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Sunday, May 11th, 2008
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11:45 am
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Yes, I'm fine. I don't think any twisters got within fifty miles of me, although the lightning storm was pretty impressive.
If this is God's country, I think he's pissed at someone.
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| Saturday, May 10th, 2008
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5:57 am
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Thanks to (who else?) ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ajollypyruvate for the link. She's got another one on whooping cough.
Measles outbreak in San Diego in January-February, 2008
Note that of the initial eleven secondary infections, 3 were infants too young to be vaccinated who were infected at the pediatrician's office. That's better than 25% who were exposed and infected for no good reason, whose parents had no choice about protection, all because someone's religious beliefs told them not to take normal, sane protective measures for their children. These people likely don't associate with the source family and would have no way of knowing that such a risk existed, especially in this day and age when vaccinations have all but eliminated diseases like this from our society.
Generally, the socially accepted guideline for liberty/rights is if it doesn't adversely impact others, you should be free to do as you see fit.
OK, so when your kid kills a kid and/or sends dozens or hundreds more to the hospital because you believe God doesn't want you to get vaccinations, I'm pretty sure that's what we'd call adversely impacting others.
Here's my proposal. You don't want your child vaccinated? Fine. You keep him/her (and you) out of public places, (stores, buses, airplanes, malls, McDonalds, doctor's offices, everywhere. Get the picture?) provide home schooling with an approved curriculum and periodic testing by the state, and inform the child by the age of 18 of exactly what's being withheld with appropriate documentation which shows the benefits to be received from vaccinations, and explain that until they get vaccinations, they, like you, get to live in isolation. No jobs where they work with others, no access to public buildings, not even church, unless said church is approved for this type of belief system.
You think I'm being harsh? Hey, just hook up with the rest of your friends that believe the same way. According to that article, 9.6% of the children at that school had PBEs filed. Y'all just hang out together, spread diptheria, whooping cough, measles, rubella, all that stuff amongst yourselves. In a decade or so this won't be a concern to the rest of us.
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| Thursday, May 8th, 2008
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6:02 pm
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Over at nin.com, there is a free download of NIN's new album The Slip.
Having downloaded and listened to it, (it being my very first NIN album,) I think it is now safe to say what we've all suspected for years, but which he has adamantly denied.
Jason is a hippy.
That's right, you stoner. NIN is obviously the new generation's heir to Pink Floyd, with music best listened to after a bowlful. Over a third of this new album is obvious psychedelica, and the remaining bit is every bit in line with some of PF's better rock tunes, with a new era edge to it.
One of the psychedelic tracks, Corona Radiata, even evokes the original intro music for Welcome to the Machine with it's haunting, throbbing subbeat and whispered voices.
While I enjoyed the album, it's clear that this type of music could easily obtain cult status among the stoner crowd. Hence, Jason is clearly a stoner. Or he ought to be. And it's a small step from stoner to filthy hippy. :P
(I'm going to feel extremely silly if this has actually been the case all this time, and Jason's various denigrating references to filthy hippies has all been ironic self-deprecation.)
If you don't know who Jason is, you won't get the joke, so you can just ignore this.
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| Sunday, May 4th, 2008
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7:17 am
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It's Sunday!
I've got a stack of music on the player, breakfast under my belt, coffee in my gut (just enough, I hope) and a stack of things to do a mile thick. w00t?
This is the kind of day I'd twitter, if I did that kind of thing..but then i'd run out of energy and ambition about lunch time, and it'd all fall by the wayside. So you get this, and maybe an update later.
Hope your day is nice and sunny, productive, fun, relaxing, positive. Hasta!!
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| Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
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6:59 pm
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This is why my life has always been so messed up. It's obvious I can't pick a direction.
Today I went to a used music store and bought ten cds to keep me company out here in Misery.
I now own albums by;
Eric Clapton
No Doubt
Andrea Boccelli
Santana
Green Day
Shawn Mullins
Shawn Colvin
Jimmy Vaughn
INXS
Enigma
I think the only thing I don't have is some rap and C&W.
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6:07 pm
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Thanks to ajollypyruvate and 14cyclenotes for the following link.
Microsoft has built and distributed at least 2000 thumb drive sized USB devices designed to make computer forensics easier.
The article indicates it makes it easier to decrypt passwords and gather other evidence from a computer, without even disconnecting it from the network or, presumably, the internet.
While I'm all forputting a stop to "cyber"crime, including stalkers and pedophiles, but not neglecting ID theft, the creation of zombies, and a host of other simply malicious more minor crimes....
This tool would, in the hands of a reasonably intelligent hacker, make it simple to strip all your information, passwords, account usernames, etc.
And Microsoft gave these away for free to 2000 cops.
There is not a single word about accountability, records on who has them, how they'll know if one goes missing. They're just releasing them into the wild, like..like.. like viruses.
And if you're a cop (or anyone else) who gets a neat little toy for free, how invested are you going to be in maintaining close control on the thing? You're going to be handing it to co-workers to show it off, loaning it out, and allowing them to loan it to others. If one of them loses it, how will they ever even realize it's missing, much less who lost it?
And the last line says it all, really; That Microsoft is pushing these as a product they'll be able to sell. Why would they not include a keystroke logger in Vista which (in the ad I'm envisioning) "can only be accessed through one of our Law Enforcement Insta-hack Field drives. We like to call it LEIF. No really, your system is perfectly secure, as only the police will have these devices."
Just like only cops will have tasers, bullet-proof vests, assault weapons or any other nifty product you can name.
Note that there were five other links that were just as disturbing, but you'll need to visit those LJs to see them. One of these at a time is all my BP can take.
ETA: Corrected the number of links. Seriously, you need to visit both ajollypyruvate and 14cyclenotes for some massively fucked up shit in the world.
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5:19 am
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Looking for Group is simply awesome.
Richard (Dick to his enemies, and his friends, but until today, never, ever Rick) has the best sense of humor.
The last strip's comment on initiative was nice, but today's punnishment is even better.
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| Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
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8:57 pm
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I saw this review of Pontiac's new G8 sport sedan over at MSN and just had to link it. And comment.
On the one hand, I drove a V6 G6 last year as a rental. It was brand new, and I loved almost everything about it. It had decent power, good handling, even decent fuel economy, for a V6. (If I was careful, which I was.) The interior was both roomy and upscale, and extremely comfortable. I drove all the way across Iowa in it.
The only problem with it was, it was a Pontiac. And an automatic.
By the time I turned it in, with 3600 miles on it, I could feel the transmission beginning to get 'soft' and sloppy. I have no idea what kind of car it would be at 50,000 or at 100,000, but I could guess. Pontiac has never impressed me, even back in the days of the old Firebirds.
This new one comes with an optional 6.0L V8. That's a 6.0 liter V8, putting the block somewhere in the 350 cu. in. area, I would guess. (a 5.0 is about equivalent to a 302, as I recall)
And a 6 speed automatic sport tranny, which you can use as a manual. 18 or 19 inch rims, a sweet looking interior. Lots of power. And all for $30k.
But it's still a Pontiac. And gas prices are currently staring $4 a gallon in the face. Who, exactly, is their market? People who want a muscle car, but are on a budget, yet too shortsighted to realize this thing will get half the mileage of your average Toyota, and look half as good? This is what Pontiac leads with?? Come ON!
Put together a smart little roadster with more HP than weight. That'll sell to the midlife crisis bunch.
Or put a luxury sedan together with the smoothest, plushest ride on the road. Spare no expense, and market it to uber-successful DINKs.
Or do the smart thing, and build something with style, with a hybrid motor or an all electric car, and catch the wave of the future. I mean, I'm 51 for crying out loud, and even I can see that the days of the gas-guzzling muscle car have been gone for 20 years, and that within 5 years, nobody would touch that car for anything, because the mileage is going to drive you to bankruptcy. Hell, you put your foot in the thing once to burn a little rubber at the light and you'll be out $50. Anybody with that much money to burn isn't going to be driving a bargain basement muscle car like this. They'll be in their Porsche or their BMW Boxter.
See, this is why America's economy is in the toilet. Because American industry is clueless.
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| Monday, April 28th, 2008
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7:41 am
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I fried up a pound of bacon today. Thick sliced, peppered bacon. Crispy, fatty, delicious, bad-for-me bacon.
