I awoke this morning to find this news story about New Jersey’s Governor Jon Corzine and our U.S. Senator Bob Menendez, two well established Hillary toadies, each saying that the other would make a wonderful Vice President.

Of Corzine, Menendez said:

Corzine has the experience to lead the country on the major issues of the day — economic growth, health care and ending the war in Iraq.

I almost puked.

Then it was Corzine’s turn. He said:

Menendez has the ability to engage new voters in the political process.

Certainly the Governor was referring to Bob Menendez being Hispanic (although he was born and raised in New Jersey) and attracting Hispanic voters, but the truth is that if Bob Menendez engages new voters the way he did when he was a Hudson County political boss, he’ll simply pay them, give them a government job, or pluck their names from the cemetery rolls.

The good news for the country is that even Hillary Clinton is smart enough to realize that she needs either one of these guys on the ticket about as much as she needs a case of genital warts. The bad news for New Jersey is that we’ll be stuck with them for a while.

I saw this recipe at Curmudgeonly & Skeptical. Hell, I like bacon. I like vodka. What’s not to like here? In addition, I figure that, during this election year, vodka will become a staple.

Even though it didn’t work out well for this fellow, I am still all over this one ( I plan to fry the bacon real crispy). I have to buy a mason jar. We don’t put up many preserves (or make corn squeezin’s) at the House by the Parkway.

I’m thinking deviled eggs and bacon vodka.

I’ll keep youse guys posted.

When it comes to Hillary snark, Suzette has hit the long ball. Check it out.

While you’re at it, take a look at this Jersey Blogger’s advice for the Republican Party in the general election. Good stuff.

The polls were closed for about four minutes when New Jersey News (cable) called it for McCain.

I’m not surprised. One look at the state government, proves that the average New Jersey voter is about as stupid as a person can be and still manage to stand upright.

I made it part of the morning ground pound to stop by the polling place and vote for Mitt Romney. Sure, I know what the polls say, but I figure if you base your vote on polls, you’re no better than the politicians who base their “positions” on the polls, which unfortunately, describes the current crop of candidates to one degree or another.

Still, sitting it out is not an option for me. The right to vote, paid for in blood by generations, is more important to me than any stinking politician.

Those peeps who paint themselves silver or gold and stand still like a statue tend to creep me out, but I found this to be very cool. Two-hundred + people freeze on cue in Grand Central Station in New York City. Reminded me of a science fiction movie.

via Mister Snitch

Big Announcement.

Drumroll, please.

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

LeeAnn, the Cheesemistress, is back! Here are her new digs. So, get over there, already.

Baloney. Dishonest baloney at that.

So says Christopher Monckton:

As a contributor to the IPCC’s 2007 report, I share the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. Yet I and many of my peers in the British House of Lords – through our hereditary element the most independent-minded of lawmakers – profoundly disagree on fundamental scientific grounds with both the IPCC and my co-laureate’s alarmist movie An Inconvenient Truth, which won this year’s Oscar for Best Sci-Fi Comedy Horror.

Read it and weep, Al.

Went to NYC today to see Jersey Boys. For me, it was the third time. Yep, it’s that good. This was a bus trip run by a veterans post in the next town. Of course, when the bus arrived back at the vets’ post, it was cocktail time. I got to taste yet a new vodka, called Zyr. Quite excellent, I must say.

It was a good day, but now I’m draggin’ ass.

Update: I have fixed the repetitive phrases, lack of a title and the wrong link. The guy who told me about Zyr vodka warned me about how it can sneak up on ya. Obviously, he was right.

A week or so ago, I attended a party at a fancy catering place. The evening included cocktails, dinner and music being played by a local group that obviously plays these kinds of parties regularly. I listened. They were quite good.

Some of the licks the bass player was playing caught my attention, so I focused on him a bit. The first thing I noticed was that he was a lefty. That’s not all that unusual; Paul McCartney, a pretty famous bass player, was a lefty.

The next thing I noticed was that that the bass player wasn’t playing a bass made for lefties, but rather he was playing a right-hand bass, but turned upside down. Although I didn’t recall ever having seen a bass guitar player do that, I have seen left handed guitar players do that quite often. They simply flip the guitar over and restring it (i.e. reverse the strings) for left-hand playing, as can be seen in the case of Jimi Hendrix here.

OK, so I was thinking that this bass player was doing a Jimi Hendrix thing with the bass, but the problem was that his fingers were in the wrong places to be making the sounds I was hearing. WTF?

I looked closer, and I’ll be damned. He was playing the bass upside down, with the STRINGS upside down too. He simply flipped a righty bass upside down and played it that way as a lefty.

Watching him play (and he was damned good) was twisting my mind in all sorts of directions.

I felt I had to share this amazing thing with someone. I saw a colleague standing at the bar, and here’s about how it went:

Me: Hey, did you check out that bass player?

Him: (looks at bass player) Yeah, what about him?

Me: Well, for openers, he’s a lefty.

Him:

Me:

Him: How about those Giants?

Undaunted, I sought out another person with whom to share my amazement at what I was seeing and hearing.

Me: Hey, did you check out that bass player?

Him: Which one is he?

Me: He’s the guy on the left.

Him: (looks at bass player) Yeah, do you know him or something?

Me: No, I don’t know him, but did you notice that he’s a lefty?

Him: How can you tell?

Me: (Trying to think of way to answer the question without using words like “fret board” or “headstock”). Well, look at the guitar player next to him.

Him: The guy playing the red guitar?

Me: Yeah, that guy — the guy on the right. You see how his guitar is pointing to the left?

Him: Oh, yeah. So he’s a lefty?

Me: No. He’s a righty. Look at the bass player — the guy on the left. His guitar is pointing to the right.

Him: So, the guy on the left is a righty?

Me: No, he’s a lefty.

Him: His guitar is pointing to the right and he’s a lefty? I don’t get it.

Me:

Him:

Me: How about those Giants?

This kind of shit happens to me a lot.