Hmmmm.... I haven't done a Blogthing in a while, but Jay inspired me:
You Are a Knight
You are very unusual and even a bit eccentric. No one can really figure you out easily.
Because you're not predictable, people behave irrationally around you. They may feel threatened by your presence, or they may underestimate you completely.
You do best when you're close to the action. You don't move quickly, so you need to be near the center of things if you want to make a difference.
You tend to act quickly, and decisively. In fact, you are often the first person to make a move.
Have you ever received one single cocktail that was designed to erase every bit of constraint you showed for hours?
Just received the single most lethal "Old Fashioned," which is usually light and delicious, in my entire life. It must contain an entire bottle of Angostura Bitters, along with half a liter of Bourbon. My previously wavy hair just stood up straight in a halo around my head. Pray for me.
Teresa has been posting rock wall pictures of her New England surrounds for a while now, so I thought I'd post one for her from my last trip to Ireland. This was taken in County Clare on our way to the Cliffs of Mohr, and is literally a road to nowhere, built during the Potato Famine:
Amid the bleak winter, hundreds of thousands of desperate Irish sought work on public works relief projects. By late December 1846, 500,000 men, women and children were at work building stone roads. Paid by piece-work, the men broke apart large stones with hammers then placed the fragments in baskets carried by the women to the road site where they were dumped and fit into place. They built roads that went from nowhere to nowhere in remote rural areas that had no need of such roads in the first place. Many of the workers, poorly clothed, malnourished and weakened by fever, fainted or even dropped dead on the spot.
It's a beautiful place, and a heartbreaking place.
And while I have you rabble-rousers' attention, here is the stupidest product with the funniest comments ever. Go read 'em all, then add your own -- the more creative, the better.
Your PERSONAL issues Score is 100%. Your ECONOMIC issues Score is 100%.
According to your answers, the political group that agrees with you most is... LIBERTARIAN
LIBERTARIANS support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.
Call me a cock-eyed optimist, but I really hope this particular program is measurably successful.
If not, I can think of a ton of other places where we could spend the money. But it would be really, really nice if this worked. Too many dead kids this year. _____
Now THIS would be a hell of an excuse to miss a few extra days of work, and it would be quite comical to be a fly on the wall when the boss gets the news... _____
My number one biggie these days is that publishers are making paperbacks a little wider, a lot longer and way heavier than they used to, and charging a premium of at least $2 more per book for something that's unnecessarily weighty, difficult to read because the spine isn't as bendy, and provides no more real content than any other paperback by the same author.
The campaign of Chicago attorney and Democratic Senate candidate Jacob Meister said it began airing one-minute TV ads in central Illinois today in which he contends that helping the economy and creating jobs is more important than battling corruption.
You notice that he never made the connection that a corrupt system caused our economy problems in the first place.
“What I think is appropriate is that in the same way that everybody has to get auto insurance and if you don't, you're subject to some penalty, that in this situation, if you have the ability to buy insurance, it's affordable and you choose not to do so, forcing you and me and everybody else to subsidize you, you know, there's a thousand dollar hidden tax that families all across America are -- are burdened by because of the fact that people don't have health insurance, you know, there's nothing wrong with a penalty.”
Thanks, Big Guy. You almost slipped that one right past us. _____
And more honesty in Chicagoland today, this by a well-known radio host and opinion columnist (nope -- he's not a reporter), speaking about bloggers and blog commenters:
I've got news for you: The "town hall meeting" was invented by politicians to make you think that your opinion actually counts. It doesn't. A town hall meeting just gives people with too much time on their hands a chance to vent. Beyond that, it's an insult to broadcasters and journalists who have at least taken the time to form an opinion longer than a sentence and have actually done some research. What's the point of doing all of that, when any knucklehead has the same access to the people you brought to the party in the first place?
Nice to know the only opinion that counts is a journalist's. And that only a journalist knows how to do research. And the media wonders why many of us resent them? _____
My Conservative Identity:
You are a Flag-Waving Everyman, also known as a patriot. You believe in freedom, apple pie, rooting for America at all times, and that God gave us a two-day weekend so we could enjoy football and NASCAR.
That's about fourteen different levels of wrong. _____
Quote of the Day:
If there are any of you out there with any connection at all to the Bushes, we implore you to give them our thanks…you tell them that a bunch of gay Hillary guys in Boystown, Chicago were wrong about the Bushes…and are deeply, deeply sorry for any jokes we told about them in the past, any bad thoughts we had about these good, good people.
You may be as surprised by this as we are ourselves, but from this day forward George W. and Laura Bush are now on the same list for us as the Clintons, Geraldine Ferraro, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and the other political figures we keep in our hearts and never allow anyone to badmouth.
Criticize their policies academically and intelligently and discuss the Bush presidency in historical and political terms…but you mess with the Bushes personally and, from this day forward, you’ll answer to us.
We hope someday to be able to thank George W. and Laura in person for all they’ve done, and continue to do. They didn’t have to head to Ft. Hood. That was not their responsibility.
The Obamas should have done that.
But didn’t.
Wouldn’t.
Thank goodness George W. is still on his watch, with wonderful Laura at his side.
