Idiot of the moment

Sorry...

2005-07-24T10:55:00.000-04:00

Havn't been posting so much recently due to the fact that my wife just got out of the hospital. I am filling in as a temporary assistant to her every need. It's tiring but she does need the assistance and I do love her so it's well worth it.

Later...

Me

2005-07-18T07:48:00.000-04:00

I was rather upset at the Supreme Court the other week. Their decision on eminent domain being allowed to be used for private development projects really scorched my touchas. Lets face it the idea of the Gov’t being allowed to take your property is traumatic enough. When you learn that someone else is going to redevelop it for private purposes it’s enough to make you insane.

Well shortly after that decision there was an amendment up in the house to prevent federal funds from being used on a project of the type described above. Well my congressman Frank Wolf voted against that amendment. I ripped him up a bit both in the blog and via e-mail.

I jumped the gun. Congressman Wolf voted for a different bill (not an amendment) that would ban type of funding this type of project indefinitely where the amendment was good only for a year. So I jumped the gun and shot my mouth off without knowing all the facts. That’s why I am an idiot.

$cientology again

2005-07-14T13:01:00.000-04:00

This article is dedicated to Kelly Preston for stupidly knocking psychiatry yet again.

Imagine… a long long time ago in a world (a much younger one) that is now our own. An evil space lord gathered the population of the galaxy and h-bombed the whole place. The ghost of these aliens hung around to infect the eventual inhabitants of this reborn world (you and me). These aliens cause the new inhabitants until late in the planet’s development when a man came up with a way to clear these effects.

Bad science fiction? Yes. Worse religion? Yes. Welcome to scientology. These are some of the core tenants of that religion. You won’t hear about this at your first meetings. They hook you on Dianetics, a book about good living through positive thinking (actually some of the worst self help crap ever put to paper). Once you are hooked they reel you in on relatively inexpensive sessions where they hook you up to an e-meter. The e-meter (basically a measurement of resistance) will guide the Sr. Scientologist on whether or not you are being honest.

Once you are honest about something horrible in your past that gets checked off. You keep going to these sessions and paying money for classes hoping for your final goal, being cleared. Then you become an Cleared, a major step on the way to becoming an Operating Thetan (OT).

They claim Dianetics is a science yet cannot produce one peer-reviewed study on it’s effectiveness. Come on, it’s been around for fifty years. If it is a science it should stand up under scrutiny. Instead their publications are all copyrighted (their privilege) and that copyright is jealously guarded with fierce determination and a battery of lawyers against all outside use.

Other religions publish their scriptures and writings for all to see hoping that those searching will read and accept. In many places these materials are free or for a nominal cost. Most religions cost nothing to join and donations are encouraged but not required. $cientiology on the other hand costs a bundle. The materials and classes you need to take to become an OT can run up to half a million dollars. http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/CoS/levels.html (note these are 1994 dollars).

All this ‘science’ and no reviews from any recognized scientific body. All this cost and where does it all go? No wonder so many actors go for this stuff, they are pretty much stupid with unbelievable amounts of disposable income. I feel sorry for the poor idiots who don’t have the mega-bux but are suckered into the scam machine of a science fiction hack.

Security...

2005-07-13T07:34:00.000-04:00

Ok first of all just to be clear your chances of being hit by lightning are greater than being involved in any way in a terrorist attack. I place this disclaimer up front so people don't hyperventilate by the end.

We are not secure. We will never be totally secure. Each and every one of us will someday die, this is a fact so don't dwell on it. The London bombings last week brought this message home again. Now predictably people are screaming again that we are not secure.

To really prevent the possibility of such attacks about every other person in the US would need to be an armed guard. We would need a society so tightly monitored that Orwell would look libertarian. We as a society don't want this so we need to live with the risks inherent in an open society.

Unless we want internal passports and travel papers keeping track of us at all times we are free to move throughout the 48 states (minimal ID is required to get to Alaska and Hawaii) without a thought. Our enemies are also as free. To curtail their movements would require that we implement such a system. I don't want that and most likely you do not either. So we accept that risk and move on.

Unless we want to get serious about enforcing immigration statues across the Mexican border (and to a lesser extent Canadian) people that we do not want in this country will not get in. If we clamp down on the borders the liberals will scream racism and the republicans will be appalled at what it will do with our Mexican trade relations. So we accept that threat as well.

You see we live in state of trade offs. We need to decide as a society what we can live with where security conflicts with what we want. We need to be like the Britains who having been subjected to random bombings throughout my entire life (IRA bastards) accept that their way of life comes with risks and when an incident takes place they go on with their lives and do what they can to catch the morons who decided to blow people up.

So let us resolve to stop whining about being secure and simply decide what we want to live with in terms of security. Lets also resolve to stop using the fear of terrorism for political gain. Who's with me?

The Global Warming Religion

2005-07-11T11:02:00.000-04:00

Despite the separation of Church and state here in the US, religion is being pushed down on us. Religion is a worldview taken on faith. This means that there is no proof. This does not mean there is no evidence.

I am Catholic and believe in what the Church teaches. I’ve looked into history and miracles and am convinced that the available evidence indicates that it is true and right. Is that evidence proof? No. Can the evidence be interpreted and dismissed by others? Yes.

Laurie David, wife of Seinfeld co-creator Larry David (a combination of Kramer and George Castaza) is an evangelist of that religion, Global Warming. Their premise that we are making the world too hot and we must do something to fix the mess we are in. The trouble with their whole premise is that they have no proof. They have models and some temperature readings (that conflict with other temperature readings) that supports their case.

The models are equivocal because the earth’s weather is hideously complex and we don’t understand much of it at all. If we did then we would have weather schedules and not forecasts. These models support their dire predictions. Anytime someone criticizes their religion they are called names (fool, corporate shill and exxonmobile hack are some of my favorites) and their criticisms are dismissed and never dealt with. (question why do they dismiss studies from exxon mobile ect. for bias off the bat, but the studies funded by their religious organizations they take at face value? I mean after all bias is bias).

Aside from poor apologetics their religion is marked with the absolute surety that they are correct and we must spend TRILLIONS of dollars to correct this situation. Trillions? Yes Trillions of tax dollars and increased prices to reflect their religious crusade against the devil (corporations and CO2).

For me, we may be in a long term warming trend and we may be in a short term one. The problem is nobody really knows. Temperatures are within historical levels (the dread arctic warming is slower but at the same level as the warming that ended in 1938). Antarctic temperatures are about the same as they have been.

Weather changes and since climate is aggregate weather we can expect that to change. I can say with absolute surity that in the next 10 years it will be warmer and cooler, rain will fall, there will be droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes and most likely an el-nino in there too. This is all that the climate scientists can say with certainty as well as they don’t know.

The worst cut of all is that presupposing that every thing they say about global warming being caused by us is true there is no proof that we can change it in the least.

So we are being asked to fund their religion with no proof of a problem and no clear-cut solution to the tune of trillions and trillions of dollars. Well they are not getting my money on that flimsy data. If they want to do it fine, let them fund it. They can have bingo nights just like everyone else.

Laying Carpet...

2005-07-10T11:09:00.000-04:00

Putting Legato carpet tiles in the office today. Tons of work but not nearly as easy as they make it look on Trading Spaces.

Sasser Worm Creator's Sentence Suspended

2005-07-09T08:57:00.000-04:00

Sasser Worm Creator's Sentence Suspended

Computer virus and worm writers are vermin. At best they can be likened to idiots who key cars or paint on walls. To them it's harmless fun, but someone has to pay to clean up their mess and it's never going to be them.

Nowadays it's even worse as real live criminals (people who steal vs mindless vandals) will use their base code to install malicious software that can lead to identity theft, cash loss and severe finantial liability for individuals.

Now I grew up playing around with arpanet in school, set up a dial up at work for internet access so I could play around in Usenet and with gophers in the pre web internet days. As such I tend to have a pragmatic approach to intellectual property but these maniacs cause mayhem and hardship whenever they operate. It's not just businesses either, it's people like you and me that have money stolen, computers screwed up just so these little lame idiots can get their jollies.

And the freaking Germans let this little moron off with a slap on the wrist. How does that deter the other idiots out there? The only thing that makes most virus writers not as bad as terrorists is that they don't actually kill people. The downstream results can be almost as bad though.

I think that programmers need to take a page from doctors these days. We need an oath... "First of all do no harm..."

Josh Silver is an idiot...

2005-07-08T09:21:00.000-04:00

Josh is only representative of the entire class of idiots today. The “we deserve this” class of idiot. By their reasoning our actions brought this terrorism upon ourselves. Following that logic, only by giving in to the terrorists will we be free from this threat. So surrender is our only option (funny he doesn’t look French).

Well to hell with that. We will not have our country held hostage to any idiot willing to cause mayhem. (Yes there are risks involved in that strategy but my wife refuses to wear a burka so what option do I have?) This insta-capitulation would make us slaves of the fanatic of the moment with our resources applied not to the needs as we see them but as how a small cabal of insane buttwipes says they should be.

So say we withdraw from the middle east, abandon Israel and sit huddled in our corner of the world (in short hand the villains a complete victory). Is anyone stupid enough to think that that will be the end of the demands? What will be next Shiara instead of the US law? Friday Koran study mandatory for all? I forget who said it but the quote “Once you pay the Dangeld you are never rid of the Dane.” Is a truism. Blackmail only becomes more onerous over time and it will get worse. If the terrorists were not so concentrated on Iraq at this point France and Germany (the appeasers du-jour) would be capitulating to even more demands.

It’s time we all buck up and emulate the British Blitz-honed spirt, hitch up our pants and work and never, Never, NEVER give in to terrorism.

Terrorism

2005-07-07T08:41:00.000-04:00

Idiot is not a strong enough word for these people. To use the appropriate words would require me to put up an adult content warning. So those of you with fervent imaginations can fill in the blanks.

When will the world get it? Terrorists are never someone else’s problem. The entire world needs to come down hard on all of this. Terrorism threatens each and every one of us in myriad ways. From the elevated price of oil to the hit that retirement funds take to actual physical danger we are all affected. The bombs in London whether IRA or al-Qaida or who ever needs to be dealt with swiftly and with the support of all nations.

We (the world at large) need to stop turning a blind eye towards approved terrorists because only an idiot can not see that if we give tacit approval to such actions they become legitimized and will eventually bite (insert country name here) in the ass. So Iran, Saudis, Irish, even the French (see dictionary under perpetual surrender junkies) and the US need to come down hard on every incident of terrorism even if we sorta agree with the aims of organization x.

It could just be me but we need to stop people from thinking that they can win by blowing up innocent people. The only way that can happen is if the retribution from everyone for such an act is so detrimental to their ‘cause’ that it will not even bear contemplation. Like Guns & Roses said… “Welcome to the Jungle”.

Mr. President

2005-07-06T09:03:00.000-04:00

Dear Mr. President…. Back in the day, the nuns taught all of us that this is the way to address the president of the United States in a letter. In fact this is how to refer to the President in any form of address, Mr. President. When I was growing up and watching the news and waiting for the real programs to start, our chief executive was always referred to as Mr. President or President Carter (Nixon, Reagan and Bush). Then it started to fade.

I think the blame falls with the right wingers on this one as President Clinton was referred to dismissively as Mr. Clinton. Now in the press references to the President of the United States of America rarely carry the title as part of the statement. This does a disservice to our country and the office of president and is a symptom rather than a cause (IMO) of the increased partisan rancor and less than civil debate.

Lets all make a resolution… Use the title when referring to the current office holder. I don’t care if you like the man or not. I don’t care what mindless conspiracy you adhere to on how he got into office. I don’t care if you think he’s going to throw the opposition into secret detention camps scattered throughout the continental US (heard that wacky rumor about Presidents Clinton and G. W. Bush ). If we don’t respect the office when someone we don’t like is in it why should we expect the other side to respect the office when our guy gets in?

The way I look at it is our representatives in the political process reflect us and not the other way around. I want to return to a time when at least the halls of congress were home to civil debate (politics has always been nasty outside of those walls) and not brazen name calling (the names they used to use were much more elegant and inventive, and I want those suckers to work at something). Be it resolved that the next politician that reefers to the Third Reich in a political debate be fined 1000 dollars (adjusted annually for inflation).

My Barber

2005-07-05T18:11:00.000-04:00

OK I'm going bald. It's been a long progression. My wife calls me the monk because my bald spot looks like a tensor. Why do barbers want to make every hair cut into a comb over? I mean they just look hideous and I don't want to take that time every day to make it look like my little pink head has hair on it. So when I say cut it short dammit just cut the hair.

Why Celebrities...

2005-07-05T07:54:00.000-04:00

I get the escapist nature of entertainment. I love movies, TV and books. I’m not a snob either, I don’t insist that PBS is the only channel to watch. I love bad movies and TV as much as the good stuff (as judged by ratings and or critics). I can even understand the need to live vicariously through the lives of celebrities as they jet set around the globe and hobnob with the beautiful people.

What I don’t understand is why we care what they say. I like actors and actresses because they do their job well, they spin characters from a printed page and make me believe in the story. They entertain me. Why then do we care that Tom Cruise is an idiot when it comes to Psychiatry? Yes it has risks all of medicine does (why do you think it’s called a practice instead of a perfect?). There are also risks to the pseudo claptrap that scientology spits out (lay on a clay table while someone fiddles with an e-meter for 500 bucks an hour and see how much better you feel). Personally I would tend towards psychiatry for a couple of reasons. The first reason is there have been many studies conducted in the field of psychiatry, how many have been conducted on scientology (if it’s an ology shouldn’t there be peer reviewed studies published) (a double aside: would the study of scientology be called scientologyology)? Two, it’s not being whored around by pretty boys in the press circuit.

Still more on the global warming money pit....

2005-07-04T10:47:00.000-04:00

Bush cool on climate deal, offers Blair no favors - Yahoo! News

To see what the global warming scam is costing us (the world) go to here. This is just the Kyoto treaty as well. Some will read this and scream "there's a consensus" thinking that with that statement the argument is settled. Well i looked into the consensus. It's not what you think. It is not a near unanimous survey of scientists agreeing there is a problem. It is a survey of if scientists think that human caused global warming is a problem. Well out of 5 the answer is a 3.4 (a 1 is a unanimous decision a five is a unanimous rejection and a 3 is a big yawn). There is no settled position on this question and there is still quite a debate.

Why then do you ask is everyone sure that global warming is a fact? Because it's scary and makes for great quantified from politicians and the press (makes lousy movies though). The environmental lobby and industry also gets tons of money out of this and they are not about to cut off their funding.

So the next time someone claims that global warming is a problem ask them what is the global mean temperature and what should it be (bearing in mind that in earth's history is has been both much warmer and colder than it is now). Until we know what the answers to these basic questions are then we cannot know if there is an issue at all.

Activists Gear Up For Nominee Fight

2005-07-03T08:29:00.000-04:00

Activists Gear Up For Nominee Fight

It's started....
"A Republican planning document provided to The Washington Post described the need to avoid disclosing the nominees "personal political views or legal thinking on any issue."

Democrats, by contrast, prepared a campaign to extend the process and portray anyone Bush selects as outside the mainstream. The liberal People for the American Way moved to claim O'Connor's mantle with a new television commercial that flashes her image and demands that Bush pick someone in her pragmatic tradition who "protects our fundamental rights and freedoms" or risk dividing the country."

We should pick our judges based on their legal acumen and legal philosophy. Not on their personal politics. Some judges will decide cases first and justify them second but many if not most will not. Unfortunately most of these judges do not endear themselves to either the electorate or to the politicians that appoint them.

I wish we could have a blind process (isn't justice blind anyway?) whereby legal extracts are provided describing decisions and politics could be left out of the entire process. Judges are supposed to be a check on the political process not a part of them.

Slow irritation day

2005-07-02T09:24:00.000-04:00

For good or for ill nothings really making me grind my teeth at the moment (weekends) so it looks like I'll be doing some housework today. Need to trim a door maybe some painting who knows what else. It looks like sitting on my butt and looking for some good blog fodder is not on the menu though.

Supreme Court of the United States

2005-07-01T12:46:00.000-04:00

Supreme Court of the United States

No idiot yet but there will be on this one, trust me. We have our first supreme court vacancy in 11 years. Over those past 11 years the country has become much more ideologically divided than just about any period since civil war. President Bush will nominate a new Justice (most likely next week) and then the fur will fly. For some it will not matter who is nominated, just who nominated them.

It will be a grand donnybrook that will be entertaining and frustrating to watch. Who has the popcorn and pepto-bismal?

House RollCall Seizing Property - Yahoo! News

2005-06-30T22:53:00.000-04:00

House RollCall Seizing Property - Yahoo! News

We have 189 new Idiots. Today the House of Representatives voted 231-189 to prevent federal funds from being used in projects where land was condemned by local authorities to be given over for private development. That makes 194 idiots so far that think that giving your land to a private developer is a good idea. I know I’m calling Congressman Frank Wolf, MY FREAKING CONGRESS MAN. Who voted for this stupidity. He’s a Republican, but before you go off on a rant about corporate republicans and greed etc. my old congresscritter (Jim Moran) a democrat voted the same way. Look up your representative on this list and yell at them if they voted that you really don’t have property rights.

Parts of the Supreme Court

2005-06-30T09:13:00.000-04:00

Supreme Court Justices Souter, Kennedy, Ginsburg, Stevens and Bryer are all Idiots at this moment. Why, because they obviously cannot read. The constitution states that the Gov't can take property for "PUBLIC USE" and pay the owner fair value to take it. This is called eminant domain. This is usually reserved for roads and public projects like courthouses, schools etc., you know stuff the PUBLIC USES. Well at the end of this Supreme Court term these five idiots voted to change the term use to the word benefit. That means that if someone can convince the gov't in your town or state that they can get more tax revenue because they want to build condos or a hotel or whatever for PRIVATE USE you your property they can take it.

