Tuesday, December 18, 2012

How can we expect mercy?

Our country kills other people's children without mercy, while sitting in the comfort of air conditioned buildings. We destroy our own young in the name of choice and convenience. The young we do have are either born on drugs or are fed them as young adults.

Why should we expect any mercy from God when our children are put to risk?

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

New Comment over at Vox Day

A link to The Post, and a link to my comment. Now the contents:

Even though Wheeler said it today, I always take issue with anyone who says they know when Christ is returning/the end of the U.S. (or the West, in general) = the Second coming. Only God knows that (it's in the Bible).


I have completely quit listening to Hal Lindsay because of his tendency to say "and X is why Jesus is coming soon!!!".

The USA has no place in end-times prophesy, and we as a society have no desire to obey God first, so we're leaving the picture. I don't think we're dying out or going to cease to exist; we're simply leaving the grown-ups table and heading back to the kiddy table. It could be as simple as the first major oil trades in Euros, or it could be a generation or two out (or more). I won't pretend to set a date, and I won't pretend to say that it's a prerequisite to the Tribulation; it's just part of it.

I feel like the prophets must have sometimes; praying for revival like Ninevah but kinda wishing that God would go on and give us that final kick over the cliff so we could get it over with. However, He is merciful and wants every possible person saved, so He waits until His time.

What hurts me the most is not that God might be punishing us, but that He doesn't have to do a darn thing to punish us; He just has to pull back His protection. Our society is happy to tear itself apart from the inside.

The (true) Church in Africa and Asia (especially China) gives me heart that the Church is still healthy, and that it can be revived in America and Europe. The saints there are quite right to pray for us to be tested; Churchianity in the West desperately needs cleansing. I just hate that it's going to hurt...

Saturday, December 1, 2012

A new song from Hania Lee

I have to share a song from Hania Lee, originally posted on Hania's Blog:



Go buy some songs from her. She's on iTunes or her own store. Pay up, people. 

Sunday, July 22, 2012

A post over at Roger Ebert's

Roger went anti-gun again. Of course, I had to comment....
If only someone had a gun in the theatre! This is ridiculous and comes from watching too many action movies.
When you take a few minutes to look, there are people who have done exactly this. Google "Charl van Wyk" for one; he disrupted a 4-person attack very similar to the Aurora incident with a single revolver.
In addition, how many of you have black market contacts? I don't have any and I would suspect that would be for the majority of the population.
No friends who can find weed? No one who always seems to know someone who knows someone? Sorry, don't believe it. In college, I didn't drink, didn't smoke (tobacco or "wacky weed"), was mister Squeaky-Clean, and I knew at least 2 drug dealers and one fellow who had access to military-grade explosives and guns. I'm now well into middle age, upper middle-class and still mister Squeaky Clean, and I still know people who know how to get weed. If you can get drugs, you can get guns.
I have had at least three acquaintances who have saved their own lives because they owned and used a handgun. I also have had a relative murdered using one. I have also lost relatives to drunk drivers, yet none of us will attempt to recreate prohibition or ban guns.
In the United States, more people use legally owned firearms to prevent deadly attacks upon themselves or others than are seriously injured or killed by the use of guns (whether owned legally or illegally). More people use firearms to defend themselves against a crime than commit a crime with a firearm.
Firearms, like gasoline, alcohol, and prescription medications, are a net positive benefit to society.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Getting spammed by kypackrat.com -- Sorry for the Inconvenience

If you have been getting spam from an email address claiming to be from kypackrat.com, I sincerely apologize. I essentially lost control of this domain in March, and haven't been able to turn on SPF or DKIM. I know it's been happening because I've been seeing the bounces from the spam in my mailbox, and it's been annoying me.

Well, I got control of the domains today, and the first thing I did was slap on SPF and DKIM. If you are getting spam from me, turn on SPF and DKIM checking, and reject anything claiming to be from kypackrat.com that doesn't match either. The spam will stop.

I will post again about the domain struggle, but old friends are involved so I want to cool off just a little bit more first.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Guttersnipe

In my quest for great music, I downloaded Guttersnipe from iTunes, and then pretty much forgot about it. The last couple of weeks, I've been listening to it again. It's GOOD.



Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Please don't post anonymously, and don't cuss or libel/slander

Blogger allows anonymous comments, but I don't like them. I don't mind pseudonyms obviously; but you should pick an identity and stick with it.

I reserve the right to edit or delete anonymous comments at any time or any reason.

I also reserve the right to repost comments to edit out bad words, again at my discretion. If I do so, I will make a comment saying that I've done so, or will just delete the comment silently. If you want to cuss, feel free to comment on your blog, and then post a link in a comment.

Finally, I will stand behind my own statements. However, I'll happily throw you under the bus. Any comment that I think might expose me to legal liability goes. Again, post it on your site.

Disagreeing with Karl. Again.

I hope Karl doesn't get too mad at me, but he's gone all irrational on Apple again.
Apple: $300 Or Less, Not $1,000 Or More

And maybe $100 or less.
Update: Karl didn't get mad. He just banned me. Oops.

I had to comment about that.
$1000 per share is insane. IMHO $500 per share was sky-high, much less whatever it is now. Apple has to correct here, and IMHO it will overcorrect. It will also take the Nasdaq with it when it blows. I understand why the market is desperate for an Apple: they want actual profits. HP is a zombie lurching towards a chop-shop takeover. Dell is a finance company pushing "fleeces" on hardware. Lenovo is forecasting 3% profit margins. Acer is longingly looking back towards its previous 3% profit margins and is wondering what happened. Samsung hasn't created a single dominant idea, and would be more profitable if it quit wasting its Apple-given profits competing with its best customer. Nokia couldn't find a clue with 4 committees and one supervisory committee of executives (and 5 different OS development teams).

Apple landed right in a perfect storm. Jobs believed in ultimate simplicity. Do it one way, the Right Way (TM). Offer the minimum possible number of choices, and make it easy. It worked for Saturn and for McDonalds. The iPad works because there are 2 choices: wi-fi only or cellular, and then 3 memory choices. For the Apple computers, it's portable or desktop, and then screen size (and processor, but I don't know any consumer that's cared about that for the last 3-5 years). Try ordering a computer from Dell: they have 6 different kinds of computers on the first page, and that's a distinct improvement from the multiples they used to offer.

There is a limit to the "just make it easy" market. Apple can saturate this market, and probably will soon if the economy downturns. Eventually, the cool side will get broken off by some other gee-whiz phone or tablet with a built-in blender and frappachino maker, and the low end will get squeezed by some toy making a $5 profit for their Indian or Chinese manufacturer. 

However, $100 a share is silly. Even if we shave off the parabola and say they go 0 growth. They still have a loyal core customer base buying what they produce, and have a lot of profit margin to give. They could live well just supporting their current market for a foreseeable future, barring Apple's new "one more thing".

Karl, you're generating a Cassandra problem here: if you were putting your money where your mouth was the whole way up the parabola, you'd be long past broke. I understand that you have an irrational hatred for all things Jobs, but I think peeing on Jobs' grave would be more emotionally healthy and cathartic than railing against the irrationality of the market on Apple.

IMHO, everything you've ever forecasted about Apple can be applied to BMW and Mercedes equally. They sell luxury brands into a market dominated by low-cost options. Granted, neither has faced Apple's parabolic stock rise recently; but they have the same fundamental position. They both have loyal buyers in markets that traditionally run towards commodity status in bad times. So, why aren't you short BMW or Mercedes?

If I had money to spare, I could be talked into buying Apple at $300. Apple at $100 is IMHO just projection.

Greg Couch lost his mind over Calipari

I hate to even link to Greg Couch's screed, but here's my comment to it anyway:


UNC has three players going pro early. Anyone for calling out Roy Williams? Robinson will leave Kansas early: perhaps Bill Self should never have recruited him? If you really believe this, advocate that schools bind students to 4 year contracts with repayment and penalty clauses. Let's see how well that goes.

Basketball players do NOT owe colleges anything. Even South Dakota State Teachers College(*) makes more in revenue off its basketball program than it costs to fund the kids' scholarships. A school like UK or Kansas makes multiples on it. The kids carry their school's athletic departments on their backs; they don't "owe" anything to anyone.

We are supposed to go to college to equip ourselves for a living. An NBA lottery pick guarantees enough money to live on for life. A first round guarantees a solid start for life. Even a second round pick is 5-10 years salary per year for the rest of us.

I think Mr. Couch is just jealous that his 4+ years striving for a journalism degree that is rapidly approaching toilet paper in value has clouded his judgement. Quit being jealous that these kids are turning their talents into lucrative careers.

(*) OK, I admit to exaggerating slightly. If South Dakota Teachers State College still exists (it used to, but I can't find it on Google now), it's probably Division 3 or NAIA, and they won't have scholarships. Nonetheless, the general point holds: basketball teams are profitable excluding coaching salaries, and most schools are profitable including coaching salaries. (It's football that usually breaks the athletic budgets at most schools.)

A post from Packrat's brain stem

Sorry for the lack of thoughtful posting, but Packrat is too busy screaming and enjoying the feeling of this National Championship to make a more coherent post.

GO CATS!!!!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Breaking News: Title Vacated

NAP Wire, New Orleans: In an emergency effort to assure the fans of NCAA basketball of the integrity of the NCAA basketball process, Dr. Mark Emmert has preemptively vacated UK's eighth national championship.
"We're not exactly sure what they have done, but I'm sure Cal has done something. We just want to be proactive and prepared for a foregone conclusion."
The University of Kansas has asked for the trophy, but Emmert claimed that he left it in his office, and will have to call them back.

Update: April 1st just isn't that interesting around the Interwebs this year....

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Minor incident at the mall last night

Had to run for the bathroom. Given how my colon still hasn't 100% recovered from a mega-dose of antibiotics a couple of months ago (no, the yogurt didn't help...), I don't dare try to stretch it long. Fortunately, it was the women's bathroom and not the men's that was shut down for cleaning.

I sit down to think for a moment, and I notice the feet in the next stall. Nice flip-flops. And red nail polish.

Seems that one lady couldn't wait, and her boyfriend/husband/significant other escorted into and out of the bathroom in haste....

At first, I just figured that I'd gone to the wrong bathroom. Again. Seeing the stalls through the crack in the bathroom door fixed that worry, at least.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Pre-game in decent seats

Going to the UK game

Little Miss and I scored 2 tickets to the UK-WKU game, thanks to my boss.

Little Miss has to go to class first, then we can leave for Louisville.

Just don't tell Milady we stopped at the Tolly-Ho for breakfast....

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A comment made

AndyO said: I’m not worried that the “conservative” machine is angling to put up another easily manipulated idiot like Dubya as their candidate for president. I’m not worried that each of these idiots seems willing to march lockstep to the orders of Big Money.
I take no comfort in how they seem to have no worries about alienating more and more voters.
What scares me is that they expect to win. And there must be a reason they think they can win the next round of elections IN SPITE OF THE MAJORITY.


I know I'm sure looking forward to an administration where most of the people running Treasury, State, the Federal Reserve, the White House intellegence structure, and various advisory boards are filled by people who haven't worked for (or taken a lot of money from) Goldman Sachs. I certainly don't want a president who has taken over $1 million in donations from Goldman Sachs employees.

Oh, wait, sorry. I just described the Obama administration.

Big Money has made very sure that they own all of the significant politicians for both parties. If I dare say it, there's only one politician who might be free of the bankers (his initials are RP), and even he has been a politician long enough to accumulate a few earmarks.

Why rob banks? That's where the money is. Now, the banks rob governments, because we insist on letting the government have its hooks on so much of us.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Commercials, second half

Sorry, didn't care for any of them. Best of the game are all the first half commercials.

Good job Giants.

Commercials, first half

There's only been two really good commercials:

First, Mr. Quiggly: very funny dog running.



Second, the Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial:



Honorable mention: Sling Baby from Doritos.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

If Ridley really cared about Lexington

If Ridley cared about the new 4th district, then he would tell everyone that he will resign in time to allow Stein to run for the seat this November. Instead, he wants to keep his seat for two more years.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

A loss in the state

I am running late again. This morning, Gatewood Galbraith died from complications of emphezema.

I have supported Gatewood in every election, and loved his book. The closest we came to Gatewood was when he (unknowingly) blocked Milady's dad's ambulance during a Woolly Worm Festival parade, and I was on the other side of Beattyville then.

I would turn the template on the blog black, but I don't know how to do so....

Thanks, Gatewood.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year 2012

(Bloggers should never apologize for not posting. Sorry.)

Little Miss asked me who was the old fellow who looked like he was about to die. I had to point out that that was Dick Clark.

Carson Daly looks more like Dick Clark than Mr. Clark himself.

CBS should at least attempt to show something NYE. WKYT just replayed the UK-UL game.

Milady has told me that I cannot talk politics to anyone in the family. I still support Ron Paul, and the rest of the family doesn't. Since I told myself I couldn't blog politics until 2012, I can finally "cuss and fuss" somewhere other than home.

Happy New Year.