Apple is wealthier than US Government

So it turns out that Apple is wealthier than the US government... Apple has $76B in the piggy bank, and the gov'm'nt only has $73B.

Perhaps we should appoint Steve "Budget Master" and let him figure it all out with Tim?

Carolyn Ann

They did wha?

Hey, you votin' or wha'? Say girl, you gotta vote... Whaddya mean? T-Central took down the vote? You jesting girl! You got to be... Something that important and it goes away like BOOM!? Yeah, it did? Man, Girl, I tell you. I tell you. 

The T took down the vote wi' no notice, girl. I don' know what that means, but I know it don't mean nothin' good.

It is truly amazing what seems like a good idea at 2:50 AM and you're quite sloshed indeed...

Carolyn Ann

Blossom

Jill, a wonderful photographer, just published this image on Flickr. It is, quite frankly, magical.

Enjoy. :-)

And thanks, Jill, for sharing that image.

Carolyn Ann

Civil Liber... Oh, just give me a cup of coffee (please)

Personally, I think the anti-government twits (did I just reveal my hand? Oops) have it all wrong. The biggest threat to civil liberty in this country is not the government. It's private enterprise.

Look at the facts, people! I'd put that in "twit fonts", except you wouldn't take me seriously if I did I can't be bothered to... :-) 

Here are the facts... :-) 

Google knows more about you than you do. The pizza parlor you searched for the other week? They remember, you don't. That blog post about the blow up doll? They know you read it and Googled the blow up doll. (Seriously, I have no idea what you're implying there... :-) ) They don't care why. They care you did. Now your friends will get ads for Blow-up Dollies on Google+. You won't. They're not that crass. They know you were looking at that website because, well, who wouldn't after reading that? 

Facebook is even worse. Mark tracks your every move. Every single move by every single citizen of the Facebook Empire. The Mongols tossed disease-ridden corpses (you, as in "your city" probably provided the original materiel) into the cities they besieged. The Romans weren't that much better. They made sure the to be tossed were nicely dressed... (I have no idea if that is true. It probably isn't. But it sounds good! :-) ) The Spartans built a wall from the dead of their enemies. It was very nice, if a little gruesome. You know what they say: good fences, good neighbors. ... ... ... I guess that only applies if your neighbors aren't the fence. C'est la vie. :-)

C'est le morte, more likely.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Facebook is taking over the world. 

Use a card? Your every purchase is known to the card issuer, the card guarantor. There might be three parties taking a small slice of your purchase; usually two of them are the same company. I experienced this, recently. We were disputing an overdraft charge - we didn't dispute the overdraft, we screwed up, well I did - but we were disputing the endless series of charges that were applied. Remember the good old days? When you wrote a check and the bank processed it before they processed your paycheck? And they gave you a "courtesy" fee of about a million and half bucks for not paying the check you thought was covered? Yeah? Now they call it a "courtesy fee" and charge it on every single transaction you make after you've made your mistook. 

It's just lower per transaction.

(I don't advise testing this. It might lead to your wife beating you over the head with her handbag in front

of the bank manager. That didn't really happen, but it was a close call...)

Where was I?

Oh yeah. Banks know more about you than you do. I could see our bank manager totting up the transactions at Joe Canal's (the local-ish liquor/beer store). I'm pretty certain New Jersey must have a law against her mentioning such things because she sure as hell asked about every other damn transaction before allowing that they had overcharged us by $35. On an hourly rate it felt like she was violating the Minimum Wage Act! Not that New Jersey has such a thing under Chris Christie.

Anyway, I laugh at these people who protest G8 and G20 meetings. Do they think that blowing out the window of the local Starbuck's will make a difference? If it's an independently owned coffee shop, all they do is cause heartache, expense and pain. The Tea Party buffoons?  They're blowhards, arguing for the very thing that harms them.

These days if you want to be anarchist, you're better of buying Microsoft stock. With a dash of Goldman Sachs. They can't ban you from the meetings if you actually own a piece of them.

Carolyn Ann

See that sphere? It contains...

Never underestimate the competitiveness of Google. 

Its strength, and Achilles Heel, is its abiding love of "data". This new "editor", Google+ and its continual effort to define search. 

Lately I've been reading about how Google will kill Twitter, and how Google is dead because search is dead. Perhaps and wrong. Google can't "kill" Twitter; only Twitter can do that. (And oh, what a good job they are doing!) But search? That's an eternal. It might be diminished, but it will never go away. We always need something our friends can't tell us about. 

If this was Tumblr blog it would end there. Because Tumblr is the long form of Twitter. That might be how our intellectual landscape develops - I sure as hell hope not - but there's room for all types of expression. What's popular (right now <-- inserted for the pedants) isn't necessarily what will remain popular. 

Recently I was criticized for writing long form essays; it was mostly to be antagonistic. It's a rhetorical device. Subvert and confuse and people respond to that, not to the point you're making. Arrogant? Sure. Fair? Absolutely. When your adversary wants brevity, provide War and Peace. When they want eloquence, give them Elmer Fudd. If your critic is out to prove they are the Queen of the Teenage Clique while in their mid-forties and pulling in a six figure salary, let them. They'll figure it out, eventually. Even if it takes a mite of a push. ;-)

You see, we are our words. We are our ideas. For better or worse, when we use a phrase we reveal something of ourselves. That's something Google's engineers don't seem to understand: they parse our words, phrases and mutterings. And they come up with mathematical formulations and judge they discovered the circle when they can't even recognize the sphere they've put themselves in. Why they don't know is because Larry Page wouldn't know a sphere if he tripped over one. When the boss doesn't see a sphere, do you think anyone else will? 

Oh, I'm not going to give you the usual nonsense that Google can't figure out art or philosophy or any of those things that make us human. Those arguments are as stupid as they are shortsighted. Not to mention technically incorrect. What I will give you is Shakespeare, Whitman and Ginsberg. Ansel Adams means nothing to Google; but John Muir means something. (Try "enviromentalist, John, roosevelt".) 

...

In reduction, perhaps Google can keep alive a thread that extends through the ages? We do live in a narrative. Perhaps it's that I'm uncomfortable that Google has become the keeper of it?

Carolyn Ann

Did Mr Boehner gamble his job? (And lose?)

(This was originally written last night; I didn't finish it until just now. I wasn't going to publish it because I couldn't get the ending to "work"; but as I've watched the shenanigans and idiocy over the last few hours, I can't help but think that Mr Boehner's days as Speaker of the House are numbered. So I decided to publish it.)

John Boehner has "postponed" the vote on his debt bill. It seems he doesn't have enough votes to pass it. Not that that matters; it wasn't going to go anywhere in the Senate. And if, by some miracle, it did get through that august body, it faced The President. (You need to say "The President" in stentorian tones... :-) ) He would veto it with nary a glance.

The biggest problem with the bill is that Mr Boehner has, to all intents and purposes, gambled with his job. He has committed a fairly dubious sin, that of liking Barack Obama. Heck, he went and played golf with the man! But on top of that, he's run up against the Tea Party Caucus. He even told them off. And, obviously, he hasn't given enough of them hall passes so they don't face vicious primaries back home.

You see, the problem is that while these congressional neophytes say they don't care about being reelected, they do - quite passionately. And they know that the people who backed them are a fickle bunch. They're also not very loyal. Or forgiving.

All of which adds up to a "leadership challenge"... Something Mr Boehner would lose.

Carolyn Ann

Reid to Boehner: You revive it so I can kill it...

I love this headline: 

I'm so glad the spirit of cooperation is alive and well in Congress.

Mind you, they're both as bad as each other. Mr Boehner won't move on doing a short term solution, so the debt ceiling is a definite election issue (he should keep in mind that saying "Be careful what you wish for!") and Harry Reid won't even look at the accounting shenanigans Mr Boehner is using.

Let's all start rehearsing "Bye Bye Miss American Credit Rating".

Carolyn Ann

NY Times article about transgender/sexual performers

Here's an interesting article about transgender & transsexual performers. From the NY Times.

Carolyn Ann

Yup. They're blinking.

According to Nate Silver, the GOP is already in the process of blinking.

About damn time.

Carolyn Ann

Bye bye, Michele. Nice knowing ya.

I'm really starting to think that Michele Bachmann's presidential "campaign" is, to all intents and purposes, over. The thing is, despite the cacophony of expert punditry exclaiming that her migraines were "not a story", it is. In fact, I'd say it the story.

Remember Hillary's "3AM" ad?

That makes it the story.

If she's incapacitated for more than a few hours that is a problem. If they lay you down for a few days - we've gone beyond a problem. We've entered "25th Amendment" territory. (That's the one that explicitly outlines presidential succession.) That's a problem. That's not a "non-story", that is the story.

Add in her husband's rather pathetic defense of his "pray the gay away" nonsense, her extreme piety and her overt stance against gay marriage (don't buck the trends if you're a politician) and you've got a campaign that is going nowhere quickly.

Good riddance. The wonder is not whether she knows where the door is, but how long it will take for her to reach it.

Carolyn Ann

Ulp!..

A black bear was spotted taking a swim in a northern New Jersey backyard the other day. The thing that really got my attention was this: 

Black bears are thriving and have been spotted in all of the state’s 21 counties. 

