Que?

Just finished reading an article about Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who just publicly made an ass of herself by possessing a grasp of statistics or math on the high school level. The article does a bang-up job of eviscerating her position so I won't add salt in the wound here.

I will recommend that the good people of Florida boot her out in the next AG election, as it seems she's joined the ranks of politicians that are willing to toss out civil liberties in exchange for expedience of prosecution.

Crazy Canadians

Is it me, or are the anti's getting more and more paranoid?  It only takes half a lick of sense to tell a plastic video game controller from two decades ago from, say, a 1911 or a Glock. I would think that folks possessing a college education would at least be able to perform simple critical analysis by comparing and contrasting features.

Then again, colleges are no longer the bastions of civil liberties that they once were. If it wasn't for the fact that at least you can make your own schedule, I'd say that the rights of students in the US are as curtailed as our prisoners. Then again, prisoners don't have to pay their jailers so that they have the dubious privilege to be so restricted.

Want

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I so want one of these. The concept is really cool and I've always liked the idea of having things break down into much smaller spaces. Hell, I think my favorite toy when I was a kid was my boy scout mess kit, just because so much stuff condensed down to such a small space. Same reason for my fascination with multi-tools, actually.

At any rate.. The thing about this small office desk is that it operates with the tacit assumption that laptops will continue to be necessary for home computing into the future. I'm not so sure that's true, not with the way that smartphones have been continuously refined during the past five years. I suppose we shall see.

Attention All Chestnuts; Commence Bombardment

They Call me the Memphis Belle, 'cause I drop BOMBS.

We have a Chestnut tree on the western side of the house that likes to bombard the house every year in Fall. It sounds kind of like having a pro golfer on the hill to the North of us, randomly and yet systematically hitting the roof with golf balls; with precision but at random intervals. It's a little freaky to be half awake and hear a loud thumping noise, like an overweight ninja landing on the roof. At some point I should take some weight measurements and estimate their terminal velocity and impact energy.. Might be dangerous to go walking under the damn thing under a breeze.

Legos are a joke compared to this disaster.

Probably what needs to happen is to have a trimming company come out and reduce it's coverage over the house. Until then I probably need to start raking the chestnuts out of the yard and away from unprotected tootsies.

On Elections

I've been reading more and more articles attempting to compare and contrast Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, and they all attempt to lead the reader to the conclusion that there are these huge differences between these two men that will shape the outcome of the election.

And of course, that's nonsense. The thing is that the differences between the two aren't polar opposites or diametrically opposed, but that they are merely degrees of separation on the same end of the scale. They are both for more government, less civil rights, more gun control, against gay rights, pro-war etc. etc.

I know, I know. Some folks will point at Barack Obama's statements as proof that he is none of those things, but I prefer to look at actions, and for both men the results are clear; in my opinion neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney are fit to lead this country.

So, I'm going to vote for Gary Johnson, who doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Why?

C'mon. You knew this had to happen.

Look; Barack Obama has a proven track record of trampling on our civil liberties. He's approved indefinite detention of American Citizens without trial and approved an extrajudicial process of executing them via military action. He's committed US troops to war in Libya without congressional approval. He's spent way to much money and has done Zero to remedy the hyper partisan and bipolar atmosphere in D.C. The first reason alone is enough that I can't morally justify voting for the guy, the rest is just extra licks on the tootsie roll pop.. except in this case I don't want to know what's at the center of Barack Obama's goals for the U.S., nor do I want him to have the time to get there.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is a snake in the grass, who can't be bothered to take a firm stance on anything, while flaunting his wealth. I think his goals would support larger corporations and the wealthy elite while not doing Jack for anyone else. And I'm not so gullible as to think that what's good for large businesses is ultimately good for me. I can also guarantee that US troops commanded by Mitt Romney would be drawn into more foreign action, and perhaps war. I could just see us marching into Tehran or Pyongyang. So, Mitt's out too.

I've looked through Gary Johnson's stances; while I don't agree with him on everything, I do agree with the vast majority. I also know for a fact that he stands about as much of a chance of winning the election as a kitten fighting a pitbull.. Perhaps even less so. I'm also aware that the presence of a third party candidate siphons votes away from the major party candidates. And I say, so be it. If I voted for either of those jackanapes, I think I'd wake up in a cold sweat three years from now, looking at the sorry state of national politics and our country's economy, knowing that I helped put the one responsible for it in office. No way.

Gary Johnson, on the other hand, wants to actually fix the things that are wrong with this country; Repealing the Patriot act, restoring civil rights and liberties, removing ourselves from foreign countries that don't want us there, and basically getting the government out of people's personal lives. I'm all for all of that.