For those who haven't seen the video of the train hitting the strawberry truck (there is a Captain Queeg joke there somewhere) in Oxnard last week, go here. Link is middle right. Next stop was the underwear section at Target.

Every guy out there who had a train set as a child (or now), has tried this. Nothing more male then destroying our toys.

Posted by: William Teach at 09:25 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.

On the heels of the previous post, here is a wake up call, guys (especially since it is 6:30 on the West Coast)

Turns out Sweet was close to the mark on its old pop hit Love Is Like Oxygen. Some may recall the song's hook: ``Love is like oxygen / Not enough and you're gonna die.''

Positive marital relations translated into lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The lower the cortisol, the faster compounds are delivered to a wound to kick-start the healing process. A correlated study of older married couples - married an average of 42 years - found lower cortisol levels helped reduce the risk of infectious diseases and perhaps cancer.

''Men get a lot more out of marriage than women do in terms of an extra boost,'' Kiecolt-Glaser said. ``This is probably because women have broader social support networks. For men, the wife is the major confidante and if they are not married many may not have a confidante.''

Sounds good. If you are single, propose right now. If married, give her a kiss and thank her. Make something low fat for breakfast, though:

Married men are more likely to become obese than never-wed or previously married men, a 1997 Cornell University study found. This, naturally, could compromise the health boost that marriage provides, the report said.

That's ok, you can take some nice walks together.

Posted by: William Teach at 06:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 243 words, total size 2 kb.

From Free Republic via Michelle Malkin:

LONDON - A woman who keeps quiet during an argument with her husband is four times more likely to die from heart disease and other causes, according to a study published in the American Heart Association (AHA) journal.

Researchers believe women who argue with their husbands are warding off heart disease and other causes of death...

To the scurvy dogs out there, hey, I be just reporting this tid bit. Ye may thank me later.

Posted by: William Teach at 03:18 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 91 words, total size 1 kb.

1 I wonder how this affects the rate of heart disease in the husbands? Is it me or her? I might also point out that women outlive men on average? Hhhmmm......

Posted by: Pile On® at February 19, 2005 05:57 PM (3rQcV)

2 Well, there is a dangerous road to go down

Posted by: William Teach at February 19, 2005 06:23 PM (HxpPK)

3 But a husband who opens his mouth during an argument with his wife is 15 times more likely to die a sudden, violent death. It's really a matter of pulling the band-aid off slowly or quickly.

Posted by: Paul at February 19, 2005 06:36 PM (O2fD/)

4 A friend whose wife is assertive, and willing to share her opinion with others (yeah!) tells me that "you can always tell which guys have wimpy wives." I loved that phrase, "wimpy wives." It made me feel like the norm, rather than an odd mistake Attila the Hub made 15 years ago and hasn't ever quite owned up to.

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 20, 2005 05:55 AM (IU3og)

5 A woman who keeps quiet during an argument with her husband is ...a mythical creature.

Posted by: Brian B at February 21, 2005 05:01 PM (CouWh)

6 You sound like James Thurber, in more ways than one.

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 22, 2005 01:01 AM (RjyQ5)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Very Interesting:

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation on Wednesday to achieve meaningful reforms to federal government information laws, most notably the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (FOIA). The Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2005 (OPEN Government Act) is aimed at substantially enhancing and expanding the accessibility, accountability, and openness of the federal government. U.S. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), the committeeÂ’s senior Democrat, is the billÂ’s co-sponsor.

Importantly for bloggers, the Cornyn-Leahy legislation grants privileged FOIA fees for bloggers and writers for Internet outlets, providing the same status as old media and will protect access to FOIA fee waivers for legitimate journalists, regardless of institutional association - including bloggers and other Internet-based journalists.

If this passes, will bloggers be spine biters to the MSM, instead of ankle biters?

Posted by: William Teach at 10:07 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 149 words, total size 1 kb.

Linked to the Outside the Beltway Caption Contest

Posted by: William Teach at 05:38 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
Post contains 12 words, total size 1 kb.

