tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151197192024-03-13T11:40:42.471-04:00Grinding GearsYou can tell I'm thinking, because there's smoke coming out of my ears.GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-43649556984382809452009-03-07T15:15:00.002-05:002009-03-07T15:19:24.355-05:00Give that girl an "A"So I just showed our 11-yr-old this page demonstrating what a TRILLION dollars looks like.Her comment: "They're spending that much money to fix the economy? That's just stupid."H/T to Frank J.GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-78943340707555178442009-03-02T22:07:00.001-05:002009-03-02T22:07:33.560-05:00Just so we're clear...Is being behind on taxes actually one of the job requirements?GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-8830542951071882292008-10-15T23:15:00.000-04:002008-10-15T23:16:46.918-04:00I'm a little tiredof hearing Barack Obama refer to the current economic situation as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. As if a recession were ANYTHING like a depression.Besides that, it doesn't appear to be remotely true. The generally accepted definition of a recession is 2 consecutive quarters (or more) of negative GDP growth. I've had a little trouble finding officially published monthly GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-77491688638515501312008-10-02T22:00:00.000-04:002008-10-02T22:01:39.361-04:00This is probably really goodBut I can't figure out what tune it's supposed to be to.Yakko’s BailoutGearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-45595602230988970502008-09-24T23:14:00.000-04:002008-09-24T23:22:34.257-04:00So if I were Barack Obama...What's the harm in calling McCain's bluff?First of all, I don't think the responsible thing to do is to rush through some half-baked "aid" package which will increase the national debt by hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars. I work on the general assumption that neither McCain or Obama trusts the free market enough to let it sort itself out. I'll grant that most of the nation doesn'tGearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-67837947099525466932008-09-03T23:29:00.001-04:002008-09-03T23:36:04.753-04:00So on a completely different toneAnybody else think Governor Palin looks a lot like Tina Fey? Just wondering.Update: Apparently so.GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-47027858692987081522008-09-03T23:17:00.002-04:002008-09-03T23:25:50.184-04:00Really didn't want to talk about politics.But I just couldn't resist.I just can't help but be amazed at how FREAKED OUT the media are about McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate.It's pretty much common knowledge now that just about the entire media establishment is in the tank for Obama. Maybe subconsciously, somewhere deep in the reptilian part of their brains, they have some fuzzy awareness that Obama's most excellent GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-1278207353365358492008-08-12T22:10:00.001-04:002008-08-12T22:10:21.608-04:00So seriouslyAm I the only one that thinks this whole Mark Penn kerfuffle isn't just a leak by the Obama campaign to try to weaken the McCain campaign?Have I missed something here?GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-76562494152941929092008-08-12T22:04:00.001-04:002008-08-12T22:04:46.625-04:00Things I've done and said that have surprised people in the last couple monthsPublicly commented that the Clinton administration wasn't a disaster. Taken as a whole, I'd take four more years of WJC over four more years of Jimmy Carter.Bush was something of a disappointment as a president. I should have expected it, though - the whole "compassionate conservatism" thing really rubbed me wrong.I switched my voter regisration to the Democratic Party this year. I'm in good GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-30119214073496192732008-08-11T22:19:00.003-04:002008-08-11T22:21:37.208-04:00Woo-hoo (Or, watch this space please)A personal record: six months without posting. I'm not dead. I'd like to think this site isn't either. This is me developing the motivation to come back and post.GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-57731071870708728652008-02-22T22:07:00.003-05:002008-02-22T22:17:20.900-05:00This used to be meNot so much anymore.GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-85198723728165631772007-10-18T22:08:00.001-04:002007-10-18T22:11:12.473-04:00The Republicans in Congress haven't done a lot right in the last six yearsBut they did this much, at least.Power Line: SCHIP veto override fails in HouseGearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-44147231260588163132007-10-10T21:53:00.001-04:002007-10-10T22:03:39.596-04:00Why don't we just tax the poor and give it to the middle class?If a republican came up with that gem of an idea, he'd get the kind of press that... republicans usually get. But when a democratic congress comes up with it, they're courageous for standing up for the underprivileged. Yeah, right.S-CHIP is the supposedly state-funded children's health insurance program. But the fact is it's supported very heavily by the federal government, and - I believe - GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-34455873528482313622007-09-06T21:20:00.001-04:002007-09-06T21:28:17.650-04:00Some pet peeves:Seeing their, there, and they're used interchangeably.Ditto your, you're (and yore?, well maybe not)and this one, I noticed today:People who don't know the difference between "ten times more than" and "ten times as much as". And yet when people say nuklear, it doesn't bug me at all. Go figure.My wife suggests Christmas letters which don't include spell-check. And