The irony is strong in this one.

How much you want to bet the poor, defenseless shark in this story grows up to eat the surfers that saved it from the evil fisherman's hook?

News flash, Mr. Bloomberg:

Nowhere in the Constitution of the United States does it say that the government is nanny (or mommy, whichever you prefer) to the individual citizens. Nowhere does it say that the government has the responsibility (or the right) to tell us what we can and can't eat. Nor can it encourage us to eat "right."

Article I Section 8 lays out what congress may (and must) do:

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States," and by "general welfare of the United States" our founding fathers meant building post offices and roads, and creating copyright laws to protect and secure inventors' and authors' rights to their work.

It does not mean controlling the individual for his or her own good. In fact, the tenth amendment specifically forbids it.

Nor does the POTUS have that right or responsibility. His responsibilities are laid out in Article II Section 2.

In fact, the only people who have the responsibility to choose healthy food for others are parents, school cafeterias, and/or hospital cafeterias.

And, Mr. Bloomberg, you may be the mayor of the largest city in the United States, but you are not their daddy. Nor are you mine. Get over yourself.

Okay, what?

Supporting the best potential candidates is racist, now? Because they're black?!!??

Umm...that was how Obama got elected--people were concerned that they'd look racist if they didn't vote for him, despite how totally clueless and unfit he was. How the f**k is it racist to vote for Herman Cain (or Allen West)?

Dumb leftist bint can't have it both ways, and doesn't realize it.

The horde has hit the city of brotherly love.

I've read so many stories about "flash mob" violence, lately. One thing I've noticed is that said mobs tend to gather in areas with huge levels of government entitlement programs, and tend to hit areas where the victims are made helpless by the government disarming them.

It won't be too terribly long before the rest of us have to deal with it on some level. Thank God for "shall issue" states and municipalities.


Thank you, Oleg Volk, for putting in pictures what would take many thousands of words to say.

Well, DUH!!

A few days ago, I ran across a story about how Americans are unhappy with their government in unprecedented numbers.

I am totally unsurprised. If you really look at everything, it's actually more surprising that the number isn't higher.

• We have a war that isn't being prosecuted to its fullest extent, enemies of our nation living within our nation (and perpetrating attacks on civilians and military alike), and a government that instead of harassing those enemies within our borders targets everyone else in the name of political correctness.
  

• We have a government that is so arrogant that they passed a socialized medicine law that two-thirds of its constituents didn't want, one that will make our healthcare system both more expensive and worse. And they're flabbergasted that we don't want to have that abortion of a "reform" enacted, and are suing on a state-by-state basis to prevent it.

• We are in debt up to our eyeballs, have had our credit rating downgraded, and the government is totally convinced that the solution to this is to borrow more money and spend more, instead of cutting spending like American families are having to do to put food on the table.

• We have a federal government harassing the states for trying to enforce federal law.
  

And now, we're being told that the reason we're in so much trouble (which the federal government caused) is because we have too much freedom:

"You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It's a little bit more contentious now but it's not impossible to try to do what's right in this state. You want people who don't worry about the next election."

I'm not surprised that Americans are getting tired of the way their elected congresscritters say one thing, then do another when they get into office. I'm not surprised that Americans are wising up to the fact that the federal government cannot be trusted with the taxes it takes in. I am surprised--and frightened--that only "49% of Americans believe the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens." Especially with craptastic politicians like the ones advocating suspending elections currently in power.

Idiots.

Morgan Freeman is one, no matter that he is a spectacular actor, such that I would almost see a movie just because it has him in it. That does not mean he's an expert in any other area--and this just proves that point.

Honestly, I don't dislike Obama because he's half-black. I dislike him because he's anti-American, incompetent, and flaunts his position and money in the faces of those of us who can't afford to eat at Ryans, much less the multi-thousand-dollar-a-plate places he and Michelle Antoinette like to frequent. His behavior places him firmly in the category of nigger.

If you run Herman Cain or Allen West against anyone else, Democrat or Republican, I'd vote for them. Not because they're black (NOT niggers--that's a title you earn by your behavior, and I know several white niggers, personally), but because they love America, and could do a better job than most others. Herman Cain is a successful businessman who's done extensive work with the armed forces, and can see what needs to be done, and make and enact plans for how to get there. Allen West is a former Army Lieutenant Colonel: someone who is far more qualified to sit behind the big desk than the idiot that never held a real job that's sitting there, now.

Honestly, if I were going to vote against someone because of an outer characteristic that they can't help, I'd vote against Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann, because they're women. For one thing, I have a hard time taking my own sex seriously, especially when they make assertions that can't be proved (and doubly especially when there are far more serious problems in the same issue about which they could have protested without being labeled a dumb bint that doesn't understand science). Far more seriously, our enemies not only would take us less seriously than they currently do, but they'd see our nation as asking for attack by electing a woman leader.

Deadbeats don't pay back loans.

Say I have a thousand dollars. I loan out fifty to a friend here, a hundred there. And only some of my friends actually pay me back. Some of them tell me "I can't pay you back in full, right now--can I give you a couple dollars a week until I've paid you back?" Others try to borrow more money from me to pay me back what they borrowed in the first place.

How long will it be before I have to borrow money to pay my mortgage, or buy groceries?

Well, the IMF is finding that out.

I don't understand what it is about the leftist mindset that makes them think that, just because it doesn't work in the small scale, it will on a large scale.

They grow so fast.

It occurred to me that I hadn't posted pictures of the kids, lately. Here's one of the imp just being a guy--he's watching DVDs in his underwear.



And here's my pretty little pixie. She's nearly walking already. She's 9 1/2 months old.


I love that mischievous little smile.

Gratitude.

This nation lacks it in the extreme. We have since before the Vietnam War.

Actually, let me clarify that: the far left--the ones that actually run this country--lacks gratitude toward those that protect their rights to denigrate and insult anyone and everyone that doesn't bow the knee to their superiority.

That, more than anything, is going to be what breaks this country. Not the action that happened ten years ago today, not the ongoing military response to that action, but the far left's contempt for the people that make the bedrock of this country: the soldiers, the emergency first responders, the average Joes and Janes that work 40 hours a week to support the government's spending habits.

They have forgotten the heroes in their rush to beatify the victims of that horrific attack.

We have not.

That division is more sure to be the end of our nation than the threat of radical Islam.

Ah, the joys of wiggly babies.

Labor Day sucked for me. It started out sucking, and the suckage lasted through yesterday.

My pixie woke me around 5:30 or 6:00. I went from a well-lighted bathroom into her dark bedroom, lifted her over the crib rail (by feel--I couldn't see a darn thing. I think I had her by the ribs on her right side and leg on the left with her facing away from me), and she gave an almighty wiggle and got away from me. I barely caught her by one arm before she hit the floor.

I heard a pop and she started shrieking. I checked her arm, but couldn't feel any break, and she didn't cry any harder when I felt her wrist, elbow or shoulder. She settled to nurse, and fell back asleep--confirmation that she hadn't broken anything, at least.

I fell asleep with her, and we slept for another hour and a half or two hours. Then, she planted both hands on me and tried to crawl up to my shoulder. And screamed again, and jerked her little arm back.

We took her straight to the urgent care clinic. Turns out she'd dislocated her elbow a little when I caught her--a condition called nursemaid's elbow. The doctor couldn't get it put back, so he ordered it splinted, and suggested we take her to a bone and sports medicine specialist. The poor little thing had a stiff splint--almost a cast--from her knuckles all the way up to just below her shoulder, holding her elbow just a little bent.

We got the specialist called yesterday morning, and got her in yesterday early afternoon. It took the doctor about fifteen minutes to twist her little arm around and get everything put back the way it was supposed to go.

It still hurts her a little, but she's able to use it today. But damn, if that didn't suck. I'd much prefer to be hurt than either of my little ones. Especially not when they're so small that I can't explain that yes, the doctor is hurting them, but it's to make sure they get better.

My beloved little bitch of a .22.

In response to a challenge that Odysseus linked.

About five years ago, I got my first gun. It was a Lorcin .25 that didn’t work. I quickly got rid of it.

My next gun, however, is still one of my absolute favorites. It’s a Walther P22 that happens to be an absolute pain in the ass in some ways, but a complete joy in others. The trigger is mushy at best, with a long, heavy double action pull. It spits hot brass absolutely every direction—if I want to take that gun to the range, I absolutely cannot wear a tee shirt, much less something lower cut, because I will wind up with a scalding hot shell in my bra. It doesn’t like anything but the Remington Golden Bullets (jams and stovepipes anything else), and has to have the feed ramp cleaned while you’re shooting after about 200 rounds or so, or it jams.

