RNS Quote of the Day: 10/23/07

A couple weeks back, while on the cruise, one of the books I had with me was Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.

Good stuff, of course. And an excellent paragraph from the book follows

Government! Three-fourths parasitic and the rest stupid fumbling – oh, Harshaw conceded that man, a social animal, could not avoid government, any more than an individual could escape bondage to his bowels. But simply because evil was inescapable was no reason to term it as “good”. He wished that government would wander off and get lost.

Robert A, Heinlein – Stranger in a Strange Land

Stop by tomorrow to find out what else I was reading and what I have added to my collection during my travels.

Also, and I’ll share pics of them if folks want me to do so, but does it say anything strange about me that my two favorite purchases while I was away were edged tools (a knife and a hatchet)?

Posted in Quote of the Day | 1 Comment

No Explanation Necessary

It would only work against them, I guess.

Today’s Seattle Times brings up this AP story about how US college tuition has gone up, yet again, with the requisite bitching, moaning, screaming and whining.

Cost of college rises faster than inflation, student aid

The price of college again rose faster than the inflation rate this year, climbing 6.6 percent at four-year public schools and outstripping increases in the financial aid that lowers what most students actually pay.

The latest increases, reported Monday by the College Board, bring the average list price of four-year public universities to $6,185 this year, up $381 from 2006-2007.

At four-year private colleges, tuition and fees rose 6.3 percent to $23,712.

In June, University of Washington regents approved a 7 percent tuition increase for resident undergraduates, bringing total tuition and fees to $6,382 at UW Seattle.

Public two-year colleges — which educate about half of American college students — again got the best marks for keeping a lid on increases. Their average price rose 4.2 percent to $2,361. Accounting for aid, their average net cost is only $320 per year.

“For too long, parents have grimaced and borne the high price of college because they presumed that a higher education is key to their child’s success in today’s economy,” said James Boyle, president of College Parents of America, in a statement on the report.

“Surely, the day will come — soon — when parents say enough is enough.”

Well, intelligent parents already have. I know of a pair who noticed quite easily that the starting hourly wage for a Journeyman HVAC tech is more than the starting salary for a newly graduated worker with a BS or BA. They’d rather think about paying to house their kid at home for the duration of the Apprenticeship than for four years worth of leftist indoctrination.
Plus, the kid is working and will want to work at moving out and staying on their own than a college attending dependent.

Hell, if I had kids and wanted to retire comfortably and never have to worry about supporting my adult children, I’d tell them become plumbers.

The funniest part of the story is this

The College Board’s report does not try to explain why prices keep going up, though Sandy Baum, an economist with the group and at Skidmore College, points out that because of rising demand for higher education, rising state appropriations have not translated into more money spent on each student.

Must have forgotten to mention that instructor pay increases have risen faster than inflation as of late.

Slip of the mind, I guess.

You’d think they’d find it important enough to mention.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | 3 Comments

A Little Old

Hot Air and other various blogs had this posted last week, whilst I was away, so if you’ve seen this, my apologies.

This eight minute video negates anything Michael Moore stated, showed or implied in the entire two hours and three minutes of his propaganda piece, Sicko.

Simply put, socialized medicine is just a simplified and legal way for the government to kill people, and anyone who advocates it is a sociopath.

Posted in Evil walks the earth | Leave a comment

Another Casualty of the Mortgage Meltdown

This guy just gave me an idea for a whole bunch of personally satisfying reactive targets. Sneed.jpgAnd they’re already on the shelves of my office!

Indiana Law Student Shoots Real-Estate Finance Casebook

Well, obviously the poor guy was frustrated because, like many legal textbooks, it probably didn’t reflect actual practices in today’s real-estate finance field — such as, I don’t know, routine falsification of applicants’ financial data, or the importance of qualifying as a mortgage “lender” so you can avoid disclosure laws that apply to brokers… stuff like that.

Really, I don’t know why I keep my law school textbooks around, except for show. Even before I’d graduated I’d figured out that law school, for the most part, doesn’t teach you squat about practicing law.

But inquiring minds want to know — with two holes in the book, did he shoot once with the AK and once with the AR? Or just twice with a single weapon? And if so, which one?

Geez, reporters these days just can’t be bothered with the details.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | 1 Comment

RNS Landscape of the Day: Boomershoot Cleanup

In a really amazingly detailed pic from Dave the GMC Guy, here we are lighting ’em up at close range. I’m the 19th from the right, just to the left of the middle tall tree, and to the right of the guy standing next to the folding chair. I am shooting my Uncle-In-Law Bud’s scoped, braked T/C Contender in 7-30 Waters. I think the camera might even have caught the muzzle flash from the brake slightly silhouetting me.

I hit my boomer. 🙂

Again, this is one of the most richly detailed photos I’ve seen of the Boomershoot treeline and hill. I don’t know what kind of camera Dave was using, but I want one!!!!

Zoom in on the superdetailed version to see the individual steel plates amid the wreckage of exploded boomers cascading down the “valley” at upper left.Detail of Boomershoot Cleanup.jpg

The little girl running in at far left reminds me of the kind of picturesque touch you’d admire in a detail of an Old Masters landscape (click at right to embiggen and see the detail — it’s even vaguely Impressionist!)

Fact of the business, I’m getting this puppy blown up and framed. Thanks Dave!

Posted in Boomershoot, Have Gun, Will Travel, Kewel! | 2 Comments

RNS Landscape of the Day / Book Review

I recently re-read the excellent On Wings of Eagles, by Ken Follett — the story of Ross Perot’s assembling of a team of his own corporate executives — plus Bull Simons, of course — on a life-and-death mission to rescue two of his employees from the chaos of the 1979 Iranian revolution, and from the clutches of one Iranian government official in particular.
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At first blush, it seems astonishing that Perot’s attorneys allowed him to give so much detail to Follett, because the book seems to show Perot conspiring to break U.S., foreign, and international laws left and right (although it is very cleverly written from a legal perspective, and the details left out are intriguing — for example, one can infer that Perot and Simons funded and organized the revolutionary mob that stormed Gazre prison, although Follett is careful to never directly say so).
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The actual exfiltration occurred at the Turkish-Iranian border, and Follett recounts members of Perot’s team noticing the incredible beauty of the place — “better than Switzerland,” one of them thinks at one point.

Well, yes. Here’s lake Van, a bit north of the Iranian border.

Lake Van 3.jpg

Lake Van 2.JPG

Lake Van 1.jpg

Posted in Kewel! | Leave a comment

Monday Gun Porn: 9mm Pocket Pistols

Uncle posted recently about Walther’s new 9mm PPS, a pocket pistol at 6.3″ L x 4.4″ H x 1.04″ W. Here’s the review, and here it is with a .380 PPK (6.1″ L x 3.8″ H x .98″ W) for comparison:

Walther PPS.jpg

Walther_PPS_PPK_Overlay.jpg

There’s also an ad on page 50 of this month’s American Rifleman with an actual-size overhead image, so you can see how thin 1.04 inch really is.

I dunno…. Much more below the fold.

Continue reading →

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | 10 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day, 10/22/07

From last night’s Republican Debate, which, IMO, Fred Dalton Thompson won:

[Fred is asked about the charge that he is “lazy,” which prompts some audience murmurs of protest.]

“Nah that’s okay. Let me answer that… I was a father at 17, a husband at the age of 17. Worked in a factory. Borrowed, got some help from my folks, they came in from the farm. I was able to be an assistant U.S. attorney at 28…”

[He recites his career, and concludes,] “If a man can do all that and be lazy, well, I’d strongly recommend it. And I should add, most important, I’m the father of five. Two of ‘em under the age of four.”

–Fred Thompson, quoted in the Fred File’s liveblog of the debate.

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Sunday Cheesecake, Musical and Otherwise

Valeria 2.jpgValeria1.jpgPhil waxed eloquent a while back about how he was a Sucker for a Hook.

Well, this song has a couple of ’em and I defy you to get it out of your head once you listen. It’s also got some nonmusical Hooks:

the droolingly sexy Valeria Andrews (hot)

Lipstick lesbians (hot)

Sexy and sex-minded invader penetrating into a gated chateau (titillating)

…well, you get the idea. This is modern “viral marketing” in action, people! Watch the video and feel your brain become infected with the hook.

Valeria.jpg

What’s interesting to me is that you can actually watch this girl’s career path being created. After some very very minor parts in a few movies she landed a contract with Interscope, and whoever’s managing her seems to have decided not to Valeria 3.jpgmarket her as a Spanish singer in the U.S. (although she’s recorded a couple of Spanish songs). Rather, as I mentioned, they’re doing a “viral marketing” campaign with this video, expecting people to create the buzz themselves. If it works, it’s the cheapest possible way to jumpstart a career.

I’m not sure it will work; I think the video would have made a big splash because of its “taboo” subject matter maybe ten years ago, but now? On the other hand, it seems to be a minor hit in dance circles… and the lesbian deejays on Energy 92.7 FM love it.
Valeria’s website is here, with more videos and a link to her much more extensive MySpace page. Too bad Professor Booty’s gone; Valeria’s just his type, I think.

Posted in Kewel! | 3 Comments

RNS Landscape of the Day: Zermatt, Switzerland

596px-Zermatt_and_Matterhorn.jpg…and the Matterhorn.

One of the great things about Zermatt for train buffs is the little railway that takes you to the Gornergrat observation complex where you can view a rather large chunk of the Alps in style. The train goes through some fantastic scenery and incredibly steep grades, including tunnels.

It can be intimidating as you look through the train windows and notice aged locals hiking effortlessly on the nearby slopes — without a care, dressed in a light shirt and lederhosen (!!!) — while you’re bundled up in cold-weather gear, trying to get used to the lack of oxygen at altitude.
Most ski towns I’ve been to look pretty dismal without snow on the ground. Zermatt, in contrast, is just plain cute.

Posted in Kewel!, Uncategorized | Leave a comment