The Kentucky State Auditor has found a whole bunch of bad spending lately.
First, they announce that the city of Louisville has mishandled millions of dollars, some of it federal grants that had to be spent or lost. Mayor for Life Abramson had to appear on the news, drenched in flopsweat, and tell us how he's just as surprised as anyone and how he's going to get this fixed.
Then today, it's announced that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars have been used to pay for strip clubs, NASCAR driving lessons, guns, and video games by authorities at the Lexington airport.
Since I moved to Louisville, 2 of the 3 governors of Kentucky have either been disgraced, or indicted, or both.
I'm no longer even surprised when some politician in Kentucky gets caught with his pants down or her pockets lined with dirty cash. I'm of the opinion that we need to start importing our politicians from Chicago in order to clean things up a little bit.
Signs that your politicians are dirty:
1. Her boob size is a larger number than her IQ, but she started out flat as an ironing board.
2. His new SUV costs more than the addition to your local school.
3. All of a sudden, her mama is debt free.
4. He has more 5 punches on his loyalty card with the local Gulfstream dealership.
5. That local school addition cost $2 million, but it's principal components are used FEMA trailers and new sidewalks.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
OK, this is freaky
Accoding to Fox News, a young boy in China has been taken to a hospital where his GLOWING EYES allow him to see in the dark. The doctors believe he has a rare condition that makes his eyes sensitive to light.
I think the good physicians are missing the point here: this kids eyes FREAKING GLOW.
You know, like Draculas do just before he rips into some young thing's throat.
Or like Damiens in the Omen.
Time to start reading that Bible again if kids are getting eyes that glow.
I think the good physicians are missing the point here: this kids eyes FREAKING GLOW.
You know, like Draculas do just before he rips into some young thing's throat.
Or like Damiens in the Omen.
Time to start reading that Bible again if kids are getting eyes that glow.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Burglary by another name
ACORN, a "community activist" group that has been associated with President Obama, has begun actively helping people who have been evicted from their houses after foreclosure to break into them and "homestead" in them.
Now one of their workers has been arrested.
I feel sorry for people who have lost ownership of their houses due to misfortune, bad planning, or whatever. Your house will almost always be the biggest investment you make, and you gain an emotional attachment to your home.
But a contract is a contract. The bank gives you money to let you buy your home. You promise to pay back that money with some amount of interest. You agree that if you don't pay back the money according to the schedule that you and the bank agree on, the bank has every right to take the house away from you and sell it to make back some part of their loan to you.
If you can't pay your mortgage because you lost your job, or you got too sick to work, or something along those lines, I feel for you. There but for the grace of God go I and my family. There are a lot of good agencies, both public and private, which try to help good people get through bad times, and these people should turn to them, along with their family and friends, for help.
But if you get foreclosed on and evicted because you signed a mortgage you knew you couldn't afford, or if you got a mortgage because of incorrect, read fraudulant, information, then remember: Life is hard, it's even harder if you're stupid. Don't come to me for sympathy or much help if you gambled your life savings on a house that you hoped would increase in value enough to cover your bets and it bit you in the ass.
In either situation, the previous owner of the house has absolutely no rights to it. Morally, I feel for people who have to pick up the pieces and try to re-make their lives. Growing up, my family bounced from one home to another on multiple occasions, and I know how much it sucks.
But to break into what is now someone elses property and squat in it is trespassing at least. Don't insult those of us whose ancestors were truly homesteaders by calling it "homesteading". It's squatting, plain and simple.
ACORN and any other group that advocates this kind of nonsense should be investigated for inducing desperate people to break the law.
Now one of their workers has been arrested.
I feel sorry for people who have lost ownership of their houses due to misfortune, bad planning, or whatever. Your house will almost always be the biggest investment you make, and you gain an emotional attachment to your home.
But a contract is a contract. The bank gives you money to let you buy your home. You promise to pay back that money with some amount of interest. You agree that if you don't pay back the money according to the schedule that you and the bank agree on, the bank has every right to take the house away from you and sell it to make back some part of their loan to you.
If you can't pay your mortgage because you lost your job, or you got too sick to work, or something along those lines, I feel for you. There but for the grace of God go I and my family. There are a lot of good agencies, both public and private, which try to help good people get through bad times, and these people should turn to them, along with their family and friends, for help.
But if you get foreclosed on and evicted because you signed a mortgage you knew you couldn't afford, or if you got a mortgage because of incorrect, read fraudulant, information, then remember: Life is hard, it's even harder if you're stupid. Don't come to me for sympathy or much help if you gambled your life savings on a house that you hoped would increase in value enough to cover your bets and it bit you in the ass.
In either situation, the previous owner of the house has absolutely no rights to it. Morally, I feel for people who have to pick up the pieces and try to re-make their lives. Growing up, my family bounced from one home to another on multiple occasions, and I know how much it sucks.
But to break into what is now someone elses property and squat in it is trespassing at least. Don't insult those of us whose ancestors were truly homesteaders by calling it "homesteading". It's squatting, plain and simple.
ACORN and any other group that advocates this kind of nonsense should be investigated for inducing desperate people to break the law.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
US Airways to stop charging for drinks
But you still will be made to suffer for it.
US Airways has decided that charging $2 for a soda that goes for 50 cents retail at the supermarket is pretty dumb, and is discontinuing the practice.
It's a good start, but it won't gain them any of my business if I can help it.
Flying to me is the quickest way to get from here to there if you're going more than 500 miles. Anything less than that, and it's usually either just as fast or faster to drive, and it costs a heck of a lot less. And I get to skip the coming and going cavity searches.
To be honest, I hate to fly. With a passion.
It starts with the booking process, where you get told that it costs $300 more to fly from any convenient airport than it would if you drive 2 hours to get on a 1 hour flight.
Then you go to check in for your flight. You show up 3 hours early so that you can stand in line for the 1 or 2 agents that staff the desk. After you look at the 3 unmanned desks for an hour, you finally get your boarding ticket and give up your check baggage. Of course, you have to pay for that check baggage now, so you give up even more money.
Then you go through security, which I won't complain about. Anything that is done to make sure some whacko hasn't shoved explosives into a body cavity before getting on my flight is OK with me.
After an hour or so in the security line, you make your way to the gate. A good percentage of the time the gate you were told to go to was just an educated guess, but the airline will be helpful and put up another educated guess on the information boards located within the terminal.
Eventually, you'll find the correct gate, and settle in for a long wait. Remember, you came in hours early for your flight. But I hope you brought a book, because you'll be here a while waiting for your plane to arrive. You may have been at the gate an hour before your scheduled departure time, but the airline has no problem getting the plane to the gate much later than that. About 50% of the time, your departure time will come and go with no plane in the gate and no explanation from the ground crew.
Eventually your flight will be called, and you will line up to get on-board. You are now cattle, and will be treated as such. As soon as you give them your ticket, they own you and they know it. You will be repeatedly told to hurry up and get on the plane. You will be shamed for actually bringing a carry-on bigger than a notebook, and will be threatened with even more fees if your carry-on is too big for the overhead storage.
Once you get settled, the airline will admit that it sold too many seats for the flight, and will start "suggesting" that someone give up their seat in exchange for the possibility of flying out at some later date. If no-one goes for it, they will start threatening to jettison us ungrateful slobs unless someone takes one for the team. Any other industry that sold more product than it had to sell would be brought to trial for fraud. Apparently the airlines have some deal for this.
Then you take off. They crank up the cold, dry air conditioning, so you cough up a little more money for a blanket to ward off hypothermia. If you're smart, you bought some food for the trip, because unless you can live on a few grams of peanuts you're going to be weak from hunger when you land.
Eventually you will land. Hopefully it will be at an airport. To paraphrase Carlin, I prefer to land at an airport, because those cornfield landings tend to mess up my schedule.
You may have to go through all of this again if you're catching another flight since it's just too much work to have direct flights anywhere anymore. But for the sake of this argument, let's say you're done flying for today.
You get off the plane, and hopefully can decipher the signs that point you to the correct exit and place to get your luggage. Mostly, I continue my cattle instinct and follow the herd. Hopefully, there's also a restroom close by too. While the airline does provide a head on the plane, unless you're under 4 feet or already have scoliosis, you're not going to be able to use it without making a huge mess all over yourself.
Once you find the correct carousel for your luggage, you begin saying decades of the Rosary in hopes that your bag is there and in one piece. If it's not there, or if it's damaged, you get to go through the exquisite experience of trying to get the airline to admit that you ever had a bag, and then getting them to figure out where it is and get it to you.
And you get to go through all of this again on the return trip. Wheeee!
Believe it or not, you paid for this.
So I'm not impressed that an airline is not going to charge me for a soda. I'll be impressed when these cretins learn how to treat me like a human being and give me good value for the hundreds of dollars I give them to get me from place to place. Until then, I plan on driving myself everywhere I can and laughing when the airlines whine about declining revenues.
US Airways has decided that charging $2 for a soda that goes for 50 cents retail at the supermarket is pretty dumb, and is discontinuing the practice.
It's a good start, but it won't gain them any of my business if I can help it.
Flying to me is the quickest way to get from here to there if you're going more than 500 miles. Anything less than that, and it's usually either just as fast or faster to drive, and it costs a heck of a lot less. And I get to skip the coming and going cavity searches.
To be honest, I hate to fly. With a passion.
It starts with the booking process, where you get told that it costs $300 more to fly from any convenient airport than it would if you drive 2 hours to get on a 1 hour flight.
Then you go to check in for your flight. You show up 3 hours early so that you can stand in line for the 1 or 2 agents that staff the desk. After you look at the 3 unmanned desks for an hour, you finally get your boarding ticket and give up your check baggage. Of course, you have to pay for that check baggage now, so you give up even more money.
Then you go through security, which I won't complain about. Anything that is done to make sure some whacko hasn't shoved explosives into a body cavity before getting on my flight is OK with me.
After an hour or so in the security line, you make your way to the gate. A good percentage of the time the gate you were told to go to was just an educated guess, but the airline will be helpful and put up another educated guess on the information boards located within the terminal.
Eventually, you'll find the correct gate, and settle in for a long wait. Remember, you came in hours early for your flight. But I hope you brought a book, because you'll be here a while waiting for your plane to arrive. You may have been at the gate an hour before your scheduled departure time, but the airline has no problem getting the plane to the gate much later than that. About 50% of the time, your departure time will come and go with no plane in the gate and no explanation from the ground crew.
Eventually your flight will be called, and you will line up to get on-board. You are now cattle, and will be treated as such. As soon as you give them your ticket, they own you and they know it. You will be repeatedly told to hurry up and get on the plane. You will be shamed for actually bringing a carry-on bigger than a notebook, and will be threatened with even more fees if your carry-on is too big for the overhead storage.
Once you get settled, the airline will admit that it sold too many seats for the flight, and will start "suggesting" that someone give up their seat in exchange for the possibility of flying out at some later date. If no-one goes for it, they will start threatening to jettison us ungrateful slobs unless someone takes one for the team. Any other industry that sold more product than it had to sell would be brought to trial for fraud. Apparently the airlines have some deal for this.
Then you take off. They crank up the cold, dry air conditioning, so you cough up a little more money for a blanket to ward off hypothermia. If you're smart, you bought some food for the trip, because unless you can live on a few grams of peanuts you're going to be weak from hunger when you land.
Eventually you will land. Hopefully it will be at an airport. To paraphrase Carlin, I prefer to land at an airport, because those cornfield landings tend to mess up my schedule.
You may have to go through all of this again if you're catching another flight since it's just too much work to have direct flights anywhere anymore. But for the sake of this argument, let's say you're done flying for today.
You get off the plane, and hopefully can decipher the signs that point you to the correct exit and place to get your luggage. Mostly, I continue my cattle instinct and follow the herd. Hopefully, there's also a restroom close by too. While the airline does provide a head on the plane, unless you're under 4 feet or already have scoliosis, you're not going to be able to use it without making a huge mess all over yourself.
Once you find the correct carousel for your luggage, you begin saying decades of the Rosary in hopes that your bag is there and in one piece. If it's not there, or if it's damaged, you get to go through the exquisite experience of trying to get the airline to admit that you ever had a bag, and then getting them to figure out where it is and get it to you.
And you get to go through all of this again on the return trip. Wheeee!
Believe it or not, you paid for this.
So I'm not impressed that an airline is not going to charge me for a soda. I'll be impressed when these cretins learn how to treat me like a human being and give me good value for the hundreds of dollars I give them to get me from place to place. Until then, I plan on driving myself everywhere I can and laughing when the airlines whine about declining revenues.
A very liquid charity
Army Emergency Relief (AER) is the primary charity created exclusively for use by members of the Army. It receives almost all of its funding through paycheck donations from soldiers.
When a soldier has an unexpected financial emergency, such as emergency repairs to a car or the need to travel to their homes for funerals of family members, they are supposed to be able to go to AER for either a grant or a no-interest loan.
I contributed to and utilized AER when I was in the Army. Once a year, I would be "asked" to sign a form allowing AER to take money out of my paycheck. There was quite a lot of pressure to get 100% of any given unit to contribute, even if it was only a one-time $20 contribution.
When I had to go to AER for a loan to fly home from Germany when my mother became ill and wasn't expected to survive, they handed me a re-payment contract and an Army form to have the payments taken directly out of my paycheck before they handed me the money for the tickets.
AER always got their money, but they provided something we all needed, so we contributed and made sure we repaid our loans.
Tonight I read this. Apparently AER is holding onto over $200 million that was donated by soldiers in order to provide emergency relief for other soldiers.
Before I read this article, I didn't even know that AER gave grants. I thought everything was done by loan. Goes to show how well they advertise what they offer.
I knew several soldiers that ran into financial emergencies that weren't their faults. Usually it was something like an emergency medical procedure for their wives or children that the Army couldn't provide at the on-post hospital, and wouldn't pay 100% for at the off-post hospital. If they couldn't pay the bill themselves, they would usually be referred to AER by the commander. I'd say that about 50% of the time, AER would turn them away, and the soldier, who made less than $15,000.00 a year mind you, would have to work out something with the hospital to repay bills that regularly ran into the thousands of dollars.
Over the years, I and a lot of my fellow soldiers became quite cynical about giving money to AER. Most of us gave a small one-time cash donation to stay out of trouble, but refused to give a month-to-month donation.
AER should return this excess to the soldiers who fund it. It's inconceivable that a charity for soldiers could refuse to give out so much money to the soldiers who are its major donors.
When a soldier has an unexpected financial emergency, such as emergency repairs to a car or the need to travel to their homes for funerals of family members, they are supposed to be able to go to AER for either a grant or a no-interest loan.
I contributed to and utilized AER when I was in the Army. Once a year, I would be "asked" to sign a form allowing AER to take money out of my paycheck. There was quite a lot of pressure to get 100% of any given unit to contribute, even if it was only a one-time $20 contribution.
When I had to go to AER for a loan to fly home from Germany when my mother became ill and wasn't expected to survive, they handed me a re-payment contract and an Army form to have the payments taken directly out of my paycheck before they handed me the money for the tickets.
AER always got their money, but they provided something we all needed, so we contributed and made sure we repaid our loans.
Tonight I read this. Apparently AER is holding onto over $200 million that was donated by soldiers in order to provide emergency relief for other soldiers.
Before I read this article, I didn't even know that AER gave grants. I thought everything was done by loan. Goes to show how well they advertise what they offer.
I knew several soldiers that ran into financial emergencies that weren't their faults. Usually it was something like an emergency medical procedure for their wives or children that the Army couldn't provide at the on-post hospital, and wouldn't pay 100% for at the off-post hospital. If they couldn't pay the bill themselves, they would usually be referred to AER by the commander. I'd say that about 50% of the time, AER would turn them away, and the soldier, who made less than $15,000.00 a year mind you, would have to work out something with the hospital to repay bills that regularly ran into the thousands of dollars.
Over the years, I and a lot of my fellow soldiers became quite cynical about giving money to AER. Most of us gave a small one-time cash donation to stay out of trouble, but refused to give a month-to-month donation.
AER should return this excess to the soldiers who fund it. It's inconceivable that a charity for soldiers could refuse to give out so much money to the soldiers who are its major donors.
Friday, February 20, 2009
What exactly is wrong with people?
Everyone is familiar with the horrific case of a pet chimpanzee attacking a woman and horribly injuring her. Reports are coming out now that the chimp had bitten at least one person before, and now people are asking how this could have happened.
Hello? A wild animal bit someone, noone did much of anything about it, and now another human being has been horribly maimed. And the people in the area have the absolute nerve to act surprised?!?!?!?!
The lady who owned the chimp basically treated it like a child. She cooked steak for it, gave it wine in a stemmed glass. She bathed with it and cuddled with it in bed. If that doesn't give you a whole body shiver, then you need to go talk to someone. She's been keeping a wild animal as a pet for a decade and a half, and noone has tried to get her into a psychiatric facility?
What exactly did she have to do before people stopped commenting on how cute the chimp was and sent in the nice men with the butterfly nets? Dress him up in a Star Trek costume and send him to the grocery store alone?
And now I read this. Some creep decided to rob a couple of Girl Scouts who were selling cookies outside a grocery store. This waste of good protoplasm waited until these children were done selling their wares for the night, then took $250 from them.
Another example of someone who should be locked in an overused porta-potty and left in the hot Arizona sun.
Ever notice that it's a stairway to heaven, but a highway to hell?
Seems to me these two just pulled into the passing lane on that highway.
Hello? A wild animal bit someone, noone did much of anything about it, and now another human being has been horribly maimed. And the people in the area have the absolute nerve to act surprised?!?!?!?!
The lady who owned the chimp basically treated it like a child. She cooked steak for it, gave it wine in a stemmed glass. She bathed with it and cuddled with it in bed. If that doesn't give you a whole body shiver, then you need to go talk to someone. She's been keeping a wild animal as a pet for a decade and a half, and noone has tried to get her into a psychiatric facility?
What exactly did she have to do before people stopped commenting on how cute the chimp was and sent in the nice men with the butterfly nets? Dress him up in a Star Trek costume and send him to the grocery store alone?
And now I read this. Some creep decided to rob a couple of Girl Scouts who were selling cookies outside a grocery store. This waste of good protoplasm waited until these children were done selling their wares for the night, then took $250 from them.
Another example of someone who should be locked in an overused porta-potty and left in the hot Arizona sun.
Ever notice that it's a stairway to heaven, but a highway to hell?
Seems to me these two just pulled into the passing lane on that highway.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Kewl animation
Saw this over at Tam's site.
It's an extremely kewl animation made from the graph of home prices over the past 100 years. I wish there was one to show the big drop in the last year.
It's an extremely kewl animation made from the graph of home prices over the past 100 years. I wish there was one to show the big drop in the last year.
Harrumph
Kentucky recently enacted a new sin tax on tobacco and alcohol. It's easy to get new taxes on stuff like that, so they went for our vices.
Now, one of our elected representatives has suggested that the revenue from the tax on alcohol should only be used in counties that allow the sale of alcohol.
You see, even though prohibition has been gone for over 75 years, a lot of areas of Kentucky still don't allow alcohol sales in any form. Interestingly, a lot of distilleries of bourbon are located in dry counties. And all of these dry counties, which do not contribute to the revenue from alcohol sales, get a fair share of the funds from these taxes
Anyhoo, it seems fair to me that if you make it a point to not allow the activity that raises revenue, you shouldn't get money out of that activity.
What say you?
Now, one of our elected representatives has suggested that the revenue from the tax on alcohol should only be used in counties that allow the sale of alcohol.
You see, even though prohibition has been gone for over 75 years, a lot of areas of Kentucky still don't allow alcohol sales in any form. Interestingly, a lot of distilleries of bourbon are located in dry counties. And all of these dry counties, which do not contribute to the revenue from alcohol sales, get a fair share of the funds from these taxes
Anyhoo, it seems fair to me that if you make it a point to not allow the activity that raises revenue, you shouldn't get money out of that activity.
What say you?
Sunday, February 15, 2009
The weekend
Well, it's been a pretty good weekend.
Friday night was spent just relaxing. After I took Girlie Bear over to her mothers house for the weekend, Irish Woman and I spent a little time talking and then hit the sack early. We've both been on pager support this week, and we were bushed.
Saturday, we spent the morning doing a lot of housework. With us burning wood in the fireplace more, the house needed a good dusting, scrubbing, and airing out. Irish Woman went to get her hair done, and Baby Bear and I met her for an early lunch afterwords.
Saturday night one of the kids' aunts came over and sat with the baby while Irish Woman and I went out for an actual adult dinner at an actual sit down restaurant. We very rarely get a babysitter, and dinner was wonderful. Hint to Louisville diners: If you want to be seated at 7:30, make 7:00 reservations. We capped off the evening by visiting two of our friends for a couple of hours.
I got Irish Woman flowers delivered at her office and a nice card for Valentines Day, and I payed for her day at the stylist. For me, she got me a new Wii racing game and found two of the Wii Wheel attachments. We played it a bit this afternoon, and had a blast.
This afternoon, Junior Bear and I went down the street with the truck and picked up a load of wood from a downed oak tree one of our neighbors was cutting up. We'll go back and get more at some later date. It's nice having a working truck again.
It's been a great weekend and hopefully this bodes well for the week.
Next weekend, a bunch of my friends and I are going to go to a local range for a mass shoot-em-up. Really looking forward to that. We haven't done one of those in almost a year.
Friday night was spent just relaxing. After I took Girlie Bear over to her mothers house for the weekend, Irish Woman and I spent a little time talking and then hit the sack early. We've both been on pager support this week, and we were bushed.
Saturday, we spent the morning doing a lot of housework. With us burning wood in the fireplace more, the house needed a good dusting, scrubbing, and airing out. Irish Woman went to get her hair done, and Baby Bear and I met her for an early lunch afterwords.
Saturday night one of the kids' aunts came over and sat with the baby while Irish Woman and I went out for an actual adult dinner at an actual sit down restaurant. We very rarely get a babysitter, and dinner was wonderful. Hint to Louisville diners: If you want to be seated at 7:30, make 7:00 reservations. We capped off the evening by visiting two of our friends for a couple of hours.
I got Irish Woman flowers delivered at her office and a nice card for Valentines Day, and I payed for her day at the stylist. For me, she got me a new Wii racing game and found two of the Wii Wheel attachments. We played it a bit this afternoon, and had a blast.
This afternoon, Junior Bear and I went down the street with the truck and picked up a load of wood from a downed oak tree one of our neighbors was cutting up. We'll go back and get more at some later date. It's nice having a working truck again.
It's been a great weekend and hopefully this bodes well for the week.
Next weekend, a bunch of my friends and I are going to go to a local range for a mass shoot-em-up. Really looking forward to that. We haven't done one of those in almost a year.
Goodness Gracious
Great Balls of Fire!
Residents of The Great State of Texas are reporting seeing burning debris falling from the sky, and possibly making it to the ground.
Consensus at the moment is that these lights in the sky are pieces of the two sattelites that collided earlier this month.
If pieces are making it to ground, how long is it until someone's house gets hit? And you thought tornado season in Texas was bad.
And you know that eventually the news will feature an interview with a local resident, who while being a wonderful person and an expert in his or her profession, isn't what we would call a great public speaker. The interview will come down to "I seen it, it come down over there in that there goat pen".
You ever notice they never ask the surgeon or lawyer what happened?
