Author: David

Over-educated Curmudgeon, Bit-Bucket Tuner and Budding Brewmeister.
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Off-the-wall/0PEN P0ST

Every now and then, offbeat questions come to my mind (I know, I know–some of y’all already think that’s the only kind I ever entertain). Like, how many people can recognize their own neighborhood in aerial photos? I’d suspect a few more than can read a map accurately, but absent some academia nut somewhere weaseling some of YOUR money (and mine) from a spendthrift government, I don’t imagine we’ll have a fair ballpark guess on that any time soon.

Mystery01-b

0PEN P0ST for Monday—a few hours early. Link here and trackback. If you don’t know what to do, drop me a line or a comment and I’ll try to help you out. Note: for those of y’all still stuck on using the antiquated Internet Exploder, The World’s Crappiest Browser (hey, I understand: some folks are so conservative as to be positively reactionary in some areas. I have some of those areas, myself. :-), I understand scolling down to where IE has chopped up posts cos it can’t read the CSS specifying the cneter column size can be a pain. So, here’s the Trackback URI (right-click and copy, unless you have one of those even quainter one-button Mac mice, then it’s “Splat/options key+Click”–maybe, depending on your browser and how you hold your mout—heh). Or just copy and paste this: http://haloscan.com/tb/mnmus/113677098423922307 . The URL for the post itself is: http://thirdworldcounty.blogspot.com/2006/01/off-wall0pen-p0st.html

Can’t find the blogosphere with Mapquest, but Conservative Cat (who also has a—serious—DIRE WARNING from Ferdy about an email virus) can probably give you directions to current hotspots.

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An Answer to Murtha “Dhimmi-crats”

Michelle Malkin made the following video available for download. She also includes this snippet, as well as a link to the full transcript of the Murtha/Moran townhall meeting designed to elicit anti-war (really, anti-Bush and anti-victory) thetoric last week.

“… I think it’s a disgrace when members of our Congress –just as they did in 1975 when they sold out the south Vietnamese–are selling out our soldiers today in Iraq!”

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And just in case you missed it, in an earlier post, Michelle Malkin also provided the following clip of Sgt. Mark Seavey speaking to Murtha and Moran. (She has more from Sgt. Mark Seavey at her blog, linked above.)

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Poor players, strutting and fretting their hours upon the stage…

The Stupid Party needs to get some schooling in Texas Holdem, cos the Demoncraps are taking their shirts:

“Game Theory and Media Bias” by Todd Manzi:

It used to be that the press would report the happenings of politics. Somewhere along the line, the process became perverted, and politicians began playing to the press and engaging in behavior that was motivated solely because of the prospect of media coverage. The tail wagged the dog, and politicians learned they could manipulate the press. Today, the message of politics is delivered through a liberally biased prism. Not only do Reid and the Democrats make moves designed to get media coverage, they take full advantage of the premise that the people reporting the news are predisposed to liberal ideology.

And infusion of testosterone and an ability to call the Dem’s bluffs every now and then might make a difference in how the game is played in Washington…

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Head ’em up! Move ’em out!

I haven’t done a “Around and about” roundup in a while. About time.

First up: Alexandra’s blunt presentation of (if I may paraphrase in some vernacular or whatever) There ain’t no such thing as a Palestinian. Nah, she didn’t say it that way. She has more class than that. But that’s what the info she presents means, and it’s bang on the money.

Woody has a great pointer to a talk by Michael Crichton that’s a must-read for folks who have to deal with eco-freak-fearmongerers. It’s a straight, fact-based followup to State of Fear. Oh, and after you read the Crichton talk Woody links to, try this one, too. One of my favs. Crichton gets all cranked up on the topic “Environmentalism as Religion“.

Battling takes on the week’s “big” article on the fate of Western Civilization by Mark Steyn: The Real Ugly American and Big Lizards (the discussion in comments there is nearly as good as the post itself). My take distilled to a (not at all accurate) one-sentence precís? Prophecy can tend to affect outcomes… if the prophet’s words are headed. It’s all over the place. Cruise around with a google on Mark Steyn and you’ll probably pick up a bunch more.

Sharia banking-for-Islamic-bigots-only at Michelle Malkin‘s. Yeh, there are other takes. All she does is report. You decide (I have). Look around yourself. If they can have their own fun-damn-mentalist banks, then I wanna see fun-damn-mentalist Bapticostal banks that can say, “No Dogs, Islamofascist murdering savage S.O.B.s or Lutherans allowed” and Pope-friendly banks that can say, “No pill-popping feministas, Dunkin’ Bapticostals or Jean Fraud sKerrys allowed.”

heh

A reminder: Windows users PATCH YOUR SYSTEMS. Maybe…

Cos… *sigh* I really don’t want this to become the “Windows Metafile Vulnerability Blog” but… hackers claim they have broken through the official Microsoft patch to the vulnerability. Plus ça change and all that. BTW no user interaction at all is required for the vulnerability exploit to be used to infect users. See the linked article. And see Rick Hellewell’s take on protecting yourself.

Personally, I backed off the M$ patch on Win2K machines (only). Disabled WMF viewing (by de-registering the dll that makes it possible) and applied the third party patch once linked at Steve Gibson’s site (and alas, apparenttly no longer available). I don’t need WMF functionality, so it’s gone. YMMV. (One reason I cite Hellewell is cos he disagrees with the measures I took. It’s a crapshoot.)

Doing linkfests? Check out Linkfest Haven. G’wan, ya know you wanna. What can N.Z. Bear do to you, anyway? heh

Haven’t been to Rick Lee’s place recently, have you? *tsk-tsk* Depriving yourself of some great eye candy. Or in some cases, nutritious produce blogging.

Romeocat says it’s time to hook Pat Robertson off the public stage. How loudly and enthusiastically can I agree?

Click on over and appreciate the memories, music and musings of Kat’s Keep the Coffee Coming. No. Not gonna link just one post, cos they’re all worth your time.

And I’ll just bet I’m not the only one who can second most of Christine’s New Year’s Resolutions. Yep. Definitely a doable list (except for those movie and tea things–heh).

Diane and Mel are going strong on their Bloggers Without Butts Week. Click on over to their blogs and drop ’em some notes of congrats and encouragement, willya?

The Mary Hunter posts a picture of a typical DemoPol. heh. Pure evil.

Well, there’s a lot more, but I just had some utility I did NOT install chime at me from another computer letting me know “Time’s Up! Get off your… “

Awww, shuddup, already.

Noted with all due decorum at TMH’s Bacon Bits and Imagine Kitty Magazine (Helloooo Kitty!).

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Warp Speed! (0pen Post)

Open Trackback Alliance

(Yeh, this is Friday’s Open Trackback Alliance post, slapped up Thursday night.)

Is interstellar travel on the horizon?

Maybe. And if so, it may be at “warp speed”.

The Department of Energy and the Air Force are funding research into a magnetic bottle/gravitational field drive that would in effect be the “hyperspace drive” of science fiction. But unlike most of the science fiction “hyperspace” drives, this one’s envisioned as being usable within the solar system, as well.

Man. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to vacation on Mars?

Yeh, yeh: I know they’re still working on building the tools to make the test beds to test the theory. But at least it’s a Step Farther Out.

h.t. Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor

Oh, also: Open Post. If you don’t know how to link to this post and trackback, drop me a note in comments.

Open Trackback Alliance

Dilithium crystals excited at Bloggin’ Outloud (where PUNishment is meted out unmercifully) and Stuck on Stupid (dig the new, uh… digs).

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Official Microsoft WMF Patch Now Available

Microsoft has now made an official patch available for the WMF vulnerability for all versions of Windows from Windows 2000 forward. See the notice at Microsoft’s site here, and select the proper patch for your system.

Official Microsoft WMF Patch Now Available

(Click the link, then look for “Security Update for the Windows Meta File Vulnerability Available”. OR just visit Windows Update. A direct download is more certain, though, with high-demand updates.)

OR

CLICK HERE

…if you want to go directly to the page with all the patches listed by Windows version.

Three ways to update, so you’ve no excuse.

🙂

Oh, and if you have previously applied Ilfak Guilfanov’s patch, uninstall it through Control panel before applying Microsoft’s patch.

PSA-pinned to Ferdy’s Bulletin Board at Conservative Cat

Update: All the security/OS wonks I usually listen to kept saying AV only a very few companies had some partial protection against WMF exploits. I just checked Grisoft’s website (remember: I’m concerned about computer security and have never suffered an infection by malware, probably because I practice semi-paranoid computing, BUT I am a tightwad, too. :-). All Grisoft’s products (including the Free Version of AVG) have offered at least this much protection against the WMF exploit since December 29–pretty quick response:

Exploit.WMF

These files exploits WMF vulnerability in Windows Operating Systems that allows malware code execution while WMF format file is opening. Unfortunately security patch for this vulnerability is not available at this time. AVG detects these files as Exploit.WMF and also as Trojan horse Downloader.Agent.

Not exceptionably bad. In fact, not half bad. Even unpatched systems can have such files noted for deletion or removal to a “vault” on normal daily scans (your AV software is set for daily scans as well as scans of all downloads, automatically, right? Right? 🙂

But. What about a visit to a web page with an exploit-embedded graphic? Better patch those systems, folks, even if your AV does offer some protection.

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Simple Rice Delight

I’ve not submitted anything to the Carnival of Recipes for a while, so I thought I’d ease back in with a really simple, simply delightful dish.

Growing up, I always knew if Mother made rice for a Sunday Dinner, we could expect one of my favorite desserts. Here’s how I make it today. Note again that I’m back to a “no amounts given” recipe. Vary at Will. (He won’t mind.)

Ingredients/process:

Rice, white or brown, doesn’t matter, as long as it is well-cooked and warm. Put some in a bowl. You choose the amount. Add grated nutmeg, butter or margarine, sugar and milk. Eat.

Simply delightful!

My only real variation is that I no longer use pre-ground nutmeg, if at all possible. Buy the nuts. Grate them with a fine-meshed hand grater. You can use a coffee mill to “grate” the nutmeg, but it’s easier to control amounts and avoid a “burned” flavor if you grate it by hand. Do stir the nutmet/sugar/butter well into the rice (letting the butter melt) before adding milk.

My last bowl of this came from a pot of rice that had been used for dinner, but still had some rice stuck to the bottom and sides. A few minutes’ soak with warm water and the rice–about a cupsworth–was free of the pan, and this tightwad was NOT going to throw it out when a zap in the microwave would turn it into Simple Rice Delight!

heh

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“If you k new Wiki like I know Wiki…”

“Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems”

You may have noticed that I sometimes link to Wikipedia articles. What you will not have noticed is that I only link to those Wikis that I have first read and verified to contain at least some accurate and useful material, and always the material that’s germane to the reason I link them. I’ve felt that in context, that usually works.

But along the way, I have read a LOT of Wikipedia articles that are pure balderdash.

Click the link above to read a very brief article on the weaknesses of Wikipedia, and an admission of one of its founding lights.

Be careful out there. While a Wikipedia article may have useful information, there is usually more reliable information to be found elsewhere. And there is always more complete info to be found outside either a Wikipedia article or the more traditional dead tree encyclopedia. More information is a Very Good Thing when attempting to resolve conflicting views on any topic. Dig in. letting yourself be spoonfed info is a poor way to develop a world view.

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ACLU: Shooting themselves in the foot

Stopping by to check my mail, I found this, and try as I might to NOT comment, well, if you know me by now, you know I had to at least touch on it anyway…

ACLU’s Full Page Propaganda In NY Times Part II

My take? Investigate away!

By carefully and wittingly conflating classes of behaviors in some cases and making false distinctions in others, the ACLU and its ilk seek to tar this president with the “spying on Americans” brush.

it won’t fly with most Americans. While many American’s brushed away the Clintoon perjury with “It’s just about sex,” it’s more difficult to brush this issue away with “It’s just about life and death–maybe mine!”

While the Clintoonistas get a bye for more serious and flagrant beavior spying DIRECTLY on Americans for economic and political reasons, quite outside the parameters of any legal authority, Bush is excoriated for exercising his Constitutional responsibilities by intercepting and surveilling communications with foreign agents KNOWN to be enemies of the U.S.

That’s not “spying on Americans”. It’s spying on terrorists’ communications, whomever they may be.

And that legitimately scares the bejazus outa the ACLU, especially since it has regularly engaged in active support of terrorists and may well be in a few terrorists’ rollodexes…

Note: what follows is a WAG (Wild-Assed Guess), pure speculation.

Frankly, I wonder (note again: COMPLETE SPECULATION in absence of any facts to date) if the ACLU’s lawyers aren’t worried that some of THEIR treasonous contacts (again, speculation) with terrorists may not have been monitored.

As I plainly said, I have NO WAY of knowing if this speculation has ANY basis in fact, but you know what they say about a stuck pig…

END WAG.

Now, a reasonable person might reasonably infer that the ACLU has lost its collective mind and has entered totally into the reality-based fantasyland inhabited by the denizens of Demoncrappic Underpants and the like And that such behavior will not endear it to millions of Americans who want the Islamofascist S.O.B.s who are intent on killing Americans dead, dead, dead.

It might also be reasonable to think that the ACLU may well fall prey to the Law of Unintended Consequences in ways it least expects…

I’m just waiting for the ACLU to shoot itself in the foot often enough that institutional gangrene sets in. Let’s see, by its actions, the ACLU has already said, “We want pedophiles free to promote having sex with your sons,” “We want you religious people to STFU!” and now, “We want to use the legal system to assure that terrorists bastards are free to make their plans to kill you.”

Expanded from a comment at STACLU.

[Edited a couple of the typos. Not going to look for the rest, though I’m sure they’re there.]