Happy Drunken Indian Day!

I was having a hard time explaining to my Darling Wife just how offensive Valentines Day is to me as a loving husband and a man.  Finally I came up with this analogy, which only works because there is a certain flavor of American Indian and a certain amount of alcoholism in her family.

There is a holiday called Drunk Indian Day.  Most Indians are sober but they celebrate it anyway, because they feel social pressure to do so.  Celebration consists of (at least) buying a stupid little stereotypical-Indian doll with a bottle in its hand and its eyes crossed.  This is the Drunk Indian doll.  Purchasing one of these dolls and presenting it to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting is the way you show that you are not, in fact, a Drunkard. 

Nevermind that you are the co-ordinator of the local Alcoholics Anonymous chapter and a teetotaler and everyone knows it.  IF you don't buy that little Drunk Indian dolly, well that just means you're a drunk and probably spent last night in the gutter in your own vomit, instead of at the store buying the doll!  It is, after all, exptected that you buy the doll to celebrate your sobriety.

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This works equally well for Crackhead Niggers Day, where you have to go find a small bag of quartz pebbles and present them in a little tiny plastic baggie, to PROVE to society that you are not, in fact, a crackhead nigger.

This also works for Wifebeatin' Redneck Honky day, where you have to go buy a white muscle shirt and a pack of band-aids to prove you don't beat your wife.

The point is, to make the analogy work for the woman to whom you are trying to explain it, you have to have a really strong, very negative stereotype of some group to which they are proud to belong.  Then have some useless commercial activity and a meaningless presentation to "prove" that you do not live up to the stereotype and then have it be "Oh . . . WELL. . . " if you fail to participate in the activity.

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Finally I think I broke through her childhood conditioning regarding Valentines Day.  The thing is, I don't *mind* getting her flowers or whatever on one specified day!  The *expectation* and the *demand* that I produce them, THAT's the problem.

Queen Elizabeth Hit With A Bat!!!

Well, make that, the Queen Elizabeth II, ocean liner de luxe, is showing what happens when her Captain (and her corporate ownership) gets a clue.

Threaten people's money and they'll do something.  In this case, threaten cruise ship companies with the potential loss of fares (and ships and crews) and they'll start packing heat when they sail through waters known to be inhabited by Somali muslim pirates.

From a couple years ago at a couple of hijackings a week, to now it's been months since the last successful merchant ship was taken by pirates.  You know what changed?  Nothing.  Only, the people at the top of some food chains noticed that when we put guns on merchant ships before, piracy dropped off.  Some of us were calling for arming private vessels against pirates 'way back when it first became a real problem again.  Finally, once again, reality catches up and history starts rhyming.

This is What "Hopelessly Many" Bad Sectors Looks Like

A while ago, I had a flaky computer at home.  Among the many things I tried to use to get it backworking was gparted (on the UBCD).  gparted said it couldn't do what I wanted it to do, because it had bad sectors.  How many bad sectors?

"hopelessly many"

This was very bad.  So when I got the hard drive replaced, I called it "bad"

and then decided "what the [deleted]" and opened it.  Inside a hard drive should be 100% pristine ultra-clean cleanliness.  I was shocked to see this on the top platter:

(that's about a 2mm-long fleck of dust)

Then I turned it to catch the light a different way. Realize please that the actual discs in a hard disc drive are little round mirrors and are entirely featureless as far as you can see with your eye . . . normally . . .

What does "hopelessly many bad sectors" mean?  It means you better have a working backup already, because your drive is hosed.  These white flecks of dust resulted in system instability and random crashes and locking up/freezing.  You wouldn't notice this small amount of dust on your spectacles.  On the platters of a hard disk, it is catastrophic.

Finally Got a Yellow Camera

Finally, a yellow paint marker came through the shop. Now my camera is easy to spot, and then some.

The metal casing around the rear command dial (above the CF slot) was worn THROUGH the metal by my thumb.  It's worn through the paint since I took these pictures a month or so ago.  Oh well.  I didn't put it on there to make it look pretty.

The long-time readers out there may recall my previous work camera was also yellow, but that was (mostly) with yellow electrical tape and it tended to slip off and leave gunky residue.

Germany to Exit Eurozone

Michael Shedlock called the top before the Great Recession, called Greece, Spain and France imploding well before they were on the downstream media's radar, and now he's calling Germany out . . .  out of the Euro, that is.  IF the Germans are smart, that is.

"A breakup is inevitable, just as it has been from the beginning. The key is to manage a breakup in the least destructive manner.

"Breakup Options

"Option 1: If Germany (and the northern states) left the eurozone, the Deutschmark (and respective currencies) would immediately be credible. The downside to Germany (and the northern states) is debts to German banks would not be paid back in Deutschmarks but rather deflated (but not worthless) Euros.

"Option 2: The second option is a piecemeal, destructive breakup. Should Greece and Spain leave first, those countries might experience a complete loss of faith in currency resulting in hyperinflation. The Northern states would be paid back in worthless notes, if they were paid back at all.

"Germany Suffers Regardless

"Note that Germany and the Northern creditor nations suffer regardless. ...

"There are no other options, and no other choices. ... "

Happiness is a Warm . . .

No, not belt-fed this time.

Today I had off from work and spent it tooling around the house with the Zoo.  After my Darling Wife came back from what she was doing, we spent some quality time demolishing a part of the deck in the back yard.  Then I smashed the wooden parts into much-smaller wooden parts and started a fire in the fire pit.  She decided to tend to some gardening while I did that and the Zoo was running around like the good little ruffians they all are.  Then the fire was dying out due to lack of decking, and I scouted the back yard for other wood scraps.  Parts of an old kitchen island and all of an old back yard table went in the fire.  As night dawned, I was standing there with my Darling Wife by my side, between the glowing fire and the path where the children were running around, keeping them from running into the fire.

Standing next to a warm fire holding your loved one . . . is good!

Nothing to See Here, Citizen!

Please disregard the military helicopters firing machine guns over downtown Miami (and Houston, and more to come for sure).  They are only training.  They are specifically NOT on a mission to desensitize you to seeing military helicopters firing on people in your city.

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The canopy is armored but the tail rotors are not, and rotor heads probably can't take too many rifle rounds without suffering heavy damage.  A few hundred yards means several feet of bullet drop, and remember your windage.  More effective still would be a mortar round onto the helicopters when they are stationary on the ground.

"Every terrible impliment of the Soldier" includes mortars, but your government does not want you to have them.  Yes, that would be the same government currently in the process of getting you accustomed to being fired-upon by your own troops.  For your own safety, you understand.

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Yes, we have come to the point of hypothetical consideration firing BACK (not first!) at helicopters flown by our own military forces.  Is this the change you were hoping for?

Well, at Least He's Thinking.

Two laundry machines were going and I was concentrating on work just now (21:50, well past bed time) and I didn't hear anything untoward.  My Darling Wife told me to go and chastise #3 for kicking the wall by his bed instead of sleeping.  I went in to the boys' room and #3 was sitting up in bed, on the side away from the wall. I asked him...

VFD: What're ye doing?
#3: My pillow is cold
VFD: It's cold because you're not sleeping on it.  Lie down
#3: (lies down)
VFD: (arranges blankets on the boy)
VFD: Go to sleep
VFD: (exit, close door)

I wanted to explain why she hadn't heard any gunshots or screaming, so I told my Darling Wife...

VFD: He was trying to re-arrange his blankets.  His pillow was cold, so he was trying to put his blanket on his pillow
DW: LOL
VFD: Some peoples' kids.
DW: LOL

What Difference, At This Point, Does it Make?

No, I'm not going to bag on Secretary Clinton for trying to shirk responsibility for the four dead Americans in Benghazi.  This is about our BFFs the United Nations Peacekeepers.

Turns out, the difference it makes is THOUSANDS of dead Haitians.  Dead of Cholera, which was unknown in the Caribbean before the UN's Peacekeepers brought it with them from Nepal and dumped it with their kaka in the biggest river in Haiti for people to drink and to bathe in.

According to this piece by Johathan Katz, the UN were pointedly NOT interested in investigating the source of the outbreak because they already knew it was they who were killing those Haitians.  But hey, the dead haitians are black and poor so there's no need to talk about them on the nightly news! 

(which, of course, is why you should get at least some of your news from Instapundit, where I saw this story)

Nobody Needs Ten Bullets...

• Nobody needs ten bullets when three thugs break down their door.  Surely you will be able to dispatch them all with only 3.33 bullets each.  They will stand there like ducks in a row; probably FOUR is more than you need!
• Nobody needs ten bullets when a pack of a dozen feral dogs decides you and your kids in the stroller look like lunch.  Maybe they will line up for you, so a few bullets can hit multiple dogs?
• Nobody needs ten bullets when one bad guy is ducking behind a wall and you keep barely-missing him
• Nobody needs ten bullets when they are in the middle of a firefight with federal agents coming to take their guns away.  Oh, wait that's what they don't want you to be able to do!

 Make no mistake: the people who want to limit you to certain kinds of guns and certain numbers of bullets would like very, very much to remove your guns from you - for your own protection, of course.  If the Police and Military are the only ones with guns, then the benevolent State will protect us from harm!

Nevermind the 300 million-odd guns already out there.  Surely every felon would turn in his gun, if only the dear leaders required it of him!  The guns already in the hands of bad people will evaporate like magic when gun control laws are passed, everybody knows that!

If you think
Limiting the number
Of bullets in a gun
Does anything
to protect
Anyone worth protecting,

Then

You are a fool
and an Historical Illiterate.

She shouldn't have been a jew.  Her fault, really.  The State will protect us from the Other!