Very Strange Ubuntu Issues

By | |
Leave a comment

I’m running Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal” on a custom box, and have been plaqued with sound issues.  Well, one sound issue, and it’s the one you are expecting if you came here by search: Pulseaudio crackles in every application.  Whether speakers or headphones, audio out the front or off the card in the back; it’s bad.  Although in the Prefs panel for sound, the test tone does not crackle.  Key troubleshooting point there–I believe from the reading that that sound test does not go through Pulse.

So I wanted to whack pulse.  Did some reading.  Saw (going from memory here)

killall pulseaudio
apt-get remove pulseaudio
apt-get install esound

And restart. So I did apt-get -s [commands etc], which is the “do-nothing” dry run, just-checking option. Looked good. Then … Continue reading →

Tea Party Dilemma

By | | ,
Leave a comment

The Tea Party constellation of groups and individuals is in a state of flux.  Central to the change is the strategy to take in 2012; pragmatism or dogmatism, and frankly, it will require both.

I suppose this vexes every political movement, but the pragma/dogma dilemma is particularly striking the Tea Party groups.  On one hand, the Tea Party is largely a subset of traditionally Republican voters, with a healthy dose of libertarians and Constitutional fundamentalists thrown in.  These are the people who found the Republican party too passive and pliable in years past.  This makes them a naturally ideological movement, prone to reject a reasonable candidate with a decent shot at winning because he or she fails one or more hot-button tests.

[pullquote]they were still furious at Republicans, … Continue reading →

Newt Gingrich Unhorsed

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment

Newt Gingrich was an overpowering force on the Op-Ed pages, and could have provided crucial support over the next two years.  He was always an establishment man, but his personal baggage meant that he could not return to the front.  He cast away an important back-bench responsibility in pursuit of a post more glorious but impossible to attain, and is now hopelessly on the defensive.   Newt is already defeated, because he should not have run.

For some reason, he chose to denigrate a damned good plan and along the way, to wound a man who is under a sustained personal attack from the other side, even from the President himself.  Gingrich now says that he supports “improving the plan”, but for a man who has had twenty … Continue reading →

Disappointed in Newt Gingrich

By | | , ,
3 Comments

I have always liked Newt Gingrich.  He gave an address in 2002 at some dinner somewhere, and this was the first “Podcast” I ever heard.  This was perhaps the height of his oratory, in the days when “federal chipmunk” featured in many of his speeches.  I have long been impressed with his ideas and his presentation.

I saw him as a magnificent piece of field artillery, able to deliver withering fire in support of any truly conservative position from behind the lines, perched on the editorial pages with a commanding view of the valley below.  Military minds know not to scoff at the big guns in the rear of the battle area just because they are in the rear:  the ability to bombard the enemy at a time … Continue reading →

Final Jeopardy for David Gregory

By | | , ,
Leave a comment

Republicans should use this opportunity to fire back at the biased media by boycotting Meet The Press.  The advantages outweigh the drawbacks.

On the wildly popular game show Jeopardy, contestants must state their answers in the form of a question.  That’s pretty much the rule in lefty hack journalism as well.  I do not support the candidacy of Newt Gingrich, but we cannot accept this sort of thing or we are bound to lose.

David Gregory, the host of NBC’s somewhat less popular Meet The Press,  made an assertion of fact along the way to slandering a Republican candidate for President. I say he needs to put up or shut up. If he cannot produce the goods, and will not apologize for his baseless slander, then … Continue reading →