Ulp. We live in one of those counties! 

We already have a small group of deer that seem to stick pretty close to the house. The last thing I want is a black bear or two that need feeding as well. I'm likely to be their lunch!

Suddenly feeling a tad noivus,

Carolyn Ann

Translating Durbin

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill) is quoted:

“What we’re facing here is a Republican caucus that is basically showing its political bravery by giving up Medicare benefits for elderly people, by increasing the cost of student loans for working families, by cutting money for medical research,” 

I'm not sure that needs translation, but I'll give it a go:

"Those Brave and Steel-hearted Republicans are fucking the elderly, students, working families, cops, firefighters and anyone else who's not rich to ensure the wealthy don't pay their fair share of taxes"

Yeah, I think that's pretty accurate. :-)

Carolyn Ann

If you don't spend it, you're saving it

So a lot of Harry Reid's savings would come from winding down the two wars, would it? Isn't that a bit like arguing that you're saving a lot of money by not buying a new car? Or is it more like arguing that you've saved a ton of money by not buying that new car you never intended to buy? Actually, I think it's more that the money was in the budget projections, Harry noticed and decided to make those numbers reflect some sort of reality. (A minor miracle in itself!) So, yes - they're savings.

Still, considering how many other financial tricks and shenanigans are contained in the national budget, this one is at least open and honest. And can be measured! Keep it in.

Carolyn Ann

Republican Hubris?

Is the GOP preparing for a showdown or will they blink? It's an interesting question and one that really needs an answer. So far I see signs that morale is flagging a little over in the House Republicans and a slightly buoyant White House. The Senate is wandering around looking for something to do.

The Republicans have placed themselves in an absolutely untenable position; the Tea Party Caucus and Grover Norquist have managed to do that absolute no-no, commit a politician to a course of action with no cover. Oh, they do blather on about how they've done this or that, but the truth is they haven't presented a viable fiscal plan and can't agree what one should look like anyway. Paul Ryan's little missive, his bold entry into the history books? That was shot down before it left the ground. No one actually remembers it now, never mind in a dozen years. Those who do recall it do so with dread. Or ridicule.

With Mr Boehner knocked back a step or two by the revelation that he can't add up, Eric Cantor having to get a little prissy with his caucus and Mr Obama looking presidential, the GOP is left trying to figure out how to sell their childishness. Tired talking points that ring with the choir just aren't doing it. With Harry Reid's new proposal, which is, as he said, what they wanted but delivered with a bow tied to it, all the GOP can do is complain to Fox News that no one has presented a plan. But that only works for a day or two; at some point the House Republicans have to sit down and figure out if they're willing to go mano-a-mano with the President. They might think he's a pushover, but a quick glance at his recent history should show them he's not someone they really want to take on.

This whole thing is incredibly stupid, really. The caucus that wails about honesty and transparency is obfuscating. They think they've got the President on the ropes and they are delusional about the affects of a technical default. (I'm not sure they even know what that means!) They've casually manufactured a crisis with nary a thought to the consequences because they thought the president would quickly cave. And when he didn't, all they're left with is bluster and cliches. And that's what makes this all so dangerous.

Carolyn Ann

Republicans Hit With Dose of Reality! Emergency workers on scene!

House Republicans became very upset earlier today as a Dose of Reality hit them squarely in the nose. "It's not fair!" complained one staffer, "Here we are denying reality exists, manufacturing our own fantasyland and Wham! the Congressional Budget Office tells us we got our sums wrong!" Another expressed disappointment, "We studied hard at our Oral Roberts University, but they didn't teach us arithmetic! How were we to know that all the numbers had to add up properly?" He left, blubbering and muttering something about needing to tie his boss's shoelaces.

Eric Cantor refused to speak to anyone who wasn't in total agreement with him, but he wouldn't say about what he needed total agreement with. His aide did tell us the Republican Party had to order more cliche cards, "The ones we have are so worn out we can barely read them!" He went to explain how they were used, "And we don't use a teleprompter like Mr Obama, so we rely on these index cards. They're like playing cards. All you have to do is shuffle them and then read from them. This way no one strays off message, no one knows what the message is and no can tell if we've actually said anything helpful or useful!"

An emergency worker said "It's pretty bad. We've managed to stem the flow of idiocy from the building by locking the House Republicans in the bathrooms, but it was a close call." A police spokesperson referred all questions to a duck waddling across the Capitol Steps, "He'll give you a more sensible answer than some of the folks we had to lock in the bathrooms!" he explained. "They were pretty noisy, still are, banging on the doors blaming Nancy Pelosi for locking them in the restrooms and really carrying on. We've called for Emergency Kindergarten Teachers, but it seems they're in short supply because of past budget cuts. We need those kindergarten teachers; this is getting ridiculous!" Nancy Pelosi's office denied any rumors that Mrs Pelosi had been spotted throwing a set of Capitol building restrooms keys into the Potomac. "She needed to use the loo," said one of her aides, "She forgot she had the keys and took them home. To San Francisco where she has an important meeting with a duck, one of her constituents."

At that point your intrepid correspondent suddenly discovered an urgent interview with a Duck Wrangler, all the way across the nation. Reporting to you live, from nowhere near Washington DC, Your Intrepid Correspondent.

Carolyn Ann

I hate it when that happens...

I'm having some trouble getting some articles to properly format on a small website I'm building. Instead of having paragraphs, headings, copyright notices and the like, they're one blob of text. So I'm busy trying this, trying that and persecuting trying the other. Nothing is working.

So I took a break. Did a bit of Facebook, read an article in PC Magazine, responded to a misogynist, washed the dishes (that should appeal to the chauvinist) and found the butter (it was in the freezer). (Perhaps the misogynist would like a serving wench give him a slice of bread and butter? No bread, sorry. I forgot to make some.) :-)

One of the things I do after such a break is run quickly through the problem. I often catch something I kept missing when I return to the problem; the old "too close to see it" and "not seeing the forest for the trees" stuff. In this case that meant loading up some data into a dialog box and pressing "Publish".

It worked.

And then it worked again.

I don't know why. I hate it when that happens.

Carolyn Ann

The speeches

Last night was about "the optics" of the debate.

The Republicans lost that one. They either forgot or didn't bother thinking it through. More than likely, it's the latter. It was everything from where Mr Boehner sat (crunched into the corner of a spare office) to his tie (green, really? It worked so well against the ruddy red of his complexion...) to his delivery. "He started it!" Yeah, that's a winning argument.

Mr Obama's speech was masterful; he got his points across and painted a big target on the GOP. John Boehner sang an aria to the choir; even so, it was a little off-key. Alright, he was absolutely unconvincing. But I did think Mr Obama got the tone about right, and he presented his arguments quite well. He was scary; Mr Boehner merely whined. Mr Obama looked presidential; Mr Boehner, as I've mentioned, not so much. Mr Obama realized that this was one speech he had to get right; it was part of his reelection campaign; Mr Boehner wanted to score needless points and came across as the recalcitrant one. When you're trying to persuade people of your righteousness, it's best not to do it by complaining about how unfair the other side is. And when you're bullying someone, it's not usually a good idea to complain about how the bullied is bullying you.

I did like Grover Norquist's little episode on CNN; he kept complaining that Mr Obama was well-prepared; he rattled on about The Presidential Teleprompter so much you'd think the device used to convey the text was the main problem. Blame the Teleprompter for the debt crisis! Another winning argument from the right. Mr Boehner and Mr Norquist both complained the President was playing politics. He's a politician. In the middle of a political crisis brought about by one smallish group of Republican politicians playing political chicken. What does Mr Norquist want? A game of pinochle?

Overall, I'd say the President didn't make a compelling case for his side; a good case, but not a compelling one. On the other hand, he doesn't have to; if he can scare everyone into blaming the Republicans for any default, his job is done and done well. Considering that the Republicans came across as little boys demanding the unreasonable and threatening to hold their breath until they turn blue and stamp their feet, I'd say the Republicans are helping Mr Obama portray them as unreasonable and recalcitrant.

So far Mr Obama is coming across as the reasonable voice. The Republicans? Not so much.

Carolyn Ann

Mr Swartz pays a high price for a vague principle

It seems that electronic martyrs are all the rage, these days. The latest, an Aaron Swartz (he helped invent RSS) is in deep doo-doo for downloading lots and lots of academic information. His contention is that the information should be free. As a result, it isn't and he isn't.

His friends and supporters are behind him. Quite a long ways back, too. :-)

People seem to get confused about two principles: the economic role of information and the sympathy of the authorities. They also confuse "protest that will hurt only me" with "making a change". Mr Swartz might be a hero to some, but like that army major who disobeyed orders because he didn't think Mr Obama was American, the only one doing the time is the alleged hero. All of their supporters have the opportunity to cheer their heroism from outside the prison walls.

The thing is, information is the bedrock of all economic activity. If people wanted information to be free, they'd create a society where competitiveness couldn't exist. But no one is in a rush to do that, because people, especially in western societies, like the way society is structured. Sure, it changes, but the underlying ideas are accepted. And one of those ideas is that information has value.

