Vault

• Heather LOVES Thomas Kemper Ginger Ale soda. And Pops in Arcadia ROCKS!! #

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

–Alexis de Tocqueville

While I disdain liberal politics, I have to say that it made be very proud to see the first black, major party, candidate for President get nominated yesterday. It was a great moment for our country. I wish that such a charismatic candidate was also a strident defender of the constitution, but unfortunately it will not be the case. My biggest beef with both our major party candidates is that they are basically identical on the issues.  From a foreign policy and domestic fiscal standpoint they are both exceedingly liberal (as is the current President.)

I heard a caller on NPR express an opinion that hit close to home for me. The basic summary of what he said was, “I really want to vote for Obama but I simply cannot stomach the idea voting for someone who is pro-choice.”  Obama is exciting, dynamic, and probably the most articulate candidate we have had  since Kennedy.  I want to vote for that kind of candidate.  But how can I vote for someone who stand so starkly on the wrong side of history when it comes to abortion.  There are lots and lots of things I can overlook when I vote for a candidate (how many of us had to hold our noise while we voted in the last election) but abortion is simply not one of them.

A hundred years from now, the great sin of American history will NOT be slavery.   Our great sin will be the institutionalized slaughter of millions of children.  It is a sad expression of irony that, as President, Barack Obama would easily be most ardent defender of abortion rights in the history of that office; supporting abortion through ALL 9 months, without parental consent regardless of age, and even refusing assistance to babies born accidentally during abortions.

I hate this election.  I hate it for getting my hopes up with the possibility of a Ron Paul President.  I hate it because I despise the current Republican presidential candidate (why bother being a Republican if your not going to be conservative/libertarian.)  I hate it because we FINALLY have a black presidential candidate (who is at least honest about being a liberal) that I cannot vote for.  I hate it because we finally have a candidate whose lofty oratory is reminiscent of Americas greatest (i.e. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln) but I cannot vote for him.

We have suffered through eight years of a fiscally liberal Republican President.  It just feels like a long night for lovers of liberty.

• The people standing next to me wanted to see what twitter was. #

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

-John Quincy Adams

One of my life resolutions is to never again vote for a “settle-on” candidate and I don’t vote for progressive liberal candidates (mostly because I actually LIKE democracy.) Nationally, that means I can vote for Ron Paul, two guys from New Hampshire, and a bunch of dead founding fathers. Thankfully local elections still have significant importance to a community, albeit not for much longer, and locally there are some pretty good candidates.

Now if we could only find a way to keep Republicans and Democrats from shitting all over federalism; maybe there would be hope.  Sorry folks, but my mood gets this way when I think about November.

• This is a test of the mobile twitter system. This is only a test. #
• This is a test of http://tinytwitter.com mobile twitter application. Looking VERY nice so far! #
• Mr. Cobb drove me around Lake Hefner, the site of my Sept. 10k. It is going to be a nice run! #

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.

James Thurber

Heather and I finished the City Arts Center Midnight Streak 5K last night. Sadly I am in bad enough shape that I actually had to train for a 5K. My seven week schedule was devised from a couple different sources but ultimately is worked out wonderfully. Here is the schedule I ran:

I have some previous experience running; but I haven’t actually been in an organized event since the half-marathon I ran my Junior year of college. Great date night for Heather and I.

Just a quick note to let everyone know I have updated the Scotch list by adding 4 new single malts.  I also added a couple headshot pictures of my kids to the family pictures section.

If you haven’t had a good beer in a while I have two recommendations. Konigshaven Quadruple is the only official Trappist beer from the Neatherlands. There are 7 Belgium Trappist beers; the most famous (of course) being Chimay. The second beer is about as strong but with a more of an Irish Red kind of flavor, it’s called Anchor Foghorn. Both of these beers I had after the Bon Jovi concert a couple weeks ago. Pretty good night if you ask me.

Finally, just for summer fun, Good Housekeeping proudly presents Frozen Drink Recipes.  Some of them are even drinkable when you are under 21.

Luck is the residue of design.

–Branch Rickey

After an Dr. Dobb’s interview with Christos Papadimitriou I have been thinking about design, creation, and development of complex systems.  Specifically systems that fundamentally efficient.  The most important systems in existence are all amazingly complex (in fact, entirely too complex to ever design) and yet are built (often upon very simply concepts.)  They evolve into existence and are created without ever being engineered.

My favorite example is economics, which has as its basis very simple rules.  Economics sprout markets; which which are not only insanely complex but suffer from constant attempts to control always with perfect failure.  Other example include physics and the universe, computers and the internet.

So my question is, what other systems exist that can be created, but cannot be designed?

Pulled directly from this website; so you should definately read the original.

Doctors:

(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000.

(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171. Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.

Guns:

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. Yes, that is 80 million.

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year all age groups is 1,500.

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.000188. Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, “Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.”

• Dolphin SUCS! Sorry, but honestly, as a file manager, it is a MAJOR step backwards. What is worse… it breaks Konqueror. # jackhandy@cobbengr.com

• Finally I am to be published… in my company’s newsletter. OK, bring on the jokes! #

• Had to debug a KDE4… being a fairly advanced user, this would imply that 4 isn’t ready for prime. #

• Posting this from my first KDE4 desktop. Pretty nice but still in need of work. #
• Crap, the tweet enter box on KDEtwitter is black text on dark black background.,, Am I even typing right now? #
• Going home for my daughters softball tournament. #

Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them.

–Suzanne Necker

I am in the process of updating the image galleries to use the new WordPress Media Manager instead of the local scripts I used before. While testing out the functionality I added some new family pictures.  They require a user account to access (for obvious privicy reasons) but you can register by clicking on the link on the right.

So far I have converted the Jeep and desktop image galleryies.  Also, I have added lots more quotes from an old list I found on my home computer.  Check out all of my images by clicking on “Images” on the right-hand side under VAULT STUFF.

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.

–Albert Camus

It is a factual misconception that the primary tool of the tyrant is religion. As often, nationalism is listed as weapon of the dictator; but nationalism is an effect, like the dust from a sander, it simply masks the source of its origin. No with every Hitler, Mao, and Amin the source of power came from the promise of welfare to the people. That the tyrant, and only his government, could lift the people from their suffering.

I know that we, as Americans, began our slow slide towards totalitarianism around the time of FDR; but for some reason that movement seems accelerated as of late.  At least during the Roosevelt administration we had a political party working to preserve democracy.   Now we have two parties working aggressively to legislate, regulate, and subsidize democracy out of existence.

Here is, via a light bulb, a great example of the kind of Machiavellian control government tries to have over our lives.   If you think life is complicated if you use a light bulb you should try running a small business.

And it only looks to get worse.  Universal health care looks like it is coming.  If you honestly believe the government has ever done a social program right, think about this:

When Medicare was initially passed in 1965, the politicians projected its cost in 1992 to be $3 billion — which is equivalent to $12 billion when adjusted for inflation to 1992 dollars. The actual cost in 1992 was $110 billion — nine times as much.

And when Medicare was enacted, Section 1801 of the original law specifically prohibited any bureaucratic interference with the practice of medicine. Today not one word of that protection still applies. The federal government owns the health-care industry lock, stock, and barrel.

The new program you support will eventually include all sorts of powers and privileges you can’t even imagine right now.

–Harry Browne

I have updated VAULT to WorlPress 2.5. Additionally I have added a quotes widget to the sidebar and a page that has a (nearly) complete list of the quotes I have posted. This new functionality is a product of the Quotes Collection plug in.  Now that I have a tool to manage adding quotes, it looks like this blog may become nothing more than a repository for posting links unless I actually add some unique content on occasion.

A good manager makes sure things get done right; a good leader makes sure the right things get done.

God never intended for us to be comfortable.

Nothing is impossible, and nothing worthwhile is easy.

Vision without action is just a dream; action without vision is just consuming time.

–All Stolen from the CBMC Newsletter

British sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein was once visited in his studio by the eminent author and fellow Briton, George Bernard Shaw. During their chat, Shaw noticed a huge block of marble standing in one corner and asked what it was for.

“I don’t know yet,” Epstein replied. “I’m still making plans.”

Shaw was astounded. “You mean you plan your work? Why, I change my mind several times a day!”

“That’s all very well when you’re working with a four-ounce manuscript,” replied the sculptor, “but not with a four-ton block of marble.”

-Story relayed by Lee Colan, PhD.

Please ignore this… just messing around.

Ever wonder why (knowledgeable) IT folk continue to hate Microsoft?  Check out this article by Randall Kennedy.  Kennedy talks about The Great Moore’s Law Compensator (TGMLC), and euphemism for Microsoft’s constant expansion with regards to system requirements.  This constant bloating from software version to software version happens regardless of the actual proportional improvement to the software.  The effect is that we run hardware that is a 1000 times more powerful and it was just a dozen years ago; but the speed at which are applications run are basically identical (and in many cases actually SLOWER.)

The second link is to the video presentation of Mark Pesce discussing the role of piracy in the film/television industry.  It is a great rundown of the state and future of TV/film and the opportunities in those industries.  The basic rundown is that everyone is going to be better off except for the broadcasters; who will see their virtual Monopolies disappear and, with them, their huge profits.