Texas, Number One With A Bullet

Despite Texans' reputation for pugnacious pride in their state, they are ranked fifth in a USA Today poll that asked the question, "Is your state one of the best to live in?" They are behind Alaska (which is one of the best states in spite of the fact that our state government is a subsidiary of Conoco-Phillips) Montana, Utah and Wyoming.
Our impression of Texan boosterism and their almost astrological faith in the Lone Star can be restored when we realize that they are ranked first when answering the question, "Is your state the best state to live in?"

Google Takes Its Football And Goes Home. I Become An Emo Teen.

So, Google now does allow commenting on this blog from platforms other than Google+. But any comments made through Google+ in the past have been deleted. You may understand searching the internet,  Google, but you don't know very much about searching my feelings. Now that you can, tell me how this makes you feel.
Also does the fact that Google provides this platform for free make you like them more or less?

Google Is A Jealous Supreme Being

So, I've been nagging and trolling for comments on this blog, but I almost never get any. Part of the problem might have been a misunderstanding of what Google meant by "Enable Google+ commenting." In Google-speak, that means, "Dis-able commenting by any other means including skywriting or whispering it directly in my ear."
So, now I've disabled Google+ commenting, but I'm not sure if that means I've allowed other commenting.
I'll keep my eyes open over the next few days and see if anything appears here on the blog or in the sky, or wherever.

I Admit, The Crack About Fox News Viewers Was Too Harsh

After oil was discovered on the North Slope of the Brooks Range in Alaska, there were two competing views of what to do. Environmentalists wanted to ignore it, and developers angered by the Outside protests had bumper stickers printed that read, "Let The Bastards Freeze In The Dark."
An environmentalist (and here Google let me down, so I don't know which environmentalist, but it might have been a former Secretary of the Interior) began calling developers the "Rape, ruin and run boys."
But that was all a long time ago. As this news release points out, Sean Parnell has become the rape, ruin and run for office, governor of our state.

As long as I'm on a political rant, what is it with the Republicans and the Affordable Care Act? They, or their Koch surrogates, say Obamacare as if it's a given that it's a disaster when it's their own (disowned for going out with a black man) plan. Incidentally, that is an actual example of begging the  question, if questions were still allowed to be begged. They've been doing it so long now, that Fox News viewers have an almost Pavlov's dog response to it (that is, they drool). But Pavlov's dogs, or Pavlov for that matter, weren't allowed to vote here.

Asking For A Friend

So, this has nothing to do with me, or with me making a mistake at work, but when does mild cognitive impairment become moderate cognitive impairment?
In a work related observation, I observed this a couple of days ago:

They may well look ruminative, since in fact they were ruminating.

I Didn't Expect The Koch Brothers To Show Up In A Post About Gender Reassignment, But I Probably Should Have. Tee Hee, Koch Brothers

Like a broken record (one of Sheryl Crow's) I used to always say, "Happiness isn't getting what you want, it's wanting what you get. Apparently, for this week at least, I can only be happy if I want to walk on barely melting ice in bitter cold.
Still, at least I don't have to contend with gender dysphoria. I heard recently that some insurance companies explicitly deny coverage for gender reassignment surgery. I think that's unnecessarily harsh. I mean, say no if you have to, but do you really think it's right to show people pictures of the genitals they can't have?
Speaking of health insurance and people who are euphemistically known as Kochs, the disingenuous and unscrupulous Koch brothers are funding more ads targeting our Senator, Mark Begich and his support for the Affordable Care Act by implying that it enriches insurance companies.  If he had supported a single payer plan that would have generated outraged complaints from them as a socialist extirpation of insurance companies.  What can you do to make the Koch's happy? Why would you want to?

I Assume Marilyn Vos Savant Is In Ravenclaw

Now that I have come out against using the phrase, "begging the question," ever again, so has Marilyn Vos Savant, the smartest woman in the world. She says if you mean, "raises the question," you should just say that. So far the only comment on her dictum* is from rakheemukherji who says that for irony, begging the question "sounds more effective than 'raises the question'." Ironically, I think that means that he still doesn't understand the phrase, and the most important aspect of its usage, which is, don't. 

So, I've only really got one thing left on my bucket list; dying peacefully in my sleep. Today, I went to my cardiologist, who told me that with the advances they've made, I might live another thirty years. Which not only means a long delayed gratification, but plays havoc with my retirement plan of not living past my money. Although, even at its most detailed, the plan could always have been summarized as, " Gee, I hope I don't outlive my money." My generation had a plan, it just didn't work out for some of us.

*I'm pretty sure that when I use dictum (the singular of dicta) it means, "Look at me, aren't I clever?" With an implied addendum**, "Don't answer that."

**See note above