Catching up: Louisiana, Houston, bedbugs and tomatoes from hell

Well, I’m back and I can tell you that nearly a week away from this constant Angle-Reid battle would have been a breath of fresh air had it not been for the oppressive, demoralizing heat and humidity of Texas and Louisiana. They were pitching their August worst.

Checking the status of seats available on the flight I would be taking out of Lafayette, Louisiana to Memphis, to Salt Lake City to Reno, the availability of empty seats for a pass rider was starting to look grim. The flights were all showing ‘over-sold’ with long stand-by lists - I started to panic. I couldn’t imagine spending one more miserable sweaty day there.

You would have to pay me a LOT of money, as in a boatload, to leave the high, dry western states.

Then there was the bedbug thing.

With all the news reports about bedbugs infesting the hotels around the country, I was paranoid about my room in Houston. Twice I was up in the middle of the night, pulling up the corners of the bottom sheet, peering intently around the mattress cording. I would fall back to sleep - sorta - thinking that I felt ‘something’ on an ankle.

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Quick Hits: Obama's faith, mosque, Angle and black shirts

Reading today’s paper, I’m hugely encouraged that fewer Americans can accurately say that Obama is, indeed, a christian - NOT a muslim. This tidbit reaffirms a nagging belief I hold that we can’t assume that evidence-based facts will sway American opinion. According to a Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll on what the American electorate believes about Obama’s religious preferences, only 30% say he’s a christian. The the growing majority are terminally confused.

Yup. This is how you want to run a robust and thriving Democracy.

I’d feel much better if the majority said “I don’t give a rat’s ass what religion he is. It isn’t relevant to anything.” Personally, I’d feel better if the man was an atheist. Then at least he’d be less inclined to slog through the unproven, the irrational, and sheer wishful thinking on the way to critical decisions, or waste time on silly arguments.

Case in point: the friggin’ mosque in New York City.

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Angle 'campaign' sign on South Virginia Street a hoot

Imagine my surprise - and howls of laughter - as I was coming home this afternoon and saw this:

Oh, please, may I have one for my front lawn? Please! Mr. Maven said it was alright. Pretty please?

This is one of the coldest but cleverest campaign signs to hit these parts in some time.

I love it.

Somebody please tell Angle who Oliver Wendell Holmes was

Perhaps she is unaware that there have been more notable contributors to this - so far - successful experiment in Democracy than the Founders she’s so in love with.

“Oliver Wendell Holmes once said:

‘I like to pay taxes.

With them I buy civilization.’”

Save Sharron Angle's website. Please.

Updated on Thursday, June 10, 2010 at 09:13 by mavenandmeddler

So sad to see that Sharron Angle’s website went missing. Her husband says it’s down for’ construction’. I’ll just bet.

Here’s what Angle’s sanitized, fact and content free, website (called a ‘splash page’) looks like now:

Angle’s fact free ‘splash page’

Note that it’s free of any information other than donation totals. There are no tabs. No links. Nothing to indicate that the real website will be up soon …. click around and nothing happens.

But the quick thinking out here realize that the old information was all cached on Google. So, I’ve copied it and pasted it at the bottom of this blog post. Wow. Breathe a sigh of relief. I haven’t been spending the last year working with building websites for nothing. I learned a thing or two.

The Google cache page

I learned stuff like maybe she should have had a new website already built out - in case she won - and loaded onto her server ready to be up as soon as the results were in. This is the way real people do it. You can make the minor content tweaks on the fly. No big deal.

The way this is playing out - like amateurs with a Websites for Dummies book - this could be a giant clue to her supporters.

Duh. Talk about The Wrong Angle! It’s going to be tough keeping pace with this one - a flub a minute.

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