“We have policy against carrying weapons. We prohibit employees from carrying guns because we believe that that is the safest for everybody.”

So Pizza Hut believes that you are far safer to have a gun held to your head while being robbed if you DON'T also have a gun of your own. Really?

Sunnyland Annual Boat Show

Was able to get to the Sunnyland Annual Boat Show in Wooton Park, Tavares, Florida this weekend and had a blast. There were a good number of wooden boats (old and new) in attendance. I was able to make some use of our Nikon D40X and took a few picture.

The Next Generation of Tires?

These look really cool from both a technology and aesthetics perspective. I wonder how long (if ever) it will take to see these in the tire stores. I can see a shift in the industry by the mass production of these tires. One, the tire service industry would shift entirely to installation and replacement. No more repair. Second, the use or retread industry will cease to exist. It does not look like there is anything to retread once you wear down the tire. That also raises a safety issue, how does the tire react when the tread is gone? How much of a riding base is left? It looks fairly substantial from the photos but I can see some could be concerned.

It also looks like the design takes some of the strain off of the suspension system by acting as shock-absorbers. I would be interested in how much the help smooth out the ride over conventional tires.

It is all about respect

Respect for free speech.

Where are all of the people that jumped to defend the artists that produced works such as Christ as an AIDS victim, a portrait of the Madonna made of feces and the Christian cross in a bucket of urine? When "protest" art is done against Christianity it is viewed as courageous and inspired but when it is done against Islam it is viewed as slanderous and disrespectful. Mostly, I suspect because the followers of Christianity have not beheaded anyone in a few hundred years or so.

Free speech is free speech and either Islam will be able to join this millennium or it will not. If it wishes to be a part of the future then as a religion and a group it is going to have to learn that not everyone is 1) a fan, 2) a follower, and 3) a cheerleader. Islam is going to have to learn that the standards of Islam do not apply to non-believers/followers and trying to impose the Islam world view on the rest of us is not a viable long term survival strategy.

On the other hand, this current incident and the Mohammad cartoons fiasco have shown that in the near term, their strategy is (unfortunately) working just fine, thank you very much.

Update: Here is a link to the Fitna video that is causing the latest ruckus.

Exclusive footage of Hillary Clinton dodging sniper fire

Exclusive footage of Hillary Clinton dodging sniper fire as she enters Bosnia in 1996.

Nuanced...

Deputy Attacked by Mob

At least two men were taken into custody. Authorities say the two who were apprehended have been identified as illegal immigrants.

Ultra small, ultra bright bulb

It is about twice as efficient per watt as LED lights and produces a brighter, more natural light. It is about the size of a quarter and at 250 watts can replace street light bulbs 10 times larger running at over 400 watts. Cool. Now it just needs to cost $.10.

Who is helping to fund La Raza?

Who indeed, it would appear that La Raza gets funding from:

- Aetna Foundation
- Allstate Foundation
- Annie E. Casey Foundation
- American Express Foundation
- AT&T Foundation
- Bank of America Foundation
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Carnegie Corporation of New York
- ChevronTexaco Foundation
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Fannie Mae Foundation
- Ford Foundation
- Freddie Mac Foundation
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
- Joyce Foundation
- Mertz Gilmore Foundation
- Open Society Institute
- Rockefeller Foundation
- Target Foundation
- Verizon Foundation
- W. K. Kellogg Foundation

Do these companies and foundation founders (and our own government) actually know what La Raza is (and even care) and what this "organization" promotes? I was quite shocked by some of the names on this list and will have to adjust my purchasing habits accordingly.

An 'inconvenient truth.'

Received via email and verified via Snopes...

A prime example of ' do as I say, not as I do'

A Tale of Two Houses

House #1

House #1, a 20 room mansion ( not including 8 bathrooms ) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool ( and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.

House #2

House #2, designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet ( 4 bedrooms ) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee; it is the abode of the 'environmentalist ' Al Gore. HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford,Texas; it is the residence the of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

So much for conventional wisdom...

And another falls into irrelevancy

The Southern Poverty Law Center goes out of its way to show why it is now irrelevant. Shame, that is. At one time they did quite a lot of good. Now they are just another meaningless, liberal, partisan organization that has turned into a parody of its self and are ignored by those that matter.

William F. Buckley once observed, "Liberals say they want to give opposing views a fair hearing. Then they are surprised and shocked to learn that there are opposing views."

Jet Skis

What fun!

Holes leak faster than first thought

Sorry, could not help myself with the title...

I am glad that the article was complete enough to reference Hawking's original work. I kind of expected a more extensive article from Scientific American though...

Airborne Laser Cannon

Real Genius (1985)

Pink Pistols: Can Guns Protect Gays?

Well sure, guns can not only help protect gays but they can also help protect people that are not gay.

Code Pinkos

This should be shown on the nightly news to highlight what the left has become but it will not.

I love the part (at about 3:25) "If only there was a organization sworn to protect free speech".

Welcome aboard (there is yet hope)!

"I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my mind. As a child of the '60s, I accepted as an article of faith that government is corrupt, that business is exploitative, and that people are generally good at heart.... [Now I] question my hatred for 'the Corporations' -- the hatred of which, I found, was but the flip side of my hunger for those goods and services they provide and without which we could not live. And I began to question my distrust of the 'Bad, Bad Military' of my youth, which, I saw, was then and is now made up of those men and women who actually risk their lives to protect the rest of us from a very hostile world.... I began reading not only the economics of Thomas Sowell (our greatest contemporary philosopher) but Milton Friedman, Paul Johnson, and Shelby Steele, and a host of conservative writers, and found that I agreed with them: a free-market understanding of the world meshes more perfectly with my experience than that idealistic vision I called liberalism" -- Playwright David Mamet, writing in the Village Voice on why he is no longer a "brain-dead liberal."

BBC Fabricates Home Demolition Report

It is not enough that the BBC wages a propaganda war against Israel and for Palestine, it is not enough that they willingly carry Palestine propaganda as news without a hint of fairness but now they feel it necessary to fabricate stories.

The BBC showed a home being demolished and claimed that it was the home of child murderer Alaa Abu Dheim, when in fact the home of this killer as well as a shrine erected by the Palestines to honor this human trash still stand as shown by a number of AP photos taken days after the BBC story.

That the home and shrine still stand should be sufficient proof to anyone with an open mind, who the decent participants in this conflict are. Could anyone imagine a shrine to fallen Israeli solders lasting even 5 minutes in Palestine? Me thinks not.

More "House Democrats violated house rules"

House Democrats have failed the American People. They can’t even pass an “ethics” bill without violating the rules.

And I thought they were different and were going to change the atmosphere of corruption in Washington, I am so disillusioned (redux)...

Seems a bit too similar to this incident.

Do Palestinians deserve their own state?

A valid question, I think and based on this action by the Palestinian Authority, the short answer would appear to be no, not yet.

Mahmoud Abbas's official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has honored the terrorist who gunned down eight high school students at point blank range with the status of shahid, or holy Islamic martyr.

The official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida prominently placed a picture of the point-blank child killer on the front page, with the caption, "The Shahid Alaa Abu Dheim." In a page one article on the massacre at the Mercaz HaRav Kook yeshiva, his crime was again defined as an act of martyrdom (shahada).

A cold-blooded murderer of children is a person to be vilified not honored. No matter where you stand on the Israel/Palestine issue, I would have hoped that we could all agree that someone that murders children is a monster that should be condemned by one and all. Apparently not in Palestine when the murdered children are Israelis. Do the Palestines deserve a state? At this time they are certainly not doing anything to show they have earned one and for the US to continue to push Israel forward with the "road map for peace" while Palestine continues to act like this way and to condone these acts is even more unforgivable.

A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face With Modern-Day Slavery

There are more slaves in the world today than at any point in human history...

Thanks to his efforts, the Bush Administration can boast of the most aggressive antislavery record since Lincoln.

Global abolition is part of the UN mandate. But the UN Human Rights Commission cottoned to genocidal regimes like Khartoum that demanded it expunge the word "slavery" from its lexicon, and certain UN peacekeepers actually participated in the slave trade in countries like Eritrea and Cambodia.

Archbishop taken to task...

and quite well I might add...

First slowed light now squeezed vacuum

Found this on Slashdot.org and I have have previously noted where scientist have slowed and stopped light.

Don't completely understand what they are doing here but those involved seem pretty excited about it and seem to think that it will have practical uses in communications and encryption.

Anti-war judge rejects foster teen's bid to join military

So, a 17 year old can't get a judge's permission to early enlist in the Marines. Funny, if HE were instead a SHE and only 13 instead of 17, an abortion would have been no problem for the judge to approve.

The audacity of hype

Well, can't you say the same about "global warming"? A "consensus" of scientists, Hollywood stars and politicians all believe that global warming is a MAJOR issue that we need to solve NOW but at the same time do all that they can to silence any opposing views and/or information. Some advocate firing any weather(wo)men that dare to not believe. Others want to defund any scientists that refuse to submit.

Home made etch-a-sketch clock

This has to rate at least an 8 on the "geek cool factor" scale. I agree with one of the commenters to the original post. There is no reason why the numbers can be smooth as a program is controlling the knobs.

The project is based on Arduino, an open-source electronics prototyping platform.

All I can say is, sweet!

Ernesto "Che" Guevara

He must have been a real hoot at parties.

"To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary, these procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the paredon (TheWall)!"

The man was a ruthless killer and young people walk around with his face on their shirts like he was a super-star. Pathetic.

Shedding light on today's health insurance

Well sure, the Democrats are pandering to the lowest common denominator here and are trying to build a social security system for health care. Just as social security is a required system that I can not op-out of, both of the democratic candidates for president have their own version of "social health care security" and as Charlie Martin points out, my costs will have to be higher to ensure that everyone is covered. So, I will be charged more to cover the extra costs associated with the very old, very sick and/or very pregnant and some of my other tax dollars will be used to pay the premiums of those that can't afford the premiums on their own.

