Happy Fall. Open thread for the week. I am going to ask the contributors to not get in to calling each other names. This is my favorite season.
The next couple of days will not be fall-like. Heat wave. I thought we were through with that heat crap.
131 Thoughts to “Open Thread Week of September 20”
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All contents copyright Moonhowlings.net
Blogroll
- 9500Liberty
- Bacons' Rebellion Blogspot
- Bearing Drift
- Blue Virginia
- Citizen Tom
- Counts of Monte Cristo. The
- Derecho, The
- Dixie Pig, The
- My Side of the Fence
- My Star Journey
- NARAL Pro-Choice VA Blog
- New Dominion Project
- Nova Common Sense
- NovaTownHall Blog
- One Libertarians's Point of View by Al Alborn
- Pete Candland's Blog
- Potomac Local
- Prince William Muckraker
- PW Conservation Alliance
- PWC Moms
- PWCPolitics.com
- PWCPolitics.com
- Red NoVA
- Shad Plank, The
- She the People
- State of NoVA, the
- The Jeffersoniad
- Townhall
- VEA Daily Reports
- VivianPaige
- WDGolden.com
- You, Me and the Lamp Post
A couple of weeks ago, as I was trying to escape from the clutches of this blog, I happened to look out the window of the computer room at the front lawn. There, standing timidly in my yard was a fawn, still with its white spots. As I watched, the fawn was joined by another and then another. I had a trio of those babes right in my front yard, exploring their world with shy looks and sniffs. All the same size, undoubtedly triplets. Never saw anything like that before in my life. And, darn it, I didn’t have the camera!!
Very neat. Are there lots of multiple deer births this year? A friend of mine who used to be on this blog had pictures of something similar. He doesn’t live near you so it isn’t the same deer.
One never has a camera when they need one.
Bob Woodward book details Obama battles with advisers over exit plan for Afghan war
By Steve Luxenberg
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 22, 2010; 12:11 AM
Obama rejected the military’s request for 40,000 troops as part of an expansive mission that had no foreseeable end. “I’m not doing 10 years,” he told Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a meeting on Oct. 26, 2009. “I’m not doing long-term nation-building. I am not spending a trillion dollars.”
Woodward’s book portrays Obama and the White House as barraged by warnings about the threat of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and confronted with the difficulty in preventing them. During an interview with Woodward in July, the president said, “We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever . . . we absorbed it and we are stronger.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706.html?hpid=topnews
Interesting stuff. I had no idea the Pentagon was requesting an additional 40,000 troops and billions of more dollars. Glad the President said no.
I am not spending a trillion dollars.” HAHAHAHAHAHA!!
It was put out during Bush’s term and all over CNN, etc, that the Pentagon advised, to meet mission requirements, that, at least 40K troops be surged. As for the 10 years….a proper surge would have helped in ending the conflict. Open-ended? EVERY WAR IS OPEN ENDED. Unless you surrender.
Since Obama has no intention of winning, he should pull out now and admit that he has no clue. Dragging this out until next year, with pipe dreams of building a workable, stable force in one year, is reprehensible. Either be in it to win, or don’t be in it. Since he put a timetable on our deployments, the Taliban can wait us out and the locals have rightly sat out of the fight. They know that the Taliban will win. They are the ones that will be left on the battlefield. President Obama’s doctrine will result in failure.
I thought people hated Bush. Man, that’s nothing compared to how much some of you all hate Obama. I would keel over dead if I hated that much.
I beg your pardon, Madam. I do not “hate” Obama. Disagree with him a lot — in fact, most of the time. Didn’t hate Bush either…although sometimes I was pretty gosh darned mad at him too. Come to think of it, the last guy I was never mad at was Reagan.
You may not understand (really) what hatred is. If you ever actually saw hatred, you’d never forget it. You do disservice to the word hatred by diminishing it’s meaning.
its meaning.
I don’t hate Obama. I hate his policies.
Remember, “hate the sin, not the sinner.”
Obama has already surrendered – twice now – even Karzi knows it and is already negotiating his future with the Taliban. Its a done deal. Lots of innocents are going to die in the aftermath of this one – women in particular.
The democrats call to hate and racism has lost its sting. Its just name calling.
Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure I have never seen hatred. That’s a mighty big statement to make about another person.
And to all, it sure comes across as hatred to others. I see the person not the policy being attacked. Just something to think about.
Democrats new logo… was ripped off of a pizza joint? Wow, that Tim Kaine is BRILLIANT for first announcing that there was a big new thing coming for the DNC (just a new logo) and second, stealing that new and exciting logo from a pizza joint. Awesome!
Copied and moved from another thread.
