The Written Peace:
Open Forum of August 7, 2005
"Draft Republicans," you were offered round magnet and pin-on button versions, as well. Those turned out to be somewhat popular, so the magnet and pin-on button versions will be offered for this graphic, too. At left, you can see—at least, more or less—what the graphic will look like for the 10"×3" bumper stickers and for the 2¼"×2¼" round magnets and buttons.
As a side note, I received two e-mails asking if these could be purchased for re-sale; and the answer is, "Well, of course... provided, that is, you're not really planning to buy a bunch of bumper stickers and then go around slapping them on cars that have Bush/Cheney '04 bumper stickers already there." That would be so wrong. Remember: as long as all sides in the American political debate maintain the highest standards of conduct in their interactions, and as long as we all fully and deeply respect one another's political opinions, the United States will be a strong country and the beacon of democracy and pluralism in the world.And how am I supposed to hear myself think in this place when folks are snickering, snorting, and throwing tomatoes?
Moving along, if you have a chance to do so, stop by some of the new sites over in the Dark Wraith BlogRing. Andi Allen's site, confessions of a first-time mother is worth reading. She's one of those bright, bright lights that seem to collect here at The Dark Wraith Forums and on the Message Board, illuminating them with intelligent commentary and insight. The same can be said for a whole lot of people here and over there, and it's always a good idea for me to mention some of them every once in a while. As noted in the thread from the article just prior to this Open Forum, Missouri Mule from Blondesense never ceases to amaze me with her sparkling talent for written humor, as close to professional quality as I've seen in the Blogosphere. Her writing gives me yet more evidence that there really is cream in this cyberspace of raw milk, and it's just a matter of getting that cream to rise to top so it can be used to make a good whipped topping for a hot cappucino with just a hint of cinnamon.
I have no idea what that meant or how that analogy went awry; but moving along, more humor and good political commentary are on tap over at The Adventures of the Smart Patrol, where Paul the Spud has some things to say on matters both great and small. Paul also contributes to the ever-worthy Shakespeare's Sister, which has also recently secured as one of its contributing writers a fellow who calls himself "D": he's a richly sarcastic, smart gentleman, and his contributions will be worth tracking down over there. Finally, if I have not yet welcomed Auntie Roo, I ask that she forgive the oversight. The same goes for the pleasantly crabby Crabletta of The Curmudgeonly Crab.
Oh, and don't forget to go to The Dark Wraith Forums Message Board, too. That has to be one of the most interesting places—aside, of course, from this blog—in the entirety of cyberspace. If you haven't been there yet, go. You'll find posts and threads on everything imaginable: life on Mars, conspiracy theories, SCOTUS nominees, Red State political corruption, nuclear war scenarios, Neolithic dildos, and even economics.
Say something if you have something to say. There's lots of junk food in the pantry; and the coffee pot's always on, which is probably why what's in it has the consistency of black tar. Try to avoid playing the rowdy music on the jukebox: the '40s-style cabaret stuff gets the cats wound up too much. Later, we might be able to get Peter of Lone Tree to do that Elvis impersonation that won him the award at the Best of the 1960s Nostalgia Festival last month. We'll see.
The Dark Wraith sweeps off the WELCOME mat.
Published 8/07/2005 12:57:00 AM
<< 33 Comments Total
Good morning, Dark Wraith - The bumper sticker and coffee mug arrived the other day. I am quite pleased at the size and weight of the mug. Very nice!
I don't believe I've stopped at, "The Adventures of the Smart Patrol", before. I'm heading there, now. The others, you mentioned, are all quite enjoyable.
Good morning, Old White Lady. Thank you for letting me know about the arrival of the products. I, too, was pleasantly surprised by those coffee mugs. Long ago, I had something of a disaster with a manufacturer in regard to mugs and the logos on them. You'll find that the mug you just received is dishwasher safe, and the logo stays perfectly intact through many washings.
If only I had found a manufacturer for my body that would have done so well at producing a durable product.
