I’ve been tagged, not once, but twice by both:

• Robosquirrel (People Covered In Fish)
• Gayle (My Republican Blog)

Both excellent blogs, I should immediately like to point out, so click on the links and visit them!

In any event, as it was explained to me, I must now write in some detail about 5 odd/strange/unknown habits or aspects about me and then tag 5 others. Well, in my limited blogworld, the 5 others I’d like tag in kind have themselves already been tagged; I think I’ll leave that portion unfulfilled (clearly going to BlogHell, I think).

So, heavy sigh, here goes:

1. I am very anal about organization, cleanliness and, in particular, my house. This has caused some, eh, shall we say, irregularities in some relationships. I have had a very strange job over the years, located in a number of places, which can be alternately peaceful or ridiculously stressful. I have historically had little if any control over what occurs at work and there have certainly been peaks and valleys.

My home is my cave. I like to go home and, following a particularly bad day or week, pull the rock over my hole and escape within. When my home makes sense, when things are in order, when there is one aspect of my life over which I have control and into which I can flee, then my “outside” or work world can go to Hell — as it frequently does. As long as one portion of my life is rational and controllable, I can deal with Life and the trials it distributes.

2. I am a Railroad Buff. I “chase trains.” I do not build model railroads or play with toy trains. I like the real thing. I live in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Fornicalia off Interstate 80 at the 4,000 foot level, right at the snow belt. Not more than 500 feet away are the main #1 and #2 tracks forged and laid by those who built the Central Pacific Railroad. This roadbed still rests on the original CP line hewed by literally thousands of Chinese workers with nothing more than picks, shovels, wheelbarrows, black powder, horses, oxen, blood and sweat.

The photograph above is that of me in the engineer’s seat of a Burlington Northern Santa Fe SD40-2 locomotive, waiting for the east CTC signal at Switch 9 at Emigrant Gap — kindly taken by the engineer himself who requests to remain nameless.

I have been in the cab of numerous Union Pacific and Southern Pacific locomotives — pretty much a no-no for cab crew. Even worse, I have been given cab rides on another number of occasions by kindly cab crews — an absolute trip when you watch an engineer at work handling a 6,000-foot, 10,000-ton train up and down the mountain. There are engineers and conductors I know by name who wave at me from their cabs — knowing that I’ll be using digital photo or digital video equipment and recording their passing. I have roughly 2,000 + 35mm and digital photographs of trains, some published, one used for the cover of a train video in VHS. I also have over 50 hours of mini-DV video from a Sony VX-2000.

This is how weird I’ve gotten: I can immediately tell the difference between a GE or EMD locomotive by its sound; I can differentiate between the airhorns of Amtrak locomotives and freight locomotives; I can tell, unseen, if a train is going uphill or downhill from some distance by listening for a locomotive set in dynamic braking.

As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing finer than anticipating a train, watching a set of armor yellow Union Pacific locomotives approach and listening to the thoaty diesel roar of a triple set of 4,000 HP engines passing, their traction motors howling, watching the sanders at work and smelling the heady diesel fumes pouring from the hot stack of each unit. Boys and girls, now that’s livin’!

3. I used to be in radio a number of years ago, both in news and music. I once worked for a large 50,000 watt AM radio station where Rush Limbaugh cut his teeth. I’ve performed every job in radio, from on-air talent to ops director to news editor, programmer, production room control, promotions director to program director to station manager. As a result I am well schooled in music and have a vinyl record collection exceeding 4,000 classic, valuable and irreplaceable disks. I have a CD collection exceeding 2,000. I am a treasure trove of late 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s rock, jazz, soundtracks and electronica.

4. I cribbed the name for my blog, Bloviating Zeppelin, from Hugh Hewitt’s description of the loveable, cuddly Teddy Kennedy. At the time it was quite appropos as I weighed 320+ pounds. In the past year I’ve gone from 320 (ahem — kinda around there) to 235. I’ve gone from a size 52 waist to — ta-daa! — a size 42 waist last week. I did it all on Atkins and 24 Hour Fitness. I feel better than I have in 15 years. I still Bloviate but I am not quite the Zeppelin I used to be.

5. I was once a registered Democrat. In college I had hair past my shoulders and a red beard that would make Dusty Hill blush.

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This is where the tag ends because, essentially, everyone else I would have tagged has already been subject to same.

And that’s the name’a that tune. . .

Sorry, I just couldn’t wait for the weekend to make the award. On the way to work this morning at 3:15 AM (PST), I tuned into the news and caught a very brief quip about Iran and it’s President. After that, I knew what my morning post must be.

The first Dangerous Moonbat Award goes to:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

These are perilous times. And this Moonbat proves it conclusively, making Iran a very hazardous threat to Western states and cultures — clearly, focused on Israel.

Ahmadinejad has made three remarkably ignorant, uneducated and ridiculous statements:

— On December 8th, he said the Holocaust was, essentially, a myth:

“Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces and they insist on it to the extent that if anyone proves something contrary to that they condemn that person and throw them in jail.”

“Although we don’t accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?” he said.

“If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe — like in Germany, Austria or other countries — to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe. You offer part of Europe and we will support it.”

— On December 7th, he also said:

“They have fabricated a legend under the name ‘Massacre of the Jews’, and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves,” he told a crowd in the southeastern city of Zahedan on Wednesday.

— Finally, on October 26th as reported by Aljazeera.net:

“As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map,” said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayat Allah Khomeini.

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Is there any wonder Israel has said they’re considering bombing missions to Iran in March to eradicate nuclear enrichment sites?

And the award goes to:

Europe.

Murder and killing and not the same thing. Most of us in the United States recognize this; clearly those of Europe do not.

“The execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams sparked outrage Tuesday throughout Europe, which has a deep aversion to capital punishment.”

The disappointment was particularly strong in Austria, native country of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, where many had hoped the former bodybuilder and film star would spare the 51-year-old Williams.

Leaders of Austria’s opposition Green Party even called for Schwarzenegger to be stripped of his Austrian citizenship _ a demand rejected by Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel as “absurd” despite his government’s opposition to the death penalty.

Capital punishment is illegal throughout the European Union, and the issue was amplified in Williams’ case due to the remorse supporters believe the Crips gang co-founder showed by writing children’s books about the dangers of gangs and violence.

Volker Beck, a leading member of the opposition Greens party in Germany, expressed disappointment at the execution. “Schwarzenegger’s decision is a cowardly decision,” he told the Netzeitung online newspaper.

In Graz, Schwarzenegger’s hometown, local Greens said they would file a petition to remove the California governor’s name from the city’s Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium. A Christian political group suggested it be renamed for Williams.

In Italy, Franco Danieli, vice president of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized executions as an act of “dehumanization.”

“The execution of Tookie Williams is even more intolerable exactly because he had managed to transform the negative into the positive, violence into nonviolence,” Danieli said.

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For Those of You Who Believe the Death Penalty Is Racist:

From the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice statistics:

In 2004: 59 persons in 12 States were executed — 23 in Texas; 7 in Ohio; 6 in Oklahoma; 5 in Virginia; 4 each in North Carolina and South Carolina, 2 each in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Nevada; and 1 each in Arkansas and Maryland.

Of persons executed in 2004:

36 were white–

19 were black–

3 were Hispanic (all white)–

1 Asian

Of persons under sentence of death in 2004:

1,851 were white —

1,390 were black —

28 were American Indian —

32 were Asian —

14 were of unknown race

Number of prisoners under sentence of death, 1968-2004:

Year White Black Other

1968 243 271 3

1986 1,013 762 25

1989 1,308 898 37

1994 1,653 1,203 49

2000 1,989 1,538 71

2004 1,851 1,390 74

Source: Capital Punishment 2004, November 2005, NCJ 211349

Race of Defendants Executed in US Since 1976:

BLACK 339 34%
HISPANIC 63 6%
WHITE 579 58%
OTHER 22 2.3%

At around 1 PM yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made public his decision regarding 51-year-old Stanley “Tookie” Williams: there would be no clemency.

At one minute after midnight, Williams was given the injection. He did not request a “last meal” nor did he have any “final words.” He was declared dead at 12:35 AM as nurses had trouble locating an appropriate vein in Williams’ arm due to his hypertrophic condition. The difficulty was with the second IV in his left arm. Williams asked: “You doing that right?”

At 12:35 they did it right.

Predicted rioting did not occur indicating that, finally, the ’70s are indeed dead along with Mr. W.

Governor Schwarzenegger issued a five-page Statement of Decision (click here for full text) regarding his denial of clemency. The governor wrote:

In all, Williams’ case has been the subject of at least eight substantive judicial opinions.2 Prior to the filing of the clemency petition, the state court habeas process was completed on June 21, 1995 when the California Supreme Court denied Williams’ fourth state habeas corpus petition.3 The federal court habeas process was completed on October 11, 2005 when the United States Supreme Court denied Williams’ writ of certiorari.

This is the governor saying: his case has been vetted to the Nth degree.

The claim that Williams received an unfair trial was the subject of this extensive litigation in the state and federal courts. The courts considered the sufficiency of his counsel, the strategic nature of counsel’s decisions during the penalty phase of Williams’ trial, the adequacy and reliability of testimony from informants, whether Williams was prejudiced by security measures employed during his trial, whether he was competent to stand trial, whether the prosecutor impermissibly challenged potential jurors on the basis of race, and whether his jury was improperly influenced by Williams’ threats made against them.

There is no need to rehash or second guess the myriad findings of the courts over 24 years of litigation. The possible irregularities in Williams’ trial have been thoroughly and carefully reviewed by the courts, and there is no reason to disturb the judicial decisions that uphold the jury’s findings that he is guilty of these four murders and should pay with his life.

The governor’s statement then hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head:

The basis of Williams’ clemency request is not innocence. Rather, the basis of the request is the “personal redemption Stanley Williams has experienced and the positive impact of the message he sends.”4 But Williams’ claim of innocence remains a key factor to evaluating his claim of personal redemption. It is impossible to separate Williams’ claim of innocence from his claim of redemption.

The statement concludes:

Clemency decisions are always difficult. But the constitutional power of the Governor to grant clemency does not stand in isolation. It must be balanced with the Governor’s constitutional duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed. Here, Williams is clearly guilty, and the evidence and clemency materials supporting Williams’ claim of personal redemption are equivocal.

Therefore, based on the totality of circumstances in this case, Williams’ request for
clemency is denied.

DATED: December 12, 2005
Signed: ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

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And that’s enough on this.

You’re the governor of the State of Fornicalia, Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know that, as of yesterday (Sunday, 12-11-2005), the Fornicalia Supreme Court refused to stay the execution of Stanley Williams. The very last hope for clemency lies in your right hand, should you sign the paper granting same.

You’re a registered Republican but the Republicans and, perhaps moreover, conservatives apparently left you hanging in the breeze during your special election in November, and all your initiatives went down in flames. Just when you thought you had the support of your proclaimed party and its electorate, you discovered that support consisted of so much smoke.

You regrouped, conferred, let loose your prior Republican inner circle staffer Patricia Clarey and replaced her with the very Left-leaning Susan Kennedy. You caught flack for that from the Right as well.

Stanley Williams is slated to die at one minute past midnight tonight at San Quentin Prison north of San Francisco, by lethal injection.

You can grant clemency and perhaps pick up some votes for your 2006 re-election from the center, center-Left and far Left. That would be a given.

On the other hand, no clemency request has been granted in Fornicalia since 1967, when Ronald Reagan spared a mentally ill killer.

But if you refused clemency, you stand to alienate your potential centrist (and further) voters and perhaps garner support from the Right — but will you? You know their recent track record. Is it a given that you will acquire their support instead of their rancor or dismissal?

But wait; there’s more:

There is information to the effect that if clemency is not granted, riots may erupt throughout the state, likely in Los Angeles, similar to those that occurred in 1992 following the Simi Valley Rodney King verdict when LA police officers were acquitted.

Robin Toma, executive director of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission said, during a news conference at LA city hall:

We picked up information that led us to believe that there were some planned and intentioned acts of violence that could occur in the wake of the decision or the execution planned for Stan “Tookie” Williams.

Toma declined to elaborate on the specifics behind the threats, and sources are unnamed.

How much credence do you give to this information? And isn’t this a clear attempt to hold your decision hostage? Do you let thugs, criminals, gangbangers and their sympathizers influence your decision? Or, with this information, do you wait and offer no decision until you’ve ensured that CDC prison and statewide law enforcement agencies are properly prepared to deal with the potential threats?

I know what I would do. Mr. Williams would be allowed to meet his maker at one past midnight.

What will Governor Schwarzenegger do?

I honestly do not know.