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.

NCAA insanity

Bruce Pearl has been fired. I played an extremely minor roll in the PR front here: Wikipedia's Bruce Pearl site got vandalized, and I rolled back the changes. No matter my opinion of Mr. Pearl, he didn't need to have that problem.

As for my opinion of him: he's a good coach with a mediocre personality. He needs to be punished for making such a blatant lie, but after a couple of years he needs to left alone. Somewhere far away from Kentucky.

As for real idiots, Texas Tech is hiring Billy Gillespie. They really are insane. Billy G. combines all of Bobby Knight's bad points (and there are a lot of them) with none of Bobby's coaching skills. They will regret it.

What about VCU? They are ruining my brackets. Good for them.

Three ACC in the 16, and Big East with 2. Very disturbing. Wish the SEC had not bombed so badly.

Fixing the barn doors after the cows are dead

The UN and Illustrious Leader have finally declared a No Fly Zone over Libya. Of course, the rebels are completely defeated and about to have to return home. Quack-A-Duck can declare a cease fire easily, since the rebels don't have the supplies to stay in the field much longer.

Yet another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.

New favorite song -- Who sung it?

I need to figure out who really sang this, but for the moment, I don't care. (EDIT: it's Christian Mckibbin.)

This is the song of my life with Milady (except maybe the boats, but maybe eventually...), both what we have been and where we want to be...

The NCAA selection committee is on crack

I've been trying to calm down to comment on the NCAA selection committee's "work". I just couldn't. Now Ciprian Zisu has said most of my own opinions on it over at Larry Vaught's blog.

I think the committee made their choices three or four weeks ago. It's the only way to explain most of these rankings. UK wasn't the only victim: Texas and Alabama got it too.

Dare I say it: should there be a replacement for the NCAA?

I love the current UK team

This UK team is a joy to watch when they play well. They're unselfish, they want to win, and they know they need each other. More importantly, it's finally fun. They enjoyed playing Tennessee and winning on the road. They enjoyed the Mississippi State game. They absolutely obliterated an Alabama team that deserves more love than I think the NCAA will give them. Finally, they left poor Billy Donovan of Florida wondering where the fouls were. Sorry, Billy, they just weren't there.

Beware, bracketologists. I don't know where this team will end, but I do know 67 other teams that sure don't want UK in their bracket.

Bonus Round: who here would have picked Josh Harrellson as all-SEC tourney center, and meant it? Really?

An amazing story

(The link comes from Confederate Yankee.)

Ted Gundy was a World War 2 sniper who was honored by the Army Marksmanship Unit recently. If Mr. Gundy didn't practice with his new Springfield, then 3 shots on target cold is almost inconceivable. Three head shots at 1000' just shows how much skill the man has.

I actually like it

VW has released a concept van, the VW Bulli. It is supposedly the descendant of the original VW Microbus.

No, it's not. As Click and Clack said, the VW Microbus was a bed with wheels. Until they make a three-bench version, it's not a Microbus.

Even so, I like it. It tempts me like few cars have. I even dislike hybrids, but I could live with it for this one.

I support public collective bargaining, and the consequences

Much has been made of the fight in Wisconsin about collective bargaining, and the teacher's union. I don't agree with Wisconsin's laws that essentially require 100% membership, since they're not a right to work state.

I completely support their union's right to join together and collectively bargain. Let them get together and decide as a group whether they want to accept a pay offer. I personally consider unions the pinnacle of libertarian action; it's the people working together.

However, there is always the "or else". Unions say "pay us X or we all quit". Employers say "I'll pay you Y or you're locked out". The whole system works for most employers because the jobs are just skilled enough to be very expensive to replace, while not so skilled that you can never replace them.

My advise to Walker: make the Y offer, then fire them. There's a lot of replacement teachers floating around out there.