I'm just here to destroy some comment spam.

Don't mind me.

The Gospel According to Clayton Makepeace

I’m amazed that so many folks have a hard time admitting they like money. I love money. In fact, I believe the guy who first translated I Timothy 6:10 needed glasses: I’m sure it should have read, “The LACK of money is the root of all evil.”

If money is evil, time is evil … freedom is evil … your very life is evil. Because all money is, is a physical manifestation of time.

You’ve got two choices of how to spend each day. You can spend it doing what you want to do, or doing what someone else – a client, for example – wants you to do.

So when you work, you’re selling your scarcest resource: Chunks of your life. You only have so many minutes on this planet and you’ve agreed to trade some of them in return for money.

Now, you can sell your life for peanuts if you want. Me? I’m looking for the highest bidder. That means making sure every minute I spend working brings me the maximum number of simoleans possible.

That lets me provide a great life for my wife, kids and grandkids. It lets me donate to charity. It lets me BUY BACK chunks of my life later on and have the freedom to do whatever I please. It means when I’m 96 years old and pooping in a diaper, I won’t be a burden to anyone.

Awesome! Genius!

Oh, before anybody goes off on me, let me include his next paragraph:

So my goal list has only one item on it: Make more money. So long as I’m not violating a personal ethic, or a law, or a regulation, or hurting someone else, I’m going for the moolah.

Kinda reminds me of "...And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

I'm really looking forward to that lightening bolt, aren't I?

I just turned Comment Moderation back on.

I was getting a flood of spam comments. I won't require you to verify that you're real, I'll do that myself. The system will notify me when you've commented so I'll get to it quickly.

Apparently I can't go back and delete those comments, so if anybody needs any Viagra there's a link around here somewhere for you.

I just finished reading Little Men to my daughter.

It's definitely bourgeois, but if anyone calls it philistinish, why I'll... I'll... Well, I don't know what.

Actually, I suppose the Avant Garde would call it philistinish. It's the height of Victorian literature.

My daughter could read Alcott's books herself, of course, but I think we get much more out of it this way.

If you want to inculcate good family values in your children, you can't do better than read Luisa May Alcott to them. She does a wonderful job of making old-fashioned morals interesting and entertaining.

This passage, which loses its poignancy by being ripped from its context, almost makes me question Ethical Egoism (though, I assure you, I could reinterpret things to suit my favored system). It's an impromptu eulogy given for a beloved character:

"Let me tell you a little about John Brooke, and you will see why men honor him, and why he was satisfied to be good rather than rich or famous. He simply did his duty in all things, and did it so cheerfully, so faithfully, that it kept him patient and brave, and happy through poverty and loneliness and years of hard work. He was a good son, and gave up his own plans to stay and live with his mother while she needed him. He was a good friend, and taught Laurie much beside his Greek and Latin, did it unconsciously, perhaps, by showing him an example of an upright man. He was a faithful servant, and made himself so valuable to those who employed him that they will find it hard to fill his place. He was a good husband and father, so tender, wise, and thoughtful, that Laurie and I learned much of him, and only knew how well he loved his family, when we discovered all he had done for them, unsuspected and unassisted."

Mr. Bhaer stopped a minute, and the boys sat like statues in the moonlight until he went on again, in a subdued, but earnest voice: "As he lay dying, I said to him, 'Have no care for Meg and the little ones; I will see that they never want.' Then he smiled and pressed my hand, and answered, in his cheerful way, 'No need of that; I have cared for them.' And so he had, for when we looked among his papers, all was in order, not a debt remained; and safely put away was enough to keep Meg comfortable and independent. Then we knew why he had lived so plainly, denied himself so many pleasures, except that of charity, and worked so hard that I fear he shortened his good life. He never asked help for himself, though often for others, but bore his own burden and worked out his own task bravely and quietly. No one can say a word of complaint against him, so just and generous and kind was he; and now, when he is gone, all find so much to love and praise and honor, that I am proud to have been his friend, and would rather leave my children the legacy he leaves his than the largest fortune ever made. Yes! Simple, generous goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us. Remember that, my boys; and if you want to earn respect and confidence and love follow in the footsteps of John Brooke."

This suffers terribly from the lack of context and looks like heavy-handed moralism, but is there anybody who could condemn the way this man led his life? It's definitely the sort of thing I'd tell my kids about a friend in the same situation. I hope not to have to, I know a couple guys who live by their principles to the same degree.

Come to think of it, they're both my brothers-in-law, as Mr. Brooke was to Father Bhaer, the eulogist here.

And I had a hand in fixing both of them up with my sisters. So I have one thing to be proud of, at least. (Though the guy I directly fixed up with the younger sister was quite the diamond-in-the-rough when I did it.)

[I still need to find a guy for the third sister. But I didn't do the first two on purpose, so I can't let that weigh on me or the magic won't work.]

Anyway, Ms. Alcott is every bit as engaging a storyteller as the other authors we've read, L.M. Montgomery, C.S. Lewis, J.K.Rowling [It's the initial thing, must be! We'll have to read J.R.R. Tolkien next.], Rose Wilder Lane and her mother Laura Ingalls Wilder (Roger MacBride has convinced me that Laura didn't do it alone).

Basic Knowledge of Knowledge

All abstract knowledge of reality begins with our only direct point of contact with reality: perceptual observation. For example, the first concepts formed by a child are those formed directly from perceptual data; they are what philosopher Ayn Rand, the first philosopher to fully identify the hierarchical nature of knowledge, called “first-level concepts.” A child looks out at the world, perceives entities, and integrates his perceptions into these first-level concepts—concepts such as “cat,” “dog,” and “horse.”

Using these first-level concepts, a child is able to form simple generalizations such as “cats meow” or “dogs bark.” From these early concepts and generalizations, and with further observation, he is then able to form more abstract concepts (concepts further removed from the perceptual level) and to make more abstract generalizations. For example, noting the essential similarities between cats, dogs, and horses, he is able to form the concept “animal.” He does not look at the world and see “animals”; he looks and sees cats and dogs and the like—from which observations he is able to form the corresponding first-level concepts. Then, having formed these abstractions, he is able to form the broader abstraction of “animal.” Eventually, having made countless observations, and having grasped a complex range of concepts and relationships on various levels of abstraction, he is able to form generalizations such as: “All animals are mortal.”

A concept or generalization is more or less abstract according to its cognitive distance from the perceptual level. Concepts and generalization exist in a hierarchy, from the perceptual level to the highest level abstractions.

Highly abstract concepts presuppose a very long chain of prior conceptualizations. This is why, for example, so much knowledge must be gained for students to learn calculus.

There's more and more to come from her on this. The title bar is a link, btw.

All right, Omni. You win.

Comments are now reopened to the general public.

Spammers will be deleted.

Mundanity of mundanities!

All is mundanity!

I spent the day picking up a shed from Menard's. Then I had to make a perfectly level spot to put it in. As the sun was setting I was screwing in the last screws in the floor.

Oh, no! That's just the first step. Now I have to put the shed on top of it.

I got my exercise loading the shed into the truck alone, hauling it from the truck to the back yard alone, loading 30 50# (approx. 44 KG* for my friends overseas) bags of gravel into my truck back at the store - this time I had help (funny, they promised to help with the shed and no one showed up, while for the gravel nobody promised me anything and there they were), and I hauled that from the truck to the back of the back yard. Alone again. (Naturally).

After that it was just nitpicky stuff - fitting the pieces together, and mastering the art of screwing their cheap-@$$ screws in without breaking them. I can't claim to be there yet.

They claim that one man can put up the shed in four hours. They neglected to mention any of what I spent my whole day doing.

My back is killing me.

*Correction in comments.

Wisdom for entrepreneurs from Mises and Masterson

Mises quote from The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, an exerpt of which may be found on the Mises Blog:

...[T]he human mind has always been deluded by the image of an unchangeable existence. The avowed aim of all utopian movements is to put an end to history and to establish a final and permanent calm.

The psychological reasons for this tendency are obvious. Every change alters the external conditions of life and well-being and forces people to adjust themselves anew to the modification of their environments. It hurts vested interests and threatens traditional ways of production and consumption. It annoys all those who are intellectually inert and shrink from revising their modes of thinking.

Conservatism is contrary to the very nature of human acting.
...
The moral corruption, the licentiousness and the intellectual sterility of a class of lewd would-be authors and artists is the ransom mankind must pay lest the creative pioneers be prevented from accomplishing their work. Freedom must be granted to all, even to base people, lest the few who can use it for the benefit of mankind be hindered.

Amen, brother.

And Michael Masterson, from his ETR article, "My Door Is Open, But Nobody's Coming In," "Yes, you can succeed by doing it alone ... but why bother?"

Ah! C****! I had something important to say,

but I just had to go run and fish the toddler out of the toilet. Of course, my contribution was laughter. Next time remind me to grab the camera.

She forgot to ask someone to put the baby seat on the potty.

Traumatized for life, I'm sure.

I'll just put this here.

You Have a Phlegmatic Temperament

Mild mannered and laid back, you take life at a slow pace. You are very consistent - both in emotions and actions. You tend to absorb set backs easily. You are cool and collected. It is difficult to offend you. You can remain composed and unemotional. You are a great friend and lover. You don't demand much of others. While you are quiet, you have a subtle wit that your friends know well. At your worst, you are lazy and unwilling to work at anything. You often get stuck in a rut, without aspirations or dreams. You can get too dependent on others, setting yourself up for abandonment.

What Temperment Are You?

I took this test twice. I swear I gave the same answers both times, but I got Melancholic the first time. I like that one better.

Thanks, Blue.

Oh yeah! Compare my calves to previous pix.

In Which I Earn My Title

Here's some free advice I got in the Pathway to Prosperity eCourse [don't forget the link, Al]:

When we contemplate the fact that the universe is abounding in all good things, material as well as spiritual, and compare it with man's blind eagerness to secure a few gold coins, or a few acres of dirt, it is then that we realize how dark and ignorant selfishness is; it is then that we know that self-seeking is self-destruction.

Nature gives all, without reservation, and loses nothing; man, grasping all, loses everything.

Yeah, so we can all just lie down on the lawn and let nature take its course.

Look, I don't need to be inspired to sit around mooning all day. I'm way too given to that already. More than anybody I know! [Except my sister, she's worse than me.] I need to be convinced that it's worth my while to get off my damn duff and do some damn work!

I already know the pathway to internal peace, I found that decades ago: climb a tree in the woods and listen to the birds sing. First rule of Peace is "shut up."

Now, let me deal with the strawman, "man's blind eagerness to secure a few gold coins, or a few acres of dirt."

A few acres of dirt? How about a few acres of wheat, or strawberries, flowers or apple trees? Human eyes see the prize. Dirt is more than just dirt. And so is money more than dirt.

I forget who said it, but someone advised a young man, many years ago, to strive to be a millionaire, not just for the sake of aquiring money, but for the virtues it would teach him. Let me try to list them: patience, persuasion, cooperation, prudence in saving and investing, judging character in potential partners. Hard work. Honesty.

Even Mafia dons exercise these virtues more than their opposite vices. If they didn't they would be ousted (and/or killed) and replaced.

Butterflies, Birds, Flowers, Rainbows and Hot-Air Balloons

My top five favorite things to look at. The order varies moment to moment.

Butterflies
Birds
Flowers
Rainbows
Hot-Air Balloons

I also like knots (oddly enough, they don't teach you how to tie a net, which is what I was looking for).

I'm also "right partial" to babies and good-lookin' women, but those go without saying. Try not to treat the latter like the former. Full grown (and even half-grown) women don't let just anyone check their diapers, for instance.

WOW!! Look at this!!

Treasure Island was my favorite book when I was a young teen. I've said that my youth was spent in a tree (one tree or other, mostly either a white pine or an oak) out in the woods. The fact is, I brought along with me the fabulous adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson and Mark Twain.

Although, I have to admit, I've never gotten beyond my beloved Treasure Island, as far as Stevenson is concerned. When I think about it, I have trouble believing that anything else matters. We own Kidknapped, but I haven't read it.

AM1500 just got the Twins for next year. Dave Thompson is talking about his favorite Twins memories.

I have to agree with him... Hell, I'm happy to announce that he agrees with me, that Jack Morris' performance in the 7th game of the '91 World Series is the greatest sports performance that I will ever witness.

God bless Jack Morris!

Guess who said, "What the Hell! It's only a game!" Hint: that's in reference to the aformentioned Game 7. He emphasized and repeated it because the reporters didn't seem to get it, but I agree with him that it was funny.

An Interesting Insight from ETR

How is it possible that billionaires have the best employees, contracts that favor their companies, and business strategies that bring them tangible financial benefits year after year? The answer is simple: They see more in people, contracts, and the various business strategies that are offered them throughout their careers.

I don't think I should quote overmuch from Early to Rise, since they charge for their services [Maybe not. They seem to have gone FREE on me since I subscribed. Hopefully they'll renew me at that rate, but I don't regret having paid for what I got.], but this goes well with a point made the other day in a letter to another contributor:

From a letter written to Bill Bonner at The Daily Reckoning...

"I'd like to share a grammar school lesson I got in the fifth or sixth grade of Catholic elementary school. Bear in mind that this was the fifties, and the boys were taught by the Christian Brothers. These guys were tough. Many of them, if not all, were WWII or Korean War vets. And, they had answers for most tough questions. They also were pretty blunt. And, not a lot of patience for distinctions that did not make a difference. Strangely, they took a pretty strong position on [the subject of equality].

"Jefferson wrote 'all men are created equal.' To these battle-hardened vets, there was nothing 'wrong' about this assertion. Quizzically, they would say, 'All men ARE created equal. But, all men are NOT born equal.'

Whoops! I got my dates backwards. This one is from today, the first quote is from 7/22/06.

They also have a nice quote by Ben Franklin:

The Quotable Mr. Franklin: On Doomsdayers ...

"I saw in the public papers of different states frequent complaints of hard times, deadness of trade, scarcity of money, &c. It is always in the power of a small number to make a great clamour. But let us take a cool view of the general state of our affairs, and perhaps the prospect will appear less gloomy than has been imagined."

(Source: The Compleated Autobiography, by Benjamin Franklin, compiled and edited by Mark Skousen)

I'm a big fan of Skousen as well as Franklin.

My Favorite Poem

I suppose it's neither a very bourgeois nor philistinish to post on such a topic, but I'm in the mood, and those who know me will understand its meaning to me:

"Terence, this is stupid stuff:
You eat your victuals fast enough;
There can't be much amiss, 'tis clear,
To see the rate you drink your beer.
But oh, good Lord, the verse you make,
It gives a chap the belly-ache.
The cow, the old cow, she is dead;
It sleeps well, the horned head:
We poor lads, 'tis our turn now
To hear such tunes as killed the cow.
Pretty friendship 'tis to rhyme
Your friends to death before their time
Moping melancholy mad:
Come, pipe a tune to dance to, lad."

Why, if 'tis dancing you would be
There's brisker pipes than poetry.
Say, for what were hop-yards meant,
Or why was Burton built on Trent?
Oh, many a peer of England brews
Livelier liquor than the Muse,
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God's ways to man.
Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink
For fellows whom it hurts to think:
Look into the pewter pot
To see the world as the world's not.
And faith, 'tis pleasant till 'tis past:
The mischief is that 'twill not last.
Oh I have been to Ludlow fair
And left my necktie god knows where,
And carried half-way home, or near,
Pints and quarts of Ludlow beer:
Then the world seemed none so bad,
And I myself a sterling lad;
And down in lovely muck I've lain,
Happy till I woke again.
Then I saw the morning sky:
Heigho, the tale was all a lie;
The world, it was the old world yet,
I was I, my things were wet,
And nothing now remained to do
But begin the game anew.

Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure,
I'd face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.
'Tis true, the stuff I bring for sale
Is not so brisk a brew as ale:
Out of a stem that scored the hand
I wrung it in a weary land.
But take it: if the smack is sour,
The better for the embittered hour;
It should do good to heart and head
When your soul is in my soul's stead;
And I will friend you, if I may,
In the dark and cloudy day.

There was a king reigned in the East:
There, when kings will sit to feast,
They get their fill before they think
With poisoned meat and poisoned drink.
He gathered all that springs to birth
From the many-venomed earth;
First a little, thence to more,
He sampled all her killing store;
And easy, smiling, seasoned sound,
Sate the king when healths went round.
They put arsenic in his meat
And stared aghast to watch him eat;
They poured strychnine in his cup
And shook to see him drink it up:
They shook, they stared as white's their shirt:
Them it was their poison hurt
- I tell the tale that I heard told.
Mithridates, he died old.

-- A. E. Housman

I got it here, where you can read some commentary on the background and imagery.

Aw! It's kid-pix! Dagnabbit!

But she's so cute!



Do you still doubt it?



But she's one of those damn Canada lovers!



You know my answer.



I gotta teach her real American values!

My Father-in-law gave me a power mower.

My lawn was out of control. It's possible to keep control of a lawn with a reel-mower, but not if it rains for a week in the Spring. Once the grass goes to seed, it's pretty much impossible to get a reel-mower to cut it.

God bless my Father-in-law!

It's a 1971 Briggs and Stratton motor on a True Value body. I got out of the power-mowing racket because I couldn't work on my last one. The manual said that I should send it back to the manufacturer for the problem it had. BS!! It would cost as much as I paid for the mower to ship it back to them, let alone the the cost of the repair!

I brought that thing home and cut everything on my land down to two inches high. Now, if I feel like it, I can pull out the the reel-mower and keep up with the growth, but it took the 1971 gas mower to make that possible.

Learn some German via the Lord's Prayer. Pentacost is coming up.

Or "das Vaterunser" as they call it. [The Father-our; pronounce it doss Fotter-oonzer. Throw those "r"s back into your uvula and try to roll them there. If you can't, don't worry about it, most Germans can't either. I was taught to do it by a Danish girl named Merete.

My pronunciations are based on the simplest, standard (Midwestern-) American English rules.]

Matthäus 6:9-13:
Ma-TAY-oos
Matthew

9. Unser Vater im Himmel!
Oonzer Fotter im Himmel
Our Father in [-the] Heaven

Dein Name werde geheiligt.
dine nomma vair-da ge-HILE-igt
your name be hallowed

10. Dein Reich komme.
dine rysh (long 'i') coma
your kingdom (empire) come

Dein Wille geschehe
dine villa ge-shay-a
your Will happen

wie im Himmel so auf Erden.
vee im himmel zo ouf AIR-den
as in heaven so on earth

11. Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute.
Oon-zer TAYG-lish-ess brote gip oonce hoy-ta
Our daily bread give us today

12. Und vergib uns unsere Schuld,
Oont fair-Gip oonce oonz-er-a shoolt
and forgive us our debt [yes, just one]

wie auch wir vergeben unsern Schuldigern.
vee oukh veer fair-GAY-ben OONzern SHOOL-dig-ern
as also we forgive our debters

13. Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung,
Oont fyoor-a [merge the 'yuh' and 'oo' sounds completely; actually, "furra" wouldn't be the worst butchering of that word I ever heard] oonce neesht in fair-ZOOKH-oong
and lead us not into temptation

sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen.
Zone-dern air-LERZ-a [make that "ER" in there sound Valley-Girlish, not Bostonian] oonce fun dame BERZ-en
but redeem us from the evil [or evil one]

Denn Dein ist das Reich und die Kraft
den dine isst doss rysh oont dee kroft
because yours is the kingdom and the power

und die Herrlichkeit in Ewigkeit. Amen
oont dee HAIR-lish-kite in AY-vig-kite. Ah-men.
and the glory in eternity. Amen.

At my church we celebrate Pentacost by reciting The Lord's Prayer in any other language we happen to know, all at once. They print up a sheet with about 20 different ones.

Running stuff

Hey! The City [Duh! But just try to navigate their frickin' website. Here's the Google search I did to find this: "'brooklyn center' walking path map"] has the distances for my run to and around Palmer Lake:

Community Center to Palmer Lake
1.0 mile

Palmer Lake Loop
3.1 miles

So that's 5.1 Miles right there. Now I just have to figure out how far it is from my house to the Commity Center. I figure it's close enough to just call it a mile.

MapMyRun.com says it's 1.1 miles, so I ran a full 10K in an hour.

Now all I have to do is multiply that by 4.

Since this is where I come to express my... Well, my bourgeois philistinism

Jim Daniels is offering a special report on how to set up your own internet business, including a website. If you click on the golden key, the report is free.

Notes on The Revolution and other events in American History worth celebrating.

Thanks for this link Kyle.

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775 in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America.

The Boston Tea Party would be a good one to celebrate. "The incident, which took place on Thursday, December 16, 1773, has been seen as helping to spark the American Revolution."

The Day King James II abdicated in 1688. Wikipedia: "...on the 28th [of December] William accepted the responsibilities of government." "On February 13, 1689, Mary II and William III jointly acceded to the throne of England."

I've mentioned Constitution Day "It took effect on March 4, 1789 and has served as a model for the constitutions of numerous other nations."

Whoops, I need to make a change at the store.

The Bill of Rights should be mentioned. "These amendments came into effect on December 15, 1791, when ratified by three-fourths of the States."

VE Day - May 8.

I don't need to commemorate No Pants Day.

I jogged on Saturday.

15 minutes was what I planned. We had company over for the weekend.

I put my shoes on in front of my father-in-law, answering questions about practical household matters as I did so.

I may not have answered his last question or comment as I headed out the door.

I started my run at 8:32. I reached the Civic Center at 8:41 and the foot of the 694 foot-bridge at 8:42. That was half-way to where I figured to turn around, as I figured it at that point.

"But this is where it just starts to get pretty!" said the devil on my shoulder.

He was right!

When I got to Palmer Lake, I took a right. I knew I was making a commitment to run all that way around it. But I said to myself, "Almost 18 minutes. Halfway there!" I had changed my mind from a 20 minute run [oh, yeah! I originally planned a 15 minute run! What happened to that? ...Um. I don't know.] to a 35 minute run. I read somewhere that 35 minutes is the magic training number.

Well, I tell you something about magic training numbers. Somewhere between 18 and 25 minutes, my breathing and stride fell into a rhythm and the next c. 40 minutes were very easy.

A jogger is never forced to say, "I have to get up this hill fast!" or "I have to be the fastest here!"

Saturday, I learned I have it in me to achieve this goal.

Now, I have to DO it.

The kids are having a battle on the spare bed

with a dead exercise ball. I'm gettin' the crap kicked out of me here, and I'm just a bystander trying to blog.

There are a number of products that I actually believe in: Viadent toothpaste, Zim's Crack Cream, any kind of Vitamin E, CoQ 10, liquid minerals, garlic cloves, Listerine, Aveeno, fish liver oil...

But, exercise balls arent't among them. We have two and one's dead flat and one's mostly flat.

Maybe [note the spelling of that word, Ron] they're not designed for truly fat people who have young children.

Naturally, since the Weatherman predicted scattered showers

and thunderstorms, it's been simply raining cats and dogs all day. If these are scattered, they must be huge.

I can't hear any rain on the glass spires of the roof of the atrium because there are too many jovial people greeting and joking and laughing out there.

We're expecting In-laws tonight. The house is a mess. Somebody I know keeps saying that if I'll get the children out of her way, she'll clean up. I think her method is to sit in her chair and brood about how she never gets any help. Then she does laundry until her aches and pains drive her into bed. I don't know how we produce that much laundry, but we do. We always have clean clothes to wear anyway.

I play with the kids until story time, get them ready for bed and put them there. Neither of them ever gives us any trouble about bed-time.

Then, I suppose, Somebody expects me to start house-cleaning, but there's no way I'm going to begin any physical work after nine. OK, I'll fold a basket or two of laundry if you ask me to, or make a bed so we can get in it...

Oh, whine, whine, whine...

Did I mention that it's raining?

Steve reminded me of something.

We had a few difficulties of our own at easter. And I've got pictures.

Who's the first to show up when the camera comes out?


Easter Ham!


So we finally get the whole family together and what do I get?


To be fair, neither The Accountant nor I have any idea how that last picture came about, but it was too effin' hilarious not to post. Of course, the kids, who are obviously hanging their heads in shame (or embarassment for us), might have a different story (that they're not telling us).

Couldn't have had a nicer early spring day!

We went out to Wagner's Drive In for dinner this evening. The wife and I had Double California Burgers and a family-size order of onion rings. She had a chocolate malt and I had a blueberry shake. The kids had identical orders of hamburgers with Rootbeer Floats. And, of course, they shared the rings.

There were several classic cars, and a couple of those kit pseudo-classic hot-rods (that are still pretty cool), there--a black and cream '54 Chevy and purple '49 Ford...some kinda souped-up Willys (I didn't get over to that one).

Then we popped into Walmart & bought grilling supplies for the month. We do charcoal on a Weber Kettle. I have no idea why anyone would spend a thousand dollars on a gas grill. The best tasting thing I ever ate was Johnsonville Brats grilled on a Weber.

Might be why I married the wife, come to think of it.

I'll be darned!

"Canadian diamonds are the best quality diamonds in the world… even better than African diamonds."

Peter was referring to the physical characteristics of the diamond. But he also mentioned that buyers prefer Canadian diamonds for another reason: they don't want to support civil war in Africa and will pay a premium for a clear conscience.

I didn't know they had any.

I've been saying, since my first daughter was born, that I'm movin' to Northern Saskatchewan. Now I find that there's money to be made there.

I should run up there this summer and ask 'em if they've got some hard work they need help with for a week. While the wife and kids check out the local Mennonite, Hutterite and/or Amish communities to see if they have room for another family.

Crazy, man!

[Teach you to follow a blind link, eh?]

Actually, I like this image a little better.

This one would be great as an insult!

Want to call somebody a Nazi? These are pre-nazi helmets, but, hey: Bismarck - Hitler, what's the difference? The Prussians were national socialists before Hitler coined the term.

What idiot titled this picture?! It's "grazing"!

I'm just collecting up some images for future use.

Correction-4/14/06: I just noticed I'd forgotten the pre-Nazi helmet link. Sorry.

Don't Make Me Assume Leadership of All the Bourgeois Philistines of the World!

Do I have to write a manifesto?

Huh?

I'd be happy to take up the challenge. But I gotta tell ya: I'm a capitalist. It's a free competition. And there is no end.

AND... The Market determines the winner... The Market can change its mind.

And The Market is a better aggregator of human wisdom than any government has ever been, and is less fickle than any polity has ever been

AND... let me emphasize that I do not accept that the status quo is the best that The Market can do. I think that it will do better, and the freer it is allowed to be the faster it will pay off in greater freedoms.

WOD: pol·i·ty (pl-t)

n. pl. pol·i·ties
1. The form of government of a nation, state, church, or organization.
2. An organized society, such as a nation, having a specific form of government: "His alien philosophy found no roots in the American polity" New York Times.

I mean the second definition, of course - although, I suspect that debate may continue through The Millenium.

[I almost said The MNlenium. Texans are known as braggarts, but let me just spill the beans on Minnesotans: We (or they-I'm originally a Cheesehead-are certain that we're better than everyone else--hence the term "MNlenium" would be taken amiss by few Minnesota churches. I welcome a survey on the matter.)

Check out this goofball's review of a Wiggles DVD

Wiggling into Deeper Truths, October 17, 2005
Reviewer: viktor_57 "viktor_57" (Fairview, Your Favorite State, USA) - See all my reviews

After much pleading and prodding by my five-year-old son, I finally gave in and bought him "The Wiggles - Wiggle Time."

At first, I thought, "Oh no, another glibly tuneful romp through cartoonish juvenilia." But how wrong I was!

"The Wiggles" just may represent the only active, truly original modern art form practised by today's desiccated, so-called "artists". When one compares the underlying harmonic and polyphonic structure of a representative tune such as "hot potato dance," one realizes that such complexity and daring have never been heard since Strauss shocked even the jaded Parisians with "Salome"!

This is to take nothing away from the dance, however, which rivals anything ever choreographed by Balanchine. The dancers, eschewing the ambits of classical forms and steps, create their own pleitropic vocabulary of movements which bewilder the viewer with their genetic pregnancy.

Were this all that the "Wiggles" offered, one could easily imagine that their lack of immediate recognition for the geniuses that they are was due to the subtleties of their art and the jealousies of less talented peers. But only after viewing the disk repeatedly and incessantly (I had to purchase a second copy for myself) did I realize the entirety and awful enormity of the "Wiggles" experience. Such was my shock of insensing comprehension that I felt the universe close around me into a point of awareness centered on one sublime, beautiful, yet terrible truth. I struggled mightily to force order into the epiphany which the "Wiggles" graced upon me. But I could not.

Therefore, gentle reader, take heart from my woe. No measure of wisdom or beauty should cost a man his soul.

I like the Wiggles, too, man, but Good Gravy!

Update: don't miss his review of the Philips HeartStart Home Automated External Defibrillator (AED)

Some family stuff

Thought I would show you some of what's been going on around here.

It's sunny and 38° F here today and with all the fresh snow, Rosie and I thought it would be a good idea to spend Lena's naptime making a snowman.


Here's a pic of Lena from the other night:


Here's my dungeon:


And one more look at the weather:


The younger son (the responsible one) spent a week here with us, and now he's off to Des Moines on a new business venture. He was pretty good company. He's interested in a lot of the things I've been studying for the last couple years. I suppose, in a way, I've developed those interests due to his and his brother's [more mature] activities since they left home.

They do pretty well when they buckle down. But this isn't their blog, so I don't feel free to discuss what their up to. Sorry.

I'd give 'im "an eye for an eye."

Execution, as we practice it, is too good for him. I'd want to make sure he felt every ounce of terror that I thought she might have felt.

I'd use an auger bit for the more unspeakable parts, though.

Want to read about a Randian hero?

Check out Dr. J. Phillip London's CV.

Dr. J. Phillip London is Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer of CACI International Inc, an information technology and network services company with fiscal 2004 revenue of $1.146 billion. Under Dr. London's leadership, CACI has grown from a small professional services consulting firm to become a pacesetter in information technology (IT) and communications solutions across markets throughout North America and Western Europe. CACI operations today are worldwide and global in nature.

There's more. It's too long to reproduce here, but I like this bit:

Dr. London is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (1959) and the Naval Postgraduate School (1967), where he earned, respectively, a bachelor of science in naval engineering and a master of science in operations research. He holds a doctorate in business administration conferred "with distinction" from The George Washington University (1971).

During his 12 years of active duty as a regular officer (1959-1971) during the Cold War, Dr. London initially served as a naval aviator and carrier pilot, serving with U.S. Navy "hunter-killer" task forces arrayed against the Soviet Union's strategic nuclear submarine threat. He saw service in the Cuban Missile Crisis (the "thirteen days") of October 1962, and his numerous at-sea deployments included the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean. He was with the airborne recovery team for Col. John Glenn's Mercury Program space flight in Freedom 7 in the Caribbean, on February 20, 1962, on the U.S.S. Randolph (CVS-15). Later, at the height of the Vietnam War, he served as Aide and Administrative Assistant to the Vice Chief of the Naval Material Command, Department of the Navy (1969-70). Dr. London left active duty in 1971 and joined the U.S. Navy Reserve, retiring as a captain in 1983, having served as commanding officer of aeronautical engineering units with the Naval Air Systems Command, Washington, D.C.

I don't know how to introduce this piece by Tom McMahon

He calls it, "What I Have Learned In 15 Years."

This may not be the greatest bit of genius in the post, but try this bit:

You never anticipate the really bad stuff

Think of all the old Twilight Zone episodes that had a post-World War III theme. Now think of all the episodes with a big-jetliner-smashing-into-a-skyscraper theme. We tend to worry about a lot of things that never happen, and let ourselves get blindsided by reality.

Thank you, Tom. It helps.

Our '97Dodge Caravan is in my wife's name.

That's fine with me. It ain't a manly vehicle.

But I'm happy enough to have it; it has it's uses.

I've mentioned that I had an accident a while back with the '99 Ford F-150.

Well, since she hasn't been paid off, the lien-holder insisted that she be properly restored to new condition. Well, the insurance company talks like this is all my fault, the opposing insurance company wants to prove that it's all my fault and the auto-body shop talks like it is all the insurance companies' fault... Well, let's just say my premiums are soon to hit the level of my car payments.

They had the SOB for the entire month of January.

But it sure is a pretty truck!

I ain't s***in' ya! The @*&^er's beautiful!

Did I mention that it has a Waldoch-customized interior? That's real wood, real leather... Dude! I own the Rolls-Royce of Pick-up trucks!

I'd pay any price for that.

Babysat tonight while the wife argued about Girl Scout cookies with the troup leader.

I finally found some batteries with a charge in 'em for the digicam, so Nina posed for some cute pix.

I call this one, "Yes, Father?"


She sees I've got the camera out, so she indulges me with this pose:

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful!"

Here's where she realizes she's having a bad hair day:

When she saw it later, she was in denial. She wanted to call it, "Baby's Sleeping." Yeah, right, kid! "Baby Butchering Pose" more like.

When Rosie got home, she spent her free moments while I was reading to her from Anne of Green Gables expressing her artistic...muse or whatever...with blocks:


Thanks to ImageShack for [URL=http://imageshack.us]Free Image Hosting[/URL]

That goalpost lookin' thing reminds me of somethin'. How about them Steelers, eh? Now I think the Seahawks got screwed on a couple calls (the called-back TD on the tiniest of push-offs and Hasselbeck getting called for a low block on a tackle{?!!})... But those weren't enough to stop a great team. The fact is, that even though it was a bit frustrating to watch, the Steelers were the better team. They just had too many weapons.

I'm a fan of Mike Holmgren, I like Hasselbeck, but I found myself rooting for the Steelers. The Steelers had more, personable characters to like.

I'm sad somebody had to lose, but I'm glad "The Bus" won. And Heinz Ward deserved the MVP Award.

We're gonna hold you to that, John.

"I've taken no pork since the day I got here," Boehner declared, and for several years he's favored changing the rules about hiding pork for special interests.

"I have no illusions we're going to eliminate that or we're going to eliminate all these projects" – or should we, he said. "But there ought to be a process where we can distinguish worthy projects from worthless pork."

He suggests making public the names of members tied to specific spending earmarks because "sunlight is the best disinfectant."

This is how Republicans have become embroiled in the latest lobbying scandal involving Abramoff, Boehner said.

He notes that lobbying scandals crop up from time to time, but the real problem is the overall size of the federal government.

"We're going to spend $2.6 trillion of people's money. And when you have a pot of money that large it's going to attract unsavory characters who will want to be selfish.

I'd prefer to call that stupidly short-sighted.

"The mere size of government is a problem ... And the burgeoning use of earmarks [is] the dynamic that's going to produce an Abramoff or a Duke Cunningham." The latter refers to former California Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty last November to a variety of crimes including bribery.

To Boehner's thinking, while proposals from his party and Democrats to clean up real or perceived corruption are worthy goals, "I think that more transparency in the relationship between lobbyists and members would be more helpful."

He pointed out what he considers to have been bad law – the McCain/Feingold campaign reform law, which he voted against because of its fundamental flaw in attempting to put more rules into place without being honest with the American people.

Most important thing a politician has said since 1995.

Prediction: Fame and Fortune will precipitate

on Dave Cloud if he keeps up this kind of analysis [hope he can handle it]:

In an early December Wall Street Journal opinion page article General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner...tosses in the obligatory call for a "level playing field." The term is cliché, but it is an extremely misleading one. The sports analogy implies that everyone should be required to play by the same rules; that all competitors should have approximately the same equipment for the contest. Who could object to that? Well, anyone who understands that this is simply not how the world works.
...
When a business leader, politician or pundit calls for a 'level playing field', he or she is exposing either a startling ignorance of real world economics or, more likely, displaying a truly disingenuous attitude toward the facts. My home state of Indiana is at a terrible disadvantage to Hawaii in attracting tourists. Should Hoosiers insist that Uncle Sam provide a level playing field? We could limit the number of people who can go to Hawaii each year or make airlines charge more to fly people there. It sounds stupid, but then so do quotas and tariffs.

Oh, but GM is special.

Mr. Cloud may get famous and rich, but it won't be due to the favor of multi-national corporations who belly up to Uncle Sam's trough.

Can you see why Ayn Rand wanted to see the word "religion" replaced with "commerce" in the First Amendment?

Al wants to handle your dog doo!

All right, maybe that didn't come out right.

Check out these two posts at my other blog: one, two.

I'd consider buying into a franchise opportunity once I establish myself. As long as it was of benefit to my customers and myself.