Fall

Fall always makes me homesick. As I have mentioned before I'm originally from Virginia. And if you haven't seen the Blue Ridge Mountains during the peak of fall you are truly missing something.
Pictures don't really do it justice because they have borders. If you get back far enough in the mountains the view is like that for as far as the eye can see in all directions. And if you get that far back before sunrise it almost looks like the world is completely ablaze.

Time to Upgrade?

If you anything like me then your computer probably isn't a top of the line recent model gaming system. My machine is a five year old HP that despite having a 2.4ghz processor has been seeming a little slow lately despite the fact that have my computer configured to use as little memory as possible. So I decided it was time for a few upgrades. I was pleasantly surprised to discover how cheap it was to upgrade 512 megs of Crucial brand RAM 29.99 , a new ATI video card with 256 megs of RAM 39.99, and a Turtle Beach 5.1 surround sound audio card (I had on board sound) 29.99. I got free shipping on eveything by Googling (website name) coupon code

I just thought I'd share my bargains with you in case your puter is acting a little pokey too.

Happy Constitution Day!

Today is the anniversary of the signing of the US Constitution. It officially became a holiday back in 2004 "the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day" Not exactly a replacement for Civics class but its a step in the right direction. If you'd like to refresh you memory of its exact contents a downloadable version is available here.

Tired of the Endless Spin

Sept 12 2006:

Press Secretary Tony Snow:

Osama bin Laden, mastermind of September 11th, the person that many people talk about and still have concerns about, calls this fight, the fight in Iraq, “the third world war.”

Sept 10 2008:

Press Secretary Dana Perino:

Q: But Osama bin Laden is the one that — you keep talking about his lieutenants, and, yes, they are very important, but Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of 9/11

PERINO: No, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of 9/11, and he’s sitting in jail right now.

h/t

Something is Missing

I normally don't post about tragedies like the shooting that took place at a Unitarian church today. That's largely because I don't feel that I will anything particularly insightful to add to the dialogue by the time I get around to posting. Additionally something seems wrong about using a tragedy to draw visitors to my site. However today, because I read the story on the BBC rather than the American news wires, I noticed something was missing from blogland's coverage of the story:

Police have named one of the two people killed as Greg McKendry, a 60-year-old usher at the church. The other, Linda Kreager, died of her injuries at a nearby hospital a few hours later.

Church member Barbara Kemper said that Mr McKendry had "stood in front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us".

Simply put when his fellow man needed him most he showed his quality and answered the call with both courage and selflessness. In doing so he not only saved the lives of those around him he also changed the narrative of this story. Because, if one leaves out Mr. McKendry's part this is just another senseless act of violence however, once one includes the details of his final selfless act, the story shows that there are heroes and villains on both sides of the aisle.

My sincerest condolences go out to Mr. McKendry's family. His final act speaks volumes about exactly how much you have lost.