Charlotte Winters - 1898-2007

Charlotte Winters was the last female World War One veteran. She passed away last week, and I just wanted to honor her for her service in "The War to End All Wars." She joined the Navy in 1917 and retired in 1953, rising to the rank of Yoeman in the US Naval Reserve.

Each day that passes pushes WWI further into that period of history that no one is alive to remember but still isn't ancient history. And I'm just nostalgic enough to be saddened by that.

So long, Yoeman Winters.

I know nothing about cars.

Well, that's not quite right. I know that if you put a key in the switch and step on the gas the car should move. Otherwise, I generally pay no attention to how the vehicle is operating, busy as I am having conversations with the latest people who have pissed me off. When the vehicle intrudes itself into my internal/external monolouges, I imagine the worst.

Is the muffler unraveling? I wonder. Has the fan belt come unbuckled? Has one of the sparks come unplugged? Is the alternator full? (Thanks to Hawkeye Pierce and Jeff Foxworthy for the majority of those jokes.) It's no wonder my mechanic smiles when he sees me.

Turns out that the motor mounts have gone out. I think that's the word he used. So I'm imagining the motor hanging crookedly on the frame. He explains that the motor mounts just stop the vibration from getting to the frame. It didn't cost nearly as much as I was afraid it was going to.

My two month long experiment with Ubuntu is producing some results, though not quite what I'd hoped.

Overall, it's been enjoyable except for four problems:

1. My scanner doesn't work. Even though Xsane supports my particular scanner, everytime I try to use the program it starts, then closes, leaving me looking at the desktop.

2. Gnomad crashes everytime I try to open or create a playlist. I never get the chance to try to save it to my MP3 player.

3. In a related note, if I try to create a bug report about these two problems, and try to upload the error log, my cable connection falls to a trickle, and Firefox displays a "Cannot connect to Server" message.

and 4. I use Photoshop to finish my comic art pages. While Gimp is a good program, it does not do thing that Photoshop does. I haven't tried to install WINE, so I haven't tried that. But based on my Gnomad and Xsane experiences, I am not sure how well it will work.

I'm not about to give up the ghost just yet, though. I'm not planning to upgrade to Vista, so I will have to make the switch eventually. Maybe Feisty Fawn will fix some of the problems I'm having.

I have a second hand laptop that I would like to switch over, but Ubuntu doesn't like my WiFi card. It sees it. It can tell me who made it. But for some reason, Ubuntu doesn't power up the slot it goes into.

C'mon Feisty!

I have been accused of rushing to judgment where female teachers having sex with children are concerned. Anonymous wrote, "Why do we automatically assume that this woman is guilty?? Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?" Good question!

In England, Zoe Davydaitis claimed she was raped and created a 17-page statement described the rape and her attacker. British police arrested Phillip Young after a neighbor noticed he fit the description of the rapist. Young was arrested, and Davydaitis picked him out of a lineup, despite the fact he had 3 pins in his back and had to wear a brace from a recent fall, and was on crutches. Young began receiving hate mail, rocks thrown through his window and had his arm broken when he was attacked on the street. His ex-wife stopped letting him see his children. Why?

Because women cannot lie when talking about rape. That is how the media plays it, at any rate. (Well, unless you're a Kennedy or a Democrat--two types of people incapable of crimes of any sort.) And since a woman could not possibly lie about rape, Mr. Young's life was destroyed for several months. Even today, he fears being alone with a woman.

So, Anonymous, Why do you suppose the courts believed that Mr. Young was a rapist for several months? Would you have urged restraint? Or would you have thrown a rock through his window simply because a woman accused him of rape?

Fortress Amerikkka - Day 313!

A bill to make English Idaho's official language passed the legislature last week and Governor Butch Otter has said he will sign it. The bill will require that official government business will be done in English, except for education, public health and public safety.

Um, excuse me. Isn't education, public health and public safety pretty much what state governments do? So when exactly will they be speaking English? In the legislature? They do that now.

This is perfect legislation for the Minutemen and English Firsters. It makes them feel good and doesn't do anything else. That'll teach them Meskins. They won't be able to listen to the debate on the laws that affect them, but we'll explain it to them when it passes.

"My parents made the same commitment that this bill states," said Representative John Vander Woude, whose parents emigrated from Holland to the U.S. "We are not trying to bar foreign languages from the classroom or from the home."

Then what is the point of the bill? To make everyone speak English, except in school, at the hospital and the police station? Police conducting a traffic stop will be able to speak Elbonian, but the poor Elbonian won't be able to speak it when he gets his license?

C'mon, Idaho, Be Brave! Ban the use of all languages except English in any government funded setting!