A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
Political commentary and awareness
The only thing I can say about Joe Biden at this moment is he was the first presidential candidate to appreciate the power of Twitter! Follow @JoeBiden and @BarackObama. I still cannot find a John McCain official Twitter account nor one for Petraeus. For some reason Biden doesn’t thrill me. Of course, McCain/Patraus frighten me.
Update:Thank goodness it wasn’t Hillary!
Cathy spent the day in the car with her father yesterday having him regurgitate the misinformation that is the hallmark of the Republican Party. I received text messages asking me to find Barack Obama’s real name. To believe the hearsay, Obama’s real name is Barry Soetoro. I took a few moments to look into it and found Snopes, Fact Check, bloggers galore, The LA Times, and many other sites which confirmed Obama’s eligibility as president and showed his genuine birth certificate as Barack Hussein Obama II born in Oahu Honolulu Hawii at 7:24pm August 4, 1961. In the process, I discovered that John McCain’s citizenship eligibility was in question until corrected by an act of Congress. Here’s my comment from Domestic Psychology:
What’s funnier is that we had to pass legislation to make McCain eligible.
McCain was born in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone while his father was stationed there as a naval officer. In 1787, however, the framers insisted that any president be natural born — that is, born within the United States. … absent a constitutional amendment, the question remains whether McCain can claim natural-born status. [Source, JONATHAN TURLEY, Legislation Introduced to Remove McCain’s Panama Problem in Seeking Presidency]
See also The New York Times. It took an act of Congress to make John McCain a natural born citizen. See 110th CONGRESS 2d Session S. RES. 511 agreed on April 10, 2008.
To make it funnier, I told Cathy that if McCain/Petraeus take the White House, I’d move to Panama. Now I have to reconsider that!
The family running your country OR extras from The Dark Knight?
Today is the deadline to sign the Kucinich petition to impeach GW Bush based on these articles.
Other than impeachment, censure is an option. Of course, with so little time left in the GW Presidency, what’s the point? Perhaps it prevents him from declaring martial law and stopping the elections in November? See President GW Bush 2004-indefinitely.
Who said it?
Head over to Knox School Matters and comment on Become The Best In High School Education!
As seen on Puerilis:
God Save the Queen!
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.
Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).
Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.
Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.
A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.
To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:
(You should look up “revocation” in the Oxford English Dictionary.)
- Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.
- The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as “colour”, “favour”, “labour” and “neighbour.” Likewise, you will learn to spell “doughnut” without skipping half the letters, and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise’. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up “vocabulary“).
- Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as “like” and “you know” is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let M*crosoft know on your behalf. The M*crosoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter “u” and the elimination of -ize.
- July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
- You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.
- Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
- All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables.
- Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.
- The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.
- You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.
- The co ld tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.
- Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.
- You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies). Don’t try rugby – the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, like they regularly thrash us.
- Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyondyour borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.
- You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.
- An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).
- Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 pm with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.
God Save the Queen!
I wonder if we could talk Christian Payne (@documentally) into recording a reading of this. I tried but it was God awful! Now, give me some Jeff Foxworthy transcripts and I’ll do just fine!
Bin Laden wanted oil to be $144 a barrel instead of $11 a barrel.
In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden — the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free — listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans "have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims" by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded. [Source, Think Progress, FLASHBACK: Ten Years Ago, Bin Laden Demanded Barrel Of Oil Should Cost $144]
Seen on Knoxviews.
Way to win my vote Johnny! As seen on Crooks and Liars:
JOHN MCCAIN: "Now we’ve got the cables. We’ve got talk radio. We’ve got the bloggers. I hate the bloggers. We’ve got all kinds of sources of information."
The hi-res version of the clip is available for download (25.9MB) as well as the full campaign event (162MB). Anyone have a Youtube version that is a little longer?
Update: Remember John McCain [wants] to shutdown [the] blogosphere.
Ok. McCain uses gas but doesn’t know the price of a gallon of gas. Is it relevant? I would think so but then again, in a leadership position, it is not so much what you know as much as what your advisers can tell you.
WISCKOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost? 

McCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters. I’ve had hundreds and hundreds of town hall meetings, many as short a time ago as yesterday. I communicate with the people and they communicate with me very effectively.
I had the unique pleasure of being called "a flaming liberal" by a relative a couple of weeks ago. I have never really applied a label to my political beliefs so it actually took me a second to process; that is until he said, "I’d vote for W a third term!" Who has those flaming liberal t-shirts? I’ll wear one.
This video sums it up.
See also:http://www.imvotingrepublican.com/
A friend of mine in another country once remarked, "The world should be able to vote for the United States president [since the president’s impact is worldwide]." So, who would the world vote in as president? (http://iftheworldcouldvote.com/)
At this time, the results show 432 people have voted with 91.7% voting for Barack Obama and 8.3% voting for John McCain.
Update:
With 1424 voters Barack is 88.2% and McCain is 11.8%.
With 1785 Barack Obama is 87.5% (1562 votes) and John McCain is 12.5% (223 votes).
With 3482 Barack Obama is 86.7% (3019 votes) and John McCain is 13.3% (463 votes).
The New York Times did a travel piece on Knoxville with some creative writing and declared that the locals refer to Knoxville as "The Couch."
KNOXVILLE is often called "the couch" by the people who live there. [Source, The New York Times-Travel, Allison Glock, 8-Jun-08, 36 Hours in Knoxville]
I came to Knoxville in the Fall of 1988 having never lived more than 4 ½ years in one place. Knoxville is comfortable and I settled in. But never have I heard anyone refer to Knoxville as The Couch! I’ve heard Big Orange Country, The Valley, K-Town, and Knoxvegas. Until the Knoxpatch blog came around I’d never heard that one. And by people who grew up here, Hell, but they leave and then usually come home in 2 to 4 years. The only couch reference I’ve ever noticed is the roadside dumping of couches which are often recycled by University of Tennessee students. There used to be a place in South Knoxville where couches go to die. I never took a picture but it was this huge cliff or old, grown over rock quarry and dozens of couches were haphazardly piled at the bottom as if when their time had come they’d run to the edge of the cliff then plummeted to the sacred couch burial ground. (Was near Ijams if anyone is curious).
Allison Glock wrote a very nice article about Knoxville! The couch reference is just befuddling and makes me wonder if some of her 36 hours wasn’t spent on one of the West’s old couches. Of course, maybe it was a red herring to get Knoxville media and blogs to link to the article. If so, it worked! Michael Silence, Byron Chesney, Bill Lyons, Katie Allison Granju, Michael Silence again, Glenn Reynolds, Katie Allison Granju again, Jack Lail, Michael Silence again, Say Uncle, Chris, KnoxInsider, and Randy Neil.
Update: Glenn Reynolds draws the same conclusion I did. (Glenn, who’s your source!) Jack Lail notes the point.
Update: The Reluctant Optimist, Michael Silence rounding up, and Ann Althouse.
Update 9Jun08: Michael Silence writes the NYT’s editor, Knox Blab discusses The Couch and Michael Silence sums up the Blab chat, and Katie Allison Granju announces Ken Schwall will address this on Channel 10 news at 6pm tonight.
Update 9Jun08: Casey Peters does a roundup, and Michael Silence does an update, and Michael Silence conjectures they meant "Swingtown" and then Michael Silence posts the solved mystery. The Couch continues to provide amusement to the newspaper staff, here and here.
Update: Michael Silence gets automated responses from the NYT. Michael Silence notes Liz Donovan jumps in.
Update 10Jun2008: Michael Solomon (letter seen on No Silence Here) complains and says Allison Glock is owed an apology and Barry wonders why a real issue is being ignored for "The Couch". Michael Silence gets a funny comment.
Update 11Jun08: Ken Schwall interviews people.
Update 12Jun08: Metropulse interviews Allison Glock and she isn’t happy with Knoxville bloggers. Katie Allison Granju agrees with me that bloggers were not outraged just confused at the authoritative way Alliison Glock claimed locals call Knoxville "The Couch." We appreciated her well written article and I think her statement "Next time I suppose I’ll just write about Pigeon Forge." is a poor response; instead, she would have made herself look better by thanking the community for the correction to her error. Chris at Rocky Top MBA draws an elegantly written conclusion to Couchgate. Well done Chris!
Michael Silence responds to Glock’s response. And notes other blogger’s responses.
Update 14Jun08: Michael Silence cites more comments (much to Cathy’s chagrin).
I got quoted on Slate! Look out Glenn! Here I come.
As I listened to Barack Obama claim the democratic nomination (and forced my children to listen), I heard Barack Obama speak positively of Hillary Clinton. And I heard him say that she would be on his cabinet in charge of health. His words were "And you can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory." I personally think that one sentence clearly says that she will not be the vice president. Obama is very well spoken! I look forward to seeing him as the president of the United States!
See also: Power Line, Obama commands respect, Binside TV, HILLARY CLINTON GIVES DELUSIONAL SPEECH AFTER BARACK OBAMA CLINCHES THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION VIDEO, and Binside TV, BARACK OBAMA CLINCHES DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION | BARACK OBAMA DEMOCRACTIC NOMINATION VICTORY SPEECH. As a side note, spell checkers really need to add "Barack" and "Obama" as correctly spelled words!
