A Million Thanks To Our U.S. Military Men And Women

I had tried to post this last night, but Blogge ws apparently having some kind of issue or another.

In lieu of a BitsBit this week, I consider it more important that you go toa site and read and take action. The site is called “A Million Thanks “

I saw something I’d not seen since Jimmy Carter was president, today, and we had the rare chance for a picnic tonight, in our neighbor’s driveway, in 30 degree weather… both in one day.

Today started with a trip over for a haircut, during which I had to stop at my usual gas staion for a fillup. Apparently, they had some traffic problems, because they had a gas sale on; something like 10 cents off. This resulted in something I’ve not seen much of since Mr. Peanut… a long line of cars waiting for gas.

We had taken a short hop out to a new Burger place we’d been wanting to try. You can only take so much of the chain store stuff; this is a local place. We got our order to go, and brought it back home. Upon our arrival at home, the local Fire Dept was on scene, and all the neighbors were out of their houses, standing around in their shirtsleeves in the 30 degree weather.

Turned out that some sewer line work done across the street a week back was the cause. So while we waited for the Fire Dept, and the Gas and Electric to finish their work, making sure nobody had gas problems in the house, and since we couldn’t re-start the truck for fear of explosions, we decided to eat dinner, sitting on the cold asphalt of the neighbor’s driveway. No point in letting it go cold, I suppose. I’ll bet I’ve got a case of frostbite on my butt, though.

You’ll pardon me; I’m headed toward a hot shower.

While the Democrats are today dumping large amounts of scorn on John Kerry, wondering loudly why he managed to come to represent the Democratic party in this year’s election,The Man Without Qualities points out that he was the Best possible Democrat… by their own measurements.

… A day to remember.

As I wrote to you earlier this week, today was a day for myself and my wife. And a wonderful day it was; We got some coffee at a favorite coffee shop… Something we usually do only on the weekends, and then only in passing… We usually get it to go… So very much to do. This time, though we actually sat down and drank our coffee and ate the breakfast goodies we’d bought. It set the mood for the day, pretty much.

We did some shopping, we did lunch… We took a ride, and just spent some time reconnecting, and…. Well…. Simply reminding ourselves of the reasons we fell in love in the first place. I’m convinced that many relationships end for lack of this kind of time. Which is one reason I’ve relied so heavily on this day each year; We both have.

We spent a lot of the day, in talk of, as John Denver once put it, Poems, Prayers, and Promises Often, we were not saying anything to each other at all. Not vocally, or with hand signals… Nothing of that sort. Communication, after all, does not always need words to exist. It was a day spent in that comfortable companionship that only comes with a long established communication channel, one that is often not fully detectable to others. It’s amazing how this annual event brings out the kid in both of us; May that habit long continue.

Since I was otherwise busy today, I didn’t get much time to blog. But that’s OK; we needed the downtime. And anyway, I gave you folks a couple day’s warning I wouldn’t be here.

A quick look around shows nothing unexpected; I didn’t miss anything we’ve not talked about.

Peterson convicted…. Did anyone expect otherwise, really? Which is one reason I don’t think I’ve mentioned it much here. Such cases bore me to tears in any event, and as I’ve told you, I write here about what interests me.

Arafat tucked into his dirt nap, with the usual hysteria associated with radical Arab leaders… The usual leftists treating him like seven kinds of royalty. By their words, ye shall know them. If peace was the real objective, why didn’t we kill this bloodthirsty idiot after Munich in 1972? That sounds harsh, but think how many innocent lives would have been saved that way.

Had Arafat been gone, not only would innocent citizens of Israel not been killed, but the Palestinian people, too, would have had a chance for a better life… The billions stuffed away in the Swiss Bank accounts would have bought real prosperity for his people. Instead Arafat stuffed his own pockets with the money, and bought terrorists. His walking away from Oslo showed peace with Israel was never the intent. Now he is gone at last and there’s a chance for the advancement of real peace… But with the power struggles I see going on there I’ve got to say it’s a vanishingly small one. I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

Price of oil dropping. Price at the pumps is dropping, too. At the current rate of decline, we’ll see some pretty substantial drops by the end of this year, assuming no further issues crop up. If the president is as smart as I hold him to be, he’ll be pushing again for drilling in ANWR.

My younger boy has picked up the trumpet, and he’s busy in practice with it just now.  After some initial struggles in handling the mouthpeice, he seems to be doing rather well with it, particularly within the last week. His practice sessions sound like a cross between Herb Alpert on acid, and a large bull moose in heat, but it’s a glorious sound, to him; and to us; an accomplishment to be celebrated, given he didn’t even have his horn a couple weeks ago. My older boy is an accomplished trombonist. I’m rather hoping to hear the two playing together someday, but for the moment, I’m satisfied for now, to see them doing well individually.

Got a note back from the Vanning club I wrote to down in Binghamton. Nice chap, from what I can tell, and had a great conversation with him. He tells me there’s still a Syracuse area club, Salt City Vans. I’ll have to look them up again. For the meantime, he suggests I’d be welcome to park with them, if the chance comes along. I find myself looking forward to next summer. Still wish there was a club in the Rochester area yet, though.

