Have a Happy D-Day

Good men died so that you could. To quote Reagan:

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Dale Franks recounts what happened 53 years ago today.

Conversion Stories

Happy Catholic recounts the story of Sci-Fi writer John C. Wright's conversion originally published in a Sci-Fi Weekly interview. Wright seems to be a pretty wordy guy, which isn't a bad trait for a writer, so I'm not going to re-recount it. Wright also blogs on Live Journal.

Nostalgia for Nothing

A meme Tamara is planning to spread asks bloggers to look at the top songs from the year they turned 18 and then wax nostalgic about how great those songs were.

I turned 18 in 1995. All my songs suck. I checked. Boyz II Men, TLC, and Mariah Carey? Color me apathetic. It's the mid-nineties, shouldn't there be some grunge alterna-rock in there somewhere?

Priceless Clarkson

Britain's Top Gear is perhaps the best car show ever and Jeremy Clarkson is the reason why. The Times Online has a list of his top twelve car quips, complete with links to the reviews. They're calling it his "dirty dozen." Here is a bit of what he thinks of the Kia Rio:

You may have seen The Fly II, in which a scientist attempts to teleport a dog. In one of the most gruesome scenes I've seen in a film it arrives at its destination completely inside out. Well the Rio is uglier than that. Inside, things get worse.

Go read and enjoy.

Business Casual Kicks

For work wear, I normally rotate my shoes between a pair of black Red Wing oxfords and a pair of ankle-high Timberlands that are similarly styled. The Timberlands keep my feet dry stomping across the poorly-drained pock-marked parking lots at work. The Red Wings are just good solid shoes that I've worn for over five years. That's one pair for over five years. They're good and tough those Red Wings. Unfortunately they're also worn out. Neither pair of shoes has any tread left and the uppers on the oxfords, while still structurally sound, have definitely looked better.

Their replacement, a pair of black Timberland Stormbuck Oxfords came on Thursday. I hate ordering shoes without trying them on. Fortunately, even though the Christiana Macy's didn't have my size in stock, they did have enough shoes to tell what my size is. Doesn't fit, next, doesn't fit, next... After that it was back to the internet.

These shoes are practically perfect. They're black to match my normal belts, etc. They're suede so I don't ever need to polish them (unlike my Red Wings). They're waterproof for bad weather. They're fairly economical. They look pretty good and they're also very comfortable. The only bad thing is that the insoles aren't removeable. Frankly that's something I can live with since they'll probably be up for replacement before a worn-out insole really bugs me.

Writing Troubles

I was reading Hugh Hewitt's latest piece on Town Hall and I was really struck by this sentence:

Senator Brownback, Governor Huckabee, and Congressman Hunter are fine men and serious public servants, but if you can’t get over 10% in even one state poll from among the first four states in which contests will be held –Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida and South Carolina—you shouldn’t be in the first tier, and only the first tier should be taking up prime time in the months ahead.

Now is it just me or is that sentence a mess? It's like some sort of prepositional pileup with commas and additional punctuation that adds nothing to clarity. Good Lord man, list one thing at a time.

Oh and Hugh likes Romney and Rudy in the primaries. He thinks McCain has too much baggage. He thinks Thompson lacks both commitment and long term appeal to the general populace, especially the blue staters. Maybe he's right. But I live in a Blue State and I wouldn't vote for Romney or Rudy unless the only other option was the devil herself. Which looks increasingly likely.

Anyway back to some of my posts that have been sitting in the old writing queue forever.

Start the Happy Dance

Fred Thompson is announced he would begin his campaign for President in July. Right now he's setting up the organization he needs to do it. This should be fun.

UPDATE: Professor Bainbridge has a list of good reasons to like Thompson. Besides enjoying the fact that Fred annoys Dobson, he also lists Thompson's cigar smoking as a plus. Maybe, but the last time a president's use of cigars came up in major public discourse, I seem to recall it being less than positive. But then again Fred only smokes his.

Iraqi Reporting

JD Johannes confirms Michael Yon's reporting that there is a major turnaround occurring in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. The Sunnis in several towns are fighting back against the Sunni Insurgency and winning. For the time being, this is a good thing. He also says something very intelligent.

When I get home in a few weeks people will ask me, "how's Iraq?"

I will tell them, "I don't know, but I can tell you about the areas that I saw first hand and spent a few weeks living in."

Each area of operation is different. Khalidiyah is only 35 kilometers from Kharma and Kharma is only 33 kilometers from West Rasheed, Baghdad, but they are nothing alike.

Anyone who says they can speak with definitive knowledge about all of Iraq is a fool or a liar or both.

A person with definitive knowledge of Iraq would have to discuss the situation in terms of 4 or more general areas of operation and then break those down even more to Battalion by Battalion areas.

Even then, the information he knows may soon be out of date.

Frankly, it may be possible to get a current wide-ranging picture of what is going on, but it isn't easy. What you have to do is sit a whole lot of people like JD down and have them talk about their individual areas. Hopefully the military is doing this through their reporting processes.

The Virus Spreads

Despite higher pay than the members of the UAW last year, there are rumblings of unionization at Toyota's Kentucky assembly plant. I suppose I shouldn't blame the workers too much themselves, they are almost certainly on the receiving end of a lot of FUD from the UAW. The union is well aware that domestic auto sales have been shrinking and their representation in the marketplace has been dropping with it. As a result, they have been trying to break into the non-domestics for several years now without much success.

Purple Haze...

Ever have the feeling that you're not firing on all cylinders? My day has been like that so far. Four day weekends are great, don't get me wrong, but they play hell with my sleep cycle when it comes time to go back to work. Morning came too early and my normal doses of caffeine just don't seem to cut it.

UPDATE: Some generous soul brought in fudge brownies. Refined sugar is currently putting pep in my step. I should crash and be ready for a nap just in time for my regular teleconference.

Memorial Day Regulars

So it's Memorial Day and every chat show I switched on this morning had advice about women's bathing suits. They would trot out these models in a "variety of body types" and give advice on what they should wear to the beach. Of course all the models essentially have the same body type - tall and skinny. Because they're swimsuit models. And they all looked great in bikinis.

If you're going to do one of these shows, why not grab some people that might plausibly look like your viewership? You know someone that isn't 18 with single digit body fat percentages.

Happy Anniversary to Me

Amybear and I were married one year ago today. One year down, many more to go...

I must say that getting married on Memorial Day has its advantages. Not only is it difficult to forget that your anniversary is coming, but we're probably going to get have the day off about half the time.

Innovations in Steam Power

Bruce Crower has an interesting idea for a six stroke engine that uses both gasoline and steam. His motor uses the standard four strokes of a modern gasoline engine, but adds two more steam strokes in an attempt to scavenge more useful work from the engines waste heat. On the fifth stroke, he injects water into the cylinder which then flashes to steam upon contact with the hot metal. The sixth stroke exhausts the steam to a condenser track where it would be reused.

The problems? Well flashing water to steam using the surfaces in the cylinder sounds like a bad idea to me. It just seems like a good way to promote oxidation and corrosion. More importantly though, you're unlikely to get a perfect scavenge from the transitions between the gasoline and steam cycles. This means the steam stroke is going to pickup exhaust components from the gasoline cycle and vice versa. The steam side will need to try to filter these components out or they'll break down and cause problems. Having a little steam in the fuel to air mixture probably won't cause too much trouble but you can't run a closed steam system if you are constantly exhausting steam like that.

If you wanted to do a gas-steam hybrid, you probably want to use the coolant and exhaust systems of the internal combustion engine to provide heat instead of going directly for the combustion chamber itself. Then use a separate steam motor to keep the loop closed. But of course then you run into problems with the additional weight of a motor, etc.

Open Carry

These kids are unusual, but I think I like it. I may have to purchase a good holster and open carry more. I'm sure Amy will love that, but we would like to go for a walk after dark without having to worry the rising crime rate.

I really need to look into Delaware's open carry laws. Delaware passed a preemption in 1985, but all laws passed prior to that are still legal and binding. I've heard the City of Newark (along with Wilmington and Dover) is one of the places with such a law, but the municipal code seems to indicate problems with concealed carry and "threatening display." The problem is some jurisdictions have been known to regard a holstered weapon as a "threatening display." They don't usually don't get away with it for long given a legal challenge.

How Did I Miss It?

Jeep is taking their Wrangler JT concept to the SEMA show this year. The JT is a compact pickup variant based on the Wrangler Unlimited chassis. Autoblog has pictures of the concept vehicle.

Excellent move by Jeep. If they get the spare tire out of the bed and produce a diesel version, I'll buy one.

ACLU Partisanship

Wendy Kaminer, an attorney for FIRE and the Massachusetts ACLU, takes the ACLU to task for the strong leftward tack they have taken over the past several years. This revelation comes as no surprise to gun owners. The ACLU's Second Amendment stance is a collectivist one. They support gun registration and licensing and have been notably silent on gun confiscations and outright bans. For that matter when was the last time you saw the ACLU ride to the rescue of Evangelical Christians or College Republicans? I wouldn't hold my breath.

Cat Blogging Across Teh Internets

Evangelical Outpost is posting on cat macros also known as lolcats. I don't know from whence this trend came, but it just proves that cats are kooky, funny, animals. I think they are made all the funnier because, unlike dogs, cats have dignity.

Via Tamara, it's a seasonal adventure with a great pictorial payoff that still makes me glad Milo is a shorthair.

Over at Incoherent Ramblings, Risawn once more exposes the lie that is the "free" cat. Even if you don't adopt an animal with serious health problems like Ruth, you're still going to pay out the nose for quite a while if you care about the animals well-being. We adopted Milo for $80. Getting treatment for his ear mites and fleas, bringing his shots up to date, and then treating his urinary crystals probably cost us several hundred dollars. That isn't even looking at how much we've spent on kitty litter, toys, electronic food/water units, cat beds, etc. But he is a great cat and he's worth it.

The New Legalism

Because what is Pharisaical legalism, really, but self-help with bad p.r.?

That is probably the best, but not the only great quote one of the Thinklings examination of the failings of 21st century spirituality. Here is a bit more:

And people love this stuff. They want to be told religion is not about rules and regulations while at the same time being told each week which four steps (with helpful alliteration) they need to do in order to achieve maximum what-have-you. They want to be reassured that works don't merit salvation while at the same time convinced salvation is about trying really hard to do things that unlock the power or secret of God's such-and-such.

Christianity is aptly named because it isn't about me or you. It isn't about what we can do. It is about Jesus Christ. The Good News is not "be excellent to one another." That's Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It isn't "don't screw up" or even "preach boldly." The Gospel is that God loved you so much that created a way that your screw ups wouldn't matter. What does he ask for this? Just that you love him back. That's it. Love him back.

Dieting to Death

Instapundit is linking to criticism of Veganism by Nina Planck. The Vegans aren't happy. Cry me a river.

I'm willing to concede that it is possible to be a healthy Vegan. But I'm also willing to assert that it isn't that easy to do without taking dietary supplements that probably defeat the whole social message behind Veganism. I've seen some leading Vegan advocates that look awful. They had very little body fat, so they looked fit but their skin looked horrible. Not because of acne horrible, but mottled and unhealthy.

Flying in a B-25

The Collings Foundation brings WWII aircraft around to airshows. The prospect of getting a ride in a B-17 or B-25 seems like a lot of fun. Depending on the cost and when these things get around to the east coast, it might be nice to buy one of these things for my dad.

Now if only they had the Mosquito.

Why I Stopped Reading Papers

When a gunman opened fire in his bank, Chris Chappell ran to his car and got his Glock. As Chappell took a position outside the bank's front door to prevent the gunman's escape, the robber transitioned to murder by killing two tellers. Chappell kept the man from leaving the scene until police arrived.

Who does USA Today give top billing to? The cops of course. To them Chappell is little more than a witness. What utter crap.

Makes you wonder what else you don't hear about, doesn't it?

The Manly Cat

I must admit that when Amy and I first got Milo, I wasn't too sure about this whole cat owner deal. My family went through three dogs growing up and I had all ways been a dog person. Cats just seemed girlie to me.

Milo has done a lot to change my mind. There is something that is just cool about cats. Mostly I think it has to do with their killer instincts. Living with a cat is like living with the sniper of the animal kingdom. Milo was great when we had crickets last year. He'd just wait outside of that little crevice they were chirping from. Then he'd pounce on them repeatedly or bite them in half. Thankfully he didn't eat them and then barf them back up.

With dogs, you play very contrived games like fetch or tug or whatever. They're like your sloppy, slobbery buddy. Despite a working relationship with humans for millenia, cats show a blessed lack of this form of domestication. Sure Milo wants his belly rubbed or some good scratchings, but all the games I play with Milo are just variants on Kill It. What is that flittering bird-like thing? Orange furball must kill it! Is that a mouse? Feline fist of death! A big bug? I will Stalk It. Closer. Closer. Yes. Yes. Now kill it!

And that literary device about catlike reflexes? Really true. I've thrown something across the room only to have Milo streak out of dark recesses of my apartment and intercept it before it hit the ground. He's like Milo Cat, the Ginger Jedi.

All in all, Milo has proven the value and coolness of his entire species to me. Especially since his automatic feeder has now gotten him through the stage where he wakes me up at 5am every morning.

Scottish Games

I know that I mentioned them months ago, but this is just a reminder that the Fair Hill Scottish Games are tomorrow. I will be there with my kilt on. Yes it is supposed to rain, but it wouldn't be Scottish if the weather was warm and sunny now would it?