Now I'm singing a little song as I work;
Oooh little piggy how I love to eat you
Tasty little piggy Eat you up
Mmm crispy little piggy, bacon, ham and pork chops
Tasty little piggy Eat you up.
I didn't say it was a good song.
I also hard boiled some eggs for quick snacks.
Nom nom nom.
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| Sunday, April 27th, 2008
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3:29 pm - People make me sick.
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OK, you know what? I'm sick to fucking death of all this crap going on about the Open Source Boob Project.
Actually, what I am sick of is people taking it upon themselves to make judgements about the project and the author without ever actually even reading the original post. It is gossip at it's absolute worst, and it makes you look incredibly stupid and hateful and shallow when you participate in it without knowing anything about the original issue.
It's not even like there isn't any number of well written posts which deconstruct the thing, and logically and unbiasedly point out all the reasons it is a bad idea. No, these people insist on taking quotes out of context, assigning motives and characteristics which, by the simple expedient of reading his post, it is easy to see he does not possess.
If you haven't read the original post, but only heard about it from someone who claims to know about it, shut your fucking mouth. Go read the original post, read the clarification, ignore the hyperbole and bile being slung by those who aren't content with pointing out it's a bad idea, but have to character assassinate the guy when his biggest crime is probably a momentary bout of stupidity.
Or better yet, just ignore the whole fucking mess and let it die the ignoble death it longs for.
just STFU about it already.
Alright, since I've been sucked into it;
Here's the kind of shite I'm talking about
ETA: You know there's something wrong with someone who twists words around to mean what they want against all logic which shows otherwise, but what do you say about someone who apparently scanned back through three freaking years in order to find a sentence which would allow her to twist it in such a fashion? That's how far back she went to get that footnote; Three. Fucking. Years.
There's something seriously wrong there...
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| Saturday, April 26th, 2008
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1:02 pm
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OK, all the responses to any of my comments are showing up with this string after (so-n-so) replied; replied to a [[sitenameshort]] comment in which you said:
followed by the normal comment text.
I mean the copies sent to my mailbox, of course, not the ones in the journals.
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| Thursday, April 24th, 2008
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9:02 am
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White House twists science to meet the needs of industry, undermines the EPA
No. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. I thought the only money in the environmental game was trying to coerce us into more stringent environmental laws by promoting that old myth of global warming.* Who would ever have thought that industry, the biggest source of political money in Washington, might be trying to push for more lenient pollution laws. It just makes no sense to me at all. The world is upside down, I tell you!
/sarcasm
*Don't you just love how easy it is to find new articles about our oncoming extinction?
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| Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
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8:04 am
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This weekend is Stumptown Comics Fest. Dammit. Ah well, it'll save me money. I'm bummed that my sketchbook will have gone two entire cons without a single sketch in it, but there's nothing to be done about it.
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| Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
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11:53 pm
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So, yesterday I was running through the channels (Bruce Springsteen; 57 channels and nothing's on) and I ran up against the Hunting channel again. I spent a whole five seconds there, and wouldn't have spent that much except for the scene the selector happened on; 5 guys in camo, one with a bow, kneeling beside the dead body of a giraffe.
The guy says "This is the biggest thing I've ever brought down with a bow; 3000 lbs, 19 feet tall. You have got to come to Africa and get one of these!"
Yes, because nothing says brave hunter like killing an herbivore. It's right up there with tracking and killing the dangerous, deadly cow. That's right. At 3000 lbs and 19 feet, it could kill you with a single kick, if you cornered it, pissed it off, and made it scared or angry enough to fight. Because you know, giraffes have such vicious reputations.
And you know he didn't track it down, run it to ground, or sneak within shooting range. He hid in a shelter while his buddies drove it to him, or else they went to a game farm and hung out in a camouflaged shed until one stumbled by.
At 3000 lbs, he'll need approximately 10 full size freezers for the butchered meat, and he gets to pay to ship it home from Africa. I figure the cost ought to put a steak in the $75-$100 a lb range. What do you think the odds are that he's actually going to take home more than 20 lbs of meat? If that. The rest of the carcass, I'm sure, will be donated to charity. Right. Because they surely wouldn't just leave it to rot in the savannah, now would they? I guess the hyenas will have a good meal, anyway.
