GUNS: Maybe its good we dont teach maksmanship

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Sniper-Fire-Oakland-Police-98739644.html

Sniper Targets Oakland Cops
By CHRISTIE SMITH
Updated 6:27 AM PDT, Tue, Jul 20, 2010

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The latest incident happened Sunday at about 11:30 p.m. Patrol officers were on a traffic stop near 8th and Adeline Streets in West Oakland when they heard shots. They were detaining people in a car on suspicion of drug-related offenses.

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Good thing that the “disadvantaged urban yutes” never learned about marksmanship. Shooting down requires extra elevation because of the greater bullet drop. Better for the police that the “snipers” aren’t trained. Any “misguided child” after boot can make that shot; however, it’s doubtful they would. If we ended the (pseudo) War on (some) Drugs, then the police wouldn’t be down range on a hot range or in a one direction free fire zone.

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QUOTES: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

Monday, July 26, 2010

“Network (1976) – Memorable Quotes.” The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 20 July 2010. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/quotes>.

Howard Beale: I want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

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RANT: Making people into serfs

Monday, July 26, 2010

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=17&articleid=20100723_11_0_IronGa403000&rss_lnk=1

Thousands show up at Tulsa food pantry Friday
By MIKE AVERILL World Staff Writer
Published: 7/23/2010 12:47 PM
Last Modified: 7/23/2010 5:50 PM

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The message that was circulating was that the food boxes were free for anyone, however they’re actually restricted to families with children younger than 18 and there is an income restriction as well.

Through the program families can receive one 30-pound food box for each child and one box for every two adults. Families also receive one household box (toilet paper, soap, shampoo, toothpaste) for every two people younger than the age of 18 in the household. Families may receive these boxes each week.

Iron Gate receives 250 food boxes and 125 household boxes each week that it distributes Fridays and Saturdays in conjunction with its regular grocery distribution program. The program runs through September.

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“The need seems to be overwhelming, not only in Tulsa but in the surrounding towns. We need to figure out how to better distribute these boxes. Other agencies are sending people to us for food,” she said.

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Doesn’t anyone see a problem with this?

These people are “welfare farmers”. Now there are probably needy cases in there. But, how many has the Gooferment trained to depend on handouts?

Feed “stray cats” and don’t be surprised when you have more “stray cats”.

These are people, who should be accorded basic human dignity. They need “help”; not a “handout”.

That can’t be done by the Gooferment; it can only be accomplished by an energized empowered community — usually a church or a fraternal organization — who will invest time, money, resources, and most importantly attention to these people as people.

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http://www.acton.org/ppolicy/compassion/ppolicy_compassion_olasky.php

Seven Principles from a Century Ago by Marvin Olasky

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The crisis of the modern welfare state is a crisis of government, and it is more than that. Too many private charities and foundations dispense aid on the basis of what feels good rather than what works. As a result, they end up providing, instead of points of light, alternative shades of darkness. Too many act like the arrogant individuals criticized by F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby: “They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness… and let other people clean up the mess they made.”

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1. Affiliation 2. Bonding 3. Categorization 4. Discernment 5. Employment 6. Freedom 7. God

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INTERESTING: Folksonomy, wisdom of crowds?

Sunday, July 25, 2010

http://vanderwal.net/folksonomy.html

Folksonomy
February 2, 2007

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Folksonomy is the result of personal free tagging of information and objects (anything with a URL) for one’s own retrieval. The tagging is done in a social environment (usually shared and open to others). Folksonomy is created from the act of tagging by the person consuming the information.

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Interesting, I’d never heard of this word before.

The wisdom of crowds?

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INTERESTING: American “inginuity” … need more of it and less politicians and bureaucrats

Sunday, July 18, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100716/bs_yblog_upshot/did-a-mystery-plumber-design-the-new-bp-containment-cap

Fri Jul 16, 2:22 pm ET
Berkeley prof: ‘Mystery plumber’ may have designed the new BP containment cap
By Brett Michael Dykes

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When BP’s newest spill-containment strategy in the Gulf yielded such encouraging initial results, many asked why the oil giant didn’t hit on this solution earlier in the crisis. The short answer is that the model of the well cap now in place didn’t exist in the earlier stages of the spill saga. But what’s more noteworthy than the timing issue is the likelihood that the device owes its origin to the same authority that any homeowner turns to in order to get a leak plugged: a professional plumber.

