Monthly Archives: May 2011

FUbuntu

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The PulseAudio death-march is killing off the Linux base.

I have been using Linux off and on since 1997. I would still like to know what typeface was used in the early Slackware config screens, where I had to select video modes, add modules for an ATI busmouse, and in general describe by hand the hardware environment to the software. Back in the days when licensing was still in the future for the most part, and pico was not yet nano.

And I am done. For years, sound issues in Linux have been due to the all-consuming drive to accomplish a direct network-packet-audio whatnot that I DO NOT CARE ABOUT. Meanwhile, this effort has meant that the very successful solutions for just plain listening to things on your … Continue reading →

The Needling and the Damage Done: A Pocket Analysis of Obama's Middle East Speech

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The speech has been analyzed by professionals and overtaken by events, but a few points remain to be examined.

The speech delivered by President Obama on 19 May 2011 was a weak response to events beyond his control or understanding.  The two goals seem to have been to claim credit for Bush’s accomplishments and ideals even while denigrating both Bush and his ideals, and to earn passage on the middle-east bandwagon by throwing Israel under it.
For a supposedly outward-focused address, it is a remarkably self-regarding tactical move.

Stealing Valor

This was an attempt to airbrush away two years of his administration’s foreign policy failures.  A secondary goal is to sandblast Bush’s name off of the undeniable successes in the region.  The combined effect is to erase … Continue reading →

Obama Tanks Toast to Queen of England; Painful, Awkward, Embarrassing

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My Toast will go on

President Obama, bless his heart, tries to do the right thing, but makes an awful mess of it.  He inadvertently cued the band when he began his toast “To Her Majesty, the Queen”, and then paused, and it all went downhill from there.

Some feel (see comments on the video) that the Queen “snubbed” the President, when in fact, what she did was contain the damage.   She’s not isolating him; he’s doing that all by himself.

That’s the Queen’s house–you study up before you go there. Besides which, if she had suddenly begun improvising responses to the President’s mis-steps, that would have propagated the error until nobody knew what to do. These things are scripted, and a guest worth his salt … Continue reading →

Blast at Refinery as Ahmadinejad Visits: Missed; Better Luck Next Time

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News from The Associated Press.

Despite what Obama says, Iran was the beginning of this wave  of protests and potentially pro-democratic movements in the Middle East.  Not Since Lebanon had there been such a sight as the protests after Ahmadinejad blatantly stole the election in 2009.  Wherever this administration comes up with its lofty rhetoric is a recent find, and they sided unambiguously with the murderous Iranian regime when they were killing students in the street.

The people of Iran will not forget our betrayal.  What was once a stance against that tyrannic government will become a true hostility between peoples.  And that;s a shame.  It appears they are trying to take care of their dictator problem.

Practice, practice, practice.

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Religious not Agrarian Impulse to Civilization

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Ten thousand year old structures easily world’s oldest, help debunk Communist narrative about “agrarian revolution” triggering civilization.

On a hilltop in Southern Turkey, researchers have found evidence that civilization is older and more subtle than we have admitted.  Read the article for more information, but the find is seven thousand years older than the great pyramids.  On top of a hill.  With no local stone.  And nobody lived there.  Or even grew crops.

The assemblage was built some 11,600 years ago, seven millennia before the Great Pyramid of Giza. It contains the oldest known temple. Indeed, Göbekli Tepe is the oldest known example of monumental architecture—the first structure human beings put together that was bigger and more complicated than a hut. When these … Continue reading →

Legal Note: Feel Free

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I encourage all re-use of my content ( and specifically authorize publication or syndication for commercial purposes) under the Creative Commons Attribution license, CC-BY.   See the link at the bottom of nearly every post and in the footer of nearly every page for details.

In general, all text published here is my content, unless noted (such as the inclusion of Dr. Sanderson’s complete text in my post “The Arrival of D Major“).

Images are in many cases either Fair Use or of unknown provenance. One of my projects is to ensure that all images are licensed under my name as CC-BY or carry pass-through licensing such as CC-BY, but I have not even begun this.  I therefore make no claim on images, and offer no license.  … Continue reading →

All Cow, No Milk

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According to this BBC story, British women are flocking to Denmark for artificial insemination.

And Denmark, where men can still donate without fear of being traced by their off-spring, is becoming a magnet for women who want a baby – but not the baby’s father.
In two years, the number of foreign women being inseminated there has nearly doubled.

I wonder what the welfare load is for this, in straight cash as well as benefits. One way or another, these women are married to the State.

Watch Out for the Hattiesburg H8ter!

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There is a letter circulating via Twitter etc. which purports to be from a disappointed Tea Party supporter to the Hattiesburg American.  In fact this is a poorly-written bit of leftist agitation.

The first three paragraphs attempt to establish the writer’s bonafides as a Tea Party supporter who is now angry, bitter, disappointed, let down (let me check my thesaurus here), and is going to share a bit of good old-fashioned conservative spleen.

Except that what follows in the letter is a laundry list of Marxist talking points.  So I have posted them with rebuttals:

  • attempting to destroy Medicare
    • Saving Medicare, unlike simply letting it fail, as it is currently fated.
  • by privatizing the program with vouchers,

Best Blog Spam Yet

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I particularly enjoyed this one; I had to admit that it is particularly well-crafted:

Hmm it looks like your blog ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess I’ll just sum up what I submitted and say that I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.   I as well am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to everything. Do you have any helpful hints for newbie blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.

This is the best way I’ve seen yet to get around the semantic gap in blog spam: an automated process does not know how to specifically address the topic of a blog post by commenting intelligently. This spam comment outsources its own semantic credibility to a previous post, and then explains why that post is … Continue reading →