08:00 – Well, I don’t much like Obama, but at least it seems he’s finally taking steps to de-militarize local police departments. The federal government will no longer distribute military-grade equipment, including tracked armored vehicles and weapons of 50 caliber and higher, and will recall those it has already distributed. It’s far too little far too late, but at least it’s a start. Not that I’m in favor of disarming the police, but ordinary revolvers and shotguns are more than sufficient police armament, along with a few ordinary scoped hunting rifles in well-trained hands for special circumstances.
Barbara labeled hundreds more bottles yesterday, which I’ll be filling this week. I’ll get several more cases of bottles on order today so she’ll have hundreds more to label next weekend. The goal is to have sufficient chemicals bottled by 1 July for 250 chemistry kits and 150 biology kits, which should suffice to carry us through July/August and beyond.
10:38 – Interesting article on Pat Henry’s prepping website about the ages of people who visit his site.
For the last two years May 13 to May 15 (over 6.2 million views)
27% of the total Views were from people aged 55-older (Boomers)
40.95% of the total Views were from people aged 35 – 54 (Generation X)
31.1 % of the total Views were from people aged 18 -34 (Millennials)
Like Pat, I was surprised by the age breakdown. I would have expected a huge majority to be 30 or older and almost none in the 25 and under range. And apparently 0.95% of his visitors are < 18 years old.
That’s likely in the category of “too good to be true”. First, the restrictions are also pretty laughable. The feds will no longer provide armored vehicles that run on tracks. Bearcats and the like are just fine, as long as the police get approval from City Hall.
As for the recall, language that all of the articles have is this: The federal government also is exploring ways to recall prohibited equipment already distributed.
I’ll believe it when I see it…
What Mr. brad said; it’s likely more lies and b.s. from Dear Leader. Do we actually believe that Fed minions are now gonna run around and take back all them nice toyz at the LE departments around the country?
“…ordinary revolvers and shotguns are more than sufficient police armament, along with a few ordinary scoped hunting rifles in well-trained hands for special circumstances.”
Revolvers are from OFD’s time, the Dark Ages; most departments have long since moved to the semi-autos; hell, even OFD hisself is there now, but I also keep revolvers handy. In any case, ordinary Mundanes should have the same weapons available to them that the LE’s have, and to a point, what the military has.
Just for the record; some of us >55s are pre-boomers.
Where do you think all that equipment is going to go?
To Big O’s Brown Shirt Army. That is a cancer that will be his legacy and will just keep slowly metastasizing until the rude awakening.
Just seeing on the news where Waco is stopping liquor sales for the next 7 days. Like that is going to help. This is just another distraction to keep our eyes off of the Political Class.
To Big O’s Brown Shirt Army.
That’s what he said he would build. A National policing force. Feds, State, Local cops bought and paid for by OdooshNozzle.
“This is just another distraction to keep our eyes off of the Political Class.”
There it is.
Notice how events like this suddenly appear splashed all over the media for a few days and then meanwhile nobody is paying attention to chit that really matters? Next week this little biker fest will be utterly forgotten and there’ll be some new nooz sensation, like maybe Bruce Jenner is marrying some dude or ISIS chops up some more Christians somewhere.
Meanwhile the financial and political chicanery continue full steam ahead.
Quick, fairly obvious example: Field Marshal Rodham’s earlier family, legal, financial and political history are a long series of outrageous nightmares, yet there she is, having been SecState, and now running for, allegedly, the most powerful position in the world. And getting serious traction, with almost all of the fem vote locked up tight, and probably most of the black, Hispanic and metrosexual libturd vote, too. How is this possible?
For that matter, how did an unknown junior senator from Illinois end up with two terms, which have both been unmitigated disasters for the country?
Cui bono?
Over here on tee-vee screen A: big biker shootout in TX with at least nine dead and nearly 200 arrested and countless injuries.
Screen B: Bruce Jenner marries George Soros and Barry Soetero is best man.
Screen C: ” Every Thursday the Fed publishes its balance sheet for anyone who cares to pay attention, and I track this religiously. The most recent report showed that last week, the Fed posted a massive increase to its balance sheet– $28.5 billion. (Most of the increase came from buying mortgage-backed securities– you remember, the ‘toxic’ asset class that blew up in 2008…) With this huge addition, the Fed’s balance sheet is once again back over $4.5 trillion… within 0.5% of its all-time high. This is the exact opposite of ‘tapered’. It’s bloated. And dangerous. The Fed has almost no margin of safety. And if you marked to market the value of the Fed’s assets, they would most likely be insolvent.”
Murkan derps watch the first two screens and even if they see Screen C they don’t have a clue as to what Sovereign Man is talking about and couldn’t care less.
This chit is not sustainable, ladies and germs.
No matter how much fiat currency the Fed printing presses churn out or where we throw our military might around. Here’s a couple of clues: Fracking ain’t gonna save us. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and Rick Perry won’t. And the minority of trained engineers, scientists and techies face a monstrous challenge if it all falls apart. It’s one thing to resurrect the old mill stream power plant or get a commo net back up; it’s another if people are stealing the raw materials and shooting at you at the same time. ‘Cause their EBT cards and ATM access are kaput and they can’t pump gas and they’re panicking.
Are you a hater?
Do you microaggress against other people?
http://takimag.com/article/land_of_1000_microaggressions_jim_goad/print
Jerry Pournelle had an excellent comment about this on his blog yesterday …
Rational Discussion and many other topics
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/rational-discussion-and-many-other-topics-pledge-drive-ends/
The applicable phenomenon on this blog, I’ve noticed, is sometimes when I suggest a good book, or YouTube video, or documentary, someone makes a somewhat rude comment about the item – obviously never having read or seen the item – and many others jump on the bandwagon with their similarly prejudiced viewpoints. I realize that everyone has their right to free speech, but if you haven’t taken the time to watch the video/documentary or read the article or book – then your comments basically can be categorized as “gossip”, and have relatively little merit. Furthermore, as Jerry points out, they can poison the information well, and tend to prevent others from pursuing broadening their understanding of the concepts involved. Anyone else notice this phenomenon ?? My concern is that the experience tends to make me not want to waste my time participating in this blog, at least not as much as I probably otherwise would. And I must say, that I thoroughly enjoy most of the knowledgeable and well-informed rational discussion here, and keep coming back. But as I said, I tend to not participate as much in that discussion – figuring that my posts will be either ridiculed or dismissed by others without their taking the time to investigate the points I’ve raised. But rather fall back on hearsay and personal prejudice/bias. Is this a lemming phenomenon ??
Anyway, I do appreciate OFD’s and others contrarian viewpoints and open-minded posts. They do happen occasionally and give me some hope.
You tend to post comments about woo-woo stuff and pseudo-science.
I appreciate your feedback. Can you be more specific and possibly any examples ??
One of the things that Jerry makes a point of on occasion, is that science does need to spend at least some time and money investigating the contrarian viewpoints. Example is the “climate-change” / “global-warming” phenomenon. He says that we do need to pursue the opposite viewpoint. Otherwise it’s a science by consensus, rather than a seeking of the truth. So contrary viewpoints should be welcomed. Criticized yes, but denigrated no. In other words ad-hominem arguments are frowned on. And I appreciate his viewpoint and agree with it. Otherwise we’d still believe in a flat earth and that the earth is the center of the universe. But does that mean that we should still spend time discussing that the earth might still be flat, or that Copernicus was wrong ?? Obviously not. Dilemma, where do we draw the line.
The whole religion discussion is another sore topic. And most people on this blog seem to be fairly tolerant. I have to appreciate that, even though I’m a meta-agnostic myself. This country was founded on the principle of freedom of religious belief. And I think that’s the right way to go. So long as the freedom of expression/speech concept doesn’t become restricted along the way.
