Illegitimi Non Carborundum

Fox doesn't what?

2011-03-18T15:28:00.001-05:00

The Road Not Taken

2010-12-27T05:15:00.002-06:00

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost
1916

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight

2010-12-17T17:26:00.008-06:00

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rage at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas
1952

Desired Things

2010-11-30T06:15:00.004-06:00

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with the universe,
whatever you conceive it to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Original by
Max Ehrmann
1927

The Magic of Dialogue

2010-11-22T06:47:00.000-06:00

The Magic of Dialogue

The act of collaboration must start with dialogue. You cannot build relationships without having an understanding of your potential partners, and you cannot achieve that understanding without a special form of communication that goes beyond ordinary conversation....But what is dialogue, and what can it do for us that other ways of talking cannot?... Doing dialogue takes special skills that most Americans do not yet possess.

Webster defines the purpose of dialogue as "seeking mutual understanding and harmony." I put less emphasis on harmony than the dictionary does, because the outcome of dialogue is not always harmony. In fact, as a consequence of dialogue you may come to understand why you disagree so vehemently with someone else; there will be better understanding but not necessarily more harmony.

All practitioners of dialogue emphasize that debate is the opposite of dialogue. The purpose of debate is to win an argument, to vanquish an opponent. Dialogue has very different purposes--it's about exploring common ground. Dialogue is also different from discussion. Like discussion, dialogue can take place among a larger group than two people. There are distinctive features of dialogue that differentiate it from discussion or other forms of talk.

1. Equality and the absence of coercive influences. Mixing people of unequal status and authority does not necessarily preclude dialogue, but it makes it more difficult to achieve. Dialogue becomes possible only after mutual trust has been built and the higher-ranking people have, for the occasion, removed their badges of authority and are participating as true equals.

2. Listening with empathy. The gift of empathy--the ability to think someone else's thoughts and feel someone else's feelings--is indispensable to dialogue. This is why discussion is more common than dialogue: people find it easy to express their opinions and to bat ideas back and forth with others, but most of the time they don't have either the motivation or the patience to respond empathically to opinions with which they may disagree or that they find uncongenial.

3. Bringing assumptions into the open. Unexamined assumptions are a classic route to misunderstandings and errors of judgment. Dialogue requires that participants be uninhibited in bringing their own and other participants' assumptions into the open, where, within the safe confines of the dialogue, others can respond to them without challenging them or reacting to them judgmentally.

4. Err on the side of including people who disagree. Many meetings take the form of preaching to the converted. This is because it is much easier to spend time congratulating people who agree with you on the wisdom of their views than to seek mutual understanding with people holding different views.

5. Initiate dialogue through a gesture of empathy. A gesture of empathy is probably the closest thing to an "open sesame" for dialogue. Gestures of empathy often come as a surprise. In our transactions with one another, we are so used to wearing defensive armor that expressions of empathy are unexpected--and disarming. (A gesture of empathy usually involves acknowledging the validity of the other person's point of view.)

What to focus on during a dialogue:

Minimize the level of mistrust before pursuing practical objectives. It is difficult to empathize with people you mistrust or to reveal your deepest assumptions in the presence of those you mistrust. At the same time, however, dialogue is a trust-building process. You need to incrementally establish a minimum level of trust to start a dialogue and then gradually build up enough to pursue a common objective.

Keep dialogue and decision-making compartmentalized. The most common purpose for initiating dialogue is decision-making. But the two must be kept separate or they will undermine each other. The line of demarcation between the two may be formal or informal, clear or vague, short or long. For truly difficult decisions, the act of seeking mutual understanding through dialogue should come before all of the practical constraints and clash of interests involved in practical decision-making are brought to bear.

Focus on common interests, not divisive ones.

Use specific cases to raise general issues. This strategy is exactly how most Americans bring their experiences and understanding to bear on issues. They do not formulate the beliefs, principles, and convictions they have acquired from their life experiences as abstract principles, as a moral philosopher might do. Rather, they apply them to specific cases.

Bring forth your own assumptions before speculating on those of others. If you are willing to open up first, especially if what you say about your own assumptions shows you in a vulnerable light, it will make it easier for other participants to be equally open.

Clarify assumptions that lead to subculture distortions. It is always useful to identify the main subcultures represented in a meeting and to make the effort to understand their different styles of thought and participation. (Think of the different styles among businesspeople, academics, or journalists.)

Where applicable, identify mistrust as the real source of misunderstandings. If the mistrust is not deep or personal, a reasonably straightforward strategy is simply to bring it to the surface. For instance you can say "I know that we may not fully trust each other, but let's try to talk things out for the sake of our common objective, or at least so that we can understand each other better."

Expose old scripts to a reality check. This is a special form of surfacing assumptions. We interpret events according to our own unwritten "scripts." These scripts are formed partially through individual experience and partially through the experience of organizations.

Focus on conflicts between value systems, not people. Sometimes value systems are in conflict within the same individual The best strategy is for participants to work with one another to bring conflicting value systems into the open, where they can be judged in the light of the specific issues.

Emotions play a critical role in dialogue.

Be sure trust exists before addressing transference distortions. Psychologists use the word "transference" to describe the process of projecting onto others feelings originating in earlier experiences. Transference distortions are not like other hidden assumptions--they can get very personal. Bringing them into the open can be personally threatening and should be avoided unless a relationship of trust preexists the dialogue or is developed within it.

When appropriate, express the emotions that accompany strongly held values. Dialogue is never a mere technical or deliberative exercise. Dialogue always reaches into deep pockets of personal convictions and fundamental values. If the status quo is to be subject to question, strong feelings are bound to surface.

Encourage relationships in order to humanize transactions.

The Magic

The very process of dialogue has a "civilizing" influence. Dialogue binds us together as communities. To engage in genuine dialogue is to create and strengthen such values of civil society as: building trust in one another.

If the values of reciprocity, stewardship, responsibility, citizenship, civic virtue, and love describe various facets of how we take care of one another in a civil society, it matters a great deal whether we like, respect, trust, and understand one another or stereotype, distance, distort, and mistrust one another....The magic of dialogue is that it really does enhance respect and acceptance of others, thereby creating community and social capital.

Debate - Assuming that there is a right answer and you have it.
Dialogue - Assuming that many people have pieces of the answer and that together they can craft a solution.

Debate - Combative: participants attempt to prove the other side wrong.
Dialogue - Collaborative: participants work together toward common understanding.

Debate - About winning
Dialogue - About exploring common ground.

Debate - Listening to find flaws and make counterarguments.
Dialogue - Listening to understand, find meaning and agreement.

