::::: : the wood : davidrobins.net

My name is David Robins: Christian, lead developer (resume), writer, photographer, runner, libertarian (voluntaryist), and student.

This is also my son David Geoffrey Robins' site.

First Independence Day as a US Citizen

News, Political ·Saturday July 5, 2008 @ 14:35 EDT (link)

20080630: Sprayed weeds when I got home, using my backpack sprayer and RoundUp™. I think last time I sprayed I diluted it too much: it's supposed to be 2.5 fl. oz. per gallon, but I might have used that amount for four gallons (still killed the grass one place I spilled some, though). This time I upped it to 3 fl. oz. for (approximately) a gallon; let's see those weeds squirm, shrivel, and die! Unsubscribed from a bunch of mailing lists whose messages that I'd gotten into the habit of deleting anyway: Bostom.pm (heh, never even attended a meeting when I was there—parking in Boston was too wretched), perl6-language, libwww-perl, and tried to drop the ACM's Technews but their unsubscribe address (from the mail header, same place I got the others) didn't work.

20080701: (Early morning) Joined OpenCarry.org ("OCDO"), actually the forums.

Went shooting at SVRC after work (my membership starts today; I paid for half-yearly since I joined in June); the factory reloads I brought were fine; met a guy named Ed who gave me some tips on grip and shooting stance; he'd brought a chronograph to test some handloads, very friendly chap. Shot some targets and some cans—that was fun. I was the only person there for probably an hour and a half (I was there about 1800-2030 then after I got home I cleaned my gun 2100-2130), so I got to open the gate.

Amazon completed the return of my defective S&W pistol rug, giving me my refund. I sent off the return (they paid shipping) on June 3, so it's been about a month from requesting the RMA and sending it in and getting the credit.

20080703: Went to the range again; did much better. Was there from around 1730 to perhaps 1930. Although it had rained earlier in the day, when I got home the grass was mostly dry so I mowed the lawn, and then sat with the garage open and listened to fireworks and cleaned my gun.

20080704: Watched fireworks from my top deck from around 2030 to 2200, out on a camp chair with a book. I could see two sets of fireworks quite well; several others were partially blocked by trees.

With all the fireworks been set of tonight, I am sure there are some being set by those that have no right to celebrate this country. Illegal aliens. Liberals who would destroy the moral fiber of this great nation. Socialists who would destroy the wealth and individual freedoms of these United States. A pox upon them for daring to pretend to celebrate even as they destroy.

Books finished: Enchanters' End Game, Guardians of the West.

Springfield Armory 1911 EMP 9mm

News, Work, Guns ·Sunday June 29, 2008 @ 22:12 EDT (link)

20080626: Honey called (around 2100 local time). Talked for a bit, then stayed up until the wee hours (0230) writing a perl program that uses WWW::Mechanize to dig into GunBroker.com feedback. A user's feedback page shows ratings ("A+", "A", "F", etc.) and comments, and has a link to the item bought, but doesn't show the price, so in theory, a seller could sell a bunch of low-priced items, get good feedback, and then rip someone off selling a high-priced item. My program fetches the item title and sell price and shows it with the rating, then shows average and maximum sell prices across all feedback with A or above (the main page is good about showing if and when a seller had negative feedback).

Bought honey a T-shirt ("Don't be a pinhead" shirt she wanted from the Bill O'Reilly store, in lime green).

20080627: This has been a Word-chart OM week, with some "Now"-level bug work for an upcoming co-authoring demo. Turns out Workspaces (a partner for some of the file transfer code) introduced a bug where there always appeared to be a new version of the document of the server, causing Word to constantly open a file and scan it for new locks. (And it has to do a full open right now, since the optimizations to just load the lock data and then scan the XML for content change markers aren't scheduled to be finished for a while yet.)

I submitted my PMP application (and $50 filing fee). Hopefully they weren't expecting a longer personal statement. Now to wait and pray.

