Wes Collins for the House

Been quite busy at work. Sorry, can't talk about it; I don't make fun of work, and they don't fire me. :)

Saw the following sight at a local WalMart:




If someone's willing to camp out at WalMart to support a candidate, then I'm willing to pay attention. According to his website, Mr. Collins is a Tea Party supporter, and very libertarian/constitutionalist. I like his positions.

We have had positive interactions with Ben Chandler, as I've documented here, but I can't support a Democrat in this election. I don't know Andy Barr, but if he's been mixed up with Ernie Fletcher, he doesn't have my vote either.

Looks like I'm writing in Wes Collins.

New "favorite for now" singer

I don't tend to have all-time favorite singers. There are just too many people who are just too good. However, I do tend to have "favorite for now" singers; people who I will listen to while excluding all others.

Hania Lee has reached that point. She's a neat Australian singer with a flair for absurdist songs. I am a sucker for absurdist songs, especially false-cheery absurdism. (Think "Always Look On The Bright Side of Life" as sung by crucifixion victims.)

Here is "Relax and Smile"

Update: I was trying to make this into a player, but the stupid thing downloads every time I hit the post. You get to click on it instead. Sorry.

Must-have Safari Extensions, part 2

I just found Plugin Customs, and it's become my new replacement for ClickToFlash. It takes every single plugin, not just Flash, and blocks it until clicked. You have to uninstall ClickToFlash before it works well, but that's a small price to pay.

Update: Plugin Customs 1.2 hates YouTube5, and ClickToFlash has been ported to an extension. I use both ClickToFlash and YouTube5 because YouTube5 is better at using HTML5 on YouTube itself, and I like that ClickToFlash can be set to not automatically load embedded videos. Even so, I can see that ClickToFlash and YouTube5 are the two extensions are most likely to fight.

Must-have Safari Extensions

I've upgraded to Safari 5.0.1, and extensions are the cat's meow. I love them. I'm going to rank my must-have extensions in order.


ClickToFlash - Technically, this isn't a Safari 5 extension yet, but an older plug-in. I don't care. It just stops Flash from starting automatically. This is much less necessary with AdBlock and YouTube5, but it still helps contain the Flash damage. (See next post.)

YouTube5 - I joined the YouTube HTML5 video beta early. but it didn't do any good for most commercial videos or embedded videos. Then I discovered this extension. You have to quit the YouTube HTML5 beta, but you get HTML5 videos everywhere, even on embedded videos out in the wild. This extension and ClickToFlash will save my CPU from burning itself up.

autocomplete - A lot of places don't want you to autocomplete their passwords. On my Mac, I have my keychain secured with a secure passphrase. As best I can tell, the keychain is reasonably secure with it, so I would rather keep my passwords there. This one lets me do that.

adblock - It does. Practically no ads slip through any more.

There's some other extensions I'm still deciding if they rank as "must-have" or not. I'll let you know that later.

This Is Not the FBI

Even so, I will post this image in solidarity to the stupidity at the FBI.

A link to the news article about the problem.

From Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I thought I had posted this quote some time ago, but I can't find it. I saw Charlie again at the vampires, and this quote was on. It can be applied to so much of our life.

(from Wikipedia)

George: There's plenty of money out there. They print more every day. But this ticket-- There are only 5 of them in the whole world, and that's all there's ever going to be. Only a dummy would give this up for something as common as money. Are you a dummy?
Charlie: No, sir.
George: Then get that mud off your pants. (gives 2 thumbs up) You've got a factory to go to!

Brown is insane.

Terrell Owens is the kiss of death for teams. Why, oh why would the Bungles want to pick him up?

I want the Bengals to win. I just hope they can keep the pieces together.

Short Points

• Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston are getting back together. Good. They should be legally married. Yes, he's an idiot: most 18 year olds are. He needs to man up and do the right thing by his wife (God's definition: you become married in the bed) and child.
  
• A group wants to tear down an old but otherwise unexceptional building in New York City. This wouldn't be exceptional, except for where it is (the World Trade Center area) and what the group wants to put in: a mosque.
  This is wrong. It is Muslim tradition to build a mosque at the site of every victory. If this mosque is built, we concede that 9/11 was a defeat for us. This is IMHO unacceptable.
  
• If you are having problems with the iPhone 4 and reception, you need to get rid of it. Email me, and I'll be happy to take get rid of it for you.
  
• Blogger thinks that this is my 401st post. It doesn't seem like I've been going that long....
  

Dead McDuck

General McArthur McChrystal has bared his life to Rolling Stone magazine. There is little doubt that McChrystal will either have to resign or be fired: a general cannot publicly criticize the president like he did.

Unfortunately, Obama is not Truman either. He does not want to win Afghanistan or Iraq, he wants to survive them. If Vietnam (Beirut, Somalia, etc.) showed us anything, the US cannot fight to not lose. If we are not going to win, then we need to leave. Now.

Dealing with loss

My old friend Jeff at Think Sink hasn't posted on his blog for a year or so, but I kept it in my RSS Reader stack out of a vain hope. Unfortunately, it just died today. I don't know if Blogger killed it or if Jeff finally dropped the hammer.

Either way, it's terribly depressing.

An irrational dislike

As I've mentioned before, I love my Beretta 92FS. It has one big weakness: it's big. Milady can't shoot it comfortably, so we're thinking smaller with her. She likes the Glock 23 some, but I have an irrational problem: I hate striker pistols.

I don't know why, but a pistol is supposed to have a hammer. It doesn't matter if it's the rounded hammer of the 92FS, or the spur design of the SIG P220, if it doesn't have a hammer it just isn't right. I can intellectually justify my problems with Glocks: you cannot double-strike the round in the chamber. Even this isn't terribly rational: most of the time, if you don't go bang, you're either clearing a round or dropping the gun.

I know I'm passing up perfectly good 9mms (Walther P99, Springfield XD, etc.), especially in the "mouse gun" category, but I just can't get past it all. A pistol has a hammer.

A tragedy? I'm not sure

Abby Sunderland may be lost at sea. Earlier, I agreed with Timothy at Freespace that she should not have been allowed to go, but now I'm not so sure.

We brainwash 18 year olds into becoming killing machines. We give 18 year olds the power to vote, and expect them to be legally capable of rational decisions. Children are expected to have sex, just like adults, and are expected to use methods to avoid the natural results, just like adults do. 16 year olds are now expected to be convicted as adults in most politically-charged crimes.

Jews call boys men at 13. 60 years ago, women not married at 16 were on their way to being old maids.

If Miss Sunderland doesn't know Jesus, this will be a tragedy, but only because she died a sinner.

We expect our kids to live in an adult world, but to be children past 30. The more sheepdogish I get, the more I respect a younger person wanting to be mature. If Miss Sunderland dies, at least we can say she lived first.

Update: It seems that she's OK, just adrift and needing rescue.

A post at Sojourners

Jim Wallis posted over at Sojourners about libertarians. There are more strawmen than a county of corn patches, so I couldn't help but post. In case they delete or reject my comment, here it is in its entirety:

I managed to have a very nice post. Unfortunately, disqus proceeded to eat it.

Mr. Wallis, you commit the same error you claim to detest in the Christian right: you are defining the True Christian.

I am a Christian, and I am a Libertarian. God does not compel giving by the sword; the Law showed us that that doesn't work. We are instead to give freely, of our own will. Government does not ask; it takes.

If the church cannot meet God's will, then the church is in sin. God no more needs a government to feed His people than he needs it to convert the sinner.

There is no racism or hypocrisy in pointing out that the government is broke. The federal government will borrow 1 trillion USD this year. Illinois can't pay its bills at all; California is next. Social Security will spend more this year than it draws in, and Medicare is only solvent on paper because it systematically abuses and underpays doctors in the system. If we do not default on the US sovereign debt before then, the US will need 100% of our GDP just to service the debt before my children grow old.

