Proverbs

(inspired by a court verdict today wrt 93 WTC bombing and re-reading of Small Gods)

There is a Reason for everything undePublish Postr the Sun, and a Guilty Party to all things. And the Guilty Party shall have Big Pockets. For otherwise there is no Reason, no Reason at all.

Geocaching

We went geocaching yesterday! Not only it was a ton of fun, but we actually managed to find the cache. My sincere thanks to "ctomberg, 1NatureMom " for helping our family to have a truly enjoyable day.

Obama sticker

A sticker I saw on a car today was a simple "Obama" sticker - not even "Obama for " anything. One thing that struck me was the color palette. It was red, white and... black. Am I shying at shadows, or is it significant? The time will tell, I guess.

"European" salads in Stop&Shop

Oh yes, including the famous European Boston Salad
:)

Reminds me of a Yogi Bera anecdote: When someone told him that Liverpool elected a Jewish mayor, he said: "Only in America!"

Shoking news from Russia

My second cousin in Russia just became a Christian. Orthodox Cristian, no less. I am not against Jews turning Christian in principle - one of my friends did it recently and invited me to his Orthodox wedding - it was quite a pleasure. However, in this case, I am sure there is not a trace of grace in the whole thing. He is a Russian businessman, and I am sure he is trying to make his life easier.

I guess this tells us everything we need to know about him and about Russia as it is now. He is even afraid to go to the Jewish cemetery to visit his parent's grave.

Heard on NPR today

A discussion about paying kids cash to study. Apparently, the idea was first sounded by Newt Gingrich, who proposed paying for best grades (so that good students have some cash in hands, and not just dealers and pimps). Of course, our do-gooders could not reward excellence - no, we have to reward demerit. So now we're paying by the hour to the junior high students who are learning 24/3=8. And of course, NPR loves it. Moreover, they don't even see how Gingrich's idea was turned upside down.

Tell me who your friends are...

Two latest major business initiatives from MS are with Yahoo and Novell. Both are losers in their categories (Novell being the ultimate loser, beaten into irrelevance by MS itself). Tell me who are your friends, and I'll tell you who you are.

As heard on NPR

An interview with an Obama supporter: "When I heard about his "bitter" speech, I said to myself: how insightful, he is so right! And then I went: I can't believe he actually said that - the are going to tear him to pieces."

Obama and his cohorts know who they are, they just don't want you to know.

McCain - a do-over?

I wonder if, by picking McCain this cycle, the GOP is quietly telling us: "We've screwed up 8 years ago, please lets us pick the right guy now."

Freakonomics' new motto for US

Here (via Instapundit).
I loved the one in comments: " We’re way nicer then our government".

Another quote from John Adams

"Our electioneering racers have started for the prize. Such a whipping and spurring and huzzaing! Oh what rare sport it will be! Through thick and thin, through mire and dirt, through bogs and fens and sloughs, dashing and splashing and crying out, the devil take the hindmost."

Obligatory metapost

What makes a man so swelled with pride as to get himself a blog? What possesses me to think that my thoughts and way of expressing them are worthy of being published?

I conceive that one strangely encouraging thing about this place is a strange combination of exposure and privacy. Yes, I know that in potentia everyone can come and see my ruminations. And yet, behold the wonderful emptiness of the place! So far, according to the web counter, I am the only reader. Even my wife does not have time to go check it out. This gives me a perfect illusion of privacy - like yelling in a market place at three in the morning. The people are there, but nobody hears you. Perversely exciting feeling.

How good next Windows will be?

I found an infallible way to predict how good the next release of Windows will be!

If MS includes fax application, it will be good. If not, a disaster.

Consider the track record:

W95 fax
W98 no fax
W XP fax
W Vista no fax (not in "normal" edition anyway)

I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to state the causation behind this correlation.

Russian one-liners

(crosspost from IWETHEY)


A famous example:

A do posteli byli my na vy
Before the bed you called me "Dear Miss"

Less famous ones:

Net, v etoy pose ya do svad'by ne mogu
I can't do it this way before the wedding


Pust' drian. Zato smotri kak mnogo!
May be it's crap. But look how much of it!

Kto skorchil vam takuyou rozhu?
Who made you such a face?

Of course, they all have authors, I just can't remember any at the moment.

American Digest presents the greenest swim suit in the Summer lineup - Speedo Flora.

I have to note that in the interests of sustainability and economy of natural resources, the best swim suit would be Speedo Nudd. Inquire at Two Imperial Tailors, LTD.

I've been reading "John Adams"

by David Mc Cullough. One quote in particular caught my eye. Abigail and John Adams are deciding, by letter on whether Adams should stand for Presidency. Abigail mentioned that Mr. Adams was already 60. The response was: "If I were near I would soon convince you that I am not above forty."

That line to his wife of 30 years would alone guarantee his character in my eyes, even if he did not do or write anything else in his life.

As heard on NPR

This will be a permanent feature of this site. My exposure to the Left America is limited to NPR, and sometimes I just can't help noticing some inconsistencies (or other things starting with i- and ending with -cies).

So today in my 4o minutes in the car I've heard at least three commercials (they tell you they don't have them, but "sponsored by" announcements are nothing but) for "Lions for Lambs". The fun part was that they announced everything about it except the subject of the movie. Were they afraid to scare off even the NPR audience?

Another wound from the Gay Revolution

It's impossible for two men to be close friends any more. If two men are close, the sexuality must be the reason. That's what happens when a rare and aberrant trait is represented as common and normal.
(via Instapundit)

Inauspicious beginning

Home sick, I figured I may as well go ahead with this blog lark. Just wanted a place of my own (well, not really my own, but still) on the Internet.

I've spent a long time at IWeThey, but as other things to read showed up on the Net, I've gradually drifted away from there. That left me with plenty to read, but nowhere to write. This blog is an attempt to remedy the situation. I just wonder if I have enough to say...