RNS Quote of the Day: 10/24/06

Posted on October 24, 2006 by Phil Kadath

I got a bit ahead of myself yesterday with the dates and all. My apologies.

Anyway, this gentleman second-hand knicked a QotD from me a week or so back.

I’ll show him what that’ll get him

Given that their policy prescriptions are inherently anti-democratic, even totalitarian in their collectivist nature, it should come as utterly unsurprising that Democrats would not shrink from fraud to get their hands on power.

They have absolutely zero respect for the truth or for any of the institutions of our Republic, and see no reason why they should play by the rules if doing so frustrates their aims. Their success at packing the courts with judges who are quite willing if not eager to subordinate justice and the law to ideology makes it increasingly probable that they will attempt to side-step the democratic process in order to achieve their aims.

This makes it ever more imperative that all right-thinking people vote at every opportunity. After all, as Hugh Hewitt put it, if it’s not close, they can’t cheat. (Well, they can, they will try, but it will — one hopes — do them little good.)

Mark Phillip Alger – Baby Troll Blog

Posted in Quote of the Day | Leave a comment

All your space are belong to us

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Phil Kadath

If it isn’t one thing, it is another.

Last week, one of them was this

President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone “hostile to U.S. interests.”

The document, the first full revision of overall space policy in 10 years, emphasizes security issues, encourages private enterprise in space, and characterizes the role of U.S. space diplomacy largely in terms of persuading other nations to support U.S. policy.

Which led  Keith at the Northwest Progressive Institute blog, the people responsible for the network which provided the means for area leftists to harass signature gatherers for conservative issue Citizen Initiatives, to brand Bush a “Space Cowboy”.

In case US Middle East policy wasn’t quite belligerent enough, the Bush Administration has asserted its right to blow you out of orbit if you obstruct American interests in space. It’s a chicken-egg argument: Why would they assert the right to attack without the means to do so? Or why mention space at all as an American interest?

We’re well aware that W wants to conquer Mars and militarize NASA, but this latest assertion brings speculation that pre-emptive strikes in sovereign desert nations might give way to cosmic body-checks in space. The arrogance, the hubris of such a policy is stunning, of course, but this is the President who just took us back to pre-Magna Carta England by signing the Military Commissions Act into law.

I guess they must have missed it when China blinded our satellites a couple weeks back. No one would ever threaten us from space! It was a practical joke, surely!

And these folks want to be in charge of National Security?

Posted in Knee-Jerk Anti-Americanism | 3 Comments

The Dumbest Thing I’ve Read All Day:10/23

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Phil Kadath

Lyn Davis Lear, Hollywood clinical psychologist and wife of Norman Lear, gets conspiratorial at the Huff-a-ton Post

Why is the White House so Eerily Confident about the Coming Elections?

All week I’ve been reading in disparate sources from Drudge to US News and World Report about Bush, Rove and Cheney being overly confident about the midterm elections.

(snip)

Here are some questions: Are these guys simply narcissistic idiots Rove-ing around in some never-never land bubble or do they know something we don’t? Have they planned a grab bag nose punch of an October/November surprise? Or have Diebold, ES&S, and local state secretaries assured them that they will do “whatever it takes” to get a Republican Congress elected again? Or are they just planning to outspend us?

She then goes on to quote Rove about his plan to outspend the Dems in the last two to three weeks before the election, but that doesn’t stop her from writing The Dumbest Thing I’ve Read All Day.

But whether it is hubris, loony tunes, or both, the White House’s freakish calm about the elections makes me as nervous as the hell we seem to be headed for. Therefore we should all be on alert. If for whatever reason we don’t win back Congress in November the only real answer will be to take to the streets.

I’m sure the wife of millionaire Hollywood producer will be right out there, slumming with the bourgeoisie, in protest. I hope they don’t rip her Prada as she chants the six year old mantra “Stay Out The Bushes!!!”

I found the link to this at Just Some Poor Schmuck, where John had the good sense to say

So if they lose, it can’t possibly be because they didn’t receive enough votes, it could only be because of a plot that rivals the 9/11 conspiracy in its complexity and nefariousness? They have convinced themselves that there are thousands of right-wing conspirators that have infiltrated the thousands of county election offices without anyone being the wiser.

Of course, John. They are so much smarter than us Reich-Wingers that they couldn’t possibly lose.

Posted in Freaks, Mutants, and Morons | 1 Comment

Oh, that Liberal media

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Phil Kadath

Joe Huffman wrote on Friday about the WaPo overly praising Edward O. Welles of the Brady Campaign after his death a couple weeks back and contrasts it with the complete lack of any kind words for any pro-gun advocate, people who actually worked to preserve the Constitution and save lives. We have had a couple hard passings as of recent days.

Where was the praise for Neal Knox or Jeff Cooper in the main stream press when they died? Knox and Cooper were major players in organizations larger and more influential than Welles. And Welles helped violate the rights of millions of people and bears some responsibile for the deaths of thousands of disarmed victims. Where is the mention of that?

Also on Friday, James Taranto writes about the Seattle PI and their kind words towards a pair of women who just so happen to be domestic terrorists of the eco-socialist bent.

Passionate Arsonists

Mostly the piece is more puffery–we learn that Phillabaum “was socially conscious even as a teenager,” that she had “a strong mind of her own,” and that she once worked for a nonprofit where she was “an exemplary employee.” Kolar is a bit less appealing: “bright and skilled but distracted” while in college, “passionate about animal rights.” Her doctoral adviser says, “It’s not the least bit surprising to me that she carried her passions that far.”

But here’s a question for you: Suppose this pair were “pro-life” rather than “environmental” activists. Suppose they had firebombed not a research lab but an abortion clinic–or, for that matter, suppose they’d firebombed a lab that conducted embryonic stem-cell research.

Would an establishment newspaper ever give them such favorable treatment?

It is not the best analogy, but what if the young ladies were appealing their convictions of having carried firearms for their own protection while on campus at their respective colleges?

Methinks that perhaps the papers would be more than just a little less kind.

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | 1 Comment

When He’s Right

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Phil Kadath

He’s right

Lee of Right Thinking From the Left Coast

And here comes the annual hysteria over a shortage of flu vaccine.

Like all past hysteria about flu vaccine, this one will turn out to be complete bullshit.  Proof?  Here’s my blog posts on this very subject from May 2005, February 2005, January 2005, December 2003, and another from December 2003.  These were just the main ones which came up on a quick blog search, I’m sure there are more.

If your memory doesn’t serve you too well, head on over to his place and check out the links.

Then remember, the Administration’s talking about terrorism isn’t a “Scare Tactic”, it is real. It is the left who wants you to be shitting your pants every damn day because of their hue and cry over everything from gloabl warming to toxic mouse flatulence.

Posted in The Left is Never Right | Leave a comment

“Worst Economy Since Hoover!”

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Phil Kadath

My left ass-cheek.

Mr. and Mrs. Median’s $46,326 in annual income is 32% more than their mid-’60s counterparts, even when adjusted for inflation, and 13% more than those at the median in the economic boom year of 1985. And thanks to ballooning real estate values, average household net worth has increased even faster. The typical American household has a net worth of $465,970, up 83% from 1965, 60% from 1985 and 35% from 1995.

Throw in the low inflation of the past 20 years, a deregulated airline industry that’s made travel much cheaper, plus technological progress that’s provided the middle class with not only better cars and televisions, but every gadget from DVD players to iPods, all at lower and lower prices, and it’s obvious that Mr. and Mrs. Median are living the life of Riley compared to their parents and grandparents.

Found at KisP

Posted in Life in the Atomic Age | Leave a comment

RNS Quote of the Day:10/23/06

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Phil Kadath

“Hey Nutroots, Uncle Joe says to Suck It!”

Jim K at Right Thoughts

His comment pertains to a poll which came out last week showing Lieberman with a 17 point lead.

What is the reaction by the Nutty Nedders? Complete denial, of course, along with Jane “Smart people understand my racist artwork” Hamsher’s healthty dose of conspiratorial accusations

New 3Q FEC filings say that Lieberman spent $330,000 in petty cash on primary day — which certainly doesn’t argue against those reports of Joe buying votes in Hartford and other areas for $150 each on primary day.

She then links to a Nedder who denies that anything in the poll was right. Never mind that a Quinnipac poll from around the same time had Lieberman up twelve points and that every poll for the past couple weeks has had him ahead of Lamont by strides, Lieberman support will dwindle to nothing because his name will appear at the bottom of the ballot.

Maybe that will make a difference, but only because Democrats are too lazy to read that far.

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

I am so glad I moved out of Seattle

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Phil Kadath

New Slogan for Seattle Publicity – “Metronatural”

That’s the new tagline for an advertising campaign by the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The bureau says the “brand concept was designed to highlight Seattle’s rare and uniquely marketable combination of urban and outdoor experiences.”

The slogan was developed over a year at a cost of $200,000.

Please, that makes me want to just vomit. I have either lived or worked in the Seattle city limits for ten years now, and lived in the burbs surrounding the city for twenty more, and the number of people I’ve known or met in that time span that could be described in that manner couldn’t fill up the men’s room at the Pacific Science Center’s Lazer Dome (previously called the Lazarium).

I could have come up with a better slogan for 25% of what they paid.

How about: “We like it here!” or “Seattle – Come see our hippies!”

Or maybe “Why can’t we be friends?” I understand that the band ‘War’ sells song rights for real cheap.

Personally, I think “Hey, at least we’re not Portland.” sells hotel rooms really well.

But my favorite is “Seattle – That’ll just wash off”.

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

Today was supposed to be Range Day

Posted on October 22, 2006 by Phil Kadath

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum I call “work” on Friday.

OK, So it wasn’t actually funny, it was more of a “Pain in the Ass”. Late model Ford and Mazda truck owners pay attention.

As I’m in the home stretch to my appraoch to work on Friday, I notice that my headlights are flickering as though they’re only getting half or three-quarter power for a second or two, but not in correspondence with the bumps in the road. When I pull up into the parking lot and put the truck in park to get out and lock the so-called ‘security gate’, the lights just shut off. The corner/parking lights are on and the switch is in the “ON” position, but I’ve got no lights.

So I lock the gate, get back in the truck and go to my parking spot. There I test to see if I have any way to fire up these bastards so that I can drive home at 0500 or if I’m going to have to wait until daylight before going home.

The “ON” switch is on the lower left hand side of the dash panel and it has three positions “OFF”, “Running Lights On” and “ON”. Fiddling with the switch gets me nothing, so I start playing with the turn signal bar because it controls the high beams.

Normal function is to push it forward and the high beams come on or pull it backwards and they flash on. I push it forward and get nothing. I pull it backwards and finally get a dose of my very bright blue headlights reflecting of the white building.

All of this means that, you guessed it, if I want to go home when I’m done at work (usually 0500 on Fridays) instead of daybreak (approximately 0730 in Seattle these days) I have to hold my high beams on with my left hand for 30 miles. I’m sure my fellow drivers at that time of morning loved me.

I got home and popped the headlight switch out of the dash rather easily, only to find that my voltmeter is kaput. So now I wait until day break for the shop to open at 0830 and hope they can get me in before I have to go to work on Monday. The wife wants to go to Wally World after she gets home at 0800, so off we go. On the way home from WW we go to the shop and they have a wide open day and advise me to bring it in ASAP before they fill up.

$150 in parts later, I find out that my voltmeter wouldn’t have helped me much as it was the turn signal bar that went to shit and I cannot test that without going way deeper into my tilt steering column than I would have been able to do in my driveway (the truck is too large to get into the garage, time to get a bigger garage).

And that is where my range fund money went.

Here is where you late model Ford and Mazda truck owners will want to listen up, because I’m pretty sure I have diagnosed the problem:

When I worked as a map geek for the contractor who did the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), DSHS (Dept of Social and Health Services) and the W2W (Welfare to Work) transportation in King County, we used modified Ford E450 vans. At around 40,000 miles just about every one of the vans had the switch that controlled their OverDrive go bad. At first they thought it was a problem with the Ford parts subcontractor because it happened again at around 80,000 miles.

But when I bought my F150, I realized that it was an interior design flaw.

The two vehicles share a similar dash design and when the PRNDL lever, with the OD control switch on the end of it, was in “D”, it sat directly in front of the right hand, driver’s side, dashboard heat vent.

You spend 40,000 miles sitting in front of a hot air vent and then tell me you don’t feel like giving up function.

I pointed this out to the lead tech in our shop this and they glued the vents shut. Oddly enough, when 120,000 miles came around, nothing happened. The OD’s kept working and I proceeded to never open my up. If I wanted warmth from the heater, I left only the left hand driver’s side one open and the two on the passenger side, or used the window vents (aka ‘Defroster”) or the floor vents.

However, because the turn signal bar, in the center “OFF” position, did not quite stick out far enough to rest in front of the left hand driver’s side vent, I never thought to close that one.

Stupid me.

My truck is rapidly approaching 100,000 miles (99K and some change) and that vent has remained open since I bought it with 28,000 miles. The turn signal bar, along with controlling the turn signals and the high beams, also has the controls for the wipers (including 8 overly convenient intermittent speeds) and the washer fluid pump switch.

I have been noticing since Spring of this year that the washer fluid switch wasn’t working according to plan. Sometimes I would have to push it three or four times to get it to spray. I thought that there must be a hole in the tubing causing a vaccum leak (it resides in a hot engine compartment and flexes every week when the hood gets opened) and that the fluid was just running back down the tubing. But now that I look back on it, and now that the new turn signal bar’s washer fluid button works flawlessly, I see the warning sign.

Ford supposedly put $2 Billion-plus into R&D for the 1997 and later F Series trucks.

I think I found something yesterday they should have spent an extra $10K testing for.

Posted in Life in the Atomic Age | 8 Comments

Making it two days in a row

Posted on October 22, 2006 by Professor Booty

Though, once again, I am short on time.

I have been getting my TA’s for this year up to speed these past couple weeks, and while my senior and junior year TA’s have a good grasp ont he job, my sophomore year TA has stage fright.

She was an exemplary student and knows the course backwards and forwards, it is just an issue getting her to stand forwards to the class.

spankable162.jpg

The old trick of telling her to picture everyone naked so as to alleviate her fears doesn’t work. Probably because everyone is pretty much naked already.

Posted in Kewel! | Leave a comment