Smarter than a 5th grader?

Not bloody likely. A young lady pursuing a PhD in neuroscience was doing pretty well. She answered the initial 10 questions correctly, and hit the $500,000 mark. Through the first 10 questions you can stop stop if you don't know the answer, and take all your winnings to that point.

Danger, Will Robinson . . .

The last question has a catch, though. If you decide to see the question, you must answer or you lose everything but $25,000.

You can see where this is going . . .

The final question was American history. She said she was very good at American history, and it was only a 5th grade question. She decided to answer it. She asked her mother and father, and they told her to make her own decision.

There are times when the father of even a PhD candidate should impart some common sense to his daughter . . .

The question was: Who was the first person to break the sound barrier in an airplane?

Do you know? I did. She didn't. Do you? No fair Googling!

Kiss $475,000 goodbye . .

The economic aid plan.

So the government is giving almost everyone a check to stimulate the economy. Well, actually, it's not the government's money. It's money that they took from someone and are giving it back to them - or to someone else.

What many people don't understand is that the government doesn't really spend money . . . they just re-distribute it.

Don't get me wrong - I'll take the check. However, the whole dust-up is a bit like taking a bucket of water from the deep end of the pool and pouring it in the shallow end. Lots of action, but not much effect.

When this guy asks a question, you just have to look him square in the eye and . . . .

. . . well, maybe not.

Celtic music

I have eclectic music taste - Celtic folk songs (Celtic Woman), South African township music (Ladysmith Black Mombazo), Bluegrass, Metal (AC/DC, Metallica, Ozzie, Scorpions, et. al), big band (Glen Miller, Sy Zentner, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey), classic rock (Zeplin, Clapton, Seeger, Tom Petty, Pink Floyd).

Today, I was listening to Aideen O'Brien singing "A Bunch of Thyme." If you listen very closely to the lyrics and think about their meaning, you may find a message that mothers and fathers should impress on their daughters. :o) What do you think?

A Bunch of Thyme.

Come all ye maidens young and fair.
And you that are blooming in your prime.
Always beware and keep your garden fair.
Let no man steal away your thyme.

Chorus: For thyme it is a precious thing,
And thyme brings all things to my mind.
Thyme with all its flavours, along with all its joys,
thyme, brings all things to my mind.

Once I and a bunch of thyme.
I thought it never would decay.
Then came a lusty sailor,
who chanced to pass my way.
And stole my bunch of thyme away.

(Chorus)

The sailor gave to me a rose.
A rose that never would decay.
He gave it to me,
to keep me reminded,
of when he stole my thyme away.

(Chorus)

Come all ye maidens young and fair.
And you that are blooming in your prime.
Always beware and keep your garden fair.
Let no man steal away your thyme.

Britney . . .

I think Ms. Spears is an unbalanced young lady who needs help. Granted, she's made a spectacle of herself for the better part of a year or two, but no one deserves the constant hounding by those so-called paparazzi who jump in her face 24-7.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have 20 people flashing cameras in your face every time you went outside? It would drive me absolutely crazy.

When she was released from the hospital today, they descended on her like locusts every time her car stopped in traffic. They're not only causing problems for her, they're endangering everyone else in traffic. Perhaps if those assholes were arrested for blocking traffic when they ran out in the street, some sanity would prevail. Either that, or she should be given free rein to run over anyone in her way.

I'm not sure why I posted this, except that the TV coverage just tweaked me the wrong way. I really, really was wishing to see one of those guys run over by a passing semi. Punishment unbefitting the crime? Maybe, but it would have been entertaining.

I came across this video of the 160th SOAR (160th SPECIAL OPERATIONS AVIATION REGIMENT) delivering the pace car to Atlanta Speedway, and demonstrating a SOF insert with MH6 Killer Eggs. (those little helicopters) Impressive.

WTF do I do now?

I'm trying to figure out how to vote for. I've only voted "D" for president once in my life, and that was for Jimmy Carter - an act which I'm sure will earn me a permanent place in the 6th ring of Hell. That doesn't mean I would never put an X by a Democrat. There just hasn't been anyone on the left side of the ballot that I could stomach since then.

That pretty much sums it up for this year.

Obama is trying to paint himself as JFK redux. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have anywhere close to the experience JFK had. The only JFK-esque vibe he has is his magnetic personality. He’s a first-term senator who has spent most of his time in office running for another office. His inexperience has shown up in the debates. He's flowery and a great speaker. He's just smooched the pooch too many times on questions of substance. Besides that, he's so far left that he's coming back around the other side.

I agree with many of the analyses on Hillary. She is smart, driven and competent. However, doesn’t she give you a feeling of amorality? I see her as I saw Bill - chosing direction by the drift of the polls. She won’t compromise ALL of her values, but she sure is willing go which way the wind blows. That is amplified by her position (positions?) on Iraq.

Besides, I just can't see Bubba back at 1600 PA Ave. We had a Bush dynasty, and I don’t believe we need a Clinton dynasty. It wasn’t just the Republicans that put a negative tint on Bill’s tenure. He did plenty of that by himself . . . well, not exactly by himself :o).

I assume you have guessed by now that I’m a Republican - and you’re right. However, I’m not hard right. In fact, I’m incensed that GWB has squandered - almost singlehandedly - any gains made by the Republican party over the last 10-20 years, and he didn't need to do it. Think about it. Your taxes are lower. Interest rates are more affordable than the they were in the first thirty years of my life. The economy has some temporary problems now, but jobs have grown pretty significantly in the last five or six years. There’s been a bump in the stock market, but the trend is positive. Yet, he's probably the most hated president since Tricky Dick.

GWB threw away any positives the Republican party may have gained, in three significant ways - the first through his total inability to communicate with anyone (most of all the American people), the second through a mis-applied, mis-planned war on terrorism, and third, his sometimes lousy choice of advisers. Those three cluster bleeps took a party that was clearly making progress totally out of the picture.

We needed a strike back after 9/11. We couldn’t continue to sit back and take it on the chin after Kobar Towers, Mogadishu, the USS Cole, the first WTC bombing, and the embassy attacks. Iraq was the wrong choice, and Rummy, et. al. were the wrong choices to pursue the response. That being said, should we just have “dialoged” them into submission? It hadn’t worked for 20 years. Why now?

By the same token, I’m not hard left either, and that’s my primary worry about both Obama and Clinton. Obama seems to want the government to run everything. Handouts for everyone. Can we afford that? I work for the federal government, and the federal government should be the last choice to run just about any program.

I won’t be voting “D” for that reason. Both HRC and Obama are just too far to the left. My problem is that there isn’t anyone available for EITHER ticket that I’m comfortable with. I’m looking for a moderate, and I can’t find one.

I’m for change too. However, change for change’s sake scares me.