the IDIOT

recognizing that many apple fanboys and fangirls are vibrating turds, i’ve enjoyed others alluding to that truth, but after having the temporary use of an iPod touch, i’m embarrassed how shitty it makes microsoft windows mobile 6.5 look. WM is a patchwork of disintegrated programs which, upon fresh comparison to apple, resemble the wizard of oz working levers and pumping out flames. apple, even imperfectly, kicks microsoft’s ass almost completely, from the lowliest iPod upward.

keyboard shortcuts were my biggest holdout, and it appears that microsoft has been telling office power-users to fuck themselves on that score since ~2006 (yes, i didn’t use anything beyond office 2003 until last year). last time i used Word 2010, i wanted to punch the screen.

in 2005 i posted that sean connery performed a major stunt at the end of The Man Who Would Be King. though there was some dispute about whether it was he or a stuntman, i trusted a special feature on the DVD. later reading even more fuzziness on the subject, i removed the post. in a recent book, connery’s co-star michael caine asserts, while apparently bungling details on the padding used (“foam and mattresses”, versus the difficult-to-fake cardboard boxes from the DVD special feature), that joe powell performed the famed stunt.

whoever did it [spoiler warning], click here to see the king of kafiristan go south for the week+.

a few months ago i began thinking of paper shredding theory and two related parameters of paper shredding: granularity and location.
the first step in reversible-destruction document shredding is to split the shredder output into piles which are then discarded in different batches, and ideally different locations. but take, for example, a piece of paper with this written on it: Read the rest of this entry

high moron krugman allegedly praising the restorative power of earthquakes (he didn’t) has knee-jerkers falling over each other invoking bastiat. some of my usual points for the nitwits: Read the rest of this entry

somewhat eerie this evening to, on my way to and in a grocery store, be listening to The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939, my visit wrapped up with two “adults” assuring me somberly that my 47-year-old self cannot buy demon alcohol without: “ID”, or a supervisor eyeballing me to ensure they don’t execute an unforgivable crime against the official crime syndicate.

“it’s policy.”

yes, tool. here’s your logic:

me: your apparently standard behavior is offensive.
you: our standard behavior is standard.

oh. Read the rest of this entry

i’ve long admired dick cavett. though this article’s mired by fedgoon obeisance, he pushes into the tape at the finish:

[…] At LaGuardia, my wife, a seasoned traveler, dutifully presented the see-through plastic bag containing a few small bottles of the approved size containing liquid. One was seized. It contained something she valued. Pointing out that it was regulation size, she got, “It ain’t labeled, lady.”

Supposing whatever possibly dangerous substance it contained had, say, “olive oil” written on it, I inquired, then would it be O.K.?

“Yes.”

“Do you see anything a little stupid about that?” I asked in my sunniest manner. He appeared not to. He dropped the bottle into the barrel beside him.

“One more question. Do you ever feel a little funny about standing eight inches from a barrel full of possible explosives for the rest of the day?”

He went into that mode of looking into the distance, instead of at you. I leaned into his gaze, just for fun.

“Move on,” he sort of belched. […]

brazen trollop [.pdf]:

[…] In the process of striking down the mandate, the majority has ignored many years of Commerce Clause doctrine developed by the Supreme Court. It has ignored the broad power of Congress, in the words of Chief Justice Marshall, “to prescribe the rule by which commerce is to be governed.” Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 1, 196 (1824). It has ignored the undeniable fact that Congress’ commerce power has grown exponentially over the past two centuries, and is now generally accepted as having afforded Congress the authority to create rules regulating large areas of our national economy. It has ignored the Supreme Court’s expansive reading of the Commerce Clause that has provided the very foundation on which Congress already extensively regulates both health insurance and health care services. And it has ignored the long-accepted instruction that we review the constitutionality of an exercise of commerce power not through the lens of formal, categorical distinctions, but rather through a pragmatic one, recognizing, as Justice Holmes put it over one hundred years ago, that “commerce among the states is not a technical legal conception, but a practical one, drawn from the course of business.” Swift & Co. v. United States, 196 U.S. 375, 398 (1905). […]

and… your point?

Deadwood, “Deep Water“, doc cochran:

i see as much misery outta them movin’ to justify theirselves as them that set out to do harm.

good time to note that captain “james ostrowski” predicto does not get a pass on his “Bet the ranch on that one” shtick, regardless of 2012 action.

True Blood, “Cold Grey Light of Dawn“:

all these years we indulged our murderous impulses — called it our nature. how could we not expect reprisal?

almost soapless. for months now i’ve used soap only on my feet and hands. everything else, just water. wouldn’t use soap on my feet either if always in a clean single-user shower. haven’t had the guts to ask anyone if i normally smell bad (or worse, anyway), but i seem to be better-smelling generally, for longer. no down side that i’ve seen.

my life is constant toward minimalism. ditching soap in most cases fits perfectly. don’t think it’ll work for clothes though.

though i guess more people lately are talking about skipping soap, especially shampoo, i got the idea from maria bamford’s dad’s site. he sells (sorta) a semi-joking soap alternative — engraved wood in the shape of a soap bar.

Major grocer getting rid of self-checkout lanes

One of the nation’s major grocery store chains is eliminating self-checkout lanes in an effort to encourage more human contact with its customers.

Albertsons LLC, which operates 217 stores in seven Western and Southern states, will eliminate all self-checkout lanes in the 100 stores that have them and will replace them with standard or express lanes, according to published reports.

“We just want the opportunity to talk to customers more,” Albertsons spokeswoman Christine Wilcox said. “That’s the driving motivation.”

uh-huh. next paragraph:

Wilcox said the replacement of automated checkout lanes with human-operated lanes likely would mean more hours available for employees to work.

hard to believe, but i shop in grocery stores. i now have cashiers almost wrangling me into their lanes as i avoid eye contact with them on my way to the blissful in-demand self-checkout. when i want “more human contact” with union scum, i’ll cut off my balls and feed them to a hungry parrot. dunno why even normal people appear to prefer self-checkout over traditional, but plenty do. if it’s the same at albertsons, they’re basically saying, “since many of you obviously prefer no contact with our humans, we’re gonna shove contact right up ya. it’s what we call a ‘genius market move’.”

wonder if bastiat had something to say about this.

i want self-serve sandwich lines too. lost count of how many sandwiches i’ve had to take apart and reassemble.

is it “gunman”? waiting for the ‘snews to call a group of badged criminals “gunmen”.

drudge just now: “POLICE CLOSE FREEWAY, SEARCH FOR GUNMAN WHO TOOK SLEDGEHAMMER TO TRAFFIC CAMERA VEHICLE…”

in other words, criminal gunmen search for 1770s-american-style gunman.

if your job is to solve a problem, what happens to that job when you solve the problem?

pondering that question explains nearly everything one needs to know about the state. if the state ever succeeded generally in its publicly avowed purpose, it would destroy the excuse for its existence. for the state, nothing succeeds quite like disaster. we are brainwashed to accept this as a necessary part of life. it isn’t.

same principle applies to nearly every professional “charity”. and to the NRA, etc.

pristine example of ‘snews duplicity.

SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle police spokesman says the department is embarrassed after officers left a police rifle unattended on a patrol car outside a busy downtown area. Read the rest of this entry