Blog Talk Radio just dumped core?

I blame Scott Brown and the Republicans for taking Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat ....

And welcome visitors from Say Uncle - indeed, the "Scott heard 'round the world". Welcome to a New Revolution!

Dignity and Honesty

In all the excitement of the current political race, life still speaks - sometimes in its Outdoors Voice. Judi Chamberlin blogged her last struggle, at Life As A Hospice. Her last post is here.

It's so easy to get caught up in the here and now, and forget what's here and now. Requiescet in Pace, Judi. Everyone else, go hug your family.



How You Live (Turn Up The Music) (Songwriter: Cindy Morgan)

Wake up to the sunlight
With your windows open
Don't hold in your anger or leave things unspoken
Wear your red dress
Use your good dishes
Make a big mess and make lots of wishes
Have what you want
But want what you have
And don't spend your life lookin' back

Turn up the music
Turn it up loud
Take a few chances
Let it all out
You won't regret it
Lookin' back from where you have been
Cuz it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you live

So go to the ballgames
And go to the ballet
And go see your folks more than just on the holidays
Kiss all your children
Dance with your wife
Tell your husband you love him every night
Don't run from the truth
'Cause you can't get away
Just face it and you'll be okay

Turn up the music
Turn it up loud
Take a few chances
Let it all out
You won't regret it
Lookin' back from where you have been
'Cause it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you live

Oh wherever you are and wherever you've been
Now is the time to begin

So give to the needy
And pray for the grieving
E'en when you don't think that you can
'Cause all that you do is bound to come back to you
So think of your fellow man
Make peace with God and make peace with yourself
'Cause in the end there's nobody else

Turn up the music
Turn it up loud
Take a few chances
Let it all out
'Cause you won't regret it
Lookin' back from where you have been
'Cause it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you live

'Cause it's not who you knew
And it's not what you did
It's how you live

Via Stephany, who knows dignity and honesty.

Driver shoots himself out of submerged car

Driver gets startled by a cell phone ring, swerves off the road and into a river. Finding himself in 8 feet of water in a Chappaquiddick situation, he takes out his handgun, shoots out the window, and swims to safety.

No harm done, except to the car.

Via Don in an email, who sends 100% cool stuff. For example, you know how far a Light Year is. So how far is a Light Leap Year? (Hint: one three hundred and sixty fifth longer than a Light Year).

Massachusetts Senate Race: view from the trenches

Here in the Western suburbs of Boston there's been a heavy turnout. #2 Son and I took the dogs out for their daily Constitutional, and found a mini-crowd of people on the town green, outside the polling station. I stopped by to chat with them, and do a totally non-scientific poll.

There were five registered voters (plus a child) with Scott Brown signs. Three were registered Republican; two were independent (technically "Unenrolled" in Massachusetts parlance). Two people had Martha Coakley signs, one registered Democrat, and one who was not a citizen but was participating in the process anyway. Cool.

My entirely unscientific poll question: It's obvious who you want to win. Who do you think is going to win?

Unsurprisingly, it was 5-2 (Brown-Coakley). What was interesting was why people thought the way they did. On the Brown for Senate side, people talked about how much they liked Brown as a candidate, how much energy they were seeing, and how much they couldn't stand Martha Coakley. On the Coakley for Senate side, the discussion was about policy: health care, reproductive rights, etc. Talking with the Coakley supporters, neither candidate came up in conversation (at least that I remember).

Everyone was friendly, polite and cheerful, to me and to each other. Cool, again.

Nobody knew how things were going in the election, other than there was pretty heavy turnout over at the polling station. I passed on what little I knew, but it wasn't much other than speculation. Lots (I mean lots) of people were honking their horns as they drove by. Not sure if this was for Brown or Coakley, but the Brown supporters had a slightly better position right on the corner, and were kind of blocking the Coakley sign (at least from some angles). I don't think that this was dirty pool; I saw Brown supporters there early in the day, when there were only two of them (no Coakley presence), so they presumably grabbed the choice corner location.

What does this mean in the Grand Scheme of things? Nothing. We'll all know more in about 3 hours. I have to say, that I'm sick of what the national political debate has become in this country, but in my town it's very refreshing indeed to see people participating but still treating each other respectfully. More, please.

The Margin Of Fraud

This race is too close to call. The numbers shown here are the official Borepatch estimate of the honest election results. This is based on percentage of party affiliation (or lack thereof) and the way voters seem to be breaking within those parties. Turnout is heavy - even with the bad weather - and so the polls can be looked on as being more reliable than many had thought.

Independents are the largest bloc, and are polling 2:1 in favor of Brown. The Democrats and Republicans will reliably line up with their candidate (with a slight edge here for the Republicans due to an energized Republican base and a Demoralized Democrat base). Cranking the numbers, Brown will smoke Coakley.


Of course, the reported results will be nowhere near this, because of the Margin Of Fraud.

Massachusetts is a one-party state, with a powerful, entrenched political Machine. A Machine is needed for days like this. While the distinct paucity of Coakley signs, supporters, canvasers, and other visible support suggests that the Machine is dormant, the activity will be done behind the scenes, stuffing as many fraudulent ballots into the boxes as possible.

The question is not will they do this? The question is how much will they do? That's the Margin Of Fraud (MOF).

I'm guessing the MOF is 5%, which means that this race is too close to call.

Interestingly, I'm currently the #2 Google result for "betting odds on massachusetts senate race".

UPDATE 19 December 2010 17:28: In the Middle of the Right asks a question. Heh.

Vote

If you live in Massachusetts, please get out and vote. While Scott Brown is ahead in essentially every poll, this election will be won or lost based on turnout. Since the weather's lousy, turnout will be lower than it would otherwise be.

So if you don't care if dumb-as-a-rock hack machine politician goes to Washington DC, stay home. Especially if you want another dumb-as-a-rock hack machine politician going to Washington DC.

If you (like me) are sick of the status quo, get down and vote for Brown.

Scott Brown wins Massachusetts Senate race

According to an Irish bookmaker, who's paid off the bets already:

With 24 hours left to run before the United States Senate special election in Massachusetts Irish bookmaking outfit Paddy Power has already paid out on Republican candidate Scott Brown winning the seat last held by Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy.

The leading betting company reported “very significant” betting in support of the Republican candidate which resulted in his odds tumbling from 5/4 to 1/5. Consequently the odds on Democratic candidate Martha Coakley have drifted from 4/7 to 3/1.

Wow. That's putting his money where his mouth is. Wonder if this will be a "Dewey Beats Truman" moment.

Via Don Surber.

Robert Johnson

I was out at Newbury Comics with #1 Son, and browsed their used CD collection. I love this, since I can pick up some great deals (such as Hank, Jr's "America The Way I See It" for $3.99). Unexpectedly, I found myself paying full price for a CD: Robert Johnson's Me And The Devil Blues.

The title comes from the legend that he made a pact with the Devil to become the greatest bluesman of all time. True or not, it's arguable that he was the greatest bluesman of all time. I love the Blues, and Johnson was perhaps the father of the modern blues. In his short life (ended at 27 by a jealous husband, they say) he established the sound that would be picked up by Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and a whole school of musicians. Even though he only recorded three dozen songs - the last in 1937 - it's astonishing just how modern they sound.



Worth full price.

Pimpin'

Since all the Cool Kids are doing it, I thought I'd post a reminder, too. Get all your Borepatch swag at Cafepress, including the limited edition Global Warming Clippy mug.


I am, sadly, pistol bayonet-less.

I love my snowblower

We didn't get a lot of snow, maybe 3 or 4 inches, but it was wet and heavy. Two years ago, I'm be looking for the liniment and an ibuprofen cocktail. Now I let the miracle of internal combustion do the aching for me. Plus, I get to rape Mother Gaia with Carbon Dioxide emissions, ensuring Global Warming and less snow in future! It's a twofer!

Plus, the self propulsion is beefy enough that it doesn't even slow down on the hill where I park the Jeep. 30° incline, over pine needles and rocks, and the thing doesn't even slow down.

You know, sometimes this 21st Century living-in-the-future thing is a bit of all right.

Young Victoria

I went to see Young Victoria, and a jolly good show it is, too. If you're in the mood for a a fun, frock-coat romantic comedy, this delivers.



The performances are strong across the board, particularly Emily Blunt (Victoria) and Rupert Friend (Albert). The score is outstanding.

Albert was later instrumental in preventing a war between Great Britain and the US. During the Civil War, the british steamer Trent was taking two Confederate diplomats to europe when it was boarded by the US Navy on the high seas, and the Confederates siezed. Naturally, spirits ran high in London, and the government was about to send the Royal Navy to sieze the prisoners back, when Albert intervened. Working behind the scenes, he sent a series of letters to Abraham Lincoln which convinced the president that he had his hands full with General Robert E. Lee.

Lincoln ordered the diplomats released, and the two countries have never approached open conflict again.

Blogroll update

StrandedinIowa seems in many ways to be my identical twin, separated at birth:

A short, ill-tempered, balding guy who just wants to be left alone. And I'm cynical, too.

