stupid is as stupid does – Page 4

November 5, 2007November 5, 2007

Call me crazy, but…

As the old dialogue goes,

“I talk with the voices in my head.”

“Yeh? What do they say?”

“They say I’m crazy? Me?!? Crazy?!? They’re the ones in! my! head!“

*heh*

I may be crazy, though, and if so, this may be why:

Brain imaging study find sleep loss leads to mental disorders

Harvard University Medical School and University of California-Berkeley researchers have explained through their study that sleep deprivation leads to irrational behavior, what is associated with psychiatric (mental) disorders.

According to the researchers, the emotional center of the brainÃ¢â‚¬â€located in the amygdala (within the medial temporal lobes)Ã¢â‚¬â€may stop its function (to deal with emotional reactions and feelings, such as aggression and fear) when a person is severely sleep deprived. When this happens, people find it much more difficult to control their emotions.

Yeh, well, this is just dotting the “is” and crossing the “ts” in what real world p-sychs have known for a very, very long time: sleep deprivation can literally drive folks around the bend–or at least cause folks to evidence all the signs of serious mental disorders, such as auditory and visual hallucinations, etc.

But this doesn’t explain how well-rested Loony Left Moonbats, Academia Nut Fruitcakes, politicians *spit* and Mass Media Podpeople come up with their wacked out worldviews… That’s going to require exploration much deeper into the thicket of human insanity.

Anyway, I need a nap. Continually.

🙂

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November 2, 2007November 2, 2007

Inertia

ALthough I have boxes running Ubuntu and Puppy Linux (the latter on nearly any box in the house at any given time–exceptiing only Bubba’s Box and his XBox 360) and even PC-BSD, for many reasons, much of my day-to-day stuff is done on an old box running Win2KPro, which, yeh, I prefer to the WinXP boxes (in fact, I scrubbed WinXP off a hard drive recently in favor of having a fresh hard drive and Puppy Linux running in memory on that box, using the hard drive solely for storing the pup.sys file and data files–no OS on the drive at all).

The only things keeping me on this box for much of my browsing and other activities are

continued familiarity with typical Windows behavior (mousing, windowing, etc.) since most of my clients still use Windows.
inertia: so many apps have format-specific data saved on that machine and even were I to run ’em using WINE under Linux, the app-specific tweaks necessary to do so are creating a mental logjam of “Nuh-uh–don’t wanna do that just yet.” *heh*

But that may come to a screeching halt, soon. Recently, I had the opportunity to make the switch complete on this machine and let the inertia of data-associated apps sway me to stick with Win2K. Yup. A physical hard drive crash (some of y’all may recall the incident) resulted in a moment or two of waffling… but then I mirrored the crashed drive onto another one (presription: freeze drive; install as slave; mirror–quickly! before it warms too much and starts sticking again! *heh*). All data and configs since the last backup nicely saved to new drive. Repair install of Windows and all that was needed was… *sigh* twaeking of install cos program registration of some installed programs screwed up, naturally (all this took much longer than it sounds like–actually involved TWO “new” hard drives, but that’s another story).

In the time I took to have a functioning Win2K system back up and working as I wanted it to, I coulda had an Ubuntu system up, my data transferred over and WINE installed for those apps I really don’t want to do without.

But I let M$ inertia take over for that machine.

However…

As Windows keeps bugging me, I may just set that machine aside as a Windoze Buggy Box and do all the scut work of getting my data (and those apps I don’t find near enough open source Linux/BSD equivalents for to suit me) working on either an Ubuntu or PC-BSD box. In fact, the chief deterrent to doing that NOW is just some time crunch on other projects. Not the only deterrent, mind you; I’m still at least partially in the clutches of inertia, but those grasping hands are slipping.

