Quote of the Day

I am constantly amazed when people say that government health care is no different than private competitive models because there will always be rationing.  If you cannot see the difference between “rationing” for yourself based on your own budget and preferences and “rationing” by government committee, well I suppose you deserve what you get.  Except for the problem that unfortunately, I will be forced to take it too.

-Coyote Blog

So much denial

There is a crazy amount of denial leading up to this woman becoming a victim.

The victim, who did not want to be identified, said the man followed her into her secure apartment building and then down the hallway.

"I go to the right side of the hallway to let him pass and all of the sudden I can feel his presence," she said.

She said he then grabbed her and said something gross before she said, "No," and safely got to her apartment. She said he then left the building and took off in his car.

Mistakes made:

1. She let a stranger through the secured door with her. This completely defeats the purpose of having a secured door. This is a bad idea. Don't do it.
2. She didn't confront him when she first noticed she was being followed. Odds are good that almost any question or confrontation would have made him back off.
3. She went towards her apartment. If you are being followed by a possible psychotic, don't go home.

Make safe mistakes. "I'm sure nothing will happen to me" is NOT a defense mechanism. Neither is "I hope the crazy guy who's following me doesn't want to hurt me."

It is ok to be rude. Anybody who isn't planning to hurt you will understand in a situation like this.

If you know this guy, call the police and get him locked up:

Quote of the Day

Disarming the law-abiding doesn’t do a thing to control the lawless. It’s the legal and moral equivalent of grabbing some random person off the street, taking away anything that could be used as an effective weapon, tossing them into the ring with a trained heavyweight boxer who has had days and weeks to prepare for the fight, and telling the surprised and unwilling opponent to “fight fair”.

-Marko

Oh, my soul

Video: 911 Caller Without Gun in Home Invasion

Mouse

Steampunk style.

Via Makezine

Civil Foreiture and More

Three months in jail for mints?

It's a bit odd how often narco field testing kits turn back false positives. In the past, we've seen chocolate chip cookies, deodorant, billiards chalk, and Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap come back positive, all causing undeserved, firsthand familiarity with the criminal justice system for the owners of the innocuous substances.

Looks like we can now add breath mints to the list.

A man is suing the Kissimmee Police Department for an arrest over mints. When officers pulled Donald May over for an expired tag, they thought the mints he was chewing were crack and arrested him.

[snip]

May was thrown in jail and was unable to bond out for three months. He didn't get out until he received a letter from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the State Attorney's Office that test results showed no drugs were found.

"While I was sitting in jail I lost my apartment. I lost everything," he said.

While May was in jail, the police department also auctioned off his car.

Unacceptable. There needs to be accountability for crap like this.

Home Security Basics

Excellent post.

It was too late to clear the alarm, so I told him to wait out front in the driveway with the phone and any minute now the alarm company would call and/or the police would arrive. He waited. . . . and waited. .. . and waited. 25 minutes elapsed before the security company called. The police never did show up. In that time the criminals could have cleared out any jewelry and electronics I had, stolen all my Terry Pratchett books, raped the yard gnomes and drank milk directly out of the container in the fridge.

I can cross my living room faster than the police can get down my driveway, let alone respond to 911 and drive to my house. At a guess, I'd say most home invaders could, too.

We are legally and morally responsible for our own safety.

Quote of the Day

Riddle me this: How come owning a gun makes me a paranoid wannabe cop, but owning a fire extinguisher or first-aid kit doesn't make me a paranoid wannabe firefighter or EMT?

-Tam

Canada, Heal Thyself

The Canadian health care system is imploding.

“We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize,” Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.“We know that there must be change,” she said. “We’re all running flat out, we’re all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands.”

Heh. They want to fix socialized health care by going private. What a surprise.

Via SnarkyBytes

Good Question? Lame Question.

Good Question: Why Do We Mistrust Our Government?

Experience. History. A love of freedom.

Paid Democrat Activists

But conservatives are the ones who need to stack the deck and pay protesters!

More Astroturf: President Obama bused supporters to his Portsmouth, N.H. health care townhall yesterday. Opponents showed up early in the morning and waited in the rain; supporters of government medicine were bused in and directed by a guy with a bullhorn.

A longer report from a local TV station is here.

Star Wars meets rice: Japanese company sells lightsaber chopsticks

Star Wars meets rice: Japanese company sells lightsaber chopsticks: "

If you happen to both be a Star Wars fan and have a penchant for Far Eastern food, this new gadget might be the right thing for you: lightsaber chopsticks. A Japanese company called Kotobukiya (which also has a US website) is selling three different models.

The red version is aimed at Darth Vader fans for some reason, the green one is for Yoda fans and the blue model is supposedly the right one if you like Luke Skywalker best.

Kotobukiya plans to sell the chopsticks in Japan only at this point (starting in November), but Geek Stuff 4 U lets everybody living outside this country pre-order already (price: $14.42 plus shipping). And yes, you can eat with these things apparently.

Via Akihabara News

"

Sweet.

Mario is screwed

Southwest

A mother and her young son were flying Southwest Airlines from Kansas City to Chicago . The little boy (who had been looking out the window) turned to his mother and asked, "If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don't big planes have baby planes?"

The mother (who couldn't think of an answer) told her son to ask the flight attendant.

So the boy went down the aisle and asked the flight attendant, "If big dogs have baby dogs and big cats have baby cats, why don't big planes have baby planes?"

The busy flight attendant smiled and said, "Did your mother tell you to ask me?"
The boy said, "Yes, she did."

"'Well, then, you go and tell your mother that there are no baby planes because Southwest always pulls out on time. Have your mother explain that to you."

Quote of the Day

"Look at Fedex and UPS. They're both doing great. It's the Post Office that's in trouble."

-President* Obama, comparing health care to the Post Office.

H/T The Northern Muckraker.

Security in Your Home, Part 6: Training

In the worst case scenario, the intruder has made it through all of your layers. He has decided your well-lit house is worth entering. He has bypassed your locks and ignored your alarm. Your dog is incapacitated, and he has entered your safe-room before the police have had a chance to arrive. Here, you are left to rely on your training. Consider getting a gun and gun training. There is no more effective method of self defense than a gun in trained hands. Don’t get the gun without getting training. The NRA offers courses all around the country for a generally reasonable fee. Don’t treat the gun as a magic talisman to ward off evil. If you are planning to have a gun for self defense, you must be willing to use the gun. It won’t scare off intruders if you are not willing to use it. If a gun in impractical, for whatever reason, consider unarmed self defense training. Your training should include the legal aspect of using force-particularly lethal force-if the necessity arises. No matter your method of training, never give up! If you can disrupt the script in the intruder’s head, you stand a much better chance of surviving unscathed. Remember, your home provides the privacy necessary to effectively transform it into a “secondary crime scene” at the whim of a criminal. Don’t let it happen to you.

Solution in search of a problem:

Wagyu lips.

Kobe Beef Hot Dogs

Kobe/Wagyu Beef hot dogs are a gourmet hot dog lover's dream!
The full flavor that has always been wanted in a hot dog.

Each package contains 5 hot dogs. 16 ounce total weight.

Our Price: $ 8.00
List Price: $ 11.00

Quote of the Day

The key to understanding the American system (of government) is to imagine that you have the power to make nearly any law you want. But your worst enemy will be the one to enforce it.

-Rick Cook

Quote of the Day

Remember that charges of faulty motivations, being funded by evil scheming organizations, or even of racism are effectively admissions of weakness. People who make such arguments are basically admitting that they cannot argue the issue on its merits, and so must resort to tarring the other side so that they can say the people raising the issue don’t deserve a response.

-Coyote Blog

Cherished Memories

When I was 6, I got a paper route. Every Saturday, I would stuff coupons into the paper and stuff the paper into plastic bags for delivery. Every Sunday, I would wake up early and deliver the ad-driven classifieds-and-coupons "greensheet".

Once a month, I would get paid. I didn't have a large route, so I didn't get paid much. I was six. The first business day after payday, I would cash the check and immediately start begging my parents to take me to a toy store so I could spend my hard-earned money. Every month for years, my paycheck was spent on the same thing.

I owned dozens of GI Joes. I worked and sweated and froze to earn that money. I didn't grow up rich or even well-off. If I wanted toys any time other than Christmas, I had to buy them. Once a month, my collection grew. I played with those "real American heroes" every day until puberty told me I was too old to enjoy them.

Now, Stephen Sommers is whoring my childhood memories to a UN-run world. Jerkface, GI Joe was never about politics. It was about good guys-American soldiers-fighting bad guys and winning. The sides were always clear, and the motives were always obvious. This movie should not be about who is President*. It's about heroes doing heroic things with comic-book panache.

You are destroying the memories of millions of former boys in an effort to cash in on those memories. You are destroying an semblance of credibility you may have had. You are destroying the entire dream of GI Joe to collect some fleeting, minuscule amount of goodwill from a notoriously fickle demographic. This is wrong.

Now you know.




H/T SayUncle.

Nation Undead

The Story:

The nation is crippled by the Respiren Flu epidemic.

Even though the first cases were reported in the Midwest, the origins of the disease are still unknown. With no cure in sight, the pharmaceutical giant Soteria Industries releases a treatment for the Respiren Flu called Toxicil. Both the development of the drug as well as the test result are as mysterious as the disease it treats. Due to the unprecedented threat posed by a national pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration has turned a blind eye to Soteria Industries' questionable behavior and established it as marketable in the name of public health.

Welcome to Nation Undead:

Together, the team at Nation Undead and filmmakers from around the country are working together to create the most ambitious horror story ever created. These are your stories, this is our goal. Be a part of history.

I recommend starting with this one.

Microsoft Tech Support

They do a decent job for their partners. Much better than Adobe.

Problem Description:

===================

v Unable to hit breakpoints in external JS files (always) or in code-behind VB (intermittent)

Resolution

=======

v Open key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

v If it doesn't exist, add new DWORD named TabProcGrowth

v Set TabProcGrowth value = 0

Related links:

v http://blogs.msdn.com/greggm/archive/2009/04/01/script-debugging-broken-in-vs-2005-after-installing-ie8.aspx

v http://blogs.msdn.com/greggm/archive/2009/04/01/script-debugging-broken-in-vs-2005-after-installing-ie8.aspx

v http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsdebug/thread/e2c795cd-b7a0-4fad-b7c9-b1ca40d7302e/

v http://forums.asp.net/t/1419081.aspx

v http://bugcheck/Bugs/DevDivBugs/176287.asp

v http://bugcheck/Bugs/DevDivBugs/200561.asp

v http://bugcheck/default.asp?URL=/Bugs/VSWhidbey/611702.asp

Knowledge Base Articles:

=================

? Now you can request for Hotfix online

https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix

? Latest Asp.NET developments –Check Scottgu Blogpost

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/

? Product lifecycle link - http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=1249

? This article talks about "How to configure applications in IIS 6.0" - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=814867

? This article talks about "How to configure security by using IIS 6.0" - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=814874

? This article talks about "How to performance-tune your applications in IIS 6.0" - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=814876

? This link talks about troubleshooting IIS http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/technologies/featured/iis/default.mspx

? Remote Logging in IIS : http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer2003/Library/IIS/a6347ae3-39d1-4434-97c9-5756e5862c61.mspx?mfr=true

? Remote Logging of W3SVC Logs: http://vkbexternal/VKBWebService/ViewContent.aspx?scid=SO;US;SOX041029700109

Poor Dan

Lost your job for being worthless at it, and felt an urge to sue. There's gotta be a Dr. Suess poem in there, somewhere.

NEW YORK - Lawyers for Dan Rather have filed a new lawsuit against two current and former CBS executives originally named in his $70 million breach of contract lawsuit against CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc.

Doesn't "fabricating the news from whole cloth" constitute "breach of contract" for a reporter?

A Basic Truth

This is true all around the world, all through history.

China's prostitutes are better-trusted than its politicians and scientists, according to an online survey published by Insight China magazine.

Hookers are at least honest about screwing you.

The logical extension....

...of nanny-state policies.

The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

Can anyone else hear the flushing sound?

Half

Some skewed survey shows 50% of the population supports socialized health care. Are they the 50% with no net tax burden? The 50% with no skin in the game?

Apparently, the younger generation supports socialism, while the older folks have seen the results in the real world.

How can the younger group be educated?

To Catch a Man

Ladies, no one will be able to resist this.

Communized Healthcare, II

If Keith Ellison won't put his family on the horribly executed government healthcare plan, why should I?

When one man reads a prepared question asking Ellison whether he’d put forego his “Cadillac plan” as a Congressman and put his family on ObamaCare, Ellison plays emcee rather than answer it — and another constituent loudly demands his response.

Paul Kohls is running for governor

If he can stay in the race, he's got my vote, and not just because of this.

Rep. Kohls Criticizes Government-run Health Care and Urges Action August 3, 2009

Friends,

The Kohls for Governor campaign has had another great week! One of the issues I'm discussing as I meet with Minnesotans all over the state is the issue of health care.

Of course, the debate is currently being dominated by what is happening in Washington. As you know, the liberals in Congress are insisting on a major expansion of government-run health care. If Americans don't act quickly to persuade members of Congress that government-run health care is unacceptable, we could see massive growth in government and further intrusion by the government into our lives.

Given my grave concern over the direction the D.C. Democrats want to take our country, I felt it was important to weigh in on the discussion. Below is a copy of the press release I issued today opposing 'Obama Care' and encouraging Minnesotans to act during the Congressional recess.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 3, 2009

Rep. Paul Kohls Criticizes Congress' Attempt at Health Care Reform and Calls on Minnesotans to Act

In a statement released Monday, Minnesota State Representative Paul Kohls (R, Victoria) criticized the efforts of Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration to pass their version of health care reform. Kohls called it, "nothing more than an effort to lead America toward a system of government-run health care that will undoubtedly lead to a rationing of health care."

Kohls, a Republican candidate for Governor, also expressed concern over the cost of the reforms being proposed by the Democrats in Washington. With some projecting its cost at $4 trillion in its first ten years, the proposed 'ObamaCare' program shows the administration's continued disregard for the expanding national debt that has ballooned in size since President Obama first took office six months ago.

Kohls commented that the failure of the Congress to pass the legislation prior to its August recess provides Minnesotans with an opportunity to act.

"Minnesotans do not want government-run health care, and I hope they will let our Congressional delegation know that Washington bureaucrats should not be making decisions about whether they'll get treated and what type of treatment they will receive, " said Kohls.

Emphasizing a more viable alternative to the Congressional Democrats' plan, Kohls stressed the relative success of health care strategies that give the consumer choice and control over their health care.

Kohls said, "We need to empower consumers, not build bigger bureaucracies. Unfortunately, in our current system costs are largely concealed from consumers, insurance options are too limited, and administration is cumbersome and costly. Reform efforts should expand upon some of the successes we have implemented here in Minnesota."

Kohls noted that Minnesota has consistently been a leader in providing innovative approaches to health care at a lower cost. According to Kohls, "Minnesotans can be proud of the fact that we have some of the best health care in the county. We should not stand by idly while the Obama Administration and Congressional leaders try to lead us down the path to government-run care."

###

Please feel free to forward this along. Let's make sure that we are all doing that we can to stop the government takeover of our health care.

Warmest regards,

Paul Kohls

P.S. Thank you again to everyone who has contributed to my campaign. If you have not done so or are able to contribute again, please click here and you'll be redirected to my website where you can make a secure online contribution.