24 years??? And counting!
I find it difficult to believe that, today, 17 September 2024, I have been married to the love of my life for 24 years.* First of all, where did all that time go?
Second, how is it that she hasn’t killed me?
Anyway she’s still pretty as the day I married her, and we’re going out for hibachi tonight to celebrate. (And for once, our anniversary fell on date night, so doubly-fun. Woot.)
*And wait till the special anniversary next year — hopefully we’ll have a decent president in office and things broken over the last four years will be getting fixed, but well, we’ll see…
I didn’t watch the debates.
There was no point.
The odds were stacked in favor of Kamala. People are saying today that she must have known the questions in advance. Well, duh. Everyone involved in the production was doing anything they could to ensure a “win” for her. And the fact is, she’s so ridiculously, simperingly stupid, there’s no way she could stand in front of a panel and answer substantive questions about the last four years and the four years ahead. She was probably lucky to answer what she’d been prepped for.
The man who has been asking those questions, and putting forth solid policy ideas, was in the crosshairs last night.
People are also complaining that he didn’t ask until the last few minutes why Kamala hasn’t already done the things she’s saying she’ll do for the past 3-1/2 years. (She was Vice President, you know. I realize it was difficult to tell.) But I don’t think waiting till the end of the program was wrong for that question to be asked. Every great entertainer knows you always leave ’em laughing. And every great politician knows you unload your heaviest artillery at the end, so it makes a big splash on impact.
The one good thing about last night is it will likely be the death knell for presidential debates, unless the people who run them smarten up and understand they are literally doing the country an injury by their lopsided concept of “fairness”. But they won’t do that, because they’re all in for the United Communist States of America under the Uniparty represented last night by Kamala.
Thing is, the smart people are already ignoring them. It wasn’t even worth watching for the popcorn and shots every time Kamala lied. (I wouldn’t be at work this morning, and probably would be dead from alcohol poisoning; I don’t know how people like Stephen Green and Tony Katz do it. Stainless-steel livers, I suppose…)
Trump is saying he’s not going to do another debate. I agree. There’s no point. They’re nothing but 100% all-in political ads for his opponent. Take the modern incarnation of political debates out behind the barn and kill them with an axe, as P.J. O’Rourke would likely have said.
93, what a run…and what an actor.
James Earl Jones, not just Darth Vader. So many other great parts. An actor’s actor through and through.
Requiescat in pace, sir. Thank you for all you have done for us.
An American in Iya is released!
It’s alive! In e-book edition, oh my! (Paperback and hardback will be along after I get my proof copies to make sure the formatting is right.)
Over 200 years ago, a Plague overran the world, and 9 out of 10 human beings died.
In a small Japanese village on Shikoku, a group of American tourists found themselves stranded — and in grave danger of being murdered, merely for the sin of being 外人 (gaijin).
Luckily for them, their Japanese hosts took pity on their plight, and took them in as their own.
This is the story of their descendants — who still, more than anything, wish only someday to go home. That is . . .
. . . if they still have a home to return to.
This is for my buddy Joe
Meme away!
Do you like conspiracy theories, bro? (and sis)
Here’s a good one for you, straight from the fever dreams of the lovely and talented Sarah A. Hoyt, the Beautiful But Evil Space Princess who commands her Hordes of Huns.
(All sales final. No money back. Buyer beware. Your mileage may vary. Offer good only in the State of Inebriation. Etc.)
Seriously, I do love Sarah to pieces and she’s a lot of fun to watch moderate a panel on Dystopias when she doesn’t actually care much for that genre…
Fit As A Bull Moose
God is protecting this man.
Photo credit: Evan Vucci
UPDATE, 7/16: Reddit mods deleted this image from a post in r/pics. Clearly it needs to be posted everywhere.
This is the only thing to be proud of in June
Seriously, folks, your sexual preferences have absolutely nothing to do with pride. Frankly, it’s a Flag Day for people to start waking up and smelling the coffee.*
The thing to be proud of is your country. Yeah. It’s a little tough to do right now, with the worthless sacks of shit that are running it, right up to the Commander of Pantloads of Shit himself, but I had a sort of an epiphany today while thinking about the Masonic Ceremony of Seven Toasts.
I’m sure you are all sitting there thinking, “WTF has that got to do with pride in one’s country?” Hang on a mo’, I’ll tell ya.
You see, the Ceremony of Seven Toasts came to us in the States from the British Freemasons. One of their toasts was, of course, to the King or Queen. Which makes sense. Because British folks are subjects and they owe fealty and allegiance to the monarch, which is sort of the same as saying to the country, because the monarch is the country. Sort of. Even if the monarch is only a constitutional figurehead.
So we took that on in the US and since we don’t have a monarch, we substituted the President (or sometimes, the President and the Congress). However — that’s wrong. Because the toast is supposed to be to the entity to whom (or which) you actually owe that fealty and allegiance.
And I got news for you. In the US, that ain’t the President, and it ain’t the Congress, either. They’re functionaries We The People sent to Washington DC to do our bidding. That they don’t is pretty sad, and probably rises to treason, and thus deserves hanging by neck until dead, but that’s not what I’m here to discuss.
Growing up as a kid in this still-great nation, I was taught my allegiance was to the Flag Of The United States Of America, and to the Republic For Which It Stands. Because we don’t pledge allegiance to anything else. It would be silly to do so — because in the United States, every person is a sovereign. We The People govern ourselves, and for the things we can’t do every day, we elect and appoint other people to do them for us. But we don’t pledge allegiance to them, we expect them to do as We The People tell them to do.
In other words, nobody told Crusty Joe Biden to sell out to the fucking Chinese. But he did and we’re stuck with him for a bit till we sort that shit out.
This is something we need to remember as this fraught season of electoral hi-jinks is forced upon us. We declared independence from a king who was being an asshole to us (the same king the Brits toast today, just a newer version of him). We’re never going to toast that guy, just like (even as much as we thought of his mother) we never toasted his predecessor. And we should not be toasting the President, or the Congress, or any other piece of government we’ve set up to do our will and which has subsequently turned on us to force us to do its will. Screw that.
We should be toasting the Flag and the Republic. And then we can all come together again as citizens of a great nation and tell our political functionaries to start doing as they’re told, or get the fuck out.
Rainbow flags, feh. Toss ’em in the trash along with the U.N. flag.
On this Flag Day, be PROUD of the AMERICAN FLAG, and what it stands for. Long may it wave; and long may we continue to water the Tree of Liberty.
PS: Happy Birthday, President Trump!
* Did you like how I worked that in? I was kind of proud of it. Speaking of pride and all.