So. The Norks are a little miffed that the U.S. is holding joint military exercises with South Korea. They're miffed about us getting all up in their faces, even after the Norks sank a South Korean Navy vessel, killing 46 sailors, and denied being involved with the whole thing. The joint exercise is a bit of a warning to the Norks, letting them know that we're still in this hunt and unwilling to let them just be a big bad bully. China seems to be staying in the wings so far.
So, does North Korea have nuclear capability?
Possibly.
But, so far their efforts to launch a missile strike of any caliber have fallen short, usually into the sea. However, as of this evening, we have a News Flash -- the Norks have tested a new delivery device for their nuclear strike!
I'm home after an unexpectedly extended trip to Arkansas. One of the things that really sucks about attaining one's fifties is that the parents of one's friends start to die in earnest. It really sucks and makes me sad.
Then, there's this -- it sucks and makes me mad.
I think there's a grossly larger number and variety of weeds in the yard this year than ever before. I spend waaaaay too much time in the heat pulling weeds that weren't there last year or the year before. They just sprout overnight, then they taunt and mock me when I take the dogs out in the morning. I spent way too much time pulling weeds at Younger Daughter's house over the weekend, too, so it seems to be an epidemic problem.
I blame excessive weedage on the United States Department of Agriculture and its new mission to distract us from whatever it is that the Young President and his minions want us distracted from. They've sown a massive amount of weed seeds to keep us occupied. That has to be the reason for so many weeds, doesn't it?
The plot is rolling out, but strikes familiar notes. We've moved past the "wise Latina" with a "richness of . . . experiences" (who now adorns the Supreme Court bench and casts votes counter to what she intimated to Congress during confirmation hearings) and moved on to the woman with roots in poverty and a "unique set of experiences" (although she has one of the most boring, unmodulated voices I've ever heard, bless her heart).
As many have noted, there appears to be a lot of teaching going on out there and not a whole heckuva lot of learning. Except for this: I've learned that the government takes rather elaborate steps to distract the voters, and now we can't trust anything they do for fear we're being distracted from something big.
Paranoia: sometimes they really are out to get you. The weeds are proof.
There's a guy on a heavily-trafficked street in Little Rock who puts fairly conservative message signs in his front yard. Some of them are pretty funny, and he apparently gets certain peoples' goats on a regular basis. I'm thinking that some of those peeved folks take action against him from time to time.
Why would you think that, Moogie, you say?
The sign that's in the yard right now says, "DEMOCRATS, the guys who stole my signs and your money."
Could Dearborn, Michigan be the next stop on NASA's Tour de Islam? "Sharia! We just met a law called Sharia. And suddenly a name will never be the same to me . . . ."
Muslim Outreach -- the Final Frontier (no matter how testy Bobby Gibbsmay get when denying what we all know to be likely the truth.)
Since we lost our Wendy Whinerbeagle girl, I've noticed a change in the eating habits of Bouie, the sweet young lab, and Rosie, the geriatric mostly-blind-and-usually-deaf shih tzu.
Supper Time used to be a closely monitored activity. There were three bowls, in three different spots in the kitchen, and the bowls for Bouie and Rosie were not set in place until Wendy had her bowl. Rosie and Bouie had to wait because, otherwise, Wendy would nudge them out of the way and glom theirs down before they had a chance even to sniff their food; but, if she was preoccupied with her own bowl, the other two stood a chance of getting to eat.
Wendy never left a morsel in her bowl. Holding it down with one paw (quite the clever and talented hound dog), she always licked the bowl down several times, even after it was empty, digging in to scrape the last tiny morsel out of the creases in the bottom with that all-powerful beagle tongue. After she gave up on finding anything else in her own bowl, she would slyly (in her own mind!) set off to check out the others' bowls, hovering near them and staring down her canine brethren much like Snoopy did when he was pretending to be a vulture, willing them to step away from the bowl. If, by chance Rosie and Bouie didn't finish the whole serving, Wendy would take care of that for them, licking their bowls doubly clean as she had her own. On more than one occasion we feared she might explode. So, we took to picking up Rosie's and Bouie's bowls when they left something in them, both to preserve what was theirs and to prevent a bursting beagle. It was time-consuming, but worth the effort in the end, even if sometimes Rosie and Bouie didn't get quite full enough.
Since Wendy has been gone, the other dogs have felt free to nosh at will, not feeling obligated to clean their bowls all at one time; knowing that what they left would still be there waiting for them later when they felt like a little snack, but still willing to let the other have a nibble or two if he or she felt the need.
I think there's an allegory in there somewhere: the Tale of the Federal Government and the Taxpayers at Supper Time, starring Wendy as the Feds (and featuring Bouie and Rosie as The Taxpayers).
We should all take heed of the tale -- sometimes The Feeder has to monitor the action and pick up the supper bowls early; sometimes the beagle explodes and everyone has to clean up the mess.
Let us contemplate our forefathers and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former for the sake of the latter. -- Samuel Adams
Envy is always referred to by its political alias, "social justice." -- Thomas Sowell
Curse you, Red Baron! -- Snoopy
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. -- Winston Churchill
It's people! Soylent Green is people! -- Charlton Heston
Since we lost our Wendy Whiner beagle girl, I've noticed a change in the eating habits of Bouie, the sweet young lab, and Rosie, the geriatric mostly-blind-and-usually-deaf shih tzu.
If, by chance Rosie and Bouie didn't finish the whole serving, Wendy would take care of that for them, licking their bowls doubly clean as she had her own. On more than one occasion we feared she might explode. So, we took to picking up Rosie's and Bouie's bowls when they left something in them, both to preserve what was theirs and to prevent a bursting beagle. It was time-consuming, but worth the effort in the end, even if sometimes Rosie and Bouie didn't get quite full enough.
