Bull Moose Strikes Back

There is a proposal to split Washington in two right down the middle of the Cascade Mountains for obvious reasons.

While I’m aware this is a bad idea and is just a stunt to generate attention to the split of the state, I thought it’d be worthwhile for someone familiar with the state to take a look at what the feel of the two new states would be.

First, what would they be named? I propose that Eastern Washington remain “Washington” and Western Washington, since they have no interest in honoring that war-mongering, slave owner George Washington anyway, can be called “Cascadia.” Indeed, if you look at the crappily and hastily made signs for lefty meetings posted to telephone posts in Seattle, they often refer to the meeting being in “Seattle, Cascadia” anyway.

Here is how the state would break down with an analysis of which state would make out best in the deal:

Cascadia: Olympic Mountains
Washington: Blue Mountains
Advantage: Cascadia

Cascadia: Salmon filled rivers like The Queets and Dosewallips
Washington: Salmon filled rivers like the Columbia and the Snake that also produce power.
Advantage: Washington

Cascadia: Olympic Wildlife Area
Washington: Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area
Advantage: Washington.

Cascadia:Annoying hippies.
Washington: Annoying rednecks.
Advantage: Washington.

Cascadia: Fortified liquor drinkin’ homeless laying around the streets of Seattle.
Washington: Moonshine drinkin’ hillbillies laying around in the back of pickups.
Advantage: Toss up

Cascadia: Mac using populace.
Washington: Apple growing populace
Advantage: Washington

Cascadia: Skiing at Mt. Baker, Hurricane Ridge, Crystal Mountain, Stevens Pass, Snoqualmie Pass.
Washington: Shares skiing at Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie Pass
Advantage: Washington (Cascadians will have no money to ski due to sharp tax increases when the check of Eastern legislators is gone.)

Cascadia: No place for Moses’ Law.
Washington: Place called Moses Lake.
Advantage: Washington

Cascadia: Rude, standoffish Seattlites that think they’re polite.
Washington: Polite people who think that Seattlites are rude and standoffish.
Advantage: Washington

Cascadia: Proximity to freak cities Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, BC.
Washington: Proximity to freak city Couer d’Alene, Idaho
Advantage: Washington

Washington: Home of the Large Colville Indian Reservation.
Cascadia: Home of the Bainbridge Island lawyer reservation.
Advantage: Washington

Washington: Deserts
Cascadia: Dessert Lattes
Advantage: Cascadia – unless you are a rattlesnake.

Cascadia: Separated by the Columbia River from Oregon, which contains a super-hippie strain and, according to Michael Moore, is under threat of an amphibious Al-Qeada invasion.
Washington: Easily crossed land border with Oregon
Advantage: Cascadia

Cascadia: Large Army, Air Force, and Navy bases.
Washington: No bases.
Advantage: Cascadia, though Cascadians might not think so.

Cascadia: NFL team in a blue area that needs to attract fans from red areas to survive.
Washington: Walla Walla wineries in a red area that need to attract customers in blue areas to survive.
Advantage: Cascadia

Cascadia: Large public transit system that, while useful, is filled with billion dollar boondoggles like light rail.
Washington: Bus to bring senior citizens to the casino.
Advantage: Toss-up

Cascadia: Evergreen State College
Washington: Gonzaga
Advantage: Washington

Cascadia: Microsoft
Washington: No Microsoft
Advantage: Depends on who you ask.

Cascadia: Home of US Senators with names like “Patty.”
Washington: Home of US Senators with names like “Slade.”
Advantage: Washington

Washington: Bigfoot
Cascadia: Sasquatch
Advantage: Neither, they are both myths.

Washington: Fruit
Cascadia: Fruits
Advantage: Washington

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Once again the heroic “Iraqi” minutemen fight the evil American occupation by killing over 100 actual Iraqi national guard and police recruits that were trying to do their part to make their country a more secure and stable democracy.

I wonder if Moore wants to repick his side? Nah, probably not.

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First the announcement that Saudi women “may” get to vote and now Egypt is having presidential elections.

Hell, even Beriut and Syria are starting to look promising.

Middle East Reform Fever – catch it!

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I’ve been using Firefox for about a month or so. Maybe I was expecting too much after reading the cover story in Wired and listening to computer experts screaming to anyone who would listen that it’s arrival on my computer would be on the order of magnitude of greatness between the Second Coming of Chirst and sliced bread.

