Gabrielle F. Dolly (Callsign: Baby Troll)
BabyTrollBlog

If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you weren't a racist, do the world a favor: vote for somebody else in 2012 and prove you're not a moron.

GABRIELLE F. DOLLY
(Callsign: Baby Troll)

Mark Philip Alger (author)

MARK
PHILIP
ALGER
(Author and
Seven-Percenter)

NOBama_2012

Sometimes...

...Ya jus' gotta go to war in the unnerwear ya got on.

--Dolly

The Cloud Observatory
Monday, March 19, 2012

Observation 50 (New Series)...

...

Monday, March 19, 2012

A Teacher Gave Me...

A GENTLE DRESSING DOWN for writing in the present tense. Not nearly as virulent, I must say, as those I count as idiots sounding off in their spendid vaccums who question the intelligence, perspicacity, ancestry, and hygiene habits of anyone who dared to do so. But enough to give me pause. After all, I chose to listen to this teacher for the wisdom on the subject of writing I hoped to imbibe. But part of being an artist, I have learned in my career as one, is having the arrogance to think yourself better than everybody around you, and to know your way is right, even when somebody you think wiser than yourself says you nay.

Me, I don't see getting het up about the choices artists make. They are what they are, and in the end, merely matters of taste -- not holy writ. I don't much care for rap -- scorn quotes -- "music." I was taught that music requires at minimum melody and rhythm. Rap seems almost to eschew melody even more than Johnny Mathis' "Johnny One Note," even though it has rhythm and aplenty. But there are any number of practitioners of the art I actually like, including -- strangely enough -- Eminem. The guitar riff from his Eight Mile is impresssive as all get out. After all, Chrysler's ad agency thought enough of it to rip it off for their "Imported from Detroit" commercials. And the spoken word has a long tradition in bardic/troubadourian performance history. So, who am I to criticize those who roll a little anger at perceived oppression and injustice into their work. It seems clear they are working at it and not just fronting. De gustibus and all that.

I'm not a big fan of interstitial poetry in novels, either. Standalone, fine. The pop song as poetry -- outstanding. I greatly admire Paul Simon and Justin Hayward to name but two from a long list. I just have a problem with a hero bursting into song like George M. Cohan as they paddle down the river. I skipped most of the poetry in Lord of the Rings for example. So I'm going to call Prof. Tolkien an idiot for including it in his magnum opus? How silly of me if I did. Especially since I, hypocrite I, have a recurring theme and meme in Geppetto's Log in which the characters keep quoting Joni Mitchell's "Carey." Go figure.

Some of the same people (although -- I'm glad to say -- not my teacher mentioned above) who object to the present tense also object to prologues and preludes, which strikes me as errant silliness. It's as though the packaging of an item should determine its suitability to its task. The cardboard strap used to hang a hammer in the hardware store's pegboarded display is a just determinant of whether you ought to buy the thing. Just... silly. After all, what is a prologue but a chapter under a different name? A rose by any other name...?

Speaking in the present tense is not blasphemy. It's not forbidden by God, or even Gotama. It's a choice an artist makes. To me, resistance to it out of hand is ... well, slightly north of silly. Try it. See if the work can sustain the unusual methods. It is, after all, the artist's task to muster not only his subject matter, but his medium, and technique and meld them into a whole work. Give him the benefit of the doubt and partake of the work in toto first. After all, is it really any more distracting than a tale told in the first person? Unusual, perhaps. But do we not seek out novelty for that reason alone -- that we want something unusual?

When I was first composing Geppetto's Log, back in the early Oughts, Greg Bear's Slant came out in mass market paperback. It is, as should surprise no one, written in the present tense. I took it as a sign from the publishing gods that at least some of them didn't object to the present tense for telling tales as did some of my compatriots on the Online Writers' Workshop. All that said, I ask you, my loyal readers: what do you think? Especially those who've beta'd on Geppetto's Log or Armed Citizen.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (5) | Permalink

...

...

Saturday, March 17, 2012

The Caturday Post...

MEGAPIXELS is all you hear about a camera. And, to a certain extent, as digital cameras get better and cheaper, it is all about that elusive image size to be hunted on the wide savannahs of imaging. But, as I learned decades ago, you can't live out there on bad optics. And the reason that Nikon cameras were the brand that Paul Simon mentioned in his lament to the now-vanished film brand, "Kodachrome" is optics. Easily the right-hand bookend to the sage career advice from The Graduate, "Plastics." Plastics and optics.

The best optics are made of glass. It is, however, at least theoretically possible to make lenses -- good lenses, even -- of plastics. After all, camera lenses are all about the indices of refraction and the shape of the interface. Any transparent material with an IoR above 1.0 (the IoR of water) will do. Glass, frex, ranges between about 1.3 and 2.

But I suspect the lens of the iPhone camera is made of plastic -- probably polycarbonate -- and not very well.

Of course, that a pocket phone should have a 5 megapixel camera in it at all is one of those dancing bear things. It's not how gracefully the thing dips and twirls, it's that it dances at all -- miraculous.

And, so, I shouldn't be surprised that my brand-new, just-out-of-the-box, "insanely great" iPhone's camera should be outperformed by my almost-ten-year-old, beat up, dirty, 3Mpx Nikon CoolPix. It's all about the optics.

The first picture I took on purpose of something I was deliberately pointing the camera at was of Karma, sitting atop a wheeled, plastic, drawer bin in the study. What was neat to me in that moment was that... THERE WAS NO FLASH!. How cool is that? It took a picture in low light, thus no flash, thus the cat's eyes were neither shut nor lazors-engaged.

Then I struggled with the whole download-the-photograph-to-my-computer thing. (Can you believe that the best solution APPLE can offer is to email the picture to yourself? And then they offer to make the image smaller. Like I want that.) I finally ended up with the brute-force approach of opening the phone in the Windows Explorer and copying the files over. (But that doesn't work with music, by the bye.) And I opened the picture up in my default JPEG viewer*. Imagine my dismay to perceive 1) motion blur and B) compression artifacts.

Now, the motion blur I could understand. My hands are not rock steady in the first place and the iPhone is not the best platform for steady photography. The way you have to hold it to press the shutter button contradicts everything you ever learned camera ergonomics. But if they put the shutter button in the right place, there would go your all-glass controls, so I get that.

But the compression artifacts are just a sin against God and everybody. They make Baby Michelangelo cry. There's no need for them. You can get clean images and a 10:1 compression ratio out of the JPEG format if you really care about image quality. This stuff of making fur look like feathers in order to simplify your image is just rid-freakin'-dick-you-luss.

::tout le sigh::

That was Thursday evening. Friday morning, I mentioned my disappointment with the camera to one of the artists at the Patch Factory (the inimitable Becks), who advised me that there's an app for that.

I should have known.

And those of you unaware of this and yet finding yourself in just this particular predicament, pay heed. The app is called Camera Awesome! and it is -- awesome. !. It's free, for starters, it allows you to focus in one place in your image and expose according to the light in a wholly other place in the scene. AND -- and... It features image stabilization.

I haven't had a chance to really wring it out. But here's a picture taken using the zone features.

Here's a picture of Earnie taken WITH Camera Awesome, but NOT with image stabilization. (At the time, I wasn't aware that you have to explicitly turn image stabilization ON.)

And, in the field of learning that "There's an app for that" is no joke -- well, it is, but not yet tinged with the bitter irony of FAIL -- a recent article in PC Magazine hints at even greater riches.

And I'm sure I'll have a great time exploring all that -- but later. Today, I have to rebuild my desk. One of our kittens ::coughjanecough:: appears to think that thin wires are like Vines -- the candy -- and loves to chew on them. To date, the little stinker has ruined at least one computer mouse, a phone charger, a set of powered speakers, a pair of $40 headphones (thank God they weren't the $200 variety), and my Wacom tablet. So I'm going to tear down my desk (still the temporary one of milk-crate file boxes, furniture dollies, and a sheet of 1/2" MDF) and rebuild it so all the wires are INSIDE, where chewy kitties can't make chewy kitty toys out of them.

Bad kitty! If you weren't so cute and cuddly, I'd... I'd... Nothing.

*(IrfanView, BTW, which I heartily recommend as a lightweight file manipulator for anyone who does a lot with image files.)

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (1) | Permalink

...

Saturday, March 17, 2012

It Just Works—My Ass...

OR: "IT JUST WORKS my ass."

As I announced yesterday, I went with the iPhone. Like all such decisions, there's good and bad come of it.

Following the setup instructions, I plugged it in and fired up iTunes. I had my trepidations, which turned out to be justified, albeit not for my reasons.

Oh, life never allows your pessimism to be fulfilled as you imagine it will. Where would the fun be in that? No. While I was concerned that Apple would try to take over my life and lock up all my original work out of some mistaken notion of piracy, simply because none of it carries DRM code. But no. Apple tried to take over my life because it's an arrogant, paternalistic -- I dare say "leftist" -- company whose self-satisfied, elitist executives think they know better than I how I should run my life and organized my files on my computing devices. I've always thought that about Apple, and whereas the various companies that made up the Wintel cartel might have been different species of arrogant bastards, at least their methods tended to leave users alone in freedom to enjoy their devices as they see fit.

But I'm far too familiar with Apple's products to swallow the "it just works" wheeze. Murphy is too equal-opportunity to allow that to pass.

So I plugged the iPhone into the computer via the handy-dandy (proprietary) USB connector. It said, "We're gonna download an iOS update, Boss. It'll take 25 minutes." Cool, thinks I. I'll go take a nap. Apparently, it took nowhere near that to dl the OS update. And then it attempted to fire up iTunes.

Which promptly froze. Version required: two dot releases more recent than what I had installed. Of course. I probably should have seen that coming, but you'd also think that the genii in Cupertino could anticipate it. (BTW, how much longer is Apple going to be in Cupertino? Recent news of a shift to Tejas makes me wonder if they're just one more in the long line of objects lessons about leftist politicians, the innumeracy of the bureaucracy, and the original sin of the nanny state, and how you really do have a use for all that math they tried to pound into your thick skull-full-of-mush in high school.)

Obama: we have a math problem. The man was born without an elbow. He's got an irony bone in place of his humerus.

Thursday night was not pleasant around here. It never is when you're fighting with new tech.

But eventually, things got sorted. And, while I haven't yet made a single phone call (I have sent a text message and about five emails, though, so that's something.), things progress.

It's bedtime, now. But in the morning, I have some comments about photography and why optics are more important than megapixels. I think.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Just Being My Usual Contrapuntal Self, Here, Boss...

PEOPLE ARE TALKING about whether or not the country can survive another four years of Obama. They may be missing the point. Me, I wonder whether Obama would survive another four years of Obama.

Remember, he's not a lone operator. He's got the whole Marxist/Leninist/Maoist front working with him. And making sure he doesn't backslide.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Friday, March 16, 2012

It’s a Friday Tradition...

KRIS RUSCH has written a thoughtful and well-informed post on the ongoing change in the publishing world. Well worth the RTWT.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Thursday, March 15, 2012

As Insty Says...

FASTER, please.

Found at Good Shit

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Thursday, March 15, 2012

My First Smart Phone...

SO HERE'S HOW YOU START a dogpile in your blog comments. Mac vs Windows.

I have a choice to take between an iPhone 4s and a Windows phone -- a Samsung Focus.

I think the criteria pro and con come down to this: does the computer interface with the iPhone require an Apple computer to -- frex: program the address book, or up- or download music or ebook files?

As I am of the opinion that Apple is no friend to creatives -- taking the stand they do on the DCMA and DRM, and their collusion in restraint of trade with the Big 6 publishing houses in the whole agency-pricing-model-slash-price-fixing scandal, I will not now or ever in the future use iTunes or iBooks, so those features of the iPhone do not entice me in that direction. And, if iTunes is the only way that MP3s can be played on the iPhone, that may turn out to be a dispositive negative. (I am aware that there is a Kindle app for the iPhone.) But, if there are other reasons pro the iPhone, I'm open to persuasion.

Speak your minds in comments. As always, play nice.

Update: went with the iPhone.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (4) | Permalink

...

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Oh. I Was Wondering...

OG 'SPLAINS why Punxatawney Phil was a scosh off. (Six weeks (42 days) from Groundhog Day is ... today.)

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (2) | Permalink

...

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Halls of Justice...

WHERE THE ONLY JUSTICE is in the halls. Or something like that.

So the FedGov sues Texas to overturn the state's voter ID law. (I still want to know where the DOJ gets off suing anybody -- EVER. If it's illegal and you have evidence of a crime, file charges. If it's not, STFU. It's that "Right to Liberty" thing.)

And it's slam-dunked because, as it's said, the state didn't show that voter fraud due to lack of an ID is a problem.

And the FedGov adduces as its rationalization for the suit? The voter ID might -- MIGHT -- discriminate against Hispanics.

From Spain?

No, Dolly. When leftist bigots say "Hispanic" that's code word for Mexican. They don't even show the same concern for Cubans or Puerto Ricans. Or Chileans.

Ah!

But... "Might?" "MIGHT"?

Somebody's head should be asplodin' from the disonnance.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (2) | Permalink

...

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Watchoo Mean “We,” Paleface...

MY BIG PROBLEM is that **I'M** getting the government **YOU** deserve.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (2) | Permalink

...

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Instead of a Quote of the Day,...

HERE'S A WORD PROBLEM (remember those?).

...[M]ost authors will never earn out their advance. Hmm. Let’s think this one through, as we know that advances are pretty blooming low anyway, and have dropped from 5K to 4K and falling…. (if this reminds you of the improbability drive, that’s because that is what is.) Let me run this one past your logic circuits: If the buyer of patented new mousetrap offers you a royalty of 5% and advance of $4000… and somehow you never earn back that $4000 in royalties, let alone any additional royalties, and the mousetrap manufacturer has shall we say opaque accounting practices… But when you offer him your newest mousetrap design, he sighs and says that out of the kindness of his heart he’ll take that off you for $3500… and that he’s bought seven other new mousetraps and none of them ever earned his advance… do little warning lights come up? Does the circuit that alerts you to improbable events say that the chances of someone paying MORE than the item is actually worth, repeatedly, are several million to one, against?

--Dave Freer

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (2) | Permalink

...

Monday, March 12, 2012

Just For The Record...

TIME CHANGE SUCKS

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (2) | Permalink

...

Sunday, March 11, 2012

You Know, the Main Problem I Have...

WITH BILL MAHER isn't that he's rude, crude, and unattractive. It's that he's a fraud. He tries to sell himself as a comedian, to which he's entitled, but, really, he's not funny. What's a comedian worth who's not funny? I axe ya!

Gabrielle Francesca "Dolly" East | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Quote of the Week...

“We shall lose the West unless we can restore the use of reason to pre-eminence in our institutions of what was once learning. It was the age of reason that built the West and made it prosperous and free. The age of reason gave you your great Constitution of liberty. It is the power of reason, the second of the three great powers of the soul in Christian theology, that marks our species out from the rest of the visible creation, and makes us closest to the image and likeness of our Creator. I cannot stand by and let the forces of darkness drive us unprotesting into a new Dark Age.”

--Lord Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

(Found at Watts Up With That.)

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Saturday, March 10, 2012

It Occurs to Me...

(WHICH IS A REALLY BAD headline, because it's also the post title and the URL, but WTF, it's almost my bedtime.)

It occurs to me, as it does from time-to-time, that most really BAD -- epically bad -- political ideas are born of impatience. It's like Silent Cal was purported to have said on his from-time-to-time occasions, if five problems are rolling down the road at you (and I always picture wild automobile tires doing this -- steel-belted radials, not on rims, or a car, just the tires), four of them are going to bounce off into the ditch before they get to you. So if you get all steamy in the silks for the problem -- really horny to (you know) don't just stand there; do something: anything, even if it's wrong -- the chances are you're really, really gonna fuck it up, and they get worse (or better, depending) the earlier you spot the problem and act on it.

And it strikes me that the contention "We're not gonna vote our way out of this" and its corrollary, "The only solution [I can see] is armed sectarian conflict in the streets," are born of both impatience and a very short conceptual timeline. Political change takes time. We didn't get into this mess in one election cycle, we're not getting out of it in one -- or even four. It's gonna take at least the same century it took to get here to get back.

But you sure as hell ain't gonna win if you quit at the start.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (2) | Permalink

...

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Just Because I Didn’t Doesn’t...

MEAN I WOULDN'T HAVE if I had had the notion -- say I told you so. Simon says of the destruction of both the timber industry and the habitat of the northern spotted owl:

By destroying the forestry industry in the Pacific Northwest the government also destroyed the habitat for the bird it was trying to protect. The reality of government in action.

Now, I am always willing to stipulate that there may be a place for government action. However, on close examination of particular cases, I am almost always forced to admit that ... not so much in this particular case.

"Almost..."?

Well, Dolly... It's an attempt at precision. Or honesty, at least. I don't know of a countervailing case, but sensible consideration demands that the possibility exists that there may be one. Which is why all the stats don't add up to 100%. Y'know?

Something your tendentiously mendacious leftist will never stipulate.

Never say, "Never."

[::snortle::]

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (2) | Permalink

...

Saturday, March 10, 2012

That This is a Possibility...

MAKES ME EVER MORE glad each time I hear of such things that I have chosen the independent route to publication, as fraught as it is. After all, what would you do if the rights to your work were to be an acquisition in a bankruptcy?

Makes one shiver to think.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

The Cloud Observatory
Friday, March 09, 2012

Observation 49 (New Series)...

...

Friday, March 09, 2012

I Tend to Question Everything...

ALTHOUGH I DON'T always speak up. But I firmly believe that the first freedom is the freedom to be left alone. Activist or proactive government is an aggressor government, and how much the greater ill to aggress against one's own citizens than a foreign nation? So I question the truism that "We get the government we deserve" and its corollary that, because we prefer to vote by not voting -- selecting, as it were, "None of the above", we are thereby somehow derelict in our civic duty.

You're using "we" in the collective sense, because you can't mean yourself -- you vote.

Yes, Dolly. We is plural and, by default, collects all those present into a single object or group. Your point?

Just sayin's, all.

Eh-heh. Right.

So I don't accept that a citizen should be required to involve himself in politics. I do, however, believe, that those who do involve themselves in politics should always put themselves at risk of life and limb. You want to meddle in the affairs of your neighbors, be prepared for them to say -- and for you to accept as dispositive -- "NO!" Or even, "Oh, HELL no!"

While it is true that all it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing, it should be taken as axiomatic that evil may not like what good men do in defense of their own liberty. And that, when the state no longer supports and defends those actions of good men in defense of liberty, the state has ceased to be a legitimate governor of mens actions and should -- read: must -- be replaced.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (4) | Permalink

...

Friday, March 09, 2012

Remind Me Again Why...

WE HAVE THE FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE? Oh, yeah. Right. Because the spoils system it superceded was so bad.

Mm-hmm. Ri-i-i-i-ight.

Sher. You keep thinking that.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Friday, March 09, 2012

A Little Chatter Out There, Please...

SO THERE ARE OVER 500 of you who stop in here at some interval or other and have bothered to sign up. Now that you've gone to all that trouble, how about commenting once in awhile.

Consider this an open thread. Maybe comment. Maybe request. Maybe suggest. Play nice, though. I'll be watching.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (7) | Permalink

...

...

The Cloud Observatory
Thursday, March 08, 2012

Observation 48 (New Series)...

...

Thursday, March 08, 2012

The Problem with Political Ecumenism...

IS THAT THE IMPULSE TOWARD comity makes fools of everyone. Take Charles Lane for example. Insty's pull quote voices this fatuous nonsense:

Democrats and liberals are fond of calling their conservative and Republican adversaries "anti-science." To the extent that the right espouses "creation science," or disputes established facts about environmental degradation, it's an appropriate label.

That's right. Go right for the lone countervailing example, but mention nothing about the Left's embrace of lysenkoism, eugenics, acid rain, ozone depletion, coral reef die-offs, endangered species, the "fragility" of a desert environment, old-growth deforestation, the supposed dangers of DDT, hormone-based contraceptives, and the current big wheeze, catastrophic anthropogenic global warming -- sorry (scorn quotes) "climate change".

The real fact of the matter (But when would a news organization ever report "just the facts, ma'am"?) is that, whenever a Leftist (or a Democrat, but I repeat myself) accuses someone of being anti-[anything] what he's really saying is that his defendant is actually opposed to the leftist's misappropriation of the facts for political ends.

The Right isn't opposed to women's having access to contraception (per se). Just having to pay for it.

The Right isn't anti-woman when it argues that forcing a religious institution to violate one of its principle tenets (which, BTW, the Right also argues is just plain good sense for humanity at large) is, perhaps, a violation of one of the tenets of the foundation of the state.

Nor is the Right anti-woman, or anti-choice when it observes that, once a woman is pregnant, the choice has been made -- long before -- and argues that, for the species, rampant termination of pregnancies is both murderous and suicidal. Nor is it anti-science to observe that, with the advent of ultrasound and intrauterine micro-photography (i.e., the advancement of science), we have a finer-grained appreciation of the instantiation of human life than the old Spartan, If it survives exposure on the mountainside, it's a person.

The Right isn't engaged in a war on science when it insists on proof of global warming before dislocating the entire global political and economic infrastructure, resulting in millions -- or, perhaps even billions -- of deaths.

The Right isn't engaged in a war on women when it suggests that, maybe, interrupting a natural process with major surgery or radical hormone "therapy" might not be a good thing for the woman involved.

The Right isn't engaged in a war on the poor when it observes that coerced charity (read: state welfare programs) is corrosive for both the giver and the recipient, and perhaps the state oughtn't be in the charity business. (And, given the role that religion has historically played in charity, isn't the welfare state an establishment issue?)

And the Right isn't anti-science when it points out that electric cars were abandoned over a century ago in favor of the hydrocarbon-fueled internal combustion engine because the one works and the other doesn't, and nothing substantial has changed in the interim; that wind power died out with the clipper ships for approximately the same reason. Yes, sail power works, but it doesn't scale. Who's ignoring the established facts now?

People, you have to resist the otherwise laudable impulse to grant the Left the benefit of the doubt. They start from operating in bad faith; they have no principles they will not abandon -- those objects leftists hold which you might see as principles are infinitely mutable depending on the situation. They not only won't give you the benefit of the doubt, they will lie about you and distort your positions to put you in the worst possible light.

And, yes, in reply to Mrs. Bush (41), compromise with these people is a dirty word.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Fifty Acres Isn’t an Estate...

TEN THOUSAND ACRES is an estate. Fifty acres is a big front yard.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

...

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

These people getting all hysterical...

ABOUT CONTRACEPTION funding are actually making the Right's arguments for us. They keep wittering about "What about when medical costs are incurred; should the rest of us have to pay for that?" The implication being that, when cost shifting occurs, cost containment becomes an excuse for oppressive state behavior, then anything goes.

Or, as my old gran said, "When needs must, the Devil drives."

'Splain to me again why "we" are paying for anybody's medical care in the first place?

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Political Name-Calling...

(I'M FOR IT.) As the saying goes, when you have named a thing... you have named it.

We (by which I mean Rush) need to stop calling FLOTUS Moochelle and start calling her Michelle Antoinette.

Srsly.

Kthxbai.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

I Keep Telling You...

DEMOCRATS START OUT acting in bad faith. And Attorney General Eric Holder is one of the most egregious.

And you keep supporting them.

Shame on you.

If you are a good-hearted person, concerned for the well-being of your fellow man, the Left is not your ally. You should give no support whatsoever -- not your vote, not your signature on petititions, not your pennies in the jar: none of it -- to Democrats.

Not sure who you SHOULD support, given that a lot of Republicans are just Democrats Lite, but... do some research for God's sake. For the country's sake.

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Srsly...

ARE YOU SERIOUSLY contending that, because the Constitution only prohibits the GOVERNMENT from infringing on civil rights, it is impossible for private individuals and corporations to infringe upon those rights?

Really?

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Monday, March 05, 2012

Oh, Goody....

SNOW

Bleah!

Mark Philip Alger | Comments (0) | Permalink

...

Later on BabyTrollBlog...

Previously on BabyTrollBlog...

