POKES AND PRODS - Editorial - SwampfoxNews.COM

MAY
Notes on stuff that happened in MAY, 2011.

Windows7 Yecccccccccch! - May 31
For Whom Do They Die? - May 30
Hosanna & Just Wondering.. - May 29
Not Dark Matter!!! - May 28
Hubris² - May 27
About the Election in New York - May 26
Are You Ready To Believe Another Lie? - May 23
But What If It Did - May 22
".. A Tangled Web We Weave.."* - May 20
And All The Boards Did Shrink - May 17
Huck Makes Best Choice - May 15
The Dignity of the Office - May 12
You Want Fries With that? - May 17
One for the Good Guys.. - May 2

(The Swamp) --
May 31, 2011
Windows7 Yecccccccccch!
Windows7 is an overengineered nightmare.

I do not say this lightly. I spent a great amount of time looking into why I HAD to buy a laptop with windows 7 on it. The answer and result are equally disappointing. Here's what happened along the journey..

To begin with, Windows XP is everything Windows ever wanted to be, including Mac OS. I started out working with programs on a Texas Instruments TI 99/A. There was Basic, so you could write your own programs. Wordstar was hard to use, but a whole lot easier than re-writing.

There was no need for Windows or Windows 3 or anything like it. My next choice was an Apple IIce with laser printer and a whoppingly big 15" Color Screen! My business switched to computers that year, and we never looked back. I remember the mid 80's vividly, and the PC with some kind of lousy Windows configuration was a joke or nightmare or both.

Then in 1989, someone at Microsoft woke up and invented Windows NT Pro. It could do anything that a Mac could do at a third of the price, and it only froze once or twice an hour. We changed over that year and changed to XP when it came out. It was and continues to be Microsoft's best platform.

But now, Microsoft has made it impossible to continue using XP. Every new PC that comes with Unix or Red Hat or any of the other open source platforms just aren't as easy to learn and use as Windows XP. Yet, every new computer comes only with Windows7. They also make it next to impossible to take it off and put XP on - anti-change codelets are written into the Windows7 BIOS (Binary In-Out System) configuration. It can be done, but you have to be verrrrrrrry good at BIOS coding.

If all you want out of your computer is gawk and game at superhuman speeds, and you don't care who controls your computer, Windows7 is fast enough. But if you want to WORK your computer, there are many, many glitches in W7 which simply are not there in Windows XP Media and Pro. One of the worst glitches is that it causes disorganization in file placement. That may mean nothing to a geek freak, but to someone working on research, file organization is critical. Icons randomly move about the desktop - another of the worst examples. W7 randomly forgets who has final say over the deep memory functions of the computer - it's called "administration" - and, if you don't have administrator rights over your machine, you will never be able to properly secure it.

I know that a lot of the so-called non-involved blogs which warn of these things have gotten fewer and fewer. The geeks don't understand that the product has been over-engineered like the 1989 Mazda Rx7, and so don't realized they've been out-maneuvered. Plus, geeks are notoriously bad communicators, and the good ones have been bought off.

If I were a smart person, I would write a BIOS which had a comparable GUI to XP and could run all the programs that XP could. I would make it self-installing and self-replacing and sell it for $35.00 plus shipping and handling or downloadable for free. Is your head hurting yet? Well, I am genuinely sorry for that. But somebody had to say it, even if it is hard to understand.

May 30, 2011
For Whom Do They Die?
Bill Nye, the Science Guy is like Sara Lee^® Bakery Products - Nobody Doesn't Like Bill Nye, the Science Guy. I mean, who doesn't like a teacher with a bow-tie?

I still like him, but after Saturday, I'm going to have to call him Bill Nye, the Conjecture Guy.

What he said on Uma Pemmaraju's Noon Fox News show, forces me to this conclusion. He actually quoted figures from the UN Weather Group - the ones using the phony, averaged, "global warming" numbers from China and Russia (with a little help from the recently politicized US Weather Service), saying the past 11 years are the warmest on record, since the 1800's and 4% wetter. His evidence? All the rain and snow in the last 6 months.

