Rants, musings, and other general purpose blog entries reflecting the thoughts du jour.
Over the past week, it had become increasingly clear that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was going to do what pretty much every minister in Whitehall fears and is one of the main reason to actually be Prime Minister: the cabinet reshuffle. This political game of musical chairs is often instigated by the Cabinet Secretary (a career civil servant and generally the Head of the Home Civil Service which makes them arguably the most powerful person…
I've been thinking long and hard all day about what I wanted to write about for Veteran's Day. As I was running a couple of backups after the hard drive recovery operations earlier this week, I happened to stumble upon this picture that came from a set of slides that my father had taken whilst he was serving in his first of two deployments to Vietnam in 1967. Local man (VC?) Works for himself during…
Today in the House of Lords, His Majesty the King has given the first King's Most Gracious Speech in over 70 years since the passing of his mother The Queen last year. It is not the first time he's given the speech as he stood in for HM The Queen in the previous State Opening in May 2022. This speech is given during the State Opening of Parliament which is the only regular event that…
Three weeks after Matt Gaetz of Florida pushed a one-person motion to vacate the chair and dump Kevin McCarthy out of the big chair at the top of the rostrum in the House of Representatives...the Republicans have managed to find a new fanny to sit in the seat second in line from the Presidency. I'm sure the most relieved person in the room has to be Patrick McHenry of North Carolina who no longer has…
Just when you think you've truly seen it all...along comes something that just defies all imagination that you'd have witnessed it. As I was waiting in Julia's office car park to transfer Alex and the two puppies, I heard a huge crashing sound to my left toward the GoRaleigh bus stop. There's this guy in a high-visibility yellow jacket walking away from the US Postal Service collection box he'd just did a Hong Kong Phooey…
Listen all! This is the truth of it. Fighting leads to killing, and killing gets to warring. And that was damn near the death of us all. Look at us now! Busted up, and everyone talking about hard rain! But we've learned, by the dust of them all… Bartertown learned. Now, when men get to fighting, it happens here! And it finishes here! Two men enter; one man leaves. Dr Dealgood --- "Mad Max: Beyond…
The motion to table (procedurally kill) Matt Gaetz’s motion to vacate the chair (vote Speaker McCarthy off his island at the top of the well of the House) just went down in flames. Now we’re on to the main event and if the vote totals on the tabling motion hold, McCarthy will be the first Speaker in history to be put to the parliamentary sword. Minority Leader Jeffries effectively gave the Democratic Caucus response with…
Ever since the leader of the notorious mercenary group "Wagner" led a brief insurrection and marched his forces from the Ukraine through Rostov-on-Don and within 200 km of Moscow, it was only a matter of time before Yevgeny Prigozhin would be made to answer for daring to challenge the authority of President Vladimir Putin. If the reporting by Reuters, the BBC, and now everyone else picking up on the story is correct...it appears that one…
And the irony is that it's been slightly more of a while as I just got distracted with dashing off a novella for a friend who has many photos that she'd like converted to digital and offering my opinions on what someone looking at outsourcing photo scanning might want to consider. Don't worry, I'll capture the guts of that and clean it up for a post in the "Photography Tips" section as soon as I…
I've had more than a little time to reflect upon what family means to me ever since that fateful Friday night almost three weeks ago and the many nights and days of many thoughts but much rarer instances of peace and solace that have followed since the ambulance pulled away from our little cul-de-sac at the end of our street. Truth be told, it seems absurd that what seemed absolutely crystal clear in my mind…
I've purposefully withheld comment on the story the submersible that was diving to the wreck of the RMS Titanic alone ever since the news broke on Sunday that contact had been lost with the Titan which was carrying crew of a pilot and four tourists to approximately 13,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic. Until we knew for certain the fate of the submersible and the crew, I'm sure I wasn't alone hoping beyond…
What on earth is it going to take for me to finally experience the joy of voir dire and being empaneled as a member of a jury of a supposed peer to the accused?!? For the second out of three tries, I ended up getting the thumbs-down from the recorded voice message at the courthouse: Jury Summons DateJuror NumberResultJuly 2017250Excused, juror number greater than required by the CourtMay 2018316Excused due to unavoidable conflict/hardshipJune 2023177All potential…
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. Quote attributed to Mark Twain (though it doesn't really fit with his biography) That old quote was a favourite of my father's when I was growing up and even though it's taken…
A couple of days ago, I found out that a very dear friend of mine had passed away and immediately sat down in the Nerdery and started penning an obituary of sorts. After re-reading the post that I wrote to commemorate his passing, whilst I wouldn't really change how it ultimately came out, there were some very personal beats that were definitely pegging the darker end of the "sunshine and light" scale. I've found through…
David and Susan with Kathryn...
Sometimes these posts are so easy to write that the words practically fling themselves headlong from my fingertips into sentences and paragraphs and the next thing I know there's a finished article ready for me to hit the Publish button and share my thoughts du jour with the world. This is not one of those stories. This one is going to take a while and I'm not going to promise I'm not going to be…
After just penning a bit of a blistering screed on the subject of being presumed honest and innocent rather than the other way round, I knew the notes I planned on hitting in this annual Memorial Day post where we remember those who sacrificed greatly for the rest of us to have first-world problems like resenting the presumption of dishonesty. Every day for me is Memorial Day as I look up at that triangular wooden…
With the greatest possible respect, please tell me how a reasonably intelligent human being could possibly come to the conclusion that you're *NOT* a hypocrite when we look at these two statements (one where you were reading a clumsily prepared written excuse after the veto override vote that could have been ghost-written by Speaker Moore and the one you told the voters in the district you were hoping to represent): "Some call me a hypocrite…
Translated: "Good evening. We are from Ukraine!" Pronounced: "Dobroho vechora. My z Ukrayiny!" Seen on T-shirt with Ukrainian tractor towing a captured Russian tank There are plenty of signs in the news these days that the Russian invasion of the Ukraine is not going all that well and that's not even considering the Ukrainian counter-offensive that is expected to start presently now that Spring has truly arrived. The Russian command and control apparatus seems anything…
Another birthday has come and gone and as the weekend turns to the usual Mad Hatter’s dance that is our usual week here in Greater Metropolitan East Raleigh, I’m once again struck by just how truly blessed I am with amazing loved ones and friends enough to fill Scrooge McDuck’s mightiest gold vault. I appreciate every one of the good wishes and positive vibes and will endeavour to respond personally when I can spend some…
Today's fun after giving Mistletoe a bit of a belly rub before totally betraying her and putting her into her crate is to head downtown and take the two oaths of office to be commissioned an Electronic Notary Public which took a little longer than I'd planned due to a lovely bit of reading non-comprehension. The journey to the Wake County Justice Centre was certainly interesting. A North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper was sitting on…
It has finally happened! My Notary Public journal finally has entry #1 in the book thanks to an acknowledgement for a power of attorney that has the first use of my notary seal that is now out in the wild, wild world! There's 611 more entries to go before it's time to get another journal book so I think that will be a while yet but that won't stop me from savouring notarial act #1…
Almost immediately after the news broke of yet *ANOTHER* mass-shooting event, this time in Louisville KY by a bank employee that was about to be terminated and decided he was going to be the terminator instead, we got this tweet from one of the usual suspects in the "thoughts and prayers" squad. Yep, I get it that this latest atrocity is in the Senate Minority Turtle's backyard and I would hope that deep down in…
"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts." Ambassador Londo Mollari - Babylon 5 "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" Will that idiot currently occupying the Governor's mansion in Tallahassee ever learn that when you're dealing with Disney's lawyer corps that you'll find out very quickly that they're the sort of people that can follow you into…
“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan Kenobi Yesterday, those of us in North Carolina saw our General Assembly devolve into an actual super-majority with the switch of party by Rep Tricia Cotham from the Democrats to the Republicans which now gives them the ability to override Governor Cooper's veto at will. To be fair, this is not as much of a change in how the…
Well, it's official. Senator Berger and Representative Moore have gotten their greatest reward from the hyperpartisan gerrymandering that has been to the Supreme Court twice only to fall on deaf ears and North Carolina's voters being left to fend for themselves. With the defection of Mecklenburg County's Representative Tricia Cotham who was elected as a Democrat in the 112th District by double-digits to the Republicans, they now have the outright super-majority in the NC House…
