Liberty At All Costs

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

2012-01-29T09:31:00.000-05:00

Powerline has a great follow up to my recent post about Warren Buffett's tax-paying habits.

Mr. Buffett's rejoinder? Shut up.

Apparently, when a successful billionaire investor like Warren Buffett demands changes to the tax code, the rest of us are expected to bow, scrape, and make the usual subservient intonations. We aren't supposed to ask questions about the purported facts in support of those proposed changes. We are supposed to defer to our "betters".

Screw that!

First Mr. Buffett and his secretary can release all of the tax information that supports...or not...the current rhetoric. Then we can have a discussion about how whether the facts support...or not...the proposed policy. Then we can have a discussion of how that policy change would affect the rest of the country.

If Mr. Buffett wants to be a personal example for policy change, then he can accept all of responsibility that goes along with being such an example. And that does include more than a modest amount of scrutiny regarding his personal life.

The other option is that he could pay the $1,000,000,000 he currently owes the federal government. He could write an additional check because he thinks he should be taxed more. And he could write a bigger check for his secretary so that she isn't one of those "people who got the short straw in life" in his eyes.

Until that comes to pass, I have some advice for Mr. Buffett. He should be familiar with it.

Shut up.

The Myth Of A Free Buffet

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

Or a free Buffett...one of the two.

After months of the seemingly fallacious assertion that Warren Buffet pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, we finally have some facts to work with.

The ever astute Mrs. Megan McArdle-Suderman has looked things over and found....surprise!....perhaps someone is stretching the truth a bit here. Or comparing apples with bananas or kiwi or something. She has a link to the original ABC report.

The summary?

While it is difficult to justify the exact percentages, it is pretty easy to see that those pushing the Buffett-secretary myth are comparing his secretary's total tax load (including payroll taxes, including the part paid by Mr. Buffett's company) with Mr. Buffett's cap gains tax rate (but not including the corporate taxes paid by his company).

Cherry picking has done been done.

A couple thoughts via Glenn Reynolds. Mr. Reynolds had a secretary at Dewey Ballantine that made $50k per year back in the 1980s. Mr. Buffett's secretary, Ms. Debbie Bosanek, only makes $60k today. Not only could Mr. Buffett voluntarily pay more in taxes if he feels he is under taxed, he could also voluntarily bump Ms. Bosanek's paycheck if he feels that she is one of "the people who got the short straw in life." Even a 90/10 split would be an improvement over the current situation for Ms. Bosanek.

Not that $60k in Nebraska is anything like a truly short straw.

The cold hard fact is that the number of super-rich that pay lower income tax rates than their secretaries is quite slim. The number of the super-rich hedge fund managers that benefit from the "carried interest" rule is an order of magnitude smaller. Changing the law so they pay income tax rates instead of the capital gains rate might be a good idea. Doing so will not raise enough money to spit at when compared with our current deficits.

I'd love to have both people release their complete tax information so that we can truly compare apples to apples.

Even better would be to have Mr. Buffett put his money where his mouth is by writing bigger checks to the U.S. Treasury and to his most worthy secretary. I'm betting that it will take pigs in the sky and ice in Hell before either happens.

Violent Solutions

2012-01-20T10:04:00.000-05:00

"My mother said violence never solves anything." "So?" Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. "I'm sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that."

- Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

Weeeee....Weh Weeeeeeeeee!!!

2012-01-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

They might as well be pinwheels. Don Surber has the news about 14,000 abandoned wind turbines.

Now erecting a wind turbine is not an inexpensive proposition. And building one isn't either. So how does it make any fiscal sense to abandon 14,000 wind turbines in some of the prime wind power generating locations in the world?

Because there is no profit in maintaining them.

Government subsidies encourage fabrication and erection. But once those subsidy spawned profits have been reaped, once the low hanging fruit has been plucked, how can a company justify spending money on an enterprise that continues to lose money?

If only they were small enough that you might hold one in each hand.....

Go get 'em Maxwell!

Hard To Do With An Ebook

2012-01-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

As John Scalzi says....

An Errant Tweet Is All It Took?

2012-01-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

Perhaps Snoop Dogg would be better off keeping certain comments to himself.

“Snoop Dogg to W.H.: Legalize pot,” the Politico today, in a post time-stamped 6:34 AM EST, and highlighted by Matt Drudge.

“Drug dog busts Snoop Dogg’s bus,” CNN today, in a post time-stamped 3:42 PM EST.

Both Ends Against The.....

2012-01-15T07:15:00.000-05:00

....middle?

A little link love for Tom Briscoe.

I think he is on to something here. Both the Tea Party and Occupy movements are frustrated with the government covering for corporations, "too big to fail", bailouts, etc. Neither side is particularly enamored with the way corporations get the government to create near monopolies as well as shielding them from the liability of their mistakes. I think there is some common ground here.

The primary difference seems to be that the Tea Party folks recognize that corporations have a legitimate function, but that they should rise and fall based on their own merits rather than be government fiat. The Occupy folks regard corporations as being illegitimate.

Based on the tweets on Twitter and Facebook entries made via their cell phones.

The solution remains to have a smaller, more effective, and more transparent government. If only the Occupy folks could get on board with that idea.

Just Disgusting

2012-01-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

This sort of thing just drives me around the bend.

Ms. Marion B. Tasco is slated to retire after her 6^th term as a Philadelphia coucilwoman. She will then begin her 7^th term as a Philadelphia councilwoman. Her "retirement" will earn her $478,000.

Pitchforks, tar, and feathers were invented for just such an occasion.

Media Bias - Smaller Scall

2012-01-13T06:51:00.000-05:00

I ran across this article about a small, New York based, public TV station a while back. The author maintains that he saw repeated incidents of bias on the part of station employees and managers during his time on the staff.

With my own eyes, I saw producers laughing and cheering at TV news reporting the assassination attempt on President Reagan.

While by ~~not~~ no means definitive, it does provide an interesting insight into some portion of the media. This is the sort of thing that begs for an undercover investigation!

BOCE Photography

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Arthur S. Mole was one of the greatest producers of the large scale photography of human activities. Specifically, he organized large crowds into visual sculptures.

This image from Parris Island naturally drew my attention.

You have to click on the image to appreciate the scale of coordination needed to create this image. Another interesting note, these Marines and recruits were under the command of Brigadier General Pendleton when this image was created. The Marines' largest base, located in California, was named after General Pendleton.

More on Mr. Mole's photography here.

Map Of All Maps

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

When it comes to esoteric geekery, cartography yields the field to no other subject. Slate recently published a review of what they claim may be the best American wall map....ever!

You can go to the creator's website and see more for yourself. And perhaps even buy a copy. The spent years working on it! That ought to be good for a couple bucks.

The Utility Of Religion

2012-01-10T10:01:00.000-05:00

History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.

-Time Enough For Love, by Robert Heinlein

Pick A Spending Cut

2012-01-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

There is a guide to the GOP candidates and their potential federal spending preferences over at the 10^th Amendment Center.

Sadly, Ron Paul is the most prolific as well as the most specific candidate when it comes to spending cuts. Gary Johnson continues to be my candidate of choice even though his spending proposals are not as specific.

Mr. Obama is not listed. Primarily because despite his protestations to the contrary, he has no intention of limiting federal spending.

Let The Silly Season Begin!

2012-01-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty." Edward R. Murrow

A brief thought as our quadrennial electoral circus begins.

