Annual event

If you happen to have arrived here after being one of the many well wishers who were informed that they were mistaken about my birthday, thank you for keeping my blog the first result from the search for 'oldest 14 year old.' On this, the fourteenth anniversary of the fourteenth time since the fourteenth recurrence of my fourteenth birthday, it seems appropriate to acknowledge your good wishes. But I am STILL fourteen!

It Can't be said better - Truth in Labeling - will have political content

I must say that I enjoy a good piece of snark and the main reason I read Balloon Juice regularly is because when the deal the snark, it really peels paint....

And all over one can hear the sons of the Confederacy recite their talking points that the Civil War was not about slavery. They insist that the system of human bondage was a side issue. And as I look at the record of the Republican Confederate Party in recent times and the history of the Confederate Party regardless of its political host over the last 150 years—I am ready to admit that there is a bit of truth to their POV.

The Confederacy really wasn’t about slavery. That was just a tactic. The real issue was finding the best way to steal the labor of others.

Confederate History Month: Stolen Labor by Dennis G. at Balloon Juice

It Can't be said better -

"I want to just take a moment to thank the Teabaggers. Thank you so much for helping us pass health care [and] for resurrecting the Obama presidency. I know they're saying, 'Why are you thanking me? I was so against it, I marched on Washington with tea bags hanging off my Founding Fathers costume, with a gun on my hip and a picture of Obama dressed as Hitler, screaming about his birth certificate.' And America saw that and said,
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'I think I'll go with the calm black man.'"


---Bill Maher

It's Baseball!

First Ichiro Interview, question, what are you going to do about Jr's practical jokes?

It is important not to touch the bomb because the bomb will explode. Just let it sit.

RadCon 5B

By all accounts it was a huge success....

Some pictures:

Attendance was down about 5 percent, but you wouldn't know it from the game room....



The Space:1889 Screw Galley HMS Timbonin was a good draw, especially for Hill Martians....



We played Wings of War off and on all weekend.

Retitled due to comment spam

UPDATE: For some reason this post has become a magnet for comment spam. I've had to reject a comment just about every week since February...

The family had a pretty good Christmas, Grandma Joan came down to stay for the holiday, the tree was thoroughly looted by all and everybody got stuff that the wanted. Or needed. The following fits in both categories:

Ideal for the hobbyist toy soldier painter, this is on wheels so it can be moved, has lots of short drawers and the top two have eighteen compartment dividers. Plus the fold outs can be used to add workspace. I found it at Fred Meyer while killing time when Jen was singing Christmas carols with the Greenwood Players. Had to have it.

Speaking of had to have it, I found this at the same time. It's a little on the small size for 25mm, but it should convert nicely to a Space:1889 light screw galley. Add a Nordenfeldt and some crew and the propeller off a balsa and rubber band plane and we have air support at last....

It Can't Be Said Better - XXII

Jacob Hacker, godfather of the public option:

The public plan has been at the core of the health debate for a number of reasons: (1) it will significantly reduce costs; (2) it will provide broad, transparent coverage at an affordable price, setting a benchmark private insurers will be pressed to follow; (3) it won’t be in the business of denying or delaying needed care to people with costly conditions or shifting excessive costs onto them; and (4) it’s a vehicle for driving delivery and payment system reforms that private plans have proven unable and/or unwilling to do. Since we live in a democracy, it also seems relevant that (5) the public plan has been consistently popular with Americans (and doctors, according to a recent survey in the New England Journal of Medicine), despite the unrelenting false attacks on it.