The Eclectic Dragonfly

No, I didn’t get a ticket on my way to work this morning.  I’m just doing some renovations to the side-bar and blog roll and stuff.  Since I now have my Café Press links page, Dragonfly Graphix, I’ve decided to move all of the non-blog-related links, LOLcat, Pocket Mod and such, to that side-bar and free up some real estate over here for a more inclusive blog roll.

mood: grumpy

Colleges that is.  The schools themselves – not the students…

According to this article from Boston.com it seems that the Marxistchusetts legislature has noticed a huge untapped (by the .gov) pile of money and they really wants to get their Mitts on it.  (Ehem…)  Our ever so Robin Hoodish government wants to tax private colleges that have large endowments.  Claiming that having an endowment of a billion dollars or more “stretches the credibility” of their non-profit status they are proposing a tax of 2½% per year on their money.  They are not using the word tax because it has negative connotations.  They are calling it an “assessment.”

And a bank suddenly assessing a fee of $10- a month on dormant accounts (that they think nobody is paying any attention to) isn’t embezzling.  But I digress…

I have a novel idea for dealing with the ongoing fiscal crisis in the Commonwealth: How about reigning in spending?  Instead of stealing yet more money from those unfortunate enough* to call the Commonwealth home, try living within your means.

I know.  That’s too much to ask.

Truth be told I’m too disgusted by what I read in the first few paragraphs to read the whole article.  From what I did read it looks like just more business as usual on Beacon Hill.

* Even those with lots of money…

I had originally started writing this as a comment for this thread at the Sentinel & Enterprise.  Hawk had made a comment claiming that the MSM had been taken over by conservatives.  As you will see in my comments, I tend to disagree.  The article that spawned his comment was about a proposed Shield Law for the media.

Hawk, I think you mean Elitist Gasbag LIBERAL Pundits.  It’s been my observation that most (not all – but a high enough percentage to make claiming all not beyond the realm of reasonableness) of the Main Stream Media (MSM) have in fact been taken over by Liberals.  That is Liberals of the new definition where in they apparently think Liberal values emanate from the writings of Karl Marx and Mao Tse Tung.

Now there are shield laws and there are shield laws.  If THIS proposed shield law has as its ONLY consequence the protection of reporters (and my definition of reporter includes non-MSM reporters such as bloggers) from being compelled under threat of incarceration to reveal their sources in order to protect the stream of accurate information flowing to the Citizens -- then I can support that.  

If, on the other hand, the purpose of the shield law is to protect reporters (again my definition) from journalistic scrutiny and/or from the laws prohibiting libel and slander then I would staunchly oppose such a shield as it would become a license to lie to the Citizens.  Not that the MSM doesn’t lie to the Citizens on an ongoing basis anyway even without such a shield law…

One caveat: If the source needs to be revealed in order to save someone from imminent danger then the reporter should willingly divulge the information and not need to be compelled by court order to do so.  If the reporter fails to do so then the court should still be able to compel the reporter to reveal that information regardless of any shield law.  The preservation of human life trumps journalistic confidentiality.  As a blogger that applies to my writings as much as to anyone writing for the Sentinel & Enterprise or the New York Times.

One more thing to keep in mind before instituting any kind of shield law: Woodward and Bernstein, writing for the Washington Post, brought down the Presidency of Richard Nixon – without any kind of shield law.  What they had were journalistic integrity and an editor who was courageous enough to allow them to run with the story.  That is what we need as a Nation.  Not the politically motivated reporting that puts a predetermined spin on the news we see so often today.

On the subject of “dumbing down” I totally agree with you.  It’s both sad and actually frightening when you step back and see just how far that has gone.  It has been said that America cannot be taken from without.  (Militarily)  But it is in the process of being taken from within.  (Politically)  And the dumbing down you point out is a deliberate effort to soften up the target – just as much as if it were an artillery barrage taking out the defenses of a fortified position in preparation for invasion.

mood: amused

From today’s S&E we find this rather entertaining headline:

Police report: Drunken man 'grunted' at officers

I had no idea that “grunting” was an arrestable offence.  Or is it that he grunted at a police officer?  What law is that a violation of anyway? 

