Sometimes...
...Ya jus' gotta go to war in the unnerwear ya got on.
--Dolly
Sunday, January 08, 2012
Begging Off Again...
GOT NOTHING TO SAY The weekend was a washout. Spent most of the time sleeping or falling asleep. Made some progress on the novel, but didn't get nearly the dwell time I wanted on it. Got some alpha feedback that helps a lot. (Thank you, J!) Got my head straightened out on several other things and all, but still -- sleep.
And, OK, I'm frigging shocked ... the word count now stands at 59,000, which means 8-9K since Thursday, so the weekend wasn't SO much of a wipeout as I thought. I might even tell the folks on the FB group.
Meantime, I never got around to pre-loading a month's-worth of Cloud Observatories, so those aren't happening. Sorry. And, except for the insensitive dicks at MSNBC who took after Rick Santorum over his wife's miscarriage...
Yaknow, it kind of reinforces Our Curmudgeon's thing on Friday. You know: where he argues that people who embrace evil ideas are evil people. The dicks at MSNBC have embraced the whole collectivist ideology, with its murderous, enslaving behaviors and its hatred of mankind. So it kind of follows that they'd be insensitive dicks on top of that.
And it makes me wonder if we might succeed after all in persuading genuinely good-hearted liberals -- some of them any way -- that they're backing the wrong horse, that the Left is not going to make the world a better place for all humanity. Far from it. Maybe we already are. How would you know?
Anyways. Time for me to bed. Say, "Good Night", Gracie.
Good night, Gracie.
Good night, Dolly.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
Why Do People...
SPAM TWITTER? It doesn't make sense!
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
I Am So Glad Gerard Van Der Leun...
IS ON OUR SIDE because -- check it out -- our side. But still, he's dead wrong when he follows the herd and engages in some Maoist self-criticism. He makes the same mistake that so many Boomer Bashers do in assuming that the darlings of the partisan press in the '60s represented even a plurality, let alone a majority of the Boomer generation. Not all of us believed in the anti-Americanism, the nihilism, the sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll... Well, OK. That last one.
It is instructive to remember that the hippies were into rugged independence and self-reliance, but that the portrait of the type shown the country by the media were a bunch of stoner johnnies-come-lately who ended up on San Francisco welfare rolls while the actual hippies were on farms, learning how to live on the land -- albeit the hard way.
It is instructive to remember that there were far more volunteers fighting in Vietnam than there ever were occupying the Admin Building at Columbia.
It is instructive to remember that Rush Limbaugh has an audience of 20 Million while Air America is -- well -- off the air.
It is instructive to remember that libertarians are Boomers. And Republicans are Boomers. And that the traitors and socialists -- even from back in the '60s are Depression and War Babies.
Yes, there are socialist Boomers. Is Gen-X immune?
It is unbecoming for people putatively principled on such subjects as individual rights, individual responsibility -- rugged individualism -- to insist on collective guilt of a group solely on the basis of their birth date. (Gee! Sound like Heinlein much?)
Tired of the Boomer Bashing. So bored. How about taking responsibility for your own actions, rather than blaming somebody else -- especially the wrong somebody else? How about, to borrow a phrase from the '60s, you do your own thing. IOW: Mind Your Own Business.
No. Really. Mind your business.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
Ron Paul Says...
ASK YOURSELF, "Why do they hate us?"
I have.
Answer: "You came to our country 500 years ago and you NEVER LEFT!"
What.The.Fuck.
I would point out that "your country" was a Christian country for 600 years before Islam ever came along. And a Jewish one for a thousand years before that.
So where DO you get off bitching about people in "your" country?
You tried to conquer the world. Made it to Tours. Made it to the gates of Vienna. We kicked your ass. You keep stirring shit. We keep kicking your ass. Try either changing your tactics or... STAY DOWN! Or we kick-a-you-ass AGAIN.
To quote myself -- to some controversy -- capisce?
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
Smokers are Less...
PRODUCTIVE BECAUSE they take more breaks. Read: We can screw the non-smokers out of their breaks easier.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, January 06, 2012
Software Gripe...
I HAVE SEVERAL PET PEEVES about software design. For example, I believe that there should be a law requiring -- on pain of death for the programmer responsible for documentation -- that any computer program should include in its embedded help (not in a separate file or a third-party book or a knowledge base article) a simple, clear, and relevant explanation of every error message the program can throw.
