Hammer Mill Days

Interstellar Tour Log: February 25, 2014 Between Neptune and Pluto, or thereabouts "Steve Lawrence", Matt says. My reply: " Jennifer Lawrence." Lincoln's turn: "Jennifer Hudson ." Everyone looks at anti-Lincoln, who scratches his temple thoughtfully. "You lost two points on that one, Abe," he says with a smirk. Right, well ... you have to occupy your time somehow in deep space, and rather than doing something productive, we're playing Name-Chain. Yeah, it's really fun. You name a famous person, and the player to your right has to name another one with the same first or last name, and around it goes. Lincoln got penalized because if you name someone of the same sex, you lose two points. Then you all multiply your score by the square root of corn meal and, well ... it gets complicated after that. Did we play on Jupiter last week? Well, the less said about that the better. Not sure what happened, but whatever it was it left a b...

Not sure what to concentrate on this week for my rant, so I'll break it up into bits. Ukraine drama. I have heard endless reports on NPR and NBC about the Russian flag being raised above the Crimean capital and how much this is becoming like the bad old days of the Cold War. Much, too, has been made of Russian military exercises near the border of Ukraine, termed by the media as "provocative" - a word they no doubt borrowed from McCain or some other favored pol. Just rewind to their last reports about Korea and our planned military exercises there - did they use the same modifier? Didn't think so. That potentially catastrophic confrontation-in-waiting apparently can withstand mock-invasions of North Korea and simulated bombing runs without being "provocative". So, why are the Russian exercises any worse? If there's a return to Cold War mentality, it's on the part of our corporate media. (Most of our politicians have never left that particular ideo...