So what will this week bring?  I am scared to ask.  Is this the last full week that kids have off of school?  Are they dreading the reopening or looking forward to it?

Reminder that the open thread appears for contributors to add their own topics of concern. 

113 Thoughts to “Open Thread………………………………………..Tuesday, August 30”

  1. Starryflights

    Glenn Beck, Fresh from Israel, Proclaims Irene is ‘Blessing’
    By William Browning

    PosYahoo! Contributor Network – Sun, Aug 28, 2011

    The Washington Post reports radio personality Glenn Beck has declared Hurricane Irene is a “blessing.” He touts the strong storm lashing the East Coast of the United States as a harbinger to warn Americans to be prepared for anything and to stock up food.

    http://news.yahoo.com/glenn-beck-fresh-israel-proclaims-irene-blessing-195500781.html

    What a despicable and disgusting thing to say about our fellow Americans, many of whom died in the recent hurricance.

  2. I agree. I am suspicious of any and all people who believe that they can speak for God.

    I bet Connecticut and Vermont don’t think Irene is such a blessing.

    Beck has a knack for putting his foot in his mouth.

  3. Lafayette

    Back to the squirrels. I’m 1,000% agreement with Steve Thomas with regards to the busy tailed rats. I have to battle over the same vegetation. I learned the hard way a couple of summers ago, those jokers love strawberries, parsley, and purple basil. I planted 6 good size strawberry plants. As soon as there was red they were gone.

    I learned recently from a friend in the western end that trap and release was illegal. So, she traps and submerges the trap. She said it doesn’t take long. We had a bunch that decided to committ suicide in the pool last year. That was the first summer that happened, and a couple of gone down this summer. However, their razor sharp claws did some damage to the liner of the pool. They are public enemy number one on Lafayette. Is a sling shot considered humane? I could always ask Santa for one. 🙂

  4. God you all are cruel.

    When it is dry they just want a drink of water. They just want to carve out a niche for themselves.

    You will never win against them, even a cat doesn’t get rid of them. Might as well find something cute about them. I wasn’t real happy with Sammy the Squirrel for digging up a plant, sleeping in the same plant, and swinging on my new mother’s day bird feeder. He also threw seeds all over the porch. Now, I can get all pissed off or I can just move the plant and stop putting seeds in the new bird feeder. Stress management in the burbs, 101.

    I know I will not win. X number of years on this earth has taught me that there are 3 animals that I will never win against: possoms, squirrels and Blue Jays

  5. Mom

    @Elena & MH

    Bacon tastes good. Pork Chops taste good. Rocky tastes good. Bullwinkle tastes good.

    1. I don’t eat wild animals. Childhood habit. I also don’t eat lamb or veal. The good thing about me though is that I don’t insist that others follow suit. To each his own.

  6. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Who is this “Katia” I keep hearing about? 🙂

  7. Raymond Beverage

    Squirrels & Deer & Rabbits & Creatures abound….want them away from your gardens and such?? Go to Southern States and get a bag of Dried Blood. Spread it around and they stay away, plus it puts a nice dose of nitrogen in your soil!

  8. Big Dog

    http://www.denverpost.com/lifestyles/ci_18783146

    Writing of creatures — word of the day “biophilia”.

  9. I heard from Cargosquid. He was emailing from the library. He is still without electricity and his internet was down before the storm hit.

    I think his computer is also a dinosaur but he didn’t remark on that.

    Any suggestions? I will email him. He is bound to go back to the library soon. I am sure he is going through withdrawal symptoms.

  10. @Big Dog

    All the area retirement/assisted living facilities allow visiting dogs if you bring in the shot records and keep them on file. I took my schnauzer to see my mother and he was such a pain in the rear that was his last trip.

    I am almost as bad as the article. I had said schnauzer cremated and put in a box. I had a stuffed toy that looked just like him so the stuffed schnauzer sits on top of the ashes. It is sort of a memorial.

  11. marinm

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100102296/sun-causes-climate-change-shock/

    The science is now all-but-settled on global warming, convincing new evidence demonstrates, but Al Gore, the IPCC and other global warming doomsayers won’t be celebrating. The new findings point to cosmic rays and the sun — not human activities — as the dominant controller of climate on Earth.

    Pretty amusing article. Fun read.

  12. Cargosquid

    Just letting everyone know that the recent unpleasentness did not wash me or my family away. Have very limited internet access and no power. Otherwise, all is well.

    Except for my withdrawal symptoms…..

    Hope all are ok.

    See y’all on the intertubes laterz.

  13. Big Dog

    http://manassas.patch.com/articles/does-manassas-hold-answer-to-power-problem

    Cargo should move to the City of Manassas – of course he would have to
    pass the entrance exam and a background check to even get on the waiting list.

  14. @marinm
    That is a news flash? We have always known that. However, that is not to say that man doesn’t have a strong impact on the earth. This isn’t a binary problem.

    Is that author’s name dingle pole? [skeptical look]

    @Cargo, thanks for checking in. I already had posted a sighting.

  15. @marinm
    No, it wasn’t fun. It was painful. The cartoon was colorful.

    It was painful trying to watch someone dodge the obvious using their version of science.

  16. marinm

    @Cargosquid

    Hope you and family are secure. If you need to borrow some firepower…

    To cheer you up.

    http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62320.html

    The man who led the controversial Fast and Furious anti-gun-trafficking operation will step down as the interim head of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Justice Department announced Tuesday as it named a new acting director for the agency.

  17. Mom

    City of Manassas Entrance Exam

    1. Length of lef’ leg ______
    2. Length of rite leg ______
    3. Teef ____ yes _____ no
    4. Hitched ____ yes _____ no
    5. If yes to question four, chek all that apply ___ sister ___ cousin ___ other
    6. Pickup Truck ___ Chevy ___Ford ___Dodge
    (if answer is none or import go to Manassas Park Entrance Exam)
    7. Edumaction (chek hyest level) ___ none ___elem skool ___ SJHS
    (iffin graduated from HS go to Prince William Entrance Exam)

    1. bwwwaaaaahahahahahahahahahaha

      I am dying with laughter over here.

  18. Mom

    Lafayette, before you shoot me, forgot the city has its own HS, my bad, mercy please.

  19. Steve Thomas

    Lafayette :Back to the squirrels. I’m 1,000% agreement with Steve Thomas with regards to the busy tailed rats. I have to battle over the same vegetation. I learned the hard way a couple of summers ago, those jokers love strawberries, parsley, and purple basil. I planted 6 good size strawberry plants. As soon as there was red they were gone.
    I learned recently from a friend in the western end that trap and release was illegal. So, she traps and submerges the trap. She said it doesn’t take long. We had a bunch that decided to committ suicide in the pool last year. That was the first summer that happened, and a couple of gone down this summer. However, their razor sharp claws did some damage to the liner of the pool. They are public enemy number one on Lafayette. Is a sling shot considered humane? I could always ask Santa for one.

    Laf,

    Get a decent pellet gun from Walmart. One that shoots at least 800 fps. You’ll hit a lot more with it than you will a slingshot, and less chance of running afoul of the law. Plus it’s much more humane. Mine cost about $50.00, and it does the job. I trap, then shoot. Don’t have to worry about just wounding to have it run off somewhere to suffer. Plus I kinda want to have them for the stew….I’m going to try MOM’s recipe. Sounds really good.

  20. Big Dog

    Very funny Mom — but we apparently do know how to keep the lights on
    better than most local areas.

  21. Lafayette

    @Steve Thomas
    I like the pellet gun idea. However, Mr. Laf. doesn’t share our enthusiasm. He thinks it would just lead to other animals going down. Can you fire a pellet gun in town(PWC)? I don’t want to be breakin’ the law(cue Judas Priest). I do find it interesting it’s legal to toss the remains in the household trash.

  22. Lafayette

    @Mom
    I was lmao, until…we got to your error of the city high school. Furthermore, I’ve never lived a day of my life in the city limits. Thankfully, my parents moved to the county from the city a month before I made my grand entrance into the world at PW Hospital in the city. 🙂

    I didn’t know there was any other make than a Chevy! If it’s not a Chevy, it’s foreign to me.

  23. Lafayette

    Big Dog :Very funny Mom — but we apparently do know how to keep the lights onbetter than most local areas.

    Just “select” areas stay in the dark, such as Sudley. Glad I’m in WestGate. 🙂

  24. Mom

    Prince William County Entrance Exam – 2011 Edition
    1. Speak English ___Yes ___ No ___ Que?
    If No or Que? proceed to question 12
    2. Employed ___Yes 1099/W2/Self-Employed ___ No ___ Other
    If No or Other proceed to question 12
    3. How do you get to your place of employment ___car ___bike ___ mass-transit
    If bike or mass-transit proceed to question 12
    4. Disposable Income ___Yes ___ No
    If no, do you still intend to contribute to Chairman Stewart’s Campaign ___Yes ___No
    If no proceed to question 12
    5. Are you familiar with the Rural Crescent ___Yes ___No
    If yes, is the Rural Crescent ___Bad Policy ___Good Policy ___A liberal plot
    If Good Policy proceed to question 12
    6. Are you or any family members named Elena, Alanna or Babur ___Yes ___No
    If Yes proceed to question 12
    7. Land Use attorneys are ___Source of Campaign Fund ___Friends ___Evil
    If Evil proceed to question 12
    8. Do you intend to keep chickens in the Development Area ___Yes ___No
    If Yes will you restrict your location to Woodbridge or Neabsco ___Yes ___No
    If no proceed to question 12
    9. Are you a member of the NRA, VCDL, GOP or Chamber of Commerce ___Yes ___No
    If No, are you willing to join ___Yes ___No
    If no proceed to question 12
    10. Local gridlock is the fault of ___PWC ___General Assembly ___Congress
    If PWC proceed to question 12
    11. Can you write a check in the amount of $1000.00 to “Friends of Corey” ___Yes ___No
    If Yes proceed to Question 13
    12. Thank you for playing the game, we have your information and will have an officer escort you out of the county. We suggest you make an application to live in Arlington or Fairfax.
    13. Welcome to Prince William County. We will expect payment within ten days, failure to remit funds in a timely fashion will void your application, incur a $500.00 processing charge and will force us to have you and your belongings escorted to the County Line by the County Executive.

