Author: Muttrox

There are a few auto accessories that ought to be illegal. (Or if they already are illegal, enforced.)

1) The fancy rims. The rims keep turning after the vehicle is stopped. That gives false visual information. At some level it appears that the vehicle is moving when it isn’t.
2) CDs and pendants hanging from the mirror that scatter and reflect light. Not only does the glare get in my eyes, but it does so in a random pattern making it difficult to adjust to. Everyone understands that having your brights on is rude. An old friend used to keep an enormous spotlight in his car, and if anyone behind him had their brights on too long he would shine right in their eyes. Those folks wised up quick.

Visual clutter and disinformation is an actual issue. A friend of mine got in a car crash. The car in front of him was stopped, but the brake lights weren’t on, and he plowed right into it.

None of this is because I am anti-bling. I am pro-bling, it amuses me. For instance, I am in favor of huge crazy spoliers on Honda Civics, and neon all over the undercarriage. It also amuses me that probably no one who has that kind of bling calls it bling anymore. There’s a more current term by now.

I’m going back to the past. I haven’t read these books for over twenty years. They were some of my favorites back then.

So far they are worse than I remember, but better than I expected.

I took two readings on my scale. I took them 1 minute apart, the only difference was my morning pee. Thus, I can now state scientifically that my morning pee weighs 8/10ths of a pound, and increased my body fat by 0.4%.

Science has spoken! No skepticism will be tolerated!

Living in the South, my political views are a minority. I’m used to that. But I will never get used to the lack of subtlety. I respect the directness of the view. But yet. It lacks any sense of message of anything beyond Me-good-you-bad. Where is the beautiful wit of the “F the President” sticker?

These are the people who outvote me.

When there is something that makes me say, “That is one stupid state”, the odds are good it’s my own state of Georgia. Sigh. Are you curious to know about those idiotic partisan kamikaze dolts who risked our countries good faith and credit and wreaked vast destruction on the country for no reason?

Here they are. The 32 hardcore house republicans who couldn’t take no for an answer. Or even yes for an answer. Or any kind of answer unless it came from their efforts to hold the country hostage. This will go down as a shameful episode in American History, and one more nail in the coffin of the modern Republican party.

I am not surprised that Georgia overindexes by 500%. Not a bit.

The Kids Meal

A generic surprise party

Sad boy does the unexpected on talk show

Canadian police chase

Advice for the newly pregnant and their spouses

The Most Amazing Golf Shot Ever

Charlotte’s Web

Park bench dedication

Jason Alexander shows Larry David how to play George Costanza

Kiss Cam winner

Look behind you

Is your dog involved in a sex scandal?

The money shot

A: I can’t believe it. I forgot to pack my work pants to change into. Ugh.
B: I have an extra pair you can borrow.
A: Really? How come you have an extra pair of pants around?
B: My marriage isn’t going well. I’m living out of the car these days.
A: Wow, that’s lucky!!

My new favorite face

Despite the many hours of my life that have been spent in the gym, this is the first time I have ever attended a class. There was a spinning class, which I know now is a unnecessary alternative word for biking. As I have been biking regularly as part of my workouts I was looking forward to it. The regular instructor was out so there was a DVD instead.

It kicked my ass. I quit after twenty minutes. Wow. That was hard!

Along the way I learned the exact demographic this was designed for – 30 to 40 year old women who are neither attractive nor unattractive and can’t stop smiling vapid smiles.

Your viewpoint on the GOPs tactics depends less (or should depend less) on your feelings about the existential threat of Obamacare, and more on the precedent it sets. The precedent for using a non-partisan crisis as a hostage for partisan gains, and the precedent it sets for constitutional powers. This is a genuine constitutional crisis.

Jonathan Chait is easily my favorite writer on what is really going on. But the best context is from Abraham Lincoln. Yes, that Abraham Lincoln.

From the Cooper Union address of 1860.

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. This, plainly stated, is your language…

In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, “Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!”

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me – my money – was my own; and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle….

Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored – contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong…