“I don’t have pet peeves.  I have serious psychotic hatreds” – George Carlin

“I don’t give a F***.  God sent me to p*** the world off” – Eminem

In Ventura, California, there’s a small park that used to be a cemetery.  In order to make “better use” of the land, the city fathers decided to remove the headstones and turn it into a public park. 

Read that again.  They hauled off the headstones, but didn’t remove the human remains that the headstones were placed to memorialize.  When I was a kid, I was taught early that you don’t walk across graves.  It’s disrespectful, and I wouldn’t want someone to run around over my grave, so I don’t do it to other people.

One of the remaining headstones is for Pvt. James Sumner.  Pvt. Sumner was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Grant for actions he took while fighting Apaches in Arizona Territory.  Today, his grave is open for anyone who is using the park to run across, let their dog use as a toilet, or have a picnic.

Here’s the money quote:

“We are treating him pretty darn well, except for the poop,”

The good people of Ventura seem to be good hearted, but absolutely clueless about respect for the dead.  

 “The people who use the park are the most reverent, in my opinion. Sometimes, people will come up and pick up my dog’s poop before I have a chance,” said Beverly Karbum, 58, who was walking her Australian shepherd Roxanne.

OK, for a moment, let’s forget that this cemetery holds the final resting place of a military hero.  Let’s just say it contains the mortal remains of several thousand human beings, who were laid to rest there.  Why in the name of all that is holy did the city of Ventura think it would be a good idea to take away the grave markers, leave the remains, and let people walk their dogs over the top of it, even if they are going to clean up what the dogs leave behind?

And it’s even worse that the grave of a man who earned our nation’s highest honor is being desecrated.  Some veterans want to move his grave to a veterans’ cemetery in Bakersfield, but that leaves behind the thousands of graves that are being walked on.

If Ventura wants to make this land a general use park, then they should move all of the graves, bodies included, to another location where they will be protected.  Failing that, they should fence off the area where the graves are located, and add parkland adjacent to the cemetery.  All of the grave markers should be placed back over their original graves, and the people of Ventura should learn how to show respect for the dead.

H/T to Spike over at the GBC.

Old glasses aren’t helping that much, still getting headaches, and my left eye doesn’t want to seem to focus well with or without glasses. 

I just made an appointment for a new exam and glasses.  Updates to follow.  I just don’t want to look like this again:

Girlie Bear isn’t the chubby toddler I see in my mind’s eye when I think of her.

She turns 12 later this week.  She’s tall, getting curvy, and has long legs.She’s discovered toenail polish and she and Irish Woman have delved into the world of tasteful application of make-up on special occasions.

She went shopping with her aunt on Sunday and came back not with toys, but with a new dress, matching pumps, and a new purse.  The dress is very pretty and flattering to her without making her look like a street walker, but it’s a long way from the little bubble dresses we used to dress her in so she could go play with her brothers.

I’m doing everything I can to prepare her and myself for the day when the boys come sniffing around.  I’ve tried to make her a confident, self-assured young woman that won’t let anyone treat her poorly.  I’ve kept the lines of communication between us open, and encouraged her to talk to Irish Woman about stuff that she doesn’t want to discuss with her dad.

However, when she put on that dress to show us on Sunday evening, I knew my little toddler image was definitely no longer accurate.  Now, I know I need lots and lots of guns.  I need to get back in shape so that no boy will entertain thoughts of hurting her due to his sense of self preservation.

And I need to learn how to let her grow up without pushing her out of the nest too quickly and without smothering her.  Push too hard and she’ll be dumped into the deep end in a pool full of sharks.  Hold on too long and I’ll either driver her away or make her hesitant when she has to be independent. 

Of course, I can see myself doing something like this:

H/T to Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal for cheering up a grumpy father.

Well,  it’s been two days.  No eye strain. No headaches.  Everyone has gotten the comments of “Gee, you’re blind!” out of their systems at work.  BooBoo has successfully smudged them on only one occasion. 

On the plus side, I can see again.  On the negatives, falling asleep with your glasses on while you’re reading is painful.

Shame on the police at the national mall in Washington DC. A group of students was moved to begin singing the Star Spangled Banner while visiting the Lincoln Memorial. They were quickly shushed by Officer Friendly because they were in a ‘content neutral’ area.

Riddle me this Batman. If it’s not appropriate to sing patriotic songs near memorials to our national heroes and war dead, exactly where is it appropriate?

The official who commented in the story said that the area was off limits so that other visitors wouldn’t be bothered and could just be tourists, and that would be how president Lincoln would have wanted it. Someone needs to tell the tourists that those piles of stone weren’t erected for their entertainment. And something tells me Honest Abe, who asked for Dixie to be played on the White House lawn after making a speech about the end of the Civil War, would not have objected.

1. You can complain that your husband doesn’t do enough of the yard work, or you can complain that you were stuck in the house all morning while he went out and mowed, trimmed, weeded, and cut down for 3 hours.  You can’t complain about both.
2. If you write a PERL module, please write the documentation so that the users will know which function to call.  Bonus if you provide code samples.  Minuses if the titles to your functions don’t describe what they do.
3. There are few better ways to begin a Monday morning than a cup of hot coffee and a bowl of Life cereal.
4. If you go to the zoo, and it’s 90 degrees in the shade, don’t complain that all the animals are just sitting around.   If you don’t feel like running around in your front yard to entertain passers-by, then why should the animals?
5. Dropping a check into the printer can make it hard to deposit.

The Hall of Fame Game is beginning!

And yes, I do believe I am ready for some football, thank you.

I saw this over at JRebel‘s, so I thought I’d try it out:

Funny thing is, I’m not even close to being the nerdiest guy in my office.  How’d y’all do?