Saturday, August 9. 2008
 Dr. Merc ran his weekly series here from April through July, but he promises to post computer tips when they occur to him.
To review, or if you missed any of them (plus his "tips" too), just click on Dr. Mercury's Computer Corner. We greatly appreciate his sharing his wealth of info with us, even though much of it was over my head.
Friday, August 8. 2008
We s hould have shot them. You aren't allowed to aim a weapon at a US border patrol inside the US. It is, indeed, an act of war.
 Peggy Noonan, in Political Cycles:
For the first time the idea began to take hold that John McCain can win this thing. You saw the USA Today-Gallup poll this week, with Mr. McCain gaining six points since late June among those Gallup dubbed likely voters. Mr. McCain took the lead, 49% to 45%.
The new McCain ad contrasts regular folks with Obama's Chardonnay-land. Finally proves he's not gay. The final chapter of the Edwards story. Can't trust the MSM to be honest about Dems. Lefties leap to his defence. Who cares? We always knew he was a phony scumbag. A surprise in Turkey. Good news. The Brits' shame in Basra "Blight" is in the eye of the beholder. Same as pine "barrens." Your barrens are my fine wilderness. Via Tim Blair ...the best way to reduce carbon emissions is to kill as many rich Westerners as possible. Beginning with Al Gore, presumably.
How about reciprocity for concealed carry permits? Enough with our militarized police. I agree. Baha'i Moslems persecuted in Iran Krugman thinks you're stupid Paternalism or fascism? What's the difference? A quote from Anchoress: You remember Bush, right? The guy who goes to Asia and tells China to free her people, while the press jeers, the guy who, while in Asia also meets with Democracy Activists in Burma and gets ignored for it, the guy who drew enormous and supportive crowds in Korea, while the American press yawned?
Sure, you remember Bush! He’s the guy whose life was threatened along with Barack Obama’s but only the threat to Obama was newsworthy for a very long time at CNN. Bush? You mean the creepy moron who will be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as soon as congress can figure out how to do that without exposing itself or having to put some of its own members under oath? Yeah, that guy! The guy who does more than just talk about freedom and progress. The guy who has brought real hope and change to people all over the world, and yes, here in America. But you don’t want to hear it. It’s the wrong and inconvenient narrative, the embargoed one.
Here's an answer. Are men's nipples "sensitive"? Yes they are. Gals take note, for when in a playful mood. There's a book with that title too: Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini
Why can't we all just get along? Russian tanks invade Georgia. Where's the UN? Where's love, peace and hope? Guess what? For better or worse, the world is not populated with Oregon hippie-dippie moonbats. We do not live in a fairy tale. McCain already has a comment.
A typical Obama supporter asks everybody to leave Barack alone. h/t, Classical Values. Good grief.
With all of our posts about our beloved Cape Cod recently, our readers deserve a decent map to see what we are talking about. You can see that Wellfleet has ocean, harbor, and bay beaches - and plenty of wonderful ponds too. All with entirely different characters. Pop quiz on the map later. The green is JFK's Cape Cod National Seashore. Best thing (and one of the few things) he ever did. What would this Wellfleet road look like this if he hadn't protected it from development? It's not "barren" - it's lovely. 
 Larrey Anderson visits the Oregon Country Fair, and reports at Am. Thinker.
If these nice folks grew up and quit smoking pot, they might have half a chance to get real.
 "Skinny" is racist. Everybody knows that: it's the phantom subtext.
Beware the Kinder Eggs. If the mechanical monkeys don't kill you, the Kinder Eggs will. Shoreditch Theater finally found. Hillary is playing hardball. As far as I know, that's all she has ever done. No accomplishments I am aware of. Who has done less with their careers: Obama or Hillary? Related: Hillary emerges from the shadows. "Digger" Dowling died. Brave man, great book, wonderful movie. Arctic sea ice won't go away. We're all gonna freeze to death. Funny how CNN edited out half of the story. Good news from Iraq? Then let's focus on Afghanistan instead. Maybe it's a quagmire? I happen to like quagmires: they are good challenges. Random House scared out of their wits by Moslems. Our brave and bold publishers. How come the corporate world doesn't have more assassinations? A big zero? At first, I thought our friend at Moderate Voice was waxing satirical: This Obama view isn’t just a policy, however. It’s a vision of a new way to do things for a new century, a new millenium, a new world economic order. A way that uses the “live” energy of sun, wind, water and the earth itself to replace the long “dead” and buried energy we have depended on for so many years.
I was wrong. He was being serious. Moderate Voice lost me there. I will not drink that "transformative" Kool Aid. I might be young, but I've been around long enough to see through that kind of BS. Honestly, I used that kind of line on girls when I was in college and it only worked on the dumb ones. "America is no longer what it once was"? What the hell is he talking about? We never do Rush, but just this once (h/t, Hot Air): Photo on top: a fairly big burger from In-N-Out
I have a watercolor of that island, now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, over our dining room fireplace. A family of Great Horned Owls lives out there. I have seen them. Plenty of squirrels, bunny rabbits, and crows for them to eat (yes, owls like to pick off roosting crows at night - an easy meal if you don't mind eating crow). 
Thursday, August 7. 2008
Well, historic Marburg, Germany, is giving it a try. One quote: The town council took the significant step in June of moving from merely encouraging citizens to install solar panels to making them an obligation. The ordinance, the first of its kind in Germany, will require solar panels not only on new buildings, which fewer people oppose, but also on existing homes that undergo renovations or get new heating systems or roof repairs. To give the regulation teeth, a fine of 1,000 euros, about $1,500, awaits those who do not comply.
Read the whole thing, and consider the possible effectiveness of solar panels in Germany. These folks are insane. Truth be told, it's probably more sensible just to pay the fine, and then throw the rascals out. It sounds like the politics of Seattle (h/t, Junk Science), or like the Massachusetts government medical plan. The world is full of sanctimonious jerks who want to tell other people how to live.
 Our Dylanologist is back from his European travels. He asked a passer-by in a Paris park to take this photo of him, on right.
America's fastest dying cities. Creative destruction? The Repub protest continues in the House. The cost of PC academic majors. Mankiw The hedgies are hurting. But it's a great time of opportunity for them too: cheap credits and loans that will pay off in a while. What's a "book town"? Rove: What McCain should do now. Good advice. I want my culturally-appropriate health care too. Is Obama's tire gauge like Jimmy Carter's sweater? Related: First presidential campaign plane in history to have all American flags removed. Related: pundits begin to worry about Obama. One quote: The bottom line: liberal pundits — following months of analysis by their conservative counterparts — had figured out that despite the best possible terrain for the Democrats to recapture the White House, the Democrats (with a whole lot of cheerleading from the mainstream media) have chosen a thinly experienced, irresolute, underachieving and obnoxious standard bearer. And his excuse-mongering just makes it all the more irritating. It is not clear what provoked the soul-searching or why reality didn’t dawn on the pundits sooner. After all, they knew all along that he had virtually no experience and that he often sounded bizarrely confident about his nonexistent credentials.
Nice wrapping paper, but is there anything in the box? Also related, via Belmont, Alinsky's Ten Rules for Radicals and how Obama is breaking the rules: RULE 1:”Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources - money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood. RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”
 The Grand Army of the Republic Highway, U.S. 6, runs from Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod to Long Beach, California.
Its history is interesting in the ways it was patched together. Bit of trivia: Route 6 was "the road" Jack Kerouac meant to take, but he got caught in a rainstorm on the Bear Mountain Bridge north of NYC, so made other plans. Photo is the Sagamore Bridge built in 1935 over the Cape Cod Canal on US 6.
Maine's Seaway Boats are designed as much as work boats as recreational hulls which means, for one thing, that they are seaworthy in foul weather and seriously bumpy seas. I think there is the soul of a Maine lobster boat inside each one of their handsome designs even though they say they can all get up on a plane. 
And, by way of contrast, here's Al Gore's new boat. Looks like a ferry, or a royal barge. Designed for sunbathing, eating and drinking, and definitely not Yankee-style: 
Wednesday, August 6. 2008
 I have to be down in NYC early tomorrow, so I will leave you dear readers with these excellent links:
The Bush 41 grocery scanner myth Is time an illusion? And what's an illusion anyway? Parody no longer acceptable in academia. It's all so stupid, from supposedly bright people. TigerHawk wants to see this happen. Me too. I hate it when this happens: Cougar comes into house, kills family dog. Can't we all just get along? Parallel lives: Orwell and Waugh. They are two of my favorites. Obama's big donors. But I thought... Related: Jonah Goldberg notes postmodernism on the left Related: The Nation warns Obama about moving to far to the right (!?!?) Russia: "If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled. Ain't that the truth. Most people can ignore prostate cancer. That's good news. I will. Dogs and cats and Moslems don't mix. It's their loss. Still no recession. Why are people grouchy? Maybe they aren't. The anniversary of Little Boy. Still a moral puzzle. And August 4th was the one good day of the French Revolution Morgan Stanley freezing home equity withdrawals. Ouch. Guns and violent crime in VA Rather amusing: John Edwards with his love child. Yes, it's a dumb story - but what if he were a Repub? Doubling down on dumb. Dino Abuse of the Red Cross symbol in Colombia. They do have a point. On the other hand, all's fair in war... Cops need training in sensitivity to transexuals, or whatever they are. First things first, right? Studying boredom Bill Clinton's plea for African monogamy. Good grief. World's smallest snake discovered, and why snakes can't come any smaller (h/t, YARGB)  Maggots and the National Health Service. And rats in French jails.
From Coyote, one quote: I generally have a bet I make for new light (and heavy) commuter rail systems. I bet that for the amount the system cost to build, every single daily rider could have instead been given a Prius to drive for the same money; and, with the operating losses and/or subsidy the system requires each year, every one of those Prius drivers could be given enough gas to make their daily commute. And still have money left over.
Where have all the Pangolins gone? No wonder I never see them around here. Beware the mechanical monkeys. Robert Samuelson: A tyranny of true believers. But do most people care all that much about public affairs? I doubt it. I was, maybe unfortunately, taught to care. Citizenship and all that. How our culture keeps kids out of the sciences. Does it, really? Maybe it self-selects...for IQ. A great Bush speech, Sept. 20, 2001. Video Toon from Don Singleton
The easy answer, at Moonbattery. By these criteria, you probably are one. I am.
Three videos by James May. Well done, and an excellent topic.
What sorts of idiots think that plug-in cars are any less CO2-producing than gas cars? (No, I am not calling Insty an idiot.) Where do they think electricity comes from? Unless you have tons of nuke power, of course. No evil, evil CO2 from nukes. nb: I think this is all a tempest in a teapot anyway, and doesn't matter one bit. In a year or two, we'll all be laughing about the AGW scams and frenzies.
Mark Helprin takes a long look at China, Rich Country, Strong Arms. One quote: China's success in amplifying its power is due in part to what may be called "the gift of the Meiji." That is, the transformation of the Japanese slogan fukoku kyohei—rich country, strong arms—into the Sixteen-Character Policy: "Combine the military and the civil; combine peace and war; give priority to military products; let the civil support the military." After humiliation and occupation by the West closely parallel to what also befell China, predominantly agricultural Japan rapidly transformed itself into an industrial state that could successfully wage war with modern arms against Russia, a second-tier European power, and then, not that many decades later, offer a mortal challenge to the world's leading naval power, the United States. It was able to vault with preternatural speed into the first ranks of the leading nations because it understood the relation of economic growth to military potential. Unlike the United States, which, almost unconsciously, governs itself reactively and predominantly for the short term, China has plotted a long course in which with great deliberation it joins growth to military expansion.
Ethics are for people who have no morals - no humility in the face of the good, the true, and the beautiful. David Warren, in a piece on journalism and truth-telling
 Happiness inequality in the US. Marginal Rev. Interesting, but still a wacky topic no matter how it is defined.
Best time in a decade to buy your second home. Go for it! You only live once. Childhood innocence is bourgeois? Mediocracy They have been found: Obama's lost years. Why the death of the daily paper is a bad thing. He is correct. Death.com? I think that Monster and Craig's List were two genius uses of these internets. Why not death notices too? Alaska Gov. Palin's polar bear lawsuit A quote from Obama, Shaman by Beran in City Journal: Unlike the English Whigs and the American Founders, the modern liberal regards suffering not as an unavoidable element of life but as an aberration to be corrected by up-to-date political, economic, and hygienic arrangements. Rather than acknowledge the limitations of our condition, the liberal continually contrives panaceas that will enable us to transcend it.
and Machiavelli’s prince was the first intimation of a modern charismatic type, the demiurge who used a demonic virtù to overcome divisive self-seeking in the name of social solidarity. Self-interest led to market capitalism and alienation; civic selflessness led to public-spirited communitarianism and happiness. The “Machiavellian vocabulary,” the historian J. G. A. Pocock argued in The Machiavellian Moment, became the “vehicle of a basically hostile perception of early modern capitalism.” Machiavelli rejected the commercial ethos (predicated on the pursuit of private interest) that the leading Anglo-American statesmen sought to encourage. In doing so, he anticipated modernity’s childish dream of an anodyne world. His communitarian state is the prototype of the workers’ paradises of Marx and Lenin and the Nordic Valhallas of Hitler and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. His influence is evident in both the enlightened despot celebrated by the Continental philosophes and the socialist wizard admired by intellectuals like Edmund Wilson, who hailed Marx as a mix of “Prometheus and Lucifer,” a heroically diabolic figure who could redeem the waste land of modern capitalism...
Photo by BD: I like the high rake of the bow on this 23'(?) center console skiff with a good bow rail by Seaway Boats. I want this.
Excellent mini-marts. If you need your morning caffeine fix, and you're in New England but there's no Dunkin' Donuts nearby, there's always Cumby's. Trouble is, they usually don't open 'til 6 and that is way too late for us early-risers. This is the Wellfleet, MA shop on Route 6, next to the liquor store. This one doesn't sell gas. The teen-aged gals who work there are from Bulgaria, while the American teens sleep until noon, when they decide where to surf or windsurf that day. 
Tuesday, August 5. 2008
As you may know, not long ago a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day. John McCain
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