The Dark Wraith will do better quality assurance on the big-ticket inventory next time.
Afternoon, Dark One.
Thank you for the kind words. Now I'm blushing. Something I might add I haven't done since the fifth grade!
I Showed some horses at the Missouri State Fair this weekend and wore my "Impeach Bush" t-shirt in the warm up arena. You'd been proud. I got lots of dirty looks and whispering "bout' that crazy blonde lady with the huge ta'tas." Sigh... why do they hate my freedom and ta tas?
Good afternoon, Missouri Mule.
It's not your freedom they hate, nor is it your ta tas; it is, rather, the combination of liberty and gazongas that threatens the neo-conservative vision of the world to come, for in that combo meal resides the threat to religious rectitude of thought combined with conservatism of action.
I am one who does not wish to cause such a ruckus; as such, I am modest in my oral expression of my desire for freedom, while at once striving at every turn not to flaunt my man-boobs, muscular and rippling though they may be.
It's part of life in this new American century, Missouri Mule. We must respect the cultural sensitivities of those agitated by our freedom's clarion call and our McGuffies' resounding double-honk.
The Dark Wraith would have it no other way.
Good afternoon, Dark Wraith.
You'll find that the mug you just received is dishwasher safe, and the logo stays perfectly intact through many washings.
Ha ha ha - We'll see about that... The only dishwasher in this place is me. I've been known to drop a mug or glass in soapy water... and they break... However, the mug does seem to be less breakable than the others in the dish cabinet.
Hey Missouri Mule - That sounds like fun. How did you do at the horse show? Luckily, this weekend wasn't godawful hot like it could have been.
Oh, and don't forget to go to The Dark Wraith Forums Message Board, too. That has to be one of the most interesting places—aside, of course, from this blog—in the entirety of cyberspace.
Meow..Ahem...The most interesting place is Cute Little Kittens, then The Dark Wraith Forums,.. then the Dark Wraith Message Board. Fourth has to beour own blog... or should we say "Mom's and our blog." Purrr.
Good evening Dark Wraith,
Thank you for the link and the props! I'm most honored.
(Wild Clover sneaks by and quiety empties the industrial waste out of the coffee pot and brews a fresh pot, after sandblasting the deposits off the bottom)
Clover has years of experiance cleaning coffeepots.
*stuttering*
*blushing*
*coughing*
*collecting myself*
Dark Wraith, forgive me for saying so in such sappy terms, but how incredibly sweet of you to mention my humble blog in your post! (Especially when so many of my friends are totally turned off by my incessant ranting.)
Speaking of Dark Wraith purchases, my ring T came Thursday night and fits quite nicely (my husband is inexplicably pleased and can't seem to stop reading the graphic, which is only slightly distorted by female attributes.)
What is this "cleaning coffeepots" of which you speak, Wild Clover?
The Dark Wraith is always interested in descriptions of alternate cultural norms.
Good morning, Andi.
Truth be told, I never even thought about that 'attributes' thing and its effect on the logo.
Huh.
The Dark Wraith will have to figure out how that could be compensated for in the graphical rendering.
[Or perhaps I should just stay a couple of light years away from dealing with such a geometry issue like that.]
Good Morning, Dark Wraith
aaaahhhhhhh, thank you Wild Clover, freshly ground hot coffee: the ambrosia of the gods....
Oldwhitelady, yep, the weather was decent for a change.
The horse show was at the Missouri State Fair in Sedelia. I got my share of ribbons and funnel cakes. What more can a cowgirl want? Besides seeing the Dark Wraith's man boobs? Me bad.
Animal.
I hate to bring the Economics of Oil Futures to this open thread but I would really love to have the Dark Wraith explain Oil Futures Trading in some comprehsible matter. I've been reading this really great diary series on DailyKos by a Jerome a Paris who seems a good economist in his own right but doesn't have the Wraith's flare for making the hard things easy to understand. And for making the Impossible just hard to understand ;)....
Check out the Diary that I'm talking about here...
