Rumor mill
. . . has it that USAF, envious of the Marines' waycool camouflage pattern, is pursuing its own unique camouflage uniform. The pattern was described as the Vietnam-era tiger stripe, weaving the "urban" colors blue, gray, and tan, mimicking the concrete, dirt, and buildings of airbases.
Sounds cool, but, uh, guys? Can you angle the chest pockets on the jacket, like on the MARPATs? And attach the cuffs inside out like theirs too---the cuff buttons hang up on camouflage netting.
And for Pete's sake, let's convert to a pin-on subdued enlisted chevron---just one, on the flap of the jacket covering the placket buttons, at the level of the chest pocket flaps. Or provide a flap to carry the subdued cloth chevron from the GoreTex parka, like on the CADPATs. Officers would continue to wear rank insignia as on the current uniform.
Speaking of the jacket front button flap, since we all carry pens tucked in there anyway, why not just widen it a bit and put a pen pocket inside there?
One last thing: leave oversize pen slots or big buttonholes in the pocket flaps for the big bellows pockets on the trouser legs. When you put an LMR in the pocket, you need a handy way for the antenna to stick out. Better yet, put a sturdy belt loop in the pocket, attached to the leg sideways, to clip the LMR on to. Otherwise, the LMR flops around in the pocket.
Another last thing: attach the seat pockets on the outside of the trousers. Ask why, if you must.
Yet one more last thing: follow the Marines and convert to a single, quality, brown suede safety-toed boot. Single, as in, the same boot for temperate or desert climates.
20030714
Greatest hits
This blog continues to get hits from Erosblog's mention of a post that discussed the romantic possibilities of a weekend away from the kids.
Second, searches for St. Pauli Girl costumes. Close third for the same post, but searching for girls on trampolines.
Note, these are the most frequently recurring search terms, not the biggest-hitting referrals. We can claim only two Instalanches, one kicked my way by James Rummel after he read my comments at Scott Chaffin's, and the other shamelessly self-promoted.
This blog continues to get hits from Erosblog's mention of a post that discussed the romantic possibilities of a weekend away from the kids.
Second, searches for St. Pauli Girl costumes. Close third for the same post, but searching for girls on trampolines.
Note, these are the most frequently recurring search terms, not the biggest-hitting referrals. We can claim only two Instalanches, one kicked my way by James Rummel after he read my comments at Scott Chaffin's, and the other shamelessly self-promoted.
20030713
20030629
Idea 272, or Visualize Seething Rage
Idea 272, or Visualize Seething Rage
Since driving a few tollroads during this summer trip, I am reminded of the costs of collecting tolls. The Federal income tax, in comparison, seems very cheap to collect, because the Feds themselves don't collect it, they make employers collect it for them. The Feds don't want to do it themselves and they're worried that private collection agencies would be heavyhanded. Employers are stuck with the job.
Taxpayers aren't excited about someone else collecting from them either. They like the Christmas-y feeling of getting their overpayment rebated to them, which can only happen with a system that withholds during the year. They won't be sold on the notion of making out the check for the whole tax year's amount unless they see the real opportunity cost of payroll withholding---they need to see a little Christmas every paycheck. And they won't get agitated about high tax levels unless they not merely understand the opportunity cost, but feel it like the proverbial boot in the face.
In short, popular support for a drastic reduction (do not use the term "reform") in Federal income taxes will not materialize unless we can convert at least some employer withholding into employee investment. Let's transpose the little-pain-every-paycheck with the Santy-Claus-in-April, into a little Christmas every paycheck and the big pain in April.
We can show the opportunity cost, in real dollars and cents, using commercial, off-the-shelf systems available now, and we can make it politically palatable to practically all of the stakeholders by aiming it at lower-income brackets first. Because women are more prevalent in the lower-income brackets, or so I am told, the remainder of this post refers to the taxpayer in the feminine gender.
End employer withholding, by replacing it with employer withholding, er, with a twist. Instead of the Federal income tax withheld, the exact same amount is directed to an employer-administered savings account, much like a 401(k). Surely many good vehicles are available to receive these monies, with the understanding that they will be cashed out on a known date; the problem will be choosing vehicles where the monies will be out of the reach of tampering and won't crash during the tax year.
The employee owns the dividends and income this money generates, tax-free now and forever, as it waits for April. The employee also gets periodic spreadsheets showing the dividends and income that the money makes, and the taxes she paid in prior tax years.
At income tax return time, the employee gets one check, which she must write from that account, payable to Uncle Sugar for whatever amount the 1040 says. It's like a Christmas Club, but the gift is for Uncle Sugar.
This is important: the check must be written in longhand. Mechanically printed checks and electronic transfers are prohibited. I want to see the salty stains of sweat and tears on that paper check from the effort of writing out the date, then Pay to the Order Of, the amount in digits, the amount in words, watching those dollars going away, away. Not because I'm a brutal prick, but because this program must brew seething rage to be successful at its long-term goal.
If she owes less tax than she saved, she keeps the difference. Roll it into a Roth or waste it.
If she didn't have enough withheld, she has dividends and interest to soften the blow. Maybe she owes more than that. Pay closer attention next tax year, which is already in progress. And remember: "seething rage." Who'd you write that check out to?
To make the proposal easier to slide past a reluctant Congress, the program has to be narrowly aimed at a small group to start. Let's say that only taxpayers whose total tax (line 40) was less than three thousand dollars for each of the last three tax years can escape employer withholding and join the Anti-Christmas Club.
It's for the Children! The real "fat cats," so to speak, have already escaped withholding the hard way: they're making quarterly payments to the IRS so this program doesn't benefit them. By Democrat Party logic, proponents of this withholding-escape plan can claim it would help single mothers and their kids because it wouldn't benefit "the rich."
Gradually ratchet this threshold figure upward, by indexing it against the Federal minimum wage and first-class postage. Every time the bastards increase either one, multiply the increase by one hundred and add that increase to the threshold (minimum wage increases by a buck, the threshold goes up by one hundred bucks).
OK, seriously, I'd rather index the threshold against the local cost of living or median income. Rising tide lifting all boats, and all that.
Sweeten the deal for the employers, since we're still saddling them with compliance costs. I'm not sure how to do this, do please visit the comment box below if you have a suggestion. Maybe, every employee enrolled in the Anti-Christmas Club is counted as a member of the 401(k) for the purpose of admitting "highly compensated employees." Most companies seem to struggle for the low-end participants so they can include more high-end ones. Throw them a bone.
April is the cruelest month As an added benefit, this proposal gives many more taxpayers the perverse incentive to wait until the very last minute to file their returns, further congesting the IRS and Postal Service. Since the money never really leaves her until she writes that painful check (visualize seething rage), it doesn't matter whether she owes or not---she'll sit on the bucks and let them earn until the last possible moment.
"I've got the owner of Motorola aboard this bus!" Many stocks take a price dip in April because enough of their holders have to sell something to cover their tax liability. Wouldn't it be cool if single moms, with their 1040's made out to the cent, go cruising for stock bargains at about that time?
Editor's note: I choose not to number this idea "666"---an Anti-Christmas Club plan, anti-Christ, number of the Beast, six six six, get it? It just wouldn't have worked.
20030625
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been at least ten weeks since my last Carnival.
I have a post in this week's Carnival of the Vanities, hosted at Single Southern Guy.
I have a post in this week's Carnival of the Vanities, hosted at Single Southern Guy.
20030623
Idea number 43, or Thank you for flying Redneck Express
Indulge me in a daydream.
Commercial airline travel was never that pleasant when I did it often. Flying with wife, three children, and their assorted stuff makes it far less so. Now that airport security has been improved from an expensive sham (rent-a-cops) into an extremely expensive sham (Federal law enforcement officers); airline passengers are now accorded the same customer courtesies as felony suspects, and complaining about it only aggravates the treatment; the metal detectors have been cranked up so high the staples left behind from my splenectomy routinely trigger them, and now they kinda tingle; and my United miles are exhausted and my Red Carpet Club membership has expired---we simply won't fly the family on airlines any more.
So when the time came for us to make our trek back East, we packed ourselves like the Beverly Hillbillies into our van and drove.
When night fell, we ramped off the Interstate, looked for a vacant room and took it. In the morning,we took continental breakfast (if offered) then refueled and repeated.
Kids are exhausted and fighting one another, and have listened to the same Hank the Cowdog audio book for the fifth time. Barbaloot can get 3 good hours behind the wheel at one stretch, I can get about 5. AM radio coverage in flyover country is remarkably sparse. Police radar coverage, however, is quite thorough. Gasoline was affordable but that's not a sure bet either. If a petroleum-eating strain of monkeypox rears its viral, er, head, we're screwed.
I want better choice as a transportation consumer. I am not alone, I cannot be. There's a market segment in the void between long-haul Winnebago-istas and 30-day-in-advance Priceline airfare, going utterly unserved. We'll pay more for the speed and convenience but not to the point we'll pop for commercial airfare and/or the humiliations and fine print that come with it. We'd like the opportunity cost to fall somewhere in the middle too, between the twelve hours parking lot to parking lot for flying, to the n days of a cross-country drive.
Now why can't some smart-ass MBA:
The business case for FedEx was probably more complex than this.
It is not really my idea. A German firm plans to fly huge airships for freight, in those areas poorly served by rail, or for those cargoes that don't fit on rail or truck. Figure, a service like this would be faster than rail (well, duh) and truck. Rail hasn't been courting ex-air travelers with lower fares either.
Kilo for kilo, most of the airship business would be freight, but some space would still be available for passenger cars and their passengers, just to maximize revenue for each flight.
Perpetual whiners over the dearth of mass transit can rejoice that a new form of it is available; the car is optional and the service would take Segways, bicycles and even llamas. Tell all your perpetual mass-transit whiner friends to buy stock in the company, or shut the hell up.
This service would not operate from existing airports, which are Nationalized and wrapped in counter-terror anality. Instead, airship service would have to be staged from the towns that today are little more than truck stops. Airship terminals as proposed here would look like big ferry queues with truck scales, a convenience store, a liquor store, and no need for TSA screeners. The large cities and the commercial airlines don't want this kind of traffic near them anyway.
So the elevator story goes like this:
Hell, I'd even blow a day waiting for a standby slot or an alternate route, just to get us within a four-hour drive of our destination and save us two days of driving. Ashland's canceled by a storm? OK, uh, there's space on Beckley, West Virginia, loading in two hours. Or you could dash down to Pueblo and catch the six-forty-five to Charlottesville. Great. We'll take the Beckley.
If you were in my shoes, what would you pay for this service? If you were on the chamber of commerce for a town with a rail head and fair-to-middlin' highway access, what would you do to entice an airship terminal to move in?
If you're the transportation minister in a country emerging from decades of central planning and you need to extend infrastructure to your rural markets right now, would you plow (more) government money into an international airport, or offer tax and regulatory incentives for freight airships?
If you manufacture aircraft, and you were not awarded the contract for the latest fighter, your military helicopter is under a cloud, and jumbo jet orders are down, would you bid on a STOL heavy-lift airship?
I rest my case, and return you to your normally scheduled blogging.
Indulge me in a daydream.
Commercial airline travel was never that pleasant when I did it often. Flying with wife, three children, and their assorted stuff makes it far less so. Now that airport security has been improved from an expensive sham (rent-a-cops) into an extremely expensive sham (Federal law enforcement officers); airline passengers are now accorded the same customer courtesies as felony suspects, and complaining about it only aggravates the treatment; the metal detectors have been cranked up so high the staples left behind from my splenectomy routinely trigger them, and now they kinda tingle; and my United miles are exhausted and my Red Carpet Club membership has expired---we simply won't fly the family on airlines any more.
So when the time came for us to make our trek back East, we packed ourselves like the Beverly Hillbillies into our van and drove.
When night fell, we ramped off the Interstate, looked for a vacant room and took it. In the morning,we took continental breakfast (if offered) then refueled and repeated.
Kids are exhausted and fighting one another, and have listened to the same Hank the Cowdog audio book for the fifth time. Barbaloot can get 3 good hours behind the wheel at one stretch, I can get about 5. AM radio coverage in flyover country is remarkably sparse. Police radar coverage, however, is quite thorough. Gasoline was affordable but that's not a sure bet either. If a petroleum-eating strain of monkeypox rears its viral, er, head, we're screwed.
I want better choice as a transportation consumer. I am not alone, I cannot be. There's a market segment in the void between long-haul Winnebago-istas and 30-day-in-advance Priceline airfare, going utterly unserved. We'll pay more for the speed and convenience but not to the point we'll pop for commercial airfare and/or the humiliations and fine print that come with it. We'd like the opportunity cost to fall somewhere in the middle too, between the twelve hours parking lot to parking lot for flying, to the n days of a cross-country drive.
Now why can't some smart-ass MBA:
- commission a tilt-rotor airship, capable of ferrying about 30 passenger vans at an airspeed of 180 kph,
- schedule service from various Interstate truck-stop outposts, such as Limon, Colorado, to others, such as Warrenton, Virginia. A mixture of express and multiple-stop routes would be fine.
- price it somewhere between the net costs of driving, feeding, and lodging a family of five for four days on the one hand, and five hub-to-spoke airfares and the rental car on the other. Charge by weight: we'll bring the sedan instead, or pack lighter.
The business case for FedEx was probably more complex than this.
It is not really my idea. A German firm plans to fly huge airships for freight, in those areas poorly served by rail, or for those cargoes that don't fit on rail or truck. Figure, a service like this would be faster than rail (well, duh) and truck. Rail hasn't been courting ex-air travelers with lower fares either.
Kilo for kilo, most of the airship business would be freight, but some space would still be available for passenger cars and their passengers, just to maximize revenue for each flight.
Perpetual whiners over the dearth of mass transit can rejoice that a new form of it is available; the car is optional and the service would take Segways, bicycles and even llamas. Tell all your perpetual mass-transit whiner friends to buy stock in the company, or shut the hell up.
This service would not operate from existing airports, which are Nationalized and wrapped in counter-terror anality. Instead, airship service would have to be staged from the towns that today are little more than truck stops. Airship terminals as proposed here would look like big ferry queues with truck scales, a convenience store, a liquor store, and no need for TSA screeners. The large cities and the commercial airlines don't want this kind of traffic near them anyway.
So the elevator story goes like this:
Log in to get a fare quote, and either confirm a space or get on standby. Then pull up, weigh in, pay up, drive aboard. The guys in the blue coveralls will chain your car to the deck. We don't give a fiddler's damn if you brought your pocket knife aboard. You didn't? Here, have one of mine.
Take a nap in your own car. Reheat Firstborn's hot cocoa in the microwave upstairs. Barbaloot can get out her knitting basket, complete with TSA-verboten lethal crochet hooks. Didja know cell phones work just fine at 10,000 feet? WiFi is an extra five bucks.
Triple-A highly recommends the view of the Missouri River from the passenger lounge.
The restrooms are forward of the lounge. There's no place to take a leak over the side, don't even try it.
Set a foot on the flight deck or mess with the engines, and you'll be croaked by Lester over there with the twelve-gauge. Ask him if he gives a damn about your pocket knife. To him, "air marshall" is some kind of sneaker.
Leave your luggage in the car. If it gets lost, it's your own damn fault.
Enjoy your flight, you and your car will be in Ashland, Kentucky, in twelve hours. Thanks for choosing RedEx.
Hell, I'd even blow a day waiting for a standby slot or an alternate route, just to get us within a four-hour drive of our destination and save us two days of driving. Ashland's canceled by a storm? OK, uh, there's space on Beckley, West Virginia, loading in two hours. Or you could dash down to Pueblo and catch the six-forty-five to Charlottesville. Great. We'll take the Beckley.
If you were in my shoes, what would you pay for this service? If you were on the chamber of commerce for a town with a rail head and fair-to-middlin' highway access, what would you do to entice an airship terminal to move in?
If you're the transportation minister in a country emerging from decades of central planning and you need to extend infrastructure to your rural markets right now, would you plow (more) government money into an international airport, or offer tax and regulatory incentives for freight airships?
If you manufacture aircraft, and you were not awarded the contract for the latest fighter, your military helicopter is under a cloud, and jumbo jet orders are down, would you bid on a STOL heavy-lift airship?
I rest my case, and return you to your normally scheduled blogging.
20030622
I'll give you two Fr Buerhle's for an Alphonse Gampp
My wife's aunt passed awayvery suddenly last December. She was a spinster, who lived with my inlaws throughout my wife's life. Since we could not break away then for the funeral, Barbaloot insisted that we trek back East for vacation, to help round up the aunt's possessions.
The aunt was a packrat. Her room is not being organized, it is being excavated. One box Barbaloot emptied last night consisted entirely of mass cards, probably one for every funeral the aunt had ever attended during her adult life. We sorted through them only to save those of relatives, including members of Catholic religious orders: at least two Jesuit priests and two nuns.
One card dated to 1934, printed in German. We're talking collectibles here.
Mother-in-law burst out laughing when I compared them to baseball cards.
My wife's aunt passed awayvery suddenly last December. She was a spinster, who lived with my inlaws throughout my wife's life. Since we could not break away then for the funeral, Barbaloot insisted that we trek back East for vacation, to help round up the aunt's possessions.
The aunt was a packrat. Her room is not being organized, it is being excavated. One box Barbaloot emptied last night consisted entirely of mass cards, probably one for every funeral the aunt had ever attended during her adult life. We sorted through them only to save those of relatives, including members of Catholic religious orders: at least two Jesuit priests and two nuns.
One card dated to 1934, printed in German. We're talking collectibles here.
Mother-in-law burst out laughing when I compared them to baseball cards.
20030620
Not false, just misleading
It's the kind of thing that sneaks up on me, slowly emerging in my consciousness.
The white-on-blue road signs posted along interstate highways, indicating which services are available at the next exit, use a fork and a knife resting on a plate to show that food is ahead.
Very rarely is that food served on a plate; more rarely still is it eaten with a fork and knife.
It's like how synthetic flavors have asserted themselves on our tastebuds---there's an artificial blueberry flavor, for example, that anyone can identify as "blueberry" even though real blueberries, with which the taster is perfectly familiar, are a completely different taste, also known as "blueberry." Perhaps a "blueberry one" and "blueberry two" or "blueberry (synthetic) and "blueberry (actual)."
It's the kind of thing that sneaks up on me, slowly emerging in my consciousness.
The white-on-blue road signs posted along interstate highways, indicating which services are available at the next exit, use a fork and a knife resting on a plate to show that food is ahead.
Very rarely is that food served on a plate; more rarely still is it eaten with a fork and knife.
It's like how synthetic flavors have asserted themselves on our tastebuds---there's an artificial blueberry flavor, for example, that anyone can identify as "blueberry" even though real blueberries, with which the taster is perfectly familiar, are a completely different taste, also known as "blueberry." Perhaps a "blueberry one" and "blueberry two" or "blueberry (synthetic) and "blueberry (actual)."
20030615
Life sciences lesson
Firstborn is becoming familiar with the plants and animals of the Eastern US. I've shown her plantain, burdock, tulip poplar, and sumac. She already recognizes poison ivy, creeping charlie, prickly lettuce, and lamb's quarters.
We are also visiting land that has enough wet spots that she hears peepers at night, and we can see lightning bugs. She saw one hit the windshield a few nights back.
Firstborn is becoming familiar with the plants and animals of the Eastern US. I've shown her plantain, burdock, tulip poplar, and sumac. She already recognizes poison ivy, creeping charlie, prickly lettuce, and lamb's quarters.
We are also visiting land that has enough wet spots that she hears peepers at night, and we can see lightning bugs. She saw one hit the windshield a few nights back.
Update on the notebook
The Clandestine Mobile Media Access Platform now bears 3 OS's, namely Lycoris, Win98, and Win2k.
Interestingly, when Lycoris is running, any USB device that I jack in causes the CD-ROM to rename to the manufacturer of whatever USB I plug in. The Samsung CD-ROM player becomes a Fujitsu when the digital camera is inserted, or an IOMega when the CD-RW is inserted.
And it stays that way until KDE is restarted.
Annoying.
The Clandestine Mobile Media Access Platform now bears 3 OS's, namely Lycoris, Win98, and Win2k.
Interestingly, when Lycoris is running, any USB device that I jack in causes the CD-ROM to rename to the manufacturer of whatever USB I plug in. The Samsung CD-ROM player becomes a Fujitsu when the digital camera is inserted, or an IOMega when the CD-RW is inserted.
And it stays that way until KDE is restarted.
Annoying.
Happy blogiversary to me
Sorry for the light posting of late. I fear that I've been dropped from some blogrolls, and that stings, but that is the nature of the beast. If I'm not producing enough to keep the hits coming, I am just taking up space.
I am also not willing to move from Blogger, despite several entreaties to do so. It's not an option, for one technical reason: I don't know the tech and haven't the time to learn it. As I travel (as now) Blogger is accessible to me practically anywhere, whether I am traveling with the Clandestine Mobile Media Access Platform or working from a morale desktop in a God-forsaken downrange location. I don't think other blogging platforms allow this. So I stay at Blogger for the time being, or I take WUTT dark.
Tomorrow will be the first blogiversary of Weck Up To Thees!
Thanks for the hits, the links, that strange cameraderie. And keep coming to visit, even if it isn't as often as it used to be.
Sorry for the light posting of late. I fear that I've been dropped from some blogrolls, and that stings, but that is the nature of the beast. If I'm not producing enough to keep the hits coming, I am just taking up space.
I am also not willing to move from Blogger, despite several entreaties to do so. It's not an option, for one technical reason: I don't know the tech and haven't the time to learn it. As I travel (as now) Blogger is accessible to me practically anywhere, whether I am traveling with the Clandestine Mobile Media Access Platform or working from a morale desktop in a God-forsaken downrange location. I don't think other blogging platforms allow this. So I stay at Blogger for the time being, or I take WUTT dark.
Tomorrow will be the first blogiversary of Weck Up To Thees!
Thanks for the hits, the links, that strange cameraderie. And keep coming to visit, even if it isn't as often as it used to be.
20030529
we're still just ahead of the replacement level of 2.1 live redneck births per breeding pair
In the contest of Wal-Mart versus Target, we do drop more dollars at Target than at Wal-Mart. They are within a few hundred meters of each other, neither is harder to get to than the other, both are right on our way to I-25.
But please allow your humble narrator to point out that Target's sporting goods section has Pilates accessories.
Wal-Mart's sporting goods sections stock Mini-14's. Target may be hipper, trendier, neater, and all that, but they can also be too "city mouse" for me---they can give me the same cloying sensation that accompanies an Old Navy commercial.
The Wal-Marts that feature "dingy aisles loaded with cast-offs and marked down boxes of cereal" (say, Dell Range Boulevard in Cheyenne, Wyoming), usually redeem themselves by including an aisle of reloading equipment, right down to blister-packed replacement decapping pins for RCBS dies.
Alas, Castle Rock's 24/7 Wal-Mart supercenter has no dingy aisles (Firstborn likes to coo over the live lobster tank). Instead of a reloading section, it has an expanded golf aisle. As best I can determine, the customers still have all of their teeth, normal or better-than-average body fat indexes (visualize trophy wives driving Escalades and Hummers), and no domestic violence convictions (one terrible incident in the parking lot, however). In short, a redneck level waaaay below the national average.
The clerk in Sporting Goods there today replied instantly, "no reloading", so quickly in fact that
So no RCBS decapping pins for Fuz today, grumble grumble.
When it came time to load up Linux for the new Clandestine Media Access Platform, to what reseller was Fuz referred by Lycoris? Wal-Mart.
I know that some fellow bloggers refuse to give Wal-Mart business because they import heavily from the People's Republic of China. Point well taken. Just remember that they sell Linux-equipped PCs too. Give them some credit---though they may be selling products of slave labor, they are also, in a sense, selling handcuff keys.
And the pissants who militate against the esthetics of Wal-Marts (excepting blogrolled comixho, of course) are often the same busybodies who form homeowners' associations, and whine over the decline of quote small private downtown shops unquote while kvetching over a recycled paper cup of something syrupy at Starbuck's. If they give a rat's ass about workers' rights, it will not be those of the Chinese who chafe in the PRC's collar.
In the contest of Wal-Mart versus Target, we do drop more dollars at Target than at Wal-Mart. They are within a few hundred meters of each other, neither is harder to get to than the other, both are right on our way to I-25.
But please allow your humble narrator to point out that Target's sporting goods section has Pilates accessories.
Wal-Mart's sporting goods sections stock Mini-14's. Target may be hipper, trendier, neater, and all that, but they can also be too "city mouse" for me---they can give me the same cloying sensation that accompanies an Old Navy commercial.
The Wal-Marts that feature "dingy aisles loaded with cast-offs and marked down boxes of cereal" (say, Dell Range Boulevard in Cheyenne, Wyoming), usually redeem themselves by including an aisle of reloading equipment, right down to blister-packed replacement decapping pins for RCBS dies.
Alas, Castle Rock's 24/7 Wal-Mart supercenter has no dingy aisles (Firstborn likes to coo over the live lobster tank). Instead of a reloading section, it has an expanded golf aisle. As best I can determine, the customers still have all of their teeth, normal or better-than-average body fat indexes (visualize trophy wives driving Escalades and Hummers), and no domestic violence convictions (one terrible incident in the parking lot, however). In short, a redneck level waaaay below the national average.
The clerk in Sporting Goods there today replied instantly, "no reloading", so quickly in fact that
- it was clear he knew what "reloading" was
- he knew whether any Wal-Mart anywhere would stock reloading merchandise
- this Wal-Mart, serving the Douglas County demographic, would rather stock velvet Elvis paintings, or Nine Inch Nails CDs, than reloading merchandise, and
- I should have known better than to ask.
So no RCBS decapping pins for Fuz today, grumble grumble.
When it came time to load up Linux for the new Clandestine Media Access Platform, to what reseller was Fuz referred by Lycoris? Wal-Mart.
I know that some fellow bloggers refuse to give Wal-Mart business because they import heavily from the People's Republic of China. Point well taken. Just remember that they sell Linux-equipped PCs too. Give them some credit---though they may be selling products of slave labor, they are also, in a sense, selling handcuff keys.
And the pissants who militate against the esthetics of Wal-Marts (excepting blogrolled comixho, of course) are often the same busybodies who form homeowners' associations, and whine over the decline of quote small private downtown shops unquote while kvetching over a recycled paper cup of something syrupy at Starbuck's. If they give a rat's ass about workers' rights, it will not be those of the Chinese who chafe in the PRC's collar.
20030528
honey-dews
Update on the Clandestine Media Access Platform: Lycoris runs the CD-ROM and the floppy just fine. The CD's must be ISO-9660 formatted, though, it reads no CD-R's left open by DirectCD, or burnt with a UDF reader on them. Unless there's a downloadable Linux widget for that somewhere . . .
Boy child can load and run his Putt-Putt games on the Mac clone without supervision, including smudged fingerprints on the CDs, and dropping the CD to the concrete floor when he switches from Putt-Putt to Pajama Sam. He has destroyed two games in the last two weeks. On the up-side, he can click through Save the Zoo in about 15 minutes.
Update on the Clandestine Media Access Platform: Lycoris runs the CD-ROM and the floppy just fine. The CD's must be ISO-9660 formatted, though, it reads no CD-R's left open by DirectCD, or burnt with a UDF reader on them. Unless there's a downloadable Linux widget for that somewhere . . .
