Brigid explains it all...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 17:22:09 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Fortunately for us, today there’s Nanny Michael

Frank J. Fleming:

America was built on the principle that a man could make choices about his own life.  This has been a complete failure.  You remember when pioneers set out by themselves into the untamed frontier?  And you remember what happened to them?  That’s right: They all died.  Lacking a government to tell them how much soda to drink or salt to eat, they became too obese to run away from bears and mountain lions.  It’s a sad chapter in our history...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:07:23 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Memorial Day in France

Before I left France, I attended my last Memorial Day ceremony at the Suresnes American cemetery.  Back a year ago, I was very very busy and was only a month away from moving permanently, but I absolutely wanted to take the time to go...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:59:50 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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What we have is a failure to communicate

I swear, kids these days:

-I left a lot of messages on her Facebook wall.
-Facebook!  Facebook?  Why don’t you email her?
-No one has an email address, dad.
-Really?
-Well, they might, but they wouldn’t look in their inbox and answer you...
-Why don’t you call her on the phone?
-She’s like my friends.  She doesn’t know how to answer a phone.
-What do you mean?  They all have $500 phones.
-They don’t know how to answer them.
-How can that be?
-They all are iPhone type slabs and they have to lock them so they don’t butt-dial 911 and their mother twenty-five times a day.  They can’t unlock them fast enough to answer them.
-Well, why don’t you leave them a voicemail and tell them to call you back?
-Dad, they have no idea how to use voicemail.  All their mailboxes are full and have never been listened to.
-You’re making that up.

Also, why texting is not for communicating information...

Via Tam, who claims to have "sent maybe two dozen text messages” in her life.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 23:20:17 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Watch what you say

The Daily Mail:

The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.

The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as "attack,” "Al Qaeda,” "terrorism,” and "dirty bomb” alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like "pork,” "cloud,” "team,” and "Mexico.”

"Pork” is obvious: Just think of all those right-wing extremist "Porkbusters,” right...?

The Mail’s story has the complete list.  For future reference (and as a service to readers who might want to maintain a low profile), I’ve linked it in the sidebar: You’ll find The DHS Suspicious Words List in the Useful Stuff section.

Elsewhere:

Related:

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 19:34:10 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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The blanks: Filled in

FYI:  Roberta’s handy guide to completing the new form 4473.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 15:32:42 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Retro do-it-yourself

"RobotGrrl” over at Evil Mad Scientist Labs turned up a 60s-vintage Heath VT (as in "vacuum tube”) voltmeter kit.  So why not put it together?

Assembly starts here.

(Have to check my parts cabinet, I may have that capacitor bracket she’s missing.)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:42:51 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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The mask comes off

Not that this should surprise anyone...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 21:11:58 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Republicans, 2014?

A Tory voter writes:

"We voted for change.  We voted to rid our country of socialism, of compromise, of personal power and individuals’ self interest in the benefits of power.  We voted to protect our hard won standards, our culture and traditions and our pride in our unique nationhood...

"We tied what remained of our severely damaged hopes wishes and aspirations to the colours of a ‘new revitalised’ Party led by a professed Conservative, a man purporting to have presence on the world stage, a man supposedly of unwavering principle and courage, a protector of our country, our culture and our establishment.  Perhaps, we foolishly thought, with this man we will get our country back.

"Wrong on every count!.”

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:54:09 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now who do I know who’s clever enough to name a tomcat “Asbo”?

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 19:32:10 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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