This place was created near the end of the twentieth century just for the heck of it..
Wednesday, March 28, 2001
This morning my paper had as a small filler story an item about the Justice Department starting an investigation into Italian-American injustice during World WarII. Well, forget about the investigation. What was done was done. What is interesting is that while I have never really worn my ethnic heritage on my sleeve---except to categorically state that a bowl of macaroni is as good as any other food on the face of the earth---I have a couple of personal memories about "Una Storia Segreta" which is how the entire WWII Italian-American experience is summed up.(look at the link)
During the war, my father was a civil engineer working as a Department of the Army civilian with the U S Army Corps of Engineers. He was away during the duration and came home every other weekend or so. He was involved in building replicas of underground German fighter plane pens so that specialized bombing methods could be developed to destroy them. After he was home for a couple of days and returned to the nearby airbase where the work was going on, guys in suits and brown cars would show up in the neighborhood to ask around to try and find out if he had done any spy-like things, like visit the local fascist guy down the street. It became a sort joke. This went on for a couple of years before they either trusted him, or said the heck with it.
Years later, I went to Missoula, Montana to go to graduate school---really just to see stuff and have a short adventure before coming back east to get married. While I was there, I went broke and found a small Italian-American grocery store and got a small line of credit because I had an Italian name. I also discovered that there were several Italian families out there. It turned out that one of the main internment camps for Italian-Americans suspected of being spys or otherwise bad guys was in Fort Missoula. My friendly grocer said that after his family was released, they had no way to get back to New York so they just stayed there. And that's why Missoula, Montana has, or had in 1958 when I was there, a small Italian-American community.
End of my personal Storia Segrata.
Tuesday, March 27, 2001
I am going out to get a haircut I said to the geezer when he called this morning to try to get me to go out for a coffee. So why not get them all cut he said back to me. I think the first time I remember hearing that one was when I was ten or so. Anyway, I took his advice. Or in my case, as un-hip.
And it did snow some yesterday, about a scant two inches. When will it end.
Looks like the bush/Cheney bunch are getting a little schitzy. The Dr. Strangelove guys over at The Pentagon seem to be winning and that means we are losing. And the "we really are not all crazy right wing wacko nuts" crowd over at EPA are also losing big-time and that too is not good for the good guys. When will Whitman and Powell quit? I think within a year or so both will be gone.
And how in the sweet name of this guy, did his reasonable sounding leftist philosophy spawn the likes of this guy and these guys.
Monday, March 26, 2001
Someone once said something about not saying anything being better than saying stuff and relating all that to either being stupid or looking stupid or something like that; whatever it was I am not paying attention. I don't have anything to say, but I can't resist saying something today anyway. I will start with the weather. The sun is out right now, but they are saying that it is going to snow again. Snow in March is not a big deal. Last year I took a picture of snow all over my back yard sometime in April, but this year we have had enough.
Yesterday I did watch some of the Sunday talk shows. Tom DeLay, one of the scariest of the reactionary right wing wackos was on one of them and when he was asked about Africa and the AIDS problems there went off on an insane sounding tangent about military intervention against the Muslim's in Sudan who are persecuting Christians there.(Here is the official Sudanese response.)( And here is one of the many Christian sites about the jihad)Now I know that is a legitimate concern, but this looney tunes was calling for a Crusades like action. The guy is a nut. I looked around to find a report about this somewhere this morning but couldn't. I may be hyperbolizing a little here, but not much.
With all this basketball Final Four Stuff, It's easy to forget that Opening Day, when Texas plays at Toronto is less than a week away. The Red Sox start April 2 in Baltimore.
And this story is cool. The Bay of Pigs. Forty years ago and Fidel is still there.
Friday, March 23, 2001
Summing up the past couple of days, Mir is down after fifteen years. Does anyone actually remember Sputnik except me. My sturdy old car is fixed. The kitchen floor is, well the kitchen floor..........And I am still basking, a little, in the glow of that "awesome" word and the nice smile.
So have a nice weekend.
Thursday, March 22, 2001
Two things. The joke of a day and all the Murphy's Law Stuff from Tuesday just kept chugging along yesterday. And the day also had as nice a puntuation mark as I have had in a long long time. Now for the short story of the day.. The linked picture is a self potrait in my sturdy reliable old fashioned car wearing my colorful crocheted skull cap that I have worn all winter. The stinking car which I am seen driving in the picture which normally is rock steady and reliable as can be semi-broke. It developed a mysterious fluid leak, possibly just water, but possibly a mix of oil and water, but in any case not good news. But then, while at the drive-in window of my bank along with Mrs. TYHI, cashing a check for my monthly supply of money a new, pretty, young, vivacious teller smiles the nicest smile I have been given in years and says "wow, what a great hat. It's awesome". Yes, she actually said that and continued the nice smile as she counted out my cash and said"... now you have a great day, Frank".