Boy child can load and run his Putt-Putt games on the Mac clone without supervision, including smudged fingerprints on the CDs, and dropping the CD to the concrete floor when he switches from Putt-Putt to Pajama Sam. He has destroyed two games in the last two weeks. On the up-side, he can click through Save the Zoo in about 15 minutes.
20030521
Oh by the way, S.22 doesn't do a damn thing about
. . . identity theft other than to limit who can have or sell Social Security numbers, and specify harsher penalties. No reform of tying this number o' th' Beast to one's credit in the first place, which makes it so potent a weapon against its assignee (I hesitate to use the term "owner" or "bearer"). No pilot program to compel the military to return to a DoD-issued service number for all routine admin actions.
. . . identity theft other than to limit who can have or sell Social Security numbers, and specify harsher penalties. No reform of tying this number o' th' Beast to one's credit in the first place, which makes it so potent a weapon against its assignee (I hesitate to use the term "owner" or "bearer"). No pilot program to compel the military to return to a DoD-issued service number for all routine admin actions.
"I'm worried that, if this cleverly-named bill gets to the Senate floor, several Republicans might vote for it because it has a popular-sounding title."
This from a fundraising letter from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Your humble narrator would dispute that the name is clever: "Justice Enhancement and Domestic Security Act of 2003." Rather, that it is bland, general enough to be meaningless. All the better for pulling a fast one or making one's vote deniable.
It's also saying a lot that a lobbying organization will admit that some Senators will vote for something without even a superficial familiarity with its contents.
I've long agreed with a proposed Congressional rule that would require every bill to be read aloud, in its entirety, to the Committee of the Whole before it is put to a vote, as well as to the Committee that is responsible for sending it to the floor for that vote. It is one of those commonsense measures that will go nowhere. This Senate bill is the latest example I've taken the trouble to even skim. So be careful if you browse to that link up there in the title of this post, its fat ass spreads across 486 pages.
For Chrissakes, it's got a bit of everything: identity theft, telemarketing fraud, Nationalizing the Amber alert, protecting senior citizens from whatever distracts them from their oatmeal, and shielding whistleblowers. In addition, of course, to the usual suspects, ballistic fingerprinting and The Gun Show Loophole, whatever that is held to be in Senate bill 22.
It's a wholesale bid to overhaul Federal criminal law, including the laws of evidence and sentencing.
To your humble narrator, "Federal crime" is supposed to be an oxymoron anyway, with the exception of those few Constitutionally enumerated offenses such as treason and counterfeiting; and judges are supposed to have control of the sentencing process.
This from a fundraising letter from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Your humble narrator would dispute that the name is clever: "Justice Enhancement and Domestic Security Act of 2003." Rather, that it is bland, general enough to be meaningless. All the better for pulling a fast one or making one's vote deniable.
It's also saying a lot that a lobbying organization will admit that some Senators will vote for something without even a superficial familiarity with its contents.
I've long agreed with a proposed Congressional rule that would require every bill to be read aloud, in its entirety, to the Committee of the Whole before it is put to a vote, as well as to the Committee that is responsible for sending it to the floor for that vote. It is one of those commonsense measures that will go nowhere. This Senate bill is the latest example I've taken the trouble to even skim. So be careful if you browse to that link up there in the title of this post, its fat ass spreads across 486 pages.
For Chrissakes, it's got a bit of everything: identity theft, telemarketing fraud, Nationalizing the Amber alert, protecting senior citizens from whatever distracts them from their oatmeal, and shielding whistleblowers. In addition, of course, to the usual suspects, ballistic fingerprinting and The Gun Show Loophole, whatever that is held to be in Senate bill 22.
It's a wholesale bid to overhaul Federal criminal law, including the laws of evidence and sentencing.
To your humble narrator, "Federal crime" is supposed to be an oxymoron anyway, with the exception of those few Constitutionally enumerated offenses such as treason and counterfeiting; and judges are supposed to have control of the sentencing process.
20030514
Guard bummer
My trips to Cheyenne are coming to an end. I will spend a few weeks this summer to read Hank the Cowdog to my girls, take a few road trips, work with a few rifles, and start job-hunting.
I will be temping for another entity beginning midsummer, on a military pay status known as MPA (translation not available at this writing). That means a new Schlumberger combined access card with all the bennies, and a new stack of business cards. The insiders' term is Guard-bumming, or working on a succession of active duty or manday periods rather than holding down a continuous job.
During that time, though, I will be sleeping in my own bed, continuing to read Hank to Firstborn and Middlechild, and developing the resume.
My trips to Cheyenne are coming to an end. I will spend a few weeks this summer to read Hank the Cowdog to my girls, take a few road trips, work with a few rifles, and start job-hunting.
I will be temping for another entity beginning midsummer, on a military pay status known as MPA (translation not available at this writing). That means a new Schlumberger combined access card with all the bennies, and a new stack of business cards. The insiders' term is Guard-bumming, or working on a succession of active duty or manday periods rather than holding down a continuous job.
During that time, though, I will be sleeping in my own bed, continuing to read Hank to Firstborn and Middlechild, and developing the resume.
Clandestine Mobile Media Access Platform update
The Dell notebook's 6GB drive has been scrubbed clean and reloaded with Lycoris.
Am blogging through Mozilla at the moment.
A few hardware items remain to be cleared up, namely the CD-ROM and the detachable floppy. All else seems to be tits.
Then a repartition and an installation of Win98 or 2k to run the stuff I really bought this platform for in the first place.
The Dell notebook's 6GB drive has been scrubbed clean and reloaded with Lycoris.
Am blogging through Mozilla at the moment.
A few hardware items remain to be cleared up, namely the CD-ROM and the detachable floppy. All else seems to be tits.
Then a repartition and an installation of Win98 or 2k to run the stuff I really bought this platform for in the first place.
20030511
While I'm at it
Hearty agreement with Will Baude about attempts to amend Senate rules governing the filibuster.
Emphasis mine. The Senate as a legislative body is supposed to put a specific minority, the population of a smaller state, on equal footing with those of larger states. The filibuster is one form of leverage to accomplish that end.
The filibuster ain't broke.
Hearty agreement with Will Baude about attempts to amend Senate rules governing the filibuster.
. . . after nine days, any filibuster can be broken by 51 votes. Even if the time limit were double or triple that, I think that this completely obliterates the purpose of the filibuster rule. Let us be clear about something. The filibuster was not designed to ensure "full and fair debate".
Emphasis mine. The Senate as a legislative body is supposed to put a specific minority, the population of a smaller state, on equal footing with those of larger states. The filibuster is one form of leverage to accomplish that end.
The filibuster ain't broke.
Less than optimistic
In fact, I'm full-blown ambivalent about the prospects of Silveira v Lockyer if it goes on to the Supreme Court.
If conflicting Circuit court rulings on the Second Amendment force the Supremes to rule on the question of whether it protects an individual right, they will probably find a way to answer that yes, the Second Amendment is an individual right, but that it can be so thoroughly circumscribed by State and Federal law as to have no meaning.
The ruling would have to discuss the purpose of the Second Amendment, which is a reset button. Judge Kozinski's description of the right protected (not granted) by this amendment, necessarily puts a choice before any other judge who must rule upon it. What judge would rule that a person has a right to challenge with force a hypothetically tyrannical government that might be paying that judge's salary?
What judge would rule that a person has a right that therefore pre-exists the government?
What judge would rule that people should be allowed to make arrangements today, in case of a possible tomorrow "where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees"? What judge would admit that he or she could someday be cowardly or irrelevant?
What judge would rule that the great unwashed masses have an explicit right to access a reset button that could put all them out of their robes, their chambers, their jobs?
I admit that I know few judges, and only a handful of attorneys. Like most people I've had unkind things to say about them as a class, until I needed one, and since recanted on those unkind utterances. But are there many more judges whose opinions agree with Kozinski's? Are there many judges and lawyers who can visualize a time or a circumstance wherein a Doomsday provision would be needed?
If there are, I owe them apologies and gratitude. And pose a further question: what would it take? what would make a judge reach for that reset button himself? I know, I know, courts examine specific real cases and will not rule on hypotheticals.
Side note: Kozinski's dissent is also the first place I have seen a convincing distinction between a State's power and so-called States' rights.
In fact, I'm full-blown ambivalent about the prospects of Silveira v Lockyer if it goes on to the Supreme Court.
If conflicting Circuit court rulings on the Second Amendment force the Supremes to rule on the question of whether it protects an individual right, they will probably find a way to answer that yes, the Second Amendment is an individual right, but that it can be so thoroughly circumscribed by State and Federal law as to have no meaning.
The ruling would have to discuss the purpose of the Second Amendment, which is a reset button. Judge Kozinski's description of the right protected (not granted) by this amendment, necessarily puts a choice before any other judge who must rule upon it. What judge would rule that a person has a right to challenge with force a hypothetically tyrannical government that might be paying that judge's salary?
What judge would rule that a person has a right that therefore pre-exists the government?
What judge would rule that people should be allowed to make arrangements today, in case of a possible tomorrow "where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees"? What judge would admit that he or she could someday be cowardly or irrelevant?
What judge would rule that the great unwashed masses have an explicit right to access a reset button that could put all them out of their robes, their chambers, their jobs?
I admit that I know few judges, and only a handful of attorneys. Like most people I've had unkind things to say about them as a class, until I needed one, and since recanted on those unkind utterances. But are there many more judges whose opinions agree with Kozinski's? Are there many judges and lawyers who can visualize a time or a circumstance wherein a Doomsday provision would be needed?
If there are, I owe them apologies and gratitude. And pose a further question: what would it take? what would make a judge reach for that reset button himself? I know, I know, courts examine specific real cases and will not rule on hypotheticals.
Side note: Kozinski's dissent is also the first place I have seen a convincing distinction between a State's power and so-called States' rights.
20030510
Spam haiku
Found on the Gunsite email list. More at www.spamhaiku.com.
The other white meat
square meal in a can
The raven quietly contemplates
Found on the Gunsite email list. More at www.spamhaiku.com.
20030503
Viddy well, O my brothers
This passage caught my eye, in an article describing the impact of the massively multiplayer online game:
So I offer some observations.
Put these all together and what might they spell? Massively-parallel multiplayer games have evolved to the point that a player's actions have consequences that the player may not notice immediately. Among those consequences, a bad reputation. People who do not value, therefore do not cultivate, a good reputation will become life's losers.
By engaging in role-play on this scale, with real people at the millions of distant ends of the game, he will learn real-world values, but in a way that he can afford to lose a few times, come to understand why he lost, and not suffer (or cause) real violence or hardship. She would learn that by giving someone else enough rope to hang himself, she fastens the other end of the rope to herself.
The kid may also learn what many ordinary adults (including many therapists) have not: cultivating and protecting one's reputation by serving others is not tantamount to kissing ass, castration, or selling out. It demands bravery, singlemindedness, and an erotic drive; if more adolescents and teens saw this, they would perhaps be more enthusiastic about growing up and being responsible.
The "unpacking of the face," can make this game therapeutic, can intervene with those troubled juveniles who misinterpret the face. As a game, the kid will likely stay with it longer than he would with interacting with real people. As the game unfolds, the kid learns better to interpret others' emotions and intent, and to work towards longer-term goals; he or she might also benefit from a choreographed "replay" of the poorer decisions and the consequences that they precipitated.
A massively-parallel multiplayer approach is preferable to one manipulated by few people or only one person, even if that one person is a credentialed therapist, because it would better mirror the real world the kid will (re)join. Even some bad actors should be admitted, because we can't keep them out of the real world. Let the therapist moderate, not create, this world.
This is just a thought, of course, and I do not claim it as my own. Many libertarians would find the idea chilling, like the Lodovico Technique made warm and fuzzy by hiding it behind a StarWars videogame, and handing the joystick to the subject. But as a parent, I can sympathize with parents who somehow failed to intervene in the right way, at the right time.
This passage caught my eye, in an article describing the impact of the massively multiplayer online game:
Unlike single-player games, these virtual environments don't go into cryogenic suspension in your absence. Events transpire. Battles are fought. Rivalries flare. Alliances are formed. In a world that can't be flicked on and off, actions have lasting consequences, both narrative and social.
As players build ther characters, accruing strength and skill with experience, they also build reputations and relationships. Survival depends on whom you know, and how much they trust you, rather than simply on the weapons you're carrying. Success depends less upon combat skills than on social interactions.
So I offer some observations.
- Parents of children who have immersed themselves in Dungeons and Dragons fear that role-play games are corrupting them. Even those who dispute that role-play games corrupt children strongly agree that role-play can modify behavior.
- Children who misinterpret facial expressions tend towards violence and delinquency. They perceive threats where there are none, making them more prone to violence; they receive stress and dissatisfaction from human company. Prenatal exposure to alcohol is a culprit, though I suspect that other, non-organic causes exist, and under controlled circumstances it may be unlearned, even if organic in origin.
- The free market relies as much on one maintaining one's reputation, as on one having recourse to unfair dealers through the courts. Businessmen who deal unfairly or without goodwill get fewer and less valuable deals, even if they operate well within the boundaries of the law. To prosper, one must be trusted and one must trust.
Put these all together and what might they spell? Massively-parallel multiplayer games have evolved to the point that a player's actions have consequences that the player may not notice immediately. Among those consequences, a bad reputation. People who do not value, therefore do not cultivate, a good reputation will become life's losers.
By engaging in role-play on this scale, with real people at the millions of distant ends of the game, he will learn real-world values, but in a way that he can afford to lose a few times, come to understand why he lost, and not suffer (or cause) real violence or hardship. She would learn that by giving someone else enough rope to hang himself, she fastens the other end of the rope to herself.
The kid may also learn what many ordinary adults (including many therapists) have not: cultivating and protecting one's reputation by serving others is not tantamount to kissing ass, castration, or selling out. It demands bravery, singlemindedness, and an erotic drive; if more adolescents and teens saw this, they would perhaps be more enthusiastic about growing up and being responsible.
The "unpacking of the face," can make this game therapeutic, can intervene with those troubled juveniles who misinterpret the face. As a game, the kid will likely stay with it longer than he would with interacting with real people. As the game unfolds, the kid learns better to interpret others' emotions and intent, and to work towards longer-term goals; he or she might also benefit from a choreographed "replay" of the poorer decisions and the consequences that they precipitated.
A massively-parallel multiplayer approach is preferable to one manipulated by few people or only one person, even if that one person is a credentialed therapist, because it would better mirror the real world the kid will (re)join. Even some bad actors should be admitted, because we can't keep them out of the real world. Let the therapist moderate, not create, this world.
This is just a thought, of course, and I do not claim it as my own. Many libertarians would find the idea chilling, like the Lodovico Technique made warm and fuzzy by hiding it behind a StarWars videogame, and handing the joystick to the subject. But as a parent, I can sympathize with parents who somehow failed to intervene in the right way, at the right time.
20030424
Aaahhhh, much better
Your correspondent has upgraded the Clandestine Mobile Media Access Platform, aka notebook computer, from a Jurassic-era Compaq Pentium at 66 to a refurbished Dell Latitude, PIII at 500, thanks to a quick drive to Fort Collins. Was leery about the Windows XP, but it seems not to have stolen my soul just yet. It's busy deducing my Social Security number for later upload to its Master.
Aaaaarrrrghh, WTF?
The URL for my blog today returns a web page for Aaron's Bible. Maybe they found Raed . . . .
Your correspondent has upgraded the Clandestine Mobile Media Access Platform, aka notebook computer, from a Jurassic-era Compaq Pentium at 66 to a refurbished Dell Latitude, PIII at 500, thanks to a quick drive to Fort Collins. Was leery about the Windows XP, but it seems not to have stolen my soul just yet. It's busy deducing my Social Security number for later upload to its Master.
Aaaaarrrrghh, WTF?
The URL for my blog today returns a web page for Aaron's Bible. Maybe they found Raed . . . .
20030418
Unintended mirror site
With a tip of the hat to Swen, your correspondent has found that WUTT, among other blogs, has a mirror site in Japan.
With a tip of the hat to Swen, your correspondent has found that WUTT, among other blogs, has a mirror site in Japan.
David Brin, please call your office
A proposal for ubiquitous webcam surveillance reminds me of Brin's Transparent Society.
Found via Instapundit.
A proposal for ubiquitous webcam surveillance reminds me of Brin's Transparent Society.
Found via Instapundit.
20030416
Bigger than my britches
Your correspondent is inserting Weblog Meta Data Initiative meta tags into WeckUpToThees! just for grins. Wish me luck, hope I don't munge the template again.
Your correspondent is inserting Weblog Meta Data Initiative meta tags into WeckUpToThees! just for grins. Wish me luck, hope I don't munge the template again.
20030415
Could this be the beginning of a personnel reform?
Rummy suggests reforms in the assignment policies of military officers. Did he read, was he influenced by, Path to Victory?
Mmmmmmmaybe.
We'll know for sure if, some years onward, the policy of "up-and-out" is replaced by "up-or-stay." I see the spectacle weekly, of effective, determined, fit professional men and women who can't juggle themselves into a "slot" that allows them to make lieutenant colonel, even slots in units or responsibilities they do not enjoy, and consequently are contemplating retirement. These are people my age, hell, even younger than I am. We ought to find a way to keep these people in uniform, doing what they like and what they do well.
Rummy's apparent distaste for zero-defects philosophy is also refreshing.
One possible downside:
Rumor has it that Rummy has some "issues" with Reservists. They are harder to mobilize because they, er, have civilian jobs and commitments and mortgages and such. Most of us would have no quarrel with a restructuring that takes us away from private life less often than has been the case for the last decade.
But the DoD's present heavy dependence on reservists is intentional, a lesson learned from Vietnam. If mobilization incurs a widespread social and economic impact, our leaders will be less prone to overseas adventurism. Our experience in Iraq seems to bear this out, that in Kosovo far less so. Would the United States be safer or richer if it were "easier" to go to war?
Found via Donald Sensing.
Aside: even the Gray Lady has a smidgen of difficulty with homonyms.
That would be "rein."
The armed services "make a terrible mistake" by "having so many people skip along the tops of the waves in a job and serve in it 12, 15, 18, 24 months and be gone," he said. "They spend the first six months saying hello to everybody, the next six months trying to learn the job and the last six months leaving. I like people to be in a job long enough that they make mistakes, see their mistakes, clean up their own mistakes before they go on to make mistakes somewhere else."
Rummy suggests reforms in the assignment policies of military officers. Did he read, was he influenced by, Path to Victory?
Mr. Rumsfeld has made no secret that he views his personnel decisions as equally significant to changes he may bring to weapons procurement strategic doctrine
Mmmmmmmaybe.
We'll know for sure if, some years onward, the policy of "up-and-out" is replaced by "up-or-stay." I see the spectacle weekly, of effective, determined, fit professional men and women who can't juggle themselves into a "slot" that allows them to make lieutenant colonel, even slots in units or responsibilities they do not enjoy, and consequently are contemplating retirement. These are people my age, hell, even younger than I am. We ought to find a way to keep these people in uniform, doing what they like and what they do well.
Rummy's apparent distaste for zero-defects philosophy is also refreshing.
One possible downside:
Reservists could opt for specialties that guarantee more active service time and mobilization if that fit their lives; others . . . would be confident of less time on active duty beyond the weekend a month and two weeks a year of training now.
Rumor has it that Rummy has some "issues" with Reservists. They are harder to mobilize because they, er, have civilian jobs and commitments and mortgages and such. Most of us would have no quarrel with a restructuring that takes us away from private life less often than has been the case for the last decade.
But the DoD's present heavy dependence on reservists is intentional, a lesson learned from Vietnam. If mobilization incurs a widespread social and economic impact, our leaders will be less prone to overseas adventurism. Our experience in Iraq seems to bear this out, that in Kosovo far less so. Would the United States be safer or richer if it were "easier" to go to war?
Found via Donald Sensing.
Aside: even the Gray Lady has a smidgen of difficulty with homonyms.
The idea of merging personnel, which was viewed by some officers as an attempt to reign in the independent analysis of the military's Joint Staff, is not in the proposed legislation.
That would be "rein."
20030414
some folks swear by 'em
Please sign a petition to convince Uncle Sugar to sell those piles of M14 rifles to the civilian marksmanship program instead of having Uncle pay contractors to cut them in half with torches and haul the scrap away.
Please sign a petition to convince Uncle Sugar to sell those piles of M14 rifles to the civilian marksmanship program instead of having Uncle pay contractors to cut them in half with torches and haul the scrap away.
unusual places for a Red Label ad
Has anyone else noticed that Sturm, Ruger and Company have been advertising in general readership publications?
OK, so American Spectator is not exactly as widely read as Time. Still, it's not a "gun" mag.
Has anyone else noticed that Sturm, Ruger and Company have been advertising in general readership publications?
OK, so American Spectator is not exactly as widely read as Time. Still, it's not a "gun" mag.
20030408
A government program to arm everyone
Megan Mcardle asks, "if guns are widely available in Iraq, how come they've got this nasty dictatorship?" Please read her post and the comments.
Please keep coming back to this: it did work the one time we tried it. We are as sure as we can be in retrospect that had we not been armed competitively with our rulers, we would not have achieved independence.
Iraq's experience does not disprove that assertion, nor those of the disarmament lobby.
Break break . . .
One more reason, if more were needed, to not allow the United Nations to administer Iraq after Saddam's fall: what civilian gun ownership exists there today surely would end.
Megan Mcardle asks, "if guns are widely available in Iraq, how come they've got this nasty dictatorship?" Please read her post and the comments.
- Civil arms are necessary, but not sufficient, for liberty. Megan and commenters conclude that people have to believe that armed struggle will have a chance to succeed before they'll try it.
- What constitutes "widespread" gun ownership is in the eye of the beholder. I don't agree that it's impossible to quantify gun ownership in Iraq in a meaningful comparison with that in the US or elsewhere. Of course, the news coverage of Iraqi gun ownership does not attempt honest quantification.
- Clearly the falling regime made sure that its friends had more, or better; this regime was also expert at knowing who its friends, enemies, and even fence-sitters, were. And where they were, and what they were saying.
Please keep coming back to this: it did work the one time we tried it. We are as sure as we can be in retrospect that had we not been armed competitively with our rulers, we would not have achieved independence.
Iraq's experience does not disprove that assertion, nor those of the disarmament lobby.
Break break . . .
The United Nations has drafted a confidential blueprint for administering [post-Saddam] Iraq.
One more reason, if more were needed, to not allow the United Nations to administer Iraq after Saddam's fall: what civilian gun ownership exists there today surely would end.
20030407
I have a dream, continued
Why have, or should, the United States undertaken this task of ending the nexus between Church and State power?
We may not have invented it, but we were the first to get it to work. We are the antithesis of the Church-State. Though we are disposed to leave people alone, our determination to be left alone places us naturally in opposition to Men of the One Book.
Why have, or should, the United States undertaken this task of ending the nexus between Church and State power?
We may not have invented it, but we were the first to get it to work. We are the antithesis of the Church-State. Though we are disposed to leave people alone, our determination to be left alone places us naturally in opposition to Men of the One Book.
Timeo hominem unius libri or, I have a dream
Agree or disagree:
The United States is, or ought to be, engaged in a campaign to defeat religious fanaticism where it wields secular power. This campaign has military dimensions as well as philosophical and political. The political dimensions will be articulated backward through time to roots that will include reverence and gratitude for Islam's turn as a custodian of Western thought, and forward to the day when any man or woman can claim Western thought as his or her birthright.
The military and philosophical dimensions of the campaign will demonstrate that the secular world functions according to rules that can be observed or deduced from it, and that those who ignore secular observations and deductions in favor of a One Book will fail or die, at the hands of those who master the rules rather than ignore them.
The present phase of the campaign appears then to be almost a violation of the overall campaign as framed here. Perhaps it is a mere stepping stone. Iraq is the center of gravity of the danger, and at the same time probably the most secular place in that center of gravity, where this campaign has at least a toehold, a snowball's chance of taking root.
The Men of One Book, though they and their Books are many, must be shown that they will not be tolerated as anointed, unquestioned holders of the reins of state power.
Extra credit for alert readers who can still see a shred of religious faith in the foregoing.
Agree or disagree:
- The United States is not engaged in a military campaign to liberate the people of Iraq from a hated secular tyrant. That may be a collateral benefit but it is not the goal of the campaign.
- The United States is not engaged in a military campaign to eliminate a first-tier source of weapons of mass destruction. That is also a collateral benefit but again is not the goal.
- The United States is not engaged in a military campaign to topple Al-Qaeda. Though these critters appear to be present in Iraq and have benefited from the regime that is about to topple, Al-Qaeda is mostly already toppled in their former seat of power. Fragments of their organization surely persist both in Afghanistan and scattered throughout the Islamic world, and they may still possess the resources and organization to mount an attack on the scale of the World Trade Center attack.
- The United States is not engaged in a military campaign to topple Islam. Devoted WUTT readers (both of them) may complete this paragraph as an exercise of their superb wits.
- The United States is not engaged in a military campaign to topple radical or fundamental Islam. Too much attention on the "Islam" part, to the extent that it distracts from the true and deserving goal.
The United States is, or ought to be, engaged in a campaign to defeat religious fanaticism where it wields secular power. This campaign has military dimensions as well as philosophical and political. The political dimensions will be articulated backward through time to roots that will include reverence and gratitude for Islam's turn as a custodian of Western thought, and forward to the day when any man or woman can claim Western thought as his or her birthright.
The military and philosophical dimensions of the campaign will demonstrate that the secular world functions according to rules that can be observed or deduced from it, and that those who ignore secular observations and deductions in favor of a One Book will fail or die, at the hands of those who master the rules rather than ignore them.
The present phase of the campaign appears then to be almost a violation of the overall campaign as framed here. Perhaps it is a mere stepping stone. Iraq is the center of gravity of the danger, and at the same time probably the most secular place in that center of gravity, where this campaign has at least a toehold, a snowball's chance of taking root.
The Men of One Book, though they and their Books are many, must be shown that they will not be tolerated as anointed, unquestioned holders of the reins of state power.
Extra credit for alert readers who can still see a shred of religious faith in the foregoing.
Quote of the day
Donald Vandergriff, The Path to Victory, p424.
Obviously, the army must strive to include a diverse population of Americans in its ranks, but forced diversity only polarizes the armed forces and the society they are sworn to protect. Diversity programs create an atmosphere of unfairness, which in turn undercuts trust. As part of the overall reform, the army must take a long-range look at diversity. Entrance into the officer corps, school and command selections, and promotions should be based on one standard: the need to win in combat.
Donald Vandergriff, The Path to Victory, p424.
20030406
The will of the voters is heard perhaps too damned often
Today's Denver Post opinion pages begin with two columnists arguing about the value of voter initiatives.
I'll be right up front. I like the idea of TABOR, which would never have happened if it hadn't been an initiative, but I hate hate hate voter initiatives. Voter initiatives constitute my paying twice for something that was supposed to be done right once. We already have a legislature that represents voter interests.
How exactly does a bad law, passed as an initiative instead of through the legislative process, get repealed? How does a bad initiative get improved, modified, adjusted for agreement with Constitutional protections or even with existing Colorado law, before it goes on the ballot? Even attempts to make the initiative process obey simple requirements such as "single subject" are circumvented, often drawing the courts effectively into the business of legislating.
I agree with Mr Briggs, that initiatives to amend the Constitution are worse than legislative initiatives. A Constitution needs an amendment process that places as many hurdles as possible in the path of each amendment, from each branch of government as well as direct voter will, much like the path that ordinary legislation must take, but more stringent.
Conventions are hotbeds of potential for abuse too; witness New York's Constitution, that allows a Convention to be voted up or down only every 20 years. Otherwise, individual amendments must be passed through two consecutive sessions of the legislature, one before and one after a general election, before it can be put to a popular vote. Even with such controls in place to avoid seeming random or bizarre amendments, their Constitution has come to resemble an encyclopedia. What other hurdle could be added to this process to weed out nonsensical amendments? Still they exist.
There is a limit to how much we can rely on processes to make governments behave, however one defines "behave" and however one agrees in the first place with the premise that governments are supposed to behave.
We may have reached that limit in Colorado, and are now dealing with problems that are created by the tinkering with processes itself. The unspoken assumption may be that it shouldn't matter who we elect, or what kind of people we elect, the outcome will be acceptable. Further tinkering with processes will only mask our failure to elect officials who understand and obey their Constitutional constraints, or failure to eject public officials who ignore them.
And our failure to accept some of the downsides, compromises, and consequences that laws always bring with them.
Today's Denver Post opinion pages begin with two columnists arguing about the value of voter initiatives.
I'll be right up front. I like the idea of TABOR, which would never have happened if it hadn't been an initiative, but I hate hate hate voter initiatives. Voter initiatives constitute my paying twice for something that was supposed to be done right once. We already have a legislature that represents voter interests.
How exactly does a bad law, passed as an initiative instead of through the legislative process, get repealed? How does a bad initiative get improved, modified, adjusted for agreement with Constitutional protections or even with existing Colorado law, before it goes on the ballot? Even attempts to make the initiative process obey simple requirements such as "single subject" are circumvented, often drawing the courts effectively into the business of legislating.
I agree with Mr Briggs, that initiatives to amend the Constitution are worse than legislative initiatives. A Constitution needs an amendment process that places as many hurdles as possible in the path of each amendment, from each branch of government as well as direct voter will, much like the path that ordinary legislation must take, but more stringent.
Conventions are hotbeds of potential for abuse too; witness New York's Constitution, that allows a Convention to be voted up or down only every 20 years. Otherwise, individual amendments must be passed through two consecutive sessions of the legislature, one before and one after a general election, before it can be put to a popular vote. Even with such controls in place to avoid seeming random or bizarre amendments, their Constitution has come to resemble an encyclopedia. What other hurdle could be added to this process to weed out nonsensical amendments? Still they exist.
There is a limit to how much we can rely on processes to make governments behave, however one defines "behave" and however one agrees in the first place with the premise that governments are supposed to behave.
We may have reached that limit in Colorado, and are now dealing with problems that are created by the tinkering with processes itself. The unspoken assumption may be that it shouldn't matter who we elect, or what kind of people we elect, the outcome will be acceptable. Further tinkering with processes will only mask our failure to elect officials who understand and obey their Constitutional constraints, or failure to eject public officials who ignore them.
And our failure to accept some of the downsides, compromises, and consequences that laws always bring with them.
Does this not make me green?
Contrary to Publicola's observation, I am not a manufacturer of death. I merely recycle it.
I am reloading brass empties that would otherwise go to a landfill---the firm that picks up my Number 2 plastic and clear glass does not provide a separate service to collect brass.
A businessman-hobbyist in Montana collects .22 LR spent cases, cleans them, and converts them into .224" bullet jackets. He probably sifts lead from the berms of his local ranges, and processes it to make the bullet cores. I buy from him, so not only am I recycling some of my own output, I'm supporting a local market for recycled content rather than buying from a gigantic multinational and helping to limit the spread of known environmental toxins.
Tools are also available, I hear, to convert .22 magnum cases into 6mm jackets. I'd rather have my kids doing that for pizza money than delivering newspapers.
Contrary to Publicola's observation, I am not a manufacturer of death. I merely recycle it.
I am reloading brass empties that would otherwise go to a landfill---the firm that picks up my Number 2 plastic and clear glass does not provide a separate service to collect brass.
A businessman-hobbyist in Montana collects .22 LR spent cases, cleans them, and converts them into .224" bullet jackets. He probably sifts lead from the berms of his local ranges, and processes it to make the bullet cores. I buy from him, so not only am I recycling some of my own output, I'm supporting a local market for recycled content rather than buying from a gigantic multinational and helping to limit the spread of known environmental toxins.
Tools are also available, I hear, to convert .22 magnum cases into 6mm jackets. I'd rather have my kids doing that for pizza money than delivering newspapers.
The passive voice will be used
Further on the grammar and style of the construction that uses "based on": y'all would not annoy me so much if you used the active voice in the first place. Past participles inhabit that gray area between adjective and verb, like Republican Guards who doff their uniforms when it serves them---one is mischief, two together danger. A part of speech must commit, know its place and stay in it.
Further on the grammar and style of the construction that uses "based on": y'all would not annoy me so much if you used the active voice in the first place. Past participles inhabit that gray area between adjective and verb, like Republican Guards who doff their uniforms when it serves them---one is mischief, two together danger. A part of speech must commit, know its place and stay in it.
20030405
Who is the master, you or the word?
Kim duToit announces, correctly, that attrit and surveil are not words. They are sawed-off verbs made from Pentagonese nouns. I have been observed using the former, just last Wednesday in fact, but I have resolutely refused to use the latter.
I would direct your attention, however, to the usage based on. The word based in this case is a past participle. Without feverishly rifling through Strunk and White, I don't think one can cast a sentence with two participles in a row, one modifying the next.
Kim duToit announces, correctly, that attrit and surveil are not words. They are sawed-off verbs made from Pentagonese nouns. I have been observed using the former, just last Wednesday in fact, but I have resolutely refused to use the latter.
I would direct your attention, however, to the usage based on. The word based in this case is a past participle. Without feverishly rifling through Strunk and White, I don't think one can cast a sentence with two participles in a row, one modifying the next.
" . . . our procedures must be modified based on the current situation"is not acceptable, and causes the listener to grit one's teeth. How about "modified on the basis of"?
Reloading as foreplay
If shooting is viewed as sex, then reloading must be foreplay.
Over the last few weeks, I have tumbled almost 700 empties of five-five-six, trimmed or culled them to 1.760 inches plus .001 or minus .002, swaged the primer pockets, and chamfered the necks. Note: Hirtenberger's primer pockets are rather loose; that must be why they are crimped. Lake City's are tight. Swage them all, they seat without a hitch. There's remarkable variation in rim thickness too, so be careful trimming on case trimmers that grab on the rim.
Today I dusted off and reassembled the Suburban Clandestine Arsenal of Liberty, otherwise known as the Dillon RL550B progressive reloading press.
The first station is set up to prime only: CCI450, small magnum rifle. Though the RL550B can decap and resize, it is more consistent to do all of the resizing, decapping, and primer pocket swaging on the Rockchucker a few inches away (a slice of it is visible to the right in the photo).
The second station drops a charge of 21.5 grains of WC846, which is just a hair slower than BL(C)-2.
The third station seats the bullets, which today are bulk 60-grainer soft-points that were made from swaged lead cores jacketed by extruded twenty-two long rifle empties. The "H" on the casehead is still visible, meaning these were Winchesters, IIRC. Corbin offers the kits and press to make these bullets, but that's fun for someone else with more time, who sells them to me.
The fourth station is the Lee factory crimp die, then the dump into the Akro-bin.
It took more time to set the press up, adjust the propellant charger to the right volume and set the seater and crimp, than to roll one hundred rounds. Don't tell Chuck Schumer.
A small dab of a loud-colored nail polish in the cannelure tells me which load to look up in the notebook.
Over the last few weeks, I have tumbled almost 700 empties of five-five-six, trimmed or culled them to 1.760 inches plus .001 or minus .002, swaged the primer pockets, and chamfered the necks. Note: Hirtenberger's primer pockets are rather loose; that must be why they are crimped. Lake City's are tight. Swage them all, they seat without a hitch. There's remarkable variation in rim thickness too, so be careful trimming on case trimmers that grab on the rim.
Today I dusted off and reassembled the Suburban Clandestine Arsenal of Liberty, otherwise known as the Dillon RL550B progressive reloading press.
The first station is set up to prime only: CCI450, small magnum rifle. Though the RL550B can decap and resize, it is more consistent to do all of the resizing, decapping, and primer pocket swaging on the Rockchucker a few inches away (a slice of it is visible to the right in the photo).
The second station drops a charge of 21.5 grains of WC846, which is just a hair slower than BL(C)-2.
The third station seats the bullets, which today are bulk 60-grainer soft-points that were made from swaged lead cores jacketed by extruded twenty-two long rifle empties. The "H" on the casehead is still visible, meaning these were Winchesters, IIRC. Corbin offers the kits and press to make these bullets, but that's fun for someone else with more time, who sells them to me.
The fourth station is the Lee factory crimp die, then the dump into the Akro-bin.
It took more time to set the press up, adjust the propellant charger to the right volume and set the seater and crimp, than to roll one hundred rounds. Don't tell Chuck Schumer.
A small dab of a loud-colored nail polish in the cannelure tells me which load to look up in the notebook.
20030401
To confuse the enemy, to help soldiers remember code words, and boost morale with humor
Group Captain Mandrake is amused by the choices of codewords for Operation James. If only Uncle Sugar had such a sense of humor.
In an upcoming exercise in the States, two operating areas will be codenamed Condi and Tori. Beats the heck out of Temuka and Caravaca.
Group Captain Mandrake is amused by the choices of codewords for Operation James. If only Uncle Sugar had such a sense of humor.
In an upcoming exercise in the States, two operating areas will be codenamed Condi and Tori. Beats the heck out of Temuka and Caravaca.
20030328
We're bringing the war back home
The occasion of the possible sunset of the 1994 Federal assault weapon ban reminds one: it is a respected ancient tradition for the victorious soldier to bring home a trophy from the vanquished. That trophy was usually a weapon claimed from his defeated foe.
What better to motivate some of our troops in Southwest Asia? Just remove the red tape.
Okay, yeah, it's just a Kalashnikov. But it's the thought that counts.
The occasion of the possible sunset of the 1994 Federal assault weapon ban reminds one: it is a respected ancient tradition for the victorious soldier to bring home a trophy from the vanquished. That trophy was usually a weapon claimed from his defeated foe.
What better to motivate some of our troops in Southwest Asia? Just remove the red tape.
Okay, yeah, it's just a Kalashnikov. But it's the thought that counts.
20030327
Oh to have been in that press conference
Some of the questions I would have posed to Tori Clarke:
By the way, Tori's autograph graces a copy of the orders that put my butt on that Rotator. She and Rummy toured a Forward Operating Location where it was my privilege to meet them both.
Yes, I am openly and crassly bragging.
Some of the questions I would have posed to Tori Clarke:
- Ma'am, can you comment on the company and the country of manufacture of the nerve agent antidotes discovered in the hospital?
- If you cannot name the company or the country, can you at least comment on whether that country is a NATO, EU, or UN member?
- Can you comment on whether that same company also provides war materiel to the United States?
- Can you comment on when those antidotes were manufactured or shipped to Iraq, with reference to when any embargoes or sanctions were in place?
- Does the mere existence of these antidotes in a military store of some kind represent a violation of any of the UN Resolutions in place at the time they were probably obtained by Iraq?
By the way, Tori's autograph graces a copy of the orders that put my butt on that Rotator. She and Rummy toured a Forward Operating Location where it was my privilege to meet them both.
Yes, I am openly and crassly bragging.
One year ago today
my ass was on a Rotator headed from Rhein-Main to Southwest Asia.
Today my days are spent preparing a Wing in the doctrine known as "C-CW Conops." It's not clear where I would rather be, here, safe in the States talking the talk, or in SWA walking the walk.
I pray over every meal that our people succeed and come home.
my ass was on a Rotator headed from Rhein-Main to Southwest Asia.
Today my days are spent preparing a Wing in the doctrine known as "C-CW Conops." It's not clear where I would rather be, here, safe in the States talking the talk, or in SWA walking the walk.
I pray over every meal that our people succeed and come home.
20030319
Maybe one floor can be mocked up as an aircraft cabin
WUTT joins the contest to propose a new purpose for the UN Headquarters should they become vacant in the near future: lease several floors out to Gunsite, LFI, Marksman's Enterprise, Thunder Ranch, and other fine dynamic conflict resolution schools, for indoor ranges and funhouses. The highrise looks like it has hallways about 200 meters long.
WUTT joins the contest to propose a new purpose for the UN Headquarters should they become vacant in the near future: lease several floors out to Gunsite, LFI, Marksman's Enterprise, Thunder Ranch, and other fine dynamic conflict resolution schools, for indoor ranges and funhouses. The highrise looks like it has hallways about 200 meters long.
It's been done before
Rachel Lucas is piqued to no end about a fellow being tried for having an unregistered defensive tool. The prosecutors reduced the charge to a lesser offense so they could try him without a jury.
Tell it to Laura Kriho. They did that to her too. Her offense, by the way? Go read the links.
At times like this I wish Liberty magazine's online presence were, um, present. There was a wonderful article on how to prepare yourself for the examination to be put on a jury, so you can still render a verdict within your conscience but hopefully protect yourself from what happened to Laura Kriho. Vin Suprynowicz wrote something similar, reprinted in Send In the Waco Killers.
Rachel Lucas is piqued to no end about a fellow being tried for having an unregistered defensive tool. The prosecutors reduced the charge to a lesser offense so they could try him without a jury.
Tell it to Laura Kriho. They did that to her too. Her offense, by the way? Go read the links.
At times like this I wish Liberty magazine's online presence were, um, present. There was a wonderful article on how to prepare yourself for the examination to be put on a jury, so you can still render a verdict within your conscience but hopefully protect yourself from what happened to Laura Kriho. Vin Suprynowicz wrote something similar, reprinted in Send In the Waco Killers.
