BunkBlog

I thought I saw this headline on my newspage this morning: IKEA set to approve new nuclear mission to N.Korea.

IKEA, IAEA, what’s the difference, right?

OK, since some people have actually asked, here’s my abbreviated description of my trip, with photos linked for the bandwidth challenged.

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I’m not going to bore anyone with the details of our week in Southern California, nor the four days of driving to and fro. But, I will share a few entertaining bits and random mind drippings from the travel here.

We passed a number of military vehicles (construction-type mainly) on the way through Arizona, and not far behind them were some buses. The juxtaposition was merely a coincidence, but the buses have covered windows and the Department of Homeland Security emblazoned on their sides. It made me think of obvious plots of conspiracy theory movies based on some version of the Argentinean Disappeared.

While crossing the Californian desert, I saw billboards advertising special sales on breast implants (only 3500 dollars!), followed closely by billboards advertising artificial turf for the lazy homeowner. Fake boobs and fake lawns.

Although I continue to not find El Paso appealing, they do have a Paulina Rubio concert coming up next week. Yum.

The Morongo tribe has a name just made for a casino. “Yes, Kemosabe, moron go to casino, Morongo Casino.”

Social Distortion has a new album out. Well, a new song on a greatest hits album.

We made it back home, all safe and sound.  Whew!

More details later.

Because people are paranoid about (mostly) imaginary threats, we’ve become so afraid of the boogey man that our children never leave home except under armed guard.  An article in the Daily Mail indicates that this is not isolated to the United States, but is seen in the UK as well.

When I was in elementary school, I walked to school without parental escort, even in the winter (snowbanks six feet high, so far as I could tell).  I even wandered over to my Great Aunt’s house, which ended strangely as I miscounted the number of blocks and ended up at a stranger’s house who got me back to my family.

Later, we moved to an even smaller town, and I could wander anywhere in town when I wanted to.  My brother and I would go to the creek with the other kids, and jump in the rock-infested waters off the abandoned and rust-crusted bridge. David ended up with one of his many head wounds this way, but that didn’t stop the mud-sliding fun the next week, no way.

Even when we moved to southern California, when I was 14, we didn’t end up incredibly restricted in our movements. We would ride our bikes to school, all of two miles away on suburban streets in Los Angeles County (the horror).  We would ride our bikes down the L.A. River, all the way to Seal Beach (13 miles). We never even ran into the Terminator once.  We did see pelicans, though.  And terns.

And now our kids are put in cars to take them to parks.  No wonder we’re all getting fatter.

Note to self: fix bicycle.

La Tienda is having a sale on whole Serrano hams. I love that stuff, but even on sale, it’s not really cheap. The cheapest is a 12 pound boneless ham for a mere…$189. Sure, let me get two!

Oooh, pretty.  I want one.  My Clie is about dead, the Palm “next big thing” is a useless piece of telephone-tethered nonsense, and laptops tend to be not very portable these days (19 inch screen, really?).  So, an ultraportable for less than the cost of a new car is very neato.  Too bad it’s just a reference design so far.  Hopefully it’ll show up soon.

In good news, Heroes is definitely coming back next year (cliffhanger season finale tomorrow!). In stranger news, there will be a show based on the one-liner Geico caveman commercials. If you thought it was hard to stretch a Saturday Night Live character to a movie, imagine stretching a slightly-funny ad to an entire season of television.

CBS is going to add a reality show that has a bunch of kids creating an entire town with no adult supervision, but they are cancelling Jericho and The Class. Go figure. And, I’m annoyed that Fox is killing off The War at Home – there are far too few good comedies on television as it is. Guess they have to make room for more episodes of American Idol.

Looking like the DVR will have plenty of free space this fall.

Anyone using an online dating service should watch this and then really think about how accurate photos might or might not be.

Every time I see a headline such as MILF Leader to Run for Governor, I have to remind myself that some acronyms have different meanings in the Philippines than in the States.

I was pointed to the creepy ad site today, and this one I have to share with the three people who read my site:

XKCD has posted this awesome map, comparing various online communities based on their subscriber base, rendered as an old D&D campaign map or “here be monsters” style navigation chart.

Most headlines I’ve seen are trumpeting the second veto of President Bush’s 6+ years in office as him vetoing the “Iraq withdrawal bill” or “troop pullout bill.”  Strange how few of them (looking through Google News, um…ABC and VOA) call it the Emergency Spending Bill or Iraq War Funding Bill, which are also accurate (possibly more accurate) pseudonames for the thing.

The President has used every rhetorical trick in the book to make himself look principled on this, including asking all network television stations to carry his explanation this evening.  Is it really appalling that the only two vetos this man has on his record are for two things that a substantial majority of Americans oppose him on? Most people are in favor of increasing funding for stem cell research; the Religious Right oppose it so the President opposed it.  Most people are in favor of some form of drawdown in our failed adventure in Iraq; the Project for the New American Century is opposed to it so the President opposed it.

Two vetos, two statements to the American people that are equivalent to a pair of upraised middle fingers.  What a legacy.

I suppose I should have read the books or even have heard of them, but what the heck, I’ll play along.

Randall Tobias, the abstinence-only advocate, hires escort service!
Here’s a guy who has been telling people for years that nobody should be having sex outside marriage, but he gets “massages” from the notorious escort service in DC. Ah, can you feel the hypocrisy?

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut has died. The world has lost a truly great wit and author.

Kurt is in heaven now.

The Palm folks have announced that they will be building machines using their own homebrewed version of Linux with Palm OS 5 compatibility, by the end of the year.  Good thing I didn’t buy a T|X this winter, eh?  What seems to be missing from all commentary is the question of non-Treo Palm machines.  I’m one of those people who have no desire nor need for a cell phone.  Since my Clie has a battery that is now only capable of holding a charge for a few minutes, is my only choice for handheld geekery going to be a UMPC?  I hope not.

Every few weeks, the weather does something strange enough to make me really wonder about the movie The Day After Tomorrow.  Right now, it’s snowing.  Thursday, the high was 80.  What’s next week, typhoons and firestorms?

Speaker Pelosi went to Syria Tuesday, and that made the Republicans scream that she was overstepping her authority and confusing the Syrian government. So, when Republican Representatives Wolf, Pitts, and Aderholt met with the Syrian president on Sunday, how was that different?

The Democratic-controlled Congress is talking quite loudly about finding ways to defund the war in Iraq, with the caveat that they will never allow the soldiers to be less defended than they are now. This, predictably, means they are Defeatocrats and are giving up, micromanaging the war, and otherwise overstepping their reasonable place in the government. In 1993, when the Republican-controlled Congress voted to defund the war in Somalia, with the caveat that the soldiers would be well-defended during their redeployment, how was that different?

Is it really so much to expect some sort of consistency from people in public office? Do they really think that nobody will notice? Do they forget about videotape? Astounding.

It’s apparently a very good week for twisted videos from YouTube.