Rev. Joe Dirt, Author at Curmudgeon Alley

2011/11/182011/11/21

Strategy Masquerading as a Tactic

We were sitting around the table the other night playing cards (well Phase 10 – which is almost a card game). For some reason the question came up as what the difference was between strategy and tactic. We hashed it around a while, and we came to a consensus.

A few days later I was listening to NPR and they were doing a story on Newt Gingrich. They said of an exchange he had with a reporter that it was “a strategy masquerading as a tactic’. He was turning the tables on the political press. The reporter asked him a long winded question that was essentially of the type “so how long since you stopped beating your wife.” Mr. Gingrich flipped it on the reporter and asked him when he was going to stop asking “gotcha” questions.

From the NPR print version of the story I heard By Attacking The Media, Gingrich Built A Following here is the actual exchange: Continue reading “Strategy Masquerading as a Tactic”

2011/11/162023/02/01

A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter

2011/11/142011/11/20

My Fair Lady

I’m not a huge show tune fan, but I do enjoy some. I definitely enjoy musical theatre, and the occasional musical film from days of yore. One of my favorites is My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. I am sure that everyone knows the tale; it is a retelling of the Greek myth of Pygmalion. Who better to retell this tale than Bernard Bernard Shaw?

I watched the movie again this weekend. It had been years since I had seen it. I enjoyed the acting, the music and the movie. While I could not sing all the songs like Robin, I did recognize all the tunes.

The film is from 1964 and the Shaw’s original play was written in 1912. These are certainly different times when it comes to the relationship between men and women in the Western world. I say this because I had forgotten the ending. As it turned out it was very unsatisfying to me. Continue reading “My Fair Lady”

2011/11/142011/12/14

Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 3,936

…yeah I know you did not ask!

Let’s quit mincing words. Instead of conservative and ultra-conservative let’s call them what they are and replace those phrases with greedy and very greedy.

2011/11/102021/07/27

Vote with your $$, Vote with your feet, Move your bank accounts

As I touched on in Banks, Boobs, Bamboozled I moved my checking account. I had been with Bank of America. I initially signed up with them when I moved to a new town and I was in hurry to get a bank. The more I learned about BoA, the unhappier I became with banking there. I stayed with BoA much too long due to inertia. It is a pain changing banks. But I finally bit the bullet and made the change. I chose Regions as they have branches in both St. Louis and Memphis. I had only been with them a few months when they decided they just had to charge their customers for use of their debit cards. (They have since reversed that decision, but they have lost my trust) I immediately started the process of changing banks. I went with the local company credit union. Much to my surprise there is a network of ATMs that I can use free of charge available to credit unions. Continue reading “Vote with your $$, Vote with your feet, Move your bank accounts”

2011/11/102011/12/14

Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 4,948

…yeah I know you did not ask!

Ever wonder where the human race would be if we worked as hard on quality of life technology as we do war technology?

2011/11/102011/11/10

Presidential Candidates

Rick Perry –Do we really want a President who wants to eliminate Federal agencies, and cannot even remember the names of the agencies he wants to axe? This is the same man who believes global warming/climate change to be a myth and we should not be addressing the issue. I want a President with intelligence who does not believe in fairy tales.

Herman Cain – He keeps repeating that we need a businessman in the White House. Pardon me, but was it not business that has gotten us into this current economic morass? There are multiple allegations of sexual harassment of women by Mr. Cain. I tend to think where there is this much smoke, there must be fire. Do we really want a President that does not respect women anymore than this? It is one thing to be a cad like Clinton. It is quite another thing to attempt to force trading sexual favors for a job. We need a President with a moral center.

Michele Bachman – All I can say is that she lives in a delusional world.

Ron Paul – The America that this man envisions is not an America I want to live in. Continue reading “Presidential Candidates”

2011/11/102011/11/14

Football and Priorities

I will not go into much detail as it is all over the news, but there is a child sexual abuse scandal unfolding at Penn State involving a former assistant coach who worked under Joe Paterno. Apparently at least one of the alleged incidences happened in the team locker room and Paterno was aware of it. It also seems the President of the University, Graham Spanier was also aware, and a cover up ensued.

Paterno had announced that he would retire at the end of the season and there is one more game to go. The university trustees unanimously voted to fire both men for the good of Penn State University. The news described a “riot” last Continue reading “Football and Priorities”