Unlikely Things

It has been twelve days now since Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed. Twelve days with neither food nor water, a state-mandated death by dehydration.

Yet she remains.

Matt Heidt over at Froggy Ruminations has several excellent posts on the issue. So does Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters.

Though for now I'll just direct you to a particularly lovely rant by Captain Ed regarding the ad hominem attacks being leveled at those who are aghast at the barbarity of this situation.

As for the unlikely things referenced in the title, I just have to say that I never thought I'd see the day when I'd come down on the same side of an issue as Jesse Jackson.

(Hat tips: Drudge, Captain's Quarters, and Froggy Ruminations.)

What if Batman Played D&D?

Just to prove that I still have a sense of humor, here's something I found on a message board:

Yeah, Bats would be a powergamer from hell. He'd carefully research every item, spell, class ability and monster in the game, min/max the hell out of his character, plan for every possible contingency and come up with unconventional uses for everything to let him take advantage of the weakness of whatever they come up against.

DM: You see three large trolls approaching--
BATMAN: I step behind the tree, giving me 75% cover. I use my Improved Tactics class ability to take a partial action before combat begins, which I will spend preparing a flaming arrow to nullify their regeneration--
DM: Wait! Your character has never seen a troll before! How do you know they're vulnerable to fire?
BATMAN: ...
BATMAN: I'm Batman.

-Lareth

Heh.

Just a Statement

In less than 24 hours, by order and consent of a Florida judge, the feeding tube will be removed from Terri Schiavo, causing her to expire from dehydration.

Forgive the sanitation of the above expression; I should have said 'die of thirst', but I am attempting to constrain my passions at this point, or else there will be outpouring of enraged vulgarity displayed on this blog, the likes of which you have never seen before.

Here are a few sources of information on the case. They are, for the most part, slanted towards preserving her life.

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4
Link 5
Link 6
Link 7
Link 8
Link 9
Link 10

(Hat Tips: Captain's Quarters, Dean Esmay, Discarded Lies, Hugh Hewitt)

From the point of view of a pro-life theistic Christian (pardon me, a right-wing religious whack-job...), I just want to make the following comments.

"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49)

"Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of land, saying, 'When will the new moon be over, so that we may sell grain, and the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, to make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, and to cheat with dishonest scales, so as to buy they helpless for money, and the needy for a pair of sandles, and that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?'

"The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, 'Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds.'" (Amos 8:4-7)

I don't know if I really have a point with quoting the above verses, I simply felt them apropos to the current situation. There are many others, which I will save until I see what happens tomorrow.

If you wish to know, the pertinent word in the above quotes is needy. This word is translated from the Hebrew word ebyon, which Strong defines as "poor, needy, often as a class of persons with physical needs, of low status and little political power, with an associative meaning of oppression and misery".

Again, take what point from the above you want. Heck, some of you probably consider my admited status as a pro-life theistic Christian enough to completely invalidate anything I say. I don't care.

I take my stand with those who wish to preserve the life of Terri Schiavo.

Whatever will happen, will happen tomorrow at 1 P.M. Till then, I will pray.

Awesome

A "Mythbusters" outtakes episode!

YES!

This is Cool

I'm currently watching an episode of Modern Marvels on the History Channel. As you can probably guess, this segment deals with World War II.

The topic of this particular episode is about airborne bombs. As you can guess, it mentions the V-1 buzz bomb. Apparently, it turns out that RAF would, at times, have the chance to send up planes to intercept the V-1s. But they would prove hard to hit.

Therefore, then, the enterprising pilots would fly right up next to the V-1, place their wing right underneath the bomb's wing, and then bank. This would flip the V-1 over, and send it crashing to the earth out of control.

Nothing quite so much like a Jedi Knight as an RAF pilot in a Spitfire, or an American in a Mustang or a Hellcat.

Friendly Reminder

Just one last thing, and then I'm done for the night.

Just a reminder to you all that tomorrow, March 5th, is the annual "Eat an Animal for PETA Day."

The mechanics of this should be obvious, so pick your steakhouse of choice. Me, I'm tyring to decide between Bugaboo Creek or TGI O'Chili's....

Homestar... Wunner.... Homestar Wunner

Wow, I leave this thing alone for a month, then suddenly show back up again with tons of near meaningless posts!

In any event, Ed Morrisey of Captain's Quarters (one of my favorite politcal blogs, by the way) has now joined The Darkside.

He's become a Homestar Runner fan.

Run, Captain! Run!

Randomness

Several of the channels in my cable TV plan (channels 800-844) are music channels, meaning that they play music instead of TV shows. Which is cool, because who doesn't like music?

Anyway, at the moment, I'm listening to a station entitled "Arena Rock".

Strangely, I'm enjoying it. It makes interesting background music for reading about the pro-democracy, anti-Syrian, pro-nationalist protests in Lebanon.

Calvin and Hobbes blogging

If you look around Amazon for a little bit, you will find that a massive Calvin and Hobbes collection has now been released. This omnibus contains every single C&H comic ever to come from Bill Waterson's hand.

