Hammer Mill Days

Sorry, Mitch. The batteries aren't charged yet. No, sir... still got a few more hours to go. Hey, where'd you find those used fuel tanks? Clever man. Very clever. Oh, hi folks. Just doing a few last-minute tasks before launch. Did I say "launch?" I meant lunch . How careless of me... and me, a man of words! No, launch won't be for a few days yet. We're moving the components into place, though - no doubt about it. It's like a big, fat, dysfunctional chess board with pieces whittled from plastic explosives. A little on the touchy side, let's say. That's what we get for working with a mad scientist, especially one as mercurial as Mitch Macaphee. No matter... we'll get off the ground, possibly before the Space Shuttle does. (Oh, that launched, finally? Well.... I guess maybe not.) There are other races to be won, however. We may well be the first band on the sun. Hmmm... good idea for a song. Maybe the chorus would go something like this: Band on t...

I confess I haven't been watching the confirmation hearings of judge Sotomayor for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, nor listening to them. It's been a lot easier to avoid doing so than it was ducking the coverage of Michael Jackson's death and its aftermath, quite frankly. Apparently our news outlets don't consider this "newsy" enough. In any case, what I've heard and seen have been snippets of interrogations by Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama... I think the "R" stands for "Racist") and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina, a.k.a. "McCain's brain"), also a bit from Dr. Coburn (R-Oklahoma). Certainly on that side of the partisan divide, the Judiciary committee comes off as a kind of cracker-town. And because the Democrats are, on the whole, utterly spineless and all-too-willing to fold on matters of principle, it is very often the core "values" of these southern conservative senators that end up carrying the most weight. Su...