Not So Fast

Forcing companies to reveal how much they give to political parties when applying for contracts could be both an increased transparency move and a not-so-secret political criteria. It could easily go either way or both. I don’t trust the lobbyists or the politicians motives on this. Or in general.

The answer, of course, is to stop lobbying.

So, good riddance to bad rubbish. For selfish reasons, I can’t help but wish that this had happened 10 years ago. We would have stood a better chance of getting rid of the Patriot Act, Homeland Security and the TSA sometime in the intervening years. Now, I’m afraid we’re stuck with them forever. My other thought is: I wonder if this has anything to do with Pakistan’s squawking about that one CIA dude recently. Obviously, we the public know practically nothing about what goes on politically and diplomatically between us and Pakistan, but it makes me wonder. Other than that, thank goodness something changed Obama’s mind about shutting down the War on Terror once he got in office, and good work CIA and US Military.

It’s interesting, and by interesting I mean entirely predicatable and stupid, that while when Bush was in office the Left said that the president (or his puppetmaster) had total control over gas prices and he wouldn’t lower them so that Shell could make money. The Right said it was speculators and the president couldn’t do anything about it. Now that Obama is in office the Left says that the poor president can’t do anything about it, it’s the market forces and the Right is all, “Whoa, let’s not blame the speculators, what about the President.”

I realize that you can change your story from one month to the next and neither the media nor the public will notice, but c’mon, let’s try for a little intellectual honesty.

Oh wait, they’re politicians. It’s interesting that states keep trying to bluff Amazon on taxes and Amazon keeps calling them on it.

I’m sure this will make everyone happy. Now can we move on and talk about “budget cuts” that aren’t cuts, merely slightly lower growth, and whether or not we should pull in our horns and let the rest of the world burn without us militarily?

Teleporters and quantum computers are one step closer.

Communism, still not working.

So, I’ve been playing a lot of Portal 2 this week and haven’t had time to talk to you. Review after the jump…

Continue reading →

I have no doubt that everyone that signed this is already paying extra, since there’s a line on the tax forms for voluntary contributions. They’re probably living a median American lifestyle and sending the extra to the IRS. Of course.

Know why I don’t like typewriters? No backspace key. Even though I type at a 93%+ accuracy (last time I checked), that’s still a lot of error correction. And on a typewriter error correction is a painful, time-consuming process.

Also, it’s hard to know exactly where you are on a page or where the key will strike. Perhaps this becomes easier with practice. I will never know. Lord willing.

I don’t think the Chinese government understands what television is for.

“Many stories are totally made up and are made to strain for an effect of novelty. The producers and writers are treating serious history in a frivolous way, which should by no means be encouraged any longer,” he said.

Also, apparently, China is big into time-travel stories on TV.

Yes, what America needs is another generation of people with no incentive to save for their retirement. Please, kill the Roth IRA.

I can’t stand the implicit tone in the article that it’s the government’s money and the greedy bastards trying to afford a retirement are destroying the country.

Flying alongside Virgin’s Spaceship 2 as it heads into SFO.

Naming three people I least admire would be a tough one. I mean, you always have Hitler as a go-to, but then it gets hard. I guess you could do Hitler, Stalin and Mao. That lets some of the Roman emperors off lightly. Maybe if I grouped them into “mass-murdering political leaders”; but I repeat myself (I kid, I kid).

Who sits down and categorizes people they don’t like the most? And then what if I name some Joe Blow who done me wrong? How does that help?

The house of Saud is nervous after the way Mubarak got the heave-ho and has been talking to Russia and China in a subtle move to show their strong commitment to friendship with the US.

Here’s the thing, the Gospel of Matthew doesn’t say “When I was hungry, he gave me to eat…” it says, and I’m assuming chapter 25 is what Pelosi’s talking about, “For I was hungry and you gave me food….”  It’s a personal choice, done personally.  It’s not some nebulous group out there doing the giving; it’s you, and me, doing it because we see the problem right in front of us.

Which isn’t to say that the government shouldn’t cut subsidies to major corporations. Cause right now, the government should be cutting spending on everything. All of it.

On this day, 52 years from now, Vulcans will detect Zefram Cochrane’s warp signature and make contact. Yay!

You can do anything you want to a bible and if any Christian speak up, they’re uptight bigots trying to squash peoples freedom of expression. Burn a Koran and suddenly concerns over freedom of expression go out the window.

The lesson for Christians here is, of course, more death equals more respect from the US government.

For the record: This pastor is an idiot, apparently has a shoddy grasp of what Christianity is, and is wasting everyone’s time with his antics. Also, Reid and Graham are idiots, apparently have a shoddy grasp of what the Constitution says, and are wasting everyone’s time with their antics.

Anyone that didn’t expect inflation from all the quantitative easing we’ve had is dumb not good at basic economics.

Upside: The smaller sized containers may help with America’s obesity problem.

I was recently reminded of this hilarity which I now share with you.

Shut it down, go ahead. All you’re doing is saving us money.

Former Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican who represented a swing district in northern Virginia, said both parties have a major selling job ahead to win over the independent voters who decide elections.

“They think both parties are worthless and dysfunctional,” Davis said.

It’s true.

Amazon jumps in to the cloud storage game with both feet. 5 gigabytes free. 20 gigabytes free if you buy a MP3 album from them. Given that I’m bound to buy an album from them sooner or later, this is a good deal for me.