  25. marinm

    @Lafayette

    http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?000+cod+15.2-915.4

    B. No such ordinance authorized by subsection A shall prohibit the use of pneumatic guns at facilities approved for shooting ranges, on other property where firearms may be discharged, or on or within private property with permission of the owner or legal possessor thereof when conducted with reasonable care to prevent a projectile from crossing the bounds of the property.

    Interestingly, Manassas is one of a few places in Virginia that banned BB guns. It looks as if that law is now in conflict with State law. Someone should submit a motion for Manassas to update their ordinance. 😉

    Mom, btw nice plug for VCDL.

    …and what’s a rural crescent? Sounds tasty!

  26. marinm

    Sorry, I forgot the other reference.

    City of Manassas Ordinance 78-182

    It shall be unlawful for any person to discharge or use any slingshot, sling, gravel shooter, airgun or similar implement within the city.

    Commie heathens.

    http://library.municode.com/HTML/10932/level4/PTIICOOR_CH78OFMIPR_ARTVOFINHESA_DIV3WE.html#PTIICOOR_CH78OFMIPR_ARTVOFINHESA_DIV3WE_S78-182DISLAI

  27. Mom

    Marinm, all of those local laws have now been pre-empted. Fairfax has already changed their ordinance and it was fun to watch them do it. You’d thought someone had kicked the dog there was so much fussing and posturing at their board meeting.

  28. Mom

    As to the VCDL, I like Phil Van Cleave he’s proven to be reasonable and realistic, some of the others in the organization, not so much.

  29. Lafayette

    @Mom
    You are on a roll today!

    BTW-Did you get your “Critical Deadline” memo(email)? Now, it’s my turn to ask you a question from the memo.
    “Will you be one of those 50 by donating $10, $20 or $50 to my campaign? I eagerly await your reply. 👿

  30. Steve Thomas

    Here is the code section with the pre-emptive language:
    http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?111+ful+CHAP0832

  31. Mom

    2010 Year End Truck Sales
    Ford F-Series 528,349
    Chevy Silverado 370,135

    Typical Ford Truck Name: Ranger
    Typical Chevy Truck Name: LUV

    ‘Nuff said

  32. Mom

    I would’ve sent my $50 but since Walmart is having a sale on “plinking” irons I guess Corey will have to find it someplace else. Maybe someone will do the right thing and send it for me.

  33. Lafayette

    @Mom
    I think I woke Moon up from her beauty nap on that note with laughter. She’s going to put you back in time out for causing me to wake her.

  34. Steve Thomas

    Lafayette :@Steve Thomas I like the pellet gun idea. However, Mr. Laf. doesn’t share our enthusiasm. He thinks it would just lead to other animals going down. Can you fire a pellet gun in town(PWC)? I don’t want to be breakin’ the law(cue Judas Priest). I do find it interesting it’s legal to toss the remains in the household trash.

    All critters are safe until they end up in my traps. Shot is about 4 inches so zero chance of the pellet crossing a property boundry. Not sure what the law is in PWC, but would imagine its the same as Manassas: Do it safely, and don’t shoot onto someone else’s property.

  35. @Lafayette
    I have one and even did a thread on it. Then I saw MoM’s and liked it better. So….you have your very own thread about it.

    And if you put dead animals in your garbage, your trash can will stink to high heaven.

  36. @Lafayette

    4:15, I was sitting on the front porch. Not taking a beauty nap.

  37. Starryflights

    I’ll bet Cargo doesn’t agree with Glen Beck and Michelle Bachman that Irene was a blessing, or with George Will that the media overhyped her.

    1. @Starry, I am sure Cargo doesn’t feel blessed to be on day 5 without electricity. What is wrong with Richmond that they can’t get things fixed down there?

  38. Starryflights

    Rick Perry, by the book
    By Ruth Marcus, Wednesday, August 31, 2:11 AM

    Rick Perry is no George W. Bush.