Countdown to 100$ oil (8) - just raw data
-Gary A
And speaking of oil, on some blog or other today I read that the "inflation-adjusted" price of oil during the first big shortage of '73(?) would be around $80/barrel today. Is that right? What was the highest price of oil in the '70s if you recall?
You're welcome SB_Gypsy. Fresh coffee is definitly nummy...for many years I drank the stuff brewed on the back of the grill in a huge kettle in one of the dining halls. It was great in the morning. But figure it was about 5 gallons of coffee kept hot(with the cloth filter full of grounds in it until the level dropped sufficiently)all day long from about 5 AM on. It was truly an experiance at about 4 pm. Ahhh. Then they got a Mr. Coffee for the kitchen. I spent most of my time getting the burned sludge out of the bottom where it had boiled dry. Seems that if it is nobody's job to make the coffee, it is nobody's job to turn the sporking burner off when you almost emty the pot. Idjits.
Oh, on to other tar related substances....gas went up 10 full cents a gallon at work Monday. My heart almost stopped. It is still 10 cents less than my prediction for Summer Solstice prices, but I ain't complaining.
Peter I don't remember the old high (I was 13 and while I remember the oil shock very well I don't clearly remember that detail), but I also have read before that in inflation adjusted dollars it would be approx. $80.
- oddjob
Good afternoon, Peter of Lone Tree. Please accept my apology for not responding to any comments for a while; some brief illness took its toll on me this morning but seems to have passed, now. Sort of a strange malady: terrible weakness and fatigue. Anyway, on we trod.
I posted this graphic at the Big Brass Blog some months ago when I was asked a similar question. I haven't had the chance to update it completely, so it doesn't have the most current oil prices particularly well defined, but it does answer your question. Even though it's a bit out of date, it has some historical context provided. Note that this uses GDP deflators rather than CPI or PPI indices to adjust for inflation. The CPI would be entirely inappropriate to use as the deflator of choice; and although there is a good arguments for using the PPI, there is a better argument for not using it: oil at the barrel head is not a "wholesale" item; it's raw material affected by forces at the global scale.
I'll try to get this updated with recent prices. It's handy to have since it gives a good idea of just how close we're getting to the all-time worst situation ever encountered.
But, of course, back then the Federal Reserve wasn't pumping money into the economy like there was no tomorrow, so the effects were being felt much more severely than they are now. Alan Greenspan is no Paul Volker: for one thing, Greenspan just wouldn't be able to stand the bawling sound of a Right-wing policy maker having to face the consequences of his own policy actions. Volker didn't mind the moaning.
The Dark Wraith wishes for the good old days.
Good Afternoon Dark Wraith,
Good to hear you are feeling better!
Now, that would be something - listening to the shrub whining and crying, because even his most brainwashed followers have awakened to the sound of gas pumps being reprogramed, gas station attendants climbing ladders...and the money bleeding out of their pockets.
Dark Wraith,
Hope you are okay now. Lot of students will be disappointed if you are unable to teach FALL classes. Get well soon..:)
Given the gas price, it's better to buy some gas stock and we should be able to offset the price we pay at the gas pump - just a thought.
Indiglo
Good evening, Indiglo, and welcome to you.
Actually, I have never missed a class in all my years of teaching. The day that I die, I shall still go to class, suffering rigor mortis as I might, and smelling of embalming fluids if necessary.
The students might be shocked, but they would be even more so were they to ever have a substitute teacher in my stead.
The Dark Wraith has no need for subs.
Good evening, Gary.
One of the Special Analysis articles I had started awhile back was on the subject of your request. I decided that, since you asked, I should get that one completed and posted.
Enjoy.
The Dark Wraith now has one fewer incomplete projects.
Volker is probably the only Fed. Chief of my life to have the balls to actually do his job, come hell or high water. From what I can gather (& the first one I can remember I think was named Arthur Burns) all the others have been political hacks to one degree or another.