Between Mozy, Dropbox, Ubuntu One and now Amazon, I’ve got a decent amount of cloud space.

Dropbox still beats it in that Dropbox is available offline though.

The story of how two twenty-something year old stoners became multi-million dollar arms dealers.

Also, an interesting look at how word choices affect tone.

The Cars still sound like The Cars.

A solar charging film that can be incorporated into LCD screens, like phones and ebooks, and etc. Of course it’s useless to me as I keep my phone in my pocket.

Chavez sounds nuttier than a Payday.

“I have always said, heard, that it would not be strange that there had been civilization on Mars, but maybe capitalism arrived there, imperialism arrived and finished off the planet,” Chavez said in speech to mark World Water Day.

Also:

He added that the West’s attacks on Libya were about water and oil reserves.

When all you got is a hammer, every speech sounds the same.

xkcd has made a very nice chart showing comparative radiation doses.

1. It’s nice to see Europe manning up and being the world’s policeman for once, even if it is an easy-peasy case and indicates a lack of decisiveness from the White House. But, that’s what a significant portion of the electorate wanted for most of the Aughts. Now they have it.

2. Haha. C’mon Libya, that was too easy.

If you’re worried about your precious bodily fluids being tainted by Japanese radiation, and you’re an American: here’s a radiation tracking map to obsessively watch not change.

If you are willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a 1 person, 10 day supply of potassium iodide tablets, shoot me an email. What? Who doesn’t enjoy a little profiteering…

For all your Japanese radiation dosage thinking: The banana equivalent dose.

No mention on the Godzilla equivalent dose.

RAND Paul, ladies and gentlemen.

A cap on debit card purchases, especially if they decide to go with $50, is a fantastically stupid idea from my point of view. I’m sure it all makes sense for Chase. I’m also sure banks hope this will drive people to credit cards, but it’ll drive me to cash or a credit union without the stupid limit.

Out of 300 million people, usually less than 750 renounce their citizenship every year. This last year it doubled to 1500, but I still find that incredibly low.

A Saudi prince, of which there are dozens, questions the necessity of the driving ban on women.  Women aren’t allowed to vote, or even appear in public unless covered head to toe, but hey the natives are getting restless so throw them a bone.

Though the song is not a masterpiece, I can sympathized with the sentiment.

This story is neat and all but I completely disagree with this statement:

(“Slugging is not most interesting for what it can teach about carpooling,” he wrote, but rather for the trust among strangers it requires and its leaderless organization. “Slugging is a contradiction to the everyday culture of America.”)

If he really thinks that, he needs to leave the major metropolises (metropoli?) for a few minutes. If Americans do anything really well it is organizing themselves when left alone to do so. It’s probably our greatest strength as a people.

I’m sure each and every one of the departments is vital to the running of the nation and their work could not possibly overlap or be done by any other department.

The British should accept blackouts as a bonus when they switch from coal plants to wind power to meet stupid renewable energy targets.  Yay, for living like a third-world country!

I have a feeling that this will be unacceptable to the voting public when the rubber meets the road, making it an expensive boondoggle.

Say it with me people, nuk-yuh-lur* power.

*I actually pronounce it nuh-clee-ur, but I like that the other one irritates so many.

You can listen to R.E.M.s new album for a limited time. It very much sounds like classic R.E.M. Some good stuff that’ll be worth buying at the beginning fading into weird stuff at the end. FWIW, however, am the kind of fan that their “real” fans hate. I like Stand and Automatic For The People. Anyway, I particularly like the first four songs on the album and then it gets sketchy.

UBerlin is free on iTunes this week:

A British high court has ruled that a Christian couple’s “moral certainties” about their faith (specifically about homosexuality) should keep them from fostering 5-8 year old children.

Patrick Rothfuss says he is willing to help Nathan Fillion buy Firefly.

Here’s the deal. My second book is about to come out. My publisher tells me there’s a decent chance of us selling a truly ridiculous number of copies. If this happens, I will have more money than I’ll know what to do with.

Except that’s not exactly true. I know exactly what I’d like to do with that money. I’d like to help you buy the rights to Firefly back from Fox.

A) His first book, The Name of the Wind, is the finest fantasy writing since J.R.R. Tolkien; B) His next book, The Wise Man’s Fear, comes out next week; C) Nathan Fillion; and D) FIREFLY!

I wonder if Nathan Fillion thought his comment would excite such interest.

I gave Obama a pass on Egypt, but really, his people should have figured out what to say about Libya by now. They’ve had 3 countries to practice on. Are we just going to ignore the Middle East and hope the changes don’t hurt us in a few years?

We’ve irritated Israel, Russia has some strong words to say about these revolutions and we’re sitting here. Just sitting. Is Obama going all libertarian on us and quietly pulling back US engagement with the world?

North Korea’s starving again. Or should we say, starving badly enough to ask for help again. They haven’t really been on their economic feet since the late 60s.

A kinder, gentler fascism. It’s creepy that the government is going to secretly create online sock puppets en masse.

Historic hyperinflation. [Danger: evil slideshow. Really, worse than the usually bad slideshows. I wouldn’t blame you for not clicking at all.]

Common causes: slow economy, because of war or bad agricultural; the government starts printing money to pay its debts or it imposes price controls. Viola, hyperinflation.

Common solution: some other currency becomes the de facto currency. Or war.