This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Geezer Alert!

  • Official Puppeteer of Occupy Wall Street

    What a gig?

    Don Surber  offers a teachable moment.

    A few years ago, Joe Therrien, a graduate of the NYC Teaching Fellows program, was working as a full-time drama teacher at a public elementary school in New York City. Frustrated by huge class sizes, sparse resources and a disorganized bureaucracy, he set off to the University of Connecticut to get an MFA in his passion — puppetry.

    Take the time to read Don’s post. It only takes 4 or 5 WTFs to get through.

    I’m an ignorant old hillbilly; I didn’t even know one could get a MFA in puppetry? Or would want one, or mumble, mumble…

     

  • Profound (As in REALLY Important) News!

    This pleases me somehow.
    ‘Birther’ champion Orly Taitz seeks GOP Senate nomination to challenge Feinstein

    California dentist and lawyer Orly Taitz, best known as a leading proponent of conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama’s birth, is running as a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

    In a lengthy interview with The Daily Caller, Taitz expressed optimism about capturing the Republican nomination and defeating incumbent California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2012.

    I’m a sort of closet ‘birther’ myself, and the notion of getting rid of Feinstein is good. We need someone like Taitz in The Senate. It’s called comic relief.

    The obvious question… Will she show us HER birth certificate?

  • I Wish This Story Was One Of A Kind

    Seems to me this sort of thing happens with a painful regularity.
    Navy veteran could be evicted for hanging flag

    SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Edward Zivica, a 70-year-old who served in the Navy in the 1960s, faces a hard choice come Veterans Day next week: He can obey the rules and remain in his apartment complex, or he can follow his tradition of hanging the American flag outside his place.

    The managers at his subsidized housing project here have given him notice he’ll be evicted if he again violates the rules against putting anything on the exterior walls.

    That notice came after the flag went up Oct. 27 for Navy Day, one of several that Zivica marks by hanging it outside the community room near the main entrance. He’d gotten a letter from the management in June telling him to quit.

    Zivica was in the Navy’s Submarine Service from 1960-67, according to the Eugene Register-Guard.

    As usual there’s likely more to the story than readily available , but in THIS case the logic escapes me.

    The downtown apartment complex is managed by St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County, which opened it in 2009 with Zivica as one of the first tenants. CEO Terry McDonald said the action wasn’t aimed at the American flag as such but rather at preventing a precedent that could lead to more-controversial flags or banners.

    “If you’re going to live in a situation where there’s lots of other tenants, you need to follow the rules that are set up,” McDonald told KVAL-TV, which first reported the story.

    Flying the American Flag  on Veteran’s day could lead to more-controversial flags or banners?

    The story adds one final odd head scratching twist:

    After residents requested one, management has put up a flagpole. Zivica calls it “flimsy and cheesy-looking,” plastic with no lanyard to hoist the flag or lower it to half-staff. The small flag, he said, has faded to orange after less than a year.

    H/T Mary Ripley via FB

  • Jarheads, Gotta Love ’em

    Last post today from this seat. Reference this:

  • But, but…

     

    I dunno if this is legit, I ain’t on site in Oakland.
    An Open Letter to the Citizens of Oakland from the Oakland Police Officers’ Association

    We represent the 645 police officers who work hard every day to protect the citizens of Oakland. We, too, are the 99% fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment and the ability to provide a living for our children and families. We are severely understaffed with many City beats remaining unprotected by police during the day and evening hours.

    As your police officers, we are confused.

    Fascinating, but YMMV.

    Oops… H/T Don Surber

  • Poor TSO… or something?

    The video quality isn’t very good, and there is a sound sync problem, but I think this is our own TSO from some time back. While he was still living in a basement with his inflatable action figures, etc.

    Thanks Carrie.

  • New Study Finds That Deployments Are Difficult for Families?

    To Be Clear! I have NOT read the actually study, only this single article.
    Violence more common among kids of combat veterans

    ATLANTA (AP) — A new study suggests that when parents are deployed in the military, their children are more than twice as likely to carry a weapon, join a gang or be involved in fights.

    And that includes the daughters.

    Had kind of a deju vu moment here when I read the article. Yet another headline putting even MORE stress on those deployed and their families. Seems to be something similar put out there quite frequently.

    Even if every word and statistic were true and accurate Im’ not so sure there is cause for alarm, or such a headline… but one statement towards the end of the article calls the whole thing into question. I’ve emphasized it for you.

    Additional research is needed to confirm the findings, said Reed, who has since left the University of Washington and is now a social worker with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. For example, the survey found that 10 to 20 percent of the adolescents in deployed families said they were in gangs. That’s surprisingly high — more like something seen in New York City in the 1950s. Perhaps a larger, more national study would produce a lower number.

    Or perhaps singling out the kids of those deployed makes a good headline or looks good on a grant application?

     

  • Done With The Silly for Today.

    Got slammed back, and rightfully so.

    NY, Washington protesters brave rare early snow

    NEW YORK — Anti-Wall Street protesters hunkered down at encampments in New York and Washington Saturday as they faced their first winter weather test, with a rare early snowstorm hitting the US east coast.

    “Snow, what snow? I’ve got a country to worry about,” read a sign at New York’s Zuccotti Park held by a girl as snow and sleet pelted downtown Manhattan, where demonstrators have gathered to protest and call for financial reform since September 17.

    Don Surber again swings the reality hammer.

    Brave? No, the 99 twerps are camping out. The heroes and heroines in Afghanistan are the ones who are braving the snow — and the bombs — and the cold — and the loneliness.

    I never forget those serving, but Don’s juxtaposition does shift the focus where it is needed well.

    Disgust is not quite strong enough.