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Vulpes Descending

redfox.jpgI quit my job. I’m losing my house. Just barely made the late payments on my truck in time to save it from repossession. And oh, boy, do I have some credit card debt. I’ll probably have to declare bankruptcy, and I’m pretty sure that will nuke my credit for … well, just about forever. Can’t seem to interest an agent in either of my books.

I’m still not finished moving, and it’s turned winter with a vengeance here in Upstate New York. I couldn’t get a load from my old house today because it snowed, and it’s down to about 4 degrees right now, a few minutes after 1 a.m. I’m still paying for heating at the old house, and I’m late on that bill too, so I’m worried the power will be cut off and the pipes will freeze.

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Atheism a la Meme

atheists1.jpgWay back in October, No More Mr. Nice Guy tagged me with a list of questions about atheism. I was busy at the time, and eventually forgot it. I just came across the link today, though, and with apologies to my fellow blogger, I reply today:

Can you remember the day that you officially became an atheist? Do you remember the day you officially became an agnostic?

Nope. It happened gradually. As early as 13, I wrote that I didn’t believe in God. My stepfather found it and gave me hell about it. But I must have had doubts about it even before then. I just didn’t see any evidence for the god hypothesis, and worse, everybody said different things about it. No matter how certain they seemed, nobody knew anything for sure.

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Broken Links

xmas-trees-3.jpgA major ice storm. Forty-two hours without electricity. A tree-fall in my neighbor’s yard, and because the base of it touches the property line, the expectation that I’m somehow on the hook to help get it removed. The breakdown of my truck.

And yet it was just about the most perfect two days I can remember in a long time.

I’m moving in with a friend, fellow bachelor-buddy Carl. I’ve been painting and preparing the ground at his house, transferring a few boxes as I go. I got my office moved over earlier this week.

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The Rumor Starts Here

BBQ BushI’m starting the rumor that President Bush plans to go back to Crawford, Texas and open a tire store, “Presidential Tires — Where the Rubber Meets the Rode” (sic), or possibly a small roadside barbecue stand, “Leader of the Free World Bar-B-Q.”

You heard it first, right here.

No, seriously. Undisclosed Capitol Hill sources have revealed that Bush will return to his ranch, which he has now successfully cleared of brush after 8 years in the White House, and will trade on his nationally-recognized name to launch a private business venture.

“I’m going to show everyone that my success in Washington, D.C., was no fluke,” said Bush. “This will pin down my legacy as the 43rd President of the United States with a commercial triumph in the field of rubber, or possibly barbecue.  I expect my venture here in Crawford to become a national chain, or maybe even worldwide.”

[Photo: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson listens as President Bush (man in gray suit on right) speaks about his upcoming venture into barbecue, or possibly tires.]

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An Atheist’s Thanks Giving

Thanks to PZ Myers of Pharyngula, and all the great commenters tatheists.jpghere.

Thanks to Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov, Terry Pratchett and Richard Dawkins. Thanks to Ray Bradbury, and Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey and Diane Duane, George Chesbro and Jim Butcher. Thanks to David Brin and Larry Niven. Thanks to Robert Service and Mark Twain. Thanks to Arthur C. Clarke, and to Chris Clarke.

And what the hell, thanks to Stan Lee, and Siegel and Shuster! Thanks to Bill Watterson, Berkely Breathed, and Walt Kelly.

Thanks to Mrs. Nicholas who took my friend Johnny and I to the library every Saturday when I was a kid. Thanks to Miss King, geometry teacher, who taught me that sometimes there really is only one right answer. Thanks to my “dad,” Dan Farris, for the years of tolerance, and to Lou and Mary Roeser, for the years in the saddle.

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One More Day.

Whew.

I’m sooooo happy to be voting Tuesday, here in the U.S.

For Barack Obama, in case you wondered.

I kept a promise to myself, some of you may be unhappy to hear, that I would never donate another dollar to the Democratic Party, after they failed to impeach George W. Bush. Which is the ONE thing I wanted in the 2006 election cycle.

But oh, yeah, Obama gets my one little vote.

I’m so tired of Republicans. Ready for as much change as the Dems can manage.

And I still hope for some prosecutions. Heck, I still think we could SELL Bush to the Iraqis for a year’s worth of free oil. Considering how many other people Bush has sacrificed, I’d think Bush would be proud to finally show his American stripes and sacrifice himself. Talk about service to your country!

And there’s no worry about national secrets getting out, even if they torture him. I mean, it’s not like Bush KNOWS anything.

I still think he’ll go back to Crawford, Texas, and open a tire store. And then fail at it.

Seriously, here’s something I do expect, if I bother to follow Bush’s career post-presidency: Beyond giving a few speeches, he will accomplish exactly nothing of note. I doubt if he’ll even show an INTEREST in anything. For the rest of his life.

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Getting Nailed

nailed.jpg[Apologies to my readers. This is more than 1,700 words, but I couldn’t say it in less. Exploring a new thought, and linking it to things you already know, just takes time. And when you write it out, it’s … longish. But I do have a couple of ideas here that were “Ahas” for me, so if you have the time, I’d love to know what you think. — Hank the Interminable]

Say you did something you thought was good at the time, but later turned out to be bad. You could admit the mistake. Or you could refuse to admit it.

Any sensible person would probably say the first option was the best one. If you can admit a mistake, you can probably do something to fix it, or correct your course so you don’t do it again. And you can move on.

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Thank You, Mr. Darwin. Again.

tree-of-life.jpgI grew up in Texas. Spent part of my childhood in Alabama. And I grew up among racists.

So I was a racist. When you grow up when and where I did, you can’t not be.

By the time I was in high school in the late 60s, racism was passé. It was no longer okay to hate the people who had progressed from being n*****s – also called, among my own relatives, “Negroes” or, given our accents, “niggrahs” – to being “black” people, or “African-Americans.”

But just because society changes, that doesn’t mean you do. I’m afraid the racism was still there in my head. (I like to think I can admit this not because I’m evil, but because I’m honest.)

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Debate Deux

gop-elephant.jpg

I couldn’t bring myself to watch the whole thing, but I saw a few outtakes of the second presidential debate.

I’ve already seen three mentions in various news stories about McCain’s use of the “that one” phrase in this debate.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been seeing stories about the atmosphere of Palin’s weirdly closed and secretive campaign. One story said the press not only doesn’t get the chance to question Palin, they don’t get the chance to question Palin supporters.

After accusing Obama of “palling around with terrorists,” Palin told a Florida crowd of 8,000 on Monday that Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist!”

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