Moreover, the government is inefficient. The government has around 70% overhead rates (for every .30 going to the poor, the government spends around .70 to do so). Good charities manage 10% overhead or less (.1 overhead for every .9 spent), and any charity with more than 25% overhead is probably a scam.

Facts aren't racist or classist. They are still the facts.

The libertarian doesn't favor the strong; the libertarian KNOWS that the strong regularly abuse the weak, and they usually use the government to do so. To paraphrase Lewis, at least give me a petty tyrant. He will sleep or might grow lazy. God save us from the righteous tyrant; he will never sleep for fear of someone harming themselves.

We have a government of righteous tyrants, afraid that one type of "marriage" will corrupt me, or that my incandescent lights will ruin the world. Neither "side" has the least compunction from using the same means; they just argue over goals.

The Libertarian believes in the law of unintended consequences. Pass a minimum wage law, and fewer people get jobs. Regulate companies, and they can't compete with their foreign competitors. The government that has the power to take over GM is the same government with the power to shoot the workers (coal miners and railroad workers of the 1800s). The government that can force a waiter to serve a black man is the same government that can force a waiter to not serve a Christian, or a Jew, etc.

I do not believe that Government is evil; it is worldly and flawed. The Mosaic Law failed when it attempted to impose charity just as it failed when it tried to impose Godly behavior. Our brethren who want to outlaw sin are just as flawed as those who want to outlaw poverty.

As for racism: Mr. Wallis, might I suggest you attend a Tea Party rally? Or perhaps look at the pictures from the right-wing nut job blogs. The people showing you the lilly-white pictures have an agenda to keep them looking that way.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Shame on Congress

There is absolutely no excuse for giving a foreign head of state the bully pulpit of a joint session of Congress to criticize the legal, legitimate actions of a sovereign state of the Union. Anyone who attended needs to be thrown out of office, now.

Rand Paul takes the Nomination

Dave Wiegel on Twitter:

Boone County 100% counted -- Rand wins it 67-31. Again, TREY GRAYSON LIVES THERE. #kysen #randslide

That is very hard on a candidate. That said, Greyson was incredibly gracious, and I will remember that later. I would love to see him run against Bashear.

Hat tip Vodkapundit.

For my nephew

I want to be counted among the Sheepdogs

I know a lot of people have linked Dave Grossman's article On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs. I'm not sure who gave me the original link, but the version on Mr. Grossman's site is better than the rest.

I printed off a copy for Number One Son and Little Miss to read. It sums up the true warrior mentality better than any other article I've ever read.

Voting for Skip Horine for Mayor

I have no idea how competent he is, but he can't be any worse than Newberry, Jim Gray, or Theresa Isaac (WHY is she running again?). Therefore, I'll vote for Skip Horine Tuesday.

Gun Control

Gun control is hitting what you aim at.

That's 20 out of 20 from 7 yards. No, it's not 20 holes, I count 17 distinct holes but I know all 20 hit the paper there (the target is BIG). If it were up to the gun, that spread would have been a 1-2" circle around the X; the distribution is solely the fault of the shooter....

The sad part is that a lot of people testing for concealed carry in Kentucky can't hit that well to that close.

A habit to break

Work requires I carry a pager, since I don't get called enough to justify a cell phone (a good problem for a system administrator to have). I had been carrying it on my right side, but of late I've switched it to the left.

Over the last couple of days, I've been going into gun stores, to find and then take a CCDW (concealed-carry) class. Until I went in, I didn't realize that I have a bad habit: resting my hand on top of my pager. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, except for being around people who have to watch for concealed weapons in hip carry configurations. Putting my hand down there makes gun shop owners more nervous than cats in the dog pound....

To be fair, I stayed nervous the entire time I was in the store. It was unnerving to hear autoloaders having their actions worked that much, with my back to the action.