Just a few more tweaks to the blog layout, based on some feedback I've received.  It turns out that the problems people reported that got me started on the new layout were mainly caused by just a couple elements (especially the blog archive index).  Most of the stuff that used to be at the right is back, except for those few elements that caused problems when they're over there.  I appreciate the feedback; please keep it coming!

Heh. So we were on the way home just now, after having some delicious sushi at (the soon-to-be-closed, sob) Yuki Sushi. I was telling Debbie about my desire to avoid giving a friend a certain gift that was likely to cost our friend a bunch of money over time. Debbie said, instantly: “Ah, the California gift – the one that keeps on taking!”  Ah, too true, too true...

Russian police ninjas.  Must not have many donut shops there...

The media managed, as always, to get nearly everything wrong in early reporting on the Navy Yard shootings.

Obama's useful idiots.  It's a wonder to me that more of them haven't figured out that they're being used mercilessly.  Oh, that's right – they're idiots!

I cherish them more as the years go by: the Craftsmanship of Simple Things.

It's a more incremental change to drug policy than the upheaval I'd like to see, but it's certainly better than the status quo.

Frozen lake roulette.  I hope I don't know anyone who would do this...

Oh, ouch!  That's all I'm going to say...

Let's just be glad there isn't one ring to rule them all...  When Jonah Goldberg starts a piece like this:

As a conservative resident of Washington, D.C., where registered Republicans are outnumbered by about 9 to 1 and where truly conservative Republicans are outnumbered on a scale comparable to the predicament faced by Frodo and Sam when they sneaked into orc-infested Mordor, I find such statements hilarious.

You know it's going to be good!

Leftist logic on display.  Robert at Small Dead Animals makes a lovely point...

Our military bases are more vulnerable than most people think.  Here's an analysis that comports with my own experiences in the U.S. Navy.  I saw some crazy security issues back then.  Two come to mind immediately. 

First, I frequently stood watch on the “after brow” (one of the gangplanks used to board the ship) when we were in port.  We were armed with .45s – but we were not issued ammunition.  Apparently the brass were afraid of arming enlisted men :) 

Second, our radio room had a combination lock on the door, intended to keep out people who weren't cleared to see the classified teletype traffic laying about all over the room.  But it was darned inconvenient to remember that frequently-changed combination, so each time it was changed, someone would tape a piece of paper with the new combination on it – directly over the lock. 

Not quite what you might call a “fortress”!

How would you answer this question?

Would you rather have Congress avoid a government shutdown by authorizing spending at existing levels or would you rather have a partial government shutdown until Democrats and Republicans can agree on what spending to cut?

Rasmussen says that 53% of likely voters polled were for the partial shutdown, and just 37% for Obama's preference of continuing spending at current levels.  That smells like hope to me.  Faint, perhaps just barely detectable, but there...

A flying pig moment...  The Detroit Free Press – not exactly known for their conservative bias – has published an excellent analysis of why Detroit went broke.  In particular, it stabs all sorts of Democratic sacred cows in places where it hurts.  It also generally faces up to the fiscal realities in a way you wouldn't expect a liberal rag to do.  Too bad they didn't start behaving this way back when it would have done some good, like back in the '70s...

The progressives call this progress.  I call it indoctrination.  The Second Amendment, as it appears in the actual Constitution:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

A new U.S. history textbook:

The people have the right to keep and bear arms in a state militia.

That is not an accurate description of the Second Amendment, nor does it reflect the way the Supreme Court has interpreted it.  But it does comport with the way progressives would like the Second Amendment to be understood.

The progressives effectively own our public schools and almost all universities.  This has consequences, not a single damned one of which is to my liking...

Ahmed Akkari is sorry.  I sure wish we would see a few more radical Islamic fundamentalists like that.  And when I say “a few more”, I mean like a few million.  Even better would be to throw in a few million radical Christian fundamentalists, too.  Just think how much saner the world would be!

Evil is running for Governor of Massachusetts.  And I don't mean Evil Kneival, either – I mean the real thing.

Jaguar 1, caiman 0.  Dramatic photos and story...

Disney war bonds, from WWII.  I'd never heard of these before, or of Disney's involvement...

Foot-long, inch-wide tubes of earwax.  Scientists collect these from whales.  Turns out they have rings, much like tree rings.  And these rings contains traces of pollutants and other environmental chemicals.  Science never loses its capacity to surprise me!