3736 More guns

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Any simple problem can be made insoluble if enough meetings are held to discuss it.

-- Mitchell's Law of Committees --

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A little over two weeks ago I wrote about the danger of blowing off fingers with a 3-D printed gun.  How do you test it?

Well, here's how:  http://youtu.be/V8iHAS4iGyg (warning, NSFW because of sound of gunshots).  Their finger-saver cracked me up.  Note that on the first shot, the barrel fell off.  Plus, between shots they had to replace parts, including the screws.  Note that the trigger changes colors.  The guy who made it said in an interview (I believe it was him) that even though the gun had fired ten bullets without exploding, he's still not sure the next bullet wouldn't blow it apart.  Story at http://mashable.com/2013/05/20/3d-printed-liberator-handgun.

This was I think the first video posted of a home-printed gun. There are now several on YouTube.  I guess folks can stop pushing for background checks.  Seems like the horse has left the barn.

--------------------------------

It seems like I have a very unusual bird in the back yard.  It's about the size of a robin, solid black with a small yellow bill - typical starling or grackle**, perhaps, except that it had one very long pure white feather down the middle of its tail.  Very pretty.

A little research reveals that blackbirds are turning up here and there with either one white feather down the middle, or two white feathers, one on either side, of the tail.  Most of the reports seem to be coming from New Jersey.  A mutation?

[Actually, it didn't really look like either a starling or a grackle.  Tail was longer than starling, and beak was shorter than grackle.]
.

3735 What are the odds? Not good, it seems.

May 28, 2013

Money is like sea water. The more you drink the thirstier you become.

-- Roman proverb --

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In most of the reporting and stories about the tornado that hit Moore, OK, last week, someone asks why there aren't more tornado shelters.  Most people answer that although the area is called "Tornado Alley", the chance of a tornado actually coming close is so small it's not worth the cost.  It's big country there.  It's sorta like getting hit by lightning.

In all those stories and reporting, no one to my knowledge has mentioned the 1999 tornado that hit Moore.  It was an F5 (the  highest rating), a mile to two miles wide, killed 41 people and injured almost 500, hit 8,132 homes, 1,041 apartments, 260 businesses, 11 public buildings and seven churches, and has the distinction of the fastest winds ever recorded for a tornado, at about 300 mph.

That sounds like the topography around Moore is conducive to funneling funnels right through there, maybe? 

Maybe a few dollars worth of root cellar would be a good investment after all.
.

3734 Crap!

Sunday, May 26, 2013

"The right to offend is far more important than any right not to be offended."

-- Rowan Atkinson --

----------------------------------------------------------

I wrote a long opinion piece over the past hour. It involved looking stuff up, and links, and so on. I was being very careful choosing words because I was certain it would offend a lot of people.  And then, just before the end, I accidentally hit "CTRL-A" instead of the intended "SHIFT-A", it wiped out the entire post, Blogger happily autosaved the now-empty post for me, and "UNDO" did nothing to fix it. 

I don't feel like repeating the effort.  I'll just go to Blogger Help and find out exactly what CTRL-A does, and wonder howcome I didn't know about it.  It's a mistake I often make, CTRL or CAPS LOCK instead of SHIFT, but it had never gotten so drastic a result before.

Have a nice weekend.  Me, I've been freezing my tail off.
.

3733 Back yard business

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Art is anything you can get away with. 

-- Marshall McLuhan --

------------------------------------------------------------------

There's some kind of very small bird hunting insects just before sundown every evening.  There's dozens of them, and they form a roundish cloud above the tops of the trees, and they swoop and dive in an intricate pattern. 

Immediately after sundown, the bats come out.  They fly in more angular patterns, with their wings more forward, and tend to spread out.  They come from somewhere in the woods on the shore of the lake.  They gave me an idea for Hercules' birthday next week.  I bought him a bat house.

About every early afternoon I hear a lot of racket out back.  We have a hawk living by the lake, and the smaller birds don't like it.  When he comes around he gets dive bombed by crows, blackbirds, and sparrows.   Something thrilling about a tiny sparrow bombing a hawk, hitting him in the back with claws out.

In the late afternoon, there's a racket from the big gum tree.  There are two pairs of woodpeckers who want to claim it as their own territory.  They chase each other all around and through the tree, screaming the whole time.

The robins who collected my yarn?  The yarn and twig nest, a few feet from the side of my house:

Momma bird is there, on the nest, although you can barely see her.  Daddy bird just chased a cowbird away.  Daddy bird is a hero.
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3732 Time waster

Thursday, May 16, 2013

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought,

but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

-- Albert Einstein --

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Google Easter Egg:

Google "Atari Breakout", then click on "images".

Let it load.

Say goodbye to your day.
.

3731 Welcome back, leg.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

If you explain so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody will.

---------------------------------------------------------

Nugget got her cast off today (3.5 weeks).  We went to the doctor's office, quick xray, doctor said looking good, nurse went at it with a saw which Nugget didn't like at ALL, and then it was off.

Her right calf is visibly smaller than the left.  The calf muscles will be weak for a few weeks.  Doctor said not to encourage her to walk.  Let her go at her own pace.  And absolutely NO CLIMBING for three weeks.  (I don't know why. That's going to be rough.  She's part monkey.)  Come back in four weeks.

In the waiting room there was a big wooden train set on a low table that fascinated her, so after the cast was off we let her play with it for a long time.  She was standing holding on to the edge of the table, and she fell three times.  Either the leg doesn't want to hold her up, or she's bending the knee as if the cast is still on, but there's no bulk now under her foot, which unbalances her.  Or both.  So, yeah, it'll be a while.

I don't think she truly noticed that she had her real leg back for a while.  Back in the car, strapped in her car seat, she looked at her legs, studied them, then she lifted the right leg by the knee and foot, and kissed the calf.

"Welcome back, leg.  I missed you."
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3730 I don't understand.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

A jury consists of 12 persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

-- Robert Frost --

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I don't understand why folks of Spanish heritage are called Latino/a.  Weird.  Latin --> Rome --> Italy.  Aren't Italians the real Latinos?

---------------------

What?  NJ birds have taste?

I put out nest-building yarn.  An ugly orange 2-ply sport yarn, and some off-white worsted 4-ply that I had cut and split into 6 to 8-inch lengths of 2-ply.  Both were polyester or something - not wool or cotton, anyway.

All the off-white is gone.  The orange is still lying there.  Rejected.  Forlorn.

I don't understand.
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3729 Knitting a nest

Monday, May 13, 2013

Mythology, n.:  The body of a primitive people's beliefs concerning its origin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth, as distinguished from the true accounts which it invents later. 

-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" --

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I noticed a robin in my back yard picking up bits of straw and grass.  So I cut some 6" lengths of orange sport off-white yarn and tossed them on the patio.

I didn't see the bird come by, but within a half hour it was all gone.

Cool.
.

3728 On printing guns, again

Monday, May 13, 2013

Impartial, adj.:  Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two conflicting opinions.

-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" --

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Two posts back I wrote my opinion on 3-D printed guns.  This article points out that although the plans for the gun that were briefly available online had been downloaded 100,000 times, apparently no one has actually done it. 

I love this part, the last sentence:

According to experts I spoke with, printing the various parts that comprise the weapon would take at least eight hours. In other words, it's extremely possible that people intending to make a 3D-printed gun haven't quite finished doing so, or haven't quite finished the YouTube video. It is also possible that the hand with which they type now contains a lower number of fingers than it did on Sunday.

3727 Nugget

Saturday, May 11, 2013

With capitalism man exploits man.  With communism it's the exact opposite.

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She's bringing me a mothers' day card she made for me all by herself.  When I walked in the door she ran excitedly to the dining room to get it.  It's snips of colored paper glued to the front.  Her mommy helped cut the paper, but Nugget did the color selections and placement design, and the gluing, all by herself.


She was very proud of it. I was very impressed and told her so. It's now displayed on my refrigerator.

Daughter said that at the nursery school the teachers are very grabby.  The kids make things, and then the teachers grab it and write all over it.  Nugget finds that very frustrating.  She made it very clear to Mommy that she wanted it left exactly as she made it.  ("No! Mine! Ahma! (Ahma is me))  So there's no writing inside, which is fine with me.  I don't need no freakin' writin' to get the idea.

They took me out for a Mothers' Day brunch Friday. 
As you can see, she's walking with the cast.  The cast itself is purple, but her mother is obsessed with keeping it clean, so it's covered with a white daddy-sock.



[http://youtu.be/Ajq5oLOZJV0]

The white bag the Nugget is carrying is my doggie-bag.  By the time it got to the car, the home fries, shrimp omelet, and strawberries & bananas were all mixed together.  Oh well, at least it made it to the car.

-------------------------------

In that first photo, note the forelock.  Then take a good look at my profile photo.  Same forelock (if you can manage to see it....).
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3726 Thoughts on exploding things

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Adopt the pace of Nature. Her secret is Patience
-- Waldo Emerson --

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Lots of fuss now about 3-D printed guns.

Ho hum.

The first problem is the printers. 

I know some people who own home versions of 3-D printers.  The small least expensive ones are more like toys, but cost a minimum of $1500.  They don't work as well as those YouTube videos would lead you to think. You have to feed them plastic "ink", and if you think the cartridges for your regular printer are expensive....yeouch!  The production machines you see on YouTube are horribly expensive.  You're not going to find one in your neighbor's basement.

In some, the base moves, in some the print head moves, in some both move.  This gives you a multitude of possible error points - the head clogs, the head burps, the belt moving the head or base slips slightly, and so on.  There are a lot of misprints using up a lot of that precious plastic before you get a useable item.

The device has to be fed code describing the part to be printed.  That's another big exposure.  How much do you trust the folks who produced it?  Those plans are also usually expensive, no matter how they are generated.

The second problem is the printed gun.

If the entire gun is 3-D printed, the slightest misprint/glitch could cause the gun to explode in your hand the first time you try to fire it.  So how do you test it?

Shooting a standard bullet generates heat.  Heat is not kind to plastic.  So even if it has been demonstrated that it's well printed from good code with no burps, I would be afraid to attempt a second bullet.

Of course, this is all blather from my own head, and there may be no problem at all.

I wonder if soon we'll be seeing a lot of one-handed amateur gunsmiths.

Schadenfreude.  Tee-hee!

--------------------------------

Have you heard about PC-Kus (sheesh - who named that)?  The reason your hair eventually turns gray is that you build up hydrogen peroxide, which bleaches the hair in the roots.  PC-Kus is a topical cream that converts (breaks up) hydrogen peroxide into hydrogen and water, allowing the previous color to return.

(The bad news is that the longer your hair has been gray/white, the less effective it is.)

The discovery was a byproduct of research on vitiligo, a condition that causes the loss of pigment in patches of skin.

Hmmmmm.  The water probably won't be too great a problem, but one could hope that the tops of very vain people's heads might explode from a build-up of hydrogen.

More schadenfreude.  Tee-hee!
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3725 A Little Rebellion

Saturday, May 11, 2013

God grant me the serenity to accept stupid people the way they are,

the courage to maintain my self control,

and the wisdom to know that if I act on my feelings I will go to jail.

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Received in an email from a friend:

Carl Gibson, NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Thursday 9 May 2013

We all know corporations aren’t people.

An Easy, 4-Step Method to End Corporate Personhood

If you knew you could end the concept of corporate personhood at the local level, and that everyone all over the country was doing it too, wouldn't you try it? All you need is $50 to $100 depending on what state you're in, a vehicle, and a carpool lane. A briefcase is helpful, but optional.

We all know corporations aren't people. The mere suggestion that an entity with an unlimited lifespan - that doesn't eat, sleep, make love, or even have a measurable pulse - is a legitimate "person" is laughable. So here's an easy way to prove that laughable concept to local law enforcement, and more importantly, your local judge.

Step One: Form Your Own Corporation
It's incredibly easy to form your own limited liability company, or LLC. Even though an LLC isn't officially recognized by the IRS, you can classify it as a partnership or an S corp. can walk you through the entire process. All you need to do is go to your local Secretary of State's office and request incorporation paperwork for your own LLC. The fee is generally $50 to $100 to form your own corporation. You may also need to request an Employer Identification Number from the IRS to make your corporation official. Once your corporation is formed and approved by your Secretary of State's staff, move on to step two.

Step Two: Drive in the Carpool Lane During Rush Hour
Most major cities have a designated lane for carpools, where vehicles containing two or more people can ride to bypass heavy traffic. This part is where a briefcase will come in handy, to give your corporate "person" some personality. Once your corporation's paperwork is safely secured in a briefcase, fasten the seat belt for both yourself and your corporate "person." Drive in the carpool lane with only yourself and your briefcase in the car. Make sure you signal appropriately, drive the speed limit, don't drive with any incriminating substances, and abide by all traffic laws. If you're lucky, you'll be pulled over by law enforcement.

Step Three: Perplex Local Law Enforcement
When you see those flashing lights in your rearview mirror, signal and pull over. If you have a smartphone or any sort of recording device, turn it on and record your conversation with the officer pulling you over. The cop will most likely give you a ticket for driving solo in the carpool lane. This is where you explain to the officer that you indeed have two people in your vehicle - yourself and your corporation, which the Supreme Court says is a person for all legal purposes. The cop likely won't buy it, and you'll be issued a traffic ticket and a court date. Now, don't fret, because this is a win-win situation for you.

Step Four: Get Out of a Traffic Ticket/Abolish Corporate Personhood
Your court date will likely be at least a month in advance, so you'll have plenty of time to prepare. Wear professional attire to your court appearance, and make sure you bring your corporate paperwork with you - again, a briefcase would be beneficial here. When you see the judge, explain your situation just as you did with the cop who pulled you over. The cop should be in the courtroom with you, anyway (and if not, you automatically get out of paying your ticket and court costs). The judge has two choices. He can uphold corporate personhood, agree that your corporation is a person and that the two of you can legally ride in the carpool lane. Or, the judge can force you to pay the ticket and the court fees, while laughing at the suggestion that your bundle of paperwork in your briefcase is a living, breathing person.

While the second option would probably cost you at least three figures and increase your insurance premiums, you have the greater victory of a lower court striking down corporate personhood, and simultaneously contradicting both the 2010 Supreme Court ruling as well as the 1886 ruling, which first established the concept of corporations as people.

Imagine if judges in all 50 states abolished corporate personhood in such a way! The Supreme Court wouldn't dare appeal or ignore the decisions of lower court judges in every state. And all it takes is a little rebellion and devious thinking on our part to get it done.

.

3724 Disturbing bits

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Common sense is what tells you that the world is flat.

-- Malaclypse the Younger --

---------------------------------------------

With the exception of those whose celebrity is based on sex appeal, there is an inverse relationship between your earning power and the distance between the top of your hipbones and the waistband of your clothing.

-------------------------

New constructions driving me crazy:

• "Embarrassed of".  I guess they are confusing it with "ashamed of" and "frightened of".
• "Could of/would of".  Are they mishearing "have"? Or are they just lazy?

-------------------------

The minor news this week is the installation of a spire on the top of 1 World Trade Center, which "makes it, at 1776 feet, the tallest building in the western hemisphere".  

Sorry, but I don't consider spires, radio towers, or the like to be part of the building.  Yeah, it was built, and it's on the building, but isn't that like my spiking my hair six inches high and then claiming to be six inches taller? 

I figure a building is as tall as its highest habitable floor.  All else is decoration.

---------------------------

I have gained a lot of weight in the past 8 months.  I always told myself I wasn't too fat if I couldn't see my tummy past my bust.  I am now too fat,  by about a half inch.
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3723 Been a while

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Wow.  I hadn't realized it had been so long since my last post.  Everything's ok.  I just haven't had a lot of time, and haven't had much to say.

The Nugget has finally started walking with her cast.  Because the cast has a bend in the knee and ankle, she can't straighten that leg, so she's a bit lopsided and wants one hand held when she walks.  For the past 2.5 weeks she had been crawling dragging the cast or scooting on her bottom to get around.

Not that it's slowed her down any. 

About 10 days ago a little neighbor friend came to visit. The friend had been pushing a toy lawnmower that blows bubbles.  Her mommy told her to leave it at the end of Nugget's driveway.  Nugget happened to be in the yard when they arrived.

She took one look, yelled, "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!  Mine!" and scooted on her bottom across the lawn and down the driveway so fast no one could stop her.  Of course, once in possession of the coveted mower she couldn't stand up to push it, and it lost its charm.

I didn't know she knew that word (Mine!) or had those sentiments.

She's almost thirty pounds now, and the cast adds some weight.  Daughter is maybe 5'0" and 102 pounds, so the past few weeks, when Daughter had to lift and carry the Nugget everywhere, and Nugget wants to be picked up all the time because sitting on the floor next to Mommy's feet is not at all the same as standing and hugging Mommy's hip, have been hard on Daughter.  (I can't lift the Nugget at all any more.  She's getting tall.  She's about up to my waist.)  I've been spelling Daughter for a few hours every day, so she can at least get a shower and some rest for her back.

Next Tuesday they have an appointment with the cast doctor.  We'll find out then whether the cast can come off, get replaced with a smaller one, or has to stay on a little longer.

I'm going to check K-Mart for one-a-them bubble blowing lawn mowers to celebrate when the cast comes off.
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3722 Birthday girl

Sunday, April 28, 2013

One plus one does not equal two.  It approaches two as an upper or lower limit.

--  Silk  --

------------------------------------------------

 Her 2nd birthday was Friday:

3721 "Fun" day

Saturday, April 20, 2013

No two equals are the same.

-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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Daughter is away at her 15-year college reunion, leaving Hercules and Nugget home alone for three days.  Yesterday evening, Friday evening, Hercules took the Nugget to a playground, and went down a side with her on his lap.  She was wearing rubber-soled shoes, and her right shoe caught the side of the slide, and her leg got jerked back.  With the full weight of Hercules behind her.

I had agreed to babysit this morning while Hercules went on a trail-cleaning junket with his geocaching group, so when I saw his car in the driveway last night I went over to find out what time I should be there, and he mentioned that Nugget had a boo-boo, that she said her knee hurt, but he didn't see any swelling or bruising.  When he told me what had happened, I was very concerned, but she was already asleep for the night.

I went over there at 8 this morning, and it was pretty bad. Nugget was ok when sitting, and she could move the leg, but she kept saying boo-boo, pointing at her knee, and she couldn't put weight on it.  She'd stand on her left leg with the right foot held off the ground.  It was hard for Hercules to accept that she needed to go to the doctor or the ER, because a.) he REALLY didn't want to miss the trail cleaning, and b.) he's a tightwad and didn't want to pay the copay for what would probably be nothing.

I pushed, and he called the pediatrician.  Appointment at 11.  She sent us to the big hospital 40 minutes down the coast (they have a pediatric whatsis).  In the ER they xRayed her leg, and ... surprise!

Her Daddy went into the xRay room with her.  I waited in the hall, and it was heart-wrenching.  She'd been fine until then, but she didn't want to lie down, didn't want her leg in that position, didn't like that machine, her screams were terrible.  When she came out of the room she was fine again, and loved riding the bed back to the ER.

It's a spiral break in the tibia, so common they call it "the toddler break".  And playground slides are the usual cause.

The doctor who was to do the cast was in Princeton, which is an hour away.  We waited for him.

Nugget had so far been cheerful, but we were already past lunch and running into nap time.  We got her some food from the cafeteria, and some apple juice, and then she fell asleep on Daddy's lap.  The cast doctor arrived around 3:30, and wrapped her leg up right on Daddy's lap while she was still sound asleep.  She didn't even twitch.  With her new cast, in the hospital:

It's a hard cast, toes to just above the knee, with the knee slightly bent.  Four to six weeks.  It looks blue in the photo, but it's actually brilliant purple.

She slept in the car all the way home, and then for almost a hour longer after getting home.

She keeps asking us to take the cast off, and tries to push it off.  She knows what "broken" means, and every time I explain to her that her leg is broken, and the doctor fixed it, but we have to keep the "cast" (can you say "cast"?) on until it's all done fixing, she accepts that for about 15 minutes, then she wants it off again.

She can't stand or walk.  She's unbalanced with one knee bent, and putting weight on it even with the cast seems to hurt, but by this evening she'd learned how to use her little plastic chair as a crutch.  Figured that out all by herself.

The next few weeks are going to be rough on Daughter.  The Nugget weighs almost 30 pounds, and I haven't been able to pick her up for a few months.  The cast is surprisingly heavy, adds more weight.  Daughter probably weighs about 102.  We're going to have to figure some stuff out.  Anyone have any experience with a toddler in a leg cast?

------------------------------

I got a laugh from the doctors and nurses when I said that she'd been born in this hospital, and wouldn't be 2 until next week, so, uh, any chance she's still under warranty?
.

3720 Waiting for news

Friday, April 19,  2013

You will find that the state is the kind of organization which,

though it does big things badly, does small things badly too. 

-- John Kenneth Galbraith --

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Seems like the ONLY news today is the Boston manhunt.  It's the same things over and over.  I had to go to the internet to find out what the news is from Texas.

The total now from the fertilizer plant explosion is 14 bodies recovered, about 60 people missing and unaccounted for, and more than 200 injured.

I guess that's just less exciting....
.

3719 Some are more equal than others, or something....

Thursday, April 18, 2013

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us,

but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.

-- Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus), rhetorician (c. 35-100) --

---------------------------------------------------------------

There was a huge explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant last night, at about 8 pm.  Authorities predict between five and fifteen dead and more than 160 injured, but they're still pulling people out of wreckage, so those numbers could go much higher.  The ones they are sure died are firefighters and a police officer.  It's a small town, and a large part of the town was flattened by the blast, including a nursing home.  So far, it is believed to be a chemical accident.

I shall wait to see if there is a big national fund set up for the injured and families of the dead, the people who lost their homes and possessions.  I shall watch for biographies of victims.  I shall wait for the politicians and their speeches.  Will there be people praying all over the nation?

I shall wait for someone to explain how a hurricane or a bomb attack is more terrible than an accident.  It isn't to the people involved.

Story at http://entertainment.verizon.com/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CDA5NSA5G0%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=931&page=1.  (And what a slap that Verizon put this under "entertainment".)

------

Later:  I turned on the TV at noon to see if they had better info, and found the entire newscast was about a memorial service for Boston.  If I lived in that little Texas town, I'd feel very ... snubbed.

------------------------------

On Holy Thursday, before Easter, the Pope went to a youth detention center and washed the feet of young prisoners, both male and female.  The washing of feet by the pope, usually those of other priests, is a Holy Thursday tradition.  The washing of female feet most certainly is not, and many church traditionalists were horrified and angered.  Like spitting-mad.

Ok, ladies.  How does that make you feel?