Via The New Republic (free registration req'd), is an article about the decline of Liberalism:

Ask yourself: Who is a truly influential liberal mind in our culture? Whose ideas challenge and whose ideals inspire? Whose books and articles are read and passed around? There's no one, really. What's left is the laundry list: the catalogue of programs (some dubious, some not) that Republicans aren't funding, and the blogs, with their daily panic dose about how the Bush administration is ruining the country.

Posted by: William Teach at 05:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 90 words, total size 1 kb.

When LMA asked me to guest blog, the prospect was a little daunting. How to connect? Hmmm. Well, one of the interesting things I have thought about recently, via MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, is the circles that we in the Blogosphere run in. We all tend to hit the big folks, Right Wing News, Powerline, Instapundit, Captain's Quarters, etc. But it is the small fry, Large Mammal and under, along with the readers, who really make the whole thing work. I hope everyone will indulge me a bit.

We all get some interesting overlap. For instance, I live in North Carolina, but I probably have about the same amount of NC bloggers on my roll as I do Bear Flag League folks. As well as from all over the country, and a few international.

That being said, let's take a look at one of the others Bear Flag League members, Byron from Slings and Arrows, who has an interesting excerpt from The Opinion Journal:

In his new role as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Dean has stressed that Democrats are stronger than Republicans on defense.

"Defense is a lot broader than swaggering around saying you're going to kick Saddam's butt," Dean said Thursday, drawing cheers from the crowd in this city that overwhelmingly voted Democratic last November.

It's not clear how this shows that "Democrats are stronger than Republicans on defense." After all, "swaggering around saying you're going to kick Saddam's butt" was precisely the policy of the last Democratic administration. The current Republican administration actually kicked his butt and even took down names. That strikes us as a pretty broad policy.

And from my NC blog buddy Ogre, we have a story about how Some Freedom Remains regarding the Christians who were arrested in Philly awhile ago for peacefully protesting.

Posted by: William Teach at 04:10 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 307 words, total size 2 kb.

. . . from Pirate's Cove will keep the home fires burning here for the next 3-4 days as I head out of town until Monday (or possibly Tuesday, to avoid holiday traffic).

He's holding down the weekend, so if there is a gap it'll be on Monday. You'll all live: just check out my blogroll, which has some fine readin'. Or you could hang out at Jeff's, or Jeff's. But before you resort to any of that, click on my advertiser's banners: Photon Courier is the master of the short, brilliant essay on economic trends and management philosophy (along with about ten other interesting subjects), and Wizbang! is . . . Wizbang! He should be a daily stop for you, you know. They both should.

I'll be able to post once or twice if my mother's getting along with technology these days. I won't if she isn't.

William will probably bring a little necessary testosterone to the place, as that other eminent pirate did for Ith, when he guest-blogged at Absinthe and Cookies a few months back.

Now, you all be good, and don't do anything I wouldn't do. (Or, you know—if you do, post pix.)

Posted by: Attila at 07:14 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 203 words, total size 1 kb.

This is a very interesting model for a Catholic Parish.

Via the little elf-man.

Posted by: Attila at 12:58 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 18 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . discusses blogging with grace, insight, and that increasingly annoying sentence repetition that she should consider giving up on as a rhetorical device.

(Via Goldstein.)

Posted by: Attila at 12:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 29 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . from Iowahawk. Some of the characters sound familiar, but I just can't be sure . . .

It's about a town full of hormone-infused teenagers who find their burg overcome by a very large blob, um, blog.

Sobering tale.

Posted by: Attila at 01:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 50 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . from an argument over at Dean Esmay's site with two guys named Kevin and Michael that started with a discussion of Alan Keyes' family life and mutated into debates on:

• Parents' obligations to their adult children.
• Whether the term "colored" is offensive.
• Whether homosexuals can really "love" each other as much as heterosexuals do. (I really got drawn into that?—can you imagine? Next, I'll be debating my stuffed Stoney the Bear doll about Marxist dialectic.)
• Whether adoptive parents can love their children as much as biological parents do. Naturally, at this point—being on the verge of adopting—I felt myself about to blow a gasket and withdrew from the discussion.

Anyone who wants to take on the Christian Taliban over there, be my guest.

In the meantime I'm left to reflect on my passion as a potential mother. So far, I've experienced the echoes of this in terms of being an aunt. As I mentioned over at Dean's site, I'm very protective of my nieces and nephews, and if anyone messed with them they would be very likely to look like Swiss Cheese afterward (depending on the ordnance used). But there's a kind of defensive anger there. What scares me is what I turn into when the anger, the defensive emotion, is removed and only the ruthlessness remains. There's a whole new level once I attain parenthood.

My husband had oral surgery once and I had to convey him home afterward. We stopped at the drugstore on the way for his medications, and there was a line at the pharmacy. I became charming, and engaging, and spoke with the clerk, and the pharmacist, explaining that my husband was post-op and dozing in the car and it would be terrific if they could get me his medications as soon as possible. I was not cranky, which is what normally happens when I experience delays. I worked sweetly with the employees at the drugstore, and I went out to check on my husband in the passenger seat of my Saturn a couple of times. And if it would have helped I would have taken a hatchet to the back of the counter girl's head. With a smile on my face. I was going to get the drugs for my husband, and get him home to bed in the shortest period of time possible. By whatever means necessary, and with no rancor at all.

"Swell," I thought. "I can teach my child how to be a cheerful sociopath." I'm hoping, of course, that my morals will come back, but later that day I thought of those fierce-yet-calm feelings of protectiveness and my blood ran cold. "That's what I'll be like as a full-time mom. Holy shit."

They say black bears are only dangerous if you stray close to the spot where one has hidden its food, or if you unwittingly get too close to a momma bear's cubs. And when the momma bear sees that and puts you down for good, she does it without getting mad at you.

It's just business.

Posted by: Attila at 01:17 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 523 words, total size 3 kb.

Horatio, than are dreamt of in your blogging stereotypes.

Via Jeff of Beautiful Atrocities.

Posted by: Attila at 03:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

Iowahawk scored the transcript of Eason Jordan's remarks! Now there's some CITIZEN JOURNALISM! As Goldstein would say, GIVE THE MAN SOME PIE!

Posted by: Attila at 02:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 36 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . is sexual McCarthyism.

Do the lefties really want to be the party of gay-bashing? Do they really want White House reporters to clear some kind of "morals" background check before being admitted to the West Wing?

They need to get out of people's bedrooms, and out of the witch-hunt business. This whole Jeff Gannon affair is just nauseating. Let people's pasts remain so.

Posted by: Attila at 02:34 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.

Via reader Daniel, this— which is salacious and depressing at the same time.

It reminds me of a line from the 1970s movie Outrageous!, in which Craig Russell played a hairdresser whose upper-crust female clients prattle at him about renovating their houses.

He remarks to a friend of his, "they should renovate their shitty little lives."

How lovely to be in a marriage that includes—15 years after my husband and I started going out—tickle fights.

And, if I'm ever murdered please let the cops know that those thumb-size bruises that occasionally appear on my thighs are from martial arts sparring with the husband, and it's all playful stuff.

And that I'm a lucky, lucky woman.

Posted by: Attila at 10:57 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 121 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Oh for God's sake. Everyone knows that stuff only happens on the Oxygen Channel.

Posted by: McGehee at February 15, 2005 07:44 AM (S504z)

2 Er, I mean the stuff about gardeners in Westchester...

Posted by: McGehee at February 15, 2005 07:44 AM (S504z)

3

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 15, 2005 11:46 AM (RjyQ5)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

As most of you know, I'm the one libertarian in the country who still believes rail transit could work in the Southwest, even in Los Angeles—provided it's handled in a smart way. (Mostly, of course, it has not been.) For instance, there should be a high-speed train running between L.A. and Las Vegas, and probably one running to SF or the East Bay. I happen to like to drive to those places, but for most people it's a chore, and a bullet train would be a lot more convenient for most. (Particularly the drinkers going to Sin City.)

Daily commutes are harder to handle, but I like staggering people's arrival times, so that some get to the office early, and others get there late. This helps ease up on traffic, and wastes less fuel from the stop-and-go effect. But VariFrank's idea of getting more people—a lot more people—to telecommute is pretty brilliant. My first thought is, can most people create an office in their homes? I realize that of course they can, even if it's even in a corner. A lot of homes I know have a "junk room" that its occupants would gladly clear out if it were going to save them ten hours a week that they could then use for anything they wanted.

Via Glenn, who has a few thoughts of his own on how to approach energy policy without turning it into a moralistic crusade and sounding like a bunch of Sunday school teachers. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Posted by: Attila at 12:14 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 263 words, total size 2 kb.

Cassandra uses information gleaned from the EconoPundit to place the current U.S. debt level in historical perspective. Three charts demonstrate 1) this country is far from its peak debt level, in terms of real dollars (that peak occurred in 1946), and 2) there are other Western countries carrying more debt than we do. Furthermore, 3) our debts are more "collateralized," in that enormous swaths of the U.S. are owned by the Federal government.

For the short version of the story, go to Cassandra's blog (first link above). For the same charts plus some fascinating insights (including an interesting comparison of China now to Japan in the 1990s) go to the EconoPundit link.

Via Beautiful Atrocities.

Posted by: Attila at 11:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 121 words, total size 1 kb.

. . . has a new advertiser whose promos essentially amount to softcore porn. So I'll have to go back there after dinner and be scandalized all over again.

Wait: go through the Boi's site. That way he gets the credit when you click through. Upper right, not that you'll have trouble spotting it, and there are cute female models, too (there's a "just us girls" spinoff line). Something for everyone.

Posted by: Attila at 06:57 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 73 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Yeah, but trudging through the "boyz" part might be a bit much to ask to get to the cute female models.....

Posted by: Daniel at February 12, 2005 07:05 PM (XG5pe)

2 Hey. Have you seen them?

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 12, 2005 10:20 PM (RjyQ5)

3 The females? Are they that good? Maybe I should give it a shot then. But how am I going to explain it to the guy who fixes my PC? "No, you don't understand......but.......there's girls there, too.... uh.....why are you looking at me like that......."

Posted by: Daniel at February 13, 2005 08:39 AM (XG5pe)

4 The girlz don't show anywhere near as much skin as the boyz do. What's up with that?

Posted by: McGehee at February 13, 2005 11:57 AM (S504z)

5 You know, I didn't notice that. I'll have to go over there again to confirm what you're saying.

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 13, 2005 12:53 PM (RjyQ5)

6 Okay, point taken. But they are very pretty, and you do seem some slender female tummy. The boys, on the other hand, are being exploited. Yes. I fear exploitation of the boys. They should be counseled about this, preferably by an older woman who can, um, counsel them. From Hell, Attila

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 13, 2005 01:17 PM (RjyQ5)

7 So I'll have to go back there after dinner and be scandalized all over again. Priceless, PRICELESS line, that. Well, but I could use a break from the Eason Jordan scandal . . . hmm.

Posted by: ilyka at February 15, 2005 04:51 PM (SaegY)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Jay Tea just published another "Winter Driving Tip." Here is mine:

When deciding where to live, look around for one of the following three objects:

1) palm trees;
2) cacti;
3) Joshua trees.

If you don't see any of these items in the landscape, do not move into the area.

UPDATE: This entry is in my "Extreme Weather" topic category, because to me extreme weather means anything below 55 degrees, or above 105. Or if it rains, of course: that's extreme.

Posted by: Attila at 06:42 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 87 words, total size 1 kb.

1 What, no link? You expect us all to just know how to get to Wizbang?

Posted by: McGehee at February 13, 2005 11:54 AM (S504z)

2 Actually, I think there was supposed to be a link there. But it's certainly funnier if I don't fix it, and thereby make everyone click on the ad to get there. (Which also, of course, increases my click-through rates. Hm.)

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 13, 2005 12:56 PM (RjyQ5)

3 Alas, an attack of conscience led to my fixing the link. I'll never amount to anything in the world, I'm afraid

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 14, 2005 02:28 PM (RjyQ5)

Hide Comments | Add Comment