Thank God for That

There was more corn and wheat produced in the USA than expected, and demand has been weak. Fears of shortages appear to have been assuaged. When I read it to myself, and when I read it to my Darling Wife, we each said "Thank God for that."

So should you. If we can't extend the debt ceiling and we have to cut back Federal government spending to meet what we take in (and it barely covers debt service so we don't go from AAA to D bond market ratings) we can still eat. If we don't have corn and wheat growing, we can't eat. Last I checked, Congress couldn't tell the sun to shine or the rain to fall in season.

How do YOU Like It?

Old way: I get special projects at work. They sometimes take a while. Regular production quotas do not apply to me most days. Everyone else gets the screws put to them. Guido asked me how it felt to not have to worry about meeting a quota every day.

New way: Realizing the non-critical nature of what we do, t3h Management decided not to sweat so hard about quotas. A day after the change, I rolled up to Guido and broke out a tough aggressive voice and said "How do YOU like it?!"

Turns out he likes it plenty, as do all the rest of the people on the floor. One guy even said he might do more work on some days. The stress you could cut with a knife turns to hot butter. Good success.

Oh Sure, Blame The Equipment

Blogger went down last night. I had pure brilliance distilled into blog post form but you'll never see it *snif* because the free blogging site was broken down. Oh well. My condolences to your family if you killed yourself over this.

No Talent Assclown

One of the men where I work shares a firstname with Listing Buddy. The usual method of getting someone's attention around there is to holler a name from across the room. This results in confusion until nicknames are well established.

This morning I called the other fellow and he didn't respond, thinking I was calling Listing Buddy. He said I should just go ahead and call him Guido like the rest of the shop does. I told him I know it's a perfectly legitimate Italian name, but the problem is that Guido makes me think of this guy (not to mention the ethnic slur!):



He laughed and said that guy is probably richer and definitely more famous than him - but he's had the nickname since the 1990s and that guy is a recent phenomenon. A reference to Office Space was made, more LOLing was done, and I said I'd have to revisit the issue. I think based on the Michael Bolton comparison I'm going to have to go ahead and use the nickname the guy at work wants me to use.

I just have to get over calling somebody a nickname with such (for me) negative connotations.

Lives Will Be Ruined

. . . but it's fashionable to tolerate such things in the days in which we live.

So New York passed a law permitting queers to call themselves married and receive the attendant benefits. They are not the first, probably not the last. Oh, how sweet, they might want to have children! Next up: several years of lawsuits shopped to Democrat-appointed judges. Then a few decades of allowing people with a need for mental health care to adopt children, ruin the children's minds, and all sorts of horrendous outcomes the left will poo-pooh if you call it ahead of time. Then, if we're still in one piece, a period of sober policy re-examination followed by bans or restrictions on various queer "family" arrangements. This pendulum has very, very far to swing to the left. If it swings back right, it could be pretty wild.

Or instead of legislating, you could leave it to the voters (who pretty reliably turn out against queers calling themselves "married" in the USA). But then the governors don't get to take part in the fabulous "Gay Pride" parades, so . . . nah!

Who Coulda Guest?

The BATFE allowed shady purchasers to buy lots (2500+ at last report) of guns, despite the puzzled "are you sure?" from lots of gun shops. The idea was, you know, to, like, see where they went, and junk.

Turns out when bad people buy guns to distribute to other bad people, the guns go all over the place. Sure there are hundreds of dead people from thousands of guns allowed to "walk" into Mexico. Plus a couple of US Americans which suddenly made it a problem, and lookee lookee, what a surprise: "Gunwalker" guns showing up in the USA, as well.

If President Obama was in on this plot, what would happen? I mean, aside from the obvious attempt to have a coordinated falling-on-the-swords by everyone who knew he knew . . . .

I Think That Was A Top Call

There is no reason to be optimistic about the second half. The recovery, assuming you think we had one, is dead. -Michael Shedlock

"Unexpectedly" negative numbers two months running. Four more and we'll officially have "another" recession. Unexpectedly, with results failing to meet economists' expectations all along the way. Why anyone would bother with such economists is beyond me.

What're You Gonna Do About It, Pipsqueak?

"It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good."

That right there is a stiff upper lip when you have to swallow a bitter pill. Wow. More of the story

Not only should you train your children when they are young; you will want to also make sure as much as you can that they stay on track. Things are different now, sure. But God still is the same, and he still doesn't like bad deeds to go unanswered by those who should stop them.

Fabulous Timing.

Not.

Laugh at me then. I was all ready for a between-church nap this afternoon. The baby was asleep and I sent #2 and #3 for a post-luch nap. As they got settled in, #4 woke up. Darling Wife already asleep. No nap for me!

:(

Then in the middle of "nap" time, the neighborhood heathen children came around asking for #1 to go outside to play, causing our dogs to sound the all-hell-breaking-loose alarm. I told #1 to tell the kids outside to kick bricks, which was translated into something less-rude by feminine instinct.

Did you hear the story a week or two ago about the 11 year-old who was shot for trespass when a group of children wouldn't get the heck off sumdood's lawn? Well I still think that was WAY excessive, but I can maybe sympathize a little after this afternoon.

More Cheery Economic and Social News!

1. Greece will default, but at this point it is irrelevant.
2. The situation in Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and Italy is now so dire that it is does not matter whether or not Greece defaults.
3. Expect chaos

Michael Shedlock: the type of analyst who does not seem to care if his message is 'politically correct' as long as it is correct.

That Was Easy.

Yesterday I ran a chkdsk and it took several hours (like 6) with many bad clusters repaired. I had my Darling Wife shut down the computer when it completed. Today I ran chkdsk again and it had an additional bad cluster after doing nothing all day. This is Very Bad.

The gparted/clonezilla plan failed because the old hard drive had (as gparted said) "hopelessly many" bad clusters. I remembered something I had read and checked . . . by "coincidence" (thanks Jesus) both the drives I was trying to use were Western Digital. I downloaded Acronis True Image (Western Digital edition) from Western Digital. I read the manual. I pushed a few buttons. In the morning I swapped the drives out.

If I had $40 or whatever I would say Acronis was worth it for an individual license. For a small company on a budget maybe a $$$$ license wouln't be, but zowie. That program Western Digital offers their customers is a 2009 version but it saved me huge headaches. Several drive manufacturers are offering house-brand versions of Acronis software to help customers migrate to a new drive.

I found it SUPER easy to use.

Well, That Stinks.

The hard drive from the other computer with the fresh XP installation? Windows was acting up the other day and chkdsk found bad sectors. Last night it was acting flaky and chkdsk found more (new) bad sectors. This, my friends, is a Strongbad Omen for the future useful lifetime of a hard drive. Backup was funky but it was almost complete (missed some system files, got the more important bits). Now I'm off to try to clone the drive so I don't have to reinstall Windows again (again).

Downloading Clonezilla now. I already have gparted on a CD. Many thanks to Pablo Garcia for posting this article on Geeky Projects on how to use these two free programs to clone one hard drive to a smaller hard drive. If I don't b*tch and moan about it some more, you may assume the process went well.

Say It Ain't So, Rick!

Governor "Pretty Boy" "King" "Pointy Boots" Rick Perry is making noises about getting into the race for President of the USA. This is the same Perry who tried to give us the Trans Texas Corridor and HPV vaccines for all, willy-nilly. He likes raising taxes to keep pace with "growth" and is generally only a few shades better than McCain as a candidate for POTUS.

Vote for Herman Cain.

Because It Hasn't Been Mentioned In A While:

If you want to reduce the amount of memory your computer uses when it is "just sitting there" and maybe make it a little more secure, tell it to stop doing so much.

Go have a look at the list of Windows Services at Black Viper's Website. Turn some of them off if you like. I know I am a neanderthal for wanting to reduce my system's overhead. I keep My Documents organized also.

Sorry, What Was That?

So the President can't just say some "just words" and cause prices to fall? Then WTH is up with oil falling $6 when he came out with a small increase in the amount of oil on the world's marketplace? Is the drop in the price of oil just words? Just speeches? Or would that be reality biting his soundbytes in the tuchus?

He said he couldn't lower gas prices in a day or two weeks. He could, but not with this. Two weeks, no . . . but give it a month or two.

*sigh* I shouldn't be surprised that he doesn't (or acts like he doesn't) understand market forces. I am not surprised when supply/demand and speculators' fears interact like they should. I just wish sometimes we had a different President . . . but then I remember we'd have McCain and I wonder which would have been worse for the nation.

Geert Wilders Acquitted!

“It is a victory, not only for me but for all the Dutch people. Today is a victory for freedom of speech. The Dutch are still allowed to speak chttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifritically about islam, and resistance against islamisation is not a crime. I have spoken, I speak and I shall continue to speak.” -Geert Wilders

This is great good news for free people everywhere who wish to speak the truth about islam without fear of recrimination. It is a travesty that it got even this far, but thanks God he has been declared Not Guilty on all counts.

You Use That Word, But It Does Not Mean What You Think It Means

"America, it is time to focus on nation building here at home" -President Obama

Look you tool, the nation is already built and you are screwing it all up. Howabout you go away and let the adults handle this, hmm? Oh, and P.S.: when you don't have a military goal but you pull your forces out of the battle zone according to a timetable, your enemies will be emboldened because they beat you off their turf. FYI.

Anthony Graves to be Paid, Finally.

Good job (finally) Texas Legislature and Gov. Perry.

Look into this story and you will have a new example to put in the dictionary by the word "railroaded." This guy got pwnd by the Texas legal system and I think he is due every penny of what will soon be coming to him. EVERYBODY screwed him over in this case, even the people who were supposed to disburse his million-odd dollars of compensation money.

Dentinal fluid tastes funny

Don't ask me how I know. It's not pretty.

You know that funky taste when they are grinding out your tooth to put in a filling? That's dentinal fluid, mostly. If you are lucky, you can live your whole life without tasting that outside the dentist's office.

Confidence Means Nothing

The recently (barely) successful vote of confidence in the Prime Minister of Greece means nothing. Greece will default. What cannot be paid back will not be paid back. Next up: Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and maybe the USA? The only question is: how much deeper will they dig the hole before the sides cave in and default is the obviously-only answer?

There is a 0.002% chance that the global economy will pick up enough to inflate the Eurozone out of its current mess. I hold not my breath in anticipation of this.

This May Get More Interesting.

Acting BATFE Director Melson was designated as the scapegoat, but he appears to be refusing. Mike may be giving the Obama administration too much credit when he thinks Melson won't be murdered. The only out is immunity and singing like a stool pigeon.

If the director of the ATF wants to roll over, you know someone higher than he in the administration has blood on their hands.

Alla Yous Goils Kin Jist Set Down Nah!

The chicks: 3 of them claimed to speak for 1.6 million of them. The 0ther 1.6 million had all sorts of jobs and presumably some were happy with their compensation packages at WalMart but noooo . . . you are part of a class: WalMart Employees with Ovaries! The 9th circus court said so!

Justice Ginsburg, showing off once again how important the President is, as the selector of new supreme Court Justices, said: “Wal-Mart’s delegation of discretion over pay and promotions is a policy uniform throughout all stores,” meaning the fact that they give (male and female) managers at each store and district discretion to set pay as they see fit is the same as company-wide discrimination against women. As Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum say: "That's logic."

The supreme Court says unanimously: sorry you three, but you 3 don't speak for the other million-odd. The press coverage has been surprisingly even-handed but the leftists still get their opinions in there pretending to be just-reporting. The conservative reporters of course are happy to dispense their opinions on these rulings:

Ginsburg’s identification of this as a prima facie indication of discrimination would have exposed virtually all US retailers to such class-action lawsuits. Not only would that have sapped retailers of billions in capital, but it doesn’t make any sense on its face anyway. If compensation decisions are decentralized throughout an organization, how can that possibly demonstrate a coordinated, centralized, and explicit effort to discriminate on the basis of anything? -Hotair

The Supreme Court’s 9 to 0 decision today in Wal-Mart v. Dukes stopped an abusive class action lawsuit and should bring a huge sigh of relief that the plaintiffs’ bar was stopped from further exploiting employers who create jobs. -Heritage.org

On the other extreme we find such editorializing as:

"The women of Wal-Mart, together with women everywhere, will now face a far steeper road to challenge and correct pay and other forms of discrimination in the workplace." -Huffington Post

and

Wal-Mart scored a big victory on Monday when the Supreme Court threw out the largest sex-discrimination case in U.S. history. Still, the nation's biggest private employer has been forced to address the issues raised in the suit. Yahoo! AP

If you can't see how these all are examples of biased reportage, all I can say is 'Sorry about that government schooling you went through. Better luck getting an education in your next life.'

Seriously With The Restarts?

I got the computer up and running on a fresh Windows installation and got a 1-year trial of a top-rated security suite installed. Then I started doing Windows updates. There are something like 130 of them and they all FAILED the first go-round. I dialed back the software security settings and tried again and half of them failed again. I turned the security stuff OFF and they still wouldn't install all at once. So here I am going through about 90 updates

one
at
a
time

and about half of them require a reboot to load. SRSLY Microsoft? Why can't you have just made them load on the next system startup instead of requiring a reboot? This is ridiculous.

My Initial Thoughts on John Huntsman

Political wonk thoughts follow:

********

After the debate the other day they (the leftwing establishment press) were trying to talk up Huntsman. My initial reaction: "Who the F is John Huntsman?"

So I wrote down some thoughts and today I found that paper again.

I heard one political theorist who said the person with the most soothing-sounding name wins elections pretty reliably. That theory may be full of holes or not, but John Huntsman is harsher on the ear than Barack Obama

That the democrats and MSM are trying to make you think of him as a viable, even the strongest contender against Obama makes me highly suspicious of him. Either they already have the October Surprise on him ready to go, or he's their type of person: loose social morals & a fiscal wobbly, goes easy on the rightwing stuff and soft on the left. If he (or anyone like that) gets the nomination, you can be assured the fix is in, and it's time to start stockpiling ammunition.

Maybe because he likes President Obama (called him an "outstanding leader") and the friend of my friend is my friend?

President Obama says he's done "an outstanding job" representing us in China. Maybe he has, who knows? But if Obama says you've done well, either you are on his team or you have done so well that even he can't deny it publicly. (?)

The rumor is also that Huntsman is the Bush family's favorite candidate. That would be the same Bush family that got us started down the most recent path to the cliff of economic Socialism (off of which Obama jumped).

John Huntsman has never come on my RADAR screen and I haven't looked into him for good or for bad. He may be a good candidate, but I won't know until he hits the airwaves and starts impinging on my consciousness. If he doesn't hit the airwaves, I don't know what. One fewer candidate to worry about?

********

Those are my initial thoughts. That the press is trying to pump him up in your eyes makes me VERY VERY Suspicious. You know of whom I am not suspicious? Herman Cain.

Give to the Herman Cain campaign if you want to do some good. If you REALLY want to do some good (and are a Christian), pray for the Herman Cain campaign and our nation.

A New One On Me

I saw a new thing the other day on the way to work.

A dude in a car, driving
Plucking out his ear hairs
With tweezers
On a bumpy road no less.

********

At least it wasn't as disgusting as the morbidly obese woman shaving her pits with an electric razor at a stop light.

Quote of the Day 06/15/2011

"It’s very insulting, and it means if he knows English, he needs to be speaking in English." -Chris Harris, Texas State Senator for (basically) Dallas

Senator Harris spoke for me just then. The dude has been here for several DECADES and he can't make remarks in English? That's a big F U to my State and to my country. YES it was insulting. If you don't agree, learn English and we'll talk about why you are wrong.

-1 Year Anniversary!

The first Formula One race at the new Circuit of the Americas track* will have been run by this time next year, if everything goes according to plan.

* said track built with 1/4 BILLION dollars of Texas taxpayers' money (taken at gunpoint) for the hosting of races put on by one of the richer people in the world who could probably have done it out of pocket. But hey, if you could get someone else to donate $25M/year for a decade "for the cause" - wouldn't you?

Quote of the Day 06/16/2011

Yes, another one.

"If that's not war, then nothing is war!" -Jeff Kuhner

Regarding President Obama denying he is waging a war on Libya by dropping bombs and sending CIA operatives into the country.

Quote of the Day 06-17-2011

I'll eat a lot more sh!t if I have a lot more bread to pad it with. -Listing Buddy

Regarding payment of bonuses at work, the lack thereof, and the amount of insanity one will tolerate.

Corrupt Government is Corrupt.

The law? That only applies to the little people. To GM, we say: The law applieth not!

Wait, oh yeeeees NOW I remember asking to watch gunwalking go down on the internet camera in real time! -ATF (soon to be former) Acting Director Melson

You have a business? It has locks on the doors? You shall put a box outside containing a key to the door, and the box will share a master key with all the other business' key boxes, and we'll have a few hundred of those master keys. Because shut up that's why.

Three hat tips to Uncle today.
Update: and two to Instapundit

The President is a lawyer, so of course he knows better than the specialist-type lawyers at the Pentagon whether or not he is officially starting a war when he bombs the sh#t out of another country that did nothing to us . . . and goes ahead over their objections.

No cuts, no bruises, a few red marks on the butt of a two year-old child? A (so-called) grandmother, prosecutor, and judge as well as a few social workers think that's a child-losing offense. In Texas? Judges are elected here, and this one needs a serious drubbing at the polls and then some.

Up & Running. Finally

A month later, much spare newsreading time having been lost, I've got the computer going on a licensed XP installation. Downloading updates and new software begins 10 minutes ago. Finally. Now to reinstall all the programs we use . . . :(

The Old Nuke N Pave

I'm fed up with trying to resurrect the hard drive, and that Windows installation was a couple of years old anyway. If the thing will pass a chkdsk, I'm going to slap a clean install on it. This prevents me checking my messages and the headlines, but gets me that much closer to a working computer that runs the kids' games with a licensed operating system.

Bleeping computer.

Poetic Justice Served up Hot

Two jerks canceled each other out this morning and I laughed at them both as I drove by.

On a 2-lane road with a shopping center off the right side . . .

I was in the #1 lane with a little SUV in front of me. In front of them in the #2 lane was a bobtail cargo truck. Behind the cargo truck, slightly behind me was a sedan. There was no traffic to speak of behind these four vehicles.

The SUV puts on their blinker and is obviously going to cut over in front of the sedan within a couple of car lengths. They would be cutting off the sedan but not too bad. The sedan speeds up and shuts the door on the SUV, and is (bygod!) not cut off. The SUV then has to decelerate and merge into the right lane behind the sedan. They immediately slow down and turn off into the shopping center.

The jerk preventing a merge in front of them by accelerating, prevented the jerk from merging in front of them and hitting the brakes to turn off into a parking lot when they could have waited a couple seconds and not cut off the other car. I laughed pretty good at the way that played out as I drove by.

At least nobody had a fish on their car.

This Makes Me Happy

Prices (in British pounds):

• Air Arms S400 Hunter pellet gun: 240GBP
• Ginb Special FT Stock: 280GBP
• Trigger job for the AA S400: 45GBP
• Regulator to double shot capacity and improve consistency: 190GBP

And then you have something like this:


Image from http://www.cones-stuff.co.uk/

Click through to that link and check out all the photographs. That is a beautiful bit of pigeon killing machinery. It makes me happy that such things exist. I do want one and would happily take one if you gifted it . . . but personally I have better use for a THOUSAND DOLLARS than to buy one for myself.

Oh, Finally. Army Abandons Dumbass Berets.

SRSLY?


image source VA Mortgage Center

These stupid hats were coming on the scene as I was separating from military service, so I have only seen a few of them on the odd Soldier I see at the grocery store parking lot or wherever. I have ALWAYS thought this was one of the stupidest uniform directives EVAR. The army spent a decade telling people their berets were on crooked, and finally they got somebody with some [deleted] sense in the top slot and they're going back to patrol caps. My commentary when I saw Mike mention the story:

VFD: Oh, finally.
Darling Wife: What?
VFD: The Army is finally abandoning the beret in favor of the patrol cap
DW: Oh, good.

You know who should wear berets? Army Special Forces men should wear them, and they should not be black. Frenchmen wear black berets. Soldiers on duty in uniform should wear the patrol cap or a helmet, as the situation requires. Preferably and a sidearm, but that may have to wait until I'm the Commander in Chief.



image source: Qwiki

Thou Shalt Not

. . . take the name of the LORD thy God in vain

If you pull out in front of traffic and drive slow, especially if you could wait 5 seconds and have a clear break in traffic, especially if you are going to take the next turning off the road, you are an [deleted].

If you have a little fishy on the back of your car and drive out from the church parking lot, you are proclaiming yourself to be one of Jesus' people. You are voluntarily identifying yourself with the Lord. You ought to be on Best Behavior.

If you pull out from the church parking lot in your car with the little fishy on it, and cut off traffic and drive like an [deleted], then you are putting negative connotations on my Jesus with your asshattery. This is a violation of the third Commandment.   Don't.  Some of us don't have little fishies on our cars because we don't want to publicly make our Lord look bad. If you're going to be a jerk, peel the fish off your trunk.

Yeah? So you don't like it, so what? Why should I do what YOU say, VFD?

. . . for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

It is not about what I like or what I say. I am not the one declaring guilt, in the final analysis - nor the one handing out judgements and rewards.

Nope, Still Sucks.

We got a treadmill free from one of our sisters from the church. She delivered it and then we went and had an afternoon picnic/swim affair at the lake looking like a Mormon family (me, 2 women, 6 small children). That was Saturday and everybody had a great time. Today I fired up the treadmill for the first time and the time I had was not-great. The treadmill has the advantage of not making me look like a clown running in circles in 101ºF weather outside the house . . . but it's still running in circles and still sucks to do. To be quite clear about this: I jog/run because is is necessary, not because I want to do it.

Then I treated myself afterwards. I followed one of my least favorite activities with one of my most favorite: I finished jogging and flopped down on the floor in the living room. Go figure, nobody asked if I were okay, and nobody called 9-1-1.

One oddity: I had vertigo after I got off the treadmill. Forward-motion vertigo, just a mild case, like a seaman who hasn't his sea legs. That was pretty strange.

Blessing in Deep Disguise?

I have a hunch, but I don't like it. Sometimes things I don't like happen in my life, and I find out later that it enabled something I did like, or prevented something I REALLY wouldn't have liked.

I think it may be just possible that I was given this computer and had to go through days and day of fooling with operating systems because my old hard drive was about to take a dump. I'd have lost everything, except I copied everything on to the new hard drive.

Still, I have yet to figure it out, but at least the data are preserved. Thanks God.

Hassles. Big Smelly Computery Hassles.

I've got a hard drive with a good working Ubuntu distribution, a hard drive with a good running pirated Windows 7 installation, and a hard drive with a good running licensed windows XP installation. I want to get the Windows 7 drive out and the XP drive in and leave the Ubuntu dual-booting alongside XP. In fantasyland this means pulling the W7 hard drive, installing the XP hard drive, and BAM done.

