House of Bob

54 Percival: Seasonal Update

2008-12-24T14:35:00.003-05:00

Taken with the cell phone camera shortly after shoveling out, it kind of appears as a representation in impressionism. You can almost make out the lights on the Christmas tree in the window.

54 Percival Street: Open for Visitors

2008-10-04T14:45:00.011-05:00

After parking, bring marshmellows in back for the chiminaea:

Have a seat!

Compost is functional:

No more cucumbers, however.

Tomatos have almost run their course:

But if you peek through, you can see a couple trying to escape:

Exit through the grape vine:

It's a Good Read!

2008-03-15T12:25:00.004-05:00

Ghetto Nation

2008-02-25T00:24:00.004-05:00

Isn't multi-culturalism wonderful?

Once upon a time, ignorant, uncouth behavior was something that we used to see and silently shake our collective heads at people doing stupid and self-destructive things.

Today, that same behavior (obnoxious swearing in public; baggy jeans hanging off your ass; rude, unwelcome, attention towards women) isn't only tolerated... it's celebrated. Cultural critics have been so completely cowed that they say nothing about ghetto behavior for fear of being labeled racist.

At least some maintain a sense of humor about it:

"I can't control my soldiers."

2008-02-24T18:07:00.004-05:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jun/18/congo.theobserver

If this were an operation conducted by joint Iraqi and American forces, we’d be saturated with comparisons to My Lai and calls for an immediate war crimes tribunal.

So where was the vocal outrage and condemnation by the One Worlders? The question becomes then and now: why the double standard, and in this case who has to gain by applying one?

Emergency Broadcast System

2008-02-20T22:01:00.002-05:00

Look there, he's coming!

All in a Weeks Work

2008-02-20T01:48:00.008-05:00

These are some of the more astounding pictures I’ve come across from the recent shuttle mission delivering the European Columbus Lab to the ISS:

I hope commercial spaceflight gets its act together before I kick the bucket because this would be one hell of an inspiring view to see in person.

High Flight

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds -- and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence.

Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew.

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Seller Beware

2008-02-20T01:14:00.016-05:00

So, I’ve been advertising this extra kitchen cart we have on craigslist. Anyone interested? Perhaps you there, with that butchers block, and handful of kitchen utensils with nowhere to go?

Our story begins when I got this response to the ad from Sarya yesterday:

“is this item still available? I can pick up tomorrow”

My follow up: “Hi Sayra, yes it's still available though there are several interested people. What time would you like to come tomorrow?”

Sarya: “does 5.30pm work for you??”

My reply, which makes clear that any commitment from her effects my own time and schedule: Yes, that works, but it can't be too much later than that because I'll need to leave the house around 6:30, at the latest.

Here's the address:

5000 Percival Street, 1st floor, Dorchester

Phone: 617.555.2009

If you can't make it or encounter a problem, please give me a call. I don't mind rescheduling for another time. And just as a reminder, I'm only interested in a cash sale.

Curiously, I didn’t receive a response to the last detailed email, so I issued a checkup on our date this morning:

"Hi Sayra, just confirming our meeting at 5:30?”

And her prompt confirmation: “yes, i'll be there”

Ok, great, someone that says they can do something and hopefully follow through with it. Because as we know, making a commitment that involves other peoples time and effort… well, I won’t go there, I’ll assume the best in people.

5:30 comes. And goes.

5:45

6:00

6:30

Did she show you ask? No. Better yet, did I receive a simple courtesy call? No, of course not. Because relations over the internet means never having to say you're sorry. People are suddenly just text on a screen. These are the joys of dealing with internet anonymity and its corresponding accountability void.

The lack of punctuation and capitalization should have been the tip-off to me that this selfish person isn’t too concerned with formalities, written or scheduled.

Gaza Strip Tease

2008-02-15T18:03:00.003-05:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/gaza_explosion

Note how the article perpetuates the obfuscation of reality by referring to the dead as an "Islamic Jihad activist" instead of what he is, a terrorist.

What twist of reason is necessary to label as "activists" those that seek "reprisal attacks against Israel" for an event which was very likely the result of an accident that occurred producing home-made rockets used indiscriminately against the Israeli population?

Here is not here. Up is down. Nuanced nuance.

Perhaps the the Jew eating Hamas bunny Assud will help explain it all:

http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1679.htm

Egypt-Gaza Border

2008-02-03T02:37:00.000-05:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_egypt_border

Some highlights:

“On Saturday, Egyptian security forces arrested two Palestinians carrying a bomb in el-Massoura, a village about 2.5 miles west of the border with Gaza, a Sinai security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.”

“On Friday, a Sinai intelligence official said Egyptian security forces were looking for four Palestinians who slipped into the country from Gaza and were suspected of planning suicide attacks against resorts.”

“At least 17 Palestinians have been arrested in the past days carrying weapons and explosives near the border and other remote parts of the Sinai desert.”

“Earlier this week, Egypt and Abbas endorsed restoring a 2005 border arrangement in which European monitors were deployed on the Palestinian side to prevent smuggling of weapons and militants…”

What a joke. If these “monitors” observe smuggling of weapons and militants, what are they prepared to do, write a letter of condemnation to the UN Committee of Serious Concern?

An "Independent Non-profit" Study

2008-01-24T00:12:00.000-05:00

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, ourpurpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

So, you're sitting there as President, you're reeling in the aftermath of this (9/11 attacks), so, yeah, you want to go get bin Laden and do Afghanistan and all that. But you also have to say, well, my first responsibility now is to try everything possible to make sure that this terrorist network and other terrorist networks cannot reach chemical and biological weapons or small amounts of fissile material. I've got to do that. That's why I supported the Iraq thing. There was a lot of stuff unaccounted for. So I thought the President had an absolute responsibility to go to the U.N. and say, "Look, guys, after 9/11, you have got to demand that Saddam Hussein lets us finish the inspection process." You couldn't responsibly ignore [the possibility that] a tyrant had these stocks. I never really thought he'd [use them]. What I was far more worried about was that he'd sell this stuff or give it away. Same thing I've always been worried about North Korea's nuclear and missile capacity. I don't expect North Korea to bomb South Korea, because they know it would be the end of their country. But if you can't feed yourself, the temptation to sell this stuff is overwhelming. So that's why I thought Bush did the right thing to go back. When you're the President, and your country has just been through what we had, you want everything to be accounted for. –Bill Clinton, 2004

* * * * *

All told, I think I count at least 7 false statements in the above 2 quotes implying the threatening existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. If we were to go back over the entire presidency of Bill Clinton and review all of his his public statements, it's quite conceivable that we could come up with tens, if not hundreds of similarly false statements.

It is therefore the conclusion of this study that these false statements --along with similar statements by a majority of democrats who voted for war authorization-- were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

Operation What and Huh

2008-01-20T13:25:00.000-05:00

http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Emerging_Threats/Briefing/2008/01/16/phantom_phoenix_shows_progress/4633/

What's a Phantom Phoenix? This operation has received little coverage in the regular press. I guess that's why it's a phantom operation.

Or: must not exist. And if it does, it surely isn't worth reporting about in any prominent way to the American public.

Identity Politics

2007-12-18T04:45:00.000-05:00

How will he vote after the transformation is complete?

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/17/america/NA-FEA-GEN-US-Turning-White.php

Dirty Bomb in the Making

2007-11-29T17:48:00.000-05:00

"The identity of the intended buyer for the uranium has not been released."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7119172.stm

I'm sure it's the usually suspects like the secular cult of elderly Scandinavian woman. And why is this not front page material? Would it be because it would be feeding too much into the Bush administrations "politics of fear"?

Annapolis: An Exercise in Futility

2007-11-27T20:08:00.000-05:00

And this is why peace in the Middle East, short of a military victory by one side or the other, is doomed to failure:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians

"Today you are here to send a message to those who say the land of Palestine is not for sale," said Mahmoud Zahar, a fiery Hamas leader. "Whoever thinks we will recognize a Jewish state ... are deluding themselves. There will be no recognition of the state of Israel."

I agree with him. Anyone who thinks that these violent, religious extremists who belong back in medieval times can be reasoned with is deluding himself. Even if some so called "moderates" in the PA were willing to trade land for peace in a formal two state solution, they don't have either the compunction or ability to stop the extremists from launching terrorist attacks against Israel from either territory. Heck, they can't even get along among themselves as evident by the civil war between Hamas and Fatah. What makes anyone realistically think they could unite in peace with Israel?

Here's my favorite quote, and note the demographic:

"Annapolis is a disaster for us," said Amina Hasanat, a 37-year-old mother of eight who demonstrated in Gaza City. Dressed in a black robe and black and green headband, she predicted the conference would end in failure. "This will be an advantage for the resistance," she said.

On to the World Series

2007-10-21T22:24:00.000-05:00

I'd like to think in some small way our vigil for Mike Lowell, Mrs. Lowell's youngest son, made the difference in this series against the Indians.

Human Nature

2007-10-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

Here is a series of recent photos that offers evidence that people are not rational creatures:

Poverty

2007-10-15T10:06:00.000-05:00

One more reason why I can't take much of the hip-hop community seriously:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/15/people.ti.ap/index.html

Here are my favorite quotes from the article:

KRS-One, whose real name is Lawrence Parker, said the fellow rapper's legal woes should not reflect on the industry as a whole.