The entire point of the trip was to kill the biggest thing he could. Not the most challenging. Not the most dangerous. Simply the biggest. I am unable to properly articulate how much loathing this engenders in me; how much disdain, how small I think the man is, and how little respect I have for him, and the producers of this crap.
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| Sunday, April 20th, 2008
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9:17 am
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Gee, I wish I had cable.
Because who wouldn't want to wake up to the sight of some woman in camo, up a tree, shooting a bear with a huge compound bow.
I couldn't believe it was real at first. But no, no darts, no drugs, no cameras. She's going to take it home and have it stuffed and mounted.
Now, I'm neither stupid nor naive. I know people hunt all the time. In Alaska, that's how they fill the freezer. And, I love the taste of buffalo, elk, venison...
I also know a lot of people are "sport" hunters. That is, they think it's some kind of sporting event to go out into the woods and kill animals just for the skulls and skins.
I find it offensive though, that they do this,(sport hunting) and even more so that they film it and show it on cable tv.
Exactly how is it sporting to shoot a bear from a stand up a tree, after luring it in with barrels of bait? Unless you are a complete incompetent, there's no danger, there's no trick, hell, there isn't even any skill involved, since she shot it from probably less than 30 yards away, including the thirty feet up the tree. Hell, I've pulled a bow maybe four times in the last ten years and even I could hit that target. There's no strength involved because it was one of those hi-tech compound reflex bows with the pulley systems and a scope. (That's right, a scope from 30 yards out.)
And then, when she's sure the bear is dead, she goes down, kneels by its head and says in her most wistful voice; See, this is why we just love to come to Alberta (or Edmonton, or wherever the hell she murdered the bear) like she was talking about the beautiful forests or mountains or something. No, she's talking about the corpse of the bear beside her, with a head "so big I can't even lift it to show you."
The native americans, when killing animals, thanked the creature for giving its life for their needs, and they used the animal for food, for clothing, for thread, for shelter and for weapons.
(OK< they weren't such saints either, as one of their methods involved stampeding buffalo off a cliff edge, resulting in more meat than they could use, I'm sure. Still.)
I'm no PETA fan, because I think they're complete wackjobs, but this kind of crap is why I never learned to be a hunter. I understand hunting for food. (I'm not certain I could do it unless I had to, but I understand it.) I understand how cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens are raised and slaughtered, both on the farm and in the factory. I'm not simply a naive hypocritical ideologist. I accept the things we do to produce the food we eat, and although I may find some of the practices reprehensible, I do not protest them because I don't have a solution, and because I believe we are meant to eat meat as well as plants. We're omnivores.
But sport hunting is a class all on its own, and I find it disgusting.
If you want a sport and you want to kill big game, go out in the woods with a knife, track the bear down, and kill it by hand, alone. I guarantee you'll get a bigger adrenaline rush than pulling the trigger or shooting a bow from some safe hiding spot. Try tracking it instead of luring it in with barrels of bait. And really, if you want a trophy..take a picture. Beause if your friends knew how cowardly you were when you killed that critter, they'd be a whole lot less impressed with you than if they knew you snuck up within 100 ft of a bear without killing it.
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| Saturday, April 19th, 2008
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11:56 pm
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I was looking through some weekly linkage when I found this rant against Mel Gibson's The Passion which makes clear some very simple truths which people seem to forget.
Also, his response to the one jackass who commented is a wonderful little rebuttal.
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1:48 pm
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| Monday, April 14th, 2008
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5:10 pm
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| Sunday, April 6th, 2008
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5:20 pm
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What this lacks in originality, it makes up for in simply stating the first thing which came to my mind.
I mean, others have gone there, but this was the clearest, cleanest method of conveying the news that I've found so far.
Now if Ted Nugent would just get on with dying of an overdose in some hooker's arms, my week would be complete.
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| Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
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10:15 am
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I watched Inside Man last night, with Jodie Foster, Denzel Washington and Clive Owens.
( Cut for possible Spoilers )
Hopefully I didn't actually spoil the movie for you. With all its flaws, it's still a better movie than most I've seen lately.
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