Carbon Debits

Carbon credits always seemed like poor idea to me. Recent comparisons to indulgences seem about right. You're essentially paying someone else to be extra ecologically friendly for you. Unless you're Al Gore. Then you're paying yourself to be ecologically friendly for you. I guess that is the advantage of being the EcoPope or whatever his job title is. Lord High Nutjob? Grand Gaian Poobah? Eh...

Which is what makes the Carbon Debit site funny. The only thing they missed is that after you fly to Arizona to cut down and shred a tree, you need to burn said tree in order to increase your carbon footprint even more.

Gay Marriage Across State Lines

Via Hugh Hewitt, a Massachusetts judge has ruled that the same-sex marriage of two New Yorkers is valid despite New York having a law that says it isn't. Hugh opines:

But clearly those who argued that the federal Defense of Marriage Act would stop the export of same-sex marriage were wrong, and that basis for opposing the Marriage Amendment revealed as threadbare.

I wouldn't go that far yet. As far as I can tell, this is a bad legal ruling. Not bad as in "I disagree" but bad from a point of law. The July 6, 2006 ruling by the New York Court of Appeals did not establish a marriage prohibition in the state of New York. Instead it upheld an existing same-sex marriage prohibition which would indicate all prior same-sex marriages were illegal.

To say that DOMA has proven insufficient is inaccurate since we have yet to see same-sex marriage enter a federal court where DOMA would apply. This may be the case if New York refuses to recognize the Massachusetts decision.

Classification Levels

Most people are aware of the US levels of classified information: Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret. An odd bit of trivial I discovered over lunch today is that the NATO levels are slightly different. NATO levels are generally marked the same as the US levels, but with "NATO" stuck in front of them. There is NATO Restricted, NATO Secret, etc. The only difference is that Top Secret becomes "Cosmic" Top Secret. Cosmic. That got some giggles around the lunch table.

Why Cosmic? What exactly does NATO have in those files? The current location of Galactus? Correspondence from the Vulcans or the Greys? Perhaps some NATO functionary just thought the name sounded cool after doing too much LDS in the sixties.

Gun Comedy

Clayton Cramer recounts the travails of an average guy buying lots of ammo at a local sporting goods store. His only problem is that he seems to live in the Bay Area of California.

WOMAN IN LINE (looking at the 10 boxes of ammo I'm carrying): I can't believe they let you just carry that through the store.
ME: Well, the last time I drove up to the ammo counter they told me to leave my car outside from now on.

I buy a lot of my bulk paper-punching ammo at Dick's. The prices are great and, unlike our unfortunately Bay Area resident, I hardly ever get any crap.

Like Athiests in Foxholes...

Ohio State Representative Michael DeBose (D) came to regret his vote against concealed carry reform when two armed men jumped out of a car and attempted to mug him a few feet from his home:

"I was wrong," he said Friday.

"I'm going to get a permit and so is my wife.

"I've changed my mind. You need a way to protect yourself and your family.

"I don't want to hurt anyone. But I never again want to be in the position where I'm approached by someone with a gun and I don't have one."

DeBose said he knows that a gun doesn't solve Cleveland's violence problem; it's merely a street equalizer.

Perhaps, but there is something to be said for equalizers. Even if criminals and citizens take equal losses, in most places you will run out of violent criminals long before you run out of honest men.

An Economics Primer

Sometimes the best way to tell the truth is with humor. So it is with the Geek's latest post:

Colleague: "Hey, whats the definition of oligarchy?"

Me: "Government by the few and elite."

Colleague: "No. That's not the word I was looking for. What's the word for when the government owns everything?"

Me: "Um....that would be communism. You know, Marx, from each according to his means, to each according to his needs, workers of the world unite, the only thing you have to lose is all your stuff, er, chains, etc."

Colleague: "Oh, right. Of course." {mild laughter}

Me: "Classical Capitalism, on the other hand, the government owns nothing, except for some buildings, some ships for the navy, and a pile of cannons for the army."

Colleague: {Increased laughter}

Me: "Socialism is when the government owns only the stuff worth owning, leaving the unprofitable sectors for private ownership"

Colleague: {Yet more laughter}

Me: "And finally, we have modern capitalism, which is the inverse of my flawed description of socialism: the profitable sectors are privately owned, and the unprofitable sectors are government owned, necessitating a tax increase."

Colleague: {Full out incoherent laughter}

Jerry Falwell, Dead at 73

Falwell has gone to meet his maker. The really question is what his maker actually had to say to Jerry when he got there.

Hoons

This old Jalopnik poll has a pretty impressive list of people doing silly/stupid stunts with various vehicles including bigwheels and powerwheels. I've linked to some of them before, like the Geo Storm that didn't quite emerge from a snow bank in one piece. But they're still funny anyway.

Website Blocking

Hmm... well, I can still see youTube and Photobucket. I wonder how long that will last?

Automotive Divorce

Well we have a Big Three again. Daimler-Chrysler has split into Daimler and Chrysler. Early reports indicate that Daimler was unsatisfied with Chrysler's *ahem* inability to perform. Chrysler was sick of being routinely abused by its partner.

No word on who gets the house corporate headquarters, but it appears Daimler will keep most of the debt.

Ranger Isn't Leading the Way

I have a soft spot for the Ford Ranger. I don't need or want a full-size pickup. Midsize pickups seem to have most of the large truck's negatives, like gas mileage and crappy ride, with few of the positives, like power and hauling capacity. Which leaves me with compacts. Which leaves the Ranger because there isn't anything else.

Unfortunately, Ford hasn't updated the Ranger in forever. This is good in that the bugs are worked out and the truck is cheap. People with over 150,000 miles on their Ranger are common and lots of people have a quarter of million on them. It is bad in that they don't seem to know where to go next. Autoblog has suggestions. I agree with the main theme of their suggestions: keep the truck small.

Outside the US, Ford sells a new model Ranger. It's a larger truck with diesel engine options that might do well here in the states. But it would also steal sales from the F150 which Ford doesn't want. Autoblog's idea of an Escape derived Ranger is kind of interesting. It makes the "truck" really compact and with the hybrid engine, it might get some new customers. And it's too small for comparison to the F150 which they want.

I-95 Construction

For every living in Newark (like me) and commuting to Wilmington (thankfully not like me), the coming road work on I95 is going to be a big deal. In the short term the commute north is probably going to suck, but hopefully the long term effect will be to alleviate most of the trouble through Churchman's Marsh and the Rt. 7 interchange by Christiana Mall. Here's hoping.

Deldot has a website for the Fifth Lane Project. Unfortunately it sucks. I have a PDF brochure that has more details and was ironically made by Deldot, but unfortunately I have nowhere to host it.

Fred Thompson

I have to second Miss Anonymous: Just Run Already, Dammit!

I spent some time this weekend reading through Fred's archives over at Townhall, and I'm finding a lot to like. Compare that to Rudy or McCain. I think I loathe them more every day.

Two Beers?

From LawDog's latest and greatest:

I want to see the two beers that can give a 270 pound man a BAC of 0.27%.

Seriously. Do they come in buckets, or what? Is there a secret non-cop beer mug measured in gallons behind the bar?

