brainrow

CNN has a fairly thorough-looking list of government services that may be affected by the government shutdown. One highlight:

Troops including those fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq will not be paid on time. Troops will continue to earn money but will receive no paychecks.

Good thing all our military personnel are independently wealthy, huh? Otherwise, we’d have to worry that they or their families might not be able to pay the rent or buy groceries or pay the utility bills.

I think most of the Republicans in Congress don’t know anybody who doesn’t have a trust fund. That’s who their policies seem designed to take care of, anyway.

Another tidbit:

The lawmakers who hold the cards will still get paid. Their staffers might be furloughed, though.

I hope the shutdown doesn’t last very long. A long shutdown will deplete a lot of trust, and many members of Congress don’t have any to spare.

In an early 1930s story in the Buck Rogers comic strip, Buck goes to Jupiter and befriends a tribe of giant wolves who live there. (Comic strip readers of the thirties must have been really good at suspending disbelief.)

The comic strip is interesting, if you’re a student of the early history of adventure comic strips or popular science fiction. If you’re looking for good art, intriguing plots, or engaging characters, you may be disappointed.

Nevertheless, here’s a pretty decent description of courage:

He isn’t afraid to do things he’s afraid to do!

It’s not courage if you’re not afraid.

For some mysterious reason, this song has been going through my mind for the past couple weeks.

I guess if you can’t be there in person, you can watch the video. If you have a fast connection, you might want to view this full-screen, with “720p” selected.

There’s a low rumble that starts about a minute into this video. Maybe it doesn’t mean anything, but I wonder whether that’s the sound of the shuttle.

Rachel Maddow mentioned this brilliant explanation of the current situation:

Jennifer Brunner, a lawyer and former Ohio secretary of state, said a post on her Facebook page this week nicely summed up what she believed was happening. “A dozen cookies are put down in front of a C.E.O., a union member and a Tea Partier,” she said. “The C.E.O. takes 11. Then he says to the Tea Partier, ‘That union guy wants yours.’ ”

Well said.

I dug out a button I’ve had for a long time.

Solidarity helped the people get their rights in Poland. Do you think it could work in Ohio?

Today would have been George Harrison’s 68th birthday.

Via email: All day today, you can watch streaming internet video of the Concert for George that was performed at the Royal Albert Hall on the first anniversary of George’s death. It’s an excellent show, and a fine tribute to a great soul.

If you’re like me, you’re probably never going to get into space, even though it’s something you’ve dreamed about your whole life. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to settle for IMAX movies and amusement rides for your space experience.

But NASA is offering to send your face and name into earth orbit on one of the two final Space Shuttle missions.

If earth orbit isn’t ambitious enough for you, NASA is also offering to send your name to Mars, encoded on a microchip on a future lander.

Listen, I once felt a little thrill, during a long distance phone call, at the thought that my electronically-encoded voice might be bouncing off a communications satellite. If this the only way this space nut gets into space, it will do.

(Thanks to dealmac.)

The Voice of America: Richie Havens sings “Freedom” 40 years after the original Woodstock concert.

Today is Abraham Lincoln’s 202nd birthday.

I really should mark the occasion in some way, so here’s Chris Vallillo playing “The Battle Cry of Freedom”.

Thanks, Abe.

Wynton Marsalis, on the January 2 episode of 60 Minutes:

The arts are our collective human heritage. You’re a better person if you know what Shakespeare was talking about. If you know what Beethoven struggled with, if you know about Matisse, if you know what Louis Armstrong actually is saying through his horn, you’re better, because it’s just like you get to speak with the wisest people who ever lived.

I’ve always liked this song, by Gerry Rafferty, who has just passed away.

Cartoonist Tom Tomorrow mines a rich vein of pure American Crazy to bring us 2010: The Year in Crazy.

There’s too much for just one cartoon, so there’s a part two, also.

(You can click the images to see the complete cartoons.)

With so much Crazy these days, he’s done a whole book titled Too Much Crazy, a collection of his weekly cartoons. I like Tom Tomorrow. If you don’t, reading this book may make you crazy.

Experience your minimum daily bagpipe requirement:

I don’t know why, but this motto on the wall of the Bailey Building and Loan in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life seems appropriate to the season:

All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away.

This appears in the movie right before George Bailey gives away his entire life savings to keep the Building and Loan from falling under the control of greedy Henry Potter.