Founding Fathers

link via Michael

Margin of Error

I just watched a program on the History channel called Days that shook the world. This one was about the bombing of Hiroshima.

I never before knew that the bomb had been armed while the plane was airborne. A single man did the job in the unheated bomb bay of the Enola Gay.

It could have easily been a disaster. Lots of other things could have went wrong.
The day before 4 B-29's had crashed on takeoff. That was why they decided to arm it in the air.

There are so many points in history where something might have went a different direction and this was one of them.

It was a little scary watching pictures of the explosion. Could something like this happen to an american city? Terrible to think of but possible. It is for this reason we must defeat the terrorists and build a missile defense system. If you don't think so you are fooling yourself.

When it rains it pours

I was standing around in the computer room friday babysitting for our outside contractors who were trying to install the reporting software on our website when I got a call.
It was from someone who found my resume on Monster and wanted to set up a phone interview for Monday.
I said ok but after one week on the job I wouldn't consider leaving unless it was a really fantastic gig. Still I felt I had to hear what the guy had to say.

Network Problems

On top of everything my DSL went out last night and when I finally got it back I couldn't get the network back online.
I am not a happy camper but I will get this working. I might have to buy a new linksys router. It seems like 1 year is about all they are good for.

Update: The router table somehow got knocked out of sync and wiped out all the settings. It is working now and Linksys tech support was fine and even spoke english. I take back all the bad things I said or was thinking about them.

Blogging

It may be that I don't quite post as much for a few days until I get used to the new schedule.

I woke up at 5am today, was on the road at 6:30.
I left work at 5:!5 and was home by 7. I could have been home by 6:45 but I stopped along the way. It is still along day and I am beat.

New Job

Not much I can say about this job including who I am working for. It is the kind of client that could easily get bent out of shape.
I still don't have a desk or a computer, good thing I brought my laptop with me.
I went in to get a temporary ID at 4pm today.
The woman there said we had to get the cards typed.
Typed??
Yep folks there on her desk was a typewritter.
She wouldn't do it herself so the woman upstairs from my department had to come down and do it on someone else's typewritter, yes there was another one there in the HR department.
She typed it in the wrong boxes on her first try so she had to go back and re-do it.
After that was done we sat there for another 30 minutes before a another woman came for us and led us back to a supply room with an old polaroid ID camera. It took us 5 minutes to get the ID's after that.
We walked out of HR 45 minutes after we walked in.
The more astute of you can probably figure out who I am working for now.
If you want brownie points and recognition you can email me your guess.

Light in the Tunnel

I got a call yesterday from this woman headhunter that I had spoke with. She said she had a Dot Net job that I could get but it only paid $12/hr. It was for 3 months would I be interested?
What the heck it is $12/hr. more than I have been making so I said yes. She called back later and said it was actually $19 /hr., much better.

Bad News.
Big commute. It is over by the Dome which means at least 90 minutes each way depending on traffic.

Good news ,maybe.
It might be more than 3 months, could be as many as 8.

Bad News.
I will be doing other stuff that is not Dot Net but that is ok since I don't have to put that on my resume.

It is a lot less money than I was making in 2000 but it is a bunch more than I am currently making.

Bush as a Deserter

Bill Hobbs refutes this charge that Wes Clark had accepted.

Donald Sensing has more and a description of what desertion actually is.
This may come as news to you and I but Clark should know this stuff backwards and the fact that his response so far has been tepid speaks to the lack of character in the man.

Winston Churchill

Quote of the Day

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

Sir Winston Churchill

The Next Attack

Glenn has a post where he says once again that Bush is not a lock for re-election. He points to Churchill and reminds us that once the people felt safe they got rid of Churchill.

Two points.
One, do you feel safe? I sure don't. Yes we have not had an attack on our soil since 9/11 but it could happen at any time and most thinking people are aware of this. Most pundits predicted we would have been attacked long before now in the aftermath of the WTC attack.
The most likely reason we have not is our forceful attack on Al Queda and other terrorists.

Two, Al Queda needs to hit us back and soon. They are hurt, we have disrupted their network and killed a lot of their people. They are now promising a devastating attack within the next 4 or 5 weeks. If they can't pull off what they are talking about they will prove themselves impotent and they will lose support from the masses that they need.

If they do pull off something (god forbid) the country will once again rush to support the president and Bush will win in a landslide.

I would rather have Kerry than another 9/11 but I hope we don't have that choise to make. I think there are enough people like me who do not feel safe and will not feel safer with Kerry or any Democrat in the White House that when it comes to November, Bush will win handily.

Gun Myths

John Stossel has a piece on ABC's website about Lies, Myths and Downright Stupidity. There was a broadcast of this which I am sorry I missed.

Myth number 3 Gun Control:

A Justice Department study confirmed what the prisoners said. But get this: the felons say that the thing they fear the most is not the police, not time in prison, but, you, another American who might be armed.

It's a reason many states are passing gun un-control. They're allowing citizens to carry guns with them; it's called concealed carry or right to carry. Some women say they're comforted by these laws.

Many people are horrified at the idea of concealed carry laws, and predict mayhem if all states adopt these laws.

But surprise, 36 states already have concealed carry laws, and not one reported an upsurge in gun crime.

Too bad there are not more reporters on TV saying things like this but John has always seemed to stand alone and has taken lots of grief for it.

Link via Glenn

Other Projects

We also spent time putting up shelves in the kitchen.
The wife always gets busy when she is on vacation even if it is only for two days.
She bought a neat little laser device for making everything level.
Looks like that part worked fine but my stud finder has some problems.

School Projects

The kid has a project due in Biology.
She has to make a model of a Dragonfly. So off the family went to Hobby Lobby to gather all kinds of neat stuff.

Twenty dollars for a school project, sheesh.

I took everyone out to eat at Denny's after. Yup that is about what I can afford these days. At least the wife didn't have to cook.

I would like to win the lottery tonight. Please!

Vouchers

I recently had some discussion in comments about vouchers on a liberal blog that linked here on MLK day.

Today there is an Op Ed in the Times that is pro vouchers, will wonders never cease.

The argument that vouchers drain money out of the public schools may sound like a high-minded defense of the public system. But in reality it's simple-minded, it isn't true and it provides no justification at all for denying needy children the educational opportunities that vouchers can offer.

Noisy Bird

Ok it's not the best picture I ever took but I don't think there is any doubt about what it was making such a racket as I was trying to relax late in the day.

New Blog Showcase

My vote in this weeks New Blog Shocase goes to this entry on the use or should I say non use of our special forces.

Moving UP

I have not been paying much attention but today I scrolled down and noticed I have moved up in the rankings on the Ecosystem.

I am now an Adorable Little Rodent which is much better than the last time I looked.

Thank you to everyone who is linking to me.

Now I will have to make sure to vote in the New Blog showcase.

Obsolete

After 20 years in the IT business I can no longer get a job because my skills are no longer what the market is looking for.

Everywhere I look there are finally jobs opening up but unless you have Dot Net experience you can't even get through the front door.

I had always been lucky about this in the past but now that Microsoft has pulled the rug out from under us developers again and you were one of the lucky ones who was working in on a Dot Net project in the last year or so you are screwed.

Enough ranting. I have to redouble my efforts to get a Dot Net certification. It might not help but it certainly won't hurt. Posting may be light for a while.

SOTU overseas

Jen has a roundup of reactions to the SOTU speech from overseas.

It seems they get it better than some in this country.

Ultimatum in Pakistan

If the Pak government goes ahead with what they say they will in this article it could be very good news for the War on Terror and very bad news for Al Queda and company.

It sounds like the army has decided it is time to get tough with the tribal regions and all I can say is IT'S ABOUT TIME!

What is really important in Life

New mother Dawn has some pictures of her new baby.

Forget politics, this is what life is all about.

SOTU

Bill Hobbs has a good take on the speech.
Glenn has a bunch of links.
Steve Green blogged it in real time.

My take, good not great but it had good parts. The strongest part was when he was talking about Iraq and really got animated.

Update: James Joyner has a good play by play.

Update: SOTU page at the Whitehouse.

WiFi Warchalking

There still seems to be some trouble with the posts prior to moving to MT.
Whoever was trying to view this post from back in July and was unable to see it, well it should work now, at least it works for me.

At some point I will get everything moved over but it is not high on my priority list and for a world class procrastinator like myself that means it may take a while.

Cul de sac

Kelley has a new edition of the Cul de sac up. I guess I am a little late on this but I have been almost busy.

Cold snap

Look out for severe cold during the next few weeks.

The United States east of the Rocky Mountains will see extreme cold in the next two to three weeks with at least one forecaster calling it the coldest in 25 years, meteorologists said on Tuesday.

Just another side of global warming.

Iowa

Winners and losers.
Kerry big winner.
Edwards big winner maybe even bigger than Kerry.
Dean loser.
Clark could be a very big loser.
Gephardt is history.

Kerry will pick up votes from this bounce. The question is will he pick them up from Dean or Clark. My guess is that tonight is very bad news for Clark. Kerry will either win NH or come in a strong second with Clark third.
With Edwards surging that is bad news for Clark again in South Carolina where the General thought to come in very high.

No predictions on SC since a lot will depend on NH.

Iowa Rock

Someone sent me this link today to pictures of a painted rock in Iowa.

There are six pictures in all and it is a very impressive paint job.

Martin Luther King jr.

Quote of the Day

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King jr.

Update: I spent some time today posting comments to this site because the people there found it odd that Dr. King's words would be echoed by a conservative. My main point is that Dr. King's words are not democrat or republican they are american. We all can strive for the american ideal that Dr. King talked about the difference is how we plan to get to that ideal. I don't think a lot of the ways we have tried in the last 30 years have helped those we all want to help and that we must scrap what does not work and find a way to get to Dr. King's dream that does.

Dreams

You can read the whole thing here.

Ideal Americans

Bill Whittle is developing a manual on how to be an Ideal American.
Today's lesson, sports.

Update: It seems that Bill's last post got a lot of negative comments and it looks like he has pulled it and explains why here.

Vengence is mine

I finally finished the last book of the Mike Hammer 3 pack I bought which is titled Vengeance is Mine.

This one was harder to finish for some reason.

The story starts out which Hammer having his PI ticket pulled because he is passed out in a hotel room after getting druck with an old friend who uses Mike's gun to kill himself, or so the DA thinks.
Mike is convinced that it is murder and sets out to prove it and et back his licence.

It turns out that Mike has been drinking quite a lot lately, trying to drown out the memories of the two women he loved who died in the first two books ( one of which he killed himself).
The killer reminds him of the love he killed and he is only able to kill this fantasically beautiful woman in the end when she turns out to be a transvesite.
I think that must have been pretty racy for the early 1950's when this book was first published.

It reminds me of a bar a worked in around 1980 where the patron who had the best legs in the entire bar was in fact a guy. I was clueless for a while until one of the other bartenders told me. Not that it changed anything. She was always straight with me (bad choice or words maybe) and since she was a regular I always served her the same.

I was just surprised.

I was always so busy at this place and there was always so much craziness going on that this was just another part of the circus.
This was one of the top dance clubs in NYC at the time and every night was something new.

One morning I was cleaning up the front room after we closed and I came upon an empty 3 foot long canister of nitrous oxide. I have no idea how they got it into the club but it was just another part of the surreal atmosphere that existed at the time.

Ah the good old days.

I was living at the time in room 100 of the Chelsea Hotel. I will relate stories about the hotel and about that room specifically at a later date.

The price of being right

Michael Totten has been taken to the wordshed ( or should that be woodshed?) or at least the hell of comments (180+ of them) for saying that those protesting the president's visit to Martin Luther King's grave were out of line.

Actually he is not right he is a centrist now which I guess is better than being a moderate. In any case he no longer considers himself as one with the Democrats and I am glad to have him on our side, at least part of the time.

Funny Story

My wife and I were both cracking up after reading this story at the Da Goddess.
Actually I read it then told it to her so she got the benefit on my impecible delivery.

Missed it

In spite of what I said I missed watching the second show od the Apprentice. I was studying which is more important.
I also decided during the week that the important part of the program is the last half or maybe the last ten minutes when Donald says "You're Fired".

The Manchurian Candidate

Quote of the Day

Raymond Shaw: There are two kinds of people in this world: Those that enter a room and turn the television set on, and those that enter a room and turn the television set off.

The Manchurian Candidate - 1962

Trouble in Alphaville City

There is apparently trouble in cyberspace. More directly there are problem with the cyberspace game Sims online which is owned by Electronic Arts.
The game is a massive multi player real time game which is a direct descendant of the game Megawars 3 which I have written about here before.
Drudge Report highlights this article about a Professor who was playing and documented the various practices going on in Alphaville, which is the name of the town in the game,

As it was, Alphaville quickly turned into a hellhole of scam-artists, crime syndicates, mafia extortion artists and teenage girls turning tricks to make ends meet. It became a breeding ground for the very worst in human nature

There are articles about the problems here and here.

More in the extended entry,

Continue reading "Trouble in Alphaville City"

Over at Meryl's

Meryl has a good post on the mother who blew hereself up in Israel. I don't think that many people in this country can conceive of a mother with two small children being a bomber.

Of course not many people in this country can concieve of an Andrea Yates either.

Meryl also has a link to to this LTOR spoof which is a must see if you are a Bogie fan. I am a big Bogie fan though I don't know if I have ever posted this before. My favorite movie is Casablanca. I have a Casablanca movie poster in the den and I can quote you most of the movie though I am a bit rusty, must be time to see it again for the 20th or 50th time.

The World is a Dangerous place

I don't link to the Agonist often but I thought this post was worthwhile in that it details the deaths resulting from conflicts around the world just in the past week or so.

It put what is happening in Iraq in context to what is happening in other places.

What might be interesting is if we have record from the Saddam era that listed how many people were killed by their own government on a weekly basis. It would probably show how we have actually brought peace to that country.

Recovering

I just did a long post about the last two days and somehow when I went to send it, it got lost.

We drank a lot more yesterday. My friend passed out in front to the TV after dinner.

I dropped him at the airport at 7am and went directly to my job interview even though I got there two hours early since going home didn't make any sense.
I sat in a dinner for most of those two hours reviewing concepts on the laptop I brough along that were never asked.
I don't think the interview went well.

The server we started putting together last year is still not working but we found lots of incompatibilities.

It was a fun few days. Since his heart bypass my friend is trying to keep in closer touch with everyone he knows. I can understand that.

Update

Talked a lot.
Drank a lot of JD.
Made steaks on the grill outside.
Talked some more.

My friend is on atkins now so we did a little shopping to make sure there was stuff for him to eat in the house.

The big excitment of the night was when Star got a hold of a wedge of sharp cheddar and ate it before any noticed. He was a "bad dog" and banished to the outside for most of the evening. This turned out to be bad for him since he didn't get any scraps from dinner of which there were not a lot but there were a few.

Spider Lily

When I posted a picture of this earlier in the year it was listed as an unknown Lily. Tanya liked it a lot and wondered what it was so I did some research and it looks like a Spider Lily.
No this isn't current. It won't look like this for 5 or 6 months.
All pictures from here on are old ones until the new blooms start in a month or three.

Return of the King

Quote of the Day

Frodo: So what are we holding on to, Sam?

Sam: We're holding that some things in this world ARE good, and ARE worth fighting for, Mister Frodo...

The Return of the King - 2003

House Guest

My best friend is flying in for a few days in the morning so posting will probably be limited until Wednesday.

Speaking of Wednesday I have a job interview so wish me luck. It is a 40 miles drive each way but at this point I would almost drive to Clearwater if I was offered a job there.

Is Dean Peaking?

Do you recall Joe Trippi predicting 2 million supporters by election day?
I do.
It certainly sounded scary but it looks like that may be more spin than fact.
This article takes a look at the numbers and it certainly seems that whatever Dean had is slowing down and that extrapolating to 2 million by election may be wishful thinking.

The Case for Bush in 04

The case for Bush is made very nicely by my former mayor, democrat Ed Koch, who states the simple and priority reason, his party's candiates can not be trusted with the war on terror.

There were a lot of things to like and dislike about Ed Koch when he was mayor but he was never one to put his party over the good of his country and he shows that once again in this article.

The War at Home

Bill Whittle has a new Essay. It is not near as long as some of his past efforts but he makes up for it by linking to a longer piece on our Jacksonian tradition.

He reminds us that while we are at war with Al Queda we are also at war with some of our own countrymen.

So this is our new ground: the fight for the soul of our country as a haven for individualism, reason, science, morality, strength and responsibility in a sea of ships wrecked on the shoals of socialism, tribalism and political correctness. And if, at its best, my previous work was a call to arms, then the work we set out on now, together, will be more in the way of a repair manual.

This war too will be long and we must remain strong.

Groundhog Day

Quote of the Day

I just discovered that there is an Italian remake of this coming out this year titled, È già ieri , which translates into It is already yesterday.

Phil: What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?
Ralph: That about sums it up for me.

Groundhog Day - 1993

Global Warming

The North east could be wondering whatever happened to global warming before this weekend finishes.

The temperature, recorded in Central Park, hit a low of 1 degree at 5:51 a.m. — and stayed there until rising to 2 degrees at 8:51, according to the National Weather Service.

As much as I love Central Park I would not be there at 5:51 am even on a warm day. Actually if I had to be in Central Park at 6 am I would prefer the temperature to be 1 degree since the bad people tend to stay away when it is cold.

Getting Bin Laden

According to this article our soldiers are stepping up their search for Mr. Bin Laden.

They said US troops had doled out biscuit packets, matches and other daily items carrying photographs of Bin Laden and his associates Saiful Adil and Ayman Al Zawahari in Goshta district of the Afghan province of Nangarhar and Lal Pura along the border with Pakistan.

Since I have him on my list at the ATS 2004 Dead Pool I hope they get him soon.
I was in the 2003 dead pool and so far I have yet to get any points for anybody.
This year I took Ted Kennedy off my list just in case I was extending his stay in this life.

Leaves

I have spent a lot of today raking and burning leaves.
Great excersize by the way.
Unless you have to rake leaves you have no idea how many leaves can fall from 8 large oak trees.
After several hours of raking and still not done I can tell you it is a lot.

I won't have my car back until Tuesday. They found that the bolt that secures the engine to the body is missing. Small part but no one stocks it.
I can't decide if I am going to sue the other garage or not. It sure looks like I didn't get a lot for the money I paid them.

Yellow

The handy dandy indicator on the right sidebar says that we are back to Yellow alert status. I heard somewhere that something was planned for early Feb. so I wonder what is up.
Perhaps on Feb. second Al Queda will set off a nuclear temporal bomb so we will have to relive that day again and again.
Wait wasn't that a movie with Bill Murray?

The Truman Show

Quote of the Day

Christof: We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.

The Truman Show - 1998

Car problems redux

I decided to go with the new guy who is a local texas chain that is fairly new.
Both my wife and mom thought I should take it back to the other guy but my thinking is that the whole problem was because of sloppy work at the old guy so why would I trust my car to them again.
I just got off the phone with them. It is going to cost me about $350 but they are also replacing 2 belts and will have the work done today by 7.
I had a coupon from them in the mail so I got a free loaner car for the day.
I have a lot more faith that these guys will get the job done right then I ever had in the other guy.
(fingers crossed)

Update: They called back and found another problem or the problem that caused the first problem which will double my bill. They think it might have been put together wrong which makes me think I might be visiting small claims court soon.

Update: Another interesting thing about this place is that they have web cams in the garage so I can watch from home. I just checked yhe car is not in there yet so I guess they are waiting for parts. Pretty neat though I guess I am paying for it somewhere.

Theodore Roosevelt

Quote of the Day

Life is not easy, and least of all is it easy for either the man or the nation that aspires to great deeds.

Theodore Roosevelt

Reality TV

I have long said how I hate this stuff but I watched the Apprentice tonight and actually found it amusing.
I don't know if I will continue to do so but I like Trump.
He is a real character and the way they have done this is interesting.
It doesn't hurt that the eight women are pretty good looking.

Bad Car Day

I have been having problems with my car recently. I don't want to link to those posts because it would be too painful. Today I went somewhere new because the car was making a cricket like sound. The guy looked at, sprayed some lube on a belt and it was fixed, fine.
Next thing he say is:
"you know your timing belt case is broken?"
I look at it and it is, in fact I remember it was like that when I got my car back from the old garage I used.
Easy to fix, cheap, yes and no.
It is a $30 part but it will take 3 hours labor or $225.
Then he says:
"The guys who replaced your timing belt should have fixed that when they were doing it."

He suggests I take it back to the guys, who have already in my mind proven their incompetence, and ask them to fix it.
I don't know if I want to give me cay over to their care again, who knows what will be wrong when I get it back this time?
I am leaning to eating the $200+ and just letting the new guy do it.

What do you guys think?

Machiavelli

Quote of the Day

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

Niccolo Machiavelli - from the Art of War

Rocketing

Ted posts a new version of Rocketing around the Blogosphere for those of you who want see what's up without having to check everywhere.

Of Terror and Power

Good post on what is going on in the ME and the world over at Solomonia.

I love it when people quote Machiavelli.

Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred; because he can endure very well being feared whilst he is not hated, which will always be as long as he abstains from the property of his citizens and subjects and from their women. But when it is necessary for him to proceed against the life of someone, he must do it on proper justification and for manifest cause, but above all things he must keep his hands off the property of others, because men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.

Moving Bloggers

Emily has moved here.
Blogroll will be adjusted.

WTC Memorial Chosen

The final design for the WTC memorial was chosen today.

The representitives for the victims' familes was not impressed.

The memorial drew an icy reception from victims' families, who accused the jury of ignoring their input during a hasty deliberation and said the design failed to convey the horror of the attack.

While I respect the loss these people have suffered I think they are totally out of line. They think that it must be all their way or not at all. I am sure the jury listened to their input but that does not mean they have to do everything these people want.
This memorial is not just for them it is for the entire country.
We all suffered a loss on 9/11 maybe not loved ones but we all lost the illusion of well being that we had become used to.
Before 9/11 there was a commission on terrorism, Hart and Rudman I believe. They said some scary things but no one gave them much attention. After 9/11 everything became possible and every last horrible scenario in that report was now thought of as a real possibility for sometime in the future.
We need to rebuild the WTC and we need to do it as soon as possible. The victims familes have had their say and now they should shut up and get out of the way.

Update: Jeff Javis doesn't like the memorial. I can't say that I like it either but unlike Jeff I don't see where taking more time is going to get us anything better. The people doing the choosing could take another 2 years and would probably still pick the same design.

I don't have the link because it is on one of the posts that have not made it here from blogspot but I predicted long ago that what we ended up with was not going to be liked by a lot of people. This whole process was a no win situation from the start. However we choose and whatever was chosen there would always be someone or many someones who didn't like it.

I hate to use this phrase but let's move on.

Life is Cheap

Mrs. Du Toit may have given up posting to her own blog but she posts a thought provoking piece here on Kim's site.

I am reading though it a second time at the moment.

Disney Copyrights?

My daughter and I watch Anime together sometimes.
Cartoon Network has started re-running one of our favorites Dragonball Z.

In this particular series there is an evil wizard named Bobbidi who is the son of an even greater (but dead) wizard named Bibbidi who created the ultimate engine of destruction name Buu.

Bibbidi, Bobbidi , Buu, I can't believe the lawyers at the house of mouse have not jumped all over this one yet. Granted Cinderella was made a long time ago but they always seem to figure out a way to extend their trademarks.

How to spoil a Happy New Year

Kelley has a story about the New Years Party she went to that would have me furious if it weren't so sad that there are people in our own country like this,

As the magical hour approached, we all gathered shivering around the campfire for the traditional toasts. A man behind me called out, "To regime change in Washington!", lifting his Dixie cup of champagne high into the air. "To Osama Bin Laden, may he stay hidden until at least after the election!", called a woman to my left, to merry laughter from all assembled. "I hope Bush dies!" hollered a very drunk man to the right. "To poor Saddam, to the Iraqi people, to the Palestinians!" shouted another woman, further along the line.

I feel sorry that Kelley who had been having a good time was subjected to these assholes but I feel even sorrier that they are americans.

Link Via Dean

Dow 10,500

The dow surged past 10,500 today to 10,544 on a 44 points rise.

One of the stocks I talked about on this post went down 0.32 so if you had bought it when I posted you would have only made 40% by selling today and not the 50-60% if you sold it at the high (siri). The other stock I talked about is only up 10% but heck where else can you get a 10% return in 5 days.

Not quite the glory days of the 90's but there is still money to be made.

Update: I have not sold siri yet but if it gets down to $3.40 I am taking my profits.

Clark for President

I was going through the referer logs l a little while ago and noticed a referal from clarkbot. It seems that the clark for president site has a little spider that runs around finding where he was mentioned on the web.

Since my entry was not very pro-clark I was was surprised they picked it up but spiders and robots are not known for their intelligence.

I was impressed with Clark saying that he would not run for veep. Now if he does accept veep we will know for sure that he is just another pol.

Continue reading "Clark for President"

Late Bloomers - Graham Thomas

Thanks to the great weather we have been having I was able to take this picture of the Graham Thomas in my front yard today.
Graham Thomas is a large fragrant bush out of the David Austin rose collection.
When I say large I mean it since this bloom was at eye level and I am 6'3".

Wes Clark

I saw Wes Clark on Meet the Press this morning.
It is easy to see why he is the Clinton candidate. He is slick and arrogant the same way that Clinton is.

Tim asked him about his claim that if he were president he would have caught Bin Laden. His response is that he would have done things differently than Bush did. Bush we recall set the big goal and let his generals in the field do what they thought they needed to in order to get to their goal. Why then does Clark not critique the generals in command?

What he seems to be saying, to me anyway, is that he would have micromanaged the war and overruled the commanders on the ground.
This is the worst sort of hubris in a commander in chief that I could ever imagine. In fact it is the same sort of meddling that screwed up the war in Nam.

But you may say "Clark is a general", not the point I say.
The C in C does not command in the field, that is not his job and if Wes Clark thinks that it is then he has proved that he is not the right man to be president.

Family Portrait

I can't think of much to write about since my mind is reeling from all kinds of Microsoft stuff at the moment.
Instead I will post this recent, rare group photo of my puppies.

In the back looking away from the camera is my daughter's dog Silver, then my dog Shadow. The white guy who is looking at me is Ghost who we rescued from certain death at the hands of a bad owner. The furball in the front is Star.

New Blogs

I have been remiss about the New bloggers Showcase for a few weeks so I took a look and liked this entry from Self-composed about smoking.

I also like this post about Kwanzaa Unwrapped.

I might check out some more later on my next break from hitting the books.

Game Over Man

OSU 35
KSU 28

Not as boring as I would have liked but a great game.

Update: I should point out that any game Ohio State wins is a great game in my book and I have seen a lot of them in last 30 years.
The first game I recall seeing OSU win was in the 1968 Rose bowl where they won the National Championship by beating USC and their star running back O.J. Simpson. The following year as a freshman I got to see them win a lot of games, in person, losing only the last game of the regular season to those wussies from U of M.

Thanks

Sitemeter clicked over 30k a little while ago.
I want to thank you all who keep coming back.

Meanwhile .....

Half Time:
OSU 21
KSU 7

Good game so far but I am hoping for a boring second half.

First Blood

OSU 7
KSU 0

Screw the Blue

The Big Blue wussies lost to USC.
I couldn't care less as long as Ohio State beats KSU tomorrow.
If you want someone to pick bowl winners for you I think today proves one thing, don't look to me.

Telling it like it is

Glenn has an interesting post about the Palestinians, and pretty blunt for him

These folks are our enemies, and deserve to be treated as such. They don't deserve a state of their own. It's not clear that they even deserve to keep what they've got.

Go Glenn go.

Link via Lair

Buckaroo Banzai

Quote of the Day

Buckaroo Banzai: Hey, hey, hey. Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - 1984

New Year's Day

I have had a pretty relaxing day.
Had a great cup of coffee with Tony of I am Always Right who is leaving Houston for Austin in the very near future. Austin does not deserve him but I wish him well.

I stopped at Home Depot on the way back and picked up a few things.
I am actually starting to get some do it yourself stuff done which is amazing for me.
I mounted some lights over my bar and redid the wiring. It doesn't look great but it looks not bad.

I might even try to mount the other sword tonight, especially if the big blue boys roll over for USC.

My other football picks seem mixed so far. Iowa won, Purdue lost but made it close as I predicted, in OT. Just forget I said anything about Maryland losing, please.