That's it. They can take it and will pay you as little as they possibly can. I personally do not care if the Justices are political or ideological conservatives but dammit if they cannot read and understand and FOLLOW plain freaking English they have no right to be wearing those robes and telling 300 million people what that piece of parchment means.

This Guy has the right Idea.

PETA is UN Ethical

2005-06-29T08:20:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in the brief description that we have a lot of pets. The current count is 2 dogs, 6 cats and 5 ferrets. My wife and I love them to death (no not literally) and they are an endless source of love joy and comfort (even when Xev shows her love by rubbing her butt in my face at 3am). I mention this so you don’t think that we are critter haters when I get to the next part.

We love meat. Fish, chicken, beef, lamb, deer, boar, pork and we even tried and loved lion (don’t forget the odd buffalo or emu thrown in as well). I love to cook and I will grill, sauté, poach or fry just about any type of critter (our fuzzies excepted of course) and munch on it. I love fishing (hunting I don’t care for myself but am for it) and eat what I catch or release it. My bachelor party was a striper trip on the bay with myself and family and friends on the Chesapeake Bay. So today’s idiot is PETA.

Why PETA? They are hypocrites. Local to Virginia and Norfolk they take great pride and publicity in the fact that they "rescue" animals from shelters. What they don’t publicize is that they do not have the resources to care for these animals so they kill 60-80% of them. Most rescue organizations that I have been associated with (I told you we have a boatload of pets) are no kill societies (illness and attacking excepted). PETA on the other hand would have you believe that they hold all animal life sacred and that these animals are well cared for when actually they are killed and occasionally dumped randomly in local trashcans and dumpsters (ironically this behavior got some of them arrested for animal cruelty).

This alone would be enough for idiot status but PETA went the extra mile. After 9/11 they equated the terrorism attacks with eating meat. Ironically they did not compare their own treatment of animals with the holocaust. PETA also donates money to the Earth Liberation Front, which is a domestic terror organization that is becoming increasingly more violent along with members of the Animal Liberation Front, another domestic terror organization (with a slightly different agenda).

So if you EVER donated money to PETA, call them up and demand it back. Give the money to your local shelter, ASPCA chapter or the Homeless Animal Rescue Team http://www.hart90.com/ instead.

BTW check out People Eating Tasty Animals it’s one of my all time favorite sites.

Our first idiot is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

2005-06-28T21:30:00.000-04:00

Now I'm not upset that he was a heroin addict. His family politics are in his family not mine. His environmental activism is his own business. His claims on the alleged thimerosol autism connection makes him our first idiot. Thimerosal is a preservative introduced in the 1930's to vaccinations due to it's anti-bacterial properties. The CDC IOM and every other large body of doctors have found no link between thimerosol and autism. The Dutch mandated the elimination of thimerosol in vaccines in 1991 and their autism rates continue to increase on par with other developed countries including the US. The same story is repeated in Japan and Canada. If there was some sort of causal relationship you would expect the rates to at least even out or even decrease once the "cause" was removed. Ordinary people would think this... scientists would think this... lawyers would look for how to make money in a giant class action lawsuit and guess what young Kennedy is ??? You guessed it a lawyer. Now here are some of the falsities in his 'Expose'. He claims that the CDC held a secret meeting with all works embargoed to bury the information. Basically this meeting was not secret but was limited to invitees (hey it's a science conference not a public hearing). The Embargo on the information was limited until the conference reports were published (two weeks later). So no secrets no collusion and no distortion of information happened. Why is Kennedy the Idiot of the Moment? Two big reasons: 1) Parents are avoiding vaccinations (needlessly) out of fear. 2) The vaccination industry is a low profit industry and a major lawsuit will only reduce competition to the point where it is non competitive and prices will rise or the vaccine companies will raise prices to cover damages. Either way children are more at risk and medical costs will go up. Everyone looses except whom??? Again correct in 1 the lawyers.

Brand spanking new...

2005-06-28T21:14:00.000-04:00

OK I have a lot of opinions and don't want to piss off the people I live or work with so I created this blog to vent my spleen without creating havok in my personal or professional life.

OK the rules... comments will always be allowed on blogs. Comments will not be edited but I reserve the right to delete off topic or abusive posts. Little notes or news items I post will not always allow comments depending on their nature.