newscasters who refer to the GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-88075238725523651102007-07-31T22:23:00.001-04:002007-07-31T22:23:44.644-04:00HPTook the older kids to see Order of the Phoenix last night. The movies always let me down to a certain extent. Few of the actors carry the roles as well as I hope, and there just isn't time in a commercial feature to give proper attention to the details that make the books worth reading. But that's just me nitpicking. The books are still perceived, I think, primarily as children's literature. GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-22458860362502435892007-07-10T22:32:00.001-04:002007-07-10T22:36:31.568-04:00Eight thingsI was tagged by Scott over at Ah, Shoot!. And I don't usually do these at all, but for as infrequently as I post it was nice to be remembered at all, so in no particular order:I am1. something of a technophile. I like more of those things than I can afford. The ones that cost money and the ones that waste time.2. a formerly avid comic book collector/reader. Never bought them for value, just for GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-83622125772272733562007-06-14T21:37:00.001-04:002007-06-14T21:38:43.758-04:00My personal favorite suggestion:So Nancy Pelosi apparently has asked people to submit alternative neutral connotation words which could be substituted for earmarks.Over at Captains Quarters, Ed Morrissey held a poll to determine the best word to convey the meaning, though something tells me Madam Speaker wouldn't have liked any of the alternatives the CQ readers had put forward.The winner was Congressional Resource Allocation GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-26199630895547758332007-06-14T12:43:00.001-04:002007-06-14T20:39:32.415-04:00Whaddya know!The other night I got the all-too-rare opportunity to spend a little time with the older son: lobbing some pitches to him and helping him work on his swing. He's in coach-pitch this year, and he's spent a few games now feeling like he'll never be able to hit the ball. I know, because I've been there.We spent about the first half-hour working off a tee, practicing good swing mechanics and showing GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-87624954392662715572007-05-22T21:55:00.001-04:002007-05-22T21:56:49.783-04:00BlegFor my wife, who asked for a site which would recommend books based on other books she's liked.I know LibraryThing's Suggester does that, based on the author or title, using the database of its member's collections.Another page I liked on the same site is their tag cloud, which is a pretty interesting way to whittle down a wide variety of books.Anyone else have other suggestions? Thanks!GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-23194695326080208642007-05-16T22:27:00.000-04:002007-05-16T22:42:10.380-04:00I don't blog reality TV...because it's not my thing. But who's ever watched a Tuesday night episode of American Idol and not known that Melinda Doolittle would win?Really!GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-29257284022092623462007-04-15T22:24:00.001-04:002007-04-15T22:26:44.352-04:00Somebody else's kidsFaith is a strange thing.We say we have it, and that we believe in things we've never seen. But saying it doesn't make it so, and there are things we'll never see until we truly have faith.Last year my wife and I felt a call to become foster parents. I'd never felt something like that before, and if someone had told me it would happen, I'd have said they were crazy. I didn't see myself as a GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-40498351970079857462007-02-25T21:54:00.000-05:002007-02-25T22:09:39.708-05:0015-diaper dayWe had seven kids in our house all week. We've had one foster baby for four months, who's nearly part of our family, plus two we watched for a week while their foster family was out of town. The three of them are in diapers, plus our youngest who is mostly potty-trained. The title of this post was probably typical of the week, but it was actually spoken by my wife as an assessment of her day so GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-66947125227644104602007-02-24T16:16:00.000-05:002007-02-24T16:22:04.422-05:00Reader helpSince I added labels to posts, there have been problems with some browsers displaying error messages when the page gets loaded. I use Firefox, so I haven't noticed the problem, but I know a number of my readers use other browsers.It would be a big help if you leave me a comment or an e-mail letting me know what browser you use and whether you noticed any problems.Thanks!GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-73372508119372262892007-01-18T22:39:00.000-05:002007-01-22T05:55:53.062-05:00So just in case you're interested...Congress is trying to resurrect the Fairness Doctrine (which ended by Presidential veto in 1987) this week. Why? Maybe because they're in the majority again and can't figure out how to compete economically with the strength of conservative talk radio.On the face of it, that's bad enough. But the thing many people have found alarming is that there was an attempt to apply the rule to bloggers aboveGearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15119719.post-11044541256467952882007-01-08T22:18:00.000-05:002007-01-08T22:24:30.524-05:00Nothing to see here.Well, maybe that's not the best title for a post when you get a sudden traffic surge. Most traffic I've had in months, and it seems to be because I've been adding labels to the existing posts. Glad you stopped by, though. Please look around!GearDaddyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05375640669383359284noreply@blogger.com0