Barnson.org

I ran across a piece that gives a concise description of why we are currently withdrawing from Iraq (according to the President’s news conference yesterday) and the motivations for this move. Although some of my more liberal friends, I am sure, will take issue with the reasons for withdrawal and positive emphasis on the timing, it’s a useful description of the motivations for the move.

I think it’s interesting that, lately, the right-wing has begun emphasizing the talking point that we are withdrawing “based upon our successes”. As if withdrawal from Iraq is some kind of cookie for doing a good job. I’m not on-board with that analysis, though. I think it’s an excuse for trying to sweeten the well for the coming election. Bush has encountered a hostile congress, and the back-pedaling seems, to me, to be a lame attempt to try to reconcile in time to get incumbent parties re-elected come this Fall.

Too little, too late. Although the anti-incumbency sentiment was at its height in 2006, I think enough remains that we’re going to end up with a Democratic White House and at least either the Senate or House of Representatives is going to tip Republican.

From the noises they are all making lately, though, I’m not sure it makes much difference what party controls the Congress. My party — the Republican party — held the ideals of less government, lower taxes, strong military, and fiscal responsibility dear. The current Administration, both Presidential candidates, and the Congress, seem to be ignoring those ideals.

Yeah, you read that right, NASA is in need of more urine in order to test their Orion space capsule.

Odd request. Even odder that they’ve filled it. But based on the trickle of jokes on Slashdot, I foresee a stream of responses.

And sings.. and makes music..and.. oh its gonna be fun..

“DR HORRIBLE’S SING ALONG BLOG”

A NEW musical by Joss Whedon is now available to watch for free at drhorrible.com – but its crashing a lot and it will go down in a few days.

I decided to just buy the thing from itunes so I can have it forever. Act 1 is today.. act 2 is tomorrow, act three is the next day, then in a week it disappears.

Haven’t watched it yet.. but am about to..

Two weekends ago, I had an opportunity to ride my father-in-law’s four-wheeler around the ruins of the Teton Dam. It was an incredibly good time, and now I realize the appeal that these types of tiny vehicles provide. It’s a totally different experience from riding a car.

So, in typical Matthew style, I read up on the sport. An overriding interest of mine is “how do I avoid getting hurt?”, since I have heard and read all kinds of horror stories about people new to motorcycles or four-wheelers really hurting themselves. To that end, I found The Hurt Report. I came to the following conclusions:

1. Take a safety course. Fully 92% of all motorcycle accident victims did not take a safety course. That’s a pretty staggering statistic to me. If you are self-taught or had a family member or friend teach you, you’re eleven times more likely to be in an accident.
2. Don’t ride a motorbike if you’re between ages 16 and 24. No, seriously, statistics indicate that you’re judgment-impaired. You’re safest if you’re between 30 and 50.
3. If you’re a manual laborer, student, or unemployed, you may want to hold off on buying that cool motorcycle until you change careers.
4. Put fairings and windshields on your motorcycle.
5. Ride with your lights on.
6. Wear brightly-colored clothing in orange, red, or yellow.
7. Over half of all fatal motorcycle accidents involve alcohol consumption. Don’t ride your motorcycle late at night when there are likely to be drunk drivers on the road, and of course, don’t drink and drive.
8. Wear a helmet. Those who wear helmets are less likely to get into an accident. Almost all motorcycle accidents occur within a 45 degree field of vision in front of the rider, so complaints about lost peripheral vision when wearing a helmet are irrelevant to safety; you’re much safer with a helmet than without.
9. A bigger motorcycle is less likely to be involved in a crash, but is more likely to hurt you severely if you do crash.
10. Intersections are the most dangerous for motorcycles; be extra-careful there.
11. If you have had a moving violation in the past three years, don’t ride a motorcycle.

Now, admittedly, some of these statistics are kind of funny, like “rule yourself out if you’re aged 16 through 24”. But according to the demographics represented, I’m a perfect candidate to be a safe motorcycle rider.

I do hate wearing orange, though.

I’ve been struck over the past few days with the scope of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts. I mean, we’re talking about the taxpayers footing the bill for the difference between US house values and the borrowed price for a $5 trillion portfolio.

These bailouts are rising in cost and graft, with FNMA boasting $1M+ salaries for the top twenty executives and over $250M in bonuses over the past five years to those same twenty. These were supposed to be organizations devoted to bringing housing to those who could not otherwise afford it, not institutions responsible for absorbing over half of the entire nation’s housing debt.

Capitalism is dead. Or, if it’s not dead, it’s certainly being handed its hat.

My yard has a terrible gopher problem. I’m not talking just a few burrows… I’m talking DOZENS of holes. The gophers are eating the roots of our plants, we can’t grow a garden because they literally pull the plants down the hole — much like in Caddyshack — and then devour them.

Frustrating!

This morning was the final straw. Our master bedroom is in the basement. Although not as spacious as I would like, it’s very nice because in the summer it remains cool despite the heat. Apparently, a gopher fell into our window well while exploring. He proceeded to dig his way out. He woke me up with the sound of his scrabbling in the dirt. I could hear him working away for hours afterward, too.

So I broke out the shovel and the hose, using the time-honored “flood ’em and whack ’em” method of gopher hunting. Unfortunately, either I drowned a couple in their burrows, or they found a safe hiding place from the water. None ever surfaced for me to smash into paste with my trusty shovel.

How sad. I wanted some extra meat for my stew tonight.

Anyway, I got to researching online in order to understand my enemy better. I wanted to know their habits, what they eat, what attracts and repels them, everything I could so that I could more effectively combat this burrowing menace. The better you know your enemy, the better you can fight them. As General Patton said to Erwin Rommel upon defeating his forces in North Africa, “Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!”

Rather than what I was looking for, I found something else. The Final Solution for burrowing rodents. I found The Rodenator.

HELL YEAH! That’s what I’m talking about! Flood their burrow with a mixture of oxygen and propane, then ignite it. A concussive wave kills or incapacitates the gopher. That same shock wave explodes and collapses the burrow, preventing re-infestation (a big problem: you might kill the gopher, but new owners may move in later. Less work for the new gopher!) Dead gopher. Satisfying explosion. Real results.

The expense is a bit high at $2,000 for the basic kit. So I guess I’ll rent one instead. It will be worth it to kill those varmints. Wile E. Coyote got nothing on me. BLAM!

Man gets filled with the holy ghost, falls, gets hurt, sues: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0605081spirit1.html

So we finished the basement recently. One big family room, a gym, a bedroom, and a bathroom. Carpet in all but the bathroom and half the big family room, where we had linoleum and laminate, respectively.

In the family room, we put a kitchenette, replete with granite countertops, refrigerator, sink, cabinets, etc. Everything but a range.

The refrigerator is the catalyst for this post, as it is where we store the extra milk. With three boys 5 and under, we go through gallons of milk quickly. As was the case tonight.

As I went into the basement (which we don’t use much, for all the work we did in it. Summer is spent by the pool), I stepped onto the carpet from the steps, and hear a wonderful “SQUISH”. Uh-oh.

My basement is now #$^&$^*%^*@^$#& FLOODED because my water heater is leaking!!! AIGGHHH-EEEEE-IIIII-AIIIIIII!!!!

So I unplugged everything, turned off the hot water heater breaker, and called the insurance company. The on-call adjuster called, said the local adjuster will be contacting me in the morning.

Now I’m off to video the basement, just in case.

And earlier? My 1.5 year old, Weed Version 2.3, decided to dump a cup of water on ye ole’ laptop. So now I have to take it apart and clean it and hope IT fires back up.

I love H2O.

My $.02 Weed

Wife Unit and I just got back from our annual vacation during which, this year, we biked through two Southern Utah national parks on a guided active tour. If you haven’t visited Bryce or Zion National Park then I would immediately put them on your family’s ‘desirable’ vacation list. Zion alone does two things. First, it reaffirms the jaw-dropping power of nature’s beauty. It also reaffirms that the United States has this beauty. You don’t need to travel to other parts of the world to get hit with it.

There were some strange moments on the trip, though. I had to deal with the weird stuff. Without boring you with long traveler tales, let me just write that I never again want to accidentally open the door on an obese, middle-aged woman trying to get her naked body comfortable in the airplane bathroom (hint: it’s called ‘locking the door, people’). Also, I don’t ever want to be awoken during a 2-hour, cramped shuttle ride by some crazed old guy shoving a jar of bugs in my face and asking in whispered, maniacal glee, ‘ever seen these before?’. Finally, I’m not interested in ever again having to ransack the St. George’s Kmart with the local pharmacist swearing that he’s never heard of Sudafed. People in Southern Utah are messed. What did Warren Jeffs do to you guys?

In the first attached pic, we stayed in a cabin at the top of the cliff. This is looking up from the hike down. The second is after we had pedaled 80 miles in one day’s ride to Zion.

Glad to be back in MPLS, though. Back to the work life…and planning the next vacation…

Just had this sent to me by a friend and it is too good not to share.

Bad Day