"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
ROFL, indeed. The English Guy (Hey, man! Crosspost that thing over here where I semi-regularly offend Internet Exploder users! –Just kidding, Woody 🙂 has posted: What Microsoft Employees Think of IE.
Please allow me to repeat that with a minor emphasis added:
What Microsoft Employees Think of IE
Oh, yeh. I’ve posted links before to IE problems admitted by Microsoft developers, but The English Guy’s brief post underscores things in a way those links did not.
Thanks, man. Great post.
Disclaimer: I don’t generally like or in any way appreciate didacticism. Especially not in novels, but generally not anywhere. I also don’t appreciate being preached to most of the time. (Mainly because most of the “preachers”-both from secular and “sacred” realms are usually so bad at it that any valid points they may have are obscured by all the rubbish they lade on top.)
That said, imagine my ambivalence when I picked up Michael Crichton’s State of Fear. The thing’s just one long polemic against the stupidity marketed as “global warming” and “climate change”. Yeh, I know I deliberately loaded that comment, but I’ll stand behind it.
But about the book. After dispensing with the suspension of disbelief deal breaker in the plot (a bunch of unlikely-totally implausible-Scooby-dos save the world from eco-feak wack jobs and ecology industry conspirators. OK, the last part isn’t so far-fetched, but the Scoooby-dos are), the stick-figure characterizations, sometimes wooden dialog and all the other lame plot elements, I was left with a run-of-the-mill adventure story well suited to Hollyweird (save for its perspective on global warming/whatever the latest lame catchphrase might be) and… some moderately interesting, though hardly new to me, citations of actual-GASP!-scientific research into climate change.
And frankly, for those who have been brainwashed by Hollyweird, the Mass Media Podpeople’s Army, Cracked Ivory Tower Academia Nuts, and the whole melange of Loony Left Moonbats, eco-freaks, eco-nazis and their ilk about climate, this book (and hopefully others like it but better-written) may hold out some slim hope of sanity.
Yes, the novel does exaggerate some things and postulate a semi-plausible conspiracy to manipulate people by inducing a “state of fear”, but the basic info about the non-scientific, UNREASONING and unreasonable nature of global warming posturers is spot on, and worth injecting into the public consciousness.
I’d suggest that those who don’t particularly appreciate Crichton’s fiction style (count me as one, although he seems to have his moments of good writing in every book of his I’ve read) nevertheless read the book’s appendices and check out the bibliography. Some good reading in the biblio, much of it-or abstracts of some-available on the internet. You will have to do your own searches for the material, though, unless you have dead tree copies in your own library (like the Rachel Carson cover-to-cover lie, Silent Spring I have buried in a box) or a decent public or university library available… and there’s always interlibrary loan, you know.
Frankly, most folks won’t be bothered too much by the massive implausibilities in the plot and would enjoy the read… although most will also-sadly, cos they are surprisingly good; the best parts of the book, in fact-skip over the lil sermonettes on science vs. eco-voodoo.
Crichton does make the common mistake of many accolytes of materialistic positivism in believing scientific knowledge is the only real knowledge, but I can forgive him that blind spot for the service he does in describing in vernacular some of the differences between the voodoo that’s presented as scientific knowledge by the media, politicians *spit* and dumbasses in academia who are either just playing pseudo-scientific politics or regularly speak with assurance about things they know nothing about.
BTW, I missed noting Rachel Carson, arguably the biggest mass murderer in history via the influence of her lies, in my roundup of “Worst Americans” and only realized my faux pas when I saw her on someone else’s list. Can’t get ’em all…
Review reviewed at Stuck on Stupid, TMH’s Bacon Bits…
Confession’s good for the soul… and bad for the reputation.
So be it. 🙂
Anyone do new year resolutions? I haven’t for many years, because, well, after leaving youth behind several decades ago, it seemed to me that there was nothing special about a new year as opposed to a new day, new hour or new minute. At any time, any moment in my life, I can make a new decision based on either old or new information, newly viewed, understood, evaluated or re-evaluated, and set a course change. “So why a new year’s resolution?” I thought.
Nevertheless, I’ll go ahead and codify a “resolution” already being implemented and incrementally practiced.