Now isn't that something !!! Even Mrs. got a nice kick out of it.
Wednesday, March 21, 2001
I was determined to just try to sit around today and let yesterday's joke of a day just wear off. But this kind of reactionary baloney keeps coming up in this absurd bush/Cheney time that I am being forced to live in. So the mining industry now gets it's payback from the bush/Cheney "uniters not dividers". Here. Here is a list of all the stuff ( objective) and this (less so but still true) that these characters have done since they took over. You see if they have done much in the way of uniting.
Maybe I will just concentrate on this fun for the next few days. There was a time when this space stuff had me thrilled. Time to renew that interest. Get my mind off of that idiot.
Tuesday, March 20. 2001
There are two guys downstairs trying to install a new linoleum floor in my kitchen. The other day a couple of guys installed a carpet in the other half of the 24'x12' room which is sort of like an old timey combination kitchen/hang out room. I haven't been forced to deal with modern day small contractors for over twenty years. And GIHSM but the experience is just plain BAD. I won't get into all the stuff, but when I was getting ready some of what I assumed would be solutions to some of the problems I anticipated, Mrs ThereYouHaveIt tore into me and said that"...I am sure that they will know what they are doing.". "yeah, right" I said and proceeded to anticipate even more problems both small and big.
Just let me say that Mrs TYHI was wrong as wrong can be and I was right as right can be. From the overzealous conning of the salesman / owner of the small business that I hired to, the "I just want to get this job done quick" attitude of the guys he hired to install the products; everything was the opposite of what a good service oriented business should be.
So to punish myself for being stupid and actually hiring these guys to do the work, I am going to go to McDonalds and have a qurter pounder with cheese, a small order of fries and a coke.
Monday, March 19, 2001
There isn't very much in the news or on C-SPAN today. Or anwhere else for that matter. Well, there is this awfully interestng story about some guy biting another guy.
And I will leave you with this thoughtful and timely observation.
I feel a hiatus coming.
Friday, March 16, 2001
So how divisive can it be when the fnal vote was 83 to 15. Give me a break, very few democrats were real democrats on this one. But, this change in the law still doesn't change my secret retirement plan.
Here is more stuff about the talking mouth that I love to hate the second most even though my cable company wisely doesn't carry FOX and I rarely have to see or suffer his baloney. I am trying to remember and for the life of me can't remember the name of some guy who used to be on the radio in the fifties who was the "father" of a lot of these guys. I guess I am having what a geezer friend calls a "senior moment". Well, doesn't matter.
Oh, before I forget this too, Mrs. Thereyouhaveit, who remains Irish despite being Mrs. Thereyouhaveit for a long, long ,long, time, wanted to say Erin Go Bragh or somehting like that. since tomorrow is....etcetcetc. We will listen to old 331/3 rpm records of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem singing stuff like Reillys Daughter, Tim Finnegans Wake and Brennen on the Moor. You can try some of them here. So unless the Peoples Republic of China ( *** ) has changed St. Pats day too, have a good one.
Thursday, March 15, 2001
Yes, I know it's the Ides of March and all that baloney, but so what. It's 2001. Who cares about all that history stuff.
Meanwhile, even Salon.com seems to be avoiding using the "lie" word with regard to the bush/Cheney campaign lie. And I haven't seen any seething and screeching by the talk show jerks on this issue either. And what about Christie Todd Whitman?. She has been left hanging out to dry on this one and not a peep from her. If she had any integrity she should resign now. I think the wackos will get her out sooner or later anyway. And Colin Powell too, although I think Powell is an overrated jerk anyway. Except on this issue, I agree with him, as does anyone who can think.
I don't have much else today. Here is a mildly amusing Cuba story. And this article from The Peoples Republic of China confuses me. .... So there you have it. Happy Columbus Day, I guess.
Wednesday, March 14, 2001
While the staff mouths try to spin it off as "oh CO2 is not an official pollutant" and other such nonsense, the bush/Cheney bunch have been caught in a lie. But will anyone among the guardian's of our democracy say that. Probably not. The restorers of truth honor and integrity folks are something less. Gosh, that can't be. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, of that you can be sure.