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November 1, 2007

T-13, 1.46: A Few of My Favorite Things

Feelin’ just a tad curmudgeonly–why! almost (relatively speaking) gay! *heh*–today, so while this list won’t be all “rainbows and roses and whiskers on kittens” it may not be as grumpy and sarcastic as such a list would usually be…

So, just off the top of my head, a few of my favorite things:

1. I love it when some doofus website designer sets the browser sniffer to tell me my browser won’t work for the site’s content. Ha! I laugh as such oafs! Set my browser to mask itself as the preferred browser for that site and screw the website designer. With a BIG, rusty screw.

2. Microsoft. It provides me with soooo much work via its bloated, buggy insecure-ware. Love it. Love to hate it. It’s a win-win for me. What’s not to like?

3. Zoom-zoom speeders. I love watching them zip by at unsafe speeds, knowing that it’s extremely likely I’ll pass them later at a traffic light (if not at the scene of the smoking wreckage). I frequently cheerfuly (sneeringly) wave as I pass… tootling along at the posted speed.

4. Crisp fall days; mouldy leaves; neighbors burning old sweat socks (well, it smells worse, but I’ve not been able to get the corrupt twc LEOs to bust ’em for meth manufacturing–if that’s what it is): the wonders of fall in America’s Third World CountyÃ¢â€žÂ¢.

5. Trick-or-treaters. Gives The Boys their fun workout barking their hearts out. Which cues the neighbors’ dogs to join in. Candy for T-or-T-ers? What? I should contribute to the growing epidemic of child obesity and juvenile diabetes? I’m not that cruel. I’ll scare the lil devils, but I won’t kill ’em with sweets. “Here, kid, have a peanut. Don’t hurt yourself cracking it open!”

*heh*

6. Gas prices. Heck, they’re only 10X (well, not even that quite yet) what they were 40 years ago when I was making 1/50 the $$/hour. What with that and my car getting more than twice the mpg that the car I had then was getting, I’m coming out WAY ahead!

7. Telemarketers. I love having someone that society, the law and my conscience gives me free rein to blast to my heart’s content. (Then I report them to our state’s attorney general for further harrassment. Man, I love this stuff!)

8. Stray dogs. Never can get enough target practice. (No, I live ~300 feet within “city” limits, so I don’t take the mayor’s advice and “mistake ’em for coyotes and shoot ’em”–firearm discharge w/in “city” limits is strictly regulated. No, no .30-.40*; I use my slingshot.)

9. Playing with the mess Windows networking makes of the simplest network. Yeh, yeh, this is a subset of #2, but it’s so special I had to give it a separate slot. Compared with SAMBA-enabled Linux boxes, Windows boxes are such a pain in the tuchous to manage that it brings in the $$. (I’m not sadist OR masochist enough to tout folks onto Novell’s networking products. Sure, it’d bring in lots more $$ for me, but the pain I’d inflict on others and the pain in the neck–really a MUCH lower pain–for me to maintain wouldn’t be worth it.)

10. Socks. No, no major negatives to rejoice in here. I just like wearing them. Laundering them and then mating them up later… well, that’s NOT a favorite thing. (Yeh, yeh: I’ve tried alla those lil tricks about securing pairs of socks together before washing: they do not work. Socks are escape artists, able to escape both the ties that bind them to each other in the wash and to another dimension, where they mate with socks from other pairs and produce weird hybrids like… ties!)

11. “…miles and miles of files, pretty files of your forefathers’ fruit”–the effluvia of years and years of not throwing out the junk family members dump on us. It keeps me living, I tell ya! (I just canNOT die before I’ve cleared out some of this crap! ;-))

12. Inkjet refill kits. Almost like playing with a kids’ chemistry set. I love exploring the chemistry necessary for removal of the inks from hands and clothes and keyboards and… *heh*

13. Pens. I must really love these things, even though I rarely use ’em any more. I know I must really love ’em cos I have drawersful, mugsful of ’em and they still clutter my desktop, keyboard drawer and I’m sure there are even some in my sock drawer (I just hope I don’t find some in my underdrawers). Of course, when I do need one…

Noted at the Thursday Thirteen Hub–join in!

And, Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, The Populist, Shadowscope, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, and High Desert Wanderer, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

*The Winchester Model 1895 that is usually called a “.30-.30” is rightly chambered as a .30-.40

October 31, 2007

Tempest in a Sandbox

Some corners of the blogosphere are all a-twitter about Laura Bush’s supposed donning of an abaya during a recent trip to Saudi Arabia on a diplomatic mission about “women’s issues”–specifically, breast cancer awareness. As oftn is the case, the twitterers are straining at gnats and passing a camel.

Context is important. Here’s a contrarian view from an American woman who was present at the “incident”:

“The controversial photo shows Bush donning a black headscarf decorated with the iconic pink bows signifying breast cancer awareness. It was the only time Bush covered her head during the trip and the episode lasted perhaps a minute.

“The scarf in question was a gift to Bush from a dozen Saudi women who shared their experiences fighting breast cancer with the first lady. The morning meeting was touching and intimate, the sort of bonding experience that opens hearts and minds in diplomatically useful ways.

“Upon receiving the gift, Bush did what any decent, well-mannered person would do. She demonstrated her appreciation by placing the scarf on her head. In Saudi Arabia, it was a sweet, wordless gesture of friendship and mutual respect.”

While I don’t appreciate the administration’s cozy relationship with the Saudis* (heck, not just the administration: the State Department and Congress are also filled with Saudi-holics), this may not be the incident to hang ones hat on. I would, however, agree with the characterization of Laura Bush’s action as thoughtless, automatic “good manners” that ought to have been dispensed with on two counts: it’s a head scarf, in Saudi Arabia fer heaven’s sake! Come on, Laura! While it certainly showed respect and appreciation for the women who gave it to you, it carries a weight of symbolism beyond the pink bows.

The incident to be outraged about is the whole diplomatic trip to Saudi Arabia thing. The only diplomacy the Saudis should recieve is at the end of a gun barrel. The kindest, gentlest “diplomacy” the Saudis have earned through their fake “friendship” with the U.S. would be to demolish their water desalinization plants, blockade the country and sell ’em water at $100/barrel.

The whole trip was a stupid, stupid idea to begin with. Laura Bush wearing a breast cancer awareness head scarf was just something for the ADD crowd to get in an uproar about.

*Do recall my name for Laura’s husband, “Fifi Mohammed I-never-met-a-Mexican-President-Whose-Lap-I-Didn’t-Like or a Saudi(*spit*)-‘Prince’-Whose-Hand-I-Didn’t-Love-to-Hold Bush”.

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October 30, 2007October 30, 2007

Fred–on the issues

Read ’em all here. First up, National Security:

The first responsibility of government is to protect the American people, the homeland, and our way of life. Today we face the urgent threat of radical Islamic terrorists. Al Qaeda is committed to attacking us here at home, and wants to use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to kill millions. We must never give them that opportunity. We must defeat the terrorists abroad, and that begins in Iraq and AfghanistanÃ¢â‚¬â€the central fronts in this global war. We must show the world we have the will to fight and win. A weakened America – or an America that appears weaker – will only encourage further attacks. We must persevere. As Commander-in-Chief, the president must ensure the United States has the means to achieve victory. Presidential leadership requires talking to the American people about these stakes, mapping out a clear vision for success, and devising a comprehensive strategy for achieving it. I am committed to:

A larger, more capable, and more modern military that can defeat terrorists, deter adversaries, and defend the U.S. and our interests.
A missile defense system that can protect the U.S. and our allies from long-range ballistic missiles.
An enhanced intelligence community, with robust human-intelligence capabilities, focused on terrorism and proliferation.
A robust approach to homeland security that will protect our nation from terrorists and WMD, regardless of where they come from.
A strengthened system of global alliances to better combat terrorists, proliferators, and traditional threats to our interests.
A judicial system that deals with the realities of terrorists and unlawful enemy combatants.

What politicians *spit* so often lose sight of in our instand gratification, vote-buying, “gimme, gimme, gimme” society is that the primary purpose of government–the one without which no goivernment has any real legitimacy–is the protection of its citizens from outlaws. Fred seems to know this. Maybe it was his time spent as a feddle gummint prosecutor, or maybe it has something to do with his roots in Tennesee. *heh* (He was born in Sheffield, Alabama, but the family moved to Lawrenceburg, Tennesee soon after.) Whatever the source of that knowledge, he’s certainly on track with his national security comments.

See the rest of his position articulations at his site.

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October 29, 2007October 29, 2007

Fred08?

Well, as reluctant as I have become to embrace any politician *spit*, I have read Fred Thompson’s positions, examined as much as I have yet had time to examine of his past history (record in the Senate, legal work, etc.) and have tentatively come to the conclusion that of all the men running for the Presidency (including the Hildebeast–who seems to have more testosterone than “her” hormone-driven “husband”), Fred Thompson seems to be closest to my views.

See his position statements–paying very, very careful to his statement about Federalism–and study them. Compare them to his record. The guy just makes sense on more topics than the other guys do, and has a track record that–more than most–bears out his committment to his stated positions.

Sure, I know some like Ann Coulter have gone to seed on his failure to vote for a conviction of Bill Clinton on the impeachment charges (and I’d like to have a heart-to-heart with him on that one, myself), but unlike Ron Paul–the only other person who (surprise!) even approaches my views on a majority of issues but who has a serious and glaring fault in his wrongheadedness on Iraq:cluebat, Ron–we broke it, it’s ours to fix–whose record is also consistent with his stated views. Thompson is 1. electable and 2. not a loon (Paul’s courting of conspiracy theorists and his accusations of deception leading up to the Iraq adventure are pure loony).

Duncan Hunter is far too tainted with Washington D.C. mentality.

Mike Huckabee wants to be the Second Coming of the Messiah (or is that “Southron Baptist Mahdi”? *shudder*)–watch out for his good intentions: “I’m from the government; I’m here to help” are probably the eight most terrifying words in the English language. *sigh* He actually thinks government should substitute for personal responsibility! Yep. From his own mouth and record.

*profound sigh*

Tancredo is a one trick pony. I like the guy and agree with his position, but he really only as one issue. Yes, it’s an important issue. Of paramount importance for the feds. But it’s not the only one, Tom. (Yeh, yeh, I know he has “positions” on other issues, but they’re just pale, imitation positions: all else is completely overshadowed by his one trick.

McCain? Puhlease! I’d not vote for Snake McCain for dogcatcher even were I lobotomized and given a one-choice ballot. I despise the air that creature breathes.

Rudy? Not a chance. His one qualification (Mayor of NYC–did a credible job, didn’t fall to pieces after 9-11) is not nearly enough to balance out the simple fact that he’d be the final stake through whatever shred of principle is left in the Republican’t Party.

Oh, forgot Mitt Romney, the Mormon winup toy. An automaton who can with a clear conscience flip from one position to another saying his former positions are (redundancy alert) “old history” … because he’s a construct, a puppet, a windup toy, and such things simply do not have consciences.

Who’s left? Realistically, Fred. And the more I look at the issues, his record and his position statements, the more comfortable I am with the choice.

And I mean that I’m much more comfortable in seriously considering actually supporting the guy’s run than I was voting for GWB in 04. Seriously. That was a “lesser of two evils” vote. Granted, it was a MUCH lesser of two evils vote. And even with the fact that GWB has utterly lost my respect by lying to me (to all of us) about his amnesty push, signing McCain-Feingold, playing footsie with the Saudis (instead of kicking their asses for their continued support of jihadism and the terrorism it actively encourages) and more, my 04 vote for GWB wasn’t wasted.

After all, at least I don’t have to wake up in the morning to read about “President Jean Fraud sKerry,” now do I?

But I’m growing more fond of the idea of a “President Fred.” Just say that a few times. Wouldn’t that roll trippingly off the tongue in introductions to foreign dignitaries? *heh*

Better than “President Bill” was or “President Hildebeast” *shudder* would be, eh?

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