- oddjob
I am breathlessly waiting with anticipation for my DWF mug...Last time I tried to order, the sale did not go through, probably because my stupid bank had their main zip programmed into the card, as opposed to mine. Several places on the 'net refused it because of the discrepancy. After about 6 complaints over 19 months, I guess it has been fixed. The tracking page says it went out from CA at 3am on the 5th, so I should see it soon.
YAY!
Today or tomorrow, Wild Clover.
The Dark Wraith keeps a watchful eye on the shipments.
hehee just got my Draft Repub magnets
and ordered some of the Impeach ones based on requests made by my kids friends
YAHOOO..keep tellin these guys they have to get involved!!!!
Thank you so much, elf, and everyone else.
This afternoon, I slapped a "Draft Republicans" bumpersticker on the hind end bumper of my Jeep. I even had the opportunity, after following a Ford Taurus with a BUSH/CHENEY bumpersticker, to get ahead of him and have him follow me for a while. That was an edifying, if somewhat mean-spirited, thing to do.
I wish I knew a way to send Cindy Sheehan one of these "IMPEACH HIM" bumper stickers and maybe one of the pin-on buttons. Geez, it would be cool if I could send down a whole box of the pins for all of her supporters down there to put on.
I wonder if the mailman would deliver a package to her. Probably not.
It was a thought, anyway.
The Dark Wraith almost had a good idea there for a minute.
Actually, DW, I have a suspicion if you contact Shakespeare's Sister with your suggestion (& accompanying graphics), you might find she may be in a position to "know someone who knows someone" who may be able to put you in contact with Cindy S.
Just a thought.... :)
- oddjob
Good morning, OddJob.
Thank you for the suggestion. Actually, though, after I wrote that it occurred to me that I'd done business in that part of the country for so long that I probably know at least someone in the area. I need to get into the old databases and see who's where down there... provided, of course, the people are still living after all these years and would be willing to help in a small way to put the screws to that loser of an oilman.
The Dark Wraith will send out some e-mails today.
To ALL-
Just to feel smug,
I sit here and post.
Drinking coffee,
From my new Dark Wraith Mug.
So my free verse ain't great...I'm a great cook and damn good mom, and that's all that matters.
Oh, and PS- regular gas at our station hit 1.35/gal today, +.06 yesterday, +.04 Tues, +.10 Monday, +.o6 Sunday.... So in under a week, price jump at the pump of $.26. Rah Rah. You should hear the customers grumble-every one about Bush. My comment is always a rather sweet, "Well,I don't lay all the blame on Bush,I blame 51% of the voters, they asked for this."
Good evening, Wild Clover.
Most excellent on the comment.
Yesterday, I was at a gas station where the one attendant is a lady with no little regard for holding her tongue about anything. Some swaggering good ol' boy type was paying for his gas and tearing his butt about the price ($2.69). The lady attendant snapped, "Well, that's what yew git fer hirin' a Texas oilman."
I thought the old boy was going to at least grumble under his breath, but the only thing he said was, "Grunt," or something to that effect.
The Dark Wraith was most happy to see yet another satisfied customer of AmericaRight, Inc.
Update- we went up 10 cents this morning. So we are at $2.45/gallon, vs the $2.09 we were at one week ago. That's .50/day more I pay to commute each day(approximately), which translates to a .04/hour pay cut.
My customers come in two stripes if they are vocal...worried questions about whether I think they are going to come back down, or VERY vocal complaints about needing to rid ourselves of who is in the WH. Figure a third silent, a third dissing Bush, and a third being very worried.
How many gallons of gas does one barrel of crude yeild again? I feel like this is an excessive rise, unless the distributors have been eating the increase in fuel costs until now. The price of a gallon has to include 1) raw material,2)cost of delivery of raw material 3) cost to refine 4) cost to distribute. 1 is the only thing rising rapidly, unless as I said, distribution costs have been kept down until now. It seems more like the cost of raw crude went up around 10%, so the prices have gone up around 10%, which they should not...even with delivery costs up because of fuel costs, labor and equiptment are also part of the equation and haven't increased. I think the oil companies are looking at yet another banner year...