All I want to know about O’Donnell is….Does she weigh more than a duck?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTdDN_MRe64
Paladino-Cuomo is shaping up to be the “must-see TV” this fall!
From the ultra conservative Firedoglake:
“Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine plans to make what’s being billed as a major announcement for the party Wednesday.
Any link one clicked on the party’s website early Wednesday touted the announcement, without offering details.
However, a Democratic source with knowledge of the speech said it will be about the future of the party. The source told CNN that Kaine will announce something that will excite Democrats across the country.
And what was this big exciting something? A new logo and tagline.”
http://firedoglake.com/2010/09/16/tim-kaines-idea-of-an-exciting-announcement-a-new-logo/
Ah, Tim Kaine and the DNC… how do they respond to 10% unemployment? With saying they would “announce something that will excite Democrats across the country.”. So what was the big announcement? A new logo and tag line. Nice, I can just see Democrats getting excited all across the country as we speak.
By the way, the new logo Democrats all all excited over is just a copy of a pizza joint logo.
http://deweyspizza.com/
How out of touch are Democrats these days? By the looks of it… very.
wow, still being censored. Maybe it’s time to change my name to something a little more appropriate.
Obama’s Aunt stayed here illegally for years, lived off taxpayer money in public housing receiving disability money while she was an illegal alien, received special dispensation against being deported by a sitting Presdient (Bush), and eventually was awarded citizenship 9rather obviously only because her nephew is President). Happy ending? She must be grateful to US taxpayers, right?
http://wbztv.com/local/obama.aunt.zeituni.2.1921954.html
“I didn’t take any advantage of the system. The system took advantage of me.”
“I didn’t ask for it; they gave it to me. Ask your system. I didn’t create it or vote for it. Go and ask your system,” she said unapologetically.
Onyango hired a top immigration lawyer from Cleveland to help fight her case. We asked how she afforded that lawyer, when she claimed poverty.
“When you believe in Jesus Christ and almighty God, my help comes from heaven,” she responded.
When asked about cutting in line ahead of those who have paid into the system she answered plainly, “I don’t mind. You can take that house. I will be on the street with the homeless.”
There’s a very REAL story there that noone has the cojones to investigate. This woman flouted our laws and got away with it because a sitting judge doesn’t want to offend a sitting President.
Yeah Rick, I was going to comment on that but I’m still being censored at the moment and didn’t think it would ever get thru. Heck, you man never even know that I even posted this particular comment.
@Rick Bentley
I read that story yesterday….made me nauseous.
Oh, and where is the outrage over Japanese immigration officials denying Paris Hilton entry into the country? The Parisphobic, narrow-minded zealots are shameful. She’s just trying to do the drugs the Japanese won’t do themselves!
@Wolverine
Reagan came over as a nice guy but – I hated what he did to California when he was governor. He ruined the best state educational system in the US. Fortunately, my two daughters were able to take advantage of U. of California at its best.
The Iran-Contra affair and the mining of Nicaraguan harbors. The mining brought forth a memorable letter from Barry Goldwater to William Casey, dir. of the CIA at the time:
Dear Bill,
…. I’m pissed off.
I don’t like this. I don’t like this one bit from the President or from you.
…
The deed has been done and, in the future, if anything like this happens, I’m going to raise one hell of a lot of fuss about it in public.”
When it comes to hate, I believe it was Martin Luther King who said that hate is too heavy burden to carry.
Why would anyone care what happens to Paris Hilton? Or Aunt Zeituni? Or Neil Bush?
so, the recession has ended – so they say. But, it seems like we have another jobless recovery. That is not good. THis is the recurring theme with recent recessions – having recovery, but no job growth.
Is it because we have outsourced nearly everything that can be outsourced? We are even outsourcing out labor, by importing undocumented workers. Do we need to move manufacturing back to the US?
I currently have 5 job opening, but cannot find qualified candidates – in the US – it is in the tech field, and my best candidates are in India, because, we (the US) are not grooming the next level of IT Techical person in the US, we are grooming our mgmt in India (by moving the entry level jobs there). So, what am I to do – hire unqualified US based people, or move the candidates from India to here. It is not right.
For all you lovers of the Marine Corps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sam4lq2WHos
The Warrior Song – Hard Corps
Just thought that I’d change the subject.
This made me laugh …
http://www.theonion.com/video/in-the-know-are-tests-biased-against-students-who,17966/
Pat, train the next level. How long would it take?
I find it hard to believe that no institute of higher learning in the United States is preparing anyone for high tech.
I know two recent high-grade Virginia Tech graduates who both went to make lotsa money at Goldman Sachs rather than go into high tech jobs. Sorry to say, a lot of high tech grads go to Wall Street. Who can blame them, considering the bonuses paid in that field.