Here is a story that is not about the wacko right, or baseball, or anything that I might ordinarily talk about. But it actually is. The story points out that a crime victim was brought to a nearby Social Security Medical Center, and later reports that the crime, while not a good thing is a repeat of a similar crime that occured several years ago. So here is a small and very poor country, where every citizen is guaranteed an education, health care, a minimum income, and a soccer field within a kilometer of his house and where violent crime is rare. If they can do it why won't the richest country in the world. OK, I will settle for a baseball diamond instead of a soccer field.
And speaking of baseball, I watched the Red Sox play a spring training game down in Florida last night. My first TV game in one hundred and eighty three days and I was not exactly thrilled.
Tuesday, March 13, 2001
As a follow up to yesterdays themes, look at these examples of extremist political action . Here is example one. And here is example two. Now before you go getting all crazy and saying that there is no comparison between these two outrages and that I am a very strange wacko to even link them, think about it a little. That's all. Just think about it.
While your at it, here is a pretty good and un-biased guide to the progress of the bush/Cheney assaults on progress.To keep up on the bush/Cheney redistribution of wealth plans, check this site regularly.
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Switching gears back to other urgent early spring business, have you noticed that even Pedro's Spring Training debut couldn't get the beloved Red Sox going? I think they are about 2 and 10 or so for the spring, the new kazillionaire hitter isn't hitting his weight yet, the looney tunes Everett is still a looney tunes, Nomar is probably hurting for the season.... and it goes on. But there are still twenty one days and a few hours until opening day. We'll see.
I have mentioned radio here from time to time. Here is a website about an NPR radio series that I have listened to from time to time. Have a look explore some of the sounds. As I am typing this, I am listening to this story. I am not that old a geezer, but I did ride on steam trains a lot. In fact, I commuted to Boston from Salem ( be sure and look at this; it is the old train station and was still in use when I was a kid and when I first started to go to Boston) in the late fifties on steam pulled trains before the last of them was retired and replaced with BuddCars. We had a old round house in my hometown that I remember them demolishing to make way for a new road. Can't find a picture of the old round house. Oh, well.
Monday, March 12, 2001
This morning my local paper, The Hartford Courant, had as it's main story and headline---other than here usual UConn basketball junk---a story about the bush/Cheney administration pausing and changing the so called faith based initiative. My other morning habit, C-SPAN had as it's first question of the morning for the call in crowd,should government through it's taxes be involved in redistribution of the wealth.
First, the state sponsored religious stuff. Forget about it bush. Here is one example of where it can lead.
Now the redistribution of wealth issue. First, the answer to the stupid C-SPAN question. Of course. Governments principal function is to see to it that there is an equitable redistribution of the wealth. The problem now is that it's being skewed the wrong way---as in this succinct comment. I was going to rant a little about the tax cuts of the Reagan era and the coming tax cuts of the bush/Cheney and gutless Democrats era today even if the paper and he TV show hadn't got me started. So I will.
The Reagan tax cuts had as one it's motives, perhaps the main motive the creation of huge government debt that would make it easy to cry poverty and end most of the "welfare" programs aimed at the lower economic classes. David Stockman, Reagans budget director as much as said so in his later writings. The currrent tax cutting efforts will give a huge wealth boost to the top few percent and make it easier in the future to claim that government can't afford to maintain the fundemental safety net of tax supported social security and medicare. That will lead to the first steps at privatizing both programs then calling the unprivate portions "welfare" and then the beginning of the end of them. This is what I believe is going to start to happen unless the Democratic Party gets some guts and puts up a fight and stops this selected administration from it's continuing bamboozle..
Another example of the bamboozle of the wacko right and the gutless democrats not fighting tooth and nail is this so-called reform.
The Democratic party needs a new voice and leader. Is Reich the one? Too short ( read this to find a reference to his shortness) you say. Maybe, but he is tall in modern progressive thinking. Maybe the tallest right now.
Friday, March 9, 2001
One wacko news site has this item today. I's about bush/Cheney giving the military brass an order from the help is on the way team. And another wacko site has this as a response to that order, I guess. It essentially says "go fly a kite, sirs", to keep it polite. So there.Personally, I think the berets ought to be a pretty color. In that respect I guess I am "marching " with these guys. They want to keep the black and very tough color all for themselves. All this makes you wonder...... Well it makes me wonder. Wait a minute, didn't Monica wear a black beret too? What's going on here.?