UPDATE: Opinion is now that the fireball was caused by a meteor. Still, I'm sure they didn't get the local judge to comment on it in front of the news camera.
Residents of The Great State of Texas are reporting seeing burning debris falling from the sky, and possibly making it to the ground.
Consensus at the moment is that these lights in the sky are pieces of the two sattelites that collided earlier this month.
If pieces are making it to ground, how long is it until someone's house gets hit? And you thought tornado season in Texas was bad.
And you know that eventually the news will feature an interview with a local resident, who while being a wonderful person and an expert in his or her profession, isn't what we would call a great public speaker. The interview will come down to "I seen it, it come down over there in that there goat pen".
You ever notice they never ask the surgeon or lawyer what happened?
UPDATE: Opinion is now that the fireball was caused by a meteor. Still, I'm sure they didn't get the local judge to comment on it in front of the news camera.
Exactly how stupid do you have to be
to vote for Dianne Feinstein? This ignorant wench should be dipped in honey and left for the bears.
This week, she decided to let slip that American Predator drones may be based in Pakistan. Remember these are the aircraft that are being used to strike targets inside Pakistan.
True or not, it's caused quite an uproar with our semi-ally Pakistan. We're trying to prop up that government because it's better than the alternative. We may or may not be basing aircraft in the country that we are using to strike at targets in Pakistan. And of course, these airstrikes are very unpopular in Pakistan.
So of course, you announce your belief that we're hitting Pakistan with aircraft based in Pakistan during an open session of your congressional committee. And then you seem shocked that Pakistan and its populace might have a problem with this.
Nothing like throwing a hand grenade in a hen house. Especially if you're a twit from the Bay Area who should have been strangled at birth in order to save us all this trouble.
This week, she decided to let slip that American Predator drones may be based in Pakistan. Remember these are the aircraft that are being used to strike targets inside Pakistan.
True or not, it's caused quite an uproar with our semi-ally Pakistan. We're trying to prop up that government because it's better than the alternative. We may or may not be basing aircraft in the country that we are using to strike at targets in Pakistan. And of course, these airstrikes are very unpopular in Pakistan.
So of course, you announce your belief that we're hitting Pakistan with aircraft based in Pakistan during an open session of your congressional committee. And then you seem shocked that Pakistan and its populace might have a problem with this.
Nothing like throwing a hand grenade in a hen house. Especially if you're a twit from the Bay Area who should have been strangled at birth in order to save us all this trouble.
The truck, she runs
Well, finally got the time and the correct part, so I took a few minutes to put the new throttle position sensor on the truck. After getting everything put back together, the truck fired up and ran no problem.
I can't say it's fixed, because it still has a pretty bad power steering fluid leak, but that should be pretty easy to fix. But then again, nothing is easy.
I work on motors and such by a rule that I learned from a mechanic I knew in the Army. "No equipment is right. There are only three states for equipment to be in: broken, fixed, and !*#%'d".
Right now, the truck is still in the 'broken' category due to the leak, but she runs. Eventually she'll be fixed.
I can't say it's fixed, because it still has a pretty bad power steering fluid leak, but that should be pretty easy to fix. But then again, nothing is easy.
I work on motors and such by a rule that I learned from a mechanic I knew in the Army. "No equipment is right. There are only three states for equipment to be in: broken, fixed, and !*#%'d".
Right now, the truck is still in the 'broken' category due to the leak, but she runs. Eventually she'll be fixed.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Interesting article on time versus money
Saw this at the Survival Blog on how little time it takes to acquire goods now than it did in our ancestor's time.
The author discusses how much less time and effort it takes to make the money to purchase some grain than it would if he had to grow it himself. He also talks about how dependent we are on powered tools and equipment to produce what we need and want.
I work in IT, and from where I stand, computers are the ultimate labor saving device. What it used to take an accountant days to do in ledgers is done in a spreadsheet in minutes. Timetables for shipping and trains used to be done by hand and took months to work out properly. Now we can schedule airlines and trains on-demand every day.
I watched some video on the news tonight about the economy, and they showed the line at an automobile factory. Even in the parts that aren't fully automated, they were using motorized tools to lift, place, and weld the cars together. Even 50 years ago, this would have mostly been done with hand tools and non-powered lifting equipment.
On the other side of the coin, when I was a child I watched our local newspaper in Smalltown, North Dakota, literally cranked out on a hand-powered press that used metal type that was set by hand. My grandmother's attic and garage were stuffed with 100 year old hand, garden, and farm tools. All she needed was a couple of horses or oxen, and she could have run a farm in the same way her father did at the turn of the 20th century.
I think we lose something when we fail to realize just how easy our life is today when compared to the past. A message to family in California is delivered instantly, where it would have taken over a week only 20 years ago. I can fly to San Fransisco in the space of an afternoon, where it took months to get there before the Trans-Continental Railroad was complete, and it still took a couple of weeks then.
If I want to construct something for the house, on the rare occasion that I don't just buy it, I use power tools and store bought lumber. The shelves I built in the baby's room would have taken a couple of weeks to make if I'd had to go out to the woods, select and fell a tree, make the lumber by hand, and then construct and trim the shelves using hand tools.
While I'm not planning on the economy or our society to collapse completely, I enjoy learning how to do things by hand. I just can't imagine trying to keep up our standard of living if I had to grow/trap/hunt all of our food and process it, then find time to gather materials and construct everything we need.
The author discusses how much less time and effort it takes to make the money to purchase some grain than it would if he had to grow it himself. He also talks about how dependent we are on powered tools and equipment to produce what we need and want.
I work in IT, and from where I stand, computers are the ultimate labor saving device. What it used to take an accountant days to do in ledgers is done in a spreadsheet in minutes. Timetables for shipping and trains used to be done by hand and took months to work out properly. Now we can schedule airlines and trains on-demand every day.
I watched some video on the news tonight about the economy, and they showed the line at an automobile factory. Even in the parts that aren't fully automated, they were using motorized tools to lift, place, and weld the cars together. Even 50 years ago, this would have mostly been done with hand tools and non-powered lifting equipment.
On the other side of the coin, when I was a child I watched our local newspaper in Smalltown, North Dakota, literally cranked out on a hand-powered press that used metal type that was set by hand. My grandmother's attic and garage were stuffed with 100 year old hand, garden, and farm tools. All she needed was a couple of horses or oxen, and she could have run a farm in the same way her father did at the turn of the 20th century.
I think we lose something when we fail to realize just how easy our life is today when compared to the past. A message to family in California is delivered instantly, where it would have taken over a week only 20 years ago. I can fly to San Fransisco in the space of an afternoon, where it took months to get there before the Trans-Continental Railroad was complete, and it still took a couple of weeks then.
If I want to construct something for the house, on the rare occasion that I don't just buy it, I use power tools and store bought lumber. The shelves I built in the baby's room would have taken a couple of weeks to make if I'd had to go out to the woods, select and fell a tree, make the lumber by hand, and then construct and trim the shelves using hand tools.
While I'm not planning on the economy or our society to collapse completely, I enjoy learning how to do things by hand. I just can't imagine trying to keep up our standard of living if I had to grow/trap/hunt all of our food and process it, then find time to gather materials and construct everything we need.
What the !#$%$# part 2
Here's another winner reported by the Washington Post via Dvorak:
A 4th grade teacher in Ohio was busted recently for prostitution. She allegedly used a school computer to set up a rendesvous via email, and took sick time to go to her illicit second job. She then got busted by the county sheriff's office.
I know teachers don't make a fraction of what they deserve. They do a very important job, work long and weird hours, and usually have a hard time making ends meet. But come on!
She's been an educator for 13 years. I find it hard to believe that she couldn't find a second job doing something a little more legal.
And the school is having to bring in counselors to explain what's going on to her young students. No ten-year-old needs to learn that their beloved teacher has been prostituting herself out in between grading math tests and preparing for the big social studies project.
A 4th grade teacher in Ohio was busted recently for prostitution. She allegedly used a school computer to set up a rendesvous via email, and took sick time to go to her illicit second job. She then got busted by the county sheriff's office.
I know teachers don't make a fraction of what they deserve. They do a very important job, work long and weird hours, and usually have a hard time making ends meet. But come on!
She's been an educator for 13 years. I find it hard to believe that she couldn't find a second job doing something a little more legal.
And the school is having to bring in counselors to explain what's going on to her young students. No ten-year-old needs to learn that their beloved teacher has been prostituting herself out in between grading math tests and preparing for the big social studies project.
What the !#!%#$% part 1
Saw this at iFeminists, and had to read the article.
A Japanese company has put together a video game where the protagonist gets points for stalking and raping women. The opening scenes apparently involves the stalking and assault on a woman and her two teenage daughters.
What exactly is wrong with people? Doesn't Amazon have people to take a good hard look at the products they sell? It took complaints from consumers to get them to drop the game from their offerings. One wonders how many copies of the game were sold before it was pulled.
I've played some pretty graphic video games over the years, but this crosses a pretty wide, bright line. And if this dreck is selling in Japan, I have to wonder what's going on in the Japanese collective psyche that something like this would be allowed on store shelves.
A Japanese company has put together a video game where the protagonist gets points for stalking and raping women. The opening scenes apparently involves the stalking and assault on a woman and her two teenage daughters.
What exactly is wrong with people? Doesn't Amazon have people to take a good hard look at the products they sell? It took complaints from consumers to get them to drop the game from their offerings. One wonders how many copies of the game were sold before it was pulled.
I've played some pretty graphic video games over the years, but this crosses a pretty wide, bright line. And if this dreck is selling in Japan, I have to wonder what's going on in the Japanese collective psyche that something like this would be allowed on store shelves.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Most don't realize
that the first half of "Full Metal Jacket" is a comedy.
If they're a veteran, they probably do, but we always get weird looks when we're giggling like fiends for the first 45 minutes or so of the movie.
If they're a veteran, they probably do, but we always get weird looks when we're giggling like fiends for the first 45 minutes or so of the movie.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Your tax dollars at work
Someone actually did a study to find out why a kiss feels so good.
And I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't get a nice fat grant to do this.
Hey brainiacs, kisses feel good because your lips are attached to an attractive someone of the opposite sex.
There, now give me most of your grant check.
And I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't get a nice fat grant to do this.
Hey brainiacs, kisses feel good because your lips are attached to an attractive someone of the opposite sex.
There, now give me most of your grant check.
Again, I have to ask why this is news
Southern California, after burning to the ground last summer and fall, is having problems with mudslides now that actual measurable rain is falling. Boo Freaking Hoo.
To paraphrase Sam Kinison "You see this, this is sand. You know what it's gonna be in a thousand years? It's gonna be sand! You live in the desert! Get your kids, get your S!@#$!, we're making one trip!"
Southern California is the edge of the Mojave Desert. People weren't meant to live in that area in any real concentrations. The native vegetation in that area is adapted to live in semi-arid conditions and will burst into flame if you shine a flashlight at it when it's in its dormant, dry period. And we all know how well sandy soil holds together when the vegetation is sparse and charred and you dump a few inches of rain on it in a couple of days. Add to that the fact that occasionally the earth will quake itself into a frenzy underneath the very rocks and sand that make up the landscape, and I quickly remember why I've always called SoCal "The Land That God Forgot".
Why do I keep being bothered when these blithering idiots get burned, rained, mudded, or blown out of their homes? "Oh, my house got washed away after I rebuilt it when my creosote bushes and eucolyptus trees burned it down last summer." Cry me a river and move somewhere sane, like Nebraska.
To paraphrase Sam Kinison "You see this, this is sand. You know what it's gonna be in a thousand years? It's gonna be sand! You live in the desert! Get your kids, get your S!@#$!, we're making one trip!"
