Bumper Sticker Update
The McCain bumper stickers sold far better than I expected. We've sold over 200 so far. The next shipment is going out today, 11 orders for a total of 54 stickers. We paid for Jed's dental work, covered almost all the cost of the stickers and postage, and we've donated $275 to Soldier's Angels.
Thanks, y'all. You're too cool!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
Politicians never accuse you of 'greed' for wanting other people's money, only for wanting to keep your own money.More of that "right-wing language manipulation."
'Need' now means wanting someone else's money. 'Greed' means wanting to keep your own. 'Compassion' is when a politician arranges the transfer. - Joseph Sobran
Friday, June 20, 2008
The McFit McDiet
The McFit McDiet
We all know that McDonalds is eeeevil, right? Morgan Spurlock proved it. Jared Fogel tells us that only Subway is the one, true path.
Then along comes Chris Coleson.
ZOMG! Does this mean we're in for endless "Chris" McDonald's commercials now? A Chris vs. Jared deathmatch?
And can someone bitch-slap Morgan Spurlock for me?
We all know that McDonalds is eeeevil, right? Morgan Spurlock proved it. Jared Fogel tells us that only Subway is the one, true path.
Then along comes Chris Coleson.
Chris Coleson battled his weight for years, but when he had trouble sliding into a restaurant booth it boosted and fueled his desire to drop the excess pounds.RTWT.
But rather than try conventional diets, which had failed him before, the then 276-pound Coleson opted for his own "realistic" solution in December: he'd only eat at McDonald's.
After six months on his McDiet, Coleson lost 80 pounds and dropped 14 pants sizes. His waist went from 50-inches to 36.
"I didn't make my goal of 185, but I've made some great lifestyle choices and I'll make that goal," the 42-year-old said on "Good Morning America" today.
ZOMG! Does this mean we're in for endless "Chris" McDonald's commercials now? A Chris vs. Jared deathmatch?
And can someone bitch-slap Morgan Spurlock for me?
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
The problem on the Left is, now that Karl Marx has forsaken them, they have no philosophy. Thank goodness. Think what evil creeps liberals would be if their plans to enfeeble the individual, exhaust the economy, impede the rule of law, and cripple national defense were guided by a coherent ideology instead of smug ignorance. As for our side, conservatism is a gut reaction for most of us, and a done deal for the rest. The moral philosophy of American politics can be explained briefly and clearly, and, the Constitution being written, it has been. Where is there a philosopher in Washington? —P.J. O’Rourke
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Spellcheckerz Don't Do Context
Spellcheckerz Don't Do Context
Bopping around on Comcast's home page this morning, I ran across something I found kinda interesting:
Still, I don't think they suspect a Grizzly bear as the killer.
I think whichever "professional journalist" wrote the headline was looking for the word grisly.
It's a good thing that Authorized Journalists have all those layers of fact-checking and oversight, ain't it?
Bopping around on Comcast's home page this morning, I ran across something I found kinda interesting:
Still, I don't think they suspect a Grizzly bear as the killer.
I think whichever "professional journalist" wrote the headline was looking for the word grisly.
It's a good thing that Authorized Journalists have all those layers of fact-checking and oversight, ain't it?
I Want to Know
I Want to Know...
...what the energy-balance equation for this process looks like:According to Mr. Kertz, an acre of corn (Archer Daniels Midland's favorite crop!) will produce 18 gallons of corn oil per year. An acre of oil palms can produce 700-800 gallons of palm oil per year. In an open pond, algae will produce "up to 20,000 gallons" per acre per year - of whatever oil the algae is designed to produce. With this process? He doesn't say.
Still, the algae has to be fed, it has to be pumped, the oil has to be processed, and the total energy out cannot be more than the total energy in, though the majority of the energy comes from photosynthesis - which (as I understand it) is MUCH more efficient than the best solar cell made.
This sounds interesting. I wonder if it can be adapted to use with bacteria? Biofuel technology seems to be the current rage. According to The Arizona Republic, Arizona State University researchers are studying a cyanobacteria that eats the exhaust of electric generating stations and produces crude oil. ON top of that:
Like I said below, we'd best get to drilling.
...what the energy-balance equation for this process looks like:According to Mr. Kertz, an acre of corn (Archer Daniels Midland's favorite crop!) will produce 18 gallons of corn oil per year. An acre of oil palms can produce 700-800 gallons of palm oil per year. In an open pond, algae will produce "up to 20,000 gallons" per acre per year - of whatever oil the algae is designed to produce. With this process? He doesn't say.
Still, the algae has to be fed, it has to be pumped, the oil has to be processed, and the total energy out cannot be more than the total energy in, though the majority of the energy comes from photosynthesis - which (as I understand it) is MUCH more efficient than the best solar cell made.
This sounds interesting. I wonder if it can be adapted to use with bacteria? Biofuel technology seems to be the current rage. According to The Arizona Republic, Arizona State University researchers are studying a cyanobacteria that eats the exhaust of electric generating stations and produces crude oil. ON top of that:
XL Renewables Inc., which has a Casa Grande development center where officials hope to open a 40-acre algae production site in November. The company also offers algae-growing systems for sale.All of this looks interesting, but I imagine that none of it is economically viable if the price of crude drops much below $80 per barrel. We still need oil, and we will for at least the rest of my projected lifetime.
Scottsdale-based PetroSun Inc., a gas- and oil-drilling company, announced in February that it formed a joint venture with Gilbert-based Optimum Biofuels to build an algae biorefinery near Coolidge. PetroSun, a publicly traded penny stock, also has announced plans to open similar plants in Louisiana, Texas, Mexico and Central America.
Amereco Biofuels Corp., which has a small biodiesel project in the far West Valley using recycled restaurant cooking oil, is researching various strains of algae for biodiesel.
Like I said below, we'd best get to drilling.
It's a Good Thing The Japanese Don't Have Any Guns
It's a Good Thing The Japanese Don't Have Any Guns!
The AP reports (no link - on purpose) that suicide in Japan has reached new highs. It seems that there was a 2.9% increase over last year. The biggest jump has been in the elderly population, and population of Japan is getting older by the day. They're just not having anywhere near enough kids to keep up.
It seems that suicides among the 60-and-older group jumped nearly 9% last year, and that demographic represented over 1/3 of the total reported suicides for the year. (I say "reported" because one thing not well recognized here is that Japan's suicide rate hides a lot of murders. Multiple suicides are not uncommon there, and a great many of them are probably murder-suicides not recorded as such. Thus Japan has a tiny homicide rate, but a huge suicide rate.)
How do the Japanese, without the benefit of firearms, commit suicide at the ninth-highest rate (second highest among the G8 nations) in the world? Well, as previously reported they can get quite inventive. The latest fad is mixing commonly available cleaning products to produce highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas. Twenty-nine deaths by this method last year, 517 so far this year.
Of course, that's a tiny drop in the bucket of 33,093 suicide deaths in 2007. Apparently hurling oneself off a rooftop or hanging oneself still lead the pack.
If they had guns, there wouldn't be a soul left alive!
The AP reports (no link - on purpose) that suicide in Japan has reached new highs. It seems that there was a 2.9% increase over last year. The biggest jump has been in the elderly population, and population of Japan is getting older by the day. They're just not having anywhere near enough kids to keep up.
It seems that suicides among the 60-and-older group jumped nearly 9% last year, and that demographic represented over 1/3 of the total reported suicides for the year. (I say "reported" because one thing not well recognized here is that Japan's suicide rate hides a lot of murders. Multiple suicides are not uncommon there, and a great many of them are probably murder-suicides not recorded as such. Thus Japan has a tiny homicide rate, but a huge suicide rate.)
How do the Japanese, without the benefit of firearms, commit suicide at the ninth-highest rate (second highest among the G8 nations) in the world? Well, as previously reported they can get quite inventive. The latest fad is mixing commonly available cleaning products to produce highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas. Twenty-nine deaths by this method last year, 517 so far this year.
Of course, that's a tiny drop in the bucket of 33,093 suicide deaths in 2007. Apparently hurling oneself off a rooftop or hanging oneself still lead the pack.
If they had guns, there wouldn't be a soul left alive!
Just Wave Your Hands...
...the obstacles will all disappear! Jeff over at Damnum Absque Injuria links to a particularly Pollyannish post at The Richmond Democrat that begins:
We cannot drill our way out of the current crisis of higher gasoline prices. Why? It is a simple matter of supply and demand. While the supply of oil is finite, the demand for oil is ever expanding. No matter how many holes we drill, we will never catch up to the global demand for oil-based motor fuels as they are currently used.As Jeff asks, "WTF part of 'supply and demand' don't you understand?"
Trying to drill our way out of this crisis is a little like chasing the Sun on a bicycle: you can pedal all you want and you may even feel like you are making a little forward progress, but the Sun will inevitably pull away from you. The demand for oil will inevitably pull away from the supply, and the more the gap between supply and demand widens, the higher the price of gasoline will go. We cannot address this crisis on the supply side of the equation because the available supply--even if we were to drill as many holes as we could--is both finite and insufficient.
But it gets even better. This guy swoons over hydrogen fuel cells, hybrid cars and new battery technologies. Hell, for him hydrogen is the fuel of the future!
The other possible technological solution I mentioned, the hydrogen fuel cell, is extremely promising for one reason that ordinary Americans would do well the consider: the technological problems associated with fuel cells are almost entirely concerned with the fuel cells themselves and not with the fuel source!He does make faint mouth-noises that none of this is a free lunch:
Hydrogen is everywhere and the technology for extracting it from our environment is relatively simple. Gasoline is extracted from crude oil, which is rare and therefore expensive (supply and demand again). Hydrogen can be extracted from water and water is everywhere, covering three-quarters of the Earth's surface, and is cheap, cheap, cheap. In fact, the stuff falls out of the sky as rain, free of charge. When you use gasoline as fuel it is gone for good, becoming more and more scarce and therefore more and more expensive. When you use hydrogen in a fuel cell, it becomes water again. The same hydrogen molecules, the "H2" in H2O, can be used over and over and over again. Hydrogen will never become scarce: you cannot corner the market on hydrogen.
Batteries could be recharged with electricity generated by coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, geothermal, solar, wind or some other technology yet to be invented. The United States has access to all these sources of power.But nowhere in this wonderful paean to The Future! does he acknowledge that hydrogen isn't a fuel. It's just another not-very-convenient or efficient way to store energy converted from some other form. So I wrote a comment. His comments are moderated before being posted, and none had been posted at the time I wrote mine, so I saved a copy. Here it is:
Hydrogen is everywhere and the technology for extracting it from our environment is relatively simple.He did let it through moderation along with several others, kudos to him for that. Then he replied that we "didn't read his post." I have another comment pending moderation. We'll see if that one goes through.
Yes. All it takes is energy.
Hydrogen is not a fuel source. It's just another way to store energy, and the amount of energy you can get out of hydrogen you "extract" from other compounds is less than the amount of energy it takes to do the extraction.
This is fine if you have abundant excess energy, but one of the problems we have today is that such excess does not exist. The simplest way to extract hydrogen is through electrolysis of water. That requires electricity. Most of our electrical generation plants burn oil, natural gas, or coal. There is excess capacity - the plants don't run at full load at night, for example, but you still have to burn fossil fuels to run them, and the amount of energy required to crack water into H2 and O2 is more than you get back by burning the H2 and O2 back into water, even if you use the H2 in a fuel cell.
Plug-in hybrids? Again, where does that electricity come from? Are you advocating a massive building program for new nuclear generating stations?
The less oil we use, the less oil will cost.
Only if everyone uses less oil. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that oil is used worldwide for fuel, and for feedstocks in the manufacturing of plastics, lubricants, and other vital chemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides. Sure, it's possible to reduce our use, but China and India are ramping up their use, and they're not alone, so the laws of supply and demand will remain in force. The world usage of oil will continue to increase. We'd better start drilling where we know oil is to try to keep supply somewhere near demand as long as we can.
Will new technologies help? Certainly. But new technologies take time. Hydrogen fusion power has been "20 years away" for as long as I can remember. We're making great strides forward in battery and supercapacitor technology, but again, where does the electricity come from? Solar and wind have the drawback of not being dependable, or very energy dense. Wave and tide power could be promising, but I'm waiting for the environmentalist crowd to start protesting the construction of anything near a shoreline.
Hell, I'm waiting for the environmentalists to shut down mines where the metals necessary for those hybrid batteries and fuel cells are dug up, and the plants where they are refined. Nickel, lithium, lead, copper, titanium, aluminum, all that stuff comes out of the ground, and the byproducts can be nasty. There's a proposed copper mine near where I live that they're bound and determined to prevent the opening of.
Plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles are NOT a solution. The energy to charge the batteries or crack the hydrogen needs to come from somewhere.
Face it: The only technology that's going to help any time soon is nuclear power. (More mining.) It can help ease the transition away from oil - but in the near term we need more OIL, and we'd better start drilling SOON.
And I DARE you to approve this comment, unedited. (I'm posting a copy, BTW, with a link.)
I would ask how in the world did people get to be so clueless, but I've already answered my own question.
UPDATE: It did.
Why YOU Should Be a Gunblogger
Why YOU Should Be a Gunblogger! (Bumped one last time)
You get a shot at stuff like THIS:
So vote for me, wouldja?
(Bumped, because this contest is one vote per customer, and the voting ends July 1!)
You get a shot at stuff like THIS:
Now is that cool or what?Dear Gun Blogger,
- Tell all your readers to vote here, and enter to WIN a weekend at Blackwater with Champion Shooter Todd Jarrett.
We at Para appreciate your support of the NRA and were glad to see you at the Second Amendment Blog Bash. Your name has been entered into a contest, and the 10 winners will get an invitation to attend a summer camp at Blackwater USA's North Carolina facility with world class shooter and instructor Todd Jarrett.
The top ten gun bloggers in our contest will have the opportunity to shoot a special Para pistol and learn the secrets of a World Champion from Todd Jarrett. Gun Blogger Michael Bane and a video crew will record the event for Down Range TV.
The 10 bloggers with the most votes will receive an invitation to this exclusive event, so let all your readers know! They can cast their vote on the para-usa.com website: http://www.para-usa.com/new/special/blogger_contest06-08.php . Better yet, everyone who votes will have the option of entering their own name for a chance to win the 11th invitation to this exciting weekend!
Spread the word, voting ends July 1st. The Para-Blackwater Gun Bloggers weekend will be August 22-24, 2008. Invitees must provide their own transportation to Norfolk, Virginia. Para USA, along with Blackwater USA, is sponsoring this weekend of first class instruction at the most exclusive training facility in the United States. Please visit the link above for more details.
We also invite you to browse our new Para USA website at www.para-usa.com where you can view all of Para's new pistols, and the latest reviews by all the top gunwriters.
Safe shooting and best regards,
Para USA, Inc.
So vote for me, wouldja?
(Bumped, because this contest is one vote per customer, and the voting ends July 1!)
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
Ideological descendants of Marx and Rousseau now lead the Democratic Party and they have turned it into a disloyal opposition to an increasingly accommodating GOP. They have molded the Party into a force working stridently and unashamedly against a Commander in Chief during wartime. They have made it a den of treachery devoted to American defeat in Iraq. They preside over an institution advised and influenced by moneyed, non-governmental groups and individuals with unquestionably anti-U.S. agendas who help make the Party a pseudo-intellectual sinkhole filled with perverse, tried-and-failed ideas repulsive to the majority of Americans. Those ideas are shaped into agendas which are then forced on the public by an activist leftwing judiciary and by a major media and arts consortium shot through with utter disrespect, indeed contempt, for traditional American values, religions and institutions. The Democratic Party has devolved into a club for the illegitimately aggrieved, the self-absorbed, the self-hating and the perpetually [angry]. It is a sanctuary where solipsistic malcontents and their disjointed causes find refuge and support. It has long ceased being an earnest gathering of broad minds where man’s timeless problems are examined against the backdrop of the Constitution and solutions to them proposed based on the actual realities of the human condition...[Barack] Obama is in step with that radical element and with that leadership. - Rocco DiPippo
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The Socialist Party
The Socialist Party
Bernie Sanders (Socialist, VT) is, at least, honest about what he is. Rep. Maxine Waters let her true colors show a couple of weeks ago (Marxist Red, of course). Now, via Unix_Jedi, Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York, "member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the most-ardent opponents of off-shore drilling" has done the same:
Do you have a Ché flag in your office?
Stay tuned for the next two Quotes of the Day.
UPDATE: Jeff has a question for Reps. Waters and Hinchey.
Bernie Sanders (Socialist, VT) is, at least, honest about what he is. Rep. Maxine Waters let her true colors show a couple of weeks ago (Marxist Red, of course). Now, via Unix_Jedi, Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York, "member of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the most-ardent opponents of off-shore drilling" has done the same:
We (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.Thank you, Mr. Hinchey, one more elected official violating the oath you swore to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Do you have a Ché flag in your office?
Stay tuned for the next two Quotes of the Day.
UPDATE: Jeff has a question for Reps. Waters and Hinchey.
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
When I was a boy, the purpose of American history textbooks was to teach American history. Today, the purpose of most American history texts is to make minorities and females feel good about themselves. As a result, American kids today are deprived of the opportunity to feel good about being American (not to mention deprived of historical truth). They are encouraged to feel pride about all identities—African-American, Hispanic, Asian, female, gay—other than American... Can we return to the America of my youth? No. Can we return to the best values of that time? Yes. But not if both houses of Congress, the presidency and the Supreme Court move the country even further leftward. If that happens... [m]ore laws restricting ‘offensive’ speech will be enacted; litigation will increase and trial lawyers will gain more power; the American military will be less valued; trees will gradually replace the flag as our most venerated symbol; schools will teach even less as they concentrate even more on diversity, sexuality and the environment; teenage sex will be increasingly accepted; American identity will continue to be replaced by ethnic, racial, gender or ‘world citizen’ identity; and the power of the state will expand further as the power of the individual inevitably contracts. It’s hard to believe most Americans really want that. - Dennis Prager
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Monster Hunter International
Monster Hunter International
I read Larry Correia's first chapter, only to find out the book is out of print until some time in 2009.
Where can I get a copy?!? ABEBooks doesn't have one, Amazon and B&N are dry. HELP!
I read Larry Correia's first chapter, only to find out the book is out of print until some time in 2009.
Where can I get a copy?!? ABEBooks doesn't have one, Amazon and B&N are dry. HELP!
Do it Again, Only HARDER
Do it Again, Only HARDER
Sebastian has a very interesting British Public Service advertisement on his blog. His reaction:
Here are two screenshots from near the end of the piece that say it all, now eleven years after the UK banned all handguns:
The answer? DISARM BRITAIN!
Wait... I thought the handgun ban was supposed to do that...?
I left this comment at this blog post there. I doubt seriously it will make it through moderation:
Sebastian has a very interesting British Public Service advertisement on his blog. His reaction:
You'd almost think the laws were ineffective, and only resulted in criminals having guns. Nah! Can't be. That's crazy talk!Or, as Uncle puts it, "That's unpossible!"
Here are two screenshots from near the end of the piece that say it all, now eleven years after the UK banned all handguns:
The answer? DISARM BRITAIN!
Wait... I thought the handgun ban was supposed to do that...?
I left this comment at this blog post there. I doubt seriously it will make it through moderation:
UPDATE: Needless to say, my comment wasn't approved. So I sent the blog authors, Natalie Harrison and Kyle MacRae an email directing them to this post and asking them "why not?"OF COURSE “these laws don’t seem to matter.”
Are any of you familiar with the concept of “cognitive dissonance”? Here’s an excellent definition:
“When someone tries to use a strategy which is dictated by their ideology, and that strategy doesn’t seem to work, then they are caught in something of a cognitive bind. If they acknowledge the failure of the strategy, then they would be forced to question their ideology. If questioning the ideology is unthinkable, then the only possible conclusion is that the strategy failed because it wasn’t executed sufficiently well. They respond by turning up the power, rather than by considering alternatives. (This is sometimes referred to as ‘escalation of failure’.)”
You’ve TRIED “disarming Britain,” and you’ve FAILED. Al you’ve done is disarm your victims and made them fearful of the consequences of defending themselves. Your ideology says “Violence is bad. Weapons are at fault. Remove the weapons and the violence will go away.” The ideology is FLAWED. But you’ve tried to follow the logic of the ideology, and it has failed. Since the ideology cannot be wrong, you keep turning up the power, and escalating the failure.
What you’ve lost is the understanding that there is a difference between “violent and predatory” and “violent but defensive.” Instead, you see only “violent.”
Human predators exist. A brick, a pipe, a chisel, a bottle - broken or not - can be a weapon in the hands of someone willing to use it. Knowing that their prey will be defenseless merely encourages them. How many of you avoid even looking at a hoodie-wearing chav on a bus or riding the tube, afraid that they might find an interest in YOU?
If any of you still have an open mind on the subject, read this. All three parts.
No wonder Brits are emigrating en mass.
Nat, Kyle:Further updates as events warrant.
I visited your website, "Disarming Britain" yesterday and read several of the posts after one of your adverts was posted to a web site I frequent. I left a comment on the post in question, "Knives and the Law" which was held for moderation.
It appears it didn't pass muster.
I posted my entire comment, with a link to your site, at my own blog. I was wondering if you could tell me just what was it about my comment that got it rejected?
Thank you for your attention.
Kevin
Draft THIS Guy for President
Draft THIS Guy for PresidentWe could do worse.
Hell, who am I trying to kid? We WILL do worse...
Hell, who am I trying to kid? We WILL do worse...
Four More Years, Indeed
Four More Years, Indeed
Mike Ramirez, two-time Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist scores again:
Either way, the next four years ain't gonna be fun.
Mike Ramirez, two-time Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist scores again:
Either way, the next four years ain't gonna be fun.
Another Addition to the Blogroll
Another Addition to the Blogroll...
...because I grok how this guy thinks. Rustmeister linked to my recent "Reset Button" post, and commented at length on the topic, and then got a comment of his own from The Mad Rocket Scientist, with a link to a similar piece. RTWT.
I don't know about you, but I think he's right - I worry the chaos will come first, as well.
Hell, I expect it.
Welcome to the blogroll, Mad Rocket Scientist.
...because I grok how this guy thinks. Rustmeister linked to my recent "Reset Button" post, and commented at length on the topic, and then got a comment of his own from The Mad Rocket Scientist, with a link to a similar piece. RTWT.
I don't know about you, but I think he's right - I worry the chaos will come first, as well.
Hell, I expect it.
Welcome to the blogroll, Mad Rocket Scientist.
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
Five years ago, when I told people that my eventual goal was to build a house out in the middle of nowhere that was totally off the grid, powered by solar panels, a wind turbine, with my own well and gravity fed water tower, I was a psycho right-wing militia type. Now, apparently I’m “environmentally aware” and “Green.” - Larry Correia, I’m not feeling warm fuzzies about this election…RTWT. Most especially the opening paragraph that was almost the QotD.
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