Author Archives: Kristin

Introduction: Written in 1992, which shows in his examples. Asks the question “what is the Church’s greatest need?”

Surprisingly relevant:

But the new conservatism devotes little thought to the future, and still less to children. We want to get our own little nest-egg together, and spend it; we want the government to do as much as possible for us, but to defer the taxes until the time our children will have to pay for our excesses

Is not the root of all our problems a lack of seeking after God? He uses a telling analogy of a husband that wants his wife to be housekeeper and etc., but doesn’t care about her as a person.

Chapter 1: The nitty gritty parts. Having a system, he outlines a variety of systems. My problem. I’ll set up a system, feel good about that and then not use it. There is a happy medium between petitionary prayer is pointless because God is sovereign and Petitionary prayer forces God to my will.

Unless we perceive this, and learn how to act on these simultaneous truths, not only will our views of God be distorted, but our praying is likely to wobble back and forth between a resigned fatalism that asks for nothing and a badgering desperation that exhibits little real trust

And then on to encouragement to pray well, publicly and privately.

Chapter 2 – Paul’s prayer in 2 Thessalonians

What we give thanks for shows what we are thankful for. How often is it grace and growth rather than stuff.

ch. 4 Paul’s prayers are an outgrowth of his love for people.

Something to bear in mind

The question is, How can I be most useful?, not, How can I feel most useful? The goal is, How can I best glorify God by serving his people?, not, How can I feel most comfortable and appreciated while engaging in some acceptable form of Christian ministry?

The defendant may have forgotten her password, possibly, when ordered to allow the prosecution access. Yeah, who didn’t see this coming.

Death or Glory is the fourth book in the Commissar Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM) series, which are purported to be Cain’s memoirs, arranged by the Inquisitor Amberly Vail as a resource for her fellow inquisitors. Cain lives in the Warhammer 40k universe where he is a commissar with the 597th Valhallan Imperial Guard, who are (mostly) unagumented humans fighting for the god-like Emperor in a grimdark universe where the trillions of humans spread across millions of planets are in danger of total annihilation and there is only war. War against the heretical Chaos space marines; war against the unimaginably ancient cyborg Necrons; war against the degenerate, technologically-advanced Eldar; war against the hilariously homicidal Orks; war against the voracious, hive-minded Tyranids; war against the Borg-like Tau; war against the Chaos gods themselves. And all their deluded human followers.

Cain just wants to stay alive, preferably in a cushy, far-behind-the-lines job. This is ironic as his job is to insure that the troopers under his command do not fall into such self-serving and disloyal thinking. However, as he tries to position himself in the safest places, he continually finds himself in dangerous situations where his desire to stay alive—and his martial and tactical skills—conspire to make him a HERO OF THE IMPERIUM.

Death or Glory chronicles one of Cain’s early triumphs as an exploding spaceship  forces him and his batman, Jurgen, into an escape pod which they land on an Ork-ridden planet. Through a series of fortunate events they end up marching  a growing army of the local PDF forces across the planet behind the Orks battle lines, turning the tide of the entire war. Cain then (accidentally, of course) challenges the Ork warchief to a duel. I leave how that works out as an exercise to the reader.

I thought Death or Glory was one of the better Cain novels. I would rank it second, right after For The Emperor. This one just seemed better to me than Nos. 2 and 3. Perhaps because I read the first three in a row and burned out on them. They are, of course, all basically the same story: Cain tries to find the safest place to be in any given conflict; in attempting to get back to safety he stumbles across something worse; Cain is a HERO OF THE IMPERIUM again. It could be because orks are a fun adversary that I enjoyed it more. Or possibly, watching Cain work with his ragtag bunch of PDF forces instead of the competent 597th is more interesting. Ariott, the vet turned medic, who went on to write the book All Life Forms Large And Small, was a highlight. All in all, it was an enjoyable read.

This made me LOL way more than it should have.

NASA has released the insanely hi-res image of the eastern hemisphere, to compliment the western one they released a couple weeks ago.

I am blatantly stealing this from Cute Overload because the occasional Dramatic Chipmunk is good for the soul.

I’m sure the Iranians don’t find their exploding bases, research facilities and important nuclear people amusing, but I do. It’s good to be king the most powerful nation on earth.

A month in and I’m already slacking. Mmm.

This week’s book report is The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold, who you may know from the awesome Vorkosigan saga or the Chalion series. The Spirit Ring was Bujold’s first foray into Fantasy back in the day. If you approach it directly after a Vorkosigan book you may be mildly disappointed. Though I doubt Bujold could write a bad book, it just lacks some of the oomph of her others and the mad characters we’re used to.

The Spirit Ring is the story of a girl living in an Italian city-state sometime in medieval times. But there’s magic, curated by the Catholic Church. Mercedes Lackey readers will be familiar with the magical-historical setting. The girl’s father, a renowned sculptor/goldsmith, indulges her magical talent, allowing her to make a magical ring, though it’s not really appropriate for girls to be doing such things. Enter the bad guy, who shows up, wines and dines and takes over the town suddenly and with great violence. Oh, and he has a magical ring that has the spirit of some person in it, but that ring is broken in the putsch, so he has to make a new one. The guy that broke the ring has a brother, toiling in the mines, who has decided to come down out of the mountains to see if his brother can give him a job. The brother and the girl meet and through a series of harrowing events try to save the spirits of her father and his brother from being ensorceled into the ring.

Temptation and the choice of using power for good or evil are ongoing as the story ultimately ends up being a battle between a fallen priest and his rival, the abbot of a nearby monastery; and how Thur and Fiametta will live their lives faced with the temptations their magical powers give them.

Bujold’s characters are always well-written and this book is no exception. But somehow, this story doesn’t quite live up to the Chalion or the Vorkosigan series. I don’t even know why, there’s nothing particularly wrong with it, but there’s nothing spectacularly right either. It’s okay. Something to read on a Sunday afternoon when nothing else is going on. Perhaps my expectations are too high, given her other work.

From 1979, Milton Friedman on income inequality and why the “wrong” people prosper under free enterprise.

Sounds like loser talk over there at The Economist.

“Our workers are the most productive on Earth, and if the playing field is level, I promise you – America will always win.”

Leaving others, one is forced to conclude, to lose—not once, not occasionally, but always. And what is likely to be the outcome of unending defeat? Destitution? Are we to hope that other countries are left with no gainful employment opportunities at all? If that means dreadful poverty, then Mr Obama ought to be dragged before an international tribunal.

Really? That’s what you took away from that? That we want to kill anyone that gets in our way? Don’t be ridiculous, we don’t care about the rest of the world, except in how it might impact our bottom lines. You guys do what you want.

Cogress unwilling to give up its insider trading privileges? Really? Who could have seen that coming? On the other hand, it would be incredibly hard to police. How could you not hear things that could influence your stock trading habits.

This picture is more perspectivating than most. That’s a big shark.

(click to embiggen)

Background: Jay Leno used the picture of a Sikh temple in a “Mitt Romney is rich” joke. Some Sikhs are upset, naturally, and for some reason their embassy is talking to the State Department about it. Like they have anything to do with anything. Are things really so slow in the US-India relations that they have time to discuss such things?

“Freedom does not mean hurting the sentiments of others… This is not acceptable to us and we take a very strong objection for such a display.”

So, what does freedom mean then? The freedom to only say things that could not possibly offend anyone? Good luck with that.

You know what, your definition of freedom offends me. Oh, burn.

Bonus quote:

Petition signatory Simran Kaur says: “Jay Leno must apologise and promise not to make any direct or oblique references to Sikhs or their places of worship.”

Oooh-kayyy…

To make up for the bad news about the Fifth amendment, here’s some good news on the Fourth.

My book review a week continues with the strangely singular Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (I know it’s a quote from Hebrews, but witnesses makes much more sense), in which Lord Peter Wimsey’s vacation to Corsica is interrupted when he finds out that his brother, George, the Duke of Denver, is accused of murdering his sister Mary’s fiancee, Cathcart.

