As much as we realists have come to understand that the warmers preach the ideas of global warming with such fervent faith as those believe in other myths, I'm reminded that throughout history, we've been plagued by such people who believed in other pseudoscientific drivel (and in some cases, still do). How about the old theory that the earth was the center of the universe? There were people who believed so strongly in this idea that they would kill off dissenters. The Salem Witch Trials were so steeped in ignorance that 20 so-called "witches" were executed (moreover, they were not burned at the stake, as many still believe... after all, as anyone knows a true witch could never be killed in this fashion).
So... I don't suppose that global warming could just be another such episode... could it?
8.17.2008
Michael Phelps, role model
I'm no fan of the Olympics or the sport of swimming, but I can't help but look on Michael Phelps's achievements with any less than the feelings of utter awe and total pride. His performance is one that brings forth tears in me. What better place to display the fruits of individual achievement than in front of a nation of people who are brainwashed to believe that it is wrong and bad? This is perhaps the greatest juxtaposing of individual achievement and political discourse since Jesse Owens's spectacular performance in the face of Adolf Hitler in the 1936 Olympics in Germany. Or the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" where the USA's hockey team beat the heavily-favored Soviet Union in Lake Placid, NY during the thick of the Cold War.
I'm certain that it's only matter of time before some council of anti-individualists claiming to work for the "greater good" makes it impossible for such achievement to burst forth. After all... it was a young, white, rich, American male with a reasonable name that did all this. In today's world, that's so much to hate.
Thank you, Mr. Phelps. Thank you for showing us once again what's possible with hard work and determination.
I'm certain that it's only matter of time before some council of anti-individualists claiming to work for the "greater good" makes it impossible for such achievement to burst forth. After all... it was a young, white, rich, American male with a reasonable name that did all this. In today's world, that's so much to hate.
Thank you, Mr. Phelps. Thank you for showing us once again what's possible with hard work and determination.
8.07.2008
Increase in minimum wage = increase in jobless claims
From the SayAnything Blog. You can't teach liberals how to run a proper economy when all they care about it using it to feed their political careers.
8.05.2008
Thinking of moving to Wordpress...
Both sites are far from quick and speedy, but I like the Wordpress interface better and they have more templates to satisfy my intemperance. We'll see.
8.04.2008
Depeche Mode... what was I smoking?
For some reason, Depeche Mode slipped under my radar from the 80's all the way up to now. Don't know how or why. But it doesn't matter. I've "discovered" them. Amazing how many "oh that's THEM" moments I had. LOL.
Alot of their stuff reminds me of an 80's version of NIN.
Alot of their stuff reminds me of an 80's version of NIN.
Question of the moment: Will Rush ever be elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?
Why in the wide world of sports do so many Rush fans care about this? Rush was built on a healthy foundation of not selling out or caring much about what people thought about their music. That's why so many of us claim to love them. Yet so many of us are ready to sell that legacy out to the decision of "popular" opinion---one that consists of what people think about their music.
I don't listen to Rush (or any other music, for that matter) because other people like it or not. I guess this explains how I feel about the critics' opinions, too. I'm the one listening, making personal and emotional connections within me with the music; it's not up to someone else to tell me what to like or how to feel. At the same time, the critics' opinions are their own and they are entitled to them. So in general, I feel that motions taken to get Rush inducted into the Hall or to hate on critics who pan the group are largely a waste of time. In fact, that critics and the Hall don't seem to care for Rush means that the guys are probably doing something very right.
Music is very personal and very often an emotional experience for me. In this parlance, I sure as hell am not concerned about Rush's status in the Hall. That's too much like "conforming or being cast out." That's not what Rush is about, and that's not what I'm about.
I don't listen to Rush (or any other music, for that matter) because other people like it or not. I guess this explains how I feel about the critics' opinions, too. I'm the one listening, making personal and emotional connections within me with the music; it's not up to someone else to tell me what to like or how to feel. At the same time, the critics' opinions are their own and they are entitled to them. So in general, I feel that motions taken to get Rush inducted into the Hall or to hate on critics who pan the group are largely a waste of time. In fact, that critics and the Hall don't seem to care for Rush means that the guys are probably doing something very right.
