for Evangeline–

The woman was old and ragged and gray
And bent with the chill of the Winter’s day.

…Mary Dow Brine

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Billboard in Minnesota.

Via Instapundit.

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Rubbies achieved our first victory of the season tonight against Jagernutz from Sam Ryan’s, 20-17.

And I only lost two legs!

But then, I only played three.

It’s all good.

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Fatboy Slim

Walken Dancin’

Stop Go

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That’s my favorite quote from Global Warming (blessed be thy name) fanatic Jacob at ROK Sojourn.  Jacob believes that anyone who does not share his faith in anthropogenic global warming religion theory should just “shut the hell up”.

I can only imagine his disappointment that not only have people refused to shut up, the mainstream press has now joined the blogging community in reporting the almost daily revelations of fraud in the UN’s IPCC report.

And now comes this report from the BBC showing a rather significant increase in heretics non-believers in AGW over the past three months (coinciding with the climategate scandal).  This graphic shows what happened when the Great Wizard of Global Warming (aka “settled science”) was exposed as just a “man behind the curtain”:

Yikes, that’s a lot of people lining up to “contract cancer and die painful and slow deaths”.  Not sure the overwhelmed British health care system can handle the influx.

Perhaps Jacob will show these newly minted non-believers some mercy.  Forgive them Jacob, they know not what they do.

UPDATE:  Read this from Canada’s Globe and Mail.  I think it captures precisely where things stand on this issue.

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You know, we like to keep things humble here at LTG.  I have a small, but dedicated, group of regular readers and a handful of folks who are brought here through a misdirected Google search.  But get a link from one of the big boys, in this case Instapundit, and look out!  The Blogfather linked to this post, and as you can see from the graph above, things were off the charts.

But, fame is fleeting it seems.  I’m not thinking that many of those who followed Glenn’s link will be back anytime soon.  But that’s ok, we’ve still got each other, right?

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It’s Friday which means it’s time to introduce the Yoja for this week.  And here she is–Ms. Moon Ji Eun:

She’s got that sweet girl next door look going on, but don’t let that fool you.  She’s got a naughty side too:

Anyway, she is a popular singer here in Korea (not that I would know).  And sorry Dave, I don’t think she does more than sing, dance, and look mighty fine.

You can watch her put the moves on here…

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Well, the visit to the Soonchunhwang medical center today was a bit of a bust.  I did get reacquainted with my old pal Dr. Yu who said I looked much better than the last time we met.  Anyway, the whole medical well-being checkup was to be scheduled after my consultation with the good Dr. Yu.  And that will occur next Friday.  Endoscopy and everything.  HooRay!  Oh, I am wearing the blood pressure monitor which is recording my blood pressure every 30 minutes or so.  I was 140/90 this morning, but I always run a little borderline high.  So, we’ll see.

Anyway, since I had taken the whole day off work I decided to take a break from the treadmill and hike up Namsan (South Mountain) instead.  Let’s check the pictures…

Yobo Jee Yuen came along for the sunshine and fresh air…

And how could she resist an offer from a handsome guy like this?  Although she did laugh a little too long and a little too loud when she got a look at my hat and walking stick….what’s up with that?

Stuff like this in Korea never ceases to amaze me.  Not so much that it is assumed passerby’s will put out any brush fires they may encounter, but that no one would consider stealing the shovels and rakes.  Man, they wouldn’t last 24 hours left out like that in the USA.

This was either fresh spring water or the drain from the toilets…

Ah, the pause that refreshes…and yeah, it was clean water…

Ok, I’m not going to pretend that it is a difficult hike.  It’s not at all.  It’s like a stairway to heaven in fact…

Just call me the old stairmaster.  163 steps on this incline…

And at the top is this nice scenic overlook…

With views like this one…

So, our destination is Seoul Tower.  We’re about half way there at this point…

The wimp’s way to the top. (which is my normal method, well that was the old me).

Old fortifications…

And chimneys for the smoke signals to warn of invaders.  Which happened quite often in Korean history…

Objective achieved.  Now we’re hungry…

Hmm, last time I was up here this was a family style Korean restaurant.  Now it’s a hoity-toity Italian place.

But the view of Myeongdong is the same…

Quite a bit fancier on the inside than it used to be…

Jee Yuen’s hungry face…

We watched the cable cars while we waited (the restaurant is directly above the station).

Alas, this delicious seafood soup was just about gone before I remembered to use the camera (I told you Jee Yuen was hungry!)  But you can see the shells and stuff off to the side.  Mussels and prawns and other goodies.

This fried seafood dish was also quite tasty…

And the pizza was to die for…crust about as thick as a cracker…the way it should be!

So after gorging ourselves on that great food, we decided to ride the tram back down the mountain.  Jee Yuen has tickets in hand, but the tram that was supposed to depart at 10 minute intervals was somewhat delayed.  Suspiciously it seemed that the delay coincided with enough passengers showing up to fill the car….oh well, it was less than 30 minutes wait and that puts it within the range of “Korea time”.

Nice views on the ride down too…

And so ended my Namsan afternoon…

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Seriously, I am having a hard time keeping up with the falling dominoes.  Now it turns out the data from China was faked.

And where in the hell has Al Gore been?

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Bush was not the problem.  Obama is not the solution.  So says French news organ Le Monde.

This is of course shocking news for folks with BDS (Bush derangement syndrome), not so much for the rest of us.

Bush was not the problem. Obama is not the solution: one year after the arrival at the White House of a Democratic president, disenchantment is mutual on either side of the Atlantic. The Allies are discovering — if indeed they were unaware of it before — that misunderstandings go beyond individuals.

Having denounced Mr. Bush’s imperialism, Europeans are criticizing Mr. Obama for his impotence. They are complaining of his not being able to bend China at the Copenhagen summit on the fight against global warming. “We overestimated his room for maneuver,” said adviser to the French executive; “The Chinese were facing a weakling”, said a person close to Mr. Sarkozy.

Sad and scary.  And oddly hilarious.

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So, the LA Times takes some unfair shots at MSNBC icon Keith Olbermann.  And yeah, his ratings have been in a bit of a slump maybe, but why kick a guy when he is down?  I am not going to stand by and let this unwarranted attack go unanswered.  Don’t worry Keith, I’ve got your back!  To the article then:

Remember Keith Olbermann?

He was the one-time must-see anti-Bush ranter who helped rescue MSNBC (yes, it’s still on at night) from even worse oblivion years ago.

Yeah, we remember him Mr. Smarty Pants Times reporter.  And if you had even half a clue you’d know that he is in fact still ranting against Bush, notwithstanding the fact that Bush is long gone.  You’ve got to marvel at (and admire) that kind of consistency!

Well, quietly last month while no one was looking, hardly anyone was watching Keith Olbermann anymore.

The guy, who’s even apparently tried to get some Sarah Palin-like eyeglasses, is now forced to leap over-the-top on ex-state senators like Scott Brown and Tuesday’s worst person, Fox News’ Glenn Beck. Beck is the successful talker with the perfect haircut for radio. Like most Americans, he wasn’t watching Keith.

Well, I’m not watching Olbermann either and neither is anyone I know.  But you just don’t get it.  Olbermann is a presence for crissakes, you don’t have to actually watch his show to get his vibe.  Besides, if you have seen one show you have seen them all.  And when did actually watching someone become the end-all be-all anyway?  Of course, Palin does look hot in those glasses, but she copied KO’s style, not the other way around.  Keith sets the trend, us lesser beings follow.  Gladly.

There are a couple of reasons for KO’s frustration and anger and volume and core meltdown over the Massachusetts election outcome, among other issues of galactic import. For one, lots more ranters around nowadays on all sides, including that colleague of Keith’s with the hugest head in TV. Please, no 3-D for him!

Also, Olbermann’s showboat is sinking. Listing in you-know-which direction.

It’s as if he thinks talking LOUDER will keep his low cell battery from dying.

Now that is a low blow.  Get your facts straight at least.  NO ONE on television has a head bigger than Keith Olbermann.  No one!  And you can use that cutesy “showboat sinking” metaphor to insinuate that KO lists to the left.  Ha! Ha!  As I am sure Keith would be the first to say, he does not list, lean, or otherwise slant to the left.  He is f’n off the charts.  As many have said countless times, Keith Olbermann may be many things, but he is never right.  And talking louder is a proven method of making your point when the facts are stacked against you.  Don’t compare his show to a cell phone with a dead battery just because he tends to rant angrily.  As the poet Dylan Thomas said “rage, rage against the dying of the light!”  You go Keith!

Worst, Olbermann’s network president, Phil Griffin, is publicly praising him, always an ominous sign in television. While referring to his host almost in the past tense. “Keith has been our tentpole,” Griffin says, adding later, “I’m pleased with where we are.”

See, now this Times guy is just playing with words to make things sound worse than they are.  Phil Griffin never said anything about past tense, he clearly referred to KO as a “has been”.  And that “tentpole” thing–so what?  Chris Matthews has had a tentpole in his pants for Obama since before the election (or was that a thrill running down his leg?  ah well, same same).  And anyway, Griffin gave much more than a mere vote of confidence when he said “I’m pleased with where we are”.  Where they are is last place.  And every baseball fan (including KO) knows the Leo Durocher maxim that “nice guys finish last”.  So, what we have is KO’s boss saying he is a nice guy.  You can take that and three bucks down to your local Starbucks and get a hot java.  Trust me on that.

In the most desirable TV demographic of 25-54, which Keith will soon outgrow himself, “Countdown” lost 44% of its audience from the beginning of President Obama’s term until this year. It could have been worse — say, 45%.

Oh ok, here we go.  You know the gloves are comin’ off when the critic starts throwin’ around numbers.  Let’s see, you got your lies, your damn lies, and your statistics.  So yeah, Keith is getting long in the tooth (aren’t we all?), but what are you gonna do lock him up with those “retards” Rahm was complaining about?  Wake up and smell the roses pal, this is America and that ain’t on the agenda.  So, yeah he lost 44% of his audience.  And yeah, it could have been worse.  But think about this–if it does get worse, that 44% ain’t gonna seem so bad after all, will it?  You want to play the numbers game with me?  Bring it on!

Olbermann averaged 268,000 viewers last month in that sector. That’s just several thousand sets of those eyes more than Campbell Brown over on CNN. According to one count, Keith even finished in that time slot behind Nancy Grace. Nancy Grace!

Hey, there is absolutely nothing wrong with finishing behind Nancy Grace.  That would be my preference.  Have you seen her face?  Oh. We’re talking about ratings?  Er, well. Never mind then.

On the bright side, which everyone knows KO is fond of spotting, his MSNBC audience was only 696,000 viewers 24-54 behind O’Reilly, whose audience has grown 55%, according to Bercovici. Of course, it might be worse this month.

Oh so it is back to the numbers again huh?  Can’t even come up with something new and original?  Well Mr. Know-it-all critic let me ask you this: what precisely is the significance of O’Reilly’s audience growing by 55% and KO’s shrinking by 44%?  I mean seriously dude, what is your point?  And then you smugly say “it could be worse this month”.  Well guess what genius, it could also be a helluva lot worse this month.  I guess we will just have to wait and see, won’t we?

In the immortal words of Edward J. Smith, captain of the Titanic, “What iceberg?”

You just couldn’t resist getting one final cheap shot in before concluding your worthless article, could you?.  Well my friend, the joke is on you because if you had even half a brain you would know two things–one it was the CIA who sank the Titanic not an iceberg (I’m pretty sure EuroYank has a post on this somewhere) and two, if it was an iceberg, the famous words of Captain Smith were “damn the icebergs, full speed ahead”.  You can look it up in any history book dimwit.

