Drewbert's Poor Excuse for a Blog

So today I encountered a Chick Tract in the wild, for the very first time. I'd seen online rants about them, parodies of them, and plenty of threads on Straight Dope about them, but hadn't ever seen one in person until I sat down on the bus this morning... and there it was, right next to me.

Normally it's one of my missions in life to grab the nutcase propoganda that people leave around and take it to the nearest trash receptacle post haste, but since this was a genuine publication of Jack Chick, I had to grab it and peruse it later, presumably in order to see how long it would take for my head to explode.

As I was stuffing it into my bag (and I didn't have to be very discreet about it since I was the only one on the bus besides the driver), I noticed another one about two seats ahead of me. This one had a cartoon picture of the Twin Towers on the cover next to the legend "So What?" I figured I'd try to pick that one up on the way off the bus. But at the next stop, the driver got up and retrieved it. I hoped that she was just going to stuff the trash in the little bin next to her seat, but as I got off the bus I saw she was reading it.

I hope she laughed derisively at it, as I plan to mine, shortly before I throw it out.

Labels: Life in Nashville

I wanted to state for the record, not that it matters, that this was my idea first. Who needs lights on the airplane to tell you when it's OK to smoke when it never is? Why not replace them with lights that tell you when you can use electronic devices? Actually, this article is just about cell phone use, so my idea is better, anyway.

And just while I'm on the topic, Professor Frink stole my idea for mood pants, which I came up with years earlier.



I'm still quite bitter about that one.

So last Saturday there was a star party at Warner Park to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Unfortunately, the site is a little light polluted these days and the weather was a bit hazy, so not many meteors were seen. Lots of people got looks at Jupiter, and I turned my scope on to Albireo just to have something different for people to look at. About 10:00 the fog started to roll in, and by 11 it was getting really bad. But as some people were walking back down the hill, a car with headlights on drove up - and it looked exactly like a scene out of the X-Files - people silhouetted against a mysterious bright light shining through dense fog. One of the astronomy club members had a cell phone camera on hand. It's tiny, but here it is:

Labels: Geekery

I need something fun to blog about instead.

Suggestions happily accepted.

Ok, so I first saw this headline on Fark.com:

Federal court orders San Diego to take down huge cross on public land. President and Theologian-in-Chief Bush signs act into law transferring the park to the Department of Defense control. Suck it, libs

And while I'm waiting for my extra-speedy 56K modem to load up the page and the related news link I'm already thinking about how to get this written up on the blog. I'm about ready to point to the previous post and yell, "See? This is what I'm talking about! Bush isn't even pretending to not be a theocrat wanna-be anymore!"

But I calmed down. I read the article, I read the Fark comments. It's all about a big cross which has been in a park in San Diego in one form or another since 1913. that some people want taken down since it's on public land. Well, I don't think many would be terribly surprised if I said I'd personally be happier without a big honkin' cross in a public park near me. I'd be against using government money to put one up or keep it clean and shiny. If it were up to me, I'd take it down and put in a lovely fountain that everyone can enjoy. But, hey, the thing's old, it's historical, maybe it's really nice looking*... ahh who cares, leave it up. Fine with me. There are bigger fish to fry.

I'm going to skip over the tangle of tricksy maneuverings and court rulings over the years, and pause only to note that it's been found in violation of the California Constitution several times over, and that in late 1989 someone got the bright idea of starting to call it a "war memorial." They even put up a plaque to that effect!

It's really this oh so clever solution that seals it for me. It's not just Bush, but both houses of Congress. Don't leave it up to those pesky state courts, nonono. Just grab an 84-foot radius circle of land around the thing and give it to the Department of Defense to take loving care of. Remember, it's a War Memorial, right? Oh, and an election year, too. Support our troops! (By the way, does making it federal property suddenly make it constitutional?)

So let's see. We've got election year chicanery, Eminent Domain abuse, state-sponsored religion, legislative and executive disregard of the court system, and the continuing decay of states' rights. All in one happy little package. Enjoy!

_{*It's not.}