I won a GunBroker.com auction for the gun I was looking for, Springfield Armory's 1911 EMP (9mm) (flash, sadly; see also The High Road's thread). Best price I could find locally (and only briefly) was $1089.99 at West Coast Armory; that with (9%) tax would be $1188.09; I saved over $150… provided the transaction goes well; the seller has hundreds of past deals of similar magnitude with positive feedback, so I'm not worried on that account.

Jim Cameron's guy sent us a quote for the painting, but (1) included things we'd decided not to do, and (2) wasn't itemized as requested. I wrote back asking it to be itemized; if they don't get back to me by, say, Tuesday, I'll go with the guys Chip recommended, JMJ Painters.

20080628: Up early to go to the gun show; bought a leather carry belt and a "Glock: 21st Century Technology" T-shirt. Pulled bamboo when I got home.

20080629: Called Honey at around 1830 local; all's fine there.

Making irresponsibility pay

Political, Guns ·Sunday June 29, 2008 @ 21:11 EDT (link)

From: HD
To: Conservatives and Libertarians at MS
Subject: Why are we bailing these people out?

$300 Billion Foreclosure Rescue Plan Passes Senate Test Vote

So why do the rest of us have to bail out people who were dumb enough to buy a home they could never afford on some 5 year ARM or interest only loan? The way I see it is they get to sit in a home for 3 to 5 years with low rent and then walk away with a foreclosure. Bank gets the home back and they go rent an apartment which they should be renting in the first place.

From: VS

To buy votes.

From: HD

I heard this description of progressive liberals once which I think is pretty good:

Imagine 5 college kids go on a road trip, 4 poor ones and one rich kid. They all decide to pool their money and all decide to vote on what they will do. So the 4 poor kids put in a nickel, a quarter, a dollar and a quarter all saying they aren't being greedy, and emptying their pockets. The rich kid puts in $100 after emptying his pockets.

How much you want to bet they all do what the poor kids want to do?
How much you want to bet the rich kid pays the lion's share for it?

The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.

—Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story of the John Marshall Court

Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.

—L. Neil Smith

To disarm the people… was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

—George Mason, speech of June 14, 1788

When only cops have guns, it's called a "police state".

—Claire Wolfe, "101 Things To Do Until The Revolution"

Well, at least we won Heller; but actually the victory is an empty one. It went 5-4, when it should have been 9-0; along "party lines" (ideological lines), if you like, not according to the plain wording of the Constitution. This is not the granting (ha!) or even recognition of a new right; it is the long-awaited clarification of an existing right, and a clarification that never should have been needed if not for the Democrats' desire to subjugate the population.

On the same subject: an open letter to those who wonder why citizens would want to carry guns in public.

Lately, our pal Barack has been mangling the scriptures, and then attempting to malign Dr. James Dobson (founder of Focus on the Family). Shame, shame! He really shouldn't claim to be a Christian if he can't tell the difference between the Old and New Testaments, but then, I don't suppose his insane pastor had much time for boring stuff like that.

Books finished: Asterix and the Great Crossing, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, Asterix and the Magic Carpet.

DVDs finished: The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

The socialism of Barack Hussein Obama IV

Political ·Thursday June 26, 2008 @ 23:01 EDT (link)

You can probably see a pattern in the previous three "socialism of Barack Obama" entries, and to confess, the monotony is getting a bit boring. I'll cut to the chase with the rest and just post a list of things that BHO wants you, as a working citizen taxpayer, to pay for, for the benefit of indolent liberals.

Education: Barak wants money for teachers (rather than letting the market sort it out; the government has no business in education), and for kids (what, the tax deductions aren't enough? I favor a "pay for your own damn spawn", and feel free to replace "spawn" with "everything": it's the libertarian way). He also wants to hand out more "free" money for college students (work and get loans; I did).

Energy & Environment: He's already ecstatic that the price of oil is so high. As if subsidized farming wasn't enough, now he wants to subsidize growing trees. He wants to give my money to research into ideas that clearly aren't viable on the open market, or companies would be investing in them already; he's doing it purely for the Religion of Green (there's a Religion of Peas joke in here somewhere, I'm sure). Then he wants to create pie-in-the-sky standards for fuel efficiency: Hussein, you idiot, automakers are already investing in making vehicles as efficient as they can; because it's profitable.