Here lately, I have been being aggravated by two seemingly universal behaviors -- unresponsive interfaces and taking over the focus ininvited.
Why should a program ever lock up? Why does not clicking the "Close Window" button not close the window like turning off a light switch -- immediately?
Because the offending program or segment or component has taken over all CPU cycles. In a world and an age of multi-core processors, multi-threaded, massively parallel, gigahertz-speed front end busses ... there is no excuse for any program not responding immediately to user input. And if the user input is nonsensical or repetetive, it should be trapped and an error message thrown. (See above.)
This locking up thing is just a symptom of junky code.
Yes, I'm looking at YOU, Opera. No reason for a Web browser to take up 100% of CPU cycles and 2 GB of RAM. None. Fix that, whatever it is.
But Miscrosoft is not to be excused. I don't care how big a database file is, or how fragmented the index, (And why doesn't the damned system defrag its own files on the fly? See above about abundant resources.), if the total number of BYTES in the file is exceed by a factor of >1 by free RAM, there should be no delay except the transfer rate from the disk. This whole booshwah of taking three minutes to load a 2GB InBox file (which is only 2GB by grace of a program bug in the first place) is... well, booshwah.
And, even so, why can't I load and read ONE eMail message while the rest loads? Hmmm?
And, then there's this thing of taking over the foreground focus. If I start a program and then switch the focus to another while that one loads (remember, this is MY computer), why in HELL does the program in the background have to take over the foreground at seemingly random checkpoints in its load routine?
This is a behavior that was a whole lot more understandable in the old days of limited resources (1MB RAM, anybody?) than in these modern times. It's rude. It's unforgiveable. Stop it!
A couple of big ruler whacks across the knuckles to programmers of commercial software.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 05, 2012
Another Cogent, On-Point Post...
FROM KRIS RUSCH in her The Business Rusch series.
People, LISTEN. This is no amateur pundit or wannabe author. This is a seasoned pro, making this WORK.
So, you indie writers who’ve self published, you’re feeling pretty smug right now, aren’t you? You’ve read this post, you’re thinking, I’m glad I didn’t walk down that road.
And yet, how many of you have novels selling for 99 cents? How many of you have all of your novels priced at 99 cents? How many of you have a novel up for free somewhere, even though you’ve published fewer than ten novels? How many of you have nothing priced over $1.99? $2.99?
How many of you fled all of the other e-publishing platforms so that you could be in the Kindle Select program, just because they give you five days when you can market your book for free?
In some ways, you guys are much worse than the traditional writers. You have no vision and no understanding of business. Most of you are running around the internet, promoting your one novel, following some kind of crazy Get Rich Quick scheme. According to Michael Cader’s figures, only 20 self-published ebook authors made the bestseller lists in 2011. Only 20, out of the hundreds of thousands published.
You’re gambling on a wave that won’t ever reach you, wasting all your energy on one or two or three books rather than doing the one thing that will guarantee you more readers: Writing (and publishing) the next book.
And even if you’re one of the fortunate few for whom lightning does strike with your 99 cent ebook, you won’t make much money. The bestselling ebook published in 2011 was by a self-published author, Darcie Chan. Her Mill River Recluse sold 413,000 units at 99 cents, which means she made roughly one-third of that (because under $2.99, most e-book sites only pay 35% or less). In other words, she made about $143,000. Not bad.
But if she had priced at $2.99, and sold half of those 413,000 units, she would have made around $432,000. (206,500 units times $2.99 times 70%)
Here’s the thing: If the book is good—and clearly that one is or it wouldn’t have sold that well—it would eventually have sold 413,000 copies or more, and Darcie Chan would have made a lot more money. She’s a news story, and the darling of the Kindle Boards right now, but her wave will dissipate, especially if she doesn’t publish another book soon. Anyone see Amanda Hocking on any bestseller lists lately?
Most books—whether traditionally published or not—never ever ever even sniff at a bestseller list of any kind. To pursue that as your goal is like trying to win the lottery. You’re better off writing the next book, getting a lot of books out there and making money on all of those books over time.
RTWT.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 05, 2012
Repeat Until It Soaks In...
CATASTROPHIC ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING HAS BEEN DEBUNKED. Falsififed. It is an un-theory. (It never was a proper theory, but never mind.) Therefor, all -- ALL -- public policy prescriptions based on the fallacious conjecture that the burning of hydrocarbon fuels may cause or contribute to CAGW are initiated in bad faith. Do not accept any arguments in favor, they are founded on false premises. People who insist on doing things for reasons founded in "global warming" or "greenhouse gases" may be assumed to be rent-seeking wreckers. Fight them on all fronts with all vigor, to paraphrase Teh Won's Mentors and Inspirations.
Sheesh!
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 05, 2012
I Tend to Be An Absolutist...
WHEN IT COMES TO LIBERTY. To me, the concept of a compelling public interest (read: state interest) is -- or ought to be -- an anathema to a free people. So long as there is no damage done by one citizen to another, the bright line between individual rights and the power of the state should be treated as though it were an unbreachable force field. Crossing it: not an option. No sovereign immunity. Civil penalties, Hell! Criminal penalties. Throw the book at 'em.
(In a nation where the individual citizen is sovereign, how does the doctrine of sovereign immunity for public officials hold sway?)
There is a case wending its way through the courts wherein investigators for the state "believe" evidence of guilt may be hidden behind an encrypted password-protected screen saver (or similarly-constructed system). The owner of the password refuses to divulge on Fifth Amendment grounds -- arguing the password is protected as testimony perhaps tending to incriminate.
I say, "Stop right there."
The mere assertion of the right, according to the Ninth Amendment:
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
...is -- or ought to be -- dispositive. You name it; you own it. The agents of the state shall not force self-incriminating testimony for any reason whatsoever, on pain of civil and criminal penalties. No immunity.
Now, waitjustadamnedminnit, Alger! That would make it impossible for police to do their jobs. You could never prove anything in court.
Except on the basis of eyewitness testimony. Yes.
And you don't see the problem with this?
What? That the burden of proof be on the state? Seems to me the balance has tipped too long, too far in the other direction. Just bringing things back to center.
In the case mentioned above, the agents of the state are arguing an analogy (read: weasel-wording the law) that the state has been permitted in the past to compel the surrender of a key to a locked file cabinet and how is this different?
And I say, echoing Dolly above, nowwaitjustadamnedminnit! Let's look at this the other way. Stipulating the analogy between a password and a key to a file cabinet for a moment, let us ask this question:
HOW IN THE HELL IS COMPELLING THE SURRENDER OF A KEY NOT A VIOLATION OF THE FIFTH AMENDMENT?
Hmmm? Weasel-word THAT.
(And, no, I do not accept precedent as a "because" reason. Ever.)
Cross-posted at Eternity Road.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, January 05, 2012
John McCain Has Endorsed Mitt Romney...
THAT'S OK. At this stage in the '08 election, I wasn't for McCain then, either. Same shit, different election cycle.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Been Rather Distracted of Late...
AND THINGS AREN'T GOING the way I want them to around here. Hope that will change.
I haven't done Cloud Observatory or Pix posts this week. Since today is Thursday, I figure this week is blown. I'll pick up next Monday. I'd like to get a month ahead. I used to do that.
Progress on It's Dolly's Birthday has slown to a snail's pace.
I have broken 50K. But still it seems the end is receding ever farther from my grasp. I've become dissatisfied with the gradually escalating nature of Dolly's jeopardy. As in, it isn't. Each one seems to be a disjointed body part, and not incorporated into a whole. There's no gradually rising tension in them. It's not in my telling, so far as I can see, but in the actual nature of the jeopardy as I conceive it. Oh, they're all jeopardish and stuff enough, but I'm not doing the setup, the delivery, the punch line right. Needs work.
I've jiggered the ending. Apocrypha stories in first draft have traditionally had a happy ending: Dolly goes home with Drummond and they live and love happily ever after. Until the next time. This is a pattern I think I want to break. Each story will have a different heartbreak at the end. This is another thing that's a great idea, but requires excellent execution. I'm having a crisis of confidence on that score here.
And finally, there's the actual structure of the story itself. I've got it laid out so that it braids the threads among Dolly, Drummond, and Pete (Dolly's sidekick). As Dolly gets more stage time than the other two, her segments/scenes are longer and more numerous than the others. I'm beginning to think that, instead of braiding, I should be blocking. With Scrivener, it's easy enough to do, Just set up a separate arrangment and change the order. But there's a lot of implications that crop up along the way. I'm having trees-eclipsing-forest problems at the moment. I can work through it, but it's frustrating.
Meantime, Alphas have the first "half" and I'm not wanting to jog elbows, but really am starved for feedback. ::sigh::
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
In a Word, YES...
THE PRESIDENT ASKS does anyone think that the reason we're in this mess is too much government regulation?
Well, for certain specific values of too much, in a word, Yes. To me, "too much" == "any," but then, I'm a bomb-throwing radical extremist.
But, perhaps, as usual, he seeks to distract you from the reality of the situation by asking the wrong question. It's not too much or too little, but the wrong kind. In coercing businesses to do things that are contrary to their purpose, operate to their detriments, and do not serve their owners, after all, the real indictment comes in the question, "Why are you doing that at all?" not in "Are you doing too little/too much of that?"
BTW: does anybody but me consider it fighting words when Chuckie Schumer uses the phrase "extreme right wing" with a sneer in his voice?
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Government or...
UNIONS? Glenn Reynolds slugs his item linking to this post about the decline of the California prison system GOVERNMENT. But a more apposite slug would be UNIONS.
People can be misled by their compassionate hearts and come to believe that the use of a corrupt tool in the amelioration of misery brought on by imprudence will not corrupt that compassionate use.
Unions have all of the ills of government with none of the redeeming features of free markets. They start out operating in bad faith and the abridgement of individual rights and go downhill from there. To have public employees unionized is a double insult to a fatal injury.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Rush:...
"STEVE SCHMIDT'S out there again -- that's the guy who ran McCain's campaign."
And anybody is listening to him ... why, exactly...?
This is like listening to -- oh, I dunno -- Jimmy Carter's campaign manager. Or Walter MON-dull's.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Why Businesses Lose...
SHORT VERSION: they forget that markets exist for the benefit of the customer.
Mark Philip Alger
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Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Is #OccupyFail Trying to Rewrite the Constitution...
DAVID CODREA takes a at some claims by a group asserting a desire to re-jigger the Constitution. He concludes that this not the same apparent ideology that drove the infestation of leftists that drove the OWS crowd last year. Me, I'm not so sure.
You have to start out from the premise that the Left never acts in good faith. So, if they are asserting ideals more consonant with traditional, Constitutional, liberty-ideal types than with the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolutionaries driving the Occupy movement, I'm more inclined to believe those are a stalking horse. There is no intent to restore the original purpose of the Republic. Rather, the drive is to get the hands of international revolution on the gavel of a constitutional convention, and thereby to rewrite the whole document from the ground up on wholly other premises with insidious and odious ends in mind.
My first clue is the assertion that the Constitution "drastically outdated". This is not a claim I've ever heard from anyone who truly understands and appreciates the wisdom of the Founders. Rather, this is someone whose ideological thinking has drifted far off-course and rudderless into a Sargasso Sea of insanity. The problem is not that the Constitution is outdated, it is that the soi-disant ruling class of America has drifted far too far from that basis and is now afraid to be judged according to its lights -- realizing, of course, that it (the self-nominated ruling class) would be found wanting -- indeed, traitorous -- by those lights.
Those who might want to find hope in this, as Codrea appears to do, should follow one bit of advice: follow the money. See what sources of financing and ideological direction this movement has before you trust it. In the words of that great sucker, Admiral Akbar -- it's a trap!
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Quote of the day...
90% of anything is showing up.
--Woody Allen
OK. I'm here. Now what?
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Hello/ello...
SAW SCOTT PELLEY (sic) in action for the first time tonight. (No, I don't watch 60 Minutes. Why would you ask?) (Interrupted NCIS. Wassup wit dat? If I'd wanted to watch Ted Baxter, I'd have tuned in Mary Tyler Moore.) But seriously, now: is there anybody in there? Is there anyone at home? Have you ever seen a more vacant newsbot?
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Tuesday Morning...
ON THE GLENN BECK radio show, the discussion reminded me of this quote from da Doll:
All helicopters are black after midnight.
Spread the word.
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
40,000 (New Laws) In Gehenna...
BIRD DOG, AT Maggie's Farm asserts that A) there's no way to know and/or obey them all and that 2) we are therefor all criminals now.
