Solitary Man

I'm not quite a solitary man, since Milady, Number One Son, and Little Miss (and all 4 animals!) are all fine. I have just been changing jobs, and the new employer has me too busy to blog or comment a lot.

I got insomnia again a couple of nights ago, and was watching Stargate: Atlantis. Of course it's the same episode I've seen 3 or 4 times (and one of only 4 or so I've seen): "Vegas". They used this song.



(I was going to link to a "music video" with scenes from "Vegas", but the audio quality is so low I couldn't finish it.)

Once again, Johnny took another person's song and kept it.

Comments Elsewhere: Freakonomics and the Market Meltdown

One of the posters at Freakonomics told us why he thinks the market meltdown is crazy. I just had to disagree. They moderate comments, so in case it doesn't appear, here it is:

A. There are millions of houses in default or being intentionally left pre-default (90+ days in arrears), so that their lien holders don't have to mark them down as foreclosed. Until these are dealt with, the entire housing market is one big sham.
B and C. You are double-dealing here. If Mark to Market was in effect, then the banks would still be failing because their assets are crap, not making a profit. If the banks are making a profit by lying about the value of their assets, then they're zombies, not healthy entities.
D. Driving the shorts out of the market makes a warm fuzzy feeling, until there's a large downturn and you don't have anyone with incentive to buy. The shorts stop downslides by needing to close out the short by locking in gains.
E. We've had 8 months of record government borrowing to make that GDP growth. It's not sustainable without private GDP growth, which hasn't happened yet.
G. The debt ceiling debacle masks a more sinister problem: the US Government has no intention to ever pay off its debt, and probably isn't able to do so. It's the world's largest ponzi scheme ever, and it will eventually collapse. If Moodys and S&P were honest, the 10 and 30 year T notes would be junk.
H. Companies are sitting on their largest cash piles in history, even adjusting for inflation. Why do they all think they need that much cash, versus spending it ahead of a jump?
I. Tell that to the person paying 3.50 at the pump and the equivalent jump at the grocery store. Gas prices hurt the poor and middle class most directly.
K. We destroyed an entire year's worth of used cars with cash for clunkers, and now it's nearly as cheap to buy new as used. Imagine that!
The big winners in the new car game: Kia and Hyundai. IMHO, that's because they're cheap but good. US car makers need people buying SUVs and luxury cars, not Focuses and Accords.

Of your items, A, B, and C still aren't fixed. D isn't a real problem. We're only out of the E recession because the government borrowed our way out, and that's why it's facing a credit crunch itself.

Sorry, I don't see the improvement.

Sorry, guys

To the cops doing theft patrol in JC Penney: I made you. Next time, don't spend a lot of your time hanging around the bras. Two dudes in lingerie stand out. You both look either creepy or like closet cross-dressers.

Anyone got a spare furnace?

Last week, we pumped $800 into the heat pump, and it was working, mostly. Then it let out the magic smoke. This time was the fan motor, and we were looking at another $700, minimum. That was it.

Fortunately, we got some mercy from our store: they gave us almost half-credit for the repairs (which means they made WAY too much money off the repairs), and we got a good efficiency for the money. I'm still hoping that we might get the tax credit for it, but I sure wasn't bumping 1 SEER for a $300 credit.

Now we're hot until Monday, and broke after that.

Hania Videos

I've posted about Hania Lee before, but there's two videos (one older, one newer) that take her songs to a new level.

First, Alice is Dead. The video's by xmillsa.



(Safari and YouTube5 get rid of the Flash)

Now, the newer video, for Two's a Party, by Chupydo. Not quite as artistic, but still striking:

Quote of the day, from Jastrow

"For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries." - Robert Jastrow

John Edwards is not guilty -- of campaign law violations

Now I'm depressed. I have to defend John Edwards.

John Edwards couldn't keep his pants zipped. It's a common problem, but not excusable. His buddies had no business aiding and abetting the lying.

However, they most certainly did NOT commit election finance fraud. The Justice Department has no business stretching finance laws that far.

Edwards may be guilty, but he's not guilty of that.

I'm starting to sign on to the "more disasters" camp

We've had 2 major metropolitan tornados in a week, and three in a month. What kind of idiot does it take to quit supporting the Palestinians and reject our stealing of our kid's future?

Mr. Obama, quit backing the terrorists. Period.

For a certain someone

I was reminded of this again...



(Normally, I don't do the passive-aggressive, whine-on-a-blog thing about people. Especially since my family doesn't read here. However, I had to vent this feeling just a bit.)

Taking the good drugs of the day

I'm not sure who exactly thought that this was a good idea, but it sure wasn't me:



Not only is this product not shipping, the design isn't even finalized. ASUS is advertising a pre-alpha prototype!

This is so sappy and over-the-top, it has to be self-satire. Or insanity.

(Remember, Safari and YouTube5 will save you from Flash.)

Music Post - Sarah Jarosz

I've talked about Sarah before, but another dose does a person good:

My screed against our 8 year kings

I posted this at Vox Day, but it was too good to not post here too:

WLindsayWheeler: 5/23/11 8:24 AM:

Royalist, Loyalist here. Rolling around laughing heartedly at the you people. Losers. The total failure of your system is coming home to roost. A Kenyan Marxist rules over you who hates you. Total incompetency in Repubicrat leadership. Look at the field--anybody """inspire""" leadership like a Monarch does?

Or maybe something like this:

Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.” (1 Samuel 8:10-18 NIV).

Moreover, the Lord said "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king." (1 Samuel 8:7a).
God gave us a constitutional republic, but that wasn't good enough for America. We had to keep our slaves in violation of our own moral positions and God's law. As punishment, He gave us Lincoln. Then we had to be jealous of Europe's kings and empires, so God gave us Teddy Rex, Wilson, and FDR.

We have our kings, and they don't take 10 percent, they take 40 and want more. We don't cry out to God for relief, we cry out to our next 8 year king, and we get what we deserve. Cain will just be yet another link in the chain. Paul will be the best choice, but even he can only resist the efforts of the rest of government. He can't be our savior.

The US needs to repent of the conceit that government can protect us. Only God can do that. So long as we worship our 8 year king, his 9 black-robed priests, and the 535 little princes on a hill, God will continue to allow us to get the government we deserve.

For shame, part 2.

Yet another kid getting molested by federal government agents:

Talk about a bomb threat!

Let me sleep on it

Among others, the Daily Mail is reporting that Mr. Obama took 16 hours to decide to take out bin Laden by SEAL team strike.

Some might question the wait, but I respect it completely. Not only is Obama putting a SEAL team in harm's way, but there's a good chance that we could spark a war with Pakistan if Osama isn't in the house or if the choppers get shot down (especially on the way in). OTOH, if we bomb we probably never get proof that Osama was in the house (since the Pakistanis would have covered it up post-haste). Unlike Clinton's failures to act against Osama and during anti-Saddam coups in Iraq, there was no evidence that a little delay would hurt.

It would have been better to not have had to ditch the helicopter, but no plan survives meeting with the enemy. We didn't lose any people, got the guy, and even apparently walked out with a lot of intelligence. I don't see a problem with giving the matter a little thought.

The tunnel rat is dead

Too many people to count are confirming that Osama bin Laden is dead, and that the US has possession of his body.

As Milady just said, had Dub focused on Afghanistan and not gotten distracted in Iraq, we might have had him years ago.

For shame that we allow this in our country

If Americans are willing to tolerate the sexual abuse of ourselves and our children in order to beg the indulgence of our all-powerful masters to travel, then we don't deserve to be called free men. We deserve our chains, and the "right" to kiss the boots of our almighty masters in Washington.

I pray for soul sleep, because I hope that Washington, Patrick Henry, and the Revolutionary Army aren't aware of how far our nation has fallen.

I am done with the "it's only a momentary inconvenience, get over it" crowd. I don't think the USA can be saved; I only pray that the upcoming storm isn't too hard on the few people left who respect God and liberty.

Hardly original, but I did say it

At lunch today: "I gave up dieting for Lent."

I hope it's not too sacrilegious. Of course, as a good Protestant, I don't believe in observing Lent anyway.

Picture trouble

Google is starting to integrate Google Apps domain accounts into its regular world of Google applications. I have the kypackrat.com domain as a Google Apps domain, and used to have this blog under a different Google account. When the opportunity arose to merge them, I started to do so (one less account to track).

Somehow, I'd managed to pop up a Google Voice account under the old Google domain. Google Voice doesn't like merging, so I had to delete the old Kentucky Packrat account. You can't tell the difference, or so I thought.

One thing it did do: it deleted the pictures associated with the account. I fixed the Dicecapades picture, and most were links to other sites.

If you see a bad link, feel free to Email me about it.

I can't resist passing this game on.

Milady was disgusted with me in Target Friday, since I was geeking out on the game eisle. But could I help it? Look at this:

I couldn't buy it, because I'm saving up for other toys, but it tweeked that "I need the dice, the bright shiny dice" habit I picked up playing Dungeons and Dragons.

The manufacturer's link isn't much better than Amazon's. Sorry.

I love this UK team, loss or no

Note to Calipari: you cannot take a team all the way with 6 people, and you can't take it all the way with no experience. You need to recruit one or two people who will stay 3 years.

Nonetheless, this team, and especially Josh Harrellson, overachieved. This loss hurts as much as the 92 loss, even if this team is nothing like that one.