Brother-in-law joke.

A simple question from Pat Robertson. Carmen will understand.

at least he is not appearing in the Republican debates this time.

Greatest headline. Ever.

This morning as I scrolled through the Washington Post web page I saw an article with this headline:

"The Story You Are Looking For Was Inadvertently Published."

A few minutes later when I scrolled back to click on it - it was gone!

oops.

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News of the weird

That would be the state somewhere to our south, dangling down obscenely from the underbelly of Georgia, the great state of ...

.. the truly weird. And this is not just my opinion. It's on AOL! Just check it out.

"It doesn't seem like anybody is really from Florida -- it just seems like a transient state where all the miscreants wind up," Greenlee said.

Which is what Budweiser the lawyer told me over thirty years ago.

It is not only looks that can deceive

What about voice? What if a dark skinned scruffy looking fellow had an absolutely beautiful voice? Would he still be a dark skinned scruffy looking fellow?

Or would your opinion change? If you couldn't actually see him?

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New art form

Hand dancing.

it would be even more fun while eating sea salt dark chocolate.

why yes. I am feeling better. How did you know?

News Flash!!

From Clemens News Central, this just in.

The Moon is shrinking.

100 meters in the last billion years.

robots

Robots. A Czech word, I believe. Anyway, here is one of them. Isn't he (she? it?) pretty?
[from Matthew Yglesias]

why, look. I believe it is coming your way.

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Ominous turn of phrase (and pop quiz)

In an article touting the new Kindle while reading St Augustine of all things, B. G. ends with this sentence regarding a copy of a book he 'liberated' by leaving it on a park bench.

(Miami reader of my liberated copy of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle": did you enjoy it? I'm pretty sure I didn't understand it. Do you? I recommend from experience that you not read it on your honeymoon.)

Doesn't exactly make me want to go out and buy either a Kindle or "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" but I am interested in the back story of this sentence.

This comes from a column in The Economist called 'Babbage.' Here's a pop quiz (no points given for checking the web for the answer): What does the title 'Babbage' refer to?

and furthermore, what about Lady Ada Lovelace?

quadruple points if you get that last remark and can explain its significance

Tea Bags: History as remembered

Jack was commenting on the origin of using the term "tea baggers" or "tea bagging" in reference to the various protests that coalesced under the name "Tea Party."

This is the way I remember it, so this must be the truth (for purposes of this blog anyway):

When groups began referring to themselves as the Tea Party, they also started using the tea bag as their symbol and referring to some of their activities as to 'tea bag' something or someone, as seen here in an early protest in Feb of 2009. I distinctly remember at least a few protesters referring to themselves as tea baggers who were going to tea bag the tax and spend budget buster. I knew this from articles I read on TPM at the time, before either Josh Marshall, or poor naive Clemens learned what the term REALLY means in our modern culture.

Once we were all educated to the use of the term for a sexual practice (Josh even had a clip from "Sex and the City" where the girls discuss doing this) that the liberal media hit upon it as a snide way to put down the movement.

So neither the movement nor the liberal media invented the term's sexual connotation. That apparently was already part of a part of our culture.

Since I would never want to impart a snide flavor to Sententiae I hereby declare a moratorium on the term .... at least until the next time I need to use it.

UPDATE: Just discovered this little article from NRO by Jay Nordlinger giving a brief history of the term. I love new terms.

Down there in the Unnamed Port City

Carmen is down in that pestilential swamp hole to our south for three weeks on family business. It is not too far from where this happened today:

It turns out the guy who tried to use fake ID to get into MacDill Air Force Base with a number weapons and lots of ammo was himself an AWOL serviceman. The military press person is saying it doesn't appear to be a case of attempted terrorism. But it's hard to figure where an AWOL soldier trying to drive his car into another military base with a lot of weapons isn't up to no good. [The TPM version of the story]

Take care honey! Stay away from military bases! At least until next week, when you go to visit Mother who lives only several stone throws away!

I found this on TPM while researching my reply to Jack's last comment.

Strange little story from Arabia

As I have said, I am reading the Gutenberg version of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T E Lawrences's memoir. It is chock full of the strange little stories. Here is one of Lawrence and his Arab irregulars camping within the walls of an old Arab fortress:

In these slow nights we were secure against the world. For one thing, it was winter, and in the rain and the dark few men would venture either over the labyrinth of lava or through the marsh--the two approaches to our fortress; and, further, we had ghostly guardians. The first evening we were sitting with the Serahin, Hassan Shah had made the rounds, and the coffee was being pounded by the hearth, when there rose a strange, long wailing round the towers outside. Ibn Bani seized me by the arm and held to me, shuddering. I whispered to him, 'What is IT?' and he gasped that the dogs of the Beni Hillal, the mythical builders of the fort, quested the six towers each night for their dead masters.

