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October 31, 2005
Bush Picks Alito
I'm much happier this time around. I didn't have much to say about the Harriet Miers nomination. I wasn't thrilled with it, but I figured that Bush has a reason for choosing her. He must have trusted that her judicial views were properly constructionist, as opposed to activist. I don't even hold her previous views against her, as I used to be one of those mindless drone Democrats, and I'd hate it if someone held my previous life's views and actions against me forever. I'm different now, and she apparently is as well. She never really seemed to be an exciting choice, but neither was she worth putting up much opposition, either.
Now, though, Bush is nominating someone I can be excited about. The President is nominating 3rd Circuit Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. I really think he'll approach the Constitution as a document with a specific meaning, as opposed to assigning it a meaning that would "feel good." I've previously written on what I'd like to see out of a new SCOTUS justice. Alita may be one of the few people available, with qualifications, who comes close to this. Will he be as good as Scalia or Thomas? That's hard to say, right now. I look forward to finding out.
One thing I don't want, though, is anyone on the SCOTUS that Harry Reid would approve of.
Posted by Lockjaw at 9:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 30, 2005
Mr. Sulu is Gay? George Takei Comes Out.
I've watched George Takei on an interview or two, and met him in person once. At times, my "gay-dar" would go off a bit when I watched him, but I always discounted it. After all, Mr. Sulu is a real man's man. As it turns out, so is George Takei. Takei has come out of the closet in a recent magazine interview.
Posted by Lockjaw at 6:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ham Radio Weekend
This weekend is a busy one. I'm taking part in a training and testing weekend with the local ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services). We're meeting at a local fire station with a group of prospective new hams, and giving them a crash course in radio rules, physics, safety, and the like. Once we've completed the training, this morning, the students should have all the knowledge necessary to pass the introductory test for new Amateur Radio Operators, and receive the "Technician" class license. Yesterday was a full day's work, with five of us serving as instructors. Today will have one last section of learning, plus a full review session. After lunch, the testing session begins. During testing, I will assist as an examiner, as I'm newly certified as a Volunteer Examiner.
I got one good piece of feedback out of my sessions yesterday as an instructor. One fellow, who has years of experience in broadcast radio as both talent and engineering, told me that I was the first instructor he had had in a long time that he didn't want to help. That's high praise.
Posted by Lockjaw at 6:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 27, 2005
How Much is In That Thing?
How much beer is in a keg? How much space is in a cargo container? How much toothpaste is in a tube? Cockeyed.com aims to find out. It isn't so much about the answer, as it is about arriving at the answer. What's the best way to measure how many cups of beer is in a keg? You throw a party! Great site, and this is only part of it. Waste a few hours reading this one.
Posted by Lockjaw at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 25, 2005
An Ogre's Life - Latest Happenings
A week ago, I had the opportunity to do some more training. Being a non-college edumakated ogre, I can't get a job at the local Community College teaching students. I did a short stint there as a continuing education instructor, but all the students who signed up as interested didn't show up for the actual class, so the class never "made." No big deal to me, in the end, as more regular work took over the time I gave to that job. As a mere high-school grajeeate, I am considered good enough to instruct the instructors. Go figure. With that in mind, I took a day off work and taught a class to a room full of college instructors on how to improve their results with the Google search engine. That's right, a whole class on how to use Google. I taught for an hour, and had hardly enough time to cover the high points. The class had fun, learned a lot, and gave me high reviews, so I'd call it a success. I even gained a client for my consulting business out of it.
Should anyone wish to hire me to teach such a class for your institution or business, I am available. I'm also quite good at it. Teaching people about computers is a major part of what I do. In helping people with PC problems, one must teach the customer how to avoid such problems in the future. I should note, based on the experiences from the classes I have taught in the past, that a few details make for a better class. First, I require at least an Internet connected PC with a digital projection system. The Internet connection should be high-speed. For this last class, I was on a dial-up connection, and it made for a much slower progression. Secondly, the ideal class time should be around two hours. One hour allows me to cram a lot of information in, but without as much interaction as I would like to cover the topic in enough detail. As for whether the students have access to PCs to be able to practice what I teach, I can take it or leave it. Either way works fine. For more information, look for the email link in the left column on the main page.
In Amateur Radio news, I've gained a couple new labels to add to my name. The first is that I am now a certified Volunteer Examiner. This means I am qualified to take part in examination teams. Examination teams run the exam sessions in which new hams take the test for their first license, and existing hams test for upgrades. This is going to be important in my locality, as we are trying to build our own exam team for our own regular testing sessions. Our local team will be affliliated with the Lee County ARES organization. I have been named as an Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Lee County ARES. This means I am now tasked with certain administrative tasks within the group. It sounds more important than it is, but that's fine as one of my tasks is to be the public speaker for the group to outside organizations.
In addition to my regular job, I'm also seeing some pickup in my personal consulting business. It's still a very part-time effort, but growth is good.
Yes indeed, growth is very good.
Posted by Lockjaw at 10:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 24, 2005
New Journal, Pen, and habit.
Contrary to what may appear to be the case, I have been writing lately. The wife and I shopped for journals, the other day, at Barnes and Noble. I picked up a nice one for my purposes. It has a plain black cover, and fine grid paper pages. I prefer grid paper for writing, because it helps me organize my thoughts better. Visually, it feels similar to blank, unlined paper, even though it is clearly lined. Slowly, but surely, I'm filling pages with research I'm doing for a future writing project.
With such a perfect journal in hand, I decided it was time to look for the perfect pen. I'm partial to fountain pens for writing, but a really good fountain pen can cost more that what I paid for my last car (seriously). I shopped around for a good option, such as a disposable fountain pen, but found nothing. Disposables used to be available for a few bucks, and inexpensive refillables would cost a few bucks more. When I looked, though, I found nothing. As I exited the Office-Max store, I noticed a display with a Waterman pen set in it. It included several cartridges, a refillable adapter, ink, and other accessories. I bought it. It's fantastic. What's better, it cost a very small fraction of what a high-end Waterman pen would cost.
Now, I've taken an unused Bible cover and used it to house my journal. It stays with me. Between calls, at work, I'm doing research. The pen-to-paper process keeps my mind working. The light touch required from my pen makes my hand tire much slower. My handwriting is improving. I'm even practicing my cursive again, though I'm still horrible at it. This is going to be a very good thing.
Posted by Lockjaw at 6:02 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 14, 2005
Michael Lewis in New Orleans - Great Read
In the New York Times Magazine, Michael Lewis tells of going into New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit. In the story he tells many interesting anecdotes. The truth, against the stories told in the media and in rumor (which weren't much different), makes for interesting reading. It's not a short read, but I must say this is an important one.
Posted by Lockjaw at 2:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 13, 2005
Bird Flu Basics
My wife and I have had a few discussions of late about the avian flu. With the recent genome mapping of the 1918 flu showing that it was an avian flu, and news of more birds being found with it, this has been a big topic in the media. Google's blog has a great primer on the avian flu and what it might mean. This is informative reading, suggested for all.
Posted by Lockjaw at 1:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
We're Never Getting a "Strict Constructionist" SCOTUS
There has been a lot of talk, in the process of the latest Supreme Court nominations, of whether we need "strict constructionist" judges on the court. Count me as one who thinks we do. I do not, however, believe that we're going to get the type of constructionists we need on the court. While I believe that we have two on the court right now that are superior to the rest, in Scalia and Thomas, even they have not proven to favor the constructionism that I'd prefer.
Some would like to paint constructionism as a code word for taking voting rights away from blacks and women. They're just partisan hacks, in my opinion. Neither of these would be allowed under the current Constitution, and should not be. What we need is a Supreme Court that would look at the strict wording of the Constitution in the decisions they make from the bench.
What would this mean?
Freedom of Speech is an individual right. There should be no need to be a member of any press organization to enjoy freedom of speech. Likewise, political speech should receive the highest protection, whether performed by an individual or a group of individuals. Today's interpretation of freedom of speech will allow one group to pool their resources and receive protections, while another group pooling their resources can be punished at will. The only difference is that the first group is called "the media" while the other is called a "political organization." Freedom of speech was written into our Constitution primarily to protect political speech, yet political speech is the first to go. That's wrong.
The requirement that the federal government not institute a state religion is not a requirement that religion be scoured from all government at all levels.
Freedom to peaceably assemble trumps laws covering peaceable assembly.
As the right to keep and bear arms was designed as an individual right to protect against an oppressive government, individuals should be able to own firearms of their choice, up to and including modern military weaponry.
The right against unreasonable search and seizure means that representatives of the government must have a valid reason to search you or your property. Just because your car is on a government road is not a good reason. That the policeman wants to make sure you don't have a weapon that can be used against him is not a good reason. That you are the randomly chosen person or are in the randomly chosen vehicle is not a good reason. That you are suspected of committing a crime, and need to be searched pursuant to that search IS a good reason. This right does NOT constitute a right to privacy, whether I like it or not.
The federal government has no power over health care, drugs, or any medical procedure.
The federal government has no power over education. The education department, all education funding, and all education regulation should be abolished.
This isn't all. There's plenty more. I would say, however, that a judge who would properly interpret the US Constitution would do as well on the more as he or she would on the above. I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by Lockjaw at 9:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Mike Easley - NC's Jimmy Carter
North Carolina's Governor Mike Easley is a self-serving, camera-hogging, intellectual lightweight. It's really sad. His main qualification for being elected in the first place was that he used public funds to put his own face on TV across the state while he was our useless Attorney General. At no time during his governorship has he distinguished himself in any way except to raise taxes and fight for more money out of our pockets through a lottery. The only ideal you can identify that Easley holds is that more of YOUR money should become state money.
Easley has done other things, of course. North Carolina is foremost in the nation for making citizen's lives harder to make it look like something is being done about meth labs. Thanks to Easley and his ilk, the law-abiding among us are required to buy our cold medicine from behind the counter at the pharmacy. We also have higher-paid state employees. Wheee!
Mike Adams, today, has a bit to say about Mike Easley's veto of a bill that would have helped North Carolina reach its needed number of teachers in the future. The bill would have labelled North Carolina teachers as "highly qualified" if they had achieved that distinction in another state. Simply stated, if you're "highly qualified" in one of the other 49 states, you should be at least "highly qualified" in one of the WORST education states in the nation, right? Easley doesn't think so. He thinks such a move would make North Carolina's educational standards the lowest in the nation. That doesn't even logically make sense. Obviously, he was a good student of public education.
This brain-dead moron actually got re-elected, too. Of course, I blame that on North Carolina's Republican Party, which seems to be as incompetent at getting elected in this state as the Democrats are at running it.
There is hope, though. Easley is a Governor in the same vein that Jimmy Carter was President. He's useless, and has done nothing good to distinguish himself in history. He may turn out to be one of the top-three things to ever happen to the North Carolina GOP in decades.
Posted by Lockjaw at 6:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 12, 2005
Segregated Schools on Al Franken
The past couple days, I've been at home in bed sick. Daytime TV being what it is, I checked through the movie channels. Going past the Sundance Channel, I noticed that Al Franken's show was on. On a lark, I decided to actually watch a little. He had a guest on talking about segregation in schools. His contension was that we have school segregation today that is WORSE than was found in the 1960s. Sure, back in the 1960s, we had Democrat-run southern schools separated into black and white, but he pointed out that we have many schools in today's society that are 99% or more black-only. When asked where these schools were located, he named four states.
New York, Illinois, Michigan, California.
Hmmmm. I wonder what else these states have in common. Maybe the answer can be found in the electoral maps.
Posted by Lockjaw at 9:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 11, 2005
Wallace and Gromit - #1 For a Reason
A few years ago, I was watching one of the movie review shows, as they discussed the Oscar nominees for that year. The most memorable moment of the show was a clip from Nick Park called "Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers." Park went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Weeks later, I came across a copy of the video in Wal-Mart (still less evil than the DNC) and bought it, against the advice of my wife. After one viewing, we were hooked. Park, whose first Wallace and Gromit film had been nominated for the same Oscar, went on to collect a second Oscar for his third, "Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave."
As you can guess, I've been waiting for Wallace and Gromit to make the jump to the big screen for some time. Learning that a film was in the works a couple years back, I've been chomping at the bit to see the modern classic comedy team in action once again. This past weekend, I got the chance.
If you're a Wallace and Gromit fan, you won't be dissapointed by this film. Given a chance to take a franchise to the big screen, most directors try to make it so much bigger and more exciting that they end up producing a poor product. Not so in this case. Park did go bigger, populating the town with many more characters, and having the action happen on many more sets. The result, however, is exactly what you'd expect from Wallace and Gromit. Low-key humor punctuated by real side-splitters. The film builds to an energetic climax that is both exciting and hilarious.
Unlike many G-rated movies, these days, "Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit" is truly a movie for all ages. It's not a movie made for kids. It's the next chapter in the lives of characters that have captured the hearts of fans of all ages. My whole family was brimming with excitement at the prospect of seeing this movie, and that we would see it on opening night was never in question.
On a sad note, however, Aardman Animation's triumph at receiving the #1 box office slot was balanced by a sad occurrence. Aardman's studio warehouse burned this week, destroying most of the history of the company. Lost are the sets from the early Wallace and Gromit shorts, and Chicken Run. Not everything was in the fire, though. The sets from the new blockbuster hit were elsewhere, as were a few of the props such as the rocket from "A Grand Day Out." Also safe are Nick Park's three Oscars for Wallace and Gromit and Creature Comforts.
Posted by Lockjaw at 6:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 9, 2005
Hurricane Relief Benefit Notes
Yesterday was the day of my church's hurricane benefit. The youth group, which I am one of the adult leaders of, gave up one of its retreats to put on this event, which I think was a fantastic success.
The event started nice and early. We held a "yard sale" inside the fellowship hall, which took up at least half of this newly-built facility. To one side was a bake sale, from which we purchased a cake, two pies, two loaves of bread, cookies, brownies, and banana-nut bread. Along one wall were items being sold in a silent auction format, and at 11am we held a live auction. In addition to all of this, we held a raffle for Carolina Panthers tickets.
The proceeds of the event are being donated to North Carolina Baptist Men. The NCBM is one of those fantastic organizations that maintains disaster relief equipment for immediate deployment. When Katrina hit, and federal agencies were waiting for Louisiana's state and local officials to ask them to help, NCBM was on the road in short order. Within days, NCBM had begun relief efforts, served thousands of meals, and served other needs. As of October 5, 2005, NCBM has served 456,352 in the Gulf Coast area. In addition, 17,476 volunteer days have been provided by NC Baptist volunteers. They have provided 12,742 showers and washed 2105 laundry loads. If you would like to donate to North Carolina Baptist Men's relief efforts, your donation would be appreciated.
I'm not sure of the final tally of funds raised through our church's event. From the amount of sales I saw happening, I'm sure it's significant. More is needed. Remember, NCBM is a front-line relief agency, arriving as early responders to any disaster they can. They're not alone. There are many more relief agencies in the Gulf Coast area besides Red Cross. I encourage you to seek these other agencies out and support them when you can.
Posted by Lockjaw at 8:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Winning the Ribbons
For the first time in my life, I entered something in the local County Fair competitions. My entry was a photo I took last year at the North Carolina State Fair. I won third place in the photos of buildings category. Having looked at the other entries when I put mine in, I said I'd be happy to place. I'm happy.
The wife entered some of her jewelry. She pulled down a blue ribbon. I'm proud of her. Next year, we'll be armed with a good list of the categories, and we'll enter more items.
Posted by Lockjaw at 7:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 6, 2005
Freudian Slip of the Moment
Heard on Rush Limbaugh earlier today: Someone on the Chris Matthews show on MSNBC (I think. I actually never watch the tripe.) referred to the possibility of Bush using attorney-client priviledge in the Miers nomination to protect some documents as "hide the salami."
No, that was Clinton.
[UPDATE] This is rich. As if it wasn't funny enough already, the mental lightweight who made the statement was Howard Dean.
Posted by Lockjaw at 4:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 5, 2005
How to Lower NC's Gas Price
North Carolina has the highest gas price in the lower 48 states. That's the latest news on the gas price front. There's a good reason that this is the case, too. North Carolina's gas tax now sits at a whopping 27 cents per gallon. Unlike sales taxes, gasoline taxes are paid by the gallon, as opposed to a portion of the price. Well, that's not entirely true either. The Democrats who control the North Carolina Legislature thought it was a good idea to design the taxes so that they would rise when the gas prices did. In other words, if something happens to drive up the cost of gas to the point that people are having trouble finding the money to buy gas, and SUVs are nearly impossible to sell, the Democrats of North Carolina will make sure that your prices go even HIGHER.
What if North Carolina abolished its gas price altogether? The average gas price in North Carolina would immediately drop from $3.07 to $2.80. Gas stations on the border of Virginia, South Carolina, and Tennessee would start to see a lot more cross-border traffic for gas (right now, that traffic goes into Virginia, not out of it). Along with the gas, customers would spend money on drinks, snacks, and other items. Those items would be taxable through the sales tax. North Carolina would see an immediate economic benefit from lower gas prices, and that would result in an increase in revenues from other taxes. It is not unreasonable to expect that the revenue lost from the abolition of the gas tax would be completely offset by other increases.
Unfortunately, Democrats don't understand economics enough to do this kind of sensible thing. If they did, they wouldn't be Democrats.
Posted by Lockjaw at 6:29 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack