Finished....

I finally finished The King of Ys today. Four books in two volumes. It turns out it's pronounced "eess."

It turned out to be a good read. It's very well written, well researched. The dialog is great, and the story very character-driven. There was nothing devisive about it.

Next on the list is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. Rarely have I read a book with a title so long. The few I can recall were also by Douglas Adams. It's over 300 pages, but since it's a trade paperback, it should be a quick read.

Mmm... pie....

"I've made a nice pie. Mmm... blueberry.... But wait! King Arthur will want some, and so will his knights! Bunch of pigs.... I'll go eat it in the dungeon.... It'll be yummy and good... and all mine!"

Heaven help us....

Here's another "review" from Australia of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11.

It's really disturbing how badly Moore wants to create his lie, and how carefully he crafts it. Yet for all his work, it soon becomes easily discredited. Moore ignores timelines as he assembles his propaganda. Irresponsible himself, Moore shifts responsibility from the guilty parties to those he wishes to blame.

Moore shows the burial of U.S. Air Force Major Gregory Stone, killed in action. Moore, of course, milks it for all it's worth, an exploitation so tasteless it leads Stone's family to call Moore a "maggot that eats off the dead."

To Moore, facts mean nothing. All that matters is that he hates Bush, and he wants you to hate a country that has fought the hardest against tyrants and terrorists, from fascists to communists to Islamists.

To Moore, all that matters is hate.

Your melons are showing....

The whack-jobs at PETA pull some more shenanigans, this time in a claim that vegetarians are better lovers. How can you be a better lover if you don't eat wieners and tacos?

The wee hours....

Yesterday was geek day, as we got together for D&D. Eric and Tina arrived shortly after 3:30; Jenni and Jeff didn't arrive until after 4:00. We took some time for some preliminaries; no one had seen the house yet, and Eric and Tina hadn't seen Jeff's new vehicle yet. We didn't really get down to playing until about 5:00 or so. It turned in to a late night; we finally wrapped up around 1:30, mostly because Maryanne was having a hard time staying awake.

Just got back from seeing Spider-Man 2. We both enjoyed the movie. There was some good action, enough drama to offer some complexity to the plot and to the characters, and some obvious set-ups for a sequel. We had too much pizza, though.

Long time no see....

Last night Maryanne and I met up with some other people at the Ginza's of Tokyo located on the west side of Madison. Bernadette was in town, and a group was getting together for some food and fun. It was nice to see Bernadette and her former roommate Ron. The only other person there that we'd met before was Bernadette's friend Candy. We couldn't stay out late, though, as Maryanne had to put in at least two hours of overtime the next morning.

Later today we're expecting the crew for D&D. We'll be starting a little later than I would like, but I've prepared for a late night.

The liberal media....

If you still don't think the media has a liberal bias, check this out. Not only are the articles in such blatantly liberal newspapers like The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times clearly biased, but it appears they'll make stuff up if they have to.

Moral carpet bombing....

Here's yet another less-than-kind review of Michael Moore's duplicitous propaganda piece known as Fahrenheit 9/11.

Changes....

I've implemented a new guest book and a new mailer form courtesy of Bravenet. The mailer allows me to have the messages sent to my Yahoo e-mail address. While the new guest book isn't exactly what I want, I do like the interface better than that offered by Yahoo.

Parallel processing....

When computer geeks have too much time on their hands (way, way too much time on their hands), we end up with stuff like this.

A new demographic....

Michelle Malkin's op/ed piece in U.S.A. Today warns of a new portion of the electorate: the "security moms." You won't see them at the so-called "Million Mom March."

Gag rule....

The twisted, unintended consequences of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law comes to light again in regards to Russ Darrow. While Russ Darrow, Jr. runs for political office, Russ Darrow III may not be able to run advertisements for the car dealerships that bear their progenitor's name.

Closeted....

In Hollywood, it's just not chic to be a Republican. Be outspoken about your conservative politics, and you might face some backlash, or at least some blacklisting. Bridget Johnson offers an interesting op/ed piece on the topic.

Don't play with your food....

The whack-jobs at PETA are finally in the news again over an investigation at a supplier for KFC. Eat more chicken.

Shopping....

I had orginally planned on going to the gym yesterday after work, but Maryanne called and said whe was not staying late, so I told her to meet me at Rogan's Shoes. I had planned on stopping there anyway, because I needed new athletic shoes to use at the gym, and figured if they had some kind of sale, I could look at some kind of safety shoe for doing the yard work. They indeed had a sale, buy one item and get a second item at half off, so I started looking. I found the athletic shoes quickly; it took me a while to find some work shoes. I ended up with Columbia hiking shoes, though part of me now thinks I should have looked at leather safety shoes. Maybe next time.

Maryanne got new athletic shoes, too, and a pair of work shoes. Hers were steel-toe safety shoes, since they were significantly less expensive than hiking shoes.

When we got home I found that the drill I ordered from Amazon had finally arrived. Now we can finally get some work done on the stoop.

Culled....

In the effort to try to clean up this blog, I wanted to title all the posts. In some cases my memory needed jogging, though, which meant I had to skim the articles and other pieces I had linked to in some of my posts. A lot of these articles are no longer available; either they're gone entirely, or now require registration. I decided to delete these posts, culling out over sixty old posts, and thereby allowing me to edit more posts. Blogger only allows a user to view up to 300 posts. I wish it were more, but 300 is a good chunk.

Arguing semantics....

Many anti-gunners try to claim the Second Amendment is a states right and not an individual right. But when intellectual honesty prevails, even anti-gun liberals reluctantly admit that the Second Amendment, like the rest of the Bill of Rights, guarantees an individual right.

By the numbers....

The Brady Campaign is masterful at manipulating numbers in hopes of changing opinions in a truly deceitful manner.

Say it ain't so....

The Stoughton City Council gives in to the evil empire.

Inconsiderate....

This is one of the things that pisses me off about Dane County: bicyclists. It seems like none of the bicyclists around here know how to obey the rules of the road.

Admittedly biased....

Award-winning science-fiction and fantasy author Orson Scott Card theorizes on why Fox News Channel is winning the cable news channel race: honesty. They don't try to hide their biases.

We control the vertical....

The information gestapo strikes again, as AmFam has blocked access to web-based mail providers like Yahoo, MSN, and so forth. While they've had a long-standing policy against accessing these sites, they weren't actually blocked until today. Blame it on viruses, and the stupid end-users who spread them. I guess I can't really blame the company for wanting to secure the network and protect against these kind of threats, but there's always that piece of me that is frustrated when a few idiots ruin a good thing for everyone else.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Sunday morning I awoke earlier than expected, and took advantage of the time to get some work done on the computer.

After Maryanne woke up, I started breakfast, and we decided to go to Madison to see the latest Harry Potter movie. We were able to catch a 12:15 show, and the theater was pretty empty.

The movie itself was somehow... disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it was an enjoyable movie in and of itself. But if you've read the books, you'll notice that a lot of material was left out. And while a lot of that material wasn't terribly integral to the central plot of installment of the overall story, some of what was left out is important, or leads up to important issues for the next installment.

Personally, I wish we would have seen Spider-Man 2.

Sunday night we went over to Pauline's, since Narf is in Georgia serving his two weeks with the Army Reserves. It was enjoyable, probably more so for Pauline as she had some adult company for a change. As always, Katie was non-stop energy. I don't know how she does it. For that matter, I don't know how Pauline does it, either.

Weekend....

Friday night we had dinner with Maryanne's family, since her aunt Sarah was heading back to Mexico the next morning. We ended up at the old stand-by, Laredo's.

Saturday morning Maryanne went in to work for some overtime, and I stayed home since I was on-call. I was able to run the dishwasher, and then do a load of laundry before mowing the lawn and doing some other yard work. By the time Maryanne got home around 12:30 I had had enough, so she helped me finish up, and we went inside. I was able to shower, and then we had some lunch.

We decided to see the Madison Savoyards' production of Ruddigore, since Jeff was again the technical director, and Jenni had gotten a part in the chorus. After dinner at La Hacienda, we made our way to the UW campus for the show. It was a good production, and as always, Jeff's sets were superb.

Afterwards the four of us met at Badger Bowl with some of the other cast and crew, and went bowling. It was a late night, but fun.

A tangled web....

The thorny issues caused by the McCain-Feingold campaign-reform law hit a little closer to
home in Wisconsin.

Tightening the noose....

Dave Kopel reports on the continuing efforts to establish gun-rationing laws, laws that would be a first step in strangling the Second Amendment.

Thorny issue....

It seems that the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform law presents an interesting conundrum regarding Fahrenheint 9/11. David Bossie, of the group Citizens United, offers a situation wherein the best intentions are horribly entangled with First Amendment rights, and the FEC is left holding the bag in a very unenviable position.

Dishonest....

James Lileks pulls no punches in his scathing, vitriolic analysis of Michael Moore's 4th of July op/ed piece for the L.A. Times.

Over there....

If you've ever wondered what it's really like for soldiers serving in Iraq, read this. Thanks to Nerzhin for the article.

The F word....

Written just in time for Independence Day, but posted here a couple of days late, Thomas Sowell opines on why some people, especially some Americans, hate America so: freedom.

You saw it here first....

Dave Kopel shares a draft of a forthcoming column for the National Review, a column which methodically addresses the deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11.

Adding insult to injury....

Michael Niewodowski shares his opinion on Fahrenheit 9/11: "Moore has not only insulted the nation, he has insulted the victims of the terrorist attacks."

If you're wondering who Mr. Niewodowski is, he was a chef at the Windows on the World restaurant at the World Trade Center until September 11, 2001.

Snippy....

Yesterday I had a flex day away from work, and was able to bring lunch to Maryanne. As usual, the visitor parking situation at WPS was atrocious, but I parked and made my way inside. I signed in as a visitor like I usually do, and waited for the receptionist to get off the phone. After I she was finished, I said I needed visitor's badge, and she asked who I was visiting. I had never been asked before, but I answered I was there to see Maryanne Anschutz, and she told me to write it down in the book. This being new to me, I didn't know where in the visitor book to write it down, and since I had already filled it out, and now lacked room to write it anywhere, I started scribbling out my old entry and creating a new one. She then got an attitude and started getting snippy, saying that I could just write it down, again, not specifying where. I told her, also a bit snippy, that the procedure had never been explained to me this way before. I finished it, and walked back in to the lobby.

When Maryanne and I sat down for lunch, I asked her if the receptionist worked for WPS or for the Blettner Group, the owners of the building.

"WPS. Why?"

"She's a fucking bitch."

If she does it again she'll get a piece of my mind.

Subtlety is an art....

James S. Robbins reviews the not-so-subtle disinformation of Fahrenheit 9/11: "I would sooner acknowledge Moore as the intellectual leader of the Left, and this film his (and their) emblematic masterwork. This is the best they have to offer."

The best laid plans....

John Lott again addresses the failed gun-control effors in Britain, Australia, and Canada.