Wimsey rushes home to find that things aren’t very straightforward. His brother will not speak about the incident other than to say he was out for a walk across the moors at 3:00am—as you do—when he stumbled across the body. At the inquest, his sister, Mary, says she was awakened by a gunshot and went outside to see the Duke standing over the body and blurted out, “you’ve killed him”. No one else heard this gunshot and when she realizes it further implicates her brother she has an attack of nerves and locks herself in her room, except when she appears to act weird and totally out of character. And Wimsey and Inspector Parker have found entirely too many clues at the crime site.

Following up on the clues leads to the discovery that Cathcart was not the sort of person Mary should have been engaged to. Strike one. But that’s okay because she was eloping with a radical socialist, who shoots at Peter when he goes to talk to him.  Things cool considerably between Mary and the socialist as his true nature is shown. So, strike two for Mary.  But that’s okay because Inspector Parker, rather charmingly, falls in love with Mary soon enough.

One of the clues leads to a murderously jealous farmer with a stunningly beautiful wife that lives in the middle of a bog. This leads to a lot of local color and tough reading as Wimsey and Bunter chat with the heavily-accented locals in the nearby town while checking his alibi. The bog almost claims Lord Peter’s life when a fog rolls in and he and Bunter get hopelessly lost. Which leads to Peter figuring out why his brother won’t say anything about his walk that night. o_O

Another clue leads to France, where we spend some time wandering about with Inspector Parker, who seems like a decent chap.

Another clue leads to America, where Lord Peter goes, and then makes a stunning trans-Atlantic flight back (only adventurers and daredevils did it in those days), just in time to prove his brother’s innocence. Phew.

Also, we spend time with Mr. Murbles, the family attorney, and Sir Impey, the famous defense attorney, as they attempt to save the Duke from hanging. Sayers, following the 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction, always lays everything out in the most obvious fashion so it does go on a bit. I guess if you want to know how a trial in the House of Lords went on, this would be the way to do it. But since Blair disbanded the Lords, it seems unlikely this knowledge will come in handy.

All in all, it was interesting meeting Peter’s screwed up family, getting to know Parker better, but kind of meh.

The United States government has advice for you to help you get out of debt.

If the US Government is going to be like this with the crackdowns, I encourage the world to demand that the internets registrars be administrated by the United Nations. We’re not the boss of you.

Also, what do we need SOPA/PIPA for again?

What’s next for SOPA and PIPA.

I can tell you what’s next for Risch in his next election if he doesn’t change his mind. It’s not like I have to worry about progressive democrats taking his spot, either. My other representatives are clever enough to not take a stand on it yet.

Obama’s opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline is clever. He can say he’s all against it to appease the environmentalist crowd while everything moves forward to build it, appeasing the unions and the working Americans. TransCanada just needs to reroute around some sand in Nebraska. It is the clever move. It seems to me that the conservative commentators that are howling about this are playing into his hands as he can come in and calm the crowds by appearing reasonable and appealing to everyone.

Regardless, I think Canada will drag its feet long enough to see who gets elected in November before hastily signing any contracts with China. Both countries need/want the pipeline. China’s just a useful threat to make sure the US doesn’t get too extravagant with our demands.

I back all my opinions up with, you know, gut feeling.

One news station solves the problem of camera’s not being allowed in court with puppets spouting actual testimony.  Which is awesome. I would watch the news if puppets did it more often. Felt puppets, that is.

Here’s a link to Pirate Bay. So I can get WordPress.com’s IP blocked. Here’s Pirate Bay saying SOPA/PIPA will do nothing to stop them.

A very good overview of why it’s a bad bill.

People freaking out over the Wikipedia blackout on Twitter.

Chris Dodd is so ironic cAlanis Morissette is crying.

Even zombo.com blacked out. And an internet without zombo.com is an internet where you can’t do anything, anything at all.

Another stupid bill wants to put taxpayer-funded science behind a paywall, lest the unwashed masses and their doctors be allowed to learn from the science they payed for.

en.wikipedia, BoingBoing, ICanHasCheeseburger, Reddit and others are going offline tomorrow for 24 hours to protest SOPA and PIPA. I admire their willingness to forgo their daily revenue for the cause.

Find out how much money your Congresspeople are taking in from the media and the Silicon Valley and see where they fall on the issue. Unsurprisingly, there are generally strong correlations between amounts given and positions taken.

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers is the first of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels. The book opens with Wimsey’s mother, the Dowager Duchess, calling on behalf of a Mr. Thipps, as there is a dead body in Mr. Thipps’ bathtub. The dead body is to be investigated by an Inspector Sugg, who, as his name suggests, is not the best the Met have to offer. Lord Peter has a look around and realizes Sugg is on the completely wrong track, as Sugg suspects Mr. Thipps, Mr. Thipps’ elderly and deaf mother or the housemaid and her boyfriend, and doesn’t let anything like a lack of evidence get in his way.

Meanwhile, Wimsey’s friend on the Force, Chief Inspector Parker, is looking into a missing persons case of a financier, Mr. Reuben Levy, who has disappeared into thin air sometime during that same night. As this is a novel and not collection of fictional newspaper articles, it turns out the cases are linked. Gasp. Wimsey and Parker look at each others cases, tut at Sugg’s ignorance, and decide to swap cases.

Through a series of interviews, red herrings and charging about town the main baddy is discovered, the identity of the dead body is established and motive uncovered. Along the way we are introduced to the Hon. Freddy, Peter’s dim, but financially genius friend; Bunter, Peter’s imperturbable and slightly insolent valet; and Peter’s hobbies; fine wines, collecting rare books and playing piano. Peter has a PTSD episode as the enormity of what he is doing crashes down on him the day before the murderer is cornered. The main baddy attempts to murder Parker and Wimsey and delivers his Hannibal Lecture on the nature of conscience and guilt in the form of a suicide note when Sugg goes to arrest him.

It was a short book, but entertaining. I am not a good judge of whether or not the mystery part is good, because I never try to guess whodunit, that’s not why I read whodunits. I read them to watch the interactions of the characters. The book bears striking similarities to other Golden Age detective fiction. I had a hard time not imputing Campion’s personality onto Wimsey. And, despite everything, Parker is not Inspector Alleyn or Inspector Oates.

As I had only read the Harriet Vane novels by Sayers I found Whose Body? to be surprisingly light on the philosophical bits. There was plenty of authorial opinion on “modern” psychology and detective fiction, however. I have no doubt that there are more sly jabs at contemporaneous thinking that went over my head. And I can only assume it is because it was Wimsey’s first book that he, rather annoyingly, kept dropping his ‘g’s at the end of his gerunds. I’m glad he grew out of that habit.

The book is in the public domain in the US (probably, God only knows what Disney and Congress are doing to screw us over from day to day) and readily available in the usual places you get your public domain ebooks.

An interesting interview about The Storm of War, a history of WWII which does its job and makes me want to buy the book.

The first of my book a week reviews is The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry.

What I knew about poetry before reading this book: I knew there was a thing called iambic pentameter, that Shakespeare wrote sonnets, that there was blank verse and free verse, that I liked a couple of Yeats’ poems and that I really didn’t understand poetry at all—what made a poem a poem and not just a collection of words. In school, poetry was a small part of English or American Lit and you read a couple of the classics and you were supposed to write a poem (God only knows how they expected you to do that given that there was only the most minimal explanation of what one was, really) that was it. The grammar of poetry was never explained, so I had no way of figuring out why or how poetry was made, what made a good poem good or a bad poem bad.

I picked up The Ode Less Traveled on a whim, partly because it’s Stephen Fry and partly because I thought it would be nice to remedy this black hole in my general knowledge. It worked. And the best part is, if you’ve watched enough QI, it’s like having Stephen Fry standing there teaching it to you, which I count as a bonus.

The book is written to those that want to become poets, or improve their poetry. I have no doubt it will work in that capacity, but as I have to get this review out to meet my obligations, I haven’t finished working through the exercises (which I have found to be challenging, but enjoyable). My ability in the poetry department extended to the occasional limerick or haiku, so I look forward to writing a sonnet or villanelle eventually. Possibly with some small amount of literary merit.

Because of the thoroughness with which Stephen Fry goes through everything, I found this to be an excellent way to learn what poetry is, too. Turns out it is not just a rather clipped collection of words that may or may not rhyme.

The book is divided into 3 main parts: Meter (or Metre), Rhyme, and Form.  In Meter we learn how English words are stressed and the various patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables make up a poem’s meter. In Rhyme, we learn about end rhymes, internal rhymes, slant rhymes, consonance and assonance and how to use them. In Form we learn the many stanza forms (thanks Frenchies) and why some poets don’t use them.

TOLT has led me to greater recognition and appreciation of the great poets as now I begin to understand what they were doing. Not just “this appeals to me on some instinctive level” but I see how their use of meter and rhyme (possibly) create a cohesive whole greater than the sum of its words. So, mission accomplished, I think, for both me and Stephen Fry.

Go to the gym, get money. Don’t go to the gym, lose money. This strikes me as a good idea. I need threats like monetary loss to keep me motivated for more than a week. Will I actually do it? Signs point to no.

Remember how we were going to run out of oil and our world would collapse? And I said you shouldn’t count out technology? Oh, it is to laugh.

“The global energy chessboard is changing, and markets will be realigned. Countries that have never had so much available energy will become self-sufficient, and perhaps even exporters,” Luis Alberto Terrero, head of the Venezuelan Gas Processors Association (AVPG), told IPS.

As gas supplies grow, “fossil fuels may become cheaper, the growth of alternative energies will slow down, and new alliances, investments and trade networks will be established,” Terrero said.

A well done mashup of 2011′s popular pop music.

There’s a couple good songs in there…

My goal for 2012: read a new book and write a book report a week.

For January:

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel
- Suzanna Clarke

The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance – Ron Chernow

Call to Spiritual Reformation, A: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers
- D.A. Carson

The Ode Less Travelled – Stephen Fry

I’ll probably add and subtract books as my whims take me, but it’s nice to have a plan.

I have now been alive for 1,234,567,890 seconds.

Dave Barry’s Year In Review

All the organizations and companies supporting the heinous SOPA. It all the usual suspects, media corporations and lawyers, with a few surprises, like the Major County Sheriffs, the Majority City Chiefs and GoDaddy.

In my excitement over Downton Abbey Christmas special, I forgot that Sherlock returns on January 1st.  A good way to start the new year, I think.

That does it, I’m reading The Hobbit this weekend.

Even the best case scenario, a peaceful reunification of the Koreas, won’t be pretty.

The perfect response to Slate’s Nervous Nelly article on Nerf and their awesomeness.

Emmett Otter outtakes.

Kim Jong-Il is dead, world leaders are busy not saying what they really think.

I found Under The Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader to be a painfully balanced and but interesting look at the recent history of the country, if you’re interested.

As an aside, 2011 has been a bad year for despots in general, hasn’t it?

First off, I thought collusion was illegal. Secondly, it seems apparent publishers don’t care about ebook sales, or hope it’s a passing fad, because they are guaranteeing that I am going to buy a used paperback. Did they learn nothing from Napster and the music industry?

Digital books have one two advantages over physical ones, I can fit a lot of them on one device and carry them all with me and I can buy them without having to get up. But all that convience just isn’t worth more than the cost of a paperback.

Sorry authors, I bet I would have enjoyed your writing.

Christopher Hitchens. He was an amazing writer whose work I enjoyed, even when he was wrong.

Isaac Newton notebooks are online for your viewing pleasure. Knowledge of Greek would be useful.

Look, you chose to be a public servant, driving a publicly-owned car. That kind of negates your right to privacy there.  Getting the cops to cover for you is, a. really bad PR for the cops, and b. if not illegal, it should be.

I have no doubt that newspapers mangle the news regularly, and I can understand wanting to avoid that, but shoving evidence under the carpet is no way to get out of trouble. It’s just going to make things worse. Release the evidence, get your experts to explain what happened and go about your life.

Note to self: Make sure next car doesn’t have black box.

Something 25 light years away is bouncing our old TV signals back to us and scientists are using that to recover the lost Doctor Who episodes. Awesome.

A good tutorial on the latest news from CERN about the Higgs boson thing.

Norway is facing a butter shortage as Christmas approaches. I cannot even fathom how this possible.

Shame on every Senator that voted for this. And I’m pretty sure the terrorists have won when the Democrats are the ones trying to limit the government’s power.

Having failed at conquest victory conditions twice, Germany goes for the economic victory.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special prequel.

I remember when the Falkland Islands thing happened the first time. I doubt it will go any better for Argentina this time, should Britian decided to stop writing letters and do something.

A look at the militarization of the police over the last 30 years.

The amount of force the government uses to uphold a given law is no longer determined only by the threat to public safety posed by the suspect. Now, it appears to give an indication of how serious the government is about the law being enforced. The DEA sends SWAT teams barreling into the offices of doctors accused of over-prescribing painkillers not because the doctors pose any real threat of violence, but because prescription drug abuse is a hot issue right now. The feds sent SWAT teams into marijuana dispensaries not because medicinal pot merchants are inherently dangerous people, but because officials believe the dispensaries are openly defying federal law. It is, to put it bluntly, a terror tactic.

Scientists have developed a new coating that may keep eyeglasses and tablets/phones from smudging.

“I’m sorry, but you are President of the damn United States of America. You have to do what is right for the country and not worry about the political ramifications.”

While the money quote is good, the problem isn’t the President. The problem is Congress is unwilling to legislate because that would require being willing to take the blame, and it’s far less risky to let the President take the blame than to take a stand. It’s Congress’ job to figure out how to fix things and then the President then executes those plans. It’s been a while since it’s worked that way though, so I can understand why Cardoza is confused about it.

Google points out that the Protect IP Act is a bad idea. And if trial lawyers like it, you can bet it’s a bad idea.

Martin says he’s going to have to kill a lot of POV characters off soon.

Talking to high schoolers, so no earth-shatteringly new explanations, but still good.

An interesting conversation between Michael Totten and a Protestant Christian Egyptian, Ramez Attalah. Part 2 here.

RIP Anne McCaffery, creator of some of my favorite characters and planets. Oh, how I wanted to meet Robinton.

It’s way too much work for me to make, but the pocket espresso maker with built in alcohol stove is very cool.

Germany, who has a high savings rate and spends so much less than they take in that they’re giving everyone a tax rebate this year, points out that America isn’t doing so well in the budget area.

“The U.S., as far as I know, has a worse debt-to-GDP ratio than the whole eurozone, and we are talking about the eurozone, not about the United States and that Congress can’t get its act together,” said a member of the German press during the briefing. “So from the European perspective, it seems that this country is in a bigger mess than Europe.  We are not proud where we are.  We know that it’s slow and not bold, and so on, but at least they are doing something; they are deciding something, they’re trying to pull that through.  And here, nothing is happening — third time this year,” he added, referring to the Supercommittee failure.

All of which, IMHO, has to do with the fact that no one wants to man up and tell Americans the year before an election that they can’t afford all the nice things they’ve been relying on the government to give them and the choices are cutting spending and higher taxes. See, if we did both, neither side would be happy, which I believe is the essence of a good compromise and has made America the well-governed country it’s been for the last 200 years. It’s not fun getting out of debt, and I’m sure none of this will be helpful to the brutalized economy that flinches like an abused child at the slightest hint of bad news, but at least we would stand a chance of lowering our deficit.

The FTL neutrinos got a small boost when they repeated an experiment and got the same results.

