Paul's Down-Home Page

The famous Jeremy Zawodny has family in Toledo. That means there are at least two bloggers here (at least when he’s in town).
Update: another Toledoan has come out of the woodwork. In fact, he is proudly sounding his barbaric yawp (not to be confused with The Barbaric Yawp, which is actually pretty good) all over my comment pages. Welcome, Dan!

Wow. Talk about a lot to be thankful for. It’s snowing. That’s good. I spent an hour shoveling the driveway (not so good), but I didn’t drop dead (good) and I got both vehicles backed into the garage for easy egress tomorrow (also good). Now I’m sitting in front of the fire (very good), doing actual paying work (very, very good) on my new laptop (gooder still). Arlene is defrosting some red beans (more goodness), and since it’s Monday night, we get to have Family Home Evening after dinner (best of all). Ahhh, life is good.

Having a hard time shopping for that special someone? Don’t know what to buy? How about some German spy underwear? The German equivalent of the CIA is about to start selling merchandise, including underwear labeled “TOP SECRET” and “Not for public use”. No word on whether they’re be bulletproof.

On the way back from Michigan yesterday, I read the Detroit News/Free Press. This was, to put it mildly, a little disconcerting– I’m not used to seeing so many mentions of union this and union that, coming as I do from the right-to-work South. Anyway, it wasn’t a bad newspaper, but there was one thing I found noteworthy: there were four or five columns (and a couple of scathing letters to the editor) about the whole “What would Jesus drive?” question. Apparently the Interfaith Council folks drove to GM headquarters in hybrid cars and staged a peaceful demonstration, and that doesn’t sit well with lots of folks in Motown.
My favorite was this article, titled “Religion has little, if any, place in market for automobiles”. The author claims that these churches should start with their own parishoners first, although he grudgingly acknowledges that “Christian and Jewish leaders are welcome to raise any public policy question they like, including whether sport-utes are chariots of the devil.” Say, thanks! I’m glad we have your permission. His major point– that higher gas taxes and wider deployment of clean-diesel engines will do more than picketing GM– is certainly true, and I’d welcome both of those measures to boot.
This article (with its claim that “government regulations [are]making it so difficult to find the capital need to exploit new – and risky — inventions”) is good too– if you need a laugh, that is.