Home and glad of it!

I’ll get a more extensive post tomorrow or Sunday, but first impressions are on a scale from 1 to 10, the two of us had about a 5’s worth of fun. I had probably a 7. If I’d been with Mom & Aunt V, probably an 8 or so. Almost everything on the ship was massively commercial, which was a turn off; the food was good but not great; Mazatlan was neat and had awesome food; whale watching tours are a waste of money unless you are in a small, fast boat; sea lions are hugely cute; met a very nice couple from Cincinnati, in fact everyone was pretty nice on board and the Mexican people were extremely nice overall.

View from deck 9 or 10 down into the Centrum

I’d recommend at least one cruise if you haven’t done it, but shop around for good prices and get a bargain. Be prepared to spend a good chunk of change if you drink (or look around for a cruise line that lets you bring your own booze). If you have low resistance to a hard sell, don’t cruise – at least not on Royal Caribbean. If you cruise to Mexico, learn the words “no gracias.” :)

Pictures tomorrow or Sunday once I resize them down or get them into a slideshow (if we can get the hard drive info recovered from the crashed laptop…). Got some movies, but not many and they are pretty bouncy since the ocean was pretty rough that day.

(Oh, and runaway Prius dude? Runaway at 83 mph and he’s freaked out?? *cough* pussy *cough*)

1) Did you know that Nair will turn a sterling silver ring bright copper? Well, it will. And there is nothing on the label warning about that shit. I dunked the ring in silver cleaner last night and everything – still bright copper when I went to bed. Today, it’s a muted gunmetal type color with hints of becoming silver again here and there but the etchings in it are much darker than they used to be.

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Gonna blow this pop stand about 5 am tomorrow morning and will be busy packing tonight, so chances of a post other than the utterly lame efforts I’ve made this past couple of weeks are pretty slim.

Incidentally, if any of my 3 non-blogging regular readers out there would like a blog platform, I’d be happy to share this space with ya. All I ask is that it doesn’t turn into conspiracy central. :) Shoot me an email or speak up in the comments.

Probably vacation pix when I get back next Friday and depending on work, maybe a return to semi-regular posting of non-crap. As much as my postings are ever non-crap that is.

Finally on two fronts. I finally have something I want to comment on and finally someone is bringing this up in Congress as an issue all its own.

An amendment being brought in the House to limit the amount of spending the government can undertake by tying it not to a specific program but to a percentage of the GDP.

This amendment would limit spending to one-fifth of the economy (our historical spending average since World War II). The limit could only be waived by a declaration of war or by a two-thirds congressional vote.

As with other constitutional amendments, Congress would be given the authority to enforce and implement it. But for the first time, the federal government would have a limit on its size and scope. The Spending Limit Amendment does not promise a particular spending plan about what programs to restrain and by how much. Rather, it puts a legal constraint on lawmakers present and future.

Morrissey over at Hot Air has some valid observations:

This brings up several questions, primarily whether 20% of GDP is the right number for a limit. We’re already exceeding it at 24.7% now, and an explosion of entitlement commitments will put us around 40% within a couple of decades on our current trajectory. Five years ago, we were barely under that. Many people would argue that the cap should be even lower, and that having the federal government soak up every fifth dollar will still mean long-term trouble for economic growth. Such a cap would force immediate entitlement reform, though, and it would push it in a direction that would make entitlement programs smaller, probably means-tested, and substantially privatized.

Of course, a Constitutional amendment would require two-thirds of Congress to pass it and three-quarters of the states to ratify it. Even assuming that such a limitation would get two-thirds of Congress in support, would the states follow suit? Possibly, although it might be a double-edged sword for them. As the federal government reduces its size, it will put more pressure on states to replace the federal programs that get eliminated. States often complain about unfunded mandates, but they don’t mind dipping into the federal trough, either.

It likely won’t make it out of Congress. They are all about being elected over and over and part of what gets them elected is bringing home the pork. If the budget is constrained in this manner and it requires 2/3 of them to okay their pet pork then it will be far less likely to happen.

I say “Amen” to it. The government already funds far too much and intrudes far too much into my every day life. The less money they have to do it with, the better. I want them to have the money to keep the nation safe from aggressors and to respond to national emergencies. Period. Full stop. That’s all I want a federal government to do. And the less money the states have left to diddle in my affairs the better as well.

Besides making what seems like good fiscal sense, it’s about time someone cut the drunken sailors off at the wallet.

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Hrmph. The One Armed Man says it doesn’t make sound fiscal sense. I’ll try to get him to comment and explain. I’m not entirely sure how much I agree but I may just not fully grok it yet.

I get to be all angsty over two items in one single article!

Look closely at the tea partyer and what you see is a familiar American genus: a solidly middle-class, college-educated boomer, endowed by his creator with possessions, opinions and certain inalienable rights, the most important of which is the right to make sure you hear what he has to say.

The tea party is a harbinger of midlife crisis, not political crisis. For men of a certain age, it offers a counterculture experience familiar from adolescence — underground radio, esoteric tracts, consciousness-raising teach-ins and rallies replete with extroverted behavior to shock the squares — all paid for with ample cash.

The use of “partyer.” Yes, I know. It is in the dictionary like that as well as “partier.” I don’t think it should be. I think this is a concession to the gods of laziness. What next? “Smellyer?” Do we just allow the use of “yer” instead of “ier” in words ending with “y?”

Okay, since the schools can’t be bothered to teach spelling any longer as they must teach transgender underwater basket weaving cash register operation equivalence studies classes instead, I guess we’ll just let people spell however they want.

And obviously, the other issue here is the article itself. The characterization of tea partiers as “boomers.” Not by a long shot, you cretinous, lazy, language murdering tools. Boomers are the ones in charge now, if you haven’t noticed. They have become that which they railed against – the Man. But, like the authors of this piece of drivel, they simply cannot accept that they have “met the enemy and he is [them]” so they choose to ignore it.

The reason the movement is notable in the first place is that these aren’t retired Boomers. They are middle aged (probably largely Gen Xers) and middle class and have freakin’ jobs to go to instead of protest. They aren’t funded like the left, they don’t revere Che like the left (although the article mentions Che shirts – I challenge you to find one at a Tea Party rally), and they are taking vacation time and missing actual jobs to register their displeasure with the actions of the government and the special interests that hold it in sway. They are displeased with the Democrats and with the Republicans and do not come from only one race or gender.

I’d be more gobsmacked by the stunning simplicity, naivete, dripping condescension and willful blindness in this article if it weren’t par for the course, coming as it does from the LA Times and the poll it is based on from CNN. The authors are identified as East Coast Democrat political consultants. There’s another shocker as well. Coastal dems who watch CNN and see 30 seconds of tea party coverage in order to make up their minds about what the whole movement is about and who is involved in it.

Nothing on TV last night… ended up w/ the channel on South Park. The episode where Cartman decides to become a pirate. He runs off to Somalia with some of the other boys. The whole episode is okay, but the end is great.  Can’t embed it, so here’s the link.

People who will pay to have their teddy bear sent around the world and have photos taken of it in Prague have way too much disposable income and should funnel some of it my way.

Send them your favorite animal and they will whisk it around the sights of Prague, taking photographs of it against backgrounds like Prague Castle or the Charles Bridge.

I will admit, I have stuffed animals (no sock monkeys though) that I only recently convinced myself to box up and put away for future spawnling. Or someone else’s spawnling at some point. To be honest, there a lot of those critters that will never see child spit as I don’t want them ruined.

But… I am never going to pay $125 to get one of them a massage in Prague. Never.

I mean, what kind of owner would I be if I sent them on a scary trip like that all by themselves??

Cool rolling pin. Store the cookie cutters inside it and when you roll out the cookie dough, fill it with ice to keep the dough cold. Tupperware used to sell a rolling pin you filled with water and froze to keep the dough cold while rolling.

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Here is the tea party we had on Friday.

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89 years old (as of this video) with a CCW permit, car with 540000 miles on it, one owner, one engine, one awesome old lady.

It’s probably not a good thing for me to ever have something that makes it easier to sleep somewhere besides my bed. I have no issues falling alseep sitting up on the couch, in my chair, in a car, a plane, a library, a doctor’s office… you get the picture.

But… as odd as this is, it does appeal to me.

Probably has something to do with liking the idea of looking like I’m being eaten by a Slinky monster.

Via Cmblake

He’s always liked to drink from the bathroom faucet. Last night was the first time he’d stuck his head under the water.

Since I am doing the bi-monthly tea at work on Friday, I have tea on the brain. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures from it and from the Christmas tea to put up soon. My photographer friend took a lot of shots of the set up and such with an eye toward doing an evolution of a tea party type of slide show - but she has had no time to put them together. I told her I didn’t mind it not being done, but I’d like to see some of them just by themselves.

Want. Like. Burning.  (Warning: this is a dangerous site)

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Mock Devonshire/Clotted Cream for scones (and everything else)

2 ounces mascarpone cheese
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

In food processor, process cheese till smooth. Add cream and process on high till mixture is of almost butter consistency and very stiff. Should keep about 4-5 days in refrigerator.

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This kicks so much ass, there aren’t sufficient words in my vocabulary for it. Superintendent in Rhode Island takes steps to fix an apparently failing school.

Her plan calls for teachers at a local high school to work 25 minutes longer per day, each lunch with students once in a while, and help with tutoring.  The teachers’ union has refused to accept these apparently onerous demands.

The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000.  This exemplifies a nationwide trend in which public sector workers make far more than their private-sector counterparts (with better benefits).

The school superintendent has responded to the union’s stubbornness by firing every teacher and administrator at the school.

Bwhwahahah! She’ll probably be sued by the union or a teacher or three. I hope she can stick to her guns and the courts make a good decision. If this is within her purview as super and if the union didn’t have an agreement in place about this already, it would look to me like she did nothing wrong. Takes a helluva a lot of balls to fire 100 people at once and I applaud her for it, even if it doesn’t stick.

Hit the link to read more. I didn’t realize that RI was as bad off as Detroit. Pretty spooky but unsurprising that we don’t see anything much about it on the news.