"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."
The Dhimmicrap Circus of Klowns has put forth its A-Team:
(And yeh, as known to any literate person, the 20th Century KKK was a Democrat organization and populated by such notables as Senator “KKK,” Robert Carlyle Byrd, so the Koup Klutz Klan has tradition going for it in its lynch mob tactics.)
What I do need is a sensible approach to data transfers that has no caps or so-called “allowances.” What my ISP has done for the past couple of years is first institute a cap, or “allowance,” on my data usage, and then, all too often, either screw up tracking it or just flat out fake larger uses than I have recorded on my network logs. By a lot. Sometimes almost double.
After bitching about it over and over and over again, the last couple of months usage, according to my ISP, have fallen more or less in line with my record of my network usage.
And no, there have been no “leeches” piggybacking on my wireless network. Highest level of encryption; extremely strong password; AND network records detailing WHO has used the network: no, no leeches, ever.
I’m almost to the point of ditching cable internet entirely and going with a slower, “no caps” DSL that doesn’t have my Wonder Woman’s TV shows available, just to get away from the crap my cable company dumps on us. One small technical issue is a bump (our home telco wiring is Cat5E, properly wired, and I have to instruct the telco guys each time they come by with their own idiosyncratic “baling wire and chewing gum standard.” *sigh* At least they got the fiber to the house FINALLY configured correctly for the phone).
I think I could put up with the technical “bubba standards” and the slower “speeds” for no data caps, though. Thinking about it. . .
If you have any interest in “climate change” at all, then you probably fall into one of two classes of persons interested in “climate change.” One class is comprised of folks who want hard numbers and replicable, real world research to verify or falsify hypotheses (or just refine wild-assed guesses so that hypotheses can be formed and tested). This class can contain both people whose personal inclination is to believe that anthropogenic climate change is real and potentially catastrophic, and those who doubt such a proposition.
As long as the above class seeks to gather hard numbers and perform well-designed, replicable research, then their interest is legitimate and to be lauded, no matter what they are predisposed to believe.
Then there is the second class: those who seem to belong to the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Alarmism. CACA acolytes DGARA about facts, replicable testing, etc., but simply have “faith” that mankind is killing Mother Earth. Because dogma.
Now, it they weren’t trying to compel folks to conform to CACA dogma against their consciences, they’d just be kooks. But these kooks are dangerous. And to compel others to conform to their religious beliefs is evil. Since CACA acolytes almost uniformly seek to impose their indefensible (a fair description, because I have yet to see or hear a defense of CACA dogma using replicable research based on verifiable, undoctored facts) beliefs on those they deem to be unbelievers, regardless of any reasons for scepticism. Indeed. condemnation of scepticism alone is enough to condemn this class of persons, because science without scepticism is just. . . unfounded dogma.
[Extracted from a ub-thread of a discussion discussing the disparate topics of “mass shootings” and wrongful shootings by cops.]
To whatever extent wrongful shootings by police exists (and any is a Very Bad Thing, IMO), it can more easily be explained by Lord Acton’s pithy comment, Rudyard Kipling’s “General Summary,” or even the theological concept of universal moral depravity. Humans being what we are, any group of people is going to have apples that are, urm, “badder” than the norm, and unfortunately, there are bad apples in government jobs at almost any level (LEOs, run-of-the-mill bureaucraps, public “persecutors,” politicians, and corrupt judges), and they ARE be a problem, universally, to some degree or another. How to deal with the bad apples without crucifying the “less bad,” maybe even marginally OK apples? (“Marginally OK” because as long as their PEERS do not stop them, the “badder apples” will find it easier to abuse their authority.)
Well, that’s the nut, isn’t it?
Qui custodit ipsos custodes?
But as for being a “problem with guns,” well, it’s the same answer as to the issue of “gun violence.” Guns do not commit violent acts. People do. One way (really, AFAIK, the only legitimate way for governments that are not supposed to infringe on natural rights but protect them) is to make the punishments for serious violent acts serious punishment, pour encourager les autres, as it were, and those punishments should apply to ALL, with no weasel room for LEOs to argue “qualified immunity.” (“So I shot the guy seven times. I thought that UNARMED MAN SPREADEAGLED ON THE FLOOR was a threat, and how was I to know that I busted down the door at the wrong address? Qualified immunity” “Well, I thought that baby she was holding was a deadly weapons, so I killed her.” Qualified immunity. Etc.)
But, demanding that our faux “nobility” give up special privileges just isn’t going to fly, I don’t think. *sigh* Meanwhile, anti-gun folks argue that citizens should surrender their rights because of an almost vanishingly small number of bad actors. *smh*
“. . . to bad rubbish,” as the saying goes.