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For some reason, this story resonated with me. In a free market economy, this disaster would never have happened. And, this plumber would have stopped the leak much sooner. I can just see all the panels of egg heads that prevented him from getting his idea heard.

Argh!

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I’m a fat old white guy injineer. So I spell “ingenuity”, like I spell “ingineer”! At least someone reads my blog.

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QUOTES: The cello can’t learn

Sunday, July 18, 2010

http://desertedcities.com/cello.html

Musical analogies as to what makes for better pictures stood out even more clearly in my mind as friends, relatives, and former students shared memories in the Berkeley Hills garden of the home where my mother had lived her last sixty years. One ex-student and renowned teacher related how my mother used to say, “I don’t teach the cello. The cello can’t learn. I teach the human being.” She described my mother’s interest as less in prize proteges than in the development of human potential through unconventional approaches that allow people, “whether they are aged seven or seventy, amateur or professional, farmer or nun, to cross personal hurdles toward satisfaction when practicing their chosen art.” I remember coming home from school to find her crawling on the floor with a middle-aged Nobel laureate to demonstrate how his hands could carry lots of weight while his fingers could still move freely. She never confused physical tightness, or mental tightness, with lack of innate ability.

– Excerpt from Galen Rowell’s Inner Game of Outdoor Photography, by Galen Rowell

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INITIALISMS: NUTS = non-negotiable, unalterable terms

Friday, July 9, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/8-tools-change-your-life.html

8 Tools That Will Change Your Life: The Hold On to Your N.U.T.s Book Giveaway
by Wayne M. Levine

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Tool #3: Cooperate Without Compromising Your N.U.T.s

Men get angry and resentful when they agree to something that compromises who they are, what they stand for. Men who have developed their N.U.T.s – non-negotiable, unalterable terms, have no problem cooperating as long as they’re not asked to compromise what’s important, their non-negotiable, unalterable terms. Men who have not developed their N.U.T.s are likely to not cooperate at all because they live in constant fear of being compromised – they feel they must defend themselves. But when a man use this Tool, he can show up as the man he wants to be in his relationships at home, at work and in his community.

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Great advice. Should have had it decades ago!

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MONEY: Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Bail Out, Too Big to Exist

Thursday, July 8, 2010

http://www.cnbc.com/id/38102194

Banks Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Bail Out: Roubini
Published: Tuesday, 6 Jul 2010 | 8:26 AM ET
By: CNBC.com

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“Banks at this point are too big to fail, but also too big to be bailed, especially in Europe where the sovereigns are in trouble and therefore the ability to backstop the financial system is not there,” Roubini said

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Too big too exist!

We need to update our thinking as evidenced by our “litanies”.

Repeat after me: “Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Bail Out, Too Big to Exist”!

Wonder what the fat cat executives will do when they lose their cushy jobs?

Bet it never comes to that.

That’s the flaw in “Too Big To Fail”. Let a few fail and those with vested interests will figure how how not to fail in the first place.

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: Just had a robocall from a car dealer

Thursday, July 1, 2010

… calling to wish a happy birthday.

Good thing it didn’t wake up the house lady.

Argh!

How stupid are people? Technologists?

And where were they last year?

Argh squared!

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SERVICE: 750WORDS RECOMMENDED

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

http://750words.com

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Hello, welcome to a little thing called 750 Words

I’ve long been inspired by an idea I first learned about in The Artist’s Way called morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of writing done every day, typically encouraged to be in “long hand”, typically done in the morning, that can be about anything and everything that comes into your head. It’s about getting it all out of your head, and is not supposed to be edited or censored in any way. The idea is that if you can get in the habit of writing three pages a day, that it will help clear your mind and get the ideas flowing for the rest of the day. Unlike many of the other exercises in that book, I found that this one actually worked and was really really useful.

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Amusing little site that has a way of getting under your skin.

I’m using it to write my course and my next book.

It sort of fits my early morning persona.

Maybe like Sudoku, it too will ward of the dreaded Alzheimer’s?

No one can see what you write but you can share the automated analysis of that writing.

See me at: http://750words.com/entries/share/174852

ROFL, yeah, I’m that nuts!

Now all I need is a tshirt declaring that I’m an ITSJ and a fat old white guy injineer. (But then I repeat myself.)

LOL!

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