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.
Really? The best he can? Does he need to try harder? Maybe that will make it all right. I thought he was a pro, so trying wasn't going to be the issue. That was why he was elected, because all the reasons given here were not acceptable for his predecessor. Regardless of what you thought of Bush, it's fair to say he was also doing everything De Niro says Obama is doing, but I doubt De Niro would have provided Bush a similar benefit of the doubt.
“He’s trying his best. He’s going to do things that people feel are not right or violating one right or another. But at the end of the day, he represents, I think, the best of the type of people that I would like to see running the government,” De Niro told DuJour. ”He has to play that game, the political game. They all do. They make statements they can’t honor because they’re impossible to honor. Once you get into that Washington machinery, you’ve just got to figure it out and swim against the current and grab onto this rock and that, and just try to maintain your course.”
De Niro is a great actor, but when he and his Hollywood cohorts involve themselves in politics, they really make a hash of it. They reason they can do this? Apathy.
America has already once made a change on the scale of that which is happening now. That was when it transformed itself from the rural and agrarian society of the founding era — which we call America 1.0 — to the urban and industrial society that peaked in the mid-20th century — which we call America 2.0. That earlier transition, from roughly 1860 to 1920, was more painful than most people think. Yet the transformed, industrial America became the wonder of the world.
The American political and economic regime now in crisis was built for the world of America 2.0. Today, we are in the midst of a dramatic transition.
The American political and economic regime now in crisis was built for the world of America 2.0. Today, we are in the midst of a dramatic transition to a new technological and political configuration — which we call America 3.0. Institutions that once looked permanent are cracking at the foundations. Technology will drive the transition, and the shape of future technology can only be known in broad outline.
Most importantly, the cultural foundation of America, based on its unique type of family life, will remain intact. This is the continuous thread linking each of the three “versions” of America. Our deeply rooted orientation toward personal and economic freedom will allow us to dismantle America 2.0 and build a better, freer, and more prosperous America 3.0 in its place.
The speakers on a stock Windows system do not sound their best. You need to make a small adjustment or two.
First, start playing a rock song (or anything with a good bass track) in the background.
— Open Control Panel, 'Sound'
— Click on 'Speakers', 'Properties'
— Click on the 'Enhancements' tab
— Check the 'Loudness Equalization' box, then 'Apply' down below. It should either stay the same or get a bit louder. This feature plays quieter-than-normal songs slightly louder to compensate.
— If you don't have a subwoofer on your system, you might want to check the 'Bass Boost' box, then 'Apply' and see what you think. It might lower the overall volume a tad but the bass will be louder.
To make sure the overall volume of the system is up, there should be a little speaker icon in the SysTray on the right side of the Task Bar. Click on it and slide the volume all the way up.
With that taken care of, it's time for a system test. Ideally, we want a sound file that will test low frequency response, high frequency response, transient response, tracking and speaker balance.
Thankfully, there's a cut on the 1974 National Lampoon Stereo Test And Demonstration Record that satisfies all of these grueling parameters. Turn your speakers way up, make sure you're right in between them, and listen carefully:
"Well, good luck!"
The entire album can be downloaded here, although be forewarned that the above stands alone in its majesty — rusty, vibrant tang and all.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
He wrote treatises on chess, math, and other things too. Imagine what sort of website he could have had, had he only invented the intertunnels too. Everybody knows that Sippican invented the intertunnels.
Double entry sounds like tax cheating, but it is not. It is about credits and debits. (It does not refer to the private, personal books for cash receipts that many unscupulous Lefties use to dodge Uncle Sam and rip off their neighbors.)
Our historical knowledge is really a history which praises, ends up praising, ourselves—how much wiser [voice drips with sarcasm] we are, how we have seen through the errors of the past…Hegel already knew this danger of history, of the historical human being, when he said that every German gymnasium professor teaches that Alexander the Great conquered the world because he had a pathological love of power. And the proof that the teacher does not have a pathological love of power is that he has not conquered the world. [laughter] We have set up standards of normalcy while speaking of cultural relativism, but there is no question that we think we understand what cultures are, and what kind of mistakes they make.
That Richwine article generated plenty of heat. Truth is, everybody talks about or at least thinks about IQ all the time. At the least, every time we see somebody do something stupid, or express something without basis or thought. We also think about it when somebody says something that opens our eyes.
IQ is just one of the many personal traits across which individuals vary. It happens to be a valuable trait, but it is never determinative in life outcome. However, there is no measure for life outcome anyway. Life's outcome is death.
A couple of years ago, Mrs. BD and I vowed to never replace a rotten piece of wood on the outside of our home - or of the Farm, for that matter - with real wood. Purists like Sipp might object, but we've had enough. Too expensive in the long run.
My father-in-law taught me this lesson, and recently re-did most of his home's exterior these ways. He is no longer thrilled with the DIY approach as he grows a little older.
Blame design, or Nature, or Entropy, or whatever. Dead wood and water do not mix. Not in Yankeeland, anyway.
In the past week, we had Anderson's custom replacement service replace 8 old custom-sized windows with their new fake, never-paint, never-chip, last-forever composite frames and good thermopane glass. Not anywhere as expensive as one might have thought, but still costly enough with all of the custom sizing. Including three casement windows. Their guys work fast, too. Did it all in one day, and put insulation in the edges of the new frames.
Any wood that rots - sills, etc. - all we will use is Azeks. If it rotted out once, it will do so again. We're gradually replacing all the dang wood columns for the pergola and the porches with custom fiberglass columns with 6X6" pressure-treated wood posts hidden inside.
These new "woods" never rot, never peel, never warp, and never need painting. Woodpeckers never peck holes in them, and wood-boring wasps leave it alone. Best thing of all: it looks like real wood.
You might say that we have been converted by maintenance cost.
When it comes to writing, I have a rule I made up a long time ago that's worked to perfection over the years, so I thought I'd pass it along.
It's very simple, and you wordsmiths out there might already employ it subconsciously.
I had a perfect example just the other day, which prompted me to write this piece. I had written in a post:
Try telling it to the F.C.C.
I pondered whether it was a common enough acronym to leave out the periods, like 'NASA' and 'NBC', but I knew it was one of those things the 3-Notice Rule would catch, so I left them in. This was the first 'notice'.
I finished up the post and hit the 'Save' button, then the 'Preview' button to proofread it. I got to the above line and hesitated, thinking it might look better without the periods, then read on. This was the second 'notice'. I knew what was coming, but rules are rules.
Then I posted the article and gave it one more proofread (the actual Web page is wider than the editor, so things look a tad different) and noticed it again — that is, the sentence just didn't flow like it should have — and that was it.
I popped open the editor and changed it to:
Try telling it to the FCC.
Then I read it through again and this time I flew right through the line without hesitation.
I guess you could say I'm quantifying a bit of common sense here. By making it a 'rule', though, you're forced to stop at that third 'notice' and change the damn thing, no matter how trivial it is. In other words, yes, it's a pain to open the editor just to change one tiny little thing, but this is about readability — which overrides everything else — including our own inherent laziness. So, if the 3-Notice Rule catches it, you're obligated to fix it right then and there — or throw the damn rule out.
We don't have room for every single old sentimental object, Mrs. BD informs me. Furthermore, she does not want our home to "become a museum" for my family of origin. I agree with that.
So the question at hand is this: To throw out my Dad's rocking horse - or not? There is no place for it. The horse looks like it has had chemotherapy, but really it's just the result of 3 generations clinging to its mane to hold on. The ears, too.
Reminds me of Rosebud, from my Dad's favorite film.
Prohibition doesn't work, and most people see that. All it does is to drive up the price of illegal drugs, fill prisons, and support a booming illegal drug industry.
It is no wonder than none of our readers were able to identify this stuff from my parents' basement, which came via my Grandpa via his Mom, I think.
It turns out that it is so rare that the china and jewelry appraiser said she knew these existed, but had never seen them. It's gold-plated Lenox china. They did not make very much of it.
She suggested letting Sotheby's take a look at it all. I'd keep a couple of pieces for sentiment's sake, but would never use fully gold-plated dinner plated, coffee cups and saucers, and soup bowls. Now I'm greedily curious about market value. That little one in the middle is one of the 12 soup bowls, which looks more suited for an offering to a Greek god than for consomme.
The speakers on a stock Windows system do not sound their best. You need to make a small adjustment or two.
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.
Rare photos of Ernest Hemingway from his recently released family scrapbooks
(an email to friends, September '00)
Accountants know who he was. He was a pal of Leonardo, and 
People always talk about the places they'd like to see or to visit. It's a big world. Most everybody has a bucket list.
When it comes to writing, I have a rule I made up a long time ago that's worked to perfection over the years, so I thought I'd pass it along.
