Perspective

Go look.

'Nuff said.

Two Photos, Two Narratives, One Moment In Time

Neo-neocon is a self professed New England liberal.  Or at least she used to be.  Apparently, Neo still lives in that part of the country, but now she is a conservative.

I ran across her site via another story, but ended up finding her tale about two iconic photos from the Vietnam War.  Pretty much anyone over the age of 40 should be able to guess which two photos she is talking about.

Her story of discovery is part of her larger story of changing from "liberal" to "conservative".  I think it is interesting enough to ask my 70.8 readers to take a look.

Yet Another Kerfuffle

Perhaps you have noticed the minor dust-up between director James Cameron and Fox's Glenn Beck.  I caught James Cameron's end of things several times yesterday.

I only heard Glenn Beck's perspective once.

I still do not do sarcasm well.  I can't tell if he is being sincere or if he is putting us all on.  In any case, I thought the other half of the disagreement could use a little airing. For what it is worth....

The Old Days In Music

OK....upfront...."old days" is a relative term.

That being said, one of my favorite groups from the 70's and 80's was Toto.  The "our song" for Beloved Bride and I is "Rosanna" from their IV album.  We went to the concert when they played Pine Knob*.  It was a great time.

Toto was founded in part by the brothers Porcaro.  Jeff Porcaro was the drummer.  Why is that important?

Back then a lot of artists would play music with a lot of other artists.  At least, there seemed to be a few more guest spots on the albums back then.  So again, why is that important?

I just discovered that Jeff Porcaro played drums for Jackson Browne.  I found that out by reading the liner notes for this album that I bought tonight.

He was the drummer for "The Pretender", Track 13, Disc 1.

A quick review....I was more familiar with the songs from Disc 2.  So I enjoyed that one a bit more.  Even though I wasn't familiar with every song, Jackson Browne is an outstanding musician and song writer and as a result I did enjoy both discs.  "The Load-Out" and "Stay" at the end of Disc 1 were great as always.  [Oh won't you staaaaaaaaaaaay....just a little bit longer!] I will look forward to listening to this album on a regular basis.

Full disclosure, I have decided to participate in Amazon's Associate's program. Commissions are involved.  With any luck, I'll make enough to buy a book or four!

*Screw Detroit Energy....it still is Pine Knob to me.

The Elusive Third Verse

One of the most elusive pieces of music is the third verse to "Crystal Ball" by Styx.  I have only heard it once on the local radio station when Tommy Shaw visited back in the 1990s.  I still haven't found video or audio of it, but at least now I know where to find the words.

Ahem....here.

What White People Gave The World

Courtesy of Megan McArdle, I now read Ta-Nehisi Coates on a regular basis.  In a recent blog, Ta-Nehisi indicated that he "studied white people".  After all, no one wants to be some sort of bigoted fool that doesn't know anything about other people.

Number One on his list???

1.) Dragonlance, Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman--This book was one of my earliest introductions to fantasy and thus to the limits (or lack of limits) of the imagination. I read Dragonlance before I read Tolkien, and was just amazed by the bigness of the world. All I wanted for my tenth birthday was to swing my sword like Caramon, and get a Tika on my side. Talk about the original ride-or-die chick. She is single-handedly responsible for the early onset of puberty amongst untold legions of geeks.

I was always a bit more of a Sturm Brightblade man myself.  But yeah, Tika is so hot that she could launch a thousand wet dreams just by walking into your average North Dakota prom.

8 Predictions

Megan McArdle has offered 8 predictions about the future of health care outcomes in the United States under the just passed "reforms".  She then offers a defense of those predictions that is based not on "who is the better pundit", but instead "if things don't change, then why are we spending $2,000 per household on it"?

If you don't think that any of the effects of this bill will be large enough to measure and hopefully, large enough to justify the price tag of this bill, then I have to ask two questions:

1)  Why the hell are we spending $200 billion a year, plus the mandated spending by individuals and employers on premiums, plus the new money the states will have to spend on Medicaid?

2)  Why on earth did you bring up all these apparently irrelevant statistics?

 Not unlike Megan, perhaps I am wrong about these "reforms".  But if I am going to be wrong, it better be based on some objective standard and not on some "but I feel like we should just all have health care" nonsense.  If I am not wrong, then the solution will not to be to throw more government money at the problem.  The solution will be throw less government money at it.

A....lot....less....

Gaming The System

This op-ed in the NYTimes about the health care bill that just passed the House points out the many ways that the Democrats have gamed the system.  Essentially, they lied to the CBO just to get an "acceptable" budget score for the bill.

We were talking about a bill that would cost $1 trillion per year and now they have put in enough gimmicks to make it look like $1 trillion for 10 years.  Anyone care to bet on how many of those gimmicks will still be around in a decade?

Yet Another Reason To Oppose Health Care "Reform"

Because some animals are apparently more equal than others.

Although I do have to offer some kudos to Congress for apparently placing themselves at the mercy of this mess.  I say "apparently" as it wouldn't take much of a legislative bit of chicanery for Congress to carve out something better for themselves.  It isn't like their track record is exactly clean on such issues.

Now THIS Is Spending Like A Drunken Democrat

I do not know where to start.  All of the money lines are so obvious and so easy.

Our good friends at Judicial Watch [ignore the name, it helps] have managed to obtain the Air Force travel records for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  Apparently, she has spent over $2.2 million traveling on 103 Air Force flights.  Of those 103 flights, 31 included members of Mrs. Pelosi's family.  I have read elsewhere that many of those 31 flights were only for her family and Mrs. Pelosi was not even on board.

Money line number one comes from the Blogfather; Glenn Reynolds: "Like I say, I don’t want to hear one word about my carbon footprint."

The story documents profligate spending to equip those flights for their "esteemed" passengers.  Quite a bit of money was spent on....care to guess.....alcohol.  One international Congressional Delegation that was passing through Israel on the way to Iraq was stocked with Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J Brandy, Bailey’s Irish Crème, Maker’s Mark Whiskey, Courvoisier Cognac, Bacardi Light Rum, Jim Beam Bourbon, Beefeater Gin, Dewars Scotch, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Jack Daniels Whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of imported wine.  Of course, while our Congresscritters were in Israel, they could only bring kosher liquor to their rooms.  So the Air Force bought that on the local Israeli market.

Then there was the flight to Louisiana to view the continuing relief for Hurricane Katrina.  The budget for the trip was $60,000.00.  They actually spent $65,505.46.

If they were spending their own money on this high living, I wouldn't really care all that much.  But they are spending my money on such things.  I didn't even get invited up for a drink.

All I got was the bill and the hangover.

Now this is spending like a drunken Democrat.

And people thought that the GOP spent a lot of money....