Today on my way home from work I was stuck in really bad traffic. It should have taken me 20 minutes to get home from where I was but it took an hour and a half. I was in a really bad mood…then I remembered…I had my Danny Elfman “Music For A Darkened Theater” CD in the van. I popped it in and turned the stereo way up. I don’t usually find myself alone in the van so this was the first time I’ve had a chance to really turn things up and adjust the sound to my liking. It was excellent. Like a concert hall (heck the van is almost as big as a concert hall!). I loved it. I think it has been over a year since I listened to that whole CD. I need to break it out more often.
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Right after that last post my brother-in-law who has been visiting Hotel Manning the past couple days told me that he killed a bug. He didn’t really get a good look at it…he thought it was a big beetle. Well…it wasn’t. It was the biggest dang wasp I’ve ever seen in my whole life. This guy nearly clogged the toilet when I tried to flush his lifeless body! He was big enough that he should have been included on the link in the previous post! Here are a couple pictures. They don’t do the beast justice but they do a fair job of showing how big it was.
With a Bic Pen for perspective
This sucker was as big as two standard U.S. Stamps!!!
Hotel Manning Disclaimer: We don’t cover any accidents that may or may not befall you upon your visit…a few of the things we won’t cover…being eaten by wasps like the one pictured here (very very rare…this thing was a freak of nature that will never be repeated…at least I hope it was)…being attacked by a rambunctious 2 year old (after seeing that picture I thought I might remind you of one of the reasons you might want to come visit us someday)…more risks too numerous to list…We hope you will enjoy your stay!!!
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Click here for important background information all nerds should be aware of.
(link courtesy Dan…keeper of all good nerdy information!) (I mean that in a good way of course)
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Someone emailed me to ask me to post my thoughts on the whole Dixie Chicks situation. I decided to post this link to an explanation much better than anything I have the time to post.
Excerpt:
Now, I don’t want to belabor this point, but there is something remarkably obvious that needs to be said. In countries where actual free speech is threatened, where fascism or Orwellian thought control are the order of the day, the victims of the backlash don’t typically go on to pose naked on the cover of a magazine, mock their critics, and score exclusive primetime interviews on national TV as well as, literally, thousands of write-ups in magazines and newspapers across the country. It’s just not the way it works in … hmmm I dunno, let’s say, for example’s sake, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Over there people who criticized the president received different treatment. Over there, if I were to mention at the local bazaar, for instance, that Saddam Hussein dyes his mustache, I might expect a knock on the door later that evening from some men. One of them might grab my tongue with a pair of pliers and then, without anesthetic, slice my tongue off before I was carted off to jail for an unknown and unknowable period of time.
I completely agree with Jonah Goldberg’s analysis of what has gone on and what he has to say about the free speech issues passionately raised by the Dixie Chick’s defenders (read the link…it is excellent).
My personal opinion is that I don’t really care what the Dixie Chicks think of the president. I don’t care if they think he is the devil himself. If I liked their music I wouldn’t stop listening to it because I disagreed with their political views.
An example:
Bono from U2 is a grade A moron when it comes to politics. I don’t think there is a single political view that he holds that I don’t have absolute contempt for. When it comes to writing and performing music however, the man is a genius. I enjoy listening to his music enough that I have no problem handing his label the $12.99 it costs to purchase his cd. I do this even when his politics leak into his music (just about every song) because I like listening to U2 cds.
I am not a Dixie Chicks fan. I am trying to get tickets to their show here in DC for my wife’s birthday though so if there is anyone who has tickets who is sufficiently upset with their statements about the president that they want to give them away email me!!!
That last post reminded me that I really should do a post about what I have been listening to all day today! My friend Kelly has started a streaming broadcast of his MP3 collection. He broadcasts during the workday almost every day and it has been awesome to have a reliable broadcast of good music I can listen to while I am at work. Click here to open his SHOUTCAST page. To start listening to a stream on your RealPlayer, Winamp Player, or other streaming mp3 player click on the link on the top of that page that says “Listen”.
He told me I could post about his broadcast but he did request that anyone who visits his site to listen to the excellent tunes drop him a line to let him know what you think. Here is the email address in spambot proof language (I don’t want my friend spammed because some bot picks up his email address at my site): kelly the at sign harwards.com.
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I found this cool article about Peter Breinholt today in the Deseret News. I have been a fan of his since about 1993. I was at one of the Westminster College concerts the article talks about and it was excellent. I’m glad he is still around. I have wondered a few times if he was still playing. I guess I have to chalk that down as one more thing I miss about Utah. Now…if I can find about 10000 more I might start thinking about moving back…maybe…
There have been several stories about people outside of any government trying to make it into space. I think this is awesome. In fact, I think this is the only real hope we have for making space travel an ordinary thing. My generation doesn’t have any really cool memories as far as space travel is concerned. There’s the space shuttle program but it obviously hasn’t been a smashing success…Hubble’s cool (13 years old this week) but not super cool…and that is about it. We need something major like the moon landing.
Now Jeff Bezos is throwing some of that money Amazon has started to make in the direction of private space travel. There are others too who are working on making private space travel a reality. Good for them! If I ever have any money to invest I want some of it to go to ventures like this. I also want to save some cash away for the time when it is possible to take a trip up there. Of course there are some other preparations I’ll have to make too (I need to go on a diet!) but it will be easier to get motivated for that if I know the reward will be a trip up into space.
“I want to go high because that is where the view is” Burt Rutan
Links courtesy Instapundit
Sunday was the Simpson’s 300th episode. It is the most successful show in the history of Television. Congratulations. Here is an article from The Guardian honoring this momentus occasion.
For years and years, even long after the Simpsons are cancelled people will be quoting lines from the shows. Recently it was mentioned by one paper that “cheese eating surrender monkeys” is the most common pop reference used during the trials of the past year. (For those not familiar with the phrase it is Groundkeeper Willy’s description of the French)
(Thanks to Dan Simmons for the link)
This post at Tacitus.org is the most thoughtful analysis I have read on the furor over Rick Santorum’s comments regarding the Supreme Court Case that will render judgment on Texas’ anti-sodomy law.
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My good friend Brett sent me this link about what OPEC has been doing recently. They are claiming that they are imposing a restriction on oil production in hopes that prices will rise…but prices are doing the opposite. This is further proof that OPEC is being broken. There are several knives in their back…Russian cheating by producing more oil than they tell OPEC they will produce, Central and South America doing pretty much the same thing, and finally (and most deadly for OPEC) the U.S. troops sitting in the Iraqi oil fields.
I think OPEC is nearly meaningless now that the U.S. controls Iraqi oil. I don’t care what anyone says…getting control of Iraqi oil production was a definite objective of the war in that country. The U.S. is now a significant foil to OPEC as Iraq has been restricted from pumping all but a tiny portion of its oil for 12 years now and we can threaten to open the floodgates. It will be interesting to see what happens. Hopefully the price of oil will plummet and I’ll be able to use all the cheap gasoline I need. That new minivan we got goes through gas more quickly than I ever would have thought!!!
A last quick point…the U.S. can now threaten the Saudi monarchy where it really hurts…their pocketbook. The House of Saud is a slimy family of dictators who are the chief financiers of Islamic extremism (Wahabbism) throughout the world. Any money taken out of their pockets is money that is taken away from the wackos…this makes my family safer than they otherwise would be. I think its great that one of the chief aims of the Iraqi war was oil.
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I didn’t post yesterday (my goal is to post at least one entry every week day) but I have an excuse. Yesterday was “Take Your Kid To Work Day”. I brought Corryn in with me and we had a great time. Needless to say that with all of the stuff I normally have to do at work (the stuff I get paid for that is) and having to take care of Corryn there wasn’t much time to post stuff. Oh well. I wish I had some pictures to post of Corryn here with me at work but I forgot to bring the camera but I just wanted to let everyone know that she had a great time. If you haven’t seen any pictures of her lately check here!
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I guess this post could be more accurately titled, “Why I Don’t Trust Any Of The Bushs At All” but thats ok. Check out this post at Instpundit. Read the whole story it links to. Anyone who makes it far enough in politics to be President is someone we should probably be suspicious of but I really think that the Bush family and their close friends have interests that supercede those of the American people. While I think I agree with the stated goals of the administration’s current Middle East foreign policy I can’t help but be suspicious that there is a lot going on in this administration that benefits the President and his friends at the expense of the American people.
The fact that this administration is so secretive and that it is holding back information that by law it is supposed to release doesn’t help much either.
This question came to my mind last night: Do I think things would be better under a Gore administration? Probably not.
Ok. My sister Debi Was right. (see her comment on this post) We need to focus on bio fuels. Check out this amazing article in the New York Times. I love the opening line: “I wouldn’t do this to a $30,000 car unless I was confident that it would work.” That is what the subject of the article, the owner of a fast food franchise, said before he poored gallons of used vegetable oil into his Ford Excursion’s gas tank.
Read this whole article. You should also check out this website. Amazing.
I can’t wait until this technology is included standard on models sold by auto manufacturers. Who knows…this probably could eliminate the need for ag subsidies…that would be cool…even though I would have to admit to being wrong. (I hate that!)
Bullets fired straight into the air probably won’t kill you when they land. A penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building won’t kill anyone. Check out Steven Denbeste’s post to find out more about these and other interesting facts!
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I am sure Sen. Orrin Hatch is a nice guy. I think I am supposed to say that since I am a Mormon. He sure is a dumb lawmaker…at least he is sure dumb to be making a move to get rid of the sunset provisions in the USPATRIOT Act. Currently the law is set to be reviewed every 4 years so lawmakers can decide if all the provisions in the strict terrorism law are still necessary. Hatch thinks we should make the whole thing permanant.
There are some provisions in the Patriot Act that probably should be made permanant…but I think there are others that should be rescinded immediately. I think the sunset provisions in that law are a great idea. Hopefully Hatch’s efforts to get rid of them fail.
Here is a post from Instapundit about the good Senator from the great state of Utah.