However, with the job market the way it is, I seems strange that Pat.Herve can’t find 5 qualified people.
Registration is open for the City of Manassas 4th annual Neighborhood Conference on Sat., Nov. 13, 9am – 3pm at the Boys & Girls Club of Manassas, 9501 Dean Park Lane.
This year’s theme is “Volunteering Promotes Healthy & Stable Communities.”
More than 250 people attended last year’s conference. Register online at http://www.manassascity.org/neighconf or call Neighborhood Services Coordinator Christen Zenich at 703-257-8315.
Workshops for adults include “Volunteering Can Lead You to a New Career,” “Social Networking for Neighborhoods,” “Common Enemy: HOA Boards vs. Residents,” “Landlord Round Table,” and “Modification Program for Mortgages in Distress.”
Activities for youth include a Thanksgiving turkey craft, “My Defining Moment” Youth Café, basketball clinic with Coach Rob Weaver of Dream Basketball, and creating T-shirts for Teddy bears that will be donated to the Children’s Hospital Oncology Unit in memory of Sey-j Landsdowne, a Boys & Girls Club member in Manassas who passed away this summer of leukemia.
Submit a photo of your pet now to Christen Zenich at [email protected] for the Neighborhood Pet contest and tell, in 100 words or less, why your pet is a good neighbor.
Grooming and costumes are encouraged, and the top three winners will receive a prize.
Registration closes on November 10. Admission is free, but please consider donating either arts & crafts supplies for the Boys & Girls Club or pet food for the City of Manassas Animal Shelter.
Thanks for posting that information, Cindy.
@Wolverine
How gorgeous, Wolverine! I am jealous that you have deer.
BTW, deer always know when you have a camera. They would not have come by if you had one handy.
On the Skyline Drive you can walk right up to deer and take their pictures. They are very tame and will stand right in front of you pigging out out acorns. I guess that would be ‘deering out.’
Similar size deer family as Wolve’s was in my backyard a couple of days ago – in the middle of the afternoon! It backs up on a so called natural park, so I’m not surprised.
Foxes come around at night also. Pretty neat to live so close to a big city and still have wildlife.
I had a mouse come in the house and eat out of the dog food bowl. Does that count? Now that takes elephant nads!
Not always so neat, Punchak. Once, while on early morning Neighborhood Watch foot patrol and carrying a very large walking stick for (ahem) reasons other than just walking, I happened to pass a bed of flowers which was sort of in the shadows. I was suprised to see that the owner appeared to have planted some rather large hostas with there green and white leaves. Well, the owner had not done so. When I idly poked my walking stick into the plants to see those hostas more clearly, I found myself jabbing a big skunk in the ass. The white stripe on the Hostas, you know. Well, sir, I ran off in one direction and the skunk ran off in the other, so, fortunately the twain did not meet that night.
Man, sudden visions of that big skunk seems to have knocked out my personal spell checker. “their green and white leaves”
Too funny, Wolverine. You really lucked out or it would have been the tomato juice bath for a long time.
I bet that walking stick was for snakes. Yea, that’s the ticket. If it had been for other purposes, you would have carried a tire iron.
@Moon-howler
Heck, at my house, my dog was so laid back, every animal came into our backyard and ate dog food. During the day. While my dog watched.
I especially liked the 4 woodpeckers that would fly down and pick up a piece and go back to their nests. The squirrels were just rude. They would flip the dog off and just sit their and eat.
Bwaahahahaha…@ Cargo. How funny. Did he wave? What kind of dog? My son was furious that this thing had the nerve to do it with him standing right there.
When my brother was little, (and he is a much younger brother) he had a pet spotted male mouse named…Spot. One day Spot gave birth to a bunch of little mice (which she promptly devoured). We were all sitting around thinking it was the virgin birth in mousedom when Tucker informed us that at night sometimes other mice squeezed though the bars of Spot’s cage to get food. Ah ha! He said Spot even let those other mice play on his wheel.
Totally disgusting.
There was a time when one of our African homes was absolutely inundated with mice. They were everywhere — kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathrooms, popping out of dresser drawers, the kitchen cupboards. If I could have figured out how to do it, I would have started charging rent. One of the storage closets turned out to be a full-fledged birthing center for mice. Amazing critters. It’s like they have no bones. They can literally flatten themselves like a thin pancake and slip through the tiniest of spaces as if they were made of jello. There were so many of them that the two or three cats who hung around became so fat and sated from the easy pickings that they could hardly care less.
