When we explained that we want to change the carpet in our house, #1 was in tears. She likes the carpet!
With all the problems in the world, the only one she has to cry about is the carpet in her parents' house. Poor thing, she has it so rough! Where did I put that little violin?
I think a large part of the problem is that it was also nap time after a hard day of playing in the back yard. I hope she survives!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
This Must Get Much Worse
. . . Before it gets better.
It occurred to me just now that there is only one answer to the creeping sharia spreading like cancer throughout the civilized world.
The only way to stop this sort of activity is with machine guns. The government will never do it, so it would have to be private machine guns.
That's right, you read it correctly. The only way to prevent our being forced into submission is to fight back. Either we will wake the F up at the ballot box and demand thepetty tyrants .gov agency bureaucrats observe some damn common sense, or we will need private armies to murder men, women, and children in the streets, for their attempts to subjugate us to their fake, made up religion.
But, as the lesson of the crusades teaches us, when we finally get around to slaughtering whole muslim towns and kill them like they would like to do to us, they wind up not trying to subjugate the entire world for a few centuries.
We're not there yet.
If you don't want to see America go the way of UK in tolerating Islam and no other religions, you need to wake up and get involved before it is too late.*
********
*It may already be too late.
It occurred to me just now that there is only one answer to the creeping sharia spreading like cancer throughout the civilized world.
The only way to stop this sort of activity is with machine guns. The government will never do it, so it would have to be private machine guns.
That's right, you read it correctly. The only way to prevent our being forced into submission is to fight back. Either we will wake the F up at the ballot box and demand the
But, as the lesson of the crusades teaches us, when we finally get around to slaughtering whole muslim towns and kill them like they would like to do to us, they wind up not trying to subjugate the entire world for a few centuries.
We're not there yet.
If you don't want to see America go the way of UK in tolerating Islam and no other religions, you need to wake up and get involved before it is too late.*
********
*It may already be too late.
Private "Healthcare" Death Panels!
I have been hearing an awful lot of people with pre-existing conditions and/or soft brains, whining about how the evil rich insurance companies with their 2% profit margins are denying their claims for payment for medical care. They are saying "there are already death panels . . . in the insurance companies!"
1) which would you rather trust: a private company with a 4% to 6% claim refusal rate, or the people currently running the insurance company with the highest refusal rate of all 1,300-odd insurers in America (at 8%, Medicare), the Federal Government?
2) if there weren't so many deep insurance company and .gov (taxpayer) pockets to pay increasingly-large health care bills, a situation brought about in no small part by government intervention in the medical industry . . . that is to say, if you had to pay for your own medical care:
a) it would be WAY cheaper
b) you would be your OWN death panel!
What?
Consider. If you were faced with the choice of either losing 6 months off the end of your life, or putting your own wife and children $100,000 into debt and still dying six months later, would you still demand that chemotherapy? Would you burden your own family with that debt?
Consider. The government AND the insurance company are taking money that would otherwise be going to my wife and kids, to pay for your health care, but you have no problem demanding that the mean ol' health care insurer and/or the taxpayer (medicare) provide you with that same chemotherapy at a cost of $100,000.
. . but . . .
(I know, I'm a jerk)
. . . you should
If your insurance agent didn't have the call to make, between profitability and your care
If your government agency didn't have the call to make, between your care and your society's budget
If the choice were on you to decide whether or not YOU would pay for your care, or die . . .
You would be your private death panel.
1) which would you rather trust: a private company with a 4% to 6% claim refusal rate, or the people currently running the insurance company with the highest refusal rate of all 1,300-odd insurers in America (at 8%, Medicare), the Federal Government?
2) if there weren't so many deep insurance company and .gov (taxpayer) pockets to pay increasingly-large health care bills, a situation brought about in no small part by government intervention in the medical industry . . . that is to say, if you had to pay for your own medical care:
a) it would be WAY cheaper
b) you would be your OWN death panel!
What?
Consider. If you were faced with the choice of either losing 6 months off the end of your life, or putting your own wife and children $100,000 into debt and still dying six months later, would you still demand that chemotherapy? Would you burden your own family with that debt?
Consider. The government AND the insurance company are taking money that would otherwise be going to my wife and kids, to pay for your health care, but you have no problem demanding that the mean ol' health care insurer and/or the taxpayer (medicare) provide you with that same chemotherapy at a cost of $100,000.
. . but . . .
(I know, I'm a jerk)
. . . you should
If your insurance agent didn't have the call to make, between profitability and your care
If your government agency didn't have the call to make, between your care and your society's budget
If the choice were on you to decide whether or not YOU would pay for your care, or die . . .
You would be your private death panel.
Passive-Agressive Spanish Speaking*
Someone who has been in America for longer than six months, and they can't even get by with some pidgin English, is acting out in passive aggression against America and/or Americans, and expressing their own self-loathing. If a woman drags along her husband to translate everywhere she goes, and she has been here for years, not only is she thumbing her nose at YOU, but he is letting her run him, as well.
This is America. Spik Eengrish, at least, for crying out loud!
********
*Or any other language. There is a whole long train of thought leading up to these conclusions. Trust me, my logic is irrefutable(!).
This is America. Spik Eengrish, at least, for crying out loud!
********
*Or any other language. There is a whole long train of thought leading up to these conclusions. Trust me, my logic is irrefutable(!).
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Fat (Morbidly Obese) Preachers: WTF?!
I know I am being mean and uncharitable here, and my prejudice is showing, but . . .
********
How are you supposed to be a moral guide to the people and show them the way, and yet yourself are morbidly obese? These days, knowing as we do the dangers and causes of being overfat, what does it say to the children in your church, for you to be a tubbo lard? Sure you talk a good game and maybe you even walk the walk . . . but you are fat.
Would you (my dear readers) trust with your own soul's eternal fate a preacher who smoked? How about a preacher who spends every night drunk? One should likewise treat a fatass preacher!
Look, I know everyone has his own pet sin, but I don't wear a sandwich board everywhere I go, announcing I have a gay midget lobster porn website for transsexuals* into church to deliver a message to my flock!
You like pie? Tough. Skip it. Lose a hundred pounds, then tell me again to love my brother.
********
*I don't actually, have such a website, but I probably wouldn't wear a billboard announcing it, in church, if I did. Also, this is pretty sure to drive up the hit counter from some serious perv's hitting me up on the search engine. Oh well.
********
How are you supposed to be a moral guide to the people and show them the way, and yet yourself are morbidly obese? These days, knowing as we do the dangers and causes of being overfat, what does it say to the children in your church, for you to be a tubbo lard? Sure you talk a good game and maybe you even walk the walk . . . but you are fat.
Would you (my dear readers) trust with your own soul's eternal fate a preacher who smoked? How about a preacher who spends every night drunk? One should likewise treat a fatass preacher!
Look, I know everyone has his own pet sin, but I don't wear a sandwich board everywhere I go, announcing I have a gay midget lobster porn website for transsexuals* into church to deliver a message to my flock!
You like pie? Tough. Skip it. Lose a hundred pounds, then tell me again to love my brother.
********
*I don't actually, have such a website, but I probably wouldn't wear a billboard announcing it, in church, if I did. Also, this is pretty sure to drive up the hit counter from some serious perv's hitting me up on the search engine. Oh well.
Monday, December 28, 2009
I LOL'd
Uncle said he was surprised to hear his mother consent -after several years- to give him ammunition as a Christmas present. Behold the generosity of Mom!
CO2 Bogeyman Shot Smack Between The Eyes
Moonbattery links to an article discussing a study by some physicists proving that Anthropogenic (read: caused by white men) Global Warming due to increasing CO2 emissions not only isn't happening, it can't, on account of the physics.
Skeptical of the possible source, I clicked through the links. The study is hosted at the Cornell University Library archives. The radicals!
Global Warming/Climate Change believers: NOW will you admit you are wrong?
Skeptical of the possible source, I clicked through the links. The study is hosted at the Cornell University Library archives. The radicals!
Global Warming/Climate Change believers: NOW will you admit you are wrong?
Back to the GWOT
You may recall that we as a nation went from "lame" fighting a Global War On Terror, to "downright suicidally-stupid," fighting Overseas Contingency Actions to prevent Man-Caused Disasters.
Well, Bush has been out for a year so we can't blame him for everything anymore. It's pretty obvious from all reports that this cat who tried to blow up an airliner this Christmas was a 'mooj' and nobody doesn't know it. . .
So now, the War On Terror is apparently back (for now). We are acting very quickly to shut the bag after the cat is out, and we'll be searching everyone's navel and other places where the sun doesn't shine, for having the temerity to get on an airplane today. Gibbs made mention of the once-forbidden term "War On Terror" in a press conference earlier. Just now, during Obama's big press conference the President said it was an "attempted act of terrorism"
Bonus points for Janet "Swine Flu" Napolitano, who was widely reported Yesterday as saying that "the system worked," which of course was "taken out of context." She meant the stuff that happens after an attack worked great, but the system to prevent an attack, you were supposed to know by instinct she meant that stuff "failed miserably." You know, the stuff you are spending brazillions of dollars and sacrificing your dignity at the airport for? Yeah, THAT failed.
Incompetence. Bungling incompetence and largely-benign Bush-hatred. That's what I like to think about the current New Boss and all their actions. That is to say, our country may very well fall due to bungling incompetence and the Good Intentions of people who were elected on the basis of a (cult of) personality contest between a stick in the mud and a BLACK GUY!!!!1!
Well, Bush has been out for a year so we can't blame him for everything anymore. It's pretty obvious from all reports that this cat who tried to blow up an airliner this Christmas was a 'mooj' and nobody doesn't know it. . .
So now, the War On Terror is apparently back (for now). We are acting very quickly to shut the bag after the cat is out, and we'll be searching everyone's navel and other places where the sun doesn't shine, for having the temerity to get on an airplane today. Gibbs made mention of the once-forbidden term "War On Terror" in a press conference earlier. Just now, during Obama's big press conference the President said it was an "attempted act of terrorism"
Bonus points for Janet "Swine Flu" Napolitano, who was widely reported Yesterday as saying that "the system worked," which of course was "taken out of context." She meant the stuff that happens after an attack worked great, but the system to prevent an attack, you were supposed to know by instinct she meant that stuff "failed miserably." You know, the stuff you are spending brazillions of dollars and sacrificing your dignity at the airport for? Yeah, THAT failed.
Incompetence. Bungling incompetence and largely-benign Bush-hatred. That's what I like to think about the current New Boss and all their actions. That is to say, our country may very well fall due to bungling incompetence and the Good Intentions of people who were elected on the basis of a (cult of) personality contest between a stick in the mud and a BLACK GUY!!!!1!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sure, Why Not: Butterfly Trigger for AR-15 / M-16
Walk around with gun people long enough and you will trip over something strange.
Image from DSA.
Love shooting with your butterfly trigger but can't afford .50BMG to feed your favorite Ma Deuce? Why, pull that high-powered machine gun off the mount and slap your poodle shooter up there instead!
From KNS Precision who will have a devoted fanboy following for this product in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
Image from DSA.
Love shooting with your butterfly trigger but can't afford .50BMG to feed your favorite Ma Deuce? Why, pull that high-powered machine gun off the mount and slap your poodle shooter up there instead!
From KNS Precision who will have a devoted fanboy following for this product in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .
This Is A Shell Game.
They want to steal your liberty. The immediate, obvious way to do that right now is by controlling your life through "health" regulations, with which you must comply because they hold the purse strings to pay your doctor.
Thecommunists Democrats in Congress want to pass a "healthcare" bill so badly that they can taste it. Don't be fooled by talk of giving up on the government-run "public" "option." They can always amend it in to the bill as part of a post-office renaming bill or a defense spending bill, if they don't get it this time around.
What? You don't think they would? See if they don't!
P.S. whatever happened to the scruples? What happened to your principled demand for a single-payer system? Like all the rest of your 'principles' it has gone down the shitter, when it looks like you might lose the whole thing. You jerks.
The
What? You don't think they would? See if they don't!
P.S. whatever happened to the scruples? What happened to your principled demand for a single-payer system? Like all the rest of your 'principles' it has gone down the shitter, when it looks like you might lose the whole thing. You jerks.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Again. They Left Out "Again."
The take-away line from this Yahoo! News article is:
Bill, you've almost got it. You forgot to say "again." You should have said:
In 1940, if someone were obviously trying to kill 300 people, they would have had the [deleted] kicked out of them, no questions asked. The police would have taken the miscreant into custody, charged and jailed him appropirately, and the matter would be officially closed.
In 2001, several hundred people set the example of what too much lawyering could do: they sat docile while their planes were flown into buildings by faithful Muslims. A few more, on the same day, showed what ought to be done, everywhere, when Evil threatens force: meet it with superior force from Good. That the Good and the Sheep all died, is not part of the story.
So this MUSLIM man whose father's warning to the US Dept. of State was insufficient to cancel his visa or even put him on the no-fly list, tried to blow up Northweat flight 253 this weekend. A passenger saw a fire, jumped up and put out the fire. The dude was subdued, stripped to ensure there were no more weapons on him, and held for the Police. This was the proper course of action. Everyone involved should get free flights to anywhere, from the airline, for life.
I did mention there were too many (bad) lawyers in the USA, right? Yeah, don't be surprised to see the unassuming heroes in this incident to be brought up on assault and wrongful imprisonment charges. If the DA is a real sleaze, they'll probably come up with some racial profiling or religious discrimination nonsense, as well.
Regardless of what the press and the lawyers say after the fact, secure in their Monday Morning Quarterback chairs, I say "Congratulations" to Jasper Schuringa, the flying Dutchman who first acted to save his own [deleted] on flight 253.
"Aggressive intervention has become the new societal norm," -Bill Voss, Flight Safety Foundation, Alexandria, VA
Bill, you've almost got it. You forgot to say "again." You should have said:
"Aggressive intervention has become the new societal norm again."
In 1940, if someone were obviously trying to kill 300 people, they would have had the [deleted] kicked out of them, no questions asked. The police would have taken the miscreant into custody, charged and jailed him appropirately, and the matter would be officially closed.
In 2001, several hundred people set the example of what too much lawyering could do: they sat docile while their planes were flown into buildings by faithful Muslims. A few more, on the same day, showed what ought to be done, everywhere, when Evil threatens force: meet it with superior force from Good. That the Good and the Sheep all died, is not part of the story.
So this MUSLIM man whose father's warning to the US Dept. of State was insufficient to cancel his visa or even put him on the no-fly list, tried to blow up Northweat flight 253 this weekend. A passenger saw a fire, jumped up and put out the fire. The dude was subdued, stripped to ensure there were no more weapons on him, and held for the Police. This was the proper course of action. Everyone involved should get free flights to anywhere, from the airline, for life.
I did mention there were too many (bad) lawyers in the USA, right? Yeah, don't be surprised to see the unassuming heroes in this incident to be brought up on assault and wrongful imprisonment charges. If the DA is a real sleaze, they'll probably come up with some racial profiling or religious discrimination nonsense, as well.
Regardless of what the press and the lawyers say after the fact, secure in their Monday Morning Quarterback chairs, I say "Congratulations" to Jasper Schuringa, the flying Dutchman who first acted to save his own [deleted] on flight 253.
Good Times Overload
The last three days have been so stress-free I'm about to die of peace. It's a good thing I got a couple of thick books for Christmas, to keep me from having to think or else I'd be upset at your Elected Heroes for trying to destroy my nation . . .
. . . hey there I go already. I better kick myself off the computer again.
. . . hey there I go already. I better kick myself off the computer again.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Christmas
Don't forget it's about God humbling himself to the point of having a woman he created, wiping his poopy diapers, and a man he made teaching him to pound nails . . .
so that he could eventually be tortured to death to pay for your sins.
so that he could eventually be tortured to death to pay for your sins.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Madoff Got A Beat-Down.
Swindling Bernie has been admitted to hospital with injuries consistent with an assault.
Good.
Good.
Not Too Subtle There, Honey.
I had fired up the computer to check messages and then got distracted playing with the children. My Darling Wife, having finished preparations to step out of the house, pulled up my Wish List, then asked how to spell the title of one of the books on it.
She's sweet and all, but sometimes her sooper-seekrit plans are . . . a little obvious.
vive la difference!
She's sweet and all, but sometimes her sooper-seekrit plans are . . . a little obvious.
vive la difference!
My Prognosis Just Got A Whole Lot Worse.
The chances of me ending up dead somewhere in America, surrounded by the fresh-killed enemies of individual liberty, just got a whole lot better.
Chairman Obama has just granted Interpol the ability to operate in the USA. That would be, an international law enforcement agency which works closely with the liberty-hating International Criminal Court.
To a socialist who doesn't find anything especially good about the USA, this is fine. To someone who understands that the USA is the greatest nation in the world, due to the goodness of the people (caused by the greatness of our God), this is a problem. It is -possibly- only a matter of time before we start seeing American people arrested for crimes that are no crimes at all according to American laws.
So, if Interpol starts rounding up bloggers for hurting peoples' feelings, I'll start carrying more guns with me everywhere I go, gun laws to the contrary notwithstanding. And, should I be apprehended by them, I'll just have to refuse as a sovereign American to go with a law enforcement agent with no legitimate jurisdiction over me.
Please note, you who have not been following me in this post: Interpol can now act without concern for your right as an American (as a Human) to free speech, thanks to President Obama's Executive Order. They can also act without regard for your rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. In theory (I sure hope it doesn't get past the hypothetical! ) Interpol can now kick in the front door of your home because of the words that come out of your mouth, or from your keyboard, and you will have no legal standing to say anything about it. Of course, as Mike Vanderboegh says: "I STILL get to vote."
It's up to them how hard they try to take me, but I bet Vanderboegh will be in the same court as me, with a 'case' of who can get shots on target first.
Chairman Obama has just granted Interpol the ability to operate in the USA. That would be, an international law enforcement agency which works closely with the liberty-hating International Criminal Court.
To a socialist who doesn't find anything especially good about the USA, this is fine. To someone who understands that the USA is the greatest nation in the world, due to the goodness of the people (caused by the greatness of our God), this is a problem. It is -possibly- only a matter of time before we start seeing American people arrested for crimes that are no crimes at all according to American laws.
So, if Interpol starts rounding up bloggers for hurting peoples' feelings, I'll start carrying more guns with me everywhere I go, gun laws to the contrary notwithstanding. And, should I be apprehended by them, I'll just have to refuse as a sovereign American to go with a law enforcement agent with no legitimate jurisdiction over me.
Please note, you who have not been following me in this post: Interpol can now act without concern for your right as an American (as a Human) to free speech, thanks to President Obama's Executive Order. They can also act without regard for your rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. In theory (I sure hope it doesn't get past the hypothetical! ) Interpol can now kick in the front door of your home because of the words that come out of your mouth, or from your keyboard, and you will have no legal standing to say anything about it. Of course, as Mike Vanderboegh says: "I STILL get to vote."
It's up to them how hard they try to take me, but I bet Vanderboegh will be in the same court as me, with a 'case' of who can get shots on target first.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
What President Obama Really Wants* In The "Healthcare" Bill
You get to decide. Based on what his party is trying to jam down your throat without any input or help from the Republicans, which of the following he means. The first quote was said before the second. Note: I heard him say both of these with my own ears. Note also that it is not a lie if you don't remember what your teleprompter told you to say when you said the opposite thing before.
********
*Seriously? He's a naked Marxist. He wants control over your health, not just the payment for your health care. Which do YOU think he meant?
"I happen to be a proponent of single-payer health care plan. That's what I would like to see." -Barack Hussein Obama
"I have not said that I am a single-payer supporter" -Barack Hussein Obama
********
*Seriously? He's a naked Marxist. He wants control over your health, not just the payment for your health care. Which do YOU think he meant?
Take Back The Language:
Tam reminds us: Don't say "electric car," say "coal-powered car."
hmm?
Okay then smarty pants, where does your electricity come from?
hmm?
Okay then smarty pants, where does your electricity come from?
The Law Of The Medes And Persians
. . . which changeth not
The "healthcare" bill under consideration in the Senate is a proposed law. It is being made by people elected according to law (well, mostly), to make laws in accordance with law. There are rules for the bodies that make laws. We started off as a nation by changing laws enacted by a tyrant to suit our liking, then set out with the goal of following the new laws we made for ourselves.
Now the Senate is trying to prevent a law from changing. That is, they want to foist off a law on the American people that estabilshes a body to say who gets health care and who doesn't, and then they want to make it so that the "death panel" part of the new law can never be changed.
They want to change the rules of making rules, by making a rule that does not comply with the procedure for rule making, so that the rules can never be changed. Because they are not only right in what they seek to do, they are so right there is no possibility EVAR that they could be wrong. There will be no law above this law. Not on MY Senate floor, says (King) Harry Reid.
I just hope we don't have a Fort Sumpter. I join in MBV's opinion that we can't start a successful armed revolt until the public at large has awoken to the chains that lay heavy on them. An abortive rebellion before the right time is exactly what we DON'T need.
Unlike him, I hold out a hope for our country that it need not come to that. Time will tell which of us is correct.
The "healthcare" bill under consideration in the Senate is a proposed law. It is being made by people elected according to law (well, mostly), to make laws in accordance with law. There are rules for the bodies that make laws. We started off as a nation by changing laws enacted by a tyrant to suit our liking, then set out with the goal of following the new laws we made for ourselves.
Now the Senate is trying to prevent a law from changing. That is, they want to foist off a law on the American people that estabilshes a body to say who gets health care and who doesn't, and then they want to make it so that the "death panel" part of the new law can never be changed.
They want to change the rules of making rules, by making a rule that does not comply with the procedure for rule making, so that the rules can never be changed. Because they are not only right in what they seek to do, they are so right there is no possibility EVAR that they could be wrong. There will be no law above this law. Not on MY Senate floor, says (King) Harry Reid.
I just hope we don't have a Fort Sumpter. I join in MBV's opinion that we can't start a successful armed revolt until the public at large has awoken to the chains that lay heavy on them. An abortive rebellion before the right time is exactly what we DON'T need.
Unlike him, I hold out a hope for our country that it need not come to that. Time will tell which of us is correct.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Insurance Companies Are Driven By Profit and GREED*!
~or~ "Why America May Be Doomed"
Boortz got a call from a "doctor" the other day, who criticized "these insurance companies" for being "profit-driven." The proper response to someone who believes ANYTHING being profit-driven is somehow bad or even evil, is the following:
Do you have a job?
When they answer in the affirmative, you can then tell them Then YOU are profit-driven! And what's wrong with that?
They will protest, if they have not been down this road before. "I'm not profit-driven!"
Okay, then what would you say to this: Your employer is going to stop giving you paychecks, but you will continue to get your mortgage and bills paid. Your boss will tell you what you can do for recreation. They'll give you recreation vouchers for specific uses. They probably won't like it. Ask them what's the difference between their boss dictating how they spend their money, and the government saying how an insurance agent can spend his money. Sputtering is likely to ensue. If they are an above-average graduate of government schools, it is possible they will muster a response along the lines of:
Because people NEED health insurance! You shouldn't make a profit off things people NEED!
Then you ask them again what's the difference between their boss telling them how they can spend their entertainment vouchers, and the government dictating how someone else can spend their money. This may come around to a statement that they're not telling them how they can spend their money. The point then becomes: if you limit to expenses and overhead, how much an insurer can earn, no profit allowed, they don't have anything left over for going to the movies with their kids. Is THAT "FAAAAAaaaair?"
