great-grandmother's cookbooks, aprons, handwritten recipes, dishes, and cookie cutters.
When I was born, my great-grandmother was already in a nursing home, or at least that's the only place I remember seeing her. I never recall seeing her standing, she was always bedridden from a broken hip from my earliest memory. But my mother says that one of her younger cousins tells her that her favorite memory of time spent with their grandmother is baking cookies together. I hope she got some cookie cutters, too, if she wanted them.
My great-grandmother loved to cook, and even though she lived alone, she kept flour and sugar in huge tins- at least ten pounds. I know this because my late uncle inherited her house when she passed in the late sixties, and he never threw anything away, and I found the bins still full of flour and sugar in the back of one of the kitchen cupboards when I inherited the Rattery.
Great Grandmother Y. never stopped looking at new recipes and cookbooks- one of the items I have of hers is the 12 volume Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking, and she went into a nursing home barely five years after it was published. She wasn't very mobile when it came out, yet she ordered a set anyway. I am sure she got a lot of pleasure browsing through them.
I have another article up as well:
Ideas for a green baby shower on a low budget. I do not believe in manmade global warming, but it just so happens I am ever so much greener than most of my so called environmentalist friends and relations. I cannot tell you how giddy with funny bone tickling this makes me.
Ooh, and another one:
Pizza Fondue and Freeze Ahead Meatballs
And as of around 1:00 this morning, another one:
"Sausage" and orzo skillet meal (this sausage is actually ground turkey and spices. Personally, I don't think ground turkey is any healthier than sausage. In fact, at our house, it's probably less healthy, because I know where our pigs have been, who fed them, and where the meat was butchered. I am not so sure about the ground turkey from the grocery store. But lots of people would prefer ground turkey over ground sausage, so I adapted the recipe accordingly.
Did I say thank-you? THANK-YOU! Thanks so much for clicking.=)
At this rate, I expect to have at least ten dollars by the end of the month, and if I can possibly manage a couple more articles, as much as fifteen or even twenty (I do not think there's any way it can be more than that, unless I hit the jackpot with people clicking through).;-) Hey, not much on the one hand, but on the other, as the HG told me the other day, it's eggs and butter and cheese. Well, mine is eggs and butter and cheese. Right now she's just at eggs and butter, and that's nothing to sneeze at.
Even though it was 26 years ago, I still remember being so poor we looked hard for coins in the street, and that's mostly what we used to do our laundry. I won't go all snooty-nosed at 20.00, or 10, or even 5 dollars. Every little bit really does count.
This month's Blogher check went toward our last credit card bill- this should be paid off entirely in a couple of months, and then we can start applying all that to the van. A couple of books sold and that went for some extra books and toys for Blynken and Nod. I applied this month's sixteen dollars in Amazon affiliate links to my ongoing gift certificate balance at Amazon, and that's where my swagbucks are all going as well. One of these days, we'll be able to get a camera with that. Of course, we'd have more left there if I hadn't accidentally ordered twice as much tea as I meant to recently, but that all worked out well enough- I traded some of the surplus tea with Granny Tea for the cell phone bill, and traded some of it to the Mother Of Four Boys we like so well for credit with the food co-op she takes charge of so capably.
Oh, I figured out how to become a 'fan' at Associated Content. You click on my name to bring up a page with all my post titles, and then you click on 'add to favorites.' You have to register if you haven't already, but no worries if you're not interested.
When I was born, my great-grandmother was already in a nursing home, or at least that's the only place I remember seeing her. I never recall seeing her standing, she was always bedridden from a broken hip from my earliest memory. But my mother says that one of her younger cousins tells her that her favorite memory of time spent with their grandmother is baking cookies together. I hope she got some cookie cutters, too, if she wanted them.
My great-grandmother loved to cook, and even though she lived alone, she kept flour and sugar in huge tins- at least ten pounds. I know this because my late uncle inherited her house when she passed in the late sixties, and he never threw anything away, and I found the bins still full of flour and sugar in the back of one of the kitchen cupboards when I inherited the Rattery.
Great Grandmother Y. never stopped looking at new recipes and cookbooks- one of the items I have of hers is the 12 volume Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking, and she went into a nursing home barely five years after it was published. She wasn't very mobile when it came out, yet she ordered a set anyway. I am sure she got a lot of pleasure browsing through them.
I have another article up as well:
Ideas for a green baby shower on a low budget. I do not believe in manmade global warming, but it just so happens I am ever so much greener than most of my so called environmentalist friends and relations. I cannot tell you how giddy with funny bone tickling this makes me.
Ooh, and another one:
Pizza Fondue and Freeze Ahead Meatballs
And as of around 1:00 this morning, another one:
"Sausage" and orzo skillet meal (this sausage is actually ground turkey and spices. Personally, I don't think ground turkey is any healthier than sausage. In fact, at our house, it's probably less healthy, because I know where our pigs have been, who fed them, and where the meat was butchered. I am not so sure about the ground turkey from the grocery store. But lots of people would prefer ground turkey over ground sausage, so I adapted the recipe accordingly.
Did I say thank-you? THANK-YOU! Thanks so much for clicking.=)
At this rate, I expect to have at least ten dollars by the end of the month, and if I can possibly manage a couple more articles, as much as fifteen or even twenty (I do not think there's any way it can be more than that, unless I hit the jackpot with people clicking through).;-) Hey, not much on the one hand, but on the other, as the HG told me the other day, it's eggs and butter and cheese. Well, mine is eggs and butter and cheese. Right now she's just at eggs and butter, and that's nothing to sneeze at.
Even though it was 26 years ago, I still remember being so poor we looked hard for coins in the street, and that's mostly what we used to do our laundry. I won't go all snooty-nosed at 20.00, or 10, or even 5 dollars. Every little bit really does count.
This month's Blogher check went toward our last credit card bill- this should be paid off entirely in a couple of months, and then we can start applying all that to the van. A couple of books sold and that went for some extra books and toys for Blynken and Nod. I applied this month's sixteen dollars in Amazon affiliate links to my ongoing gift certificate balance at Amazon, and that's where my swagbucks are all going as well. One of these days, we'll be able to get a camera with that. Of course, we'd have more left there if I hadn't accidentally ordered twice as much tea as I meant to recently, but that all worked out well enough- I traded some of the surplus tea with Granny Tea for the cell phone bill, and traded some of it to the Mother Of Four Boys we like so well for credit with the food co-op she takes charge of so capably.
Oh, I figured out how to become a 'fan' at Associated Content. You click on my name to bring up a page with all my post titles, and then you click on 'add to favorites.' You have to register if you haven't already, but no worries if you're not interested.
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