Proposed Change to Oath Congresscritters Take
Just musing here…
This is pretty much the oath anyone entering federal employment must take, including congresscritters:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”
My modest proposal would insert after “swear” the words, “I will first do no harm to the republic,” followed by “that I will support and defend…” etc.
It’d have no more force than the current oath does on that conspiracy of dunces who almost daily do harm to the Constitution and the republic it defines, but at least it’d be easier to point out to some of the dimmer sheeple how much in violation of their oaths of office they are. Maybe. There’s no way to plumb the depths of sheeple stupidity.
Ninjas?
Well, not quite…
We needed a new blender. Smoothies, etc. This looked OK and as reasonably priced at WallyWorld:
So, I picked one up. First thing off the bat, made a chocolate smoothie. OK, I guess. Certainly easier than with the hashup hand blender/mixer I had been using, but the ice bits were larger than I like, and it even missed a cube almost entirely. I suppose I needed to pulse the thing and run it longer, though.
Reasonable, and I’ll be more likely to use this to make a quick meal substitute instead of just grabbing something I probably ought not to.
Next time, it’ll be an orange-vanilla smoothie with more finely shaved ice.
Stupid name for a blender, though.
For Both of My Readers Who Are Relatively Naive Windows Users…
😉
During a brief “drive-by” watching some *shudder* TV (I have thins to watch on Hulu and other videos, but the thing was on and.. yeh, that *heh*) , some commercials aired that I thought from the presentation were for bogus products/services. One was for MyCL3anPC.c0m and another for D0ubleMySp33d.com. Notice the lack of linkage and the lame faux-obscuring of the sites’ names? *heh* That’s because anyone who visits these sites is apparently in for some computing hell. This guy has a typical review of the sites.
The short version? The ads are, IMO, come-ons, cons, commercial phishing expeditions designed to suck in naive, unwary computer users. As such, they are little different to the “Antivirus 2010 (2009, 2008…)” and variants that are such a plague. Both vectors for infesting one’s computer with what is apparently malware depend on naive users doing themselves in. In this day and age, naive computer users are very nearly an identity with “stupid computer users” since information about threats is so very prevalent, it takes almost willful ignorance to just blythely succumb to such things.
Now, the two relatively naive users I referred to in the post title are also relatively new to computer use, and they are coming up to speed as quickly as possible, so they get a “bye” on the “stupid” comment, but too many others out there just haven’t bothered to learn how to practice safe computing, so all y’all just use this short lil cautionary post to warn those you know, ‘K?
And another good thing about using a ‘nix computer: the app the company uses to mess with folks won’t work on ‘nix-based computers. Of course, I could have nstalled it using WINE on the Linux VM I used to double check that assumption, but why? 😉
NOTE: My opinion was colored by my initial exposure to the commercials, which promised unrealistic results and used unrealistic scare tactics,but the preponderance of commentary, as well as the detailed information presented at the site I linked formed my final opinion: ignore these ads and warn others off them.
Quick Comment on Argument
Just saw it again in a forum where I have come to expect such things (which is why I don’t frequent the place but just drop by maybe once a month or so): some idiot making a false accusation of “ad hominem attack”. *sigh* I commented there and am cutting/pasting here, with redactions to obscure the original comments.
Saying, “You are a monster, therefore you believe such and so” is an ad hominem attack, because it falsely argues that the cause of a line of argument lies in the character of the arguer. While that may be the case, argument must be made against what a person asserts and not who the person is.
OTOH, saying, “You have done monstrous things, therefore you are a monster” is an arguable assertion and not an ad hominem attack.
And again, simply stating an opinion, based on observation of what someone has said and done that someone–based on the evidence in hand–is a dumbass, idiot, cretin, politician *spit* or some other derogatory appellation, is name-calling that does not fall under the rubric of “ad hominem fallacy” UNLESS it is presented as an argument attempting to refute another’s assertion. Such name-calling may be simply accurate labeling.
Since Mohamed, for example, did monstrous things and commanded that his followers do likewise, we can accurately label him as a monster, but any argument against his teachings must be based on what he said. Now, it may be possible to make the “monster Mohamed” argument against Islam, because Muslims are enjoined to look to Mohamed as the perfect man and to emulate his life. That being the case, we could, I suppose, legitimately argue that Islam is a monstrous hate cult based simply on the life of its founder, since ALL Muslim
Accuracy in labeling doesn’t have to equal ad hominem attacks.
Congresscritters on the Way to DC?
Lovely Daughter took the following pic while on the road the other day (I need to talk w/her about her driving behavior, eh? ;-)). My only mods to it were some cropping and some quick-and-dirty (and very sloppy) cloning to cover some names and phone numbers.
*heh* In comments, Nicole suggests the jackasses are running away from D.C. You know, she’s probably right on… more than one level.
Obligatory “Safe Computing” Post
Following on my gentle rant about the idiot who wrote a cautionary article about Antivirus 2010 without once accepting responsibility for infecting himself or giving his readers any advice on how to avoid infecting themselves, in response to a couple of emails asking, essentially, “So, how do I avoid becoming infected?” here’s a lil enchiridion you can print out and tape to your forehead, if you wish. *heh*
Some folks would say to just use a ‘nix (Linux or Unix–BSD or some such) and not bother with further security measures, and they have a point. Most of ’em though, keep it covered with an artful comb over. 🙂
Seriously, ‘nixes are structurally less vulnerable and are a far, far smaller target, as well, and each of those things offer some protection. But threats designed to attack Linux and Unix OSes (including the OSX GUI-crippled BSD) do exist, and simple privacy concerns would compel any intelligent ‘nix user to have decent firewalls and practice other safe computing practices, so in some (small) part, what I’m about to say regarding safe computing practices for Windows users applies across the board.
1. Use your head. Learn the general nature of threats that exist and think about what you are doing when you use a computer. Simple common sense, which apparently is not all that common. Don’t blythely and unthinkingly “click” your way through your computer use and expect that you’ll not infect yourself. You probably will, if that’s your mindset.
2. Learn how to configure your firewalls and make sure they’re turned on. Always. I had some loon “support” person for my cable internet service once tell me to turn off Stateful Packet Inspection in order to solve a connectivity issue. I quickly escalated the call to someone who didn’t have his head up his ass (who then determined that, as usual, the problem was on my ISP’s end. Naturally. *sigh*). If I’d blindly obeyed the instructions from the idiot, major portion of my router’s firewall would have been disabled. Dumb. Really dumb.
And do have a “hardware” firewall (your router is probably running an embedded Linux with its own firewalling capabilities) for your network and each computer with its own software firewall. See here for a short FYI.
3. Make sure EVERY computer on your network is fully patched for known OS and application security flaws. Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) is a good tool for Windows users to use to locate and patch insecure software on your computers. Most contemporary ‘nix distros do a Good Enough job of helping folks do this via built in tools.
4. Make sure EVERY computer on your network is fully equipped with reliable antimalware software from reputable companies, and that ALL antimalware is always kept up to date and that ONLY ONE antimalware software is set to continually monitor computer behavior and automatically scan email, etc.
But. Do NOT rely on your antimalware software(s) to automatically update themselves and automatically scan your computers. At least once a week, manually update and scan.
5. NEVER–no! NEVER, ever open email attachments without FIRST manually scanning them with your primary up-to-date antimalware software. Never. I once had an infected attachment sent me from The Most Trusted (computer related) source I knew. A guy who was and is an Ultimate Computer Geek. He slipped up, but because I did as HE had taught me and scanned it manually, the fact that my anti-virus had somehow missed it on autoscan of emails didn’t matter.
6. Refuse to allow yourself to click on popups. No. Just DO NOT DO IT! First, what in the heck are you doing using a browser that allows popups, anyway? Get a modern browser, configure it to kill popups or get an extension that’ll do it. If you do see a popup, CLOSE THE TAB instead of clicking on the popup. You do not need to be on that site anyway, since the site owner is such a rude ass. Continue reading “Obligatory “Safe Computing” Post”
What Do You Call a Gathering of “Maroons”?
Think Bugs Bunny’s infamous “What a maroon… “
Well, Woody was the first one to clue me in on the latest from that conspiracy of dunces, posting this,
This is the new logo for the Party of Voting Dead, Illegals and Felons? Oh, well. Woody then posted a number of more reasonable representations of the party’s real agenda and nature, even adding one based on a comment I made. I took that graphic representation and modified it as below:
Yeh, yeh, I didn’t do a really close color match to the original, but in my defense, it’s about 3:30 a.m. here… *yawn*
I Have a Problem With This Picture
No, not with the idea. Look, if the guy’s right-handed, carrying his Bible in his right hand will interfere with his draw. If he’s a leftie, he’s not carrying his handgun properly for a efficient draw. Someone needs to think about these things…
Really Puzzling…
Tonight I caught “The Great American Handyman” for the first time–catching the “final five” competitors, and found the show to be a real puzzle. These are the “final five”? I mean, really. Given a timed task, “fixing” a broken window in 30 minutes, all of them tanked at least one aspect. Break the glass time and again! “Handymen” who don’t know how to cut glass?!? Dropping a pane out (and breaking it) because no glaziers’ points used? What?!? *sigh* I mean, come on! One guy did a decent job, even after screwing up the glass cutting a few times. Another guy did an almost decent job after darned near filling a dumpster with broken glass… *sigh*
Then, 30 minutes to roof a doghouse. Piece of cake. Not for these guys. *profound sigh* All awful. Absolute fails.
Installing a toilet?!? Just about the easiest plumbing job there is. Easier, IMO, than installing a new sink and far, far easier than installing a new water heater, for some common examples. Did these guys do decent toilet installations? None of ’em did installations I’d want in my home. Some of the installations were disastrous.
And these were the five finalists*. No wonder so many folks are so often disappointed with handymen and contractors and such. Heck, I don’t know much more about such things than I was taught by my grandfather (the “more” mostly having to do with power tool use, since he never owned a single power tool), but still, just tagging along as a kid, I picked up more than these guys apparently know–enough tat calling in a handyman to do things around twc central is more a matter of my time than skill set.
OK, I’ll grant you, ONE of the guys is pretty close to OK in his skill set, and shows evidence of thinking things through a bit, but one out of the “final five”? Says a lot about previous episodes’ contestants, doesn’t it? How in the world were these contestants chosen, really?
*Actually, by the time the show got to the three event “obstacle course” one of the five had already–with extreme justice–been eliminated.