Category: The Kitchen Sink

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The Great Seal of Obamaland

Even the New York Slimes can smell the effrontery of Mr. I Sure Hope They Don’t See the Changes Coming! This ego trip by one whose deusions of adequacy are becoming legend would be laughable if he weren’t actually a presidential candidate.

What a Maroon!

Oh, forgot a tip o’ the tam to my Wonder Woman who clued me in on this first.

NOTE: TF Stern has some thoughts on this topic that are worth reading.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, The World According to Carl, Stuck On Stupid, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Phastidio.net, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Democrat=Socialist, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Change

Via email (thanks, Hugh):

And you’d better hope he leaves you that much change…

While that doesn’t say it all by a long shot, it does say something genuine and important.

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Semi-Random Wednesday

Just a few things that have crossed my mind today (some of them moving like The Flash!, so I only caught a brief glimpse as they passed *heh* Yeh, even that link’s moving so fast it’s a couple of years in the future already… )

In the mid 60s here in my twc central office. A/C? No, just a window open. In the third week of June. Hugely atypical temps for America’s Third World County in June, let alone 2/3 of the way through the month and toward July… Must be global warming, eh?

Ya know, I could average much better than my typical 40+mpg in my lil ’97 Saturn if the “idjits” would just pull over and park. *sigh* Once again, let me remind you of Lovely Daughter’s GREAT idea: take the cars away from those who are dumber than a bag of (rusty) hammers and just give ’em to folks who can drive. Sure, it’d wipe out what’s left of Detroit, but would that be a bad thing?

Building and testing and tweaking this “new” computer for my dad has reminded me that it is too possible to have a stable, moderately nimble Windows XP computer. It just takes a lot more work than consumer computer manufacturers are willing (or economically able) to put into a box. Most of the value added to this box is in the “blood and toil and sweat and tears” *heh* spent in chasing down lil issues before they can become bigger ones. Like, installing a much better power supply than a Dell or HP can “afford” to use in a machine (cos cheapo consumers won’t pay for it); using a good anti-corrosion/contact-enhancement treatment on cards, chips, etc. (materials-expensive and labor intensive); cleaning all the crap out of a standard WinXP installation and making a restorable disk image of the OS (with programs and data being on a separate partition, as much as possible), etc.

Takes time and expertise: both things consumer-grade computers will NOT have invested in them right out of the box.

For the non-tech-savvy, Logmein is a really cool way to make sure your tech-savvy friend(s) you ask to “help you out” (fixing the problems a non-tech-savvy user creates–*heh*) can access your computer remotely to do maintenance. It’s not so cool if said tech-savvy friend(s) only have Linux boxes, cos Logmein is only for Windows/Mac environment (but hey! if the tech-savvy Linux users don’t have a Windows install running in a virtual machine on their boxes–just for things like this–then they’re not all that tech savvy after all, are they? :-))

In other thoughts flashing before my eyes (or being babbled about by the voices in my head)…

So, Barry Hussein Obamasiah-Winfrey has a foreign policy advisor who thinks we ought to mold our foreign policy after the philosophy of Winnie the Pooh, eh? It makes a certain sense, you know. First, anyone else notice that the beloved children’s icon is named after “Number Two“? Sure, it’s a variant spelling, but number two=poo=pooh, as far as I can tell.

So, with so much poo (or pooh) being spouted daily by Barry Hussein Obamasiah-Winfrey (and his minions) in place of anything of substance, it only makes sense that any “foreign policy” issuing from the same pie holes would be just more bovine scatological effluent.

Heck, the Barry Hussein Obamasiah-Winfrey campaign will NEVER need any SHAMpoo the way it’s generating the real thing in such prodigious amounts…

Trackposted to The Virtuous Republic, Allie is Wired, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, The Pink Flamingo, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, Democrat=Socialist, , and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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It’s Not THE Answer…

…but it’s a step in the right direction.

Then, of course, nuclear power (I like PBRs), space-based solar, TDP plants and more–all very nearly “off-the-shelf” technologies–to round out an approach to energy independence from Middle Eastern (and other foreign) thugs (yeh, Saudis, I’m talking mainly about YOU).

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When Will I Learn?

*sigh*

I shoulda taken Rosemary’s advice in comment Monday and had a long hot shower and a nap. Summer cold. Laryngitis. Can’t even speak in “head voice” (as my aeon’s-ago fav voice prof was wont to say, “If you can’t speak/sing in your head voice, just shut up,” or something like that. *heh*)

So, losing another day. Monday to my stupidity in leaving a car window open so rain could short out my horn switch; Tuesday (and at least some of today; we’ll see) to a lack of ability to communicate apart from computer keyboard.

Oh. Well.

Random observations:

To all you ignorant (or stupid; I’m betting many are both) drivers out there trying to save money at the pump: driving slowly does not always equal better gas mileage. Driving slowly in low gears is a real gas waster. Get through the lower gears quickly w/o “jackrabbiting” and up to speed, then drive more conservatively if you wish. Taking 1/2 mile to get from zero to 30mph is just stupid. Especially when you’ve turned on in front of me to drive slowly. Just quit it!

Oh, and unecessarily braking to way, way under the speed limit going DOWN a hill is stupid on more than three accounts. If you can’t figure that one out, return your driver’s license to the Wackers1 where you bought it.

Dumbasses.

(BTW, I average 40mpg combined local-highway driving–in an eleven-year-old car, no less–even when I get behind too many dumbasses forcing me to drive to their stupid criteria. Just think what I’d get if the 80%+ folks who don’t know how to drive at all were taken off the roads. *heh*)

1 Wacker’s Five and Dime was a step down from the old, OLD TG&Y or Woolworth’s dime stores. Think “Dollar Store” only cheap. *heh* I swear they must still be in business given the numbers of drivers who MUST have gotten their driver’s licenses there…
…

Is it just me or do most politicians (including but not limited to presidential candidates) show a complete and utter disconnect from the real world of their constituents? Is it time for a Constitutional amendment providing that NO congresscritter, president or their bureaucratic alter egos have income during their tenure and for 10 years following that in any way (in any combination of incomes, benefits, tetirement, etc.) exceeds the average income of their constituents? (As determined at each official U.S. Census–with no penalties to citizens for low-balling their incomes. *heh*)

I think it’s time for such an amendment.

…

62 degrees fahrenheit in my lil twc central office this a.m. No A/C, just an open window. (Yes, it rained in, but the mini-blinds I had strategically positioned kept in draining OUT, not in or even onto the sill :-)) According to an outside thermometer reading, it’s about 58 degrees fahrenheit outside this a.m. at 8:30 a.m. on a June day in America’s Third World County in the Missouri Ozarks.

Must be that d#$%&* “global warming” eh? As to that…

NOAA reports on our cooler than normal spring

I thought all the “excessive” CO2 humans were emitting/causing to be released had “caused” a disasterous 0.6 degree celsius rise in temperature over the last century, no? Isn’t that one of the tenets of The CHurch of Anthropogenic Global Warming?

Oops.

(Just CLICK on the image to see the full size graphic)

That’s right folks, from January 07 to May 08, the much touted if even true) 0.6C increase over a century was not only wiped out over a 15-month period, the it’s even .175C cooler than the cherry-picked starting point of the global warmists.

Of course, that coincides with low sunspot activity, something The Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming refuses to believe has any significant effect on Earth’s climate.

Dumbasses.

…

Coffee or a nap? Hmmm… that’s a tough one. How about both? Yeh, that’s the ticket!

…

I still haven’t made a good coffee beer. Need to get to work on that one Real Soon Now.

…

Having fun building a “hardened” XP machine for my dad. No, he doesn’t want a Linux machine. Wants one that’ll run some software he’s found that requires XP. Hmmm… must call him (when I get my voice back). Maybe I can get hold of the software he wants to run and test it out under WINE or in a virtual machine running XP under Linux. Or find a Linux-based substitute that’ll do the same. Of course, that’d take me all the way back to the drawing board. Oh! My! Please don’t throw me into that briar patch! *LOL*

…

Data point: I usually see a large number of terrapins crossing the road (or remains of terrapins who were–as all their kind–too slow to avoid drivers of cars who were too “slow” to avoid a turtle on the road) in April and early May. This year, they didn’t start their activity–such as it is, “activity” being their slow migrations across the highways *heh*–until June. Cooler than normal temps?

Hmmm, another data point. I have some daffodils that have in the past bloomed in time for St David’s Day (March 1) but which didn’t even emerge from slumber until the middle of March or bloom until April this year.

…

Well, just about used all my words up. Oh, I have more, but I think this is my “finger quota” for today. Must have another nap, soon.

😉

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Tell the Saudis to Drink Their Oil

Found via Hotair (via Pursuing Holiness):

Go Here. Now.

While nuclear energy would make a good near-mid term addendum to our energy needs, we have enough oil in our own back yard to be able to stop paying the Saudi (and other Middle Eastern) thugs for our oil. All we lack is congresscritters who aren’t bought and paid for by those whose real desire is to “Sink America First!”

Also via Hotair:

Yep.

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T-13; 2.X+Y Beguiling Eyes

I haven’t done one of these for a while, but this is a Thursday Thirteen post:

13 Things I Love about My Wonder Woman (not “whys” but “whats”)

1. Stephen Fearing has a beautiful song, “Beguiling Eyes.” Now, I’m not so sure Fearing knows exactly what “beguiling” means (most meanings are fraught with the idea of deceit–not exactly an endearing trait), because he presents “beguiling eyes” as enchanting, endearing, bewitching (in the best sense, Samantha *heh*). In the sense of the Fearing song, my Wonder Woman’s eyes are “beguiling eyes”–a place to get gladly lost.

2. Her infectious laugh never–never–fails to bring a smile to this curmudgeon’s heart, and often even his face. *heh*

3. That smile. It reflects her heart, totally transparent.

4. The first thing I ever noticed about her is still one of her most enchanting traits: her beautiful voice. My own voice is trained far, far beyond any native talent I posess, but hers has a naturally musical quality that surpasses that of all but the greatest voices you may have heard… and in my ear equals them, at least (yes, I recognize and discount my own bias :-)). Some of the best musical moments of my life have been when she’s just sat down at the piano and sung. I sit in another room and just bask in the music.

5. Her steadfastness. I’m not an easy person to live with. (“No! Really?” the masses cry, tongues-in-cheeks. *heh*) I don’t really wonder why she continues to love me, but I do wonder how, sometimes. 😉

6. She knows me. Seems like she always has, somehow. This morning, as we were in my car together, when a squirrel wisely sat out a confrontation with me, I noted that the other day, one tried to bluff me off the road and lost. Her only comment? “I’m surprised you didn’t stop and save the skin.” *LOL* Yeh, she knows me, all right. Tightwad that I am, I did consider it… After all, a squirrel skin cap would be just the thing to send to congresscritters or our current crop of presidential candidates.

7. She’s the kindest person I have ever known.

8. She’s strong where it really counts. Physically, she’s a reed in the wind. Morally, ethically, emotionally, spiritually, she’s bedrock.

9. SHe’s smart. But where she’s not smart, she’s usually wise. And it’s in those circumstances that she’s far better than smart.

10. I’ve alluded to this before (#5), but this is slightly different: patience. She’s learned to wait for “it”–whatever “it” may be–when forcing things may be counterproductive. I’m watching and learning, too. From her.

11. She’s interesting. Always learning something new, always challenging herself to be better at her work, better at relating to people, better, period. It’s not some driven-to-suceed wild-eyed and desperate need to be more than she can be, just an ever-present curiosity combined with an inherent sense of responsibility and… niceness. What’s not to like?

12. She warms and lights a room just by being there.

13. Thirty years ago yesterday she took me off two-days’ cliffhanging when she called me up and said, “Yes.” (Well, she coulda come back from Colorado to KCMO to tell me in person, but that was slightly impractical. *heh*)

Thanks, WW.

Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, A Newt One, Democrat=Socialist, and The World According to Carl, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe, and Linked to the Thursday Thirteen Hub.

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A Primer on Global Warming

[N.B., now that the dire predictions of global warmists are proving to be less than accurate, the Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming now uses “climate change” in place of their long-trumpeted “global warming” but it’s all just sleight of hand.]

Freeman Dyson is smarter than you or I. Heck, he’s probably smarter than you and I put together. So, when he speaks on the subject of global warming/climate change, even in something so brief as a review of a couple of books, he’s worth listening to, at the very least. For example, writing about A Question of Balance: Weighing the Options on Global Warming Policies, by William Nordhaus:

For the benefit of those who are mathematically illiterate or uninterested in numerical details, Nordhaus has put a nonmathematical chapter at the beginning with the title “Summary for the Concerned Citizen.” This first chapter contains an admirably clear summary of his results and their practical consequences, digested so as to be read by busy politicians and ordinary people who may vote the politicians into office. He believes that the most important concern of any policy that aims to address climate change should be how to set the most efficient “carbon price,” which he defines as “the market price or penalty that would be paid by those who use fossil fuels and thereby generate CO2 emissions.” He writes:

Whether someone is serious about tackling the global-warming problem can be readily gauged by listening to what he or she says about the carbon price. Suppose you hear a public figure who speaks eloquently of the perils of global warming and proposes that the nation should move urgently to slow climate change. Suppose that person proposes regulating the fuel efficiency of cars, or requiring high-efficiency lightbulbs, or subsidizing ethanol, or providing research support for solar power—but nowhere does the proposal raise the price of carbon. You should conclude that the proposal is not really serious and does not recognize the central economic message about how to slow climate change. To a first approximation, raising the price of carbon is a necessary and sufficient step for tackling global warming. The rest is at best rhetoric and may actually be harmful in inducing economic inefficiencies.

If this chapter were widely read, the public understanding of global warming and possible responses to it would be greatly improved.

Indeed. Of course, the several assumptions (apparent assumptions; I have not yet got my hands on a copy) of the Nordhaus comment above are large assumptions indeed, but the public’s understanding of the costs of dealing with carbon dioxide–whether such a thing needs to be done or not–would indeed be a great step forward in opening the dialog on “climate change” to other than True Believers in AGW (more rationally known as Reality-Based Fantasists, IMO).

But it is the assumption Dyson makes that is truly frightening. He’s a really, really smart man, but it looks like he misses the critical factor in his approach to the material above. To repeat:

For the benefit of those who are mathematically illiterate or uninterested in numerical details, Nordhaus has put a nonmathematical chapter at the beginning with the title “Summary for the Concerned Citizen.” This first chapter contains an admirably clear summary of his results and their practical consequences, digested so as to be read by busy politicians and ordinary people who may vote the politicians into office.

The “busy politicians” and the “ordinary people who vote them into office” are both likely to be not only mathematically illiterate but functionally illiterate as well. Heck, neither of those facts matter, because neither class would read it anyway, even if they could read or understand the book–or even Dyson’s review of it. And there lies the crux of the problem: politicians only listen to their flappers (review your Swift for the reference) and “ordinary people” are brain-sludged (not brainwashed) by the Mass Media Podpeople’s Hivemind and self-lobotomized to the point that they’d never even pick the book up.

Or any other book that might challenge them beyond the level of People Magazine or Sports Illustrated.

The second book reviewed in the Dyson article is, Global Warming: Looking Beyond Kyoto, Ernesto Zedillo, ed. Although it, too, suffers from the same “It’s not People Magazine or Sports Illustrated” lack of appeal to ordinary citizens, it nevertheless sounds rather interesting to me. *heh* (Yeh, you’ve picked up on the fact that I don’t read People Magazine or Sports Illustrated, right?) For example, as Dyson notes,

Zedillo in his introduction summarizes the arguments of each contributor in turn. He maintains the neutrality appropriate to a conference chairman, and gives equal space to Lindzen and to Rahmstorf. He betrays his own opinion only in a single sentence with a short parenthesis: “Climate change may not be the world’s most pressing problem (as I am convinced it is not), but it could still prove to be the most complex challenge the world has ever faced.”

Later in the article, Dyson gets to the meat of the review,

All the books that I have seen about the science and economics of global warming, including the two books under review, miss the main point. The main point is religious rather than scientific. There is a worldwide secular religion which we may call environmentalism, holding that we are stewards of the earth, that despoiling the planet with waste products of our luxurious living is a sin, and that the path of righteousness is to live as frugally as possible. The ethics of environmentalism are being taught to children in kindergartens, schools, and colleges all over the world.

Should we be environmentally responsible? Yes, of course we should, for any number of reasons. But the Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming, in attempting, with great success, to shut down all dialog, all debate on its dogma is performing a serious disservice to everyone. Heck, the pagan religion they practice is not even well-qualified as religions go: “redemtion” in the Church of AGW means essentially killing off most of mankind. In that, AGWers are hardly better than Islamics.

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Of “Snips and Snails and… ” Locusts

Olde Phartes can be “little boys” too. *heh*

Tuesday was eaten by the less creative side of ADHD. Details, details, details. Oh. Well. Wednesday is another day, eh?

What have we in the public square today?

An ex-presidential press secretary demonstrates that if one associates with Mass Media Podpeople long enough, one almost inevitably, in a nowadays not-so-remarkable display of reverse peristalsis, begins to spew shit. Dog bites man. *yawn*

The Hildebeast–SHOCK!–actually knows the chronology of the 1968 presidential race (or at least some of it). What an amazing, “newsworthy” thing! Again: dog-man-yawn. Of course, she does still have a tin ear for off-the-cuff remarks.

Meanwhile, Michelle Obamamama is just hunky dory with Barry Hussein Obama-Winfrey going out to the gas station while black. (Again, as someone who’s witnessed “up close and personal”–as in, “standing between the participants” *heh*–black on black gunfire, dog-man-yawn.)