We must demur.
There are only a very few criminals in this. They are under 1,000 in number, and comprise (albeit not exclusively) Congress and the President.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, January 02, 2012
When the Water Approaches the Gunwales...
SOMEBODY SAID RECENTLY follow the rats.
This is actually, possibly, not such a hot idea. America needs two, vital political poles to counter-balance one another. When one is so weakened by its own corruption that the other can walk all over it (as the Democrats have done for a long time), the country suffers. But it may be that the rampant corruption of the Democrat party -- due, I suspect, in large part to the unwillingness of the partisan legacy media to examine said corruption in any meaningful way -- has spread so far and metastasized so virulently that there is no way to save the corpus. Only palliatives can have any effect, and then only until the inevitable end.
And what may rise from the ashes might not be so pretty.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, January 02, 2012
You May Have Already Seen This...
ITEM ON INSTAPUNDIT but it bears repeating and promulgating as far and wide as can be. SOPA and the ProtectIP act are not meant to protect the creators of intellectual property from piracy. They are meant to protect the corporate buccaneers of IP from the depredations of their outraged customers. So, when the good guys -- however intermittently good they may be -- propose a political action, lovers of liberty should support them.
Let your congresscritters to let this abomination die aborning. And go buy stuff at the merchants standing up for your liberty.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, January 02, 2012
Which Demonstrates...
HOW THOROUGHLY and deliberately invidious political correctness is. And is meant to be.
And, one should remind all of you political ecumenists out there, is wholly a creature of the Left.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, January 02, 2012
Taxation == Theft. Theft == Murder...
THEREFOR TAXATION == MURDER Q.E.D. These are equivalencies I have discussed at some length here on BTB, as well as elsewhere. While the moral points are pretty much indisputable, nevertheless, some idiots continue to dispute them. Add to this short list this from Holly Lisle.
Many sages over the years have observed that, if you accept money from the government, you are, in effect, receiving stolen property. This stems from the question: when is it moral for the group to do that which the individual is forbidden? (Answer: never.) If it is impermissible for you to go door-to-door in your town and demand money at gunpoint, how is it proper for you to allow the state to do it on your behalf? This is why the suggestion as put forth, e.g., in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress that all government functions be funded exclusively by voluntary subscription is so damned apposite.
And, if you believe that the above Q&A is fallacious -- that government should be permitted to do things individuals are forbidden (with the possible exception of the initiation of the use of force -- on which I might quibble with Ms Lisle), then you are obviously against individual rights and liberty and are on the wrong side in this argument: by you, slavery and peonage are just ducky.
The point is raised most timely. This year, as last, we shall see many provisions of the Obamacare legislation put in motion. This is a piece -- nay, a potpourri, a kudzu -- of legislation founded on the principle that it is OK to enslave medical professionals and your neighbors to serve your convenience. Pardon the rest of us if we object.
...
And, just to nuke a couple of potential arguments:
Taxation without representation. We has it. The entire Federal tax edifice is unconstitutional. It is enforce by forte main in an extra-legal system in which the principles of American jurisprudence are turned on their heads. Nor is there a patriotic duty to pay taxes at all in the first place, but most especially not for extra-legal expenditures. (Hint: very little done by Congress in the past 100 years -- the period soi disant -- scorn quotes -- "progressives" -- witter on about when they say We in the Right wish to roll back 100 years of progress. (A consummation devoutly, etc.) -- has been according to the Constitution and the limited, enumerated powers granted Congress in Article 1, Section 8, or the define restrictions and limits on congressional power in Article 1, Section 9. (Or, for that matter, the Bill of Rights.) The PATRIOT Act alone renders any congresscritter who did not vote against it in violation of his or her oath of office. Or McCain-Feingold. Or -- for that matter -- Obamacare.)
These things render all acts of the government illegitimate, which kind of moots the whole power to tax thing.
Second: Yes, it is your convenience. You cannot properly claim necessity in asking for a draw from the common burse in a matter in which you have failed to exercise sufficient prudence. You have not lain aside sufficient wherewithal to cover your debts, or made provision to amortize them over time, it therefore is a matter of your convenience that you require your neighbors to pay for your care, housing, feeding, clothing, education, transport, or any other thing that is part of a life.
Mark Philip Alger
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Sunday, January 01, 2012
At Some Point It Must...
BECOME OBVIOUS TO both We in the Right and They on the Left that the problem here is not Left Government or Right Government, it is Government. Period.
Mark Philip Alger
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Sunday, January 01, 2012
In Other Words...
FREE (OR ANONYMOUS FREE) SPEECH for everybody except those who say things we disagree with.
I generally support the stated aims of the EFF, but still and all, it is revelatory when a liberal organization -- or liberal members of organizatons -- show their true stripes.
Mark Philip Alger
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Sunday, January 01, 2012
Everybody Should Know This...
A LARGE DOSE of Vitamin B complex (all items at minimum in excess of 100% of RDA) beats hair of the dog all hollow. Frex: Four drinks of Jim Beam*, the last one around midnight. Two B tablets before I started drinking. No hangover.
Slept 10 hours, but I don't think that's relevant.
Happy New Year.
*No, it's not epic. Didn't even get much of a buzz. Not the point. Without the B, there WOULD have been a hangover.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, December 31, 2011
Happy 2012...
TO EVERYBODY!
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Funny, When it Comes to Copyright...
WE THE LITTLE PEOPLE are told not to assume anything. "If it's not yours, don't touch it," seems to sum up a reasonable stance on the issue.
But, when it comes to entertainment or publishing conglomerates, they're asking to be allowed to assume that they have rights not granted to them by the creator of a work?
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, December 30, 2011
No, sir! You are WRONG...
ORDINARILY I TRY TO STAY away from pissing matches, because -- check it out -- it keeps piss off your shoes. But still -- again, check it out -- someone is WRONG on the Internet.
Michael Z. Williamson engages in serial fallacy and that is some shit with which we cannot up put.
If a town uses public money (taxpayers) to put a religious display up at the holidays, it violates the First Amendment. The Courts have repeatedly said so, so no cry of, "Well, that's YOUR opinion!" enters into it. I don't want my tax money being used for any religious purpose, and I'm quite sure many religious people don't want to endorse other religions thereby. You could argue that as long as EVERYONE in town agrees, it's okay, but what happens to the one person who isn't happy? Of course, no one would single them out for harassment, right?
No. No. And No. Read the text.
First off, the First Amendment is a limit placed on Congress, and no other entity. It is the only one of the Amendments making up the Bill of Rights that does so. All of the others assert absolute and universal proscriptions on behavior that limits or infringes individual rights. Universal. No actor may infringe -- public or private. A property owner may deny you access, but if he does so because you choose to go armed, he is violating your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and -- as the actual text says -- the right "shall not be infringed." Not by Congress, or the States, or your city government, or your neighbor.
But the First Amendment starts out -- STARTS OUT -- "Congress shall make no law..." How stupid do you have to be to miss that part?
And, as I like to say, nowhere in there is the phrase "separation of church and state". However, there is a phrase, "...or free exercise thereof." Congress, being the sole legislative authority at the Federal level is enjoined from limiting the free exercise of religion. Funny how people keep missing that.
And, bitch, please: DO NOT try this "The courts have said so, thus it is engraven in stone." That's so stupid as to be the dictionary illustration of risible. Case law cannot trump the actual text of the law. If a law is wrong, it goes back to the legislature (elected by popular vote). Appointed jurists do not get to legislate. Says so right here on the side of the box. And, if you don't think courts can be wrong, I have two words for you: Dredd Scott.
Mark Philip Alger
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Apologies for the Dearth of Free Ice Cream...
THIS WEEK It's back to day job on Tuesday, so I'm trying to get as many hours of daylight in on this field as I can. I'm plowing the novel, It's Dolly's Birthday, sowing behind the plow as we go.
The last few days, I've been feeling a bit like Tolkien's descriptions of writing on LOTR during WWII, I've struggled through the week, making sure progress, if not any great strides.
Current stats include:
- Total completed scenes sum to 48,185 words, of a goal of 75,000.
- By chapter count, I'm through Ch XI (of XXVII).
- There are six parts of the book planned. Ch XI falls at the end of Part III.
- So, depending on how you look at it, I'm either 40% done, half-done, or two-thirds done.
- I'm calling it half.
Compile at this state is off to the alphas for gut check. And we slave on.
Regular programming to return Tuesday.
Mark Philip Alger
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
They Keep Getting it Wrong...
IT DOESN'T SEEM TO MATTER whether the speaker is a self-identified libertarian, conservative, moderate, or liberal, they all argue the question of nationalized or socialized medical financing (red herring term: health care insurance) from false premises. In an article currently making the rounds, Prof. Paul Rahe tries mightily to argue that this way or that way of making sure that free riders don't ride for free, pretending that is the central question in the debate, when it's not by a brazilian miles.
The point here is not who else (besides you) pays for your medical care, or whether or why somebody should be able to freeload, thus passing the cost to you. The point here is that the government has no place in the matter whatsoever.
If people are freeloading a system mandated by the government, that is not a bug in the specific program or policy. It is a fundamental flaw in the basic concept of public financing of anything from prostitution to recreational intoxicants to medical care to education. The two systems are separate and should be kept segregated for very good reason -- they corrupt one another."You got government in my commerce/you got commerce in my government" is not the "AHA" moment for a new candy bar, it's a recipe for civilizational disaster.
The principle here is that Congress does not have a mandate to legislate on the matter. It is therefor forbidden to speak and should Shut The Fuck Up and leave the people alone each to mind his own business by his own lights, needs, wants, and desires.
Freedom consists of the ability to tell Mrs Grundy to go piss up a rope. At the moment, the statists are playing the part of Mrs. Grundy. And micturate contra-gravitationally on the sisal cord is exactly the appropriate instruction they should be given by We the People.
Mark Philip Alger
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Made Some Serious Progress...
THE OTHER DAY on It's Dolly's Birthday -- what was it? Monday? I lay down for a nap thinking, "I need to come up with 20 more scenes to fill out this plot and sub-plots." I woke up with an idea. I rushed to Scrivener and quickly roughed it all out.I ended up with 35 new scenes, a dynamite climax, and ties between and among a round half-dozen plot threads. Since then, I've been working to bring order back to my manuscript so I can see what I'm doing. When all was said and done, I'd added 5,000 new words of mostly notes to what had been 42,000 when I started. I then went through the story in Scrivener and moved scenes around so I had 27 chapters, each of 4-5 scenes, and everything was in an order that at least seemed to make sense. I've since determined that some of that order needs to change. I've also eliminated an entire subplot from the original Apocryphal story as being rather juvenile and not making a lot of sense. There may be a couple more of those. With that in mind, I've gone back over earlier scenes and firmed things up, such as the first gunfight between Drummond and Cally on the one side and the Elves on the other. I'm filling in exposition where it seems missing and cutting it when it seems to info-dumpy.
I doubt I'll ever be done moving scenes around. I know for sure I'm majorly unhappy with the pacing of the two main subplots -- Drummond's and Dolly's -- as they seem to progress at varying rates of speed, and I want to try to even that out a bit, if I can. And there are some other threads that have just been plunked down wherever and whose placement will have to be a matter for deeper consideration as we go along.
I still have hope that I might finish this before I have to go back to the day job next Tuesday, but I'm not enitrely sanguine about it. We'll just have to see.
Mark Philip Alger
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Man! Amazon Has Everything...
JUST FOUND A KNOB for the '50s vintage copper-bottom cookware we use here at Casa d'Alger. If you need one.
Mark Philip Alger
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The Cloud Observatory
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Observation 21 (New Series)...
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Sunday, December 25, 2011
Quote of the Day —or the Century...
The love of Government (aka Power) is the root of all evil.
--M. Simon at Classical Values.
Mark Philip Alger
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
Merry Christmas 2011...
Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment made when Quirnius was governor of Syria. And all went to enroll themselves, every one to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to enroll himself with Mary, who was betrothed to him, being great with child. And it came to pass while they were there, the days were fulfilled that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds in the same country, abiding in the field and keeping watch by night over their flocks. And an angel of the Lord stood by them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings of joy which shall be to all the people; for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this is the sign unto you; you shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest. And on earth, peace among men in whom he is well pleased."
Merry Christmas to All Worldwide
from All of Us Here at Casa d'Alger
Mark & Toni,
Belle, Loki, Oliver,
Aqua, Sky, Jazz,
Karma,
Chester, Earnie, & Jane
Dolly & Drummond and the
Whole Cast of the Baby Troll Chronicles.
Mark Philip Alger
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Previously on BabyTrollBlog...