The self-destruction of the Democrats continues… With Arianna Huffington saying the Clintonistas ruined John French Kerry’s chances.  Let’s do, please, continue this discussion for the next four years. With all the infighting, they may actually figure out that the product they’ve been selling all this time is the reason they’ve been losing elections.

Fallujah’s taking is around 80% done at this point; our people are doing a fantastic job. The press for the most part is comparatively silent about this, as opposed to the large splashes prior to the election where they were busy telling us how badly things were going, and so on. I wonder if the American people really understand how much was being pulled by the press on that score. Remember our servicepeople in your thoughts and prayers this day after veteran’s day and every day.

Not much else to relate to you at this point, but one thing, which involves the blog itself.

You’ll notice aside from my short sniping of the last few days, I’ve been trying to write at least one longer and somewhat more personal bit per day, in my daily updates. I’m not sure how these are being received. Certainly, my shorter and somewhat more acerbic writings have done well with readers. 

However, in the rush toward election day, I often had so much going on that I didn’t have time to develop some more thoughtful, personal stuff that I’ve been thinking about; things going on in my own life. As such, I was pretty much restricted to those shorter and more focused comments.

That re-election having been accomplished, I now find myself with more time and space to become more personal in my writing. I make no promises; we’ll see how this effort goes. I haven’t gotten this daily inspiration thing down just yet. So far, it’s ‘when I feel like it’.

My intent in even mentioning this was to give long time readers an explanation for the slight change of flavor these last few days.

There is no better indicator of Yassir Arafat’s support for and involvement in terrorism, than the support being shown by terrorists for him today in Ramalah.

There is no better indicator of there being no desire for peace within the so-called Palastinian people, then the overt display of terrorists today in Ramalah.

How long is the western world going to be forced to try and make peace with these animals who quite clearly do not WANT it, but only want the destruction of the west?

The Turkish Press is reporting:

“CAIRO, Nov 11 (AFP) – The personal physician of Yasser Arafat called for an inquiry into the cause of the veteran Palestinian leader’s death on Thursday.
‘I demand an official inquiry and an autopsy … so the Palestinian people can learn in all transparency what caused the death’ of their leader, Dr Ashraf al-Kurdi said on Al-Jazeera television only hours before Arafat was due to be buried.
He said his suspicions were aroused by the absence of any information about Arafat’s health since he was admitted to hospital in Paris on October 29 and that Arafat was conscious when he left his Ramallah compound. “

So, does this mean the French are now to be blamed for the terrorist’s death?

There’s something ironicly satisfying on this one.

Today is a special day.
The day belongs to people like I wrote about last year at this time, over at Castle Aggghhh..

Read it and think about people like that today.
That’s what today is all about.

The entire world should be calling a week-long celebration.

Perhaps it’s time to look back into fairly recent history to see why.

The Watcher of Weasels has an opening on The Watcher’s Council. Follow the link for details.

Fox News is reporting a car-train accident in South Carolina. Apparently a Loram rig being hauled by a pair of older NS engines took out a Buick with five people in it.

The Buick driver tried to beat the train, apparently.  You know the line: “Try to beat the bloody train, instead become a bloody stain”

No, I don’t feel very sorry at all for the idiot driving the car. Call it “Darwinism by locomotive.”

The ones I feel sorry for are the crew on that train. Through no fault of their own, they end up living with this.

WASHINGTON (AP) –

” WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush has chosen White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, a Texas confidant and one of the most prominent Hispanics in the administration, to succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft, sources close to the White House said Wednesday.

Which would make him the first Latino to go to such a post, and a great choice, at that, based on what I’ve seen of his record.

The thing is, Billy…… that we aren’t LIKE any other nation in world history.

Oh, and it took far longer than a decade.It took over 100 years and one civil war! (along with a number of riots, if you accept that the mid-60’s riots had any effect on things.)

Jonah Goldberg is on fire again, and though he’s spot on for the most part just like yesterday’s column I linked…. well, this time, I have a few problems with a few points.

Go read the link and come back.

Read it? No?
I’ll wait. Go ahead.

Read it now? Good. Here’s my problems;

“Well, here’s the thing: I don’t take any giant amount of pride in being a Republican. I’m a conservative.

This is a distinction lost on the mainstream media. Most cable news networks consider conservatives, Republicans and – even more egregiously – libertarians utterly interchangeable.”

The answer on that one’s rather simple, Jonah; It’s because the Democratic party has moved so far to the left… and their minions in the MSM with them, that everyone looks conservative, next to them, including Republicans.

“Let me put it this way: I want the Democratic Party to move to the center on cultural and economic issues. Yes, it would mean that the Democrats would win more elections. That’s pretty much beyond dispute. Bill Clinton was the only Democratic president to be re-elected since Roosevelt, and it was because he moved his party to the political center.”

Sorry, wrong answer, Jonah. Clinton most assuredly did NOT move his party to the center, which is why Al Gore lost in 2000. He certainly gave that image, which as you say, is why Clinton won re-election. Trouble is, Clinton lied. I know it’s a shock, here, but Clinton lied, and stuck to the values of the far left in a bait and switch move that would give even used car salesmen pause. Well, it only took getting hit over the head for eight years for the voters to figure that out, and Gore paid the price.

As for the rest of it, it’s interesting you bring this up; I’ve always held that Bush is not a conservative, nor was his father, for that matter, which, I hold is why he lost in ’92; Conservatives felt Reagan’s legacy betrayed by 41.  They didn’t get behind Clinton, but neither would they get overly excited about 41. And as the re-election of 43 showed clearly, in a close contest that excited support makes all the difference.

Bush 43 winning a second term, (along with the gains in Congress) though, is good for conservative values because it shows clearly, that the world isn’t going to end when liberal lockstepping doesn’t rule the field. As I said to someone yesterday, in someone’s comment section, and I forget where; (Update…Turns out it was at Q&O…. …/Bit) we didn’t get to this juncture of big govenrment being the norm in one week, one month, one decade, but over a century. The left likes to use the power of government to bypass the process of changing minds.

This mind-changng process is going to be a long term commitment to move us back in the other direction, to get us to the better place we conservatives desire. Bush being re-elected, and the Congress being more strongly Republican is a step in that direction. A small one, certainly. But this is one small step to start a journey of such.

AP FILED THIS STORY last night, saying President Bush is considering going after drilling within the ANWR again.

I say; Good. It’s about time.
I’ve had quite enough of the enviro-wacko left, who never liked the west having any economic success anyway, having control of such success by denying us our own energy. Now’s the time to act, Mr. President… get those drilling rigs moving north.

I made a rather interesting discovery on my van, otherwise known as Bit’s Box, this morning.

It turns out that the rearview mirror on it, which has a highly accurate compass display, and real-time outside temp display which is fed from the engine’s computer, also has an indicator which reads “ICE”, that lights up.  Since this is the first time I’ve driven this van in weather this cold, I’d never seen it before.
A new discovery!

Apparently, the light doesn’t stay on at temps below 32 degrees F, but rather is triggered on something else… Possibly a temp/RH combination, I don’t know. Shoot, now I gotta go back and RTFM, again. I remember seeing something about it in there when I read it last August, but it’s not easy to concentrate on passages about ice when you’re sitting in 90 degree temps.

You’ll remember it’s an AWD rig, which makes it a very different animal from my old 95 Astro which you actually guided into corners with the assumption that the back end was gonna get squirrelly. Actual road ice, seemingly, is not a problem for this new rig, though.  I’ve got to drive it a bit more to be sure. The feedback I get from the thing is so steady and so very much ‘yeah, there’s rain and snow…So what?’ that I’ve started to become concerned that it’s not telling me the real traction story, down there. I’m worried it’s giving me a false sense of security.

My usual trick of finding a snow covered empty parking lot and thrashing the thing a bit will have to wait until there’s a snow covered lot in which to thrash the thing a bit. For now, we just have spots of ice, occasionally… And that darned light.

Speaking of the van, I’ve decided, since I’ve been spending so much time and effort on this van of late, that I’d try to hook up with some similar minded folk,a nd perhaps get some ideas meet people have some laughs, etc.  As such, I’ve been looking around for a vanner’s group to get involved with. In years past, we had one of the biggest groups in the nation, right here in good old Ra-cha-cha. This club had over 150 vans in the club at their peak… They could do a ‘run’ all by themselves without inviting any other clubs. Some really wild rides, back then, even by today’s standards.  Of course in those days, about all I could afford was a second-hand Ford Pinto Hatchback that I’d modified into the world’s smallest RV by putting a bed and some curtains in the back.

(Picture this really off-the-hook custom van sitting next to the Pinto Hatchback, with the win 9 foot CB antennae two VHF whips and a scanner whip, and the curtains in the window, and you may begin to understand why I never bothered pressing the vanning matter.)

More recently, in there was one in the Syracuse area, just a short putt down the road from here. Alas, both of them are gone.  Even ones still claiming to be active haven’t updated their sites since the 2002 nationals for the most part.

Really sad.

I did manage to find one based in the Suburbs of Binghamton, which is close enough to make occasional showings, but…(shrug. I’ll have to see it the thing is still active, or not. I see they have a show and shine scheduled in July that might be fun to see. I also see the Nationals are sched’ for mid July in the Keystone state, and that might be fun.

Even there, I’m concerned, though. In the old days, there were some clubs that were sturdily mod/show and shine, and other clubs that got together as an excuse to drink beer. I’ve heard it said that van clubs are motorcycle clubs with four wheels per member vehicle. I suppose that’s true; I’ve DJ’d for bike clubs and can tell you it’s true, from both ends of that spectrum.

What’s odd about that is that now I have two boys, and a wife to consider. Years ago, I’d have thought nothing of some of the wilder aspects of such groups. Now, I’m a little unsure of it all, given my situation and I wonder if that’s not why such clubs are harder to find these days.

Well, we’ll see how this goes. But I’ve got all winter to investigate it.
And looking at the snow, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.