Quote of the Day

From Spartanburg County, South Carolina:

Sheriff Chuck Wright opened his news conference by saying, "Our form of justice is not making it.

"He said, "Carry a concealed weapon. That'll fix it."

Read more: http://www.wyff4.com/news/29638219/detail.html#ixzz1cPoxTzJf

He's gonna catch nine kinds of hell, but it's nothing but the truth.


H/T Aglifter from the Gun Counter forum

Dear Mr. President:

Sincerely,

Rural America


H/T Larry S

Happy All Hallow's Eve

Happy Halloween*, everyone!

*Brought to you by your brain starved zombie host.**


**Just not starved of much of anything else.

Just Won't Sweep Under the Rug Anymore

Of course I speak of Operation Gun Runner, also known as Operation Fast and Furious. From my seat high up in the bleachers, it seems to me that we all owe a great debt to David Codrea of The War on Guns, and Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars. They kept hammering and pushing on the subject, and their continual railing eventually got some notice and some network television coverage through CBS. Even some liberal editorial cartoonists have noticed and chimed in.That started the ball rolling. Since then, the situation has been unraveling for the Obama administration - Holder's and Obama's statements about when they knew not matching up (Teh Won heard about it and had Holder investigating before Holder knew about it), the rewarding of major players with promotions, plus Eric Holder's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that he didn't know about it, and Janet Napolitano's assertion that not only didn't she know about it, but since it was an ATF operation, it had nothing to do with Homeland Security.


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Mmmmkay. So, it's not their fault. There are two options. Either they didn't know because they're too incompetent to keep their cowboy underlings ( who, by the way, are all career bureaucrats whose culture demands they don't fart without permission in order to cover their asses) under control, or they are lying.

Gee, guess what I think.

Okay, time's up. I think they should all be canned. I think the White House knew about it and planned it, because this has the Obumbler administration fingerprints all over it. The stated goals were to trace the guns back to the drug lords in Mexico. I was in debate in high school for four years. When on the affirmative side, we had to propose a plan and promote and defend it in a series of speeches. In order to promote the plan, we always had to propose advantages that the plan would bring that the status quo was unable to provide. I have to think an advantage to their plan was that they could also stoke the fires against the Second Amendment by having proof of guns going across the borders to supply drug cartels. They've been hammering on that non existent issue for years, since the weapons that do cross the border are generally stolen, not bought by straw buyers. It's a fact that the Mexican drug lords get better value and selection for their money from arms merchants. In hindsight, this so called advantage surely seems far fetched to them now, but I also think the parties involved have such self inflated egos that they figured it would work, just because they thought of it. They've all been armchair quarterbacking for years with no experience, why would that change?

So, I think Teh Won oughta be impeached.

Do I think it will happen? Are you kidding? At most, some heads will roll and some will be tossed under the bus, maybe even Holder and Napolitano. After that, the flood walls of the mostly compliant press will contain any efforts to pin this on their Dear Leader. It's amazing to me that CBS is following this story as much as they have. I suspect this story is causing some pretty big rifts in Black Rock and above at Westinghouse's board meetings. And, GE, Viacom, Disney and Time-Warner have got to protect their investments, and that's just the visual media. Not having a Republican dominated Congress kinda shoots that idea right in the ol' buttocks, too.

I'm truly not going out on a limb to make that prediction. Think about it. Hang on and watch.

There May Be Hope...

... for Billy yet. Billy ponders his future with a national ID card and wonders how a Founding Father managed his. Meanwhile, Jeffy goes mining for green gold.

Bob

BOB from Jacob Frey on Vimeo.
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Be sure and watch until after the credits have rolled - it ain't over just yet! Cute factor eight out of ten, IMHO!


H/T Ant Gail

Didja Ever Notice?

Now that movie studios have everything digitized, they are altering colors. Today's movies are washed out in order to emphasize flesh tones. Teal and orange are the predominant colors these days.

Picture from Ace of Spades "Overnight Open Thread"

Technicolor is closer to reality than today's color palette.

It's bad enough when horror, sci-fi and fantasy movies seem to slavishly adhere to this unpleasant template, but even mainstream adult dramas like Up In The Air and Fair Game (both of which are films that I would otherwise like) are being drained of all their colour in post-production. This unfortunate trend in dreariness also lessened my enjoyment of last year's Best Picture winner, The King's Speech.


