Shakeup in the High Court

Sorry. Bad pun. And the situation isn’t actually humorous. They have no explanation for the Chief Justice’s seizure, and since it is his second one on record, that makes it epilepsy. That doesn’t mean he is going to have daily seizures. It doesn’t mean he isn’t either. It’s like so many other disorders involving the brain. There’s a catch-all category for the ones they can’t definitively identify. The best I’ve read says that since he has had two seizures, even though they were separated by a good many years, there is a 60% chance he will have another. Someday. Nebulous, huh? The big question is, what should be done about it. Politics aside, what do you think ought to happen? Should he wait to see how long it is before it happens again and then decide? Or should he undertake more rigorous tests and observation? Perhaps alter his lifestyle? He says he is fine to resume his duties. What do you all think?

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Who Cares About Lindsay Lohan?

Actually, I do, but not for the reason that most of those who fawn over celebrity do. I am interested for the same reason I was interested in the Paris Hilton nonsense recently. I am bothered by the fact that celebrities get preferential treatment from the legal system out here in LA LA land. For those not as close to the epicenter as we are, Lindsay, fresh out of rehab, was pulled over for drunk driving about a week ago. She also had some cocaine on her. Oh, yes. And her license was suspended. Did I mention that she was chasing another car? That’s right. The police were called by the other driver. The latest version I read stated that the occupants of the other car were LiLo’s personal assistant who had just quit and the assistant’s mom. She was chasing them because she was drunk and mad at the girl for quitting.

 

With all of that, you figure she must be in jail, right? Nope. She was released on $25,000 bail. I’m pretty sure she didn’t even spend the night. It’s lucky that she didn’t kill anybody. Personally, I think a repeat drunk driver, especially one on a suspended license, needs to do some real time to get the message home. Clearly rehab is not working for this train wreck. Is her contribution to society so great that we need to look the other way for her?

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Friday Funny

A friend of mine turned me on to this Iranian comic named Maz Jobrani. Here he is on Leno. I am going to do some more digging on him, but I like what he is doing and how he is saying it. Funny, but with undertones.

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Pourquoi détestons-nous les Français?

Ever since the Iraq war, the French have been the butt of many jokes here. There was the ill conceived substitution of Freedom for French in our cuisine as in Freedom Fries, Freedom Toast, and the ever popular Freedom Tickler. Then there are all of the surrender jokes. I’m not sure where those came from, exactly. Then, during the last Presidential election, they dropped the big one. John Kerry just looks French. The approval ratings for the war that started this whole rift with France are at an all time low, and nobody seems to want to reconcile. Members of the right are still convinced that France is going to be overrun by Muslim extremists and plan to laugh at them and say “I told you so!” when it happens. We seem to have forgotten all that the French have done for us. We’ve also forgotten that intelligent people can disagree, but that’s a topic for another post. Let’s look at what France has done for us.

 

They helped us win the Revolution. They gave us aid in arms, ammunition, funds, and troops. They sold us the Louisiana Purchase. Just think of all the red states that would not exist today without that land. On the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, they gave us the Statue of Liberty, one of our greatest symbols of freedom! So, they helped us win our freedom, sold us valuable land to continue our growth, and gave us one of the most renowned global symbols. But they wouldn’t participate in an ill-advised, elective war. I don’t think I got to the bottom of why we hate them, but I know why they hate us!

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Airplane, Torpedo, Machine Gun

Voldemom and the kids went to the San Diego Air and Space Museum yesterday. The museums in Balboa Park are free on Tuesdays and they are air conditioned. Education and comfort! Who could ask for anything more? As they explored, Maya began devising her own version of rock-paper-scissors based on the things in the museum. Hers is a two handed version. Airplane (palms facing you, hands crossed, thumbs linked such that your hands look like wings), Torpedo (palms touching, fingers straight, all fingers and thumbs pointing forward), and Machine Gun (palms touching, index fingers pointing forward, thumbs pointing upward, other fingers clasped). Airplane bombs torpedo. Torpedo blows up machine gun nest. Machine gun shoots down airplane. Pretty simple, right?

 

They were walking around the museum playing and Josh felt left out. They explained the game to him in detail. They taught him all the signs. Maya and Josh squared off for the confrontation. One-two-three-shoot! Maya threw torpedo. Josh threw scissors.

 

They had another round of rules discussions. They reviewed the signs. This time he had it. Josh was sure. Again they squared off. Again they stared each other down. One-two-three-shoot! This time, Maya threw machine gun. Josh threw his arms up and surrendered.  

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Happy Day-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named

That’s right, today is the birthday of She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. And if you think I can’t name her, then I’m sure you can guess that I can’t tell you how old she is. Actually, I doubt she’d care, but this is more fun. I also decided on a new nickname for her. This is not due to any actions on her so much as her current nickname. How about Voldemom? So, Happy Birthday Voldemom! We love you! Enjoy your new hammock!

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Admira-Bull

I’ve been waiting to do this until the pictures were up, but I need to give a shout out to one of my oldest and dearest friends. He is also the current title holder of “Coolest Person I Know”. Don’t be jealous. He’s just that good. He is my second oldest friend. We’ve been through high school and college together. He opted for the ROTC route and has done quite well. As a matter of fact, he is now the Commanding Officer for the USS Constitution.  Check him out with his crew in all their old-timey glory. And here is his personal photo. Congrats, Bull. I’m mighty proud of you, bro.

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Bit the bullet

I bit the bullet and upgraded my Blogger template. As such, many enhancements have disappeared. I’ll try to add them back. My main goal was to get the comments back to being reliable again. It looks like I have done that. So, I should be able to respond to some of the recent comments now. I was having trouble doing so recently. I’ll add the blogroll back next. Then the recent comments. Then any other widget that tickles my fancy.

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Would you rather?

I’m stealing a concept from my friend James over at Aces Full. Every week he poses a conundrum of the sort “Would you rather: X or Y”. Sometimes it is a question of having something. Sometimes it is a question of doing something. I thought of one recently based on a personal situation and decided to throw it out to my viewers. I’ve modified it slightly from what actually happened to try to reflect a more objective mind set as opposed to my interpretation of events. Here goes.

Would you rather:

· Stand up for what you believe is right if doing so has even a small possibility of posing a major risk (financial, emotional, social) to you and your family.

· Allow a grave injustice to pass at a smaller personal cost, but a potentially larger cost to society

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she-who-must-not-be-named.com

Ok, a bit of a contradiction here. Or perhaps this is a concession that you can’t always avoid having your name on the internet. She-who-is-looking-to-reenter-the-workforce has created a website for her teaching portfolio. Ok. I created a website for her portfolio, but she created the portfolio. I just converted it from the school’s content management system (which is lousy) to Microsoft’s free Office Live (which is less lousy, but still pretty lousy). I was looking for free and easy and got that more or less. It came at the cost of flexibility and functionality.

 

The purpose of this site is to allow principals who are given her application and the URL to see what she has done and is capable of. Apparently, none of them look at it, but you have to either have a print version or a CD version. I was unsuccessful at a multi-format auto launch CD (since people can turn that feature off), so I came up with the idea of a website.

 

I wouldn’t mind a little review from my friends. I can only find so many bugs before I start to interpret what I see. If you want to look, go to she-who-must-not-be-named.com. I tinyurl’d it for obfuscation, so you’ll have to trust me that I am not trying to mess with you.

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The Papaya Decade

Today marks a full decade of Maya! Happy Birthday, kiddo. About this time 10 years ago, She-who-was-well-into-labor was recounting her conversation with dead relatives to all of us in the delivery room. Although, that was east coast time. So, if we are dealing with GMT, contractions were in full swing and the medical staff were ignoring her requests for an epidural as it was far too late for that. Tonight, we celebrate with Red Brick pizza, Cold Stone ice cream cake, and Harry Potter. And about 22 friends and their families. Expecto Pandamonium!

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I Has a Post

Ok. I haven't posted in a while again. Not as long as my last while, but still. Stuff going on. I know. There's always stuff going on. I'm a magnet. Or a catalyst. Or a well dressed digestive enzyme. Anyway, here's some LOLcat fun I found to distract you in the meantime?

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