Making little rocks out of big rocks

Sorry for the dreadfully light blogging lately - for the record, here is a short summation of my thoughts lately.

• Bush will issue between 150-200 pardons between now and when he leaves office
• I'm still furious about the bailouts
• I think my initial view of Obama, as being an excellent figurehead, with no fixed ideology, is coming into sharper focus.
• And this is the funniest commentary on the bailouts I've seen yet. It's a good indicator that popular opposition remains strong.
  

Quick Sunday link

• AtlHistory.com
• Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
• BailOutSleuth.com
• The new demographics of the two parties
• A very good post from McArdle on the Detroit bailout
• The biggest internet takedown in history - for a good cause no less
  

Wrapping up a miserable week, and onto another

Work has sucked, my dog has somethign wrong with him, and I've got a massive toothache. But paying in art instead of money makes me smile.

Something funny

From this Wikipedia page on Melungeons

On the other hand, in the tensions about race and slavery leading up to the Civil War, several Melungeon men were tried in Hawkins County, Tennessee, in 1846 for "illegal voting", under suspicion of being black.

It brings to mind the Dick Gregory joke

"I'd rather be black than gay because you never have to tell your parents you're black."

Good bailout commentary

Monday links

Sorry I've just been posting links lately, I've been working a ton and my brain doesn't have much energy left for original thought. In any case, read these

• Reason inteviews Bob Barr
• Radley Balko on why the Republicans should lose big - basically it's the only way they'll clear out the deadwood. One thing to bear in mind; after the election of 2004 everyone was making noise about the demise of the Democratic Party and the permanent Republican majority - things change in a hurry, and the nature of the American system basically IS a push and a pull, and a mix of the good cop and the bad cop.
• Plastic surgeons voice their opinions
• McCain and Liddy - How high of an opinion does one have to have of politicians to be shocked by criminal associations anyway? Political careers are naked grabs for power.
• What we do or who we are...
  

Friday link clearing

• Sarah Silverman, Obama, and the Jewish vote - not safe for work, but worth watching
• Small Banks are doing fine it seems
• Israel asked Bush for permission to bomb Iran, and it seems Bush refused! Good. No point in throwing away all the gains in Iraq
• Making money twice - worth reading
• Who serves in the military? Well worth reading.
• Jetpacks!
• The difference between Sunni and Shia in short form
  
• And this little nugget - via Ezra Klein

  Dear American:
  
  I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
  
  I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
  
  I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.
  
  This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
  
  Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
  
  Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

  
  

Thursday link roundup

• Church Sign Wars - very good
• What Russia Wants - written by my old Boss at Cato
  
• The path to citizenship - it makes illegal immigration much more understandable
• Making money twice - a very good read
• Julian Sanchez put it very well with

  we’re perpetually told the fundamental cause of the ongoing meltdown is Wall Street “greed,” as though that somehow counted as an explanation. How, pray, would we describe it if mortgage lenders had rejected many more applications from lower-income folks, on the grounds that they were poor risks? Well, greed, of course. Pretty much whatever they did, they’d be doing because they expected it to maximize their profit; the issue is their judgement, not their motives. Or put another way: The problem isn’t that people were greedy, it’s that they weren’t very good at being greedy.

• Ron Paul fades into further irrelevance
• More Bailout - Yglesias posits what is hopefully a liberal dilemma

  Simply put, if congressional Democrats manage to acquiesce in a plan that spends $700 billion on a bailout while doing nothing for average working people and giving the taxpayer virtually no upside in a way that guarantees that even electoral victory would give an Obama administration no resources with which to implement a progressive domestic agenda in 2009 then everyone’s going to have to give serious consideration to becoming a pretty hard-core libertarian.

• A nice article on Obama's community organizing days - notices the lack of anything measurable.
  

Triumph interviews Ralph Nader

The IPhone ad that never aired

I could do funnier, but not bad.

Laughing out loud

From Overcoming Bias

"As for the little green men... they don't want us to know about them, so they refrain from making contact... then they do silly aerobatics displays within radar range of military bases... with their exterior lights on... if that's extraterrestrial intelligence, I'm not sure I want to know what extraterrestrial stupidity looks like."
-- Russell Wallace

Palin!

Via the Agitator - I bring you VPILF.com!

And I now coin the term "McCain's other trophy wife" which the Dems will start using in approximately fifteen minutes.

When white people talk for a long time

The author of "Stuff White People Like"


And http://stuffaspergerpeoplelike.com/ like is eerily similar to my life.

Early tech support

Via PurpleSlog, here is the first tech support call.

Thursday link roundup

• Bill Buckley and Hugh Hefner
• Town buys strip club to shut it down -

  The town of Lavonia shelled out nearly $1 million Tuesday to buy and shut down the strip club along I-85. Then, the city quickly burned the interstate signs advertising the club, which was popular with truckers.

  For those curious, that's $1,287 per household. Such a wise use of taxpayer dollars.
• Toby Keith opposed the Iraq War
• Quote of the moment (by Ben Franklin) "A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle."
• Check out this Despair.com post, and the government reply - quite funny, and scary too.
  

Bringing light to the world

Via PurpleSlog, this is priceless

Your saturday morning reading

• Dead Left - Jon Chair on Naomi Klein
• The Atlanta PD and their odd hat history
• Radley Balko and the non-existent presidential crime policies of the candidates
• American Murder Mystery - everyone should read this, it's about the current and future face of crime.
• Report: Rich Consistently Outearning Poor

  Armbrister stressed that it would be premature to draw any final conclusions from the 550-page report, cautioning that "much supplementary research must still be done."
  
  "Yes, we do need more data," she said. "But regardless, it is apparent that a severe gulf exists between rich and poor. And this cannot be mere coincidence. There is clearly an unknown mitigating factor at work here, and I strongly suspect it may be financial in nature.

  
  

Homeless James Bond

Via Soob, check out Homeless James Bond

Helpful profane campaign slogans

Contains some profanity, which makes it not safe for work if you work in uptight places.

Advances in child management

A wonderful technical acheivement

Conflict follows device that drives away teen loiterers
A wall-mounted gadget designed to drive away loiterers with a shrill, piercing noise audible only to teens and young adults is infuriating civil liberties groups and tormenting young people after being introduced into the United States.

Such wonderful times we live in.

The best graffitti ever

See it here. Just imagine the preparation involved...

While compiling

I've been swamped lately, for now, just check out this realistic workflow diagram.

Some humor while I'm uploading

A chilling vision of things to come

The funniest thing I've read today

Stuff White People Like, sample quote

White people need organic food to survive, and where they purchase this food is as important as what they purchase.

Tuesday link roundup

• A guide to night photography
• JumpUp.com
• Samantha Powers resigns...
• Southern Baptists Fight Climate Change - if only we can get Nascar and Fox News on the bandwagon the Left will declare Global Warming a hoax
• 
  Anonymous Philanthropist Donates 200 Human Kidneys To Hospital
  
• 
  In The Know: How Can We Make The War In Iraq More Eco-Friendly?
• 
  Mysterious Traveler Entrances Town With Utopian Vision Of The Future

Truth in Advertising

It turns out that the version that made it's way around the internet a few years ago was the short version. The one below is the full version.

"Creatively speaking, he is the cheapest!"

Merry Christmas 2007

A Merry Christmas to all. I don't think I've posted this image before.



And of course, it's just not Christmas without this...



Update: It's snowing! Actually it's sleeting, but I think I'll take what I can get.

Quote of the morning

From Despair.com

When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams can come true. Unless it's really a meteorite hurtling to the Earth which will destroy all life. Then you're pretty much hosed no matter what you wish for. Unless it's death by meteor.

Amazing Time Savers!

I've been looking for this clip online for years now, and it finally made it's appearance. Check out Amazing Time Savers. You do have to watch it till the end.

Amazing Time Savers

For some people the most pleasant sound is an echo

It's easy to make fun of global do-gooders, eager to spend other people's money. And that's what I like about it; it's easy. Check out McCartney's Estranged Wife Berates Rich

Mills McCartney said she was reluctantly obliged to befriend the world's wealthy because that was the only way to maximize her power as an agent for change.

"Sadly, you have to mix at a certain level of people to raise the level of funds you need to bring about the greater good," she said. "Because people are very snobby. These people who have lots of money, they're either snobby or they're stingy. If you have lots of money, you have to be stingy — because why would you want that amount of money?"

She also compared herself to human rights crusaders down through the ages, suggesting they all had been victimized for their beliefs.

"If you look at every single person in the history of the world who has tried to make a difference, you'll find a very long section of their lives where they were treated horrifically by the government or by the media," she said.

I can't think of anything funnier than what she actually said.

Tuesday link roundup

• Advice from your public defender (best of Craig's List)
  
• Why we should hang out: a mathematical proof, this sounds like something I would do actually
• Interesting post on academic taboos from David Friedman
• Another blog post about Sarah Stever, from one of my realtors actually
• Ron Paul Facts, my favorite -

  Ron Paul has been shot at more than a dozen times, but the
  

  "pro- 2nd Amendment" bullets refuse to harm him.

The funniest thing I saw today

From College Humor, via Coming Anarchy, check out 24 in 1994

One last one before I go

Study: Multiple Stab Wounds May Be Harmful To Monkeys

Off to the capital, back on Wednesday

Friday recommended reading

• On a funny note, the Ladder theory
• On a serious note, a short bio of James Stockdale

  When Collins asked who didn't make it out, Stockdale replied:
  
  "Oh, that’s easy, the optimists"
  

For your Halloween reading

Via McArdle, the physics of Halloween Monsters.

A good one

From Scott Adams on the dangers and benefits of Crystal Meth.

An importact lesson learned

If you're in a Lowes or Home Depot, and you feel like getting a pickaxe (still no waiting period!) make sure you put it in a cart. If you just walk around the store carrying it people will tend to shy away.

The dark side of astrology

A friend of mine sent me this 8 years ago, and I think it still holds.

AQUARIUS You have an inventive mind and are a progressive thinker. You also lie a lot and are inclined to be careless and impractical, making the same mistakes over and over. Everyone thinks you are a f**king jerk.

PISCES You have a vivid imagination and often think you are being followed by the CIA. You have some influence over your friends and people resent you for flaunting your power. Underneath it all you lack confidence and are generally a coward. Pisces people screw small animals and pick their noses a lot.

ARIES You are the pioneer type and have strong leadership tendencies, but you regard others with contempt. You are quick tempered, impatient and don't take well to advice. You are a prick.

TAURUS You are down to earth and persistent. You are determined and can work like hell. Most people think that you are a pig headed shit. You're probably a fucking communist.

GEMINI You are quick and intelligent - a thinker. People like you because you are bisexual, You are also a cheap bastard, expecting everything for nothing. Gemini's are notorious for thriving on incest.

CANCER You are extremely sensitive by nature and very caring. You are a wimp, You are hopeless at making decisions and that is why you will always be on welfare and you will never be worth a shit.

LEO Leo people are born leaders but most people think they are just pushy. Most Leo's are bullies. They are thick a**holes who break down under honest criticism. Your arrogance is disgusting. Leo People are thieving bastards who kiss mirrors a lot.

VIRGO You are the logical type and detest disorder. This sh*tpicking makes your friends sick. You are cold and unemotional and often fall asleep while screwing. Virgo's make good bus drivers and pimps.

LIBRA Librans are lucky in employment and financial matters. You are the artistic type and have a difficult time with reality. If you are male then you are probably queer. Most Libran woman are whores. All Librans die of V.D.

SCORPIO You are shrewd in business and cannot be trusted. You will reach the pinnacle of success because of your total lack of ethics. You are a perfect Son of a Bitch. Most Scorpio people are murdered.

SAGITTARIUS You are optimistic and enthusiastic with a reckless tendency to rely on luck since you have no talent. Most Saggitarians are drunks or pot heads. People laugh at you a lot because you are always f*cking things up.

CAPRICORN you are conservative and afraid of taking risks. You are basic chicken sh*t. There has never been a Capricorn of any importance, you should kill yourself.

For my friends in the advertising business

We've all felt this way.

This is funny

I forget how I came across this, but check out Why Marrying For Money is Never a Good Idea.

An awesome use of web video

Check out dylanmessaging.com

Friday round up

Sorry for the light blogging, work and the house hunting process have been quite draining on me.

Anyway, Here is your recommended reading for today

• The Economist has a great read Iraqi Kurdistan, or as it will soon be known, Kurdistan.
• The absolute minimum you should know about Character sets and Unicode
• Russia Tests "Dad of All Bombs". It's good they're keeping themselves busy. Money Quote: " Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment"
• Megan McArdle on why we haven't been attacked since 9/11. Personally I think it's a lack of talent/money/motivation on their part, plus a host of supporting factors
  
• The view from the top of the world
• I'm surprised this hasn't come back to life among the many Bush conspiracies.
• There's this from Craigs List

  Sushi Model: Willing to act as display showcase as sushi is displayed placed on body for patrons to eat off of.
  • Model preferable of Asian ethnicity
  • Height requirement: 5'6'' to 5'11''
  • Slim built; clean and body shaven
  • Will wear bottom with pasty/string bikini top or topless
  • Compensation: $200/3 hours

• Don't you just love it when support for Microsoft Products is done using commands only they know? Check this out (which did work for me)
  

High-concept low tech

The guide to one-night stands (fairly safe for work). I actually did laugh out loud.

Pirates are the new ninjas

Check out the Hipster Olympics.

This hairstyle is called the Fascist

Check out this piece on youth hairstyles Iranian state TV. There's a bizarre amount of KISS footage. My favorite quote from the comments

Ironically Gene Simmons has had at least 72 virgins and he didn't even have to martyr himself.

Funniest description of my musical ability

From the quite talented (both technically and in performance) Keith Lokey last night

"Your voice isn't very good, but it is appropriate".

Double weirdness

• The quest for alternative energy seems to have caused an earthquake. In Switzerland no less. Overall it's cool though.
• The dirty car art gallery - a guy actually does fine artwork on dirty cars. See to believe.
  

Quick links while uploading

An assortment of things I've read while I've been uploading things today

• The golden age of Chicago prostitution - The Everleigh sisters are respoinsible for the term "get laid". An interesting read - the more things change...
• Rifle Robots!
• John Allen Paulos has a new book out soon, I think it's going to a more civil (and knowing Paulos well written and interesting) version of the recent Richard Dawkins screed. My favorite blurb from the Amazon page "A Lifelong Unbeliever Finds No Reason to Change His Mind"
• How to build your business without quitting your day job
• Firefox tune-ups
• Conan O'Brian hates my homeland - favorites

  Brazil
  Home to more than 800 species of unregulated breast implants.
  
  Burkina Faso
  In the traditional tribal language, that's Burkina for "land of" and Faso for "people who want to get the hell out of Burkina Faso."
  
  Colombia
  You'll come for the enticing beauty of the Caribbean Sea. You'll stay because you've been kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a Dodge Dart.
  
  East Timor
  It takes a lot to admit you live on the bad side of Timor.

Hysterical

Via Jane Galt

A funny two

I don't usually read the contents of my junk mail folder, but the sender name sounded vaguely familiar so I took a look at it and see

I am ready to kill myself and eat my dog, if medicine prices here (http://thoseeven.cn) are bad.

And check this out, from the Onion - I didn't realize they had a video news service now. HT: Captain Ed.

How to make Google Earth creepy yet funny

Check this out, From Slate. It starts a bit slow, but watch the whole thing

The quotable Dwight Eisenhower

While perusing WikiQuote while waiting for some files to upload I came across these nuggets of wisdom

if a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.

In his case, there seems to be no final answer to the question, "How stupid can you get?"

The runner up

The United States never lost a soldier or a foot of ground in my administration. We kept the peace. People asked how it happened — by God, it didn’t just happen, I’ll tell you that.

Any my favorite

Oh, goddammit, we forgot the silent prayer.

A wonderful adage

Via PurpleSlog comes "until robots get better" which is a fine life motto. Much more appropriate these days than Woodie Guthrie's "Until we outnumber 'em"

Best metaphor ever

From the War Nerd

If we couldn't get people on our side after deposing a monster like Saddam, what chance do you think we have of winning hearts and minds in Iran? The kids in Iran are pissed off at the way the old Mullahs won't let 'em rock and roll, but the idea that they'll support an American invasion because they're bored is totally insane. It's like imagining that the kids in Footloose would've backed a Soviet invasion of Nebraska because John Lithgow wouldn't let them hold school dances.

Classic.

A belated Fourth of July post

The Declaration of Independence
translated out of 18th century English and into 20th century American
by H.L.Mencken
from The Baltimore Evening Sun 7 November 1921

WHEN THINGS get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody.

All we got to say on this proposition is this: first, me and you is as good as anybody else, and maybe a damn sight better; second, nobody ain't got no right to take away none of our rights; third, every man has got a right to live, to come and go as he pleases, and to have a good time whichever way he likes, so long as he don't interfere with nobody else. That any government that don't give a man them rights ain't worth a damn; also, people ought to choose the kind of government they want themselves, and nobody else ought to have no say in the matter. That whenever any government don't do this, then the people have got a right to give it the bum's rush and put in one that will take care of their interests. Of course, that don't mean having a revolution every day like them South American yellow-bellies, or every time some jobholder goes to work and does something he ain't got no business to do. It is better to stand a little graft, etc., than to have revolutions all the time, like them coons, and any man that wasn't a anarchist or one of them I.W.W.'s would say the same. But when things get so bad that a man ain't hardly got no rights at all no more, but you might almost call him a slave, then everybody ought to get together and throw the grafters out, and put in new ones who won't carry on so high and steal so much, and then watch them. This is the proposition the people of these Colonies is up against, and they have got tired of it, and won't stand it no more. The administration of the present King, George III, has been rotten from the start, and when anybody kicked about it he always tried to get away with it by strong-arm work. Here is some of the rough stuff he has pulled:

...
Read the whole thing.

Friday round up

• A look at where the