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.