Ever have tech woes?

Well, PC World has compiled a list of 25 doozies for ya.

I'm guilty of a PCjr, which I thought was so cool back then. But I think my phone has more power now.

It's only funny 'cause it's true nominee.

This site has an appropriate bumper sticker for those who want to celebrate our new nobility. Duke Hastert and the rest should be properly honored.

Blogging's been light.

I don't have much traffic, but figured I'd mention that I've been consumed with car problems and work and such.

I'll fill people in on the car problems when I can.

"Have Mouth, Will Insert Foot."

The motto of Denny Hastert, Newt, and the other blithering idiots who have come out and said, essentially, that the law doesn't apply to Congressmen.

Well, that's news to your bosses Denny. The 300 million of us who get tax gouged to pay for your 'earmarks', junkets, and corruption. Remember us?

Seems like you've forgotten and live so isolated in your smoke-filled back-rooms that you have no idea what we're like or what we want.

But, it's perfectly fine to try to insulate your corruption behind a self-enriching misreading of the Constitution while ignoring the infringements done to the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and elsewhere.

If you're legislators and citizens of the US, then you'll get your act together and let the Justice Department do it's job with Rep. Jefferson. If you want to be aristocrats, then just let us know. We, your bosses, fired the last batch that tried it.

Ask the Brits.

If you're not amazed by this...

...then you don't follow baseball.

When the Detroit Tigers are dominating there may be something seriously wrong with the world.

Although, in a good way here.

Boston College shows genuine class.

Instead of the farcical protests I'd heard were planned, the students and families at Boston College showed genuine class to Condi today.

Bravo class of '06 at Boston College. And bravo to Boston College for actually inviting Condi and not caving to a few nuts among your faculty and student body.

Hey Reid, a little history.

Harry Reid (D-DC) calls the proposal to make English the official language 'racist.'

And we need to take his position on this seriously, as his party has shown itself an expert on this through the years. In fact, he's channeling a bit of Calhoun on this one.

After all, they formed the Klan in the 1860s, reformed it again in the early 20th century. Jim Crow grew out of their leadership, which had earlier led to Dred Scot. Rosa Parks stood up to his party's policies, just as LBJ rebelled against Senate Democrats to get the Civil Rights act through. And just as affirmative action and quotas continue the centuries-long practice of racism from Senate Democrats by insisting that blacks aren't capable of doing things on their own.

So thanks Reid, we'll take it under advisement. And if you're busy, you can have Sen. Byrd provide other commentary on it for you.

Sheesh.

Wealthy Donors 1, poor and middle-class taxpayers 0.

In another blow against poor and middle-class Americans, my local Congresswoman worked to ensure our continued dependence on foreign dictatorships for our standard of living. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) once again ensured that her rich donors in Montecito have a good view while the rest of us get tax-gouged to pay for their pork.

Here's the infuriating part:

"Drilling for natural gas means drilling for oil," argued Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., citing industry pronouncements that where there is gas, often oil is found and probably would be developed. "Drilling three miles off our coast will not lower gas prices today or anytime in the near future."

The only reason it can't help in "the near future" is because of conditions Capps has helped create. By stifling the industry, putting on horrible controls that prevent refining, and by then pronouncing there's 'no quick fix', she's trying to play both sides of the issue.

Thanks Lois, I like being sold out to your rich donors. Hopefully their next junket takes you someplace nice.

Real news from Iraq.

An eye-witness account with actual historical experience with Iraq provides a stark contrast with the pre-packaged news made in New York.

"The Baathists and jihadists, their prior efforts to derail Iraqi democracy having come to naught, have now pinned their hopes on creating enough chaos and death to persuade Washington of the futility of its endeavors. In this, they have the tacit support not only of local Arab and Muslim despots rightly fearful of the democratic genie but of all those in the West whose own incessant theme has been the certainty of American failure."

I wonder how 'reporters' like at the NY Times or WashPost can live with themselves knowing they're willing accomplices of al-Qaeda's strategy?

What's important is that we citizens realize this and stop accepting their deceit.

Three planets found orbiting a Sun-like star.

This is just cool. The prevailing opinion some 20 years ago was that we were going to be an anomaly, that stars wouldn't have planets on balance.

Now they're everywhere.

This has to be one of the greatest scientific paradigm shift never reported on. Kind of sad we've gotten that cynical.

Censure Murtha

Advancing your position at the cost of American lives, Democratic Rep. Murtha's modus operandi, should be deplored, censured, and publicly mocked.

If you can honestly buy this self contradiction: "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," then you might want to try the Koolaid. (Hat tip to Best of the Web.)

Hey, Murtha, Semper Fi is supposed to mean something to you, try supporting your fellow Marines instead of their enemies!

I wonder if any of these will spark boycotts?

For those bored with the pending snooze-fest known as the Da Vinci Code, you can create your own Dan Brown novels.

Curiously enough, I wonder if Tom Friedman writes his columns this way.

Tom Friedman, contact your parser.

Get the feeling that the 'mid-east expert' Thomas Friedman stuck in a bit of a loop?

Fortunately, these next three to six months will be crucial to Friedman's career.

Note-taking, taken too far.

And our random story of the day, here's what they did before iPods.

Hoping his prediction is just a bit off.

So, Pat Robertson's at it again.

He's hoping that:

"If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms,"

I suspect that the Lord may, if He's just, be planning to send a small meteor to take out Robertson's studio and mansion.

Here's to hoping!

My IOU to Senator Frist.

So I received a survey from Senator Frist's office regarding how Republican leadership should be doing their job. I answered it faithfully and when I got to the final question it asked if I wanted to donate money.

Given my current disenchantment with Senatorial Republicans (I'm looking at your Lott, Stevens, and Mccain), I decided I'd include an IOU. Once they get their act together, I'll send cash.

My IOU:

IOU NRSC

In lieu of a donation at this time, I’m enclosing this IOU that I will make good upon when the following conditions are met:

1. Earmark elimination – The outright elimination of the earmark/pork process in Washington. This open corruption is ruining this entire nation and must be dealt with firmly, swiftly, and totally. Support Senator Coburn!


2. Securing the border – A nation that surrenders sovereignty of its borders is not destined to last long. Our nation is in that situation now and must move to correct it. This includes 1) a border fence, 2) easing citizenship procedures for legal applicants, 3) enforcement of existing laws and full funding of Border Patrol, 4) a Solomon Amendment-like law forcing all cities, states, and agencies to lose funding if they do not enforce immigration law in full, and 5) demanding concessions from Mexico, if they can’t fix their problems then they need to have us help them fix them.


3. Opening America to energy exploration – Allow this country to drill for it’s own oil, remove/ease the anti-American barriers to refinery building, and slap down this talk about ‘price gouging.’ If a 4% profit by a company is gouging, then the 16% tax by the government is criminal. Besides, if people truly care about the environment they’ll be pleased to do drilling here where the environmental laws are strong and not in Saudi Arabia where they’re non-existant.


4. Permanent tax cuts or a flat tax – None of these two-year extensions. If it’s good enough for 2 years, it’s good enough for good.


5. Free Trade Area of the Americas – Expand NAFTA to each and every nation in the Western Hemisphere that wants it…start with Chile and move on from there. It’s been proven good for jobs here; it’ll just be more so and will build security.


6. Fighting back against Democrat lies – Every lie uttered by the Main Stream Media and the Democrats needs to be countered swiftly and forcefully…no more Murtha’s painting a false picture that becomes reality because the Republicans are afraid to lose their Tim Russert time.


7. Repeal McCain-Feingold – It’s immoral and criminal that Republicans would willingly scrap part of the Constitution just for media face time. The moment McCain stated he wanted a ‘clean government’ over “First Amendment protections” it became obvious this was a power grab, not reform.


8. Protecting the Blogosphere – Bloggers are journalists, in the purest sense of the word. Any attempt to silence or restrain them is an assault on the First Amendment and must be stopped.


9. Protecting the Internet – The attempt to kill the internet must be stopped. The www.savetheinternet.com site will help you see what I mean. Protect net neutrality or we all suffer.

When these 9 are addressed and met then I will be exceedingly generous with my donations and in my time spent campaigning. Until then, I’m not convinced Republicans in Washington are serious about governing this great land.

When he's right, he's right.

Borrowing from Drudge, Rush Limbaugh opined today: 'I can't think of any single issue, in the 18 years I have been on the air, which has Republicans more up in arms than this one.'