Today, in my living room, not so much. I've got to undo the dual boot and see if it will let me use a different hard drive with the PC for windows or if I'll have to root around in the frikken BIOS to undo whatever the previous owner did to get a homebuilt PC to run a Dell licencsed Windows 7. Joy.

This was written as I wait for Gparted Live to download. We'll see how it goes.

Huffing: Don't

A local 17 year-old was found unresponsive by her family next to 2 empty cans of computer dust-off type spray. D.R.T. She died from huffing aerosol spray propellants. A total waste. One of very many.

Teach your children about huffing when they are young enough not to be smarter than you and all your B.S. scare tactics.

I'm A Tool

Is a hammer self-aware? Well, I am.

I normally wait until my gas tank is at about 25 pounds before filling up, but this morning I was going to get gas anyhow, with a good 50 pounds on board. This is highly irregular.

I normally don't take pictures of my car for a few reasons, and I never enter photo contests. I always leave my camera at work. Today I found out at lunch time that there is a photo contest for pictures of cars at gas stations. I grabbed my backup camera "on a whim" as I left work. This is very highly irregular.

Normally I like to spend maximum-possible time at home and leave right at closing time. Today I spent a few extra minutes shooting the breeze/talking business after work and thought it good to call my Darling Wife and let her know I'd be late getting home. This is irregular.

At the filling station, I made a few photos of my car and took longer than usual, which lead to . . .

The car wouldn't start. At ALL. I missed the first ignition and flooded it, and usually I can give it gas pedal and crank for a few seconds and it will fire up. This time it was cranking for like a minute, with a break in the middle to go poke under the hood and see nothing obviously wrong. This is highly irregular - my car has maybe ten times EVER not started properly in twelve years.

I figured I would be at the gas station for a while, so I went to push the car away from the pump. I didn't want to tie up their moneymaking machine until the Hot Rod was fixed. I had parked a little forward of the pump so looking out of the door meant looking at the pump. The Hot Rod sits low, and I could see under the control panel of the fuel dispenser. Someone in a higher car or truck/van, or someone with a car with the seating position a few inches higher would have missed what I found.

Under the control panel on this type of gasoline dispenser is a metal cover with a lock to control access to the guts of the machine. In that lock was a key. The key to the gas pump was IN the gas pump. This is a Very Bad Thing for a lot of reasons.

I pushed the Hot Rod back into a parking spot. I was glad of a little pushing buddy assist from Random Strangerman who stopped his truck beside the car and left the little lady in the passenger seat while he pushed for a moment. I walked back to the dispenser and took the key and went into the store.

VFD: (holding out hand with open palm toward clerk, showing her the key)
Clerk: What is that, for you or for somebody here or ???
VFD: I don't know, but I don't think it should have been left in [pump] #10.
Clerk: (Surprised look)
VFD: Just a guess.
Clerk (happily receives key and has suspicious look around at her co-workers)

I walked outside and phoned my Darling Wife and told her I'd be even later than I thought. I speculated to her that maybe the reason the car wouldn't start was so I would find that key. I told her I'd be there for a while until the car cooled down, thinking it wouldn't start because something in the engine was too hot to work quite right. Then I thought maybe the car would start since the key was found. I said a quick prayer and turned the key - and the car started normally without any hesitation.

********

An evolutionist will try to tell you this is all random chance. I say God used me to get that key into the Clerk's hand this evening. What say you?

Fat is Not Voluptuous

My Darling Wife likes to watch a show about ladies going to purchase wedding dresses. Twice in one show today they featured two young women who were 200% to 300% heavier than they should be. They called each of them "voluptuous." Hint: they are fat. Morbidly obese, in fact.

Big, beautiful women: you are going to die young of a heart attack after several years of trouble with diabetes. You can't move far or fast, because you weigh too much. You weigh too much because you EAT too much. If you found a fellow who loves you and your body, good for you. Excuse me please as I scoff when someone calls you voluptuous.

Why We Are Winning:

Mark Mason took a pretty good photo here. Blurry brass, blurry adult hovering nearby, razor sharp little girl rocking a full-auto MP5.

This little girl likely will never buy the argument that guns are dangerous per se and will never be convinced she should not be trusted with one. Seriously, what do the antis have to counter something that puts a smile on a person's face the first time and the hundredth time, from 5 to 105 years of age, regardless of sex?

Hat tip: The Firearm Blog

Wouldn't THAT be Peachy.

Justice Kagan has about 30% odds of growing a case of scruples and recusing* herself from hearing the dispute over the Obamacare individual mandate. That could leave us with a 4/4 split decision. There is a circuit split now, and a supreme Court split would leave it the way it is in the various circuits. There would be parts of the country where you had a legal obligation to "punk or pay" and get a health care insurance policy, and parts of the country where you wouldn't. Man, what a fine kettle of fish that would be!

