All this stuff, just waiting for somewhere to go. Ain't we all?

Honest, when I picked this photo to post, I was not thinking about the following.

I know only a couple of Republicans, and I can't say as I count them among my close friends. Which is good, because it's always painful (I imagine) to have to sign the papers committing friends to a lengthy stay in a hospital for the mentally deranged. But, on the off chance that someone reading this might actually be a Republican, and might actually be considering voting for a Republican next fall, I'd ask them to pause and consider this. Bosh.....er, I mean, Bush, a Republican, took office in 2000. At that time, both the Senate and Congress were in Republican control. A clean sweep, as it were. Republicans - the party of fiscal responsibility - controlled everything. And George was taking over a country that was - what? billions? trillions? - of dollars in the black. The American dollar was worth, roughly, $1.40 Canadian. Wow! What an opportunity for the party of fiscal responsibility to really take off! Total control! A huge budget surplus! Zowee! Remember, that surplus was generated while a Democrat - the evil Bill "Blow Me" Clinton was President. Imagine what these folks could do now that they had COMPLETE CONTROL OVER THE AMERICAN ECONOMY. It had to be a dream come true for Republican voters all across America.

So? How'd they do? Well, they burned through that huge surplus and created a record-breaking deficit, for one. And before next week is over (heck - before this week is over!) the Canadian dollar will be equal to the American dollar, or maybe worth a little more. Yep, Americans owe the rest of the world (mainly China - the Commies, remember?) trillions of dollars and, on top of that, those dollars are now worth 40% less than when Bush took office. Nice going Party of Fiscal Responsibility!

I'd mention the war that's killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and a couple of thousand Americans, but that's not something that would actually concern the average Republican. Money, however (especially their own), tends to get their attention.

Doesn't everybody need a defect detector? Or, at the very least, old, really nifty machines that don't really have a use anymore?

My college got a new library this year, so the old one had to be emptied. I managed to get myself let into the abandoned building over the weekend to wander around taking pictures. Evidently, I'm drawn to abandoned things. Go ahead, make of that what you will. Meanwhile, once I was done, I found myself locked in. Uh-oh. Luckily the phones in the building were still working (Own a cell phone?!? Me?!?), so I was able to call Security. They told me to go out the door marked, "Do Not Open. Alarm Will Sound!", so I did. As you might imagine, the alarm didn't. Sound, that is.