Road Apples, #10

In The Strange Dream Department
I had this dream last night that seems to be nothing more than a really bad zombie movie. I was with a group of folks at some kind of lab/military base and it was full of zombies (who had the 'rage' virus) that I was trying to elude. I finally did manage to escape, along with some other folks from this place, but as we were leaving (in some kind of strange Range Rover thing), the outside of the lab/military base has dozens of robots that looked like the one from "Lost In Space" moving all about. Strangely enough, this wasn't a nightmare. Oh, and for the record, I watched the movie 28 Days Later (for the second time) about three weeks ago.

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

Today Is Friday
It's been a very long week that seems to have lasted about three weeks actually. How long? Well I'm wearing jeans today, which I normally don't do on Fridays (even though our office allows that on most Fridays). I did have a few "big" things to do this week, which probably contributed to how I feel at the moment. Le yawn.

Gov. Palin Video
There is a video out there on YouTube where Gov. Palin discusses the media and the treatment of her family during the election. I do agree with her about some of the comments made during the campaign being way the hell out of line. In fact I've said all along that children of political candidates should always be off limits. That was true when Rush Limbaugh compared Chelsea Clinton to a dog on his 3am TV show, true when the National Enquirer insisted on reporting about the Bush daugthers and true about Gov. Palin's oldest daugther. I will, however, add one caveat though: when you preach family values and insist that yours are better than others (her "real America" comments), then you open yourself up to others calling you out on the hypocrisy of your words vs your actions. Interstingly enough, I think the video in question is for some "secret conspiracy that got Obama elected" movie thing that will end up only being available via order from various right-wing conspiracy websites. That's a shame, because again I think she made some valid comments, which will end up being burried in some nonsense about Obama stealing an election.

In The Local Politics Deparment
I try to stay away from this kind of thing, but this one begs for comment. It was reported in various local newspapers that the Mayor of Scranton hired a young man who was the sun of a former mayor for a newly created city position. The job wasn't advertised, no other candidates were ever considered, and the individual in question had really no relevent experience for the job. What do I think? Well, I think it points to several of the reasons why many people hold politicians and public servants in general in low esteem. Now the reality is that this kind of thing happens everywhere; I've worked in the private sector now for almost 25 years and I've seen it myself. That doens't make it right, but at least in the private sector it's not public money being used to fund these escapades. In this particular case, there is no doubt that it was some kind of manuvering going on between the current and former mayor, manuvering in which it was public money being used as the lubricant. Look, with economic times being so tough, it's hard to justify hiring anyone in government, let alone someone who has as their chief qualification "son of former mayor".

Post Script - the young man in question resigned from the position after a story detailing elements of his background were published in the local newspaper. I guess the system worked...sort of.

In The Good News Department
My brother closed on his new (for him) house yesterday. This was the former house of my uncle, who passed away about two months ago. Best of luck to him.

In The Not So Good News Department
My mother was in the hospital yesterday, as she was suffering from extreme joint pain. The underlying culpit was a fall, coupled with getting-worse arthritis. My mother is 72, and worked very hard all her life, so it's not unexpected that she might have this kind of an aliment, but it's still sad to see. She is back home now and has some more effective pain medication to take, which I hope helps. It also reinforces for me the need to take care of myself, as you only get one body to use in this life.