The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
This is for those posts that we wish to feature here at Deep Sand. It implies that these are a bit extra special.
OK, I know that about this time every year I write something about Autumn being my favorite time of year. I know, Tampa, FL is not the place to be thinking about Autumn. I think we get our Autumn here in January, the time of year when these nasty live oaks dump a big portion of their leaves. Still, there is a rhythm that comes with the seasons no matter where one lives, and I love this time of year for the sense of “settling-in.”
Read moreI am glad I was not on the road for most of Sunday, and even then, we stayed on surface streets and around the neighborhood. Three crashes (I-75, I-4 and I-275) all had major accidents within a two hour window Sunday afternoon that involved over 100 vehicles, and sent 14 people to the hospital. Fortunately, no one seemed to have life-threatening injuries.
Read moreRachael Maddow reports on a survey that says that more than one in three conservatives in New Jersey believe that Obama is the anti-christ. She discusses with Republican operative and former religious right co-founder Frank Schaeffer how we respond to the idiocy. Schaeffer rightly notes that there is a sub-culture within the ultra-conservative evangelical right that is taught from birth to reject fact as a matter of “faith.” These are people who believe the world is only about six billion years old, that humans lived with dinosaurs, and that John F. Kennedy was the anti-christ. He refers to them as a “fifth column of insanity.”
Read moreIt appears some deputies from Lakeland PD and Polk County Sherriffs Office decided it would be fun to play a little Wii Bowling on the big screen while serving a search warrant at an alleged drug house. I guess it wouldn’t be too big a deal but for the fact that they apparently spent NINE (9) HOURS playing around.The problem comes from the fact that in their very thorough, NINE (9) HOUR, search of the house they missed the security cameras that were recording.
Read moreA friend sent me an email with a set of photographs of some do-it-yourself projects that remind of some things I’ve done, and some things I’ve seen some others do. They come from a site (thereifixedit.com) dedicated to the Rube Goldberg DIY’ers of the world. I’ve put a few of the photos from the email in the post, but had a great time scrolling my way through the site.
Read moreIn a sign that I’m certainly getting older, now I’m reading about people I remember mostly as being young and exciting dying in their 70s. Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary fame died at 72 after several years of battling lukemia.
Read moreThese are interviews with the 60,00 to 70,000 people who turned out for the big Tea Bagger March in Washington. Apparently, you don’t have to really know anything about what you’re protesting. It’s all just bad because it is Obama, and some industry or media flak like Glenn Beck told you to be mad and scared.
Read moreIt is just astonishing to me the complete crap that has been stirred up over the President of the United States offering an address to school students at the beginning of the school year to encourage to stay in school and work hard. Really, does it get any more anti-American than that? Well, if you’re are a conservative Republican it doesn’t, but there really is logic to the Republicans taking the position they have.
Read moreThis week, we had craziness at Walmart in Georgia, Michelle Bachmann coming through for us again, teabaggers berating a lady in a wheelchair at a health care town hall meeting, and Medicare recipient getting treatment for an injury he received while protesting government run health care. But we start with just a tiny bit of the foolishness being spewed over Obama speaking to school children about doing good in schools this year. What a sad place we’ve been brought to in this country by a small group of small-minded and easily manipulated people.
Read moreWhile members of the Kennedy family, to this day, continue to enter public service, the death last night of Senator Ted Kennedy brings to an end that original family dynasty. Perhaps the final tragedy suffered by this family is that Ted Kennedy didn’t live to see his life’s goal of heathcare insurance for all come to pass. Requiem eternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Read moreMore than 100 years ago a salt shaker sized object made of platinum and iridium was forged in London. This was then shipped to Paris where it was shaped and polished and carefully weighed until it was exactly one kilogram (about 2.2 pounds). By international treaty, this then became the international for the exact weight of a kilogram. The problem is, the mass of the cylinder may be changing.
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