I wonder if I could get a bookie to give me odds on the rate of population flight from the Obamacare mandate states to the free states.

In related news, it sounds like the court of appeals may not be buying what the Obamacare lawyers are selling, but that means bubkis until the ruling is actually handed down.

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*Recusing. Blogger highlights it as misspelled as I type out this entry. Whatsa matter Blogger, government school spelling class or government school lexicon? Here's a clue: Recusing is not only a word but it's spelled correctly. Or maybe Blogger wants not to recuse herself? Ouch.

This is When I Start Thinking About Petty Vandalism

I don't think we're to the point of murdering policemen because they are policemen by a very, very long shot. But stuff like this story make me think nobody should be surprised to find one morning there is a parking lot full of police cruisers with slashed tires and keyed paint.

Acting on Federal orders, a SWAT team went in and snatched up a man and his children.
They put them in back of a police car while they searched his house
For 6 hours
Looking for his ex-wife
.
.
.
throwaway line while you think about searching one house for six hours looking for one person
.
.
.
The ex-wife's crime: defaulting on her student loans. The Department of Education called in the order for the raid.

NP says: WHAT!? I feel like you should be able to sue for that. I wanna be on the jury.

I've written my Congressman over this. This is outrageous. Any policeman who takes part in a SWAT home invasion over student loan debt without lodging an official protest needs his head examined.

Communist Art: So Easy a Child Could Do It!

One of the goals of Communism is to break the conventional thinking regarding art. Art used to be something hard to do, that you studied your entire life to get half decent at doing. You looked at a masterpiece and said "[deleted]! That guy is so much better than me at art, I'm going to shoot myself in the face with a bottle of vodka!" People were called "Masters" of their crafts. Communists recognize individual excellence as a threat to the collective satisfaction with generally poor everything (which is the natural result of Communism). So, logically, we can't have the masses perceive art as something that requires skill.

Come on, VFD

No, seriously. This is a genuine GOAL of Communism. First convenient hit on Google produces this list of Communist goals from 1963: Reproduced in pertinent part . . .

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

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Anyone in the art industry for a few decades will tell you that point 23 has been a resounding success. So can this kid's parents, who are selling the scribble-scrabbling of a four year-old girl as "art" for tens of thousands of dollars a crack.

Hooray Capitalism and more power to 'em, but pity the poor government educated fool who is parted with their money over this "art" and thinks they got something of genuine artistic value.

Take a 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil Lead

. . . and hold it up next to your screen. The point is the size of your home planet. This picture is the biggest solar flare seen in several years. Awesome, and possibly going to smash some terrestrial power grids.



Hat tip Washington's Blog where you can also find a some video and a dire warning. Scroll down to the second video and think for a second how much energy just blasted off into space. Global warming? Get inside that perimeter and you've got global missing!

Pessimist, Realist, Whatever.

Today they were talking about how 42% of the "unemployed" in America have been unemployed for longer than 6 months. Sucks, right, but then they said this is a higher percentage than in the Great Depression. Well it is a lot easier to be unemployed for a year when they PAY you to not have a job for 6 months, but when you fall off the other end of your unemployment checks and still can't find a job, that's a Real Bad Problem you have there.

Technically, the economy may be in a piss-poor recovery, depending on how you count the numbers. Practically, we're still in a pretty deep hole and we'll be in it for a while. When the "next recession" comes, some of us will have seen it coming. Please forgive us our obnoxiousness as we continue to maintain it is not a new recession but just another downturn in the Great Recession of a couple of years back.

But it's not a Depression because, of course, a Depression just can't happen here.

Quote of the Day 06/07/2011

" . . . the stenographers in the state-controlled media . . . " -Rush Limbaugh

Ouch. Tell us what you really think about the independence and neutrality of the MSM, Rush.

Texas Wins At Business

I just found out the "loser pays" bill crossed Pretty Boy Perry's desk 'bout a week ago. Now if you bring a groundless action to the court and the Judge says it's groundless, it won't be the Deep Pocket paying the $500/hour legal fees.

Good.

If you have a business in California, you are shooting yourself in the head by not coming to Texas.

How Could I Forget?!

A resounding congratulations to the Allies and a hearty boot up the ass of all collectivists everywhere on the 67th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

Spain Finds Out Problem With Socialism The Hard Way

You've heard it before: The main problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money to spend. Welcome to the end of the rainbow, Spain. As (Austrian economists) expected, the promised pot of gold was a sticker pasted on the floor . . . and a big part of you just crashed into it.

70,000 government workers are not guaranteed to receive their paychecks. Woopsy, haha sorry guys better luck next life?

Quote of the Day 07 June 2011

Really? Twice? -Uncle

Ha
Ha
Ha
Sometimes analyses don't need much length to be brilliant.

Woody Allen Confesses, Does Not Resign

It goes without saying that a Republicrat would have abdicated the throne at the first hint of Wienergate. This cat not only refused to step down, he stood there in front of the cameras wallowing in his own filth for the better part of an hour!

A Good Man does not SXT MSG strangers and have phone sex talk with random wymyn he "thinks" were all of legal age.

Will the Most Ethical Congress Ever^® actually throw him out on his ass?
Will his constituents?
Will his wife?

What sort of a person does things he obviously felt were worth a cover-up, repeatedly, intentionally, while holding an office of public Trust? Hello? Blackmail anyone? Was he ever blackmailed? Would he say if he had been? Does that explain some of his wacky position stances?

You'll never know. Good job, voters. Way to pick a winner.

You're Telling Me, Robot.

Today between church meetings we went home, had a nice lunch, and everyone but me went down for a nap. I would have, but if I did, the children would not have fallen asleep. I'm the watcher, and the enforcer of sleep time. My Darling Wife (most important) got a good hour and a half or so. I got maybe 30 minutes, 10 minutes at a time and not the best sleep ever recorded. Whatever, so back to church we go and I was in the nursery with the youngest boys for a few minutes and felt like whinging. I decided to send myself a cutesy text message.

VFD: whips out phone
VFD: punch buttons until it is asking who gets the message
VFD: enter my phone number by pushing letters until they turn into numbers
VFD: type message: "needa nap"
VFD: hit send
Phone: "Sending Message"
VFD: flippin sweet, here we go and . . .
Phone: "Service Unavailable"
VFD: *snort* Tell me about it!
VFD: try again, using number entry mode to name the recipient
Phone: "Sending Message"
VFD: Okay, that seems to have worked, let's see how long it takes :D
Phone: *Reboots*
VFD: SRSLY phone?
Phone: Oh hai! Somebody sent you a message while I was sleeping . . .

Disaster Zone Warning!

#1 likes to have night time prayers in her bedroom at lights out. Good so far. Tonight I went in there after lights out and narrowly avoided (thanks Jesus) being killed to death or worse.

She has a little round perforated plastic bucket thing, to hold about two pecks worth of dirty clothes. There is a 15" round rim on top of the bucket. Said rim was open toward the door of her room.

Take one step in the room and transfer your weight onto the rim of the laundry basket. Basket is now locked to the floor by your mass. Take another step and you are now officially off-balance, when your stepping foot catches the rim of the basket which is locked to the floor. This is where I stopped, backed up, and started straightening up her room in the dark.

Larry, Curly, Moe, or Shemp would have fallen forward onto a metal folding chair in the middle of the room. The hand they extended to catch themselves as they fell would have caught in the metal pins of one of these. Nice, right? Then as they stood up, the same grasping hand would have knocked the towel off the end of her bed, into a hula-hoop standing by the bed, scaring the cat who clatters against the bed as the cat takes off in terror. Who needs a burglar alarm.

Selective Hearing

The beef soup was not a family favorite. The children had to be enticed with the prospect of iced cream even to be done with their first servings. #1 and #2 were long done but #3 was really milking it.

What I said: No, You are not finished right now
What #3 heard: . . . you . . . are . . . finished . . . now

#3: I finished?!
Mommy & Daddy in unison: NO!

Oh well. Better luck next time, buddy.

Sick, Thanks for Asking

A few days ago #4 wouldn't keep his food down, then he had the nasty runnies for a couple days. 2 days ago everyone was slow. Yesterday #1, #2, #3 couldn't keep anything down including water beginning around 05:00. Mommy and I were pretty low and nauseous with uncomfortable guts but she was less worse than I. I spent about 28 hours in bed. So, no blogging (or much else). Thank God for sick days off work. Now my Darling Wife is sleeping, the children are feeling better and trying to be quiet, and I'm in recovery from taking in about a pint of clear liquids and a handful of crackers all day yesterday.

High marks for my Darling Wife!

Cross-Training: Win!

Sound Guy wasn't at church tonight. Usher #2 showed up right as service started and stepped into the sound booth. Aside from one thing that was unplugged, it all went pretty smoothly. Ushers #1, #2, and #3 have been working up a crew of standby Ushers from out of the regular pew warmers, and Sound Guy had been training Usher #2 to work the sound board. Cross-training: it's what you do when you want things to work and the regular Guy is nowhere to be found.

New House Rule:

Absolutely NO taking the whole Zoo out for full-scale grocery shopping after church Wednesday night. Sunday between church services is already out. They ended up going to bed between 22:30 and 23:30, and that's on a rough 5 hours of sleep per parent the night before. No. You feed em, I'll make a list and go later. When they're in bed.