Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Walls of Dubrovnik and Inappropriate Humor (them not me)

Eddie on the wall hike.
when Eddie and I toured around the walls of Dubrovnik, it was very very cool.  The storm clouds were coming in, but the wall is a really special thing to see.  Built about 500 years ago, they were last used in the 1990s! during the Yugoslavian war to hold off the Serbians and Montenegrins at bay.
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The people of Dubrovnik were under siege for eight months.  Shells were lobbed into the city (and hence the different roof tiles where the bombs hit), but the 500 year old walls couldn't easily be breached.  Now that war didn't really include any air power or tanks or anything (the Yugoslavian army heavy equipment stayed out of the conflict), but still.  It's impressive.
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The hike is quite popular with the tour groups
The hike is where we also saw the most inappropriate ad for ice cream ever.
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Ever!

Monday, July 29, 2013

I am not trying to be a smart ass here, but ... can't you buy non-disposable?

So I get that running out of diapers is horrible and disgusting.  And I sympathize, but can't you buy cloth diapers?
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Lord knows, as a babysitter and an older brother once or twice (during some marriages) I had to help with changing cloth diapers.
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And true, it is disgusting to wash out the baby crap in toilet as you flush, holding the diaper, then washing it in super bleach, then rinsing and haning - but doesn't that beat leaving a wet diaper on a child?
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I must be missing something.

You think you have it bad, imagine it 24/7

All Wiener Jokes, all the time.
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Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sam is doing well

Him with his Nazi Hair the night before filming
So, our good friend Sam has had the stars align recently.  This picture is of Sam went he got promoted from a extra to a cast guy in Zero Hour.  This was from last year (he was on the Nazi sub, hence the hair cut).  And we are just watched the Tivo'ed version where he is in the front credits.
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Later tonight he is on Dexter for a multi-series arc.  And he just finished filming homeland. Good for him.  He's a great kid.  And he watches Trevor every now and then.

 Credit on Zero Hour (which doesn't match Dexter for street creed, but is a fun credit non-the-less!)

This is interesting

This is interesting.  This is a image, but the webpage actually lets you hover over an area and it gives details on the percentage of children born in the lower fifth of the income bracket manage to rise to the top fifth of the income bracket.
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I find it interesting, perhaps, because I was born into the middle of the middle class it seems to me.  My parents both had to work until the divorce (and after of course), and I remember one set of grandparents being very comfortable (income wise).
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But I was lucky in that I grew up in California, specifically the LA school system, when it was still very good.  The public schools were good, and I went to UCLA - a great public university, when it was still affordable.  
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I wonder if public dedication to education is a contributor?  I don't know what the contributors are - but hat's off to North Dakota.  I would make a joke about the people born in the lower fifth wanting to get the hell out of the cold - but I am in-lawed to North Dakotans - and they mainly seem to like it a lot.  Nice, well adjusted people, so that joke doesn't really work.  I don't know how they do it.  I would be moving south ASAP, but apparently home is home.  (Although Eddie isn't ready to hot-foot it back to Stephen's Point any time soon - thank goodness!).
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Friday, July 26, 2013

A Day at Habitat for Humanity

So I worked in Bed-Sty at Habitat for Humanity today.
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I finished the backyard - because a house can't get a certificate of occupancy in New York without the backyard being finished.  So we built planters, added rain barrels and spread rocks (yes, Lynnie, MORE ROCKS!).
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We also ripped out a bunch of sheet rock that was damaged from storms before the house was rebuilt.
We built up and added the rain barrels, built the planters (and two more on the other side of the yard) and put in a shedload of rocks.
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Anyway, it went really well and I feel better than I did in six weeks at Merrill Lynch.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Dating oneself

I thought the Pentagon was the largest building in the world, floor space wise.  Which dates me to, so last century.  Well... the newest "largest building in the world" so I thought, How much bigger is it than the Pentagon.
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Well, I turned out to be wrong on many many counts.
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First Chengdu's "New Century Global Center" is huge, with a capital H.  It has about 3 times the floor space of the Pentagon (which we will get to later).  Since we aren't good with numbers, let's discuss in football fields.
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It is more than a football field tall, 4 football fields wide and 17 football fields long.  It has a shopping mall, a hotel, a water park and a Mediterranean Village.  No slam to Chungdu, but there aren't a lot of good outside pictures because the air quality isn't so good since it opened (July 12th).
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It's really big.
Vegas Baby!
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Then I looked, the Pentagon isn't even in the top 10 of large buildings anymore!  It's 13th after a long
list of Asian Airport Terminals, Shopping Malls and Casinos (and one very large flower mart in Aalsmeer Netherlands).  It is even behind the Palazzo in Las Vegas.
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Who knew!
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As for the oddest of the gigantic buildings (in my mind), the Abrj-al-Bait complex in Mecca.  It replaced an old Islamic fort that overlooked Mecca with the world's oddest jumble of Big Ben on steriods meets Desert Divorcee.
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Old Ajyad Fortress overlooking Mecca

Yee Olde Clock Tower overlooking Mecca

All Tales End...

And so, it is with a heavy heart that I must report the end of my employment at the company that shall not be named.  It was not to be....
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Let us not blame each other, throw recriminations around, rend our garments in agony.  Nay, let us, instead, remember the good times so that we might look back upon each others' company fondly.
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Well that was quick.
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Next.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

What... Why...

What is this you ask?  It's a guy having his picture taken on a Russian submarine in the arctic that with a walrus that fell asleep.
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Why?...  Well, if you woke up on a sub in the arctic and there was a walrus (a BIG Walrus) wouldn't you want your picture with him?
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Good Morning...
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Monday, July 22, 2013

Just some catching up

So we were in Mankato last week-end (two week-ends ago) and we had a great time at RibFest (which I mentioned).  The next day we had brunch and I saw baby turkeys.
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It's odd, but I have never seen them before.  Or even ever really thought of them in the wild.  I tend to think of their growth cycle in the freezer; Cornish Game Hen, Chicken, Turkey.
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By the way, fun fact... Cornish Game Hens are neither Cornish nor game.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Graham is a Nincompoop

What is funny (sad funny, not ha ha funny) is that Senator Graham discusses that Russia supports evil in the world.   His examples are: supporting Iran with nuclear weapons, threatening Israel and supporting Syria’s Bashar Assad in the slaughter of Syrians.  
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These are, according to Senator Graham’s logic, hateful, horrible and irresponsible things. Things worthy of contempt.  But not, in and of themselves, enough reason to boycott the Olympics.

Now if the Russian Government gives asylum to Snowden, who’s Nazi-esque crime was to tell the American people what their elected representatives are up to, well then they have gone too far!  Sure you kill 90,000+ people in Syria – that’s bad, but you know, not Hitler bad.  You tell Americans the truth.  THAT is Hitler bad.  And that is worth boycotting the Olympics over.

In his own words… "If you could go back in time, would you have allowed Adolf Hitler to host the Olympics in Germany? To have the propaganda coup of inviting the world into Nazi Germany and putting on a false front?" Graham said of the Games.
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"I'm not saying that Russia is Nazi Germany," Graham added, "but I am saying that the Russian government is empowering some of the most evil, hateful people in the world."

And, apparently, the worst of these evil, hateful people is the one that informs the public what the US government is up to.

Confusing Directions

Last time I was in LA I saw this sign for the LA Times Newspaper machine.
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I thought the directions were a bit confusing...
"USE ANY COIN COMBINATION" "DO NOT USE PENNIES"
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Makes perfect sense.  Until you get to the coin slot were it says, "QUARTERS ONLY".
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So you can use any coin combination - as long as it is quarters...

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

I Miss You Too Honey

This is from Ed.  And it is very true when he travels (although he skypes the dog).
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Abigail Thernstrom: Dumb as a box of air OR Guttersnipe?

So CNN had a "opinion" piece today by one Abigail Thernstrom.  It is such unbelievable dreck that one must question CNN's motives in printing it.
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Let me quote part of it....

"If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," the president said when asked about the case in the Rose Garden on March 23, 2012, after many had called for Zimmerman's arrest but several weeks before he was charged. "When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids."

In fact, if the president had a son, he would have been born to extraordinary privilege and raised with all the advantages of two very affluent and highly educated parents. He would have gone to tony private schools. His path in life would have been almost as dissimilar from Trayvon's as one could imagine.
Abigail Thernstrom

Yes, Obama's hypothetical son and Trayvon would have shared the same brown skin color. Would that have made them interchangeable? Not unless all brown-skinned boys are the same. Does the president really believe that?

The president's remarks created a clear impression that he was motivated by one of two factors, and we can only guess as to which, or what combination of the two, was at work here. One possibility is that this is merely another manifestation of the president's well-known narcissism: No matter what the situation may be, it's all about him.

The other, more troubling possibility is that the president surrendered to his political instincts. He wants disadvantaged Americans to believe that he and his family are one of them -- despite their life of unparalleled privilege -- and he wanted the prosecutors, judge and jury to believe that this was a case about race where justice demanded a guilty verdict.
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I fully admit, emphasis mine.  But let me give Ms. Thernstrom one other factor he might have been motivated by.  He is a parent of kids approximately Trayvon's age.  MAYBE, just MAYBE he was motivated as a parent.  As to the "clear impression", you show a remarkable lack of intellectual curiosity here, Ms. Thernstrom.
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Following her logic, I see only two possible reasons that Ms. Thernstrom sees things in this black and white view.  Either she is a disgusting and stupid racist who doesn't see a President, only a black man she can belittle or a craven opportunist desiring to use the tragic death of an innocent 17 year old to boost her readership.  So which is it, Abby?
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See Ms. Thernstrom, limiting your options to two choices is arbitrary and shows a lack of any type of empathy. 

Sunday, July 14, 2013

T-Shirts from RibFest

So, as a surprise for everyone, we got RibFest T-shirts for the Gloss concert.  They were concert Tees in a variety of colors (orange, blue, white and a V-neck grey).
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They say GLOSS (the band name) and then RibFestival in Japanese.  The vertical script is "Mankato".
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People loved them.  They were a hit.
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Even the band liked them (although they wouldn't be caught dead saying it).
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The Band.. (my nephew is on the far right, playing guitar).

Hard to sum up humorously

It's impossible to be funny about the Trayvon Martin killing. In Florida it is legal to pursue an innocent person, after the police tell you not to.  To then confront that person and call him an asshole for the crime of having a hoodie up in the rain and buying candy and ice tea.  A scuffle ensues, because you acted against police instructions - and you fear for your life, so you shot a 17 year old young man.  I suppose "legal" is not accurate.  I suppose a better term would be "not illegal" if you are afraid for your life because he is a black youth - whether or not he should be in the neighborhood.
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I do not understand the difference between what happened in Florida and lynching.  Here is the
definition of lynching by wikipedia:
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Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that arise in communities, such as charivari, Skimmingtonriding the rail, and tarring and feathering. Lynchings have been more frequent in times of social and economic tension, and have often been the means used by the politically dominant population to oppress social challengers.

and by Websters
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Definition of LYNCH

: to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal sanction
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In this case the shooting "in order to intimidate" was not done by a mob, but by a single person, then cleared in a court of law.  Which happened in the south all the time in the olden days.  And yesterday.
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So Let's go to the lighter side.  Texas called an extra session of it's legislature after a law was successfully filibusters that would have severely limited women's access to legal pregnancy termination.  IN the graphic below, the current legal facilities are the dots, the 6 ones that are allowed to stay open are the six in green.  There is no scale, but the distance from El Paso (at the western edge of the state) to the closest available clinic is 576 miles (or 926 kilometers) - approximately London to Frankfurt.
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On the good side, they did increase pre-natal services to poor women... ha ha.. Just kidding.  Texas is dead last in neo-natal care for poor women.  Hell, it's dead last in any type of health care.
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But that isn't the funny part.  The funny part is during the "debate" they didn't want any women to speak out or even show support for not passing the law.  So they (seriously!) made everyone be searched and confiscated all the tampons.  Afraid women might shower the legislator with them.  You know what was permitted? Guns.
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Because guns don't kill people, tampons do.  (FYI - not used tampons or anything, just plain old women's' pads.
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Here's another funny aside.  During the debate, one of the legislators (a woman!), Jodi Laubenberg said there didn't need to be a exception for abortion, because if a woman reports a rape, there is a rape kit that "cleans them out".  Jodi is unaware that all a rape kit does is check for evidence of a crime and DNA, not "clean a woman out" and so as not get pregnant.  
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Abortion is murder.  And totally not sanctioned! .. Until the child has lived 17 years and turns out to be black and eating skittles.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Where are the coming FROM for Ribfest

Well, not including snow bird homes... from these places.
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Off for Rib-Fest

Well, we are off to Mankato for Rib-Fest.  This is a bi-annual bar-b-que, family reunion, visit to the mid-west.  Good food, good conversation, the lots of beer, then less coherent, but still fun conversation.  A chance to see how big all the nieces, nephews and cousins have gotten.  It's amazing how they have all grown up and yet I have, somehow, not aged.
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Anywho, pictures forth coming on Saturday.  With maybe a surprise....
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No one is pregnant.  Not that kind of surprise!

Firehouses and Repurposing

There was an article in The Daily Beast today about a house on Long Island that used to be a firehouse.
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Eddie and I saw these 2 Firehouses in New York a while back (March).  I thought it was interesting to see that there used to be a LOT of firehouses in the city.  Before concrete, fire codes and sprinklers.
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Many are still around and look cool.  Others have been added to and repurposed.  It's interesting as you spot them.
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Still a Firehouse

Now a shop and condos.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

This Show Has No Redeeming Characters

Apparently no one told CBS that they should have, like, at least ONE character to root for.  We are three episodes into this series and NO ONE is likeable.  Some people are marginally less unlikeable, but no one is a good guy.  If these were real people, they should stay in the dome until they are all dead.  At the rate they are going, it would be about day 4.
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 There was one good cop, who was promptly killed by a bad cop, exactly 2 minutes after we met him.  The bad cop, by the by, has no reason to be bad except spending 12 hours under a dome.  Really, he cracked toot sweet.
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But it is okay, because the good lady cop that you kind-of-rooted for shot the bad copy in cold blood.  Now she was angry, but was like 4 feet away and behind him, she coulda winged him.  But she is a Hispanic and you know how hot-headed they are.
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There is the young man in love with the town waitress.  He is totally cute except for the "crazy eyes" - which are now on display 24/7.  When the pretty waitress dumped him kind of rudely (after sleeping with him) he responded by locking her in the bomb shelter at his father's house.  Because in no-where New England, everyone still has a fully functioning and stocked bomb shelter.  And girls should never ever lead boys on.
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Crazy Eyes comes by it naturally thou.  Crazy Eyes' father, by the by, is the only town councilman left (the others are visiting the neighboring, dome-free town) and has "taken over" for the good of the town.    You know kind of Al-Haig crossed with Lex Luthor.  He is a general blow-hard creep to start with, but to make us dislike him more, he is also involved in some convoluted propane for drugs scheme.
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His partner in the propane for drugs scheme?  The Reverend of the town - who accidentally burnt down a dead man's house while trying to destroy evidence.  Because don't all pastors burn down houses while destroying evidence of their wrong-doing?
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There is a plethora of bratty teenagers - and one nice kid.  The nice teenage kid was home alone when the dome came down.  In last night's episode, in repayment for the kindness of sharing his generator - his house was thronged by kids gone wild (apparently the parents let the teenagers run all over town, cuz, hey, there's a dome over the city - where are they going to go?  The woods?  Where there is a crazy cop-killing cop!).  A bully (who is all cute in an Abercrombie and Fitch racist kind of way - so that's anti-type casting) threatened to beat up the kid whose home had the generator (breath) because the nice kid wouldn't let the bully rape the bratty girl.  Which I gotta say, was annoying and stupid on a million levels.
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The "hero" (or anti-hero) started the show by killing some guy and burying the body.  He is now staying with a woman who was kind enough to put him up, only to find out that she is the dead guy's wife (widow?).  So if he is a "good-guy", he's not that good.  The wife is a reporter who ran with a uncorroborated story too fast in order to smear Ron Emmanual, but then it turned out she was a crappy reporter and the whole story wasn't true - so she and her (dead) husband hightailed it back to Domeville just in time for some propane / drug / stranger action.  FYI - if the dome wasn't fiction enough, the idea that a reporter might actual pay a penalty for inaccurate reporting is ludicrous.
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The token minorities are:
- a black guy who is the DJ at the local radio station (because black guys love music)
- a Asian Chick at the radio station (because Asians are good with electronics and stuff)
- two lesbian moms who are "just at the end of their rope" with the almost raped bratty girl.
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By the by, I don't know if it is Stephen Speilberg or Stephen King, but one of them apparently wants to let the little children of the world know if you disobey your perfectly nice lesbian parents, you too will get almost raped.  And if you have sex with a guy and don't want to marry him, you will be tied up in a bomb shelter and almost raped.  And if you are a woman who tries to stand up for herself, you will get almost beat up by the propane /drug dealing councilman / hunter.  I think maybe someone (or sometwo) has an issue with women.
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Hid-e-ous!

Wiener & Spizter

Previously... on "Wiener & Spitzer".  Our intrepid lawyer/politicians had seen their hard effort in physical rebuilding show up as defined, sculpted, hard bodies - for old jewish politicians, and decided to share the wealth with the world.  
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Where did this hard work get them?  Driven out of office by a jealous, skeptical (and possibly anti-Semitic) public.  Can they come back from this???!!!"
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But no, this is no terrible TNT cable show.
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Real life disgraced politicians Anthony Wiener and Eliot Spitzer are running for office in New York City.
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Of the two, Anthony Wiener's indiscretions were less serious, but more creepy.  He took semi-nude selfies and sent them to women he had barely met.  And then lied about it!  (You know how I feel about liars.)
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He is back running for Mayor (and doing well), with a smarmy smile and brightly colored pants.
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I don't know why except that maybe name recognition is worth more than you would expect.  That, and the assumption that Amazon wife of his would take the cell phone away from him and cut off his nuts if he tried it again.
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Embarrassing.
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Eliot Spizter, sensing that New York was in a forgiving mood, has decided to throw his little wiener into the race for City Comptroller.  There is only 1 other candidate, a borough President with little name recognition.  Eliot Spizter should never be in politics again.  He is a self righteous, pompous doufus - who paid a hooker, sent her to Washington DC and lied about it.  Since that is transporting a person across state lines for Prostitution, that's a felony.  Since he lied about it, that is a Scooter No No.
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But he too may prove that name recognition trumps good sense.
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argh!
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If I had to root for one of the two, it would have to be Wiener. First off, his evil deed was not all that evil.  Second, I hear the new Mayoral Limo would be rad.
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Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Topiary Garden in Newport

One of the places we visited in Newport Rhode Island was a home with a topiary garden.  It looks great in these pictures.  In reality, it was hot as hell and humid and we were done very very quickly.  Ready to get in the air-conditioned car!
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 In retrospect, it looks nice.
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Oh Orson... Don't Lie Now

So Orson Scott Card hates fags.  Whatever.  He wrote a great book (Ender's Game), now made into a movie.  And he is a big, huge hater of fags.  I don't care.  I really don't.  I have better things to do than worry that some Mormon writer has a tizzy about me.
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How much of a tizzy?  Well in 2008 he said that "Marriage has only one definition and any government that changes that becomes my mortal enemy.  I will act to destroy that government and bring it down."
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Okay, 2008 was a while back.  But still ... those are some pretty strong words.  Today he issued this statement.
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Ender’s Game is set more than a century in the future and has nothing to do with political issues that did not exist when the book was written in 1984. 
With the recent Supreme Court ruling, the gay marriage issue becomes moot. 
The Full Faith and Credit clause of the Constitution will, sooner or later, give legal force in every state to any marriage contract recognized by any other state. 
Now it will be interesting to see whether the victorious proponents of gay marriage will show tolerance toward those who disagreed with them when the issue was still in dispute. 
Orson Scott Card
And I would love to believe him.  I would love to think it wasn't motivated by money (if the film tanks the 3 sequels probably won't be picked up - and the books won't do as well in reissue).  But I don't think his press release is motivated by anything but money.
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You see, Mr. Card is still on the Board of Directors of NOM (National Organization for Marriage) who is (even now) working hard to repeal the marriage laws in place. (LINK).  So he doesn't really believe the issue is "moot".  To me, "disagreed" seems to put the whole thing in the past tense.  But someone like Mr. Card, who is actively raising money and donating effort to repeal the Supreme Court ruling, isn't really putting it in the past, is he?
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He is still fighting my marriage.  NOM is working hard on this front.  So he's lying about hating me. Call me nuts, but I have much more respect for a crazy Mormon that just hates me than a crazy Mormon that hates me, lies about it AND wants my money.
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Don't get me wrong, I have full tolerance for Mr. Card. And I loved the book Ender's Game, read it - it is great.  It was an endorsement of care and empathy.
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But no, I won't see the movie.  Because while Mr. Card has the right to say what he wants, to insult anyone he wants, to spew horrible things about me because of how I was born and to work hard to make me a lesser citizen - I have an equal  right not to endorse his viewpoint.  And I think attending a movie where the material benefit of attendance enriches Mr. Card, I think that endorse his views.
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I don't begrudge anyone else the chance to see the film.  I mean it has Harrison Ford in it, and it was a great book.  It's probably a good picture.

Monday, July 08, 2013

And ANOTHER story...

I hate this guy so much.
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He is now setting the record straight.  You can read it all here if you can stomach his latest lies.  I would recap the, but they will change again in a week.

Sunday, July 07, 2013

Art Gallery at Yale

ON our way back from Newport we stopped at the new Yale Art Gallery.  The put together a couple of old buildings and it is beautiful.
A exterior hallway converted to an interior gallery.

A Byzantine mosaic Yale and the government of Turkey excavated.

A Mosaic and a grek statue stand in front of an old church window.

Saturday, July 06, 2013

The Breakers @ Newport Rhode Island

So Newport Rhode Island was the sumer residence of the gilded age.  Throughout the island are massive mansions.  One of the coolest was The Breakers, built by Cornelius Vanderbilt.  It was, you know a little summer home...
The main entrance.  (No pictures allowed inside)

Eddie and I on the back veranda

A corner of the house from the grounds.

That is the music room inside