Kitten or Husband?

For this woman it wasn't such an easy question...

The Mac Beard

Tired of your make looking wimpy and fruity? Are your PCs mocking it incessantly? Get the VictorSystems Ruggedized Mac Mini.

The problem with this thing is that it's a fashion statement. Not only does the military generally use PCs, but field computers are ruggedized laptops because they're actually portable and you're in the field. They don't use a multicomponent system that has lots of pieces for GI Joe to lose and also weighs twenty pounds without the printer. And of course underneath all that armor is a commercial grade circuit board which isn't particular shock resistant in the first place.

Zombie Squad

Are you worried about shambling masses of the walking dead? Zombie Squad is here to help. Not only do they have useful targets for practicing those all important brain shots, but they have suggestions for creating a bug-out bag and other useful gear for the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse.

For some reason they also have information to help people get through tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. Yeah, like those are going to happen in this modern age.

Hate Crimes

Anna Venger is discussing hate crimes and protected classes of citizens:

So why is it more wrong to hurt certain classes of people than others? Isn’t it just wrong to hurt people? Period?

Obviously, some groups of people are more favored than others in the eyes of certain members of Congress. For example, some Republicans had tried to include additional classes of citizens—children, members of the military, the elderly, the homeless—but their attempts were shot down. So sexual identity gets a pass, but children and the elderly don’t. I guess all people are equal, but some are more equal than others.

I'm not a big fan of hate crime law. I fail to see why killing a man for being gay is worse than killing a man for, say, wearing a colored T-shirt in the wrong gang's neighborhood. Or for having the wrong skin color. Why should some people be more equal in the eyes of the law than others?

I have a bigger problem with it because judging hate crimes is almost always a matter of judging intent of the perpetrator. I think courts can do a great job at judging a person's actions. "Your Honor, the forensic findings show that it was Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the Candlestick." I can handle that. But judging what is going on inside someone's head is something else. I don't trust courts to read minds.

And that isn't even touching on "hate speech" which has magically turned citizens free expression rights on their heads.

Official Directives

As an employee of the US Army, I have been given strict instruction not to comment on stories like this one. Frankly I'm really surprised that the EOD officer was even allowed to talk to the press like that, even blogger press like Pajamas Media.

Holding a Pistol

Thanks to Tamara for linking to this Google TV clip of competitive shooter Todd Jarrett teaching handgun technique. He specifically focuses on grip which really is the place to start. I have to admit that this isn't how I hold a handgun, but since I don't have a beavertail 1911 that might not be a bad thing.

Movie Reviews

Hube has a review of Spiderman 3 at Colossus. Be forewarned, he gives spoilers. Amybear and I rented a couple of movies for the first time in a while, here were our perceptions.

Marie Antoinette

Kirsten Dunst is cute, but frankly the movie is boring and neither of us really liked it. Marie is shown as the ultimate spoiled rich girl who is ignorant of just how spoiled she really is. For most of her early years she is lonely even with the eyes of the entire nation upon her. Finally that nation just falls apart. Initially I had some sympathy for her, but it faded as the movie ground along and was replaced with a desire to do something more fun in another room. Like read an encyclopedia article on Marie Antoinette.

Flyboys

This is a film about the pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, Americans who flew for France prior to the US entering the First World War. While most the main characters are based on historic figures, the film generally has the historical accuracy of Snoopy and the Red Baron. The uneven historical accuracy of the movie generally reflects the unevenness of the film as a whole.

The aerial dogfight scenes were quite enjoyable, if not exactly accurate. Lots of pilots don't make it home which is good. Unfortunately everything else was forgettable or poorly constructed. Why did James Franco's character need a romantic interest? Why did everyone who survived the movie live through the war? Some of the characterizations were good and the fight scenes were enjoyable, but they should have just stuck to making a war movie. Don't try to make Flyboys a war movie and a romance and something else. It winds up being both too much of too little.

Delaware Wind Farming

The Volokh Conspiracy is covering effort to construct a large windfarm off the Delaware coast near Bethany or Rehoboth:

As the Delaware shore is where many Beltway-types spend their weekends during the summer, this could be a real test of Washington's willingness to promote — or even allow — alternative energy sources.

Honestly I think efforts to get this off the ground will involve not only politicos in Washington but also our own politicians in Dover. I have to wonder what kind of problems the Delaware Coastal Zone Act is going cause. It was already used to scuttle New Jersey's plan for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) pier in the Delaware River. Would a windfarm be considered Heavy Industry and if so wouldn't it be prohibited under the terms of the Coastal Zone Act?

Not that particularly like the Coastal Zone Act. The current wording of the Act essentially prohibit any redevelopment along the Delaware waterfront for industrial use. I don't consider this a good thing. We're killing off coastal industry through unreplaced attrition. Reforming the law to allow new industry to occupy old sites is a good idea.

Cross posted on the DCBA Blog.

Splitting Time

For the next couple of weeks I'll be guest blogging here and on John the Methodist's Locusts and Honey blog while he is away on training. Any suggestions on how I can make those heathens see the true light of Christ are certainly welcome.

Young Life Fundraisers

Town Hall blogger Mary Katherine Ham will be biking 100 miles this week to raise money for Young Life.

I will be putting my butt on a bicycle seat every day this week in order to ride 100 miles, so that you guys will consider my feat of exercise worthy enough to toss me a few bucks.

Why? Because I'm a Young Life leader with a bunch of high-school girls who would LOVE to go to Young Life camp this summer at Lake Champion for a week. But they're gonna need some money

Her post gives details on both her Young Life ministry (along with guilt arousing pictures) and how give her support.

LOL Trek

The reference to the Trouble with Tribbles DS9 episode really did it for me. Via Tam.

Not Exactly Scripture

But Terreal Bierria's statement is probably more biblical than "God helps those who help themselves" or many other forms of pseudo-scripture.

When I was in college we had a shorthand for such sayings, we called them quotations from 1st Hesitations.

Mental Illness

Bernard Harcourt is examining the relationship between institutionalizing the mentally ill and the overall homicide rate over at the Volokh Conspiracy. His first post contains a pretty amazing graph demonstrating correlation between the two. The second builds on the first.

It has also come to my attention that some states do not tie their mental health records into their firearms background check systems, nor do they support the FBI's attempts to do the same with the Federal system. I realize that they do this out of concern for the privacy of others. But that doesn't make it a good idea. If someone has been adjudicated to be a danger to themselves and others, then the public has a right to know. The public is "and others." I don't want crazy people or convicted criminals to have legal access to weaponry.

Wow me supporting a gun control measure, who'd have thunk it?

The Last Stand

Fun stuff found via John the Methodist. Shoot zombies, fortify your position, find survivors, shoot more zombies! Wonderful, but a bit short and easy.

A Page 18 Story

Former Tennessee Senator Bill Frist has been exonerated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of New York. Neither are filing charges against him for his sale of HCA, Inc. stock. Accusations against Frist were front page news. His exoneration? It doesn't even make the back page of the New York Times.

