The Wind Blowing 

April is almost over, and so is National Poetry Month. So to close out the month, I offer one more for your enjoyment:

The wind at your face
Pushing against you
Demanding of you
Challenging you

Blowing against your ear
It's all you can hear
Nothing to think about except the wind
Never letting you forget it's there

The wind at your back
Pushing against you
Rewarding you
Moving you forward

The beating of you foot on the ground
The beating of your heart in your chest
The stretch of your leg
Reaching for extra speed

And with that, I also offer a few hints for those of you who are training for something like me. Spring is the perfect time to go out an buy new running shoes. You'd be surprised what a new pair on your feet will do for you. I just bought a pair of Nike Air Max Motto III's to replace my Nike Pegasus'. The Pegasus' were nice, but I only bought them last year because everyone had discontinued speed laces on all their shoes, so I was starting fresh. Apparently enough people complained because speed laces are back on the Motto's (which I had the year before).

Training tip number two. When was the last time you checked the fit on your bike? Check your seat to make sure you have the right height. A 1/4 inch can get you a mile an hour.

Training tip number three. Stretch! Amazingly enough, stretching before exercising doesn't do much at all. Stretching after working out, when your muscles are warm and limber is well worth it, especially if you're biking. Having tight ham strings adds resistance on your down stroke which costs you speed.

Blog Rolling 

The Coding Monkey: Time to experiment again. You may notice my "Technology" list on the right side is gone. Those of you who have been reading my blog since the beginning (and I realize those people can probably be counted on one hand) know that I started out talking a lot of about software, and geeky stuff. Gradually it has morphed to talk mostly about current events and politics. As my audience has changed, I've been reluctant to post about software topics because most people's eyes would probably glaze over. So I've started a new blog, called The Coding Monkey. If software interests you, or you just want some insights into the work day of someone in the industry, stop on by.

The World According to Nome: Don't worry, you read that right... that's Nome, not Nick. She stumbled on my blog from somewhere and commented, and after reading hers for a little while, I have to say she's worth reading too. If you read nothing else of her blog, at least read this post and laugh your ass off.

Google's Solution 

When Google has a problem, their solution is to write software. As a Software Engineer, I can definitely appreciate that. Many people have been lambasting Google lately because their Google News service uses sources that some find objectionable. Many have in fact called for Google to remove those sites from its news aggregator service. I argued recently that they should in fact do no such thing. Not that Google took my advice, but they've decided against that approach, and instead are going to use Trust Rank (H/T Slashdot):

Now Google, whose name has become synonymous with internet searching, plans to build a database that will compare the track record and credibility of all news sources around the world, and adjust the ranking of any search results accordingly.

The database will be built by continually monitoring the number of stories from all news sources, along with average story length, number with bylines, and number of the bureaux cited, along with how long they have been in business. Google's database will also keep track of the number of staff a news source employs, the volume of internet traffic to its website and the number of countries accessing the site.

Google will take all these parameters, weight them according to formulae it is constructing, and distil them down to create a single value. This number will then be used to rank the results of any news search.

Personally I find this solution to be very satisfying... as it doesn't use some sort arbitrary (and opinion driven) means to determine what is a valid news source and what is not. It uses practical, measurable criteria to determine a trustworthy news source. Frankly I'm not surprised that they would come up with something like this at all... I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

Can You See My Nipples Through This Shirt? 

When I got home from work, it was absolutely gorgeous looking outside. The sun was shining, the sky was perfectly blue with just a few clouds here and there. Unfortunately it was also damn cold... 46 degrees according to the thermometer in my car dashboard. But I just couldn't justify not doing something with it looking so nice even if it was cold... after all... I'm just over a month away from my first triathlon of the year at Lake Mills.

So I put on a tshirt, pulled my long sleeve jersey over that, wore my full fingered gloves (that's bundling up for me), and did a training ride on my bike. OH MY GOD. There was a cold wind blowing which I didn't realize until I was riding into it on the back half of the ride that felt like it was burning right through me. When I was done, my nipples could cut glass, my toes were frozen, and my legs were red from wind burn. I think I need to get some body armor for under my jerseys for days like this, and probably long biking pants.

When is spring going to get here?

Are They Biodegradable? 

An Australian cemetery is going to bury people vertically:

An Australian company has been given approval to begin work on a cemetery where bodies will be buried vertically to save space and minimize impact on the environment, a spokesman said Thursday.

Tony Dupleix, director of Palacom, the company given permission for the cemetery, said the plan would involve no-frills burials, using a simple body bag rather than a casket.

"When you die, you are returned to the earth with a minimum of fuss and with no paraphernalia that would affect the environment," he said.
...
Anna Jamieson, of the Darlington Cemetery Trust which will manage the cemetery, said the plots would be ideal for environmentally minded people, but conceded it was unlikely to replace the time-honored horizontal interments.

I have a feeling not too many environmentalists would be happy to be buried in a plastic bag that was made from petroleum products and won't decompose for a few thousand years... call me crazy. Maybe it's time to rethink your plan.

As for me, I want to be buried face down... so the world can kiss my ass when I'm dead. Or if you prefer, so my ass could be grass. There are just too many puns there.

Put the Blame Where it Belongs 

The Associated Press has a story about an increase in thefts on New York subways (H/T to Gideon's Bible):

NEW YORK (AP) - The iPod craze has spawned a crime wave in city subways.

Police told the city transportation board on Wednesday that 50 iPods have been reported stolen on the subways so far this year, compared to none during the same period last year.

Cell phone thefts have more than doubled to 165 from 82 last year.

The thefts fueled a 20 percent spike in robberies last month on the subway, officials said. Most thieves are believed to keep the devices, which can retail for $100 to $500.

"It usually has to do with young people taking them from young people," said police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Now then, an increase in crime of course bothers me... but that's not what I want to point out. The headline of the article is "iPod blamed for spike in subway crime". An iPod is an electronic device. It has no hands, and no feet. It can only think about playing music for it's owner. It doesn't know how to steal. It's physically incapable of crime. So how can it be to blame? The criminals who are stealing these devices from their rightful owners are to blame here, and the headline should reflect that. How about something like "iPod thefts increasing on subways" or "Criminals targeting iPod owners". Don't try to focus blame where it doesn't belong.

Child! 

Today is "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day"... otherwise known as "Don't Let Your Coworkers Concentrate Day". I feared this day when I heard about it, and to be honest, it's not turning out as bad as I feared. However, a few things I've learned so far (and I'm only 2 hours into the day):

• Loud parents raise loud children.
  
• A parent saying over and over "So and so, please be quiet, remember what we talked about" is actually more annoying than whatever their child was doing in the first place.
  
• Exposing a child to the absolute boredom of a typical work day is just cruel... they'll have plenty of time to find out later in life.

In related news, boys at UC San Francisco get to go to gender indoctrination today while their sisters get to do cool stuff (H/T to Tongue Tied):

UCSF's Center for Gender Equity hosts its annual "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day" on Thursday -- but judging from the list of activities being offered, the gender equity program is anything but equal.

For example, the 9- and 10-year-old daughters are being invited to participate in 17 hands-on activities such as working with microscopes, slicing brains, doing skull comparisons, seeing what goes on in the operating room, playing surgeon, dentist or nurse for a day, and visiting the intensive care unit nursery, where they can set up blood pressure cuffs and operate the monitors.
...
And what do the boys get to do?

Learn about "gender equity in fun, creative ways using media, role playing and group games" -- after which, the boys can get a bit of time in with a microscope or learn how the heart works.

Apparently the folks in the Gender Equity department have never heard of something called teaching by example. Maybe if you exposed boys and girls to the same activities, doing them together and having fun together, boys would see girls as equals. Nah... can't be that simple can it?

Update: Oh it just keeps getting better. My coworker over the wall who loves to get in conference calls in his cube (hello... you have neighbors) has his daughter at work today. He's now in a conference call with someone who also has his daughter with him. Guess what... they have the two kids talking on the conference call! Nothing like passing your annoying habits on to your offspring. What's worse is that they have about 12 people in on the call. Are you kidding me?! Get a conference room!

Bear! 

Wauwatosa is being inundated with wildlife lately:

A male black bear was captured this morning after it was discovered prowling around a business at 114th St. and W. Burleigh in Wauwatosa.

Authorities were trying to determine how the 154-pound bear made its way to the commercial area near Highway 45 - it had not come from the Milwaukee County Zoo a few miles away - and whether it is the same bear sighted in Cedarburg earlier this week. There also have been sightings of a black bear recently near the Manitowoc-Sheboygan county line and in Calument County.
...
Wauwatosa police were called to the scene around 6:20 a.m. and found the bear meandering across the grass between Schwaab and another business, where it took refuge under a parked semi trailer, said Capt. Jeff Sutter.

They ended up closing the freeway ramps at Burleigh because of it, which caused all sorts of backups this morning. The JSOnline article also includes some pictures. I wonder what animals we'll have tomorrow.

Carnival of the Vanities 

This weeks Carnival of the Vanities is being hosted by Ravings of John C. A. Bambenek. The carnival features my post complaining about the media reprinting press release studies without bothering to look at the data, or even caring. Don't forget to head on over for other bloggy goodness.

WTF?! 

This just pisses me off to no end (H/T to DailyPundit):

The Open Society Institute, a private foundation controlled by liberal billionaire and political activist George Soros, received more than $30 million from U.S. government agencies between 1998 and 2003. Last year, Soros donated at least $20 million of his own money to such liberal groups as Moveon.org, in a failed attempt to block the re-election of President George W. Bush.

Let me be clear on this. The fact that the Open Society Institute exists is not what pisses me off (even if I don't agree with their agenda). The fact that Soros dumped tons of money into MoveOn and other liberal groups to try to elect John Kerry is not my issue either. He has every right to do those things.

What pisses me off is that a millionaire was able to get millions of dollars of government money funneled into his group, so he could then give it to other partisan groups that have no public function whatsoever pisses me off. That's not what my tax dollars are for! If he wants to spend his own money on those things, and get donations from other people for those purposes, that's fine. But don't you dare take my money without my say so! I don't agree with your causes, and I'm furious that my money would be used for those purposes. Those are dollars that could have been spent on fighting terrorism, paying Social Security benefits, or other real world things that everyone keeps complaining the government doesn't have enough money to do right now. This is why taxes are so high... and should never ever be raised. If this is the kind of shit you spend money on... you don't get a penny more than you get already.

Blog Rolling 

Out with the old and in with the new I say...

I'm knocking a few people off my blog roll. The Wayward Weblog hasn't been updated in a long time, and neither has Ohio Voter. Laughing in Pink completely disappeared not to long after she moved to San Francisco... she may have been shanghaied. Finally, I'm knocking Red State off my list. They're still being updated, but I frankly don't read it. That's way too much Republican enthusiasm for my taste. Now for the new...

Michelle Malkin: You may be asking yourselves. He knocks off Red State but he's adding Michelle Malkin? Well yeah.. I enjoy her writing style more... and she's hot. That and she pisses people off... which you have to respect.

Asymmetrical Information: Another excellent female blogger... and some people actually make the claim that women are underrepresented in the blogosphere. I actually think that they outnumber men on my blog roll, and they certainly do in this edition. There are a lot of great ones out there, and Jane is one of them.

Wonkette: OK... she really does piss me off a lot, but I've decided I need to have a few more "blue blogs" here. So I'm experimenting with Wonkette. If you know of some other quality liberal blogs (and I don't mean Daily Kos), then drop me a line and I'll take a look.

Stacy Roller: She's one of the featured bloggers on MKE Online, and rounds out my new estrogen infused blog roll. Think of her as a Carrie Bradshaw for the Brew City (though just a little bit cleaner).

Duck! 

As I was finishing up my run tonight, I happened to see a beautiful female mallard on the grass nearby. I grabbed my camera and came back to get a picture.



Then I looked up on a nearby roof to see her hubby looking on... apparently not too happy that I had taken an interest in his woman.



He flew down and joined her... and stayed pretty close by until they both left. It definitely is spring. 

Los Angeles, Mexico 

We knew this would happen some day... does this mean their government will start picking up the tab for the hospital bills, the education bills, and the welfare bills piling up because of all those "migrant workers" too? Like Darleen, I'm almost speechless myself.

Are People Basically Good or Bad? 

Every so often I'm reminded of things my very liberal government teacher used to talk about in high school. One of Mr. Helmenstein's musings... we all called him Helmy by the way... was to mention the various differences between liberals and conservatives. One of those differences was that "Liberals think people at their core are basically good, while conservatives think people are basically bad." His contention was that this explains why conservatives think that throwing people in jail is good, while liberals talk about rehabilitating these people and letting them back into society.

If that's true... then how do you explain these sorts of concerns over this new law in Florida? (H/T to Instapundit):

Such dueling rhetoric marked the debate over a measure that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) could sign as early as Tuesday. The legislation passed so emphatically that National Rifle Association backers plan to take it to statehouses across the nation, including Virginia's, over the next year. The law will let Floridians "meet force with force," erasing the "duty to retreat" when they fear for their lives outside of their homes, in their cars or businesses, or on the street.
...
The Florida measure says any person "has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm."
...
Critics argue that the measure is so broad it will encourage fights between neighbors, parents at soccer games or drinking buddies to escalate into gunfights.

"It's almost like a duel clause," said state Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat and former federal prosecutor whose wife is a state prosecutor. "People ought to have to walk away if they can."
...
"Disorder and chaos are always held in check by the law-abiding citizen," Baxley said.

Two completely different points of view. Critics are worried that people, not restrained by some law will go out picking fights, causing brawls, and shooting up quiet neighborhoods. While proponents are suggesting that people have the right to defend themselves, and are allowed to take an active role in discouraging crime against themselves. What a concept. Police can't be everywhere at once you know.

I find the whole thing as a reversal of that classic viewpoint. Liberals are now arguing that people are basically bad, and must be restrained, while conservatives are arguing that people are basically good, and can restrain themselves where appropriate.

Where are your labels now Helmy?

There Oughta Be a Law... 

Dogs are gonna have it really sweet in Turin Italy:

Dog owners in Turin will be fined up to $650 if they don't walk their pets at least three times a day, under a new law from the city's council.

People will also be banned from dyeing their pets' fur or "any form of animal mutilation" for merely aesthetic motives such as docking dogs' tails, under the law about to be passed in the northern Italian city.

"In Turin it will be illegal to turn one's dog into a ridiculous fluffy toy," the city's La Stampa daily reported.

Italians can already be fined up to 10,000 euros and spend a year in prison if found guilty of torturing or abandoning their pets, but Turin's new rules go into much greater detail.

Dogs may be led for walks by people on bicycles, the rules say, "but not in a way that would tire the animal too much."
...
It said the 20-page rulebook gives Turin the most stringent animal protection rules in the country. It even bans fairgrounds from giving away goldfish in plastic bags.

Three times a day? Do people in Turin not have jobs... or do the new rules stipulate that they can just leave in the middle of the day to walk their dog? Don't think that this can't happen in the U.S. either... I'm sure there is a political action group funded by the National Dog Walkers Association just drooling over this.

Bridge For Sale 

A man trying to buy a house in India was fooled into buying the Prime Minister's residence:

India's intelligence department is investigating reports that a fraudster sold an American businessman the prime minister's residence in the heart of New Delhi recently, a leading daily reported on Sunday.

The businessman forked out 35 million rupees ($802,600) for the house that was up for sale on a Web site as a "huge sprawling mansion in the heart of Lutyen's Delhi with 24x7 running water and electricity," the Hindustan Times said.

He soon received the title deed for the house and arrived in the Indian capital late in March to take possession of the house for an office he planned to set up only to discover he had been cheated.

In related news, I'm selling this bridge. It has lots of old world style, but is kind of a fixer upper. $1 Million, or your best offer. Email me if you're interested.

Chocolate Cake Will Kill You 

This "Public Service Announcement" from EveryDayChoices.org pisses me off every time I see it (click the link to watch it). It's a cooperative work from the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Heart Association. It shows a woman walking alone in a parking lot, with her keys gripped in her hand to defend herself if attacked. She's drives in her car, locking the door when an ominous looking man pulls up next to her. Then she gets home and triple locks her door. Isn't she careful?

But then comes the awfulness. She goes to the refrigerator for a piece of chocolate cake and... get this... she eats it! Then she lights a cigarette while watching TV. The tag line says Eat Right, Get Fit, Don't Smoke. Now... we all know the dangers of smoking. But to attempt to draw a comparison between smoking and chocolate cake is frankly insulting to people's intelligence. What bothers me the most is that they show an attractive, healthy woman... not some overweight woman pigging out. She obviously uses moderation in her eating... so what's so awful about a piece of cake? Do we have to demonize everything? Or shall we just take all the enjoyment from living right now?

Did You Know... 

