You Paid For It

So you might as well read it.

Paying taxes is a pleasurable duty

Paying taxes feels good, say researchers.

The surprising discovery, based on brain scans, can also predict which people are most likely to donate cash to charity.

Bill Harbaugh at the University of Oregon in Eugene, US, and colleagues gave 19 female university students $100, and told them some of this money would have to go towards taxes.

Each volunteer then read a series of 60 separate taxation scenarios involving $0 to $45 in taxes, knowing that one of the scenarios would be selected at random and the related amount be subtracted from their $100.

This is a product of the twisted world of academia.

“Hello, I’d like to receive a grant so that I can see if people enjoy paying taxes.”

The answer in the real world would be: “What, are you fucking nuts? No one likes paying their taxes”

The answer from academics is: “Why of course we’ll give you tax dollars, just like the ones that pay our salaries, to try and show that people like paying our salaries, ooops, we mean taxes.”

You’ll notice that they don’t tell you how much tax money went into this study.

You’ll also notice that the guy running the study only chose female students for the study and that their giving away the money stimulated the pleasure centers of their brains.

I guess I’ll have to word my next grant proposal more carefully when I talk about using the grant funds to bring college age women pleasure.

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | 3 Comments

Survivalblog T-Shirt and Hat at Boomershoot 2007

I promised Jim Rawles I’d wear some Survivalblog clothing at Boomershoot, and here’s the proof.

If you haven’t noticed, the Survivalblog “map logo” is a section of a detailed topo map covering much of the area in which Rawles’ novel Patriots takes place. You have read Patriots, haven’t you?

If you missed it, you can see the back of the shirt here.  Want one? Go here.

Posted in Boomershoot | 1 Comment

A Cop’s Take on BOBs

To whet everyone’s appetite for my upcoming posts and pics of my family’s emergency kits, here’s another fellow’s take on the subject. He’s a police officer, so some of his needs are of course a bit different. Still, his kits seem well-thought-out and pretty comprehensive.
One thing he emphasizes is OC spray. That’s one thing I’ve never used. Any recommendations? In a slightly different vein the new Kimber Guardian Angel looks interesting.

I do like his idea of wrapping his armor around his “Battle bag.” That’s rather elegant.

Posted in By Ourselves, For Ourselves | 7 Comments

DigiLights are Coming Back — As DigiCell

Great news for those of you who, like me, really liked the DigiLight products. The fellow who purchased the remaining DigiLight assets saw fit to comment on my earlier post. In short, they’re coming back under the DigiCell name. Click here and scroll to the end of the comments to see.

Posted in Kewel! | 2 Comments

More Fred

Sorry folks. As much as the phrase works, I just can’t bring myself to type or say “Spread Fred”.

I know, I’m just being a white, bigoted, homophobe by telling you that. But really, c’mon people.

Anyway, You may have already seen this video, but it is worth watching again. If you haven’t seen it, watch it now.

Peter Robinson interviews Fred Thompson. Damn, it’s good. How someone could watch this and still want to vote for Guiliani or Romney I have no idea.

This is from the day before or the day of Thompson’s appearance on the Tonight Show, which, if you haven’t seen that, you can watch here.

Posted in Kewel! | 2 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day: 06/18/07

This weeks quote’s will be from eco-socialists who love the planet so much that they wish humans weren’t on it.

We’ll start with a couple from Earth First! founder, Dave Foreman.

We advocate biodiversity for biodiversity’s sake. It may take our extinction to set things straight.

Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental.

He may be on to something there. If there weren’t any humans on the earth, there wouldn’t be anyone to claim that there was something wrong with the environment.

Nah, I like living here. I just need these bozos to quit their constant whining.

Posted in Quote of the Day | 3 Comments

By Ourselves, For Ourselves: Part 5.1

It has been a long time since the last By Ourselves post. Over two months, in fact. My apologies.

Personally, I blame Boomershoot. I’m kidding! I actually blame myself for getting very busy as of the past few months and not taking the time to keep up with things. I will attempt to do better in the future

By Ourselves: Part 5 dealt with what you might face if disaster strikes and you are not at home, which is a very likely scenario seeing as how we all spend a decent amount of time somewhere else.

For those relatively new to RNS, you can click this link to get caught up on the series so far. In the coming days/weeks David will be sharing his rather excellent lists of items he keeps in his vehicle for emergencies such as what I wrote about in Part 5.