As far as the just plain silliness of the argument, it fails to take into account serious studies which come from reputable scientists which show the exact reverse.

Even Uma, who is about as challenging as a hearth mouse, was nonplussed with his answer when asked if this bad weather was occurring in other countries. Bill stammered and talked politely about the irrelevancy of her question! She still thanked him.

That "news" segment - no more egregious than the out-right fibbing weather segments from other "news" networks - made me think about the wonder that this country is because of truly free speech.

It is a truism that free speech is freedom to say stupid things, as long as it doesn't specifically hurt anybody. Yet, how many hundreds of thousands of Americans have died, just to make it so?

Being stupid, like Bill Nye, the Science Guy has been, doesn't do dishonor to the principle. It makes the principle real.

This memorial day weekend, I'll be thanking my late dad, brother, father-in-law, grandfather, forefathers, and all the dads and moms who have given us all the right to say what we think, no matter how dumb it may be.

ps. if you want to know about fizzies in Coke^®, ask Bill Nye. If you want to know about Climate, or just weather, ask Joe Bastardi of Accuweather^®.

May 29, 2011
Hosannah!
It was supposed to be about honoring the responders and the sacrifice of the dead. Didn't happen. One would have thought, from the applause, that the memorial service in Joplin MO, was the second coming. Obama, trying to sound like a cross between MLK and Jesse, and sounding more like a cross between an angry David Brinkley and a serious Bill Cosby (which is what he sounds like most of the time except for the angry part), was wildly applauded, just as their Progressive leaders had undoubtedly asked them so to do. The only things missing were palm fronds to lay at his feet. But to quote the movie, Gladiator, "the time for honoring yourself will soon be ending."

Just Wondering..
Ya think Carolina will decide to play at the regional? Hope so. 'Cause Clemson sure as heck will.

May 28, 2011
NOT Dark Matter!!
Real Science! Real Discovery! Please forgive me for boasting, but I TOLD YOU SO!!! The biggest argument for the existence of so-called "Dark Matter" has just been swept away.. and by a COLLEGE GIRL UNDERGRADUATE!! HA HA HA!!!

See, the dark matter people's argument was the question, "Where did all the matter go, after the creation of the universe, 'cause we can't see it?" Well, Aussie undergraduate, Amelia Fraser-McKelvie, found it. Read about it, here.. No kidding!

Now that we know that there is no (or very little) "Dark Matter," can we please answer my question which predicts light slow down at the edge of the universe? Technique: Simple inertia. Einstein would still be correct, but it also means we may be able to break the speed of light? - But that's wishing for miracles. So far...

May 27, 2011
Hubris²
Most of the economic information coming from the current administration is false. The ONLY question to be answered is, "Did they mean to put forward the false information?" That would make it a lie, and when you call someone a liar, sensible people have a habit of turning off. So, let's just say their information is false, for now.

What's false about it?

The actual number for all home sales in the first quarter of 2011 was 28.2% foreclosure sales. That's up from 26.9% for 4Q 2010. It's down from 1Q 2010 by almost .8% from 29.0% foreclosure sales. The actual number is headed toward a THIRD of all home sales being foreclosed homes. Now, this is a great time to buy a home if you've got the cash or the credit. But it also means that for the rest of us, the administration's efforts for the past three years have been abysmally inadequate.

We TOLD you the unemployment numbers were false last week, and sure enough, they "adjusted that number upwards."

And the GDP? Can we believe the numbers at all? I don't. I think we are being told a flat-out lie, and that in a newer administration, not Progressive, we will see that we have been growing at a rate comparable to chance.

Obama might as well have just left things alone, and we'd be here at the same spot or better, economically.

I am 64, about to be 65,
as many of you know. I'm on SocSec. I was TOLD, when I made my first SocSec payment at the age of 5, (yes 5 - I was precocious) that I could retire at 62. When I got to 62, they told me I could retire, but I'd have to take a lesser payment than retiring at 65 AND I had to pretend that they were meeting their end of the bargain. I couldn't even draw my PAID UP part of the contract if I made over $14K at my teaching job. Well, I made 24K but spent 16K in travel expenses for a net of 8K. I still had to give most of it back. It has to be TAXABLE INCOME BEFORE EXPENSES!!

So, in fact, I'll never get the over $300K I've put into the system since 1951. I have diabetes and will die long before that day arrives. Incidentally, when I asked to see my file history, I was told that those records did not exist(!) Do you know where my money is?

Now, about a year ago, I started getting inundated by tons of circulars advertising plan B deductibles. We had decided, some time ago, not to invoke Medicare coverage - Medicare makes lying whores out of physicians and nurses. Yes, I teach and pay a considerable amount, twice a month, into Medicare, but if I choose it, I can never renounce it, and some day I will get less care because of it. It's a bad plan brought about by stupid politicians who have the moral fibre of a leech.

So, weeks ago, that fateful day came when I got my "opt-in" card for Medicare. I checked the box which says, "I do not want to enroll in Medicare." It's down toward the right at the bottom of the card. I mailed it. I'm still getting the circulars and all the wonderful Medicare offers.

Today, incredibly, I received my official Medicare & You booklet. It must have cost nearly 8 bucks, wholesale, to print the darn thing, which I don't need, because I already told them I'm not using Medicare. Then it hit me! THEY SPENT MY SOCSEC MONEY ON PRINTING WORTHLESS MEDICARE BOOKLETS! GREAT JOB, GUYS!!

May 26, 2011
About the Election in New York
If there is one thing the election in New York has proven, it's that seniors get scared. But it also points to a true flaw in the Republican party: as much as Progressives lie, Republicans don't know how to teach.

Republicans know they have to teach, they just don't know how to do it - even when people like Dick Morris tell them what to do, they don't do it.

You have to teach, at least, every other day in order to make the lessons stick. And these days, with the Progressives lying as much as they have been, teaching every day is not a bad idea.

For instance, Progressives have been out lying, again, about saving Social Security. The majority of voters, are now echoing the Progressives in saying that we don't need to fix it - a blatant lie. Or, saying it would take years to bring new oil online (actually about 5 years, right now) while increasing the hurdles it takes to bring new oil online

Yes, Republicans and Tea folk know this is true, but it's not enough to know it. Voters are like a box of kittens. You have to constantly and consistently guide them - even to the point of moving the box to a place that makes teaching them easier.

Also, even though John Locke was correct about the basic goodness of humans, de Toqueville showed that good people don't want to work at their goodness anymore than they have to. Jesus understood that when he taught us that we should pray to be forgiven for our TRESPASSES, not sins, not corruption - all that is encrustment from not correcting our "missing the mark" - but TRESPASSES. "Screwups," if you will.

So, if people are lazy about fixing the screwups in their lives, when such reparation can save their immortal souls, why would people care about repairing an economic system which is even harder to understand, thanks to the lies told by the Progressives?

Only constant teaching can defeat this cynical nihilism. Constant, focused teaching of the ideas and ideals of responsible citizens. Only constant teaching can turn the result in New York into a "fluke." Congressman Ryan needs to be listened to.

Every moment MUST be a teachable moment.

May 23, 2011
Are You Ready To Believe Another Lie?
Look, I hate to keep harping on this man, but he says something one day and then says he didn't say it, the next. Take his statement about Israel's pre '67 War borders.

On Friday, the 20th, you could find his speech, verbatim, in almost every blog in the World. Now, that Obama has "clarified" his speech, in another speech, in front the Liberal Jewish Organization, AIPAC, all you can find is a restatement of the clarification as like the one found in the NYT:

"But the shift moves the United States a step closer to the position of the Palestinians, and is viewed as vital to them because it means the Americans implicitly back their view that new Israeli settlement construction will have to be reversed, or compensated for, in talks over the borders for a new Palestinian state."

And people like Chris Wallace want you to believe that there can be a compromise with these people. People, if you want a free America, there can be no compromise.

As one of my students puts it.. "Ya'll got smiley-face on one side and underface on th'otha. He jus' anutha talka.."

