Nemo Me Impune Lacessit

Today in history

LISTENING / READING / WATCHING

1. Dark Horse Comics — Star Wars: Legacy

NOTES FROM LIFE, ETC.

1. NM Solar Energy Association

   Zomeworks — Steve Baer is a Libertarian (?)

2. http://clubflyers.com — 5000 4×6 full-color glossy VU laminated advert cards for 150 FRN
3. Burning Paradise Video — videos / T-shirts / movie posters [800 Central SW]
4. Read Star Wars: Legacy #39 today — Cade Skywalker unknowingly puts the moves to his half-sister, Gunner Yage [shades of the Luke / Leia relationship (before Return of the Jedi)]

Today in history

COMMENTS I’VE POSTED

1. Re: Single Payer: A Slow Train Coming –

   The other side [ Fri Sep 4 2009 11:23 AM ]

   Hey, Gene, hopefully you realize that all of this insurance-company lobbying is The Barack’s escape hatch should “public option” get signed into law and turns out to be the disaster that we on the other side say it will be. He’ll just say that “If I didn’t include part of their terms, we would have never gotten it passed,” and then blame it on “special interests controlling Washington.”

   If you think “single-payer” (taxpayer-pays) is such a great idea, why bother trying to get it passed here? Why not just move to Canada or the UK, where it’s already there, and has been for decades? Surely they’ve had the time to work out the bugs by now. After all, I and my fellow libertarians, Tea Partiers and such aren’t keeping you in the States at gunpoint, are we?

2. Posted to Facebook —

   My Advanced Lasers class at CNM ends at 11:20 AM, and it will take me about 30 minutes to get from there to UNM. Understand that my attendance does NOT make me a GOP member in any way – I’ll be there to show moral support for the anti-Weh faction.

3. Re: Single Payer: A Slow Train Coming –

   Well, “Madmammajamma?” [ Fri Sep 4 2009 12:52 PM ]

   if a public option is passed and you don’t like it, how about you find another country to live in?

   As soon as I can afford to do so, I will – I’m looking at possibilities now. This of course means that there will be one less tax serf to pay for your “public option.”

   What a stupid argument. It’s not like anyone is going to take away your private insurance. Why so vehement?

   That will be the net effect, as the “public option” system will not only be able to operate in the red far longer than any private system, using tax dollars to buffer its losses, but will also be able to charge less than the private system, using tax dollars to make up the difference.

   Funny, in that sample of G8 countries the one without a public option spends more of it’s GDP on health care than those that do and still has a lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality rate.

   If public health care is so great, then why are Canadians who can afford to come to the US for health care doing so instead of staying up there? There’s a rather healthy strip of medical clinics along the U.S.-Canadian border that cater to Canadians. How do these places stay in business if Canada’s “single-payer” system is so great?

   If “single-payer,” er, I mean “public option” is such a great deal, what about the cases in the States where it’s already been put in place – the Indian Health Service and the Veterans Administration? Why aren’t you citing these as examples of how things should be run?

4. Re: Single Payer: A Slow Train Coming –

   “People” Speaking [ Fri Sep 4 2009 1:19 PM ]

   Let’s put it this way: If tea baggers get their jell insert-filled sneakers on the ground en masse in Washington, and if they’re not trounced – not just answered – then a very singular slice of “the people” will have spoken. Again.

   All the Tea Party people want from the system is to left alone to their own devices when they’re not hurting others, to fend for themseleves, and make their own way. They have no problem at all helping others in need with voluntary charity, but aren’t too thrilled to say the least about being forced to “donate” via taxation.

   This of course stands in sharp contrast to the people who are turning out to support the ObamaCare plan and its “public option.” The Obamatons think of other peoples’ property and money as their own, to be taken and spent as “the people” dictate – “the people” of course being the Obamatons. Tea Party people, libertarians, free-marketers, agorists, voluntaryists, etc., don’t seem to really qualify as being part of “the people” in Obamatons’ minds.

   Of course, Obama supporters will say I’m deluded on this. Then why do I keep seeing YouTube clips of Tea Party protesters being physically attacked by ObamaCare supporters (many wearing union T-shirts) for the “crime” of holding signs outside “Town Hall” events held by politicians supporting ObamaCare?

5. Posted to Facebook –

   I think that no one should be forced by the government to be responsible for strangers, and no one should use guilt to push through wealth redistribution. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day.

COMMENTS I’VE POSTED

1. Comment on J. Neil Schulman’s Facebook Wall –

   Hey, J. Neil – PLEASE tell me that Lady Magdelene ends up strapping Agent Goldwater to the crate and leaving him in the desert with the buzzards for companionship . . . ?

   See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Magdalene%27s for more.

2. Follow-up 16 July 2009 –

   I saw a few of your Rational Review postings a few years ago – it seemed like you fell under the Bushevik spell of “If we don’t fight them over there, we’ll fight them here” and “the Muslims are out to get us” – Lady Magdelene’s seemed to be more in line with the Bush Doctrine than Alongside Night and The Rainbow Cadenza. I’m hoping I’m wrong about this, or that if I’m correct, you’ve learned the error of your ways.

   Whatever the case, a pox upon Agent Goldwater and his lying, thieving, conniving buddies.

NOTES FROM LIFE, ETC.

1. I got a few extra hours on the day job Tuesday night – management almost begged me to come in to take care of the annual Loss Prevention Audit checklist – that is, to check everything on the list to make sure it’s up to snuff before the official auditor came in the next day. What a joke – I was done with it in about 90 minutes, and that’s allowing for the 30 minutes that I spent checking the backside of the building for graffiti.

   I swear, if these auditors and senior management types had a working brain cell in the lot of them, they would show up with ABSOLUTELY NO WARNING. That way, they would see the place as it usually is between the announced visits.

   Anyway, the store’s camera room is overfilled with gift sets of perfume and cologne, among other things. It’s an actual safety hazard for anyone that needs to go into there for anything. When I mentioned this to management, I was told that the district manager said that “Every store in the country is like that.” I wouldn’t want to be the one needing to access the Loss Prevention file cabinet in a hurry, as it’s buried under the fragrances.

   We got out Wednesday night at 10:45 PM (usually the latest is 10 PM), as a bunch of us stayed late spiffing things up for the dog-and-pony show on behalf of the inspector from Corporate HQ.

2. I just had the first half of Lab 3 in my Intro to Fiber class on Thursday morning. This involved attaching ST connectors to the ends of a segment of 62.5/125^[1] fiber optic line to create a patch cable. This part (and the second half – creating another patch cable to using anaerobic glue to attach the connectors) of the Lab is a pass-fail. The national standard for power loss through a connector pair is 0.75 dB – the “front” end of my patch cable read 0.20 dB, and the “rear” end read 0.44 dB.

   Anyway, stripping the cable ends, putting on the connectors, cleaving the fiber ends and polishing those fiber ends is easier than it looks on the videos we saw in class demonstrating the procedure. Not bad for only having about two hours sleep the night before.

3. The Advanced Laser Systems course that I need to actually complete my Associates Degree is STILL up in the air. Michael Cranney, the Ad Hoc “Chair” of the Photonics Department since Gordon Bennett got the boot, FIRST said that he wouldn’t offer the course because we didn’t have twelve people showing an interest, but that he would run it in the spring semester, as Sandia National Labs had four people that needed to take it, THEN he says that he’ll offer it on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. What a scheisskopf (or is it culo?).
4. Today (Friday 17 July) I went to the Albuquerque Tea Party (separate blog entry to follow shortly^[2]). The event started on 2nd St between Copper and Tijeras, then moved to Central Ave between 2nd and 3rd Streets. At around 11 AM, the 100 or so people there were told to disperse by APD for not having a permit.

NOTES

1. Fiber optic cables are classified in one manner by the diameters (in microns) of the core and cladding, repsectively.
2. Originally posted to Xanga, reposted to WordPress
3. Reposted —
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs — Xanga

Today in history

NOTES FROM LIFE, ETC.

1. Observations from the ALAN WOODRUFF FOR CONGRESS CAMPAIGN

   How is the Albuquerque BALLOON FESTIVAL like the U.S. Congress?

   1. They both attract colorful gas-bags full of hot air.
   2. In both cases, the gas-bag with the most hot air rises the highest.
   3. None of the gas-bags have any discernable direction.
   4. All the gas-bags go wherever the wind takes them.
   5. Only the wealthy get to participate, but taxpayer money funds the event.
   6. They both make the people feel good without giving them any real benefit.