That's about right (except for the short part). His new blog is worth a visit, particularly for his musings on freedom and the second amendment:

We have to fight against this acceptance, by ourselves and others, that we have to seek permission from our betters in order to exercise a right. When we accept it, that right is reduced to a privilege, one that we may never gain back.

Well on the way to that in Massachusetts. Or Massachusettes. Whatever.

Quote of the day

Curt Schilling brings the heat in a post I've been called a lot of things:

But never, and I mean never, could anyone ever make the mistake of calling me a Yankee fan. Well, check that, if you didn’t know what the hell is going on in your own state maybe you could….

For the three readers who haven't yet heard about this astonishing display of Teh Stupid, the back story is here.

Let me just say again that Martha Coakley is as dumb as a rock.

UPDATE 16 January 2010 11:37: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Martha Coakley kept an innocent man in prison

Not just dumb as a rock, but evil:

Coakley's role in the imprisonment of Gerald "Tookie" Amirault is all the more inexcusable when one considers that wild accusations of child sex abuse at the Fells Acres Day School were widely discredited by the time she became involved in the case. Even when it was clear Amirault was innocent, Coakley lobbied Acting Governor Jane Swift to keep Tookie behind bars for an extra two years.

Some of us still think it should be "Court of Justice", rather than "Court of Law". Naive, I guess. The Organs of the State do not self-correct, at least not under Martha Coakley's "leadership".

Via The Corner.

German Government advises people to stop using Internet Explorer

Wow. It's like they read Borepatch or something:

In a statement issued today, the German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (known as BSI) recommends that all Internet Explorer users switch to an alternative browser. They may resume using Explorer after a fix is issued by Microsoft for a critical vulnerability that has been implicated in the Chinese cyberattack against Google.

The BSI is a pretty big deal in Germany. What's interesting is how they say it might be OK to go back to IE after Microsoft gets the fix out. This is a big vote of no confidence in Microsoft's fix-things-once-a-month Patch Tuesday strategy.

Toby Keith - How Do You Like Me Now?

Nobody likes to be taken for granted. Especially by someone who thinks that they're better than you.

It might make a person wish for a come-uppance, or something. Fortunately, Country music has a song for that, from Toby Keith.

There's a seismic shift happening under our feet in this country. People are waking up to the realization that the "Smart Set" thinks that they're better (and smarter) than we are, and so are fit to rule over us.

Taken for granted. And nobody is more taken for granted than the voters of Massachusetts by the Democratic party. The party has put up an arrogant, out of touch, dumb as a rock candidate for the Senate special election. And suddenly the ground shifts, as the electorate takes a serious look at someone who's working for their vote, not expecting it as a matter of course.

This Saturday Redneck is dedicated to Martha Coakley and the Massachusetts Democratic party, who have been sleepwalking past the voters. Scott Brown may not win on Tuesday, but welcome to a new revolution:

Alarm clock starts ringing
Who could that be singing
Its me baby, with your wake up call!

How Do You Like Me Now (songwriters: Toby Keith, Chuck Cannon)

I was always the crazy one
I broke into the stadium
And I wrote your number on the 50 yard line
You were always the perfect one
And the valedictorian so
Under your number I wrote "call for a good time"

I only wanted to catch your attention
But you overlooked me somehow
Besides you had too many boyfriends to mention
And I played my guitar too loud.

How do you like me now?
How do you like me now,
Now that I'm on my way?
Do you still think I'm crazy
Standing here today?
I couldn't make you love me
But I always dreamed about living in your radio
How do you like me now?

When I took off to Tennessee
I heard that you made fun of me
Never imagined I'd make it this far
Then you married into money girl
Aint it a cruel and funny world?
He took your dreams and tore them apart.

He never comes home
And you're always alone
And your kids hear you crying down the hall
Alarm clock starts ringing
Who could that be singing
Its me baby, with your wake up call!

How do you like me now?
How do you like me now,
Now that I'm on my way?
Do you still think I'm crazy
Standing here today?
I couldn't make you love me
But I always dreamed about living in your radio
How do you like me now?

Security Smorgasbord, vol 2 no 2

State Department to Officially complain to China about hacking

There has recently been a rash of hacking incidents, where companies have been penetrated by hackers from China. The Fed.Gov is formally bitching to the Red Chinese*:

The United States will issue a formal diplomatic note to China expressing concern about cyber attacks that hit Google and dozens of other companies, and that researchers say originated in that country.

"We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early next week," US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday. "It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation of how it happened and what they plan to do about it."