May 22, 2011
But, What If It Did?
OK. So the world did not come to an end. This is being written ahead of time on Saturday, so, yes, I'm tempting fate by writing this article, but c'mon people, this is stupid. Millenarianism is a common response to a stressed-out society. And people gain power by scaring other people. Look at politics.

The racists in the Progressive Party are trying to scare everybody, telling a complete lie about what the Republicans are going to do to Social Security - as if they had not reeked enough havoc on Medicare, themselves, with their pathetic "Obamacare" substitutions. But that hasn't stopped them from lying about everything from SocSec to how to create jobs.

And then I think about that poor schlub who declared that the world was going to end and the number of people who are actually holding their breath as I'm writing this.

THAT IS THE POWER OF FEAR.

But it's not just fear. It's fear backed up by ignorance. Most people do not have a personal relationship with the Almighty. Oh, lots of people go to church or synagogue or mosque or temple, but few of these have that personal relationship with the Supreme Being. Most just have a fear borne of ignorance.

And that's why they hold their breaths when silly prophecies - either from Progressives or misguided preachers - are hurled at the public. Now we have to get through 12-21-12.

May 20, 2011
".. A Tangled Web We Weave.."*
"A better bridge to muslims." We stopped in our mid sentences, unable to believe that the Jew-Haters, who disguise themselves as intellectuals had finally been able to spew their hundreds years long hatred at the first children of the Lord.. . It is the great fantasy of those intellectuals to think that the land doesn't belong to Israel, but to the sons of Mohammed. There is so little proof that Islamist believing peoples had control of the middle east for the lengthy time the phillistines and Habiru did. There are no chops there. There's also a group of foggy thinkers who believe that Islam is the next step in the evolution of religion, which, in itself is more wishful thinking.

To be honest, the Obama plan for peace looks like jehad without the firey words. America may do itself some good by contacting Israel through back alleys to let them know this silliness will not endure and all they see will be undone. Ben Netanyahu knows these things. He will not believe that as long as citizens are free, the slaves surrounding Obama will not prevail.

*"Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive." - Sir Walter Scott (Marmion, 1808)

May 17, 2011
And All The Boards Did Shrink
What did I tell you?

They guessed wrong about the amount of flooding and now, they're going to stick it to the farmers miles from the Mississippi. There is NO surprise here, folks. These are the same people who thought global warming was the real deal.

Why not let the City People take a few water licks?

Also, did you know that a lot of the flooded farmland was in direct competition with some of those large Agri-business firms. You know, the ones who gave Obama so much money in 2008?

I know, I know.. maybe it's just because I'm so angry with the decision to put the needs of our cesspool cities ahead of the needs of the citizens who populate our Country's small farms.

Behold! The wonders brought about by government.

Newt Gingrich's Self-Immolation..
As the Progressive Party silently dissolves (silently, because the media isn't reporting it), Newt Gingrich's recent comments continue to whittle away at his own base. The breathless announcement of the current resident of the White House almost has the rest of Gingrich's base wondering if they have wandered down a rabbit hole.

Let's return, now, to those days of yore, when Newt said, "..you really do need a thin layer of socialism in order to make capitalism work." (that's a personal memory from 1975) He wasn't the only one saying it - Bob Dole did it and George H.W. was fond of saying it.. in private. It's still a false assumption, but Newt's recent remarks made me remember.

It's good to remember.

Let's also remember that without South Carolina Republicans supporting you, you can't win the national nomination. This is not a vain bleat at a mysterious and unprovable theory. South Carolinians have a funny way of insinuating themselves into national races. We have more political agents per capita than any other state. Of course, we also have more entertainment stars per capita than any other state, too - is there a connection?

So, when I said, last week, that Newt made a huge mistake when he refused to show up for the South Carolina debate, I wasn't whistling "Dixie." I was calling in the dawgs and putting out the fire on Newt's Republican bid in the South and Conservative West.

On Pakistan Relations:
You don't ASK for a sometime friend to be a better friend. You work from a position of strength so strong that you don't have to ask - they WANT to "help" you. Otherwise, it all "Halo."

From Inside the Crystal Ball I'm predicting, today, that if the Republican party follow the Ryan style, they'll win in Nov 2012. If they give more credence to Romney and Gingrich, there WILL BE a push to create a third party, made up of social moderates & liberals, fiscal conservatives, and libertarians. Think that's not possible? Think again.

May 15, 2011
Huck Makes Best Choice
The Huck is not running for Prez. I'm taking him at his word - he just doesn't want to. He says he made his decision like a lot of us do - alone - at quiet time with the Lord. In YOUR next quiet time, you might ask yourself why should anybody run for president? If you have to be or act like the current resident of the White House, can you even BELIEVE in God?

Messin' with the Mississippi
Pardon the tasteless question, but, who decides what gets drowned and what doesn't? And does the decision have political origins?

I'm going to take an educated guess and say that it's a no - brainer, when your voting base can be found, for the most part, in the CITIES. Can't blame the Corps of Engineers (at least not this time) because they are TOLD what to do by the prevailing administration. And did anyone not notice the rationale used to justify wiping out a few thousand farmers?

Seems to me that the one group of people we want to help survive are the folks who grow our food and some fuel. But wait! Wouldn't that increase the price of ethanol used in - wait for it - gasoline? Of course, the price of food is already inflationary to the tune of 50% in many cases.

Or is this administration just filled with dumbos?

We do, at least, have a pretty good argument that they think they're doing the best thing for themselves, if not for us. But then, when was the last time we little folk meant anything to anybody? With some VERY FEW exceptions, maybe we just need some new politicians - I know, I know - preaching to the choir.

May 12, 2011
The Dignity of the Office
One of the most repeated phrases in American politics - usually a wail from the far right and far left - is that we should not speak ill of the president in deference to the office. I have always thought this was a stretch of logic, because it asks forbearance for custom's sake, rather than judge a person for his or her actions.

I've also thought, for many years, that a guy named "Lord Acton" had a pretty good idea when it came to the exercise of power. Recently, I have been re-reading about the Baron. The most succinct article I can find is in an article about him in Wikipedia. I thought you might be interested in reading about him.

"In 1870 came the great crisis in Roman Catholicism over Pope Pius IX's promulgation of the doctrine of papal infallibility. Lord Acton, who was in complete sympathy on this subject with Dollinger, went to Rome in order to throw all his influence against it, but the step he so much dreaded was not to be averted. The Old Catholic separation followed, but Acton did not personally join the seceders, and the authorities prudently refrained from forcing the hand of so competent and influential an English layman. It was in this context that, in a letter he wrote to scholar and ecclesiastic Mandell Creighton, dated April 1887, Acton made his most famous pronouncement:

'I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by full authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.'"*

*. Dalberg-Acton (Lord), John Emerich Edward (1949), Essays on Freedom and Power, Boston: Beacon Press, p. 364. found posted at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton . 20110512||14:15.

So, no. Nobody gets any slack - especially any persons of special position.

May 7, 2011
You Want Fries With that?
With a straight face, mind you, news readers around the Country reported that over 260,000 people got jobs - a much larger number than expected - almost all in the euphemistically called "Service Sector." Were that it were good news.

What the numbers really mean is that summer jobs, usually taken by kids, are being filled by adults, desperate for a job.

Andrew Carnegie once said, "All work that is honest is honorable," and I believe it. But he also believed that a person's heart should be in his or her work. And, for a while, there will be joy in just being able to earn a living. But, in the end, it is the curse of humanity to become bored with the repetition of, "would you like to make that a combo?" And eventually it will become a tiresome, bitter phrase in the mouths of many adults in teenagers' work. But work it is, and all work that is honest is honorable.

The dishonesty, here, is that the numbers are thrown at us as if they are some sign of actual success. Historically, these kinds of numbers come at the END of a successful economic cycle, just before a huge round of layoffs. If this is NOT going to follow pattern, this time, then it will be more than passing strange. Or maybe it's just a sign of how screwed up the economy has become.