It’s not schadenfreude to celebrate a very minor manifestation of the comeupance rightly deserved by evil behavior. As ye have sown, Bobby Boy. . . Kurt Schlichter rightly alludes to Robert Mueller with his “good riddance” tag. Shame on Bobby Boy. Shame, shame, shame.
There was once a time when Windows 10 was not as bad at managing local network connections. Sure, it was a couple of orders of magnitude slower than Windows 7 in doing so, but at least, once sharing & etc. were “turned on” things were fairly easily (if, again, slowly) “seeable,” but as the inevitable and very nearly unavoidable “update” cycles have progressed, access to local network resources has regressed.
If saving a file from the internet, for example, it doesn’t matter what browser I use, whether a VPN is engaged or whatever, if I want to save it to anything BUT my local machine, I have to type in the IP address of the resource I want to save it to. Then, it I only have to just twiddle my thumbs waiting on Win10’s execrably slow access of LAN resources.
Similarly, if attempting to access other LAN resources (computers, NASes, etc.) via “Windows Explorer” file management. . . no network resources available, no matter WHAT I have set up in “Network and Internet Settings.” In fact, every now and then, at apparently random times, the stupid “Network Discovery is Turned off” error pops up. I check, and no, it is turned on. Turn off/back on anyway. Semi-fixed: no error popping up, but still have to either use manually-created shortcuts placed on desktop, on toolbar, etc., or type in the resource address. (Yes, as a result of Win10’s stupidity, I have finally given ALL LAN resources fixed IP addresses).
Oh, and yes, I have made sure all the dependent services, etc., are set to start automatically and are running, and that–again–network sharing is set properly for a “private” network, etc., etc. Me$$y$oft’s Win10 still screws it up, usually sooner than later.
It’s as though Me$$y$oft engineers have sat and thought, and thought, and thought, and said (collectively), “Here’s something that will REALLY screw with users. Let’s do it!”
#feh
Why couldn’t Me$$y$oft at least be like Linux developers and fix something and then move on to creating more problems.
Ever have one of “those” meetings? You know, one that explores such stupid topics as, “In a perfect world, in light of what your job description is, what would you do?” Answer: I would be doing my job without meaningless meetings like these wasting my time.
So, ordered an external enclosure for a laptop optical drive from an Amazon retailer knowing full well it would come by “slow boat from China,” since it wasn’t a critical piece of equipment and not needed tout de suite. Eventually, it arrived. Again, no problems with the six week delivery time, since I ordered it with an expectation that delivery would be glacially slow.
But.
It was neither as described in the product description nor as pictured on the product display. It was missing the ONE essential element that allows using a laptop optical drive as an external, portable drive: an interface card. The card was neither built into the enclosure nor flopping around loose in the box. I had a plastic box, a couple of short USB cables, and a faceplate. Useless, except perhaps for target practice.
Corresponded with the seller. Seller wanted pictures of what was missing from the box. Yes, that is indeed what was stated.
*head-desk*
After several emails back and forth (and a complete unboxing sequence sent, along with copies of the text and pictures from the product page for comparison), the company offered to “make me whole” by refunding all but $0.44 of what I paid them for the trash they sent me to dispose of for them.
*sigh*
But at least they didn’t ask me to send their trash back to them.
Still, one strike and the seller is OUT. I’ll never buy from this seller again. Seller “TOOGOO”? “Disrecommended”
“She drug [sic] her broken foot along. . . ”
Finally a misuse of “drug” to indicate a past tense of “drag” that, though still not literate, is at least understandable. After all, it refers to a zombie, and, as we all know, only illiterate, brain-dead zombies misuse “drug” when “dragged” is called for.
While traffic circles can quite often make good traffic control sense, sometimes. . .
Plunk one down in a place that will obviously benefit from it, but don’t think through the area’s demographics, and the benefits, while not exactly evaporating, just aren’t as strong, sometimes. Posit a locale dominated by elderly retirees (who are often better suited to parking their car than to actually driving it) on the one hand and 20-30-something young folks (who are ALSO often better suited to parking their car than to actually driving it), and imagine the “You go” No, YOU go”/”I’m-a goin'” “No, I am” messes.
Yeh, it’s real.
Meanwhile, I blow past the indecisive and brush off the importuning, shake my head, and wonder how long it’ll take the “old folks” to either learn or die off and the young folks to learn. . . or die off.
Yeh, yeh, I’m officially and Olde Pharte, but I don’t creep around corners or traffic circles, stop at yield signs (when NO ONE IS COMING! #gagamaggot), pull into traffic and drive slow in front of folks, etc., so I may be atypical.