This seems like big news, although it's being kept (sort of) quiet. There is quite a vibrant black hat scene in the PRC, and a strong feeling that it is tolerated so long as non-Chinese targets are victimized. Nearly three dozen US tech companies were hit, including Google and Adobe, and software technology/trade secrets stolen.

* I only call them "Red Chinese" to annoy the bien pensants.

---------------------------------------------------

Day Zero attack against Internet Explorer circulating in the wild

Sitemeter tells me that most of you have moved off IE6, but if you haven't now's the time. It seems that the Google hack came via this exploit:

The recent hack attack on Google, Adobe and other companies occurred through exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability that affects many versions of Internet Explorer, according to Microsoft and a security researcher with a leading anti-virus firm.

While people are only talking about IE6 right now, there's a chance (maybe a good chance) that other versions are vulnerable. Microsoft has some recommendations on how IE users can protect themselves:

Protected Mode in IE 7 on Windows Vista and later significantly reduces the ability of an attacker to impact data on a user’s machine. Customers should also enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) which helps mitigate online attacks. DEP is enabled by default in IE 8 but must be manually enabled in prior versions.

Customers can also set Internet and Local intranet security zone settings to "High" to prompt before running ActiveX Controls and Active Scripting in these zones or configure Internet Explorer to prompt before running Active Scripting or to disable Active Scripting in the Internet and Local intranet security zone. You can find details on implementing these settings in the advisory.

Note that they are not just talking about IE6, which suggests that other versions are vulnerable. IE users should also consider moving to Firefox. I'm cautiously optimistic about IE8's security, but Firefox has a much quicker response time to getting security updates distributed.

UPDATE 16 January 2010 10:34: IE versions 6, 7, and 8 are vulnerable. The code is now public, so if you use Internet Explorer this is really bad juju. Get over to Microsoft's blog for workaround instructions. Seriously.

---------------------------------------------------

Chinese search engine hacked by Iran?

China's top search engine Baidu was hacked on Tuesday in what state media said was an attack by a pro-Iranian government group that replaced the usual home page with an Iranian flag.

Internet users trying to access the site found a message saying "This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army", the People's Daily reported on its website.

Below a sentence in Farsi read, "In reaction to the US authorities' intervention in Iran's internal affairs. This is a warning," the report said, posting an image of the hacked page.

When the music stops, we'll see who didn't pwn anyone ....

---------------------------------------------------

Adobe releases fix for Vulnerability-From-Hell

Yes, I know I should have told y'all a couple days ago. This has been exploited for a month:

However, security experts said a patch for a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat that Adobe Systems released on Tuesday was even more important than the Microsoft bulletin. The hole was discovered in mid-December and is being exploited by attacks in the wild to deliver Trojan horse programs that install backdoor access on computers.

"Unlike most months, what the bulletin administrators should look at first is the Adobe patch when it is released later today," said Jason Miller, data and security team leader at Shavlik Technologies. "This bulletin will patch vulnerabilities that are currently in the wild affecting users."

Likely all y'all are vulnerable, so get a move on. Security goodness downloadable from Adobe.

---------------------------------------------------

Google Android phone app is actually Banking malware

Yeah, I know - who uses Android. But if you do, be careful of those apps:

Hidden among the barcode readers, music players and games in the marketplace for Android software may be apps that could steal your online banking credentials or infect your phone.

Google removed about 1 percent of the apps posted to the Android Market last year, according to a 2009 filing Google made to the FTC (.pdf). While most of those apps were removed because of user complaints about adult content or copyright violations, two apps attempted to gain access to users’ financial information, according to InformationWeek.

Let me just say once again that banking from your cell phone is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea.

How close is the Massachusetts Senate Race?

Too close to spell check!


Via Don Surber.

Climate Data: entirely untrustworthy

Pictures at 11 ...



This is part 4 out of a 5 part series, but IMHO the most important one to understand the Global Warming debate. Long time readers will recogn ize E. M. Smith from Chiefio, which I've linked several times.

In short, the climate data set has been manipulated to suppress cold temperatures and emphasize warm ones in recent years.

This is a very well done investigation. You can get all five parts here.

UPDATE 15 January 2010 12:55: Gah, their embed code doesn't seem to point to their server. Go take a look via this link.

UPDATE 15 January 2010 15:58: Here are the different segments:

Carbon Dioxide doesn't drive temperature.

Al Gore and the UN.

ZOMG we're all gonna die!!!! (or not).

ClimateGate comes to the US.

Summing up.

The dirt on Scott Brown

It finally comes out.



From Boston's Michael Graham, via Hot Air.

UPDATE 20 January 2010 16:46: Welcome all you visitors from Google, looking for dirt on Scott Brown. I see you!