Southern California is the edge of the Mojave Desert. People weren't meant to live in that area in any real concentrations. The native vegetation in that area is adapted to live in semi-arid conditions and will burst into flame if you shine a flashlight at it when it's in its dormant, dry period. And we all know how well sandy soil holds together when the vegetation is sparse and charred and you dump a few inches of rain on it in a couple of days. Add to that the fact that occasionally the earth will quake itself into a frenzy underneath the very rocks and sand that make up the landscape, and I quickly remember why I've always called SoCal "The Land That God Forgot".
Why do I keep being bothered when these blithering idiots get burned, rained, mudded, or blown out of their homes? "Oh, my house got washed away after I rebuilt it when my creosote bushes and eucolyptus trees burned it down last summer." Cry me a river and move somewhere sane, like Nebraska.
At first, I was confused
about what this article was for.
The headline is "Afghan Dogs Reunited With U.S. Soldiers Returning From Deployment". At first glance through my no-sleep, no-caffeine eyes this morning, I honestly thought they meant that some trooper had been reunited with the "Deployment 10" females that he had cozied up to sometime after his 6th month at a remote base in Afghanistan, and now feels a deep sense of shame about after getting back to the real world and seeing what a good looking woman actually resembles.
Turns out it's actually about the efforts to bring a couple of actual canines to the US after they were adopted by a soldier during deployment.
My bad. Lord, I need some coffee.
The headline is "Afghan Dogs Reunited With U.S. Soldiers Returning From Deployment". At first glance through my no-sleep, no-caffeine eyes this morning, I honestly thought they meant that some trooper had been reunited with the "Deployment 10" females that he had cozied up to sometime after his 6th month at a remote base in Afghanistan, and now feels a deep sense of shame about after getting back to the real world and seeing what a good looking woman actually resembles.
Turns out it's actually about the efforts to bring a couple of actual canines to the US after they were adopted by a soldier during deployment.
My bad. Lord, I need some coffee.
Filed under C for Cluster
Over the weekend, an electrical outage at a pumping station caused the relase of almost 50000 gallons of sewage into a creek here in Louisville.
Hey, things happen. I'm not condemning anyone for a mechanical/electrical breakdown.
However, I'm not pleased by the response to it:
So it took an hour and a half for someone to notice there was a problem, get a crew out to the site and get some sort of power going to get the discharge of effluvium to stop?
Pretty bad if you think about what that spill is doing to the people who live in that area. Yes, they say they don't smell anything, and I'm sure that MSD is doing everything they can to contain and clean up the mess. But an hour and a half to get on-site and do something when raw sewage is spilling into a neighborhood and a creek?
Glad to see my utility bill money is going towards something constructive.
Hey, things happen. I'm not condemning anyone for a mechanical/electrical breakdown.
However, I'm not pleased by the response to it:
"Schardein says crews responded quickly to the call after, notice came in
over a central communication system between all treatment plants and pumping
stations. He says, "we got the warning on our computer screen about
3:15. We had a crew acted by 5 a.m."
So it took an hour and a half for someone to notice there was a problem, get a crew out to the site and get some sort of power going to get the discharge of effluvium to stop?
Pretty bad if you think about what that spill is doing to the people who live in that area. Yes, they say they don't smell anything, and I'm sure that MSD is doing everything they can to contain and clean up the mess. But an hour and a half to get on-site and do something when raw sewage is spilling into a neighborhood and a creek?
Glad to see my utility bill money is going towards something constructive.
DaddyBear's Laws of Weekend Work
- All that work you did to clean up the house on Saturday morning? You won't be able to see the difference by bedtime on Sunday.
- That part you bought for your truck so it wouldn't stall out every time you took your foot off the gas? It's not the same as the one you pulled off the engine and a replacement won't be in until Tuesday.
- Those metric wrenches you bought? No clue as to their whereabouts. Good luck using the crescent wrench on the bolts holding your throttle body on.
- Yes, you need a haircut. No your barber isn't open on Sunday when it occurs to you that you should get one before work on Monday.
- That server you're working on from the comfort of our living room? It's going to lock up sometime during its boot process when you can't SSH into it.
- The remote console to said server? Guess what doesn't work tonight. Since you're going on-site anyway, just work the next 4 hours in the computer room. Did you remember to set your DVR for that show you wanted to watch?
Baby, it's not so cold outside
Last week, it was 1 degree on Wednesday when I took Girlie Bear to school. This morning it was 43.
All of the snow and ice in our yard is now mud, and the fish are swimming in the pond.
I smelled skunk at least 4 times this morning during the commute, so the critters are coming out of their holes.
I saw two flights of geese headed north this morning.
It's early February.
This just isn't right, and the sudden increase in temperature and humidity is wreaking havoc on my health.
I miss the Great White North and the Great Brown Southwest, where it may have sucked, but it sucked in a consistent way.
All of the snow and ice in our yard is now mud, and the fish are swimming in the pond.
I smelled skunk at least 4 times this morning during the commute, so the critters are coming out of their holes.
I saw two flights of geese headed north this morning.
It's early February.
This just isn't right, and the sudden increase in temperature and humidity is wreaking havoc on my health.
I miss the Great White North and the Great Brown Southwest, where it may have sucked, but it sucked in a consistent way.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Baby, it's cold outside
Just got back in from helping Irish Woman put Baby Bear in the car for the ride to day care. He's bundled up in about 4 layers of clothes, coat, and blankets. All that I could see underneath his hat was his pacifier, his eyes and his nose. Looked like one of those Glowworm dolls from when we were kids.
Weathercritter says it's 12 degrees downtown, which means it's 10 here in the boonies. With the wind chill, it's below zero. Even for someone who remembers going outside and playing at recess when it was 5 degrees below before the wind chill, that's officially cold. There was about 3 inches of snow drifted up against the porch, and I went out with no socks under my Converse, so my feet are a bit nippy. Koshka certainly thought so when I tried to put them under her rump to warm them up.
The groundhog saw his shadow the other day, so we've got 6 more weeks of this stuff to go.
Bundle up campers, it's cold outside.
