An old friend, half the world away...

"Mo" was a gift in 1974. He appeared as if summoned by an ancient incantation. His mischievous smile and quick wit would brightened the most Al-bone day. Then, as is often the case, he moved the tassel to the other side of the mortar board and disappeared almost as mysteriously as he had arrived. Left lingering in the air was the poetry of his name, Mohezin Tejani.

So on a lark I Googled Mo ... and just look what I found: The Chameleon's Tale.

Now you can apologize to Rush...

Now you can draft your own "apology" to Rush just like the pros do it. Best of all, we'll share your "apologies" with Rush personally.

Check it out >>

Olechko - Worthy of note

Sunday brunch at Campania

(Disclaimer: I have no vested interest in this artist's work I just like his paintings)

Lining everyone else's pockets...

Senate Stalls on Housing Bankruptcy Bill

Friday 13 March 2009

by: Kevin Drawbaugh and Corbett B. Daly | Visit article original @ Reuters

Mary Ann Herrera at her home in San Antonio. Legislation that could help homeowners is bogged down in the Senate. (Photo: Eric Gay / AP)

Washington - Legislation meant to help distressed U.S. homeowners by allowing bankruptcy courts to adjust the terms of mortgages on primary residences has stalled in the Senate, said congressional aides on Friday.

Democrats backing the bill - known as "cramdown" and opposed by most of the banking industry - have been unable to line up the 60 votes needed to clear the way procedurally for it to move ahead, the aides said.

"We're stuck in a place where we don't have 60 votes to pass the House bill as is," said an aide to a senior Democrat.

They can find it in their hearts to give BILLIONS to A.I.G. but they cannot help the guy on Main Street.

... and people wonder why, as a culture, we have such contempt and distrust of politicians!!!

From the department of HUH!?!?

Employee Free Choice Act as Stimulus for US Economy

Friday 13 March 2009

by: Seth Sandronsky, t r u t h o u t | Perspect

. . .

All things constant, the more a worker earns, the less she needs to borrow to get by.

. . .

In fairness Seth Sandronsky's article focused on the economic merits and faults of organized labor. But...

This single sentence epitomizes in my view the real problem of our economy. We as a nation have gotten to the point where we feel compelled to 'borrow to get by.'

'To get by' suggests to my mind a base level of economic existence. Having been independently poor for the majority of my life I believe that I have a well established sense of what it takes 'to get by.' I can say that it doesn't include a McMansion, a "bubble" salary, the right clothes, or other trappings of our social largess. It does mean living within our means.

My observation is that for much too long we have established our desired life style and then tried to afford it on our earnings. This could well precipitate a need to 'borrow to get by.' Wouldn't it be much better all the way around to establish our earnings and then live an affordable life style?

Huh?

I like Pi

3.14159

Happy Pi Day!

...beyond the primal fear box.

Ronni Bennett from Time Goes By, Elder News shared this ...

Sad news. On 7 March, 78-year-old Gene Maudlin who blogged for four years at Old Horsetail Snake died. According to a lovely tribute to him at A Mark on My Wall,

“Gene died today utilizing Oregon’s Death with Dignity plan. He was tuckered out from trying to breathe. His Scamp was with him at Hospice Hopewell House.”

Gene's site was one of the best daily laughs in the blogosphere. He was irascible, irreverent, profane and fall-down funny. His blog is archived here. Give yourself a smile or two today and read some of it.

I took an involuntary breath, a small gasp, when I read 'Oregon's Death with Dignity plan.' The small gasp surprised me. Why?

I have long been a staunch supporter of personal life/death rights. I believe that every individual should be allowed to make decisions regarding their "quality of life". I believe that every individual should be allowed to decide when to initiate their own death process.

That having been said let me acknowledge that such a decision, 'to initiate their own death process', is not the same as wantonly taking one's own life in desperation or fear. It is of paramount importance that we acknowledge that our frail biological canister we call our body has very finite resources. I believe we should honor and acknowledge this fact in accepting gracefully that eventually our body will stop functioning properly. When that becomes obvious to the person then we must have programs like Oregon's Death with Dignity plan.

So what can I take away from my surprise gasp?