The marathon is meant to commemorate Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, who ran from Marathon to Athens when the Persians had been defeated at Marathon. It is said that after running the distance and announcing the victory, he collapsed and died. Today the marathon is 26.2 miles. However, the actual distance from Marathon to Athens is only 21.4 miles. The first modern Olympic marathon was 24.9 miles. During the London games of 1908, the original course was set from Windsor Castle to the Olympic Stadium... but the distance was increased to 26.2 miles so it could end at the royal viewing stand for Edward VII. This is now considered to be the official distance to this day. Damn British.

Who is the Final Authority? 

You took government in high school right? Our government consists of 3 branches... the executive, the judicial, and the legislative. And of course you're all familiar with the system of checks and balances that we have. But as our political system seems to become more and more polarized... our branches seem to be checking and balancing each other more and more often. When that happens... who has the final say in what you and I have to abide by?

Harry Truman had a sign on his desk... "The buck stops here". Interestingly enough this didn't refer to the budget, or money at all. It's actually a poker term... Harry Truman was a pretty serious poker player. In poker, the buck represents the dealer... who in poker is the last to bet... and therefore is the last to act. Passing the buck meant to pass that responsibility to the next player at the table. Andrew Jackson, after the Supreme Court decided Worcester v. Georgia, said "John Marshall has made his decision, not let him enforce it."

Lately it seems that the Supreme Court would seem to be in control. Some have argued (rather convincingly in my mind) that the reason that court nominations have been so contentious in the last 30 years is because people have stopped trying to decide issues through democratic processes, and are going through the court instead. Special interest groups, recognizing this, are digging up dirt on anyone they don't like, and trying as hard as possible to get their guys in, knowing that this is where the real power lies. But the Supreme Court is supposed to just interpret law right... not make it right?

Yet we live in a democracy.... a government for the people and by the people. Of the three branches, there is only one that truly represents the people... the legislative branch. One could argue convincingly that this is where the buck really ought to stop... with the will of the people. They deal the cards... and pass the laws. And when it comes to the final judgement on those laws... isn't Congress also where it belongs?

Now then... I'm not suggesting the removal of the judiciary. But when there is conflict between the three, when there has to be a final decision as to how something is done, or even whether something is done at all... who gets the final say? The question seems foolish, even as I write this. It seems to be that the courts have that say. They are the last protection against the tyranny of the majority after all. This would seem to be a good thing. So why do I feel the need to ask the question at all? Maybe because the courts no longer simply pass judgement on law... they're writing it. When that happens... who is the check on them? Sorry folks... I only offer questions today. No answers.

Do They Turn to Pumpkins? 

I saw this sign last night at the movies... and had to laugh. So I went back this morning to get a picture of it. I guess old people don't go out after 6 PM. 

Scrub My Floors - Bitch 

A new study out of Britain suggests that girls who are read fairy tales are more likely to be in violent relationships:

Young girls who enjoy classic romantic fairy tales like "Cinderella" and "Beauty and the Beast" are at greater risk of becoming victims of violent relationships in later life, a British researcher says.

A study of both parents of primary school children and women who have been involved in domestic abuse claims than those who grew up reading fairy tales are likely to be more submissive as adults.

Susan Darker-Smith, a graduate student who wrote the academic paper, said she found many abuse victims identified with characters in famous children's literature and claimed the stories provide "templates" of dominated women.

And kids who played with G.I. Joe action figures will grow up to be in the Army right? Go Joe! Just because someone who identifies with the characters in the stories, it doesn't mean that the stories caused them to be in abusive relationships. I'm sure there are millions of kids who did read those stories who aren't abused. Just because they identify with it... doesn't mean it is the cause. These sorts of studies drive me nuts.

Another Carnival of the Vanities 

This week's COTV is being hosted by Conservative Dialysis and was handled much better than last weeks. I submitted this post from about a month ago... my take on the Dan Rather scandal from the viewpoint of A Few Good Men. A number of people are linking to it... thanks all.

I'm actually trying to submit something once a week as a cheap advertising ploy. It seems to be working. If you've never submitted to a Carnival before... its a great idea. There are a ton out there.

She Must Really Love Cats 

A mother in Myanmar is breastfeeding tiger cubs:

Hla Htay has three hungry infants to feed these days -- a seven-month old baby boy and two Bengal tiger cubs.

Three times a day, the Myanmar housewife goes to the Yangon Zoo where she breastfeeds the hungry black-striped, orange-brown cubs rejected by their natural mother.

"The cubs are just like my babies," Hla Htay told Fuji TV as as one of the baby big cats suckled her breast.
...
The zoo says the breastfeeding will stop by the end of April or when the cubs start teething -- whichever comes first.

Hopefully she won't find out that the cats have started teething by biting her nipple off.

We All Have to Follow the Law 

This post by Ann Althouse got me commenting on her blog... and then got me thinking. Justice O'Connor thinks that the controversy over citing foreign law in Supreme Court decisions is much ado about nothing:

"This is much ado about nothing," she said in response to a question by moderator Tim Russert of NBC. "Our Constitution is one that evolves. What's the best way to know? State legislatures -- but it doesn't hurt to know what other countries are doing."

In my normally sarcastic way... I had to respond:

Thats interesting... and here I thought our Constitution evolved by beign amended through the democratic process. Silly me.

To which Ann responded:

The interesting thing to me about that quote is that she removes her own agency. She doesn't say "I have decided to interpret the Constitution so that it can evolve." It's just out there, evolving, and she observes that it has evolved. Oh, look at that. It's become something different. She ought to defend the notion of a living Constitution, so that people like Nick who haven't studied law will be able to understand how it is justified.

It went on... but you get the point. I'm going to assume that Ann's comment about my not having studied law is not meant to say that I have no right to comment... because that would just be asinine. I'm going to take it to mean that people who talk about these issues need to use non-lawyer speak, and making fewer assumptions about prior knowledge so that people like me can understand. If that's her meaning... than I completely agree.

If Supreme Court decisions were simply things that came down that only affected a few people, and were only like trivia for these strange people called "lawyers", than you could be as obtuse as you want, and obfuscate the meaning of things as much as you wanted. But the fact is that they don't just affect a select few people. They become law that everyone must follow... not just lawyers. I'm expected to follow that law... so I damn well had better be able understand it. After all, I can't afford to consult a lawyer every time I want do something... though it seems like it's getting to that point.

And when there is a law that I'm expected to follow... I damn well think that I ought to have say in how it is crafted. That is why I vote. That is why I keep track of the news, and write my legislators. That is the democratic process. But when I see judges using international law in their decisions, I see them short circuiting that process. They bypass the person I voted for... the person who is supposed to safe guard my interests in favor of the opinions of a legislature that I had no say in electing.

So when Justice Scalia simply says... the Constitution evolves... and I'm going to see what other countries are doing instead of looking to our states to do it... I damn well want an explanation. State legislatures aren't just a way to do it. They are the way to do it. Read Article 5... I don't see citations to international law anywhere in there.

English is Spoken Here 

Ahhh... but what kind of English? (H/T to DailyPundit)

Your Linguistic Profile:

65% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Upper Midwestern

0% Dixie

0% Midwestern

As Long as the Conclusion is Good 

Journalists today remind me of people who read the ending of a book first... except then they don't even bother to start the book from the beginning. What are you talking about Nick? I'm talking about studies, surveys... anything that some "organization" (or even a government agency) talks about using a press release. All the media does these days is take the press release and pretty much run it verbatim. No questions... no skepticism... just crank it out door lest we be the only ones not to report it.

Let's look at some recent studies. But first a small disclaimer. I'm not saying that any of these are actually flawed. What I'm going to say is that not nearly enough information is provided to determine if they are or not. And certainly some of the group's motives leave me wondering.

Today their is a story on MSNBC about Generation Rx. If you read the story there, you will see that the study was done by the Partnership for a Drug Free America... but you will see no link to the study. You will also see no link to their press release. It's an online story... so how hard would a hyperlink be to create? Obviously it's not that hard... a quick Google search netted the original press release I linked to above. But here's the kicker. The Partnership for a yada yada yada don't include the original study anywhere on their website. At the bottom of their press release is a footnote with a link to a 3rd party group survey done by a public relations company. The link however goes to a 404 (page not found)!

What questions were asked of the teens? Was it an anonymous survey? I'm not asking a lot of difficult questions here... but I'm still not seeing any answers. Their press release certainly calls out a lot of conclusions, but they give no raw data. Too many times you see the conclusions from surveys, and then if you see the actual questions asked... you can see that either the questions led people to a specific answer... or the conclusions drawn have no real basis from the questions asked. Remember all the morality talk after the presidential elections?

