Pseudo-Polymath

Good talk talk talk day, eh?

1. Apparently there is a filibuster going on … approval here. 
2. Droney lawers discuss as well.
3. More grist for the drone conversations. Woops.
4. So, why do liberals trust Obama with the power to kill whomever for whatever reason. Trust. Why trust? Beats me. Ask a lib.
5. In a discussion on phone regulations … this was firmly denied. Alas, data seems to indicate otherwise.
6. A book to lead you back to the garden.
7. So, why oh, why did Obama cut what he did for the sequester? He cut aid to babies … and here’s why. His goal is government growth, nothing more, nothing less.
8. Wait wait, what day is it tomorrow? Oh, my.
9. Statistics and bunnies.
10. Talking Turkey, not turkey.
11. Think about this too hard out loud and you’ll be accused of racism.
12. The first word is the most important. Happy is good. Remember that.
13. Snort. Don’t click through with anything in your mouth. You were warned.
14. Grist for talking about evil, ethics, and such. Did Josef think he was acting unethically or not? Or did he follow an ethical code with which you happen to disagree strongly?

And so it goes, another world leader steps off the stage.

1. Not that way however. Yikes.
2. A climate question.
3. A book noted.
4. Liturgy.
5. If you don’t laugh, your having a really really bad week.
6. Someday we’ll find out what the Obamacare supporters were smoking when they supposed longer hours, more uncertainty, less pay would attract more the field.
7. They will, however, insist it wasn’t this.
8. A question is posed. Woops, that was a follow-up. Start here.
9. ‘merica.
10. Won’t be sold here.
11. Matrix and cellular automata have some challenges.
12. Thoughts on nuclear Iran. And … why you really really need to read that last linked post.
13. Our un-serious President. Alas. Don’t look at me, I didn’t vote for him.
14. And to finish off, what hard riding man puts on his shelf. Wow.

As I noted, I’m switching to evening links, ’cause I’ve got to hit the road before 5am every morning.

1. Job applications.
2. Applications with merit or not?
3. Doodles applied. Some hit, some miss.
4. Ah, history. If only Western Christians hadn’t put their stock in this guy instead of Augustine (they were contemporaries and left approx the same quantity of writings). A good fraction of why I’m Orthodox today is due to the writings of John Cassian.
5. The strange fruits of googling oneself.
6. Sequester and our Presidents (most) recent attempts to re-write history.
7. Energy bar, paleo style.
8. Snerk. Jedi mind meld indeed.
9. So, packing for the archipelago yet?
10. Putting Genghis in context. Wow.
11. Holding doors.
12. Science fiction author looks ahead.
13. The tribal left. And yes, you’d likely be able to find evidence o the tribal right, that that’s the assumption isn’t it? That tribalism is all on one side of the aisle.
14. A million mile goober.
15. Still not a fan of cats.
16. We’re watching and waiting.
17. Duck and Cover.

Good morning.

1. So what are the Supremes up to?
2. Massachusetts lawmakers have no clue. If you can’t imagine how teenage kids might abuse that law … your ignorance is historic.
3. On the Pontiff’s retirement.
4. Heroism noted.
5. A critic of statistics not noticing that many of the new gun laws proposed also call out rifles so the statistics is apter than he pretends, cf “assault” rifle bans which don’t actually ban assault rifles which are already illegal but just ordinary semi-automatic rifles. Reminder to Mr Darrel, an actual assault rifle as defined is an automatic (not semi-automatic) carbine.
6. Playing with automatic translator fixed points.
7. Absolute legal immunity? Sounds like a recipe for abuse, kind of like giving free reign to young teenagers in showers and bathrooms.
8. History and the “Great White Fleet.”
9. More details on the kill list mechanics. Similarities to this are of course accidental.
   
10. Sequestration and the TSA … whose “cuts” amount to a 11% increase in budget. Wow. Radical deep horrible cuts. Not.
11. Remember the promises the President made about lobbying and money? One wonders about the silence of the lambs on the left?
12. Crises and Church considered.
13. A view from the sidelines on the GOP sequester thinking. I would add to #1 that “massively wasteful” is missing the point, it’s massive spending on things outside of what the government’s purview that is the problem. Healthcare for example, is not a thing the federal government has a call to address at all.

Good morning.

1. Drone tactics.
2. On going into that sweet night.
3. Speaking of which.
4. Fiber filled diet advice.
5. Gun discussion advice.
6. To power your electric car?
7. To be honest, for myself, I never understood paying more than nominal “speaker fees” and why you would ever want to pay anything more than a reasonable hourly wage to anyone, much less the person suggested in this link.
8. The way to counter the “imagination fallacy”, which is a more common rhetorical method than one might suggest.
9. A flashlight with a little more.
10. Coming soon to your phone.
11. Ooooh. That’s really really not going to be in my price range. Rats.

Rrrrr.

1. Possibly my wife’s future runabout, you know for us non-anthro global warming activists.
2. Pretty as a picture, come to think of it … it is actually a picture.
3. Siris, err Brandon, talks guns.
4. Interesting new product for ya.
5. Why is the US 2nd world regarding phone tech? Oh, wait … dy’a think it might be regulatory strangulation? Gosh.
6. Conservative views on racism.
7. I wonder (historically speaking) what “court” meant. Court as a thing to me doesn’t sound like great fun.
8. Never give up hope.
9. An economist talks about Obamacare.
10. Privacy and file deletion.
11. Budget cuts and numbers noted.
12. Mr Biden’s ill considered advice.
13. Those large ammo purchases by the government … just graft … never mind. See, always the Chicago way.
14. Is this about the relationship to the left with the arts?
15. Somebody needs to remind this author that the great majority of scouts are 11-14  … and kids that age are not exactly “already are” anything in particular regarding sex.

Hello all.

1. How to reign in the Norks. China?
2. Polycarp.
3. Is this another response the “to bad I’m not Emperor” meme?
4. This seems to be a straw man argument … I mean, who is arguing otherwise?
5. This link was down earlier, but will hopefully be back … why women at the frontlines might not be wise.
6. 10 billion insuring 10 trillion … innumeracy at large in finance.
7. A better “it’s for the children” thing. OK OK. I don’t like the word “thing” there. What might be better?
8. Ice.
9. Cheese is a problem there … but there are two kinds of people out there, those who eat anchovies and those who don’t. Most people, unlike myself, are in the second category.
10. Liberals don’t want people with training. Apparently.
11. Mental exercise for today, recast that short essay as minimum productivity limits not as a wage limit.
12. What evidence? Seriously. Evidence? Where?
13. Obama’s personal view on guns.
14. Yikes.

Good morning ty’all.

1. Dating, faith, and global warming.
2. For you cuda users … (with spare cash).
3. Gun talk.
4. More here.
5. B&P talk about raising the minimum productivity floor here and here.
6. More here.
7. How many takes was that dya think?
8. Pining for ARexx without knowing it (wiki here).
9. Act now … before the gig is up.
10. What’s your explanation?
11. Raising taxes … leads to moving on out.
12. Evolution and EDAR.

Good morning.

1. Duh. It doesn’t matter, carbon taxes are an indulgence offering and a way to keep the poor down … the effect on climate is not relevant to its fans.
2. Looking at spin and Mr Holder.
3. For y’all who think that government isn’t good at anything, a counterexample.
4. Ct-thinking about Cthulhu.
5. From China, here and here.
6. Bayes theorem and sitting on the can vacillating for half a year.
7. Death and the blogger.
8. Yankee independence is apparently not the way to go reading the tea leaves from the state of the onion speech.
9. No. We don’t say that. We just tiredly remark that “not an Emperor” is a feature not a bug.
10. Stereotyping.
11. “Greater” … nope. Greater than one? Probably not.
12. Drones. Not unrelated.
13. After Mr Chu.
14. On guns. Grist for the mill.
15. Good idea or not?

Good morning.

1. So, selling to oligarchs I guess. Seems to me the small town gun store in the US is slightly, err, more prosaic.
2. Hayek and Obamacare.
3. This brings up a (slightly) more serious question. Saltpeter, as every pirate knows, was fed by Captain Treach to his sailors as a anti-viagra agent so they would just get drunk in port and he could get his ship back out. The question is … if you favor the background check thing for guns … why do you not also favor background checks before guys could have saltpeter-free food so prevent rapes (which are far far far more common than the occasional mass shooter).
4. Everybody’s seen videos of the near-to-Moscow meteor. If you haven’t, go here for 5.
5. More attempts to tamper with your freedom of association.
6. Yikes.
7. Advertising.
8. NYTimes and standards of reporting accuracy.

Have a good weekend!

Good morning.

1. The President’s 2nd Amendment remarks noted.
2. Education and results.
3. Rotten to the core.
4. So, what is liturgy?
5. And speaking of churchly things, how about why Lent?
6. Zeitgeist = angst?
7. Whatever your notion of abortion and birth control, uhm, any sane view of goverment as limited puts this as a thing government should not pay for or do.
8. Speaking of ethical dilemmas … here’s one for ya.
9. Let’s see we have a President who in school specifically notes that he sought out Communist and Socialist teachers … seems to me the speaker is wrong, Mr Obama called himself that first.
10. Some more discussion of raising the minimum productivity floor. When I asked for explanation how the President feels this is a “middle class” offering … I got nada. Gosh, that’s a surprise.

Good morning.

1. Well, I had PBJ today because it’s Wednesday (normal time Wed/Fri fast) .. Lent doesn’t start for me until Cheesefare on the evening of March 10.  So … why does the East begin Lent on a Monday and the West on a Wednesday and both count 40 days to Pascha/Easter. Well, because the West doesn’t count Sundays as part of Lent but the East does … but the East doesn’t count Holy week as part of Lent. Got it? What I forget is whether the East includes Lazarus Saturday (before Palm Sunday) as part of Lent or not … and one might note that the Lenten fast for the Orthodox continues (of course) through Holy Week.
2. Fer the Ms Palin fans.
3. Doctor or not … for myself I could not really care less if you call me Mr or Dr (and yes, I do have a PhD thing in Physics)
4. That Chicago way.
5. Awe noted. Hmm, anything like the Psalmist noted the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom? How much modern man has learned, eh?
6. Fear or the lack thereof.
7. Notes for future gang wars.
8. Shame and armor.
9. So, why on earth does our President think the “middle class” has any relevance to the minimum wage? And that’s an interesting take on min-wage, not as a wage limiter but a productivity minimum.
10. Debunking (most of) some silliness around the alleged dearth of geniuses.
11. What you don’t want to see in the morning when you go out to your car.
12. Demographic shifts that you don’t hear much about.
13. So much fun might be had coming up with geekish instead of macho handles, so Maverick  and Goose becomes pocket protector-ized and pencil-necked?
14. What will be needed for when revolution hits.
15. Duh. Truth to power becomes Stating the obvious to power.

Good morning.

1. So, Mr Obama has some magical mythical pathway to a nuclear weapon free world, … how’s this fit in?
2. Cantor ism?.
3. It is very likely, alas, that the criteria used by liberals which judge most of the GOP as racist, tar your hero such as well.
4. Epistemic closure and some symptoms.
5. A reminder for the POTUS state-of-the-onion speech.
6. When a thing which isn’t happening is discussed over whether that’s a problem.
7. Ya think?
8. A drone discussion.
9. Drones here too.
10. Why? What is simpler than cui bono?
11. Jackboots next?

Western and Eastern Easter/Pascha calendars are very far off this year (Eastern Lent begins at sunset on March 10) … I wish the best for everyone who begins their Lenten fast tomorrow, may your journey be fruitful.

Good morning

1. A conspiracy theory considered.
2. Yah, and what will we find out in the coming months and years. Betya waterboarding will come back … this time liberals will be defending it.
3. Of life and freedoms.
4. Another reason for the dismal label, a thing is and it isn’t.
5. I suspect the real reason for the contraception kerfuffle is to act as distraction from other follies.
6. Death, space, and an argument recalled.
7. SSM and an argument against it outside of religious reasonings.
8. Anti-drug adverts done right.
9. High capacity mags.
10. Microsoft suckage.
11. A plane (not plain) contest.
12. Border incursions.

Well, last weekend we saw “Parker” … and subsequently I’ve downloaded and read two (and am reading a third) Westlake/Stark/Parker books. Daughter #2 wants to see “Warm Bodies” which may be in the offing. On to links

1. Fancy words don’t make it right.
2. Need’n a little nuclear power, eh?
3. Back up a minute, I know you “can’t joke about” that there, but why? And if you figure it’s an infringement, how to stop it?
4. One of Mr Obama’s most effusive fans realizes he’s been mislead. For the one-liner retort.
5. Talking drones.
6. Although I’m more in agreement with this.
7. Yikes.
8. Now that’s dumb. Penises, not men, rape women (and criminal insanity, social rage and all that have nothing to bear on that). Cars, not drunk drives kill (social irresponsibility has no bearing). Geesh.
9. ‘Cause graft is the Chicago Way, duh.
10. Well, for anyone who doesn’t think there’s an education bubble … think again.
11. I for one, always hated riding a ITT in a crosswind.
12. Remember Ms Clinton’s 3am advert?
13. 3 for Obamacare, here, here, and here.

Well, we made it to Thursday without too too much of the embarrassing theatrics, eh?

1. Now that is quite striking.
2. Ooooh, let’s try to open old wounds.
3. Theology, anthropology and political science all rolled in together. Whaddya get out? The Constitution.
4. Obamacare estimates.
5. If that is not satire, then there’s another reason to call it the dismal science.
6. Never happen. As soon as the Democrats cotton that legalizing polygamy will end the inheritance tax … they’ll be dead set against it.
7. Not an AR. This.
8. Inconsistency.
9. Remembering Plato apparently fondly.
10. Gosh, remember just earlier this week … I linked charts indicating corporate “sitting on cash” is a myth, makes the title tag-line ironic, eh?

Good morning.

1. I’m seeing a lot of dog (not) barking with regards to the left’s defense (or more to the point their lack of same) of Mr Hagel. 
2. A quiet retraction.
3. Kinda obvious, eh?
4. That worked out real well.
5. My first thought was taxes … not investors.
6. Maybe it’s this?
7. Interesting hermeneutical divination on the word imminent. More here.
8. Anthro-warming skeptics note warming.
9. Woops.
10. Obamacare and contracteption … following the money trail.
11. A smaller nation doesn’t shy from calling a spade a spade.
12. Now there’s a really dumb excuse. (do you think there would be applause if a Congress-critter said “I coudn’t print it … so I’m passing out pdfs on USB sticks).
13. Cinema.
14. Green and anti-warming hype is more about indulgences than actually changing the world.

Good morning to y’all!

1. Newsflash, some fired employees are disgruntled.
2. Duh.
3. Having taught two daughters to drive stick … it’s really not that hard. I suspect fictional exaggeration.
4. Same sex marriage.
5. Hmm. Not impressed with US foreign policy I suspect.
6. Pretty pistol … one slipped past quality checks however.
7. Chronology of drone strike procedures, aka how we changed in our ways of committing undeclared acts of war.
8. There’s a slang term for that, “short eyes” … the answer isn’t covering the girls … its jailing the pervs (and in a place were short eyes is a de facto death sentence by fellow convict for the convicted). Remember the movie “Stick”?
9. So, now everyone knows about Richard III. Here’s an excellent book on his life by one of the best writers of English historical fiction in the stacks.
10. Hence …. dismal science.
11. Heh … and we have found the heel to fill it.
12. Uh. Riiiight.
13. Don’t worry, the liberal elite think SSM is more important (even though the numbers affected are basically on par).

Good morning.

1. Blaster?
2. Well, in the Super-Bowl I liked two ads, this one and this one.
3. What is being taught here?
4. Meta links via Brandon.
5. “No doubt” indeed. There are two ways to tackle runaway deficits, cut spending or raise more in taxes. Alas, studies show only the former works to actually cut deficits.
6. How not to make an argument … present Stalin as a positive example for your side.
7. Someone is unaware that fiscal libertarians can be as reflective as the next guy.
8. A questionable vehicle.
9. I too was confused on why he pretends that’s hard (and btw java’s “jar” command has pretty much the same options).
10. Not for whittling.
11. Praise for Mr Boehner.
12. Trading and causality.

Good morning. It’s zero out here in the Chicago south suburbs … bracing is what that is.

1. The first sentence seems to be the hypothesis for what follows … do you think it’s true (in both respects … that is, it it true and does Mr Obama believe it to be true)?
2. A short film.
3. The patron saint of … what?
4. Gun run.
5. Doncha hate when that happens.
6. Better bike news.
7. So … when you consider that the left wants to put stiff restrictions on what is allowed in the Constitution … well, that doesn’t happen with other stuff like religion, the press, and speech (remember the Volokh series on speech on college campuses) Right? Oh, never mind.
   
8. More on the press here.
9. Profiling and the assault ban.
10. Apparently my notions of what is tactically suggested is outdated, but I’ll bet Mr Biden didn’t know that either. And I still contend a semi-auto shotgun in Sandy Hook wouldn’t have had a better outcome.
11. Corporate cash holding growth explained.
12. No. Duh. And the guy who ruled yes must be an idiot.
13. Remember the claims that Obama has reduced the deficit? … Not so you’d notice.
14. No names and why.
15. Why we don’t want Uncle Sam minding more of the store.
16. For the super bowl .. I really like Mr Arkush when he’s on the radio … he write pretty well too.
17. Snerk. (So … am I a terrible person ’cause I found that amusing)?
18. Chick-Fil-A and football.
19. From a communist on guns. And the left (TPM?) has been touting the “armed citizens” can’t stand up to modern trained soldiers. Right. That’s a straw man. But a politician has to go out in and face his public.

Good morning.

1. Plotting retirement.
2. For those who suspect, just suspect mind you, that cyclists are just a tad different.
3. Gosh, do you wonder why such stories aren’t in the mainstream?
4. Ze French in Mali.
5. Oh, and for when “just a flashlight” isn’t quite enough.
6. OWS demographics, what the right knew all along … did the left?
7. Well, you may have quibbles with the President’s Holocaust statement … but at least he didn’t try that.
8. Woops.
9. Interesting. Say irrigation was shown to be a larger factor in global warming CO2 from burning hydrocarbons … what then? Would the greens still be agin it?
10. Heh.
11. Taking your game seriously.

