On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog

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[Editor: Excise [X-Size needs to do some Xercise] decided to pose at the best possible time at the best possible place just as I was taking the camera out for a feral cat picture hunt during the early afternoon.

Friday Ark

In Memoriam

Rook had to say goodbye to his brown tabby, Quiz, this week.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation has really fallen off the barn into the manure pile with their handling of the cut off of funds to Planned Parenthood.

Their disaster control couldn’t have been any worse than if they had announced the introduction of a pink Edsel, New Coke in a pink can, or a Walther P-22 with a pink slide … oh, wait, the handgun deal is real.

Mother Jones wants to know why they haven’t stopped funding Penn State if they aren’t going to fund organizations under investigation?

Planned Parenthood has repeatedly been investigated over the funding of abortions, and nothing has ever been found, because they are very aware of the political animosity and very careful about the accounting. Attempting to claim that this latest waste of taxpayers’ money to again investigate this issue by another whacko Congresscritter is a serious investigation is a matter best handled by a pathological liar like the Joe Isuzu character. The head of the Foundation just can’t lie believably.

It’s Groundhog Day and some of the militant marmots object to being disturbed.

These are the two dozen starters. The little “I” indicates a Quest Rookie who has completed an Iditarod, while the “R” marks total Rookies in long distance races. The two mushers who are bolded are former winners of the Quest.

Kristy Berington^I
Jake Berkowitz^R
Maren Bradley^R
David Dalton
Paige Drobny^R
Kyla Durham
Mike Ellis
Nikolay Ettyne^R
Marcelle Fressineau^R
Gus Guenther^R
Trent Herbst^I
Yuka Honda^R
Joar Leifseth Ulsom^R
Sonny Lindner
Lance Mackey
Allen Moore
Hugh Neff
Misha Pedersen^R
Kurt Reich^R
Brent Sass
Michael Telpin^R
Jason Weitzel^R
Abbie West
Brian Wilmshurst^R

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February 1, 2003

Commander:
Rick Douglas Husband, Colonel, USAF

Pilot:
William C. McCool, Commander, USN

Payload Commander:
Michael P. Anderson, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Mission Specialist:
Kalpana Chawla, PhD
David M. Brown, MD, Captain, USN
Laurel Blair Salton Clark, MD, Captain, USN

Payload Specialist:
Ilan Ramon, Colonel, Israel Air Force

In order to be ‘fair and balanced’ I should note that Newt ‘Efting’ Gingrinch is being sued for copyright infringement by Rude Music who own the rights to the song, ‘Eye of the Tiger’. They are all pirates and should be shut down.

Looking at the official results of the Florida primary: None of the Above won a convincing victory tonight, but the delegates will go to Romney with three-quarters of a million, the Grinch got a half million, Santorum a quarter million, and Paul an eighth of a million votes.

The turn out in Broward and Miami-Dade doesn’t look like they’ll make it to 30%, so the Cubans stayed home. Across the state the turn out is around 41%.

The Panhandle went for the Grinch with the possible exception of my county, Okaloosa, where Romney has a 200 vote lead. McCain may have helped Willard in this county.

This will move the Mittster back to the front of the pack, but there is no way of knowing what will happen in the caucuses that are coming up next.

The gang known as the Oakland Police Department are assaulting people again. Maybe someone should call out the National Guard to deal with them, as the local politicians don’t seem to be able to do anything.

My virus software exploded with warnings at Pharyngula when I went to look at older posts. This is the problem with running ads, some of them are malware, only no one checks them before they are run from the central server.

Romney is still running the ad with the pirated NBC clip, despite complaints from NBC and Tom Brokaw. IOKIYAR. FYI: It isn’t a superPAC ad, it is identified as a Romney ad, and he approved the piracy.

For those playing at home, if turn out for the Florida primary tomorrow is much below 2 million, you will know that ‘none of the above’ won the primary. I keep hearing Repubs claim that ‘their best’ aren’t running. Their ‘best’ died some time ago, and what’s out there is the Republican Party of today.