This isn't the first time I've called this sort of thing into question either. A couple months ago I questioned a survey on binge drinking. They had the same problem. They were willing to share lots of conclusions, but provide no raw data. Maybe they're right. Maybe the problem is as big as they say it is. But frankly I've seen so many contradictory reports, and so many studies that blow problems out of proportion, that I frankly don't believe any of them any more.

Take for example the CDC. They've recently back peddled and said that obesity isn't the 2nd largest killer of people like they originally thought... instead it's number 7! Radley Balko has a good article on Tech Central Station about it. And of course that hasn't stopped the government from still pushing obesity as a major health threat.

If organizations really stand behind their conclusions... then why don't they provide their data? After all... if their conclusions are solid, we ought to come to the same conclusion right? So where's the data?

We're Sorry - You're Dead 

This doesn't surprise me at all:

Manke was 92 when she died Nov. 5 of congestive heart failure. But 3 1/2 months later, the state Department of Health and Family Services sent her a letter informing her that her eligibility for prescription drug coverage would end on March 31.

"Dear Edith A. Manke," the letter starts, before explaining that she would no longer receive SeniorCare. "Your eligibility is ending because: This individual has died," the letter continues, stating the obvious.

Such letters were mistakenly sent to about 1,500 other recently departed Medicaid recipients, according to the state Department of Health and Family Services.

I remember our family received several letters from various places after my grandmother died a few years ago. We had a pretty good laugh over it... followed by awe that any organization could be so incredibly stupid. We actually figured there was probably a law that required the letter to be sent... who knew that it could just be plain stupidity.

Put the Poor Girl Down 

As soon as I saw this story, I was immediately reminded of this cartoon from WWII by Bill Mauldin:

Fed up with his troublesome car, a Florida man fired five rounds from a semi-automatic pistol into the hood of the 1994 Chrysler LeBaron.

"I'm putting my car out of its misery," 64-year-old John McGivney said after the incident outside an apartment building in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, according to a police report that listed the car as "deceased."

McGivney surrendered to police, was jailed on a firearms charge on Friday and released on bond a day later. He told them the car had been giving him trouble for years.

Who hasn't wanted to do that to their car? 

Holy Smoke 

Well it certainly didn't take long for the Cardinals to pick one, and it certainly hasn't taken long for people to start bashing him. Not being a Catholic, I've really only watched all the media attention with simple fascination. I'm mostly fascinated about the media's reactions to it. Part of me wonders why... most of the main stream media hates religion in general... so why are they concentrating so much on this? Here are some general thoughts running through my brain:

It is a Story: Well this is the obvious point to make. There are a lot of Catholics in this country, even if I'm not one of them... and this is important to them. The media is doing their job. Not only that, but electing a new Pope doesn't happen very often... and we all know how the media loves their rare events.

They're Fascinated: They don't get it. Prior to the conclave, every story you read talked about the secrecy... how the Vatican was installing electronic jamming equipment to prevent listening in... how they took oaths of secrecy. It's very un-American... which caused the media to want to talk about it more. Even funnier was because of all the secrecy, that's all they could talk about. They couldn't interview a Cardinal after a failed vote to see what happened. There were no polls of Catholics to see who was winning. They went into the extreme details... going so far as to diagram their seating arrangements during the voting. It must have been incredibly hard for those reporters to sit through.

They Get to Bash The New Guy: Right away we're hearing stuff about how Benedict is "ultra conservative". I've heard how he was the Rottweiler of the Vatican... keeping people in line with "hard line doctrine". How there is probably no chance he'll change policies on women in the clergy, contraception... yada yada yada. I'm also already seeing crap on left blogs about how he was a Nazi. Of course that's bullshit. He was a child in Germany during WWII... he had to join the Hitler Youth. There was no choice there. In fact... he eventually deserted.

Overall, I think they're glad he became Pope. They're hoping he'll drive more people out of the Catholic church. Maybe he will. What will surprise the media though, is that all those ex-Catholics won't become atheists... they'll probably become Lutherans. Personally I don't get the Lutheran church either. That church seems just as rigid as the Catholic church. But hey... whatever boils your kettle I guess. That's the nice thing about religion, especially if you live in the U.S. You can choose your church. I honestly don't understand all the pro-choice Catholics out here. I usually say something like... If you're pro-choice, then you're not Catholic. They really don't give you a choice... yet people still go. Maybe I'm just as fascinated as the media.

Spring Has Sprung 

For me this is the sign of spring... when my Mom's magnolia tree is blooming. It's been through a lot. There was some rot on the right side several years ago and we had to take down one large branch so it's a bit lopsided. But somehow it always manages to put out gorgeous blossoms every spring.



Here are some of the blossoms... which if you've never smelled magnolia, are intoxicating.



And one more close up for good measure. Happy Spring Everyone! 

Try Treating Fluffy Like a Pet 

These articles are really starting to piss me off. For those of you who don't know... Wisconsin is considering a rule change that would take feral cats off the protected list, allowing any hunter with a small game license to shoot them. What's a feral cat you ask? Well... the answer depends on who you talk to. Most of the opinion pieces from people try to pretend feral cats are your neigbhbors pet named fluffy. These types of editorials have been filling the pages of the Journal lately:

No one would be proposing a state policy to hunt and kill feral cats if they were, say, dogs.

Blame it on the cat's rep. Even cat owners, who wait shamelessly for a moment of purring from their independent pet, admit their felines can be standoffish and arrogant. They're the Simon Cowell of the animal kingdom. If they don't like the food they're served, they sniff at it and walk away. If they don't like the décor - the look of a drape or the feel of a sofa - they'll tear it to shreds.

Cowell is adored even though he snipes at songbirds. Cats are caught in the cross hairs of a proposal that would allow feral felines - the ones without a collar or an owner nearby - to be killed in an effort to save songbirds.

Nobody is suggesting changing the policy against dogs because dogs aren't a problem. People treat dogs like pets. They are kept in kennels, or in people's homes. When people take them outside, they're trained to walk with their owner, and/or kept on a leash. When was the last time you saw your neighbor walking their cat on a leash?

Noooo... people let their cats roam. People who might choose to put out bird feeders to attract birds then have to deal with cats hunting in their back yard. If your neighbors dog was in your backyard digging around... you'd probably yell at your neighbor, and then remind them of a the appropriate city ordinance (as most cities have one). Cities generally will enforce these ordinances against dogs, but rarely do against cats. Why is that?

Feral dogs can be an issue, but dogs are generally easier to catch than cats. Stray dogs get picked up and taken to the local humane society for adoption. What happens to stray cats? They go wild... breed... and then you have a problem.

Cat's don't have a PR problem as this editorial claims. They have a problem with loving owners. If you don't want your cat to get shot (which according to the proposed rule change wouldn't happen if your cat is wearing a collar), then don't let your cat run wild. There's nothing wrong with treating a wild animal like any other wild animal. We're not talking about killing Fluffy after all. We're talking about killing wild cats. What makes a wild cat better than a wild raccoon?

The Unsubscribe Virus 

As my home inbox gets a few more spam emails every day... I'm reminded of a hilarious incident that occurred at a previous employer of mine a few years ago. My first full time job after college was with Rockwell Automation. They have offices literally around the world, and have several internal mailing lists that they used to send useless corporate crap to. At the time, they had one huge umbrella email list that went to every employee at every office. It never got used... until one day they sent out an email on it.

I don't remember the subject of the email any more... it hardly matters. All I remember is the reply back from some brilliant guy in a European office. You see, he had replied to the email not realizing that doing so actually sent his reply to the entire mailing list. It said simply "Please unsubscribe me". And then it began. It didn't take long at all for others to see his reply and think that they too could get off this list. And so they replied in the same way, not knowing that this was not a list you could unsubscribe from. After all... who wouldn't want to get corporate communications?

Within minutes everyone's mailbox was filled with hundreds of mails from people trying to unsubscribe. Then came the emails from people trying to tell them that they couldn't, and that they were only filling everyone's inbox... as if that could stop them. For an entire day it was as if we had been hit with an Outlook virus... which was ironic since we didn't even use Outlook (we used Lotus Notes).

Finally the brilliant people in the IT department closed down the list so that nobody could send to it. I swear it took them at least a full day to do this. Then they sent out another email to everyone explaining how the list worked, and that they would only send out "really important information very sparingly" on it. But then they made the mistake of opening the list back up.

You see... during this whole fiasco, someone else in one of the European offices was on vacation. A few days later when he got back, he saw all these unsubscribe emails, and thought he could too. And then it started all over again.

IT was much quicker on the ball that time around. Finally they locked down the list so only a few select people could send to it, and it didn't happen again. But to this day I remember the "Unsubscribe Virus" that was caused by stupid people, not stupid computers.

One More and Out 

This is kinda sad actually... Lance Armstrong announced he'll retire after this year's Tour de France. He's been an inspiration to many... and he's been absolutely amazing during his entire career. I hope he can pull off one more win and end at the top. He's the only man to have won six in a row... and I have a feeling he might just be able to pull off seven. Although cycling in Europe will hardly miss him... cycling in America will not be the same for some time without him. For a lot of people here, he is the reason they followed cycling.

Unfortunately I Have to Work 

But Todd Zywicki from the The Volokh Conspiracy is speaking at Marquette University today on whether The 17th Amendment should be repealed. For those not familiar, the 17th Amendment changed the way in which Senators are elected. Prior the 17th, they were elected by state legislatures. Now of course they are popularly elected by the people. Todd points to two interesting articles here and here on the topic.

The general thought behind repealing it is to hopefully bring back the notion of federalism. Before the 17th Amendment was passed, it can be strongly argued that the Senate fought for state's rights because they were really acting on behalf of state legislatures... as the state's representative to the government. Since then of course the Federal government's power has increased dramatically. It's an interesting argument, and I hope that there is some sort of transcript from Todd's presentation at Marquette.

The European Economy 

Hat tip to VodkaPundit for this interesting article in the NY Times which compares the various economies of the European Union with our 50 states. More importantly it talks about the buying power of people in those states. I was quite shocked by the numbers:

After I moved here six years ago, I quickly noticed that Norwegians live more frugally than Americans do. They hang on to old appliances and furniture that we would throw out. And they drive around in wrecks. In 2003, when my partner and I took his teenage brother to New York - his first trip outside of Europe - he stared boggle-eyed at the cars in the Newark Airport parking lot, as mesmerized as Robin Williams in a New York grocery store in "Moscow on the Hudson."
...
It is not simply a matter of tradition, or a preference for a basic, nonmaterialistic life. Dining out is just too pricey in a country where teachers, for example, make about $50,000 a year before taxes. Even the humblest of meals - a large pizza delivered from Oslo's most popular pizza joint - will run from $34 to $48, including delivery fee and a 25 percent value added tax.

Not that groceries are cheap, either. Every weekend, armies of Norwegians drive to Sweden to stock up at supermarkets that are a bargain only by Norwegian standards. And this isn't a great solution, either, since gasoline (in this oil-exporting nation) costs more than $6 a gallon.
...
After adjusting the figures for the different purchasing powers of the dollar and euro, the only European country whose economic output per person was greater than the United States average was the tiny tax haven of Luxembourg, which ranked third, just behind Delaware and slightly ahead of Connecticut.

I found this article to be especially good since I've recently finished The United States Of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy which paints a much rosier picture of the European economy. I blogged about the book after I finished it here and here.

Couple this with the news coming out of France that the "No vote" on the European constitution is picking up a lot of steam... and things are likely to turn very interesting in our neighbor across the Atlantic. Of course one can't help but be reminded of the old Chinese curse... "May you live in interesting times."

Some have speculated that if France votes No... which would kill the Constitution (as would any other single No vote), that the Euro could very likely collapse. While this would surely be a huge blow to the European economy (and quite unfortunate)... what would the effects be here? Granted it would likely bolster the dollar again... but since many European companies have a large stake, and control in the U.S. companies... don't think that Europe's problems would be isolated there.

I Should Have Taken My Camera 

I went down to the lakefront today to go running. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. I wish I had taken my camera to share it with you... but then again... it's a pain to go running with a camera. The sky was perfectly blue, as was the lake. There was a slight breeze blowing, and many people out flying kites. Of course there were lots of bikers, and runners, and walkers, and roller bladers, and others enjoying the day.

As I was circling around the war memorial (the halfway point of my run)... I spotted a guy sitting on the grass on a blanket. His hair was totally wigged out, wearing a denim jacket. Suddenly he got off the blanket and pulled it over his head. As I was running past him... I heard the distinctive clicking noise of a lighter. Did he honestly think that being covered by a blanket on a warm sunny day was less conspicuous than smoking a joint... which most people would probably mistake for a cigarette? I realize that pot smokers aren't exactly the smartest folks around, but still. Not only that... but the lakefront was covered with cops. There were several county sheriffs patrols around, and a couple of city cops on bikes.

All in all... it was a good run... and funny to boot. Well... that an I got cat called by some chicks in a car driving by. I still have a hard time thinking that hot chicks might want to whistle at me now.

Blog Rolling 

I haven't done this in a while and should really try to keep this up.

Decision '08: Because it's never too early... to talk about the next election. In reality Mark talks about a lot more than just the 2008 election, and is worth a stop. His blog has been around for around 6 months and probably gets 10 or 20 times the traffic that I do... but I won't hold it against him.

Ann Althouse was recently talking about the TTLB Ecosystem... and I've recently evolved from a Crawly Amphibian to a Slithering Reptile. Of course, if more of the people who linked to my blog would join the ecosystem... I would evolve even higher! Yes... I like the ego stroke... and I'm a link whore. Satisfied?

Update: Alright... I've enabled Trackback... we'll see how this works. I'm not using the Haloscan comments though cause I actually like how Blogger comments work.

  Posted at 1:31 PM by Nick |   |   |

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Welcome to Ontario 

Welcome to Ontario... please wait in line for your nanny. Hat tip to The Agitator.

  Posted at 1:02 PM by Nick |   |   |

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Random Laughs 

Just a few funny things I've seen recently which had to share with all of you. When I was leaving the office yesterday... it was extremely windy. I work in downtown Milwaukee, so there is often a lake breeze. More than that, because of all the buildings, and the straight avenues, it tends to funnel the wind and makes it stronger. As I was crossing the street, walking in the opposite direction was a man walking towards me with his hand on his head. That's when I realized that he wasn't wearing a hat. I'm guessing he didn't want to lose his toupee. Poor guy... how embarrassing is it to have to do that? Gauging by the apparent quality of his piece... he probably would have been better off letting it blow to the four winds.

On a completely different note, this morning as I was grabbing a soda from the vending machines I saw a woman running (and running hard) to catch an elevator. She had passed a stairwell and was racing to get there before the doors closed. She missed it... and then hit the down button. A second later one of the other cars arrived to take her down. This was on the second floor of the building. Why would you run past a flight of stairs to go down one or two floors? You're telling me that walking down stairs would have been harder than running to catch an elevator? I honestly don't get some people's obsessive need to take an elevator for such short distances. People do it in this office all the time... just to go up or down a single floor. I never take the elevator, and I work on the 4th floor. I exclusively take the stairs. It's good exercise, and actually is just as fast. Hell... sometimes I actually beat people who take the elevator.

  Posted at 9:36 AM by Nick |   |   |

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Thursday, April 14, 2005

Is This About Safety or Smoking? 

Starting today, lighters are banned on airplanes... not just on your person, or in carry-on baggage... you can't even have them in checked baggage:

TSA has added all lighters to its Prohibited Items List which means they will be prohibited past the security checkpoints at the nation’s airports. Lighters will be treated as any other prohibited item and passengers will be asked to surrender them to the TSA, return them to their vehicle or leave them with someone who is not traveling.

As in the past, lighters are still considered hazardous materials and thus are not allowed in checked baggage.

You can't even have them checked in your bag? I know... they're probably bringing lighters in line with the other hazardous materials you can't even have checked... right? Wrong. Here is a short list of things that you are allowed to put in checked baggage... because they aren't nearly as dangerous as lighters: Ammunition, Firearms, Axes, Mace, Martial Arts Weapons, Stun Guns, Throwing Stars.

Why do I get the impression that this has nothing to do with airline safety, and everything to do with people's hatred of smokers?

  Posted at 12:54 PM by Nick |   |   |

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The Carnival of the Vanities is Up 

Well... sort of. I was pretty disappointed in this week's Carnival. Dr. Zen did a pretty mean spirited interpretation of a cool blog carnival that was generally pretty politically agnostic before. People would submit, you'd show the links with a short summary... it's a pretty simple concept. If you're interested, I submitted this post I wrote earlier this week on Social Security. I got ripped:

Nick Schweitzer at the The World According to Nick writes about how the US government's social security proposals are all about choice. When I tell you that Nick doesn't know that investing in the government is just as much investing in the "economy" as investing in Micro$oft or GM, you'll understand that his argument is not too sophisticated. Who would I rather trust with my investments? The government or John Q. Fillmepockets, a dealer who would flog you shares in dogshit if he thought he could con you into buying it? Yes, Nick, it's all about choice, and a great one it is too.

