Mid-term elections are heating up.  Locally, we’ve got a Senate seat being given up by the retiring Jim Bunning (R) being contested by Jack Conway (D) and Rand Paul (R).  Of course, our Representative, Jim Yarmuth, is up for re-election, and for the life of me I can’t remember who’s running against him.  Hmmmm, that doesn’t bode well for the GOP in that race.  Gonna have to do some homework there.

From the Democratic side, I’m hearing a lot of “The Republicans are evil!  Bush caused all this! Hope and Change is working!  More stimulus!  Tax the rich!  Pay off the poor!”.

From the Republicans, it goes “Obama is a moron!  We’re circling the drain!  Cut Spending!  Lower taxes!”

From what I can see, the issues that I care about are, in no particular order:

1. Economics – Get the government out of the private sector and let the market figure out which companies (Auto manufacturers, banks, mortgage lenders) deserve to survive.  Quit giving my money (I earned it, and it was taken from me while I was looking down the barrel of a tax law) to fund the latest pandering of either party to their political base.  It’s a simple formula.  Let me keep more of my money, and I promise to spend it or invest it wisely and pay taxes on the income from the investment.
2. The War – Yes, our combat troops are out of Iraq, at least for now.  But if you try to tell me that the Iraqi security forces are cohesive and competent enough to keep that country from sliding back down into the sewer, I’ll call you a blue faced baboon of a liar and a fool.  We’ll either repeat our mistake in Vietnam of just leaving and not getting involved as that country fell to our opponents, or we’ll be back in a year or so.  As for Afghanistan, are we following the right strategy to bring the people over to some semblance of good government?  Is Karzai and his group of kleptocrats the right horse to bet on?  Can we convince the Taliban that it’s better to work with us to improve their country and let us go home than it is to continue to martyr themselves at the point of a bayonet?
3. Health Care – It’s none of the Federal government’s business how I pay for my health care and how much I and my employer pay.  Want to make me happy?  Get rid of the national healthcare bill, and let insurance companies compete across state lines for customers.  Let me buy my medications from whomever is licensed to sell them to me.
4. Defense – I’m pro-military, as you may have guessed.  But having grown up around the Air Force and spent most of my early adulthood in the Army, I know there is a lot of wasted manpower and money in the defense establishment.  Want to cut the defense budget?  Try cutting out a lot of the fat in the procurement process.  Tell the Pentagon to scale back its fanatical obsession with buying the new shininess from BAE and Lockheed.  How about we do a non-political evaluation of all of the bases, overseas and domestic, that we have and decide if we need all of them without Congress messing it up, and then actually close bases in less than a decade?
5. Border security – I find it personally insulting that my grandfather came through Ellis Island and worked hard to stay out of trouble and be productive to become a citizen and now someone can slip across our southern border or jump off a container ship in Oakland and expect to be taken care of by our social safety net while working in a gray market of slave labor.  Want to make me happy?  Get all of those who are here illegally out, be they a Hispanic day laborer who slipped across the border at Nogales, or an Irish student who entered the country through LAX and let his visa lapse.  Prohibit the federal government from doing business with any company that uses illegal immigrant labor in any way.   Let the economy absorb whatever damage that causes.  Close the bloody Mexican border using whatever means are necessary. Better control the Canadian border if that becomes necessary.  Force ships coming into our ports to be inspected for illicit human cargo.  If we need immigrants to do work we don’t want to do, then let them in in a controlled manner, either as legal residents or as foreign workers with an expectation that they will take themselves back to their home countries after a very finite period of time.

Here are a few “issues” that are being brought up that I don’t want to hear about from politicians:

1. Gay Marriage – It’s none of my business, and it’s none of the federal governments either.   Let the states and the courts figure that out.  Find another subject to talk about. 
2. Mosques – It’s either a location that’s a few blocks from Ground Zero that just happens to be right for building a Muslim community and worship center, or it’s a victory mosque being built to stick a thumb in our eye on the site of a national tragedy.  Either way, it’s not a federal issue.  I have my own opinion, but I’m not using it as a political yardstick. 
3. Abortion – It’s the law of the land, no matter how I feel about it.  Until either the Constitution is changed or the Supreme Court changes it’s mind, quit yammering on and on about it.
4. George Bush – He’s been out of the White House for a year and a half.   Democrats have been in charge of Congress since 2006.  Either share the blame for the mess we’re in or stop dredging up old news.
5. Barack Obama – Personally, I think he’s the second coming of Jimmy Carter.  I hope he’s a one term president.  I don’t agree with his politics or his work ethic (Wish I had that much vacation time, even if they are working vacations).  He’s the president.  He’s a citizen, unless something unexpected crops up.  Move on.  You can talk more about him when he’s an actual candidate in 2012.