Which is something Mr Swartz proved in his reportedly facile (holding a bicycle helmet over your face so you couldn't be identified? Really?) effort to ensure that some information was "freed". He confuses "free speech" with "free beer". Confusing two definitions doesn't make you a great philosopher; it makes you an incompetent nincompoop. (Putting your bicycle helmet over your face so you wouldn't be recognized? Really?)

When Mr Swartz "liberated" the information, he clearly recognized that the information was of great value. What he disputes is whom can benefit from that value, and also when they can realize it. Apparently he doesn't think anyone should benefit from holding the information, merely from its use. Which is a problem, because to benefit from its use, you have to hold it. If you're a researcher, you probably don't want anyone knowing you've read this or that paper; it might lead someone to the breakthrough they need to change the way something is done and make them a gazillionaire overnight. Or it could be fundamental research that you need to read in order to gain a leg up on others doing the same research; to the first published go the prizes and all that. So the research definitely has economic value. Again, he's confusing "free speech" with "free beer".

Perhaps Mr Swartz is arguing that society needs a different economic model altogether? One that overtly places the community before the individual or the profit motive. A modern Marxism, perhaps? A short response is all that is needed: good luck with that.

Making a compelling intellectual argument works. Putting yourself in jail merely proves that you're not as smart as a few experienced cops and prosecutors. Mr Swartz isn't making a compelling philosophical argument when he tries to "liberate" research; he's merely proving that he's prepared to martyr himself to a vaguely defined somewhat illogical cause that's going to forget who he is before the end of next week. Information is inanimate, not sentient and all that jazz and jiggery-pockery. People offer items of information, often packaged as solutions to problems, for free and the world is a better place for it. But information always has economic value; where that value is realized is what's being disputed. It's not a laudable dispute, those who argue it should be free consistently fail to realize their argument is rife with inconsistencies and pratfalls. But people like Mr Swartz will continue going to jail not because information is never free, but because people often think they should get it that way.

Carolyn Ann

Who needs innocent until proven guilty? We've got guilty, and it's all we need

A very bizarre story from today's NY Times. A young lass, Seemona Sumasar, was arrested and jailed for 7 months because her boyfriend, whom she accused of rape, set her up. The boyfriend constructed an elaborate plot, which fell apart because it was, necessarily, too elaborate that blamed her for a lot of armed robberies. The cops and prosecutors didn't look too far into her alibi, if they even bothered at all (it's not clear they did).

She suing the lot and he's still going to court over the rape indictment.

I hope they both get their just rewards.

Carolyn Ann

How to annoy people... Or have an existential crisis (take your pick)

I'm not talking about Washington; its ability to create a crisis is, of late, unsurpassed by even Silvio Berlusconi. No, the admins of T-Central have, it seems, created a bit of a stir.

T-Central is a blog listing service. It's pretty close to a "planet" (a blog aggregation service), but what it is mostly is a service for the transwhatever community. As such, it's not going to be perfect for everyone. I've complained, for instance, that it is biased toward the highly prejudiced transsexual woman. It wasn't; my mistake was one of perception. It's not at all like the BBC, as Jenny suggested, but it does have a similar problem with "the optics".

You see, of late there's been a lot of animosity within the transwhatever community. When, as happened, some (three) highly prejudiced transsexual women started sharing their deep irrationalities with us, they discovered an able amplifier with T-Central. This led to the perception that T-Central favored one community over another; of no assistance whatsoever was Callie's use of "the crossdressers" at an inappropriate moment; when would be an appropriate moment for such a deplorable phrase? (Callie has since apologized, by the way.) On top of that a very highly prejudiced transsexual woman was re-instated to the list, with no explanation after having been evicted from it for her odious words. The optics suddenly looked very bad for T-Central. I don't know if the admins know it, but they still have some work to do on all that. Recovering a reputation for fairness isn't quite as easy as losing it! It actually doesn't matter that this perception was fed by the prolific prejudice of a few. It certainly didn't help that T-Central was late in responding to this whole mess.

So they've decided to do something about some of the animosity. I think it deeply unfair that some pointed to the volunteer admins of T-Central as being somehow at blame; at most they neglected to notice the fire they were stoking. (Until now.) They didn't start the whole fracas. In trying to sit on the sidelines and be "neutral", they left themselves open to criticism. Some of it undeserved, some of it well deserved.

Their response has been reasonable, within some limited parameters. Rather than continue with an opaque and arbitrary policy of inclusion or exclusion, they've asked their audience to vote on how to handle troublesome bloggers. This, apparently, has annoyed some people. The choices are immediate termination of the listing or a bloggers jail; both come with the possibility of parole. Interestingly, and probably wisely, comments aren't allowed on Jenny's blog post announcing the vote. Of the three comments I have seen, one person, Anonymous T-Girl,  demanded immediate removal from the list (I see it was granted) because she feared she would end up in the jailhouse, another, Teagan, stated pretty much that immediate removal is the only choice and is her modus operandi at PinkEssense while refusing to vote for that option, and yet another blogger, R, pines for the days when Lori ran it and it wasn't such an important part of the community. And then there's me. :-)

The T-Central volunteers, whom deserve the community's thanks and not their rotten tomatoes, didn't respond quickly enough to what was happening within the community. Indeed, they provided quite the loud hailer to one or two highly prejudiced individuals; for one they removed the device and then handed back a new, louder, one. That's not balance; it's not fair, and it's not balanced. While I would love to see those three spun off to a coven they are the only members of, I think the answer to T-Central's quandary isn't in what punishments they mete, but in the structure of their listings. In seeking "balance", the volunteers are taking on an impossible task. Striving for fairness, on the other hand, is easier. I don't know how (well I do, but I'm not saying) they could start that task. What I do know is that they need to stop chasing "balance" and start seeking fairness and consistency. It might help if the prejudiced aren't given a chance to define what T-Central is.

It is not "balance" when we give the bigot a loudspeaker, it is the advancement of their cause. Balance should not be sought, but fairness is a worthwhile goal.

Carolyn Ann

The cost of storing stuff (just went down. A lot.)

A long time ago, in a strange and distant part of the galaxy (New York City), I built a data center. A big data center. The storage part of that data center was expensive. I remember signing one invoice for over a million; another was half a million and so on. The entire storage infrastructure cost over three million dollars, if I remember it rightly. (It was all replaced with an EMC unit that, from what I heard, cost quite a lot more for quite a lot less.) The amount of storage I purchased was a lot, but it wasn't quite a terabyte, I don't think. (It was a long time ago.)

Anyway, I came across this article, which points to a blog where Backblaze details how they built, and you can build, a 135TB (that's a lot) of storage for, get this, less than $7,500! Building a petabyte of storage the Backblaze way would cost you about a hundred thousand; that much storage on Amazon would apparently cost you $2½M. So that's quite a saving.

If I were running a data center, these days, I'd do things a lot differently. It would be a hell of a lot of cheaper; the type of center I built, which was in the mid to high tens of millions if the rumors were correct (I didn't get to see the final cost breakdown because I left the company), I'd now be able to build for less than ten million. I'd also use a lot of wireless stuff, reducing the need for wires. Using virtualization, I'd have failsafe systems and no slow down at 9AM when everyone checks their email. I'd have fewer servers, that's a fact! With a corresponding reduction in air conditioning and power requirements.

There are times when I wish I was still in that field. But then I remember that I saw my coworkers more than I did the wife and the politics were brutal. And I'm glad someone else builds and runs the data centers I use for my projects. :-)

Carolyn Ann

I wouldn't want to be Andy Coulson right about now...

You know those old fashioned washing machines? The scrubbing boards and hand wringers? You washed your clothes on these machines and then hung them to dry on the line.

It seems that David Cameron got the order mixed up. It seems he's hung Andy Coulson out to dry and Scotland Yard is going to put him through the ringer when he's nice and dry... It seems someone thinks Mr Coulson lied to David Cameron.

That's not good. Not at all.

Right about now, Mr Coulson is probably thinking that Soviet Justice, while impeccably swift but not impeccably fair, had it about right. Scotland Yard is going to take their time with that washing machine. He won't come out clean, but at least his flaws will be visible...

Carolyn Ann

America was founded on secular principles, you idiot!

Jillian Page has a blog post up about some reactionary Christian twit. She quotes the piously bigoted chap as saying America was founded on Christian principles.

Erm, I beg to differ. America was founded on secular principles.

Really, it was. Look it up. :-) In fact, you don't even have to do that. If America was founded on Christian principles, they should be mentioned in The Constitution... Oh dear. They're not.

Unfortunately, Jillian's blog no longer allows comments, so I have to do that here.

Carolyn Ann

Lumping...

It seems that some individuals really can't separate the individual from "the pack". More than one or two Congressional Republicans, for instance. Apparently a lot of Tea Party supporters have trouble differentiating "all liberals" and that left-leaning person. One or two transsexual women ostensibly have a real problem figuring out that individuals within a community remain individuals. Some are gradually realizing that when one or two transgendered individuals voice their opinion, it is their opinion, an individual's opinion, not a community one.

I use it as a rhetorical device - I lump all right wingers into one despicable basket, for instance. But it is a rhetoric. I know that not all Christian conservatives are asinine dimwits; I know some are. I do know that the most vocal appear to relish the opportunity to show how lacking in nuance and sophistication of thought they are. Like some Left Wing Loonies always seem to be "against the man" even as they become what they are against.

The biggest difference between me and some individuals within the transwhatever community is that I won't describe an entire community as a pack of hyenas, simply because of my experiences with a few individuals within that community. There are a couple of individuals out there who don't seem to be able to get passed that point.

Carolyn Ann

Wow! It's a wall of heat out there!

I stepped outside and BAM! The heat and humidity hits you with ferocity!

Wow. It's going to be a miserable few days. I hope the power stays up.

Carolyn Ann

I don't think that was supposed to happen...

It seems that the Lesser Murdoch is now in some very hot water. He, apparently, forgot a small detail or two when he testified to Parliament the other day. It has resulted in the Prime Minister discovering he has a shard of backbone and an MP demanding a police investigation into the negligence.

When Messrs Murdoch appeared before Their Honorable Members, I think it was supposed to tamp things down a bit. But it seems the Lower Murdoch brought a bottle of gasoline instead.

Carolyn Ann

Words of wisdom

Word to live by?

How do you know who you are? Half the time I don't know who I am. Maybe even seven eighth's. Never mind. Forget it. For-get-it. But how can I forget it?  

Does it have something to do with language? 

... 

For instance, I say "hello" to my neighbor, "how are you?" and she says "my husband is crazy". Well, there you go. 

If we did sit in silence, you might notice hat there are many objects displayed around the apartment. Collections. Tangible evidence of history, memory. Longing, delight. 

There is my empty box collection.

From the Principles of Uncertainty, Maira Kalman. (The Penguin Press, 2007.)

Carolyn Ann

PS If you're in New York City, go to the Jewish Museum up on 92nd and 5th; they've got a wonderful exhibition of Maira Kalman's work, put together by Maira Kalman.

Progress!

The debt talks made some progress. Both sides agreed that no progress had been made.

I think The Onion has it right: "Congress Continues Debate Over Whether Or Not Nation Should Be Economically Ruined".

You know the worst of it? When I read this, attributed to Eric Cantor, I actually thought it was a real quote...

 "Obviously, we don't want to rush to consensus on whether it is or isn't a good idea to save the American economy and all our respective livelihoods from certain peril until we've examined this thorny dilemma from every angle. And if we’re still discussing this matter on Aug. 2, well, then, so be it.”

The problem was the "thorny dilemma" bit. Eric would never use such plain language. :-)

Of course, Dick "The Dick" Morris had to get in on the act. Apparently nothing will happen. The President is bluffing, etc. (See, I do read the blogs of unthinking knee-jerk reactionaries.) Let me see: ratings agencies would downgrade the dollar. That would send interest rates up. It would also imperil the dollar as the premier, the reserve, currency. After all, who's going to buy oil in dollars if they're not sure how much it will actually cost! Mr Morris should stick to his knitting. I hear he does a decent-ish sweater.

The rest of us might want to take up knitting. It'll be a useful skill to keep us warm in the forthcoming winters.

We're aaall dooomed! :-\

Carolyn Ann

Wanna buy an air conditioner?

102°F (39°C) predicted for the morrow.

Oh joy.

I think that Captain America movie looks very interesting. Especially the theater. It will have good air conditioning...

We might actually match, or even best (wilt..), the record high of 102, which was set in 1957. Oy vey.

Slowly basting,
Carolyn Ann

Urgent Excessive Pontification Warning

URGENT - POLITICAL WARNING MESSAGE
NATIONAL POLITICAL PONTIFICATION SERVICE WASHINGTON DC
106 PM EDT THU JUL 21 2011


...DANGEROUS PONTIFICATION WILL IMPACT THE ENTIRE NATION...


.OPPRESSIVE HEAT AND RIDICULOUS POSTURING WILL OVERSPREAD OUR AREA INTO YOURS RIGHT INTO THE WEEKEND AND BEYOND. THERE'S TWO WEEKS YET, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?


...EXCESSIVE POLITICAL PONTIFICATION WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL DEBT DEAL IS DONE... THIS IS BRINGING EXCESSIVE HEAT TO THE ENTIRE NATION BUT ESPECIALLY THE NORTH EAST...


AN EXCESSIVE HEAT AND POLITICAL PONTIFICATION WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL A DEBT DEAL IS DONE... OR THE REPUBLICANS COME TO THEIR SENSES... OR HELL FREEZES OVER... OR THE GLOBAL ECONOMY COLLAPSES...


* PONTIFICATION INDEX VALUES...REALLY HIGH THURSDAY... WE DIDN'T KNOW THEY COULD GO THAT HIGH FRIDAY...AND PROBABLY ABOUT THE SAME AS THAT SATURDAY.


* TIMING...PEAK HEAT INDEX VALUES WILL OCCUR DURING THE
PEAK NEWS SESSIONS AND THE WORST PONTIFICATIONS ARE EXPECTED FRIDAY
AFTERNOON AND POSSIBLY AGAIN SATURDAY AFTERNOON. ... WHENEVER THE REPUBLICAN HOUSE CAUCUS IS MEETING, IN OTHER WORDS...


* IMPACTS...THE COMBINATION OF HEAT AND EXCESSIVE PONTIFICATION WILL WILT EVEN THE MOST ARDENT POLITICAL JUNKIE. OTHERS WILL NOTICE WHEN THE REPUBLICANS MANAGE TO DESTROY THE ECONOMY. EXCESSIVE PONTIFICATION IS EXPECTED THIS WEEKEND. THIS MIGHT OCCUR RIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY... AND EVEN CONDITIONS AT NIGHT WILL REMAIN VERY WARM BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF CAMERAS, NEWS CREWS AND POLITICIANS IN WASHINGTON DC...
PONTIFICATION LEVELS MAY NOT DROP MUCH BELOW HYSTERIA; RIDICULOUS HYSTERICAL POSING WILL BE PREVALENT IN MOST SECTIONS OF WASHINGTON CONTAINING A POLITICIAN.


PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...


DRINK EXCESSIVELY. IT'S THE ONLY SOLUTION, REALLY. BESIDES, WASHINGTON NEEDS THE TAX REVENUES. SWITCH OFF THE TELEVISION OR TUNE TO SOME LAW & ORDER EPISODE. THERE'S BOUND TO BE ONE ON, THERE ALWAYS IS.


AN EXCESSIVE PONTIFICATION WARNING MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF DANGEROUS FALSE AND PLAINLY STUPID RHETORIC WILL OCCUR. THE COMBINATION OF IDIOTIC STATEMENTS AND STUPID POLITICIANS DIM PUNDITS DICK MORRIS AND FOX NEWS CAN INDUCE APOPLEXY AND INSOMNIA. THIS IS A DANGEROUS CONDITION AND CAN RESULT IN ENTERING POLITICS AS A TEA PARTY CANDIDATE. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS CONTAINING ALCOHOL. STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM; BARS ARE OFTEN AIR-CONDITIONED. STAY OUT OF THE SUN - IT'S TOXIC TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS - AND CHECK THAT NEIGHBORS AND RELATIVES ARE WATCHING THE DISNEY CHANNEL AND NOT FOX NEWS OR CNN. CNN IS OKAY, BUT MAKE SURE THEY STAY AWAY FROM FOX NEWS.

TAKE EXTRA PRECAUTIONS IF YOU WORK FOR CNN OR OTHER REPUTABLE NEWS OUTLET OR SPEND TIME WATCHING CNN. WATCHING FOX NEWS WILL INDUCE TORPIDITY AND STUPIDITY. DON'T DO IT. WHEN POSSIBLE... RESCHEDULE NEWS WATCHING ACTIVITY TO EARLY MORNING OR
EVENING. THAT'S WHEN THEY PUT ON THE FEEL-GOOD SHOWS. KNOW THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF POLITICAL PONTIFICATION AND AND HEAT STROKE. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS WITH ALCOHOL IN THEM. IT'S THE ONLY WAY OF GETTING THROUGH THIS DEBATE, I'M TELLING YOU.

TO REDUCE RISK DURING OUTDOOR WORK BECOME A POLITICIAN... THE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION RECOMMENDS SCHEDULING FREQUENT REST BREAKS FROM NEWS CHANNELS, ESPECIALLY FOX NEWS. IF EXCESSIVE NEWS WATCHING OCCURS, CALL 911. THEY'LL BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU A DOSE OF REALITY AS THEY ASK YOU FOR A DONATION IN ORDER TO SERVE YOU BETTER BECAUSE THE REPUBLICANS PUT HEDGE FUND MANAGERS BEFORE YOUR 911 SERVICE.

&&

$$

Friends With Antacids...

Yet another punch in the nose to American/Pakistan diplomatic and military relations.

It seems that Pakistan has been trying to influence Congress by funneling money through "less than open" channels. Which is a no-no. China was caught doing that some time ago. They were told it was a no-no, too.

At the height of the cold war I don't think the Soviet Union and America gave each other so much bellyaching. The need for antacids on both sides of that particular fence is indisputable. That these two nations are supposed to be allies is, well, baffling.

Both nations can say "with friends like you, I don't need enemies!"

On the other hand, Pakistan has the ISI. They make Rumsfeld's Pentagon look competent.

Which, you have to agree, is something worth mentioning.

Carolyn Ann

Agincourt ain't what it seems

Agincourt is one of those battles you learn about as an English school kid. A fine moment in English history! A glorious victory for the English way! (Despite the fact that any such English way, whatever that was/is, was a few hundred years in the future.) It was up there with the Battle of Britain! (I don't recall much mention of The Somme, however... Can't think why.)

What went unmentioned when I was told of that glorious battle was the field. It was recently plowed mud bath. The English stood still (another detail no one really mentioned.) The French troops had to walk across the battlefield to do battle. (That was mentioned.) They were slaughtered, basically. Another bit that was never mentioned was the massacre of the prisoners. King Henry wasn't keen on providing for them or allowing the opportunity to exact revenge, apparently. So he had them murdered. Did I mention it was a glorious day for England?

Now, I knew the French made a serious of really stupid blunders. Going to the English, for instance. Not realizing that tramping across a recently plowed and very muddy field isn't the best idea, is another example. Not actually having a battle plan was probably their biggest problem. ("What are we going to do?", "You've seen the war movies, oui?" "Oui" "CHAAarrrggge! Oy vey! This mud!"...) But who knew their defensive armor was such a hinderance?

It makes sense, however. I've often stood in front of old armor - I love the display at the Met - and wondered how in the world the chap wearing it actually fought! No wonder afternoon tea is a such a staple of English life! Those poor warriors needed the break! The wonder is they didn't form a union...

Carolyn Ann

The Guardian notes OS X Lion's arrival...

The Guardian must have decided to "celebrate" the launch of OS X Lion with some stories about wild animals. A fascinating story about a Great White shark leaping onto a research vessel, a report about when you're most likely to be eaten and a leopard that made a brave, but ultimately foolish, attempt to turn a forester into lunch. (Warning, the last one is NOT for the squeamish. It's quite horrifying, actually.)

If you'll excuse me, I think I'll go hide under the bedcovers. After I've checked for monsters under the bed. :-)

Carolyn Ann

PS Oh, they have a story about Andy Coulson, too... ;-)

Meow.

So people were lined up, camping out and waiting for The Steve to personally hand them their brand spanking new copy of OS X Lion! :-)

Oh? They weren't, apparently. And Apple released it (OS X Lion, not The Steve) quietly online this morning.

I like Lion. It's neat. It has some interesting paradigms and some slightly disruptive new conventions. (You know something? It's taken me 10 years to almost "not dislike" that word. Remember when it so popular, and a "paradigm shift" was used to describe ordering a different sandwich? Yeah, me too.) One of the new conventions is swiping "up" to go up a page and swiping "down" to go down it. It took me about 2 seconds to get used to it. Now, when I switch to Snow Leopard, the previous release, I get confused. That works the way MS Windows works. Not bad if that what you're used to, but when your primary input device isn't a mouse, it's kinda "not obvious". I use a trackpad; it's basically a small sheet of aluminum with some batteries at the top. It's connected via Bluetooth and the MacBook has a smaller version just below the keyboard. It's wonderful. :-)

Lion is probably the last OS X release. What else could they call the next release? Kitty Kat? Maxine? (Max is fierce. And cute. And cuddly. And she has me wrapped around her paw.) "We now release OS X Maxine!" Everyone would run away because she's so fierce. 5lbs of ferocity and attitude that girl is! :-) (When she was a kitten, just found, about a pound and a half of attitude, the staff at the vets put a "Fierce Cat" sign on her cage. Little did they know...)

However, while Apple has infamously draconian nondisclosure agreements, I can tell you that The Steve has not approached us about using Max for the next release of OS X. Therefore, this is probably the last imaginatively named operating system. ... Not that "Lion" is all that imaginative when you've named everything after big cats. It's kind of obvious, really. :-)

(I don't think Simba is going to be the next release, either.)

Anyway, OS X Lion is fully buzzword compliant. It's also easy to use and a bugger to download. 4GB. Imagine trying to download that over HughesNet. On the other hand, you can pop into your local Apple store and download it there. If you live in area that demands you use something like HughesNet (satellite internet; think "fast if you were in the 1950's") your local Apple store is going to be... About the same time away as simply downloading the damn thing in the first place. If you drive to your nearest Apple store, you can't do anything while you're driving and if you're downloading four gigabytes of OS X over a tenuous link like HughesNet, you're not likely to do anything but watch the progress bar. ... Do the drive, it's more interesting.

One of the things I really like about Lion is the App Store. I've not spent any money in it, yet. (That's mostly because I don't have any.) But I have downloaded some apps; you click "Install" and off it goes. No more "dmg" files, no "place this in Applications" (easy as that is). Click install, and the computer does the rest for you. Simple. I like simple. :-)

Another feature is the "full screen" mode. I love that. I use it often. Unfortunately the only two apps that support it are Safari (the browser) and iPhoto. I'm sure other apps do, but I don't have them or their updates. Still, it's quite a wonderful feature. It's one of those "you need to try it" things.

I'm not fond of the "Launchpad". It looks like an anemic version of MS Windows 3.1, but with more glitz. Finder is better; it's no longer a 2 bit holdover from Mr Job's days of switch flipping. Mail is better, but I still think Outlook 2003 or whatever it was is better still. I can't stand the new iCal. All that ersatz "leather"; it reminds me of cheap plastic car interiors from the 1970's. (Note to Apple: don't make your customers feel old.) It still doesn't come with a cheerful "paint" program. And Applescript isn't a patch on Hypercard and never will be. Although I'm starting to like Applescript; it reminds me of what Visual Basic could be. (I *love* Visual Basic, by the way.)

I'm trying to think of something "explosive" to say about OS X Lion. A "News of The World" headline, if you will. Without the phone hacking. And I can't. It's a competent operating system. It does things a little differently. The net-net of it all is that OS X Lion is the OS to have if you have a decent Mac and it raised the bar for Microsoft in quite unexpected ways. In "magnetic power cord*" ways.

I love it because it works with me.

Carolyn Ann

*Apple's laptops come with a power cord that doesn't plug in. It's held in place by little magnetics; yank the thing and all that happens is the laptop switches to battery. I've had one or two laptops that didn't have that feature. Once you have it, it's one of those "so simple" things that makes owning a Mac so, well, pleasurable! Oh, Apple owns the patent on it and won't license it to anyone. I think that's the legal equivalent of "nah nah!" and sticking your tongue out. :-P

Gay marriage is coming to New York! :-)

From Sunday, gay folk in New York can get married.

You know what that means, right? Members of the Transgender Borg Collective will be able to marry! And no one will be able to stop them marrying whomever they like!

The shock! The horror! And other downright dastardly denunciations!

Really. :-)

Another unknown barrier will fall. Yeah, it started to look wobbly when Massachusetts allowed gay marriage, back in the Stone Ages, but I think it will take New York to make it topple. What am I talking about? Oh, the possibility that some same-sex couple will refer to themselves as husband and wife because one of them prefers it that way. What if you get a marriage between two transgendered people*? My goodness, the world did become confusing.

*I'm sure it's happened already. What I'd like to see are pictures... :-)

So, if two people with, lets say, a penis each (penii?) get married and one wears a wedding gown and prefers to be known as "the wife", what does that mean? Anything? ... Anyone? Anyone? No? That's because it doesn't mean anything to anyone except the happy couple.

The sand upon which some which build their prejudice is shifting yet again. You'd think they'd figure it out and abandon their bigotry. But since when has reason been a part of prejudice?

Hurrah for equal marriage rights! :-)

Carolyn Ann

Mitch, you wouldn't, would you?

When Mitch McConnell, the head of the Senate Republicans, said he would anything to make sure Barack Obama was a one-term president, I don't think anyone realized he would willingly run the American, and global, economy into the ground in furtherance of that goal.

What idiots we were.

Carolyn Ann

People 101

Okay, we're going to go through some difficult concepts here. You should pay attention.

Ready? Here goes:

People come in many different:
shapes
sizes
colors
capabilities
intellects
sexualities
genders

Still with me? Good.

Your first homework exercise is this:
Sit at a café table, drink some coffee or whatever and watch the world. Observe the people who walk by your table; if it's raining, the café. (If you're in New Jersey, please find somewhere other than the medial strip of the Turnpike. In short, don't get arrested. Getting arrested will result in a failing grade.)

You'll notice those people come in different:
shapes
sizes
colors

You might notice they have different:
gender clues
clothing
identifications

How can you tell what gender someone is? What if they're particularly feminine looking, but male? Or a masculine looking female? How do we prove someone is of the gender we assume them to be? Are they transsexual? Does it matter if they are or aren't?  How can you tell? Why is it important to differentiate? Do we need to grope everyone to prove their gender? Is there a better test?

For your first essay, please write why you are no better or worse than someone who expresses their gender differently to you. Bonus points will be awarded to anyone who observes that gender is not absolute. A passing grade will be automatically awarded to anyone who notes that groping someone to check their gender is likely to land you in jail. As previously noted, a failing grade will be given to those who get arrested or whom advocate getting arrested because that's the only test they can think of.

If you did your personal observation on the medial strip of the New Jersey Turnpike or by standing on that bit of concrete in the middle of the Blue Route, please take another course.

Carolyn Ann

When what...What?!?

"When what you want to do is add a few methods..."

Huh? Whatever happened to "When you want to add a few methods..."? It's only three fewer words, but it's a lot better. Okay. How about: "To add a few methods..." Five words and it clearly got up this morning. I like "To add methods...". Three words. Conveys exactly the same meaning.

There's making a word earn its living and there's making a living for a word.

I love English, but oy vay! ;-)

Carolyn Ann

Oh joy...

Oh joy. Look what we have to look forward to...

Carolyn Ann

There might (not) be an aspirin for that...

There's a lot of folk who think they're exempt from criticism. They've always been around, but have usually had the decency to not mention their arrogance. Well, it seems, these days, that crying about being criticized is all the rage!

Paul Ryan does it. Eric Cantor does it. John Boehner actually turns on the waterworks. A certain transsexual woman does it. Many Republicans do it. More than one or two transsexual women do it. It's as if we're in an epidemic of "you can't criticize me! I'll cry if you do!"

I don't think aspirin make a tablet for that.

Carolyn Ann

The Boondocks of New Jersey, a guide to the future of America?

One of the great [...] things about living in the boondocks of New Jersey (I'll bet you didn't know New Jersey had boondocks, did you? :-) ) is that when the weather is really bad you have to sit it out, wondering if the power will fail.

We have DirecTV. It goes out in bad weather. A bad snow storm or thunderstorm? No telly. Verizon has us on some microwave link. So if there's a bad storm a dozen miles north of here, we lose the internet as well. So no weather.com or noaa.gov. Until recently, about 18 months ago, we couldn't get cell phone service except in one place - by the right hand side of the piano in the dining room and whatever you do, don't move. You'll lose the signal and it won't come back.

In Brooklyn we never had power outages, except that one in 2003 that affected about half the planet. (Or perhaps it was the north eastern United States. I forget which... :-) ) DirecTV went out once a year*, just prove it could. (The Time-Warner cable system went out when it fancied a pint, which was often. And the internet connection failed every time, and I mean literally every time, someone went into the "primary connection point", those phone cable boxes you see at the side of the road. It got so bad I went up there with a phone tech and walked him through basic wiring. Really. I did.) Where was I?

* Perhaps it was slightly more often. Memories can be wonderfully pointedly selective... :-)

Oh yeah. Expressing my displeasure about the wonderful services we enjoy around here.

Let me see. We live in the most heavily populated state in the union. It's the twenty-first century. We have lots of things like electricity, telephones, cellphones, televisions, and something called the internet. We've had these things for a long time, even the internet. What I wonder is why firms like Atlantic Electric and Verizon and AT&T and DirecTV can't figure out how to make them work like they're in the same century as the rest of us. Instead, they pretend and send us the missives and left-over mailings they wrote back in the 1990's. You know why? Because under George W. Bush, these companies realized it was cheaper to buy politicians to protect their interests than it was to actually improve their offerings or welcome actual competition.

Welcome to the conservative vision of America. It's not great, but you're told it is.

Carolyn Ann

They are not grand

When you define others, you define yourself. And not in the way you think. :-)

We live in a funny old world. People wear the strangest things, identify the oddest ways and generally act themselves at every opportunity. Some do, some don't. Some can, some can't. We're a society of plurality. Different skin tones, different sexualities, different politics, different religions and different people.

So defining others is basically a task for those who would rather stick to an era that actually never existed.

We've long passed the point where you have to pass a test to be defined as something or other, because people are so diverse it's often pointless trying to define them! So what if that chap wants to wear a flowery skirt? Is anyone going to stop him? So what if that person wants to define themselves as a man, a woman, beyond gender? If they're full of it, fine. If not, fine. It's America, in the twenty-first century.

No one said that you're claim can't be challenged. No one said your prejudice is right. No one said that you can denigrate others and not be called on your denigration.

The people who want, need, to denigrate "the Tee-Gees", the "TG entity", "the crossdressers" and so on? They define themselves. They try to define others, but they tell the world "I can't cope with others living as they want to, even as I demand the right to live as I want!" They tell the world they're small minded and prejudiced. They tell the world they can't see past their petty grievance, their squalid prejudice. Instead of welcoming and enjoying the diversity of people, they seek to impose and limit others so they may feel satisfied.

You can disagree with people and still consider them persons. You can disagree with someone's ideas while respecting them. In fact, it's essential if you're going to work within the political sphere. And if you're busy defining (and disparaging) others, you're definitely within the Realm of Fools. I make no bone about my languid troupe within that dominion. Those who seek to disparage the transgender and the crossdresser and the drag queen alike play the fool by denying they are performing within it, too. Their prejudice exposes their insecurity and the laxity of their vision and the rigidity of their wit. They should mind the gap, the gaping maw, that separates their fantasy from their reality.

The world moves on, accepting ideas it never entertained or even thought could exist. These prejudiced transsexual women, like all bigots, cling to immovable blocks. Their supporters merely admire the blocks, but move without thought from one prejudice to the other. While the world moves on, these people cling to a past that never existed. They cling to definitions that require groping tests and demand voices they seek to deny others.

The world might be grand, but these transsexual women are, assuredly, not.

Carolyn Ann

Casual, expected, prejudice

It was with bemused disappointment that, today, I realized the transsexual bigotry toward the transgendered has passed from the few to being an accepted and "acceptable" part of being a transsexual woman.

I saw a mention on T-Central of "Hung", an HBO TV show, on "Enough Nonsense". It wasn't a review of the show, it was a comment on a blog post by Monica Roberts on her blog "Transgriot". To continue setting this increasingly complex table, the show is, apparently, about some chap who becomes a male escort. And one of his (new) clients is a transgender/transsexual woman. Whom is played by, appropriately enough, a transsexual woman. With me so far? (Good... I got lost awhile back!) :-)

Okay, the creator of the show, Colette Burson, said something in an TV Guide interview: "[T]he idea of kissing a man was not a comfortable one for him, but he did great," [...] "They had to kiss for hours. After his initial shyness, she became a woman for him."

Phew. It only seems complicated. :-)

So, anyway, Ms Roberts objects to the "kissing a man" bit, whomever writes "Enough Nonsense" (EN from hereon) objects to Ms Roberts' statement: "A transwoman is a WOMAN, irregardless of the genitalia between her legs." Actually, I think EN objects to Ms Roberts, but that's for them to figure out.

Anyway, aformeroldfriend said, at the end of a comment:  "I guess the Tee-Gees are all drinking from the same jar of Stupid-Water."

(Whew! I knew I'd get there in the end... :-) )

It's quite sad, really, to see such derogatory commentary. Considering some of the "discussions" I've been in lately, I'd say that the prejudice toward the transgendered is becoming commonplace; indeed, it's getting to the point now where if I notice a transsexual woman's blog, I expect her to be prejudiced against the transgendered. I'm surprised infrequently.

Once upon a time I would have been dismayed by that. These days I merely expect it. And that's the sad bit.

Carolyn Ann

The soft-shoe and it was abysmal

I'm trying to come up with a headline for a post about Messrs Murdoch and their Dog and Pony Show.

Here are some I thought of:

Rupert Murdoch: I'm oblivious
James Murdoch: I'm almost as oblivious as my Dad
Loyalty, when you toss your friends under the bus
"I might as well be senile" admits Rupert
"Truth? You can't handle the truth! And neither can we!"
"The Red Head can burn for this one"
Rupert: we're too incompetent to know what we're doing!
James Murdoch knows BizSpeak (Dad doesn't)
...
And a few more.

Basically, the pickings are rich. Both Rupert and James Murdoch, the father and son comedy show, put on their best ties and tried to plead incompetence. I wouldn't describe their performance as a poor showing, but I would describe it as an abysmal one.

All in all, they skated around the questions, tossed their lieutenants under the nearest bus and pleaded that they are too incompetent to actually run the corner newsstand, never mind a multi-national media firm.

Mind you, their questioners weren't that much better. They left so many things unasked it's a wonder they bothered showing up. I don't think it was so much an exercise in investigation but an effort by some to whip their tormentor(s). Unfortunately they purchased their whip from the soggy paper store. I think James may have been the salesman.

Carolyn Ann

A trifle warm...

It's over 98°F (37°C) out there.

The NOAA says the high should be 94°F. I think they got that one wrong! On the other hand, they're saying Thursday and Friday will be "Hot". The heatwave that's been hanging over the midwest will make its way over here; and then it'll probably hit Britain and Europe mid to late next week.

In here, I'm debating "summer dress" or "nothing" (well, not much at all)... :-)

Carolyn Ann

Borders closes its doors

So Borders is closing.

I can't say Im surprised. Disappointed, yes, surprised? No.

They've made so many basic mistakes it's a wonder they've survived this long! The CEO said the company, indeed the entire book-selling market, has faced some "headwinds". You could say that, but that doesn't excuse them from (excuse the French) pissing into it!

Their first mistake was a massive, rapid, expansion program. It seemed that they opened up in places simply because Barnes & Noble were there. But they opened their store in the most obscure mall or strip mall they could find! It's as if they prized low rents over access but wanted the access, anyway. "Location, location, location" is as relevant, if not more relevant, today than it ever was. B&N open on the edge of large malls; Borders opens awhile down the road. Just out of sight. Where you can forget they're there. (Or, in many places I've been, simply can't find them!) I never felt Borders was a threat to independent booksellers the way Barnes & Noble is. (According to the updated story in the Times, they really were a threat!)

And then there was the deal with Amazon. Great for Amazon. Not so great for Borders. I'm still trying to figure out how such an arrangement could have been considered good for Borders. What did they do, call Amazon and say "We'd like to offer you our customers..." It was an incredibly short-sighted deal. They tried competing with a loyalty program; B&N's costs $25 a year, they offered it for free, but if you signed on to their "Borders Rewards Plus" program, which cost $20, you got an extra 10%. I don't think they looked at the economics of the whole program. B&N relies on the $25 to offset some of the discount; they know most people will use it for coffee, a high-margin product. Borders seems to have forgotten that bit. The only thing the Borders Rewards program was good for was the occasional, and arbitrary, $5 "BordersBucks". A discount you got after spending so much, the actual amount needed to trigger the discount being unknown. It came in handy a time or two, sure. But it wasn't consistent and if I didn't get the email saying I had it, I'd go to B&N to purchase my book. The discount was consistent. On the other hand, I now shop at Amazon! The publication quality is better on some books and the prices are adorable. (Yes, I really did say that.)

Late to the electronic reader market, they might as well as not bothered. They never set up a dedicated channel; indeed, the ads for the latest one tell me they'll mail it to me (if I bought it, that is). What ever happened to instant gratification? Whatever happened to putting the thing in the store and actually selling it? I still don't know what one looks like!

I could go on, but I think you get the picture. Some poor decisions and being saddled with a tremendous amount of debt meant they were in a losing position before they got up in the morning. They had some good qualities: real depth to their selections, their hiring of older workers, willingness to accept returns, and so on. For awhile there, in our Period Of Severe Austerity, our weekly night out was a cup of coffee at a Borders. You could tell the corporation cared about books and music. I still prefer them over B&N, which seems to consider books mere commodities, the sales of which are to be shifted to their Nook reader. You never get the idea that B&N actually like the product they sell; with Borders, you know they do.

Unfortunately, they made some bone-headed decisions and were victims of one or two too many takeovers. They'll be missed in the marketplace.

Carolyn Ann

Never mind God - here's the 405 without traffic!

An astonishing neat photo gallery from The Guardian about the 405 Carmaggedon. :-)

Enjoy!

Carolyn Ann

Godless morality video

I've not watched it, yet (it's late, I want to go to bed and so on, etc), but The Guardian is highlighting a video about godless morality. :-)

Carolyn Ann

The important news of the day (some of it, anyway)

Well that was quite the day in news!

Rebekah Brooks gets arrested, the head of Scotland Yard quits and the 405 is finished early. I'm not sure which is the more important item... :-) (Just kidding, of course the 405 is the most important item! :-D )

I sat there, stunned, when it scrolled by on Candy Crowley's Sunday morning talk show: Rebekah Brooks, arrested for her part in the nefarious misdoings of News International. I didn't think the "but I'm too incompetent to have known what was going on!" defense would work. But when you peddle that to the international press, you'd better make sure it's actually true.

Sir Paul Stephenson has it in for Mr Cameron. That's not a surprise. What is a bit of an eye-brow popper is the rapidity of the statement. So much for any good old boys club, what what? The man is probably a good cop, but was brought down because he failed to police the one thing that needed policing: the force's relationship with the press.

What will Law & Order UK make of it all? :-)

The 405 getting finished is good news. What I've never understood is how road builders in LA can build an entire freeway before lunch and New York and New Jersey need a decade to lay down a few miles that has fewer lanes! Seriously, a ten or fifteen mile stretch of I-295 has been under construction for about 2 years. It's not finished, yet. Once upon a time I spent a fair amount of time out in LA; it seemed the road building crews were just ahead of the traffic. In New York they charge you parking fees when they do potholes on the Belt or the BQE.

(One of the more interesting traffic jams I was in was caused by some "fashion shoot". A van had stopped, and some girls were getting their pictures taken against the traffic on the Gowanus/BQE section. They were really quick - before any cops could get there, they were done, in the van and off!)

New York City can get 34th Street, between 7th and 8th repaved overnight - and that's no small task! (I know; I was working late, and left when the road crews were ripping up the old surface. When I got in far too early, a few hours later, they were removing the bollards, having laid an entirely new road surface.) But when it comes to highways? Fuggedaboutit. Like New Joisey, they take forever. And Mr Moses "blessed" most of the NYC highways with "impossible to navigate" entry and exit ramps. Hence the impossible insurance rates.

I don't know about London; they weren't the best at road maintenance when I lived there. And I took the Tube and cabs everywhere!

See? The 405 is definitely the more important story. Now what was that about James Murdoch? He might be arrested too?

Carolyn Ann

Arrested?!?

Rebekah Brooks, arrested?!?

Now I know why she quit on Friday - she had that appointment with the Old Bill!

I'm getting whiplash with this whole thing. Is James Murdoch, or even Rupert Murdoch, next?

Carolyn Ann

The trial (with due apologies to Mr Kafka)

"But he made us do it, yer 'onor. 'e's a tranny you see and 'e 'as it in fer us."
...
"Why? Yer 'onor, it's because 'e's a man in a dress, you see. I've never bin a man in a dress, yer 'onor, no sir I ain't, I've been a girl, pretty li'l girl, since day I wuz born! But I was born in wrong body you see, so when 'e came along I 'ad no choice, I 'ad to kick the daylights out on 'im!"
...
"Why, no, yer 'onor, I don't fink 'e deserves any respect wotsoever! 'e likes wearing frocks and frocks is fer women to wear, not men!"
...
"Pre-op? I don't know about tha' yer 'onor. If theys a woman, theys a woman and that, har har, is that! As they tells me, anyways yer 'onor."
...
"All I knows is that 'e is a man in a dress and 'e was oppressing me! I 'ad to do 'is 'ead in. Wot else was I goin' to do? Let 'im live as 'e saw fit? Can't do that, yer 'onor, ain't right a man wearing a dress! Ain't right at all!"
...
"'Oo? Germaine Greer? No, yer 'onor, I don't likes 'er much. She keeps saying I'm a man in a dress, but I ain't. I've 'ad surgery and I've always been a girl, me. A pre'y li'l girl. From the day I wuz born to my ol' Mum."
...
"Wha'? Yer 'onor, me Mum don' speak to me on account of my surgery. Keeps tellin' me it was the Lord's decision and I should abide by it. But I didn't, 'cause... Yes, yer 'onor?"
...
"No, me Mum didn't say I wuz born a girl. No one said that. No one asked me, yer 'onor. I'd've tol' 'em, I would 'ave. I'd've tol' 'em I'm a girl, if I could've, har har har, but no one asked. They said I was a boy but I weren't!"
...
"'im, not know what gender 'e is? How's that? We all know our gender, yer 'onor! Har har har. 'e's a bloke an' I'm a girl. That's why I was doin' 'im you see, because he were oppressing me."
...
"'ow? By wearing a dress! If that ain't oppressing me, I don' know what is!"
...
"Accept 'im? 'e's doing me an 'arm 'e is, yer 'onor!"
...
"By wearing a dress!"
...

Carolyn Ann

That sounds really difficult. It probably is.

I don't know if you've ever noticed, but it's really difficult to oppress others when you're trying not to be noticed by anyone.

That, unfortunately, punctures a really big hole in the argument that "the crossdressers" are doing some dastardly deed to certain, or all, transsexual women.

(Don't tell those bigots; it was already sinking.)

Carolyn Ann

Laziness demolishes another barrier!

I'm expecting a package from Amazon (who else sends packages, these days?). A quick check this morning showed it was on the truck for delivery. I was quite excited! :-)

As I was at the top of the stairs, loading the washing machine, I thought "I wonder if it's been delivered?" I could go down the stairs, they are right there, as is the front door, and check. But no. I go into the wife's office (which I currently share), and look up my package on Amazon. They tell me it was delivered a few hours ago.

So now I have to go all the way downstairs (the hardships keep piling up, don't they... ;-) ) and get my package.

Yippee! It's a book and a copy of Sydney Pollack's interview/documentary with Frank Gehry, "Sketches of Frank Gehry". I loved it in the theater; I remember making a special trip to NY to watch it at a theater near Lincoln Center. And I saw it once, at (I think) the National Museum in DC, but it was about $60. Amazon had a copy for about ten bucks, so I ordered it.

I'm really looking forward to watching that, again. :-)

And it took me a lot longer to do all and write this than it would have taken for me to pop downstairs and take a peek at the front deck. :-) Laziness demolishes another barrier. Actually, it's the same one as always.

Carolyn Ann

PS I'll swear Amazon's books are larger than the ones in the store. That's twice I've ordered something from them and it's bigger than the copy I read/peered at in Barnes & Noble. Go figure.

We need to destroy that to save it...

The Tea Party are making a lot of noise about balancing budgets. Town budgets, city budgets, county budgets, state budgets and even the Big One: the Federal budget. They're promising newly minted lawmakers hell on earth, or at least a primary challenger, if they fail to secure the nation's demise. By voting for an increase in the debt ceiling. (Political courage? Oh never mind that! )

What's funny is how many of the Tea Party governors are now looking at the Feds and saying "Erm, we didn't really mean what we said... Can you keep sending us money? Lots of money? Pretty please?" They're willing to annoy lots of voters, ride roughshod over established political process and so all sorts of damage to their credibility and trustworthiness, but when it comes to Washington DC actually not paying them? It's like they've changed party. Or something.

What's really astonishing is that the Tea Partiers are so blinkered. If you don't pay your bills, the people you owe money to object. If you owe those people lots and lots of money, their objections don't get louder. They start dictating what you have to do to pay them back. Greece, Spain and Ireland have some experience on that. So why would people like Michelle Bachmann insist that nothing untoward would happen if the US stopped paying its bills? She's not delusional. Such a perception is beyond delusion; it's beyond idiocy, to be honest. We're talking "raving lunatic" or "willfully obstinate and stupid". But worse.

Of course, many of the Tea Partiers don't mind. At Glenn's exhortation they invested a few thousand dollars in gold. Which will be worthless if the dollar actually does crash.

Since the whole "Supply Side" economic mania really took hold, the US has gone from a nation that enjoyed budget surpluses and prosperity to one that has seen three or four major fiscal crises in the last 3 years! Let me see... Tea Party mania started about, what, oh 3 years ago? They rose to power very quickly, aided by lots of money from rich benefactors. And we've had the anemic response to the Great Recession, the brinkmanship of the budget deal, a reduction in tax revenues without any reduction in government spending, a staggering economy and now the dollar is actually on the line. What is their philosophy? That they hate Mr Obama so much they're willing to destroy the US and global economy to make him a one-term president? That they're so keen on implementing an unworkable vision of economic goodness and social conservatism that they, a minority, will implement a Mai Lai strategy and drive the US economy into the ground so that their circle of hell is the only one left?

You know what's scary about that? Both of those have a ring of truth to them.

Oh dear...

Carolyn Ann

And the prize for advancing democracy goes to... Wait! What? Who?

Vladimir Putin was going to get a prominent prize for advancing freedom and democracy.

Really. Yes, you read that correctly: a group of clearly witless people were going to give Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia, a prize for freedom and democracy. Fortunately some other people, folk who'd retained their wits, noticed.

The prize won't be awarded this year, after all.

Carolyn Ann

So that's where that is...

That was an interesting find...

I decided to put the fan up in the wife's office. It's been sitting there for some time (5 years...) waiting for me to renovate the place. But between money issues, design issues, procrastination issues, "do I really want to move that big heavy bookcase issues and any other issue I can think and a few that I can't, I've never gotten around to hanging the thing.

The box has been sitting there, a dust collecting piece of furniture for so long I didn't know what was in it. So I took a look.

So that's where my really good wire snip are! And my really good needle nose pliers! And those screwdrivers... In fact, everything I need to hang the fan is in a bag. The only thing missing is the actual hanger itself. I have no idea where that went; no matter, they're easy enough to find at the Home Depot! Guess where I'm heading to?

Carolyn Ann

Hackneyed bitterness

(Oops. There seems to have been a formatting/editing error! This new Blogger editor does some strange things. I've rearranged it!)

I couldn't sleep; it bothers me that someone I respected would use the term "TG entity" to describe a class of people; the context was similar to "Transgender Borg". The insult was faintly more polite in its delivery but just as platitudinous. Anyway, the discussion has a new target, Autumn Sandeen (I'm not quite sure why) and a new venue, Ariel's blog. I feel badly for both Autumn and Ariel; neither invited the "discussion", but it arrived on their doorsteps anyway.

I'm getting fed up of it all. It's inane. A group that, should it ever actually exist, historically hides in the shadows and checks into anonymous hotels and motels simply to slip on a dress and a pair of heels for a few hours has become this mythical creature, intent upon harvesting the birthright of every transsexual woman out there. Yeah, right.

Anyway, I've left a couple of comments on Ariel's blog. She might not publish them, but the second comment I thought worth preserving:

Just out of pure curiosity, I can't help wonder how a group that is so "underground" that (allegedly) many wives don't know of their husband's fondness for dresses and heels can pack so much political power. 

A transsexual woman has to make a public statement about herself; at some point she may, or may not, be able to put her medical history behind her. From what I can gather, the "TG entity/Borg/whatever" have to wait for quiet moments, deceive their wives and children. How the heck does such a group become a powerful political force that needs to be countered with insults, demagoguery and vitriol?  

Thinking about the transgender community, I can't imagine that people who simply want a chance to express some femininity pose that much of a danger to those who have to state their gender identification in public!  

Are the few efforts at equal treatment before the law  that dangerous to the transsexual woman? It's not as if those efforts are coordinated! And, to be honest, I've never seen any of them spell out "we want equality, but not for transsexual women!" I've seen the rather brave proponents of these efforts argue that gender and gender identification should not matter when it comes to equal opportunities.  

It's as if the efforts of some are seen as the denigration of others! Some individuals might not like transsexual women, but some transsexual women veritably despise the transgendered! All that proves is that people can be sodding fools regardless of gender, gender identification, genitalia or attire. 

Everyone is an individual and unless you can prove there's some damned conspiracy to oppress you, I can only suggest that such theories really are normalizing hysteria. Accept each other for what we bring to the table; debate ideas, strive for political goals. No one ever said anyone had to like anyone else, and only the naive would think such. No one but the ignorant ever said "Not A" is always equal to "B", either. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. But that seems does seem to be the firm opinion of some! 

Surely putting an entire group down, denying the existence of it and its members while vilifying that very same group and its members demeans the utterer more than it does the target of the hackneyed bitterness?  

Surely that is so?

Surely?

Carolyn Ann

Ah. Now we know why Ms Brooks was kept on...

Apparently News International will, in a number of newspapers, run a full page apology. Before launching the Sun on Sunday. In time for the start of the football season.

Call me cynical, but isn't that a bit, er, cynical?

Now I understand why Rupert wanted to keep Rebekah Brooks on board. What was that old line again? Oh yeah, meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. In this case it's not even metaphorical.

That didn't last long. The first thing I see, this morning, is "She's Gone".

Carolyn Ann

Hazardous weather...

The hazardous weather statement for this area:

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
935 PM EDT THU JUL 14 2011

[...]
[list of counties]
935 PM EDT THU JUL 14 2011

...COASTAL FLOOD ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 AM EDT FRIDAY...

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR CENTRAL DELAWARE AND SOUTHERN
NEW JERSEY.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT.

PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE
INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS.

   [...]

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY.

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

Ah, okay. The hazardous weather statement at this time is that there is no hazardous weather at this time.

I wondered why it was so nice out. :-)

Carolyn Ann

Fast drive to nowhere

Sometimes I just like to get in a car and drive fast. I have a little routine for it, too. I get in the car, do some deep breathing, refocus the mind and picture the first part of the drive. I know the road, the curves and straights. I know the sight lines, even with the rapidly growing corn fields bordering the road. I know the camber of the curves, the road surface and any potential problems I'll deal with when I come across them.

Now, the wife's car, I call it "push button driving", isn't especially fast. But fetching a pizza and some beer on a motorcycle is a task best contemplated and not actually attempted. (Now, how would I know that..? :-) ) On the other hand I've done 30 miles in 37 minutes in (with?) the thing. (Think about that for a moment.) So I edged out of the driveway, reminding myself I need to cut that tree back a bit (I also need to see if I actually own the thing, because if I don't, it's the county's job, not mine), and set off.

Taking it reasonably steady through the residential bit down the road, I got to my first interesting corner: a right hander with an odd camber and a loose surface if you hit it wrong. Half way to the corner, I positioned the car on the center line of the road; peering through the corner, I eased the throttle down and gently turned the car; I felt its position, its poise and concentrated on looking through the corner. Just before I needed to, this is a public road after all, I lifted the throttle and, barely giving the car time to settle, hit the anchors! Just enough to rub off a few miles an hour; the car slid through the corner staying in the lane before settling down to accelerate to the junction.

My next challenge is a downhill right; it has a blind apex, but a long sweep if you know where to go. I kept my speed steady; some twit behind me in a GMC SUV wanted to prove he be fast, too. I was at the cornering speed, so all I had to do was position and control the car. He fell back as he chickened out of the corner. Then come the S's; they look positively dangerous, but that's because one curve has a camber problem and all of it has a bad road surface and the whole thing dips into a small basin. I can take them at 120 on the Duc and 50 on the Vespa... (Huh? She goes that fast?) In the wife's car, 60 to 65 depending on conditions; today it was 65. Until I caught up with a caravan of SUV's, all nervously navigating these tame sweeps. And then I entered "cop territory" and I scaled it all back to legal velocities. :-)

Still, it was a little bit of fun. I had some more fun on the way home, but with a pizza sitting on the backseat of the car, smoothness assumed more of a priority than absolute velocity. Damn, I wish I could get my Ducati back on the road. And I miss my old Triumph - that was a pearl to drive fast.

Carolyn Ann