Rivers

 As these things go, this one was more random than most. I was driving across the Potomac River a while back (on a bridge, of course) when out of nowhere I wondered, how many rivers have I crossed without benefit of bridge or boat? At first I figured the answer was "Damn few," but after a few moment's thought, I realized it was probably more than most people. For the record, the rivers I have crossed under my own power without benefit of any spans or floatation devices include the New River in Virginia, the Firehole River in Wyoming (in Yellowstone Park), the Fu Lung River in Taiwan, and the Saluda and Broad rivers in South Carolina. There might be more. I'll have to think about it.

Thank you, Karl Marx

 Not in the habit of thanking Karl Marx for anything, but I am happy to say that on this date in 1883, he made his finest effort on behalf of humanity. He died. Alas, his philosophy did not die with him and it causes human misery throughout the world to this day. Karl, give Satan a high five for, well, not me. Certainly for you.

I'm Too Old For This Shit

 Despite my advanced age, I am considering starting another band. It would be my fifth band, but my first in more than 20 years. Talking to my old guitar player about it, since I wouldn't want to do another band without him. We'll see what happens. If a new band results, I'm sure we can look forward to this:

The Bitch Is Back

 OK, so I went away for, oh, nearly 3-1/2 years. Sorry about that. Anyway, I decided I should come back and say stuff. As always, a little bit of everything. The original purpose of this blog was to write about the world of temporary contract attorneys, who work on the document review phase of all different kinds of cases. We used to work in big rooms with dozens, even hundreds of attorneys. We called it Temp Town. As with so many other people and businesses, Temp Town died in the COVID-19 panic. Law firms and agencies were forced to do what neither of them wanted to do -- let temps work from home. Agencies didn't want to do it because they made money from charging law firms to rent review space and the necessary equipment, services, etc. for the temps to do the document review work the law firms needed done. Law firms didn't want to do it because -- correctly, in my opinion - they didn't trust temps to be diligent without law firm supervising attorneys literally looking over their shoulders. Well, C-19 gave them no choice. We went off to work at home, and we are never going back. The agencies decided they love it because they no longer have to maintain the facilities for temps to perform document review and they are able to pay WAY less than they used to. Life is good for agencies, not so much for temps. Law firms like it because the agencies and their temps cost them less than before. Everybody is happy except the temps.

In any event, Temp Town as it used to exist, with a numerous temps in the same place with a bunch of fucking whack jobs providing entertainment, is long gone. AI is slowly but surely doing away with the need for temps in most situations, but we aren't there yet. However, projects are shorter and use fewer people. Making enough money to survive is more of a struggle than ever. Nonetheless, I probably won't write about Temp Town much anymore.

But I plan to write anyway. I will write about what interests me, regardless of topic. Buckle up, kids. No telling what comes next. But the bitch is back. Cue the Elton John song, because modern copyright protections prevent me from inserting the video.

Hey Joe! Talking To You, Joe Biden

Joe Biden, president of the United States, has a two-year-old granddaughter in Arkansas that he pretends does not exist, fathered by the crack whore of a son he pretends is a paragon of virtue. Hunter Biden, Joe's crack whore son, claims to not remember the encounter with the mother of his daughter. A judge in Arkansas doesn't care, having ruled in a family court case that, based on DNA, Hunter is the father. Joe Biden, who can't even remember how many grandchildren he has, won't even admit this little girl is one of them.

This guy is a hero

 The pastor here is Polish, and he know's what he's talking about, having lived under communism and, no doubt, his parents lived under Nazi occupation. Hats off to this guy:

 

And hats off to Instapundit for putting this up.

Seriously?

 So Gropey Joe gave a speech last night and let us know that in a few weeks the goverment would be giving us instructions on "what you can and cannot do" after you get vaccinated for the Wu-flu. With all due respect the the president or whoever is pulling his strings, fuck you. The last thing I'm waiting for or paying any attention to is instructions from the government on what I can and cannot do.

The country is in the best of hands

Or, you know, not.

 

What could go wrong?

Not even president yet and already fucking up

 Joe Biden*, who on Wednesday will be inaugurated as president of the United States, decided not to wait to take office to fuck up. In fact, he is going for a two-fer. He will be harming our energy independence and pissing off one of our closest allies, all at the same time:

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has indicated plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, sources confirmed to CBC News on Sunday.

A purported briefing note from the Biden transition team mentioning the plan was widely circulated over the weekend after being shared by the incoming president's team with U.S. stakeholders.

The words "Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit" appear on a list of executive actions supposedly scheduled for Day 1 of Biden's presidency. 

The list shown to stakeholders is a lengthier version of a list already reported in the media based on a memo released publicly over the weekend by Biden's chief of staff Ronald Klain. That publicly reported memo from Klain did not mention Keystone XL, but cautioned that the memo was not a complete list of planned actions.

Canadian officials already are asking the Biden team not to do this. He talks big about rebuilding our relationships with allies, but I don't think we're going to like the "allies" he wants to rebuild relationships with. (Hint: Iran.) He clearly doesn't give a fuck about Canada if he does this.

Weird how nobody talks about this

 Lots of "peace" groups bitched about Presidents Bush, 41 and 43, but never bitched about Clinton or Obama. And nobody lauded Trump for not getting us into any new wars, and reducing or eliminating our  presence in our existing wars. Weird.

Go Pack Go!

 All I got to say.

So this was interesting

 Just before Christmas, I was in Walmart helping Santa get some candy for stockings. Because I didn't have much stuff, I went in the self-checkout line, as the regular checkouts were quite busy. I fell in behind some dude, who promptly turned around and said "six feet." I said, "Nice guess, but I'm actually six foot one." He said, "No, get six feet away." So I told him, "You're so concerned, you get six feet away." He let me know that as soon as the person in front of him moved forward he would. Dude was wearing a cheap-ass cloth mask, which does no good, same as me. When the line moved, he quickly moved six feet away, and I moved up. He turned around and told me to move back to six feet away. At which point I told him, "If you were actually concerned about this shit and not just posturing, you would buy a decent mask and you wouldn't come to Walmart, which is packed with people. So fuck off."

Oddly enough, he had nothing further to say.

Happy New Year!

 Gotta be better than the last one. Or, you know, maybe not.

One last Christmas wish for you all

 From the incomparable Queen: 

Peace on Earth, baby. Merry Christmas to you all.

Linus knows

 Linus knew what it's about decades ago.

Merry Christmas

But seriously, Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas to all ...

 ... except those who piss us off.

Have a merry Christmas.

Wow. We actually got some snow!

 Not only did we get some snow on Wednesday, it was the first real snow in nearly two years. Plus it was a pre-Christmas snow, which almost never happens around here. Cherry on top, we got about 8 inches -- might've been more, but it was hard to tell because it turned to sleet and freezing rain late for the last several hours of precipitation. Nonetheless, it was impressive. Behold:

Here we are, looking to the west:

And looking to the east:

And looking out the back, to the north:

All taken early in the storm, of course. Nonetheless, gives a flavor. Got a lot deeper later. Jeb the Wonder Dog enjoyed playing and running around in it early. Not so much at night when the sleet came in. He hates ice-crusted snow. We also apparently got a little more Thursday night, as we awoke to this on Friday:

Just a dusting, but more is in the forecast. La Nina apparently is weakening, meaning earlier long-term forecasts for a warmer winter with less snow (like last year) might not hold up. We'll see.

Happy Birthday, Marine Corps

 

Semper Fi, y'all.

Well, I did what I could

 

Only voted once, despite what appears to be Maryland policy: