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CodePrairie .NET

South Dakota .NET User Group

I Hate Linux

September 2009 - Posts

  • I knew I heard it before...

    For the second time this evening I saw the following commercial:

    Both times the tone was very similar to something I'd read several times before... then I remembered the quote:

    "The John Galt Plan," Wesley Mouch was saying, "will reconcile all conflicts. It will protect the property of the rich and give a greater share to the poor. It will cut down the burden of your taxes and provide you with more government benefits. It will lower prices and raise wages. It will give more freedom to the individual and strengthen the bonds of collective obligations. It will combine the efficiency of free enterprise with the generosity of a planned economy." - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, p1124

    This is by no means the first time I've heard words from this Administration or it's supporters that could have just as easily have been spoken by the looters or moochers in Atlas Shrugged... and somehow I doubt it will be the last.

  • Most moronic bumper sticker EVER!

    A few years back Channel 9 had a video about "sensecam", a device that one could wear from their neck and which would take periodic pictures of your day so as to augment your memory of what you saw/encountered through the day.

    I want the same thing.. but in a high-resolution form, and for my car as last weekend I saw three things that were not only shocking, but almost unbelievable, especially considering I was not able to take photos of any.

    The first... while driving through Bellevue saw a Sears store to my left with a large banner which said "Now Hiring"... while on my right was a couple sitting on a street corner with a cardboard sign asking for handouts due to their prolonged unemployment.

    The third, was a woman with a poorly wrapped leg that tried to portray the appearance of being in a cast but was an obvious DIY job, sitting atop of one of two overturned Target shopping carts (1/4th of a mile from the nearest Target) and a cardboard sign that said something to the effect of "Hurt leg, can't work"

    In both cases... no "god bless" was to be seen.

    The biggest reason though that I want this technology was something I saw while on a freeway, it was a bumper sticker on the back of a minivan I passed which said:

    1-20-08

    THE END OF AN ERROR

    It was a sight that I had to read several times to make sure I was reading right... as if my eyes were deceiving me, and then saw me fumbling around to see if I had my digital camera at hand (I didn't and my cell phone came could not have taken the photo well enough to be reprinted).

    In shock I made a couple of quick calls to relay what I'd seen.

    When tdaxp returned my call later in the evening I relayed this bumper sticker and he was silent for a full 7 seconds before bursting into uncontrollable laughter which lasted for a full 30 more seconds, only to be followed by another 60 seconds of trying to talk but unable to due to continued laughter.

    Me thinks I need to go have a chat with some of the Research folks to see if this kind of technology might be part of a 2010 or 2011 Ford... if so, I may just have to buy a new car much earlier than I'd planned.

    Explanation:

    For those who still do not understand the meaningfulness of this bumper sticker... a number of people who were eagerly looking forward to the Bush administration and the swearing in of any other President looked forward to 1-20-09... however this sticker was assuming that all would be grand a full year earlier and indicates that not only was the driver of the vehicle a complete and utter moron (assuming they were the one who attached it to the vehicle (which given some of the other bumper stickers, isn't fairly likely))... but so to was whatever store sold them the sticker as well as whatever manufacturer printed the sticker and other persons involved in it's approval.

    Granted... this idiocy may be limited to the driver of the vehicle who placed a custom order for it online (which I can only hope for so as to reduce the circle of stupidity).

    Interestingly... this van owner was not the only person to make this mistake:

    Agreed... the above are just a small number of people who goofed on various web forums. That does not in anyway reduce the stupidity of those involved in the creation and use of a bumper sticker with the wrong date.

  • "Speaking truth to power"?

    A few weeks back I wrote about my cowardly and disingenuous Congressman Jay Inslee and his lie of omission that illegal aliens would not be covered under the current health 'insurance' reform being considered in congress.

    While I certainly can sympathize with the President and having his Congressional Address momentarily interrupted by a heckler... when one is going to go out of their way to call someone a liar while not being honest themselves... even then civility has it's limits, even when it is later apologized for.

    One wonders if the likes of Pelosi and others will apologize for their likening some town hall goers to ***, racists, Astroturf, evil-mongers, gun-toting, angry mobsters.

    Ok... maybe that last one is true:

    iamthemob1[1]

    h/t to Gateway Pundit via HotAir.

  • Seattle area oddities – the homeless

    Since moving out to Redmond last year I’ve encountered countless oddities that were quite different than what I’d come to know in South Dakota and Minnesota... a few weeks back I finally put words to something that I'd not been able to quite explain... the homeless and other beggars here are not of the sort I've seen in past.

    Despite being raised Catholic (and still technically caucusing with them for cultural and family reasons)... I am not a God fearing man... the same it seems can be said for the homeless/beggars around here... or their intended audience.

    Over the years I always found it... interesting when the majority of street/exit side beggars would end their cardboard sign with the words “god bless”... it occurred to not long before writing this post (but several weeks before posting it I fear) that since moving to Redmond, I’ve not seen a single sign that ends that way.

    Does this mean that the homeless/beggars are not particularly religious themselves... or they believe that such words might turn off potential donors?

    Truly I am no longer in Kansas, Madison, or Sioux Falls anymore.

    And this all being said by a non-religious, non-God-fearing but still (most) religion respecting guy.

  • "Wild" Bill Janklow Sues Dell?!?!?

    I've got another political post in the queue... but I had to post this first after hearing about it while chatting with tdaxp on the phone this afternoon while waiting for the ferry.

    Former South Dakota Governor, Congressmen (at large) and convicted manslaughter(-er?) Bill Janklow has recently decided to sue Dell over some tech support issues.

    While I voted against him every chance I could (granted only once)... watching the following video I am reminded of part of why I voted against him when I lived there and why I was so anti-him the rest of the time.

    While I agree with him in principal with regards to his case... his presentation and... rather whiney/nasal attitude... doesn't instill much sympathy in me, watch for yourself:

    Don't get me wrong... he did some good things for the state... reintroduction of the death penalty, massive wiring of the schools (K-12 and higher ed), helping to bring various banks into the state (most notably Citibank), reduce the damages required to make a crime a felony ($500 IIRC), not to mention serving as a joke for citizens and former residents well beyond his time in office.

    Granted... I am semi-biased in all of this because I had a couple of email arguments with him when I was a student in the state (yes.. that is the sort of State that South Dakota is and that was the sort of Governor Bill Janklow was (I really wish I still had those emails))... hell, I even got to shake his hand once and ask him a question regarding state law (~3-4 weeks into my freshmen year of college no less).

    Of course he did top it all off with a big ole middle finger to the state of South Dakota (after his conviction and subsequent joke of a sentence (100 days for a man's life)) when he agreed to represent the Mayo Clinic (in Minnesota) against the DM&E railroad expansion in the area (of the Clinic specifically)... a campaign that was eventually joined by Tom Daschle (a man who also had a reason to be angry with South Dakota (we did after all run him out of office the same way that Harry Reid will be in 2010).

    </RANT>

    On an unrelated note... oh how I hate you Kelo... I always refused to watch you simply because of your labeling of the area as "Keloland" rather than something more generally acceptable as "Sioux Empire"... and that despite the fact that my aunt used to work for you as an on air personality!

    </RANT4Real>

    ... what can I say? South Dakota is a rocking place and I miss it greatly... and a place I expect to see this fall and taunt (and hopefully take home) some deer within.

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