Cool and damp. Supposed to rain. But it’s Houston. I got some rain on me yesterday. It didn’t actually rain as such, which is why I say I “got some on me.” I had drops of water from the sky hit me at various times of the day, in various parts of the city. But it never actually rained. It was even briefly sunny in places.
I spent most of the day running around. Did my pickups. Gas is mostly between $2.89 and $3.09. Went to Costco. Costco had many of the things I missed last time back in stock. Still missing the smoked almonds though. Selection of rice and flour is still reduced. Pork was reasonably priced (~$2.50/lb) and chicken was too, so I got some of each. There were items on sale, just like pre-wuflu, although not as on sale. They have something that looks like king crab for sale at only $25/lb. which is a huge decrease. Of course it is ‘golden’ crab, and not actually Alaskan King Crab. Mostly the same, almost as big…
And that seems to be the state of the world at the moment. Mostly the same. Almost as big. Somewhat fewer choices. And drab. FFS, it’s drab. Cars are all the same silhouette. And selling in the same drab colors – black, white, red, dark blue, silver. Houses are black and white. I’m astounded by how many new buildings are black, white, and grey. The store complex with our local Spec’s liquor store, Starbux, and various small storefronts just painted the whole brick complex white and black. It was red, cream, brown, and natural brick and stone colors. The lack of color in the built world tells me that people are not happy and optimistic.
I’m seeing more homeless, and they are bolder. They are sleeping and setting up housekeeping right in the open, right in the heart of commercial areas. I’m also seeing more vacant commercial space at the same time there is an explosion of residential construction. All those people moving here are going to need jobs, eventually, when their excess cash from selling in Cali but buying here runs out…
And don’t get me started on what passes for pop music. What isn’t violent and nihilistic hedonism is depressing glorification of mental illness.
Nowhere is there conditioning for restraint, self control, or self sacrifice. Those are three of the pillars that built and supported western society. And they’re gone from our stories, our heroes, and our culture. That idea alone is probably worth an essay and a deeper look.
We grew up with those ideas firmly in place. Our parents sacrificed so their kids could have a better life. Their parents did the same, and sacrificed their bodies and minds in war in the belief that they had to, to build a future to live in. Our stories and culture were suffused with the ideas of self restraint and self sacrifice, with the ordinary man expecting that to lead to success, and while for the hero the outcome was often his death, he did it anyway. As individuals self sacrifice didn’t always lead to good outcomes, for society, SELF -restraint and -sacrifice, done by choice, led to a better world for everyone else.
And that’s almost entirely gone. There are pockets. Farmers. Soldiers (warriors). Parents. Teachers. But in the ranks of those, the numbers decrease every year, replaced by parodies of what was.
It makes me sad to see fundamental changes like this. There isn’t an easy or quick fix when something so vital (in retrospect) is removed from the culture. I doubt that it’s even possible to get back to a point where those things can be restored, without a complete and massive destruction of what it’s become. Things never “go back to normal.” We are all of us and always changed by what happens to us and around us.
Stack all the things. It’s going to be a while.
nick
The problem is, they are also too big to fail. Not necessarily that the government would rescue them (although I wouldn’t bet against it). More in the sense that “economy of scale” is a bitch. When you are so large, you can afford to be less productive on a per capita basis. Simply by virtue of being huge, a company bends markets to its own benefit. Also, that much money has political clout, with the according benefits.
Capitalism is a great system, but the abuses need to be reigned in by government regulation. There needs to be an upper limit on size, and that limit needs to be a lot smaller than current companies like MS, Alphabet, Apple, & co.. No discussion, no decade long court cases, just black-and-white: Revenue greater than X, you must divest.
After the crypto-mining boom popped, hardware demand dropped. The demands these AI systems will place on hardware will make crypto-mining look like kindergarden.
It’s amusing watching a bunch of prominent folks, some of whom have a clue, sign a petition to stop AI research until we have some idea how to build better guard rails around it. There is no stopping. We’re on this roller coaster now, and we’d better figure out how not to fall off.
I’m not in touch with current research, but I assume that the next big step is feedback: Allowing these systems to self-adapt, by feeding the results of their queries back into the model. If that can be done in a controlled way, we will effectively have reached “general intelligence”. The philosophers can talk about self-awareness, the religious can talk about souls, but practically speaking: if it acts intelligent, and can change and adapt, it effectively is an intelligent being.
Right now only the feedback part, and that doesn’t seem like a difficult step.
Texas is fast becoming a “blue” state, but, as in California, the Republicans will continue to live in denial until all of the state-wide offices are in Dem hands.
However, Governor P. Diddly Bush will sign Income Tax, with Papa Jeb! beaming with pride on camera.
“Next stop, Florida!”
Nick, I wish I could say that todays post was wrong. I REALLY do. But it is also so depressing.
So yes, stack the things. Life is likely to get worse before it gets better. Teach your kids restraint, self control, or self sacrifice. Encourage it in society (Thanks Mike Rowe!).
But stop and smell the roses, too. There ARE good and beautiful things in this world. Take time to appreciate them, or the despair will overcome us. Despair is a sin.
Government is a great thing, but the abuses need to be reigned in by limits on government regulation.
🙂
Publix sells the transponders, and they’ve had more political power in the state than Disney or the rental car companies for some time.
Ford will stop importing the Transit Connect after this year.
Tommy Boy has cancelled the van which I planned to use to live … down by the river.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/ford-to-officially-discontinue-the-transit-connect-after-2023-model-year/ar-AA19e4BL
It had to go. Unlike the F150 Lightning — which the Transit Connect outsells almost 2:1 — the van could be used as an actual work vehicle rather than a garage queen.
Not that making a vehicle a garage queen will mean much with an EV. Even Tommy Boy knows that much.
It’s kinda cool and damp out. I have to change those batteries… Thang says “urgg” and tosses rock.
The Nashville murderer may have had adverse formative events. They were certainly guided and shaped by someone else, likely this TRAN business. They are profoundly mentally ill, in at least two ways. F to M transitions involve a lot of hormones, that can cause rage and anger issues apparently, so there is that. I think this was more suicide by cop than kill kids. She was onsite for 15 minutes, had ammo left, and wasn’t killing kids the whole time. She made her point, set up her suicide, then waited.
Who wound up the broken doll? Who wounded the broken doll? Those are answers we are unlikely to get.
(where was she getting the money for guns, money for transitioning, etc. what has she been doing for the last 3 years?)
n
re movies intended to scare kids into religion, try laughing at them. Mock the special effects or the dialog or whatever. Take the kids’ minds off of the message being crammed into them and focus on the medium.
Mind you, this is based on a sample size of one. My wife’s church’s youth pastor showed it to a group of preteens one night and some of them were getting pretty upset. Until I started cracking jokes. Then the youth pastor got upset. I was specifically uninvited (disinvited? anti-invited?) from the next movie night. God forbid anything should interfere with the brainwashing.
WRT AI, I posted this link a couple of days ago…
They are specifically looking to build cheap low power hardware specifically for AI applications.
n
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/two-army-black-hawk-helicopters-crash-kentucky
n
Hmmm, how’s that reserve currency status looking?
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/france-buys-65000-tons-lng-china-first-ever-yuan-denominated-trade
Petro-dollar. Dollar diplomacy. Cleanest dirty shirt.
Bet those are some phrases we won’t be hearing after a short period where they dominate the news cycle.
n
France is using the Yuan to hide the provenance of the LNG. Everyone is looking the other way, including the US, since Europe would freeze otherwise.
Supplanting the dollar as a reserve currency with the Yuan is not going to happen since the necessary trade defecits would create too much unrest and topple the Mainland government at a time when they are eyeing the TSMC fabs on Taiwan and the current level of power they represent.
As Ukraine taught the world, a society with McDonalds and morning FedEx deliveries is going to be tough to invade and occupy. Add in the unknown status of Taiwan’s nuke program, and the Communists will already have their hands full if Number One Son decides to teach Number Two Son a lesson and Number Two … along with his Japanese friends … won’t have any of it.
Shanghai Surprise!
Take the last train to Clarksville …
I just saw an interview with Mickey Dolenz in one of the Orlando throwaway papers’ online sites. He’s there Saturday night on what will be the last Monkee (singular now) tour.
Of course, every paper in Orlando is now a throwaway now that the Sentinel shuttered their newsroom without a replacement.
Very interesting that a phrase that is very much internet gun culture 2.0 leads this headline…
Play stupid games… Gun-toting Texas granny, 53, shoots dead armed robber who tried to hold up her food truck by prying open the closed window to fire shots inside
n
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
You don’t even have to laugh, although that certainly works at a simple level. Just get kids to step back and see the techniques at work. This applies generally: religion, doomsday articles, advertising, whatever.
What emotional strings are they trying to play on? What insecurities are they hoping you have. What are they hoping to get from you – clicks, money, devotion, what?
Religion is a funny one, because churches do offer something valuable: a community. Most people need a feeling of belonging, and in the modern world this can get lost. Loneliness in the middle of the city. Of course, a sense of community can be found elsewhere, but seldom so handily packaged.
I was raised Catholic, and forced to go to mass and CCD weekly. One of my friends, who was Southern Baptist, invited me to his service. It was eye opening, to say the least. Fire and brimstone. Very aggressive. As far back as I can remember, I was never a believer, but that experience reinforced my position.
Agreed.
@Nick
“M$ is now too big to do a good job at anything. One of the founders/early employees wrote a book about it. He argues against ever hiring anyone who isn’t an A player. As soon as you hire a B player, everyone else wants to start hiring B and even C level guys, and they’ll argue that “Well, you hired Joe, and he’s a B guy, I need to fill this slot, even if this guy is a B…” And then the B guys hire C guys and the C’s hire Ds…
MS is so big there aren’t enough B players, let alone A players, and that’s before the destructive effects of quota hiring and DEI policies (and offshoring before DEI).
They’ll plod along, until the company isn’t even in the original business, with all the valuable parts sold off along the ways, like GE, which redefined themselves as a FINANCIAL company a couple of years ago. They may still end up making things, in niche markets, with divisions that are small enough to have A players dominate decision making, but they are done in the long run.”
Can’t run a company on all A players. At least not when staffing gets to be more than a handful.
I still recommend Noel Tichy’s book on GE and Welch. In the 90’s it was a cautionary tale for anyone whose company hired one of Jack’s men, and now it’s a great”so how did that turn out?”
Community College of Denver? Your parents were monsters!
Back when I was in counseling, I had a discussion with my therapist about my interesting relationship with religion.
I expressed that I sometimes felt guilty because I took so much from my religious friends. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Catholics because my boys were raised Catholic*, in Catholic school, and my Catholic wife was active in the church, and I truly enjoyed the fellowship. Mass less so.
From the age of 14 on, I never really embraced the whole Christian mythology. But I learned to respect it, because it is one of the foundations of Western Civilization. I want to live in a Christian world whether I believe or not.
When I went through my divorce, I went through the excellent, bible based DivorceCare program. Again, there was a huge amount of practical knowledge, wrapped up in New Testament perspective. Including, by the way, scriptural references that divorce is, in fact, acceptable under certain circumstances. Many Christians don’t see it that way, but it’s there in black & white.
So I told my counselor that I felt like a parasite. I took and I took from my Christian friends. I got friendship, I got support, I got good wishes, they provided me counseling and services and they prayed for me. I gave little but respect and cost reimbursement in return.
She told me that I gave them something very valuable in return. The opportunity to put their faith into practice. To minister to me, and to challenge them to live their faith.
* All 3 boys have since rejected formal religion, on their own, with no guidance from me. While I am not a believer, I let them choose their own paths.
re: religious sexual abuse
It looks like there’s a consensus here that we should expect abuse of children from the religious. That is a dangerous observation. Abuse of children happens all over. Religious, educators (public and private), family members, groomers, organized gangs, everywhere.
Singling out the religious is exactly what you are led to believe by the MSM. You should step back and ask what the real numbers are, and what the agenda is for the MSM.
Having said that, there is evidence the Catholic church hierarchy has a history of protecting pedophile priests. So here’s a funny* story from my past.
My middle son dabbled in stand up comedy, and made the joke that he was raised Catholic, and he was so unattractive that even the priests wouldn’t come after him. I later explained to him that
Years later, I discovered that in fact, one of the priests (now deceased**) was an active pedophile during this period. He never laid a finger on one of my kids.
* funny is a word with many definitions
** Died of natural causes
Concur. Catholicism was the hand I was dealt due to my (unfortunate) choice of wife. I was technically raised Presbyterian, by parents originally raised Baptist. They left the Baptists because they liked music and dancing.
I was raised in the Zion Lutheran Evangelical Church*. MrsAtoz was raised non-denominational Christian (father was a lay Pastor). We have never been members of an organized church during our adult years. Five of our daughters attended a San Antonio Baptist school for pre-K 4 through 6. We chose this because they taught phonics starting in pre-K 4, where public schools didn’t. All turned out fine and none attend an organized church. All five daughters have BSs and two have Masters. Reading was an imperative we agreed on all our children would have. The eldest child attended a different religious school for pre-K through 3, she did really well and decided she wanted to go to public school with her friends.
* When I turned 18, I was done with the church. It was constant tithing and outreach. When I returned from home on leave during my first flying assignment, the pastor wanted to meet with me about helicopters. The church wanted to buy a helicopter to expand their African outreach. I gave my advice, basically, don’t buy, charter what you need to avoid maintenance, pilot training, etc. The church was a coalition by then and had more $$. I never had contact with them again. They wanted to expand an African mission while you could go two blocks from the church and people were barely feeding themselves.
We’ll see if this detail holds up.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11919801/Nashville-school-shooter-private-counselling-sessions-schools-head-pastor.html
n
This is the DOJs focus:
Leaked DOJ email shows tone-deaf webinar on protecting LGBTQ community from ‘hate/attacks’ (screenshot)
It seems only WHITEY! doesn’t get protected. There is no doubt in my mind our goobermint is pushing DEI to the max. Soon, the only WHITEY! people left will be the ones running the goobermint. They’ll never step down as rulers.
“It shot the head pastors daughter because he wasn’t on site…” There is a special place in Hell for it. I’m sure the LSM/LBGTQWERTY will say “abuse, abuse, abuse it is the pastor’s fault”.
They can directly thank Tucker Carlson:
BREAKING NEWS: QAnon Shaman Jacob Chansley is freed from prison 14 months early after his lawyer said Jan. 6 footage showing him being escorted into Senate by cops was exculpatory
11 months in solitary. They should just send them all to Gitmo. No, wait, they’d be better off. Only a ReDumblican President can atone for this injustice.
The “lawmakers” who pushed the jan 6 arrests and imprisonment should be subjected to the exact same treatment, after being stripped of all assets and marched naked thru the home towns of everyone wrongfully imprisoned.
This sort of abuse of power must be punished, and extremely at that, or it will multiply.
n
It is one thing for a person to be imprisoned due to error. Error hsppens, even when we seek to prevent and correct it.
It is a travesty for a person to be imprisoned due to inadequate representation.
It is evil for a person to be imprisoned due to government malfeasance.
When government malfeasance becomes the norm, it is time for new government.
Stupid, ignorant county clerks.
I went to renew my driver’s license to get Real ID. I had the documents proving who I was, passport, county tax bill, and a W-2. What I did not have was my SS card. The county said I had to have the SS card, 1099 or W-2 with full SSN (nobody prints full SSN). The information from the state web site stated “Applicant must furnish their Social Security Number. If it is not known, one (1) of the following approved documents showing applicant’s name and full Social Security Number is acceptable:”. I knew my SS number, county said I have to have the documents. I showed them on the page “If it is not known…” and asked them what they did not understand.
The clerk got a supervisor who stated the same thing as the clerk. I showed the supervisor the state web site. Supervisor said she would have to call the state. When she was done, she said she would try without the SSN card but if it did not work, I would have to have the card. She never would admit she, and the clerk, were incorrect.
Guess what? The application process worked without the SS card. The supervisor stated the state matched on the last four of the SSN and if the match failed, I would have to have the documents. I asked where that statement was actually located. She just it was rules and would not elaborate.
Government officials never admit they are wrong, they just shift the blame for their ignorance somewhere else.
I wanted the Real ID on my driver’s license as it is easier to carry than a passport or the additional passport card.
Even the SS website states that a person need to rarely show their SS card as it can be verified with SS administration by all state agencies. The SS discourages people having SS cards due to identity theft from lost wallets or purses.
SS Card is not id and can only be required under very restricted conditions. That’s federal law. They’ve eroded some of the protections, but not all.
n
So DeSantis and the FL legislature broke legal custom, by unilaterally changing a legal agreement. Then the other party changed the rules too, and now they’re p!ssed.
If the constancy of law can’t be expected, there is no point to having laws.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11920387/DeSantis-appointed-board-outraged-Disney-severely-curbs-authority.html
SS number should never have been used for any type of identification or validation. To get a cell a person needs a SS number. To get a driver’s license a person needs a SS number. When I enter the USAF in June 1969, the very next day the SS number was the number used for every service member. The military wisely changed after I left the service.
People get astounded over identity theft or fraudulent tax returns. Everyone can thank the cretins that decided the SS numbers was a good way to identify people.
The use of the SS number beyond social security, and perhaps tax purposes (questionable), was/is a very bad idea.
The state has my SS number, why do I need to show it again to some county clerk? Turns out I don’t although the clerk, and their supervisor, thought differently.
Maybe you should’ve broken out a tooth or two before you went in. “You poor thing, no problem, here’s your RealID.”
When I was setting up my late Mom’s new doctors in Vegas, they all wanted to see her SS card. I said “but here’s her Medicare and ID…” Tough potatoes, you want a doctor, show the card. I just gave it to them to be done with it.
Allowing Drs to require SSN was one change HIIPPPAA made. n
I think that tying SSN to insurance and medical care was an Obamacare thing, not a HIPAA thing. But toh-may-toh, toh-mah-toh.
Nothing is settled. This will now drag out in the courts for years.
Meanwhile, the shareholder meeting is Monday and The Mouse has squat in the pipeline with a PE of 54.
>> When I was setting up my late Mom’s new doctors in Vegas, they all wanted to see her SS card. I said “but here’s her Medicare and ID…” Tough potatoes, you want a doctor, show the card. I just gave it to them to be done with it.
The only thing that a doctor “needs” your SSN for is to facilitate debt collection if you turn out to be a deadbeat.
You can either refuse to provide it, and if they insist, go to a different doctor, or, give them a fake number. There are lists available out on the inter-webs of SSNs that will never be issued. Just pick one and enjoy.
