NORA, LEAH and ME

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Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive

"Let's all be careful out there!"

THE PICTURES SPEAK...

FOR THEMSELVES

***

She is cute. She is talented. Hopefully she will make the transition from child star to adult performer without too much difficulty. But, at 15 years old, I don't think Miley Cyrus has really been around long enough to write a memoir of her "life". That seems a bit pretentuous to me.

***

I see that Clinton and Obama are now each licking their wounds from the Pennsylvania primary fight. Taking shots at McCain while barely acknowledging that the other exists. This battle for the Democratic nomination gets more interesting every day. Its been over a century since the primary process, for either party, has gone this far without a clearcut winner. Get comfortable, this one is going to go the full 15 rounds. Right down to the judges decision. Neither candidate will win by a knockout, thats for sure.

***

Homeland Security has done it again. The "Virtual Reality" fence pilot project has been scraped, to the tune of $20,000,000 flushed. Another example of Dubya's top-down management style. Secretary Chertoff, who approved it just last week, now says that they'll be looking for input from the Border Patrol.

Ben Franklin once stated that the best way to make a decision was to write down all the positives and all the negatives. Letting that visual evidence be the decision maker. Looking at Dubya's record, his "positives" would fill a slip of paper the size of a Chinese fortune cookie missive. His negatives would fill a warehouse of documentation.

***

Its the 21st Century, damnit. So why aren't men and women paid equally for equal work? And, if the pending legislation makes it to his desk, Dubya has already announced that he will get his crayons back from Cheney and sign the veto.

***

I actually slept "normal" people's hours last night. Hence the reason for today's tardiness.

I'll be back later with more. I need a cup'o'coffee.

Have a great day and thanks for your patience. See ya later.

Mahalo

Aloha

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive

"Let's all be careful out there!"

POLITICS...

AS USUAL

While neither candidate (Clinton, Obama) will get enough votes to sew up the nomination in today's Pennsylvania primary, what each needs is to create the image that they are the wave of the future. The hope of the Democratic Party to take the White House. Just like the Republicans, the Democrats are splintered into so many factions that to win, a candidate has to basically sell their soul. On the Republican side, the conservatives consider McCain to be a RINO (Republican In Name Only).

While Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1965) are a major force, the Gen-X (1966-1985) is coming on strong. Two things working against the Democratic candidates is can America get over the stigma of electing a black or a woman to lead the nation. Sexism and racism are the soft undertone that nobody speaks of, for fear of being called a (fill in the blank)ist. McCain has a problem appealing to a populace that would identify him as a "grandfather". His war hero and POW status means something to the old farts but to Gen-X and Gen-Y (1986-2005) the Vietnam War doesn't even cover more than 2 paragraphs in today's history books. WWII takes about a page. Don't even ask about Korea. The contributions of the Silent Generation (1926-1945) go vastly ignored.

The sad thing is that whomever is victorious will inherit a quagmire of troubles. The same as President Hoover did in 1929. I am not sure that any person, let alone any government can resolve our troubles in 4 years. And, lets face it, have you ever seen any government, anywhere that didn't make things worse by sticking their fingers in? I haven't.

We are are running out of fuel, food and water. And these conditions make ripe the vulnerability of a regional epidemic becoming a global pandemic. It wouldn't even surprise me if some group, somewhere, is already in the process of developing such a strategy. And I don't mean terrorists. Instead, it would be a logical plan for the true leaders of the world, not the politicians, to conceive of such a cleansing. They have the power and resources. Hell, they control everything. They are the true "movers & shakers", not the clowns that we watch on TV.

***

My ever optimistic side (yeah, I do have one) hopes that Jimmy Carter's recent sojourn to the middle-east will produce some positive results. Dubya and Candy are pissed. By law he couldn't represent the USA but he has the right as a private citizen to try and help. Without portfolio. My (more prominent) pessimistic side looks at the history of this 6,000+ year conflict and really can't see any workable strategy. This war has raged since the biblical Abraham first showed up on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean. Its like a continuous passion play with an ever changing cast.

***

In Washington, DC , come May 1st, you might want to contemplate alternative forms of transportation if you normally use a taxi. On that day, all DC cabs will be required to have taximeters, abandoning the decades old system of paying by the zone. Undoubtedly, some drivers will risk the $1,000 fine if they are caught operating illegally. A major problem is that there are not enough qualified/certified taximeter installers to convert all the licensed cabs in the next 8 days. Its going to be a "chinese fire drill" there for most of May.

Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive

"Let's all be careful out there!"

TWINKLE, TWINKLE

LITTLE STAR(S)

The top picture is the one I published on the 19th. When I actually had a moment to look at the large view I noticed that the "Big Dipper", Polaris (the North Star) and a portion of the "Little Dipper" could be seen. I've indicated them below.

***

Lets face it. We have all the "gee-whiz" Buck Rogers technology in the world at our finger tips and a major problem knowing what to do with it. While not in the "chain-of-command", the Secretary of Defense is the Administration's overseer of the military. I liked what I heard and read. Better than Don Rumsfeld.

***

As we race down the back stretch, on the road to summer, we can look back and see that this winter's flu season was rougher than usual. In baseball, a player who gets a hit every third time at bat would be a multi-million dollar player. But when it comes to medicine, those are pretty poor statistics. This past winter, the flu vaccine that was administered was only effective against 1/3 of the strains going around. I guess thats better than a couple of years back when all the flu vaccines produced were contaminated. While no one was inocculated that year, that was also the year of the fewest deaths from the flu.

***

We really have some hardcore, mean bastards for judges on Mau'i. NOT!

***

In case you've forgotten, today is EARTH DAY. No, I don't think the bars serve green beer. But I've been wrong before.

***

***

I haven't even kept up with the news this past evening. So, I'll probably be back later in the day with more. If not, I'll definitely be back tomorrow, as always.

I really appreciate each and every one of you for stopping in during your day.

Catch ya later!

Mahalo

Aloha

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive

"Let's all be careful out there!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

MRS. ELIZABETH ALEXANDRA MARY MOUNTBATTEN-WINDSOR

She is 82 today.

Also known as Queen Elizabeth II





And, also, a Happy B'day to my kitty, Bear. He is 8 today. He has been my companion since the day he was born.

Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive

"Let's all be careful out there!"

FOX NEWS

"FAIR & BALANCED"


"We report. You decide."

Well, Murdock (& company), you've reported and I've decided.

Aloha.

Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive

"Let's all be careful out there!"

WHEN YOU ARE BORED...

RANDOM SEARCHES ON GOOGLE CAN BE FUN

Today's effort was the term "Congenital Liar". Guess whose name appears the most? LOL!

***

In Pre-Columbian Meso-America lived a society known as the Maya. They predated the Aztecs and Incas. Around 830ce, their society ceased to exist. The reason for this is still a matter of conjecture among scholars of that era. I have one thought about it. The Mayans developed one of the most accurate calendars, ever. The Mayan Calendar, cycle 9, (also called "the Long Count") came to an end that year. The people and shamans believed that the world would end on what we would now identify as March 12, 830ce. The new cycle, #10, would begin on March 13th. I guess the soothsayers were correct. Their world did end at that time. Well, the end of cycle #12 will be December 20, 2012ce, and, listening to all the whacko pseudo-scientists on late night radio, you get the impression these nut cases believe that it will be the next "end-of-the-world" event. Right up there with Y2K, the fall of the Roman Empire, Revelations, etc. How do these "authorities" on the subject predict the world will be extinguished? A mysterious "Planet X" might slip out of hyper-dimensional space and strike the Earth? A global pandemic? A replay of "Independence Day"? God gets bored and pulls the plug on the universe? Or even more insulting, it turns out that this existence is nothing more than an Atari video game of the supreme beings and they finally got themselves a Wii. Relegating us to the back shelf of some cosmic closet.

Me? I don't plan to lose any sleep over it. Lo que será, será.

***

Being a rational anarchist, I don't really care who becomes President. All the candidates are fair game. I wish we could reincarnate/clone Harry S. Truman.

***

As far as global warming goes. March was the second warmest ever. Except in the USA where it was just asi, asi.

***

You've gone "whole hog". Laid out the bucks, the very BIG bucks for the best in home theater. The latest top end HD wide screen. A surround sound system that surpasses the best a movie theater has to offer. Paying through the nose for your HD channels. Its complete. You are ready for the experience of your life. Almost pushing the limit to a Star Trek Hologram feeling. Sit back, relax, power up and DAMN! The picture is worse than what you had before. Did you make a mistake in wiring? Is the equipment defective? Or is this just another example of GIGO (garbage in/garbage out)? Most likely the later. Seems that companies like ComCast, which already has major issues about internet connections, just don't have the necessary band-width capabilities in their system. Thus they are relegated to compressing the signal. Thats actually not uncommon. The industry standard is to compress two HD channels into the space once allocated to one analog channel. However, some of the companies are doing a 3:1 compression. And their greed isn't paying off. Maybe those DirectTV ads aren't so far off target.

***

Lets do the math.
X = Total land available for growing crops.
Y = Amount of X used for bio-fuel production.
Z = Whats left to feed everybody.

So:

X-Y=Z(ero)

***

As anticipated, its still "rockin' & rollin'" in Illinois.

And not to be outdone. The DC metro area threw a "twister party" which was attended by two special guests.

***

This is why I hate valet parking.

***

Alissa and family departed yesterday. They should be home by now. This was not the best of times for us connecting. The scheduling gods conspired against us this year. But I already miss them so much. Aloha!

Enjoy your new week. Hopefully you can all make it back tomorrow. I'll be here. Hope you will be too.

Mahalo

Aloha

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive

"Let's all be careful out there!"