March 31, 2011

The last allowable prejudice?

There was an editorial letter in the Miami Sun Sentinel in defense of true natural marriage. This was penned by Archbishop Thomas Wenski. I invite you to read it HERE.

In response Brandon Thorp wrote THIS in the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.


As far as my response to Mr. Thorp. I feel Thomas Peters response is much better then anything I could come up with.

March 30, 2011

Not so Top Chef .vs.Very Sarcastic Chef

NOT SO TOP CHEF VS. VERY SARCASTIC CHEF click for original.

My wife was perusing the recipe website epicurious.com first thing in the morning (who doesn’t?) when she came across the user reviews for gourmet Grilled Cheese and Fried Egg Sandwiches and found this gem. Despite altering the recipe completely one unhappy chef-critic saw fit to give it the dreaded “one fork” rating:

I made this twice, hoping it would be better the second time. I don’t have easy access to pancetta; which may be the problem. The first time the only thing I substituted was Canadian bacon for the pancetta. The sandwiches were extremely bland. The next day, I used applewood smoked bacon, substituted cheddar for the provolone and substituted spinach for the basil. Also poached the eggs instead of frying them..you need to fry them as the poached eggs make a big mess. Anyway, it was better; but still nothing to rave about. I think these are too much work for the outcome. I’m sorry Bon Appetit and fellow reviewers…I’ve never given a recipe one fork before.

Prompting another frustrated chef to whip up a delightfully acerbic response:

What an awful recipe. I substituted some leftover Tofurky for the pancetta. I don’t use butter, so I swapped that out for some Nutella that’s been sitting in the cupboard for about a year. My wife doesn’t like eggs so I used eggplant (same thing basically, right?) and I hate cheese so I opted for some Miracle Whip. The basil or arugula would have been a nice touch, but I’m too lazy to run out to the store so I used some dill pickle chips I had in the fridge. Put it all together in some taco shells (didn’t have any bread, either) and, man, it was disgusting. How do they come up with these recipes, anyway?

I love this person. Easy access to sarcastic misanthropes is what makes the Internet awesome.

March 29, 2011

March 28, 2011

Compliments

At work we have a salesman, he is very good at sales. I found out he was hired as a Supervisor, then due to over-hiring, he was bumped down to assistant, then to part time.

In short order he was able to become full time and quite an asset to Major Sales. Currently he is trying to step up to the position he thought he had originally. His experience makes him more then eligible for management. His stated goal is to learn as much as he can to be of more value to the company. Apparently, the length of employment is the primary criteria for advancement. Possibly above ability.

Anyways, he is very frustrated at this point in the narrative. When asked why, his response was:

"I want to learn more so I can advance, but that is not happening. The only one here who has taught me anything is Lee. His knowledge of electronics is amazingly vast."

:)

We have very different perspectives. I am really enjoying my position, in time I will start pushing for advancement. For now I have a contentment in being hourly and kicking butt.

Still, I should start pushing for cross training. Wouldn't want to stagnate.

March 27, 2011

Peak Oil Theory.

To describe Peak Oil as a "theory" is like describing sunset as a "theory". When something happens over and over again it is called a "phenomenon" and not a "theory".

Instead of hitting the various right and left wing blogs and editorials, one should review the historical data on production and consumption to see if you can spot any "peaks".

The British Petroleum Statistical Review is hardly a left-wing, enviro-zealot publication. Rather, it is a careful compilation of oil industry statistics put together by one of the largest companies in the business.

These data can be reviewed in a series of interactive data graphics at the Energy Export Databrowser:

Even a quick review of nations like Indonesia, Egypt, the UK, Norway, Mexico, Argentina, ... will demonstrate that peaks are a phenomenon, not a theory.

March 25, 2011

Health

A friend of ours is on the waiting list for a new heart. In order to qualify she needs to get her BMI in line and her diabetes under control.

