Laundry Day
Gelato, coffee and a Jazz trio while you do laundry?
Yeah, Austin is alright. (@ La Dolce Vita in Hyde Park across the parking lot from the creatively named Longhorn Laundry).
Trees
A local arborists evaluation of Barton Springs calls for removing only four trees, and preventative maintence on the rest.
Big Ballon Balloon
Keeping with the large-scale disaster theme (I meant the the Texas City post, but I’m certain the last post on the Lege could also apply), yesterday was the 72nd anniversary of the destruction of the Hindenburg.
It was 72 years ago today that the Hindenburg caught fire, resulting in the deaths of 36 people (35 onboard and one on the ground). So why did it catch fire in the first place? Nearly three-quarters of a century later, we still don’t know.
Sine Die
The end of another session approaches.
As the House attempts to recover from its extended leadership struggle, it will presumably be a more affable – or at least less hostile – place to work for members and at least potentially a more bipartisan atmosphere for getting things accomplished.” Once the dust settled, those speculations were indeed borne out. The new comity was most visibly demonstrated in the House floor budget debate, before which the Republican and Democratic leadership got together and mutually decided to avoid pointless fights over symbolic amendments that weren’t going to survive in any case – pointless fights that were standard operating procedure under Craddick. Straus and the new regime are certainly to be credited for the change. Craddick has been reduced to a wandering backbencher, and the same folks who brokered the new speakership are now able to work together with more consensus and less acrimony.
The verdict seems to be: progress, but still a long way to go. More…
Bad Day
It wasn’t the whole reason, but it was the final straw for sure – after two days of missed appointments and way-too-long phone calls, the AT&T U-verse dude informed me that, due to our apartment’s electrical system being so old it was actually installed in 1836 by Mescalaro Apaches hoping to trade some day-labor for some booze, we will in fact, not be able to have cable installed, and more importantly I will not be watching the Giro de Italia this weekend.
What follows is my not-so-PG-13 rant on this subject. If you are easily offended, best just to press on down the road. Read more →
Pig Flu
Yes, in the singular – Afghanistan’s only pig quarantined in flu fear.
Chapter 11
My plan was to destroy this mall in my first Sci-Fi opus, but having the Hill Country Galleria file for Bankruptcy is almost as good.
Operation Northwoods
Speaking of the NSA/CIA…
Operation Northwoods, or Northwoods, was a false-flag conspiracy plan, proposed within the United States government in 1962. The plan called for CIA or other operatives to commit apparent acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Castro-led Cuba. One plan was to “develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington”.
This operation is especially notable in that it included plans for hijackings and bombings followed by the use of phony evidence that would blame the terrorist acts on a foreign government, namely Cuba.
The plan stated: The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere.
Wow, good thing nothing like that ever happens these days (Hey, what’s all this white powder coming out of that envelope…).
30 Rock
30 Rockefeller Center in 1933 (via Kottke)
LYT
This is pretty much the finest Layer Tennis match ever. My vote: tie.