Surgical Steel

Light posting

2009-07-01T10:28:00.002-05:00

Nobody reads this anyway, but I'm kind of suspending my posting for a while.

Sparty's being a little bitch today, whining and whining. You got a clean box, plenty of cat food and clean water...what's your problem?

He does this thing where he comes up to me and meows and meows just sitting there looking at me. I pick him up and he starts clawing and biting me, albeit lightly.

It's time for the cat "taco" where I roll him up in a rug and stuff him in his cat house.

Some call it torture but I call it tough love.

I Love the Indy 500

2009-05-24T13:49:00.002-05:00

...but I get terrible air signal on TV and don't have cable because I hate the cable company.

And since the race is not streaming online anywhere for free...I'm screwed.

But...I can listen to the IMS radio broadcast and watch the live scoreboard.

Along with the radio broadcast, they stream video from the broadcast booth. And so, during a commercial break, I got to see Paul Page inhale a hamburger. Dude ate that thing FAST. In about 15 seconds that guy swallowed a huge burger. And it's obvious that since his days on ABC, he's put on some pounds.

Paul...hint: mainlining hamburgers is not good for your health.

Retarded Idiot

2009-05-02T12:03:00.002-05:00

While I am on my soapbox, I thought I'd post something also about Jon Stewart's idiotic comment (since retracted) that Harry Truman was a war criminal for dropping the bomb.

1. He said we should have held a demonstration. Hey dumbass, we dropped one directly on their heads. That was the demonstration. And they still didn't surrender.

2. Since I have a degree in History, I have studied this (and written papers on it). It is estimated that 1 million Americans would have been killed in an outright invasion of Japan. Based on the resistance on Okinawa, I'm inclined to agree. Out of something like 130,000 Japanese on Okinawa, only 7,000 surrendered. So you're talking about millions, tens of millions of Japanese who would have died in an invasion.

3. And finally, Harry Truman is one of my biggest heroes, and slandering the man is just plain wrong. Anyone who had the guts to make that kind of decision, and also had the guts to fire that ambitious asshole MacArthur, deserves the utmost respect.

And that's my take on it.

P.S....most people who know me would be surprised to find that my favorite President is a Democrat. Well, that was when Democrats were sane.

Charles Johnson has gone insane.

2009-05-02T11:39:00.002-05:00

I know that I hardly get any traffic at all at this blog, but I don't care. It just soothes my soul to vent here and damn it, I've got to say this. Of course if it ever gets back to him, he'll ban me but I don't give a rat's ass.

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs has gone insane.

Accusing the Tea Parties of being organized by the Paulians is pretty egregious, considering I found out about them from Robbie Cooper.

And to be honest, I find his daily rants against Creationism boring. Hey, believe what you want, but at the same time, his jihad against it is just becoming lame. It's not some insidious disease (for the most part). It's definately not the most dangerous thing in the world when you consider rogue nations with nukes or global jihad.

And finally, insinuating that Robert Spencer is a Nazi is pretty much beyond the pale.

I've always enjoyed LGF for its anti-jihadism, and I wish the Lizard King would return to that. But sadly, I think he's gone off the deep end. He's supposedly a moderate; so why so much virulent hate for those of us to the right of him? Aren't moderates supposed to be tolerant?

Charles, whatever meds you stopped taking, I suggest you renew your prescription.

The government can EAT ME

2009-04-14T20:32:00.002-05:00

I filed my taxes online at H&R Block today.

It seems that they have deducted last years stimulus check right the hell out of my refund for this year.

So instead of getting near a grand for paying my withholding, I'm getting about $406. I can make that in a damn week without even sweating.

I guess I could be grateful that I am getting ANYTHING back in today's climate, but the IRS can suck my balls. Blow me. You suck.

Final word on BSG

2009-03-28T10:29:00.002-05:00

So I just watched the final episode of Battlestar Galactica (by the way, it should technically be abbreviated to BG).

A few things about this (spoiler alert to anyone who hasn't watched it). As far back as when the 4 Cylons in the fleet were revealed by Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower," I have been saying that we were going to find out we are all Cylons. Because Cylons are revealed by that song, so obviously Bob Dylan (and at the very least, Jimi Hendrix) are Cylons. Bingo!

Lots of early exposition where Lamkin for some reason is chosen as President. Nice. A sleazy trial lawyer, president of the colonies. Well, we almost got John Edwards so I guess that kind of makes sense.

1. Galactica jumps in right next to the Cylon Colony. Sam is hooked up to the Dradis and somehow this allows him to get the hybrids to shut down the defenses. Big space fight while the assault team fights their way to Hera. One of the Raptors hits an astroid and the crew is killed. It's the only Raptor with nukes on it.

2. Boomer kidnaps Hera back and brings her to the assault team. Athena kills her.

3. They fight their way back to Galactica while the Cylons counterattack and fight their way to the bridge. Baltar is part of the team repelling boarders along with Caprica Six. Now Baltar can see her Baltar ghost and she can see his Caprica Six ghost. Big reveal that CIC is actually the opera house. The Cylons make their way in and Cavil grabs Hera in the confusion and threatens to kill her. Big speech by Baltar about how this is all God's plan.

4. The five promise to give Cavil resurrection in return for Hera. Cylons and humans both stand down and the other four prepare to share their minds by putting their hands in Sam's bathtub. Tory doesn't want to do it. And of course Chief sees that she killed Cally. Chief pulls his hand out and chokes Tory, breaking the connection. The truce is over and people start killing each other. Simon dies. Cavil eats his own bullet. The raiders begin to attack.

5. The raptor that was hit by the astroid is adrift and hits another asteroid, which jolts the pilot's dead hand which lands on the launch button. The Colony is disabled and falls into the black hole.

6. Adama tells Starbuck to jump the ship. Starbuck doesn't have any coordinates, but she's figured out that the song Hera wrote is actually a set of coordinates. The ship jumps.

7. Cut to Galactica flying over the moon. Our moon. As it passes over you see Earth with Africa clearly visible.

8. They send a Raptor to bring the fleet to them since Galactica can never jump again. Everybody votes to leave technology behind and live here. They see early homo sapiens and Cottle says they bury their dead and that they're genetically compatible. Well, Neanderthals were too, so that may be what they are.

9. Anders flies the entire fleet into the Sun.

As for the endings for the characters?

Cylons: the good Centurions are given the base ship and they go off on their own, content that they finally have their freedom and free will. It is stated that they won't come back and destroy us, or that it's a risk worth taking, cause Adama says, "they earned it." Personally, I'd have let Anders fly those toasters into the sun as well.

Adama/Roslin: He and Roslin go flying off to find a place to build a cabin. Roslin dies on the way. He takes his wedding ring off and puts it on her. Nice ending there. Oh, and he starts the cabin as soon as he finishes burying her.

Lee: He says something to Kara about how he just wants to climb a mountain or travel the oceans. I think he becomes some sort of hermit/mountain man.

Starbuck: She vanishes while Lee is teling her this, so it's inferred she was an angel.

Athena/Karl/Hera: They argue playfully about who is going to teach Hera to hunt. The wander off somewhere with the same group as Lampkin.

The Tighs: in the same group as Lampkin.

Chief: He settles down on "an island just northwest of the northernmost continent," where there are no people. He says he likes the highlands there. I guess he's the father of the Scots.

Baltar/Caprica Six: They settle down together somewhere between a couple mountains. Baltar's dad was a farmer so he says he'll farm.

Finally, at the very end it is revealed that Hera is the "mitochondrial Eve" of the entire human race as it exists today. Ghost Baltar and Ghost Six are in the middle of New York City. They have a little spat about how this has all happened before, on the first Earth, then Caprica, and now this Earth. Caprica Six says that it might work out this time, that it's part of God's plan. Baltar says, "He doesn't like to be called that." Obviously they are angels. He says, "maybe it'll work out," and they walk away to a kind of montage of various progressively more anthropomorphic robots on big screens in the city, all of which actually do exist, to the tune of Jimi Hendrix playing "All Along The Watchtower."

I told you, we're all Cylons. We all share a common half-cylon ancestor.

Trying to crack the crack bottle

2009-03-08T13:10:00.003-05:00

So I bought Spartacus some little treats and they come in this bottle with a flip up lid.

He got tired of me handing them out.

This does not even begin to show the amount of growth of this cat in the last few weeks.

Remember the picture of him with his monkey?

Now look:

Rush is wrong on this

2009-02-26T13:40:00.003-06:00

Rush said just now on his show that President Obama "loves earmarks."

I don't think that's particularly the case. I just think the President doesn't care. As long as the public perception is that he's doing something about the economy, he's willing to put up with thousands of earmarks. He doesn't love them, he just doesn't care if they're there or not.

Sparty channels his inner Bill The Cat

2009-02-18T20:15:00.002-06:00

Remember Bill The Cat? The character in Bloom County that always had his tongue stuck out and who conveniently had the same color scheme as my cat? I caught Spartacus cleaning himself and took a picture at the perfect moment.

He also took a liking to one of my ties. He's pretty much ripped it to shreds. Finally I figured if he liked it so much I might as well let him wear it:

Juvenile cats and teeth

2009-02-10T17:02:00.004-06:00

The vet said that Spartacus had some adult teeth coming in to replace his baby teeth. Apparently the adult teeth come in, and then the baby teeth fall out. With humans, the baby teeth fall out and then the adult teeth come in. But for a few days, a cat has two canine teeth and he looks like some weird hybrid of a cat and a possum. It's freaky-deaky shit.

I am not sure if you can see the extra canine in this picture but this is him in attack mode and he has two left canines. His right baby canine came out this morning and my brother found it on the couch. Not being a weirdo I did not save it. Note the dilation of his eyes here. Sparty goes into a crazy mode about twice a day, and when he does, his eyes dilate, and there is no way on this earth anyone can catch him. He bounces off the walls until he's exhausted, then he hides for a while. After some rest, he comes out and wants to be my friend. After, of course, he has shredded my arms with his claws and ripped up my work shirts. The redeeming factor of this all is that he goes into these crazies the moment I come home and the moment I have to get up to go to work. I haven't had to use my alarm clock since I adopted him.

Spartacus and his monkey

2009-02-10T16:47:00.003-06:00

Spartacus got a sock monkey from Uncle Jim this Christmas and he loves....er, loves to kill it.

When the sock monkey came home, he was twice the size of Sparty. And he still loved to kill the monkey every chance he got. He's almost ripped the hat off the thing already. He grips the monkey around the shoulders, then bites its neck, and rips its stomach with his back legs. The monkey has proven to be quite sturdy. So far he hasn't frayed or been split open, something that cannot be said for the Bobo Sparty had when I first brought him home, or the squeaky mouse, which he tore the squeaky part out of. And now that Sparty is the same size as the monkey, I fear for Monkey. His days are numbered. He's been spared a terrible fate by the fact that the vet clipped the tips of Sparty's claws when he was down for his neutering. Lucky monkey. But you just wait until the tips come back. You're a dead monkey, Monkey.

He is Spartacus

2009-02-01T14:40:00.011-06:00

I know I have not posted much lately, but there is news:

I have joined the ranks of cat-bloggers.

His name is Spartacus and he is 6 months old. I adopted him at 2 months in early November. He is two toned, orange with stripes on top and white on the bottom.

He's been both a kind of pain and at the same time, good entertainment. Let me explain...

He was a farm cat. He grew up on my mom's 90 acres and was basically feral when adopted. So he was pretty wild. I credit my nieces for helping to tame him enough to be caught. Mom had about 4 kittens I could have adopted, but I chose the one who was the least tame, the most feisty because I wanted one that could earn the name I'd chosen.

And he did.

The first time I let him out of the carrier in my apartment, he ran off under my bed and didn't come out for quite a while. If I approached him, he'd hiss and growl at me. But as soon as he came to learn I was the only provider of food, he kind of warmed up to me. And every time I caught him I made sure to hold him for a few minutes and talk to him. And I learned cat-speak years ago when I had a cat on the farm named Floyd, so I used that a lot.

After a week or so, I gave him his first toy, a "bobo." This is just an elongated loofa dog thing he could play with. I also got him the house you see here. And some catnip. After maybe the first month, I was no longer late for work (I work from 11pm to 8am) because he would begin to wake me up at 9pm by getting on the bed and climbing onto my chest. And he still does this.

At 10am and 9am, every day, he goes batshit crazy. He tries to attack me, running at my legs or fleeing while arching his back when I pretend to be King Kong. All of this is play. It's rare that he actually scratches me (although early on, he'd go after my feet as I slept).