It’s an even bigger twat when it comes to cleaning. The takedown lever is easy to pull, and it’s easy to take apart. That’s not the irritating part. Nor is the tiny little crevices that are almost impossible to get clean. Putting the gun back together is the stone bitch. You almost have to have three hands to properly compress the spring without losing your grip and letting the damn thing send itself into orbit. And the guide rod they supply to put the spring over is honestly too short to help—the cleaning rod does a better job.

That said, it’s an absolute joy to shoot. It’s more accurate than I can shoot it, and I can shoot ten round groups I can cover with a quarter at conversational distances. I can and have put entire 550 round bricks through it in the course of three hours in an afternoon, almost without realizing that I’ve shot that much. The ergonomics are very nice, and the Walther magazine release (lever at the bottom of the trigger guard where it meets the grip, for those who don’t know) is the only one I can reach and work one-handed out of all of my guns, given that I have hands the size of your average eleven year old.

I have put something like 10-15,000 rounds through that gun. I haven’t shot it in longer than I’d like: it’s hard to find time and babysitting to go to the range with just one child that eats food. It’s nigh on impossible to go to the range when you have a baby that still only nurses.

She’s growing, though, and I’ll be able to go shooting again soon. Probably next spring. That will be the handgun going with me.

I may stop teaching papers.

My contract has been moved from the English department to the department that runs the online course program. The good part of this is that I got a $200/class taught raise.

The bad side is that the contract went from 1 page detailing what I was being paid to do (teach two courses/semester) to 3 pages, detailing how I was supposed to teach. One section in particular tells me how I will do my grading:

2.1.1. posts constructive and substantive feedback and grade points on written assignments, exams, and discussion forum activity within seventy-two hours of the due date.

Um...I don't know about anyone else teaching a writing class, but I cannot grade fifty papers in 72 hours. It takes me about 20 minutes to grade one paper. That means three papers per hour. I'd have to grade 17 papers per day to be able to do what they're demanding. That's almost six hours of grading alone, and that doesn't count checking e-mail and class site for questions, answering questions, grading blogs, discussion threads, cooking, eating, sleeping, changing diapers, feeding baby (which necessitates being unable to use one hand for a minimum of 15 minutes--unless she falls asleep, which means if I move before she wakes up...she wakes up)...you know, living.

I can grade blogs decently quickly. With substantive feedback, even. Papers are a totally different matter, and for some reason, the kids that write spectacularly well on the blogs often don't with the papers.

The requirements for the composition classes I teach are simple: I am required to assign and grade 5,500 words of work per class per semester. My papers meet that requirement handily. I could assign and grade fewer papers and still meet that standard.

The blogs outstrip it so far that it's not funny: my 101 class writes 13,500 words per semester in the blogs alone. My 102 class writes 15,000 words.

It really doesn't seem worth it to teach the papers.

I have no words.

I've waited a few days to try to find them, but I still don't. Most of Joplin's funding from FEMA--that intended to fix roads and schools--is being redirected toward the East Coast. Oddly enough, that doesn't yank funding from the trailer park they're putting in across the road from our airport*. Yeah, that's right: a federal program is ignoring rebuilding things that are their responsibility in favor of building new things that aren't.

In all honesty, now that the debris removal is done, I'd far rather the funds went away totally. I do not appreciate the whole "But we have to have government assistance! We can't possibly do it by ourselves!" mentality.

In any case, what has me nearly speechless is the whole assumption that, since the hurricane hit the East Coast, there had to be more/worse damage than the tornado that hit Joplin. I will admit: Irene was much larger than the tornado, and the damage was a lot more widespread, but you can still recognize the areas that were hit. Take a look at the map here: most of the shaded area is not recognizable from the ground.

Joplin has been estimated to have somewhere around $3 billion worth of damage. I'll be surprised if all of the areas that Irene hit cost that much. Yet somehow, it's worse.

I guess the worst part of the whole thing is the unspoken assumption that since it's the East Coast that just took damage, it's somehow more important than all of the tornadoes that hit and destroyed areas in the Midwest this spring/early summer. Even if there was a lot less damage, and a lot fewer lives lost.
_____
* Yeah, now that will be an attractive first impression. Why they couldn't have just taken over one of the trailer parks that have been shut down is beyond me.