24 December 2009

Quotable Quotes

"Killing people is easy. Being politically correct is a pain in the ass."

Achmed the Dead Terrorist

Merry Christmas everyone!

23 December 2009

End Of An Era

The last big block, an L-18 Vortec 8100 496 CID monster, was completed last week in GM's Tonawanda engine plant in New York last week.

The first big block was produced in 1958 and over it's 51 year history was made in displacements from 396 to 496 and placed in everything from work trucks to family sedans and station wagons to performance icons like the Impala, Chevelle, and Corvette.

Motorheads all across the globe mourn it's passing even as greenies celebrate it's demise. Count me among the motorheads. I never owned a vehicle with a GM big block, but then again I'm not dead yet either so there's still time. Five million of them were produced, surely there's still one or two to be had.

My 62 C-10 has plenty of room for one.

SRSLY?!?!?!?!?!?

I asked before if the White House was big enough for this guy's ego.

I think I have my answer now.

HT: Legal Insurrection

18 December 2009

Say What?

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) told CNSNews.com that Congress has the authority to force individual Americans to buy health insurance because the U.S. Constitution “charges Congress with the health and well-being of the people.”

She must have a different copy than I do.

HT: Christopher Taylor

That's Just Awesome

Apparently "Monster Hunter's International" has found it's way, complete with patches, into the hands of soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

That's one fine looking patch!

In other news, Monster Hunter is still selling well and the second installment is due next fall. You can read a snippet from it here.

Additionally, author Larry Correia has another sort of book in the works that you can read about here. It should be on bookstore shelves in 2011.

All I can say is, keep them coming! It looks like I have a new favorite author.

Picture from Monster Hunter Nation

11 December 2009

Lack Of Something Constructive To Do

It looks like someone has too much time on their hands.

10 December 2009

Happy Birthday

To Eldest Daughter.

De Nile

A Case of Classic Cluelessness.

Because it doesn't change the consensus!

And as everyone knows, consensus is how Science! gets done.

As opposed to, say, experimentation and evaluation of results and then posting those experiments and evaluations for others to conduct their own experiments to verify or refute the results.

But hey, I'm just a denier, I guess.

Photo "Dhows on the Nile" by Jerzy Strzelecki

Songs Of The Season


Last night I heard the new song about the Christmas shoes for the first time.

Great Cthulhu, do you think you could write a more depressing song for the happiest of holidays?

We have gone from chestnuts roasting on an open fire to please give me money so I can buy Momma a new pair of shoes for her own funeral?

And what's the big idea of taking Parson Brown out of "Walking In A Winter Wonderland"? Is anyone but me about sick of the whole PC thing?

Seriously, when you start messing with Christmas carols you have gone too far.

That's it. Bob Rivers is going to sing all the carols around the Refuge this year. If you are going to destroy a Christmas carol, at least make it funny.

06 December 2009

Year Two

Two years since the diagnosis.

I had to work today so we didn't spend much time together. Like last year, we spent the time we did have not talking about it.

Thats Funny!

Here are some of Palin's jokes at the Gridiron dinner (from John King and various other Twitter feeds):

-
"It's good to be here though, really, in front of this audience of leading journalists and intellectuals, or as I like to call it, a death panel."

-"I went out for a jog. Or as Newsweek calls it--a photo shoot."

-"Sometimes you've got to trust your instincts and when you don't, you end up in places like this "

-Palin jokes if Biden hadn't been elected and was out selling his book it would be "Going Rogaine"

- "If I need a bald campaign manager, I guess all i am left with is James Carville." (dig at Steve Schmidt)

-
Palin jokes big announcement: "Tomorrow I am going to Iowa ......noon to 3p at Barnes & Noble "

-Palin tells Gridiron about her book tour: "The view is better from the bus ... than under it."

-GovPalin at Gridiron jokes normally dem speaker next but: "McCain campaign staff asked if they could have that time for rebuttal."

-Palin jokes book title debate included The Audacity of the North Slope."

-
Andrea Mitchell: At press dinner Palin "joked" person next to her on plane looked at picture of Obama and Chinese leader and asked which one is the communist

(That one falls flat, apparently Andrea Mitchell's twitter-fu is weak. The joke was that she was looking at the Newsweek cover of Obama and Chinese leader Hu, and the person in the next seat said "Hu's the communist." She joked that she thought he was asking a question.)

-
On being on the same program as (Barney) Frank "And I'm the controversial one?"

Hat tip to Ace of Spades HQ commenter ODB.

04 December 2009

Scandalous!

Did Tiger Woods pay Rachel Uchitel to stay quiet about an affair?

Who cares. Tiger Woods is not in a position to waste billions in taxpayer dollars.

Enough already. There are more important things to focus on.

16 Years

Happy Anniversary Boo.

03 December 2009

The Latest from Beltway Bob

"Several thousand scientists have come to the conclusion that climate change is happening. I don't think that's anything that is, quite frankly, among most people, in dispute anymore," press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters this week.

Except that now it's pretty clear that the data used to reach that conclusion is erroneous and cherry picked, and in fact the calculations and models used to manipulate that data is itself fallacious.

There's a reason people don't trust politicians and their spokesmen. Wonder what it is.

Going Rogue

I just got done with "Going Rogue" and enjoyed it immensely.

I was not a fan of John McCain because I thought he violated the oath he took first as a Naval officer and then as a Senator when he co-authored the legislation known as McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform (but what should be known as the Incumbent Protection Act). When the McCain campaign called me asking for my support, I let them know in no uncertain terms that McCain-Feingold had torpedoed their campaign as far as I was concerned, and that I could think of nothing that would make me vote for them.

Then they nominated Sarah Palin for VP, and it all changed. In Sarah I, as many Americans, found someone that I could support, someone that I could vote FOR, instead of supporting because the opposition was worse. I was disappointed in the media hatchet job that she got during the campaign, I was angered by the treatment the McCain staff gave her both during and after the campaign, and it just drove home for me the feeling that John McCain may have been honorable during his stay in the Hanoi Hilton, but he was no longer that man. If he had been, he would have hammered the staff members that instigated the treatment, instead he said nothing.

In the book Going Rogue Sarah Palin speaks about growing up in Skagway Alaska, about being elected to the Wasilla City Council and then as Mayor, and finally as Governer. She talks about the issues and problems and the steps she had to take to overcome those problems. It's a refreshing insight and it makes me more convinced than ever that she would have been a good VP and a better President.

Unfortunately she made a huge mistake.

Governor Palin, if you somehow stumble onto my little corner of the world and read these remarks, please understand that I'm not finding fault. In truth I wouldn't have done so well, and in fact would have probably done worse. I know this about myself, which is why I have never attempted a run at public office. I don't have the temperament for it. But you do.

The mistake surfaces in the book when she meets the man who would serve as her campaign chief of staff. The guy was an economist who had no clue as to how a campaign was to be run. "It seemed odd that we were being put in the hands of a man who had never run a campaign before," she writes, "but Andrew seemed like a nice guy, and it wasn't my call."

It was your call Governor. As soon as it wasn't the mistake was made. Later on you remark that your hometown media proclaimed "And the Sarah Palin we once knew, is gone." "I wasn't" you say, but in fact as soon as you let the campaign manage you instead of you managing it, you were.

In your run ups to previous offices you took the bull by the horns. You managed your own campaign, sometimes by instinct, and always did what you thought was right. Your mistake was in not continuing that when you ran for VP. Those people were not going to serve in the office, and as soon as the campaign was over they would be gone. We were not coming to rallies to see them, we were coming to see you. They did not have an incredible approval rating as the Governer of the Union's largest state, you did.

Don't let anyone change you from being who you are, because we love who you are and that's why we supported you. Your instincts were right. If the campaign wasn't going to let you be who you are, you should have told them "Sorry, I don't think this is going to work out for either of us" and then gave the whole story to the Alaska press, the ones who knew you, when you got back home.

It will be interesting to see what comes next.

28 November 2009

Beat Me Up Scotty

I didn't post anything for Thanksgiving. I was spending it with family and friends.

I hope everyone had a happy one.

I also haven't posted anything for the various birthdays of our military services, nor did I post for Veterans Day or Memorial Day.

If you're lucky you will get a post for Christmas.

Whatever. It's not like you're paying me for this.

Damn It's Cold

So far I haven't commented on the whole CRU global warming leaked Email scam since it's been covered extensively at other places.

The only reason I'm mentioning it now is because I, like The Knight Shift, think it needs to stay front and center somewhere on the Net.

Christopher Taylor uses the term "warmaquiddick". I like it.

click on the kitty to see how cold it is

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods, golf phenomena, has gotten into a little fender bender. So far the best comment I have seen on it was "Crashing Tiger, Hidden Hydrant" but I forgot just where I saw it. Probably one of those smart-alecs on Ace of Spades.

Anyway, it seems as if he may have been fleeing a late night altercation with the wifey. Makes sense to me.

HT: AoSHQ commenter *Chef Boy* RDB (sockpuppets unite!)

Chills

Indymedia is a news aggregate site, much like the Drudge Report or Memorandum, that depends on volunteers to collect news stories to be linked. It's a leftist site, so many of the stories are about protests and marches championing leftist causes.

On January 23rd of this year the network administrator that provides Indymedia with it's server space was hit with a subpoena from the US Department of Justice. The subpoena requested information for "all IP traffic to and from" the Indymedia server, including "IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information" for June 25, 2008.

No reason was given for the request, and no other information other than an order "not to disclose the existence of this request" unless authorized by the Justice Department. Much to their credit the network administrators retained counsel. When the Justice Department was sent correspondence from that counsel they dropped the request, and Indymedia then disclosed the existence of the request.

What should be troubling to all of us, regardless of which side of the political spectrum you fall under, is the ways and means that the Justice Department was attempting to gather data. According to the article linked from CBS News it is likely that this subpoena was issued in violation of regulation, and demanding that the visitor's information (including addresses and social security numbers) be disclosed plus the gag order should raise more than just a few eyebrows.

Anyone who writes for or visits news sites on the Internet should be concerned about this story. Otherwise when they come for you, there may not be anyone left to speak for you.

HT: The Indentured Servant Girl

NOTE: If you are going to leave a comment, be legible and intelligent. Long rambling screeds heavy on accusations and light on facts, especially when submitted by Anonymous, will likely be rejected. This likelihood approaches unity when all rules of grammar and syntax are ignored.

25 November 2009

Cajun Jokes


This was sent to me by my cousin who is a Louisiana resident and retired Squid maverick Officer weatherguesser who is convinced that Algore invented the Intertubes just for him so that he could send bad jokes around the world through the magic of Email.

I shudder to think what will happen when he discovers Internet pr0n.

The Monster Within

It's easy to forget how sick she really is.

The doctors predicted remission following radiation therapy. It didn't happen. We got another burst of hope when the docs said the tumor was shrinking because of the chemo. That, too, was short lived. Sometimes it gets bigger, sometimes smaller, but it's not going away.

She doesn't look sick. Her doctor has often commented on this fact. She hasn't experienced huge weight loss, her hair is growing back after the radiation treatments, it's even regaining some (not all) of it's auburn color. Because of that it's easy to ignore it.

But the signs are there, if you look. She doesn't have the energy she once had, particularly in the week following chemo. That happens every three weeks. I saw her wincing in pain last week, and when I asked she admitted that her lung was hurting. I know that happens more times than she will admit.

Where once she would get up and be active all day while I slept, she now moves out to the couch and naps most of the day away. Because I work nights I don't see it much, but if I wake up and come out of the bedroom I see her there more and more often.

Our daughter works as a pharmacy tech, so she usually handles her mother's prescription. She was aghast when she filled the last one because of it's narcotic content.

She started out only taking a half a pill of her old prescription when she was having trouble sleeping. She started having trouble sleeping more often. Now she is taking a half a pill of the new prescription. At first the new prescription was only necessary once or twice a week. This, too, is happening more often. How often I can't say since I work nights, but I know it happens at least 2 or 3 times a week.

Daughter is worried that Mother is going to become addicted. Mother points out jokingly that it won't be a permanent condition. Daughter and I fail to see the humor.

She was diagnosed two years ago in December. She has determined that she will hold out for another eight.

I am selfish enough to want her to stay as long as possible, but not so selfish that I want her to stay in pain. I am torn between these two desires, but in the end it will hurt worse to see her in pain than it will to lose her.

The Navy has a phrase, hope for the best but plan for the worst. I guess that's all I can do.

21 November 2009

Military Appreciation

Well, it's nice to know that our Soldiers are respected, even among certain disreputable groups (look at the second story on the link).

From the story: "They took everything from his pockets, but when the gang leader looked in the victim's wallet and saw an Army Reserve ID card, he told his accomplices to give him his stuff back."

Hit the link to read the entire story, and while you are there go ahead and sign up for the weekly newsletter. It's fun and it's free

HT: This is True, a weekly newsletter by Randy Cassingham (author of the TRUE Stella Awards)

20 November 2009

Connections

I've just upgraded my wireless router from a B to a G. The old router kept dropping the connection even though all the indications on the router's front panel showed that it was on and transmitting. Hopefully the new router will make everything all better.

In other news, the mighty Rampage has it's new carburetor installed but I have to go to the parts store tomorrow and get a clip for the throttle cable. Hopefully this solves the fuel system problems that has been plaguing me for a couple of months now.

How are things in your world?

19 November 2009

A Purchase

I have just ordered Weird Al's boxed set.

The Knight Shift says it will not disappoint.

I'm looking forward to it.

It's Sad To See

Brigid has had to restrict comments at the Range because of a troll.

Having never met her, I only know her through her command of the written word. From that knowledge I see a gentle soul who has a core of solid steel.

I know that even the most likable among us (not a good description of me, by the way) has some that do not like them. I am saddened by the fact that someone has seen the need to take a potshot at such a beautiful spirit as she.

The Range is usually my last stop of the day while skimming the interwebs. I find that I usually need a bit of tranquility after everything else that I see.

Chin up lass. Only you can define who you are. But then, you knew that already.

Learning From History

Well done, MV Maersk Alabama. Hopefully others will learn from your sterling example.

I won't hold my breath.

And, as an aside to those who say that violence never solved anything, I call your bluff.

Imaginary Numbers

b times the square root of -1

Iowa congressional district 24 (and 439 other districts in other states)

30,000 jobs, at a cost of $225,000 per job, saved or created.

I had an instructor once who used to say that figures don't lie, but liars figure.

13 November 2009

Finally!

Robert Stacy McCain mentions me!

Well, sorta. Here's the quote:

"Once upon a time, patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel. Nowadays, libertarianism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Hey, I'll take it.

Yeah, that's worth a hit to the tip jar.

11 November 2009

Note To Young Girls

Never do anything you would be ashamed to tell your grandparents about. On your mother's side. At least until after you graduate from college. Even then, make sure it doesn't end up on any recordable media.

Keep in mind that, should you ignore the advice above, anything you do can and will end up on YouTube so your children will see it. Or worse yet, your child's nemesis in high school. (Think about how you would feel if your bitchy enemy found a video of your mother in a compromising situation.)

And yes, that boy that you think is so dreamy, the one that you Looooovvvveeee!!!!!!! really will sell that video for a million clams, or really will post it on the net (that's a not quite SFW Google search, BTW) to show all of his buds what a dirty whore you are after you dump him for being a complete pig.

Act accordingly.

UPDATE: And now it seems that there may be as few as eight and as many as 20 of these tapes. There's a phrase for this, ladies. It's called "Head Smashing Stupidity".

HT: Ace of Spades HQ and Pat Dollard.

Happy Veterans Day

From one vet to another.

06 November 2009

The Latest from Beltway Bob

"Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler."

Nope. Can't imagine it.

HT: Ace of Spades HQ, Weekly Standard article by MKH.

What Went Wrong

How could this have happened? An officer, a psychiatrist, at Fort Hood, has apparently gone off his nut and killed 13 soldiers, wounding 30 others.

The first clue might have been when the officer, a Muslim, compared suicide bombers to those who throw themselves on grenades to save the lives of their comrades.

Another clue might have been when he filled out a form seeking a spouse through a program at a mosque listing his birthplace as Arlington, Virginia, but his nationality as Palestinian.

The basic problem is that he saw himself as something else before he saw himself as American.

Theodore Roosevelt warned us of this over a hundred years ago, but we fell into the trap anyway. Why, you may ask?

Because we wanted to be nice.

We wanted to be nice, so instead of pointing out that "united we stand, divided we fall" we said nothing when once again people started identifying themselves as "whatever-Americans". We didn't want to be thought of as racist.

We said nothing when our language started to change, bending itself around political correctness. We didn't want to be thought of as intolerant.

We said nothing when our American beliefs and traditions came under assault from multiculturalism. We didn't want to be thought of as ethnocentric.

