A CT Yankee on a Texas Ranch

It's in velvet. Glorious velvet art. So ironic! Just like a blue blood Yankee buying a ranch in Texas just before an election, and then selling it promptly when out of office. Ironic! Or is that co-incidental?

Intentionally over the top, it seems, if not on the mark. A so called Christian President launched a brutal war over lies and oh yeah, oil. And Daddy. And many people have died. And for what? So Saddam Hussein no longer keeps Iran in check.

Also too, just for sayin', if the Antichrist were real, wouldn't he come back as a seemingly devout Christian? Who would suspect 'em? Best disguise.

What an amazing feat to identify this fake head as that of W. How could you tell? But once it came out, yeah, that's him. Not cool, but I buy the producer's excuse - they bought a lot of Bush masks at a discount for use in special effects. However, that harmless logic was not enough for the Wingnuts, who howled with rage. GoT producers promptly went back and edited it out. Correct decision? I suppose - it is not cool to even hint at the death of any President. And if that's true, should it not be uncool to hint at the death of anyone? How about the Sept up there on a pike? Alas, no one rages for her.

Also as well - the Old Man brought up this shot as an example of "BOTH SIDES DO IT". My only reply was a shake of a head and a " you know it's a TV show and it was a prop, right?" But he's been infected with Foxitis, and the low fever is cooking his brain. So no, BOTH SIDES ARE JUST AS BAD.

I don't get it. How can you see it that way? It's not even close.

Terminator Dreaming

I had a fevered dream as a 10 year old in which the cities of the world burned and giant mechanical ants crawled up and down the smouldering husks. I was really sick, and there were giant ants all around the New Mexican campground (we were "camping"). That explains the mechanical ants, I reckon. But dreams - nightmares - can linger, leaving a lasting impression.

A day later we were driving through the burning hell of West Texas in August, and still sick and dangerously fevered I had the realization of Death - that my Mother and Father and Sister and baby Brother would die, my Grandparents would die, I would die one day, everyone will die one day. As a 10 year old, it was a damn powerful revelation, for I had no real concept of death hitherto.


So I darkened, and shit got weird all around. And then I developed some serious migraines that would incapacitate me for a day, occurring at times of high stress, ruining so many events. Lasting for years, this shit was intense and there were lots of hospital visits and I came to recall more and more that second fever dream: Death.

And then I saw The Terminator and I was all like: Yep. Killer Robots are gonna get us (Remember the Mechanical Ants?). I was quite a nerd of course, reading anything and everything and lots and lots of comic books were part of that so killer robots were right up my alley. And thus, the source of my robot distrust.


For real! I've been following the topic seriously for years. Running with smart folks, I've talked with robotic experts, read all kinds of papers, and feel pretty knowledgeable on the subject. Robotics are fascinating and will change the world, as will the similar work ongoing in Artificial Intelligence. For good or ill is up to us.

And thus my conclusion: I can't really trust my own opinion of robots or AI, given my series of related mental happenstances. And so I strive for objectivity as I can, even over my own opinions. Or I try.

But really - intelligent robots will kill us all if we don't kill ourselves first. Beware giant Mechanical Ants!

Is are Children learninged?

The answer is obviously: If God says yes, then yes.

Yee-Haw!

Everythin's biggah in Tejas, Hoss!


Click pic for biggerness.

2008 v. 2004

No, not Dick Cheney, but the way he's been acting lately, he better watch out the next time he shares a blind.

This fine gent is T. Boone Pickens, Billionaire oil man and a fine example of the differences between the 2004 and the 2008 election.

In 2004, Mr. Pickens used a small, very small portion of his enormous wealth to fund various 527 groups, including the infamous "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" -- aside: Almost anytime you see a group using the word "truth" in their name, odds are they are lying.

In 2008, however, Mr. Pickens picked the wrong horse early (Mr. 911 Rudy Guliani). When that dog didn't hunt, Mr. Pickens apparently had something of an epiphany. To quote the Wiki:

Pickens "said he has stopped giving to political campaigns and renounced his previous Republican affiliation in his drive to focus the nation's attention on the need for immediate, drastic action on energy" such as solar and wind. The Washington Post says that "perhaps the strangest role" Pickens "has fashioned for himself is his current one: the billionaire speculator as energy wise man, an oil-and-gas magnate as champion of wind power, and a lifetime Republican who has become a fellow traveler among environmentally minded Democrats -- even though he helped finance the 'Swift boat' ads that savaged" Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. In an editorial, the New York Times reports Pickens "has decided that drilling for more oil is not the answer to the nation's energy problems. President Bush should listen to his fellow Texan and longtime political ally."

I can think of fewer more potent symbols for the change in America since the folly of 2004. As Mr. Pickens says in his commercials supporting his efforts at getting the USA off foreign oil,


"This is one crisis we can't drill our way out of."


Hear that, McCain?