Today I brought a meal home for lunch while driving the “company” car. After a short while under way I noticed that the console cup holder was all of a sudden full of dark liquid which, after shaking my Styrofoam cup, I knew was from my iced tea. The cup had a hole in the side, perhaps from a straw. I noticed that the tea stayed put in both cup holders even while making sudden stops and curves. It also apparently didn’t leak into the console box. It was getting about time to get a car wash and detail, so I got them to “de-tea” my vessel. But I wondered if some kind of light-colored lining was inserted in the cup holders and water was added to it, whether I might have my own little seat-side aquarium?
It would definitely be something to show off if I got stopped for speeding.
The war is ending in Iraq. That isn’t so hard to believe although I honestly felt like the ending wouldn’t have been this soon. It ends just as I figured it would end though. That is when our government said it was over. I suppose that is one way to end a war.
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the others of their ilk did tremendous damage to our country and to Iraq by our going to war there. Almost 4,500 American troops died from the war. Much more physical damage happened in Iraq itself, of course. At least 60,000 perhaps 100,000 or more Iraqi civilian deaths occured. Some were our enemies, others not so much.
Bush damaged the United States with this war. The torture tactics. Spying on our own citizens. Suspending habeas corpus. This hurt our belief in freedom and liberty. It has hurt our stature around the world as well. The bright shining light, America, now somewhat dimmed.
As for Obama’s role in taking up where Bush left off, I am unsure he could have done differently. Some already call him a hypocrite for embracing a war that he opposed as a senator. But how is it that much different for the man to become commander-in-chief and having to support his troops and thus the ongoing cause, than for a man to become a soldier and thus being required to support his commander-in-chief? Then there are the super hawks who think we should probably stay indefinitely.
I really doubt our involvement in Iraq has ended though. I fear we will continue to lose precious American lives there and elsewhere because of duplicity of the Bush administration and for the Bushies pushing us into an inescapable corner. But for now, we can say the war is nearly done, for this round–the Son of Gulf War.
It was sometime last year that I discovered television commercials at a volume level higher than the program preceding it bothered, as it does me, many Americans. That was about the time that a legislative measure sought a CALM solution to the problem.
Learning that thousands of other people are likewise hacked off about the same irritant as one’s own can be an epiphany of sorts. I figured that since enough people were also upset over the elevated commercial volumes that legislation to tackle the problem was required meant I wasn’t just some crank who gets upset over seemingly nothing. That legislation, called the Commercial Advertisement Mitigation Act (CALM,) was signed into law last December by President Obama.
It has taken a year but the law has finally been implemented. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like the Federal Communications Commission is likely to swoop down very soon and nab those SOBs breaking the law. Penalties for violations have yet to be determined and it is up to viewers to report those scofflaws.
Compliance may prove difficult for cable providers. But where I live — with Time-Warner having a virtual lock on cable service — it shouldn’t be all that difficult since Time-Warner’s own commercials often seem to be among the suddenly loudest.
Nevertheless, when I rat out my local TV station or cable operator to the FCC, I will at least know I have the law on my side and that I am not the only one out there who is pissed off.
It was the best of times. It was the best of times.
An amazing touchdown pass from Houston Texans quarterback T.J. Yates to wide receiver Kevin Walter gave the team a 20-19 come-from-behind victory Sunday over Cincinnati and propelled the team toward its first-ever playoff berth. While the Texans would have eventually ended up in a post-season game for the first time in the team’s nine-year history, the deal was sealed a short time later when the New Orleans Saints defeated the Tennessee Titans. How perfect could that be?
I mean, the Titans is the team Bud Adams packed up and moved from Houston. My previous favorite Houston Oilers was the last team to secure a playoff berth for the Bayou City in 1993. Adams, who will forever be on a lot of folks s**t lists, picked up the team and headed for the hills when he couldn’t get his way, that being a new stadium, naturally.
Yates is a rookie and the Texans third-string quarterback after starter Matt Schaub and backup Matt Leinart were knocked out for the season. Houston also was playing without one of the NFL’s top receivers, Andre Johnson and starting linebacker Mario Williams. The latter was the Texans first round draft choice in 2006. The defensive star was chosen ahead of both USC running back Reggie Bush and Houston native and Texas quarterback Vince Young.
The Texans have been battered this year but continued winning even though not always doing so in the prettiest of fashions.
It is hard to believe Houston will advance beyond one or two rounds in the playoffs much less winning an AFC crown or Super Bowl. Just getting to where they are this year, particularly with as much adversity the team has faced would definitely be seen as an accomplishment. Everything else the Texans do from now on is gravy, albeit good ol’ sawmill gravy.
This year’s top baby names list from BabyNames.comwere released today. The winners are Liam and Charlotte. Charlotte — incidentally the name of a former sister-in-law and a wonderful lady who went by the nickname “Wendy” — is very attractive, very Southern-sounding. As for the Liam, of Irish Gaelic origin, I can speculate comes from actor Liam Neeson or perhaps any number of Irish and English soccer stars.
Jennifer Moss, Founder and CEO of BabyNames.com, said the popularity of such names it could stem from pop culture to celebrity babies.
“Recently I’ve seen many TV characters influencing baby names,” says Moss. “Charlotte is, of course, from Sex and the City. Other TV names in the top 100 include Aria and Ezra, characters from Pretty Little Liars as well as Finn, Quinn and Noah from Glee.”
BabyNames.com compiles baby names which are submitted by more than a half-million site members.
The "First Lady" (Daughter?) of Texas, Miss Ima Hogg
Having received a name which, when shortened to nickname form, is also slang for a part of the male anatomy perhaps I think more about the names that others are given. Not that I regret my name. I can look at any number of names and wonder how people made it through life without going postal. Take the name of a long-ago Texas governor’s daughter, Ima Hogg.
Miss Ima, as she was called until her death at 98, was known for her philanthropy which came from oil which was found on her family’s plantation in West Columbia, Texas. Her father, Gov. James Stephen Hogg, died some 14 years — in 1906 — before the oil strike he believed was inevitable on the place in Brazoria County, some 40 miles south-southwest of Houston. She was known as “The First Lady of Texas, I suppose for her many good deeds. It was long rumored that Miss Ima had sisters named Ura, Wera and maybe even Hoosa but she had only brothers. Her name reportedly came from an epic Civil War poem written by her uncle in which two characters existed named Ima and Leila. I guess being rich helps take any sting she might have felt from her “unusual ” name, although Miss Ima seemed to get along quite well.
Most of this year’s names do not seem a target for a great deal of scorn from folks who might be predisposed to teasing about names. I suppose that all depends upon on which order the first and middle as well as what surnames the children are handed. The girl’s names in particular — most are also very feminine — seem to evoke the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A couple of the boy’s names are somewhat biblical but as a couple of others, well, let’s hope the choices end up middle names.