It happened when we pressed 1 for English. It happened when we let our public school administrators treat us as part of the problem instead of part of the solution. It happened when we allowed good people to be hung out to dry for BS reasons and didn't stand up for them.

Nidal Malik Hasan bore the weapon and squeezed the trigger that put 13 soldiers in their graves and 30 others in the hospital.

But we provided the bullets.

I Wish

That I could be surprised.

God bless the Fort Hood soldiers and their families. May He have mercy on the victims. May He have none for the perpetrator.

What's Happening

So once again I have committed the number 1 sin of the blogging world in that I haven't posted anything new lately. The only excuse I have is that I've been working like an idiot for the past couple of weeks. In fact, the photo in my previous post was taken while I was on my way to work.

In my copious off time, I've been working on a paper model of Serenity. It's my first cardstock model and it's surprisingly difficult. This is no "fold tab A into slot B" type of paper airplane, there are over eighty pieces printed out on twelve cardstock sheets. It's been a lot of fun.

My copy of "The Gathering Storm" has arrived, and I'm reading through it at the moment. Brandon Sanderson is an apt storyteller, but he isn't Robert Jordan. It's obvious that there is another voice speaking, but he is definitely telling Jordan's tale so I think it will end well.

On the political front, much is being made by the Democrats of Hoffman's failure to take NY-23, but they are strangely silent on the changes in the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia. Virginia may have not been much of a surprise, but New Jersey certainly was. I wish the new Governors well and hope they do good for their respective States.

The Hoffman saga is a horse of a different color, and although the established political parties don't want to make much of it I believe they do know what it's significance is. Time will tell if the RNC actually absorbs the lesson from NY-23 or not, if they do then they will see future success, and if not, they won't. It's as simple as that.

For me it's just a simple question, that being when does a moderate Republican cross the line into being a moderate Democrat? I've said there isn't an ounce worth of difference between the two parties and the NY-23 race certainly reflected that, at least initially. But then, a "moderate" Republican (who was more liberal than the moderate Democrat) got her head handed to her by the Conservative party candidate that wasn't supposed to be able to poll much beyond the normal 5 percent or so. Instead it was the Conservative party candidate that polled well, and the Republican candidate was at the 5% mark.

Party loyalists preach the party line, about how supporting the Party is paramount, that conservative Republicans can't win in "moderate" areas of the country, about how supporting third party candidates just split the vote and hand the race to the Democrat. This did certainly happen in this instance, but the major difference here is that the party candidate never really did have the full support of the party members. She was selected, not by a primary where the voters might have been able to voice an opinion, but by a panel of elites. The voters were understandably upset, and they broke for the candidate they might have supported had there been an actual primary.

The ironic thing here is that conservatives have never been very good at being party loyalists, they see themselves as independents and must be given a reason to vote for a particular candidate. They may hold their nose and vote for the R over the D because the Republican party more closely represents their values, but this is not always the case.

The plain truth is that the two parties must be different, they must have different platforms and their candidates must adhere to those platforms, otherwise there is no clear choice between them. If there is no clear choice, the ones that are left out in the cold (usually the conservatives) usually do choose the "lesser of two evils" and pull the lever with the "R" beside it. Lately, however, the conservatives have been choosing a third party, or they are choosing not to decide (and, like the song says, still making a choice). If the Republican party wants to remain the default choice of conservatives, they need to examine themselves and pull back to their conservative roots. Otherwise they will continue to shed members. This was the lesson that should have been learned during the McCain presidency bid (the only thing that saved it was the addition of Palin to the ticket) and clearly wasn't.

They have a chance again to learn this lesson from NY-23. We will see if they do so.

23 October 2009

A Sign Of The Times?

It may not look like much, but if you take a careful look at the bumper sticker...or at least, just below the bumper sticker...you get the idea that maybe there's a little bit of buyer's remorse happening here.

Click on the photo for a bigger image.

22 October 2009

It Would Be Funny

If it wasn't happening to us.

How pathetic is it that the organization that served as the mouthpiece of the Soviet Union does such a bang-up job documenting our folly, while our "legitimate (IE, White House approved) news organizations" are missing it completely?

HT to The Knight Shift.

09 October 2009

We're All H8RZ Now, Part III

If you don't think Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, you're just like the Taliban! So there!

HT: The Rott

What?!?

Tell me again what you have to do to win one of these things?

UPDATE: Well sure. Why not.

08 October 2009

02 October 2009

Egad

Mostly Cajun (see the link on the sidebar) had a piece up that I just read today concerning the march of time and the failure of some to learn, much less learn from, our history.

It put me in mind of this song.

01 October 2009

Special Delivery

Well played, Sirs. Well played indeed.

HT to MrsM-ITT at the Rott and Wyatt Earp at Support Your Local Gunfighter (I saw it first at the Rott, sorry Wyatt).

You Are Not Alone

Even in California.

HT to AoSHQ commenter Michael in MI. Thanks for the tip.

30 September 2009

"Not Yours To Give"

In comments at the Rott in a post about the generosity of FedEx, commenter AyUaxe linked a little gem from The Life of Colonel David Crockett (yes, that Davy Crockett), US Representative from the state of Tennessee.

A small excerpt:

"The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution."

This quotation is credited to one Horatio Bunce, a resident of Col. Crockett's district, as an explanation of why he, an influential member of that district, could not support Col. Crockett's re-election.

Col. Crockett took these words to heart, and was a valued member of the House of Representatives. We would be a very fortunate people indeed if our current crop of Congressmonkeys could understand the sentiment expressed in Mr. Bunce's words.

Go ye now to juntosociety.com and read these words in their fullest. You will not be disappointed in them, although you may be a bit discomfited with our current representation.

