Posts from — December 2004

Well, I’m now connected via DSL, but I can’t recommend it for people who don’t have some experience with computers and hardware.

I took the free do-it-yourself option and after fighting with the “helpful” set-up wizard for two-hours I uninstalled everything and called to get the modem settings and did it the “old fashioned” manual way in two minutes [after 37 minutes on hold].

The hardware was fine. I ran a new category 5 twisted pair cable from a dedicated outlet to Sprint’s box and avoided all of the filters they wanted to foist upon me. My category 3 telephone wire is fine for voice and if it isn’t broke I’m not going to fix it. I have a straight cable with no connections for data, which should be good for years.

The problem seemed to be the earthlink web site, which uses ActiveX controls that were recording information and then telling you that they were unable to complete the transaction. They require you to use Internet Explorer and to disable your firewall and virus software. Of course, when you try to re-enter the information, they say that your choices were already in use. When you change the choices, they came back and tell you that you are already registered under different choices.

Well, it’s done and the graphics have been moved successfully from my old site to the new one. Yes, things load much more quickly and that’s nice, but it was not something I want to do again anytime soon.

Peter Pan, the play will celebrate its 100^th year on Dec. 27^th. Based on the book by J.M. Barrie, published in 1902, the copyright was transferred to a London charity hospital by the author.

There is no report as to the payments made by Karl Rove for his Texas adaptation of the work, titled George W. Bush, scheduled to begin its second run on January 20^th of 2005 in Washington, D.C.

TV New Zealand, ever interested in the leading edge of health issues, has an important report on a British panel that just studied the pathology of a patient identified as Mr. Gollum, and described as “a single, 587-year-old hobbit-like male of no fixed abode”. The doctors have concluded that the sociopathy of Mr. Gollum was probably related to dietary deficiencies and prolonged isolation.

Len at Philosophical Scrivener says that due to an outpouring of support the wounded have plenty of phone cards to use at Walter Reed, but if you want to extend some NODWISH goodness to “the troops” he has a link to a Stars & Stripes page of groups that are helping in other ways.

Michael has a great Toles’ cartoon up on the Acme, Inc.¹ attempt to loot the Social Security Trust Fund.

1. See Rook to understand.

Beginning tomorrow I am migrating to a different Internet Service Provider. I’ve been through two buy-outs of this company over the decade and three of their moves, but a recent accounting foul up has pushed me to finally upgrade to DSL from the dial-up I’ve been using.

I have clients who have wanted me to do some things over the Internet that I have been able to avoid because of the dial-up connection, and now I must acquiesce.

There may be temporary broken links as I move graphics and such to a new homepage, and posting may be light next week, which shouldn’t affect those who celebrate Christmas, as you should be too busy to be reading blogs.

While I have planned the migration and given myself two weeks to complete an operation that shouldn’t take more than an hour, I will be dealing with Sprint and Earthlink, so I expect the worse. They have already rescheduled the installation once and it is now scheduled for the coldest Monday we are apt to see this year.

Given a temperature of 30°, a Monday, and Christmas week, I have scant optimism that my local telco will even be up to their usual marginally acceptable level of service.

By now everyone knows that the Star Wars anti-missile system has failed yet another in a long series of tests. Some are aware that many reputable scientists have tested the underlying principle of the proposed system and have come to the conclusion that the Newtonian laws of physics makes it impossible for the system under development to ever work in the normal space-time continuum.

So what is really going on? Is this simply another Bush give-away to the defense industry, or is there some darker purpose? Personally, I think the fact that the latest test involved a target missile being launched from Kodiak, Alaska provides a clue.

The hatred of the Bushniki for all things liberal, the time of year, the flight path of the target missile, all of these things point to the real target of this system.

Well, now that we’ve decided that we invaded Iraq to promote democracy in the Middle East we are having a bit of a problem. The only political organization allowed under Saddam was the Ba’ath Party, and it is hardly likely that the US could throw its support behind it.

The other parties are ethnic in outlook or dominated by religious leaders. It looks like a truly fair election will result in a government that looks a lot like Iran with Shi’ia Imams in charge of everything. But there is an outside hope.

Since the downfall of Saddam another secular political party has come out of hiding. It has sponsored street demonstrations, understands campaigning, knows about using the media, and is preparing a slate of candidates. If they win, Iraq will have a secular democratic government ready to take its place on the world stage.

There’s a catch. You knew when you starting reading there was going to be a catch.

Okay, what could be worse than a Shi’ia theocracy, you ask? How about: The Communist Party of Iraq. Just what the neocons deserve: the oil fields nationalized and strong ties to China, Cuba, and North Korea.

The US is experiencing a tragic and expensive lesson in the meaning of blow back and unintended consequences. Unfortunately the recent election proves that too few citizens understand the lesson.

I love British names: the Chief of Air Staff for the Royal Air Force is Air Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup.

So, Billy Bob, you think gunning down Bambi with an AK-47 and watching NASCAR makes you macho: read about a twenty-something English woman, Ellen MacArthur, who makes you look like a wuss. Make note of the fact that her family is not wealthy and she earned what she has gained.

After the oil runs out, your next power plant may use turkey manure. I guess my Grandfather was ahead of his time. Oh, turkey manure is dryer that what chickens put out, so there’s more heat when it’s burned.

The explosives that the French police lost during a training exercise at a Paris airport and were probably sent to the US, haven’t turned up. The French say that they are not dangerous because there was no detonator with the explosives. Oh, the French didn’t bother to find out whom the bag belonged to, just in case there was a problem.

This means that our ace baggage inspection system missed the explosives when they landed and came through US customs. But when the TSA inspectors lost their test bomb during a training exercise at Newark airport, they could say they didn’t use real explosives, although they avoided saying anything about the timer and detonator.

I guess it’s okay, after all how many Americans can read French? The owner of the bag would never figure out what plastic explosif means, right. It’s not like we have construction sites with detonators all over that work with plastic and have large signs warning people what they are and why they shouldn’t touch them, right?

Kittyhawk

[Ed: Len over at Musings of a Philosophical Scrivener reminded me of the anniversity.]

Friday Cat Blogging^TM [Kevin Drum]

Oh, no — baby pictures!
It’s Mom and our cuddle: You, Shemp, me, and Moe. I wonder what Mom and Moe were looking at?
Probably at him taking pictures.

[Ed: My current roomies and your commentators are the mostly black tom at the top: Sox, and the predominately white female at the bottom: Dot. I didn’t name them, their original owner did.]

Future retirees are not going to be as well off as current retirees, but that has nothing to do with Social Security. When Enron went belly-up, nobody said “my Social Security vanished”, it was their 401K private retirement accounts that became worthless. Now Bush wants to move people from the secure Social Security system into vulnerable private retirement accounts.

There is a looming crisis in the Federal program that oversees private pension funds, but there has been no action to deal with that problem. A large number of private pensions are under-funded because corporations are managing them badly, failing to fund them, or, in a few cases, looting them and they are going to need a bail out.

The taxpayers had to bail out the savings & loan industry because they weren’t properly regulated, several large mutual funds were caught padding profits while screwing investors, the Feds have had to bail out failed banks, and the list goes on. Social Security was started because the private sector did such a miserable job that thousands of the elderly were being left destitute.

At Bush’s economic summit there were no representatives of labor or consumers, so who do you think is going to benefit from the changes? They are talking about taking your Social Security payments and giving it to private business interests to manage. Since you had no representatives at the table, who do you think is going to make money? Are you willing to bet your future on the honesty and integrity of corporate America given its record? If he can’t even manage to spell “challenges” when he uses it in his title, how can you expect him to meet them?

They also discussed tort reform, but failed to mention that the bulk of civil suits are filed by businesses, not individuals, yet their plans only want to limit the awards that individuals receive from corporations. Look at the children who were sued for down-loading songs from the Internet – Bush’s group wouldn’t consider those suits “frivolous”. Frivolous lawsuits are those filed when a doctor amputates the wrong foot, when people die from inhaling asbestos fibers, when wheels fall off two-year-old cars, when people are incinerated in a 30MPH rear end collision.

If what Bush was going to do was really going to benefit you, don’t you think you would have been invited to the meeting so you could applaud?

We are bracing for another sub-freezing night on the Florida Panhandle. I’ve got lights on concrete pads for the feral cats, moved tropical plants inside, and built a “tent” for my Mother’s goldfish pond, which should protect both the fish and any cats who chose to go inside.

What I can’t do is fix the lack of shelter space for the homeless. We have fewer housing units than ever because of the hurricane, and shelters are already strained to capacity because some of the facilities were also damaged by the storm.

One shelter manager said that after all the pews in their chapel were filled all he could do was offer people a blanket and an MRE [Meal Ready to Eat, military rations].

Our homeless tend to have jobs, but they can’t afford the local housing because all most no affordable housing has been built in years. If you are employed and don’t have a drug dependency there is no assistance available.

Welcome to Red America.

[Edit for a typo]

According to the Beeb, British Home Secretary David Blunkett resigned after it was revealed that he was involved in attempting to fast-track a visa for his girlfriend’s undocumented nanny!

What’s going on, is there in international nanny conspiracy to take out politicians? Are domestic caregivers fed up with trying to compete with third world women looking for food and shelter? Is Tony Blair trying too hard to emulate George Bush?

Devolving. . .