Life Is Hard...

Isabel Reflections

Again, I feel no pity for the unprepared. Let's review.

1. If you don't have a seven day supply of water in your house, you're an idiot.
2. If you live on the 67th floor of any building, you're an idiot.
3. If you can't think of ways to light your home and supply yourself with food without electricity, you're an idiot. (Candles, oil lamps, peanut butter and jelly, canned heat...)
4. If you need electricity to stay alive, and you either A) live on the eastern seaboard, or B) have not made any provisions for your own backup electricity, you're an idiot. Albeit, a dead idiot.
5. Idiots don't get to make comments about disaster recovery. At least, not without being mocked by me.

I mean, it's a blasted hurricane! Did you think it would be "all better" after three days?

Update:
Okay, so maybe I pounced on the wrong person here. I'll look for a better link in the morning.

Another Update:
Here we go.

Who Knew? Barbie's A Jew!

Either that, or maybe the Saudi Religious Police are just clueless moonbats.

What will those tricky islamo-fascists think of next, Ken Doll with a yarmulka?

Crosses are forbidden symbols, too. Even in secular context. Can't let those Crusaders sneak their religion into the Home of the Prophet, now can we?

Oh Those Silly Canadians

You can't make this stuff up:

Some of the first patients to smoke Health Canada's government-approved marijuana say it's "disgusting" and want their money back.

"It's totally unsuitable for human consumption," said Jim Wakeford, 58, an AIDS patient in Gibsons, B.C. "It gave me a slight buzziness for about three to five minutes, and that was it. I got no other effect from it."

The full article is here.

Here Comes Isabel

This picture is not actually Isabel. But it is a hurricane, as seen from a space shuttle (STS-106). I recently read that the weight of water in the clouds of a hurricane is the equivilant of the weight of 16 million elephants.

Amazing, frightening, and magnificent.

Longevity And Higher Health Costs

Surprise! A recent study suggests that longevity does not mean higher health care costs.

Actually, this is consistent with what I have argued before. Namely, that 90% of health care costs are incurred during the last three years of your life. All this study demonstrates is that it doesn't cost any extra if you take a little longer on the path to those last three years. Any proposal by the government to 'fix medicaid', et. al., is going to fail unless this reality is acknowledged.

Key statistic: a year in a nursing home costs society $45,000 per person.

A Day Of Horror

Two years removed, but I still feel it inside me. Like many other people, I was changed that day.

I started this weblog with words spoken by another, better than I could say them. Here they are again.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Whoops!

I wonder, could Laura's cats have been responsible?

Christopher Hitchens

I may not always agree with him, but I respect him. And if he insisted that the sky was green, I'd give him a fair chance to make his case before I turned and walked away.

This article just reinforces my opinion of him.

Power Outage Part II

I woke up to the gentle sounds of a CEI truck pulling into the parking lot. Surprise, there was a power outage in the building. But not a total power outage-- my own unit still had plenty of power. But the boilers were down (no hot shower today!) and so was the hall way lights. The elevators, strangely, were still working.

Foiled Again

I returned the burnished nickel knobs that I had bought for my cupboards, because I decided that I liked the burnished nickel handle-thingies better. Well guess what! I needed fourteen of them, and Home Depot only had eight.

Great...

This wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't already drilled wholes in the cabinets. Hopefully they will come back in stock soon.

Tuned In To What?

This article details how Canada has made it illegal to pickup American satellite broadcasts. No, I'm not talking about MIL-SAT1 here, either. This is commercial entertainment services like DirecTV.

Excerpt:

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) are actually actively engaged in raiding satellite television shops, seizing DirecTV satellite equipment, and hanging onto it for months before finally levying charges of “conspiracy to sell and distribute American satellite systems.”

It’s a scenario that would impress 1984’s Big Brother, but it does little for the cultural freedom and independence of Canadian citizens, 83 percent of whom say they want good quality programming available regardless of where it comes from, and 64 percent of whom say they think there should be no restrictions on access to non-Canadian channels.

Now what amazes me is not the 64 percent of Canadians who are against access restrictions; no, it's the remaining 36 percent who apparently think this type of censorship is okay! Unbelievable. This nation must be anxious for the comfort of the chains.

Update:
Nevermind. I forgot about Quebec. No further explanaion is necessary for that troublesome 36 percent.

Let There Be Peace

Q: Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?
A: The Emode Ink-Blot Test knows!

And according to their careful analysis, (and contrary to the opinion of some of you, who think I am a crazed warmonger), I am in fact, a man of peace.

Matthew, your subconscious mind is driven most by Peace.

People who have unconscious minds driven by peace tend to be independent thinkers who often prefer to live by their own high personal standards and moral code.

So, to celebrate the good news, I present to you my favorite quote on the subject of Peace:

'We will have peace' said Theoden at last thickly and with an effort. Several of the Riders cried out gladly. Theoden held up his hand. 'Yes, we will have peace', he said, now in a clear voice, 'we will have peace, when you and all your works have perished- and the works of your dark master to which you would deliver us. You are a liar, Saruman, and a corrupter of men's hearts. You hold out your hand to me, and I perceive only a finger of the claw of Mordor. Cruel and cold! Even if your war on me was just- as it was not, for were you ten times as wise you would have no right to rule me and mine for your own profit as you desired-- even so, what will you say of your torches in Westfold and the children that lie dead there? And they hewed Hama's body before the gates of the Hornburg, after he was dead. When you hang from a gibbet at your window for the sport of your own crows, I will have peace with you and Orthanc.

Now replace Saruman with Bin Laden, Orthanc with Islam, the torches in Westfold with the fires in the World Trade Center, and Hama's body with Danny Pearls, and you'll have an idea of the kind of peace I'm looking for.

'Like, and yet unlike,' muttered Gimli.