Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Interesting article in WaPo .... In the Words of My Speechwriter asks about taking someone else's words as your own, and why it's bad when it's called plagiarism but when it's good it's called speechwriting. It reminded me of earlier in the year, when Hillary was getting all snippy at Obama for using a friend's quote in one of his speeches; she made some comment about how, if we're going to argue about words, they should at least be our words. And yet, how many of any of these guys use their own words? I guess that's part of what bugs me about this whole political process ..... everyone will say whatever needs to be said, and none of it's gonna mean much of anything once there's a win.

It's not even like any of the words actually say anything about the candidate, either. Generally, it's more along the lines of "My opponent is such a scumbag so you must vote for me. True, I do bad stuff, but not NEARLY as bad as THEM!" Really ..... I'd like to actually choose a leader, rather than resort to the least offensive one left standing.

Or maybe I'm just sick and tired of the stupid Bruce Lunsford/Mitch McConnell crap that you can't go 2.5 minutes without seeing on Kentucky TV.

Unnamed Randomness

A few random tidbits since Kitty Doofy-Brain has decided (as usual) that the best place for her to curl up is right on top of my grade sheets. Granted, I did lie down on my bed so I could keep her lil' napping self company, but I would have been just as happy to be next to her .... not having her crawl under my chin and then climb her nine pounds into my shirt, via the head-hole! But at least she wasn't biting, so I suppose that's a plus .....

∂∂∂ I give these random little 5-point Daily Quizzes to my students that usually cover something from the class before. Last class there wasn't that much easy fodder for quick questions, so I asked what the name of the hurricane was that just swept through Louisiana. Student's Response: Hurricane Glucose

∂∂∂ Part of the lack of fodder comes from the fact that last class I had a random hodge-podge of activities for them to do to help them realize that the Bible was not dictated by God in 21^st-century English. So I had them "translate" a spaceless paragraph in Greek letters back into English .... the next activity saw them getting English letters and spaces in exchange for vowels, so they figure out where the AEIOUYs had to go .... then they got all the vowels AND consonants in all the proper places with spaces inbetween the words --- but they were Middle-English-Canterbury-Tales words .... and so forth. Towards the end I asked them what the point of all this was and one student raised her hand: "Because you enjoy watching us get frustrated?" I replied no, that it was just an added bonus.

∂∂∂ Disclaimer of the Year Award (or at least of the Day) .... On a household bathroom window: Insect Screens are intended to provide reasonable insect control and are not for the purpose of providing security or to provide for the retention of objects or persons from the interior.

∂∂∂ I built a beautiful fencing target about a month ago. After fencing in the Bluegrass State Games, wherein I came in last and got a medal anyway (gotta love that there were only seven foilists there!), I decided that I was gonna bust my chops for these two tournaments at the beginning of September. So I concocted a nice little target to mount on my wall and some ideas for some drillwork and conditioning ..... and have yet to do any of it. And now my tournament is a mere three days away!!!

∂∂∂ Nun-thing still there .... sort of. The new community is kind of in-between vocation directors right now, so I've got that excuse, but it's not a very good one. The new vocation director, however, I had met a couple times way back on my first time around, so perhaps that might make a difference. Not sure, though .... there's a part of me that feels a little of the "been there, done that, do I really want to start from scratch again?" So we'll see ......

And on the political sphere ...... I'm not big on McCain, but you kinda gotta feel sorry for the guy. First a hurricane blows through and completely overshadows both his pick for VP as well as the start of his convention, then all the stuff starts flying about the daughter of the VP choice. All sorts of commentaries are going on about various aspects of Governor Palin, so I'm not even going to go there about Alaska being near Russia or the fact that her teenage daughter did what so many teenage daughters do. What amazes me, though, is the fact that, while we hear so much about her daughter having a child, we don't hear anything about Palin's child. She has a five-month-old child with special needs. I know all the stuff about working mothers and fathers raising the children, but I still gotta wonder how it would actually work.

I also feel bad for Alaska. It's such an overlooked state, except for when we want more oil, and this would have been such a great way to bring it into the spotlight. Unfortunately, this is not the best PR spotlight for our friends up way-north. Needless to say, I also feel bad for Bristol Palin and the boyfriend ..... just messiness all around.

And, on the note of messiness all around, I leave you with my final thought and hope for you: May your pet elephant never develop a peanut allergy.