Friday, February 11, 2011

This story shall the good man teach his son

The Tudors had Shakespeare to memorialize them.  Not bad, if you can get it.


Men don't always fight for their comrades.  Some fight for money, or glory.  But the best - the ones who fight hardest, and are most reluctant to give up, who sacrifice the most - those fight for their comrades, their "Band of Brothers".

What if you don't have a Shakespeare?  You do what you can, with what you have.  If what you have is Steven Ambrose, Tom Hanks, and Stephen Spielberg, that's not bad, either.



Pay attention especially to Babe Heffron  at 1:40, where he tells about his buddy who told him to stay in his foxhole, and went in his place.  And took his bullet.

For that "Band of Brothers", they ended with recognition of what they did: ending a World War and ushering in perhaps a century of peace.



And what their buddies who died, did.



Sixty-five years is a long time.  It's long enough for the world to forget those who died.  The living remember.  That's what makes this so terrible:



God Speed,  PFC Juan S. Restrepo.  It was truly said - although few today listen - that:
Gentlemen in England America now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day
We can only hope, if there's hope for this Republic.  ASM826 wrote another must-read post about the war in Afghanistan.  About what we're fighting for.  It's different today than it was 65 years ago.  Ugly, even.

I wonder how Juan Restrepo will be remember'd, 65 years from now. By whom he will be remember'd. Although it's a stone cold fact that he'll be remember'd by Salvatore A. Giunta.


Where this Republic finds men like Restrepo and Giunta is a deep mystery. If the Good Lord smiles down on this Republic, we will continue to find them. Even for a cause such as this.

I fear that it will prove not to be so.

But we in it shall be remember'd,
We few, we happy few.
We Band of Brothers.

Come thou no more for Ransom, gentle Herald,
they shall have none, I swear.

Friday Follies: Eco Hypocrites

Whenever a conservative gets caught in (say) a sex scandal, the press justifies its gleeful coverage with it's not the act, it's the hypocrisy.  Here are some stories about progressives where - strangely - the press isn't interested.


BBC pushes environmental agenda; refuses to buy carbon offsets

Auntie Beeb pushes Anthropogenic Global Warming hysterically, most recently last night, where their discussion on Radio 4 about the psychology of climate change "deniers" - where the science was (by the rules of the discussion) assumed to be "settled" that mankind's burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, wrecking the climate.

So someone wondered whether they bought carbon offsets for their people when they flew.  And that someone submitted a freedom of information act request to find out.  The reply?  No:
The BBC does not buy carbon offsets for its journalists' airline tickets because - "in considering such questions, the BBC must balance our environmental policies against our responsibility to our licence fee payers, and we do not believe buying offsets represents good use of licence fee income."
They have better things to do with their dough, ya see?  But all you proles, line up for the lower carbon lifestyle.  Remember, lefties, it's not the act itself, it's the hypocrisy!

Hat tip: Bishop Hill.

We need more wind power!  And aid to the poor because it costs too much to heat their house!

Progressive policies are a delicious desert topping and a floor shine!  Her Britannic Majesty's Parliament is debating whether to move forward on EU targets for the amount of electricity generated by wind power.  During the coldest winter in memory.  The Rt. Hon. Philip Davies, MP hits the nail on the head:

The bottom line is that these policies will produce for Britain the most expensive electricity in the world if we carry on down this particular route. Is it morally or politically acceptable, particularly at a time of national austerity when families are struggling to pay their bills, for the Government to keep raising them just to meet an EU target? I do not think it is. It will hit the poorest people in our communities first.

I do not understand why the people who propose these green policies are so shy about it. Anyone can say that they are in favour of green energy. It is like asking someone, "Would you like a Rolls-Royce car?" Most people would say, "Yes," but if one were to ask, "Would you like a Rolls-Royce car? You'll have to spend the rest of your life living in a tent to pay for it?" they might say, "No." If we ask people whether they are in favour of green energy, they say, "Of course we are-it sounds marvellous." However, if Huw Irranca-Davies were to ask them whether they were prepared to pay astronomical bills in order to pursue that, I think that he might get a different answer.
Funny that - Progressive policies impoverishing the masses.  Who'd have seen that coming?  But all you proles, line right up and do as you're told!

But silly MP Davies, someone else will pay for it.  Until you run out of other people's money.  Which you have.

Hat tip: Bishop Hill, again.

Those are some righteous "Green" Diesel-Voltaic solar cells

Longtime readers will remember a post about how the Spanish Government's solar power subsidies were so lucrative, it paid for companies to set up big banks of lights (powered by diesel generators) so they could run the "solar" cells all night.  Well, if something can't go on forever, it eventually stops.  And by "eventually", I mean "today":
Sunny Spain became the world’s top solar power producer. Since 2002, about €23-billion has been invested in Spain’s photovoltaic (PV) industry, which sucked up €2.7-billion in subsidies in 2009 alone, or more than 40 per cent of the freebies doled out to the country’s entire renewables sector.

When the Spanish economy went into the toilet in 2008 and 2009, austerity measures were put into place. At first, it appeared the solar industry would be spared the worst of the cutbacks. That changed a bit, but only a bit, in November, when a royal decree reduced tariffs by up to 45 per cent on new PV plants; existing plants would remain untouched. Then – whammo! – a new royal decree landed with a thud just before Christmas. While it didn’t change the tariff, it retroactively limited the number of production hours that PV plants could qualify for the subsidies.

Spain’s solar industry lobby group, the Asociacion Empresarial Fotovoltaica, estimated that the second decree would effectively reduce tariffs received by PV plants by 30 per cent, forcing many of the PV companies to default on their debt.
In other news of the unexpected, you can't grow orchids in your back yard in Massachusetts.  But don't worry, we have all our Top Men working on this, right now:
As predicted was inevitable, today the Spanish newspaper La Gaceta runs with a full-page article fessing up to the truth about Spain’s “green jobs” boondoggle, which happens to be the one naively cited by President Obama no less than eight times as his model for the United States.
Top men.  Almost Philosopher Kings.  Strangely unable to learn, though.  But all you proles, line right up and do as you're told!

Hat tip: Jo Nova.

Note to the liberal press (redundancy alert): we'd take you more seriously with all your it's the hypocrisy, stupid posturing if you'd spend just a little time policing the other side.  Proudly "green" companies that refuse to pay what they say everyone else should, "Progressive" policies that will make the poor poorer, and "Smart" politicians who can't learn from someone else's fail (and who are dead set to make their own, bigger fail here) are low hanging fruit.

No need to thank me, it's all part of the service.

Quote of the Day

Obama rhetoric is all about saying big things and nothings at the same time.
Ann Althouse, who drops this nugget of excellence in a comment over at her place.

Learning, and not learning

We're surrounded by people who are convinced that they're smarter than we are.  That they're more scientific than we are.  That they're more open minded than we are.

We know that we're surrounded, because they rarely miss an opportunity to tell us so.  You can see them telling us, on the bumper of the car ahead of you when you're dropping your kid off at school.

And I can't argue with the general - minds really do function better when they're open.  Open to new data, especially data that contradict your comfortable assumptions.

Some folks have open minds, and learn things that they never though they could:
On the midterm, he gave us an extra credit question I still remember.
Using Kepler's Observations and Newton's law of Gravitation, derive the mass of the earth.
No one even tried the question. He then offered it as extra credit as a take home assignment, and I decided I wanted the points.

...

It took me three days, off and on, to gather that information, come to understand it, and write it up. I felt like my brain was on fire. I learned something. It was something I would never have been capable of discovering, it was all I could do to follow what they had done. I turned in four typewritten pages and was one of four students in the class that attempted the assignment.

The instructor gave me an A on that assignment. He even complemented me on the work I had done. It didn't matter. I knew I was just walking in the footsteps of great men.
He learned that he didn't know everything.  He also learned that he could learn things he'd never imagined before.  Sadly, some people don't:
We can understand the phenomenon of the eco-apocalyptics of the left as more of a conscious and willful abdication of rationality for the purpose of maintaining the delusion of imminent environmental catastrophe. Like the patient with the delusional disorder I described above, but without the biological etiology, the environmental apocalype envisioned by the left serves an important psychological purpose. It disguises the underlying reality of their desire to have power over other people's lives. They absolutely need the environment to be on the verge of catastrophe; just as they need victims for whom they can champion so that they can keep this image of themselves as being heroic, compassionate, champions of the oprressed (including the oppressed planet). They simply cannot accept that they desire power; that they want to control others; that, from a psychological perspective, they are not much different than any other dictator or authoritarian ruler who sees himself "above" the common masses.
ASM826 is still learning, as am I.  I emailed him a link to some sayings from Lord Acton - you know, the guy who said that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."  He was a wicked smaht guy, and the rest of his stuff is as good, or better.  I emailed ASM826 because I knew that I couldn't do it justice - I'd write another 4,000 word uberpost that y'all would sleep through.  I knew that he'd distil it to the bare essence.  Man, oh man, was I right:
I feel the same way when I read about Lord Acton. I can find pages of his quotes, copies of books compiled out of his letters, ideas about freedom and government that I would never have come to on my own. His ideas speak to the issues of our day as well as they did to the issues of his time.
Learn as much by writing as by reading.
--Lord Acton
He's done a series of Acton posts that deserve your attention.  They're what I would have written, only not so wordy, and a lot better.

Power Corrupts

Truth Prevails

Moral Laws

The Will Of The People

Two Wolves And A Sheep Plan Dinner

What Socialism Means

I keep saying he's my identical twin brother, separated at birth.  But I'm the brother that won't shut up.  He's the one who understands what the world is, and why it's that way, and who can tell you without making you fall asleep.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Gun Control blog Girly Men

Over at Joe's, Linoge brings the metrics to show how the anti-gun folks swing and miss:
Quantcast does not bother tracking the three largest independent anti-rights weblogs I am aware of (Mike Bonomo, Joan Peterson, and Baldr), but Alexa claims their ranks are 1,571,408, 5,129,127 and 18,648,661, respectively, while yours weighs in at 845,329 (lower numbers are better). Actual traffic numbers were not available, but it is easy to see that you outmass both of them in the SEO field.
Let's recap: out of all the web sites registered with Alexa (basically, any that are serious), the top anti-gun blogs fit here in the hierarchy:

Mike Bonomo - 1,571,407 web sites beat him out

Japete - 5,129,127 web sites beat her out

Baldr - 18,648,661 web sites beat him out

Now, compare and contrast.  No, not with Joe - he's one of the Big Boys, and you'd just be kicking the puppies.  Compare with a nowheresville blog, one that nobody's really ever heard of, and quite frankly hasn't been around for very long.  Me:


Note that while the text talks about "Blogspot", the metrics are for me.  You can test this yourself, because JayG's are different (and better, duh) than mine.

All I can say is that this is a deep, deep pit of FAIL for the anti-gun folks, and for the Brady crowd and Ceasefire in particular, as they're the folks behind Japete and Baldr, respectively.  And it appears that a nobody like me is kicking Internet sand into their faces.  Welcome to the grassroots!  This is how you pump them up:



And note that this isn't bragging.  I mean, after all, 1.3 Million web sites kick Internet sand in my face*.  Fair.  But I don't have the backing of the Brady Bunch or Ceasefire, or anyone like that.  There aren't any paid marketroids sending Borepatch links to CNN and the Washington Post.

But it ain't bragging if you can do it.  And if you think I was harsh here, you need to go read what Weer'd had to say.  Ouch.  Welcome to the Blogosphere, Baldr!

Now if I could just get paid like they do for this ...

* Being #1,313,609, I try harder.

Rant of the day

Not here, over at B.S. Footprint, who adds:
Oh, yeah, I borrowed the term Statist Pricks from Borepatch. Thanks a bunch, Borepatch, I needed it.
No need to thank me, it's all part of the service!

Behind the role

Life gives us roles that we must play, particularly to our children.  It comes as a revelation to many that their parents were more than just the role.  This can lead to the revelation that they are today more than just the role.


Mom and Dad, drinking beer in 1949.  Underage Mom and Dad drinking beer in 1949.  Dad writes:
We have a photo of us ... drinking beer in the Dark Horse Tavern, our favorite Estes Park hangout.  We were only 19 in a state with an age-21 drinking law.  I was "legal" thanks to a forged Naval Reserve identification card calling me 21.
Behind the role, is the man.  It's worth knowing the man.

UPDATE 10 February 2011 13:54:  Mom tells me in no uncertain terms that it's worth knowing the woman, too. Sure is.

Ronald Reagan, gunslinger

Literally:
Former President Ronald Reagan is known as the "Great Communicator," but one Iowa woman will always know him as her hero.

Melba King (pictured, pictured below right) was a 22-year-old nursing student in Des Moines in 1933. She was walking home one autumn night when a mugger came up behind her with a gun and demanded her money.

At that moment, Ronald Reagan -- who was a Des Moines radio sportscaster at the time -- came to her rescue. Reagan pointed a .45-caliber revolver at the robber from the window of his second-floor rented room. Melba King

"And he said, 'Leave her alone or I'll shoot you right between the shoulders,'" King told KCCI.Reagan scared the man off and calmed King's nerves. Then, the future president said he would walk King home.
The punch line?  He didn't have any ammo.
King didn't see Reagan again until 1984, when Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad heard her story and invited her to an Iowa caucus campaign event ...

After King and Reagan hugged on stage, Reagan laughed, and said to the crowd, "This is the first time I've had a chance to tell you the gun was empty. I didn't have any cartridges. If he hadn't run when I told him to, I was going to have to throw it at him."
Big brass ones, yessir.  Explains how he ended the Cold War.  After taking on a mugger with no ammo, taking on the Soviet Bear leading the Free World was a walk in the park.

Via Gun Mart.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

GO. WATCH. NOW.

You hear a lot about blather of "shared sacrifice."  Always said, of course, by people who don't have the slightest intention of sharing any sacrifice.

This is sacrifice.

Where we get men and women who will do this for us is a mystery for which I am profoundly grateful.

Damned furnace here in the new house.  Must be on the fritz.  Something's got in my eye ...

P.S. The "heros" tag is for the families.

In Memoriam

Red Hill Kudzu's Father-in-Law just passed away.  Condolences especially to Mrs. Kdzu.



Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis. Amen.

A funny thing happened today

I didn't become a felon.


I love it when that doesn't happen.

These are on my desk, in Georgia.  If it were on my desk when we lived in Massachusetts, I'd be a felon.

Tempus Fugit

When I was a young lad, the old veterans at the Veteran's Day parade were the World War I doughboys.  The World War II veterans were the town dads - police, fire fighters, scoutmasters, teachers, businessmen.

That was a while ago.  Now the World War II vets are the old ones, and every year there are fewer.  Many didn't live long enough to see the WWII memorial in Washington DC.  Some lived to be old enough, but can't afford the trip.

Honor Flight is a non-profit organization founded to fly these veterans to Washington DC for that visit.


If you know a vet who might like to go, but who can't, contact the Honor Flight folks.  Memorial Day is coming, and Time waits for no man.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Quote of the Day

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern.  Every class is unfit to govern.
- Lord Acton

Especially the Harvard/Yale/Princeton class ...

The awesomeist thing you will see this month

Warning: the video is awesome compressed under 16 atmospheres and then sealed in a (mostly) stable titanium container.  (Do not drop)

Then Lissa covers it with even more awesome.

UPDATE 8 February 2011 19:19: Sitemeter tells me that most of all y'all aren't clicking out to Lissa's post.  Shame.  And you're missing out on the stiletto heels.  Not that I'd stoop to cheap cheesecake to get your attention, but srlsy, you're missing the stilettos.  And Kobe.

Go.  Read.

So the TSA is getting unionized

Smart Republicans (both of them!) will send a thank you note to Janet Napolitano.  After all, the script for the next election cycle has already been written:


C'mon, guys - if you can't win this fight, you really are the Stupid Party.  After all, most people like their kid's teachers, and Chris Christie is still effectively taking on the Teacher's Union.  And teachers don't do this to your kids:



Nobody likes the TSA screeners.  They're not teachers.  Just to be absolutely clear, we know this because teachers don't do this to kids:


"You know why we're doing this."

If you guys can't win this, then you deserve to lose the election.  Helpful hint: Google reports almost 3 Million hits for the search string "TSA abuse".  There's even a blog devoted to the subject.

No need to thank me, it's all part of the service.

What to get a new gun owner

So you did your job as a gunnie, de-mystifying guns to a friend. You took them shooting, making sure they had fun and wanted to go back. You took them to a gun show, and helped them pick out a practical first gun. Well done, you!

I bet you thought you were done. As if. You know about gun safety in the home. Do they?



They do if you get them this. Doctors Timothy Wheeler and John Wipfler from Doctors For Responsible Gun Ownership have put together Keeping Your Family Safe: The Responsibilities of Firearms Ownership, a short, readable, and entirely sensible book cover ing the basics. Firearm safety, children and firearms, storage, training, ethics and laws, self defense tactics, first aid for gunshot wounds - all is covered in a calm, informative manner.

Best of all, it's a small book.  It won't intimidate the new gun owner.  It's all sensible and to-the-point, so they'll actually read it.

I'd think that this might be a good read for someone not sure if they should let their kids play with yours, "because they have guns".  I mean, it was written by doctors.

As to gunnie cred, there's a jacket blurb my Massad Ayoob.  As if you need more than the Borepatch Seal of Approval.

Thanks to the kind marketing people at Merrill Press, who sent me a review copy (like 18 months ago; mea culpa).  It's well worth the read.  As we try to "re-normalize" firearms ownership, this is something to keep in your toolkit.

UK.Gov lied about Lockerbie bomber release

Wikileaks strikes again:

The release of the files comes after The Daily Telegraph disclosed papers obtained by WikiLeaks showing that ministers secretly advised Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime on how to secure the bomber's freedom.
David Cameron will today release dozens of confidential letters, 150 pages of documents, memos and minutes of meetings that are said to provide a "comprehensive" picture of the last government's involvement in freeing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.

...

Today's documents are thought to include further information about the extent to which ministers under Tony Blair's and Gordon Brown's leadership were willing to help the Libyans to secure a multi-billion pound oil deal for BP.
This is my shocked face.

Monday, February 7, 2011

I think I found my problem


Censor kitteh duz not apruv uv ur writing.

Musings

I have a few good topics to write about, but the Muse is not hanging out here.

Well, that's my story, anyway.  It's not writer's block - I know what to write about.  More like fatigue.  Back later.  In the meantime, I updated the "Best Posts" category.  The Muse hung out here, some.

Monorail Cat

Keeps ur lap warm.




The paralax in this picture makes his butt look big, though.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

I was going to live blog the Superbowl commercials

But Uncle Jay has you covered.

Moral: it pays to be a lazy blogger.

Action, reaction

Kevin picks up on a quite depressing indictment of the current Intellectual Class' inability to defend our society from its enemies because they can't recognize our society's enemies.
I am more convinced now ... that the West has gone over the tipping point in its terminal decline. That intelligent people, or people who claim to be intelligent, (I have in mind the talking heads in the U.S. media such as Chris Matthews or Fareed Zakaria) cannot make the difference between the sham of the Muslim Brotherhood talking about freedom and democracy and the generic thirst in man to be free. These are the people who have like the Bourbons learned nothing and forgotten nothing. They are glibly about to put the Lenins of our time into trains heading for Moscows of our time....
By coincidence, I was going back through older posts, tagging a (very) few for the "Best Posts" category, and I ran across one that speaks volumes to the idea of defending against enemies.  Especially the idea of who is seen as an enemy:
Candide has a new blog over at Nails on Blackboards, and tells the story of how the local authorities saved their community from a sociopath:

Maria Fife, Julie's mom, said her daughter wanted to open a lemonade stand after seeing a cartoon character open one. She was selling Kool-Aid lemonade for 50 cents a cup when an inspector approached and asked for her license - which costs $120 - at the fair. The other vendors reportedly rallied around Julie, and her "business" started booming.

