Month: February 2010

Regulating Nature

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?

Regulation implies something which man controls.

Nature is something man does not control.

Somehow, we are supposed to believe that those two words go together.

They obviously do not.

CO2 or carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas. It is the by-product of the mammalian respiratory cycle. We breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.

That is a fact.

Plants use carbon dioxide for growth and expend oxygen in the process. We call this a “circle of life” if you will. A mutually beneficial relationship and one that has lasted for thousands of years.

Somehow. Somewhere in our recent history our elected officials think that they know better than nature and think that they somehow have the power to control one of these two elements.

The damaging component is the reason they believe the regulation is needed. Excessive carbon dioxide is leading to global warming. Have you looked outside lately? Warming? Seriously? This theory that carbon dioxide is a major player in the global warming hoax has been refuted and shown to be completely false.

With that being said, where are the calls in the senate for the brakes to be applied.

Trying to regulate nature based on a theory that has been proven wrong has to be the very definition of insanity.

If you are wondering why you should be looking forward to voting congress out of office, I believe this is just one small reason.

I have many many more.

Is Chuck Norris attacking your router?

Sad but true story via PC World.

If you haven’t changed the default password on your home router, you may be in for an unwanted visit from Chuck Norris — the Chuck Norris botnet, that is.

Discovered by Czech researchers, the botnet has been spreading by taking advantage of poorly configured routers and DSL modems, according to Jan Vykopal, the head of the network security department with Masaryk University’s Institute of Computer Science in Brno, Czech Republic.

Unlike most viruses which attack Windows based machines, this one affects most all of us.

The South Carolina Franchise

Well, state’s rights got trumped by the federal government a long time ago.

This we know. From now on, I think I’ll refer to the individual states simply as a “franchise” of the federal government because for all intents and purposes, thats precisely what they are.

This story was sent to me by a co-writer via CBS News.

It seems that South Carolina would rather use “real” money rather than federal reserve notes. South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts is leading the charge and introduced legislation this month to ban the “illegal” notes and also goes on to call the federal reserve note system “unconstitutional.”

The Germans felt their system wouldn’t collapse, but it took a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread in the 1930s,” he said. “The Soviet Union didn’t think their system would collapse, but it did. Ours is capable of collapsing also.

I have to give Rep. Pitts credit. He’s doing what he feels is right.

Looking at the federal government and its hold over individual states much like Domino Pizza’s headquarters and its franchise stores would show us that when the corporate office tells you to use a certain type of cheese, you’ll do what they say if you want to keep your franchise.

Imagine if you were sitting in on a conversation taking place in the 1700s. I could see the person bringing up the idea of a federal reserve system being laughed out of the room. He would also probably be the butt of many jokes to come.

Today. That joke has become a reality.

Missing the Point: Palin and Tea Partiers

To the folks who are Sarah Palin robots, this post is not for you.

I like Sarah Palin but I seriously do not agree with everything the woman says.

Case in point. Exhibit A.

Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party,” Palin said. “Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’.

Telling the Tea Party movement that they need to pick a party solely because we only have a two party system is ludicrous. It completely discounts the many reasons that the tea party movement exists. The tea party movement (the real one) is party neutral. So, I suppose that it’s ok to pick the lesser of two evils? Isn’t that what the McCain campaign was all about for the true grass roots conservative types who, on several occasions, denied McCain a presidential bid?

Yes.

Thinking that you absolutely must pick sides is part of the problem here.

The Democrat candidate sucks. The Republican candidate sucks.

If a tea party candidate who believes in everything I do runs, why shouldn’t I vote for them? What’s more important? Is it more important that the candidate have an R after their name or is it more important to vote for someone who actually represents me and my views?

Telling someone that they absolutely positively MUST pick sides is the problem.

I’m also afraid that the person who said that has absolutely no idea what she’s talking about.

RIP: Cinder

I woke up this morning to some terrible news.

The oldest cat here at “mini-Google” is an older cat named Cinder. He’s dark gray in color hence the name.

Cinder began to breathe irratically this past week. So much so that we all took notice to it.

Cinder’s owner took him to the vet yesterday where they initially found a torn thorax “something or other” and needed to drain fluid out of him. They drained about 350 cc which seems a bit much. Cinder stayed over last night for observation and so that further testing could be done.

Cinder passed away last night.

He will be sorely missed.

I am an idiot

It’s true.

I was trying to clean up one of my websites on Friday before rushing to work and the unthinkable happened.

I deleted the entire website.

I am thinking to myself “gee, that’s an awful lot of files listed there” and still managed to press the “ok sure” button without questioning the action.

Oops.

Now, I need to spend the weekend re-writing a shit ton of code.

“Did you have everything backed up Mister computer expert” my daughter asks.

“Ah, no.”

“You ever see a Mozy commercial?” She asks.

“Shut up.” I says.

Internet Unconnectivity

Drive by commentary.

Internet Connectivity has become an official oxymoron in this establishment.

When our internet works it works very well.

When it doesn’t it’s ass.

Thank you to the Verizon mobile internet hotspot thingie for allowing me to post about the internet being down.

Quote of the Issue: “Well, when you first noticed that the internet was down, you should have sent me an email.”

Right.