For your computer desktop silly… Find it here

I’ve got a great desktop right now of a squirrel drinking a Guinness.  Great stuff!

Once again Monday is here, and so it’s time for Open Trackbacks. Come up with your masterpiece of blogging, and then track it here for more exposure. Especially if you’re low on the ecosystem. Every little bit helps you know!

It’s new, just a coupla months old.

It’s an Insignificant Microbe. But that’s OK… this takes time.

But give rightlinx.com a look see… Methinks it has potential.

Update … Found another newbie. I was the 7th visitor, and probably the first commenter! Political Journal opened up today.

If there ever was a day that said “you should go home early, have a beer, and relax” it was June 18, 1976.  But today is a close second…

But besides that.  Suppose you are a hiring manager for a job.  The posting goes in the newspaper, and a week later HR shows up with a stack of envelopes of resumes.

You open the envelopes, chucking most of them directly in the circular file, but you have 5 solid candidates.  And then you open one more envelope, and attached to the resume is a 100$ bill.  Besides that, the resume looks pretty solid, and would be a potential fit.

Would you…

1. Return the resume and the money, and act all indignant about the candidate.
2. Keep the cash, but no interview, just the form letter saying “sorry, we got someone better,” and hope it wasn’t a test HR was playing on you.
3. Give the guy an interview since it shows very creative thinking, but return the 100$ during the interview, showing how ethical you are, since it obviously had no bearing on the consideration.
4. Give the guy an interview, but return 10$, and comment on how good lunch was that day.  If the guy doesn’t complain about receiving only 10 bucks, you give him a serious shot for the job.

The Belmont Club continues theorizing on the IDF’s plans for Hezbollah…

The first question that must be answered in divining IDF intentions in Lebanon is what the center of gravity of the Hezbollah is, because that is what the IDF must be aiming to destroy. The two obvious ones are Hezbollah’s ability to influence the Lebanese government and the motor of that influence — the military force that Hezbollah maintains in the south. A step down we can ask, what is the most important component of Hezbollah’s power in the south? Again the answer is easy. It is the Hezbollah cadres themselves. Hezbollah’s most precious possession isn’t Katyushas, long-range rockets, night vision goggles or antitank missiles or electronic equipment. It is the trained core of its military force. Equipment can be replaced but Hezbollah’s cadres represent an expensive, almost irreplaceable investment. In them resides the organizational knowledge of Nasrallah’s organization. It embodies man-decades of operational experience against Israel. Rockets can be replaced. The stars of Hezbollah’s operational force are less expendable.

The rest of the essay goes on in very convincing detail as to just why Israel is acting the way it is.

Tom sent me this link earlier to Spero News which talks about why Hezbollah seems to be doing what could be called by some as a suicidal action…

Hezbollah’s decision to increase operations against Israel was not taken lightly. The leadership of Hezbollah has not so much moderated over the years as it has aged. The group’s leaders have also, with age, become comfortable and in many cases wealthy. They are at least part of the Lebanese political process, and in some real sense part of the Lebanese establishment. These are men with a radical past and of radical mind-set, but they are older, comfortable and less adventurous than 20 years ago. Therefore, the question is: Why are they increasing tensions with Israel and inviting an invasion that threatens their very lives? There are three things to look at: the situation among the Palestinians, the situation in Lebanon and the situation in the Islamic world. But first we must consider the situation in Hezbollah itself.

Newfound blob is biggest thing in universe

An enormous amoeba-like structure 200 million light-years wide and made up of galaxies and large bubbles of gas is the largest known object in the universe, scientists say.

Yeah, that’s pretty damn big.  Doubt it would fit in the back of a Mustang convertable.

GOP Vixen has ways you can support the IDF.  Here’s the one I like…

Send troops a pizza party. Or a burger party. Or soup or ice cream. Basically, a morale-boosting treat that doesn’t cost a lot! The pizza project began in 2002 and buyers can order for a patrol, section, platoon or company. Send a message to the soldiers with the order. Order pizza here, and burgers here.

Remember what these guys and gals are fighting for.

It has been some time since anyone has heard a word from me out there in blog-dom.  Been busy… however, I had a conversation today that just had to be shared.

One of the guys I work with was talking about how he would like to die.  Strange, but OK… I think everyone has discussed this at one point or another.  Others began to share thier thoughts.  They were usually quite dull and uninteresting.  Stuff like… in my sleep… or… fast and painless… or… saving someone’s life (noble, yes… but hardly an interesting answer).  Now I being the smarta$$ that I am felt it was necessary to lighten the mood on this otherwise somber discussion.

