Scotty's ashes are missing

The company that sent James Doohan's ashes into space are having trouble finding the payload that contained them back since the re-entry of the vehicle:

After a successful blastoff from New Mexico's Spaceport America on April 28th, the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL rocket and its payload nosed into space on a suborbital trajectory. As part of launch operations, the rocket was tracked by specialists at the neighboring White Sands Missile Range.

While all went well with the flight, the rocket components parachuted into rough and tumble terrain. Repeated searches within the landing zone have come up empty.

Jerry Larson, President of UP Aerospace, has told me that the general location of the rocket hardware is known within some 1,300 feet (400 meters) or so. But given the dense vegetation on the side of the mountain being searched, along with equipment available to the search team, pinpointing the exact locale has proven a tough assignment.

What, is it too expensive to include a quality GPS tracking device with the cargo when you are responsible for the cremated remains of more than 200 people?

Which is worse? 10,000 or 1776?

Methinks 10,000. Of course, Bush Derangement Syndrome says 1776.

A vote for Fred is a vote for banana hammocks

So vote Phel. (Sorry, Fred.)

The first rule of fight club is...

...you don't talk about fight club. However, the next time any of you see me, if you buy me a beer, I'll mumble to you about fight club, 'cuz I watched fight club tonight and it amused me much.

Where in the world is Jib?

Hint: If I were 4 years older, I'd be thinking about announcing my candidacy for the Republican nomination for President.

Sarkozy wins in France

Congratulations to French President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy. I'd like to caution my fellow Americans against thinking that this will mean that our relations with France will suddenly become all rosy and buddy-buddy. All it means is they'll make us want to pull out our hair a little less frequently.

Cinco de Mayo

Today I am thankful for my current neighborhood. Previous to that, I lived in a neighborhood with a somewhat high population of Mexican immigrants (of both the legal and illegal variety). We all have our holidays that we celebrate, and during which some of us over imbibe. That's no big deal to me. Cinco de Mayo was a mess in the old neighborhood, though. I could usually count on a large, drunk contingent outside my door until the early morning hours. I could also usually count on multiple people vomiting outside, sometimes multiple times. On one special May 6th, there was a large puddle of vomit outside my front door. I don't miss that in the least. So happy Cinco de Mayo, and if you drink too much, stay the hell away from my house, please.

Fraley hits nail on the head on McGee

Brian Fraley puts into words why I was hoping the McGee story would not get big:

Michael McGee, Senior’s radio ’show’ has been on thin ice for a long time.
This is how his show works. He himself sells sponsorships and then he purchases the airtime from his station. That arrangement hasn’t been working out so well lately. It has been especially troubling since the easy flow of public monies via OIC was cut off to McGee. Sponsors just don’t want to be associated with his garbage.
But failing on the basis of the marketplace of ideas would be embarrassing. To go down as the Warrior, he needed to be the victim of a white backlash.

For several months on the radio and on this and other blogs I’ve commented that his schtick is victimhood. Now that he’s said something outrageous enough to lose his airtime, he can proclaim he is the victim of conservative rich white men, thus further cementing his position in the pantheon of people kept down by ‘the man.’

There is one diference between my thoughts on this and Brian's, and that is that I'm not sure he'll lose his airtime. And even if he does, he'll resurface. There is only one explanation for why McGee went on Fox 6 and continued his inflamatory line-because he stands to benefit from it. He doesn't care what most of Milwaukee thinks. He cares about what a small, hateful segment thinks. That's his target market.

It's out there, now. Continue to light him up, folks. The only hope for keeping him off the air is if his own listeners and supporters find him too radioactive and walk away from him. Unfortunately, I think this might just end up bonding them to him even tighter.

Quiet Friday

Scanning the headlines this morning, it looks like it is going to be a pretty slow news day. Everybody must be waiting for the D.C. Madam to name her names on 20/20 tonight. And I have a prediction on that: Most of the country will hear the names and let out a collective, "who?"

A message to my fellow Wisconsin bloggers on the right

Keep your powder dry. What Michael McGee, Sr., said was deplorable, but now is not the best time to amplify his message by going after him. Condemn him, yes. A family is trying to cope with a sudden and personal tragedy, though, and our making McGee's words a bigger story isn't going to help them with that. The next time he displays what a horrible, ugly person he is, blogswarm the hell out of him. Not on this, at least not right now, though.

Update
Well, I still don't think this was the right thing to go after McGee on, but it's out there now. Later I may comment on why I don't think this was the right thing to go after McGee on, but for the rest of the story, hit up my fellow bloggers or watch the Milwaukee news. As for me, I have some more anniversary celebrating to do, and I won't be on for the remainder of the evening.

Reflections on an anniversary

Four years ago today, a Saturday, Mother Nature blessed us with a truly beautiful day. Historically, May 3rds in Wisconsin are unpredictable. You can experience cold, damp, gloomy days, and you can experience gloriously sunny and warm days that are harbingers of a coming summer. Our May 3rd four years ago was the latter. It was the day that the lovely Mrs. Jib and I planned to walk down the aisle and commit ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives. I still look back on that day with amazement for a lot of reasons, but for one in particular. Without going into detail, it was a difficult week for my family, most of whom lived 4 hours or more away. And our day did not go off without a hitch-in fact, there were several. Yet despite those facts, those few bad things that could ruin a wedding day, everything seemed to work out for the best. We were blessed that day, and I was blessed to have the lovely Mrs. Jib in my life. I like to think our wedding day is a microcosm for the rest of our lives. There will be bumps in the road from time to time, but we'll find the way to make the most of them. Thanks for a wonderful 4 years, babe, and here's to many, many more.

A piece of unsolicited blogging advise

Store it away in the back of your noggin. It may actually make sense for you one day. Anyway, here it is: Sometimes a story isn't worthy of the effort, even if you can shed light on it.

That is all.

A case for Chinese 'justice'

If there was ever a person that deserved the worst of Chinese 'justice', it is this guy:

A U.S. man accused of raping his daughter and putting the video on the Internet has been arrested in Hong Kong, U.S. authorities said on Wednesday.

Kenneth Freeman, 44, a former sheriff's deputy from Washington state, was on separate lists of most wanted fugitives kept by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The video of Freeman and his young daughter was one of the most widely downloaded child pornography videos in recent years, U.S. law enforcement officials said.

The arrest, which took place on Tuesday, was based on a formal request by the U.S. State Department.

[...]

China and the United States do not have an extradition treaty but when the Chinese were informed about Freeman they agreed to help, the officials said.

Extradition? Why bother? Let's just ask the Chinese to handle it. I'm sure they could find a fitting sentence for this scumbag.

Bernie's Chalet was offensive to the eye

Sorry, Brian (and seemingly every other Brewer fan in the state). I never really liked Bernie's Chalet all that much. It hurt my eyes with all of its 1970's style. I always expected to see Bernie in bell bottoms, disco dancing around the stadium, and snorting lines of coke off the brats.

Respect the chickens on May 4th

I just want to remind everyone that Friday, May 4th is International Respect for Chickens Day. And the reason I'd like to remind everyone of that is because May 4th is the anniversary of the day that Chuck the Rooster's voice was forever silenced...and my neighbor's garage started to smell bad. So if you get hungry on May 4th, remember: Eat a cow, not a chicken (the smug bovine bastards).

I'm hoping for a trilogy

Chris, aptly described by James Wigderson as the "Sam Kinison of the political blogging," is letting Spotted Horse 2 trot off into the sunset. I'm glad that the Wisconsin Sports Bar is rockin' and I'm hoping he'll still participate with us at the BBA, but I'm secretly waiting for the day when Chris's dander gets back up again over politics and we see Spotted Horse 3 trot towards us over the horizon.

The Reagan Diaries

As a former history student, the idea of reading a president's diaries from when he was in office is exciting. Especially if that president is Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan saved his most private and dramatic thoughts for a handwritten book -- a diary in which he recalled his running frustration with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, his fear that Armageddon was near and coughing up blood on the day he was shot.

Diary excerpts, released by Vanity Fair magazine on Tuesday, also reflect on the troubled relationship he had with his son Ron, his preoccupation with the "mad clown" Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his personal chemistry with Mikhail Gorbachev during arms-control talks.

Reagan hand-wrote diary entries every day of his eight years in office from 1981 to 1989 except for when he was in the hospital after being shot on March 30, 1981, about which he wrote, "Getting shot hurts."

The full version of "The Reagan Diaries" will be published on May 22 by HarperCollins, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

The book can be pre-ordered at Amazon and the Vanity Fair excerpts are here.

Bad idea, Fred

Before my comments fill up with Fred Thompson supporters, let me just say that I'm not opposed to Fred Thompson's campaign. As someone who is hell bent on staying undecided until late in the year, though, I'm filled with a healthy dose of skepticism. And if Thompson goes through with this, mark my words, he's sunk.

Thompson, his wife and advisers in Washington and Tennessee also are drawing up plans for a new style of campaign that would rely heavily on technology and his celebrity status to avoid some of the slogging through the snow in Iowa and New Hampshire that is normally required of White House hopefuls.

The advisers say Thompson, who plays District Attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's "Law & Order," is researching ways to use technology -- including the Web, videoconferences and teleconferences -- to harness the enthusiasm for his candidacy among grass-roots bloggers and activists. The campaign also would rely on large events, such as those that have in part supplanted country-store campaigning for some in the Democratic field.

"Well-known candidates can do things a little differently," explained one adviser. "You show up, you're accessible, but you don't have to go to every county seat several times.

Originally, the idea of a late-start campaign for Thompson looked like something of a lark, but the phantom candidacy is accelerating.

Not too long ago, a lot of smart people were saying that technology was going to revolutionize business. The internet and video were going to remove a large expense for businesses-travel. Companies would be able to have virtual meetings with all of their clients, any time they wanted. Something funny happened on the way to that utopia. The technology got better, but face to face is still preferred. Many businesses have learned that the best way to make connections and develop relationships with people is still face to face. There is an impersonal nature to using to technology, and the relationships do not develop as well. If Thompson does this, he will not be your 2008 nominee. One of Thompson's advantages is his celebrity, but only if he puts in the face time.

Could late primary states be in the driver's seat?

This just occurred to me as I thought about this already too long presidential race. The conventional wisdom to this point has been that a front loaded primary season will select a nominee very early. But what if it doesn't? The fields in both races look like they'll be huge. A lot of the candidates will be underfunded, but there just may be more incentive to try and hang around long enough to get to that giant clump of primaries. It is conceivable that 3 or 4 candidates in each party could come out of that front loaded part of the season with a chance to win the nomination still. That would really shine a bright spotlight on the remaining primaries. It would also make all the states that lept forward to have their voices heard look foolish. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if at least one of the nominations wasn't decided until very, very late in the process.

A late night, can't sleep thought...

After the session on diversity in the blogosphere at the Wisconsin Blog Summit, I should note that I'm holding down the Native American/Norwegian/Heinz 57 end of the blogosphere. I think I can break that down into percentages if necessary for the diversity profile of the blogosphere. I'm like a cute, adorable pure bread puppy: I come with papers. But I think the lovely Mrs. Jib is the holder of my papers until she decides to put me to sleep, so you'll have to ask her if you can see them.

(This is a You Had To Be There Blog Post Production)