It’s kinda cool and damp out. I have to change those batteries… Thang says “urgg” and tosses rock.
The Nashville murderer may have had adverse formative events. They were certainly guided and shaped by someone else, likely this TRAN business. They are profoundly mentally ill, in at least two ways. F to M transitions involve a lot of hormones, that can cause rage and anger issues apparently, so there is that. I think this was more suicide by cop than kill kids. She was onsite for 15 minutes, had ammo left, and wasn’t killing kids the whole time. She made her point, set up her suicide, then waited.
Who wound up the broken doll? Who wounded the broken doll? Those are answers we are unlikely to get.
(where was she getting the money for guns, money for transitioning, etc. what has she been doing for the last 3 years?)
And did she have a copy of “The Catcher In The Rye” book on her ?
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-catcher-in-the-rye-enigma-j-d-salinger-s-mind-control-triggering-device-or-a-coincidental-literary-obsession-of-criminals-james-morcan/10811250
Very interesting that a phrase that is very much internet gun culture 2.0 leads this headline…
Play stupid games… Gun-toting Texas granny, 53, shoots dead armed robber who tried to hold up her food truck by prying open the closed window to fire shots inside
n
“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
Female AND black. They now have guns too and are not afraid to use them. The biggest crime segment in the USA is black on black crime. The blacks have decided that they are not going to get held up or shot also. Good for them.
M$ is now too big to do a good job at anything. One of the founders/early employees wrote a book about it. He argues against ever hiring anyone who isn’t an A player. As soon as you hire a B player, everyone else wants to start hiring B and even C level guys, and they’ll argue that “Well, you hired Joe, and he’s a B guy, I need to fill this slot, even if this guy is a B…” And then the B guys hire C guys and the C’s hire Ds…
MS is so big there aren’t enough B players, let alone A players, and that’s before the destructive effects of quota hiring and DEI policies (and offshoring before DEI).
They’ll plod along, until the company isn’t even in the original business, with all the valuable parts sold off along the ways, like GE, which redefined themselves as a FINANCIAL company a couple of years ago. They may still end up making things, in niche markets, with divisions that are small enough to have A players dominate decision making, but they are done in the long run.
n
Google has a core cadre of about 400 programmers that handle search, ads, and gmail. They are so important to the mission that they have a separate building on the campus and HR slogan chanting weirdos is not permitted in that building. They are all paid incredibly well (I am hearing $750K to start) and NDA’d beyond belief.
I was raised in the Zion Lutheran Evangelical Church*. MrsAtoz was raised non-denominational Christian (father was a lay Pastor). We have never been members of an organized church during our adult years. Five of our daughters attended a San Antonio Baptist school for pre-K 4 through 6. We chose this because they taught phonics starting in pre-K 4, where public schools didn’t. All turned out fine and none attend an organized church. All five daughters have BSs and two have Masters. Reading was an imperative we agreed on all our children would have. The eldest child attended a different religious school for pre-K through 3, she did really well and decided she wanted to go to public school with her friends.
I was raised Church Of Christ. My parents are Church of Christ and my grandparents are Church of Christ. The neat thing about the Church of Christ is that each church is independent. The crazy thing about the Church of Christ is that each church is independent.
My wife was raised Church of Christ also. We met at my parents church because her brother was my best friend. We are still Church of Christ as we go to a 1,700 member church in Sugar Land, been there since 1989. We are there most Sundays. We have a bunch of people who help with our daughter for almost 20 years now. The community is important to us.
My son is a believer but not an attender. My daughter is not a believer.
My thought exactly:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/03/insurrection-in-tennessee.php
Biden and Garland an the entire MSM should approve.
Hmmm, how’s that reserve currency status looking?
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/france-buys-65000-tons-lng-china-first-ever-yuan-denominated-trade
Petro-dollar. Dollar diplomacy. Cleanest dirty shirt.
Bet those are some phrases we won’t be hearing after a short period where they dominate the news cycle.
One of these days, a basket of currencies might be created to replace the SWIFT system. But, people are finding out that replacing the SWIFT system is incredibly hard. And banks have huge inertia and do not want to support more than one international currency system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWIFT
But if the USA balkanizes in the next 5 to 15 years, the SWIFT system will go down.
The problem is, they are also too big to fail. Not necessarily that the government would rescue them (although I wouldn’t bet against it). More in the sense that “economy of scale” is a bitch. When you are so large, you can afford to be less productive on a per capita basis. Simply by virtue of being huge, a company bends markets to its own benefit. Also, that much money has political clout, with the according benefits.
Capitalism is a great system, but the abuses need to be reigned in by government regulation. There needs to be an upper limit on size, and that limit needs to be a lot smaller than current companies like MS, Alphabet, Apple, & co.. No discussion, no decade long court cases, just black-and-white: Revenue greater than X, you must divest.
Brad, have you ever been a part of an anti-trust action by the FTC ? I have and it was not pretty. I got to testify and submit huge amounts of documents to the FTC investigation. Documents that I considered private that the FTC released to the public. And I spent a lot of my own money doing so. I refused to send me and my lawyer to DC on my nickle so I ended testifying for four hours over the phone. And then the company decided to settle and the settlement was a fake agreement. All the FTC wanted was a head to put on their wall.
“Your Starlink service plan has been upgraded from Best Effort to Residential. With Residential you will receive prioritized service, resulting in improved speeds, particularly during times of network congestion. There is no change in your monthly service price or additional cost for this upgrade.”
“This upgrade is made possible through the introduction of Starlink’s higher performing satellites, SpaceX’s faster launch rate, and the continuous deployment of software features to optimize the Starlink network.”
“Since October 2020, the Starlink team has enabled over 1 million customers across 60 markets. Thank you for being an early supporter of Starlink – enjoy your upgraded service!”
Huh. Interesting.
I will reboot our office Peplink 30 multiple port WAN tonight and try it out.
“Fisher Investments Moves to Texas Over Taxes”
https://finance.yahoo.com/m/b56a2c81-e128-39d7-9597-fbf1d43dca2b/fisher-investments-moves-to.html
“The firm said it was relocating “immediately” from Washington after the state’s supreme court cleared the way for a capital gains tax on individuals.”
I suspect that there will be more relocations.
Private counseling sessions with the pastor. Right. And, when the guy wasn’t there, she shot his kid, as the next best way to hurt him.
I stand by my theory: She was being abused. Now we know by whom.
>> Simply by virtue of being huge, a company bends markets to its own benefit. Also, that much money has political clout, with the according benefits.
M$ is happy to bend to the wants and needs of the Fortune 50 as long as the bucks keep flowing.
>> Capitalism is a great system, but the abuses need to be reigned in by government regulation. There needs to be an upper limit on size, and that limit needs to be a lot smaller than current companies like MS, Alphabet, Apple, & co.. No discussion, no decade long court cases, just black-and-white: Revenue greater than X, you must divest.
The status quo for (US) government regulations is too entrenched, and too profitable, to change without a yet undreamed of innovation … or of course CW II (or WW III).
Just go back and think, what was your preferred search engine before Google existed? For me, it was AltaVista.
Fisher is yet another escapee from Vantucky. Their offices were located around the corner from our rental, but the CEO never quite managed to convince a critical mass of people to relocate from the original HQ in California which they also left for tax reasons. Now Fisher is moving to Texas. We’ll see if third time is a charm, but I don’t hold great hope that this state won’t see income tax before we leave.
For the record, Camas is Fancy Lad Vantucky with a whole separate “neighborhood” sales tax which probably pushes the rate to above 10% by now. I told my spouse that part of the pricetag for me to ever consider moving back to that place would be a house on Prune Hill in Camas along with a G Wagon and plastic surgery — what every pushy doctor’s wife wants.
Capital Gains. That sucks. That opens the door for state income tax not only in WA State, but Texas and Florida as well, depending on how the case decision reads.
Forces in WA State and elsewhere have been seeking the Holy Grail of precedents allowing a bypass of state constitutional restrictions against income tax.
Welcome to the Comedy Club:
Karine Jean Pierre’s heart goes out to the trans community, which is under attack right now
WTAF? Under attach by who?
Don‘t give TN any ideas, which enjoys no income tax.
I’ll bet that the kinks are not only beyond imagining but beyond anything that we can imagine.
It correlates to high IQ in my experience. The HR weirdos I know are pretty vanilla in comparison.
Tennessee has to pay attention too.
Florida under Jeb! dodged several legal landmine initiative which would have resulted in state income tax before a separate initiative tightened the rules regarding what could go on the ballot after the “pig in a poke” amendment enshrined pig pen sizes in the state Constitution.
“SSD 101: How Reliable are SSDs?”
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-reliable-are-ssds/
“What’s not to love about solid state drives (SSDs)? They are faster than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs), more compact, have no moving parts, use less electricity, and can withstand more shocks and vibration than conventional magnetic platter disks. And, they are becoming available in larger and larger capacities while their cost comes down.”
“In this post we’re going to consider the issue of SSD reliability. We’ll take a closer look at:
Get tRump! Get him!!!
“The Readers Speak! This Blog’s Readers’ Favorite Science Fiction Series” by Dan Livingston
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/the-readers-speak-this-blogs-readers-favorite-science-fiction-series/
I have read:
12. The Pern series
11. Honor Harrington series
10. The Ender Saga (I have The Last Shadow in my SBR)
6. The Mars Trilogy
5. The Expanse (through Persepolis Rising)
3. Hyperion Cantos
2. Dune Saga
1. Foundation
Pern is to science fiction as Beyond Meat is to meat.
Foundation. I have them, haven’t read a couple. Ok, I haven’t read the copies I bought.
Mars Trilogy. I read Red Mars. Can’t find it so I suppose it went with the rest of the books I got rid of several years ago. Green Mars and Blue Mars are in my to read stack.
Dune? Read the first book. I think I made it half way through Messiah and that’s all. Just didn’t get into it.
Dune is one of those “every one says this is great” things but I’d rather read the Windows95 Resource Kit book followed by the NT Resource Kit book. The Windows 2000 Professional version, just skimmed it, same stuff as before with more words.
Pretty sure I’ve read Ender’s Game. I don’t recall any of the sequels.
I’ve read several of the Pern books but it got old. Dragons are neat anyway.
I can’t say I’ve even heard of most of the list.
How about the Faded Sun series?
Foundation; have recently read the whole series. It bounced around. The first three books were excellent, but they declined after that. One tried to go all Gaia-ish, which didn’t work, and the last two tied in the Robot novels. Turns out that Daneel Olivaw ….. well, that would be a spoiler.
Pern stories were more fantasy-ish, until the origins book, which SORT of moved it all back into the Sci-Fi category. A LOT ow “willing suspension of disbelief” is required there.
Pern stories were more fantasy-ish, until the origins book, which SORT of moved it all back into the Sci-Fi category. A LOT ow “willing suspension of disbelief” is required there.
To me, any book with FTL, star gates, worm holes, ray guns that can be fired more than once, light sabers, etc, etc, etc need a strong willing suspension of disbelief. Luckily, I can shuck the realities of life easily.
I liked the Pern books and the origins book did convert them back from fantasy to science fiction. Maybe this is the origins book: “The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall”
https://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Pern-First-Fall/dp/0345368991?tag=ttgnet-20/
How about the Faded Sun series?
They are OK but not the best for me. James Nicoll reviews them all at:
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/reviews/contributor/1719
The missing series for me is the Pip and Flynx series by Alan Dean Foster.
Lynn:
Yes, where she describes the genetic engineering required to turn “fire lizards” into “dragons”, and explained the origins of the dolphins/”shipfish”.
“Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud, sources tell CNN”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/30/politics/donald-trump-indictment/index.html
You have got to be kidding me.
This is the type of behavior that I expect to see in Russia, Cuba, China and other communist places like that.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
Lynn:
New York City is, for all intents and purposes, JUST such a communist place.
>> Of course, a sense of community can be found elsewhere, but seldom so handily packaged.
Community here USDA certified by SteveF.
The missing series for me is the Pip and Flynx series by Alan Dean Foster.
And the other missing series is the 16 book Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Starting with the awesome “Shards Of Honor”, the series has been nominated for Hugos ten times and won five times, one Hugo for the entire saga.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671720872?tag=ttgnet-20
The entire Vorkosigan Saga:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W9LXSYG?tag=ttgnet-20
Numerous missing series:
Heinlein
Niven
Ringo
Flint
Burroughs
Stirling
Scalzi
Modessit
Stross
some of which would easily be top 14 in a truly popular list.
Makes one wonder about livingston’s “voters” being bots or some other aberration.
My son figured out the problem with his 2019 Camry air conditioning. A one inch rock came through the front grill and implanted itself in the air conditioning condenser. He ordered a new condenser from some offbeat place for $130 instead of paying Toyota $400. I hope it works. His system is the R1234YF refrigerant which is fairly expensive, $45 for 8 ounces.
https://www.autozone.com/a-c-charging-and-refrigerant/r1234yf-refrigerant/p/honeywell-r-1234yf-soltice-yf-refrigerant-8oz/86952_0_0
Pern is to science fiction as Beyond Meat is to meat.
– I was gonna mention that it goes back and explains the science part.
never heard of 14, or 13. Have re-read the pern novels, the core one many times.
Have not read any of the Honor Harrington (dives for cover)
Read and re-read the ender saga.
Read the peter hamilton, but never re-read. Actually thought about it in the last month, but decided against.
Never heard of the author or series for 8, and I have no idea why the lefties like chine 3 body problem so much. I barely got thru the first one, and only because I was voting in the Hugos that year.
Long time since I read Red Mars, might have read Green, but not blue. No memory of it other than I have it so must have read it.
5 rings no bells for author or series.
Ditto 4 and 3.
Have read and re-read the core Dune novels multiple times.
Foundation left me cold and I stopped at some point.
I’d have included the Ringworld books, as I’ve read them and the Man Kzin Wars spin offs.
For modern, I’ve read and re-read the Posleen war books and the Black Tide rising books several times (John Ringo). Don’t know where they will end up in history, but there are a lot of them and they stand up to re-reading.
I have really liked the Laundry Files stross books but again, don’t know if they will be ‘re-readable.’
The Larry Correia Monster Hunter books are fun.
I guess Terry Pratchett is fantasy so not eligible…
n
Embarrass both significant candidates for the Republican nomination for President on the same day, conveniently timed to line up guests for the Sunday morning shows.
Though, given the week Disney had and the stock price down 50 points from the same time a year ago, I’m not sure if DeSantis views his current situation as “losing”.
These are the LPRs that have popped up around here.
https://theintercept.com/2023/03/22/hoa-surveillance-license-plate-police-flock/
n
Heinlein: The World as Myth
Often Listed as four books: Time Enough for Love, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, To Sail Beyond the Sunset. However, Methuselah’s Children is the first Lazarus Long, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is the first appearance of Mike, the raison d’être for Cat.
Niven: Ringworld
Ringo: The aforementioned Posleen War and Black Tide series, but also Troy Rising.
Flint: Ring of Fire
and D. Taylor: The Bobiverse
On the Honorable Mention List: I would also include:
McDevitt: The Academy
and others, but I mention Jack specifically because The Academy series is about as good as it gets when introducing a new technology and parsing out the effects on society. It also dapproaches The Fermi Paradox in the same way that proposed [redacted].
@Nick
I would not advocate a .30-06 or even a .22 as a solution, but a paintball gun–even without a glass-etching load–would do the trick.
ADDED: Even used vegetable oil gathering dust and oxidizing to a nice brown sludge would be a huge maintenance problem.
For modern, I’ve read and re-read the Posleen war books and the Black Tide rising books several times (John Ringo). Don’t know where they will end up in history, but there are a lot of them and they stand up to re-reading.
I have really liked the Laundry Files stross books but again, don’t know if they will be ‘re-readable.’
The Larry Correia Monster Hunter books are fun.
I guess Terry Pratchett is fantasy so not eligible…
I think that the John Ringo Black Tide Rising books are dark fantasy (horror). So are the Larry Correia Monster Hunter books.
I would like to see John Ringo’s “Live Free or Die” (Troy Rising) series in the list as they are certainly science fiction. I like the Posleen series but they are not as strong IMHO.
There is a fine line between the genres of science fiction and fantasy. I am often confused where it lies. The two of them are called SF, speculative fiction, which confuses the issue even more.
Heinlein: The World as Myth
Often Listed as four books: Time Enough for Love, The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, To Sail Beyond the Sunset. However, Methuselah’s Children is the first Lazarus Long, and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is the first appearance of Mike, the raison d’être for Cat.
TEFL, TNUOFB, TCWWTW, TSBTS evoke incredible amounts of feelings in readers. Some people love them, some people hate them with a passion. Some people will talk about brain eaters and other such nonsense.
MC and TMIAHM (minus the line marriages) are fairly well beloved by most readers though.
Flint: Ring of Fire
Probably fantasy.
It occurs to me that I can go to bed and sleep.
n
These are the LPRs that have popped up around here.
https://theintercept.com/2023/03/22/hoa-surveillance-license-plate-police-flock/
n
About a quarter of the Sugar Land police vehicles have license plate readers on them. The officers say they stay busy when the readers are active.
“Trump allies erupt in fury over former president’s indictment”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-allies-erupt-fury-former-presidents-indictment-rcna77523
“House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whom Trump endorsed in his bid for speaker, wrote that Bragg “has irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election” and “weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump.””
“McCarthy hinted that GOP-controlled House committees could soon subpoena Bragg to compel his testimony before Congress: “The American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.””
Do not antagonize the Speaker of the House lightly.
Half of the USA is going to be very upset over this.
I am completely certain that Trump has done plenty of illegal things. The same could be said of virtually anyone travelling in those circles. The question of January 6th doesn’t even need to be raised. Even ordinary folk: “three felonies a day”
That isn’t what this is about, of course. This is political. And stupid. If Trump’s opponents really want him to fail, the best thing they could do is completely ignore him. Instead, they seem determined to keep him in the headlines, to turn him into some kind of martyr.
The whole January 6th thing falls into the same category. Did y’all read that the “shaman” how finally been released, after the court was allowed to see footage of him being escorted around by friendly Capitol Police? In the meantime, he was in <i>solitary</i> confinement? For years???
The political situation in the US is sad. Trump has driven his supportors to be ever more extreme. His opponents have done exactly the same, using Trump as fuel. Looking in from the outside: it’s a dangerous, dangerous situation. A couple of big sparks, and…