It's Not A Phobia If It's Rational

The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry warns that the U.S. is spreading Irano-phobia.

Hey, aren't these the folks who call the U.S. "the great Satan"?

Sounds like USphobia to me.

Of course, you can see where they'd be nervous about now. The U.S. armed forces are camped on 2 of their borders. And the U.S. President just called them "the world's leading state sponsor of terror".

After getting an earful of that
I'd be fearful of getting bombed flat.

Harsh Words

Now Mayor Daley is lambasting our governor's demand that trains and buses provide free rides for old folks.

“Any politician can give things for free, but there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” Daley said at a news conference.

They call it free, but the bill comes due,
And soon your lunch is eating you.

Perfecting the Persona

Interesting NYT article on the way Fred Thompson suddenly emerged as electric during the South Carolina Republican debate..

Apparently before he was "distinguishing himself" by being "almost invisible." Heh. That's more like extinguishing yourself when it comes to getting votes.

“But then last night — we hadn’t even been thinking about him — all of a sudden it was clear he was the one,” said Mr. Berenberk, a retired teacher. “The bluntness, the forcefulness. He was really impressive.”

Here's the part I really liked:

Mr. Thompson has made all the same points during campaign events throughout the state, aides said. But many voters who flocked to his rallies on Friday had never heard him make them until they heard him in the latest debate on the Fox News Channel.

So they didn't even hear what he said before?! Part of what he did was criticize his opponents with an air of self-confidence.

He got juiced up
And ruled the roost
And boosted his campaign.

Maybe a Lemon Tree in My Backyard?

It snowed today in Baghdad.

First time in a hundred years.

Well, I'm a bit worried. I was counting on global warming to improve the local climate here in Chicago. I figured we'd have palm trees lining State St. and orange groves in Grant Park.

Retirees would no longer move away to "somewhere warm."
Flamingos would arrive in a vast swarm.
Hurricanes, not blizzards, would be our chief form of storm.

Finally forever free of snow!
But, no.

In a news flash
My hopes were dashed.

Free Riders

Here in Illinois, as elsewhere, our mass transit finances are in a mess. But our governor demands that "seniors" be allowed to ride for free!

Of course, this will actually reduce the money coming into the transit agency. Brilliant.

When you decide to give away
All sorts of goodies to those with gray,
Someone, somewhere, has to pay.

Of course it's the young
Who end up stung.

Vote Early, Vote Often

If you want to vote in Indiana, you have to show a state-issued i.d., such as a driver's license.

Some believe this is an assault on the right to vote. They sued. The Supreme Court heard the case today.

So here's a funny story about a woman who wasn't allowed to vote in Hoosier Land. She has been complaining about this great injustice!

But it turns out she's also registered to vote in Florida, where she has a winter home.

I'm standing by her!

Why should I vote only once?
My home state is solidly Blue!
My ballot here barely counts.
Michigan needs me too!

Wouldn't it be great
When choosing Presidents
To vote in every state
Where you've got a residence?

It's probably out of my reach,
But it would be nifty
To rent a hotel room in each
And vote in all 50!

New Hampshire Results IN!

Democracy, you know,
For drama you can't beat it.

One side gets to crow,
The other gets to eat it.

Blackout

The town of Nampa, in Idaho, was blacked out yesterday by a cat. The poor kitty "entered an electrical substation, snuggled up to a warm transformer and contacted a live circuit." The cat did not survive.

To err is human, so they say,
But clearly,
Our fur-coated companions may
Also err, and sometimes pay
Severely.

The Windier City

The Windy City was living up to its nickname today.

There's a particular block in the Loop that seems to be a wind-tunnel of some kind - around Wabash and Jackson. Today, at lunch, we saw a woman there who was just holding onto a lamppost with both arms. She was actually afraid to cross the street. So my friend and I offered our arms.

I hope she got where she was going
Before the tornadoes started blowing.

"For The Girl Who Has Everything"

Found on ChicagoBoyz:

It's the cutest little weapon that you have ever seen:
The Hello Kitty AR-15.

Spelling to Go with the Rhyme

I've been reading Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale" in Middle English. When I'm unsure of the meaning - often enough - I glance at the facing page for the Modern English version.

I was amused when I came across 2 different spellings of pain around line 461: peyne vs. pyne.

The spelling seems to change depending on what word it's being rhymed with.

Simplifying drastically, the rhymes are pain / complain, and pain / divine.

I don't know much about pronunciation back then. I'm guessing that there were 2 acceptable ways to pronounce "pain". Spelling wasn't standardized. So the spelling of a word changed to match the pronunciation.

I have to admit, I still do this once in a while. Usually with an apostrophe. Usually to indicate that I'm dropping the final "g" in a rhyme like this:

There was a high-schooler named Helen,
Who always won contests for spellin'.
She said: "Drop that G
In a real spelling bee,
And you'll be sent away as a felon."

Nevada Flood

A levee has broken after heavy rains in Nevada, stranding 3500 people.

In Nevada?

I thought it was supposed be dry there!
How did the water get so high there?

Shocked Or Not

I can't say I was shocked when Obama carried Iowa.

But one of my friends at work was. She's black, and a few years older than me. She was floored. In a good way. "I didn't think I'd see this in my lifetime." She kept saying that.

She grew up in the Jim Crow South. Separate water fountains for "colored." Imagine that.

There was an article in the Sun-Times today about how stunned many African-Americans feel.

"We were all just thinking that he would be third when they were showing the early returns on TV," said Betty Wilson, a 50-ish owner of Hairicons, a beauty salon and barber shop in the 6400 block of South Cottage Grove in Woodlawn. "But then they said he was in first. Who would have thought he would get so many votes?

I suspect this is bad for Mrs. Clinton. She had a lot of black support. But some of that support was premised on the idea that Obama couldn't possibly win among whites. Now the air is going out of that idea.

When racial bias became officially taboo, it did not vanish, but it went underground. This makes it hard to know how much of it there is.

Apparently there's less
Than a lot of people thought.
Sometimes it's hard to assess
The changes time has brought.

Thrill of the Bug Hunt

Exciting day at work!

Exciting mostly because I had to track down 2 mistakes I'd made... and fix them ASAP.

First you detect
The bug's effect,
Plain before your eyes.

But where the defect
Really lies
Arrives as a surprise.

Hocus Pocus, Caucus Focus

It's Huckabee and Obama! Assuming the projections hold.

Iowa is adjacent,
So I cannot be complacent.

The great thing about the 2 party system is that everyone is guaranteed at least one person to vote against!

Representative government
Can sometimes seem a curse.
That's when I remind myself
The other forms are worse.

Leaving the Land of Levees

New Orleans was a bit chilly on the last few days of our stay. Chilly by their standards, that is.

Well, I'm back. This morning I awoke to the announcement that it was zero degrees Fahrenheit here in Chicago.

We flew out of the Big Easy
And into the Deep Freezy!

Knowing When To Stop

This woman in Paw Paw, Michigan ran a stop sign. She hit a utility pole, making contact with electrical wires, setting her truck on fire.

She got back on the road and kept going.

Flames engulfed her vehicle and she had to jump out.

She's fine. She also set her dog on fire in the process, but he's fine too.

"Alcohol is believed to be a factor in the crash."

Talk about using the passive voice to obscure responsibility! I wonder how alcohol is a factor? Did she have a crate of rubbing alcohol in the truck bed and it caught on fire?

You might admire her drive
But she's lucky she's alive.

As for alcohol,
If you plan to knock down wires,
Be sure to store it all
Somewhere it can't catch fire!

For Lack of "The Lake"

The past 3 years I jumped in the lake for New Year's. It had turned into a tradition! But this morning I'm nowhere near my familiar Lake Michigan.

Fortunately, we're going on a swamp tour.

Since the Chicago River was reversed
Water from Lake Michigan has coursed
Down to the delta of the Mississippi.

So I plan to let my fingers dip
Into the dark and muddy water, knowing
Some of those molecules from my home came flowing.

On The Y Chromosome?

Instapundit reports on shocking news from the UK:

Playing with toy weapons helps the development of young boys, according to new Government advice to nurseries and playgroups.

Pacifist parents who try to ban weapon-like toys
Frequently find that their sons chase forbidden joys
Converting sticks into swords and legos to guns,
Pursuing their own ideas of solid fun.

That's Beignet To You, Buster

New Orleans: a strange place where
They make their donuts square.