1 sweet

2 Your Nook watches you undress.

3 Good morning!

4 Last week I read "Mohammed AMPERSAND Charlemagne Revisited" by Emmet Scott. He's trying to revive the Pirenne Hypothesis: that the fall of Rome didn't bring about the Dark Ages; it was the Last Persian War and the Arabs which did it.

5 currently reading Gary Taubes Why we get fat and Ash and Gross's Elliptic Tales. Both excellent & informative

6 Last three and half years the crappy economy was Bush's fault. Now President's have no effect over the economy?

7 In Russia, book reads YOU

8 Also, it might be a good thread to announce "House of War". This is the actual book I've been writing ("The Arabs and Their Qur'an" wasn't a book - it was a collection). This puts suras 25 and 26 in their historical context, which context is 'Abd al-Malik's "collection" efforts in the 690s. I think 'Abd al-Malik did more to make Islam, Islam, than did the Prophet himself.

The plan is to post that one early this week.

9 If any of you read Jeffrey Deaver's books, avoid his most recent, XO.  It is a lousy book that wasted an interesting premise and has much leftist screed involved and a VRWC.  Are there no editors anymore?

10 I read "Empire of the East" again recently. Last time was 30 years ago. Still pretty good. Also just finished "The Night Circus". Good, but weak in important ways, I think.

11 Bet the Kindle/Nook also tracks who moves their lips when reading.

12 Your Nook knows you pee in the sink when The Wife is out shopping.

13 Your Nook knows you pee in the sink when The Wife is out shopping. Posted by: eman at July 08, 2012 11:35 AM

Why would you do that?

14 It is a lousy book that wasted an interesting premise and has much leftist screed involved and a VRWC. Are there no editors anymore?

There are plenty of editors, but they're all lefty douchebags who think that the VRWC is real and is responsible for all the evil in the country, if not the world.

15 Why would you do that? Posted by: huerfano at July 08, 2012 11:37 AM (bAGA/) Didn't say I did.

16 One of the standby screens on my Nook is this:
http://tinyurl.com/6s92zfj

17 Started into "Apocalypse Codex", the latest Laundry novel from Charles Stross. Enjoying it so far.

"Raven's Children", the second in moron author Sabrina Chase's Sequoyah sci-fi trilogy, is now available on Amazon. I had the privilege of reading it pre-release; the lady can write.

18 Mowed through The Accident and No Time for Goodbye, both by Linwood Barclay and John Sandford's latest, Stolen Prey. Out of them all, No Time was the best. Premise: a rebellious 14-year-old girl wakes up one morning (after a drunk night out with her older boyfriend) to a deserted house.  No parents, no older brother, no note, no cars. It will be 25 years before she finds out what happened.   (This book was optioned for a movie.)

19 If you're really paranoid, disconnecting the WiFi antenna in an e-reader device is pretty simple. Especially on a Nook since it is designed to be opened up by the user to insert memory cards. (E-ink models.)

20

Besides, you can always turn off the wireless access in your eReader, which is what I have done with my Nook, whose internet interface is pretty crappy, anyway, so I'm not missing anything.

 

Not challenging your Smartz or anything, but won't it just store the information and upload it at the next Sync anyway? (You have to get new material on there at some point.)

FWIW, Microsoft has been doing this with games for a while.  Some time back they explained that a secondary effect of achievements was they could tell (more or less) how many people finished a game, how many replayed a game, etc.  And by making the data collection customer facing (i.e. via the achievements) no one really balked.

21 Your Nook watches u fap.

22 Oh goodie, Anachronda. I've been reading Glen Reynolds ' book and Wyatt Earl's book. And I'll finish reading Charlotte's Web to the kids today.

23 @10 interesting premise: grrlz found dead with XO face?

24
Not challenging your Smartz or anything, but won't it just store the information and upload it at the next Sync anyway? (You have to get new material on there at some point.)

That's a good point. However, I never sync my Nook, and if I need to download a new ebook to it, I first download it to my computer, and then copy it to my Nook via USB cable.

Yeah, I'm old school. None of this "cloud" jazz for me, thanks.

25 Last week I finished Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Victory_Series

Took me four months. Had to visit other township libraries for two titles.   Something north of six thousand pages, and the n-word on at least half of 'em.  I admit to smirking when a band of guerrillas shot a "Navy man" home on leave in Plains, GA, during the second Great War.  *smirk*  And in the Union, the Democrats are the anti-socialists, just to drive home that it's an alternate universe.

I also read PG Wodehouse's Bachelor's Anonymous, on the suggestion of LincolnTF here a few weeks ago; excellent summer reading.  Romance, but not chick-lit. I hate chick-lit.

My "serious" reading is a reprint of Theodore Dreiser's "A Hoosier Holiday", hailed in the introduction as the progenitor of the "American automobile journey" genre of literature. Summary: Writer escapes Indiana, returns 28 years later in 1915, driving out from the east coast with a friend.  I've driven all over the interior of the country, but on interstates with McDonalds at every other exit; totally different from travel 100 years ago.

My cow-orkers tell me I should read that "50 Shades of Grey" shit; they seem to be unaware that sadism porn has been free on the intertubes for twenty years and it's boring besides.

26 I'm re-reading Clear and Present Danger.

27 btw is anyone concerned over this UN antigun treaty 2nd amendment end run thingy?

28

too much to eat with semi-girlfriend, got home late, vodka purchased on way home almost untouched last night, now empty...

 

wait, internet spies on you..? you mean the government might find out that I like Popeye's more than Col Sanders..? DOOMED...

29 re 29: yes

30 I've started Hobbes' Leviathan.  Pretty slow going thus far, but it has promise.

I waded through Wealth of Nations and both volumes of Democracy in America, so my tolerance for this sort of thing is pretty high.

It's like being back in college, without the benefits of free beer and coeds.

31 I appreciate the Sync functions in the e-readers but they've never been much use to me. None of my content is purchased from Amazon or BandN, IYKWIMAITYD. It's a really good idea for any author to have a tip jar of some sort on their web site. (One author who has written a novel in which this was a major sub-plot does not and I've admonished him for not believing in his own prediction of the future.)

I have the Kindle and Nook apps on my phone and could quickly procure some reading material if I were really desperate but I usually have my actual e-readers with in situations where I'm likely to be stuck waiting for long. (Not to mention a DS with a 32 GB microSD card full of games.)

My Kindle's WiFi is on because it sometimes brings up a good ad I engage but under the circumstances the files aren't going to match up to Amazon's inventory in most cases.

32 "But the process sucked up all the time so now I'm behind on the book thread."

Yes, but the important thing is that you tried really hard.

33 Re: Deaver's XO -- I enjoyed the book and didn't find the politics to be that bad. OTOH, I have given up on Barry Eisler, after enjoying many of his early Rain books. The books started out as fairly apolitical and then his web site went hard left, followed by his books. Wonder if Eisler was a lefty when he worked for the CIA. Lots of leftys work there, alas.

34

by the by, I was running late last night, and I said, God, I rarely ask for anything, but can I at least make this train so I don't get home at 3 am..?

 

Thank you, God, I appreciate that you occasionally throw me that bone I occasionally ask for.

35 #32

If you slogged through 'The Wealth of Nations' you may enjoy this as a followup:
http://tinyurl.com/7um5lrh

36

I'm more concerned that Obama is

 

 

A Stuttering Clusterfuck of a Miserable Tyrant.

 

 

The UN is alway, ALWAYS full of  anti-freedom, anti-liberty screw heads.  It is always a vehicle for petty third world and second world tyrants to do something freaky to the wealthier first world. And for first world freaks to get their self - abasement freak on.

 

I read no books this week. Print is dead (Egon Spengler).

37 Gary Wills, "What the Gospels Meant." Places the four gospels in the context of the particular audiences for whom they were written.

38 Yes, but what does Gary Wills mean?

39 Miss me yet?

40 Question: If the United States goes with full-on socialist health care, where are the people who are seeking medical care because they've been screwed by their own country's socialist health system care going to go?

Answer:  "I stand for individual liberty, the entrepreneurial spirit, and the self-reliant citizenry on which this great Republic was founded.  For those of us who came to this country, this is the last stop. There's no where else to go." -- Mark Steyn

41 Obama cried "feel Bard"?

42 The Rising Tide, by Jeff Shaara. Very good read about early War 2.

43 37 #32

If you slogged through 'The Wealth of Nations' you may enjoy this as a followup

Good call, but I already read it.  O'Rourke certainly goes down easier.

44 I read "Martha Gellhorn: A Life" (2003) by Caroline Moorehead. Now I feel sorry for Ernest Hemingway. He was no prize but what a nasty bitch was Martha - to everyone. Plus, she was one of the American" newswriters that spent so much time abroad, they go "native."

45 Yesterday I blew through Anna Dean's "A Woman' of Consequence," which I bought by accident on my Kindle (the dangers of being impatient and pushing buttons too fast on an old Kindle; while I was pushing all the buttons trying to figure out how to undo it, I blew past the "did you buy this book by accident?" page as well and then couldn't get back. I suppose I could have called customer service, but who wants to talk to actual people? I'd rather lose the 11 bucks) I wish these Jane Austen era mysteries weren't all so aggressively feminist. But still. Nice, fast, escapist, fluff for those with the stereotypically female taste in books.

46 Obama lied "kneel 'tard"?

47

It never really occurred to me that once I've downloaded the title that my Kindle knows or cares what I'm doing. Scary.  Guess I should get rid of all that free housewife porn. 

in other free stuff news, I've been reading all the free titles I've downloaded onto the Kindle... The Man Who Would Be King, The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie, and some books written in the early 1900s on manners, deportment and dress that are fascinating, but a little frustrating.  The one on dress keeps referring to illustrations that don't exist on the Kindle.  I really want to see the example of the atrocious hat No Decent Lady Would Even Think of Wearing.

The essays on the art of conversation convince me that ladies and gentlemen of that era would faint and weep at our lowbred bellowings.  It's really inspired me not to say fuck anymore.  As much.

48 Ur nookz in ur bedroom watchin u fap.

49 "If the United States goes with full-on socialist health care, where are the people who are seeking medical care because they've been screwed by their own country's socialist health system care going to go?"

India. They've been setting up specialty hospitals for a while, so I'd imagine post-Obamacare implementation, this will be the place to go for things like cutting-edge heart surgeries. And there's all of the US docs who will likely abandon their US practices, they may set up shop in a country nearby.

50 Personally, I don't see anything particularly sinister about this.
That's right, Dave Oregon Muse, there's nothing particularly sinister about this. At all.

And I'm pleased that you're enjoying that copy of Big 'Uns so much, Dave Oregon Muse, especially the Christina Hendricks spread but shouldn't you currently be working on next weekend's book thread?

51 Your Nook watches u fap.
No. I do that Dave Oregon Muse. 

52 Nook Color say hello to Cyanogen Mod 7.  That is all.
http://androidadvices.com/how-to-update-nook-color-to-latest-cyanogen-mod-7/

53 Reading The Bros. Karamazov on my phone.

(Think how odd it would have been to hear s/o say that 30 years ago.)

54 OT: Emperor Baracka put out another Executive Order seeking "control" over communications during a "crisis" Link to copy of EO at Weasel Zippers... http://is.gd/8QbI6i

55 Great. Now my Kindle is tracking me every move & purchase. Add this to list of other everyday "spies", such as my PC, cell phone/smart phone, GPS, electronic toll pass, every "frequent customer" card and credit card, public cameras (including traffic cams), ans probably DHS drones in the near future. Is there any part of my life that is not subject to some organization's analysis?

56 I would NEVER suggest any version of Word.  I have always used Corel's Word Perfect and I much prefer it.  I've heard rumors that it is not particularly compatible with some blog programs, but I have not found it so.

It loads easily and I am using Windows 7 on a relatively ordinary Toshiba laptop.  I don't believe it's been updated for a while, but it doesn't matter, because it didn't need updating.

High-end users may, of course, disagree; I'm not one.

57 Just started Rothbard's "Ethics of Liberty". So far so good, especially HHH foreword.

58 Anthony Everitt's "Augustus:  The Life of Rome's First Emperor."  Everitt gives a good objective warts and all bio of Augustus who could be cruel, sympathetic, and murderous at the same time.  According to the author Augustus' primary attribute resided in his ability to manage and bring Rome back to a functioning world power after decades of dynasts.  Worth your nickel.

59 Read enough books and you will find a few stinkers, oh boy did I find a bad one this time.

Freezing Point by Karen Dionne

Remember that name Karen Dionne, you don't want to subject yourself to reading her crap if you can avoid it.

You might be confused by the Amazon.com 4 star rating, but let me be clear, it's not a bad book in the sense that the editing is bad, or boring, or bad dialog, or in any of the structural measures of what makes a book.  It is the content that is so utterly offensive to anyone with a bias in the direction of logic, capitalism, and free markets.

The dominant theme of the book is water.  Water being a fundamental human right, and no one should have to pay for it.

Now it's possible to conclude that this is a smart book.  The author goes into great detail about the operations of a hypothetical corporation that transports iceberg melt water to customers.  Obviously this can't be free, so the stuff about free water is just one side of a high minded debate, and all the other environmentalist wackery in the book is so cliched that it can't be anything but irony, right?  So it must be a much smarter book than it appears on the surface.  Except that it doesn't read like a smart book.  It reads like Ted Kaczynski grade radical environmentalist terrorist sermonizing.  It could be a smart book on some philosophical meta level beyond my comprehension but it's not a smart book at the literal level.  The author makes so many errors on technical matters I can't list them all, but just to give you an idea:  She uses gigahertz as a unit of amplitude, and she thinks the solar cells on satellites work by converting the microwave radiation from the sun.

Aside from the communist free water, the rest of the book is all environmentalist wacko BS of one flavor or another:
- HAARP is doing permanent damage to the ionosphere
- The new non CFC refrigerants are destroying the ozone
- Global warming, rising sea levels, etc...

And the very best part is the endorsement of environmental terrorism.  "As long as no one is killed, only property is destroyed, then it's for the greater good", are the exact words of a sympathetic protagonist in the story.

In summary, it's a free book that isn't a good value.

60 ...but it can't shut down all the trash compactors on the detention level.

61 @56 You need to update/confirm your phone number with them, which they also use as an ID.

62 Just started Rothbard's "Ethics of Liberty". So far so good, especially HHH foreword.Posted by: kartoffel

Dr. Henry Howard Holmes?

63

>>I would NEVER suggest any version of Word. I have always used Corel's Word Perfect and I much prefer it.<< 

 

The nice thing (and yes, there is a nice thing) about the Office suite is that it exposes its objects (dirty minds, at ease) to users. That makes it easy to program them to talk to each other via VBA, so that data from Excel, Outlook, Word, Access, Powerpoint, Project Manager, etc. can all be programmatically transferred between them. Saves a lot of work.

64

I've always liked disaster stories, so this week I read "The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration " by Alec Wilkinson.  It's the history of a truly harebrained scheme by a Swedish engineer in 1897, to reach the North Pole by hot air balloon.  It was a disastrous failure, and Andree and his two companions both perished after landing on the ice and trying to trek back to safety. 

65
Dr. Henry Howard Holmes?

Hubert Horatio Hornblower

66 @56 Nix that. They are rejecting everybody. I have this vague recollection that they do system maintenance on Sunday mornings, so that may be it. Still, it is true -- you are not a man. Good luck with that.

67 It's the history of a truly harebrained scheme by a Swedish engineer in 1897, to reach the North Pole by hot air balloon.  It was a disastrous failure, and Andree and his two companions both perished after landing on the ice and trying to trek back to safety.

How uplifting.

68 Triple H the pro wrestler?

69 You'll have to pry WordPerfect out of my cold dead hands...

70 >I would NEVER suggest any version of Word.

Hehe, it's gotten better but I remember when Word crashed about once an hour if you were using it continuously.  The best part was the little file fragment it left in one of the directories every time it crashed and when the number of fragments got to a certain count it would refuse to even start up.

71

Andree and his two companions both
perished after landing on the ice and trying to trek back to safety.

How uplifting.

 

It was, for about 48 hours.

72 Dr. Henry Howard Holmes?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at July 08, 2012 12:41 PM (sClIO)

Ah yes, that excrable excuse for a minion.  I did not mind so much the mass murdering as his penchant for then selling the skeletons to medical labs and then having my Chicago office into a corpse processing facility.  The constabulary suspected nothing when I divulged his location after cutting my ties.

73 I've always liked disaster stories, so this week I read "The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration" by Alec Wilkinson. It's the history of a truly harebrained scheme by a Swedish engineer in 1897, to reach the North Pole by hot air balloon. It was a disastrous failure, and Andree and his two companions both perished after landing on the ice and trying to trek back to safety.

Posted by: Dr. Mabuse at July 08, 2012 12:42 PM (KOHFD)

I warned Andree to use a dirigible instead, but he chose not to listen, the rapscallion.

74 OT for a sec but Boulder Toilet Hobo, American Thinker has an article up about ancient Koranic writings and modern Islamic intolerance......it seems right up your alley interest-wise:
 
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6p3663g
 
Back on topic, I finally fired up my Kindle and bought that July 4th special from Amazon -- Independence by John Ferling; I haven't read a word of it yet but for $1.99 I couldn't resist.
 
I imagine Janet Nappy has added me to another watch list for buying it.

75 Newest book out this week: : "Obama Economic Successes". It is only 1 page long and that just lists the credits......Shortest fact book in history..

76 Posted by: Professor Marius von Totenkopf at July 08, 2012 12:48 PM

Professor, would you mind terribly if you would account for your whereabouts yesterday? Mr Goolsbee's family is inquiring of his well being since they have not had contact with him since several eyewitnesses attested to a rather intense verbal duel involving yourself and Mr Goolsbee on Friday evening

77 46 I read "Martha Gellhorn: A Life" (2003) by Caroline Moorehead. Now I feel sorry for Ernest Hemingway. He was no prize but what a nasty bitch was Martha - to everyone. Plus, she was one of the American" newswriters that spent so much time abroad, they go "native." Posted by: Redd at July 08, 2012 12:08 PM (suLy7) Sounds like they were made for each other. Finishing up Paul Johnson's Intellectuals today. He's quite harsh on Hemingway, who appears to deserve every bit of opprobrium.

78

It's the history of a truly harebrained scheme by a Swedish engineer in 1897, to reach the North Pole by hot air balloon. It was a disastrous failure, and Andree and his two companions both perished after landing on the ice and trying to trek back to safety.

 

... had he only used a combat dirigible, events might have not gone awry ...

79 Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

80 @56. Once in a while LAPL site doesn't recognize my card but later it does.

81 It's the history of a truly harebrained scheme by a Swedish engineer in 1897, to reach the North Pole by hot air balloon. It was a disastrous failure, and Andree and his two companions both perished after landing on the ice and trying to trek back to safety.

No one tried harder than they did to reach the North Pole. Therefore investment in their company will ensure America's place in green alternative means of air transport

82 81 Ktnxbai, I read what you posted last night (or maybe it was the night before) and know you are facing financial troubles. Why not try a new locale? I hear they are hiring like mad in the Dakotas as a result of all the oil field money. Just a thought.
 
Anyhow, I care. I've heard you.

83 Professor, would you mind terribly if you would account for your whereabouts yesterday? Mr Goolsbee's family is inquiring of his well being since they have not had contact with him since several eyewitnesses attested to a rather intense verbal duel involving yourself and Mr Goolsbee on Friday evening

Posted by: Inspector Nigel Goodpenny at July 08, 2012 12:56 PM (Y+DPZ)

I believe he was in the company of his cabin boy, Roger, late last evening preparing for a brief sojourn to Egg Harbor.  His beloved Margarita DeVille was nowhere to be seen.  You may per chance want to inquire as to HER whereabouts, Inspector.  Mr. Goolsbee had been compaining about some polo playing cad from Boston vying for her affections.  I have been toiling tirelessly in my laboratory on my matter transmographication device for the past thirty six hours without sleep, fueled only by seven-per-cent solution and goose liver, so I could not possibly have been anywhere else.

84 The constabulary suspected nothing when I divulged his location after cutting my ties.

Shouldn't somebody be chortling or better still Mu-ha-ha-ing and rubbing their hands together.

85 ktnxbai, I feel for you since I've been there. LA is one of the worst places to be in your situation, I hope you can find something in another state.

86 Yes, but what does Gary Wills mean?

Posted by: Reader C.J. Burch writes...... at July 08, 2012 12:04 PM (sJTmU)

Everything Gary Wills writes gets translated that he's an insufferably cockwipe with my never erring decoding device.

On topic, I finished "The Great Upheaval" by Jay Winik and thoroughly enjoyed it with his insights into the linkages between countries at the end of the 18th century and how things turned out wildly different between France, Russia and the US.  Very vividly written history.  Also finished "Political Folk Music in America From it's Origins to Bob Dylan" by Laurence Epstein.  I think this book pissed off a lot of musical fellow travelers because it pointed out what dumbbells Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger were when it came to politics and no cult members can stand any revisions to the official word.  It also pointed out that Dylan wanted no fucking part of that nonsense.  None of this was surprising to me but it was an eye opener to anybody not aware of the background of this type of music.

87 errr insufferably arrogant cockwipe

88 Book "Hostile Takeover" by Matt Kibbe.  Ace of Spades mentioned on pages 74 and 77.  Chapter on new media making it harder for MFM to continue their manipulation on misinformation and flat out lies.

89 Shouldn't somebody be chortling or better still Mu-ha-ha-ing and rubbing their hands together.

Posted by: DaveA at July 08, 2012 01:09 PM (864A5)

Why not put for the prodigious effort of typing out every grunt, snort, and lip smack I make then?  My time is is of considerable value, and I cannot devote all of it to chronicling the actions of every one of my cells.  I have a Hollow Earth to explore, a Thule Society to combat, and maidens to tie to railroad tracks.

90 Never write one line of code when you can re-use 100.

91 I have been toiling tirelessly in my laboratory on my matter transmographication device for the past thirty six hours without sleep, fueled only by seven-per-cent solution and goose liver, so I could not possibly have been anywhere else.
Posted by: Professor Marius von Totenkopf at July 08, 2012 01:08 PM

Very well then, I shall make inquiries of Miss DeVille and this fellow Roger. I trust that all documentations and witnesses affirming your alibi will be in order before either Mr Goolsbee shall make his presence known or the report of my investigation to Scotland Yard is submitted within a fortnight

Good day, sir

92 Something wrong with arrogance?

93 re 94

Well it is the book thread vs. a movie review.

What is the deal with the maidens and railroad track though?

94 @81 You're welcome.

95 I have a Hollow Earth to explore, a Thule Society to combat, and maidens to tie to railroad tracks.Posted by: Professor Marius von Totenkopf

P'rfessor, don't you mean save the maidens? If'n you're a fightin' the Thule Society, it would seem contrary-wise to then ruin your good name for the sake of petticoat drama.

96 91 It also pointed out that Dylan wanted no fucking part of that nonsense. Exactly. Dylan was labeled a "sellout" in the mid-60s not because he began playing electric, but because he turned his back on the commies and their "protest songs".

97 @82 Oh, I think Gelhorn was much worse. Before I learned more about her, I would have said the opposite. In the end, Hemingway got screwed. They should have never released him from the hospital and his wife should have hid the key to the gun safe like she was suppose to do.

98 P'rfessor, don't you mean save the maidens? If'n you're a fightin' the Thule Society, it would seem contrary-wise to then ruin your good name for the sake of petticoat drama.

Posted by: Billy Dakota and Jum-jum the bear cub at July 08, 2012 01:22 PM (sClIO)

Let me just state that the Thule Society and I are currently cross-purposes.  Their interest in my man Tesla is a bit too intense for my taste of late.

As for the maidens, they, erm...uh...they are cultists posing as women of easy virtue that have a preference for murdering their customers as part of dark occult rituals to summon the ancient Assyrian demon Pazuzu.  That's it.  I'm the hero here.

99 GnuBreed, thanks for the link! Yes, Arthur Jeffery was a giant in Koranic criticism. He wrote a massive book collecting all the variant readings in the Qur'an of which he knew, "Materials for the History of the Text of the Qur'an" (mind you, this just scratches the surface).

It sounds like he was lucky that he didn't get shot on his way out of that country.

100 fueled only by seven-per-cent solution

Careful Inspector,
Junkies Lie!

101
Careful Inspector,
Junkies Lie!

Posted by: DEA agent 6+7/8 lost in time at July 08, 2012 01:30 PM (864A5)

It's medicinal, like the mason jar of Pappy McGee's Corn Mash White Lightning you drink daily.

102

Posted by: rickl at July 08, 2012 01:24 PM (sdi6R)

 

Well the promoters at Newport didn't particularly care for him and Mike Bloomfield blowing the lid off the joint in 65.

103 That's it. I'm the hero here.

That still doesn't explain the railroad tracks does it?

104 That still doesn't explain the railroad tracks does it?

Posted by: FBI profiler Miss Librarian glasses also lost in time at July 08, 2012 01:33 PM (864A5)

They must suffer for their villainy, and my army of mole men is not yet adequately trained to pursue that effort.

105 Exactly. Dylan was labeled a "sellout" in the mid-60s not because he began playing electric, but because he turned his back on the commies and their "protest songs". Posted by: rickl at July 08, 2012 01:24 PM

In an interview, Melissa Manchester called them "leftists". When a liberal calls them that, they're to the left of Lenin

106 #66

Actually, Corel Office apps support VBA.

I don't much recommend Corel Office but it isn't for lack of trying on their part. If one were starting from scratch and had no concern about compatibility with anyone else, Corel is as good a set of apps as most users are likely to need. But then, under that circumstance OpenOffice might be adequate with the virtue of being free. There are plenty of obscure products like Atlantis that have many virtues along with a very low price. For $35, Atlantis is very similar to Word 2003, has a very small resource footprint, and will save as EPUB, which is my main reason for having it around. I find it far more efficient to save from Atlantis and then do final work in Sigil to produce e-book files. (Use Calibre or Kindlegen to produce Kindle versions from there.)

Several of my co-workers are very serious heavy duty Word users (complex 500+ page proposals) and the competition fails badly for their needs.

107 Late to the thread today but here it is:

Finished Freedom Just Around The Corner by Walter A. McDougall.  DidnÂ’t like it at all and it was what might be expected from a libtard who taught at USC Berkley.  He hated Thomas Jefferson and spared no efforts to trash him.   He had nothing but praise for big government Adams.  His writing was shallow and he failed to do key research on some of his “claims”.  He castigated Jefferson for including a bit in the DOI blaming King George for failure to stop importation of slaves to VA like that was “crazy” and a lie.  In actuality Jefferson was right.  VAÂ’s legislature voted twice to halt the importation of slaves in to VA.  Both times the King over road the law by veto at the behest of the slave traders.   That is just one example of shallow research which the fats are readily available in other histories.


I am currently reading one that is much better, Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free by John Ferling and I got it on one of their “sales” for $1.99.  The one above cost me $11 for a used book from Amazon.

108 They must suffer for their villainy, and my army of mole men is not yet adequately trained to pursue that effort.Posted by: Professor Marius von Totenkopf

Being a simple cowpoke, I do not the ways of the world such as a gentleman like yourself, but have you tried whittlin' instead?

I mean with switches and sticks of wood...Not maidens. It shore helps me pass the time and can even get you out of a scrape like that time I met up with a band of vampire injuns in Wevos, New Texaco.

109 Agree with your first paragraph totally! I am still in a funk and full of dread! God bless.

110 Similarly, I spend yesterday hacking this borrowed work lappy. I insist on having full admin rights, and nothing less will do. So I tried several things and then in a final act of defiance, I wiped the hard drive to do a fresh reload. The sata unit was a real bitch but I hacked and hacked and now I have it. F#ck me, I don't know why I do it.

111

Billy Dakota:

 

What were you thinking, going to Wevos, New Texaco? The attendant at the fillin' station said to stay on MoPac, an' you wuldn't have no problems.

 

Always trust your car to the man who wears the star ...

112 Hem was a dick. Reading The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles Hem was all "eggs, omelets" with the party line. Dos turned right (at the expense of his career). Hem is still famous, burning in hell.

113 It was one of those nights where the phone calls were only coming from my bookie, the only light was from the neon glow from the two bit hotel on the other side of Santa Monica Boulevard, and my only friend was Mr Daniels on the table and he was dying fast. I was a cat whose ninth life had passed six lives ago....

Then the dame walked in. Instinct told me I should have walked right out, but Sal the bookie doesn't take installments. Her Prada shoes and the Mercedes parked outside said she was on personal terms with all the big money in Beverly Hills. So why was she here?

"I'm Margarita DeVille" she said in a voice as steamy as an August night in Miami.....
 

114

#77

I imagine Janet Nappy has added me to another watch list for buying it.

Don't you sweat it sweet-cheeks. Everyone that's commented in this thread is on one of my watch lists.

115 #112

I've encountered a lot of people who cannot fit into their worldview the idea that Jefferson could own slaves while opposing the institution. It was an economic requirement of the time and place if you had a farming operation like his.

Jefferson loved his gadgets and lived long enough to probably see that mechanization was going to end the US form of slavery if it didn't happen first by law or violence. You wouldn't be able to compete with machines requiring skilled operators with slaves. Perhaps the Roman system would have met the challenge of industrialization but that is left for authors of alternate history stories to explore.

116 Many thanks for the mention, Anachronda. The self-publishing is going well (Bwahaha, chortle, etc.) Even thinking of doing some paper editions now.

Tried to read several books and failed--"Name of the Wind", Rothfuss, well-written but LONG and all of it dreary. Sent it back to the library to delight someone else. Started Bob Meyer's "Psychic Warrior", nearly threw Kindle against the wall when I was informed a military medical person had an "abacus" insignia  on their lapel. (I *think* he meant "caduceus" which really shouldn't be used for medical stuff since it is the symbol of Hermes, god of messengers and thieves). Other typos so egregious I still don't know what the original word was and I'm pretty good at decoding.

Speaking of self-publishing, will the Morons behind Totenkopf and Goolsbee please consider a longer version of their enjoyable tiff? This is great stuff.  Look up "epistolary novel" for ideas ;-)

117 Not at all trying to dissuade anybody from MS Office, but...

- All the cool kids who were using OpenOffice have moved to LibreOffice.
- If you need MSO-2007+ format (ie docx), there's no beating the real deal MS Office, but OOo/LO seem to have better legacy doc support than Office 2010.  I maintain my resume in legacy doc format, and any time I change something in Word 2010 it seems to bollix it up something fierce.  (Also, MSO is horrible in dealing with OpenDocument/ODF, should this become an issue.) In this respect, I would make the case that LibreOffice is a good companion to MSO.

118 I can imagine NHS personnel with an abacus on their uniform. Everything is calculated for the allowed expenditures and if the numbers aren't in your favor it the euthanasia track for you, dearie.

119 I've encountered a lot of people who cannot fit into their worldview the idea that Jefferson could own slaves while opposing the institution. It was an economic requirement of the time and place if you had a farming operation like his.


Jefferson could not manumit his slaves because they were collateral for his many loans.  Those loans started with the death of his father.  Along with the slaves he inherited a lot of debt and over his life he made it greater.

120

First, I find that the book in question, "Hostile Takeover", is the one by Matt Kibbe", not Joey W. Hill ...

 

Then, I read the comment of one Sabrina Chase.

 

Mon Dieu ... all this talk by Professor  von T. has my mind clouded most severely.

121 The caduceus thing could make for an interesting investigation. It should be the Rod of Asclepius, which is a staff with a single serpent. At some point in the US the wrong god's symbol was used and widely imitated.

Wiki offers this fascinating possible origin for the rod: Some commentators have interpreted the symbol as a direct representation of traditional treatment of Dracunculus medinensis, the Guinea worm. The worm emerges from painful ulcerous blisters. The blisters burn, causing the patient to immerse the affected area in water to cool and soothe it. The worm senses the temperature change and discharges its larva into the water. The traditional treatment was slowly to pull the worm out of the wound over a period of hours to weeks and wind it around a stick. The modern treatment may replace the stick with a piece of sterile gauze but is otherwise largely identical.

122 That IRA you used to have? That's right it got penalized. Hey, B+rry's got to have cash to run the joint!

123 Thought for the day.
When say it is a game , they say it is a business.
When you say it is a business they say it is a game.
from  North Dallas Forty
Applied from the regime.

124 #124

True but even if he started with the inherited lands and no debts it would have been necessary to make the purchase to get things done. It was a capital investment, like buying a tractor. Things were structured to favor the use of slaves, in that the wealthy operators of large farms sought laws that favored their continued success over new competitors. The natural problem of incumbents conspiring against new entrants.

125 Finished reading Don Quixote and all five books of A Song of Rapey Rapeness, excuse me A Song of Ice and Fire.

I'm probably going to start Being and Nothingness fairly soon.  I'm also currently working through Java for Dummies and 501 Opening Problems for Go.

126

Good morning morons and moronettes. Even now, I am still depressed about the Obamacare decision and Roberts' disastrous betrayal.

 

You know....since Obamacare has 'reclassified' young people up to the age of 26 as minors, for the purpose of receiving the benefit of their parents' healthcare coverage....

Then we should reset the age for voting and buying alcohol....to 26 years old.

 

 

Question: If the United States goes with full-on socialist health care, where are the people who are seeking medical care because they've been screwed by their own country's socialist health system care going to go?

 

Mexico?

I predict that the Drug Cartels will fill this niche.

But of course...doctors who screw up, will just be taken out and shot.

And you will have to pay your bill in cash, before you leave.

 

127 The GOP should invest in some flashy prime time infomercials about medical tourism. Right now, in India and other places, there are top rate hospitals performing surgeries for a price that is a fraction of what your insurance or Medicare would be billed by any US hospital. It is a stark reminder of the power of the free market and the damage we've done to ourselves by ignoring it.

128 Speaking of self-publishing, will the Morons behind Totenkopf and Goolsbee please consider a longer version of their enjoyable tiff? This is great stuff. Look up "epistolary novel" for ideas ;-)
Posted by: Sabrina Chase at July 08, 2012 01:57 PM

While I was appreciating the art form of the body of Miss DeVille, my eyes caught another female which cast a shadow on the bare wall that men empty their wallets for a few blocks away on Sunset and Highland. The glasses said teacher or librarian but the lace making its appearance above where she stopped buttoning the white Burberry blouse was the kind that every casting director in Hollywood knew ...

"Who's the accountant?", I sneered to the Beverly Hills dame

"This is Sabrina, just a friend" she replied in that voice that lonely men paid a month's rent just to hear on the phone ...

129 Bought and rapidly finished a copy of "The Few" from Jonathan Brazee. Good bit of future fiction that I got for 99 cents on my Kindle.

130 (I *think* he meant "caduceus" which really shouldn't be used for medical stuff since it is the symbol of Hermes, god of messengers and thieves)

Actually, based on the military doctors I've met, the symbol of the God of gamblers, liars and thieves is appropriate.

131

Was listening to morning open phones yesterday and a lady called in about compound medications. Evidently she has a specific mix of pharms to treat her form of epilepsy which was covered under her normal insurance.

 

Under DickheadCare, compound medications have been re-classified as OTC and are no longer covered, which is costing her an extra $600 a year.

132

@Oregon Muse,

Erg, right, Syncing your nook with a USB cable, which likely transfers data back home.  (Internet via USB bridge and all that jazz.)

Trust me, if they want your data they'll get it somehow.

133

Medical Self-Help Books could be a big money maker under Obamacare.

We could even see....the Medical DIY channel.

"Surgery For Dummies"

"Diagnosing Your Illness in 3 Easy Steps"

"Kitchen Pharmacology"

134 "Kitchen Pharmacology"

Way ahead of you, bub.

135 Those who would like to read an extraordinary book about Thomas Jefferson written by his Granddaughter should read "The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson" by Sarah Randolph. This book was originally written in the 1800s but it has been reprinted many times and is available at most libraries.


There is a drawing on the last page in the book showing Monticello in sad condition and describing how the Jefferson cemetery had fallen into disrepair.


When he died the house and all the grounds except the cemetery were auctioned off to pay debts.  The house has now been restored and is controlled by a foundation. The cemetery is still owned by the Jefferson family and is still an active cemetery.

136 If you don't mind working through a lot of WTF early on, there is another Shades of Grey. This one is by Jasper Fforde, best known for the Thursday Next series and its spinoff Nursery Crimes.

The setting is a very strange dystopia that thinks it is a utopia. Centuries after the Something That Happened, all of society is run under a rulebook written by a man named Munsell. It seems to be a bunch of arbitrary ideas slapped together by a run of the mill bloke but every word is treated as absolute and followed rigidly. Thus a possibly erroneous entry has outlawed the manufacture of spoons, making all existing spoons items of very high value passed down through families.

People are ranked by their ability to perceive color and a large portion of the population who are color blind form a laboring underclass, the Greys. The narrating protagonist, Eddie Russet, is a Red. When we first meet him he is in the process of being eaten by a carnivorous tree.

It can be a bit hard going early on because there are so many bizarre ideas the reader must figure out, as everything we learn is told from the perspective of one who grew up in this society and knows nothing of what proceeded the Something That Happened.

Not for everybody but I expect to be back for the planned second and third volumes.

137 I think I've mention Barry Eisler's left wing bent, before, Good recommendation on Winik, Captain.

138 Re the Washington / Jefferson / Slavery discussion, this is a longish but interesting article on the complexities of the issue. Very short take: laws passed after Washington's death (1799) made it very difficult for Jefferson to free his slaves in a similar manner by 1826.

http://www.wallbuilders.com/ libissuesarticles.asp?id=99

139 btw, MacDougall is a paleocon, not a liberal.

140 #137

The Nook is largely comatose when being used as a USB drive. If you were really paranoid you could disconnect your PC's network cable while the Nook is connected.

If you really wanted to mess with them you could create an EPUB file with the metadata 'My plan for utterly destroying the Barnes and Noble company and murdering all of its employees.'

141 Link fail, but I am familiar with those laws. IIANM they came along after Jefferson died.

142 Haha that king George thing is very funny

143 "This is Sabrina, just a friend" she replied in that voice that lonely men paid a month's rent just to hear on the phone ...

Posted by: Steve Mallet, Private Eye at July 08, 2012 02:21 PM (Y+DPZ)

Zounds, man!  Fraulein DeVille must be in her 70's if a film noir private dick such as your self can converse with her.  She must be remarkably well preserved if you find her comely.

144 147 Haha that king George thing is very funny Posted by: phoenixgirl, team dagny at July 08, 2012 02:43 PM

Hamilton thought it was hilarious too. I shoot the scoundrel for God and country and history makes ME the bad guy!

145
Hamilton thought it was hilarious too. I shoot the scoundrel for God and country and history makes ME the bad guy!

Posted by: Aaron Burr at July 08, 2012 02:45 PM (Y+DPZ)

The whole attempting to recruit Army officers and fellow travelers to flee and form your own country on the Mississippi independent of the United States bit notwithstanding, Herr Burr?  That's dirty pool even by my standards.

146 Excuse me. Can you help me? I'm looking for the drying paint thread. Is this it?

147 I have an Android tablet with the Nook & Kindle app. Normally the network is disabled (Airplane mode) to save battery. Solves the spying problem. REALLY pissed with Kindle app. Upgraded and now doesn't work! Cannot roll back to the previous version, so screwed. Luckily I have a 2nd tablet I can use.

148 Vic, link re-try

http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=99

149 BREITBART: Unemployment Rate Dropped In Every State That Elected A Republican Gov. In 2010

Only if there were some sort of pattern to this phenomena... hah, the guy on youtube got hit in the ballz. HAHAHA!

150 I read the Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey. Thoroughly enjoy it, as did my wife. Thanks to the Literary Morons who recommended it. I also read a little satire, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. It's about how the Devil tries to keep us from God. I've never been a religious person. I would call myself a Deist, but I've been thinking lately that we have to get back closer to God as a nation to prosper and survive. The ideas in this little book got me thinking and the satire had me chuckling.

Currently reading Quicksilver by Neal Stepheson. It took me 100 pages to get into it, but now I am looking forward to reading the entire trilogy of the Baroque Cycle.

151 Zounds, man! Fraulein DeVille must be in her 70's if a film noir private dick such as your self can converse with her. She must be remarkably well preserved if you find her comely.
Posted by: Professor Marius von Totenkopf at July 08, 2012 02:44 PM

Look here, you nazi mouse killer, at least I'm on the more recent side of both World Wars. If it weren't for your screwing around with that lab equipment from a Lon Cheney movie, I would be in my own time peering through the windshield of a 39 Ford staking out a movie producer, not trying to catch a bus outside before 15 Mexicans try to kill me

152 btw, MacDougall [sic] is a paleocon, not a liberal.

Point taken - but paleocons are as capable of being idiots as are liberals.

153 I would start with Cryptonomicon, which is sort of a sequel, since 17th century cyberpunk is a little hard to get into,

154 #152

Have you tried completely removing the app and installing from scratch? What make and model is the tablet, and what rev of Android is it running?

155 I've started Hobbes' Leviathan. Pretty slow going thus far, but it has promise. Posted by: pep at July 08, 2012 11:59 AM (6TB1Z) Hobbes was a totalitarian advocate. He basically believed that the people necessarily assented to the government just be being under it, and that they gave all their freedom and power to it. Whoever was in charge (e.g. the king, or a majority of voters) thus has total control and granted the people whatever rights he/they decided it would be spiffy for them to have. Moreover, he popularized the "social contract" idea which is total bunk. He says that there is an implicit "contract" between the people and their government wherein the people surrender themselves completely to the state just because they haven't fled the country in terror. He rejects inalienable rights, and suggests that whatever the government does is legitimate and opposing it is wrong. The "social contract" was always a bad analogy. Burke rejected it and suggested that if there is a contract, it is not just between he living, but with those who came before us, and those who will come after us -- more akin to a CC&R then a "social contract."

156 Excuse me. Can you help me? I'm looking for the drying paint thread. Is this it? Posted by: soothsayer at July 08, 2012 02:48 PM

For paint drying thread you would be wanting aisle five. Is there anything else I may be helping your with?

157

25% through The Rise, etc, etc, etc.  And the wholesale dying hasn't even started yet.  I'm thinking I might detour through Andrew Roberts' new history of WW II to see how it all ends and get the big picture and then maybe Shirer won't drag so much.

 

And just to get a break from the Nazis, I started "That's How I Roll" by Andrew Vachss who transmits the concept of "hard-boiled" by using nothing but sentence fragments.  (In 10th grade, I had an English teacher who sometimes insisted we write in nothing but sentence fragments.  We were sure she was either Eva Braun or insane.  Possibly both.)  Anyway, after 50-plus pages in  150 page book, a plot may make an appearance.  I'm cautiously optimistic.

 

That's a hardback from the library.  To take a Kindle break, I am reading "Nuns:A History of Convent Life 1450-1700" and I have to say, it has more get-up-and-go than the Vachss book.  However, it is extremely annoying the way the author keeps referring to women as "oppressed" and other annoying Marxist class struggle terms.  It sucked to be a chick back then, almost as much, maybe more, than it sucked to be a guy.  It sucked back then and all the post-modern feminist analysis won't change that one whit, so knock it the hell off.

158 #151

It's early yet. First comes the book thread, then the gaming thread, then the chess thread, then and only then, with a bit of luck and perseverance, comes the paint drying thread.

This might have tided you over but it's done!
www.watching-paint-dry.com/

159 I've been thinking lately that we have to get back closer to God as a nation to prosper and survive.

A similar sentiment was expressed again and again by the Founding Fathers. Here is John Adams in 1798:

we have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

160 The reasons I don't do the e-book thing are: that physical books can be resold; your usage and progress reading a book can't be monitored by the publisher or seller; physical books can't be "accidentally" deleted or altered. Also, I won't pay for an electronic file that I don't really own, but just "borrow." e-books are great for old classics that are not under copyright anymore, but when I pay for something, I want to own the thing.

161 159 #152 Have you tried completely removing the app and installing from scratch? What make and model is the tablet, and what rev of Android is it running? Did some web searches, which had your suggestion. Removed, redownloaded, rebooted, no luck. Android 2.2, Generic Tawain M709S tablet.

162 The Political Hat: I always read Hobbes as describing what a sovereign government actually is, not what it should be. The argument of the book is against no-government. Rival forms of government aren't dealt with, much, IIRC.

Only with the understanding that government is inherently despotic and that we need it, can we move on to chaining up that government as best as possible. That's where Burke (and Locke, Carlyle etc) come in.

163 A similar sentiment was expressed again and again by the Founding Fathers. Here is John Adams in 1798:

we have no government, armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.


Posted by: Retread at July 08, 2012 03:03 PM

Dude, like he was over 200 years ago.

164 Look here, you nazi mouse killer, at least I'm on the more recent side of both World Wars. If it weren't for your screwing around with that lab equipment from a Lon Cheney movie, I would be in my own time peering through the windshield of a 39 Ford staking out a movie producer, not trying to catch a bus outside before 15 Mexicans try to kill me

Posted by: Steve Mallet, Private Eye at July 08, 2012 02:54 PM (Y+DPZ)

Herr Mallet, I serve neither Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm, Tsar Nicholas, nor Emperor Franz Josef.  What are these Nazis of which you speak?  I'm merely a humble engineering professor.  I'm helping you by ridding the world of the machinations of Thomas Alva Edison, the House of Savoy, the Thule Society, Assyrian Pazuzu cults, and the troglodytes presently residing under Mackinac Island.  If that results in me gaining suzerainity over Eurasia and the Americas, it would be to everyone's benefit.

165 If that results in me gaining suzerainity over Eurasia and the Americas, it would be to everyone's benefit. Posted by: Professor Marius von Totenkopf at July 08, 2012 03:14 PM

But I still have armies in the Ukraine !!!!

166 Oh dearie me, I have made such a hash out of the fabric of space and time. I shall retire to my study to once again solve the equations which will return all to their proper places in history

Unfortunately, the machinations of the Prussian Professor have complicated matters somewhat.

167 But I still have armies in the Ukraine !!!!

Posted by: Newman at July 08, 2012 03:16 PM (Y+DPZ)\

Of course you do, just as when I tell the constable "I have no idea how human feces ended up in the Lord Mayor of London's Wellington boots.

168 From a book (non-fiction) I read awhile back--a partial quote--

"About ten o'clock tonight I got caught in a mob of ten thousand hysterics.....

...I was a little shocked at the faces, especially those of the women, when ______ appeared on the balcony for a moment.  They reminded me of the crazed expressions I saw once in the back country of Louisiana on the faces of some Holy Rollers who were about to hit the trail.  They looked up at him as if he were a Messiah, their faces transformed into something positively inhuman."

Sounds sooooo familiar, but----------the blank I inserted didn't contain 'Obama'



The author:  William L. Shirer
The book:  Berlin Diary   An inside account of Nazi Germany

Nuremberg, Sept. 4, 1934

169 @130 Tried Don Quixote recently but couldn't finish. Reading it was like being at a high school party where I was trapped in a room with some drunk-ass Honor student who couldn't stop talking about what assholes his friends are. Cervantes finally lost me in the chapter where Quixote and Sancho Panza barf into each others' faces. I can understand an author writing a book about protagonists he hates - it's the basis of parody - but Cervantes got old really fast for this old fart.

170 The Political Hat: I always read Hobbes as describing what a sovereign government actually is, not what it should be. The argument of the book is against no-government. Rival forms of government aren't dealt with, much, IIRC. Only with the understanding that government is inherently despotic and that we need it, can we move on to chaining up that government as best as possible. That's where Burke (and Locke, Carlyle etc) come in. Posted by: Boulder Toilet Hobo at July 08, 2012 03:11 PM (QTHTd) He describes government as being totalitarian, and makes unsupported claims, such as this "social contract" necessarily includes the surrender by people of all their freedoms to the government, which will give them back only what the government thinks that they ought to have. Hobbes is the root of statism as a philosophy which culminated in the Reign of Terror (and Communism & Fascism after it). It laid the foundation for the idea that the current government can sweep away whatever it wants and create society ex niliho. Locke gave good arguments for inherent rights and what makes a government legitimate, but he tries to fit in the "social contract" shtick like a square peg through a round hole. Burke rejected this top down imposition, and rejected the right of any government to sweep away the old and replace it with whatever the government felt was spiffy. Society is an ongoing concern, and if it is a "contract" then it is not just between the living, but those who came before us and those who come after us, and it should only be changed if necessary, and only so far as it is necessary. A temporary majority should not be assumed to be legitimate.

171 While I'm here, enjoy some random recommendations:

"The Anthologist" by Nicholson Barker - more of an explication on poetry than a novella, and done with a wink and a grin. This guy likes poetry that rhymes and hopes you'll like it, too.

"Iliad" and "Olympus" by Dan Simmons. Far-future sci-fi. Greek gods and the Battle of Troy. Robots that argue Proust vs. Shakespeare. Alternate universes. The occasional dinosaur eating someone, or trying to. Little green men on Mars. Hell, I can't explain it. It's literate sci-fi and it's awesome. And fun. And generous: there's a lot of stories going here that only eventually converge.

All recommendations above guaranteed free of any undead presence: no zombies, vampires, or werewolves.

172 troglodytes presently residing under Mackinac Island.

Damit Professor I told you those are just Lake Sturgeon.  Back to work.

173 "I finally got around the glitch by downloading the trial version install package and using my product key with that rather than the executable I got at the time of purchase."

So?

174 The problem I keep having with your critique of Hobbes - and support of Burke - is the dichotomy between "can" and "should". Your Hobbes comments are "can" comments. Your Burke comments are "should" comments.

Re, that Hobbes "makes unsupported claims, such as this "social contract" necessarily includes the surrender by people of all their freedoms to the government" - I can support that claim with ease, just from the examples you've given. The French Revolution, for instance, was one of those movements which believed "the current government can sweep away whatever it wants and create society ex niliho". You know what? It did! It did this several times. The motto for any state is yes, we can.

Hobbes's argument is sound. Its problem is that it's incomplete. Governments which "can" ordain something contrary to nature will eventually try to do it. Then they will fail, running out of money or even expendable citizens.

But Burke's argument isn't complete either. Sure, it would be nice if governments felt a loyalty to the past and future generations. But they don't, especially if they're democratic republics or populist tyrannies (but I repeat myself). If you want a government that will appreciate its past and future, I commend mediaeval feudalism or the Spartan system.

175 Posted by: Boulder Toilet Hobo at July 08, 2012 03:55 PM (QTHTd) Hobbes didn't argue that the state could be totalitarian, but that it innately is totalitarian, and that it had to be totalitarian. Hobbes described what he believed the state was, and necessarily had to be. His top down approach is the same "managerial" approach to government that the Jacobins, Fascists, Social Democrats, and Communists believe. Hobbes believed that if the state did something, that it was necessarily legitimate because the people "consented" without "consented" to a total handover of their freedom and power to the state. In contrast Burke believed in an "organic" style of government where the state develops over time, and should be allowed to develop naturally, with changes being small with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra instead of the ex niliho et in vacuo ideology of Rousseau and others.

176 I finally read a book. Sat out on the front porch in the relative cool of the early morning with my faithful pooch, cup of coffee, and the last chapters of Angel's Rest by Charles Davis, passed along to me by Mrs Webworker. Charlie grew up in a dying West Virginia coal town, in rustic idyll, until his father's death turned the town against his mother. Written from Charlie's point of view. Good feel for the time and place and the language. Some good characters. The wise old ethnic fellow is a stereotype (black man in this case), but he's well written. I'm glad I figured out whodunnit before the big reveal; I'm not good at mysteries, but it was pretty obvious by the time I got there. And it didn't have the horrific turn in the end that I thought it might've. I thought I was reading a grown-up book until I got to the "discussion guide questions" at the end. Wonder how an author feels about that. You think you're writing a serious novel, and then your work is reduced to a classroom exercise students will deplore because it's forced upon them. Then again, if it means you sell more books, I guess you cry all the way to the bank. http://bit.ly/AglRst If I did it right, this link should take you to the search page for the book at Amazon, using Ace's code.

177 Just finished reading "The Apocalypse Codex" by Charles Stross. Well-written but unfortunately lazy book by one of my favorite(though in light of this book and "Rule 34" I may be changing that opinion) authors. The Christian hate and anti-Americanism is strong with this one, so much so that sometimes the story takes back seat to the "brilliant" anti-Christian, anti-American points being made. Stross is a lefty but I've never seen him go full leftard before. Charlie, never go full leftard. But here, full leftard he does go. ***Spoilers ahoy!*** For those who don't know, the Laundry novels are spy-novel pastiches about the battle to keep Lovecraftian horrors out of our universe. Previous novels have imitated Len Deighton and Ian Fleming. This one imitates the "Modesty Blaise" novels. The main villain is a very successful evangelical preacher with a genital eating alien parasite attached to his crotch. Preacher Owchycrotch wants to bring about the return of Christ to get the apocalypse started. Only the ritual he plans on using to bring Christ back will instead raise a Lovecraftian horror known as The Sleeper. Okay, that's a reasonably good dark joke and man, I hope you like it because you're going to read variations on it every couple of pages throughout. The. Entire. Novel. That's because Stross isn't interested in telling the story so much as he is letting you know how stoooooooopid he thinks Christian evangelicals are, particularly the American variety. That's why this is a lazy novel. How lazy you ask? This lazy: 1) Crotch-parasite - hinted at, ends a couple of scenes just before the reveal, we're told that it's a major motivator for the Preacher and yet is a tortuous thing, used to build horror- a-a-a-and nothing. No reveal scene. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Dude, that is weak sauce and piss poor writing. You've told us there's a gun. You've shown us where the gun is. You've told us the importance of the gun. Sorry, Charlie. That's gun has got to come out and be used. 2) Evangelicals are so stupid that 8000-9000 of them will come out to see a preacher they've never scene before and have no interest in during a severe snow storm that has shutdown Denver and is predicted to dump a meter of snow on the ground while they are watching said Preacher Why would anyone do that? Because Stross needs them to show up and be sacrificed to the Sleeper. See? Not only lazy but against basic human nature. Now, like most 'merkins anytime day or night I like to get all likkered up and hop into my pick 'em up and run me over a couple of queers on my way to church, but not during a major snowstorm. The only way you're going to get me out in a major snowstorm like that in Denver is if the Broncos are in the Playoffs at Mile High Stadium during a major snowstorm. Then baby, I'm there drinkin moonshine and shooting off my shotgun just like everybody else. 3) But wait! In a surprise twist, the American gov't is behind the plot to wake-up the Sleeper because Evangelicals are so-o-o-o-o-o-o stoooooooopid that when and if Lovecraftian horrors do show up, those dumbass evangelicals will turn again their own gov't's efforts to stop the wholesale slaughter of their friends and neighbors. So, the U.S. gov't is going to use a Lovecraftian horror to slaughter a bunch of Evangelicals so that when the U.S. gov't stops the wholesale slaughter of their friends and neighbors, the stupid Evangelicals won't get angry at the U.S. gov'ts efforts to stop the wholesale slaughter of their friends and neighbors by a future Lovecraftian horrors. Clear? Yeah, me neither Again, lazy writing and against human nature because Stross wants to score an anti-american point. 4) No real ending. Things just kind of stop. With the Preacher trapped in an alternate dimension with the Sleeper. So, I guess we get to see Preacher Owchycrotch again at some point in the future. Yay, more lazy storytelling! 5) Another unused gun moment - we're told the Modesty Blaise manqué is a powerful, dangerous witch. Except for briefly slowing down time, we never get to see her strut her stuff. All build up. No payoff. Lazy, lazy, lazy writing. It's too bad because Stross is a better writer than this. But this is mostly venom toward Christians and Americans- i.e.. what passes for brilliant thought among those who have gone full leftard- thinly wrapped in a weak story. Perhaps, Stross is panicking at what appears to be the Socialist Apocalypse of Europe and can only respond with anger. But, Chaz, dude! You got your wish. America has been crippled by Obama. Didn't you understand that you could have your socialist paradise only as long as a powerful, capitalist, Christian America played sugar daddy to Europe?

178 Folks, as long as I'm hanging around, may I use the book thread, just this once, to plug a couple of books I'm related to? (At least, I don't remember plugging them before.) Specifically, they are the words of my late mother-in-law, as told to or compiled by Mrs Webworker's older brother. I'm going to cut'n'paste from Amazon about them. http://bit.ly/OTHFmjc (from-Ace Amazon search) On the Home Front: My Mother's Story of Everyday American Life from Prohibition Through WW II by Mary Jo Clark as told to Jack Clark "Jack Clark's wondrous celebration of his working-class mother and her natural gifts as a storyteller has touched me deeply. "Hooray for Mary Jo Ryan Clark and her boy Jack." --Studs Terkel "The book itself is a marvel of writerly restraint... Some are private moments--being 4 years old, getting shiny new shoes and remembering looking down at them as she toed circles in the sawdust on a butcher shop floor. "Other brushes against history--news of Pearl Harbor, or the Dorchester, a World War II troop ship sunk off the coast of Greenland. It was famous for the four chaplains who gave up their life vests to other sailors, but Bill, who was dating Mary Jo's younger sister, wasn't one of the lucky survivors... "The books strength is that it doesn't stoop to Greatest Generation mythologizing. The Clarks are real people, and Mary Jo doesn't try to make them heroes." --Chicago Sun-Times And we just a couple of days ago got our copy of this one. http://bit.ly/MJC-desk (Ace-linked Amazon search) Private Path: The Desk Calendars of Mary Jo Ryan 1937--1943 by Jack Clark, Mary Jo Ryan and Mary Jo Clark When Mary Jo Clark died at age 90, she left behind a library that nobody knew existed. In the back of a desk drawer, and in a sealed carton, her children found seven desk calendars, chronicling the years 1937 to 1943. On thousands of three by four inch pages, Mary Jo tells the story of her young adulthood. But it's also the story of her generation, which has been dubbed 'The Greatest Generation.' Raised in the Great Depression, they came of age just in time for World War II. It's a story of faith and family, of hard work and of a hunger for education and advancement; a story of wartime separations and tragedy, and a love story too. Thought some here might be interested. I hope those Ace-Amazon links work. If not, return to Go, do not collect $200, and roll again.

179 Well, crud. Tried to correct a word with an s in brackets and munged the rest of the post. Still readable, though, right? Okay. :/

180

Heard an interview on the radio the other day with the writer of Savages, the new movie that just came out. The writer, Don Winslow, has written several books in a similar genre. I decided to check him out, and am currently reading "The Power of the Dog". I am halfway through it, and it is pretty good. 

If you like the fast paced world-weary detective takes on the bad guys, the system and his own past and demons type of book, I would recommend this book. I have "Savages" on hold at the library, and it is supposedly the sequel to The Power of the Dog. 

181 @186 Don Winslow is another of my favorite authors whom I may have to reconsider. "The Power of the Dog" is one of his better ones. "Savages" is not a sequel to "Power of the Dog" and one of his (much) lesser books. The story tries for tragic grandeur but misses. However, the worst part of "Savages" is the near constant Obama knob-gobbling sycophancy written into the story. It's awful. Winslow went full-O'tard. nd it makes the novel near-unreadable. But, I guess it got him a movie deal. so....win?

182 #187

Oliver Stone chose to make a movie of it. That is plenty of warning to me.

183 I did not realize that; Power of the Dog has had a little politics in it ( CIA running drugs for the cartels, along with weapons for the Sandinistas). But the sycophancy I can definitely do without. Damn, and here I was thinking I had found a new writer to follow. Frowny face. 

184 Well it's more a ironic Hunter Thompson noir, and Winslow did absorb the previous big conspiracy, fronted by John Kerry, read Satori which is a prequel of a Trevanian novel,

185 "Question: If the United States goes with full-on socialist health care, where are the people who are seeking medical care because they've been screwed by their own country's socialist health system care going to go?"

If ObamaCareTax gets implemented, it will be because we failed to replace Obama w/ Romney in 2012.  If we do that, we're fucked, no lube, no matter WHAT happens on the health care front.

Forcing Obama to run on the Individual Mandate makes him more likely to lose.

Roberts issued a bad decision, but it was the biggest gift the Republican Party has gotten from the Supreme Court in a LONG time.

It is far better for the country for that monstrosity to be legislatively repealed, because the people who passed it got voted out of office and replaced by their opponents, than for the Supreme Court to strike it down.

5-4 loss in SC: just wait until we get one more.

Legislatively repealed, because 25% of the people who voted for it, plus the President who signed it, got voted out of office and replaced by opponents?

"Gee, that was a bad idea, let's not try anything like that again, for a while."

Romney wins, Republicans take Senate, Republicans keep House, ObamaCare gets repealed.  Think Democrat "moderates" will walk the plank for the Left the next time they have the chance?

Democracy, it's good for what ails us.

186 Well, welly well. America's lack of civilized health care figures into the plot of "Apocalypse Codex". Imagine that. In other news, I'm sitting here in the parking lot of Foster's Freeze in Barstow. Also here is fire engine number ME 363. I'm sure Willy Messerschmitt would approve.

187

King George III and Obama I, both crazy!