Semantic annoyances

It's annoying that Colin Powell calling Iraq a civil war is news. When there are two wars going on the media decides to make media pronouncements news stories. Pathetic.

More annoying is that the current conflict doesn't bear that many resemblances to a civil war as they are usually defined, and a lot resemblances to a traditional gang war. Come to think of it, that's probably the most useful way to think about it.

The petrified forest

My latest photo excursion is The Petrified Forest

Nietzsche at the end of a long, poorly focused day

Today's quote is

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
Friedrich Nietzsche

via the Nietzsche Family Circus
Just have to love the Germans.

Somehow I've let all of the tedious work that has to be done during the month have to happen today. Diagramming, estimating, writing, organizing. Humbug. Everything has taken forever today.

On another note, the photos I took on Saturday turned out well, and surprisingly Gothic and noirish. All of my more recent shots have gone in a Sin City direction. I'll post them soon.

The Kentucky photos are up

And they're a strange assortment. The photo gallery now uses the LightBox technique for display.

Check out My Old Kentucky Home Far Away, or click on the images below.

I'm back

With many, many photos to post. Expect them soon.

The new camera is still quite complicated

But here are some landscapes

Deepthink of the moment

From the ever interesting Jane Galt about child rearing and careers

I'm not sure. If childrearing is a) necessary and b) as tedious as everyone assures me, then it strikes me that whatever feminine thrill women get out of doing it probably increases the happiness associated with the activity. And, based only on my own previous relationship experience, I'd imagine that socialization which reduces the number of areas that have to be negotiated probably, on net, makes marriages happier.

That would go a long way to explaining why opposites attract, if in fact they do.

New quote of the moment - movie edition

If I always knew what I was talking about I'd be a genius.

Phillip Marlowe in Murder My Sweet

The Nietzsche Family Circus

Die at the right time!

The Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote.

They're all winners, this is actually going on the BlogRoll.

Quotes of the moment - Saturday morning Edition

I came across these while perusing the internets...

I just need enough to tide me over until I need more.
- Bill Hoest

Feel like you've lived a wee bit too long? Looking for a spectacular way out -- one that'll keep your family crying in disgust for years on end?
- Defense Tech - from a post about a personal helicopter

"I do not think people who have bad things in their minds would wear a burqa," he said.
- CNN Article about a possible Dutch Mask Law

Loving the new camera

The new D-80 quite nice. From the A-Sides show at A Capella books last night. That's my guitar.

RIP Milton Friedman

Instapundit has a good collection of links on his life and legacy. He was the first to think of many, many things in economics that seem blindingly obvious now but were heretical at the time. One of the larger intellectual giants of the past 100 years, on a purely technical level, outside of the politics (which I agree with).

Quotes of the moment

Marine Corps Gun Rules

• Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
• Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
• Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.

From the quiet insightful Green Lantern theory comments

"Conan, what is best in life?"

"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!"

For those scoring at home

I won the open mic last night. I flubbed the Carter family song but the flatpicking on Ruby Ridge went over very well.

The circle of life

We now have mega bright lights in the parking lot to dissuade potential car thieves. One side effect of the lights is that the wooded area is much darker since the trees shadow the lights in that direction. I was walking Drex around midnight and we walked to within 3 feet of a cat (who was in the wooded area, about to pounce on a field mouse) before Drex noticed his natural enemy.

Needless to say, he was overjoyed and pounced. I was just barely able to pull him back in time. This scares the cat out of the way, and the field mouse escapes.

Drex is still quite hyper two hours later.

Why the long pause....

For anyone reading, I'm still swamped with work. And I'm grinding my teeth again. While I'm awake.

Random Commentary, regarding the song “Fluorescent Light Blues”

Sitting at a computer all day and you’d think I’d get the odd writing done, but those white tubes in the ceiling kill the muse with vibration shooting 20 rounds of white light every second right at your brain. May it’s creator burn one tier above Hitler, right next to the sonofabitch who gave us the child-proof cigarette lighter, while the inventor of the smoke detector gives them the finger from his cloud next to Lincoln.

Of morbid interest

How hangings work, from Slate. I would require a drop of 5’ 1” by the 1892 rules, but a drop of 6’ 1” by the 1913 rules.

The "Drop Tables" are here.

Thoughts

As it seems Allen is going to concede (in an unexpectedly classy move for him) it would seem that I was wrong on both counts in my predictions.

Quote of the moment, via Instapundit:

The Republicans lost and the Democrats won for the same reason -- they distanced themselves from their base.

