Monday, September 2. 2013
A quote from Gavin McInnes' essay:
Many cops and firemen in NYC retire at age 40 with a $120K-a-year pension. When they die, the money goes to their spouse. It’s the same with most union men in this city. I know a union electrician here who easily clears $100K a year and he’s only 32. There is a huge demand for his level of expertise and if he doesn’t feel like working, he can rent his license out to a site that’s dying for it. Sometimes the union even pays him not to work because they want to give some new kids a chance. A few weekends ago, he and his buddies made $10K each. The job was past deadline so everyone had to work around the clock. That meant they’d bring cots and add up their breaks until they could take a six-hour stretch on the mat. Staying at the site all weekend meant overtime became time-and-a-half became double overtime, and by the time Sunday night rolled around, they were making more than most doctors. The client was happy because having these guys all weekend is cheaper than the late fees he was going to have to pay.
Here's a repost of one of my favorite pieces.
This just in:
This post was three years in the making.
All of the following headlines were spotted on my daily rounds in the MSM over the past three years. I didn't specifically hunt down any of them just for the post.
I didn't need to.
Continue reading ""Do these genes make me look fat?""
 You have to admit, dedicating an official work day to goofing off and calling it Labor Day has to be one the great malaprops of all time. And it has to be more than a little ironic that what started off as a day commemorating one of America's greatest achievements — the unionization of America's workers against the tyranny of the 'barons' of their day (child labor, anyone?) — now represents a big chunk of what's wrong with America. I s'pose entitlements and overall government largesse roughly account for another big piece. If there's one core word that encompasses the entire quagmire, it would be the word unsustainable. Just ask the U.S. Postal Service and the jam it's gotten itself into because of its inability to lay off highly-paid unionized postal workers.
Nonetheless, happy Unlaborious Day, everyone! If you're looking for something to do, I have some suggestions below.
Home Repair
Finally! At last you don't have some cheap, paltry excuse to hand the wife on why you can't get to all of those fix-it jobs that have been piling up!
Rather than this being a "how-to" site, it's more like a "Can I do it?" site, and should give you a pretty good idea as to whether you can handle it yourself. And, in the course of finding out 'if' you also find out 'how', so much the better.
A water heater is a pretty good example. Because they're large, they look kind of forbidding, and most people's first thought would be to call the plumber if it started to leak. But when you actually look at what exactly needs to be unhooked, it's really quite simple, and bendable supply lines mean you don't have to get an exact replacement for the pipes on top. And, just between you and me, a pipe wrench is probably cheaper than a 4-hour visit from the plumber.
Rainy Day
I rarely write unless I have something new to add to the narrative, or at least have a fresh slant on something. The OJ jury got it right. Magellan was a fraud. Maggie's Farm is politically centrist. You know, the usual kind of wild hyperbole you expect to see in the blogosphere.
Art Gallery
For your visual delight, here's one of the best pictorial galleries and video collections in town. If you're really looking to while away the day, there are some
full-length features on the 'Special Vids' page, and, if you're into
movies, I daresay there's nothing out there quite like 'Doc's Bag O'
Clips'.
Windows Tips & Tricks
If you (1) like exercising some control over your system, but (2) have installed Win 7 and are frustrated by its lack of user control, take a peek at my Win 7 setup page. I've spent a serious number of hours tracking down the tweaks to most of the common complaints, such as eliminating garbage from the right-mouse-button 'context' menu, the 'New' menu, getting rid of the "Shortcut to" tag, changing the path to IE's 'Favorites', and disabling those ultra-annoying pops-outs from the Task Bar icons.
I'd also blushingly add that I've never seen anything even close to my 'Facts & Fallacies' page. You read every word on that page and I guarantee you'll come away with a different perspective.
Ratville
"EEK! It's an ugly rat! Quick, kill it!!"
Smooth move, humanity. Looked at objectively, a rat is just another small, cute furry animal, no different than a guinea pig, hamster or gerbil.
But throw societal convention into the mix and it's "EEK! KILL IT!"
Ratville is for the rest of you.
Flying The Friendly Skies
I presume you've heard of Google Earth? It basically lets you fly around the globe in your own personal space ship, then zoom in to look at your topless neighbor sunbathing majestic peaks and valleys. It's a series of patched-together images from every spot on the globe, and there are big sites out there dedicated to posting the latest crazy/odd/mystifying/beautiful spots people find. You click on the link and the program flies you there. Very slick.
For example, there are huge compass roses out there that you'd never have a clue what they were from the ground, as well as a whole shitload of wild hedge mazes, cities and terrain in 3-D (you can fly between buildings and down the Grand Canyon), real-time airline tracking, real-time weather, strange 3,000-year-old geoglyphic inscriptions spanning the length of a football field — and that's not to mention some very convincing alien crop circles.
I've put together a number of video tours to show off this remarkable program. The 'Google Goofs' tour is a riot.
Doc's WordPress Guide
Presenting the best way to get a blog or web site going, bar none. Apart from it probably being the largest WordPress how-to site out there (50,000 words @ 82 pages), it also gets into how to turn this great blogging software into web software. This is a key point, because if you want a business web site, you don't want all that blog-y stuff around like 'Author', 'Category', 'Comments', etc. And, once you get rid of that, it's a superb editor for a web site, business or informational.
Doc's Secrets
Want to get into the Guinness Book of World Records with a monumental achievement that will last until the end of time? Want to get on TV at the Olympics? Want to actually contact every member of Congress, not just their flunkies? Want to make a bzillion dollars? The answers lie within.
Well, that oughta keep ya busy for an hour or two.
Fishermen labor. Dangerous job, probably most dangerous job in the country. Wellfleet Harbor.
Sunday, September 1. 2013
Obama believes attacking Syria will send a message. He's correct, it will, but the message will not be what he thinks. Rather than a forceful show of strength, the world will view it in these terms:
there they go again, doing something they would never want done to them, and demonstrating that they alone think they can decide what deaths constitute a moral obscenity and what constitute mere unfortunate collateral damage.
The Syrian situation exists purely because the Obama foreign policy has been weak. As a result, it has fostered situations which allow tyrannical leaders to be overthrown, with tacit approval of the US government, without any support or plan for providing material support afterward.
Each of these situations has become chaotic - which is precisely what should have been expected, since the region in question has never been completely stable and any hint of stability had previously been provided by despotic regimes. When these despotic regimes have faced a populace encouraged to stand up, they have fallen (as expected), and reverted to anarchy.
Obama is faced with a situation which he didn't plan for, but should have. Increased anarchy in a region he hoped he'd guide gently toward democracy. He has learned you can't reason with mobs or tyrants. And now he's learned what every other leader in the world knows - if you want to deal with tyrants, you have to do so from a position of strength.
But he has squandered our strength.
Now he needs to regain it and lacks the ability to do so. He is hoping a show of military force will help. He is wrong. He can only make things worse now. Best to back off, disengage, and let the chips fall where they may.
Reposted -
The recent train wreck in Connecticut brings to mind the classic 1999 book, Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies. This book spurred the development of the field of accident research, but it is somewhat dated now. Accidents are inevitable, and at some point efforts to prevent dangers creates new forms of danger.
A more recent book on the topic is Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology.
There is no safety in life.
Reposted -
Like some other readers, I found Charles Murray's presentation fascinating.
I have been thinking about it. As I commented then, sociologists tend not to discuss psychology. A good rule of thumb is that a person's character traits - personality traits - determine a lot about their adaptation to life and to reality - their success in making goals, and pursuing their goals, for themselves.
It doesn't matter where character traits come from: genetics, examples, or wherever. What matters is the balance between the useful ones and the detrimental ones.
Furthermore, some character traits, like obsessionalism, are good for some things (eg being a pilot or surgeon) but detrimental for others (eg being a jazz musician, or displaying emotion in relationships). For another example, the capacity for controlled violence (useful for cops and soldiers and, in fact many other jobs too including my own, at times). People are even beginning to talk about the usefulness of Asperger's traits.
Each of us is our own stew of traits and strengths and weaknesses. Mature adults do not blame the world or others for their difficulties, but look at themselves, try to identify their shortcomings, and try to improve them if they chose to.
I do not view social class or income as a measure of life success or life adaptation. In my professional world, we use other, less superficial measures such as quality and stability of relationships, breadth of interests, responsibility and reliability, self-control, active engagement in life, and so on.
However, as Murray implies, social class can be a very rough measure of human adaptation for people with material ambitions: people in the upper middle class tend to be more adaptable and able socially and intellectually, and those in the lower class tend to either have more adaptive problems, or to cause more problems for others (which includes governmental or charitable dependency, crime, disorder, etc).
Before I run out of space, I want to say a word about social capital, as I constructed my own practical understanding of it. In my simple-minded way, applying one's social capital means participating in and contributing to one's community, whatever that may be. Being a constructive part of it, beyond the bare minimum of holding down a job or raising a family.
Whether it's as simple as introducing people to each other, throwing holiday parties, getting a stop sign on a corner, helping a kid find a job, volunteering at church, raising money to sustain the local chamber group, running a Boy Scout troop, attending town meetings, joining clubs, starting a softball team, or coaching soccer, we all have ways to contribute to our social network, our neighborhoods, and to our communities. I do know how corny all that sounds, but I believe it is very important.
Our social capital is truly the kind of capital which we must either spend or waste before we die. People who do not jump in and spend theirs before they die are selfish, mean, and un-American, in my book.
 Rare photos of Ernest Hemingway from his recently released family scrapbooks
This one is labeled Ernest Hemingway writing while on a fishing trip in Michigan, 1916.
 Feral pig, Wild Boar, Wild Hog, Russian Boar, farm pig. They are all pigs, all very slight variants of the one species Sus scrofa. (The tusks are removed from farm pigs at birth.) In the US, they are all called "pigs."
No sus scrofa is native to North America.
We have posted in the past about the pig/boar hybrids which have been expanding their range across the US, wreaking havoc in the process to woodlands and to agriculture. They are so prolific, and so destructive, that most areas of the US now have open season on the pigs. Hog wild: Feral pig population explodes in U.S
Distinguishing European (aka Russian) Boar from farm pig/boar hybrids is almost impossible, but it is thought that, in many or most areas, most animals are hybrid. Since they're all the same species, it doesn't really matter. Pigs.
Texas and California have seen enormous population growth of Sus, but they have spread around the country - even around Albany NY where the biggest pigs have traditionally been the NYS politicians.
Since every area in the US in which they have appeared is eager to be rid of them, year-round hunting opportunities are abundant. Hunting over bait stations is entirely legal. Some use AR-15s, some use bow, some use revolver, and some macho dudes use baying dogs and kill the pigs with a hunting knife.
There are simply not enough pig hunters to control these creatures, so I propose releasing Wolves into areas where the wild pigs are a problem. The Wolves would have a field day.
Some people do not enjoy the taste of wild pig, which is a bit gamier than the corn-fed farm pig. I have had the wild boar, the same Sus scrofa, which lives in the Appenines of Umbria, and it is a special treat when cooked the ways the Umbrians do it. "Cinghiale." I've had it there cooked several ways, and the sausage too. Even snuck some cinghiale salumi home in my bags.
Here's Pigging out in Umbria
Here's a number of Italian recipes for wild boar/pig/whatever, to perhaps inspire our American pig hunters.
Here's a pic of my pal (on the right) with a Texas pig he strangled with his bare hands shot.
In the 1970s, the crisis of the day was overpopulation. In this AEI
Classic, written 40 years ago, AEI scholar Ben Wattenberg demolishes the
'explosionists’' claims.
This being a fairly dead weekend in the blog world, I thought I'd just re-post this old gem. I don't do many you-are-there pieces, but they're lots of fun to write. Another fave of the genre is Treasure Hunting With A Metal Detector.
As a small side note, some of the bloggers here don't know that blog protocol dictates that the word 'repost' be included somewhere (title or text) in reposts, so check the dates before responding to a comment. There are two like that below.
 (an email to friends, September '00)
Howdy, all —
I've just returned from Colorado Springs and I thought I'd share some of my experiences with you.
First off, sorry, no photos. It's a nice place, but I really didn't want to haul my $800 'photographically-compliant computer' (AKA "digital camera") all over the place. Just picture amazing rock formations and incredible vistas and you've got it.
There are few places on the globe where you can actually see the curve of the planet. You can't see it from sea level. You and I would see it, out on the ocean, because we know the Earth is round, but it would just be an illusion. Hold a straightedge up and it's flat as flat can be. You need two somewhat unique things lined up next to each other, a fairly rare occurrence. You (1) need an extremely wide, vast plain, flat as a pancake, and (2) a fairly high (10,000 feet-plus) mountain perched right on the edge of aforementioned pancake. I give you Kansas and Pike's Peak. Most high mountains are in the middle of mountain ranges. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. As such, the horizon is very irregular. But Pike's Peak is right on the edge of the Colorado Plateau, looking out across flat, flat, flat, Kansas. You see The Curve.Your first thought is, They were right! It is round. Maybe you already knew it, but it's always nice to have it confirmed.
Continue reading "Colorado Travelogue"
Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16
13:1 Let mutual love continue.
13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
13:3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.
13:4 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers.
13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you."
13:6 So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"
13:7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
13:15 Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.
13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
My lousy pic of the Greenfield Hill Congregational Church, Fairfield, CT. 1836.
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