------------------------------

I spent some time one late evening wandering around "Dumb Political Quotes"-type sites, and I discovered something odd.  Members of one party seem very prone to really ridiculous statements, while members of the other party sometimes says things that that pretty stupid.  The difference is that the first party is prone to declarations demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge and logic, while the other party just gets names wrong, or uses the wrong word or terms offensive to the audience.

 For example, we have these from Dan Quayle:

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit . . . Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

Not a simple slip of the lip. The first one is stunning, literally.

I could fill this page with Bush-isms of the same amazing quality. Palin, anyone?

When you look at stupid quotes from the other party, there's very little to be found, and those that exist are just things like calling a female reporter "Sweetie", or getting a town or person's name or a country's language wrong. Or trying out a German phrase and calling yourself a sweet roll.  Obama's worst stupid statement seems to be referring to the 58 states. That's not so hard to understand. His mind runs ahead of his mouth. He was probably thinking of the 48 contiguous states, so it came out 58 (actually, "57 and one more to go"). Big deal. A far cry from a Mars atmosphere, or the impossibility of pregnancy from rape.

Am I biased?  Well, I know I'm biased, but I mean is my bias coloring what I observed?  Or DOES one party tend to promote their most stupid people?

-----------------------------

I have discovered Susie Sampson and her Tea Party Report videos.  They're funny.  Susie, in the guise of a conservative reporter, comes off with some real zingers.  Try this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjshdQc5cjg&list=UU1J66cMCW46dOueINxNbFtw, or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aRDaSPuGKE&list=UU1J66cMCW46dOueINxNbFtw.

.

3718 Weird sighting!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Boys have swag; men have style; gentlemen have class.

----------------------------------

Reddit folks have been examining Boston photos, and have settled on two suspicious-looking dudes, mostly on the basis of the straps on their backpacks compared to FBI photos of the bomb bag.  One reddit suspect is nicknamed "The Blue Robe Guy" (because "robe" is so much more sinister than "jacket"). 

I looked at one of the many photos of B.R.G., and about fell off my chair.

I'd swear that's my late husband Jay.  Same color and texture of hair.  In some other photos he looks very tall, like Jay.  Same body type, slope from chest to little pot belly.  Same face, in general.  Same smile.  Same rounded shoulders and neck thrust.  Same slope at the back of his head.  Jay kept his beard slightly longer, but hey!  Beard!  Jay also had that same white patch at his chin.  Same nerdy look.  He always carried a backpack in his hands, never on his back.  The only difference is that Jay always wore glasses, could not wear contacts.

This IS Jay in his early 40s.  He actually would have been 61 last month.

But I guess if you're a ghost, you don't need glasses any more.  And you don't age.
.

3717 Something to consider

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason

is that you’re stupid and you make bad decisions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Boston is famous for the Boston Tea Party.
  
• Yesterday was Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, celebrating the beginning of the uprising against the government of the time.
• Yesterday was tax day.
• Those idiots in the mountains out west, stockpiling weapons to fight the government, refusing to pay taxes, you know, that crew, had been passing a rumor that the Obama administration was going to "manufacture a disaster in April that will allow them to take away even more of our rights."  April?  Where did that come from?

(Um, like, I'm confused.  Wasn't it the Patriot act that started that s**t?  You know, that multi-hundred page "law" that was written before 9/11, just waiting for an opportunity to get passed?  And wasn't it that same administration that decided that the President could declare war without the approval of Congress, in direct opposition with the very clear dictates of the Constitution?  Oh well.  I guess some people can't keep their presidents straight.)

Anyway, the Boston bombing doesn't have "all the earmarks" of a Muslim terrorist organization.  Anyone can get a pressure cooker.  Anyone can find out how to build a bomb.  There was no suicide bomber to ensure the timing.  There was a second blast, but in the middle east it goes off in the same area to get the emergency responders, not a block away.  So what "earmarks" are they talking about?  What ethnicity is likely to be able to leave a large heavy package on the street with no one wondering about it?

It looks domestic to me.

It looks like a declaration of civil war.
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