DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Women passengers complain that TSA agents are targeting them for extra screening.
The Transportation Security Administration has a policy to randomly select people for extra screening, but some female passengers are complaining. They believe there is nothing “random” about the way they were picked.
A Dallas woman says TSA agents repeatedly asked her to step back into a body scanning machine at DFW International Airport. “I feel like I was totally exposed,” said Ellen Terrell, who is a wife and mother. “They wanted a nice good look.”
Castillo said that an older woman who worked for the airport attempted to comfort her as she sat crying, saying, "Well honey, you know what, I'd rather go through the scanner or get a pat-down than, you know, be blown up." In the video Castillo recalls thinking, "Okay, I guess I'm supposed to find comfort in that, but I didn't."
TSA has since reviewed the incident and a representative reportedly told TMZ, "We have reviewed this passenger's screening experience and found that the officer followed proper procedures."
So lie back and think of England The War on Terror, ladies. Just don't think about the radiation dose:
The results of tests on the radiation levels at x-ray body scanners that have been put in airports acorss America are flawed, the Transportation Security Administration admits.
The tests came back showing ten times more radiation than was expected.
Off by a factor of ten? Whatevs. At least the TSA is unionized now.
This is what bureaucracies do. They gather power to themselves, power lost by the rest of us. The more power they gather, the more budget and headcount they get. The more power they gather, the more they attract those who are attracted to the arbitrary and petty exercise of power.
And to all the Progressives out there so proud of their education, just remember that Gogol's novels were filled with petty functionaries and how they acted. What, did you sleep through literature class, or just think that could never happen here, or just never thought of it at all? Impressive display of elite education, right there.
I scored 100%, which is not to boast because 2 or 3 were educated guesses that turned out to be right. What's not good is the very poor showing by by Elected Politicians, who don't look like they would even get the Gentleman's D-.
If I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
What happens if the Lord doesn't take your soul, but instead sends it back?
I had experienced the reality of the prayer. I had actually died before I could wake. I continued in death for some unknown minutes and then was revived and kept in a deathlike coma for 13 days; a time that I, gratefully, have no memory of whatsoever. And, it came to me, I had died in the bed I was currently lying down in and thinking of this old childhood prayer. I had, without realizing it, gotten used to sleeping in my deathbed.
Has anyone seen a situation where a laptop's touchpad just stopped working with the driver being reported as corrupt? Uninstalling and reinstalling just results in Windows saying that the latest driver is installed, but it then also says that the driver is corrupt. Even doing a system restore doesn't fix anything.
Windows is more like Walls without a mouse/touchpad. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Paul Volcker gazes down on you and me, and is pleased with the view from the heights:
We care about all these thoughts and feelings and reactions of Paul Volcker not, as you might think, because they betray how he is showing the first signs of dementia and we want him to seek assisted living, but because Paul Volcker, and Paul Volcker alone, at some point was anointed the Finance Czar of Western Civilization, and we are all duty-bound to listen to and obey him every thought, whim, feeling, and hiccup when it comes to how we organize the rules and regulations that govern our financial system.
Do not be fooled by the fact that Paul Volcker has never been elected to any role in the United States Government. Do not be swayed by the fact that Paul Volcker currently holds no appointed let alone Congressionally-confirmed position in the United States Government. Do not get distracted by the fact that Paul Volcker holds no direct or indirect democratic or otherwise accountability to the populace over whose financial rules he deigns to preside. Just obey Paul Volcker as a god in all financial affairs. That’s all he asks. If Paul Volcker doesn’t want banks doing XYZ, banks shouldn’t do XYZ, and that’s what the regulations should say.
I'm very pleased that Paul Volcker is very pleased. All is for the best, in the best of all possible (financial) worlds.
An Ontario teachers' union is calling for an end to new Wi-Fi setups in the province's 1,400-plus Catholic schools.
The Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association says computers in all new schools should be hardwired instead of setting up wireless networks.
...
The OECTA, in its paper, said the "safety of this technology has not thoroughly been researched and therefore the precautionary principle and prudent avoidance of exposure should be practised."
The Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association membership all need to go back for remedial biology and physics courses. Pay particular attention to the bit about ionizing and non-ionizing radiation.
Sheesh. This is the point where anyone who ever uttered the words Republican War of Science can just shut up and sit down in the back of the room grownups are talking now.
And what's the over/under that this is just a negotiating position and that the Association will find that fatter paychecks block the harmful effect of WiFi rays?
Normally I'd be at work, but we put Little One-Eyed Dog down this morning. Her cancer was aggressive, and it would have been cruel to let her go on like this. And so I wanted to just stop for a minute.
It reminds me of being at the airport, really, only nicer and without luggage. Lots of SWPL types on iPads. And us. Oh, and their bacon, egg, and Gouda sandwich is pretty good.
Tough weeds were what I saw in Spring, and Winter's dreary damage: dead stems and broken branches. Clean up! Replace! Repair! I'd think.
- Edmund Spaeth
Angkor Wat is a World Heritage site, for good reason. The ruins of a mighty civilization, long lost, now overgrown by the riotous growth of the jungle - this captured the imaginations of 19th Century European explorers raised on Shelly:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Or in the case of Angkor, trees and vines vying with each other to grow ever higher towards the sunlight. Locked in fierce competition with other plan forms, the largest choke out their rivals while swallowing up the decay of a once glorious civilization.
The problem here is that in business, there’s a clear and measurable indication of success and failure: profit.
In government, there’s just as clear an indication of success and failure: power. In government, the more power you have, the more successful you are, by definition. The more lines of business you have, the better. The success of increasing power is not to be confused with efficiency – they are unrelated. Who cares about efficiency?
And vying with us, and our freedoms. Perhaps a reorganization to increase efficiency? Alas, no:
A government re-org is not a re-org in the private sense of the word. Instead of increasing efficiency, a government re-org will be co-opted to increase the power of certain people in government. It thus becomes a power struggle. In a government re-org, no one actual government employee would lose his job (at least not for long). Moving the deck chairs on the Titanic is not a re-org. Proposals like this will be co-opted by the bureaucracy and used to increase their power.
The only way to bring an overgrown garden back to usability is by heavy use of the pruning shears. Ruthlessly loping branches that have smothered fairer flowers is the only remedy. The blooms long forgot will find that they can blossom forth in the liberty of the new found sunlight.
There is no alternative but down sizing the Agencies. The cost of the headcount is the minor annoyance - I'd even consider paying the taxes to support them if they promised not to every actually do anything. No new regulations. No notices to the public. No Request for Proposal.
But that's not the imperative of growth and ambition. And so they have to go. Cut each agency by 40%, eliminate some outright, and let's see what flowers spring to life in Liberty's garden.
Visiting a foreign land is like looking in the mirror for the first time. The absence of the familiar, and the presence of the unusual causes us to think on our own land, our own society. This is why travel is such a gift to the intellect.
A visitor from a remote land can do this for us, in the comfort of our own homes. Like this:
Compare and contrast. Who better to make this comparison between the USA and the EU, between our Constitution and theirs, between our government and theirs than a Member of the European Parliament. Watch the whole thing.
Having suffered through the inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s, this is ugly. Gasoline - even faced with weak demand - is headed to $4.00 a gallon:
As the weekly Lundberg survey shows, in the week ended February 10, gas rose by 11.57 cents to $3.5101, the highest since September. The latest price is also 12% higher compared to a year earlier. What is troubling is that as the attached chart shows, the trend of gradual gas price declines has now firmly ended, having touched a low of $3.20, and has been replaced by a steady climb over the past 2 months. In other words, the US consumer's retail spending has been far weaker than expected in November and December, and soon to be discovered in January, primarily due to gas purchases, which have already plunged as discussed recently, once again taking up a substantial portion of the discretionary spending basket (on credit at that). And what is worse, is that as the LTRO #2 is about to add another several hundred billion to the ECB's balance sheet, which will ineivtably be followed by more Fed printing, the Gasoline trendline has only one way to go. Expect the recent highs of $4.00/gallon to be taken out shortly, and to lead to yet another GDP roll over once again. Alas, none of this will be a consolation to European readers, who a few days ago just saw gas hit all time highs.
Of the face of it, this seems to violate the law of supply and demand - when demand falls, so must price. We're seeing prices go up even when demand is down. Why?
Inflation.
The Fed printed a ton of money with their Quantitative Easing #2, and the folks who sell us oil aren't idiots. Since there are more dollars for the same US GDP, each dollar is worth less. And so the (nominal) price of oil goes up. The real (inflation-adjusted) price is likely flat, or a little down.
So what is the real price of oil? We don't know, because the price of energy is helpfully excluded from the CPI. Don't look to your government to tell you any data here. The fact that they won't tell you is all you need to know.
Emmanuel Chabrier was a late 19th Century French composer who is, quite frankly, pretty obscure. Admired in his day, he is now known for pretty much just two pieces, Joyeuse Marche and this.
He has a certain Internet cachet because a 1910 Pathe recording of his España is up on Youtube, played on a period Gramophone. As near as I can tell, this is the oldest recorded classical music that you can hear in its original form, from an orchestra that met to record it over a century back.
The Czar of Muscovy brings some good points about the election (although I'd like him to show his work a bit more; then again, I'm an amateur quant). Alas, I'm not sure that I quite agree with his conclusions. First, to the easy bit:
1. He is entirely correct that Romney would make a much better (not to mention less dangerous) POTUS than Obama II.
2. He is entirely correct that Romney would likely make a better POTUS than either Santorum or Gingrich, although they would either of them be an upgrade from Obama II.
3. He is correct that a Republican Congress will be hard pressed to restrain Obama II, and that Congress may even flip back Democratic in 2014.
Here's the problem: it's not Obama, it's Obama's world view. He's just particularly ruthless in pushing it aggressively. Obama isn't alone: he has the entire Intelligentsia on his side, the MSM, the European Elites, the international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). They're all in the same tribe, which believes that things should be run by them, with a strong, interventionist government in charge (run by them, 'natch), and with the peons givering deference where it's due (to them, 'natch).
Romney's in that tribe. So's Newt, and probably Santorum. And 60% of the Republican Party. Only Ron Paul explicitly rejects that world view.
Essentially, it's the Blue State model - although we need to recognize that all of Europe is deeper Blue than even Massachusetts. Here's the crisis: the Blue model is collapsing.
It's falling apart all over the world as the State finds that it's spent too much on the wrong things, and that buying off the proles to keep them in line has gone as far as it can. There has been massive deficit spending for a long time, and now whole chunks of the Progressive Edifice are simply starting to fall off - indeed, Greece will leave the Eurozone in a matter of months, declare a massive default on their government bonds (likely losing 80% of their nominal value), and return to the Drachma.
Of course, then there will be no more deficit spending (who on earth would buy their bonds?) and the Blue Paradigm will join the Aeropagus as obscure Greek history trivia. Greece, of course, will be joined by others in Europe, and the United States. What's the over/under on when Illinois defaults on their State bonds? California?
The problem with the GOP is that they have been junior members of the Blue tribe for the past quarter century. The crises of the next four years are crises of this Blue model:
Social spending (entitlements) approaching 80% of government revenue.
Trillion dollar a year deficits as far as the eye can see.
Slow business investment due to massive uncertainties (tax policy and the strength of the financial markets will play a major role here).
Most importantly, you will have the Paul Krugmans of the world telling us that the obvious answer is more of what got us to this point, only bigger. You'll have an Intelligentsia that, while likely less wedded to the success of Obama in 2013 (hey, they got him re-elected, right?) won't be ready to declare the defeat of their Statist world view.
So the question is, who is the best man for the job of POTUS, if our long term goals are (a) change this Blue world view to something sane) and then (b) fix entitlements before we join Greece?
I think that the answer is that we want Barack Obama to be in the Oval Office as the Blue Model comes crashing down.
You see, Romney will roll up his sleeves and try to fix things, but his fixes are likely to be at least a little sane, and so he'll get savaged by the Intelligentsia saying Paul Krugman sez we need a 3 Trillion dollar stimulus!!eleventy!
And so when the bottom inevitably falls out, Romney will take the blame, not Obama. And we'll go back for another round of Blue Model on steroids, because nobody will want to trim Social Security and everyone will be invested in stupid Romney screwed everything up.
If the O-Man is there another 4, they won't have this - particularly if he rules via regulation, not legislation (as is entirely likely).
And so, we have no chance to survive, until the Left decides that maybe this isn't such a good idea. If we're lucky, they'll figure this out as Europe and a couple States crater but the rest stagger on.
My view is that we are better off (long term) taking the massive hit that will be another Obama term, getting it over with, and then picking up the pieces of the collapsed Blue (Democrat and GOP) statist model. We need to make our time, or perhaps Zig for Great Justice.
Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, do not remove tag under penalty of law.
Russia's main gas-company, Gazprom, was unable to meet demand last weekend as blizzards swept across Europe, and over three hundred people died. Did anyone even think of deploying our wind turbines to make good the energy shortfall from Russia?
Of course not. We all know that windmills are a self-indulgent and sanctimonious luxury whose purpose is to make us feel good. Had Europe genuinely depended on green energy on Friday, by Sunday thousands would be dead from frostbite and exposure, and the EU would have suffered an economic body blow to match that of Japan's tsunami a year ago. No electricity means no water, no trams, no trains, no airports, no traffic lights, no phone systems, no sewerage, no factories, no service stations, no office lifts, no central heating and even no hospitals, once their generators run out of fuel.
Why are the Environmentalists trying to get so many people killed? Using their own beloved "Precautionary Principle" - the idea that even a chance, however small, justifies taking even heroic measures to guard against them - we should immediately put a lid on solar and wind power and rush some new coal fired plants. I mean, just imagine how many deaths could be averted!
There seems to be a wave of spam going around. "Joann J.Prado" (who seems to be, like her friends, curiously short of white space after her middle initial) spams to say:
Hiya,
Hya.
I am really glad I've found this info.
I'll bet.
Today bloggers publish only about gossips and web and this is really irritating.
I hate it when they publish web. That stuff stinks.
A good web site with exciting content, that's} what I need.
Well, and perhaps a spell check?
Thank you for keeping this site, I will be visiting it.
Oh, sweet Jesus, please don't.
Do you do newsletters? Can't find it.
Check under the tag Spammers should die screaming in a fire. It's all there.
Some time back, Brock Townsend posted this. I find that I quite like the neo-traditional sound of the Pistol Annies.
Miranda Lambert is familiar to Country music fans, and the group had its genesis when she and long time friend Ashley Monroe began writing songs that didn't quite fit either of their acts. But they liked the songs, and kept writing. After a couple of years, they had quite a selection of music, and when Angaleena Presley entered the mix, the idea of a girl band sprang to life.
I hope they keep putting out music - although all three are still pursuing their own solo careers (and Lambert is the newlywed Mrs. Blake Shelton now). Unlike their delightfully gold digging song Hell On Heels, this is filled with southern sentimentality and is entirely safe to listen to with your kids.
Maybe he's in Texas, maybe this town
Maybe Oklahoma plowin' up some ground
Southern Carolina, somewhere on the coast
Maybe Alabama drivin' through Montgomery
Right now, there's somethin' 'bout a boy from the South.
Maybe he's in Florida, somewhere in the pines
Maybe on the delta throwin' out a line
Maybe he's in Georgia, starin' at the stars
Maybe Tennessee pickin' on a guitar
Right now, there's somethin' 'bout a boy from the south
Yea, the first time I felt it I was only 16,
And he kissed me underneath the chinaberry tree.
Said "Goodnight darlin," with a sweet southern drawl.
Man, I think I might just have to love them all –
The boys from the South.
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Maybe in Kentucky, workin' in the mines
Maybe down in Little Rock, just to pass the time
Maybe he's somewhere in New Orleans,
Livin' it up in the Big Easy
Right now, there's somethin' 'bout a boy from the South
Yea, the first time I felt it I was only 16,
And he kissed me underneath the chinaberry tree.
Said "Goodnight darlin," with a sweet southern drawl.
Man, I think I might just have to love them all –
the boys from the South
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Maybe he's in Texas, maybe this town.
My boys from the South
Seems that a Member of Parliament - the Labour Party's Equalities Spokesperson, no less - objected to the presence of this beer in Parliament's Pub (who knew that they had one?). She made them discontinue it. Hilarity ensues:
Family-run Staffordshire brewer Slater's revealed it has seen sales jump since one of its ales upset a MP Kate Green and attracted headlines around the world last week.
Slater's sales director Fay Slater announced that the firm has been bombarded with phone calls and emails from landlords wanting to get their hands on barrels of Top Totty.
The welcome boost for the popular ale comes after the four per cent beer was removed from sale at the Strangers' Bar, in the Houses of Parliament, after shadow equalities minister Ms Green said the pump clip, which features a half-naked lady, was offensive.
Aside from the whole they have a bar in the Houses of Parliament well that sort of explains things astonishment, this makes me think that someone needs to do a Pelosi Bitters or some such.
Tucked away for decades in a cabinet in Thomas Edison’s laboratory, just behind the cot in which the great inventor napped, a trove of wax cylinder phonograph records has been brought back to life after more than a century of silence.
