Internet Ronin

Keleusmatically Veteratorian

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:42:18 PST

Save the Words!

(via A Welsh View)

Darwinian Dog?

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:14:47 PST

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:32:44 PST

Original artwork by Emily Wick.
Via A Welsh View

Happy Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:45:53 PST

21st century seasonal carol

Not Forgotten

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:27:55 PST

Bountiful Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:17:07 PDT

Ignorance is a renewable resource.

- P.J. O'Rourke, Give War A Chance

Pregnant Palin

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 20:01:13 PDT

At the close of the Alaska legislative session.

(Via Erik99599 on Flickr)

Grape Juice

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:15:26 PDT

It's what's for breakfast. Or will be once prohibition returns. After all, alcohol causes well over 100,000 premature deaths annually in the United States. With nannies on the march nationwide in efforts to ban real and imagined villains such as second-hand smoke outdoors, trans-fats and fast for the public good, how much longer can they resist the temptation of demon rum? Perhaps the 21st century will mark the end of the concept of private property and personal choice.

Over There!

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:41:40 PDT

I'll be posting at A Busman's Holiday for the next month while touring the United Kingdom.

Hit Parade

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:51:27 PDT

This post has generated something like 8,000 hits, or about 67% of all traffic ever, to this infrequently updated blog. (Perhaps a dozen of those visitors clicked through to see another post.) Another 10% of all visits are due to this post (most because of Ruth Anne's comment noting the resemblance to Mater). Truth be known, I've probably generated another 20% of the traffic myself because I regularly delete all cookies from my computer, and keep forgetting to sign back into Site Meter and mark the "ignore visits from this browser" option.

Memorial Day

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:00:48 PDT

Remember those who served and sacrificed their lives, as well as those serving today.

Circling Blighty

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sun, 25 May 2008 13:19:34 PDT

This time next week, we'll be off to the United Kingdom for a month-long visit. Provided I don't get us in a serious accident at the first roundabout we encounter, our trip will be a circular tour of Britain, beginning and ending at London Gatwick Airport.

We're spending 3 days in Devon & Cornwall before ambling through Exmoor & Wells to Bath. While in Bath, we'll explore a bit of the Dorset Coast, a tad of Wiltshire, more of Somerset and take a day trip to Hay-on-Wye via the Forest of Dean and returning through the Brecons National Park. We plan to stick to the "B roads" and wander aimlessly through the Cotswolds for a few days, although a side trip to Oxford will be marginally more organized. After following a circuitous route around the Great Malverns, we'll be in Shropshire, taking in whatever passes our fancy on a trip to either Ludlow or Hereford one day, and Conwy in North Wales on another.

Our longest day will be a drive from Whitchurch to the Lake District (actually around the Lake District and back down into it). The Lake District is best for walking tours, but those aren't an option item, given my mom's incomplete recovery from Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Boat trips are out as well, unfortunately. We've got a great route in mind for the nearby Yorkshire Dales as well. After the Lake District, we'll cross the north end of England to Durham and then drop down into York. (We may take the train to Edinburgh for the day while in York.) Continuing our southern trajectory, a couple of days in the Peak District, along with a side-trip to Lincoln seemed like a good idea. We're sprinting to Cambridge and then on to Bury St. Edmunds for a leisurely look around East Anglia.

We'll pay our respects to the Queen at Windsor before returning our Vauxhall Astra (or equivalent) to the car rental company and catching the Eurostar for 2 nights in Paris. (This was supposed to be the end-of-trip surprise, but Delta wouldn't cooperate.) Once we've seen the abbreviated "highlights of Paris," we'll return to London on the Eurostar for a more relaxing series of romps in and around town before returning to Gatwick, and from there, home.

Decisions Decisions

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:56:27 PDT

(Via I can has cheezburger.com)

Forward Back?

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:00:56 PDT

Alternative bumperstickers below:

(Credit: Blogtopus)

Enthusiastic Momentum

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Mon, 19 May 2008 01:34:50 PDT

Around 75,000 people turned out to hear Barack Obama speak in Portland, Oregon today. Portland, with a population of about 570,000, is a Democratic stronghold. At the same time, that is an extraordinary number of people to turn out to hear what was a pretty standard stump speech on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Waterfront Park (created when a freeway was ripped out a few decades ago) was packed to the gills. Film shows hundreds in the river listening in watercraft ranging from kayaks to speedboats, while a thousand or more lined the opposite side of the bank with no hope of hearing his speech but taking part in the event all the same.

(Via the Washington Post and the New York Times)

Cross Bearer

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:58:26 PDT

If this was a flier for John McCain, the howls of protest would be loud and savage. As it is, one doubts the most likely howlers will have any problems with this flier.

If you're wondering who paid for this, look below:

Via Pittsburg Tribune-Review)

Out Back

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:29:20 PDT

Part of the view from my back yard. The barn, erected in 1853, was a Pony Express stop.

Quixotic Dream?

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:18:18 PDT

An excellent commentary by Gerard Baker, United States Editor and an Assistant Editor of The Times:

The black senator from Illinois is on the verge of achieving unimaginable success for an African-American politician - the Democratic nomination for president, and quite possibly the presidency itself.

But suddenly his erstwhile buddies - in this case, the Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of the Trinity United Church in Chicago - seem intent on dragging Sen Obama back into their recidivist clutches, condemning him to the plodding mediocrity of black political underachievement.

Deer & Rats

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Thu, 01 May 2008 06:55:58 PDT

The Democratic superdelegates, created to represent the party's interests, look like deer frozen in the headlights of the two candidates' roaring tractor trailers.

I liked that line from Daniel Henninger's column in today's Wall Street Journal, but his real point was interesting:

This week we learned the limit of a dream in American politics. At Barack Obama's darkest hour, not one prominent ally came forward to support him. Everyone abandoned Everyman.

No prominent black clergyman came forth to make even the simple point that Jeremiah Wright's notion of the "black church" is but one point on a spectrum of faith. Rev. Wright, now written off as a virtual nut case, got more support from black clergymen than did Obama.

Barack Obama was bleeding by Monday and needed cover. Where, when he could have used them, were Obama's oh-so-famous endorsers: Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Oprah, John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Patrick Leahy, Tom Daschle, Amy Klobuchar, Claire McCaskill, Jay Rockefeller, John Lewis, Toni Morrison, Roger Wilkins, Eric Holder, Robert Reich, Ted Sorenson, Alice Walker, David Wilhelm, Cornel West, Clifford Alexander, Donald McHenry, Patricia Wald, Newton Minow?

Where were all the big-city mayors who went over to the Obama camp: Chicago's Richard Daley, Cleveland's Frank Jackson, Atlanta's Shirley Franklin, Washington's Adrian Fenty, Newark's Cory Booker, Baltimore's Sheila Dixon?

Out to lunch, apparently.

Blogger's Lament

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:18:32 PDT

(Lolcat via icanhascheezburger.com)

Background Player

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:43:35 PDT

All first ladies, first spouses, should be like Denis Thatcher, slightly dazed, mildly inscrutable, utterly supportive. It is the only job in the world where "seems slightly drugged" is a positive job qualification. The key is to know you are not the drama, you do not draw the lightning, you are a background player who yet has deep, unseen power. (The "deep, unseen power" part keeps you serene and energized. The constant possibility of quiet revenge keeps one peppy.)

Peggy Noonan's piece in the Wall Street Journal this morning, While McCain Watches, is a good one.

Googlezonian Future

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:26:01 PDT

While this video takes a while to make its point, the point is well-made. And a tad frightening upon reflection.

(Via Hit & Run)

Bible Lesson

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:26:27 PDT

Reverand Rowan Atkinson interprets.

(Via A Welsh View)

Nanny State?

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:43:41 PDT

(Credit: JonnyBGoode at FARK.com)

Tax Simplification

noreply@blogger.com (Randy) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:51:25 PDT

Megan McArdle reposts the Jane Galt Tax Plan every April 15. And every April 15, I think it is a marvel of simplicity and logic. It hasn't any hope of ever becoming law, of course.