Now you run into the limitations of government education provided by soft communists: They say "well, no, but. . ." and you get stuck in a loop. Great patience is required to walk someone through the logic of the relative merits of capitalism vs. communism, but it is largely a wasted effort. Ask them if they generally agree with the idea that we should have the government take from people who have more than they need, and give to people who are genuinely needy. These days, unfortunately, you will get an affirmative response. Then you ask them, so, do you agree with the basic premise: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need?"
You are very likely to get an affirmative response again. Ask them if they know who popularized that phrase. They won't. Tell them it was Karl Marx, a man who had never had a real job, and who had a skin condition known to dispose people with a generally nasty personality. He is also referred to as the Father of Communism. Tell them "So basically you're a communist then."
You are then in for another lengthy round of protest and counterpoint. If you are extremely patient, you may convince someone that they have been harboring communist sentiment. You may get them to agree in theory that capitalism is better. You are extremely unlikely to convince them that they are on the way to adding to the hundred-million-plus people killed by their own communist governments. Plant the seed if you can, and tell them if they want to talk about it some more, they can hit you up at any time. Or redirect them here and they can contact me. I will also make no headway with them, but at least they will stop annoying you with their anti-American sentiments.
*I KNOW this is a potential straw-man! You needn't tell me that. I also know I have heard (and had) this conversation more times than I can count, and this is a stereotype based on experience with the "average American" government-schoolvictim graduate.
Boortz got a call from a "doctor" the other day, who criticized "these insurance companies" for being "profit-driven." The proper response to someone who believes ANYTHING being profit-driven is somehow bad or even evil, is the following:
Do you have a job?
When they answer in the affirmative, you can then tell them Then YOU are profit-driven! And what's wrong with that?
They will protest, if they have not been down this road before. "I'm not profit-driven!"
Okay, then what would you say to this: Your employer is going to stop giving you paychecks, but you will continue to get your mortgage and bills paid. Your boss will tell you what you can do for recreation. They'll give you recreation vouchers for specific uses. They probably won't like it. Ask them what's the difference between their boss dictating how they spend their money, and the government saying how an insurance agent can spend his money. Sputtering is likely to ensue. If they are an above-average graduate of government schools, it is possible they will muster a response along the lines of:
Because people NEED health insurance! You shouldn't make a profit off things people NEED!
Then you ask them again what's the difference between their boss telling them how they can spend their entertainment vouchers, and the government dictating how someone else can spend their money. This may come around to a statement that they're not telling them how they can spend their money. The point then becomes: if you limit to expenses and overhead, how much an insurer can earn, no profit allowed, they don't have anything left over for going to the movies with their kids. Is THAT "FAAAAAaaaair?"
Now you run into the limitations of government education provided by soft communists: They say "well, no, but. . ." and you get stuck in a loop. Great patience is required to walk someone through the logic of the relative merits of capitalism vs. communism, but it is largely a wasted effort. Ask them if they generally agree with the idea that we should have the government take from people who have more than they need, and give to people who are genuinely needy. These days, unfortunately, you will get an affirmative response. Then you ask them, so, do you agree with the basic premise: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need?"
You are very likely to get an affirmative response again. Ask them if they know who popularized that phrase. They won't. Tell them it was Karl Marx, a man who had never had a real job, and who had a skin condition known to dispose people with a generally nasty personality. He is also referred to as the Father of Communism. Tell them "So basically you're a communist then."
You are then in for another lengthy round of protest and counterpoint. If you are extremely patient, you may convince someone that they have been harboring communist sentiment. You may get them to agree in theory that capitalism is better. You are extremely unlikely to convince them that they are on the way to adding to the hundred-million-plus people killed by their own communist governments. Plant the seed if you can, and tell them if they want to talk about it some more, they can hit you up at any time. Or redirect them here and they can contact me. I will also make no headway with them, but at least they will stop annoying you with their anti-American sentiments.
*I KNOW this is a potential straw-man! You needn't tell me that. I also know I have heard (and had) this conversation more times than I can count, and this is a stereotype based on experience with the "average American" government-school
Sure, Why Not? Robot Surgery On BEATING Hearts.
I suppose this here was just a matter of time.
We have robots to do delicate surgery already.
We have motion sensing robots already.
Shoot we already have robots to LASER beam your eyes into focus.
Now we have a robot that lets the surgeon operate on your heart, without stopping the heart beating first.
Good Lord, this is amazing stuff.
We have robots to do delicate surgery already.
We have motion sensing robots already.
Shoot we already have robots to LASER beam your eyes into focus.
Now we have a robot that lets the surgeon operate on your heart, without stopping the heart beating first.
Good Lord, this is amazing stuff.
Guns In The "Healthcare" Bill
Jamie Dupree just posted a brief mention of the RKBA-related provisions in the healthcare bill, entitled Second Amendment Health.
Whichever Demican got this snuck in there has done us all a huge favor, and has my thanks. Also they get a stooge-slap from me along with the rest of the Democrat Caucus, for forcing this anti-American, anti-Liberty (but I repeat myself) bill through without a care for what is good, right, or even popular.
Cliffs: at least according to THIS part of the 2700+ pagemess bill, you won't be required to disclose your gun ownership status, and your premiums under the government-run healthcare scam scheme can't be increased because you exercise your right to keep arms AND your "right" to "healthcare" simultaneously.
Whichever Demican got this snuck in there has done us all a huge favor, and has my thanks. Also they get a stooge-slap from me along with the rest of the Democrat Caucus, for forcing this anti-American, anti-Liberty (but I repeat myself) bill through without a care for what is good, right, or even popular.
Cliffs: at least according to THIS part of the 2700+ page
Monday, December 21, 2009
Red Berry Juniper Time Again. BOO!
I got that drowning feeling in the ol' lungs again tonight. Sure 'nuff, the allergy forecast says the red berry juniper is back in town.
Ugh.
On the other hand, we did get the super-deal on Wal-itin again, thank God. That'd be Walgreens' generic loratadine 10mg. 150 with a +90 bonus, with a $10 in-store coupon. Make that, 240 for less than the cost of 90 pills. Thanks Jesus!
Ugh.
On the other hand, we did get the super-deal on Wal-itin again, thank God. That'd be Walgreens' generic loratadine 10mg. 150 with a +90 bonus, with a $10 in-store coupon. Make that, 240 for less than the cost of 90 pills. Thanks Jesus!
Your Democrat Senators Are DUMB.
While we're on the subject of buying votes, what's up with the other Democrat Senators? Why do Nebraska, Montana, Louisiana, and the other one (I forget which just now) get all sorts of pork and your State doesn't? I mean, it is dramatically obvious that all it takes is the tiniest bit of resistance and the Democrat Senate leadership folds like a house of cards and gives a protesting Demican Senator whatever they want . . .
. . . so what's wrong with your Senator? Why don't they push back a little bit against the Caucus and get some pork for YOU? Doesn't YOUR State need a new University Medical Center? Couldn't YOUR State use some "help" paying for the new Medicare rules? Call YOUR Senator today and demand MORE PORK for the home State!
. . . so what's wrong with your Senator? Why don't they push back a little bit against the Caucus and get some pork for YOU? Doesn't YOUR State need a new University Medical Center? Couldn't YOUR State use some "help" paying for the new Medicare rules? Call YOUR Senator today and demand MORE PORK for the home State!
2700+ Pages of Liberty Destruction
HR 3590 from the house was gutted and the Senate put 2700+ pages of Health Care System Destruction bill in it. That would include a 383-page amendment dropped in on Saturday, and the whole shebang was voted on at 01:00 today. That also includes, for our posterity to shake their heads at, all the pork and gimmies they had to put in, to buy Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson.
Because they want to steal your liberty. Never forget that it was, once again, the DEMOCRAT party trying to steal your liberty.
Or at least, if you must forget, don't forget until AFTER the 2010 elections.
Because they want to steal your liberty. Never forget that it was, once again, the DEMOCRAT party trying to steal your liberty.
Or at least, if you must forget, don't forget until AFTER the 2010 elections.
Women Suck At Parking: Who Knew?
A (female) researcher says there is a difference between boys and girls! The end of feminism! Oh NOES!!!!11!!
Well, fear if that sort of reaction is probably why you never heard this on your local newscast, anyway. Of course, you already knew men are better at parking than women, but stupidly you failed to apply for a jillion Federal Stimulus Dollars to study it. Oh well, better luck next time!
Well, fear if that sort of reaction is probably why you never heard this on your local newscast, anyway. Of course, you already knew men are better at parking than women, but stupidly you failed to apply for a jillion Federal Stimulus Dollars to study it. Oh well, better luck next time!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
High Comedy: Childish Facial Expressions
#3 likes salsa.
Mamma makes her some HOT salsa, usually.
#3 sometimes takes a small taste, because Mamma obviously is enjoying her "spicies" but after the initial tasting he just pretends to continue dipping his chip in the mouth-fire sauce.
Today, Mamma was eating some "spicy" and #3 wanted a taste. She dipped a chip for him and he touched the barest corner of it to his mouth. He screwed up his face in anticipation of the inferno to come . . . and was very surprised to be able to tolerate it! Somebody gave us some mild sauce and #3 happily chowed down on it for a couple of minutes after he realized it wouldn't destroy his mouth for the next half-hour.
I LOL'd.
Mamma makes her some HOT salsa, usually.
#3 sometimes takes a small taste, because Mamma obviously is enjoying her "spicies" but after the initial tasting he just pretends to continue dipping his chip in the mouth-fire sauce.
Today, Mamma was eating some "spicy" and #3 wanted a taste. She dipped a chip for him and he touched the barest corner of it to his mouth. He screwed up his face in anticipation of the inferno to come . . . and was very surprised to be able to tolerate it! Somebody gave us some mild sauce and #3 happily chowed down on it for a couple of minutes after he realized it wouldn't destroy his mouth for the next half-hour.
I LOL'd.
Democrats Finally Bought 60 Votes On "HealthCare"
Because they are the most open and accessible administration ever, and they want to get it done right the first time, this weekend the Democrats (true to form) shed principle and all but the main objective "pass the bill" and did whatever it took to get Senator Nelson to sign on with the Democrat Caucus as they try to destroy the world's finest health care system and the only bastion for individual liberty, anywhere.
Because Nelson's party says so, and because he as a Senator knows better than you what should be done with your own money, they are now ready to have a cloture vote on debating the "healthcare" bill at 01:00 Monday MORNING. Because getting it done before the election year is more important than anything, even the contents of the actual legislation!
Fortunately for the cause of liberty, there is no single-payer system built into the Senate bill, but the major power players in the House have already said there has to be one. Unless the house rubber-stamps the Senate version, this is going to take longer than a couple of weeks.
Elections have consequences. Did you vote against Obama? If not, heeere's yer sign
Because Nelson's party says so, and because he as a Senator knows better than you what should be done with your own money, they are now ready to have a cloture vote on debating the "healthcare" bill at 01:00 Monday MORNING. Because getting it done before the election year is more important than anything, even the contents of the actual legislation!
Fortunately for the cause of liberty, there is no single-payer system built into the Senate bill, but the major power players in the House have already said there has to be one. Unless the house rubber-stamps the Senate version, this is going to take longer than a couple of weeks.
Elections have consequences. Did you vote against Obama? If not, heeere's yer sign
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Crisis Averted! Let's Get Out Of The Blizzard!
The Copenhagen talks about how to crush the western world's capitalist economies in the name of preventing Global Warming! have concluded. An agreement was reached, and it is much better than I had hoped. Basically it says:
"We don't like the icky climate change thing, but we can't be seen as having accomplished nothing at all over here after spending all this money to set up the conference. We agree that in theory it would be nice if everyone would agree to cooperate and slow their national economies (if rich) or get lots of free money (if poor) and then it, like, wouldn't get all hot an' junk. For now, we'll just keep on pollutin' as usual.
