Snowflakes in Hell

Happy Easter everyone.  Bitter and I were noticing how bright out it was last night with the full moon, and then it occurred to her that Easter is always the first full moon after the start of spring.  It then occurred to me how pagan such a means of determining when Easter fell was.  That would essentially mean you’d need a way to determine the vernal equinox, and then you’d need some kind of calendar based on the moon.  After that, how far do you really have to go before you’re sacrificing virgins to your fire god?

Also interesting that the word Easter is derived from the month on the Germanic Calendar dedicated to the goddess Eostre, who early Europeans celebrated by feasting around this time of year.

Enjoy your holiday folks, but please, no sacrificing virgins.

UPDATE: Some people are offended by my attempt at humor.  Apologies to anyone offended.  I am not intending to make fun of anyone for celebrating Easter, just poking fun at how the date of the holiday was selected.

UPDATE: Apologies to atheist readers who are disappointed at my attempt at reconciliation with my Christian readers who were offended by the original post.  Perhaps someday the People’s Front of Judea, and the Judaean People’s Front will be able to live side by side in harmony.

UPDATE: I should note that I am the product of an orange Irish/German paternity, and a Catholic Irish/German maternity, so if I took this stuff too serious myself, I’d blow myself up with a car bomb.

Apparently she has a MySpace page.  There are pics up, but you need to log in.  She’s not bad.  Great body.  Nice rack.  Would you pay thousands of bucks to hit it?  I wouldn’t.

UPDATE: Countertop has more, including the picture.

UPDATE: Christina the Stripper, a.k.a. “Ms. Moneymakers” points out in an instant message to me “You’re not really paying for HER. You’re, in theory, paying for a level of privacy/security in banging her.  You could get a girl of her caliber cheaper if you didn’t care about privacy.”

UPDATE: Oh well, she took her MySpace page down.  Can’t say I blame her.

Apparently is Mary Jane.  How the mighty have fallen.  First Elliot Spitzer, and now this.

Experts are saying we can expect to see 4 dollar a gallon gas this spring.  As much as I hate the idea of this, because it costs me a 41 dollar tank of gas to see Bitter at current prices, I have to admit that as much as I might complain about gas prices, it’s important to put it in perspective.  At four dollars a gallon, I would be paying 52 dollars a tank to fill up in order to see Bitter.

For tolls on the way down there and back, I pay 17 dollars.  Delaware charges 4 dollars in each direction.  Maryland charges 5 one way, and 2 dollars each way for the tunnel.  Now, I bypass Delaware’s tolls both ways to save the 8 dollars.  It only adds about 10 minutes to the trip time each way, so I think it’s worth the savings.  Most of the times I stop for gas or food on my bypass route to kill two birds with one stone.

But today, Bitter and I went for an early dinner, late lunch to Old Glory, our favorite BBQ joint in The District.  I have to concede that on a typical weekend we spend more on entertainment and food than we do on gasoline consumption to see each other.  The real danger to the economy is that everyone is going to cut back on this kind of spending because motor fuel is generally a fixed cost over the short term.  But it should give us an idea how useful this stuff is, that we’re willing to keep spending more and more money on it, cutting back on other things in order to afford it.

I had totally forgotten that we were supposed to spring ahead today.   It seems odd when Ohio bloggers are buried under snow.  SayUncle is already preparing for spring.  We didn’t get any snow in southeastern Pennsylvania, but we don’t really get nice spring weather until May, typically.  March isn’t quite as cold, but still jacket and sometimes coat weather, and most of April is rainy and miserable.

Eight people shot in #1 Brady Ranked southern California.  Hard to say if this one was another loon, or just a gang conflict gone horribly awry.  Doesn’t really matter too much.  California’s strict gun laws failed to protect these people in either instance.

Caleb speaks of Cal State going ape shit over someone walking around with an assault rifle.  When I was in college, one of the ROTC kids got himself a reprimand for toting an M16 openly down the streets of Philadelphia on his way to our school’s rifle range.  Oddly enough, perfectly legal for anyone to do; open carriage of pistols is illegal in the City of Brotherly love without a License to Carry, but openly carrying a long gun is not, and Pennsylvania law makes no distinction between legal machine guns and other types of long guns.

I’m not sure this is evidence of hoplophobia.  If I saw someone openly carrying what looked like an M16 around campus, I’d probably be a little alarmed too.   It’s not so much the gun as it is that it’s something out of context.  I’m not sure my level of alarm would be lower if the person was in uniform.

One commie rat down.  One to go.

One think I learned from friends who took anti-depressants, is that very bad thing happens when you go cold turkey and just quit.  You’re supposed to wean yourself from them.  Turns out the NIU gunman had stopped taking his:

“He had stopped taking medication and become somewhat erratic in the last couple of weeks,” Grady said, declining to name the drug or provide other details.

I’ve never known someone who went this crazy, but the friends I’ve known who have taken anti-depressants and stopped cold weren’t the same people while they were going through withdrawal.  These are drugs that are altering your brain chemistry.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find that psychosis is a rare side effect of the withdrawal process.