It costs $94-95 or so dollars.

In the meantime, there is a site that is either the greatest site on the Internet, or the single largest and most blatant copyright violation I've ever seen: The Calvin and Hobbes Archive.

For even more Calvin and Hobbes goodness, this site attempts to explain "Fight Club" in terms of Calvin and Hobbes characters.

No, I'm not kidding.

Important

Odds are he won't come by anyone who reads this, but I want you all to watch for this vehicle anyway:

Blue Chevrolet GMT Truck
GA tags, Fayette county
Tag # APG6121

If you should encounter this truck, do not attempt to engage. Contact the police, and inform them of it's position. The suspect supposedly in the vehicle is wanted for the shooting of a Georgia Superior Court judge, a court stenographer, and a sheriffs deputy. He is also wanted in connection with the murder of a US Customs Agent, to whom the suspect truck in question belonged.

If this is the guy in question (details can be found here and here), then this fellow is a cop-killer. If you spot him, call the police. Let's help bring this guy down.

UPDATE: They caught the guy earlier this morning at an apartment complex in Duluth. They hauled him off in iron.s

Book Fair

Yes, I'm a bibliophile. Those of you hwo know me should know this by now.

What brings this on is the fact that the Cobb County Library System is having their Spring Book Sale tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday. As for selection,

An estimated 100,000 items, including paperbacks, hardbacks, CDs, records, magazines and reference books will be for sale. Paperbacks sell for 25 cents, hardbacks for $1 and reference books are $2 each.

*droool*

Let's see if I can top my $.50 purchase of a hardback copy of "Red Storm Rising".

Gosh, an Update...?!

Well, it's been a while here, hasn't it? I wish I had some grand excuse for having not done this for a month, but aside from a prize-fight with a cold/flu thing last weekend, I've got nothin'.

In any event, I'm going to try and cover a few things with this.

Huntsville guys (this means you two, Allen and Tommy), I just want ya'll to know that you have corrupted me beyond all measure. As you may know, I wake up each morning to the sound of the local news/talk radio AM station, AM 750. During the process of getting dressed, they come on with a commercial for the new Snapper lawn mower. The basic gist of the commercial was how easy the Snapper is to USE!, how easy the Snapper is to PUT TOGETHER!, how easy the Snapper is to PUSH!, and etc. along that vein.

And what, you may ask, was the first reaction that went through my head? Very well, I will tell you:

"The new Snapper Mower! It's easy, just like William's Mom!"

I'll never be free.

Today, at Mudville Gazette, Mrs. Greyhawk posts a link to a post on the The Jump Blog. At the bottom of this post is a link to a decently large .wmv file that the Jump Blogger and a few others put together. Click on the link (helpfully contained in the word "link" above), and get to the file from the post. It's a cool video, and well worth your time.

As might know, but most likely not, the local International Association of Machinists (Local 709) have gone on strike here. What this means is that the union guys have stopped working at the factory and are presently marching back and forth across the entrances to the facility. I'm not going to bother talking about the issues involved here, as I don't fully understand what the rationale behind this is. However, I would like to offer a few observations, as someone who has now witness his first strike:

1. No, I am not part of the strike (thank goodness). As a salaried employee, I am not a member of the union, and thus what that do doesn't directly affect me.

2. However, given the present state of limbo that we are in due to the proposed DoD budget, stoppage of work on the -130J and Raptor DOES have the potential to affect me indirectly.

3. The strike started at Midnight on Tuesday (the start of Tuesday, that is). Given what the weather was on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, I almost pittied the picketeers.

4. Though on Wednesday morning, when the wind was blowing like- (Let's not go there, -Ed) (err, sorry...), I thought that it would be funny if the wind was to rip one of the union placards from the cold, frozen hands of one of the picketeers.

5. When leaving on Wednesday evening, I got a look at one of the message signs. It read "We Know You Scab." Judging by a news report, this seems to be some sort of motto amongst the union.

6. I have no clue what it means.

7. After a brief phone converasation with my dad, I have discovered that "scab", in this context, refers to a union member who breaches the picket line and goes to work, or to outside help brought in by the company to cover the slack. Learn something new everyday, I guess.

8. Scab, then, is a noun/pronoun/derogatory term, and not a bizarre verb as I had originally thought.

9. So far, the picketeers and salaried alike have been behaving themselves, even if I do occasionally make snarky comments inside the building. However, something moderately disconcerting occured today: while exiting the premises, I passed through a picket line (yes, there was a large gap between marching clumps; I wouldn't have moved if someone was standing there) on my way to the main road. As I prepared to turn our into the exit lane, one particular fellow pulled out a camera and behaved as if he was taking my picture. I simply ignored him and went on, but it was a bit odd.

10. Still, if they were going to pull a cheap intimidation trick, they should have done it yesterday, when what I was wearing would have let me pull of a Roguish and Dashing Air.

11. No one who knows me believes the above point.

12. Since this started at midnight... I have to wonder if they're still there marching, and if they march on the 9/80 schedule...