Category: Bits and Pieces

I confess, I love movies. And every now and then, I come across a movie quote that transcends the times. We all remember movie quotes like that, of course. Casablanca was released in 1943 and is still widely quoted today. Recently I watched one of my favorite movies, a very

Back in June, I wrote a post about a notice I received from the town in which our high school is located.  It warned that we could expect major traffic jams because a federally funded project had to be done during peak commute season in order to protect a little

Sometimes I feel like a conspiracy theorist.  Take climate change.  For many years, one was castigated as an unhinged to question the monolithic consensus that global warming is taking place, that it will end life on earth in a few decades, and that it’s all our fault.  To suggest that

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I like spontaneous gifts — and I got some today.  Almost a month ago, NavyOne sent me a thank you gift for helping him get started in the blogging world.  It was completely unnecessary, since it was my pleasure to help out a blog friend and

I’ve been mulling some of the comments left by our Leftwing alphabet soup posters in times gone bye-bye: the outright hostility of the Left to religion in the name of “science” (never mind that some of the world’s greatest scientists were religious people).   I am a scientist by training.

I’m reading vol. 1 of Churchill’s epic history of World War II.  In it, he quotes many of his speeches from the 1930s, during which he showed himself to be quite prescient (in very detailed terms) about the coming storm.  It turns out Churchill was equally prescient about socialism.  Conceding

Blame the parents…so says these very passionate Brits in this short video commenatry. Key takeaway, “the government took away our power to control our own children”. Right on! http://www.mrctv.org/videos/london-riot-reactions-and-debate-clapham (h/t No Pasaran) All fingers should be pointing at the Liberal /Left. They have a lot to answer for, not the

The Mellow Jihadi took a look at Google Translates’ abilities by feeding in a joke and asking for the Arabic version.  Apparently Google performed fairly well.  I left a comment there explaining why I found this particular post so charming and interesting.

My one regret about not watching TV (except for the occasional TCM oldie) is that I can’t boycott what I don’t watch — or,in the case of Showtime, what I don’t even pay for.

The venerable Rev. Spooner in England was famed for transposing letters and whole syllables in words and phrases, as well as muddling up ideas.  Although many stories attributed to him are apocryphal, he himself admitted that he said “Kinkering Congs Their Titles Take.” My person favorite arose when he entirely

What is it with the world?  I go away for one month, and everything goes to Hell in a hand basket?!  Can’t I leave the world alone for a second without having to worry about things? Apparent not. Let me state unequivocally, though, that I had nothing to do with

It really does seem to be pointless, done for the thrill of it: http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20110807/EU.Britain.Riot/

Sadie sends this along.  I doubt there’s anything to it, but it is an interesting story, anyway:   Many people have suspected that LBJ was behind the killing of JFK. Johnson was one of the biggest scumbags in American politics. He was crooked and dirty. Plus, he despised JFK who

In California, Gov. Brown just signed a bill that would require the state’s electors to vote for whoever gets the majority in the presidential election nationally, regardless of the vote in California.  This idea has always struck me as strangely undemocratic, but nowhere more so than in California.  Consider that

Here’s DQ’s take:   I admit ignorance here, as I haven’t read the official explanation by S & P.   I’m not sure I’d believe it anyway.   One theory I heard was that S & P was happy as a clam as long as everyone understood that the debt ceiling