Friday, January 09, 2004

I'm Off

I leave Friday, less than 24 hours, and don't have the slightest idea when I'll be able to blog again, but for anyone who might be interested drop me a line at kalroywashere(remove)@yahoo(remove).com. When I'm back online I'll drop everyone an e-mail letting them know I'm back. I'll probably be sans computer for several months, if not longer, I have absolutely no idea, but I'm already feenin' for a computer, and I haven't even left yet.

Arrowatch will still be around, and he'll probably give updates on my status, so check there from time to time.

I'll miss ya'll.


Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Can Animals Pay Mortgage?

Sarah, at Trying to Grok, points to David's Medienkritik's neat nifty about a German frog (the animal) tunnels.

One of Sarah's commenters said, "Tunnel for Frogs!! Here in lies the reason the Euro's are in trouble."

Now hold on, here in the US we have turtle fences. I've been on several turtle walks in the middle of the desert making sure no turtles had breached our defenses before we burned stuff. I've also noticed them on the sides of the freeways out here. As I recall we also have fish ladders and hawk houses.

Funny thing is that the biggest threat to the endangered desert tortoise comes from other animals. So much so that there was a time when the state paid people to pop a cap in the numerous ravens out here. These are very large and smart birds. Smart buggers would pick them up, drop them on the freeway and feast on what was left; though most drop them on rocks to split them open. I once stood in awe as I watched two ravens dumpster diving outside the Edwards AFB chow-hall. They flew into the dumpster and together two of them flew out carrying a large black trash bag, dropped it to the ground outside the dumpster and tore into it.


Monday, January 05, 2004

No Duh...

Tim Blair comments on the words of Neal Starkmanwho, like Michael Moore, thinks almost all Americans are stupid idiots. The comments are interesting, and between what Tim Blair wrote, and what numerous commenters wrote I began to reminisce about some things I learned when I was a child.

My mother, a perpetual college student who went from CPUSA member in her early twenties to Republican (with Democrat in between) in her fifties, used to have a saying she'd always say to me when some idiocy was spouted with expertise -- she said, "Some people are educated far beyond their intelligence." Oddly enough, she learned that one while working on her masters at UH Manoa.

My grandmother, to keep me in my place whenever I got uppity with the other kids, used to say, "Genius is as genius does." That was long before Forrest Gump came out. Don't know where she learned it. Probably Bakersfield, or she made it up herself. She's a smart cookie.

I've found both to be very true. All the education in the world is worthless if you don't have the intelligence to actually think, consider, and self-debate the issues that matter to you; rather than just spouting back what you learned. All the smarts in the world don't matter much if you're content to live in a box under a bridge.

RocketManBlog commented that, "I say on my blog that "Politics is not Rocket Science, but all the Rocket Scientists I know are Conservatives."" Cracked me up.


Saturday, January 03, 2004

I started writing again this morning. One pulled wisdom tooth later I'm not planning on doing much more than staying hopped on vicodin for a day or so. It's a single tooth and I can't believe how swolen and painful my jaw has become simply because of one stupid tooth.