You see, I have a schizoid kinda lifestyle. In my kitchen (and although my Wonder Woman is a fine cook, she ceded that ground to me years ago based on a balance of personal preferences, talent and abilities, scheduling flexibility (or lack thereof), etc. And in my kitchen I very much prefer to have a place for everything and everything in its place, just as my Wonder Woman prefers in the rest of her house (she is a librarian, after all). Not that I have achieved such perfection of organization in the kitchen (though woe be to he who places the black-handled whisk on the nearly-antique metal spoon’s hook near the stove! :-), nor, of course, is Wonder Woman’s home in the perfectly organized and managed state she would prefer. Let me note: that’s not her fault-I’ll explain that in a sec.
But my office and my storage areas are… a disaster. Jerry Pournelle likes to refer to his home office as “Chos Manor”. *Pfui!* In the creation and maintenance of chaos, Pournelle is a patzer compared to me.
🙂
But. (And here’s a large part of the explaination for the mess in Wonder Woman’s living room, right now.) I’ve recently boxed and labeled (and have intermediately staged on the way to a reorganized storage space) four boxes of references, archived data (CDR, floppy, packed hard drives, etc.), boxed labeled, inventoried, etc…. in the living room, along with four more large plastice tubs similarly treated. All taken from my office.
I have at least twice that much left to go, but it’s progress.
For the first time since we moved into this home more than ten years ago, there is as much free space in the garage as there is packed-away junk.
Of course, in the process of shaking out and sifting, even the kitchen is cluttered, now. *sigh*
And then there are the still uncompleted remodeling chores… that are nevertheless progressing.
New year’s resolutions? I don’t need any. All I need to do is make steady progress, day by day, a bit at a time, making my office and storage areas over into my image of my kitchen, as it were.
Yeh, when I finish the bookcase/storage/entertainment center wall in the living room, that’ll help. Probably seven or eight boxes of books (freeing up storage spaces)-properly re-catalogued (not just in my head) with discarded library management software and card catalogs. 🙂
That’ll help.
But I really need to weed my parts farm. Haven’t even inventoried my “printer parts” (discarded printers I intermittently raid for repair parts) in a year. And I know there are a couple collections of old 286 and even 8088/6 computer parts/cases/power supplies I probably should have dismantled for smaller parts years ago, discarding all the large, completely unusable junk. It’s on the schedule.
So, while I’m making a temporary mess (Yeh, kids, I know: it’s an awefully looooong “temporary” – heh) of much of the rest of the house, things are thinning down in my office, storage is getting better, etc.
But it’s gonna be a bumpy ride for a while.
Thankfully, Wonder Woman is joining in the fun and purging her home office space, too. So, even when we are working on these things in different rooms, we have semi-compatible projects going, and that’s an encouragement to me to continue. Even if it’s at a 10-pounds to 1-ounce ratio of my stuff to hers.
Of course, even when all this is finished, including some of the remodeling, I’ll have the storage shed to deal with…
heh
We have waaaaay too much stuff. (And, according to that ineffable law of the universe that creates extra coat hangers out of lost paperclips and inexplicably appearing computer parts from missing coat hangers, the more stuff we discard… the more we have! heh. Really. It’s true… 😉
Baring my soul at The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns.
What do you say when someone’s obviously not playing with a full deck, a few bricks shy of a load, a beer or two short of a six pack, one member less than a quorum? Let me get the ball rolling, and maybe a few (or both 🙂 of my regular readers can add a couple. Or more.
He’s playing poker with monopoly money…
…rolling dice with marbles…
…?
Come on. Y’all can do better than those. Easily. Without resorting to Google.
🙂
What do you say when someone’s obviously not playing with a full deck, a few bricks shy of a load, a beer or two short of a six pack, one member less than a quorum? Let me get the ball rolling, and maybe a few (or both 🙂 of my regular readers can add a couple. Or more.
He’s playing poker with monopoly money…
…rolling dice with marbles…
…?
Come on. Y’all can do better than those. Easily. Without resorting to Google.
🙂
What do you say when someone’s obviously not playing with a full deck, a few bricks shy of a load, a beer or two short of a six pack, one member less than a quorum? Let me get the ball rolling, and maybe a few (or both 🙂 of my regular readers can add a couple. Or more.
He’s playing poker with monopoly money…
…rolling dice with marbles…
…?
Come on. Y’all can do better than those. Easily. Without resorting to Google.
🙂
Boudicca picked up a non-meme-ish suggestion and passed it on in Top 10 Good People of 2005. Not necessarily “big names” but folks who’ve been a strong positive influence, personally or in wider society.
At least, that’s how I’m choosing to interpret this. 🙂 Bou’s post was a lil vague (she was still heavily medicated from her surgery), and GuyK’s post at Charming, Just Charming (whence Bou picked this up) is pretty open-ended.
So, maybe not ten. Maybe not the TOP ten. But quite a few.
Let me begin with my fav top ten bloggers who have had a positive influence on me this year. Keep in mind: I am NOT listing them in any order other than maybe alphabetically, ‘K? Having pared it down to only ten, I feel badly because another list just as long belongs with this one. So, as wrong as this list is, here are ten OF the top good folks who have positively influenced my life this last year:
Kris at Anywhere But Here
Christine of BTW and Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea
Bou (heal quickly!) at Boudicca’s Voice
My Blogmom, Carol Platt Liebau 🙂
Kathryn at Cathouse Chat
Diane of, well, Diane’s Stuff
Rich at The English Guy
Kat from Keep The Coffee Coming
TMH (secretive booger that he is) of TMH’s Bacon Bits
Woody of the eponymous Woody’s News & Views
Please keep in mind that I’ve left off many who have been just as good to me, had influence just as positive as the folks on this list, but I’m trying to keep this portion at ten. The rest of you who belong on this list also know you do, but you’re the kinda folks who will take it in the right spirit. Good on you one and all.
In “real life” I’d have to list my Wonder Woman, Lovely Daughter and Bubba at the top. No matter what (even when I’m not at my best or irked with one of them or whatever), they are the most positive influences in my life. Period. They KNOW the real curmudgeonly me, and still lend me their light.
I miss my neighbor. Yeh. The one neighbor, really. Always ready to help with anything. Nobody’s perfect, but he was a thoughtful, generous guy.
A couple of my siblings definitely qualify as strong influences for good-older sister and younger brother. Pretty constant contact with these two, and they are always uplifting. Heck, I’d have to say my youngest nephew has been a strong positive influence! (Just keeping up with his academic progress has thrown me back at some classics in my reading.) Great kid.
Guy at the local grocery who has fun playing my silly people/word games. Heck, the checkers there are neat, too. Aww… even the owner’s a really nice guy (though he’d not necessarily want ya to know it–likes to play curmudgeon. heh).
And two clients who have done medical transcription for years (you know who you are-and since you read this blog, I’ll let this be your “Have a great new year!” OK? :-). Thanks, ladies, for your continual positive outlook and influence on me. Oh, and thank the bread baker, too.
NOTE: this list is not exhaustive, either. Just a quick runback through a few contacts in the last lil bit who have been constant positive influences over the past year.
And that’s my of ten of the top Good People of 2005 for the “real world”-how about yours?
Boudicca picked up a non-meme-ish suggestion and passed it on in Top 10 Good People of 2005. Not necessarily “big names” but folks who’ve been a strong positive influence, personally or in wider society.
At least, that’s how I’m choosing to interpret this. 🙂 Bou’s post was a lil vague (she was still heavily medicated from her surgery), and GuyK’s post at Charming, Just Charming (whence Bou picked this up) is pretty open-ended.
So, maybe not ten. Maybe not the TOP ten. But quite a few.
Let me begin with my fav top ten bloggers who have had a positive influence on me this year. Keep in mind: I am NOT listing them in any order other than maybe alphabetically, ‘K? Having pared it down to only ten, I feel badly because another list just as long belongs with this one. So, as wrong as this list is, here are ten OF the top good folks who have positively influenced my life this last year:
Kris at Anywhere But Here
Christine of BTW and Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea
Bou (heal quickly!) at Boudicca’s Voice
My Blogmom, Carol Platt Liebau 🙂
Kathryn at Cathouse Chat
Diane of, well, Diane’s Stuff
Rich at The English Guy
Kat from Keep The Coffee Coming
TMH (secretive booger that he is) of TMH’s Bacon Bits
Woody of the eponymous Woody’s News & Views
Please keep in mind that I’ve left off many who have been just as good to me, had influence just as positive as the folks on this list, but I’m trying to keep this portion at ten. The rest of you who belong on this list also know you do, but you’re the kinda folks who will take it in the right spirit. Good on you one and all.
In “real life” I’d have to list my Wonder Woman, Lovely Daughter and Bubba at the top. No matter what (even when I’m not at my best or irked with one of them or whatever), they are the most positive influences in my life. Period. They KNOW the real curmudgeonly me, and still lend me their light.
I miss my neighbor. Yeh. The one neighbor, really. Always ready to help with anything. Nobody’s perfect, but he was a thoughtful, generous guy.
A couple of my siblings definitely qualify as strong influences for good-older sister and younger brother. Pretty constant contact with these two, and they are always uplifting. Heck, I’d have to say my youngest nephew has been a strong positive influence! (Just keeping up with his academic progress has thrown me back at some classics in my reading.) Great kid.
Guy at the local grocery who has fun playing my silly people/word games. Heck, the checkers there are neat, too. Aww… even the owner’s a really nice guy (though he’d not necessarily want ya to know it–likes to play curmudgeon. heh).
And two clients who have done medical transcription for years (you know who you are-and since you read this blog, I’ll let this be your “Have a great new year!” OK? :-). Thanks, ladies, for your continual positive outlook and influence on me. Oh, and thank the bread baker, too.
NOTE: this list is not exhaustive, either. Just a quick runback through a few contacts in the last lil bit who have been constant positive influences over the past year.
And that’s my of ten of the top Good People of 2005 for the “real world”-how about yours?
Boudicca picked up a non-meme-ish suggestion and passed it on in Top 10 Good People of 2005. Not necessarily “big names” but folks who’ve been a strong positive influence, personally or in wider society.
At least, that’s how I’m choosing to interpret this. 🙂 Bou’s post was a lil vague (she was still heavily medicated from her surgery), and GuyK’s post at Charming, Just Charming (whence Bou picked this up) is pretty open-ended.
So, maybe not ten. Maybe not the TOP ten. But quite a few.
Let me begin with my fav top ten bloggers who have had a positive influence on me this year. Keep in mind: I am NOT listing them in any order other than maybe alphabetically, ‘K? Having pared it down to only ten, I feel badly because another list just as long belongs with this one. So, as wrong as this list is, here are ten OF the top good folks who have positively influenced my life this last year:
Kris at Anywhere But Here
Christine of BTW and Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea
Bou (heal quickly!) at Boudicca’s Voice
My Blogmom, Carol Platt Liebau 🙂
Kathryn at Cathouse Chat
Diane of, well, Diane’s Stuff
Rich at The English Guy
Kat from Keep The Coffee Coming
TMH (secretive booger that he is) of TMH’s Bacon Bits
Woody of the eponymous Woody’s News & Views
Please keep in mind that I’ve left off many who have been just as good to me, had influence just as positive as the folks on this list, but I’m trying to keep this portion at ten. The rest of you who belong on this list also know you do, but you’re the kinda folks who will take it in the right spirit. Good on you one and all.
In “real life” I’d have to list my Wonder Woman, Lovely Daughter and Bubba at the top. No matter what (even when I’m not at my best or irked with one of them or whatever), they are the most positive influences in my life. Period. They KNOW the real curmudgeonly me, and still lend me their light.
I miss my neighbor. Yeh. The one neighbor, really. Always ready to help with anything. Nobody’s perfect, but he was a thoughtful, generous guy.
A couple of my siblings definitely qualify as strong influences for good-older sister and younger brother. Pretty constant contact with these two, and they are always uplifting. Heck, I’d have to say my youngest nephew has been a strong positive influence! (Just keeping up with his academic progress has thrown me back at some classics in my reading.) Great kid.
Guy at the local grocery who has fun playing my silly people/word games. Heck, the checkers there are neat, too. Aww… even the owner’s a really nice guy (though he’d not necessarily want ya to know it–likes to play curmudgeon. heh).
And two clients who have done medical transcription for years (you know who you are-and since you read this blog, I’ll let this be your “Have a great new year!” OK? :-). Thanks, ladies, for your continual positive outlook and influence on me. Oh, and thank the bread baker, too.
NOTE: this list is not exhaustive, either. Just a quick runback through a few contacts in the last lil bit who have been constant positive influences over the past year.
And that’s my of ten of the top Good People of 2005 for the “real world”-how about yours?
Here it is: the post you’ve all been waiting for. Right.
🙂
A few third world county posts from 2005. Not necessarily “The best of TWC” but certainly representative of the “most unrecognized posts of TWC 2005” :-). Warts and all: typos, tortured syntax, whatever.
January 2005: The LLMB and MMPA’s psychotic break with reality
Witness this fair paraphrase of the progression of positions taken by the LLMB and MMPA leading up to and continuing through and beyond the [Iraq] election:
1.) The U.S. is embarking on empire and will not allow self-government by the Iraqis.
(Demonstrably false)
2.) The promised elections are not/will not be possible. (Demonstrably false)
3.) The promised election will not take place on time.(Demonstrably false)
4.) The elections will be a failure, a bloodbath. (Demonstrably false)
5.) The election will be illegitimate (because of non-participation). (Demonstrably false)
February 2005: ::YAWN:: More dog bites man non-news
Belaboring the obvious: Bob Dylan flogs a dead horse…
(Wherein your humble-ha!-author emulates J.E.P. “It’s a daybook.” It’s not well organized or well-edited. It’s just stuff that occurs to me to jot down. Notes, to myself as much as anything else.)
Curmudgeon Mode: Tried to take an online musical survey-discovered I’m an antediluvian…
Yeh. Noah still owes me two sheep and a dove…
Recommended Reading between now and the 2006 elections
OK, I can’t resist two from March: Men Without Chests
And: St David’s Day 😉
April 2005: Musical Teleology and Musical Survey–not so very. The first offers a perspective on a couple of recent songs and the second…
May 2005: A Conspiracy of Dunces.
A (short) litany of woes
Here’s a very short list of things that seem to be aimed at destroying the American experiment in liberty.
And Javascript Cookiesâ„¢! and Unconscious Parenthood (my bid for a “Blogmothers Day” observance).
June 2005: News from the Islamic jihad and Preparing for ’06
(Not that I hold out much hope for the denizens of Demoncrappic Underpants, Moooove-on.orgy, the Mass Media Podpeople'[s Army, the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade, Republican’t Congresscritters and their ilk, etc.)
And In your dreams: Headlines from 2006
July 2005: Dysfunctional America
I let my mixmaster loose on the current scene and here’s what resulted…
Yes, there is a culltural divide in these United States. And here are a few of the dividing points…
August 2005: Open Borders Kill
“Open Borders”-the words have a ring of liberty, equality, fraternity… but please remember where the last great movement with that catchphrase ended up…
[Throw some sand in various moonbat gears, eh?]
So, Alito’s next. The big question: will Republican’t Senators do a pants check and find-to everyone’s amazement-the stones to carry the nomination through?
Follow the Rabbit Trail (in which my rambling rant becomes more than just rthe usual self-referential metacommentary-see the punchline in comments to that post: there are none :-).
September 2005: Listen with your heart, A lil experiment–first Castpoint trial. And, The real threat.
October 2005: Quick! Spread the ‘Karl Rove IS Machiavelli’ meme…
November 2005: Drive-by post
Yeh, walking through when the TV’s babbling one of those touchy-feely “PSAs” that are totally cracked, I hear:
“Friends always make you laugh.”
Riiiigggghhht.
“Hey, dude, your grandma died? That’s like, so totally hilarious, man!”
If this doesn’t move you… then you need a heart and soul transplant…
December 2005: You’re here, browse on your own. I have a cute lil troll commenting on one post. You might find him amusing. I don’t think he’s trainable, but so far he’s not made any serious potty messes. Look around a bit, if you want. Or not.
🙂
Up in lights at Basil’s Blog, Bloggin’ Outloud.