To summarize:  I have a pretty well defined set of things I want to hear about from political candidates.  I’m tired of distractions from both parties that keep us from discussing those things.  The more you talk about the distractions, the less likely you are to get my vote.  It’s the right of someone who considers himself to be a political independent to look at both parties and decide which one’s candidates turn his stomach less when deciding how to vote.  Your goal is to be as non-nauseating as possible by telling me what you believe are the important issues in our country, and what you plan to do about them.  If we can agree, then you may earn my vote.  If we don’t, well at least you got consideration.  Try to baffle me with bullshit, and you won’t even get considered.

Slashdot is reporting that Amazon is considering placing advertisements in their ebooks to keep prices low and up the amount of profit from their sale. 

Let me be clear:  If Amazon does this, I will stop buying ebooks from them, period.  There are more than a few publishers and sellers of ebooks that I can go to other than Amazon.  If all of the book sellers I use start including advertising, I will stop using electronic media to read books.

To put it bluntly, I hate commercials. 

I read books for escapism.  I’ll be the first to admit that.  I read so that I can stop concentrating on the real world for a while and either learn something or be entertained.  You cannot swing a dead Windows box around without hitting an ad or product branding in almost every other form of electronic entertainment.  My dead tree magazines are almost half full of advertisements.  I use an RSS reader in part because I don’t want to wade through half a web page of banner ads and pop-up/-under ads that slow down my system.  I use the DVR on my cable box to record a lot of the programs I watch primarily so that I can fast forward through the commercials. 

When I go to the movies, there is now about 20 minutes of commercials and previews shown prior to the feature.  I pay about $60 a month for cable television, and I still have to deal with commercials, especially when I’m up late at night and can’t sleep.  Ever try to find something interesting to watch at 2 AM?  Half of the channels have turned into a QVC shopping channel, or are given over to infomercials. 

So I read.  I used to read a lot more, but I still read as much as I can get away with.  The advent of the ebook and reader software on my phone have made it a lot more convenient to grab a few minutes to read a few pages.  I’ve started budgeting myself to four ebooks a month because I found the convenience of surfing Amazon or WebScriptions so easy to use that I found myself spending my entire personal entertainment budget for the month in an afternoon.

But I’m paying for the books.  I expect to be left alone to my thoughts when I read, not bombarded by still more ads.  If Amazon and the other ebook vendors have to raise prices a bit to keep the books ad-free, so be it.  I have a set amount each month that I spend on books, electronic or dead tree.  If the price of ebooks goes up, then I will adjust the number I buy accordingly, but I will continue to buy. If advertisements are mandated, that will dry up entirely.

Amazon, please don’t kill the golden goose.  Housing the data for an ebook has to be cheaper than warehouses full of paper books.  Downloading a book to my iPhone has to be cheaper than shipping it to my house.  Amazon charges almost as much for an ebook as they do for a dead tree version, so their profit margin on them has to be at least as good.  Fill them with advertisements, and you will kill the medium.

Just adjusted the blog roll quite a bit. 

If I trimmed you off by mistake, drop me a line and I’ll re-add you.

If you’re sitting on the couch watching Disney Channel with your son, and the following things happen while watching “Handy Manny“, you’re probably dreaming:

1. One of Manny’s anthropomorphic tools destroys half a day’s worth of work through tomfoolery, as they are want to do, and Manny responds by saying “If you do that again, you little pendejo, I will weld your molten carcass to the sidecar of my motorcycle!”.
2. Mr. Lopar, instead of running a candy store, runs a medical marijuana dispensary.  He is wearing a white tee shirt with a marijuina leaf and “Legalize It!” stenciled on it.
3. Kelly, who is still running the hardware store, has changed her look a bit.  She’s gone to a very butch haircut, no make up, a flannel shirt worn open like a light jacket, and a Che Guavera tee shirt.  She engages Manny and his tools in a debate on the merits of the recent Proposition 8 decision.

I’m not sure what brought this on last night, but I figured out it was a dream when the screwdriver started cussing at the wrench in Spanish.

“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.