Keith Olbermann, don’t let the haters get you down.  You just keep on doing what you’re doing.  The results speak for themselves.

UPDATE:  Wow, an Instalanche to my humble little blog.  Thanks, Glenn.  And welcome y’all.  Come on in, take your shoes off (this is Korea after all), sit a spell and have a look around (it’s the internet!). Glad you are here!

UPDATE 2:  Damn, I just realized that in the email I sent the Instapundit kinda sorta whoring for a link, I spelled Glenn’s name wrong.  And he still linked me.  What a guy!
Hat Tip: Instapundit

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But, I’ll give this guy props for not just complaining about illegal immigration, by god he’s doing something about it!

A Hemet man who passed himself off as a U.S. Marshal was able to enter the international airport in San Diego with a “prisoner” after convincing airport security officers he was a federal agent, a TSA spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday.

Gregory R. Denny, 37, was booked last month and booked on suspicion of kidnapping, false imprisonment and impersonating a peace officer…Denny was wearing clothing with “Federal Agent” printed on it, had a badge around his neck, a gun belt, and displayed an apparent handgun. The witnesses at the home told investigators the suspect then handcuffed a female resident of the home and said he was detaining her and deporting the woman…

The victim was then taken to the suspect’s vehicle and then allegedly driven to the U.S. Border Patrol station in Murrieta, Wisehart said. Officials at the Border Patrol office told Denny he would not take Denny’s “prisoner” because there was no warrant in the computer system. Denny told Hemet investigators that officers at the Border Patrol office confirmed the woman was in the country illegally, Wisehart said, but they would not take her into custody.
Hemet investigators were then told that the suspect ultimately drove the female victim to the International Airport, where he escorted the handcuffed victim through the airport and to the gate of a departing flight, Wisehart said. At this point he un-handcuffed the victim and she boarded the plane that was headed to the Philippines.

You know, as funny as this guy’’s antics may sound, the real joke is our airport security.  What a bunch of clowns…

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But according to this I should be maintaining my sanity just fine thank you very much.  (And no, being a neo-con is not a mental illness!)

Individuals at extremely high risk of developing psychosis appear less likely to develop psychotic disorders following a 12-week course of fish oil capsules containing long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

“Early treatment in schizophrenia and other psychoses has been linked to better outcomes,” the authors write as background information in the article. “Given that subclinical psychotic symptoms may predict psychotic disorder and psychosis proneness in a population may be related to the rate of psychotic disorder, intervention in at-risk individuals holds the promise of even better outcomes, with the potential to prevent full-blown psychotic disorders.”

I am pleased to report that fish oil is part of my daily regimen.

My Grandma Pernie would be so proud…

And I’m doing this 5 days a week…

Don’t mock my black socks, I do this after work and don’t change into white ones.  It wouldn’t be energy-efficient to dirty two pair.  I mean, we all have to worship at the alter of do our part for Global Warming (praise be to thy name).

And this morning I’m going to the doctor for a physical examination.  Want to make sure it’s not too late.  I mean, if I already got the cancer or some other fatal illness (well, other than aging) I sure as hell don’t want to spend any of my remaining time on an f’n treadmill!

But I am feeling pretty good physically these days.  If I am able to cut the belly down to size, I should be looking mighty fine as well.

(oh, here’s a useful clue for you: if the post is tagged “me, me, me” you can expect this kind of self-absorbed crap.  Sorry, I should have warned you up top).

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Well, if Neil Young can write a song about his car, I suppose it’s not so over-the-top for me to devote a blog post to the subject.  Although I’m taking more of an Julio Iglesias approach (more or less):

To all the cars I’ve owned before,

That carried me from door to door

You know you were the most, I dedicate this post

To all the cars I’ve owned before…

Let’s get on with it, shall we?