Good morning.

1. Redemption and a Tolstoy masterwork.
2. Ms Austen.
3. Unicorns and the left’s energy policies.
4. Gun control and those far right nuts in, uhm, Massachusetts?
5. You know, ’cause we’re at war with them too.
6. History made simpler.
7. Our Administration’s financial shenanigans … or put simpler … making sure of your landing pad for after your time in office.
8. A man and his witness.
9. Underreported!? or just plain ghastly.
10. Why not to leave Afghanistan too quickly.
11. 6 scenarios.
12. A North American bishop installed.
13. From the sun-never-sets-on … to lack of pride as a method.
14. Well, the first step in letting history repeat is to insist that those circumstance were insane, senseless, and incomprehensible. And interesting tactic for a person who is claimed has a special ability to understand others.

Good morning.

1. Media bias … 1k people gather that’s news (if it’s a liberal cause) 500k gather … not news because it’s not a liberal cause. 
2. Or maybe it’s not bias.
3. Not Carbon … whoops.
4. Police tech.
5. Deceit and election tactics.
6. What do you have to lose?
7. Government motors … not doing so well strategically speaking.
8. On safety netting.
9. Some notes on the much abused anthropic principle.
10. Newsflash, museums have been doing that for 40 years.
11. An accusation of liberal racism.
12. Apparently I’m ornery. Certainly there are day’s on which my girls would concur.
13. Pretzels in Congressional testimony.

Good morning.

1. Some history.
2. Assault weapons for which the left wants no state controls.
3. Heh.  Oh, and heh.
4. Not noticing that Texas gun violence is lower than Chicago’s, which has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country.
5. Slipping off the White House talking points.
6. The oldest (working) computer.
7. Better than gun control, gun advice.
8. Obama’s shower bully and race.
9. ’cause Mr Biden thinks a double-ought 10 gauge pump action would have done lots lots less damage in Sandy Hook.
10. Apparently all you have to do is change the name of your gun to be legal if you’re a manufacturer.
11. And … an assault weapon ban and Sandy Hook? No effect at all. No such weapon was used. Oops.
12. “He can see the other side” … does anyone have smidge of evidence to back that up? Or is just like the “he’s really smart” … with no evidence claim?
13. Graft is profitable. Always has been.
14. More State stupidity.
15. On a statement made at the inaugural address.
16. Inclusion.

Good morning.

1. Confused about the nature of religion, worship is public and communal.
   
2. Speaking of confused, one school is quite so.
3. Mandates.
4. (not) acting alone.
5. Cultural movement, regress or progress (or even sustainable)?
6. A boy to note.
7. Drunk drivings vs suicides.
8. Noting silliness on the gun control front.
9. Lies of 2012, some of the more notable noted.
10. At this point … does it matter (if we were shown to be inexperienced stupid boobs), well maybe maybe not, but shouting doesn’t prove anything?
11. For those who reject, … uhm, genetics.
12. Der Speigel and climate change.
13. The “assault weapon ban” and Sandy Hook.

Good morning

1. On abortion and ethics.
2. Optimism?
3. A day remembered.
4. Regulatory silliness down under.
5. So, explain why a gun like this needs tighter regulations.
6. And a hammerless single action.
7. I’m not seeing the coming revolution notion.
8. Snerk.
9. Blind spots.
10. Signing up and is the question of “who” is the Executive relevant?
11. Ethics and God.
12. As the US moves to “more corruption” … another state struggles with fighting its own.
13. Is there a crisis?

Woo Hoo!

1. Cool … because they are rare, perhaps in a post-WW-II northern Europe?
2. Now the left will get to disavow Mr Silver.
3. Silliness north of the border.
4. Treaties can do that? And … hierarchy and the Constitution.
5. Occasionally we need to actually overcome that temptation, that’s the rub.
6. I wonder if there is a reasoned argument against chivalry and good manners.
7. Mr Morsi forgets evolution puts him in the same bucket.
8. How liberal or moderate?
9. Rhetoric examined. And what the President doesn’t want you to do, he wants it the other way round.
10. Dan Simmons (in his Illium/Olympus books) argued that androids were in Homer’s Iliad. Hephaestus constructed them to assist him.
11. Ethics meets economics … or does it?
12. Perhaps a better start for a discussion about dignity and human life than abortion.
13. Predictions.
14. Drugs in the modern world.