Earlier, in Obama 73, Bush 29 I reported that

A summary of polls shows that approximately 29% of adults disapprove of the way Bush is handling the job of being president.

A more recent poll shows that

1 out of 4 Americans think that Dick Cheney is the worst vice-president ever.

Dick Cheney's response? "Go F^%#k yourselves, Americans. And wipe up the mess with your G*&$&@n Constitution."

Labels: approve, bush, cheney, legacy, worst

When is a combat injury not a combat injury? It's when the Pentagon is trying to cut costs [consider that while thinking about the billions of dollars WASTED by the military and their civilian leaders].

The Pentagon has changed its definition of combat-related disabilities. The change is costing some wounded veterans thousands of dollars in lost benefits.

Examples:

• Marine Cpl. James Dixon was wounded twice in Iraq -- by a roadside bomb and by a land mine. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, a dislocated hip and hearing loss. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Army Sgt. Lori Meshell shattered a hip and crushed her back and knees while diving for cover during a mortar attack in Iraq. She has undergone a hip replacement and knee reconstruction and needs at least three more surgeries.

According to Pentagon officials, benefits should be greater for veterans wounded in combat than for "members with disabilities incurred in other situations (e.g., simulation of war, instrumentality of war, or participation in hazardous duties, not related to combat)." Dixon and Meshell - and many other veterans - say their disabilities were caused by hostile enemy actions in combat.

Sgt. Meshell said that in the Pentagon's view, her wounds would be considered combat-related only if she had been struck by shrapnel. She was told why she didn't deserve better treatment from the Pentagon; many veterans say that they are not told why their disabilities are not considered combat-related. And ... there are those who don't even know that they are receiving reduced benefits.

Dixon said he did not realize he had been put in a noncombat-related category until he began questioning his disability payments. It took more than six months of phone calls, letters and appeals -- plus help from the Disabled American Veterans and a member of Congress -- to overturn his designation. "It was a nightmare," Dixon said. "Most veterans don't know how the system works, or how to fight it. They don't realize all the obstacles they put in your way to keep you from getting what you deserve."

Sgt. Meshell's military career includes five years of active duty, a combat tour in Iraq, and 12 years in the National Guard/Reserves. She thinks she deserves the full disability benefits authorized by Congress for veterans injured in combat.

"I'm a college graduate. I'm not a dumb person. But honestly, I can't begin to explain some of this stuff," Meshell said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-combat25-2008nov25,0,3851922,full.story

Commentary: while reeling from that atrocity, consider that of all of the heavy-hitters who lied us into the war, only two had served in any military capacity:

1. Donald Rumsfeld was a fighter pilot in peacetime.
2. George W. Bush broke his contract with the Air National Guard by refusing to take his annual physical, and then simply refusing to show up to fulfill his assignments (one weekend per month).
3. Dick Cheney has proudly proclaimed that he "had other priorities."
4. Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, and dozens more all avoided even basic training during war and peace.

My Imaginary Friend continues to berate my decision to turn my back on political "conservatives." So I sat him down and asked him to 'splain me the following:

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while
slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay,
using "stop loss" to draft soldiers into extended enlistments,
and providing substandard safety gear and equipment.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is a impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness, and you need our prayers for your recovery.

You support states' rights, which means the Attorney General can tell states what local voter initiatives they have the right to adopt.

What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

It's going to be a long wait.

Labels: bart simpson.obama, Greg Palast, secretary of education

• A miss is as good as 1.6 kilometers.
• Put your best .3 of a meter forward.
• Spare the 5.03 meters and spoil the child.
• Twenty-eight grams of prevention is worth 453 grams of cure.
• Give a man 2.5 centimeters and he'll take 1.6 kilometers.
• Peter Piper picked 8.8 liters of pickled peppers.

Labels: metric

The Myth:

Republicans are good for the economy; Democrats are bad for the economy.

It depends on what you think are good and bad.

Category	Bush I	Clinton	Bush II
Median Income	- 4.9%	+ 14.5%	- 2.2%
Americans In Poverty (Compared to Predecessor)	- 6.5 Million	- 7.7 Million	+ 1.3 Million
Job Creation	+ 2.3 Million	+ 22.9 Million	- 1.5 Million
Unemployment Rate (Compared To Predecessor)	+ 1.9%	- 3.1%	+ 0.6% (peaked at + 2.0% in 2003)

Concept: Los Angeles Times: Sep 30, 2002; Ronald Brownstein;
updated with data from Congressional Budget Office

Final Year's Budget Deficit (Billions of Dollars)
President	Last Year In Office	Deficit In $ Billions	Increase In $ Billions	Increase %
Johnson	1968	25.2	1960 data n/a - this is a baseline
Nixon/Ford	1976	73.7	+ 48.6	+ 92.8%
Carter	1980	73.8	+ 0.1	+ 0.1%
Reagan	1988	155.2	+ 81.3	+ 110.9%
Bush I	1992	290.3	+ 216.5	+ 39.5%
Clinton	2000	125.6	- 415.9	- 45.5%
Bush II	2007	286.3	+ 286.3	+ 127.9%

Source: Congressional Budget Office

Non-Defense Government Employees Added or Subtracted
Kennedy/Johnson	178,000
Nixon/Ford	213,000
Carter	- 14,000
Reagan	3,000
George H.W. Bush	104,000
Clinton	- 115,000

Doing The Math:

• Under the 20 years of Republican administrations
  the number of non-defense government employees rose by 310,000.
• During the 20 years of Democratic administrations
  the number of non-defense government employees rose by 59,000.
• Of the 369,000 non-defense government employees added between 1962 and 2001,
  • 84% were added under Republican administrations
  • 16% were added under Democratic administrations
• In 40 years ALL 3 of the Republican administrations increased the number of non-defense federal employees.
• In the same 40 years, 2 0f the 3 Democratic administrations decreased the number of non-defense federal employees.
  

But Wait! There's More!
Under the G.W. Bush regime, the number of federal employees decreased, but the jobs did not go away. Instead, civil service employees were replaced by contractors. Add back in the number of contractors, and the number of people performing government tasks increased. The contractors cost the feds significantly more than did the former civil servants (even when you include the funding of civil service retirements). In addition, productivity decreased. The productivity problems have at least 4 causes:

1. the experienced employees left
2. inexperienced contractors replaced those employees
3. the contracting companies have no incentive to perform well - their incentive is to run up costs rather than to cut costs
   
4. the management put in place by the Bush Administration is notoriously incompetent ("Heckuva job, Brownie"); managers are placed, not on the basis of skill, but on the basis of political loyalty and ideological purity.

When all the facts are sorted out, the Bush administration will be proven to be the worst of all Republican administrations when it comes to increasing the size and cost of the federal government.

As pointed out here a few days ago,

1. Jesus of Nazareth (the place, not the hair band) was NOT born on the day that 2 billion people celebrate as his birthday
2. JC of N was not born in year 0 (it was sometime between 6 BC and 2 BC).

However, many people of note were born on December 25. Examples:

• Isaac Newton (1642) Mathematician, lawmaker, and bipolar whacko
  
• Clara Barton (1821) Nurse, founder of the Red Cross
• Helena Rubinstein (1870) Cosmetics merchant
• Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876) Founder, Islamic Republic of Pakistan
• Giuseppe de Luca (1876) Opera singer (as if anyone who reads this can appreciate opera)
• Louis Chevrolet, (1878) race car driver who was named after an automobile
• Conrad Hilton (1887) Hotel executive and ancestor of actress who appears in grainy green-tinted movies
  
• Robert Ripley (1893) Cartoonist, "Believe It Or Not"
• Humphrey Bogart (1899) Actor and verb
• Gerhard Herzberg (1904) German/Canuck Nobel laureate (Chemistry)
• Ernst Ruska (1906) Nobel laureate (Physics), inventor of electron microscope
• Cab Calloway (1907) Band leader and advisor to Jake and Elwood
• Tony Martin (1913) Singer and Northern California-based heart transplant donor
• Anwar Sadat (1918) Egypt president when some famous dam thing was completed
• Rod Serling (1924) Writer, "The Twilight Zone"
• Nellie Fox (1927) Pro Baseball player
• Alan King (1927) Comedian who, ironically, is Jewish and doesn't celebrate Christmas (but neither did JC the Nazarian)
• Carlos Castaneda (1925 or 1931, depending on whom you ask) Anthropologist, best-selling author, and stoner; after decades of mescal-induced enlightenment, Castanada damn sure can't remember the year
• Little Richard (1935) Singer
• Gary Sandy (1945) Actor (TV sitcom WKRP)
• Jimmy Buffett (1946) Singer, surfer, and imbiber of Margaritas
• Larry Csonka (1946) Hall of Fame Pro Football player
  
• Barbara Mandrell (1948) Singer
• Sissy Spacek (1949) coal miner's daughter, bane of high school proms, and Mel Gibson's co-conspirator in a rainstorm
  
• Karl Rove (1950) Scumbag, liar, and nation-f%^$ker
• Annie Lennox (1954) Singer, your rhythmic
• Robin Campbell (1954) Reggae singer-musician (UB40)
• Steve Wariner (1954) Country singer
• Rickey Henderson (1960) Pro Baseball player and thief of much reknown
• Noel Hogan (1971) Rock musician (The Cranberries) and condiment served with turkey

and, of course, your favorite blogger, the one

• whose presents always said "Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas"
• never had a birthday party
• whose birthday, likely as not, got overlooked
• whom no one ever thanked for the school/work holiday [ end whine ]

Labels: Born On Christmas, Born On December 25

OK, just the snippet that resonates, that haunts.

Old dogs care about you even when you make mistakes.
God bless little children while they're still too young to hate.
When he moved away I found my pen and copied down that line,
'Bout old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
[ .... ]
That night I dreamed in peaceful sleep of shady summertime
Of old dogs and children and watermelon wine <sup>1

1</sup> Tom T. Hall, Old Dogs And Children And Watermelon Wine, ©1972

Labels: Old Dogs And Children, Tom T. Hall, Watermelon Wine

1000 Ways To Waste Time

The Diagram Group (London-based book packager) wasted nearly thirty years of working time to complete the necessary research for this project.

Examples:

Blow your own imaginary trumpet
Change the order of your keys on your key ring
Convince someone that an African elephant has smaller ears than an Asian elephant
Draw a map of Europe from memory
Evaluate how much spare time you have each week to do nothing
Exercise your tongue by trying to make it reach the tip of your nose
Imagine how cold it would be living in an igloo
Look to see if anything has fallen behind the radiators
Plan to dispose of a body
Read this blog
Think what you could do with three extra fingers
Write lyrics to Ravel's Bolero
Write your date of birth in Roman numerals

Labels: waste time

As I understand it, the only appropriate way to properly honor the Winter Solstice is to honor the date of Christ's birth. After all, we are a nation built by Christians, as Christians, for Christians. Anything that seems to be contrary to that notion is a part of the "War On Christmas."

Hmmmmm.

The fact is that for this country's first 200 years (early 1600s to early-mid 1800s), Christmas celebrations were rare. In many parts of the land, Christmas celebrations were outlawed - by code or by the equally powerful customs of, ummmmm, Christians who had immigrated from Europe.

Those Founding Fathers? Well, Congress was in session most Christmas Days from the beginning (1789) until ~1855. Why? It was a work day because Christmas was NO BIG DEAL to the FFs - or to the rest of "Christian" America.

Another fact: for the 1st 400 years of Christianity, Christmas as a day of feasting (or worshiping) did not exist. Even the most devout of Christians celebrated various pagan festivals and holidays involving the Winter Solstice. Around 400 AD the Christian church created a Holy Day in an effort to redirect the flock's attention to matters more Holy. The effort backfired, but that's a whole other story. The pagan celebrations continued - in Europe - to this day. In the colonies - and later in the USA - Christian celebrations of Christmas didn't catch on until well into the 19th century (the 1800s).

While we're at it.... scientists and Bible scholars agree:

• Christ was not born in the year 0
• Christ was not born on December 25 (however, several people of note - including your favorite blogger - were born on 12/25). The above-mentioned action by the Church is what pegged the day as December 25 - during the pagan feasts.
  
• The "manger story" is highly suspect; several elements of the story defy logic and the prevailing customs of Palestine 2000 years ago.
• The "Christmas Star" was probably not a star. More likely it was an astronomical phenomenon that only existed in the context of viewing the skies from the planet Earth. That same phenomenon would not display from any other angle, from anywhere else in the universe.
  
  The Christmas Star's only real significance would have been to astrologers.... people who explain everything in terms of how stars and planets appear in the sky (and only from the Earth). Astrologers are an anathema to Christians and to scientists. The "3 Wise Men" were simply astrologers who became curious about an astronomical anamoly. I hear they wrote fortune cookie texts and had an astrology-based advice column in the Daily Papyrus. They were what we would today call "Iranians" because they lived (and wrote their advice column) in what we now call Iran.
  

None of this screed is intended to diminish the significance of Christmas. My intention is to strip away the hogwash surrounding Christmas. With reality in mind, you readers can now contemplate or celebrate or ignore Christmas - for all the right reasons.

As for the "War on Christmas," it is simply a propaganda campaign designed to direct hate and discontent at people with whom some people disagree.

Take that, Bill O'Reilly¹ - and your fellow-traveling band of morons.

¹ Why Christmas Matters (by Wee Willy O'Reilly)

Labels: astrology, christian, christmas star, pagan, paid holidays, solstice, War on Christmas

An actual headline: "More Sex, Less Stress". Really....

Labels: duh, sex, stress

From the Wall Street Journal (a notoriously left-leaning pro-Democrat, pro-Obama newspaper), Thursday, December 11, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama is entering the White House with an enormous reservoir of goodwill from an American public that is rooting for his success in the face of bad economic times, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.

The mood presents opportunities as well as perils for Mr. Obama, who confronts a series of challenges amid expectations he will handle them well.

Overall, a majority of Americans are confident in Mr. Obama's ability to govern and unify the country, with many who didn't vote for him now seeing him in a positive light.

The poll found that 73% of adults approve of the way he is handling the transition and his preparations for becoming president.

President Bush: Overall Job Rating In National Polls

PollingReport.com

	Survey Dates	Approve %	Disapprove %	Unsure %	Approve minus Disapprove
FOX/Opinion Dynamics RV	Dec 9-10	30	65	5	-35
NBC/Wall Street Journal	Dec 5-8	27	67	6	-40
CBS	Dec 4-8	24	68	8	-44
AP-GfK	Dec 3-8	28	66	*	-38
Gallup	Dec 4-7	32	61	7	-29
Pew	Dec 3-7	24	68	8	-44

A summary of those polls shows that approximately 29% of adults disapprove of the way Bush is handling the job of being president

.

Labels: approval, approve, bush, disapproval, disapprove, obama, polls

"No butts about it — fecal transplants work for some"

Fecal transplants? You're sh&^%$in' me, right?

Labels: Fecal transplants, News That Sounds Like A Bad Joke

This blog is created using 100 percent post-consumer recycled ideas, (using no chlorine bleach) with non-GMO soy-based malarkey.

Testing will soon begin stretch of roadway embedded with a network of Piezo Electric Generators (IPEG).

Huh? What is a Piezo Electric Generator?

A good example of a Piezo Electric Generator is the "electronic" igniter used in gas-powered heating appliances.

In the old days, gas appliances had "pilot lights" - a small continously-burning flame used to ignite the propane or butane gas. Nowadays appliances use the afore-mentioned "electronic" igniter. When you turn the knob on a gas stove, the gas starts to flow through the burner. Then you hear a click and see the spark. The spark ignites the gas and causes the flame over which one cooks. The same applies to water heaters, gas-powered cooking grills, clothes dryers, and furnaces.

The piezoelectric effect converts mechanical strain into electrical current.

Back to the electric road:

Cars, trucks, motorcycles, skateboards, etc. will roll along on the road. The moving mass of the vehicles will provide weight, motion, vibration, and temperature changes. Those comprise the mechanical energy (mechanical strain). Then the embedded network of Piezo Electric Generators will convert that mechanical energy into electrical energy.

The system is expected to scale up to 400 kilowatts (enough for 15-30 homes) from a 1-kilometer stretch of highway. The harvested energy can be transferred to the power grid, or used for specific local public infrastructure purposes such as street lighting.

A Jetson¹ moment: perhaps it could be used to charge batteries for electric cars or to power guidance systems that keep traffic moving safely with cars on "autopilot" - without driver intervention.^{2 3 4 5}

The IPEG is a pioneering invention in the field of Parasitic Energy harvesting. You'll hear much more about this in the years to come.

¹ The Jetsons

² Dancers at a RAVE could power those strobe lights.

³ Meth heads running around the kitchen could cook up new batches of meth.

⁴ Two words: Star Bucks.

⁵ Add your own applications here: Write clearly.

Source: Gizmag

Labels: alternative energy, jetsons, meth head, Piezo, starbucks

Who were the first people who were called "bootleggers?"

One would assume that the term originated in the Prohibition-era South or Appalachian regions.

One would be wrong.

In the 1850s the fledgling northwest nether lands of the USA needed a Port of Entry for sailing ships brought goods from the North Pacific and for goods from anywhere but bound for the Northwest. Siting the official operations was not easy:

• Portland (OR) had a inland harbor along the Columbia River - and easy access to the nation's growing railroad infrastructure. The bad news was that ingress and egress for ocean ships involved crossing the treacherous "bar" where the Columbia River meets the ocean.
  
• Seattle had an OK harbor, but it was a long way from the ocean (relatively speaking).
  
• Port Angeles (WA) had an excellent harbor and was close to the ocean (relatively speaking) - but had an lousy PR agency.
  
• Port Townsend was close to the ocean (relatively speaking) and had a superior PR program (and an unimpressive harbor).

Port Townsend won (temporarily), and became home to the US Customs service. The local economy soared.

As was typical of wild west boom towns, PT became a rather sleazy place. The locals (the pre-European locals) fell into the local (post-European) debauchery. As one of the town's matrons observed, "I have heard of Sodom and I have heard of Gomorrah. Port Townsend beats the pair."

Even in the town with its wicked ways, being white and drunk was considered to be a character flaw. Being non-white and drunk was a crime - AND a source of fear for the late-arriving, but dominant, Europeans. The ruling parties (white) made it a crime to furnish alcohol to "Indians."

This interference in the Free Market provided business opportunities. (White) entreprenuers figured out a way smuggle illegal alcohol to the Prohibees (non-white): they wore high-top boots in which they could carry "flat" bottles of booze. Those who thusly transported illegal alcohol became known as..... bootleggers.

Epilogues:

1. The citizens of PA resolved the problem of crappy PR. They raided the Customs House in PT and took everything they needed to establish the offices in Port Angeles. To this day, US Customs (or whatever it's now called) is housed in Port Angeles, WA.
2. The railroad terminus - vital to port operations - wound up in Tacoma (WA), thus diminishing the importance of PA. Tacoma's PR efforts trumped everyone's.
   

Go figure.

Labels: bootleg, Port Angeles, Port Townsend

JustFreeBooks search the content of more than 550 web sites, including gutenberg.org, wikibooks.org and archive.org. With JustFreeBooks you can find public domain texts, open books, free audio books, ad-supported books and more. Just type in the search box the book, author or theme you want to find.

Examples:

• Children's Books
• CSS (a Web Programming tool)
• Cooking book or cookbook
• George Orwell
• Programming ajax (another Web Programming tool)

Labels: archive.org, free books, gutenberg, justfreebooks, wikibooks

According to Travel & Leisure Magazine,

"The city [ Seattle ] is

1. Best in the country for
   
   • Cafés and Coffee Bars (No. 1)
   • Farmers' Markets (No. 1)
   • Intelligent People (No. 1) [ ahem! ]
2. Near the top in Environmental Awareness (No. 2)
3. Among the best in Public Parks and Access To The Outdoors (No. 4)
   

But.... pack an umbrella for that Rainy Weather (No. 23)."

http://www.travelandleisure.com/afc/2008/city/seattle


Note: in the PNW, umbrellas have two common names: "bumbershoot" and "I don't have one... never have." Seattle just might be the only place in the world that has a huge festival celebrating something that nobody owns or wants to own: http://www.bumbershoot.org/

Labels: bumbershoot, seattle

A probably apocryphal tale:

At a computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated:
"if GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

GM's response:
"If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars like the following."

• For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
• Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.
• Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the car windows, shut it off, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue.
  
  For some bizarre reason you would simply accept this, restart, and drive on.
  
  
• Occasionally, executing a maneuver would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine.
  
  For some strange reason, you'd accept this too.
  
  
• Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
• You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a "Car XP" or a "Car Vista" [oh-h-h-h-h, that's scary]. But then you'd have to buy more seats.
• Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on 6.7% of the roads.
• The Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.
• The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.
• People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.
• We'd all have to switch to Microsoft petrol and lubricants but the packaging would be superb.
• New seats would force everyone to have the same size arse.
• The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
• If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
• They wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 1 cylinder, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.
• There would be an "Engium Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.
• Microsoft cars would have a special radio/CD player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft CDs - unless of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.
• Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don't own any roads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free, including IBM.
• If you still ran old versions of car (ie. CarDOS 6.22/CarWIN 3.11),then you would be called old fashioned, but you would be able to drive much faster, and on more roads!
• If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friend's, and then copy it.
• Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganize the ignition for a few days before it worked.
• You would need to buy an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other.
• Every time Microsoft introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
• Microsoft would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Automobile Association Road maps (now a Microsoft subsidiary), even though they neither need nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more.
• You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.
• Any exterior color you want, but the interior will always be the BSOD shade of blue and it frequently rubs off on you.
• Every bug that hit the windshield would force you to get the car repaired - and all of the bugs seem to be aimed at Microsoftmobiles. Some say that the bugs are actually built into the car, and keep flying at the windshield from within.
• The Warranty Service Packs are free, but they often make the car worse than it was before the Service.
  

Sometimes I write posts in advance, for future publication. The engine that drives this blog posts at the date and time that I specify. For technical reasons, sometimes during the development phase, I see the blog differently than do you, my valued readers. If I don't check in each day, sometimes mistakes that I made previously will show up. Of course, my audience (all 20 of you...) let me know that the post is missing an image, but that time thing keeps getting in the way of correcting the errs.

If I have time, I fix the occasional oopsies. When I don't have the time, those oopsies live on.

Today I fixed the problem with all of the images missing over the past few weeks. Not that I really had time to....

For your viewing pleasure, you can scroll through the back pages, or follow these links:

• OK, Let's Try Again
• Winter Excuse For Staying Home
• Carl's Back!
• School Punishment
• You've Been There, Right? Part 571
• Don't You Just Love Hypocrites?
• If My Computer Could Talk....
• So When The Tech Support Guy Sez...
• Who's To Bless and Who's To Blame?
• You've Been There, Right? Part 145
• Multitasking For Geezers
• Getting All Scientific On You
• The Latest In Computer Security

Thanks for writing and thanks for hanging in with me.

What If Steve Jobs Ran A Car Company?

Some people think that Apple's CEO Steve Jobs either
a) should take over one of the Big 3 (GM, Ford, Chrysler)
or
b) be appointed as federal government’s "car czar" overseeing the bailout of the big three automakers.

That's not as goofy as it sounds: consider that Steve Jobs built a wildly successful business from scratch, left the company, came back after the new management ran it into the ground, and made it wildly successful again. Not that GM, Ford, or Chrysler would need someone who could do that....

What kind of car would a Steve Jobs-run car company produce?

• Overpriced and over-hyped.
• Owned by smug Yuppies and wanna-be artists (too bad, Audi, Volvo, and Saab).
• Only runs on Apple brand gasoline from Apple brand gas stations.
• It wouldn't have any Windows.
• Acceleration and braking would be handled with a single pedal.
• Impossible to look under the hood... or at the tires, door handles, trunk.
  
• No danger of being accused of being over-powered...
• Colors? You’d have a choice of: brushed aluminum.
• That stale 30-year old logo might actually look good on a car.
• Steering would be done via touchscreen.
• That stale 30-year old logo might actually look good on a car.
• It would drive slower in Redmond than it would in Cupertino.
• Can't pull a trailer because Apple cars don't network worth a damn.
• Would force you to go where it thinks you should go.
  

And...

• The owners would never admit to having a crash or being stuck in traffic.
• Finally! A car that can't be cloned by Asian car makers.
• The car's owners would blame all vehicular problems on cars with Windows.
• People would wait overnight in blocks-long lines to buy the latest model - even if the latest model isn't a car.
• The Microsoft Auto Company would always be several years late in copying the Apple Car's features.
• Apple Car's (GM's) market share would hover around 6.7% for decades, but they'd still make money.
• Consider the advertising slogan: Keeping Jobs In America!
  
• The company would successfully branch out into making music players and telephones. Oh, wait .... been there, done that.
• The company would give away cars to students, hoping to get them hooked before they find something better.
  

Labels: automobile manufactuers, humor, steve jobs

Labels: eskimo, inuit, polar bear

Labels: wave

Labels: bart, dumb question, google

Rush Limbaugh is the archtypical conservative: more bluster than action, manipulative, hypocritical.

There isn't a USA war that Rush doesn't love. He thinks everyone should help fight for his cause. Everyone but Rush.

Although he was prime material for cannon fodder in the Vietnam years, Rush was unable to perform his patriotic duties. he was declared to be medically unfit for service. Heart malfunction? Head trauma? Cancer? Nope. He had a pimple. More precisely, a pimple on his fat, um..... gluteous maximus.

It's called a pilonidal cyst. No one ever died from a pilonidal cyst, aka fistula.

In fact, a late friend fought in WWI. He had a fistula. While a bit embarrassing, his fistula didn't keep him out of combat. When irritated - like ducking into trenches or running across battlegrounds - his cyst bled. The solution? Well, Uncle Sam didn't send him home. Instead, the Army issued him a supply of ..... you look it up.

So in WWI a fistula earned one a hygiene accessory. When possible, the treatment is antibiotic therapy (not available back then), hot compresses, lancing, and application of depilatory creams (if an ingrown hair is involved).

In the 60s, this owwie was grounds for rejection. Keep in mind: he could have had the cyst treated, insisted that the Army (or Marines - ha!) let him in, and then shipped out to fight in that noble war. He let an outpatient procedure get between him and his patriotic duty. He was, and still is, fully capable of attacking anyone who has the temerity to question the value and/or morality of a military action .... any military action, whether or not instigated by our government.

Of course, among 'hawks' - pro-war (any war) loudmouths - there are many hypocrites like Rush. Think of them as Chicken Hawks. Who served in the military (and who did not)?

Don't You Just Love Hypocrites?

Labels: chickenhawk, conservative, fistula, Hypocrite, pilonidal, Rush Limbaugh, viet nam, vietnam

What some people will do to buy cheap plastic s*&#it from China, and to buy it cheaper... unless you count in the value of human life being trampled by greed.

Rather than stop and think some bold thought like "maybe STUFF is overrated" ... those same people lined up hundreds deep to do it again the next day.

Bramble Update: December 1 - Yes! Still! Yummy!
Actually the blackberries are gone, but the domestic red raspberries are still abundant .... and still tasty.

Previously, in Truth for Dummies"

November 16, 2008 - Great Northwet

It's mid-November and I'm still snarfing down blackberries and raspberries. They're still sweet, juicy, tasty. And they're north of the 48th and they're still here in November.

November 3, 2008 - Great Northwet

But It's November!
I've been picking - and eating and enjoying - raspberries and blackberries. In November. North of the 48th parallel.They've been some damn fine berries1, too.

¹ OK, they're not berries; they're brambles. They're still sweet, juicy, tasty. And they're north of the 48th and in November December.

Labels: blackberries, bramble, december, raspberries