Boy is he ever right. The Republicans, and most of the independents, I talk to are furious about the border situation. And they're furious about Washington not doing anything.

The problem really isn't that Mexicans are coming north in large numbers, I'd (like most of my friends and family) have no problem if they could all come north legally. Anyone who says this is about race or whatnot is wrong and clueless.

This is about America being a nation of laws...laws that our politicians won't enforce and cry that it's 'too hard'. Well, if it's 'too hard' then what are you doing in politics? Politics is about doing hard things for the good of the nation, not about making yourselves rich with the corruption known as porkbarrel.

No, what we have found is a bunch of whining children compmlaining that we voters actually expect them to do their job.

So, let's help them.

First off, the misnamed 'Immigration Debate' needs clarity. This is really three issues here.

1. Border Security - Should the US actually enforce it's own laws with regards to the US border? What does it tell us about our national leadership if they don't view of the territorial security of the US as important?
   
   Until politicians get serious about this no one should take the lip service we're hearing seriously.


2. Holding Politicians Accountable - As an offshoot of 1, any politician who is't doing what they can to help enforce US laws (ie, how San Francisco is a 'safe zone') should be exposed and left to the voters.
   
   But what we need to do here is have a Solomon Amendment-like system where any agency/body/municipality that chooses to not enforce US law not be entitled to any federal funds. That some cities are allowed to be in open defiance of valid federal law is unacceptal and feeds the problem.


3. Mexico's in trouble - There's no two ways about it, any nation that's shedding 500,000 able-bodied workers a year to another country has massive internal problems. Mexico needs 1) Capitalism...the real kind, not the cronyistic version they've seen before, 2) Governmental reform, the government structure in Mexico seems horrible broken as it can't police it's territory, control it's police, or provide the safety needed for businesses to grow, and 3) Hope, which is the hardest thing to provide but the one thing most desperately needed.

So America can handle 1 and 2, and must if it's to continue. But 3 is something Mexico must deal with, even if we have to help.

If Mexicans are coming north to do jobs 'Americans won't do', perhaps Americans should also head south to do jobs Mexicans won't do.

What are they thinking!?

So UCSB, where I work, is planning to replace a perfectly functional gate with one more 'aesthetic'. A large traffic circle at the end of a 65mph stretch of freeway, plus an archway, to show off. Not a bad waste of $5.5m that could be spent on other projects around campus...or actually making wages on campus competitive.

But, on the positive side, they plan to start in time for Commencement...meaning that the major way off campus (and one of only 3 ways out) will be potentially off line for that event.

Joy!

Bush whacked? Seems not.

I was fearing the worst out of Bush's speech tonight, especially considering illegals have everyone in fits. Turns out I was pleasently surprised instead.

I think Dartblog has it close here, especially in avoiding the 'job's American's won't do' tripe.

UPDATE: Upon further reflection, the surprise comes from it not being a total flop of a speech. Overall, I feel let down now that I've had time to read the proposal as outlines.

Sure, it gets great mileage.

So the headline on Drudge reads "CAR GETS 8000 MPG", but read this article and you see it's just a hobby car, with a 35cc fuel capacity. Which works out to be a still somewhat respectable 73 miles to the tank on about a tenth of a pint.

Reading the earlier link shows that you essentially have a bobsled on wheels. The 'car' weighs in at under 110 pounds too.

As the inventor crows: "The car is important because it is a reminder that the way to achieve fuel-savings is to drive lighter cars. It's the weight of this car that is the main reason for its fuel-efficiency." Problem here is that the weight of a car is also a crucial element in the safety of the vehicle.

So, yeah, great mileage. But if you sneeze while driving you blow off a fender.

One sick puppy in NC.

Reading Ed Cone earlier...sheesh. My first thought is this poor sod just has a messed up mind, needs therapy, etc.

But, then again, he may be perfectly sane.

A little chilling how madness and evil are so similar.

Ever wonder what's on a Congressman's to-do list?

Given everything that's going on in the world and this country you'd think some heady stuff would be on tap in a Congressional office.

So what so you think Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-Pa) puts high enough up on America's danger list as to introduce a separate bill?

Funding the War on Islamofascism? Nope.

Securing our borders and enforcing our existing immigration laws? Doesn't seem so.

Fighting corruption and earmarks? Not a chance.

No, Fitzpatrick is seeking to spend our money to create a federal law to oversee access to MySpace, Facebook, and other social websites. (Fortunately for these sites it'll probably be like our border laws and totally ignored by Washington.)

Finished laughing? Good, because he's serious.

"As the father of six children, I hear about these Web sites on a daily basis," Fitzpatrick said. "However, the majority of these networking sites lack proper controls to protect their younger users. Also, many parents lack the resources to protect their children from online predators. My legislation seeks to change that." [emphasis added]

He's right you know...it's far too much to expect that a parent would actually care enough about their child to parent.

Just as it appears that it's far too much to expect a Republican to act like a Republican.

New mechanism for Triton's capture.

While they've been talking about Neptune's moon Triton being a captured body for some time, this article provides a new mechanism (at least for me) of how that could come about.

Very cool.

Not just Egypt.

Of course, following up the previous article, despotic tyrants in Egypt aren't the only ones afraid of critique. Blogger Will Vehrs was suspended ten days for having the temerity to voice his opinion.

Why is it so hard to engage a critique in debate? It's hard to imagine something as large and bloated as a state government can't find someone to rebut Vehrs' points.

And make no mistake, this is censorship. Not the ham-handed method of actually stoping someone from commenting, but the insidious method of making the person think twice before voicing their opinion.

Simple logic then, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, censoring might just be the clearest form of fear.

Remember though, as Kerry is fond of misquoting, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism". So Vehrs isn't just being a critic, but is a patriot!

Update: Over at Bacon's rebellion they mention more of the background here. Seems Armstrong (D-Egypt) is involved quite a bit here.

So, mid-level state employee presents his own citizen's take on things, and gets browbeaten into submission and suspension. Yeah, I'm sure Henry County and Martinville are in great shape when that's the reaction.

Pharoh Mubarak, let your people go!

As Max Boot opines in the LA Times, what are we doing with Egypt being considered an 'ally'?

If our goal is to bring freedom to the oppressed citizens of Islam, shouldn't we be demanding it of our allies as well as liberating our enemies?

Egypt gets billions of dollars in aid a year, but can't stand a free election. They are called ally yet scream anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism in their news. They're called friend but imprision people with a critical voice like blogger Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam.

What's going on are two forces combining into an ugly reality.

First, there's the old wartime schtick of 'my enemy's enemy'. Mubarak is opposed to al-Qaeda, evidenced by their repeated bombings of Egypt's resorts, so the 'real-politik' demand is to treat him as a friend. Just like we did with Pinochet, Batista, Noriega, Saddam, Suharto, etc. Old diplomacy dies hard I guess.

Second, tyrants like Mubarak read our news. They're smart, and they see the al-Qaeda backing Left ripping apart anything in this country they can get their hands on. And they know that Bush is out of office in January 2009 (or sooner if Pelosi (D-al Qaeda) gets her way.) They just have to bide their time while their fronts like the NY Times sells their tens of millions of people into perpetual bondage just because the Left hates Bush.

So our State Dept is playing it's old games, and our internal opposition has turned so collaborationist that our enemies just have to wait.

Because until we get our act together, there'll be no promised land to lead these people to. We need to demand our 'friends' take this time and our largesse to peacefully transition into free societies.

Things I'd be willing to sacrifice...

Reading CNN I come across this article about what Americans are willing to sacrifice to compensate for the cost of gas.

Now, normally, a push-poll like this wouldn't merit anything, let alone the first post of a new blog. But I think this needed a little commentary.

No where did the polling firm think to ask things like 'Would you be willing to repeal the roughly 16% of the current cost of gas goes to taxes that vanish in the general fun instead of being used for roads and highways?' or 'Would you be willing to see relaxed environmental laws so refineries can actually be built?'

The point is the word 'sacrifice', when used like this, is being misused. Usually, a sacrifice involves losing luxuries first. Now the argument is usually framed in the size of the car being the luxury to lose. What isn't brought into this are luxuries like laws preventing refinery construction, mandates preventing oil drilling, etc.

The sacrifices often sought by CNN and the like are a bunch of misanthropic requirements designed to 'punish' you because you're too wealthy. Not to solve the problem.

Just a thought.