Coyote n. A small wolf (Canis latrans) native to western North America.





 
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The Old Coyote's alter ego is:

Anthony A. (Swen) Swenson

Mild-mannered archaeologist by day..


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A Coyote at the Dog Show



 
Tuesday, February 28, 2006- - -  
North Dakota Farmers
Being from North Dakota, I can definitely relate to this:
Three retired guys, vacationing from California, are walking down a street in historic Medora, ND.

They turn a corner and see a sign that says.....

"The Old Timer's Roughrider Bar ... ALL DRINKS 10 CENTS!"

They look at each other in disbelief ... and then enter the bar.

The bartender says, in a voice that carries across the room, "Come on in and let me pour one for you guys. What'll it be, Gentlemen?"

There seems to be a fully stocked bar, so the 3 men each asked for a martini. In short order, the bartender serves up 3 iced martinis and says, "That'll be 10 cents each, please."

They can't believe their good luck. Each guy pays his 10 cents.

They finish their martinis, and order another round.

Again, three excellent martinis are produced with the bartender again saying, "That's 30 cents, please." They pay the 30 cents, but their curiosity is more than they can stand.

They've each had two martinis and so far they've spent less than a dollar.

One of the men asks the bartender, "How can you afford to serve martinis as good as these for only a dime each?"

"Well, here's my story, I'm a retired tailor from Brooklyn, and I always wanted to own a bar. Last year I hit the lottery for $525 million dollars and I decided to open this place. It's just a hobby for me.

Every drink costs a dime ... wine, liquor, beer, it's all the same."

"Wow! That's quite a story," says one of the men.

The three of them sipped at their martinis but couldn't help but notice three other guys who had been sitting at the other end of the bar, who didn't have a drink in front of them ... and they hadn't ordered anything.

One man gestures toward the three guys at the end of the bar and asks the bartender, "What's with those guys?"

"They're farmers from North Dakota..... They're waiting for Happy Hour."

@9:55 AM

 
It's awful!
What government employees do with their day -- like forwarding Quail Hunting School to all their friends. Try this for a good laugh!

@9:29 AM

 
It's hard work being a tourist!
Saturday we ventured down to Old Santa Fe, finding it a bit easier to navigate and park than it had been on Thursday. The highlight of the day was the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, which has a small but very nice selection of her works on display. Having a certain affinity for deep narrow places, I particularly liked this one, although I prefer more natural settings, like Santa Elena Canyon, or Tent Rocks (pictured here from our visit a few days ago).

Sunday we didn't do much other than a little grocery shopping, which led us to discover Trader Joe's. Wonderful food and amazingly cheap. Worst of all, they have gourmet frozen foods -- their crab cakes were delicious! They even have deluxe TV dinners, although I refuse to stoop that low (very often anyway). We bought some of their French roast and Sumatran coffees (cheaper than Folger's at WalMart) and it is excellent. They also have a nice selection of wines, including some dirt cheap imports that are very nice. [Ps. And some that wasn't so great. We bought a bottle of 2005 Zarafa South African sauvignon blanc that reminds me of communion wine -- sour but otherwise pretty much tasteless. We bought it mainly because my wife loved the Zarafa story, it had a cool label with a giraffe, and because it was $4. Hey, it'll make good cooking wine, although most of it will wind up in the marinade for tonight's chicken rather than in the cook.] They don't have the variety or high-end stuff that AJ's offers, but the prices were definitely right. I want to return to stock up on coffee and I might even go for some of the blanched and frozen calimari -- Mmm, fish-flavored rubber bands! Good thing they don't have stores in Wyoming.

Yesterday we were off to Bandelier National Monument. (I demanded equal time after the geologist of the family got to poke the Tent Rocks!) Very nice, and we sure don't have anything like it in Wyoming. They've done a nice job of reconstructing some of the ruins while retaining some in their 'as found' condition. Well worth the visit.

And be sure to hit the gifte shoppe, they have amazingly "cheap" prices on Navajo silverwork. [Okay, none of that stuff is even remotely cheap anymore, but you'll pay about half or less than you would in Santa Fe or Tucson.] I bought a nice Ranger buckle set for my mandolin strap for way less than half what any of these cost, and the quality is very comparable, although Lee Chaly, the artisan, isn't one of the Big Names yet. As WikiTravel observes, finding Navajo artwork here is a bit ironic: The Navajo and Puebloans were deadly enemies. Wiki goes on to second my observation that you can't do better for prices at any of the galleries.

@7:38 AM

 
Very Interesting
Faced with a huge budget surplus -- even increasing spending by 14% in the proposed budget will leave $715 million in savings accounts -- the Wyoming legislature is debating whether to cut the sales tax by half a percent or remove the sales tax on food entirely.
Rep. Ann Robinson, D-Casper, will offer an amendment to the budget -- possibly as early as today -- to exempt food from the state's 4 percent sales tax for two years. Because budget bills are good for only two years, the tax break would have to be renewed if it passes.

[...]

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Casper, will offer an identical amendment to the budget bill in the Senate, Robinson said.

She said Monday that her bill is "the wisest choice." Information she obtained from the Legislative Service Office, she said, estimated that a family of four would need an income between $200,000 and $360,000 per year to get as much benefit from the overall sales tax cut as the family would from the tax break on groceries.

[...]

Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal is recommending the state sales tax cut from 4 percent to 3.5 percent to begin July 1 and save residents $140 million in taxes for the biennium.

[...]

Rep. Colin Simpson, R-Cody, a Joint Appropriations Committee member, said the food tax break amendment would cost the General Fund $46 million for the two-year biennium while the sales tax cut recommended by Freudenthal would cost $190 million for the same period. The latter figure includes money for local governments to make up for the decrease in sales tax revenue.
This is an issue that will sort the sheep from the goats in short order. Sales taxes are perhaps the most regressive form of taxation, with the poorest folks paying the largest percentage of their income in sales tax, so it will be interesting to see who wants to use our current surplus to help out the poor folks and who wants to shovel the cash direct the savings toward their rich cronies the relatively well-to-do.

[Sigh] And of course, there's always got to be one knucklehead who sees any sort of tax cut as a 'cost to the government'. Not too surprising in this case, Colin Simpson is the government. He's a third-generation politician, grandson of Wyoming Governor and Senator Milward Simpson and son of Senator Alan Simpson. It's practically money out of his pocket.

I should note that Wyoming doesn't have a state income tax, most of the state's revenues derive from mineral taxes, hence the current surplus is due largely to the currently high price of gas and oil. This is much different than the picture a few short years ago when gas was a buck a gallon and our state government didn't have a pot to piss in [or a window to throw it out of, as my dad would add].

@5:55 AM

Sunday, February 26, 2006- - -  
That primitive State of Grace
How disillusioning to discover that a gorilla isn't morally superior. The Noble Savage indeed dies hard.

@5:38 PM

Saturday, February 25, 2006- - -  
It's an installment on our retirement
Yes, we've been on the road since January 10th! A note on our southern sojourn: We try to learn from other's mistakes. It's not always successful, but I think it has been in this case.

You see, my mom and dad had great plans for their retirement. They wanted to travel and see the world (and in fact we did do a lot of traveling when I was a kid). Then my mom died of cancer at the ripe old age of 52 -- they didn't get to do any of the things they wanted to do when they retired. My wife's folks had similarly unfulfilled plans -- her dad died in his mid-60's of emphesema after a long and horrible illness. [I'm not going to preach atcha. The only thing worse than a stinkin', coughing, gasping smoker is a reformed smoker. Just quit. Do it now. You don't want to die like that!]

So we've resolved to take our retirement in installments while we have the chance. Our work is very seasonal, which would be a bad thing if we were spendthrifts, but my wife (at least) is tighter than a bull rider's hat*, so we can afford it. Besides, it really doesn't cost much more to go RVing than it would to sit home and watch it snow -- if it were snowing which it isn't, but we wish it would, we desperately need the moisture.

Besides, if we waited until we were codgers to take our retirement, we'd probably miss things like Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. It was a heck of a hike to the top where I took this photo yesterday -- about 3.4 miles round-trip and steep, including a couple of places where you have to scramble a bit. Well worth it though, it's way scenic. (Yeah, we just can't get enough of this stuff.)

Now I'm pretty well caught up with the scenic adventures, bringing us right up to yesterday. We've set up camp in Santa Fe for this week and perhaps the next -- there's plenty to do here and we've never stayed in Santa Fe before, only passed through. The time to do it is now. Or perhaps not. We tried to go down to Old Santa Fe Thursday, but had a hell of a time. @#$^^^% tourist map showed all the one-way streets running the opposite direction from reality so we had a hard time getting around, then couldn't find a place to park this Mad Max-lookin' outfit, which will not fit in a highrise parking garage. Finally, we found an outdoor public parking area only to be turned away by a big sign: "Voter Parking Only!" Plus, there's no visible city bus system, so we couldn't park on the outskirts and catch a ride as we often do in Denver. A more tourist-unfriendly tourist town would be hard to find.

Ah well, it's not voting day anymore and being Saturday there should be fewer worker bees taking up the parking spaces, so we're going to give it another try. We must have tourist trinkets!

I've still got to catch up on the brewpub tour of the southwest. We've tried the local offerings in Las Cruces, Artesia, Socorro, and now Santa Fe since I last reported. We have about given up on the wineries though. I wish them the best of luck, but the wine hasn't been all that good, and they're pretty proud of their stuff judging by the prices. I suppose that being small operations they have to charge enough to keep afloat, but I'm just not feeling that charitable.

*Probably a bad metaphor. I've got to figure they make extra-small hats to fit the heads of the guys who'd climb on a bull. Still, there's nobody more full of himself than a bull rider. Understandable I suppose.

@7:24 AM

 
ET, Phone Home!
And this is the place to do it: The Very Large Array radio telescope. The dish is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter and weighs 230 tons (look closely, there's a man standing in the lower left). With an upgrade that's in the works they'll get 16,384 channels. (Fortunately, they do have something to watch.) They've got 27 of these monsters scattered across the Plains of San Agustin, fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico.

The photo at their main web site shows several of the dishes fairly close together, but they're movable on the railroad tracks also visible in that photo. When we were there they were scattered for miles across the plains (look closely in the lower right of my photo and you can see a line of dishes extending into the distance). They are arranged in a 'Y' pattern with the center of the 'Y' at the visitor center (also see here). I couldn't find any info at their web site on just how long each leg of the 'Y' is, but it's several miles.

By using several dishes and spreading them out they can achieve the resolution of a much larger single dish (don't ask me how, this is dangerously close to science). By moving the dishes farther out or closer together they can.. focus? Measure distances? Whatever. It takes quite awhile to move each dish on its rails, but they turn on a dime. While I was distracted taking the lower photo they turned the dishes around from north to south, and we missed it. Dammit. You'd think sirens would go off and people would run around, but no, somebody flips a switch and they turn silently. Impressive.

On the self-guided tour (one of the times I wish we'd had a guide, I had a bunch of questions) you can peek in the windows at the control center and see the computers and electronics that run the whole works. I was shocked and appalled. The installation was constructed in the late 1970's and early 80's and it looks like they're still using some of the original computers and electronic gear (yea gods!). Fortunately, they're upgrading now, installing fiber optics to the dishes and, hopefully, replacing those rooms-full of obsolete computer and control gear with a nice new laptop. Fascinating place.

If I were a raging paranoid I'd wonder whether whatever they're beaming up was making the clouds so irridescent. Actually, they're not beaming anything up, they're just interstellar voyeurs, listening in. The sun is just above the cloud in this photo and creating the colorful effect all by itself. The three-armed thingy in the foreground isn't some secret death ray, it's just a sculpture in the yard of the control building. Or so they say*.

*Update: Hey, we've been to Roswell and seen the evidence. Perhaps the folks at the VLA know something we don't and that thing is their anti-UFO gun, Hmm? Unfortunately for the true believers, if there really were UFOs flitting about I've got to think the people at the VLA would have heard them chatting. Or snoring. Or picked up reruns of I Love Lucy in some very interesting language.. Or something.

@5:49 AM

 
A view from the netherworld
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico. It's one of those not to be missed places.

We visited back on February 15th. January and February are good times to visit, as it's the off-season and there aren't many people there. Sound really carries in the cavern and it's best when it's relatively quiet. Heaven only knows what they do with all the summer visitors, as their parking lots aren't that big.

