Links

A state senator from California got arrested for trafficking guns.  He also supports gun control.

I hear all the proffessional journalists are looking into which party he belongs to, since no one seems to know yet.  lolz

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Apparently Argentina and Venezuela are discovering how well price controls work.

Let's raise the minimum wage; who's with me!

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Sometimes I read things like this post on how stupid kids are these days, and yet I don't recall ever reading in any one of them about who is at fault for stupid kids.  Is it the kids (who aren't yet old enough to know better) or the people writing about how kids these days aren't so great (who are the teachers and parents of the dumb kids).

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Is a post of links really a "post of links" with only three?

Read something here (Rhymes with Cars & Girls) and we'll call it four links.

Haven't been Posting; Have Cold

First time I've been sick in years.  I don't recommend it.

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I did discover GeoGessr, which is cool.

My high score, since I noticed the scoring, has been 11,800 and change.  I bet I get around 10,000 for the most part, I have no idea how good that is.  Try it and let me know how hard it is.  (I don't do more than "spin" the image in place, becasue moving down the roads a few hundred yards doesn't often change the view.)

I do a lot better outside the US, and South Africa always screws me up.

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Everyone should read Free Northerner.

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I hear a lot about basketball, does anyone care about the game or is it the gambling on the brackets that is the interesting part?

(I've watched most of two basketball games in my life.)

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I've heard of a lot of people who are "obsessed" about finding the missing plane, and yet I've heard of no one flying out to go look for it.  (tip: It crashed, everyone's toast.  Too bad.)

Microsoft Sucks

It has been infuriating how hard it has been to finish my book.  The writing, the research, the editing, and dealing with Amazon have all been easy, but Microsoft has been awful.

I was advised to try linux when I posted on "building" my computer.  I think I'll do that next time I need a computer.  Windows 8 sucks.

So I wrote my book on a free version of office that came with my laptop when I bought it.  That was fine, until it was edited by someone with a full version of Office.

So I tried various things, procrastinated, and tore my hair out while trying to figure out how to work on the stupid thing.  I tried Open Office, which I installed onto the computer I built, but could not install onto my laptop.  Then I found I could open my book in open office but couldn't save it in any useful form.

I've spent three months spending a part of every day thinking that I want my book done, but every time I try to deal with it I want nothing more than to do anything else.

I finally gave up and tried to pay for a full version of office, $100 for a year, but I keep getting pop ups telling me that I need to buy it by march 22.  Did I not already pay?  And this after many efforts to install the stupid thing.

And now I'm writing this post instead of working on my book becasue somehow I lost several hours worth of my editing, to the point where it was on a flash drive since it was edited elsewhere.

(I use internet explorer at work, that sucks too.)

Just being able to open this stupid thing has been the most frustrating thing that I've ever done.

Rather than Useless Internet "Debates"...

For amusement, someone can go to various websites and say witty things like, "Hey Obamacare supporters, keep your laws off my body."  And this is somewhat amusing.  Not productive, but amusing.

An alternate idea may be to comment on such websites, and rather than counter others' stupid thoughts, you could just point out what fallacy they are committing.

Some idiot could claim X and you'd reply: "straw man," "ad hominem," fallacy of the anecdote," "projection," "questionable source," and so on.

Actually, you may not need "and so on," most people who argue things on the internet commit any and all of those listed errors.

It would be kinda funny:

Idiot: "blah, blah, blah"

me: "straw man"

Idiot: "Yeah, well you're a racist."

Me: "ad hominem"

Idiot: "You're only repeating rethuglican talking points."

Me: "projection"

and so on...

Police Are Government Revenue Generators

Hypothetical conversion:

cop: "Do you know why I pulled you over?"

Me: "To generate revenue for the government."

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I've been meaning to write a post I was going to title: "The Jersey Shore DVD box set provides more value than cops."

Obviously, people who buy things, even as stupid as a tv show dvd series, do so becasue they chose to and were not forced to do so.  And because of this people are employed in the making of these things.  People are employed in the creation of goods and services desired by others.

And cops have jobs because most people cannot imagine a world without them.  And in order to justify their existence, and generate revenue, they are tasked with enforcing trivial laws and giving out tickets.

But rather than expand on that idea, I've discovered that my favorite author has been writing articles for a website that I've never heard of until recently.  And he's beaten me to it:

Police Work has become a Racket by Jeffery Tucker

Somewhere in my bag I have an envelope that contains a bill. It was handed to me by a local policeman after being stopped on an interstate highway in Texas. I was doing a mean 80 miles per hour in a 75 mph zone.

So of course this great servant of the public had to stop me before I endangered the lives of so many others, including the people going 85 and 90 miles per hour who were passing me on the right and left. I got caught because—well, probably because the others were going too fast to catch.

So this guy stops me and informs me of my very bad behavior. He explains that I’m not allowed to do what I was doing and so therefore he has to give me a citation. But he assures me that this citation does not mean that I’m necessarily guilty. This is a government of laws, not of arbitrary dictates by heavily armed people in bulletproof vests, and so therefore I have a constitutional right to a fair trial.
Or so we are constantly told.

I kind of began pressing him on this, which I probably should not have done lest I get arrested yet again. But I couldn’t help myself.

“Let’s just say that I think you are wrong. I mean, you are probably right, but let’s just say that I think you made this whole thing up. I can dispute this in front of the judge?”
“Yes, sir, you may. Just see the court date.”

“And where is this court?”

“Right here in this county.”

Of course I had explain to him that I was headed to the airport and that I live 1,000 miles away. I asked whether I could use Skype or Google Hangout to attend my hearing.
“I’m sorry, sir, you have to attend in person.”

I continued on: “So I have to drive to Atlanta, catch a flight to Dallas, rent a car and drive 100 miles south on some particular date in order to have my rights realized? You do understand that this would cost me probably two days of work and as much as $1,000?”

and so on...

Things I Wonder About, Part (I lost Count)

Can I assume that we're over the Duck Dynasty fad?

Having not participated in any fads (as far as I know), I'll ask the rest of you: where do you keep all that junk?

I recently watched a few minutes of an Insane Clown Posse (h/t) video on youtube.  I thought I should be expecting more gore or violence, but is that all there is? 

How pitiful must the fans of two dumpy middle aged men be?

(Rap sucks as a music form, by the way.)

I listen to Rob Zombie now and then, I've never watched a music video from him.  Shirley, they're dark and evil?

Is that all there is?

Is it all tame or has my perspective changed?

(Powerman 5000 isn't as good as I remember from casually listening in high school.)

One chapter in the last book I read contained a story more awful than anything in any of the metal music videos that I've seen.

The Last Ivory Hunter by Peter Capstick

One chapter describes examples of the thinking of Africans.  One story is about a boy who's eye has popped out and is hanging along his cheek.  The hunter the book is about asks the boy's father why he's not going to the hospital.  "I'm busy," he says. 

Another time the hunter sees a man with a moving sack on the back of his bike. 

"What's in the sack?"

"My son, he was burned a week a go.  I figured that he'd die, but he hasn't so I brought him here."

The kid had his charred arm amputated and the hunter also discovered his chest infested with maggots.

Which is more dark, those stories or anything from dark musicians?

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Why is it people are so sheepish in their habits?  If I'm traveling and I'm hungry, I'll occasionally stop and discover that every restaurant is packed.  Why becasue it turns out to be noon or six.  Why would anyone eat at any other time?

Is it my imagination or is my increased experience with various Microsoft products leading me to believe that I need to minimize my exposure to them?