Now Mr. Dame’s actions after the officer placed him under arrest are certainly problematic.  Assault on a police officer is simply unacceptable behavior in a civilized society.  And for that matter, spewing expletives isn’t very polite either.  But being drunk in his own home and breaking his own property is entirely on his own head.  He’ll no doubt regret both – after he sobers up. 

In the tradition of fine reporting at the Sentinel & Enterprise the article doesn’t bother to mention what time of day all of this was going on - which could certainly affect the veracity of the noise complaint…

Still, as long as the glass and tile Mr. Dame was alleged to have broken were his own property and he wasn’t threatening anyone, at least prior to the arrival of the police (once can only assume as there was no mention of such in the article) and provided all of this wasn’t after a reasonable hour, I fail to see the problem.  Another key point omitted from the article: Was the braking of the glass and tile part of a renovation project?  From the context of the article we are left to assume that it wasn’t.  But we all know that it is never safe to assume…

Now if the glass and tile were his landlord’s or someone else’s property then we have a problem.  However, the author of this article leaves these details entirely open to speculation.

On a tangentially related note which Mr. Dame can now most likely confirm: Sobering up in the local pokey isn’t likely to result in your enjoying a slice of Aint Bea’s home made apple pie.  Just something to keep in mind for future reference…

/snark

mood: frustrated

In recent weeks signs of inflation have been cropping up everywhere – most notably at the gas pumps.  A couple of nights ago I set a personal record for the first time in my life paying more than $3.50 a gallon for regular unleaded.  Despite (or is that despot?) the oil industry reporting yet another quarter of record profits there seems no limit to how much gas prices are going to go up.  I wish I had an alternative to powering my cars with petroleum-based products right now, but I don’t.  What’s more, where I live there is no public transportation to switch to even if they didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment on a daily basis.

As disruptive as that is, that isn’t what I want to talk about right now.

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work last night to pick up some milk.  While I was there I also grabbed a box of cereal since I was almost out.  The store brand rice chex on the shelf are in a crisply redesigned new box.  The box is the same physical size as the old box so unless you are really paying attention you probably wouldn’t notice anything out of place.  It is sold at the same price too.  Where I have a problem with it is that the old box contained 16 ounces of cereal but the new box only has 12.  That equates to a well hidden 25% price increase!

In an effort to save us some money out of our grocery bill, Mum buys our tall kitchen trash bags at the dollar store.  We go to a real dollar store where everything in the store actually costs a dollar – not one of those fake dollar stores where everything is in even multiples of a dollar.  Anyway, Mum’s old package of trash bags contained 50 bags.  The package Mum bought last week only had 30.  That equates to a price increase of 2/5 or 40%!  Now I realize the bags are made of plastic and the plastic is made of petroleum and everything has to be transported from the factory to the store in vehicles powered by petroleum and the price of petroleum has gone through the roof…  But 40%?

Since I am not yet independently wealthy, if everything continues to go up at this rate it’s really going to put a crimp in my budget!

On the income side of the equation I am at the top of the pay scale for my job description.  Because of that this year I received a 1% raise (and a lump-sum cash bonus to try to make up for it).  But even with the bonus it in no way approaches the rate of real inflation I am seeing either at the gas pumps or in the grocery store.

I am convinced that the source of this latest round of inflation stems directly from the oil companies gouging everyone on the planet to generate their record profits.  Everything made with petroleum based plastic costs more and everything costs more to transport to the stores.  On top of that we have elements in the media consciously driving our economy towards recession – I believe for political reasons.

The real question is what can we as consumers and as Citizens do about it?  I hate to be like 60 Minutes and stir up a controversy and then not offer any solutions by the end of the segment, but I am at a loss as to what the solution might be.  I am, however, open suggestions...

Jeff over at Apphecca has a post up on the subject of corporal punishment.  Specifically on parents spanking their kids.  Jeff, I wholeheartedly agree.  

I think where the problem really got started was in the early writings of child psychologist Dr. Spock.  (No relation to Mr. Spock from Star Trek, but you knew that.)  There are a lot of people particularly in child welfare agencies who like the warm and fuzzy feeling of Dr. Spock’s early writings and insist that his bad ideas be followed by everyone.  Or else. 

*Spank.*

“Waaa!” 

“You have the right to remain silent.”

A spanking when properly applied is not child abuse.  Not spanking when needed is.  Early on Benjamin Spock and DSS today have mistaken the words of Proverbs 13:24 as commonly rendered in modern English “Spare the rod and spoil the child” to be an admonition.  It is not.  To clarify lets reword that passage slightly: ‘Spare the refrigerator and spoil the milk.’  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to wake up to spoiled milk on my Post Toasties, thank you very much!  And I don’t want to have to put up with a spoiled brat running around terrorizing the restaurant while his parents pretend not to notice either.  That Bible quote is often used to justify laws forbidding spanking.  Taken out of context it may sound like that is what is being advised.  But compare and contrast with this: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son.” Proverbs 13:24 King James Version.  Quite a difference there, wouldn’t you agree?  Also in the book of Proverbs we find this: “Foolishness is tied up with the heart of a boy.  The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.”  Proverbs 22:15.  From the same book we find this: “Thy rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” Proverbs 29:15.

It is the responsibility of parents everywhere to discipline their children.  That includes corporal punishment when needed.  Nobody said that all aspects of parenting would be pleasant and the kumbya crowd doesn’t seem to get that.  But just as changing a messy diaper is part of the job so is proper discipline. 

What a lot of people don’t realize is that late in his life Dr. Spock recanted and apologized for his years of bad advice.  Unfortunately for us, by then the damage had been done.

In the interest of full disclosure:  I don’t have any kids myself.  However, I have spoken with plenty of people who do on both sides of the spanking issue and I have observed how effective threatened ‘time outs’ are in contrast with a threatened or applied smack to the derriere.  The key, from what I’ve seen, is consistency.  If junior knows that mom is serious and a fanny-warming is inevitable if the behavior continues then in most cases the behavior stops.  Junior may not be happy about it, but he knows that his parents care enough to set limits and to stick to them.  So often it is the undisciplined brats that become convinced that their parents ‘just don’t give a damn’ about them.

mood: Bullshit!

“The federal government should regulate the mortgage industry, basically as a means of regulating the conduct of middle-class families.” 
– Boston.com article Should US restrain borrowers?

So this Commie from Cornel thinks Central Plannink Komity should have more of a say over whether or not you and I are allowed to live the American Dream?

GET STUFFED!

 
While predatory lending practices can be devastating to all involved, the lenders stand to loose their shirts if they continue to loan money to people who are running at financial red-line.  Thus it is in their own enlightened self interest to make sure that borrowers can actually afford the loans they are selling.  The last thing we need are more Nanny State regulations telling citizens “no you can’t” from the .gov.  We need financially literate citizens who understand how and when to borrow and when not to. 

This is not rocket science!  It is fairly simple economics.  Unfortunately it is not taught in our schools.  If financial literacy were taught as a requirement for a high school diploma much of our countries economic wows would soon evaporate.

What’s more, the .gov should not be using taxpayer dollars to bail out these for-profit business when they screw up.  If the people who made the bad loans knew that their own feet would be held to the fire for their actions, just maybe they might not have created this problem in the first place.

I must do likewise should the opportunity ever present itself!

It's a miracle!

Link courtesy of SayUncle.

Jeff has a post up over at Alphecca that really gets to the heart of the issue.  I couldn’t agree more.

Originally written as a reply to an email from my buddy Roger.  And a fun time was had by all?

To the mail:

Greeting, salutations, etcetera and so forth from the dilapidated trailer park.

Mum and I just got in from running around all day.  Drove past the flea in Hollis mid morning.  The place looked like a ghost town.  We didn't bother to stop.  I could see from the road that Shirley's was totally deserted.  Rain on a Sunday.  There oughtta be a law!

Did some shopping up in Amherst, got some lunch and came home.  Then we did some more shopping down here.  I don't know if Mum realizes it yet, but our little grocery adventure this week set us back over a hundred bucks and that doesn’t include the dollar store.  It was a fairly big stock-up week - but still...

I also blew about $40 bucks on a pair of digital converter boxes for the TVs.  Had to use up the coupons from the .gov before they went stale.  The guy at the Radio Shack where I bought them expressed his - how shall I put it? - annoyance at the .gov for letting the TV makers off the hook over this.  They've known since about 2000 that the change was coming but continued to sell analogue TVs anyway.  It should have been their responsibility to reimburse all of us who bought TVs that go obsolete in less than a year.

Made up some new business cards this morning before we left for the flea.  I also did a little more work on our business plans.  The “Business Plan” itself is done.  I was just working on the ‘whatdoidofromhere’ part of the process.

Hmm...  I may massage this a little and post it over at the Dragonfly.  Or not.^#  Think I’ll go grab a soda myself and vege for a while.  Hmm-2:  We have some Moxie in stock ourselves…

* off to the fridge *

^# What the heck?  Might as well…  
(Swiggs down some Moxie.  Mmm!)

mood: content

So here I am typing away on my IBM Thinkpad 600E laptop at the Bickford’s restaurant in Leominster.

“So what?” you say.

Well, when we headed out this morning I didn’t have an IBM Thinkpad.  I got it at one of the yard sales.  Set me back a whole five bucks.  ($5 – not a misprint.)  So it’s an old P2 running Winders 2K Pro.  At this point I have no idea if the battery will hold a charge.  Still, it’s a leap ahead of the old 386 laptop I got a bunch of years ago at another yard sale and it works better than the laptop I bought from my friend leviathan0999.   

I had been thinking of getting a better laptop for our business.  This beastie might not be state of the art, but it will suffice.

Well, Mum’s back and wants to get going.  I better shut down.

More later.

mood: Disgusted

According to MBTA Deputy Transit Police Chief John Martino “This shouldn’t alarm anyone. It’s just a standard exercise of existing plans so we will be prepared if a situation arises,”

It alarms me how casually they chuck out the Bill of Rights.   I heard this story first thing this morning thanks to the news on my clock-radio.  Though I did for several years, I no longer ride The T to work every day.  But I do consider myself a Citizen with full rights under the Constitution.  Every day.  And that includes the protections from just this sort of unreasonable search guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.  When will the rest of my fellow citizens wake up and smell the tyranny?

Inspired by the story on the radio this morning I created this graphic for my CaffePress shop.

While it may actually cause you to be targeted for a “random” search if you actually were to wear this on The T, hopefully it may make others think about what is happening in our formerly free society.

I may be paraphrasing here, but I think it was Benjamin Franklin who said it best:

‘They who would sacrifice Liberty for Security

deserve neither and shall loose both.’

mood: shocked

From boston.com

He looks almost as goofy as Dukakis driving a tank!

Since so many others are doing QOTD posts I figure I may as well jump on the bandwagon. And how could I resist when presented with this gem?

"What we should consider is how much we want to lose aspects of our privacy in order to attain a sort of notional security," said David Murakami Wood, director of the Surveillance Studies Network, which deals with surveillance and privacy issues. "In most cases this isn't real security -- it's a sense of safety that has very little real effect."

He’s talking about a new security camera that can see through clothes as reported by CNN.com. Check out the article and ask yourself if Big Brother is on our doorstep.

mood: embarrassed

On opening day at the flea market this past Sunday I came across a 1960’s vintage BB gun.  The price was right and it was almost BAG Day.  OK, it’s not a real gun, but then again, I’m still in Marxistchusetts…  (These are still legal here, aren’t they?)

The gun itself is a vintage Healthways Western Plainsman .175 cal. BB gun.  This one happens to be the spring-powered SA version, not the version that uses CO2.  The Algoreans shouldn’t take me to task for it – even if Kim thinks I’m nuts for posting it.

Yes, posting this is a violation of a previously state personal policy.  This is the purpose for which this ‘item’ was purchased.  It’s not one I’m likely to use anyway.  Where do you get .175 cal. BBs anyway?

mood: annoyed

My comments for this “article” in the Worcester Telegram:

I have to agree with Mr. LaPierre. This is not a news story. It is nothing more than a press release from Mayor Bloomberg run in the paper as if it were news. Wal*Mart is doing nothing but turning against a whole demographic of law-abiding customers and siding with the anti-gun crowd they must think will be taking over come November. Do they even realize that they are shooting themselves in the foot (so to speak)? I, for one, will not be purchasing anything at their gun counter any time soon. And I expect that I am not their only former customer who feels that way.

Here’s a link to their comments page.

There is plenty more in the news today about our Second Amendment Rights, but I’ll have to write about that later.

mood: annoyed

The Devaluator scored a victory on Beacon Hill this week for his ‘higher revenues on the backs of the people’ policy.  Boston.com is reporting that most of the Commonwealth’s Legislators apparently don’t really want to be reelected as evidenced by their overwhelming support of the Governor’s massive tax increase. 

