Well, it’s more credible than anything the IRS has come up with so far.
Getting “The Vapors” at Boise State University
*head-desk*
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=5689
“Boise State University’s Young Americans for Liberty chapter invited Dick Heller, whose lawsuit allowed citizens of D.C. to buy and own handguns, to speak on campus.
“BSU forced YAL to hire three extra guards and two city police officers at the last minute for $465 to patrol the speech.”
District of Columbia v. Heller was a landmark 2nd Amendment case. Heller had been invited by YAL to speak @BSU. Approved by admin, then last-minute admin decided Heller speaking on 2nd Amendment was an “elevated threat” environment. Idaho “higher” ed: filled with Neo-Victorian shrinking violets? Not exactly, in later updates to the story BSU flacks revealed that BSU had assessed “elevated threat” environment evals at other times (75% of those were “conservative” type meetings. Of course). So, not “Neo-Victorian shrinking violets” but “Lefties with their panties in a bunch because of a speech on individual rights.”
Elevated threat level at a speech about Heller/2nd Amendment? Now just who might pose a threat there. . . and to whom? (One might suspect the real threat was to leftist pussies* in the college administration. . . in their own “minds”.)
“Higher” ed has long since been infiltrated, darned near everywhere, by leftists. This looks like just one—of many—more example of lefties with their panties in a bunch.
Dog bites man. Move along. Nothing to see here.
*N.B. “pussies” is used here in an understanding that the word “pussy” used in this context was likely evolved as a reference to “pusillanimous”—cowardly, timid. Of course, my understanding of the etymology may be flawed, but that’s how I’m using it, so there. 🙂
The IRS is Run by Incompetent Liars
That the IRS is run by incompetent liars is now a well-established fact, but it matters not, because most Americans just DGARA.
The “dog ate my email” flap? “Once [a “Lois Lerner *cough* crash *cough*] _may_ be happenstance. Twice [destruction of backup data on ONE of THREE required servers] _may_ be coincidence. Three times [destruction of data on the SECOND of THREE required backups] _is_ enemy action.” Four times (the last required backup) is spiking the ball in the end zone, and doing the same thing for SIX MORE employees under investigation is nothing less than the IRS thumbing its nose at the American people. Watch as IRS Commissioner John Koskinen blows a raspberry at the American people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5XJxfT5dL8
And what, if anything, will the People do about it? Nada. Zip. Zilch. A big zero with the rim kicked off. Whine and bitch and moan on social media. Ditto to their congresscritter, if said People are really serious, active and engaged.
*yawn*
IOW, Nada. Zip. Zilch. A big zero with the rim kicked off.
Anyone focused on bringing pressure on their STATE legislators to compel a national convention to redress the wrongs heaped upon citizens by the “feddle gummint”? Such a convention MUST be carefully monitored by concerned, literate patriots, though, or it WILL be hijacked by asinine leftist-statist traitors to liberty.
My suggestions for such a convention?
- Abolish the IRS. Extirpate it root and branch. Completely eliminate the 17th Amendment and substitute the FairTax mechanisms, with the specifics of what is taxed, how the tax is levied and collected and THE SPECIFIC RATE embedded in the Constitutional amendment, untouchable by acts of Congress or Executive fiat.
- Specify executive orders to effect laws NOT AS SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY CONGRESS to be acts of treason.
- Require that each act of Congress deal with ONE specific subject, be without more than TWO specific references to previous laws, be no more than TWO pages in length and be published abroad for comment by the People for a period of six months before being sent to the President to sign.
- Sunset all federal laws that are more than 10 years old. Create a separate branch of the federal government to review all laws coming up for sunsetting to approve for referral to Congress to re-authorize or to disapprove and simply ashcan. Members of such branch of the federal government shall be appointed by the States, according to whatever process each State shall determined (direct appointment, whether by governor or legislature or both acting together, direct election by The People, whatever). Each person holding such office may serve only one, one-year term in any ten-year period. (Yeh, yeh, needs work. Jerry Pournelle’s done some thinking along these lines.)
- Strengthen the Bill of Rights for every citizen NOT employed by the “feddle gummint” and exclude “feddle gummint” employees from ALL protections afforded therein whenever they act with the force of the federal government. ESPECIALLY, make federal government employees PERSONALLY responsible for any actions that violate any citizen’s rights and make them subject to both criminal and civil action even if they were “following orders”. No more Nuremberg defenses for feds. Period.
- ESPECIALLY strengthen the First, Second and Fourth amendments to reflect that the Founders actually said about those amendments! (Ex: “keep and bear arms” to mean, as the Founders clearly and unambiguously understood MILITARY arms).
- NO government employee–at any level or in any position (including legislative or executive branch) to make one dime more in total FAMILY income than the average family in the area where they work or that they represent. Period. After leaving office, or position of federal employment, any FAMILY income in excess of the incomes “earned” during their federal tenure shall be taxed at a 90% rate directly from income (the only remaining “income tax” on the books) for a period of ten years.
- Peculation by government employees, whether directly or as bribes from crony capitalists, shall be a capital offense.
- Clarify the “interstate commerce” clause to be as the Founders’ discussions of the clause intended: to FACILITATE interstate commerce, not act as a thin pretext for the federal government to encroach on free trade between individuals and states.
- Get then “feddle gummint” out of the charity business entirely. (The “general welfare clause” abuses have gone on far, far too long).
There are others, but this would be a good place to start.
When Windows Borks
I had occasion, recently, to do a *meh* “rescue” *meh* of a different flavor to the procedure(s) described in a previous post. A hard drive began causing Windows errors on a Win7 installation on my most-used Windows notebook and imaging the drive to a newer, larger drive seemed the perfect solution, once I determined there were no unrecoverable errors in the OS itself.
It was, except. . . As usual with Windows, the story didn’t end with complete success. When a Windows OS borks for any reason–even if it’s not actually the OS’s fault exactly, any fixes tend to complicate things.
And so it was. The Windows install booted just fine, and everything worked. Scans with a few low- and mid-level tools said all was well with the OS and the data.
Cool.
Except, next day: Windows popped up the “Windows Genuine Advantage” notice that my installation of Windows was bogus. It offered to resolve the problem online, which resulted in being notified that M$ would be MORE than happy to “fix” my problem. . . for $200 (by selling me a new license key).
*arrrgggh!*
Nope. Not going to happen. Ran other checks with built-in and add-on M$ tools (MGADiag, slmgr.vbs) and they returned reports saying various things, but nothing indicating the OS was not genuine. Windows property page noted no problem, and the watermark warning that a bogus Wininstall is supposed to place on the desktop didn’t appear. Nevertheless, I got the error message and Windows update reported the WU service was not running, even though services.msc did report it running. System file checker run in scan and repair mode reported corrupt files it could not repair. Ran it in Repair Mode/command prompt, pre-Windows. Again, no joy, but a more verbose response (added a coupla switches).
Dropped to an elevated command prompt and did numbers of things (stopping/starting services, checking key registry files, etc.). Nope. No useful info, so. . .For whatever reasons, I don’t see that kind of thing often, and it took me a while to recall “slui 4” to load the lil app to allow phoning for a code to eliminate the WGA notice. (The “slui 3” command would just allow re-entering one’s product key, and I already knew that would be a waste of time. Other parameters would do other also useless things.).
Finally, after a pleasant time visiting with a nice guy somewhere on the Indian subcontinent, I had my verification code and all is now well. I hope.
We’ll see, won’t we? 😉
Yep. Message gone. Windows Update works. Other errors reported by MGADIag, et al (“tampered file” this that or ‘t’other, etc.), all gone.
All this might seem like a real PITA to some folks, but it was a little fun for me, especially since it got me back fiddling around at the command prompt for a while, banging on “the little grey cells” to recall appropriate commands, parameters, switches, etc. . . . and then “solve” the problem with a phone call and entry of a 48 numeral key. Toughest part was dealing with Indian accent, telephone speaker and my tinnitus. *heh*
UPDATE 2: Woke this A.M. to a WGA notice, no access to Windows Update, etc.. ?!? Rebooted a couple of times and *poof* No more notice, Windows Update available, etc. Needed more reboots? Oh, so tired of this silliness and almost ready to scrub this notebook (my most casually-used computer) and just use a ‘nix OS on it. Almost. I’d lose my 5,557-to-0 score in Freecell, though, so. . . *heh*
Stupid Is as Stupid Does
Lots of yapping about King Putz all over the web–of course. (That’s the main point of his shenanigans, you know: he just loves attention. I almost want to tell folks, “Don’t feed the troll,” but since his actions impact so many in so many destructive ways, talk’s inevitable. . . and here, too. *heh*) Much of the jabber is of the “is he or isn’t he” a traitor or a dumbass.
Neither. He’s both.
Yes, he is quite obviously, to any clear-eyed observer, a traitor. That’s so self-evident in his deliberate actions to harm the US and its citizens, his clear violation of his oath of office and his multiple assaults on the Constitution that I’m not even going to elaborate on it at all.
But is he also a dumbass? Is King Putz really, profoundly stupid?
Yes.
Oh, he may have an IQ somewhere in the first standard deviation above the mean. I can buy that, since he’s a fairly accomplished word parrot and did manage, with Affirmative Action, and other undisclosed by easily inferred, help to graduate college and grad school, but being a little over average in IQ and having the tools to be a little more than average “smart” is of no use since what he does is stupid.
Yes, he’s crafty and his stupidity is often well-thought-out, detailed and “intelligently” executed, but all that does is make it more destructively stupid. Heck, the very fact that he is a traitor is stupid. His blind adherence to the communist dogma of his formative years is stupid (because that dogma is itself stupid), and because it’s a blind devotion to stupid ideas, no matter how smart he (and his grup-groupie administration) is in implementing his stupid dogma, it’s too short-sighted (How short? Blindfold short.) to be able to reveal how stupid it is. . . to its devotees, like King Putz.
Since King Putz and his Conspiracy of Dunces can only see what implements their dogma or benefits their short-term goals or that of their cronies, their actions will always be destructive, and that is stupid.
For what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul, as Someone once said?
These soulless, self-made morons, however, are like a two-year-old (even if a very bright two-year-old) at the controls of a 747 full of (relatively) innocent men, women and children. As long as the autopilot’s still working, he might not crash the plane, but why leave him at the controls just to find out?
Make a New Plan, Stan
or, “Why I Don’t Bother With Whole-Disk Backups”
Well, not much. An occasional whole-disk image is a Good Thing, but I only want disk images of fresh installs that have been cleaned up and configured the way I want them. That way, if a hard drive borks on me, all I have to do is reimage the drive. Oh, my data, you may ask? *meh* I usually save new documents, downloads, etc., to three different locations off my computers—storage attached to another computer(s), an NAS and “cloud” storage. It’s extremely (extremely) rare that I cannot access my data. I sync up my “offsite” (off of my computers generating my data, and in the case of “cloud” storage, completely offsite) pretty often, so any I may have missed saving in all locations and any latest versions are all in place, juuuuuust in case.
Oh, and every now and then, I burn important data sets to DVD as well, just whenever I feel like it.
My applications? For anything not downloadable via Ninite (so, FRESH, up-to-date) I have reinstallation media and product keys for reinstallation.
This procedure, while perhaps a wee tad cumbersome, suits my personal computer use just fine. If a drive (or OS) borks on me, a little time reimaging a new drive is not a really big deal. Reinstalling applications take little time, and I have a fresh system, without the sometimes hinky cruft that tends to creep up on even the most paranoid OCPs among us. 🙂
The only really important thing is that my data is safe, or as safe as I can reasonably make it without taking extraordinary measures I’m just too lazy to take. *heh*
What’s your backup plan?
Yes, I do a fresh OS install every now and then, anyway. Sometimes because an OS has been updated too many times since the image I have for that computer, and it just saves time to use a OS installation disk that has the latest (or almost all the latest) updates slipstreamed, or in the case of ‘nix computers, new distros entirely. *shrugs* YMMV, of course, but for me, it saves time on any large (or large numbers of) updates.
Oh, application-specific configuration data? That’s almost entirely a concern only for my email client and browsers, but I have no problem spending maybe five minutes reconfiguring an email client, and my browsers are all automagically synced whenever I use them, across computers and across platforms, so no worries there, either. All I have to do is reinstall the browser (easy-peasy) and sign in for syncing and bob’s your uncle.
That’s Racist or Something, Isn’t It? *heh*
According to six years of hyperventilating by Dhimmicraps and Mass MEdia Podpeople, leading Dhimmicraps are now racists.
Hey! Don’t look at me that way! It’s THEIR standard: disagree with King Putz the Petulant Prevaricating Pussy* and you’re a racist, according to six years of fake umbrage.
Continue reading “That’s Racist or Something, Isn’t It? *heh*”
The Holy Brew, “French Rite”
When I cracked the carafe on the very nice Bodun French Press that Estimable Son-in-Law gave me, “French Rite Holy Brew” went by the wayside for a while. I’ve since replaced the device with a cheap, Mr. Coffee version that nevertheless works just about as well (just has an even more fragile carafe and insubstantial holder for the carafe. *shrugs* At least it does work).
But still. . . getting the water to juuuust the right temp. . . Ah! Finally, the light breaks! Heating water to correct brewing temp? Silly puppy. Our (rather nice) Cuisinart drip coffee machine does that quite well.
Coffee’s on!