Paul was right: Better that a man never marry.

Cowboys: No Longer 'America's Team'

Texans going wild with 'secession fever,' bumper stickers everywhere
I'll just go on record in full support of Texas Secession.

Just think... we can say... "yeah, well that George Bush and that Lyndon Johnson guy didn't really count cuz they weren't one of us, ya know?

Them Cowboys, too. Hate them all out..."

Maybe we can get Oklahoma to join them, though I'd really miss certain parts of greater Fort Smith. (That be the parts without Injuns in them, O.K?)

Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon

The Bears tore it up against the Vikings today. I guess they were a little pissed off from the hosing the 49'rs handed them last Monday.
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As I type this, the Packers are getting their asses handed to them by the Giants. Bears will linger in first place a little longer. This is good.
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Funerals and mortuary services are highly expensive items that will leave your survivors reeling. Corpse handlers want their money upfront, not next month when policies and shit are cashed in.  Keep that in mind.

My advice to each and every one of you:
Stop whatever the hell you think you might be saving up for... and plow that money into some sort of burial fund, and purchase a grave in advance.
Seriously... you owe it to your bereaved ones.
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I don't write much about politics anymore because I no longer trust any single source of information. I feel that both parties are more akin to the Hatfields and McCoys crossed with the Gambinos, Crips and Bloods, who use their supporters as stooges in a game where only the insiders are supposed to win.
If you are a partisan, you are also a stooge.
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"Cap and Trade" is here, in California, as of last week or so...
I'm wondering how much longer til my employer decides to make boxes in Arizona instead.
He already does, of course, and previous expansions also took place in Arizona as opposed to California, where the customers are.
Right now, it's currently better for business to manufacture much of it 'there' and truck it to 'here'.
The question at this point is not 'how much more', but 'how much longer until it all goes'.
For the record: all of the 'Union, pro-worker' candidates and ballot initiatives passed this month, again, as always... so at least we got that going for us....
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Am I the only one who saw the sprinklers go off during the Sea Hawks-Dolphins game and immediately thought of a Buffalo Wild Wings commercial?

I Love You, Daddy!

This week I lost a dedicated fan as well as a dear friend: Last Monday morning, while I was away in Georgia, my Father-in-law ( I called him 'Daddy'), stopped breathing and passed on to the other side.

A Father-in-law who saw no flaw in this new face in his family.
In his eyes, I could do no wrong. (as my wife sneers: Cause yer shit don't stink!)

People can talk about love, acceptance, and all that... but if you ain't given it, you don't believe in it.
Daddy believed in it... he lived it...  a Christian Gentleman of the Old School, Texas style.

He and I became exceptionally close the last few years, as he became weaker and I became more 'there' so to speak...
We had some moments, I tell ya...
Moments I'd rather not repeat, but will do all over again if it means he would still be with us.

Every night, I'd tuck him in, kiss his forehead and say "G'nite Daddy, Love you" and he'd respond: "And I love you." in that heartfelt, central-Texas accent, where you know he meant it.

Today, the house seems so empty without him.
I will hear his voice and feel his love for as long I live...

But ya know...
I am not always who I try to be...
Often times, I ain't hardly trying that hard to begin with, if at all...
But I got 'this'.
When the wife is less-than-impressed with me, I simply say: 'Talk to Daddy'...

End of discussion.
I do take it.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Make the most of it.
Enjoy the family and the friendships...
Take the time to look around you, and realize just what those other morons mean in your life...
Cause the day may/will come when some of them will be absent from the table.
Get that, ok?

Around here, we're just getting through it best we could (as in, not very well.)...  cause this week kinda sucks.

Excuse the lack of me for another week. I'm in Georgia stuffing a couple of freezers for families who could use the help. Funny, I hunt harder when it's for others. If it's just me having a good time, I slack off more...

Nuttiness

Ever since The Surgical Event of 2008, one of my favorite companions had become an unwilling foe. I love chocolate bars. Chocolate bars have always loved me back.
It used to be, anyway...
Due to circumstances, we no longer spend time together.

I'm O.K. with it, I've moved on...


Yet, it is moments like these that remind...
...Of what once was.

<<<<  You see that, right? A ONE FULL POUND of Snickers. It's like Heaven has arrived.



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I don't care what anybody thinks, not one State will be leaving the Union so suck it up and get over it.

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 Figurines of President Barack Obama are appearing in Nativity scenes in shops in Naples, Italy for the Christmas season. LINK

Personally, I think one of these would be more appropriate.

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Not-so-discreet affairs, sexual harassment, shirtless photos, explicit emails...
Am I the only one getting the impression that our Intelligence Community has all the intelligence the junior college community?