Over the last couple months, he's really calmed down and become a good companion. We still play the hit-and-run/King Kong game at the appointed hours, and he still wakes me up. But now he'll sit calmly while I type into the computer (like now).

Litterbox training went pretty smoothly. He's only had two incidents. One, when he was newly adopted, I count as inexperience (he peed on my bed and pillow, forcing me to buy new pillowcases and sheets). I moved him to the litterbox afterwards. No problems since. The other was when I replaced the old litterbox and he didn't really know I had and pooped right next to it.

Now we come to the best part. Through lots of television and movies and online videos and me talking around the apartment, Sparty TALKS. I don't mean he mimics talk. I mean when I came home yesterday and opened the door, he was waiting and he said, quite verbally, "Hello." And my brother gave him a stuffed monkey to play with for Christmas. I asked him, "Do you want your monkey?" and he said, "No."

Previously, he'd done some gibberish chatter not unlike an infant, but seriously...I could understand exactly what he was saying and it wasn't my mind playing tricks. And it would please any Aggie fan that when I came home today he said, "Howdy."

The first time....it freaked me out. Actually, it's STILL freaky. But it's cool all the same.

...Oh, and he's a little thief. Leave anything he can carry, like a pen, or a chapstick, or a chesspiece, lying around, and it disappears. I usually find these things in my laundry basket.

Sarah Palin - McCain's VP choice

2008-08-29T13:19:00.002-05:00

First off, I kind of thought this was going to happen.

Secondly, I think it's awesome.

And thirdly, I was listening to Rush Limbaugh and he mentioned that the majority of one of his staffers' female friends' objections to her was the fact that she's attractive. Heaven forbid!

These are pretty much the same feminists who have been swooning over Obama because he's so handsome.

Today...

2008-08-26T23:45:00.003-05:00

Is August 26.It's my Dad's birthday.

Dad passed away last Sept. 11 (just one more reason to keep that date in mind). So I thought I'd let you all know how things are going on the home front regarding this.

Today at 8AM we had a Catholic mass for Dad, and went for tacos afterwards. I admit I teared up a little when the priest mentioned my dad's name during the mass. It was short and not much theatricality. This is a church where the priest wears orange Chuck Taylor hi-tops.It was a time for reflection and celebration, really.

A partial list of the things my Dad gave me:
* A love of Simon and Garfunkel, and the solo projects of both.
* An appreciation of comedy in music in the form of Spike Jones.
* The skill to build cabinetry, plumbing, and just about any man-about-the-house things you can think of.
* A love of the outdoors

When someone passes away suddently, you don't really have time to grieve; you dig a hole and plant them. Sure there's some grieving done in the ceremony of it all, but then you move on, because you have to.It's days like this (and I'm sure 9/11/08 will be similar), when there's no burying or planning funerals to be done, when you have a true chance to measure the person you lost.

New endorsement for John Cornyn

2008-08-13T03:40:00.002-05:00

The Fraternal Order of Police.

I consider this important because every year for the last 4 or 5, I've donated annually to their fund for the families of fallen officers. There are not many things that get me to donate my (meager) funds charitably, but I consider this one very important. And it gives me a lot of satisfaction to know that the very people I support also support a Senator I feel has done a lot for not only Texas, but for this country.

Thanks, guys. Stay vigilant.

Ouch, Part 2

2008-08-05T12:08:00.003-05:00

Part 1 is here.

Last Monday morning, I was unloading a stack of bread off a truck (I work in a grocery store as you'll know if you read Part 1), and I raised up the dolly to push it under the bread trays. Normally, I position the dolly so I can give a big kick to it and slide it under. I was in a hurry because it was 5 minutes to the end of my shift, and I missed. I hit the back of the dolly (in a pretty sharp place) with my left shin.

It was pretty damn painful. I figured I'd have a bad bruise. It was actually so painful I limped outside and bit down on my fist, hard. Then I went to report the incident and get some ice.

When I finally rolled up my pant leg to survey the damage, I was a little shocked. Blood was literally pouring down my leg, soaking my sock and left foot. I put paper towels against it and applied pressure, but it probably wouldn't have been a bad idea to make a tourniquet, it was bleeding so fast.