DON'T SHUT UP

BE BREITBART

RECOMMENDED

PURE PLAY BLOGS

ACE OF SPADES
THE ADVENTURES OF
ROBERTA X

ADVICE GODDESS
AMERICAN DIGEST
ANARCHANGEL
THE ANCHORESS
ANTI-IDIOTARIAN ROTTWEILER
ARMED and DANGEROUS
ASYMMETRICAL INFORMATION
ATLAS SHRUGS
ATOMIC NERDS
BALDILOCKS
LA SHAWN BARBER
BARKING MOONBAT EARLY WARNING SYSTEM
ANN BARNHARDT
MICHAEL BARONE
DAVE BARRY
BAYOU RENAISSANCE MAN
BELDAR BLOG
BELMONT CLUB
BIG DICK'S PLACE
BIG LIZARDS
BLACKFIVE
BLACK SUNDAY SOCIETY
BOOKWORM ROOM
NEAL BOORTZ
BORDERLINE SOCIOPATHIC
BLOG FOR BOYS

BOREPATCH
THE BREDA FALLACY
TAMMY BRUCE
THE CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC
CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS
CARPE DIEM
CARTEACH0
ALAN CARUBA
CATO @ LIBERTY
CATO UNBOUND
CHAOS MANOR
CHICAGO BOYZ
CHIZUMATIC
CHRIS EX MACHINA
CLASSICAL VALUES
DR. MELISSA CLOUTHIER
COLD FURY
CONFEDERATE YANKEE
CONSERVATIVE BEACH GIRL
CONSERVATIVE GRAPEVINE
ANN COULTER
COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG
COYOTE BLOG
JULES CRITTENDEN
DA GODDESS
THE DAILY BRIEF
DAILY PUNDIT
DAMNUM ABSQUE INJURIA
THE DANA SHOW
DANEgerus
DANGEROUS LOGIC
DANTE'S INFERNO AND
FIRING RANGE

OTTO DECKER
TOM DELAY
DICENTRA'S GARDEN
DID YOU STEAL MY COUNTRY?
DISSECTING LEFTISM
DIZZYING INTELLECT
DR HELEN
DR. SANITY
DANIEL DREZNER
DRUMWASTER'S RANTS
DUSTBURY
EJECT!EJECT!EJECT!
AN ENGLISHMAN'S CASTLE
FATALE ABSTRACTION
FIGHTING IN THE SHADE
FILE IT UNDER
FIVE FEET OF FURY
FOREIGN OBJECT DAMAGE
FOUR RIGHTWING WACKOS
FRIZZEN SPARKS
GATES OF VIENNA
GAY PATRIOT
GHOST OF A FLEA
GIRL'S GUIDE TO GUNS
GM'S PLACE
GRAVITY WELL
GREENIE WATCH
GUN NUTS MEDIA
VICTOR HANSON
(Private Papers)
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON
(Pajamas Media)
HELL IN A HANDBASKET
HUGH HEWITT
HOBBS ONLINE
HOG ON ICE
HOLGER AWAKENS
HOME ON THE RANGE
IMAO
INCOHERANT RAMBLINGS
INSTAPUNDIT
INTERGALACTIC SOURCE
OF TRUTH

IQ & PC
IRONS IN THE FIRE
FRANK W. JAMES
THE JAWA REPORT
BRIDGET JOHNSON
JUST ONE MINUTE
KAYAK 2U
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
KUDLOW'S MONEY POLITICS
THE LAW DOG FILES
EZRA LEVANT
LIBERTY'S TORCH
JAMES LILEKS
JAMES LILEKS - THE BLEAT
JAMES LILEKS - THE SCREEDS
ROB LONG
LONSBERRY
LOOK! A BABY WOLF!
RACHEL LUCAS
LUCIANNE
THE MAD HOUSEWIFE
MAGGIE'S FARM
MICHELLE MALKIN
MAROONED
RACHEL MARSDEN
THE OTHER McCAIN
METHUSELAH'S DAUGHTER
MIDDLE OF THE RIGHT
MIKE-ISTAN
MILBLOGGING
THE MILITARY OUTPOST
MRS. AHAB
MONSTER HUNTER NATION
MOONBATTERY
A MORAL COMPASS
MOSTLY CAJUN
MOTHER MAY I
SLEEP WITH TREACHER?

MOUNTAINEER MUSINGS
MOXIE
MUDVILLE GAZETTE
THE MUNCHKIN WRANGLER
MY SO-CALLED BLOG
NEANDERPUNDIT
NEO-NEOCON
BETSY NEWMARK
NEWSBUSTERS
NEW ZEAL
OLD GROUCH
ONE COSMOS
ON THE THIRD HAND
ORACULATIONS
PASCAL FERVOR
THE PASSING PARADE
PATTERICO'S PONTIFICATIONS
THE PEOPLE'S CUBE
PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT A CRIME
PIECE OF WORK IN PROGRESS
PIERRE LEGRAND'S
PINK FLAMINGO BAR

POLIBLOG
THE POLICEMAN'S BLOG
PONDERING
POWER LINE
PRIMORDIAL SLACK
PROTEIN WISDOM
A QUART OF SOUP
AND A PUDDING POP

RAINDOG BLUE
RANDOM NUCLEAR STRIKES
RANTS OF A
FUZZY CURMUDGEON

PROFESSOR RAY
REAL CLEAR POLITICS
RED STATE
ROBIN OF BERKELEY
SAMIZDATA
DR. SANITY
SAYUNCLE
SCRAPPLEFACE
SENSE OF EVENTS
SERAPHIC SECRET
SHARP AS A MARBLE
SIPPICAN COTTAGE
SIPSEY STREET IRREGULARS
SISU
THE SMALLEST MINORITY
SNARK RAVING MAD
SNARKY BYTES
SNOWFLAKES IN HELL
SNUGG HARBOR
SPICED SASS
SPLEENVILLE HQ
SUSAN STEPNEY
SUICIDE HELP DESK
SULTAN KNISH
SWEETNESS & LIGHT
TAXES, STUPIDITY, AND DEATH
TEXAS PUNDIT
DAVID THOMPSON
TOOLMONGER
TRANSTERRESTRIAL MUSINGS
TRUE BLUE GAL
THE TRUTH LAID BEAR
TURK TURON
2 1/2 BAKER STREET
TWO--FOUR
UNQUALIFIED RESERVATIONS
VARIFRANK
VELOCIWORLD
THE VIEW FROM NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO
VIEW FROM THE PORCH
VODKAPUNDIT
WAITER RANT
WATCHER OF WEASELS
THE WHITE PERIL
WINDS OF CHANGE
THE WOODPILE REPORT
YA WEIRD SF FAN
MICHAEL YON
MERYL YOURISH