Here is a man, Gene Maudlin, that I never knew. Until Ronnie mentioned him and his blog I would have never had the opportunity to discover Gene. (Sadly the blogosphere is so huge that many great and small, like me, will go undiscovered.) So, what can I take away from my surprise gasp?

I am not the only one who gasps. I am not the only one who is surprised when they gasp.

I surmise that a great number of folks upon gasping and possibly being surprised simply turn their backs on the matter. Reacting to a sort of primal fear they label Oregon's Death with Dignity plan as bad. Without giving any thought to Gene's personal circumstance. Without giving any thought to the extensive soul searching that Gene did prior to making his decision. Without knowing that the people who really knew Gene honored and supported his decision.

Human beings are great because we have the ability to move beyond our primal fears. So, while you are moving 'beyond the box' take Ronnie's good advise and read some of Gene Maudlin. His blog is archived here. Give yourself a smile or two today and read some of it.

My father would have loved this... Thanks Gene!

A young ventriloquist is touring the clubs and one day he stops to entertain in one of the many bars in West VirginiaKentucky. He's going through his normal run of stupid jokes when a large fellow in about the fourth row stands on his chair and says, "I 've heard just about enough of your denigrating jokes."

He continues to berate the joker. "What makes you think you can stereotype us that way. I'ts guys like you who keep people like me from being respected at work and in the community, or of reaching their full potential as a person, because you and your kind continue to perpetuate discrimination against us, all in the name of humor."

Flustered, the ventriloquist begins to apologize, when the harrasser pipes up, "You stay out of this, Mister. I'm talking to that little jerk on your knee."

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

Nope! Think BIGGER!!!

WAY BIGGER

"Beyond the Box"

Coined by yours truly, the new mantra for our time...

If we are to really grow in these perilous times then we must indeed...

Think beyond the box!

Strawberry fields forever...

Thanks Sean

Middle is the new black...

Now we are starting to see the New Calvinism take hold, and being middle class is once again something to laud or hold onto...

- /ambivalence

How sad!!!

That living-within-one's-means (exercising fiscal responsibility) while being an average Joe working an average job is now something to be lauded. I wonder if the 'New Calvinism' will protect all those upper-class-wannabes who built their McMansions over in the new economic subdivision, the gated community of Gluttony, right on the corner of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Sunday Salavation: Salmon Eggs

No, no, not roe... from the Urban Gourmand series...

Hot cuisine during the econolapse, er... econolypse, er... downturn.

(This worked so well I really should have taken pictures...)

Two small potatoes, cut into 1/4" cubes.
Half a slice of homemade pumpernickel bread, cut into 1/4" cubes

2 eggs
1 green onion
1/3 cup salmon, flaked. (Leftover from Friday's baked salmon fillets)

---

Potatoes go into a HOT skillet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste. As they begining to brown (2-3 min.) toss and add a little more olive oil.

Finely chop the green onion (ya'll call 'em scallions) and add to the 1/3 cup flaked baked salmon. Mix ever so gently so they become good friends.

Even small cubed potatoes take a while to cook so don't rush the process. Use that fancy wrist-flick and give them a good toss. Spread them back out so each cube has at least one side down to the skillet.

Now timing is everything. Taste a potato. Done? Done-ish? Done-ok? then add in the bread cubes. Toss them to soak up any residual flavor fortified olive oil. Continue over moderate heat.

Now like I said, timing is everything. Heat a clean skillet with one drop of water in the center. When the water evaporates spray the skillet with the non-stick cooking spray of your choice. Vigorously beat the two eggs and add to the clean-hot-sprayed skillet. Commence to scramble.

Timing is EVERYTHING. Add the salmon&green onion (ya'll call 'em scallions) mixture when the scrambled eggs are just beginning to coalesce (reads still wet but firming up fast.) Continue to scramble until they are still moist (they look slightly undercooked) then plate them. Don't wait! They will finish cooking while you plate the potatoes.

Enjoy!

I found the potato/pumpernickle an interesting counter point to the salmon&green onion.

Bonus nonsense:

Stan Freberg Lyrics

"Stan Freberg Christmas Dragnet lyrics"

This is the season.
My name's Wednesday.
My partner's Frank Jones.
The Chief's name is Captain Kellogg.