So, it would have been in the fall of 1971 if memory serves.  I was 16 years old and spoiling for my own set of wheels.  Of course I was pathetically underemployed, and my savings from a summer job at the car wash amounted to a meager $150.  Which was what I paid for a 1963 Ford Falcon station wagon similar to the one pictured above.  Except mine had curtains in the windows and a Ford decal on the side.  It was a piece a crap, belched smoke and burned oil.  But it was mine.  I drove it to the prom in ‘72 (held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach).  And no, I didn’t ever get laid in the back, which sorta defeated the only benefit to having a station wagon I suppose.  It gave up the ghost for good shortly thereafter.

So, after the death of the Falcon, I began driving a 1963 Ford F-100 pickup similar to the one above.  Although mine didn’t look near as good.  It technically belonged to my father, but he was a Merchant Marine and out to sea for 9 months of the year, so I drove it like I owned it for the remainder of my high school days.  It was a good old truck although it didn’t carry much cache with the girls seeing as how most of my classmates had Mustangs, GTOs, Roadrunners and the like.

In July of 1973 my father and I reached an understanding whereby I would move out of the house.  The truck did not come with me, so I purchased a 1964 Chevy Impala to carry me to my job on the graveyard shift at the Stop N Go convenience store (a job I quit months later when $2.00 per hour lost its appeal after I was the victim in an armed robbery).  Now, this was a fine car if you overlooked a pint of tranny fluid once a week and a tailpipe held together by a tin can (which I thought was a brilliant solution for rust-through).  I used to drive it down to San Diego (100 miles south of OC) on the weekend to visit my high school sweetheart.  Coming back home there was an immigration check point at San Onofre and I swear every week I got flagged down by the Border Patrol agents for a vehicle search.  Now, I was a long haired hippy freak looking guy back then, and it sorta got on my nerves after awhile.  So I finally complained about being constantly harassed.  The agent just laughed and said, it’s not about you–it’s your car!  I guess the old Chevy fit the smuggler profile.  Ah well.

Well, things were beginning to look up employment-wise as I secured the number two position at Adco Plastics (which was a three man operation) making a hefty $3.50 per hour.  So, I purchased a used (but new for me!) 1973 Datsun pickup truck.  Mine was blue with some cool pin-striping.  I surely did enjoy this vehicle.  Took it on a lot of camping trips and road excursions.  Even put a camper shell on the back.  And yes, I did have some good times back there, thanks for asking.  Now one other thing I remember that happened in this truck (perhaps related to the previous thing)– I had recently acquired a cute little German Shepard puppy and I was picking up my girlfriend from her job at the mall.  And in the parking lot she said the words that no 19 year old male wants to hear: “I’m pregnant” (she was 17).  And my response was: “Damn it Bridget! If I knew you were gonna get pregnant, I wouldn’t have got the dog!”.  All’s well that ends well.  I kept the dog, kept the baby, and married Bridget.

So, with a wife and baby came new responsibilities and after a series of dead-end jobs it was time for some employment stability and security.  And so I took a job with my Uncle Sam as a part-time flexible letter carrier (mailman) at $5.25 an hour, plus benefits!  With my future now in safekeeping with the U.S. government, I could add another kid to the household and buy a car for the spouse.  Thus, Kevin joined his sister Renee in the back seat of our almost good as new 1975 AMC Pacer.  Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am not ashamed to admit that I was a proud owner of this fine example of American craftsmanship and styling.  Ok, the car was a piece of crap, but I thought then and still do, that it looked really cool.  It was a comfortable ride, but it had this mysterious bug where you’d be driving along and it would just shut down.  Not a fun thing at speed on the Interstate.  My best memory of the Pacer was it carried us to our new life Prescott, Arizona.  Well, it carried Bridget and the kids.  I sold my beloved Datsun to finance the move and drove a Ryder rental truck with all our earthly possessions and left California behind for good.

Ah, Prescott was like moving to paradise.  Living in Arizona’s mile high city was the greatest experience.  I walked to work, played softball, marveled at smog free blue skies and enjoyed the moderate four season climate.  Whatever ailed the Pacer was exacerbated by the mountain air and seeing as how we were living in the country now, we needed a more appropriate vehicle.  Like a 1974 Toyota LandCruiser 4X4 station wagon.  Yes siree that was a fine vehicle.  Not much for creature comforts, but we had a blast exploring the dirt backroads through the surrounding mountains and doing picnics wherever the vista inspired us to stop.  Bought our first house and settled in with our two kids to live the American dream.

Oh wait a minute.  The American dream is house, two kids, and TWO cars in the garage (although I actually had a carport).  Well, I had missed out on all the big block V8s back in high school, but I jumped on the chance to purchase my neighbor’s 1966 Pontiac Grand Prix.  Oh man, it was about as cherry as the one pictured above.  It drove like a boat, meaning it just floated down the open highway.  I thought it looked a little like the Batmobile,  but the kids called it “the big ride”.  As in when I was taking the kids along on an errand it was always “daddy, can we take the big ride?”  So cute.  And accurate.

Dreams don’t always end the way you want, but new dreams come along and take their place.  I suppose that’s pretty much the way life works for most of us.  Bridget and I divorced and in a fit of madness I traded in the big ride and bought my first brand new car, a 1981 Mazda GLC Sport.  Hell, I’m thinking you coulda built 3 Mazdas with the sheet medal from that Grand Prix.  But I have to say, that Mazda was really fun to drive.  5 speed stick shift, tight steering and suspension, and lots of twisting mountain roads (my favorite was the one up Mingus Mountain to the ghost town of Jerome.  In fact, I drove that car all over the Western United States.  And then I sold everything I owned that didn’t fit in the back seat and moved to join the kids in Oklahoma.

Well, technically I took a job in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  My parents owned a small farm/ranch across the border in Monroe, OK and the kids were staying there.  I had just worn out the Mazda with hard driving and so it was time to make a change.  That turned out to be the 1984 Pontiac Sunbird Turbo.  Mine was a dark blue.  You know, the car wasn’t half bad.  If you could overlook design flaws which caused the spark plug wires to melt after prolonged highway driving.  And then I drove it into a flooded stream crossing and it always smelled of mildew thereafter.   Hmm, suffice to say it was the last GM product that I ever purchased.  I had given up on being a mailman after that first icy Arkansas winter and took an inside job as the Safety Manager and in 1986 I got a big promotion doing labor relations work in Columbia, South Carolina.  Driving there was the last road trip for me and the Sunbird.  Good riddance!

Dumped the Sunbird and bought a 1987 Dodge Ram pickup truck.  About a year later I was driving to North Carolina for business and early in morning pulled into an I-95 rest area.  And lo and behold there was the old Sunbird.  I went into the restroom to take care of business and guessed that the other guy in there was the new (and probably unhappy) owner of the Pontiac.  Of course, restroom decorum did not allow me to say anything to him, but I did wonder what are the odds I’d cross paths with the old car like that?  Anyway, the Ram was a great truck.  The kids had gotten used to farm life so I hauled horses in a big old trailer behind that truck from OK to SC.  And somewhere in Tennessee I made the mistake of letting the horses out for a little leg stretch.  And they refused to re-trailer.  What a pain in the ass that was.  If I remember right, we had to call a vet out to tranquilize them.  But for the next few years that old Ram hauled a bunch of hay, that’s for sure.  Hey, wait a minute!  I’ve actually got a picture of that Ram somewhere.  Hold on…

Heh, is that Tom Selleck?  Anyway, it was a great truck that was still going strong when I took my next promotion to Arlington, VA ten years later in 1996.

So my other vehicle in South Carolina was this fine 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee.  This was the first year of the Grand Cherokee, and in fact, I ordered mine direct from the factory.  I really did like this vehicle and it was still going strong 150,000+ miles later when it had an unfortunate encounter with a tree after the move to Virginia (I was not involved in that fiasco).

So, I had racked up the miles on the trusty Ram and I had the commute from hell up I-95 from Stafford County everyday.  The wife had found work in Richmond about the same distance south (at least time wise), so I needed something more reliable.  Having been happy with Chrysler products, I opted for the Dodge Dakota Sport (stuck with the red color).  Hated to let the Ram go, but not as much as I did a few hours later when the transmission on the Dakota failed.  I couldn’t believe it.  Luckily we were at the movies not far from home.  The next day I was back at the dealership asking for my Ram back, but alas, it was gone (or so they claimed).  Anyway, with the transmission replaced, the Dakota turned out to be a good little truck.  I wish I had gone with the club cab, because it was just a tad small for my growing frame.

I don’t really know why, but I bought this 1997 VW Jetta.  It was sporty (and red) with a stick shift and all and I thought it had nice clean lines, but it really wasn’t very practical.  Shifting gears in the daily traffic jams on I-95 got old pretty quick.  Sold it to my daughter (the kids, now grown, had both stayed in South Carolina).

So, having driven the Jetta down to South Carolina to deliver to Renee, I needed some wheels to get back to Virginia.  And I went with the Classic Jeep Cherokee.  Liked the way it looks too, although it was not as roomy or smooth riding as the Grand Cherokee.  I took a temporary assignment as the Human Resources Director in Little Rock, Arkansas and this is what drove me there and back.  Well, I drove to the casinos in Mississippi a few times too, but that’s another story.  This turned out to be my last gig with the Postal Service (but not my last Jeep), having accepted a job for more pay and less responsibility with the Department of Education in Washington, DC starting in January 2001.

So you know, my next vehicle was a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee like this except a different color (yeah, that’s right, red).  I sold the other Jeep to Kevin down in SC, and I think he drove it until the wheels came off.  But this Grand Cherokee was by far the best car I have ever owned.  You know, when a vehicle is still looking good and running good after it is paid for, well, that’s really something in my book.  Definitely one fine automobile.  Hated to see Obama sell Chrysler to Fiat, but I imagine my Jeep buying days are over now.

Anyway, the Education job with better pay and less responsibility turned out to be pretty boring  and I started to get the itch to do something different.  Really different.  I applied for some jobs in Iraq, but they didn’t need any old fat guys there at the time.  I did get an offer from the Army in Korea.  So, in January 2005 I arrived here without a clue.  And without a car.  So, I purchased myself a “hoopdee”, which is basically a vehicle that is recycled between owners as people come and go.  I bought this Mitsubishi Expo from a guy who was leaving Korea for Japan.  I drove it for my first 3 years here.  And other than a transmission, alternator, and battery it was a fine ride.  Well, the A/C wasn’t much either come to think of it.  I sold it to a soldier working for AFN and still see it around base sometimes.  So, in the fine tradition of hoopdees, it lives on.

My current ride is a Nissan Bluebird, it looks just like the one above.  Yep, right hand drive direct from Japan.  This car has a sad history, as it belong to my now deceased former boss.  First time I rode in it was when he picked me on my first night in Korea.  It is a very nice car.  I tried to sell it for the widow without success. The right hand drive puts people off sometimes and the car is worth much more than people will pay for a hoopdee.  Since the car is not legal to be shipped back to the states, there is a limited market.  I wound up with it almost by default.  I paid her what it was worth to me, which was less than market value by a good deal.  Well, market value and market reality are different, but I still feel a little guilty about it.  When I leave this fall, I guess it will begin its journey into hoopdee-hood.  Great car though.

Alright.  I have no idea why I did this remembrance  to vehicles gone by.  And while I touched on certain aspects of my life’s history, it is by no means comprehensive.  I left out friends, lovers, wives, step-children, and all kinds of other important stuff.  No offense intended towards anyone, ok?  Hey, I have to save something for my autobiography, right?

One last thing: If you have read this far, please forgive me.  I can’t help being pathetic sometimes…

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and I feel fine.

In Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s most recent televised speech on Iran State TV, the Iranian President upped the ante on his promised February 11 “telling blow against global arrogance” with his prediction of the “end of American civilization.”

“The arrogant and hegemonic powers, which mankind experienced in the past 300 years – and past 60 years in particular – have been the biggest historical impediment in the face of fulfillment of this goal (worldwide Islamic revolution),” he said, according to the BBC.

I will stay tuned for the BBC expose revealing that Ahmadinejad is just another stooge in league with the CIA.  You know, like that Bin Laden guy.

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Newfoundland Premier leaves province for undisclosed location south of the border.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week in the United States.

Yes, the rich and powerful in the Great White North don’t cotton much to that vaunted Canadian socialized medicine.  Lord knows, waiting in a queue for substandard service is only for the little people.

Not sure what will happen to those poor souls should Obamacare become law.  Best take care of those health needs now I suppose.

I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning…

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A must read obituary for the global warming movement.

The global warming movement as we have known it is dead.  Its health had been in steady decline during the last year as the once robust hopes for a strong and legally binding treaty to be agreed upon at the Copenhagen Summit faded away.  By the time that summit opened, campaigners were reduced to hoping for a ‘politically binding’ agreement to be agreed that would set the stage for the rapid adoption of the legally binding treaty.  After the failure of the summit to agree to even that much, the movement went into a rapid decline.The movement died from two causes: bad science and bad politics.

Read the whole thing, it makes some excellent points.  Including this one, which pretty much captures my sentiments on AGW:

The urge to make the data better than it was didn’t just come out of nowhere.  The global warmists were trapped into the necessity of hyping the threat by their realization that the actual evidence they had — which, let me emphasize, all hype aside, is serious, troubling and establishes in my mind the need for intensive additional research and investigation, as well as some prudential steps that would reduce CO2 emissions by enhancing fuel use efficiency and promoting alternative energy sources — was not sufficient to get the world’s governments to do what they thought needed to be done. Hyping the threat increasingly doesn’t look like an accident: it looks like it was a conscious political strategy.

Emphasis mine.

UPDATE: I swear, I just can’t keep up with all the new revelations of fruad.  What a fiasco.

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Dartaholics ripped us a new one tonight, 25-12.  But you know what?  I would rather be a loser than an asshole.  Congrats to the biggest assholes in the Seoul International Dart League.  You earned it!

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Y’all may have noticed that LTG reader and commenter EuroYank has recently graced these humble pages with pithy remarks and links to places where only the brave (or insane) dare to tread.  And no one supports the value of a diversity of opinion more than I.

So, it is in that spirit that I feel compelled to provide you a link to his blog.  Make sure you read this post.  It literally made me shake my head in wonder.  Satire at its finest?  Or access to better stuff than they sell in Amsterdam? 

Whatever the answer, the alternate universe he imagines is something to behold.  You can’t make this stuff up!  Er, well, he can apparently.  But you know what I mean.

Don’t miss it!

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Man, I think I’m gonna need a scorecard to keep up with the hits the on UN’s IPCC report that purports to prove man-made climate change.

Let’s see, we have the emails showing that certain data sets were “tricked” to show temperature gains over time.

Then there was the fudged numbers from weather stations in New Zealand and other locations.

The it turned out that those melting glaciers in the Himalayas wouldn’t be gone by 2035 after all.

Next we learned that the increase in weather related property damage couldn’t be tied to AGW after all.

And now the Times of London is reporting this:

A STARTLING report by the United Nations climate watchdog that global warming might wipe out 40% of the Amazon rainforest was based on an unsubstantiated claim by green campaigners who had little scientific expertise.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its 2007 benchmark report that even a slight change in rainfall could see swathes of the rainforest rapidly replaced by savanna grassland.

I’m just glad that AGW is “settled science”.  Otherwise, folks might begin to wonder what the hell is going on.

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