[blogfocus wednesday] n.a. under the hammer

Philadelphia, where WC preferred to be

Now, continuing the theme of posts or posters I disagree with, all these North Americans are here because they've contravened the unwritten rule in some way, as explained below. If you're a North American and you're not here, then chances are you haven't contravened anything yet:

1. JMB is listed this evening on the grounds that she's complaining about malfunctioning rental cars with flashing danger messages. She should have taken the chance and lived on the edge - after all, that's what she's paying for:

First an aside about the trip to Philadelphia. I had arranged to rent a car from the local car rental agency in my daughter's hometown. Being the micro-manager that I am, I went to pick it up the day before we were to leave. I went over the car briefly with the agent, no scratches, tank full, nice clean new car. No problems. I drove it home only to find out that suddenly messages were flashing on the dashboard. Trunk ajar! Oil needs service! Neither of which were likely to be true, and in fact were not, but this car was not acceptable. Back to the agency where the only car left was a larger, fully loaded Mazda 6 which he would give me for the same price but had dried paint spilled on the upholstery of the back seat. Well, as this was the only available car, I accepted it.

2. Pantheist Mum has me staring at the screen after this. I think she's going somewhere but where?

So how many parenting blogs have you read where mom is grousing about the CRAZINESSS! The INSANITY!!! of her day? ...packing lunches and making breakfast and "Oh, honey? Have you put on your deodorant? Have you brushed your teeth? Clean underwear?", signing the homework logs and cleaning up the dog barf and writing a check for band fees while trying to remember why the cat is out of food... (and that all before 7 am). Have they written about the after school juggling? The overlapping activities full across town while trying to assure all homework is done BEFORE the night's ventures, equipment makes it to the activities, all permission slips are signed, and crabby children get a quick peanut butter sandwich between soccer and baseball so they don't explode in the middle of practice?

3. The Fake Consultant falls into the Buckeye Thoughts category [later] - I have a vague idea of what it's about but it's a mystery for those of us across the pond:

More than 55% of Americans, by the Wall Street Journal’s count, even after this giant “product placement” we saw this week, believe this war cannot be won. Last week, that number was 62%. If history repeats itself that number will go back up as our perceived probability of “winning” goes back down.

You will not chase off any likely D voter by beating this point to death every chance you get. Most of the “purple” voters are leaning this way as well, if the numbers are correct.

There is nothing to be gained by being cautious. There is nothing to be gained by worrying that voters might be turned off by our aggression. There is everything to be gained by proving to the voters we are the real patriots.

4. Odiyya's cynicism about our leaders got him onto the list - shame on him for thinking the same as me about the APEC announcement: Leaders Agree to Aspire to Stop Global Warming:

So what is an aspirational goal? Clearly its a huge step forward for all nations. Now instead merely having industry set their own targets for reductions and ignore them, they will now have to "aspire" to reach them. For greater clarity here's YourDictionary's definition for aspire:

1. To have a great ambition or ultimate goal; desire strongly: aspired to stardom.

2. To strive toward an end: aspiring to great knowledge.

3. To soar.

Spirits are soaring now that leaders have endorsed an inspired plan to inspire industry to aspire towards the ultimate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

5. Lord Nazh is on this list this evening because fun things are just not allowed in a serious blog and as an important blogger, he has to set the example to the kiddies:

These 16 police comments were taken off actual police car videos around the country:

#16 “You know, stop lights don’t come any redder than the one you just went through.”

#15 “Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they’re new. They’ll stretch after you wear them a while.”

#14 “If you take your hands off the car, I’ll make your birth certificate a worthless document.”

#13 “If you run, you’ll only go to jail tired.”

#12 “Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that’s the speed of the bullet that’ll be chasing you.”

#11 “You don’t know how fast you were going? I guess that means I can write anything I want to on the ticket, huh?”

6. Dave J is on the hitlist this evening because he's attacking my favourite polly [check this link for my eulogy of Dick]:

In reference to Dennis Kucinich's recent move to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney, all those present agreed that the evidence is sufficient enough to impeach him, but that the ensuing bureaucratic swamp of attempting to do so would postpone his actual removal from office until around August 2008, at which point it would no longer really matter, and we would have wasted millions of dollars, and a great deal of congress' time. The general attitude was that we should have moved to impeach Cheney in 2002, and that even that long ago, the evidence would have been sufficient to do so.

7. BobG's post doesn't seems to have much wrong with it at all. It doesn't. He's on the "attack list" because he's dropped me from his blogroll [don't you get any ideas now]:

I'm not much into sweets such as candy and soda pop; I tend to prefer fresh fruits for my sugar. One of the few exceptions is homemade fruit pie, especially with my wife's pie crust, which is the best I have ever had. This was a new type, an apple and pear recipe that I found over at Kit's place. I took a picture, but didn't use a flash, so it came out with a weird yellow cast over the whole picture because of the type of lighting it was sitting under. Homemade pie with a mug of Kona coffee...life is good.

8. Matt, of Buckeye Thoughts, waxes lyrical about Boilermakers, whatever they are. I think I vaguely understand what's going on here but not completely [see photo] so that's why Matt's here this evening:

Hail hail to Old Purdue, all hail to our old gold and black

Hail hail to Old Purdue, our friendship may she never lack

Ever faithful ever true, thus we raise our song anew (Boiler Up!)

Of the days we've spent with you, all hail our Old Purdue!

For those in doubt about the first down chant, click here. Warning: Strong Language

Writing of an "I.U." game, Matt notes:

That was one of the days/games/nights I will never forget for as long as I live. Brees' pass right at the end of the game went right past us. The energy that night as we rushed the field and tried to take down the uprights...I get shivers just remembering about it.

I get shivers, Matt, just trying to understand it.

So, dear reader, the third part of the Disagree series - Rest of the World - is scheduled for Saturday evening. Don't miss it.

Something to do with human pyramids, I think