Many years ago, Ted Bundy was executed. While I'm not particularly a fan of capital punishment, some executions disturb me less than others, and Bundy's was one of those. I believe that most Americans would generally agree with me on that point. It would have been utterly disturbing to imagine someone going into Bundy's cell to ask him what he wanted, and how we could have accomodated his wishes. Bundy deserved no such consideration, and the mere suggestion that he did would have evoked a LOT...
Well, yesterday was the full day of the Woody Guthrie Tribute in the city nearest us. I had played the night before, as I noted earlier, but unfortunately had to spend my day until 1:00 pm working behind the tech support desk at work to get my hours in. A slow day, really, but I'd have much rather been at the Tribute. But when you've got bills to pay, you've got bills to pay. After picking up the family, the guitar, and all of the assorted accessories to go with both, we headed back to town. ...
While I will readily concede that extremes of virtually all points of view can be damaging in certain contexts, I must take issue with the current fad of drawing a moral equivalency between an extremist Christian church in America and an extremist Muslim mosque in the middle east. In America, we have the luxury of living where the vast majority of Muslims you will encounter are as peace loving and amiable as practioners of any faith, and of those who practice no faith whatsoever. On the whole...
As most of you who have read me regularly know, I am a pretty big Woody Guthrie fan. I also live near the community where Woody lived for 8 years, and learned to play in the drug store. So, for me, last night was truly an honor. To get there, I have to take you back a bit. You probably have not heard the names Bill Murlin or Carl Allen, but Murlin was an employee of the Bonneville Power Administration, for whom Woody wrote 26 songs in 30 days to promote the building of the Grand Coulee D...
I obviously haven't been online much lately. Reason? Because I am currently seeing just how much stress one person can take before exploding like a giant ball of aluminum foil in a microwave. Going back to school, new job, play in production (opening next week) and the campaign are a lot on anyone's plate, plain and simple. The fact that I am typing this from work should make it painfully clear that I am not overburdened with tech support calls, and I've read through the training manual 5,673...
Yesterday as I was typing out job tickets at work, it occurred to me how grateful I am for modern computers. You see, it was after backspacing over several half sentences and copying/pasting several phrases that I realized the simple fact that, in a technical sense, I am a pretty substandard typist. Sure, I can produce words at approximately 50 wpm, but that's with much error correcting. Back "in the day", I would have needed a 55 gallon drum of whiteout just to make it through the month. ...
I subscribe to a freecycle group for our area. For those unfamiliar with the concept, freecycle is basically where you post the junk you're giving away in the hopes that someone will peruse the page and decide they need it. It's kinda like a trailer trash version of craigslist. Sometimes the postings get a little surreal. I have seen people posts requests for beds, cars, outbuildings, and even houses, expecting other people to just hand them over. But our freecycle group is fairly inactive, w...
As the election season heats up, I am repeatedly asked about my position on school vouchers. While I've always favored the idea of vouchers, over the last couple of months my position has solidified. One of the primary reasons why is the fact that we already HAVE vouchers in a universal system, and not only that, they are EXTREMELY effective. The problem is, with our labelling system, we call them by a different name. You see, the federal financial aid system for higher education IS a vouc...
*grumble, grumble* I've never been a cat hater, but our cats are sure pushing me to the edge. They're good with the kids, and good tempered, but the last two nights have been en exercise in sleep deprivation with these moronic felines. I don't mind a cat climbing up and curling up at my feet. But two nights in a row have seen one of the kittens repeatedly climbing up, walking up and putting its face in mine, sitting next to me and digging its claws into my bare chest, and other things that...
Dr. Guy wrote a piece on the leader of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or, the FLDS, a Mormon splinter group that most in both the Mormon community and the larger Christian community at large consider to be a cult. In response, a blogger who is a member of the Salt Lake City based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the group known to most of us as "the Mormons") stated that Warren Jeffs was not a Mormon. I take issue with this statement, although it is comm...
As I wind down my tenure as a "media distribution specialist" (or, in layman's terms, "paper boy"), I will have to show the people who will be taking over my routes exactly what the route entails. For the entire time I have had these routes, I have had one route that was hard to fill before I got there, and will be hard to keep filled after. Yesterday, I had to show the young lady who is considering the route what to do. Now, to get up to date with this story, I'm going to have to take you ba...
In the past, I've written about our neighbours' great grandchildren. These are young boys, 8 and 6, and they're generally pretty good kids, but they are, nonetheless, kids. They have a tent set up in our neighbours' yard, and have asked on a couple of occasions if our girls can sleep over in the tent. The girls are 11, 8, 6, and 4. Now, I now some would consider me old fashioned, but 'm a litte concerned about children of differing genders sharing a tent without adult supervision. Add...
Over the last few months, the "news" that Reggie Bush and his family received cash and gifts during his tenure at USC has dominated the headlines of sports. The problem is, as with any other high profile athlete, these stories are revealing "secrets" that most of the rest of us already knew: college athletes are essentially lower paid pros. Schools for years have reaped the windfalls that these athletes bring. A serious Heisman trophy candidate can bring nationally broadcast games to the comm...
As Moderateman mentioned on his blog, there is a movement afoot in California to revise all textbooks to include the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual historical figures. Because of the need to "create" enough people in those categories to draw interest, the homosexual community is basically defining a number of historical people as gay simply because they believed they might be. In the interest of historical accuracy, I would like to state here and now that I would like...
I've done a lot of thinking on LW's article on "Self Sufficiency, or Abuse?" Not so much on her article itself, but on many of the responses that followed. In the article, LW related a documentary she had seen on "hidden homeless" women, and on the fact that the women chose to raise their children in a van despite knowing they were eligible for various forms of public assistance. Now, it's no secret I'm frugal. In fact, I've written more on it than anyone else has. But I found a couple of res...