Today though, I would like to share with you some thoughts I’ve had since I first restarted this series. They focus around choosing the proper daily transportation.

For those who have followed this series or have just joined us after getting caught up, I started this after an rather caustic windstorm hit my locale back in November, followed closely by what is as near a blizzard as the Pacific NW region gets. While I was always able to get to work whenever there was work to do, I saw some rather questionable choices of vehicles that my fellow PacNW residents chose for their daily transportation.

At the time, I was driving my loyal steed, the 1997 F-150 named Goldfinger. In the Fall I calculated the number of years since our last snowstorm and decided that the winter of 2006 was going to be “the year” and had made the purchase of some very aggressive All Terrain rubber, which I am still thanking myself today for buying.

However, I saw a rather frightening number of folks who had put little-to-no thought or planning into their choice of daily transport vehicle. And that is what I’d like to talk about here today.

As always, I encourage your thoughts and opinions on this matter as I don’t know it all and while I have driven a great number of them, I haven’t driven them all. So please, feel free to share in the comments.

Now, if you would care to join me below the fold….

Continue reading →

Posted in By Ourselves, For Ourselves | 4 Comments

Maybe they don’t get these reports

We have recently learned that the national crime rate has been rising.

Even the foreign press has reported that it is mainly the recidivism of criminals released early that it is causing it.

Criminologists told the daily that gangs and the release of large numbers of prisoners were in part responsible for the rising crime.

But I guess that Washington’s Secretary of the Department of Corrections doesn’t get these reports because he plans on doing what he does best: Releasing criminals early.

Washington’s prison system plans to double the state’s work-release program over the next decade to more than 1,200 convicts and will try to spread the expansion equitably around the state, officials said Monday.

The first big $17 million expansion will provide about 120 new slots, with the location and the size of the new facilities to be determined. Potential sites will be announced in a few weeks. Over time, the department wants to open 10 new facilities.

The Department of Corrections operates 15 work-release facilities in 10 counties, with waiting lists for the 678 beds.

The local programs, most run by private contractors under the watch of community corrections officers, allows offenders to spend the final six months of their prison term in community-based, secure halfway houses.

Inmates work during the day and return to the work-release facility at night. Prisoners also may take part in re-entry programs, such as drug and alcohol treatment and mental health counseling.

The plan is to charge the criminals rent for the opportunity to get into the program, which is just a secondary pacifier put in there in the hope of quieting the “tough on crime” crowd such as myself.

Unfortunately for the Secretary, I have read another report.

The one that finds that the death penalty stops crime.

It creates an empty bed in an overcrowded prison too.

Posted in Order of the imperial upraised middle finger. | Leave a comment

Definitely not a “Car Guy”

Paul Boutin wrote a piece at Slate titled “I Hate My Classic Car”. It was about the 1963 Studebaker Avanti which he bought a few years back because the Avanti had “seductive powers”. Both he and his wife got rid of their “dull late-model sedans” when they got the Avanti and they drove it “once or twice a week from their downtown San Francisco home.” I guess they used transit for all other travel, he doesn’t say.

But despite the “seductive powers” of the Avanti, he now cannot stand driving it and he wrote a nice lenghty piece about why “it is a good thing they don’t build them like that any more”.

Proving once again, that if you aren’t a “Car Guy” you should become one or just stick to your “dull late-model sedan”, because Boutin couldn’t be more wrong.

Continue reading →

Posted in Life in the Atomic Age | 3 Comments

In Memorium: The Booty Eulogies

When I first met Johnathon, he had just finished running in Pamploma with the bulls. I met him through my cousin Sevilla from Cartagena whom you saw part of last week. She told me that Jonathon was a teacher from Amercia who wanted someone to give him a tour of Toledo and that he would repay me handsomely.

As you may know, my home of Toledo is famous for our work in metals. Johnathon was quite interested to see our sword craftsmen at work. He was always courteous and full of wit during his visit. Although I will remember him always for his skills as a swordsman. He didn’t need to use his sword to cut the clothes of women, like those men you see in the cinema. He had other ways of making that happen.

When I was informed of his passing, I made contact with Phil who put me intouch with the man who saw Jonathon last, Mack Sauer. I offered my services to Mr. Sauer so that I may seek my revenge upon Jonathon’s murderers.

E4.jpg 

“My name is Lucia Montoya. You killed my favorite lover. Prepare to die.” will be the last thing they will hear.

Posted in Kewel! | Leave a comment