Tragic Boating Accident

at this link.

That F-22 gives me the tingles in me naughty bits.

The last time I slept this late, I was disappointed that I had missed Mr. Green Jeans.

Holidays rule.

of being on vacation at home include, but are not limited to: cleaning the house (hey, aren’t I on vacation?), eating everything in the house (mmmm, chocolate-covered almonds) and sitting around watching Pakistan burn up on CNN.

Today, we’re either going to Disney World or to see the Chipmunk movie.

ETA: Holy moly, Disney World is frakking expensive! Looks like Chipmunks.

I am trying to remember the last day, before today, that I took a nap in the slap-middle of the day.

Mmmm, at home, fire in the fireplace, Formula 1 on the DVR, rain outside…. zzzzzzzzzz. Excellent.

Friday night, we had a small Christmas dinner party at our house for Mrs. Boater’s co-workers. A pair of guests showed up 45 minutes late, and were apologetic, but offered no explanation.

Today, we had early Christmas with the in-laws at our house, and a pair of guests showed up two hours early. I had JUST gotten dressed, and Mrs. Boater was still getting ready. They were welcome, but they only just missed seeing me in my Rudolph underwear.

Let’s hope Santa shows up on time.

Fifty-nine minutes and nineteen seconds. That’s how long I was on the phone today with a polite Indian representative of TracFone trying, unsuccessfully, to get the parents-in-laws’ new TracFone to work. I was commenting to Tamara a while back about how TF was the way to go…

Sorry ’bout that.

New Ruger .22 pistol, the Charger, which is basically a 10/22 pistol with a 10″ barrel.

The City Council meeting today dissolved into chaos. Tasers were involved.

One choice quote after things got back under control:

Emelda Paul, president of Lafitte resident council, speaks on behalf of the redevelopment planned by nonprofit developers Providence and Enterprise. They plan to build 1,500 units of housing, including 900 units of public housing to replace what HANO will tear down. Providence/Enterprise are the only developers promising “one-for-one” replacement.

“I liked what I saw in Lafitte years ago, but now is a time for change,” says Paul, a 30-year resident of the Lafitte who now lives at the Fischer Senior Village in Algiers.

“What I’m saying, I don’t want to see our people come back to the same thing,” she says. “I want to see something new. We have to make way for our young people and we need to pass on the baton, not a patched up baton.”

Paul says future generations deserve something new.

“Put yourself in our place,” she says to the council members. “Would you want to go back there and stay? Thank you.”

Emphasis mine.

Assuming that we are going to have public housing, I don’t want to see anyone living in public housing for any more time than it takes for them to move on to self-subsidized housing.

30 YEARS in public housing? I am speechless.

“Make way for our young people….” Do you have any idea how sad that is? Why don’t you make way for the young people … to be at the top of their high school classes so they can get a scholarship to someplace out of there.

Not only would I not want to go “back” there, I wouldn’t want to go there at all. I’ve driven through some of those projects pre-Katrina, and verily you do not stop at the traffic lights; a red light is just a “slow down is anybody coming … let’s go” light. Good grief, do people really want to REBUILD that???

I’m gonna need some blood pressure medicine if I keep reading these stories.

One of the zillions of great things about America is that with a modicum of brains and effort, you can live a pretty comfortable life, especially with respect to a lot of the rest of the world.

Not everyone has gotten the message.

Sharon Jasper sits in the living room of her voucher-backed private residence. “I might be poor but I don’t like to live poor. I thank God for a place to live but it’s pitiful what people give you.”

This story (to which the above photo belongs) really made me think about the subculture of antiAmerica. I had the predictable “Wood floors! And that TV is nicer than mine!” reaction to this, but… there’s something deeper here. This is in America, in my state, and this “[I]t’s pitiful what people give you” is an attitude I’d like to do something to help stigmatize, because I live here, and I have a stake in “our” success. I reject the notion that the continuation of this culture is inevitable even in places where it has gone on for several generations now. And, frankly… you can only build your walls so high and gates so strong; it’s increasingly hard to keep away from the virulent criminals that this antiwork culture seems to breed. I see them and deal with them all day, most every day. I tire of 16-year-old murderers and 17-year-olds with 8 priors who have just done their first armed home invasion, none of whom have ever known a father and who don’t make it out of 9th grade.

I wonder if this lady has ever been exposed to the notion of “work ethic.” Given that nobody in her family may have placed any value on that when she was growing up, would she have heard about it in a New Orleans public school? Would such a lesson have made a difference when most everyone around her didn’t value success achieved through work?

Edited to add: Of course, the lady in the photo happens to be black, but the antiwork culture spans all races. Quick: what does a meth addict look like?

Or I should stop thinking about this, turn off the TV and computer and buy the missile base I always wanted.

New version of WordPerfect on my computer.

Y’all is flagged as misspelted.

Right click - “Add.”

Y’all Yankees at Corel (Minnesota) need a better dictionary.