Tag: You’re Doing it Wrong

And This is Who My State Elected People

I haven’t said much about the Kagen hearings because there really isn’t much I can say that hasn’t been said by somebody else already. Also I know she’ll get the confirmation regardless so I’ve decided to spend my time elsewhere. But I must say this is the kind of fuck up the majority of people in this state voted for when they filled in the little circle next to Klobuchar:

How crucial is the “Twilight” phenomenon to the cultural fabric of America? Enough that one’s opinion on it is apparently worth knowing before determining whether she should sit on the highest court in the land.

During her Supreme Court confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Solicitor General Elena Kagan was jokingly asked by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, for her thoughts on a particularly pressing issue.

Yes senator Klobuchar wasted her time on the floor asking about fucking Twilight instead of say… oh I don’t know something on consequence.

To everybody outside of Minnesota let me state that I’m very sorry for what a majority of my fellow Minnesotans have done. I promise the rest of us will work hard to correct this problem. Also thanks goes to Random Nuclear Strikes for my daily depression. But also another hat tip goes to him for the best response ever on the subject at hand.

Security is Only as Strong as Its Weakest Link

And that weakest link always proves to be people. Bruce Schneier points out that the recently arrested Russian “spies” used stenography to secure their messages but they had one flaw:

“Law-enforcement agents observed and forensically copied a set of computer disks” when searching some of the defendants’ residences, according to a statement from FBI agent Maria Ricci. “Based on subsequent investigation as described below, I believe that the password-protected disks contain a steganography program employed by the SVR and the Illegals.” SVR stands for Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency and the successor to the foreign operations arm of the KGB.

Ricci said the steganographic program was activated by pressing control-alt-E and then typing in a 27-character password, which the FBI found written down on a piece of paper during one of its searches.

Sounds like a strong password. It’s a good thing they wrote it down… oh wait.

Anti-Gunners are Such a Violent Group

I guess when you are openly working to ban a means of personal protection you can become a bit violent. Joe Huffman has a good post demonstrating the violent desires of anti-gunners:

to the above poster, take your H&K 93, shove it up your ass and pull the trigger.

Harsh. It’s funny but I see it all the time. Arguments made out of emotions and feelings but otherwise not backed by any real research generally cause the person making said argument to lash out violently when challenged.

PSA Fail

Another great post was thrown up over at Every Day, No Days Off. It’s a link to a video of a public service announcement (PSA) for the Amber Alert e-mail notification system. The video is trying to convince you that you do not need a gun to protect your children. Unfortunately for the people who made the video they totally failed at that. Watch is and then ask yourself, would I fuck with these mothers’ kids?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi13LczGlsE]

I certainly would not.

Also is that lady holding a RPD that is both belt fed and has an attached drum magazine at the same time? Can that even work?

HP to Start Printing Ads On Your Printer

Oh this should go over like a lead ballon. HP has released a new line of Internet connected printers. One of the features of these new printers is they each have a unique e-mail address so you can e-mail documents directly to the printer and they’ll print them. But that’s not all they’re going to print. They are also going to print advertisements and you’ll be footing the bill on the ink for them. Yes that’s right not only do you get to pay for the printer and the ink but now you also get the privilege to pay for a little extra ink so HP can print advertisements onto your documents. Oh and this is just great:

“What we discovered is that people were not bothered by it [an advertisement],” Nigro said. “Part of it I think our belief is you’re used to it. You’re used to seeing things with ads.”

Really? You must have an odd test group because if I pay for something I don’t expect to have to deal with advertisements. If the product were free then I can see the justification in doing this to pay for the hardware but the customer is purchasing the printers. And yes I know HP sells their printers at a loss but they make up for it with the overly expensive ink. Now they’re double-dipping but overcharging for ink and advertising. But to make it really bad they are printing those advertisements with the overly expensive ink.

Fuck I hate what HP has become. I still remember when they were a good company that made reliable products.

All Things Being Equal

They’re not. Here’s an interesting headline item from the BBC, tell me if you can spot the inconsistency:

Bags are to be put over scores of surveillance cameras in parts of Birmingham with large Muslim populations, after local objections.

