Update

Just a quick update.

I mentioned someplace else that my surgery is scheduled for next Monday, the 28th. Mercy Hospital in Iowa City, in case anyone local wants to stop in. Lesa and Ethan are not back, but the pain is just getting to be too much to put off any longer.

Drew was here a week, and is now in Pennsylvania with Lesa and Ethan. Having him here, and then losing him again, is really fucking me up right now, especially combined with Ethan not being here. Thus, the lack of posts and the brevity of this one. Pity too, cause I do have some cool poker things I could talk about. Maybe later.

My Autobiography

Will be entitled I Don't Want The Damn Ball, A Life With Three Dogs

Must Read Of The Day

I don't write about politics all that often. For one thing, if I did, who would chronicle my poker exploits or the other mundane details of my existence? For another, there are often others who express what I am feeling much better than I could. One such person is John Rogers of Kung Fu Monkey (link in sidebar). Rogers is a professional writer for tv, movies, and comic books. He also writes succinctly and directly from a political viewpoint I almost always agree with. Case in point - his post today, Wait Aren't You Scared?, about the terror ring British officials broke up. Go, read the whole damn thing. I was tempted to quote it all, but will just excerpt a bit.

“Wait, Aren't You Scared?"

Errr, no. And if you are, you frankly should be a little goddam embarrassed.No false bravado and it's not that I don't take terrorism seriously. I do, which I why I voted for the guy who believed in securing our ports and fighting terrorism with criminal investigation methods -- which is, if we may remind everybody, how this particular plot was busted.

I am just not going to wet my pants every time some guys get arrested in a terror plot. I will do my best to stay informed. I will support the necessary law enforcement agencies. I will take whatever reasonable precautions seem, um, reasonable. But I will not be terrorized. I assume that the terror-ists would like me to be terror-ized, as that is what is says on their nametag, rather than, say, wanting me to surrender to ennui or negative body image, and they're just coming the long way around.

…

I am absolutely buffaloed by the people who insist I man up and take it in the teeth for the great Clash of Civilizations -- "Come ON, people, this is the EPIC LAST WAR!! You just don't have the stones to face that fact head-on!" -- who at the whiff of an actual terror plot will, with no apparent sense of irony, transform and run around shrieking, eyes rolling and Hello Kitty panties flashing like Japanese schoolgirls who have just realized that the call is coming from inside the house!

…

Maybe it's just, I cast my eyes back on the last century:

FDR: Oh, I'm sorry, was wiping out our entire Pacific fleet supposed to intimidate us? We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and right now we're coming to kick your ass with brand new destroyers riveted by waitresses. How's that going to feel?

CHURCHILL: Yeah, you keep bombing us. We'll be in the pub, flipping you off. I'm slapping Rolls-Royce engines into untested flying coffins to knock you out of the skies, and then I'm sending angry Welshmen to burn your country from the Rhine to the Polish border.

US. NOW: BE AFRAID!! Oh God, the Brown Bad people could strike any moment! They could strike ... NOW!! AHHHH. Okay, how about .. NOW!! AAGAGAHAHAHHAG! Quick, do whatever we tell you, and believe whatever we tell you, or YOU WILL BE KILLED BY BROWN PEOPLE!! PUT DOWN THAT SIPPY CUP!!

and I'm just a little tired of being on the wrong side of that historical arc.

A Thursday Song

(Maybe it's just my computer at work, but You Tube seems to be running slow.)

You Can Never Be Too Motivated

Via the Newsarama Blog (Newsarama being a comic site you can find linked in the sidebar), Star Trek motivational posters from echosphere. (Ack! Nothing but the first pic is opening up in a window. I guess I need to put the captions after the pictures.)

(You want to know why they argue all the time? Because the make-up sex is incredible.)

(If you're afraid of the transporter... If you have nothing but contempt for computers... Maybe outer space isn't for you, dude.)

(Don't worry. They'll come up with a way to dispose of her by the end of the episode.)

(Yes, it is perfectly understandable that Kirk had the know-how to make the gunpowder and put together the bazooka to defeat the Gorn. That's why he's the goddamm Captain.)

(To be fair, he was green blooded and he did have pointy ears...)

(We're going to pretend this never happened.)

And for the proprietor of Minions

(Landru means never having to say you're sorry.)

Linkage Tweakage

Added two new links to the comics section - Chris' Invincible Super Blog and Random Panels. If you like comics, and you have a sense of humor, be sure to check them out. In fact, check them out even if you just have a sense of humor - you might enjoy them.

From The Obvious File

From today's Press Citizen:

Derek L. Butterfield, 20, and friend Terry Holmes were on their way to Iowa City when their car ran out of gas about a half-mile west of the I-80 overpass of Highway 6. Butterfield and Holmes started to walk along the interstate to get help. They decided to cross the median area when Butterfield, apparently unaware he was on a bridge, jumped over the concrete barricade and instead of landing on the median fell to Highway 6 below. Holmes witnessed the fall and officers responded about 2:17 a.m.

Police think alcohol might have been involved,...

Really? No way!

So to recap, jumping off bridge into river and then going over the dam is dangerous, but can possibly be survived. Jumping off bridge onto paved highway, not so much.

Why? For the love of God, Why?

Are there no powdered sugar donuts in the vending machines? And no Snickers in the candy bar machine?

My God, why hast thou forsaken me?