Karma Doesn't Always Work That Way

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

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?

Your Color Comrade?

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

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?

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

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

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?

I have.  Sort of.

Watch the video.

Accurate...Now

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

Not any more.

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

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

A Leak For Science

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

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....

... 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?

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?

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

More here.

The Grass Has A Funny Color

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

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

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

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

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

More here.

After 3 Years Of An Obama Adminstration...

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

Vocally From Another Dimension

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.

The Limits Of Artificial Intelligence

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

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

More here.

Everybody Gets A Chance

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!

 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!

Censorship

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything - you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.

- If This Goes On, by Robert Heinlein

Offered in honor of Banned Books Week.

Inquisting Minds Want To Know...

A Little Something Different...To Eat!

Inspired by Ruth at Nostalgic For the Pleistocene, I thought I would try a little food blogging.

I was poking through the freezer when I found some psuedo-crab that was quickly headed towards freezer-burn-dom.  Crab is a favorite of mine.  Even the fake sort of crab is tasty to me.

Cookery to the rescue!

This is the time of year when local farmers put fresh produce out on "honor stands".  We have one around the corner that claims to be "organic".  We found another one a few miles away that had fresh corn.  Yum!

My beloved bride loves zucchini.  We slice it, run it through an egg wash, dip it in seasoned flour, and fry it up.  We also use a lot of it in zucchini bread in the winter.

But you cannot get zucchini in the middle of winter.  So we buy a lot of it in the fall.  As a result, there were several courgettes sitting on the counter.

I tossed the salvagable frozen crab into a medium frying pan with some seasame oil, five spice, powdered ginger, paprika, and powdered garlic.  I added zucchini chopped into large cubes and some red onion.

Scott Conant be damned.

I think I probably should have held off on adding the crab meat.  The chunks of zucchini needed a little more cooking and the crab kind of fell apart by the time the zucchini was done.

Towards the end I added some seasame and ginger marinade that we had in the fridge.

As I pulled the mix out of the pan, I wasn't terribly certain that I had something that was....um....edible.

Surprise!  It was pretty good! 

A bed of pasta or rice would have made it perfect.  Next time, I would like to have some red peppers to toss into the pot.  Perhaps some broccoli as well.

At Low, Low Rates!

Via Zero Hedge, and all of the unquantified credibility that the anonymity of the site suggests.

The group wondered aloud why the Treasury and the Congress were not being more opportunistic. Rates are at historical lows. Why aren’t we issuing 50 year or even 100 year treasuries? At these exceptional rates, that would allow us time enough and room enough to put the debt in order - a chance to structure the debt hodgepodge in an almost logical manner. It would give us a chance to hand off to our children something far less burdensome.

More ice cubes were marinated and the brain trust (ex me) concluded that the primary deterrent probably was that going to a 50 or 100 year might raise interest costs somewhat. That would yield, quickly, to political finger-pointing.

So, here it was again - politics. I don’t want to be accused of “busting the budget” by auctioning something that yields several basis points more. “The kids? The hell with the kids! They ain’t voting in this election.”

 I do not know if this conversation ever existed, but I think the idea is reasonably sound.  We use short term treasuries to access much lower interest rates.  But now long term interest rates are lower than short term rates were a few years ago.  Doesn't it make sense to lock in the low rates now?

Mental Break

A New Biopic On Hitler?

I am sure you have seen many send-ups using this stretch of video.  This one is pretty damned good.  It is a little old.  It takes me a while to get around.

Hitler and the Bollywood Biopic from Gregory Atkins on Vimeo.

Mr. Obama's Great White Whale

Every time I hear Mr. Obama talk about raising taxes on the 'rich'....

Every time I hear Mr. Obama speak derisively about the luxury of private jets....

Every time I hear a story about Mr. Obama's NCLB appointees halting the construction of a new Boeing plant in South Carolina....

Every time I read about Mr. Obama's EPA initiatives to install 'Cap and Trade' and other anti-CO₂ measures without the benefit of Congressional authorization...

Every time I think of the impact of Obamacare...

I think of the above cartoon.  I've been thinking of the cartoon long before Mr. Ramirez drew it!

Investment drives our economy.  The wealthy and corporations are sitting on huge piles of cash instead of investing it because they fear that new taxes and regulations will make it impossible to recoup those investments.  This isn't about making new money.  It is about recovering the invested principle.

Those investments create jobs.  Jobs like the union jobs in Kansas and Oklahoma that build private jets.  Jobs like the non-union jobs created by the Boeing plant in South Carolina.  (For transparency, my employer has sold and will continue to sell products being used to build that plant.  In the larger scheme of things, it isn't a lot of money.  For us, the amounts are significant.  We also do business with other Boeing plants as well as the aircraft manufacturers in Kansas and Oklahoma.)

The government needs revenue.  Some regulations are indeed required.

There is a reason why the United States had a 'Great Depression' while the rest of the world had a depression.  There is a reason why the United States is in a 'Great Recession' while the rest of the world had a recession.

That reason is an excess of government and a lack of individual liberty.  When Mr. Obama comes to view individuals...and corporations...as being not only qualified and capable of operating without total government direction, but also far more qualified at discerning the best use of their money, then we will see a recovery.

Showing Us What He Has Got

President Barack Obama used a boisterous Labor Day rally to put congressional Republicans on the spot, challenging them to place the country's interests above all else and vote to create jobs and put the economy back on a path toward growth. "Show us what you've got," he said.

That is precisely what they have been doing, Mr. Obama.  One of the primary reasons why employers have not been hiring new workers is due to uncertainty.  Specifically, they are uncertain if future labor, market, and tax conditions/policies will make it possible to earn a profit.  Repeated calls for punitive taxes on the "rich", our out of control federal deficit spending, initiatives that openly place union interests far above that of business owners, and regulations that raise the cost of business justify those concerns.  

The problem is not that the GOP has yet to "Show us what [they've] got."  The problem is that Mr. Obama and his allies in Congress have shown us what they have got for far too long.  And the people with any money left are doing the smart thing by sitting on it until something changes to make being in business in America profitable again.

In Which My Chickens Come Home To Roost

Those that know me best, and my friends, not necessarily one and the same, but that is how it works some times...erm...

Those that know me best, and my friends, would tell my gentle readers that I possess a modest disposition towards the arcane and obscure.  I suspect that they would actually use the phrase "inane and irrelevant", but I do try to think the best of the people in my life.

My love of esoterica is not as pronounced as others.  Some prime examples of people a little more focused on reconditia would be the main characters portrayed by the cast of "The Big Bang Theory".  The obvious exception being the character "Penny" as portrayed by that vision of loveliness that is Kaley Cuoco.

Since we are on the subject of "The Big Bang Theory", that is one of our favorite shows here in the Todd household.  We find this program immensely amusing.  Many is the evening when we are howling with laughter over some insane premise made plausible by the thespian talents of the ensemble.

I find "The Big Bang Theory" hilarious because I recognize a few modest traits that I have in common with the characters.  I am then deeply, deeply, deeply grateful that I am not the sort of person to ever engage in the sort of techno-geek behaviors presented on this program.  I know for certain that my minor predilections would never lead me into those kinds of socially awkward situations.

I suspect my lovely and vivacious bride does not share that opinion.  I have no idea why.

Some time ago, I noticed that the Executive Producer, Mr. Chuck Lorre, has included a "vanity card" at the end of each episode of "The Big Bang Theory".  I recently learned that he has been offering these vanity cards at the end of all of his programs.

I first noticed the vanity cards at the end of the episode that aired on April 28, 2011.  This episode featured a monkey that appeared to be smoking.  The monkey was being studied by Amy Farrah Fowler, the girl who is also a friend but certainly not a "girlfriend" of Dr. Sheldon Cooper.  In this particular vanity card, Mr. Lorre thoughtfully sought to reassure his viewers that the monkey had in fact not been actually smoking throughout the show.  Although I was taken aback to learn of the heroin addiction problem. 

Having discovered this veritable treasure trove of minutiae, I thought that my beloved bride would be equally enthused to learn of this source of information and occasional humour.

Unfortunately, the combination of our television size and the selected font makes the task of reading these vanity cards quite difficult.  In addition to the "pause" button on the remote, we also have a "zoom" button to aid in the viewing of side boob and cleavage shots small text.

Having rendered the text readable, I elected to engage in a recitation.  I anticipated a warm reception from my beloved bride.  I imagined an enthusiastic response that included clapping.

This particular vanity card is number 206.  You can read the whole thing here, but what is the point of going there when I am presently going to rip off Mr. Lorre's work.

To create an appropriate re-creation of this event, you need to use your best "announcer voice" and read aloud the following passage originally written by the esteemed Mr. Lorre:

I think we can all agree that the cliche, "no pain, no gain," is a fundamental truth. When we experience physical pain in the gym, we gain muscles and stamina. When we endure hardship and sacrifice in order to succeed, we gain a feeling of satisfaction and achievement, not to mention financial rewards. When we truly embrace emotional pain, we gain compassion for the suffering of others, an appreciation for the fleeting nature of things, as well as wisdom and spiritual humility. Every act of birth is an act of pain. Our very lives are sustained by the suffering and death of plants and animals, who in turn are sustained by other organisms having a very bad day. That being said, I think we can also agree that this system sucks and needs to be seriously re-jiggered. Now I'm not saying I have a better approach than this pain/gain thing that's been in place for millions of years -- but that doesn't mean we couldn't start tossing around some ideas. For instance, why couldn't an infrastructure for life be developed around the theme, "no dream, no gain?" Sounds like heaven, right? Or is dreaming too easy? Would life quickly become complacent and cease to gain? But then, is gain really that critical? Or is gain the whole point? Is the fact that life exists at all proof that God or the universe hates complacency? It certainly explains why aboriginal people are constantly being murdered for the sake of "progress." It even explains why HBO went down the toilet.

Having regaled my beloved...and did I mention vivacious?...bride with this virtuoso spoken word performance, I laughed and turned to my beloved bride to inquire as to her thoughts on the occasion.

She was sound asleep in her chair.

Please stop laughing.

On the bright side, she never reads my blog, so she will never know about this little episode.

No...really....please stop laughing.

A Marine Stands Alone

And honors us all.

Code Of Conduct

Freedom Comes With High Price Indeed

Never forget.  National POW/MIA Recognition Day. 

We are exceedingly fortunate that we have only one MIA in the current War on Terror suspected to still be alive.  We are exceedingly unfortunate to have had our other MIA service-members be killed by their captors.

Some people never hear the words "welcome home".

• World War II - 74,074 MIA
• Korean War - 8,177 MIA
• Vietnam War - 1,713 MIA
• Cold War - 165 MIA
• War On Terror - 2 MIA
• 1 in Iraq, currently presumed dead and not recovered
• 1 in Afghanistan, presumed alive and in the custody of his captors

No Coincidences Revisited - POW/MIA Day 2011

I posted this on my original "Dain Bramage" blog back on 9 September 2006.  I offer it again in recognition of National POW/MIA Day.

And in honor of Scott D. Ketchie.  A son of Alabama who has yet to return home.  I remain honored to wear a bracelet bearing his name.

The Worst Day Of His Life

Dakota Meyer readily identifies the worst day of his life.  It is the day four of his friend died.  And regardless of what he did, Dakota couldn't stop them from dying.

I am willing to bet that he can identify the second worst day of his life.  The day they hung a medal on him for what he did while those friends were dying.

Hours before receiving the nation's highest award for military valor, a humble Marine from Kentucky wonders, why he's being honored for "the worst day of my life." 23-year old Sergeant Dakota Meyer told CBS Radio News, "it's going to be a hard time" when President Obama presents the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony.

...

"If I was a hero I would have brought them out alive that day. That's a hero. I was just doing my job," he told CBS News.

...

Asked about a message to future Marines, Meyer said, "You got to do what's right." His voice choking with emotion, he added, "Leave no marine behind."

Reading the coverage (scroll down for the links), Sgt. Meyer sounds like the prototypical U.S. Marine.  Decent, focused, hardworking.  The best friend a person could ever hope to have.

A class act, he agreed to accept the Medal of Honor as a memorial to his friends that died that day.  He asked that members of his unit be present so that they too could be honored.

Watch the presentation ceremony...



Seeing all of the past Medal of Honor recipients in attendance, I hope that they offer him the support and advice he needs the most.  They are the voice of the nearly singular experience that they have in common.

While he would gladly trade that bit of gold and ribbon to have his four friends back with him, he should never forget the thirty-six lives that he did save.  And he should never forget the thirty-seventh life he saved that day; his own.  For Sgt. Dakota Meyer is loved, respected, and honored for being who he is.  He is the quintessential American hero.  And we should be humbled to have him walk among us.

Kudos to President Obama for his presentation speech.

A Status Check On Your Activities...

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Internet.  Have a nice day!

My Most Successful Post?

One of the features in the new Blogger interface is a statistics page.  It shows you all sorts of interesting things like how many times people have visited your blog and what entries they viewed.

My number one post?  The one about the National Geographic diving photos.

I expect the number of page views to that entry to bump up a little more now.

This is a little disappointing in a way.  I hope to bring you something mildly interesting to read whenever I create a new post.  Given that I do tend to lean towards politically oriented entries, I had hoped that one of those would create the most interest.

And The Counter Argument Is?

Simon over at Classical Values is taking a look at response to a recent Sarah Palin speech.

That is all explained rather reasonably by what Palin said,“We have the highest federal corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. Did you know our rates are higher than China and Communist Cuba?”

The essence of the plan is to attract businesses to America by making America the best place in the world to do business. It seems like a good idea to me.

 Ahem....me, too!

I would gladly entertain a logical counter-argument for eliminating the corporate income tax.

What Media Bias? - NPR Edition

I expect better from NPR's news reporting staff.

In his most recent speech, Mr. Obama claimed that Abraham Lincoln founded the GOP.  He didn't.  He joined the GOP two years after it the first convention.

Not a huge gaffe in the larger scheme of things.  But similar, inconsequential gaffes have been committed...and sometimes were not committed but where inferred by the media....by contenders within the GOP and resulted in all sorts of tongue clicking, tsking, and other forms of disapproval by the media.

In this case?  NPR simply omits the gaffe from their transcript.

But let's not get sidetracked by issues of media bias.  I am 100% certain that the media has no way of influencing any portion of the electorate.

Sure.  Right.

Shoot The Bastards Instead

The NYTimes has this recent report indicating that the government will....finally....press charges of fraud against some of the architects of the 2008 fiscal meltdown.

The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among others, according to three individuals briefed on the matter.

I have been contemplating a much larger essay on the causes of the 2008 meltdown.  There were many.

It is now patently clear that the size and scope of the meltdown would have been far less were it not for outright fraud on the part of elements of the banking industry.  I read a piece in Vanity Fair a couple years back that made it clear that Goldman Sachs, innovator of the credit default swap form of securities, had the internal position that those securities were bad risks while simultaneously selling those same securities [to] investors.

Were I of a less temperate nature, I might suggest that stringing Goldman Sachs executives and managers up by the balls and letting the crows feast on their rotting flesh is a fit punishment.  Similarly, I might suggest that distaff Goldman Sachs executives and managers be subjected to forcible sex change operations so that they can be strung up by their balls so that crows might feast on their rotting flesh.

I am too much of a lesbian to ever want to hurt a vagina.

Unfortunately, securities fraud cases are notoriously hard to prove.  The second difficulty is that many of the more obviously instances of potential fraud were committed by companies that no longer exist.  Via Megan McArdle:

Securities cases are hard to prove in the best of circumstances--even Eliot Spitzers' famous crusade against Wall Street consisted of getting fairly minor settlements from most of the big fish he went after . . . and losing every case he took to court.  The first mortgage securities case to go to trial, with two Bear Stearns bankers, likewise returned a "not guilty" verdict.  Many of these same banks got themselves in serious financial trouble by gorging on their own toxic mortgage securities, which dims the fraud angle.  Unfortunately, being arrogant idiots with the risk appetite of a coked-up skydiver is not a crime.

On the issuance side, most of the knowing, obviously provable fraud seems to have been at the mortgage broker level, or in mortgage mills that are now out of business.  Proving that someone ought to have known that they were being scammed is harder--especially since they can argue that if they ought to have known, so should the GSEs.

Shooting them where they stand seems a cleaner solution.  I am open to suggestions involving tar and feathers.

In The Wake Of Chaos

I found the following while digging around on my hard drive.  I believe that this was eventually published by the local paper; the Jackson Citizen Patriot.  The then editorial page editor, Ken Wyatt, was generous with his space whenever I had something to share with his readers.

This was written in the wake of 9/11/2001, when we had so many questions, and so few answers.  Little has changed.  So much has changed.

A Classy Tribute - Video

Budweiser apparently did not run this commercial for very long.  But I think it was a classy way to acknowledge the tragedy without being overtly commercial about it.

Edit:  I believe this commercial was made explicitly for today's games.  The full ad includes a reference to a 9/11 charity at the end.  The myth running around Facebook is that they made it in 2001 and didn't run it more than a few times to avoid the appearance of trading on the tragedy for corporate gain.

Cynics will say they still are realizing some sort of corporate gain.  Perhaps.  But it is a classy tribute, and they are promoting a valid charity as well.

Ten Years On...

I am not usually taken with overly passionate remembrances.  I participate in a few only due to my membership in a veteran's organization; the VFW.  While I have been known to 'wave the bloody shirt' infrequently, I am not terribly fascinated with such activities.

Yet here we are; ten years after.

Chaos!

There is but one description for Robin Williams; CHAOS!!!

Another Star Wars Edit??

Oh no!

Keynesian? Really?

Nick Gillespie over at Reason makes the salient point that current federal spending is not really what John Maynard Keynes had in mind when he suggested that government spending in a down cycle might spur growth.

But Whalen isn't simply dumping on Keynesianism, he's bent on pointing out that even its latter-day adherents are straying far from their master's theory. And in this, he's surely correct. As Allen Meltzer has argued, Keynes was against the very sort of large structural deficits that characterize contemporary federal budgets and policy, believing instead that deficits should be "temporary and self-liquidating." And Keynes believed that any sort of counter-cyclical spending by government should be directed toward increasing private investment, not simply spending current and future tax dollars on public works projects.

Nick quotes Mike Whalen in an article posted at The Washington Times.  Mike suggests...

If the federal government announced a real road map to fiscal soundness, the impact would be truly stimulating. If American businesses and consumers saw that Washington was really cutting, not just reducing future increases, there would be tremendous relief and an increase in confidence across the country. Job creators would sing “hallelujah”; they would get off their wallets, start hiring, and then you’d see that Keynesian multiplier kick in.

Which is a point that the current Administration and their supporters keep passing over as if it did not exist.

A big part of the problem with the sluggish economy is that business owners can see current government spending, and future spending obligations as being capable of turning a sour economy into a really dismal economy.  Greco-Japanese dismal.

When they are convinced that their sidelined capital could be safely invested with the reasonable expectation of making a profit in the bargain, then they will begin investing.

All this talk of raising taxes on "the rich" and passing behemoth federal programs does nothing more than reinforce the idea that they are better off sitting on their cash.

Incivility

The talking heads are all agog over James Hoffa Jr.'s Labor Day pronouncement where he offered the services of organized labor to 'take these son of bitches out.'  The 'son of bitches' being the Tea Party and other fiscally responsible people.

This is Jimmy Hoffa's son!  Is anyone really surprised that he would threaten violence to those that hinder his agenda?

What is disappointing this lack....thus far....of comment from Mr. Obama's administration.  It wasn't terribly long ago when a terrible rampage that resulted in several deaths and serious harm to U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords prompted the same people to lecture the nation...and the right in specific...on the idea of civility and rhetorical restraint.  A simple image using a set of crosshairs within a partisan exhortation to organize voters to vote was deemed too 'extreme' for civil discourse.

One wonders what they think of 'take these son of bitches out.'

Or is this more of the 'do as I say, but not as I do' that has long been the rage among the political class.

More via the Blogfather.

This response from Sarah Palin is spot on:

When big government, big business, and big union bosses collude together, they get government to maximize their own interests against those of the rest of the country.

...

This collusion is at the heart of Obama’s economic vision for America. In practice it is socialism for the very rich and the very poor, but a brutal form of capitalism for the rest of us. It is socialism for the very poor who are reduced to a degrading perpetual dependence on a near-bankrupt centralized government to provide their every need, while at the same time robbing them of that which brings fulfillment and success - the life-affirming pride that comes from taking responsibility for your own destiny and building a better life through self-initiative and work ethic. And Obama’s vision is socialism via crony capitalism for the very rich who continue to get bailouts, debt-ridden "stimulus" funds, and special favors that allow them to waive off or help draft the burdensome regulations that act as a boot on the neck to small business owners who don’t have the same friends in high places. And where does this collusion leave working class Americans and the small business owners who create 70% of the jobs in this country? Out in the cold. It’s you and your children who are left paying for the cronyism of Obama and our permanent political class in DC.

When she talks about small business owners that create 70% of our jobs, I can't help but think about Mitt Romney's attempt at socialized medicine in Massachusetts.   They allowed big business to opt out of the statewide plan.  Big businesses get huge healthcare discounts.  Small businesses need not apply.

Government continually works on behalf of big business while expecting small businesses to foot the bill.  It is all about using political power in support of large....nowhere near 'majority' large....groups at the expense of the individual.

Freedom Of Speech Or Religious Intolerance

From the National Review comes this report about a United Nations initiative to create a framework for limiting any criticism of Islam.

An unprecedented collaboration between the Obama administration and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, formerly called the Organization of the Islamic Conference) to combat “Islamophobia” may soon result in the delegitimization of freedom of expression as a human right.

...

But thanks to a puzzling U.S. diplomatic initiative that was unveiled in July, Resolution 16/18 is poised to become a springboard for a greatly reinvigorated international effort to criminalize speech against Islam, the very thing it was designed to quash.

Citing a need to “move to implementation” of Resolution 16/18, the Obama administration has inexplicably decided to launch a major international effort against Islamophobia in partnership with the Saudi-based OIC. This is being voluntarily assumed at American expense, outside the U.N. framework, and is not required by the resolution itself.

Will there be any reciprocity?  Will Muslim majority countries stop persecuting those of other faiths?  Will those countries pass laws to protect those that exercise their right to leave Islam, or even convert to another faith, instead of the current practice of prison...or worse?

Will the synagogues that used to exist before the re-creation of Isreal be rebuilt?  Will there the Saudis reform their education curriculum that teaches that polytheists are to be killed, that Christians are enemies, and that Islam should be spread via 'jihad'?

I'm not holding my breath.

This initiative is shaping up to be one-sided. As Akram said, “The Resolution 16/18 was driven more by the kind of discrimination in Europe and the West in general against Muslims.” He added: “I don’t think any country in the Muslim world is deliberately discriminating against minorities.” Ihsanoglu took a similar tack, writing that “the Islamic faith is based on tolerance and acceptance of other religions. It does not condone discrimination of human beings on the basis of caste, creed, color, or faith.”

To be clear, my position is that every person retains the individual right to be criticize every religion that exists, has existed, or ever will exist.  That right greatly supersedes the sensitivities of any religious community.

The UN is no friend of liberty.  It places freedom of speech in second place to the "purposes and principles" of global governance.

(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Happy Birthday, Freddy

You are sorely missed.

Don't miss the thoughts of Dr. Brian May regarding his old friend on what should have been Freddy Mercury's 65th birthday.

Yes? 

Yes, Brian is a doctor.  Astrophysics. "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud"

Welcome To My Blogroll

Mike Peterson!

Wait.  He was already on there. And now he is on there twice??

Ayuh.

Mike has been writing a couple of different blogs.  I read them from time to time.  His Comic Strip Of The Day continues his habit of insightful and inciting writing.  I have added to this blog to my Google Reader list and anticipate great things in the days to come.

New Blogger Interface

If you blog via Blogger, you may have noticed an offer to use the new Blogger interface.  I did.

Veeerrry interesting!  I can now see how many hits I get per day and who is my biggest referrer.

Speaking of my biggest referrer, thanks Ruth!

And the new interface appears to have all the old publishing features.  I'll stick with it for a while.

Silly Ira!

Don't ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.

-Time Enough For Love, by Robert Heinlein

Leftists Back Cutting Corporate Income Taxes

Which is a bit of a milestone.  But given how little we collect and how much gets spent enforcing and complying with those laws, isn't better to just eliminate the corporate income tax?

That would make the US a tax haven.  Just think of all the money that would be parked here!

NASCAR And Mr. Obama

The Intertubes have been all atwitter over the apparent snub of Mr. Obama by five of NASCAR's best drivers.

NASCAR said Thursday that five drivers – Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart – will not be attending the White House visit due to "schedule conflicts."

They must be very busy people. Regardless of one's political views, the president is still the president – and an opportunity to speak with the leader of the free world is a rare and special one.

I'm not so sure that a snub was intended.  As is frequently the case, an instant response is not necessarily the best response.  Some of those accused of snubbing Mr. Obama have been there before and would like to go back again.  They really do have events schedules months in advance that cannot be changed.

Some media outlets reported that Kurt Busch wouldn't be going to the White House, either. Not so. His team rescheduled an important photo shoot for next year's merchandise and marketing campaigns, a session that must be done by the end of the month to get everything ready before the team heads to Daytona for the start of the 2012 season.

"All along, it was my intention to go," Busch said. "Who's going to turn down an opportunity to go to the White House? For me, it's an honor and a privilege. I have met both Bush and Obama. To be a Chase driver and go to the White House, that's an important visit. You might not make the Chase every year and miss out on those opportunities."

 Jeff Burton, scheduled to attend from the beginning of this kerfuffle, had an interesting thought.

Burton said all the debate about NASCAR's visit to the White House symbolizes a larger divide within the country.

"Ten years ago, after 9-11, this country was unified. This country was together," he said. "Today, we're sitting here talking as if someone, for political reasons, is going or not going to the White House. And we wonder why this country is in trouble. We can point the finger and blame all the people in Washington. Well, maybe we need to look in the damn mirror a little bit. Really. It's our country."

Calvin And Hobbes Mashups

Forever Geek has a set of twenty mashups of Calvin and Hobbes with various themes.  One of the more ironic was "John Calvin & Thomas Hobbes".

My personal favorite?

This one...

It doesn't hurt that I'm reading that series right now.  Although I foolishly started with the second book.  It took nearly half the book before I could get into it.

Bea Authur

Reportedly, her last public appearance/performance.  A reading of great literature.

"Great" being liberally defined.

"Liberally" being used in the original, non-political sense.

Quoting Heinlein

The first in a series of posts presenting the wisdom or of Robert A. Heinlein.

I am not going to talk about religious beliefs, but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them.

I believe in my neighbors.

I know their faults and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults. Take Father Michael down our road a piece --I'm not of his creed, but I know the goodness and charity and lovingkindness that shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike; if I'm in trouble, I'll go to him. My next-door neighbor is a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat. No fee -- no prospect of a fee. I believe in Doc.

I believe in my townspeople. You can knock on any door in our town say, 'I'm hungry,' and you will be fed. Our town is no exception; I've found the same ready charity everywhere. For the one who says, 'To heck with you -- I got mine,' there are a hundred, a thousand, who will say, 'Sure, pal, sit down.'

I know that, despite all warnings against hitchhikers, I can step to the highway, thumb for a ride and in a few minutes a car or a truck will stop and someone will say, 'Climb in, Mac. How how far you going?'

I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime, yet for every criminal there are 10,000 honest decent kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up, business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news; it is buried in the obituaries --but it is a force stronger than crime.

I believe in the patient gallantry of nurses...in the tedious sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and unending fight against desperate odds that goes on quietly in almost every home in the land.

I believe in the honest craft of workmen. Take a look around you. There never were enough bosses to check up on all that work. From Independence Hall to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things were built level and square by craftsmen who were honest in their bones.

I believe that almost all politicians are honest. For every bribed alderman there are hundreds of politicians, low paid or not paid at all, doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true, we would never have gotten past the thirteen colonies.

I believe in Rodger Young. You and I are free today because of endless unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River.

I believe in -- I am proud to belong to -- the United States. Despite shortcomings, from lynchings to bad faith in high places, our nation has had the most decent and kindly internal practices and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history.

And finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown --in the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability....and goodness.....of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth, that we always make it just by the skin of our teeth --but that we will always make it....survive....endure. I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching, oversize brain case and the opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes, will endure --will endure longer than his home planet, will spread out to the other planets, to the stars, and beyond, carrying with him his honesty, his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage --and his noble essential decency.

This I believe with all my heart. 

- This I Believe, Robert Heinlein, for the Edward R. Murrow project of the same name.

Me too.  Although I would include the Mekong Delta, the Euphrates, and the Arghandab as appropriate substitutes for the Yalu.

NYTimes Identifies Media Bias...

...and says "fine by us!"

Shocking news via the NYTimes.  MSNBC is a bastion of leftist opinion.  And not much else.

And that may be the problem with Mr. Sharpton’s cable news pulpit: what he means to say is in lockstep with every other MSNBC evening program, making the stretch between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. a nonstop lecture on liberal values and what is wrong with the Republican Party.

...

There is almost no real debate on any of these evening shows: a conservative is brought on and put on the spot, then in a different segment two people who agree with the host on a given issue answer the host’s questions, usually, with words like "you’re so right."

...

And in the evening at least, MSNBC is less a news provider than a carousel of liberal opinion - potential conflicts of interest are swept aside in the swirl of excitable guests.

Emphasis added.

Aaaaand then they start covering for him.

Others complain that nowadays Mr. Sharpton is a little too cozy with the powers that be: last year, Comcast enlisted Mr. Sharpton to help lobby for its bid to buy NBC Universal, which owns MSNBC. Both Mr. Sharpton and Comcast deny any quid pro quo, and it’s hard to believe Mr. Sharpton’s support would be worth the risk to ratings - besides, back then he was untried, and MSNBC had no vacancies.

More important, in a cable universe in which former Gov. Eliot Spitzer can get his own cable show on CNN (however briefly) some two years after having to leave office because he hired prostitutes, it’s hard to quibble over Mr. Sharpton’s reputation 20 years ago.

I'm not sure which part is more shocking.  That the NYTimes would publish anything suggesting that MSNBC is biased, or that they conclude the story by papering over Mr. Sharpton's many faults.

Perhaps it is the oblique suggestion that Mr. Sharpton do the electric slide.

Any low frequency hum that you hear may be safely ignored.  It's just my head spinning.

This Promises To Be Good

One of my favorite strips is Sinfest.  His take on religion is one of the most thought provoking that I have every seen.  And I am a reformed Christian/modern skeptic!

Our New Religion

Environmentalism.

Via the National Review comes this story from the NYTimes about how schools "encourage" students and parents to use reusable lunch packing materials.

I am all for using reusable materials.  I am not so hot on recycling because it is a pain in the ass where I live.  We do use the reusable plastic/fiber shopping bags in lieu of the "plastic or paper" conundrum.

And schools do have a role to play when it comes to reinforcing morals.

However, morality begins and ends at home.  If mom and/or dad decide that plastic baggies and paper bags are what you get, then it is up to the schools to adapt.  Not the parents.

Perhaps they should consider having one bin for food, one for plastic, and one for paper so that little Timmy and Tammy can practice recycling at school and skip the sermons.

'Cause..yeah....it has become a religion in some corners of the country.

Demotivator - Bailouts

For more

Book Recommendation - Desert Spear

 I picked up "The Warded Man" by Peter Brett some time ago.  It was one of those deals where you buy so many books and you get one free.  Not wanting to waste a free book....well, there you go.

"The Desert Spear" is the second book in what promises to be a five book series.  We met Jardir in "The Warded Man".  We learn his story in "The Desert Spear".

Jardir is a prince of the desert; sworn to lead his men as they kill the demons that rise from the earth each night while the women and children are kept safe deep within the city.  We follow his life from his beginning as a son of a father that had died without honor.  His tenacity and drive let him excel in the combat school where boys are sorted into either men that fight demons or khaffit; an honor less class held in the same low esteem as women and children.

Protected...not a protector...as is Jardir.

And now Jardir leads his people to invade the people of the north-lands seeking to unite humanity against the demons in the coming final conflict.

After his duplicity in the first book, I was unsurprised to find that I liked Jardir less after reading more about him in the second book.  I was surprised to find that I also liked him more.

Read the first book...then read this one.

Raiding The Music Makers

It was recently reported that federal agents have raided the Gibson guitar company.  This is the second such raid.  The purported justification for the raids is that it is against Indian (the ones in Asia, not in North America) law for Indian wood to be harvested and not finished by an Indian.  Importing unfinished wood from India is a violation of their laws and as a result, it is also a violation of the amended Lacey Act.

The Lacey Act makes it a federal crime to import wood in a manner that is not compliant with the laws of the exporting country.

It was also reported that the government of India did not initiate a complaint with the U.S. government.  Federal agents were acting of their own volition.

Ordinarily, I would chalk this episode up to the sort of predictable lunacy that results from our leviathan federal  government.  Granting government agents power to enforce vague or poorly written laws inevitably results in some agent somewhere doing something really, really stupid.

Like raiding an American manufacturing company and seizing their inventory without any complaint from the country of origin of a legally imported material.

If Gibson had openly purchased the wood from Indian companies and exported it in an open and documented fashion, then the government of India had an opportunity to stop the process on their side of the ocean.  The fact that they did nothing to halt the shipment suggests that their enforcement policies differ from their laws in some way.  In any case, the government of India made their choice.  Who are our government agents to suggest that the purchase and exportation of the wood was in violation Indian law if Indian government agents permitted the purchase and exportation to move forward?

Unless Gibson smuggled the wood out of India, I don't see the problem.  This is not a rare species of wood.  The importation of the wood did not create any environmental risk in the United States.

So why do such a thing?  Aren't we focused on creating (or 'saving') American jobs?

Ordinarily I am loathe to turn to a cynical explanation.  Via Instapundit:

UPDATE: What a coincidence! CEO of Gibson Guitar a Republican Donor. And their Democratic-donating competitor, Martin, uses the same wood but wasn’t raided. Well, when you’ve got a President who jokes about tax audits as revenge for a personal slight, it’s hard not to be suspicious, isn’t it?

Rather Nixonian behavior if you ask me.  And most certainly disappointing.

The next time someone suggests that we can't eliminate any federal jobs, I will promptly remind them of this episode of government gone wild.

Fixing Teeth With "Paint"

One of the primary reasons why I follow Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit is that he has an eclectic range of interests.  One of those interests is the advancements in medical knowledge and the application of that knowledge in new treatments, therapies, and procedures.

Recently, Glenn pointed out a link at FuturePundit about dental researchers discovering a substance that can be painted on teeth that will arrest decay and may even cause the damaged tooth to regrow itself.

Fascinating.

As Glenn would say...."Faster, please!"

Book Recommendation - The Warded Man

Demons rise for a nightly feast of human flesh.  All that protects the humans are their ability to create signs, wards, that keep the demons from getting close enough to feed.

Arlen is a boy living in a small hamlet.  He lives with the suspicion that humanity could do more than hide behind their wards.  They could fight.

His last night at home is the night when he watches demons rip his mother to pieces while his father remains safely protected.  After that night, he roams the world learning to paint wards and eventually meeting the people of the desert that take the fight to the demons instead of hiding behind warded walls.

We also meet Rojer and Leesha who are kindred spirits that see themselves as capable of more than the limited expectations of the friends and families.  People who want something better, even if they do not know how to achieve it.

Eventually, Arlen learns the long forgotten secrets that enabled men to hunt demons instead of being hunted by demons.  He uses those secrets to become....something else.

Worth your time.

More From Me

What's not to love?

I've added a new gadget on the right.  The new gadget shows you my Google Reader "shared" items.  Sometimes I'll have a little something extra to add as a comment.  Other things just look interesting enough to me that I'd like to share it with you.

If you are using Google's Reader....which I highly recommend....you can follow my feed directly there.  Or you can check in here every once in a while to see what I see that might be worth your time.

Good reading to all!

Frustrating Journalists

The New York Times is my windmill.  I am your Don Quixote.  They drive me mad!

Not really, but they are a source of vexation.

The most recent example was a photo that accompanied a story about labeling those serving in the military as "heroes".  It was an interesting story with a few decent points.

The photo was insulting.  The link for the original photo is here.  I have saved the image and stored it on Google's Picasa...just in case.






You may find this military awards information and this US Army uniform information from Wikipedia to be useful for the ensuing discussion.

The first problem is where should I begin?

First, the US Army has two different service uniforms.  The old, out-dated service uniform is green. It is typically worn with a light green dress shirt.  The new service uniform is blue.  It is typically worn with a white shirt.  The green uniform hasn't been issued since 2009 and will be obsolete in 2014.

The model in the photo above is wearing a white shirt with a green blouse.

Then take a look at the rank insignia.  I cannot recall when the US Army last put the rank insignia on the lapels of the blouse.  To add insult to injury, the insignia is just slapped on the lapels in an uneven and non-symmetric fashion.  If the rank insignia did belong on the blouse lapels, they would be worn so that they were pointed along the bisector of the lapel.

And I fully realize that the illustration in that last link is from the US Marine Corps.  It was the best illustration that I could quickly locate.

Now look at the right side of the uniform.  That would be the left side of the photo.  See that badge?  Care to guess what it signifies?

That badge signifies that Corporal Schmuckatelli here is also a bonafide Naval Aviator.  Think "Tom Cruise in 'Top Gun'. "

Now can you imagine the set of circumstances that would have permitted the good Corporal to fall from the heights of a commissioned US naval officer and Naval Aviator to lowly US Army Corporal?  Nor can I.

Finally, look at the left side of the uniform.  It is important to know that ribbons are worn in a specific manner and in a specific order.  Ribbons are typically mounted using a ribbon bar.  They look like this.

Ribbons are worn in a very particular order.  The most common ribbons are organized with personal decorations on the top row and towards the right of the person wearing the ribbons.  That would be left as you are looking at the photo.

Next would come unit awards, followed by campaign awards and service awards.

Beginning at the top/inboard position, we have

• Vietnam Service Medal, with 2 stars indicating 3 awards
• Navy/Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation, with 1 star indicating 2 awards
• National Defense Service Medal
• Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal
• Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal
• Navy Unit Commendation
• Armed Forces Reserve Medal
• Soldier's Medal
• Distinguished Service Medal (Army) (typically awarded to senior officers for unusual and extraordinary service, not NCOs)

An awful lot of Navy medals for a Corporal in the US Army, no?  Methinks that grandpa's old uniforms got raided for this photo.

In the correct order:

• Distinguished Service Medal (Army) (odd that the most significant one was placed last, no?)
• Soldier's Medal
• Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal
• Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal
• Navy & Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation
• Navy Unit Commendation
• National Defense Service Medal
• Vietnam Service Medal
• Armed Forces Reserve Medal

I think the obvious conclusion is that some photographer slapped together something that looked "military-ish" and took a picture.  They had probably watched too much Star Trek with Captain Kirk's splatter of oddments, buttons, and colored wig-wags to understand that, 300 years before the voyages of the the good Captain and his crew, the tradition was to wear one's awards in a specific order and arrangement.

Quite frankly, the photographer didn't care.  They didn't think the proper display of a US military uniform was important enough to warrant their time and attention.

While that is disappointing, it is certainly forgivable.

What is unforgivable is for the New York friggin' Times to use such obviously poor photography as an illustration with any story associated with their name.  Do they think that our military and military veterans do not read their work?  Do they not understand that their "brand" is already suspect because of some the stereotypes that they create and/or propagate?  Do they not have military veterans on their writing and photography staff?

Do they not care?

While they obviously do not care enough to get it right the first time, I do have to acknowledge that they changed the image associated with the story.  They even included a correction.  The old image was still on their server.  No harm in an unused image.

That is a reasonable course of events if we were talking about the Quad City Times.  Not quite so reasonable if we are talking about American's America's self professed "newspaper of record".  The worst part is that while I would not think it unreasonable for the Quad City Times to make such a mistake, I also expect that the QC Times would care enough about this issue to get put extra effort into getting it right the first time.  The NY Times has the resources to get it right the first time without extra effort, and the bungled it.

We Learned Something New

It is no large secret that I am a skeptic regarding the theory that human activity is the sole/primary/major force behind the changes in our climate over the last 150 years. 

Any fool looking at the data can see that things have gotten warmer over that time frame.  What few elect to recall is that a miniature ice age that correlates with the Maunder Minimum ended about 150 years ago.  In reality, we have been warming from an unusually cold condition back towards a more usual climate.

In any case, one of the primary reasons for my skepticism is the non-scientific manner used to express theories concerning the influence of human activity in that general warming trend.  The science of those theories has been "settled".  Or so they tell us.

But that isn't science.  Scientific theories take not just decades, but often centuries before we know enough to call them anything close to "settled".

Albert Einstein presented his general theory of relativity in 1916.  Since then there have been many discoveries and refinements.  There continue to be hypotheses about exceptions to Mr. Einstein's theory that have yet to be proved or disproved.  It may take a while before we know all we can know about the implications of the theory of relativity.

Sir Isaac Newton presented his theory of gravity in Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica which was published in 1687.  It wasn't until 350 years later that we began to understand that gravity throughout the universe was not constant.  And it took almost another 50 years before that understanding was fully developed.

So what is new in the field of climatology?  We have a report from CERN regarding the link between cosmic rays emanating from the sun being closely tied with the formation of clouds in the atmosphere.

Another source of my skepticism is the rather simplistic manner in which some individuals have presumed a direct, primary, causal relationship between CO₂ and climate change to the near total exclusion of other reasonable factors.  It is my opinion that solar forcings have been understated in climate models in favor of anthropogenicy.  The one true fact is that we do not know what we know.  We do not know what we do not know either.  We do not fully understand all of the intricacies associated with how the climate changes over time.

We have learned a few things over the years.  And we are developing a better understanding of the various factors involved in our climate.  Responsible scientists qualify their remarks to point out the wide range of predicted future temperatures.  They also suggest that there are significant factors beyond human activity that are at work.

As we move forward, I am confident that our understanding will be revised and refined again and again.  My opinion is that along with learning more about our climate, we will probably discover that we have an over-sized collective ego.  The earth has been around for a very long time.  While humanity is able to affect significant micro-scale changes, our impact on something as massive and complicated as the atmosphere is less significant than some alarmist pseudo-scientists would have us believe.

The Decline of American Manufacturing

I found this story about Amazon and their utter inability to manufacture the Kindle on this side of the Pacific to be most depressing.

Jazz It Up, Golden Smog!

On of my favorite episodes of The Flintstones.  The music faaaannntastic!

Check out the second half. Skiddly-wah-wah-wah.....CONTACT!

A Hysterical Return?

After my modestly extended absence from blogging, I can think of no more pleasurable method of celebrating my return than to offer my esteemed and valued readership a smile.

Some more than others...apparently.

In Which I Agree With Barney Frank.

It doesn't happen very often. Mr. Frank is someone that I generally hold in low regard. But from time-to-time, he is right. A stopped clock and all that.

The senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee says the biggest reason the United States is seeing its credit downgraded is that it spends too much money being "the military policemen of the world."

...

The liberal Massachusetts Democrat says $200 billion could be saved "without in any way endangering our security" by dialing back U.S. military involvement in the world, including operations in Western Europe.

Anyone that has taken a serious look at our spending issues will tell you that are defense spending is going to need to be cut to some extent. A much smaller force is really needed to "guard" Europe. There are other obvious cuts to be made as well.

The problem with Mr. Frank is that he is attempting to divert attention from the larger problem of ever expanding social spending. We are currently experiencing deficits to the tune of $1.4 trillion annually with future projected deficits to dip briefly towards $1 trillion before expanding ever upwards. That trend is being driven by Social Security and Medicare.

While $200 billion in spending cuts is a good start, where does Mr. Frank plan on finding the other $1.2 trillion? I have a few suggestions that would "break the mold" as well.