Bull Moose Strikes Back » Ferry Tales

It’s just “The Dicks” for short.

Bull Moose — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:18:21 +0000

The guidelines not withstanding, is there any chance this thing isn’t being named M/V Norm Dicks?

Unless they think that the new Boeing-built Norm Dicks class refueling tankers are enough.

The Eyes Have It.

Bull Moose — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:48:07 +0000

This is a picture of the corner of the ferry in which I am currently sitting:

I’m starting to feel a little paranoid.

You can see the one is a promotion to snitch on litterers, the other is a sign to not be afraid to look out for terrorist’s bombs. Meaning every time I leave my stuff to take a leak I have to exchange words with some jackass illiterate able seaman on a power trip when I get back. We’re on a boat surrounded by freezing water. Where the hell am I going to flee? I’m as much for not wanting to be blown up as the next guy, but I also appreciate common sense. It’s not like the ferry out of dock is like the ticketing lobby of an airport. (Besides, if I was going to bomb the ferry, I’d just drive the bomb aboard. My car hardly get sniffed by the dogs anymore. My motorcycle never does.)

And I would help stop terrorism on the ferries, but I don’t want to be called a racist by the Seattle PI. I’ll wait until after the 18th when they no longer exist.

The Washington State Patrol is responsible for both signs. I don’t think creativity is their strong suit.

Now you may think that because Seattle is one of the ground zeros for the environmental movement litter wouldn’t be such a concern. You’d be wrong. I’m still stunned by the amount of trash on the side of the road in Western Washington. We have the second worst litter strewn highways of anywhere I’ve ever been. It’s probably a little better than Indiana, but, hey, aim high Washingtonians.

Moose Strips #4

Bull Moose — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:30:17 +0000

Wacky Bremerton Day

Bull Moose — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:01:52 +0000

Visit Bremerton. Home of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, a fine naval museum, and a crucified squirrel.

No word on whether the squirrel crucifier is the same person who called in a bomb threat on the Bremerton ferry today, but whoever called in the threat should thank whatever god or gods they pray to that I decided to take the Bainbridge ferry straight from work today instead of going back to Bremerton like I sometimes do. (I was slightly confused as to why the Bremerton ferry was unloading in Bainbridge until the text alert came through on my phone.

Wait a minute… someone intersted in bombing ferries… Bremerton police, be on the lookout for this guy:

The PI Was Still Wrong

Bull Moose — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:39:48 +0000

The suspicious ferry riders have been found and cleared. I’m sure the Seattle PI feels vindicated in not running their picture. They shouldn’t. They should feel like they dodged a bullet.

I’m writing this on the ferry, and there are about 1000 people on board with me right now. The ferries on the routes we meet up with on the way into Seattle have even more people on them. The Seattle PI decided that it was OK to gamble with our safety because running pictures of olive skinned people in connection with the word “suspicious” made them feel funny in their politically correct pants.

Never mind that 25 of the last 27 people to commit horrific terrorist attacks inside the borders of the United States happened to have olive skin, if they look middle eastern, they must be given a greater benefit of the doubt, right? And spare me any politically correct lectures. From my my college roommate of Pakistani decent to my Iraqi and Iranian first bosses to my wife’s Iranian uncle, I am well aware that Middle Eastern does not equal terrorist. But that does not translate into someone should never be called a suspicious person if they have olive skin.

I’m not sure where the Seattle PI got the idea that one has to be convicted of a crime before their picture can be shown in the paper, especially if the FBI wants to talk to them. Especially when they were acting weird enough to get the attention of a ferry crew that is used to all kinds of weird behavior, and see many more than two dark skinned people a year.

And what horrible fate befell these men when they talked to the FBI? They checked out their story and cleared them. What a horrible fate! The men were here on business and had never seen a car ferry before. Fine. No one’s rights were violated, no one was whisked off to Gitmo in the middle of the night. You couldn’t have helped out with that Seattle PI? You’d rather play your idiotic political correctness games with the safety of thousands on a what has been established to be a possible terrorist target? Jerks.

Moose Droppings – What Does April Snow Bring?

Bull Moose — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:28:02 +0000

R.I.P. “Phantom” Dan Federici. When I saw The Boss a couple of weeks ago, he mentioned that Federici had played with them a week before and that he was expected back, so I wonder if he knew how little time he had left.
Speaking of The Boss, his endorsement of Obama may be the least surprising political endorsement ever. I’m just surprised it took this long. I love Springsteen’s music, but he strikes me as a guy who would believe that Obama will be able to solve the world’s problem with his magic Hope Ray that shoots from his chest, much like a Care Bear.
When Expelled comes out on DVD, I’m going to watch it back-to-back with An Inconvenient Truth to see which movie is funnier. What isn’t funny is that science, at least in popular culture, seems to have turned into dueling propaganda pieces from noted scientists like Ben Stein and Al Gore.
Speaking of the Global Warming, we’re expecting an inch of snow. In Seattle. On April 18. It will be the latest snow has been recorded here. I for one welcome my new Global Warming Overlord.
With GPS navigation systems becoming more and more prevalent and affordable, I wonder how often we’ll hear this excuse for clusterfucks. Someone should tell the bus driver the GPS doesn’t know how tall the bus is. Or rather was. My GPS receivers have told me some pretty stupid things in the seven years I’ve been using them. The fact that computers are stupid is lost on a lot of people it seems.
Prince Fielder finally hit his first home run of the season last night. I was starting to think he needs to put a few more donuts on his bat.
On the ferry this morning, I was unfortunately subjected to a phone conversation in which a woman was being dumped by her boyfriend. I only heard the woman’s side, but when she said “Sorry, I’m just not horny after working 14 hours,” I turned the volume of my XM radio up to the point where it was painful to my ears. It was much less painful than the conversation. I’m not one of those people who are intolerant of cell phones. In fact, I figure it’s way better than having to listen to two people talk. But I do think people often forget that they are in public when they use them. Why is that?
What a surprise, the “Abortion Art” was a fake. Like I said elsewhere, she didn’t need to fake abortions to outrage me. The phrase “Yale art student” outrages me enough as it is.

But Train Tales Isn’t As Catchy

Bull Moose — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:28:13 +0000

It’s good to see that East Coast train commuters are the same as West Coast ferry commuters.

They have the same cliques of people who think their mode of commute is their personal rec room, being overly loud with conversations involving the personal details of their lives who refuse to believe they could possibly be bothering anyone. I swear, I could write a biography about some of the people I regularly commute with which would include who they’ve had sex with, how many abortions they’ve had, what their bowels are doing, what their kid is in prison for, and all kinds of other stuff I don’t want to know.

Then there’s the guy who is the self-appointed rule enforcer, who thinks he’s in a library and delights in rudely telling people to quiet down or enforce the seating rules in the most confrontational way possible. Though there are a few women, on my commute they tend to be effeminate and/or gay men, whose high-pitched voices drive people extra nuts. I’m not sure if I’d rather have the hand-slapping, empty threat making ex-cop who compares himself to Rosa Parks from the article or not. Probably.

Notice who are not mentioned in the article? The 90% of people who are quietly minding their own business, reading a book, listening to an iPod, blogging on their WiFi connection, or maybe having a conversation in a normal voice. People who will gladly share their space if the commute is crowded. People who realize we’re all just trying to get to work and back and being one kind or the other of jerk isn’t going to make anyone’s day any better. I’d say I pride myself in (almost always) being in that group, but acting like a normal human being when we’re all trapped on a boat or a train isn’t really anything to be proud of.

I think the people on the train should just be thankful they don’t have to put up with a summer full of tourists who go to the front of the wall and proclaim “I’m king of the world!” and laugh hysterically at their own immensely clever realization that they are on a boat, just like in the Titanic movie. By the time the 100th tourist of the summer does that I’m ready for the 3 hour commute on I-5.

That’s Enough, PI

Bull Moose — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:20:22 +0000

I’ve had it with the Seattle PI. It’s too bad the JOA dispute with the Seattle Times didn’t cause them to fold.
Take, for example, yesterday:

General Petraeus: “Iran has played a destructive role.”

Seattle PI: “It was the Iranians, not the surge, that are responsible for the late improvement. Oh, and the war is unwinnable.”

This is a few days after they excused the inexcusable: Baghdad Jim’s trip to Iraq on Saddam’s nickel. It was OK, you see, for a sitting congressman to be manipulated by a dictator who was under sanctions by the US and the UN because “he was right.”

Even if you accept that he was right, that’s an interesting standard they set. It’s fine to take trips paid for by blood money as long as you are fighting the good fight.

If I were to hit the streets tonight and gun down meth dealers who are ruining the lives of hundreds, will the Seattle PI Editorial Board come to my defense when I’m arrested? (Let’s assume all the drug dealers are white, to take one of their favorite cards out of the equation.) Somehow I doubt it.

Of course, all of this follows the PI’s refusal to run the pictures of some people the FBI wanted to talk to because they thought they might be casing the ferry system thousands of people, including me, travel on every day.

They’ve demonstrated time and again that the interests of their country, justice, and even the safety of their own readers takes a back seat to their political agenda. In the words of one of their hero Kos: Screw them.

Plus I might point out that they called Kansas the most overrated #1 seed and had them losing in the Sweet 16, so it’s not like their sports section redeems them at all.

The other day on the ferry a woman put her bags down across from me, went and bought a paper, came back, took out the crossword puzzle and threw the rest of the paper in the recycling without looking at it. At first I thought that was one of the silliest things I’d ever seen. Then I realized it was the PI and thought maybe it was the smartest thing I’ve ever seen.

By the way, I hope the McCain campaign is paying attention to the memes being developed in the Petraeus editorial. The left is tipping their hand as to how they are going to try to shoot down (pun intended) McCain in the fall. McCain says he helped push for the surge, claim it was the Iranians, not the surge that was effective. People think Obama is too soft on Iraq? Make the case that Afghanistan is where we should be being tough, and can only do so by abandoning Iraq. Those are ridiculous arguments that need to be cut off at the pass before they become another false truism of the left.

No, That Would Be “Debarquer”

Bull Moose — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:16:23 +0000

Overheard on the ferry this morning after the announcement that we were approaching the Seattle dock:

Disembark? What’s that, French for “get off”?

That tops the time I heard a couple discussing whether “deplane” is a real word after landing in Salt Lake City.

Moose Droppings – Monday Again

Bull Moose — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:04:10 +0000

Dang it, Angelina Jolie, stop making sense. Everything about you screams, “When I talk about the real world, I’ll sound like an idiot.” It’s a little confusing when you don’t.
It’s amazing how much better a haircut will make me feel. My daughter was calling me a dirty hippie the other morning and I needed to look presentable by Thursday. My gay barber also filled me in all about the new silicon testicle he received after battling testicular cancer. So now I know all about that…
On the ferry Wednesday night I was subjected to a conversation by some people who were sitting near the only plug available for my laptop. I picked up two facts from their conversation: 1) They have a friend named “Tiara” (like the beauty pageant crown) who has one kid and who is 2)knocked up by a “piece of crap” seventeen year-old (Tiara is apparently in her 20’s). I also knew 3) that the ferry was headed to Bremerton. I maintain that any one of those facts is discernible from the other two.
The insane fringe is at it again near Seattle. ELF burnt down houses that aren’t deemed “green” by them. I wonder if building the exact same house a second time because some maniacs burnt it down the first time is “green.”
A mother and two sons were killed and a father shot five times because the parents didn’t approve of the 16-year-old daughter’s boyfriend. So, was that supposed to prove they were wrong for not approving of him? That’s why in the future, when my daughter brings home a boy while she lives in my house, I’m just going to go ahead and break his nose with the butt of my shotgun, just to get the question of dominance out of the way.
The Seattle PI proclaims “Blacks are arrested for contempt of cop [obstruction] charge at a higher rate”. Eight times higher, in fact. Maybe because they obstruct at an eight times higher rate? Nah… There’s only about 30 black guys in the whole city, it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out. Somehow, I don’t see institutional racism being a huge problem in the SPD like it might be in Chicago or New York. In the meantime, here is a helpful video for black folks in Seattle who feel they are being oppressed by the SPD: