Friday, April 23. 2010
J. Robert Smith has exactly the right metaphor at American Thinker. Who gets to be Zoo-Keeper, though?
Speaking of zoos, Dalrymple recently visited some government zoos in the UK, and it was not pretty. Old steel towns where the main jobs involve welfare administration.
Editor's note: I dropped this Sen. Feinstein post since nobody could find any confirmation of the quote -
Via Chicago Boyz:
…There is also the problem of the elite’s lack of humility. I’m a pretty smart guy, and I think I could do a decent job of re-ordering the world if given absolute power.
But … It wouldn’t be right. It is not up to me to tell my fellow humans how to live. I think bowling, for instance, is stupid, though many people enjoy it. What/who gives me the right to tell bowlers that they should be going to the symphony instead?
But nobody is forcing me to go bowling and nobody is using my tax dollars to subsidize bowling, so I don’t care. Not my business, and not a problem. This is the essence of liberty.
For a thought experiment, substitute guns, french fries, or abortion for bowling above and see how you feel. The realization that you do not have the Moral Authority to try to construct a perfect world that eliminates what you dislike is the essence of humility. Many very bright people lack humility.
I am not kidding. A Dad explains Obamacare to a little kid.
 Well, no problem. I am not "offended." Maybe a bit hurt, but that's OK too.
Christians are used to this sort of thing. Worldly powers are never too comfortable with the Christian message.
I like Franklin Graham very much.
Hunters sue guide over bad trip. h/t, Overlawyered
No Surprise: Times Readership Easily Most Liberal of Any 'Objective' News Outlet
Update: Last Atlantic Yards Property Owner Agrees to Sell His Land Under Threat of Condemnation
VDH: Obama and the New Civility
Derbyshire:
The dirty little secret of Wall Street is that investing isn’t a whole lot different from speculating. In the end, it’s all a casino. If you can’t handle that, get a savings account.
About that GM debt repayment
"Raise My Taxes! Raise My Taxes! Raise My Taxes!"
England the least patriotic country
Who drinks the most booze, England or Ireland? Hey, who's the designated drunk tonite?
Pajamas: Bigots to the Left of Me, Dingbats on the Right
Britbart quoted at Class Val:
the greatest thing that the left does, and it uses the the media to do it, is that it accuses you of what they're doing to you.
Thursday, April 22. 2010
We have recently commented, several times, about our admiration for the brains and savvy of the Goldman Sachs crew. Here's more evidence of it.
Yes, I do own shares. Foolish not to.
Am Thinker: San Francisco Tea Party Out-Alinskys the Left
Maybe Chris Christie has learned from Alinsky too. Quote:
In the state that has the nation’s fourth-highest percentage (66) of public employees who are unionized, he has joined the struggle that will dominate the nation’s domestic policymaking in this decade — to break the ruinous collaboration between elected officials and unionized state and local workers whose affections the officials purchase with taxpayers’ money.
No wonder labor leaders are going berserk.
Christie is doing what Arnold never had the cojones to do - to go after the unholy alliance of pols and government unions.
We're at kind of a juncture right now as different CPU configurations make market inroads. Traditionally, we've just had one big CPU chip and every effort by the manufacturers was thrown into making it faster and faster.
However, because an increase in speed means an accompanying increase in heat, the industry has hit something of a wall lately and now you're hearing about "dual-core" and "quad-core" CPU chips as the manufacturers take a fresh approach.
In brief, a dual-core CPU is basically two CPU chips in one, and certain applications will correspondingly run twice as fast. Quad-core CPUs are another doubling up of CPU power, although in general they only increase certain functions 25% over a dual-core system and are considered something of a 'marketing gimmick' by us geeks.
To note is that it's up to the programs, themselves, as to whether or not they can utilize the multiple CPUs.
Here are two video compression programs that do the exact same thing:
And, as expected, the first one does the chore in half the time, ten minutes compared to twenty. Run it six times and that's an hour saved.
As to identifying your own system, simply right-click on the Task Bar, open Task Manager, click on the 'Performance' tab and look. If you have two windows, like the above, it's a dual-core system.
As such, if you do any kind of routine CPU-intensive process, you might want to take a peek at ye olde Task Manager and make sure the program's up to speed — literally. In the case up above, I had used DVD2One for years, but as soon as I bought the new dual-core rig and saw how DVD2One performed in Task Manager, it went straight to the scrap heap. If it had just been one of those 'percentage stories', where one program outperforms another by a blistering 2.38%, I wouldn't have bothered.
But twice just can't be argued with.
 Do something brainless, useless, and ignorant today to make yourself feel good! Like this gal.
After all, appreciating ourselves and finding our own redeeming "meaning" for our pointless lives are the most important things, aren't they?
"Is democratic behavior that which democracies like to engage in, or is it behavior that will preserve a democracy?"
Aristotle. Discussed at Reb
 Here. A few comments:
1. Watch that Speed Dating video
2. Don't get the wrong idea from the comments - Merc and I do not watch this show together - it just turns out we both watch it. Merc and I never watch TV together.
3. House's character is Sherlock Holmes (get it? House - Holmes). Holmes, you will recall, was an addict too, who did not tolerate fools gladly and who had his own sidekick, Dr. Watson (Dr. Wilson-Dr. Watson).
4. Hugh Laurie does a pretty good American accent, doesn't he?
5. There are plenty of Docs with brains and arrogant, prickly personalities like House (minus the addiction). Rarely in private practice, though. House's bedside manner, or lack thereof, would not work. He is not Dr. Marcus Welby.
 Cut the ‘medical’ marijuana BS
Afghanistan's "Dancing Boys"
The False Religion of Mideast Peace
Why teachers are losing respect
Michelle: All the president’s Goldman Sachs men
Obamacare: Impact on the Uninsured
Related, at Marginal:
Fearing that health insurance premiums may shoot up in the next few years, Senate Democrats laid a foundation on Tuesday for federal regulation of rates, four weeks after President Obama signed a law intended to rein in soaring health costs.
Thus begins the intentional and planned destruction of private medicine in America. But don't worry - there will always be small private clinics and hospitals for the wealthy and for the politicians. Same as they have in Cuba.
Reason: Down the Health Care Wormhole - How ObamaPelosiCare will saddle future generations with a public policy disaster
Steyn: Tomorrow belongs to Mo
Too scared to listen to Rush
Millions face tax increases under Dems budget plan
Wednesday, April 21. 2010
I dedicate this post on the great names in music to our music-loving pal Sippican:
Human culture developed during the past 50,000 years, despite homo sapiens being around for much longer (300-400,000 years).
One theory is that certain rapid climate changes during the most recent glaciation phase, known as the Dansgaard-Oeschger events, are what prompted the development of complex cultures.
Adaptability is a human strength. The Bug Community seems pretty good at that too.
 - First, the salt story. As people say, No, it's not from The Onion. Government has gone insane. CO2, transfats - and now salt? One does not know whether to laugh or cry. Or to just dump some more salt on one's fries, and call it a Boston Salt Party.
- "Those who think they can control their destinies are happier." That's from an old story about why Repubs and Conservatives are happier people. People with some faith in themselves - and God - feel better about life, regardless of income. It's the psychology, stupid. Feeling weak or like a victim makes life miserable, but that is up to each one of us.
- Did the Dem stimulus cost us 4 million jobs?
- Our friend Roger: Humor vs. Contempt: Obama and the Question of Character
- The man said "I'm a Democrat, but I'm not a Communist." As Ferrara notes, many Dems could not quite say that:
Obama is not the only one. Ultraleft San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi, a nice lady whose feet are not firmly planted in the real world, serves as House Speaker. Far Left Henry Waxman, the Congressman from Hollywood, serves as Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Uberliberal Barney Frank, the Congressman from Boston, serves as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Leftover '60s liberal David Obey, a self-described Robert La Follette Progressive from Wisconsin, serves as Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Charley Rangel, the Congressman from Harlem, serves as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. John Conyers, the Congressman from Detroit, with his own past Communist Party ties, serves as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Until recently, ultraliberal Howard Dean from Vermont served as Democrat party national Chairman. Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont, as liberal/left as they come, serves as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Our Urbanist friend shares another good Urbanism site: Discovering Urbanism.
He has a good post on the American lawn. Who knew that turf grass is America's #1 crop? Photo below is from a Pennsylvania turf farm:
Any 'House MD' fans out there?
Dip below the fold for a couple of goodies.
Continue reading "'House MD': A couple o' treats"
An ideologue is attached to an ideal regardless of facts.
A cynic believes that selfish self-interest is the primary motivator, especially of others.
A skeptic habitually doubts or questions conclusions of others.
A critic develops judgments based on the merits of the situation or argument.
A freeman uses civil and political rights and liberties, to enjoy life.
These categories may to some extent co-exist in each individual. But, to the extent any of us move predominantly from freeman or tolerant critic to habitual skepticism, or to being a cynic or ideologue, even when moved by others’ intrusion into our rights and liberties, we surrender some or much of our enjoyment.
The trick is to retain our focus on being a freeman (or freewoman, but I’ll use freeman here throughout).
If we don’t, we become susceptible to manipulation of ourselves or becoming manipulators of others. One can’t be securely free when others are not.
Soldiers volunteer knowing that life-and-death choices determine their and others’ fate. In effect, they are determined to be freemen.
The really religious know that opening their heart to G-d gives them freedom to enjoy themselves and others.
The true citizen participates and demands that chosen leaders respect all as freemen.
Look at history. Those whose names and legacy are most treasured were freemen.
Look at yourself. What are you? Really.
If not a freeman, you've surrendered.
 One Cosmos comments in On Recovering the Point of Your Filmography Before it's Too Late:
"I once abided in the infinite, and all I got was this lousy belly button."
Our umbilicus, he says, is our reminder that we have already passed from one mode of being to another. One quote:
...just as our physical body bears the scar of its incompleteness and separation, so too does our soul bear its own version of this. For it also has a "hole" at its center that we may spend our lives trying to deny or fill in inappropriate and ultimately fruitless ways. But the hole is there for a reason. It is actually a theomorphic and theocentric hole, and there is no way to fill it unless one is properly oriented to the source of one's being. We are connected to the source of our being by a vertical channel, or OMbilicus, through which energies pass up and down, in and out -- we call these energies aspiration (?) and grace (?) (the latter of which must be in-spired to become operative).
He does not mention the term "re-birth," but that's part of what his post is about. I know that some of our readers think Gagdad Bob is an annoying nut, but I have found plenty of his transcendental imagery to be useful to me (including his metaphor of "verticality").
It is an affliction of middle age, especially if one has spent much time and effort in life preoccupied with the daily, practical, dutiful, material, and mundane - as what Gagdad calls a "Flatlander" - to find oneself asking "Is that all there is?" ...and to do all sorts of wacky and reckless things to deal with that question and with that emptiness, which things, indeed, bear no soul-nourishing fruit but are only empty distractions of the "How many holes does it take to fill the Albert Hall" sort.
Yet what a crazy question that is for me or anybody to ask - "Is that all there is?" - in the midst of this buzzing, blooming miraculous and frightening cosmos which is packed with road signs of all sorts (including our humble belly buttons), pointing to God.
OK, that's enough preaching and platitudes for one day at Maggie's.
Here's a real question: Is God female?
The medical/spiritual image of a human belly button is h/t Theo. That "Nexus" shirt is right on the button, as it were, isn't it?
 Toon via Powerline's The Pen Is Mightier Than the Teleprompter
1/3rd of IPCC claims were not peer-reviewed
Obesity as a social inequity? Uncle Sam, stop me before I eat again.
Does the Supposedly Superior Expertise of Regulators Justify Libertarian Paternalism? Um, no.
Where do your Oxfam dollars go?
Cape Wind update. I think these giant fans are insane. Plus they rarely mention that we pay for these dumb bird-slicing eyesores.
Wrong narrative: The New Orleans Beating: Real Violence, Real Evidence, No Media
"That was Bill Clinton, blaming me for the Oklahoma City bombing..."
Am Thinker: A 'perfect storm' for socialism
Taranto: 'Populism of the Privileged' - The latest laughable attempt to discredit the tea-party movement.
Goldman is a heck of a good bank. Smart, hard-working people with good social skills. One example of their genius: Regulate Us--Please! One quote:
Goldman Sachs executives and employees contributed more money to Obama's 2008 campaign than a single company has raised for any politician since the dawn of campaign finance reform.
I don't know if it means much, but Obama's fifth-quarter Gallup approval slips, among worst 3 of modern presidents
I generally disapprove of armchair psychologizing because it usually consists of veiled ad hominems, but here's The President Who Won't Grow Up
Pew: Shocker: Public Fed Up With Government, Banks, Corporations, Unions, Hollywood, the Media
Another Obamacare tax nobody mentioned: Tax the sick. Great idea. They are probably too sick to complain.
|
