Yup, I'm a Demo

Via Wayne, I'd seen this little quiz a while back and decided to take the test. Given that I think Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, et al, are driving this country into the ground, given that I believe Dubya to be lacking in any hint of intellectual curiosity or rigor - and even more void of compassion, given that I have come to believe that many in the Republican party who claim to be driven by moral values are, in fact, driven by intense and absolute greed and little else ....it came as no surprise to me that I scored a 10 on this most unscientific quiz. But hey, at least with this Democrat version of loyalty quiz, no one will be denied entrance to a political rally based on their score (well, at least they won't be denied entrance to a Democrat rally).

Note: I do have friends and family who identify themselves as Republicans, and who I love and respect very much. They are among the many "true" Republicans - vastly different than the lying, cheating, deceiving right-wing neo-conservative faction now in control of the party. I may disagree with some of the opinions or reasoned conclusions of these friends and family, but they are honest and trustworthy. Bush is neither.

Electricity on for Bush speech, then cut when he's gone

According to this MSNBC article, the electricity in part of New Orleans was turned ON about 30 minutes before Bush made his speech the other night ....and then turned OFF within 30 minutes of the Bush party leaving. The deception continues.

Wasp sting ....OWIE!

This evening when I got home I changed and popped outside to mow the lawn. I'd noticed a couple of wasps flying around near the fence while I was edging, and again when I opened the gate to take the mower into the back to cut the grass. Well, when I was done and opened the gate to come back out front and put the mower away ....YEE-OW! One of those nasty little buggers stung me just above my right elbow. It'd been years since I'd been stung by a bee, wasp, or any flying critter. Man, that hurt (still hurts, but only mildly sore now). I ran inside, tossed some bleach water on the sting -- that works on fire ant bites anyway (as I learned some months back) -- and held an ice cube to the sting for a minute or two to lessen the rather searing pain. A quick search on the internet and I was reminded that vinegar helps counteract the venom. So I slopped on some vinegar, spent a little more time with the ice, popped a couple ibuprofen, and went back outside for revenge.

Armed with a can of wasp and hornet spray (which is basically nerve gas for bugs), I kicked the fence gate post (since I wasn't sure exactly where the nest was) and then started blasting the little buggers as they came to investigate. OK, it may not have been the brightest thing to do, but this spray stuns and kills the bugs rather quickly, so I wasn't too concerned. For some reason I've never really been afraid of bees or wasps. Spiders kind of bother me, but not wasps. So now that's at least 5 wasp nests I've sprayed over the past few weeks. Total wasps killed: approx 25 (all nests combined). Total stings incurred: 1. That's not too bad, and I think it's good to get a sting now and then :-)

Bill Maher video clip

I discovered this link on Volker's site. This is a great video of Bill Maher telling it like it is. Maher's full-on skewering of Bush starts about 5 1/2 minutes into the video, but the full 8 1/2 minutes is all good stuff.

UK v US energy prices and...huh?

12 Sept 2005. Duh! As Mr Tyler so kindly pointed out, in much nicer words, I'm a dork. "Gas" in the USA is what I get after eating a lot of beans, and what I put in my car at a cost of about $3 per gallon. In the UK, "Petrol" is what one uses to fuel one's car. So the cost of fuel in the UK is still about twice what it runs us in the USA. - Joe This morning I read a Guardian article about gas and electricity prices in the UK. Using  conversion rates of 3.785 litres to a gallon and £1 = $1.83, I'm estimating that in the UK one currently pays the equivalent of about $3.75 for gas for one's car. With the numbers from the Guardian article, it also appears that, on average, it costs the equivalent of $70 per month for home gas and electicity costs. Here at the Litton house (2,000 sq ft in Tampa Florida area) we pay about $150/month for home gas and electricity, and locally it's about $3 per gallon to gas up my car. OK. So I can see that it's still a little cheaper here to fuel my car, and I was curious about the comparative home energy cost. I'd expect that the average UK home is smaller than the 2,000 square feet of our US home, so I Googled using the search string "average home size in UK". Click the thumbnail below to see what popped up as the first link :)