But why have an army at all with bush/Cheney putting out this kind of statement.
In other military news, here is a forecast of the outcome of the submarine blunder of a few weeks ago. The "my subordinate made me do it" excuse.
In an effort to be bloggy this morning, I am posting this sort of funny item I found surfing...pretty neat tech-talk huh?
Around here it's supposed to snow again today. But spring will come eventually.
Thursday, March 8, 2001
One more storm related thing. This is a personal story. At about the time it actually started to snow the other day, we lost some power in our condominium. Some plugs and things worked and some didn't. One leg of our service was gone. I called CL&P to report this. A few minutes later, the outlets that were out came back but with the classic low voltage symptom of very dim bulbs. I called again to report this change. Fifteen minutes later, it's snowing moderately now, a big yellow CL&P truck pulled up and a couple of young guys piled out put on all their gear and went over to the outside wall the condo and started to work. I went out, was patronized---they said yep, this is where all that elctricity is stored until it's needed, don't worry we will find the problem ---so I went inside. What they finally figured out was that one leg was out, there was a break in an underground cable and only four units in one building were affected. I figured well, that's it until after the storm and was preparing work arounds. It started snowing harder and was starting to get dark. The next thing I saw was these two guys outside near the box working their butts off driving a six foot rod into the frozen ground and they were obviously going to do some jury rigging to get around the underground broken leg. After an hour or so, it worked, power was fully restored, albeit temporarily.They left saying that later, after the storm passed and within a few days the company would come out and do a permanent repair. After supper, sometime around eight thirty at night, by now it's snowing at the rate of about a foot an hour, three giant CL&P trucks appear outside the front of the condo. After some poking around, a fourth truck with a generator and floodlights show up. There are eleven guys in full winter and safety gear and believe it or not they start to dig around, expose the broken or faulty cable--it's just ouside our front deck and buried down in an awkward spot under about eighteen inches of frozen ground. They dig it up, a few of the guys open up what looks like one of those trucks you see in movies, some kind of workshop laboratory looking thing, Generators are humming, the outside is ablaze with light and after three hours, the power goes off totally and in a few minutes returns and a permanent fix to the partial power outage in four units of one condo building has been restored. And two of the condos were empty because folks were on vacations. What going on here? Is this for real. It's 2001, service of this kind is supposed to be gone forever. Go figure!
Then there is this. I remember when I first heard about this start of all the magic a long time ago, or so it seems. One of my smart ahead of the curve kids told me about it I think. We may have been actually able to see it somehow via some old bulletin board and an old Amiga, similar to this one,or even an Adam. Now, there is all this bloggy stuff, plus everything else. From coffee pots to infinity inside of ten years.
. Wednesday, March 7, 2001
If it wasn't for the perception or perhaps the fact that the little guy is not calling his own shots, would there be this kind of article about the Cheney illness? Of course not. It would be a simple wish him a speedy recovery, take a month or so off and that would be that. The elephant in the room is that this presidency is that of the right wing wackos sending down the shots and implementing them through Cheney and the rest of the team. POTUS bush's job is primarily to wave and avoid answering questions and not smirk.
So, while Cheney gets back to work, the bush/Cheney administration remains busy rescinding stuff. When will the Democrats take a stand against this administration. They have rolled over for all the wacko's whims fo far. What's next on their hit list? More of this sneaky baloney, unless the medical records happen to be for important folk like Cheney of course.
Now Lott says let's end pardongate. Could it be that if they keep that investigation going they will find more of these kinds of stories. So what else is new.
I just took a deep breath, and a deep sigh. It's going to be a long four years.......... So, here is my final report on the storm of the century. On my back deck, the total accumilation from Sunday night thru early this morning was 171/2 inches. After all was said and done a goodly and respectable total.Right now the sun is out and the storm is over.
And the story of IT emerges again. I still don't care. Why is my newspaper giving this front page coverage?
Tuesday, March 6, 2001
I guess I am not the only one to have whined about the semi-fizzled big storm. Here are a few examples. Boston. New York Washington DC And you thought I was the only storm wacko. Actually, here in green Connecticut, we finally did get about a foot of snow overnight. A pretty good snowfall, but after the big buildup? A few of the local weathermen are still out looking for a town somewhere that might be able to report 18" or so. When they do they seem to take a little solace and proudly say, almost two feet. My local paper this morning covered all the bases. Frst they hoped that the storm would still prove out. And then, just in case, they run a feature story on the old reliable blizzard of '88. Now that was a storm that if it could only come again would send the weathermen and the local TV guys and girls into spurts of joy and trips to heaven.
