Half Jerk Half Guilty

The Mrs and I went for Mexican food last night. We drove around the parking lot and there was literally one open space available. It was available because some dope had parked their SUV 2/3 in their own spot and 1/3 in the next spot over.

Mrs Schwartz: Do you want to try it?
Exador: Sure. I can fit it.

I squeezed into the spot, then had to climb over to the passenger side because I couldn't open the driver's side door.

We went into the restaurant and got a table on the patio, which overlooks the parking lot. Throughout the meal, I would casually look over to the Jeep, to see if the bad-parker was returning to their car.
Then I saw the back of the heads of two people approaching the car. I was concerned that this person might feel the desire to scratch my Jeep in some sort of bizarro retaliation for not giving them the two spots.
I hopped the railing and walked out to the parking lot, just to keep an eye on things. The SUV was still trying to get out, as I approached.
I could either stand there and watch or pretend to be getting something out of the Jeep. I chose the latter.
As I was opening the passenger side door, the passenger of the SUV called to me:
Passenger: Sorry about that park-job. She doesn't know how to park.
Exador: Well, no damage, no foul. She was able to get out. That's the important thing.
Driver: It's just that there was a car parked way over when we pulled in, so we had to park way over too.
Passenger: She's lying. She just doesn't know how to park.
Exador: So you're busting her out on her bad driving, huh?
Driver: I'm not lying. She's drunk. She doesn't know what she's saying.

Then they drove off. I felt a little guilty because it was two women, and I understand I can be a little intimidating, if you don't know what a big squishy teddy bear I am. I felt like I scared them a little; I came walking up on them pretty quickly.
Then the other half of me felt that stupid people, even women, need their stupidity pointed out to them.
So I'm kind of torn on the whole thing. Then again, what if I didn't come out, only to discover damage to my Jeep later on?

Where are the Ethics Police on this one?

As chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005, Sen. Dianne Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year for specific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interests were largely controlled by her husband, financier Richard C. Blum, benefited from decisions made by Feinstein as leader of this powerful subcommittee.

From 1997 through the end of 2005, with Feinstein's knowledge, Blum was a majority owner (75% of the stock) of both URS Corp. and Perini Corp.

She lobbied Pentagon officials in public hearings to support defense projects that she favored, some of which already were or subsequently became URS or Perini contracts. From 2001 to 2005, URS earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by MILCON; Perini earned $759 million from such MILCON projects.

In her annual Public Financial Disclosure Reports, Feinstein records a sizeable family income from large investments in Perini, but she has not publicly acknowledged the conflict of interest between her job as a congressional appropriator and her husband's longtime control of Perini and URS.

Feinstein was even notified of upcoming contracts that would benefit Perini, in order for her to AVOID conflict of interest. Instead, she used that knowledge to guarantee acceptance of the right projects to benefit her.

Beginning in 2003, both Perini and URS were awarded a series of open-ended contracts for military construction work around the world, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under Feinstein's leadership, MILCON regularly approved specific project "task orders" that were issued to Perini and URS under these contracts.

This is one example among many in the article.

The original article, that I read, is HERE.

But a quick Google search turns up many more sources.

I'm too busy at work to comment much yet. Read the articles. It's appalling, but I guess the press is too busy covering Skooter Libby and the fired AGs.

MACs

I just love this line:

"Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui."

Ugh

I feel like crap.

I haven't been out on St Patrick's Day in several years, because it's long since turned into Amateur Night. It has gone the way of New Year's Eve, where every moron that never drinks decides to go out and make an idiot of themselves. Besides, the free market capitalizes on these rubes. The end result is that the bars are six people deep with morons; the prices are jacked up; the service sucks; and there's a roadblock on every corner. No thanks.

I felt obligated to go out because Mrs Schwartz bought me a kilt for Christmas. It's custom made in Scotland, and the material wasn't in stock, so it just arrived last week.
As we sat around the house on Saturday, we discussed it and decided that we weren't going out.

Buuuut, I had scheduled to take Mrs Schwartz horseback riding on Sunday. Our ride was supposed to be at 3pm. We were on time, but the place was packed since it was about 65 degrees and sunny. We met a woman and her two little girls, I'd guess 8 and 6. It turns out that her husband used to take the girls horseback riding, but he had recently died, so the mom was taking them for the first time.
The youngest girl rode on the same horse as her mother. They had been falling behind us the whole ride. At one point, when they were about 100 yards behind us, their horse starting trotting. The little girl fell off, but was miraculously unhurt. Mrs S turned her horse around and went back to help. Trail horses don't like turning around, but she's a good rider.
We get moving again and some time later, they got into trouble again, and Mrs S again turned her horse around to help. When it happened a third time, Mrs S's horse was pissed off, and in no mood to turn around again. He started bucking wildly. Mrs S bounced off his neck a few times and ended up sitting on his neck. I wish I had a camera. It took her a while to get herself back over the saddle's horn. She had lost her glasses. I wasn't able to turn my horse around, so I had her hold it while I walked back and found them. By the time we got back to the car, my neck was inexplicable stiff and hurting. I had to walk as if I had a stack of books balanced on my head. Mrs S was a mess. The horse had rung her bell pretty hard. Her neck and head were a mess. She couldn't even talk straight.
We made it home and started hitting the gin.
For those of you have read here a while, you might remember the dangers of this from the slipped disk incident.
This morning, I woke up with a sore neck AND a hangover. By the time I had finished my lunch, I was feeling better. My neck is still pretty stiff, but I have a lot of the mobility back. I'm skippiing aikido for a week to heal.

My kind of Movie

We went to see 300 yesterday. It was good. Mrs Schwartz liked it too. If you've seen the ads for it, you get the idea. It has that strange color to it that Sin City had. Not really gray, but gray with a sort of brownishness to it.

I love the timing of this movie, in regards to world events. There's a Persian power (read Muslim) trying to subjugate the west. It even offers to allow the westerners to rule themselves, so long as they pledge subservience to the muslims. The western heroes represent idealism and freedom.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

BBC4 did an interesting show about how Global Warming is a big scam. The show is loaded with Physicists, Climatologists, and other smart people with credentials like MIT and NASA, founder of Greenpeace.

It's over an hour long, but it is excellent. It shows that the data directly contradicts the global warming propaganda. It also shows the foundation and motivation behind the global warming lie.

Here's the video.

With Friends like these...

The stinking, hippie nutjobs show their love for the troops by blocking the shipment of the newer Stryker vehicles, which have the upgraded armor required to protect our troops from RPGs?

Huh?

Three of these fuckers got arrested for pushing past police. Let them rot in jail.

I guess it's better than last year's hippie tantrum; there were dozens arrested, and even more were pepper-sprayed.

The link above is from a mainstream newspaper. Michelle Malkin also has a letter from a soldier's mother:

My son was one of the Stryker soldiers who was moving the equipment to the port that night.
These people are protesting the shipment of Strykers. Strykers are what keep our infantry men alive in Iraq. They are agile, strong, and the newest ones have very accurate fire power. Once again the moonbats say they support our troops, but not the war. They show it by insulting the troops' intelligence, calling their NCO's names, and telling them that they will die for nothing. Nice. I, personally like to tell my son that he will come home alive and we will be reunited. These protesters sounded more like spoiled, self centered, obnoxious brats to me. Yet, at the end of the line there stands our troops. They are carrying the weight of the free world on their shoulders and they get to hear this mindless drivel before they deploy.
The last big protest was at the Port of Olympia last year. The moonbats did damage to a fence around a yard that protects military equipment. The Strykers they were protesting that day were Strykers that were equipped with medical intervention equipment. The protesters were marching against medical supplies that our soldiers need desperately, and once again the very equipment that keeps our soldiers alive. It seems that there are two populations of people who hate Strykers... moonbats and insurgents.
Thanks for posting the video. It is good for people to see the truth and to know that these "peace demonstrators" are really hateful in their presentation.

Malkin also has video of the protest.

To Catch a Predator

We're watching To Catch a Predator.

How stupid can these guys be? Guess what grandpa? There isn't a 14 year old hottie virgin in the world, that's just saving herself to meet a 45 year old married guy.

Mrs Schwartz wisely points out that any underage girl, that's looking to hook up with an older guy, would say that she was 18.

Amazing how many, uh, foreign guys show up for the kiddie sex.

The media just can't help but play up the "scary guns" angle. The cop had a bunch of guns and ammo in his trunk. Yes, it's weird to carry that much at once, but they keep repeating the "We dodged a Bullet tonight" crap.
Once again, you'd think a cop would know better.

I'm sorry, but this seems like a weak case to me. Yes, the guys who send pictures of their junk are already breaking the law. Yes, I know that a minor can't give consent. Still, in the cases where the guy hesitates going into the house, and gets egged on by the girl; or the times where the guy just turns around and tries to leave? I'm sure these guys probably would have done something, but the whole thing screams of "reasonable doubt".

Exador, Theatre Critic

Saturday, we went to see Spamalot at the Fox theatre.

If you haven't been to the Fox, check out this guy's cyber tour.

First things first. We were running late, so I dropped Mrs Schwartz off in front of the theatre and drove to a parking deck a couple of blocks away. As I was running from the deck to the theatre, I stepped on some cobblestones and twisted the shit out of my ankle. So there I am, now extremely limping, as I try to hurry the last block to the theatre. We go inside and find our seats. The show had not started yet. I limp back to the lobby bar and order a gin and tonic. When I try to return to my seat, I am blocked. The show was starting, and they held everybody until the end of the first song, as punishment.

Spamalot was good, but at least half of the show is just "Holy Grail". I found myself sitting there, thinking "I paid $60/ticket to see the Holy Grail?"

If you haven't seen Grail in a long time, or never seen it, it's very good. I won't spoil it because there are some very funny twists. (Get it?)

A Bump in the Night

Mrs Schwartz woke me up at 4:30 this morning and told me that she heard a noise in the kitchen. She said it sounded like somebody bumping into a chair.

So I got the nightstand gun and went down to check it out. After checking the downstairs and the garage, we concluded that she probably heard the icemaker.

It reminded me of the first time I went looking for noises. It was about ten years ago. We had just bought the house. She said she thought she heard voices in the back yard. I went out there. While I was looking around in the dark, I thought, What the hell am I doing out here without a gun?
It was shortly after that, that I bought my first pistol.

Does Anybody Value Freedom?

People just don't understand, or appreciate the value of freedom. Libertarians run into this all the time. "If you are against the War on Drugs, it's because you are a drug addict".
Why can't people understand that I am against the idea of freedom being unnecessary infringed?

This is coming up in Georgia in the form of two bills. The first is a bill to allow communities to vote on whether they want to allow beer and wine sales on sunday. The second is a bill to end the seatbelt exemption for pickup trucks.

Look, I wear my seatbelt when I drive my pickup, and I can buy a bottle of gin that will last me a week. What bugs me is that the government has no business telling me that I must wear my seatbelt or that I can't buy booze on sunday. It's just none of government's business.

What is so sad, is that the other side of these debates, and this is a large portion of the population, has no concept of this.

Their repeated mantra is:

"You are a fool to not wear your seatbelt."
"If you need beer on Sunday that bad, you're an alcoholic and you need treatment".

These are the same people that say,

"If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't care if the government spies on you".
"If you're not a criminal, you shouldn't mind registering your guns".

I just find it very depressing.