At the risk of sounding a bit un-politically correct, can anyone tell me why we, as a nation, should ever consider supporting a candidate so overwhelmingly backed by the ignorant, under-educated and misinformed voters of this country? Excuse me, but isn't there a lesson we all should have learned after living through the last 7 years? It's amusing (and a bit disturbing) that the press is all giddy about the fact that Obama, no matter how hard he tried, just could not get the racist vote in West Virginia. Thanks, Jon Stewart, for the wrap up. As Gomer Pyle would have said, "Surprise, surprise."

It seems two of Clinton's strongest base of supporters these days are the rednecks and neo-cons, who of course have a well-known symbiotic relationship which involves the neo-cons duping the rednecks into giving them more power in exchange for lip service and false promises. But let's face it, these two groups of people have been instrumental in steering our country into the messy hell-hole it's in now by belligerently imposing their unrealistic fantasies on the country without thinking too hard, which brings us back to the WV primaries. These constituents have been hoot'n and holler'n for over 20 years about BS issues like promiscuous interns, or fear of the nationality of under-paid gardeners and corporate servants of wealthy executives, or even their vacuous ideals of "family values" (which I think has something to do with meth-addled, closeted religious men in airport bathroom stalls, or something like that). And let's not forget the delusions of empire building and promises of cheap oil to feed your monster trucks. At this point in our history, all I can say is how can anyone, ANYONE, take these people seriously anymore.

It may be true that Clinton dominated in the West Virginia primary, but that's just an obvious signal to the rest of the country that electing Obama is the right thing to do.

Note: I don't intend to pick on West Virginians, for ignorant and mis-informed voters exist in all states.

Originally posted on skippymaru.vox.com

NPR's Fresh Air had a good explanation of the fiasco that's raging through the financial sector right now.

My friends all call it "the pirate shop". It doesn't seem to have a real name, but it's a cool place to browse for weird stuff. To me it was just another great oddity shop in the mission and because it's right next door to one of my other favorite oddity shops, Paxton's Gate, I'll check out both when I'm in the area. I never asked any of the employees about the place because, well, there's all sorts of odd places in the mission, and I sort of appreciate the mystery anyway. Sometimes, I'll just pop in to watch the fish tank theater for a minute (I like fish), think "WTF", and head off to my next destination. I knew they offered writing classes in addition to selling essential pirate gear, but how they made money? Who knew.

Anyway, I have to say, I was pretty surprised to find the proprietor of "the pirate shop" giving a TED talk on one of their recent podcasts. When I saw this, I just thought "WTF". It turns out there is, of course, more to this place than meets the eye.

Originally posted on skippymaru.vox.com

StPatty's_Fire

There was a big fire out in The Mission today that I captured on video on my way home from work. Sorry for the shaky, poor quality. It was really windy at the time.

Update: Except for a few pets, no one was hurt from this fire.

The official news can be found here.

Originally posted on skippymaru.vox.com