Thomas Edison, seated center, sent Adelbert Theodor Edward Wangemann, standing behind him, to France in 1889. From there Wangemann traveled to Germany to record recitations and performances.
Adelbert Theodor Edward Wangemann used a phonograph to record the voice of Otto von Bismarck.
The cylinders, from 1889 and 1890, include the only known recording of the voice of the powerful chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Two preserve the voice of Helmuth von Moltke, a venerable German military strategist, reciting lines from Shakespeare and from Goethe’s “Faust” into a phonograph horn. (Moltke was 89 when he made the recordings — the only ones known to survive from someone born as early as 1800.) Other records found in the collection hold musical treasures — lieder and rhapsodies performed by German and Hungarian singers and pianists at the apex of the Romantic era, including what is thought to be the first recording of a work by Chopin.
The world's greatest snow-capped peaks, which run in a chain from the Himalayas to Tian Shan on the border of China and Kyrgyzstan, have lost no ice over the last decade, new research shows.
The discovery has stunned scientists, who had believed that around 50bn tonnes of meltwater were being shed each year and not being replaced by new snowfall.
The study is the first to survey all the world's icecaps and glaciers and was made possible by the use of satellite data. Overall, the contribution of melting ice outside the two largest caps – Greenland and Antarctica – is much less then previously estimated, with the lack of ice loss in the Himalayas and the other high peaks of Asia responsible for most of the discrepancy.
Bristol University glaciologist Prof Jonathan Bamber, who was not part of the research team, said: "The very unexpected result was the negligible mass loss from high mountain Asia, which is not significantly different from zero."
The melting of Himalayan glaciers caused controversy in 2009 when a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change mistakenly stated that they would disappear by 2035, instead of 2350.
Those pesky satellites are a bunch of darn Deniers, if you ask me. Deniers, I say!
And for anyone who might make the favorite charge of "cherry picking", let me just point out that this is a world wide satellite survey.
The United States Constitution in general, and the Bill of Rights in particular, is structured in a very peculiar manner. Most of what's there defines what the Government cannot do. Congress shall pass no law respecting an establishment of Religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof: The First Amendment. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed: The Second Amendment.
This has annoyed Progressives for years, as their vision of America 2.0 has been continually thwarted by these Amendments. I mean, how are you supposed to build the Progressive Jerusalem when the Supreme Court keeps striking down your censorship laws?
Progressives use the condescending term "Negative Rights" to refer to the traditional view of the Constitution, reserving the more positive sounding "Positive Rights" for their own collective, centralist view.
The recent Obama Administration decision to force the Catholic Church to provide abortion services in direct violation of Church doctrine is a stark example if this conflict between positive and negative. Progressives have the view that the central government elite can force anyone to do anything, if they think that it benefits society or chosen groups in society. And so they did.
Seems they kicked a hornet's nest, because most of the country still seems to think that the Constitution and the First Amendment means what it says. Congress shall pass no law respecting an establishment of Religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...
In the fight for the First Amendment, which is the most important part of the Obamacare birth control mandate, something has not been brought into the forefront.
The fact that not only is the Obamacare mandate making private entites pay for insurance that includes birth control, sterilization, etc., they are having to pay full freight--no co-pays for these prescriptions or procedures.
Every other prescription, procedure, or test has a co-pay in today's insurance world. No other prescriptions are being mandated as co-pay free, not even the ones deemed to prevent death. Why is this particular set of medicines and procedures being set up differently?? Probably because Obama's feminist cadre has proven that they can control the narrative on this issue and even bring down one of their own using nothing but social media and misinformation.
The government can force you to do what they say if they think that it's in the interest of society, or favored groups. Pay no attention to that First Amendment behind the curtain, it was written by a bunch of Dead White Male patriarchal oppressors. And that Midwest Chick? I mean, look at her handle - bet she lives in flyover country. Probably clings to her guns and her bible.
The mask slipped, in a big way here. This is only nominally about religious freedom and the Catholic Church. It's about Congress shall pass no law vs. Come the Revolution you'll do as you're damn well told.
Florence Green, the world’s last known surviving veteran of World War I, died in her sleep Saturday at the Briar House Care Home in King’s Lynn, eastern England. She was 110.
When I was a boy, the old veterans at the July 4th parades were from the Great War. There were quite a number of them, fifty years after the end of the War To End All Wars. 45 years later, they're all gone now.
It brings to mind what may be the greatest song about that war ever written - actually written to protest Vietnam, but a fitting tribute to the futility of the trenches with it's boredom and filth taking up the time between the terror from the terrible lash of artillery.
And the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But year after year, their numbers get fewer
Someday, no one will march there at all
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong
So who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?
Remember that they were young once, and went rambling the life of a rover. Or like Mrs. Green, waltzed with pilots.
A few folks have nominated be for the Liebster award. I appreciate this, but must say that my posting has not been up to scratch lately - I seem terribly cranky and ranty, and sort of feel like I've lost a bit of my grounding. Not a good feeling, at all.
And I do appreciate you guys who have sent this to me. Clearly, I'm living on my old stuff, like an aged movie star. The Blog didn't get little, it just got ranty.
Err, or something.
And so I feel that rather than putting up an award, I owe y'all an apology. In future, I shall endeavor to do better. Probably need to lay off the politics. That stuff will make you blind if you drink much of it.
Mark Levin explains why I won't vote for Mitt Romney.
I should not have to play clips of Milton Friedman for Mitt Romney to explain his problem with his position on minimum wage. I should not have to argue with Mitt Romney’s appointed hacks to explain the problem with RomneyCare. I shouldn’t have to explain to Mitt Romney why he shouldn’t feel guilty about his wealth and that he can explain to the American people more broadly why we want wealth creation in this country!
Because only that way can we lower unemployment. Only that way can we save the housing market. Only that way, through capitalism, wealth creation, productivity, can the American dream be returned.
Now if I can explain this in literally 3 minutes, why can’t he?!?!
I wish they let me embed the whole thing, but you'll have to click over and listen. Look, Romney is as bad as Obama, just not as fast. Screw 'em. The GOP is playing chicken with the future of the Republic. OK, then.
I'm not blinking. I'd rather go fast, in a blaze of idiocy than be slowly roasted by the same idiocy. C'mon, GOP - how about a little Joy Ride?
Back when I grew up, it was simply unthinkable that the U.S. Government would tell a Church what was permissible doctrine. And it was simply unthinkable that the U.S. Army would muzzle an Archbishop in furtherance of same:
... the statement released by the Military Archdiocese, the US Army is concerned that Archbishop Broglio may be calling US soldiers to defy the legal orders of their superiors, and engage in what Army politely refers to as "civil disobedience."
Look, it's not like Catholic doctrine changed over the last few decades. And it's not like there's a shadow of a doubt as to whether or not this was a lawful order by the Secretary of the Army:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
If the Republican Party is not the Stupid Party, they should introduce a bill of Impeachment charging the Secretary of violating the First Amendment. Sure, the Senate won't convict, but this is a political issue - whether the Constitution means what it says or not - and should be dealt with as such.
Here's the list of the folks who have expressed an interest in a Dallas area Blogshoot in April:
U.S. Citizen
45er
YeOldFurt
Dwight Brown
Southern Belle and Kx59
Daniels
Bill in Austin
Shepherd K
TriggerFinger
That Guy
Bob S
Cap'n Jan
John Farrier
Pat St. John
Teke
Mark (from Corpus Christi)
DropCrate
Jennifer
I'd like to narrow the Date window. How does the the first weekend of April (7/8) works for you?
As a reminder, U.S. Citizen has kindly offered to host the shoot at his gun club (location here).
I posted yesterday about baby Landon Carpenter, whose father was killed in action in Afghanistan. A couple of folks left comments asking if there was a memorial or college fund, and so I went looking. I didn't find it, but I did find this:
My caption: this is propaganda purposed to humanize US troops as they war against other people. Akmed’s dad died too; so did Mohammed’s dad. These names might not be as cute, to some, as Landon”–regardless, they matter too. Or, if they do not matter then Landon does not matter either.
Patriotism require more than hypocrisy and cultural-chauvinism: the US international policy is bad; no reasonable separation is given between the policy and the troops; you should not support the troops. The slogan “support the troops” is a red-herring, aimed to humanize US troops as they dehumanize others. Do not support the policy; do not support troops.
Do not support the troops.
The proprietor of that site, one Russ Lindquist, is intellectually frivolous, combining A with Not-A in an intentionally provocative way probably designed to attract attention.
Mission accomplished, Russ.
I left a comment there (stuck in moderation - there's some intellectual courage on display) pointing out the difference between A and Not-A:
We're not the ones who machine gun school girls because they go to school.
We're not the ones who sheltered the people who intentionally attacked civilians (including children) on 9/11.
We're not the ones who ban music.
We're not the ones who used ancient Buddha statues for artillery practice.
Categorizing that with our approach which, while certainly imperfect, acts under ridiculously restrictive rules of engagement is frivolous. Sadly, this has been the Left's stock in trade for quite some time.
If Mr. Lindquist has evidence that LCPL Carpenter engaged in war crimes, or even accidentally killed children, he's invited to leave a comment (or put up a post) with his evidence. Of course, he has none.
You're tested by how you react at the time. He was tested, and fell back on the typical Reactionary Left frivolity. And so, in the interest of getting Mr. Lundquist the attention he seemingly craves, feel free to put up your own post (even with the same title as this one) linking to his. Drive his Google ranking, because it sees all, forgets nothing.
The answer to execrable speech is more speech. You know what to do.
Postscript: I actually agree with him that we should withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, and left a comment to my first post detailing my reasons. The point here is not the policy differences, it's the contemptible and frivolous nature of his comments. The Left at one time would scruple to at least say that while they opposed the war, they supported the troops.
It's quite interesting that Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are not going after each other - both are directing their fire at Newt. What's in it for them?
Mitt clearly benefits by not antagonizing Paul's supporters, where passion and loyalty runs high. In the General election, he's going to need them, and the Tea Partiers, too. Both dislike him, because he's an establishment insider. But if he gets Paul on board, that sends a powerful signal to both those groups that some sort of change is inevitable. Paul is in his 70s, and so this would be a chance for him to put his stamp on something in the years left to him.
So which cabinet post would Mitt offer up, hypothetically speaking? There's quite a balancing act that has to happen:
1. No scaring the establishment, which means that State, Justice, Treasury, Defense, and (sadly) Homeland Security are out. Too much boat rocking in places where they want the status quo.
2. It has to be important enough to attract Paul and his supporters, which means that Interior and the like are out. Agencies that have grown quickly and intrusively over the past 10 years in particular seem like they might benefit from a Secretary Paul.
So which might fit the constraints? Health and Human Services comes to mind, as the Obamacare legislation vests huge power in the Secretary - he could gut the bill like a trout.
Feel free to leave your suggestion in the comments.
Landon's father was KIA in Afghanistan a month before he was born. The sacrifices are not evenly distributed across society. Remember Landon, and the other kids who won't see a parent who laid their ultimate sacrifice on the altar of our freedom.
Rest in Peace, LCPL Carpenter.
Via Theo, who I wish would post a link to a fund for little Landon.
So far, the best is the Audi commercial with the vampires.
The kids like the Government Motors' commercials, especially the one of the kid who thinks he's getting a Camaro.
The Budweiser and Coca-Cola ads are stupid. The Telefloria ad was so dumb that I actually think I'm stupider having watched it. I sure hope that's temporary.
More as I get around to it.
[20:20] Madonna is entertainment for mutants and farm animals. Just sayin'.
[20:35] Betty White FTW. The show looks dumb, but the commercial made me laugh.
BTW, I'm watching on DVR, so my timestamps may not match real time. Actually, it looks like I'm about 20 minutes behind.
[21:15] The Seinfeld Acura ad was funny once. So far, they've played it three times. And Clint Eastwood sold out to the People's Automotive Collective #2.
[21:21] Matthew Broderick must think he's Jerry Seinfeld. Fail.
[21:34] OK, this made me laugh out loud.
[21:38] The Samsung Galaxy Note commercial may be the dumbest thing I've seen all evening. What a waste of marketing budget.
[21:51] If SPOA wasn't enough to make me think that GoDaddy should die screaming in a fire, their commercials are. FAIL.
[22:20] I don't know how I missed this one. Thanks to Aretae and Ruth for pointing it out. #2 Son and I LOLed.
Yesterday I took both #1 Son and #2 Son to the National Infantry Museum at Ft. Benning. It's both spectacular and free, and well worth a detour if you're in the area.
#2 Son and I dig this sort of thing; #1 Son, not so much. He came along for family time (which was very nice indeed), but also for the simulators. They have the same ones that recruits use and while they're not free, you can go on a Blackhawk mission or go to the virtual rifle range.
Last fall, #2 Son and I did the rifle qualification, and I just barely passed (score: 10 out of 20). I tried again yesterday: 15 out of 20. Seems that would do it for "Expert". I felt Dad smiling down on me - he was proud of his Expert qualification. I'll have to do Appleseed later this year and earn it properly.
How odd that the simplest of things - time out with your boys - can seem worth so much more than mere lucre.
It's not often that the terms "Great Composer" and "humble" are joined, but the great Austrian composer Anton Bruckner did. Unlike predecessors Beethoven or contemporaries like Richard Wagner, he was perhaps humble to a fault.
While writing glorious music.
In a sense, he was a provincial boy who found himself unexpectedly in the capitol of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and even decorated with the Order of Franz Joseph by the Emperor himself.
Perhaps it was his awkwardness that kept all this from going to his head. Never married, he kept proposing to (and being rejected by) teenage girls. While verging on scandal at the time, there's nothing suggesting that he ever did more than plight his troth in vain. His strange misunderstanding of basic relationships was captured in the story of one of his conductors who, after a particularly successful concert was approached by a beaming Bruckner who pressed a thaler coin into his hand to drink a beer to Bruckner's health. The conductor wore the coin on his watch chain ever afterwards.
His student Gustav Mahler said that he was "half simpleton, half God". Because he gave us music like this.
Half simpleton, half God. I could be satisfied with an epitaph like that myself.
To the cool men that have touched my life. Here's to you!!! I was never a hero, but I am thankful I served among them.
A real Brother walks with you when the rest of the world walks on you.
Amen, Brother. His post reminds me of the humility so often on display by heros who did simply indescribable feats:
The quote, of course, is from Shakespeare, in perhaps the greatest of all the great Bard's works:
If you haven't watch the Kevin Branaugh "Henry V", get thee hence with all speed. It is perhaps the manliest of manly films, from perhaps the manliest of all highbrow plays. And I don't say that mockingly; defiance combined with recognition of their situation make this inspiring beyond words:
We are but warriors for the working-day;
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd
With rainy marching in the painful field;
But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim;
Herald, save thou thy labour;
Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald:
They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints;
Which if they have as I will leave 'em them,
Shall yield them little ..
Change the focus of the eye, and what you see changes. Today as you go about your daily business of Life, I hope that the focus changes for you, now and again, here and there. The non-canonical (and possibly heretical) Gospel of Thomas says the same: The Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the Earth, and men do not see it.
When we were exiled to Yankeeland, springtime was the worst. Summer there is a delight, with mild temperatures and no humidity; autumn is simply spectacular; winter is, well, it's a wonderland.
But there's no springtime. You have "dirty snow" season that turns into "mud season" which turns into about 3 weeks of actual springtime at the end of April, and then it's summer.
Yesterday in Roswell, I saw daffodils. February 3rd. The Camellia has been in bloom for weeks. It's glorious.
This song is particularly poignant for me right now, enjoying the first blush of spring here with the family. Thinking about the drive between Austin and Texas, which will come again all too soon but mercifully won't go on too much more.
Though I miss her when I'm gone it won't ever be too long
The Indigo Girls have been around for quite some time - this song is from around 1990, back before I listened to much Country music. But it captures the wistful longing for hearth and home, for the place where you belong, that is so common in Country.
Maybe we'll make Texas by the morning
Light the bayou with our tail lights in the night
800 miles to El Paso from the state line
And we never have the money for the flight
I'm in the back seat sleepy from the travel
Played our hearts out all night long in New Orleans
I'm dirty from the diesel fumes, drinking coffee black
When the first breath of Texas comes in clean
And there's something 'bout the Southland in the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I'm gone it won't ever be too long
Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'
There's no place like home and none more pleasin'
Than the Southland in the springtime
In Georgia nights are softer than a whisper
Beneath a quilt somebody's mother made by hand
With the farmland like a tapestry passed down through generations
And the peach trees stitched across the land
There'll be cider up near Helen off the roadside
And boiled peanuts in a bag to warm your fingers
And the smoke from the chimneys meets its maker in the sky
With a song that winter wrote whose melody lingers
And there's something 'bout the Southland in the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I'm gone it won't ever be too long
Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'
There's no place like home and none more pleasin'
Than the Southland in the springtime
It happened this morning in Halifax when a cat named Ripples burst out of his carrier and into the cockpit. A 20-minute search revealed nothing so the crew shut down the plane to "calm the cat." That's right. The cat was calling the shots.
To make matters worse the cat wiggled its way in a sensitive part of the cockpit where it could screw with and possibly disable the plane's avionics. They eventually found the cat but had to delay the flight for hours to make sure the plan was safe to fly.
At least there are no mice in the cockpit any more.
It seems that the mail server at Old NFO's work place decided that it was working too hard (or something), and chewed up 2 years work of email. Ouch.
But that reminded me of an experience with Microsoft that I had, Back In The Day. You see, our development and test procedure included installing and uninstalling our software to make sure it went on and came off cleanly. It did this a number of times (to make sure). After a few months, we started having strange bugs on those computers. Crazy strange bugs. Not crashes and freezes, but Twilight Zone stuff. We called Microsoft's support number.
After most of an afternoon on the phone with the guys there (and getting up to 3rd or 4th or 5th level support), we got to a guy who asked us this curious question: Hey, are you installing and uninstalling software a lot on that computer?
Blink.
Why yes we are. How did you know?
We don't recommend that. It makes the Registry fragile.
"Fragile". I'll say. Inspires confidence, right there. I guess I'm a dinosaur or something - what do you need a Registry for if you have /usr/bin/local and ~/.foorc?
We were recently in a class on how to conduct an exam, and were talking about the questions that we are required to ask a patient. One of the questions that they said we are required to ask is whether or not they own a gun, and whether or not that gun is kept in a secure location. Then we should use this as an opportunity to talk to them about the dangers of having a firearm in the home. I spoke up and said that I did not feel like that was a valid medical question, and the answer that I got was that this was about safety.
Good news from Texas: there's a primary challenger to the loathsome Rep. Lamar Smith (R-MPAA), sponsor of the equally loathsome SOPA bill. While only the good folks of his district can actually vote, the rest of us in Intarwebz land can still do something: Donate to his challenger, Richard Mack.
He’s for restraining spending, controlling the border, and against ObamaCare. Not only does he support the Second Amendment, he was a leading opponent of the Brady Bill, was the very first Sheriff (and very possibly the first person) to file suit to get it overturned, and was the second named plaintiff in Printz Vs. U.S., which overturned key provisions. In addition to SOPA, he also opposes the indefinite incarceration of citizens provision of the NDAA.
Nice. Of course, I'd donate even if he ate BBQ puppy for lunch every day. It's a categorical imperative to get bough-and-paid-for jerks like Smith* out of office - it's both required and justified in and of itself.
You can drop him a few bucks here. And bloggers, please pass this on. Show him the power of this Fully Operational Internet.
U.S. Citizen has offered to host us at his gun club, and even the prospect of a (hopefully) large turn out hasn't been enough to scare them off. The location has some logistical advantages for everyone. It's located south east of Dallas, and so it's convenient for folks in the DFW metro area. Folks in Houston can head up I-45, Austin or San Antonio up I-35.
I figure that I'll beat the rush and call it now. The Republican Establishment has proven that they really are the Stupid Party and have handed the election to Obama. They may have jeopardized the House and Senate as well.
Consider 2008. If Republican voter turnout had been what it was in 2004, we'd be talking about President McCain's reelection campaign. People looked at what the GOP establishment put on offer, decided that it was Bob Dole 2.0, and stayed home.
Consider the recent Florida GOP primary, and Mitt's "great victory". Every county that Mitt won had a lower voter turnout than in 2008; every county that Newt won had a higher turnout than in 2008. Every one. (Can't find link, but you'll see more about this over the next few days)
Consider South Carolina. Turnout wasn't just up from 2008, it was way up from 2008. Newt won. Turnout in Florida was way down from 2008. Romney won. The numbers are actually stunning. In politics, they're about the only thing that doesn't lie.
And so to the GOP Establishment and Mitt's "electability" - yes, Newt's negatives are higher nationally (after Newt tried running a positive campaign focused on Obama in Iowa and Mitt buried him with negative ads). Yes, Mitt's negatives are much lower - but the press hasn't yet started in on him (they're keeping their powder dry) and Obama will do to him what he just did to Newt with negative ads.
And a bunch of people are looking at him as the man with no core, with no agenda other than getting elected, and they're fixin' to stay home in November. In their millions:
The Tea Party is a collection of people who felt compelled to transition from citizens to activists in favor of limited government and fiscal restraint. Many sacrifice time away from family, work, and life in a desperate attempt to save the nation they love, from their perspective. My concern is that the Tea Party will recoil from supporting a Republican Party that is headed by John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Mitt Romney.
...
The Republican presidential stakes kicked in, and Rebecca engaged. Her hopes rise with Rick Perry's entrance, but then "he gets hammered for stupid things, and drops." She thought about Herman Cain, "but his lack of campaign management was disconcerting." She never really thought Bachmann would make it to Florida, and says "Erick Erickson has educated me too much to cast a vote for Rick Santorum." She considers Ron Paul's views right on a number of accounts, but thinks his foreign policy is "crazy."
"So here I am, supporting Newt Gingrich," Rebecca says. "I'm not in love with Newt, but I trust him more to stay true to conservative ideals. The guy pushed Clinton right, for goodness sake. I only trust Mitt to stay true to himself."
So, Rebecca, about Mitt: why not Romney this time?
"I don't trust him, and I don't think he can win. He is utterly unaware of how offensive his disconnect with the average American is. He drops $10K bets like it's nothing. He thinks $342,000 isn't very much to make in a year," Rebecca said. "I don't begrudge him his wealth - he worked for it and earned it and that is admirable. But I hate his lack of awareness of how super-wealthy he is. His flip-flops are legendary."
"Oh, and he invented Obamacare."
Mitt and the GOP establishment are making a huge gamble that the voters who caused the historical sweep in 2010 will take any crap sandwich they offer up. Vote for Mittens, or the Republic gets it.
But they're not just betting the Oval Office, they're betting all the House and Senate seats as well. If two million people decide to just stay at home, that not only leaves Obama in the White House, it leaves Harry Reid as Majority Leader and may even put Nancy Pelosi back in as Speaker. Because those two million voters won't be casting ballots for Republicans in the down seat races either.
And so, the question is why would they do this?
The only reason that makes sense is that the GOP is owned lock, stock, and barrel by powerful political interests determined to keep the government feeding them non-competitive rents - like the incandescent light bulb ban that means we'll pay twice as much money for bulbs. That was passed by the Republicans, remember.
And so, people will stay home. I may actually vote - for Obama. At least when he's grotesquely expanding government and driving the economy off a cliff, he'll be happy about it. I don't expect that I'm the only one. Heck, I may even vote in the Georgia primary and write "Obama" in - that might even make the news.
All you people saying "get Obama out at all costs" and "Romney is the electable candidate" are, I'm afraid, sadly mistaken. Romney is Mr. 25%. The base can't stand him. He's a dirty campaigner. He has no core - he's so hollow that if you tapped him he'd "ping". When the Independents learn what he's all about (and make no mistake - the Press and the Democrats will make sure they learn), he's toast.
Other than that, he's awesome. He's just going to take the whole party down with him. At least that way, the Tea Party and Opposition will stay energized during the next four years. And the business interests controlling the GOP establishment? They'll do just fine buying sweet, sweet government imposed rents from the Obama Administration. And right now they're trying to panic you with a "Vote for Romney Or Else" story. Yeah, it's maybe a good time to panic.
Good grief, I sound like a tin foil hatter. Anyone want to point out where I went wrong, please go ahead. This is seriously bad juju, and I'd be delighted to be wrong. I just don't think that I am.
It’s pretty simple: politics is Jersey Shore for the middle class. It’s all a mudslinging mess, complete with petty drama, asinine interviews, contrived situations, and lots of attempt at moral posturing by greasy slimebags. The Republican debates are like the Real Housewives of New York: lots of hissy fits and name-calling coupled with hilarious self-seriousness. There’s so much manufactured drama in politics that it’s hard to see any meaningful differences between it and so-called reality TV.
Politics, like reality TV, serves as a way for all of us to get off on how smart and moral we all are. We’d never go through three wives like Newt Gingrich. We’d never talk crazy like good ol’ Ron Paul (seriously, who cares about The Fed?). We’d never be a weirdo homeschooling Catholic freak like Rick “Santorum” Santorum. We’d never be a sniveling beta Mormon like Mitt Romney. And all our policies would work perfectly from day one.
Well, actually my policies would work perfectly from Day One because my policies would be "Every Department's budget is reduced by 20%. Headcount is reduced by 20%. TSA is reduced by 100%." But his point is a good one.
Got to set up a TiVO Season Pass for "The Real Politicians of the GOP" ...
Pull out your credit card and flip it over. If the back is marked with the words “PayPass,” “Blink,” that triangle of nested arcs that serves as the universal symbol for wireless data or a few other obscure icons, Kristin Paget says it’s vulnerable to an uber-stealthy form of pickpocketing. As she showed on a Washington D.C. stage Saturday, she can read all the data she needs to make a fraudulent transaction off that card with just a few hundred dollars worth of equipment, and do it invisibly through your wallet, purse, or pocket.
Paget did a live demo of this at the Shmoocon security conference. She asked for a volunteer from the audience, read his RFID credit card information remotely using equipment she picked up for a song from eBay, and then used the information to place a $15 online transaction. She gave the volunteer $20 to keep everything above board.
As far as we know, the range is limited, so the attacker would have to hang out in a crowd to harvest card information. However, that just means riding the subway or going to the ball game.
And here's the part that I really don't like (quote from the same article):
In fact, contactless cards do offer one security feature traditional cards don’t: Along with the card’s 16-digit number and expiration date, the cards are set to offer up a one-time CVV code with every scan. Those codes can only be used for one transaction, and have to used in the order they’re generated. If a payment processor that detects multiple transactions with the same code or codes being used to make transactions in the wrong order, it will disable the card. So a contactless card scammer can only use each stolen number for one transaction, and if the victim of a the scam uses the card again before the thief has time to make a fraudulent payment, all transactions on the card will be blocked.
“The truth is that consumers should be embracing this technology because it’s making them safer,” says Vanderhoof. “Efforts to try to discredit the use of chip technology in cards is only making the technology more vulnerable.”
That's not true. Today's credit card fraud involves repeated use of a stolen card number, until the fraud detection software picks up that something is wrong and the card number gets frozen. The cost of this fraud is picked up mostly by the merchant or (infrequently) the card issuer. With this technology, the card can only be used once.
That is unlikely to trip the fraud detection software, which means that the charge goes on your account. If you don't pick it up when you go over your bill, you eat the cost of fraud. In other words, this technology doesn't make the system more secure, it transfers the cost of fraud to you.
My recommendation is to stop carrying any credit card that contains an RFID chip. It's probably OK to use them online, from home. Or do some cooking:
Perhaps the simplest solution, Paget advises, is to kill your card’s RFID chip by frying it in the microwave. But that’s a more delicate task than it might seem. “Three seconds in the microwave will kill the chip,” she says. “Five seconds will set it on fire.”
This great country, which I love, and which you love, and which we love together; which I love because you love; God Bless America.
Thank you, and good night.
Newt Gingrich:
Here are 19 great ideas that I should have come out with a month ago.Internet insurgency. Follow me on Twitter.
Rick Santorum:
Thanks for all your support for my daughter in the hospital [this was very touching - Borepatch]. Here's a bunch of stuff that will leave a bad taste in your mouth.
