Rants, musings, and other general purpose blog entries reflecting the thoughts du jour.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dusted off a seldom-used and selectively enforced Section 2 of Rule 19 to stop Senator Elizabeth Warren from speaking in opposition to the confirmation of Senator Jeff Sessions to be the next Attorney General. "2. No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator." What prompted the Majority Leader…
If you find maths a bit of a struggle to figure out how to calculate inflation over that long period, Senators Tillis and Burr of North Carolina have made it much easier for you with their vote to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education despite having absolutely zero qualifications or any actual experience with public schools. Senator Tillis is joint-second on her bribe list to the tune of $72,900 and Senator Burr joint-ninth on…
"US President Donald Trump has vowed to overturn a legal ruling which suspended his ban on travellers from seven mainly Muslim countries. He described federal judge James Robart as a "so-called" justice whose "ridiculous" opinion "essentially takes law-enforcement away from" the US." As opposed to a so-called President who apparently doesn't have the first clue about what the Constitution actually says and means nor does he seem to be all that concerned about the RULE…
**** WARNING: This one's a bit long… **** It's funny how all this started with a seemingly innocuous question from out of the blue from my sister…"you like playing around with your camera, right?" She had started working at this theatre in downtown Fayetteville near the Market House that I had honestly never heard of…and no, it wasn't the one I remembered up the hill in Haymount! Anyway, they were really in need of someone…
Whilst thinking of my friend Sally Brown who noted the crickets one hears when speaking of terrorism committed by people of pale complexion and prompted a good discusion, we can now add Alexandre Bissonnette who is the nasty blagger who took it upon himself to kill at least six people worshipping in their mosque in Quebec City. There really isn't any way to spin that other than he was taking a page out of Dylann…
Knowing how bought by special interests it takes someone to get elected, Member of Congress will probably never be one of those jobs where the officeholder and honesty would be considered in the same sentence without some sort of punch line. But gutting the one organisation that is supposed to at least pretend to enforce some sort of ethics standards on Congress as one of the first acts would seem to send the message loud…
Dick Clark's on the TV behind me, Grandpa's piano and a Cuba Libre is in front of me... Hou'oli makahiki hou! Happy New Years 2017...we can't see the back of 2016 soon enough if you ask me!
According to the BBC and confirmed through other sources, Nico Rosberg retires from F1 with immediate effect after winning his maiden World Driver's Championship. Wow! Did. Not. See. That. Coming. At. All. You've got to give him mad respect for making the best of having better reliability this past season and pushing himself and Lewis to a thrilling conclusion of the season. And then being willing to bin it after winning the trophy to concentrate…
Katie, Nick, and I just watched a very brightly lit International Space Station pass right over my house! Hope they enjoyed the sunset…it was a pretty nice one this evening! :) Roscosmos had a Progress cargo ship failure today after launch from Baikonur…premature separation and third stage failure at about 120 miles altitude destroying the spacecraft completely. It's mission was to resupply the ISS…next supply ship launches from Japan on 09 Dec and the stores…
Tom Stiglich / www.tomstiglich.com
Mr President-Elect, Your favourite late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia actually voted the correct way on Texas v Johnson which struck down criminal penalties for flag burning as protected speech/protest under the First Amendment. May I kindly point out that you might want to consider making it a habit of engaging your brain well before you decide to speak or tweet? Especially before looking like a complete doofus completely incapable of grasping irony (the polite…
Cats - Canes at the PNC ended up 3-2 in favour of the good guys with three goals in about 3:30 in the second period. Panthers head coach Gerard Gallant gives his usual post-game presser and then after that bit of business is done is informed by the team that he and his assistant have been relieved of their duties and their current GM and former Canes assistant Tom Rowe is taking over behind the…
I've not heard this nomination floated yet but I'm thinking Jared Kushner's purge might be missing a golden opportunity…NJ Governor Chris Christie for Secretary of Transportation. ;) Not only would it show a bit of wit, the Right Honourable Jim Hacker MP showed us over 30 years ago that a national integrated transport policy is in the political interest of everyone but the poor bastard that has to propose and defend it against the rail/air/ground…
I am very thankful every day for the men and women of our Armed Forces who voluntarily stand on the wall to protect our country and Constitution against any who would do them harm even knowing that the price for freedom for us all may be their very life. This year, that message is even more poignant than usual. Normally, later in the day, the kids and I would be ringing a certain phone in…
After seeing Nicholas get awarded his certificate, I needed a bit of airplane therapy at RDU to get in the right frame of mind after last night. What a nice surprise for my family in Illinois...Southwest's "Illinois One" Boeing 737-700 logojet. I haven't forgotten the family in the STL...here is a couple of the last remaining TWA McDonnell-Douglas MD-80s in the classic silver scheme!
Thank goodness for Peter Mansbridge of the CBC...a very refreshing voice of calm and reason on this frenetic night of elections. CBC being simulcast on CSPAN2... Update 15 Feb 2021 - After the past few tumultuous years, I think I might need to explain what my state of mind was when I wrote this pretty pithy Facebook post. I had voted that morning with Katie and Alex serving as my bodyguards before dropping them off…
Has Coach Peters ever won a coach's challenge? Every game I've seen this season has ended with the call on the ice standing! In the words of Inigo Montoya..."you keep using this coach's challenge...I don't think it works the way you think it works!" ;)
I've never taken the "I've Voted" sticker in any election...anyone who knows me at all knows the reason why I've never missed an election and never will. But after thinking about it this morning, this one is about as good an "I've Voted" badge as I can imagine in honour of one of the newest members of Section 76...
Washington Elementary was kind enough to send the safety patrol round with me to ensure I voted safely and properly! In and out in about 20 minutes... :)
Being in a battleground state hasn't been all it's cracked up to be...between the appallingly negative adverts and constant invasions of our home by the candidates and their surrogates, sometimes one can't help but feeling a bit under siege like the poor villagers in the opening of Mel Brooks' "Robin Hood: Men in Tights"...
Whether you like him or hate him, you've got to admit that the dude's got one heck of a nice ride! #757sWithRollersRock :)
This story starts off with Nicholas playing in the Wake County District Honour band which he had auditioned for a while ago and was successful in getting a seat with that saxophone of his. They started out with a patriotic tune and of course one's mind had to wander a bit... I'll never forget the one night that Dad was playing his guitar, Grandpa was playing his ancient mandolin, and I was playing the flute.…
After three debates and the nastiest campaign I've ever seen (and I got to see Hunt-Helms 1984 which was really ugly!), I've come to the conclusion that I need my go-to therapy for combating political despair.
Somehow I get the impression that if they were assigning seats at the UN, they'd think that putting Iran and Iraq next to each other and Israel in the same row as those first two would be a totally great idea! If you get the chance, do go visit the remarkable young people manning the Peace Booth…their caring and thoughtful engagement in the political process and commitment to justice and equality for all in spite…
The more I see of the open (un)civil war roiling the GOP, the more Donald reminds me of Emperor Cartagia and I seriously wonder if he has a council of severed heads he talks to in the basement of Trump Tower. Anyway, he would have been wise to heed this nugget of wisdom from Ambassador Mollari: "Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of…
Just saw an advert on the telly for Chia Hillary Clinton and Chia Donald Trump. Yes, you heard me correctly… I'm not sure what scares me more: finding the Chia versions preferable to the real candidates or admiring Chia's uncanny ability to match The Donald's skin tone! ;) (And yes, apparently they have Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders on offer as well…)