Recently, I did some searching on Google to find out whether others are equally disturbed by this ugly trend in today's films. Sure enough, I turned up this article that helps to explain what is going on. It's interesting to read the numerous comments afterward, as there are many, like me, who abhor this unpleasant trend, while others defend it as being true to the director's "vision". Though they may like to think of themselves as unique visionaries, most directors working today merely conform to one basic template of mediocrity that the Hollywood studios all decree must be followed. Because of this trend toward the drab and ugly, I find myself seeing fewer and fewer films with each passing year. Perhaps Hollywood should realize that many older moviegoers are used to far richer looking movies from the more glorious past - today's films just turn us off. BLECCHH!!

After reading the various posts linked to above, it seems even my favorite new movie of the last year or two True Grit is guilty as well - it sure seems to be a sepia kind of tone, perhaps to convey the idea that the events took place in the past, where the pictures we see from that period look the same. And the latest Harry Potter movie was almost unwatchable on my television - I was working over the brightness and contrast just to see detail that was obscured by the intentional cutting out light. After I'd fooled with those settings, the rest of television land was overly bright and sharp.

Hollywood doesn't seem to listen much to the actual people who pay to see their products. They all jump on bandwagons that only they, in their insular world, have any use for. I've got enough gripes about the endless copying, the predominantly liberal mindset (and if you know what's good for you you'll agree with whatever mindset they're pushing, because after all, they are the beautiful and cool trendsetters), the advent of short attention span theater quick cuts (remember when a long shot was art?), shaky and disoriented camera work and, and - well, you get the idea.

And now we get dulled and dark movies that look depressing. Yeah, color me not so entertained. No wonder I end up watching old movies these days.

H/T Ace of Spades, who linked to Boing Boing, who linked to this article and this article.

Chum

Checking in on the ol' social networks this morning, I saw this tweet from Iowahawk (who has nearly abandoned blogging for the Twitter platform, and is a true Master):

When government gives you money to pay your mortgage to a bank, they're not doing it to help you.

No kidding. TARP just bypassed the customers and fed the hungry maws of the banks directly. Too big to fail, remember? Then I saw this editorial cartoon by Tony Auth.

Which is about right, but Tony (who has a decidedly liberal bent) really missed the point - our Hope and Change Government is chumming the waters ahead of the underwater mortgage holders. Frankly, Tony would have this cartoon right if it were people who successfully pay their mortgages doing the swimming - they're the ones that will have to pay the bills of those who cannot pay, and will continue to get assistance, plus the banks whining about getting into trouble again ought to trigger yet another round of stimulus money hot off the presses.

Sharks as a metaphor for banks is apropos - they are just doing what they do. Mindless search for profit, no ethical controls since they are the big fish in the pond with no other controls - they are just getting what they paid for. Paid with our money directly and profits diverted from truly growing our economy towards corrupt politicians. Corrupt politicians. Sorry, repeated myself there.

Oh, Damn

Financial Woes May Sink WikiLeaks, Assange Says

LONDON (AP) — One of the world's most notorious secret-spillers is going silent.

WikiLeaks said in a statement Monday that it would stop publishing in order to focus on making money — explaining that the blockade imposed by financial companies including Visa, MasterCard, Western Union and PayPal left it with no choice.

They're looking for donations. Oh, my, as my daddy used to say, "My heart pumps pure piss for ya." What will we do without someone who compromises the safety and lives of U.S. citizens abroad in the name of transparency?

George Soros, your phone is ringing.

Boob Apron

Wimmin, are you so well endowed men never meet your gaze because they ain't lookin' there? Then this product is for you.

Below the fold for language and such.

'Til Ya Die

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Gawd forbid, I heard this song and found myself movin' to the groovin.'

Well, it's funk, not disco.

Heh. Really, this was a pretty fun song when it debuted, and that ain't changed none.

Teh Won Testy? Tell Me It Ain't So!

Have you noticed in Our Dear Leader's speeches how grumpy he sounds lately? If you have, you aren't the only one.Seems a linguist has done some testing.

What I noticed is that president Obama seemed a mite testy in his weekly address for  10/1/2011 ("Fighting for the American Jobs Act"). This led me to ponder the phonetics of testiness, and of emotional expression in general. For this morning's Breakfast Experiment™ I thought I'd take up one small aspect of one dimension of this large topic, namely what happens to F0 ("fundamental frequency", commonly called "pitch") when you "raise your voice".

He goes on to explain how differences in ambient background noise can make you raise your voice - if it's louder, you have to compensate. He decided to test a couple of speeches - one in August where he seemed calmer, and one in October, where he was noticeably louder. He found no difference in the level of background noise.

The difference is a fairly large one: an average pitch of 137.3 ±0.38 Hz on October 1, vs. an average of 106.6 ±0.31 Hz on August 6, for a proportional difference of about 29%. To avoid misunderstanding, let me repeat that there are lots of reasons for someone's pitch range to vary, so that this is not a reliable metric for physiological arousal. But when other things are held constant, it can be interpreted that way. And it's easier to quantify and compare than things like voice quality are.

I'd say the Mighty O is mighty rattled these days.

H/T Ace of Spades

(It) is Not the Name of the Restaurant, That's Just the Name of the Song

Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie - Full song from Scott Wade on Vimeo.
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This performance even had my father laughing so hard tears were running down his face the first time he heard it.

Just remember, friends:

If you want to join the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and
all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the
guitar.

With feeling. So we'll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and
sing it when it does. Here it comes.

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

OMG! No Wonder!

Here we see the feral PJ wolfing down his food as he always does, exposing the horror behind his normal diet, even as the more worldly Dolly tries to hide the truth. If you find yourself at a singles bar and run into Thel wanting your hot bod, you just might want to step back and reconsider before thinking you are gonna score. There are worse things than waking up in a tub of ice with a missing kidney.

Why Change Your M.O. Now?

Okay, here we have Alex, extreme liberal young daughter of Mike. She's been the vehicle for Trudeau's views on gun control (last issue, open carry in Starbucks) and any other liberal agenda he sees fit to "comment" on. Her boyfriend, "Toggle (Leo DeLuca)," recent Iraq veteran. Up to this point, I thought perhaps, maybe, just maybe, since most soldiers are very conservative, we might see some sort of debate between political philosophies. Toggle's mother is a trailer trash biker lovin' ignorant mama with tats, cigarettes, and is a jab at conservatives. Like liberals all live in mansions and townhouses. The whole point is Leo wouldn't have gone into the military had he been born in more lucrative surroundings - he'd be a success instead of being forced to go into the service to make a living. He's a disadvantaged poor person with no chances, you see.

Even knowing all this, when I saw that last strip, I thought perhaps Mr. Trudeau might present a different POV, considering the implied conservative politics of his downtrodden protagonist.

Silly me. Of course, he's gonna have his poor military protagonist suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder toot suite. Every military character in the strip so far has, so why should Toggle be exempt? BD has it. Everyone in his support group has it - all veterans. Ray Hightower has it. Possible the only one not displaying PTSD is Jeff Redfern, who worked for the CIA in the sandbox rather than serve. He's off his nut as well, portaying "The Red Rascal," an invention of his supposed exploits in the Middle East that he even believes. But not PTSD yet.

Every veteran you and I know all suffer from PTSD to the point of being unable to function in society, don't we? I mean, you can't take one to the freaking Post Office for fear they'll open up and slaughter us all, right? Or Gawd forbid, go to a crowded Mickey D's for lunch without blood in the streets - am I right?

Of course not. In Trudeau's little mind, using veterans as a punching bag for unfair characterizations is fair game because they disagree with him. Using black stereotypes to make a point is automatically racist and unfair, but painting veterans with such a broad brush is A-OK. They should know better than to think the way they do, it's why they all go nuts, am I right?

Fucking asshole.

Ahhh, it's all cleverly solved now. Leo is taken back to his deepest inner fears from the battlefield by a bunch of privileged liberal kids whining. Now it all makes sense. Ha ha, isn't that funny.

Feel The Power

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I'm with Dave on this one. Keep that damn thing away from me!

The Doobie Brothers

If you know me at all, you know The Doobie Brothers are one of my favorite all time desert island choices for a rock band, period, end of story, that's it. At least until their Stampede album - after that they kinda drifted from their trademark sound and As Far As I'm Concerned, they went downhill. Coincidentally that was the arrival of Michael McDonald, Jeff (Skunk) Baxter and the eventual exit of Tom Johnston. Of course, my mild dislike of McDonald might have something to do with that view as well. Just sayin.'

But anyways, everyone knows China Grove, Long Train Running, Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me), and Black Water. All great songs, but there are so many more. Since the AOR format is pretty well dead, unless you listen on SiriusXM, these are some of the songs that the programmers miss these days:


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From Toulouse Street. Listen to the Music was the big hit.


The Doobie Brothers - Natural Thing by fragueur71
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These are from The Captain and Me. Long Train Runnin' and China Grove were on this album.


The Doobie Brothers Tell Me What You Want (and I'll Give You What You Need) from shawnnhouston on Vimeo.
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What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits debuted these two songs. Black Water was the big hit.


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Probably the favorite here - from Stampede. This video uses the song as accompaniment for a different visual them other than the song itself, but, oh well. Then, just because, the end of I Cheat the Hangman as a lead in for China Grove, live:


The Doobie Brothers I Cheat the Hangman~China... by Randy_Rowland
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Good stuff.

Upgrade!

I'd been getting pretty crabby about the speed that Algore's Innertubes arrive here at The Poor Farm in the past couple years. Speeds had been dropping since Day One, back when I was the only customer they had on the head unit that serves this neighborhood, and I was one of the few out in the country with DSL in the first place. Most everyone else was on dialup. However, the local ISP gradually weaned the dialup customers away until they shut it down entirely to save money. No point in running all that equipment for a few people and having it cost as much as the broadband stuff.

But, things had been slowing. Had Alltel and now Verizon ever put a tower up that actually served this area, I'd have probably abandoned my ISP/phone cooperative, but I can't make a damn cell call here, much less get enough data for a decent connection. Every time the sales types at Verizon tried to upgrade me, I'd tell 'em that if they could call me up, and keep the conversation going for ten minutes without dropping the call, I'd sign up. Otherwise, they'd give me the aircard they really thought I needed so badly for free - with no charges for using it, too. For some reason, those calls stopped.

So, this morning, I was reading emails when my modem disconnected. Only one of the two signal lights was showing any activity, so the connection light never changed from orange to green. So, I called in, and the tech there could see that it was disconnected. Time for a new modem. This meant a trip to Dodge City.

As I was getting ready, someone knocked at the door. It was a tech from the ISP - with a new modem. Turns out the tech in Dodge didn't know what the guys out here were doing - they had upgraded the equipment and my old modem was not compatible anymore. We pulled it out, along with the old noise filter they had recommended (he said it wasn't needed anymore), and I was back up.

Their webpage claimed the basic tier of service should run 1.5Mbps, and I got 1.6. Lately it was more like .8. Back in the day, my uploads might even be faster than downloads, but not so much anymore. Now, some of you with FIOS or even a decent fast cable connection might be turning your noses up at this, but for me, major improvement. Call me a satisfied customer for now - I still feel pretty fortunate to have broadband out here on the prairie. My sister in northern OKC cannot get cable, cable broadband or DSL. None of the biggies will invest in upgrading her neighborhood, so it's dialup, cell aircard, or local wireless if she wants broadband.

When I was testing out the connection by watching all kinds of YouTube videos, I found I had to recalibrate my little BitMeter app. It shows a graphic of upload and download speeds - and I'd set it for my home connection. It was always pegged out on the road - most motel connections were way way faster than what I was getting here. Anyhoo, while watching the Chicago video, this was what I saw:

None of the other videos showed that kind of pattern. I'd say whomever set up the server that the Chicago video is stored on has an artistic bent, no?

I'm A Man, Dammit!

Been doing a little YouTubing today and came up with this:


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The original. Grade A 'Murrican, by Gawd!


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Then some of them thar British Invaders worked it over.


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Then a young Stevie Winwood wrote up something new with the same title. Love the Hammond organ.


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Then The Chicago Transit Authority (which, of course became Chicago) had their own version. Apparently, they misunderstood the original Spencer Davis Group's lyrics.

Any of these versions will have me tuned in. Good stuff.

Imagine

It's just a stick, honey, until you bend the force of your brain to make it whatever you want it ..........

Oh, never mind.