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  • With friends like these…
  • NJ Votes “NO” on Stem Cell Funding
  • Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior…
  • 2007... Changes and such
  • December Update 2
  • December Update 1
  • Christmas is coming, the blogger's getting fat
  • Crikey
  • Al Queda's #2 in Iraq caught: Queue the cries of I question the timing
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With friends like these…

So Jack Nicholson, long time and high profile dem is coming out for Hillary. He's even created a campaign advert for her, and placed it on YouTube.

But the advert, much like the one Hillary put out with the sleeping children, seems to send a counterproductive message.

Jack uses some his most memorable characters to shill for Hill…

Jack Torrance

The Joker

Col. Jessep

 

Yep, nothing says vote like endorsements from some of the most memorably f'cked up characters in modern cinema.

I hope Obama sends Jack a thank you card

08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

NJ Votes “NO” on Stem Cell Funding

So as many of you know, the State of New Jersey had a $450 million ballot issue on the table November 6, 2007. This $450m would fund stem cell research in NJ, both fetal/embryonic and adult cell projects.

This measure was defeated, 53% to 47%.

While NJ is a very liberal state (we've had Republican governors, but the Democratic party has controlled the legislature for decades), this ballot measure was still fighting an uphill battle.

A few points to put things in perspective around this result (IMO, this defeat is a victory, but your mileage may vary)

  • Also on the ballot: $200m open space funding. This was narrowly approved
  • Also on the ballot: Raise the sales tax to offset the property tax. This was not approved
    • NJ currently has the nations third highest tax burden (per The Tax Foundation)
  • NJ is currently running on a deficit, with the Governor having ordered a $3 billion cut in existing spending
    • NJ is the nation's fourth most indebted state
  • NJ is already spending $270 million on stem cell funding this fiscal year
  • Religious groups like the Knights of Columbus have been conducting educational campaigns state wide to explain the differences between embryonic stem cell projects and adult or umbylical projects.
    • To date, no cure or signifigant regimine has been developed from embryonic stem cell programs
      • Embryonic stem cell advocates blame the lack of federal funding for the poor progress
      • Opponents claim that if the potential was their and science was good, private/venture capital would have picked up the slack
    • Adult and umbilical stem cell projects have yeilded results
      • Embryonic stem cell advocates point out that most of these programs are older than embryonic programs
      • Opponents point to the greater stability of these stem cells
  • There is an active Anti-Tax movement in NJ, and an increasing emphasis on government accountability when it comes to spending.

 

All of this comes together to set the stage for the funding being shot down.

Personally, I am glad it did, on multiple counts:

  1. I live in NJ, and my taxes are very high!
    1. I choose to live here; I work an hour away in another state
    2. There are too many programs in NJ that state dollars fund that have no redeming value, in my opinion. Too much money goes to corrupt officials, their cronies and as payback to venal voters that put less (or nothing) into the system than they pull out.
  2. I am Catholic, and I do believe that life begins at conception. I think abortion in an optional context is a horrendous thing. Embryonic stem research currently uses "discarded" embryos. How long before the discarded supply runs out, and someone begins to harvest them for the sake of research? Right now there isn't enough demand for that to make sense. Given enough government money with few or no strings attached, I think abortions for the sake of research would be inevvitable.
    1. Remember, the Catholic people of America have a long tradition of social activism. The Knights of Columbus were founded, for example, to provide a safety net for Catholic immigrants in the second half of the 19th century. At that time, anti-Catholic bigotry ran high, and getting jobs as a Catholic immigrant was especially hard and often quite dangerous. If a man were kiled or maimed on the job, his family would be in dire straits. Well ahead of the rest of the nation, Catholic's created a social safety net to provide for the families of the fallen members. On many social issues, Catholics and the church are quite 'liberal', but the right to life is a very notable exception. Gay marriage is another wedge issue for otherwise liberal Catholics. BTW, Catholics are a rather large (understatement) percentage of NJ's population.
  3. I do not trust many of the people and methods that are hyping stem cell research. Any time disagreement or skepticism is met with ridicule, ad-hominem attacks or the like, my bull-shit detector goes off.

02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a warrior…

I got a call last night while getting ready to leave the office. One of the knights from my council called to inform me that our DGK's son, Joe, was killed by an IED in Iraq May 30, 2007.

I did not know Joe on a personal level. His parents, whom I consider to be good friends, are some of the most solid and loving people I know. I cannot begin to express the loss I saw in his father's eyes last night. And the strength I saw in his mother as she marshaled their family and friends.

Joe is survived by his wife, Jennifer, married on September 1st of 2002.

 

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
-George S. Patton.

 

 

03:45 PM in Charlie Mike | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

2007... Changes and such

So here we are, another new year.

What's going on in SCSI land.

Promotion:  Years ago, after a merger, we were re-orged.  My director was demoted to dept manager, and shipped off to the boon docks.  I was demoted from team lead to senior analyst/developer.  I had asked for early retirement, but I had critical knowledge and could not be released. The new boss even admitted I was demoted because there were too many leads in Philadelphia, and under the new structure they needed more diversity.  Even though I had 10 years of quality assurance/control under my belt, it was felt that a woman in Chicago could run the operation better than I could.  She had no QA experience at all.  A few months later she took maternity leave, and when she came back transferred to another department.

Anyway, years later I transferred out to the boon docks to take a senior developer spot under my old director.  A year later, I am now getting my bump back to team leader, after managing a few projects (like relocating a datacenter from IL to PA) and providing some innovation.  So that makes me happy.  No pay raise, but it raises my pay ceiling and my bonus has a larger potential maximum.  Mostly, it justifies the extra work I do, and proves that I was screwed over back in 2003.

The Christmas and New Year holidays were pleasant in SCSIland.  We stayed local.  Friends came over for Christmas eve and K the fiancee and I made a fried turkey, sweet and white potatos, stuffing and cinnamon cake.  My parents came over for Christmas day, whence we ate leftovers and watched a wonderful Eagles victory over the Cowboys and T.O..  K's mother and sister flew to England to visit K's sister and new nephew, Alexander.

New Years, also pleasant and spent at home.  Weather was nasty, so we just relaxed.  K finished a puzzle while I watched DVDs and played with the dogs.  Fibber McGee, the 80lb terrifying Pitbull, needed to be cuddled and comforted because the fireworks at Penn's Landing were just too scary.

This year was the year of kitchen supplies.  I now have silicone bakeware, collapsing measuring cups and Alton Brown measuring plungers.  Combined with the laser thermometer and the turkey frier, I am a happy little chef.  BUT, there is a dark side...

Being the new year, and getting married this year, means some resolutions.  And the cooking gear may be of help or hindrance, depending on how I use them

Resolutions:

  1. Eat Better
    This is not a full blown diet, but a change in how things are done
    1. No more than 2 fast food type stops/meals in a week.  Friday nights at the Knights hall pretty much means 1, and I have another opening for the weekend.
    2. Bring lunches to work.  Either a home made meal, or a decently balanced pre-made.  Failing that, leaving the office to hit the grocery to procure said pre-made.
  2. Get back into the gym.  Minimum 5 days in a week.
  3. Spend less time at work.  This means fewer 11 hour days, and also means less work being done at home on the couch.
    1. Spend this liberated time with K and the pups.
  4. Cut back on the cigars.  After the 2 or 3 I have left are gone, cigars are only for special occasions.  Births, New Year, weddings, 4th of July, etc.
  5. Cut back on the Scotch.  Nope, not a drunk, but it can get expensive, esp. if one's tastes consider anything less than 12 years old to be akin to statutory rape of spirits.

Other things are afoot, but by 15 minute blog allotment is up.  Yeah, time management is another thing I am working on.  But that was before the new year and not on the list.

02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

December Update 2

So...

The kids Christmas party went pretty well, if a little low on attendance.  Only 5 children showed up, from 2 families.  I was expecting at least 10 kids.  A good side effect of this is that we had 4 adults there to run the party, and 4 family adults there, so the kids had plenty of help and supervision.

We had big fat coloring books I had picked up at the dollar store (each was over a quarter inch thick), some little kits to make felt mice to slip over a pencil or candy cane and the big crowd favorite, Sculpey clay.

Thanks to the Blogicals we had the Sculpey clay, some molds and some cookie cutters.  Add in some big baking sheets and a commercial oven and the kids were off to the races.  The kids were so into making their little clay ornaments for the trees that they forgot to attack the cup cakes and cookies the ladies aux had whipped up for them.  They all took their coloring books home with them for a rainy day, none having been used.  Finally, the food drive this week has benefited from the unopened juice that I had laid in for the party.

I'll have photos when I get a chance, including me as Santa with Fiancee K.

Other news:  The KofC website is nearly done.  Still some bugs, and some content is missing, but the "real work" is done.

Turkey Fryer:  Will get it's inaugural use this coming weekend.  My friend Wayne (who I will be best man for in in June) plans to convert to Catholicism (no, his fiancee is not Catholic, either) and wants to attend Mass this weekend.  So I am thinking we will have Wayne and Betty over for dinner and the Saturday Mass.  I have a 5 lb turkey breast and potatoes that will all fry up real well in peanut oil.  Hmmmm.

Neighbors: No movement on the house front yet.  No sign of their house or their agent on the Internet.

Upcoming: Chapter Christmas party on Wednesday.  More work to get that happening and hopping.  The following Wednesday is the 4th degree party, then the day after is a reunion party for folks that worked on our our billing/customer care system @ PECO that was just retired.  Lots of people over the years on that baby.

03:58 PM in House and Home | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December Update 1

Hey all,

So, the Parish Christmas bazaar went pretty well.  The digital photos with Santa were a big hit.  Folks liked being able to preview the pictures before getting a copy and free re-takes were very popular.  Being able to crop out stray bodies and remove redeye was also a big bonus.