Ethics: Surprisingly enough, he doesn't appear to be spending too much of your money here. I can get behind exposing lobbying and contracts to public search. If, God forbid, he does get elected, expect promises to be broken here, however (especially about his staff not working on contracts). Credit where due, however.

Faith: Hahahahahaha... ha. He may not be a Muslim (Mohammedan), but he's not like any Christian I've ever seen nor heard of, either: his pastor's a certified nutcase, and he's easily confused by simple Biblical concepts like the Old and New Testaments and Israel and the Church. Fittingly, this page isn't very long, since he knows it doesn't take him long to put his foot in his mouth here.

Family: Pretty much a duplicate of Economy.

Fiscal: Making the government "pay as [it] goes" and cutting wasteful spending sounds good: but the weasel is in what he considers waste. If he cuts the "Bush tax breaks for the rich" that he talks about, he may find that those "rich" will stop stimulating the economy by creating businesses, jobs, and trade goods.

Foreign Policy: Wow, where to start. He's an appeaser in so many ways. The U.S. is not Europe; we have weapons and will use them if necessary. Granted, Iraq was an imbroglio; we should have been more decisive and acted in our interests, not theirs, or at least charged the Iraqis for everything we did. Doubling foreign assistance is straight theft from Americans: charity should be voluntary, and should start in this country. "Obama will secure all loose nuclear material in the world in four years." Really. How does he plan to accomplish that? More pie-in-the-sky promises that he has no ability or intention to deliver on. "Expand the military"? It's already big enough to defend the country, and we have bases everywhere; I think I'd prefer not to subsidize even more cradle-to-grave entitled jobs.

Healthcare: Naked cash grab from educated working people. I support putting people buying health insurance individually on the same level as companies buying it, adjusting for age and conditions, but why should I subsidize anyone else's health, especially any non-essential treatment.

Homeland Security: Nothing too objectionable here, mainly because there's not really any content. Next!

Immigration: He has some good points, he really does—everyone wants secure borders, for example (although he's probably delayed and voted against actual work here), but they're really just sugar for his main wish, eerily titled "Bring People Out of the Shadows". The word you are looking for, Barack you traitor, is amnesty. They're not in "shadows" any more than a bank robber is in the "shadows" after he's left the bank with the loot; they're fugitives from the law, and should be launched over our border with a trebuchet after being chipped to ensure they never return. The fourteenth amendment should be clarified so its intent is clear: children of illegals and foreign nationals should not get U.S. citizenship; employee verification should be mandatory everywhere; and illegals should not get any social benefits whatsoever. That's comprehensive immigration reform: enforce the law.

Iraq: See above: get our troops out, or, ideally, charge for the war: we'll take payment in oil.

Poverty: Mainly a re-hash of the Economy topics, except with a few more freebies paid by us the working: free nurse care, free housing, free transportation. Move closer to your job and shut up; maybe you should have studied harder in school.

Rural: More farming subsidies; more payments not to farm.

Service: Making high school kids do community service sounds good, except I thought slavery was outlawed (you'd think he'd understand this; he would if he were "down for the struggle"); it's even more objectionable at the college level. These other service groups and corps are just more waste of my money. If you want work done, Hussein, pay a private organization to do it, like anyone else.

Seniors & Social Security: More tax breaks, cheap drugs, and more forced employment. Social security is a dying pyramid scheme and needs to be privatized: it's bankrupt and a huge target for frequent abuse. Fund your 401k/Roth IRA, and take some responsibility for your life.

Woohoo, we're nearly done… last page on the table of contents, three things to go… do we Hope for any Change? No, not really….

Technology: I think he's for it (as long as someone else pays), and he wants to break up Big Media.