As far as I’m concerend, it was all hype fueled by the cottage industry that disdain for Microsoft has become.

I like the side search bar where I can quickly search google, the imdb, netflix, weather.com, ebay, geocaching, and about anything else I could wish to add. And of course – and this is the only thing keeping me on Firefox – it is not as targeted by spyware and other malicious software. Tabbed browsing may be a plus for some users, but I prefer just to open a second browser window.

But despite what I heard was going to be the case the pop-up blocker is ineffective, it has trouble handling frames on some of the pages I visit, and most damning of all it has crashing problems. These problems are the same on my laptop (Windows 2000) and home computer (Windows XP), so it’s possible that my computers are the problem, I don’t think it’s likely.

I’m sure Firefox will improve over time – this is version 1.0 – but I wish the supposed experts wouldn’t have let their hatred of Microsoft cloud their judgment on the product as is. Every crash brings me closer to just going back to a combination of IE and hardier anti-spyware software.

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The Oscars fell pretty much how I thought they would.

Despite Drudge’s bizzare attack on Chris Rock as host, I’d take him any day over Whoppi or Billy Crystal, and it’d be a toss-up between him and Steve Martin. I had a good laugh at his monolouge.
Sean Penn once again demonstrated he has no sense of humor by defending Jude Law from a joke Rock told in the monologue. Jude Law’s a big boy, he can take it.

The only disappointment of the night is that “The Motorcycle Diaries” took home an Oscar, even if it was just for Best Song. The movie is an endearing look at vile commie Che Guevara’s trip through South America in his youth. What’s next, a romantic look at Albert Eichmann’s youth?

Only 364 days until I throw next year’s world’s only heterosexually thrown Oscar party.

My early pick: Pooh’s Heffalump Movie.

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BAROOO!!!
Hard for me to decide if this trade is a genius move by the Vikings or their biggest boondoggle since the Hershall Walker trade.
I guess it depends on how poorly they pick in the first round.
Moss is a perfect fit for the Raiders, though, in every way from their love of cheating to their love of the long ball.

In any case, it’s not quite going to be as much fun hating The Randy anymore. But I’ll soldier through.

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I’m beginning to learn one of the side effects of having an infant: I am watching stuff on TV I would never, ever watch in a million years if I weren’t anchored to a couch rocking a little girl. Stuff like “Honey” on Starz and the last 15 laps of the Daytona 500. I have a feeling if I don’t learn how to rock her in a way that will allow me to play Xbox, I may end up watching the Arena Football League or an NBA regular season game at some point.

The high definition broadcast of the Daytona 500 on Fox certainly looked pretty. I was hoping for a crash because flames look really cool in high def. There was a crash, but no flames.

How is this America’s #1 spectator sport? It’s an engineering contest with 100,000 people drinking Bud and screaming. I was bored silly. Cars running around the track, making left turns for a few laps, until a caution. Then they roll around the track slowly. Ugh.

And yes, I understand that there is teamwork, strategy, drafting, and so forth, but they also have that in the Tour de France, and I’m not watching that either and I’d be more likely too since there are actual athletes involved in bike racing. I’m guessing Lance Armstrong is in a little better cardio shape than Dale Jr.

I even picked a guy to cheer for. “Is Jeff Gordon the one all the ‘real’ NASCAR fans hate because his daddy bought his car?” I asked my wife (she spent some summers in Indiana as an engineering intern at Cummins Engine, so she speaks broken NASCAR).
“I think so.”
“Then I’m cheering for him.”
Dale Jr. seems to be the driver of choice for “real” fans, apparently because the daddy who bought him his car was named Dale Earnhardt. Whatever.

And while I despise Joe Buck and his ilk, at least their ignorance doesn’t come across in the way they speak. “He’s gonna get him a top five finish,” one of the commentators said. I don’t know enough about the sport to decide if at least they knew what the hell they were talking about in that area. To be fair, I might trade some of Joe Buck’s pretty speaking ability in order to give him a little bit of a clue as to what the hell is really going on on the field.

To each their own, I guess. If NASCAR does for you what the NFL does for me and provides enough release to prevent you from strangling idiots on your commute, knock yourself out cheering for whatever number car you wish. I’ll stick with Sundays in the fall; NASCAR folks can stick with the Sundays in the spring and summer. I just wish I could see what the hubbub is about.

