Month: December 2005

Posted on

Torching straw men, hammering at feet of clay

(With apologies to T.S. Eliot)

[These] are the hollow men
[These] are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw.

Alexandra asked for a “10 Worst Americans” list. In her post, she further elaborates using the term “evil” to describe characteristics of “worst” Americans. Most of my “worst Americans” (though not all) fit the mangling of T.S. Eliot’s words above.

With nearly 230 years’ worth of people who have had a negative impact on society in America, I could name ten and not even scratch the surface. But here, mostly in no great order, are ten of the worst. Note: Since there are so many “worst Americans” I’ve included a few classes of “worst Americans” that embrace some who simply cannot be drawn out from the crowd around them. “So great a host… “

An obvious pick would be Jean Fraud sKerry. Along with his more intelligent and able fellow scum, Billary Clinton (yeh, no one could doubt that unholy wedlock has made them one after the way they lied, cheated and slandered their way in and out of office over and over), Jean Fraud has defined filthy, low down dirty lying, cheating. scumbag politics for the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.

There: two in one.

(Still no ranking. One could lump Harry Pelosi Kennedy in the mix with Jean Fraud and Billary and not really notice any personality change.)

Next, who can doubt Dan Blather, his ilk and apologists (Mass Media Podpeople and Loony Left Moonbats one and all) occupy slot number three? I say all these “people” together comprise one of the worst Americans because they “think” with a group mind. Dittoheads are anarchistic individualists next to the “commie fag junkie” (to steal a great meme from George Carlin) hive.

Michael Moore. Planet-sized ego encased in lard. Liar, and proud of it. Embodies all the worst memes of the Loony Left Moonbat brigade and Mass Media Podpeople’s Army in one big fat slob.

Hollyweird. A sub-class of the Mass Media Podpeople/Loony Left Moonbat hive mind, differentiated only by its even greater ego and divorce from reality. Orbiting Pluto, it thinks itself the Center of the Universe. Discrete elements of the Hollyweird Hive Mind are not discernable. It is all one “person”. Any cells that begin to differentiate themselves from the Hollyweird Hive Mind are attacked as a cancer on the Body Beautiful. Those such as Mel Gibson who have enough stength to survive outside the Hollyweird Hive Mind (strength=character+financial resources+an ability to, uhm, think) may find success i n their ostracization.

There, that’s five, all fitting very nicely the definition of “evil” proposed by M. Scott Peck in “People of the Lie”.

Five more? OK, some classes and individuals.

Two classes of “worst Americans”-Public school administrators and educrats. Together, these two classes may be doing more to destroy America all other persons combined. Educrats-those self- and governmentally-appointed arbiters of What Shall Be Taught, and How-rule public education from afar with massive stupidity. While some may be truly evil, most are simply stupidly arrogant and arrogantly stupid. Consider all the dictates issuing from Washington D.C. (influenced by idiots running college “teacher education” programs) that govern what can and cannot be taught (and how) in your local school district. What activities are allowed and what are prohibited. Classroom disclipline, class makeup, curriculum, and more. Coming from a Congress and bureaucratic swamp that’s responsible for supervising the WORST public schools in the nation. That makes sense.

And public school administrators? Arguably the stupidest people in education. Seriously. I’d put my GRE scores, for example, up against ANY pubschool principal or superintendant. With extremely rare exceptions, they are all skating on the left end of the bell curve. And it shows in the effect pubschool administrators generally have on classroom teaching. Instead of doing things that enhance teaching and learning, most pubschool administrators-with noted RARE exceptions, as I have said-are massive stumbling blocks to education.

America would be far better off to put all the educrats and pubschool administrators in work camps breaking rocks.

Some more specific Americans to round out my list:

Lyndon Johnson. What a lying snake. A venal poltroon. Lied America into Vietnam, screwed America with “The Great Society”. Skated off the public stage when he should have been run off the planet on a rail.

Jimmie Carter. It is to my eternal shame that I actually voted for this picayune creep. Once. He is a lying, slanderous, traitorous piece of filth. An ego-driven fantasist who apparently believes the world revolves around him. He does charitable works? Yeh. And the reason is obvious in his dung beetle grin*.

Pat Robertson. He simply cannot keep his mouth shut, and what comes out is slander to the God he says he worships. Another ego-driven publicity slut.

And what shall I say of Roger Baldwin, Eugene V. Debs, and John Dewey? All influential in the formation of the American Communist Lawyers Union-and Dewey has to his “worst American” credit the distinction of having been the single greatest destructive force in creating (or perhaps Dewey would prefer “manufacturing”) stupid Americans, compliant sheeple.

Now, let me get historical on this list: Abraham Lincoln. Yeh, yeh: I know the Lincoln hagiography, and what I’m about to say will earn me the disapprobation (to say the very least) of 90% of the folks who read this. One can argue day and night that Lincoln’s so-called “freeing of the slaves” was a great thing and that he “preserved the Union”, but the plain fact of the matter is that for all intents and purposes, the republic handed us by the Framers died at Appomattox, and what we have today in runaway federal anarcho-tyranny is a direct result of Lincoln’s War. Each and every abuse of federal power, each and every twisting and outright violation of the Constitution we now know as just normal federal government behavior was either prefigured or practiced in even more flagrant and brutal fashion by Lincoln. More than 620,000 killed in Lincoln’s War. Not to free slaves, but to increase the power of Northern industrialists, destroy the economic power of the South and, not incidentally, bring about Lincoln’s view of a federal government that not only could but did (and still does) overrule Constitutionally-guaranteed State authority and individual rights.

Whatever good the man did is far, far overshadowed by the legacy of federally-practiced anarcho-tyranny we have from his hand today.

And I close with this:

A General Summary
Rudyard Kipling

We are very slightly changed
From the semi-apes who ranged
India’s prehistoric clay;
He that drew the longest bow
Ran his brother down, you know,
As we run men down to-day.

“Dowb,” the first of all his race,
Met the Mammoth face to face
On the lake or in the cave:
Stole the steadiest canoe,
Ate the quarry others slew,
Died-and took the finest grave.

When they scratched the reindeer-bone,
Some one made the sketch his own,
Filched it from the artist-then,
Even in those early days,
Won a simple Viceroy’s praise
Through the toil of other men.
Ere they hewed the Sphinx’s visage
Favouritism governed kissage,
Even as it does in this age.

Who shall doubt “the secret hid
Under Cheops’ pyramid”
Was that the contractor did
Cheops out of several millions?
Or that Joseph’s sudden rise
To Comptroller of Supplies
Was a fraud of monstrous size
On King Pharaoh’s swart Civilians?

Thus, the artless songs I sing
Do not deal with anything
New or never said before.
As it was in the beginning
Is to-day official sinning,
And shall be for evermore!

Shamelessly flogged at TMH’s Bacon Bits (He’s baaaaaack!)

Posted on

Torching straw men, hammering at feet of clay

(With apologies to T.S. Eliot)

[These] are the hollow men
[These] are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw.

Alexandra asked for a “10 Worst Americans” list. In her post, she further elaborates using the term “evil” to describe characteristics of “worst” Americans. Most of my “worst Americans” (though not all) fit the mangling of T.S. Eliot’s words above.

With nearly 230 years’ worth of people who have had a negative impact on society in America, I could name ten and not even scratch the surface. But here, mostly in no great order, are ten of the worst. Note: Since there are so many “worst Americans” I’ve included a few classes of “worst Americans” that embrace some who simply cannot be drawn out from the crowd around them. “So great a host… “

An obvious pick would be Jean Fraud sKerry. Along with his more intelligent and able fellow scum, Billary Clinton (yeh, no one could doubt that unholy wedlock has made them one after the way they lied, cheated and slandered their way in and out of office over and over), Jean Fraud has defined filthy, low down dirty lying, cheating. scumbag politics for the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.

There: two in one.

(Still no ranking. One could lump Harry Pelosi Kennedy in the mix with Jean Fraud and Billary and not really notice any personality change.)

Next, who can doubt Dan Blather, his ilk and apologists (Mass Media Podpeople and Loony Left Moonbats one and all) occupy slot number three? I say all these “people” together comprise one of the worst Americans because they “think” with a group mind. Dittoheads are anarchistic individualists next to the “commie fag junkie” (to steal a great meme from George Carlin) hive.

Michael Moore. Planet-sized ego encased in lard. Liar, and proud of it. Embodies all the worst memes of the Loony Left Moonbat brigade and Mass Media Podpeople’s Army in one big fat slob.

Hollyweird. A sub-class of the Mass Media Podpeople/Loony Left Moonbat hive mind, differentiated only by its even greater ego and divorce from reality. Orbiting Pluto, it thinks itself the Center of the Universe. Discrete elements of the Hollyweird Hive Mind are not discernable. It is all one “person”. Any cells that begin to differentiate themselves from the Hollyweird Hive Mind are attacked as a cancer on the Body Beautiful. Those such as Mel Gibson who have enough stength to survive outside the Hollyweird Hive Mind (strength=character+financial resources+an ability to, uhm, think) may find success i n their ostracization.

There, that’s five, all fitting very nicely the definition of “evil” proposed by M. Scott Peck in “People of the Lie”.

Five more? OK, some classes and individuals.

Two classes of “worst Americans”-Public school administrators and educrats. Together, these two classes may be doing more to destroy America all other persons combined. Educrats-those self- and governmentally-appointed arbiters of What Shall Be Taught, and How-rule public education from afar with massive stupidity. While some may be truly evil, most are simply stupidly arrogant and arrogantly stupid. Consider all the dictates issuing from Washington D.C. (influenced by idiots running college “teacher education” programs) that govern what can and cannot be taught (and how) in your local school district. What activities are allowed and what are prohibited. Classroom disclipline, class makeup, curriculum, and more. Coming from a Congress and bureaucratic swamp that’s responsible for supervising the WORST public schools in the nation. That makes sense.

And public school administrators? Arguably the stupidest people in education. Seriously. I’d put my GRE scores, for example, up against ANY pubschool principal or superintendant. With extremely rare exceptions, they are all skating on the left end of the bell curve. And it shows in the effect pubschool administrators generally have on classroom teaching. Instead of doing things that enhance teaching and learning, most pubschool administrators-with noted RARE exceptions, as I have said-are massive stumbling blocks to education.

America would be far better off to put all the educrats and pubschool administrators in work camps breaking rocks.

Some more specific Americans to round out my list:

Lyndon Johnson. What a lying snake. A venal poltroon. Lied America into Vietnam, screwed America with “The Great Society”. Skated off the public stage when he should have been run off the planet on a rail.

Jimmie Carter. It is to my eternal shame that I actually voted for this picayune creep. Once. He is a lying, slanderous, traitorous piece of filth. An ego-driven fantasist who apparently believes the world revolves around him. He does charitable works? Yeh. And the reason is obvious in his dung beetle grin*.

Pat Robertson. He simply cannot keep his mouth shut, and what comes out is slander to the God he says he worships. Another ego-driven publicity slut.

And what shall I say of Roger Baldwin, Eugene V. Debs, and John Dewey? All influential in the formation of the American Communist Lawyers Union-and Dewey has to his “worst American” credit the distinction of having been the single greatest destructive force in creating (or perhaps Dewey would prefer “manufacturing”) stupid Americans, compliant sheeple.

Now, let me get historical on this list: Abraham Lincoln. Yeh, yeh: I know the Lincoln hagiography, and what I’m about to say will earn me the disapprobation (to say the very least) of 90% of the folks who read this. One can argue day and night that Lincoln’s so-called “freeing of the slaves” was a great thing and that he “preserved the Union”, but the plain fact of the matter is that for all intents and purposes, the republic handed us by the Framers died at Appomattox, and what we have today in runaway federal anarcho-tyranny is a direct result of Lincoln’s War. Each and every abuse of federal power, each and every twisting and outright violation of the Constitution we now know as just normal federal government behavior was either prefigured or practiced in even more flagrant and brutal fashion by Lincoln. More than 620,000 killed in Lincoln’s War. Not to free slaves, but to increase the power of Northern industrialists, destroy the economic power of the South and, not incidentally, bring about Lincoln’s view of a federal government that not only could but did (and still does) overrule Constitutionally-guaranteed State authority and individual rights.

Whatever good the man did is far, far overshadowed by the legacy of federally-practiced anarcho-tyranny we have from his hand today.

And I close with this:

A General Summary
Rudyard Kipling

We are very slightly changed
From the semi-apes who ranged
India’s prehistoric clay;
He that drew the longest bow
Ran his brother down, you know,
As we run men down to-day.

“Dowb,” the first of all his race,
Met the Mammoth face to face
On the lake or in the cave:
Stole the steadiest canoe,
Ate the quarry others slew,
Died-and took the finest grave.

When they scratched the reindeer-bone,
Some one made the sketch his own,
Filched it from the artist-then,
Even in those early days,
Won a simple Viceroy’s praise
Through the toil of other men.
Ere they hewed the Sphinx’s visage
Favouritism governed kissage,
Even as it does in this age.

Who shall doubt “the secret hid
Under Cheops’ pyramid”
Was that the contractor did
Cheops out of several millions?
Or that Joseph’s sudden rise
To Comptroller of Supplies
Was a fraud of monstrous size
On King Pharaoh’s swart Civilians?

Thus, the artless songs I sing
Do not deal with anything
New or never said before.
As it was in the beginning
Is to-day official sinning,
And shall be for evermore!

Shamelessly flogged at TMH’s Bacon Bits (He’s baaaaaack!)

Posted on

Confessions of a Practicing Tightwad/OP

Most of my metaphorical fires and alligators taken care of now. Now all I have to do the rest of the week is drain the metaphorical swamp… (it’s overflowing primarily with references to metaphors, I think. 🙂

Yeh, yeh. Open post. You know awhat to do… or not. 😉 If not, drop me a note and I’ll put you on the right track. Just link to this post and trackback. Now that I may have a normal schedule today and tomorrow, I’ll try to at least round up some of the more interesting links from this week. Also have to finish up an assignment from Alezandra *s*. And maybe a year’s roundup of TWC tomorrow, if I can fit it in.

This post will be open all weekend, so tb-away!

Now, the tightwaddery confession of the week.

I just love NOT spending money for something I really do HAVE to have. Like my new router/firewall. (Recap: my last router/firewall died; no replacements on hand. Essentially killed the rest of my lil network, and while one or two of my computers can survive with my backup dialup, having just my own net cruiser connected to broadband while family home for a while was… not fun.) Yeh, ate up more of the time I didn’t have this week just researching which setup I wanted to build and then configuring it the way I wanted.

Upside? After rummaging around in my junk parts, printing out and studying a buncha manuals on different router/firewall builds, yadayada, for the cost of my own spare time (what I could spare, that is :-), I’ve got a much more robust router/firewall setup than I would let myself buy off the shelf.

And I have a much better understanding of what my firewall is doing and MUCH more detailed control over my traffic.

Oh, and the last router/firewall that died? Still under warranty. A replacement is on the way, so I’ll have that for my wireless access.

Total cost to emulate a ~$300 router/firewall?

About $15 for

  • Cat5e cable and RJ-45 plugs (new cables-why not?)
  • A few CDRs
  • shipping the old router back under warranty (yeh, not rightly a cost for this router/firewall, but will re-enable my wireless capabilities).

Maybe I’ll post some pictures after I finish changing my network closet a bit.

Confessed at TMH’s Bacon Bits (where it looks like TMH had better be using the industrial-strength sunscreen or he’ll be emulating some bacon…), Liberal Common Sense (where Lisa trots out the “last of…” saw a coupla days early) and maybe some other places if I decide my reputation can take the hit of confessing my tightwaddery too widely.

Posted on

Confessions of a Practicing Tightwad/OP

Most of my metaphorical fires and alligators taken care of now. Now all I have to do the rest of the week is drain the metaphorical swamp… (it’s overflowing primarily with references to metaphors, I think. 🙂

Yeh, yeh. Open post. You know awhat to do… or not. 😉 If not, drop me a note and I’ll put you on the right track. Just link to this post and trackback. Now that I may have a normal schedule today and tomorrow, I’ll try to at least round up some of the more interesting links from this week. Also have to finish up an assignment from Alezandra *s*. And maybe a year’s roundup of TWC tomorrow, if I can fit it in.

This post will be open all weekend, so tb-away!

Now, the tightwaddery confession of the week.

I just love NOT spending money for something I really do HAVE to have. Like my new router/firewall. (Recap: my last router/firewall died; no replacements on hand. Essentially killed the rest of my lil network, and while one or two of my computers can survive with my backup dialup, having just my own net cruiser connected to broadband while family home for a while was… not fun.) Yeh, ate up more of the time I didn’t have this week just researching which setup I wanted to build and then configuring it the way I wanted.

Upside? After rummaging around in my junk parts, printing out and studying a buncha manuals on different router/firewall builds, yadayada, for the cost of my own spare time (what I could spare, that is :-), I’ve got a much more robust router/firewall setup than I would let myself buy off the shelf.

And I have a much better understanding of what my firewall is doing and MUCH more detailed control over my traffic.

Oh, and the last router/firewall that died? Still under warranty. A replacement is on the way, so I’ll have that for my wireless access.

Total cost to emulate a ~$300 router/firewall?

About $15 for

  • Cat5e cable and RJ-45 plugs (new cables-why not?)
  • A few CDRs
  • shipping the old router back under warranty (yeh, not rightly a cost for this router/firewall, but will re-enable my wireless capabilities).

Maybe I’ll post some pictures after I finish changing my network closet a bit.

Confessed at TMH’s Bacon Bits (where it looks like TMH had better be using the industrial-strength sunscreen or he’ll be emulating some bacon…), Liberal Common Sense (where Lisa trots out the “last of…” saw a coupla days early) and maybe some other places if I decide my reputation can take the hit of confessing my tightwaddery too widely.

Posted on

Confessions of a Practicing Tightwad/OP

Most of my metaphorical fires and alligators taken care of now. Now all I have to do the rest of the week is drain the metaphorical swamp… (it’s overflowing primarily with references to metaphors, I think. 🙂

Yeh, yeh. Open post. You know awhat to do… or not. 😉 If not, drop me a note and I’ll put you on the right track. Just link to this post and trackback. Now that I may have a normal schedule today and tomorrow, I’ll try to at least round up some of the more interesting links from this week. Also have to finish up an assignment from Alezandra *s*. And maybe a year’s roundup of TWC tomorrow, if I can fit it in.

This post will be open all weekend, so tb-away!

Now, the tightwaddery confession of the week.

I just love NOT spending money for something I really do HAVE to have. Like my new router/firewall. (Recap: my last router/firewall died; no replacements on hand. Essentially killed the rest of my lil network, and while one or two of my computers can survive with my backup dialup, having just my own net cruiser connected to broadband while family home for a while was… not fun.) Yeh, ate up more of the time I didn’t have this week just researching which setup I wanted to build and then configuring it the way I wanted.

Upside? After rummaging around in my junk parts, printing out and studying a buncha manuals on different router/firewall builds, yadayada, for the cost of my own spare time (what I could spare, that is :-), I’ve got a much more robust router/firewall setup than I would let myself buy off the shelf.

And I have a much better understanding of what my firewall is doing and MUCH more detailed control over my traffic.

Oh, and the last router/firewall that died? Still under warranty. A replacement is on the way, so I’ll have that for my wireless access.

Total cost to emulate a ~$300 router/firewall?

About $15 for

  • Cat5e cable and RJ-45 plugs (new cables-why not?)
  • A few CDRs
  • shipping the old router back under warranty (yeh, not rightly a cost for this router/firewall, but will re-enable my wireless capabilities).

Maybe I’ll post some pictures after I finish changing my network closet a bit.

Confessed at TMH’s Bacon Bits (where it looks like TMH had better be using the industrial-strength sunscreen or he’ll be emulating some bacon…), Liberal Common Sense (where Lisa trots out the “last of…” saw a coupla days early) and maybe some other places if I decide my reputation can take the hit of confessing my tightwaddery too widely.

Posted on

Windows users: you got this security advisory, right?

Gee. The hits just keep on coming in…

*sigh*

Posted yesterday by Micro$oft:

Microsoft Security Advisory (912840)
Vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
Published: December 28, 2005

Yep. eWeek says,

Microsoft Corp. has issued a security advisory for what Secunia is deeming an “extremely critical flaw” in Windows Metafile Format (.wmf) that is now being exploited on fully patched systems by malicious attackers.

Websense Security Labs is tracking thousands of sites distributing the exploit code from a site called iFrameCASH BUSINESS. That site and numerous others are distributing spyware and other unwanted software, replacing users’ desktop backgrounds with a message that warns of spyware infection and which prompts the user to enter credit card information to pay for a “spyware cleaning” application to remove the detected spyware…

Fortunately, malware detection companies (AV/Spyware) seem to be reacting to this pretty quickly. Update your AV software NOW. You heard me. If you don’t, then come crying to me only if you bring some of the big green with you. 🙂

Gotta love Micro$oft. Full employment for techies.

Oh, there’s a workaround for folks here, in case you’re ionto the “belt and suspenders” approach to securing your computer.

Pegged to Ferdy’s Bulletin Board (by linking his “NSA Cookies” post—a “TWC must-read” 🙂 at Conservative Cat.

Posted on

Windows users: you got this security advisory, right?

Gee. The hits just keep on coming in…

*sigh*

Posted yesterday by Micro$oft:

Microsoft Security Advisory (912840)
Vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution.
Published: December 28, 2005

Yep. eWeek says,

Microsoft Corp. has issued a security advisory for what Secunia is deeming an “extremely critical flaw” in Windows Metafile Format (.wmf) that is now being exploited on fully patched systems by malicious attackers.

Websense Security Labs is tracking thousands of sites distributing the exploit code from a site called iFrameCASH BUSINESS. That site and numerous others are distributing spyware and other unwanted software, replacing users’ desktop backgrounds with a message that warns of spyware infection and which prompts the user to enter credit card information to pay for a “spyware cleaning” application to remove the detected spyware…

Fortunately, malware detection companies (AV/Spyware) seem to be reacting to this pretty quickly. Update your AV software NOW. You heard me. If you don’t, then come crying to me only if you bring some of the big green with you. 🙂

Gotta love Micro$oft. Full employment for techies.

Oh, there’s a workaround for folks here, in case you’re ionto the “belt and suspenders” approach to securing your computer.

Pegged to Ferdy’s Bulletin Board (by linking his “NSA Cookies” post—a “TWC must-read” 🙂 at Conservative Cat.