Walk In Brain

You all know the story.

On this day in 1776, a band of patriots pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor for the cause of independence from a tyrannical, unresponsive ruler.

That grand experiment is not done, not by a long shot. The first step was declaring independence; the second, making it stick. That part took until 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The next step? Creating a system of government that would allow effective self-governance and self-determination. They took care of that in 1787, after a false start. Now we’re at the fourth and longest step - making sure that the promises of 1776 and 1787 apply to all of us. It took a war and four amendments (13, 14, 15 and 19), and it’s still not universal in actual practice (witness the abrogation of the first and fourth amendments over the years, including - perhaps especially - recently), but we’re getting there…at least I hope we are.

So Happy Independence Day. Go out and do something patriotic, like listening to Copland, Billings, Miles Davis or Frank Zappa; reading Updike, Whitman or Angelou; spending time with family and/or friends; or dissenting from the decisions of the government. It is your government, after all. And mine. And all of ours. For as our motto once said (before we felt we had to show them Godless Commies), E pluribus unum.

WF

Over the next few weeks, some of the blogs will be disappearing from the blogroll and replaced with Atlanta-based blogs.

Well, basically I’ll just be taking out the Enquirer-based blogs and maybe one or two others.

I will miss the letters to the Enquirer, though; now that they allow comments, even more Cleti are coming out of the woodwork.

Enjoy that, Cincinnati. You’re a great place and deserve better than the Enquirer and the right-wing slackjaws who pollute its letters and comments.

WF

Amanda Marcotte, the intrepid blogger at Pandagon, gives us Dr. Richard Lenski, a righteous dude who performs this smackdown of an anti-science lunatic.

I like that bit about E. coli being smarter and more adaptable than your average (heck, I’ll make it above-average) Conservapedia reader/editor. It’s true, y’know. It’s a fact.

WF

Our plan was to stay in Atlanta until sometime today, but after we found a place and did a couple other things, we figured we’d save money by cutting things short a day. Thus, about 12:25pm we drove by our new place one last time and headed north.

We found our new place via sheer dumb luck. We had been looking online for places in East Point (touted as an up-and-coming city, and halfway between downtown and the college), and one or two places looked promising, but many of the places we had found online weren’t so great in real life. Of the two that looked promising, one had just been rented the day before, so we basically only had one option going into Sunday. Saturday night, we got back on and expanded the search a little bit to include College Park and Hapeville. We found a place and drove by it the next day, and it looked pretty good.

Then, while trying to get back to the main drag so we’d make our appointment over in East Point, we saw a nice little post-WWII house with a “For Rent” sign and a worker painting the windows. Not only was he painting the windows, he owned the house. We talked for a while, he called his wife and asked her to come over (they work together as well - I sense she’s the managing partner of the business), and we all had a nice little conversation. After that, every other house we saw just fell short.

So Monday morning, we go back over with a completed application and a check.

It’s a nice place; not far from my job, yet still close to the MARTA rail line. And Hapeville seems to be a nice little city. We saw people of all races, creeds and income levels; there were also nice shops and convenient access to the interstates and transit. A Kroger (!) is just up Metropolitan Parkway.

The original Chick-Fil-A is there, and yes, we had to have lunch there yesterday. We also dined at The Varsity on Sunday night; further, the Hot sign was on at the Krispy Kreme on Ponce de Leon, so there were donuts involved. (When the Hot sign is on, you have donuts at Krispy Kreme. It’s really that simple.) We know there is fine and healthy dining in Atlanta, and we’ll discover it soon enough, but every now and then you gotta go greasy. We’ll eat healthy tonight.

Before we dropped the check at the house, we swung by Clayton State so I could show Jawa Girl around. My new boss (the department chair) was there, so he showed us my new office (niiiiiiiiiice) and Spivey Hall, as well as classrooms and practice rooms. My name is also already up on the directory; as we were walking in, I saw “FLINN 213.” I’m still smiling about that.

Enough rambling. Suffice it to say that this was a good and successful trip. Now it’s packing and cleaning, and then we’re off at the end of this month.

WF

Once again, it’s not about the guns. Obama even released a statement agreeing with the Heller decision, and that’s not going to stop the NRA.

They’re not a gun-rights organization; they’re a wholly-owned subsidiary of the GOP.

WF

Well, we found a place, and we’ll be back laaaaate tonight.

WF

Light posting for a few days - we’re going to Atlanta to find a place (hopefully).

WF

This went from nonexistent to Rage Of The Internet in just under a week, so I figure I’d better get in on it:

moar funny pictures

(photo by Jawa Girl - the cat in the picture is Dido)

WF

I see that the Federal Marriage Amendment has once again made an appearance in the United States Senate.

Note well two cosponsors:

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID)
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)

You really can’t make this stuff up.

(Via.)

WF

Here’s hoping whatever the ATF found when it raided Blackwater is the beginning of the process to put this evil and un-American mercenary force out of business for good.

As a commenter at The Group News Blog put it, Erik Prince (or, in Hubris Sonic’s all-too appropriate phrase, “Herr Hauptsturmführer Prince”) has “dead eyes.” That is one soulless fellow. And he’s related to the Amway folks, which just pushes him further into Pure Evil territory.

WF

The Enquirer begins its fluffing of the GOP candidate. I’m also now convinced that whoever writes the headlines at the Enquirer doesn’t even care if he/she is perceived as biased towards Republicans. How else can you explain a headline like “McCain tackles issues head-on”?

Oh, and Howard? You’re better than this. In the story, you claim that the town hall forum was “undecided voters,” but on the Enquirer politics blog, Carl Weiser gives us an e-mail from the Hamilton County GOP, offering tickets to fill out the audience.

This is why I’m looking forward to a real newspaper, not a propaganda organ for big business and fundamentalist loons (honestly, do you have to keep writing stories about the Temple of Ignorance in Boone County?).

WF

Well, once again Antonin Scalia has proven he is not worthy of his seat on SCOTUS.

I don’t mind people owning a gun or two, but this throws out several decades of jurisprudence (and unlike previously overturned cases like Plessy, the “corporate right” jurisprudence was actually logical and beneficial).

*sigh* Even with President Obama, it’s going to require getting Fat Tony and Clarence off the SCOTUS, then retrying all these cases. But if that’s what it takes, then we must do it; the damage done by right-wing activist judges must be undone one way or another.

WF

Here’s a nice article about Russ Hinkle, a man who has influenced multiple generations of musicians. He’s also a fine bassoonist.

WF

I’ve been telling everyone that My People are in town this week.

UC and CCM are hosting the 2008 International Tuba-Euphonium Conference. I’ve heard some great players, and played on some great horns in the exhibit room. Plus, last night Jawa Girl and I had dinner with my old euphonium teacher from college, Dr. Earle “Doc” Louder. As always, hanging around with Doc was a treat - he’s such a great guy. We closed down Mecklenburg Gardens.

So if you like low brass and you’re going to be around CCM through Saturday, pop in.

WF

Hmmm…one of the potential GOP candidates for Ohio Attorney General is the daughter of Phil Burress, founder and head prude over at the Citizens for White Fundamentalist Values.

Phil has gotten his family involved. It’s like he’s Ohio’s version of Fred Phelps. I think we can all agree - Phil was a much better person when he was a chronic masturbator.

I for one hope she loses and loses soundly - with all the crime and corporate malfeasance in Ohio, I don’t want the AG focusing on dirty pictures and Teh Ghey.

WF