We strained to listen. Through Ali's black basalt window-frame crept a rustling, which was the stirring of the night-wind in the withered palms, an intermittent rustling, like English rain on yet-crisp fallen leaves. Then the cries came again and again and again, rising slowly in power, till they sobbed round the walls in deep waves to die away choked and miserable. At such times our men pounded the coffee harder while the Arabs broke into sudden song to occupy their ears against the misfortune. No Bedouin would lie outside in wait for the mystery, and from our windows we saw nothing but the motes of water in the dank air which drove through the radiance of our firelight. So it remained a legend: but wolves or jackals, hyasnas, or hunting dogs, their ghost-watch kept our ward more closely than arms could have done.

He offers no explanation beyond that last half sentence. But his Arabs knew all about wolves, jackals, and the rest, and they were scared out of their daring. As was Lawrence, apparently.

South Carolina - once again

No, this isn't about sex, lies, and the Republican Party. It's about the Democrats. And the just plain ol' inexplicable. Here's a brief rundown on Alvin Greene, a guy who decided to run for the Democratic nomination for the suicide run against Jim DeMint (R).

Greene's unemployed, recently out of the Army and living with his parents, and has an outstanding felony arrest from last year for showing obscene photos to a college student.

Back in March he walked into the state Democratic headquarters with a personal check for $10,400. That's the filing fee. The party people said they weren't allowed to take a personal check. It had to come from a campaign account. So a few hours later he came back with a check from a campaign account. And he signed up to run.

And that was it. He held no events. He never campaigned. He didn't go to the convention. He never filed any money filings. He never raised any money. He didn't even have a website. In other words, by every conceivable measure he never actually mounted a campaign.

Naturally he won the primary.

any theories greatly appreciated.

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The Wilhelm Scream

Is it true that in space no one hears you scream? Especially if you do it over and over with the same scream?

A compilation of the famous (I now learn) Wilhelm Scream, named after the eponymous cowboy who first screamed it. I wonder if he gets residuals for this?

I learned this from Carmen who found it on You Tube. Life with her is a constant education.

in at least several respects.

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The Hitler Fashion Statement

A new ad campaign. Only in Italy.

News Flash!!!

A news alert of great importance has just come in to Clemens Central from Josh Marshall:

"Nevada elections officials have banned people wearing chicken costumes from polling places for the remainder of 2010. "


it's a long story

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Weirdest statement about Canada

This is from the Frum Forum, where they are posting the best and the worst of the CPAC. Here's one about Canada.

The First Reference To Canada at CPAC

Jonah Goldberg delivers the first reference To Canada at CPAC: “Canada is a Northern Puerto Rico with an EU sensibility.” Well, at least this time he’s not urging us to bomb it.

Have no understanding what this means, since Puerto Rico is a US territory and its citizens are our citizens. Nor do I know what an EU sensibility is.

But it probably isn't positive.

News of the Deeply Weird

Scanning through TalkingPointsMemo just now I found this headline:

Man infatuated with U.S. VP breaches 2010 security

Joe Biden? Really?

And I thought Michael Jackson was weird.

Andalucian Vampires, singing

As promised, here they are, "1800 los Inmortales," from their knock-em-dead performance at the Cadiz carnaval, singing a song of deep social and political importance. There is also a lot of talk about blood, as one might imagine.

Carmen showed this to me. She found it on youtube while searching for Spanish hymns for her church (she's the piano lady there). And this is what came up on her search. Weird, but oddly compelling.


and, a vampire wanna-be. on helium

The Future is here

When I was a kid I had dreams of space travel and reaching the stars. I even read If and Analog magazines of sci-fi. known in those quaint days as "Science Fiction." And not much respected, I must say.

I also remember watching a TV show called "Truth or Consequences." No, that wasn't the code name for a government interrogation program, but a quiz show. The little town of Hot Springs, NM, was so taken with their show that they changed their town's name to - Truth or Consequences, NM. I even remember that.

Now, a half century later, the ever outside-the-box residents have voted to raise their taxes for their share of a $225 million Spaceport America project scheduled to open in 2011. The first tenant will be Virgin Galactic.

The facility, to consist of hangars, a terminal and the runway, may garner additional tenants if commercial space travel proves popular. The project is under the jurisdiction of the Spaceport Commission, a state agency.

Now there is a job I want - spokesperson for the New Mexico Spaceport Commission.

Somewhere, Arthur C. Clarke is saying, "What took you chaps do long?"

our next episode of strange Sententiae posts will be brought to you by 19th Century Singing Vampires. Really.

Keanu Reeves and Clovis

Young Clovis came into my office today, mainly to harass me, keep me from grading, and to steal my umbrella. He also decided to show me this.

I am beginning to suspect that Clovis works for Mora, sprite of procrastination.