You can also rest assured (cause it is already going on) this insurance will cover all kinds of cosmetic and elective procedures as well as real life saving procedures. I will be able to get a break on the cost of Viagra though, if that is any comfort in the years ahead...

Archivists block Clinton-papers release

Now isn't that convenient! It is now he said he said as to when and what will be released with everyone involved saying it is someone else's call on what to release. The world may never know who was paid what by whom to pardon who and other political hijinks. At least not until Hillary gets her chance to get into the White house.

Small comfort

It is small comfort to see that liberal hypocrisy is not limited to the American variety but that those of Canadian sup-type are pron to the condition as well.

Infrastructure technology

It is not often I get to highlight some technology and take a swipe at Unions, well with this post, I get to do both!

The reference article is about a automated pot hole patching system that allows most pot holes to be repaired quickly and efficiently by a single driver/operator that will not be allowed to be used in some municipalities because of the local government unions. Instead crews (with an 's' meaning more than one) are paid in the neighbourhood of $28 an hour to repair pot holes with hand tools.

Warning: Raisins and grapes can be harmful to dogs!

Validated at Snopes.com, raisins and grapes can cause death in dogs. Evan small amounts can cause severe illness. Read the article, it could save your best friend.

More "law for thee but not for me" hypocrisy

Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone (died in a small plane crash with some of his campaign workers) did not have the required workers' compensation insurance for his employees.

Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken owes a $25,000 penalty to the New York State Workers' Compensation Board for failing to carry workers' compensation insurance for employees of his namesake corporation (Alan Franken Inc.) from 2002 to 2005.

What is it with these guys? They all claim to be all about the little guy and to get them help and to stand up to "the man" but it seems in a lot of cases to be nothing but talk. They are "crushing" small business with mountains of regulations to help protect the "little guy" but it seems they often don't follow their own rhetoric.

This is in the same vain as those that call for higher taxes. You want to pay higher taxes then fine, just write uncle Sam a big fat check every year. He would be glad to take it. But no, that is not what they really mean. They mean they want us to pay higher taxes, not them. They get to keep their tax lawyers and loop holes while vilifying companies like Exxon Mobil for "record profits" that include record taxes, in fact as much taxes as those paid by the bottom 50% of tax payers.

But lets not let any thing as silly as facts get is the way of some good old reliable mimes.

Bureaucratic stupidity knows no bounds

As others no doubt have and will point out, something this stupid can only happen in government or the education establishment. Here is an employee/student reading a book (Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan) on how in 1924 some Notre Dame students got in a street fight with the KKK. Instead of engaging the reader in conversation as to what the book was about, some other employees reported the reader. He was subsequently disciplined for reading an "offensive" book. Even the school administration cared not for what the book was about, just that some were offended by the title of the book. How absolutely asinine. Flashbacks to the recent Canadian fiasco involving the Western Standard come to mind.

Well, Iowa at least got that right

And it’s equally abysmal on the Democratic side. If he wins the presidency in November, Barack Obama would become the first Democrat ever to win the Iowa caucuses and the White House in the same year (”uncommitted” beat Jimmy Carter in 1976).

That vote certainly showed a lot of common sense! If Carter is not #1 for worst president ever, he has to be in the top two. The list of his failures in office is astounding; double digit inflation, gas shortage and high prices, giving away the Panama canal, letting Skylab fall, and the hostage fiasco. Since leaving office he has made it his hobby to bad-mouth every sitting Republican president and to cosy up to every dictator he can find. He was and is a man of questionable judgment. Being of age to casting my first ever presidential vote for Reagen and against Carter is a memorable pleasure to me.

Just a coincidence I tell ya...

Second story down...

Monongalia won't curb 1,531 percent tax hike

MORGANTOWN - The Monongalia County Commission says they've found nothing wrong with a property owner's 1,531 percent tax increase. Morgantown property owner Jim Jones filed a complaint with the commission because his property taxes increased from $285.90 to $4,663.44 after he refused to sell his property to Chief Deputy Assessor Bill Perry. County Assessor Rodney Pyles says the property was reclassified as part of a routine audit, resulting in a tax hike, but Jones says it was retaliation. Jones says he may appeal to the Monongalia County Circuit Court

Yep, nothing to see here. It was simply a coincidence, that is our story and we are sticking to it!

Citgo boycott

Well, sorry but I see this as good news:

Calls by some across the country to boycott gasoline sold by Venezuelan-owned Citgo are cutting into sales, prompting some station owners to move to other suppliers. . . . "My gas sales were down 30 percent last year," Vazquez said. "People will come into the store and buy groceries, but they tell me they won't buy gas from Citgo."

I used to only purchase Citgo gas. I have not purchased any since September of 06 and see no reason to change. This is a democracy and one of my 'votes' is with my money. I vote to not support Chavez.

Update 4/05/09:

I noticed a commercial on the TV noting the fact that Citgo gas stations are locally owned and operated. I guess the boycott is having an effect. I feel for the station owners but I continue to not purchase Citgo gas.