Oh My Aching Blog

I am not dead. Just thought I would let you know.  I have been busy with real life stuff.  The economy is affecting lots of people I know and not in a happy good way. Worst of all, lots of highly intelligent, sober individuals plan to vote for Obama. I can barely stomach the thought of President Obama.  So that in a nutshell is the source of my malaise. So in no particular order here are some things that have been weighing on my mind.

The Ohio Election
How can an obvious partisan political hack like Ohio SoS Jennifer Brunner get away with a blatant attempt to undermine the voting process. Remember her "Vote Early" plan allowed anyone to both register and vote on the same day during the last week of September, before identities could be verified. Opponents filed a suit and a judge ruled that her plan did not give the state sufficient time to validate the registrations and would be prone to fraud. Brunner appealed and the ruling was overturned by, not surprisingly, a Clinton appointed judge. 

I don't think there will be mass voter fraud at the Ohio polls next week, but the whole process is suspect now. There has already been numerous charges of fraud and what do you do when the person who is suppose to oversee the process is the one who allowed it to be abused in the first place?

Baseball
I guess if you are a fan the fact that the Rays made it to the Series is exciting. Not so exciting that they lost to the Phillies. But I am not a fan.

I Hear Dead People
I downloaded Issac Hayes's cover of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" from emusic.com . It is every bit as good as I remember it from being a kid.  Interestingly, Hayes stiffed his church. The Church of Scientology got zip from him in his will. Given that they are all about the money, I wonder if they are going after some of his estate.

Eureka
What's up with the short season of Eureka? What's up with Sci-fi doing these 13 episode seasons?  What will I watch when SG-A goes off the air?

Sick Friends
Pray for my friends who are sick. Some of them very so. Especially Dave.  He isn't doing well. Here is a recent photo. I may have had to adjust it a little.



I don't want to catch what he's got. Okay maybe I adjusted it a lot. I just wanted to graphically portray just how sick he was. And before you say anything; I am not sick, I am just disturbed. (BTW this is just a little inside joke between me and Dave).

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Global Warming

Well we've been cleaning up the mess from the worse snowstorm some say we've had in 25 years. I was stranded at home from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning when I went to church. Yes I went to church. The roads were a mess and still hadn't been cleared and I went to church. Of course the Lord has blessed me with an all wheel drive vehicle but the church van which I operated and picked up kids in was old school rear wheel drive. I did get stuck once but I manage to get free.

Now I make a big deal about this because of one thing. There are so called Christians out there who attend churches who decided to close because of the weather. How do you justify closing church? What happened to "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me"? Dozens of churches in N E Ohio were closed. I guess some only serve Christ when it's convenient. Can you image what would happen if Christians in this country were persecuted for their beliefs like Christians in Islamic nations? I doubt if they would make a stand. They can't even get to church on a snowy day.

I stood Up and Was Counted (For All The Good IT Did)

Yes I voted. So that gives me griping rights. I am sorry Hillary won so big yesterday. I was hoping she would lose and a clear message would be sent. But alas it was not to be.

On the flip side I am sorry McCain didn't have stiffer competition. I was pulling for Huckabee even though I knew he had no chance. What makes the McCain victory hard to swallow for me as a Republican is that he has made no overtures to the right whatsoever. His camp has said that he would not consider Huckabee as a running mate. So his attitude is screw you real conservatives and hail to the chief baby. Yes I believe John McCain is liberal. This is in spite of what was said by him (twice) and his wife (once) in phone messages to me in the days leading up to the primary. He paid lip service to the issues of immigration and abortion, contrary to his public record and softening his pro-life stance to improve electability.

Meanwhile locally I can't believe that Dennis "The Menace" Kucinich has defended his seat. What were his constituents thinking? Of course he had at least three opponants so the anti-Kook vote was well diluted. Then we had some violence here in the Rubber City. An Obama supporter attacked a group of Clinton volunteers with their own campaign signs. He dislocated the thumb of one worker. He was subdued by the crowd when he attempted to attack a volunteer in a wheelchair. He is in custody on a variety of charges. Obama could not be reached for comment. Okay I don't think they tried to reach him but he was quiet about the whole incident. Too quiet. Being in Texas and all.

There were local issues. We had a sales and use tax hike to support senior citizens area transit. It passed. In fact as I was reviewing the local tax levies, I could only find one that actually failed. They were all labeled "Emergency". Also there were a number of Sunday beer and wine sales issues, all of which passed. I guess if your going to be taxed to death they feel you might as well get hammered on Sunday.

Politics As Usual

Tomorrow is the Ohio Primary and I am not at all excited about it. I will probably support Huckabee for all the good it will do. McCain is so left it makes my teeth itch.

The contest of interest of course is between Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton. I used everybody's full name to avoid any PC-police potential accusations that I am hating on Obama. Yes Texas and Ohio are crucial for Clinton if she wants to stay alive as a candidate. Personally I want to see her go down in flames. I don't trust her and never have. She's a consummate political chameleon whose only goal is to be President. I really don't think she cares about people because she has a history of use and discard. She has been plagued with scandal and I find her "all things to all people" attitude insulting. I mean why would a white woman lapse into a fake accent in a black church? She may be in no ways tired but I sure am; tired of her. So let Hillary crash and burn. And let t he death spiral start early.

On the other hand Mr. Obama is no prize either. I keep hearing about the candidate of change and how no one can seem to get him to say what he is going to change. My guess is that if Obama is elected President then he will change things from bad to worse. I don't think the best way to fix the problems of this country is taking a swig of medicine from a bottle marked only with "Change".

Quick Thoughts

The Election

I was sad to see John Edwards drop put of the race. No, I don't think he had any chance of winning nor do I think that anything he stands for is of any value. I liked him in the race because he was cute and cuddly and people who like that sort of thing in politics would have voted for him. Every vote for him was a vote NOT for Hilary.

 

Dennis Kucinich is quickly (but far too late) becoming a non-entity. I saw a campaign ad for his congressional opponent which took Dennis the Menace to task for his absenteeism in congress. DK has a hard re-election fight ahead.

 

On the republican side Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani have exited the arena. So much for star power. Sure both men had real political credentials but I don't think they were banking on those to get the nomination.

 

Now I am really in a bind. It looks like McCain may get the nomination. Romney's still a contender but I do not like either of them.  It will be interesting to see the results of Super Tuesday.

 

The Super Bowl

Who was playing anyway? Seriously. I am so out of touch with football I didn't know who was playing until somebody mentioned it Sunday night. I'm sure the Patriots' heartache was compounded by everything they lost in the last couple minutes of the game. C'est la vie. I am in the middle of watching all the Super bowl commercials on the web though. I never miss them (except when they originally air that is.)

 

 

Blog Template

I have been playing with my template even more. You won't notice (unless you go to Bramage Report) because It looks the same as it does now. I am trying to upgrade to a Blogger 2 type of template and keep all the functionality I currently have. There are some major road bumps:

□        The comics will not display (except for Day by Day). The reason is the new Blogger template uses an XML parser and the JavaScript code I use to format the URL is rejected. There is no getting around this. I understand there are some workarounds but nothing quick and easy like the document.write statement I currently use.  If you know of a quick way to fix it I will be very appreciative of your help.

□        Haloscan Comments. This may be a non-issue since most people have been using the Blogger comments since I turned them on.  I know there is w way to get them to work with the new template. I just haven't worked out whether I want to keep them yet.

□        Testing. My HTML editor does not display the new Blogger template. So testing the code, CSS and widgets gets difficult. Fortunately I have an extra Blogger blog or two to try things out.

 

On the upside Blogger is very helpful with instruction on how to code in the new template.

 

Personal Note

I was in the hospital last Thursday for outpatient surgery. Everything went well but I won't know the results for a couple weeks. I appreciate the prayers and apologize for not posting very much during my recovery.  All I have been able to do lately is sleep and play SupCom FA.  

NOTE: This post was via email and for some reason between MS Outlook and Blogger the spaces between sections has grown tremendously. Another blog related item to work on.

GO TRIBE!

The Cleveland Indians closed out the New York Yankees 6-4 in Game 4 of their American League Division Series last night!


And while I am not a big sports fan I do so love it when the Indians, Cavaliers and the Browns do well. And not to forget the Akron Aeros!

Ah Fall in Ohio

It will be officially Autumn soon and the signs are everywhere. This morning at 8:00 I left to take the kids to school and had to run the heater/defrost in my car. At 9:00 I left for work and had to run the air conditioner.

I guess another sign of late summer early fall are these beauties which I captured with my camera phone.





These Hibiscus Syriacus have volunteered themselves into my yard. The Rose of Sharon as it is also called blooms in late summer with these large flowers. The plant depicted in the first picture was murdered by my neighbor. For no reason whatsoever she pulled it and trashed it one morning. She didn't say anything about it. I just notice it laying in my driveway amongst the weedy debris of her garden as I was going to work. I seem to be surrounded by nutjobs.

Just Plain Miscellany

Why have things been so quiet at Dane Bramage?

Well I have been really busy of late and when that happens I don't have a lot of time to cogitate on world events and the actions of moonbats. I am trying to get ready for my annual vacation (part one) and that isn't going as well as I would like.

Work is extra hectic because they always want me to double my workload before I leave for vacation and things on the home front are not without their own form of stress.

That said I don't want you to think my brain has been completely void of thought. I have been wondering about a few things in no particular order nor relevance;

Jimmy Carter. Does anyone other than himself feels he was NOT the worse President in the history of this nation? The reason the middle east thinks the U.S. is a bunch of simpering cowards is because of Carter's handling of the Iran Hostage situation. So where does he get off now criticizing Bush's foreign policy? Where does he get off criticizing Bush's anything? I thought Presidential etiquette prohibited former presidents from saying anything about sitting presidents? Reagan and Bush senior never said one word about Clinton while he was in office even in the middle of his sex scandal. But Jimmy Carter sees himself now as some sort of expert on middle east problems and has nothing but trash to talk about GW?. Well I guess in a sense he would be an expert on what not to do in a crisis.

Katrina Death Rate. Ever since President Bush accepted responsibility for the fiasco that was the disaster management of hurricane Katrina, the Democrats have happily laid the blame for every death since then at his feet. After millions of dollars of relief and rebuilding funds have poured into New Orleans, people are upset that doctors and other medical professionals have not returned to the city. The lack of doctors is being blamed for a higher death rate. Hmm, maybe the doctors don't want to practice underwater. I want to know when will dying in New Orleans no longer be connected to Katrina?

Go Cavs! Fellow Akronite LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers did us proud and basketball was exciting again. Next year for sure guys!

Amnesty for Illegal Aliens I am against it. I always have been. (My ancestors were unwilling immigrants but that is another issue.) I know far too many legal immigrants to ever support any form of amnesty. It seems amnesty supporters don't mind creating double standards. They don't mind slapping millions of people who gave up everyting to come to this country legally and become citizens right in the face. They don't mind favoring millions of people who sneak into our country to rob our taxpayers of their money without any intention of ever becoming American. That is so wrong on so many levels.

I Voted

Yesterday was election day. Kinda. You couldn't tell by looking and I think it was deliberate. There was only one issue on the ballot in my precinct. It was a city income tax increase. Nearly 15%. The Democrats who have run this city's deficit from 100 million to 480 million over the past eight years think that the way to solve all of our ills is with more taxes. They justify it by pointing out that the federal government and the state have both cut income tax so logically Akron taxpayers have more money available to be taken by local tax.

To further sugarcoat the measure, they have hit upon the slogan, "Keep Akron Safe" and promise to hire new police officers. But my God we are in the hole 480 million dollars and they want to raise our taxes and spend it on new police and services. I have suddenly developed a pain in my backside. Right about where my wallet is. I have never been mugged in Akron except by the City Council.

Fortunately the voters of the Rubber capitol of the World were not taken in the Democrats ploy. The measure went down nearly 2 to 1.

***UPDATE***
OOPS. I have made a factual error as Pho has pointed out. The actual deficit is only 27 million. The total debt is over 700 million. My fault for not verifying my source. Still its no reason to raise my taxes 15%. Why don't we try some sound fiscal management?

I Didn't Feel It Move

We had an earthquake here yesterday. It measured a whopping 3.6 on the Richter scale. I had to learn about it on TV this morning because, well the Earth didn’t move for me. We get quakes here in Ohio all the time I’m told, 16 last year. But they are so small no one notices. Not that I’m complaining. I’d rather have a T.V. fall off a sedan and a 1 inch crack 50 foot long open up than to have widespread death, destruction, and loss of property.  

I guess if the big one ever hits Ohio then Peninsula will break off from the rest of the state and sink into the Cuyahoga.