A month or three ago (I've slept since then) I was doing some accounting at the church and I almost wrote 1998 on a check slip. 1998. That was in late 2008. Now that it's 2009, I don't know what I'll do. Does anybody else trip out a little bit that it's after 2000 already, or am I the only one?
Like the song says: "I know I'm not crazy, Doctor. At least not all the time!"
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Gun Range Tomfoolery Stories
Xavier relates a story about some people doing things approximately as stupid and dangerous as driving drunk when he went to a gun range recently. It reminded me of an event that happened when I was a boy in Houston.
I suppose I was 12 or younger at the time. We had gone out as a family (at least Dad, Mom, and me, I don't recall if Sister #2 was there) to a local outdoor range to kill some paper people. The firing line at this range had a row of separate benches with a small table or counter at each station attached to the 4x4s holding up the corrugated roof. There was a space between every couple of benches to let you out onto the range. The floor was a long strip of concrete maybe 3 meters wide. The short pistol range targets were upright 4x4s with oriented strand board walls to which targets would be stapled. There was an elevated platform behind the firing line with the Range Master on overwatch, and roving Range Officers as well. It was a firing session, with guns a'blazin' and lead flying downrange. A family that must either have been populated with stupid, unthinking people, or else they were from a very bad part of town, showed up. There were at least 3-4 of them, maybe more but I was focused on what a specific few of them were doing.
What they were doing was walking downrange, and then posting targets on the backstop. During a live firing session. As in, the stall next to them has somebody with a gun very obviously going BANG BANG BANG, and they bebopped out onto the grass and started stapling targets up. Firing nearby stopped immediately as the shooters with some [deleted] sense saw what was going on. The Range Master got on the 1MC and called a cease-fire and proceeded to bawl them out over the PA. I think we left not too long after that but I'm not sure if it were because of them or if we were done anyway.
********
Thinking of that shooting range reminds me of a few other times we went there. Once, it sounded like someone was shooting a cap gun as we got out of the car, and then again as we were walking from the shop to the range. It was a woman shooting a little tiny Beretta or Taurus .22 pistola.
Another time, we got a bench next to an old man (like 75+) with a BIG gun. It was a Desert Eagle in .50AE and he was shooting it slowly. Slowly as in, he would pick the hand-cannon up and take aim and fire once BOOOOOOOM and then rest the pistol on the table again for a few seconds. It must have been a fun way to get tired in a hurry.
Yet another session was with Mom trying out her new Glock 17. Limp-wristing it a little. She managed to limp-wrist bad enough to get it to stovepipe pretty reliably, but only with Blazer aluminum-cased ammunition. The funny part, though, was that she was also limp-wristing badly enough to have it eject the shells straight up and slightly to the rear, and they were coming down on her head. She had a poofy big-curls hairdo that day, and the shells were getting caught in the curls and she did a hot-shells-in-my-hair dance that was moderately amusing.
I suppose I was 12 or younger at the time. We had gone out as a family (at least Dad, Mom, and me, I don't recall if Sister #2 was there) to a local outdoor range to kill some paper people. The firing line at this range had a row of separate benches with a small table or counter at each station attached to the 4x4s holding up the corrugated roof. There was a space between every couple of benches to let you out onto the range. The floor was a long strip of concrete maybe 3 meters wide. The short pistol range targets were upright 4x4s with oriented strand board walls to which targets would be stapled. There was an elevated platform behind the firing line with the Range Master on overwatch, and roving Range Officers as well. It was a firing session, with guns a'blazin' and lead flying downrange. A family that must either have been populated with stupid, unthinking people, or else they were from a very bad part of town, showed up. There were at least 3-4 of them, maybe more but I was focused on what a specific few of them were doing.
What they were doing was walking downrange, and then posting targets on the backstop. During a live firing session. As in, the stall next to them has somebody with a gun very obviously going BANG BANG BANG, and they bebopped out onto the grass and started stapling targets up. Firing nearby stopped immediately as the shooters with some [deleted] sense saw what was going on. The Range Master got on the 1MC and called a cease-fire and proceeded to bawl them out over the PA. I think we left not too long after that but I'm not sure if it were because of them or if we were done anyway.
********
Thinking of that shooting range reminds me of a few other times we went there. Once, it sounded like someone was shooting a cap gun as we got out of the car, and then again as we were walking from the shop to the range. It was a woman shooting a little tiny Beretta or Taurus .22 pistola.
Another time, we got a bench next to an old man (like 75+) with a BIG gun. It was a Desert Eagle in .50AE and he was shooting it slowly. Slowly as in, he would pick the hand-cannon up and take aim and fire once BOOOOOOOM and then rest the pistol on the table again for a few seconds. It must have been a fun way to get tired in a hurry.
Yet another session was with Mom trying out her new Glock 17. Limp-wristing it a little. She managed to limp-wrist bad enough to get it to stovepipe pretty reliably, but only with Blazer aluminum-cased ammunition. The funny part, though, was that she was also limp-wristing badly enough to have it eject the shells straight up and slightly to the rear, and they were coming down on her head. She had a poofy big-curls hairdo that day, and the shells were getting caught in the curls and she did a hot-shells-in-my-hair dance that was moderately amusing.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Hooray For Texas!
Yes, Texas is white. White fiscal power!
The rest of you should be in the process of firing your entire government, but especially everyone who ever worked on your State's budget, for incompetence.
I expect the last 6 states may possibly go blue, and the rest will be fading to black, with California and New Jersey turning to negative colors, as the reporting on state budgets gets more realistic.
If you are confused by this blog post, please read the whole article at Mish's Global Economic Analysis blog.
Rediscovering First Principles
It recently became a part of my awareness that I am, with God's help I suppose, discovering for myself my own set of First Principles. It is part of my (everybody has a) sob story, as well as a failing of our parents' and grandparents' generations (I'm 30 years old, that makes me an X'er, I think), that I have to do this. I am under the impression that our great-great grandparents had this stuff pounded into them. Sometimes literally. They never had to question whether or not a woman should have the door held for her, or whether or not you can do something that is evil per se
I hope to clarify a set of First Principles enough in my mind to be able to type them out for you. A general rule of thumb is that, if you can make a young child or someone completely ignorant of your subject understand what you are saying, you know what you are talking about.
So, in the future, I hope that this will not be the only post in this category.
I hope to clarify a set of First Principles enough in my mind to be able to type them out for you. A general rule of thumb is that, if you can make a young child or someone completely ignorant of your subject understand what you are saying, you know what you are talking about.
So, in the future, I hope that this will not be the only post in this category.
Corruption, A Definition.
"all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags"
When someone is infected with MRSA, they can get sores. Putrefying sores that ooze nasty-smelling pus. You have to wipe it off with something, or you end up with infected crusty trails of dried-up pus running down your body. Or the dogs will come and lick you clean.
If you are poor, you use rags. They get filthy. Compared to the holiness of God, the best thing you ever did is about as lovely as those "filthy rags." That is corruption.
The American Heritage® Dictionary makes reference to "ruin utterly in character or quality" when defining Corrupt.
A minister at a church I attended told a story about a sheep on his family farm when he was growing up. This boy and his brother were told to walk a fenceline and they would find a dead sheep. They were to clean it off the fence and move the carcass to a refuse pile. They found the sheep had been dead, not for a day or two, but for a week or two. It was swollen and stank, and partially eaten. To extricate it from the barbed wire, they had to get their overalls "filthy." It fell apart a little bit on the way up the hill, maybe. That sheep's body was corrupted.
The Senate is debatably the most elite club in the world, and it is possibly the most powerful elected body on the planet. It is filled with rich people. To be a Senator is to be powerful and prestigious. You have been entrusted by your fellow-citizens with more power over them than almost anyone else. You and one other person represent your entire state. It is an office of high public confidence. And the Governor of Illinois allegedly tried to sell that office to the highest bidder, putting his own personal gain over the good of his State and the entire American Republic. That is a corrupt politician.
Detroit has a bit of a crime problem. I know a man who was a DPD street cop. He was chastised by a superior-ranking policeman for putting "bullet holes" on the Police Report as a description of damage on a car they were called out to see. Bullet holes mean more paperwork. "Did you see anyone shoot that car?" No? Well then, you see, that is "puncture damage." Spent cartridge cases got swept into a storm drain. That is a corrupt policeman.
Corruption is more than something that has gone bad. It has gone all the way bad, and been beaten by a Terrible Stick, then left to rot for a month. Try to remember that when someone mentions corruption in the US political system. It means more than you think it means, and it is apparently rampant.
When someone is infected with MRSA, they can get sores. Putrefying sores that ooze nasty-smelling pus. You have to wipe it off with something, or you end up with infected crusty trails of dried-up pus running down your body. Or the dogs will come and lick you clean.
If you are poor, you use rags. They get filthy. Compared to the holiness of God, the best thing you ever did is about as lovely as those "filthy rags." That is corruption.
The American Heritage® Dictionary makes reference to "ruin utterly in character or quality" when defining Corrupt.
A minister at a church I attended told a story about a sheep on his family farm when he was growing up. This boy and his brother were told to walk a fenceline and they would find a dead sheep. They were to clean it off the fence and move the carcass to a refuse pile. They found the sheep had been dead, not for a day or two, but for a week or two. It was swollen and stank, and partially eaten. To extricate it from the barbed wire, they had to get their overalls "filthy." It fell apart a little bit on the way up the hill, maybe. That sheep's body was corrupted.
The Senate is debatably the most elite club in the world, and it is possibly the most powerful elected body on the planet. It is filled with rich people. To be a Senator is to be powerful and prestigious. You have been entrusted by your fellow-citizens with more power over them than almost anyone else. You and one other person represent your entire state. It is an office of high public confidence. And the Governor of Illinois allegedly tried to sell that office to the highest bidder, putting his own personal gain over the good of his State and the entire American Republic. That is a corrupt politician.
Detroit has a bit of a crime problem. I know a man who was a DPD street cop. He was chastised by a superior-ranking policeman for putting "bullet holes" on the Police Report as a description of damage on a car they were called out to see. Bullet holes mean more paperwork. "Did you see anyone shoot that car?" No? Well then, you see, that is "puncture damage." Spent cartridge cases got swept into a storm drain. That is a corrupt policeman.
Corruption is more than something that has gone bad. It has gone all the way bad, and been beaten by a Terrible Stick, then left to rot for a month. Try to remember that when someone mentions corruption in the US political system. It means more than you think it means, and it is apparently rampant.
Al Franken Won His Senate Race Legitimately!
(or not) (I say not, by the way)
I was listening to Neal Boorts while working and he went over the following and a few more examples. Suffice it to say, this election appears to have been well and truly stolen.
Every time there was a controversy, the survey board sided with Franken. If there was a different number of ballots between machine and hand-counts, they went with the one that favored Franken. In one case they said to go with the machine count that got Franken more votes. In another case they said to go with the hand count and THAT got Franken more votes. In Minnesota, if a ballot is damaged, they are supposed to make a duplicate ballot for the recount, and mark it as a duplicate... and they failed to mark them. So there are possibly double-counted or just plain fake votes being counted, benefiting Franken. Board say: OK! Now, the election is about to be certified. The Democrat-leaning counties are done recounting and the Republican-leaning counties are not done, and the race looks like it will go to Franken, so we're going to go ahead and call it for Franken. Why? Because courts are loath to overturn called elections.
Are you getting the idea that the Fix is in for Franken yet? Now tell me again why they don't have electronic voting machines with paper backup copies of the ballots?
None of this is reason enough to have a special election? Seriously? Come on now, where is the Governor? Oh, that's right. Wrong side of the aisle being trampled, sorry. You know the fun part is that if there hadn't beena black guy er, the Messiah hopechange on the ballot, it would have probably been a landslide for the also-ran who ran against a down-ballot Democrat Coleman.
So my interesting question for you is, is it better for the state machine to rig a vote so the Democrat I'll-be-a-dem-handpuppet candidate wins, or is it better for the Governor to sell the seat? Oh wait, they are both examples of corruption. Great.
Nice, those Democrat election machines, eh?
edit/update: oh, there are also 25 precincts with more ballots cast than registered voters. Nope, no fraud there.
I was listening to Neal Boorts while working and he went over the following and a few more examples. Suffice it to say, this election appears to have been well and truly stolen.