"I'm saddened anytime I hear of a hip-hopper being locked up or somehow stunted in his life or his growth," he told The Associated Press. "I hope he wasn't into nothing crazy."

No, not at all! Those purchases were going to end up as trophy pieces above the mantle, I'm sure. There's no tradition of glorifying violence among rappers!

Notice too the objectification of the event as something external. T.I. was "locked up" or "stunted". You'd never think from these comments that it was something that this individual did to himself or was responsible for.

Chicago rapper Common, who won the CD of the year award along with T.I., tried to lend his support at the awards show.

"I salute my guy T.I., who also won, wherever he is," said Common, while raising up his trophy.

Exactly. Props for a convicted felon who's been caught buying machine guns and silencers. The subculture of protection and denial in the black community is extraordinary.

Bob, Bicycle Surveyor

2007-10-10T12:57:00.000-05:00

I ALWAYS go biking with the camera as you never know what you'll bump into, literally or otherwise. For you intelligence gathering types out there, here's a brief sampling of boats and ships recent to Boston harbor (as seen from Castle Island at least).

Where's that baggy pants ordinance???

2007-10-05T02:02:00.000-05:00

“Black-brown coalitions are tough to sustain.”

2007-10-03T12:19:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/03/roland.martin/index.html

Sure is when you have “the white man” working against your interests. What about white/brown coalitions? Are they anything like black/white coalitions?

If I'm white and I share political commitments with someone of a different color, does that mean we've formed a coalition, whereas if the other person were the same color as I, we simply have similar interests? Can only a "black" canidate represent a "black" constituency?

Have I got it all wrong this whole time in not realizing that my skin color and race inform my political interests?

“…neither group can afford to be egomaniacal and regard the other as irrelevant. Hispanics and blacks aren't going anywhere, and they better resolve their disputes, or watch both groups remain at a standstill.”

I’m sure Thomas Sowell would have a lot to say about this statement, but the excerpt does well to highlight the overhyped view that the only thing holding minorities back in America is underrepresentation and exlusion (white privilege), and the way to improve conditions and access is through political power.

“Blacks are not the enemy of Hispanics, and vice versa. The enemy is a lack of quality of education, being shut out of the economic levers, as well as poor health care. The resources of this nation should go where the need is.”

Wow, can’t get anymore implicit racism with that socialist statement. He means to say that black and brown people have got to band together to demand whitey open up the schools and the jobs to us.

The enemy of blacks, browns, or whites is a dysfunctional poverty of culture that doesn’t take advantage of educational opportunity, doesn’t prepare itself for participation in the work force, and makes poor life choices in diet, exercise, or family planning.

You’ll never hear a politician articulate that criticism. You know, because we’re all one people.

US 'terrorists'

2007-10-01T08:59:00.000-05:00

From the opening paragraph of Seymour Hersh's latest article:

October 8, 2007

Foreign Policy; Pentagon; Iranian Operations Group; Plans

Planning: In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. “Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased."

So, wait a minute. You don't have to go to a Bush speech as a source for proof of what Iran is doing in Iraq. If the Iranians are promoting instability by providing training and weapons to the insurgency in Iraq, a policy which has directly resulted in the death of our soldiers, isn't it Iran that has redefined the war in Iraq as a strategic battle between Iran and the United States?

I can't take articles like this seriously when in the opening comments a fundamental flaw in thinking has taken place.

Expected Delivery Date: Tuesday, October 2nd

2007-09-29T23:17:00.000-05:00

Man, look at that thing. Life as I know it changes after Tuesday.

******************UPDATE*****************

Package Progress
Location
Date
Local Time
Description
SHREWSBURY,MA, US
09/28/2007
2:45 A.M.
IN TRANSIT TO
ADDISON,IL, US
09/28/2007
1:44 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
ADDISON,IL, US
09/27/2007
7:21 P.M.
ORIGIN SCAN
09/27/2007
7:07 P.M.
FORWARDED TO THE FACILITY IN THE DESTINATION CITY
US
09/27/2007
3:42 P.M.
BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

*******************************UPDATE**************************************

BOSTON,MA, US
10/02/2007
7:57 A.M.
OUT FOR DELIVERY

Don't Eat Your Watch

2007-09-25T21:47:00.000-05:00

Just a friendly reminder.

Civilized vs Barbaric

2007-09-24T09:46:00.000-05:00

One approach involves an order based on a sense of fairness, the other, a free for all:

"In their cultures, they do not queue for buses where they live and there is a scrum every time a bus turns up, while in British culture there is a nice orderly queue."

But if the cultural relativists are correct, and are to be taken at their word, aren’t the Brits dominating and subjugating these foreign students with their “fairness”? How do we know that this "fairness' principle should have universal currency between both Brits and foreign students with all things being culturally equal?