Memorial Day, 2011

There are no good wars, and their outcomes are forever tainted by their terrible cost. We honor the fallen. They were the best of us, and they've been denied the good life we now so nonchalantly enjoy. Pray for them, and pray for us, that we can somehow find a way to worldwide peace.(from Jaxonia 2008)

The 800-lb Hawk in the Room

America's defense budget is greater than the combined defense budgets of the next 15 countries; it is 10 ten times the Chinese budget, and almost 20 times the Russian budget. More than half of our budget is dedicated to aiding and abetting a war-making machine unparalleled in world history. We make Sparta, Genghis Khan and Hitler look like Tibetan monks.

The budget for the Peace Corps, by contrast, is pocket change. If we mothballed ONE nuclear aircraft carrier (we have 11) and gave that money to the Peace Corps it would almost quadruple their funds; if we converted three carriers into hospital ships we could provide state-of-the-art assistance for world disasters - each ship could treat and house upwards of 10,000 victims - and we'd still have an aircraft carrier for each of the seven seas. 

The absolutely final FIOS word

As Jaxonia predicted a few years ago, FIOS is the future. As soon as they get their customer service together, they should be unbeatable... but they're not there yet. Verizon/Fios web sites are Byzantine and unfriendly, and it's still not easy to get from a computerized phone voice to a live person.

That said, the advantages of a FIOS system just keep adding up. Even if you think the picture is the same and the phone and internet are similar, here are a few FIOS advantages Cable doesn't have:

1. Jillions of rental movies. JILLIONS. Old, new, middle-aged, priced from $2.95 to $5.95.  If you feel like watching a movie, they've got one for you.
2. Instant  channel switching. No 2-second delay like Cable.
3. Buffers galore. Watch two channels and your DVR will buffer both of them. Watch a ball game, for example, and in the fifth inning switch over to the news. When you switch back to the game you can go back to the 5th inning, and when you return to the news, you also can rewind to where you left off.
4. All TVs will play whatever was recorded on the DVR.

So? There's no long-term contract, the FIOS triple play option is for 2 years (I think). What are you waiting for? (Nobody here works for either of these companies, by the way.)

Holey socks? No more!

This falls into that growing category of, 'If we can send men to the moon, why can't we...?'

Darning socks is such a lost art that even the defining term itself is almost lost to us --

 darn 
"mend" c.1600, perhaps from M.Fr. darner "mend," from darne "piece," from Breton darn "piece, fragment, part." Alternativeetymology is from obs. dern, from O.E. diernan "to hide," fromdierne "secret," from W.Gmc. *darnjaz.

But start your Monday with this good news: This product is out there -- check Wal-Mart -- it only costs a couple of bucks, and IT WORKS. Just minimize the hole, squeeze a generous dollop of this stuff on it, let it sit for 30 minutes and Voila! That favorite pair of WigWams is back at the head of your sock drawer. 

Click the headline for the Loctite web site.