Weathercritter says it's 12 degrees downtown, which means it's 10 here in the boonies. With the wind chill, it's below zero. Even for someone who remembers going outside and playing at recess when it was 5 degrees below before the wind chill, that's officially cold. There was about 3 inches of snow drifted up against the porch, and I went out with no socks under my Converse, so my feet are a bit nippy. Koshka certainly thought so when I tried to put them under her rump to warm them up.
The groundhog saw his shadow the other day, so we've got 6 more weeks of this stuff to go.
Bundle up campers, it's cold outside.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Worrisome
Iran has reported that it launched a satellite into Earth orbit over the weekend.
What's worrisome is that if you can put a satellite into orbit, you can put a missile into a city.
Even if you don't have a nuclear payload, just having the ability to put a high explosive warhead into a major American or European city would be enough to create panic.
Here's a situation you should consider:
Assume that the guidance package on an Iranian ICBM would be about as good as a Soviet missile in the 1970's or 1980's. So it wouldn't be able to target a particular building, or even a particular city block, but might have a circular area of error of between 1 and 2 kilometers.
Now let's assume that you fire, oh, 25 or so of these things at Manhattan, London, Berlin, or Hong Kong.
Yes, you're not going to hit anything important on purpose, but if you sprinkle high explosive bombs over a city like that, things are going to get pretty scary for those on the receiving end, even if their individual chances of being hurt are pretty minimal.
And it's not too difficult to take a few years and improve both your payload and guidance enough that you have a really workable nuclear deterrent.
Let's see how the new administration reacts when they wake up to realize that Iran not only hates our guts, but they have the tools to start World War III, and they don't care if they all die in ball of fire. To them it would be a blaze of glory.
What's worrisome is that if you can put a satellite into orbit, you can put a missile into a city.
Even if you don't have a nuclear payload, just having the ability to put a high explosive warhead into a major American or European city would be enough to create panic.
Here's a situation you should consider:
Assume that the guidance package on an Iranian ICBM would be about as good as a Soviet missile in the 1970's or 1980's. So it wouldn't be able to target a particular building, or even a particular city block, but might have a circular area of error of between 1 and 2 kilometers.
Now let's assume that you fire, oh, 25 or so of these things at Manhattan, London, Berlin, or Hong Kong.
Yes, you're not going to hit anything important on purpose, but if you sprinkle high explosive bombs over a city like that, things are going to get pretty scary for those on the receiving end, even if their individual chances of being hurt are pretty minimal.
And it's not too difficult to take a few years and improve both your payload and guidance enough that you have a really workable nuclear deterrent.
Let's see how the new administration reacts when they wake up to realize that Iran not only hates our guts, but they have the tools to start World War III, and they don't care if they all die in ball of fire. To them it would be a blaze of glory.
Back to the Office
Well, the schools are finally open, the kids schlepped themselves off this morning, and I'm back in the office. Almost got killed on multiple occasions on my way to work due to the fluffy white stuff that was coming down causing seizures on the part of the other drivers.
Spent the day doing stuff that got put off last week due to noone being able to work at the office. Gotta love it.
Spent the day doing stuff that got put off last week due to noone being able to work at the office. Gotta love it.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Wisdom from the Onion
From The Onion, one of my favorite publications:
Could be my new motto.
Aquarius Jan 20 - Feb 18
Sure, a spoon full of sugar may make the medicine go down, but if it's suppositories you're struggling with, the spoon isn't going to help.
Could be my new motto.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Skin of their teeth
Well, the Steelers pulled it out at the last minute.
I was impressed by how well both teams performed, and the game actually went through, even with the extended half time before the middle of the night.
A couple of years ago, noone thought Kurt Warner should have still been playing. He played at least as well as he did in his last two Superbowl appearances, and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't come back as a starter next year.
Congrats to the Steelers on a great game.
That has to have been the most enjoyable Super Bowl I've ever watched. I love a good close game.
I was impressed by how well both teams performed, and the game actually went through, even with the extended half time before the middle of the night.
A couple of years ago, noone thought Kurt Warner should have still been playing. He played at least as well as he did in his last two Superbowl appearances, and I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't come back as a starter next year.
Congrats to the Steelers on a great game.
That has to have been the most enjoyable Super Bowl I've ever watched. I love a good close game.
Half time show snark
Exactly when did some old geezer who can't breathe all the way through his own signature anthem become million dollar entertainment?
And he must be paying off a bookie or something for the plug he gave Disney at the end.
And he must be paying off a bookie or something for the plug he gave Disney at the end.
Weekend so far
The ice on our trees has all melted or fallen off. No major damage to our trees, but some of our neighbors lost big limbs or whole trees.
Little Bear came over yesterday, and he had a good time with the other cubs. All three of the older kids went out and played in the snow.
Louisville is slowly getting back to normal. I've been hunting for a replacement snow shovel, but no luck. Our snow shovel broke while Junior was out shoveling the driveway. A wood bee had tunneled down through the length of the handle, and it broke when he tried to pick up a load of snow. I've scoured the area, but no snow or grain shovels are available.
Not sure if the schools will be open tomorrow. I certainly hope so. Our bosses have been really cool about us working from home, but I don't want to push it.
Here's a pic from our back window. Really pretty, but you could hear the trees breaking from hundreds of yards away.
Update: School still out in Louisville, but they expect to hold classes on Tuesday.
Little Bear came over yesterday, and he had a good time with the other cubs. All three of the older kids went out and played in the snow.
Louisville is slowly getting back to normal. I've been hunting for a replacement snow shovel, but no luck. Our snow shovel broke while Junior was out shoveling the driveway. A wood bee had tunneled down through the length of the handle, and it broke when he tried to pick up a load of snow. I've scoured the area, but no snow or grain shovels are available.
Not sure if the schools will be open tomorrow. I certainly hope so. Our bosses have been really cool about us working from home, but I don't want to push it.
Here's a pic from our back window. Really pretty, but you could hear the trees breaking from hundreds of yards away.Update: School still out in Louisville, but they expect to hold classes on Tuesday.
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