I’ve been meaning to mention some of this stuff for some time now. And OFD’s link helped me to follow through. Anyway, /End of Rant. Sorry if I’ve offended anyone.
OFD ain’t a trained scientist or engineer like Dr. Bob and some of the others here, so my opinions in those areas should be taken with a trainload of salt. OTOH, I’ve worked in and outta the IT field since 1984 and am not totally ignorant and I try to keep up with the stuff guys talk about here in those fields. They lose me after the thirtieth or so post about flashlight nomenclature and how many mils of plastic do such and such to the contents of something.
So I retaliate by throwing literary junk in here from time to time, which they can probably get in a nanosecond, so much for retaliation, and once in a while some nice Roman Catholic dogma and theology.
Otherwise my main focus is the usual hateful and mean-spirited political ranting and raving from my neo-fascist, rayciss and homophobic POV. And I have probably offended some people from time to time, but hey, they can stop by any time and we can discuss it like normal and rational modern human beings while I clean my firearms.
You’re a white man, ain’tcha? You are nothing but ignorant and anything you know is nothing but hatred and lies and a legacy of racism and sexism. You need to be swapped out for a wise Latina, you hater!
My daughter’s almost 8, meaning that starting in five to seven years I’ll need to have little heart-to-hearts with would-be suitors… while cleaning firearms or sharpening blades or practicing martial arts.
(Of course, I’ll also have to hang on to the embarrassing photographs and stories of the little girl. “If you don’t want Lothario to hear about the dead mouse incident, you’d better have your room cleaned up before your next date.)
(Although I hope that by the time she’s dating age she’ll be an ornery enough cuss that attempts at blackmail will either fizzle or backfire spectacularly. I’ve been working on that and other personality traits, with some success.)
They lose me after the thirtieth or so post about flashlight nomenclature
Really, Mr. OFD? Trying to *switch* the debate back *on*.
“(Although I hope that by the time she’s dating age she’ll be an ornery enough cuss that attempts at blackmail will either fizzle or backfire spectacularly. I’ve been working on that and other personality traits, with some success.)”
Ditto with my youngest niece; my brother has her reporting all school, family-related, job and other intel directly to him, if need be, via iPhone texting from NYC, where she was with mom and various loser ass-hat in-laws this past weekend. I’ve obviously failed so far with our own kids, however. They know me for the hater and rayciss fascist I am, sadly. Perhaps, as was my experience with my own dad, they’ll wake up and smell the coffee or whatever after I’m dead.
“You need to be swapped out for a wise Latina, you hater!”
Hear that, all you wise Latinas out there? Sign in here and take my place and I’ll go away to be re-educated. Are there still cells available at the Isle of Pines? Can I hang out with los hermanos y la Raza out in the Nuevo Aztlan desert with the Gila monsters and diamondbacks they wanna get close to so bad?
@OFD
Two of the things I most appreciate about your posts, are your delightful sense of humor (shared, I think, by most people on this blog), and your willingness to post contrarian viewpoints. I was raised Roman Catholic, but renounced it when I reached the age of reason and started reading philosophy books and learned about the crusades and the inquisitions (not to mention the witch hunts/burnings). For many years I was an “agnostic”, until I actually looked up the full definition of the word. So now I’m a “meta-agnostic”.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/agnostic
“agnostic” – a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
It’s that word “unknowable” that bothers me the most. Perhaps with our limited intelligence it is unknowable, but maybe not !! Perhaps we are like ants trying to understand Shakespeare. But if evolution is valid here, eventually homo sapiens sapiens may have the intelligence to understand these concepts. (See I really do question almost everything).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta
“Meta” (from the Greek preposition and prefix meta- (μετά-) meaning “after”, or “beyond”) is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter.
So whenever people try to categorize me (i.e. “heathen”, “atheist”, or “infidel”), then I retaliate with the term “meta-agnostic”. That tends to slow down the judgementalism.
And then there’s “The Matrix” trilogy — we are all “living” inside a virtual reality creating super-computer. “Reality” is just a figment of our imaginations, and a comfortable fantasy that keeps us running on our treadmills like good obedient mice.
“Two of the things I most appreciate about your posts, are your delightful sense of humor (shared, I think, by most people on this blog), and your willingness to post contrarian viewpoints. I was raised Roman Catholic, but renounced it when I reached the age of reason and started reading philosophy books and learned about the crusades and the inquisitions (not to mention the witch hunts/burnings).”
Thanks.
There is, believe it or not, an alternative and/or revisionist view of the Crusades, Inquisition and the witch hunts and hysteria. Those seem to be the historical sticking points for a lot of people and yet we have learned much in recent years about what really went on. I had also simply accepted the Conventional Wisdom about the rampant Evil of the entire Church, as exemplified in those historical episodes, but I went out of my way eventually, seeing as how I’d been taught lots of other balderdash and malarkey about other things, to find out other viewpoints, not least from the perspective of the Church itself.
“History is written by the victors.” – Churchill
BTW Lynn seems to be MIA. Washed away in the great Texas flood?
Oh, no. You don’t get to pick how you get re-educated. You don’t get any sweet gigs like Presidio Modelo. No, recalcitrant cases like you get special treatment. Your re-education gig is to serve as Hillary’s masseuse until you’ve embraced the proper philosophy. (Yes, “masseuse”. You thought Obamacare was bad? Hillarycare will include mandatory sex change operations for all wrongthinkers and haters.)
I heard that Lynn was in Waco on business recently. Most likely he was just wearing the wrong colors on the wrong day in the wrong place. Poor, poor Lynn…
“Your re-education gig is to serve as Hillary’s masseuse…”
That’s a no-go; she wouldn’t have a male masseuse, if the various stories are true.
“Most likely he was just wearing the wrong colors on the wrong day in the wrong place.”
He was giving a talk at that restaurant on fracking and the oil industry, and a couple of the bikers thought he said something else and then all hell broke loose.
The Surface Pro 3 saga continues. Installed Office 2013 as that is what I had a license for and supposedly works with a tablet. Office 2013 does OK even with the stylus. The attached keyboard is mandatory as the touch keyboard is just too tedious. I did do some writing, some Excel with the keyboard and it worked well.
I have downloaded the restore image from Microsoft along with creating a recovery image from the Surface Pro to a thumb drive. Microsoft has at least made it easy to get the recovery in case of complete failure of the install.
I also got the adapter to connect to a monitor, attached a USB keyboard and mouse through a USB hub and it all worked just like a desktop. Dual monitors? No problem it just worked. Supposedly the Surface Pro 3 will support three monitors with the Display Port adapter.
I did process some photographs through Lightroom and Photoshop, those applications being my primary purpose for the device. I did it all using just the Surface Pro Arc Touch mouse. The mouse has a scroll area that has clicking feedback when you scroll, a feature that I like. When processing the photographs I used just the device without the keyboard. Worked OK for Lightroom but not for Photoshop. I use too many keyboard shortcuts and had to hunt for the comparable menu items. So I personally need the keyboard when using Photoshop.
Lightroom really sucks the battery and causes the tablet to get warm. There is a lot of effort for Lightroom to process batch changes and creating displays and thumbnails as the edits are non-destructive. It did surprise me that the Surface Pro 3 was almost as fast as my desktop system. Speed was good enough that using the Surface to replace the desktop is possible. When doing a lot of images I will need to be connected to power. Photoshop is not so much a drain as it is only processing an image at a time. Lightroom is processing about 500.
Knowing what I know now would I still purchase the Surface Pro 3. Yes. It is quite a remarkable device for my needs.
Wow, $1,100 for that on Amazon? Yikes!
I’m gonna try doing some of the same stuff Mr. Ray does, though not at his level by an extremely long shot (get it? “shot”?) using the Ubuntu Studio desktop here and all Open-Sauce toolz. Any files I create while on the go outside somewhere I can either send via email on the Kindle or iPhone or simply copy over to it from a USB stick or SD card. Or the Kingston wi-fi drive gizmo.
