Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Generation Gap

. . . or, what happened to you, America?

From Col. Cooper's Commentaries in 1999:

Television commentator Tom Brokaw has recently offered a curious analysis of what may be called "generation diversity." In one instance, an elderly gentleman was complaining to a social scientist about the mindless vandalism of young people who take it upon themselves to smash property just for laughs. The latter was inclined to minimize the perniciousness involved as simply the normal exuberance of youth. The plaintiff was asked, "Well, what were you doing when you were 17?" The answer, "I was fighting on Guadalcanal."

Yes, Virginia, there is a generation gap.

An Example of Engineering That Made Me Happy.

Efficiency for the end user is something that often receives little or no attention these days, so this was a pleasant surprise. It also appeals to my machismo and mechanical tinkerer aspects. If you are a man, I can almost guarantee you will have at least a faint smile on your face after this post.

Just now at work, I had to take a 200lbs. pump out of its crate for photography, and then I was going to have to put the crate back together. I was not looking forward to the job. The crate in question is made with nails about every two inches, and the wood is too heavy to break without application of a large amount of force.

Then I noticed the bolts.

The bottom of the crate walls have a few bolts on each side. I looked inside, and the bolts were run into T-nuts in some "2x" lumber on the platform/bottom of the box. Nothing else was holding the crate's top to its bottom. I undid the bolts and the top lifted off with no effort. When I was done, I put the top on backwards and the bolt holes still lined up. No hammers, pry bars, or splinters involved. I had the pump photographed and re-crated in the time it would have taken to knock the crate down if it had been constructed like most of the crates we get through here. Oh, and the bottom of the crate is exactly wide enough to fit a pallet jack.

Wonderful.

Photobucket

Israel: 48hour Truce? Not so Much.

They kept the bombs coming. Good for them.

The reporting I've heard on all but the most conservative press outlets is heavily pro-Hamas/anti-Israel. Boo. What you don't hear much of at all, is that over half the dead are uniformed Hamas fighters. How many more "civilians" are unconventional warriors in the Jihad? It is a number you are guaranteed never to know.

There are also "civilian" casualties. That's what happens in a war. How many casualties would there be if the place was carpet-bombed like we did to Germany to win WWII? More? Yes? Then be quiet. Hamas shoots at civilians on purpose. Israel is trying to hit military targets; the civilians living next to military targets shouldn't be surprised to catch a case of dead. We live <30 miles from a military installation and it wouldn't surprise me to see a mushroom cloud before I got disintegrated; that's life in a time of standing armies.

FINALLY, Olmert is speaking truth to the world: "If conditions ripen to the point that we assess they promise a safer existence in southern Israel, we will consider it. We're not they're yet" That is, we will continue until our enemy is done for.

I was listening to NPR this morning and they had a guest who was #2 (loser #1) in the Palestinian presidential elections. There were a few not-so-softball questions but it sounded about like a Palestinian-national advertisement piece instead of reportage. Oh well, what else do you expect from NPR? They rolled sound from a guy whose daughter was injured in an Israeli air raid. She was knocked unconscious while already in-hospital for a stomach pain, when Israel struck a mosque next door. Sounds terrible right? Except that the mosques are command and control centers for Hamas, in addition to houses of prayer to a false god.

The reporters are trying to stick with "if it bleeds, it leads" reporting, but this presents a problem for objectivity: the Palestinians are finally getting squished, so we get to see the Palestinian casualties almost exclusively. Don't be mistaken: Israel is in the right in this action. Note also that, including what will be allowed in today, 6,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid are going to Gaza, and some of the critically ill are being allowed into Israel for treatment.

I just hope the current fighting doesn't lead to WWIII directly. I suppose we shall see.

Vermin, Beware!

Success again! The local rodent population has been reduced by one. You will please excuse my irrational exuberance over such a trivial matter, but we had a furry little friend leaving tracks, pee, and poo, all over my work area. It foiled my mousetrap twice, because it was an as-issued trap. I gave it a trigger job yesterday, polishing the sear, and made it so easy to trip I could barely set the trap. Then I taped some yummy goodies on the trigger. This morning: scratch one more mouse.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Quelle Damme!

My Darling Wife's drivers license expired on her birthday and we didn't notice until we went to the bank to conduct some business. After finding it out, she refused on general principle to drive without a current license. Today we finally got around to the DPS drivers license facility in Austin (much nicer, now it's not drivers licensing and everything else in one building BTW) and got her license renewal done.

She asked if, now that she has her license again, she could drive. It was a bit of a silly question, as I consider a drivers license an annoying formality bordering on infringement of rights AND we were using her car anyhow. Sure you can drive if you want to.

I went around to the back and helped #2 get his seat belt straightened out and got in the passenger seat. When I got there, my Darling Wife says 'now that I've got my license again, I want you to drive.' sigh. Let it never be said that a woman is not changeable, but still

vive la difference!

I Took Drugs But I Didn't Get High At All.

. . . I'm feeling pretty low, actually. Yes children, it's that time of year again: Mountain Cedar Pollination Season! You only get a couple of months a year to enjoy it, but boy is it fun! Austin is about the worst place in the world to move to by one criterion: allergens. Observe the following image from a local TV station:



You will note that, at no time in the year in Central Texas* is the air free of airborne pollens. Add mold on top of that every time it rains, and you may begin to see why more people have to get prescription allergy medicine here than anywhere else.

But the worst for me so far is the when the mountain cedar pollenates. By taking doses of various drugs that have alarmingly high numbers of "0"s in the dose measurements, I am restored to close-enough-to-normal-to-be-productive. It would help if I kept track of what helped, and if it continues to get worse (which is likely, because I did move here) I will have to start a journal of medication. Right now I have a headache, my sinuses are dry on one side and runny on the other, and my eyes itch. That is better than feeling like I'm drowning in fluid in my lungs, with lethargy to beat the band and a nose like a faucet.

That would be Cedar Fever. If you move here, you will spend a few years wondering what all the fuss is about, then your sensitivities will gradually increase with exposure over time. And you become a connoseur of over-the-counter allergy medicines. Then you get to tell everyone what your allergist gave you to restore you to normal life again. Other than that, it's generally a great place to live.

*Central Texas is what the people who live near Austin call the area, because being in Austin proper sucks for a thousand reasons, mostly due to liberals running the city and not having single-member districts on the city council

Ban Ki-Moon Demands Cease-Fire.

Israel respects cease-fire agreements, and the terrorist islamists do not. Period.

For the Secretary-General of the United Nations to Call for a cease-fire in the face of this truth is the height of foolish arrogance. Israel needs to crush her enemies or she will die a politically correct death by a thousand cuts.

Which would have at least half the member-nations in the United Nations tickled pink.

Gary Emineth Needs To Be Fired.

In selecting of RNC chair, he says, it doesn't matter what the "grass roots" of the Republican party think, it only matters what the committee members think. I suppose he particularly does NOT care what the people who vote at the Choose Your Republican Party Chairman website think.

I think it is time for the good People of North Dakota to kick this bum out.

Monday, December 29, 2008

The Phonetic Alphabet: Do You Speak It?

It is a source of unending frustration, having to deal with persons on the telephone who never served in the military.

Wait, what?

How do you know if someone has never served in the military?

Because when you go to spell something out to them phonetically, they [deleted] it all up the first fifteen times, and at that point you sound like you are talking to a mentally-challenged first-grader, trying to spell a word to another adult!

If you do not know what I am talking about, give everyone you will ever talk to on the phone or radio a break and at least try to memorize the NATO Phonetic Alphabet

Then when someone says they work for CDN Systems, and you ask them to spell it, and they say Charlie Delta November, you have it first time, every time.

OK? Thanks.

Finally I'm Jumping On A Bandwagon*

Uncle and Les Jones both recommend it so I'll give a go. Look to the bottom of my posts to see a button titled Share This, which is supposed to make it easier for you to send word of what's been posted to your contacts without all that pesky email business.

*if someone mentions a movie as being worth seeing, and then someone from another sphere of influence also recommends it, I start thinking about seeing that movie. Similar thinking here, except this is free and no trouble so it's done.

Surprising No-One, The Internet is More Popular Than Newspapers.

(in completely unrelated news, newspapers and magazines continue to slip off into oblivion, wondering "what happened?" the whole way down.)

The internet has replaced newspapers as the People's #2 source of news & information. Television is still about as popular as both, combined. Come on now really, is there anyone who didn't see this announcement coming? Even television is going to fade out, replaced by "I'll watch what I want when I want" Internet entertainment and news programming. It will be a while before TV goes away entirely, but it will surprise me a great deal to look back in a couple of decades and not see TV and Internet have swapped places on this graph:

Sony Still Losing Money on Every PS3 Console Sold (?!)

How can you sell a product for several years at a loss and still stay in business? Well it helps to be an evil international company that will step on all contenders with a jack-boot.

You know, like Sony.

Now Hamas Wants A(nother) Cease-Fire. Sure, Hold Your Breath.

Israel respected the most recent cease-fire agreement, despite daily rocket attacks from muslims in Palestine. The cease-fire has lapsed and now Israel is, to borrow from Blackfive, stacking them up like cordwood.

Surprisingly, while the Jews in Israel are pleased with the current turn of events, the terrorists in Gaza are not. I just heard on the radio news Hamas has called for another cease-fire. Israel's answer should be:

"sure, we'll stop shooting at you, just as soon as you have stopped shooting at us . . . for a few years. In the meantime, enjoy some hot death from above, or be quiet and sit down (your choice)."

edit/update:
oh, and I got this from the talk shows also (notably absent from the AP report I linked earlier: Hamas celebrated the end of the cease-fire by launching 80 300 rockets into Israel. Hooray for Peace!

also, Israel apparently fooled the Palestinians pretty good and caught a bunch of the terrorists reporting to work on Monday, with bombs. Bravo Zulu.

Flight 93 Families Want to Seize Land for Memorial

So it's not enough that the memorial to the victims of flight 93 turns out to be a huge Islamic mosque, complete with special features honoring the hijackers and condemning the victims to symbolic hell forever while putting the 9/11 terrorists in heaven.

Now, they are trying to spit in the eye of every red-blooded American by STEALING the land? Sorry, maybe my free copy of the Constitution from the Heritage Foundation was misprinted and left out the part about a memorial mosque for the hijackers being a worthy reason to exercise eminent domain. I know there was a lot of effort put into the design of this mosque, but can't you guys build it on property the owner wants to get rid of, at least?

You are not crazy. They are. And they are forcing it on you.

Resist.

Israel Attacking Gaza In Retaliation for Rocket Strikes (again)

From the AP Obama: Hamas is being slapped on the wrist again.

The linked AP Report is typically heavy on details to jerk your heartstrings to the Palestinian side but I did manage to get the following facts out of it:

*Hamas has not prevented continuing murderous unguided rocket attacks from Palestine to Israel
*Most of the dead (apparently at least a super majority) are Hamas fighters
*Targets are largely strategic or symbolic Hamas facilities
*Smuggling tunnels from Egypt to Gaza have been cut, preventing a key resupply source for the mujaheddin
*It's mostly air and sea strikes so far, no major ground assaults against Gaza, but the preparations for troop activity are underway
*Egypt is allowing trucks with "humanitarian aid" to enter Gaza
*The international community in the neighborhood are against the Israeli actions
*Credit goes to the Associated Press for not forgetting to mention that Hamas is TRYING to kill women and children, but Israel is trying to kill enemy combatants, who hide amongst women and children (one must assume, from a desire for PR fodder or an excess of cowardice).

I continue to wonder why Israel does not grow a pair and stomp all over the faithful members of the Religion of Peace who refuse to play nice with their neighbors. Maybe they have decided to do just that, finally, in light of the coming dawn of a new error in the USA

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Childrens' Tylenol (acetaminophen) and Motrin (ibuprofen) Dosing Information

I said a while back that I would post this information tomorrow. Well it's tomorrow. If you are trying to find out how much pain medicine to give your baby, here it is. These numbers were taken from a bad photocopy of a bad photocopy we got from our pediatrician, who got it from McNeil (who makes both drugs). If you do not read all the precautions on the bottle and go by this instead, you are a bad parent. If you can do basic maths yourself and want to get pseudoephedrine dosing for your infant/toddler, please scroll to the bottom of this page.

The pain reliever in Tylenol is acetaminophen. The pain reliever in Motrin is ibuprofen. If you see a generic or store brand drug with the same dosing information, go ahead and use it with these dosing tables instead of the more expensive name-brand. Or you could be like my wife and go with the McNeil Consumer Healthcare products because it's a Name You Can Trust, and cost be danged.

Childrens' Tylenol, in Infants' Concentrated Drops, Childrens' Suspension Liquid, Soft Chews Chewable Tablets, and Junior Strength Chewables:

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Chilrens' Motrin, in Infants' Motrin Concentrated Drops, Childrens' Motrin Suspension, Childrens' Motrin Chewable Tables, Junior Strength Motrin Chewable Tablets, and Junior Strength Motrin Caplets:

Photobucket

Both Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen have maximum daily doses, as well as minimum intervals (hours) between doses. If you can't make it out for yourself after reading the label and these charts, PLEASE get in contact with your pediatrician!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas (and light blogging)

We have spent the day in preparation to leave for the night and have presents to give tomorrow (last minute shopping and getting the house and children ready, as well as packing). We'll be spending the night and most of Christmas day at my parents' house. Blogging will be light nil for the next couple of days while we go celebrate the greatest gift ever given.

Merry Christmas everybody. Now turn off your computer and spend it with your loved ones. Or at least get back to work! ;)

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Col. Cooper Says:

We hear overmuch about "self-esteem" as a goal in elementary education. The older term "self-respect" seems more to the point. The difference is that self-respect must be earned by conscientious endeavor, but self-esteem seems to be offered simply to any child who is alive and breathing. Teaching a young person that he is excellent simply because he is there is not the route to producing good citizens.

Seattle Refuses To Salt The Roads

I had a hopeful thought, when I heard that they preferred to let their roads get a hard-pack ice surface (vs. salting the streets and polluting Puget Sound (a body of salt water)): maybe they will be forced to conduct their liberal leftist nuttery in the privacy of their own homes.

Then I remembered the internet. Oh well.

At least the police are forced to walk to respond to calls because their rear wheel drive police cruisers don't mix with ice.

I am SO glad I got out of that state when I had the chance.

WTF? California Doctor Embroiled In Tangled Nasty Mess.

A doctor in California was performing liposuction.

And using the used fat for fuel in his car.

Which is illegal. It's not clear when he started or stopped doing this (rather nasty) recycling, but California is against it.

Oh, and also he let his assistants and a girlfriend do surgery on patients, leaving them disfigured, which is how they found out about the fat/diesel thing (during the investigation).

Then he went to be a volunteer doctor in deport-me-not South America.

ho-hum, another routine day in crazy-world.

Monday, December 22, 2008

I Love Air Tools.

I had several dozen 3" and 2" screws to remove from a wooden shipping crate, then I had to reassemble the crate when I was done with its contents. I used an air-powered screwdriver gun to unscrew and rescrew the screwy screws. It took mere minutes and when I was done, neither of my hands were tired. Plus I got to hear the cool noise the gun made, every time I shot another screw. Great success.

The tool costs $800+ if you buy one at retail, but by golly if you have a thousand screws to remove/insert a day it is worth it.

That is all.

Red Light and Speed Cameras: How To Make Them Go Away*.

It occurred to me that it would be possible to entirely get rid of speed cameras and red light cameras. That, or make them much more sophisticated. Send a lot of bogus tickets to the people who decided to put cameras up with your money, over your objections!

Step 1: Find out what your local Elected Heroes (who favored the cameras, not the ones against them! ) drive.

Step 2: Find out their license plate numbers

Step 3: Print out a fake license plate with those numbers

Step 4: Install the fake plate on a car similar to what the red light camera / speed camera -favoring politicians drive

Step 5: Run red lights where there are red light cameras and/or speed where there are speed cameras

Step 6: Remove the false plates

Step 7: Do NOT tell anyone who did it when the story makes local news

*Vote For David does not endorse or recommend this course of action. It is presented for rebellion fomenting entertainment purposes ONLY. Thanks to Uncle for the link to The Sentinel.

Australia Copies Our Now-Expired Military-Looking Guns Ban

Because, when they took away everyone's guns, suicides didn't decrease (the ostensible reason for the gun ban) I guess they figured they might as well do it harder. Now not only can you not have an icky semi-automatic anything, you can't have one that looks military-ish either. Thanks Australia, for providing us with evidence of gun bans that don't work to reduce crime or suicides or . . . well anything else except gun ownership.

After all, everyone knows people don't kill people, guns do. All by themselves. Because guns are evil.

Do Not Put Guns In The Oven.

I would have thought this was obvious, but apparently you have to actually engage the thinking process to see the obvious. Yet another person has put a gun in the oven. This time it was a French policeman and a now-melted SIG. Turns out 400 degrees for 20 minutes is bad for a thermoplastic pistol.

In related news, I have never had to even consider drying any of my arms after cleaning them, because I have never WET them during cleaning. Solvents and oils are all you need to clean most guns, unless you left one in the mud, in which case you could use the dishwasher. Then use an oven to dry it, just don't get distracted and leave it in the oven.

or just keep the temperature down below the melting point of your weapon.

***

I saw a Mythbusters episode where they put ammunition in the oven and tried to get it to penetrate the sides of the oven. The only round that would penetrate was a .50BMG...

... but when it's in side a weapon, almost any major caliber will penetrate and be potentially lethal. Conclusion?

Don't put guns in the oven. ::shakes head::

Friday, December 19, 2008

I Shall Have To Consider The Following:

It sounds good, but I hafta think about this a bit more before declaring agreement with the following sentiment:

"The two pillars of 'political correctness' are, a) willful ignorance, and b) a steadfast refusal to face the truth."

-George MacDonald Fraser

Bad News From Our Pediatrician Re: #3 :(

He's been fussy and whiny and we thought it was because he's teething. He's been sneezing and coughing and we thought it was because of the airborne allergens.

We were right.

We were also under-dosing him on acetaminophen. Poor little guy.

We were giving him a "0.8" on the dropper and he should have been getting a "1.2." I blame the drug company's lawyers and the entire American overly sue-happy judicial system, just like I blame them for not being able to get pseudoephedrine for infants in the US. It could not be my fault or my wife's for not trying to find suitable dosing for ourselves. If I remember I'll post up the chart our baby doctor gave us today. The chart on a bottle of Tylenol says 0.8ml for <2 year-olds. They removed the dose-by-weight information. Not wanting to OD a baby on something that can hurt vital organs, we were giving a dose that was too low when considered on a mg per kg basis.

Erring on the safe side with pain meds = fussy baby.

Problem (we hope) solved.

Go Buy A Car. NOW!

They are advertising Chevy Silverados for $12,000-ish. New. I paid that for my Hyundai Elantra almost a decade ago.

If you have the cash for it, go buy a new car now, today.

If you take out a loan for it you are stupid. If you write a check for it you are smart.

Yes, that makes me stupid also.

That is all.

Do Want: Shrike Belt-Fed AR Upper. Make Mine 6.5 Grendel.

Okay, maybe you can't get one in 6.5Gren. or 7.62x39mm yet, but if you are married to the official Poodle Shooter of t3h United Nations, perhaps you will like the Sarah Brady-scaring aspects of this item:



They are apparently now shipping the Shrike to customers.
Uncle has a link to a video.

All I can say is (aside from derision related solely to the 5.56 round) that right there is COOL I don't care who you are.

Twice in A Week I Am In Agreement With The Muslims?

~or~

Queer activists disappointed that nations with strong religious tradition shoot down a bill decriminalizing their preferred perversion.

The USA disagreed with the UN resolution decriminalizing buggery because we are a nation of laws, with a bunch of different sovereign powers. When you have a bunch of equals with rights, you don't just say "OK all you hicks, you're wrong and criminally wrong at that" and call it a day. Also (and here's where I'm in agreement with the Muslims) you don't just say to a nation with a strong religious prohibition on sodomy "OK all you haters, you are wrong and criminally so. We're going to switch you from calling this a captiol offense, to it being no offense at all."

Hold on there.

Think of this that way for a moment. There were just a hair over 1/3 of the member nations for this bill including all of the EU and some of their spawn. There were more nations opposed to it (not just non-signers to the declaration) than there were nations that signed it. Most of them are muslim nations who, in this case fortunately, are obnoxious and numerous enough to get their way almost always for various reasons. In some of those countries it is an offense punishable by death to have MSM sex (well, when you've past a certain age anyhow, but that's for another post). This declaration would have declared a capitol offense to be no offense at all.

That's like saying "OK all you backward-@ss intolerant countries, you currently are killing people for Murder, but now we're going to say it's alright and not even a misdemeanor."

No?

Why is it different?

Just one more reason we need to withdraw from the UN.

By the way, there are some petty tyrants who don't seem to have too much concern about your right to enact laws to suit your morals (and yes you can so shut up about legislating morality, that's all laws are) who are all bent because they don't get to bugger each other all over the world with impunity. You should try to un-elect them because that's the same type of attitude that takes away all your other rights as well. I hate to quote Star Wars, but does anyone remember when Anikin Skywalker pounded the grass in frustration and expressed the attitude you should beware of in your Elected Heroes:

"Someone should MAKE them agree!"

Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Bionic Eye . . . Contact Lens?



Here we have the first steps to getting me the corrective lens I need for my eyes. You know, what with my mild astigmatism and myopia, with a distinct lack of zoom and telephoto capability, and generally no useful bandwidth outside the normal visible spectrum.

They are talking about putting the display right on your eyeball. Augmented reality here we come. Surgical microscopes and instrument panels suddenly become anachronistic. Big-screen TV? You thought IMAX 3D was kick@ss?

Okay, so they won't be offering high-resolution displays with built-in optics on corrective lenses until I'm old enough not to care anymore, but still this is pretty neat.

It's 2008! I Want My Flying Car Already!

If you want a car that flies, there's one that actually looks like a car: the Autovolantor, possibly available in the distant future for maybe $250,000.



If you want to have a good excuse not to have a carpool buddy, get a regular airplane. One that has no wings, and is the size of a car, and has VTOL capability from Gress Aerospace. I want this one. In Safety Orange with black polka-dots.

Obama: STILL Refusing To Prove Qualification For Office.

Another challenge was denied by the supreme Court. There may be perfectly good reasons for it and I'm not one to question the decision without an in-depth review.

But questions continue to arise, like:

Why was a false address listed on the notice of the birth of the One?

And He Who Shall Not Be Asked A Tough Question could end the whole mess by sending a letter to Hawaii. But he won't and we are left with two conclusions we can draw. Either a) he knows he should be going to jail right now or b) he doesn't care what you little people think. Or both, I guess. Neither is something I like in a President.

Muslim Woman Jailed Over Refusal To Remove Head Scarf In Court

I was all for it, imagining it would be a case of someone trying to enter a court under a burqa or niqab, but Lisa Valentine was wearing a hijab: a scarf over her hair, ears and neck... you could see who she was and it would have been simplicity itself to give her a pat-down around the scarf to be sure she wasn't hiding anything in it, if you wanted to go that far.

I can see requiring the removal of ordinary headgear as a sign of respect for the court, but this* is too much. Their religion may be a completely made-up sham, but they believe in it. She has a religious conviction that does not impinge on anyone else's right to security in the court, and I say she should be allowed to wear it. The same goes for a yarmulke, by the way. That's one of the uses of the 1st Amendment.

*if she got violent in her protesting of the court order, I take it all back. Get rowdy in court and you go to jail, period.

2 Votes Shy of A Destroyed America?

There are apparently only two more votes required for the states to convene a Constitutional Convention. The last time that happened, we ended up completely scrapping the then-existing constitution. The men who wrote our current Constitution were faithful Christians, with deep moral convictions. They knew what was a good idea and not, and

well

the current lot, I wouldn't want writing articles of incorporation for a city, much MUCH less my precious America.

May God help us all. Christians, pray.

Wow, That Was Terrible!

Yesterday was a rough one due to a high mold spore count up my nose (from a front that blew in from Houston 2 days ago) and, after taking a bottle and a half of pseudoephedrine, I started feeling much better after I fell asleep for the night.

This morning the visibility in the Central Texas region is about 150 feet. Oncoming cars' lights can be seen maybe 3x that far, tops. Listening to the traffic report was like sitting through a recital of the names of the vietnam war dead, it took so long. My carpool buddy stopped counting at 10 wrecks. That would include 2 rollovers. Because it was foggy and wet. Seriously?

Oh well. More blogging today, because I'm appropriately drugged and I gots me some COFFEE!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I Sold My Car!

Pick N Pull came by and dragged it off my driveway this morning.

My parts car, that is. I paid $700 for it, used parts from it to convert my car from automatic to manual transmission, sold a couple hunnert' in parts, and now I have sold it for $130. I have the cylinder head from that car on my bench in the middle of what would be a $2,000 port/polish rework if I had it done for me, and the higher-compression pistons should be going in my car at the same time as the reworked head. Also I used some parts off it to save a few hundred dollars in parts/labor by fixing things that were broken on my car, like the lack of a window regulator in one rear door, and an A/C belt tensioner that was falling apart. Great success. Anyhow:

I told my son that the man had just driven off with it, and the boy asked to see the car. Logic. Needs more training in logic. So he went out and viewed the empty driveway where the car was and I explained it all again. And I made him take the trash out since we were going to be headed that way anyhow. :)

That is all. Light blogging for the rest of the day due to being tired as . . . well I'm tired.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Advances in Renewable Electric Energy Sources

The world's first commercial wave farm is online. 3x 750kW Pelamis Wave Energy Converters are the first step. The energy is taken from waves. One side effect nobody is talking about is that stealing power from waves might help with beach erosion and reduce storm damage. Also these are low-profile, suitable for unobtrusive installation off the coast of Massachusetts, where Ted Kennedy can't see them.

Another twist on taking power from the sea is the SEARASER which pumps water using wave power, to turn turbines in conventional hydroelectric plant style. The water can be used immediately or stored in a retaining pond for use whether there are waves or not.

Next up: using humans as an energy source. Boon Edam has put a generator in a revolving door. It slows itself to reduce user injuries, and generates a small amount of power to light itself as well.

Then we have the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity. That is, the wasted motion of the earth produced when automobiles and trains and aircraft move down the road, track, or runway.

All of these are good developments and show quite a bit of promise. They are also uniformly low-power high-cost sources of power generation, causing nuclear reactors to laugh at their low economy. Here is something I have almost no reservation about: using otherwise unusable polluted ground to hold large-footprint solar farms. Now THAT was a good idea.

Gizmag: if you don't go there at least every once in a while, you should.

Aimpoint CompM4 / M68 Close Combat Optic: Buy From Midway, Support the NRA!



In a move that was so far has been given about zero publicity, the Good People at MidwayUSA have arranged a special deal to help support your natural right to self defense. Purchase an Aimpoint CompM4 (M68CCO) before the end of the year, and $100 goes to the NRA. Win! If you send it to a snake eater in the sandbox who still doesn't have one, Double Win!

Obama: Doesn't Like You Having Icky Guns

Just in case you forgot or didn't catch it the first time around, Barry is not a great lover of the second amendment.

That is all.

Wikipedia: Not Necessarily the Most Reliable Source.

Wikipedia can be a good place to go real quick-like if you want to grab a bit of trivia for your blog posts. If you are making a ruling from the bench or writing a journalistic piece of any serious nature, not so much.

Why?

Because anyone can change what Wikipedia presents as gospel truth. So, for example, if you don't like his brand of conservatism, you could call Joe Farah a queer and it would be just fine until he said something about it in an article on his news zine.

Somehow this is a surprise? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

Come on people, the Internet is grown-up enough now, with powerful search engines like Yahoo! and Google, you can do your own primary research in some cases without ever leaving the butt-shaped depression in your chair! Let us be quite clear about this:

Wikipedia is the EXACT SAME THING as asking a bum on the street (who says he's knowledgeable about ________) what he thinks.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Try Crapping All Over My Car NOW Birdy!

Yes! Great Success.

My car has been throwing a check engine light so tonight I moved it up to the top of the driveway so I could be (mostly) out of the wind and close to my tools in the garage. I had recently un-destroyed the garage enough to park my wife's car inside, so it was backed in, providing a convenient flat surface (the hood) on which to set my tools. At around 22:00 I went to work. Outside temperature: 34 degrees F and falling. I set up a wooden sawhorse and lashed a Sun Gun lamp to it, and pointed the light at the engine bay and got elbows-deep in my car.

I finished up around 23:00 and heard that lovely little coo-ooo of a morning dove (a.k.a. flying rat or common pigeon). I cleaned up my tools and turned my work light up to the old ash tree above the driveway. It was spotted, but too young and dumb to move. I left the light on it and went and grabbed up my trusty scoped Daisy 880 and gave it a match pellet and a full 10 pumps, and said a highly modified version of the sniper's prayer. I went back out and he was still up there. There was no place for a rest and I didn't have time to improvise one, so I took aim offhand. The shot was no good, for there was a twig in the way. I moved a foot or two to the left and it was clear shooting through a 2-3" gap in the sticks & twigs of the tree. Steady. Exhale. Still too shaky, wait. Steady. Exhale. The wind is coming up the street, you can hear it in the leaves' rattling. Now or never. Squeeze...

It dropped like a stone out of the tree.

I walked quickly around the car to see if it was still alive, and to mark the place where it fell. The bird was sitting on the concrete like it had decided to roost there for the night. I went quickly back to the box of pellets on the hood of my wife's car and reloaded. Another full 10 pumps, to be sure not to have to do this twice. By the time I got back down the drive, the pigeon was lying with its head down. I poked it with the muzzle of my pellet rifle. No response. Well, the rifle is ready to go, and there is no need of an animal suffering needlessly anyway. Point-blank to the head for good measure.

I wrapped him up in a plastic bag from the grocery store and left it on the hood of my car. It's the same thing, tonight anyway, as putting it in the freezer. Except that my wife wouldn't ban me from hunting pigeon if I forgot it on my car. Tomorrow it will be a present for one of the other guys at work who is not too proud to eat at the roadkill cafe.

That makes two pigeons so far.

The first was bagged this past Thanksgiving day before we went to visit my family. I was (again) doing something in the garage, with #2 keeping me company, and I heard the cooing of a flying rat. I rushed in and got my rifle, loaded up and bade #2 follow me in silence as I stalked across the front yard until a hole opened up in the tree, maybe 3-4" across. One shot and down he went, flopping around in the front yard. I rushed back to get another pellet and was in the process of reloading when I heard the voice of #2 say "Daddy, Wally got the pigeon." I went back out and sure enough, Wally the black & white neighborhood cat had snagged my bird! I shot the pellet into the earth and blew a crater in the dirt, much to the amazement of #2. Wally was busily enjoying his Thanksgiving feast next to the next door neighbor's driveway as we went inside. Tear jerker: they put Wally down the next day because he was old and sick with the cancer. They thought he had caught the pigeon himself and were glad he got a last Thanksgiving feast. Their christmas reindeer lighted sculptures won't be going up this year because Wally was a fixture under the reindeer, and it made N.S., their youngest daughter, cry to think of the deer without Wally under them.

Clinton & Obama are The SAME!

Hillary Rodham Clinton is about to go into a high public office with the prospect of a legal/Constitutional crisis over her head. She has not served even one term in a national elected post and is now 100% ready to abandon that post and leave her elected office for the Governor of New York to fill via appointment. Presumably the voters that elected her will understand that a greater good is at stake (her political advancement).

Barack Hussein Obama is about to go into a high public office with the prospect of a legal/Constitutional crisis over his head. He has not served even one term in a national elected post and is now 100% ready to abandon that post and leave his elected office for the Governor of Illinois to fill via appointment. Presumably the voters that elected him will understand that a greater good is at stake (his political advancement).

There is No Registration of Firearms In the United States of America

... which is both on purpose, and the way it should be everywhere

Responding to a plea to spread the word, I can hardly come up with a better quick summary than the last 3 paragraphs you will read at the end of the above link.

"There is no need for official background investigations in gun transfers between private individuals. And the background checks through licensed dealers are exactly that—cursory background checks—and the information must be destroyed in 24 hours if the sale is allowed to proceed.

And while you are educating your friends, tell them why they should be afraid of something they seem so readily able to accept—that registration leads to confiscation—and it is our guns that keep us free.

The Second Amendment was not, and was never intended to be a protection of hunting rights, or the right to keep a gun for fun. The Second Amendment was designed by the founding fathers to give the people a way to protect themselves from the founding fathers."

John K. Edison Jr.: Railroaded For . . . Nothing?

A few teenagers and younger gather at his house when they shouldn't be there.

They leave when he said because his dad would be home soon. A witness says they were all talking and laughing as they left.

Three hours later he is arrested for violent rape of one of the girls that had been at his house.

The accusation came from first one girl, and then another, and was aimed first at another boy, and then Edison.

Today is Edison's trial (as an adult, on felony charges). He was arrested six months ago. There was no bond. Or corroborating evidence. Or physical evidence that any assault ever took place. An intact hymen, even. But still a 15 year-old has been in adult jail for 6 months.

Because the judge considers the suspicion of an officer enough to keep him locked up, and accusations of things that happened in the past are also under consideration in this case.

Nice, eh? You should be proud, Maryland! You follow boldly in the steps of the great Soviet Socialist Republics with actions like this!

Why I Don't Fly Anymore:

Read this here. It's an oldie but a goodie and one of the principal reasons I refused to fly out to El Paso to pick up my wife when she wanted me to a month ago. Nice.

Maybe if I am forced to fly by some exigent future circumstance, I'll call ahead to make sure whomever is waiting for me knows I will be late, then go in with a T-shirt that says I AM A TERRORIST AND YOU WILL DIE or some such.

In the old days, this was a beat-down for a cop gone bad. Now it's a meek citizen happy to not be a newly-minted Felon.

I'll drive. I'll take the bus. But you won't catch me on a plane until the TSA goes TU.

Woman Sent To Jail Following Not Guilty Verdict

Judicial Activism! Woman not convicted on charges but judge sends her to jail for 55 years anyway!

.

.

.

Good.

This sort of judicial activity, we could use more of. She was an habitual criminal and a thief for 1/2 her life, and was put away on parole violations. Sequential sentences: that'll give her something to think about.

Found at Say Uncle

Meleanie Hain: A modern American heroine.

Thanks to Uncle for pointing out this article from philly.com

Meleanie Hain: A modern American heroine.


If you see this woman, shake her hand and wish her a fine day. She is helping you, whether you know it or not.

This is the woman who made waves recently by refusing to go to a potentially dangerous place without her trusty Glock on her hip. The place was a soccer game. The moron parents of other children, apparent sufferers of hoplophobia, freaked out. The gun, carried by someone looking out for her own safety and unlikely to use it, ever, is a dangerous thing. Therefore, she is a bad person and to be upbraided for taking with her the only thing that makes her the physical equal of a 6'5" 350lbs soccer dad mad at her for something a referee said. Agreeing, the local Keystone Kops took her carry license away. Coming back to reality, a court reinstated her license.

For those that don't know, open carry of sidearms in Pennsylvania is legal without a license. As it should be in a free country. There are already laws against using guns to do bad things.

Pennsylvanians, carry your guns and get the sheeple used to seeing them, or else you may find yourself unable to carry them at all. Oh, and remember to protest when Barack Hussein Obama tries to ban them or make them harder to use or carry.

Oh, and go sign the Texas open carry petition if you previously failed to do so.

P.S. if you find out your daycare agent/babysitter is one of the Good People packing heat and take your little tykes out of their care, you are stupid.

Guns Kill People, or, Why Would You Even Think That Way?

A few times, people whom I know know I am (almost) always armed with at least a small pistol have made what seemed to me like exceedingly strange comments.

I showed a freshly purchased Glock to one person and they said they hoped I never got mad at my wife.

I was (quite accidentally) hit in the face with a toy by the father of another child at #2's birthday party and his wife said to be careful, because "they've got guns."

Hello? What sort of a person thinks about shooting somebody because of a minor insult or injury? I know, I know, it happens all the time, but I sure don't do it. I think next time somebody makes that comment, even in jest, I'll hit them with a serious look and say something like this:

"Actually, the decision to draw and to fire my weapon has already been made."

and then let that sink in and say:

"Unless somebody is about to do something that will result in my death, your death, or a large or offensive injury or property loss, I'm either walking away or putting up my dukes. You're about 100% shy of the criteria required to even make me think about drawing, much less shooting you. Trust me, if you were doing something that would cause you to catch one from me, you would never know about it in time to prevent it.

"Because guns don't kill people, I kill people. So relax already, and try not to ________ (whatever they did) again."

Friday, December 12, 2008

UAW is STILL Pissing in the Pot.

or, Automakers Bailout Bill Fails to Pass in US Senate.

Good.

It is to be hoped that GM at least will go into Chapter 11 proceedings; possibly the other 2 of the Big 3 will have to follow suit. Then the United Auto Workers will be forced to accept the things they could have taken less of a hit on, if they were acting in the workers' long-term best interest. Now, unless Bush puts on his "I'm A Lefty" T-shirt and lets them use TARP funds for the car makers, there is no further source of pennies from heaven for GM. Chrysler of course has Cerberus, and Ford had the good sense to go Tango Uniform when financing was easy to secure so they are in somewhat better shape.

There are over a dozen car manufacturies in the USA that are either existing or in the making, that do NOT suffer from UAW contract obligations. Time to add a few more to the list, and give GM shareholders and bondholders a haircut.

Did you call your Senators and Congressman yet? Remind them for whom they work (hint: not the UAW) and tell them you are against giving money to companies that have repeatedly proven they don't know what to do with it. Call them today.

There Are No Stupid Questions, Only Stupid People.

I got an email today asking if this lot we have on the auction block comes with the pump. What do you think?




There was another email asking if this lift's 12 foot height specification is at the top of the basket or the top of the platform. Well, let's assume this man is an average (5'10") height and not 4'2" tall. What do you think?




Next up, we have a vending machine. The ad text says "The refrigeration setup looks like it is missing a controller" and one of the images showing what is included in the lot is this one: Are the compressor, condenser, and fan included, or is only the controller missing? What do you think?




They don't have me talk to customers very often and that is probably a good thing.

That is all.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

England: Just Waiting for The Invasion.

A woman was expecting a package. She got a package. It was addressed to the police but they got the postcode wrong when it was sent. She opened it anyhow.



After opening a package addressed to the police, she got all bent when she realized there was an assault rifle inside. She was afraid to touch it, and wonders what the h3ll they are talking about with all the increased security, when she can get a gun delivered to her house. Good question. Anywho, it was modified to shoot a frikken lazer beem and not bullets.

If I were in her position I would have run the batteries completely flat before calling the police, if I had opened the box. I probably also would have called the post office or the police (instead of opening it) when a box showed up at my door addressed to the police but apparently that was a bit of a stretch for Catherine Roots

Compare these two quotes:

"I couldn't believe my eyes. I was petrified and didn't dare touch it in case it went off. " -Catherin Roots, British Subject

"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass." - Isoroku Yamamoto, Admiral, Japanese Imperial Navy

The smart children will have to connect the dots and explain to the slower children why I gave this post the title I did.

England, why did you let this happen to you?

Somebody Tell These People to Go Watch Terminator!

Then maybe they will pull their heads out and realize that this sort of thing only even looks good on paper if you don't think the bad guys (or the bad robots) will get their hands on the technology.

From The Soap Box:


The current purpose of this device is to shoot it into space on a missile, to intercept the Other Side's missile at the apogee and shoot it down. The future purpose is to send these against the Humans to kill them all. Unless Jesus comes back first, or the programmers are smarter than I think.

Zimbabwe: This is Where Socialism Can Lead.

They kicked all the farmers off their land because they were white and therefore obviously racist oppressors. They gave the land to blacks because that was fair. The blacks who were not previously farmers, did not get an immediate knowledge of how to be farmers. The agriculture sector in Zimbabwe collapsed. This is obviously the fault of the West. Mugabe isn't exactly an Austrian economist, so this is what it looks like when you go to a restaurant:



More images here. This has happened before. Never in a capitalist society that I am aware of. Fascist, Socialist, yes, but not "free market" capitalist.

That is what hyperinflation looks like. And it's not going to happen here anytime soon - we have to get out of the depression first!

Found at Mish's

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

A Pretty Good Argument Against Bailing Out Chrysler: Cerberus.

Cerberus Capitol Management has approximately a gajillion and a half dollars' worth of assets and cash laying about. They also have lost a few (million? billion? who cares about chump change) dollars in the form of a smallish company that makes cars in the USA. Why Cerberus is not required to pay its own bills is a question that, apparently, is Bad to ask. Call your legislator and ask.

edit/update: I called my legislators. McCaul's phone answering man Rob had 30 seconds to spare to let me pull his ear, after telling me Cornyn is agin' the bailout. The monkey answering the phone for cornyn gave me short shrift and I didn't even get a chance to say my humorous anti-bailout jokes. Hutchison's office was busy in DC, so I called their local office and they didn't kick me off the phone but didn't give a position stance. Oh well. Go call your legislators!

Now They're Not Even Pretending The Dollar Has Any Value?

the Federal Reserve (known to the knowledgeable as "as Federal as Federal Express") is considering selling its own debt instruments. If there was any doubt that the dollar's value is based on nothing* it should be completely clear now: the dollar's value is based on nothing. Go. Read. Shudder in disgust and horror at the prospects for our economy.

********

*The dollar is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. The US government, depending on how you count debt, is anywhere from eleven trillion to around a hundred trillion dollars in debt, and continues printing its own money. Credit is theoretically unlimited... value of the medium of trade, however, may have a bit of long-term downside potential. And as to faith, well, I suppose that's debatable.

I Support The Use Of Stem Cells in Medical Science.

The kind you don't have to murder a baby to get, that is.

Number of therapies in use from dead-baby stem cells: 0

Number of therapies in use from "my own" adult stem cells: +1 more

This story is not notable because the airline refused to fly medical samples without advance notice. Nor is it because easyJet stepped up and did the right thing, compensating a full $14,000 to reimburse the cost of hiring a charter aircraft incurred when their security people got silly. This story is notable because they were hassled when transporting a new trachea from the lab to a patient.

That is, a trachea grown from the patient's own stem cells. This is just one more case of scientists in those cool white lab coats using someone's own cells to grow replacement parts. Why do we need to kill babies for their cells, again?