I have to wonder what is happening with Curt Weldon. Weldon lost his congressional race in Pennsylvania largely due to lobbying scandals involving family members. I haven't heard much about him since, except that he has paid out over $100k in legal fees on his defense. My parents were in his district and we were hesitant to vote against Weldon. He had an excellent record working for the district and we were all pretty sure the charges against him would disappear once they were no longer politically expedient.

Darth Vader's Car

Leave it to German manufacturer Maybach to make a car for the truly evil, the Excelero.

Gun Tyrants

Hube covers a recent pro-gun control letter in one of his regular "Dopey WNJ Letter of the Week" posts. From the letter in question:

For every argument the National Rifle Association makes, one can find an equally valid counterargument. The whole issue comes down to values. Values are built by families and communities. Neighborhoods of families with high values will be safe.

As Hube correctly points out, this is not an argument for gun control. If it doesn't matter whether people have guns or not, then the question becames this: Do you prefer tyranny or freedom? The original writer, Brent Grant of Kennett Square, has let everyone know that he prefers tyranny.

Unfortunately he isn't alone. QandO and Geek with a .45 both have pieces reacting to Dan Simpson's recent opinion piece in the Toledo Blade. In it he outlines the type of police state necessary to rid the nation of private firearms ownership:

The disarmament process would begin after the initial three-month amnesty. Special squads of police would be formed and trained to carry out the work. Then, on a random basis to permit no advance warning, city blocks and stretches of suburban and rural areas would be cordoned off and searches carried out in every business, dwelling, and empty building. All firearms would be seized. The owners of weapons found in the searches would be prosecuted: $1,000 and one year in prison for each firearm.

Clearly, since such sweeps could not take place all across the country at the same time. But fairly quickly there would begin to be gun-swept, gun-free areas where there should be no firearms. If there were, those carrying them would be subject to quick confiscation and prosecution. On the streets it would be a question of stop-and-search of anyone, even grandma with her walker, with the same penalties for "carrying."

Random, warrantless searches and seizures? Searching old ladies on the street? What Simpson proposes doesn't just break the 2nd Amendment, but takes aim at the rest of the Bill of Rights as well. This is America? No, this isn't any America I'd recognize and it certainly isn't an America I am willing to defend. If anything it is an America I am willing to defend against.

There is one good thing about Simpson's suggestion, the people carrying out these oppressive acts will be in special units. That means the patriots will know who to shoot first.

Spit Out by the Sea

Recent earthquakes have released the hulk of a WWII PT boat from the briny depths. Complete with all the boats stored explosives.

I must now make the legally required historical reference and say that this is just like the infamous torpedo boat that the great American, Ernest Borgnine, sailed around in on McHale's Navy.

Real 3D

I really liked the 3d process used in Meet the Robinsons and now IGN has a piece about that technology.

Free Comic Book Day

Just a reminder that Free Comic Book Day is coming this Saturday. Woo Hoo!

Global Warming

But on a different globe. Since 1970, Mars has experienced global warming similar to Earth. But of course the causes are completely different.

Or are they? It seems to me that the US landed our first spacecraft on Mars in the 1970s. This must be all the fault of the USA, polluting even neighboring planets. We obviously should have done more to ensure that the Viking, Pathfinder, and Exploration landers were EarthMars smart.

TIAs

My grandmother left the hospital on Saturday afternoon and there was much rejoicing. She is under doctor's orders to stay at my parents place in Pennsylvania for at least a month. My grandfather is decidedly unhappy about all of this. He's 90 and is "set in his ways" to put it mildly. He didn't want to come to my parents house. He is comfortable at his home (in Connecticut) and not particularly comfortable at my parents place. Among other things my parent's split-level requires him to climb stairs to get anywhere.

The doctor is classifying my grandmother's stroke as a Transient Ischemic Attack or TIA. This means that she should make a full recovery but she is at heightened risk for further TIAs and strokes. She's on medication and has orders to take it easy for a while.

Cutest Cat

The News Journal has their cutest cat poll back up so vote for Milo. Again. And this time it will count.

Mortality

One of my ex-coworkers died Wednesday after a brief hospital stay. Jack was a colorful character and one of the few people at work who was louder and more opinionated than I am. He put up with a me a lot considering I was the young whippersnapper and he was the old codger. He retired around a year ago after repeated health problems like gout and a recurrence of cancer. I'll miss him more and pray for his family.

In more personal news, my grandmother had a minor stroke yesterday. She and my grandfather didn't want to bother anyone, so they didn't mention it until my mother came home from work. While being mild-mannered is a virtue, not when time is of the essence. Fortunately she seems to have made a strong recovery and has most of her speech and motor control back on her right side. Any prayers you can offer for her would be most welcome.

Them Duke Boys

I'm sitting in my hotel room on business travel watching the Dukes of Hazzard. Good God that movie is awful. They took all the goodness of the original series and flushed it down the toilet, only to replace it with a bunch of hillbilly sleaze.

The original series worked because the Dukes were people with shady pasts looking to do right, be honest, and make the most of what they had. In comparison Boss Hogg and Roscoe were scheming but somewhat inept foils. In the movie everyone seems to be dishonest and I can't imagine wanting anyone to come out ahead.

Repealing the 2nd Amendment

Alphecca has a wonderful rebuttal to Walter Shapiro's call to repeal the 2nd Amendment. Shapiro's logic has the normal liberal flaws where they relate to guns. He assumes that the 2nd amendment is about militias not the people and that guns are only for sport shooting and hunting. It isn't. The 2nd Amendment is actually about providing the citizens the means to violently overthrow the government should it become tyrannical. It is the last line of defense for the rights of the people. It is the answer to Juvenal's "who watches the watchmen?" The answer is that we all do.

Penn & Teller are right, Walter Shapiro is wrong. Fortunately he's so wrong that I he doesn't have the votes to do what he wants. More importantly, if liberals did manage to repeal the 2nd Amendment, you can bet an attempt at the violent overthrow the government is going to be close at hand.

UPDATE: LawDog has a wonderful response to the other common liberal trope: "We license cars, so why can't we license guns?" He examines what the nation would look like if we did just that and I doubt the liberals would like it very much.

Balloon Geekery

You know this giant Darth Vader hot air balloon would be even cooler if the balloons burners made the proper breathing sounds when they were used.

Iraqi News

They never seem to put up graphics like this one that QandO brought to my attention. Always show the dead, never show the progress.

Gun Control on the Left

From Instapundit, Blogometer is reporting that the major bloggers on the left have been silent on the subject of gun control.

If you were expecting for the netroots to join more traditional Dem calls for increased gun control following the tragedy in Blacksburg, VA, don't hold your breath. At deadline, none of the top five netroots sites (Daily Kos, Eschaton, TPM, AMERICAblog, and MyDD) have called for any changes to gun laws...

By the end of the day this claim was no longer accurate. AMERICAblog actually called for a 'revisit' of gun control before the statement was made and then wentafter Bush for being a lackey of the NRA. More importantly though DailyKos goes into more detail:

I support licensing each gun owner after an extensive background check that explores possible criminality and mental instability. I support relicensing periodically. I think guns should be registered and that we should require extensive training for safety and proficiency in their use before a person is allowed to purchase one....

Such laws might - might - have stopped Cho Seung Hui from acquiring the two weapons he used to commit his murders at Virginia Tech. Or he may have acquired them illegally, as so many criminals do. But while there are legitimate concerns that these laws may constitute a slippery slope toward outright confiscation - an action that some Kossacks support - I still think it would be wise to pass them.

Essentially Kos proposes is an extensive licensing and registration scheme. These are generally bad ideas which raise the barrier for entry into firearms ownership (not to mention carry) and also have the effect of turning a fundamental right into a privilege which can be revoked by government authorities. As Kos himself points out, this is also a known slippery slope towards gun confiscation which has occurred in both US localities and foriegn countries.

The sad this is that he even acknowledges, it probably won't work. A fundamental abridgement of rights that won't even work. But hey we should try it anyway. It's for the children or something. Brilliant.

UPDATE: Heh. Indeed. And a resounding rant from Mrs. du Toit for once.

Cats

Heh. We've never gotten Milo close enough to a mouse to see what he'd do, but he does a great job exterminating crickets and other large bugs.

Wonderfully Unexpected

I'm going to be on travel most of next week. Do not be concerned, I will hopefully have a laptop with me. Blogging should continue.

What is great, and I didn't realize it today, is that this has the unexpected effect of giving me this Friday off. A Friday off I didn't see coming. Whoopie!

Have They Started Work on the Patlabors Yet?

Straight from Japan, it's a mecha! Granted it has tracks not legs, but with two full articulated arms controlled by sensors on the operator's own appendages, it's close enough. The original Japanese site probably has more info if you can actually understand it.

Via Steven Den Beste.

Voter Fraud in the Cat Contest

It seems that the News Journal's Cutest Cat Contest has been called off for the time being due to suspected voter fraud. They are going to revamp the voting system for the kitten contest coming up and then they'll rerun the cats the next week.

Women's Earning Power

Hube is discussing a recent News Journal article on the income gap between men and women. Writer Kathleen Jacobs once again parrots the statistic that "women earned 77 cents for each dollar comparable to what a male worker earned across all occupational paths."

The problem is that "all occupational paths" makes for a poor comparison. All you learn is that the apples make more than the oranges. When you compare salaries and wages for men and women doing the same jobs for the same amount of time, the disparity drops to 92 cents on the dollar. 8 cents isn't very much, but it is still likely to be a statistically significant disparity.

So where does that 8 cents come from? I'm guessing it is from differences between the two in the workplace that have very little to do with direct discrimination. After one coworker had her first child two years ago, she didn't return to full time work for over a year. Even then it killed her to come back. Now a second female coworker is expecting this summer. She is planning to take off for an indefinite period. Most of the women I work with have similar stories to tell. Taking a year off from your career or choosing career paths that allow you to spend more time with your children will have an effect on your earning potential. Where I work women are far more likely to do these things because, oddly enough, it is the women who want to mother their children not the men.

Is this fair? Beats me. But at some point, especially when you are talking about fundamental anatomical differences between the sexes like bearing children, a line has to be drawn. Guess what, the two sexes are different in some places and the answer is not to ignore it an pretend they aren't. The answer is to make things as fair as you can within those limits.

Virginia Tech Shooting

The death toll is around 30 and is has nowhere to go but up. My prayers go out to everyone involved.

The other scary thing about these events is the number of "experts" who show up on TV and are completely ignorant. Initially some people thought this guy had a AK-47 solely because of his butcher's bill. We need to renew the Assault Weapons Ban! Turns out the gunman had a 9mm semi-automatic and lots of magazines. Oops.

It would also be wise to take "eye witness accounts" with a grain of salt for a while. The ones most likely to be correct are generally out of the action. The people involved in the action are unlikely to be reliable. Things happen too fast. Few people keep their head. Even fewer are trained to know what to look for in a firefight. Remember survivors firing on the rescue helicopters in New Orleans after Katrina? Didn't happen or at least no aircraft came home with bullets in them. Some pilot heard gunfire and panicked because they didn't know how to judge where the bullets were going.

A commenter over Wizbang is making statements like this:

And finally, MSNBC had a commentator who said that semi-automatic weapons were illegal in Virginia, and yet possessing all the components necessary to convert a firearm to semi-automatic *are* legal. This country needs gun laws that make sense...

Semi-automatic firearms aren't illegal anywhere in the US. Automatic weapons are regulated. Semi-automatic firearms cycle one bullet through the gun with each pull of the trigger. Automatic firearms cycle as many bullets as they can while the trigger is held down. Also possessing a conversion kit and the weapon to be converted is generally regarded as possession of a converted weapon by the ATF. Which is a felony. Sadly it is the people proposing new gun laws which generally don't understand the ones we already have on the books.

Unfortunately the desire to fill the news vacuum on this story is going to make for a lot of poor reporting for a while. The shooting is bad news, but the coverage is bad news of a completely different sort.

Heretics

According to Jerry Falwell, I am one. I blame my Presbyterian upbringing.

Some people are saying that this is an artifact of Falwell's Fundamentalism. It isn't really. The Fundamentals, which I've mentioned before, were designed as a construct to bind together like-minded Protestants against threats growing from Modernist philosophy. But the Fundamentals do not cover theological ground like Limited Atonement. In fact they purposefully avoided that kind of doctrinal boondoggle so that they covered the broadest group of believers under the umbrella of their particular brand of orthodoxy.

In many ways Falwell is actually shooting true Fundamentalism in the foot and indicating that the Fundamentals aren't fundamental enough for him. What foolishness. But then again I'm an Evangelical and quiet Calvinist so I suppose I would think that way.

Penn & Teller Take on Gun Control

John the Methodist sent me a link to an episode of their show Bullshit. I'd love to say that the show is a righteous and reasonable defense of firearms rights, but it's more like a rant than a rebuttal. And they use obscenity a lot.

I did like Jackie Mason's take on the subject though, "What are they going to outlaw baseball bats, kitchen knives, and the feet of large gentiles next? Mishigas..."

UPDATE: While I'm on the subject of gun control, I might as well tack on this story that Joe Cathey brought to my attention. Why don't some of the people Littleton, Colorado want a statue of Navy SEAL Danny P. Dietz (area native and deceased war hero) erected in town? Because he's carrying his rifle on it. God forbid a sailor be armed. Fortunately the town itself isn't backing down. Good for them.

