The Irish Woman and I took Junior Bear up to Indiana University Southeast for a visit on Saturday morning. Baby Bear went to one of the Irish Woman’s surrogate mothers for the morning, and we made our way up to the wilds of Southern Indiana. The drive up was pleasant, but I think there must be a bounty up on my head in Indiana, because every Hoosier I came across tried to kill me with their vehicle.

The campus and programs at IUS are really nice. Junior Bear got to meet the head of the Math/CS department, and they spent the better part of half an hour talking. Much better than when I tried to find out about programs at Cal when I was in high school. All I got was a quick blurb about the program and assurances that I wouldn’t get in.

IUS has been around for a while, but it seems that all of the existing structures are relatively new. Junior really liked the dorm, which are basically a set of 2 or 4 bedroom apartments. Each set gets at least one private bathroom and a kitchenette.

Junior Bear is pretty stoked about the place at the moment, and I made pains to point out how inexpensive a bachelors degree would be at IUS when compared to the other state schools he’s considering, much less the private universities he’s interested in.

Hopefully he’ll make a good decision on where to go to school. It’ll be the first major one he makes as an adult.

The other day, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK gave several small, but significant gifts to President Obama as a token of the long standing friendship between the UK and the US.

Mr. Brown’s gifts included a pen holder made from wood from a British ship that was used to try to shut down the Aftican slave trade in the 19th century. For a man who identifies himself as African-American, and whose wife and children are the descendants of African slaves, it must be very significant. The White House maintains that the pen holder is kept on the president’s desk.

In return for this and other emotionally significant gifts that were tailored to Mr. Obama’s sense of history and the significance of the relationship between our countries, Mr. Brown was presented with 25 DVD’s of classic American films.

That’s right, in exchange for articles of hugely symbolic significance, we gave Britain movies. Not only that, but Mr. Brown is blind in one eye and has some sight problems in the other, so movies are a less than optimal choice.

What, was Taste of Kentucky not open last weekend? Heck, he could have put together a basket with Bourbon (he is a Scot, after all), a Louisville Slugger, maybe a bottle of wine, and it wouldn’t have been any less inappropriate than this. Heck, he could have thrown in a talking Billy Bass and I would not feel any less shocked.

We’ve been allied with Great Britain for more than a century. We’ve fought multiple wars with Britain on our side. When the rest of the world is thumbing our noses at us, we can count on at least getting a kind word out of the UK.

And we give their Prime Minister movies as a gift to signify what that relationship means to us.

Of course, the public in the UK is horrified with this. And I don’t blame him.

What’s he going to give Queen Elizabeth when he meets with her later this year? A vintage Def Leppard Union Jack t-shirt?

We have enough problems in the world without insulting our friends. The President should issue a formal apology to the UK and make an effort to do better in his relations with our allies in the future.

From Are We Lumberjacks:

Despite the recession, Microsoft is planning to open retail stores to compete with Apple.

Microsoft says that their stores will be just like Apple stores … except the staff will freeze when you ask them a question.

I’d have also said that when you wanted to put up new posters for products, you had to lock the store up and shut off the lights for a few moments.

Or that the cash register would have no lock, and would be located out in the mall instead of behind a secured counter.

Or that every so often, thieves would dress up as store employees, take your money, and then make off with your credit card reciepts. None of the other employees would notice or do anything to stop this.

Saw this over at Alphecca.

Apparently, a coffee preparer at a Washington DC Starbucks shot himself in the leg at work the other day. Actually pulled a Burris on himself right there at the counter.

Jeff asks if the people at Starbucks actually call themselves a Barista, and the story he links to asks the question why a Barista might want to bring a gun to work.

To answer Jeff, their title is Barista. I’m not sure what they call themselves. I call them the guys behind the counter who bring me my hot bean juice.

As to why a Barista might want to bring a gun to work, have the “journalists” who wrote the article never been to a Starbucks during the early morning rush? If I had to put up with a never ending crowd of angry, jonesing coffee monkeys who aren’t happy with my speed of pouring them their fix, I’d come armed.

Heck, I might come to work with a pistol, a machete, and a couple of torches to keep them at bay.

Did you know that if you leave a cough drop on the console of your car overnight when it drops below 10 degrees, and pop said cough drop in your 98.6 degree mouth first thing in the morning as you start the car, the cough drop will immediately shatter, sending a migraine-inducing cracking sound through your skull and filling your mouth with menthol-lyptus shards?

Neither did I before this morning.

Saturday evening, all of the kids were either out of the house or asleep early. Irish Woman and I actually got to sit through an entire movie without interruptions.

We ended up watching Goodfellas. The Irish Woman had never actually watched the entire movie, and she found it interesting. I’ll have to rent the full movie for her someday.

Then on Sunday morning, AMC ran a Clint Eastwood western marathon. We got to see “Hang Em High” and “For a Few Dollars More”. We stayed home on Sunday morning because I felt like death warmed over, but we at least got to watch a couple of classic westerns. I haven’t see Dollars for almost 20 years, and it’s the only movie I can remember where Lee van Cleef is a good guy.

Junior Bear and a friend went to see “Taken” on Saturday night, and he highly recommends that I check it out. I may just do that next time I can get away for a couple of hours.

This will remind you why normal human beings shouldn’t have root or administrator priveleges.

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing” has caused me more problems over the years than anything else.

Saturday was a good day at the range.

The weather was dry, but it was overcast, cold, and a sharp wind made me wish I’d brought my gloves.

I finally worked the kinks out of one of my guns, and I did some practice with off hand shooting. I discovered that I need a lot more practice with off-hand shooting.

We stayed at the range for about 2 hours before good sense took over and we packed up. It started raining ice and snow an hour or so later, so I think that was a good decision.

Only two friends braved the cold, but we had a good time. We will definitely be doing it again when spring finally rears its ugly head.

From the Onion Radio News:

“Norway Returns to Pillage-Based Economy”

Sharpen the axe, prepare the longships, and get me a map of Ireland. I’ve finally found my calling.

The Kentucky State Auditor has found a whole bunch of bad spending lately.

First, they announce that the city of Louisville has mishandled millions of dollars, some of it federal grants that had to be spent or lost. Mayor for Life Abramson had to appear on the news, drenched in flopsweat, and tell us how he’s just as surprised as anyone and how he’s going to get this fixed.

Then today, it’s announced that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been used to pay for strip clubs, NASCAR driving lessons, guns, and video games by authorities at the Lexington airport.

Since I moved to Louisville, 2 of the 3 governors of Kentucky have either been disgraced, or indicted, or both.

I’m no longer even surprised when some politician in Kentucky gets caught with his pants down or her pockets lined with dirty cash. I’m of the opinion that we need to start importing our politicians from Chicago in order to clean things up a little bit.

Signs that your politicians are dirty:

1. Her boob size is a larger number than her IQ, but she started out flat as an ironing board.
2. His new SUV costs more than the addition to your local school.
3. All of a sudden, her mama is debt free.
4. He has more 5 punches on his loyalty card with the local Gulfstream dealership.
5. That local school addition cost $2 million, but it’s principal components are used FEMA trailers and new sidewalks.