It’s Monday, February 01, 2010 and this is my 301st post in this format.
It’s also time for:
When it was in the Heights, Doc & Eddys was one of our favorite places to eat. Between them and Elmer’s, we could get good chow at a good price without driving clear across town. On Friday, we drove clear across town to try Doc & Eddies in their new digs.
The food was okay and the service was good, but it’s not a place I think worth driving very far for. For starts, the place was cold. I’m not usually bothered by cold and in fact usually prefer a room temperature about 5 degrees below what others find comfortable. I didn’t have a thermometer with me, but I was cold.
The menu was quite disappointing. While there was an adequate selection of burgers, sandwiches and such, there were but three dinner offerings: two different cuts of of steak and fried shrimp. I seem to recall a more extensive menu when they were in the Heights, including a pretty good chicken fried steak.
I had the ribeye steak and the wife had the New York strip. While correctly prepared by a cook who knows what medium-rare means, mine was a tad on the tough side and the wife’s was a bit on the fatty side. Neither of these shortcomings were worth raising a fuss about. Sometimes, you get a steak that’s a little tough or fatty.
While it’s not a place we’ll be visiting again within the foreseeable future, it’s not a bad joint and seems quite popular with the seniors. They’re at 927 S 32nd St West and their menu is here.
In other news, we attended a most remarkable memorial service on Saturday. What does it say about a person when even their funeral is an uplifting experience? Lynette McNally went to be with her Lord on Tuesday after a hard-fought battle with cancer. The crowd was estimated at over 700 people. She loved people and I mean truly loved people. If she got word that you were having struggles with something, anything, you could count on soon getting a card or letter from Lynette. Toward the end of the service, our preacher asked for anyone who had received a card or letter from her to stand.
Everyone in the room stood up.
I didn’t know her well at all, but I know I will miss her in Bible class. Whenever she thought that the teacher hadn’t hit an important point quite hard enough, she would chime in with her unique wisdom on the passage being studied. To me, these always came across as encouraging little pep-talks. Yes, I’ll miss that.
In other news, it seems the republican leadership had a “frank” discussion with President Obama. In reading the stories on this I’ll admit to being a little disappointed in both sides. Look, boys and girls, if you want to campaign, then by all means, go do it. If you really want to sit down and work out how the country is gonna run for the next while, then do that. Whatever the case, don’t just sit there and fling garbage at each other.
I think it’s important to bring the socialist agenda to a screeching halt, but there IS some governing to get done and both sides have to first sit down and get hashed out the things we agree on. Then, we can get back to the politics.
You may be right. On the other hand, a government that’s gridlocked can’t make things worse. Well, maybe they can. I mean we do have this war on terror thing going on and you can bet the ranch that our enemies aren’t sitting on their hands.
Although it appears that one of them has gone the rest of the way off the deep end.
Come on! Global warming? Okay, before I thought the guy was a loony, but Global Warming? So, your suicide bombers are now only gonna use environmentally-friendly bombs? Are we gonna see Al Qaeda using hybrids for their car bombs? What’s next: “An Inconvenient Infidel?”
In other news, I had a most peculiar phone call yesterday. The Caller ID showed “DIST OF COLIMBI” and the number displayed was from a 202 area code. Suspecting a prank call, I answered. The caller was pretty much to the point and asked me “Do you approve of President Obama?”
???
That’s a strange expression, Bruce. Do I approve of him? What kind of question is that? I asked the young man if he meant “Do I approve of his performance?” but he stuck to the question as asked: “Do you approve of President Obama?”
To be honest, I’ve not given it a great deal of thought. I thoroughly disapprove of his performance as well as his political philosophy. But do I specifically approve of him? I disapprove of his tastes in beer. I mean the guy is President of the United States. As such, I’m pretty sure he has access to the tastiest beers on the planet and he drinks Bud Light?
But do I approve of President Obama? I told the caller I’d have to think on it for a while. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked if I approve or disapprove of a specific person before. I’ve disapproved of guys who wanted to date my daughters, but that’s pretty much the starting point for these chaps.
In other news, say hello to Hakimullah Mehsud.
Then say goodbye. Depending on who you believe, this terrorist leader was either killed by a US drone attack, or in a fight between Taliban factions trying to seize leadership of the Taliban in Pakistan. Whichever is true, dead is dead and we’ll take ‘em however we can get ‘em.
Speaking of terrorist… Despite growing opposition, it looks like Obama is pressing on with his plan to try accused terrorists in the civilian court system. He’s asked for $200 million to help offset the cost to cities “hosting” the trials of terrorists. I guess since we’re not hosting the next Olympics, this is the next best thing.
But come on, $200 million? Let’s forget for a minute that this guy is horribly bad at math. I thought we were trying to cut unnecessary spending. I’m reasonably sure that a military tribunal, held at Guantanamo Bay can “host” these trials for a fraction of that. But what I’m really having a problem understanding is why these guys are being tried in US civilian courts.
They’re not US citizens. It’s true that they did commit their crimes on US soil. I’m also fairly certain that helping to fly planes into buildings full of people violates a plethora of US law. The point is that these are enemy combatants, not common criminals. I can see how treating them as such might be demeaning to them and their cause, but we’re either at war or we’re not. This isn’t a liquor store robbery gone awry. We seem to be trying very hard to forget that.
I choose to remember.
Our enemies seek to destroy us because liberty works. To then afford them the same liberties enjoyed by those they seek to destroy is beyond ludicrous. It’s a “reap what you sow” kind of thing. They want to be considered as soldiers? Fine by me. We’ll hold a nice, quick military tribunal and get you to your virgins with all possible haste and it won’t cost us $200 million to do it.
This just in from our “I Told You So Desk” — The special inspector general for the TARP (bank bailout) program has released a report that basically says that the bailout of poorly run banks has only opened the door for an even worse financial meltdown. Basically, the report surmises that banks will now be even less prudent with their lending practices, now that they know they won’t be allowed to fail. This is pretty much what you get every time you reward bad behavior.
Predictably, House Speaker Pelosi was quick to jump in and blame Bush. Yes, it was Bush that told the congressional oversight people (lead by Barney “The Great Outdoorsman” Frank) to go ahead and let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go ahead and and scarf up all those loans that had zero chance of being repaid. Bush got the democrat-controlled Congress to do all kinds of crazy stuff and I can see why they need to vent about it. Quite the prankster, that Bush guy.
I personally would have used my Jedi mind tricks to get make them do something more entertaining:
In other news, we have even more indications that the President Obama is bad at math. Turns out the jobs bill he said would cost $30 billion during his State of The Obama Union address will come in at just a bit over $100 billion.
Who other than government gets to be $70 billion off on their estimate. If you were having your washing machine fixed and the repairman gave you an estimate of $30, you’d be pretty hot when he presented you with a bill for $100. If it’s $100 billion before it’s even hit Congress, who’s to say what it’ll be by the time it gets out of there? I’m just glad that we have an infinite supply of dough in this universe.
Which will come in handy when the President’s budget proposal gets passed. His proposed FY 2011 budget rolls in at about $3.8 trillion dollars. Projections have this budget plan adding $1.3 trillion to our current deficit of $1.6 trillion.
In other news, it’s 68 days until the opening of the spring turkey season.
That’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow for story time!