Maybe time to drop PayPal
Aubrey Turner discusses PayPal's change of policy to prohibit the use of its service for legal commerce in modern firearms. This merely puts PayPal's policy in line with that of their owner, eBay. The only time I ever used eBay was to try to replace a collectible that my son destroyed on a visit to a friend's house. I like the concept of eBay but I did not enjoy the experience of being sniped out of some POS knicknack.
I wonder, to what extent are these policies an attempt to avoid litigation, like the suits being brought by cities against the gun industry? Is there actuarial basis for companies to exclude activities like firearm transactions on the part of their clients because the companies' part in those activities exposes them to gun lawsuits? These don't sound like inspirations of a goo-goo dot-com executive, but policies influenced or even initiated by corporate counsel.
In any case, if they continue this policy, I will drop them and tell them why. Just like I'm about to do to the Denver Post.
Aubrey Turner discusses PayPal's change of policy to prohibit the use of its service for legal commerce in modern firearms. This merely puts PayPal's policy in line with that of their owner, eBay. The only time I ever used eBay was to try to replace a collectible that my son destroyed on a visit to a friend's house. I like the concept of eBay but I did not enjoy the experience of being sniped out of some POS knicknack.
I wonder, to what extent are these policies an attempt to avoid litigation, like the suits being brought by cities against the gun industry? Is there actuarial basis for companies to exclude activities like firearm transactions on the part of their clients because the companies' part in those activities exposes them to gun lawsuits? These don't sound like inspirations of a goo-goo dot-com executive, but policies influenced or even initiated by corporate counsel.
In any case, if they continue this policy, I will drop them and tell them why. Just like I'm about to do to the Denver Post.
Quote of the day (from yesterday, actually)
Jonathan Gewirtz at ChicagoBoyz
People who get shafted have long memories.
Jonathan Gewirtz at ChicagoBoyz
20030318
Get your finger out of that G-d-damned triggerguard!
Fox News Channel is interviewing Specialist Roberto Jimenez about his fighting load. As he was describing his service rifle, his magazine was seated, and his finger was in the triggerguard. The ejection port cover was down so nobody knows whether the bolt was in battery or his chamber was clear.
This stuff does indeed chap my ass. At least he was pointing his muzzle into the floor.
Fox News Channel is interviewing Specialist Roberto Jimenez about his fighting load. As he was describing his service rifle, his magazine was seated, and his finger was in the triggerguard. The ejection port cover was down so nobody knows whether the bolt was in battery or his chamber was clear.
This stuff does indeed chap my ass. At least he was pointing his muzzle into the floor.
... balloon man whistles far ... and ... whee
The latino man approached our table at the Pancake Place, sensing an opportunity to entertain Firstborn, Middlechild, and Boy with his balloon art.
"Hello, would jour children enyoy balloons?"
"Of course."
"Jour boy, he would like a sword?"
"He really likes airplanes," offered Barbaloot. Boy's winged LarryMobile already needs a new purple paint job. His little wooden JayJay has lost both of its engines. His aircraft get a lot of attention and a lot of wear.
But the sword was already done, and handed to Boy after a final squeaky twist. His syrupy hand seized it and he lost all interest in pancakes.
It was Middlechild's turn. "I want a cat, please."
"How about a hommingbord?"
"Please may you make me a cat." The terminal "t" was distinct.
"Hmmmm, what color chall I make this hommingbord?" Squeak squeak.
He drew big lunatic walled eyes on the head with a permanent marker.
"I wanted a cat." Softly, humbly. With disappointment.
"Here is jour hommingbord."
Firstborn is far less inhibited. "I want a puppy" she shouted, before he even reached to his belt for the inflating pump. A puppy she got, though it was improvised from the giraffe page of the Big Balloon Art Handbook.
The "head" of this gir-puppy sprang out, then popped and sagged in pink tatters, moments after she received it and its creator was tipped by her grandparents. Firstborn sobbed.
One week later, off again to Pancake Place after Mass. As we are seated, I scan the crowd for balloon artists. Noticing none, I take a seat and open the menu. Only then I see balloon swords in boys' hands at a nearby table. Behind the clink of flatware and the clatter of plates, the rubbery squeaks and pump hisses are faint but certain.
After our order is taken, he approaches. He makes eye contact with me, recognizes me. It must be my expressive face.
"Ohhhh, this is the family who wants balloons only after the children are done eating." He smiles, twinkles his eyes. "I will come back soon," then he turns to the other end of the Pancake Place.
Firstborn and Middlechild finished a ten-inch chocolate-chipped pancake between them without distraction. Boy cared only for link sausage.
The balloon man did not come back.
The latino man approached our table at the Pancake Place, sensing an opportunity to entertain Firstborn, Middlechild, and Boy with his balloon art.
"Hello, would jour children enyoy balloons?"
"Of course."
"Jour boy, he would like a sword?"
"He really likes airplanes," offered Barbaloot. Boy's winged LarryMobile already needs a new purple paint job. His little wooden JayJay has lost both of its engines. His aircraft get a lot of attention and a lot of wear.
But the sword was already done, and handed to Boy after a final squeaky twist. His syrupy hand seized it and he lost all interest in pancakes.
It was Middlechild's turn. "I want a cat, please."
"How about a hommingbord?"
"Please may you make me a cat." The terminal "t" was distinct.
"Hmmmm, what color chall I make this hommingbord?" Squeak squeak.
He drew big lunatic walled eyes on the head with a permanent marker.
"I wanted a cat." Softly, humbly. With disappointment.
"Here is jour hommingbord."
Firstborn is far less inhibited. "I want a puppy" she shouted, before he even reached to his belt for the inflating pump. A puppy she got, though it was improvised from the giraffe page of the Big Balloon Art Handbook.
The "head" of this gir-puppy sprang out, then popped and sagged in pink tatters, moments after she received it and its creator was tipped by her grandparents. Firstborn sobbed.
One week later, off again to Pancake Place after Mass. As we are seated, I scan the crowd for balloon artists. Noticing none, I take a seat and open the menu. Only then I see balloon swords in boys' hands at a nearby table. Behind the clink of flatware and the clatter of plates, the rubbery squeaks and pump hisses are faint but certain.
After our order is taken, he approaches. He makes eye contact with me, recognizes me. It must be my expressive face.
"Ohhhh, this is the family who wants balloons only after the children are done eating." He smiles, twinkles his eyes. "I will come back soon," then he turns to the other end of the Pancake Place.
Firstborn and Middlechild finished a ten-inch chocolate-chipped pancake between them without distraction. Boy cared only for link sausage.
The balloon man did not come back.
20030315
20030305
it's like telling them not to swear
Lt Smash reviews General Order Number Zero with his personnel.
See this also.
Lt Smash reviews General Order Number Zero with his personnel.
See this also.
20030303
They oughtta have 'em, too
I noticed a large plastic jug in our kitchen last night, with a label claiming that it contained "Pi-Mag treated water." Beloved wife Barbaloot says she got it from friends of hers, who offer various nutritional and alternative health products.
Her frown must have been in reaction to my facial expression of skepticism.
Later during dinner, after Boy was settling down from a tantrum, he crawled up into his mother's lap and asked for "magnet." Huh?
Barbaloot produced a little plastic shell holding two magnetized nubbled balls, which she rubbed over his back to soothe him.
My skeptical facial expression returned. We proceeded to discuss (quite energetically) these alternative health products, and how I thought they were hucksterism, and she thought I should be more open to possibilities that the white lab smocks don't have all of the answers.
The "infrared" blanket she had put on our bed did, in fact, make the bed more comfortable, though I woke two hours early, rolling back and forth with a splitting headache.
. . . twenty-four hours later . . .
I resume an article where I had left it Friday night, about how very small amounts of normally toxic chemicals or ionizing radiation can make one healthier---hormesis. Sorry, no online link to this article; see The American Spectator, July/August 2002, page 54, "Underdosed" by Tom Bethell. Like the guy in Repo Man says,
I noticed a large plastic jug in our kitchen last night, with a label claiming that it contained "Pi-Mag treated water." Beloved wife Barbaloot says she got it from friends of hers, who offer various nutritional and alternative health products.
Her frown must have been in reaction to my facial expression of skepticism.
Later during dinner, after Boy was settling down from a tantrum, he crawled up into his mother's lap and asked for "magnet." Huh?
Barbaloot produced a little plastic shell holding two magnetized nubbled balls, which she rubbed over his back to soothe him.
My skeptical facial expression returned. We proceeded to discuss (quite energetically) these alternative health products, and how I thought they were hucksterism, and she thought I should be more open to possibilities that the white lab smocks don't have all of the answers.
The "infrared" blanket she had put on our bed did, in fact, make the bed more comfortable, though I woke two hours early, rolling back and forth with a splitting headache.
. . . twenty-four hours later . . .
I resume an article where I had left it Friday night, about how very small amounts of normally toxic chemicals or ionizing radiation can make one healthier---hormesis. Sorry, no online link to this article; see The American Spectator, July/August 2002, page 54, "Underdosed" by Tom Bethell. Like the guy in Repo Man says,
Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense! Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too.
20030226
Calling for a declaration of war cannot be anti-war
There is a difference, though some will argue there is not, between several Congressional resolutions authorizing the President to use force in Southwest Asia on the one hand, and a declaration of war against an underground organization and its supporting states on the other.
Put me down as one of those who think the Congress should declare the war. Anything less is a delegation of powers to the President that were clearly intended to stay with Congress. It also affords our less honorable members of Congress with the opportunity to hide behind weasel words if the war does not succeed: "We passed a resolution allowing the President to use force to effect A. We didn't say anything about him invading B."
The President, as Commander in Chief, wages the war. He determines how and with how much. The Congress decides whether, and upon whom, the war will be waged. These roles were separated for a purpose.
Of course antiwar leftists are calling, and even suing, to force the President to stop preparations in Southwest Asia, until and unless Congress declares war. As Bigwig suggests, a fine way to silence them is to grant their wish.
If war is the continuation of politics by other means, then the decision to go to war is a political one. A decision of such gravity, of such consequences, deserves the public visibility of recorded votes for the genuine article, the real thing, the full monty.
There is a difference, though some will argue there is not, between several Congressional resolutions authorizing the President to use force in Southwest Asia on the one hand, and a declaration of war against an underground organization and its supporting states on the other.
Put me down as one of those who think the Congress should declare the war. Anything less is a delegation of powers to the President that were clearly intended to stay with Congress. It also affords our less honorable members of Congress with the opportunity to hide behind weasel words if the war does not succeed: "We passed a resolution allowing the President to use force to effect A. We didn't say anything about him invading B."
The President, as Commander in Chief, wages the war. He determines how and with how much. The Congress decides whether, and upon whom, the war will be waged. These roles were separated for a purpose.
Of course antiwar leftists are calling, and even suing, to force the President to stop preparations in Southwest Asia, until and unless Congress declares war. As Bigwig suggests, a fine way to silence them is to grant their wish.
If war is the continuation of politics by other means, then the decision to go to war is a political one. A decision of such gravity, of such consequences, deserves the public visibility of recorded votes for the genuine article, the real thing, the full monty.
Single-parent soldiers
Michael Reagan's radio program this evening discussed the plight of single parents in the Army of One (and the Air Force to which No One Even Comes Close, and so forth). The DoD should contract with accessing members, offering an annuity equal to one-half the value of the services they must provide to enlisted families. If the member makes it through the first term of enlistment (or to NCO status, whichever comes first) without taking on any dependents, the annuity is paid, in the form of a 401(k) with income taxes deferred. Any dependents, oops, no annuity.
Update: link to the radio program's website was corrected.
Michael Reagan's radio program this evening discussed the plight of single parents in the Army of One (and the Air Force to which No One Even Comes Close, and so forth). The DoD should contract with accessing members, offering an annuity equal to one-half the value of the services they must provide to enlisted families. If the member makes it through the first term of enlistment (or to NCO status, whichever comes first) without taking on any dependents, the annuity is paid, in the form of a 401(k) with income taxes deferred. Any dependents, oops, no annuity.
Update: link to the radio program's website was corrected.
20030224
Mark your calendar
The feast day of Saint Gabriel Possenti is 27 February. He is, or ought to be, the Patron Saint of Handgunners.
Update: Kathy Kinsley responds to this with "Ick." I think it has something to do with handguns versus any kind of gun, with which sentiment I disagree. Handguns are inherently less accurate than long-guns. Marksmanship with a handgun is, caeteris paribus, more difficult and thus more daunting to the goblins. It deserves its own term to distinguish it from other forms of marksmanship.
Coyote tells me that the Saint was also a lawyer.
Please drive some traffic, and drop some dollars, at the site for the Possenti Society.
The feast day of Saint Gabriel Possenti is 27 February. He is, or ought to be, the Patron Saint of Handgunners.
Update: Kathy Kinsley responds to this with "Ick." I think it has something to do with handguns versus any kind of gun, with which sentiment I disagree. Handguns are inherently less accurate than long-guns. Marksmanship with a handgun is, caeteris paribus, more difficult and thus more daunting to the goblins. It deserves its own term to distinguish it from other forms of marksmanship.
Coyote tells me that the Saint was also a lawyer.
Please drive some traffic, and drop some dollars, at the site for the Possenti Society.
20030221
Hey, hon, let's get patriotic
Bigwig describes how French kissing has become so, je ne sais quoi. Y'know. French.
Bigwig describes how French kissing has become so, je ne sais quoi. Y'know. French.
20030220
20030219
The sum of Tom Tancredo's fears, and Michell Malkin's fears
Read this discussion about crackdowns versus liberalization of immigration and their impacts on homeland security.
Then read Kathy Kinsley's take on it.
Then mine.
Read this discussion about crackdowns versus liberalization of immigration and their impacts on homeland security.
Then read Kathy Kinsley's take on it.
Then mine.
Close enough for me
Horsefeathers proposes a concise set of principles for foreign policy.
I disagree somewhat with his fourth point:
If our policy does in fact provide our trading partners and ostensible allies "Paradise at our expense," our choosing to no longer bear that expense will adequately offset any economic advantage they have over us. Japanese "steel dumping" should no longer be an problem, for example.
Found this via the Third Hand.
Horsefeathers proposes a concise set of principles for foreign policy.
I disagree somewhat with his fourth point:
We must help our businessmen to win out over our rivals in the great game of commerce.
If our policy does in fact provide our trading partners and ostensible allies "Paradise at our expense," our choosing to no longer bear that expense will adequately offset any economic advantage they have over us. Japanese "steel dumping" should no longer be an problem, for example.
Found this via the Third Hand.
20030213
A nice compromise between controlling power and stoppability
The .380 Auto is known in Europe as the 9mm Short. Does that mean the .40 S&M is called the 10mm Shibari over there?
Freudian slip noticed in comments to a post about defensive handguns at DailyPundit.
The .380 Auto is known in Europe as the 9mm Short. Does that mean the .40 S&M is called the 10mm Shibari over there?
Freudian slip noticed in comments to a post about defensive handguns at DailyPundit.
20030211
Idea number 241
I would also very much like the USAF to buy me a PDA. Not that I don't like my present platform, the Palm m500.
A commander some years back shared with us his vision that "someday the Air Force will not issue its airmen rifles, but computers." That vision is coming true haphazardly and unconsciously; we are now required to update dependent information through a website, for example, and we use the execrable FormFlow to prepare travel vouchers (the FormFlow version of the travel voucher still admonishes you to "press the pen firmly so all four copies are legible"---on an electronic form). But the automation has not penetrated deeply enough, and I still need the rifle.
Virtually all Air Force instructions ("regs") are available as PDFs now, downloaded from either a central Air Force site or from a CD-ROM copy. Technical Orders (equipment manuals) are beginning that painful transition from paper to pdf. My career field depends upon a constellation of AFIs, AFMANs, AFHs, TOs, and purpose-built network clients. I already share my schedule with two peers, two managers, three classrooms, and three email lists.
The only reason that all of these files cannot be crammed into 16 MB on a PDA is that the AF simply dumps full-size JPEG images into their pubs, in effect bloating a 300KB document to several MB by adding color photographs, even in a document that will only be printed in black and white anyway. If the AF simply hired some illustrators to take these photos and "compress" them the old fashioned way, Idea number 241 would. be. feasible. Today.
The AF then issues a standard PDA to everybody---Palm or the OS formerly known as Wince, makes no difference---and each office would have one or two cradles to dock them. "Hey, Tony, there's a new 10-2501 waiting for you at your next synch. Look at my notes attached to it. And there's a change 3 for 14P4 dash 15 dash 1!"
Yes, we do verbalize the dashes.
The AF could then stem the explosion in the number of desktop and notebook computers it has to buy, maintain, and replace. Even morale uses of these computers could be reduced---just read and compose emails to Significant Other offline, and they'll be sent the next time you dock. You can still get your Instapundit and your DavidMSC too.
In a small way, I've done this already---four of us bought our own Palm pilots before a recent deployment, and shared schedules, documents, and so forth. Sand didn't bother them (perspiration did---somebody needs to build a waterproof PDA).
If you came here from this post, then you can guess what's coming next.
Either the digital camera snaps on to the PDA, or communicates with it. The PDA uploads the images, calculates the contamination and digests it to a file. I would caution against using a flash memory device to transfer images from camera to PDA, because handling those little devices while wearing rubber gloves is difficult and invites ESD. Wireless would be unwise because RF on an airbase is discouraged. Infrared is cheap and proved, and you won't be using this capability while hostiles are watching you through night vision gear.
When the images are uploaded and digested, you get yourself to the nearest dock and blurt the digested information to the mapping terminal. If the PDA gets slimed, throw it away and restore your backup to a new one.
Then the mapping terminal blurts back to you a password-protected map of where the slime is.
I would also very much like the USAF to buy me a PDA. Not that I don't like my present platform, the Palm m500.
A commander some years back shared with us his vision that "someday the Air Force will not issue its airmen rifles, but computers." That vision is coming true haphazardly and unconsciously; we are now required to update dependent information through a website, for example, and we use the execrable FormFlow to prepare travel vouchers (the FormFlow version of the travel voucher still admonishes you to "press the pen firmly so all four copies are legible"---on an electronic form). But the automation has not penetrated deeply enough, and I still need the rifle.
Virtually all Air Force instructions ("regs") are available as PDFs now, downloaded from either a central Air Force site or from a CD-ROM copy. Technical Orders (equipment manuals) are beginning that painful transition from paper to pdf. My career field depends upon a constellation of AFIs, AFMANs, AFHs, TOs, and purpose-built network clients. I already share my schedule with two peers, two managers, three classrooms, and three email lists.
The only reason that all of these files cannot be crammed into 16 MB on a PDA is that the AF simply dumps full-size JPEG images into their pubs, in effect bloating a 300KB document to several MB by adding color photographs, even in a document that will only be printed in black and white anyway. If the AF simply hired some illustrators to take these photos and "compress" them the old fashioned way, Idea number 241 would. be. feasible. Today.
The AF then issues a standard PDA to everybody---Palm or the OS formerly known as Wince, makes no difference---and each office would have one or two cradles to dock them. "Hey, Tony, there's a new 10-2501 waiting for you at your next synch. Look at my notes attached to it. And there's a change 3 for 14P4 dash 15 dash 1!"
Yes, we do verbalize the dashes.
The AF could then stem the explosion in the number of desktop and notebook computers it has to buy, maintain, and replace. Even morale uses of these computers could be reduced---just read and compose emails to Significant Other offline, and they'll be sent the next time you dock. You can still get your Instapundit and your DavidMSC too.
In a small way, I've done this already---four of us bought our own Palm pilots before a recent deployment, and shared schedules, documents, and so forth. Sand didn't bother them (perspiration did---somebody needs to build a waterproof PDA).
If you came here from this post, then you can guess what's coming next.
Either the digital camera snaps on to the PDA, or communicates with it. The PDA uploads the images, calculates the contamination and digests it to a file. I would caution against using a flash memory device to transfer images from camera to PDA, because handling those little devices while wearing rubber gloves is difficult and invites ESD. Wireless would be unwise because RF on an airbase is discouraged. Infrared is cheap and proved, and you won't be using this capability while hostiles are watching you through night vision gear.
When the images are uploaded and digested, you get yourself to the nearest dock and blurt the digested information to the mapping terminal. If the PDA gets slimed, throw it away and restore your backup to a new one.
Then the mapping terminal blurts back to you a password-protected map of where the slime is.
Idea number 372
We have received some constructive criticism of Idea number 354, from none other than an experienced cadre member at a US military NBC training facility.
The portable paper-band contamination tracker fails to satisfy on several counts:
So Cadre one-upped me. "Our people have already stationed the detector paper around the base, as part of pre-attack detection measures. Give us a device that looks at that paper and quantifies the contamination. What do digital cameras cost these days?"
OK. The required granularity would be there. We'd be using an existing resource more wisely rather than procuring a new system with its own expendables. So:
If any readers are familiar with the equipment used to perform complete blood counts, for example, please reality-check me. The software involved in counting colored dots in an image with fixed background color can't be so complex it can't be packed into a high-end notebook, right? Statistical output of an image compressor, such as JPEG?
In fact, might this software be simple enough to run on a properly configured PDA? If so, check out idea number 241.
The challenge to such a system would be porting all of these images back to one location where they can be assembled and assessed. The bandwidth required for hauling around two-meg jpegs would kill a base network; if the assessment function were pushed out to the periphery of the system, closer to where the images are captured, then the message coming from the imager to the mapping software would be a few bytes showing color, concentration, and temperature, a couple bytes identifying the camera, operator, and date/time group, and a couple bytes of location coordinates.
It's also a reason for the USAF to buy me AutoCAD.
We have received some constructive criticism of Idea number 354, from none other than an experienced cadre member at a US military NBC training facility.
The portable paper-band contamination tracker fails to satisfy on several counts:
- Even if the device went out for competitive bid and somebody like Lexmark or Brother won the contract,
Uncle Sugar would still never buy enough of them to cover an airbase with the granularity needed to capture a meaningful
image of the "plume," the footprint of deposited liquid agent. - Of course Uncle Sugar would never put this device out for competitive bid, and would ultimately pay five thousand dollars each, for seventy-five bucks of hardware and a fifteen-dollar expendable paper band cassette. There's a reason I suggested two fax/printer/copier manufacturers as bidders---this device is no more complex than that.
So Cadre one-upped me. "Our people have already stationed the detector paper around the base, as part of pre-attack detection measures. Give us a device that looks at that paper and quantifies the contamination. What do digital cameras cost these days?"
OK. The required granularity would be there. We'd be using an existing resource more wisely rather than procuring a new system with its own expendables. So:
- Control the focus and lighting with a simple, folding (disposable?) plastic frame that holds the camera at a fixed distance and reflects the flash evenly across the sample detector paper. Put a thermometer in a corner of the frame.
- Capture an image of the paper under known shutter speed and aperture, with a known resolution and color depth. Done right, this system could be independent of camera make and model. Just meet the exposure, resolution, and flash specs.
- Imprint coordinates with the image, captured from a GPS receiver. Better yet, snap the coordinates of the paper when it is stationed in the first place, and record the coordinates directly on the paper so it's imaged there, instead of captured later.
- Issue software that sucks the images in from several cameras,
- assesses each image by color of spot, size of spot, number of spots, and
- determines agent type and concentration of deposition, then
- plots the concentration on a base map for the Wing King.
If any readers are familiar with the equipment used to perform complete blood counts, for example, please reality-check me. The software involved in counting colored dots in an image with fixed background color can't be so complex it can't be packed into a high-end notebook, right? Statistical output of an image compressor, such as JPEG?
In fact, might this software be simple enough to run on a properly configured PDA? If so, check out idea number 241.
The challenge to such a system would be porting all of these images back to one location where they can be assembled and assessed. The bandwidth required for hauling around two-meg jpegs would kill a base network; if the assessment function were pushed out to the periphery of the system, closer to where the images are captured, then the message coming from the imager to the mapping software would be a few bytes showing color, concentration, and temperature, a couple bytes identifying the camera, operator, and date/time group, and a couple bytes of location coordinates.
It's also a reason for the USAF to buy me AutoCAD.
20030209
Why I'd rather not fly any more
Penn Jillette talking to a TSA representative after an unpleasant security experience; found via Armed Liberal.
" . . . freedom is kind of a hobby with me, and I have disposable income that I'll spend to find out how to get people more of it."
Penn Jillette talking to a TSA representative after an unpleasant security experience; found via Armed Liberal.
Cafe con piernas
Mind the web filters, y'all.
During a business trip to Chile in 1995, our hosts took us to a coffeeshop whose name translates to "coffee with legs."
There was no seating; all customers stood. The walls were mirrored such that we could admire the young women serving coffee, in dresses that revealed their legs very flatteringly.
Courtesy of dustbury, links to the blogosphere equivalent of cafe con piernas.
Mind the web filters, y'all.
During a business trip to Chile in 1995, our hosts took us to a coffeeshop whose name translates to "coffee with legs."
There was no seating; all customers stood. The walls were mirrored such that we could admire the young women serving coffee, in dresses that revealed their legs very flatteringly.
Courtesy of dustbury, links to the blogosphere equivalent of cafe con piernas.
20030206
Grudging acceptance?
James Rummel comments on my post about the purpose and limits of government.
Update: sorry, yes, it was "grudging realization." Anyway, government has to be intrusive to be effective, but there must be limits to the degree of intrusion, to preserve the faith of the governed that the intrusion is justifiable and should be allowed. The difference between party A investigating party B for a possible violation of party C's rights, and a fishing expedition for A to find something about B, possibly with no party C of any kind.
This does work back to an express libertarian principle, that there has to be a wronged party, a victim. It also means that there must be laws and impartial referees to determine when intrustion is justified, and penalties when the intrusion is not justified but happens anyway.
James Rummel comments on my post about the purpose and limits of government.
Update: sorry, yes, it was "grudging realization." Anyway, government has to be intrusive to be effective, but there must be limits to the degree of intrusion, to preserve the faith of the governed that the intrusion is justifiable and should be allowed. The difference between party A investigating party B for a possible violation of party C's rights, and a fishing expedition for A to find something about B, possibly with no party C of any kind.
This does work back to an express libertarian principle, that there has to be a wronged party, a victim. It also means that there must be laws and impartial referees to determine when intrustion is justified, and penalties when the intrusion is not justified but happens anyway.
I feel left out too
Follow this link to Silflay Hraka, for a proposed new romantic holiday.
It's only days before my birthday.
Follow this link to Silflay Hraka, for a proposed new romantic holiday.
It's only days before my birthday.
20030204
Ubicams may not be enough
One of my struggles with libertarianism involves the question of whether the civil rights we recognize and enjoy are protected only against government, or against other forms of power as well. Can an employer, for instance, be prohibited from sampling the urine of her employees or applicants? Can a homeowners’ association be restrained from fining me if I paint my house a non-approved color?
David Brin’s The Transparent Society repeatedly stresses that government is not the only center of power able to threaten individual liberties. Government is a necessary evil precisely because other centers of power rise to overwhelm the individual. Governments are instituted among men to secure the rights of the individual against other parties that naturally form among men, as well as against other governments. That governments pose the gravest threat to liberties is secondary, and though Brin agrees (I think) he cautions that government is not the only threat.
I had finished that book last week. This evening, in an article about libertarians’ frequent kind sentiments for the Confederacy, this struggle again caught my attention in a comparison of our Constitution’s Founders with the Chicago mob:
Timothy Sandefur, "Liberty and Union, Now and Forever," Liberty Magazine, July 2002, page 37. Inexplicably, not available online.
Put aside for the moment that the criminal underworld to whom the writer is referring was trafficking in substances and services that Libertarians would legalize, removing the artificial profits and allowing competition to occur peaceably in the sunlight. Timothy Sandefur instead points to the possibility, even the likelihood, that gangs, mobs, conspiracies and so forth tend to form, either with evil intent at the outset, or by later transformation from innocence to evil, and that the power of government must from time to time be used to oppose them.
The question then becomes: what role has government to play in limiting the power of these other entities? The classical response from libertarians has been the free market. If you object to pissing in the cup for your next job, keep looking---employers have rights to hire and fire as they wish. If you want to paint your house flamingo pink, you should not have bought a house in the covenant-controlled community---government has no power to impair contracts. This is a far cry from Al Capone, of course.
I’ve always found such answers to be inadequate, but cannot yet successfully articulate that inadequacy. I can only offer examples of how it’s not adequate. Go ahead, try buying a house in the Denver metro suburbs without a covenant attached to it. Try getting a position of responsibility and challenge, with commensurate compensation, without having to submit bodily fluids for inspection.
Better yet: Your violent ex-husband knows where you work, what car you drive, your schedule, so forth. Try to carry an otherwise lawfully-concealed handgun on your employer’s premises. Try to carry it to the school to drop off and pick up your kid, or to church to celebrate Mass with the kid. Try to rent a video for the kid or buy her a new pair of tennies. You will encounter numerous other entities who don’t want your business, and who are using the force of law and their status as “private” to give you the bum’s rush. Entities that are not innately evil. Misguided, mistaken, but not Trying To Take Over The World.
You will quickly realize that you have rights that only government is bound to respect, and only very well-behaved government at that. But when the power of government is used to protect those rights, we often end up with laws that grant some entity the “rights” to the contents of your pocket.
You actually thought I’d try to make an argument of any kind without working in a blaster? I accept this about myself: this is the lens through which I view most topics.
I am slowly coming to agree with David Brin that transparency will bring accountability, which is more likely to protect rights without the nasty side effects of government regulation. But I don’t think transparency alone will suffice.
David Brin’s The Transparent Society repeatedly stresses that government is not the only center of power able to threaten individual liberties. Government is a necessary evil precisely because other centers of power rise to overwhelm the individual. Governments are instituted among men to secure the rights of the individual against other parties that naturally form among men, as well as against other governments. That governments pose the gravest threat to liberties is secondary, and though Brin agrees (I think) he cautions that government is not the only threat.
I had finished that book last week. This evening, in an article about libertarians’ frequent kind sentiments for the Confederacy, this struggle again caught my attention in a comparison of our Constitution’s Founders with the Chicago mob:
What is the difference between a group of men in Philadelphia in 1776 declaring themselves no longer subject to the laws of the English monarch, and a group of men in Chicago in 1920 declaring themselves no longer subject to the laws of the United States?
Timothy Sandefur, "Liberty and Union, Now and Forever," Liberty Magazine, July 2002, page 37. Inexplicably, not available online.
Put aside for the moment that the criminal underworld to whom the writer is referring was trafficking in substances and services that Libertarians would legalize, removing the artificial profits and allowing competition to occur peaceably in the sunlight. Timothy Sandefur instead points to the possibility, even the likelihood, that gangs, mobs, conspiracies and so forth tend to form, either with evil intent at the outset, or by later transformation from innocence to evil, and that the power of government must from time to time be used to oppose them.
The question then becomes: what role has government to play in limiting the power of these other entities? The classical response from libertarians has been the free market. If you object to pissing in the cup for your next job, keep looking---employers have rights to hire and fire as they wish. If you want to paint your house flamingo pink, you should not have bought a house in the covenant-controlled community---government has no power to impair contracts. This is a far cry from Al Capone, of course.
I’ve always found such answers to be inadequate, but cannot yet successfully articulate that inadequacy. I can only offer examples of how it’s not adequate. Go ahead, try buying a house in the Denver metro suburbs without a covenant attached to it. Try getting a position of responsibility and challenge, with commensurate compensation, without having to submit bodily fluids for inspection.
Better yet: Your violent ex-husband knows where you work, what car you drive, your schedule, so forth. Try to carry an otherwise lawfully-concealed handgun on your employer’s premises. Try to carry it to the school to drop off and pick up your kid, or to church to celebrate Mass with the kid. Try to rent a video for the kid or buy her a new pair of tennies. You will encounter numerous other entities who don’t want your business, and who are using the force of law and their status as “private” to give you the bum’s rush. Entities that are not innately evil. Misguided, mistaken, but not Trying To Take Over The World.
You will quickly realize that you have rights that only government is bound to respect, and only very well-behaved government at that. But when the power of government is used to protect those rights, we often end up with laws that grant some entity the “rights” to the contents of your pocket.
You actually thought I’d try to make an argument of any kind without working in a blaster? I accept this about myself: this is the lens through which I view most topics.
I am slowly coming to agree with David Brin that transparency will bring accountability, which is more likely to protect rights without the nasty side effects of government regulation. But I don’t think transparency alone will suffice.
20030203
Sauve qui peut
Am slowly recovering my blogroll goodies since the template files were getting damaged---this includes, with humble apologies, restoring the ring code for the Colorado Bloggers' webring. Reconstruction should continue this evening if I can sled my way up I25.
13SEP16805769 thru 13TER14935702
Am slowly recovering my blogroll goodies since the template files were getting damaged---this includes, with humble apologies, restoring the ring code for the Colorado Bloggers' webring. Reconstruction should continue this evening if I can sled my way up I25.
13SEP16805769 thru 13TER14935702
20030130
Guy's gotta eat
I can manage to pay the bills without starring in bondage videos.
My full-time boss at my Guard unit is very ill, cannot work. I am temping in his place since my civilian job dried up. Please keep Jim in your thoughts.
13TER14935702
I can manage to pay the bills without starring in bondage videos.
My full-time boss at my Guard unit is very ill, cannot work. I am temping in his place since my civilian job dried up. Please keep Jim in your thoughts.
13TER14935702
Woo hoo!
I passed the second exam of Course 6.
This is the correspondence course that satisfies Professional Military Education requirements for one to advance from E6 to E7.
Imagine a correspondence course on leadership, management, protocol, and international affairs written by the United States Air Force. In fact, you don't have to imagine it. That's what Course 6 is, a poke-yourself-in-the-eye-with-dull-stick pain.
Then consider that the materials are about 12 years out of date. The AF regulation regarding uniform and personal appearance is still listed as AFR 35-10. That number changed long ago to the 36 series.
An errata list included with the course materials instructs the student to delete entire passages in the international affairs section describing the Soviet Threat---or simply inserting the word "former" at certain points. There is no mention of the decisive successes of Airpower! in Desert Storm and Shield. Missed opportunities that should be rued.
Still, I passed it, it's behind me, and I'm in a slot in the org chart that allows me to proceed to that grade.
13TER14935702
I passed the second exam of Course 6.
This is the correspondence course that satisfies Professional Military Education requirements for one to advance from E6 to E7.
Imagine a correspondence course on leadership, management, protocol, and international affairs written by the United States Air Force. In fact, you don't have to imagine it. That's what Course 6 is, a poke-yourself-in-the-eye-with-dull-stick pain.
Then consider that the materials are about 12 years out of date. The AF regulation regarding uniform and personal appearance is still listed as AFR 35-10. That number changed long ago to the 36 series.
An errata list included with the course materials instructs the student to delete entire passages in the international affairs section describing the Soviet Threat---or simply inserting the word "former" at certain points. There is no mention of the decisive successes of Airpower! in Desert Storm and Shield. Missed opportunities that should be rued.
Still, I passed it, it's behind me, and I'm in a slot in the org chart that allows me to proceed to that grade.
13TER14935702
20030125
Idea number 354
Military airfields are big s**t magnets. They cannot be hidden, they cannot be moved. One of the biggest threats to our airfields in Southwest Asia, in the coming conflict, will be chemical attacks. To mitigate the threat, we need the ability to detect when and where a chemical has been released, to know which areas are contaminated and to what concentration. With this information we can predict when an area will be usable or even traversible again.
US and NATO forces already possess a very effective and inexpensive (expendable!) device to detect contamination, a detector paper that changes color when it is contacted with suspected chemical agents. Each country has its own model or designation of the paper, some adhesive-backed. It's a throw-away item, everybody carries a little pack of it.
Measuring droplet size is key to determining a few important parameters. Measuring change of droplet size over time also helps to predict how long the agent sticks around---"persistence"---which the base commander must know so he can balance the threat of the chemical against the loss of personnel to heat injuries caused by the clothing that protects them.
Idea number 354 would use a long ribbon of this paper, say 10cm wide in a 50 meter cassette just like an oversized VHS videocassette. It loads in a machine that exposes a 10x10cm window of this ribbon at any moment, horizontally facing the sky, advancing the ribbon about 20mm a minute. As the ribbon passes out of the window and back into the machine, it comes under a color scanner, just like the scanning head of a flatbed scanner you probably have connected to your home computer. The scanner notes change of color, from the olive drab of the paper as it is manufactured, to the red or yellow or blue-green that indicates contamination. A color change trips an alarm. A date/time stamp, including temperature, is imprinted on the paper at the trailing edge of the window exposed to the sky. An optional windcock attachment includes windspeed and direction (really useful information) in the stamp.
This device is networked through a narrowband connection on standard field wire to a PC in some command post, which polls as many devices as you've positioned. When the flag flies, the PC starts drawing all of the inputs in, and depicts the areas of the base with the highest concentrations of contamination, with a time resolution that does not overload (air quotes here) the Boss who Needs the Info.
The PC can also hold the devices in non-scroll mode until an attack is expected, can speed up the ribbon movement to catch more-precise measurements of droplet size (timestamps continue every minute while the detection is active), slow it back down, stop the scroll if it's a false alarm, and so forth.
If no chemicals land in the window, the machine scrolls the ribbon to the end, then reverses direction and scrolls back. The cassette doesn't have to be replaced unless it has detected something, and then it will be retrieved and shipped off to a lab for verification (and evidence) anyway.
The active dyes in this paper could be masked in a pattern that helps the scanner to measure droplet size with usable precision.
Anybody want to guess what this box would cost? Remember, it needs to be painted in sand color, powered by either battery or AC mains, and handled by high-school graduates. Over-engineer it a bit.
13SEP16805769
Military airfields are big s**t magnets. They cannot be hidden, they cannot be moved. One of the biggest threats to our airfields in Southwest Asia, in the coming conflict, will be chemical attacks. To mitigate the threat, we need the ability to detect when and where a chemical has been released, to know which areas are contaminated and to what concentration. With this information we can predict when an area will be usable or even traversible again.
US and NATO forces already possess a very effective and inexpensive (expendable!) device to detect contamination, a detector paper that changes color when it is contacted with suspected chemical agents. Each country has its own model or designation of the paper, some adhesive-backed. It's a throw-away item, everybody carries a little pack of it.
Measuring droplet size is key to determining a few important parameters. Measuring change of droplet size over time also helps to predict how long the agent sticks around---"persistence"---which the base commander must know so he can balance the threat of the chemical against the loss of personnel to heat injuries caused by the clothing that protects them.
Idea number 354 would use a long ribbon of this paper, say 10cm wide in a 50 meter cassette just like an oversized VHS videocassette. It loads in a machine that exposes a 10x10cm window of this ribbon at any moment, horizontally facing the sky, advancing the ribbon about 20mm a minute. As the ribbon passes out of the window and back into the machine, it comes under a color scanner, just like the scanning head of a flatbed scanner you probably have connected to your home computer. The scanner notes change of color, from the olive drab of the paper as it is manufactured, to the red or yellow or blue-green that indicates contamination. A color change trips an alarm. A date/time stamp, including temperature, is imprinted on the paper at the trailing edge of the window exposed to the sky. An optional windcock attachment includes windspeed and direction (really useful information) in the stamp.
This device is networked through a narrowband connection on standard field wire to a PC in some command post, which polls as many devices as you've positioned. When the flag flies, the PC starts drawing all of the inputs in, and depicts the areas of the base with the highest concentrations of contamination, with a time resolution that does not overload (air quotes here) the Boss who Needs the Info.
The PC can also hold the devices in non-scroll mode until an attack is expected, can speed up the ribbon movement to catch more-precise measurements of droplet size (timestamps continue every minute while the detection is active), slow it back down, stop the scroll if it's a false alarm, and so forth.
If no chemicals land in the window, the machine scrolls the ribbon to the end, then reverses direction and scrolls back. The cassette doesn't have to be replaced unless it has detected something, and then it will be retrieved and shipped off to a lab for verification (and evidence) anyway.
The active dyes in this paper could be masked in a pattern that helps the scanner to measure droplet size with usable precision.
Anybody want to guess what this box would cost? Remember, it needs to be painted in sand color, powered by either battery or AC mains, and handled by high-school graduates. Over-engineer it a bit.
13SEP16805769
20030122
Our elements are burnt out, our beasts have been mistreated, I tell you it's the only way we'll get this road completed
13TER14935702
Another installment in my saga of the disappearing hrefs. They disappear when I edit my template with Netscape 7. Every time, it seems. Not every time I use the version of MSIE included with MacOS X. That is, caeteris paribus, considering that Norton Personal Firewall and AntiVirus stand between my Mac and Blogger.
So I must reset the template once again, and load my blogroll, commenting, SiteMeter, and other stuff back up. Sorry.
13TER14935702
Another installment in my saga of the disappearing hrefs. They disappear when I edit my template with Netscape 7. Every time, it seems. Not every time I use the version of MSIE included with MacOS X. That is, caeteris paribus, considering that Norton Personal Firewall and AntiVirus stand between my Mac and Blogger.
So I must reset the template once again, and load my blogroll, commenting, SiteMeter, and other stuff back up. Sorry.
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