So Britain has decide that Muslims now are a higher class of citizen so they get special privileges? Don’t get me wrong here I’m glad they’re covering up the cameras I just believe they need to cover up the cameras everywhere. But here’s my favorite line from the article:

Councillor Salma Yaqoob said people had lost faith in the authorities.

Welcome to the party. Cookies and juice are over on the table in the corner.

Don’t Win Too Hard

You know what’s a great feeling? Grinding your opponent to dust in a friendly competition. Well being this is no longer the awesome country founded on competition it once was that’s no longer the politically correct feeling to have. See winning can hurt your opponent’s feelings and we can’t have that. To that end a soccer league in Ottawa has established a rule; if your team wins by more than five points you automatically lose. Wait what?

Yes that’s right if your team scores six points more than the other team has you automatically lose. This is because a crushing defeat can really hurt a child’s feelings and thus prepare him for the real world where nobody is going to give two wooden nickles about his or her feelings.

This sissification of the next generation is sickening. The weight we’re putting on peoples’ feelings is getting out of hand. I’d like to bring up reality for a second. There are two types of people in a competition, winners and losers. By definition one side of a competition must lose and one must win. If this basic criteria is no met it’s not a competition anymore. Just wait until these kids grow up and realize that they could be yelled at or even fired if they fuck up on the job.

Who Cares so Long as Our Dog Isn’t in the Fight

I’m sure you’ve already heard about the veritable shit storm hitting the gun blogs today as the NRA pulled it’s opposition of the DISCLOSE Act. Well they made an official statement stating they are a single-issue organization and this issue isn’t their issue. Needless to say this has created somewhat of a rift between the NRA and many of it’s members.

Sebastian says this is OK being the NRA is a single-issue organization. Robb made an analogy regarding how only fighting for a single issue can not win your the fight, even on that single issue. Sailor Curt lays it out that the NRA doesn’t seem to care since they have an exemption everybody else can fend for themselves. Alan brings up the fact issues don’t exist in vacuums all to themselves.

Well I love giving my opinion on things so here it is. The NRA fucked up big time here. With all due respect (never mind when anybody says that it’s instantly followed by a lack of respect) regard to the fact the NRA does the most when it comes to fighting for the right to keep and bear arms they are being juvenile and idiotic with this. I agree with the general sentiment that the NRA is more than happy to drop this issue now that they no longer have to worry much about it. More or less they went from fighting this bill as a crusade against the freedom of speech to a “single-issue organization” that only has focus on the second amendment. That’s just plain short sighted and dirty.

Let me make an analogy since they’re fun. Let’s say you and two friends get into a fight with four other people. The reason for the fight is irrelevant but you are outnumbered and stand less than a 50/50 chance of winning. You’re one of the larger and more capable fighters in your little group of three and the opposition want you out of the fight. To that end they make you an offer, they will not pursue you to kick your ass if you leave right now. If you leave you may save yourself an ass whoopin’ but your two buddies are going to be even more unlikely to escape without a few broken bones. What do you do? Personally I’d stand with my two friends if for no other reason than someday I may need their assistance and abandoning them now is not going to motivate them to help me later.

The NRA is a powerhouse in Washington D.C. They have a lot of weight and thus clout with the people on Capital Hill. By pulling out they abandoned other pro-rights organizations and their own members who happen to be members of those other groups that will still be affected by this legislation. Those other groups and those members will remember this and are likely going to be less than cooperative with the NRA in the future should they need help.

All they had to do was keep opposing this legislation. That’s it. Really other organizations could do the lobbying while the NRA could have been in it name only. But they second they were cut a deal they cut out of the opposition. Classy.

Basically they fucked up and I’m joining those who are calling them on it in the hopes they do better in the future.

Do as I Say Not as I Do

That was Obama’s message to a group of graduating Michigan high school students:

President Barack Obama is telling high school graduates in Michigan not to make excuses, and to take responsibility for failures as well as successes.

It’s OK I’m sure if this gets taken out of context Obama can just find a way to blame it on Bush.