The Knight's children's party is this Saturday, so I will update later on that.  Thanks to Tom, Mrs. Tom and Kim for the advice on that.

Also in Knights' news.  I took my Fourth Degree in November.  I may post the tuxedo pictures when I have time.  The new council website is eating into my free time.  It ought to be done this weekend, and will be less of a pain.

On the home front:

Small News- K the Fiancee got me an electric indoor turkey frier for my birthday yesterday.  Mmmm.

Big News- The nutty bukra nextdoor are MOVING.  There is a Remax sign out fron and everything.  However, the discarded gerry cans of gasoline and the pool parts from the old above ground pool are still scattered all over... Anybody want a lakefront house in the Philly suburbs?

Huge News- K and I have set our wedding date.  10/6/2007, at our local church.  Now the fun begins... finding a hall, caterer and other details.

02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Christmas is coming, the blogger's getting fat

Please put a penny in the old man's hat...

And so on.

Personally, I think Christmas season starts too early these days.  We shouldn't see or hear any of the holiday music or decorations until after Thanksgiving.

Then why am I bringing this up?

Because this year I am asisting at my parish's Christmas bazaar and children's party this Saturday.  Early, I know.  And in December I have been tagged to run my Knight's council's children's party.

So I need ideas.  While I used to work in a day care center and went to college to become a teacher, that was 15 years ago and I have no kids of my own.  The fianceee gets that look in her eye whenever we see little kids, so the latter issue won't remain an issue for much longer.

Anyway.  For this weekend I have replaced the traditional Polaroid of the kids with Santa with my digital camera, laptop and photo-printer.  This will allow parents to get a reshot of junior without the tongue sticking out and not waste the expensive paper.  We will also be able to send pictures out via email to parishoners to forward to the family etc.  I thought it was low hanging fruit, but the social comittee says this is huge.

That is about it for me for the parish, aside from providing labor and crowd control for the day.

For the Knights:  I will do the same digital photo with Santa deal, but I will likely be Santa not the photographer.  Mrs Claus, aka K the fiancee, will likely have that job.  If the weather is good, Santa will also arrive on a motorcycle.  I"ll have to see if I can get a red nose or headlight lense for the Boulevard.

Beyond this I need activities to keep the kids busy.  The age range is toddler to 12.  One plan is to have the kids make crock pot cakes.  They are very easy to make, and require only one bowl to mix in.  Divy up the kids and unleash them in teams.  Do this at the start of the party, and at the end they will have the deserts that they prepared.  And a kid friendly recipe to take with them.  Recipe below the fold, if you care.

So, aside from teaching them to bake in a very low risk of injury way, pictures with Santa and Christmas music, that would be good to keep kids busy for 3-4 hours?

Continue reading "Christmas is coming, the blogger's getting fat" »

12:11 PM in House and Home | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (1)

Crikey

 Well, this has put a real downer on the weekend.

Tonight, we'll tip a pint or three.

You'll be missed, Mr. Irwin.  We'll keep Terri, Bindi and Bob in our prayers.

 

 

UPDATE

Just took a cruise through Animal Planet (web and TV), and they finally updated the website.  It took them a while (holiday here in the States)

Discovery Channel International is going to rename the garden in front of the company's Maryland headquarters to the "Steve Irwin Memorial Sensory Garden".

They are also looking at creating a fund, the Crikey Fund, to continue Steve's work and pay for the education of his 2 children.

I just hope it doesn't become a boondogle like the WCF and other environmentalist causes.  I'd hate for his memory to become tainted in such a way.

10:03 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Al Queda's #2 in Iraq caught: Queue the cries of "I question the timing"

Read the AP report, here. 

Iraq's national security adviser said Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was arrested a few days ago as he hid in a residential building southwest of Baqouba. The arrest has left al-Qaida in Iraq suffering a "serious leadership crisis," national security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said. "Our troops have dealt fatal and painful blows to this organization."

But I thought the war was going terribly, and the Iraqi's had no hope... or was that just the latest word from Howard Dean? I dunno. I'll get the voices in my head to confer with the voices in his head, and see what is what.

Anyway, looks like his recent promotion to #2 didn't last all that long, as he was caught last week leaving a #2 in his drawers while hiding in an apartment conplex near Baquoba.

Anyway, this is good news for the people of Iraq, one less head on the hydra.  Hopefully the coalition and the Iraqi's will success in burning the stumps...
With luck, having this beast in captivity will help diffuse the tensions between the shia and sunni factions, and maybe restore confidence in the govt amongst the Kurds to the north.

Still, I have to wonder how long before the DUers and the KosKidz claim his capture and announcement thereof are just posturing for ChimpyMcHitlerBurton to aid the dreaded Rethuglicans in November.

Let the betting begin.

05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Welcome Back My Friends

To The Show That Never Ends
We're so glad you could attend, come inside come inside....

Continue reading "Welcome Back My Friends" »

08:29 PM in The SCSIwuzzy Manifesto | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

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