Earlier today, I wrote:
Yeah... just waiting to see how the MSM manages to paint support for a black surgeon, a Latino lawyer, and a female CEO as racist, sexist, and anti-intellectual.
Time to the first attempts? Less than 24 hours.
And Here It Comes
One More Thing...
House is done, we are moved in, and as promised, a long-ish post about the building process will follow sometime Real Soon Now™. With some stability in our life, and the kick off of the quadrennial American Silly Season last night, I am hoping - and expecting - to get back to blogging on a more regular basis.
Believe it or not, I really do miss taking the time to fill up the ice cream machine for y'all.
Awwwwwww, yeah! DEBATE!
Time to get my political junkie on!
While I did not listen to either of the debates last night, I did stay up late reading various commentaries, opinions, and such not. In addition, I paid attention to various social media feeds (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) where friends were commenting on the debates. So what you are going to see here is not a review of the debates, but a distillation of the debate about the debates.
Capisce? OK, let us proceed...
Keep in mind that I am a fundamentalist Christian, Tea Party sympathizing, conservative libertarian.(Yes, a Christian libertarian. Despite what you may think, the world views are quite compatible. Our motto: "If you like your handbasket, you can keep your handbasket!") The vast majority of my reading last night was from sources that aligned with me in one way or another: friends, fellow Christians, small-government Republicans, small-L libertarians and independents.
From what I was seeing, none of those folks were were looking at the debate and trying to decide who was the overall winner. They saw it as more of a chance to get a feel for who the candidates were and what they believed... which is also where I am at at this point in the process. In other words, think of it as more of a formal introduction to the field of candidates and less of a debate.
Out of all the commentaries, certain names kept on bubbling to the top of the list. Based on what I saw, the candidates who came out of the debates on the positive side were Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, and Carly Fiorina. Yeah... just waiting to see how the MSM manages to paint support for a black surgeon, a Latino lawyer, and a female CEO as racist, sexist, and anti-intellectual.
Cruz was popular with the small government segment, which actually crosses a lot of political lines. Carson seemed to resonate with those who are tired of the same ol' same ol', "Whose turn is it now?" attitude from the GOP, and people seemed to be impressed with him as a person.
Fiorina? Very positive across the board. Lots of wondering why she was not included in the main debate. Yes, yes, I know - they based it on poll numbers. From what I was hearing, though, she managed a very broad appeal, and outside of the debates, she seems to be doing well in terms of making her mark on the field. Time will tell, but I think that given that time, she may end up included in the next round as a contender.
Walker got some good mentions, and also got lots of props for being the adult on stage: calm, even handed, slow to start but strong at the finish. Several commenters seemed to think that a smaller debate forum would have served him much better. Provided he makes it to the point where he can speak in that kind of environment, he is definitely someone to keep an eye on. I suspect that he is in the odd position of being the #2 pick for a lot of folks, which means that if he ends up getting the nomination, he would have a very large base.
It sounds like Rand Paul made a great case for himself - just not for President. Whoever eventually does get the nod should definitely consider him as a potential nominee for Attorney General. Rubio got some positive mentions, but seemed to be eclipsed by Cruz - of the two, people seemed to think that Cruz did a better, more forceful job of laying out the same positions.
Of the remainder - Bush, Huckabee, Christie and Kasich - none won any sort of accolades, and most folks, if they mentioned them at all, had negative comments about their performances and/or policy positions. I actually had to look up the list of participants to remind myself that Huckabee was in the debate, given how little mention he received. Christie apparently made a couple of comments that caused folks to have a strong "Thanks, but no thanks" reaction. Bush, in particular, got a lot of "Yeeeeeah, no" responses... though those seemed to come mainly from sources that already had an issue with him. Kasich did seem... acceptable... to most folks, in a bland sort of way. As in, if every other candidate dropped dead tomorrow, people would be willing to hold their noses and vote for him. Just not with any sort of enthusiasm, mind you.
Trump? Trump who? Heard lots of people talking about him, but not in a positive light. His ego and comments about his past interactions with politicians were pretty much the opposite of what folks were looking for. The whole "willing to run as a third party candidate" thing was, as far as I could tell, another nail in the coffin for him. Here's hoping.
She's Got A Way With Words
Anniversary weekend. Kids were away at the grandparents, and the lovely Mrs. Robb and I were sitting around a fire out back behind out temporary townhouse.
"I'm so grateful for the life we've forged together", she said.
I told her I appreciated that particular word - "forged".
She asked why.
I said "Some people might have said grown, or found, or built, or nurtured, or developed. You chose to say we took life, threw it into a fire until it was near molten, then beat it into the shape that we desired."
Gotta love a woman like that :-)
Well, Now.
For the first time in the cruise industry history, an American female ship captain will take the helm of a giant cruise ship.
Celebrity Cruises said Monday that San Francisco native Kate McCue will command the Celebrity Summit, a 91,000 ton, 965-foot ship sailing between the U.S. east coast and Bermuda.
Congratulations to Captain McCue, and a very special congratulation to the (no doubt liberal, tolerant, and socially minded) executives running Celebrity for finally reaching a milestone the US Navy managed 25 year ago.
QOTD
From Tonia JT McBride, on a Facebook post discussing Bernie Sanders:
There are only two meaningful players in economics - the market and force. Anyone who says they want to go around the market wants the option to shoot you.
Attribution
Inspired by a friend during the discussion of the origin of a particular quote:
"You can always attribute a quote to Churchill or Twain. Everyone else does."– Abraham Lincoln
"I felt a disturbance in the Force..."
Hot Topic: There is no escape. Don't make me destroy you.
Hot Topic: ThinkGeek, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your merchandising power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring geekiness to the retail mall world.
ThinkGeek: I'll never join you!
Hot Topic: If you only knew the power of the Tween Side. Ars Technica never told you what happened to your owners.
ThinkGeek: He told me enough! He told me you killed them!
Hot Topic: No. I am your owner.
ThinkGeek: No. No. That's not true. That's impossible!
Hot Topic: Search the stock transactions, you know it to be true!
ThinkGeek: [anguished] No! No!
A Different Kind of Stress
Our two youngest invited a couple of fiends over to spend the night. Anticipating a house crammed full of noisy pre-teen girls, I promised Eldest Daughter that we would vacate the premises and spend some quality time together.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten that while we all have the day off tomorrow, it was still Sunday...
By the time we headed out the door, we missed the window of opportunity to get to the half-price book store before it closed. As well as the window to get to the most local Barnes & Noble before it closed. Ah, well. There's still the comic book store at the mall, which was... closed.
Boogers.
We barely managed to get into and out of the local hardware store for a purchase before it closed, as well. Ended up at Coffeebucks, where ED got herself a slightly-coffee flavored liquid candy bar. A long talk about school, college plans, and peers followed. It ended up with me uttering what, in hindsight, are probably the most terrifying words I have ever spoken aloud:
"So," I said. "Do you want a driving lesson?"
Twenty minutes later, we were in a deserted parking lot, and I was instructing Eldest Daughter in the fine (yet surprisingly commonplace) art of controlling a one-and-a-half ton piece of steel and plastic wrapped around a tank of explosive liquid.
She did just fine, really. It will probably be a good while before she's ready to be on the road, though. I suspect that she will master the mechanics of driving long before she masters the kind of focus that she will need in order to be a good driver.
We ended up the evening getting a bite to eat and talking more about friends and personal relationships. All in all, a very good time. It was only on my way home that I realized that getting into the car with a completely untrained driver was less stressful, for me, than spending the evening in the same house as a gaggle of little girls.
Not sure exactly what that says about me, but I am pretty sure it says something.
Some Commendations
Still in house-obsessed mode. I have heard say that people are ten times more likely to complain than compliment, so I figured I should make an effort to note the insurance-related organizations and people we have interacted with positively over the past year.
First round of kudos go to our insurance company, Mutual Benefit. I can't say enough good about these folks. You know all those horror stories you hear about how insurance companies treat their customers after a major disaster? Not even a hint of anything like that. These folks did right by us, and even went above and beyond what they were absolutely obligated to do. Highly recommended.
Next up is RE/CON, the group that Mutual Benefit brought in to handle our fire investigation. Absolutely top-notch people. Bob Ryhal in particular deserves commendation for his dedication, professional attitude and calm demeanor (especially while while interviewing us and our girls about the circumstances). I'm not sure how many folks reading this will ever need to talk to a professional investigative service... but if you do end up in that situation, I'd recommend RE/CON.
And, finally - the company that handled our claim with Mutual Benefit, Vericlaim. Pat and Scott Bonnani (a father/son team) were our adjusters, and were absolutely, positively, 100% amazing. The amount of effort they put into our case was impressive. I called Pat at one point, and although I hadn't talked to him for two weeks and caught him in a parking lot between meetings, he was able to rattle off a string of pending payment numbers for me down to the dollar - and apologized that he couldn't be more accurate than that! The diligence and effort that Pat and Scott put into handling our claim were a comfort, and made a HUGE difference in our lives over the past year.
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