Posts from — December 2015

The Goat still stands, but so too do some of the crazy collection of clowns who are so delusional that they believe they are qualified to be President of the United States.

The politicians spend less time actually working than most part time employees. If Congresscritters were paid by the hour, they would qualify for food stamps and Medicaid.

This is Saint Lucia’s Day for Scandinavians.

It features special treats that are handed out by a girl wearing a crown of candles, Lucia coming from the Latin for light, LUX.

Saint Lucia was an early Christian martyr from Syracuse on Sicily, but her official feast day, December 13, fit perfectly with the local pagan celebration of the Lussi on December 13, which was the Winter Solstice at the time. Yep, more cover to continue the fun mid-winter celebrations by pretending they are associated with Christianity to get the Church off everyone’s case.

New Zealand voters chose this flag as the competitor to the current flag for the final election in this $18 million USD waste of taxpayers money by Prime Minister Key.

Trump cancelled his trip to Israel after Netanyahu mentioned that the Muslim ban was a terrible idea.

Trump and Carson are making noises like they will run as independents if they think the Republican National Committee isn’t treating them fairly.

It is time for people to refresh their memories about the Whig and American (Know Nothing) parties of the first half of the 19th century, because it is looking like the Republican Party is about to fragment into the parties that formed it.

CBC: Donald Trump faces fallout over proposed Muslim ban
BBC: Trump UK ban petition passes 329,000 signatures
ABC: Time Magazine releases footage of bald eagle named Uncle Sam attacking Donald Trump
BBC: Donald Trump: ‘I will never leave this race’ despite criticism

At least two cities in Canada want Trump’s name removed from buildings in them. The Mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida has banned him.

It is extremely difficult to believe that someone is actually serious about becoming a world leader when he keeps talking about all of the different groups of people he seems to hate.

It looks like he has finally gone too far: Donald Trump’s Muslim US ban call roundly condemned; ‘Worse than Voldemort’: Trump’s call for Muslim ban slammed by Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

The CBC’s Neil MacDonald asks an important question: Why aren’t we looking into the Saudi role in San Bernardino attack?

If you care, what Trump is calling for violates the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. We have been down this road before, most recently during World War Two and when it was finally taken to court the internment camps were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

Happy NODWISH Greetings

As a service to my readers I have compiled a list of useful terms for our modern global village.

It is time to wish family and friends: [select one]

Happy NODWISH
Merry Solstice
Happy Hanukkah
Happy Kwanzaa
С Рождеством Христовым
Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Nadolig Llawen
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noël
Buon Natale
Feliz Navidad
God Jul
Rauhallista Joulua
Happy Hogwatch
Happy Christmas

[Read more →]

The seventy-fourth anniversary of “a date which will live in infamy…”

The official US Navy site on the Pearl Harbor attack.

There will be a memorial service aboard NAS Pensacola that normally features local survivors of the attack. Obviously there are fewer of them every year.

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends. I miss the latkes and jelly doughnuts my roommates received for the holiday at college. [Their grandmothers were afraid they wouldn’t celebrate or couldn’t get “real” food at that terrible Baptist university.] It was a great break.

One of the nice things about Hanukkah is that there are established “gifts”, so you don’t have to rack your brains about what to get: a card and gelt covers just about everyone.

General background at Wikipedia’s entry for Hanukkah and even more at Chabad’s Chanukah page.

[Note: on the Jewish calendar the day changes at sundown, not midnight.]

Yes, it is the day that kindly old Saint Nicholas fills the footware of good little girls and boys with treats [or his assistants beat the evil out of bad children, depending on the local customs – they didn’t just leave the sticks – in some places they use them.] Don’t forget the carrot if he rides a horse in your area.

He is the patron saint of Russian merchants and pawnbrokers (three gold balls are one of the symbols associated with him).

I have been attempting deal with the totally unexpected death of a relative who was not even half my age. That isn’t the way things are supposed to work.

Then during the week the electric company decided it was absolutely necessary to change the utilities to my name … so they could charge me $54 for establishing a new account. Of course, this was the week the battery in my cell phone decided to fail and my primary physician left the area without notifying me.

As you get older change becomes more difficult to absorb.

From the CBC: Reporters root through San Bernardino shooters’ apartment on live TV.

While it is fairly obvious that the couple murdered people, they haven’t been convicted of any crime at this time. The landlord allowed the media to rummage through the couple’s apartment. There was property that now belongs to the couple’s child in that apartment, and there is no mention of the family agreeing to this. The landlord did it as soon as the police released it from their custody.

In the state of Florida, the landlord would find him/herself in being sued for this. There are rules and laws, with which I am familiar as there have been deaths in the apartments my Mother managed, and I now manage. You lock the place up until the next of kin releases you from liability.

All of ‘news’ channels have talking heads who want to talk about the Internet, social media, and encryption. This in spite of the reality that, once again, there is no evidence that the perpetrators used any of these things.

All they will say about the guns is that they were legally purchased at a gun store named ‘Annie’s Get Your Guns’ which is ‘a family friendly’ merchant of death.

Another mass shooting. About 14 people gunned down at a holiday party for the developmentally disabled at the regional center in San Bernardina, California. Approximately 17 people wounded. Two suspects have been fatally shot in a confrontation with police. There is the possibility of explosives being left at the site of the shooting and/or residences of the suspects.

You have over a dozen people murdered, the majority probably developmentally disabled, and the FBI is reluctant to declare this an act of terrorism? I don’t care what the ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation of the suspects is, this was an act of terrorism.

The Official NOAA summery: Below-normal Atlantic hurricane season ends; active eastern and central Pacific seasons shatter records and Doctor Masters’s Top Ten 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season Events which is somewhat more in depth and tells us that there were 11 named storms, 4 hurricanes, and 2 intense Category 3 or stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin.

The El Niño kept the wind shear high in the Caribbean, but Tropical Storm Erika was devastating to Dominica, and Hurricane Joaquin nearly made it to Category Five.

It has been a decade since a hurricane has come ashore in Florida.