Thank God there's an Election coming!

Yippee! Now Let's kick those hypocritical, lying, stealing, self-absorbed bastards out!

IBM LIED, My Credit Card Fried.

Ok, it didn't fry. But they billed my card for a computer I didn't buy.
Last month we ordered a computer, and then changed our minds. I have an email from IBM confirming the cancelation, but the next month they billed me anyway.

When I called them to complain, I was given a different number to call. I called it, and got the EXACT SAME PERSON I had just spoken to. The bitch had actually tried to ditch me onto another call-centre worker. I'm fricken livid. She then tells me I had got her by mistake (yeah, no kidding) because I'd selected the wrong telephone menu choice. (I hadn't) She then said I had to call back, and choose the LAST menu option.
I did so, and got technical support. WTF?
I checked my cancelation email, and saw a Third number and extension to call. I did so. Turns out if you phone that extension the IBM phone system hangs up on you. I tried again in order to repeat the experience of being hung up on by a computer. I had yet another phone number on the email to try, and that one had too many digits.

Is IBM doing this as a matter of policy?

I'm calling the better business bureau.

+++++++++++UPDATE++++++++++++
January 25th: IBM admitted their mistake just before Christmas, and are going to refund my credit card. So they say. Just wait 4-6 weeks for processing. They had my money for nearly 2 months. I will be checking my statement to see if they included any interest.

Wrong is right. Up is down.

California voted last night in favour of the death penalty for unborn babies. Voters chose to defeat a proposition intended to help Parents prevent the abortion industry from taking advantage of their MINOR daughters. Their school teachers can't lay a finger on them without a lawsuit, but they won't be prevented from taking your daughter for an abortion without your knowledge. No death penalty in California... unless you're mom's pregnant.

France Discovers Appeasement Sucks - Maybe they'll learn this time...

(Image from Cox & Forkum)


There's a hoary old joke that goes:
Question: "How many Soldiers does it take to defend Paris?"
Answer: "Nobody knows, it's never been tried before."

By some accounts, the French are trying now. One person is now known to be dead, and the Islamic riots have spread across France and, according to some reports, Germany and the Netherlands. The foolishness of the post WWII politically correct ideals that allowed millions of 3rd world temporary workers to effectively immigrate to Europe without assimilating is now obvious.

I've wondered if France had, in part, opposed the second Gulf war in an attempt to appease their sizable Muslim minorities. Some news services are carrying stories calling the riots an Intifada, and I heard one radio interview last night that claimed the U.S. has communications intercepts proving this unrest is part of a movement to convert Europe to Islam through violence and intimidation. Nearly 10% of France's population is Muslim, and although many are 2nd generation, there's been little effort to assimilate.

Looking over the past century, there was one continent which managed to absorb a mass of immigration without rioting and widespread disorder. Canada and the United States each had huge territories that begged for settlers. And both nations managed to absorb millions of foreign immigrants without huge changes to their cultural norms.

The reason was Assimilation. As the newcomers arrived they, in many cases enthusiastically, adopted the ways and identities of their adopted nations. It's only in the last 30 years that the 'melting pot' concept of assimilation was discarded in favour of 'multicultural preservation.' Or rather, what began as multiculturalism has turned into an inadverdant but outright attempt to transplant damn near all the 3rd world animosities and conflicts into the 1st world, right alongside the people fleeing them.

You want to emmigrate to France? Become French. You want to live in America? Be American. I've seen reports of immigrant ghettos in Canada and the United States where after TWO GENERATIONS the ethnic newcomers still can't speak english. There are towns in France where Muslims are 70% of the population, and can't speak French.

France is paying the price. We're only a little farther down the timetable.

Sony Liable for Damages

OK, so they haven't been found liable yet. But they should be.

You may or may not have heard the news that Sony BMG has succumbed to the bean-counter's disease. It's that ever eternal quest of the accountant to promote penny-wise and pound-foolish solutions to insignificant problems. Invariably they make things worse.

Take the news this week that Sony BMG has been putting self-installing rootkits in their music CDs as a part of their content protection scheme XCP. It hides Sony's hidden monitoring program from the computer's owner, and is so poorly implemented that hackers are now freely using it to hide their own malware.

The first example I've read about is how losers are using it to hide their cheats from Blizzard's servers when playing World of Warcraft online. I've been vocally in favour of public beatings for these online cheaters for years now, but it's not that big of an issue for the rest of the world. It should be.

Rootkits have been around for a while. But thanks to Sony, there are potentially millions of computer users out there with their root kit in their computers. Every one of them will hide files with "$sys$" in their prefix. It won't be more than a few days before the less capable hackers out there are integrating Sony's root kit into their own small minded schemes.

Now we hear that Sony's patch to remove their rootkit is instead causing user's Windows OS to crash. Lovely. Incompetent f***s.

I hate lawyers, lawsuits, and people who use them. In most instances they've become an impediment to liberty and the pusuit of happiness. But in this case, I hope someone sues Sony's ass into oblivion.

The most evil man in America

(illustration from User Friendly)

Some asshat has figured out a way to end literature in Western civilization. This butthead has decided to patent storylines. Here's a bit from their webpage:

"Knight and Associates is the first patent prosecution firm to attempt to obtain utility patent protection on fictional plots. Knight and Associates consists of Andrew Knight and a team of independent contractors comprising skilled writers and experienced patent attorneys, ready to turn valuable new fictional plots or storylines into U.S. utility patent applications. "

Sure as hell there'll be a wave of bullshit lawsuits against bestselling authors as soon as someone can claim they had an story idea first.

In Dante's inferno wasn't there a pit in hell, where the damned were forced to wade chest deep in shit? Their mouths had been replaced with an anus, and when they sp0ke the shit got deeper.
Perfect place for this guy.

