Background checking

Rush Limbaugh, once more. The day that Barak Obama spoke at the Democratic Convention, he claimed on air to have an advance copy of the transcript, and claimed to have read it, and said it was "childish" and a "list of socialist issues." He also said Obama would raise taxes, which Obama explicitly said he would not. So either it was the advance copy of someone else's speech, or Limbaugh was reading it wrong, or he was making things up, or something.

The next day, John McCain selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his VP candidate. All hell broke loose on the airwaves that feature men like Rush Limbaugh. This person they had never remotely expected to be the candidate (Sean Hannity said he thought it would be Mitt Romney) was suddenly the best thing since sliced potatos, or is that potatoEs.

All par for the course. Then I hear Limbaugh's run down of "Ten Questions from Obama to Palin", meaning ten questions Rush thinks Obama would like to ask Palin.

One of which was this: "When you found out your baby would be born with Down syndrome, did you consider killing it before or after the due date? You mean you had the baby? You really had the baby?"

(I struggled to write this down while driving, so I wouldn't forget it. Turns out the transcript is available here, where you can also listen to it).

Given this crassness, does it amaze me that so many pay attention to Limbaugh?

No, not least because I know of just as crass people in India who get plenty of attention.

***
In the town of Davenport, I think Iowa, a radio report told me that background checks were now mandatory for icecream vendors.

I'm sure there's a good reason for this move, and in fact I can think of some. Yet for some reason I get images in my mind of dangerous criminals released on bail rushing to become icecream vendors ...

... and in my mind still, I say "naaah."

***
On yet another radio show, I listened to a (clearly black) comedian tell a story about a (clearly white) friend of his from elementary school. This friend once came home for a sleepover with several other kids. He was, it turned out, the only white dude there.

Bedtime, and the comedian's grandma told everyone to go to bed. Everyone shuffled off, except the white kid. Grandma said, I want y'all in bed NOW! White kid piped up, I'm not goin', I wanna play some more, you can't tell me what to do.

The comedian says, and I quote because I stopped to write it down: "My grandma, I've seen her thrash kids plenty of times. But I never saw her stretch first."

Oh yeah. That kind of hiding.

***
You know how you see signs saying "Columbus 24", or "Des Moines 36"? Miles to those places, of course.

So I'm driving along, and I see "Road 8". There's a place called "Road"? I ask myself. Well, there must be, and it's 8 miles in front of me. Well, in a country that's got a town by name "Truth or Consequences", why not a town by name "Road"?

Eventually I figured it out. It was a sign for a road named "Road 8". I figured it out because "Road 8" was followed some time later by "Road 9", which was followed some time later by "Road 10" ...

... and by "Road 14", it struck me that if Road was a town in front of me, it was not likely to be getting steadily further away as I drove towards it.

Possible, but not likely.