2013 archive
Just Out of Spite 0
More from the You-Can’t-Make-This-Stuff-Up Dept.
Windows Is a Kludge 0
Late this afternoon, one of my friends called me for tech support. She is not a computer expert by any means, and would never claim to be.
Ultimately, I asked, “Would you like me to come over?”
“I am so glad you asked me! Yes!”
I won’t go into all the gory details, but what an ordeal! Windows fought me every step of the way. But, in the end, I out-maneuvered it and the mission was accomplished.
I left there thanking my stars that I use Linux, because
Linux
just
works.
Recidivist 0
(Link fixed.)
This is what happens when a delusional violent offender is allowed back on the streets.
“. . . Just To Watch Him Die” 0
It’s called “sport.”
Party Hearty Where the Elite Meet on South Street 0
Packing heat to the beat is always a treat on South Street.
The victim who was shot after a brawl outside of a South Street bar has died from his injuries.
The melee started just after 1:00 a.m. Sunday inside the Mixed Plate in the 200 block of South Street.
“Choas, absolutely chaos, never saw anything like it in my life. It set me off balance,” said Dominic Vadino.
Swampwater 2
Erik Prince surfaces from this hide-away in Dubai to argue that operating a mercenary army is an act of patriotism.
For my part, I think he just enjoys making things go ka-boom.
Droning On 0
Now in high schools.
Unmanned aircraft soon could be zipping around the grounds of Sunlake High School.
The school plans to offer a course on drone technology in January as it launches an Aerospace Career Academy with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“Drone techonology.” Model airplanes with data links.
And when I was in high school, I thought the only drone was Mrs. Holla–oh, never mind.
We t-ped her front yard.
It was magnificent.
The Ratings Game, Reprise 0
Tom Long tries to figure it out.
Sure that makes sense. It’s a bit like saying it’s better to punch someone than to curse at them. Neither is particularly admirable, but words won’t break a nose.
Movie ratings are even odder about the sexy bits (I nearly said “screwier,” but decided that that would be impolitic).
Since folks seem to fear that their little darlings will slavishly imitate whatever they see on the silvery screen, just the way that they did when they were young ‘uns, the message seems to be that it’s more acceptable to off people than to love them.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Michael Smerconish realizes that he has to vote absentee in a recent local election and runs afoul of the Republican gut-out-the-vote initiative. He managed to vote, but at significant inconvenience, inconvenience which might have deterred many persons (which, natch, is the reason for the inconvenience):
That’s the net effect of Shelby County v. Holder, in which the Supreme Court ruled in June that nine states (and several other counties and municipalities) that had been required under the Voting Rights Act to obtain preclearance before adopting new laws concerning elections would no longer be so obligated. Freed of Justice Department oversight, many states are enacting laws that would not have been permitted before the decision.
Read the full story at the link.
Update from the Wedding Industrial Complex 0
From MarketWatch:
I’m so old, I remember when weddings were to celebrate a marriage, not to pick the guests (and the bride’s and groom’s) pockets.
The Lost Cause 2
Leonard Pitts, Jr., visits Gettysburg:
It was an attempt at moral equivalence, a pretense that both sides are equally valid, and it is not uncommon. When offered a chance to define what America means, some of us rush from judgment.
As long as the polity continues to behave as if the cause of the Secesh was an honorable cause, the Confederate States of America will continue to win the peace, even as they lost the war, and the Secesh will continue to plague the polity.
QOTD 0
Logan Pearsall Smith:
There are few sorrows, however poignant, in which a good income is of no avail.
The Ratings Game 0
The Orlando Sentinal’s Scott Maxwell wanted to know what persons think of their elected representatives incongruously assembled. Not much, it turns out.
So I thought I’d turn to my fellow Central Floridians for perspective.
On a blustery fall afternoon last week, I visited Lake Eola and chatted with folks — young and old, black and white, liberal and conservative.
(snip)
Asked to rank Congress on a scale of 1 to 10, the average was 1. One person actually said 3, but he was offset by the two who refused to go higher than zero.