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Mr. Wilson’s Cubicle
I had to drop off some things on campus today in the same building that Mr. Wilson works and decided to swing by his cubicle and surprise him. Nice cubicle Mr. Wilson. Your 6’x6’ space fits you perfectly!
Bolton: The End Nears
I will be the first to admit that in the past few months, I have become obsessed with the debate over John Bolton’s confirmation as UN ambassador.* After this deal over federal court appointees, it looks likely that Bolton will get through to the post. Today, George Voinovich broke down into tears in an emotional episode emphasizing his opposition to the placement.
Tomorrow, more debate is to occur, and possibly even a vote, although the Dems are now trying to tie things up procedurally. Damn, why watch reality TV when the Bolton hearings have been ten times more exciting? Its better than Lost!
*Yes, I know it is pathetic.
Guess Who Visited My Yard Today
I let Daisy out shortly before I left for work. For some reason I decided to step into the back yard with her. And there, wandering across the yard, was one of these. He appeared to be an adolescent. He was wounded; he didn’t put any weight on his front-right leg. Unfortunately, I lost track of him when I ran inside to grab a camera and to tell the Missus to look outside.
A Jumpy ‘Publican
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Al.) is ticked off at Bill Maher, accusing him of treason. Maher’s offense? He made a joke about the military’s recent troubles fulfilling recruiting goals by saying “We’ve done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies.”
That may well be the least treasonous thing Bill Maher has said in years. Methinks Mr. Bachus needs to get a life.
Grade My Analogy
Recently, somebody presented to me a deeply flawed analogy defending the smoking ban in Lincoln. I pointed out that the analogy was flawed and came up with my own. I kind of like this analogy, but I’m sure it isn’t perfect. I’m a pretty mediocre analogy-maker. What I’m asking is for you, faithful readers, to critique this analogy and help me make it better. Here it is:
You invite all your neighbors over to a party in your basement. Your neighbors know you throw great parties, so they all want to come. The problem is, you’ll be showing a Husker game on your 55” plasma HDTV, but most of your neighbors are Notre Dame fans. A few of your Notre Dame fan neighbors respect your rights as the party-thrower to show the Husker game rather than the concurrent Notre Dame game; some will go to your party anyway, and some will just decide to stay home or go elsewhere. But the rest of your neighbors are jerks. They think that since you offered them an invitation to your party, they get to control what happens at the party. They call you up before the party and say: “We took a vote. Two-thirds of us want to watch the Notre Dame game, so we’re going to watch the Notre Dame game.”
You are furious, and rightfully so. What gives them the right to say what YOU show on YOUR television at YOUR party? If they don’t like it, they don’t have to come! There are plenty of parties out there; why don’t they go to a different one that happens to be showing a Notre Dame game? Why don’t they have their own Notre Dame party? Why didn’t they at least /ask/ you to show the Notre Dame game instead of the Husker game? At least then you would have known that their feelings were strong, and that if you wanted them to come, you would probably have to show a different game. But at least you would get to have a say in the matter.
You don’t have many options.
You could cancel the party, but you already spent so much money on food and party favors. You could put up a fight, but you don’t really have the energy, and you don’t want to alienate your neighbors. Plus, you don’t want to get in trouble with the neighborhood association, the Board and President of which are mostly Notre Dame fans. Or you could quietly give in and watch your private property rights slowly erode. But at least you still get to have a party.Your Fighting Irish neighbors had a heckuva good time at your party, eating your food, watching your TV. Meanwhile, you and your closest friends—the ones you really were holding the party for in the first place, were forced to sit outside in the rain, watching the game on a fuzzy 12” black & white TV.
But at least the majority got its way, right?
Blog Assistance!
Hey Mr Wilson -
For all of us budding bloggers out there - What blogging services do you recommend? My blogger blog is getting spammed! i.e. I am getting 40 “anonymous” responses to my blog a day now. What’s up with that?
Cranky?
I must be cranky today. I used variations of the word ”fuck” twice in the previous post. I try not to swear much on this blog. Swearing, especially in writing, doesn’t bother me, but it bothers a lot of people. And it would bother my parents, were they ever to stumble across my little corner of the blogosphere. I try not to do things that threaten my share of the inheritance, y’know.
It’s all Ted Stevens’s fault. Fuck the fucking fucker for fucking making me say fuck so fucking much.
Heh, any English majors care to diagram that sentence?
Stevens Up To His Tricks Again
I’m speechless. If $1.5M bus stop doesn’t convince the American public how fucked up Congress (and Republicans) (and the federal government in general) is, then nothing will.
I liked it better when I was young and unaware of these giant fuck-ups.
How very mature of you.
As reported today in the LJS:
Ten days after the May 3 election, the chairman of the Lancaster County Republican Party sent an e-mail to ousted City Councilman Terry Werner in which he taunted Werner for losing his council seat and said “having a private eye follow you was a joy.”
Haga’s e-mail read, in part: “Let this be a wakeup call to you. The voters of Lincoln wisely rejected your socialist agenda. If needed, we could have addressed your driving record (having a private eye follow you was a joy), . . . and more. Had you been a good Democrat and not a socialist, you might have been re-elected.”
Chairman Jim Haga acknowledged to a reporter Tuesday he wrote the e-mail “in anger” but said he regretted it. Haga declined to comment on whether he hired an investigator, saying, “I’m not going to address that . . . To me it’s not even a news story.”
He later told a Journal Star editor that he didn’t hire a private investigator.
What an idiot.
Pork
Pork. Massive, steaming piles of pork.
Will Bush veto over a measley (*snort*) $10B difference? It seems he will, but we’ll have to wait and see.
“They’re Wrong”
March 2004: “There are economic isolationists in our country who believe we should separate ourselves from the rest of the world by raising up barriers and closing off markets. They’re wrong.” –President George W. Bush
May 2005: The Bush administration is re-imposing quotas on three categories of clothing imports from China, responding to complaints from domestic producers that a surge of Chinese imports was threatening thousands of U.S. jobs.
Read the whole thing.
Wow.
Released today out of Chancellor Perlman’s office:
Colleagues:
Today we are distributing to deans and directors the guidelines for
implementing salary and wage increases for the coming fiscal year for UNL
faculty and staff. We are working with an anticipated allocation that will
allow for increases in salaries and wages for all University of Nebraska
employees of 3.95% for faculty and 3.0% for staff. This is, of course
contingent on the state’s approval of the University’s budget. While we may
face very difficult budget decisions given the shortfall in tuition, we
feel that we still must put a high priority on salaries in order to attract
and retain the best possible talent.
The instructions to department heads and directors indicate funds should be
distributed with an emphasis on performance. Therefore, individual salary
increases for employees will vary, with some employees receiving more or
less.
I’m curious to know what the thinking was behind sending this out to thousands of UNL faculty and staff today (Friday afternoon), although I have a few ideas. Any coincidence that this was sent out while a lot of faculty are out of office and taking their post-finals, end of the academic year vacations? The state budget proposal only got through the intial hoop…
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