Well.. so glad I submitted so generously to the COTV this week so you could get an Instalanche, and I could submit myself to a free flogging. Personally, I think anyone who thinks that investing in government bureaucracy and bullshit is a worthwhile investment needs to have their head examined. I trust my investments to me. Don't like Microsoft or GM... then don't invest in them... that's the beauty of it. Apparently that simple fact has eluded our friend Dr. Zen.

But that's not the point. He pretty much ripped everyone... and this week's carnival sucked. In fact... after reading through about 3 of his "summaries"... I basically just scrolled down to see what he said about me and then left. I'd imagine that most people who found this week's carnival didn't stay too long, which is a shame, because it's usually a great way to find some excellent writing.

Luckily for us, the blogosphere is full of people interested in correcting wrongs... and This Blog Is Full of Crap has posted an alternative carnival which is fair and politically agnostic. Thanks a lot!

  Posted at 10:26 AM by Nick |   |   |

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Wednesday, April 13, 2005

There Actually Isn't a Law 

Wisconsin towns have some weird laws... but apparently this isn't one of them:

So I'm watching TV the other night. Wish I could say it was "Masterpiece Theatre," but it was a show on VH1 called "The Love Lounge" with a bunch of B-list celebrities sitting around talking about sex.

Just before cutting to a commercial, they flash a strange sex law on the screen, and I notice it's from Connorsville, Wis.

They're telling cable America that in Connorsville it's illegal for a man to shoot a gun while his female partner is having an orgasm.

Was this a serious nuisance in Connorsville? And when they say gun... did they mean a firearm, or was this a euphemism for his... well... you know? And what about the woman? Does this mean that she's allowed to fire a gun while she's climaxing? I'd hate to think where she'd be aiming. Guys mostly have practice aiming their guns after all. And what if it's two guys together? Is it then alright for either one of them to be shooting off? OK, maybe that was a poor choice of words. The people of Connorsville probably thought that homosexuals are too prissy to actually own guns, so really there's no need to worry about them.

Actually the people of Connorsville made no such law. It's a hoax... but a damn funny one. Sometimes when you see those screwed up laws on the internet, they actually aren't true. But Jim Stingl does have a lot of fun asking around about this law trying to find out if its true.

  Posted at 9:52 AM by Nick |   |   |  

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I'm Not Talking About Decapitating 

I thought this article on JSOnline was pretty sweet... talking about the largest Sheepshead tournament in the country which took place at Nicolet High School in Glendale. Lately I've been playing more Texas Hold 'em (and not doing too bad either), but Sheepshead is a fun game to play. I just haven't played in quite a while... but I used to play a lot in high school.

If you've never heard of it... it probably means you live in an area without a large German population (where it's known as "Schafkopf"). You actually don't even use a full deck to play. Maybe that's why I enjoy it so much... I haven't been playing with a full deck for years (If I didn't make the joke, I knew someone would). If you've heard or played Euchre, it's somewhat similar... but where Euchre is mindless, there is actually strategy involved in Sheepshead.

Where did the name Sheepshead come from? I have no clue.

  Posted at 9:29 AM by Nick |   |   |  

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TheWorldsLongestDomainName.com 

The #1 preset on my car radio is 102.1 FM... what used to be called Rock 102.1. Like every other self respecting radio station, they had a website located at... you guessed it... rock1021.com. A couple weeks ago however they changed their marketing name to Milwaukee's Alternative Station. Thankfully however they didn't change their playlists, or I would have been pissed. I still remember when 106.9 WFMR went from Rock/Alternative to Classical a few years ago. They did it really suddenly at like 8 o'clock one night. I was driving in the car listening to Green Day or something, and the next thing I know they put on Beethoven.

With the marketing change though, they changed their web address to milwaukeesalternativestation.com. Who was the rocket scientist in their marketing department who came up with that? They've been talking it up on the radio constantly too. Go to milwaukeesalternativestation.com for this or that. It takes 5 times longer to say, and it takes a lot longer to spell out, not to mention the chance for mistyping and going to God knows what porn site when you do. Thanfully rock1021.com automatically redirects you to the new website, because there is no way I'm typing milwaukeesalternativestation.com any more.

  Posted at 8:30 AM by Nick |   |   |

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Tuesday, April 12, 2005

This Seems Strange to Me 

There is a story in the Journal about how the man who killed that judge's family in Chicago is getting a Catholic burial:

When funeral director John Walloch heard that no one had claimed the body of Bart Ross, the Chicago man who committed suicide and left a note saying he killed the husband and mother of a federal judge in Chicago, he decided to step forward.

"I was disheartened that that no one claimed the body," Walloch said Monday. "I felt it was imperative that this man be buried as a Christian, so we assumed this responsibility at no cost to the county or state."

Walloch, who founded the Walloch Funeral Home, 4309 S. 20th St., 40 years ago, said he claimed the body of Ross on Monday and is preparing it for burial.

On Tuesday, Father Bill Burkert, pastor of St. Roman Catholic Church, will conduct a graveside service at 2 p.m. at Milwaukee's Holy Trinity Cemetery. The Catholic cemetery is providing the burial space. Walloch said he's picking up the $4,500 cost of the casket and other burial services.

"Part of it was that he was Polish," Walloch said. "He came here from Poland years ago and was probably brought up as a Christian because Poland is a very Catholic country. What transpired in the meantime, I don't know. Perhaps we are too judgmental. The final judgment is made by God, not us."

This seems strange to me. First of all... I have a hard time thinking that this man deserves a decent burial after what he did... but hey... it's not my money. The second strange thing here is that he's getting a Catholic burial. Now then, I'm not Catholic, and don't claim to be an expert in Canon Law, but isn't suicide considered a mortal sin? My understanding is that people who commit suicide (as this man did) were to be denied a Catholic burial and went to hell.

Is there something I'm missing? Any Catholics want to correct me here?

  Posted at 2:04 PM by Nick |   |   |  

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Vote for Rick James - Bitch 

Ever watch Chapelle's Show on Comedy Central? Apparently he's having an unintended impact on a Hattiesburg Mississippi City Council race:

Rick James is the name of both a Hattiesburg City Council candidate and the flamboyant singer of the 1981 hit "Super Freak," who died last August just as he was poised to make a comeback.

The self-described "king of punk funk," jailed later in his career for drug abuse and violence against women, is the subject of a recurring skit on the Comedy Central cable-TV hit "Chappelle's Show," in which host Dave Chappelle, dressed as the singer, acts bizarrely and randomly shouts out "I'm Rick James, b*tch!"

According to the New York Post, people in Hattiesburg have been stealing "Vote Rick James" signs at such a rate that the aspiring city councilman's wife has asked Comedy Central for compensation.
...
"Young children on bikes scream, 'I'm Rick James, b*tch!' as we drive by in our car with our 'Rick James' car signs," she states. "People even drive by our home and scream, 'Super Freak.'"

If he doesn't want the association... maybe he should run as Richard James instead. I'm suddenly reminded of a scene from Office Space:

Michael Bolton: Yeah, well at least your name isn't Michael Bolton.
Samir: You know there's nothing wrong with that name.
Michael Bolton: There was nothing wrong with it... until I was about 12 years old and that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys.
Samir: Why don't you just go by Mike instead of Michael?
Michael Bolton: No way. Why should I change? He's the one who sucks.

  Posted at 1:41 PM by Nick |   |   |  

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The Exception or The Rule? 

Eugene Kane has another poorly thought out editorial in today's Journal:

There is an exception to every rule. At least, there should be.

Which brings me to V.O. Goins.

Goins is the 64-year-old Arkansas man who shot and killed a 20-year-old Racine man in Milwaukee after being attacked by a group of would-be robbers on April 3.

Goins stopped at a gas station on North Ave. that morning to ask for directions when he was assaulted by a group of young males apparently in search of an easy mark.

Goins managed to pull a gun from under his front seat and shoot one member of the group, Kendall Moss.
...
If you don't approve of concealed-carry laws, Goins might represent the rare exception to your particular belief system.

I am one of those who think there are way too many handguns in this country and that more concealed weapons will only encourage more people to think of themselves as Clint Eastwood and create more grieving families.

What Goins did was exceptional for crime victims in this country, turning the tables on his attackers in such a decisive fashion. It usually doesn't happen that way.
...
What Goins did was illegal, according to the letter of the law. But he's also a logical exception.

I wish more people realized there are logical exceptions to just about every firmly held belief, whether it's abortion, gun control, affirmative action, whatever.

You spend the majority of your article explaining how this man should be commended for his actions, and agree with the prosecutor for not charging this man with a crime. So far so good. But then... because apparently the Journal doesn't allow you to mention a gun self defense case without bringing up Clint Eastwood, you talk about how he is the "exception to the rule". Just one problem Eugene... you fail to prove the rule! According to this website there are 35 states which grant concealed carry permits to state residents in some form or another. That's 35 states full of potential Clint Eastwoods looking for their own brand of justice against criminals. You're telling me that you couldn't find a single statistic to back up your claim that this gentleman was the exception and not the rule?

The fact of the matter is that the statistic aren't very conclusive in concealed carry states. Some studies by some groups, like this one in Utah show some decrease in crime against personal property after they passed a concealed carry law. Of course you could probably take this with a grain of salt given where I found it. Here is a similar study from Cato regarding a significant drop in crime in Florida after their law passed. It wasn't hard to find these either... just a few minutes with my trusty friend Google. I'm sure that a little more hunting might find contrary statistics in those states as well. What's interesting is the anecdotal lack of evidence here. While recently there have been a few news items regarding people who have successfully defended themselves with guns... I haven't seen any news items about Clint Eastwoods roaming the country side. Have you? Given the liberal media's general hatred of guns, I'd think that they would be shouting from the hill tops with the news if there were.

My personal viewpoint is that the ability for a law abiding citizen to carry a concealed weapon is their right. Would I carry one? Probably not, and neither would a lot of other people. But I certainly don't think my views on this ought to stop someone else from exercising their right. I also think that just having the law on the books... making criminals wonder whether I do have a gun or not is enough to make someone think twice. The statistics seem to bear me out on this. Where are your statistics Eugene? Mr. Goins is the rule... not the exception.

Update 4/18/2005: Owen over at Boots & Sabers has fisked some letters to the editor that were in the Journal regarding concealed carry. It's amazing how knee jerk people can be against law abiding citizens being able to do what criminals already do with impunity.

  Posted at 12:29 PM by Nick |   |   |  

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No Pain 

Went for a hard 20 mile ride both Saturday and Sunday... up some good grades... as close to race speed as I could manage, sometimes into a tough wind. Was frustrating during parts of it... but really good during others. It also gave me a chance to try out my new Oakley M Frames. I had been wearing C Wires (which I like the look of)... but needed something which wrapped around more to protect my eyes from wind blowing through the side. On a slight side note, I also just sent my A Wires in to get the lenses replaced from an awful scratch when I dropped them... damn that pissed me off.

Anyway... back to the point of the whole post. Last night after work I went running, and by the end of it I could really feel the burn... especially after the two hard rides. I wanted to stop and walk the rest... but suddenly I heard Apollo Creed in my head yelling... No Pain! No Pain! I kept running... into a strong head wind no less... No pain! No pain!

It was raining this morning... and might be raining after work tonight. I'm kind of hoping that it does because it will give me an excuse not to run tonight... because if the weather is at all decent I'll have to do something. At this point I need an excuse not to run.

  Posted at 9:17 AM by Nick |   |   |

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Monday, April 11, 2005

Search Phrases 

Every now and then I check out my SiteMeter referals list to see how people are finding my blog. Here are some of the more interesting search phrases of late:

"emotional stress and pain of the nick": This one linked directly to my home page. So what's the implication here? Do I cause emotional stress and pain? Maybe I'm in some sort of emotional pain or stress, and just don't know it.

"dog condom": This post has been generating some interest lately. Maybe there's a bigger market in these than I originally thought.

"Forcing Boys to Dress As Girls, dressed as a girl": This search phrase will find you on this post. Why you'd search on this... I don't even want to speculate.

"breathalyzer beating eating crap": This phrase lands you here. I don't know if this person heard about this and wanted to laugh... or was thinking about doing this and wanted to know if it would work. For his sake I hope it was the former and not the latter.

"treatment for hysteria 1950": Hey - I've got nothing against people interested in history... Even if it's the history of vibrators.

  Posted at 12:38 PM by Nick |   |   |

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Seems Simple Enough 

Hat tip to VodkaPundit for the link to an article in the Washington Post about the 65% Solution:

Patrick Byrne, a 42-year-old bear of a man who bristles with ideas that have made him rich and restless, has an idea that can provide a new desktop computer for every student in America without costing taxpayers a new nickel. Or it could provide 300,000 new $40,000-a-year teachers without any increase in taxes. His idea -- call it the 65 Percent Solution -- is politically delicious because it unites parents, taxpayers and teachers while, he hopes, sowing dissension in the ranks of the teachers unions, which he considers the principal institutional impediment to improving primary and secondary education.

The idea, which will face its first referendum in Arizona, is to require that 65 percent of every school district's education operational budget be spent on classroom instruction. On, that is, teachers and pupils, not bureaucracy.
...
Under the 65 percent rule, Arizona, which spends 56.8 percent in classrooms, could use its $451 million transfer to classrooms to buy 1.5 million computers or to hire 11,275 teachers. California (61.7 percent) could use its $1.5 billion transfer to buy 5 million computers or to hire 37,500 teachers. Illinois (59.5 percent) would transfer $906 million to classrooms (3 million computers or 22,650 new teachers). To see how much money would flow into your state's classrooms under Byrne's approach, go to www.firstclasseducation.org.

According to the website listed... Wisconsin uses 62% of funds towards actual classroom education. Increasing this to 65% would amount to approximately $227 million a year. Couple of things not talked about here which are worthy of investigation. In Wisconsin for instance, where does the extra 38% go? The claim made in the article is that it simply goes to bureaucracy. Is that really the case? The charge seems to be that you can either spend money on classrooms, or worthless things. Where do sports programs fall? Where do plays and band programs fall? How much of that 38% is really spent on pure bureaucracy?

The other thing that always pisses me off about these articles is how "buying computers" is always touted as an advantage. I'm a software engineer, and damned good at my job. I didn't need the sort of computer centric education that is going on now in order to get to that position. Is some computer experience worthwhile? Absolutely. But I wonder how much value the increase we're seeing in computer based education really gives us. From my own experience with watching a laptop program at MSOE... I know that computers can be more distracting than educational.

My personal view on this is that parents and adults who are still fearful of computers push them heavily, thinking that they don't want what happened to them, to happen to their kids. What they don't realize is that exposure to computers is all you really need. Kids don't need to get a UV tan during the school day from a computer screen. Doing it the old fashioned way on pen and paper drills it into your mind a lot better than seeing it flash before your eyes will on a computer screen. Food for thought.

Jesus - I sound like an old codger talking about this stuff. Next I'll be calling kids whipper snappers.

  Posted at 11:10 AM by Nick |   |   |  

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Time to Pay the Piper 

I did my taxes last night... what a way to spend a Sunday evening right? It never takes me that long as my taxes aren't that complicated. I even still do them on paper, with a pen and calculator. I know... it must be shocking that a software engineer doesn't use... well... software to do it. Apparently I'm not the only one... as Ann Althouse mentioned that she too still does it by hand. Somehow for me, still doing it by hand makes me more conscious of the act. That and I hate to pay for software that can do a task that I can easily do myself.

My friend Be also told me she still does it by hand... on the 14th no less so that she can make her copies on the 15th and get ice cream at the post office at midnight. My dad used to religiously do his taxes at the last minute... and get them to the airport post office by midnight on the 15th. Of course by taxes... I really mean an extension. I have no idea whether they gave him ice cream though. Sure seems like a good idea... that is until you get audited like he did.

So how did I fair? About the same as I always do... I almost broke even. I ended up sending a little money to the Fed... only to get a refund back from the state which makes up for it plus a little more. I like breaking even on the 15th. Must be the engineer part of me... means I got my withholding right. Happens almost every year... I pay one government just to get almost the same amount back from a different government.

My Mom's Cousin Dick on the other hand loves owing on the 15th. In fact, he calculates his withholdings so that he'll owe as close to the maximum he can owe without paying a penalty. Why on Earth would you want to owe you ask? Well... that way he can keep as much of his money in the bank earning interest until the last possible minute before he has to give it to Uncle Sam. I can actually understand that... as long as you're smart enough to keep that money somewhere so you can eventually pay your tax bill. Most people I know enjoy getting a fat refund back so they can spend it... as if it were somehow a gift. I never understood why you'd want to give the government an interest free loan.

  Posted at 10:35 AM by Nick |   |   |

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Sunday, April 10, 2005

Investing Is Not The Issue 

As I listen to more and more of the Social Security rhetoric... I'm amazed at how much everyone is avoiding the real issue. There is a whole group of people who are afraid of giving people choice. People are supposedly afraid of choice... afraid of having too many choices, or making the wrong choice? There is a whole other group of people who are opposed to reform because they've paid into the current system and are scared to death that they won't get their money back. They fear private investment because it's different. What they don't get is that its really no different than the current system... but the Democrats in Congress don't want you to know that, and George Bush isn't helping any.

Recently he stood in a news conference with a file cabinet full of IOU's and pronounced how shocked he was at a system based around money that wasn't there any more. It was perhaps the stupidest thing that he could have done. The reason it was so stupid was because the proposed solutions are exactly the same. Let me repeat that for emphasis. The proposed solutions to Social Security are exactly the same. For some reason when it comes to Social Security, people seem to forget (or maybe they honestly don't know) what happens to money put in a bank. Granted I'm no expert in investing (and please count this as a disclaimer about anything I'm saying here), but lets go over Banking 101.

What happens when you put money in a bank? Do you think that it is identical to putting your money in a mattress? Do you think that the nice people at the bank decide to give you extra money every month out of the goodness of their heart? No! The bank uses that money for loans and other investments which makes more money. The Bank then gives you a cut of the profit for risking your money. Of course that cut varies depending on the risk involved in the loan. Even putting your money in a simple savings account entails some risk (though obviously small). Social Security is no different. Your money is not stuffed in some government mattress. It is invested and gains interest. The problem is that the interest is paltry because of where your money is invested.

So Nick... if the government is already investing my money... how are these new proposals any different? And where is my money being invested anyway? The answer is very simple. Right now you are forced to invest all your money in the government. The new "private accounts" proposals allow you invest in stocks, or bonds, or other private investments. In other words you are allowed to invest in the economy. That's it. That's the difference. You're still going to be investing, just in something else. And that something else means you have a potential higher rate of return than Uncle Sam would ever give you.

What this means however, is that if private accounts come into being, the government loses a huge chunk of capital. Personally I see this as a good thing. I personally think that putting more money in our economy, helping businesses, and helping our economy to grow, is a great thing, and an excellent secondary benefit of Social Security reform. It could mean more jobs, and better jobs than we have now. I also think that taking away some money from the government is also a very good thing. Taking away that money is the real reason why so many in Congress are fighting this tooth and nail. Don't delude yourself into thinking its for some well founded fears over your well being. They just don't want to lose the money that they can divert into their pet projects. This is about government greed and influence... pure and simple. Investing is not the issue. Where you get to invest is.

  Posted at 11:31 AM by Nick |   |   |

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Afraid of the Mob? 

Are you afraid that the next time you mess with the mob... they'll hit you over the head and you'll find yourself locked in the trunk of your own car? Well, have no fear any more. All you need to do is make sure that you own a 2005 Toyota Solara, and all will be fine, thanks to this handy glow in the dark handle on the inside of the trunk. I laughed my ass off when I saw this green thing standing out when I was putting my laptop case in the trunk. Is this a new federal regulation... or is this a real selling point for some people? 

  Posted at 11:24 AM by Nick |   |   |

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The Hum of the Road 

Sometimes I just enjoy going for a drive somewhere. It's getting more expensive to do this of course now that gas prices are so high, but I do it anyway. Luckily for me my new Toyota gets better gas mileage than the Grand Prix. So in honor of National Poetry Month, I penned this:

Small vibrations running through my fingers
Through my hands.
Down my arms.

Small vibrations in my seat.
Up my spine.
Up my neck.

The grip of the seat.
The grip on the wheel.
The grip of the road.
The tires that squeal.

When all is wrong with the world
The hum of the road is enough
Destination unknown
But does it matter?
So long as you feel it.

Talking about vibrations, humming, and cars brings this article back to mind. I read it more than a year ago, but still think it's pretty good. It's a very informative article on the differences between front wheel drive and rear wheel drive... and how front wheel drive is like bad sex and rear wheel drive is like good sex. Of course even bad sex is better than no sex at all. I can say that - I'm a guy.

  Posted at 11:22 AM by Nick |   |   |

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Friday, April 08, 2005

Taking the Day Off of Blogging 

I haven't posted anything today... and don't really plan on it. Wait... does this post count? That's like saying "This statement is a lie." Anyway... I hate to leave any of you without reading material from my world, so here are some places to go:

Badger Blog Alliance: They've added a couple new regular bloggers. Be sure to head on over and take a look at what's happening all around the Badger State.

Like Waiting For April: April is national poetry month after all... so head on over for an ode to condoms.

VodkaPundit: Stephen Green went to a local zoo, and posted plenty of excellent pictures.

Blue-Eyed Infidel: Are you a dog or a cat person? Personally I've always been a dog person, and can only deal with people's cats on a part time basis. Apparently Rachel is a former cat person, who now despises them. Nothing like having a dog to make you realize how little cats really do all day. Makes we want to go the pound and rescue another dog. Hmmm... not yet... but soon.

That's all. Have a great weekend everybody!

  Posted at 1:46 PM by Nick |   |   |

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Thursday, April 07, 2005

Damned Either Way 

Here is a scary news story out of Kentucky:

Police in Winchester, Ky., say Winston Poole would have been the nation's next school shooter, had they not intervened.

"All the bells and whistles went off on this case," said Steven Caudill, a detective with the Winchester Police Department. "Our No. 1 goal is crime prevention and law enforcement, not just here in our community. But the nation as a whole. All the warning signs were here in our community. We saw it. We acted on it."

Poole, 18, has been charged with terroristic threatening for allegedly trying to recruit fellow students he called "soldiers" to participate in a school shooting. His grandmother turned him in after finding his journal.

"He was talking about taking over the high school and when it was all done, that everybody would be laying" on the ground, said Poole's grandmother, Joyce Craft. "You have to stop and think that these things can happen. If somebody sees it coming, or has some suspicions, then they need to report it. I could not let this go by."
...
Supporters said it's not a crime to write about violence, as long as you don't act on it. A group of California First Amendment supporters - unwilling to be identified - freed Poole temporarily by paying his bond.

"It was just a fiction story and everybody is just blowing it out of proportion," said Poole's friend, Anthony Rudolph.

So what do we have here. We have a grandmother who read her granchild's journal, saw some scary stuff, and notified police. We also have a group of people who are supporting the kid saying he was exercising his free speech rights.

Just for fun... let's pretend like the grandmother never found the journal... and fast forward a couple of weeks. How would this news story change?

WINCHESTER, Ky. - Police are investigating a school shooting that occurred early this morning. Witnesses are saying that a student, Winston Poole, came into a classroom and began shooting fellow students and teachers before turning the gun on himself. Detective Steven Chadill has said that they have yet to have found a motive for why this student might have chosen to turn a gun on fellow classmates.

Parents of injured students are trying to come to grips with this terrible tragedy. One parent who has not been identified was seen yelling at a police officer, "How could nobody have seen this coming? Why could nobody prevent my child from being killed?!"

It sounds a whole lot different on the other side of that timeline doesn't it? It would seem that we're damned if we do, and damned if we don't. If something terrible happens, we scream in outrage that it couldn't be prevented. If a possible heinous act is prevented, we cry in outrage that we don't know he would have carried out what he said. I'm not saying its easy... and I'm not sure what the solution is. We're basically damned if we do, and damned if we don't.

It would seem that people are trying to say in this case that the 1st amendment should shield this person from any consequences arising from what he's said. But is that what the 1st amendment actually guarantees? Are we saying that nobody should ever be held accountable for their words... ever? I haven't a clue. It's a delicate issue... because if we start down that direction, we could very quickly find ourselves on a slippery slope to something very bad.

Maybe we should be looking at this from a different direction. Unfortunately we're not dealing with a minor here. If we were.... grandma (being is legal guardian) should've had him sent in for psychiatric evaluation. Is that still possible here? I haven't a clue.

Was something terrible prevented here? We'll never know... was it worth putting this in jail to make sure? That's the difficult question.

  Posted at 1:39 PM by Nick |   |   |  

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