Break The Law? We'll Burn Your HOUSE Down!

Excuse me for noticing, but the government is about to burn a man's house down -presumably with his and his wife's entire collection of earthly possessions- and he has been convicted of no crime. They want to burn it because somebody might get a widdle boo-boo if they disposed of the bombs, grenades, etc. in the house the slow and difficult one-at-a-time way. Plus it would be, like, really hard n' junk. So let's just burn this mother down and hope that takes care of the problem!

Sure, maybe it needs to be burned down for public safety. Can we at least have the guy in prison (vs. indicted) first, or maybe say SOMETHING in the article about the house being condemned? Yahoo! news might be falling on its face here, but for the libertarianish reader, the local .gov really comes off ham-fisted in this story. I did a bit of looking around and NOBODY is saying anything about condemned. Contaminated, yes.

Would-be armorers, take note: be sure not to have a gardener, or at least don't leave your powdered explosives out where he'll step on them and get you arrested.

Don't Go Investing In Chinese Skyscrapers Just Yet

Those who are unaware that China is headed for a depression will be surprised I guess. Those paying attention ought not to be. Apparently China is the only place there is currently any action in the ridiculously-tall skyscraper industry. That's swell for the people getting paid to work on the towers, but not so great for anyone after they're done.

In case you missed it, not only does China have a surplus of see-through buildings, there was an entire city built where nobody lives. China is only not in a real-estate crash right now because they are extend-and-pretending like everybody else did whose markets have already crashed. Once these new skyscrapers are complete, the developers will be bankrupted because nobody will use the buildings. The towers will remain largely tenant-free for the foreseeable future, like the other new buildings in China.

China is going down, hard, soon. If you have your money over there building record-setting skyscrapers, there is no time like the present to pull it out. If someone tries to sell you Chinese skyscraper company stock, walk away.

Please Pray for Yolanda

Sailor Curt's sister was t-boned and life-flighted. She and the family could use help, so Christians please pray.

Dumb News Roundup 12/04/2010

People with not only no right to vote for Congressmen, but no right even to be in our country, are protesting that they should be allowed to be citizens because . . . well, it sounds like a good idea or something. You know, because, like, I totally want to be a citizen! You should just give in because, like, I'm sort of an American too, you know!

A trade deal has been reached with a country that produces higher-quality cars for less money than the USA does, and this is somehow supposed to boost sales of American cars there. Ahem. I can get why people here buy Korean cars. I fail to see why anyone in Korea would buy an American car.

Spanish air traffic controllers go on strike because they are told they will only be making 10x the national average salary vs. 20x, will have to make up for times they miss their regular working shifts, and may have to go see a doctor when they call in "sick" to get out of work. The military was called in and most of the ATCs are back to work. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess this industry is nationalized, and they are whinging about submitting to something more like national-normal conditions while they suck down pay from the pockets of the citizenry. They should be glad for what they do get, but that's now how government unions roll.

You're Welcome, Jerk.

You couldn't walk an extra thirty steps to put your grocery cart in the "please return carts here" area. You left it in the middle of a parking space. You knew it wasn't well-placed, which is why you looked back at it once, and then did a double-take to be sure. Well, it turns out you suck as bad as you thought you might.

Fortunately for your car and the profitability of your car insurance company, I was pushing my cart a few steps behind you on the way to my car. As your lady friend backed your car out of the parking spot directly down hill from where you negligently left your empty shopping cart, I held your cart with mine to prevent it rolling directly into your car. Then I took an extra four steps and at least hooked the wheels of your cart on a curb so it wouldn't roll off into somebody else's car in the lot . . . unlike you.

Such thoughtless, negligent, disrespectful behavior is why you are still driving a hoopty when you are old enough to have two kids. Good luck getting ahead in life; you will probably need it.

Spambots Are Getting Smarter

If I get an e-mail with no subject, or if the subject has to do with a greeting card, it goes straight to /dev/null. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Even if it's from someone I know. Even if it's from my email address (the nerve!) Today I got an e-mail "from" myself with an actual sentence in the title, like a real e-mail might have. It had grammatical errors and was obviously not from me, but they're getting closer. Sooner or later I'm going to be genuinely fooled and click on a spam e-mail and get a nasty surprise.

Stupid spammers. Leave us alone.

Madness @ Work

Sometimes, customers come into our shop and look around to see what else they want to impulse-buy. Sometimes, they are straight arrows. Sometimes, they give every appearance of being just a couple of steps shy of looney toons. Today we had a pair of real humm-dingers come in that set off LB's and my spidey senses for 'harmless nutter proximity.' They went out for a tour of the stuff out back and . . .

LB: Now the next time when them people come through, I will be donning (puts on an extremely strange looking head-mounted scientific instrument) this hat.
VFD: Now you are making fun of the crazy people.
LB: Naw, I just want to see what they would say.
VFD: No, you are manipulating them for your amusement. That's making fun.

In his defense, the funny hat was off when they came through.

The Dismal Science

Economics: a way to get all of your friends to make ugly faces and go talk to someone pleasant, when you start discussing reality vs. what the stock market is doing. If you're not into it, this post is a yawner. If you are, it's huge ugly scary news.

Trust me, it's huge ugly scary news, and also not a surprise to those of us who are paying attention

. . . and still waiting for the double-dip.

Counter Suit: Your Religion Offends My Yodeling!

A dude in Austria (which is famous for people who yodel for kicks) yodels while mowing his lawn. His asshole muslim neighbors are praying (again) and they get all bent sideways (vs. forwards toward mecca) because his "what a lovely day to be mowing" yodeling sounded like their call to prayer. To them. To him, it sounded like the Casey Kasem's Top 40 Hit Parade.

But you see, he could have meant to offend them, so he's now under an €800 ($1200-ish) fine from the court.

Let me tell you, I would have a very, very, very hard time not making those neighbors' life unpleasant in 800 ways, if this befell me. What a travesty of justice.

I Wasn't Asking.

A word of advice to those who think that the road is for their exclusive use: Not. If you see my car has a blinking light on the side near you, and it is well in front of your car, this is not a sign for you to speed up. It is also not a reason you should honk when I put my car in front of yours. It is, in fact, not a request for you to pretty please let me in; I am serving notice. The blinking light says "here I come."

In a city where the drivers are both low-skilled and rude, sometimes you have to "git in wher' ya fit in" . . . the turn signal is a legal nicety.

P.S. it's not that everyone is always cutting you off, it's that you never leave a safe following distance between your car and the one in front of you, into which your fellow users of the road can merge. Fix yourself or deal.