For the second time in less than a month, an irresponsible dog owner on our little peninsula has harmed an innocent victim – this time, a 9 year old boy, the same age as my oldest grandchild.
And the chicken-hearted officials who are responsible for our health and safety have once again, punted on their responsibilities.
IRV
I learned about IRV, or Instant Runoff Voting, in a recent interview on Bill Moyers’ NOW with the four third-party Presidential candidates who have qualified to be placed on enough state ballots to theoretically be electable.
Just the FactCheck, Ma’am
In one of a number of misstatements during last night’s debate, Cheney told viewers to “get the truth” about Kerry’s voting record by visiting factcheck.com
As most of us know by now, factcheck.com is a domain name owned by George Soros, and links to his site, georgesoros.com
Gardener’s Diary
I saw two of my Master Gardener friends at the Barnstable Harvest Fair yesterday, one of whom, Inez Narbis, was my teacher a couple of years ago.
Inez is an amazing woman: partially paralyzed in a horseback riding accident years ago, she nonetheless maintains a demonstration garden at the Fairgrounds, while keeping up with her full-time job and other County Extension volunteer work.
I see Inez maybe 3-4 times a year at various events, and she’s always kind enough to give me a big hello.
Cricket Wars – Continued
Borrowing the main metaphor from the Presidential election campaign, I’ve talked before about my pre- and post-emptive battle with crickets.
Like the war in Iraq, I am far from “Mission Accomplished”.
As in finding yesterday that I needed yet another line of defense.
Job Well Done
For the first time since the Democratic primaries, I’m starting to believe that John Kerry was the right man for the job.
Almost every news outlet, including Fox, judged him the winner in last night’s Presidential debate. The only waffler I’ve found so far is Sumner Redstone’s (“the re-election of President Bush would be best for Viacom’s interests”) CBS.
And good for the networks for using split screens during the broadcast, thus ignoring the rules of the discredited Commission on Presidential Debates.
Values Clarification
Okay, it’s the day of the first Presidential debate, and one hopes that by 10 o’clock tonight, the much-coveted Undecideds (estimated at 20%) will close Bush’s current 6% lead over Kerry.
That being said, I’m taking a few minutes to thank the folks at Midas Muffler in Falmouth, who once again, have kept my 214,000+ mile Subaru on the road without soaking me for unnecessary repairs.
A couple of days ago, I started hearing a rotating noise on right turns. It sounded like about a $300 job, maybe a bad wheel bearing, CV joint or boots.
Midas couldn’t find anything wrong with those and suggested a minor adjustment in another part, inviting me to come back if the noise was still there.
It’d been about 31,000 miles since I had the front brakes done, so I asked them to worked on the brakes instead. Again, I was expecting a $300+ job, figuring the rotors needed replacing.
The bill came to only around $200, though, because the mechanic was able to resurface the rotors.
This is the second time that Midas has saved me significant coin by using their ingenuity – the first was to repair a muffler assembly that another shop told me was completely shot.
To be sure, on a day when major world events are going to be debated, it may seem trivial to praise honest dealing by competent people who make careful recommendations based on facts and experience.
Frankly, I don’t care if the folks at Midas go windsurfing on weekends, or if their spouses are African-born heiresses. I don’t care if they ride their bikes on a private ranch somewhere or pretend to use a chainsaw.
I don’t care what mechanic some older relative swears by, or what the waiting room looks like, or whether the staff at Midas prance around in strategically padded flight suits, or what Rush Limbaugh says about them.
I just care that their expertise provides me with reliable, safe, relatively inexpensive daily transportation. In other words, I care that they know how to do their jobs well.
So, I ask myself, it really too much of a stretch to expect American voters to use similar criteria in electing a public servant? Really?
Hell House
Maybe it’s as a result of seeing “Poltergeist”, but I believe that houses can have good, bad or even evil “vibes”.
And the one next to me, an otherwise normal-looking full Cape, has GOT to have a portal to Hell in one of its closets.
Guilty Pleasures
Living as I do a pretty abstemious life – more out of economic necessity than moral rectitude – I nevertheless must admit to a few guilty pleasures.
Riddle Me This
A lot of Bush’s support comes from the Christian Right.
A lot of Bush’s support comes from people who he and his cronies have terrified with their terrorist boogeyman stories.
So, riddle me this: if someone is a “Christian” right-winger, don’t they KNOW where they are going when they die?
No wonder they are so terrified: imagine what G*d Almighty has in store for them as payback for their anti-woman/jihadist/racist/anti-intellectual and generally hateful ways.
And I don’t think it’s a covey of virgin brides, either.