COLLEAGUES & WRITING BUDDIES


ELIZABETH BEAR
EBEAR'S FICTONS
LAWRENCE BLOCK
JOHN BORNEMAN
LISA BOUCHARD
TOBIAS BUCKELL
EMMA BULL
LINDSAY BUROKER
KURT BUSIEK
ORSON SCOTT CARD
CJ CHERRYH
MICHAEL CHRICHTON
KIANA DAVENPORT
BARRY EISLER
CHARLES COLEMAN FINLAY
KYRI FREEMAN
FUTUREBOOK
NEIL GAIMAN
DAVID GAUGHRAN
AMANDA S. GREEN
AMANDA HOCKING
SARAH A. HOYT
J.A. KONRATH
NAOMI KRITZER
LILY WHITE LE FEVRE
HOLLY LISLE
MARJORIE M. LIU
JOHN LOCKE
RIC LOCKE
MAD GENIUS CLUB
PAM McNEW
MAKING LIGHT
BOB MAYER
ELIZABETH MOON
MUSINGS OF AN INDIE WRITER
RUTH NESTVOLD
OZARQUE'S JOURNAL
JD PARADISE
THE PASSIVE VOICE
FREDERICK POHL
CHELSEA POLK
LAURA RESNICK
JOHN RINGO
KRISTINE KATHRYN RUSCH
JEAN SEOK
SHADOW UNIT
DEAN WESLEY SMITH
KRISTINE M. SMITH
MICHAEL STACKPOLE
CHARLES STROSS
SPEAKER TO MORONS
TALEIST
STILL NOT BORED

WRITING RESOURCES

ABSOLUTE WRITE
AUTHOPUBLISHER
THE BOOK DESIGNER
BOOK EDITING ASSOCIATES
BOOK RIOT
THE BOOKSHELF MUSE
CREATESPACE
CRITTERS
DIGITAL BOOK WORLD
DREAMSTIME
EBOOK NEWSER
EDITORIAL FREELANCERS ASSOCIATION
EPUB WORLD
FREELANCE SWITCH
GOOD READS
INDIE BOOKS BLOG
INDIE READER
KINDLEBOARDS
LITERATURE & LATTE
NAKED READER PRESS
NOVELISTS, INC.
NOVEL PUBLISHING GROUP
ONLINE WRITERS' WORKSHOP
NANCY PESKE
PRO BLOGGER
PUBLISHING INDUSTRY NEWS
PUBLISH YOUR OWN EBOOKS
QUILLDRIVERS
THE RUMOR MILL
SCRIVENER'S ERROR
SFWA
SPECULATIONS
TELEVISION TROPES
WHO DARES WINS PUBLISHING
WRITER BEWARE
WRITER'S DIGEST
WRITERS WRITE

eBOOK SELLERS


KINDLE DIRECT PUBLISHING
NAKED READER PRESS
PIXELS OF INK

THINKING RESOURCES

DOING RIGHT RIGHT


AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE PARTY
CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY
FIRST PRINCIPLES
SARAH PALIN
TENTH AMENDMENT CENTER

CLIMATE


THE ANTI "MAN-MADE"
GLOBAL WARMING RESOURCE

BISHOP HILL BLOG
THE BLACKBOARD
THE CLAMOUR OF THE TIMES
CLIMATE AUDIT
CLIMATE DEPOT
CLIMATEGATE
CLIMATE REALISTS
CLIMATE RESISTANCE
CLIMATE SCIENCE
CLIMATE SKEPTIC
CLUB FOR GROWTH
CO2 SCIENCE
GREEN HELL BLOG
HELIOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE
ICECAP
I LOVE MY CO2
JONOVA
JUNKFOOD SCIENCE
JUNK SCIENCE
A LAYMAN'S GUIDE TO
ANTHROPOGENIC
GLOBAL WARMING

TOM NELSON
NOT EVIL JUST WRONG
OIL & GAS JOURNAL
ROGER PIELKE JR
SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE
SKEPTICS GLOBAL WARMING
DR. ROY W. SPENCER
STILL WAITING FOR GREENHOUSE
SURFACE STATIONS(dot)ORG
WATT'S UP WITH THAT?
WORLD CLIMATE REPORT

EPISTEMOLOGY


THE ARMS ROOM
JEFF COOPER
THE PROCEEDINGS OF
THE FRIESIAN SCHOOL

GREATEST HEINLEIN QUOTES
LETTERS FROM AN OHIO FARMER
QUOTATIONS FROM AYN RAND
ROBIN of BERKELEY

EDUMICATE YERSELF


HACK A DAY
THE GREAT COURSES
MIT OPEN COURSEWARE
OPEN YALE COURSES

THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA


ENTREPRENEUR DOT COM
PARK PRIVATIZATION

POLITICS


THE 910 GROUP
THE ANTIPLANNER
ECONOMICS BLOGS (META-LIST)
FORBES BEST ECON BLOGS (META-LIST)
KEY WIKI
THE KIRK CENTER
LIBERAL FASCISM BLOG
LIBERTARIAN REPUBLICAN
MISES ECONOMICS BLOG
NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
SARAH PALIN
THE PATRIOT POST
PUBLIC POLICY FORECASTING
YOU CUT

REFERENCE


TEN MYTHS ABOUT ISLAM
U.S. CONSTITUTION

HOMELAND SECURITY


CITIZEN CORPS
DHS
FBI MOST WANTED
FBI SUBMIT A TIP
HELP YOUR COUNTRY
READY DOT GOV
THREATS WATCH
WORLD DEFENSE REVIEW

3D CG & DTP RESOURCES


3D TOTAL
ADOBE SYSTEMS
ARTIFACT
BIG STOCK PHOTO
COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD
DAZ 3D
DIGITAL FOSSILS
DISCREET
DREAMSTIME
THE DTP FORUM
EMIGRÉ
E-ON SOFTWARE
GNOMON WORKSHOP
PANTONE
PHIL'S FONTS
POP PHOTO
PRO FANTASY
QUARK
RENDEROSITY
SEARCH FREE FONTS
SMASHING MAGAZINE
TURBO SQUID
VECTOR ART BLOG

FAVORITE ILLUSTRATORS

JAVIER ALCADE
NEIL BLEVINS
MARC "BLUEFLEY" BRUNET
KURT BUSIEK
CARTOON BREW
CG UNIT
RYAN CHURCH
TONY CLIFF
CODE NAME: HUNTER
DYLAN COLE STUDIO
CONCEPT SHIPS
HEATHER CORINNA
COX & FORKUM
JOHN COX ART
DOC
DOLLSPACE PYGMALION
DRAWN
CHONG FEIGIAP
ROMAN GENN
GRAPHIC EXCHANGE
KAZU KIBUISHI
LOKMAN LAM
FRANK MILLER
PHIL NOTO
JEFF T. OWENS
FREDERIC ST.-ARNAUD
WATERHOUSE

THE VISUAL WORLD
NOT ENTIRELY WORK SAFE

#!/usr/bin/girl
ABSTRUSE GOOSE
A DISTANT SOIL
ALT PORN
ANEM
AQUARELA
ART OR PORN
AS RED AS...
ATLAS OBSCURA
BEAUTY NUDE
BITCH SQUAD
BIG BOOBS ALERT
BLACK LACE BRA
KIND OF WOMAN

BODS FOR THE MODS
BOOBIES DAILY
ASHLEIGH BRILLIANT
BY MOON ALONE
CHARACTER DESIGN
CONTROLLED BEAUTY
COOLIO'S BABELOG
CURMUDGEONLY & SKEPTICAL2
DAILY NINER
THE DAILY WHAT
DAY BY DAY
DELILAH DIRK
& THE TURKISH LIEUTENANT

DREAM SCAR
EROOUPS
EVIL INC.
EXPELLED
FINDER'S KEEPERS
FOX HQ
FREEFALL
GALAXION
GIRL GENIUS
GOOD SHIT
GOTHIC BABE OF THE WEEK
HEAVY INK
HOPE 'n' CHANGE
IMAGE POST
IMAGES EROTIC
JAPAN FOR THE UNINVITED
JUMP
LOLCAT BIBLE
LOLCATS 'N' FUNNY PICTURES
LONGING
MALLARD FILLMORE
ARCHIE MCPHEE
MIGHTY HOTTIES
MY CAT HATES YOU
MY CENTERFOLDS
NOVOJOY
OGLAF
OUR MEDIA
PARADIGM SHIFT
PEWFELL
PhD COMICS
PIXELOO
PLANET KAREN
PLAN 59
PRICKLY CITY
RED PLANET CARTOONS
SHOW ME YOUR SEX
SLIPSHINE
SLUGGY FREELANCE
SORE THUMBS
SPYING WITH LANA
THE STEAMPUNK HOME
STEAMPUNK WORKSHOP
STRANGERS IN PARADISE
STUNT KID
SUGARCUT
TOTALLY NSFW
USUAL GIRLS
VERY DEMOTIVATIONAL
OLEG VOLK
WAPSI SQUARE
WAYWARD SONS
THE WEB COMIC LIST
WONDERMARK
WORTH 1000
XKCD
XYLIA: A FAERIE TALE
YOUR LUST
Z0D
THE ZOMBIE HUNTERS
BORN PORNSTARS
TIFFANY TOWERS
TITANIME

AND NOW, THE NEWS

THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR
THE AMERICAN THINKER
ARTS & LETTERS DAILY
BIG GOVERNMENT
BIG HOLLYWOOD
BIG JOURNALISM
BIG PEACE
THE BLAZE
CAPITALIST CHICKS
CINCINNATI ENQUIRER
CNS NEWS
CORANTE
DEBKA FILE
THE DRUDGE REPORT
EYE ON THE UN
FOX NEWS
FREE REPUBLIC
FRONT PAGE MAGAZINE
H-PLUS MAGAZINE
IBD EDITORIALS
THE LAURA INGRAHAM SHOW
THE JERUSALEM POST
JEWISH WORLD REVIEW
MEMRI
MY WAY NEWS
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE
NEWS MAX
NEW YORK POST ONLINE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
THE ONION
OPINION JOURNAL
POWERLINE BLOG NEWS
REGISTER US
RIGHT WING NEWS
ROLL CALL
STRATEGY PAGE
JAMES TARANTO
TECH CENTRAL STATION
THE TIMES OF LONDON
THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
THE WEEKLY STANDARD
WIRED NEWS
WORLD NET DAILY

HOW'S THE WEATHER UP THERE?

WEATHER UNDERGROUND
CINCINNATI FORECAST

THE ALLIANCE
OF FREE BLOGS

A Seal

"Listen to me carefully, because I'm only going to say this once: I did not have sexual relations with that woman -- Gabrielle Dolly."

--Prof. Glenn Reynolds (I-Instapundit), July 23, 2005

THE 101st FIGHTING KEYBOARDISTS

A Seal

THE NEOLIBERTARIAN NETWORK


The Neolibertarian Network

The structure of this blogroll is most assuredly meant to endorse a particular worldview, attitude, and imputed pecking order -- mine. Get over it.

...

Since 21 April 2002

...

YOUR ACCOUNT

WELCOME TO BABYTROLLBLOG

LOGIN
OR...
REGISTER AS A NEW MEMBER

HELP A FELLER OUT

My Amazon.com Wish List

Most stuff = winnage

...

 

Brother, can you spare a dime?

...

Follow MarkPhilipAlger on Twitter

LINK BUTTON

...

THE DOLLY APOCRYPHA

#DOLLYAPOCRYPHA

Report from
New Xenaland


Double Switch

Sinfonia de la Inamorata

The Moose Jaw Incident

Readings from the Xena Sutra / The Season-Ending Cliffhanger

Xena and Gabrielle
After India:
Whither Faith?

Dolls' Night Out

Out of Bounds (Unplugged)

A Dynasty Divine

Fragments

Odalisque

The Great
Crossover Episode

A Doll's Odyssey

A Very Dolly XMas

It's Dolly's Birthday

Writer's Block

MY LIBRARY THING

...

RSS FEED:

Atom Feed Button

QUOTATIONS
FROM DA DOLL

My name is Gabrielle Dolly and I approve the contents of this blog.

I'm little, but I'm loud.

All helicopters are black after midnight.

Yes, a broken clock is right twice a day, but it is still broken.

No, I don't want to live forever, but neither do I want to spend the rest of my life dying.

Screw feminism; celebrate your babe-ness.

If you've got 'em, flaunt 'em. And, Baby, I got 'em.

Get some on ya. More usually does the trick.

Yeah, I'm anti-war. Trouble is, the enemy isn't. So, what're ya gonna do? Bleed on 'em?

You look to me like somebody who actually believes that there's no such thing as a stupid question.

"Life's too short to box with stupid liberals. Trouble is: there ain't any smart ones."

Okay. Here's how this works: If all you got's a hammer, pretty soon, every problem starts to look like a nail. Folla? 'N' if all you've got is government, pretty soon every solution starts to look like oppression.

Beauty may be only skin-deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone.

You may not be able to impose democracy on a country, but you sure as hell can impose socialism. Stop it!

Damned right I'm an enemy of the state. Aren't you? Why the hell not?
Just so's y' know: I didn't pick the fight.

...

I don't PLAN on fightin' in a leather bikini with my midriff exposed and my boobs half hangin' out. It's just... sometimes a fight comes at you without giving you a chance to get all armored up. 'N' ya jus' gotta go to war in the unnerwear ya got on.

...

READER ENDORSEMENTS

...[A]ssholes like Mark Alger... --some random anonymous feckwit on another blog

Welcome to the Dept. of Information, Mr. Alger, and sorry about the delay. --Emperor Darth Misha I

...the coveted "Silver Snickerdoodle of Excellence" ... --Ith of Absinthe and Cookies

Cincinnati novelist Mark Alger is one of nature's noblemen, and one of the best writers on the Web. Treat yourself. --Francis W. Porretto

Mark Alger is a writer, who just happens to blog. And if you're not checking him out you're doing yourself a disservice. --Raging Dave

Mark Alger's Baby Troll Blog, whose look at life and the world around him, along with pithy comments from the effervescent Dolly, deserve to be on everyone's required reading list. --Guy S.

YOUR QUOTE HERE

...

SIG-BLOCK QUOTES

"Society has no right to be unjust to a single one of its members, ... the whole society minus one, is not authorised to obstruct the latter in his opinions, nor in those actions which are not harmful, in the use of his property or the exercise of his labour, save in those cases where that use or that exercise would obstruct another individual possessing the same rights."
--Benjamin Constant

"Individual liberty; Individual Responsibility."
--Russell Means

"When you want to blather away into the ether, collecting the accolades and shunning the negative response, you're not advocating for speech to be free -- you're advocating for talk to be cheap."
--Jane Galt

"A leftist idea can be recognized by three earmarks, It will be:
1)Founded in ignorance,
2) Focussed on irrelevance,
3) Engaged in wishful thinking.
--Mark Alger

4) "And threaten use of the coercive power of the state to extract compliance."
--Arnold's Corrollary (ed.)

"I could tolerate leftists if they had any coherent ideas for a better way to do things. But they don't. They cling stubbornly to failed brain-fart dreams that have been attempted over and over again with disastrous results, but they never learn. When better ideas come along, they simply screech and holler at them, then fling feces like the monkeys they are."
--Acidman

"All the extravagance and incompetence of our present government is due, in the main, to lawyers.They are responsible for nine-tenths of the useless and vicious laws that now clutter the statute-books, and for all the evils that go with the vain attempt to enforce them. Every Federal judge is a lawyer. So are most Congressmen. Every invasion of the plain rights of the citizen has a lawyer behind it. If all lawyers were hanged tomorrow, and their bones sold to a mah jong factory, we'd all be freer and safer, and our taxes would be reduced by almost a half."
-- H.L. Mencken.

Just One Question
Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons?
--Joe Huffman.

The Jews in the Attic Test
I looked at all laws that restricted freedom with a view to the impact it would have in a worst case scenario of our government run amok. Will this law make it difficult or impossible to protect innocent life from a government intent on their imprisonment or death? ...I told them I called this test my "Jews In The Attic Test". Furthermore I told them that if it fails this test no further discussion is really needed, the law must be opposed in the most vigorous manner possible.
--Joe Huffman

...

APHORISMS
PASSED

"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
-- Barry Goldwater

...

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
-- Thomas Jefferson

...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...
-- Thomas Jefferson, 1776

...

At the core of modern liberalism is the spoiled child -- miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.
--P.J. O'Rourke

...

[W]e're not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. We're facing a radical ideology with unalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world. No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no concession, bribe or act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder.

On the contrary, they target nations whose behavior they believe they can change through violence. Against such an enemy there is only one effective response: We will never back down, never give in and never accept anything less than complete victory.
--President George W. Bush

...

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
--Thomas Paine

...

"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of."
----Texas State Rep. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp

...

One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that "violence begets violence." I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure -- and in some cases I have -- that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.
--Jeff Cooper

...

The only sure way to get the money out of politics is to get the power out of government.
--Mark Alger

...

When Obama says he wants to "spread the wealth," you can be sure it's your wealth he's talking about, not his.

...

Carry your gun - it's a lighter burden than regret.
--Breda

...

Only fools speak of "climate change" as though it were something remarkable or frightening. Climate is change.

...

To all the hogs at the trough in DC: You don't get to waive my rights.

...

In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
--George Orwell

...

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, "Peace, Peace!" -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
--Patrick Henry

...

Compromise, hell! That's what has happened to us all down the line - and that's the very cause of our woes. If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?
--Jesse Helms

...

LEGAL NOTICE: The charge for advertising in our comments is $500 per instance. The standard display time for such advertisements is defined as: "Until such time as the proprietor discovers and deletes said advertisements." Payment for advertisements is due immediately upon presentation of our invoice. Live execution of judgements or orders for payment of monies due -- in cash or in kind -- is hereby agreed to. Insertion of advertisements in the comments of this site constitutes acceptance of and agreement to these terms.

COMMENT: You know, it amazes me the stupidity of all your get-rich-quick schemes. They fail on one singular point: commerce requires trust. Your sneak attacks and unwanted turds-in-burning-paper-bags-on-the-doorstep comment spam portray an individual or organization who is willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get what he wants. Yeah. Right. I want to do business with somebody like that. And then you don't give any contact information except for HTML links. What makes you think anybody would follow those? Sorry, Bub. Not from this site. My readers aren't that stupid. Or that gullible.

...

SITEMETER

Visitors since July 31, 2003

I should note, here, that, although Sitemeter only admits to 400K visitors in nine and a half years, my host's stats tell me there've been almost four million page views in eight and change. I know that there can be disagreement over how stats get collected, but -- dayum -- a factor of ten is a bit much, doncha think?

All original works copyright
© 1999-2012 Mark Philip Alger. All rights reserved.

Works by other authors appear by permission or as a matter of fair use. No infringement is intended. If you are the author of such a work and wish it removed, click the EMAIL ME link at the top of the right column and let me know. I will remove any work judged by its author to have been infringed.

All original works, articles, and images are the property of their creators. Reuse is not permitted. Reproduction of original works, likenesses, or trademarks without permission is a violation of Federal law and international treaties and is subject to prosecution, and to civil and criminal penalties.

There is none of that wishy-washy open-source crap here. Except for news photos and logos of associations we belong to, this stuff is mine. I made it. I intend to defend it vigorously. Infringe on my copyrights at your own moral peril.

...