Saturday - May 31, 2008

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid

And be angry too. This woman, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, is 2nd in line to succeed to the Presidency if some catastrophe should befall Bush and Cheney.

The woman is stark raving mad AND a drooling moron AT THE SAME TIME. I didn’t think that was possible. The only amazing thing is that she didn’t choose Memorial Day to give this talk. I guess she was confused about the holiday, just like Obama.

Go over to Ace and read it. Pull up the podcast and jump to the 62 minute mark. And prepare to heave.

More can be read here.

Of course, Nancy isn’t actually totally wrong. She’s just a total douchebag who is only 95% wrong. But her remarks show that we are in an active state of war with Iran. Active. State of War. So whatcha gonna do Booosh? Whatcha gonna do?*







* I’d suggest nuking San Francisco as a start. Hey, it couldn’t hurt. Just make sure the Navy is out of town first.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/31/2008 at 09:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Military • War On Terror •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Obama Gives Up and Quits Racist Church

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have resigned their membership at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, FOX News has confirmed, after controversies stemming from the congregation created a persistent distraction for Obama’s campaign.

The criticism started with the sermons of his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., but Obama’s pastor problems were compounded this week by the Rev. Michael Pfleger, whose videotaped guest sermon at the church Sunday showed him taunting Hillary Clinton and saying she felt she was “entitled” to the presidency because she’s white.

Obama said he was deeply disappointed by the remarks and Pfleger apologized, but Clinton’s campaign still demanded Obama specifically reject the latest remarks.

By resigning his membership, Obama is taking the most definitive stand to date against the church.

He already has roundly condemned Wright.

Videos of Wright’s sermons, in which he claimed the U.S. government created HIV to exterminate black people and said “God damn America,” threatened to derail Obama’s campaign when they first surfaced in March.

Yup, he just couldn’t avoid it. Even when his influence was enough to get rid of Wright, the guest preachers they brought in were just as racist. Of course they were. Because Trinity United is all about the Black Experience, and the only way to have that is by hating on whitey. Perpetual victimhood is their message, and that’s all they have. Anger and resentment, because the very best parts of life aren’t handed to them on a platinum platter fast enough. So let’s go on hatin, and ignore that the “people of color” live far better lives in this country and in this time than they do in any other part of the world including the Mother Continent, and at any other time. No, that counts for nothing.

So watch Obama get a gold plated pass from the media, because he quit that bunch of belligerent racists. Yeah, now, only when the faint light of truth got shined underneath the Trinity United rock and proved beyond any kind of doubt that the snakes in that nest were all vipers. And when no amount of denial or condemnation could cleanse the NewMessiah of the blood of that cancerous lamb. And let’s just ignore that he was utterly happy with them for 20 years. And we’ll also ignore that Mrs. Untouchable, the wife who will not be named, is probably one of the biggest racists in the country. Because she’s had it so bad you know, Ivy League education and super high paying no-work jobs and all. Forced to earn truckfulls of money by spreading around the white guilt. Forced to take an offensive 110% pay raise because her husband got elected to Senator. In this rotten racist country she feels no pride in.

So now everyone must set their Forget-o-Meters to High, and we’ll go about electing a PC Police: Description Redacted racist commie to the White House. Because It’s High Time. And that’s all that matters.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/31/2008 at 08:57 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Goose-stepping into gorebull warming?

From the Middlebury Community Network comes this lengthy (I ‘printed’ it as a 26-page pdf file) gem that early on links goose-stepping and gorebull global warming. It starts off with an ‘editorial introductory note’:

Our planet has been slowly warming since last emerging from the “Little Ice Age” of the 17th century…

I have to interrupt here. More like the 13th century. My source is the book “The Little Ice Age” which I read earlier this year. Even their source (Wikipedia) says the 14th century. Could be a typo. We continue:

...often associated with the Maunder Minimum.  Before that came the “Medieval Warm Period”, in which temperatures were about the same as they are today.

Another interruption. Sorry. Temps were higher then, as proved the fact that the Vikings colonized Greenland at the time.

Both of these climate phenomena are known to have occurred in the Northern Hemisphere, but several hundred years prior to the present, the majority of the Southern Hemisphere was primarily populated by indigenous peoples, where science and scientific observation was limited to non-existent.  Thus we can not say that these periods were necessarily “global”.

However, “Global Warming” in recent historical times has been an undisputable fact, and no one can reasonably deny that.

Actually, I can reasonably deny it. Anyone who peruses the actual temperature graphs can’t help but notice that little statistical phenomena called the margin-of-error, which is usually left out of graphs shown on the news. Indeed it is not even mentioned.

But we’re hearing far too often that the “science” is “settled”, and that it is mankind’s contribution to the natural CO2 in the atmosphere has been the principal cause of an increasing “Greenhouse Effect”, which is the root “cause” of global warming.  We’re also hearing that “all the world’s scientists now agree on this settled science”, and it is now time to quickly and most radically alter our culture, and prevent a looming global catastrophe.  And last, but not least, we’re seeing a sort of mass hysteria sweeping our culture which is really quite disturbing.  Historians ponder how the entire nation of Germany could possibly have goose-stepped into place in such a short time, and we have similar unrest.  Have we become a nation of overnight loonies?

In a word, Yes. At this point the narrative breaks to show several pictures of loonies protesting. I’m particularly bemused by the last one on the right. The sign says ‘Global Warming Costs Lives’. As indeed it will, if the loonies’ ‘fixes’ are actually put into effect.

Posted by Christopher     on 05/31/2008 at 09:32 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Science-Technology •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Your Betters Know What’s Best For You: DNC - Democracy NOT In Action

Democratic leaders struck a long-awaited compromise over the disputed Florida and Michigan primaries Saturday evening in Washington, D.C., flying over objections from the Hillary Clinton campaign and agreeing to give both delegations half their vote at the party’s August convention.

The deal was reached after members of a Democratic National Committee rules panel spent all day bargaining and met privately for more than three hours. Members announced their plan to a raucous hearing room that reflected deep divisions within the party. Both states had their delegations initially stripped for holding early primaries in violation of party rules.

There it is folks. Out of all the possible stupid decisions, the Ruling Elite that rules the Ruling Elite has made the stupidest possible decision. But it’s “fair”!!!!! What a crock.

Early on in this primary season, both Florida and Michigan decided that they wanted to have earlier primaries. Perhaps they were tired of being fill-in states, part of the great mass of not-really-important states that merely reflect the trend that their masters - the DNC, the MSM, the Unions - have already decided on. So they announced that they were moving their primaries up. And the mighty DNC - more powerful than a locomotive, faster than a speeding Prius, able to leap to amazing conclusions in a single bound - told them not to. Told them that if they moved their primaries up, they wouldn’t be counted. Keep your place in line, do what you’re told, don’t cause problems by asserting any kind of independence, or you’ll get smacked. The states didn’t listen. They stuck to their guns and expressed a States Rights belief that they could hold their state primaries any damn time they wanted to, and they did. So the all-knowing DNC put the twist on the candidates, and told them their knickers would get twisted if they campaigned in those states, or were even on the ballot. And most of the candidates complied. But not Hillary. While she herself wasn’t actively campaigning in those states, her people were, and when the votes were cast she came out the big winner. Though if I can remember that far back in this never-ending cycle of somnolence, good old “undeclared” took a large number of the votes in both states too. And the mighty DNC, the king-maker, spoke forth and said “neener neener neener! Your votes don’t count!”

And so the fun began. Months go by. No solutions. Millions upon millions of dollars are spent in advertising, millions are spent currying favor, millions of people are bored to the point of retarded drooling over the constant hammering of Clinton vs. Obama on the news, every channel, every day, everywhere, 24-7. And time slips by. Could the DNC have coughed up the cash to do a re-vote? Of course. Expensive? Sure, but all they had to do was ask George Soros, and he would have funded the whole thing out of petty cash. Could they have stuck to their guns and said “tough luck, you broke the rules no suffer for it”? Of course. Nope, they didn’t do a thing. Because that would require making a decision, and you can’t have that unless it’s at the very possible last second. After almost all of the other primaries are run. And the solution they found is nearly Zero Sum. In other words it don’t make a bit of difference. Idiots.

“This body of 30 individuals has decided that they’re going to substitute their judgment for 600,000 voters — now that’s what I call democracy,” Clinton adviser and committee member Harold Ickes said in the closing moments of debate, saying the Michigan plan would be “hijacking” delegates from Clinton.

Yeah, kinda sucks when the system plays you for a change instead of the usual other way around, don’t it Harry boy?

The Clinton campaign echoed Ickes’ remarks in a written statement, saying the Florida decision is a “victory” for them but that they reserve the right to challenge the Michigan deal.

“This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party,” the statement said.

But, but, what does democracy have to do with being a Democrat in the first place? This is the party of No Voter ID. The party of Every Vote Counts - Especially the Illegals. The party where the dead of Chicago vote more often than the living. If it didn’t give me a coughing fit I’d be laughing my ass off here. What amazing hypocracy.

The committee agreed on a compromise offered by the Michigan Democratic Party that would split the difference, allowing Clinton to take 69 delegates and Obama 59. Each delegate would get half a vote at the convention in Denver this summer, according to the deal.

The deal passed 19-8. Thirteen members of the committee supported Clinton, so she wasn’t even able to keep her supporters together.

The committee also unanimously agreed to seat the Florida delegation based on the outcome of the January primary, with 105 pledged delegates for Clinton and 67 for Obama, but with each delegate getting half a vote as a penalty.

Proponents of full seating continuously interrupted the committee members as they explained their support of the compromise, then supporters of the deal shouted back.

“Shut up!” one woman shouted at another.

“You shut up!” the second woman shouted back.

Ah, the sophisticated nuance of such a decision. It is beyond my simple mind to encompass. It’s the kind of compromise solution that can usually only be developed by little girls in the 3rd grade. And it is just so obviously right, so perfect, that the entire group was swept up in the rapture of it’s perfection. Yeah, right, as they yelled and screamed and tried to claw each others eyes out. Just like little girls in the 3rd grade.

The decision of the Rules and Bylaws Committee does not drastically change the delegate math.

Yeah, except that it does. Totally. See, not only did they pull numbers out of their raw boned little asses, they gave delegates to a candidate who didn’t earn any. But they cut the “power” of those delegates in half, “as a penalty”, which completely changes the long standing Necessary Number. Because the DNC is so superior it can even defy basic addition, and rewrite the rules whenever it damn well feels like it, even almost all the way through the primary season.

And that’s how they make every vote count. And reflect the will of the people. And the voter’s intent. By telling everyone what’s best for them. And the most painful part of it all? By Monday morning the message will have been hammered into Dem’s heads so well that they will all be in favor of this decision. Because it’s “fair”. And it makes every vote count. At least a little bit. Especially the ones that weren’t even cast. What a retarded bunch of sheep.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/31/2008 at 08:10 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

I aten’t dead yet

Sorry for the lack of posting. I’m still sick. Probably a combination of flu and sunstroke. It figures, right? Got up in the middle of the night blowing my nose and coughing terribly. Again. Been like that for several days now. Coughed so damn hard I threw up. Not good. Didn’t get back to sleep until I don’t know when. Managed to drag myself out of bed at the crack of 10:30 and got to the store to get the wife something for her birthday tomorrow. Then I came home and went back to sleep. Just got up. I think it’s takeout pizza tonight and then back to bed.

I called Mrs. F, the lady with the decks, and actually spoke to her. They’ve been away all week due to a death in the family. I told her I’m taking the weekend off. It’s rainy here today and probably tomorrow anyway, and I need to get some rest. She wanted to know how the lattice project was going, and I told her it was difficult and frustrating. She said that I’d estimated it would only take a day. While I don’t remember saying that, I’ve been under the sun and under the rest of the weather too for several days, so it’s possible I did. Dumb schmuck that I am, I felt bad that I’ve already put in more than double the estimated time and there’s still probably a full day’s work left. So I’m going to bill her for only 2 days plus the time in the lumberyards instead of the actual 4 days I’ll spend on it. Because I did a poor job with the estimate. Is she screwing me? Probably. Am I a jerk? Absolutely. But I’m trying to be an honest one.

I’ll try to get 2 posts in this evening, because the excrement has hit the oscillator with Obullshit and with the DNC, and their combined stupid is just too delicious to let pass by.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/31/2008 at 07:31 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Friday - May 30, 2008

Stimulus checks not stimulating

Here is a somewhat informative article from the Houston Chronicle. Amid all the factoids on consumer spending, consumer confidence, etc, was this throwaway line that got me just a bit angry.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, which excludes food and fuel costs, slowed in April, today’s Commerce report showed.

I wonder how the inflation number would change if those food and fuel costs were included? Why is this their preferred measure of inflation? I measure inflation by how much the price of things go up during a specified time period, especially food and fuel costs!

I’m a bit peeved. Maybe someone here can explain this to me.

Posted by Christopher     on 05/30/2008 at 05:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Outrageous •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Has LOST jumped the shark?

I found the 4th season finale to be kind of a let down. I don’t know what I was looking for, but somehow I didn’t find it. So Michael sort of redeems himself but the freighter and everyone on it are now dead. Bye Jin. Gee, thanks Ben. And Faraday and a couple of the other extra cast members in the little motorboat? I guess they’re lost at sea now. The SIX started off as the EIGHT, but once Penny found their lift raft (of course!) and she and Desmond had their perfect moment and he’s never leaving her again, so Desmond’s out of it. For a while at any rate, until the final Widmore showdown is my guess. And Frank stayed on there too, so he’s off the show as well. Big Red stayed on the island; interesting that she was coming back to it again! Maybe she’ll be getting her claws into Sawyer now, after his altruistic jump to save the helicopter and his long swim to shore, where he washes up shirtless like a gift from the sea right at Juliet’s feet while she knocks back the Captain Dharma spiced rum and watches the ship burn. I smell bitchfight coming!

But after Ben worked the Windlass of Time ^TM and upped the Phase Space Anchor^TM the island was sent to another reality. He paid the price and descended the temporal tunnel back to our timeline, so he’s off to do nasty things in the “real” world. And the only way he can get back is to take the SIX and the dead guy with him? Not likely.

So now Lostie Island is a gigantic tropical version of Dr. Who’s magic phone booth? Are all the castaways going to bond now with the remains of the Others (cue Jeff Probst: “Ok everyone, take off your buffs. It’s time for the Merger. Everyone put on huge amounts of eyeliner like Richard Alpert here") and jump around each week solving crimes and saving whales and dolphins? Shark jumping? Who can say, but I think the Fonz is off the water ski jump and in the air.

Loose ends: WTF is up with Claire and Dr. Daddy? After all she’s been through with the baby, and Charlie, and being kidnapped, etc., now she’s suddenly all languid and dreamy and given to ghost like appearances in people’s dreams?

Major disappointments: The man in the coffin is Jeremy Bentham. That name has got to be a scrambled message, so get to work. But the season came full circle: episode one had Jack visiting the funeral home and that’s where this season ended. Except I swear that in ep 1 he met the funeral director, and in this final ep he had to break in. And I had thought the coffin was much shorter the first time, not at all big enough to hold the large man we finally see inside: John Locke. What the hell? Maybe he lost his legs again.

Amazingly stupid: So now, several years later, a burned out, drunk, and despondent Dr. Jack wants to get back to the island? Why, because events there proved him to be totally wrong about everything? He can’t face the world without his giant ego? “There’s no such things as miracles John” says Dr. Brainwave. And then the big purple light fills the sky again, and poof!, the island is gone, leaving nothing but a quickly dissipating ring in the water. And a school of sharks, circling.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/30/2008 at 08:52 AM   
Filed Under: • Television •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Souvenir rifle shell gets 4th-grader suspended:  Can’t believe this was the USA …

I found this today through Kim’s blog site.  The Other Side of Kim with thanks. 

This is so damn unbelievable I was certain it might have been like, Boston,UK.  I don’t even know if there is one. But no surprise it was Boston,Mass.

What kind of IDIOT freekin ppl are running things at this school?  I recall as a kid an uncle who was a navigator on a Liberator bomber, bringing home a shell from one of the plane’s guns.  Of course it wasn’t a live shell, the top even came off.  It was later made into a cigarette lighter.  But I brought it to school and didn’t face all this crap.  This shit is totally in-freekin-sane!  Just makes me see red and boil.  I’d really love to punch out the teacher.  And what right do the powers that be have to keep the item.

Souvenir rifle shell gets 4th-grader suspended

Winchendon family shocked

By Gail Stanton CORRESPONDENT
Picture

Bradley Geslak holds an empty bullet casing like the one that got him suspended from school in Winchendon. (T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR)

He was so proud to have been given them.

WINCHENDON— Ten-year-old Bradley Geslak was suspended from school this week for bringing a Memorial Day souvenir to school.

The Toy Town Elementary School fourth-grader had received two empty rifle shell casings from blanks used during the town celebration held at the GAR Park Monday morning.

He brought one of the casings with him to school the next day.

“He was just playing with it at lunch,” explained Crystal Geslak, Bradley’s mother. “He wasn’t showing it to anyone; he had it in his hand and was playing with it.”

Bradley said a teacher saw him with it and told him to hand it over.

“The teacher told me to give it to her and I did,” he said.

After the piece of brass was confiscated, Ms. Geslak was called at work and told to come and pick up her son; he was being suspended for the next five days.

Her son was in tears when she got there.

“I was totally shocked. I couldn’t believe this was happening,” she said.

“Ordinarily, I try to think ahead about things, but to me, this was something good, not bad. It was just an empty shell, not even from a real bullet. A sharpened pencil would be more dangerous than this piece of metal.”

Her son had been given the two blank shells by a uniformed veteran who participated in the ceremony Monday. Bradley gave one to his grandfather and kept the other souvenir for himself.

Having received the souvenir from an adult, he never considered it wrong for him to have it, his mother said.

“He was so proud to have been given them. His dad’s a veteran, his uncle’s a veteran, both his grandfathers are veterans. Memorial Day is a big thing to us. It’s a very important holiday and we have a big celebration every year,” Ms. Geslak said.

She is now concerned about the impact that having the shell taken away will have on her son and his feelings about the holiday in the future.

According to the family, a school official said on Tuesday that the shell would not be returned to them. The family said they were also told that the next step might involve assigning a probation officer to Bradley.

They also said they don’t know the whole story yet.

“When I went to pick him up, I was told that the teacher hadn’t finished writing up her report on what took place and that I would get that later,” Ms. Geslak said. “I would have thought that when deciding to suspend my son that they would have had a complete report ready for me.”

School officials refused to comment on the incident yesterday, citing privacy regulations.

“I cannot give any comment on school suspensions,” Principal Deborah Peterson said. “I cannot confirm or deny a suspension took place, and I cannot speak about anything involving a minor. It’s all confidential, just like at a doctor’s office.”

Attempts to reach Superintendent Brooke Clenchy and School Committee Chairman Michael Niles for comment were unsuccessful.

“I am worried about what having a weapon-related suspension on his school record will mean to his future,” his mother said.

“He’s like any other 10-year-old kid. Sometimes he can have a bad attitude,” she said. “We dealt with that once earlier this year and I don’t want them to now think he is a bad kid or label him as one.

“If he had been suspended for having a bad attitude, I could have understood it. I would have supported them in that. But not for this. He didn’t even know he did anything wrong,” she said.

Ms. Geslak will have plenty of time to think about that in the coming days, because the suspension also means that she has had to give up hours at work to be with her son.

http://tinyurl.com/5rl6ho

For Kim’s comments which are always worth reading, go here >>>> http://tinyurl.com/58fd2p

Posted by Drew458     on 05/30/2008 at 08:43 AM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - May 29, 2008

Ok, so I’m slow. Sue me.

It took me two full days to figure the easy way to handle lattice frames. See, theses things are milled from 2x2 stock, and then given the new copper salts PTL treatment. So what was soft spongy wood to begin with gets even weaker when it’s chemically saturated then steamed. Cutting the miters isn’t much of a big deal. Sure, a compound miter saw would be great, but I’ve been getting by with a saber saw. And when you cut anything with a saber saw, the blade always bows a bit to the side. So there’s been a lot of finesse work. And nailing the corners together with 6D finishing nails has been an exercise in frustration, as this wood splits easier than anything I’ve ever seen.

Here’s the tips: Cut the miters with you saber saw. Start from the side of the frame board and cut towards the corner. If the end of the cut leaves a little chunky at the point, don’t worry about it. Screw 2 2x4s to your sawhorses to act as a jig. Space them just far enough to let a piece of framing fit between them. Cut your pieces and their miters. Now get out a 6” C-clamp, and clamp down the longer piece of frame. You are going to be nailing into it. Find a drill bit that’s just the size of the nail, put the 2 frame parts together, and drill right through the shorter piece and just a little into the longer one. One hole on each side. Man handle the damn bits of wood so that they’re lined up, and slide a nail down each hole. Now take your hammer and gently tap both nails in at the same time, while holding the damn thing together. Use your roofing square to force a right angle while nailing. Now go do the other end. Next step is to unclamp the long piece, and lay it on it’s side. At this point it looks like a big wide “U”, which is just what you want. Clamp the short pieces and drill and nail from the long piece side. You now have a mitered corner held in place by 4 nails.

Lattice is awful stuff. If it isn’t made out of reject balsa wood I’d be amazed. The intersections aren’t glued in place either. Nope, every other intersection gets one pukey little wire staple. Whoop-de-do. But to properly fit this wobbly crap into the big “U” frame you’ve just made, you have to cut it smaller. If you cut both the height and the length short by 1 1/2” inches, you’ll have a just-barely-fits situation. I think 1 3/4” might be even better. Drop the lattice into the “U”, wiggle each and every single edge board down into the groove, and then put the top frame piece on. If you rock that one forward and back, as if you’re doing wrist curls, it will pop onto the lattice edges. Now man up, and grab the damn corner and have at it. You ain’t taking no shit from some crappy piece of wood. Force it, squeeze it, drill it, nail it. And sunuvagun it goes together and the corners look decent. Now push the frame together from top to bottom, and pre-drill and then tap in a 1 1/2” finishing nail every 5 intersections, through the frame edge. This keeps the lattice from wobbling around, and stiffens up the whole thing.

Done right, it only takes about 1/2 an hour to make each frame by hand. With the right tools, some know-how, and an assistant, you could practically set up factory production. In 2 full days of work I’ve managed to make only 5 of these little bastards. But ... I went and bought the wood and had to hunt through hundreds of junk boards. That’s 2 hours right there. I got all the screws, nails, brick ties to use as end straps, etc. I even bought myself a heavy duty 100 foot extension cord, and I’m glad I did, as the only power outlet in this yard is back under the pool deck by the filter. The first 2 frames I built had to be taken apart and redone; the ground tapers under the one side of the deck and it turns out that they have something under the mulch like a cross between tarpaper and canvas. Keeps the weeds out I guess, and stops little animals burrowing. It’s just about impossible to even stab through with a trowel too, so my bright idea of “build it square and just dig one end into the ground a bit” went right in the trash. Also those 5 frames are fully stained and installed, and lemme tell ya, sliding around on your back over old mulch and razor sharp pine needles while you try to fit into a 14” clearence to figure out how to screw some PTL blocks in place to mount the frames to is not exactly fun. Which is why I’ve now changed my mind: I was only going to bill these folks 8 hours for each day, even though I was there 9 yesterday and 10 today. I figured they shouldn’t have to pay for my learning curve. Yeah, but I shouldn’t have to find solutions to all their deck problems and ground issues, and that’s exactly what I’ve done. So I figure another full day tomorrow, and it just might be done. I think I have the hard parts out of the way now. Even though saying that is tempting fate with the gods of home projects. But hey, I’ve already made my second trip to the hardware store, and I have plenty of extra wood, screws, nails, etc. on hand. I think I’m good to go. (fingers crossed!)

Posted by Drew458     on 05/29/2008 at 04:57 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

The phoney climate change war is upon us.  (Found in a Liberal? paper)

From The TimesMay 27, 2008

Personal carbon credits: the trick
The phoney climate change war is upon us. We’re are being drawn into a Blitz spirit
Mick Hume

Get out your gas masks and tin hats. We are under attack from a noxious army of doom-troopers demanding that we treat climate change as a rerun of the Second World War. In the latest move to militarise everyday life, the Environmental Audit Committee of MPs has seriously proposed energy rationing, aka “personal carbon credits”.

What next? Little (green) Hitlers patrolling the streets yelling “Put that high-energy light out!”?

Or a campaign to bring back rickets? Everybody from the Prince of Wales to liberal newspapers and former Labour ministers now compares climate change to the war. Baroness Young of Old Scone, head of the Environment Agency, says this is “World War Three”. If it’s not breaking the Official Secrets Act, could somebody explain what on earth they are on about?

The notion of a “war on carbon” makes even less sense than the glorious “wars” on terror/drugs/crime/whatever.

No, these evocations of the past appear political rather than practical. The aim is to create an ersatz Blitz Spirit that could bring people together behind a phoney war on global warming. Governments desperate for a unifying cause are naturally sympathetic. But they are also aware that hard-up Brits who see few bombs falling are unlikely to be too keen on making wartime sacrifices. Thus new Labour, which previously admitted it might “need to go back to rationing”, has retreated from the carbon credits proposal, fearful of further voter desertions.

What solution do the doom-troopers propose to the problem of public resistance? Let’s suspend democracy, like we did in the good old days! While one leading liberal writer insists that all the main parties must include identical austerity measures in their manifestos (not much change there then), another feminist veteran, Rosie Boycott, demands that they dump party politics altogether and form a national coalition based on Churchill’s wartime Government. Altogether now: “We will fight them in the recycling bins...”

The most depressing thing for me is that the Left is leading this retreat into wartime bunkers with relish, claiming that sharing out the misery is “progressive”. Whatever happened to raising people’s living standards and tackling serious social problems by moving forwards rather than back? That’s why it was called “progress”. And if you do want a lesson from history, note that the US economy met the challenge of the Second World War by doubling its output.

When the misery of rationing finally ended in 1954, people held ceremonies to celebrate and the power minister publicly burnt a big replica ration book. No doubt today he would be dragged over the coals for the war crime of carbon emission.

http://tinyurl.com/5rtukl

Posted by Drew458     on 05/29/2008 at 07:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Environment •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Wednesday - May 28, 2008

Stupid Netscrape

I just lost an entire post on what I’ve been up to, which included making an “inner city” con man run away from my customer’s driveway yesterday. Because I was gonna be cute and leave you an Aardvarks-like And here is some smut link. Which crashed the browser. Well, maybe it was a good thing, as I had left the post in it’s raw form, before I edited out the really nasty bits. Yes, I edit my own work. Not too much, but sometimes I just rant, and all bets are off. And this jive bunny really irked me with his “help out an inner city youth” (this is well to do western New Jersey. A full hour plus away from any inner city) so I hammered out a bit that might have made David Duke happy. Sorry people. I don’t like to resort to that kind of attitude, but when I’m doing anything and everything, right down to scrubbing bathrooms and washing windows, I’m not partial to any of that hand out crap. Opportunity is out there if you’re willing to work. And I mean work. Like a friggin beaner. Only harder. And better. Do that, and the next thing you know, the boss of the daughter of the old lady who is the election coworker of the friend of the neighbor of the lady who lives downstairs from me will be calling you up and paying you well to help out. Because the word gets around, and quality is hard to find. And that’s a void I’m filling.  Puh-leeez. Trying the old pay-in-advance magazine subscriptions to-help-out-inner-city-youth con on me? Sheee-it. I may be sweating like a pig and not wearing too much, but y’all don’t wanna finds out what be in my pocket. NGH. 

Posted by Drew458     on 05/28/2008 at 08:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - May 27, 2008

Summer Bowling League Week 3

My mind’s in a bit of a fog. I have some sort of rotten cold or allergy thing going, with racking dry coughs and so much congestion that I’ve gone deaf again. So I added the scores up wrong tonight, I’m pretty sure of that. We had 2 members out, but they pre-bowled. Unfortunately the scoring computer is ancient, so there is not button for pre-bowling. What you do is mark the bowler absent, then put in their “average”, which is actually what they bowled for that game. Then you have to remember to go back and change that every game. I think I forgot to change it at least once, maybe twice. Hey, like I said, brains in a fog. So we 2 old farts who did show up, me and Rex, played the Bo Peeps, a team made of 4 very young college girls. Who are all adorable, and frisky, and playful, and have perfect tight little bodies. Distracting!! Plus they smell good!  But they are awful bowlers. They use lane balls and rental shoes. They throw in the 110s at best, usually in the 70s. Almost as bad as Obama. And this league is a 90% handicap, so we gave them 261 pins. Per game. That’s an enormous handicap, akin to an extra bowler and a half. And the scores for our absent bowlers, games 1,2,3 were both below average, a bit above average, and below average. So me and Rex had to bowl really great just to break even. We got the first game, lost the second, and lost the third. But only by a little bit. So I called the alley and asked them to go over the scores. We’ll see.  But at least his average will come down 10 next week to a 216, and mine will go up 2 to a 171. Averages get calculated every week, and they can flucuate wildly the first weeks of a season.

Tired now. And tomorrow it’s back out into the sun to do lattice on those decks. Unless it rains again. At least I’m recovering from Friday’s sunburn.

Let’s see: level, big measuring tape, drill, bits, builders square, framing square, extra #2 Phillips bits. Have to buy lattice, short deck screws, PTL 2x4s, 1 1/4” lath, a pound of little tiny nails, and rope. Have to have the rope to tie this pile to the roof of my old car, or else it’s going to be a tough drive back to her place from Home Depot. Oh, and the paintbrushes. I had to soak them in paint thinner for 24 hours to get all the stain out. Stinky!

Posted by Drew458     on 05/27/2008 at 08:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

This one’s for Drew

For some reason, I think of Drew when I see this pic. Why is that?

Posted by Christopher     on 05/27/2008 at 11:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Bin police force residents to hand over personal medical details.  meanwhile, police arrest 5

So while the wheelie bin cops are on the job, (wheelie bin. = trash bins to us yanks)
real police have arrested five for the killing of a 31 year old man.  Just folks having a bit of fun you know.  I didn’t post this latest story, there are so damn many.

Anyway, back to our main feature ..........

Bin police force residents to hand over personal medical details
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:14 PM on 27th May 2008

Families are furious about plans by a council’s bin police to question them about their medical history.

Officials in Plymouth, Devon, are to send a questionnaire to every household asking them to give intimate personal details about their family.

Householders are also being asked to nominate one person who will take legal responsibility for anything put in their bins.

Scroll down for more

Waste of time: Residents are furious because there is no way they can stop other people using their bins

The council is even asking how many children families have and whether they use disposable nappies.

The forms are to be sent to all homes in the city as part of a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on bins.

The council wants to increase fixed penalties from £50 to £110 for those who put bins out early, fail to recycle, overfill wheelie bins or put the wrong rubbish in the wrong containers.

They are asking each household to nominate one person as responsible so it will be easier for them to prosecute without having to prove who put out the offending bins.

The council is also considering interviewing suspected bin offenders under caution in procedures similar to the way police question criminals.

The draft letter, which has been seen by opposition councilors, also asks how many people live at each address, whether they have any medical conditions and if their families use disposable nappies.

Officials from the Conservative-run council hope the information sent back by families will make it easier to prosecute or impose fixed penalties.

It follows the failure of a pioneering prosecution by Exeter City Council 45 miles away which failed because they could not prove that household waste in a recycling bin was put there by the householder.

for a lot more on this story.

http://tinyurl.com/6jk8fk

AND THEN THERE IS THIS:

Young mother ordered to pay £265 for putting bin out 24 hours too early

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:42 AM on 22nd May 2008

Timing is everything as Zoe Watmough has found to her cost after putting her bins out a day early.

As a result, the 22-year-old mother was hauled before magistrates and handed down a legal bill of £265.

Council officers spotted her two bins - a green one for recycling and a grey one - on a Wednesday, 24 hours before it was due to be collected.

The rules of Bolton Council in Greater Manchester dictate bins should not be put out until after 7.30am on the day refuse collectors are due.

At Bolton magistrates court Zoe was fined £125, ordered to pay £125 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

The court was told the council is pursuing prosecutions over bins left on streets because of the number of arson attacks by youths in the area.

It is estimated the cost of attending a bin fire is £1,900, and they cost the fire service up to £3million each year across the country.

But at home Zoe said: “I am flabbergasted.

“There are people committing all sorts of crimes and getting away with it. Yet I have left my bin out and have been fined the best part of £300.

“Everybody in this area puts their bins out the day before collection. I don’t see what the problem is and can’t afford to pay the fine.”

The court heard Miss Watmough had already been sent a warning by council officers who spotted last November that her bins were out before collection day.

When they spotted them out on a second occasion - in January - Miss Watmough was given a £75 fine. That resulted in a prosecution because she did not pay it within seven days.

Run-ins with councils over bin collection and their contents are not unusual.

Retired milkman Barry Freezer recently made the mistake of dumping cabbage stalks in his bin and incurred the wrath of the council’s waste collection supremos.

The 73-year-old says they treated him like a criminal and refused to collect his garden waste, claiming the cabbage trimmings were kitchen rubbish.

The binmen were following an obscure rule that forbids food that may have come into contact with meat from being mixed with garden waste for composting, to prevent outbreaks of diseases such as foot and mouth.

The week before it emerged the same council had refused to empty the bin of partially sighted ex-Desert Rat Lenny Woodward, 95, because he put a ketchup bottle and an empty coffee jar in the wrong bin.

http://tinyurl.com/6zjdck

Posted by Drew458     on 05/27/2008 at 09:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Nanny State • UK •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner