"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
A reader at Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor makes an appropriate observation. Concerning baboons,
They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive, and least intelligent of all primates.
What is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons?
Believe it or not, a Congress!
So, our own tribe of baboons in D.C. are known by the appropriate collective noun after all.
A case of “Two Very Minor Irritants Solve Each Other”.
Or,
“The Voices In My Head Make Me Do the Strangest Things, Sometimes”.
Irritant #1
I use a nice lil lapdesk with my lil Asus notebook. Moreover, I normally use a nice Logitech M305 wireless mouse with the notebook, and the laptop desk surface makes a nice, smooth, slick surface for mousing. Great little mouse. It’s not as comfy in my hand as the mouse that comes in the Logitech MK320 bundle, but it does have a “nano-receiver” that makes it a good fit for notebook use (dongles hanging off notebook ports=BAD :-)).
But, moving the laptop desk from laptop to coffee table or to the couch beside me, with the notebook and mouse still on it, frequently led to the mouse sliding off that slick surface. Sure, take the mouse off and put it elsewhere. BTDT, don’t like having the notebook/mouse in separate places. Be really careful when taking the laptop desk off my lap and placing it elsewhere (or picking it up, etc.). Right. Not me.
So, pick mouse up off floor every now and then, whatever. *grumble-grumble-gripe-complain*
Irritant #2
Picked up a cheap notebook bag–$7 cheap–for carrying other things (techie tools, etc.). I already have a nice bag for the Asus and another–a Targus hand-me-down from someone who “diminuted” her computer use to a netbook/smart phone combo–for my primary techie tools (now two bags to carry what used to fit in a padded aluminum case. Oh, well), but this seemed a nice enough way to carry most of the rest.
Except for the really tacky “designer’s” logo patch sewn onto the large outer flap. Made of some of that silicone-rubber-plastic stuff that is kind of “grippy”.
!
Removed patch from cheapo bag.
Applied contact cement to ugly, tacky “designer” logo and
Glued face down on upper right-hand corner of laptop desk.
Now, I can place the mouse on this small, 2″ patch of silicone-plastic-rubber whatchamacallit and the weight of the mouse and the “takiness” *heh* of the patch material holds the mouse in place at up to 30-degree tilts.
Using one irritation to solve another: life-hacking.
No undue disrespect.
Since The Guinness Book of World Records just made up a couple of new “world records” for Taylor Swift, I thought I’d once again comment on the state of popular so-called music:
By and large, it’s crap.
Swift has set records in, urm, record sales, etc. with sort of rhythmic, off key renditions of crap like this:
Well, it was kind of cold that night
She stood alone on her balcony
She could see the cars roll by
Out on 441
Like waves crashing on the beachAnd for one desperate moment there
He crept back in her memory
God, it’s so painful
It’s something that’s so close but still so far out of reachOh yeah, all right
Take it easy baby
Make it last all night
She was an American girl
Oh, please. High school glurge in grade school vocabulary. Simply crappy in every way. And I refuse to post a clip of the nearly atonal crap its rendered in. And that’s the GOOD stuff from Swift, a cover of a Tom Petty piece of crap! *sheesh!* I absolutely refuse to post “lyrics” supposedly “written” (in crayon, perhaps?) by Swift herself. Lobotomizing my reader(s) isn’t a Good Thing, IMO.
Why am I picking on Taylor Swift? As I said, because of her new records demonstrating that it is she who is now the standard bearer of manufactured pop “music”–the best reflection of where the money from brain dead listeners is going. But she’s only a typical example. Most of the crap being excreted from the mouths of performers nowadays is eagerly lapped up by coprophagic morons.
OTOH–and this just occurred to me–perhaps Swift is a brilliant satirist of “kiddie music” and is making atonal existential metacommentary. Is this possible? In a word, no.
…as long as it’s packaged, promoted and sold as snake oil and is actually oil squeezed from real snakes. But the idea that “stimulus” money taken FROM the economy and then passed through the “feddle gummint” money laundering system and passed out to *wink-win-nudge-nudge* “create new jobs” would in any way, shape fashion or form actually BE a stimulus to the economy is a lie that has been openly displayed as such time and time and time again.
For that, those who spout this shit (yes, I mean that what is coming out of their mouths is verbal fecal matter–toxic verbal fecal matter at that) would, in a sane society, be tarred, feathered and set afire to light the way to a brighter tomorrow.
Sadly, the Eighth Amendment outlaws “cruel and unusual punishments” even for the political filth that spread such toxic sewage on the public.
*sigh*
Couldn’t we have another amendment carving out an exception for this filth?
*pfft* Don’t let the door hit ya where the Lord split ya. After all, what freakin’ kind of “ally” has Pakistan been, really? Oh, yeh. The kind of ally that gets real close so it can stab you in the back. That kind of ally. Kind of like France with a turban bomb instead of pommes frites and ripe Camembert.
I recommend this post highly. Its subject matter is extremely important in almost every area that impacts our lives today, but since it seems to lie outside the issues that are most loudly trumpeted as urgent, critical issues, the fact that the “half-educated” it refers to (or less, actually) are mostly creating the problems that face us mostly disappears in the noise.
The author of the linked post applies the problem of people who think they know more than they do to the influence such people have exerted to bring about the current economic woes we face, but that only touches the very tip-top 1/4 inch of the iceberg, leaving the rest (including that which is submerged*) to bedevil us.
Always remember the importance of a well-informed (as opposed to ignorant or misinformed or DISinformed) electorate in a representative republic, especially one with far too many democratic elements.
“In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”
…mind, such as it is.
All my pants (including some bought w/in the last month) are falling off. Yes, all of them. I like to wear lots of pants at once. *heh* In some ways that’s good news. Having to wear a belt when I go out in public or get arrested for streaking is another. Long story.
So, I googled “Waist sizes for men”. Hey! It’s a googleworld, and the voices in my head were clamoring for attention. Had to shut ’em up somehow…
From a site that said it got its figures from the WHO (like I believed that), “ideal” waist sizes.
(Don’t get all excited gals; that’s the men’s chart. And don’t throw things at me when you look the women’s chart up. I didn’t make it.)
Anywho… by this chart, I was in anorexic territory 30 years ago when I weighed about 155 soaking wet. With clothes on. Now, 30 years and 30 pounds later–not obese but definitely in the “overweight” category by WHO standards (yeh, I looked it up, but who believes WHO anymore anyway?) I’m about 2 inches over “ideal” waist size for my height. Continue reading “Things That Make My Lil Mind Go “Huh?””
DON’T EAT AS MUCH.
You’re welcome.
…and not spent most of the years of your life stirring your frontal lobe with a fork, then you are quite aware that the Mass MEdia Podpeople HJivemind regularly, routinely, blatantly lies about Islam and Muslims. If you’ve been paying attention at all and have done your due diligence in informing yourself of critical issues, then nothing in the video posted below will come as a surprise to you. Don’t take my word for it that what the video presents concerning Islam is absolutely true, as far as it goes. Do your own homework. Read the Koran (or the best translation you can get of it). A MOR, scholarly version such as “The Koran Interpreted” (1955) by Arthur Arberry might be a good place to begin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9rofXQl6w