Month: October 2006

Career change for my last electric coffee grinder. Due to superior performance by old technology, it is now just another spice grinder.

Looking for more like this at garage sales and flea markets:

I wonder how many politicians dressed up in costume today, wrapping themselves in the flag and pretending to be “statemen”?

Answer: 99.9999999…%

Of those seeking re-election, the number approaches muuuuch closer to 100%.

Would Congress fix Social Security if congresscritters had to rely on it when they retired? Sounds like a grass roots petition-for-amendment drive to me… Would they build a fence if they all had to live on our borders? And what would be the effect if they each and every one had to serve a tour of duty in Iraq? As E-1 grade in whatever service. OK, that last might not be such a good idea. Imagine your congresscritter serving as a private, E-1 grade in an infantry platoon. Talk about endangering the lives of fellow servicemen! OTOH, Teddy Kennedy would make a rather sunstantial shield behind which to gain cover in a firefight. If he didn’t just decide to go for a swim. (Better yet: throw the bums–all of them–out and start over.)

Isn’t Fall, after the ragweed decides to stop afflicting folks, just the best time of year? Gorgeous colors–still greens with reds and yellows and browns and blue skies? Even the gray days are easy on the eyes. And the crisp air and juuuuust slightly sharp bite of Fall breezes. Just nice, folks. I could live like this. Walnuts falling and thwacking me on the head (s’all right: thick skull); cardinals looking for a lil extra feed (keeps our cats at the front door and bay window–*heh*); freshly-fallen leaves from the sycamores in the back yard and the oaks nearby covering the deck every morning (great mulching material); even scraping light frost from a windshield: all these and more–Fall.

Well, time for another go at the Augean stables that my office evolves into every few months. The path to my desk’s becoming too restricted for comfort (*ha!*), so it’s about time to box up stray parts for storage or garage sale, remove spare computers, re-organize wandering CDs, put roaming tools back where they belong (Ah! THAT’S where that was!) and etc. S’all right. I need to move this place to a different location before Thanksgiving, anyway.

Because my parents are making noises about visiting, then. Just a fair warning to the rest of you: get off the roads. *heh* Nah. My dad’s a good driver, especially for someone in his mid-80s.

😉

Oh, what to do?!? I’ve had a “secret project” going for six months now, and it’s been stalled for three. Plans followed. Right materials used. Correct proportions. Doesn’t work right. And yeh, I’m still not saying what it is, although I will say that it’s a musical instrument of sorts. The thing keeps just sitting there, mocking me. *sigh* The thing is, it almost works right. Tweaking it has driven me crazy. (OK, it wasn’t a drive but a putt. A short one.)

Ever notice that the more ya cater to the lowest common denominator, the lower it gets? That’s the key to the “successes” of our public schools (AKA “prisons for kids”) and colleges and universities.

I was shocked to see some pubschool teachers going to school in costume today. Some of them had the audacity to dress up as… teachers. (The real teachers are just more inmates–senior ones–in our “prisons for kids”.)

*heh*

I think if everyone who’s too stupid to drive were the ONLY drivers allowed on the roads for a month, then both of us who are competent drivers could go back to driving after that month and have a muuuuuch easier time of it. Although, come to think of it, there is a slight downside: the enrichment of the blood-suckers who run funeral “homes” (who came up with the idea of calling mortuaries “homes” anyway?).

Ever notice that the number of LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) who are traffic scofflaws approaches 100%? WTG influencing respect for the law, guys!

I think if we could find the Mothership (circling Uranus?) that houses the Hive Mother, then taking it out would deal a fatal blow to the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind… Just a thought…

Firtting for Halloween, a gory story: You heard about the dyslexic agnostic? Wasn’t sure there was a dog—until it bit him in the a$$… (and even then, he thought for a moment he was caught on the horns of a dilemma, but he finally managed to bull his way through to the truth).

Whoever came up with the idea of Monday? Whoever it is, he’d better run and hide the next time a Monday like yesterday rolls around…

Finally, buy your own copy. Read it. James P. Hogan’s “Kicking the Sacred Cow: Heresy and Impermissible Thoughts in Science.” An agnostic engineer looks at some of modern science dogma and asks, “Where’s the beef?”

Kicking the Sacred Cow

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I just recieved another of those emails from PC Mag touting an article on what to do with an old computer. Around here, it’s mostly “scrap for parts,” but YMMV. Here’s the article if you’re interested, but I have a slightly different take.

The very last page of the article finally gets around to (mostly) dismissing Linux as an option for an old computer you may give away. But at least it does briefly mention the Linux distro I’d suggest you put on an old(er) computer I’d giving away: Ubuntu. The cavil in the PC Mag article is, “Windows is what most people already know how to use” but that’s a cop-out.

An older computer–anywhere from a 300Mhz P-II/III! to a 1.5 Ghz “old” box running Linux will run rings around a similar computer loaded with Windows. And Ubuntu is more similar to Windows than the Mac OS is, and almost completely effortless and transparent in maintenance. A link to the Ubuntu FAQ site and/or a few help sites/tutorials on their desktop, Open Office and either Firefox or Opera (my choice) for a browser, and they’re just about set. I’d add a few (FREE) multimedia add-ons, if it were me, but right “out of the box” Ubuntu is ready to just be used.

So why would I definitely load something like Ubuntu Linux on a used box I’d be giving a friend or family member?

They’ll likely never have a licensing issue come up. Their computer just almost will not crash. for example, I’ve been running a box I put together recently 24X7 ever since it first booted with nary a problem, no slowdown, no freezes, no crashes, etc. about like my Linux router and other Linux boxes I’ve built. My most stable Windows configuration is a box built to use Windows 2000 Pro. It’s pretty stable, but not in the class of the Linux boxes I’ve built.

And each and every box I’ve built and tested in Windows v. Linux configurations have been loads faster as Linux boxes, even with all the GUI stuff added on.

So, you want to give a friend or family member an old computer but don’t want them to think you’re the cheap bastard you really are? Clean it up nicely and make sure the hardware’s in the best possible shape (and do consider slapping a new hard drive in). Make it an Ubuntu Linux box, loaded with all the really good Open Source software you can find.

They’ll wonder why you don’t want it any more. And so, very likely, will you.

*heh*

By Heidi at Euphoric Reality

I was having a helluva time writing an article for this week’s GTB Blogburst. Over the weekend, I started three articles and each one fizzled out for lack of inspiration. For instance, I started one on President Bush’s new fence bill – the one that has no funding – and it was hard for me to work up any outrage, since I wasn’t surprised at such an empty gesture. In fact, I was expecting nothing less from this President, and that’s a sorry indictment of how faithless he’s become. The President’s abrogation of this issue has boiled my blood for years, and is one of the main reasons why I am no longer a Republican, but now a furious and rebellious Independent. As I mulled over what to say about Bush’s latest nothingness, I realized that anything I had say about his treason on this issue, I’ve already said before – and then some.

So I started another article about the effect of the immigration issue on elections; or rather, the effect it should have, but isn’t. Because here we are at election time again, having to hold our noses to go elect more of the same do-nothing politicians. Yeah, the same types who have successfully ignored the will of the people for so many years. Out of a nation of 300 million people, you’d think we could field a few really top notch candidates for leadership at any level. But noooo…

The point is that I remain uninspired and severely jaded. Call it writer’s block, or call it a crisis of faith, but… I. GOT. NUTHIN’.

So, in a late hour attempt to find some really good material to offer our faithful Blogburst readers, I sent out a request to our affiliates for their favorite links this week, which I could compile for everyone’s convenience. Thus, this week’s Blogburst is a little bit of a Trick or Treat – some chilling, and some funny. Which is apropos, considering that our nation’s immigration policy is a monstrous nightmare for mainstream Americans.

The Nightmare on Main Street Edition of the GTB Blogburst

So Bush signed a law to create a border fence. Here is an image of the fence as designed by a joint committee of Mexicans and Liberals, and approved by Bush…

“Report an illegal to the Feds and watch the Feds sit on their hands!”

Minuteman 2.0.: The Minuteman project was a publicity stunt; we now need to take it to the next level and have citizen patrols guarding the border.

“Needed: Border Billboards”: As soon as sniper posts are erected along our borders, we’ll need some billboards erected that read something like this…

The Carpentersville Saga: Carpentersville Illinois is pursuing a Hazelton style ordinance, but as these two videos show, not if the pro crime Hispanics and their supporters have anything to say about it!

The C’Ville Video

New Freedom Folks Video: C’ville Video Update

“The US Border Patrol and Border Police are Out Gunned, Out Manned and Facing an Enemy with Technological Superiority Over Them!”: You knew illegals were coming into the USA daily, but did you know that down in Mexico they are literally being brought up to the border by the train load? The report has the pictures to prove it!

Trains from Central America and Mexico en route
to the U.S. border

Wild Thing sent some more jarring photos of our uninvited and unwelcome and undocumented “guests”- and no, these are not crazy Halloween costumes:

If you think illegal immigration is nothing more than “good hard-working people, with good intentions” sneaking in here for a little harmless Trick-or-Treat, then these posts from some of the strongest contributors to Guard the Borders will convince you of the ghoulish truth.

Many thanks to Third World County, Mr. Ogre, Freedom Folks, PC Free Zone, and the Independent Conservative.

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This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to admin at guardtheborders dot com.

Well, in a word, yes.

Read here, here and here for a start.

Or how about here, here and here.

Despite lying defenses by soi-disant “moderate” muslims, politicians *spit* and Mass Media Podpeople, Academia Nut Fruitcakes and all their partners in crime, the simple fact is that Muslims who engage in mass miurder, slavery, female mutilation and the murder of rape victims are well within the norms of the life and teachings of The Butcher of Medina*. Muslims who fail to condemn, work to erradicate or even actively support those who genuinely and openly follow the true teachings of Mohammed (he who is the progenitor and prototype of all Islamic terrorism) are just as guilty of being “true Muslims” as the open practitioners of Mohammed’s example themselves.

There can be no true follower of Mohammed who is unwilling to follow Mohammed’s clear example and lie, cheat, steal, murder, torture and enslave others to further the sick cult of Mohammed.

Contrast that with followers of Jesus of Nazareth, He who condemned lying, cheating and stealing; who insisted that hating someone was as bad as killing them, condemned slander and praised doing good to one’s enemies.

It’s simple: monsters who claim to be following the founder of Islam are telling the truth. Monsters who claim to be following the founder of Christianity are liars.

It’s just that simple. Regardless of the monsters, for example, who falsely claimed to be Christian yet tortured and killed those whose theology differed from theirs in the Inquisition, their claim of following Christ in doing so is revealed as a lie by the very words and deeds of the Man whom they claimed to be following.

In contrast, the monsters who, even today, claim to be Muslim who torture, kill, enslave and brutalize those who differ with their cult are doing so in direct discipleship of the one who founded their religion.

Yes, Islam is evil. So-called “moderate” Muslims are either self-decieved or lying to everyone else. Any other conclusion is unsupportable by facts.

In closing, a little of the respect due the Butcher of Medina:

Sneaking on onto the bulletin board at Ferdy’s and hanging a copy on the hatrack at Bullwinkle’s place and handwriting on the wall at Committees of Correspondence…

But, as a class, they act like they are. (Please keep in mind: I’m am speaking of the general class: Muslims. I admit minor variants may be present in the population.)

Seriously.

Muslim culture, first of all, has generally been strongly shaped by Arabic culture, which, among other things, views lying to gain advantage over anyone not of one’s own family or tribe or culture group (in order, with family generally most important) in order to gain advantage as a virtue. Generally, Arabic culture–and by extension much of Islamic culture, views work as a negative value, to be done by servants or slaves (and yes, Islam still allows—heck, encourages and actually fosters—chattel slavery).

Arabs hate dogs, and so the general cultural prohibition on dogs in Islam. (That alone condemns them in any civilized eyes. :-))

Muslims believe the wackiest contrafactual things because the wacky mythology of 6th century Arabs became codified into Mohammed’s sayings.

In order to be a good Muslim, a genuine Muslim, a follower of the so-called “religion of peace” one must revere the original practitioner of Muslim terrorism, Mohammed, the Butcher of Medina. So-called “moderatre” Muslims who say they condemn Islamic terrorist acts but who continue to revere the Father of Islamic Terrorism, its chief model and founding proponent, Mohammed, are liars, hypocrites and the truth is not in them.

Muslims who claim all sorts of cultural superiority over the West, from moral superiority to scientific achievement and all across the board are not stupid. They are willfully ignorant, liars or both. The only “major” cultural achievements of Islamic cultures are mutilating women, breaking treaties (OK, we have a pretty good record of that when it suits us in the West), stabbing friends in the back (personally and as nations), lying, stealing, lying about stealing (yeh, learn the real history of Muslim achievements in math and science: algebra for example), an unbroken chain of sponsoring slavery from its earliest times right up until just about… NOW, oh, and the first globe and the astrolabe–neither of which have seen any improvements by Muslims in the past 1,000 years.

No, Muslims are NOT idiots. They just give a good impression, for anyone who’s paying attention to what they actually say and do, instead of listening to politicians *spit* and Mass Media Podpeople and Academia Nut Fruitcakes.

Bernie points out, at Planck’s Constant, that there have been TWO (TWO!) Muslim Nobel Prize winners for anything involving genuine inventiveness, creativity (science prizes), if I read the list correctly. The two on Bernie’s list who were Muslims, not just temporarily trapped in Muslim-dominated societies, had to escape to the West to make their mark.

Yeh, there was another Muslim winner in Literature, but he was stabbed for his blasphemy by… Muslims.

The Muslims who won peace prizes? No creativity there, so no credit is due them for that. What was their genuinbe contribution anyway?

Out of a fifth of the world’s population, one would expect a little creative work, right? Well, unless there were some seriously intervening factor. it’s not Western oppression; it’s their own sick culture.

It seems that it’s not Muslims who are idiots. It’s the culture they live in that’s idiotic.

(Here’s hoping I get some raghead raggers. I just love poking fun at their attempts to make a coherent argument. 1/5 of the world’s population. Approaching close to 1/5 of the world’s illiteracy, too.)

Oh, and just for the fun of it, here’s Mohammed in a Pink Dress again.

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There’ll likely be a Guard the Borders blogburst up later today with a more moderate tone, but meanwhile…

As soon as sniper posts are erected along our borders (yeh, I know I’m dreaming: the current goal of the U.S. government is to simply surrender the country and become a province of Mexico), we need some billboards erected that read something like this:

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Yeh, visited with my elderly parents and my youngest sister this weekend. A bit pooped, but it’s good poop. *heh*

Funny. About 35 years ago, “someone” (a sibling whose name shall be unmentioned but whose initials are… nah, pass) made off with my childhood/youth coin collection (with some nice, some “very fine,” early 20th century and mid-to-late 19th century American coins. Well, to be fair, my mom gave both my collection and this sibs collection to this sib to “split up” with me “someday” and maybe that day’s just not arrived yet.

It’s not a big enough deal to hassle about.

Sooo, Mom’s been feeling a bit displeased with her impromptu decision for some years. Here comes Dad with a rather heavy small case… Yeh, he’s too old to tote it comfortably. Opens up. An unorganized mess of mostly crap coins culled from grandparents’ unorganized junk drawers. A couple of nice Morgan dollars about as nice as the six I once had. Some poor quality Buffalo nickles, a buncha mixed quality wheat and Indian head pennies, that kinda thing (one surprise: an 1859 penny in very poor condition–no surprise given both its age and the fact that it’d just been picked up by one of my grandparents and stuck in a jar).

No big surprises or great finds, but it was thoughtful of Mom n Dad to recall my childhood obsession with coins.

Oh, then there were boxes and boxes of hymnals and old (non-hymnal) song books of mostly Gospel song collections. Arrrgghhhh. Where am I going to find the room for seven more boxes of books? Well, maybe some good ones I don’t already have in my own collection. I know where to donate the rest.

But. Sitting on top of “my” collection of boxes to clean out, something my mom said she “used just once”–

Yeh, that’s it in the lower lefthand corner of the pic: a burr coffee grinder. Made a pot today using its grind. Nice.

All-in-all, though, the trip was only really worth the time for the visit with the folks and my youngest sister. Yeh, a brief visit, but with all the years, catchup is quick, too, especially since we talk on the phone all the time. Mother’s getting ever more feeble–who knows how long she’ll be around? Daddy’s getting ever deafer–sad for someone who spent most of his life making music, although with the help of an electronic tuner he’s able to keep on playing his saxes.

Still, mostly glad to be back with my Wonder Woman. Lovely Daughter’s just dropped in, so I’m bagging the blog for the rest of the day.

Woody (Woody’s News and Views) has an interesting comment from “a sergeant in a US Army intelligence unit” gleaned from The Belmont Club that deserves your eyeballs. I’d take the sergeant’s argument a little further, though…

Mini-rant (still serious, though)

As I’ve been saying: partition the country along tribal/ethnic/religious lines. But I’d NOT disarm them. I’d leave the Shiites and Sunnis as is and hyper-arm the Kurds. Beef up American presence in the land of the Saracens (the Kurds), tell the Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites (and the damned Turks) to go fish. Establish major presences in oil fields and along pipelines to assure—by killing every unauthorized living thing that wanders into that space—their oil (paid for, of course) flows freely… to us.

Let the Shiites and Sunnis work out their religious differences and even more ancient tribal blood feuds in venerable Kilkenny Cat tradition. When they are well and truly done, let/help the Kurds pick up the pieces, whip the survivors into shape and build a mighty friend of the U.S. in the region–cos they’re the ONLY people in that region, aside from the Israelis–who have any honor and decency at all (as a people).

Heck, when all’s said and done, sell the new Saracens all the weaponry they might want to knock off the evil Saudi regime, if they so desired.

But the neo-jacobian fantasy of building one nation out of peoples with ancient, savage blood feuds and intractable differences between sects of a bloody, savage cult (each following—emulating—and revering The Butcher of Medina) is as stupid today as when the British established Iraq as a nation in the 1920s. The only way it “worked” between then and now was when the savage, brutal, barbaric tribal enmities were placed under the even more savage, brutal, barbaric heel of a murderous dictator.

(And, in fact, that’s the only way those peoples have been successfully ruled within one polity for well over a millenniunm.)

Partition the country and at the very least provide for the security of the oil delivery system and the security of the Kurds. Let the savages beat themselves to death. (While, alas, also bloodying the very few innocents left in that barbaric land.)

“Cradle of civilization.” Yeh, well, it’s not been a civilized land for at least a couple of millennia, except in the very loose definition of “people live in cities there.”

I’d go even further, though.

We HAVE the technical and econmic capabilities NOW to be energy self-sifficient… IF folks would do it. Atomic energy–cheap and abundant, absent assinine, stupid, lying rants by greenies, etc., against it–could easily and economically supply ALL the electricity power needs of the U.S. and even make electric cars a viable alternative.

Nearly every county in the U.S. could support a waste treatment plant that _paid for itself_ by producing… a light crude oil and pure water as products. From sewage, if no other organic matter were supplied. There’s one such plant within 50 miles of my home that’s been in operation for about four years. Quietly making money by converting organic waste into oil and producing pure water as a “by-product”… while also co-generating much of its own power needs as another “by-product” of the process.

Yeh, massive infrastructure investment. So? Surely not more than the $300 billion plus already poured into the sands of Iraq.

Energy independence. Cut off ALL economic. cultural and political ties with everyone except PROVEN allies in the region (by-by, Saudi Arabia and Turkey and Egypt and… ). Let them sink.

Start producing pre-fab pebble bed reactors by the hundreds, thousands… for export to countries dependent upon Middle Eastern oil. Do everything in our power to KILL the market for M.E. oil.

Satellite solar power. The technology is almost shelf-assembly level. Sell that (as well as pebble bed reactors and TPR plants) to countries dependent upon M.E. oil.

Make the attacks upon the terrorists both seriously military and economic. Cur off their source of funds by EXPORTING energy ourselves (as the Chinese do now and plan on doing much more of–largely via PBRs–in the future)–around the world.

But especially targeting areas that buy from Middle Eastern oil suppliers. Oh, and Venezuela. AND Mexico. *heh*

Energy independence. Energy EXPORT. Build the damned fence. Beef up the Navy and Coast Guard. Fund ONLY genuine allies (cut Egypt and Turkey and the Saudis dead in the water, for example; make sure the Kurds are first in line for their own PBRs from us, etc.). Go really hi-tech on terrorists asses. Predator’s cool, but I want THOR (see Footfall by Niven and Pournelle for the idea. Heck, even Wikipedia gets this one pretty well.).

Stop playing Mr. Nice Guy. Take the Islamic world by the throat and squeeze. Real hard. Pop that pimple on the butt of the Middle East, cauterize it and move on to bigger and better things.

All this would work except that the U.S. is now bound by short-sighted (and foolish) greed in economic decisions—from supporting WallyWorld’s gutting of American production in favor of supporting China’s economy, etc., to selfish greenie idiocy about atomic energy—and stupid, cowardly politicians.

N.B. Yeh, the post above refers to PBRs and TPR plants, etc. I’ve blogged about each of them before. You have google. Your homework assignment, should you care to accept it, is to find out for yourself how we are burying ourselves under foreign oil for no good reason at all.

A few days ago, as the media’b’Allah was full of printed ‘shouts’ of “Tet! TET! TEEETTTT!!!!!,” I posted some of my thoughts on the similarities and differences of the analogy of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the War on Terror now. David of Third World County added to the analysis on his blog.

This morning, while scanning Town Hall, I came across this editorial from someone who comprehends the issue far better than I ever will, LtCol. Oliver North, USMC (Ret).

He was on the ground in that war, as an Marine Officer in an infantry company. I was still in High School, but we see the issue form a common view point:

The war in Vietnam wasn’t lost during “Tet ’68” no matter what Cronkite said. Rather, it was lost in the pages of America’s newspapers, on our televisions, our college campuses — and eventually in the corridors of power in Washington. We need to pray that this war isn’t lost the same way.

Amen, brother, amen!

Originally posted at: Chaotic Synaptic Activity

At Schooligan Nation. (It ain’t exactly Mozart.)

(I’m on the road, so don’t let the timestamp fool ya into thinking I’m here. I’ll check my moderation queue for trackbacks to this weekend’s linkfest when I get to a computer.)