So when they asked me how I would like to die, I looked to them with as straight a face as I could muster and I answered…

“I intend to live until the ripe old age of 96.  One evening, I will endulge in a dinner made up entirely of deep-fried, batter-dipped, bacon-wrapped pork medallions with a hot cheddar dipping sauce.  Afterwards… I will retire to my bedroom where I will suffer a severe myocardial infarction… while having sex with my 5th wife… on her 19th birthday.”

How about the rest of you?  How do you want to go?

Top Ten All-American Imports from Car.com

Thanks to the American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA), a vehicle assembled in the US must also be made of US/Canadian parts and content - least 75 percent “ or, according to the wizards in Washington, it’s not Made in the USA. Designed to protect domestic bragging rights for American companies, the law has had the opposite effect, as domestic automakers search for cheaper parts over the border, while import automakers get busy building assembly plants Stateside. They’ve also brought in their own parts system, and the result has been steady gains in the percentage of parts sourced in America.It’s worked. Today, the Toyota Camry is one of the most American cars you can buy, more American than even the Ford Mustang. There’s more, too, much more, enough for us to compile a list of All-American Imports — cars you think are American, but aren’t.

Of course, the same very blue collar people who go on saying “But the companies are owned by foreign countries” have two main issues:

• It’s the jobs, stupid!  It’s more important to have 50% of the income of building a car go locally in the form of wages than the 6-8% that is profit.  And that doesn’t even count all the anciliary jobs in the forms of parts production, truck drivers, etc.
• Most of those companies like Toyota and Honda are in my 401k funds anyways!

Once again Monday is here, and so it’s time for Open Trackbacks. Come up with your masterpiece of blogging, and then track it here for more exposure. Especially if you’re low on the ecosystem. Every little bit helps you know!

From Corpwatch

For thousands of years, the Kitanemuk Indians made their home in the Elk Hills of central California. Come February 2001, the last of the 100 burial grounds, holy places and other archaeological sites of the Kitanemuks will be obliterated by the oil drilling of Occidental Petroleum Company. Oxy’s plans will “destroy forever the evidence that we once existed on this land,” according to Dee Dominguez, a Kitanemuk whose great grandfather was a signatory to the 1851 treaty that surrendered the Elk Hills.Occidental’s planned drilling of the Elk Hills doesn’t only threaten the memory of the Kitanemuk. Environmentalists say a rare species of fox, lizard and the kangaroo rat would also be threatened by Oxy’s plans. A lawsuit has been filed under the Endangered Species Act. But none of that has given pause to Occidental or the politician who helped engineer the sale of the drilling rights to the federally-owned Elk Hills. That politician is Al Gore.

Gore recommended that the Elk Hills be sold as part of his 1995 “Reinventing Government” National Performance Review program. Gore-confidant (and former campaign manager) Tony Cohelo served on the board of directors of the private company hired to assess the sale’s environmental consequences. The sale was a windfall for Oxy. Within weeks of the announced purchase Occidental stock rose ten percent.

That was good news for Gore. Despite controversy over Dick Cheney’s plans to keep stock options if elected, most Americans don’t know that we already have a vice president with oil company stocks. Before the Elk Hills sale, Al Gore controlled between $250,000-$500,000 of Occidental stock (he is executor of a trust that he says goes only to his mother, but will revert to him upon her death). After the sale, Gore began disclosing between $500,000 and $1 million of his significantly more valuable stock.

Nowhere is Al Gore’s environmental hypocrisy more glaring than when it comes to his relationship with Occidental. While on the one hand talking tough about his “big oil” opponents and waxing poetic about indigenous peoples in his 1992 book “Earth in the Balance,” the Elk Hills sale and other deals show that money has always been more important to Al Gore than ideals.

Hmmm. Somehow I think that this won’t be on your next Democratic mailing begging for more money…

Went through Risawn’s blog links and found a worthy contender!

Cowboy Blob’s Saloon and Shootin Gallery gives lots of photoshoppy goodness, his life on film, and nice pix of the IDF getting ready to open a can o’ whupass!

This week’s dillhole award goes to Mike McDevitt of Bear, Delaware, who writes to the Delaware News Journal

Roe V. Wade isn’t worst U.S. Supreme Court rulingA recent letter writer attempted to convey the message that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision regarding Roe v.Wade was the “worst in U.S. history.” I disagree entirely.

By far the worst decision ever was the one handed down in 2000 that stopped the vote counting in Florida and appointed George Bush president.

The result has been an unmitigated disaster with the worst president in United States history.

Sadly, we, and our children, will be paying for this poor decision for many decades to come. Unfortunately, this is true even for those of us who could read the obvious writing on the wall and voted for Al Gore (and later John Kerry).

