Weekends at Home

The weekend has come and gone, and I had a good time doing, well, very little. Omaha and I looked out the doors, checked our inventory of stuff, and decided that our best bet was to stay home and do some of the indoor prep. We're rapidly entering that part of the year where the doors and windows are closed and the sky is dark most of the time. Yamaarasi-chan was over, complete with her new subject, homework, and a new set of exercises for her lazy eye.

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

Great Cthulhu, they're sending Black Horse to Iraq

technoshaman knows what this means. They're sending the 11th Armored Calvary Regiment, known for years as OPFOR, to Iraq. These are the people who for the past ten years have specialized in training soldiers for combat duty; they're the "opposing force" every infantry and tank team has had to train against.

Is the army really so desperate for bodies that it would dismantle the most competent training force in the world to send it to Iraq? Philip Carter says this is the army "eating its own seed corn," and I agree. OPFOR duties will be taken over by National Guardsmen. No offense, but a National Guard unit has neither the institutional memory nor the long-term experience needed to play OPFOR duties as comprehensively as 11 ACR Black Horse.

The army's OPFOR experience will be diminished by this, and the result will be a less-competent deployment force. Is this any way to run a war?

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It's time everyone sat back and admitted this: it's no longer about swing voters. It isn't. There are no swing voters. It's all over; after the debates, the supposed "undecideds" made up their minds-- those that were hoping to fire Bush but needed reassurance regarding Kerry either found it or didn't; those that wanted to elect Bush either found their reasons or they didn't. But let's not pretend: those that didn't find what they wanted from the debates and the post-debate analysis are no longer "undecided"; on election day, they're staying home.

And that's entirely what the next two weeks of electioneering is going to be about: weakening the conviction of the other guy's "likely voters" enough to make winning feasible. Because the race is so close and the media involvement so insanely intense, the decision of who to vote for has all but been made: there is nothing left for the campaigns to do but tear down the other side and convince enough of their followers that their man isn't worth the time to go to the polls.

Shut down the devil worshippers!

MICHIGAN: "Neighbors of a quiet, rural neighborhood are demanding that township officials find a way to ground a coven of witches living in their midst. On Tuesday night, about 20 residents from Smith and Davis Lake roads urged the Township Board to shut down the 'devil worshippers.'"

Goodness, but this sad. Residents claim that "satanic" services go on in the house, and are demanding an "investigation" based on the idea that the owner of the house is running a jewelry business from his home via his website. But this is the saddest part, and it stinks of selective enforcement:

"Township officials said they would look into possible ordinance violations, and state Rep. John Stahl, R-Arcadia Twp., who was at Tuesday's meeting, promised to help the community get rid of the temple."

Ridiculous and stupid: Wiccans put neighbors in an uproar.