Juan Mexicain reneges on border control before amnesty (not that that was a decent stance to begin with). Dog-man-yawn… What?!?! You thought he was at least an “honorable man”? He’s a 100%, dyed-in-the-wool politician *spit*, dummie.

Scratch that: he’s a He’s a 100%, dyed-in-the-wool American politician *spit*, dummie. Here’s some REAL news from the world of politics, grownup style; “Man bites dog” news! *heh* Czech President Vaclav Klaus has thrown down the gauntlet to Algore and his lying loonies:

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Tuesday he is ready to debate Al Gore about global warming, as he presented the English version of his latest book that argues environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms.

Well, dress me up as flabbergasted and fry me in lard. A politician with balls and brains. Let’s amend the constitution to allow intelligent, principled people to run for president. Yeh, the amendment will be required, because we’ll apparently have to import them from Czechoslovakia.

I can just see that Cowardly Liar (or Lying Cowardly Dog) agreeing to debate a grownup on his lies. Not. (“Cowardly Liar”? Well, the liar part’s a given, just on the public record. Cowardly though? What else would you call someone who will not allow any questions he hasn’t approved in advance and who refuses to allow actual recordings of his speeches? In my book that makes him an intellectual chickenshit.)

Future News: Newsflash! Gore ducks debate!

Nah, the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind would never report that.

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Prisoners of Stupidity

An argument about America’s prisons being “too full” seems perennial, no matter what perspective one takes. Patterico takes on a dimwit New York Slimes columnist in a recent post, and while I agree with much of Patterico’s argument, I have to agree in principle with folks who assert that as a nation we have far too many folks in prison–including violent offenders.

Quite aside from the stupidity of incarcerating nonviolent offenders (thieves for example and such like should be required to repay court costs and many multiples–truly punitive amounts–of what they stole to their victims, and drug users and so forth should instead be given a lockup where they can have all the drugs they want, as long as they want until they waste away in a Darwinian solution… or make a different choice).

We could substantially lower the number of violent offenders in prison by selecting from the population of murderers, rapists, pedophiles and such like a significant number (something around 100%) and simply executing* them. Heck, I’d include–especially–drunk drivers who kill someone. Diminished capacity? Not when they chose to be drunks. The “helpless victim of disease” defense? In a pig’s eye. I don’t care if someone chose to become an alcohol adict; if they kill someone else as a result, they ought to be served fairly: execution is fair in such a case. If they killed themselves while drunk, well, that’d just be Darwin winning a round. In all cases where someone is executed, their entire worldly goods–including any assets they attempted to hide via spouses or in lawyers’ pockets** or whatever–ought to first be forfeited to victims and survivors.

As for many of the other violent and non-violent offenders, that population could be reduced as well by compelling them, upon conviction of their crime, to either pay punitive damages to their victims–harsh enough to beggar them if necessary, and if they have no means, then forced labor at (sorta-semi-almost) fair (slave) wages, with all but their room n board to go to victims. Yeh, we have the technology to effectively keep ’em “on the reservation”.

Those beggared by their crimes’ punishment ought also to be denied ALL public assistance in the future.

These kinds of approaches (financial punishment aimed at recompensing victims as much as possible) would work for some, perhaps enough to lower the prison count substantially. (Heck, those deemed to dangerous for society could still have their total worldly goods confiscated for victims and be compelled to work at something productive).

Squeamishness at such “slavery” is stupid. Instead of simply simmering criminals in a stewpot of advanced criminality to be eventually released as “better” criminals, at least some good might be reaped from them. Victims at least partially recompensed and penalties that touch the criminals where they hurt the most: their material possessions. (Heck, if a few families of murderers were thrown into poverty, perhaps more folks would look out for themselves by keeping track of the creeps in their own households).

Oh, and executions ought to be very, very public. Like presidential speeches, preempting public broadcasts; heck, overriding cable. If we as a society are going to kill killers, we ought to do it out in the open.

*Execution ought to serve two legitimate functions:

1. Punishment for the crime that is harsh enough to give those who are contemplating the same errors in judgement second thoughts and

2. Removal of corruption of the gene pool, corruption of society, a cleansing process if you will.

**“lawyers’ pockets”–yeh, a murderer who’s convicted? Seize his lawyer’s fees as forfeit to the victim’s family. Greedy sonsabitches who defend murders ought not to profit. Oh, you think that’d lead to lawyers refusing to take such clients? Tough. Let ’em eat cake. I do not flippin’ care.