Random Commuter Observation (TM)

NPR, as one might expect, ran a nooz blurb this morning on the airport gridlock lingering in the Northeast after the recent Snowpocalypse.

In the piece, the reporter interviewed a woman who got caught in NYC with her family on the way back from a vacation somewhere in the Caribbean. Their final destination was Dee Cee, a mere hour away by air and maybe four by car. The bulk of the interview concerned the fact that these people had been loitering around JKF or La Guardia (whichever it was) for hours and days and still had not even been provided any information about when they might get a flight home.

The reporter finished up by noting the family would be perfectly happy to use any other means to get to Dee Cee - rail, bus, car.....so long as the airline spotted them the funds for it. (The story did not suggest one way or the other whether the family could afford the extra expense, but I would guess that if they were jetting back from an island vacation, they probably could manage it.)

It struck me that the question has to be asked: At what point do you simply give it up and make your own way, renting the car (or whatever) yourself and just getting the hell home and worrying about whether you'll get reimbursed later on?

And The Vast Majority of Polled Republicans Are In The Tank For...

Mike Huckabee? Really?

Um, if this doesn't sound like a shameless push by the MSM for the most beatable GOP opponent - ahem, CNN, ahem - then I've heard everything.

Look, Huck has a certain Gomer-pyle appeal I suppose but is there really a better example of a Big Gub'mint religious left candidate? I smell a rat here. I mean TWO-THIRDS of Republicans think he's "the man"? Sorry, I ain't buyin' it.

"Gladiator" Meets "300"

Offered without much editorial comment:

Bonus: Lucy Lawless plays the bad girl:

MOOD MUSIC

Seemed appropriate with thirteen inches of snow on the ground:

Storm Warnings

For those of you tracking the latest Storm of the Century of the Week as it lumbers up the Eastern Seaboard, I note that what Orgle Manor received yesterday afternoon barely even made for a creditable dusting. Feh. I want my money back.

Anyhoo, it is a time-honored tradition that the Family Robbo and the Family LMC spend New Year's Eve together, generally sitting about and gossiping while enjoying adult beverages until somebody realizes it's about 11:57 pm and we suppose we'd better turn on the damned teevee and see if the semi-animated corpse of Dick Clark has been wheeled out of cryo again.

This year the festivities will be held at Orgle Manor. I had been assuming that it was just going to be another small, casual family gathering, but over the past couple days I've been picking up some radio chatter suggesting that Mrs. Robbo actually has something else up her sleeve and that a flurry of stop-by-for-a-drink invitations recently extended among our friends are suddely going to coalesce into a full-blown Category 4 party.

STORM OF THE CENTURY - "I'M SORRY" EDITION

Last Wednesday, I was discussing the recent lack of inclement weather in the Northeast to Mid-Atlantic area this past December. And yes, I actually mentioned to a co-worker that "This is the first December in recent memory where it looks like I'll go the whole month without a single snow plowing."

Har-Har-Har...oh FRAK!!!!

So, having gone and mocked mother nature we shall all suffer for this outrage.

Snowy? Will you accept a humble apology?

"You pissed off mommy, bee-otch! Now...feel the power of this fully armed and operational weather front!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Eh, keep your Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This is how you set up your Christmas lights to music! To The Waitresses!

"Oh, you forgot cranberries too?"

Merry Christmas to Robbo, Steve-O, the LMC and the whole menagerie here at the Butcher Shop!

Christmas 2007

This is a post from December 2008:

We landed in Kuwait on Christmas Eve on our way home and headed to a camp in the desert for several days before flying back to the States. We got settled in late in the evening and I called home shortly after midnight local time, meaning it was midmorning at Fort LMC. I missed my wife but got a hold of my mother who had been hanging on the end of her rosary beads throughout the deployment. Christmas Day was the first full day that I did not have to be worried about getting mortared, rocketed, shot, or blown up, much less making the wrong decision and getting one of my soldiers hurt. It was if the weight of the world was suddenly gone.

I will always remember the camp dining facility decorated for Christmas with every conceivable holiday food set out while carols played on the sound system. Most of all, I will remember flying into Norfolk a few days later, seeing Mrs. LMC and the kids at the airport, and the sight of the post headquarters decorated for the holidays as we pulled into the driveway. There is truly no place like home.

Two Headlines In One!

"Britain May Not Have Enough Grit To Cope With Winter."

The article is actually about supplies of road salt, but it strikes me too that there's been an awful lot of whining about the weather this year. It's snow. Deal with it.

And thank Al Gore.

Apropos of Not Much

The repeal of DADT reminded me a story about a fellow officer whose personal life was like a soap opera and had a sense of humor which never failed him. This fellow had done it all and had stories that could keep you laughing all night. His first marriage crashed when his wife announced she was leaving him for another woman. His response was it was really unnecessary since he was in fact a lesbian trapped in a man's body.

All Your Webs Are Belong To Us

I haven't paid all that much attention to the stories about the FCC's new "net neutrality" regs, although from what I gather they sound like an effort to police content under the guise of access.

For those of you upset about the new regs - either because you think they go too far or because they don't go far enough - I would only offer this: I practiced before the FCC for many years and it has quite the track record for getting itself spanked by the Dee Cee Court of Appeals for overreaching its authority. Also by Congress. So don't think the new regime is set in stone, because it very probably isn't.

Sublime

Celtic Woman performing Carol of the Bells:

Linkie via Julie from the old 'hood. As long as we are at it, here is CW's rendition of "O Holy Night:"

Yips! from Robbo: It's a pretty pleasing vid even with the volume turned all the way down, too!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The robo-calls from the local Catholic school at 5:30 announced no school today for inclement weather despite the fact not a flake has fallen. The Future ROTC Scholarship Recipient and Our Little Debutante will be estastic; Mrs. LMC less so.

