Author: Fuzzy Curmudgeon

And what the fuck is this about?
Everybody involved here needs to step back and take a big breath. One square mile of rocky island is not worth a war.

It is thought to be one of the mythological “Pillars of Hercules,” along with the Rock of Gibraltar across the strait, and historians have connected the island with Ogigia, mentioned in Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

That and a buck will get you a cup of coffee. Sheesh.

Hmm, funny, I started to write that title and indeed, I am listening to Rush 🙂
Anyway, how interesting that he led off with this article, because that was what I was going to bring to the attention of my readers…(what readers?:)
I’ve figured John Corzine was a crook since the day I heard about him running for his Senate seat. Too much money. Way too much money.

Maybe you should think again, and read this article.
I’ll turn 65 in 2024. I don’t expect to collect a dime. The only reason I pay FICA without complaint is that it helps keeps my mother and my in-laws afloat. The system will be bankrupt (and/or hopefully changed over to a free-market alternative) before I get old enough to benefit.
I do not believe that it is the government’s business to ensure my retirement. Aesop had it correct in “The Ant and the Grasshopper”. Those who make provisions for lean times survive. Those who do not, end up on the streets or mooching off of their grown children. I have little patience for people who whine about being on fixed incomes when they had the ability to store a little up for years before they retired.
My father never got to retire. He died 15 days after he let his contractor licenses lapse (and lost a lot of SS income over the years between 65 and 77 because he chose to continue working). Someone out there is living on his dime for all the years he worked between 1941 and 2002. Thank God he and Mom had the forethought to put money away (and that Mom had a teacher’s pension from the state).

Meant to apologize for all of the Washington Times links today. Fox didn’t have a lot that rang my bell, and I spent a lot of time reading the Times instead 🙂

In this article, a commercial forester explains why Forest service policies need urgent reform, to avoid a repetition of the 2000 and 2002 Western wildfires.

Environmental activists have worked long and hard (and successfully) to marginalize industry in this debate. They don’t want us involved in finding a solution to the forest-health crisis because, let’s face it, they just don’t like us. But like us or not, our forests don’t burn. Not like public forests do. Is it because we are better at fighting fires? Is it because our trees are inflammable? Is it that lightning never strikes our land? Are we just really, really lucky? It is, of course, none of those.
The real reason our land doesn’t burn like public land is we actively manage our forests. We manage them like they are an investment because they are. Not just an investment of dollars, but of blood, sweat and tears — and not just for us, but for the countless species who depend on the forest for their homes, and for the communities who depend on forests for clean drinking water, clean air and recreational opportunities. These are the very values I now see going up in smoke.

He makes a lot of sense to me.

Maybe Maryland is going to straighten up and fly right. I moved to Silver Spring right after Glendening stole the election in ’94.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Yasser must be getting ready to make a run for it. This is in full keeping with the earlier Marcos model. I wonder if Mrs. Arafat has closets full of shoes?

Lead in the Washington Times this morning indicates that Joe Lieberman (remember him?) thinks that unless Bush and Cheney make their business dealings public, the economy will suffer — because it will diminish Bush’s moral authority to lead in restoring confidence in the stock market.
What about Terry McAuliffe’s and “Little Dick” Gephardt’s business dealings?
What about the stock market leading the way in restoring confidence in itself, maybe by not running up such astronomical P/E ratios and forcing companies to actually back up their stock with something tangible?
I am depressed. Thankfully Lieberman is just a Democrat.

[See this link for more information.]
To show our support for the Iranian people, we each have agreed to display this letter, in English and in Farsi, on our pages from sunrise to sunset today, Tehran time.
We are not politicians, nor are we generals. We hold no power to dispatch diplomats to negotiate; we can send no troops to defend those who choose to risk their lives in the cause of freedom.
What power we have is in our words, and in our thoughts. And it is that strength which we offer to the people of Iran on this day.
Across the diverse and often contentious world of weblogs, each of us has chosen to put aside our differences and come together today to declare our unanimity on the following simple principles:
– That the people of Iran are allies of free men and women everywhere in the world, and deserve to live under a government of their own choosing, which respects their own personal liberties
– That the current Iranian regime has failed to create a free and prosperous society, and attempts to mask its own failures by repression and tyranny
We do not presume to know what is best for the people of Iran; but we are firm in our conviction that the policies of the current government stand in the way of the Iranians ability to make those choices for themselves.
And so we urge our own governments to turn their attention to Iran. The leaders and diplomats of the world’s democracies must be clear in their opposition to the repressive actions of the current Iranian regime, but even more importantly, must be clear in their support for the aspirations of the Iranian people.
And to the people of Iran, we say: You are not alone. We see your demonstrations in the streets; we hear of your newspapers falling to censorship; and we watch with anticipation as you join the community of the Internet in greater and greater numbers. Our hopes are with you in your struggle for freedom. We cannot and will not presume to tell you the correct path to freedom; that is for you to choose. But we look forward to the day when we can welcome your nation into the community of free societies of the world, for we know with deepest certainty that such a day will come.