The cavern is well lighted (read 'it's pretty darn dark until your eyes adjust') but my El Cheapo Olympus D-395 does a good job in low-light conditions and I got several nice pix on this visit. Unfortunately, photography simply can't do this place justice. You must see it for yourself.

When you go, be sure to walk in via the natural entrance to get the full effect. This gives your eyes plenty of time to adjust and gives you a feel for just how big and deep the place is. It's humongous and absolutely gorgeous. The regular tour is self-guided with well-improved paths (most of the main rooms are wheelchair accessible). Signs point out the main features but I'd recommend renting one of the recorded guides ($3) to fill in the gaps. There are no tight squeezes and it is relatively well lit, so even the claustrophobic spousal unit enjoys it.

We first visited Carlsbad back in February 2002 and fell in love with the place. Unfortunately, we were so enchanted that the abandoned camera bag in the lower foyer of the elevator room didn't register. It was right after September 11th and finding a very large bag abandoned in the only exit* from the cave should have scared hell out of us. Instead, we stood there pondering whether to take it up to the surface and turn it in or leave it where it was. Doh!! Before we came to any conclusion the elevator opened and a lady popped out looking a bit frazzled, claiming the bag. In retrospect, we should have back-peddled out of that elevator room and raised the alarm instantly. Still should, although it's becoming obvious that there isn't a terrorist under every bush.

*In an emergency you could exit via the natural entrance, but it would be a hell of a steep hike.

@4:56 AM

 
Some Things Under Heaven..
Are just cooler'n hell*. Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park, Texas, is one of them. Take the hike down the canyon, a bit over a mile round-trip, for the best view. According to the brochure it's about 1200 feet deep and it can't be much over 100 feet wide at some points. Heck of a gully. The U.S. is to the right and Mexico is on the left in this shot (looking upstream).

We visited back on February 11th, so you can see I'm a bit behind in documenting this walkabout.

@4:29 AM

Friday, February 24, 2006- - -  
A rhetorical question..
WSJ -- "What we have here is the dawn of the new Yosemite Sam school of national politics. Put any news event in front of our politicians now--Hurricane Katrina, Terri Schiavo, Dick Cheney's quail or this week the ports--and like Bugs Bunny's hair-triggered nemesis they'll start spraying the landscape with wild remarks and opinions decoupled from what is knowable about these events. Wait to learn the facts--as almost alone, Sen. John McCain, suggested? Why bother?" [emphasis added]
"OoOoOoOooHh!!" Yes, they are acting like Yosemite Sam. 'Course they get no encouragement in this sort of behavior from the press.

If a tree were to fall in the woods and there was no reporter there to cover it, would it actually have happened?

@9:27 AM

 
That will show the Great Satan!
Bombing mosques in Iraq and attacking an oil refinery in Abqaiq (a.k.a. Butqayq), Saudi Arabia? This must be part of Al Qaeda's new effort to win the hearts and minds of their countrymen.

@9:12 AM

 
Now that's mockable..
For once I'm not embarrassed to come down on the side of the MSM. Via the InstaPundit, Shaverama: The Men's Grooming Blog says: "Gillette Fusion Razor – The Mainstream Media Mocks; Bloggers Give Objective Reviews."

Whatever..

@8:54 AM

Thursday, February 23, 2006- - -  
Hot Air
Okay, one more. This one's a variation on an old theme, passed on by Patty:

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."

@9:48 AM

 
Magic Beer
Another one from my dad, proving that I come by my perverted sense of humor naturally:

A lady walks into a bar and sees a really good-looking guy sitting at the bar by himself. She goes over and asks him what he is drinking.

"Magic Beer", he says.

She thinks he's a little crazy, so she walks around the bar, but after realizing that there is no one else worth talking to, goes back to the man sitting at the bar and says, "That isn't really Magic Beer, is it?"

"Yes, I'll show you." He takes a drink of the beer, jumps out the window, flies around the building three times and comes back in the window.

The lady can't believe it. She says, "I bet you can't do that again."

He takes another drink of beer, jumps out the window, flies around the building three times, and comes back in the window. She is so amazed that she says she wants a Magic Beer, so the guy says to the bartender, "Give her one of what I'm having."

She gets her drink, takes a gulp of the beer, jumps out the window, plummets 30 stories, breaks every bone in her body, and dies. The bartender looks up at the guy and says, "You know, Superman, you're a real asshole when you're drunk."

@9:33 AM

 
The Dubious Dubai Deal..
I really don't have a firm opinion on the ports deal. Some think it's a horrible breach of national security and others think it's no biggie. I could argue either way on the merits, but it sure seems to be a PR failure on the part of the administration. What the hell were they thinking?

One of the commenters at the InstaPundit's says that 'if they hadn't been blind-sided by this, it would have been something else' but I don't buy it. "It's always something" is cute as a Gilda Radner routine but not so cute as an excuse for a lack of foresight on issues that may affect national security. You'd think that anyone with half a brain would know that 'oh, our security people have vetted this, it's okay' wasn't going to fly. Then threatening to veto any congressional measure to stop the deal, when the Prez has never vetoed anything? Is that a tin ear or what? Arrogance, ignorance, lame duckedness, or some of all three, it's certainly a lame effort.

Ps. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised. As Peggy Noonan notes, we're substituting ritual self-abuse [and yes, that's a double entendre] for national security. It just isn't funny anymore.

@8:00 AM

Tuesday, February 21, 2006- - -  
Things that make you go Hmmm..
We were passed on the highway today by a car with Chihuahua plates and a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker. Didn't know Chihuahua was a red state...

@9:20 PM

Monday, February 20, 2006- - -  
Let's try to keep this straight:
These are quail. You can buy a license to hunt them, although it's considered poor form [and sometimes illegal] to bait them if you're shooting anything other than a camera, as I was yesterday when I snapped this shot. [You'd almost think I planned this post far in advance, eh?]








This is a lawyer. In many circles it's considered perfectly acceptable to bait them. However, it's considered poor form [and sometimes illegal] to shoot one. Nor will anyone sell you a license.


Go figure.

@7:46 AM

 
Another note from the Wayback Machine
Way back on February 11th:
Day Dos
I like Alpine, Texas! Today we drove up to the absolutely fascinating McDonald Observatory. On the way we found the yuppie hotbed in Ft. Davis — knew they had to be here somewhere — and found that, like Worland, Wyoming, the Alpine/Ft. Davis area is one of those refuges of tinytown civility where people still wave at each other as they pass on the highway. The price of admission to this club seems to be a big pickup with a bigger brush guard, but it's still nice to be among friendly folk.

We saw quite a bit of wildlife: More roadrunners, antelope, deer (including a good-sized buck), [a few surviving] quail, and a not-a-pig! We've never seen one "in the wild" before. (Ps. We can add wild turkeys, and a variety of hawks and owls after our trip to Big Bend.) We stopped off at a winery and tried a couple of nice reds, and generally enjoyed a very scenic drive. The observatory was definitely the highlight of the trip though. In addition to receiving an excellent tour and orientation on the facilities and activities at the observatory, I even learned something about archaeology: It seems some archaeoastronomers believe that the Mogollon Mimbres bunny motif is a stylized representation of "the rabbit on the moon". I'll have to do a little more reading on that one: If true, it's a fascinating insight. However, as no one knows what became of the Mogollon people (and I don't believe there are any remnants of their art or religion in the surviving tribes of the area), I'm not sure how the rabbit on the moon idea could be more than speculation. Still, it's very interesting.

Incidentally, the Mimbres rabbit illustrated above somehow found its way from the desert southwest to the Legend Rock site, west of Worland, Wyoming. Apparently those moon-worshipers got around.

@6:50 AM

 
"Fair, balanced, and unafraid"
The InstaPundit's parting shot last evening linked to a bit by Dean Barnett on the courage, or lack thereof, of the media in refusing to reprint the infamous Danish cartoons. This got me reading Barnett's Soxblog, which I find delightful. He has a fast and ascerbic wit that many, including myself, can only wish for. I wonder why I've not found his site before and it certainly goes in the New Stuff!!

Hard to Please ought to be my middle name though, as there's always another pea under my mattress. In this case, it's Barnett's earlier comments on media fecklessness that included this bit:

"While much of the media has the courage of Chicken Little in the throes of an anxiety attack, there are heartening examples to the contrary. When Britt Hume ends his broadcasts by intoning, “Fair, balanced and unafraid,” it means something. The Fox Report that Hume anchors is filmed in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol. On 9/11 while Hume broadcast from his regular set, he did so with full knowledge that a hijacked plane was streaking across Pennsylvania aimed at a high profile Washington target. Most people figured it would either be the White House or the Capitol.

"Hume didn’t suspend broadcasting or kick things over to a different bureau. He continued through that horrible morning doing his job, providing information to a country that badly needed it. If you want to be in the fray, you’ve got to have some guts."
I consider the Brit's who weathered the blitz in London to be the epitome of courage. Yet, as much as they could, they evacuated their children and loved ones to the north and, when the sirens announced another round of bombing, they marched to the shelters. They were brave; they weren't stupid.

Faced with the knowledge that a large aircraft might crash in the immediate vicinity (allowing for the moment Barnett's assertion that Hume had that knowledge, I seem to remember a whole lot more uncertainty and confusion among the media that morning) did Britt Hume tell all the faceless cameramen and techs to evacuate 'but leave the camera running, I'll hold the fort'? That would have been courageous. Still, considering that Fox has other bureaus farther from the line of fire who could just as easily have provided that 'information to a country that badly needed it', it wouldn't have been particularly bright.

Putting all your faceless subordinates in harm's way to keep your mug on camera? Is that how we define courage now? Or could it be that providing the live-on-camera report of an aircraft crashing into the US Capitol is the stuff of journalist's wet dreams?

If you've followed the Why I do this: I owe it to Geraldo link (<--- over there), you know what I think of the courage of the media: "Good god. I’ve never seen such a bunch of totally egocentric blather and falsely earnest camera mugging. ‘Everyone is scared to death about these anthrax attacks!’ Sure. Everyone you know. Media personalities wetting themselves in living color with digital sound. Each and every one convinced that he’s next." I think Barnett is correct: The cartoon jihad is just another example of the media's egotism, with every editor certain that he'll be the next to get it in the neck if he dares print the offending cartoons.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I can't help the distinct feeling that Britt Hume's vaunted courage in the Washington office is akin to Geraldo's in his "on-the-spot" coverage of the war in Afganistan:
"Remember media coverage during the [first] Gulf War? Reporters live and on-the-spot, outside in the dark while tracers and rockets lit up the sky behind them? Very dramatic stuff. I turned on Fox one morning while I was preparing the caffeine drip. There’s Geraldo. Live, outside in the dark, hair ruffled, collar turned-up, half crouching and glancing nervously over his shoulder, breathlessly telling us that he’d just arrived in Pakistan. Pakistan! There was nothing out there but dark. He wasn’t on-the-spot. Not even close. The setting was all for dramatic effect. He’d might as well been reporting from a studio in Burbank. I was expecting Jerry Springer to be the next ‘war correspondent on the scene’."
And to think I wrote that before Geraldo rescued the woman and her little dog in New Orleans. Twice. The question in my mind: If Flight 77 had arrived just slightly off-target and taken out the FoxNews office, would we remember Britt Hume as a courageous journalist, or as the grandstanding F'ing fool who got a bunch of his subordinates killed unnecessarily? I think I can guess what the media spin would be. And if the flight had hit the Capitol we'd still be seeing clips of Hume reporting it live fifty years from now. If I were less cynical I'd be sure that never crossed his mind.

@5:07 AM

Sunday, February 19, 2006- - -  
Back to real time..
I'm back on the net thanks to a short move over to Socorro, New Mexico where my Verizon EVDO card works quite well, thank you. On our drive over from Artesia we couldn't help noticing a rock shop out on Highway 380 between Carrizozo and San Antonio with a big sign advertising Trinitite. Yes, glass slag from the Trinity Site, which is about 17 miles south of the shop.

We were beat from the drive when we first passed by, so we had to return yesterday just to take a look at the stuff. Call me a sick bastid, but I even bought a tiny bit of the stuff for our collection. It's very rare. I pray it stays that way but I'm not betting on it.

@9:50 AM

Saturday, February 18, 2006- - -  
It's an Internet Twilight Zone!
I thought that Wyoming was "remote," but Baggs is the only place I've found in Wyo where my Verizon EVDO card won't work. I've just discovered that there's a huge chunk of west Texas and southeast New Mexico where the internet doesn't seem to exist in any mobile form: No EVDO coverage and no wifi hot spots, not even a Starbucks believe it or not. Worst of all, I missed the whole Veep Cheney hunting faux pas — what can I say but 'Dick you dumbass!' I was down to watching news on television, still as big a joke as it was last time I was so encumbered. Re the big quail hunt, I particularly enjoyed the bimbo on FoxNews who chirped that 'it was a good thing Cheney wasn't shooting something really effective, like a handgun'. Where do they find these morons? 'Course on that topic I suppose we can only hope that they stay ignorant. (Don't let 'em play Doom, where the relative effectiveness and merits of a handgun, assault rifle, and shotgun are portrayed pretty realistically!)

Those nice folks on FoxNews have been spinning the story so hard I'm surprised they don't get dizzy and fall down, with all their 'peppered his skin' and 'this sort of thing happens all the time to everyone who hunts' stuff. Got to love the left-wing press and pols too, trying to make the accident into the scandal of the century. Dick should give them what they want and resign 'for the good of the country', allowing the Prez to promote Condi into the Veep spot. Surely the dems would love to run against a sitting black woman vice president in the presidential race of 2008, right? That seems to be what they're asking for, I hope they get it.

Ah well, it appears I haven't missed much and we had a great time. I jotted down my impressions as I went, intending to post them later, which is now. I won't post it all at once as that tends to make Blogger grumpy. I'll turn the wayback machine to Friday, February 10th, and away we go:

Headed south to Texas in a pickup truck
Ought to be a song about that and probably is. We're on our way to Alpine, high in the "Alps of Texas."

Take a drive through El Paso on a still day and cast your eye across the Rio Grande to Juarez, which sports the nastiest-looking yellow/brown hydrocarbon cloud I've seen since LA in the '60s. Then come tell me that emissions standards and air quality regulations are an entirely bad thing. There's also quite a contrast between the condos and malls of north El Paso and the ramshackle cinder block and adobe hovels looking back at them from the Mexican side. Rail about the lack of border security all you want, I can't blame those folks one bit for making the short hike across the river. It's also obvious that the Juarez zoning commission hasn't gotten around to passing an ordinance regarding the colors you may paint your hovel. 'Flamboyant' is, I think, the word I'm searching for — certainly a few color schemes you won't see in your average middle-American suburb.

Then on to Alpine. One of our clients from the Houston area raved about the beauty of Alpine and how we must be sure to visit if we ever got down this way. Well, it is beautiful in a high desert sort of way but, like much of Wyoming, it's an acquired taste. I suspect most folks would think it a god-awful desolate, close-to-lunar landscape, but I think it's purty. We saw considerably more wildlife along the road on our way down here, once we got out of the Rio Grande valley, than we've seen since we left Colorado. Including those most fascinating little critters, road runners — no, my wife wouldn't let me chase them — quite a few hawks, and even an.. ocelot?.. unfortunately mashed on the road, but a none-the-less intriguing sign that we're not in Wyoming anymore.

We rolled into Alpine and set up camp, then headed downtown to find the local Chamber of Commerce for some tourist information and the local phone pamphlet book. The nice man at the RV park told us there was no brewpub in town (whazzat?) 'but there is a restaurant that brews its own beer!' Mmkay — I'm starting to get the impression that the town has been spared a yuppie invasion — and darn good beer it is. The Edelweiss also has a most interesting menu. My wife had an asparagus, ham, and swiss on Texas toast sandwich that was excellent, and I had the biggest damn chicken-fried steak (that's a 'country-fried steak' for you New Mexicans) I've ever seen, along with a very tasty green chili gravy, delightful Bavarian-style fried potatoes, and tarragon carrots that were to die for. It's not cuisine, but it's darn good food (Hmm.. I suppose that putting asparagus spears in a sandwich is getting dangerously close to cuisine, but there is that Texas toast). We flipped through the phone book to take a look at the rest of the restaurant offering — half the fun of a new town is trying the local eateries — but I've a feeling we'll forego the fast food and steak houses. We've found our spot and they have a lot more stuff on the menu that looks very interesting.

Oh and did I mention that the Edelweiss' beer is very good? Two lagers, an English ale, and a porter, a limited but excellent selection. For once, I thought the English ale (their "hoppiest") could have stood just a touch more hops, but that's not a criticism, most brewpubs — excuse me, restaurants that brew their own beer — get carried away with the hops in their pale ales. This one was understated but very good (and it didn't give me a hops headache). The Edelweiss owner and brewmaster is from Bavaria, not too long ago judging from his accent, and has been in business for about a year. A very nice place, good food, good beer, and oompa music (okay nobody's perfect). Not at all what I would have expected to find in west Texas. We're glad we came.

Alpine is proving to be interesting in other ways too. Megan Mc Ardle would certainly fit right in: Of the half-dozen or so presumably local ladies I've seen so far, half were 6' tall, or better. Interesting. And then there's the Alpine Avalanche, a small but entertaining local paper. From a quick reading of the OpEds and Letters to the Editor it appears that the local politics involves a good deal of ear-biting and eye-gouging. I suspect that's probably the norm everywhere, but I think the Northern Wyoming Daily News would have declined to publish half of what I read in the Avalanche: Hey, come on guys, tell us what you really think about that @#$%^ recently departed #$%^&$% City Manager! Most interesting was a letter originally written by one of the City Commissioners to seven new applicants for the recently vacated position. It pretty bluntly tells them that Alpine is a long way out in the middle of nowhere ("1140 miles from the closest city"! (More on Texas miles later)), explains some of the town's more intractable infrastructure problems, and then asks each applicant to explain 'just why the heck did you even apply for this job?' Blunt, to the point, and probably coming from someone who's getting a bit tired of interviewing for a new City Manager every year or so. Funny, he forgot to mention that no matter what you do you're going to be pilloried in the local paper. The thin-skinned wouldn't survive long here in a public position, not necessarily a bad thing.

I can see that Alpine wouldn't be everyone's cup-o'-tea, but I think it would be very interesting to live here for awhile. The scenery will grow on you. The downtown architecture is quite nice, featuring a lot of turn-or-the-century monumental brickwork — a refreshing contrast to the modern pseudo-adobe everything across the southwest. Adobe construction makes a lot of sense here for its insulating qualities, but Drivet over OSB pseudo-adobe? Get real. Oh, and did I mention that the local 'restaurant that brews its own beer' has the best food and beer we've encountered on this trip? That's saying something considering we're coming from Tucson. So where the heck are all the yuppies? Perhaps they're simply not allowed in Texas, which would be okay with me.

More local color: This is the Southwest, so businesses with Spanish names are de rigueur (or should I say muy simpatico?), but there could be few so delightfully named as neighboring Marfa's El Cheapo liquor store. We see in the Yellow Pages that Alpine has a branch, the El Cheapo Dos. Then there's the Red Woof Inn, a boarding kennel. Pretentious they ain't. I think we're going to have a good time here.

@7:44 AM

Thursday, February 09, 2006- - -  
I must troll the gutter more often!
Why am I always the last one to hear about the latest pseudo-sex scandal? Perhaps I should blame the InstaPundit for not linking this before (or more often. Whatever.). Wonkette makes a couple of interesting points. Last one first:
"Merely working for the government should not prevent you from expressing yourself on matters not directly related to your employment (with direct relation construed narrowly). To adopt a contrary rule would exert an unwanted chilling effect, deterring anyone remotely interesting, creative, witty, or fun from entering government service -- which, if the current Congress is any indication, has already happened."
Hmm.. 'Course anyone 'remotely interesting, creative, witty, or fun' isn't likely to enjoy working for the guvmint where creativity is forbidden by controversy-adverse managers and half-wits rule. Note that I said "enjoy working" -- I have plenty of interesting, creative, witty, fun friends who do work for the government, they just don't seem to enjoy it much. I know I didn't and I make no claim to being interesting, creative, or witty.. I'm a ton of fun though!

My point: The chilling effect is there and I believe it's largely intentional. While all the government wogs are in lifetime-tenured 'can't fire me' positions, top administrators tend to be appointed, yes, by politicians. Their heads roll at the slightest hint of controversy. Thus, controversy is not allowed and the rules will be followed. Elaborate plans will be created for every situation, the plans will be reviewed ad nauseum and public comments will be sought. Finally, the resulting plan will be adhered to in absolute lock-step, regardless of actual outcome. Only a mindless drone could enjoy working in such an environment. Most folks, I believe, simply endure it; the pay and bennies are good and the work is seldom terribly demanding.

Which brings me to my second observation on the Wonkette's post. Says she:
"The "blogging while at work"/"misuse of government resources" argument is a makeweight contention. Every job, and especially every government job, has lots of downtime. If Stormie wants to use her downtime to do a little creative writing, while other Sessions staffers use theirs to buy crap on eBay, what's the harm in that?"
Sigh! Yes, every job has downtime, but try this little experiment: Next time you drive by a road construction job, note the ratio of people actually working to those standing around watching. Based on this, take a guess whether those folks work for a private contractor or for the highway department. Then, take a look at the door signs on the vehicles to confirm your guess. Did you see a bunch of young guys busting butt or a bunch of old guys sipping coffee and watching some young guy bust butt? Here, I don't mean to single out highway departments, they're just a tiny but visible fraction of the problem. Extrapolate the 'six guys watching for every one working' ratio at that highway department construction site and you've got a pretty good picture of government "workers" in general.

I think the problem is multi-faceted. First, there's the adverse-to-controversy management who crush any hint of initiative or creativity, as mentioned above. Then there's the generally lousy pay coupled with good benefits, job tenure, and pension. Finally, there's the usually undemanding nature of the work. The pay and benefits can look very good to someone fresh out of college: There's job security, excellent medical/dental benefits for the family, and then there's that pension dangling out there like a carrot with no stick. By the time you realize that the 'job tenure' part is very attractive to deadbeats who would be laid off any private sector job in short order, you're locked in with a wife, kids, and a big house payment. You've got to have those good bennies. You can't quit. And ultimately, as many of my friends are finding, that great pension isn't so great. First I heard "I'm going to retire in 20!" Then it was 30.. then it was "well, with the pension and social security I can make it, but we'll have to sell the big house."

It's sad, really. And it's a little lesson in socialism right before our eyes. It's an enervating system with many disincentives. So next time you drive by a highway department construction site and see those guys watching, don't think 'lazy jerks' think 'poor bastids, I wouldn't want to be you'.

@6:10 AM

Wednesday, February 08, 2006- - -  
Here there be docents..
Having studied the geology, prehistory, history, biology, and botany of the American west rather extensively, we're continually amazed at the wealth of misinformation provided by the volunteers who man (and woman) many of the local attractions. Mike Compton relates an excellent story in that vein:
"... They had been out to Cedars of Lebanon State Park. I relayed a story that years back I had gone out there one day for a relaxing walk and ran into an elderly park ranger. He and I talked for about an hour, and in the process told me that the "cedars" they named the park after weren't true cedars. "They're actually jupiters", he said. "Jupiters or junipers?" I asked. "No, they're jupiters". Okay then. ..."
Ps. Incidentally, if you look closely at Maynard and friends, you'll notice pieces of leather thong threaded through the strings between tailpiece and bridge. This little trick, which really stops parasitic harmonics, I learned from examining the photos of Mike Compton's instruments. It works, it's cheap but not unsightly as duct tape or such, and the little thongs never launch themselves across the room.

@9:21 AM

 
My life is in ruins!
In this case it's the ruins of the old Van Patten Mountain Camp and Boyd Sanatorium at Dripping Springs Natural Area, just east of Las Cruces, New Mexico. As the BLM website notes, it's an easy hike.. Only 3.4 miles roundtrip and steeper than a progressive tax rate (uphill both ways!), with loose gravel on the trail, but other than that it's easy. It's also set in a breath-takingly gorgeous box canyon and absolutely worth the hike. This website gives a nice overview and a good photo gallery of the many sights to see.

I was quite surprised to learn that Dr. Donald Lehmer had conducted the early archaeological investigations at La Cueva, a prehistoric and historic rock shelter on the site. Prof. Lehmer is an 'academic grandfather' of mine, having taught the professors who taught me. He did a good deal of work along the Missouri Trench in North and South Dakota, excavating many of the most spectacular Middle Missouri villages for the Smithsonian's River Basin Surveys and leaving a legacy of thought and writing on the villagers of the plains. I"ll always regret that he was killed in a car accident before I could meet him.

The old sanatorium, in the lower photo, is also quite interesting, but most notable for its spectacular setting, perched on a side-slope overlooking the mountain camp. Given the large and elaborate layout of the older mountain camp, it's unclear why these rather ramshackle structures were constructed for the sanatorium.

Ah well, today we'll give the busman's holiday thing a rest and go visit the vineyards around Las Cruces.

@7:52 AM

Tuesday, February 07, 2006- - -  
Support your local Corporate Welfare Queens!
According to this, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort has decided not to ask the Wyoming Legislature to finance a $25 million tram. Instead, resort representatives will meet with Wyoming's lawmakers and look into applying for up to $1.5 million in infrastructure grants administered through the Wyoming Business Council.

If the legislature bites on this it will prove once again that the principal purpose of the Wyoming Business Council is to shovel money to its billionaire cronies.

Ps. Funny. I don't see any word of the Business Council stepping in to help out Hawkins & Powers Aviation. Must be because they have provided an actual, vital service while providing well-paid employment to skilled labor. That goes against the whole peonage system that the WBC seems to envision for Wyoming's future.

@8:29 AM

 
Kool!
Finally a vanity license plate I'd buy! When I first moved to Wyoming the plates were the old brown on gold UW colors (as opposed to the new chocolate on beige UW colors designed by some metrosexual in New York City). You could see another Wyoming vehicle coming a long way off, which was particularly fun if you traveled out of state much.

@8:14 AM

 
Oh, the irony..
Via the InstaPundit comes a link to the Anonymous Muslim Man Complaint Box:
"Also, death to America, death to Israel, yada yada, yada."
Either that's outrageously funny, or I'm getting my sense of humor back as my sinuses drain after two weeks of abuse in the smog and dust of Tucson. While the folks in Seattle have got to be thinking that an ark wouldn't be a bad idea, it's been literally months since Tucson has gotten any measurable precipitation, a far cry from last winter when it rained pitchforks and hammer handles in southern AZ.

@5:02 AM

 
The marvels of modern technology
We left Tucson yesterday and headed east, fetching up in Las Cruces, NM, where we'll hang out for a few days. Last night my wife tried to call her mom and was cut off several times. Now, in the wee hours of the morning, I'm watching the signal meter on my Verizon EVDO card going from 100% to zero, then back to 100%. Weird. And it makes it darn difficult to post to blogger. Ah well, it seems to be an internittent problem, as it's cleared up, at least for now.

@4:44 AM

 
Too funny..
I can't believe I missed this one when it came out (from Corey Anderson at AmericanIdle.net). Too bad this became a non-issue when it was found that Abramoff was spreading his money around on both sides of the aisle.

@4:25 AM

 
From the mouths of babes..
I'm not particularly a football fan, but I couldn't resist this one:
In a school just outside of Pittsburgh, a first grade teacher explained to her class that she is a Steeler's fan. She asked her students to raise their hands if they were Steeler's fans too. Not really knowing what a Steeler's fan was, but wanting to be liked by their teacher, their hands all went up into the air. However, there was one exception. A little boy named Timmy had not gone along with the crowd.

The teacher asked him why he had decided to be different . "Because I am not a Steeler's fan" says Timmy.

The teacher then asked, "What are you?"

Timmy said "I'm a Seahawk's fan."

The teacher was a little perturbed now, her face slightly red, she asked Timmy why he was a Seahawk's fan.

" Well, my mom and dad are Seahawk's fans so I'm a Seahawk's fan too."

The teacher was now angry. "That's no reason" she says loudly. "What if your mom was a moron and your dad was an idiot?"

Timmy smiled and said, "Then I'd be a Steeler's fan."

@3:58 AM

Saturday, February 04, 2006- - -  
It's Mandemonium!
Maynard has a new big brother! I've written about Maynard and my Weber Beartooth, now they have serious competition. In the U.S. it's commonly called an octave mandolin -- because it's tuned GDAE, one octave lower than a mandolin -- but personally, I prefer the more traditional term English Cittern:
"The English Cittern, having four courses, a bizarre but useful tuning, and often a built-in hook for wall hanging, had a low reputation, due to its popularity in taverns, barber shops and houses of ill repute. It is normally strummed with a crow quill, and it produces a rich, banjo-like sound which is ideal for accompanying vulgar ballads."
Sounds like my kind of instrument, doesn't it? Well, it is. It's played exactly like a mandolin -- same chords and fingering -- but it has a deeper, richer tone and, being considerably larger, it has a good deal more volume without having to beat hell out of it as you would with a mando. The downside, having a scale length from the bridge to the nut of 20 to 23 inches (this one is 20-1/4") to a mandolin's 14", the frets are farther apart and some chords can become quite a stretch. I also find myself shifting my left hand much more than I would with a mando. This is good practice though: learn to play this baby and a mandolin suddenly becomes easier.

I found it at the Folk Shop in Tucson, which has an amazing assortment of instruments (more banjos than I've ever seen in one place) and is as much a museum as a store. It's well worth the stop if you're at all interested in acoustic instruments. They have great prices too. My new aquisition was the last of the celtic-style instruments made by Morgan Monroe and, being discontinued, they had it marked down (they bought several and still have one left!). Then when I started sidling toward the door the owner knocked another 50 bucks off the price. I couldn't say 'no' to that, could I?

It's a cheapy, but I've handled several Morgan Monroe mandos; they play quite well and sound good for a Korean-made instrument. It's certainly not as nice as the Weber Gallatin octave I tried a couple weeks ago, but it didn't cost $3000 and I didn't have to wait for the nice folks at Sound to Earth to make one just for me. I'll probably go that route eventually, but I want to be darn sure what I want before I plunk down serious cash; new musical instruments lose close to half their value the day you carry them out of the store. I'd buy a used Weber in a heart beat, but good luck finding one.

I picked up my new toy a week ago, and I'm having a great time with it. My wife even admits that I'm starting to sound pretty good! Naturally, now I need a five-course cittern. I keep reaching for one more bass string.. (Ps.) Sounds like what I want is a five-course bouzouki with an even longer scale length.

PPs. There's considerable disagreement over what these critters should be called, and a lot of variation in specifications for scale length, tuning, and stringing. I think I'll just call them fun.

@5:33 AM

Thursday, February 02, 2006- - -  
Another gem from Dad
An Iowa farm wife called the local phone company to report her telephone failed to ring when her friends called and that on the few occasions when it did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang.

The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic dog or senile elderly lady. He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right away, but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring. Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire via steel chain and collar.

2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.

3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number was called.

4. After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then urinate on himself and the ground.

5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to ring.

This demonstrates that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning.
Okay, that's just too awful for words, but I couldn't resist the punch line.

@6:11 PM

 
The first blade pulls it out..
It appears that some folks have forgotten the old 1970's Saturday Night Live "triple-track" spoof: 'the first blade pulls the whisker out, the second pulls it out farther, and the third cuts it off! We're telling you this because we honestly think you'll believe anything'. Oh well, at least we had 20-years grace from such silliness.

Ps. Oooh! Aaaah! The InstaPundit failed to mention that this thing vibrates too. Caught a blurb (on ESPN, I think) telling us that the latest is a response to Schick's 4-blade vibrator and is designed mostly to cost more and bring in higher profits. Looks like it's working.

@9:40 AM

 
Excellent Idea!
The InstaPundit points to this article by Dr. Robert Zubrin that proposes weening the world off petroleum. At first gasp I thought yeah, right, but Dr. Zubrin gives a very detailed analysis and answers most of my objections. I think this is a very workable part of the solution to the industrialized world's dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

A few comments: I think it's unwise to put all our energy and/or transportation eggs in any one basket. Thus, I think Dr. Zubrin's idea of a flexible-fuel vehicle is a very good one and the more different fuels it will run on the better. He is also correct that conservation is not the answer -- the low-hanging conservation fruit have been picked and world demand for motor fuel is going nowhere but up. Still, I think conservation is a valuable, if minor, part of the solution. Dr. Zubrin points out one of the downsides to alcohol fuels produced from agricultural products: the requirement that a great deal more land (read wildlife habitat) go under the plow. The other downside would be the requirement for water to grow all those motor fuel crops. That is not an insignificant problem in many areas. Also, I wouldn't be so quick to poopoo hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

Dr. Zubrin is certainly correct regarding the economics of hydrogen and manufacturing hydrogen from fossil fuels is silly in the extreme. However, anyone who's seen the brown cloud hovering over our cities knows there are reasons for employing clean-burning fuel other than the economical. Producing hydrogen elsewhere and burning it in the city could certainly help reduce the concentration of polutants in say [cough! gasp!] Denver. Or Tucson. The key, I think, is that hydrogen is storable to a much greater degree than electricity. We've got to produce enough electricity to cover the peak demand. The rest of the time a good deal of surplus electricity is sold very cheaply, goes to waste, or is used in processes such as 'pumped storage' at hydroelectric facilities -- in off-peak hours surplus electricity is now sometimes used to pump water back uphill into the reservoir, not a terribly efficient use of power, but it's surplus, use it or lose it, 'can't shut off the water or the fish downstream will be left high and dry', electricity. Wind-generated electricity is notoriously unreliable and also sometimes produces a surplus. Surplus electricity might be used more efficiently to generate hydrogen than to pump water uphill, no? On the other hand, I'd hate to see the streets in NoDak in January if hydrogen were the fuel of choice. Likewise, the humidity is quite high enough in many areas without any help from hydrogen-burning vehicles. Disposing of all the water could become a problem if hydrogen vehicles became more than a minor part of our transportation solution.

A lot of the codgers in retirement communities like Sun City, AZ, get around in electric golf carts, a great solution if you don't have to go very far or very fast, and it can also reduce traffic noise, congestion, and parking problems. The codgers find an electric cart a handy alternative to the automobile for short commutes right now. The technology is there, we just need to encourage it. A bit of technology could also help. The carts could be charged in a variety of ways: Plugged into the wall at a pinch, solar-charged in sunny climes, wind-charged in southern Wyoming (don't laugh), or even multi-fueled with hydrogen/alcohol/gasoline for longer commutes. Really though, with the exception of the multi-fueled cart idea, this isn't new technology, it's more of a conservation measure. The cart itself is smaller and lighter than a car, thus requiring fewer materials for its manufacture and less energy to move it around, so it's cheaper than a car to buy and to operate. Then it requires less space to park. It can't entirely replace the ol' Lincoln, but it saves wear and tear on the bigger vehicle. In the small town where I live my second car really should be an electric cart.

These are just a few of the many alternative fuels and alternative transportation ideas that have been floated. I think the key is to establish broad-based and flexible solutions so that we aren't held hostage by any one fuel or transport medium, and so that individuals can choose what works best for them.

@7:31 AM

Wednesday, February 01, 2006- - -  
Nope, those don't look like antelope..
They're not-a-pigs! Next to antelope, javelinas are probably our favorite critters, not least because wherever we encounter them someone is quick to tell us that "they're not a pig!" (I photographed these on our recent visit to the Desert Museum.)

Actually, they are related to european pigs, just not very closely. Both are members of the Order Artiodactyla -- the even-toed ungulates, which includes cattle, deer, African antelope, and our own beloved speed goat, to name a few. The not-a-pig belongs to the Family Tayassuidae, while European pigs and warthogs belong to the family Suidae. Whatever. They're cuter'n hell.

Ps. By the way, could there be a more aptly named critter than Sus scrofa?

@5:23 AM

 
Miss Demeanor strikes again
Time's up on those 15 minutes. Initial reports on the State of the Union address had Cindy Sheehan being removed from the House Chamber by Capitol police because she had an anti-war sign. I pictured some big banner being shaken by a pack of screaming loons. Now we find that she was wearing a T-shirt with an objectionable slogan:
Sheehan, who was invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. The charge was later changed to unlawful conduct, Schneider said. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Sheehan was taken in handcuffs from the Capitol to police headquarters a few blocks away. Her case was processed as Bush spoke.

Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat.

Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.
Handcuffs for a dress code violation? That seems a bit over the top. I guess they didn't have a brank handy.

@4:17 AM

 
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