• Archives

  • Topics

  • Meta

  • The Boogeyman - Working Vacation
  • Coming Home
  • Via Serica

Movie Quotes – Day 342

You say you hate Washington’s Birthday or Thanksgiving and nobody cares, but you say you hate Christmas and people treat you like you’re a leper. — Gremlins

You know, admitting to friends and family that I dislike the Christmas season is usually more jarring than telling anti-gun in-laws that I have a pistol on my belt.  Even complete strangers seem aghast that I don’t walk around wrapped in tinsel and singing old Burl Ives ditties.

Please, enjoy your holiday, but leave me out of it.  We’ll all be happier that way.

Today’s Earworm

It’s going to be one of those nights.

Movie Quotes – Day 341

Private George E. Elliott: [Telephone conversation from the radar station to the Information Center]

Private George E. Elliott: Sir, this is Private Elliott at Opana Point. There’s a large formation of planes coming in from the north – 140 miles, 3 degrees east.

Lieutenant Kermit A. Tyler: Yeah? Well… Don’t worry about it.

Lieutenant Kermit A. Tyler: [Click!]

Tora, Tora, Tora

There is a fine line between believing everything that comes down the pipe and disregarding something important.  A professional knows what is normal, and what is not.  Having your eyes open and your head on a swivel means nothing if you disregard the warning signs.

A Day, Which Will Live In Infamy….

Movie Quotes – Day 340

Oh, Christmas isn’t just a day, it’s a frame of mind… and that’s what’s been changing. — Miracle on 34th Street

If you’ve been hanging around here for more than a few months, you’re probably aware that I’m not a Christmas person. The religious aspect of the holiday is a good reminder for me, and I do enjoy the time I get to spend with the kids and Irish Woman.  But Santa Claus, tinsel in every available nook and cranny, and all the noise, noise, noise, noise, noise makes me want to drive my truck into a railroad abutment. It’s getting out of hand.  One of our local radio stations went to pre-programmed Christmas music before Halloween this year, which means that it joins the one that went over prior to Thanksgiving last year on the list of things I don’t listen to anymore.

Look, if you truly feel that there should be peace on earth and good will toward men, then act like it after December 26.  If you want a couple of weeks of good behavior under your belt to salve your conscience for being an absolute prat all year long, go for it.  But at least have the integrity to admit that Christmas is an excuse to shop, and not a state of mind.

Today’s Earworm

Today is the 81st anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition in the United States, so I thought I’d celebrate with a little drinking music.

As a plus, this is Christmas music for people like me who aren’t looking forward to doing the next few weeks sober.

Movie Quotes – Day 339

Is this gonna be a standup fight, sir, or another bughunt? — Aliens

It is amazing what people can accomplish when they know that their task will achieve something.  Nothing is so corrosive than to give a task to a group that they know to be pointless.  Tell us what we need to do and why it’s important, and then all you have to do is stand back and be amazed by the results.

Blogs Roundup

  •  Captain Tightpants talks about the growing divide between those who have served the nation and those who have not.  I’ve also thought a lot about this, both from a personal and a political side.  Veterans have to be woven back into the fabric of their society, or both they and the society suffer.   Unfortunately, the number of threads for that weave have dwindled so far that I’m afraid it might not be possible.
  • Roberta X has a new installment in her “I Work On A Starship” series, and it’s an excellent read.
  • Sarah A. Hoyt discusses the need to always fight back, because losing a fight is better than being a meek victim.
  • Nate Hale makes good points about the current trend in crude oil prices and their impact on American production.

Movie Quotes – Day 338

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men. — Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

I’ll admit it, I’m a goof.  My sense of humor can be called dark at times, but I’ve never heard it called high-brow.  Letting go of your maturity and letting loose with a good laugh does wonders.  More people ought to try it.