It is time for Mr. Obama to go.

He isn't evil.

He isn't a Stalinist.

He doesn't belong in prison.

Under no circumstances, should he come to any harm before his term in office expires. Or after, for that matter.

Outside of the Presidency, Mr. Obama seems like a nice enough guy. However.....

Mr. Obama is quite simply enamored of any number of substantially flawed ideas with respect to economics, tax policy, and health care issues. His deficit spending has undermined the value of the dollar and saddled our youth with trillions of dollars of excess debt. Mr. Obama's spending makes every single other President look like a piker. His Justice Department has pro-actively armed criminal organizations that operate inside our neighbor and ally, Mexico. His foreign policies have largely abdicated the field of global diplomacy to terrorist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and to China, our most daunting economic competitor. And he has actively fostered divisions in our country.

At the time of his election, Mr. Obama decidedly lacked the experience in a leadership position to run for the office of President of the United States. It was reasonably suspected that his economic platform would further empower a too powerful central, federal government by moving towards a more European style of social-democratic government.

Both have come to fruition.

Mr. Obama's defense policies have been pretty good. And his administration has had moments where they have moved the country forward.

Pundits make comparisons between Mr. Obama and former President Carter because it is apt. And like Mr. Carter, Mr. Obama does not deserve another four years in office.

Now I'm Screwed

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

A brief bit of snark over at the blogfather's is a neat encapsulation of some things I have thought for a while. Unfortunately, Andrew Sullivan is the inspiration.

One of the prime defenses of the economic machinations of the Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration is that "the stimulus didn't work better because they didn't know how bad the economy really was." This brings to mind a couple brief retorts.

So you want to reward their prior incompetence with more spending authority? Alternatively, if they got it wrong before, what makes you think they are correct now?

and

So you now find it acceptable for a President to make a strong response based on faulty information that everyone accepted as true at the time?

Sadly, Mr. Sullivan's endorsement of Ron Paul just makes it that much harder to pick a candidate should next November witness a Paul vs. Obama race. The hair splitting required may be beyond my acumen.

Adults And Babies

2012-01-01T10:26:00.001-05:00

How anybody expects a man to stay in business with every two-bit wowser in the country claiming a veto over what we can say and can't say and what we can show and what we can't show - it's enough to make you throw up. The whole principle is wrong; it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak.

- The Man Who Sold The Moon, by Robert Heinlein

And The Calender Indexes Again

2011-12-31T14:56:00.001-05:00

Happiest of New Years to my regular readers. If we can get another one they we can take a shot at playing Euchre.

As a parting gift, I am going to point you toward John Scalzi's blog and invite you to view some photos he shot nearby. "Nearby" being a relative term southern Michigan is close to Ohio. This is the beauty of the mid-west.

Sunsets to close the old year.

And a sunrise to welcome the new.

All the best to you all in the coming year.

The Feeding Frenzy

2011-12-30T08:10:00.000-05:00

Periodically, some marketeer will do something so confoundedly stupid that it simply must be passed on. Telling a customer to put on his "big boy pants" qualifies.

Meet Paul Christoforo.

Never, Never Look

2011-12-23T07:58:00.000-05:00

I never should have looked. Now I can't wait.

Once you watch this trailer for Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit", you won't want to wait either. Sadly, we have no choice in the matter.

Oh Man, What A High

2011-12-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

"The high I feel when I actually remember to bring my reusable bags to the store -- and take them inside rather than leave them in the parked car -- can last for days."

Indeed it can. And here is the comic strip in question....

A Visual Feast

2011-12-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Audrey Munson was a muse for many artists in the early 20th century. Sculptures for which she modeled still adorn New York City. Ms. Munson has the distinction of being the first actress to appear nude in a moving picture.

The Daily has a brief profile of her life that is worth your time. She was simultaneously an unassuming and an amazing figure in the history of American art.

I largely have to agree with Ms. Munson regarding the relative value of abstract art. Some abstract art is most worthwhile and thought provoking. The rest seems limited to splotching worthy of a 5th grade student still shivering from a long walk to school in the snow.

Audrey Munson photo by Bettman/Corbis

Guaranteed Profit?

2011-12-20T10:23:00.005-05:00

There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.

- Lifeline, by Robert Heinlein

Messrs. Bush and Obama - and most members of Congress - should have the above tattooed on the inside of their eyelids and across their asses.

A Dragon, Curiously

2011-12-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Or more correct, a drakling. Forever preserved in resin.

Other views are available at the artist's Etsy store, linked above.

The Conduct Of Science

2011-12-10T10:11:00.014-05:00

One can judge from experiment, or one can blindly accept authority. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all important and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything and facts are junked when they do not fit theory laid down by authority.

- Lifeline, by Robert Heinlein

Longtime readers will recall my skepticism regarding the enthusiastic pursuit of the theory of a climate that is sensitive to human CO₂ emissions. A big part of that skepticism is the observation that the data is being molded to fit the theories instead of molding the theories to fit the data. That observation was effectively validated by the Climategate episode that released thousands of CRU documents along with the software they generated to "model" our climate. The programmer's notes in the software alone should be enough to convince every man and woman of science that "science" - the pursuit of theories that explain the facts - was not being conducted by the influential staff of the CRU.

I suspect that they are not unique in their approach to studying our climate.

Giving Unique Gifts

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sci-fi author, John Scalzi, is using his blog to promote unique gifts for this Christmas season. One need not limit themselves to our Happy Holidays when using this promotion, but that is what got it started. he has used a day for promoting traditional authors, non-traditional authors, and now other handicrafts.

The last category has reminded me of Etsy; a website for selling hand made goods. Think of it like Ebay or Amazon, but with a focus on hand crafted products.

Friends have been using and recommending Etsy to me for quite some time. Perhaps you, my gentle and faithful reader, will find it of some value as well.

Someone Call Tom Selleck

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

I saw where this was leading in 1984. Someone call Tom Selleck!

Actually, I'm a bit of a technology geek. I find this stuff to be fascinating.

Now That Is Quidditch!

2011-12-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

Oh Ginny! And we thought we knew you well. Now we wish we knew you better!

Potentially NSFW for certain environments.

Have to remember to add this strip to my daily read!

So Thick You Could Cut It With A Knife

2011-12-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

Louis CK is not really my kind of comedian. But the irony here is really thick. Capitalism is the reason why we have all that technology!

I suppose the other option is that he is using some double reverse ironic ninjitsu. Perhaps he is suggesting that if capitalism implodes and we have to go back to the barter system for a while, perhaps we will be better stewards when we bring capitalism back.

Reason To Pause

2011-12-05T07:22:00.000-05:00

A long standing concern regarding Mr. Obama is his attitude towards governance. He appears to have an attitude that is perfectly encapsulated by an address made by his lovely and gracious wife in 2008. In that address, she said "Barack will require you to work." Emphasis added.

It seems that the left has finally taken note of his autocratic nature. He doesn't call. He expects results, but he apparently doesn't bother to build the kinds of large tent relationships that enable those results to be achieved.

Psssttt....Can Someone Do Something To Fix This?

2011-12-04T14:23:00.000-05:00

It might help.

It took Bob Bertsch 25 years to build his construction business and just a day for it all to go away.

...

"I am tired of carrying all the tax load," Bertsch said. "I renew 13 licenses here every year just so I can spend money in this city."

Bertsch makes no attempt to conceal his frustration with the costs government imposes on small businesses like his.

"Government is killing small business. We used to have 24 employees at our peak. Now, all of those people who used to work here are in unemployment lines," he said.

...

Bertsch told a friend at the auction he is selling out because government was taking more out of his business than he was.

Or we can keep giving handouts to big businesses with ties to the government. The whole idea of keeping everyone's taxes low is apparently over rated.

Link to the source.

A Tribute Worth Watching

2011-12-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Corps got the loudest cheers. It is a toss up as to whether the Air Force or the Navy got the better formation.

Carbon Dioxide May Not Have As Much Influence As Originally Thought

2011-12-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

You don't say.

The climate may be less sensitive to carbon dioxide than we thought – and temperature rises this century could be smaller than expected. That's the surprise result of a new analysis of the last ice age. However, the finding comes from considering just one climate model, and unless it can be replicated using other models, researchers are dubious that it is genuine.

Folks, the science, she ain't settled. Ignore the charlatans masquerading as scientists that suggest otherwise.

The Museum That Belongs In A Museum

2011-12-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

Just.....go read it.

It's easy to forget that ancient peoples also studied history - Babylonians who lived 2,500 years ago were able to look back on millennia of previous human experience. That's part of what makes the museum of Princess Ennigaldi so remarkable. Her collection contained wonders and artifacts as ancient to her as the fall of the Roman Empire is to us. But it's also a grim symbol of a dying civilization consumed by its own vast history.

Delusions

2011-11-30T10:11:00.000-05:00

How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?

- Lifeline, by Robert Heinlein

Popular Science Fiction & Fantasy

2011-11-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Some time ago, I posted something on Facebook about a then current poll being conducted by NPR to determine the 100 best books in the science fiction and fantasy genre. I let the poll fall from my concerns and moved on.

It happens.

Serendipitously, I ran across the following graphic that presents the results of the poll.

Click the link and enjoy!

There is one deceptive aspect of the poll. Some of the books listed are really series. Some of the series are trilogies....or longer....rather than being discrete books.

One disappointing result is that the "Fire and Ice" series came it as high as it did. I am currently working through that series. Mostly, because I was able to purchase the first four books as a set for about one third of the cost of buying them separately. It isn't a bad series. It doesn't rate to be the fifth best book/series either.

In any case, the above chart provides a good starting point for those that have not delved too deeply into the realm of science fiction and fantasy.

Don't Step In The Marketeer* Droppings

2011-11-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

Somewhere, somehow, there is a manager at J.C. Penney's that thought reinforcing an anti-intellectual image of girls was a good idea. Specifically, "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me." Erg.

The good news is that J.C. Penney's is media savvy enough to understand the problem when it started. They have pulled the t-shirt in question from their online store and are investigating the decision to add it to their product line.

Major league kudos to the horde of folks traveling the inter-tubes that spotted the shirt and began spreading the news. Big companies are sometimes loath to make changes unless the perceive a significant downside to doing nothing.

Not only do we have a daughter, but the missus and I produced a geek daughter. We are so proud. Big things will happen for her soon enough. There just simply isn't another option in her mind...or ours.

Messages that reinforce the anti-intellectual image for young women are not welcome here.

I came across this issue by reading John Scalzi's blog "Whatever". He has a geek daughter, too. I hope to write more about Mr. Scalzi. In fact, the way I schedule my posts, you may have read it by now!

*The word "marketeer" was used on purpose. It is a reference to that special little "wonderland" that many marketers inhabit that causes them to confuse using the word "quality" with actually producing products that actually have high quality, and to confuse my telephone, mailbox, and email inbox with public toilets.

Turn Left In 600 Centimeters!

2011-11-27T07:30:00.000-05:00

Via John Scalzi...for similar reasons.

What A Tax Payer Wants

2011-11-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

Rasmussen recently released the results of a recent poll regarding tax policy. While I might quibble a bit with the question as to whether or not a simpler, yet still progressive tax structure is a good idea, I am willing to consider it.

Most folks I know do want a simpler tax code. They don't want lots of deductions. They want to pay their taxes and know what they will owe at the end of the year.

I know that I find the inability to accurately predict my tax debt to be terribly frustrating. I don't necessarily want to get a huge refund at the end of each year. Nor do I want to write Uncle Sam a big check.

A simpler, less intrusive system would be an improvement over the current system.

Send 'Em A Message

2011-11-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

Via your rear window.

Ever want to send the idiot in the car behind you a message? This is one way to do it.

Do You Know Why I Pulled You Over, Son?

2011-11-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

I love our Constitution. I love our Constitutionally limited republic. It is right and just that the government should be limited to a few defined roles and that government authority should not impinge on individual liberty.

Mickey Kaus has an entry about the legally specious arguments being made in favor of the so-called "individual mandate" portion of Obamacare.

Can the government compel you to buy broccoli? Can it ban all means of disposal other than consumption in order to force you to consume broccoli?

Well, OK then! As long as we can just leave it rotting in the fridge.** … But it’s a little suspicious–and surely not a selling point–that under Elhauge’s argument the only limits on government would be the rights — like “bodily integrity” and privacy — that liberal lawyers have dreamed up but not the limit — i.e. whether or not something is “interstate commerce” – the Founders dreamed up.

Just what are the Constitutional limits that modern leftists would obey?

One suspects that the answer is "none", as long as they agree with the law in the first place. Such is the seed from which the vine which will choke liberty is grown.

How Do You Do That?

2011-11-23T07:21:00.000-05:00

How do you build a city our of rock and roll? What about the engineers? The skilled trades; carpenters, iron workers, electricians, plumbers? What about the vendors that sell the stuff you actually build stuff with? What about the finance folks that get the cash to fund the project? What about the teachers that taught them all?

Where is Dr. Sheldon Cooper^[1] when you really need him?

^[1] Ok. Read the link. If the amount of information cataloged there isn't the definition of irony, then I don't know what is.

Who IS That Girl?

2011-11-22T07:30:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago, Instapundit had a link to "Who is that hot ad girl?" A site devoted to identifying notable actresses in advertisements.

Notable primarily because they are....well.....hot.

Sexist? Probably.

Worth a look? Definitely.

Look Out For His Right

2011-11-21T07:30:00.000-05:00

Attempts at government control of the economy always give me reason for concern. The record for such control is not exactly stellar.

I wonder what trouble is lurking in our future. In a modest bit of irony, the Federal Reserve in San Francisco has a model that you can play with that suggests where things might be heading in the near future.

Everywhere you look these days, it seems that ZIRP, or the Fed's Zero Interest Rate Policy, is the panacea to all the world's problems. In fact, ask any tenured economy Ph.D. what inflation is and you will get a stare down, be told you are a moron, that banks need to print more, more, more and that we are really roiling in deflation, with some latent mumblings about buying their economics textbook for the inflationary price of $124.95. Everywhere, that is except the Fed itself. Because in an extremely ironic twist, it is none other than the San Francisco Fed, which operates the "Be Fed chairman for a day" simulation, where you try to keep both unemployment and inflation within the "price stabeeleetee" barriers, that reveals the reality of ZIRP. The laughter really begins when one recreates precisely what the Fed is doing: namely the policy of Zero Interest Rates, now well in its third year, that things take a turn for the surreal. We challenge any reader to play the Fed simulation game, and to do what Bernanke has done: namely lock the Fed Funds rate at the legal minimum: between 0.00% and 0.25%. In our personal experience, we were dismissed as Fed Chairman after annual inflation literally went off the charts and hit 38.36% following 4 years of ZIRP.

If this model published by the Fed is right, then we have some dark days coming soon.

Of course, if it is wrong, then it still leaves open the question as to whether or not the "quantitative easing" and other Federal Reserve policies are good for the long term health of our nation. If they can't publish a reasonably accurate model, then how can we trust their other decisions?

Delinquency

2011-11-20T10:10:00.001-05:00

"I told you that 'juvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty.' But duty is an adult virtue - indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be a 'juvenile delinquent.' But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents - people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail

- Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

Criminal Occupation

2011-11-19T08:53:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer first, opinion after...

I am certain that most of the Occupy folks are decent enough people. It is always tempting to make the weirdos and oddballs be the mean rather than the outlier.

But still, the Tea Party folks never had weirdos and oddballs of these dimensions. Check out the list of serious crimes that are being committed in these Obamavilles. And those are just the ones that have been reported.

The list does not include the many crimes that the various Occupy committees have successfully hushed up. Their official position appears to be that they are unwilling to engage local law enforcement over criminal activities.

Rape appears to be the most common crime that these "committees" have the most trouble containing.

Worth considering by but unlisted is racism/anti-Semitism. (A prominent theme for those following the Occupy antics via Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit.)

Many of the positive changes in our society over the last 30-40 years have occurred due to an expanded sense of tolerance. What is lacking from the Occupy folks is discernment. Tolerance is what causes a 16 year old girl to avert her gaze to the normal nudity experience when one is preparing for a good night's sleep. Discernment is what causes her to call the cops when she becomes the object of to public masturbation.

Sadly, she possessed more discernment than the supposed adults that are running these protests.

Never Think The Worst

2011-11-18T07:04:00.001-05:00

I'm glad I waited for clarification before offering any commentary about this event. This was what I was hoping had happened.

"Whoever shot at the White House is basically a terrorist," LoRusso tells CityBeat, "and I was holding a moment of silence for the White House and President Obama and everyone in the White House. I wasn't holding a moment of silence for the terrorist in any way. We're a peaceful movement, and we don't support people shooting at the White House."

Although I do wonder if Dave Maass is aware that there are leftist blowhards that do much the same to folks that are not of a leftist mindset. Me might try reading the pages of the NYTimes, WaPo...etc...etc....

Now That Is Fast!

2011-11-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

At least if you scale it up properly....

More info and a poll here.

Consequences Of Arabian Affluence

2011-11-17T07:05:00.000-05:00

As anyone who has studied wealth and demographics will tell you, money changes a people. Along with a better standard of living, wealth buys a longer lifespan, education, and thus a more fulfilling way of spending one's years than simply squatting out a football team in some muddy backwater field.

Here is one illustration of how wealth and knowledge have changed birthrates. The focus is on the Middle East, but the lesson is useful around the world.

A View From Above

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

This time lapse video from the International Space Station is fantastic. Most of the views are of the night side of earth. I saw Michigan and the rest of the Midwestern states in several passes. The Nile river is also clearly visible.

The natural light shows are even more impressive. Lightning rolls through the clouds as the space station flies overhead. Also, the aurora borealis hangs shimmering in the atmosphere.

Just beautiful.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Miss Aurora's Long Lost Quilt

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Although it was not exactly lost. I knew where it was all the time.

What I didn't know was "when". As is "when will I ever finish that quilt!"

A friend from work and his wife were expecting their second bundle of joy. I was thinking of trying a different style of quilt. Previously, I had made several quilts using the "log cabin" design. The "log cabin" approach has the distinct advantage of being one that can be made using a sewing machine to speed production.

I had seen some quilts at the local fair that used equilateral triangles to create various patterns. Some patterns are derived from the material. Other patterns, as seen at the links below, are created by using color to create the illusion of dimensionality.

If you do it right, it looks like the blocks in the video game Q*bert.

I was intrigued! So I bought a triangle guide and a bunch of material and set to wok. My thought was that I would create something colorful with lots of kid-friendly primary colors. My other thought was that I would use that third dimensionality to create some interesting illusions.

The result:

In the close up sectional views, I hope you will see some of the visual games I was trying to play.

While I was generally pleased with the result, I was also a little disappointed. All of the materials were flannel. Flannel has the ability to stretch a little. So it was very hard to get all the corners to match up perfectly. Also, when it came time to quilt the top, batting, and bottom together, the flannel tended to stretch so that I had to fiddle with it so that the quilt would lay flat. There is one area where it is painfully clear...to me...that I wasn't very successful as there is a bunch of loose material.

The back side is kind of interesting. I quilted around all the major blocks. For us quilters, it is called "stitch in the ditch". This is the stitching that holds all the layers together. You can see some of the optical illusions on the back side of the quilt.

And here is the finished product with yours truly along side.

Why did this quilt take so long to make? Every piece had to be individually cut. Unlike the "log cabin" pattern, you sew one piece at a time. It can get a little tedious.

But I learned a couple things about this approach to quilting. If I ever decide to give it another shot, then I hope to be a little better prepared for the adventure.

At long last, the quilt is done. Two years after I began and 18 months or so after Miss Aurora entered the world, I finally got it done. She will never be cold again.

My complete record of quilts.

A Small Update

2011-11-14T07:32:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed that my Google Reader feed is gone. Google, in their infinite wisdom, has eliminated the ability to "share" things read via Google Reader via that gadget. Instead, you are expected to "share" with your Google+ page.

Google -.

'Cause There Is No Such Thing As Too Much Shatner

2011-11-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

OK. For those paying attention, this post appeared way before it was scheduled. Then when I tried to change the date, it stayed published. So I reverted to a draft, and tried to add this note. But Blogger screwed with the video size. Argh!!

In any case, this is the selected moment for you to enjoy Mr. Shatner's unique stylings. Enjoy!

Violent Solutions III

2011-11-11T11:00:00.001-05:00

"If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off? Of course not. You'd paddle it. There can be circumstances when it's just as foolish to hit an enemy city with an H-bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an axe. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him...but to make him do what you want to do. Not killing...but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how - or why - he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people - 'older and wiser heads,' as they say - supply the control. Which is as it should be."

- Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

Offered in remembrance of all those that served our nation in defense of liberty. Happy Veteran's Day to all.

The Engine Is Warm Now

2011-11-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

As it was with racial integration, so it is with recognizing and validating the service of homosexuals in today's military. It took a while to overcome the military opposition to racial integration. But once it became policy, once the order was given, the military attacked the issue until it was essentially a non-issue.

I would expect that we will see the same thing now that people may serve openly in our armed forces.

Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos — who strongly opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell last year — told NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday that he is “very proud” of how the Marines have handled the repeal of the policy last month. “I’m very pleased now,” Amos said and explained that his previous statements in support of the ban were expressing the hesitancy for change within the Marine Corps.

A very long time ago, I was the house mouse in my barracks in a training command. We had a guy who had apparently been hanging out with some gay folks. He mentioned that he felt more comfortable in their company to a doctor at the hospital.

And that was all she wrote.

This kid was strong. He was tough. He was a former Golden Gloves champ in his hometown. He was also smart enough to get into a pretty elite electronics training program in the service.

Looking back, the most ironic part of that experience was from the Sergeant running the barracks. He is the guy that taught me the phrase "Dear Mom, Today I are a technician. Yesterday I couldn't even spell it!" He was a pretty smart guy, but like a lot of men from the southern states, he could pretend to be something else if the occasion called for it.

His comment to me implied that it was terribly stupid for that young Marine to say such thing. The problem was not in hanging around with gay folks. The problem wasn't necessarily in being gay.

The problem was in letting the cat out of the bag.

The bag is gone now. Mostly.

The order has been given. Watch how long it takes the military to become one of the better places for homosexuals to make their careers without having to hide their orientation.

The Difference Between Occupiers And Tea Partiers

2011-11-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

While there are some elements that should unite the two groups (i.e. distrust of the well connected well-to-do and their government toadies), there are other elements in which the difference could not be more clear. Jeff Jacoby tries to get some mileage out of the 10th Commandment, but the larger point is in the sadly growing catalog of vandalism, rape, assault, and continued threats of violence from the Occupy group.

Where the Tea Party folks left their gathering spots devoid of trash, the Occupy folks trash their gathering spots. Policy pretentions aside, the Occupy folks appear to value nothing beyond their own existence. Nothing matters to them unless it matters to them; narcissism in spades.

Of course, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil the barrel. Were it not for a complacent media that ignores the blatant lawlessness of those few bad apples and their prior zealous attempts to convert a few minor blemishes into a worm in every Tea Party apple, we might justly and quickly purge the public debate such destructive disinterest in the well being of anyone not "occupying" a tent located inside a major metropolitan park.

Only then can a serious discussion of the issues at hand commence.

As Seen On Instapundit

2011-11-08T08:25:00.000-05:00

Who saw it first on Facebook:

“The social contract exists so that everyone doesn’t have to squat in the dust holding a spear to protect his woman and his meat all day every day. It does not exist so that the government can take your spear, your meat, and your woman because it knows better what to do with them.”

Indeed.

Abolish Money?

2011-11-07T09:02:00.000-05:00

Via Classical Values:

I'm sure there was a fair amount of cherry picking going on, but still!

Voter ID Is A Good Requirement

2011-11-06T08:25:00.000-05:00

So says Artur Davis, former US Representative from Alabama:

The truth is that the most aggressive contemporary voter suppression in the African American community, at least in Alabama, is the wholesale manufacture of ballots, at the polls and absentee, in parts of the Black Belt.

Voting the names of the dead, and the nonexistent, and the too-mentally-impaired to function, cancels out the votes of citizens who are exercising their rights -- that's suppression by any light. If you doubt it exists, I don't; I've heard the peddlers of these ballots brag about it, I've been asked to provide the funds for it, and I am confident it has changed at least a few close local election results.

...

The case for voter ID, however, is a good one, and it ought to make politics a little cleaner and the process of conducting elections much fairer. I wish I'd gotten it right the first time.

Keep the above in mind when we go to the polls a year from today. There are professional vote fraud agents in the land that sell their services for politics and profit. And they are working to steal your vote.

h/t to Instapundit

Successfully Patient

2011-11-05T18:21:00.000-04:00

I have been intending to write something along these lines for quite some time. Guy Fawkes was not, despite his popularity among anachronistic anarchists, a friend of liberty.

I waited long enough for someone else to pretty well cover my thoughts. Success at last!

A Reminder For Scale

2011-11-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

Mr. Obama's "stimulus" and other spending is much more than was spent on the Iraq war.

Just in case anyone has forgotten.

Won't You Please Let Me In?

2011-11-03T07:30:00.000-04:00

Via the Blogfather comes this excellent essay from The Volokh Conspiracy about the Occupy movements and the underlying socioeconomic forces that have created it. The short version is that they have dutifully gotten their tickets punched and now expect the rewards to flow regardless of their actual talents or the collective need for their "abilities". Such as they are.

The longer version....

     The problem the New Class faces at this point is the psychological and social self-perceptions of a status group that is alienated (as we marxists say) from traditional labor by its semi-privileged upbringing — and by the fact that it is actually, two distinct strands, a privileged one and a semi-privileged one. It is, for the moment, insistent not just on white-collar work as its birthright and unable to conceive of much else. It does not celebrate the dignity of labor; it conceived of itself as existing to regulate labor. So it has purified itself to the point that not just any white-collar work will do. It has to be, as Michelle Obama instructed people in what now has to be seen as another era, virtuous non-profit or government work. Those attitudes are changing, but only slowly; the university pipelines are still full of people who cannot imagine themselves in any other kind of work, unless it means working for Apple or Google.

     The New Class has always operated across the lines of public and private, however, the government-university-finance and technology capital sectors. It is not a theory of the government class versus the business class — as 1990s neoconservatives sometimes mistakenly imagined. As Lasch pointed out, it is the class that bridges and moves effortlessly between the two. As a theory of late capitalism (once imported from being an analysis of communist nomenkaltura) it offers itself as a theory of technocratic expertise first - but, if that spectacularly fails as it did in 2008, it falls back on a much more rudimentary claim of monopoly access to the levers of the economy. Which is to say, the right to bridge the private-public line, and rent out its access.

...

     In social theory, OWS is best understood not as a populist movement against the bankers, but instead as the breakdown of the New Class into its two increasingly disconnected parts. The upper tier, the bankers-government bankers-super credentialed elites. But also the lower tier, those who saw themselves entitled to a white collar job in the Virtue Industries of government and non-profits — the helping professions, the culture industry, the virtueocracies, the industries of therapeutic social control, as Christopher Lasch pointed out in his final book, The Revolt of the Elites.

...

     The upper tier is still doing pretty well. But the lower tier of the New Class — the machine by which universities trained young people to become minor regulators and then delivered them into white collar positions on the basis of credentials in history, political science, literature, ethnic and women’s studies — with or without the benefit of law school — has broken down. The supply is uninterrupted, but the demand has dried up. The agony of the students getting dumped at the far end of the supply chain is in large part the OWS. As Above the Law points out, here is “John,” who got out of undergrad, spent a year unemployed and living at home, and is now apparently at University of Vermont law school, with its top ranked environmental law program — John wants to work at a “nonprofit.”

...

     The OWS protestors are a revolt — a shrill, cri-de-coeur wail at the betrayal of class solidarity — of the lower tier New Class against the upper tier New Class. It was, after all, the upper tier New Class, the private-public finance consortium, that created the student loan business and inflated the bubble in which these lower tier would-be professionals borrowed the money. It’s a securitization machine, not so very different from the subprime mortgage machine. The asset bubble pops, but the upper tier New Class, having insulated itself and, as with subprime, having taken its cut upfront and passed the risk along, is still doing pretty well. It’s not populism versus the bankers so much as internecine warfare between two tiers of elites.

Being a longtime Instapundit reader, none of these ideas is particularly new. This essay, as with many other conservative-libertarian commentaries, is not particularly critical of the Occupy participants. It is far more critical of the process that created the conditions that caused the Occupy folks to end up in the position in which they currently find themselves.

I humbly suggest that they might have been better served by teaching them real world concepts such as supply, demand, individual effort, and individual achievement. Instead, many of these people have squandered their lives pursuing the proper "credentials" to "run things". They have willingly donned fiscal chains created by the upper crust, our "credentialed" class, with the expectation that they would be welcomed into the 1% with open arms.

The resulting condition is, sadly, predictable.

Pick One, Herman

2011-11-02T07:30:00.000-04:00

Mr. Cain supported the right of homosexuals to be homosexual, and opposed government intervention in the private decision regarding abortion.

And then he flipped.

*Sigh*

The Currency Of Time

2011-11-01T09:59:00.000-04:00

Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.

But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants "just a few minutes of your time, please - this won't take long." Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time - and squawk for more!
So learn to say No - and to be rude about it when necessary.

Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.

(This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don't do it because it is "expected" of you.)

-Time Enough For Love, by Robert Heinlein

The Definition Of Cluelessness

2011-10-31T08:30:00.000-04:00

Or an indication of a future politician.

How I Want To Die....

2011-10-30T07:00:00.000-04:00

Of course, I'd prefer to avoid the car crash, but holding her hand when I go would be fine with me. And if there is another side, then I wouldn't want to keep her waiting for very long! And being the sort of greedy wretch that I am, I'd miss her terribly if I went first.

Gordon died at 3:38 p.m. holding hands with his wife as the family they built surrounded them.

"It was really strange, they were holding hands, and dad stopped breathing but I couldn't figure out what was going on because the heart monitor was still going," said Dennis Yeager. "But we were like, he isn't breathing. How does he still have a heart beat? The nurse checked and said that's because they were holding hands and it's going through them. Her heart was beating through him and picking it up."

"They were still getting her heartbeat through him," said Donna Sheets.

At 4:48 p.m., exactly one hour after Gordon died, Norma passed too.

But I'd wait forever if that is what it took to be with her again.

From Surprising Corners

2011-10-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

I was listening to someone a couple weeks ago. This person is a hard core anti-socialist, pro-freedom individual. They mildly chastised me once for suggesting that corporations should not be considered the legal equivalent of a person.

They were observing that some of the Occupy protesters were making a few fair points about their respective situations. His concern was that the Occupy movement would be subverted by the minority that wants to impose socialism on the country.

The point? This is someone that I would not expect to be giving any credence to any of the OWS arguments.

I have some further thoughts that I am working on and hope to have posted soon. Given that I am writing this post a couple weeks in advance, you might have seen them by now!

Incremental Improvements

2011-10-28T07:34:00.000-04:00

Oil dependency. Pollution...the legitimate kind. Transportation problems. We need solutions.

I do not have much faith in electric cars. We would need a new electric distribution system and hundreds of new power plants if every car on the road today was to magically convert into a 100% electric vehicle. The only thing that changes is that the pollution would be generated at a central power plant instead of at 100 million locations where ever a car or truck might be running.

There are many good ideas out there that would make small steps at improving fuel efficiency rather than a wholesale restructuring of society. One such good idea would be to switch to diesel engines. That change would create a 15-20% boost to fuel efficiency

Couple that with the use of a flywheel and we could get a further 20% improvement. Used together and we could cut our fuel consumption by up to one third.

Care to see what happens to the price of fuel when consumption falls that far? Care to see what America's economy does when fuel prices fall that far?

Boost Your WiFi With A Can Of Beer

2011-10-27T07:25:00.000-04:00

Or perhaps with a lowly can of Coke. I am betting that this does not work with Pepsi.

I love a good hack, especially one that requires me to throw back a cold one before hand (or during). This simple wifi boost has actually been shown to increase signal strength by at least 2 to 4 bars. And, well, I will drink to that.

Religious Mathematics - "Jewish" Problems

2011-10-26T07:30:00.000-04:00

Anti-Semitism from a likely source.

Back in the seventies, the mathematics department at the Soviet Union's Moscow State University (one of the most prestigious departments in the USSR at the time) used a special collection of math problems, informally referred to as "Jewish" problems or "coffins" ("coffin" problems translating roughly to "killer" problems in English), to keep Jewish students and other so-called "undesirables" out of the department.

Predictable Outcome Only Because It Has Been Predicted

2011-10-25T08:13:00.000-04:00

Fans of "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand are doubtlessly familiar with the process that led to a government that would attempt such a thing. They are also familiar with the most likely result.

This week alone has seen a ratings downgrade for Spain as well as a threat by agencies to review France's AAA status -- and the markets have taken notice. Once again, it would seem, ratings agencies are making things difficult for European countries.

Now, the European Union is considering doing something about it.

European Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier is considering a move to ban the agencies from publishing outlook reports on EU countries entangled in a crisis, according to a report in Thursday's issue of the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper.

Of course, that isn't good enough. The EU also wants to put ratings agencies in a "no-win" position by:

The internal market commissioner appears to be taking a tough stance against the agencies. He is also pushing the 27 EU member states to take steps to ensure that investors can pursue civil action against agencies for "deficient ratings." He is also calling for addition ratings requirements for complexly structured financial products and steps that would create greater competition among ratings agencies.

Investors will find a place to invest. If they cannot rely on ratings information for EU governments, then they will simply take their money elsewhere. Given the need for financing and re-financing of government debt, this lack of cash will have predictable results.

Either the governments will start printing fiat Euros and thus begin a cycle of high inflation. Or the governments will discover that dog catchers do not require 42 levels of supervision and a 1300 page handbook to catch dogs and cut their budgets accordingly. Historically, the latter option has been the most effective solution as well as the most difficult to implement.

Ms. Rand provided the blueprint for the result of the former option.

An Unusual Source For Terrorism

2011-10-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

Saturday Night Live writers??

h/t to the Blogfather....

Karma Doesn't Always Work That Way

2011-10-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of television impresario and executive producer, Chuck Lorre.

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #329
I exercise regularly. I eat moderate amounts of healthy food. I make sure to get plenty of rest. I see my doctor once a year and my dentist twice a year. I floss every night. I've had chest x–rays, cardio stress tests, EKG's and colonoscopies. I see a psychologist and have a variety of hobbies to reduce stress. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't do drugs. I don't have crazy, reckless sex with strangers.

If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I'm gonna be really pissed.

Punishing The Guilty

2011-10-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

As I hope I have noted in the past, there are many reasons for the fiscal meltdown of 2008. Some bankers, financiers, mortgage brokers, and other unscrupulous actors within the home buying industry clearly acting in bad faith to push people with marginal credit into accepting marginal loan terms. The 'Occupy' folks are correct to note that the government has not done enough to pursue those private sector bad actors.

But what about the unscrupulous public sector actors?

While not blameless, Wall Street is an easy scapegoat. And investment houses that made billions slicing and dicing mortgages into CDOs, derivatives, credit default swaps and other exotic paper are easy to demonize. But the problem wasn't these financial instruments. Or even the obscene profits they generated. Mortgage-backed securities were nothing new, and we've always had speculation in the market.

The problem was the underlying assets: low-quality mortgages. We've never had so many junk home-loans poisoning the financial well before. And who poisoned the well? Washington and its affordable-housing policies.

It was Washington that declared prudent home-lending standards racist and gutted traditional underwriting rules in the name of diversity. It was government that created the risk on Main Street. Yes, Wall Street spread it, with the help of Treasury-backed Fannie and Freddie. But who's at greater fault for harming the village — the person who poisons the well or the one who distributes the water?

While there were many unscrupulous private sector actors, the opportunity to multiply the fiscal mayhem was created by our good friend, Uncle Sam.

Your Color Comrade?

2011-10-21T20:45:00.000-04:00

It works in other parts of Michigan as well. Our burst of color is about done now. But it was beautiful while it lasted.

Update: Dang. I hate sites that won't let the images be referred by another webpage. I'm even giving them some link love!

Whell Met My Friends

2011-10-20T07:27:00.000-04:00

Motorcycle helmets come in many shapes and colors. The folks from Hatari Helmets may have come up with the most interesting helmet of all. These helmets display video loops on the back surface.

Supposedly. I am a bit skeptical. The video shown on the helmets does not look like they have a working model. Their websites are via a couple of 'free' website builders. Something does not smell right.

I hope I am wrong as wearing one of those would be very cool.

Link via the Discovery Channel.

Classic Movie As Propaganda?

2011-10-19T17:47:00.000-04:00

A curiosity in the history of film; the CIA funded the animated movie adaptation of George Orwell's "Animal Farm". I am certain that some folks will find this situation to be dripping with irony under the believe that the CIA is a fountain of propaganda that should never be trusted.

Trusting the government is always risky business. The CIA certainly has a track record that should urge caution.

However, CIA funding should not be enough in an of itself to undermine Mr. Orwell's central theme; that tyranny, oppression, communism and socialism are synonymous and denigrate the human condition. They are a creeping, poisonous vine revealed at the moment whenever a "committee" is formed to "run things".

Drudge - THE American Editor

2011-10-18T07:33:00.000-04:00

This is a story from last month. Matt Drudge's website on 9/11 led with a banner showing various police agencies and the quote “These past 10 years have shown that America does not give in to fear.”

He presents precisely that sort of insightful juxtaposition on a routine basis. It is the sort of thing that makes his website the 'go to' resource for news and current events.

I do have to agree with one commenter that voices some frustration with following links from Drudge only to find that the story did not mesh well with the catch phrase shown on Drudge's website. It is a frustrating form of misdirection.

Rotten Applies

2011-10-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

How does one describe a situation were a person works for the government, pledges to not get involved in negotiations between his department and applicants, is married to someone that is a partner in a law firm working for an applicant, writes emails to other government agencies with oversight responsibilities to push for release of funds that will ultimately go to that applicant, and who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on behalf of a Presidential election campaign?

Do you suppose that there is some corruption in there somewhere?

“Any word from OMB?” Spinner wrote to a DOE staffer in reference to the Solyndra loan, which was awaiting approval from the Office of Management and Budget. “I have the OVP [Office of the Vice President] and WH [White House] breathing down my neck on this.”

Spinner was one of several department officials pushing to get a final decision on Solyndra in August 2009, ahead of a scheduled press event at which Vice President Joe Biden praised the company as “exactly what the Recovery Act [stimulus package] is all about.”

“How f***ing hard is this?” he wrote to another department official on Aug. 28, 2009. “What is he waiting for? Will we have it by the end of the day?”

Disappointing....to say the least. Given the many allegations of corruption against the Bush administration, why on earth is Mr. Obama's administration making the Bush administration look like amateurs?

And if you have not heard of Solyndra, then perhaps you ought to ask the somnolent "main steam media" what sort of watch dog they really are.

Ever See A Real Flying Carpet?

2011-10-16T07:00:00.000-04:00

I have. Sort of.

Watch the video.

Accurate...Now

2011-10-15T10:20:00.003-04:00

This David Horsey political cartoon was premature when it was created back in 2009.

Not any more.

Just......Stop.....Please

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

This story is from a couple weeks ago. Hank Williams Jr. decided that he would make the comparison between President Obama and....

Adolf Hitler.

This is almost enough to make me wish that I liked his music enough that a personal boycott would affect his income.

This demonizing of political opponents really needs to stop. It is more than enough to say that you disagree with someone over their policies.

Mr. Obama isn't Adolph Hitler. Nor is he Josef Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, or Che Guevara.

Mr. Obama is wrong on any number of economic issues. His Justice Department is an embarrassment.

That does not make him a monster. It simply makes him wrong on those...and other....issues. That should be more than enough justification to vote him out of office.

This kerfuffle is strictly the product of a decision by ESPN. It will be interesting to see if it should affect the NFL will address this year's Super Bowl half time entertainer, Madonna.

From 2008:

During the song “Get Stupid,” Madonna flashed images of McCain alongside photos of Hitler and brutal Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, as well as images of destruction and global warming, according to British paper The Times.

I can't cut her paycheck either. Sadly.

A Leak For Science

2011-10-13T12:00:00.000-04:00

They haven't perfected it yet, but it looks like we may someday be able to turn urine into rocket fuel.

Scientists on Sunday said they had gained insights into a remarkable bacterium that lives without oxygen and transforms ammonium, the ingredient of urine, into hydrazine, a rocket fuel.

So-called anammox -- for anaerobic ammonium oxidation -- germs caused a sensation when they were first identified in the 1990s, but uncovering their secrets is taking time.

In a letter published by the British science journal Nature, researchers at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands reported they had identified the molecular mechanism by which the bugs do their fuel-trick.

Sort of makes renting your beer on Friday night seem as if it is almost worthwhile!

Sort Of Like A Matryoshka Doll

2011-10-12T19:00:00.000-04:00

So we invented the PN junction. In turn we invented transistors. We figured out that transistors made great electronic switches. They can be included in circuits so they are either on...or "1"...or off...or "0". A basic, stable, two-state electronic circuit. We miniaturized transistors until we had very complex circuits all present on a very small computer chip.

And thus the computer was born. A computer is nothing more than a sequential command reader that looks at a row of data (1110010110001010) and seeing some positions on and others off, then changes holding locations known as registers. Those registers can then do other interesting things.

Say for example, one register can identify a single pixel on your screen. It can also determine the color of that tiny pixel. In the beginning, pixels didn't have color. They were either on, or they were off. And they were HUGE!! By changing pixels, you could create the world's first video game. Pong!

After a couple decades, pixels had gotten a lot smaller and they had gained the ability to be any one of 64 colors. And we developed cool games like Duke Nukem.

Then we took Duke into 3D land so you became Duke instead of walking him around on the screen. That led to a bunch of other "first person shooters" like Quake, Halo, and on and on and on. Surfaces became more detailed, and more granulated. Colors shot up from 64 to millions of colors. 16 to 32nd power or some such thing. A lot of colors! And the pixels were getting pretty tiny, too!

But all that variation, all the attempts to mimic reality, are just too much for some folks. Which is why the good folks at Mojang Studios came up with Minecraft.

In Minecraft, every element is a perfect square that is 64 x 64 x 64. You can look up close and see Pong sized pixels. Or you can back away and each dot on the face of a block becomes as small as a pixel on your screen.

Like Halo and other first person shooters, you can play Minecraft as the guy, or you can look over his shoulder as you make him run around and do his/your thing.

Now Minecraft has this stuff called Redstone. Redstone is a magical sort of substance as it responds to input to cause other things to move, or light up, or darken, or close, or open, or.....you get the point.

It wasn't long before someone had figured out how to create a circuit to pass either a "1" or a "0". Now it is possible to transmit one bit of information with your stable two-state circuit. And if you have enough stable two-state circuits, you have the beginnings of the modern video game.

Redstone Television!

Now that isn't really a video game. But I'm sure that someone, somewhere is working on assembling enough Redstone circuits so that two people can play a Redstone video game while playing inside the Minecraft video game.

Now THAT is entertainment!

Why Can You Roll Eighteen Double Ought For Strength....

2011-10-11T07:30:00.000-04:00

... but not for Intelligence?

Link love for The Order Of The Stick. And yes, those of us that enjoy Dungeons and Dragons are an odd lot.

Excessively....odd...sadly.

Who Is A Racist?

2011-10-10T07:35:00.000-04:00

After being subjected to two year's worth of slurs suggesting that the Tea Party is based in racism, the news of this weeks "Occupy" protest in Atlanta is spreading quickly. The group that is/was protesting there refused to let John Lewis, civil rights stalwart and legend, speak.

Congressman Lewis (D, GA) was ready to talk to the group, but they didn't give him a chance to speak.
"I was going to say, I stand with you. I support you, what you're down," said Lewis to the media.

He said he wasn't disappointed he wasn't able to address the crowd. Several people CBS Atlanta spoke to were upset.

Michelle Williams was excited to attend the event and no longer wanted to be associated with the movement, citing how Lewis was treated.

"I am angry because this is not what democracy is all about. This is Marxist more Stalin like. Your movement, you're just riff-raff. You're an organized mob," said Williams.

I am prepared to be a bit kinder....one might suggest more civil...than many left leaning polemicists by suggesting that the decision to not let Mr. Lewis speak was probably made by whatever passes for "leadership" in this movement and does not reflect the thoughts of the many participants.

I disagree with Mr. Lewis on a long list of issues. But even I would be interested in what he had to say.

A side note to Ms. Williams. The "leadership". This "movement". Marxist. Stalinist.

This isn't particularly new.

As Dr. Wes suggests, this group isn't particularly gifted with "clue".

Where To Cut First?

2011-10-09T11:00:00.000-04:00

The GAO released a report earlier this year that identified $200 billion in wasteful spending. Given our current annual deficits of roughly $1.4 trillion, cutting $200 billion in spending would represent a 14.3% reduction in the size of the deficit.

That is well short of 100%, but you take it where you can find it.

How many of those programs have the Republicans and Democrats in Congress cut? None.

What agency was targeted to have its budget cut? The GAO.

Demotivator - Consistency

2011-10-08T23:17:00.000-04:00

More here.

The Grass Has A Funny Color

2011-10-07T19:30:00.000-04:00

Via Instapundit comes the news that protesters at the DC version of "Occupy Wall Street" are not there because they support the cause. They are there for the paycheck.

Given the number of protests with lots of professionally printed SEIU signs, and other organizations, it isn't terribly surprising to learn that this leftist "movement" is really just AstroTurf. Again. It is as if everyone to the left of Bertolt Brecht bought stock in Monsanto.

A real movement doesn't have to pay its protesters.

A Twitter Feed Worth Considering

2011-10-07T07:00:00.000-04:00

I don't use Twitter. But if I did, #OccupyWhiteHouse2012 would be a tag I would follow.

The hashtag for the rest of us.

The silent majority.

The ones who pay the bills, and the taxes, and the tuitions, and the pensions, and the benefits, for the people who falsely claim to be the 99%.

The ones who did not graduate from the school of perpetual expectations and handouts.

The ones who falsely have been called terrorists and extremists and racists because they dared to object to trying the same socialist policies here that have failed everywhere they have been tried before.

The ones who showed up at the polls in 2010.

The ones who will show up at the polls in 2012.

Turning The Economic Engine On

2011-10-06T06:57:00.000-04:00

Finally, some light in the tunnel that doesn't come from a train.

The president's decision marks the first bright economic move he has made to boost the nation's ailing economy. Dropping tariffs, opening markets and equalizing investment terms are a proven way to boost economic growth.

...

The legislative process will begin next week, and both the White House and congressional leaders say the votes are there to pass it. But they always have been - the big change is the end of the president's hesitancy to submit them and Big Labor's campaign to block it.

Now if we could just get his administration to stop demonizing "the rich" and threatening to raise taxes while minimizing cuts to the federal budget.

Moral Behavior

2011-10-05T10:03:00.004-04:00

Morals - all correct moral laws - derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.

- Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

Parenthetically, this is one of my favorite books of all time. Ignore the movie. Read the book.

Freedom Works, Each And Every Time That It Is Tried

2011-10-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

Via Instapundit comes a link to an NPR story talking about the oil boom currently underway in the Big Sky states. The US, Canada, and the nations of South America are poised to out produce the Saudis and other Middle Eastern oil producers.

As a side bonus, we are sidelining the Russians that were in the habit of using natural gas as an economic weapon against Europe.

Drill baby drill!

Demotivator - Curiousity

2011-10-03T19:00:00.000-04:00

More here.

After 3 Years Of An Obama Adminstration...

2011-10-02T17:46:00.002-04:00

Click the image or the link for a larger, more detailed version.

Vocally From Another Dimension

2011-10-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

A small bit of history. I used to sing.

You have no doubt heard of the proverbial big fish in a small pond. We had a pretty decent pond. I was a keeper if I stretched my tail fins. A lot.

Though I don't sing much anymore, I do still enjoy music a great deal.

Which is why I absolutely love NBC's "The Sing Off". Sing Off is a competition between vocal groups that sing a cappella. For the musically unwashed, that means they don't use instruments.

These groups are musically tight. Great harmonies. Powerful melodies. And rhythm sections that are just killers.

I will be sharing a few performances with you as the weeks tick by. First up is Sonos. The judges spent a lot of time focusing on the fact that the group usually uses pedal boxes to mold their sound. For the competition, all of that "extra" stuff had to be put aside.

Truth be told, their first performance was not particularly great. But there was something in their arrangement and their performance that grabbed my attention.

I was so impressed that I started looking around for their website. Their music page includes a few samples to give you a better idea of what this group can do.

I knew after listening to the samples that I was in trouble.

Eventually, I found a video of Sonos doing the same song with all of their accoutrements.

Loved it. Bought both albums shortly thereafter.

I suspect that this group will not go far in the Sing Off competition. Their music is not what these judges generally look for.

But I can't wait for the mailman to arrive!

The Limits Of Artificial Intelligence

2011-09-30T19:00:00.000-04:00

XKCD is one of the coolest uber-geek comic strips going right now. Check out the 'mouse-over' text for an extra punchline. Thrice weekly fun and humour.

Glissaria

2011-09-29T19:54:00.000-04:00

I tried this a few weeks ago. Liked it. Sucked a few hours worth of time from my life.

Worth a few minutes of yours. Combines the elements of a "match 5" game with strategic elements of defending a castle using towers. I have played both types of games and usually have more fun with the latter. This combination was very enjoyable.

Glissaria.

You can thank me later.

Demotivator - Wealth

2011-09-28T23:20:00.000-04:00

More here.

Everybody Gets A Chance

2011-09-27T19:00:00.000-04:00

My disagreements with Mr. Obama's policy are many. Yet in a single moment in a single interview, he has offered me a modest reason for hope.

"What has always made this country great is the belief that everybody has got a chance," Obama said. "Regardless of race, regardless of creed."

Indeed. Disagreements, criticisms, and other acts of profunditerotery* aside, I remain proud of having Mr. Obama as my President. I was proud of his predecessor as well, so I suppose the preceding won't mean much with some people.

*Nothing wrong with sacrificing a bit of the English language when it fails to provide more suitable fodder. In this case, I thought of the following as I was typing.

profound - (what writer is not seeking a concise phrase that illuminates the human condition?)
pundit - (most bloggers carp a lot, too)
idiot - (the better bloggers will admit to moments of idiocy before all four limbs are tied behind their backs)
erotic - ('cause you always get accused of screwing someone)

Baby Tonight!

2011-09-26T07:25:00.000-04:00

This is hilarious. I wish the game would really let you behead creepers!

If you do not understand the video, then you have not been here!