I really doubt the neutrinos are FTL, but I also really hope it’s true.  In no small part because of the consternation of the armchair physicists that are freaking out over having their worldview questioned. To coin a phrase, the tree of science must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of dearly held theories. Also, just as general relativity exists right alongside special relativity, I suspect the same will happen, should the FTL thing be true.

Or:

Sarah Palin is becoming quite the populist pot-stirrer.

The corruption isn’t confined to one political party or just a few bad apples. It’s an endemic problem encompassing leadership on both sides of the aisle. It’s an entire system of public servants feathering their own nests.

The world exports more than it imports, which means aliens owe us big time.

Need I say more. Putting Animal up against Gonzo day 1 was hardly fair. I predict a Fozzie / Gonzo / Ms. Piggy fight for the top spot.

It looks like How To Train Your Dragon crossed with every princess movie of the last 20 years, but I have faith that Pixar will make it special. Also, great voice casting.

Apparently, someone secretly recorded a talk by a Chinese TV host who said the country is nearly bankrupt and they aren’t allowed to report on it because they’re, you know, communists.

It would explain why China looked at the EU with a “who, me?” when the EU hinted at China bailing out Greece and Italy.

Doesn’t Washington hate big, lobbyistic businesses these days?Why are they helping create them? Oh wait, they don’t hate them, they love them, it gives them more control.

The rise of enormous, super-empowered HMOs closely tied to government regulations suggests we are headed further in the direction of building a corporatist, medico-industrial complex whose powerful lobbies will fight reforms, abuse monopoly powers and further congeal the American health care system into an unmanageable and unaffordable form that will undermine living standards while providing ever-less-satisfactory care.

So, your solution to the lack of foreign businesses investing in America is demonizing businesses and and more taxes in the country with the highest corporate tax rate* in the world? I grant you, the promise of a bailout from the government if the business is big enough is a nice perk.

*I realize no one actually pays that. Because who would when you can buy off a congressman or two for a loophole?

Some British people are going to take a long time and spend a lot of money building one of Babbage’s analytical engines to see if it works. I’m waiting for the Lego version.

I don’t trust the major players in internet service providing to have my best interests at heart when it comes to delivering the internet. I’m pretty sure that since they are awarded monopolies they’ll just price gouge the crap out of me if they aren’t kept in check.

The United States of America. And being born here. IMHO it’s the pinnacle of Western Civilization and has created an unprecedented amount of freedom, wealth and general good welfare for a surprising number of people, one of which is me. And for all its flaws it’s the best of the lot. For which I am thankful.

This is why America works.

I’m okay with it too.

A Democratic legislator said it would be fine with him if the supercommittee failed to reach agreement and steep, automatic cuts to domestic and defense spending happened.

Daniel Amos. They are probably my favorite band ever and I have loved them for 20 years now. Do they throw up the ocassional um, quirky, song, but for the most part they get me and I have all their albums. Okay, not all the Eddies, but all the rest of them. Anyway, my life is better for them having existed and made all their lovely songs.

The Easter Island heads have bodies. Who knew?

I like to think there’s some happy medium between Europe and China’s incentive systems.

The Golden Gate bridge was privately financed by the founder of BofA after the 1929 market crash kept investors from buying up the municipal bonds.

Thoughts on Downton Abbey s02e08  (minor spoilers): Continue reading →

You’re far less likely to get stabbed in the face today than at any other time in history.

The world owes me a living, doesn’t it?

I also found this refreshing [NSFW language].

I don’t pretend to understand the thinking of the State Department but the US on the one hand cut UNESCO’s funding for approving Palestinian statehood and on the other tells Israel to stop building in east Jerusalem.

Do we have any sort of plan or white paper or anything?

There is much truth in the scientifical, peer-viewed hierarchy of candy. I would dispute Caramellos being Top Tier and think half of the Post-Tertiary should move up.

And here we see the reason some people are in front of the cameras and some people are not.

Thoughts on Downton Abbey s02e07  (minor spoilers):

Continue reading →

I find it less than comforting when Germany starts talking about war in times of economic turmoil.

