Right Wing Nation

From last year: My ex-students are on strike.
The following general scenario is one of the most common during office hours:
“What can I do for extra credit?”
“Other than the online quizzes, nothing. Here, let me pull you up in the gradebook. Have you done the online quizzes?”
“Every one!”
I pull up the student’s record in the gradebook […]

Trash collection will be a day late next week, and all schools in the county are closed Monday.
Why?
Monday after Thanksgiving is the first day of regular deer season. There will be a ticker scrolling across the screen tomorrow morning, listing school and business closings.
Not even Indiana does this. Seriously.
PETA would have a fit, if there […]

Hat tip to Darren for pointing to these whiners.
The Irwin Academic Services Center helps only about 550 of the school’s 37,000 students. And places like this in schools across the country leave critics fuming.
“These athletic tutoring palaces perpetuate resentment and stereotyping on campus,” said Allen Sack, a University of New Haven professor and former football […]

I’ve started my power Excel series, now that I have Office 2007 on this crappy laptop. Check it out and tell me what you think before I drive myself nuts creating more screenshots (i.e., dealing with Photoshop).
Off to do errands, and see if XP is on sale anywhere in town.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Pens:

From Adam Burish, Blackhawk pranksters:

Nittany Lion mascot charged with DUI.

The Penn Stater, that is, if you’re ever in State College. The turkey was very good, and so were the cornbread dressing and giblet gravy. The cornbread was a bit sweet for my taste, but that’s the way they make it here.
But.
When it comes to mashed potatoes, the best you can expect in a restaurant […]

Military Times:
In the city of Shewan, approximately 250 insurgents ambushed 30 Marines and paid a heavy price for it.
[ . . . ]
During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time […]

and liberals. Poor yuppie has to go without her designer jeans.
The mom will bravely go without this season’s new designer jeans, according to the accompanying story. Notice that she seems to be nicely up-to-date with last season’s pricey denim; that she is standing in a garage larger than many apartments; that it seems to be […]

And I quote:
A Canadian student association has voted to drop cystic fibrosis research as a charity. On the grounds that the disease isn’t “inclusive” enough, as it mainly affects whites, and men.
Better yet, shoot these idiots.

Plymouth Colony was the world’s first failure of socialism. From El Rushbo’s description:
“The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store,’ when they got here, ‘and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the […]

I got my sorghum at Applacres, just south of Bedford on 37. Here. They sell persimmon pulp, too, but they don’t sell online, or even have a website.

The abbreviated version.
I left around 5 am.
Around 6:45 am just outside Greenfield, on I-70 about fifteen miles east of Indianapolis, I had a blowout.
I got to a tire place, which didn’t open until 8. When it opened, I found I had four cars ahead of me.
2 1/2 hours and $500 and change later, I finally […]

and I’m almost ready to leave. Should be back mid-afternoon.

Sorghum — and persimmon pulp, of course — to take back.

Last night, I went to have venison chili, cornbread, and persimmon pudding. Mmmmmmmmm. Today, I’m going to campus to see the people I didn’t yesterday, then to Bedford to lunch with Mamacita. Tonight, dinner with friends, and on the road early tomorrow morning. I probably won’t login tomorrow before I get back to Pennsylvania.

After months of failed attempts, I have finally installed Office 2007 on this crappy laptop.
Yay!
This machine is a mess. I’m thinking of backing up the data, then wiping it entirely, and starting from scratch, assuming I can find the XP CDs that came with it. That might solve the firefox problem.

I’m going to campus here in a few minutes and see people.

Hard Times For Lefty Peaceniks.

Maggie’s Farm points to this (very good) step-by-step presentation on how to carve a turkey. It does make me wonder: How can an American — other than a brand new, just off the boat immigrant — not know how to carve a turkey? Even if one has never done it, didn’t watching year after year […]

Mitch did better than even I thought he would:
Daniels not only won re-election but far outpaced his showing four years ago.
In fact, he won more votes — roughly 1.56 million — than any other candidate for any office in Indiana history.
Not by running away from conservatism, either.
As others debate the direction of the party, Daniels […]

The era of white guilt is over.
This seemingly impossible event occurred because the vast majority of white Americans didn’t give a fluff about skin color, and enthusiastically pulled the voting lever for a black man. Not just any black man. A very liberal black man who spent his early career race-hustling banks, praying in a […]

Re-post, yes, but a consolidated re-post, if you will, several put together.
This is the only way to cook turkey. You’ll be amazed at how juicy it is. This is not a non-traditional recipe, at least as far as the results. You don’t taste the brine at all. You just have to start it ahead.
Really. Try […]

With all the problems getting online, I missed Victory in Iraq Day.

Ziegler replies to his self-described critics:
“You are a conservative who doesn’t like Obama so this is not credible”
This is my “favorite” liberal canard in these situations. They don’t like the answers so they go all “Joe the Plumber” on the questioner. What my political beliefs have to do with the answers that Obama voters gave […]

Steak ‘n Shake!

IU beat Grand Lakes, 7-5.

I really did get started at 4:30 am. There were a few snowflakes in the air, but it didn’t concern me because it had been spitting snow all week. I got over Skytop, but when I was about halfway to Port Matilda to pick up I-99, the snow started coming down more heavily.
I should have […]

Yes, I’m here in Indiana, but I forgot to get the password for the Wi-Fi connection, so I’m piggybacking on an unsecured network somewhere in the near vicinity, and the connection is very weak. When they get up and I get a better connection, I’ll share with you the hell that was the trip here.

here in about twenty minutes.

Just got back from pre-trip errands, and the latest thing seems to be “conventionally-grown” foods. Of course, “conventionally-grown” means, well, normal food, but hey, if people are stupid enough to pay more for “convetionally-grown” on on label, why not rob them blind?

I have been commissioned to take two twelve-packs of birch beer to Indiana (there is no such thing there, thank God). I’m going to get the gas tank filled here in a minute, and I’ll pick up the (ugh) birch beer (ugh) on the way back.
There are a few other things I need to pick […]

So while waiting to put clothes in the dryer, I went out and did some errands, one of them going to Sears in search of a Mother Earth-raping battery for this camera. The politically correct, rechargeable, “green” POS lithium battery leaks power, so if I haven’t used the camera in a week, the battery’s dead.
Guess […]

Doing laundry. You know, for the trip.

I’ll be driving to Indiana this Friday; I plan to leave by 4 am, which means I’ll probably get out of here at 5. If I leave at 5 and take 22 instead of the Turnpike, that should put me at my destination around 2 pm, provided there aren’t Ohio cops all over I-70. I’ll […]

It’s pretty scary, too, and non in an entertaining way: How Obama Got Elected.
Related is the quotation of the day, from Dicklist.
The American media is now a larger threat to the nation’s security than terrorism.

One of the most recorded songs in history, and my father’s favorite — he had my mother play it on the piano every night — Stardust by Hoagy Carmichael, who supposedly wrote it at The Gables (closed, then resurrected) on Indiana, right across from the Indiana University Law School.
It was the jazz era, so it […]

Ace:
Cathy Seipp ridicules Maureen Dowd. That probably doesn’t sound so hard; it’s sort of like playing chess against a chicken. The outcome isn’t really ever in doubt; the only real question is whether or not the chicken actually comprehends to some small degree that it has been soundly trounced.
So too it is with Maureen Dowd. […]

 
Last weekend, the Icers went up against Navy again, with similar results to the last time. This season: 12-2, ranked #3 in ACHA.

Delaware
5-4
W-SO

Delaware
3-2
W-SO

Adrian
16-1
W

Robert Morris
6-3
W

Michigan-Dearborn
5-9
L

Pitt
10-3
W

Navy
7-1
W

Navy
6-1
W

Ohio
4-3
W

Ohio
4-2
W

Drexel
2-3
L

Drexel
4-1
W

Navy
7-2
W

Navy
5-0
W

and since it’s a home game weekend (let’s not discuss the game), the Waffle Shop is not an option. I think I’ll make my own waffle.