Sunday, August 31, 2008
Go straight to Angola, do not pass Go.
Good toughness by Mayor Nagin of New Orleans. Tells looters they'll be sent straight to Angola, directly into General Population.
Especially interesting because you rarely hear a politician acknowledge that criminals are not ordinary. The standard approach, from both R and D, is that anyone could be a victim, anyone could be a criminal.
Think about this for a moment. Do normal people understand instantly, without any explanation, the full import of "Go to Angola" and "General Population"? No, only the criminal class, because they've been there already, or they have lots of friends and relatives who have been there.
= = = = =
The rest of Nagin's message is also refreshing in a different way. "This is the mother of all storms. Get your butt out of town."
Compared to the usual smarmy unctuous sanctimonious political ratshit: "If, god forbid, the worst should happen, by some unfortunate and tragic accident, and this alleged storm should allegedly approach our city, the citizens may wish to consider being prepared for various exigencies."
= = = = =
Later: it appears that Gus was not the mother of all storms; maybe the bossy older sister of storms. Why? Not because its actual damage was any less than Katrina; it appears to have been similar. It was less devastating because both Nagin and Bush learned their lessons, and because people did in fact get their butts out of town. When all butts are out of town, you won't have a thousand dead butts in town. By definition.
However! These lessons didn't need to be learned, or more precisely they weren't lessons at all. Katrina wasn't a brand-new phenomenon that nobody understood. It wasn't a quantum storm or a space-time invasion by five-armed gray creatures from Alpha Centauri. The Coast Guard and FEMA already knew how to handle wind damage and flooding, and FEMA had competently handled worse hurricanes under Clinton. So it's not really a question of doing specific things differently, it's just that Bush allowed the entire government to run wild. FEMA under Bush lost its own organizing abilities, and allowed Nagin to get away with total neglect of his emergency duties.
The genuine lesson, the lesson which we will never learn, is that New Orleans should not be a heavily populated city, and our oil production, shipping and refining should not be heavily concentrated around New Orleans. It's simply too vulnerable and too expensive. We can and should produce all of our own crude, which would eliminate the shipping entirely. Most of the production can and should be in non-hurricanish locations like North Dakota and offshore California. We can and should (and did in the past) refine oil in a wider variety of locations.
Why in the hell should we subject our people and our economy to constant threats and shocks when less dangerous and less expensive options are available?
= = = = =
Later again: I wasn't thinking clearly when I asked that question. The answer is obvious. We need to remain vulnerable because it destroys our economy and makes oil prices high, all of which benefits Sultan Bush's good buddies in Saudi Arabia and his soulmate in Russia. ¶ 9:14 AM
Especially interesting because you rarely hear a politician acknowledge that criminals are not ordinary. The standard approach, from both R and D, is that anyone could be a victim, anyone could be a criminal.
Think about this for a moment. Do normal people understand instantly, without any explanation, the full import of "Go to Angola" and "General Population"? No, only the criminal class, because they've been there already, or they have lots of friends and relatives who have been there.
= = = = =
The rest of Nagin's message is also refreshing in a different way. "This is the mother of all storms. Get your butt out of town."
Compared to the usual smarmy unctuous sanctimonious political ratshit: "If, god forbid, the worst should happen, by some unfortunate and tragic accident, and this alleged storm should allegedly approach our city, the citizens may wish to consider being prepared for various exigencies."
= = = = =
Later: it appears that Gus was not the mother of all storms; maybe the bossy older sister of storms. Why? Not because its actual damage was any less than Katrina; it appears to have been similar. It was less devastating because both Nagin and Bush learned their lessons, and because people did in fact get their butts out of town. When all butts are out of town, you won't have a thousand dead butts in town. By definition.
However! These lessons didn't need to be learned, or more precisely they weren't lessons at all. Katrina wasn't a brand-new phenomenon that nobody understood. It wasn't a quantum storm or a space-time invasion by five-armed gray creatures from Alpha Centauri. The Coast Guard and FEMA already knew how to handle wind damage and flooding, and FEMA had competently handled worse hurricanes under Clinton. So it's not really a question of doing specific things differently, it's just that Bush allowed the entire government to run wild. FEMA under Bush lost its own organizing abilities, and allowed Nagin to get away with total neglect of his emergency duties.
The genuine lesson, the lesson which we will never learn, is that New Orleans should not be a heavily populated city, and our oil production, shipping and refining should not be heavily concentrated around New Orleans. It's simply too vulnerable and too expensive. We can and should produce all of our own crude, which would eliminate the shipping entirely. Most of the production can and should be in non-hurricanish locations like North Dakota and offshore California. We can and should (and did in the past) refine oil in a wider variety of locations.
Why in the hell should we subject our people and our economy to constant threats and shocks when less dangerous and less expensive options are available?
= = = = =
Later again: I wasn't thinking clearly when I asked that question. The answer is obvious. We need to remain vulnerable because it destroys our economy and makes oil prices high, all of which benefits Sultan Bush's good buddies in Saudi Arabia and his soulmate in Russia. ¶ 9:14 AM
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Experts
Item in the latest New Superstitionist. Not widely interesting, but fits into an area where I have some actual knowledge and experience, so caught my attention....
In the details, turns out the experiment was using ultrasonic frequencies underwater, and the holes block only one frequency, with a wavelength equal to the distance between the holes. For the frequency they chose, the holes are about 3 mm in diameter, and about 7 mm apart.
This would be about the actual size of the pattern:
o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o
Okay, maybe it will work for a stealth submarine. I can see the possibility: sound passes through the holes, refracts outward on the other side, cancels at the centerline between each pair of holes.
(Though the article didn't state the purpose, a stealth sub is the only reason for research in underwater ultrasonic shielding.)
But if we try to extend this to regular sound in air, I'll guarantee it won't work.
Let's say we're trying to block the 60-cps hum of a transformer. The wavelength of a 60 cycle sound is about 18 feet. So we'd need to make a series of 18-foot diameter holes 18 feet apart in the housing of the transformer.
Now I'm looking through my front door at a residential transformer atop the nearest power pole. Appears to be a cylinder, about 4 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter. Okay, so we need to drill a pattern of 18-foot holes 18 feet apart on this 4-foot cylinder. Fetch my 18-foot brace and bit, and we'll get started. All right, that will take care of the 60-cps sound, and now we'll need to drill some 9-foot holes between the 18-foot holes to take care of the 120-cps harmonic, and then some 3-foot holes 3 feet apart to silence the 180-cps harmonic.
Even if they're talking about a much larger transformer, say about the size of a house, it's still impossible. You still won't have any enclosure left after opening those truck-sized holes.
Aside from this grotesque absurdity, the first rule of soundproofing in air is to make the enclosure perfectly airtight. After you've sealed and caulked all possible holes and cracks, you can then add various kinds of damping material. But if even a few air molecules can get through, you might as well skip the rest of the work.
Methinks these acoustical experts are not very good at math, among other things. ¶ 6:21 PM
If you want to improve your soundproofing, try punching some holes through it. That's the counter-intuitive result of an experiment in which metal plates drilled full of holes were shown to transmit less sound than solid plates. ... The effect could help reduce noise in situations where air circulation is important to prevent overheating, such as large power transformers near homes.
In the details, turns out the experiment was using ultrasonic frequencies underwater, and the holes block only one frequency, with a wavelength equal to the distance between the holes. For the frequency they chose, the holes are about 3 mm in diameter, and about 7 mm apart.
This would be about the actual size of the pattern:
o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o
Okay, maybe it will work for a stealth submarine. I can see the possibility: sound passes through the holes, refracts outward on the other side, cancels at the centerline between each pair of holes.
(Though the article didn't state the purpose, a stealth sub is the only reason for research in underwater ultrasonic shielding.)
But if we try to extend this to regular sound in air, I'll guarantee it won't work.
Let's say we're trying to block the 60-cps hum of a transformer. The wavelength of a 60 cycle sound is about 18 feet. So we'd need to make a series of 18-foot diameter holes 18 feet apart in the housing of the transformer.
Now I'm looking through my front door at a residential transformer atop the nearest power pole. Appears to be a cylinder, about 4 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter. Okay, so we need to drill a pattern of 18-foot holes 18 feet apart on this 4-foot cylinder. Fetch my 18-foot brace and bit, and we'll get started. All right, that will take care of the 60-cps sound, and now we'll need to drill some 9-foot holes between the 18-foot holes to take care of the 120-cps harmonic, and then some 3-foot holes 3 feet apart to silence the 180-cps harmonic.
Even if they're talking about a much larger transformer, say about the size of a house, it's still impossible. You still won't have any enclosure left after opening those truck-sized holes.
Aside from this grotesque absurdity, the first rule of soundproofing in air is to make the enclosure perfectly airtight. After you've sealed and caulked all possible holes and cracks, you can then add various kinds of damping material. But if even a few air molecules can get through, you might as well skip the rest of the work.
Methinks these acoustical experts are not very good at math, among other things. ¶ 6:21 PM
Rove learned......
Couple months ago I commented at length about a C-Span discussion of political tactics. Reprinting part:
I wonder if Rove learned something from those operatives. It appears that Palin was far enough down in the barrel that the brand-D dirt-diggers were caught unawares.
This note from the NYT Caucus blog verifies it:
Incidentally, "far little" provides a nice window into the mind of the NYT reporter. Clearly he first wrote "far too little", then realized that would reveal his bias, so he tried to make it "far less", which sounds more objective, but didn't quite get there.
And more verification via a posting in one of my favorite graphics forums. In the graphics world, Obama is considered too moderate and centrist; Kucinich would have been the ideal candidate for these folks. Nonetheless, Obama was good enough to get them working for The Party, and apparently they are all busy little Communist oppo-researchers this morning:
Well, at least the porn vendors weren't blindsided by the Palin boom!
= = = = =
More seriously, Palin has a lot in common with those Western Dems like Jon Tester and Brian Schweitzer. Because they're all "barrel-scrapings" from the insider view, they're all refreshing. They haven't been confused, extorted, smoothed down and dirtied up by years in the Beltway. They say what they mean and mean what they say. And unlike a Larry Craig or a Patty Murray, they are also unconfused on the personal level. Tester is a man who looks like a man, Palin is a woman who looks like a woman. ¶ 7:17 AM
C-span was showing a discussion among top political operatives about this year's Congressional election. The brand-D operative was talking about those new hawkish Western Dems that I find impressive. He said those candidates were the third or fourth choices from the Party's viewpoint. After the losses of '02 and '04, the horizon looked dim to the "real candidates", the lifetime brand-D politicos with long state-level experience and good fund-raising connections. So the "real candidates" refused to run in '06, leaving the party to scrape the barrel. And what did they find? They found some Real Americans instead of the usual Real Party Hacks.
You'd think the brand-R operatives would have found this instructive. You'd think they would say "Hmm... maybe we should lop off our first-tier choices and scrape the barrel to find some uncorrupted candidates, some candidates who don't resemble Duke Cunningham, Conrad Burns and Larry Craig." Nope, from the inside-the-system viewpoint, these new hawkish Dems didn't win because the voters liked them; these fresh candidates won because their records were so short that the brand-R operatives couldn't dig up any dirt on them.
I wonder if Rove learned something from those operatives. It appears that Palin was far enough down in the barrel that the brand-D dirt-diggers were caught unawares.
This note from the NYT Caucus blog verifies it:
Ms. Palin came as a surprise not only to many Republicans and journalists, but also to the Obama team. The campaign has been busily preparing TV commercials to run against Mitt Romney — with aides gleefully watching hours of footage of Romney-McCain exchanges from the primary — but far little opposition research had been prepared about the Alaska governor.
Incidentally, "far little" provides a nice window into the mind of the NYT reporter. Clearly he first wrote "far too little", then realized that would reveal his bias, so he tried to make it "far less", which sounds more objective, but didn't quite get there.
And more verification via a posting in one of my favorite graphics forums. In the graphics world, Obama is considered too moderate and centrist; Kucinich would have been the ideal candidate for these folks. Nonetheless, Obama was good enough to get them working for The Party, and apparently they are all busy little Communist oppo-researchers this morning:
There are a lot of porn companies out there trying to capitalize on the current mania of searching out video about Sarah Palin, including a few that make themselves look like YouTube sites. If you're looking for such stuff, do yourself a favour and *only* look via links provided by bloggers you know and trust.
Well, at least the porn vendors weren't blindsided by the Palin boom!
= = = = =
More seriously, Palin has a lot in common with those Western Dems like Jon Tester and Brian Schweitzer. Because they're all "barrel-scrapings" from the insider view, they're all refreshing. They haven't been confused, extorted, smoothed down and dirtied up by years in the Beltway. They say what they mean and mean what they say. And unlike a Larry Craig or a Patty Murray, they are also unconfused on the personal level. Tester is a man who looks like a man, Palin is a woman who looks like a woman. ¶ 7:17 AM
Friday, August 29, 2008
Palin, local connection
The Spokane TV stations all took a stab at getting impressions of Palin from students and faculty at Univ of Idaho and Northern Idaho College, where she did her college work in the late '80s. None of the retired profs remembered her; apparently she was a quiet student who didn't get into a lot of extracurricular stuff.
The pres of NIC took the opportunity to make a good selling point: This shows that a student who starts at a community college can go all the way. You don't need to get into a prestigious university.
Though he was just doing his job, I think this does mark an important change. All of the Pres and VP choices in recent years, even those who started from poor backgrounds like Bill Clinton, played the prestige game, used Harvard or Yale as a stepping-stone to power.
Palin is the first major candidate in recent years who was neither an aristocrat from birth (Bush, Gore, McCain) nor a power-seeker from birth (Clinton, Obama). ¶ 6:42 PM
The pres of NIC took the opportunity to make a good selling point: This shows that a student who starts at a community college can go all the way. You don't need to get into a prestigious university.
Though he was just doing his job, I think this does mark an important change. All of the Pres and VP choices in recent years, even those who started from poor backgrounds like Bill Clinton, played the prestige game, used Harvard or Yale as a stepping-stone to power.
Palin is the first major candidate in recent years who was neither an aristocrat from birth (Bush, Gore, McCain) nor a power-seeker from birth (Clinton, Obama). ¶ 6:42 PM
Palin
Excellent choice.
My real problem with Manchurian Candidate McCain is his aggressive delicacy, his need to impose his own prissy feelings on the rest of us. Given the choice of sacrificing every American life versus annoying a terrorist, he'll sacrifice us. Given the choice of selling us to Arabia versus sullying the precious "fragile" landscape of the Arctic, he'll sell us to Arabia. These choices are not just unmanly but suicidal.
Palin is not prissy. She has shown repeatedly that she will git 'er done.
And she has some serious Hair. Superficial, yeah, but a bit more. Showing some Hair is a tacit rebellion against the flat straight center-parted nun style that was imposed on American women in 1970. It's a little flash of defiance against the delightfully deceased Comrade Betty Fried[m]an.
Could I now vote for the R ticket? Only if MC McCain swears in advance that he will immediately switch places with Palin after taking the oath of office. We can't afford even one day of rule by this prissy-ass Communist.
= = = = =
Prediction: Watch for Palin to be described over and over as "scary". Leninists are required, in an unbreakable Pavlovian way, to describe a woman who looks like a woman as "scary".
Woman looks like man? That's default, normal, doesn't need a word.
Man looks like woman? "Enlightened" or "Outrageously transgressive", which is high praise.
Woman looks like woman? "Scary."
¶ 8:34 AM
My real problem with Manchurian Candidate McCain is his aggressive delicacy, his need to impose his own prissy feelings on the rest of us. Given the choice of sacrificing every American life versus annoying a terrorist, he'll sacrifice us. Given the choice of selling us to Arabia versus sullying the precious "fragile" landscape of the Arctic, he'll sell us to Arabia. These choices are not just unmanly but suicidal.
Palin is not prissy. She has shown repeatedly that she will git 'er done.
And she has some serious Hair. Superficial, yeah, but a bit more. Showing some Hair is a tacit rebellion against the flat straight center-parted nun style that was imposed on American women in 1970. It's a little flash of defiance against the delightfully deceased Comrade Betty Fried[m]an.
Could I now vote for the R ticket? Only if MC McCain swears in advance that he will immediately switch places with Palin after taking the oath of office. We can't afford even one day of rule by this prissy-ass Communist.
= = = = =
Prediction: Watch for Palin to be described over and over as "scary". Leninists are required, in an unbreakable Pavlovian way, to describe a woman who looks like a woman as "scary".
Woman looks like man? That's default, normal, doesn't need a word.
Man looks like woman? "Enlightened" or "Outrageously transgressive", which is high praise.
Woman looks like woman? "Scary."
¶ 8:34 AM
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Local notes: Wheelchair Poop Bandit
You want weird? We got your weird right here in River City.
Starting about a year ago a half-dozen business in the Spokane Valley were targeted by this unique vandal.
Jenny's Cafe, Mc Q's Billiards and Sports Bar and Leo's Photography were among the targets of this unique vandalism, with gallons of watery fecal matter splashed or smeared on walls and doors.
"It was just a pile of sewage, right here at our front door. Some of it went under the door and made a huge mess," Nita Saddler of Mc Q's Billiards and Sports Bar.
Some of these establishments became dump sites more than once, always overnight.
"I didn't even know what to think of it, every time we'd come up in the morning we'd just pray that it wasn't there again," Jenny said.
Authorities finally figured out last Sunday who the culprit behind these attacks was when a deputy spotted a man riding a powered wheelchair on Farr Road.
John Rubint, 53, was the man riding that wheelchair. He lives several blocks away from the businesses that were getting attacked; hanging off the back of his wheelchair was a 5-gallon bucket of fecal matter.
"He expressed anger over the fact that he was now partially paralyzed and that was at least part of the reason he was doing what he was doing," Sergeant Dave Reagan with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office said.
Full story, complete with security video, here. ¶ 8:14 PM
Starting about a year ago a half-dozen business in the Spokane Valley were targeted by this unique vandal.
Jenny's Cafe, Mc Q's Billiards and Sports Bar and Leo's Photography were among the targets of this unique vandalism, with gallons of watery fecal matter splashed or smeared on walls and doors.
"It was just a pile of sewage, right here at our front door. Some of it went under the door and made a huge mess," Nita Saddler of Mc Q's Billiards and Sports Bar.
Some of these establishments became dump sites more than once, always overnight.
"I didn't even know what to think of it, every time we'd come up in the morning we'd just pray that it wasn't there again," Jenny said.
Authorities finally figured out last Sunday who the culprit behind these attacks was when a deputy spotted a man riding a powered wheelchair on Farr Road.
John Rubint, 53, was the man riding that wheelchair. He lives several blocks away from the businesses that were getting attacked; hanging off the back of his wheelchair was a 5-gallon bucket of fecal matter.
"He expressed anger over the fact that he was now partially paralyzed and that was at least part of the reason he was doing what he was doing," Sergeant Dave Reagan with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office said.
Full story, complete with security video, here. ¶ 8:14 PM
Laughing points
In recent months the brand-R talking point heads have descended into a new form of the old Two Minutes Hate technique. It consists of dissecting the brand-D candidates while laughing insanely.
Hannity is the simplest: Oh, that Obama character, hahaahaaaHAAAARRR! He's a real piece of work, hahaahaaaHAAAARRR! He's gonna take us straight into Socialism, hahaahaaaHAAAARRR! by raising our taxes, hahaahaaaHAAAARRR!
Beck has a wider variety of noises. Taking apart Joe Biden's acceptance speech: "From Afghanistan to Iraq," EEEEErrrgghh! My head is exploding! "From Amtrak," GGGHHHAAAARRRgh! AMTRAK? AMTRAK? AMTRAK? When did Amtrak ever make a profit? Have you seen an Amtrak train?
= = = = =
This technique can backfire. It gives the listener a chance to think about the speech being ridiculed.
Take Amtrak. I hadn't probed this point before, but listening to Beck's squawking made me stop and think.
Is this really a good comparison?
Does highway travel earn a profit? No.
So why should train travel be expected to earn a profit?
All forms of travel are subsidized in one way or another, because freight and passenger transportation are critically necessary to a functional nation, and all forms require an organized infrastructure that is beyond the capabilities of companies operating in pure competition. ¶ 3:26 PM
Hannity is the simplest: Oh, that Obama character, hahaahaaaHAAAARRR! He's a real piece of work, hahaahaaaHAAAARRR! He's gonna take us straight into Socialism, hahaahaaaHAAAARRR! by raising our taxes, hahaahaaaHAAAARRR!
Beck has a wider variety of noises. Taking apart Joe Biden's acceptance speech: "From Afghanistan to Iraq," EEEEErrrgghh! My head is exploding! "From Amtrak," GGGHHHAAAARRRgh! AMTRAK? AMTRAK? AMTRAK? When did Amtrak ever make a profit? Have you seen an Amtrak train?
= = = = =
This technique can backfire. It gives the listener a chance to think about the speech being ridiculed.
Take Amtrak. I hadn't probed this point before, but listening to Beck's squawking made me stop and think.
Is this really a good comparison?
Does highway travel earn a profit? No.
So why should train travel be expected to earn a profit?
All forms of travel are subsidized in one way or another, because freight and passenger transportation are critically necessary to a functional nation, and all forms require an organized infrastructure that is beyond the capabilities of companies operating in pure competition. ¶ 3:26 PM
Duncan sentenced
Joseph Duncan, probably the most brutal hominid in America, was sentenced to death in a Federal court yesterday. There is the usual automatic appeal, but I suspect the sentence will be carried out quickly by modern standards.
In a strictly numerical sense, an absolute shark like Duncan tends to do less harm than the garden-variety serial killer like Ted Bundy or Robert Yates. The Bundy or Yates type lives an ordinary life most of the time, and is in fact ordinary most of the time. He occasionally gets the urge to finish off a sex act with a killing, and he has the smarts to choose his victims well. So a Yates may keep going for a long time, because prostitutes tend to die from various random causes anyway, and because police quite rationally pay less attention to deaths within the world of criminals. (Why is this rational? Because it makes the life of criminality less attractive to youngsters who are examining the possibility. You may rebel against parents and cops, but you're less likely to pick near-certain death just for the sake of rebellion!)
A Duncan, however, is not ordinary, and never lives an ordinary life. Everyone around a shark observes quickly and painfully that his sole purpose in life is to do harm, and he ends up in some kind of institution early on. The specific problem in this case is that the institution was in Massachusetts, where Leninist idiocy has fully metastasized; Duncan was released from the institution despite all kinds of indications to the contrary. As soon as he was released, he started killing again. This happened two or three more times, but the authorities, unable to discriminate between sharks and humans, continued to release him.
So he will finally be destroyed, and the human race will be noticeably improved. ¶ 12:25 PM
In a strictly numerical sense, an absolute shark like Duncan tends to do less harm than the garden-variety serial killer like Ted Bundy or Robert Yates. The Bundy or Yates type lives an ordinary life most of the time, and is in fact ordinary most of the time. He occasionally gets the urge to finish off a sex act with a killing, and he has the smarts to choose his victims well. So a Yates may keep going for a long time, because prostitutes tend to die from various random causes anyway, and because police quite rationally pay less attention to deaths within the world of criminals. (Why is this rational? Because it makes the life of criminality less attractive to youngsters who are examining the possibility. You may rebel against parents and cops, but you're less likely to pick near-certain death just for the sake of rebellion!)
A Duncan, however, is not ordinary, and never lives an ordinary life. Everyone around a shark observes quickly and painfully that his sole purpose in life is to do harm, and he ends up in some kind of institution early on. The specific problem in this case is that the institution was in Massachusetts, where Leninist idiocy has fully metastasized; Duncan was released from the institution despite all kinds of indications to the contrary. As soon as he was released, he started killing again. This happened two or three more times, but the authorities, unable to discriminate between sharks and humans, continued to release him.
So he will finally be destroyed, and the human race will be noticeably improved. ¶ 12:25 PM
Derb's latest
Derbyshire's latest short column at NRO is important.
I'd add one point. When our gov't, schools, military and corporations are kept busy trying to accomplish things that are physically and logically impossible, they don't have any time or resources left to accomplish the things that ARE possible.
And it's not just a one-to-one displacement of effort, because the glorious goals always run into the realm of diminishing returns.
When you are stuck in fantasy -- or required to implement a fantasy -- you won't notice when the proportion of cost to benefit has dropped below the break-even point, and you'll keep working harder and longer to reach the smaller and sparser signs of success.
Trying to teach an unteachable child costs ten times as much as teaching a normal kid. So the futile attempt to reach one subnormal kid removes service from ten normal kids.
Trying to eradicate every molecule of asbestos costs vastly more than simply compensating the few thousand Johns Manville workers who were genuinely injured by negligent managers. It bogs down every single building and remodeling project, for no benefit at all. (How many people are needlessly miserable and unhealthy because they can't afford to improve their houses? How many people are homeless because the cost of building new apartments or improving old ones has become prohibitive, making it cheaper to replace old buildings with parking lots?)
Trying to cool off the earth by eliminating CO2 is the worst fantasy of all. The other goals have an addictive quality: seeking an ever-receding but always visible rainbow. Global warming is a totally false theory at every step. We won't even see tiny signs of success, because the effort has precisely zero relationship to the problem, and the problem doesn't exist in the first place.
Trying to democratize Arabs will take an infinite amount of time, and by damn we'll keep our Army there for a hundred years, a thousand years, however long it takes. Thus making the Army weak, tired, and unavailable for the tasks where military effort stands a chance of success.
With most of these goals, the hand of Stalin is easy to see. In the areas that fall under the broad umbrella of "diversity", you can specifically identify the Stalinist judges, anthropologists and sociologists who set up the requirements in the '50s and '60s. Same with the environmentalist purposes. Rachel Carson, Paul Ehrlich and their disciples were devoted to the Soviet cause.
I'm puzzled about the military part, though. Is it just a mindless extension of the same failure to understand proportion? Or can we trace Putin's revenge in a more explicit way? It certainly looks like a precise echo, a perfect mirror-image, of Reagan's takedown of the Soviet Empire. ¶ 9:02 AM
Every age has its characteristic follies, and those follies have their correctives. The folly of the present age in America is a facile, infantile optimism, that recognizes no limits to human abilities or the wonders that can be wrought by politicians, bureaucrats, and generals. The corrective is a firm, measured pessimism. ...
Optimism helped build this nation. Yes, we can clear the forest, tame the prairies, fight off the Indians. Yes, we can build heavier-than-air flying machines, land on the Moon, defeat fascism and communism. Yes, we can prosper without the horror and indignity of slavery. I am sure there were pessimists who said those things could not be done. They were wrong; and thoughful persons, including thoughtful pessimists, knew at the time that they were wrong.
Some children will be left behind. You cannot "remake the Middle East" or "defeat evil." The poor will always be with us. Black and white will never mingle together in unselfconscious harmony. Corporations will not research and explore without hope of profit. Russia will not become Sweden. Forty million immigrants speaking a single language will not assimilate.
I'd add one point. When our gov't, schools, military and corporations are kept busy trying to accomplish things that are physically and logically impossible, they don't have any time or resources left to accomplish the things that ARE possible.
And it's not just a one-to-one displacement of effort, because the glorious goals always run into the realm of diminishing returns.
When you are stuck in fantasy -- or required to implement a fantasy -- you won't notice when the proportion of cost to benefit has dropped below the break-even point, and you'll keep working harder and longer to reach the smaller and sparser signs of success.
Trying to teach an unteachable child costs ten times as much as teaching a normal kid. So the futile attempt to reach one subnormal kid removes service from ten normal kids.
Trying to eradicate every molecule of asbestos costs vastly more than simply compensating the few thousand Johns Manville workers who were genuinely injured by negligent managers. It bogs down every single building and remodeling project, for no benefit at all. (How many people are needlessly miserable and unhealthy because they can't afford to improve their houses? How many people are homeless because the cost of building new apartments or improving old ones has become prohibitive, making it cheaper to replace old buildings with parking lots?)
Trying to cool off the earth by eliminating CO2 is the worst fantasy of all. The other goals have an addictive quality: seeking an ever-receding but always visible rainbow. Global warming is a totally false theory at every step. We won't even see tiny signs of success, because the effort has precisely zero relationship to the problem, and the problem doesn't exist in the first place.
Trying to democratize Arabs will take an infinite amount of time, and by damn we'll keep our Army there for a hundred years, a thousand years, however long it takes. Thus making the Army weak, tired, and unavailable for the tasks where military effort stands a chance of success.
With most of these goals, the hand of Stalin is easy to see. In the areas that fall under the broad umbrella of "diversity", you can specifically identify the Stalinist judges, anthropologists and sociologists who set up the requirements in the '50s and '60s. Same with the environmentalist purposes. Rachel Carson, Paul Ehrlich and their disciples were devoted to the Soviet cause.
I'm puzzled about the military part, though. Is it just a mindless extension of the same failure to understand proportion? Or can we trace Putin's revenge in a more explicit way? It certainly looks like a precise echo, a perfect mirror-image, of Reagan's takedown of the Soviet Empire. ¶ 9:02 AM
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Polistra's dream, 7
Part 7 of Polistra's Dream.
Read Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4 and Part 5 and Part 6 first.
Ponca, July 1939. Arcade Hotel.
Fran and Polistra are relaxing.
Fran: Okay, we'll see what we can do. Bye.
Polistra: What was that about?
Fran: One of my church friends. Remember my paperboy Jimmy?
Pol: Sure. The boy with the soapbox car.
Fran: Well, the lady said Jimmy's older sister Lodine isn't feeling well, could use some cheering up. I'm up against a deadline on this article ... could you drive over there and bring them some food and stuff? Pick out a few cans of soup and stew, maybe some tea and sugar and bread.
Pol: Of course. I'll take the picnic basket, make it seem like an outing.
Fran: Jimmy's family is a bit of a project for our church, I guess you'd say. They had a farm at Red Rock; when the soil blew away in '35, the father went to California for work and disappeared. Then the mother pretty much fell apart. She does a little sewing and a lot of drinking. I've seen her coming out of rooms in the Arcade. I suppose she was, ah, 'conferring' with some of the visiting oilmen. The upshot is, Jimmy and Lodine take care of each other, without any help from the mother.
Pol: Sounds like a messy situation. Okay, I'm ready to go.
Fran: They live at 1308 South 13th in Dixie Hill. And listen, so you won't be surprised, Lodine is an odd-looking girl. I mean really odd-looking, but sharp as a tack and an amazingly hard worker. Keeps that shack spic and span, keeps Jimmy clean and fed. She's adopted, and I think you'll know where she's from. In fact, I think you and she will get along just fine.
Pol: What? What do you mean?
Fran: Now get along; I really need to finish this piece, and I'll leave it up to you and Lodine to have a good chat. It will cheer her up to know... well, go on with you.
Pol: There's Jimmy. Wait. Measles? That's worse than "not feeling well"....
Jimmy: Hello, Miss Lister. I'm glad to see you, ma'am, but we're under a quantine. We can't have any visitors inside.
Pol: Don't worry, I've already had measles, so I'm immune.
Jimmy: Please, ma'am, my sister is real sick. I don't know what to do.
Pol: Good afternoon, Lodine.
Jimmy: I don't think she can talk right now, ma'am. She's sort of half-asleep or something.
Pol: Oh lord, she's burning up. She's not gonna ... Okay, I'm not supposed to do this, but ... Jimmy, is that a Bible?
Jimmy: Yes ma'am.
Pol: Hold onto it and pray. Ready, set.....
Pol: Go.
Lodine: What happened? I think I was ill, but now it's all gone. Who are you?
Pol: I'm Polistra, a friend of Miss Fran. She heard you were feeling poorly, so I came over to cheer you up. Here's some food and stuff.
Lodine: Well then, we've got some work to do. James, put the table back in order. Miss P, could you sort of make the bed?
Lodine: Oh goodness, goodness! There's real English tea in here. Haven't had proper tea since... I'll boil up some water if the stove is still warm. Yes, it is. Thank you, James, for keeping the coal going.
Lodine: There, now we're almost done. Much better, don't you think, Miss P?
Pol: Yes, but should you be working so hard immediately after...
Lodine: Nonsense, nonsense, activity is the best way to recover. And
there's nothing like a neat and clean house to keep us healthy.
Lodine: James, you may go out now and deliver the evening papers. I truly appreciate your watching over me, but you probably need some fresh air, eh?
Jimmy: Yes, sis. I'm a little late on collections, so I'll get going.
Pol: James?
Lodine: I know everyone calls him Jimmy, but I'm convinced that we need to maintain a higher level of dignity. Dignity and organization: the best way to make it through poverty, and the best way to make it out of poverty.
Pol: You've got it. That's a deep truth, but not many folks know it.
Lodine: No, no, it's common knowledge. I learned it from the colored ladies who live around here.
Pol: Well, it's not common knowledge where I come from.
Lodine: You mean "when" you come from?
Pol: Yes.
Lodine: You're from the future, aren't you?
Pol: Yes. Did Fran tell you?
Lodine: Not quite, but I could put together the inferences. Have people forgotten the basics of common sense in your era?
Pol: Yes, to some extent. We haven't forgotten the value of hard work, but we've somehow replaced dignity and organization by intelligence and book learning. We tell everyone that the best way to get out of poverty is to get a college degree.
Lodine: That's ridiculous, and it will especially harm the colored people, won't it?
Pol: Yes. It will and it did.
Continued in Part 8 here. = = = = = Much later footnote, Aug 2017: The 1940 Census wasn't available when I wrote this. I happened to be looking through the Census pages today (ED 36-36), and noticed that my guesswork fiction was exactly right. The 1300 block of South 13th was white, and all the surrounding blocks were colored. ¶ 12:01 AM
Read Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4 and Part 5 and Part 6 first.
Ponca, July 1939. Arcade Hotel.
Fran and Polistra are relaxing.
Fran: Okay, we'll see what we can do. Bye.
Polistra: What was that about?
Fran: One of my church friends. Remember my paperboy Jimmy?
Pol: Sure. The boy with the soapbox car.
Fran: Well, the lady said Jimmy's older sister Lodine isn't feeling well, could use some cheering up. I'm up against a deadline on this article ... could you drive over there and bring them some food and stuff? Pick out a few cans of soup and stew, maybe some tea and sugar and bread.
Pol: Of course. I'll take the picnic basket, make it seem like an outing.
Fran: Jimmy's family is a bit of a project for our church, I guess you'd say. They had a farm at Red Rock; when the soil blew away in '35, the father went to California for work and disappeared. Then the mother pretty much fell apart. She does a little sewing and a lot of drinking. I've seen her coming out of rooms in the Arcade. I suppose she was, ah, 'conferring' with some of the visiting oilmen. The upshot is, Jimmy and Lodine take care of each other, without any help from the mother.
Pol: Sounds like a messy situation. Okay, I'm ready to go.
Fran: They live at 1308 South 13th in Dixie Hill. And listen, so you won't be surprised, Lodine is an odd-looking girl. I mean really odd-looking, but sharp as a tack and an amazingly hard worker. Keeps that shack spic and span, keeps Jimmy clean and fed. She's adopted, and I think you'll know where she's from. In fact, I think you and she will get along just fine.
Pol: What? What do you mean?
Fran: Now get along; I really need to finish this piece, and I'll leave it up to you and Lodine to have a good chat. It will cheer her up to know... well, go on with you.
Pol: There's Jimmy. Wait. Measles? That's worse than "not feeling well"....
Jimmy: Hello, Miss Lister. I'm glad to see you, ma'am, but we're under a quantine. We can't have any visitors inside.
Pol: Don't worry, I've already had measles, so I'm immune.
Jimmy: Please, ma'am, my sister is real sick. I don't know what to do.
Pol: Good afternoon, Lodine.
Jimmy: I don't think she can talk right now, ma'am. She's sort of half-asleep or something.
Pol: Oh lord, she's burning up. She's not gonna ... Okay, I'm not supposed to do this, but ... Jimmy, is that a Bible?
Jimmy: Yes ma'am.
Pol: Hold onto it and pray. Ready, set.....
Pol: Go.
Lodine: What happened? I think I was ill, but now it's all gone. Who are you?
Pol: I'm Polistra, a friend of Miss Fran. She heard you were feeling poorly, so I came over to cheer you up. Here's some food and stuff.
Lodine: Well then, we've got some work to do. James, put the table back in order. Miss P, could you sort of make the bed?
Lodine: Oh goodness, goodness! There's real English tea in here. Haven't had proper tea since... I'll boil up some water if the stove is still warm. Yes, it is. Thank you, James, for keeping the coal going.
Lodine: There, now we're almost done. Much better, don't you think, Miss P?
Pol: Yes, but should you be working so hard immediately after...
Lodine: Nonsense, nonsense, activity is the best way to recover. And
there's nothing like a neat and clean house to keep us healthy.
Lodine: James, you may go out now and deliver the evening papers. I truly appreciate your watching over me, but you probably need some fresh air, eh?
Jimmy: Yes, sis. I'm a little late on collections, so I'll get going.
Pol: James?
Lodine: I know everyone calls him Jimmy, but I'm convinced that we need to maintain a higher level of dignity. Dignity and organization: the best way to make it through poverty, and the best way to make it out of poverty.
Pol: You've got it. That's a deep truth, but not many folks know it.
Lodine: No, no, it's common knowledge. I learned it from the colored ladies who live around here.
Pol: Well, it's not common knowledge where I come from.
Lodine: You mean "when" you come from?
Pol: Yes.
Lodine: You're from the future, aren't you?
Pol: Yes. Did Fran tell you?
Lodine: Not quite, but I could put together the inferences. Have people forgotten the basics of common sense in your era?
Pol: Yes, to some extent. We haven't forgotten the value of hard work, but we've somehow replaced dignity and organization by intelligence and book learning. We tell everyone that the best way to get out of poverty is to get a college degree.
Lodine: That's ridiculous, and it will especially harm the colored people, won't it?
Pol: Yes. It will and it did.
Continued in Part 8 here. = = = = = Much later footnote, Aug 2017: The 1940 Census wasn't available when I wrote this. I happened to be looking through the Census pages today (ED 36-36), and noticed that my guesswork fiction was exactly right. The 1300 block of South 13th was white, and all the surrounding blocks were colored. ¶ 12:01 AM
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
All-around multicolor suicidal idiocy
News item: Mohammed Taheri-Azar, who attempted a suicide car attack at Univ of North Carolina in 2006, was sentenced to 33 years in civil court.
Just to raise my blood pressure, not that it matters, let's imagine a Jap pilot who attempts a kamikaze dive-bombing on Seattle in 1943. He runs out of gas, lands in the Olympic Peninsula, survives the landing. What would happen after that? First of all, the Ground Observer Corps would track his flight, and would determine quickly that he was a Jap. Then a small military contingent would find the plane, using the coordinates determined by GOC. Then he'd either be shot on sight or taken to a POW camp for intensive interrogation.
In 2008 we give an enemy soldier a nice gentle trial and a nice gentle sentence in a nice cushy Fed prison, where he will be free to proselytize black prisoners, recruit them into Allah's Army.
= = = = =
We deserve to lose this war. Ordinary Americans don't deserve it, but our alleged so-called "government" deserves to lose it, and deserves to be seen accurately as a corrupt moronic Quisling, to serve as a lesson to future democracies. If there are any.
= = = = =
The big point here:
War is not a jury trial.
In war you do not presume innocence.
In war you do not distinguish between attempt and success.
In war, nearly all bullets and bombs are failures. That's how it goes.
Mohammed Taheri-Azar is an enemy soldier.
He was deadly serious about his kamikaze attack.
He intended to kill as many infidels as he could.
His estimate of necessary projectile velocity was wrong, but that is utterly and totally irrelevant in war. He pulled the trigger, and that's the only thing that matters. ¶ 7:51 PM
Just to raise my blood pressure, not that it matters, let's imagine a Jap pilot who attempts a kamikaze dive-bombing on Seattle in 1943. He runs out of gas, lands in the Olympic Peninsula, survives the landing. What would happen after that? First of all, the Ground Observer Corps would track his flight, and would determine quickly that he was a Jap. Then a small military contingent would find the plane, using the coordinates determined by GOC. Then he'd either be shot on sight or taken to a POW camp for intensive interrogation.
In 2008 we give an enemy soldier a nice gentle trial and a nice gentle sentence in a nice cushy Fed prison, where he will be free to proselytize black prisoners, recruit them into Allah's Army.
= = = = =
We deserve to lose this war. Ordinary Americans don't deserve it, but our alleged so-called "government" deserves to lose it, and deserves to be seen accurately as a corrupt moronic Quisling, to serve as a lesson to future democracies. If there are any.
= = = = =
The big point here:
War is not a jury trial.
In war you do not presume innocence.
In war you do not distinguish between attempt and success.
In war, nearly all bullets and bombs are failures. That's how it goes.
Mohammed Taheri-Azar is an enemy soldier.
He was deadly serious about his kamikaze attack.
He intended to kill as many infidels as he could.
His estimate of necessary projectile velocity was wrong, but that is utterly and totally irrelevant in war. He pulled the trigger, and that's the only thing that matters. ¶ 7:51 PM
Gray idiocy
News item heard just now: "McCain's age is a problem for many voters. Younger voters are prejudiced against the elderly, and even the elderly are biased against the elderly."
No, you unspeakable Commie idiot fuckheads. It's not bias, it's accurate understanding based on personal experience. We Baby Boomers are old enough now that we know what happens with age. We can feel the gradual loss of multi-tasking ability, the gradual loss of sharpness. MC McCain is ten years older than the average Boomer, and went through a terrible mind-breaking experience in Vietnam. We can hear from his current performance that he is at least ten years farther into cognitive decline than most of us.
His Vietnam prison experience should not be his sole qualification for office; it should count as a disqualifier. It may be unkind to say this, but the purpose of voting is not to be charitable to a candidate. The purpose of voting is to determine which candidate will do the job. ¶ 8:52 AM
No, you unspeakable Commie idiot fuckheads. It's not bias, it's accurate understanding based on personal experience. We Baby Boomers are old enough now that we know what happens with age. We can feel the gradual loss of multi-tasking ability, the gradual loss of sharpness. MC McCain is ten years older than the average Boomer, and went through a terrible mind-breaking experience in Vietnam. We can hear from his current performance that he is at least ten years farther into cognitive decline than most of us.
His Vietnam prison experience should not be his sole qualification for office; it should count as a disqualifier. It may be unkind to say this, but the purpose of voting is not to be charitable to a candidate. The purpose of voting is to determine which candidate will do the job. ¶ 8:52 AM
Monday, August 25, 2008
Does MC McCain have any sense?
Heard just now on radio: "We have some sharp divisions, my friends, but this country is about to go through the most fundamental part of democracy, the process of selecting a new leader."
Aside from the tired-old-man tone, the brand-D talking point heads will have all sorts of fun with this. "Selected, not elected" is their standard description of the 2000 election. They're probably right. Even without assuming straightforward fraud, the whole process is a long, long, long way from any semblance of honesty. ¶ 10:02 AM
Aside from the tired-old-man tone, the brand-D talking point heads will have all sorts of fun with this. "Selected, not elected" is their standard description of the 2000 election. They're probably right. Even without assuming straightforward fraud, the whole process is a long, long, long way from any semblance of honesty. ¶ 10:02 AM
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Professions
I was fruitlessly pondering one of my favorite dead horses, the question whether completing college really indicates added skills or just serves to select a certain class of people. Steve Sailer does an excellent job on this question, so I really don't need to ponder it.....
Nevertheless, I kept on pondering, trying to separate out the few disciplines where added training really matters: essentially engineering and medical fields. Why does training really matter in those areas? Why is it important to have all the details right, and to get plenty of practice? Because real lives depend on skill in these areas. A badly done surgery can kill the patient, and a badly planned building can collapse.
Then I realized something worth recording.
In America, how many people are killed by bad medical practice? By most counts, about 100,000 per year. How many people are killed by badly planned buildings? Maybe a dozen? The only example I can remember is the Crown Plaza in KC, where a badly built skywalk collapsed twenty years ago and killed 100 or so. And in that case it wasn't the engineering as such; the problem was a contractor who cut corners, decided to use smaller bolts than specified.
Why don't politicians get hot and bothered about a licensed profession that kills 100,000 people? This is twice the death toll of auto accidents, and in the same range as smoking.
Conclusion: Engineers are one hell of a lot more serious about the Hippocratic Oath than doctors are.
= = = = =
Newt tried briefly to stir up some activity on this front, but didn't get anywhere. What's wrong? I don't know.
Later: Well, I spoke too soon. CBS's 60 Minutes focused on this problem tonight! Admittedly they were dealing with one specific drug, but they also covered the broader scandal of medical mistakes. ¶ 3:39 PM
Nevertheless, I kept on pondering, trying to separate out the few disciplines where added training really matters: essentially engineering and medical fields. Why does training really matter in those areas? Why is it important to have all the details right, and to get plenty of practice? Because real lives depend on skill in these areas. A badly done surgery can kill the patient, and a badly planned building can collapse.
Then I realized something worth recording.
In America, how many people are killed by bad medical practice? By most counts, about 100,000 per year. How many people are killed by badly planned buildings? Maybe a dozen? The only example I can remember is the Crown Plaza in KC, where a badly built skywalk collapsed twenty years ago and killed 100 or so. And in that case it wasn't the engineering as such; the problem was a contractor who cut corners, decided to use smaller bolts than specified.
Why don't politicians get hot and bothered about a licensed profession that kills 100,000 people? This is twice the death toll of auto accidents, and in the same range as smoking.
Conclusion: Engineers are one hell of a lot more serious about the Hippocratic Oath than doctors are.
= = = = =
Newt tried briefly to stir up some activity on this front, but didn't get anywhere. What's wrong? I don't know.
Later: Well, I spoke too soon. CBS's 60 Minutes focused on this problem tonight! Admittedly they were dealing with one specific drug, but they also covered the broader scandal of medical mistakes. ¶ 3:39 PM
Friday, August 22, 2008
McCain's houses
I try not to pay attention to the talking points, but this really does cut deeper than the usual nonsense. It's not simply his inability to count the houses; the real problem is that he didn't even notice how weird it is. He and his wife live in an elevated and isolated circle of super-rich plutocrats, where "I'll have my staff look into this" must be a normal thought. He clearly doesn't know anybody who could even remind him that ordinary Americans don't live this way.
An ordinary American might have trouble answering "How many cans of soup are in your cupboard?" or "How many shirts do you own?" In the McCain world, houses are in the same category.
I find it especially galling because I went through considerable trouble and pain to acquire and keep my ONE tiny house, and I'm proud that I managed to own it free and clear. The Americans who went through similar trouble, only to find that they now own ZERO houses because of job losses or unwise investments, must find it even more galling.
= = = = =
Literary note: I started to write "How many cans of soup do you own?" but realized the sentence is somehow ungrammatical, or perhaps unsemantical. Cans of food don't quite count as possessions, because you don't expect to sell them. You expect to be able to sell a house or car, or even a shirt at a garage sale, but you simply don't resell food, and you certainly don't hold it as a collectible heirloom. You eat it.
¶ 8:07 PM
An ordinary American might have trouble answering "How many cans of soup are in your cupboard?" or "How many shirts do you own?" In the McCain world, houses are in the same category.
I find it especially galling because I went through considerable trouble and pain to acquire and keep my ONE tiny house, and I'm proud that I managed to own it free and clear. The Americans who went through similar trouble, only to find that they now own ZERO houses because of job losses or unwise investments, must find it even more galling.
= = = = =
Literary note: I started to write "How many cans of soup do you own?" but realized the sentence is somehow ungrammatical, or perhaps unsemantical. Cans of food don't quite count as possessions, because you don't expect to sell them. You expect to be able to sell a house or car, or even a shirt at a garage sale, but you simply don't resell food, and you certainly don't hold it as a collectible heirloom. You eat it.
¶ 8:07 PM
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Excellent contractor
Amid all my moaning and groaning, time for a positive note.
Background: When I bought my little house in 1991, the bank required certain things to be done. One of them was to insure that the ground in the crawl space was at least 14 inches below the wood.
The previous owner (who was a retired realtor / slumlord) paid for this work, but the result was worse than just leaving things alone. The back wing of the house, originally a covered porch, was resting on concrete blocks which were fairly solid at that time. The cheapo contractor hired by the previous owner dug out several inches from this crawl space, which left it below the surrounding ground. After I moved in, I put boards around the area to keep out cats and skunks.
Earlier this year, the Orkin man did his standard procedure of digging a trench around the house, and removed my boards. This revealed the awful condition of the supports for the back wing; the blocks were still there, but years of drainage into the low area had undercut them, and they were sitting at odd angles. I was afraid that the next big rain (without the slight protection offered by my boards) would simply collapse the whole thing.
So I called around and finally found one contractor willing to do the job. He looked at it and bid $1350 for a system using concrete bases and heavy treated wood beams, which is likely to last about 20 years.
Today he showed up at 9:30. He started digging and pounding; Mother Nature interrupted his work with a torrential rain and 2 inches of hail at 11 AM, but he kept going and finished by 2 PM. Since the job was shorter than predicted, he billed only $1100 instead of $1350.
The result is perfect, better than I hoped. A solid foundation, graded all around, no way for animals or water to enter. If you don't look too closely at the color, it's indistinguishable from a poured concrete foundation. The doorway between two rooms in the back wing, off square for many years, is now square. The floor in the main house, which had been making suspicious creaks because the sagging wing was pulling on that side of the house, is more solid now. Above all, I can rest easy the next time Mother Nature does her thing.
I considered posting a positive review on AngiesList, but that site seems to require a lot of registration and possible payment, so I'll just record the positive rating here, in a way that Google should pick up easily.
The excellent contractor is Terry Hackler, doing business as "Mountain Remodel", based in Spokane.
= = = = =
Update 7/7/2010: Hackler's great work is holding up perfectly after two years of unusually heavy rain, snow and wind. Still straight, solid and waterproof. ¶ 2:12 PM
Background: When I bought my little house in 1991, the bank required certain things to be done. One of them was to insure that the ground in the crawl space was at least 14 inches below the wood.
The previous owner (who was a retired realtor / slumlord) paid for this work, but the result was worse than just leaving things alone. The back wing of the house, originally a covered porch, was resting on concrete blocks which were fairly solid at that time. The cheapo contractor hired by the previous owner dug out several inches from this crawl space, which left it below the surrounding ground. After I moved in, I put boards around the area to keep out cats and skunks.
Earlier this year, the Orkin man did his standard procedure of digging a trench around the house, and removed my boards. This revealed the awful condition of the supports for the back wing; the blocks were still there, but years of drainage into the low area had undercut them, and they were sitting at odd angles. I was afraid that the next big rain (without the slight protection offered by my boards) would simply collapse the whole thing.
So I called around and finally found one contractor willing to do the job. He looked at it and bid $1350 for a system using concrete bases and heavy treated wood beams, which is likely to last about 20 years.
Today he showed up at 9:30. He started digging and pounding; Mother Nature interrupted his work with a torrential rain and 2 inches of hail at 11 AM, but he kept going and finished by 2 PM. Since the job was shorter than predicted, he billed only $1100 instead of $1350.
The result is perfect, better than I hoped. A solid foundation, graded all around, no way for animals or water to enter. If you don't look too closely at the color, it's indistinguishable from a poured concrete foundation. The doorway between two rooms in the back wing, off square for many years, is now square. The floor in the main house, which had been making suspicious creaks because the sagging wing was pulling on that side of the house, is more solid now. Above all, I can rest easy the next time Mother Nature does her thing.
I considered posting a positive review on AngiesList, but that site seems to require a lot of registration and possible payment, so I'll just record the positive rating here, in a way that Google should pick up easily.
The excellent contractor is Terry Hackler, doing business as "Mountain Remodel", based in Spokane.
= = = = =
Update 7/7/2010: Hackler's great work is holding up perfectly after two years of unusually heavy rain, snow and wind. Still straight, solid and waterproof. ¶ 2:12 PM
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Got really interesting
I've been watching the new Top-Two primary here in Wash State. Figured it would give interesting results, and it came through. On the 'big' offices, Gov, Treasurer, Congress, etc, the general ballot will look pretty much as before, with R running against D. But at the state legislature level, there's far more variety. About 20% of the seats will have either D vs D or R vs R on the fall ballot. And a half dozen of the races will have a minor party as one of the two choices. This will elevate the minor parties into a significance they couldn't have reached before, in a way that's not immediately obvious.
Consider: the usual general election ballot looks like this.....
O Morgan J. Richboy [Republican]
O Stan Szwarczkowski [Democrat]
O Rainbowchild Riverwind [Green]
O Mary Jane Blunt [Libertarian]
The average voter is accustomed to looking at the first two and skipping the rest.
But now the general ballot in some districts will look like this:
O Morgan J. Richboy [Republican]
O Mary Jane Blunt [Libertarian]
The minor party will be one of the two available choices. Thus, if your only motivation is to vote against the R, you'll have to vote for the L.
Must admit I didn't realize this possibility in advance, and it appears that the Libertarian party didn't anticipate it either, since they had joined the big parties in trying to overturn the new format. It will certainly help them!
= = = = =
Addendum after more thinking: Under the usual system, access to the general ballot depends in theory on winning primaries in each party. In practice the primary process involves only the two major parties, so the minors get "tacked on" after the primary process. This insures that the minors are always present on the ballot, even if they are part of a 12-line clutter. Under the new system, the minors don't automatically get onto the ballot, so I guess I can understand why Libertarians were fighting it. But the new system actually does a better service for the minors. A small-party candidate with a real chance of winning will be on the ballot, and he will be there in a way that gives him an even better chance of winning.
In other words, the usual system gives small parties a better chance to accumulate percentages. The new system gives small parties a better chance of actually taking an office. ¶ 1:07 PM
Consider: the usual general election ballot looks like this.....
O Morgan J. Richboy [Republican]
O Stan Szwarczkowski [Democrat]
O Rainbowchild Riverwind [Green]
O Mary Jane Blunt [Libertarian]
The average voter is accustomed to looking at the first two and skipping the rest.
But now the general ballot in some districts will look like this:
O Morgan J. Richboy [Republican]
O Mary Jane Blunt [Libertarian]
The minor party will be one of the two available choices. Thus, if your only motivation is to vote against the R, you'll have to vote for the L.
Must admit I didn't realize this possibility in advance, and it appears that the Libertarian party didn't anticipate it either, since they had joined the big parties in trying to overturn the new format. It will certainly help them!
= = = = =
Addendum after more thinking: Under the usual system, access to the general ballot depends in theory on winning primaries in each party. In practice the primary process involves only the two major parties, so the minors get "tacked on" after the primary process. This insures that the minors are always present on the ballot, even if they are part of a 12-line clutter. Under the new system, the minors don't automatically get onto the ballot, so I guess I can understand why Libertarians were fighting it. But the new system actually does a better service for the minors. A small-party candidate with a real chance of winning will be on the ballot, and he will be there in a way that gives him an even better chance of winning.
In other words, the usual system gives small parties a better chance to accumulate percentages. The new system gives small parties a better chance of actually taking an office. ¶ 1:07 PM
Blue idiocy
Listening to the United Nations meeting on C-Span. Various national delegates are "questioning whether Russia is sufficiently committed" to meeting the requirements of the UN, and "hoping that the appointment of a new study group will lead to more robust initiatives".
Leaving aside the utter impotence of the UN in any circumstance, this is still pure nonsense. Russia is always serving the same end as the UN, because the UN is Russia.
REMEMBER,THE UN WAS FOUNDED BY ALGER HISS.
So, if the UN appears to be telling Russia to do something, and Russia appears to be disobeying, this is not "insufficient committment", it's just part of the chess game. It's just another way to show the world that the Soviet Union is back in the driver's seat, and is free to do any damn thing it wants to do. ¶ 7:54 AM
Leaving aside the utter impotence of the UN in any circumstance, this is still pure nonsense. Russia is always serving the same end as the UN, because the UN is Russia.
REMEMBER,THE UN WAS FOUNDED BY ALGER HISS.
So, if the UN appears to be telling Russia to do something, and Russia appears to be disobeying, this is not "insufficient committment", it's just part of the chess game. It's just another way to show the world that the Soviet Union is back in the driver's seat, and is free to do any damn thing it wants to do. ¶ 7:54 AM
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Green idiocy
1. Some cemeteries are offering "green burials". The grave is not marked by a granite stone; instead the family is given GPS coordinates. And the body is laid to rest on "seagrass", whatever the hell that is, instead of a coffin.
This won't appeal to serious Gaia believers, because they start from the premise that humans are evil, thus allowing the human body to re-enter The Planet [pbuh] is a form of sacrilege. And it certainly won't appeal to normal people, because there is a natural desire to keep the body enclosed. Not quite rational but so common that it must have a good evolutionary reason.
= = = = =
2. When I wrote the long list of things that should have happened by now, as seen from 1939, I included weather control.
Fran: Have you controlled weather? Built domed cities?
Pol: No. In fact we have decided to make no progress in that area. We haven't gone beyond cloud-seeding, and we won't allow ourselves to do that.
In saying that we have decided to make no progress, I felt on shaky ground; though I understand the Green mindset only too well, I couldn't find any actual record of the decision. Last night the Weather Channel, which serves Gaia in the same way that TBN serves Jesus, gave me the documentation. As part of their hurricane coverage, they discussed American efforts at cloud-seeding to control hurricanes. Sure enough, the effort stopped around 1970, and High Priestess Heidi Cullen said the stop was good because there are "moral problems" with cloud-seeding.
Think about that.
Trying to protect Americans is immoral. Leaving them vulnerable to Nature's fury, even when we know a way to protect them, is moral.
Tells you all you need to know about the Green agenda. ¶ 6:41 AM
This won't appeal to serious Gaia believers, because they start from the premise that humans are evil, thus allowing the human body to re-enter The Planet [pbuh] is a form of sacrilege. And it certainly won't appeal to normal people, because there is a natural desire to keep the body enclosed. Not quite rational but so common that it must have a good evolutionary reason.
= = = = =
2. When I wrote the long list of things that should have happened by now, as seen from 1939, I included weather control.
Fran: Have you controlled weather? Built domed cities?
Pol: No. In fact we have decided to make no progress in that area. We haven't gone beyond cloud-seeding, and we won't allow ourselves to do that.
In saying that we have decided to make no progress, I felt on shaky ground; though I understand the Green mindset only too well, I couldn't find any actual record of the decision. Last night the Weather Channel, which serves Gaia in the same way that TBN serves Jesus, gave me the documentation. As part of their hurricane coverage, they discussed American efforts at cloud-seeding to control hurricanes. Sure enough, the effort stopped around 1970, and High Priestess Heidi Cullen said the stop was good because there are "moral problems" with cloud-seeding.
Think about that.
Trying to protect Americans is immoral. Leaving them vulnerable to Nature's fury, even when we know a way to protect them, is moral.
Tells you all you need to know about the Green agenda. ¶ 6:41 AM
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Sushi or Smucker's?
The character of Fran in Polistra's Dream is trying to make a point, especially in part 6. I think her point needs to be brought out more explicitly, so I'll come at it from a different angle...
Before refrigeration, humanity developed numerous ways to preserve food. Beer, bread, wine and whiskey use yeast cultures to preserve grain and fruit. Cheese uses bacterial cultures to preserve milk. Jams and jellies use pectin and sugar to preserve fruit. Sausage, beef jerky, pemmican ... you get the idea.
Before television, humanity developed numerous ways to preserve ideas and concepts. The first was oral repetition, which was fragile; it depended on the survival of the troubadors or scholars who held the words. Books were far more permanent. But there are also more subtle and more "jam-like" ways to preserve an idea. I've tried to show some of those in the Dream. Mr Wentz's lamps preserve the spirit of the Osage warrior, even after the Osages were lost to alcohol and welfare; and the lamps add the value of a Deco-era design to frame the Osage shield, making it more digestible to a 1930's audience. The Arcade itself, like many buildings of that period, preserves both the esthetic sense of an earlier race (in this case the Spanish) and the labor and vision of the men who laid the bricks and sculpted the terra-cotta ornaments. The music of Aaron Copland and Scott Joplin preserves the rhythms and melodies of an earlier class or group, baking them into a more formal loaf that can be stored and played by later orchestras.
Like a bottle of beer, these preserves can be opened and consumed; the viewer or listener can derive mental and emotional nutrition from them.
Unlike beer or bread, these preserves can be consumed repeatedly. An Arcade or an Osage lamp can keep you alive, allow you to work and enjoy, while contributing its unique flavor to your life. It shapes your thoughts, injecting just a little bit of the Spanish or Osage flavor into your soul. By contrast, a rudely functional modernist building or lamp adds nothing. It merely surrounds or illuminates.
Fran suffers real pain when Polistra tells her that dams and buildings are being destroyed to save the fish. She needs a drink when Polistra tells her that Copland and Joplin are nearly forgotten. All that talent, all that planning and organization, all that labor, for nothing. Lost. Wasted.
= = = = =
In a different realm, we have also failed to 'jell' our political and religious ideas.
We have gone in two different directions.
On one side, fundamentalists insist on quoting raw Bible verses or raw sections from the Constitution, or raw bits of totally indigestible philosophers like Kant or von Mises. They seem to derive some pleasure from the act of quoting, but there is no added value, no terra-cotta ornamentation, no brass frame.
The other side is less subtle: Leninists simply smash ideas into fragments, forbidding us to discriminate and judge.
I think the good ideas would stand a better chance of survival with more decoration, more grace notes, more stained glass, more sugar. Their 'container' would then be worth defending and keeping, even by people who don't yet understand the 'contents'.= = = = =Artistic note for Poser types: the stove and other utensils in the picture are part of this set. ¶ 2:27 PM
Before refrigeration, humanity developed numerous ways to preserve food. Beer, bread, wine and whiskey use yeast cultures to preserve grain and fruit. Cheese uses bacterial cultures to preserve milk. Jams and jellies use pectin and sugar to preserve fruit. Sausage, beef jerky, pemmican ... you get the idea.
Before television, humanity developed numerous ways to preserve ideas and concepts. The first was oral repetition, which was fragile; it depended on the survival of the troubadors or scholars who held the words. Books were far more permanent. But there are also more subtle and more "jam-like" ways to preserve an idea. I've tried to show some of those in the Dream. Mr Wentz's lamps preserve the spirit of the Osage warrior, even after the Osages were lost to alcohol and welfare; and the lamps add the value of a Deco-era design to frame the Osage shield, making it more digestible to a 1930's audience. The Arcade itself, like many buildings of that period, preserves both the esthetic sense of an earlier race (in this case the Spanish) and the labor and vision of the men who laid the bricks and sculpted the terra-cotta ornaments. The music of Aaron Copland and Scott Joplin preserves the rhythms and melodies of an earlier class or group, baking them into a more formal loaf that can be stored and played by later orchestras.
Like a bottle of beer, these preserves can be opened and consumed; the viewer or listener can derive mental and emotional nutrition from them.
Unlike beer or bread, these preserves can be consumed repeatedly. An Arcade or an Osage lamp can keep you alive, allow you to work and enjoy, while contributing its unique flavor to your life. It shapes your thoughts, injecting just a little bit of the Spanish or Osage flavor into your soul. By contrast, a rudely functional modernist building or lamp adds nothing. It merely surrounds or illuminates.
Fran suffers real pain when Polistra tells her that dams and buildings are being destroyed to save the fish. She needs a drink when Polistra tells her that Copland and Joplin are nearly forgotten. All that talent, all that planning and organization, all that labor, for nothing. Lost. Wasted.
= = = = =
In a different realm, we have also failed to 'jell' our political and religious ideas.
We have gone in two different directions.
On one side, fundamentalists insist on quoting raw Bible verses or raw sections from the Constitution, or raw bits of totally indigestible philosophers like Kant or von Mises. They seem to derive some pleasure from the act of quoting, but there is no added value, no terra-cotta ornamentation, no brass frame.
The other side is less subtle: Leninists simply smash ideas into fragments, forbidding us to discriminate and judge.
I think the good ideas would stand a better chance of survival with more decoration, more grace notes, more stained glass, more sugar. Their 'container' would then be worth defending and keeping, even by people who don't yet understand the 'contents'.= = = = =Artistic note for Poser types: the stove and other utensils in the picture are part of this set. ¶ 2:27 PM
