by

Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 165

On Politics
It was interesting to discover that some members of the House of Representatives have sued the Senate over their filibuster rules. I believe a court heard the case earlier this week. Here are two resources: Politico and the plaintiff’s blog.

As some in Congress want to pass the fiscal cliff responsibility to the next Congress, I ask, What about all the time you wasted in 2012?

Many of the cranks want to blame the fiscal cliff on President Obama; yet the Constitution clearly states that fiscal matters  are Congress’ responsibility.

Here’s an interesting article about the fiscal cliff and the debt limit from an economist I enjoy reading.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) resigned to lead the Heritage Foundation. Good riddins’.

On This Week’s Headlines from The Onion

  • 15-year-old trailer park duchess announces pregnancy
  • Apple promises to fix glitches in map software by rearranging Earth’s geography
  • Recent Powerball winner already divorced, bankrupt
  • Congress arrested on manslaughter charges
  • UN agency says 2012 celebrities hottest on record
  • Pope tweets picture of self with God

Special thanks to two readers who submitted some of their Onion-esque headlines on Wednesday.

  • Curmudgeon-at-Large for combining two: Obese salmon did not see Mark Walberg’s sex change coming
  • Mobius for one from a reference later in this post: Scientist steals Pat Robertson’s Children after big fight

Interesting Reads

On Potpourri
An Addendum: Take time today to remember 71 years ago – Pearl Harbor.

Stats Review: November 2012 closed as the fifth best month; plus last week was   strong.

Thursday’s birthday celebration for El Guapo was a lot of fun … and my first time participating in a big event. More importantly, I’m confident that he had a lot of fun.

I’m due to change my header here, so I’m in the planning stage.

This week I watched a fantastic 2010 edition of NOVA (PBS): Hunting the Edge of Space: The Ever Expanding Universe. Images from the Hubble telescope capture my attention.

I’ve criticized Rev. Pat Robertson on more than one occasion. After all, he makes it easy to do. However, this comment surprised me. Thanks Mobius!

The handbell choir plays again this Sunday, so here’s an audio to the brisk Jig on Morning Song. Enjoy.

A Saturday morning classic cartoon post returns this week.

Let’s go into the weekend with by saluting the life of a jazz legend that passed away this week, Dave Brubeck Have a good weekend! In the words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

99 thoughts on “Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 165”

  5. Dave Brubeck’s loss was tough. A great musician, and a very good human being. Another great loss was Oscar Niemeyer. He got to realise the ultimate dream of every architect – design an entire city! Brazil’s capitol, Brasilia, was drawn up by him from scratch in the 1960s. Definitely worth a look.
    If Steve Jobs were still around, I’d go for Apple redesigning the Earth. All I can think of with the Pope, is Stephen Colbert’s running gag of him with someone noteworthy – his black friend, a politician, an author, whoever – obviously faked with him grinning widely and pointing at the person. I can just see Pope Benedict in the same position with some poor old guy off the streets!
    Speaking of old guys – but only with the greatest respect – if you’re a J.R.R. Tolkien fan, try to catch this week’s episodes of the Colbert Report. He’s had a star from the movie on each show, with Sir Ian McKellan – Gandalf in the Tolkien series, and a great actor ANYWHERE – making a regular appearance and a cameo appearance on Wednesday night’s show. Definitely worth it for fans of Middle Earth.
    And before I bid you good night, a final swipe at El Guapo. When I grow up, I want to be loved just a fraction of how much he is – so many great tributes and so many, MANY fans. Well done, Guap, and a very Happy Birthday ad hopes for a great 2013 for ya!
    And a Happy Friday to you, Frank! Stay tuned for a wrap-up of my bizarre hobby of collecting strays – complete with a Stryper update! 😉

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    • John.
      I always look forward to your additions on this weekly post. Once again … well done … but you forgot to hassle me for not mentioning Pearl Harbor! BTW – I amended the post! Well said about Guapo, and I too am envious for similar reasons as you mentioned. Nonetheless, a great tribute. Meanwhile, the celebration got me running behind, but I’ll get over there soon! Thanks for sharing.

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      • I just figured you’d pop something up special for December 7th. Today is also the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 17 launch. There’s some wacky Windy City guy out there with a post on both – and a “what you don’t know about WW2” fact, inspired by a certain Cincinnatti gentleman. 😉

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  6. Great informative post Frank. I loved Dave Brubeck. I wake up to Take Five every morning on my alarm (well not really, because I usually wake before five, as you know…). Papers are shredded…

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    • Red,
      Glad to hear we have another Brubeck fan in the house! … and that’s a great alarm ring! Sorry I didn’t give you any good ammo for the poker game. 😉 … but glad to hear that the papers are shredded. Sorry to see you go, but the price one pays for success! Thanks for stopping by.

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  7. Thanks for posting the Dave Brubeck video. I’ve had his Time Out album on vinyl, CD and downloaded for close to forty years. If I can ever have it streamed into my head via a filling, I’d do that; it’s such a classic great record.

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  8. I’m with John – Apple under Jobs would already have changed earth to match the maps.
    Surprised to see so many links on politics. Looking forward to reading them.

    And I had a blast yesterday, Frank. I’m glad you did too, and again, thank you!

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    • Guapo,
      You must be exhausted from your birthday party – which is still in full swing! Thanks for the great opportunity.

      Meanwhile, I worked the political reads into the political section, but hey – there’s other stuff under Interesting Reads. Thanks for commenting during your wonderful celebration!

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  9. The Apple headline brought forth a great Hah! here in Helsinki …

    I missed hearing about Mr. Brubeck – now to dig out my Take Five for a tribute listen.

    El Guapo’s birthday was the first multi-blogfest for me too – lots of fun all around!

    Have a great weekend 🙂

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  10. The handwriting thing is something that I’ve been thinking for quite some time, I still like to write and sent post cards, I really enjoy it, as a matter of fact I think you’ve inspired a post by suggesting that reading.
    As for Pat Robertson’s article all I can say is Wow!
    I love reading the comments on that post, seeing how people argue and try to explain how to God a day is not 24 hours it could be a million years and the opposite, gotta love it.

    Looking forward to the new header.

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    • Doggy,
      I haven’t read the Pat Robertson article comments … but will because the religion-science interchange is a high interest item for me (Duh … I’ve done 40 posts on it).

      On the handwriting thing, schools will keep teaching cursive/script because they always have … and that is enough justification for them.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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  11. This fiscal cliff. I suspect the country will go over the cliff and two-thirds of the way down they’ll see the bottom and think, “Crap! we need to take decisive immediate action now!” At that time all kinds of deals will be made. This doesn’t seem a whole lot different than when government shutdown during the Clinton era in ’95 and ’96.

    Hey, thanks for the link and the mention. I appreciate it.

    I always enjoy reading other peoples comments also and I’ve got to check out John Erickson’s “Stryper Update”

    Looking forward to tomorrows cartoon post. Peace. Have a great day.

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    • I forgot to add that the handwriting issue is of interest to me also. I do 99% of my writing on a keyboard now and I’ve noticed my handwriting getting progressively worse. That’s interesting for me on two fronts – as an artist it is intriguing because writing is an abstract expression of an idea and when the writing can’t be deciphered anymore it becomes an abstraction of itself.

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    • Mobius,
      The gamesmanship going on regarding the fiscal cliff shows me what Washington cares about the most – and that’s sad. Meanwhile,no problem for the mention and link – after all, I like to give credit where its due … and most of the time, I remember to do that here. Thanks for your contributions here!

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    • OMG … that is wonderful! Many thanks.

      I think a journalist actually first “Fiscal cliff” … to refer to the merger of many events at the end of the year — automatic expiration of Bush-era tax cuts, potential lowering of US Bond ratings, and a few other things that escape me at the moment (multitasking is interrupting my thought process).

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  15. aFrank, thanks for the call out to which I can only add:

    “15-year-old trailer park duchess tweets picture of self with God.”

    or possibly

    “Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) resigned to fix glitches in … Earth’s geography.”

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    • Mudge,
      Ha ha! Love the combos – especially the duchess!!! Now if I can just get it to catch on. I’ll have to promote on the next mid-week satire bits. As for the call out – I like to give credit where credit is due. Thanks for sharing.

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  17. Put me down for the 15-year-old trailer park duchess. As I understand this is actually her third pregnancy and the child will be in line of succession behind her (slightly!) older sisters; Desire Patrice and Destiny Lynn. The father, 18 year old, Duke Harley Burnell, is heard saying he’s hoping for twin boys to be named Lynyrd and Skynyrd.

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  18. I can’t decide which one is funnier:

    Congress arrested on manslaughter charges
    Or
    Pope tweets picture of self with God

    They’re all good, but those two stood out for me. Have a great weekend, Frank! 🙂

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    • Bumble!
      I hate to say it, but I do watch the stats …. one the other had, I know I don’t fixate on them! Because politics can deliver a headache, be glad you didn’t live in Ohio during the last election cycle – we were pounded with ads starting in February! ,,, Anyway, Take Five is a better way to end the work week. Thanks for stopping by.

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  20. So, acclimate me a tad. Stats: Is this blog statistics? And if so, do you have goals? I have one in my right sidebar. I am going for 1M words on M3. (Updated on Saturdays)

    Changing of the header: Ritualistic behavior or something in your shorts? Does planning mean you are seeking input or just verbalizing intent?

    I see there is much for me to explore.

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    • Red,
      I occasionally mention blog stats just to mention. I don’t have goals regarding the numbers as I just enjoy doing want I do – plus enjoy the interaction with readers on my wide-ranging topics.

      Regarding the header, just a ritual. Heck, I even track the changes by displaying past headers on their own page. Check it out to see what I like. 🙂 Meanwhile, I have an idea for the next one.

      I saw that widget on your site and wondered about it. Does it track you words over a certain time period? Does it count the words since M3’s day 1?

      I appreciate your questions!

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      • I am an OCD Grammar Nazi. I track statistics. The word meter is since the beginning. I only count words in pages and posts (not widgets or code). That is since the “born on” date, which just passed. When I put it up, I was still blogging thrice a day. Now, I only blog once bc I am publishing books for others as well as writing my own. Coding a new site and editing books takes a smidgen of my time. 😉 The lower meter (the “read” one–pronounced “red”) is for words I have written in my books. Total? Over 800K in 13 months.

        Your internal links will be those of most interest to me. Nearly everything on M3 is linked to something else on M3. There is nearly always something related to read, except when we are playing. If you run across someone you do not know, check out The M3 Players.

        Meanwhile, I am going to scroll around. I can be a lurker. 😉

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  21. I sometimes think this is my favorite from you Frank, but you have so many great editions this is simply always a great mash up!

    As to …. Apple promises to fix glitches in map software by rearranging Earth’s geography.

    the above would simply not surprise me, would it you?

    Interesting article on the Fiscal Slide, I despise that weasel Norquist, the debt ceiling debate is amazing isn’t it?

    Love the garden slide show! Beautiful, just absolutely beautiful some of them.

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    • Val,
      Mish-mash is the name of the game with OITS – then again, I guess that’s my blog approach! 😀 Regarding Apple, I wonder how fast north-south, east-west will Apple move my home! Meanwhile, generally speaking, whenever Norquist comes on for an interview, I respond with either a channel change or the Mute button. Meanwhile, the US is one of a few, if not the only, country with the debt ceiling. Of course Republicans say other countries should have one, whereas I say it’s an unnecessary nuisance. As always … many thanks for appreciating the wide-range of topics on these posts!

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  22. Cincy- I must commend you for bringing sense to an otherwise senseless place. Hey, I voted for the other guy in November, but I can plainly see the same thing you’re seeing. Thanks for serving this post up at the adult table. I hope it’s contagious.

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    • Cayman,
      One of the benefits of being an independent moderate is the opportunity to chew on both sides … and on this issue, it’s way to easy! I really believe that the majority of Americans want a solution that involves both sides of the aisle relinquishing something … but relinquishing isn’t something each side does well. Thanks for the kind words and commenting.

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  26. Apple promises to fix glitches in map software by rearranging Earth’s geography–probably true! And thanks for the Pat Robertson clip. That really was a surprise to me, too! Amazing, actually. I didn’t understand Mobius’ headline until I saw the article. Funny! And I felt a loss with Dave Brubeck’s death. What an incredible musician! A great family man and wonderful artist. I’ll never stop playing his music!

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  27. Sorry I’m late on commenting but I wanted to say thanks to you and all your readers for the great tributes to Dave Brubeck. I plan to listen to my recordings of his music during the Holidays.

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    • Tim,
      No apologies are necessary because I know this is prime time in planning the next marching band season … and your appreciation for Mr. Brubeck is not surprising. Thanks for sharing!

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