Mike McDevitt, Bear

Yeah, that sparkling display of intelligence, what wit… wait a minute, this guy is a moron.  Because yeah, the Supreme Court deciding that there was a law to handle what was going on, and that law is legitimate, that’s wrong.  All because he didn’t agree with it.  “Waaaah, my pussy hurts” says Mike in hearing he got the award.

When reminded of such horrible decisions as the recent eminent domain case Kelo v. New London, or even the infamous Dred Scot ruling, which condemned millions to slavery and death, he said “Waaaah, I’m a partisan slut!”

What does Mike win?  His choice between an hour manning the kissing booth at the gay rights carnival, or a date with Ann Coulter.  Where he has to put out!

They’ll bill you for anything…

When her father died in a car accident three months ago, Rita Carnevale didn’t try to mask her grief.In the emergency room at Christiana Hospital, she wailed, sobbed and screamed.

“I’m Italian,” said Carnevale, 44, of Wilmington. “I’m very emotional.”

That display of grief almost cost her several hundred dollars.

Last week, Carnevale received a bill from the hospital for $272.50.

When she called the hospital to inquire, a billing department spokesman said the charge was for the time and care Carnevale received from a nurse in the emergency room.

From a page on GBPPR Cellular Phone Jammers

A Brief History of GSM DevelopmentThe Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) system was introduced in Eurosavage-land around 1992. Its development and deployment went something like this:

1910 - 1920s -

* U.S. Bell System develops first mobile radio telephone. It was the size of a large truck.
* Europe kills millions and millions of people.

1930s -

* U.S. Bell System continues development on the mobile radio telephone.
* Europe kills millions and millions of people.

1940s -

* U.S. Bell System stops development, uses copper to protect Europeans.
* Europe kills millions and millions of people.

1950s -

* U.S. Bell System develops first long-range VHF mobile telephones.
* Europe denies the whole Hitler thing.
Demands the U.S. protect, help, and feed them.

1960s -

* U.S. Bell System growing faster and faster, first radio telephone cellular network appear.
* Europe builds a wall.

1970s -

* U.S. cellular phones become common. AMPS standard is started.
* Europe wastes Marshall Plan money.
Does everything except build a Holocaust museum.

1980s -

* U.S. cellular phones become even more widespread, full country coverage.
* Europe sells weapons to hostile countries and terrorists.
Never repays any WWII debts or Marshall Plan money.

1990s -

* U.S. cellular phone starting to move to a new, superior CDMA format.
* Holy Shit! Europe develops GSM with Marshall Plan money, money they save
by denying the Holocaust, money the save by denying the whole Hitler thing,
money stolen from Jews, and by spying on the U.S.

2000s -

* U.S. has full coverage of a superior CDMA cellular format.
* Europe brags about their “advanced” cellular network technology, which ham radio
operators invented, and where using, 15 years earlier.

Comments over at Michael Totten’s blog included a gem.

The bombings of Japan and Germany are among the most moral acts ever committed.

Concerns the death of civilians in war.  Should civilians be completely spared from the ravages of war?  I say definitely not. Absolutely not.  This is why.

OK… it’s been a few days now.  Why does CNN still have the Bush said “Shit” story listed all over their front page?

The other news sites think this is old news, but CNN has at this time at least 3 links just on the top part of the main site.

I was against it before I was for it. The Register showed me the light!

So this congestion management is based on TCP controlling packet traffic, but it depends on it being used in a very gentlemanly fashion.But running BitTorrent is not nearly as gentlemanly. When it’s delayed, it spins off more and more threads and tries harder to get more traffic. And remember that with non-TCP applications, such as UDP, they don’t have any congestion management at all. UDP is a stateless protocol, and VoIP and IPTV use RTP, a version of UDP.

I know TCPIP isn’t perfect.  And having used VoIP (I’m on a conf call with it right now) I know what happens when someone else starts downloading youtube.   You start getting a flutter on the call as packets are dropped.

So what is the answer?  Is VoIP and related application protocols that require as close to real time performance more priority than non-priority protocols like P2P and HTTP?  I’ve only seen the argument used that if we didn’t have net neutrality, that your local ISP is going to charge google so its web packets get to your browser fast enough.  This is starting to sound like crap, that its not differentiating between one website and another, but between things like streaming video/audio applications, and downloading mp3s.

Mideast crisis drives Bush to colorful language

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A microphone picked up an unaware
President Bush saying on Monday
Syria should press Hezbollah to “stop doing this shit” and that his secretary of state may go to the Middle East soon.

As a result of this new openness in language, top Whitehouse officials have said to Ted “gin-soaked” Kennedy to “stop killing hot chicks”.