A coworker brought some guaze pads and an Ace bandage, and I applied them and raced to the med clinic. They made me wait about 30 minutes before seeing me. I seriously thought I was going to faint from the blood loss before they checked me out.

When the nurse finally got the wrapping off and looked at it, she said, "Oh...you can see everything." When I asked her what that meant, she said, "Oh, nothing...you just cut it all the way down to the bone, that's all."

What??

Anyway, a long story to say that I got my first non-surgical stitches that day, 6 in all. It's healing quite nicely. I'm down to just having a band-aid on it now. I have to go back a week from today and have the stitches taken out.

Oh, and there was a hell of a lot of bruising and the bone was bruised. So just standing for a couple hours is painful.

<-------This is one of the injuries mentioned over there in the sidebar.

I Feel Safer Now

2008-08-05T12:05:00.002-05:00

I've been without a means of home defense (other than my Conan sword) for the last few years, and my neighborhood has gotten progressively more dangerous in that time, so I was in the market for a pump action shotgun.

$200 at the pawn shop got me a mint but used Remington 870 Express.

Yes, I feel safer now.

Can we possibly win?

2008-07-26T12:53:00.003-05:00

I posit this question only because of the fawning adulation of the MSM over Obama's overseas visit, and the concurrent non-coverage of McCain's quite reasonable claims that Obama's policies, which included opposing the surge, would have made the improvements in Iraq impossible.

And I can tell you, since I know someone who was there during the surge, that the improvements are real and substantive.

But I honestly fear that while this may be the last election that the MSM can really radically influence through their outright favoritism, we are actually at the nadir of their influence. This is the last year they can influence things in a major way, and as such, they've dropped all pretense, and gone full-bore for the Socialist.

And while I hope that this year is as my beloved mom says, "electing a place-holder," I'd rather that place-holder not be someone inclined to give us socialized medicine, the nationalization of the oil industry, and the stripping of my right to defend myself with arms.

...And I hope against hope, but let's face it...we truly won't know where this all is leading until election day. The last 3 or 4 elections have been decided by less than the margin of error. Unless one candidate is polling more than 10 points ahead of the other, there's no real reason to give up, or for that matter, to count the eggs in the basket.

What I'm saying is, I can't honestly believe that there are enough Americans who are gullible enough to make electing the Obamessiah a reality...but, really, there are. I can hope that enough people will be turned off by the smug arrogance and blatant stupidity of this man, but can I really believe that there are that many Americans still voting? Well, sure, I took a straw poll at a gun show and not one person there was going to vote for him...but that's at a gun show. That's like asking the people at a Comic-Con if they'd take Robin over the Silver Surfer.

I'm convinced that the knowledgable people who are actually going to vote will favor the war hero who anticipated the success of the surge over the guy who has less than 6 years in the Senate who opposed it from the get-go. My concern is people who know no better. And let's face it...the Democrats have done an outstanding job of registering people who have no business voting to do just that (and we won't even talk about the Democratic voters who are dead and who will surely be voting despite that fact).

In short, the margin of error is so small that just the most insignificant voter fraud in a very volitile state (say, Ohio, or Florida) will swing things their way.

So in the end, I think we CAN win. Whether we WILL, is an open question. My suggestion? In the event it looks bad election day, go buy some ammo. Be bitter and cling to your guns. And trust in the inevitable backlash that will come. It will. When you see a return to 55 mph speed limits, gasoline rationing, stagflation, and a complete drop in the respect our military has overseas, you know the end is coming. Their end.

We might lose this thing...I honestly hope we don't. But we might. Remain vigilant. Americans value their freedom, and we won't be denied. 4 years of idiotic leadership might be enough to smack us in the head. Whether it's a short enough time span to prevent the Iranians from getting nukes...is questionable. But to be honest, I don't think the Israelis are going to wait for us to come to our senses, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Senate Republicans hold the line

2008-07-25T11:58:00.001-05:00

Voting against cloture on an energy bill that does not end the moratorium on offshore drilling.

Kudos to my Senators, Cornyn and Huchison, for voting nay on this.

Maybe the Republicans do have a spine after all.

H/T Hot air.

RightOnline summit Day 2

2008-07-23T10:41:00.005-05:00

Lots of good speakers on Day 2. Michael Steele hit the ball out of the park with his speech. Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams was nails. But the keynote speech was Michelle Malkin.