A young man I know has a pace maker due to a congenital heart defect. He fell over dead around the age of 14 while playing in a basketball game and was revived.

So indulging in the child's game of "what if" I ponder: Lets say you are the heart czar and you have one available and these are the two choices?

There is a lot of talk about the obesity epidemic and some suggest the food police enforce gastronomic law. If Orwell wrote about this, you could see some federal database logging your every food purchase with a wary eye, weekly weigh in's to ensure your not exceeding the weight cap and trade...

On the P.C. side of things you are not to use the word "fat" nor to blame the individual. It is the fast food empire, the junk food empire the video game empire, the uneducated parents etc. Point that blame finger!

If only the government would start the war on obesity! Ugh...

The other day someone at work asked me about my motivation for loosing weight. I drew a blank, other then I was tired of being fat. This was a canned answer that made me realize I never really had a reason other then my wife wanted me too.

Now that I am down the 80 something pounds, riding a bike 50 miles a week and running. I enjoy the fitness level I am at, still the motivation question caught me off guard. It is easy to see the benefits and state that was the motivation after the fact. Still it is not really honest.

I know how to eat right, and stay in shape. It works for me and I have no lack of motivation for maintaining. This makes me a bit jaundiced towards anyone who does not. I guess I should be sympathetic, having been there.

Weight loss has made many people rich. It has employed lots of people as well. There is a huge fitness industry. Being the right weight and fit has many health benefits that would help our health care dollar nationally.

So where does the motivation come from, if I cannot fathom where mine came from?

March 24, 2011

What a cool time we live in.

A while ago, Connor and I went on one of our bike rides to BK. While I was sitting there, I popped open my smart phone and had a conversation with Robert.

Robert was in Montreal Canada, on a business trip. He remarked at the wonder of being able to connect like this. I had just shrugged it off in a "yeah, so?" fashion. As soon as I did that, I realized how Jaded I was.

It is all too easy to go Luddite and proclaim the evils of tech, going so far as to post it on your blog. We can go the other route and become "one with the machine." Loosing out on the world around us for the joys of too much connectivity.

The yin yang symbol and the lesson of balance comes to mind with Mr. Miyagi accent intact.

a scant twenty years ago I wondered about people I used to know. Today I can check in with them and take part in memory scrubbing. It is great to see where they wound up (sometimes it is not that great...)

There are so many triumphs and tragedies that I get to share.

March 23, 2011

Hanging out with the Fam

My Nephew Daniel made this vignette during our Spring Break Camping trip.

Last summer, Connor wanted to go camping in the tent trailer on spring break March 2011. We puzzled on how exactly we could pull this together. We considered a few different avenues, including purchasing a tent trailer. Finally Tina had the idea of camping at my brothers ranch, and we enlisted the use of my nieces trailer (Thanks Shane and Kerrie).

With bad weather in the making, we had a back up plan for staying at a hotel with a pool. I worked on the 21st and afterwards we headed south. It was a two hour trek and quite dark when we arrived. We got our car stuck in the mud, heading to the wrong of two campsites.

In the darkness, we hoofed it to Kraig and Nancy's place. They helped get us to the tent trailer with all our goods. The next morning, Nancy freed our car from the muck. From that point it was hang around the campfire, visit with family, ride the horses and enjoy the brisk out-doors.

The bad weather decided to not arrive. The good Lord saw fit to provide a gorgeous sunny day for my 13 year old. (Connor might just have a direct line to the big guy). In other words, it came together as perfect as few things planned do.

This time-lapse was during our campfire with my Pop, sis-Donna, sis-Myrna, bro-Doug, niece-Karrie, nephew in-law Shane, Micah, Josh and Ben. Nephew-Dan, nephew-Tony and his surprise introduction of fincee-Ashley.

His seven questions for liberals:


1) Isn't this is a rush to war?

2) Is Obama invading Libya because Gaddafi insulted him?

3) Is this a war for oil?

4) Where are the massive protests?

5) Shouldn't we have tried to talk it out with Gaddafi instead?

6) Aren't we just starting a cycle of violence by bombing Libya?

7) Isn't Barack Obama a chickenhawk?

March 20, 2011

Climatologist

The global average sea surface temperature plot, shown through March 17, 2011. SSTs remain below normal. The trend line is close to zero, so still no sign of “global warming” having resumed.

March 19, 2011

multi-dimensional

The multi-verse is an intriguing, concept\theory\fact\fiction. Parallel worlds have been many a writers convention. Off the top of my head I can think of a dozen novels.

Physicists have been actively theorizing fiction into fact, I wonder if Archimedes had such flights of fancy? Each theory of everything builds or tangents from previous theories.

The scientific method:
  • Ask a Question
  • Do Background Research
  • Construct a Hypothesis
  • Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
  • Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
  • Communicate Your Results
Discards and embraces different thoughts about reality.

All to satisfy our curiosity.

March 18, 2011

Ow ow ow ow ow

Started running again. My calves hate me.

I ran on Wednesday 1.48 miles. I took two days off to recover, ran another 1.48 miles today. Going to take this nice and slow and hopefully injury free.

My Hindu style push-ups are a five day a week thing now. I added some inner thigh abductors to the mix (as I kept getting sore when skating). Next up, adding some crunches.

The body weight exercises have great appeal. For quite some time I tried the, "go to the gym" route. It just seemed a waste of money. Not to mention, there is a cycle of going, then missing, then stopping, then going back half-hearted. Followed by guilt that you are not going and feeling stupid for paying for something your not doing.

Nope, I like the get up and do some exercises much better. I keep wanting to supplement with some equipment. I see some medicine ball exercises that look nice.

The other day I was considering a time when I was in better shape. I can pick and choose when I was stronger and faster. Overall, I am in the best shape ever. Reflectively that seems odd.

March 17, 2011

Supervision

We have a hierarchy at work, as most businesses. In the trenches you have the hourly employee, sorted by hire date. Next are the supervisors followed by assistant managers, sorted by store departments. Then the assistant managers who have multiple store departments under their umbrella. Followed by ancillary managers and the manager himself (in our case herself in others).

The cool thing is the overlap. You will never find any in management passing the buck or saying that is not my department. Instead they will deal with the problem at hand, within certain guidelines.

Supervisors are the more interesting animal. They are not management light, rather employee enhanced. So you get a wide variety of assistance depending upon which supervisor you approach and when.

My current supervisor, apparently, thinks he is upper management. He has taken upon himself the burden of scheduling my department. This means taking the hours available and placing the employees into those hours to satisfy the needs of the business, tempered by the needs of the employee.

To my way of thinking, once you have a schedule set up you just use that template for the next week and so on. Not so. Every week we have a different start time and days off. We are the only department without some static schedule. I further understand, that we are the only department in the corporation without some static schedule. Most of them shuffle working hours by quarter or every two months. Not weekly, or daily in some cases.

The needs of the employee seems pretty straight forward as well. In my mind you would ask for any preferences and then see how you can accommodate them. My supervisor assures me that he has worked out a wonderful schedule that will make everyone very happy (yeah, that is a flag right there). The thing is this... To date he has not approached any of us employees and asked us for any preference...

My c0-worker requested sequential days off, I have requested Thursdays off. Currently my co-worker has split days off and I work Thursdays... One of our part timers has classes in the morning and needs to submit requests to change her schedule weekly.

I have a macabre curiosity to see what this "wonderful" schedule brings.

March 16, 2011

Brother Darwin (By Mark P. Shea

http://www.mark-shea.com/darwin.html (Original Posting)

One of the peculiar ironies I have noticed over the years has been the divergent ways in which the notions of evolution have, er, evolved in the minds of Catholics and some of the more anti-Catholic folks among our Fundamentalist brothers. One of the distinctions between Catholics and Bible Christians is that Catholic theology has never especially demanded a literalistic interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2 and is therefore not particularly shaken by evolutionary theory or the discovery of the immense age of the earth. As John Hardon, S.J. says in his Catholic Catechism, "Charles Darwin (1809-82) undoubtedly sparked a new era in anthropology and allied sciences, but Darwinism as such had only minimal impact in Catholic thought, whereas it struck many believers in evangelical Protestantism like a tornado. The issues raised by latter-day evolutionists directly affected the interpretation of the Bible, notably the first three chapters of Genesis. Christians who had only the biblical text as their guide, and no extrabiblical tradition or less still an authoritative Church, were left with only the literal words of Scripture. It was not enough to cope with the rising tide of criticism from scientific quarters, which made the simple narrative of Genesis look like another cosmological myth."

This was borne out again in October 1996 when Pope John Paul II, standing in the context of a train of Catholic thought which stretched back at least to Augustine and which had been reaffirmed by Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis said, in essence, "Looks like there's some good evidence for biological evolution." That is, he said, as so many Catholics have already said, that there is nothing in divine revelation that particularly forbids you to believe that God made Adam from the dust of the earth r e a l l y s l o w l y rather than instantaneously. This comment, a blinding non-news flash to Catholics, was an immense shock to many journalists, who seem to divide the world into "those who have absolute faith in naturalistic evolutionary dogma" and "Fundamentalists." Where could the Pope fit in such a black and white world?

Now, before I proceed, I think I should mention that I believe Fundamentalists get entirely too much guff from the media for their concerns about evolutionism. Granted, I think the Creation Science attempts to turn the obvious language of myth in Scripture into the language of a science text are stupendously wrong-headed. I do not believe for a moment the bad science adduced to prove that the earth is at most 10,000 years old, nor the zany theories that earth's atmosphere was shielded by giant ice shell (the "waters above the heavens") which melted and produced the Great Flood of Noah. I think it a tremendously dumb (but entertainingly quixotic) effort to show that "God created the earth with dinosaur bones already in the ground to test the faith of True Bible Christians and lead the ungodly astray."

But, having said all this I also think Fundamentalists have a healthy moral reservation about evolutionism which we do well to listen to despite the badness of Creation Science. For as C.S. Lewis points out in his fine little book Miracles, the mere fact that somebody is wrong about one thing does not mean they are wrong about everything. Lewis talks about a little girl he once knew who had the notion that poisonous things had to have "horrid red things" in them in order to be poisonous. Her science was bad. But as Lewis says, "If a visitor to that house had been warned by the child, 'Don't drink that. Mother says it is poison,' he would have been ill advised to neglect the warning on the ground that 'This child has a primitive idea of poison as Horrid Red Things, which my adult scientific knowledge has long since refuted."

Similarly, Fundamentalists seem to me, despite their absurd creation science, to have more moral common sense in their little fingers than the great thinkers and social planners of the 19th and early 20th Century had in their whole bodies. For it was these "intellectual giants" and not Fundamentalists who took the basic premises of materialistic evolutionism and "survival of the fittest" and, with inexorable logic, constructed the whole edifice of Social Darwinism, laissez faire capitalism, eugenics, euthanasia, racial theory and, in its final apotheosis, Nazi racial theory and genocide. It was the Best and the Brightest, the Educated and the Advanced who labored to create such living hells as Auschwitz in the name of the Fitness of the Race. For all their daffy science, Fundamentalists preserve in their bones an essential insight to which materialist evolutionists are stone blind: If a man's nose is simply a slightly different product of the same kind of accidents that made a pig's snout, there is ultimately no reason you cannot butcher him like a pig. Fundamentalists recognize that, as Dostoyevsky says, if there is no God, everything is permissible. Catholics, while eschewing the bad science of Fundamentalists, ought to be grateful that they have passed to their children this inchoate refusal to call man an unusually clever piece of meat. Insofar as they do this, Fundamentalists are on the side of the angels (and of the Holy Father, who also stresses that evolutionary theory does not provide a philosophical basis for reducing the human person to a mere product of material forces). Thus, when we are embarrassed by the bad science of Fundamentalist Creationism, we Catholics do well to remember, as St. Paul says, that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

Yet at the same time, it also seems to me that Catholics ought to point out to Fundamentalists the curious parallel between the view of natural history they emphatically reject and the view of supernatural history they often emphatically affirm. For one of the weirdest ironies of American Fundamentalism is that it often regards any trace of evolutionary theory with fear and loathing while simultaneously holding a view of Christian history that reads as a kind of Darwinian myth.

The myth runs something like this:

Jesus creates the little cell called "the early church" on the day of Pentecost. It is, as the cell was to Darwin, a featureless, structureless blob of protoplasmic goo which definitely has no bishops, certainly has no Petrine office and reproduces by splitting into other equally undifferentiated blobs of structureless "fellowship" with no authority and no doctrine except "the simple word of God--the Bible." This "Church as Algae Colony" model does not, however, last. Under pressure from the Greco-Roman environment, the primitive life form of the early Church begins to develop various structures and to mutate. Depending on who you talk to, the date may vary, but many Fundamentalists posit that the Church experienced some sort of Mass Extinction in the first, second, or third centuries. Theories vie for whether mass extinction happened shortly after the death of St. John or when Constantine legalized Christianity. But at any rate, some immense Comet of Apostasy slammed into the earth, according to this scenario, and "true Christianity" was nearly annihilated, hiding in the shrubs and underbrush of Europe like a tiny primitive mammal while, for the next 1500 years, enormous powerful brutes called "Catholics" roamed the earth like herds of tyrannosaurs, holding councils, electing Popes and having terrible earth-shaking doctrinal battles in which they imported all manner of pagan mutations like the Eucharist, Marian beliefs, bishops, statues and relics.

The roots of this apostate Catholic Church are, according to this scenario, from a totally different evolutionary line than that of True Christianity. It turns out that Catholics are actually the descendants of Babylonian Mystery Religions which swelled to immense proportions in the vacuum left by the Mass Extinction of True Christians. Sure, the Babylonian Mystery religionists repudiated paganism wholeheartedly and died for their refusal to renounce Christ. Sure, they fought fiercely to preserve Scripture from the scissors of Marcion. Sure, they defied the might of the State for the name of Jesus. Sure, they held the ecumenical councils, canonized Scripture, settled the most vexing questions concerning the nature of God and Christ, evangelized Europe, established the rule of civilization in the demon-haunted lands of barbarians, fostered the growth of science, philosophy, art, music, law and education, cared for the poor, challenged nations to be holy and preserved learning through waves of Viking, Mongol, Vandal, and Islamic invasions. But such "Christians" were an evolutionary dead end because they believed in bishops, the Eucharist and prayer to Mary. True Christians were the nameless, faceless, unknown "hidden church" that did nothing, said nothing, and accomplished nothing for 1500 years while the Catholics of the Mesozoic Era ruled the earth.

Finally, after centuries pass, God sends yet another comet, the Black Death (and a Wycliffe, a Hus and a Renaissance or two), to cause another mass extinction. The Beasts of Popery reel and fall! And then, out of the chaos God again raises up one organism (Martin Luther) who receives the divine spark and evolves to a higher plane of being. But, according to the scenario, Luther is not evolved enough. He still venerates Mary, for instance, and he believes in baptismal generation. So, ever reforming, God abandons this early evolutionary theological equivalent of the Megatherium and continues the march through the ages, "raising up" Calvin, then Wesley, then Finney, then Moody, then the Asuza Street Revival, then the Latter Rain Revival, and so forth till at last, today, we have... Me and My Sect who have finally arrived at highly-evolved, truly spiritual purity. And this must go on ad infinitum. For the only thing that keeps the spiritual gene pool pure is precisely the constant battle for survival among the various sects. That is why Loraine Boettner suggests in Roman Catholicism that "the diversity of the churches, with a healthy spirit of rivalry within proper limits, is one of God's ways of keeping the stream of Christianity from becoming stagnant." It is not love, but competition, that ensures the life of the Church. Indeed, Boettner goes on to quote Walter Montano to say that competition is essential in order for the Christian to know the freedom of the gospel at all. In Montano's words: "Organic unity is a foreign element in Protestantism. The lack of organic unity is the strength, not the weakness, of Protestantism, and assures us of our freedom before God... Unity and liberty are in opposition; as the one diminishes, the other increases. The Reformation broke down unity, it gave liberty..."

Now, for a theology that utterly repudiates "survival of the fittest" ideologies and claims faith in a supernatural God of love, this is a very curious way of looking at God's dealings with the human race. It does not look very much at all like the desire of Jesus who prayed to the Father for his Church that "they may be one as we are one" (John 17:11). One does not see between the Father and the Son a "healthy spirit of rivalry" as a model of the unity of the Church. One seldom notices Jesus teaching the disciples to quarrel over who is "stagnant." One does not see St. Paul issuing ultimatums to choose freedom over unity or telling the Philippians (whom he urged to be "one in spirit and purpose") that unity is a prison and competition is strength. Indeed, the idea of flushing weaklings out of the spiritual gene pool or throwing off the chains of love in order to survive is not something that seems to look anything like biblical teaching. But it does look a great deal like Darwinism.

Fundamentalists rightly apprehend in the Darwinian paradigm of "survival of the fittest" a naturalistic ideology which, applied to human beings, has served as the basis for some of the most brutal regimes in history. They rightly decry the view of human beings as mere "naked apes" living in the illusion of morality. They are appalled by the secularization of the human person which has reduced him from a creature made in God's image to a mere animal motivated by sex, hunger and power. They are opposed to the relativism that pits hedonism and materialism against the claims of family and children. They rightly detest the ideologies that pit class against class, race against race and man against woman. They recognize that such applications of "survival of the fittest" ideology to the socio-political sphere are anti-Christian assaults on the dignity of the human person. They recognize that a feminism which opposes the union of marriage as a "slave relationship" and declares that the freedom of woman can only be found by revolt against man is a stunningly short-sighted understanding of what marriage is all about. They argue strongly that it is a grave mistake and a sin to say that, in some ultimate sense, competition, not the love of Christ, is the great driving force behind the world.

Yet people like Boettner and Montano hold exactly this view of freedom when it comes to the unity of the Church. Cockeyed Church "histories" which prop up various anti-Catholic notions of the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, the Great Apostasy, the Hidden Church and so forth owe an enormous amount, not to "true Bible teaching" but to the view of life which says that competition, not the love of Christ, is the great driving force behind the Church. In so doing, their anti-Catholic zeal blinds them to what they see elsewhere with such clarity: that the great proponent of this view of life is not Jesus Christ, but Charles Darwin.

Catholics therefore have the obligation both to support and oppose the Fundamentalist in the matter of evolutionism. Insofar as the Fundamentalist grasps the insight that human beings are in fact, creatures in the image of God who are made for love, he is simply right and Catholics ought to support that insight. However, insofar as Fundamentalism offers crackpot science and, in fact, contradicts itself by holding a Darwinian view of the Church, Catholics ought to make clear what is going on in the hope that the Fundamentalist will rub his eyes and see the irony of his attack on the Catholic Church. For as Paul recognized clearly, we are not only created by the one God of love, we are intended to live by him in love, not competition. That is why he says, "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called--one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all" (Eph 4:3-6).

Cell phone genetics.

At work we have a Verizon Wireless booth, where persons outside of Costco employment sell to our membership. They are a good group.

The other day as I was prowling Major Sales, I came across a family talking with the Verizon peeps. A Mom, dad and two girls, probably three and six year old. As they wrapped up the pitch the salesman handed the two girls some play phones. In unison both of them flipped them open and began texting... Not putting them up to their ear... Texting... Wow...

Hockey Check of the Year


Damn!

March 15, 2011

George Carlin - Saving the Planet (NSFW)

That didn't take long

Behold Global Warming! Is there NOTHING it cannot do??

Plate tectonics are caused by YOU and your CAR! FOR SHAME! Feel the guilt!

How sad that I was proven right...

This has got to be narcissistic tendencies of our population.

Invisible me

Bike riders share the road with scary, large, metal, rolling objects. A rider must never assume the pilot of these vehicles have a scrap of sanity.

Since August I have road my bike to and from work multiple times each week. My discovery has been that the worst time to ride is early in the AM with rain soaked streets. I think it has to do with the reflections coupled with caffeine not yet taking a hold.

My bike has various safety accoutrement's that, hopefully, provide safeguards. The human senses (all six in this case), are much more reliable. I have experienced a fellow commuter wave at me, at a stoplight. No doubt happy to see someone pedaling for some reason. Only to cut me off at the next turn, speeding up to do so.

Aside from the rainy day invisibility, I have also uncovered:

Stop lights mean right turning cars want to run you over. Running a red light at appropriate times is key to survival.
Vehicles exiting a parking lot will start moving when you commit to crossing their path.
Someone waving you to ride in front of them, are psychopathic (especially if they stop in when there is a no traffic control signals present.
The sidewalk is your friend as the curb seems to represent an impassible bluff to motorists.
Eye contact means nothing.
If your suicidal, wear an i-pod...

March 14, 2011

Android

If u thought my spelling n grammar bad.  Wait till I try testing from my phone app...

Quote of my day.

The very purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticize others. Rather, we must criticize ourselves. How much am I doing about my anger? About my attachment, about my hatred, about my pride, my jealousy? These are the things which we must check in daily life.
gotaro

Dalai Lama quotes

Wild wind

My town has very low wind velocity, on average. Typically we see 1 mph to 5 mph. Yesterday we had a storm that hit just the right direction for the valley and 50 mph winds swept through.

This knocked down trees and took out the power in large sections of Douglas County. Luckily no one deaths have been reported.

The power went out at work for about 20 minutes. As with most businesses we have procedures that need to be followed and management around here never sits on its hands. So all the emergency exits where manned, the front doors closed and apologies issued to our members as they arrived. It just is not safe to wander about a warehouse in the dark, ya know...

Then everyone else heads to the front to man the registers while our backup power is working. There is an estimated 30 minutes before we totally loose power, so it is a three way race.

Clear the Membership .vs. Lose auxiliary power .vs. Power being restored.

At the time I was printing out some pictures for our front board (that shows some of our latest stuff). The office is on the generator so I did not even notice the power going out (other then a brief flicker). When I did notice some commotion, I assumed they were preparing for a blackout by finishing off projects and logging out of the various terminals. Until one of the managers, Liz, said we should go guard doors. Walking outside the office. The reality hit. Chagrined for not piecing it together I hit the registers and began loading people's carts up.

We got the 200 something people through the check out in about 20 minutes. The power came up shortly after that. The managers verified everything was safe and functional and we opened back up for business.

Very exciting and fun day at work. I am thinking the generators are going to sell out today...

March 12, 2011

Governer Walker. Hero of Wisconsin

Governor Walker has done some pretty amazing things for a politician. He kept his word to the voters. He stopped 1500 public job layoffs.

Not to mention, stopped the public union from taking advantage of an system unfair to the private sector tax payer. This won him no media friends, even though the alternative would have been much worse for everyone (but the union leadership).

So on the liberal side of things: Keeping jobs, keeping the State from a fiscal mess... BAD.


FDR would be proud of him.

Missed the button

turns out some of my musings have been sitting in Edit rather then being Published.

Silly me...

Helmet laws

Lets say our government releases some report that gives you information about making safer choices. I could deliberate on the sourcing and funding etc. Overall I do not see that as a bad thing.

Likewise, if an industry adopts a standard for safety equipment, and the government uses this standard to enforce that industry. I see that as a good thing.

When the Government says you no longer have a choice, but to use this safety equipment in your private life. I feel that crosses a line. Yes, I see the merit.

Bike helmets provide some crash protection and allow a good field of visibility. I have the choice of wearing one or not. I choose to wear one. I believe that a good field of vision and adequate devices that make YOU visible upon said bike. Are superior protection to the helmet.

So when I see people on bikes with motor cycle style full helms I feel that are relying too much on one safety device...

If that makes sense.

March 11, 2011

Honest Work

Honest work, is what my Pop calls physical labor. When I started at Costco I spent the day moving steel beams, stacking and restocking product on pallets and moving said pallets to various locations as new product arrived.

You might not realize that the first case of soda is much lighter then the 100th case of soda. Even something light like paper towels can fatigue when stacked ad infinitum.

There is something appealing to me when I look back upon an aisle and it has that look of perfection. At least until the doors open.

Pool question?

How long till the 8.9 Japan Earthquake is attributed to Global Warming?

Japans massive earthquake is devastating and the horrific images of the destruction we have only begun to see are heartbreaking.

The cynic in me see's an opportunistic for the Global Warming cult to cash in at some point.

March 10, 2011

Terribly trite

I have this perception, being an adult means taking responsibility for your choices.

Before you take credit for something, you may want to consider what those around you know. If they are aware that you had only cursory involvement, your braggadocio will put you in a bad light. As it is most bragging should be kept to a minimum. As your arm will get tired from that back-patting and that first round of "good job" is all your really deserve.

Paraphrasing a quote I heared someplace, by someone. Credit given that is knowingly not deserved equals satire.

March 09, 2011

Proof!

I have photographic evidence that Man Made Global Warming is a hoax, the entire thing was filmed on a sound stage back in 1974!

March 08, 2011

Missed the button

turns out some of my musings have been sitting in Edit rather then being Published.

Silly me...

March 04, 2011

Your Government and you.

Recently a friend proposed that the US adopt a law similar to Canada that you cannot lie on the news.

A quick research shows that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has never evoked the law. I see it as the government passing a law restricting freedom of the press.

So putting the first amendment aside and playing fiction, what would the enforcement of said law entail?

I suppose it could be passive, waiting for a complaint then investigating. Similar to the FCC and bad language. A complaint is filed and someone investigates. Would that mean that each news broad caster would have to keep copies of every broadcast? And for how long? Statue of limitation would have to be set. If some broadcasts are sent to other countries (CNN) that would fall under international law? That means they would need to store all broadcasts forever...

Anyways, the investigator requests the broadcast in question. The station may refuse, at which point the investigator would have to subpoena the broadcast. Seeing as this is Federal law that brings the Courts and Marshall's into the mix. Now they view the broadcast and fact check the complaint. If the broadcast did prevaricate, then they must determine intent.

This would mean having the source material seized as well. Assuming they found the broadcast did knowingly mislead a fine would be levied. The news organization would then either pay up or decide to fight. Then a case built and a hearing date sent. The broadcasters would engage a lawyer and the court battle etc.

My thoughts then go to enforcement. Would the executive branch be able to pick and choose targets?

That is just if it is passive, lets say it is active. The government collects every news cast and reviews it for inaccuracies and intent. Or better still, each broadcaster would have a government employee going over the scripts and fact checking prior to airing....

Yeah, I see why Canada never evoked this...