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Just Sven
Editor
10 years ago

That fortified home; it looks vaguely Jooooooish. Just sayin’.

Good morning everyone!!!!!

Just Sven
Editor
10 years ago

Huh. Apparently a bold statement on my part….

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Caturday greetings from Happy Larryville -- where it got down to a lovely fifty-eight degrees last night!!1

That ought to keep vacuum salesman away.

Heh.

Ditto Avon ladies, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. (I’ve taken to using GingerK’s line, “Thank you, but I already have a perfectly good religion”…more socially acceptable than answering the door pantsless.)

That fortified home; it looks vaguely Jooooooish.

I think I’m missing a point here. 😉

Plus, contrary to stereotypes re money, my peeps couldn’t afford water for their fortresses:

John the Baptist
Editor
10 years ago

Good Caturday Morning, GN!

Catching up on the threads, saw the 9/11 tributes, which prompted one of my own. Late to the party I am.

In my “tent-making” occupation, I have the privilege to be privy to some first-hand accounts of that day involving some of the major players, that tend to be of the sort that never see print. Fatwa’s comment about Bush reminded me of one of the more interesting ones, involving the Air Force 1 flight Bush took from Florida up to Barksdale AFB immediately after the attacks that morning. Barksdale is home to the USAF’s 2nd Bomb Wing, flying B-52H’s, at that time still part of the nuclear deterrence force. By the time Bush landed, the base had been secured, all the BUFFs were fully fueled, armed, and were “cocked” in the deployment revetments, close to where AF1 was parked.

Even then, Bush was a big supporter of the military and the feeling was to all appearances quite mutual. When he walked off AF1, he was met by the base commander, the CO of the 2nd BW, and a collection of various pilots. He took the time to speak to each one individually, discussing the events of the day and what laid in the future. When he got to the 2nd BW CO, that officer pointed to the line of nuclear armed, ready BUFFs, and told Bush, “Mr. President, you say the word, my planes will be in the air within 30 minutes. You just tell us where to go.” Bush looked around at the collection of officers, then at the lines of BUFFs waiting to go, grimaced and said, “Colonel, you stand by for that phone call.”

Needless to say, that call never came through. And I think that is one of the remarkable things about Bush, the so-called “cowboy.” Here we had just suffered the worst foreign attack on American soil since the War of 1812, we knew full well from the start who was responsible, he had the mightiest weapons the world has ever known at his complete disposal, the vast majority of the nation solidly behind him, the world expecting him to “go all medieval,” and…he didn’t. Probably a sound decision in hindsight, though at the time I was one of many who loudly condemned him for not turning Afghanistan into a glassy swimming pool.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
10 years ago

Good morning, Gerbil Nation!
G’mar Hatimah Tovah to TeX and Fatwa and may you have an easy fast.
Good morning, JtB! It’s wonderful to see you here! Blessings on you and your family and your upcoming adventures!

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Cheers, Paddy.

JtB --

Thanks for stopping by and “sharing”. 😉

See you in a couple of weeks!

================

More over-the-top gummint spying on us: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to “monitor” 80% of all credit card transactions and 95% of all mortgage transactions by the end of this year.

At a Wednesday hearing before the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, CFPB Director Richard Cordray defended the data-mining practice and said his agency is monitoring credit card usage at 110 banks, including Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, Discover and American Express.

In a related development, Rep. Spencer Bachus, Hensarling’s predecessor on the House Financial Services Committee, told the Examiner he believes CFPB violated at least two federal laws by using the impartial U.S. Trustee Program to gather bankruptcy data as part of the data-mining campaign.

Read the whole thing.

Several people in Congress need to grow a pair and literally rough-up these bastards who stonewall in committee hearings when they can’t get answers to how much various agencies are violating our privacy re electronic communications, finances, etc.

I wish someone on the committee had gotten angry enough to get up out of their chair, grab Cordray by the lapels and shake the motherloving shit out of him.

Enough with both the “data collection” and cowardice.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
10 years ago

I’m grading the quiz that my honors students took yesterday. The last problem required that they graph plant stem growth data for fertilized and unfertilized plants, then draw a conclusion from the data. The graph should have two lines, one for the fertilized plant and one for the unfertilized plant (it should be of no surprise that the fertilized plant grew faster). I’d like to share a couple of the conclusions my students wrote:
“I can conclude from this graph that the fertilized plant grew taller and bigger more each day than the unfertilized plant.”

“The graph shows that the plant that is growing without any fertilizer grows at a steady pace. While, the fertilized plant grows much more faster, but still in the same number of days.”

“I can conclude from the graph is that the plant growth succeeds and increases almost perfect. The growth is somewhat accurate.”

Kate
Editor
Kate
10 years ago

facepalm. sigh. weep.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
10 years ago
Reply to  Kate

Yep. Pass the wine.

Kate
Editor
Kate
10 years ago

Happy Saturday, GN! While Paddy was grading sorry lab quizzes, I was Judging A Cake Baking contest! Official and everything. Luckily for me ( not so much for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society which was the recipient of funds raised) there were only 4 contestants.
Tomorrow we have an Appalachian Trail party. These 4 men have been hiking the trail a section at a time for 17 years; a week or two a year. They finished earlier this month and their wives met them at the end in Maine for a lobster and champagne celebration, but way last winter the wives came to me to plan a big celebration.
note to self: buy Kleenex on the way in to work.
In addition to regular party fare, there will be Bacon Balls of Glory and S’Mores cheesecake. The wives are setting up a “camp site”and a display of pictures and memorabilia from each year. One son has made a slideshow. One friend they met on the trail actually joined them on the trail last month and one night got up at 3 am, donned his miner helmet flashlight, scaled the mountain and videotaped their hike to the top.
note to self: buy Kleenex on the way in to work.
I love my job.