Yips! from Robbo: Well, it's snowing in Your Nation's Capital now and our County just announced it's shutting down the schools at 1:00pm. Since St. Rita of the Misunderstood Adolescence follows the County, the eldest Llama-ette gets a half-holiday. However, since St. Marie of the Blessed Educational Method is (for now) sticking it out, the gel will have no choice but to trudge over there and cool her heals while Mrs. Robbo and the other two Llama-ettes finish out the day. I suppose she could occupy herself by doing her homework. [Ed. - Oh, hahahahaha!!!!]

Storm Of The Century Of The Week Watch (TM)

An inch of snow is predicted here tomorrow. Run for your lives!

Me, I'm off to stock up on batteries and t-paper.

Stranger Than Fiction

This comes in via Special Agent Bedhead.

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According to the linkie, Carrie was married at one point to a man who left her for a dude.

Random Commuter Observation

It's cold as a witch's whatever hereabouts with a howling wind to boot, but my layering this morning was a positive work of art: Timberline socks and boots, cord pants, Bean Norwegian sweater, tweed jacket and microfibery field jacket, with cashmere scarf and earmuffs to cap it all off.

A lame post, I know, but I'm still pretty proud of myself.

The "Talk"

Money quote: "I don't want my son growing up in a world where he thinks Greedo shot first."

Yips! to Jen.

Robbo, this long-distance babe dedication goes out to you

Dame Judi Dench is 76:

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Because I care.

Pearl Harbor

A day that will live in infamy. . . Ted Nugent's piece is here. A next door neighbor growing up was a Pearl Harbor survivor, Arizona to be exact. He was a gunner's mate and was fortunate enough to be blown off the exposed deck of the battleship by an explosion. He surfaced naked in burning oil and swam to Ford Island. An officer's wife gave him a blanket and he watched his ship sink into the harbor with hundreds of his shipmates trapped inside. He made the Navy a career, became a chief, and retired as a lieutenant. He attended every anniversary of the attack as one of the dwindling members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association until Alzheimers stole his memories. I can only wonder if his remains were interred on the wreck. (Oil still seeps from Arizona and legend has it the fuel will stop leaking when the last of her survivors dies.)

Your Global Government At Work

Just when you think the news out of Haiti couldn't possibly get any more wretched and awful, you learn that you're wrong:

UN peacekeepers were the most likely source of the cholera epidemic sweeping Haiti, according to a leaked report by a French disease expert.

Epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux conducted research in Haiti on behalf of the French and Haitian governments.

Sources who have seen his report say it found strong evidence that the cholera outbreak was caused by contamination of a river by UN troops from Nepal.

The UN said it had neither accepted nor dismissed the findings.

I'll bet.

According to the article, the likely culprits were a Nepalese unit that dug its latrines in the wrong place and contaminated a nearby river.

Jesus wept.

I suppose the Hatians have one thing about which they can be grateful: U.N. "peacekeapers" operating in sub-Saharan Africa have a habit of raping and pillaging. Here they're just fouling the water supply.

Gratuitous Nats Posting (TM) - "Drunken Sailors On Shore Leave" Division

Good, gad. Now the Nats might be giving the Werth Treatment to Cliff Lee!

By the way, the Llama-ettes are in near-mutiny over this entire biznay, starting with the Dunn trade. And I only made things worse this morning by musing that with Werth in RF, they might very well throw Josh "The Hammer" Willingham - another Orgle Manor favorite - under the bus, too.

Criminey, Mikey, you'd better know what you're up to!

Gratuitous Nats Posting (TM) - 'World Turned Upside Down' Division

Jayson Werth? Okay, I guess I can see that. Seven years and $126 million? Jaysum Crow!

Mikey Rizzon claims to have a grand strategy for building the team and I think I begin to see it: Bemuse and distract everybody else with inexplicable moves. Then, when they take their eyes off the ball, win games.

I've spent the last few seasons spitting poison at Werth every time the Phils play the Nats, of course, but I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. On one condition, however: Get a haircut, Mountany Man!

Random Commuter Observation (TM)

You know those photos of Llamas standing about in the midst of Andean blizzards with that serene look on their faces?

Don't let 'em fool you. We get pretty durn cold.

Brrrr!!!

LMC Movie Review: The Runaways

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This much ballyhooed flick about one of the early gal bands showed up last night courtesy of Netflix. The movie was dreadful; Kristen Stewart is a one-expression actress and the plot did nothing to advance Dakota Fanning's promising career. We gave it fifteen minutes before catching the last hour of Independence Day.

Eighties Brunette Birthday Reunion

LMC fav Marisa Tomei is 46:

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It's Beginning To Sound A Lot Like Christmas, Dammit!

MAYUN, do I hate medleys of holiday music!

Either play the whole song or don't play any of it!

That is all.

Gratuitous Air Travel Observation (TM)

Jetting to-and-fro about the country this week, it became obvious to me that somebody must have sent a memo round the ranks of the TSA requiring all personnel to pull out the public-relations stops instanter.

Going through security at the airports (which was as abysmally slow at O'Hare as I've ever seen it), I didn't get felt up by any of the agents, but I sure got chatted up a lot.

THE PROBLEM WIH MITT

that would be Romneycare, the Massachusetts experiment in manadating health coverage. It was a disaster, as set out in this from NRO. His best argument should be: 'We tried it, it was a complete failure. We learned."

BECAUSE WE FOCUS ON WHAT IS IMPORTANT

Lucy Liu is 42 tomorrow

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