The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Saturday, February 21, 2009

Bits and Pieces

A little bit of this and that that came to mind this morning as I was sitting in an overcrowded restaurant (Sandy's on the Circle) waiting impatiently for my breakfast. I wouldn't have been there but the setting up of the new computer revealed a bad speaker system and a new one had to be purchased at the local flea market. Which led, of course, to my also dropping by the library to pick up a book for Faye. Which, in turn, meant I had to time things so I was at the library after 9:30 AM. This meant that I needed to kill time after finding the speakers at the flea market and so I ended up at Sandy's waiting on breakfast.

Our flea market doesn't actually sell any fleas. No one's does, I suppose. I always wanted to reserve a space to sell some of the multitude of things taking up space in my closets and garage and have a jar of live fleas to put on the table. I could probably collect some at the local Humane Society.




One of the things that came to mind was a comic strip called "Pickles" since I was reading the paper and that is one of my favorite sections (Okay, that is my favorite section). So it is now my "Comic Strip of the day, Week, or Whatever." I don't know if you folks pay much attention to the little things that show up on blogs but I do. Argentum's "Thomas Arcanum" and "Nether Regions of the Earth", ET AL (a little Latin there, folks) has some interesting things, for example.

I'd like to write about my opinions on abortion but I am not that stupid. Apparently, that didn't hold back a few people who wrote letters to the paper. It never ceases to amaze me how passionate people get in those letters to the editor. Or how poorly they can express themselves. The paper always claims it can (and will) edit letters for clarity but I don't think they do. They likely just laugh and print them as is.

The paper's editorial was about two things. First, the mortgage crisis. they made sense except for the fact that they had no solutions to offer. Seems a bit pointless to have an opinion that is basically "They need to fix this." Well, duh!
The second part was about capital punishment. They are against it. Not on moral grounds, mind you, but economic. OK, I am not going there either. Because, like with abortion, I am not stupid enough to start an argument.

There was a local column on technology that talked about GPS units for your car. I don't get the need for them. All you have to do it is use Mapquest or Google Maps to get turn by turn directions. Print them out and take them with you. That's what I do and then Faye tells me where to go. She's very good at that, by the way, having been doing it for twenty two years now.

The reason that Sandy's was crowded, thereby giving me too much time to think, is that it is Winter. We are in the very heart of the Great Northern Influx. Our population is a bit more than twice our permanent resident level of approximately 10,000. This puts a strain on our restaurants, stores, and auto service providers. There are lines everywhere. I get more exercise in the Winter. Since parking lots are fuller, I have to park farther away. I also have to wait in checkout lines much longer than Summertime. I get real lazy in Summer.

I have digressed enough for today. I need to read some other blogs to find out what is happening in the world and to be entertained now. You should too.

12 comments:

Inspector Clouseau said...

Are you saying that I am stupid Douglas, for having raised the issue of abortion? Well sorta. There were 51 comments (some of them ours of course) on Post No. 70, "From the Yin and Yang File," which only consisted of the posting of a letter to the editor and a news blurb re the Vatican's position on some aspect of the stem cell debate.

Also, your reference to fleas made me look up "flea circus" again. Interesting story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_circus

Douglas said...

Log - You are definitely not stupid. My meaning was that it would be stupid to reveal my opinions on the subject. It would only start a debate I don't want on this blog. I am happy to offer those opinions elsewhere, somewhere that is geared to debate and discussion of sensitive issues.

Flea circus... now there's a segue...

Bagman and Butler said...

The great thing about the Internet is its diversity. Sometimes I think that it is becoming the collective soul of the human race. It sometimes take courage to look at it because it contains everything from the holy to the pornographic, from genius to idiocy...what an incredibly broad spectrum of things go on in the mind of this odd species called human.

Douglas said...

B&B - We are nothing if not amusing, are we not? You may be right about the internet becoming our collective soul... or at least revealing it.

Inspector Clouseau said...

I'm with you Butler and Bagman regarding this internet diversity.

Douglas knows that I was being facetious about the abortion discussion, because he's been in the middle of some very intense discussions on our blog. Fortunately, and I think Douglas would agree, we keep the discussion pretty civil and I think that we all learn from one another.

What's also interesting to me is that I get to see the positions of regular visitors on a regular basis, and I always find it amusing when folks with different philosophies agree with one another on certain issues. And that is a good thing...

Steven said...

A good cell phone (I definitely recommend the Nokia E71x) with GPS and the Google Maps application will save the step of having to print things at home, and let you be spontaneous to boot! And if you find yourself lost or detoured it's wonderful, at least for me, since I get lost easily.

The car GPS's are even better since they can talk to you and readjust your route if you get off it for whatever reason. That's the killer feature I'm waiting for in Google Maps for your phone.

Mi esposa generally tells me where to go anyway, but I do like seeing the route myself, and require it for when I'm traveling alone.

Anonymous said...

B&B's comment, very telling...

and yes, Douglas, are are an amusing little race.

AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/
http://thingsthatfizz.blogspot.com/

Michael said...

The diversity thing is my favorite thing about blogging.

And my view on abortion is... don't abort it if it's mine. It's a complicated argument, but that's the gist of my view.

Michael.

Michael said...

The diversity thing is my favorite thing about blogging.

And my view on abortion is... don't abort it if it's mine. It's a complicated argument, but that's the gist of my view.

Michael.

Steven said...

A good cell phone (I definitely recommend the Nokia E71x) with GPS and the Google Maps application will save the step of having to print things at home, and let you be spontaneous to boot! And if you find yourself lost or detoured it's wonderful, at least for me, since I get lost easily.

The car GPS's are even better since they can talk to you and readjust your route if you get off it for whatever reason. That's the killer feature I'm waiting for in Google Maps for your phone.

Mi esposa generally tells me where to go anyway, but I do like seeing the route myself, and require it for when I'm traveling alone.

Douglas said...

Log - You are definitely not stupid. My meaning was that it would be stupid to reveal my opinions on the subject. It would only start a debate I don't want on this blog. I am happy to offer those opinions elsewhere, somewhere that is geared to debate and discussion of sensitive issues.

Flea circus... now there's a segue...

The Logistician said...

Are you saying that I am stupid Douglas, for having raised the issue of abortion? Well sorta. There were 51 comments (some of them ours of course) on Post No. 70, "From the Yin and Yang File," which only consisted of the posting of a letter to the editor and a news blurb re the Vatican's position on some aspect of the stem cell debate.

Also, your reference to fleas made me look up "flea circus" again. Interesting story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_circus