F******g lawyers.

Today's Blatantly Plagarized Parable

Found this at Roger's. It's so good I'm going to use it too.



One day a small businessman, a florist, goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he asked about his bill and the barber replies: "I'm sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I'm doing community service this week"
The florist is pleased and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes to open there is a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies: "I'm sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I'm doing community service this week."
The cop is happy and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes to open up there is a thank you card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Later, a member of the BC Teacher's Federation comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies: "I'm sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I'm doing community service this week." The Teacher is very happy and leaves the shop. The next morning when the barber goes to open up, there are a dozen Teachers lined up waiting for a free haircut.

And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between left and right.

Native leaders ask for More Money

Canadian Press is reporting today that Canadian Aboriginal leaders plan to ask the Prime Minister for 5 Billion more dollars next month, and THAT will end native poverty in Canada.

In Regina today, Saskatchewan Indian Nations Chief Alphonse Bird cited the contaminated water crisis in Ontario's Kashechewan reserve and said that is something that is happening on Saskatchewan's reserves too. Native leaders plan on presenting their demand for more money November 24th in Kelowna at the First Minister's conference on aboriginal affairs.

An admirable goal, but is that their only motivation? Or is there something else?
In the CP interview, Chief Alphonse Bird of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations admitted "We also want to maximize the opportunity that is there to bring as much home as possible."

Are you a taxpayer? Does this piss you off? The dept. of Indian affairs pissed away 9 Billion dollars a year. Cut the Civil Service out, and that's 9 Billion divided by 733,626 aboriginals for a total of $24,535.66 for a family of two or $36,803.49 for a family of three or $49,071.32 for a family of four, (thanks again, Tim).

$49,071.32 for a family of four. That's not upper class, but if the Dad also had a job... Anyone who thinks they need another 5 Billion dollars to help wipe out poverty must be either stupid, a civil servant employed by Indian Affairs, or perhaps a less than honest person who might have their fingers in the pie. eh?

A soldier's Camera

Roger Schultz put me onto this guy's website. He buys old cameras, and develops any film he finds inside. One of the many sets of fascinating photos on his website, is this set by an American soldier in wartime and post-wartime Italy.



The young MP holding the newspaper might be the unknown owner of the camera, he appears in several of the photos. Who was he? From the photos it appears he sailed on the U.S.R.S. Algonquin home from Italy and landing in New York.

Plinking - one of life's little joys best shared.

Took son #1 out the other day, to go plinking with my ol' high school buddy Rod out at a local range. It was too windy for any accurate shooting, but we had a blast anyway. The only improvement could have been the sudden appearance of an occupied gopher colony or two. Yours truly turned out to be champion balloon killer on the 25 yard pistol range.

In this shot, he's firing a 12 gauge slug. Click this link to see his reaction the first time he ever fired a shotgun.

Two of the pistols Rod brought out, a Berretta .22 and his 1911 Colt .45 acp.



Son #1 with the .45 Of all the guns we shot, he seemed to like this one best. I think it was the history of the 1911 Colt that did it.



Hey It's me! Firing Rod's 38-55 calibre Model 94 Winchester, manufactured in June of 1900. We also got to play with his Lee Enfield and M-21.


Son#1 with the Winchester.



This is so true. Rod had also received a gift of 50 hand-loaded .45 ACP rounds. We tried them at the end of the day, and the damn things were loaded with Black Powder! I think he cut it with dirt. The pistol fouled and jammed twice on the first and only magazine we tried.

Day to day life keeps me so busy that it's easy to forget the joys of my youth. I grew up on the farm, and hunting/fishing was something we took for granted. Other than my .22 Cooey or an online computer game, my boys haven't had the pleasure of shooting anything until now. I think that's sad.

Carl Sagan's record

Congress passes bill to prevent lawsuits against...

...Against Gun Manufacturers! Ha ha.


To quote the MadOgre,

"By a vote of 283 to 144 Congress passed a bill to protect gun makers from third party misuse of their products. This is good news for shooters, and of course bad news for the anti-gun lobby. This is only common sense... what I want to know is how these 144 jerkwads justify the support of suing legal business that are in full compliance with the law, for something a criminal does with there product. This would be like someone suing Ford because a drunk ran someone over... it makes no sense and should be barred... which is what this bill does. The only reason that this is even an issue, even in today's Sue-Happy Society is that this was a means to shut down the gun makers. This wasn't about any “Saturday Night Specials” makers – this was all makers... one by one all would have fallen."

Unfortunately, that drunk driver example of a stupid lawsuit is exactly what gutted the general aviation industry in the 1970s and 80s. Because of the "sue the manufacturers because i"m too stupid to safely fly an airplane" asshats, owning a private, factory built Cessna or piper is ruinously expensive. Certificates of airworthiness, 100 hour overhauls, ridiculous insurance rates, and abso-fu**ing-lutely insane new aircraft purchase prices (in order to make sure the manufacturer has money for lawyers and chuckleheaded plaintifs).

If those brilliant examples of democracy in action had any balls they'd pass a "Personal responsibility" bill that would make it harder or impossible for people to blame (and sue) others for their own dumbass actions. Then maybe our "me too" politicos in Canada might actually get up the nerve to do the same thing.

Here's another fuzzy bunny brained example: this week a woman in that worker's paradise, Saskatchewan, (now there's a province full of soft headed socialists) who had supposedly kicked her Meth-Amphetamine habit, sued her drug dealer for getting her hooked on Meth again. Setting aside all the law-enforcement issues (and man, there's a bunch ) maybe her family should have kept her in rehab longer?

I like to see a scummy drug dealer get in trouble, but I don't think he's going to give a shit about being sued.

Bring back public caning.