2013 archive
The Rich Are Different from You and Me 0
They don’t sweat in the shop.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Show fellow drivers how polite you can be.
The shooter then fled and has not been located by police.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
In the Roanoke Times, John Winfrey sees precedent for teabaggery, and it’s not pretty. (Unfortunately he trips over Godwin’s Law along the way).
A nugget; follow the link for the rest:
In the fairly recent past, the world has seen how ideology can trump common sense and basic morality. It happened with the Church and Galileo, and later during the Inquisitions. It happened with Hitler and National Socialism, with Mao Zedong in China and with Pol Pot in Cambodia. We should no longer be surprised that ideology can trump common sense and basic morality; it has been done so many times throughout history.
A Question for Windows Users 2
From the Inky:
CryptoLocker, is not a myth or rumor, says Snopes.com, and it makes files “as good as deleted,” unless you pay as much as $300 dollars or euros, according to Sophos, an Internet security provider.
(The article goes on to detail how to protect yourself.)
I have one Windows computer; it’s set to dual-boot with Linux, meaning that, at boot time, I can choose one or the other. Mostly, I run Linux (currently, I have Mageia installed), but I periodically boot into Windows to grab updates and keep my Windows knowledge up-to-date.
Thursday, I booted over to Windows.
Thirty minutes and two reboots later, Windows declared that it was updated. Yesterday, the AV declared that it needed to be updated; as part of the update, it wanted to add a search bar to my browser and other useless stuff to the program load. It also demanded a reboot.
Then Java demanded an update, and it tried to sneak McAffee on the computer. Finally, as I tried to watch a video, the video player I have been testing wanted an update; it tried to sneak four additional things onto my computer.
It was 30 minutes before I could start watching my video.
When you give Linux permission to update programs, the updates run silently in the background and no reboot is required and no attempt is made to smuggle unwanted stuff onto the box (the only time a reboot is required is when the Linux kernel itself is updated, so you can start using the new kernel).
So this is my question for Windows users:
Why the hell do you put up with this?
Extra Special Bonus QOTD 0
Thoreau (no, not that Thoreau; Thoreau from Unqualified Offerings):
The worst dishonesty is the sort that disguises itself as disinterested truth-seeking.
Brains, or Not 2
Someone at Fox News decided to complain that the “Walking Dead“* is a sign of American decay, much like the Police Gazette, dime novels, silent films, Esquire Magazine, the wireless, comic books, and many other predecessors.
Tony Norman isn’t having any of it.
Zombies possessed of an uncontrollable rage sounds a lot like Fox News regular Sen. Ted Cruz and his gang of nihilists who shut down the government with no winnable strategy.
Do read the rest.
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*It could not possibly be as stultifying as The Beverly Hillbillies.
News, Ripped from the Ticker 0
The usual warnings.
Twits on Twitter 0
Deep background in the background of the background twits.
Having worked in passenger rail, I can attest that a passenger train is a public place and should be considered as such.
The twitter may have been, at worst, rude to twit about twittees talking in a public place, but the twittees were stupid.
Also, fewer anonymous sources grinding axes on “deep background” and more willingness to stand behind one’s opinions in public would likely benefit the polity.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Sometimes, the mask slips:
The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook
Via TPM, which reports that the man who told the truth has been canned, even though, according to him, one of his best friends is black.*
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*Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, yes, he said that.
Bonus Babies 0
Sport columnist extraordinaire Bob Molinaro considers the contract the basketball coach at VCU, which is just up the road a piece. A snippet:
He even gets small incentives based on his players’ graduation rates. Do coaches with graduation clauses in their contracts have to give back money when a player flunks out? That’s probably a silly question.
Big-time college sports (and wannabe big-time college sports factories) have gone of the rails
School for Scamdal 0
Thom and Ari Rabin Havt (full disclosure: he has a new book) discuss the mechanics Republicans used to dream drum up the Benghazi Scamdal:
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
When the rather hysterically-phrased stories broke last week that the latest gut-out-the-vote efforts in Texas might disproportionately affect women (for example) because of differences in documents occasioned by marital name changes, much skepticism was exhibited.
Take this, skeptics:
(snip)
Watts said she has voted in every election for the last 49 years and that her name on her driver’s license has remained the same for the last 52. The address on her license and voter registration card have been the same for more than two decades. However, on Tuesday, at the outset of early voting for the Nov. 5 election, the judge was asked to sign a “voter’s affidavit” saying that she is who she says she is before she would be allowed to vote.
The problem was that her maiden name was listed as her middle name on her driver’s license, whereas on her voter registration card, her actual middle name is listed.