A singing group has redefined “slut” for Rush Limbaugh. Here’s an article and video which is lots of fun.
March 11, 2012
March 3, 2012
gun safety for kids
Class teaches gun safety by putting guns in kids’ hands
A martial arts school in Meridian, Idaho is teaching a free class for kids to teach them gun safety. Unlike the stock picture that the news crew picked, the kids in the video exhibited excellent trigger discipline. I didn’t see anyone’s finger inside the trigger guard which was very nice. Kudos to Ultimate Karate & Jiu Jitsu for teaching this class.
The NRA suggests these gun safety rules (and I agree) as a start:
- ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
- ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
- ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.
February 29, 2012
gas prices
Here’s a chart of gasoline prices for the last 20 years.
It’s disingenuous to point to the price of gas when Obama took office.
December 2, 2011
phone spying
Sprint and AT&T have admitted to secretly installing a piece of software called Carrier IQ which tracks everything you type into your phone and where you go. While there is nothing saying that they do anything with this data, it exists if the police/FBI/whatever want to grab it or if a lawyer wants it for evidence. I can just imagine the folks at AT&T saying “OBTW, there’s a record of everyone you called and every text you sent and everywhere you went. Didn’t we mention that? We don’t really look at it, we just like to have logs of where you go. It, uhhhh, ummmm, it’s fun!” Creepy!
At what point is it appropriate to turn into a raving protestor and get ignored by the news? How do we actually affect change?
October 21, 2011
OWS
“Our top political and economic institutions are not structured as representative bodies in any real sort of way. Rather, the idea of representation is being used to legitimize the vast decision-making powers of the ruling elite. Few people sit at the helm of this giant ship, and some of the ones who do are incompetent. With cracks in the hull expanding each day, the 99 percent are feeling powerless to change course and stay afloat.”> -Washington Post: Why Occupy Wall Street wants nothing to do with our politicians
October 4, 2011
Double Your Money Back!
Some crazy scientist found an investment that governments can make to save themselves double what they put in. The problem is that it looks like being soft on crime.
Educating inmates reduces recidivism to the tune of 1 in 3 ex-cons who get a GED and a job don’t come back to prison. That savings adds up to about 2 times the cost of the schooling.
Yeah, the inmates should have taken advantage of their first chance to get a high school diploma for free. Yeah, it’s no one’s responsibility to improve your life but your own. But we get to help our fellow man and we benefit from it too.
September 22, 2011
Economy
The legislature has move tools in its toolbox than spending to stimulate the economy. There are ways to make it easier to hire new employees. I bet there are a hundred laws that can be reworked to make entrepenneur’s lives easier. Improving the patent system could unlock a huge amount of economic growth. Heck, even chasing fraud would improve the economy. Spending our way out is just visionless blundering.
August 22, 2011
German Town Makes Electricity to Sell
The government and citizens of this village have invested in renewable energy production at four times what the village’s inhabitants need and they’re selling the extra back to the grid. 4 million euros per year coming in. Nicely done!
“The village’s green initiative first started in 1997 when the village council decided that it should build new industries, keep initiatives local, bring in new revenue, and create no debt.”
July 6, 2011
e-Voting!
The Texas Supreme Court has declared that the voters there can’t sue to get electronic voting machines which are capable of being audited and recounted. According to the court, the voters need to prove that they were wronged somehow. Sooo, after someone hacked the machines to steal an election, the voters would need the sort of papertrail that they are suing to get. Then, and only then, can they sue to get their papertrail.
-via ArsTechnica, Texas Supreme Court: no e-voting paper trail required
It is my professional opinion, as a software engineer, that any software product can be hacked eventually. It is an invitation for abuse to deploy a voting system which relies only on software. If you are asked to vote on a machine that does not include paper evidence, I would recommend casting a write-in or absentee ballot.
January 31, 2011
I remember too
I heard this terrible bit of hate mongering music on the radio late tonight:
I hear people saying we don’t need this war
But, I say there’s some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground
We didn’t get to keep ‘em by backing down
They say we don’t realize the mess we’re getting in
Before you start your preaching let me ask you this my friend
Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn’t worry ’bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?
Darryl Worley – Have You Forgotten?(youtube)
No sir, I have not forgotten that terrible tragedy. I also have not forgotten the stupid war that we didn’t fight hard enough to prevent. Here’s a quick reminder of my problem with that war.
In small words, we goofed. We attacked the wrong country. By the time we got around to the right country, Bin Laden was over the border and in Pakistan which refuses to allow US troops in.
And, yes, I vividly remember the calls to nuke the entire region into a glass crater. The calls to indiscriminately slaughter, maim, poison and irradiate the millions living in a place you couldn’t find on a labeled map. Please don’t turn off your brain when bad things happen.
No sir, I have not forgotten.