In other news, Cheney has another heart thing, another kid goes nuts and kills other kids, POTUS bush/Cheney called one of these things a cowardly act. I think he meant the shooting, but who knows. Here is the quote from a Washinton Times article.
"In Washington, President Bush called the ------- ``a disgraceful act of cowardice.'' You fill in the blanks.
By the way, when I watched some coverage of the shooting on the internet yesterday, I caught a film clip about the shooting and was struck by the same thing as this piece from Salon. When do you suppose will the pictures and video that the cops took from the kid appear on the internet? Are they there already? It is strange strange times, isn't it?
Monday, March 5, 2001
You had the feeling that this was going to happen when for the past thirty six hours, everyone and everything has been screaming about "The Storm of the Century". Yesterday places like Drudge, Yahoo and all the local papers have been warning and hoping, even the NY Times still is this morning.and here in Connecticut the cap was put on it when our fearless governor appeared on TV yesterday afternoon dressed in the de riguer wool sweater, flanked by a guy in military fatigues and another somber looking guy in a very colorful sweater and demended that business close, banned tractor trailers from the roads talked about plows stationed at all armories-hence the guy in military fatigues. This morning there is an inch of snow out on the deck. No snow is falling, All schools are closed and many businesses and all the weather guys on TV are bravely out side in their colorful storm clothes saying that it's still going to come and there will be feet of snow. And just get ready, you will see .BALONEY-FAT. Don't believe it. It's a conspiracy. Well even if that's not true, it is all being blown way out of proportion. It's March, even if it does snow, what's the big deal.
But, it did give me something to talk about a little this morning, Whoops---just went to see if there was anything else going on and look what I found. Even without the services of Bernard Shaw, CNN is out with this scoop. Speaking about this Bernie Shaw guy, I for one am glad he is gone. Ever since he asked that idiotic question of Dukakis and the stupid Dukasis got all tounge tied and gave an even stupider answer I have wanted Bernie Shaw to be exposed as what he is. Overrated.. The moron Shaw played right into the soft on crime issue that the first Bush used with the ugly Willie Horton ads. Ah, forget it. If you don't know what I am talking about do the research.
Don't get me started!
Friday, March 2, 2001
Guess what, Vieques was back in the paper today. I don't know for how long, but the wackos seem to be almost reasonable on this one. They must have some sort of evil trick up their sleeve. But for now, it's good news for Vieques and the rest of us too. By the way, here is some information about a sister island, Culebra. I have been there but not to Vieques.
Here is a column by Mike Kinsley, one of my favorite "smart guys". The column is about Bill O'Reilly a real jerk and a total phony. I am just being lazy again.
You all have seen this stupidity. If theocracy is bad and stupid here, why isn't it bad and stupid everywhere.
And finally, have you run across one of these yet. link to it here maybe. I don't know what the link shows, but it is supposed to be a little message that shows up on a web site that you may be looking at, says hi Frank, or whatever your name happens to be, and asks you to click on it and send the guy who owns the site you are looking at a dollar or so. I say baloney-fat to this idea. The one I was annoyed by today was on www.kausfiles.com , down near the bottom.Goodbye kausfiles from my bookmark list.
by the way, the Red Sox lost the spring opener last night. Something like 12 to 5 or so. We gave up 11 un-earned runs by making seven errors. and I don't like the new Sox web site.
Thursday, March 1, 2001
Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in this case. A church/state issue and if the article in Slate is any indicator, Scalia has al;ready decided it. I haven't read the article. My attention span these days is more or less the same as George W's is reputed to be. So anything with a couple of hundred or so words gets me all blurry.
And of course the earthquake story is pretty big. But maybe the irony of this bush/Cheney budget cut gets missed.
Somewhere today I saw a little blurb that the budget process that the wacko's used involved a special review team chaired by Cheney. They did, from time to time, keep the little guy informed as to what they were doing though.
Well, it's another month in this sci-fi year. Like I said yesterday, it's whizzing by. Today the Red Sox play their first spring game against the Twins. I think it's a night game which in itself is bad news. The game was designed to be played in the daytime and ...but that's another rant for another day. The other bad news about the game is this stuff about Nomar. But, there always seems to be another but... isn't that right?
