Category: Blame it on the voices in my head–I do

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War on Poverty? #gagamaggot

This has no particular scriptural inspiration in back of it, but for some reason it occurred to me sometime w/in the last hour or so. So, FWIW,

The so-called “War on Poverty” has, it seems–if the record of the last 50 years is simply invoked with an eye to looking at the data honestly–resulted in more of the same and even more violence mostly isolated in pockets of “War on Poverty”-created micro-societies. So, why not make it a REAL war on poverty by devoting at least some of the wasted “welfare” funds on REAL welfare, and arming all the folks being oppressed by both “gummint bureaucraps” and gangs/thugs in their ghettos? Maybe if we as a society simply ceded the problem to Darwin. . .

😉

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This Is Rich

[With a tip o’ the tam to Ori Pomerantz, via John Lambshead]

Soldier Decapitates ISIS Thug with Spade in Afganistan

This is rich on so many levels. The primary story, sure: prevailing against odds with whatever weapon is to hand: great. But. . .

Calling a spade an “espada,” so to speak, and making it so: really rich.

spade?espada I like the etymology, too: [Gr] spatha? [L] spathan? [Sp] espada, especially since “spade” itself also shares some of those roots (pre-grecian). Using a spade as a [Middle Dutch] “spade” (sword) seems particularly fitting for a British subject, since the House of Hanover has roots in nationalities where “spade” also once meant “sword.”

Then again, root words for “spade” also meant “spoon” or “paddle” at times, in different languages, so “paddling” the ISIS thug to death with a “spoon” also makes me smile.

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FWIW (a brief note on worship)

Many, many people worship Satan without ever considering their actions as such worship. As an Authority on the subject once said to some such,

“You are of your father, the devil (diabolos = slanderer, false accuser), and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of lies.”

Just sayin’. . .

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DSM-XX: Increasingly Harmful Criteria Proposed by Well-Meaning High-Functioning “Norms” or Just a Scam?

Maybe a lot of both.

Let’s take the ever-increasing “diagnostic criteria” for ADD/ADHD/autism “spectrum” and other such squishy “disorders”

It’s a complex issue, and the desire among p-sychs and drug companies to have insurance billables make sales compounds the problem, especially for those for whom ADHD (and those with real autism) who actually do suffer from real world consequences of real conditions are just as much harmed by excessive diagnosis and treatment of others as are those others who should NOT be tagged with “disability” labels and drugged out of their minds–especially children.

Some real people with real problems do exist, but I am in no way convinced that it is the dire mental health issue it is presented as.

If viewed in the most positive light possible, most of the DSM “diagnostic criteria” that has spawned these expanded classes of “disorders” has simply been efforts by (often high-functioning) “Norms” to explain away behavior by “Odds” who simply do not fit their view of societal norms. . . because Odds frequently do not adhere to societal norms. when those oddities do not cause direct harm to the Odds in question, or to those around them, save perhaps in the secondary effect of bigoted Norms who refuse to allow Odds to be themselves, these (often high-functioning) Norms feel behooved to label the Odds as. . . odd, but in pejorative, and actually harmful terms.

Where’s the love for diversity of viewpoint, eh? *heh*

(BTW, had current standards and practices existed at the time, I too very likely would have been diagnosed as “having” a “disorder” that would then be treated by quacks. My current–and lifetime–signs say I fulfill diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV for a certain so-called “autism spectrum disorder,” but since I long ago learned how to feign normalcy when I want to, it isn’t so much a disorder–causing physical or social harm to me or others as a REAL disorder does–as an occasional inconvenience, primarily when I attempt to explain some complex subject to a “Norm” who can’t–or simply won’t–grasp my frame of reference easily.)

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Brief Note re: Neo-Victorian Bowdlerizers

Sidebar: when in soi-disant “adult” company, I do sometimes become a wee tad irritated by neo-Victorian Bowdlerizers who define anything that offends their po’ widdle feewings as “cussing.” *meh* It’s my curse just barely more than literate. . . unlike the neo-Victorian Bowdlerizers who are almost universally very nearly illiterate.

N.B. Sometimes a vulgar term is the best term to describe something/someone. Just sayin’.

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Thankful Even So. . .

It’s Thanksgiving season, but I’m trying to keep a grateful mindset as much as I can at more than just this season.

Here’s one: Thankful to live in America’s Third World County™ in spite of the town’s lazy, dishonest, incompetent, nepotism-riddled public “works” department. *heh* The rest of the county balances those dishonest morons out very well. 😉 (Working on 3rd week with almost no water flow–neighbors as well. Took the threat of involving an alderman again, like the last time, when it still took more than a month for them to do a bad job, repair hasn’t lasted any better than the last four before, and they failed to properly backfill their excavation.)

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Is Your “Smartphone” Spying On You?

Maybe.

Well, no: probably. If you use it to access social media sites (FarceBook, et al) or any Google service, almost certainly. Heck, there are growing claims that smartphones “listen in” to conversations happening within access of the phone’s mic, like so-called “smart” TVs do.

So?

I’ve worked with computers/networking, etc., for ~30 years and am certainly no Luddite, but my phone stays OFF (and usually in another room) when I am not making calls. I check it now and again for messages from any whitelisted folks, and (very rarely, and only when I’m away from a desktop/notebook/large format tablet–which is very, very rarely, since I almost always have one of the three at hand) I might use it to check something on the web, but only when locked down fairly well and using a strong VPN, while on a local network I trust to be well locked down, as well. I see no reason to let a phone run my life or be connected to any old whomever who might want to contact me.

Other phone “tracking” things?

I don’t need GPS. I’m not helpless or “directionally challenged.” I know how to read a map, can navigate with or without (usually) a compass, and check my routes before heading out anywhere I’ve not been before.

Yes, I got lost once (on an overcast day, on a system of rural gravel roads and two-tracks in rough terrain, off my projected area of travel for that day–no excuse, since I simply left my compass and map for the area behind that day). I stopped and asked directions (because I’m also not completely stupid).

I like the convenience of having computers, tablets, cell phones, etc., but unlike many I know nowadays who would probably be pleased as punch to have their dumb “smart” phone embedded in their body, wired to display in their field of vision, etc., I think I can handle a lil disconnection now and then.

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Passwords

I’ve used various techniques to devise memorable passwords and pass phrases over the years that are easy for me to recall but nevertheless fairly strong.

Here’s one (though it’s not currently active for ALL my password use).

Password construction: Take a song that’s at least 400 years old and uses an archaic form of the language in which it was written. Pick the third (or fourth, or whatever “interior) verse. Sing it backwards. Use the words in this backwards order to construct a password using the second (or third, or whatever; choose at semi-random) letter in each word. Use a number representing which letter of the words, when sung as written, you are using as a part of the embedded “key” to the password. Add at least two symbols that remind you of the site or app you assign the password to and “key” them to the site or app visually or audibly–whichever is a stronger memory gift for you.

Frankly, this is a bit difficult to do for folks who have neither an extensive repertoire of Renaissance (or older) music and lack both a good audial memory and the ability to sing/play something backwards, but it’s fun for those who do. . . or at least for me.

*shrugs*

For added complexity, one can take the reversed song and invert the tune, using the letter names of the resultant tune in the password.

Singing a song inverted and backwards, silently as in one’s mind’s ear, in order to extract the password makes me smile, so it’s worth it even if I have to type 60 or more characters.

Don’t do this for a WiFi password for your local network, though. Other folks will probably get lost trying to type it in and give up. Wait. No, DO use this for a WiFi password. It’ll really cut down on traffic. *heh*

OR. . . just use something like Lastpass to generate and “remember” your passwords, if something like this seems like too much work. You lazy bum.

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No, It’s “Warm Kitty, Soft Kitty”

My only problem with the shirt is that it’s based on the “Big Bang Theory” corruption of the copyrighted song by Edith Newlin, which is an adaptation of a Polish folk song, “Wlaz kotek na plotek.” Some not-so-smart writer, writing characters supposed to be smarter than he is (or some stupid lawyer thinking to avoid paying royalties?) screwed up the lyrics and mis-taught a generation of the less-than-literate.

And, of course, Newlin’s lyrics ordering the adjectives as first “warm” then “soft” follow the adjective order “rule” that any literate person simply knows from having read a lot of text written by literate writers:

Quantity, Value/opinion, Size, Temperature [warm], Age, Shape, Colour, Origin, Material [soft]

Hence, to any moderately well-read person (or person who is simply fluent in well-spoken English), Newlin’s “Warm kitty, soft kitty does not grate the way the “Big Bang Theory’s” corruption of her lyrics do. . . in a way that makes the characters who use the BBT’s corruption sound “Dumber than the average 5th grader.”

But apart from that I like the shirt. Oh, and Big Bang Theory’s not a bad show, apart from its laughable depiction of “smarter than the writers” characters. In fact, that alone sometimes makes it worth viewing for laughs.