Music is very personal and very often an emotional experience for me. In this parlance, I sure as hell am not concerned about Rush's status in the Hall. That's too much like "conforming or being cast out." That's not what Rush is about, and that's not what I'm about.
Environmental hypocracy...
A quicky I thought up last night: Enviromental wackjobs don't want you to make clothing out of animal or plant products. But they don't want you to pollute the earth by making synthetic materials.
I guess we all should just run around naked! :-D
I guess we all should just run around naked! :-D
8.02.2008
So-called netiquette & Comic-Book Guy wannabees
This is too much for my feeble mind to untangle, so 'splain something to me: On an Internet forum, if you post a new topic that has been covered previously in a different thread, you've done wrong. If you dare post that topic to a thread that has crossed someone's arbitrary idea of "old", you've done wrong. Regardless, it's obviously more important to waste time & bandwidth pointing out to everyone that you're emo and offended than to stay on topic.
This reminds of the Caps-lock police... a n00b posts a question all in caps and then the next 22 posters feel like they have to chastise the n00b. "It's like shouting," they say. "Get over yourself," I reply. Welcome to the oh-so-useful forum on the friendly, productive Internet.
Or the spell-check police. Here we have purportedly sophisticated humans who never make a mistake but can't cope with it if someone else does. So, the next 31 posters complain that someone misspelled "the". Alot of these folks pride themselves on being l33t h4x0rs. Even worse is when one of these bastions of grammatical grace has found their way into the losing side of a debate... and then they try to discredit the winner by pointing out a spelling error several posts back. Classy!
All this make me view my audiences as consisting of a bunch of Comic-Book Guy wannabees. You know... those guys who trifle over irrelevant details instead of concerning themselves with proper scope? These are the guys that when they speak, 95% of the time the first words out of their mouths are "Well, actually..." (or some derivative). These guys are so great and knowledgeable, but somehow they forgot to learn about human nature and built-in error correction. I work with guys like this, and no one can stand them because of it. What's worse, they have no idea why nobody care to be around them anymore than they have to.
Ever wonder why we don't elect a President by direct vote? Go figure.
This reminds of the Caps-lock police... a n00b posts a question all in caps and then the next 22 posters feel like they have to chastise the n00b. "It's like shouting," they say. "Get over yourself," I reply. Welcome to the oh-so-useful forum on the friendly, productive Internet.
Or the spell-check police. Here we have purportedly sophisticated humans who never make a mistake but can't cope with it if someone else does. So, the next 31 posters complain that someone misspelled "the". Alot of these folks pride themselves on being l33t h4x0rs. Even worse is when one of these bastions of grammatical grace has found their way into the losing side of a debate... and then they try to discredit the winner by pointing out a spelling error several posts back. Classy!
All this make me view my audiences as consisting of a bunch of Comic-Book Guy wannabees. You know... those guys who trifle over irrelevant details instead of concerning themselves with proper scope? These are the guys that when they speak, 95% of the time the first words out of their mouths are "Well, actually..." (or some derivative). These guys are so great and knowledgeable, but somehow they forgot to learn about human nature and built-in error correction. I work with guys like this, and no one can stand them because of it. What's worse, they have no idea why nobody care to be around them anymore than they have to.
Ever wonder why we don't elect a President by direct vote? Go figure.
We're in a world of hurt, courtesy of the Democrat Hate Machine
Yep... the Democrat Hate Machine (DHM). You know... the folks that hate achievement, logic, reason, and everything they produce?
It's pretty easy to see that we're pretty much teetering on the edge of Real Trouble with all of this oil stuff. Since Pelosi's Politburo took office, national average gas prices are up from $2.10/gal to over $4.00 a gallon. In spite of the IMMEDIATE drop in oil prices upon the mere mentioning by the President that he was killing restrictions on drilling from his office, the Politburo still claims (without ANY justification) that it would take 10 years for any drilling to lower gas prices.
Today, the Say Anything Blog pointed out that it would take much to militarily cripple the US by restricting oil imports. I mean really... how hard could it be when just a little blip in demand and a socialist majority in Congress cause the gas prices to shoot through the roof? And in the face of this glaring vulnerability, the Politburo still won't allow drilling in ANWR or off-shore in massive deposits.
Kudos to the Congressional Republicans drawing attention to this yesterday. The so-called "People's Party"... the tolerant party that SO concerned about everyone's rights turned the lights and microphones off on the people that are trying the hardest to do the "People's Work" and address this crisis... so they could go on vacation.
Something tells me that it just got a whole lot easier for Congressional Republicans to take back the majority in 2008. It won't stop our inexorable slide to the left, but hopefully it'll slow things down.
BTW... how does Senator Obama address the issues of high energy prices? By planning to tax "windfall profits" of oil companies and redistributing this money to his proletariate in the form of $500 and $1,000 checks. I thought that the minimum wage increase would have taken care of this. Wait... the reality of that is that jobs will be lost, prices will go up, and the people that this was supposed to be for will be hardest hit.
It's truly sad that this nation has allowed itself to become one populated by foolish, ignorant voters. It is they who have allowed the DHM to gain such a foothold in our leadership. And it is they who will eventually cost us our freedom.
It's pretty easy to see that we're pretty much teetering on the edge of Real Trouble with all of this oil stuff. Since Pelosi's Politburo took office, national average gas prices are up from $2.10/gal to over $4.00 a gallon. In spite of the IMMEDIATE drop in oil prices upon the mere mentioning by the President that he was killing restrictions on drilling from his office, the Politburo still claims (without ANY justification) that it would take 10 years for any drilling to lower gas prices.
Today, the Say Anything Blog pointed out that it would take much to militarily cripple the US by restricting oil imports. I mean really... how hard could it be when just a little blip in demand and a socialist majority in Congress cause the gas prices to shoot through the roof? And in the face of this glaring vulnerability, the Politburo still won't allow drilling in ANWR or off-shore in massive deposits.
Kudos to the Congressional Republicans drawing attention to this yesterday. The so-called "People's Party"... the tolerant party that SO concerned about everyone's rights turned the lights and microphones off on the people that are trying the hardest to do the "People's Work" and address this crisis... so they could go on vacation.
Something tells me that it just got a whole lot easier for Congressional Republicans to take back the majority in 2008. It won't stop our inexorable slide to the left, but hopefully it'll slow things down.
BTW... how does Senator Obama address the issues of high energy prices? By planning to tax "windfall profits" of oil companies and redistributing this money to his proletariate in the form of $500 and $1,000 checks. I thought that the minimum wage increase would have taken care of this. Wait... the reality of that is that jobs will be lost, prices will go up, and the people that this was supposed to be for will be hardest hit.
It's truly sad that this nation has allowed itself to become one populated by foolish, ignorant voters. It is they who have allowed the DHM to gain such a foothold in our leadership. And it is they who will eventually cost us our freedom.
8.01.2008
Coincidences can be a real bastard...
In spite of how much I like trip-hop and Portishead, I really never took notice of this song until it came up on the thumb drive on the way to work last Tuesday morning.
Pretty fantastic, huh?
Of course, my day took a terrible turn later on when I also discovered some upsetting personal news (that I'm not going into here). Coincidences being what they are, I'll prolly always associate this song with that news. Guess it's appropriate... at least it's a sad-sounding song. It'll be good for when I want to feel sorry for myself, I reckon.
Pretty fantastic, huh?
Of course, my day took a terrible turn later on when I also discovered some upsetting personal news (that I'm not going into here). Coincidences being what they are, I'll prolly always associate this song with that news. Guess it's appropriate... at least it's a sad-sounding song. It'll be good for when I want to feel sorry for myself, I reckon.
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