Archive for February 2006
Absolutely Right
Kyle nails it once again. You know, to their face: they can keep their goddamned nutbar ideas to themselves. I aint interested. Seems to me that's exactly what they're doing, so good for them and anyone else who feels inclined to join them.Read More
Note to Commenters
I've recently deleted a couple of comments; on another entry. The details are unimportant. Both were by the same person, the second being an insult for deleting the first. Here's my rule for deleting comments: there is no rule. I delete them at my whim. It's my blog. I owe no explanations to anyone. In general, but not as a hard-and-fast rule, if the comment is of substantive interest to me--even if the implicit or…Read More
Red Meat
So I'm on the way back from the cabin earlier today and I hears on the radio that some huge international company in Dubai, U.A.E., is poised to purchase another huge international company in London, U.K., and bunches and hoards of morons just about everywhere--wall-to-wall and top-to-bottom--are carrying on as though it's not only their business, but as though they, indeed, own the companies in question. I'm just swimming in stupids, morons, imbeciles, and jack-asses…Read More
White Out
Bea & I arrived up at the cabin 'bout two hours ago. "White out" might be a bit of an overstatement, but it's really dumping. We're at 8 inches and counting. And it's cold. Surface temp is under 30 F and dropping. Luckily, it was only about 38 F inside, and now, two hours later, we're all the way to 55. It'll be cozy soon enough. This is a nice change. Because of the warm…Read More
February Report Card
Profit $9,602.40. A 50% return on risk for February. If you've been around here lately, you recall I've tossed up a few entries about my trading activities in the market. Well, I've decided to hold myself accountable and post a report card each month at options expiration. February options expire today. Sometimes I may spend some time explaining and describing the month's actions. Today, we'll see. OK, my first trade of the month was to…Read More
Worth a Look
It's just the company I keep, but I see good photos and videos of hang-gliding activities from around the world on almost a daily basis. Every now and then, some photos come along, the quality and subject matter of which demand that I share. This and about a dozen others right over here. These are taken in France; I believe during the recent 32nd Coupe Icare (Icarus Cup) at St. Hilaire du Touvet. The guy…Read More
“Darwin” Indeed
"A 'Darwin' man" in more ways than one.Read More
Home Improvement
The problem: nice teakwood furniture on an ugly deck. (click each image for a clearer view) The grand plan: The materials, pre-cut according to plan: Getting started: Section one of eight done. Since the deck has a slight slope to the drain, sections should allow for that: The finished solution. Can you say "better?"Read More
HDTV
Finally got a chance to begin watching some of the DVR content from the Olympics last night. It's getting really simple, folks. If you aren't watching this on a wide-screen in HDTV format, you aren't watching the Olympics. You aren't even watching TV. The difference is as dramatic as comparing one of those 50's port-hole black & whites with a modern color TV. You really need to beg, borrow, perhaps even steal to get it.…Read More
“Paradise Zimbabwe”
The U-turn is expected to be announced within days. The ruling Zanu-PF party's politburo has been informed and selected journalists in the state-controlled media have been briefed on how to spin the policy reversal. I can pretty much guess how that "spin" is going to go: the inadequacies of the indigenous black population to grow enough to feed themselves will be blamed on "generations of white domination," or some other such rot. So, in case…Read More
Ten BILLION Dollars
To be said with a Dr. Evil flair That's what it looks like is at stake with the Virgin Galactic endeavor that's building five ships in the Mojave desert to take people into space, beginning in 2008. 50,000 people have put their names down for the $200,000 tickets. Do the math. Well, that's more than a bit above my own current price point. But as my price point increases (which I'd peg at about $20,000…Read More
Cartoons? I Live in a Goddamned Cartoon
I've been considering different angles on the Danish cartoon fiasco for a few days. Here they are, in no particular order of importance--and not necessarily exhaustively expounded upon. Food for thought. + Civility, manners, tolerance, and perhaps respect of the idiosyncrasies, traditions, beliefs, rituals, symbols, customs, etc. of others is reasonable behavior, but doesn't that sword cut both ways? Isn't it so, that the most outlandish, ridiculous, closed-off belief systems are the least respectful of…Read More
Pop Quiz
OK, there's two children, aged 12 and 15 years. They don't go to public school. They don't go to private school. Their parents don't formally home school them. They are, in fact, unschooled in the sense we think about schooling. Their father earned a PhD in physics from Harvard, has authored an economics text book on price theory and several other books covering economics and the law, and he's an academic economist who teaches at…Read More
Propping Up the Illusion
Well I'd wanted to jot something down about "Ugly and Uglier" (Jagger & Richards), but I see plenty out there already. Yea, they probably ought to call it quits; but I sure as hell wouldn't. Good for them, I say. So I found something else to blog. Stories right here, and here. Let's not conflate everything, K? We're not talking here about a bunch of mindless yokels coming out to get in the way of…Read More
Wanted Dead or Alive
I remember it like it was yesterday. It was sometime in the mid-to-late 80s, sitting in some bar outside the naval base in Yokosuka, Japan, having a beer or two before making my way home about 10 clicks to Hayama, on the other side of the peninsula. They were playing some music videos on the TV, and suddenly, there's this appealing ballad-sounding sort of song backed by a back & white video. It's Bon Jovi…Read More
Brokeback to the Future
Perhaps the only thing funnier than the way the echo-chamber of Hollywood and its media sycophants are promoting Brokeback Mountain--reminiscent of an overly-defensive white guy exclaiming, "I like black people"--is this trailer for the upcoming release of Brokeback to the Future. (via Hit & Run) I guess the other message is that you can make a movie trailer to be anything you want it to be. Don't believe me? Remember the film The Shining? Yea?…Read More
Capitalism in One Lesson
Perhaps you've heard of the announcement by BB&T not to take part in commercial lending on projects that involve eminent domain. Good for them. Better late than never, in this case. One of the links in that article linked to above is to BB&T's vision, mission and purpose page. Go read that and tell me it's not just one great concise package on what capitalism is all about. Every essential and implication is right there.…Read More
“No Respect”
After a long day of utter outrage, the other day (watch the video, if you haven't already), I posted a clarification of what this is all about. And; because I had quoted Billy, I went ahead and emailed him, asking for his opinion. Go read his response, then come on back. He makes two undeniably good points. Can you really say that there are any good cops at all, when the stuff that I've been…Read More
That’s Entertainment
I just have to wonder. You know, government has essentially become a TV show. What, with real-time cable news and commentary--not forgetting the whores on both sides of the congressional isle, ready 24/7 to sit for an interview--to entertain us, local news, and of course, the broadcast extravaganzas like last night's State of the Union, the political conventions, the debates, etc... Now, I've always loved the detective shows, where responsible and deliberate people use their…Read More
Clarification
There's an aspect of this earlier post today that bears clarification. Billy Beck says, in the post I referenced: There is something terribly wrong with cops, now. I can directly recall a time in my life when something like this would not have happened because cops still retained at least vestiges of two things: 1) something of a capacity for reason, being able to sort out the dangers involved in this sort of thing, and…Read More