I wasn't going to mention this article, until I remembered what happened at the post office the other day. A woman was wearing a T-shirt that proclaimed her to be a NOT INFANT STEM CELLS survivor. She was SIX YEARS in remission from cancer, cured by the use of adult stem cells. A woman behind her in line asked about the shirt and the survivor launched into a pitch against fetal cell use and for adult cell use, and gave her a business card for their activist network, and also mentioned that you can donate the blood from your newborn's umbilical cord free of charge, and save as many as 5 lives with it.

And nobody gets murdered for their body parts. WIN!

Detroit's Message to Car Buyers:



Thanks to BoingBoing.net for that very concise explanation of the current "Big 3" Detroit auto manufacturers' "bailout" proposal.

Some Company Regulations Should Be Ignored (or Deleted).

Veteran pizza delivery man smells something fishy and takes his gun with him when he gets out of the car. In violation of company rules. Gets smashed in the head during a robbery attempt.

Draws his gun and starts firing. Saves his life, and his and his company's property.

Potentially faces loss of his job for violating company policy, but not fired yet. I would say that's a reason to go for Pizza Hut vs. Dominos (whould have fired him already) but they do have a no-guns-for-thee policy for drivers, so Boo to them as well.

seen at Say Uncle

Investors Happy With Guaranteed Negative Returns (?!)

The three-month treasury bill is selling at a negative rate of return for the first time, ever.


So?

This means that investors are so pessimistic about the prospect of making positive returns on their money in ANY investment over the next three months, they are willing to lose money, just to be sure they will be getting almost all of it back.

Does that sound like an inflation scare to you? Me neither.

Hold on there!

I thought we were going to get all kinds of inflation, you say, because the Fed is churning out new money into the money supply chain! Well let's look at some graphs I found at Mish's place.:

Base money supply: Increasing!!!!1! zOMG! Inflation everybody panic!
Photobucket


Hold on there.

Money actually getting out there which would be able to cause inflation: going negative. Hint: opposite of inflation = ?
Photobucket


Money going straight to the greedy banks who refuse to lend (to anyone that won't pay back loans or else pay a reasonable interest rate, a.k.a. "heading towards a sane balance sheet"):
Photobucket

no, the 1st and 3rd are not the same graph. Look again at the titles and the height of the hockey stick at the "right now" end of the graph.

aaaaand last, but not least, another anecdotal argument that we are headed for a pretty nasty deflationary period with a good dose of Depression thrown in for good measure: Please note the last time the money supply chart looked like it does right now, and consider what happened right after that.
Photobucket

Are you starting to get the picture yet?

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Unlicensed Open Carry In Texas! Sign The Petition.

Texans, if you want to be able to exercise your natural right to self defense without having to register with the government, go sign this petition.

Come on, all the cool kids are doing it!

Jefferson: Out!

In what used to be a reliably Blue district, Congressman William "Cold Cash" Jefferson has been kicked out of office. His opponent was a Vietnamese import, with basically no policy convictions aside from a firm stance against abortion. This is a double-win for the People of the United States of America. Let us hope the new guy decides to come down with the vocal gun-owners on 2A/RKBA issues, and against the Keynesian foolishness in the economy.

Congratulations to freshman Congressman Anh "Joseph" Cao. The People are watching you; please try not to screw up the country.

I Like Gas Here.

The price of a gallon of Regular Unleaded "87 Octane" gasoline in the Central Texas region is hovering around $1.60, give or take a dime. This feels about right. Oil is falling still, so the gas makers (refineries) will be back to profitability soon. I think there is still some downside potential for gasoline prices, but $1.00 would be a pretty big surprise in the near term.

Falling demand leading to falling prices: yet another (incorrect) definition of a depression, which we are in, no matter what the Fed and Uncle Sam may say to the contrary.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Blood Will Run In The Hallways!!!!1!!

Uncle bears good tidings of great joy: My letters have been working! Oh, and probably a few more people have been working on this issue as well eh.

Texas Legislature to consider expanding to college campuses the ability to carry concealed weapons. God willing, this will pass. Considering the fact that the other side only has PSH versus a mounting pile of evidence that Good People + Guns = Safety, there is really no reason for it not to. Especially in Texas.

It's time to call/write your Elected Heroes again. Then call/write again when the bills are actually presented. Repeatedly.

That is all.

Slipping The Taxpayer A $15B Jimmy

Your Elected Heroes are trying to put you on the hook for another $15,000,000,000-ish to buy a water-soluble life jacket for the automakers. Somehow this is a bargain because they were looking at $35B. Funny how it still makes my wallet feel lighter. Make no mistake, you are not saving money here, and they will be back for more.

Bankruptcy. Another word that starts with "B" that I would prefer Congress told them automakers to go for.

The Silent Treatment: WORKS! (But Not How You Women Think)

The Darling Wife and I were both tired, allergic, and grumpy as we were leaving the house at one point this weekend. She was snipping at me as I drove to a gas station, and commandeered the driver's seat as I was refueling Bad Robot. I got in the car on the passenger's side and she wasn't talking to me.

Aaaaah, peace at last!

You see ladies, The Silent Treatment does not work the way you may intend it to work. When men are griping at each other, they will continue until they have concluded a fistfight, had a beer together, or said everything they had to say and finished arguing. When men stop talking, they are finished, and then hours upon multiplied hours can be spent in fraternal silence with no ill-will intended, felt, or created. They will resume being best friends after the words/action have stopped, unless something really bad was done, in which case they will probably have forgotten about the other man and deleted them from their lives within a day.

When women stop talking to each other, apparently this can be the same thing as screaming YOU [DELETED] [EXPLETIVE DELETED]! at each other. Then they will seek to find an occasion to sink a nail into each other's car tires and put paper clips in the other woman's hair dryer, for weeks, months, even years afterwards. Men, stubbornly refusing to read womens' minds since the beginning of time, hear none of the psychic dialog and hear only the absence of annoying sound.

So you see, the difference between boys and girls becomes apparent again, to the boys' advantage: when a woman is really, boiling, steaming mad at her man and stops talking to him for a few minutes to a few hours (especially if it's just until she cools off), the man has exactly what he wanted: peace and quiet, specifically from the absence of her nagging.

Great success!

Childproof Medicine Bottles: WORKS!

I was going about my business this morning and the whole family was awake. I heard the charicteristic rattly-scraping sound of a "childproof" bottle cap spinning but not opening, and looked over to see #1 had grabbed the bottle of Disney Princess gummy vitamins ( !? ) and was trying to open it. Without success. I watched her stop trying to open the bottle, read the cap, and try and fail again. Then I explained the concept of child-proof bottles to her. She went and got Mommy to open and dispense the vitamins to her.

We Are Doomed

Yesterday, nobody so much as mentioned in my hearing that it was an anniversary. I only realized it when I had to write down that date.

It is arguable that history has repeated already, and we have not forgotten. My response to that line of argument: In my father's day, could you have spent the entire day without so much as a passing mention of its infamy?

Saturday, December 6, 2008

UW Student Newspaper: No Apology For Beastiality Referrence.

The student newspaper at the University of Washington ran a series of articles from liberal and conservative viewpoints and a conservative student said "Once you've legalized gay marriage, why not polygamy, incest, bestiality or any other form of union?" The problem with this is that the queer mafia will not allow dissenting opinions to be tolerated, their own demands for tolerance notwithstanding. The accompanying image with the article shows a man standing next to a sheep, and that was apparently unacceptable.

Mention having sex with animals and show a man next to an animal? Why, that's a clear knock on men having sex with men! Yeah, except not so much and -so far- the paper is not backing down or apologizing despite empty-headed student protests.

Chris at The Anarchangel said it best: Homophobia is offensive (the word, not the fear).

Obama: Disqualified In More Ways Than One?

This lawsuit says so. Nevermind the birth certificate jazz, he says, the real problem is that BO was a dual-citizen (UK citizenship through his father) when he was born. The requirement is natural-born and dual-citizens are excluded from the office of President of the United States.

. . . and there has STILL been no release of his so-called birth certificate from Hawaii!

********

Update/edit: The supreme Court turned this one away without comment.

Mexico: It Doesn't Have To Be This Way.

The corruption and drug wars are so bad in Mexico, they won't even believe a plane crash could have been an accident.

Mexico is a nation with all the necessary ingredients to be ranked among the world's super-power nations. Oil chiefly, plus other mineral and water wealth, location, and don't even get me started on tourism.

They also have a corrupt government and a huge drug trafficking problem complete with warring drug lords. One could wish that the people of Mexico had access to arms and the protection of the law. Then, perhaps, when drug runners got shot for their trouble and you couldn't bribe a cop to get out of literally anything, the country of Mexico could really shine. Let us pray for them.

Ithaca, NY: About to Lose (Again).

Ithaca made an ordinance against noises that could be heard more than 25 feet away to prevent street preachers from trying to get people out of going to Hell in public. Problem: you can hear a cell phone ringtone or a sneeze 25 feet away and the law was stupid and struck down by the courts.

Round 2: another street preacher shows up and starts doing his thing. He's arrested by police who (I can hardly type for laughing so hard) said the injunction against enforcing the noise ordinance did not apply to them because they were not involved in the original case!

The proper response of course is to fire two obviously grossly incompetent policemen and just give in to the new lawsuit brought by the ADF.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Coffee. More. Need Coffee.

Last night as we were settling in to do finances at 23:40, my wife reminded me that it is supposed to freeze, and asks if I wrapped up the pipes. Doh! Jacket, shoes, hat, flashlight . . . um . . . bedsheet and dirty old shop towel (should have gone to Home Depot yesterday) . . . and I'm out the door.

I was wrapping up my newly-installed piping and smelled gas. No, not from the burritos. Natural gas from the house supply. I sniffed around and found it leaking from the incoming supply pipe poking out of the ground, at the joint with the meter. Foundation repair and ground subsidence were working against me. When the repair guy from Atmos Energy pulled off the meter, the pipes were at different heights by 3" which explains why just tightening the fitting didn't cut the mustard.

Fast forward to 01:30 this morning and my meter is freshly painted and the pilot lights are all lit. Abed by 02:00 and up at 07:00 after waking twice because the baby was crying.

So. Coffee. Need. More.

********

This morning my carpool buddy was getting the grand tour of the newly painted meter and there was foam at a DIFFERENT joint, from the leak detector soapy water stuff bubbling all night. Great. Ah, it's a slow leak, I'll just let it wait. What's the worst that could happen, right?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Princess Diana Bible (a.k.a. the Gay Bible)

I have seen some pretty blatant blasphemy in my day, but this here comes close if it doesn't outright take the cake. The queers have their thongs in a knot about that whole "God says your behavior is an abomination but still loves you and wants you to do right" thing, and now one of them has written a "bible" version which makes them normal.

You can say the sun is purple, and that you are married to your queer "partner," but just because you say it, don't mean it's so. You can say Jesus was queer and the Bible supports your sinful activity, but changing the text on your own initiative doesn't make it true.

The bad part is, if you read ahead to the back of the book, it's not a good idea to change the beginning of it just to make you feel better about your buggery. Then again, anyone going to this extreme obviously doesn't believe anything the book has to say in the first place, so they are unlikely to see the harm in changing it all around to suit their own pleasure (until it's far too late).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you speak English, you should be using the King James Version of the Bible, period.

Israel Considering Pre-emptive War, US Against It?

How is it that we can go over the river and through the woods to knock down Saddam Hussein's door when he was 'only' supporting terrorism, but we are telling Israel to sit down and behave when the guy two doors down is loading his rifle and making death threats?

If President Calderon of Mexico were saying he was going to blow up Texas, do you really think we wouldn't take drastic measures when it looked like he was almost ready to go?

Iran is almost ready to go.

The US gave Israel a special extra-super-spiffy decoder ring X-band RADAR that will cut minutes off their response time to an Iranian missile launch. Clue: it would only take minutes for the missile to get to Israel from Iran. By the time they scrambled the jets Israel would be seconds away from being a hot glass bowl. Israelis know this. They also know that a missile isn't the only way to deliver a nuke. One good-sized hydrogen bomb delivered from any port, including Gaza, or a much easier-to-conceal truck-based bomb, could effectively destroy the entire country of Israel. And Ahmebeenacrazyguy thinks that would be just fine. Has anyone forgotten, by the way, that missiles are already flying in from the faithful muslims to the evil Jewish men, women, and children, from directly over the border? How stupid do you have to be to think a short-range nuclear-tipped missile couldn't be brought to bear from across the border instead of a across Iraq? Come on now people honestly!

So Israel is making contingency plans for attacking Iran without asking us pretty please to let them go on living another day.

Good. It's about time Israel shook the dust off their swords and rubbed the sleep from their eyes. They bombed nuclear sites in two neighboring countries already. Stand by for #3.

Citizens of Saint Louis Defend Yourselves . . . With . . . Dirty Looks or Something?

The supreme Court of the United States has already declared that police have no duty to protect the individual. St. Lewis police can't protect you in St. Louis as shown by the increase in crime there, and city Alderman Charles Quincy Troupe says you all should be prepared to defend yourself.

I was all set to cheer when I read that.

Until I got to the bottom of this stub article...

"Police did not immediately return requests for comment. Chief Dan Isom told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he understands Troupe's frustration but doesn't support citizens arming themselves.

Carrying guns, he said, is not a "recipe for a less violent community.""


Yes, that's true, except not. I suppose the citizenry should go about with boards with nails in them? Come on Chief Isom, get real. The police are effective (in other cities apparently) in large part because of the threat of lethal force implied by their arms. If a citizen is armed, the same threat is present and a less violent community is almost automatically going to be present. The people who can pass the NICS and local background checks and authorizations are the kinds of people you would want to be police, and they are likely to be better trained and more competent with their weapons than the police. Someone whom the state deigns to grant permission to bear arms in his own defense, is very likely to be someone who will not "just go off" and kill people.

The guns don't shoot themselves. As Colonel Cooper said, the weapon is the man, not the gun he carries.

Carry your guns, people of Saint Louis!

Red Light Cameras: A Grudging Supporter

When I was stationed in San Diego, there was a big flap over the installation of red light cameras, because they were a) an invasion of privacy b) big brother going high tech and c) they were installed in places where lots of lights were run but few accidents took place (for revenue generation), but billed as being "for safety" and d) the police handed off the job of giving out tickets to private companies, including access to the DMV database.

When the idea came to Austin, the people around here raised all the above as reasons why the cameras should not go in. True to form, the city council moved to installed them over the vociferous objections of the citizenry (and mostly got re-elected anyway). So they have been in for a year, and the data have been compiled and studied, and the results are in:

When you install red light cameras at intersections with lots of crashes (for safety), T-bone (right-angle) collisions dropped almost in half. Predictably, rear-end collisions increased but surprisingly only by 5%. This tells me that about half of those [deleted] people who were running red lights and T-bone crashing into and killing people, could have avoided the collisions. Now they are just jamming the brakes and getting hit from behind.

Like I told my Darling Wife the other day, I'd rather somebody got a bad case of whiplash* than a bad case of dead, any day.

People the yellow lights are there for a reason. They are not there to tell you to speed up. If it takes a "you'll be ticketed" camera on the intersection to get you to stop in time for the red light, you are a jackass AND costing me my privacy when the cameras go in to catch your sorry [deleted] and fine you. Our society was set up for the governance of a good, moral, and religious people and if you fall short in those areas, you will disrespect the other drivers on the road and chance the red light. Thus, we must use a bigger stick than the slim chance of a policeman catching you.

Therefore (I thought I would never say this but here goes):

When they are installed (only) at intersections with lots of accidents due to running red lights, and administered by companies with private detective licenses (as Texas cameras may not be, oopsy) or, preferably, the Police. . .

I support the use of red light cameras.

There, I said it. Ugh, now I need a shower.

********

* If you had read or listened to Pete Egoscue like you should have done, you would likely be spared that case of whiplash. If your spine is drawn (by the muscles thereon) into such a shape that your head is rotated down, with your chin by your chest, as you drive, you are begging for a whiplash injury. With your chin down (this is counterintuitive, so follow me here) in a rear-end collision, your head doesn't snap back right away. The spine is not ready for the head to snap back into the headrest; the head is forced FORWARD and then it is too far from the head rest for the head rest to do any good. Then, when your head stops going forward, your head will snap back with nothing to catch it, and you suffer a spinal injury.

If, on the other hand, your spine is erect and your head is close to or touching the head rest, you are in good shape. When your car is hit from behind, the head is positioned to pivot backward on the neck, so it does . . . and strikes the head rest which is there to catch it. Then the headrest pushes your head forward with the rest of the car and, if your head bounces forward it is at a reduced velocity and much less harmful energy is put into your neck, having been dissipated in the padding of your seat back.

Sit up straight! If you can.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Finally, Some Good Economic News!

Read All About It!

Oh, wait...

No Respect, No Respect Atall!*

That would be from the Democrats, for the Constitution.

I had heard rumblings about this a week or two ago when Hillary was nominated to Secretary of State. Now it has actually hit the mainstream news media so I may as well mention it even though they are likely to get one over on you anyhow.

Step 1) The U.S. Constitution prohibits a Senator from being appointed to a civil office, if the civil office got a pay raise during the time they were serving as a Senator.

Step 2) The civil office post of the Secretary of State got a pay raise while Hillary Clinton was a Senator.

Step 3) Therefore, she is barred from serving as Secretary of State. Seems simple, right?

Hold on there.

To the Democrat party, the Constitution is a "living, breathing document" which means basically if they need it changed to suit their ends, by golly it's getting changed. So now there is a serious attempt to

(wait for it)

CIRCUMVENT THE CONSTITUTION FOR THE BENEFIT OF A SINGLE PERSON

They literally are trying to make an end-run around the freakin' Constitution for the United States of America! What makes this shameful spectacle even worse is that the person for whom they are trying to subvert the supreme law of the Land is sitting in one of the houses of Congress that will be voting on this measure. She will be voting on her own behalf to try to bend the constitution just a little bit, just this once

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank the fools idiots City dwellers citizens of New York for electing this carpetbagging [deleted] to the Senate. Good job there, you jerks!

********

For those who did better than the average bear subjected to government school "education" here is the pertinent part of the Constitution. Hair-splitters may note that this is NOT an amendment, but it was in the main body before they passed it around to the States for ratification. Article 1, Section 6 says:

"No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office."


There are more things prohibited in that section than I laid out in Step 1) above, as you can clearly see. This Section prevents shenanigans like empire and dynasty building. How? Let's say some civil office is created during the term of a Congressman, with power to do all sorts of nasty things like take over the country, when you read the fine print of the laws laying out the office's authority. Then the Congressman whose idea it was, gets himself appointed to the new office, and starts running things. Bad, right? Right, that's why the founders of our nation (who were, generally speaking, each smarter than all current members of both houses of congress put together) put it in the first Article of the Constitution.

********

*The title of this post should be read with the voice of Milton in Office Space. If you have never seen Office Space, you need to buy it now, and watch it. Failure to do so will result in your missing half the jokes told by everyone who has ever seen Office Space.

Mumbai Police: Criticism Somewhat Mitigated Due To Budget Cuts

The police did not fire on the gunmen in the train station as I mentioned previously.

Now Uncle relays the very bad news that the policemen on-scene may have not been the best of marksmen, due to a complete lack of experience with their weapons. The official policy was that they should fire their weapons on a firing range for training annually.

The problem:

Most of them, including 10-year veterans of the force, have never fired their weapons at all, due to budgetary constraints. They may have had a rifle and 30 rounds for it, but that was all they got, ever, and it's apparently possible that those 30 rounds were loaded in the magazine a decade ago. Wow.

Rule 1: Police should have guns.
Rule 2: Police should be comptetition-level marksmen due to regular practice with their guns. Pistol AND Rifle, EVERY policeman, from recruit to Chief.
Rule 3: Police should have sufficient mental conditioning to open fire on active criminal shooters without hesitation.
Rule 4: Police should face no negative consequences from killing same.
Rule 5: If your department is not going to allow live-fire training, hand out billy clubs and stop pretending, it only makes you look incompetent.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

One More Reason Not To Have A Cell-Phone: GPS For Everybody!

All phones today have the capability to tell 911 and whoever else can hack the system exactly where you are, with GPS.

Nevermind that whole brain cancer thing from a radio broadcasting straight into your skull, and the gigantic hole in your budget.

Now there is a SIM card that can enable phone owners to use the GPS system like a much more-expensive GPS navigation enabled phone.

It's neat as far as it goes, and budget-minded gadget freaks will surely love it.

I for one am still very happy to be cell phone-free.

Test Your Hearing. Free. Right Now.

It clicks the link!

link

It could be my ears or the speakers, but I didn't hear the 18kHz so well. The ex-pilot across the room tops out at 12kHz. I think this means I am too broke to go shooting enough. or something.

It's neat. Click it. Go on, click it. click click click click click click well how did you do?

California: Still Not Solvent, Still No Budget. EVERYBODY PANIC!

It's officially an emergency, according to Gov. Schwarzenegger. It must be due to a balanced budget requirement in their constitution or they would just start selling bonds or something. At least we got a little dose of honest goodness from the governator:

"We are right now spending money we don't have," Schwarzenegger said. "The federal government shouldn't give us a penny until we straighten out our mess and we can live within our means."


I don't think he was speaking for every citizen, corporation, and governmental agency in the entire nation, but I wish he were. The California legislators are looking at a special legislative session that has a hard deadline for coming up with a budget, and nothing else is on the table but the budget.

Hold on there.

They just did this set of negotiations, with basically the same set of jokers in the state house. They came up with a complete impasse the last time. What will happen when California goes into the next year without a budget? The same things that happened when the Federal government went without a budget (basically transparent to most citizens), or worse?

One could wish a balanced budget requirement were written into the US constitution, but the current situation is something you would have been laughed at for describing 200 years ago. I'm pretty sure the founding fathers' head asplode if somebody told them it would come to handing out trillions of "pennies from heaven" in an attempt to fix something by doing the thing that made the problem.

What a mess. Vote for me!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Citizen, Please Come With Me

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.

Wow. That funny noise is all the people who took potshots at Englishmen in funny hats and "shoot-me red" coats, spinning in their graves.

Current proposal: 20,000 U.S. military regular troops stationed in the homeland for. . . well, for emergencies and whatnot. You know, in case of . . . well, whatever . . . we might need troops for. They may take tax dollars to house, but they would never try to house them in YOUR house. That would be illegal right?

********

You do know you no longer have a legal right to refuse an injection if there is an emergency and your avuncular president decides you need a shot to prevent you spreading or catching whatever is going around, right?

Oh, by the way, I have it from very good sources that the helicopters are not black they are actually very dark green and they have agency markings that you have to be "stop or I'll shoot"-close to read, but they are marked. Conspiracy theorists: completely wrong! Also, the detention centers were built to hold thousands of illegal immigrants. Yep. Hey look, the Goodyear Blimp!

Obama: Twitching to Steal Your Rights?

okay, okay, that was a cheap shot, I admit it.

Does anyone else find it troubling that The President Elect is already developing a nervous tic and he hasn't even taken office yet?

Yikes.

The Brownshirts Ascendant?

A woman expresses a negative opinion about The President Elect and gets a beat-down for her trouble.

Well, at least . . . no, there's no upside to this one. ::shakes head::

Policeman Shot . . . By . . . Himself?

At least he was apparently not claiming to be the only one professional enough to handle a Glock Foh-tee, and it wasn't in front of an entire gun safety class. Still, having just HELD a gun safety class for his own child, one would have hoped Chief Greg Schwarber would have remembered to clear his weapon before cleaning it. This is one of the problems with most striker-fired pistols: they go bang when you pull the trigger with a cartridge in the chamber, and you have to pull the trigger for disassembly.

Glock philosophy: the safety is mostly between your ears.

With best wishes for a speedy recovery, Chief Schwarber, and good luck living this one down. Everyone else: check the chamber at least twice before calling a weapon safe. Always.

We Are In A Recession. . . Apparently, This Is News?

Well, it is at Yahoo! News anyway.

So, the DJIA is off by nearly 700 points. Yawn. What's 680 points between friends, anyhow?

If you really want to know how ugly it is looking out there, go read a few pages of old articles at Mish's place.

He called recession a couple of years ago, by the way. And currently he is saying the bottom of of the housing market is in. . . in 4+ years from now, that is.

Now is a bad time to be borrowing money, unless you really like paying interest. Also to be lending money, unless you don't like getting repaid. The Bush administration trying to push banks to lend is

stupid.

Have a nice recession everybody! Personally, I have $10 in firing range fees riding on the Dow Jones Industrial Average getting to 6,000 before the end of 2009. If you knew how seldom I bet and how I hate to lose my own money, you would know this bet says a lot about my forecast for the US economy. But don't feel bad, the world is going down with us.

Ruger SR9: I'll take mine in .40S&W

The SR9 looks like a nice piece technically and according to reviewers...

especially with the blackened stainless slide:


Hat tip to and image from The Firearm Blog

It fits in holsters made for Glocks. If you wanted a 9mm for around the same price as (or slightly lower than) a Glock, the SR9 is right in the ballpark, and reliability is supposed to be pretty good right out of the box. If you like the idea of a plastic wonder-nine and don't like the Glock's safety system (booger-hook doubles as the only external safety) then this might be one to consider.

If I were in the market for a new pistol AND had $400 laying about, AND they came in .40S&W, I would consider an SR9. You may guess which two of those do not apply. ;)