Debate - Defending assumptions as truth.
Dialogue - Revealing assumptions for reevaluation.

Debate - Critiquing the other side's position.
Dialogue - Reexamining all positions.

Debate - Defending one's own views against those of others.
Dialogue - Admitting that others' thinking can improve on one's own.

Debate - Searching for flaws and weaknesses in other positions
Dialogue - Searching for strengths and value in others' positions.

Debate - Seeking a conclusion or vote that ratifies your position.
Dialogue - Discovering new options, not seeking closure.

Excerpted from, Yankelovich, Daniel. The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Conflict into Cooperation. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999

2010-11-18T14:23:00.001-06:00

The Agnostic's Prayer

2010-10-15T17:02:00.000-05:00

Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness.

Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit.

I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony.

Amen.

(Roger Zelazny, Creatures of Light and Darkness)

test

2010-08-30T07:09:00.002-05:00

Site under reconstruction. Please watch your step and ignor the mess

Research Freeware Stuff

2010-02-27T11:13:00.010-06:00

Do much Web research? Use Firefox? I do both. I also surf a lot. And publish on a BB Code forum or 2., in addition to 2 blogs. Here are some tools I consider indispensable.

First, a few Windows utilities.

Yankee Clipper.

This is a clipboard manager. It resides in the Taskbar, somewhere around the Clock. It takes few resources (5,000k).

Consider, you are on a Web page researching, there's a link you want, 3 separate paragraphs, and a sentence, or 2. The Windows Copy function will let you copy any 1 of them. YC lets you copy all of them. In fact, up to 200 items can be copied and saved.

Now, you're writing up that research and you want to include that one of those paragraphs, and reference it with the link. No problem. Click on the YC Icon, and there they are, last copy first order. Pick the paragraph you want, and drag it where you want it. Same with the link. Some things on the Web, like Flash, don't like "Drag and drop". That's OK too. YC offers a function called "Shoot". Where you select an item, then click where you want it.

Got some stuff you paste often, or just want to save without cluttering up the Main Window? YC offers user defined storage called Boilerplates. They are just folders created by YC, that you move your copies into. With just a click. I have a few things I use regularly. Some not at all related to others. YC lets you creat multiple Boilerplates with unique names. I have 7. One has personal info in it. If I'm writing a letter, I call up that Boilerplate called Personal, and drag a copy of my name and address to the top of the letter.

TinySpell

An incredibly small (3,400k), Spell checker that also resides in the System Tray as an Icon. You're typing along, and you misspell a word. TS will change color and optionally "Ding" to alert you. Click it, and it brings up a list of suggestions. On most applications, clicking on a suggestion will automatically replace the misspelled word with the correct one. Most applications. Flash doesn't like it either. And a few Windows apps. It will still alert you, and give you the correct spelling. You just have to do the correction manually.

Moffsoft FreeCalc

A stripped down calculator. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Windows calculator has. In fact, it's really basic. It does have two features that are great (at least to me). First, a "Tape feature" that displays your operations. Just like a real adding machine. You can go back and look at your input. You can copy off the "tape" and also save the "Tape" as a text file. Just like a real paper tape. And second, it displays the current value in memory.

Komposer Portable

I write HTML for the Web. This post for instance. And regular text for everything else. Komposer is a "WYSIWYG" HTML editor. An enormous amount of features. Too many to go into here. I've tried a bunch of HTML editors and this is IT.

PolyEdit Lite

A nice light, portable word processor. I've got Word Perfect and MS Works installed. But, this is what I use. Doesn't have a lot of those goodies for desktop publishing, doesn't import spreadsheets, doesn't do a lot of the stuff the "Big guns" do. But if all you want to do is type up a report, and some standard enhancements like font colors, italics, bold, underline, sub/super script, links, or tables, etc. It does that. And does it very well. It saves files as TXT, RTF, and DOC's. Anybody can open and read an RTF. Some things require a DOC format, it does that.

Firefox Extensions

CoLT.

Right click a link, the Main Context menu comes up, on it is a selection, "Copy Link text and Location As". Pointing at it gives you more options;

HTML Link

Plain Text

BB Code

Right click on a blank part of the page,. Up comes "Copy Page Title and Location As". Same options. If you're using Yankee Clipper from above, this makes life much easier.

LinkWalker.

Every come across a web address you want to look at,that's not a link, just a text reference? Like this; http://illegitmi-non-carborundum.blogspot.com/? You can highlight and copy. then paste it into the address box. Where it will over write the page you're on. Or you can open a new tab, then paste it, then open it. Or, you can highlight it, right click, select LinkWalker. And LinkWalker will make it a link.

Copy Plain Text.

Ever copy something off the Web, then paste it, and get all the formating that went with it? The Font type or size that doesn't match everything else? Copy Plain Text does just what it says. Copies the text, leaves all the formating behind.

Scrapbook.

Scrapbook is a lot like bookmarks. You right click on a page and you "Bookmark this page" or "Capture this page". If you chose to Bookmark it, Firefox will ask where. If you chose to Capture it, Scrapbook will ask where? At that point the comparison ends. If you Bookmark a page, you simply save that page's address. The author can change it, or take it down altogether. If you Capture a page, Scrapbook copies all the HTML that makes the page. It then stores it on your PC. It still works, It can't be taken down, it' can't be changed.

Did I mention it's all free?

Corporations as People?

2010-02-18T19:22:00.003-06:00

Whenever a gun control measure of any kind comes along, no matter how minor or commonsense, gun rights advocates have an extremely compeling arguement. “Where does it stop?”.

I ask the same. Will Acme, Inc go before the court and say, “You’ve acknowledged us as a person. Given us the right to directly attempt to influence public policy. As a person we should have the right to vote, also. And since we have 3,000 employees, we should have 3,000 votes”.

Farfetched? Maybe. Remember this Court has members that would allow the innocent to be executed, as long as all the trial procedures were followed. Innocence be damned.

The Court's order in Davis was not unanimous, however. Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Thomas, dissented. Justice Scalia said that even if the district court were to find Davis to be innocent, there would still be nothing unlawful about executing him. Did the Supreme Court Recognize an Innocent Person's Right Not to Be Executed? .

This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent. dissented

From a local forum:

The real complaint against the supreme court decision is the fear that the American people are too dumb to sort through facts and reach a sound decision, with the election of 0bama I'd tend to agree but the last year has shown that the American people are fast learners.

With the raise of the “Birthers”, the “ Tenthers”, the “One World Order” and the “Towers were blown up by government” conspiracies, and all the other wingnut ideas on the left and the right. One might question the assertion. I don’t.

I think the American people are pretty sharp. I also think that politically, they are either gullible, lazy, or don’t have the time to get the facts and make that sound decision.

Getting the facts is work, it takes time.

It involves looking at every assertion with scepticism. It is especially important to have that scepticism, when that soundbite from MSNBC or Fox agrees with you.

It means not Fox or MSNBC exclusively. It means not just Rush, or not just Schultz. Not World Net Daily or The Huffington Post.

That article in The Washington Post or The Washington Times, that article that so grandly agrees with you, or so soundly damns the opposition requires some investigation. Especially the later. It takes following links to sources, It takes a Google search or 3. It takes time and energy.

The waters of politics are always muddy at best. How badly will they get when things such as this are put into practice by companies with more money then a lot countries? When Exxon-Mobil can outspend the entire 2008 presidential with only 42 hours of profit? Exxon Mobil Profit Sets Record Again - New York Times 2008 Campaign Price Tag: $195 Million in Political Ads - Washington Wire - WSJ

10) How will corporations likely take advantage of their opportunity to make independent political expenditures?

Just because a corporation may make an independent direct advocacy expenditure doesn't mean that it should. Since the entity or entities financing independent expenditures must be disclosed, a corporation leading the way against a particular candidate risks alienating a significant block of its potential customer or shareholder base. Moreover, upon the first major corporate-funded public communications airing, media coverage is likely to focus on the corporation's involvement in the campaign rather than the content of any advocacy. Therefore, most corporations will probably proceed cautiously.

If such independent expenditures are made, groups of corporations within an industry may form coalitions or use existing trade associations to support candidates favorable to policy positions that affect the group as a whole. While corporations that contribute to these expenditures might still be disclosed, this indirect approach can provide sufficient cover such that no single contributing entity receives the bulk of public scrutiny.

Corporations could further lower their profile in such cases by not making contributions specific to a particular expenditure by that third-party corporation. Such independent expenditures can also take the form of advertisements in "under-the radar" sources, such as ideologically-based talk radio, web-based ads or phone banks. Since state and local laws preventing corporate political expenditures will also likely be repealed as a result of Citizens United, small corporations may also become involved in state and local races through regional media. K&L Gates : Newsstand : Citizens United: Questions and Answers

If an informed citizenry is the answer. It must be followed by,” Informed by whom”

Damn Taxes

2010-02-16T11:31:00.008-06:00

Lot of talk about the terribleness of the President’s proposal to let president Bush’s tax cuts expire for the 2 top brackets. Mostly as sound bites, or their print / Web equivalent. It seems that the loudest of them oppose it. Either because it's being touted as a screw-the-rich scheme. Or oppose it based on the proposition that since tax cuts create jobs, any increase is a job killer. And in fact, they should be lowered.

Part 1. Screw the Rich

Just who would be effected by this? And just how terrible is the effect?

First, who are effected ?
    For 2007;
       Percent of population falling into the 33% bracket = 1.2
     Percent of population falling into the 35% bracket = 0.7
    (Latest numbers I can find, source; Tax Policy Center ) .

   For convenience, call it 2%. 2 percent.

Second, how are they effected ? Let’s examine just the 33% bracket. We’ll use a single person, everthing is done. All the adjustments are complete. The amounts used are the bottom line. Line 43 in fact. “Total Taxable Income”

To begin with, increasing the $250 K bracket from 33% to 35% is not an increase $82,500 to $87,500. In fact, the 2009 tax on $250K is $72,643 (Source; 2009 Tax Computation Worksheet for Line 44 ). Using the bracket rate as any kind of guage is highly misleading since it only covers the amount inside the bracket. For example, the 2009, 33% bracket covers $171,550 to $372,950.Amounts below that are taxed at the lower rates, and amounts above it are taxed at the higher rates. This is important, and is almost always omitted, or glossed over.

How important? From the same form, the top end of the 28% bracket is $171,549. The tax liability on that is $41,753.72. Adding $3, we jump 5%, into the dreaded 33% bracket. The tax liability on $171,552 is $41,755.16.

Look at that. An increase of 5%, and an increase of $1.16. WHAT? A $1.16 tax on $3.00? That’s a lot! Almost 50%. But, not really. It’s a $1.16 increase on the total tax. Think of it this way;

          . Another way to express it is as a percentage of his taxable income. Tax/Income, or
   Mr. A has an income of $171,549 and tax of $41, 753      41,753 / 171,549 = 24.338%.
         Mr. B has an income of $171,552 and tax of $41,755.      41,755 / 171,552 = 24.339%.
                           That’s not 5%. That’s a whopping 0.001%.

That bracket specifies: (“Taxable Income” X 33%) - $14,857.50 = Amount Owed. The $14,857.50 is the offset amount that has been attributed to the tax due on the lower brackets, inflation, and cost of living adjustments.

Using that formula on three taxable incomes in that bracket results in;
        Amount = Tax
      $171,550 = $ 41,754.50
      $272,250 = $ 74,985.50
      $372,950 = $108,216.50

Remembering that “Taxable income” is the gross income minus all the deductions, exceptions, credits, etc. And assuming that the above amounts reflect none of those, dividing the tax by the income results in the “Effective Tax” as a percentage of income. So, the person that has no deductions, no exceptions, no credits and no etc, with an income of $171,550, $272,250, and $372,950 pays repectively, 24.3, 27.5, and 29.1 percent in taxes. As you factor in the deductions and such, those percentages become even less.

If we plug the 35% proposed rollback rate into that formula we get;
       $272,250 = $ 80,430
       $372,950 = $115,675
And an effective rate of 29.5% and 31.1%

Proposed effective rate on $272,250............29.5
Current effective rate on $272,250...............27.5
                                             Difference = 02.0%

Is 2 cents on the dollar onerous? Are the wealthy getting screwed? I suppose it all depends on your point of view. If you buy a 1 dollar item, the tax is 2 cents and you only have $2.00, you will have 49% of your money left. You can’t even buy 2. If you have $8.00, you will have 87.25% left. You can buy 3 and have money left over. ($272,250 is 4 times the 2007 median income of $67,609. Source; HINC-06--Part1 ) .

Some further reading;
A very interesting comment on Effective Tax is here; Buffett Slams Tax System Disparities
A discussion of Marginal and Average (Effective) taxes is here; Marginal and average tax rate

Part 2. "Effects Employment?" to come

2010-01-25T03:53:00.004-06:00

1.    We admit we were oppressed by religion and that our lives had become incomprehensible and unmanageable under the guise of faith.

2.    We came to understand through common sense, education and critical thinking that our own inner strength can restore us to sanity and help us break free of the tyranny of religion.

3.    We made a decision to accept complete responsibility for our lives and our will, instead of giving that free will to a god that never made sense.

4.    We made a fearless searching inventory of ourselves and our beliefs, and discarded what was not logical and not ours.

5.    We admitted to ourselves and others the true nature of our beliefs, stripped of the lies of faith and religion.

6.    We were entirely ready to remove the illogical defects of skewed faith from our beliefs through education, common sense and critical thought.

7.    We humbly realized we are all human and make mistakes, and take personal responsibility for our shortcomings, and strive to be a good person.

8.    We made a list of all beliefs that have harmed us and those around us, and willingly removed them from our lives.

9.    We made direct amends to all persons we tried to control with religious indoctrination.

10.    We continue to take personal inventory of ourselves and our beliefs through logical thinking, and when we are wrong, learn from our mistakes and correct them accordingly.

11.    We sought through education and critical thinking to improve our understanding of our developing beliefs and disconnection from religion, empowering ourselves to carry out our renunciation of faith.

12.    Having had an intellectual awakening as a result of these steps, we carry our lack of faith humbly and consciously, and offer to educate others when they are ready to break free of the tyranny of religion, and to practice these principles in all our affairs..

2010-01-04T07:32:00.005-06:00

I suspect a lot of people use Firefox as it comes directly out of the "Box". Functionally, the bare bones Firefox works great but, it can be improved. In fact that's one of the neater things about it. Out of the box looks ugly as sin, though. It hurts my eyes and is sorta awkward for me.

That's mine. Fairly pleasing to the eyes. And damn little wasted space. Very much mouse friendly too. Compare the Before;

With the After;

This post will describe how it was done and why. Almost everything done is flexible and can be modified to taste.
Starting with the Theme.

I use Aquatint Black. I like the look and the smallish buttons. This is a matter of taste. All the FF themes can be found here . And Aquatint Black can be found here.
I don't use a Homepage. It was a habit I got into during my dial-up access time. Eliminating the homepage (and pictures) was a necessity in order to get things going. I prefer it now. If you chose to have a Blank Page though, it tends to open with a great glaring white nothingness. Ugly.

That's where the Slate background comes in. It is courtesy of an Extension called Stylish. More info on styles is here, Here is the code that I use;

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@-moz-document url("about:blank") {

* {
padding: 0px;
margin: 0px;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
overflow: hidden;
background-color: #646D7E !important;
}
}
You can insert and color you wish though. A good chart of color codes is here. A word of caution. the color you chose will be the default color background for everything. All the dropdown menus, even my Yahoo mail is effected. make sure your font color is compatible. A black font on a blck background isn't real good.

Things that are gone, Part 1.

The Menu Bar is gone. It was replaced by the Compact Menu extension. A right click on it, gives all the choices that the Menu bar gave. Plus a left click will bring up the View menu, for any custom toolbars installed.

The Bookmarks Toolbar is gone. It was replaced by the Bookmarks Menu extension.

The Status bar is gone, the Status Bar icons as well. It's hidden by the AutoHide StatusBar extension.

Things that are gone, Part 2.

Here's where it get's a little difficult. You'll have to insert some code into a folder on your PC.

First, find the folder. It's called Userchrome.css . It's in your Firefox Profile folder.
The easiest way to get to it, is to copy this;
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
Then, in the Main Menu (Click Start), then click Run, then paste it into the box and click.

There will be a file with a screwy name, like
j4h4cr3m.default
The "default" extension is the one, if there's more then one.

Open it. Inside will be a list of folders & files. One folder will be named Chrome. Open it.
A file inside will be called "userChrome.CSS". This is where the code goes.

Open it, using Notepad. Then, without doing anything, back it up. Do a Save As, and call it 1userChrome.CSS. Close Notepad. Then open userChrome.CSS again.

Now for the code.

/* Remove the Bookmark star in Address bar */
#star-button { display: none !important; }

/* Remove live feed icon in Address */
#feed-button { display: none !important; }

/* Combine Stop & Reload into one single button : MUST HAVE BOTH BUTTON ON YOUR GUI, SIDE BY SIDE, STOP FIRST THEN RELOAD !! */
#stop-button[disabled="true"] { display:none; !important }
#stop-button:not([disabled]) + #reload-button { display:none; !important }

/* remove recent pages button */
#back-forward-dropmarker {display:none !important}

/* Remove the New tab Button*/
.tabs-newtab-button {display: none;}

Just copy and paste one or more of codes snippets into your UserChrome file and save.

God is a hard act to follow

2009-12-20T10:13:00.000-06:00

For Melly

2009-11-30T17:15:00.000-06:00

A friend in the Unhooked.com chat room asked me about making her PC run better, faster. That was a little too complicated for chat. So, I told her I'd post on it here.

Here's to you Melly.

Some PC maintenance tips and software.

A happy PC is a junk free and non-diseased PC. This is the stuff I use, and the way I use it. Although the procedure may vary from week to week. Or, even day to day. At least once a month, I do the following. The following assumes you have a good anti-virus and firewall program running.

A: Empty the Recycle Bin. Or sort it by date, and throw out the older stuff you think is really junk. This is optional but a good idea.

B: If everything has been running well, clear out and refresh the System Restore. This is accomplished by:

Click "Start", "Control Panel", "System", the "System Restore" tab.
Check the "Turn System Restore Off" box. A warning window will come up. Click "OK"
Click "Apply"
Click "OK" when it highlights.
Close all the windows.
Then repeat Steps 1 - 4, only Uncheck the"Turn off" box.
Close everything.
Click "Start", "All Programs", Accessories", "System Tools", "System Restore"
Follow the instructions to creat a new System Restore point.
You're done.

C: Do a through Registry backup. Download and install ERUNT and NTREGOPT. Then run only ERUNT. ERUNT is an extremely thorough Registry backup program that's easy to use.

********You really shouldn't have anything except the listed programs running from here on. Especially during the Defrag.************

D: Download, install, and run CCleaner.

It will come up in "Clean" mode, with every box checked. Personally, because I run Firefox as a browser, under the "Windows" tab I clean (Have checked) everything in the Internet Explorer section. Everything in the System section except the Recycle Bin and the Shortcuts. And nothing in the Advanced section, except "Old Prefetch Data". On the "Applications" tab, I clean everything except Cookies, History and Saved Forms in the Firefox section.
Click "Analyze" to see your junk.
Click "Run cleaner" Then "OK" at the Warning. Wait til complete.
Click "Registry" button at left.
I clean everything except Unused File Extensions.
Scan for Issues. I have the "Problem" column box checked. This automatically selects all problems. You may uncheck any you want.
Fix Selected Issues.
Yes, back up.
A couple more "yes" clicks, and you're done.

E: Download, install, and run RegScrub XP.

Let RegScrub Find Problems
Select All or Some.
RegScrub does an automatic backup
You're done.

F: Download and install Defraggler. This is a fairly fast and friendly hard disk defragmentation tool. A word on defragging. The more often you do it, the less time it takes. Conversely, the longer you wait to do it, the longer it takes. Stuff will be shuffling all over your hard disk during this process, it's best to do nothing until it's complete.

Analyze button. To see how bad it is
View Files button
Select the files you wish to defrag. The Box next to the Filename column will select all, suggested.
Defrag. This may or may not take a bunch of time, be patient
Done.

********A note on Defraggler, I like it and run it once a week, mostly cause it's fast. But, once a month, I'll run it, followed by the built in XP defrag program. The XP defrag does a better job compacting files toward the front. In my opinion*********

G. Run NTREGOPT (Line C, remember?). This will do for your Registry, what defragging does for your hard drive.

H. Restart your PC. You're done

2009-10-30T09:35:00.010-05:00

It's Halloween and time for a report from that most holy of places, that place revered by the residents of Planet Wingnuttia, inhabited by the true batshit crazy, the moon that can only be seen looking over the right shoulder and is always full;

Loony.

Halloween is Satan's Holy Day and Candy Is How Demons Steal Your Soul

From Pat Robertson's CBN we have this;

[ During Halloween, time-released curses are always loosed. A time-released curse is a period that has been set aside to release demonic activity and to ensnare souls in great measure ... During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings. For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches.

I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference. ]

They've taken down the page at CBN. But,reposted on Charisma and the cached page is here. The entire thing is quite a read.

Bible Burning. Invitation Only!!

And what would Halloween be, without a great fire? Burning all those things Satanic. And exposing those that preach Satan's Word?

From The Amazing Grace Baptist Church and complete with fried chicken and all the fixin's.

A bible, book, CD, record, tape and damn near anything (And everything) else deemed evil will be burned at the invitation only event.

From Amygdala there's this description:

[ Pastor Marc Grizzard claims the King James version of the Bible is the only true word of God, and that all other versions are "satanic" and "perversions" of God's word.

On Halloween night, Grizzard and the 14 members of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church will set fire to other versions of the scripture, as well as music and books by Christian authors. ]

It really Must be read to be appreciated. The thing in it's entirety is gone from the site but, not the Google cache here. Warning: Eyesight Alert

2009-10-26T16:34:00.006-05:00

Play the clip, it says it all

2009-10-24T10:40:00.000-05:00

2009-10-20T07:10:00.009-05:00

Paul Krugman, explains BDS at the N.Y.Times. At long last, there's a name for what ailed me all those years. What a relief.

The Glen Beck Chart at Media Matters

The full moon never sets for Planet Wingnuttia; New World Order crowd and Saudi lobbi are working overtime ......Jimmy Carter got a Noble Peace Prize and he is known as a Saudi Money stooge who shamelessly appeared on TV, showed zero integrity and claimed that all criticism of Obama is racially motivated. After hearing this idiocy, do you still believe in High IQ and moral integrity of people getting Noble Piece Prize? (Not my spelling, straight cut 'n paste job).

From Neece at Heaving Dead Cats comes this little Rapture nugget; The Rapture Index. And this one; Eternal Earth-Bound Pets

Holy Shit !

2009-10-19T07:28:00.004-05:00

From USA Today, Jonathan Turley writes:

Just Say No To Blasphemy

Perhaps in an effort to rehabilitate the United States’ image in the Muslim world, the Obama administration has joined a U.N. effort to restrict religious speech. This country should never sacrifice freedom of expression on the altar of religion.

By Jonathan Turley

Around the world, free speech is being sacrificed on the altar of religion. Whether defined as hate speech, discrimination or simple blasphemy, governments are declaring unlimited free speech as the enemy of freedom of religion. This growing movement has reached the United Nations, where religiously conservative countries received a boost in their campaign to pass an international blasphemy law. It came from the most unlikely of places: the United States.

While attracting surprisingly little attention, the Obama administration supported the effort of largely Muslim nations in the U.N. Human Rights Council to recognize exceptions to free speech for any "negative racial and religious stereotyping." The exception was made as part of a resolution supporting free speech that passed this month, but it is the exception, not the rule that worries civil libertarians. Though the resolution was passed unanimously, European and developing countries made it clear that they remain at odds on the issue of protecting religions from criticism. It is viewed as a transparent bid to appeal to the "Muslim street" and our Arab allies, with the administration seeking greater coexistence through the curtailment of objectionable speech. Though it has no direct enforcement (and is weaker than earlier versions), it is still viewed as a victory for those who sought to juxtapose and balance the rights of speech and religion.

A 'misused' freedom? In the resolution, the administration aligned itself with Egypt, which has long been criticized for prosecuting artists, activists and journalists for insulting Islam. For example, Egypt recently banned a journal that published respected poet Helmi Salem merely because one of his poems compared God to a villager who feeds ducks and milks cows. The Egyptian ambassador to the U.N., Hisham Badr, wasted no time in heralding the new consensus with the U.S. that "freedom of expression has been sometimes misused" and showing that the "true nature of this right" must yield government limitations.

His U.S. counterpart, Douglas Griffiths, heralded "this joint project with Egypt" and supported the resolution to achieve "tolerance and the dignity of all human beings." While not expressly endorsing blasphemy prosecutions, the administration departed from other Western allies in supporting efforts to balance free speech against the protecting of religious groups.

Thinly disguised blasphemy laws are often defended as necessary to protect the ideals of tolerance and pluralism. They ignore the fact that the laws achieve tolerance through the ultimate act of intolerance: criminalizing the ability of some individuals to denounce sacred or sensitive values. We do not need free speech to protect popular thoughts or popular people. It is designed to protect those who challenge the majority and its institutions. Criticism of religion is the very measure of the guarantee of free speech — the literal sacred institution of society.

Blasphemy prosecutions in the West appear to have increased after the riots by Muslims following the publication of cartoons disrespecting prophet Mohammed in Denmark in 2005. Rioters killed Christians, burned churches and called for the execution of the cartoonists. While Western countries publicly defended free speech, some quietly moved to deter those who'd cause further controversies through unpopular speech.

In Britain, it is a crime to "abuse" or "threaten" a religion under the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006. A 15-year-old boy was charged last year for holding up a sign outside a Scientology building declaring, "Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult. "In France, famed actress Brigitte Bardot was convicted for saying in 2006 that Muslims were ruining France in a letter to then-Interior Minister (and now President) Nicolas Sarkozy. This year, Ireland joined this self-destructive trend with a blasphemy law that calls for the prosecution of anyone who writes or utters views deemed "grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage."

'Blasphemy' incidents Consider just a few such Western "blasphemy" cases in the past two years:

• In Holland, Dutch prosecutors arrested cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot for insulting Christians and Muslims with cartoons, including one that caricatured a Christian fundamentalist and a Muslim fundamentalist as zombies who want to marry and attend gay rallies.
• In Canada, the Alberta human rights commission punished the Rev. Stephen Boission and the Concerned Christian Coalition for anti-gay speech, not only awarding damages but also censuring future speech that the commission deems inappropriate.
• In Italy, comedian Sabina Guzzanti was put under criminal investigation for joking at a rally that "in 20 years, the pope will be where he ought to be — in hell, tormented by great big poofter (gay) devils, and very active ones."
• In London, an aide to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was arrested for "inciting religious hatred" at his gym by shouting obscenities about Jews while watching news reports of Israel's bombardment of Gaza.Also, Dutch politician Geert Wilders was barred from entering Britain as a "threat to public policy, public security or public health" because he made a movie describing the Quran as a "fascist" book and Islam as a violent religion.
• In Poland, Catholic magazine Gosc Niedzielny was fined $11,000 for inciting "contempt, hostility and malice"by comparing the abortion of a woman to the medical experiments at Auschwitz.

The "blasphemy" cases include the prosecution of writers for calling Mohammed a "pedophile" because of his marriage to 6-year-old Aisha (which was consummated when she was 9). A far-right legislator in Austria, a publisher in India and a city councilman in Finland have been prosecuted for repeating this view of the historical record.

In the flipside of the cartoon controversy, Dutch prosecutors this year have brought charges against the Arab European League for a cartoon questioning the Holocaust.

What's next? Private companies and institutions are following suit in what could be seen as responding to the Egyptian-U.S. call for greater "responsibility" in controlling speech. For example, in an act of unprecedented cowardice and self-censorship, Yale University Press published The Cartoons That Shook the World, a book by Jytte Klausen on the original Mohammed cartoons. Yale, however, (over Klausen's objections) cut the actual pictures of the cartoons. It was akin to publishing a book on the Sistine Chapel while barring any images of the paintings.
The public and private curtailment on religious criticism threatens religious and secular speakers alike. However, the fear is that, when speech becomes sacrilegious, only the religious will have true free speech. It is a danger that has become all the more real after the decision of the Obama administration to join in the effort to craft a new faith-based speech standard. It is now up to Congress and the public to be heard before the world leaves free speech with little more than a hope and a prayer.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic

2009-10-18T05:45:00.005-05:00

The War Prayer

Mark Twain

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came—next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams—visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation

*God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!*

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside—which the startled minister did—and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

"I come from the Throne—bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import—that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of—except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two—one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this—keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer—the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it—that part which the pastor—and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle—be Thou near them! With them—in spirit—we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it—for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(After a pause.) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

2009-10-17T11:38:00.006-05:00

That's mine. Fairly pleasing to the eyes. And damn little wasted space. Very much mouse friendly too. Compare the Before;

With the After;

This post will describe how it was done and why. Almost everything done is flexible and can be modified to taste.....

Starting with the Theme.
I use Aquatint Black. I like the look and the smallish buttons. This is a matter of taste. All the FF themes can be found here . And Aquatint Black can be found here.
I don't use a Homepage. It was a habit I got into during my dial-up access time. Eliminating the homepage (and pictures) was a necessity in order to get things going. I prefer it now. If you chose to have a Blank Page though, it tends to open with a great glaring white nothingness. Ugly.
That's where the Slate background comes in. It is courtesy of an Extension called Stylish. More info on styles is here, Here is the code that I use;

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);
@-moz-document url("about:blank") {
* {
padding: 0px;
margin: 0px;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
overflow: hidden;
background-color: #646D7E !important;
}
}
You can insert and color you wish though. A good chart of color codes is here. A word of caution. the color you chose will be the default color background for everything. All the dropdown menus, even my Yahoo mail is effected. Make sure your font color is compatible. A black font on a black background isn't real good.
Things that are gone, Part 1.

The Menu Bar is gone. It was replaced by the Compact Menuextension. A right click on it, gives all the choices that the Menu bar gave. Plus a left click will bring up the View menu, for any custom toolbars installed.
The Bookmarks Toolbar is gone. It was replaced by the Bookmarks Menuextension.
The Status bar is gone, the Status Bar icons as well. It's hidden by the AutoHideStatusBar extension.
Things that are gone, Part 2.

Here's where it get's a little difficult. You'll have to insert some code into a folder on your PC.
First, find the folder. It's called Userchrome.css . It's in your Firefox Profile folder.
The easiest way to get to it, is to copy this;
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
Then, in the Main Menu (Click Start), then click Run, then paste it into the box and click.

There will be a file with a screwy name, like
j4h4cr3m.default
The "default" extension is the one, if there's more then one.

Open it. Inside will be a list of folders & files. One folder will be named Chrome. Open it.
A file inside will be called "userChrome.CSS". This is where the code goes.
Open it, using Notepad. Then, without doing anything, back it up. Do a Save As, and call it 1userChrome.CSS. Close Notepad. Then open userChrome.CSS again.

Now for the code.

The rest

The Morning Read

2009-10-13T06:06:00.001-05:00

This from Garrison Keillor;

Conservatives and liberals can agree on the basics -- that the nation wallows in debt, that it is shortsighted of the states to cut back on the most essential work of government which is the education of the young, and that somehow we have got to become a more productive nation and less consumptive -- but the ruffles and flourishes of Washington seem ever more irrelevant to the crises we face. When an entire major party has excused itself from meaningful debate and a thoughtful U.S. senator like Orrin Hatch no longer finds it important to make sense and an up-and-comer like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty attacks the president for giving a speech telling schoolchildren to work hard in school and get good grades, one starts to wonder if the country wouldn't be better off without them and if Republicans should be cut out of the health-care system entirely and simply provided with aspirin and hand sanitizer. Thirty-two percent of the population identifies with the GOP, and if we cut off health care to them, we could probably pay off the deficit in short order. Read entire article HERE

Sometimes the title says it all.

David Neiwert at Crooks & Liars;
Glennbeckians protest outside school full of kindergartners because they didn't like Obama song

Jim Hightower;
Goofing up health care reform

Robert Reich;
The Audacity of Greed: How Private Health Insurers Just Blew Their Cover

Elyse Siegel at HuffPo

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/jindal-fires-state-employ_n_315631.html at HuffPoat HuffPo

Jindal Fires State Employee Day After She Criticized Him

The Twelve Steps of Overserious Anonymous

2009-10-12T10:13:00.000-05:00

1. We admitted that we were powerless over seriousness--that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that only by lightening up could we achieve a state of non-seriousness.

3. Made a decision to turn our constant self-criticism over to our sense of humor and learn to--lovingly and wholeheartedly--laugh at ourselves.

4. Decided to give ourselves a break once in a while, instead of constantly doing searching and fearless moral inventories of ourselves.

5. Admitted to ourselves and another human being that our wrongs were often in our heads.

6. Were entirely ready to accept that our characters were as good as anybody else's and possibly better than most.

7. Quit harping on our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we thought we had harmed and saw that they'd forgotten all the crap we'd blown out of proportion.

9. Quit making amends for breathing air and taking up a few square feet of the planet's surface.

10. Resigned ourselves to the fact we were going to criticize ourselves at times, but would try to stick to our guns when we knew we were right.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to calm down and realize we're not responsible for everything.

12. Having experienced immense relief from these steps, we would try to carry this message to other overly-serious people and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.

Real ID? Real Stupid

2009-10-08T08:12:00.001-05:00

OK. You've got ID, "Real I.D.", the kind that let's you do stuff. Fly, among other things. Right? Well, maybe. Does it say, for instance, that you're Joe Smith? Got reservations for Joseph Smith? Opps, not a match, won't work. Oh, you do have ID that says you're Joseph Smith. No middle name or initial? Good. The ID says you're Joseph J. Smith? Bad, not a match. Bummer

James Fallows over at the Atlantic has a great column describing I.D. stupidity and the T.S.A at it's best. TSA: bringing us ever closer to China!

Freeware Utilities Pt. 1

2009-10-08T04:52:00.004-05:00

A few nice to have utility programs. Not the kind you'll run everyday but, the kind that's really nice to have on hand. A few are portable. For me, a couple are indispensable. Like Revo, an uninstall tool. And Convert, a tool to convert damn near any units you can imagine.

Nail it This program runs in the system tray and allows you to make windows "sticky", so that they remain above other windows. This is useful for keeping read me files visible while installing software, keeping floating clocks in sight, and lots of other uses. NOTE: This is an old program and the author's site doesn't exist anymore. The above link is a direct download

Tiny Spell Occasionally you need to check spelling in an application that does not include a spelling checker and you don't want to launch your word processor just for that.

Convert Convert is a free and easy to use unit conversion program that will convert the most popular units of distance, temperature, volume, time, speed, mass, power, density, pressure, energy and many others, including the ability to create custom conversions!

Q-Dir Four pane file management. Explorer on steroids.

Revo Uninstaller Uninstall software and remove unwanted programs installed on your computer even if you have problems uninstalling and cannot uninstall them from "Windows Add or Remove Programs" control panel applet.

Groucho Marx was a republican. Honest

2009-10-07T12:24:00.011-05:00

I don't know what they have to say,
It makes no difference anyway,
Whatever it is, I'm against it.
No matter what it is or who commenced it,
I'm against it.

Your proposition may be good,
But let's have one thing understood, Whatever it is,
I'm against it.

And even when you've changed it or condensed it,
I'm against it.

I'm opposed to it,
On general principle, I'm opposed to it.

For months before my son was born,
I used to yell from night to morn,
Whatever it is, I'm against it.
And I've kept yelling since I first commenced it,
I'm against it!

Thanks to the Washington Monthly

Some nice freeware

2009-10-05T08:37:00.001-05:00

Here are a few utilities that I can't do without. They're loaded at start up, sit in the System Notification Tray as icons, next to the clock, and use very few resources. FreeRam XP Pro This is a RAM freeing program, and a RAM monitor. XP is supposed to release all unused RAM after a program is closed but, it doesn't always do it. This will. Either as a manual operation, or automatically. In addition, it will display the amount of RAM that is currently available.

PTFB Push The Frickin Button. Got an annoying popup splash window? Something that asks the same damn question, all the damn time? For instance, I play Spider Solitaire. Whenever I want to start a new game, it asks "Do you want to save?". Never. With PTFB , the No button is pressed automatically. Works with those, "Do you want to update?" damn things too.

Yankee Clipper A clipboard manager. I do a lot of copying and pasting.With Yankee Clipper I can stack the clipboard with up to 200 entries. It will save them by type (Text, Pictures RTF, URL, and All Formats). In addition, you can save them permanently, in User defined catagories.

TrayIt Nice little program that lets you Minimize a Window to the Tray. Either temporarily or permanently.

DriveGLEAM I like to keep an eye on my hard drive operation. Unfortunately, the LED on my PC is in a terrible location for me to do that. DriveGLEAM displays all my hard drive activity, ( RED = write, GREEN = read, YELLOW = read+write and finaly BLUE = idle) right on my monitor.

Support your insurance Co.

2009-10-04T11:53:00.001-05:00

I keep hearing it. The Public Mandate. Let's make everyone buy insurance. We'll give them some kind of break to buy it. And we'll punish anyone who doesn't. It's no different from car insurance. Everyone has to buy it. Wrong!

First, while 49 states require car insurance, Tennesee doesn't. One entire state removed from the everyone catagory.

Second, there are people that choose not to drive. Like 1/3 of New York City (Pop. 8,363,710. Number of drivers; 3,286,899).

The people without a drivers license in those states that require insurance for one.

The people without a car.

The people that can't be licensed for one reason or another. D.U.I. convictions, the blind.

Everyone has car insurance? Everyone?

Some Security Freeware

2009-10-03T11:12:00.003-05:00

A few security programs I've used for years. They work well. Three I have running at start up, the rest I run as needed. Usually, every couple of weeks.

First up is Panda Cloud. I replaced AVG with it and I'm very pleased. It actually runs of the Web and requires little space or resources. Does auto-updates. generally just sits and does it's thing.

Comodo is my firewall. It takes some getting used to though. You have to train it. Other then that, I like it much better then my last, Sygate. Sygate disappeared into the Symantic product line. Note; You'll be asked about installing the Comodo Anti-virus at the same time you install the firewall, I highly recommend you Do Not

The last one that gets ran at start-up is StartupMonitor. A very little app at just 196k. It just sits and watches all the areas involved in the start up process. Should anything attempt to write a new start up instruction, it will pop up and ask if you want it to allow it.

Spybot Search and Destroy. Seems like it's been around forever. It still works. I rarely run the scan any more though. Feels like it takes forever. The Immunize function is super though. And I keep it around and update it just for that function. There's also a function call Tea Timer (Don't ask). It does the same thing that StartupMonitor does. Only it uses more memory and takes up System Tray space I can't part with. I don't use it.

MalwareBytes. This is my replacement for Ad-aware and Spybot. It works real well for me

Last, SpywareBlaster. It doesn't really run. It simply sets certain (kill) bits for malware ActiveX items, then goes away. Between the Immunize function in Spybot and SpywareBlaster I have very good proactive protection

Happy 50 Th. Twilight Zone

2009-10-02T08:09:00.001-05:00

October 2, 1959 "You're travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!"

Life Without Word or Excell

2009-09-29T09:50:00.004-05:00

I learned word processing and spreads using Word Perfect and Quattro. Way back in "DOS days".

Only software I ever bought for my PC was Corel's family pack. Just for those two. Only, I rarely use them anymore. I don't do much in the way of high power word processing or spreads. When I need either, I have a couple of light, fast, fairly full-featured programs I use. I should note, that I usually write or print things in RFT (Rich text format) and and share them as a PDF. Mostly, because damn near anybody can open them.

Word Processing;
    PolyEdit Lite
    Great little program. Light, portable, everthing you could ask for, for day to day writing tasks. Images don't insert worth a damn. Other then that, it's my primary writing program.

    Atlantis Nova
    More then PolyEdit, less then full blown desktop publishing. Also light and portable. it was the goto writer before PolyEdit.

Spreadsheets;
    Gnumeric
    I've worked with Lotus, Excell, and Quattro. As spreadsheets go, Gnumeric is pretty awesome. especially since it's Open Source and free. It is hard to describe though. go to The Manual and see for yourself. You'll want to download Version 1.9.11here.
.....The rest

Life Without Adobe

2009-09-28T05:49:00.004-05:00

I don't use Adobe for PDF. Haven't in years. Maybe it's changed, when I did use it, I found it slow and bloated. And not all that friendly or usable. Here's what I use instead. All are freeware, seem to run well on my XP, fairly small (Some are even portable), and add functions that are quite usefull to me.

Reading PDF's;
    PDF X-Change Viewer
    Feature rich. Includes multiple documents with tabs, ability to convert PDF to an image, others
Or try;
    Foxit Reader

Creating PDF's
    Cute PDF Writer
    If you can print it, you can turn it into a PDF using Cute PDF Writer. I've turned CAD files into PDF's with it. You will need the Ghostscript Converter to run it too. Both are in the left hand column on the link page.

PDF Utility
    PDF Tools
    PDFTools is a PDF management application. It can encrypt, decrypt, join, split, stamp, create and rearrange a PDF file. Want to break out a few pages from a PDF? Want to add a few? want a Watermark? Encryption? This is the one!

Mencken's Creed

2009-09-09T10:15:00.007-05:00

I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind, that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
        I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
        I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty.
        I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
        I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech.
        I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
        I believe in the reality of progress.
        I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.
More from Mencken here

Link of the Day

2009-08-27T05:05:00.000-05:00

Editorial Cartoons on Sarah Palin

Sunday Reading

2009-08-23T06:50:00.004-05:00

T.R. Reid in todays Washington Post has interesting reading on health care. In " "5 Myths About Health Care Around the World" he dispells some of the widely held (false) notions about medicine in America. And compares us with some other countries including Britain,Germany, Canada, and Myanmar (Burma). Yes, Burma. There is a comparison to by made between us and Burma. Sadly, it's also a similarity. The 5 myths are;

It's all socialized medicine out there.
Overseas, care is rationed through limited choices or long lines.
Foreign health-care systems are inefficient, bloated bureaucracies
Cost controls stifle innovation.
Health insurance has to be cruel.

RANT

2009-08-20T16:10:00.001-05:00

I just came from the grocery store. The person ahead of me had a fair size purchase. She stood in front of that "Little flat surface thing" that is used for filling out a check. Stood for a few minutes, watched her purchase go by. waited for the Checker to ring up the bill. Then. FUCKING whipped out her checkbook. Filled out the Goddamn check. Did she give it to the checker? Fuck NO. She diligently wrote the amount down, did the math, Then. And only then, did she rip it out and hand it over. Jesus Fucking Christ! She took longer to fuck with that checkbook, then her purchase took getting counted. For the sake of sanity. You CAN, honest, you CAN fill out the goddamn store, the date & sign the fucking thing while the stuff is being counted. And 5th grade 'rithmatic should tell you if the purchase was more then your damn balance. do the damn 'rithmatic on your own fucking time.

Damn It

2009-08-15T09:20:00.001-05:00

God Stuff

2008-10-05T14:58:00.001-05:00

If this is your God, he's not very impressive. He's got so many psychological problems; he's so insecure. He demands worship every seven days. He goes out and creates faulty humans and then blames them for his own mistakes. He's a pretty poor excuse for a supreme being.

-Captain James T. Kirk; Star Trek: The God Thing

A god whose creation is so imperfect that he must be continually adjusting it to make it work properly seems to me a god of relatively low order, hardly worthy of any worship.

- Martin Gardner

"Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong."
- Thomas Jefferson

"All priests dread the advance of science. They preach bigotry and fanaticism at the expense of human reason. A band of dupes and imposters, they sponser ignorance, absurdity,untruth,charlatanism, and falsification."
-Thomas Jefferson

"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix Reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."
-Thomas Jefferson

To sum up: 1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10, 000 revolutions a minute. 2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. 3. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride.
-Unknown

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
-C.S. Lewis

"History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help." But like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it."
- Lazurus Long

God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent---it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash and in small bills.
- Lazurus Long

"Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves." "Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child."
- Lazurus Long

"The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do so cannot; or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are able and willing. If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent. If they can but will not, then they are not benevolent. If they are neither able nor willing, they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent. Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, why does it exist?"
- Epicurus

"For all we know, all the main religions could be utterly wrong, and some minor deity from the bushlands of Africa could be the big cheese in the afterlife!"
- Jubal Harshaw

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."
- Blaise Pascal

"For centuries, theologians have been explaining the unknowable in terms of the-not-worth-knowing."
- H. L. Mencken

"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable."
- H. L. Mencken

"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration - courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth."
- H. L. Mencken

"I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious -- unless he purposely shut the eyes of his mind & keep them shut by force." – Mark Twain

2000-10-14T12:50:00.003-05:00

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