"P.S. please don't ask about our carbon footprints getting here on private jets and driving around in limo's, and don't tell our wives what the 'extra expenses' are on our hotel bills. Also please don't mention the seven-year record-deep snow that fell during the global warming talks. No, we did not actually hear God laughing at us from Heaven.
"XOXOXO, Love, -The World's Leftist Bureaucrats"
Friday, December 18, 2009
Chairman Zero Would Love This Idea.
What's a good way to increase your GDP (on paper)? Spend government money on infrastructure. What's the ultimate infrastructure project? A whole frikken CITY.
I heard on the radio earlier this year that Hugo Chavez was planning to make a city from scratch for the benefit of the poor people of Venezuela. News to me is that China has already MADE a city. Ordos. They built it for a million people, and nobody has moved in, five years later.
Agree or not (I do) that China is on top of a real estate bubble at least as bad as the one recently burst in the USA, but click through to Mish's Analysis of it scroll down to the YouTube video. It's pretty stunning. There are also some other good links about China's problems there as well.
I heard on the radio earlier this year that Hugo Chavez was planning to make a city from scratch for the benefit of the poor people of Venezuela. News to me is that China has already MADE a city. Ordos. They built it for a million people, and nobody has moved in, five years later.
Agree or not (I do) that China is on top of a real estate bubble at least as bad as the one recently burst in the USA, but click through to Mish's Analysis of it scroll down to the YouTube video. It's pretty stunning. There are also some other good links about China's problems there as well.
Why Do We NOT Do This?
By the time a soldier has been through a few tours of duty in the sandbox, There is a good chance that he loves his service rifle and his pistol, and both weapons are a LOT closer to the end of their useful service life.
Why does he not get to take them home with him? The Swiss let their men do it, and they have a gun crime rate of approximately nil. If it's money you are worried about, give the men a decent price and a bunch of them would still jump at the chance to keep "their own" weapons.
Oh wait, I forgot, there's a laaaaaaaw!!!1!
Bah, humbug!
Why does he not get to take them home with him? The Swiss let their men do it, and they have a gun crime rate of approximately nil. If it's money you are worried about, give the men a decent price and a bunch of them would still jump at the chance to keep "their own" weapons.
Oh wait, I forgot, there's a laaaaaaaw!!!1!
Bah, humbug!
Keep Your Electronics Clean, People!
I have seen a dramatic, complete failure to function caused by DUST this past week.
We have for sale a LeCroy WaveRunner 6100 oscilloscope that worked fine when I first listed it for sale. Several weeks later, a customer called and asked us to perform a specific functional check. We pulled it in from the inventory room, and the stupid thing wouldn't load the oscilloscope software! It's a Windows PC with a touchscreen, and oh by the way has a bit of LeCroy kit on it that is worth more than my car. When Windows went to load the LeCroy stuff, it couldn't find the hardware. It wouldn't load the 'scope, because it couldn't find the hardware. LeCroy was contacted, and they sait it was stuffed, and quoted us a large number of dollars to effect a repair.
As a last-ditch effort, I opened the case and hit it with our shop's compressed air. An entire ranch of dust bunnies was evicted. I applied power and the stupid thing loaded right up! I put the case back on and switched on again, and the scope seemed to be working fine.
Because of dust.
Hit your computer's vents and the cracks in the case with some compressed air and you will be astonished at the dust that comes out. Open the case and you'll see something you weren't expecting at all. Blow it all clean. It'll work better and use less power.
Nota Bene: What's the difference between a VanDeGraaff generator and a vacuum cleaner, as far as your computer is concerned? NOTHING. Either will probably kill your computer with several thousand volts of static electricity. Do NOT vacuum out electronics. Blow them off either with an air compressor or purpose-made spray-cans of "dust-off" spray (or similar).
We have for sale a LeCroy WaveRunner 6100 oscilloscope that worked fine when I first listed it for sale. Several weeks later, a customer called and asked us to perform a specific functional check. We pulled it in from the inventory room, and the stupid thing wouldn't load the oscilloscope software! It's a Windows PC with a touchscreen, and oh by the way has a bit of LeCroy kit on it that is worth more than my car. When Windows went to load the LeCroy stuff, it couldn't find the hardware. It wouldn't load the 'scope, because it couldn't find the hardware. LeCroy was contacted, and they sait it was stuffed, and quoted us a large number of dollars to effect a repair.
As a last-ditch effort, I opened the case and hit it with our shop's compressed air. An entire ranch of dust bunnies was evicted. I applied power and the stupid thing loaded right up! I put the case back on and switched on again, and the scope seemed to be working fine.
Because of dust.
Hit your computer's vents and the cracks in the case with some compressed air and you will be astonished at the dust that comes out. Open the case and you'll see something you weren't expecting at all. Blow it all clean. It'll work better and use less power.
Nota Bene: What's the difference between a VanDeGraaff generator and a vacuum cleaner, as far as your computer is concerned? NOTHING. Either will probably kill your computer with several thousand volts of static electricity. Do NOT vacuum out electronics. Blow them off either with an air compressor or purpose-made spray-cans of "dust-off" spray (or similar).
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Adobe Photoshop "The File Is Locked" Error, Photoshop Won't Load!
Every time you try to get Photoshop to load, it won't, and it gives you some jive hassle about a file being locked, and to change it in the properties tag (I'll update this post with the exact text from work tomorrow). It was working just fine the last time the program was open, but Photoshop refuses to load again.
The problem is, you (or your system admin.) recently changed the preferences in Photoshop so it uses a different hard drive or logical partition as the location for the scratch file. You don't have permissions to read/write on that drive. Log in as an administrator or have an administrator log in, and grant your user account read/write privileges on that drive, or at least the part of the drive where Photoshop puts its scratch file. This is the only proper solution.
You could also just delete your preferences file, but then your preferences are ALL lost, and you will still be unable to experience faster image editing with Photoshop's program files and the scratch file on different drives, which was the whole point to begin with.
This bit me in the [deleted] today at work. We use Photoshop version frikken SIX and (as I found when I searched for the answer online) . . . this is still a problem with the Creative Suite (Photoshop CS) versions today!
Programmers of Photoshop: This is a BUG! If you are going to give users the option to use a different volume for your scratch disk, you need to program in a check DURING the process where users change their scratch disc location, so that they will not suddenly have a completely-broken PS installation!
If that's too [deleted] complicated for the team that made the world's standard for image editing software, how about at least giving an error message that identifies WHICH file is locked? Hmm?
The problem is, you (or your system admin.) recently changed the preferences in Photoshop so it uses a different hard drive or logical partition as the location for the scratch file. You don't have permissions to read/write on that drive. Log in as an administrator or have an administrator log in, and grant your user account read/write privileges on that drive, or at least the part of the drive where Photoshop puts its scratch file. This is the only proper solution.
You could also just delete your preferences file, but then your preferences are ALL lost, and you will still be unable to experience faster image editing with Photoshop's program files and the scratch file on different drives, which was the whole point to begin with.
This bit me in the [deleted] today at work. We use Photoshop version frikken SIX and (as I found when I searched for the answer online) . . . this is still a problem with the Creative Suite (Photoshop CS) versions today!
Programmers of Photoshop: This is a BUG! If you are going to give users the option to use a different volume for your scratch disk, you need to program in a check DURING the process where users change their scratch disc location, so that they will not suddenly have a completely-broken PS installation!
If that's too [deleted] complicated for the team that made the world's standard for image editing software, how about at least giving an error message that identifies WHICH file is locked? Hmm?
Slow Until Settings Are Changed:
My fabulous new PC at work has some setting that prevents me blogging at lunchtime (or any time). I gotta figure that out. Until then, it may be slow 'round here until I figure a workaround. I think I can email Blogger and have them automatically post for me, without logging in, but a) that sucks and b) I like to preview my posts before posting. I'll get it sorted, never fear!
********
Update: IT Dude came and fixed it within 5 minutes. There's a reason we keep the man around!
********
Update: IT Dude came and fixed it within 5 minutes. There's a reason we keep the man around!
Madness @ Work!
A helpful hint for the fellow who was relieved of his "employed" status where I work yesterday:
At your next job, especially if "The Grapevine" is an official mode of internal corporate communication, DON'T announce to your co-workers that you are only waiting for your next employer to sort out some paperwork, and then you will be quitting.
Your boss might not like the idea that you are just sucking down paychecks until a bigger/better one becomes available. And fire you.
At your next job, especially if "The Grapevine" is an official mode of internal corporate communication, DON'T announce to your co-workers that you are only waiting for your next employer to sort out some paperwork, and then you will be quitting.
Your boss might not like the idea that you are just sucking down paychecks until a bigger/better one becomes available. And fire you.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
New Computer. Busy.
I just got "upgraded" a half-step to a new (refurbished) computer at work. Pentium 4 with HyperThreading @3GHz to Pentium D @3GHz. Fooling with all the personalized settings is a maddening and fun exercise. That, and I'm going for a short lunch today.
Please check back here tomorrow for actual content.
Please check back here tomorrow for actual content.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Childish Shock is Classic Humor
I hope she grows out of it*, but #1 has about zero Situational Awareness sometimes. Today, she started to give me a hard time about cleaning her cat's litter box because the light wouldn't come on in the bathroom (where the litter box is). She walked in to show me how behind-the-news I was, and flipped the switch as she was speaking:
". . .but daddy, the light won't come GASP!" (On comes the light)
********
The light was burned out for the last 2 days, and we were using the adjacent hallway light to illumine the restroom at night (there's plenty of light from the window in the day time). I changed the light tonight. While she was home. Her brother had just been on the can with the door shut. It's not dramatically obvious, but I hope I can train her to think or at least wait to speak, a little better than this!
********
*Not everyone does. Every once in a while, people in the aviation industry (especially military aviation) get turned into red mist by aircraft engines, because they just weren't paying attention to what was going on around them. Just standing up can be hazardous, under the right conditions.
". . .but daddy, the light won't come GASP!" (On comes the light)
********
The light was burned out for the last 2 days, and we were using the adjacent hallway light to illumine the restroom at night (there's plenty of light from the window in the day time). I changed the light tonight. While she was home. Her brother had just been on the can with the door shut. It's not dramatically obvious, but I hope I can train her to think or at least wait to speak, a little better than this!
********
*Not everyone does. Every once in a while, people in the aviation industry (especially military aviation) get turned into red mist by aircraft engines, because they just weren't paying attention to what was going on around them. Just standing up can be hazardous, under the right conditions.
Quote of the Day 12/15/2009
This is from a caller to the Jeff Ward radio show last week:
I couldn't agree more. You shoot them while they run, or you go inside and call the cops to tell them what heinous thing they did to deserve to stare down the muzzle of your rifle.
Hint: a 12 year-old's "doorbell" prank is probably not going to be enough to satisfy the Austin Police Department. Bonus points for getting in trouble for having prohibited armor-piercing ammunition in your magazine when the police show up.
"You don't chase somebody down the street with an AR-15 rifle!"
I couldn't agree more. You shoot them while they run, or you go inside and call the cops to tell them what heinous thing they did to deserve to stare down the muzzle of your rifle.
Hint: a 12 year-old's "doorbell" prank is probably not going to be enough to satisfy the Austin Police Department. Bonus points for getting in trouble for having prohibited armor-piercing ammunition in your magazine when the police show up.
Fuel From CO2 Directly, Using Bacteria!
This right here is pretty amazing.
Pointy-headed scientists genetically modified some slime. Now it can take carbon dioxide and turn it directly into fuel.
Let me be the first to point out the obvious cruelty!!! of imprisoning these poor bacteria and forcing them tolive and procreate as they would normally slave away for species-ists' benefit! This is an OUTRAGE!!!1!
I also parrot the argument against re-use of sequestered CO2 that I heard seriously propounded on NPR: It's a waste of effort! The total pollution of CO2 has not been reduced! The time of release has merely been pushed back! (Nevermind, I suppose, all the benefits of using the fuel in the interim.)
I'm just saying: there's no winning with some people. Those environmentalists who despair of everything man can do because it leads to death of the earth, should feel free to swallow a bullet and remove themselves from the polluting mass of humans overburdening our planet.
Pointy-headed scientists genetically modified some slime. Now it can take carbon dioxide and turn it directly into fuel.
Let me be the first to point out the obvious cruelty!!! of imprisoning these poor bacteria and forcing them to
I also parrot the argument against re-use of sequestered CO2 that I heard seriously propounded on NPR: It's a waste of effort! The total pollution of CO2 has not been reduced! The time of release has merely been pushed back! (Nevermind, I suppose, all the benefits of using the fuel in the interim.)
I'm just saying: there's no winning with some people. Those environmentalists who despair of everything man can do because it leads to death of the earth, should feel free to swallow a bullet and remove themselves from the polluting mass of humans overburdening our planet.
Monday, December 14, 2009
". . . I Don't Have The Votes In Congress . . ."
"Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress. This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns."
-Candidate Barack Hussein Obama
If you still believe BHO doesn't mind you having your own guns, go read this here about what your United States Attorney General wants to do. Obama was lying then, and he is waiting now.
Why not have a gun registry? I mean, Canada had one and it is being dismantled already! Maybe nothing bad will come of it, and it could bring some Public Safety. . .
The reason to not have a Gun Registry in America is that we have the example of history to fear (and anticipate). This is not an hypothetical exercise, this is a reiteration of past events:
"Thus, through existing police records generated by the laws and decrees of the Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime was able to correlate the registration lists of firearm owners and Jews and, having identified Jews who possessed arms, to confiscate their weapons and arrest them. Just weeks after the above arrests, the pogrom known as the Night of the Broken Glass took place in which thousands of Jews would be disarmed and placed in concentration camps. Jews thereby could not use arms to resist the coming deprivations, deportations, and eventual genocide."(emphasis mine)
But I'm a Good
Tell that to this family. Oh wait, you can't because they were killed in an effort to enforce gun confiscation subsequent to gun registration. Yes the whole family, including the children.
But go ahead, support a national gun registry. For the children!
Quote of the Day 12/14/2009
From Moonbattery.
"The farce that currently serves us for a political system is a transition period between the constitutional republic of the past and the totalitarian oligarchy that is already coming into view."
US Stock Market: STILL A Lost Decade.
Excuse me for noticing (again) but the recent stock market advances off 12 year lows are all the way up to . . . still a lost decade.
Last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was kicking around index levels last seen in 1997.
Right now, after a 50% rally, it is STILL kicking around index levels from a decade ago.
If you had your money in a CD ladder, you would have beaten the Dow for the last 10 years. Some of us didn't even know (or care) what the DJIA was a decade ago. A lot of that same group of people realized that "it only goes up!" and dumped everything they had into stocks. Almost without exception, they are now less-wealthy than they started out.
Good job with the economy, federal government! It's really going great!
I just won't point out that, in light of world circumstances, we are at the top of an unreasonably high stock market right now. There is nothing but "investor sentiment" and "what else should we do with our clients' money?" -type traders keeping the stock and equity markets up right now. When the double-dip comes, remember you heard it here first: "Unexpected" is going to be in a lot of headlines because reporters and "experts" don't necessarily know what they are talking about.
Last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was kicking around index levels last seen in 1997.
Right now, after a 50% rally, it is STILL kicking around index levels from a decade ago.
If you had your money in a CD ladder, you would have beaten the Dow for the last 10 years. Some of us didn't even know (or care) what the DJIA was a decade ago. A lot of that same group of people realized that "it only goes up!" and dumped everything they had into stocks. Almost without exception, they are now less-wealthy than they started out.
Good job with the economy, federal government! It's really going great!
I just won't point out that, in light of world circumstances, we are at the top of an unreasonably high stock market right now. There is nothing but "investor sentiment" and "what else should we do with our clients' money?" -type traders keeping the stock and equity markets up right now. When the double-dip comes, remember you heard it here first: "Unexpected" is going to be in a lot of headlines because reporters and "experts" don't necessarily know what they are talking about.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
You Don't STOP ON THE ROAD!!!
Look, I know the entrance to the parking lot at the hotel is very near the end of the exit ramp from the highway. I know that it would be a terrible inconvenience to you, personally, if you had to get off an exit sooner and sit through a red light. God forbid you should have to go 2 miles and execute a turn-around at the next bridge over the highway, but . . .
When you get off a highway exit ramp and everyone behind you was just going 70MPH, and everyone on the frontage road between you and your all-precious destination is going 50MPH,
YOU DON'T JAM ON YOUR BRAKES AND SIT THERE WITH YOUR TURN SIGNAL ON!
kthanksbye!
When you get off a highway exit ramp and everyone behind you was just going 70MPH, and everyone on the frontage road between you and your all-precious destination is going 50MPH,
YOU DON'T JAM ON YOUR BRAKES AND SIT THERE WITH YOUR TURN SIGNAL ON!
kthanksbye!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Uh-Oh: Your Daily Downer
A thought just came to me:
The Great Depression in the USA was ended by spending on The War After The War To End All Wars, and then on money flowing from overseas as our industrial might built infrastructure for the rest of the world, whose industry was smashed by the war. The returning vets buying homes and cars & stuff, also helped.
Now, we are in almost the opposite situation:
We started off already having built up a war machine, and are IN a war. Then the Great Recession started. The problems in the world's economy are largely caused by OVERcapacity in every sector. The economies are failing because nobody needs to buy anything.
Doh.
The Great Depression in the USA was ended by spending on The War After The War To End All Wars, and then on money flowing from overseas as our industrial might built infrastructure for the rest of the world, whose industry was smashed by the war. The returning vets buying homes and cars & stuff, also helped.
Now, we are in almost the opposite situation:
We started off already having built up a war machine, and are IN a war. Then the Great Recession started. The problems in the world's economy are largely caused by OVERcapacity in every sector. The economies are failing because nobody needs to buy anything.
Doh.
Clean Water Act . . . It's An Act, All Right.
The EPA declared itself God recently, and says it can now regulate the gases you exhale.
Now the Communists in Congress want to regulate the rain puddles in your backyard. For interstate commerce, I guess.
Read all about it at Moonbattery.
Elections have consequences. The consequence of our last election, may be that it ends up being our last election. We'll see.
Do you still think your vote doesn't matter? NOW do you regret that you sat out the last election because McCain sucks?
Now the Communists in Congress want to regulate the rain puddles in your backyard. For interstate commerce, I guess.
Read all about it at Moonbattery.
Elections have consequences. The consequence of our last election, may be that it ends up being our last election. We'll see.
Do you still think your vote doesn't matter? NOW do you regret that you sat out the last election because McCain sucks?
Water Pump Wants Some Love Too!
You remember my newly-rebuilt alternator? The one with new-but-noisy bearings? Yeah, turns out not so much. The same leaking power steering hose that rinsed the alternator bearings in hydraulic oil, apparently leaked onto the adjacent water pump as well.
The WATER PUMP bearings are rougher-running than the alternator bearings were! I pulled the car into my garage to check the gear oil. The leak is apparently pretty small, because the little bit of oil I put in the other day on my sloping driveway, came running right back out again when the fill plug came out. Oh well. That's good news I guess. That the transaxle was just about full of oil, means the axle seal leak isn't too bad.
Then I pulled the alternator/water pump belt off. Spin the new alternator . . . hmm, that sounds ok. Spin the water pump . . .
The alternator on a Hyundai RD platform car practically removes itself compared to the amount of effort that has to go into replacing a water pump.
Great.
The WATER PUMP bearings are rougher-running than the alternator bearings were! I pulled the car into my garage to check the gear oil. The leak is apparently pretty small, because the little bit of oil I put in the other day on my sloping driveway, came running right back out again when the fill plug came out. Oh well. That's good news I guess. That the transaxle was just about full of oil, means the axle seal leak isn't too bad.
Then I pulled the alternator/water pump belt off. Spin the new alternator . . . hmm, that sounds ok. Spin the water pump . . .
The alternator on a Hyundai RD platform car practically removes itself compared to the amount of effort that has to go into replacing a water pump.
Great.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Bill Handel says "See, I don't do automatic cheques . . . ever!"
. . . The bank is always going to take the most effective way of milking you out of as much money as possible. It's like you hand somebody a gun, show 'em where the money is, and then you wonder why they're holding you up! You're an idiot!"
-Bill Handel, a man much smarter than you.
^ what he said. I am losing a 3% 'savings' on my auto insurance monthly, because of my principled stand against automatic debits to pay bills. Automatic drafting works for my boy LB, who has a credit rating of 500-ish, but he is literally incapable of caring for his own finances.
As I told my insurance agent* on the phone a while back: If I have a short-term need for money, say emergency travel or an unexpected doctor's visit, and that money was debited from my account already by the automatic bill pay, I'm screwed. If the money was not debited by automatic checking, I can tell the one creditor they'll have to wait, and maybe work out a payment plan with them, and pay the other party whom I more urgently needed to pay.
Note: this is a problem because of bad choices we made in our finances. When you are up to your nose in debt, and all your extra cash goes toward debt service, you can't have a rainy-day fund. Rainy day is on a credit card, at interest. This is a [deleted] place to be. Extra-fun bonus: this is our situation as a NATION also.
*Broussard is a good agent. I have always had excellent service and their plans are personally tailored by them for each client. I highly recommend the Brian Broussard insurance agency.**
**Neither Allstate nor the Broussard people give me anything to say this. I say it 'cuz I mean it.
-Bill Handel, a man much smarter than you.
^ what he said. I am losing a 3% 'savings' on my auto insurance monthly, because of my principled stand against automatic debits to pay bills. Automatic drafting works for my boy LB, who has a credit rating of 500-ish, but he is literally incapable of caring for his own finances.
As I told my insurance agent* on the phone a while back: If I have a short-term need for money, say emergency travel or an unexpected doctor's visit, and that money was debited from my account already by the automatic bill pay, I'm screwed. If the money was not debited by automatic checking, I can tell the one creditor they'll have to wait, and maybe work out a payment plan with them, and pay the other party whom I more urgently needed to pay.
Note: this is a problem because of bad choices we made in our finances. When you are up to your nose in debt, and all your extra cash goes toward debt service, you can't have a rainy-day fund. Rainy day is on a credit card, at interest. This is a [deleted] place to be. Extra-fun bonus: this is our situation as a NATION also.
*Broussard is a good agent. I have always had excellent service and their plans are personally tailored by them for each client. I highly recommend the Brian Broussard insurance agency.**
**Neither Allstate nor the Broussard people give me anything to say this. I say it 'cuz I mean it.
Texas Toll Amnesty Gets WHOPPING 7% Participation!!!
The amnesty for toll road non-payers is over. The result: approximately 93% of the scofflaws continued scofflaw-ing. Gee, if only someone could have told the State this might happen.
Lowering the rates didn't get any response, either; it's not as if they shouldn't have seen this coming.
The main reason people run the toll station and don't pay tolls, "costing" the State gozillions of dollars? Cost cutting. They didn't want to pay a troll to sit in a booth at all the new toll stations, so it's either EZ-Tag or Fine-By-Mail for anyone on a toll road in Central Texas.
If even I, a mere pundit/citizen can call this result ahead of time, WTF is wrong with TXDOT?
********
Don't MAKE me run for office people. I'll frikken win and then imma stooge-slap every single one of you jokers!
Lowering the rates didn't get any response, either; it's not as if they shouldn't have seen this coming.
The main reason people run the toll station and don't pay tolls, "costing" the State gozillions of dollars? Cost cutting. They didn't want to pay a troll to sit in a booth at all the new toll stations, so it's either EZ-Tag or Fine-By-Mail for anyone on a toll road in Central Texas.
If even I, a mere pundit/citizen can call this result ahead of time, WTF is wrong with TXDOT?
********
Don't MAKE me run for office people. I'll frikken win and then imma stooge-slap every single one of you jokers!
Kodak EasySHare Z1275 Digital Camera Hands-on Review
The Kodak EasyShare Z1275 looks like your typical point and shoot digital camera. It was my misfortune to have to use it in place of my usual "prosumer" level full-sized camera for production at work yesterday. I don't understand why anyone would mass-produce a camera that requires a protracted FIGHT with the photographer, just to get a half-decent shot. It's a good thing I know my way around Photoshop because HALF might be as close to a good picture as you get with this thing.
This thing is too small for a man's hands. I have size 8 mitts, and I have to hold this thing like I am pretending to be Princess Dainty at a tea party. A two-handed GRIP puts my finger in front of the flash.
Speaking of which, the flash output apparently is not properly self-compensating. Too dim or too bright is very common
AND it frikken LOVES using the flash. If you don't tell it not to, it's flashing.
The flash is also too close to the lens, causing funky reflections and shadows.
The controls are apparently an afterthought. If my fingers were any bigger, the controls would be completely useless. As it is, about 10% of the time the too-small too-close wrong button is pressed.
The Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard, SERIOUSLY? My old camera has all the pretentiousness of a USB memory stick when it comes to the interface with my computer. I have to click a half-dozen different buttons to offload my pictures, instead of drag and drop into Photoshop. The workaround is to close the Wizard and open Explorer, drag and drop to a folder on the PC, THEN drag & drop to Photoshop. Fail.
The autofocus. Speaking of Fail. [deleted]. This thing couldn't take a focused shot of a black box in a white room to save its life.
The manual focus. See "The autofocus," above. The screen isn't sharp enough to not have a magnified "assist" feature . . . which it doesn't.
The manual controls. See "The autofocus," above. Instead of a knob for every one or two features an actual photographer (as opposed to a teenybopper at a party) would use, we have a 4-way selection rocker with a select button.
The screen is a decent size, at least.
What's with the preview mode? If I want to see the picture sideways, I can turn my head, the camera, or both. The camera picks when it will show the image sideways on-screen, resulting in random turnings of head and camera anyway. This behavior, at least, can be turned off.
Slow. Slow as molasses saving, zooming in, previewing, focusing.
If you're not using the flash, you will have to fiddle with manual controls, period. It's not smart enough to compensate for not having the flash turned on.
When a photo is composed, and looks well-exposed on screen, you take the shot. Then the review image turns out to be over- or under-exposed. The ONLY indication you have of this is in the manual control mode, by way of the the (unlabeled) EV number or a (uselessly-small) histogram (if you turn the histogram on).
Why, if the image captured was clear and focused, is the review image grainy?
Even on that 5% chance that an image is captured in focus, it is not very crisp. Muddy is too strong a word, but it is approaching the right one.
YMMV. I work in a place where the lights are bright, but not so bright you have to squint. Outdoor shots with this camera may be somewhat less terrible, I didn't try it. If you need a kick-around camera for basic documentation or quick web presentations, this one is STILL barely a decent camera. For serious or production work, keep shopping. I had a quick peek arount the 'net, and found that my low opinion of this camera is shared by people who actually tested it. Websites claiming to have "reviews" but who didn't actually test it, tend to rate it much more highly.
Fortunately for me, the only thing that died altogether on my production camera was the USB port. I found that I can curse my way through file transfer with the Kodak Z1275, using it as an SD memory card reader, until I can come up with a proper SD card reader or another camera.
********
Update: WM won a replacement camera for me on eBay last night, of the same type as my old one. Thank you Jesus!
YMMV. I work in a place where the lights are bright, but not so bright you have to squint. Outdoor shots with this camera may be somewhat less terrible, I didn't try it. If you need a kick-around camera for basic documentation or quick web presentations, this one is STILL barely a decent camera. For serious or production work, keep shopping. I had a quick peek arount the 'net, and found that my low opinion of this camera is shared by people who actually tested it. Websites claiming to have "reviews" but who didn't actually test it, tend to rate it much more highly.
Fortunately for me, the only thing that died altogether on my production camera was the USB port. I found that I can curse my way through file transfer with the Kodak Z1275, using it as an SD memory card reader, until I can come up with a proper SD card reader or another camera.
********
Update: WM won a replacement camera for me on eBay last night, of the same type as my old one. Thank you Jesus!
You Thought We Wasted Military Dollars in the USA?
Sure, we'll buy a handful of $1.2Bn airplanes for kicks stealth bombing capability and then crash one (oops!)
But at least we didn't float two £1.1Billion destroyers without first making sure that the Sea Viper/PAAMS weapons system for which they were designed was even practicable. Make that £1.1Bn right down the drain, plus operating and manpower for a FULL YEAR, plus another almost-unarmed destroyer
just delivered for another £1.1Bn.
We also didn't order two aircraft carriers and then only order one air group worth of airplanes. Why only one air group? Because the planes are expensive, you see, and they designed the fancy-pants new aircraft carriers WITHOUT the capability to launch and recover conventional "tailhook" airplanes.
Hmm . . . maybe they couldleave UK without year-round carrier capability save some costs instead by selling one of the carriers?
This, from what was once the world's dominant naval superpower.
But at least we didn't float two £1.1Billion destroyers without first making sure that the Sea Viper/PAAMS weapons system for which they were designed was even practicable. Make that £1.1Bn right down the drain, plus operating and manpower for a FULL YEAR, plus another almost-unarmed destroyer
just delivered for another £1.1Bn.
We also didn't order two aircraft carriers and then only order one air group worth of airplanes. Why only one air group? Because the planes are expensive, you see, and they designed the fancy-pants new aircraft carriers WITHOUT the capability to launch and recover conventional "tailhook" airplanes.
Hmm . . . maybe they could
This, from what was once the world's dominant naval superpower.
Quote of the Day 12/11/2009
A co-worker and I were discussing a minor work-related matter and he told me that, although I have political opinions, I have no political sense.
I mentioned that, with fewer than 30 workers, this place is too small to play politics. He said it isn't.
VFD: "It's too small for me to play politics, anyway."
C-W: (Rolling his eyes, head, and half his body) "Yes it is."
VFD: "But then, the Navy was too small for me to play politics, netting me several negative reviews."
C-W: LOL
I mentioned that, with fewer than 30 workers, this place is too small to play politics. He said it isn't.
VFD: "It's too small for me to play politics, anyway."
C-W: (Rolling his eyes, head, and half his body) "Yes it is."
VFD: "But then, the Navy was too small for me to play politics, netting me several negative reviews."
C-W: LOL
Thursday, December 10, 2009
George Soros is YELLOW.
I don't mean he's a coward. I mean it looks like he's got cirrhosis of the liver or something. One could wish his liver would give out already and spare the world his internationalist one-worlder efforts, but that would be mean.
Leave it to AP to put Soros in front of a US flag!
Still, I would like it if the billionaire would put more of his money where his mouth is, if it's so important to save the world that you need to steal hundreds of billions of dollars from me to do it. You want to impoverish me? How about pledging more than a measly $1Bn?
Leave it to AP to put Soros in front of a US flag!
Still, I would like it if the billionaire would put more of his money where his mouth is, if it's so important to save the world that you need to steal hundreds of billions of dollars from me to do it. You want to impoverish me? How about pledging more than a measly $1Bn?
Black Caucus is Racist. Who Knew?
"Those people" are saying "those people" need to get more "help". Because, apparently, being a high school dropout gang banger and drug addict as a part of your "culture" leads to high (34%-ish amongst young black men) unemployment. Who knew? Somehow the President is supposed to fix this, why, because he is (half) black?
Hint: if your fellow dark brown people would stop being ghetto-minded and start graduating at higher than 50% rates, start acting like the rest of the country and bust their hump to make ends meet, their unemployment levels would drop.
Extra bonus points go to the racist "Black Lawmakers" (there are black laws now?) for pretending like it's not WHITE MENwho are hardest hit by the Great Recession, among people who can actually hold down a job. Sometimes they say "blue collar men" but this is mostly a "politically-correct" code word for WHITE men who had a job to begin with.
Hint: if your fellow dark brown people would stop being ghetto-minded and start graduating at higher than 50% rates, start acting like the rest of the country and bust their hump to make ends meet, their unemployment levels would drop.
Extra bonus points go to the racist "Black Lawmakers" (there are black laws now?) for pretending like it's not WHITE MENwho are hardest hit by the Great Recession, among people who can actually hold down a job. Sometimes they say "blue collar men" but this is mostly a "politically-correct" code word for WHITE men who had a job to begin with.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Alternator Update: Success . . . Sort Of!
It takes a little longer than usual to replace an alternator when it is cold, wet, and foggy out, and your 6 year-old son is "helping" but we still got it done in about 2-ish hours.
The new bearings are also noisy, but instead of sounding so much like bearings in distress it sounds almost like supercharger whine. Yes I doublechecked belt tension. am not as concerned about the noise now, though, because I know I have a functional-but-loud spare in the garage, and the bearings on this one are, if not good, at least new.
Next time, whenever it gets really loud or I get a wild hair, I'll get myself a high quality bearing. Or maybe I'll just inject the old bearings with grease and see how it goes. They aren't palpably loose, just loud.
On a positive note, I did find out that I think I have a leaking axle seal.
Positive? VFD the cold got to your brain!
Well, would you rather find out you have a transmission leak when the gearbox freezes up at 70MPH, or when you are in your driveway with a little oil you can top it off with right there on the spot?
Oh, and I need to get some more transmission oil. I'm fresh out ;)
The new bearings are also noisy, but instead of sounding so much like bearings in distress it sounds almost like supercharger whine. Yes I doublechecked belt tension. am not as concerned about the noise now, though, because I know I have a functional-but-loud spare in the garage, and the bearings on this one are, if not good, at least new.
Next time, whenever it gets really loud or I get a wild hair, I'll get myself a high quality bearing. Or maybe I'll just inject the old bearings with grease and see how it goes. They aren't palpably loose, just loud.
On a positive note, I did find out that I think I have a leaking axle seal.
Positive? VFD the cold got to your brain!
Well, would you rather find out you have a transmission leak when the gearbox freezes up at 70MPH, or when you are in your driveway with a little oil you can top it off with right there on the spot?
Oh, and I need to get some more transmission oil. I'm fresh out ;)
Sarah Jessica Parker Is NOT Good-Looking!
Sometimes I think there must be a conspiracy out there to convince the world that Sarah Parker is not a horse-faced, ugly woman. It's not working too well on me, eh.
(this brief rant brought to you by Yahoo! who teased an article about her dress and only gave a picture of herhorse-face on the teaser link.)
Fail. (shudder)
(this brief rant brought to you by Yahoo! who teased an article about her dress and only gave a picture of her
Fail. (shudder)
More Jobs Saved or Created:
3 Jobs Saved!
At a low, low cost to the taxpayer of just under $2 Million EACH!
What a BARGAIN!
Well, at least it was a good deal for the polling company that worked with the Hillary for President campaign. They made out like bandits.
I wonder if they will regret it, when the guillotine blade is heading toward their necks?
At a low, low cost to the taxpayer of just under $2 Million EACH!
What a BARGAIN!
Well, at least it was a good deal for the polling company that worked with the Hillary for President campaign. They made out like bandits.
I wonder if they will regret it, when the guillotine blade is heading toward their necks?
Quote Of The Day:
From Michael Shedlock, on the folly of "Stimulus Packages" from the government:
"Every stimulus effort shifts demand forward. After enough shifting forward, demand drops to zero."
Why Not? It's A Legal Medical Procedure.
Barbara Boxer (who is so interested in justice she wants the hacker in the Climategate email scandal prosecuted) makes a new-low-class equivocation:
Abortion is a legal medical procedure. Viagra is a legal drug. Why should one be covered and the other the patient has to buy a rider for it to be on their medical plan?
I mean really, what's the difference between vacuuming out a child's brain and tearing them limb from limb while still inside their "mother's" womb, and a man taking a pill to give him a stiffy? That's basically the same, right?
(hint: 'not just no')
Not that I think Viagra should be on a health care insurance (paid for by the taxpayer) plan anyway. But this is more than just a little bit of a stretch.
Abortion is a legal medical procedure. Viagra is a legal drug. Why should one be covered and the other the patient has to buy a rider for it to be on their medical plan?
I mean really, what's the difference between vacuuming out a child's brain and tearing them limb from limb while still inside their "mother's" womb, and a man taking a pill to give him a stiffy? That's basically the same, right?
(hint: 'not just no')
Not that I think Viagra should be on a health care insurance (paid for by the taxpayer) plan anyway. But this is more than just a little bit of a stretch.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Stimulus (Spendulus/Porkulus) Round Two
Because a single quarter of 2.5% GDP growth was worth borrowing $750,000,000,000 from China (plus interest, to be paid by your grandchildren) we are going to do it again. Great.
This time, we are going to follow in the footsteps of the USA (1930s) and Japan (1980s-1990s) straight into a decade-long-plus depression: building big stuff nobody needs, and borrowing money (at interest) to pay for it. We only got out of the Depression because of a war, and the aftermath of the war, pumping money into the US economy. The current Great Recession is happening DURING a war. Japan is well on the way to THREE "lost decades" of financial growth. During that span, they went through several 50% rallies in the stock market (on the way down) just like we recently had.
This has a strong potential to end very badly for the US (and so, the world) economy. Note: the Fair Tax proposal would do almost all you need to reverse the current difficulties. As it is, actually, you know, FAIR, and it gives power to the people instead of the Government, the Fair Tax proposal remains DOA as long as the Democrat party is in power.
********
As usual, I found the Calculated Risk link at Mish's place.
This time, we are going to follow in the footsteps of the USA (1930s) and Japan (1980s-1990s) straight into a decade-long-plus depression: building big stuff nobody needs, and borrowing money (at interest) to pay for it. We only got out of the Depression because of a war, and the aftermath of the war, pumping money into the US economy. The current Great Recession is happening DURING a war. Japan is well on the way to THREE "lost decades" of financial growth. During that span, they went through several 50% rallies in the stock market (on the way down) just like we recently had.
This has a strong potential to end very badly for the US (and so, the world) economy. Note: the Fair Tax proposal would do almost all you need to reverse the current difficulties. As it is, actually, you know, FAIR, and it gives power to the people instead of the Government, the Fair Tax proposal remains DOA as long as the Democrat party is in power.
********
As usual, I found the Calculated Risk link at Mish's place.
Stuff From Science Fiction, Not So Fiction-ey Anymore:
Batteries made out of paper, can be bent/crumpled, still work
Transistor at the one-atom scale
The mind boggles.
Stuff like this is why I check Gizmag every few days.
Transistor at the one-atom scale
The mind boggles.
Stuff like this is why I check Gizmag every few days.
Monday, December 7, 2009
This Is Why Democrats Like Gun Control:
In Iran, tens of thousands (at least) of students* protested the stolen disputed Iranian Presidential election just past. The police clamped down on them and stones were thrown and fires set.
You know what is the difference between students being beaten and teargassed for throwing rocks, and a President being forced from office due to his private police force having been wiped out? Privately owned rifles.
If the people had widespread access to arms, the Ahmedinacrazyguy regime would have been overthrown already.
********
*I still don't get why student protests are sucha big deal. If they knew anything, they wouldn't be in school, they would be worming their way into government offices through the front and back doors. Change the system from within! That's how the communists are destroying America. Students are about as low on the political pecking order as the rocks they throw . . . or am I missing something?
You know what is the difference between students being beaten and teargassed for throwing rocks, and a President being forced from office due to his private police force having been wiped out? Privately owned rifles.
If the people had widespread access to arms, the Ahmedinacrazyguy regime would have been overthrown already.
********
*I still don't get why student protests are sucha big deal. If they knew anything, they wouldn't be in school, they would be worming their way into government offices through the front and back doors. Change the system from within! That's how the communists are destroying America. Students are about as low on the political pecking order as the rocks they throw . . . or am I missing something?
"My Administration Will Be The Most Open . . . "
. . . until we shut the doors. Then the reporters and Republicans and general populace can kick bricks. The C-Span cameras I promised you would be there, are also out.
XOXOXO,
-Barry
XOXOXO,
-Barry
I Was For Cutting Medicare Before I Was Against It!
I hope this is a sign that the Demican party is flailing as it dies on the hill called "healthcare."
They are trying to expand Medicare toforce people onto it start covering people at 55 instead of 65. Please NOTE: this is the opposite of the right direction. The same article mentions how the Republicrats failed to prevent $400,000,000,000 cuts to Medicare.
No word on where in 2,000 pages ofcommunism legislation they are supposed to resolve the difference in funding a zillion more patients and cutting a zillion dollars out of the checkbook paying their medical bills.
Also no mention that Medicare is so well run that it is completely bankrupt, all the while having the highest rate of claims denial (8%-ish) of any insurance company. That would be, of the 1,300-plus insurance companies out there apparently somehow NOT competing with each other.
Bonus points to Senator Reid in the "Asshole of the Year" competition for comparing to SLAVE OWNERS those who would like to have open, lengthy debate over socializing 1/6 of the US economy.
They are trying to expand Medicare to
No word on where in 2,000 pages of
Also no mention that Medicare is so well run that it is completely bankrupt, all the while having the highest rate of claims denial (8%-ish) of any insurance company. That would be, of the 1,300-plus insurance companies out there apparently somehow NOT competing with each other.
Bonus points to Senator Reid in the "Asshole of the Year" competition for comparing to SLAVE OWNERS those who would like to have open, lengthy debate over socializing 1/6 of the US economy.
The Death Knell for Obama's Re-Election . . . Or The USA
Hot on the heels of hard evidence that the scientists have been fabricating evidence that manbearpig is killing gaea with his evil plant-life-sustaining carbon dioxide emissions . . .
The religious environmentalist communists at the EPA declare CO2 a dangerous pollutant.
This will lead to an endless string of lawsuits all the way up to the supreme Court (again) and in the meantime job creation will continue to suffer under onerous, baseless, enviro-fascist regulations.
PresBO is at the head of the EPA, nominally. Personally, I think the folks at the EPA just decided to make this announcement unilaterally, just in time for Copenhagen. It is yet another sign of a captain-free ship of State. The regulations will bebig news spiked stories stirring up the electorate, right about the time BHO is up for re-election. IF the Republicrat establishment plays their cards right, it will sink him quite thoroughly. They haven't showed many signs of being able to criticize The Obama very well though, so instead this may just be the final nail in the US (and therefore the world's) economy.
We'll see!
The religious environmentalist communists at the EPA declare CO2 a dangerous pollutant.
This will lead to an endless string of lawsuits all the way up to the supreme Court (again) and in the meantime job creation will continue to suffer under onerous, baseless, enviro-fascist regulations.
PresBO is at the head of the EPA, nominally. Personally, I think the folks at the EPA just decided to make this announcement unilaterally, just in time for Copenhagen. It is yet another sign of a captain-free ship of State. The regulations will be
We'll see!
"You Drew Yourself A Booger."
So said my Darling Wife as she cleaned the dry-erase marker off the face of our not-quite-2 year-old boy.
It all started innocently enough. He had a piece of paper to color on, but it didn't make very dark marks. Then oops! he colored on his finger . . . hey, that's dark! Let's see what happens when I color all over the palm of this hand . . . that worked so well, I wonder what it looks like in this hand . . . etc.
Somewhere in there, he probably put the tip of the marker in his mouth and missed a little bit, coloring on and in his little nose. Drawing a booger.
At least it wasn't permanent marker.
This time.
It all started innocently enough. He had a piece of paper to color on, but it didn't make very dark marks. Then oops! he colored on his finger . . . hey, that's dark! Let's see what happens when I color all over the palm of this hand . . . that worked so well, I wonder what it looks like in this hand . . . etc.
Somewhere in there, he probably put the tip of the marker in his mouth and missed a little bit, coloring on and in his little nose. Drawing a booger.
At least it wasn't permanent marker.
This time.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
As Long As I'm Up Too Late . . .
Here's the first and possibly last post for the day:
On this day in history, anno domini 1941, we were attacked by a nation previously not our enemy.
The United States proceeded to kick their ass.
We firebombed almost every city in Japan at a time when their homes were made of wood and paper. When that didn't work, we used the only atomic bombs ever dropped in a war. Millions of lives were saved by not having to invade the Japanese homeland.
Peace through victory. Yes it was worth it.
On this day in history, anno domini 1941, we were attacked by a nation previously not our enemy.
The United States proceeded to kick their ass.
We firebombed almost every city in Japan at a time when their homes were made of wood and paper. When that didn't work, we used the only atomic bombs ever dropped in a war. Millions of lives were saved by not having to invade the Japanese homeland.
Peace through victory. Yes it was worth it.
Regulator. It May Be The Regulator.
The last few hours have been for me a crash course in automotive alternator/generator tech. 101. This is good because it keeps the brain healthy. This is bad because it means I still don't know what's wrong with my spare alternator. I plan to take it in for testing tomorrow . . . ugh, check the time stamp and make that today. If it works, the problem was dirty brushes. I've got 2.7 ohms at the wires on the brushes, which have been cleaned. IF it still fails I am leaning toward a bad regulator.
If that's the case, I'm going to slap the newly re-bearing'd front case on my car's currently-installed alternator and see if the noise remains (then it'd be the hard to replace bearing).
What a hassle. I didn't start out wanting to keep an older car running with pure elbow grease and brain juice. We bought this thing brand new. It's just sort-of happened. Oh well. We'll see what the testing machine says later, I guess. At least I know from previous experience that my battery has enough oomph to get me all the way home, should the alternator fail in any way that doesn't drain the battery. . .
If that's the case, I'm going to slap the newly re-bearing'd front case on my car's currently-installed alternator and see if the noise remains (then it'd be the hard to replace bearing).
What a hassle. I didn't start out wanting to keep an older car running with pure elbow grease and brain juice. We bought this thing brand new. It's just sort-of happened. Oh well. We'll see what the testing machine says later, I guess. At least I know from previous experience that my battery has enough oomph to get me all the way home, should the alternator fail in any way that doesn't drain the battery. . .
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Free Personalized Address Labels For Life*
Some time in the distant past, my Darling Wife made a donation to the Disabled American Veterans.
Since then, for several years, several times a year, they send us a fat envelope full of personalized address labels, with a solicitation for further donations. We use the labels instead of handwriting our return address when paying bills and toss the donation request.**
I guess hope springs eternal, but it can't be helping the bottom line at DAV to keep sending these labels out to people who haven't given any donations to their organization in several years.
*For a nominal donation
**Yes, we pay bills by check. If you set up automatic drafts on your checking account, you are either an idiot or doing a good impersonation of one. Paying with a credit card online is only a half-step better.
Since then, for several years, several times a year, they send us a fat envelope full of personalized address labels, with a solicitation for further donations. We use the labels instead of handwriting our return address when paying bills and toss the donation request.**
I guess hope springs eternal, but it can't be helping the bottom line at DAV to keep sending these labels out to people who haven't given any donations to their organization in several years.
*For a nominal donation
**Yes, we pay bills by check. If you set up automatic drafts on your checking account, you are either an idiot or doing a good impersonation of one. Paying with a credit card online is only a half-step better.
Alternator: Not So Alternatey.
I got my alternator reassembled with a fresh set of bearings, courtesy of Texas Alternator Starter Service* who replaced them while I waited.
Took the alternator to Advance Auto Parts, who tested it for me, free.
Two volts.
Time to disassemble it again . . .
Heck, if I find out only the front bearing is out on the currently-fitted alternator are bad, I may just see if I can swap the front housing with a fresh bearing over to the going-bad alternator.
We'll see.
********
*These guys are pretty hit-or-miss at customer service on the phone, based on my limited experience calling them. This is because they are busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. If you go see them in person, they rock. The man took my rotor to the workers to see if we could replace the sliprings (no) and came back out and said they were already working on it. $0 to clean the front housing and press in the front bearing, pull and replace the commutator-end bearing, and turn the sliprings.
Took the alternator to Advance Auto Parts, who tested it for me, free.
Two volts.
Time to disassemble it again . . .
Heck, if I find out only the front bearing is out on the currently-fitted alternator are bad, I may just see if I can swap the front housing with a fresh bearing over to the going-bad alternator.
We'll see.
********
*These guys are pretty hit-or-miss at customer service on the phone, based on my limited experience calling them. This is because they are busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. If you go see them in person, they rock. The man took my rotor to the workers to see if we could replace the sliprings (no) and came back out and said they were already working on it. $0 to clean the front housing and press in the front bearing, pull and replace the commutator-end bearing, and turn the sliprings.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Sure, Why Not? Public Gay Sex Orgy Tents.
San Francisco is a pretty good place to find an example of every thing the Muslims use to scare people back into their "conservative" way of life, and embrace nominal adherence to islam. In other words, San Franciscans have about the world's lowest standards of morality.
They have street fairs to celebrate 'diversity' sometimes in S.F. The queers go to street fairs and bugger each other in the street, right out in the open. The solution to this is, apparently, to consider having a tent where they can go bugger each other. In public. Because, you know, they were born that way wanting to go have unprotected anonymous sex in public. It's in their jeans, you see, not that they are mentally deranged.
Don't believe it? Click the link and read the entry at Moonbattery, then click through to some disgusting photographs at Zombietime.
They have street fairs to celebrate 'diversity' sometimes in S.F. The queers go to street fairs and bugger each other in the street, right out in the open. The solution to this is, apparently, to consider having a tent where they can go bugger each other. In public. Because, you know, they were born that way wanting to go have unprotected anonymous sex in public. It's in their jeans, you see, not that they are mentally deranged.
Don't believe it? Click the link and read the entry at Moonbattery, then click through to some disgusting photographs at Zombietime.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Intel Inside, Pentium Core2, Microsoft Windows & AMD PC Case Label Sticker Badges $1
Update 09/03/2012: these continue to trickle out the door. YES, they are still available. Contact me via E-MAIL at the address on the bottom of this page. Put "BLOG PC STICKER REQUEST" in the title of your email. Do NOT attempt to contact me through an instant messenger service. IMs from anonymous strangers WILL BE IGNORED. If you see it, it is likely still available, I will update this page as the stickers sell out.
These are the same stickers/labels/case badges you may have on your desktop PC tower or laptop computer. They came from a closed production facility; they are LITERALLY the same ones a major PC manufacturer was putting on their new machines.
These are for sale. Cost is one dollar each. Add one dollar for shipping and PayPal fees. One sticker will be $2, Five stickers will be $6, etc.
The easiest way to buy these is via PayPal.
You will have a very hard time finding these anywhere else, at any price. If your laptop badges are worn, or your kid pulled the sticker off your desktop, or if you just want some flair, here is your chance.
Click on almost any picture to see it full size. Dimensions are approximate. If a particular label says (smaller size) it is more likely to be suitable for a laptop, and the larger size will be what you would find on a desktop.
Sticker 1: Windows Vista 18mm x 24mm
Sticker 2: Windows Vista (smaller size) 15mm x 21mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 3: Windows Vista Basic 18mm x 24mm
Sticker 4: Windows Vista Basic (smaller size) 15mm x 21mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 5: Designed for Windows XP Windows Vista Capable METALLIC shiny background 17mm x 25mm
Sticker 6: Designed for Microsoft Windows XP METALLIC shiny background 17mm x 25mm
Sticker 7: Designed for Microsoft Windows XP (smaller size) METALLIC shiny background 15mm x 21mm (don't let the photo fool you, these are identical to #6 but smaller)
Sticker 43: Designed for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows XP x64 Edition METALLIC shiny background 16mm x 28mm
Sticker 8: Designed for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows XP x64 Edition (smaller size) METALLIC shiny background 13mm x 23mm (don't let the photo fool you, these are identical to #43 but smaller)
Sticker 9: AMD Athlon 64 X2 19mm x 21mm
Sticker 10: AMD Athlon 64 19mm x 21mm
Sticker 11: AMD 64 LIVE! 19mm x 21mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 12: AMD Athlon 64 HIGH GLOSS Black background 18mm x 21mm
Sticker 13: AMD Sempron 19mm x 21mm
Sticker 14: AMD Mobile Sempron 16mm x 18mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 15: AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology METALLIC background 17mm x 19mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 16: Intel Inside Pentium EXTREME EDITION top half has METALLIC shiny background19mm x 23mm
Sticker 17: Intel Pentium Extreme Inside 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 18: Intel Core 2 Extreme Inside part of bottom half has METALLIC shiny background 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 19: Intel Core 2 Duo Inside part of bottom half has METALLIC shiny background 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 20: Intel Core 2 Duo Inside (smaller size) part of bottom half has METALLIC shiny background 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 21: Intel viiv 18mm x 23mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 22: Intel viiv (smaller size) 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 23: Intel pentium 4 EXTREME EDITION HT METALLIC shiny background 24mm x 23mm
Sticker 24: Intel Inside Pentium 4 HT METALLIC shiny background 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 25: Intel Inside Pentium 4 HT (smaller size) METALLIC shiny background 16mm x 20mm
Sticker 26: Intel Inside Pentium 4 METALLIC shiny background 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 27: Intel Pentium 4 Inside 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 28: Intel Inside Centrino MOBILE TECHNOLOGY METALLIC shiny background 16mm x 19mm SOLD OUT!
Sticker 29: Intel Centrino Duo 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 30: Intel Centrino Duo (without logo) 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 31: Intel Inside Pentium D METALLIC shiny strip across middle 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 32: Intel Pentium D Inside 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 33: Intel Celeron D Inside 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 34: Intel Inside Pentium M METALLIC shiny strip across middle 15mm x 20mm
Sticker 35: Intel Inside Celeron M 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 36: Intel Celeron M Inside 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 37: Intel Xeon Inside 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 38: Intel Inside XEON 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 39: Old-School Intel Inside Celeron 21mm x 25mm translucent/clear slightly rough texture, odd shape
Sticker 40: Intel Core2 vPro inside 19mm x 24mm shiny/metallic background
Sticker 41: Intel Xeon Inside 10mm x 12mm VERY SMALL size
Sticker 42: AMD Athlon 64 18mm x 21mm VERY shiny/high gloss like a black mirror
Note the background in most of the pictures: a bunch more of the same kind of sticker. Don't be shy about asking for a large quantity. Seriously.
Email me at the address at the bottom of this page. Put "BLOG PC STICKER REQUEST" in the title of your email.
These are the same stickers/labels/case badges you may have on your desktop PC tower or laptop computer. They came from a closed production facility; they are LITERALLY the same ones a major PC manufacturer was putting on their new machines.
These are for sale. Cost is one dollar each. Add one dollar for shipping and PayPal fees. One sticker will be $2, Five stickers will be $6, etc.
The easiest way to buy these is via PayPal.
You will have a very hard time finding these anywhere else, at any price. If your laptop badges are worn, or your kid pulled the sticker off your desktop, or if you just want some flair, here is your chance.
Click on almost any picture to see it full size. Dimensions are approximate. If a particular label says (smaller size) it is more likely to be suitable for a laptop, and the larger size will be what you would find on a desktop.
Sticker 1: Windows Vista 18mm x 24mm
Sticker 2: Windows Vista (smaller size) 15mm x 21mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 3: Windows Vista Basic 18mm x 24mm
Sticker 4: Windows Vista Basic (smaller size) 15mm x 21mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 5: Designed for Windows XP Windows Vista Capable METALLIC shiny background 17mm x 25mm
Sticker 6: Designed for Microsoft Windows XP METALLIC shiny background 17mm x 25mm
Sticker 7: Designed for Microsoft Windows XP (smaller size) METALLIC shiny background 15mm x 21mm (don't let the photo fool you, these are identical to #6 but smaller)
Sticker 43: Designed for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows XP x64 Edition METALLIC shiny background 16mm x 28mm
Sticker 8: Designed for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows XP x64 Edition (smaller size) METALLIC shiny background 13mm x 23mm (don't let the photo fool you, these are identical to #43 but smaller)
Sticker 9: AMD Athlon 64 X2 19mm x 21mm
Sticker 10: AMD Athlon 64 19mm x 21mm
Sticker 11: AMD 64 LIVE! 19mm x 21mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 12: AMD Athlon 64 HIGH GLOSS Black background 18mm x 21mm
Sticker 13: AMD Sempron 19mm x 21mm
Sticker 14: AMD Mobile Sempron 16mm x 18mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 15: AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology METALLIC background 17mm x 19mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 16: Intel Inside Pentium EXTREME EDITION top half has METALLIC shiny background19mm x 23mm
Sticker 17: Intel Pentium Extreme Inside 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 18: Intel Core 2 Extreme Inside part of bottom half has METALLIC shiny background 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 19: Intel Core 2 Duo Inside part of bottom half has METALLIC shiny background 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 20: Intel Core 2 Duo Inside (smaller size) part of bottom half has METALLIC shiny background 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 21: Intel viiv 18mm x 23mm (limited quantity)
Sticker 22: Intel viiv (smaller size) 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 23: Intel pentium 4 EXTREME EDITION HT METALLIC shiny background 24mm x 23mm
Sticker 24: Intel Inside Pentium 4 HT METALLIC shiny background 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 25: Intel Inside Pentium 4 HT (smaller size) METALLIC shiny background 16mm x 20mm
Sticker 26: Intel Inside Pentium 4 METALLIC shiny background 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 27: Intel Pentium 4 Inside 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 29: Intel Centrino Duo 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 30: Intel Centrino Duo (without logo) 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 31: Intel Inside Pentium D METALLIC shiny strip across middle 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 32: Intel Pentium D Inside 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 33: Intel Celeron D Inside 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 34: Intel Inside Pentium M METALLIC shiny strip across middle 15mm x 20mm
Sticker 35: Intel Inside Celeron M 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 36: Intel Celeron M Inside 16mm x 19mm
Sticker 37: Intel Xeon Inside 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 38: Intel Inside XEON 19mm x 23mm
Sticker 39: Old-School Intel Inside Celeron 21mm x 25mm translucent/clear slightly rough texture, odd shape
Sticker 40: Intel Core2 vPro inside 19mm x 24mm shiny/metallic background
Sticker 41: Intel Xeon Inside 10mm x 12mm VERY SMALL size
Sticker 42: AMD Athlon 64 18mm x 21mm VERY shiny/high gloss like a black mirror
Note the background in most of the pictures: a bunch more of the same kind of sticker. Don't be shy about asking for a large quantity. Seriously.
Email me at the address at the bottom of this page. Put "BLOG PC STICKER REQUEST" in the title of your email.