Happy Halloween!!!

Pumkins

The word “Landslide”

Gets thrown around a lot these days, but after watching Barack Obama’s infomercial tonight it is my view that the Democrats should get the House, the Senate and the White House in this election cycle and that Republicans  . . . should get a 30 second head start. 

Happy Birthday to an old friend.

We were friends before most of you were born!

All the best and many, many more!!!

What is best in life?

"To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. "
- Conan the Barbarian

Maryland Renaissance Festival 08 Final Day

This past Sunday we made a day of it down at the Ye Old Revel Grove.
Here are just a few quick shots. Patrick was also with us but I don't have any good group shots yet. I still have to check Gina's Camera and other are sending me some as well, however these certainly give you the gist. 

This photo by Jess

Some call him "Pete".

This photo also by Jess.

It was a brisk day, and got downright cold after sunset, but a good time was had by all.

Ignorance, Fear, Hate - Naked

"The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear."

- Gandhi

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them… We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant."

 - Karl Popper, "The Open Society and Its Enemies"

"A Rattlesnake, if cornered will become so angry it will bite itself.  That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is - a biting of oneself.  We think we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves."
 - E. Stanley Jones

Patrick has sent over the following:

"This woman is a fucking disgrace to her office.  http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x218085

 

"I think these people are really, truly terrified that they won't be calling the shots anymore, and twenty years of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Fox News, the Washington Times, Focus on the Family, the whole wingnut support network has really putrefied, and the syphilitic invective and fear they spurt has really eaten holes into the brains of these people.  These people have taken counsel of their darkest, innermost fears and prejudices, and are reinforcing and encouraging one another's insanity and ugly, black, despicable hatred.  It's going to be a hundred times worse for President Obama than it was for President Clinton.  Think back to the 1990s, when people seriously, literally believed that Bill and/or Hillary Clinton had former friends murdered with fake suicides and convenient plane crashes, when they called Bill Clinton a serial rapist who used the Secret Service as a Praetorian Guard to silence or abduct women who wouldn't keep quiet about (or their pets, as one deranged woman claimed), when they believed the Clintons to be pawns of the Trilateral Commission/Bilderberger Group/Bavarian Illuminati/New World Order that was going to cede American sovereignty to hordes of United Nations foreign soldiers who would swoop down in black helicopters to occupy God-fearing Midwest and Southern towns.  I think we're going to win the White House, and make strong gains in Congress, but the 29 percenters, the people who still like Dubya and adore Sarah Palin, the people who think Jeremiah Wright is a danger to America but who think Christian terrorists like James Kopp and Eric Rudolph are agents of the Lord, are going to get dumber, and crazier, and a lot more dangerous.  I fear we're going to see a resurgence of the militia movement, and more abortion clinic bombings and more doctors murdered; I think we're going to "Mainstream Media" reporters physically attacked or killed (one was assaulted at a McCain/Palin rally in NC recently), and I think we're going to see actual by-God hate rallies occur more and more often.  These people suffer from a serious, cancerous dearth of character, and that cancer is going to metastasize after November 4.

 

"Rep. Michele Bachmann's opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, is behind in the polls, but Bachmann herself is barely treading water, with a paltry 42 percent in the most recent poll.  There's a big effort now to push the above video around the blogosphere to highlight this appalling person's paranoid crypto-fascist views, and I understand that Tinklenberg has pulled in over $30,000 in contributions from around the country since this show was broadcast.  For a House race, that's serious money, and it can make or break a campaign.  So this is my plea for you guys to look at her disgusting remarks calling for loyalty pledges and McCarthyist investigations of American liberals, and consider sending Elwyn ten bucks, or twenty or fifty.  And please forward to this to whomever you know who might be receptive to such an appeal."

 

 - Patrick

Tinklenberg '08: http://www.tinklenberg08.com/

YES WE CAN!!!! HOPE! VOTE! OBAMA 08!!!

Patrick just sent this over and it is simply too good not to share.

Happy Birthday!!!

To an old friend.
Remembering the U.S.S. Integrity NCC-2112, Xenadria, and all the rest.
All the best Brian.

Debate Night 3

A little live debate blogging here tonight. I am watching the pre show right now with Patrick.

"I think McCain's only chance is to play the Robin Williams card and show up tonight dressed as George Washington." - Frank

Patrick - "Ah, the second in command of Al-Qaeda in Iraq has been killed  . . . again."
Frank -  "Man that spot is like being an Admiral under Darth Vader."

McCain is flailing. "Joe the Plumber?" what the hell are you talking about?

Finally, "That says more about you than it does about me!" I've been waiting forever for him to say something like that.

Bob Schieffer keeps giving the last word to McCain.

Hey Bob, are you going to give Senator Obama the last word at least once tonight? At least make a pretense of being impartial? Just wondering. -Patrick

"Joe the Plumber" returns!! - Patrick

From the Daily KOS

Well that's it. McCain came on strong, but I think Obama took it overall.
Patrick thinks Obama won by a wide margin.

General Update

We are setting course for the MD Renaissance Fair this coming Sunday, for the final day of the fair, and the infamous 'day of wrong'. The weather looks to be clear but cool so, if you're planning to join us, dress warm and wrong.

Meanwhile, here is picture of our granddaughter being cute.

PA Renaissance Festival

We spent the whole weekend at the PA fair this past weekend. Jess and Ricky joined us for Saturday. Gina and I got a room at a local Hotel and stayed for both days.  We picked up some new costume pieces and much needed supplies for the rest of the year. Here are a couple of shots in no particular order.

Gina looking quite the sexy pirate.

Here is my new friend Alisa of the Silk Road Gypsies who tells me she has no formal training.
If you ever see them play, you will understand my confusion on this point.

First some drinking and then some pillaging with the crew of The Intruder.

Don't ask.

Upcoming Tim Young Book Signings

He'll be signing books at the Borders on 32nd Street and 2nd Ave in New York City on October 9th from 3:30 to 6 pm. Afterwards he is meeting friends at The Ginger Man on 36th Street.
Come on down.

He also has a new booksigning at the Barnes & Noble in Holmdel, New Jersey on Saturday, October 11th from 11am until 1pm.

More events in October.

• He's reading and signing books at the Borders in Annapolis Md. at Storytime,

October 23rd at 10:30am.

• He's reading and signing books at the Barnes and Noble store at the Power Plant in Baltimore Md from 12 to 2pm on October 25th.

Don't forget to check www.ImLookingForAMonster.com for more info and where to buy the book online.

Meanwhile in Iraq

This came in from Patrick, and I think it's worth passing on. I truncated it just a little bit, but otherwise it's intact.
______________

"The Sunni transition in Iraq has begun. Starting Wednesday, the first groups of Sunni paramilitary fighters - mostly former insurgents who formed the Sahawat Al-Anbar, the Awakening Movement (jokingly called by some American commanders the 'Very Worried Iraqis') - will now be paid, and more importantly, commanded, by Baghdad, by PM Maliki and his Shia-dominated government.
(http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq2-2008oct02,0,6057110.story)

"I have been talking about this for some time, and what I am reading has me quite worried. We're talking at least 100,000 guerillas - let's call them what they are, a guerilla army, legitimized by their willingness to be bribed by the US - who will now report to a regime that has stated unequivocally that it intends to shut them down, that their existence will not be tolerated. A fraction of the Sahwa will be absorbed into the New Iraqi Army - I've read from 10 to 20 percent - where they will either be given their own segregated units which will be notoriously unreliable, or, they will be doled out piecemeal to Shia-majority units in the hope of diluting their effectiveness as a parallel force. The rest will supposedly be 'retrained' as carpenters, bricklayers, sewer workers, etc. Supposedly. Eventually.

"Honestly, I have trouble seeing how Maliki avoids a replay of the Bremer debacle from 2003, when our viceroy unilaterally dissolved the Iraqi Army, thanks guys, go on home, take your weapons with you. Tens of thousands of Sunni guerillas, most of whom had little love for Americans to begin with, are going to be told to hand in their Kalashnikovs and pick up shovels and saws. Of course, strength in numbers was all that kept them from being targeted by the hardcore Sunni insurgents, AQI and their remaining allies; now that's gone. And cooperation with America is what kept the Sahawat leaders from being prosecuted for their prior activities (which is to say, their terrorist attacks), and Maliki's government is planning to go after many of these leaders as soon as America isn't paying attention. AND, the Awakening movement is undoubtedly riddled with AQI moles and sympathizers, Sunnis who couldn't give a fuck about imposing Sharia but who see America on its way out the door and are looking to close ranks as the threat of Shia oppression looms in the near future. It's all Realpolitik for them now. For many Sunnis, working with the Americans was always a short-term game, to keep Baghdad off their backs and to fleece the US armed forces for as much money and arms they could.
(Actually, our own homegrown gangs are doing the exact same thing:
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/justicelawlegislation/a/gangs.htm)

"The Sunnis feel they are being abandoned by us, and they will have almost no reason to cooperate with Maliki, and every reason to rejoin the insurgency. And the insurgency will welcome them back with open arms.

"The war is still simmering, notably in Diyala province (north of Baghdad province), which has become the new 'capital of the insurgency,' or at least a major center of it. And it looks like the war is creeping back into Baghdad again: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWpQ6MGl2vO59ghFNu8C1nbj9XSA.

"How will the influx of 80,000 well-trained, well-armed, furious and very worried Sunni fighters into the situation affect Iraq? Are we looking at a violent reaction to the 2006-2007 ethnic purges of Baghdad province that saw the Shia kill thousands of Sunni Baghdadis, and drive hundreds of thousands into exile?"
__________

with thanks to PNG

Senate Approves Bailout - with a side of Pork!

"In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit."
            – Ayn Rand

"Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix,
Of crooked counsels and dark politics."
            - Alexander Pope, Temple of Fame 

Delia Surridge: "You're going to kill me now?" 
V: "I killed you ten minutes ago while you slept."
            - V for Vendetta

So, let me get this straight? Some Republicans don’t think the Economic Rescue Package (AKA: The Bailout) is a good idea and will not vote for it. Period! They have drawn a line in the sand and taken a stand.

“This is a matter of principle. It’s too much money. We can’t put that kind of burden on the tax payers, and our children   . . . unless of course you tack on a few more bucks for us!”

. . .

“I’m sorry. What was that last part?”

“We want our cut, not too much; another 150 Billion ought to do it. Then we’ll vote for it.”

. . . 

Wow!!!

 . . .

I mean just when you think nothing else they can do will surprise you.
Where does this leave us? You might be inclined to ask. Well, I don't know. 
It seems like the only thing worse than this passing this plan is not passing this plan. 
A seemingly legitimate case of "Do something, even if it's wrong." 
We'll do this, and um, fix it later if it doesn't work. 

"We have come together in unprecedented bipartisan cooperation, to pass this historic bill, and make sure we all get our cut! 
Congratulations to us!"