I’ll Post It Anyway

I don’t like TU … ever.

I wrote a song about it.

Hope …

I sure hope I can post what I want to post on Monday. Here’s a hint.

Happy Anniversary Baby!

According to the interwub it’s either wood or silverware this year. Yes, I’m giggling. I can’t wait for the year of mega flat screen TV. You’re still a hotty, baby!

Viny Charles Is Free – Politics

Jen over at Deep End, brought up a topic I am truly opinionated on and if you have a soft stomach for the death penalty, you might not want to stick around, or rather, please do; some lively debate is greatly appreciated here.

It seem there was a prisoner who did not want to be freed. Seems prison life is too good. And how can I blame him seeing as he doesn’t have to make a living, he’s given free food and encouraged to educate himself? Hard time, this is not.

My response to a story like this is a three prong approach to the history of why there are more criminals now than ever. Sure a bubbling population of nearly 300 million with about 12 million illegal immigrants has something to do with it, but there are three things that have brought us to anarchy’s doorstep.

First, the way we treat criminals is very different. Remember how justice used to be dealt in the old west? Yes, quick hanging and people did not mind a bit. You got caught, you went to the judge and the gavel hammered down. End of story by sundown. You were either swinging in the wind with a hemp necktie or you were facing a few of the law with rifles pointed at you. There was no concurrent sentence, time for good behavior or parole. It was you and the hangman.

As a result, crime was low.

Honestly, I like frontier justice. I do. It solves some major problems for us. Quick judegement acts a a good deterent. A horse thief was the equivelant of a car thief these days. Theft would go down tremendously if people knew that they would be hung on the spot if caught.

People have argued for years that capital punishment has not detered violent crime. I’ll counter that capital punishment has not been exercised to the extent it should to be. Raise the bar on the punishment and DON’T pardon the offender. Rather change his sentence and you create a major deterent.

Second, swift justice thinned our gene pool. Mmmmhmmm, yep, if you take the deviant out of society you relieve society of the deviant behavior.

Finally, capital punishment greatly reduces the cost of building prisons. No criminals, no prisons, easy enough.

All the arguments about second chances and what not fall on deaf ears to me. If you choose to engage is crime, you should expect the consequences. And we should expect those consequences to be carried out the first time and not the with second chances adn an education and cable TV.

BTW – the title is a lyric from a song I really like. Can you tell me the song?

Five years ago – Biographical

And so there he sat. Not unlike he had a few years before listening to his wife, much as he had when she wasn’t even his girlfriend. Everything was the same, the same flecked Formica lined with shiny silver aluminum in booths of red vinyl high-back seats. No different was the music selection; a mix of Fats Domino, Chubby Checker and other assorted 50’s hip crooners.

She looked the same, just as lovely, just as vibrant and eager to be with him as ever before. But now she wasn’t quite as nervous about being with him. five years and a child later had developed the photographic experience book in both of their minds. She would do this, he would say that she countered with another thing and on and on.

The rain outside gently thumped the window. It dripped down like an endless second pane to the window blurring what was inside or without only depending on your point of view. The occasional thunder masked the drip and drizzle.

He looked deep into her eyes, beyond the flecks of green and gold and the deep and never ending iris and into her soul and it was as if his soul spoke:

If time would loop
Your choices recoup
Would you?
Would you?
Would you do it again?

His thoughts were only snapped by the deep rolling thunder and brilliant flash of light.
When his eyes had recovered he looked up to see his wife, now not even his girlfriend talking about those same scary topics he remembered from years before and he realized, he had a chance to do it all over again.

~~~~~~~~~

Of course this is a fictional snippet of a thought I had this weekend. Mrs. Thunderfish and I celebrated our 5th year of marital bliss together on Saturday with a movie ( “The Departed” ) and a trip to our first meeting place “Fabulous 50’s”. As I sat there I did happen to contemplate what I would do if I had a second chance to make all those decisions again. How would it end up? The thought that raced to my mind was that of, would I marry my wife again. Decisions like that are not so tough after you realize what you lose in the cause effect relationship. There would be no M, H or little A or Mrs. Thunderfish. All gone the growth and struggles only to make a different decision. Of course riches ( knowing who win World Series/Super Bowls and Stanley Cups and stock market moves ) surely await. But what riches do you fore go?

The reason stories like this are so fascinating is because time is still the only resource we still cannot control. But we fight to do so, even in our fantasies.

Although I know my decision, I am fascinated by the myriad of outcomes and hopefully when I hit the pearly gates a few of these questions will be answered. So is there a decision you want a do-over on?

Instead of the picture of me gaining weight at a tremendous rate and my very attractive wife, here’s a pic of my cute kid.

I found this interesting

I have a couple of blogs I like to read because they are like going over to your friend’s house and hanging out in the kitchen and eating popcorn and talking about stuff. One of my new friend’s houses is “Outside Oklahoma”. This little questionnaire was blatently stolen from “Outside”.

But first, my 37th birthday went well. Here is a panorama from TFM’s smaller version of Sherwood Forest. SIL2 was born 10 years and 2 days after me so we celebrate our birthdays together. And she wanted a cookout.

The panorama thing has been big for me with my camera phone lately. Here’s one from the trip to Lubbock.

And now for the questions. You can answer anonymously if you want in the comments. That’s cool.

1) What one post of mine do you remember most or what post has stuck with you or affected you for some reason?
2) Do you ever think about me in your personal life? If so, what reminds you of me?
3) What’s one thing — if any — that you’ve learned from reading my blog?
4) Do you remember what was the topic of the first blog you read of mine?
5) Do you want sushi?
6) What’s one thing you want to know about me?
7) What do you think I do for a living? (if you know this already, please don’t answer)
8) If we knew each other in real life, do you think we’d be friends?
9) Has reading my blog ever put you in a better mood?
10) What one piece of advice do you want to give me or do you think I should take to heart?

You Drunken Witch – Humor

I found it! I have totally been looking for this skit! You drunken witch!!!

What To Say When You Leave – Workplace

I took a different position across campus. Way across campus. This one will have more to do with the web or “interwub” as I like to say. Lots of small groups with lots of big needs. Not too unlike what I did before I got to the big university. My title is more impressive, but the pay is the same.

Now the reason for leaving has nothing to do with ambition, but rather self preservation.

I have no idea if my co-workers read this or more importantly my current boss. On the rare occasion, I have mentioned I DON’T blog about work. Too many pitfalls.

I’ll just say that I was fortunate to have an opening that I could contribute to go to. Maybe I can fill you in on the funny details in email. I would love to, because, I like to talk about stuff!

Anyway, Suzanne Sommers and I have an important time coming up on Monday ( hint hint ) so today is the last day of the week with the old work crew. And I’m so glad Tara Reid got things … ummm … worked out.

They were great. I came into a hostile work situation and they had no clue what I was doing, but they were nice to me and helped me figure out which end was up. We’ve shared jokes about the students and co-workers, but most of what I would say is they were nice people to be with. As all of the people I have worked with.

Hopefully, I’ll have more to write next week. The weather is so awesome today and well, I’m a short-timer, or at least they are telling me that. So … we’ll listen to some “goodbye music”

Opera
Punk
FolkyPop
Old School 80’s

This is interesting – Political

I thought this was an interesting story more for the verbiage used by the wacko militant muslims than anything else. Here’s the reprint from Yahoo!News with the text and commentary I find interesting.

U.S. weighs first treason charges in over 50 years

By James Vicini
26 minutes ago

A California-born convert to Islam could become the first American accused of treason since World War Two [Dude, it’s World War II] after he appeared in al Qaeda videos, sources familiar with the man’s case said on Wednesday.

They said U.S. prosecutors were strongly considering bringing the charges, which carry a maximum punishment of death, against Adam Gadahn, 28, who is believed to be overseas and is not in U.S. custody.

The charges could come as early as Wednesday.

The U.S. Justice Department last brought treason charges, during the World War Two era, the sources said.

Gadahn, who is also known on the videos as Azzam the American, [Dude, could you not pick a more creative name? Try “Azzam the Barbarian” or something like that.] has been involved in a propaganda campaign of the Islamic militant group, the sources said. Some of the videos have threatened attacks against the United States.

He converted to Islam from a Judeo-Christian family when he was 17 and a few years later moved to Pakistan. He previously was known as Adam Pearlman and grew up on a goat ranch outside Los Angeles. [I’d try something different too if I grew up on a goat ranch! But what was his association with the goats?]

The FBI has sought to question him since May 2004.

Besides treason, prosecutors have prepared other criminal charges against Gadahn, the sources said. They declined to give specific details.

AL QAEDA

The sources denied the case was timed to deflect attention from the fallout over lewd computer messages sent by a former Republican congressman to young male aides, a scandal that may help Democrats seize control of Congress in November 7 election. [Yes, the liberal media just chose not to run the story until now, btw, so whose fault is that?]

The FBI has said that Gadahn attended al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, that he has been associated with al Qaeda’s leaders and that he has done translations for al Qaeda.

His last video was posted on a Web site on September 2.

“If the Zionist crusader missionaries of hate and counter-Islam consultants like … the crusader and chief George W. Bush were to abandon their unbelief and repent and enter into the light of Islam and turn their swords against the enemies of God, it would be accepted of them and they would be our brothers in Islam,” Gadahn said in English. [Mmmm, ya, Bush “the crusader and chief George W. Bush”. Dude, he didn’t even have THAT much of a title when he owned the Texas Rangers. Maybe “Bush, The American”or just ”Lame duck President Bush” is better.]

Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, made a brief statement at the start of the tape urging viewers to listen carefully to the message. [ Is Al Qaeda deaf, or stupid? Reminds me of SNL skits of Hanz and Franz, “Hear me know or listen to me later!”]

U.S. officials believe Gadahn appeared in another video last year, right before the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, threatening al Qaeda attacks on Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia. [It was an old episode of Melrose Place.]

They also believe Gadahn threatened attacks in a video released in October 2004, just before the U.S. presidential election. [That was the movie “Goat Herders Gone Wild, Spring Break”]

Separated At Birth?

Separated At Birth?
John Bolton U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations	James Henry “RED” Duke, Jr., M.D.