According to KOIN, two inspectors then threatened Julie with a $500 fine, and she left in tears.
Well done to the Oregon Ruling Class for introducing a little girl to the hob-nailed boot early!  Another member of the coming Popular Front rebellion, no doubt.  Perhaps Candide can tell them the passage from his namesake's tale: Dans ce pay-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres. (In this country it is considered wise to kill an Admiral every now and then, to encourage the others).
As a service to the Progressive Left, let me suggest that your problem is here.  The elections of 2010 are a statement from the People that they think that your government is incompetent, and that your philosophy is suspect.  I recommend that you think on the indoctrination you have implemented in our schools, and how this indoctrination is leading to resistance.  It's a good bet that the only actual tyranny that most school children in this country have personally experienced is from you and your Philosopher Kings.

Think on your desire to shut down opposing views with your "speech codes", and how pathetically weak this makes you look.  After all, if your ideas were so powerful, you'd be able to persuade the other side.  Think on what feelings your crackdown creates.  Ask yourself whether, now that you're on top, you've suspended the rotation of Fortuna's Wheel.  Ask yourself who now is creating legitimate grievances, creating a latter day Popular Front?

Ask yourself, why do they hate you?

No need to thank me, it's all part of being a full service blog.

The tastiest mockery builds on a base of irony

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Woah

Live RPG removed from soldier on operating table



The helicopter pilot broke the rules flying him back (you're not supposed to take patients containing live ordnance on the bird), and the surgeon broke the rules taking him into the ER (ditto).  Everyone decided they wouldn't just stand back and watch him die.

From 2006. (via)

On getting what you wished for

Seems everyone's posting on how the Obama Administration sold out the UK's secrets to Russia.  The only thing I can think to add to the commentary is this, from 2008:

Senator Barack Obama emerged as Europe's favourite candidate for America’s presidency today when a poll conducted for Telegraph.co.uk gave him 52 per cent support across five of the world’s richest nations, including Britain.

John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, received only 15 per cent of the vote in unprecedented survey covering Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia.

The poll also found a striking level of anti-American feeling in every country. A clear majority of Russians - 56 per cent - believe the US is a "force for evil" in the world. In Britain, only 33 per cent see America as a "force for good".

...

Mr Obama appears to have made less of an impact in Britain than elsewhere in Europe. A relatively modest 49 per cent of Britons would vote for him, while 14 per cent would back Mr McCain - twice the totals favouring the Republican candidate in Germany or France.
Two things: he's your guy, hope you're happy with the outcome.  Also, it looks like you kind of nailed that "force for good" thing, at least concerning Obama.

Slim Whitman - Indian Love Call

What connects Oscar Hammerstein, Science Fiction, and the Canadian Rockies?  Why, the Universal Solvent of Country Music, of course.

In 1924, Hammerstein (along with Rudolf Friml and some others) wrote a song for the Broadway musical Rose-Marie, set in the Canadian Rockies.  It turned out to be the longest running musical of the 1920s, and spawned four movies.

Just as it was running down, a young yodeling cowboy recorded the biggest hit from the musical, Indian Love Call, taking it to #2 on the Country charts and into the top ten on the Pop charts.  It was his breakout.

While he had been "discovered" by Col. Tom Parker (the fellow who discovered Elvis), Indian Love Call made him a star.  While we today notice the yodeling, that was old hat in Nashville; what he brought - and what you can hear plainly in this song - is a laid back, easy crooner style that was quickly dubbed "Countrypolitan", and sold 120 Million (!) records for him.

Need more proof of the "Universal Solvent"?  Michael Jackson said that Whitman was one of his ten favorite singers.  Need more?  This song is fatal to Martian invaders.



Indian Love Call (Songwriters: Oscar Hammerstein II, Rudolf Friml, Herbert Stothart, Otto Harbach)
Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo, Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo
When I'm calling you
Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo, Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo
Will you answer too?
Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo, Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo

That means I offer my life to you to be my own
If you refuse me I will be blue, waiting all alone

But if when you hear my love call ringing clear
Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo, Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo
And I hear your answering echo so dear
Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo, Oo-Oo-Oo-Oo
Then I will know our love will become true
You'll belong to me and I'll belong to you

Then I will know our love will become true
You'll belong to me and I'll belong to you

(Image Source)

Friday, February 4, 2011

Best. Mashup. EVER.

Queen, Joan Jet, and Weezer:

Friday Follies

There's a cornucopia of folly for you, today.  Allow me to offer up the bleeding turkeys for your enjoyment.

Harvard Law professor says the Fed.Gov can make you buy what they want you to

And since it's Harvard Law, you know that it's wicked smart.  Wicked, wicked, wicked smaht:
Prof. Fried: Yes. We hear that quite a lot.  It was put by Judge Vinson, and I think it was put by Professor Barnett in terms of eating your vegetables, and for reasons I set out in my testimony, that would be a violation of the 5th and the 14th Amendment, to force you to eat something. But to force you to pay for something? I don’t see why not.  It may not be a good idea, but I don’t see why it’s unconstitutional.
Glad they can make me eat it, though.  Neener neener.

"Smart" Diplomacy seizes Spanish Internet domain
Man, it sure is nice that we don't have Chimpy McHitlerburton telling the rest of the world to get their own danged Internet. Oh, wait:
It appears that Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division, and their incredibly sloppy domain seizure operations, have moved on to the next phase -- as was promised by both ICE boss, John Morton, and IP Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel. The timing on this one is particularly bizarre -- and politically stupid.

That's because the the domain seizure is for the Spanish streaming site Rojadirecta. Yes, ICE seized the domain name of a foreign company. And it gets worse. Rojadirecta is not just some fly-by-night operation run out of someone's basement or something. It's run by a legitimate company in Spain, and the site's legality has been tested in the Spanish courts... and the site was declared legal. The court noted that since Rojadirecta does not host any material itself, it does not infringe.

So, a full-on trial and legal process that took three years in a foreign country, and involved a series of appeals leading to a final judgment.... all totally ignored by a bunch of US customs agents.
Philosopher Kings, right there.

Meghan McCain: The Rich Man's Snooki

Ouch.

How not to dispose of live hand grenades

San Francisco Po-Po bomb disposal robot drops, runs over grenade.



EPA to regulate drinking water

I guess that the air you breathe isn't enough:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson told a Senate panel that preventing children from being exposed to contaminated water could spare them from autism.
Jackson made the remark on Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in response to questioning by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who asked if a recent executive order by President Barack Obama about regulations and the regulatory process means that the EPA can put any rules in place if “the benefits outweigh the costs.”
It's for teh childrens!  And so, a musical love song from EPA Commissioner Jackson to America:



I'll Be There For You (Songwriters: Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora)
I guess this time you're really leaving
I heard your suitcase say goodbye
Well as my broken heart lies bleeding
You say true love is suicide
You say you've cried a thousand rivers
And now you're swimming for the shore
You left me drowning in my tears
And you won't save me anymore
I'm praying to God you'll give me one more chance girl

I'll be there for you, these five words I swear to you
When you breathe, I wanna be the air for you
I'll be there for you
I'd live and I'd die for you
I'd steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for you

I know you know we've had some good times
Now they have their own hiding place
Well I can promise you tomorrow
But I can't buy back yesterday
And baby you know my hands are dirty
But I wanted to be your Valentine
I'll be the water when you get thirsty baby
When you get drunk, I'll be the wine

I'll be there for you, these five words I swear to you
When you breathe I wanna be the air for you
I'll be there for you
I'd live and I'd die for you
I'd steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for you

I wasn't there when you were happy
And I wasn't there when you were down
Didn't mean to miss your birthday baby
I wish I'd seen you blow those candles out

I'll be there for you, these five words I swear to you
When you breathe I wanna be the air for you
I'll be there for you
I'd live and I'd die for you
I'd steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for ...

I'll be there for you, these five words I swear to you
When you breathe I wanna be the air for you
I'll be there for you
I'd live and I'd die for you
I'd steal the sun from the sky for you
Words can't say what love can do
I'll be there for you ...

Political Correctness kills

The official report on the Fort Hood shooting is out, and contains no surprises:
Today the Senate Homeland Security Committee released an independent report on the Ft. Hood shootings. The 91 page report is titled A Ticking Time Bomb: Counterterrorism Lessons from the US Government’s Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack. The gist of it is that the FBI and Hasan’s superiors had more than enough information to prevent the shootings and likely would have done so if not for political correctness.
And by "contains no surprises", I mean contains no surprises.  I wrote about this almost 15 months ago, in the days following the shooting:
There's a saying in business, when you're doing competitive analysis. Don't look for your enemy's weakness - if he's dangerous, he'll fix that. Look for the weakness in his strength. He doesn't want to fix that.

Our strength, as western societies, is openness and tolerance. al Qaeda has found the weakness in that strength. We don't want to see what bumps up against that tolerance; actually, we're afraid to see. Afraid to be criticized as not tolerant we close our eyes, and that opens up tactical opportunities like Ft. Hood.
New readers will want to RTWT on that post, because it goes into detail on how al Qaeda has used that to win a huge strategic victory against us.

There is none so blind as he who will not see.

From the Department of Irony

Documents in the Julian Assange rape case leaked to the Internet:
The ongoing rape-and-sexual-molestation investigation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is taking another in a series of odd turns. A file containing 100 pages of interview transcripts, investigatory notes and other material in the case has appeared online, where it’s being eagerly dissected by Swedish WikiLeaks-watchers.
Transparency.  Information wants to - and will - be free.  You can also find this story under Petard (hoist by).

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Grrrrr

A Minneapolis woman tried to mail a puppy to Atlanta:
The postal worker was stunned when the package moved by itself and fell to the floor. Then came the sounds of heavy panting.

Within minutes, she and co-workers had unwrapped a tightly sealed box and rescued a 4-month-old puppy that a Minneapolis woman tried to mail to Georgia.
The woman has been charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty, which seems about right.  She hasn't asked for the puppy back, which was impounded at the animal control shelter.  She did ask the post office for her $22 back.  Cute little guy, too.


As it turns out, the Post Office will in fact ship some animals (e.g. honeybees).  But puppies are right out.

Do your part for Global Warming

This is - in many places across the Northern Hemisphere - the coldest winter in memory.  Some places, it's just about the coldest winter ever: The Central England Temperature (CET) is the longest running continuous recording of temperature, going back to around 1650.  This winter is the second coldest ever.

But as they say, people like to complain about the weather, but don't want to do anything about it.  Well, phooey to that.  Here's what you can do, in the comfort of your own home.*

Global Warmers, a hydrocarbon based heating alternative,  come in the all natural color of black and never have any petroleum additives or by products.

Fully self contained, global warmers can go just about anywhere. Don’t be fueled by Hydrogen knock-offs or some Hybrid that needs constant charging.

If you're as conscientious about world-wide climate change as you are about charcoaling a juicy rare steak, then you'd better stock up on Global Warmers! Fire it up and then sit back and enjoy!
There you have it - all natural.  Do your part!

* If your home is well ventillated.  Otherwise, I recommend doing this on your porch.

Condition White

Just because you're armed, doesn't mean you're prepared.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Quote of the Day

Remember when lefties were all about free speech? When did that change? Why did that change? Perhaps the answer is: Free speech was only ever a means to an end. When they got their free speech, made their arguments, and failed to win over the American people, and when in fact the speech from their opponents seemed too successful, they switched to the repression of speech, because the end was never freedom. 
Ann Althouse brings it.  Note to the Left: when everything is a mean to an end, you've got no stinkin' moral high ground.

Holy Cow

Caption: SUDBURY [MA] — On Dutton Road, Hal Streeter clears snow so that his letter carrier can reach the mailbox.

Mother Nature isn't making me regret my decision to move south.  It's only going to be 42 today, but it was sunny and 70 over teh weekend.

And I joined a range.  I don't miss the crazy gun laws or the hour and 15 minute commute to the old range, either.

UPDATE 2 February 2011 14:13: Not trying to be a jerk, and you can expect to hear me whining about the summer heat presently, but this is the view from my garden.  Seems the "sunny and 70s" weather here over the weekend did what you'd expect.


Can I just say again that I have precisely zero regrets about moving south from the People's Republic of Massachusetts (other than leaving the New England Gunbloggers behind)?

The nature of the mob

Mencius Moldbug thinks that Egypt is screwed, in a must-read post:
For we have seen this movie before. When the student of history contemplates the "Jasmine Revolution," applauded deliriously by the entire "international community," by Americans right and left, Brahmins and rednecks, neocons and paleocons and progressives, post-Trotskyists, post-Maoists and post-Stalinists, not to mention every human being on Earth who has so much as heard of Egypt, all serenading pure chaos with gladiatorial bloodlust - CNN had become so boring lately - the student does not even need to set his time machine. The pattern is simply too familiar. The autopilot can see it. The pony knows his way back home.

The student is at once in Russia, February, 1917: the archetypal exported revolution.
What's important about this post is how things go bad.  Moldbug claims that it's the mob, and the psychology of the mob cuts across all points on the political spectrum:
The power conservatives at Powerline, for instance, write:
My guess is that Arab dictatorships, like autocracies elsewhere, will prove surprisingly brittle once they are challenged. What the current unrest will lead to is anyone's guess, but there is no reason to think that more popular input will lead to friendlier regimes. Instead, we may see more Irans and Gazas. Be that as it may, there is a certain relief in seeing the dam finally break and the ossified, archaic, anti-free enterprise ruling elites of the Arab world come tumbling down.
Here is the true arsonist's logic, approaching real mens rea - almost, but not quite, a conscience. Of course, if I throw a Molotov cocktail into this church, it will burn down. Lives may be lost. Lives will be lost! But, I mean, what a flammable building. Look - the whole thing is made entirely of wood. Even the siding. And it's such an ugly, cheap, common little building. And besides, those horrible snake-handling Pentecostalists...

On so many issues today, especially in foreign policy, this is the difference between the American liberal and the American conservative. The liberal delights in the fire - he hates the church, this church, any church, all churches. Once it is burned down, he thinks, it can be replaced by a modern, handicapped-accessible and well-stocked library. His reforming impulse is founded in cupidity, in the human lust for power, but above them he has built a charming little cottage of delusions and good intentions.

The conservative knows that burning the church is wrong. He knows that nothing will be built on the rubble, that it will remain a heap of charred bricks and snake corpses for years and perhaps decades. But he also knows that some liberal will burn the church if he doesn't; he, too, is human and delights in the sight of flame; and he's not a Pentecostalist. So he goes right along and flicks his Bic.
RTWT, which is pretty depressing, but pretty smart.  What he doesn't cover in his post is why the mob acts this way.  That's hinted at in another must-read post by Blue.  He tells a story from his military training, tells it well, and uses it to show us the psychology of crowds caught up in unexpected situations, concluding with this:
That night, those few hours, were a life changing experience for me.  I learned that people are sheep.  All of us are, at one time or another in our lives.  I learned that you can be scared to the point that you cannot make a rational decision no matter how hard you try.  I learned that 60 men who could have easily overpowered their "guards", didn't.  Training.

I made a decision right then and there that I would never allow myself to be put in the position of being a cowardly sheep again.  I have never been so ashamed of myself as I was when I went over that night in my mind.  Perhaps ashamed is too strong a word, perhaps disappointed in myself is a more appropriate  description of how I felt.   I wasn't prepared for what was happening to me....
Right now, the situation in Egypt is pregnant with marvelous possibility.  Everyone across the spectrum, from the Powerline dudes to the Kos Kidz are rooting for the People.  It's very likely that the Egyptian People will force Mubarak from power soon.  Elation seems to be called for.

Except what will come next?  Russia 1917 shows what happened in Iran 1979.  A few ruthless people who do not shrink from the naked use of force will find themselves facing a vastly greater number of people who flinch from the logical conclusion of Revolution.  Those people will find themselves in Blue's situation, only it won't be a training drill.

Quite frankly, I don't agree with Moldbug's recommendation that we stick with Mubarak - that while he may be an SOB, he's our SOB. But this is going to be messy, for a long time, and a lot of people in Egypt are going to get hurt or killed.  We've seen it here on these shores:

Under the terms of Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown, Tory troops were treated as turncoat Americans rather than prisoners of war. And the treaty that ended the war allowed the states to enforce their laws sanctioning the confiscation of loyalists’ property. Branded as traitors and denied their homes and farms, tens of thousands of Tories felt they had no choice but to obey the taunting jingle they so often heard: “Tories with their brats and wives / Should fly to save their wretched lives.”

...

No one knows how many Tories renounced their homeland. By some counts, about 80,000 fled—proportionally, six times the number of people who escaped from France during the French Revolution. A larger estimate came from a Tory historian who wrote that “not less than 100,000 souls” left New York City. Most exiles chose Canada and transformed a wilderness into a nation.
A sadly familiar dynamic has been unleashed, one that seems to be sweeping all parties up in a whirlwind of excitement.  It is almost certain to play out the way it always plays out, with a population unprepared to resist a ruthless but tiny minority whose only asset is their understanding that the masses, while fundamentally decent, are sheep.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Oldest American Doughboy turns 110

Rick emails to remind me not to forget, so happy birthday, Frank Buckles:
Born near Bethany, Mo., on Feb. 1, 1901, he moved with his family to a farm outside Walker, Mo., in 1910, where he attended school. In 1916, another move took the family to Oklahoma, but the next year Frank managed to enlist in the U.S. Army at the age of 16. Soon, he was sailing to Europe aboard the HMS Carpathia, rescuer of the HMS Titanic survivors. He was on his way to join other U.S. forces and their allies engulfed in the first World War.
Let me just add that Cpl. Buckles, in his current photograph (at the link), looks particularly dashing sporting his Légion d'honneur, the French Medal of Honor.

The entire Borepatch clan wishes you many happy returns of the day!

Pizza #1

Courtesy of #1 Son, we find that the good folks at Domino's are on their toes:


Well played, indeed.  I hope they gave the dude a good tip.

Don't kick the puppy

The lawyers (grown-ups all) at Powerline turn their gaze on young Ezra Kline.  It's not pretty:
Klein expresses the view that the Constitution is "confusing" and really can't be understood because it was written more than 100 years ago. Therefore, he suggests, it means whatever a particular reader wants it to mean

Let's put aside, for a moment, the know-nothing stupidity of claiming that anything written more than a century ago is so impenetrable as to be irrelevant. (Aristotle? The Bible? Chaucer? Shakespeare? Virtually every great thinker and novelist of world history?) Klein said out loud, I think, what a great many progressives believe, and his comments fit well with the progressive dilemma outlined by Paul in the post immediately below. Progressive hostility to the Constitution is perhaps the great under-reported story of American politics.
Hey, c'mon, Powerline Legal-dudes!  Ezra was the best student in his class at UCLA!  I mean, his professors all said so!  Who the heck do you think you are getting all Constitution-y on him?

Besides, he wasn't even born until I gradulated from College.  How do you expect him to understand musty old Constitution-y things?

Sigh.

As Crash Davis said in Bull Durham*, I'm not interested in a woman who's interested in that boy.

(Image Source)

* Young Ezra was 4 when that film was released.

Me and the ACLU

Seems we're like two peas in a pod:
A state government anti-terrorism agency placed the Tennessee ACLU on a map of “terrorism events and other suspicious activity” for sending a letter warning public schools not to celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday.
RTWT, but basically they're on a Homeland Security "Terror" map because they believe all that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion nonsense.  Clearly up to no good.

And so in the interest of solidarity, I offer the ACLU non-exclusive, free use of the following logo (clicky-clicky for the backstory).  Display it proudly, brothers.  Up the system!  Power to the People!  Come the Revolution, you'll all not establish religions, all day long!


Will the last Progressive please turn out the lights over at Freedom Central?  I mean, we can't have freedom of speech interfering with your grand visions, can we?  And besides, all this untrammeled power you seem all comfortable with wouldn't ever be abused if a Republican gets elected, right?

Via Unc.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Forensic analysis of Intellectual FAIL

I Wand A New Left dissects 12 intellectual traps that the left falls into, that leads them to do the most astonishing things:
Why would leftists have an alliance or be fellow travelers with some of the most reactionary people in the world? It made sense for the left to be either communists or fellow travelers of communism, for communism was generated by the left and was wholly infused with leftist thought. Islam, however, was never part of the left, and the old left which thought of religion as the opiate of the people would no doubt be much surprised to find leftists of today allying themselves so closely with any religion, much less one that seems so reactionary. What, aside from anti-Americanism, do leftists have in common with these people? Nor can anti-Americanism bind them very much since anti-Americanism, after all, isn’t the exclusive preserve of the left. Many people have adopted it, for various reasons.

Moreover, some of these Muslims have come to the West with the idea of imposing their own religious law (shari’a) on us. The obvious leftist response would be to oppose this, instead of which the left seems to be enabling it.
In general, these people are not dumb.  However, they've internalized ways of thinking that make them act dumb.  His is an important post, and you should bookmark it for future reference.

Monday links

Busy, so let me point you towards some stuff that is well worth your time.

Sonic Charmer offers a Grand Unified Theory of Bernie Madoff, Credit Default Swaps, the Housing bubble, and the financial crisis.  It's blindingly simple, pretty depressing, and exposes the utter bankruptcy of both the Coke and Pepsi parties.

Isegoria offers a story of how the Soviet Spetsnaz platoons captured Manchurian airfields from regiments of Japanese troops.  We don't hear much about The USSR's August 1945 offensive (probably because the war was looking pretty over by then, at least in hindsight), but the tactics on display are pretty significant for the Cold War period, if not today.

We see in the press that ZOMG 2010 was the hottest year evah!!!1!! Via Al Fin, we get an accessible nazzo fast moment.  Related: the number of people who think that the planet is not warming has doubled in the last 4 years.  Maybe it's all the Global Warming they've been shoveling off of their driveway?

Jenny offers belated advice to German U-Boat POWs escaping from prison into the Tennessee hill country back during the War.  Whatever you do, absolutely, positively do not act like Yankees.

And To Old To Work, Too Young To Retire brings a musical tribute to the recently departed Charlie Louvin.  God Speed.

Kapow!

Mom and Dad like watching PBS, and one of their favorite shows is Rick Steve's Europe travel show.  It's pretty good, and the Mrs. and I used to watch it (back when we used to watch PBS).

Anyway, we were watching the show on Tuscany, and then it came:


Wild Boar Prosciutto.

The sound that you just heard was my head exploding, as I gazed on the Platonic Ideal of ham.  You can keep that shadow-cast-upon-the-wall ham that you're eating - this is the ham I want.

Want want want.

Seems you can get it here (if you first sell your firstborn to Gypsies), although it's said that the best stuff comes with the hair still on the leg.  And here's a recipe for Wild Boar Prosciutto Salad with Blood Oranges, Parmesan Cheese and Pecans.  Man, oh man.

You're welcome.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

See a shrink, lose your rights?

Sunday morning coffee with the local paper (Albuquerque Journal) brings this unsigned editorial to our attention:
Don't Let Mentally Ill Buy, Lock, and Load

Think that the federal Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act keeps people the legal system has deemed mentally ill from buying a gun?  Not in New Mexico.

...

The [2007] law update was prompted by the Virginia Tech shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, deemed mentally ill after stalking two female students.  But because Virginia didn't report Cho's mental health history to the Brady background check system, he was able to buy handguns and use them.  To kill 32 people.
There's no question at all that Cho should not have been allowed to buy a gun, because a court found him to be mentally ill:
Seung Hui Cho never received the treatment ordered by a judge who declared him dangerously mentally ill less than two years before his rampage at Virginia Tech, law enforcement officials said, exposing flaws in Virginia's labyrinthine mental health system, including confusion about the law, spotty enforcement and inadequate funding. 
 There was a breakdown in governance, and people died.  But the slippery slope appears in the Albuquerque Journal editorial (note: I'd link it, but they have it behind a pay wall*):
What is clear is that this is not a solution in search of a problem.  UpFront columnist Thom Cole reported New Mexico had almost 1000 involuntary commitments of mentally ill persons last year alone.
The shell covering the pea just moved.  Many (perhaps most) involuntary commitments are not people who have been found to be mentally ill.  For example, if the police respond to a reported suicide attempt, the person is almost certainly going to be transported to a mental hospital for short term observation.  This is clearly the right thing to do, but this decision was made by the responding Law Enforcement officers, not by a Court of law weighing evidence.

Oh, come on Borepatch, I hear you say, this wouldn't be abused.  Oh yeah?  Via Stephany, we find this:

When Lois Kamenitz arrived at Pearson International Airport in November, hoping to board a flight to California, she was stunned to learn that U.S. border officials were barring her entry. The reason: Years ago, she attempted suicide.

The 64 year-old Toronto woman was fingerprinted and photographed. She questioned the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer about how he accessed her medical records. He said he didn’t. Instead, he knew police had attended her Toronto home in 2006 because she had done “violence to self.”

...

It’s not an isolated incident, says Ryan Fritsch, legal counsel for the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office. He has heard of about eight similar cases in the past year, all involving non-criminal contact between police and people with mental health issues — records of contact that end up at the Department of Homeland Security.

“These kinds of disclosures and the retention of this kind of information has a chilling effect on persons with mental illness,” said Fritsch, who fears people will think twice before calling 911. “A mental crisis should not be a lifelong sentence for stigma and discrimination.”
And so to the Albuquerque Journal editorial.  To fix a failure of governance, they propose a policy where we already see repeated breakdown in governance.

My take is that this won't make a lot of difference in the very ill - their conditions are serious enough that they'll be picked up by the system (as indeed Cho was).  Where it will make a great difference is with the borderline cases - people who suffer from depression, for example.  People will think twice before seeing a doctor for, say, Prozac if they think that they'll end up in some database somewhere, and may lose some of their rights.

It's a terrible policy recommendation, from people who consider themselves well meaning and well informed.  They're certainly not well informed.  Society has made admirable strides in dialing down the stigma of mental illness.  The Albuquerque Journal editors simply don't see that they're proposing to dial it back up, for no benefit.

* Helpful suggestion to the Albuquerque Journal: while it may make sense to put your hard news behind a pay wall, the idea of asking the Internet to pay for your opinion is absurd.  It's not like there isn't plenty of free opinion to be found on the 'Net.

Sunday morning goof

Sometimes you just need to laugh.



Via email from Brigid, who has a post you should read.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Bacon Couscous

No pictures, because I didn't think I'd be blogging this.  Those of you who haven't tried couscous have been missing out.

Couscous is the great staple dinner of North Africa.  Couscous itself is basically a specially processed wheat that is used like rice is used in Asian cuisine.  It's the base that you build dinner on.  And the beauty of Couscous is that you can toss all your refrigerator leftovers into the pan and have a super fast, yummy, and low-cal dinner.

Ingredients:

2 cups broth (chicken is more traditional; French onion is extra yummy)
1 cup dry couscous
1 1/2 cups diced leftover meat (chicken is traditional, but hamburger, steak, or whatever is in your fridge will work)
2 cups frozen peas (snap peas are even better)
1/2 cup dried fruit (cherries, cranberries, raisins, golden raisins, dates, whatever; Trader Joe's has a good selection at good prices)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans are my favorite)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp cumin
1/2 cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring the broth to a boil in a saucepan.  Add the couscous, cook for 30 seconds, then cover and remove from the heat.  It will be ready in around 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork and dump onto a serving platter.  The "base" for your dinner is now ready.

In a skillet, heat some oil on medium/high heat, and toss on the meat.  This phase is sort of like stir frying.  When warmed, toss on the nuts and dried fruit to warm.  Toss on the cooked peas (3 minutes in the microwave), spices, olive oil, and lemon juice.

Serve over the couscous, covered with the parsley.  Bacon bits are optional, and non-traditional.  The trick to Bacon couscous, of course, is finding halal bacon.

So you have a quick, tasty, healthy, thrifty, and slightly exotic dinner in 20 minutes.

The Gormogons visit a WMD factory

Hilarity ensues.

Part of me expects something like this, but they are far to fiendishly subtle ...



And congratulations to Uncle Jay for getting this whole ball rolling.

Godspeed and Good Luck

Best wishes to Casey, of Carolina Cogitation, who's heading out to Afghanistan today for a year.  While not in the service, he is training the Afghan police.  That's ighting the good fight and making a difference.

Stay safe, Casey.

Alison Kraus and Union Station - When You Say Nothing At All

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.
- Judy Garland
The greatest love story I've ever seen is my Mom and Dad.  They fell madly in love young - too young - and it didn't work out.  Mom married someone else, who was a first class jerk; it only lasted a few months (she was wife #1 of 4 for him; it doesn't seem he ever grew up, although fame let him get away with it).  Dad fell deathly ill, and almost died.  This was back in the days before antibiotics, and so hospitals were a place you went to die.  He was in a hospital for months.

But Mom's parents heard about this, and wrote to Dad's parents.  It wasn't just that Grandma liked Dad better than The Jerk, although she did.  See, the parents saw what the young folks couldn't, that this was something special.  56 years later, it still is.

I grew up surrounded by an often silent, but always effortlessly sung love song.  There was never any question in our minds about whether their two hearts were joined.  It was, looking back on it, astonishing, and perhaps unique.

It still is.  He's declined  quite a bit in just the last couple of weeks, as the cancer burns away his body.  The hospice nurse told me that people who have had unhappy lives go quickly; it's the ones that have had happy lives that linger.  He lingers, because he hears that unspoken song.  It's quite something to see.

But his mind is still sharp; he's still here in the way that matters.  And she's with him.  There's not a lot said, but if you listen with your heart instead of your ears, you realize that it's said all the time.

Alison Kraus - perhaps the greatest Country/Bluegrass singer of our generation - needs no introduction here; neither does the band Union Station, which without doubt contains some of the greatest Bluegrass musicians of our generation.  This song was the 1995 CMA Single Of The Year.

If you're lucky, you've seen this happen sometime during your life.  If you're very lucky, it's happened to you.  Mom and Dad are very lucky.



When You Say Nothing At All (Songwriters: Paul Overstreet, Don Schlitz)
It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark
Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

All day long I can hear people talking out loud
But when you hold me near, you drown out the crowd
Old Mr. Webster could never define
What's being said between your heart and mine

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes sayin' you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all
Love has no desire but to fulfill itself.  To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.  To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.  
- Kahlil Gibran


(Image source) (Image source)

Friday, January 28, 2011

If you outlaw Lego Crossbow Guns, only outlaws will have Lego Crossbow Guns

One of these things is not like the others


I just ran across Married To The Sea.  Careful, you can lost lots of time there.

Let's be safe out there

JayG got a desperate email from Ambulance Driver, who it appears was in the UK.  All his money had been stolen, see, and he couldn't come back unless he got 1800UKP to settle up his hotel bill.  And pretty please, could you help out?

Riiiight.

Of course, you have to get up pretty early to pull the wool over Jay's eyes.  It's a scam.  But what's interesting was that it was a personalized scam.  It didn't come from the son of the Nigerian Prime Minister, it came from one of Jay's friends.

The Bad Guys are spending a lot of time on Social Media sites (especially Facebook).  They can generally get lists of friends (Facebook's privacy is pretty horrible).  It's surprisingly easy to get real email addresses for people, and so you have a bona fide real sender and real recipient, who know each other.

The original email scam is called "phishing" (where the bad guys go trolling for dupes).  This is called "spear phishing" (targeted phishing) and is coming to an inbox near you.

So what do you do?

1. A healthy skepticism is a virtue.  Jay's B.S. detector started ringing, and yours should too.  Read Jay's post, and Ambulance Driver's comment to see why Jay thought this was, err, phishy.

2. If you want to follow up with your friend to make sure they're all right, do not (repeat, do not) reply to the email.  Here is an ordered list of ways to make contact, from most preferable to least preferable:
  • Call them on the phone to ask them if they're in the UK and in trouble.
  • Send them a SMS text message, asking them to call you if they're in trouble.
  • Leave a comment on their blog: "Hey, I need to talk.  Call me at the sooper sekret BatPhone number."
  • Forward the email to their email address - one you know is good.  The Facebook "send a message" feature is a good one here; just cut and paste the email into the Facebook message and ask if they sent this.
You'll notice that you don't really want to rely on (or trust) email.  After all, it's possible that their email account was compromised.  It probably wasn't, but Out Of Band communications is preferred.

It's best to actually talk to the person, because you'll recognize their voice (hey, this is a friend, right?  So why not gab away?).

The Web is getting personal, including the bad stuff.  Let's be careful out there.