I seem to be channeling my inner Brigid

I have a chicken carcass simmering down to broth, and bread rising in the oven.  I'm writing up a range report for my new (to me) Lee Enfield (check back tomorrow).

The problem, of course, is that her soup is better, her bread is better, and she's a better shot.  Sigh.

Still, how bad can it be, with fresh bread and shooting an old battle rifle?  Some days are made for Old School, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Cool

I just figured out (translation: Googled) how to embed a Youtube video so that it starts at the point you want.  I had wanted to use the end of this clip in an uber-post that's going up tomorrow.



Great scene, but I want the bit at the end, about two minutes in.

Sherman McMasters: If they were my brothers, I'd want revenge too.

Doc Holiday: No, make no mistake, it's not revenge he's after.  It's a reckoning.

That starts about two minutes in, i.e. at 120 seconds.  So how to start the embed there?  Easy.

There's an embed string, that looks something like this:

param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-GREE8GdRrc?version=3&hl=en_US"

You want to offset it, so you add a &start=120 to the very end, but still in the quote marks:

param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-GREE8GdRrc?version=3&hl=en_US&start=120"

Presto!

Internet ProTip for College Students

The Internet is an astonishingly powerful force.  What you say - or write - can effect your reputation for the rest of your life.

It appears that Canadian College student Sarah Grunfeld does not know this.  It's possible that she will spend the rest of her life trying to unlink the words "Sarah Grunfeld" from the word "stupid".  Google sees all, forgets nothing.

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

Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (L'autunno)

Wednesday marks the Autumn Equinox, the first day of autumn.  As you'd expect, there's terrific classical music for this occasion; as a matter of fact, you've probably heard it.

Antonio Vivaldi was one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his Four Seasons suite of four violin concertos is without doubt his most famous work.  Sadly for him, it didn't help him very much - the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI died before appointing him court composer, and Vivaldi (like Mozart after him) died in poverty.

But there aren't many who leave behind a legacy such as this.  Vivaldi's life story in a way matches the mood of autumn, with a glorious youth behind it and a cold, poor finish ahead of it.

But don't let me harsh your mellow!  The music is sublime, and there's still three more days of summer left!

Back in Texas

I didn't hit the road at my planned 0600, but rather at 0730. Duty called, but since Duty didn't bring MPs with him, Duty had to wait.

Probably another five and a half hours to go. Cheapest gas I've seen is $3.19 at the Walmart in Monroe, LA.

Semper Fi

Wow:

Leaving the wounded in the rear, Cpl. Meyer and Sgt. Rodriguez-Chavez swapped Humvees. This time the enemy was waiting in a dry streambed. Rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun bullets followed Cpl. Meyer as he repeatedly left his armored turret to load the truck with wounded Afghan soldiers. At one point, he shot a tall man with a black beard. When another leapt forward under the barrel of his machine gun, Cpl. Meyer grabbed his M4 rifle and shot him in the head.

"You'll have to kill me," he shouted in the rage of battle (he had expected to be killed, he told me a few days later at his outpost in Afghanistan), "because that's the only way you'll stop me."

Cpl. Meyer has since been promoted to Sergeant.  Yesterday, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Heroism is the divine relation which, in all times, unites a great man to other men.

- Thomas Carlyle

Johnny Cash - I've Been Everywhere

And so has everyone.  As in just about everyone has covered this song: Lynn Anderson, Asleep At The Wheel,  Willie Nelson, the Sunny Cowgirls, and the Statler Brothers. 

29.  That all that's on this list that I've been to.  I thought I'd done more traveling than that. (There may be some that I went to when I was a kid that I can't remember).  Kind of a fun game, matching your travels to the song.



I've Been Everywhere (Songwriter: Geoff Mack)

I was totin' my pack
Along the dusty Winnemucca road
When along came a semi
With a high and canvas covered load
"If you're going to Winnemucca, Mack
With me you can ride."
So I climbed into the cab
And then I settled down inside
He asked me if I'd seen a road
With so much dust and sand
And I said,
"Listen, Bud I've traveled every road in this here land."

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
'Cross the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Of travel, I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere.

Been to Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota,
Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota,
Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma,
Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, La Paloma,
Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo,
Tocopilla, Barranquilla, and Padilla, I'm a killer.

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
'Cross the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Of travel, I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere.

Boston, Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana,
Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana,
Monterey, Ferriday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa
Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Oskaloosa,
Tennessee, Hennessey, Chicopee, Spirit Lake,
Grand Lake, Devil's Lake, Crater Lake, for Pete's sake;

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
'Cross the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
 Of travel, I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere.

Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Ombabika,
Shefferville, Jacksonville, Waterville, Costa Rica,
Pittsfield, Springfield, Bakersfield, Shreveport,
Hackensack, Cadillac, Fond Du Lac, Davenport,
Idaho, Jellicoe, Argentina, Diamontina,
Pasadena, Catalina, see what I mean, sir;

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
 'Cross the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Of travel, I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere.

Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Gravelbourg, Colorado,
Ellensburg, Rexburg, Vicksburg, Eldorado,
Larrimore, Atmore, Haverstraw, Chattanika,
Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika,
Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City,
Sioux City, Cedar City, Dodge City, what a pity;

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
'Cross the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Of travel, I've had my share, man
I know some place you haven't been.
I've been everywhere.

Well this is all good fun, but at this point I have to say this was cheating.  Geoff Mack is Australian, and the song was originally recorded by fellow Aussie Lucky Starr.  All the places are Down Under, so my score actually is zero (OK, I've been to Sydney, but it's not in the song).



But hope is not lost: there's a Great Britain version!



Twelve.  I'd call that jolly good for a Colonial.

There's also a New Zealand version.  And a Beer version.  There are actually over 130 different versions, recorded pretty much everywhere, man.  Pretty cool.

(Image source)

Earworm

I've often said that one of the problems with Rock these days is that it just doesn't do love songs like it used to.  That it's lost that lovin' feeling.

Well, Joe Satriani doesn't do this the old way, but it's quite a tender love song nonetheless.  With some tender, shredding guitar.

This used to be Detroit

The Willow Run Bomber Plant.

This factory built 650 B-24 bombers a month.  GM shut it down in 2009, when the company became the People's Automotive Collective #1.  Sic transit Gloria Mundi.

I had never developed a taste for Rap

But that's because I had never seen it in the original Shakespeare.



Via #1 Son.

Brother Al's Traveling Salvation Show

Al Gore has gone full-on Jerry Lewis, holding a 24 hour telethon to support Global Warming.

Srlsy.

It's all completely sciency and everything.  I guess that Miss Rhode Island must have a Nobel Prize, or something*.  But it's completely the sciency is settled and everything.




Everyone goes
everyone knows
Brother Al's show

* Her degree is in religion, actually. In contrast to Al, who dropped out of Divinity School. Can I get an A-MEN!

How pathetic is attackwatch.com?

Even Hitler is mocking it.

DirtCrashr FTW!

Security patches! Getcher red hot security patches!

There are a bunch, and you'll want these.

This month's Microsoft Patch Tuesday gave a bumper crop of patchy goodness - something like nine high risk bugs got squashed.  Take Internet Explorer (sorry Firefox users, this needs ActiveX) to Windows Update.  While you're there, check out Security Essentials and the Safety Scanner.  Microsoft is doing a pretty good job with security lately, and these free tools are good examples of that.


Adobe is not doing so well with security - or if they are, they're digging themselves out of a big pit of security Fail.  Another month, another Flash bug allowing a Bad Guy to execute arbitrary code on your computer.  Sigh.  Patches for Windows and Mac here.  Linux users will have to wait until November.  Fail.

Birthdays

Today is the birthday of a bunch of notables:

Agatha Christie was born on this day in 1890.

Roy Acuff, the Country Music great was born on this day in 1903.

Fay Wray, charmer of monkeys (and others) was born on this day in 1907.

Gaylord Perry, Baseball doctor extraordinaire was born on this day in 1938.

Jimmy Carr, the very funny British comedian, was born on this day in 1972.

#1 Son was born on this day in 1992.  A different world, for both him and me.

But he loves Jimmy Carr's work, too.  Funny guy:

And another Global Warming victim. Lots of them!

Oh, the humanity!

Football fans who make offensive chants about wind turbines could face stiff jail sentences under plans by the government and the Football Association to ‘get tough’ with climate change deniers.

...

In recent years many football fans have reported their Saturday afternoons being blighted by an uneducated minority who pollute the stands with their anti-science chants. Global warming deniers have long taunted opposition fans with chants such as ‘You’re not singeing anymore’, and, in a reference to rising sea levels, ‘You only sing when you’re swimming’. Meanwhile West Country teams such as Yeovil Town, where there is a large wind turbine community, have been subject to abusive chants like ‘You can stick your fucking windmills up your arse’.

The FA’s campaign builds on research they conducted that found a clear link between the Holocaust, racism and scepticism towards claims by solar panel and wind turbine marketing managers.

My considered opinion about this simply outstanding satire is:

1. Hahahahahahaha!

2. It's quite interesting that the Left, in their young firebrand days as soixante-huitards,  never tired of mocking The Man.  Yet they seem shocked - shocked! - to find that, now that they've taken administrative control of the Intellectual Organs of the State, that The Man is still a ripe target for mockery.

3. Hahahahahahaha!

4. These people really think that they're smarter and sciencier™ than we are.  It's quite astonishing.

Another Global Warming victim

Last year we saw the spectacular resignation letter of the late Hal Lewis, ending his half century affiliation with the American Physical Society (APS) over their support for the theory of Anthropogenic Warming (AGW).

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist.

Dr. Lewis is now joined by Nobel Laureate Physicist Ivar Giaever, who has told the APS that he is resigning over their (in his mind) insupportable support for AGW:

In the APS it is ok to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible? The claim (how can you measure the average temperature of the whole earth for a whole year?) is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in this ‘warming’ period.

Clearly, Dr. Giaever didn't get the memo that the Science is Settled®.  He obviously is anti-Science, and must be some sort of Rethuglian Enemy Of The State Denier.

Welcome to the club, Dr. Giaver.

Seriously, can the last scientist to leave the APS please turn out the lights?  We're trying to be Green and everything.

And can every Progressive who ever yapped about the "Republican War On Science" please shut up and sit down in the back of the room?  Grown ups are talking here.

And rest in Peace, Dr. Hal Lewis.

Hat tip: Rick, via email.

TheOnesDay® No. 13

I was going to Mock the Lightbringer, but it looks like he's mocking himself:

The Twitter hashtag #AttackWatch directs comments to a new Obama site “AttackWatch.com” set up to identify thought crime so those engaging in wrong-speak toward the Obam Administation’s policies can be identified and held “accountable”.

...

adamsbaldwinAdam Baldwin

#AttackWatch: “Obama inadvertently gave the public a campaign-approved outlet to mock him in 140 characters or less.” – m.yahoo.com/w/news_america…

...

michellemalkinMichelle Malkin

MT @BradThor: If only #Obama admin could create an atmosphere where jobs materialized as quickly as #attackwatch jokes!”

...

JonahNROJonah Goldberg

Hey #attackwatch, my neighbor parked in front of my house again. I mean he thinks Solyndra is shady. Can you “take care” of him? [wink]

Holy cow.  This guy is the smartest dude of the Millennium?  Wow.  This is even stupider than proclaiming September 11 to be National Grandparent's Day.

A scholarship, for young American patriots

This seems very, very worth while.  The VFW is offering a $30,000 scholarship :

WHO CAN ENTER:
The Voice of Democracy Program is open to students in grades 9-12, who are enrolled in a public, private or parochial high school or home study program in the United States and its territories.

HOW TO ENTER:
Students should first draft their essay based on the 2011-2012 theme: "Is There Pride in Serving in Our Military?" Students should then record their reading of the draft to a CD. The recording should be no shorter than 3 minutes and no longer than 5 minutes (plus or minus 5 seconds).

Entries begin at the Post level. Once the student has created their essay and completed burning the audio version to a CD, they should submit their typed version, CD and the Voice of Democracy entry form to their local participating VFW Post no later than November 1, 2011.

Here's my entry: Yes.

Oops, not wordy enough (uncharacteristically for me).

Pass this on to any young 'uns in your patch.

On a related but unrelated note: #2 Son was issued his JROTC uniform today.  Excuse me while I go full-on Proud Dad.

This is the post I wish I had written

Woah:

The Tea Party is at once a very traditional American phenomenon – generally known as a “Great Awakening” – and part of a global insurrection.  In both cases, the status quo is portrayed as oppressive and corrupt, and the rebellion against it is highly moralistic and flows from religious sources.

There is a considerable scholarly literature about America’s Great Awakenings, most recently by the Nobel Economist Robert Fogel.  He describes it thus:

A cycle begins with a…religious revival…followed by (a phase) of rising political effect and reform, followed by a phase in which the new ethics and politics of the religious awakening come under increasing challenge and the political coalition promoted by the awakening goes into decline.  These cycles overlap, the end of one cycle coinciding with the beginning of the next.

Fogel writes of four Great Awakenings:  the first inspired the American Revolution and the triumph of the ideal of human equality.  The second, associated with millenarian convictions, inspired the generation of the Civil War and the women’s suffrage movement.  The third, beginning at the end of the 19^th century, embraced the notion of social sin, according to which personal misery was not necessarily due to an individual’s shortcomings, but a societal failure.  This religious conviction fed into the period of the New Deal and its attendant social engineering.  The fourth—current—Great Awakening started in the 1960s and was marked by a revival of enthusiastic religious practices and by “born again” conversions.  It drove the Reagan Revolution, and inspires the Tea Party’s tax revolt, the attacks on entitlements, and a return to ethics of individual responsibility after the embrace of collective sin in the previous phase.

I wish I'd said that.  The very concept of "American Exceptionalism" is caught up in the religious fervor of these movements - and it's a mistake to think that Progressives mired in New Deal Social Programs aren't just as driven by Americal Exceptionalism as anyone.  It's the fervor that makes them crazy as they feel it slipping away.

This is very, very smart stuff - some of the smartest stuff I've read, which is saying something.  The one thing I'd add is a bit of a downer: Americans go into this sort of fervor in a big way, and always have.

New England through up-state New York (at least) in the 1830s and 1840s were called the "Burned Over District," because of the religious movements that burned from one end to the other, only to be replaced by another.  Joseph Smith founded Mormonism there and then, but he's only one of many.  The fervor of an evangelical spirit that would transform Mankind is an affliction that Americans are peculiarly susceptible to.

The downer is that Abolition was one of those movements, from that period.  It offered the promise of the cleansing flame:

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Many countries ended the practice of chattel slavery without resorting to a conflagration that consumed 5% of the male population.  We did not.  We're not the only ones, either - Hitler with the cleansing of the Master Race and Stalin with the "cleansing" of the Kulaks are instructive.

So we need to keep in mind that as we move towards another transformation of the State's relationship with the citizen, that this contains the same seeds of millennial transformation.  A change will do us good; a change amp'ed up to 11 will help nobody.

But it would be a very American approach.

George W. Bush hates the Mentally Ill

That's why he's keeping them from visiting the United States:

More than a dozen Canadians have told the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office in Toronto within the past year that they were blocked from entering the United States after their records of mental illness were shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Oh wait: that's Barack Obama.  Never mind.  The HopeNChange™ Government would never discriminate against the disabled.

And pay no attention to the dateline showing this all happened in 2010 and 2011.  It's all Dick Cheney's Jedi (Sith?) Mind Control tricks ....

The idea that someone who once tried to commit suicide would try to attack this country is interesting, if grotesque.  Perhaps we could have the Department of Homeland Security Kabuki give us some sort of well thought out justification as to the risk that these people pose to our republic.  Remember, these people all have to pass through the Airport (Strip Search) Security Kabuki, so we're talking about the risk from post-suicidal vibes.  Or something.

The most disturbing part of this is how Government medical records got shared with another government.  That so totally would never happen here once we have ObamaCare™ Government Health Care.  Even thinking that means you are a counter-revolutionary Enemy Of The State.  Hater.

Seriously, will all Progressives who ever said that Republicans don't care about the sick and infirm please shut up and sit down in the back of the room?  Grown ups are talking.