And in that vein, I add fellow North Carolinian The Knight Shift to the old blogroll for his entry here, in which he demonstrates that 1) he gets it, and 2) you don't have to be a lefty to miss the mark.

26 September 2009

Good Riddance

to bad garbage.

HT: Ace of Spades HQ

Dirty Hippies

But there was no need to repeat myself.

Clicking on the title to this post will take you to Gateway Pundit, where you can see the difference between the conservatives having a gathering and the liberals having a gathering.

Or in other words, the difference between adults getting together and children having a play-date.

The adults clean up after themselves.

New Link

The Indentured Servant Girl has the Hannah Giles sex tape!

Because RSM shouldn't get to have all the fun.

24 September 2009

Cash for Clunkers

FAIL!

In The End

There will be only smoke-free chaos.

By the by, who is it exactly that passes laws?

Constitutionalysis

Barack Obama campaigned on the promise that he would not raise taxes.

There is much discussion about the net that he is going to do exactly that, in the form of additional fees on a lot of things. During a 5 show whirlwind tour last weekend President Obama used the defense that since they weren't called "taxes" then they weren't, in fact, taxes. This is largely regarded as lipstick on a pig.

All of the legislation passed since his ascension, in addition to the bailout passed in the time of his predecessor, adds to the bill that will eventually come due, as all bills eventually do.

But, in his defense, he is absolutely right. He will not raise any taxes, in the same way that George W. Bush (and Ronald Reagan before him) never cut any taxes. He will only approve (or veto, fat chance) the legislation mandating those tax increases that passes over his desk.

So, who will it be that actually increases your taxes? For the answer, let me direct your attention to this document:

"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States"
US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8


The main problem with the United States today lies with the fact that the American people are unaware of how their government is actually supposed to work. In large part they cannot number the branches of government, much less name them. Listing the responsibilities, duties and limitations of each branch is right out.

If you don't know how it's supposed to work, how can you tell if it is, in fact, working (or not working, as the case may be)?

If there is another person in the room as you read this, ask them the following questions. For that matter, answer them yourself. Chances are, unless they are a nerd like me or a naturalized citizen, they will not be able to answer them.

1. How many Senators represent each State?
2. What Congressional district do you live in?
3. How many Congressional Representatives are there for that district?
4. Name the people referred to in questions 1 and 3.

Not only can most Americans not answer the preceding questions, most of them cannot be bothered to care about the answers. All of them complain, and since everyone knows who the President is, for good or ill, he gets the blame (or credit).

If you don't know who is responsible for what, how can you be expected to vote intelligently? That is the underlying reason for all the problems the US now faces. And the inevitable result is this.

And yes, I can answer all four questions. Without looking it up.

19 September 2009

Arrr.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate day, ye scurvy dogs.

I had a picture to put up here, so I did, but I thought t' would be a bit much for the kiddies.

Ye click it at yer own peril, so ye do. Ye have been warned.

Call It What You Want

Congressman Mike Rogers from Michigan calls it "government run health-care" and explains why it's wrong.

18 September 2009

How To Feed The World

Iowahawk has a well deserved reputation for bringing on teh funneh. But, every once in the while he shows his serious journalistic roots.

He has done so here, with a report of the death of an Iowa farmer. Not just any Iowa farmer, but noted agronomist and Nobel Peace Prize winner (when such things actually meant something) Norman Borlaug. He was 95.

His greatest contribution to the world was showing us how to get more yield per acre for grain crops such as wheat. In this simple way, he fed more people than all the past, present or future Live Aid concerts ever given.

You don't feed the hungry by confiscating wealth from the rich and giving that wealth to African dictators. You feed the hungry by showing African farmers how to get the most out of their cropland, and that's what Norman spent his life doing.

Rest in peace Mr. Borlaug. Well done.

Again?

Another US Army officer uses the birther movement to try to escape the terms of her contract.

Predictably, it also goes down in flames.

Once more, if an officer in the US Armed Forces does not want to deploy, or otherwise discovers or decides that they can no longer effectively fulfill the terms of their contracts, they can simply resign their commissions.

Of course, this one had just finished med school on the taxpayers dime, so she would have been expected to pay that money back.

On a related issue, her attorney Orly Taitz is batting 1.000 on these cases.

HT: This Ain't Hell

If You Have A Digital Camera

It might be a good idea to invest in a printer for it. Kodak makes one that takes photo cartridges, using photo paper you get as good an image as you would if you took your memory stick to Wal-Mart.

Without the added aggravation of being charged with sexual abuse and having your kids taken away from you for a month, I might add, so you can call that an extra bonus.

HT: Fark.com

75 Democrats Vote To Support Child Slavery

The House voted Thursday to cut off all Federal funding to ACORN.

Seventy five Democrats voted against the resolution.

The Gunslinger has the story on that.

A constituent of one of the 75 is not pleased.

Smitty at The Other McCain has more ACORN related goodness.

So True

Filed under the heading of "It sucks getting old" we find this entry.

Number three is too painfully true to be as funny as it should be.

Thanks for the reminder Bill. As if I really needed one.

16 September 2009

Obama By Another Name

Franklin Delano X.

X-ellent!

Raaaaacists!!!!!

Since we're all H8RZ now, we might as well be.

Many places have posted something about it, so far this one is my favorite.

And if you haven't bought the book, what are you waiting for?

(By the way, I have it on very good authority that if someone ponies up a huge bag o' cash, there will be a film version of Monster Hunter's International. Are you listening Bill Whittle?)

Remember, there are five a's in raaaaacism!

Eh. I Got Nutt'n.

I was going to write a long insightful post about this, complete with an analysis of the world economy, maybe with a little bit about the causes of the Great Depression here, including about how the aforementioned Great Depression was also a world-wide event.

But then I didn't so it all flew out of my head, like all of the rest of my really great ideas that would have made me rich a long time ago and allowed me to buy genetically enhanced monkeys that had been crossed with bald eagles to be used in an attempt to take over the world.

Thanks to Tam for bringing it up anyway.

9/12 Rally

So there was a big rally in Washington DC over the weekend.

Beltway Bob didn't notice.

11 September 2009

9/11

I remember.

And Happy Birthday to my niece Debbie.

09 September 2009

Snark Attempt - FAIL!



Remember Baghdad Bob?

Robert Gibbs will now be referred to as Beltway Bob in all official Refuge posts.

HT: Ace of Spades HQ

04 September 2009

Wine, Women and Song

Red hair and green eyes will be the death of me yet. One or the other will turn me into a stammering idiot (according to the wife that's my normal state anyway) but the two of them together means trainwreck for sure.

The first little girl I fell for, way back in the first grade, was a redhead that barely acknowledged my existence at all. She was my classmate all the way up through high school. I never told her.



My first serious girlfriend was also a redhead. She hated being called a redhead, she preferred "strawberry blond." She's gone now, taken from us way too soon at twenty eight years old. I wish I could talk to her just one more time.



The green eyes come in right after high school. My first wife was green eyed, she broke my heart around 1988. Suffice it to say that I was in the Navy, she didn't like it, she figured out before I did that I was going to do 20, she found a way out. It took a while, but twenty years later I can look at it objectively and without regret.



Soon after that I met a green-eyed goddess. She was the friend of a friend's girlfriend, and I first saw her a mere two weeks following my separation from the first wife. I didn't say anything, mostly due to the aforementioned stuttering idiot problem, but I did remark to my friend that the only thing she would have to do to be absolutely perfect would be to dye her hair red.

I put it right out of my mind after that, after all she was an honest to goodness beauty queen (well, runner up anyway) and I was just an ugly little spud. The next time I saw her, about a month later, she was sporting a mane of auburn locks.



I was still self-absorbed, wrapped in my own little cocoon of self-pity, and I wasn't as good to her as I should have been. Still, she lifted me back onto my feet and proved to me that life wasn't over, that there was still plenty of life to be found out there.

Then, as soon as she was there, she was gone. I still miss her sometimes, and I'm a better man for having known her. I just wish I could have told her so.



In the book "The Great Hunt" Thom Merrilin tells Rand Al'Thor that one of the women he meets at a party "would give you an education such as every young man should have at least once in his life, if he can live through it."

My education came about at the age of 24. She was in her early 40's, recently divorced, her husband had left her for a woman about my age and she was feeling alone, unloved and unlovely. It was my task to prove that even though she may be alone, she was not unlovely. In that, I did for her what my beauty queen had done for me, and the education I received was well worth any price of admission. Happily I lived through it, although at times it was certainly a close thing.

She later married a wonderful man who took proper care of her until the time of her death, once again too soon. She died surrounded by those who loved her, in the company of a man who thought her lovely, and her final days were filled with happiness. I will always remember the sparkle in her deep green eyes.



I met my current wife about sixteen years ago. Red of head, red of temper, she kicked holes in my sandcastle walls and took me completely by storm. Before I knew it I was completely overwhelmed, and life just hasn't been the same since.

TROUBLE - Travis Tritt


Tonight as I crack open a few beers and listen to Bob Seger sing "Those are the memories / that give me a wealthy soul" I remember them.

?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Here we have another picture of The Anointed One, complete with the holy nimbus cloud around his head.

And where, pray tell, is this picture found?

Is it on the fawning media sites?

No.

Is it on the many "I Love Barack Obama" web pages?

Again, no.

Where then, may you find this picture?

Here you go.

Is that building even big enough for this guy's ego?

HT: Ace of Spades HQ

03 September 2009

Oh For Petes Sake

There's a lot of ire in the rightosphere about the leftosphere using the term "teabagger" to refer to those of us who attend tea party events.

Get over it!

Own that term! We are the tea BAGGERS, not the tea BAGGED. If they want to make fun of us for being teabaggers, then they are obviously missing the point...it is they who are being bagged!

Next time someone calls you a teabagger, point that out to them.

Some of the ire is that there are people in positions of power who are using this term and their constituents see them as being crude and boorish. My response to that is to let them appear crude and boorish, and see how they fare come next election time.

At any rate, the use of the word does not harm us unless we let it. Don't let it!

Winner Of Teh Internetz

"Justice is a gallows, built with contemplation and remorse.

Retribution is a lamp post, with spittle and curses, and dogs nipping at your heels."


Read more here.

The Velociworld is not recommended for those who have weak hearts or minds, or for those who are easily offended. If you are the type that looks for things to be offended about, you will likely find plenty of offensive things here. Secure all loose items and keep your arms inside the conveyance at all times. Management is not responsible for lost or stolen items, either of a material or non-material nature.

We're All H8RZ Now Part 2

Submitted without further comment.

HT to Robert Stacy McCain at The Other McCain.

30 August 2009

Orb Spiders

This gentleman has taken up residence right outside my patio door. He weaves his web every night around sundown, and every morning he pulls it up out of the way again.

It's nice to have good neighbors.

According to the Pugh collection he is an orb weaver, one of the most common spiders in North Carolina. Although he is huge, he is harmless. Except if you are a bug, that is.

I think that he has attracted a mate, because now there are two of them.

29 August 2009

Thoughts On The Second

I have a friend that open carries everywhere allowable by law that he goes. Usually he will chose not to go to those places where he is not allowed to carry, either by law or by the request of the place in question.

I have yet to hear anyone comment, either for or against, in our hearing.

There has been quite a stir lately in the MSM about people openly carrying weapons at townhall meetings and other public gatherings. What you don't usually hear is that the weapons are carried legally and that no one has been arrested for carrying them.

The MSM has even gone so far as to call the carry of weapons racist, and to illustrate this has used a picture of a rifle being carried. What they failed to mention is that the weapon in question was being carried by a black man.

Fifty years ago it would not have been an issue, this open carry of weapons. Since that time we have gotten away from the practice, mostly due to the whining of the Gun Fearing Wussies.

Unfortunately also since that time the open carry of weapons has become something viewed as somehow criminal or crazy. Carry laws are not known or understood, even by the LEO's that are supposed to be enforcing the laws.

Reading around the net it is possible to find blogs who's owners claim to be all for the free exercise of Second Amendment rights, and yet those very same blogs have opinion pieces written by said owners who frown on those who open carry at the events. Their reasoning is usually that the open carry makes the wussies cry, and that making the wussies cry generally isn't good for promoting the Second.

I disagree.

I think that if everyone who can open carry does, the general public will become accustomed to seeing it, and the cries of the wussies would decrease (or at least fade into the background). Additionally, as the criminal element sees more and more people open carry they will become more aware that there are a lot of firearms out there. This has been shown to cause them to find another line of work. Both of these are good things.

Eventually I would like to see the open carry of firearms in accordance with the Second Amendment to be just as commonplace, and as unremarkable, as open carry of books and newspapers in accordance with the First.

I don't know that it would ever happen, but one can dream.

28 August 2009

Book Review

I just put down Stephen King's Cell.

The part where he wrote about a .45 caliber Colt revolver was enough to give me a moment's pause. There is such a thing, but most times one refers to a .45 it's an M1911 or a clone thereof.

When he wrote about the human brain only working at 2% capacity I was done with the book.

Most people will quote the ten percent figure, and I will admit that I believed it as well until I read the Snopes entry about it. Where two percent came from I don't know.

Anyway, I'm back to the opinion that Stephen King hasn't written anything since The Dark Tower.

26 August 2009

Ted Kennedy Dies At 77

My mother always told me that if I couldn't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

Clicking the title of this post takes you to the BBC story.

15 August 2009

Wizard's Second Rule

The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.

In Ouray Colorado a woman was killed and eaten by bears on the seventh of August. It turns out that she had been feeding the bears for at least ten years. This act of kindness resulted in the bears losing their natural fear of humans, and in fact made them very aggressive towards humans that were not feeding them.

A five year old bear was killed by sheriff's deputies at the scene after he aggressively approached the officers, and another was killed at the residence a week later by USDA officials working under the authority of the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Because she was feeding them they stopped hunting for themselves. They just came to her house whenever they got hungry. The long standing effect is that more bears and humans are going to die, because the bears have forgotten how to hunt for themselves and they now equate humans with food. This woman's good intentions led directly to her death as well as the animals she was caring for, and will lead to more deaths before it's all done.

The old saying is that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Combine that with the story about giving a man a fish, and you can see where some of our current problems have come from.

14 August 2009

RIP

Captain Scott Speicher, USN, has returned home.

Welcome home Captain. Rest in peace.

Linky!

Having just finished "Monster Hunter International" (and simultaneously becoming a huge fan), I have also just posted the link to Monster Hunter Nation.

Hurry fast and get yours, because according to the latest update on MHN there are only four copies left on Amazon.

Don't worry though, you can get a signed copy instead.

While you're there go make an entry into the "Hold The Pig Steady" lyrics writing contest.

12 August 2009

Absolute Power

Next time some jackass, be they from the left or from the right, says "If you aren't doing anything wrong you don't have anything to be afraid of" punch them right in their monkey faces. If they spout some blather about the "common good" or some such dogsqueeze as that, punch them twice. It's for the chiiiildrennnn!!!! (who will ultimately have to foot the bill for all of our current nonsense.)

This, boys and girls, is why we don't give government - ANY government, no matter who's running it - any more authority than they absolutely need to do their Constitutionally mandated jobs. Sooner or later if it has the potential to be abused, it will be. That is quite simply the nature of power.

For what it's worth, I thought the Patriot Act was a knee jerk response that wasn't well thought out and shouldn't have been passed. It was passed under the "do something even if it's wrong" mindset, and it was wrong and (as we are now seeing) eventually dangerous.

The ironical thing here is that the "good Liberal" people who were up in arms about BOOOOSH and the ReTHUGlican Congress illegally seizing power were right about the potential for abuse, but now that Obama and a Democratic controlled Congress are actually doing the abusing they are strangely silent.

The porkulous bill was right up there with the Patriot Act, and cap n' tax and the healthcare bill is right there as well. The problem is that once they are passed they are almost impossible to un-pass.

Hat tip: Ace Of Spades HQ, your home for Valu-Rite swilling hobo hunters.

06 August 2009

Dear 52 - An Update

Perhaps

you

have

forgotten

what

we

said

before.

Here

it

is

again.

Buy This Book

I woke up at 4:30 PM (get offa me, I work nights) and found my copy of "Monster Hunter International" waiting for me.

I just finished it.

I didn't know they stacked awesome this high.

Buy this book, make Larry Correia rich, and maybe he will write another one.

05 August 2009

Speaking Of Birthdays

Happy Birthday Brigid.

Not older, just aged. Like a fine wine.

Here's to many more, lass.

03 August 2009

Birthday Presents

For my birthday (which was yesterday) Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority got me a Quote Of The Day!

Thanks Kevin, you shouldn't have!


For anyone following the link, have a look around and leave me a comment if you see something you like.

Thanks for dropping by!

02 August 2009

On The Subject Of Heros

If you have not yet made the journey to E3 to see the three part series "A Soldier's Story" you need to do so now.

