In which I climb the ladder of geekdom
You can mock me if you want, but I have now cleared out a large amount of space in my wallet.
I have the Kroger card. I’ve got the CVS card. I’ve got the Dick’s Sporting Goods Card. I’ve got the AirTran Frequent Flyer card. I’ve got the ACE Hardware card. I’ve got a Blockbuster Card.
They take up a lot of space in my wallet.
I have now scanned them all with a high resolution scan. Indexed them. And loaded them onto my iPhone. I take it with me as much as I take my wallet. So now instead of having to dig through my overstuffed wallet, I can just put my phone screen over the scanner.
Does it work? Sure does.
I like this commercial
Evelyn won’t let me sing the real song.
Today
Ran 2 miles. Lifted weights.
An Irving Edging
Evelyn is in the habit of asking me to tell her stories. There’s the story about the castle with 2,000 steps in Greece. I showed her pictures of that castle the other night and it has become the nightly story, replacing the story about Aunt Gretchen’s pacifier getting swiped by a monkey.
Tonight she told me I needed to tell her the story about Ampa (my dad) and the witch. I told her I didn’t know that story. She sighed in that “don’t you know anything” way then told me it was “an irving edging and everybody knows those.”
A what?
An urban legend.
Where the heck did my three year old learn about urban legends?!
Stealing Minnesota: If at first you don’t succeed, change the rules
What is it about guys named Al trying to change election rules after the election is over?
Geez.
Franekn has filed suit with a favorable judge in a favorable county demanding the right to dig through rejected absentee ballots. It’s against the rules, mind you, so Franken is demanding the rules be changed.
Opening up the rejected-ballot question is also a recipe for potential fraud. When the Franken campaign filed its initial lawsuit demanding access to the voter lists, it used as an example an 84-year-old woman in Beltrami County whose vote was supposedly rejected because she’d had a stroke, and therefore her signature on her absentee ballot did not match the one on file. After some outside investigation, the Franken campaign admitted that the story was not true, and that her ballot had been rejected for entirely different (and legitimate) reasons.
In other words, Franken is lying to sow doubt about the election. Stealing it during the canvassing process didn’t work. Now he has to change the rules.
Of course, even the media in Minnesota is getting tired of his antics.
Franken needs to trust the secretary of state and the 87 county auditors to do their jobs and do them well. The system in place is open and transparent. A lawsuit at this point is like trying to change the rules of a football game during the overtime period. Let’s play by the rules of the existing recount lawbook.
The GOP’s Senator Problem
The GOP really does have a Senator problem — a group of old kleptocrats who’ve been around for so long, they view themselves as entitled to power, prestige, and graft.
One of the Senators who is not willing to get comfy is Senator Jim DeMint. It must gall the other members of the Senate Republican Caucus that Jim DeMint thinks they should stand for something. After all, they must think, Senate rules do require them to stand when they want to speak. Clearly, then, they are standing for something.
Just not anything any one in America is interested in.
Jim DeMint is out to change that and Roll Call reports the geriatric brigade, clutching to power by fingernails, is having no part of it:
DeMint has suddenly found himself on the outside looking in — following what GOP sources said was an angry rebuke of his reform demands from party elders during Tuesday’s closed-door Conference meeting.
Publicly, Senate Republicans sought to downplay the tensions between DeMint and much of his Conference.
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) — one of several Members who spoke out against DeMint’s proposed changes to the Conference’s leadership rules — said Thursday that while “there’s no feud here,” Republicans in the Senate feel that now is a time for unity, not for taking steps that could undermine leadership.
“I think there’s a realization within the ranks of the Republican Party that now Republicans are an endangered species, and that we should speak with one voice,” Roberts said. “To call for wholesale changes at a time like this that would limit the ability of the leaders to lead was really ill-timed.”
Riiiiggggghhhhhtttttttt. Because the status quo really helped you guys out last time, didn’t it Pat?
Now really, why are Republican Senators mad at DeMint? Let Roll Call explain:
Since taking over the RSC in the 110th Congress, DeMint has used the committee as a base for launching a series of conservative crusades, to varying degrees of success. DeMint’s first major feat came during the 2007 immigration battle when he, along with a handful of vocal conservative Senators, such as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), successfully rallied the party’s base to defeat a massive immigration reform proposal backed by the White House and eventual presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
. . . .
But DeMint also increasingly has used his position as the RSC chairman to take his conservative fight to other Republicans — most recently, his effort to expel Stevens for his seven-count federal felony conviction in October. Stevens has long been a target of DeMint’s efforts to reform the party, given Stevens’ extensive use of the earmarking system to pump billions of federal dollars into his home state.
So, he used his position to kill an unpopular piece of legislation and try to boot a corrupt Senator, therefore he is the enemy? The GOP really does need to be purged — purged of its present Senate leadership at least. Of course, they were all re-elected.
Sigh.
Oh, by the way, hat tip to Senator Shelby (R-AL) for giving DeMint advice. Yes, we want a Democrat turned Republican so he could keep his committee chairmanship explaining what’s best for the party.
A Christian Perspective on Barack Obama: Praying for Him
Ligon Duncan makes some sound points though many might not like to consider them.
For those Christians who are more dismayed than overjoyed about the prospects of an Obama presidency, there should be a remembrance that as our President, Barack Obama will have God-given authority to govern us, and that we should view him as a servant of God (Rom. 13:1, 4) to whom we should be subject (Rom. 13:1, 5; 1 Pet. 2:13-14). Thus, again, we are to pray for Barack Obama (1 Tim. 2:1-2). We are to thank God for Barack Obama (1 Tim. 2:1-2). We are to respect Barack Obama (Rom. 13:7). We are to honor Barack Obama (Rom. 13:7; 1 Pet. 2:17). For those Christians who are more overjoyed than concerned about the prospects of an Obama presidency, there should be a remembrance of our ultimate allegiance: Jesus is Lord (and thus, He, not we, decides what is right and wrong), we serve God not man, and the Lord himself has promised to establish “the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him” (Malachi 3:18). Thus, where our new president opposes or undermines biblical moral standards in our society, fails to uphold justice for the unborn, undermines religious liberties or condones an ethos that is hostile to the Gospel, we will pray for God’s purposes to triumph over our President’s plans and policies. Without doubt and whatever our particular views may be, we face hard days ahead. Realistically, we must all expect to be frustrated and disappointed. Some now may feel defeated and discouraged. While others may all-too-soon find their audacious hopes unfounded and unrealized. We must all keep ever in mind that it is God who raises up leaders and nations, and it is God who pulls them down, and who judges both nations and rulers. We must not act or think like unbelievers, or as those who do not trust God.
Stealing Minnesota: Franken’s ACORN
We all know about ACORN right? The group masterfully steals elections by overwhelming the system with fraudulent voter registration applications that translate directly into voter fraud. They stampede election centers causing chaos so votes can be cast while people are distracted. They vote for the dead and claim racism when they are challenged.
Well now we know how an unpopular jackass like Al Franken has been able to get so close to Norm Coleman in Minnesota. He used ACORN for help. This no doubt explains precisely why Franken is so insistent that straight Democrat ballots that had no mark next to Franken must actually be Franken votes, but somehow a ballot that clearly had a mark for Coleman must be challenged. (So much for counting all the votes, eh Al?)
One of Franken’s lawyers couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
Even the observers and lawyers have been instructed by their respective campaigns to not talk to the media. But Minneapolis lawyer Bill Starr, who is volunteering for the Franken campaign, was willing to say a few words. He said he thinks Franken will prevail. His hunch is based on a theory he has. “People who voted for Coleman are more likely to have taken the SAT in their lifetime,” he said. “They’ve filled in circles. Franken voters are probably not college-educated. They’re new voters and immigrants. They’ve been brought in by groups like ACORN, from the inner cities. They’re more likely to make mistakes. I’ve bounced this off of minority people, and they agree with me.”
Now we know.
Stealing Minnesota: Al Franken Wants To Count Empty Ovals, Not Marked Ovals
Remember Al Fraken’s undervote theory? He wants to count as votes for himself ballots with no mark in his oval, though the person voted for every other Democrat.
He claims that the voter’s intention was clearly to vote for him, even though there is no mark by his name because the voter voted for every other Democrat on the ballot.
Below is a ballot from Plymouth, MN. Can you tell for whom that person intended to vote?
I bet you won’t be surprised to learn Al Fraken is contesting that vote.
So, no marks at all go to Franken. Any mark for Coleman must be challenged.
The Skepticians have more details.
Cautiously Optimistic
In Al Franken’s 2005 book, “The Truth (With Jokes)”, Franken aptly defines the term “cautiously optimistic” with this blurb:
Cautiously optimistic? That’s not good. That’s an optimist’s way of saying, “We’re screwed.” I’ve instructed my wife that if a doctor ever tells her that he’s “cautiously optimistic” about my test results, she is to pull the plug immediately. (Source: “The Truth (With Jokes)”, p. 12)
Fast forward to the present. According to the Politico newspaper, Franken is now using that very same phrase to describe his chances in the recount.
Emerging from the meeting with Reid, Franken said that he was “cautiously optimistic” that he would prevail in the recount. (Source: Politico.com, Nov. 19, 2008)