"A Socialist is only a Communist without a gun."
Rodger, the Real King of France (as quoted by)
--Dolly
The Cloud Observatory
Thursday May 8, 2008...
Observation #690 ::.
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Thursday May 8, 2008...
Mee-shell, Dumbell ::.
SONT LES MOTS qui vont très bien ensemble. **
Michelle Obama seethes with bitterness. While she preaches the gospel according to Barack, she wears resentment and bitterness on her sleeve. It is therefore painful to listen to her. She's apparently even still angry about her SAT scores. She didn't test well in school, she explains.-- Scott Johnson at PowerLine
Johnson goes on to say, "Somehow, she has overcome." Me: I have my doubts.
People always seem to give glib leftists points for intelligence that I don't really think are earned. Just because somebody has managed to appropriate and regurgitate a pat line of stupidity and do it well doesn't excuse them the underlying... well, stupidity.
Obama (and Clinton, for that matter -- as well as the entire Left) is running around the country mouthing all manner of witless inanities posing as thoughtful public policy prescriptions. And, because he can unspool the talking points without stammering or apparent embarrassment at their idiocy does not make him "bright and articulate." A well-trained parrot can appear to be "bright and articulate," too. But if what he says doesn't track with reality, you wouldn't elect him President.
Would you?
Well I sure as fuck woon't.
And there you have it.
So here again, I find reinforced my impression that both of them are affirmative action babies and should be the farthest thing from a viable candidate as the "first" anything.
Some times, Michelle, the test results are valid.
** Oh, hell! I lost track of where I stole that from. ::wince:: Sorry!
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Thursday May 8, 2008...
So. It Comes Down ::.
TO THIS: Harry Reid refuses compromise on ANWR. They'd rather take on the oil companies to get lower gas prices.
If they really intend lower prices and not permanently depressed demand.
Right.
Rather than go out and make more, the Democrats would rather play thug -- despite myriad object lessons as to the futility of beating milk out of a cow.
It's not a wonder they have supporters. There are stupid, greedy, evil people everywhere. What is somewhat disappointing is that they have so many.
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Previously on BabyTrollBlog...
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Wednesday May 7, 2008...
She Says She Says ::.
SHRILLARY PROCLAIMS
"I WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR YOU:"
Thanks for nothing. What do we have to do to get you to leave us the hell alone?
Gabrielle Francesca East (Dolly) | |
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Wednesday May 7, 2008...
These Things Keep Cropping Up ::.
LATELY LIKE MUSHROOMS after a warm, pre-dawn rain shower. Here's another in the Mahmet mold (albeit earlier). Keith Thompson on Leaving The Left.
My estrangement hasn't happened overnight. Out of the corner of my eye I watched what was coming for more than three decades, yet refused to truly see. Now it's all too obvious. Leading voices in America's "peace" movement are actually cheering against self-determination for a long-suffering Third World country because they hate George W. Bush more than they love freedom.
Leftists who no longer speak of the duties of citizens, but only of the rights of clients, cannot be expected to grasp the importance (not least to our survival) of fostering in the Middle East the crucial developmental advances that gave rise to our own capacity for pluralism, self-reflection, and equality. A left averse to making common cause with competent, self- determining individuals -- people who guide their lives on the basis of received values, everyday moral understandings, traditional wisdom, and plain common sense -- is a faction that deserves the marginalization it has pursued with such tenacity for so many years.
RTWT.
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Wednesday May 7, 2008...
Figures Don't Lie ::.
BUT LIARS figure.
I c'n make my figure lie.
Yeah, well...
...
You know...
...
A lot of... No.
...
Not goin' there, huh?
No.
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Wednesday May 7, 2008...
I Think Obama's **GASP** ::.
RIGHT ON THE GAS TAX HOLIDAY THING, albeit for the wrong reason. I think it would be a mistake because it could implant in the public psyche the notion that a temporary abatement of taxes -- whether for a few months or a few years -- is a reasonable or acceptable fix to over-taxation.
No.
No.
And HELL no.
For a case in point, take the "Bush" -- scorn quotes -- "Tax Cuts for the Rich." Scheduled to expire in the out years. The half-a-loaf crowd told us we could fix the problem permanently later on.
And we know how that one's working out.
Black folk have fallen for that line of crap from the Democrats for 50 years, and look where it's got them. Let's not fall for the same shit from Republicans.
The fix to over-taxation is to cut taxes. Permanently. With prejudice.
Gettit?
Gottit.
Good.
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Wednesday May 7, 2008...
Irises ::.
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Tuesday May 6, 2008...
Hey, Folks! ::.
IF YOU HAVE A BLOG, by all means put your URL in the box when you comment. Might's well get all the traffic you can, right?
Gabrielle Francesca East (Dolly) | |
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Tuesday May 6, 2008...
Heads: She Wins; Tails: You Lose ::.
SO HILLARY GOT SOUND bitten on the radio news Monday morning. "Barry baby wants YOU to pay the gas tax this summer. I want the oil companies to pay it out of their profits."
Hillary, you ignorant slut. That means the people pay it either way. That's not much of a bargain.
Of course, we've known for a long time that all leftist policies work that way. They're appeals to the ignorant in a grab for power.
Power to do what?
::shrug:: Dunnot anymore. Used to be I thought it was the enact their agenda. 'Cept they never do. So all I can figure is they want power for its own sake.
A government make-work program -- exceptin' they don't really work.
That's work as in function, as opposed to as in force acting on mass over distance?
Um... yeah. I think so.
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Tuesday May 6, 2008...
A Fast One? ::.
MARC SHEPPARD writing at The American Thinker, asks Are Global Warmists Pulling a Cool Fast One?
Na-a-a-a-aw. Ya think?
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Tuesday May 6, 2008...
Things I Observed ::.
Random Brain-Farts
DRIVING BACK AND FORTH between Indy and Cincy.
K.T. Tunstall is great driving music when you're doing 70 with all four windows down.
Sugarland... not so much.
I don't mind driving alone for two hours. Much more than that, I tend to get antsy and want to get out of the car.
I shouldn't sing along with Crowded House for an hour. My voice can't take it.
Tears for Fears, too.
People drive like assholes pretty much everywhere.
Cops laying in the weeds for speeders are pretty obvious unless you're not paying attention. Maybe that's the point.