We do find out which guns the killer used:

 Two of the weapons — the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun — were purchased legally less than a week ago, on Feb. 9, authorities said. They were purchased in Champaign, where Kazmierczak was enrolled at the University of Illinois.

He apparently had an Illinois FID, though it doesn’t say that in this article, I read that elsewhere.   There’s really no way you can stop someone who has no criminal or mental history, which this guy didn’t.

Expect a lot of talk from the media about how the Glock is particularly deadly, rather than a common side arm.  No doubt there will also be calls to pass a magazine ban in Illinois in response to this, even though their licensing of gun owners provisions and various other controls did nothing to prevent this.

Apparently dozens of towns in Texas reported a UFO sighting:

The reported sightings have become a catalyst on blogs and in chat rooms, triggering scientific and philosophical debates, religious inquiries, conspiracy charges and bad Texas jokes.

“It’s amazing how this has taken on an international profile,” said Kenneth Cherry, president of the Texas chapter of the Mutual UFO Network. “I’ve had calls from Japanese and British newspapers. I’m supposed to be doing ‘Larry King Live’ on Friday.”

All this thanks to reports of a strange, silent object over Stephenville, Texas, a town about 70 miles southwest of Ft. Worth.

No word yet on whether Jennifer W. Stein, PA CeaseFire Board Member and UFO researcher, was seen packing her car to head to the Lone Star State to investigate.

It wasn’t too long ago Bitter and I were discussing this “Cross on the Road” phenomena.  But neither of us could have talked about it in a way that’s as creative and amusing as Tam’s writing on the subject.

It’s a yearly holiday event around where I live; the re-enactment of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River.  Of course, the real crossing was done at night, not during the day, but for the sake of the crowds, they do the reenactment during the day.  This year it looks as if they had a minor mishap.

Hollywood’s latest hit, “I am Legend,” is still a rehash of older movies that were supposed to be cinematic versions of a book.  Anxious, I suppose to rehash more old movie ideas, it seems they are coming out with a new version of the movie Real Genius, once again starring Val Kilmer.

Don’t get me wrong, the original movie is an 80s classic, but please don’t tell me they are going to try to pass Val off as a college student?

I’m late getting this to you all.  A few other bloggers have covered this, and someone commented earlier about it, but it’s been a busy weekend with Bitter, so I didn’t get a chance to post it until now.

Joe’s Crabby Shack has a great eyewitness account of the Omaha mall shooting.   He’s got a lot of posts on this, so check out his main blog and just keep reading.

It would seem on this day in 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.  Happy 220th anniversary of saying yes The United States, Delaware!

According to Michael Bane:

On the Nebraska mall shooting, I’m getting unsubstantiated reports that the mall has removed the “No Guns” signs from their little gun-free zone paradise, lest someone take a picture of them.

It would be interesting if it turns out to be true

Today is Pearl Harbor Day 

That is the Wreck of the USS Cassin, and USS Downes.  In the background is the USS Pennsylvania.  It is a lesson in being unprepared, and in the folly of believing our oceans still protect us.  America took a stand against Japanese imperial aggression in east Asia by passing sanctions against Japan, but we were unprepared for war.

There are those who argue Pearl Harbor is a lesson in getting involved, and those who argue it cautions against isolationism.  I am in the latter category.  America’s entrance into World War II was inevitable, but the sense of isolationism that pervaded the American populace left the country wholly unprepared for war, and left Pearl Harbor vulnerable.  There is no going back to the days when we could count on the Royal Navy to protect global trade networks.  That responsibility now falls on us.  Pearl Harbor is a big part of the reason I can’t vote for Ron Paul.   Whether you call it isolationism or non-interventionism is of little matter to me.   Paul’s philosophy is inward looking.  While I share his concerns about our nation remaining sovereign, the United States has a role to play in the world, and Pearl Harbor was the wakeup call that it was time to step up.

For people thinking it’s all just not worth it, and looking to check out, I have a bit of advice for you: have the guts to put a bullet in your head yourself, throw yourself in front of a train, or off a bridge.  What possesses someone to take the route of suicide by cop?  Or to “go out in in style”?

People argue that we live in a society that glorifies violence, glorifies guns, or any matter of depravity.  The truth is we live in a society that abhors personal responsibility. Murder-suicide is the ultimate escape from that, and it’s not surprising it’s become more common.  No longer do you have to worry about ending your own life.  You can “go out in style” by making yourself a celebrity, and, in the end, dodge the ultimate responsibility of having to off yourself.

Surely there will be an endless parade of people who will blame a countless number of things for this recent happening in America’s Heartland.  I don’t want to offer anything that will help the perpetrator evade responsibility and shame for these kinds of actions.

The perpetrator of this latest mass murder-suicide is a coward, plain and simple.  Society would do itself a favor by simply curing his name, and spitting on his memory.  Maybe some public shame, rather than deflecting blame, might do more to discourage other disturbed people from doing the same thing.

Thanks to all the veterans out there who risked their lives so we all can continue to enjoy our constitutional rights. I celebrated the day by exercising some of mine at Cabela’s in Hamburg, PA, and then again by loading five fresh 55gr .223 Remington cartridges by hand. The Bench of Evil is now operational. Bitter gets to stay an extra day tomorrow due to the holiday, so Happy Veterans Day everyone!

UPDATE: In the comments:

Apparently there is one living veteran of the American Expeditionary Force, Mr. Fred Buckles, of Charles Town, WV.

I think he ought to receive a full state funeral when he dies, as the representative of the two million Americans who were part of the AEF and as a final thank-you to those men.

If you agree, then I ask that you blog about the idea and also contact your congresscritters.

I agree that would be fitting.

Sailorcurt does some more analysis of the election results in Virginia, which I talked about earlier here.

The Brady campaign seems to have a tendency to stick with “safe” endorsements. They don’t expect their endorsement to actually gain any votes for the candidates (except in certain, very specific areas) so they only make endorsements in races where they have a reasonable expectation to win.

Even with that, they don’t have a great success rate and they lost both of the races that were being touted by all involved as being “referendums on gun control”…Devolites-Davis lost her District 34 senate seat and Cuccinelli held onto his (by the skin of his teeth) in district 37.

Yep.  And they are telling people it’s a win.

The strange thing is that the NRA seems to have the same tendency as the Brady Campaign. The NRA absolutely CAN have an impact on the election results but in many cases they seem to worry more about getting the “W” than supporting the superior candidates.

For example: In Senate district 14, the NRA supported “B” rated Henry Blevins against extremely Pro-gun (and VCDL endorsed) libertarian candidate Donald Tabor. There was no anti-gun candidate in the race so there was no danger of splitting the pro-gun vote…so why not support the superior candidate? Unless, of course, the “W” is more important than upholding principles.

Not all that strange.  Most groups that issue endorsements will endorse as many safe, friendly seats as they can in order to inflate the value of their endorsements.  I called out Brady mostly because they lost in the ones where they really took chances, and then touted it as a victory.

The main reason NRA won’t endorse Libertarian candidates is because Libertarians don’t win.  If you endorse the Libertarian, the Republican who didn’t get your endorsement is going to be pissed at you, and might decide his B grade isn’t worth keeping.

Read Sailorcurt’s whole post.  It’s a good analysis of the election.  I’ve also written in the past about the Grading/Endorsement system, and how it’s more politics than principle.

Looks like Traction Control is off in SoCal.  This is really one of those times we should stop being blue staters or red staters, Democrats or Republicans, gun owners or non-gun owners.  At times like this, we’re all Americans.

Well, I guess it’s not so much if almost half the people in the state want to get out:

The latest poll found 28 percent of people wanting to leave citing America’s highest property taxes as the leading reason; 19 percent mentioned the state’s generally high cost-of-living, with 6 percent citing housing costs and 5 percent citing state taxes.

Other top reasons for wanting to leave New Jersey include the weather, environment, longing for a change of scenery, overdevelopment, congestion and government corruption.

Half of those wanting to leave want to move to the Southeast, with Florida and North Carolina the most popular choices, the poll found.

We’re getting a lot of migration from New Jersey too.  Not mentioned are New Jersey’s gun laws as a reason for leaving.  Around these parts, we certainly know a few.

Hat tip SayUncle

The process of our parents robbing us blind has begun.

UPDATE: Bitter has more. We both get some reactions from pissed off boomers who note, correctly, the system screwed them too, and it’s not their fault.  Still, I couldn’t help poking some fun at their expense ;)   Sorry.

It pains me to write that headline, because I do love the ladies (especially one lady in particular):

The suicide rate among preteen and young teen girls spiked 76 percent, a disturbing sign that federal health officials say they can’t fully explain.

For all young people between ages 10 to 24, the suicide rate rose 8 percent from 2003 to 2004 - the biggest single-year bump in 15 years - in what one official called “a dramatic and huge increase.”

Of course, the gun control folks will be disappointed in this:

The study also documented a change in suicide method. In 1990, guns accounted for more than half of all suicides among young females. By 2004, though, death by hanging and suffocation became the most common suicide method. It accounted for about 71 percent of all suicides in girls aged 10-14; about half of those aged 15-19; and 34 percent between 20-24.

Well, we haven’t exactly made guns less accessible since 1990, so it would seem that guns aren’t a driving factor behind female suicide, especially as more young women arm themselves. They definitely aren’t going to like this:

It also said the suicide methods suggest that prevention focused solely on restricting access to pills, weapons or other lethal means may be of limited success.

I’ve never found the prevention of suicide a compelling reason to restrict access to anything, because I believe that it’s a person’s fundamental right to terminate his life. But it’s nice to know studies are showing it wouldn’t work anyway.

Hat tip to Ms. Moneymakers

UPDATE: ZendoDeb has more.

Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71.

UPDATE: Countertop has more.