Now it’s personal

J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was murdered by Islamic extremists this week, was a member of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity.

Quote of the Day

“These are the same people that tried to pin the name Judas on me. Judas, the most hated name in human history! If you think you've been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that. Yeah, and for what? For playing an electric guitar? As if that is in some kind of way equitable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified. All those evil motherfuckers can rot in hell.”

Bob Dylan in the Sept. 14 issue of Rolling Stone

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-strikes-back-at-critics-20120912#ixzz26MO6flvS

+++++++++++++++++++
Friday, Sept. 14: I went to Barnes & Noble today and the only RS they had was dated Sept. 13 and featured a hack job on Mitt Romney.
WTF?

Get it, Jack!

Jack is working on his frisbee skills.

Y indeed?

I found myself following this BMW with a provocatively funny plate at 1:26 p.m. today on Johnson Avenue in Jonesboro, Ark.

Dylan at 71 – better than ever

I discovered last night that Bob Dylan’s new album – “Tempest” – was released yesterday, so I went to Amazon.com to check it out.

The MP3 download for all 10 songs is a mere $5, so I pulled the trigger without hesitation.

This is Dylan’s 35th studio album and, at age 71, he seems to be at the top of his game. The years show in his voice, but they only serve to make it richer and more expressive.

I am in absolute awe of his word/rhyme choices, his timing and the nuances and colors in his voice.

This is the best $5 I’ve spent on music in years.

What the headline should have been

The original headline on the Sept. 12 San Francisco Examiner screamed “Bastards!”

The Pete report–back from the brink

Here’s Pete, snuggled up to Maria on the couch while she quilts and watches TV.

Pete has come back from the brink in six short weeks, largely through a liver cleansing diet. He was near death and in liver failure when we rushed him to the Animal Medical Center in early August.

The prescription wet dog food the vet gave us didn’t appeal to Pete and he seemed intent on starving.

I did an internet search for information on canine liver problems and found Dr. Dodds’s Liver Cleansing Diet, created by Dr. W. Jean Dodds, a Santa Monica, Calif., veterinarian.

Here it is:

• White potato + sweet potato (50/50) cooked

• White Fish lightly cooked e.g.: cod, halibut, mackerel, smelt, snapper etc.

Ratio is ⅔ of potato mix with ⅓ of fish. Season with mixed Italian Herbs or fresh parsley, salt and pepper. Later chopped carrots and green beans (both cooked) can be added as can scrambled eggs. Yellow squash can also be added. Give a liquid child’s multivitamin or a supplement such as Missing Link (source of calcium)

Dr. Dodds says:

I have some patients that have been on the diet for 7 years now-- that were near death before-- and are thriving! Testimonials are numerous, without one negative comment other than some won't eat fish and so we give chicken to them.

We started out giving Pete a mix of sweet and white potatoes and a can of tuna, which he ate ravenously. I later bought a bag of frozen whitefish from Hollywood Feeds that’s closer to what Dr. Dodds has in mind. I’d cook it, but Maria can’t stand the smell of cooking fish. Doesn’t seem to matter to Pete.

We found Fromm Whitefish and Potato dry dog food at Hollywood Feeds that we add to the mix, along with a garnish of hempseed oil.

I also backed off on his daily dose of Leventa for his thyroid deficiency because I think it was curbing his appetite at a time when he needed to gain back some of the 30 pounds he lost earlier this year.

Tonight, I’m pleased to report that Pete is happy and more energetic than we’ve seen him in a year or two. (He’s dozing on the floor of my upstairs office and, judging from the way his legs are going, he’s dreaming about chasing something.)

Because I am Catholic…

These guys are an inspiration

Learning to be a house dog

Jack seemed a bit more calm this weekend – less prone to jump on us and maybe more affectionate.

So I decided to give him the run of the house this evening – something that usually ends with him snatching a quilt or other prize and leading us on a merry chase around the house until we can get him corralled in his kennel in the kitchen.

We were pleased and surprised when he didn’t do his usual snatch-and-run routine. Instead, he hopped up onto the couch with us and flopped down to be petted. This is something we’ve been waiting for since we brought him home as a puppy last November.

It won’t be long until he can hang out with the same lack of supervision that Pete has earned.

Good news, bad news

As I expected, SpinRite found the failed sectors of my 64 GB solid state drive, but failed to recover the data or repair the damage.

So, once again, my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook has been lobotomized.

The good news is that the drive was only 10 months into its two-year warranty period.

The bad news is that 20 months is the longest any of my three RunCore SSDs has lasted.