UPDATE:
I should add I have a friend who does amateur stock car racing. When I went to watch him race I had a pretty good time. Someone I know in the car, short track, intimate setting, chili cheese dogs. OK.
Major league setting. Big money to get in. Watching on TV… don’t get it.

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First a crappy movie starring Dave Matthews opens with it’s name in the title, then Winn-Dixie files Chapter 11.

Damn.

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I’m currently on paternity break.

Be back in a day or two or when something really torques me off.

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I geocache because it gets me outside when I otherwise might be watching TV and adds some extra fun to things like long day hikes or climbing Mt. St. Helens.
But if an additional bonus is , well, bonus!

That article might seem a bit hypocritical since it was written by a former mill worker and current General Partner for Heritage Homes, Ltd. (one wonders where the lumber for his houses come from) but remember, this is Counterpunch.

This is a great example of why real conservationists (like people who want to preserve land to hunt, fish, and yes, geocache) have trouble getting traction in this country sometimes.
Take these quotes:
How am I offended? Let me count the ways:

3) It and 9000 acres were added to the Wilderness due to the dogged efforts of one of my dear friends (and her allies) who died in a tragic accident before she could see it so designated.

and

[From the geocachig website:]“Where you place a cache is up to you.”

It’s that final rule that galls me. NO it is NOT up to you.

He may or may not have a point with the first item, I don’t know. Geocachers are not supposed to be placing caches in archeological or otherwise sensitive spots but it has happened. However, where he and his friends go to smoke a bowl does not automatically make it a “sacred site.”

Otherwise, the condescension can be cut with a knife. We all paid for the land, but only Michael Donnelly should be allowed how you can use it. Why? Well not only because he knows better than us peasants, but because the land is named after his dead friend.

I was interested to know “technology” had been banned from Wilderness Areas. I’ve been in some Wilderness Act Wilderness Areas in Washington state where I wouldn’t be caught dead without my GPS, map, and compass (map and compass are technology) or I would be dead.

If he was a real friend of wilderness, rather than a holier-than-thou attitude, he may be embracing geocachers as an ally in conservation efforts. Many environmental groups have grudgingly joined forces with hunting and fishing groups for conservation reasons.
Or at the very least he could be trying to work with NFS and geocachers to establish guidelines for use.

But Mr. Donnelly isn’t a real friend of the wilderness. He’s an arrogant person trying to make everyone play by his rules for using our land.

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I didn’t think I was going to get the chance to before the Oscars, but I have now seen all five nominees for Best Picture. I think if I had a vote it would go to “Million Dollar Baby,” but if “The Aviator” won I’d be fine with that.

“Sideways” is pretty funny and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, seeing as how it is a movie in which we were supposed to sympathize with a self-absorbed wine snob and his self-absorbed low rent actor friend trying to have whatever sex with he can before his wedding I underestimated Paul Giamatti and Alexander Payne, though, as I did end up laughing with Giamatti’s sad sack Miles character.
In the end, though, it’s just too lightweight to be Best Picture. I might have thrown my support behind a Best Picture nod for Payne’s “Election” a few years back, but this one is just not as good.

“Finding Neverland” is a fine movie; it kind of has an “E.T.” type of sentimentality to it. It is the story of J.M. Barrie, the writer of Peter Pan, and his friendship with a group of brothers and the platonic love affair with their mother, who end up inspiring “Peter Pan.”
A lot of years I could see this movie winning, but this year it is the third best of three biopics nominated this year. Johnny Depp’s performance could also win an Oscar a lot of years, but he was not as good as Jamie Foxx in “Ray.”

As you may have figured out I think “Ray” was the second best biopic of the nominated movies. What impressed me most was the fact that Ray Charles was involved in such an uncompromising, at times unflattering, movie about his life. The film takes a frank look at Ray’s destructive womanizing and drug addiction. Jamie Foxx should be a shoe-in for the Best Actor win, as he really did become Ray Charles. In fact, the movie’s only real weak spot is the emotional climax of the movie when Jamie Foxx takes off his sunglasses and shatters the illusion. In a dream sequence, Ray can see again and takes off his glasses and talks to his dead brother and mother. In what I suppose should’ve been a tear jerking moment, I sat there knocked out of the movie looking at not Ray, but Jamie Foxx. The difference in quality between “Ray” and “The Aviator” was so thin, that made the difference for me.
“Ray” is defiantly the dark horse to win, and it wouldn’t be the worst upset in Oscar history.

As I said about “The Aviator” here, this is the way biopics should be made – hear that Oliver Stone? Martin Scorsese presents the life of Howard Hughes as kind of an anti-Greek tradgedy, meaning the drama is how Hughes overcame what could (should?) have been fatal flaws to become one of the legendary success stories of the 20th Century.
What “The Aviator” had that the other biopics didn’t have is what the subject lends itself to – big, Hollywood moments: plane crashes, bottles of urine, Senate chamber face offs, giant airplanes lifting off.

“Million Dollar Baby” would probably have been in my Top 5 had I seen it before I wrote the list. The talk about it being a pro-euthanasia propaganda is ridiculous. It is a powerful movie that builds to an agonizing choice that an already conflicted man has to make, a choice that will have consequences that will resonate through the rest of his life. Kind of sounds like another Clint Eastwood movie that won Best Picture a few years ago, right?
The characters’ relationships in the movie are what make the movie’s emotional climax work. Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, and Hilary Swank all check in with subtle performances that make what might have been a rather manipulative story work as an intense character study.

So my choices in order:
1. Million Dollar Baby
2. The Aviator
3. Ray
4. Finding Neverland
5. Sideways

Best Animated Feature

I also saw the last of the nominated Animated Feature nominees, “Shark Tale,” and had earlier seen “Shrek 2” and “The Incredibles” in the thearter. (Both made my “Best of 2004” list.)
Of the three, “Shark Tale” was just a placeholder. There were a couple of laughs, but they could have plugged in the Sponge Bob movie. It really is a two-way race.

I stand by what I wrote. “The Incredibles” is the better of the two. I’m not sure if it’ll win, though. The message of “The Incredibles” might be a little too non-PC for voters to swallow, and “Shrek 2” is full of Hollywood insider jokes, which may make it popular with voters.

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Sounds like someone’s asking for another cement burning fire-bombing.

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Thank goodness we have Senators like Maria Cantwell to protect us from ourselves.
Among the many needed cuts to the federal budget that President Bush has proposed is an end to a subsidy that allows the Northwest to get electricity at cost rather than at market price. Essentially, the rest of the country is chipping in for our electricity. I’m willing to pay market price for my juice in order to help bring the deficit down. That’s only fair.

But naturally, lefty US Senator Maria Cantwell stopped pretending she cared about the budget deficit and started whining about the pork being cut from her blue state.
“This is the same as a billion-dollar tax hike on Washington state, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s dead on arrival,” the senator said.

Reading that you’d think Senator Cantwell was for lower taxes. But if we check her voting record she voted against the Bush tax cuts.

I know what her apologists will say. “She voted against the tax cuts because she was worried about the deficit.” Well, here’s her chance to do something about that deficit, cutting out pork and she wants to fight it.

No, Cantwell doesn’t care how much of our money is sucked out of our pockets. She only cares that she can get some say in how it’s wasted and that’s not going to happen if we’re paying fair value for electricity rather than putting that money into the hands of congress to be distributed as pork.

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Look at all that region destabilizing democracy.

And I’m losing faith in these terrorists that the Iraq invasion was supposedly going to unleash upon us sheeple in the US. We just had the Super Bowl for the second time and nothing. Not even a stink bomb.

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I wasn’t going to say anything about the sad little saga of Ward Churchill, the doctrate-less professor from University of Colorado.

My initial reaction was, “Look, another left-wing attention whore that the state taxpayers are paying $96,000 a year for so they and their kids can hear about how evil they are. Well, I’m not going to give him any attention. Let him shrivel up and die in his unimportant department.” Besides, others can write about this better than I ever could.

Even when he started sucking up all that attention by declaring more 9-11s may be needed so we Americans learn our lesson, I guess, I didn’t want to put his name on the internet one more time.

But now he’s hit on one of my pet peeves – claiming efforts to “stifle me and not let me speak on a matter of public and personal concern,” after an appearance was canceled for security reasons.

Wow, it must be horrifying to be “stifled” to the point where anyone with access to google news or network TV news knows your viewpoint.

I keep a copy of the US Constituion on my desk. I find it, along with a dictionary, are fabulous tools for making a lefty change his argument (you can’t win an argument with a lefty since their arguments are mostly based on emotions, but making them change their argument with facts and logic is close). The First Amendment to the US Constitution, at least the copy I have, reads:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Hmm… No. Don’t see anything about the government providing a venue for your speech. I don’t see anything about protection for your job if you say something so incendiary it outrages your employer, and, in case the Dixie Chicks are reading, I don’t see anything about protecting album sales after using your free speech to alienate your fans.
The only thing I read is that the government can’t take away your property and/or throw you in jail for speaking your mind. And that’s a good thing. Just ask the people in Iraq or Afghanistan, people who have actually had their freedoms stifled.

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In the Seattle PI sports section, they pose a question requiring a pithy answer to two sports analysts in a section called “Bring It!”
In Monday’s the question was, “Which dynasty – Patriots, Cowboys, Steeelers, or Packers – is the best?”
This was the answer from Molly Yanity, a Seattle PI sports reporter:
“The Steelers. The Patriots won three Super Bowls by a total of nine points, the Cowboys played the Bills (!) twice, and the Packers aren’t of this era. The Steelers – four titles in six seasons and eight Hall of Famers are my pick.”

I have no problem with the pick of the Steelers. She’s probably right. What I do wonder about, though, is how the Packers can be dismissed of being “not of this era.”
What era is she talking about?
The Packers of 1965, 1966 and 1967 are not of the same era as the Steelers of 1974, 1975, 1978, and 1979 but those same Steelers can be compared with the Patriots of today? I’d think the 60’s Packers and ’70’s Steelers would be more comparable to each other than to teams in the free-agent era.
But Molly must know that.
What’s the deal then? Is it because the Packer’s 1965 championship wasn’t in a game called “Super Bowl”?

No. Looking at the picture that went with her post, I’d think that Molly is about 5 years older than me, meaning she can probably just remember the Steelers era. And then she falls into the trap that many fall in, the one I talk about in my second post ever of this blog, assuming that history starts around the same time as your recollection does.

Lack of historical perspective invades every corner of our society. From protestors in front of federal buildings to football stadiums.
Please, the next time you’re answering a question that involves the word “ever” make sure you’re not short changing the accomplishments and failures of people who have lived their lives before your own memory started.

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My webmates over at The Randy have their page up-to-date.
About freakin’ time.

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Once again this year the old saying that the commercials are better than the game proved as false as the hopes of an Eagles fan.
But, there were a few good ones. I thought the best was Kinko’s talking, dancing bear kicking Burt Reynolds in the junk. The careerbuilder.com monkeys were pretty good, too, especially the third one where the chimps line up to kiss the head chimp’s butt. Cedric the Entertainer’s Bud commercial where his desert isle fantasy turns from two women to a gas grill and a dog made me laugh as well.
Other than that I thought the commercials were pretty run-of-the-mill. Something you’d see during any NFL game.
On a better note, no Britney Spears this year. This must be the first Super Bowl in 5 or 6 years where there is no Britney Spears commercail

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In the wake of the Iraq election, I think a large number of lefties have cashed in their chips and given up whatever space they still had in the Reality Casino.

Take Janene “Cats and Dogs” Garofalo’s assertaion that the Republican congressmen holding their blue fingers up in solidarity with the people of Iraq was similar to the Nazi salute.

Yeah. I guess. We all know how much democracy the Nazis brought to Poland and France, after all.

Garofalo also went on to piss on the moment between the slain Marine’s parents and the Iraqi woman. It was staged, see!
OK, when the slain soldier’s parents speak in “Farhenheit 9/11″ listen up. But if the parents of a slain Marine say that they and their son believed in what he was doing when he was killed, it’s all staged.

I think the elections in Iraq have pushed many like Garofalo to a crisis point. They either have to bite the bullet and say they were at least a little bit wrong about the war and the “Jew neocon conspiracy” behind it, or they can keep on floating off into space.

It’s obvious which way Janene has chosen.

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Remember the Dave Chappelle skit about the blind black man who thought he was white and was a bigot to the point that he rose to the leadership of the Ku Klux Klan?

Sometimes truth imitates fiction.

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