Ho, ho, ho?

While it is a bit chilly this morning it is Spring. Birds are chirping, Sun is shining, and tulips are sprouting up all over the yard. So can anyone explain to me why I am getting email messages about advanced ticket sales for the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza?

Getting ready

God's handiwork

If you can look at this picture from the Hubble space telescope and tell me there is no God you are fooling yourself.

Source: Hubblesite.org

Song of the south

For those of you thinking that relocating south of the Mason Dixon line in your golden years might night be an area that will satisfy your more "cosmopolitan" needs, I give you.....the Turtleman.



Thanks to the Hilltop Piper for this one.

Harmony

Paranoia may destroy ya

The Tea Party movement is clearly making the libs nervous.  Here is a sampling of new stories from the last day or two highlighting their paranoia.  They are applying every spin they can to this offensive type of democracy.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former President Bill Clinton warned of a slippery slope from angry anti-government rhetoric to violence like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, saying "the words we use really do matter."

NBC Reporter To Black Man At Tea Party: "Have You Ever Felt Uncomfortable?"

 

City of brotherly love?

Police arrested a New Jersey man after he was accused of intentionally vomiting on a young girl at the Phillies game Wednesday evening.

Anyone surprised about his black eye?  If it was my daughter he would likely be breathing through a tube.  Animal.

Lead us not into temptation

No matter how hard I try to resist, every year about this time I get the urge to start my Saturday morning off with a trip to the flea market.  Such was the case early this morning as I headed out to the Grand Daddy of New Jersey out door shopping destinations, the Englishtown Auction.  Though I try to keep up on the local lore I have no idea why the oldest and largest regular flea market has the word auction in its title.  I can tell you however, that if it cannot be found on the cheap at Englishtown, well, it can't be found.

Like similar establishments, Englishtown has three distinct segments and associated with them three stratas of socio economic position.  For the elitist shoppers there are the six or so buildings divided in small cubicles with roll down steel doors.  If you are one of the "rich" folk that patronize the market with any regularity this is where you will find the more established store like kiosks hawking everything from incense to samurai swords.  Dank and dust, it is generally loaded with some favorably priced items.  Next in this multilayered economy are those vendors who are there every week and have earned themselves a spot in the paved areas surrounding the buildings.  This is where you will find the bulk of the stolen and knock off designer goods as well as substantial bargains on everything from socks to leather belts.  Finally there is the dust bowl.  Most of this area is populated by rank amateurs trying their luck on a ten dollar table off the dirty paths attempting to unload garages full of various and sundry crapola.

While I did pick a few items up today (some kitchen implements and the world's most sour dill pickles) the best part of the visit was people watching.  Sadly, I did not bring the camera and had to rely on my phone for this safari but every size and shape of humanity was there trolling for a bargain.  Just another nice way for an indigenous New Jersey Polack to spend a few hours on a reasonably nice Saturday.

Why I decided to forgo my usual sausage sandwich.

Randomly firing musical neuron

A new treat

An intrepid colleague of mine from the medic job decided to treat the morning and night crews with a concoction she calls monkey bread.  Truly the best baked good I have ever eaten.  Hats off to the Dutchess of Decibel.

So simple...

Even a child understands. Twirl of the nightstick to the Cambodian for this pic.

Ever wonder what a dumbass sounds like?

We assume (and often rightly so) that there are members of the United States Congress who aren't very bright.  Obamacare leaps to mind.  But this is so deliciouisly stupid you MUST watch it.  The incredible stupidity begins at 1:20 but the entire clip merits your viewing inasmuch as it is testament to the professionalism of the Admiral giving testimony.  I would have walked across the chamber and smacked the shit out of him.  A twirl of the nightstick to Spicoli for tipping me to this one.

A picture worth a thousand words

A sentiment shared by Emergency Medical Professionals everywhere (aka the I should have taken the Fire Department test syndrome).  Twirl of the nightstick to my friend Joe for this one.

How can you not love this guy?

PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is implementing a new inmate program at Tent City Jail called “Pedal Vision.”

The program uses inmate-powered cycles to generate electricity for televisions.

Reports say Arpaio’s recent visit to Tent City inspired the idea, when he saw that many of the inmates were overweight.

The stationary bikes are customized so that as an inmate pedals, a connected television is powered once the cycle generates 12 volts of electricity.

The rest here.

Who says romance is dead?

Random silliness

When I do my daily web surf I am sometimes convinced that I have reached the end of the internet.  It seems that no matter how hard I search it is more and more difficult to find something interesting, or at least funny.  But from time to time one of my capable friends will forward a URL to me that is worth a look.  So for an Easter Morning chuckle might I suggest Pets who want to kill themselves compliments of El Loco Cubano.  Here is a small sample of their collection.

A Joyous Easter to you all

May the blessings of the Risen Christ be with you and yours for all time.  Alleluia!

Makes me wish I had a kidney stone

A Florida doctor who opposes the new health care law posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Obama to get care "elsewhere," the Orlando Sentinel reported.


The sign on Dr. Jack Cassell's door reads, "Changes to your health care begin right now. Not in four years," the Sentinel said.

Barack blows it again

Remember when we had a President that was not afraid.  Not afraid of terror.  Not afraid of world opinion.  Not afraid of doing what was right regardless of consequences.  Sigh.  Alas, that was then and this is now.

President Barack Obama's Easter address calls on people of all faiths, as well as nonbelievers, to embrace their common aspirations and "shared spirit of humanity."

"On this Easter weekend," he said, "let us hold fast to those aspirations we hold in common as brothers and sisters, as members of the same family — the family of man."

"And while we worship in different ways, we also remember the shared spirit of humanity that inhabits us all – Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, believers and nonbelievers alike," the president says.

Mr. President, it is not about common aspirations and it is certainly not about your continued program of secular humanism that threatens to dilute our important differences in to your vision of a more homogenized society.  Our differences are what make us unique and what makes our interactions fruitful.  Pushing our countrymen toward some zombie like existence to accomodate your view of how we should believe is the furthest from the point.

It is Easter, the celebration of the Risen Christ who died for our sins.  All of our sins.  Would it kill you to wish the Christian citizens of this nation a happy and joyous Easter much in the way that we wish our Jewish friends a holy Passover?

The rest of this nonsense can be found here.

Secular Style Easter greetings

This one popped in to my cranium late last night at work after too many caffeinated beverages.  Just a short side trip back to my fabulous childhood where we ran with scissors, ate a bit of paste now and again and watched wonderfully violent cartoons.