Given that the President...

...can't remember around who's neck he hung the Medal of Honor, vice who's parents he gave it to, and the fact we're getting serious talk that the only thing wrong with the previous stimulus packages were that they weren't big enough...  because that's the only possible reason the stimulus didn't work, aside from the fact we weasel bastards aren't doing our bit and just spending everything we have, this quote from Samuel Clemens resonates loudly:

"Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it." -Mark Twain
 

And then there's this:

I hate all this terrorist business. I used to love the days when you could look at an unattended bag on a train or bus and think to yourself, "I'm going to take that."
 

And while last night my sister and I had a wonderful Rotary event at my Dad's old club (which is now my sister's current club) which was a fund-raiser for the newly established "Tim Donovan Endowed Scholarship Fund" at the University of Missouri, it was balanced by the fact that I first stopped by to visit Preston at his new address.  He has an interesting neighbor, a Joseph Bouchelle, who has a pointed-top gravestone, said point explained by the "Co K 5th Louisiana Cavalry" notation on it.  And then I went to see Preston's sister Annie and I picked up my half of Preston, who is now sitting in a quite lovely US Flag-themed urn at Castle Argghhh! waiting his being blown from the gun as a surrogate Viking funeral on the 4th. 

Speaking of that... you have no frickin' idea what a pain it is to get 25 lbs of black powder shipped to your door.  It's not like I'm going to pour it into grenades or something.  I mean, gad, Preston and  I outgrew that phase in college, for pete's sake.  I do still have my first edition Anarchist's Cookbook, though.  And I'm a gun-owning military veteran, so I guess all the hoops are a good idea since Aunt Janet thinks I'm a menace.

Feh.  Almost makes me want to buy another gun.

Oh, wait - I did.  I wunner if SWWBO has signed for it yet?

Oh, that explains it.  The Prez just misspoke.  Well, that's okay then.  He's so bizzy, after all.

Oh, and Duck woke up dead this morning.  This makes me sad, for all that Duck was a brutal serial rapist.  Of course, based on our experience *all* drakes are brutal serial rapists, but I digress.  Duck has been a Castle Character since he arrived, three years ago.  He arrived as an adult, we don't know how hold he was, but he's been looking pretty ragged for the last year.  This morning, SWWBO went out to release the herds and flocks and found him dead on the floor of the barn.  No indications of violence.  I guess he just hit his expiration date.  The Castle is a tad grayer today.