My Mini 9 came with a puny 8 GB SSD which I used from March to December, 2009 before upgrading to a 32 GB RunCore SSD.

Installed on Dec. 21, 2009, the 32 GB SSD failed three months later in March, 2010. It was replaced under warranty and the replacement lasted from March 17, 2010 to Nov. 3, 2011.

Undaunted, I ponied up $216.49 for the RunCore 64 GB SSD, which I installed in mid-November, 2011. It crashed seven months later in June, but I was able to reinstall Windows XP and nurse it along until it finally flat-lined yesterday.

Checking the seller’s website, MyDigitalDiscount.com, I see that the 64 GB SSD is now down to $119.99 and is also on back order. I filled out the online form this morning to get a replacement under the warranty.

I guess I’ll get a replacement whenever the shipment arrives from China.

After 4½ years, I think my netbook is dead

I’ve been getting the Blue Screen of Death with increasing frequency on my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook and find I am unable to reinstall Windows XP.

It appears the 64 GB RunCore solid state hard drive I installed last November is hosed. It crapped out on me during the European Riders Rally in June, causing me to have to reinstall WinXP. Now, it won’t even let me do that.

The little 9” netbook came with a pathetic 8 GB SSD, which I upgraded with a 32 GB RunCore SSD. When the 32 GB RunCore crapped out, I got it replaced under warranty. Then, late last year, the second 32 GB drive failed.

It appears that RunCore makes the only half-way decent SSDs for the Mini 9 and my experience leads me to believe RunCore drives are dogshit.

Steve Gibson, the creator of SpinRite, says SSDs aren’t prone to the physical fuckups that plague regular hard drives and is on record as saying there is no need to run SpinRite on an SSD. That said, I’m going to give it a shot, just to see what happens.

Beyond that, I guess I’m in the market for a replacement for everyday use and motorcycle blogging.

Maybe four years is pretty good for a $245 netbook with another couple hundred bucks worth of upgrades, but I kinda hoped it would last longer.

I thought SSDs were the future of portable computers, being supposedly less vulnerable to vibration, but 4 SSDs later, it doesn’t seem so.

From the Carmel (Calif.) Pine Cone (newspaper)

Eastwood says his convention appearance was 'mission accomplished'

By PAUL MILLER

Published: September 7, 2012

AFTER A week as topic No. 1 in American politics, former Carmel Mayor Clint Eastwood said the outpouring of criticism from left-wing reporters and liberal politicians after his appearance at the Republican National Convention last Thursday night, followed by an avalanche of support on Twitter and in the blogosphere, is all the proof anybody needs that his 12-minute discourse achieved exactly what he intended it to.

“President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.”

Breaking his silence

For five days after he thrilled or horrified the nation by talking to an empty chair representing Obama on the night Mitt Romney accepted the Republican nomination for president, Eastwood remained silent while pundits and critics debated whether his remarks, and the rambling way he made them, had helped or hurt Romney’s chances of winning in November.

But in a wide-ranging interview with The Pine Cone Tuesday from his home in Pebble Beach, he said he had conveyed the messages he wanted to convey, and that the spontaneous nature of his presentation was intentional, too.

“I had three points I wanted to make,” Eastwood said. “That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job. But I didn’t make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.”

Eastwood’s appearance at the convention came after a personal request from Romney in August, soon after Eastwood endorsed the former Massachusetts governor at a fundraiser in Sun Valley, Idaho. But it was finalized only in the last week before the convention, along with an agreement to build suspense by keeping it secret until the last moment.

Meanwhile, Romney’s campaign aides asked for details about what Eastwood would say to the convention.

“They vett most of the people, but I told them, ‘You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say,’” Eastwood recalled.

And while the Hollywood superstar has plenty of experience being adored by crowds, he said he hasn’t given a lot of speeches and admitted that, “I really don’t know how to.” He also hates using a teleprompter, so it was settled in his mind that when he spoke to the 10,000 people in the convention hall, and the millions more watching on television, he would do it extemporaneously.
“It was supposed to be a contrast with all the scripted speeches, because I’m Joe Citizen,” Eastwood said. “I’m a movie maker, but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there.”

Eastwood is a liberal on social issues such as gay marriage and abortion, but he has strongly conservative opinions about the colossal national debt that has accumulated while Obama has been president, his failure to get unemployment below 6 percent, and a host of other economic issues.

“Even people on the liberal side are starting to worry about going off a fiscal cliff,” Eastwood said.

Last minute decisions

But what — exactly — would he say to the Republican delegates about the $16 trillion national debt and 8.3 percent unemployment rate?

Friends and associates weren’t as much help as he had hoped.

“Everybody had advice for me, except the janitor,” Eastwood said.

Early Thursday morning, when Eastwood left San Jose Airport on a private jet headed for Florida, he was still making up his mind. And even with his appearance just a few hours away, all Eastwood could tell Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, and his aides, was “to reassure them that everything I would say would be nice about Mitt Romney.”

It was only after a quick nap in his hotel room a few blocks from the convention site, Eastwood said, that he mapped out his remarks — starting with his observation about politics in Hollywood, then challenging the president about the failure of his economic policies, and wrapping up by telling the public “they don’t have to worship politicians, like they were royalty or something.”

But even then, with just an hour before he appeared on stage, it still hadn’t occurred to Eastwood to use an empty chair as a stand-in for the president.

“I got to the convention site just 15 or 20 minutes before I was scheduled to go on,” he said. “That was fine, because everything was very well organized.”

After a quick trip through airport-style security, he was taken to a Green Room, where Archbishop Dolan of New York sought him out to say hello. Then he was taken backstage to wait for his cue. And that was when inspiration struck.

“There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down,” Eastwood said. “When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I’ll just put the stool out there and I’ll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn’t keep all of the promises he made to everybody.”

He asked a stagehand to take it out to the lectern while he was being announced.

“The guy said, ‘You mean you want it at the podium?’ and I said, ‘No, just put it right there next to it.’”

Then, with the theme song from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” as a musical introduction, and a huge picture of him as Josey Wales as the backdrop, Eastwood walked out to tremendous applause.

“The audience was super enthusiastic, and it’s always great when they’re with you instead of against you,” he said.

‘Enjoying themselves’

Speaking without any notes, Eastwood recalled the good feelings the whole nation had when Obama was elected, but said they had been dashed as the economy stayed in the doldrums despite massive stimulus spending. He decried the “stupid idea” of closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and putting terrorists on trial in New York City, joked about Vice President Joe Biden’s intellect and quizzed empty-chair Obama about what he says to people about his failed economic policies. He pretended Obama told Romney to do something “physically impossible” to himself, said it’s time to elect a “stellar businessman” as president instead of a lawyer, and, as a final point, told the people, “You own this country.”

When an elected official doesn’t “do the job, we’ve got to let ‘em go,” he said, and the crowd ate it up.

“They really seemed to be enjoying themselves,” Eastwood said.

Originally, he was told he could speak for six or seven minutes, and right before he went on, he was asked to keep it to five, but he said, “When people are applauding so much, it takes you 10 minutes to say five minutes’ worth.”

Also, there were no signals or cues of any kind, so “when you’re out there, it’s kind of hard to tell how much time is going by.”

He also said he was aware he hesitated and stumbled a bit, but said “that’s what happens when you don’t have a written-out speech.”

As he wrapped up his remarks, he was aware his presentation was “very unorthodox,” but that was his intent from the beginning, even if some people weren’t on board.

“They’ve got this crazy actor who’s 82 years old up there in a suit,” he said. “I was a mayor, and they’re probably thinking I know how to give a speech, but even when I was mayor I never gave speeches. I gave talks.”

Backstage, it was all congratulations and glad-handing, he said. And then he returned to the Green Room, where he listened to speeches by Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney. It wasn’t possible for him to watch the media coverage of his presentation.

But the country was listening as the television reporters and commentators covering his speech reacted to it. And they hated it.

“I have to say, as a fan, a movie fan, this was exceedingly strange. It just seemed like a very strange, unscripted moment,” said a shocked Andrea Mitchell on NBC.

“That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen at a political convention in my entire life,” said Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, barely concealing the condescension in her voice.

Bob Schieffer of CBS said it was “a big mistake to put Clint Eastwood on before Mitt Romney.”
On the Washington Post website, reporter Chris Cillizza wrote that “‘awkward’ may be the kindest term we can think of” to describe Eastwood’s speech.

“He hemmed. He hawed. He mumbled. He rambled,” Cillizza wrote.

And on CNN, Piers Morgan said Eastwood was “going bonkers” on the stage and said his presentation “looked like complete chaos.” He pressured his guests with questions like, “Weren’t you in pain while he was up there?”

But Eastwood wasn’t aware of any of it, and after the speeches were over, Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, came backstage to thank him.

“They were very enthusiastic, and we were all laughing,” Eastwood said.

When he went outside to his car, a large crowd cheered and chanted lines from his speech.

An overnight rebellion

Back at his hotel, Eastwood had a room service dinner and went to bed. The next morning, he got up early and went straight to the airport, still unaware that his appearance was the No. 1 political topic in the nation.

“I read the Tampa newspaper, and every article said something negative about the convention, but there wasn’t much about me,” Eastwood said.

He had no idea that overnight, a rebellion had erupted online against the media’s condemnation of him, with thousands of bloggers, Twitterers and commentators calling him, “a genius,” “1,000 times more brilliant than the media,” and saying he’s “only gotten better with age.”

They also started posting their own versions of Eastwood’s empty chair in droves (“eastwooding”), and, on YouTube, replays of his remarks at the convention were being viewed millions of times.

Even into his 80s, Eastwood has an unprecedented record of success in Hollywood, and is still making two movies a year. He’s currently starring in “Trouble with the Curve,” and is about to direct a remake of “A Star is Born” — things he obviously couldn’t do if he were a befuddled senior citizen. To locals who know him, the idea that he is uninformed or senile is laughable.

Nevertheless, the bitter criticism has continued.

On Tuesday, Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, called Eastwood “the perfect icon of the Republican tea party: an angry old white man spewing incoherent nonsense.”

Eastwood said people, including reporters, who were shocked by his remarks “are obviously on the left,” and he maintained that, while many Americans didn’t like the way he handled his convention appearance, millions more have something else on their minds.

“A lot of people are realizing they had the wool pulled over their eyes by Obama,” Eastwood said.

A little sport before breakfast

Pete and Jack often enjoy a rousing game of “pull the Friendly Fox” before breakfast.

Pete only recently felt playful enough for this kind of activity and it makes us very happy to see him having fun again and interacting with Jack in a way that makes Jack happy too.

Ryan budget cuts

List of Republican cuts. Clearly, Paul Ryan knows how to make the cuts necessary to get this country back on track.

Notice S.S.. and the military are NOT on this list

These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting. Read to the end and pass it on to as many as you can.
* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.
* Save America's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.
* International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.
* Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.
* Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.
* Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.
* Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
* U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.
* Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.
* Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.
* John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.
* Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.
* Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.
* Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings
* Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.
* Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.
* Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.
* Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings.
* Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.
* Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.
* New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.
* Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings
* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
* Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.
* Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings.
* Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.
* Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.
* Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.
* Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings.
* Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.
* Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.
* U.S. Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.
* General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings..
* Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.
* Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.
* No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.
* End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
* Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.
* IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
* Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings.WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ABOUT?
* Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
* Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.
* Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.WHAT???
* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.
* Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savingsWELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL
* Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.
* USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.
* Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.
* Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.
* Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.
* Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings..WHY?????
* HUD Ph.D. Program.
* Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
* TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years

My question is, what is all this doing in the budget in the first place?

Please send to everyone you know.

Godspeed, Nick Longworth

We received word this evening that former Indianapolis News photographer Nick Longworth died yesterday.

Nick was a great newspaper photographer who helped illustrate several of my stories when I was a young reporter at The News. He left The News to work for the Republican Party and moved to Washington, D.C. In recent years, he moved back to Indiana and lived in Carmel.

Nick narrowly escaped serious injury or death on Memorial Day, 1960, when race fans aboard a 30-foot scaffold jumped to their feet for the Parade Lap of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, throwing the structure out of balance and causing it to crash to the ground. Two men were killed and about 80 people were injured in the accident which signaled the end of scaffolds at the 500 Mile Race.

That’s Nick, circled in red.

A huge blowup of this photo hung on the wall of The Indianapolis News city room in the first few years of my career there.

OXO Good Grips Ratcheting Pineapple Slicer

 

The folks at the Amazon.com Vine program sent me one of these to review.

I gave it to Maria, since she’s the pineapple fancier in this house.

She pronounced it one of the niftiest kitchen tools she’s ever used. It neatly spiral cuts a pineapple, leaving the outer husk to either discard or re-purpose as a container for dip or a drink.

It comes in two models – the white plastic one like this for $9.99 and a stainless steel version for $19.99.

 

Empty Chair Day

Today has been designated Empty Chair Day – an acknowledgment that Clint Eastwood’s remarks about President Obama at last week’s Republican National Convention were spot on.

So now you know why some of your neighbors have empty chairs in their yards today.

Frisbee dog in the making

Jack, who celebrated his first birthday yesterday, shows some aptitude for being a frisbee dog.

Maria got this shot of us this afternoon.

I’m very proud of him.

Details

I’m always fascinated by overlooked details in photographs. This is one of a dozen or so HDR images I made the other night when friends showed up for an impromptu dinner party.

I was examining the images this morning and noticed young Clay intently checking out my collection of cowboy dinnerware.

It often feels like some kind of magic happens whenever I pick up a camera.