July 31, 2005
More Testicles on Fire, Please
Via Rocket Jones. Somewhat True.
| the Idiot Savant |
| VULGAR | SPONTANEOUS | LIGHT You like things silly, immediate, and, above all, outrageous. Ixne on the subtle word play, more testicles on fire, please. People like you are the most likely to RECEIVE internet forwards--and also the most likely to save them in a special folder entitled 'HOLY SHIT'. Because it's so easily appreciated, and often a little physical, your sense of humor never ceases to amuse your friends. But most realize that there's a sly intelligence and a knowing wink to your tastes. Your sense of humor could be called 'anti-pretentious'--but ironically, that definitely indicates you're smarter than most. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Johnny Knoxville - Jimmy Kimmel |
 |
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
|
| Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid |
Predator Slash Fiction
Great, I'm highly ranked on Google for Predator Slash Fiction. The mind boggles.
This is actually a problem, because if I write about what I did this weekend it's not impossible that someone could figure out that my parents have a gay son. [ie, me]. Not a problem for me, but it could make their lives more difficult.
So, anyway, I'm back, and trying to get the courage up to read my email. Carnival of Liberty Tuesday.
July 27, 2005
I Suck
I'm heading off to my parents' tomorrow, and had several things on the list to do. Did one. Spent most of the time reading about the . Good stuff.
Found the Filing Cabinet of the Damned, a blog mostly focused on comics. Funny post on the 10 Worst Books in the World silliness.
So, anyway, I may post tomorrow morning, then don't expect me for a couple of days or so. Carnival of Liberty Tuesday, get your submissions in.
Eagle Scout
So, someone found this blog searching for "eagle scout tattoo ideas." You gotta wonder.
And I'm still on Google's first page for homosexual blog.
The Velvet Marauder
Via The Colossus, we have The Velvet Marauder, a fictional weblog writen by a vigilante superhero. Fun stuff, been going for almost a year.
A sample:
I slayed them at the meeting. I was as smooth as a weatherman – I had an answer for everything, and my PowerPoint kung fu is tops. You'd never know that I got knocked through a wall twice last night by fucking Exploder.
Plus, remembering that you can crush somebody’s skull with your bare hands is a good confidence booster.
Not that I would, I’m just saying.
People are Crazy
Here's the story. Loving father kisses infant son on bellybutton, mother snaps a picture. Photo developer informs police. Father is jailed for 6 months pending trial, children are taken by CPS. Finally an expert is found who can say "there was no criminal intent in the photos," and charges are dropped.
Can we please get away from the "any personal contact between an adult and a child must be closely examined for sexual predation" mentality? What, I've helped my godson put on his shoes, so I've obviously got a foot fetish?
Trust me, I know bad things happen sometimes, but this is just nuts.
H/T: Fark.
Kink
WARNING: Link possibly not safe for work. Don't click if you would be offended by descriptions of various kinky acts.
Joe at Joe.My.God asked his readers for the kinkiest thing they've done. The results are more amusing than stimulating. And for my readers, I wear fairly large glasses. I don't know if I'm up for a combined bondage/tapdancing scene, though.
July 26, 2005
Tragic Mistake
Bull. Chaining your detoxing alcoholic brother to the radiator by his neck isn't a tragic mistake. His dying might be a mistake, but it's also pretty predictable. Idiot.
Fark, again.
Boy Scouts
Look, I get the "private organization, they can make their own rules" thing. But when Scouting starts a push for more girls to join, disalowing gay boys is just silly.
I was a Scout for a fairly long time, and it was a positive experience, more or less.
H/T: Fark
Cycle of Blogging
A long list of the steps taken by bloggers. I hereby swear I will not do #5 then #6.
#5. You faux “retire” from blogging.
#6. You cave back into blogging in less than 72 hours.
I'm trying to avoid #3. Go read the rest.
H/T: Now A Warning?
Ricky Martin
By now you've probably heard about Ricky Martin's visit to the middle east, and being photographed in a scarf with "Jerusalem is ours" in Arabic on it.
He gave something of an apology.
Martin says in a statement: "I had no idea that the kaffiyeh scarf presented to me contained language referring to Jerusalem, and I apologise to anyone who might think I was endorsing its message.
"My role is entirely humanitarian, and I will continue to promote the elimination of stereotyping anyone - be they from Latin America, the Middle East, or anywhere across the globe."
Um, yeah. So, it's just a stereotype that Arabs want to destroy Israel as an independent nation?
The Filthy Critic
Saw him on The Attack of the Show, thought I would check out his site.
Damn funny, and yes, it is filthy.
His take on You've Got Mail is priceless, mainly because I've got a female friend who loved the movie.
July 25, 2005
This Brad Doesn't Suck
Go wish him a happy birthday.
We need lots of stories about how you're celebrating: booze, motorcycles, and strippers would be a good start.
Brad Sucks
Looks like he's gotten enough songs together for a CD. Go take a listen, throw something in his tip jar if you like it.
Album art done by A Triangle Morning: Dear Web Log. And he points to this. {Warning, NSFW animated rabbit sex}
Carnival of Liberty
#4 is up. Great Job.
Some of my favorite posts include:
You have the right to be wrong. More on this in another post.
This post on Natural Rights.
The AnarchAngel has a long post on his political stance. I may or may not fully agree, let me digest this.
Funny Business has some thoughts on Tattoos in the Workplace.
Lots of other great posts, go check them out. Sorry it took me so long to post this, I had it in draft and thought it was published.
July 24, 2005
Next Week's Carnival of Liberty
Eric's putting together this week's Carnival of Liberty, and he reminded me I'm hosting next week.
It looks like I'll be going out of town starting Thursday, so submissions will be accepted later than usual, say around 5 PM Monday, Central Time? Email me your submission directly [owlishmutterings at yahoo.com], the usual [Carnival of Liberty at gmail dot com], comment to this post, or send it by owl.
If anything changes, I'll put it in this post and postdate it.
Update: changed since we're moving to Tuesdays.
Pure Evil
Via Instapundit, comes one of the most godawful actions I've heard of yet. [scroll down].
You've got a pregnant widow in her third trimester. Less than 24 hours after the funeral of her soldier husband someone takes the flags from her and her neighbors' yards, piles them under a car, and sets them on fire.
I'm trying to come up with a reasoned comment, and the best I can do is HEY, FUCKWITS! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU FUCKIN' THINK YOU'RE FUCKIN' DOING?
Someone else will have to do better. Time for a walk, maybe work out with some weights. It won't make me any calmer, but it's worth a shot. Fuck.
July 23, 2005
Thoughts
T F Stern has a post that explains his thoughts about a post at The Unrepentant Individual.
TUI's post might be summarized as humans adapt to their environment; our environment has changed, partially due to birth control pills; the way we interact with others in marriage has changed and may change more in the future. [go read the post to get a better idea]
Summarizing Stern's post is trickier - this may leave out bits he would think important. Given that concern: America's founding fathers made a very flexible document with the Constitution; that flexibility worked because underneath it was a Christian understanding of morality; currently, "we have abandoned the sure footing that was intended to guide our society through all times, good and bad;" vows of marriage that don't speak of God break the foundation of society.
I don't want this to sound flippant, but I don't know how else to say it. The concept of marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has not always been the same as the concept in the average American. While I don't know if he would include me in the category of "deviant carnal members of our society," I have to wonder.
Basically, I believe God made me a homosexual, just like he makes some people left-handed. Given the environment I grew up in, and am in now, I would like to have a long-term, sexual relationship with another man. Whether or not such a relationship is recognized by the LDS Church is irrelevant to me, but I would like such a relationship to be recognized by our government, if it is going to recognize any such relationships, whether heterosexual or homosexual.
See also Libertopia.
In the Event of a Nuclear Attack
Via Fark, comes this relatively long list of things to do. A fair number are best done significantly before any problems happen; a fair number are also useful advice for other disasters, especially if it leads to government collapse.
It doesn't mention a possible need to arm yourself, so keep that in mind. Also, I'd recommend either drink mixes [like Gatorade] that contain potassium, or light salt [50/50 mix sodium and potassium chloride].
And of course, in Texas, no one's got basements.
Horrible Dates
The Men's Club/Divas Thursday have as a topic: "Embarassing Dates."
The Maximum Leader of Naked Villany recounts one of the worst dates I can possibly imagine. I've had some bad ones, but not anywhere near that bad.
My Yahoo email account may be screwed. Got a new password, that one didn't sign me in. Bleh.
Or they may be doing maintenance or something. We'll see.
July 22, 2005
Donald Trump
In the past I haven't been too impressed by Donald.
But the transcript of his presentation to a Senate Committee is great. He even suggested moving the UN to Ground Zero, which would be sweet.
H/T: Instapundit.
Hmm
Drat. This one damn post of mine is stuck for some reason at the top of the TLLB site for the LLP group. I started writing it on the 17th, and when I published it I forward dated it a little, to stick it in with newer stuff rather than older stuff. But now TLLB thinks it was published with a time machine, and it's stuck until tomorrow at the top of the list of newest posts.
I didn't intend to do that, honest. And is it just me, or are only a fraction of the people in the group getting their posts on that list?
Lower, Upper, Middle Class
RP has lunch with an old, wealthy, friend. He liked it, but felt they didn't get value for their money.
During residency we had a series of lectures on dealing with different kinds of people. It was mostly racially based, but not all of it.
In an extreme generalization, based on economic class: lower class perceives value in amount, middle class perceives value in quality, upper class perceives value in appearance.
I may be reading too much into it, but it sounds like he didn't like the quality, both of the food and of the dining experience. [or at least, they were decent but not worth the money]. On the other hand, just to be seen dining in certain places carries value to certain people, which may be why the restaurant is set up to crowd people together. Just a guess.
My problem is, I tend towards lower class values, [a shirt is a shirt, I don't care who made it]. I know this, and try to work against it sometimes, but sometimes I just don't.
Update: Thoughts after a weird dream last night: How much would it suck to have an upper class value filter, but not nearly enough money to fulfill it? No wonder my high school had a uniform code.
Storm the Beach
Gryphmon is promoting a charity, the Service Members Legal Defense Network that lobbys against Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and provides legal help as well.
So this Saturday you can go Storm the Beach. If you're near Long Beach, CA.
Carnival of Recipes
Hickory smoked cajun shish kabob sounds pretty good.
What not to do in Asia has an entry on dogshit nachos, that are pretty much the opposite of what nachos should be. On the other hand, I have lived in a foreign country [yeah, Boston in the 80s was a foreign country] where it was impossible to get TexMex, much less good TexMex, so you try to make do.
Armadillo eggs [really cheese stuffed baked japapenos, but don't tell anyone].
Google Searches
Yeah, it's a form of mental masturbation, but how cool is it that someone found this blog searching for That government is best which governs least?
On the other hand, I'm 3rd on the Yahoo search for "porn star archives". :)
Update: Top on Google for Bread and Butter Pickles! And in top 10 on gay hatred.
The Bread and Butter Pickles recipe, from my grandmother.
July 21, 2005
Meh
I'm angry, and sad, and disgusted, and... I don't know what else.
And then I run into this picture, on GayPatriot, of 2 gay men being executed earlier this week, because they were gay.
And It's a good thing I'm not an omnipotent god, because I'd be getting all old testamenty on somebody.
The Wrong Size
Pixy Misa has a post on size and scaling issues in governments. Go read it.
This touches on something I've been thinking about with regards to Life, Liberty, Property, with regard to Singularity Sky, and with regards to cohousing.
A friend of mine used to be interested in cohousing [quick definition: a group somewhere between a condominium association and a commune] [longer definition: you have your own space, either a small house or apartment, but also share some facilities and some meals with the rest of the group]. With regard to LLP, you're voluntarily giving up some rights - where and what to eat some days, for instance- in exchange for being part of a community.
Singularity Sky is a SciFi book, in which a colony in a totalitarian empire, mostly at an Industrial Age tech level, gets hit with a bunch of cornucopia machines, basically granting every wish of every person, peasant and lord alike. The government is pretty much instantly overthrown. The revolutionaries try to create a government, but quickly realize everyone is ignoring them.
Humans are pretty much set up for being part of a group of somewhere around 30-100 members. A corporation with fewer than 30 employees can run efficiently without a bunch of rules: everyone knows everyone else, and gets the job done. If someone isn't pulling their fair share, everyone knows it, and either peer pressure has an impact or the person is kicked out of the group [fired, exiled, etc.] More than a hundred or so, and you spend so much time in meetings trying to make personal contacts that you can't get any work done, so you start making rules [or laws, or whatever]. A republic tries to stretch that - you start with a person who is connected to a lot of other people, who say, yes, this person represents our interests, and then put that person in a room with a lot of other similar people, and boom! you've got a government.
We did ok with small groups, but then we invented agriculture, which meant you often had a surplus of food, which meant other groups would try to take it away, so you banded more and more groups together to fight off the other groups. And then it's more efficient to have a small group of well equipped, well trained people fight off the other groups, and that makes a feudal society.
Where the frag am I going with this? Oh yeah.
We just got through the Industrial Age, which seems to have had as an organizing principle "Bigger is Better," including governments. Now, at the beginning of the Information Age [apparently anyway] it looks like we can go two ways - either a constantly monitoring totalitarian state, with cameras, GPS devices, and all transactions done and stored electronically, or a much freer society, in which a congressman actually knows what his constituants want [H/T: INDC Journal]. I'll take door number 2, thank you very much.
At this point, can we break things and get back to a bunch of tribes? I don't know, but I suspect [and hope] that's the way we're headed. In which case, going towards Floating Cities makes a lot of sense to me.
Christmas in July
I'm going to the St Arnold's Christmas in July event, so I'll be off the net for the next 24 hours or so.
Mmm. Cask aged Christmas ale. Good stuff.
Another Bombing in London
Just in case you haven't heard, there was another bombing in London. No reported deaths; seemingly a much different attack. Not clear why- copycat? another Al Queda attack, but the last one's suicide bombers weren't volunteers, so they couldn't do the same stunt again? No one knows yet.
The Houston Chronicle has a 100 photo gallery of the incident. Is it just me, or is that new?
Bomb Mecca?
Almost a week ago Rep. Tom Tancredo talked about bombing Mecca if several US citys were nuked.
"Well, what if you said something like — if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites," Tancredo answered.
"You're talking about bombing Mecca," Campbell said.
"Yeah," Tancredo responded.
His office has backtracked somewhat.
Instapundit only made one short comment. Some blogs thought the comment was stupid, some were glad that at least one congressman had a pair of nads.
I'm still not sure, but I tend more towards the "pair of nads" side. On the other hand, at least one site has made the argument that Al Queda has destroyed some of Islam's holy sites, so they might be happy to sacrifice Mecca in order to have more Muslims against the US. In which case, having a "nuke Mecca" MAD kind of plan would make us less safe, not more.
The I came across a post today on Cold Fury that puts it together:
...I think the failure of (the invisible “moderate”) Muslims to disassociate with and turn out the radicals in their midst means that they wish to enjoy the fruits of any jihadist victory, while being spared the consequences of defeat. And since the jihadists, at least, consider this a holy war, well then, we should respond in kind.
I don't think we should have a specific policy of "We will nuke Mecca if X number of our people are killed in a terrorist attack," but no responses should be unthinkable.
Sinfully Seductive Marbleized Chocolate Cheesecake
This recipe comes from my grandmother's collection, and was "Best of Show" in the 1986 Texas State Fair "Say Cheese" contest.
Crust:
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
3 T butter, melted
3 T sugar
1 oz semi-sweet chocolate, grated
1/2 c ground pecans
Filling
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 c rum
16 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 c sugar
1 c sour cream
1 T vanilla
4 large eggs
Topping
1/2 pint whipping cream
1/3 c powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
semi-sweet chocolate shavings
For the crust, combine all ingredients and press evenly into the bottom of a 9 1/2 in x 10 in springform pan. Refrigerate.
For the filling, melt chocolate with rum over hot, but not boiling water. Place cream cheese in a bowl and beat with an electric beater until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar, sour cream and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Divide the batter into 2 portions. Combine 1/2 the batter with the chocolate mixture until smooth. Spoon batter into crust one tablespoon at a time, alternating 2 batters to achieve marbelized effect. [if you're completely anal and trying to win the blue ribbon]. Or, if you prefer, pour all of chocolate batter into the crust first. Add remaining batter and with a fork, make up and down swirls. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until center is firm. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Refrigerate for 12 hours. Before serving, add topping.
For topping, beat cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla. Continue beating until stiff. Spoon onto top of cake. Garnish with chocolate shavings.
Actual Reporting from the Battlefront
Why doesn't some part of the MSM do this kind of reporting? You would think some of its customers would be interested.
H/T: Instapundit.
July 20, 2005
Her Left Behind
Callimachus writes a long essay describing how she got to her current political beliefs. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Interesting.
H/T: Instapundit.
Podcasts
Wondering exactly how to do a podcast? troubled diva has step by step instructions.
On how he does it, anyway.
Brat Camp
Ok, I had heard about the TV show Brat Camp and decided to watch a little.
Kate of Small Dead Animals and Michelle Malkin watched it as well.
My thought: holy crap, they're doing group therapy and then showing it on national TV. The usual presumption is what is said in the room stays in the room, and that's usually explicitly stated. I'm sure the parents signed waivers, I'm not so sure the kids did. And if they did, it was probably after the experience, not before.
The therapy itself? Eh, we'll see. Apparently, they bring in different adults in response to the kids' actions.
All in all, there have been some exploitive reality TV shows, but this is the worst I can think of.
Then and Now
Varifrank has a fun then and now post comparing 2001 to 2005.
We are winning.
H/T: Mr Completely
The Emperor
I was checking my referrer logs, and came across a huge [for me, anyway] number of people coming from nicedoggie.net. Cool, The Emperor referred people to my blog.
And if you havn't read Princess Natasha's attempt at getting a fatwa, make sure you're not drinking anything before.
Roberts for SCOTUS
Right Side of the Rainbow has excerpts from many right side blogs. Downtown Lad does the same on the left.
Advantage: gay blogosphere.
Immigration
Puttering around, Fox's website has several articles on immigration here. Interesting, but at least in some cases, not specific enough.
Queer Eye
I've been watching the new season of Queer Eye, and I think they've intentionally changed the focus. In the beginning, most of the guys they worked on were at a point in their lives that they wanted to change - hair, clothing, hobbies, career. Recently, it's been guys that needed a helping hand - a couple of military guys [one going to the Sandbox and wanting to legally marry his wife, one in a wheelchair], and this week they worked on a guy who raised foster kids [lots of foster kids]. It's not a bad thing, but nothing translates well to the rest of the world, and nothing that couldn't be done by someone else with a large credit line.
But hey! They've got podcasts.
Or you can do the Queer Eye drinking game.
July 19, 2005
Hurricane Emily
Looks like it won't significantly hit here, but given how strange the weather's been lately, I'll wait and see. I didn't go buy survival supplies, though.
Watch Your Six
Watch Your Six has two posts I like, one funny and one to pull your heartstrings.
Via BlackFive.
Immigration and Minimum Wage
Eric Grumbles about immigration, JohnL likes the article. Gullyborg has a different take. [although maybe not that different]
My thoughts:
(1) I don't know if I believe it's impossible to improve security through tightening our borders. On one hand, terrorists trying to come in likely would know ways through the border better than the average mule. On the other hand, I don't know that the example of the USSR's difficulties with its borders applies to our situation, given improvements in various technologies.
(2) The "businesses like illegal immigration because it lets them circumvent minimum wage laws" idea [not made explicitly, but I think that's the thrust of the argument]: I am somewhat doubtful. US map with minimum wages here. Wikipedia entry on minimum wage here; currently tends towards agreeing that minimum wages reduce employment. Coyote Blog has a long post about his experiences with minimum wage. Democracy for Oregon has a post refuting the illegal immigration minimum wage link. [source possibly suspect]
Basically, I have no problem with the concept that a high minimum wage decreases employment, and no problem with getting rid of the minimum wage. One problem is that even with that, there would still be times in which it would be better to hire someone who can't run to the authorities.
(3) Immigration is good, so we should aim for unlimited legal immigration. Hmm. If we implement other parts of what I expect are Eric's plans for how to fix the world, maybe. I agree that immigration has had a very positive effect on this nation, and it continues to have a positive effect. I believe that nearly all immigrants have hopes to get a good job, and live a better life than they can get in their home country. I am a little concerned that if we open unlimited legal immigration, that may not be the case. If the country is being run under libertarian principles, it won't matter much, but if not, how much health care and education and food stamps, etc, are we paying for?
(4) All right, my stance. I have two concerns. (1) Safety, in view of the war on terror. (2) Having laws on the books that we are not enforcing, and in fact are blocking enforcement, is a bad idea. For example, see the Houston Police Force's response to the Minutemen planning to videotape day laborers.
I agree, the government has done some things in the name of the war, that can't possibly improve our safety. I don't know whether or not trying to reduce illegal immigration falls into that category.
I am for increasing legal immigration. I don't know if I am for increasing permanent workers, who would be aiming towards becoming citizens [if no other way, in the next generation]. I have heard it said that immigrants are joining the mainstream culture as fast currently as they have in times past. I don't know if I believe that.
Thoughts?
Drug War Casualty
QandO discusses a man with multiple sclerosis, who ended up with a 25 year sentence, possibly just because he was getting his disease treated.
And how many doctors underprescribe due to problems like this?
July 18, 2005
Andre Norton
Eric pointed to this guy's blog, thought I would check it out.
He notes Andre Norton passed away back in March, and has a lot of biographical data.
My Sis
Interesting. Thinking about the carnival of music, I googled my sister's name & violin. The second and third hits involved her, and on the first page was a review of her CD. Cool.
I can't get nearly that high with my name.
Carnival of Music
Hey, number 7 is up.
All sorts of interesting stuff, with this pointer to csounds.com, and a list of 72 different music blogs.
Check it out.
Kelo
Via the Carnival of Capitalists, Photon Courier has a thoughtful post on the reactions of various newspapers to the Kelo decision. He isn't impressed.
Need a Knife
Puttering around, I ran into Smoke on the Water's post on Gerber Blades.
I've read a fair amount of posts from people bitching about problems with various companies, very few with positive things to say.
Keep Your Eye on the Ball
The AnarchAngel points to this article on the WoT.
The kickers:
"Our first hindrance is moral equivalence. For the hard Left there is no absolute right and wrong since amorality is defined arbitrarily and only by those in power.
...
Our second shackle is utopian pacifism — ‘war never solved anything’ and ‘violence only begets violence.’
...
The third restraint is multiculturalism, or the idea that all social practices are of equal merit. Who are we to generalize that the regimes and fundamentalist sects of the Middle East result in economic backwardness, intolerance of religious and ethnic minorities, gender apartheid, racism, homophobia, and patriarchy? Being different from the West is never being worse."
The AnarchAngel is also showing a lot of, to use psych speak, "expressed emotion." Lots of letters and emails showing support, some from [to use a phrase from His Imperial Majesty] "simian Assholes for Allah" apparently threatening things from death to vague legal attacks.
Also from His Imperial Majesty:
Oh, and Mohammed was a pedophile homosexual with a tendency to shag livestock, and the "holy" book of execrable crap that he wrote is great for draining bacon fat with. It really sucks as toilet paper, however. Trust us, we tried. No wonder you wipe with your hands.
Nice.
Frank J., Judge
So, somewhat worried that Gonzales could end up being a horrible candidate? Why not go for one of the writers at IMAO?
Hurricanes
Thinking about the fun little storm headed this way, I ran across this table.
I knew the 1900 Galveston storm had the most deaths, but I didn't realize by how much.
Charles Stross
Putterings around, came across this short story.
Man, that's a depressing universe. An Elder Technology race with the soviets, leading to WWIII? Not a good thing.
Carnival of Liberty 3
The Third Carnival is up.
I like Fair Vote Watch's take on who's responsible for murder on 7/7, with lots of comments. In a similar vein we have Individ's post.
More thoughts on Grand Theft Auto and getting the government out of regulating every little detail at Cutting Edge of Ecstasy.
2 takes on immigration issues at Eric's Grumbles and Gullyborg. I probably agree more with Gullyborg than with Eric; I have a half-completed post on the topic.
LilPoh isn't that impressed with Iraq's elections.
News, the Universe, and Everything looks at the law of unintended consequences in Africa. Key sentence: "In this specific case, the UN World Food Program is doing to Kenyan farmers with free corn what Microsoft did to Netscape with a free web browser."
Lots of other great posts, go read them all.
Queer Ravings
Over at Ravings of John C. A. Bambenek, we have this post on the gay reeducation camp thing. Boifromtroi's post on it is here.
I've made 3 comments, and I think we're getting to the point that we have to agree to disagree. But at least we can have a civil discussion about it, as opposed to me going over to some sites and coming out in support of the war.
July 17, 2005
L. Ron: Just a Nut or Completely Insane?
Slate has a fun article on the big man here.
H/T: Antigravitas.
License Plates
Using this site, I made various plates:
Anyone like one of these as a banner for the site? Yeah, Donald Sensing's already done it.
Hope
doc Russia remains hopeful for the future of the Republic. At least, it's worth fighting and maybe dying for.
Read the whole thing.
July 16, 2005
Aargh
The Religion of Peace has issued a fatwa on The AnarchAngel, presumably in regard to Team Infidel.
And, after having been fired, probably for the same reason.
You do realize, this means war.
July 15, 2005
Fun with Legos
In what may be the geekiest thing I've ever seen, here we have a Turing machine made out of legos.
H/T: The Corner
Carnival of Recipes
This week's carnival is up. Lots of tasty recipes, including dueling recipes for eggs benedict mock one here, one with real hollandaise sauce here. My dad really likes eggs B, but there's no way I'm spending 30 minutes in the morning to make a sauce.
Tasty hot turkey sandwich here.
And the always fun, Spotted Dick.
Anarchy
The Life, Liberty, Property group (of which I am a member) is interesting. Some of its members [most? dunno] have made lifestyle choices specifically to reduce the amount of taxes going to the state. Eric has made some choices that involve him interacting more with the state than he would prefer, in the interests of getting his children health care, for instance. On the other hand, Eric specifically notes he doesn't like Gullyborg's ideas about immigration.
My thought is this: quite a few years ago it was possible to claim some land, grow some crops, and raise a family with little or no interaction with Federal or State governments. Now, I think it's completely impossible, for economic reasons as well as political ones. I may be wrong, this certainly isn't an area where I'm an expert. At some point in the future it may be possible again, given certain trends.
I don't think the complete removal of the state is possible in the near future, so I tend to think smaller. For example, I would prefer, along with the Heartless Libertarian, to have a national sales tax instead of our current income tax. I think that would be several steps in the right direction for liberty, and is at least something that could be discussed nationally. Unlike, say, privatizing all roads.
Metrosexual
Evil Genius
The Llamaboys are playing with a white trash quiz. Boring. The real question is, how much of an Evil Genius are you?
July 14, 2005
Order of the Stick
It's great today. You may have to read a few previous ones to understand what's going on [and if you've never played any D&D you won't get it].
Mother's Chocolate Cheesecake
My mom makes this recipe for special occasions. It's good!
1 box thin chocolate wafers, crushed [the only difficult to find ingredient, could substitue chocolate sandwich cookies without filling, or a more normal graham cracker crumb crust if you're desperate]
1/4 c butter, melted
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 pounds cream cheese
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 c sugar
4 eggs
3 tsp cocoa
2 tsp vanilla
2 c sour cream
Combine wafers, butter, cinnamon. Press into bottom and sides of 10 inch springform pan, chill. Melt chocolate, beat cream cheese until soft, fluffy. Beat in sugar then eggs [adding eggs one at a time]. Add remaining ingredients, blend thoroughly.
Bake 350 degrees 1 hour 10 min. [will be somewhat runny, don't worry, it firms as it chills]. Cool, then chill at least 5 hours. Freezes well.
Update: Sorry, missed the cream cheese when I was typing the recipe in. Thanks to VW Bug, fixed now. And I rechecked everything else, no more errors I can see.
Handicaps
Puttering around, I run into Ogre's post, and think I could take a stab at it. Then I read the article.
Oh my. Ok, original post, article, questions:
1. Why has our society become less loving, so selfish, so intolerant, so uncommitted to anything outside of individual gain?
2. Why are we so full of selfish ambition and vain conceit?
3. Is this “perfect” society a place where any of us would want to live?
I have not read Ogre's comments, or comments on the site yet, and I may be misunderstanding the point of the questions, but I don't think so. This is going to get very personal, so anyone who doesn't care, skip ahead. And, I'm going to have to delete this if my family ever finds out I blog.
My younger brother is disabled, in ways that are not instantly apparent. Looking back it becomes apparent that growing up I became jealous in several ways of the attention spent on my brother - he speaks slowly, so whenever he started speaking everyone else had to let him speak; I spent a fair amount of time in waiting rooms or in the car at the speech therapist; my sister, playing games, nearly always was on his side -they were good, I was evil. The list goes on. And it's not all one sided - he certainly spent time in the car waiting to pick me up from football practice, for instance.
The patterns continue. One of the things leading to how my life is now is that I really don't want to support him [or my sister, but that's a different story] financially when we're older. Thanks to our dad, my brother should have enough money to support himself, but you never know.
If the technology had existed when he was born to repair what was damaged, would it be selfish to want it done? No. I think everyone can agree on that. If not, tough.
The article hints at some couples choosing to abort children with Down's Syndrome, rather than raising them. Now, I am opposed to requirements for amniocentesis and required abortions in the event of a chromosomal abnormality. Such a requirement after a certain age in the mother can save the state a huge amount of money, which is one reason why socialized medicine is a bad idea. On the other hand, I am opposed to efforts to block the ability to have an abortion.
And certainly some families have ambition, to the point that they have junior's educational life planned before he's born. Which is just stupid, because you're setting yourself up for failure. But how selfish is it to want a family different from that described in the article, in which all the members must focus all of their energy on raising this one child?
So my answers:
1) Our society has been able to spend huge amounts of time, effort and love on the handicapped because of individual gain. When your entire family has to focus on getting the crops in or you'll die of starvation, you have to lock crazy old uncle Albert in the cellar. My brother is able to live a relatively normal life, partially because of some rather expensive therapy.
2) We are not saints. We can just do our best, note our mistakes, and try to do better.
3) A "perfect" society, involving anyone with any handicap, being aborted or killed? No. A better society, in which children with various handicaps get cured using nanotech or gene engineering? Yes.
July 13, 2005
Blogger Import
WooHoo! Finally took the time to import everything from Blogger, thanks to this post.
I may end up removing a few entries, and I need to give categories for everything, but it's still cool.
Now, if I can just make this look a little more personalized...
No pink.
One last one
| You Are A Hornbeam Tree |
Naturally attractive, you take good care of your looks. You are not egoistic, and you make life as comfortable as possible. You look for kindness in others - though you are seldom happy with yourself. A bit mistrusting and unsure, you dream of being swept away by someone unusual. |
Life Plan
I'm not sure if this is a good thing:
| Your Career Type: Investigative |
 You would make an excellent: Architect - Biologist - Chemist |
Karl Rove for SCOTUS
I doubt it would happen, but can you imagine how loudly the Democrats would scream?
Conservative?
North Dallas Thirty has been told why he can't be a conservative:
You are a pro-sodomy, gay-marriage-supporting, let-gays-in-the-military homosexual rights activist. You think gays should be teaching in the public schools. You think men having sex with other men should be legal. You approve of gay ambassadors, gay cabinet members, gay soldiers, and gay preachers. You don't think homosexuality is a choice, and you don't think it can be changed by prayer and/or therapy. Your flaunt your homosexuality.
Go to the post for his response, I particularly like his claiming the name of "faggot freedom facilitator." I may need to make a T-shirt with that on it.
Basically, I think the left vs right axis is pretty much useless at this point. I am a pro-sodomy, let-gays-in-the-military believer. I don't think homosexuality is a choice, based both on scientific studies and my own personal experience. It could be changed by a direct miracle from God, but the so-called ex-gay ministry has only taken some bisexuals and gotten them to refuse to act on half of their feelings. I don't know if I flaunt my homosexuality or not, by the commenter's definition.
For my further non-conservative street cred, I'm pro-choice because I think of abortion as a medical procedure, not a murder. One acquaintance's wife died during childbirth, in what should have been a routine pregnancy. On the other hand, I don't want abortion to take the place of contraception [and it usually doesn't]. I don't agree with parental notification laws because there are some really screwed up families.
On the other hand, I think war has been declared on Western Civilization, and that we need to respond with military action, not police action. I think we need to listen to what is being said in mosques around the world, and not just what the MSM wants us to hear.
I think some of the stuff that is being done in the name of the War on Terror, like banning fingernail clippers on flights, is just silly, and risks losing focus on the real problems. I think police officers setting up speed traps as a local revenue stream are downright evil.
I think marijuana needs to be legalized, and regulated and taxed like tobacco. I would consider doing the same for other street drugs, although I am not sure. I think the War on Drugs has led to significant restrictions on personal liberty, for little or no benefit, and needs to be stopped.
I think guns are very useful tools.
So. I describe myself as a small L libertarian, when I bother with labels at all. Most of these stances could be described as pro-personal freedom, except possibly the War on terror. Right? Left? Conservative? Liberal? Useless.
How to Pick Up Liberal Chicks
Greg Gutfeld has some surefire tips on how to pick up liberals:
SUREFIRE CONVERSATION TIP: BEFORE GOING OUT, PRACTICE SAYING EXACTLY WHAT HOOMAN MAJD SAYS FIFTEEN TIMES IN FRONT OF A MIRROR! (THIS WILL GET YOU INTO THE PANTS OF ANY GRAD STUDENT - PROVIDED THEY'RE FLARES!)
“Terror should never be rewarded, but what if what the terrorist wants is what is right? What if what is a 'win' to the terrorist is what is right? Do we refuse to comply simply because the terrorist has acted?”
IF THAT DOESN'T GET YOU LAID, THEN EQUATE TERRORISM TO FIGHTING TERRORISM!
How did he get on The Huffington Post, anyway?
H/T: JunkYardBlog
July 12, 2005
New BBC Suggested Phrases
In the aftermath of the London bombings, the BBC actually used the word "terrorist" multiple times. It is now reportedly revising all it's online articles to remove the word, just in case it might be offensive to people who consider blowing up innocent civilians a useful tactic.
Protein Wisdom has more suggested words they should remove.
Lakewood Church
A church is officially opening [or, more correctly, moving] into what was The Summit, Houston's main basketball and concert arena in the past. Now, religion is big business here in the bible belt, and according to this they spent 95 million renovating the building, but The Houston Chronicle has done several articles on this, including an above the fold, frontpage article on Sunday.
That wouldn't happen to be because Lakewood Church is a big advertiser, taking a full page ad several times a week, would it?
How Weird Are You?
Via AnarchAngel, comes this quiz: [what did he do to get a 73, anyway?]
Result: 40
You're fairly odd. Your normal friends describe you as weird, and you take it as a compliment. You probably wear black, so as to make a point and slightly worry the people who still remember World War I. You are likely to be interested in strange things, but you never seem to manage to get to grips with them.
Update: Interesting. Most of the numbers people have posted are in the 30s. But Dan got a 16. Anyone seen anything lower?
July 11, 2005
Why They Hate Us [and Me]
Via Instapundit comes this editorial in The Mirror.
The grab-you-by-the-testicles bit:
We know very well what the "grievances" of the jihadists are.
The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.
Yup.
Carnival of Liberty
The Second Carnival of Liberty is up. Interesting posts include this one linking determinism and leftism [which is why someone I had been talking to was proclaiming "Violence begets violence," and why I think that's utter bullshit.
Plus this post on "Peak Liberty" and this interesting letter writen 3 days after 9/11.
Lots of food for thought.
Also in the same mode comes this article on various legislative responses to Kelo. [H/T: Instapundit]
A Perfectly Cromulent Gathering, part 2
Hmm. Looks like the gathering continued for a fairly long time after I left.
Oh well. I had a good time, anyway. And no hangover. :) Not that I was expecting one - 3 beers in 4 hours doesn't do much too me.
July 10, 2005
A Perfectly Cromulent Gathering
I went to Pete's gathering at Hans'Bier Haus yesterday. Pretty fun. Random thoughts:
1) Nearly every guy has facial hair, glad I regrew my goatee.
2) Pete does indeed have a beautiful wife and a lovely daughter. Unless they were actors hired for the occasion.
3) First time in my life hearing from a stranger "Hey, I've read your blog." Kinda cool.
4) Met the authors of two other blogs, namely Off the Kuff and Brains and Eggs. Both of which I would describe as left-of center, mainly politically focused blogs. Not really my cup of tea, but at least interesting and appear well writen. Looks like Brains and Eggs got restarted after the presidential election.
5) Speaking of which, is there a correlation between smoking and leftwing politics? I was somewhat surprised at the number of smokers there, and friends from elsewhere would seem to follow that pattern. Maybe having an external locus of control... if you feel like you can't solve your problems and need the government to do so for you, you would be less likely to try to quit?
So, a good time was had by all [as far as I could tell]. I'll probably go again if they have another one.
July 08, 2005
Carnival of Music
#5 is up.
And I was working on something for the Carnival of Liberty, but it doesn't seem as relevant after the bombing in London. Maybe next week.
Words of Encouragement
It comes in pints has a post for our British brothers [and sisters, and ...].
You've seen Team America, right? So this is a big hearty FUCK YEAH for all things British. At 593 comments so far and still going strong. :)
Triumph Motorcars-FUCK YEAH
Wallace and Gromit-FUCK YEAH
Dangermouse-FUCK YEAH
Sean Connery-FUCK YEAH
For continuing to produce good beer, while our American companies produced swill only slightly better than moose urine-FUCK YEAH
War or Feud?
Mean Ol'Meany has a post advocating bombing, including nukes, any Muslim country that doesn't surrender in the next 24 hours. We'll call that the all out war strategy - ie we're at war, directly, with Islam, and we're damn sure going to win it.
Lee Harris, at TCS [H/T: Glenn] on the other hand thinks of this as a blood feud:
In the blood feud, the orientation is not to the future, as in war, but to the past. In the feud you are avenging yourself on your enemy for something that he did in the past. Al Qaeda justified the attack on New York and Washington as revenge against the USA for having defiled the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia by its military presence during the First Gulf War. In the attack on London, the English were being punished for their involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the blood feud, unlike war, you have no interest in bringing your enemy to his knees. You are not looking for your enemy to surrender to you; you are simply interested in killing some of his people in revenge for past injuries, real or imaginary -- nor does it matter in the least whether the people you kill today were the ones guilty of the past injuries that you claim to be avenging. In a blood feud, every member of the enemy tribe is a perfectly valid target for revenge
From my standpoint, SDB still has the best analysis of the entire war, including this bit:
In the mean time, now that al Qaeda has broken the ice, there will be further terrorist attacks against us as long as this war continues. They may be made by al Qaeda itself, or they may be made by other groups who will spring up. We can't totally prevent that until we've removed the true cause of those attacks: Arab cultural failure. Nothing short of that will stop the attacks. They're part of the setbacks which always accompany any major war. We'll do our best to foil such attacks, but inevitably some will succeed.
And those who don't understand the true issues will inevitably point to such attacks as proof that our campaign is a failure, that by our aggressiveness we raised further terrorist groups against us, that we should abandon the war and try appeasement, concession, aid, humanistic solutions.
And they'll be wrong, because they don't understand the real reason why we're being attacked and therefore why such approaches won't truly remove the source of the grievance..
They won't stop hating us until they become successful and begin to achieve on their own.
We are at war. The war is going in the direction we want it to go, although there will always be things we could do better with hindsight. We could end this war quickly, by killing everyone who could possibly be a threat to us, but that isn't a way I want to choose: I don't think it's necessary, and I think it would be a disaster for us.
Carnival of Recipes
#47 is up.
For those looking for a fancy frozen sweet drink, we have the Chilly Leprechaun.
And for the men, let's grill some buffalo.
July 07, 2005
British Bombing
40 dead for now, thousands injured. Instapundit has the roundup.
While that's going on, Bernie's wife is delivering twins.
He's getting some advice:
Hold em nice and gentle, but firm like a football you don't want to fumble...
But don't spike them!
The Wheel Turns.
July 06, 2005
What's Your Addiction
The AnarchAngel claims addiction to caffeine and coffee.
Fun lists, but none apply perfectly to me. So I'll go with:
| You Know You're Addicted to LotR When... |
|
You start quoting from the movie as part of regular conversation.
You like to tell your mom that you are hungry by quoting: "Merry, I'm hungry." She used to just laugh, but now she says, "What would you like to eat, Pippin?" You continually ask your parents for second breakfast. All the staff at your local cinema knows you by your first name and even before you open your mouth to speak, they say "Ticket for 'Fellowship of The Ring?'" You hate Burger King food, butyou ate nothing else for a month to get the toys. You've crammed up your computer's memory by downloading every single screensaver from www.LordoftheRings.net You wander around the house in a knee length nightie, pyjama trousers and an unfastened dressing gown (to give you a train). You are trying to be an elf, and actually manage to forget that the nightie is blue with dolphins, the trousers have teddies on and the dressing gown is tartan. Your Lord of the Rings shirt has not yet met the washing machine. You don't have enough money to buy groceries for the next week before payday, yet you charge �50 on your credit card to get a three year charter membership in the official LOTR fan club. Who needs food anyway? You refer to parts of your town as parts of Middle-Earth. You wear hobbitish clothing as part of your normal wardrobe. You sometimes let your hair go curly after a wash, and then run around the house in bare feet yelling "I'm a hobbit!" You hate it when Elves are only thought of as 'Santa's little helpers' and have tried to explain the difference between Santa-elves and Syrian Elves to your 5-year old cousins. You speak in Quenya just to annoy your friends. You refer to regular elephants as oliphaunts. While buttering a piece of bread, you suddenly think of Bilbo (remember when he was talking to Gandalf about feeling tired) saying that he felt 'like butter spread over too much bread.' You renamed your car the Wraith-mobile. You have a replica of The One Ring. You are beginning to resemble a panda due to the fact that you've stayed up until 2 am reading and re-reading the great books. You actually managed to read the Silmarillion without being tempted to give up on this whole middle earth malarkey. You now have a lifetime fear of black horses! You haven't removed the soundtrack from your CD player since you bought it. You have sssudenly developed a hisssing lisssp every time you sssay the letter ssss. You have looked both on the net and in the phone book to see if archery and sword fighting lessions are offered in your area. You have begun calling your husband / wife / girlfriend/ boyfriend / animal or kid my precioussss. You happily traveled over an hour to the next town to see "it" because that theater has a better sound system than the one 5 minutes down the road. You have called every theatrical or specialty makeup company in town looking for pointy ear or hairy feet prosthetics. You've worn your plastic "one ring" that came on your Legolas bookmark so much the gold is completely worn off. You've begun drafting a letter to the Webster's dictionary people requesting that they include "Ringers" in their next edition. At Christmas time relatives find you chatting with the tree and sharing eggnog draughts Single ads with the description," short plump and big hairy feet" seem much more appealing. You know The LoTR history better then your family history. You have a mouse named Frodo, a bird named Gollum, and a dog named Gandalf. And that cat that keeps coming around to be petted is Legolas. You know Elvish better then English. Whenever something goes wrong, it's Sauron's fault. When you sing in the shower, it's always about Gil-Galad or hobbit walking songs... You know everything about Middle Earth geography, but you can't get someone from your house to the ice cream parlor. Now the nearest movie theater, that is a different story. You think the names of the 7 dwarves from Snow White are: Gimli, Gloin, Thorin, Gili, Nili, Ori, and Bambour. You have developed your own special Tolkien handwriting. "A firm, flowing script..." Words like "Yrch" make sense to you. You've become strangely obsessed with mushrooms. Whenever you close a door, you say "They have a cave troll!" When you come to a dead end you're still convinced that the road goes ever on and on. There's a sign on your door saying "Speak Friend and enter!" Whenever you get a chance, you burst into song. Preferably one that has more than 20 verses. You change your name by deed poll to a Tolkien character and seriously consider naming your children after LOTR characters. Every time you see birds in the sky you have the urge to say "Fly you fools!" When someone knocks on your door you grab them, pull them inside and ask "Are you frightend?... Not nearly frightend enough!" Your computer's screensaver is a marquee reading, "Ennyn Durin atan Moria: pedo mellon a mino" and the password is actually "mellon". You cannot see a beer without blurting out "It comes in pints? I'm getting one!" You just can't keep yourself from saying "nobody tosses a Dwarf" at inappropriate moments. A shadow and a threat is growing in your mind. You now referring to your friends as your 'Fellowship' and insist that you have epic adventures. You stand in the doorway and tell your cat that he 'Can not pass'. You wash your face in the sink and expect to see things that are, that have been or that will be. Your wedding band has started to weigh you down with it's evil powers. Spending $35 at the grocery store seems expensive but its Perfectly fine to spend $70 on the Hardcover LOTR book with Alan Lee Illustrations. You start keeping a LOTR Journal to write poems and inklings in. You face every difficult decision with the thought "now what would Gandalf advise me to do?" You know what Entmoot, Ent draught, or an Ent is for that matter You've gained 20 pounds because you've started eating a "Second Breakfast" A walking stick... you never leave home with out it. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends who are addicted to Lord of the Rings. |
Yup
If, as you live your life, you find yourself mentally composing blog entries about it, post this exact same sentence in your weblog.
H/T: LlamaButchers
Bananas with Rum
From Trader Vic's Pacific Island Cookbook, 1968, p222. Another recipe book from my grandmother, that I can't imagine her cooking anything out of.
Bananas with Rum
2 c. water
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
2 slices lemon with rind, halved
4 slices orange with rind, halved
1 tsp rum extract
6 large ripe bananas
1/4 c butter
2 oz Jamaica rum [per banana?]
Boil water with sugars and fruit until a syrup forms, one that will glaze a spoon. Add extract.
Split bananas in half lengthwise and saute in butter. spoon saauce over bananas and sprinkle a tsp of rum over each half of banana.
Maybe served with vanilla ice cream?
American
Via Steve the LlamaButcher, who should expect the hoards to be breaking down his door any minute, we have this quiz:
| You Are 80% American |
 |
Mmm. Blue cheese [especially on a hamburger] and dark beer for me.
July 05, 2005
OUTRAGE
An article in Money Magazine ranked the 50 best breweries in the world. St Arnold's isn't on the list.
Obviously, the fix was in.
H/T: Fark
Personality Test
This test is better called a screen for personality disorders.
My results:
| Disorder | Rating |
| Paranoid: | Low |
| Schizoid: | Moderate |
| Schizotypal: | Low |
| Antisocial: | Low |
| Borderline: | Low |
| Histrionic: | Low |
| Narcissistic: | Moderate |
| Avoidant: | Moderate |
| Dependent: | Low |
| Obsessive-Compulsive: | Low |
-- Personality Disorder Test -- -- Personality Disorder Information -- | |
Hat Tip: Ogre.
He was wondering about the meaning of personality disorder. My comment there: A personality disorder should interfere with the person's ability to function in the real world, in a variety of situations. For example, someone with a bit of obsessiveness might function well as an accountant, but someone with OCD personality might spend so much time straightening his desk that he would never get any work done.
Declaration of Singularity
The Speculist has taken the Declaration of Independence and updated it for the 21st century [22nd, maybe?]. Interesting, and ties in with some thoughts for my next essay for LLP.
H/T: Instapundit.
"Third Way" Europe
Instapundit points to a post by Bill Quick here, about Blair's request for a debate on "socialism lite." Many good comments, including this one by SDB:
Since the end of WWII, Americans invented the transister, the MOSFET, the laser, the first computer made of semiconductors, the hard disk, the first integrated circuit, LSI, the first microprocessor, the cell phone, virtually every significant plastic in common use today, the LCD, the LED, the LED Laser, the first aircraft built primarily out of titanium, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier, the first nuclear powered submarine, and numerous other major breakthroughs in general and applied technology....
During that same time, quite frankly the only significant advance I can think of which originated from Europe was the optical disk drive (the laserdisc, and later the CD and DVD) which were developed by Phillips.
and this one:
Another reason that the brain drain cannot be acknowledged, let alone addressed practically is this: the numbers are fairly small, as you point out further down in your comment. So what? So this: it shows in stark terms that a miniscule percentage of the population has a massively disproportionate impact on prosperity for all. In this case, the effect is negative but the lesson is there for anybody giving it some unbiased thought to see.
July 04, 2005
Games for G.I.s
RPG blog is doing Games for G.I.s. Mission statement:
We are compiling a list of our Armed Forces gamers and their units from friends and family. It’s our mission to provide a nice care package full of books, dice, games, and other goodies to everyone on our list. To do this, we need help, both from individuals and companies in the gaming realm. Whether it’s just few books, dice, minis, trading cards, or a game, you’ll have done your part to make an unpleasant place a little brighter for some truly wonderful people.
Let people know, support them if you can.
Carnival of Liberty
Carnival #1 is up. Lots of good posts, and I am honored that Brad Warbiany thought my post was worthy of second place.
First place went to Publicola's Fire on the Mountain. I agree, lots of emotion there. I can't think of many situations besides a direct threat to my life, but that's just me.
Third went to News, the Universe, and Everything's No Moderation in Replacing O'Conner.
I also really like Resistance is Futile's post on Retention and Recruitment. Which got me thinking: I've got a friend in the military, stationed in the USA. I wonder if the news is getting him down? I'd be really pissed if it was.
Lots of other great posts, so go read them all.
And for a Carnival with some similar themes, go to Raging RINO #2.
Blogging vs MSM
Instapundit has a comment on various things about the Mainstream Media.
Interestingly, the Houston Chronicle has a short article here on blogs, just ripe for a fisking:
A few warnings about blogging
Ooh, scary headline. Blogging causes lung cancer? Blogging causes male pattern baldness? Let's find out.
NEW YORK - Many people have become obsessed with blogs, which are personal journals posted by individuals on the Web.
I'm not addicted to blogging, I can stop any time I want.
And can we please get beyond this "Blogs are personal journals" meme? Some are, maybe most are. But a lot of blogs are a whole lot more than that, and the ones that are kicking your collective MSM butts are clearly more than that.
According to a Pew Internet Study, 50 million Internet users read blogs regularly.
Ooh, they've got a study. This article must be well researched and scientific then.
Blogging can be both a cost-effective and efficient way of connecting with people, but there are some warnings:
Hmm. "Cost-effective." So I guess they're talking about blogs being started by corporations? I don't think the average man on the street thinks, "I need to connect with more people. What's the most cost-effective way? I know, a blog!"
•Don't trust everything you read in blogs. While more and more news organizations and companies are creating blogs of their own, many blogs are filled with false information.
I had to read that statement a couple of times to get it's meaning. Some news organizations and companies are starting blogs. Those you can trust. Many of the other ones are "filled with false information."