We have had to put up with John McCain in the area to drum up support for Romney. That’s pretty pathetic.

Fairbanks 440 feet [134 meters] Start
Chena Hot Springs 1550 feet [472 meters] 72 miles [116 km]
Rosebud Summit 3640 feet [1109 meters]
Mile 101 Steese Highway 2250 feet [686 meters] 42 miles [68 km]
Eagle Summit 3685 feet [1123 meters]
Central 435 feet [133 meters] 33 miles [53 km]
Circle City 597 feet [182 meters] 74 miles [119 km]
Eagle 880 feet [268 meters] 159 miles [256 km]
American Summit 3920 feet [1195 meters]
Dawson City 1050 feet [320 meters] 147 miles [237 km]
King Solomon’s Dome 4002 feet [1220 meters]
Pelly Crossing 1558 feet [475 meters] 202 miles [325 km]
Carmacks 1722 feet [525 meters] 73 miles [117 km]
Braeburn 2326 feet [709 meters] 77 miles [124 km]
Whitehorse 2089 feet [637 meters] 100 miles [161 km] Finish

The total distance is approximately 1000 miles [1600 kilometers]

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CBS reports that NBC asks Romney campaign to remove its content from new ad.

So the Romney campaign used material that is copyrighted by NBC without permission and broadcast it.

Under the moguls’ SOPA thinking, the Romney campaign would be removed from the airways, and all of those who aired the ad would be in deep trouble.

I guess cable systems could be shut down using the same logic that resulted in the seizure of MegaUpload.

Of course, politicians don’t think they are subject to pesky laws, which is why they are always ‘stealing’ copyrighted music and video to use in their campaigns. Laws, after all, are only for the 99%.

When I walked into my Mother’s the other day she asked me a question that I assumed had been on Jeopardy. I heard “Who are the Cardassians?” She has never been a fan of science fiction, and I assumed it came up in one of the pop culture categories.

I hadn’t even gotten warmed up about Deep Space Nine, when she, said “No, no, no! These people are in California, and I want to why they are on TV?”

She had meant a family named the Kardashians, and even after looking them up, I had no idea why they were on TV. They are apparently ‘famous for being famous’ and a way to fill a programming slot without spending money on actually creating a program.

Since I looked it up, I have noticed that the name pops up in the Entertainment section of CNN on occasion, but still have no idea why.

My only response to my Mother was that she should use the channel change function on her remote.

Elayne has a very large infographic up that points out that the media moguls have opposed every technical advance made, and repeatedly claimed that they would be ruined by people stealing their ‘precious fluids’ as a result of each new product.

I think they need to make something worth stealing, before they complain.

Fair Warning: The race starts in Fairbanks, AK next Saturday with about two dozen teams in contention. Several teams had to drop out at the last minute because the Copper Basin 300 race, one of the qualifying events for the Quest, was cancelled due to poor trail conditions.

The temperatures are cold, but the interior hasn’t been overwhelmed with snow.

This is the faster of the two versions of the trail as the double climb up Rosebud and Eagle Summit occur early in the race when mushers and dogs are in good shape.

January 28, 1986

Commander:
Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Pilot:
Michael J. Smith, Commander, USN

Mission Specialist:
Judith A. Resnik
Ronald E. McNair
Ellison S. Onizuka, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Payload Specialist:
Gregory B. Jarvis
Sharon Christa McAuliffe

Gentleman at Leisure

What, hmmm …

[Editor: Sox lazing on my bathrobe in the chair shows a couple of the problems I need to address with the camera. The room light is yellow as it is all indirect and coming off of beige paint, and his pupils are so expanded that you can't see the eye color. I may need a spotlight to get the colors right, but the camera works in low light.

Friday Ark

January 27, 1967

Virgil “Gus” Ivan Grissom, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Edward Higgins White, II, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Roger Bruce Chaffee, Lieutenant Commander, USN