Hasenpfeffer Incorporated

Radish's Homemade Butterscotch Pudding for Election Day Celebratory Dipping

2010-11-01T12:53:00.001-06:00

2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons corn starch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter*, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in 2-quart saucepan. Stir in milk gradually. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir at least half of the hot mixture gradually into egg yolks (this is the tricky part--stir constantly, to keep bits of cooked egg from forming). Blend into hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Pour into dish. ALLOW TO COOL SLIGHTLY before dipping anything your spouse may want to use later, IYKWIMAITYD. Refrigerate leftovers.

* You can use margarine, but it will taste like crap.

Is this thing on?

2010-07-31T19:43:00.001-05:00

I'm back!

I should start writing again.

I also need a job.

Huh?

2010-03-06T19:11:00.001-06:00

Someone found a need to graph the number of bars to the number of grocery stores across the U.S.

I'm not sure I understand the purpose of this measurement, since Froot Loops and "something to do on Saturday night" are completely different commodities. And in rural areas, it's not a big deal to make a weekly trip many miles, possibly to a different county *gasp* for provisions, but it's kind of a drag to drive an hour to hang out and have a beer. So a county without the population to support a grocery store has a bar? HORROR!

But it does confirm my suspicion that the reporters at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel who keep writing the "Wisconsin's unique (and shameful!!1!) drinking culture" tripe have never lived anywhere else.

This evening I am responsibly enjoying a single bottle of beer at home. I am doing nothing immoral, I am endangering no one, and I paid a buttload of state taxes for the privilege. Anhedonic fascists pretending to care about "health" as it relates to alcohol are cordially invited to go [verb] yourselves. Feel free to live a dry, joyless existence, as is your right, and stop interfering with my right to choose the opposite, mm-kay?

The People's Seat

2010-01-12T07:08:00.002-06:00

Scott Brown, espousing the radical notion that the U.S. Senate isn't the House of Lords:

I donated to his campaign yesterday. About six weeks after I started working in Syracuse, Wisconsin sent me a check of porkulus dollars--increased unemployment compensation was part of Barry's Folly back in February, and it took that long for Wisconsin to figure out how to change the computers. I donated part of it to Breitbart's "care packages for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan" webathon last summer, and held on to the rest of it for the 2010 elections. The 41st vote against Obamacare seems like a worthy cause for Obama bribe money. Bwahahaha.

I expect ACORN and the SEIU are filling out ballots for Coakley right now...but that's no reason not to try to win it legitimately...

(I suppose I could have refused to cash it, but honestly I expect state workers in Madison embezzle uncashed state disbursement checks, because who would know or care? It's free government money!)

In lieu of real content

2010-01-10T10:32:00.004-06:00

Here's a photo gallery of Peyton Manning, the Most Most Valuable Player in NFL history (would love to have been a fly on the wall in the Favre household when that was announced...).

StarFiles: A Peyton Manning biography - More The Indianapolis Star Galleries

He looks like a baby in 1998. How did I get old?

Playoffs!?!?

2010-01-09T06:18:00.003-06:00

Early this morning I had a dream that three Colts defensive players died of injuries incurred during a football game conducted in a post-apocalyptic setting. Metaphor or prediction? I'm not sure I want to know. Given the sad state of national security, it's entirely possible...

Anyone following me on Twitter (and you should, because I'm funny) may be aware that the Colts' season ended halfway through the game against the Jets during Week 16, when the front office made it known they have no interest in winning football games (Attention "I believe made-up quotes" Irsay: call Barack Obama, he still has an opening for a "not interested in victory" czar). You may remember 2005, when they gave the starters four weeks off and subsequently played like a junior high team in January. I'd like to thank the league for scheduling this year's ignominous defeat for late on a Saturday night so I can be comfortably numb before kickoff, with a full 24 hours before I need to sober up for work.

So here is my Game With the Name You Can't Use Lest the NFL Sue You for Trademark Infringement prediction: Chargers and Vikings, in a game I won't bother to watch because Phillip Rivers is an even bigger jackass than Bert Faver.

When I grow up, I want to be a "stunt veggie"

2010-01-06T06:54:00.001-06:00

Not really, but the phrase cracks me up.

Addiction Management

2010-01-06T06:10:00.005-06:00

If I hadn't bled all over my kitchen over the weekend I would have assumed there was liquid caffeine running through my veins, so I have no room to mock anyone for their addiction to legally-attainable substances*.

I am very good at making sure I have access to adequate coffee/soda supplies in my apartment/cubicle/road trips, and Excedrin to keep the headaches away should I fail. Folgers singles--the coffee snob shudders, but you throw some milk and sugar in there, and Thanksgiving morning at a house with no coffeemaker becomes bearable, while you try to convince someone to go to Dunkin Donuts and get you some brewed coffee. :)

I realize this is junkie behavior.

But I would never go outside in -20°F weather with no socks looking for a fix (warning: gory medical photos). Hell, I've got wool socks over my cotton socks and my waterproof insulated boots just to dig out my car and go grocery shopping when it's +20°F.

Do you file this under "global warming is deadly!" or "tobacco use is deadly!"??

No word on whether this dumbass has medical insurance, but since they didn't leave him to die on the street he must (if President Obama isn't lying to me...hah!); in the brave new world of government healthcare I'm sure he'll pay a bigger penalty for smoking than he will be for being stupid. Fat people--well, you don't deserve surgery unrelated to your condition, because of your "lifestyle choices." Snowboarders--that knee replacement is no problem!

But mostly I'm annoyed with the tone of the article. We're supposed to feel sorry for him, he almost died, he might lose toes...he's an idiot. The idiot supply in this country is in no danger of drying up.

It's a good cautionary tale--wear socks in January, nothing good happens when you go out after midnight--but I think they're missing a bigger picture here. There's no more personal responsibility/adulthood anymore. A 27-year-old man is a kid who needs our sympathy because no one reminded him to put on socks before he went outside in the snow. Seriously!? And this gets him on TV?

If he gets a book deal, it's safe to say western civilization is dead.

Alright, I need more coffee.

(I will say that once I got past the "poor kid" crap, I did find learning about how they treat frostbite/hypothermia, in case I'm stupid enough to go out on the NY Thruway between now and the end of Lake Effect Snow Season, and two pairs of socks aren't enough.)

* I do not believe hardcore junkies or even teenagers shooting up heroin for the first time are going to read a government pamphlet, even if it's yellow. Although I guess I'm mocking the "wanna make a difference without doing any real work" nanny crowd more than the users here, aren't I?

No blood for Gaia!

2010-01-02T09:39:00.004-06:00

Sliced a dime-sized patch of skin off my right index finger this morning trying to wash out a Campbell's soup can. I thought it would make a decent (FREE!) container to hold fabric-dyeing spoons separate from spoons I use for food (this is crucial; dyes are 'non-toxic' but that doesn't mean 'edible'). Bled through two fabric bandages and ruined my plans to spend the day with my hands in buckets of salty water.

Attention brainwashed hippies who lack critical thinking skills: this is why I don't wash my garbage to recycle it. It's not worth the pain and suffering. No blood for Gaia! Not to mention conservation of our precious freshwater supplies...I have no idea why people who refuse to shower because hygiene hurts the planet insist we should waste water in this fashion.

OTOH, if you don't mind bleeding to death to save the planet, YOU can wash and recycle my garbage.

(I decided to house my fabric-dyeing spoons in...a plastic grocery bag. Lacks the aesthetic appeal of the soup can, but I should have gone for safety in the first place.)

White House Christmas Tree and Copyright...

2009-12-29T06:27:00.004-06:00

Spent an excellent week home in Milwaukee for Christmas, which included a visit to the MAM. Didn't go through the Warhol special exhibit (ends Sunday, focuses on his Catholicism, go see it) because we saw it in October, but we walked through the extra Pop Art they borrowed for the occasion and stared for awhile at the Mao silkscreens. They look sort of like this image of Mao from the White House Christmas Tree:

The cover article of the November issue of ARTNews was about Warhol and his current popularity on consumer products. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts owns his copyrights; you have to get a license from them to use his images. They approve just about every request--perfume, chocolate, snowboards, condoms--but according to the article "the foundation rigorously guards against unauthorized use of copyrights and trademarks" and "legal actions have been periodically initiated against offenders."

So did the "artist" (sneer quotes) who contributed this derivative work to the White House Christmas Tree--they didn't even alter it, they just decoupaged it on a ball--get permission from the Foundation to use Warhol's work? I'm not insinuating anything, but I want to know. Because I'm pretty sure "the glory of Barack Obama" isn't covered under "fair use"--see Associated Press vs. Shepard Fairey. They charge "nominal fees" for "educational and creative purposes" but they do expect you to get their permission before using their property in your own art. Which is fair, and supported by copyright law.

I'm not a fan of copyrights lasting for generations after the creator's death, but the Foundation donates its money to artists, art programs, and museums, and I AM a fan of those things being supported solely by private entities instead of tax dollars.

Yeah, I know, this pales next to all the unConstitutional garbage the White House is orchestrating, but given that people who describe themselves as "artists" are overwhelmingly Obamaphiles...they need to know they're just tools of this megalomaniacal bastard and his pals. If they'll countenance stealing from icons, stealing from you is easy-peasy. (Thanks for nothing, Ovoters!)

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T15:39:00.002-06:00

Ronald Reagan's 1981 Christmas address:

Faith and freedom.

Office Numbers for Senators "undecided" on Motion to Proceed

2009-11-20T19:10:00.000-06:00

Nelson's other numbers:
(402) 391-3411
(402) 441-4600
(308) 631-7614
(308) 293-5818
(402) 209-3595

Landrieu's other numbers:
(504) 589-2427
(225) 389-0395
(318) 676-3085
(337) 436-6650
Her website sounds like she's already accepted the bribe.

Bayh's other numbers:
(317) 554-0750
(812) 465-6500
(260) 426-3151
(219) 852-2763
(812) 218-2317
(574) 236-8302

Blanche's other numbers:
1-800-352-9364
(870)382-1023
(870) 910-6896
(479) 251-1224
(870) 774-3106

Probably all closed for the weekend, but save this list for Monday.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-28T05:03:00.001-06:00

Wisconsin does not have a "unique" "drinking culture"

2009-10-13T19:20:00.004-05:00

I've been critical here and elsewhere when people hyperventilate about how the "drinking culture" of Wisconsin is the worst in the world. As if no where else on Earth does anyone ever drink to excess at a bar or sporting event, or fail to learn the lesson after the first DUI. I know we all want to think we're special, but we're not. Spending any time at all outside of Wisconsin should clear that right up, unless you're spending it with practicing Mormons.

A 33-year-old college professor was arrested on drunken driving charges twice in the same night following separate traffic stops in the city, authorities said.

Madison? LaCrosse? Must be Platteville, right?

Utica.

The problem is not the culture of Wisconsin. The problem is stupid people. And they live everywhere.

2009-10-11T07:59:00.005-05:00

The unknown American soldiers who perished in the battles of Saratoga, September 19 and October 7, 1777 and were here buried in unmarked graves helped to assure the triumph of the war of independence to create the Republic of the United States of America and to establish liberty throughout the world.

There's a lot of voters who owe these men--and one woman!--an apology.

More later.

Motivation

2009-10-08T06:00:00.003-05:00

SPC Jeremy Pierce of the Oregon National Guard, who was wounded in Iraq out on a convoy in August, is walking a month "ahead of schedule" on a prosthetic leg.

"I've got motivation," Pierce said by telephone not long after that magical stroll, which went on for nearly 15 minutes, long after the video camera was turned off. "I want to hurry up and return to my normal life and stay in the Guard, you know? I want to get back to duty."

There are pictures and a video at the Statesman Journal site. Handkerchief recommended.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-07T06:26:00.000-05:00

Your choices are unacceptable

2009-10-06T19:32:00.004-05:00

A couple of places today I read the NY Times story about how people ordered more calories at fast-food restaurants after the nannies mandated the calorie information for menu items be displayed prominently.

...this just means the anhedoniacs who demand everyone live as joylessly as they do are going to push government to restrict menus.* Restaurants will be the next industry to be legislated into bankruptcy and/or government (GM isn't an exact analogy, as McDonald's has avoided being targeted by SEIU...but CAFE standards and cafe standards....), after the medical industry is destroyed.

And so, an anecdote. In a major fail I do not wish to talk about, I spent a day in August trapped at JFK airport, in Queens**. After standing in line for five hours, I was able to drag my carcass into a chain restaurant for a burger and a beer.

It took me 15 minutes to figure out what all those three-digit integers on the beer list meant.

The put the freaking calorie counts on the BEER LIST.

Obviously, this had no impact on my order. I would drink store brand beer from a can before I would order MGD64 (nasty AND weak), and diet soda is not beer. As it was, I had to settle for a Sam Adams, as the airport franchise did not have the bountiful taps of the standalone franchise I visit most frequently.

Beer is full of B-vitamins, and there have been numerous studies showing that one serving daily has some health benefits. And trapped in an airport, I was in no danger of driving. But the empty totalitarians were trying to scare me away from it. Don't believe for a minute it's about health--it's only about control.

* I'm thinking of donut speakeasies. You know the password, they'll sell you a donut, regardless of your BMI.

** Side note: They apparently "went green" by completely removing the HVAC; particularly repugnant in August at an international airport with frequent flights from cultures that do not value soap or deodorant.

Someone needs to get Al-Gore recalibrated...

2009-10-06T18:39:00.004-05:00

He's going to be in Madistan on Friday, but the snow is going to hit the Twin Cities. Clearly he's out of whack. More than usual.

Meanwhile the sunspot minimum is pushing a record, and Al's source for alarming graphs pretty much made it up.

Science!

Shameless Bleg

2009-10-05T17:16:00.002-05:00

Don't forget to vote for my Flash Mob Proposal, #82, at Iowahawk's $33.18 Steel Cage Art Death Match (I can't believe I had the only entry with uncovered breasts...). Danke!

Iowahawk Endowment for the Arts

2009-10-04T12:01:00.002-05:00

Now that the deadline for the beer money has passed, I feel free to share my proposal for the Iowahawk Endowment for the Art's $33.18 Steel Cage Art Death Match. Unlike the rank amateurs who went ahead and created their artworks before they got the money (suckers!) I merely wrote a proposal...

My proposal combines performance art with the 21st century social phenomenon known as the "flash mob." When the army of devotees receives a signal with a seemingly random location (Hyde Park, Nancy Pelosi's condo, the Rose Bowl, Bonneville Flats, etc), they will converge to recite [Iowahawk's] greatest work, The Idiossey. Participants will be encouraged to wear Doric chitons and crowns of arugula, and to leave their TelePrompters at home. My five-year-old nephew (representing the future generations of Iowahawk fans) will conclude the performance with a rousing rendition of the U of Iowa fight song on his kazoo, and the mob will disperse, leaving awe and wonderment in its wake. I believe we can repeat the performance 15-16 times before the national media even notices! Attached please find Doric chiton instructions swiped from Wikimedia.

The grant money will be used to defray medical expenses incurred when my sister figures out who keeps giving her child kazoos. ;)

If I spent half the time actually making art as thinking about making art...I'd still have to whore myself out to companies who need software tested to put cat food on the table. Heh.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-30T07:46:00.002-05:00

Moose River, which I can't mention without crooning made-up lyrics a la Mark Steyn. Don't judge me!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Gmail Inbox

2009-09-30T07:43:00.002-05:00

From Maxim, so don't feel you have to view the source if you don't like that sort of thing.

Hrm.

2009-09-29T16:40:00.004-05:00

I've been wondering if Gaia would get jealous of Barack Obama when brain-dead sheeple started worshipping him instead of her...and today she rumbled.

So many people have been so brainwashed, and kept so ignorant about science, by the end of tomorrow I expect to hear or read that the earthquake was caused by Global Warming (man-made, of course!) more than once.

(Quasi-related article on "intellectual curiosity" in education. If desire to learn was a requisite for college admission, the textiles lab I taught--to textiles majors, mind you--would have had five students.)

This weekend's adventure...

2009-09-26T20:50:00.008-05:00

This weekend is Peak Foliage for parts of the Central Adirondacks, so off I was to Bald Mountain, near Old Forge. In August, I learned that Adirondack trails described as "easy" may include any or all of the following: ladders of tree roots, sheer faces of rocks, peat bogs, rotting logs, and quicksand.

No quicksand today, but does THIS look like a trail to you?

I stood there for a good 20 minutes trying to scrounge up the guts to climb over the granite (20-ft drop to either side before the first row of trees...). During this time, I was passed by seasoned citizens, parents carrying toddlers, Japanese students yapping on their cell phones, frat boys drinking Heineken out of bottles, and a group of mentally disabled adults on an outing from a group home. Everyone's just skipping along like they can't slip and die, except the residents of the group home--they were picking their way across holding the hands of their aides (note to self: next time bring hand to hold). Hi, I'm from Iowa--quiet, flat, SAFE.

Eventually my fat flatlander butt made it all the way to the firetower at the summit (Ranger Gord not included), clinging to my hiking stick like it was guns or religion.

Learn how the firetower was built here. See vintage photos here.

See MY photos HERE, dammit, since I thought I was going to get myself killed making them. :P I think I've identified the Fulton Chain of Lakes properly in the photos...

Wish there would have been more places to pull off and take photos from the road; I have never seen so much red in the foliage. Moose River, on the way home, wasn't nearly as red.

I also saw a black squirrel in Old Forge. According to the lavishly illustrated "Squirrels of New York" pamphlet I picked up at the state fair from the New York State Department of Environmental Convservation ("George Pataki, Governor"--hey, kudos to someone for not wasting money on needless reprints), black squirrels are grey squirrels.

Bizarro World.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-23T17:55:00.002-05:00

Watkins Glen.

I question the timing...

2009-09-20T08:49:00.004-05:00

Friday, David Paterson ordered a "review"* of New York's contracts with ACORN.

Saturday night, the NY Times reports Obama wants Paterson to refrain from running for election. Cites Deval Patrick-esque approval numbers, without mentioning either Deval Patrick's fail or Obama's own plummeting approval.

Timing aside, I wonder who Good King Barack was planning on appointing to the governorship**? And why hasn't anyone told him that's not how it works in this country?

* My assumption was that he asked for someone to generate some paperwork to wave at TV cameras so it looks like he's doing something, with no intention of an actual investigation, because that would be political suicide for a Democrat governor of any race.

** No way it's Hillary, not after exiling her to Africa and appointing commissars to do work traditionally under the Sec. of State's purview.

Obama Criticism Flow Chart

2009-09-19T17:34:00.003-05:00

From the frighteningly-named MISSOURAH.com. You may have to embiggen it or click over to get the details, but the point should be clear:

Did you know racism has increased 67% since January 20?

Much needed comic relief

2009-09-18T21:50:00.004-05:00

If that doesn't make you laugh, you're probably a fascist.

Abortion bleg

2009-09-18T07:34:00.004-05:00

Something I was wondering this morning...

Whether or not a girl under the age of 18 is allowed to abort without the permission/notification of her parents is varies by state. What I'm interested in is what happens when a girl under the age of 18 wants to give birth (to raise the baby or to let him be adopted) and her parents want abortion? I assume that varies by state as well; I assume the options are the girl is allowed to become emancipated, the girl becomes a ward of the state and/or is assigned a guardian ad litum, or the girl has no rights except those granted by her parents.

Have there been any actual cases brought to a court that have been written about? Does anyone know what their state does?

My assumption is that the states that allow teenagers to abort sans parental notification aren't too interested in helping the girls who choose to give birth (other than offering them welfare for the next 18 years...), but I don't actually know. I have no idea what states that grant parents control over their teenage daughters' medical procedures would do. And I can't run an experiment on myself, as I'm well over 18 (and my parents want more grandchildren).

(This was probably sparked by a Badger Blogger about Gardasil and parental choice vs. state mandates; what happens if a girl doesn't want it and the parents do? There's always someone willing to give a girl sex-related medications/procedures over the objection of parents...why does parental authority only go one way?)

ASIDE: People who don't want health care taken over by the federal government should totally be co-opting/reclaiming the phrase "My body, my choice." The "soda tax" to "fight obesity" is a particularly annoying violation of that principle. To steal a phrase from alexthechick, "Why is it bad for the government to tell me I can't put a dick in my mouth, but good for the government to tell me I can't put a donut in it?"

Happy Constitution Day!

2009-09-17T07:49:00.004-05:00

A law passed in 2005 that requires all U.S. schools receiving federal funds to teach about the Constitution every September 17. Laughably, "every one of the estimated 1.8 million federal employees in the executive branch" are to "receive "educational and training" materials about the charter" as well. How about starting with handing an annotated copy to Good King Barack himself?

Congress could stand to have it read to them, too.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-16T08:05:00.000-05:00

(The water at Green Lake really is that color...as is Round Lake, which feeds into it.)

Heh.

2009-09-12T14:34:00.003-05:00

I got fed up with football during the second quarter--apparently it's OK to rough the punter in the NCAA now--and switched to a live feed of the 9/12 Taxpayer March on D.C. Quite enjoyable, and the estimates of 2 million attendees blows my mind.

I thought I was well-informed, but I'm surprised by how many of the groups and individuals speaking today are new to me. Lots to read.

Meanwhile, Obama addressed 15k in "Indianapolis, Minnesota." God love ya, Barry.

Audacity of Hope 2009

2009-09-12T00:01:00.003-05:00

Turkeys at ISU, 12 EDT. I've got a good feeling about this one (pdf).

The game is being broadcast in Syracuse on the Madison Square Garden Plus channel, of all places.

UPDATE: We scored. In the 1990s, that was considered victory. Just sayin'.

September 11

2009-09-11T07:11:00.003-05:00

As usual, I am spending the day angry. Partly angry at the attackers and their supporters/encouragers, but mostly angry at their American enablers/apologists. Eight years, and we can't even put a suitable memorial (one without whitewashing the Islamism of the hijackers or blaming America) up on the WTC site. And the Obama administration seems to be encouraging another attack on U.S. soil, by removing key pieces of intelligence and defense that could prevent it while sucking up to mullahs and terror states.

(Must avoid Facebook, lest I tell people who have spent the past several years bashing George Bush, the wars, our soldiers fighting those wars, America for "making people hate us", 'racial profiling', anyone who questions that 'jihad' has any meaning besides 'internal struggle', anyone who doesn't believe Islam is a beautiful religion and American Christianity is evil, etc--and yet today are inexplicably making "9/11, I'm so sad!" posts--what I really of think of them and their disgusting, suicidal, brain-dead ideologies.)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-09T10:46:00.000-05:00

(I was in the Adirondacks over the weekend; still working on a post from my first trip to the region in August. Heh.)

Someone ask Cory Mason if he's ever heard of "Maryland"

2009-09-08T22:18:00.004-05:00

Saw this today:

The plan would be funded with a 1% income tax increase on individuals making $1 million or more, which would generate about $145 million, bill sponsor state Rep. Cory Mason (D-Racine) said Tuesday. A bill pending in Congress would provide at least $135 million in matching funds, he said.

Leaving aside my general disgust that people in 49 other states are expected to pay for Wisconsin welfare programs (it's a corollary to my disgust that people in 49 other states paid for New York's cash-for-welfare-mothers scheme), a tax on millionaires? Is Madison a Parkers Brothers board game? Are you freaking kidding me?!

Maryland has already tried this, with predictable results:

One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller's office concedes is a "substantial decline." On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year -- even at higher rates

.

I don't know if it's fair to expect a state legislator to be familiar with everything U.S. Supreme Court justices have written--I had to do a search on "laboratories of democracy" to learn the quote was Louis Brandeis*--but surely they should be at least vaguely aware of both the concept of federalism and of national headlines just a few months ago about how their idea failed spectacularly in another state. Especially if we mere migrant workers can keep up...

* "It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country."

What have I done?!?

