Moslems And The Social Contract

If your job is to haul people around in a taxi, that is what you do.

In America, that means anyone who can pay the fare.

If your religion requires that you refuse to haul certain people, seek other employment! Your religion is keeping you from doing your job! If your beliefs force you to adhere to a certain code of conduct, be aware that this will prevent YOU from performing certain acts and holding certain jobs. Please note, this must be a planned event, there aren't any Moslem pig farmers. They know what jobs they are forbidden by their religion to do. What it is going to take is someone brave to stand up and tell them how America works, and if they don't care for it there are a multitude of alternate choices to choose from, can we give you a lift to the border because you seem to be unhappy here.

The exchange should have gone like this:

Driver, "I refuse to drive people who have alcohol on them!"

Dispatcher, "You're quitting?"

Driver, "No, I refuse to transport alcohol, it is against my religion."

Dispatcher, "Your job is to drive anyone who calls the service or walks up to the taxi stand, without discrimination. Refusal to do so is a termination offense."


Driver, "It is against my religion to..."

Dispatcher, "Then you ARE quitting, or are at least telling me you are going to act in a manner that will get you fired. Here's your write-up acknowledging that you have been informed about company policies concerning discrimination and bias."

And by the way, in case I come off as a bit rabid about the followers of the teachings of the prophet Mohammed PBUH: Until Islam is as innocuous to ME as Catholicism, then I oppose it.

And I have put my money where my mouth is. My personal code has kept me from working before, I refuse to work for a foreign held or owned company. I refuse to work for a company that is actively working to steal my guns.

How this translates to our Islamic taxi driver? Part of the job is hauling drunks home from the liquor store, if you cannot or will not perform this task you are disqualified from working there. It is not the employer who is the problem here, it is the employee.

Working is a social contract!

There is at least a verbal contract at the moment of hire, "You pay me, I do what you say." It's a form of servitude! The collorary is of course, "Refuse to work, expect to be fired." Job descriptions and titles are a way of negotiating what the employee is expected to do and what the employer is not allowed to ask of him/her.

What this means to the employee is you do what you are told if it is part of your job description. In my previous post about taxi drivers it means hauling drunks around. We spent a long time getting the drunks to stop driving their own cars to the liquor store! In my personal experience as a drafter, they wanted drawings, I made drawings.

What this means to the employer; you cannot ask them to do things outside their job description. A taxi driver is not required to hang drywall or mow the grass. A drafter is not required to clean the toilet. A policeman is not required to stock shelves.

Another implication about this deal of freedom to work is when you are fed up with the job, you can quit! This is what really distinguishes it from slavery or indentured servitude.

Your employer is not required to retain you for even a second past the moment where your services are no longer required unless, of course, you negotiated a contract to the contrary.

Comments:

Trebuchet!

It's a game, have a go!

Stupidity

When you make war, you take it to the enemy wherever they hide.

That means mosques and graveyards!

Never give the enemy a safe time or place.

If the poor oversensitive masses of Islam don't want their precious mosques and cemeteries blown up, then start shooting terrorists before they hide there. Or, even better, narq them out to allied forces so we can shoot them as they come out.

A Prediction

Americans are an odd bunch. We are the ultimate in forgiving and vengeful. And we go all out when we indulge in those two things.

We nuked Japan. Now we buy all the cars they can make. The nukes were vengeance, the cars are forgiveness, we could have stayed occupying them and starved their economy.

We tend to ignore most things, hoping that the problem will just go away. A lot of times it does.

Sometimes it doesn't.

We then tend to try to do the absolute minimum to solve it. Most of the time we play the "too little, too late" game.

This often makes the problem get bigger.

The next step on a problem that refuses to just dry up and blow away is; "Goddammit, enough is fucking enough!"

A lot of problems are coming to a head and the "Goddammit, enough is fucking enough!" people are starting to grumble and make themselves heard.

Think about what this means if, in addition to all the other problems, Americans decide that the government is the main factor in causing these problems?

It's happened twice before here. Never ever think it cannot happen again.

Problems that the "Goddammit, enough is fucking enough!" people are concerned about.

Terrorism. Almost ready to decide, "Hmmmmmm, if all these terrorists are Moslems, then getting rid of all the Moslems sure seems to solve the problem."

Illegal immigrants. Most would not care if someone started shooting them. Many are willing to pull the trigger themselves.

Welfare. Eliminate the illegals, there will be jobs. Give someone a choice between starving and working, most will work. After doing the manual labor they will start noticing that educated people aren't in the fields with them. There's their motivation for getting their kids in school and learning.

Schools. People want their kids taught. They want talented, motivated people as teachers. They understand that the teacher's unions are an obstacle to getting talented motivated teachers in and untalented unmotivated people out. They understand that it's a government job and government employees shouldn't be telling the people what they want.

Government is the servant of the people, not the master. They understand that there are things that need to get done that only a government can do. They also understand that there are a multitude of things that the government is doing that, should government end its monopoly, the people would do at least as well (and probably better).

Crime. Remember how I mentioned vengeance? Americans are an eye for an eye type of people. We are also a people that feel that the punishment should be just. Life for a dime bag doesn't make sense, especially if murderers are being paroled with years left to serve.

The quiet types also understand responsibility. It is no more the guns fault for shooting the victim than the buses credit for getting you safely to work. Both acts require a person, a shooter and a driver respectively. They also understand that if piss all your money away on things that have nothing to do with food and shelter you are going to be hungry and cold. They also don't think that they should have to pay for food and shelter for people who choose to buy things other than sustenance before securing survival. They especially resent having so much taken from them that they cannot afford anything but survival while the people they support buy luxuries.

A Dark Day For Outlook

Or should that be a dark outlook for Outlook?

I am giving Thunderbird a try. Outlook was the last MS program I used with any regularity.

I am sick to death of its inability to figure out spam. It must be possible, Spamcop's box identifies the stuff before it has a chance to get to me. MS must know how to do it, their Hotmail service very rarely has spam in my inbox.

I guess it's only a matter of time before I start using an operating system that is not MS now.

Vista and MS's boneheaded position on registration and security might just make the gamers move to another OS, making my move easy.

Some Things

There is a line in the Narnia movie where Peter asks the Centaur in the van, "Are you with me?"
The Centaur replies, "To the death." The actor NAILED it! The look on his face and tone of his voice was, "Mylord, that goes without saying!"

A Fine Morning In Tredroy

The House of the White Star. Typical of the businesses in East Tredroy the sign was symbolic rather than written, a white star on a dark blue background with the gold and blue trim of the merchant's guild. "Damn this planet needs printing presses," I muttered under my breath.

Taking a deep breath, I enter the shop. "Is Master McCool available?" I ask in my best, poor, Anglish. "JOURNEYMAN, McCool," a well dressed man replied a little cooly, "and I am available."

"Excellent!, I need something special."

"Of course, how can we be of service?"

In English, "I'm looking for something in 230 grain depleted necronium hollowpoint, .45 ACP."

"I'm afraid I don't speak that language, SIR!" McCool said, looking nervous.

"Of course you do. I know all about it. And I am desperate enough to be bold about it. I need things that only you can obtain and would much rather your secret be safe. But my secrets are almost out, I want to keep my mind, and given the choices I have; the risk of being open with you is very small."

"But you are a mage!"

"An untrained mage in his thirties. There is no way I can seek an apprenticeship. I don't speak Anglish very well and having 'the gift' without training at my age marks me for what I am. Can you assist me?"

"What can you possibly have to offer me to take such a risk?"

"There are people who are on to you, people who are not from Yttara, or even this plane. They have an interest in seeing that people who know magic don't gain access to what they call 'parachronic' conveyences. They have stuff that makes what happened in your version of the Trinity event seem like a fart."

"Maybe I can help...Let's go to my office. But be warned, if this is a trick, you will be dead bef..."

"It's not a trick, and that would be better than getting caught by the guild!"

OK I Am Getting Fed Up Now

I am mere inches from learning what I need to learn to write my own damn flight sim.

I have been frustrated in Wings Over Vietnam's lack of mid-air refueling becuase my favorite plane, the F-8E, seems to run out of gas really fast. So I looked up what I needed to do to add anachronistic drop tanks. So with an extra 600 gallons of gas I should be good, right? I am. But foolish me, I go and look further into the .ini file and find the values for the fuel. They are really detailed. Detailed and WRONG! The fuel quantities are in liters and are on average 50% of the actual amounts.

So I changed them.

Now I wonder how far off the other planes are...

Here's what I want:

Aerial refueling. Both probe and drogue and flying boom.

Functional meatball on the damn carrier. Why is this so damn hard?

Functioning LABS. Another dirt simple item that nobody bothers with, but every cockpit has the indicator (non-funtional).

Accurate field of view from the cockpit. Again, this should be simple! And getting this right means that landing and refueling will be possible.

Carrier ops. This will be hard. Gotta have the dudes on deck doing what they do. And for realism you have to have the parked planes too. And to really do it right, you'd have to have the Ouja board running too.

Start ups, taxiing and parking too.

For two seaters, like the F-4 have the guy in back be useful! In a dogfight he does stuff like look out the window and scream warnings.

Finally

Ever see a book on the shelf every time you go to the store and say, "Oh, next time,"?

I did that for GURPS Dinosaurs. I figured that Steve Jackson, being the dino-nut he is, would never let it go out of print, I have plenty of time to buy a copy. Boy was I wrong.

It went out of print and became a collector's item. I have seen a copy go on eBay for over $150!

I have managed to get a copy from eBay for quite a bit less than that.

What The Heck?

Why do they drug test JOCKEIES for performance enhancing drugs?

What the hell drug could a jockey take to make the HORSE run faster?

Live From Yrth

“What magic is this?” he asked with more than a little awe in his voice.
“No magic at all,” I replied, “it's a Bessamer Process Furnace. It makes steel. Makes more steel in an hour than all the smiths of Megalos make in a year.”
“But I thought you were a mage.”
“I am a mage, but not here in the Great Desert. Nobody is a mage here, there's no mana.”
“There's some mana, where we imported it,” Geff chimed in, not mentioning how.
“Imported?” he asked, “To restore the mana to the interior you would have had to start at the edge and create a path to where you wanted magic, and to erase that path with destroy mana would have risked losing your magery.”
“True,” I said, “but we didn't do that. What we kept in our minds, that the Ministry of Secrets wanted erased, allowed us to do things with magic that are beyond their limited imagination. And what we can do without magic is staggering! You'll notice that we have water here, we make it rain.”
“What I intend is nothing short of a revolution. A revolution in technology. A revolution in sociology. A revolution in politics. Without these, I don't get my train set.”
Geff rolled his eyes in response, "1:1 scale train set..."

Explanation of the above:

In a world of Tim's, where the players made themselves as characters, I supposed that I had become a Great Mage on a ringworld and ran a railroad all the way around it.

Not that I am a bold and intrepid maker and shaper of events large and small in real life.

If Geff and I were dumped into Yrth two things would confront us immediately. First is the Ministry of Secrets attempting to erase our minds of anything that upsets the medieval apple cart. Second is Geff's health. His asthma will require either tech for medicine that doesn't exist there or learning enough magic to just cure him. The process of two thirty somethings learning to use magic in a guild ruled setting and not being revealed as outsiders would make us a lot leaner and meaner than we are today. I am supposing that we succeeded and are now getting bitter about the whole nobility and commoner deal.

Naturally we have both read the books that spell out the setting and have a huge advantage over other outsiders that would have been pulled into the world.

I know just enough about the tools to make the tools to bootstrap some of the tech. There is going to be a learning curve as we translate the things that we have read about into things we are building.

We also think from reading about the cosmology of the Yrth system that going out and getting a small meteorite would create a high mana zone centered on it. Knowing how to use magic and knowing about general conditions on the moon would allow us to go there and gather some of this mana-rich material. This would allow us to make a small area in the no-mana Great Desert where magic works.

The next bug hurdle would be the lizard men of the Great Desert. I know more than enough to make a Maxim and gun powder. That should secure us against them. And with no magic, we don't need to worry about scrys or reverse missile.

This Should Be Something

The radical Islamists are in a froth about what the Pope said. They say they are going to suicide bomb the Vatican. This should be interesting.

The Swiss guard is a shoot first, ask questions later kind of elite military unit. Don't let the renaissance uniforms and halberds fool you. Outside of their ceremonial duties they are completely modern. They have a tradition to uphold that they take very seriously. Being the only mercenary unit, by law and treaty, that Switzerland is allowed to export they really work hard to maintain those traditions and reputation.

Swiss units, except the Vatican Guard, were banned from use after the Napoleonic wars, something about them fighting to the last and staying bought...

As I said, this should be interesting.

I Wonder...

I have been reading about Iran's nuclear plans.

I wonder if we could bring a B-2A at about 45k feet and drop a GPS packaged nuke on the facility(ies) and then issue bald faced lies about it. "I guess they were further along in their nuclear weapons development than we thought and had an accident." Yes, it's obvious. It is no less deceptive than Iran's statements that they are completely peaceful.

And when someone notices that the material from the bomb HAD to come from the US, we'll blame the security leaks that were well documented during the Clinton administration at Oak Ridge.

Letter To My Senator

The Honorable Bill Nelson
309 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC, 20510

Dear Senator Nelson:

As a Floridian and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Immigration and Naturalization Service in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you

My reasons for wishing to change my status from U.S. citizen to illegal alien stem from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, what I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years.

I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out. Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year, so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of the last five years taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent return for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005 and I estimated a gross savings approximating $36,000. After the fine this would yield me a net savings of $34,000.

In addition, I would reap the other benefits of being an illegal alien such as free health care, avoidance of paying Social Security taxes, buying automobile insurance, serving on jury panels, etc. If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative.

Thank you for your assistance.

Music

If you really want to listen to the music, find a song in a language you don't understand.

Sometimes the lyrics get in the way.

Victory!

It's not everyday that I win one, so I waited a couple of days to comment on it.

Long time friends might recall Kenny Canniff kicking me out of his Gulf Coast Super Sport Club (GCSSC) last year.

He relented and "allowed" me to come to club meetings a few months ago. This coincided nicely with me finally getting to the point of being able to be around him without having a strong desire to put 230 grains of lead and copper into his forehead.

On August 20, 2006 Jim Meyer founded the FLA branch of INC. INC nominally means Impalas 'N' Caprices. August 23rd was our first meeting, at the same time and location as the GCSSC meeting. Everyone who showed from the old club joined the new club! Except Charlie.

The reason we are behind this new club is Kenny's insistence that he OWNS the club, it's HIS club, President and founder. Even though he didn't found it... We disposed the dictator and have a democracy now.

He is DEVASTATED! HAHAHAHAHAHA He's well on his way to alienating the people who still liked him personally even if they didn't like his club.

So, Mr Canniff, when you told me way back last year that YOU would win in our little conflict; you lose. I have a club to be a part of that welcomes me.

What We Should Do

Since the Moslem apologists keep telling us that the terrorists are a small minority of Islam at large and we shouldn't blame them as a whole, while doing nothing to condemn the so called minority.

That is exactly the arguement we should be using! Mecca just evaporated in a cloud of radioactive dust? Just two guys in a bunker, not representative of America as a whole, sorry about your loss. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?

Tools

Some things in my life are defined by what they do for me.

Like my computers. I have used every MS OS since DOS as a user. I have used many Apple products. I have fond memories of the Apple ][ series. I played a bit with Geff's Mac SE30 (if I got the model right). I have an iMac running 10.3.9.

I have never been a programmer.

What does the iMac do that none of my Windows machines do? Listen carefully Mac snobs. NOT A SINGLE COCKSUCKING THING! It's a computer you dunderheads! It does nothing I want a computer to do better than any other machine I currently own. There is only one exception where the iMac shines, I can start every single app and it doesn't slow down. THAT IS ALL! That's a big thing, I will grant, but I have not experienced the "magic" that I was led to believe would naturally follow from merely owning one.

"OK Mr Thag, since you hate Macs, what does your vaunted Windows machine do that the iMac doesn't?" asked in a tone that suggests that I will not have an answer. Well, I don't hate Macs! I happen to like my little iMac. But if I want to play a flight sim, I can't with an Apple OS. I can't with Linux either.

What about stability? The more I play with computers at the unwashed user level the more convinced I become that hardware has a lot more to do with it than the OS. Apple has rigidly controlled the hardware for a long time, and my PC desktop is made from some serious parts. The game machine is just as stable as the iMac. The HP laptop is not. Hmmmmm.

I have considered one of the newer Macs, but I keep hitting the price barrier. I can have one hell of a Windows machine (or Linux) for a lot less than a Mac. Becuase I am a high end flight simmer, I know what hardware costs. And Apple is raping you.

Geff has mentioned some really nifty features with OS 10.4. Wanna bet those features get wrapped into what ever OS MS puts out next?

None of this changes that MS is a shitty company. I hate them and hate being forced by my flight sim habit to use an MS OS. The Genuine Advantage BS and Validation shit have made me decide that I will not be moving beyond what I have now for the flight sim.

Apple needs to start charging less to be competitive. Or they need to admit that they aren't trying to be competitive. But they can't do that, SEC regs... And the Mac Zealots need to shut the fuck up. It's not better to the degree they seem to claim. If you listen to them, using a Mac is like fucking and using a PC is like jerking off. THEY ARE WRONG.

By the way, Steve Jobs is every bit as evil as MS and Bill Gates, don't fool yourselves folks. He's just hid his tracks better. And there are damn few companies that are as litigatious as Apple.

The choice is Hitler or Stalin not Jesus or Satan.

Addendum:

I forgot security.

The iMac is running zero malware and anti-virus stuff. It doesn't need it. Macs are inherently more secure than PCs. For the moment.

Linux starts more secure, but I have two examples of managerial feature creep that created exploits. Not a function of the OS to be sure, but illustrative that nobody is immune.

There may come a day when there are so many features in the Mac OS that they get all sorts of exploits just like MS.

I have also read that some of MS problems on exploits is the CUSTOMERS insistence that their old software continue to run with the new OS. That would make it very hard to fix things as cludges are added to keep old software running.

Here's the BUT for the Mac snobs: Just like a prison is inherently more secure than an open field, one can secure a field and empty a prison. Both take real effort to acheive, but it is acheivable. Please stop acting as if XP cannot be made secure and OSX cannot be made vulnerable.

The Mac attitude really reminds me of the Vette attitude among (some) car people. It doesn't matter what my car can do, it's not a Vette.

I know of some exceptions to this attitude. Geff is my friend who likes Macs who doesn't look down his nose at my PC, he just tries to point out what Apple is doing better objectively. Lee is my friend who hates MS, but doesn't act like I'm retarded. He also owns a third gen Vette. John is my friend who owns a fifth gen Vette and uses Linux who will actually talk about the relative advantages of either the cars or the computers. These three are not Mac snobs. They are just about the only three people I know who work with computers and use Linux/OSX who are not acting like I am some sort of leper.

PS, try finding a CAD package for a Mac.

Comments:

Belief

The following is from here: Dead Link To Lex

I am 95% in agreement with him (I don't regard abortion as a sin), and he says it better than I have been...



I believe that human life is sacred.

I believe that democracy is the worst possible form of government, except for all the others.

I believe that liberals are builders, and conservatives are defenders. I believe that both are important.

I believe that government’s primary functions should be to defend the borders and deliver the mail in a timely fashion. Everything else is pretty much discretionary, open to debate and subject to revision. People don’t really want to be governed, but they need to be. Still, I believe that government is best which governs least.

I believe freedom is more important than equality. If the only way to make things more equal is to reduce freedom, I’m not interested. Human nature being what it is, equality will have to be enforced, while freedom will have to be defended. I’d rather be a defender than an enforcer.

I believe that taxes are a necessary evil. The fact that they are necessary should not obscure the fact that they are evil. You work to provide for your family, and the government asks a share of the bread wrung from the sweat of your brow. Societies have responsibilities, but only because they collectively choose to. There is a social contract in effect: We do owe our less advantaged brothers and sisters the chance to pull themselves up out of the mire. But they owe it to us to take that chance.

I believe that the taxation system is fundamentally coercive: It may be your money, you have earned it through your labor, but if you don’t pay, eventually a man with a gun will show up at your doorstep and take you away.

I believe in privacy.

I believe in charity.

I believe in virtue.

I believe that charity is a private virtue.

I believe in personal responsibility.

I believe that choices are actions, and that actions have consequences. If you didn’t pick up on this growing up, you weren’t paying attention.

I believe that a market economy offers the best opportunity to live a good life to the most number of people. If you believe differently, I’d like to see your analysis.

I believe that if I choose to work hard in high school to get to a good college, work hard at my career in pursuit of a better life for my family, and save money for my retirement, that shouldn’t make me a piggy bank to plunder for those who didn’t make those choices. If you choose to teach or “help people,” because that’s important to you, you shouldn’t be surprised if the market disfavors those choices in favor of those who actually make tangible things for other folks to buy. That’s what markets do, and ours is a market economy. You should be content instead with the non-remunerative rewards of your chosen field.

I believe that if everyone took responsibility for those people and those things that they can directly impact (family comes to mind, friends and neighbors come next), that the world would be a far better place. Think globally, act family.

I believe it’s time for another beer.

I believe in sin.

I believe that envy is a sin.

I believe some people should be ashamed.

I believe that abortion is a sin. I am not sure it should be a crime, because I know that my beliefs are based on a religious philosophy, and not everyone shares that philosophy. My philosophy does not require them to.

I believe that legislatures should legislate, executives should execute, and judiciaries should interpret.

I believe that what any of the three branches of government usurp the role of one of the others we have ins some measure ceased to be that which we were justifiably proud of having been - a glorious experiment in personal liberty by self-government which is not yet demonstrably and finally a success.

I believe that Roe v. Wade was poorly found. I do not think judges should emanate into the penumbra. I find nothing in the Constitution that permits them to do so.

Notwithstanding the preceding, I believe in stare decisis .

I believe that the principal element in “the freedom of choice” should involve keeping one’s knees together. Get that one right, everything else falls into place.

I believe that humanity is not a birthright, but a testable proposition. Notwithstanding my belief that human life is sacred, I believe that society has the right to defend itself against people who commit horrible crimes, and punish them proportionately. I believe that right includes the ultimate sanction. I believe that there are those who look like us that are not of us, who by their acts of inhumanity have proven that they are not human in that fundamental way that separates us from other mammals. I shed no tears when vicious murderers are put down, pour encourager les autres.

I believe that the DH rule spoils the game.

I believe that not all change is progress.

I believe in the law of unintended consequences.

I believe in learning from those who went before.
Quo desiderat pacem, para bellum

I believe in passion.

I believe that rational analysis will always win in an argument with passionate beliefs.

I believe that wrestling with pigs is counterproductive. You just get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.

I believe that people of good will may disagree. I believe the other guy often has a point. I think he probably got there through a valid process. I don’t believe that disagreeing with him necessarily makes me a bad person. I believe that anyone who truly believes that it does is not worth arguing with. If you don’t agree, please see preceding belief.

Update: Erin should really, REALLY read that last one again.

Why Thag Doesn't Fly Anymore

Number one: My ass remembers being probed at SeaTac. While answering their endless questions about my laptop, I forgot to take my keys out of my pocket and set off the metal detector. Because I was wearing combat boots, that got me "special" attention.

Number two: What they are doing and how they are doing it is not really making it any safer than before! The reason 9/11 hasn't happened again has a lot more to do with the FBI finding out about plots beforehand and acting on them before the terrorists have a chance to get to the airport, let alone pass through security.

I have heard it described as Kabuki Theatre Security, and that seems apt.

The security people are well into the "I have power and no accountablity" zone.

Of course, this limits my travel because it costs a lot more in time and a bit more in gas to drive.

It makes it real hard to get to places like Las Vegas for Aunt Bat's 40th. But driving has its advantages, like when I get where I am going, I have a car! When in Iowa it is essential. I know too many folks there. And since most of them are in different circles, asking one to shuttle me around just doesn't work out.

I used to love flying. I still love airplanes. And it's people who are between me and the planes who have ruined the fun for me.

And as Dave pointed out, how long until the terrorists notice the huge crowds of unarmed people in line at the check in counter?

How long before we notice that it really is a narrow demographic that is doing this? If we applied the level of fairness to rape cases we are applying to travel security screening, we would have to arrest women and only when we got to trial could she point out that she doesn't have any method of making semen, let alone depositing it forcibly.

A rape with a semen sample was committed by a man. Terrorists who blow up planes and/or crash them into buildings are middle eastern islamic males 18-40.

Now This SUCKS

The Lovely Harvey broke a tooth!

I cannot imagine how bad this must hurt. But she's mentioning that it does hurt, so it must be a lot.

You know when the doctor asks you to describe the hurt on a scale of one to ten? For most of us, her three is a ten. She has an amazing tolerance.

So, lets all give a prayer to the higher powers for her hurt tooth until she can get into a dentist to get it fixed.

Oh I Almost Forgot

The miserable piece of shit that GM calls the M30 4L60E transmission bit the big one in the wee hours Sunday morning.

Gods fucking damn it all!

This is the fourth time for those of you scoring at home.

This leaves me with a number of choices:

A. Another rebuild.
Pro: Relatively cheap and has a one year, 12,000 mile warranty.
Con: $1000 a year is getting old doing option A.
B. Junkyard tranny.
Pro: Cheapest option, about $600.
Con: Crap-shoot on the thing living and only a 30 day warranty.
C. Remanufactured GM Certified Replacement.
Pro: Three year, 36k mile warranty.
Con: $1,350 plus a $350 core deposit. If the dead tranny is too messed up, I don't get the deposit back.
D. GM Performance Parts 4L65E.
Pro: Much tougher version of the 4L60E. Three year, 36k mile warranty.
Con: Not a direct replacement, some mods required. $2,290.
E. Convert to a manual transmission.
Pro: Strongest option. Very cool. Better mileage. What I plan on doing eventually anyway.
Con: VERY Expensive, $3,900 in just parts alone, more in tools and fabrication prolly $5,000 all said and done.
F. Third Part Remanufactured Unit.
Pro: Relatively affordable, $750 plus $350 core deposit.
Con: One year, 12,000 mile warranty. Too many remanufacturers are the bee's knees today and scum tomorrow. If the dead tranny is too messed up, I don't get the deposit back.
G. Hope that the rotating parts are OK and it's just the valve body and replace it.
Pro: Even cheaper than the junkyard tranny.
Con: Can't buy a new valve body, so would have to get one from a junkyard. Crap-shoot on the thing living and only a 30 day warranty.

And a MAJOR fuck you to Grady, whose incompetence with creating a shift kit has caused all the problems.

The really sad part of this is the engine is a bone stock '96 LT1 running a '95 PCM. The only things not stock on the motor are the intake and ignition coil. Those changes should not have created tranny killing power (and in fact they do not). I went way out of my way to get a reliable package when I set the car up, and I have been awarded constant pain from the gods be damned tranny.

Option C is in the lead. Not least of which, when I can afford option E, this tranny bolts right into Harvey's car.

Sigh...

Lemme try to explain this to the ACLU again...

Our laws and constitutional protections stop at our borders, with one exception. Citizens of the United States of America still retain their constitutionally guaranteed and protected rights when abroad.

Foreigners and aliens only receive such when they are legally inside our borders.

What this means:
It is 100% constitutional and legal for the USA government to listen to every single word spoken or to read every letter and e-mail written by a foreign national in another nation. If said national doesn't like it, it is up to that nation to do something about it, not the US. If our tapping is illegal there, then we are breaking their laws. But there is nothing in the Constitution forbidding Congress from passing laws which violate the laws and sovereignty of other nations and their citizens.

What If

What if the protesters convinced a woman, after going through all the pain of an abortion, that she was a murderer and her soul was indeed irredeemable?

What if she decided to just start shooting said protesters, she's crossed the moral rubicon, she cannot undo her abortion, why not just keep killing?

Comments from this post:

Hmmmmmm...

From the Day By Day archives.  Copyright 2006 by Chris Muir.

This one sparked a comment thread worth retaining...

Some Pondering

In the grand scheme of things, it is actions and not words that matter.

I do not care what a politician says, it is how they vote that defines who they really are.

An Occasional Sense Of Melancholy

A toast to heroism!

Here is to the people who run into burning buildings instead of out.

Here is to the soldiers who run to the sound of the guns instead of away.

Remember, a hero is someone who does something that could them killed in order to save others. Being a hero is not the same as being determined, or being brave. Without the risk, there is no heroism.

So, to the heroes! Too many died.

Heirlooms Aplenty

My mom is cleaning out her house in preparation for the big move to Colorado and the ACLF.

The only shing she had that I really wanted was the drafting table that my dad gave me.

To ship it, she would have been charged the "one room" rate from any mover, so she filled up the load with the rest of a room!

The Boy gets a new bed.

We have a huge desk that is now a table-like entertainment center sort of deal in the bedroom.

We have piles of antique glassware and china.

I have a huge assortment of Dremel attachments and two new Dremel tools.

We have basic wood working tools! Something that was sorely missing from my box.

Thanks Mom!

Dwarf Again

Gimli Gloin's son If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Gimli, Dwarf, handy with an axe when orcs are about. In the movie, I am played by John Rhys-Davies. Who would you be? Zovakware Lord of the Rings Test with Perseus Web Survey Software

Mrs Hillary Clinton

I resented her acting like she had won the presidential election instead of her husband. She's anti-gun. She does seem to get the war though, that's a plus to me.

The thing I cannot stand about her as a senator has very little to do with HER. Considering that she votes a lot like the other senator from NY, I have to believe that this is what NY wants in a senator, that's cool as far as it goes.

What I can't figure out is WHY THE VOTERS OF NEW YORK VOTED FOR SOMEONE WHO JUST MOVED TO NEW YORK MERE DAYS LONGER THAN THE ELIGIBILITY PERIOD????

There were other Democrats that fit the ideology, why not vote for someone from New York?

This is why I am so damn conflicted about 9/11. Three thousand some odd people were killed, but that means three thousand some odd LESS New Yorkers voting. No, there is no conflict, if they needed killin' then it was OUR job to do it, not some third party. I don't think they needed killin', even if I think they were morons for living and working in NYC.

Sick Of Defending Bush

How can anyone who knows me think that I like him?

Perhaps because I was VERY anti-Clinton? News flash, I am opposed to all the damn idiots that have discarded our constitutional republic for, whatever what we have now is.

Clinton was merely the first politician on the radar once I had learned enough to have a political opinion. My contempt backdates to FDR (PS that includes Ford and Nixon), but I cannot do anything to prevent the past, so I must focus on the present and hope to reverse the wrongs done then.

I know why I disliked Clinton so strongly, do the people who hate Bush know why they don't like him? Other than he is not Al Gore or John Kerry?

Gun control is unconstitutional, it's plainly stated in the second amendment and my position is backed by the author's notes, the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers, Mr Clinton signed Brady and the AWB.

Mrs Clinton wasn't an elected or appointed official, but she swept in like she was the entire cabinet. I'm not really sure I can blame Bill for this one, but at some time he really should have said something to the effect of, "Honey, you have no official capacity, so stop having press conferences." Mrs Clinton is a topic of a whole other rant really.

And of course, the Lewinsky thing. And I only started caring when someone pointed out this, "Would he have kept his job, or would we have said, 'that's A-OK,' if he had been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company?" Huh? Why, no. Last time I delved into the sexual harassment laws, there was no exemption for the President.

Bush the Younger:

Um, close the border, use troops, shoot them if you have to.

Quit acting like Dad is going to walk in at any moment and take the car keys away! You ran a successful business once, you were a popular Governor, you really did get elected, start acting like you have the brain that you demonstrated you had before late 2000!

Oh yes, another thing: The economy pretty much runs on its own. There is damn little the government can do about it, so taking credit for good times or blame for bad times is more a function of timing than talent. I believe that subsidies hurt business because it prevents the market from sending feedback. I believe that low taxes spur growth because people will want to make more money when they get to keep more of it. And if the president is really responsible for the economy, why don't we worship Dwight Eisenhower like a GOD?

Mourning

Pam, wife of Skeezer passed on this morning about 5am CDT.  Cancer.

She was a very nice person and Skeezer is, of course, devastated.

Middle East Peace Trip

What Condi would be tasked with telling the Israelis if I were President.

"It has become obvious that there will not be peace until one side or the other is eradicated. Since we get along with you Israelis better than we get along with Palestinians, eradicate away."

THAT is how State should support an ally. If we don't, then why call them allies?

How Some Things Work By Dr Thag

CO2! Global warming, yadda yadda yadda.

Guess what? It doesn't work the way the news says.

CO2 absorbs a certain wavelengths of light. That makes the molecule heat up, and that heat is released as longer wavelengths or by transferring it to adjacent molecules. What this means for temperature is that it is transparent to frequencies transmitted by the sun and opaque to the re-emission from earth. That keeps heat from escaping back into space, or at least slows it.

The thing the media screws up is how much light the CO2 is stopping.

Lets say, for simplicity, that a given concentration of CO2 stops 50% of the light from escaping back into space. If we double the concentration how much light is stopped? It's not 100%. It's 75%. Triple it, you'd get 87.5%, quadruple gives 93.75%, five times gives 96.875% and so on. Notice the diminishing return?

The CO2 argument also ignores water. Lots of water up there. And water tends to absorb the same wavelengths as CO2.

Read more about it here!

Quote Of The Random Interval

"Basically, I figure guns are like gays: They seem a lot more sinister and threatening until you get to know a few; and once you have one in the house, you can get downright defensive about them." -- Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Kill Them All

There is no room on the planet for Western Civilization and Islam. Since I am a member of Western Civilization, I would rather see Islam go away. Since they behave like this, I see no need to let them live.

Be forewarned, that link has links to the heathen barbarians mutilating PFC Tucker and PFC Menchaca.

I am finished with the belief that we can ever coexist peacefully with these idiots and am coming to the conclusion that anyone who thinks otherwise should be killed and that the killing be considered self defence on my part.

DWARF

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.?.h.+#
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If I were a NetHack monster, I would be a dwarf. I enjoy using expensive, high-quality equipment, and I'm not afraid to work hard to get it.

Which NetHack Monster Are You?

By Jingo

From here

Next time you look at the moon, challenge yourself to think of something: there are footprints up there. Footprints, and tire tracks. Also three used cars, and one golf ball.

Why are they there? Because we decided to go to the moon, that's why. What a typically arrogant, unilateral, American conceit! Damn right it was, and that footprint - you know the picture - will still be there, unchanged, a million years from now. In ten million years, it might begin to soften a little around the edges. But in a billion years - a thousand million summers from this one - it will still be there, next to glistening pyramids of gold and aluminum junk decaying under the steady cosmic drizzle of micrometeorite hits.

Space Is Big Really Big

You are tiny and insignificant.

Holy Stinking Snot Batman

In my ever continuing quest to convert all of my 3e GURPS characters to 4e standards I have to recreate the racial statistics of some non-human races.  Tonight was the Centaur from Fantasy Folk.

Because of the differences in how the various editions handle ST, the Centaur goes from a ST 13 with a split ST Advantage to get a horse body with a ST of 26.  With all the other things added on, a 3e Centaur was 55 points.

The new ST rules you buy a ST of 26 and take "Weak Arms" to get that ST 13 in the torso.  When I was finished it comes to 143 points!  OUCH!

Centaur, Fantasy Folk
143 Points
Attribute Modifiers: ST+16 (Size -10%) [144]; IQ-1 [-20]; HT+2 [20].
Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Per+1 [5]; Basic Move+3 [15]; SM+1 (3 hexes).
Advantages: Claws (Hooves) [3]; Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin -40%) [2]; Enhanced Move 1 (Ground Speed 16) [20]; Extra Legs (4 Legs) [5].
Disadvantages: Low TL -1 [-5]; Overconfidence (12) [-5];  Phobia (Enclosed Spaces) (12) [-15]; Stubbornness [-5]; Weak Arms [-6].
Features: Short Fur on body; Tail.