A Quiz from Amybear

You scored as Mathematics. You should be a Math major! Like Pythagoras, you are analytical, rational, and when are always ready to tackle the problem head-on! Mathematics 100% Philosophy 92% Engineering 92% Psychology 67% Art 67% English 67% Chemistry 58% Dance 50% Sociology 42% Linguistics 42% Anthropology 42% Journalism 33% Theater 25% Biology 25% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

Looks like I chose wisely.

Vote for Milo!

Our cat Milo is a finalist in the News Journal's cutest cat contest. Amybear and I entered him a while back and now we're in proud parent mode. He's currently in 3rd place, but you guys can change that. Vote for him here.

Imus

Hube is covering the media reaction to the recent Imus Nappy-gate scandal. Surprisingly, the News Journal's Rhonda Graham has a great opinion piece on the subject. I'm not a big fan of Rhonda's but she makes the very valid point. If black people don't want white people using that sort of language, then they probably shouldn't use it themselves.

What amazes me about this whole thing is that Imus is now being portrayed as some sort of conservative. Imus is shock-talk jock. Like most shock-talkers he votes Democrat. He supported Kerry in 2004 and Bill Clinton used to call his show regularly. He's probably in the more moderate wing of the party, but he's no conservative. People are only calling him conservative so they can tar Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity with the same brush they're using on Imus.

Sick Days

I was out sick yesterday with a severe case of the aches and pains. Head, stomach, limbs, everything was sore. I was only 30 for one day and now I was already falling apart.

I stayed home and played a lot of Ratchet and Clank. Amy has also been sick all week with an illness unsurprisingly similar to my own. Because of staffing issues and other things, she's had to go to work every day.

I'm feeling much better today though so I'm back at work.

Buy A Gun Day

LawDog is suggesting that the good citizens of the US should invest their hard earned tax refunds in a new firearm. He has his eye on an FNP in .40 S&W for Buy A Gun Day on April 15th.

I don't think that's going to happen with me. I have some guns I want, but they aren't a priority with me right now. My tax refund is largely going to be invested in bringing my tithe up to date and my housing savings. I may spend some of my birthday money on some firearms accessories though. I have some magazines and tools I've been wanting for a while.

Happy Birthday

This is Amybear. I'm taking over Jeff's blog just for a tiny bit to say Happy Birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day and that we are able to celebrate many more birthdays together. I love you!

Civility

Tim O'Reilly and others are suggesting a blogger code of conduct. I guess I'm ahead of the curve.

Johnny Hart, Dead at 76

Johnny Hard, the cartoonist behind B.C. and writer of Wizard of Id, died Saturday of a stroke. Hart was (is?) a Christian who generally did a strongly Christian themed strip for Christmas and Easter. Paul Smith posted this one a while back. I really like the punchline of this one myself.

See you later, Johnny.

UPDATE: Creators Syndicate, which Johnny helped to create, has a tribute and memorial up.

Getting a Grip

Among the Easter festivities, we celebrated my birthday a little early yesterday. My parents gave me a check and my brother gave me some new grips for my 1911. He bought me a pretty cheap set of rubber grips and a more expensive set of pachmayr signature wrap-arounds. I swapped both on my 1911 last night and did a little dry firing to see how they felt.

The cheap grips felt ok, about the same as the cheap wood grips they were replacing, but the Pachmayr's really were remarkable. Unlike the cheap rubber grips, the pachmayr's have a slightly tacky feel to them. Like they're stuck to your hand and don't want to let go. The gun feels really planted in your hand and I like it a lot. I can see why some people don't like rubber grips on carry guns though, that same tackiness that holds it in your hand also might make the gun print on your clothes.

I kept the Pachmayr's on the 1911 and I'll see whether I like them even more after a range session this weekend (if weather permits). If I do like them, I may switch my hipower over to a similar set of pachmayr grips. They're currently sporting the same rubber grips that come on the Mark III Hipower. I actually had to order the current grips from Brownells because the original grips were cheap awful plastic.

Magic

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

I saw that test on a message board and thought it was interesting even though I have avoided Magic the Gathering like the plague. It isn't that I think Magic is a bad game or anything like that. It's that I'm morally opposed to the collectible card game genre. I know people who spent ridiculous amounts of money on Magic and other CCGs trying to get the Rares. If I wanted to throw that much dough down a hole, I'd take up smoking or something.

UPDATE: I guess opposites attract. Amybear's result said:

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Comparison Shopping

Kim du Toit had an interesting piece comparing the living arrangements of two major American political figures:

• The first lives in a large mansion with a pool house and guest house all heated by natural gas. This house uses more power in a month than a typical household uses in a year. And it does all this even though it is located in part of the temperate region of the US.


• The second lives in a comfortable 4000 square foot, 4 bedroom house in the southwest. It is heated and cooled using geothermal energy by recycling ground water through a heat exchanger. Since the climate is arid, all waste and rain water is filtered and collected in a central cistern for landscaping irrigation. The landscaping is done with native plants that use very little water in the first place.

Who owns what?

The first mansion is owned by Al Gore. He offsets his conspicuous consumption by purchasing carbon credits from himself. The second house is owned by George W. Bush.

Christ is Risen!

Just wanted to remind everybody that you can make bold proclamations like that on the day after Easter too.

I Have No Idea What This Means

You’re St. Melito of Sardis! You have a great love of history and liturgy. You’re attached to the traditions of the ancients, yet you recognize that the old world — great as it was — is passing away. You are loyal to the customs of your family, though you do not hesitate to call family members to account for their sins. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

From John the Methodist

The Key to Good Acoustics

I'm not a big fan of Bruce Prescott, but one his posts from this morning interested me. Turns out the key to the great acoustics at the ancient Greek theater at Epidaurus is its limestone construction.

How did the ancients wind up with such great acoustics in the first place? Turns out it was probably by accident. All later attempts to recreate them elsewhere failed for one reason or another.

Pennsylvania Politics

I'm no longer a Pennsylvania resident, but I still have friends, family, and readers who live in that great state with the crappy roads. When Geek with the .45 started stumping for State Rep Sam Rohrer's no gun control petition, I thought I would throw my extremely meager political clout behind it as well.

Frankly, Delaware is a state of transplants. As our neighboring states go, so go we. I'd be very grateful if the Pennsylvanians would nip this in the bud so that they don't turn into Newer Jersey and Delaware doesn't become Newest Jersey.

Conspiracy

The deep conspiracies surrounding the sinking of the Titanic are now so obvious to me. I think his scale model recreation of the Titanic impacting the iceberg was the straw that broke the camel's back. I may have to recreate it myself when I get home. Complete with sound effects. Maybe I'll also use scale model testing to determine whether a giant (and suddenly extremely unhappy) orange space cat had something to with it. On second thought, I like having all my skin.

Good Rants and the Problems with Them

I can really respect them, especially when I agree. Evan Sayet's rant at the Heritage Foundation lead to a great one from Kim du Toit. Abby, whom I found through Tamara, lets out a rather long one about the War and the Left.

But while I can respect the rant, I also have to think Steve has a point. Modern dialog, especially political and internet "discussion", seems to feature people on both sides yelling past each other and never listening. I guess that's why the peacemakers are so blessed.

Magazine Issues

Chris Byrne discusses known magazine issues at his blog Anarchangel. His advice on buying quality magazines is a good one. He also suggests downloading your 30 round AR-15 magazines while the magazine wears in. Fortunately or unfortunately I can't shoot my AR with fully loaded mags because I don't have access to a range where it is possible to fully load them in the first place.

The Automotive X Prize

So if you haven't heard, the people behind the X-Prize are going for something much more down to earth: the automotive X-Prize. The winner is the first person to make a viable production car that will carry at least two people and go 100 miles on a single gallon of gas.

Instapundit linked to a Popular Mechanics story on the Auto X-Prize a few days ago and it this point:

"There's no business case for it," says GM's Juechter. "How many people would spend $200,000 on a car that would ultimately save them a few thousand dollars on fuel over the life of the car?" That's the worst-case scenario in terms of price estimates, but there's little doubt that a 100-mpg car would cost thousands more than today's bigger, more powerful vehicles.

Exactly. Relentless pursuit of fuel economy can create what is essentially false economy. Buy a car that costs thousands or tens of thousands more than a conventional auto is a poor investment. And you won't just be sacrificing cold hard cash, in order to get a 100 mpg car you'll have to sacrifice acceleration, handling, and probably even crash safety as well.

I honestly don't see the mainstream class yielding a practical four person vehicle anytime soon. You could get a concept car out of it, but not something that would be street legal and comply with the regulatory requirements of US vehicles. The alternative class might be interesting, but the current guidelines require two people seated side by side. This means that many of the trike variants are already out of the race because the passenger is positioned behind the driver. Still, since the alternative class would include trikes (which are generally regulated as motorcycles) you might be able to get a street legal vehicle out of it. Maybe. Unfortunately my idea of a modern Messerschmitt KR200 won't work because of the seating arrangement.

Baking Disaster

I was baking chocolate chip cookies for a bake sale at work tomorrow and my mixer started making funny noises. Turns out three of the four prongs on the end of one of the beaters had sheared off where they plug into head of the mixer. The result? Little bits of metal the size of a pencil point sent flying into the cookie dough I was making. I had to throw the whole thing out and I now lack the tools to make a new batch. Grrr...

UPDATE: Doh! Mixer not blender.

Animal Cruelty

I've long heard that Christmas is a time of foreboding for the SPCA. People buy their children puppies for Christmas but when the responsibility of pet ownership kicks in, it is off to the SPCA or back to the breeder. For rabbit owners like John the Methodist, Easter is the foreboding time.

He mentions that rabbits live for ten years. Cats can live for twenty. We had to take that into account when we bought Milo six months ago. Fortunately, we get along well so I'm fine with having him hang around for another 18 years.

The EPA Case

I caught a few news reports this morning about the recent Supreme Court Global Warming decision. Talking heads were throwing around slogans like "a definitive indictment of Bush Administration policies." It was a 5-4 split decision. That's definitive? The final written decision might be strongly worded, but I'd hardly call a 5-4 split definitive.

It is probably the correct decision though. Why? A quick read of the Clean Air Act reveals that definitions for terms like "pollutant" are so broad that they could mean anything.

Tough Times

I mentioned that both my female coworkers were pregnant last week. This was great for them because they could both chat about pregnant stuff with each other. It was mildly uncomfortable for me of course, because I had to listen to two pregnant women making vivid anatomical comparisons on a regular basis. Ick. The alternative topic of discussion to pregnancy physiology is potty training children. That is just so much fun too.

Note the past tense in some of those sentences. Unfortunately an ultrasound over the weekend revealed that one of them has had a miscarriage. She wasn't out of her first trimester yet. She's going through a tough time and any prayer directed her way will surely be appreciated.

Meet the Robinsons

Amybear and I went with a friend of ours to see the new Disney feature yesterday. We went to one of the 3-D showings so now we both have a set of the nifty polarized Drew Carey glasses they give you. Unfortunately 3D costs extra, but unlike most 3D films it might actually be worth it.

The movie itself is good and I liked it. The plot involves time travel and has some decent curves to it. It was actually a lot more intricate that you would expect in a "kids" movie. I don't want to give it all away, but the overarching themes are the meaning of family, the consequences of ones actions, and the need to live in the present not the past. Good themes for a time travel movie actually.

I thought the 3D effects were very well done. In a lot of live-action films, the 3D effect becomes very layered. The people look flat and the individual pictures seem like flat graphics layered one at different levels with respect to each other. Imagine a theater where a play was performed on a three dimensional stage but the actors and set pieces are all just moving cardboard cutouts. 3D movies tend to be like that, it has depth but it is still a flat depth. I think it has to do with how the movies are shot and processed.

With Meet the Robinsons, you don't really get that flat look. There are a lot of very nice perspective shots and other subtle uses of 3D that bring you into the picture. I think this is because Meet the Robinsons is CGI. They actually have the 3D location data for every pixel on the big screen. Instead of putting discrete visual elements at specific depths, they can construct the effect so that each pixel is at its proper depth for a more realistic experience of depth and perspective. I hope that made sense.

... and Taxes

I spent a good part of Friday doing income taxes. Last year I had my returns prepared by Liberty Tax Service. It was free with a first time customer coupon and extremely painless. After that experience I am determined to never do my taxes by hand-and-calculator again. Not only is doing taxes a pain, but taxes are an arithmetic test where any mistakes generally cost you large sums of money. Even small mistakes can add up with fees and penalties. I had the state of Pennsylvania go after me for fifty bucks once because I overpaid my taxes by 73 cents. I forgot to round all my numbers to the nearest dollar. I never did pay them.

This year I'm doing both our returns using TurboTax. So far I've only worked through our joint returns. I'm getting enough money back that my urge to see what happens when I file separately is fading. But I'm still going to try to run those numbers too just in case. Frankly, I'm a little suspicious of the amount I'm getting back. My Maryland return seems about right compared to last year, but my federal refund seems much larger. I'll have to print everything out and double check it.

Delaware is also annoying me since I'm filing a "combined" joint return. Whether we owe Delaware or Delaware owes us is entirely dependent on which column (mine or Amy's) I put our charitable deductions in. I don't pay taxes to Delaware either way because I have a big tax credit from Maryland, but Amybear has either under or overpaid. The problem is that all our contributions are in my name and many were made before we got married. I might be able to get away with giving them all to her, but I don't like to just "get away with" things. I want to do it right.

I think I'm going to redo the Delaware return after breaking our contributions down 50/50. Maybe she'll just break even, which is fine by me. I'm also going to try to work out a pure joint return and see if all of this clears up. For some reason Turbo Tax doesn't like giving me the option of changing the type of return I'm filing after I make the initial attempt. It's really kind of annoying actually.

Huh

I'm over 2000 posts now. How did I manage to write so much about so little?