Category Archives: Blogosphere

Austin’s deep freeze

Posted on February 3, 2011 | Comments Off on Austin’s deep freeze

A second night of temps falling into the teens ahead, after having not gotten out of the mid-twenties all day. The elephant ears at the rancho have turned black and fallen on the ground, just like last year. Likewise the plumbago and the turk’s cap.

They’ll all grow back, they always have before. At least we’re not facing this blizzardification happening elsewhere, though the link is in Wisconsin, where they actually have radiators (and probably need them). But there are snow flurries in our forecast for Thursday night into Friday morning. Then, true to form, warming into the fifties on Saturday and Sunday. Come on, spring!

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Posted in Blogosphere, Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Lincoln & Palin

Posted on January 31, 2011 | Comments Off on Lincoln & Palin

The Day By Day cartoon had a good one the other day. Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln on why, despite legacy media and career pol opposition, Sarah is still the best bet for the presidency: “I cannot spare this woman; she fights.”

UPDATE:  Meanwhile, just as they did with California governor Ronald Reagan more than thirty years ago, the Left will go to any length to attack her. For instance, the snide producers of the Missoula Children’s Theater.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Scribbles

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Reasons to side with Egypt’s dictator

Posted on January 30, 2011 | Comments Off on Reasons to side with Egypt’s dictator

“There are reasons not to expect Egypt to turn into a moderate, stable, and democratic state: There are few forces favoring this outcome; the rebellion has no organization; Egypt doesn’t have the resources to raise living standards and distribute wealth; extremist ideologies are deeply held and widely spread.”

A takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood, or some other extreme Islamist group, would not be pretty.

Not only would war with Israel be the likely result (with an Egyptian air force flying American-provided F-16s) but a new world spot for stonings, beheadings, and religious ranting and threats. A new seat of terrorist training and dispatch to the West.

UPDATE:  On the other hand, there already do seem to be some exceptions.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Israel, The War

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All set for the new poisonous lightbulbs

Posted on January 27, 2011 | Comments Off on All set for the new poisonous lightbulbs

American_gothic_parodyYep, we’re ready to follow the new Green dictate on light bulbs. No more, uh, harmful bright incandescents. No, sirree, not for us. We’re not environmental baddies who want to harm the climate.

Give us those new mercury-filled, shadowy, compact fluorescent light bulbs any time. We’ll be sure to follow the government’s guidelines and shoo the children and pets out of the room should one ever break, spilling poisonous mercury on the furniture and the carpet.

Hey, we know it’s for the best. It’s for our own good here at the rancho. Our overpaid, undereducated career politicians in Congress and their toadies in the legacy media told us so. We’re in the very best of hands.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate

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Libertarian angst

Posted on January 26, 2011 | Comments Off on Libertarian angst

“Well, based on the past two years I’d vote for a syphilitic camel if he ran against Obama.”

                                          —Instapundit.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot

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Another “historian” bites the dust

Posted on January 26, 2011 | Comments Off on Another “historian” bites the dust

Add Dr. Thomas Lowry’s name to the pantheon of historian shame that includes plagiarist Stephen Ambrose and Vietnam combat-phony Joseph Ellis. Lowry is accused by the National Archives of admitting that he used a fountain pen to vandalize a document written by President Lincoln.

Lowry, whose forgery went undiscovered for fourteen years and even inspired Washington tour guides to repeat it to unknowing tourists, signed a confession to his vandalism, according to the National Archives which has banned his person from their halls henceforth. He is now denying all in the pages of the WaPo. How convenient.

I bring this up partly because Vietnam combat-phonies like Ellis really anger me. They damaged all of us genuine combat veterans for most of our post-war adult lives by “confessing” to dishonorable things. Tarring us with their liar’s brush. Fortunately for the “profession,” Lowry, is only an independent Civil War historian. His doctorate is medical. He’s a psychiatrist. Go figure that out if you can.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Civil War, Library, Scribbles

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Four-stackers

Posted on January 24, 2011 | Comments Off on Four-stackers

These old (circa 1918) destroyer escorts were mostly sunk by 1945, but they feature prominently in a series of alternate-history novels I ran across the other day. Never cared for the genre myself.

Written by a North Texas history buff and movie extra who has a fan base so dedicated it likes to make models of the ships. That seems to be the way to sell books these days. Write a fantasy series, and keep ’em coming back for more.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Texana

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