Mrs. W was furious because her traps failed to make a dent. I sort of had accepted fate until the night the house security alarm went off. After about ten minutes of going cautiously from room to room with a loaded shotgun, I discovered that one of those mice, in an effort to reach a certain tightly closed part of the kitchen, had chewed through the alarm wires. That did it. Mrs. W discovered sticky traps. She laid those suckers all over the house at night. Even the poor family dog had to be careful where she stepped.
By golly, it started to work. During the night you could hear a chorus of squeaks from all over as those critters tried to extract themselves from the goo. Mrs. W would collect the traps containing those live mice and deliver them to the African guard assigned to our home for disposal. One day I asked the guard what he did with all those mice. He gave me a big grin and said: “That’s easy, Boss. I just toss them over the garden wall.” Oh, great. Revolving mice invasions. He is throwing them live over the wall onto the neighboring street and walking path (dirt sidewalk). Visions of some poor fellow passing by on his way to work being slapped on top of the head by a rodent. Well, anyway, if you ever happen to find yourself in a certain place in Africa and you are told that the country has a unique zoological speciman called “African flying mice,” it might not be totally an urban legend.
One would hope that the story ended there. But it did not. One day a fellow showed up who, from the tip of his pointed nose to the end of his tail, was as long as our cocker spaniel. He just moved bag and baggage into our attic without even asking for permission. He had beady eyes and long, sharp, yellow teeth; and he liked to gnaw through things. We called him “The King” — but his is a story for another day.
It won’t help to change your log in. I have explained how it is going to be. It is possible to disagree without continually being confrontational. THAT is the problem. That and coming up with something nasty to say that no one else is talking about.
And I am not going to put any of Breitbart’s sites up. I have pure contempt for him and I don’t want him on this blog. If you want to have pages of Brietbart, start your own blog.
Wolverine, that is hilarious. I am surprised Mrs. W didn’t let him have it or nail his hide up on the wall. Revolving mice if they could escape. I hate sticky traps but when I have Orkin come, that is what they use. They don’t do such a hot job with mice. Fall is here and they want in when the nights are cool. I am going to have to declare jihad on them I guess. The dog food really was an affrontery. I am waiting for Mr. H to have one run up his arm when he reaches into the dog food bag since he leaves it open all the time.
I put sticky traps under the house to take care of rats. Both traps disappeared for a week. Then, I found them back at the crawlspace door with little bits of fur attached…..tough rodents.
Ol’ fashioned snap traps for me.
Reply to Pat at #24,
Pat, I can feel your pain. It’s odd because you either have candidates that are plain unqualified or qualified but either want more than you can provide or something about the position doesn’t fit – commute, inability to be cleared, hours, benefits, etc.
Our prime hired this college grad to work in our office (assuming at a very low pay rate) and I was asked to train him. He came to us with a bachelors from GMU in IT/Networking. So, I assumed a certain skillset of knowledge. I was mistaken. I had to spend days teaching him basic networking let alone the basics of security. He ended up not being able to cut it and we were glad that he left — he’s the Navy’s problem now!!
My only compliant – if you can call it that – is I can’t get into a grad program for IT/IS as they all require bachelors and I lack one and the ROI is negative for me putting in for a bachelors. So, I just grind along but I don’t worry for job prospects. 😉
marin, what is ROI? I cannot remember. Think of a bachelors as just another chit you have to pick up. There are no short cuts. No one can get a Masters in anything without a bachelors. (that I am aware of)
I was always taught to think of it as just a passport, not something that provided me with a certain skillset.
Good that you brought this up because I hadn’t though of it for years. It might be in the mind set I need to continue my conversation with Kelly.
Cargo, that is gross. Shudder. Rats on steroids?
Sorry, my oversight… Return on Investment.
Went to the Nationals game last night. Had a blast. I’m not really into baseball but seeing any sport in person is a lot of fun.
Interesting article out of CNN but pay attention to the caveats. before jumping to a conclusion.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/23/news/economy/bush_tax_cuts_states/index.htm
@Moon-howler
Rats on steroids> That would be possums.
http://imamook.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/government-geniuses-create-possum-problem-in-nyc/
Apparently, some genius in NYC thought that importing possums to eat mice and rats was a good idea. Soooo, they let loose a bunch. That had families. And discovered that trash cans are easier to devour than nasty vicious rats.
Hmmmmm, I don’t remember rats being on the Opossum’s normal diet. Who knew?
I hate possoms. Hate hate hate.
I have never heard of possoms eating rats. I thought they ate bugs and nasty crap like that.
Sumbody talkin’ vittles?
Um, Um, Granny just do make the finest possum pie.
Nothin like a plate of that on a cold night.
Then I jes cuddle up with my couzin Ellie-Mae for the night
Jethro