Apollo 11

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41 years ago.  Today.  I was watching it live on television, glued to the set.  Possibly the most exciting thing, the most promising, the most noble thing that ever happened in my life, before or since.  This one event will be the first thing remembered about our time centuries from now.  The wars, the changes, the technological advances…  all those will pale before these few days in 1969.

Watching it then, I expected Moon bases, space stations, and a mission to Mars by now.  The politics of the 60’s and 70’s ended those dreams before they were enacted, and the promise of my future off the planet was stillborn.  I’m still disgusted by the petty nonsense that ended those dreams, and replaced them with the chronically underfunded NASA programs that led to the Shuttle and International Space Station.  While the ISS is a good thing to have, and I’m glad we did it, it was done for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way.  The Space Station should have been a jumping off point for the Moon bases and Mars.  We’re doing a lot of good research there, and it’s important, but it’s not what I was expecting.

I should have been writing this blog from my apartment at Luna City, instead of my couch in Visalia.   Born too soon, I guess.

WALL-E, Legos, and too much free time!

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Palin as Shakespeare? Not even close!

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Keith Olberman had a great comeback:   “I’ve read Will Shakespeare. Ma’am, you’re no Will Shakespeare”

Child Abuse, Plain and Simple

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A Decade And A Half

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Update:

Ted said I needed to get a better picture of him, so here’s one I stole off his company’s website!


Today is Ted’s 35th birthday! (Happy Birthday Ted!)  I met Ted 15 years ago, shortly after he moved to Visalia from Manteca.  He’s a great guy, and without a doubt a VIP in my life.  He is a computer/network/internet genius, and if you have a home or business computer network, you really should let his company, Central Point Networks, protect your stuff.  Don’t let the Nerd Herd mess it up, call Ted and have it done right!

“It’s A Dry Heat!” yeah, not so much today

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6:30 am   The sky above Casa Jimbo at sunrise.  Already 73 degrees on it’s way to a predicted 104, the clouds portend a muggy, humid day. ( Well, muggy and humid…  for us.)  Our usual refrain may not stand up to the tropical moisture that is zooming up from Mexico.  I think I’ll go to bed now…  toodles!

Argentina Legalises Gay Marriage (via Queer Visalia)

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Argentina Legalises Gay Marriage Argentina has become the first Latin American nation to legalize same-sex marriage.  In a 15 hour debate that lasted until 4am, the Parliament voted 33-27  to approve the legislation. Other nations that have legalized same-sex marriage include  the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal and Iceland. ABC News has an article, here. The Advocate.com has an article, here. It shouldn't be too long before some fundi … Read More

via Queer Visalia

I’m a ‘communist elitist envy class warfare monger’

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Yeah, a communist elitist envy class warfare monger.  I don’t know what it means, either.  Nazi was probably left out by simple oversight.  It’s funny, the person who writes this stuff probably thinks of themselves as a good person, and a Christian.  But, get him riled up in the newspaper’s online forums, and the name calling erupts like BP’s infamous Gulf of Mexico oil well.

“LibertyAlive” is this dim bulb’s moniker, and he misses no chance to call people names when he disagrees with them.  He’s not even very original when he engages in that name calling, however.  The term ‘wingnut’ has come to be used when referring to the radical/TEA Bagger/right wing conservative, and I’ve used it from time to time when talking about things posted online.  In clever and carefully considered response, he’s come up with ‘dingnut’, to refer to people he thinks must be Democrats, and other left leaning individuals.  How original, huh?

He has a real problem understanding what issue is being discussed, and has, in classic wingnut style, redefined words to mean things 180 degrees from what they really are, or simply assigns meanings to words regardless of what the rest of the world accepts.   That of course makes it difficult to have a rational discussion with him, and if not for the fun of ‘yanking his chain’, I’d have stopped interacting with him a long time ago.  It’s too much fun, though.

When several people take similar positions, or agree with each other, he’ll accuse them of being the same person posting under different names.  I suppose he finds it impossible to believe there is more than one liberal in Visalia.  This screen name is at least his second since he started posting, the first was his actual name.  It may have become apparent to him that his views could negatively affect his business, so he changed the moniker.  Probably a good idea, since he’d probably lose business if customers knew how incoherent his ramblings are, and how much of a wingnut he is.  After all, would you want to do business with someone who thinks I’m a ‘communist elitist envy class warfare monger’?  I didn’t think so.

I will give him credit for one thing, though.  He has yet to play the ‘gay card’ with me.  No slurs or derogatory comments.  Yet.  We’ll see if that continues.  In the meantime, the conversation has gone in circles a few too many times, so I may have to ‘yank’ some other chains for a while.  But sometimes it’s just too tempting…

Space Station Geek Moment of the Summer

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It came out of the northwest, a brilliantly glowing white “star”, moving faster than any airplane.  It climbed higher and higher in the night sky, progressively brighter as it approached.  Slowly at first, then appearing to gain speed as it drew near, it passed almost directly overhead.  I was standing in my driveway, trying to squint past the brilliant floodlights of the church parking lot across the street, and focus the sight in my binoculars (that I purchased at Johnson Space Center, Houston, at a “garage sale” they had in the commissary the day of my visit!) .   Not powerful enough to resolve the station from a bright point of light into the actual structure, I put them down to enjoy the site through the best oculars available to me tonight, my own eyes.

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First She Was A Pit Bull, Now She’s A Grizzly Bear?

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A biographer of Sarah Palin’s has found her target audience: 9-12 year olds.  “Speaking up: the Sarah Palin Story” is being published by Christian pulisher Zondervan’s Zonderkidz division.  We can just imagine what they’ll say about her.  At least until it’s actually published, in September.

Sarah Palin is almost as entertaining as Yogi Berra when it comes to saying things she didn’t really mean.  Or maybe she did.

“What would your response be if I asked you to remove some books from the collection?” –Sarah Palin, inquiring with Wasilla librarian Mary Ellen Emmons about banning books right after taking office in 1996

Here are some other Palinisms to consider:
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