The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
Kay Hagan is a Democrat running against Elizabeth Dole for a U.S. Senate seat from North Carolina. After trailing by as much as 14 points, Hagan has now pulled slightly ahead of Dole in a PPP Poll. This gain appears to come largely as a result of an ad being run by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. It is a great ad.
Read moreSome months back, a high school senior in Holmes County, Florida (up in the Pan Handle) went to her high
Read moreAs a records manager by trade (and having worked in the government sector for a bit), I have had to learn a thing or two about preservation. An article concerning the use some special eye readable technologies to store thousands of pages in a durable media to last thousands caught my eye, and I found it to be fascinating project. The Long Now Foundation has undertaken a project to try to preserve language for 1,000- 10,000 years, and has come up with a cool way to do that. It’s called a Rosetta Disk.
Read moreI’ve occasionally talked about my previous career working in the funeral service. Given that, any article about funeral homes tends to catch my eye, as did this AP report about unclaimed cremation ashes at funeral homes.
Read moreJohn McCain’s military service deserves the thanks and respect of the American people, especially given his time spent as a POW in Vietnam. However, the over-use of this status for political gain becomes laughable after a while. It seems to be used to explain everything. Problem is, according to George Bush and the Military Commisions Act voted for by McCain, the techniques used on McCain while a POW are merely, “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Who wouldda thunk it?
Read moreIt’s all that uncommon for me to, as my grandfather might say, let my mouth overload my ass. By that he meant saying things I’d regret later on. While I seem to have a knack for it, James Dobson seems to have perfected the art. To wit, his comments about John McCain from 2000.
Read moreMost likely it will come as no surprise that the Bush Administration’s Justice Department continues it’s assault on freedom and the Constitution. According to a report in the Washington Post, the Justice Department is about to issue guidelines for starting FBI investigations that a number of U.S. Senators believe could lead to innocent Americans being spied upon by government agents or informants, “all without any basis for suspicion.”
Read moreTropical Storm Fay never quite made it to hurricane strength, but she has definitely dumped a lot of water on some parts of the state, and has caused some power outages and some severe flooding. She certainly gave forecasters a fit.
Read moreTropical Storm Fay has crossed over Cuba, and is making the turn more toward the north, and heading toward Florida (most likely). I thought I’d give you an update on the storm and my preparations so far.
Read moreBack in the early ’80s, a movie was released staring Dan Akroyd and Richard Prior called Trading Places. Two characters in the movie, Mortimer and Randolph Duke (played by Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) are wealthy commodity brokers who argue constantly over social issues, and enjoy a small wager from time to time. The $5 wager between the Mortimer brothers is that if they put the Pryor character into the right situation, he’ll rise to his new circumstances, and behave like a well-bread, educated wealthy person. On the flip side, if Winthrope has all the trappings of wealth and influence removed from him, he’ll quickly resort to a life of crime and scamming. In the end, the joke was on the Duke brothers, as Winthrope and Valentine came together to not only financial destroy the Dukes, but become rich themselves. I think Karl Rove made a similar bet some years back.
Read moreRecently, my Sunday School class has been involved in a study of the “The Will of God.” We’re using a book by Leslie Weatherhead. I don’t find I’m in complete agreement with his definitions, but he does offer a comprehensive interpretation of The Will of God. It has led me to do some deeper thinking about words I’ve heard often. The concept has mostly dumfounded theologians, and I believe is primarily a construct of people looking for some kind of logic in illogical situations.
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