Google maps can misdirect you. I'd rather have a real folding street map, so I can find alternate routes in case a bridge is closed. Mental note: buy a street map of Indy.
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Tuesday May 6, 2008...
Staircase Wit ::.
I SHOT MY MOUTH OFF at the blogger meet Sunday and said something provocative. I got the impression some there thought it might have even been dumb. There might have been a glint of, Oh, so you're one of those! in Tam's eye. But the conversation quickly passed me by, as bar conversation is wont to do, and the thesis was left somewhat undeveloped.
I'd like to try to fix that.
And I suppose I should say at the outset, that somebody may have already tried this or something the like, though I've never heard of it...
As though that were dispositive.
Well, yeah. That's kinda the point of mentioning it. You know -- in all modesty and all that?
Oh. OK.
The brain-fart is one that's been percolating around in my alleged mind for awhile now, and it goes something like this: A great deal that the federal government does is extra-constitutional. (And therefore is, I suppose, by definition unconstitutional.) To whit:
While the 16th Amendment definitely makes an income tax constitutional, it also defines it (according to Supreme Court case law) as an indirect tax -- in the language of the Constitution, a duty, impost or an excise (take your pick). And, as it says right there in the first 'graph of Article I Section 8, "shall be uniform throughout the United States...". Does a graduated income tax sound uniform to you? Doesn't to me. Nor do all of the myriad perversions of the Internal Revenue Code (read: loopholes) add to that perception of uniformity.
And then... there is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) (ATF: We don't make the government, we make the government unconstitutional.) Get any two gun nuts together and sooner or later this bête noir will raise its fugly head.
And my take on that is this: The Second Amendment reads, in relevant part: The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed. This is not a prohibition lain on Congress alone, else it would be phrased as is the First -- Congress shall make no law. Nor is it a prohibition lain on government alone, else it would be phrased, Neither Congress nor the States, nor any city, town, village, or township... or however they say that in Lawyer. No. It simply says, The Right of the People... SHALL NOT Be Infringed. That means, to my simple little mind, that no actor -- public or private -- may infringe upon the right of citizens to go armed. Period. End of discussion.
By definition, a government agency purporting to -- scorn quotes with italics -- "regulate" firearms infringes upon that right.
Nor do I accept the "compelling public interest" dodge. The very idea of a compelling state interest (tell me you can see the bright line in law dividing "state" from "public.") ought to be anathema to a free people.
Needles to say, this is at odds with the conventional wisdom.
There's a story -- which shall remain apocryphal unless the individual in question cares to become un-anonymous -- of a blogger who attended an ATF briefing of FFL (Federal Firearms License) holders on the rules for FFL compliance.
A good thing, he thought. You'd think this would be the kind of information the ATF would want spread far and wide. Record away, gents. Report at will. We want this to get out.
Ummm... notsomuch axshualy.
He was told not to record, and asked (most politely, I'm sure) not to report on what he heard.
Right about now, you should be going -- all caps, bold, italics and underlined -- W!T!F!??!1!!.
But it made perfect sense to me. The ATF is, by nature, an opressive organization, operating outside the law. Although its agents will no doubt profess to be law-and-order sorts, in their deepest, darkest, most-secret hearts of hearts, they must know that the very existence of their organization is an affront to liberty and the Constitution.
And, as such, when thinking of the ATF, one must remember the trope from Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged) --
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
And that, in my mind, is why our blogger friend was told not to report. If FFLs understand the rules and comply, there is no leverage for the ATF to act against them.
At least, not without manufactured evidence.
Yes. And, of course, once the river of state jumps its banks, how you ever going to stem the flood? A government agency which operates outside the bounds of the nation's supreme law can be trusted in nothing.
I tell you that to tell you this: at the gathering Sunday, said blogger avowed as how nobody wanted to go up against the power of the ATF. I snorted and -- as I said above -- shot my mouth off.
"I'd like," I said, "to get into a real court battle with the ATF. My advocate's instructions would be to press the argument that ATF's very existence is unconstitutional and the Bureau ought to be abolished."
Overt reactions ranged from a derisive snort from Og to variations on the theme of "No you wouldn't" from Tam, Roberta, Caleb, and (I think) Old Grouch. And I'm sure that at least one brain spun through the "agent provocateur" side track, if only for a second, and even I had the "Yeah, right. Big talk." thought, even as I spoke.
And I should say here that I was and am talking big to this extent: I am utterly unqualified to be this test case on two counts: 1) Except for my possibly toxic views on the subject (and I think we still have a First Amendment protection of free speech at this point), I am completely off ATF's radar. I can guarantee that I am 100% in full compliance -- or not covered by -- any and all ATF regulations at all times. I am certain of this for reasons I don't care to discuss publicly. Just trust me, I am. 2) I don't have and don't anticipate coming into the resources to carry out the fight.
But that doesn't stop me from theorizing. Or building castles in the air.
The reason that any government agency has an apparent dominance of the battle space -- especially in cases of existential nature for the agency in question -- is the perception of supremacy. The "full force of the law" is sort-of believed to carry with it the weight of that three-trillion-dollar Federal Budget and the assumption that they will spend every red cent of it and go into deficit to grind you into the dirt like the cretinous bug you are.
But you know, that's not true.
Any agency of the government has a budget. Yeah, sure, it's in the billions in the case of any TLA-fief you've ever heard of. But they have to justify that budget before Congress (or to their department superiors) on an annual basis. And they have priorities. They can't spend their entire budget just to crush one bug. So, if you can outspend (or, better yet, force the agency to spend out) the case-budget for one agent -- the one immediately before you -- you have a good chance of winning.
And, if you can get support from your Congresscritter -- the more powerful the better -- you have an even better chance.
What's it gonna take? Dunno. I speculated six figures at the BR Brew Pub, but the more I think about it, the more I think it might run to mid-eights. So... how many people can you think of who might be willing to spend thirty-to-eighty million dollars to give an overweening government agency a BIG black eye -- possibly even laying the leviathan low?
That's a rotten metaphor, Alger.
I know.
And, of course, you know there are lots of people out there with that kind of cash -- even R2KBA supporters. But they think strategically. How many times have you heard or heard of or read of an ILA spokesman saying, "We have to pick our battles"? It's true. If you shoot your wad the first crack of the bat, you'd better kill the king, 'cause if you don't, sure as shit, there will be paybacks. And they are, as 'tis said, a bitch.
Which is a hell of a thing to say in a notionally free country, when you think about it.
Lean hard on that "notionally" button, Dolly.
True dat. And, BTW, way to mix them metaphors.
KTHNXBAI. But fortune favors the bold. And can you think of a bolder maneuver than to carefully prepare the battle space, marshal your troops, line up the logistics, choose your ground, and beat the motherfuckers into the ground?
By all means, PLEASE -- discuss.
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Tuesday May 6, 2008...
Sunny Bank ::.
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Monday May 5, 2008...
Played Out ::.
WHICH USED TA MEAN back in the gigging days that one had actually gotten one's self and one's axe to an actual public venue and, like, performed 'n' shit. You had played out.
These days, it's more like I've gone past my sell-by date. I'm played out. Like a gold mine where there's no more gold.
Had an away date Sunday in Indianapolis -- a meet-up in Broad Ripple, a section of Indy that's ... well ... If you know Over the Rhine, it's what OTR wishes it could be. Not terribly hip, I wouldn't think, because that implies too much black clothing and emo makeup and attitude and all that. From what I saw, it looked pretty ... normal. Indiana corn-fed, if you get my drift. Just crowded, busy, lots of people around doing people stuff. Funky little bars on every corner -- sometimes all four at once -- neat little shops. A definite self-awareness with a marketing plan. And spread out over what seemed like a larger area than most of these little bohemian 'hoods spread out over. Of course, the fact that I got lost in it probably magnifies it my mind. But... yeah.
Oh, yeah. And a river runs through it. Well, in most places they'd call it a river. In Broad Ripple, they have the grace to call it a creek -- which it is. But the bridges are kicky.
The meetup was Indiana gun bloggers, but other folk were welcome. Since I'm not from Indiana and only peripherally blog about guns (I mean, Tamara is a total gun nerd -- and I mean that in a good way. At my Shooter's-Bible-memorizing-best*, I could never have summoned a tenth -- a billionth -- of the offhand trivia she has at her mental fingertips.), that's probably a good thing.
Whew! I thought sure I was gonna haveta send the St. Bernards out after that sentence. So glad to see it finally got where it was going!
Me, too.
About ten or eleven showed, including self, and Og, and Tamara K and Roberta X. You've met Og here and Tam and Roberta have both commented here, but you should go read their blogs. Oh! And a real-life bona-fide BNA, Frank W. James. Ain't that cool? And as soon as I've figured out who everybody is, there'll be additions to the blogroll. Always nice to put face, voice, and mannerisms to a name. Adds depth and flavor to text on the screen.
And for those of you who have wondered about Tam and Roberta, yes they are...
I thought they were just friends!
...very, very tall. What were you thinking I was going to say, Dolly?
::blush:: Oh, nothing.
Uh huh. Sure.
Tam has got real bigleagues writing talent. I say that because she manages to put her personality across DEAD ON on her blog. If you think that's easy, ("All I gotta do is act naturally.") try it sometime. Roberta on the other hand, has a layer of warmth that -- while not absent on her blog -- isn't nearly as dialed up against the snark as she is in person. There are good reasons these two are stars of the blogosphere.
Also met a young man named Caleb, who -- though he has his doubts about his generation -- is yet another in a long line of youngsters this aging Boomer has encountered who give me hope for the future of humanity.
And now, my eyelids are drooping, so I need to fall into bed before I faceplant on my keyboard.
Thanks for pulling it together, ladies. Well done, indeed.
*Yes, I used to memorize the ammunition ballistics tables in the back of the Shooter's Bible. But I'e slept since then.
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Monday May 5, 2008...
The Boyz ::.
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Sunday May 4, 2008...
Archives Gone ::.
I'VE BEEN BLOGGING FOR over six years, now, and this edition of BTB has been up for five. Up to now, it's all been contained in a single MS Access database file. That file peaks out at 100+MB and takes fifty minutes for City Desk to publish. Eventually, I will have to devise or buy a better method of handling the thing. But for now, I'm taking the view that no archive file past two years old is so worthwhile as to need to be preserved online. I have, accordingly, cut off the archive at the beginning of June, 2006. Anything older than that will not be accessible for a while. And, if I find it's no loss, that "while" may become permanent. We'll see.
I'm betting nobody will notice.
No bet. I agree.
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Sunday May 4, 2008...
I Don't Sweat ::.
--JOINTS, THAT IS, often enough to be really good at it. No points for style tacked on to my performance. I'm in the If-it-works-it's-good category. I sweated 5 joints today and only one of them made that slurping sound of flux sucking in the solder that you're supposed to get. I got entirely too many of those silver spatters on the floor. And the copper is scorched. Like the sun is a light source. Excess solder all over the joints. BUT... the darned thing DOES NOT leak. Whereas, the valve the pro (who put in our new water service -- all props to him) put in DID.
Be fair, Alger. You sprung the thing on him by surprise...
I seem to recall he volunteered to do it in odd moments while waiting for things like his crew ruining SWMBO's beloved front flower beds with a backhoe. But he hadn't expected to do it when he left the shop that morning, yes. And he did have to use the materials on-hand -- including the valve that was in situ. But I'd have to give him at least a small ration, because I'm guessing the corrosion that caused the washer's retaining screw to snap off in quarters under my screwdriver was pretty well advanced a year ago. "Hey, Jimbo. I'm guessing you must have looked real close at that valve stem when you were putting it back in..."
But you're getting a head of yourself.
Quite true.
Last episode, we had promised that we would be laying sod in the front yard this Saturday. SWMBO had contacted a sod farm and been told that I could pick up a load (all of 9 square yards) Saturday morning, weather permitting. They open at 8. Orders can be picked up after 8:30.
Meanwhile, we also had a rescheduled appointment to have our furnace cleaned -- factory required warranty keeping-upage kinda thing -- between 10 and noon.
Friday night, I got the last cabinet hung.
Therefore, Saturday, the plan was:
1) Pickup sod at the sod farm. (Take plastic drop cloth to protect the back of the Jeep.)
2) Bring it back to Casa d'Alger and begin laying sod until furnace guy shows.
3) Finish laying sod.
4) Spend the rest of the day pleasantly puttering around doing things like putting the knobs on the doors on the cabinets and cutting and affixing the dentil molding.
...
Saturday morning, it rained.