2009-09-03T20:46:00.005-05:00

The stray cat who has been crying outside my apartment for over a week has moved in. According to the neighbor lady who had been feeding her (assume it's a her; will ask vet to confirm), she and a B&W kitten were dumped in the parking lot one afternoon by two "skanks" (her word, and I'll believe it) who took off. The kitten stopped coming around a day or two later and is presumed dead. This one has a slight wound above one eye; apparently most of the "strays" around here are actually feral. This one, you can see where the collar used to be. I hate people.

I wasn't going to get involved, but while I was sitting on my dumpster futon eating dinner last night a group of five tweenage kids threw things at it and one of them kicked it; it scratched her and they ran off before I got outside (the children are our future...we're boned). It came over and sat next to me, and that's when I knew I was doomed. The neighbor putting out kibbles wasn't home last night, but was tonight--after it had already rubbed all over me, and now I have a second cat. That resists being picked up, but uses the Zen garden, thank God.

Found a cats-only vet near work to call tomorrow.

No, I don't know how I'm going to get a cat back to Milwaukee. Or what I'm going to tell Satan's Little Helper.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-02T05:27:00.000-05:00

Attention Wisconsin State Fair

2009-08-30T13:31:00.002-05:00

This is how you do it, people:

New York State Fair wasn't bad; I'd give it an 7 on a scale where the Iowa State Fair is a ten. Particularly enjoyed the agricultural history museum. The Mohawk Valley used to supply 80% of the nation's hops...

41st IBCT Update

2009-08-29T09:10:00.005-05:00

Two Oregon National Guard soldiers in a convoy were killed Friday by a bomb blast in eastern Baghdad. A third was wounded severely enough to be taken to Germany for treatment.

My brother is fine; he was back at base during this convoy. ~~Names have not been released, but~~ please keep the families in your thoughts/prayers.

UPDATE: They are Sgt. Earl D. Werner, 38, of Mondovi, WI and Pvt. Taylor D. Marks, 19, of Monmouth, OR. Mondovi is SW of Eau Claire.

Here's the fury-inducing part:

Whether or not it fits in this story, I thought I'd pass along something that the Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Fred Rees, told me about the blast that severed the leg of SPC Jeremy Pierce earlier this month. He said the Guard had heard that the blast was from what's called an explosively formed penetrator, a more sophisticated type of roadside bomb that poses dangers even to mine-resistant vehicles. Such EFPs are widely believed to have come into Iraq from Iran.

I assume that's the same controlled-by-mullahs Iran the Clown-in-Chief wants to invite to D.C for milk and cookies, no matter how many of their citizens or ours they kill.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-19T05:31:00.002-05:00

(Photo taken at Oriskany Battleground)

...and this is with Paul Ryan bringing up the average

2009-08-16T14:48:00.001-05:00

This remind you of anyone?

2009-08-14T20:05:00.000-05:00

Lots of anyones, actually.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-12T06:48:00.001-05:00

I've figured out why I'm always confused here.

2009-08-10T21:07:00.005-05:00

We may actually have been going west.

Altogether now: "I can't WAIT for these people to decide which medical treatment I can and should have!"

Metaphor

2009-08-07T06:10:00.004-05:00

Selling us stuff we don't need, forcing it upon us when we don't want it, then handing us a bill: Grobama, totally tone deaf, doesn't care if you don't have ears--you're going to buy his earmuffs. Because he's selling earmuffs, and only earmuffs, don't bother distracting him with alternatives (elbowmuffs!), hold still and shut up and that'll be seven dollars.

Worth noting that this is Classic Sesame Street; these days Kermit would play along so as not to hurt Grover's precious self-esteem.

(What? No, I've been watching the German-language Sesamstrasse as an intellectual exercise. I know nahe and fern now. Heh heh.)

Boldt Castle

2009-08-06T20:31:00.003-05:00

So last weekend I went to Canada, and Saturday's adventure was returning to the U.S. *heh* to see Boldt Castle. (I had to show my passport and explain where I met the foreign national...not sure why in 2009 it's hard to believe an Iowa-based corporation could have a Munich branch office...)

It's marketed as a "love story"--hotel magnate George Boldt started building a replica Rhineland castle for his wife, then abandoned construction when she died--but the more interesting story is that George Boldt(pdf) got to be a multimillionaire in the first place.

He started out as a 13-year-old immigrant dishwasher in New York. He learned English. He saved his wages, bought some land in Texas, failed at chicken farming, and returned to upstate NY to wash more dishes at a small hotel. He worked his way up to steward, met a guy who needed a steward at a businessman's club in Philadelphia, moved to the better job, impressed some patrons who invested in a hotel of his own, made it successful, caught the attention of William Waldolf Astor, became a manager of the Waldorf in NYC, revolutionized the hospitality industry, started investing his compensation in real estate, and took off from there.

Much more interesting than "rich guy loses wife, gives up."

It's a classic American story--hard work, a little luck meeting the right people, the willingness to take risks on better opportunity--and except for "investing in real estate" it seems really anachronistic now. Learning English? Moving to a new city to take advantage of an opportunity? (some degreed professionals still do this, but lesser-skilled workers collect government checks to stay put and unemployed...) Going back to washing dishes instead of expecting the government to bail out your failed venture and support your lifestyle?

Not to mention anyone who does these things in the 21st century is going to get kneecapped right around "became a manager of the Waldorf" as local, state, and federal governments combine to confiscate over half his compensation.

So much for feeling inspired.

I got a kick out of the unrestored rooms as much as anything. I love to see how stuff is put together.

Unrelated, spent the weekend drinking Steamwhistle, which is not available in the U.S. Claiming that their use of hops, malt, and yeast "save(s) the planet" strikes me as a ridiculous marketing conceit, but it was tasty.

In which I can't separate baseball and politics

2009-08-05T17:21:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I was reading rumors about "WH Counsel Craig" and saw "WH Craig Counsell" and couldn't figure out what the W stands for.

Today I'm wondering how much Corey Hart's appendectomy cost relative to the "surtax" his salary would be subjected to by Obamacare...and if he would have gotten the surgery early enough--or if he (or his employer) would have had to pay for treatment in Bermuda--under the plan the Democrats are going to institute in September regardless of the will of the people. And probably without even knowing what the fuck the actual plan SAYS.

(I'm guessing normal people don't have these concerns. They just post on Facebook about how they're bored of hearing people talk about Obama/Congress. I'm starting to look forward to the gulag, just to get away from people who couldn't care less about living in a fascist dictatorship as long as there's something on TV and cute dresses at the mall.)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-05T07:39:00.000-05:00

Metablogging

2009-08-04T20:17:00.004-05:00

To quote Bob Uecker, I've been "longhand blogging"--keeping a paper journal--which kind of removes my need to bitch in length online when I have time/access. Sometimes I write "blog this!" at the top of the page, but hours or days later, I've lost interest.

I might also be a little depressed, between the fascism and the 800 miles from home and cat. And the tedium--the job is much less interesting than advertised. I've lost interest in food and fabric...I'm still trying to see as much new stuff as possible on weekends, but I'm tired of feeling like a cultural anthropologist every time I leave my apartment.

I'm still taking pictures, at least, even if I'm not uploading and annotating them like I used to.

Speaking of cultural anthropology, I'm not entirely sure what this sign from along the 1000 Islands Parkway in Ontario means--shape and color indicate warning, but it sure looks like an invitation to me... :)

41st IBCT Update

2009-08-03T19:06:00.004-05:00

Apparently war has stopped being "boring."

My brother's unit is protecting supply convoys, and he was in one of two trucks hit by an IED last week. No injuries--they're using "new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles" and apparently they work. Quick, nobody tell that clown who quadrupled government spending and now claims we have to cut defense programs...

Heh.

2009-08-02T21:49:00.004-05:00

My second-favorite designated driver (meine bayerische Fruend) dropped by New York this weekend to take me to the 1000 Islands region and Ontario. Was quite lovely until we got back to the U.S., where the Border Patrol flagged us for a vehicle search. I had been joking all weekend about being on the DHS "right-wing terrorist" list (I DID attend a Sarah Palin rally last fall...), and there we were. Perhaps when they asked if we bought anything to bring back with us, I shouldn't have said "stuffed animals for my niece and nephews*"--but they're trained to recognize the signs that people are lying, right?

While we were sitting on too-small hard plastic chairs in a holding pen with no bathrooms, surrounded by smugglers and terrorists (who knows, right?), watching the agents drilling people between breaks, all I could think was, "I can't WAIT until this government controls and portions out all our healthcare."** I'm going to smack single-payer** advocates double-hard from now on.

Eventually we were released, and proceded directly back to Syracuse and the Dinosaur BBQ, where a bartender at least 10 years younger than I am carded me when I ordered a beer. I showed him my passport and thanked him for cheering me back up. :)

* Mooses dressed like Mounties. Very cute.
** And wow, did I feel like a nerd when I realized normal people don't have thoughts like that.
*** Unless the "single payer" they advocate is the person receiving the care or their legal guardian. I don't mind that sort of system at all.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-29T18:45:00.000-05:00

We're Number Four!

2009-07-26T08:58:00.002-05:00

Maxim Magazine picks Syracuse as worst football team in the BCS

Iowa State fans everywhere rejoice, as for once, it's not us.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-22T21:46:00.001-05:00

41st IBCT Update

2009-07-22T21:31:00.005-05:00

My brother's unit arrived in Iraq last Tuesday. On Friday a report about three servicemen killed in Basra, no names given totally freaked me out...until I got home from work, accessed my e-mail, got out a map, and realized he was actually hundreds of miles away. Spent the weekend feeling really stupid. I need a big black-and-white outline map of Iraq to color in provinces and label cities, like you do with the U.S. in grade school (or used to, anyway).

Chatted with him on Facebook for an hour or so tonight, mostly about Star Trek (don't ask). Here's a photo of him (bald spot and glasses, he says) and some of his fellow soldiers hanging out in Kuwait.

Everything's been quiet so far--he says "war is boring"--and it can just stay that way as far as I'm concerned. :)

Heh heh heh.

2009-07-21T18:06:00.002-05:00

It's worse than I thought.

2009-07-16T06:45:00.008-05:00

I'm pretty much Bob here (except I couldn't find a quote in WI less than $420/mo, even explicitly requesting pregnancy not be included, and that's waaaaaaay more than I spend out of pocket in a year)--I'm going to be fined a couple months' rent and still have no health insurance (which is not the same as "no health care"...but that confisicated money would certainly come in handy when I see a doctor or a dentist, assholes).

Worse, if I start making more money and decide to purchase health insurance, insurers won't be allowed to sell it to me. The public option is the ONLY option.*

How the hell am I a criminal requiring punishment for not purchasing a product no one is legally allowed to sell to me?!

I got "unfriended" on Facebook this week when I pointed out to someone complaining that his doctor's office charged him for filling out and mailing some paperwork that office overhead needed to process his request--the woman who took his call, the woman who dug out his records (and/or the computer system that holds his records--for a one-doc practice, that software run high six-figures) and copied his info into the form, the phone, the copier, the electricity, the postage to mail his paperwork, not to mention the malpractice insurance--was not free. Apparently this guy is one of those assholes who thinks doctors and their staff should be providing their services to him for free, at a loss to themselves.

And that's where I'm getting stuck. How did we get to a point where everyone believes they deserve free services at a loss to everyone else, and believes punishing people who don't want to pay other people's way is just?

*Now taking bets on how long it will be before hospitals and clinics are legally forbidden from seeing uninsured patients in exchange for cash, thereby forcing everyone into buying the public option or leaving the country to be seen (or, in case of an emergency, being left to die on the street). If I was a doc with a private practice, I would totally be financing an MRI machine and relocating to the Bahamas.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-15T06:36:00.001-05:00

So much for creating or saving

2009-07-15T06:22:00.002-05:00

Congress steps up to deliver another job-killing, economy-stifling totalitarian regulatory bill to The Won for signing--and it will be pushed through partially-read so Nancy and Barry aren't late for their vacations, like that $787B fail in February was.

Imagine trying to explain to any Founder that the government is going to fine him percentage of his income unless he purchases a specific product (...and some of them will be fined anyway for the crime of "household income over the NFL league minimum").

Downtown Syracuse

2009-07-13T20:55:00.005-05:00

Photowalk Saturday...started at the Erie Canal Museum, where I learned exciting stuff about Syracuse's place in history--the shot clock, traffic light, and Brannock Device were all invented here. Jokes aside, it's a lovely little museum--they have a nice exhibit of antique postcards of the canal, paintings by local artists, a replica barge, and a nice children's activity area.

Then a long walk around part of downtown (the parts not blocked off for the Blues Festival, which was fun until the thunderstorms), with some urban decay, some contemporary bizarro crap, and some fabulous preserved/restored Victorian building frosting, including gargoyles.

While researching some of the buildings, I came across the "Yestercuse" website, which chronicles how the 'cuse used to be a real city, and then it all went to hell starting in the 1960s, much like all the (one-party-controlled) high-tax government-strangled cities along the Great Lakes. Kind of confirming everything I've pieced together over the past three months:

Marvel at the glory that was Syracuse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mourn for the treasures lost over the decades to neglect, corruption, waste, incompetence and indifference.

Government blues

2009-07-11T07:33:00.002-05:00

Was going to go downtown to take pictures this morning, stopped to see if there was anything interesting going on...turns out there is:

The mission of the New York State Rhythm & Blues Festival, Inc. is to preserve, protect and promote blues music and culture. This is achieved through education in school programs, community events, and workshops, culminating with the production of an outdoor festival uniting our diverse citizenry in a celebration of American blues-based music. The Syracuse, New York based festival entertains while educating on the role of the blues in the development of popular music in the United States and around the world.

Can't just "play some kickass music and have a good time downtown"--have to "educate" "diverse citizenry" blah blah buzzword gimme a grant!

(I'm also cranky I missed the craft beer festival last night, 'cause I didn't know about it--but that's probably just as well because I don't have my designated driver out here this weekend.)

41st IBCT Update

2009-07-08T18:58:00.004-05:00

I didn't take this photo, obviously. :)

The 41st IBCT is still doing some training in Kuwait.

The Iowa Army National Guard 186th Military Police Company was deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and again in 2007.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-08T18:08:00.001-05:00

A propos of nothing

2009-07-04T21:09:00.001-05:00

The national attention span has really dwindled in the past 25 years, hasn't it...

Holy !*#&$(!

2009-07-04T20:28:00.003-05:00

I finally get offline/no media (except SportsCenter this morning...) for 30 hours or so, and all hell breaks loose.

I figure Steyn is right, as usual, and I just feel sick and sad. And I hope it's not because of something about Trig's health.

Sigh.

My first NY wedding was lovely and fun. Friend's bride is a total sweetheart, wedding was sweet, resort and meal were fabulous. The fire alarm went off during the cocktail hour and the hotel had to be evacuated--so they just had their picture taken with the fire truck (false alarm, thank God). *grin* And my best moved-from-Milwaukee friends were there, we had a great time.

Still homesick, but less depressed. Onward.

Read the whole thing, as they say

2009-07-02T18:03:00.000-05:00

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

I'm bummed because I'll be going to a wedding this weekend instead of getting to go to a tea party, or even more forts and battlefields. The peach-fuzzed infantryman at Ft. Stanwix who spent a good half hour showing me assorted light and heavy weaponry (alas, not letting me try them out...) mentioned that for the Fourth they read out the Declaration twice, just like people used to do in civic celebrations of the past.

There had better be an open bar...

Wordless** Wednesday*

2009-07-01T19:01:00.002-05:00

* I stole the concept of Wordless Wednesday from the textile arts blogs. I stopped reading them altogether when I realized there were only two on my list that didn't feature cartoony stitched shrines to Obama every entry...who needs that garbage?

**These words don't count.

I am depressed.

2009-06-30T18:26:00.004-05:00

Walt Whitman, "Song of the Road":

From this hour, freedom!
From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines,
Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute,
Listening to others, and considering well what they say,
Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.

I inhale great draughts of space;
The east and the west are mine, and the north and the south are mine.

...until this time next year, when gas is $10/gal and everything made or grown or sold in America has sky-rocketed in price, including little tin cans with golf-cart engines. And I'm in a camp somewhere for treason or terrorism or just being too fat.

Everything comes down to I just can't believe how fucking stupid people are.

Pvt. Joel Taylor

2009-06-27T20:23:00.005-05:00

I got an e-mail this afternoon from my brother, during a layover in Leipzig en route to Kuwait. So the 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry Regiment, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Oregon Army National Guard is on their way.

At the family reunion last week, someone finally got around to getting me a picture (never underestimate the bandwidth of a ~~station wagon full of tape drives~~ minivan full of CDs). I believe it's from when my folks went out for the mobilization ceremony in May.

We're dorks, but we're patriotic dorks, dammit.

Got some spare cash?

2009-06-25T17:28:00.004-05:00

Move America Forward will take it to send care packages to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I've already donated myself--wouldn't it be a riot if my brother or one of his squad* got my box? :)

I couldn't care less about the (unconfirmed as of this writing, but burning up Twitter) death of Michael Jackson, but the Gold Star Mothers and other essays at Big Hollywood today have me bawling like a baby. Totally the opposite of 95% of American society. I need to stop thinking about that or I'll never settle down enough to sleep tonight.

* They're in Ft. Stewart, GA, and will be shipping out to Iraq "any day now." I'll let y'all know when I find out.

Senseless.

2009-06-24T17:00:00.005-05:00

The head football coach at Aplington-Parkersburg, Ed Thomas, has been shot and killed by a former player in a weight room at the high school, in front of a couple dozen current players. Very shocking, very sad...

I'm more of an avenger than an empathizer. To me it looks like another data point for allowing licensed and permit-ed teachers to carry to work--I don't know if Coach Thomas would have chosen to do so, but why should the state make his decision for him*?--and to commenters at the Des Moines Marxist-Register the perp is simultaneously an evil right-wing nut (because he had a gun) and an obvious victim of abuse (because high school football is the same as child abuse, duh!). Don't ever read the comments.

The part that intrigues me is the perp was arrested for a minor crime spree over the weekend and instead of being jailed until bail was posted, he was turned over to a local hospital for a mental health eval--apparently they concluded he wasn't dangerous to anyone, because they released him after 72 hours and didn't bother to notify the arresting agency. Nice work.

* I thought had a post from last summer asking the same question with regard to women in Wisconsin whose ex-husbands promised to kill them, then followed through, but I can't find it. Sigh.

P.S. to the Obamas

2009-06-22T20:44:00.002-05:00

This is how you eat ice cream.

My thanks to nephew "Dewey" (of Huey, Dewey, and Louie) for the demonstration. :)

Compare, contrast.

2009-06-22T09:01:00.005-05:00

From last week: Michelle Obama lies with impunity to gin up fear about the "obesity crisis" among children, so we all feel warm and fuzzy about her husband and Congress taking over every aspect of our lives, right down to what we're allowed to feed our own children.

From the weekend: Michelle's husband and children eat ice cream.

Other than their father being crowned a god-king by the American media, how are Sasha and Malia any different from any other child in America?

I suppose this isn't any different than sending the children to private schools while insisting other parents should not be allowed that choice...I'm no longer fazed by self-appointed aristocracy living lives they would forbid everyone else--restrictions on food and fuel, sumptuary laws for the 21st century--but I'm getting more and more fed up with the people who clamor to be ruled by these tyrannical hypocrites. The hell is wrong with you people?!?! Can you honestly not see what they're doing here?!?

I'll be damned.

2009-06-20T23:49:00.004-05:00

Turns out Iowa really *is* flat. All those years, I never noticed...and then today I about fell asleep on U.S. 30 between Cedar Rapids and Tama.

View from my great-grandparents' farm.

Mildly crappy weekend due to travel re-arrangements beyond my control; missed the Rose Festival, but popped into Watson's Grocery and bought a pictorial history with a picture of my grandmother in elementary school (and had a nice chat with some octogenarian friends of the family and the guy who bids up all the State Center postcards on eBay...). And my niece and nephews are all here for the weekend in one sticky herd, which is fun.

All the buildings on Main Street that were empty when I was a child have stuff in them now; I'll have to come back sometime when there's nothing going on and just hang out.

(I would have taken an extra day off if I'd known about this.)

President Rimmer

2009-06-16T18:07:00.006-05:00

So this afternoon I read Jim Geraghty's posts about Obama promising to sit down and have tea with Achmadinejad despite the regime's wholesale election fraud and slaughter of protesters (that second linked post is particularly disturbing). Then I was looking up some quotes from Red Dwarf, and found the following:

Rimmer: Look, just because it's an armor-plated alien killing machine that salivates unspeakable slobber, doesn't mean it's a bad person. What we've got to do is get it round a table, and put together a solution package, perhaps over tea and biscuits.

So I looked up the scene, and holy crap, O really is Rimmer (the guy with the metal H on his head, for those of you unfamiliar with the awesomeness that is Red Dwarf):

Scary shit.

Funny because it's true...

2009-06-14T22:44:00.002-05:00

Despite the list of policies/actions I disagreed with, I miss him.

Happy Flag Day

2009-06-14T08:56:00.001-05:00

Yet Another Porkulus Fail

2009-06-14T08:10:00.007-05:00

The waste, the fraud, the whole un-thought-through-ness of signing a bill no one even read...it's been obvious for months now that the stated purpose of the "stimulus" bill as creating jobs was at best a joke and more likely a lie, but another data point to hammer it home...

New York state expects to spend 84 percent of its $26 billion in federal money on Medicaid, unemployment benefits, school aid, nutrition, public health programs, one-time Social Security payments, Head Start, college grants, and other social and school support.

I'm not sure whether to call it a "wealth transfer" or "welfare bloat"--it's waste AND fraud!--but it looks like the only jobs created will be in the bureaucracy and social-work industries.

I mention this because it's borrowed federal dollars--aka, the money they'll be taking from me for the rest of my working life, no matter where I live. And you, too, if you're stupid enough to be working and/or have retirement investments instead of collecting government checks...

Well, I'm useless in a Revolution...

2009-06-13T17:51:00.004-05:00

Went to Fort Ontario today. When greeted at the entrance by an English sentry with a bayonet and informed the fort was under the control and protection of the King and all who enter it declare their loyalty to His Majesty by doing so, first thing out of my mouth was, "Uh...sure..." Hey, I'd just paid four New York-issued dollars to the guy at the ticket table...I did not, at least, sign a paper pledging my loyalty to the crown, despite being offered a photocopy of a schilling for doing so.

The laugh of the day came right before the "demonstration of battle" (not a re-enactment of a specific battle). When a member of the British 24th Regiment was exhorting the crowd gathered on the ramparts to cheer for the "good guys" shouted--"We're here to protect you! We're trying to save you from that Congress!" a older guy in a red-white-and-blue tie-dyed shirt with five-pointed stars yelled back "You're too late!" Cheering all around.

I will upload pictures later, but this is too good not to share immediately:

Heh!

Gather ye Timbits while ye may

2009-06-10T19:01:00.003-05:00

I've been too depressed to blog lately, because everything I do has an undercurrent of "this will be the last summer I get to do this." Eat donuts, drive in a car on a Sunday while listening to podcasts of radio shows, eat at small local diners, have a beer when I get home...

Everything I do is about to be outlawed, fined, or taxed until it no longer exists.

But according to the people making these changes, if I wanted to have unprotected sex with a different stranger every night, that would be my right as an American, and the government should provide me with all the antibiotics, anti-depressants, HIV cocktails, I might need (and free housing, food, education, and medical care for any spawn). WTF!?

It's like a badly-written dystopian sci-fi, except it's all real.

Off to Wegmans for more Harpoon.

Biggest Hide Ever Tanned in Milwaukee

2009-06-10T04:44:00.002-05:00

There was some good stuff at the postcard show.

This one's for the ladies...

2009-06-07T21:26:00.004-05:00

ThePeoplesCube features some feminist protection. I assume these will be free to all womyn under Obamacare.

By free I mean "women with jobs and/or husbands with jobs are going to be taxed to the point they have to ask for 'em because they can't even afford store-brand", but you knew that.

Oz

2009-06-06T19:05:00.005-05:00

Got a slow start this morning due to migraine, so opted for Oz-stravaganza (closer, later in day). Now I remember why I don't go to small-town festivals--I always come home feeling like Sayyid Qutb (that I actually thought of Qutb while waiting for the parade frightens me). I haven't seen so many 350-lb people since the last family reunion I attended, but we have the good sense not to leave the house wearing only camisoles and short-shorts (especially the men). And then the pregnant teenagers/teenage mothers smoking on the sidewalk and covered with tattoos (easily visible when you're half-naked)--how can they afford cigarettes and tattoos!?!? Also spent some time wondering how 300-lb women with mullets and no teeth have babies and I don't...maybe I was just too picky with my dating requirements back in the day ("basic hygiene" and "literacy"--shameful snobbishness).

Cranky old maid ranting aside, the festival was disappointing--the parade was short, the "history tent" mostly empty--but I had a nice lunch, and there were a lot of cute kids in costume.

So I'm really bummed I couldn't get up earlier and gone to see Sarah Palin. Although better than a short speech in a crowd would have been to be at the Women's Rights National Park* yesterday when she was there. I'm impressed at the ignorance of the people insisting she's some sort of hypocrite for being interested in the first-wave feminists--Elizabeth Cady Stanton had seven kids, including a change-of-life baby, and Susan B. Anthony opposed abortion and once voted (illegally) for Republicans. I bet Gov. Palin had all sorts of interesting things to say there!

* I visited in 2005, and may again; it's open year-round so I'm not in a hurry. In addition to abolition and women's rights, the first-wave feminists were also anti-alcohol, and that's where we part ideological ways, but other than that I find them quite inspiring.

Meanwhile, in East Syracuse...

2009-06-04T21:53:00.004-05:00

What to do this Saturday? I was originally planning to hit the Oz-stravaganza in L. Frank Baum's hometown of Chittenango--hit the craft show, eat some fried festival crap, see some original movie Munchkins (I preferred the books as a child, but hey, Oz). OTOH, Sarah Palin will be speaking in Auburn, at a festival honoring the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood (the Seward of "Seward's Folly" was born there). The towns are far enough apart I won't be able to see both parades, and the special tickets to have your photo taken with Gov. Palin are sold out...

(I had considered driving up to Ontario, where Red Green is having book signings, but he's doing it again next weekend.)

I will probably flip a coin tomorrow night after Taste of Syracuse (I would probably rather sit home alone sewing while listening to the Brewers, but I was invited and I can feel all this time alone without even a cat to talk to making me weirder than usual).

Sunday there's a postcard show in Oswego; don't know if the vendors out here will have the stuff I collect (places I've lived in the Midwest) but there's always something to see at a postcard show.

And I still haven't uploaded my photos from last weekend's excursion to the Sodus Bay Lighthouse Museum.

The other guy on my project at work who was laid off in MKE with me (they laid off 30 more yesterday...) hasn't left the metro area since he got here. He watches TV and plays video games on weekends, and doesn't seem interested in anything else. I don't know how people live like that.

Cyberthreats to Air Traffic Control

2009-06-04T21:08:00.004-05:00

Came across this, dated last month, while looking up something else at work today:

Federal investigators were able to hack into an air traffic control tower, weather systems and traffic flow management computers as part of a wide-ranging cyber security audit of the US FAA's air traffic control infrastructure.

Yeah. GREAT.

I had no idea critical safety systems were linked to the Internet at large; and I feel like I incorrectly intimated that there were no electronic terrorists threats in my post last week. My apologies; I've been doing more reading than posting lately, and it looks like I need to do even more reading.

There's scary stuff out there, but Obama's proposal to give an appointed bureaucrat access to every privately-owned network in America (and to tell private enterprises what software they can and can't have installed by only bureaucrat-approved geeks) is still fascistically bad and wrong. And I stand by my assessment that Obama's not interested in protecting critical infrastructure that can be accessed via meatspace (even more so after this morning's "America sucks" speech to the "Muslim world"), and even less interested in improving "technology education" by insisting progenitors* actually care for their own damn children instead of leaving it to the state.

The ATC security audit was requested by Republicans John Mica and Tom Petri (WI-6). I find that interesting.

* I'm trying to distinguish between actual parents, and the people who fuck a baby into being but don't let it cramp their sex-and/or-drugs party lifestyle, then all of a sudden when they can't read in eighth grade or get arrested shortly thereafter get pissed at "the schools" or "the system" for "not teaching them right." Because I'm like that.

News you can use

2009-06-02T15:45:00.003-05:00

It's not just Accordian Awareness Month, it's the twentieth anniversary of Accordian Awareness Month.

Free advice for small local historical societies

2009-05-31T06:35:00.005-05:00

If you're going to go through all the bother and expense of having a website, please put the days and hours you are open somewhere on that site. And if your site lists a phone number, your answering machine should list the days and hours you are open. "We are on our winter hours" does not help the tourist who has never been to your village--doesn't have a reason to go there, since you didn't give her one.

(And what's the deal with opening sites on June 1 instead of Memorial Day weekend?)

Meanwhile and unrelated: Onondaga County has a frost advisory for tomorrow morning. I realise frost at this time of year sucks for the miles of orchards south of town (and the Weather Service lies), but if this is "global warming", I want more of it!

Alright, now I have to find something else to do indoors--contra the Weather Service, I was awakened by heavy rain--that's actually open before June 1.

Ignorant AND Arrogant...

2009-05-29T06:29:00.003-05:00

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is calling digital security a top priority, whether it's guarding the computer systems that keep the lights on in the city and direct airliners to the right runway or those protecting customers who pay their bills online.

Yeah, because in forty years, none of the nation's engineers or IT professionals or corporate lawyers ever gave electronic security a thought. Thanks, Barry! (I thought health care was a top priority...no, saving[sic] the planet is our highest...no, the economy is paramount...no, "racial justice"...if everything's a priority, Barry, nothing is.)

I'm not sure how much I can say about the runway traffic product I'm working on right now, but I can assure you that to gain access, a terrorist would need employee-level access to the airport. Admittedly, illegal aliens and members of extremist mosques have been able to accomplish this at O'Hare and Detroit, but that's a meatware issue. And I can tell you that the last computer system that "direct[s] airliners to the right runway" was amply secure--to access it, a terrorist would have to be in the cockpit. Again, they could infiltrate the airport by applying for a job, but again, that's not an issue with the software.

The part about "protecting customers" is cute, though. "I wanna keep people from stealing your money because your money belongs to the me."

while depicting the U.S. as a digital nation that needs to provide the education required to keep pace with technology

Also meatware. Look at MPS's fluency and truancy rates. Can't hack Linux if you can't read or do arithmetic; can't learn to read if the people who bring you into being don't care enough to consistently take you to school and provide you with a home environment conducive to learning--stable, quiet at night, expect you to do sleep and study instead of watching TV all night, etc.

But I suspect this is all slight-of-hand covering the Gleichschaltung.

Random stuff.

2009-05-28T21:05:00.004-05:00

Had a good time in Cooperstown, once we got there. Apparently I do not posess the ability to drive around scarps and drumlins in a hailstorm. The Hall of Fame was excellent (I enjoyed the Racing Sausages, the Hank Aaron exhibit, and the asterisk ball), and Monday morning the town had a Veteran's Day parade (which included some Canadians, although I don't know why because their float was in French) and a ceremony outside the VFW (which meets in an awesome 18th-century brick building) with a 21-gun salute.

In a fit of multiculturalism, we hit a Belgian craft brewery, and the beer was good. Was amused by an Obama tapper in the sample room. I suppose the brewery may not completely go out of business from Obama's business taxes, the cost of his increased business regulations, or even his special federal tax designed to diminish sales of their product, since they're wholly owned by a foreign company (were purchased by Duvel in 2002), but I found it ironic all the same.

Was a sunny cool day, so we took a long way back, and somewhere on I-81 between Birmingham and Syracuse we saw a big-ass painted plywood DRILL HERE DRILL NOW sign in a pasture. I really do feel right at home outside of the metro areas--except for driving where it's not flat--much like in OH and WI; it's really too bad Albany and NYC (and SYR, and BUF...) are taking the whole state down the shitter.

Unrelated...I've been reading a lot of software development blogs, so I may have something to say about that at some point. It's such a meritocratic field, and yet it's populated by so many Marxists...I don't understand, but I want to blame Linux.

Disturbing Thought for the Day

2009-05-28T20:03:00.003-05:00

Federal law requires that gifts to the POTUS--that he and Worf's cousin don't decide to purchase from the government to keep--be transferred to the National Archives, until they can be transferred to the appropriate presidential library.

They're going to end up with a warehouse full of bras and panties (and boxers, although eventually gays might figure out he doesn't care about them enough to risk the larger black vote by doing anything they want him to do) tossed on stage by bobby-soxers.

And untreated delusional schizophrenics get to vote, just like us. Probably more often than us, since the nice volunteers at ACORN are filling out their ballots for them.

(On the bright side, think of how pissed Bill Clinton must be...he had to send law enforcement out to round up his action, and Barry's action comes to him.)

Memorial Day Again

2009-05-23T09:13:00.002-05:00

Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend, and whatever else looks interesting in Otsego County.

Memorial Day

2009-05-22T16:09:00.002-05:00

Photo taken last month at the Veteran's Memorial Park in Mansfield, PA.

Waterloo, NY is "sanctioned by the U.S. Government" as the birthplace of Memorial Day--apparently the Confederate ladies decorating graves during the war don't count 'cause they lost--and to pay tribute to those who gave their lives for our country, they're having a pizza-eating contest. (The solemn commemoration of the dead is on Decoration Day, May 30, which starts with a church service and looks kind of interesting, actually).

Memorial Day makes me miss my grandmother (the one with five brothers in the Pacific in WWII), who hauled us all out to the cemetery for the VFW ceremony every spring and bought paper poppies everytime she went to the grocery store. Which I realize is missing the whole point, but I think underscores the effects of family on people's values--most people my age and younger (at least, the ones I come in regular contact with) couldn't care less about American history or honoring veterans.

Starting tomorrow all the battlefields and other historic sites around New York are open for the summer; my inner American history nerd is like a kid with a $10 bill waiting for the candy store to open ("OK, I can get six of these and one of those...or five of those and three of these...").

I'm starting to like Lake Ontario

2009-05-17T16:03:00.003-05:00

Today's shameful waste of energy on *gasp* non-essential travel: Chimney Bluffs State Park, which is like nowhere I've been before. (There's a freeze warning for SYR tonight; Al Gore and his disciples can kiss my fat white ass.)

The county roads between the lake and SYR look a lot like Wisconsin--tractors, spotted cows, rolling hills, farmhouses, yards full of broken appliances and vehicles on blocks, etc--except many of the buildings and Main Streets are 75-100 years older. Not surprising when you realize the landscape of both places was formed during the last glaciation. Wonder what it will look like around here during this next one...

Taxes have consequences

2009-05-15T21:44:00.005-05:00

I liked this story from the local news here in CNY:

Billionaire businessman Tom Golisano is moving out. Citing high taxes, the three-time gubernatorial candidate and founder of Paychex is planning to move to a place where he won't have to pay taxes on his huge income.

It’s typically a place for the snowbirds from the northeast, but now the state of Florida is about to become the home of one of New York State’s best-known billionaires.

Golisano says he is paying nearly $14,000 a day in income taxes, and enough is enough.

“That kind of money can be put to really good use. I don't need money to play with, but say just for charitable giving or politics and lobbying to get something done. But, just to turn it over to New York state with the level of irresponsibility of the state?” Golisano told Rochester’s 13WHAM.

And look what the "greedy" rich guy is doing with the fruits of his labors:

Golisano's charitable foundation has distributed $12 million in grants on top of millions of dollars in other gifts to hospitals, Catholic schools, and charities.

I wonder if he'll keep donating to the local children's hospital--I suspect he will. Here's a link to his foundation.

Guess which cat voted for Barry O...

2009-05-14T21:28:00.001-05:00

(Yes, I know cats refuse to vote for people.)

Idiots.

2009-05-14T12:06:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I saw this bit about a baggage cart operator falling down on the job. I've been thinking about it at work today while I try to make sense of the math involved in predicting runway incursions. I had a professor back at engineering school who told us not to bother making every design completely idiot-proof, because nature is constantly designing bigger idiots.

I'm also mulling over the clip I accidentally heard this morning of Obama speaking at ASU, exhorting students not to pursue their own dreams of success if they involve a nice house, a respected occupation, producing goods or services that improve the lives of others, or enough money to take care of yourself instead of waiting for the government to do it, but instead to pursue his dream of them becoming servants of the state.

But...what if my professor is correct, and no matter how clever President Camacho* there thinks his system is, there are enough idiots out there to screw it all up?

We're probably all doomed, since the vast majority of idiots are eager to fuck themselves over doing his bidding, but maybe there's a little tiny nanovolt LED of hope.

* Everytime he takes a podium, he gives the audience a hearty "fuck you." Best analogy yet.

Get the popcorn...

2009-05-12T17:10:00.004-05:00

Janeane Garofalo, call your office:

A group of Hispanic religious leaders is planning an anti-gay marriage rally on Sunday outside the Manhattan office of Gov. David Paterson.

...I assume they're doing it on Sunday so they can go directly from church and/or won't have to miss work, but I'm pretty sure a) Paterson won't be there and b) the real fight is in the Assembly.

Me, I'm sick of the whole damn thing. I'd almost say give it to 'em, if I thought it would shut the !$&! bigot gay activists up, but they don't actually want to be married* (other than to mooch health and retirement benefits, which they could accomplish with a civil union, and to join the privileged class of "married people" without having to go through the hassle of convincing your beard it's a good idea). They just want to force everyone to admire and approve of them, probably because their parents don't, and when that doesn't fill the holes in their souls they'll be back throwing hate-filled tantrums for some new "right" we haven't imagined. Why settle for "equality under the law" when you can get money and privilege?

"Equality under the law" is for chumps like myself.

Tangent: Hispanic population of NYC by origin (pdf). I was pretty sure Puerto Ricans were the largest group, and now I know. Dominicans are a strong second. Although wouldn't it be nice if it didn't matter?

* I'm not sure I believe the "it will destroy marriage" argument, since civil marriage has already been destroyed by no-fault divorce and government subsidy of illegitimacy (more fatherless babies = more money, more programs, more attention...). But I agree with the "Canada and the EU ended up getting polygamy based on gay marriage, and polygamy is a feature of totalitarian Third World hellholes" argument, and the "even ancient Greece, where homosexuality was a celebrated part of public life and heterosexual sex was a household chore, held that marriage was between a man and a woman" arguments, and I especially like the "government can't force churches to do things that go against their beliefs" argument. I realize the government won't get out of marriage altogether and allow me equal status under the law, so avoiding Third World societies with state-mandated churches is the next best thing.

And now for something completely different

2009-05-10T13:50:00.003-05:00

Yesterday my friend Joe and I went down to Ithaca. Same route I took coming up last month, but this time I got to look around while wolfing down Timbits. We got lost trying to find Buttermilk Falls, but picked up Robert H. Treman SP for the win. Did some hiking in the rain up to Lucifer Falls, which is 115 feet high. And on the trail, we met a guy wearing a Brewers shirt, completely dispelling Joe's theory that I am the only person in the state of New York who cares about the Brewers. Hah!

Next to Ithaca Commons, a douchebag hotspot like the Iowa City ped mall or Madison's State Street but without the panhandlers or empty storefronts (the Earth will not be destroyed if you shower once or even twice a week, I promise). We had some sushi and I bought a carved black cat box at Handwork, the local craft coop, conveniently located across the street from the live sex shows. Reminded me a bit of Portland OR.

And here's some charming graffiti on a bank at the Commons:

You know where spray paint comes from? Capitalism!

Last night we went to a local sports bar, where they turned on "the Cubs game" for us (I was offended, although I got over it pretty quickly), and I enjoyed Harpoon UFO Raspberry Hefeweizen, which was even better than the regular UFO I picked up last week. So now I know where to head when the playoff race heats up...