Oh, and the "official" unemployment rate is back up to 9.0%. That means the real unemployment number is much worse.. and you know what? We're all willing to just sit back and absorb these convenient lies as if they weren't really lies. 9.0%? Really? And how about only 2.1% inflation. Really? Gone grocery shopping, lately? Bought gas? It's more like 35% inflation.

WHEN are we going to stop putting up with this wickedness? WHEN? Is it REALLY ok if we just ignore all the promises followed by all the lies and false justifications? Will it all just really be ok? Or are we just too scared to admit the truth - too frightened to fight back? We claim gentility, but isn't it just fear. Like children, we metaphorically cover our eyes with our hands and pretend the bad will go away.

Would SOMEONE write to me and tell me, not that I'm right, I get plenty of that, already, but just that SOME of this crazy world makes SOME sense, and that, at least SOME people are going to help change it from the ethical cesspool it has become?

How do we do that? Well, we DON'T HAVE TO lie and cheat each other. We DON'T have to rob from the rich to help the poor. We DON'T have to force other people to do what WE want them to do. But WE DO HAVE TO get together. We DO have to organize. And we DO have to stop making allowances for other people's reprehensible behavior.

WE'RE SOUTH CAROLINIANS. We KNOW what a good education can do. We KNOW what pure capitalism can achieve. And we know that, together, we can reshape the future into a place where EVERYBODY gets a shot. Not GUARANTEED success, but a CHANCE to succeed.

But being South Carolinians, we know that life is not a giveaway. Life is struggle and sacrifice and forbearance, punctuated by joy and friendship and good times. And voluntary charity.

9.0% Unemployment - You want fries with that?

May 6, 2011
About the Big Debate
Herman Cain. He IS the man to support, if Paul Ryan won't run.

Why do I say that, when I have supported Newt for all these years, even in the face of his peccadilloes? Simple. Newt didn't show up.

Kudos..
To the South Carolina citizens who appeared on Hannity, after the debate. They blew the bottom out of the stereotype. Lot of smart, logical answers. Not a lot of drawls. God Bless Them!!!

May 2, 2011
One for the Good Guys..
We got him! Thanks to CIA Black Ops, the greatest coward in our times may be buried at sea. Thanks to the Seals, Usama bin Laden sleeps with the fishes. On the first day of the al Quaeda Spring Offensive, America proved that however long it took, WE DON"T QUIT!!

And, it's one of those little ironies that seem to fill my life. As I'm watching Meathead's The American President (made as an apology for the Clinton administration) as the part where he has Lybia bombed "in the most humane way," is playing, the news comes on the REAL Fox News Channel - the story, broken first, by courageous cancer survivor, Jennifer Griffin - that Usama bin Laden has been killed by either a drone bomb or at the hand of a some-time Pakistani ally, about a week before. Later we learn it was a Navy Seal-CIA Op. Familial DNA match.

Another irony - the man called "the bravest muslim of all time," in the end, wound up hiding behind a woman, his son using a woman as as human shield, in the end.

But what was even more amazing was that the local Fox outlet, IN THEIR NEWS BLOCK, continues running a puff piece on doggies(!) People, switching from Fox News Channel to Fox Network to see the local take on the story are met, instead, with pictures of dogs wearing hats! In the biggest TV market in the western half of the Carolinas (bigger even than Charlotte).

The wonderfulness of all of this is that this is no Carteresque screwup. In order to win battles, the current resident of the White House is winning the middle eastern wars using the people and techniques of the previous President. No, it was a Military/CIA Op did the deed on bin Laden. Using eagle-eye spy-drones and boots on the ground, we have all, together, brought justice down on the head of the worst mass murderer in US history.

One last irony - the technique which brought about this justice, comes right out of a Tom Clancy novel

Tom Clancy, Uncanny Novelist
about John Clark and the original "Delta Force" black ops,

Liev Schreiber as John Clark in the 2002 movie, Sum of All Fears
18 years ago [Without Remorse (1993)].

"Then conquer we must
when our cause it is just;
And this be our motto,
'In God Is Our Trust'
And the Star Spangled Banner
forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free
and the home of the brave."

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- Dick Anderson.

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