News Roundup

  • From the “Pistols for the Privates” Department –  Smith and Wesson has teamed up with General Dynamics to compete for the contract to manufacture the next-generation sidearm for the United States military.  Currently, the standard military pistol is the M-9 family of 9mm handguns from Beretta, but that design has been in use for almost 30 years, and a lot of improvement in handguns has occurred since then.  Smith and Wesson brings over 150 years of experience in making quality firearms to the table, while General Dynamics brings decades of knowing which politicians to groom, where to put the factories, and how to work government contracts.  This new effort is, of course, bringing up the 9mm versus .45 debate, the pistol versus short-barreled carbine debate, and the John Moses Browning, PBUH, versus everyone else in the history of firearms, past, present, and future, debate.
  • From the “Pot Meets Kettle” Department – Kim Jong Un, North Korean dictator and author of the Hangul best seller “Fat, Frisky, and Ferocious:  A DPRK Love Story”, has called Americans “cannibals and brutal murderers seeking pleasure in slaughter” while visiting a museum dedicated to a supposed massacre of Korean civilians during the Korean War.  The Glorious Leader made the statement while seated on a throne made from the bones of North Korean peasants.  Afterward, he treated himself to a lunch comprised completely with food grown by the prisoners of his extensive penal colonies, with the highlight being a soup made from the tears of the generations of North Korean children who will be stunted by repression and starvation.  In related news, North Koreans are not allowed to name their children “Kim Jong Un”, or to use the name of his father or grandfather.  Those who already have the name are being ‘asked’ to change it.  My sources report that the top name chosen by those who change their name is “Slave”.
  • From the “Secret Lairs” Department – A video taken outside of a Google office in London purports to show a “beam of static electricity” emanating from the facility.  The video shows the hair on one man’s head raising on its own, and includes audio and video static before cutting out.  A Google representative, Zorgon the Horrific, responded that the video is a fake, all is well, and we should pay no attention to the gnomes that have been seen digging up the sidewalk in front of the fortress complex.
  • From the “First You Say It” Department – Authorities in London are replacing a pane of glass on the new see-through section of a bridge after it shattered.  It appears that someone dropped a glass beer bottle on it, then someone walked across it in high heels.  There was no real danger, since this was only one layer of five, but the pucker factor in central London that night was reported to have been elevated to 11.
  • From the “Nobody Rides for Free” Department – Russian authorities are investigating after video of airline passengers helping to push their plane after it became frozen to the ground.  Local conditions included a temperature of -61 F.  For those of you who live in balmy Minnesota, that’s cold enough to have to put on two pairs of long johns and your snowmobile suit.  Apparently the passengers weren’t too worried about any damage their efforts could do to the airplane, but then again, they were flying in a TU-134, so problems with equipment aren’t at the top of their concerns.
  • From the “Nothing to See Here” Department – Hey, kids, guess how much it costs to become ambassador to Hungary!  If you said almost $3 million in direct and bundled donations to President Obama’s electoral war chest, you win a cookie!  Apparently that, along with being the producer for a soap opera, qualifies you to be the chief representative to an ally in a region that is heating up.  In related news, not being able to speak Spanish, nor ever visiting Argentina, does not disqualify you from being our ambassador to that nation.  Now why would we want to send qualified diplomats to places like that?  It’s not like anything important could happen there, now could it?
  • From the “Two Americas” Department – Police in St. Louis are refusing to describe the alleged murder of a Bosnian immigrant by four black teenagers as a hate crime.  Rather they characterize it as a “crime of opportunity”, even though the group is alleged to have attacked another Bosnian immigrant earlier that evening.  No word yet from Al Sharpton, President Obama, or Attorney General Holder.
  • From the “Darwin” Department – A recent study has concluded that ridden toys, such as scooters and miniature electric vehicles, are the most dangerous toys on the market.   Next runner-up on the list were toys that can be a choking hazard to babies and toddlers.  Is this where I point out that the best Christmas present I ever got was a wood burning tool, and that I remember epic Jarts games at my grandmother’s home?
  • From the “Catch 22” Department – The IRS has responded to a request for any communications between the IRS and the White House about the tax returns of political opponents by acknowledging that such documents exist, but cannot be disclosed because they contain private information.  So, basically, the IRS cannot disclose what private information was communicated between the IRS and the Obama administration, which may constitute a crime, because to do so would expose the private information and break the law.  And people wonder why the approval rating for the government in general, and the White House in particular, is so low.