    This is not a compliment.

    Perry’s 2010 Tea Party-steeped manifesto, “Fed Up!,” makes George Bush look like George McGovern. Perry has said he wasn’t planning to run for president when he wrote the book, and it shows:

    ●The Texas governor floats the notion of repealing the 16th Amendment, which authorized the federal income tax. Perry describes the amendment as “the great milestone on the road to serfdom” because it “was the birth of wealth redistribution in the United States.”

    Raise your hand if you believe, as Perry suggests, that it is wrong to ask the wealthiest to pay a greater share of their income than the poor.

    ●He lambastes the 17th Amendment, which instituted direct election of senators, as a misguided “blow to the ability of states to exert influence on the federal government” that “traded structural difficulties and some local corruption for a much larger and dangerous form of corruption.”

    Raise your hand if you’d like to give the power to elect senators back to your state legislature.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rick-perry-by-the-book/2011/08/30/gIQAJJsbqJ_story.html?hpid=z2

    Wow! Perry wants to take away our right to vote for our own Senators, and abolish social security, and would give Congress the capability to overrule the Supreme Court! He is very anti-democratic.

  39. Fox and friends reports that daycare in the DC area costs over $18,000 a year. Holy cow, that is as bad as a year of in-state college. That’s a little less than $350 a week.

    No wonder people think just going on welfare is better than working.

    Looking at salaries and calculating child care costs and there is suddenly a huge disconnect in reality.

    Tell me again why conservatives are fighting free contraception for women? Pay me now or pay me later……

  40. marinm

    @Lafayette

    Do your neighbors charge $350/week??

    I started looking into daycare offerings and was quickly amazed how places hide the costs of tuition on-line. You need to talk to a human being to get a quote which to me tells me the price is very flexible depending on what they think you’re willing to pay and that the market must be pretty cut throat.

    I just want my babies to learn Chinese – the future language of our overlords.

  41. Lafayette

    @marinm
    I’m not sure what fee is next door.One slight problem regarding the Chinese, I don’t believe it’s taught there. However SE HABLA!! I know daycare is outrageous. My daughter is a senior and high school, I paid my daycare dues. When she was in 2nd grade, I was fortunate to begin working at home. You seriously may want to consider having a “live-in” it might cost less in the long run. I will be checking on costs and get back to ya.

  42. marinm

    @Lafayette

    http://www.theunion.com/ARTICLE/20110830/BREAKINGNEWS/110839991/-1/RSS

    How will parents react when they find out they will be expected to provide workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for…babysitters? Dinner and a movie night may soon become much more complicated.

    I think I’ll pass on the SE HABLA. While I appreciate my culture and have no problem if my kids want to learn spanish in the future I think I’ll stick with getting them upto speed on Mandarin. I figure that’ll really up their chances on getting into VMI.

    And no one mention VMI to my wife. I’m pretty sure she’ll kill me.

    My wife killed the idea of an au pair when I started surfing websites in Sweden… 😉

  43. Big Dog

    http://www.fcnp.com/commentary/local/9994-koly127.html

    School year starts: Books, check, schedule, check, Miranda rights update?

  44. Theseus

    Still recovering from the election. I feel strangely like Yoda at the end of Star Wars III when the Jedi were decimated and had to go into exile. Palpatine, Vader and their minions now rule.

  45. Lafayette

    Where’s the application to secede from the Gainesville District? I wish we weren’t upside down due to the foreclosures. I would love get the %$#& out of Dodge!!

  46. MoM will make up an application for you.@Lafayette

    Theseus, You have to watch out for decimated Jedis. i think many of us want to hide. I am with Lafayette and will be seceding.

  47. Lafayette

    @Moon-howler
    Well, MoM better get crackin’! I hope there’s no fee involved for processing the application and approval. 😉

  48. marinm

    @Lafayette

    http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+15.2-3202

    Ordinance for annexation by city or town; appointment of special court.

    The council of any city or town may by an ordinance passed by a recorded affirmative vote of a majority of all the members elected to the council, petition the circuit court for the county in which any territory adjacent to the city or town lies, for the annexation of such territory. The circuit court with which the petition is filed shall notify the Supreme Court, which shall appoint a special court to hear the case as prescribed by Chapter 30 (§ 15.2-3000 et seq.) of this title.

    YEEHAW!!!!!

    Or, go full on Conch Republic.. Have the town council muster all available males for service in the city militia and then submit notification of surrender to the county.

    I like it. Should bring in some tourist dollars.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch_Republic

    I actually don’t know if the above VAC works or is the right one but it read well…

  49. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    I don’t believe it, the Jefferson/Hemings controversy started up again! It just won’t die!

Comments are closed.