I called the sod farm, hoping they'd say, "Nope. Sorry, boss. No can do in the rain." But they -- wiseasses -- had cut the sod Friday. Bleah.
I took a look outside at the cold and wet miserable rainy weather that was making the front yard into a mud bowl and copped an attitude like a teenager. "I don't wanna do it and I'm not gonna."
So I didn't. Instead, I put the knobs on the doors on the cabinet and affixed the dentil molding atop the east wall cabinets. And did the prettiest job coping the...
Coping! You used a Dremel!
(Rotary tool, registered trademark of Dremel, Inc.) So?
You didn't use a coping saw!
So? If you cut a miter with a regular saw, is that allofasudden not a miter because you didn't use a miter saw?
No. But...
No buts.
::twists and checks:: I got one!
Two "t's".
Them too! See?
No! Two t's in "butt".
Ew!
What!? Didn't you read LabRat's essay?
ANY way...
Anyway.
Sometime, SWMBO remarked that the supply valve for the outside hose bib leaked. I allowed as how that ought to be fixed, since we're gardening and yarding again and will want to have the hose working. So I went down and checked it out. Turned off the water to the house and took the valve apart -- thereby starting the clock.
I think we went ten hours without water.
More like eight.
Whatever. For somebody who hates to have his hands dirty unless he's actually working on something dirty -- and sometimes even then -- it was an eternity.
OK. Twelve. WHAT everrrr.
I had actually had the nerve to grab the drawer from the little Drawer Thingy™ that holds all of my various plumbing repair kibbles-and-bits -- like washers and screws and stuff -- and take it with me when I went to inspect the valve. Thinking, you see, that it would be an easy fix.
"If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." --Amanda Marshall.
As I think I may have implied up there ::points::, the washer retaining screw was so corroded it disintegrated, leaving a bright pink screw shaft right up the center of the valve stem.
Nothing to be done for it but to head off to the Home Despot to find a replacement. I did not have a warm-and-fuzzy about this, either. I seem to remember trying to get a replacement valve stem for the hose bib (which I'd had the plumber replace because of this problem), and fruitlessly chasing it all over town. This current valve in hand we're speaking of is of the same vintage -- and probably the same vinyard -- as that hose bib.
But it would have been foolish to simply give up and buy a new valve without first checking for a replacement valve stem.
The difference in price being...?
Having to sweat the old valve off and the new one on, with all the tsuris that implies.
But you ended up having to...
Who's telling this story?
You are. And you're doing such a brilliant job of it, too!
Dolly? Stifle!
I should mention here that I have a bad back. Not an official Bad Back, mind, with doctors and prescriptions and time off work. Oh, no. That would make things too easy. This is a kind of a biscuit bad back (Pooh reference). The kind you don't tell anybody about. But it keeps me from being able to stand comfortably for longer than -- oh, say -- thirty seconds.
I went to Home Despot with a list. A 3-pack of furnace filters. Replacement valve stem. Something to build up the door jamb to support the casing molding at the level of the battens for the bookshelves. Ten rolls of sod (net wt 500#).
They didn't have the filters in 3-packs in our size. I ended up getting one stop-gap. What Mom used to call a lick and a promise. I'll get a three-pack some other trip.
What they had in the way of wood might have worked, but it didn't suit my mood and it was all in 16-foot lengths, which meant I would either have to cut it -- back starting to act up, making me REALLY want to get OUT of that place -- or tie it on top of the Jeep. Half-inch by three-quarters pine molding strips sixteen feet long. Tied ontop of a Jeep Cherokee in high winds and rain. There's a recipe for getting home without the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of the teeth.
The replacement valve display at our local Home Despot is chest high on a tall garden gnome. Finding your valve is a bit like deciphering Linear A script. While I was standing there stooped over in the valve aisle, trying to find my valve stem, my back began to spasm. I really wanted Mommy to tell me I didn't have to do it and I could go home and take a nap.
Nope. Not happening.
I went over to the valve display and dithered between basically what I had and a ball valve and a gate valve. After a half-hour of pain and dithering, I got gate valves in half-inch and three-quarters (I can never remember which is the right size) and fled the scene.
But what about the sod? I can hear you ask.
I feel I would have been justified at that point in saying, "Sod the sod." But NOOOoooo. I have this overdeveloped sense of duty...
More like incurable muleheadedness.
Didn't I tell you to stifle?
Stifling.
...so after I checked out, I dumped my booty in the car and went back in to the garden store and got my ten rolls of sod. As I was struggling to load it -- keep the cart from escaping down the steep grade of the lot, get the rolls on to the drop cloth without scattering dirt all over the inside of my Jeep, what am I going to do about my hands, which I can't wash until I get the water back on at home -- this Arab-looking guy asks me, "How much is the sod?" "Five bucks a roll," I told him.
And I drove home, wondering as I went whether I had enough propane for my torch. Feeling very nervous about the impending doom -- er, repairs -- because it's been (I think) fifteen years or more since I sweated a joint.
And, of course, I made a total disaster of it. I overheated one section of pipe and ended up having to remove it (It was 1.75" long, OK?). Which wasn't as easy as it should have been. It was attached to a tee and I was trying to keep from overheating the tee as well...
Well, long story short...
Too late!
::picks up a Stilson wrench and menaces Dolly with it::
Stifling!
Long story short, I ended up having to essentially rebuild the entire union to get the valve back in. And, as I said, made a dog's breakfast of the solder joints.
But it doesn't leak.
Looking for my tube cutter, I pulled down the plastic shoebox in which we keep an assortment of plumbing-type stuff. It's not the exclusive destination for plumbing stuff, mind. The plastic shoeboxes are just a system for corralling miscellaneous clutter into categorized containers. It's that kind of a thing.
When I pulled that plastic shoebox off the shelf and opened it up, lo! And Behold!, evennn, there was another valve -- just like the one I'd just de-sweated from the pipes. Brand-new. Which could have supplied a replacement valve stem, had I only remembered I had it.
I washed my hands and, at about quarter to nine, went outside to lay the sod.
Long story short, I got that done, too.
But I got all my chores done, so I can go to Indy on Sunday. Yippee!
Well! That was boring!
The beatings will commence immediately!
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Saturday May 3, 2008...
'S Done ::.
IT'S ALIIIVVEE!
No it's not.
Well, not lit'rally.
But it is as done as it's going to get tonight.
I've loaded up the SD chip in my camera to take to Indy on Sunday. To show pix around.
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Saturday May 3, 2008...
Ignore The Data ::.
ON THE CHART IN THIS POST at Climate Skeptic for a moment, and look at the scale on the left side for a moment. That is, the subject isn't important so much as the magnitude of the changes being discussed.
Seven tenths of a degree centigrade (0.7°C) of warming from the turn of the 20th Century to when the trend apparently peaked in the late 1990s. Seven. Tenths. Of. A. Degree. The whole scale shows an absolute magnitude of 1.6°C, but the actual data ranges over less than 1°C off a notional norm.
Norm according to whom?
My point. Well, no, not my point, but apposite nonetheless.
Let me take you down a side path for a moment toward a point to consider.
Now. As I write this, the "official" temperature where I am stands at 22.4°C. Meantime, local reporting stations from around the area (an area, I should add, much smaller than the "pixel size" of the GHCN), show temps varying from 21.1° to 24.5°C.
I'm sure that the warmistas will tell you that they have a way of working all that out -- statistically. But I am inclined do distrust statistical methods which claim to tease out that which a plain reading of the raw data does not provide.
Ask yourself this question: why is the "official" temperature official? What is it that privileges readings taken in that particular location over others? That it is in control of a government agency?
The explorations of the Surface Stations survey project have shown us that the siting and record-keeping of government stations may be adequate for determining local weather conditions sufficient for day-to-day behavioral choices -- when and what to plant, what to wear, whether to take an umbrella as you leave the house -- but utterly useless for purposes of recording meaningful data about global climate conditions. (The USHCN network is composed of 1221 stations. (Plot here.))
My little ad hoc survey of temps in the Cincinnati area an April morning satisfies me that, even if you accept the data from the privileged recording stations (which I find problematic), the entire change asserted over the past century disappears in the noise of a higer-resolution record.
A survey with greater rigor might show otherwise, but I doubt it.
Now, it has been demonstrated that you can provide a recognizable portrait of Abraham Lincoln with only 16 pixels, when a clearer image would demand millions. But would you stake your country's future on that low-rez image? No. Nor should you accept that fewer than 2,000 data points -- and averaged data points at that -- should provide any better guidance when a million would not suffice to paint an accurate picture.
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Friday May 2, 2008...
No Post Today ::.
BUT FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT a LOL that had me LOLling and ROFLing MAO.
Click on picture to go to ICHC (I Can Has Cheezburger) for more funny pictures.
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Thursday May 1, 2008...
Journos When Braced ::.
AS TO WHY THEIR constitutional protections are worth fighting for, often point to their putative role as informants of the people, as conduits for information about public events.
Except that they don't. Inform, that is. And nowhere is that more evident than in coverage of the presidential campaign this year.
When was the last time you saw a media outlet of any nature discuss the nature of a candidate's policy stances, their meaning and consequences?
Never.
Exactly. So why do we put up with this?
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Thursday May 1, 2008...
Stealing A Note of a Meme ::.
FROM JOE HUFFMAN, I have a Just One Question to be asked first of journalists, and then of any person presumptuous enough to run for President of these Newnighted Snakes.
Ahem:
According to Article II of the Constitution, what are the duties of the President, and -- perhaps more importantly -- what are the limits to his power?
I 'spect the answers would be fodder for one a' them "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" mêmes you see in Readers Digest.
There might be something to that.
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Thursday May 1, 2008...
I'm Late to the Party ::.
ON THIS ONE and showing there is virtue in holding your fire until you're ready to shoot, Baldilocks flays and fillets the -- scorn quotes -- "Reverend" Wright and Black Liberation Theology -- in remarkably few words.
Applause resounds around the 'sphere.
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Thursday May 1, 2008...
Double Hung ::.
IT TOOK TIL TUESDAY evening for me to get the doubled and notched cabinets on the wall. Even so, I wasn't entirely happy with the results. No matter what I did, it seemed, there was going to be this wedge-shaped gap between the third and fourth cabinets.
So Wednesday evening, I loosened the mounting screws and shifted the thing around -- using a mallet and spreader clamps -- and got the ends of the two cabinets mated up properly. As a result, I also eliminated most of the shims and have the cabinets resting flat against the batten boards. Major win there.
This is the interior of the notched pair. The filler is made of birch plywood sanded to 600 grit with a coat of urethane. Almost looks better than the store-bought work. Almost.
The remaining space, into which the first cabinet has to go, looks almost too tight. But, then again, so what if I have to gouge out a layer of the skim coat off the drywall around the vent stack? Only means less trim work I have to do later.
Saving myself having to do coverup later. Hmm. Where have I heard that trope lately?
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Thursday May 1, 2008...
Dodd Drive Autumn Morning ::.
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Wednesday April 30, 2008...
Has It Occurred ::.
TO ANYONE TO WONDER whether the Rev Wrong's apparent self-immolation may be a deliberate self-sacrifice, a set piece political pantomine designed to allow Obama to appear to stand clear of his Marxist and anti-American roots? They had to have known his origins -- far from being immaculate -- are toxic to the vast majority of the electorate. Could this have been the design all along -- to manufacture a riff with his mentors, Wright first, with the terrorists to follow on at a later date if necessary?
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Wednesday April 30, 2008...
The Article ::.
LINKED MENTIONS that the author, on hearing of this watermelon boondoggle, thought immediately of the movie Spaceballs.
Me, I'm a bit more old-school. I thought immediately of this poem.
The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"
"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.
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Wednesday April 30, 2008...
Reed Glass ::.
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Tuesday April 29, 2008...
We Be Scribin' ::.
SUNDAY NIGHT as I drifted off to sleep, I realized that I couldn't hang the doubled and notched cabinets yet. I had to fill the gap between the end of the first (well, last, since I'm working right-to-left) cabinet in the row of four and the blind-corner cabinet on the south wall of the study.
And it was a tad tricky, due to odd angles and tight quarters, so it took me the best part of the evening to do.
But now it's done.
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Tuesday April 29, 2008...
Rev. Jeremiad Wrong's ::.
REHABILITATION TOUR continues apace, and with every wittering from this poisonous and addlepated demagogue, the doubts about Obama's association with him are proven ever more sound. The man is incapable, it appears, of having a thought without self-deception entering into the mix. The central question about Obama's sitting in a pew in this man's church for 20 years is, "How on Earth can he possibly believe that nonsense?" To date, the question remains unanswered. Meanwhile, the judgement that a man who can countenance the ravings of a such lunatic with a, "Well, you have to understand..." is unfit for any office, let alone that of President of the United States is constantly reinforced.
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TRYING TO CONFLATE Barry NMN Obama's name-which-shall-not-be-spoken with Arabic as a language. Claiming that it's ridiculous to pique Obama on account of his middle name because it's an Arabic name, and Arabic is a language, not a religion -- that there are Arabic speaking Christians and Jews and even atheists.
Problem with that is that the reason the name Hussein is so popular among Arabic speakers is that Hussein was a companion of the prophet Mohahammed. It's as though one were to say that there is no inherent Christian belief inherent in naming your child Christopher or Peter, because, after all, those are Greek names, and there are/were Greek-speaking pagans -- totally ignoring the fact that the significance of the names is wholly Christian.
Fucking idiot.
I want to point out to you that, by this demagogic trick, Wright reveals himself to be an adherent of the idiot school of grievance mongering that finds racism in the Norse-rooted word "niggardly."
Fucking idiot. Manages to handily encapsulate the stupid, ignorant, bigoted arrogance of the Left.
For example, the snarky little, "Check the sales records..."
Um... BZZZZT! Sorry. Wrong again, Beagle-Breath. The U.S. did not sell weapons of mass destruction to Iraq. That would be your good buddies and brothers in Marx, the Soviet Union. Thanks for playing, though. Please try again.
Oh, and, exactly what denomination is THE Black Church? And what is its creed -- it surely isn't Christianity. Not as I understand the Nicaean Creed. But it's been a long time since my catechism, and I may have missed some intermediate developments.
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Tuesday April 29, 2008...
A Question for Democrats ::.
AND, YES, IT IS RHETORICAL. According to Obama's campaign manager, you are incapable of making an electoral decision based on principle or issues, and will only vote for somebody who looks like you. Or who looks familiar to you. He says...
"[T]he vast, vast majority of voters who would not vote for Barack Obama in November based on race are probably firmly in John McCain's camp already."
And, since these things are commutative, it might seem reasonable to assume that those who would vote for Obama based on race are... what? Credulous fools? Also racists?
Me, I think it reasonable to observe that, when a man refuses to engage on principle or policy, and when those questioning him attempt to do so, retreats into plaints about race, he may lack substance. Playing sleight of hand tricks with the race card doesn't qualify as substance in my book.
Have you got t' yer tit'lar question, yet?
No. It's this: why would you vote for someone who thinks you're dumb enough to vote for him because he's cute or black or whatever other externality, rather than because he espouses principles you agree with? Are you into confirming stereotypes about yourself?
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Tuesday April 29, 2008...
Still Life with Wood Butcher ::.
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Monday April 28, 2008...
Despite Misgivings ::.
OF ALL INVOLVED and talking about it, it was nearly easy to notch the backs of the cabinets.
The box construction was sturdier than was feared, and the cuting process put less stress on the boxes than was thought. Aside from the ease of the process, I encountered only one real surprise. That is that the nailer strips (top and bottom of the back of the cabinet) are only glued to the 1/4" hard board back by a bead of hot glue at the joint. I had expected to find that there was also a bead run snake-fashion along the flat common area, but... not so much, ackshually. When I discovered this, I decided to force a little Loctite construction adhesive into the space at the end between the two boards. You can see the gap in the picture above.
Once both boxes which will impinge upon the downdraft duct had been notched, it was standard installation work to marry the two cabinets together...
Once you remembered to use the right Phillips bit for your drill, you mean.
Dolly, you are neither to young nor to big to spank.
But I am too much a badass. Or, as they say down Guadalajara way -- you and what army?
Oh, Og or Guy or Dick.
Now, that's playin' dirty!
Or ridin' dirty...
::giggle::
...standard installation work to marry the two boxes, as I said, and glue-and-nail in the patch pieces -- which had been previously cut to size, sanded, and given a good coating of polyurethane.
Didn't get them hung Sunday, but I should be able to finish up Monday.
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Monday April 28, 2008...
Reflection ::.
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Saturday April 26, 2008...
Quote of the Day ::.
Want to save the world & lead everyone from disaster? Fine, immediately nail down a guarantee to repudiate the UNFCCC and associated nonsense, vow never to attend or support the endless round of climate talkfests, defund all "research" and projects established under the excuse of "climate change" (as opposed real-time weather forecasting), cancel the "biofuels" boondoggle, halt all leakage of tax funds to NGOs and greenie fronts and give all EPA-related staff (state and federal) 12 months to find real jobs. Then roll your sleeves up and get to work stripping every last mention of "environment" from legislation (it'll take a while -- the wackos have 40-years' worth of bullshit embedded in there). You'll do America and the world absolute wonders.
Junk Science Blog is an invaluable resource -- well worth a daily read. The articles come thick and fast throughout the day and roll off the front page (they have a terrible navigation armatuare, sad to say) with alarming rapidity. Check back frequently and don't forget to click through to the archives and page back. There will almost always be something you missed while it was on the front page.
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Saturday April 26, 2008...
Daily Reminder ::.
HAVE BEEN A BIT LAX in titling this daily post as a "daily reminder," as I had intended. There has been a daily post pointing out some facet of the error and fraud in the AGW hoax, it just hasn't been labelled as such.
Today's comes from Junk Science Blog, Time to Get Angry.
For as long as I can remember, or determine from historical research, people whom I can only type as busybodies -- folk bent on managing the affairs of others -- have forged ahead with a damn-the-torpedos attitude despite the cautions of wiser and more-prudent folk. Think of any so-called "progressive" nostrum and you can find those who warned against it, predicting the very ill effects that eventuated. Senator McCain claims we can't have as a slogan, "Just Say No," but I assert that that can be the most effective approach to inocculating the people against these toxins. Soi-disant "progressives" are wrong. They have always been wrong. Every thing they foist on the people of the world, every patent nostrum and snake oil cure for a non-existant problem has always had the damaging and sometimes deadly consequences predicted before its adoption.
With. Out. Fail.
It seems to me that that ought to be a good default starting point: You were wrong last time and the time before and before ad infinitum. Why in Hell should we listen to you this time? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me a dozen times or more and pretty soon I think I need to learn the lesson: don't listen to progressives.
And here we experience instant karma. It was predicted as early as the '70s and as recently as last week that were greenie weenies allowed to get their hands on the energy policies of the country, we would rue the day. Prices would escalate out of all reason. People would starve. There would be food riots. Governments would topple. A veritable junior grade apocalypse. And lo! And behold, evennn, it has come to pass.
::sings:: When will they ever learn? When will they e-e-e-e-ver learn?
We must return to the practical world, or else the cost of those little dials on the electricity meter will become -- and I use this word with chosen irony -- 'unsustainable' for so many.
RTWT.
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Saturday April 26, 2008...
Breda Has A ::.
SWEET TALE to relate. Go. RTWT.
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Saturday April 26, 2008...
Dear Senator McCain ::.
WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF on the morning after the election choking back the bile as you phone congratulations to President-Elect Obama, remember this day -- how you slagged off the majority of your conservative base by making war on the North Carolina state GOP. You are wrong on the issues. You are wrong on conservative principle. You are wrong on politics. It is amazing that you ever got elected in the first place, let alone have remained in office with such a kack-handed, tin-eared take on your party.
Get a clue!
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Saturday April 26, 2008...
The Name of the Game ::.
IS MEME TAG
Meme rules:
1) Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2) Find page 123.
3) Find the first five sentences.
4) Post the next three sentences.
5) Tag five people.
OK. Here goes:
Similarly, a program can embed the output of an encoding filter in the middle of an arbitrary data stream being written to the underlying output file.
Once a program has begun reading from or writing to a filter, it should not attempt to access the underlying file in any way until the filter as been closed. Doing so could interfere with the operation of the filter and leave the underlying file in an unpredictable state.
[Which, when you think about it, is a pretty good prescription for public policy, too.]PostScript® Language Reference Manual, Second Edition, Adobe Systems Incorporate, Addison Wesley, 1990
I like Roberta X's approach to the tag-off:
Okay, the next five bloggers who read this? Consider yourself tagged. Honor system. Leave a reply (with link or URL) to keep count.
Make it so.
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Friday April 25, 2008...
Sweeps Week Stunt Programming ::.
MONDO WEIRDO! Just caught an almost-subliminal glimpse, so can't be sure it wasn't -- like -- a floater on the surface of my eyeball or something, but did I see that Hyneman and Savage will be on CSI next week?
Tell me I was dreaming!
You were dreaming.
Why don't I believe you?
Because it would be a the perfect stunt casting for them to show up at the crime lab? As themselves? It would cause millions of geek woodies to sprout all over the world?
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Friday April 25, 2008...
World Turned Upside Down ::.
ARBY'S TO BUY WENDY'S? What's wrong with this picture?
Apparently that quality doesn't always out.
So you agree that Wendy's is the better-quality joint?
That would be a big, "Affirmative," Dave.
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Friday April 25, 2008...
Not Buying It ::.
FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE Newt Gingrich appeared with current Speaker Nancy Pelosi in another one of those -- scorn quotes -- "bipartisan" ads for Al Gores detestable "WE" campaign.
Whatchoo mean "we," Paleface?
Him 'n' that mouse in his pocket -- neither one of whom will have to bear the burden in higher taxes and cost of living that most of us will.
Newt's catching a lot of flak for that. Quelle suprise. And, feeling the heat, he was moved to post to his blog...
Mr. Newt has a blog! Who'd ha' thunk it?
Many of you have written to me to ask why I recently taped an advertisement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for The Alliance for Climate Protection, a group founded by former Vice President Al Gore.
I completely understand why many of you would have questions about this, so I want to take this opportunity to explain my reasons. First of all, I want to be clear: I don't think that we have conclusive proof of global warming. And I don't think we have conclusive proof that humans are at the center of it.
But here's what we do know. There is an important debate going on right now over the right energy policy, the right environmental policy, and making sure we do the right things for our future and the future of our children and grandchildren. Conservatives are missing from this debate, and I think that's a mistake. When it comes to preserving our environment for future generations, we can't have a slogan of "Just yell no!"
I have a different view. I think it's important to be on the stage, to engage in the debate, and to communicate our position clearly. There is a big difference between left-wing environmentalism that wants higher taxes, bigger government., more bureaucracy, more regulation, more red tape, and more litigation and a Green Conservatism that wants to use science, technology, innovation, entrepreneurs, and prizes to find a way to creatively invent the kind of environmental future we all want to live in. Unless we start making the case for the latter, we're going to get the former. That's why I took part in the ad.
As the Maharushi put it on the air Thursday, you lose the debate when you accept the enemy's premise.
And this is such basic political truth that you have to wonder howinthehell Gingrich got a reputation as a savvy political operative.
The only way to win on this is exactly to stand athwart the rails of the juggernaut of socialism and shout, "Stop!" And, "Naw-naw-naw! It ain't happenin' here!" And, "Keep your greedy hands out of my back pocket!" And, "You don't know me well enough to get so intimate with me -- get the fuck outta my pockets!"
And make it stick the way we did on the amnesty bill.
And we need to teach. We need to make it clear to all and sundry that the perspective that Gore is pushing is wrong. (as he has been wrong -- 180 degrees out of phase -- on every single public policy question of his career), and potentially disastrous for the country, the world, and the human species. And we need to make available the facts of the matter.
To whit:
1) Global warming -- as defined as slightly less than one degree Fahrenheit of global average temperature increase over the period from 1900-2000 (for the sake of convenience) has not been demonstrated. It may be that it has taken place, but the extant temperature records are insufficient to demonstrate it, and the more closely one examines the record and the methods for building that record, the less reliance one is willing to put in it.
2) Even if the warming has happened, increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide partial pressure have nothing to do with it. In fact, CO2 concentrations are a trailing, not a leading indicator. And the time lag is measured in centuries, not years.
3) Even though concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased (of this there is little doubt), the human contribution is insignificant. The overwhelming majority is from sources such as outgassing from the oceans. Not only that, but the increases track from long before human activity could have had an effect and do not correspond with changes in human activity. Anthropogenic carbon dioxide is an insignificant factor to systems of the scale and complexity of the atmosphere. It is hubris to assume otherwise.
4) Even if all of the above were not true, were global average temperatures indeed to rise another degree in the next century -- continuing a trend that started in about 1600 -- the effect would be negligable. And what effects can be predicted are more likely than not to be positive -- such as contributing to the increase of farm productivity.
5) Even if there were warming, it would be dangerous, it was caused by CO2, and the human contribution was significant, if we could bring our carbon dioxide output to ZERO, it wouldn't change a thing. (Which, by the way, is another good indicator that our contribution is insignificant.)
6) Finally, all of the fascistic proposals to ameliorate the problem -- useless as they admittedly are -- will likely ruin global economies (including our own), leading inevitably to the deaths of millions -- perhaps billions.
This last, by the way, is seen by many to be the true raison d'etre for the entire global warming fraud. Me, I have doubts -- but not many.
These facts are the points we need to get out there, need to inject into the public debate, need to repeat until we are blue in the face -- and keep repeating until the majority of the people get it.
That day is not far off, but you -- Mr. Newt -- only push it back when you "engage in dialogue" with the enemy -- yes, enemy -- and give credibility to his arguments. Your argument that we must engage in the debate, and thus your betrayal of principle is justified, is specious. All the more-so given that the enemy refuses to engage in debate in return -- preferring to shout down all opposition. Or worse: to use the coercive power of the state to silence it.
Nope. Sorry. Not buyin'.
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Friday April 25, 2008...
St. Ann Has A Point ::.
-- AS USUAL. We talk here at BTB about ideological landmines. The Soviet Union may have disintegrated, collectivism discredited and cast off on the ash heap of history, but the fifth column armature of sedition, agitprop, revolution, and other assorted treasons that it planted in the U.S. back in the '20s still exists, lurking in ambush, waiting for an unwary youngster to step on one of its droppings and loose a limb -- or a mind -- to its toxic ideology. Individuals and organizations the communist international trained and set in motion back then are still active today -- even unto the third and fourth generation.
Fast forward to today.
Asked why he would be friends with the likes of Weatherman Bill Ayers, Obama said: "The notion that ... me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense."
That's a slick answer -- even "Clintonian"! -- but the problem is, Ayers and his Weatherman wife, Bernadine Dohrn, won't stop boasting about their days as Weathermen.
It's not simply that they haven't repented. To the contrary, those were their glory days! And Ayers isn't just someone who lives in the neighborhood: He and Dohrn were there at the inception of Obama's political career, hosting a fundraiser for Obama at their home back in 1995.
Even if Barack Obama were to utterly deny and repudiate the past support of despicable Vietnam-era terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, it wouldn't matter. That they gave birth to him as a political creature -- probably had a hand in his political catechism -- is sufficient. How old he was when they committed their original sins is immaterial. It's solely a matter of what passed between them in the period immediately preceding his launch onto the political stage.
You're sayin' it's like he's a sleeper cell.
Well... sleeper agent, maybe.
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Friday April 25, 2008...
A Bitch Slap To The ::.
TRUTHERS:
"The purpose of this lie is clear -- [to suggest] that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no-one else did in history, he said.
"Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it."-- Ayman al-Zawahiri, quoted by the BBC
Now with the fucking truthers please shut the fuck up?
Gabrielle Francesca East (Dolly) | |
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Thursday April 24, 2008...
Quote of the day ::.
We in Denmark cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an election.
On one side, you have a bitch who is a lawyer, married to a lawyer, and a lawyer who is married to a bitch who is a lawyer.
On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a woman with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship.
Is there a contest here?
Seen at American Digest
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Thursday April 24, 2008...
Planned Punk'dhood ::.
A LOT OF BROUHAHA OVER THE PRANKSTERS calling around to Planned Parenthood offices wanting to earmark donations to blatantly racist purposes. I'm not sure that all of the outrage is justified.
The ladies on the phone are coming in for a lot of mickey-taking for their apparent acceptance of the donations, even with their tainted purpose. I can't imagine that the operators in boiler rooms are either committed to the PP cause or are given the leeway to turn donors away on the basis of odious things said on the phone.
As I understand it, these operations are typically farmed out to trade-services outfits who specialize in various bits of the fulfillment process. That is, the phone operators are probably not employees of Planned Parenthood. Instead, they are probably trained and exhorted to view PP as a customer. And one does not question the motives of a customer so long as one is not certain what the customer wants is unlawful. Not if one wants to keep one's job.
In this regard, although I agree that the apparent unconcern for the plight of the aborted babies and the racist motivation of the eugenics movement which informed Planned Parenthood's founding thus seemingly elucidated exist, I don't agree these cheap shots demonstrate that.
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Thursday April 24, 2008...
I Don't See How This ::.
PASSES THE SMELL TEST. Insty reports receiving notice from a law firm in Tennessee that legislation is being considered there that permits soft transactions -- downloads -- over the Internet to be subjected to sales tax.
Obviously, IANAL, but this seems to me on the face of it to be unconstitutional or a massive overreach. How can the state of Tennessee compel, say, Apple Computer to collect and forward sales tax on downloads from iTunes -- to anywhere -- let alone to within the geographic bounds of the state of Tennessee? How can Apple know the physical location of the recipient of a download? If the server is not in Tennessee, I believe that such a levy would be a violation of Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution. (Not that that has stopped states from unlawfully collecting sales taxes on interstate transactions.)
And it occurs to me that a simple way to get around this would be to change one's address of record to a state with no sales tax. Say -- Nevada? (Does NV have a sales tax?) Your billing address is a P.O. Box in Las Vegas. Doesn't matter where you are, the billing address on your credit card puts you beyond the reach of Tennessee's revenooers. Which forces either the state or federal government into the position of constantly overreaching. Could such a thing withstand a vigorous court challenge?
Or is all of this just a random brain fart?
Indeed, Dolly. Indeed.
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Thursday April 24, 2008...
A Field of Golden ... Wait One ::.
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Wednesday April 23, 2008...
Just So It's Not ::.
ALL ABOUT THE lies and perfidy of watermelon leninists... I finished putting battens to the East Wall of the study at Casa d'Alger Tuesday just before dinner. We are now go to start fastening cabinets to the wall. Next, I have to prep the cabinets themselves -- fashion and attach the infrastructure for the dentil crown molding, pre-drill the backs, put up temporary support, and put the danged things up. The only thing that's even a little scary is figuring out a safe way to notch the backs of the two boxes that have to fit around the vent pipe. And, fo