Light Stories

The radio in our van was mostly out-- we think the antenna is disconnected-- so our 6-ish hour drive yesterday was mostly in conversation, instead of singing with the radio.

 Being the geeks we are, we talked about the Wolverine movie-- Enjoyable! Worth it! Eerily like some folks I know! What is that four year old doing in here?!?!-- and when that was exhausted, we started plotting out campaigns.

 His AF office has several geeks of various levels, none of whom game...yet. A BESM d20 game would probably get them hooked, because it allows for enough humor and character development to make stuff flat-out fun.

 This lead to us talking about a text-based sim we're involved with, and we both have a similar problem...it's just too dire. Everything is serious, everything is deadly, everything is...well, Star Trek instead of Princess Bride, for lack of a better way to phrase it. Maybe "Star Trek: The Next Generation" as opposed to "Stargate: SG1."

 This made me start going over what I've been looking for in my books of late-- I don't need "important" stories right now; I don't want pure fluff, but I do want a joyful core, some humor, sweetness. Think pretty much any of Terry Pratchett's books, or Mrs. Wrede's "The Enchanted Forest Chronicles", or Girl Genius.

 Elf is just fine with dire situations that include humor-- but he's a Warhammer fan. (watch this video for the basic tone of the world--Warhammer Online did great at fitting the tone of the games and books; Warcraft is more my speed.)

 I've always enjoyed humor if it's the right flavor, but when I was younger I tended to try to find stories that took themselves very, very seriously, delt with "big things" and were a bit more dark. Never had patience for hopelessness, but dark and serious-- definitely use to be more interesting.    Salamandastron: A Novel of Redwall, for example. (Hey, if you don't cry at the Noble End, you didn't read close enough. ;^p)

 So, all this to ask two questions: can anyone suggest some books that are similar to the ones listed, or-- if there's anyone else who like quasi-romance books or are willing to ask someone they know who does, similar to this and this series, or quasi-Noir/fantasy series like this and this; second: has anyone else noticed a similar turn in their preference for entertainment?

 Either now, or when they hit the "really a grown up" stage?

Geico-

needs to get the gal in this video to teach them how to have the gecko's accent stay in country....

Much Empathy-

for the author of this piece by Melanie Phillips at the Spectator.

 Basically, she says: "Well, I don't necessarily believe this theory (and here's refutations of your ad hominems) but that doesn't make it false, and the arguments you're offering boil down to 'Nuh-uh! Poopy head!' Have you got anything better? Here is what they are actually saying...."

 I've ended up arguing on the side of stuff I don't agree with because the folks on "my" side were offering such horrible arguments. Generally, not about anything more important than the moral potential of the Cardassian people, or refuting weak arguments against moral equivalency, but still. (of course, I've also chosen sides in some arguments I didn't really have a view on, based on which side was puffing up like a toad-- it's not flattering to admit, but it's oh so tempting....)

 Anyways, my favorite paragraph:

ID makes space -- as the result of science -- for belief in a creator, whether this is a deistic being (conveniently vague) or the Biblical God (uncomfortably moral). That certainly takes us into the realm of faith. Indeed, as already noted it takes us into pretty much the position occupied by many believers in Biblical religion – but it does so through the route of science. And that’s the incendiary point. For the idea that faith might actually be informed by science sends the materialist fundies totally and completely ape -- as Darwin might have said. (Atheists! Joke alert!!)

On a side note: I'm starting to think that maybe, when folks get famous, something just goes wrong in their heads.... or maybe just has a bigger chance to?

 I mean, we have "Holly Weird" full of examples, and I can remember when Andrew Sullivan was enjoyable and reasonable to read, as well as some other folks I can think of but don't feel like fighting about....

Apparently, Snark Is An Ingrained Response

I read Mr. Lileks' twitter, and he posted (in a conversation about the Enterprise):

Lileks: @ConservativeLA I wonder if our aircraft carriers have destruct codes.from Twitter / Lileks

I, being the well-trained former Naval enlisted I am, had only one thought: Of course not. We have Marines. Take that as you will. >^.^<

Gay Bull Elephant

The ever villainous Cassandra got me hooked on trying to get to the bottom of this story. Short version: yes, someone is making hay of this story; no, it's not the much maligned politician who dared to speak up about wasting money on a known violent bull that's showing signs of not being useful to grow their elephant house. A spokesperson for the zoo claimed that elephants don't mature until they're 14; the Toledo Zoo says they're old enough to breed at 10, but might not get a chance because they can't fight off other males. (sea world agrees with the Toledo Zoo) Ninio is an African Bush elephant, AKA African Savannah Elephant, incidentally. It's possible that the zoo's spokesman was honestly mistaken, since an African Bush elephant's reproductive maturity can be delayed by nearly 12 years if they're in bad conditions, but I highly doubt he's coping to the elephant having been malnourished. The animal in question has been transfered three times in the last five years because of his violence against female elephants. As the un-PC pol said in the full quote: "We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?" he added. Sounds to me like the zoo's admin is trying to cover their tail for buying a useless and possibly dangerous animal. Guess they should've stuck to AI, instead-- at the upkeep of 300 to 500 pounds of greens, fruits and veggies a day, you can pay for a lot of technology!

Sheriff Joe-

I like 'im. So does every first or second gen immigrant I know of-- maybe because they know what a pain it is to be legal? Well, Cutelildrow showed found and posted this delightful letter. Best part is the carefully understated allusion to the Freddy's Fashion Mart deaths, where Sharpton's racism got folks killed. (I chose PBS because when even they admit about black vs lighter racism, it's bad.) Here's Sheriff Joe's crimes, as per his official bio:

Two thousand convicted men and women serve their sentences in a canvas incarceration compound.

The male chain gang, and the world’s first-ever female and juvenile chain gangs, clean streets, paint over graffiti, and bury the indigent in the county cemetery.

For example, he banned smoking, coffee, movies, pornographic magazines, and unrestricted TV in all jails. He has the cheapest meals in the U.S. too. The average meal costs about 15 cents, and inmates are fed only twice daily, to cut the labor costs of meal delivery. He even stopped serving them salt and pepper to save tax payers $20,000 a year.

Years ago, when the Sheriff learned that inmates were stealing jailhouse white boxers, Arpaio had all inmate underwear dyed pink for better inventory control. The same is true for the Sheriff’s handcuffs. When they started disappearing, he ordered pink handcuffs as a replacement. And later, when the Sheriff learned the calming, psychological effects of the color pink—sheets, towels, socks— everything inmates wear, except for the old-fashioned black and white striped uniform, were dyed pink.

Arpaio has started another controversial program, the website WWW.MCSO.org, so that all those arrested (about 300 per day) are recorded on the Sheriff’s website as they are booked and processed into jail. Just under a million hits daily come into the website, making it one of the most visible law enforcement sites on the World Wide Web.

Also, of course, his daring to actually enforce laws against illegal immigration:

Under the State law•Arrests by Sheriff’s deputies of persons transporting or being transported illegally into Arizona: 1,290 Under the Federal law•Arrests by Sheriff’s deputies who, in the course of their duties, determine the arrestee is in Arizona illegally: 1,647 ICE “Holds” •Each inmate booked is interviewed for immigration status. Sheriff’s detention officers have turned over 23,806 illegal immigrants to Immigration authorities for deportation.

I'm guessing that Sharpton's rant is based a perceived weakness brought on by this investigation of Sheriff Joe and his folks:

The investigation focuses on Sheriff Joe Arpaio and dozens of officers under his command who were trained through the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security (ACCESS), which partners federal and local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws. (The Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division is known popularly as ICE.)

Why's he being investigated? Why, because four Dems and a nice selection of "activists groups"-- like ACORN and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (cough, gee, really? A national organization of illegals dislikes immigration enforcement?) Now, what kind of gross violations of civil rights has this man committed? Why, this fiend has moved illegals who are in jail into a different section of the same style! In their words:

On February 4th, 2009, Joe went on a rampage. He rounded up immigrant detainees and forced them to march, shackled, to a segregated "tent city" surrounded by electric fences in the Arizona desert.

' Oh.... Kay? Was he supposed to put them in a tent city that wasn't segregated? That would make deportation a bit harder, but I wasn't aware a of a civil right involving which identical section of a jail one is to be kept in. Must be one of those new fangled ones that keep showing up. I got a giggle out of this section of a news story:

Arpaio said he would welcome Conyers and the other Washington lawmakers to inspect his operation. "I want them to come here. I'll even pay their airline ticket," Arpaio said. "I want him to come here. "I will take him to the tents. I will take him on these crime-suppression operations. I will fill him in on the truth. And then when he has his hearings, he's going to have a lot of good background to talk about if he wants to do it truthfully." U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., chairman of the Judiciary Committee's Constitution subcommittee, said Arpaio's "malicious and vigilante practices are not immigration enforcement." On the contrary," he said, "this is abuse of police power and a violation of federal law." But Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., another member of the committee, said Conyers routinely uses the panel in politically motivated ways. "It's hard for much to surprise me anymore, but this, in my judgment, is just another witch hunt by the liberals on the House Judiciary Committee," Franks said.

Sounds like Rep Nadler already has his mind made up, and Rep. Franks is just standing there rolling his eyes. Is this kind of bullying just a standard Dem tactic now, or something? What the heck happened to the party that was so awesome that my grandmother had a wall with "pictures of Jesus, the Pope and JFK" on it? Granny Toots would take a stick to these idiots-- or worse, scold them. I think she would've gotten along great with Sheriff Joe, though. Most of my mom's home town was first generation Irish and their families.

Flying Robot Pinguins

-living walls, three-D choclate printers and lego like "moli-cube" machines! So utterly cool, stolen from Kokorognosis' LJ.

How Sad

Elf was getting a hair cut, I was walking around the mini-mall, and saw one of the saddest shirts I ever have laid eyes on. Decent looking guy, about six foot, clean cut, in shape, wearing surf shorts and a t-shirt: Buck Fuddy. How unspeakably sad.