In the News

A married man, hosting a party for unattended married men and single younger women, left the party late in the evening with one young woman in his car. They headed towards a local secluded beach he'd known about since his childhood. The man in question was driving on an expired license, had a history of reckless driving and alcohol abuse. He was married to a woman who was, at the time, pregnant with his child. On the way to the secluded beach the man attempted to cross a narrow bridge, his car overturned and fell into the water below. While the young woman lay drowning, trapped in the car, the man escaped. He hiked past nearby houses, past the fire station back to the party. Where everyone involved cleaned up, left the party and went back to their hotel rooms for the night. After returning to his hotel the man went downstairs to complain to hotel staff about a loud party that was bothering him. In the morning he woke as usual, dressed and took the ferry back to the island he had been on the night before. Witnesses say he was in a jovial mood, laughing and enjoying the morning. That is until reports came in that they had found his car, and his victim.

He plead guilty to 'leaving the scene of an accident' and served no sentence at all.

That was July 18, 1969

Lets all take a minute to remember Mary Jo Kopechne today. She would have been 69 just last month.

" Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty? " ~ Senator Ted Kennedy, 1973

It's Just A Computer

I have been a child of the Dos/Windows universe for as long as I can remember. I also dabble from time to time in different Linux OS's. As such I am firmly planted in the camp that Macintosh computers are for the non-technically oriented and the elderly. Also I have never been able to reconcile the fact that the Mac crowd also seemed to generally be the metro-sexual, urban, fake environmentally friendly, smug douche set. That's not to say even the majority of my Mac loving friends would be easily pushed into one of those boxes, but rather that they might live on the fringes of what was a much larger crowd that contained a significant quantity of arrogantly prickish morons. Or perhaps I just wanted the crowd of people who used a different computer than mine to be like that, and have been projecting that image. I doubt it though. We all know at least one guy who shows up at a meeting and spends the first five minutes bragging about his Macbook whatever. And we all know he's an asshole.

So it was with some trepidation that I took possession of my new work computer for my new job. A 1 year old Macbook Pro with a dual core Intel processor, 2 gigs of ram and all the usual trimmings.

First impression.
Using a new hardware configuration and a new OS is always fraught with frustrating experiences. Control doesn't do what it should and there's an entirely unnecessary extra button 'command' that handles some of those functions but not others. Nothing files automatically where I want it to and there seems to be some sort of mysterious method of hiding things from me that I'm working on. Unlike the systems I'm used to Mac seems to love cleaning up after me. And of course that's how I get lost.

All of this is of course the product of a learning curve created by someone's idea of a better syntax and command structure. With time this passes as it has before with new versions of Win, Suse, Ubuntu, etc.

What remains.
The hardware is as you might imagine, top notch. This is perhaps the one thing that might separate Mac from the PC market; you have no choice but to get high end equipment. They simply will not sell you anything cheaper, and they will not attempt to make their product more affordable. It's a nice thing that as a brand you know when you pick one up, the hardware is designed to work. Not so nice when you need something simple and affordable. The OS on the other hand is not in the least impressive to me. That's not to say it's any worse than Win, it's not, really. It's just not the kind of better that justifies the smugness I've seen all these years. The driver libraries are significant and self reliant. I have very little problems adding hardware. Though to be fair I don't really have problems in Windows either. The file system is sufficient and relatively transparent. Once you figure out how Mac thinks, it's a coherent system. I'm enjoying the way that the touch pad allows me to control my desktop with creative multi-finger gestures. On the other hand I have never gotten over the loss of my right click button. The two fingered touch pad work around is atrocious and anyone who says differently is lying. I can't count the number of times I have scrolled down a page and then clicked on an icon or link only to find myself looking at a menu because I still had two fingers on the pad. I want my two buttons back. Fortunately my mouse plugs in just fine and it's right button works like a charm.

In short at this stage of the game what I've discovered is that... It's just a computer. Hype aside, it's no better or worse overall than any of the other systems I'm running. I'll concede I haven't integrated it into my home network yet (beyond internet access) and that may be interesting with the myriad OS jungle I'm already dealing with. But so far, I report nothing interesting at all. Computers, the machine that changed the world, are becoming more and more like furniture; buy the nicest one that matches the painting you like and the check you want to write. It's the person sitting there that makes the difference.

Music Legend Dies

Les Paul, arguably one of the most influential men in the history of the rock and roll guitar has passed away today at the age of 94. Keep on rockin' Les.

Director John Hughes Dies at 59 of Heart Attack

Single Payer Scam?

I'm not usually big on videos like this but there are some interesting parts here. If anyone has links to the full speeches here I'd love to see them.

UPDATE: just the Obama speech without the edited mess.

In Case You Were Wondering

Govt' FAIL

Cash for Clunkers

In Case You Thought I Was Paranoid

Waxman-Markey contains language for the EPA to regulate what it calls REEP (Retrofit for Energy and Environmental Performance) rules. The EPA alone will be able to determine what necessary retrofitting must be done with business AND single and multiple family homes in order to be environmentally friendly. States would be responsible for figuring out how to implement these new regulations. I'll say it again Congress voted to give regulatory power to the EPA to determine what you must do to make your home environmentally friendly before resale.

The EPA has for years been expanding it's regulatory control over the business world and it would seem has sights set on private property as well. This is an obvious expansion or companion program to those hinted at by the Sec. of Energy last month. If I'm wrong and Steven Chu just coincidentally talked about home improvements and retrofitting as an option for energy reduction a month before the climate change bill went to a vote with increased regulatory powers over homes and businesses then I'm sorry. If that's the case of course then it means that the two departments in the Obama admin. who are talking about climate related energy policy are in fact not talking to each other and are acting unilaterally to develop policy without consultation and frankly that kind of reckless behavior is just as scary as a plot would be.

So home-owners out there get ready for your EPA energy housing audit.

UPDATE: “The Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy, shall establish goals, guidelines, practices, and standards for accomplishing the purpose stated in subsection (c) [the retrofits],”

So Chu actually has his hands in it already.

Another Stand For the Family Farm?

Waxman-Makey predictably gives a huge handout to subsidized American corporate corn.

The Bill That Never Was

The House passed the fake global warming bill yesterday and I can't help wondering how as the text of the bill was not actually complete at the time of the vote. What, specifically were they voting on.

Bill

What They Are Saying in Arizona

Not Exactly Jefferson

A long long time ago, statesmen could write. The art of crafting words so that people understand them is, to say the least a challenge. One that makes us hope our lawmakers are built of better stuff, at least in regards to that challenge. Gov. Mark Sanford's love letters to his mistress would seem to argue against the point, as my friend Janelle Holden aptly points out.

R.I.P.

Michael Jackson - Thriller
by hushhush112

Biggest Tax in American History

The WSJ has a piece tomorrow (online today) talking about the actual costs of the Markey-Waxman global warming scam tax. Cap and trade has been a miserable failure wherever it has been tried. In most cases it has amounted to a tax funded incentive system for larger polluters. In even the best cases it has had little to no effect on carbon emissions and has crippled the economic environment for the poorest people. It will cost far more than even the most optimistic estimates of it's benefits. The CBO and House Democrats are deliberately hiding the real nature of it's overwhelming costs. Call your congressman and insist that they vote against this atrocious attempt to steal money from hard working class families.

This has gone too far. Throughout history people have tried to convince the masses that they can control the weather if we just give them enough money. We call them charlatans, snake oil salesman, grifters, con artists, hooligans, thieves, and of course congressman. Used to be we could take them out and shoot them. Now at least it's worth the phone call. Unless you have the extra 2 grand a year to spare. Or maybe you think now is a perfectly good time to pull the brake lever on the American economy.

Awesome Ad

My Absence

For the half a dozen or so of you that read this blog regularly I'm sure you have noticed my distinct absence lately. Don't worry, I'm not giving up the blog. I am however moving to Portland to start a new job. This is, as you might imagine, eating a bunch of my time that I would normally spend ranting for you guys. Trust that when things settle I will redouble my efforts to bring you the highest quality inane rambling that I can.

Thanks

This is Awesome

Google Wave Demo

Garrett Withdraws from Assistant Treas. Sec. Nom.

Elizabeth Garrett has withdrawn from consideration for the post of Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy. She sites the stringent vetting process. Which I think can fairly translate into 'they found something embarrassing and I'm backing out gracefully.' It would seem that at times like these the President would want someone in charge of developing tax policy, what with all the tax policy that's being developed. Well chalk up another loss to the Admin's human resources department. Seems it's just impossible to find ethical Democrats these days... I wonder why that is.

Steven Chu is Nuts

This speaks for itself. To say nothing of the cost of painting all the roofs in the world white (upwards of $30 a gallon for paint) it stands to reason that making all that paint would involve processes that produce significant 'carbon usage' and would probably greatly offset any actual benefit, even assuming that the good doctor is right about global warming in the first place. What's more disturbing is that this is the conversation you get with the country's leading government official on energy policy. Not environmental issues but energy policy. He claims that white roofs will cut consumption. I claim that he's got needs that the other kids don't.

I'm interested in any cheaper and less ridiculous options from my homeowner friends. Drop me a comment with ideas you have to reduce home energy consumption that aren't idiotic. I'll start.

Solar Powered Attic Fans.

Supreme Court Mad Lib

The most important qualification for a Supreme Court Just is that _______(pronoun) should possess the utmost____________(quality). Beyond all other possible qualifications or experiences I believe the proper candidate should posses a strong respect for ____________(rights).



As I read story after story this morning on the Obama administration's nomination of Sonia Sotomayer I noticed a trend. Very few people were talking about her court decisions and her biases. Instead everyone, the administration included, was talking about how many women will be on the court and how monumental it is to have a nominee whose parents are from Puerto Rico. Now I've seen some of Sotomayer's record and I wont go so far as to say this is a purely affirmative action hire, but for the party that prides itself on equal rights and throws constant claims of racism and sexism at it's opponents, it takes a ton of gall to glaze over real qualifications in favor of skin tone and gender. I couldn't care less if her family is from PR, what strikes me is that she seems to have no respect for private property rights as evidenced in her upholding the Second Circuit's decision in Didden V Village of Port Chester. Radly Balko covers that issue in his Agitator blog and on Reason.com.

An interesting take on her judicial history is Richard Epstein's this morning in Forbes.

For my money I'd like to see a nominee that isn't a Yalie. If ever there was a place that diversity was needed, I think the Supreme Court is it. I just don't think racial diversity is what's important. I'd like to see diversity of thought. Good Luck.