“Nobody should take for granted another 50 years of peace and prosperity in Europe. They are not for granted. That’s why I say: If the euro fails, Europe fails,” Merkel said, followed by a long applause from all political groups.

Entire album playlist

I, for one, can’t wait until everyone gets tired of making 1% on their savings and dumps that money back into the stock market.

Our countries problem, writ small.

“We are entitled to more money from the only industry in the county – Jack Daniel’s distillery,” said Charles Rogers, a 75-year-old retiree and self-described “concerned citizen” of Moore County – home to Lynchburg and Jack Daniel’s..

…

Could the company possibly move to a more tax-friendly county? Most folks think not. But Lynchburg Mayor Sloan Stewart isn’t so sure.

“Everybody says no they won’t. You can’t say no they won’t. That’s always a possibility,” he said. “There’s a chance they could do something like that, pack up and move.”

Also, there’s some awesome manipulation in the article’s writing style.

Thoughts on Downton Abbey s02e06 (minor spoilers): Continue reading →

6.02 x 10^23. Go find yourself 12 grams of Carbon to celebrate.

Here’s the problem, Republicans are just as culpable for the horrible mess that our federal government is as Democrats and anything they say can boomerang right back at them. It’s easier to point the finger elsewhere.

It was Washington that declared prudent home-lending standards racist and gutted traditional underwriting rules in the name of diversity. It was government that created the risk on Main Street. Yes, Wall Street spread it, with the help of Treasury-backed Fannie and Freddie. But who’s at greater fault for harming the village — the person who poisons the well or the one who distributes the water?

Neither. Both. Just fix it already.

I really hope this ends in tears. The gnashing and wailing of government officials as Americans decide the 4th amendment actually means something and disbands the TSA.

The random inspections really aren’t any more thorough normal, according to Tennessee Highway Patrol Colonel Tracy Trott who says paying attention to details can make a difference.

So, why are you doing it then?

It’s a list of fantasy books that “should” be made into TV shows, according to some guy on the internet.

Here’s the thing though, I don’t trust TV or movie makers to make good adaptations of stories I like. I grant you, they have gotten better at it in the last decade, but it’s still a chance I am unwilling to take with stories I enjoy.

If they touch The Kingkiller Chronicle, I can’t be held responsible for my actions. To take that lovely prose and turn it into anything else would be a sin. A mortal sin. The Belgariad would end up like the Sword Of Truth series, i.e., a goofy sword and sandals thing.  Riftwar would end up like that too. The Curse of Chalion might work, but those are more thinking than doing stories and I don’t think they could remain true to the books and make good TV with it. Sword of Shanarra, well, it would be the cheap knock off of LOTR that it is.

Winning quote from an Occupy Boston demonstrator:

“It’s turning into us against them,” Warner said. “They come in here and they’re looking at it as a way of getting a free meal and a place to crash, which is totally fine, but they don’t bring anything to the table at all. It gets really frustrating.”

The door squeaking, the accents, the look on his face, this just gets funnier the more you watch it.

Big Pharma has had significant success with a malaria vaccine trial. Also the guy’s name is Witty, leading to significant punning potential.

Witty, malaria scientists and global health experts stressed that the vaccine,

Punctuation is so important. An Oxford comma would go a long way in that sentence.

Touch screens everywhere! I want one.

I’ll grant him he makes some good points, but since I can’t live on the moon, I’m still disappointed at our progress.

 Consider this:

• Hundreds of people have already traveled in space.
• The International Space Station continues to operate, conducting experiments and research that have widespread implications not just for future space missions but also for developments here on Earth.
• Daily, we send and receive communications transmissions that are bounced off of manmade satellites.
• We have robots exploring other parts of our Solar System, including the surface of Mars, and devices such as the Hubble Space Telescope transmit images that provide ever increasing insights into the expanse of the Universe.

In short, we are already THERE – in space. And this is happening just 50 years after the first space missions that sent men into orbit. In many ways, it is akin to the explorations of the New World that occurred in the decades after Columbus first sailed across the Atlantic during the age of the first Renaissance centuries ago.