Much of this latest tax increase is dumped on smokers by way of a $1 a pack hike to the already ridiculously high cigarette tax.  That doesn’t affect me since I don’t smoke.  But I know plenty of people who do – many who can ill afford it even before this latest price hike.  What’s next?  Dukakis style State Police stings at southern New Hampshire convenience stores going after subjects of the Commonwealth who dare cross the boarder in search of a bargain?

On the ‘if you Make It in mAssachusetts we’ll tax the hell out of you’ front, our boy Deval has, in his words, ‘closed several loopholes’ on Commonwealth businesses.  The article doesn’t have too many details, focusing more on the cigarette tax, but it seems from this that the governor is apparently unaware that businesses choose to locate where the economic benefits to their bottom line are greatest.  One of the top items of concern are the tax laws of the location where a business might consider setting up shop.  If the tax climate seems to be anti-business, I, for one, will look elsewhere.  And I’ll take any jobs I may create with me.  If the laws change to a point where it doesn’t make economic sense to do business in a given location even long established business will move to where the climate (and profits) are better.

This isn’t rocket science!

And this isn’t even Robin Hood taxation since it directly attacks the people who can least afford it.  From what I’ve read in other articles in the media, it tends to be lower income people who seem to smoke more than wealthier people.  For one thing, they can’t afford expensive programs to help them quit.  No, definitely not Robin Hood.  More like the Beatles song Tax Man.

Sorry 'bout the massive lack of posting lately.  I've been rather busy in the analogue world of late.  Hopefully I'll be getting back at it before too long.

In the mean time I have a new post going up momentarily.

Or maybe not…

Now if we could just get the Algoreans to stop dumping all this Global Warming all over the field they may be able to open – by July!

Yeash!

Well, folks, I guess it’s official.  Galileo, my now ten-year-old Volkswagen “New” Beetle is out of warranty. 

Actually he has been for quite a while.  I bought him about two-years-young from a used car lot in Fitchburg and he only had a 90-day warranty from them.  We were on our way to Beetle Bug III, a Volkswagen specialist in Hudson, to have his O2 sensor(s?) replaced when this milestone was reached.  Hopefully that will get rid of the check engine light so we can get rid of the [R] on his windshield.  Poor guy’s embarrassed! 

Last week we replaced the catalytic converter hoping that would do the trick.  It was needed.  When our guy at Beetle Bug got the cat off the car he found that it was an empty can with no honeycomb left inside.  We didn’t do the sensors then trying to save me a few bucks. 

It could have worked…

A month ago we had a wheel bearing replaced.  I made the mistake of going somewhere else for that.  Expert Tire on John Fitch Highway in Fitchburg, MA.  First they replaced the CV axel on the wrong side.  They must have had to make a boat payment.  Then when that didn’t fix the problem I convinced them to replace the wheel bearing I told them was the problem in the first place.  This time I went out in the bay when they had Galileo up on the lift and rotated the driver’s side front tire left and right by a good ten degrees.  That's the car’s left and right – crossways to the car, parallel to the axel.  A direction there is not supposed to be any movement at all.  How they missed that the week before is beyond me.

Then a few days later I took Galileo to Beetle Bug to have his check engine light checked.  While he was up on the lift with both his VW specialist and myself under him looking around for other things we discovered that ALL OF THE BOLTS ON THE TRANSMISSION END OF THAT BRAND NEW AXEL WERE ABOUT TO FALL OUT!  Had that not been caught the axel would have separated – at speed on the highway no doubt – and destroyed the underside of the car if not caused a wreck.

Ma!  I coulda got killed!

That was immediately addressed and catastrophe averted.

I have since decided that for Galileo’s sake and mine that regardless of the inconvenience of having to go to Hudson for service, it behooves us to stop wasting time and money going elsewhere.

Now if I could just get Galileo’s faulty cashometer replaced…  I was just telling him the other day “Galileo, if you ever want me to be able to buy you that garage we talked about, you have got to stop nickel, dime, and hundred-dollar-billing me to death!”

But he’s worth it.  Here he is sitting next to Fritz with Woody our late Jeep Wagoneer in the foreground. 

Look at that grin!