December the 24th, Christmas Eve.
They brought in a guy named 'Grudge'.
When I heard what they booked him on, my blood ran cold.
It was a 4096325- 096704: not believing in Santa Claus.

4:35 p.m.
I was working the holiday watch out of homicide with Frank.

"Hang up your stocking yet, Joe?"

"Yeah, just before I come down. You too Frank?"

"Alway do.
Hung it up early just in case I have'ta work late tonight.
Wouldn't wanna miss out on when Santa Claus comes you know. "

"Sure wouldn't, be a shame."

"Whatcha gonna do tomorrow, Joe?
Whatcha gonna do on Christmas, got any plans?"

"Nothin' much."

"Why don't you come by the house Joe?
We're gonna have Christmas dinner.
You know, all the trimmings:
turkey, celery stuffing, oysters maybe.
Chestnuts, all the trimmings, you know.
Cranberry sauce, love'ta have ya.
The Missus always fixes a plate of relish
with them little carrot sticks.
You know, olives, pickles, scallions.
Most people call them green onions, but they're really scallions.
Did you ever notice that Joe?"

"Notice what Frank?"

"How most people call them green onions but they're really scallions."

"Uh-huh. Scallions."

"Anytime after two, Joe. Love ta have ya."

"Uh-huh. Well I'll see."

"Love ta have ya."

"Uh-huh. Well, I'll see."

"Love ta have ya."

"Uh-huh. Well, I'll see."

"Missus always fixes a plate of relish with them little carrot sticks.
You know - olives, pickles, scallions."

t r u t h o u t | President Barack Obama: Toward a Better Day

t r u t h o u t | President Barack Obama: Toward a Better Day




Isn't' it refreshing to hear from a public official who doesn't sound like he is fibbin'? A president who doesn't sound like he was just caught with his hand in the cookie jar?

International Women's Day

About International Women's Day 2009

Russia Today:

International Women’s Day: from rallies to flowers

Thoughts on Xfce 4.6.0

Xfce, the cholesterol free X windows desktop environment, is rock solid. Thanks to Robby Workman's excellent packaging it went right in and worked from the very first startx.

Only one personal gotcha in the upgrade. I was/am/will be a BIG fan of the right-button-click access to the full application menu. Oh, I know it is in there...but another level down... and it used to be soooo simple.

Explanation to follow...

It is always the smallest of things that seem to bring the wheels of progress to a screeching halt - sand in the gears, if you will.

Well the 'one personal gotcha' turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Papa's Rule #3: If a tool doesn't meet the hand, don't pick it up.

If you have ever tried to do real work with someone else's hammer you know exactly what I am referring to. This applies to the intimate art of personal computing. This is the foundation of my interest and full time use of Linux. With Linux I have been afforded a selection of tools to choose from. With Linux I have found a selection of tools that meet the hand.

That is until I encountered Xfce 4.6.0. By way of subtle recanting the things I said about Robby Workman's packaging are absolutely true - it did install and run flawlessly. Then the little grains of sand in 4.6.0 began to grind against my gears.

I mentioned the Applications menu - being 'buried' another level down on the right-button-click menu. I might have been able to overcome this except for one very important thing. When I went to Menu Edit and tried to customize I ended up with a boulder in my gear box. The Menu Editor could see my previously customized menu ( ~/.config/.../menu.xml). It would even let me edit and save it. BUT when I went back to the right-button-click menu my customizations were not available. ARRRRGH! FAIL!

Then there was another little tiny gain of sand that found its way into my well oiled GUI. A small matter of the panel applet for accessing the audio mixer. Oh, sure, it worked well enough BUT the applet itself did not have the volume slider bar control on the panel itself. Again, I would have to drill into the mixer control to adjust the volume. Three steps backwards, one step forward.

Now before my critic(s?) claim that I wasn't diligent I went on to try the Volume Control applet. Which appears to be exactly the same as the Mixer Control applet.

Resolution:

Here the real beauty of Slackware Linux shines through. Referrencing the same packages that I used to install Xfce 4.6.0 I turned right around and did a removepkg on 4.6.0 and it was gone. I then went back to the Slackware 12.2 DVD, drilled to the /slackware/xap folder and did a installpkg on the original Xfce tarball. BINGO - startx put my familiar Xfce back on my screen.

Except for one minor detail. I had to run xfce-panel manually the first time to 're-initialize' it. Once done I had everything back to the original state.

Conclusion:

I will make my views regarding Menus and menu editing known to the Xfce community. Perhaps in their copious spare time they can both clean up and sort out the issues. (More to my point perhaps they can follow the FVWM model that allowed users to assign what ever they wanted to which ever button.)

As for Xfce 4.6.0 ... I will take a wait and see approach to 'progress' ... and following Papa's Rule #3 I will hesitate to pickup a tool that doesn't meet the hand.

AdBlock Plus Surprise

Hard to blog when my editing interface doesn't give me my toolbar!!! Seems that a recent update of Adblock Plus (A great Firefox add-on) wasn't allowing the editing toolbar for Blogger.com to be displayed. Actually it was just the editing icons. Hmmmm. I put "http://www2.blogger.com" in My Exception Rules and now everything is blogging away happily.

Saves thinking...

To do things today exactly the way you did them yesterday saves thinking.

- Woodrow Wilson

...like there is a world wide shortage of thinking! Just wouldn't want to waste any thinking. Probably shouldn't practice thinking either.

(P.S. I really wonder how appropriate this quote is coming from an educational administrator.)

Railing against the darkness...

...as if we could change the celestial definition of night.

I know a fellow, a good old boy, who formulates his world perspective using sticks-and-stones metaphors mixed with yard-dog analogies. Literally.

If a person hits me with a stick I am going to hit him with a stone. A big stone. If he hits me with the stick again I am going to go out and get a bigger stone. A much bigger stone. Pretty soon he is going to think twice about hitting me with a stick.

Never mind that factions in the middle east have been having their current conversation for hundreds if not thousands of years. Never mind that fundamentalist believers on both sides fuel their argumentative positions with sticks-and-stones metaphors mixed with yard-dog analogies.

Now iffen my neighbor had a dog and this dog came into my yard to take a crap, well I wouldn't think too highly of my neighbor, iffen you know what I mean. But iffen that dog was to come into my yard and bite one of my kids I'd just plain shoot the dog. An then iffen the neighbor complained I would remind him that he was the one that put up with the dog to begin with. And iffen he still complained I'd just go find me a bigger stone, just to be ready.

I suppose I, and this fellow, are just railing against the darkness. He for applying such down-home-reasonin' to a situation half the world away that is steeped in history and culture far beyond his wildest imagination. I rail against the cost. The cost of politely listening to good ol' boy rants. The cost of perpetuated simplicity and naivete among the good ol' boy movers and shakers.

I suppose the cost would be a bit high to realign the celestial bodies so that night wasn't so dark.

---

Read SWJ Blog

Un-napping - the outing of a sleeper agent.

I have been found out. "You goof!" I believe was the exact expression, offered with the highest regard. None the less, I have been outed.

I am a napper.

A sleeper agent, if you will. As such I may be awake at any hour of the day. I might have been napping but while you were fast asleep I am awake. Ha! All your dream are belong to us!

Truth be told there is absolutely no sense tossing and turning and not sleeping in the middle of the night. So relax. You just finished one nap. Work, read, ponder, muse, amuse, daydream, or just chill. Then somewhere around 3ish (AM of course) it might just be time for another nap. (Hmmmm, 3ish PM could just as well be nap time too.)

(Added Bonus: Insert serious socio-economic observation here: in agrarian based social orders people traditionally followed the daylight rule: work when it is light, sleep when it is dark. In this current cyber-social community where it is always light somewhere on the planet there is no longer that clear night-and-day distinction to be made. I am just as likely to encounter on-line friends and associates at 01:00 as I am at 13:30.)

OMG! Such posturing...

Tara's terrarium was moved to the counter beside the stove when the power went out. There she has stayed without complaint. Warmed by the continuous boiling kettle of water. Nibbling on the occasional errant cricket. Today... today, I get this...
Copyright © 2003 Robyn Judith Waayers

...when I am adding water to her bowl... guess she might be tired of this too.