LT Cooper tells how it was to transport Marines from the safety of their transport ship via Higgins boats to the meatgrinder that was Tarawa, and later Iwo Jima.

He then tells the tragic tale of the KIA's of Tarawa being buried and forgotten amongst garbage, septic tanks and parking lots.

LT Cooper worries that we don't heed the lessons of history that were learned during the "ancient wars" that occurred before Viet Nam. The military remembers, and still applies the lessons learned so long ago in their operations today. Carrier operations and damage control methods learned the hard way under fire and kamikaze attacks are still being taught in today's Navy, and are still being used on ships like the USS Cole. Unfortunately, outside the military the nation has all but forgotten the lessons of these ancient wars.

These men deserve better. Please go watch the videos. Remember them.

Another Hero

SFC Jared Monti.

Rest in peace.

HT: Ace Of Spades HQ

It Never Stops

The rumors still fly, made up as usual. No links, I'm not going to feed the fire. Check at Ace's place if you want to know the details.

When is this family going to get a break?

She's resigned already. As in, not a public figure any more.

This means that all of you jackasses who attacked her and her family with impunity all this time can now be dragged into court, on your own dime this time.

And it looks like Darth Cheney has been teaching his young padawan apprentice some Sith mind control tricks. So you have been warned.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

01 August 2009

Soldier's Suffrage

From Neptunus Lex:

An American Thinker article on the military and voting.

I might have mentioned this problem once or twice myself.

The problem is, you see, that the military vote is mostly by absentee ballots, which for a variety of reasons are not counted. A lot of them are disqualified on technical issues, but for those who pass the gauntlet most of them are not even opened.

The reason they aren't opened is that there usually aren't enough of them to sway the election one way or another, so there really isn't a reason to count them. (Sometimes even if there might be enough of them to sway the election they aren't counted either, usually at the insistence of one of the political parties involved, particularly if it's a recount in Florida or Minnesota. One wonders why.)

The article gives a few more reasons, all of them things that need to be addressed. Thanks for bringing the article to light, Lex.

While you are there, sign the petition.

31 July 2009

They That Govern Least, Govern Best

I was just strolling through my links and came upon two posts at Word Around The Net that sparked my interest.

First is the report that the President asked for a hundred million in cuts, and they found a hundred and two.

The cuts were realized by such things as using both sides of paper when copying documents, deleting unused email accounts, and not repainting white government vehicles.

As Chris points out, these are things that should have been done ages ago, but as a former member of the US Government I can point to just one thing that would realize immediate significant savings.

Every year we would go through the same old thing where we would fly a lot at the end of each quarter to burn up our fuel funds and everyone would get new furniture. The deal is that if you don't use all the money up your next year's budget is decreased by the amount that is left over. Obviously this does not lead to frugality, in fact we would usually run over and have to dip into the next quarter's money to make up the difference.

The clear answer, and also one that should have been implemented ages ago, is to not penalize frugality. Award the individual commands a percentage of the moneys not spent for their welfare and rec (party) fund, and continue to fund them at the same levels (adjusted for inflation) for the next fiscal year. That way if the money is needed it is there, and if not a majority of it is returned to the coffers to be used next year. This would encourage frugality, which is now not the case.

The next topic is the clunker buy-back program that the .gov was so proud of. Seems like it was so popular that the billion dollars allocated to the fund is about used up, and it's only been a week. Since the program requires the dealers to award and honor the certificates right away and be reimbursed later, many dealers are looking at some pretty serious losses.

My major complaint with the cash for clunkers program is that one of the program requirements is that the motors on the old cars have to be deliberately destroyed. No part of the motor or drivetrain can be sold, according to the program rules (this link goes to cars.gov but does not require you to log into the system).

That means that if you have one of the same models of car that you decided to keep (because for instance you figured out that you wouldn't be able to afford the payments even with the buy-back cash, or you haven't seen a car that you want to own worse than your old one, or maybe just that your old car is a pretty good one and you still have need of it) the used parts market for it outside of body panels or interior pieces is effectively dried up. If you were hoping to score some motor parts or a complete motor or transmission, well let's just say there's an acronym that describes your position. SOL.

The only entities that profit from this boondoggle is the scrap metals market. China should be pleased, since they are the largest buyer of scrap metal. Auto salvage yards, on the other hand, not so much.

Good thing for me that none of my cars qualify. They are either too old or they get good enough mileage that they don't fall under the 18 MPG rule. That means that I should be able to get parts far into the foreseeable future.

That's a good thing, too, because the way things are going it looks like I might want to hold on to the old cars for a while. And who knows, maybe one day one of them will be a classic and be worth more than I paid for all of them. Look at what happened to the Edsel, for instance.

A guy can dream, anyway.

UPDATE: This made me cringe:

"Nick Clites, who is in charge of used cars for the dealership, was prepping a 1988 BMW 535IS, with 214,000 miles on the odometer, for its death. He drained the oil, then donned a silky blue protective suit, goggles and gloves and poured a sodium silicate solution into the engine. He revved the car, and within a few seconds, the solution hardened into a glass-like substance, the engine seized up and the car was dead."

Let's look at that again. 1988 BMW 535 IS, that the dealer had to fork over 4500 clams for, engine totally destroyed. If you even have a passing appreciation for fine German automobiles you should be at least wincing right now. Kelley Blue Book has the base model 535 priced at $3650 for an 89 model, so not only is the used car market going to be taking a hit but now you can't even get parts. It's enough to make a car guy scream.

No, I didn't miss the point of the article, which was to warn those who log in to the cars.gov system that "all ur computurz r belong to us."

UPDATE II: Velociman adds his two shekels as only the Velociman can. Yeah, what he said.