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Sunday, November 28, 2010

RANDOM THOUGHTS #19

Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to himself.

1. The American Civil War is misnamed, because a civil war is two groups trying to take over a single country. Robert E. Lee had no more interest in taking over Chicago and New York than George Washington had in conquering London. It could properly be called the War for Southern Independence or the War Between the States.

2. I went to my favorite BBQ restaurant one day, and found that they had changed the brand of pickles they put on the BBQ plates. The new ones are foul awful things and I won't eat them, and I don't want to eat BBQ without pickles. I spoke with the owner's daughter (a friend of mine) and she insisted that "everybody" loves the new pickles. I told her that I did not, and that I would not be returning to her restaurant. I made it plain that I was not angry, but I won't pay for food I don't like, and if I'm the only customer who doesn't like the new pickles, then she made the right decision to kick me out to make more people happy.

3. One of the special treats in my life is Ancient Alien shows on TV, mostly because I love archaeology. I can tune out the nonsense about aliens and just look at great film of archaeology sites I'll never get to go to.

4. The last F-100 fighter jet is now a museum piece at the Texas Panhandle War Memorial in Amarillo. This plane, converted into a flying target, was unable to complete that mission due to a mechanical problem. Being the last F-100 the Air Force had, a colonel made a decision to send the plane into a belly landing rather than blow it up. Written off as scrap, the plane was donated to the aviation museum in Amarillo and has now been transferred to the war memorial.

5. Could we have a little honesty? Extending the top bracket tax cuts is not going to cost the treasury $700 billion. In fact, it won't cost the treasury anything. That $700 billion number assumes that the rich people (currently doing nothing with their money because of the government's onerous policies) will continue to do nothing. If the cuts are extended, the money will be invested and generate more tax revenue than the $700 billion figure. Why cannot people understand that tax rates are not the point, but tax REVENUE?

6. I cannot figure out how polygamy is a sustainable business model.

7. Television has promoted the idea of asking your girl to marry you and whipping a ring out of your pocket. Bad idea. A woman should pick her own ring (within your budget). She's going to be wearing it a long time. You should discuss the concept of marriage before you pop the question, and be working toward formal engagement as a step in a long and complicated process. You should actually discuss with your love "when the time comes, do you want me to go buy a ring or do you want to pick it out yourself a few days after I ask the big question."

8. Romance is important, but making sure you marry the right person is far more than just finding someone you're in love with. You have to have shared interests and shared goals. Conflicts (such as whether to have children or live in a certain city or attend a certain church or vote for a certain political party) will destroy a marriage, and you had better identify those and deal with them in advance (or, if they cannot be dealt with, you need to move on).

9. Whenever you see something about the Green Movement, dig a little deeper. Some of them want to save the planet, but others just want to expand government control of everything and have no actual interest in the planet.

10. How about we set congressional salaries equal to military salaries for the same time in service?