20061209

Another way to say "not a dime's worth of difference between them"?

My view: If the American Right ever establishes a fully fascistic government (not likely, not impossible) it will be done using the governmental institutions created by the Left. That's one of the reasons distinctions of Left and Right mean little.

Quote for the day, hat tip to Walter in Denver

A bunch of other people you don't have to worry about either

Ninth Stage graciously comments on my immediately preceding post, and makes a point about "just driving through."

So shall we put a finer point on it? Only those states where you carried a concealed weapon, in accordance with the law, as a private citizen, and did so by getting out of your car (no peaceful journey qualifications or McClure-Volkmer) and entered a place of business open to the public. Typically a mall or a home-improvement store.

I left Arizona off my earlier list because that was open carry.

20061205

It's not me you have to worry about

I have now packed heat lawfully in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Texas, Georgia, Wyoming, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Kentucky.

No lives were lost.

Update, 21 Dec 06: South Carolina.

Update, 30 July 07: Arizona.

15 March 09: Florida.

Update, 6 March 10: Missouri.

Update, 23 Sep 10: Nebraska.

Update, 20 Mar 11: Georgia and Alabama.

Update March 2015:  Arkansas, Utah.  

Too cheap to meter so the bastards just charge by the night instead

Is it just me or are hotels charging for wifi access again?

This is plain bu11sh!7, and makes no economic sense. Full - service hotels, even Marriotts, are charging for internet access. Meanwhile their down-market cousins, Marriott properties in particular, give it away.

Perhaps some beancounter noticed that high-speed access is no longer a luxury but an essential good for business travelers. If so, one would think access would be charged across all properties, not just at the top end properties, where its marginal cost would least affect the bottom line. Meanwhile I see burger joints and pancake houses offering wifi. Hotels, IMO, are bucking the trend where there seems to be no dollar incentive to do so.

Similarly, I'm wondering what other costs wifi access would impose on those who provide it. COPA enforcement? Spammers who check into a hotel just to use the IP address? I just can't see it.

And I won't keep paying for it if I don't have to. That means finding other places to stay, and/or finding other places to connect.

We'll start building the case again soon to direct all my soldiers to downmarket properties, even when the host of the function blocks rooms at the top end at government rate. I can't spend taxpayer money that way.

It may even make economic sense for me to investigate 1RX access over my soldiers' cell phones for longer TDYs.

What I wish there were: widely distributed wifi operated for a profit, paid by the hour with prepaid wifi cards, that I could load up with hours to burn at the airport, and at dumbass hotels that charge by the night (if I'm forced to stay in them).

I've got 4 prepaid phone cards that I just don't use. I carry two mobiles, there may be a third in my future, and payphones are a fading memory. But cards that get me into a wifi access point when I need it? I'd carry one and I'd get them for 21 other men. Where are micropayment infrastructures when you really could use one?