Our son Davis’ hockey team was invited to hold a shootout during intermission between the first and second periods of Friday night’s (1/29/10) Allen Americans hockey game.
Davis is the sixth shooter, skating at the 2:15 mark.
So back on the first of September, a mere week after the boy started full-blown walking, I find Samuel attempting to climb atop the ottoman. So I grabbed my camera and started shooting. So far as we know, this was his first summit attempt and success.
“Many Americans would be surprised to learn that the word ‘democracy’ does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, or the U.S. Constitution. Nor does it appear in any of the constitutions of the fifty states. The Founders did everything they could to keep us from having a democracy.”
Democracy = mob rules. Republic = rule of law. Keep this in mind when American politicians—of any stripe—talk about the “will of the people”.
This is worth ten minutes of your time if you’ve forgotten—or never got—this lesson in civics class.
Like a lot of kids who came of age in the ’80s, I was not, and to this day am really not, a fan of Paul Simon. But every kid who came of age in the ’80s knew who Paul Simon was, thanks to this video:
This past weekend, we spent a few days visiting my parents in the suburbs of Birmingham. (That would be Alabama, not England. Just in case it wasn’t clear.)
My dad pulled my old rocking horse, Donut, out of storage, cleaned up the parts, and assembled him in the basement, all for my son to ride while we were visiting.
If you want to see a slightly larger version, click on the video.
I got Donut about the same age as the little phisch is now, roughly 1974. The nostalgia from watching my own child ride the same horse I did thirty-three, thirty-four years ago, was overwhelming.
Whenever I bring up Twitter, I always get asked what it is. The best description I’ve mustered to date is “It’s a microblog”, which doesn’t fully do Twitter justice. Lee LeFever of the Commoncraft Show, has a easy-to-follow explanation:
So if you’re intrigued enough to check out Twitter, look me up, and feel free to follow my updates.
My pal Dan turned me on to this fantastic cover of U2’s “With or Without You” by Japanese pop star Hikaru Utada:
Don’t fear: she may be speaking Japanese at the beginning of the clip, but she sings the song in English. It’s really good, a great arrangement, and awesome voice.
Read that again. It was a case of mistaken identity; a five year-old boy has the same name as another individual who is on the no-fly list. The Consumerist adds:
When his mother went to pick him up and hug him and comfort him during the proceedings, she was told not to touch him because he was a national security risk. They also had to frisk her again to make sure the little Dillinger hadn’t passed anything dangerous weapons or materials to his mother when she hugged him.
For those of you wondering, “Why the heck would they do all this?”, Bruce Schneier has the answer:
The explanation is simple: to the TSA, following procedure is more important than common sense. But unfortunately, catching the next terrorist will require more common sense than it will following proper procedure.
[Emphasis added. —R]
It’s all theater. It does nothing to protect the public; it simply pulls the wool over the eyes of those who choose to not think about it, to make those sheeple feel better. Five year-olds do not pull off terrorist acts, nor are they engaged in chatter with sleeper cells, which land them on a no-fly list. Any five year-old could figure that out. Okay, that’s not fair. Five year-olds might have a hard time figuring it out. But I know an eight year-old who’d know it was wrong…
I make no bones about my disdain for the reality shows which litter network television. The only one I’d consider watching on a regular basis would be The Amazing Race. From the few bits and pieces I’ve seen of the various shows, it’s the only one that didn’t annoy me after thirty seconds.
One of the things that annoys me about some of the reality shows is that they’re not originals. They’re just re-hashed versions of something popular in another country, most notably the United Kingdom. Well, if we’re going to retool reality shows for the American audience, my vote is we roll with this one from Japan: