No Last Minute Pardons

One thing that amazed me was that Bush didn't do a whole bunch of last minute pardons.

I was kind of figuring he'd do what his supporters (however small that group is) wanted, which was to pardon Scooter Libby. But it didn't happen. And I was figuring he'd pardon Ted Stevens, but he didn't.

I actually would favor pardoning Stevens. He's an old guy, 85 or something, isn't really much of a danger to society, not as much, let's say, as younger Republicans. If he accepted a few gifts and didn't write it down or claim them, it sounds like small potatoes stuff now that he's out of office. Just slap his wrist and give him a pardon and let him spend his life in Alaska, punishment enough. No, really, I suppose Alaska is a nice place.

Maybe Obama will pardon Stevens. That'd be a nice way to start off. Don't wait till the last minute, just get it out of the way.

The Three Stooges

I've been watching some of the Three Stooges movies again. I have the various sets, the chronological DVD releases. Some of them I'm not a big fan of, in particular any that have to do with Nazis or the Japanese in WWII. Every Stooges film is dated in a sense, but these are especially so.

The one I really dislike is "They Stooge to Conga." It's the most violent episode, and I'm not that squeamish about normal Stooges violence, but this one is way beyond comfortable. And it involves the Nazis. Seeing Moe go through the wall and get injured (in reality he was injured doing this) isn't so bad, but having to see the spike go in his eye or head is too much.

"Busy Buddies" is an episode I've had. We used to record some of them off TV and watch them over and over. So I know exactly what to expect in it, and love it as an episode. My family has Curly's line "I drink coffee" as a catch phrase type of thing.

In "Crash Goes the Hash" there's something that bothers me. There's an actual reference to the Three Stooges in it! They show up to be butlers at someone's party and in all their acting up, a guy says, scolding them, that they remind him of the Three Stooges! I have a problem with that, because if the Three Stooges exist in the world at the same time as these three guys, wouldn't everyone notice that they're identical to them? And wouldn't it make these three guys very self conscious of their antics? So that's too circular for me, like one of those time machine conundrums.

I wonder why there aren't Three Stooges outtakes and alternate takes. The way a lot of their wilder antics went, they had to be set up and redone over and over to get them precisely right. Like when the dummy flies over the fence in "Busy Buddies," I have to believe that wasn't done in one take. I'd love to see some film of them actually making the films.

Kibbles and Bits

I decided to switch my dog's food last night. She's been having trouble with the other, which I think is called Purina Seniors 7. The trouble isn't trouble with the dog food exactly, just that she doesn't like it. She likes to pick through it and take out certain pieces and leave the majority of it in the dish.

I was just letting her keep it in her bowl till she got hungry enough to eat it. But I felt bad about that, because I'd like to see her consuming something other than the bag of Pedigree wet food everyday at 5:00 p.m.

So I was checking out the other brands of dog food last night, and it's hard to judge since I'm not eating any of it myself. But I decided to go with a bag of Kibbles and Bits, which I'm sure I've never bought before. Pouring it out it sure looked good and she went wild eating it, seeming to love it.

But maybe too much, since she woke up with a bowel condition, going to the bathroom on the floor a bit much. Then I took her out and nothing. But then, within an hour, again, all over the floor. It reminded me of the children's book, "Everyone Poops." Only I might write a sequel, "But This Much?!"

Her dry bowl is about empty now. It's almost time for the wet. And I think I will only fill the dry bowl halfway and try to ease her into the switch. On the other hand, maybe she's sick from some other reason unrelated to dog food. Maybe it's just a coincidence and nothing to do with the Kibbles.

Tonight Is So Right For Love

All my years of being an Elvis fan, I did not know that the song "Tonight Is So Right For Love," from G.I. Blues, was based on a Johann Strauss II song. Oh no, I didn't even know there was a Johann Strauss the Second. I'm not a classical music expert by any means, which is the category I'm guessing he fits in. Guessing.

But the song is called "G’schichten aus dem Wienerwald." I don't know what that translates too either.

One day I was scraping ice off the sidewalk and I heard a local church's bell/chimes system playing this song, the exact tune of an Elvis song. So I thought I'd look it up -- since I know they used to make religious songs out of popular songs, they could do the opposite too. But I forgot every time I was near a computer.

Then today, there it was again, and it turns out to be this Strauss piece. Looking it up, this also explains why there's a song on the album (CD) that has a similar title, "Tonight's All Right For Love."

Domestic Squabbles

I know of a case, a domestic violence, police having to step in, case. It seems like it's everyday you hear of another one, people cutting each other, biting each other, holding their loved ones hostage. It's enough to make you want to throw a skillet at someone, that these morons can't live together and get along.

What ever happened to the notion that your freedom ends at the beginning of someone else's nose, or other piece of skin? You can't be jumping on someone, holding them down, choking them, trying to smother them with their head buried in a couch. Someone's going to hear you screaming and call the police, then they're going to cart your idiotic butt to jail. Or the other person's going to get up and make the call. Then you're breathing heavily in the kitchen, trying to put things away, and a swat team comes busting in the door.

That's the danger of cell phones. Your loved ones can be in the next room turning you in. At least with landbased phones, you could always pull it out of the wall and barricade the door. The best policy is to not let it get that far. Count to 10. Leave the building. Bite your tongue. Shut up. Don't let it build.

The situation I know about went the usual direction, meaning restraining or no contact orders, forced separation, then a short squabble over who could stay at the home, then ... and here's where innocent parties come in, with needing things now that the other person cleaned out the home. "She took your things? Call the police." But the police know and call it a civil matter, meaning anyone could come in and take your things, it's a civil matter.

Again, that leaves us innocent parties, who had nothing to do with it, called upon to help pick up the pieces ... or actually to furnish new pieces. It's disgusting.

Bluebird

Today an old song came to my mind, snippets of it, then a little bit more, and I couldn't think of who did it. "Bluebird, bluebird, bluebird!" But that's all I could remember.

So I asked someone else and she didn't know, didn't seem to remember any such song. We were on our way home so I knew I could look it up on "The Google," with 'Bluebird, song.' But then one of those nick-of-time memory miracles happened and I remembered, Paul McCartney.

I was actually thinking Beatles, but "Blackbird" was all I could remember from them. I know all the various Beatles' songs and knew there wasn't a "Bluebird" in the bunch. But when my memory miracle happened, I knew it was Paul and the "Band on the Run" album, which turned out to be exactly so.

I haven't gotten it out to listen to it, but heard the 30 second sample of it at Amazon and that's good enough so far.

Counting Down The Days

Today I was thinking Inauguration Day was a week from today. But it turned out even better. It is a week from yesterday. We're counting down the days. And if I had more idle time to kill, I could keep better track of it.

Get through Thursday, Friday, then the weekend, and Monday will be Inauguration Eve. Or Kick Bush to the Curb Eve. Then Tuesday we're there!

Tomorrow is Bush's farewell address. I'm hoping he has a big "Mission Screwed Up" sign behind him, but that might be a bit too much to hope.

Am hoping all the best for Obama, that he'll succeed and we'll all love him forever.

Visions of Mary

I see the Catholic church is going to get stricter on visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. So anyone out there with a piece of burnt toast or windows angled toward the sun on which you're able to see things, stake your claims now before you have to prove it.

In this story,

Catholics who claim they have seen the Virgin Mary will be forced to remain silent about the apparitions until a team of psychologists, theologians, priests and exorcists have fully investigated their claims under new Vatican guidelines aimed at stamping out false claims of miracles.

The Pope instructed the proper office that deals with things like this to draw up a new handbook "to help bishops snuff out an explosion of bogus heavenly apparitions." I like the logic in one of the guidelines: If you're quiet about what you've seen it's more likely you've seen it. If you tell folks what you've seen it's more likely it's false. So there's some incentive. If you really see something, don't even tell the Bishop, don't tell anyone, then you'll know it's true!

But apparently they don't expect you to keep completely quiet, because at some point they're going to have a team of psychiatrists come by and certify your mental health while theologians evaluate what you've seen and the messages (if any) obtained therefrom. The next step is even more interesting. Next, "one or more demonologists and exorcists" will investigate the situation to make sure Satan isn't hiding behind the apparitions. I can hear the devil now: "Curses, foiled again!"

As for you, the visionary, if you would like to avoid all this terrible red tape, in my opinion, just claim what you've seen, and if they don't like it ... that's their problem.

Collectable Obama Crap

Who are the pitiful morons who are buying all this "collectable" junk advertised on TV? I just saw one that featured typical American families sitting on their couch, so privileged to give The Historic Plate Company their money for some stupid plate with Obama's picture on it. They have the phrase "Historic Victory" trademarked, so don't anyone say that.

It's all a limited edition, you know, only firing it for 65 days or something. Such garbage.

Then there's the collectable coins, going back and forth so you can see them gleam. Foolish stuff.

I got an entire mailing, like several pages long, the other day, full of this kind of churned out rubbish, and they also had some phrases describing the Obama victory that was given their own copyright. I'm not above collecting, don't get me wrong. In fact, I stuck the literature for this last one in a drawer, hoping someday it'll be worth something.

They Got The Beat

Today's "Deal of the Day" (MP3) at Amazon is The Go-Go's "Beauty and the Beat."

I was slow getting to the Go-Go's when they became popular right at the first, but I wasn't too far behind. I was buying their albums after they'd solidly hit the charts. In my family we were interested in seeing them whenever they were on TV, or for their videos on MTV, etc. We used to record some of the videos back then, when they were on all the time, but having things on video tape was never such a big joy. How to find it again was a problem.

I remember a pretty good show about them, the one that was introducing "Talk Show," which was a later album. They seemed cool. I don't like hearing of their problems, drugs, all that. It really isn't that hard to avoid such things. Just do it.

The album sounds just like it always did, of course, catchy tunes, very simple and ebullient, but not at all innocent. It's a big mistake to always think we were so "innocent" once upon a time just because the time has passed.

By the way, the media to actually listen to the Go-Go's on would be cassette, since cassettes were hugely popular right at that time thanks to the Walkman. I think I still have it on LP.