Thursday, November 29, 2007

GO COWBOYS!

WHO'S IT GONNA BE?



Packers-Cowboys Series History
By The Associated Press
November 28, 2007

Cowboys lead series 14-12
(Home Team in CAPS)
REGULAR SEASON
2004-- PACKERS 41, Cowboys 20
1999-- COWBOYS 27, Packers 13
1997-- PACKERS 45, Cowboys 17
1996-- COWBOYS 21, Packers 6
1995-- COWBOYS 34, Packers 24
1994-- COWBOYS 42, Packers 31
1993-- COWBOYS 36, Packers 14
1991-- Cowboys 20, PACKERS 17-x
1989-- Packers 20, COWBOYS 10
1989-- PACKERS 31, Cowboys 13
1984-- COWBOYS 20, Packers 6
1980-- Cowboys 28, Packers 7-x
1978-- Cowboys 42, PACKERS 14-x
1975-- Packers 19, COWBOYS 17
1972-- PACKERS 16, Cowboys 13-x
1970-- COWBOYS 16, Packers 3
1968-- Packers 28, COWBOYS 17
1965-- PACKERS 13, Cowboys 3-x
1964-- Packers 45, COWBOYS 21
1960-- PACKERS 41, Cowboys 7
PLAYOFFS
1995-- COWBOYS 38, Packers 27 NFC Championship
1994-- COWBOYS 35, Packers 9 NFC Divisional
1993-- COWBOYS 27, Packers 17 NFC Divisional
1982-- COWBOYS 37, Packers 26 NFC Second Round
1967-- PACKERS 21, Cowboys 17 NFL Championship
1966-- Packers 34, COWBOYS 27 NFL Championship
x-At Milwaukee

Okay, Randal, Game Day is here! When the Cowboys win, you have to (prominently) display the Dallas Cowboys logo on your blog for a week, and vice versa for me if the Packers win.

UPDATE: COWBOYS 37, Packers 27

HOW 'BOUT THEM COWBOYS !!!
----------------------------------------------

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Real Estate Dramedy, Reprise

As both of my regular readers know, I inherited a 100-year-old house from Max, my ex-husband, when he passed away four years ago. "Maxwell House" was chopped into a five-plex, probably after WWII when there was a housing shortage. Tomcat and I operated it as a rental property for a while (you may remember the stories about some of the tenants, like the Extreme Party Girls and the Cat Lady.) Then we put it on the market, thinking we would sell it and move to North Carolina so we could at least be in the same state as family.

Hahahahaaaaaaaaa. Well, it didn't sell. Long story short, over the space of a year, we signed contracts with five different investors but each one backed out at the last minute. Then I had a bervous nerkdown, we took the house off the market, gave notice to the tenants, and after having some work done on the place, we moved into Maxwell House. That was about a year and a half ago.

Now we're going to try this again. The place is now included in a new historic district, which may or may not be a plus, depending on who the prospective buyers are. It's certainly in better condition on the interior than it was when we first put it on the market. However, the market? Well, it's a little soft, as our realtor says. (Thank you, Bu$hCo, for trashing the economy even worse than your daddy did. Geez, I miss the Clinton years!)

Anyway, wish us luck on this venture again. We are going to get to North Carolina this time. Really. We are.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Friday, November 23, 2007

I don't get it (as usual)


Why is this called "Black Friday?" It's the day after Thanksgiving, and apparently lots of insane people queue up in front of the shopping malls at oh-dark-thirty to do their Christmas shopping. Shouldn't it be called "Green Friday?" Is it called "Black Friday" because the retailers hope to be in the black by the end of the day, as opposed to the red? What?

When did they start calling it Black Friday, anyway? Did they call it that last year? I don't remember it if they did. Is this a new term, or was I just not paying attention until this year? Help me out here.

Are you one of those insane interesting people who braved the stores this morning to shop? If so, please tell me why. I really want to know what that's like from your perspective. I'm not a morning person. I'm not a crowds-of-people person, either. So, from my perspective this would be the absolute worst day to get out there and shop, no matter how much money I might "save."

Is it the thrill of the hunt? The blood? What?
________________________________________

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Ten random things about me

I was tagged by Randal at L'Ennui Melodieux.

1. I'm in my tenth year of menopause.

2. Tomcat is still living, and still loves me.

3. I am married to a saint.


4. I was raised by a violent paranoid.

5. So I tend to see dangers everywhere (they call this "hypervigilance").

6. I'm definitely in the "glass is half empty" camp.

7. In elementary school, they played "Safety Lady" tips over the speakers every morning. While all the other kids were talking, laughing, and generally having fun, I was straining to hear every single fucking word the Safety Lady said (just as I listened to the paranoid who raised me - oh, and I became expert at interpreting body language, too - very important to survival.)

8. In fact, in psychology, people like me are called "Survivors."



9. The more I learn about Singularity, the more I'm convinced that sentient biologicals most certainly have, and will, elect to become nonbiological beings. (See also The Singularity Institute.)

10. Which is why I sometimes wonder if we sentient biologicals are part of an ancestor simulation program conducted by the nonbiological beings our species will become. (Not that I'm paranoid, mind you.)

Bonus: 11. This is a pic of my virtual self and Lavender Dawn (in black) on her virtual pirate ship.



Hm, it may be that most folks have already been tagged with this one. Let's see ... Pooks? You're tagged. And um, Lavender!
_____________________________

Monday, November 19, 2007

Why Atheists Care About Religion



I thought I'd go ahead and post this video now because in the Comments to my last post, Snave gave me this:

Sorry this is so long, but here are the lyrics to an interesting song by one of my all-time favorite musicians and social critics, Frank Zappa:

Whoever we are
Wherever were from
We shoulda noticed by now
Our behavior is dumb
And if our chances
Expect to improve
Its gonna take a lot more
Than tryin to remove
The other race
Or the other whatever
From the face
Of the planet altogether

They call it the earth
Which is a dumb kinda name
But they named it right
cause we behave the same...
We are dumb all over
Dumb all over,
Yes we are
Dumb all over,
Near n far
Dumb all over,
Black n white
People, we is not wrapped tight

Nerds on the left
Nerds on the right
Religous fanatics
On the air every night
Sayin the bible
Tells the story
Makes the details
Sound real gory
bout what to do
If the geeks over there
Dont believe in the book
We got over here

You cant run a race
Without no feet
n pretty soon
There wont be no street
For dummies to jog on
Or doggies to dog on
Religous fanatics
Can make it be all gone
(I mean it wont blow up
n disappear
Itll just look ugly
For a thousand years...)

You cant run a country
By a book of religion
Not by a heap
Or a lump or a smidgeon
Of foolish rules
Of ancient date
Designed to make
You all feel great
While you fold, spindle
And mutilate
Those unbelievers
From a neighboring state

To arms! to arms!
Hooray! thats great
Two legs aint bad
Unless theres a crate
They ship the parts
To mama in
For souvenirs: two ears (get down!)
Not his, not hers, (but what the hey? )
The good book says:
(it gotta be that way!)
But their book says:
Revenge the crusades...
With whips n chains
n hand grenades...
Two arms? two arms?
Have another and another
Our God says:
There aint no other!
Our God says
Its all okay!
Our God says
This is the way!

It says in the book:
Burn n destroy...
n repent, n redeem
n revenge, n deploy
n rumble thee forth
To the land of the unbelieving scum on the other side
cause they dont go for whats in the book
n that makes em bad
So verily we must choppeth them up
And stompeth them down
Or rent a nice french bomb
To poof them out of existence
While leaving their real estate just where we need it
To use again
For temples in which to praise our god
(cause he can really take care of business!)

And when his humble tv servant
With humble white hair
And humble glasses
And a nice brown suit
And maybe a blond wife who takes phone calls
Tells us our God says
Its okay to do this stuff
Then we gotta do it,
cause if we dont do it,
We aint gwine up to hebbin!
(depending on which book youre using at the
Time...cant use theirs... it dont work
...its all lies...gotta use mine...)
Aint that right?
Thats what they say
Every night...
Every day...

Hey, we cant really be dumb
If were just following gods orders
Hey, lets get serious...
God knows what hes doin
He wrote this book here
An the book says:
He made us all to be just like him,
So...
If we're dumb...
Then God is dumb...
(an maybe even a little ugly on the side)

Religious fundamentalists, like George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden, scare the bejeebus outta me. As an atheist, what people choose to believe or not believe is no concern of mine, EXCEPT when they do something stupid and dangerous like invading a sovereign country because they think their god(s) or goddess(es) told them to, or blow up buildings full of thousands of people to start a "holy" war, or do any of the other things mentioned in the video that tries to take us all back to the Dark Ages when the Church was REALLY in charge. Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell, et al, would like nothing better than to see this country go from democracy to theocracy. With the current administration, they've damn near succeeded.

I know atheists aren't the only ones concerned about these people - there are many religious people who embrace tolerance and are just as appalled by their so-called brethren. I hope we can stand together.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Friday, November 16, 2007

CRS



Yep, that's about right.
__________________________________

Monday, November 12, 2007

"I will restore habeas corpus"

As I mentioned in a prior post, Critical Historical Moments,

We face another critical moment with inauguration day in 2009. The new president, no matter who he or she may be, and the new Congress, regardless of which party has control, must begin the immediate rollback of the previous administration's actions that have shredded this country's Constitution, beginning with the restoration of habeas corpus.

This will be the most important test our country has faced since its earliest days if it is to survive as a democracy. If we don't pass this test, then nothing else will matter. We might as well give it up now for our first king, also named George.


My candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, said in this speech, "I will restore habeas corpus." For this reason (and many others), this man has my vote for President of the United States.



I hope you will take the time to listen to this amazing speech. It's long (20 minutes), but not nearly as long as the past seven years under George W. Bush has been. For those who have not yet read Sen. Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope, I can't recommend it highly enough. For anyone who thinks he is an inexperienced political lightweight, I say read the book, then come tell me what you have to say about it. :)

I'll be taking off for a few days to get serious about writing. I'll be looking in on your blogs, though, so mind your Ps and Qs. :)

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Tell Us Tuesday #17




You have been given permission to brag about yourself. Tell us your brag. Go ahead, it's okay. Really. You have permission!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

An excerpt


Hey, whatever happened to NaDruWriNi? They had it last year, and the year before that, and the year before that ... but when I Googled to find out the date for it this year, it's ... gone. No National Drunken Writing Night 2007 to be found. I want a refund!

--------------------------------------------------
Anyhow, some of us (a/k/a "asshats") peer-pressured Randal over at L'ennui-Melodieux to share some of his writing with us, which he agreed to do, as long as we did the same.

Okay, here is an excerpt from my not-quite-finished mystery novel, Gino's Law: For Every Action, There's An Overreaction. As far I can remember, this scene was not written while drunk, alas, but it is one of my favorites. Gino is attending his neighbor Howard's annual Summer Solstice party (Howard is the gay astrologer who lives across the street.)

A little background info: Gino and Howard have just hired a lawyer to help them fight another neighbor, attorney Sam Simms, self-styled Champeen Rattlesnake Wrangler (if I can wrangle rattlesnakes, I can git you ever single dollar that's comin to ya from the insurance company), who wants to rezone and tear down their neighborhood to put up an office tower complex. Later in the evening, Simms will be found murdered, and Gino is framed for it.

***
Howard joined them in the kitchen. "Gino, did Arthur call you today to schedule our meeting?"

"With our own damned lawyer? Yeah. Tomorrow afternoon, he said."

"She's here tonight. I'll introduce you later."

"She? I like the sound of that."

"She's married."

"Nobody's perfect."

"In love married."

"Oh. Too bad. Can she handle the Champeen Snake Wrangler?"

"Scorpio with Capricorn rising. Not a problem. I wish I had Simms' chart data, though. The man's demented."

"The man's dangerous, Howard. He's got to be stopped."

"Who's dangerous, Sweetie?" Maud-Ann Patton drawled in her Georgia accent as she entered the kitchen. She slipped her arm through Howard's while murmuring "How're you, Hon?" to Gino.

"Good to see you again, Maud-Ann. Seems that Sam Simms, Esquirt, wants to tear this whole block down and put up an office tower-plaza-something."

Maud-Ann's beautifully arched brows shot up. "That little pissant on television? You cannot be serious!"

"He's been all around the neighborhood telling us he's going to make us rich," said Howard.

Gino couldn't help but throw his head back and roar his trademark laugh.

Maud-Ann looked alarmed. "Surely not as rich as I?"

"Oh heavens no, Maud-Ann," said Howard.

"Howard says my chart shows even more money for Lewis and me this year, isn't that exciting?" She squeezed Howard's arm. "Oooh, now Howard, you may have to let me have this." She stroked the pashmina shoulders of his midnight blue cape. Zodiac signs were worked in silver embroidery throughout the garment.

"Maud-Ann, this is mine. When Lewis gets back in town, bat those brown eyes at him, and he'll buy you one."

"It will have to be at least as soft as this." Maud-Ann still stroked the cloth.

"If that's what you want, then it'll be as soft as a baby angel's butt with the feathers still on it."

Gino's eyes widened. "They're born with feathered butts?"

"Yes. Astrologers know about these things," said Howard. He sipped more mimosa.

Wheep! Wheep! Wheep! The high-pitched sound carried over the noise of the party.

"Oh, dear," said Howard. "Someone set off the pig."

They turned to look at the guest standing in front of the refrigerator, a bearded young man who was putting his wine offering inside.

He returned their stares. "What?"

"It's okay, Danny," said Howard. "It's just that whenever someone opens the 'fridge, Miss Piggy thinks she's going to get lettuce."

"Miss Piggy?" The man looked bewildered.

Maud-Ann said, "C'mon, you simply must meet Miss Piggy." She and Gino led the young man into the breakfast room. Howard wandered off to join other guests.

"What is your name, Sweetie?" She offered the fingertips of her bejeweled hand.

"Danny Ainsworth." He bowed and kissed the air above her fingers.

"I'm Maud-Ann Patton, and this is Gino Gibaldi."

"Hello." They shook hands.

"And here is the divine Miss Piggy," said Maud-Ann. Inside a large waterless aquarium was what looked like a mop in curlers. "Miss Piggy, this is Mr. Danny Ainsworth."

"Um, charmed." Danny made a little bow to the brown and white creature. It stood against the glass on its hind legs and wheeped as he drew closer. Peering in, Danny said, "Is that – is that a Guinea Pig?"

"You are correct, sir," said Gino. "Miss Piggy is a pedigreed long-haired Peruvian Guinea Pig."

"She's a show pig," said Maud-Ann. "That's why her hair is in wrappers, to keep it out of the cedar chips."

"Ah!" said Danny. "I knew there must be a reason for that."

"Maud-Ann and I had the singular honor of accompanying Howard and Miss Piggy to the St. Louis Guinea Pig Show last year," said Gino. "See, here's her blue ribbon for Best-in-Class – "

"Wow," said Danny.

" - and here are her papers." He pointed to the framed documents over the glass cage. "This certifies her lineage. You will note that Miss Piggy is out of Empress, by Warlord."

"The Warlord?"

"Oh, you are a delight, Danny!" Maud-Ann exclaimed. "I haven't seen you here before. Are you a new client of Howard's?"

"Yes. How long have you known him?"

"Oh, forever. What do you do?"

"I'm editor of The Dangling Participle."

"The what, Dear?"

"That's the local anti-establishment newspaper, Maud-Ann," said Gino.

***

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Silly Saturday #16



UPDATE
I just want to share a great post I ran across. Go over to Puppet Show, The Evolution of a Bad Idea, and read the post entitled Get me my oil! And turn off this world vision crap ... Football's on! Dan's a 20-something Canadian who has quite a lot to say about political blogging, our political situation, and that world vision thing . Here's an excerpt:

There is a startling lack of grassroots action taking place. Too many people, for example, seem to feel that because they want to end world hunger, and so does the person they're voting for, all they have to do is vote for that person, make a few statements on how ending poverty is important and voila, they've done their part.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Somebody Had To Say It

Did you see Bill Cosby on the Oprah show the other day? The show's title was Bill Cosby Calls Out Dirty Laundry. Cosby's been taking heat from people for years over a speech he gave in 2004. He was criticized for "airing the dirty laundry" of the Black community, namely:

According to Bill, the desperate situation of many minorities has resulted in some of these shocking statistics:

* At least a third of all homeless men are African-American.
* African-Americans make up 12 percent of the general population, but they account for almost half of the prison population.
* According to the U.S. Justice Department, 28 percent of black men born today will go to prison in their lifetimes.
* Black youth are six times more likely to die of homicide than white youth and seven times more likely to commit a homicide.
* Homicide is the leading cause of death among African-American males ages 15 to 29.


Frustrated by these numbers, Bill gave an unexpected, uncensored speech in 2004: "In the neighborhood that most of us grew up in, parenting is not going on," he said. "They're buying things for the kid—$500 sneakers. For what? They won't buy or spend $250 on Hooked on Phonics.

"It's not what they're doing to us. It's what we're not doing. … Brown vs. the Board of Education—these people who marched and were hit in the face with rocks and punched in the face to get an education, and we've got these knuckleheads walking around who don't want to learn English. I know you all know it, but I just want to get you as angry as you ought to be," he said.

Cosby recognizes that the people who call his comments "controversial" are upset because he spoke of these things publicly, instead of getting upset about the "dirty laundry" itself and doing something about it.


In a similar vein, Mychal Massie's commentary for Word Net Daily, "Beat whitey, get a reward," states:

Whites are not the enemy of blacks – the Jacksons and Sharptons, et al., along with a government that sanctions divisions based upon race, are the enemies of blacks. I will be soundly criticized for saying it, but until blacks start taking personal responsibility for themselves, their actions, their families and their neighborhoods, the last thing they should do is blame white people for anything – anything that is, save for being weak and unwilling to stand up for their own personal dignity.

Remember when Elvis Presley sang "In the Ghetto (The Vicious Circle)?" That song - well no, not the song, but the well meaning, but misguided sentiments behind it, were part of the problem.

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
'cause if there's one thing that she don't need
it's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto

[Because it's not her fault that she didn't know about birth control, and in fact had no idea that free birth control pills were available to her (back then, anyway)]

People, don't you understand
the child needs a helping hand
or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,
are we too blind to see,
do we simply turn our heads
and look the other way

[The "helping hand" was a handout in those days, and the handout rewarded single-parent households with lots of children, giving rise to the culture of entitlement]

Well the world turns
and a hungry little boy with a runny nose
plays in the street as the cold wind blows
In the ghetto

And his hunger burns
so he starts to roam the streets at night
and he learns how to steal
and he learns how to fight
In the ghetto

[Maybe if he'd had positive male role models, instead of drug dealers (not their fault) who fathered children indiscriminately (having never heard of birth control, either) and who never gave a thought to paying child support because that would take away the handouts to the single mothers, he might not have roamed the streets at night with criminals]

Then one night in desperation
a young man breaks away
He buys a gun, steals a car,
tries to run, but he don't get far
And his mama cries

[The gun (as well as cigarettes and booze) was bought with currency that somehow can't be used for groceries]

As a crowd gathers 'round an angry young man
face down on the street with a gun in his hand
In the ghetto

As her young man dies,
on a cold and gray Chicago mornin',
another little baby child is born
In the ghetto

[and so it goes]

I have no doubt that ghettos, or "projects" are vermin infested, crime ridden, filthy places to live. I also have no doubt that neither I nor any other whitey I know of went over there and urinated on the walls, left trash and rotting food in the hallways to attract rats and roaches, ripped out the copper tubing, stuffed the toilets with rags, punched holes in the walls, took doors off the hinges, stole the air conditioners, or broke out the windows, nor did we do all these things again every time repairs were made, until one day, no repairs were made at all, except by court order.

Somebody had to say it. I'm just sayin.

As Cosby pointed out, these problems don't pertain to all Blacks. There are many Blacks who embrace the concept of personal responsibility. It's encouraging that they're talking about it, even in the face of criticism.

The longer dirty laundry sits, the more it stinks. It's about time someone aired it. Cleaning it is the next step. It will take a lot of effort and courage to do it. The civil rights workers who labored so long and marched so bravely for dignity and the right to work and live the American dream know all about what it will take to make it happen.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Mac Envy

I want a Mac. (link contains U.S.S. Enterprise vs. Borg vignette)

Yesterday I was having some problems with Firefox, so I Googled around trying to find a fix. At one point, I was so frustrated that I thought about just uninstalling the dang thing and starting over.

The instructions for uninstalling Firefox if you have a MAC are:

On Mac OS X

Drag the Firefox application to the Trash.

_______________________________________________________

The instructions for uninstalling Firefox if you have WINDOWS are:

On Windows

Exit Firefox completely, then:

  • Open the Windows Control Panel and double-click "Add/Remove Programs". Select "Mozilla Firefox " in the list of installed programs and click "Remove" to run the uninstaller. Even if this fails, as it may in some cases, continue on with the rest of the uninstall instructions.'
  • Delete the Firefox Installation directory, located here, by default: C:\Program files\Mozilla Firefox.
  • Enable viewing or searching hidden files and folders (details here) then delete these additional files or folders:
    • The Firefox folder that contains temporary data ( *.mfl files, Cache and Updates), located here: Important: Make sure you delete the Firefox folder under Local Settings or Local. Deleting the wrong folder will remove your user profile data!
      • Windows 2000/XP: C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox
      • Windows Vista: C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox
    • Windows Vista: The C:\Users\\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox folder [2] (if it exists)
    • Windows XP/Vista: Delete all C:\WINDOWS\Prefetch\FIREFOX* files
    • If you installed the Quality Feedback Agent component (aka Talkback), open the %APPDATA%\Talkback\MozillaOrg\ folder and delete all "Firefox" folders found, for example, "Firefox10" "Firefox15" and "Firefox2".
  • If necessary, remove the "Mozilla Firefox" shortcuts in the Windows Start -> Programs menu by right-clicking and deleting the entries. (This step should not be needed unless the Add/Remove Programs uninstaller in the first step failed.)

The Firefox uninstall will leave behind some Windows registry entries, which can be cleaned up using Windows regedit or a 3rd party registry cleaner. Note: registry editing is a potentially hazardous undertaking!.

You may also need to manually change some file associations or icons in your Windows "Folder Options -> File Types" even after setting a new default browser, as reported here.

Removing user profile data

This step is recommended if you had problems with Firefox and are now preparing for a "clean reinstall" or if you want to completely remove Firefox from your system. This will remove the Firefox user profile data, which includes bookmarks, passwords, cookies, preference settings and added extensions:

Back up your profile data so that you can restore it later, if you wish, then delete (or rename) the Firefox folder in the default profile path. This folder includes the "Profiles" subfolder and the files "profiles.ini" and "pluginreg.dat". In Windows XP, for example, go to "Start -> Run -> (type in) %APPDATA% -> click OK" to open the hidden Application Data folder, then open the "Mozilla" folder and delete (or rename) the "Firefox" folder.

Caution: Do not simply delete the profile folder that contains your user data, as doing so can result in a "profile in use" or "already running" message when you next attempt to run Firefox (bug 278860).

Related bugs