San Diego leads the way!

San Diego leads the way!  In public school districts acquiring MRAPs.  I know this sounds like something from The Onion, but it's apparently for real – it's being reported by NPR...

The CQ is very high on this one...

The CQ is very high on this one...  That's Cuteness Quotient...

DUBAR – Duct Up Beyond All Repair!

DUBAR – Duct Up Beyond All Repair!  The farmer-style repair job on my truck's rear windows.  Aleck, I know you'll be laughing when you see this :)

I just knocked off for the day.  I walked into the house, stripped all my dusty, sweaty clothes off, and took a nice, long shower.  That felt so good that I'm sure it's illegal in California!  I didn't get quite as much done as I'd hoped, but I think that's mainly because the brush pile was even bigger than I'd thought it was.  I did a lot of pruning around the place this year.  It looks to me like I've got another full day's work to get it done.  With any luck, the paving folks won't show up tomorrow, and I'll have the day to get it done...

I'm one tired puppy.  I think I'll sleep very well tonight...

I swear that brush pile is growing!

I swear that brush pile is growing!  My job today is very straightforward: chip and shred the contents of my (gigantic) brush pile until there's nothing left to chip.  I've got all sorts of brush in there – rose clippings, willow clippings, a few small pines I culled, and lots of pine and spruce trimmings including some large, long branches.  I put in two and a half hours this morning, and now I'm taking a lemonade (ah!) break.  At right you can see my setup, with the wood chipper's exhaust chute aimed into my pickup bed.  This works great!

Except for one little thing, that is.  When picking up handfuls of twigs and leaves to shred, I must have gotten a few small rocks as well – and these exited the chute at high speed, breaking both of the windows in the back of my truck :( 

When I go back out, a roll of duct tape is going with me to make temporary repairs.  Those danged windows are expensive, too – you have to replace the whole rear unit, not just the pieces of glass.  Furthermore, my windshield has a foot long crack in it, too, that keeps growing every day.  Sounds like I'll soon be making a glass shop very happy...

Virginia sea level to rise by seven feet?

Virginia sea level to rise by seven feet?  Willis Eschenbach, writing over at Watts Up With That?, utterly demolishes the recent claims - which, of course, the lamestream media has been credulously reporting...

Feminism's odd choice of heroine...

Feminism's odd choice of heroine...  I'm referring to Margaret Sanger, who has achieved (posthumously) near-goddess status with Planned Parenthood in particular, “pro-choicers”, and feminists in general.  After reading a biography of her some years ago, I found that to be a surprising choice.  I ran across this blog post in my morning reading, and it does a yeoman's job of extracting some damning Margaret Sanger quotes, all carefully documented.  As the author points out, the care is needed, because the Intertubes are full of utter crap on both sides of this issue.

If you're unfamiliar with Margaret Sanger, this is well worth a few minutes of your time to get edumacated just a little.  I'm not a member of Planned Parenthood, I'm not a pro-choicer, and I'm certainly not a feminist – but if I were any of those things, I damned sure wouldn't be looking at Margaret Sanger in admiration...

“Is there anything the government doesn’t ruin?”

“Is there anything the government doesn’t ruin?”  Nothing comes to mind, actually.  This time, it's cheese...

“We must fight...”

“We must fight...”  Found this video of one of Reagan's better speeches. 

On one level, the speech's message was completely appropriate for the moment. 

On a completely different level, the speech made me yearn for a leader of Reagan's abilities.  The contrast between his leadership – from the front! – and Obama's couldn't be more stark...

“The west had better find its will...”

“The west had better find its will...”  What she said.  My dad used to say that the only solution to the Middle East's problem is to collect the world's nuclear weapons and use them to turn the Middle East into a few inches of glass.  The more I learn about it, the more I think he may have been right...