Possum Story

2008-07-22T23:53:00.003-05:00

It's been a couple weeks since this happened, but I guess it's time to tell the tale.

Setting the stage: It's a warm July night in Texas, I'm on my porch with the fire burning and some dead animal flesh (cow, in this instance) on the grill. I have a rocking chair on the porch and I'm sitting there reading a book. And I hear a rustling in the bushes that line my porch.I go inside, and retrieve my flashlight. I shine it into the bushes. And there it is...a possum. It turns its head and smiles...a whole mouthful of disgusting teeth. Then it looks back at me and stares at me.

Just inside the door, I have a sword...a replica of the sword that Conan had in the first movie. So I reached in there and pulled it out. With the sword in my right hand and the flashlight in my left, I approached the beast. It did not move.My intent was to scare the creature by swinging the sword down in front of its face. I raised the sword, brought it down with an "AAAAHAHAHAHA!!!" (imagine R. Lee Ermey's war face cry), and aimed about six inches from the front of the possum.

I guess my "war cry" startled Mr. Possum, because he lept forward, at just the right speed so that the blade of the sword hit him right in the neck, and honest to God, I took his head clean off.Now, I really didn't mean to do it. Really. But I think possums are vile evil creatures, so it wasn't really a loss. Still, there was the matter of disposing of the beast. I put on some gloves, picked up both pieces, and tossed them over the fence. That was it.

Ultimately, I did feel kinda bad for the little fella, but really...I grew up on a farm, and killing critters was never a big deal. Its only in the last few years that I've gotten kind of squeamish about it. Anyway, it is what it is. Call me a murderer, or whatever. One less possum is a good thing in my book.

Defending the American Dream Summit Day 1

2008-07-20T15:48:00.003-05:00

This week I have been on vacation, to help welcome home my brother James, from Iraq. He has done some political consulting in Austin in the past, and we went up for an Summit of bloggers and political types there; mostly a conservative event, although I did see quite a few libertarians and Ron Paul bumper stickers as well.

Across town, the Kos Krazies were having their own little shindig. But this post is not about their event, but ours.

This event was put together by the Americans For Prosperity Foundation, and it was enlightening on many levels. The first day consisted mostly of lectures aimed at getting bloggers more active in the wider conservative blogosphere. I chose for my first lecture the Sam Adams Alliance New Media Training Session. This was generally aimed at trying to develop ties within the greater right wing of the blogosphere. Mostly it consisted of experienced bloggers, some well known, some, like myself, not. I had meant to attend the Blogging 101 Session but it was full. I'm kind of glad I attended this one instead. I made a few contacts and met some people whose screen names I recognized from the comments of other blogs.

The next session I went to was the Americans For Prosperity New Media Training Session. This was hosted by Dan Gainor of the Business and Media Institute. Lots of good information, and lots of notes to take away with about how the MSM shows its bias.

My brother and I decided to skip the rest of the day, but he did go back for the dinner that evening, at which he was recognized by the host of the event, Peggy Venable, and got a standing ovation. His blog from Iraq was highly praised. Also, earlier in the day he was interviewed by the local NPR radio station and his interview made it onto the national broadcast.

Update: Travis Fell has links to lots of other posts on this topic.

Been Away

2008-07-20T14:53:00.003-05:00

I've been in Austin the last five days, attending the Americans for Prosperity conference, "Defending The American Dream." Lots of cool stuff to report from this, but I am waiting for my brother to upload the pictures before I go to much into detail.

The coolest bits were meeting Michelle Malkin and Michael Steele, as well as Robbie from Urbangrounds.com and Rightwingsparkle, who I only knew from Protein Wisdom.

My brother, just returned from Iraq, also attended the event and was recognized at the dinner event on the first evening. Really cool. Sad to say that I didn't attend that; I was catching up with an old friend that night.

More detailed post on this event to come.

The Black Troll

2008-06-30T11:44:00.002-05:00

Here's a new little ditty from Evil Muppet Project. Enjoy.

Hint

2008-06-15T14:51:00.002-05:00

When you're in the convenience store, and there are 5 or 6 people behind you in line, now is not a good time to purchase 7 different scratch-off lotto tickets using the change from your piggy bank.