I think we'll like divided government. And the anti-Kelo measure passed, which is an unalloyed boon to America.

Just got back from voting

It wasn't crowded at all. One thing that surprised me was the Kelo inspired eminent domain constitutional amendment, I hadn't heard anything about that.

The statue above was outside the polling place.

Cynical quotes about democracy

Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.
H.L. Mencken

Better a third-rate fireman than a first rate arsonist.
Thomas Sowell

Ah, elections, our biannual parade of tired whores.
Steve French

My predictions - with no confidence

I'm honestly not sure of the outcome. Were I betting, I would say the consensus opinion is wrong, and the Republicans hold on to both houses by a tiny margin. If I remember correctly, the polls usually underestimate the effects of the Republican ground game. Also, widely held opinions on the future are usually wrong, most lately the 2006 hurricane season. The chattering classes have seen a gathering destiny over the Democratic party that I don't think is there.

On another note, I am still quite please by the direction of the Dems this time around. Still very wrong with all the economic populism of course, but the baby boomer narcissism seems to be on it's way out.

Speaking of that, John Kerry's bit last week was (even if taken at face value) NOT insulting to the troops, it was condescending, which is why it had resonance as a criticism of him in particular and the Dems in general.

Quick Monday rapid fire - fun addition

• On the matter of remittances by immigrants to foreign countries

  Moreover, remittances are far more likely to make their way to people who actually need them. American aid tends to be received by governments, which in most third world countries are not especially honest. So the majority of American foreign aid never makes it to actual poor people in the developing world. In contrast, Latino immigrants are wiring money directly to their mothers. They know exactly who’s getting the money, and they’d hear about it if the government stole it from them. It probably even has foreign policy benefits, as the remitters are likely to have a generally positive impression of America and to transmit that impression along with their remittances.

  And the best part about all this is that it doesn’t cost us a dime! All we have to do is let them scrub our toilets and pick our strawberries. We get lower prices on the goods and services we buy and we get the warm, fuzzy feeling of knowing we’re helping to alleviate Latin American poverty. It’s such an incredible win-win arrangement that I find it rather depressing that it’s considered controversial in American politics. Increased immigration is a cause that should unite liberals (with their concern for social justice) and conservatives (with their belief in hard work and entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, that’s not how the issue has played out in the real world.

  Very well put.
  

• Gun toting robots!
• From the mouths of ad executives
• An original knife holder
• Easily the best use of Flash I've seen in months
• Quotes from Jim Webb, the Marine veteran and aspiring Democratic Senator from Virginia. Though nothing beats him saying "I wouldn't walk across the street to watch Jane Fonda slash her wrists."
• A FoxNews empolyee gets waterboarded, sadly it's not their web designers (their site gets worse by the day, though, still no Lou Dobbs, happily)
• Iron Man is about to be real!
• This looks quite interesting
  

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging

For more on the latin, try this.

Quick rapid fire

I hope to have my election predictions tommorow, but in the meantime...

• Robotic sentry that shoots real bullets
• Mapped Up - good idea, good execution
• This is a fine epitaph
• Whipping therapy cures depression and suicide crises

  The professor used the self-flagellation method to cure his own depression; he also recovered from two heart attacks with the help of physical tortures too.

  Only the Russians would come up with this. Actually this would explain the flaggelants of the middle ages, as well as the Puritans scourging themselves.
• Victim's cousin charged with tattooing killer
  

Two things

Whilst listening to left wing radio today I heard two notable things, which struck me as totally wrong.

• The claim that over 50% of all discretionary government spending is spent on the military. While true, the weaselly use of the "discretionary" modifier makes it meaningless. To declare that some percent of the budget "must" be spent on programs, when they have the full power to change any law making them spend it on said programs is downright silly.
• The left wing (usually uttered by baby boomer types) screed that it is wrong not to show caskets of dead soldiers and marines as they arrive back in the states. This is usually followed by something like "if we could only see the human pain of this war, we wouldn't be there at all." Then it occurred to me that we all watched 9-11 happen and then three weeks later we were bombing Afghanistan, and 18 months later we invaded Iraq. The sight of dead Americans seems to make us more aggressive, not less.
  

More Iraq

Coming Anarchy has an excellent post on the future of an independent Kurdistan. It fits in nicely with my thoughts about the coming partition of Iraq. I think that will be upon us before we realize it's even on it's way. To wit, who will want to be the last Shia in a Sunni area, or the last Sunni in a Shia town?

My brain is fried, what I mean to say is the the rate of segregation will increase over the coming year.