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I've been reading and hearing about the many things that the GOP could do to save itself after this year's loss. For starters, it has not exactly been a 'Win' for the Democrats, either.
The division of government remains the same... nobody gained/lost anything. The President, for all the week's swagger, seems to have very short coattails.

This should have been a Presidential pick up for the GOP given the state of the economy... but it wasn't.
(Then again, maybe the Democrats can claim a 'Win' based upon their economic suckage. How's that? 'We suck so hard, and you guys still lost.' Not exactly braggadocio, if you ask me...)

What it means is anybody's guess, but if it meant a groundswell swing to the Democrats, I would expect the House and Senate to have felt that same groundswell. It did not. Gains were modest, more modest than to be expected given the President's plurality.

My suggestion for the GOP: decide what you stand for, and follow through after being elected. How's that for something new you can try out? (Oh, and leave the Gays alone... they ain't hurtin anybody.)

The way I see it: If you can't keep you're own affair a secret, you have no business governing a team of spooks.

Improving The Electoral College

The talk of getting rid of the Electoral College happens every four years. Replacing it with a straight popular vote would give too much power to heavily populated cities, doing away with much of the republican nature of the process.

Still, i think it's easy to see the current formulation has deep flaws when only a few states can combine to form the needed 270 (Hey, for the sake of diversity, be grateful that California and Texas aren't likely to see eye to eye anytime soon), or 'the math' requires the entire campaign to be fought within a narrow geographical region, giving a few voters an inordinate amount of power.

My solution is simple:
Whichever candidate wins a Congressional district, he will be awarded the corresponding Electoral delegate. The candidate who wins the state-wide plurality will receive the other two delegates.

This would do away with the Winner-Take-All approach that creates a sizable advantage for the barest of pluralities within larger states, leading to some better results all around.
- A Democrat voter in Texas and a GOP voter in California will find his vote mattering for change.
- It spreads the game out, requiring a candidate to speak to voters in Washington, Idaho and Boston.
-Chicago's dead will be less likely to play a role in an outcome when all they will do is add to the total of the district they were machined in. This eliminates ballot stuffing, accusations of cheating, and Florida recounts.
- More folks would be inclined to bother voting know that their vote has a better chance of mattering. (Imagine where the citizens of Illinois and Oklahoma were as equally involved in their government as those in Ohio.)
-It may lead to better government all around if minority party affiliations were able to increase their involvement, remaining as a steady (or at least steadier) threat to the status quo.

I think Brian offers up the best summation about a few things that befuddle me not just this election season, but previous ones as well.

It's a good read.

OK, its' like this:
If you wear a Green Day t-shirt with an Obama pin, you are establishment, corporate pop.
Not punk.

Get that, yeah?

Thoughts

I know a few kids (not really kids in their early 20's, i guess) who would willingly shovel shit for $5 and hour, if only such a job existed. It's sad.
Never in my life have I seen a job market this non-existent, and thank God every day that I still manage to hold on to the employment that have.

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I remember the Jimmy Carter years better than I'd like to. No way in hell any sane person would expect his re-election once an opponent got the chance to make his own case. Lucky for us, that man just happened to be Ronald Reagan instead of somebody with less vision.

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Given what I know about the current state of economic affairs it is a fools bet to think that President Obama should win re-election.
Sanity, from my perspective, would predict a Romney landslide.
Given that Romney is Romney, and lot's of folks don't really like what passes for the GOP image these days, I would change that 'should be a landslide victory' terminology to denote a lesser victory, yet still a decisive one. Maybe a 100 point electoral advantage, as opposed to Reagan's much larger one.

All this aside, I'm still pretty positive that we will have a President Obama for four more years. I just don't see somebody who holds messianic status among so many (a foolish, stupid many, ok?) finding himself out of office.
There is too much at stake for them.
It can't happen.

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USC Trojans hosted the Oregon Ducks today.
It is always a good day when USC is served a loss. Such a day is even better when it is served up by Oregon in Los Angeles.
Oregon Ducks, my favorite college team, is 9-0.
I like that.
I like that almost as much as I hate USC.

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Chicago Bears are 6-1. Yeah, how cool is that?
The only problem I see for the Bears is that being 6-1 against six teams with losing records anyway is not big deal.
Not A Big Deal is made worse when the one loss comes at the hands of Green Bay, their only opponent that posseses any stones of their own at 5-3.
(Well, ok, the Colts are 4-3... not like that is bragging rights with a rookie QB so early in the season...)

The Offense still struggles and at many times appears to be out-right castrated. Castrated Offenses do not survive the play offs. That's just the way it is.

And it really hurts that it was Green Bay that delivered that one loss.
WTF?

I'm just hoping that the Bears O pulls it together lest that they be destined to finish the season as Green Bay's bitch once again.
Because that would suck.

Convo With A Family Member:

ME: When did you know the baby wasn't yours?

THEM: When it came out Black.

Oy!