We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Heard a bit of NPR this morning discussing the terror brothers. A number of the Boston professors and MIT students they interviewed opined along the lines of "this is what can happen when we aren't welcoming enough to immigrants." They all refused to opine on the Muslim angle (scared to?). An MIT Prof of Poli Sci said "One message is that each of us as individuals should try to do all we can to help immigrants feel more at home."
For the latest updates on Boston, turn on your radio for the events of last night. It's one heck of a story this morning. Boston police have provisionally identified the two men as suspects in a string of violent incidents outside of Boston as Mike Mulugeta and Sunil Tripathi, both here on student visas. (that appears to be wrong info)
Government used to spend primarily on the production of things — roads, dams, bridges, military forces. There can be only so many of such goods. Now, DeMuth says, government spends primarily for consumption:
“The possibilities for increasing the kind, level, quality and availability of benefits are practically unlimited. This is the ultimate source of today’s debt predicament. More borrowing for more consumption has no natural stopping point short of imploding on itself.”
Funding the welfare state by vast borrowing and regulatory taxation hides the costs from the public. Hence its political potency. Until the implosion.
Gun and Bible-clinging redneck New Yorker that I am, even I did not really object to the background check law in itself. Seemed harmless enough, but also seemed pointless to me because the bad guys never get background checks. Even Sen. Feinstein acknowledged it would do nothing for gun violence.
No you will not "win", and definitely not as long as politicians and celebs and rich folks get their own personal protection from armed guards. Peons like me do not have those perqs or the money to hire them.
Barack Obama is a lame-duck president. Nobody listens to what he says anymore, nobody is interested in winning his approval and nobody much cares if he thinks they have “let the country down”. This is typical for a second-term president who has lost all their leverage because they’re no longer running for office and everybody is patiently waiting for the day when he quits the White House. But Obama's difficult personality has doubled the size of the challenge. Gloating in victory, adolescent in defeat – the Prez doesn’t make it easy to work with him. Why should conservative senators give him a legislative victory after he has spent four years painting them as knuckle-dragging rednecks who hate women and the poor?
Whatever your position on gun control, yesterday’s events are a damning indictment of Obama’s presidency – a flash of style, lots of soaring rhetoric and, when the votes are actually counted, little show for any of it. America has four more years of this lame-duck president telling them that it has let him down. If only he could tear up the Constitution and rule by diktat he might save himself a little disappointment. Alas, American democracy is a stickler for rules.Barack Obama can't pass gun control despite 90 per cent support. Truly, he is a lame-duck president.
Photo is, once again, our dear friend Marianne's home protection Taurus Judge. No elderly woman with a disabled husband should be without one in her knitting basket, whether in town or country.
Not many people read poems these days, unless they happen to also be song lyrics. Without the lyre, poetry must make its own music somehow. Furthermore, poetry is written to be heard, not read. Just as with Shakespeare's plays, the words on paper are dead and only voice can bring them to life.
(The reading of Milton's classic On Time on Dr. Merc's sim-gaming post here this morning is a perfect example.)
Here at Maggie's, we have always posted a Saturday Verse, with the general advice to read them out loud. One poem per week, like one masterpiece of art, is about all most people can or are willing to process. We might be tempted to read more poetry if they were Juvenal writing poems from the standpoint of a Roman switch-hitting prostitute servicing both his master and his master's wife to good and profitable effect. The wife first, one might hope.
A 'simulation', or sim, is a computer game that mimics every aspect of real life. Silent Hunter 4 places you inside a U.S. attack submarine smack-dab in the middle of World War II. Everything about the sub (and its enemies) is true to reality; the time it takes to dive, to surface, to get up to speed, to stop, the turning radius, torpedo speeds, reloading time; everything.
Luckily, there's a speed-up option so you don't actually have to sit there staring at the computer screen for eight days while you cross the Pacific Ocean. You'll see the speed-up used in a few places in the following video. It's to note that this video is mostly comprised of scenes taken directly from the game, most using the 'external camera' view. Click on the little symbol on the player's tool bar and watch it in full-screen mode.
But first, John Milton's 'On Time'.
Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race, Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours, Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace; And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more then what is false and vain, And merely mortal dross; So little is our loss, So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb'd, And, last of all, thy greedy self consum'd, Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss, With an individual kiss.
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood, When everything that is sincerely good And perfectly divine, With Truth, and Peace, and Love Shall ever shine About the supreme throne.
Of Him, t'whose happy-making sight alone When once our heavenly-guided soul shall climb, Then all this earthy grossness quit, Attired with stars, we shall forever sit, Triumphing over Death, and Chance, And thee, O Time.
And now the intro.
Admittedly, that's not your average game intro.
But, then, it's not actually a 'game', is it? It's a sim.
Always fun to see something there, but I never understood why anybody thought it was a good idea to clump so much of the highbrow performance space in one place. Why not spread it around town as it was before?
Well, that's just the way planners think. They want to organize us whether we want to be organized or not.
Before you travel with a gun, you must be sure: 1. You have all the proper licenses to possess the gun in the state in which you reside; 2. You have all the proper licenses to possess the gun in the state of your final destination. Plan ahead. Make sure you know the law and comply with it. Not only do you need to know the laws on possessing guns, but you also need to know how guns have to be transported or stored. Some states require certain guns be carried unloaded and cased. Some require trigger locks.
A number of years ago, the NRA was successful in getting federal legislation that gives some protection to interstate travelers. The law is a "defense" to state prosecution. That means you have to bring the federal law to the attention of state officials. It will not prevent you from being arrested. When you go to court, you have the burden of proving you are entitled to the federal law exemption.
The federal law states that if it is lawful for you to have a gun where your trip begins and where it ends, you may transport the gun interstate so long as it is unloaded and locked in the trunk of your car. If you do not have a trunk in your car, the gun must be inaccessible to the driver and/or passengers in the car. This is not a blanket waiver for people who claim they are traveling interstate. It is very specific.
Unless you are legal in both states, proving to a judge what the is in two different states may be more difficult than you think. You also have the problem of proving where your trip began and where you intended to end the journey. Just because you say that you started in Maine and were going to Florida does not mean anyone has to believe you. The burden of proof is on you, not on the police. Some people play fast and loose with this provision. They are taking a big risk. If you get into trouble, your lawyer will argue the fine line of the law. She may be successful. It will be expensive. It will be stressful. It is much better to stay well behind the fine line of the law.
No you don't, and you cannot without falling victim to the Pathetic Fallacy. We cannot know the world they live in. They are aliens.
We can enjoy dogs, but cannot truly love them because we cannot know them:Man and Beast.
One quote:
For 2,500 years it has been known to the students of nature that the more one learns about animals, the more wonderful they become. The observation stands confirmed by the instruments of both science and art, but the animals are most instructively perceived when they are seen, as they were by Beston from the beach on Cape Cod, as other nations complete in themselves, “gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.”
Marriage rights, abortion rights, adoption rights, medical rights, housing rights, gun rights, speech rights, etc., etc.
I am realizing that I object to the language of "rights" as if they were things doled out by the state, or as if our rights were at the pleasure of the state. That, I think, is an adolescent view of government as parent. The reality and the history is the opposite. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights were never meant to limit the freedom of the people, or free enterprise.
I prefer the entirely different vantage point and language, the language of freedom and the limited rights and powers of government. Government powers stingily doled out to the state by free, intelligent, self-sufficient citizens. Land of the free and home of the brave, and all that. There is nothing at all intelligent about people in government, especially in a democratic republic. After all, you could not even run a corner candy shop with a democratic republic, much less with the doofus losers and sociopaths who mostly want to run for office.
Is it possible to be a Conservative Libertarian? I try, but I run into logical inconsistencies and conflicts. Take gay marriage as an example. The Conservative in me believes that Judeo-Christian ideals and ordinary family units are the foundation of society and of our civilization. Precious things. My Libertarian impulses want government entirely out of marriage except insofar as people want to make it a legal contract or a sacramental vow.
If you know what that means, you've just seriously dated yourself.
Marijuana.
Sure, it'll cure your lumbago and get rid of athlete's foot and do wonders for gout, but can it do anything useful? That's really the question of the day.
Mounting evidence shows ‘cannabinoids’ in marijuana slow cancer growth, inhibit formation of new blood cells that feed a tumor, and help manage pain, fatigue, nausea, and other side effects.
The American Medical Assn. on Tuesday urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research.
And, with two states legalizing it and more sure to follow, the whole question of marijuana etiquette arises.
Here in D.C., it is far from a partisan debate, something that both Republicans and Democrats struggle with. "It’s a cross-party issue," said a 27-year-old aide to a GOP congressman who, like many interviewed for this story, preferred not to give her name, further highlighting people’s discomfort with this subject. She says she smokes often at home, but does so without telling her ultraconservative, 50-something boss, her co-workers, or even many of her friends. "It’s really hard to know how people stand on it."
Unless, of course, you're Miss Iowa:
I do not think it should be used for anything but recreational use and health care.
(audience applauds, nary a boo to be heard)
As these things go, and given that the Miss America pageant is a uniquely American event, that's quite the little moment in television history.
They are termed "whores." Ancient profession.More kindly, "mistresses."Free market Capitalism at work.Everything has a market price including bodies whether dead or alive.
I have 6.25% Redskin blood. Can I get anything free because of my historical oppression?I have not had my Neanderthal level checked yet, but it's probably pretty high too.Endangered species to boot, conservative Neanderthals who want to bring back cave dwelling in the Ice Age.
...with the exception of communism itself, the euro has been the biggest economic catastrophe to befall the continent (and the world) since the 1930s. Politicians in Europe thought they were living in a post-historical period in which mistakes didn’t really matter all that much. They were horribly wrong, and the wreck of the euro is blighting lives and embittering spirits on a truly staggering scale.
Every four years I let my Dermatologist buddy scope out my skin with his special lights and magic glasses. He doesn't miss a single square centimeter of it, scalp to anus to the bottoms of my graceful feet. I'd like to avoid death by melanoma, if possible. Not sure what I want to die from, but I just want it to not be right now.
$175, cash for 1/2 hr. consult (he won't do insurance), including the good conversation and comraderie, plus a pile of samples for my spot of eczema and a little nitrogen zapping of some ancient sun damage to my face.
He knows that I have spent all of the time I could in my life outdoors, usually without hat and never with disgusting sunblock (except maybe on the nose when the Mrs. makes me). When I was at prep school, we termed sunshine "catching bennies," ie the beneficial rays of the sun. Studying Latin or dozing on the lawns.
I have happily spent all the time I can on boats, soccer fields, lacrosse fields, golf courses, tennis courts, tractors, trout streams, skiing, beaches, gardens, and hunting fields since I was a kid.
As he scrutinized my beautiful, well-fed, pasty-white-skinned body, he told me that one problem he has is people with sun phobia. He said people require an hour or two daily of exposure to unblocked sunshine (not sunburn), and that sun phobia (especially with kids covered with hats and sunblock) is a more important health hazard than benign sun-related skin cancers (which are pretty much all easily-curable when found in a timely way).
Our skin produces instantly-bioavailable and natural Vit D, necessary for normal bone growth, vitality, and disease-avoidance (cancer, heart disease, depression, osteoporosis, etc.). In the US, they add Vit D to milk (but only enough to prevent rickets in little kids) and it's far from enough to substitute for wholesome playing in the sunshine.
Sunburn bad (possibly but not definitely associated with melanoma, but definitely associated with wrinkles), but wholesome sunshine (even through clouds) is good for us. Not to mention the reality that a little tan makes us crackers look more attractive.
My dermatologist claims that we evolved to live in the nude, outdoors. Sheesh. I'd try it, but I would get arrested because I do not live in San Francisco - and I would have to fight off the women.
This is taken from the 'Swastika Buildings' tour on my Google Earth Project, a collection of high-quality video tours of some of the most interesting spots on earth — as seen from above. This will include Google Earth links to the sites from the tour, so you'll need it installed to view them. A GoogleMaps link is supplied if not.
But the ultimate "grandmothered out" is the Swastika. In fact, it’s been so successfully erased from Western culture that most people today would be shocked at how widespread its use was just 100 years ago. The symbol is known down through history from all corners of the world…the earliest found in paintings and carvings of the Neolithic Period around 1000 BC. It is still used today as a prominent symbol in both the Hindu and Buddhist religions. In fact, the word itself is from svastika, meaning "lucky charm" in Sanskrit.
And that was its meaning when it became popular in the US and Britain around 1900. A typical "Good Luck" postcard might feature a 4-leaf clover, a rabbit’s foot, a horse shoe, and a swastika.
Seen below, a women’s hockey team, a young Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy in squaw garb, a Coca Cola watch fob, and the insignia patch of the 45th Infantry Division of the US Army. It was founded in the 1920s as part of the Oklahoma National Guard and the symbol represented the region’s American Indian heritage. It was changed to a Thunderbird in 1939.
I'd note the 'still in use today' line, which at least explains the current buildings in Asia. As for the others, they probably figured no one would ever notice, they didn't wish to bow to convention, or they simply couldn't afford to raze and rebuild the whole goddamn building just because the local Jewish Aviators Club got its knickers in a knot.
Bombs filled with ball bearings in my Boston Town. It's like a bad dream. What evil and/or insane person or persons did this to our gentle, Liberal town and our world-wide guests?
In the absence of information, it's a Rorshach of peoples' hopes and fears, and on the teevee, talking heads attempt to instill their prejudices to gullible low-info voters according to their preferred narratives. No info? A chance to write something onto their blank slates that might stick to their emotions.
Meanwhile, we have a mass murderer on trial in Philly, a knife-man attacker in a school, and 4 killed in Chicago just last weekend with illegal handguns. We know those details.
Evil exists everywhere and no laws can eliminate evil. Stay strong and calm and carry on. See human history. Our thanks to all of the first responders everywhere, and to all of the good civilians who pitch in when help is needed and run towards trouble instead of away from it.
We will never be free of trouble, but strong men and women will always run to the sound of the guns.
There's no slowdown, there's a stop. I suspect their data was largely wrong all along. A cooling trend is going to be an inconvenient truth because people tend to prefer warm weather.I like cold and snow and sleet in winter and warm in summer. In-between April is the worst, but we must be just happy to be alive.
10th Ave in the lower 60s, on Friday: Italian deli on the far left corner, then French, then Caribbean, then Thai, then Turkish - then American! Like the Very Hungry Caterpillar, you could joyfully eat your way down the street. (The Irish pub is on the other side of the street.)
...what about those future financial crises and terrorist attacks? For that matter, what about the risk of deepwater oil wells’ rupturing or of tsunamis’ hitting nuclear facilities? And those are just the “known unknowns.” What about the truly unknown unknowns? If we are to draw a useful lesson from Silver’s and Taleb’s excellent books, it is that we need both of them. As Silver contends, we should improve our forecasts whenever possible. But as Taleb cautions, we must have the modesty to admit that some matters do not lend themselves to sound forecasts—and plan accordingly.
This concerns (yet another case in an endless string of) Firefox & Flash not playing nicely together. Personally, I have no preference between Firefox and Internet Explorer when it comes to normal browsing, but if one does much online editing, Firefox is the way to go on a handful of levels.
The problems (videos not playing, freezing up the system, strange error messages, etc) started almost a year ago when Flash introduced some new security protocol. As a bit of background: Java, which was the Flash of its day before Shockwave/Flash came along, is so riddled with exploitable holes that the most recent advice from the experts has been to disable it completely. With Java fading and Flash coming into its own, the malware hackers have pulled out their 3000X electronic microscopes in an effort to find any weaknesses. So Flash can't be blamed for battening down the hatches.
Another pesky problem that's cropped up is Firefox opening new windows under the present window, not on top of, when clicking on certain links (in the WordPress editor, e.g.) or using the right mouse button on a link to open it in a new window. This is pretty common on sites like Hot Air, Instapundit, PJ Media, Drudge, etc, that don't automatically open external links in a new window, as they should. The reason they don't is because they want you to hit that 'Back' button to get back to their site, which adds another 'click' to their total which means they can charge more for their banner advertisements.
But I stray.
To fix this pesky problem:
— On a standard 32-bit Windows system, open 'Computer', then the C Drive, then Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash
— On a 64-bit Windows system, open C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
— Edit the "mss.cfg" file with Notepad. Add this line to the bottom:
ProtectedMode=0
Save the file, reboot.
Speaking of Firefox, it went through a major security update of its own recently, so unless you're sure yours is updating automatically, go to the Help menu, 'About Firefox', click the 'Update' button.
Any questions or additions, give a holler in the comments like usual.
I have always figured that we are free to transport firearms from state to state. In the Northeast, it may be getting more complicated. My friends and I shoot and hunt in upstate New York often, and have NYS hunt licenses. I assume we're allowed to own our firearms and to transport them.
But are we? Nobody wants to become a felon just because the laws are too complicated to understand, but maybe that's the point.
In Massachusetts, a permit to possess firearms is required. I have one. But with the new CT laws, I am confused. Can I transport a firearm through CT from MA to New York? I know that I can take a firearm to the airports in NYC because we have done that many times and it's no big deal (provided they are in locked cases).
Heard a bit of NPR this morning discussing the terror brothers. A number of the Boston professors and MIT students they interviewed opined along the lines of "this is what can happen when we aren't welcoming enough to immigrants." They all refused to opine on the Muslim angle (scared to?). An MIT Prof of Poli Sci said "One message is that each of us as individuals should try to do all we can to help immigrants feel more at home."
Gun and Bible-clinging redneck New Yorker that I am, even I did not really object to the background check law in itself. Seemed harmless enough, but also seemed pointless to me because the bad guys never get background checks. Even Sen. Feinstein acknowledged it would do nothing for gun violence.
A 'simulation', or sim, is a computer game that mimics every aspect of real life. Silent Hunter 4 places you inside a U.S. attack submarine smack-dab in the middle of World War II. Everything about the sub (and its enemies) is true to reality; the time it takes to dive, to surface, to get up to speed, to stop, the turning radius, torpedo speeds, reloading time; everything.
Hurray for Earth Day: 
Every four years I let my Dermatologist buddy scope out my skin with his special lights and magic glasses. He doesn't miss a single square centimeter of it, scalp to anus to the bottoms of my graceful feet. I'd like to avoid death by melanoma, if possible. Not sure what I want to die from, but I just want it to not be right now.
Boston: 
This concerns (yet another case in an endless string of) Firefox & Flash not playing nicely together. Personally, I have no preference between Firefox and Internet Explorer when it comes to normal browsing, but if one does much online editing, Firefox is the way to go on a handful of levels.