Alternate re-education gig proposal for OFD ?? …
watch …
Monica Lewinsky: The price of shame
(Yes, it’s a “TedTalk” !!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_8y0WLm78U
then be her masseuse ?? or she can be your masseuse ???
Take your pick.
I still wonder if the whole thing with Billy-Boy wasn’t a setup ??
Make him more of a lame duck than he was already ??
I wonder how much she got paid ??
A mandatory Bruce Jenner gig would be considered “cruel and unusual”.
Wow, $1,100 for that on Amazon? Yikes!
Then add in the cost of the keyboard, Arc Mouse and a video adapter and you are talking real money. Well, not too bad. A comparable laptop was not much less. Anytime you add in SSD the cost goes up substantially, then touch screen and a laptop becomes costly.
It was about the same cost as the MacBook pro but offered better options in my opinion. With a Mac I would have needed to purchase some additional software licenses. You also have to consider that my iPad cost $800, has less memory and no USB support other than a camera adapter.
I really need Lightroom. I have found no other program that will quickly adjust 500+ images in just a few minutes. White balancing is trivially easy. Sorting (rejecting, marking for review) is super quick. All edits are non-destructive. Lightroom only runs on Mac and Windows.
Photoshop is also a requirement. The OSS stuff is just not up to what Photoshop will accomplish. I have some actions and filters that will only work on Photoshop.
I need a tool to get my job done. Lightroom and Photoshop are those tools and I get what I need to run those tools. The Surface Pro 3 so fare fills that need very nicely.
Outstanding, Mr. Ray; get the toolz you need to do the gig. I’m all for that. I just couldn’t stand that guy’s voice, whoever he was, on the tee-vee’s commercials for it a while back. Or his attitude. Or the jingle.
“…or she can be your masseuse ???”
Sure, if she will just STFU for the half-hour it takes. And let’s not forget she was bragging to her gf’s when she’d heard she’d be working the WH gig that she would have to run out and buy some kneepads. Back in those days, we had straight men publicly announcing they’d be overjoyed to give Billy Jeff a BJ. While women swooned in their millions.
Celeb culture in the West is very, very sick. I recommend round-the-clock firing squads.
This just in, via my intel network, haha:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/05/foghorn/breaking-atf-seizes-3000-guns-from-stag-arms/
Neither Stag nor the ATF drones come off looking very good here.
Interesting interview on NPR today …
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/05/18/407648886/attention-white-collar-workers-the-robots-are-coming-for-your-jobs
Attention White-Collar Workers: The Robots Are Coming For Your Jobs
Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future
by Martin Ford
Hardcover, 334 pages
The interview is about 30 minutes long.
I’ve previously posted about Jeremy Rifkin’s book: “The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era” (1995).
Written 20 years ago, and it’s all happening more and more.
The PDF-file is available here for download …
http://monoskop.org/images/1/1f/Rifkin_Jeremy_The_End_of_Work.pdf
And then there’s the movie “Her” starring Joaquin Phoenix !!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_%28film%29
Her is a 2013 American romantic science fiction comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Spike Jonze. The film’s musical score was composed by Arcade Fire, with the cinematography provided by Hoyte van Hoytema. It marks Jonze’s solo screenwriting debut. The film follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an intelligent computer operating system personified through a female voice. The film also stars Amy Adams, Rooney Mara, and Olivia Wilde.
“My daughter’s almost 8, meaning that starting in five to seven years I’ll need to have little heart-to-hearts with would-be suitors… while cleaning firearms or sharpening blades or practicing martial arts.”
I have a friend who looks a little like Emiliano Zapata, with a smaller moustache. I am much taller than him, and can look just a little intimidating. A third friend wanted to recruit us to help him greet his daughter’s new suitor and put a little fear in him. Our wives (all three) got wind of this and put the kibosh on it. Might have been fun. The daughter had the last laugh. She had been well trained by her parents, and made short work of the would-be suitor after just one date.
@OFD
Hey “Dave”, hate to be such a nit-picker, but it’s “Barry Soetoro” (n.b. correct spelling).
Anyway, enjoyed your excellent humorous post on TTAG.
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/05/foghorn/breaking-atf-seizes-3000-guns-from-stag-arms/#comment-2149154
Your “fingerprints” were all over that post !!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories#Early_life_of_Obama
Obama’s parents were divorced in 1964. He attended kindergarten in 1966–1967 at Noelani Elementary School in Honolulu.[14][20] In 1967, his mother married Indonesian student *Lolo Soetoro*,[14] who was also attending the University of Hawaii, and the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia,[21] where Obama attended the Catholic St. Francis of Assisi School before transferring to State Elementary School Menteng 01, an elite Indonesian public school in Menteng. As a child in Indonesia, Obama was called “Barry”, sometimes *Barry Soetoro*, reflecting his step-father’s surname, and sometimes Barry Obama, using his own surname.[22][23][24] When he was ten years old, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and has resided continuously in the United States since 1971.
http://blog.dictionary.com/barack-obama-name/
Thanks for that name spelling correction; I think I’ve seen it spelled both ways before, probably by the usual hate-spouting fascist cranks who haven not yet been rounded up and murderized.
And as I’ve said here before, Barry is a bonafide U.S. citizen, but probably lied that he was not when he was trying to get an edge on his admission chances at Columbia, and since then no can find the actual records or something, and then there was more fuss over the obfuscation related to his Hawaiian birth certificate. This is all useless chatter, of course, because it makes us all focus on it, instead of the important stuff.
As for white-collar workers being dumped in favor of robots, whatever. I and a bunch of others were dumped two years in favor of offshore people who will work for much less but won’t have security clearances or be able to do the hands-on stuff inside the data centers where I spent 80% of my work time. No idea how that work has been getting done since; it’s a very puzzling mystery to me.
But we weren’t and aren’t white-collar drones, per se; somewhere between blue and white, what would that be, pale blue, I guess.
Lots of good topics today. I just want to chime in on Sam’s comment. There’s just something in the human psyche that makes people want to say “me too!”. To get acceptance in a group, maybe. I think that’s a lot of what goes on when people jump onto a bandwagon, for example, criticizing a book that they know only from reading other people’s criticisms.
There’s been a lot of that on the MadMad reboot. Because some floopy feminists was consulted, and because the plot apparently relegates Mad Max himself to a secondary role, lots of people who had never seen the film denigrated it as feminist tripe. Maybe it is, who knows, but essentially all of the comments were 2nd, 3rd, and 4th hand because – at the time – no one had actually seen the film.
Understood. And I do it too sometimes. And I’m not really that thin-skinned that criticism bothers me that much. It was just frustrating to want to share some really good information with others, and have it shot down by people’s personal prejudices – especially when they haven’t experienced it first-hand. So people who could learn something new don’t get the chance to be exposed to it. Kind of like judging a book by its cover. And I’ve done that before too. Worked all day Sunday, so had Monday off. Most days I don’t have a chance to necessarily read this blog. Then I catch up on weekends. So probably back to sporadic posting for a while again.
“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
~ Mark Twain ~
My younger son is as much a nerd as I ever was. A couple of years ago, he wanted to play around with machine code, so I wrote up a little tutorial. Never quite finished it, because he went on to other things, but I polished it up a bit and threw it onto the Internet.
Yesterday, out of the blue, I got an email from someone in India, asking if I had a finished version. Which I don’t, but it reminded me of something I have been meaning to add to my little site. So I finally got around to putting up the winning Muhammad cartoon from Garland, Texas.
One small sign of support. I’d rather have seen another ten contests, organized to drive the point home to the Islamists: Your religion is less important than our freedoms. Sadly, that hasn’t happened, at least, not yet…