As I was procrastinating about going to work out today, I was looking for something to listen to on Apple Music.
The first summer after my dad died, my wife and I were holed up at my mom’s house riding out a hurricane. I noticed that it was my mom’s first anniversary day as a widow. Both of the dogs had died, so she was living in this huge house by herself.
Knowing how flaky the electricity could be at that house during storms, we were cooking up a lot of the things in the fridge that’d probably go bad if the power was out for a few days.
I hadn’t brought up the date, but I could tell that my mom was a bit down. Finally there was a moment where I noticed she was crying.
I started typing this with a bit about the frozen things falling outside, with a bit of a lament that it’d be over soon, and that what I’m hearing is the only frozen precep in the forecast for the foreseeable future.
Coffee retrieved, and th sleet has stopped.
The stockings aren’t hung by the chimney with care. We don’t have a fireplace, and such barbarism won’t be allowed long here in the Beltway Swamp. The only acceptable burning odor allowed is the strangely-legalized weed.
Keep Virginia Blue. Just like Harry Byrd intended.
Could have been his dad, too, who was also loathsome.
So, what else is up?
Bad Saints’ loss last night. I missed most of it because I was fitting in the last bits of work.
At least they’re not the Giants.
And maybe I should get past the irrational annoyance I had about them with the weird defense and boring offense gone.
But it is difficult to do when it’s the Saints on the receiving end of a drubbing.
So. What else is going on? I looked to see if I had something I wrote probably around the time my dad died (late 2010). I changed my mind about capital punishment. This is a power the state should not have. Yes, I take into account the Church’s teachings on it, but, perhaps reflexively, I think it’s just a power the state shouldn’t have.
If someone is truly awful, he can stay incarcerated forever. I don’t care. See Sirhan Sirhan. You know, the guy that the Libertarian coming into Trump’s cabinet thinks didn’t kill his father.
Do I care that he’s never going to get out of prison? Nope. Not really.
But news yesterday had two stories that really had me being okay with them being killed.
The first was these two from Georgia. That one conflicts me even more, as they didn’t kill anyone, which is the standard for all executions.
The other was the case of what happened in the NYC Subway. I selected that story because it doesn’t have some of the photos that were on Twi^H^H^HX. Yeah, he can die. I understand I shouldn’t feel that way, but I do.
There was also some stuff last few days about North Korean soldiers being killed in Ukraine. Naturally, the NeoHippie Putin apologists question the numbers, and whether it even happened.
No, it did happen.
And they’re slaves fighting for Putin. They can’t flee without being shot.
Slaves.
Keep that in mine, Auburn.
But I think I’ve poured out enough for now. Time to go enjoy some Christmas cheer.
I showed up just as Matt Welch was delivering his opening.
I was there, and think my opening vote might have timed out…..I said Matt and Nick won after trying to vote undecided at the open.
While I have voted for some Democrats in the past as a statement against a particularly bad Republican, the Democrats have done some absolutely batshiat crazy stuff, really, since about 2005. I put a lot of it on the reax to Katrina. That was a massive failure of local, but especially state government. For every reference to “heckuvah job, Brownie,” there was a spooky silence about Kathleen Blanco.
Things didn’t really start moving there until LTG. Honore showed up.
Sarah mentioned Harry Browne during her open, but Katrina should have driven the point home that government doesn’t work.
Yet that’s the Democrats’ prescription for just about anything. Health Care Disaster Relief Monetary Policy COVID You name it.
Another 6K GS-11s will solve it.
And they never do.
Bubuhbut OrangeManBad!!1!
Yep. And I didn’t vote for him. But you all did vote for vaccine mandates, lockdowns, the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, the Inflation Reduction Act, a completely open border, continuation of Trump’s tariffs…..
You need something way more compelling to convince me that voting for Biden is a good idea.
This is what I posed on the Substack discussion of it:
Random asides: Substack makes copypasta way difficult…almost as difficult as some of the data protection features I’ve seen recently to stop data spillage. Also, the text-prediction stuff on iOS has gotten pretty damn good; I’m able to type full replies using the predictive e text much of the time on my phone. As with the Crypto scammers I dealt with on WhatsApp, I will get information out. You can’t hide things, no matter how hard you try.
This was the night before the Fami Willis disqualification in Georgia. The two debating the Reason editors-at-large were from The Bulwark, which is something I’ve really not paid much attention to. You don’t like Trump. I get it. I never voted for him, and, in spite of all the things the Democrats did to him, the LP’s basic endorsement, etc., I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
But how does it make you feel?
Ambivalent? Do I hold some hope that Trump/Musk/Vivek will get things trimmed down? Maybe a bit? Am I very confident about it? Nope.
But I do enjoy getting into Reason events. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had an early morning.
Yeah, I’ve been incredibly busy all week. Maybe that really affected my attention, but I generally do feel okay about some of the things I’ve pushed back on with work.
I do think there’s a hard push to do things in the most stupid, expensive ways possible, but there’s not a ton I can do about that.
I still am tempted to stick with the halve-and-grow-back-as-needed approach to just about everything.
That approach has worked for me in so many instances. But, like, the vendor says you need to buy this really expensive stuff!!1! Noted. It’s not your money. You were hired to make things work effectively, and the vendor “requirements” aren’t your requirements. You have to make the product work, not sell hardware or software.
It’s even more of an issue when one vendor is selling both.
But to do proper work requires doing engineering using tried-and-true practices, scream waterfall scream, but it works. Yeah, I know getting someone important to sign off on your engineering work takes time, but you’re spending other people’s money. In the case of tax money, it’s money that’s been I forcibly taken.
Do the right thing. You have to look at yourself in the mirror.
That admonition leads me into the news section of things. Yes, I’ve been paying attention even if I haven’t said a lot…..
The UHC murder case. Lots of speculation from some really terrible people. Oh, it was justified because he’d been denied care by UHC. This is what you get when you’ve got for-profit insurers denying care. Any reasonable person could understand why he did what he did. Except he wasn’t insured by UHC, had been involved with psychotropic drugs, was from an affluent family, and…. Senator Warren, I will continue to ignore you, still, as best as I can. Maybe some Pow Wow Chow can distract me. The Substacker, formerly of The Old Grey Lady, and Space Cowboy Jeff’s tax write-off, I will refrain from raw-dogging anything to do with you.
Daniel Penny was acquitted. I’d just assume avoid NYC until Alvin Bragg is gone. While I hear things that NYC is better than it was last time I was there, they elected these people, and deserve the consequences.
Looks like I am going to go to the final Shmoocon. Never got a response on the sponsorship tickets, btu I’m pretty sure there is one available for me through a friend. If they ever get back to me on the sponsorship, I’ll stick to my promise….and have probably two tickets to move. But I am going. Room booked. It’s earlyish this year, so it’ll be cold. Given some of the past experiences, that seems absolutely appropriate. 2009 was such an odd experience, but it’s something I’ll remember as long as I live. Or was that 2010? I don’t remember. Pretty good con content, and it snowed. Hard. So hard that the atrium between the budlings collapsed. I helped push a DC cop out of a snow bank. I’ve barely spoken to some people with whom I was formerly close because of things that were said over the then-new Twitter. I really can’t see anything I’d written about it back then. Now thinking more about it, it was probably 2010, because I was definitely having issues that’d lead to my MS diagnosis just a few months later.
Drones. I haven’t been outside to glance at the sky in the past few nights. I’m outside most often early in the morning when I’m going to and from the gym. I haven’t seen anything. Obviously, there’s the information coming out of New Jersey, which coincidentally was where War Of The Worlds was set, Governor Hogan up in MDDR, etc.. I don’t know. Well, they ought to be shot down!!1! Um. By whom? And what about damage that happens on the ground because of the downing? I don’t know. I’m not sure that putting anyone in prison would fix it, assuming they’re competent to stand trial. But like the Chinese balloon that was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean after it’d cruised across the US, open up, y’all. But I’m also trying to still work my way though the Star Wars movies simultaneously. Are they like clones?
This morning, saw something that reminded me of the reasons I’m very much down on the reinvented Libertarian Party.
If anyone reading is interested in knowing why this is an antisemitic trope, I’ll assume that you’re savvy enough to STFW, and find out.
And I think I’ve written enough for today. Off to do some of the other things I need to do today.
It’s another example of the right-about-everything-all-the-time crowd missed hard.
Nobody knows exactly what’s going on.
But it’s pretty evident that it’s not because of anything the US did…certainly nothing to benefit the hated Military-Industrial Complex.
Other stuff?
There’s something burbling on the job front I might have to figure out. It’d likely be out of DC or MDDR, which isn’t ideal, but it’d be something different to do for a few years.
I would just assume stay where we are, but a lot of that is going to be dictated by my wife’s work.
And I’m okay with that. It’s cool that she’s probably out-earning me these days. I can be finished, and try to enjoy some of my time to try to relax.
Certainly my parents missed out on that; fourteen years since my dad died today.
Instead of being sad about things, I’m going to go watch football.
I listened to David Harsanyi’s new book over the past few days. Please excuse the link to Space Cowboy Jeff’s site to order, but anything works. (If you can find it somewhere else, I would you mildly encourage you to buy it that way….)
It’s a good necessitation of some of the absolutely batshit crazy things that have happened over the past decade or so. It leads to things like the video I put in here a couple of weeks ago.
So many things are getting better in the world. There’s not going to be a mass-extinctions event that we can do anything about. Unless it comes from the State. They’re really good about killing people and destroying things.
Listening, I’m reminded of something I bought bout twenty-five years ago. Apocalypse Pretty Soon. I think I heard the author on with Art Bell, if that tells you anything.
Are things better than they were back then?
Yes.
Thangs Get Better.
I actually did email my bosses this morning requesting time off so I can make one of my trips to the Gulf Coast to visit my mom in the Spring.
I can get around down there without too much trouble, now, with things like ride-sharing applications. I can get whatever I need quickly either with Space Cowboy Jeff’s delivery, or via one of the myriad other delivery services.
I can remember wondering if I’d have enough basic necessities back then to get through a weekend.
I can recall not too long ago when I forgot the medication that helps me walk. When I got to Biloxi after the ride on The Crescent, my meds arrived at the hotel the next day.
That reminds me that today’s the day I need to take my current DMT (Disease Modifying Therapy). I’m on KEYsimpta, which I only have to take once a month.
Imagine that. In the almost fifteen years since my diagnosis, I’ve gone from taking shots multiple times per week to a daily pill, to periodic infusions to a shot once per month.
Thangs Get Better.
And I’m still able to sort of function in society. Sorry, it’s going to take a lot more than that to scare me.
But if you feel like I need to be compelled, fine. State that loudly. And don’t try to hide what you’ve done, and the consequences that come from your actions.
No, Commissioner Walz, an anonymous reporting line doesn’t make the people calling it any less loathsome.
November is strange this year, with the month ending on a Saturday. No writing about what I did for Small Business Saturday because it’s the final day when I write the wrap-up.
I think, though, I probably should venture to write at the same general time every day this year.
I think I figured out an effective spam filter to keep the foreign spambots at bay. I have no idea what the word is; I’d assume it’s some common word, but including it seems to have done the trick.
Maybe it’s because I’m not as opposed to him as I am Ofc. Harris, but I did actually watch all of the Rogan interview with Trump.
Don’t Know
I know I’ve gotten some incredibly negative responses whenever I’ve even broached Rogan, but I did watch through it. All three hours or whatever it was.
Just a ton of time talking about things I don’t at all about.
The bits about replacing the individual income tax with tariffs is interesting to say the least.
What will happen with the “payroll taxes?” Many, many, many, many politicians roll out things about “the rich not paying their fair share,” there are already many people who pay no income tax. NYT actually had a decent take on it here.
I’m wondering if eliminating voters’ confusion about what’s actually income taxes, and what’s contributions to the old-age programs might clear some things up.
Am I confident about that?
Not in the least. The “rich” will forever not be paying “their fair share.”
So, yeah, I put myself through all of that, and still haven’t made up my mind. That should tell anyone reading how much I dislike President Trump. No, I’m not going to call him “Former President.” It’s a title you keep. Jimmy Carter is still President Carter.
Bucco Bruce is back today, so I’m going to go watch football.
But there’s been so much else I’ve been preparing for to get ready for the end of the year.
Watching On Patrol Live last night, there were two spots in a row for Christmas ads. It’s not even Halloween! Am I ready for trying to figure out something to do with my wife since I can’t have a Lexus with a bow on its roof in the snow?
That’s supposed to start after Veteran’s Day.
Seriously.
Halloween seems to kind of passe these days. I remember seeing things the past few years about trying to actually move the date because, you know, safety. Trick-or-treating should be at from 4:30-6:00 the last Friday in October.
Let’s erase the religious significance from it. You know who else tried to excise parts of history that didn’t really fit? The FP had a thing the other morning about abortion being a health care right, and forcing Catholic hospitals to perform them.
Thinking more about it, after my initial you-can-leave attitude, it occurred ot me that, no, they wouldn’t. They’d stay to help take care of people because they’ve got a purpose higher than whatever some politician sets.
Senate? Yep. House, not that it matters in a district that’s been blue since the Northern Aggressors left in 1877? Yep. President? I still haven’t decided.
The WTF interview with Dan Crenshaw was about the best endorsement of Trump I’ve heard. (Interesting tidbit there, too, about RON PAUL(pbuh)’s strategy in the House that let him get things for his district, while still being able to vote against the larger bill…)
The interview with Reason kind of pushed me his direction, but then I saw some third party debate that reminded me of the things I really don’t like about him.
I guess the Trump interview with Rogan is up on YouTube, which might be better than dealing with Spotify, but I’m skeptical whether it’s worth three hours to still be undecided at the end.
I need more coffee, and this is meandering.
Still would like some more topic suggestions for next month.
Another week out of the way. I basically finished the big kludge I was working on for work, which required work last weekend.
The whole situation is um, strange. I’m caught in a strange place. No, I’m not talking about politics, where that description would fit for me with politics.
Maybe it’s something where I’m not really on anybody’s “side.” That, of course, makes me a legitimate target.
I’ve gotten polled a couple more times this week. Who are you planning to vote for?
I’m really not sure, but I’m leaning towards Chase Oliver at this point.
So. Trump?
Um, no.
I missed most of the Saints’ game Thursday night. Yes, it was my own doing, but I think I’ve improved this system’s reliability and performance by some of the things I’ve done. Unfortunately, that requires me to work most Thursday nights. I suppose when I fell into that pattern, Thursday Night Football wasn’t as much of a thing, but I forewent the Saints’ game to work.
Anyway, Sean Payton’s return to New Orleans was a pretty stunning success. The Saints’ readopting of boring same boring formula in use around the league. Andy Reid has done the same thing in Kansas City.
Obviously it’s effective. It’s also a bit boring.
Did you know that they pre-plan their first XX offensive plays?
Yeah, and I still don’t care.
Work on next month:
Start
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Likes and dislikes, plus things you thought you wouldn’t like, but have come to very much appreciate
