To those of you who are Veterans, I salute you. To everybody else, happy binary day. Yes, 111111 – which, if my binary math is correct, adds up to 63. Don’t forget to glance at the clock at 11:11 today, and say, “wow.” I could have purchased tickets to tonight’s SU game for a mere $11 if I’d wanted to. But I don’t have anybody who’d be willing to make the supreme sacrifice of sitting through a football game with me (this is where having a kid would’ve come in handy), and, anyway, the last Friday night football game I went to wiped me out for about a week.
Many people have the day off, but I’ll be working because, well, because I’m not a vet, and I get an extra day off for working (which means I earned two this week, because Election Day is a holiday for me, too – a vestigial holiday left over from the days when public employees in NY were key players in elections). Today is also the final day of my “support” duty rotation, which is mostly a pain in the ass. It’s difficult to get all my other work done when I have to drop everything to answer some stupid call. We have a lot of PEBCAP
and 1D10T
errors where I work.
Yet more proof that there are, indeed, such things as stupid questions.
The nice weather is supposed to turn to shit today, which can only mean one thing: the weekend is nigh. Having given up my early day on Wednesday (the day it was sunny and 70° – which may be the last one of those we see for a while) so that a co-worker could take the day off and play golf, I get to leave early today, since the weather will suck. Of course, knowing the guy I did the favor for the other day, I’d say it’s even money that he calls in sick today (after I show up early so that I get to work an unexpected 10 hour day).
Oh well, one way or another, it’ll be over with.
Oh well, o
Some of the thoughtless and irreverant on the dreaded FB are celebrating today as Nige1 Tufne1 day. Eleven-Eleven-Eleven. Something tells me Rick Perry was going to announce a new tax plan today but couldn’t remember the last two digits to calendar the date.
Real musician (ret.) Michael Fennelly made the following suggestion
Along with Michael, real, still standing legendary bricks-and-mortar rekkid sto’ Music Mi11enium is celebrating the day.
Wow
11/11/11,with such catchy numbering surely someone has predicted that the world will end today.
Happy 11 12 11 day!
Well Obama named two women to the US Supremes and I don’t know another prezi who had the guts to, gasp, name TWO females.
And although very slow going, DADT ended. And I think alot of accomplishments have gone unnoticed because they are at the agency level. For example, the NIH was practically gutted under anti-science guy W. Obama took the agency seriously and has repositioned it to one of science and supplied funding. (This I got from a relative involved with it.) He removed restrictions and provided support for embryonic stem-cell research. He bailed out the auto industry. 2 billion invested for solar energy, more than doubled federal spending on researching clean fuels, I think he’s done a lot towards improving US food safety (which was dismal and is still dismal). The gag rule was ended, but shhhh about that. And there’s more: etc.
Am I happy about things like the Patriot Act, drone bombing, Guantanamo, etcetera?? NO!! But I do think many changes have been made that do and will trickle down to us little folk. :alc:
Guess What It’s Time For!
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: November 11, 2011
It’s the weekend. The air is brisk, the leaves are tumbling, so it’s time for — yes! — another Republican debate!
Who knew there were going to be more of these things than football games?
The Republicans meet again Saturday night in South Carolina, where the whole nation will get to see the effects of the long-awaited Newt Gingrich Surge.
Newt is up! CBS basically has Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Herman Cain in a dead heat. A McClatchy-Marist poll has Mitt at 23 percent, followed by Newt at 19 percent and Cain at 17 percent. Only 30 percent of Romney’s supporters said that they firmly back him, noted Lee Miringoff of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. “Gingrich’s number is 43.â€
I have to admit, this is one of the most interesting early presidential seasons ever. Remember four years ago when Hillary Clinton was the Democratic front-runner and then Barack Obama came in and got all the attention? Well, try to imagine what would have happened if, whenever there was a debate, Obama appeared to be drugged or drunk or under the spell of an evil sorcerer. And then when he faded away, instead of rallying around Clinton, the voters flocked toward the least-known person in the pack, former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska. And then when Gravel told an auditorium full of students that they should try to avoid alcohol and stick to marijuana (which actually happened) the remaining alternatives would be Jerry Springer and Anthony Weiner. And the voters would race back and forth between them while Clinton just kept putting in solid debate performances and getting 23 percent in the polls.
The antipathy toward Mitt Romney is the most fascinating part of a deeply fascinating political season. What is it about this guy? Is it just because he once drove to Canada with the family dog strapped to the roof of the car? The smile? Does the Christian right hate him because, until he flipped over, he used to insist he was strongly in favor of a woman’s right to choose? Because he once said he was more pro-gay rights than Ted Kennedy?
Because, if it’s that last one, I can assure you that this is a total misrepresentation. When Mitt was running for Senate against Kennedy, he simply wrote to a Republican gay rights group in Massachusetts saying: “For some voters, it might be enough to simply match my opponent’s record in this area. But I believe we can and must do better.â€
Which is, of course, completely different. And Mitt is really against gay marriage. Just ask him.
Rick Perry will have yet another chance to prove that he can handle a debate format, and I think I speak for us all when I say I am really, really looking forward to seeing what happens next on that front. And O.M.G., this time the topic is international affairs. It would probably make him less nervous if they told him the questions were going to be posed in Croatian.
Perry’s terrible performances have been a shock, given his great record as a campaigner in Texas. Although, back there, he did have many lucky breaks and terrible opponents. Also, when he ran for re-election for governor in 2010, he refused to take part in any debates. Or even editorial board endorsement interviews. Maybe you and I didn’t know his Achilles’ heel would turn out to be talking, but, somehow, I think Rick had a clue.
Newt, on the other hand, is always good in debates if you like extremely pompous people who appear to be practically levitating with their own sense of personal wonderfulness. During the last outing, Gingrich’s most fascinating moment came when he explained why the mortgage lender Freddie Mac paid him $300,000 in 2006. First of all, it had nothing whatsoever to do with lobbying, or attempting to influence the Republicans who happened to control Congress at a time when there was talk of clamping down on the way Freddie operated. Just put that out of your mind.
No, Gingrich explained very clearly that Freddie gave him the three-hundred grand for his “advice as a historian.â€
This is fantastic and important news. Right now a great many college students are trying to decide on a course of study. Some of them would probably like to major in history but are wondering if they should pick something that might be more lucrative. Not to worry, college students! Look at Newt. Three-hundred-thousand dollars for advising! And the way he described it in the debate, it appeared to involve about only an hour of his time.
So, if given a choice between an M.B.A. in finance or an M.A. in medieval studies, you know where to go. And tell them Newt sent you.
A Republican climate change denier talks about why he changed his mind: