Archive for November, 2005
Wednesday, November 30th, 2005
Red Tape Ensnarls Bureaucrats
Two employees of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in Nashville, Tennessee have found a new use for red tape: kickbacks.No, this is not an urban legend. Sometimes, fact is stranger than fiction…
Joseph Haymond and Natalie Coker are accused of taking a $1 kickback per roll on 100,000 rolls of tape purchased for the Alvin C. [...]
6 Comments » - Posted in bureaucrats, corruption, crime by ME
Wednesday, November 30th, 2005
Arkansas v. Aruba
The citizens of Arkansas have been “urged” by Governor Mike Huckabee to avoid travel to Aruba out of respect and support for Alabama teenager, Natalee Holloway, who disappeared there in May 2005 while on a high school trip.
Natalee’s mother, Beth Holloway-Twitty, is originally from Arkansas and still has family in the state.
My extensive research shows [...]
8 Comments » - Posted in Arkansas, Aruba, boycotts by ME
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005
Why I Can Never Be a Republican
The GOP leadership in congress has gone too far this time.
Forget the war, forget your granddaughter’s national debt, you can even forget about leaking the names of CIA agents to the media. But now they’ve gone too far – they have dissed Bruce Springsteen.
Last week, Senators Frank Lautenberg and John Corzine of New Jersey introduced [...]
24 Comments » - Posted in Bruce Springsteen, Republicans, music by ME
Monday, November 28th, 2005
Two Days, Two Towns, Two Films
One of the holiday traditions associated with Elrodfest is to catch up on the films I should have seen by now or that I think I won’t have time to see in the future.
This weekend, I saw Walk the Line in Paducah, Kentucky and finally got to see Good Night and Good Luck in Nashville. [...]
57 Comments » - Posted in Joe McCarthy, Johnny Cash, movies by ME
Saturday, November 26th, 2005
This Week’s Sign of the Impending Apocalypse (#4)
Scientists have discovered sexually altered fish off the coast of California.
Experts believe that these transgender fish may be the result of treated sewage that has been discharged into the Pacific Ocean south of Orange County.
Even treated sewage contains chemicals that can affect an animal’s reproductive system. In this case, the fish in question possess both [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in seafood, the Apocalypse by ME
Thursday, November 24th, 2005
The Mother of All Elrodfests
Today is my birthday — I share it with William F. Buckley, Zachary Taylor, and Baruch Spinoza.
More Americans were born the year I was born (1957) than any year in history. I still haven’t decided if that makes me very special or very common.
At Harding, we take a week off for my birthday and [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in Elrod, birthdays, moms by ME
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005
O, Air Canada!
I’m heading to the airport in a couple of hours to fly to Nashville to hook up with the family for Thanksgiving at my in-laws in Fairdealing, Kentucky. The Delaware Valley is supposed to get some light snow tonight, so I think I’m getting out of here just in time. Snow is much less festive [...]
7 Comments » - Posted in Canada, travel by ME
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005
Thank You, Firewall
Harding University, my employer, maintains an internet firewall that puts the Great Wall of China to shame.
I can make an argument either way about the firewall. After eighteen years of teaching, I know that most college students have enough to pre-occupy them without having full access to the temptations of easterneuropeangirls.com or gamblewithdadsmoney.com. I generally [...]
11 Comments » - Posted in college, spam, technology, viruses by ME
Monday, November 21st, 2005
Charitable States
I heard two stories about state rankings on NPR this morning while I was breezing through the rush-hour traffic into Philadelphia.
I was a little too engrossed in re-learning my urban driving techniques at the time to blog about it then, so I’ll get it in now.
The first report was that the city of Camden, New [...]
12 Comments » - Posted in Camden, charity, crime by ME
Sunday, November 20th, 2005
Somewhere, Cornelius Vanderbilt is Smiling
I usually don’t post on Sundays, but this news is too good for me to ignore and it is a near-religious experience.
Vanderbilt has FINALLY beaten the University of Tennessee at football.
A long series of painful Saturdays in November came to an end yesterday afternoon at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville when the Vanderbilt Commodores football [...]