Yeah, bite me. Corporate blogs are exactly the ones that I have the least trust in. Including the 11 blogs run on the Houston Chronicle site. Like the Au Paris blog [HC accountant quits and goes to Paris to be an Au Pair], or say this post from About:Chron.
Some of those blogs had somewhat interesting info, but none of it was stuff I hadn't read elsewhere.
•Never keep a blog in which you trash the company you work for or your boss. Also, never put your company's sensitive or inside information in your blog. There have already been cases in which people have been fired for blogging about their employers.
Useful advice, I guess.
•Don't give out too much personal information in your blog. Don't use your real name, which could put you at risk. Rather, use a pseudonym.
Every single blogger should be blogging under a pseudonym? Why? I do it, but have some specific reasons to do so. If JohnL hadn't been blogging under his real name, I never would have noticed his blog, and probably never would have started myself. So there may be reasons not to anonymously blog.
A site where you can start your own blog for free is www.Blogger.com.
Hmm. The only site you give in an article about blogging is Blogger? Because, you know, you wouldn't want to point people to blogs that they might want to read, because then you might hemorrhage readers even faster than you're doing now.
Baby Crib
When he was born, my godson was a little early, so I and another guy ended up doing some last minute stuff.
Clearly, we should have made it into a drinking game.
Power to the People
Happy Independence Day! My brain is fried, so I'll leave you with Glenn Reynold's message:
Power to the people. It's an American idea, and it's one that elites, abroad and at home, have always found threatening.
July 03, 2005
You're How Old?
At times I really would like to get back into pen and paper roleplaying. Used to do it a fair amount, but not for more than 10 years, with a little blip here or there.
I've gone to the games shop in Galveston a couple of times, but the crowd has been largely pre-teens playing the Pokemon CCG. No thanks. So I went up to Horizon Games last Thursday afternoon, put up a card on their bulletin board, looked around [several people around, none younger than college age, this could work], and talked to the employee. He recommended that I write a note for the bulletin board [easy enough], and said there was going to be a large amount of open gaming this Sunday [ie, today]. So, went up there today.
No one doing any RPGs at all. When I got there there were some guys getting ready for a Lo5R CCG mini-tournament, and 3 kids playing Betryal at House on the Hill. I've played some CCGs, but never Lo5R, so I watched the kids finish the game they were on and then joined them for a couple more games.
The game itself is pretty easy to pick up, and changes significantly game to game, enhancing replayability. Basically, each character wanders through the house, which gets built as you go. Eventually something happens and one of the players becomes the Traitor, and tries to kill the rest of the players, with the help of various monsters. In different games we had a huge tentacled beast, a plant with spores, and a madman and spectres.
It was fairly enjoyable even though a couple of the kids got punchy at the end. On the other hand, I figured out their combined ages were less than my age. Ouch. I didn't tell them.
Some significant errata here, that would have changed some of our games.
Queen of Wands
Going through Queen of Wands' archive, I come upon this comic. Punchline:
Aunt Kestrel, I have Jesus in my heart!
Aw, you know that can be surgically corrected, right?
huh?
I'll explain when you're older.
I of course never would tell my infant godson that his parents were fattening him up to feed to the aliens. Well, maybe once.
July 02, 2005
Gay Hatred
Gryphmon points to 4 different articles, each related to how different people think about homosexuality in America. Check em out.
People are crazy.
And North Dallas Thirty has a very good post/reaction to Andrew Sullivan's article in The Advocate. On the other hand, if one of the reasons for going bugcatching is so you can be put on steroids and human growth hormone, why the frag can't we legalize them for OTC use?
Screwing Around
Finally got sitemeter up, starting over.
Thinking about adding a background design from Absolute Background.
This needs some sort of owl motif.
I think Queer Eye is rubbing off on me. If I start doing body waxing, someone shoot me.
Computer Thought
This is a really cool visual representation of the question, Can Computers think?
So, what rights will thinking computers, assuming we're able to make them, have?
H/T: Antigravitas.
Permalinks
Are working again! Yea!
Pixy! Misa!
He's our benevolent overlord!
If he can't do it,
no one can!
Og Smash
The Neaderpundit recently made his way through Atlas Shrugged, and gives his cliff notes version:
Liberalisim at it's core is a desire to drag everyone down to the level of the lowest of the low, to take away from those who work hard for their success and give to layabouts. About racheting down the freedom of the individual until the gummint must decide everything for everyone. It's true on a corporate level and on an individual level. The end result of all this robin hooded stupidity is that everyone's lives turn to shit, fairly quickly.
Well, duh.
Okay, confession time: I've never read any books by Ayn Rand.
*ducks large rock thrown by JohnL*
Honestly, the ideas are good, but I can't force my way through the books. I started a friend's copy of The Fountainhead a couple of days ago, got about 10 pages through it, and I couldn't take it any more.
Alternative recommendations for books are always welcom.
Groups
De Doc's got a post talking about groups, more or less aimed at "Is it time for a new political party?" He says not, and supports grassroots establishment instead.
I probably agree. The Democratic party needs to selfdestruct some more, leading to the Republican party getting cocky and passing ever more absurd legislation, for another party to gain significant support.
To me, the interesting point is I think his analysis of Eternity Road's reaction is correct, as part of a general problem. A quick summary of what happened [as far as I know]: the author of Eternity Road asked to be part of the Life Liberty Property group, Eric said "great, let me ask the group," and the author withdrew [see this post ].
My immediate reaction was to get caught up in Eternity Road's post, thinking about indiviual problems. De Doc got to the general problem: providing any sort of organization for strong individualists is like herding cats.
So, I think there's utility in lots of different viewpoints. And regardless of what he thinks, I bet the author of Eternity Road is a member of lots of different groups [at least from my point of view].
Dreams
Woke up this morning with a snippet of a memory of a dream: my godson [now 4, in dream 13 or so] wanted me to take him to a R rated movie. I told him his parents would kill me if I did, but maybe I would at 15 or so.
Also woke up with Billy Joel's Downeaster "Alexa" going through my mind. That song I think is one of the saddest songs that I know - the singer is doing everything he can think of to succeed, and is barely doing so, if at all:
I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes
I know there's fish out there but where God only knows
They say these waters aren't what they used to be
But I've got people back on land who count on me
At one point in college a friend and I were talking about songs, and what was the saddest song we knew. He picked Michael W. Smith's Friends. Which is sad, but at least has a hopeful message. I countered with Rick Springfield's My Father's Chair. I won.
My Father's Chair still standing there
All alone since the long night
Now it's three years on and I still feel
He'll come home, we'll be alright
So where's this healing time brings
I was told the pain would ease
But it still hurts like the first night
Anyone else have an option for saddest song?
July 01, 2005
Carnival of Recipes
The latest Carnival is up.
An easy Curry Chicken Salad.
Coffee Grog. Lots o spices, no alcohol.
War of the Worlds
I have not seen the movie yet, and I don't know if I will.
Two very different reviews, one from GayPatriot [essentially, the movie is a metaphor for 9/11] and one from Pete of A Perfectly Cromulent Blog.
And Iowahawk has his own interpretation.
H/T: Instapundit.
The Criminalization of Everything
How did this guy get charged in the first place? A guy's driving down the road, a 14 year old girl walked in front of the car, he had to swerve to avoid hitting her. Then he got out of the car, grabbed her by the elbow, and lectured her about the danger of doing what she did.
He was charged with attempted kidnapping, child abduction [acquited], and unlawful restraint of a minor [guilty]. Now he has to register as a sex offender.
I give up.
Hat tip: A small victory.