Every time there was a controversy, the survey board sided with Franken. If there was a different number of ballots between machine and hand-counts, they went with the one that favored Franken. In one case they said to go with the machine count that got Franken more votes. In another case they said to go with the hand count and THAT got Franken more votes. In Minnesota, if a ballot is damaged, they are supposed to make a duplicate ballot for the recount, and mark it as a duplicate... and they failed to mark them. So there are possibly double-counted or just plain fake votes being counted, benefiting Franken. Board say: OK! Now, the election is about to be certified. The Democrat-leaning counties are done recounting and the Republican-leaning counties are not done, and the race looks like it will go to Franken, so we're going to go ahead and call it for Franken. Why? Because courts are loath to overturn called elections.
Are you getting the idea that the Fix is in for Franken yet? Now tell me again why they don't have electronic voting machines with paper backup copies of the ballots?
None of this is reason enough to have a special election? Seriously? Come on now, where is the Governor? Oh, that's right. Wrong side of the aisle being trampled, sorry. You know the fun part is that if there hadn't been
So my interesting question for you is, is it better for the state machine to rig a vote so the Democrat I'll-be-a-dem-handpuppet candidate wins, or is it better for the Governor to sell the seat? Oh wait, they are both examples of corruption. Great.
Nice, those Democrat election machines, eh?
edit/update: oh, there are also 25 precincts with more ballots cast than registered voters. Nope, no fraud there.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
EARTHQUAKE SWARM! YELLOWSTONE ASPLODE! EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!1!!*
*(OR NOT!)
You may have heard, and they may have included some PSH in the news report, that there has been a swarm of earthquakes in the area of the Yellowstone Caldera.
Hold on a there. The what? A what?
Yellowstone Caldera: a volcano that hasn't gone off in, oh, for ever, as far as anyone remembers, and at least a jillion years according to the geology. By the way, it's about 34 miles by 45 miles across, and lies in three different states. Looky, color pictures and everything! Note: the pink stuff is the open mouth of an old volcano. If it were to all blow up again, your iPod would be useless! zOMG! (also, you would likely join the rest of the population of the world in death)
(click to embiggen)
The fabulous hydrothermal features at yellowstone (e.g. ""old faithful")? Caused by the planet not being stable? Yeah, those are still a work in progress. Lately there has been a somewhat alarming-sounding uplift of the ground in one part of the area (3"/year under a lake) and now we have what the Official Scientists in White Lab Coats call a "swarm" of earthquakes.
No, really.
So you get to pick the news you want to believe. Either we are all going to be blown to smithereens or die under ashes, or we are all going to be fine just like the last time there was an earthquake swarm in Yellowstone.
For more information about ongoing volcanic activity around the world, including a software package that predicts with 95%+ accuracy when and where a volcano will erupt, click here.
So what's the official word?
(it probably won't go off, and we couldn't say if it will or not, but thanks for funding us!)
You may have heard, and they may have included some PSH in the news report, that there has been a swarm of earthquakes in the area of the Yellowstone Caldera.
Hold on a there. The what? A what?
Yellowstone Caldera: a volcano that hasn't gone off in, oh, for ever, as far as anyone remembers, and at least a jillion years according to the geology. By the way, it's about 34 miles by 45 miles across, and lies in three different states. Looky, color pictures and everything! Note: the pink stuff is the open mouth of an old volcano. If it were to all blow up again, your iPod would be useless! zOMG! (also, you would likely join the rest of the population of the world in death)
(click to embiggen)
The fabulous hydrothermal features at yellowstone (e.g. ""old faithful")? Caused by the planet not being stable? Yeah, those are still a work in progress. Lately there has been a somewhat alarming-sounding uplift of the ground in one part of the area (3"/year under a lake) and now we have what the Official Scientists in White Lab Coats call a "swarm" of earthquakes.
No, really.
So you get to pick the news you want to believe. Either we are all going to be blown to smithereens or die under ashes, or we are all going to be fine just like the last time there was an earthquake swarm in Yellowstone.
For more information about ongoing volcanic activity around the world, including a software package that predicts with 95%+ accuracy when and where a volcano will erupt, click here.
So what's the official word?
The U.S. Geological Survey, University of Utah and National Park Service scientists with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory "see no evidence that another such cataclysmic eruption will occur at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future. Recurrence intervals of these events are neither regular nor predictable."
(it probably won't go off, and we couldn't say if it will or not, but thanks for funding us!)
Al Franken Has Officially Won
~or~
Funny how the Democrat can win a recount, when the Democrat operatives are (literally) finding votes in the back of their cars, and the Democrat partisans grow a case of Objectivity and start counting disputed ballots, eh?
No, seriously, that's what happened. And now all you Republicans and Anti-Democrats out there who said your vote doesn't matter, you see how fewer than 260 ballots gave a U.S. Senate seat away. Good job. Thanks.
"If a Republican wins an election by fewer than 1,000 votes, they have lost" -Laura Ingraham
Funny how the Democrat can win a recount, when the Democrat operatives are (literally) finding votes in the back of their cars, and the Democrat partisans grow a case of Objectivity and start counting disputed ballots, eh?
No, seriously, that's what happened. And now all you Republicans and Anti-Democrats out there who said your vote doesn't matter, you see how fewer than 260 ballots gave a U.S. Senate seat away. Good job. Thanks.
The Innocent Have Nothing To Fear . . . Why Are You Upset, Citizen?
~or~
"The (Ongoing Slow) Death of the Right to be Left the Hell Alone"
********
Ho-hum, it's just another measure designed to combat crime. Perfectly innocent, I assure you. In fact, you will not even know it has been done to you,
when the police hack into your computer and look around your hard drive without notifying you, and without obtaining a warrant.
After all, it's for the children. You don't like child pornography now do you? You don't have any now do you? You're not a terrorist are you?
Then why would you possibly object? You don't have something to hide do you, citizen?
********
Hint: the answer is YES you do. It's called your own life. It's a Natural Right to privacy that you infringe upon, that raises my umbrage so. And you can just keep the hell out of my life, my house, my car, and my computer f*ck you very much.
********
So down, down, ever down goes the slippery slope, until Big Brother is watching you back, through your own televisor, and it is all just fine, because after all it is for your own protection!
"The (Ongoing Slow) Death of the Right to be Left the Hell Alone"
********
Ho-hum, it's just another measure designed to combat crime. Perfectly innocent, I assure you. In fact, you will not even know it has been done to you,
when the police hack into your computer and look around your hard drive without notifying you, and without obtaining a warrant.
After all, it's for the children. You don't like child pornography now do you? You don't have any now do you? You're not a terrorist are you?
Then why would you possibly object? You don't have something to hide do you, citizen?
********
Hint: the answer is YES you do. It's called your own life. It's a Natural Right to privacy that you infringe upon, that raises my umbrage so. And you can just keep the hell out of my life, my house, my car, and my computer f*ck you very much.
********
So down, down, ever down goes the slippery slope, until Big Brother is watching you back, through your own televisor, and it is all just fine, because after all it is for your own protection!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
States: You're Bankrupt: Deal With It!
States Seek To Coerce Money Out of Citizens of Other States should be the headline of that one.
Look, you made promises you couldn't keep and wrote checks your a$$ couldn't cash. Now your house of cards is collapsing and you don't want to have to cut back on the state funding of pigeon homosexuality research or whatever. Tough. You don't get my Texas tax dollars for your New Jersey or California bailout money. No. No No No No NO.
Suck it.
********
But because Obama is a Marxist to the core, this is going to happen, and happen right soon. I guess it is just out of the question when the entire world is in a depression, to expect that outrageous pension and union wage plans the states promised to pay when the money was easy, should be cut. No, we can't have 25% fewer dog catchers. No, we have to fund ALL those abortions.
The proper answer SHOULD be: you will cut your budget, Uncle will cut his budget, and we will not print another TRILLION dollars because you are a bunch of hippies.
Don't hold your breath waiting for that line from Barry's administration!
Look, you made promises you couldn't keep and wrote checks your a$$ couldn't cash. Now your house of cards is collapsing and you don't want to have to cut back on the state funding of pigeon homosexuality research or whatever. Tough. You don't get my Texas tax dollars for your New Jersey or California bailout money. No. No No No No NO.
Suck it.
********
But because Obama is a Marxist to the core, this is going to happen, and happen right soon. I guess it is just out of the question when the entire world is in a depression, to expect that outrageous pension and union wage plans the states promised to pay when the money was easy, should be cut. No, we can't have 25% fewer dog catchers. No, we have to fund ALL those abortions.
The proper answer SHOULD be: you will cut your budget, Uncle will cut his budget, and we will not print another TRILLION dollars because you are a bunch of hippies.
Don't hold your breath waiting for that line from Barry's administration!
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