Urban Policy: Let people arm themselves, you blockhead (and don't pretend that you were actually happy with Heller… you're not fooling anyone). Just a rehash of various pandering vote-buying that we've already seen under Economy, Poverty, etc.

Veterans: More money for veterans' health. Um. You knew what you were getting into when you joined the military; why should I subsidize you for the rest of your life because of your career choice? The only way that would make sense if it was for military acting in the U.S.' direct interest (i.e. local national defense, or actual wars for oil—honestly, if anyone things the Iraq war was for oil, take a look, because we're clearly doing it wrong), and we couldn't get enough volunteers without such promises. And I don't think that's the case.

And speaking of cases, there's the case against Barak Hussein Obama. His whole issues list is a big vote-buying grab, which he plans to pay for by, in the usual Democrat way, raising taxes, which will affect those that work more than those that don't, and those that actually bothered to get an education or skills more than those that didn't. He's so socialist he makes me sick: as a libertarian, for small government (government should only protect personal and property rights and national defense) and allowing people to make their own choices in everything by choosing what to support with their dollars. After all, if the Democrats are so compassionate, clearly every last one of them will "opt-in" to (now privatized) welfare in this new à la carte world, so things for them will continue as usual, right? No? No. They're thugs and control freaks, and Obama's just the latest charismatic incarnation. Parts 1 2 3 4 5.

Canoeing around the University

News, Bad Drivers, Political, Guns ·Wednesday June 25, 2008 @ 22:11 EDT (link)

20080615: Updated my resume for my PMP application. Honey and I went to Duvall Park and played ball and then sat in camp chairs and read in the morning; went out to the UWa. Waterfront Activities Center in the afternoon and canoed for about an hour. We got very close to ducks, Canada geese, and a couple of cranes, which was amazing. Got home around 1900, cooked.

20080617: Joined the NRA ($35 - $10 Glock discount = $25/a.; they have $1000 life memberships too, which I may consider at some point, if I ever think I'll be a member for more than 40 years). Supposed to get a magazine and membership card in the mail.

Bad driver: WA 210XSO Silver Honda Civic EX let in not one but two queue-jumpers on 51st between WA-520 and 156th (around 0930).

Another bad driver in the evening: 1645 on Avondale (turned off Novelty Hill at 208th); WA 800 RVD burgundy Honda Pilot, with flames around the Honda logo (who is he kidding, unless it's meant to indicate it uses a lot of gas). Queue-jumping, i.e. passing just to be an asshole, without hope of actually going faster (due to traffic volume).

20080618: Did some pruning outside; grass is still short, can wait until the weekend to cut again as long as the rain holds off. Uploaded resume to PMP application: all thatÂs remaining is one of my recommendations, my personal statement, printing the application (it's listed as a step—I guess they want you to have a backup, since it is an online application), and paying; it's all due by July 1.

20080619: Took Honey to the airport to fly out to WV: left at 2130, got home at 2300 exactly; some construction near the airport and on I-405.

20080621: Gun show day! Joined WAC at the Monroe gun show ($35, minus show entry fee); bought a pistol rug ($8) and a 10-round Glock magazine (for Canada if I ever get a PAL ($8, down from $10), and 500 more rounds of 9mm ammo (S&B 115 grain FMJ from Surplus Ammo).

20080624: Called Honey in WV. Jim Cameron (Cameron Construction) came by with his painter to prepare an estimate for painting work (outside wood, steps, rails, and some minor touchup inside).

20080625: Still monitoring GunBroker Springfield Armory 1911 EMP auctions—one used item went for around $850, new seem to be going for around $1050; their site is down now with SQL errors all over the place (first time I've seen that). Worked on PMP personal statement; pretty much finished; I hope they don't expect it to be too long, I've made it basically a summary, since they also want a resume and academic summary as part of the package, so there's no point in being repetitive.

The Government is Not Your Daddy blog has a new post up: What is Conservatism; well worth reading. It discusses how the United States was founded on the principles of limiting government, rather than government power; individual responsibility, rather than collectivism, private property versus communism, and free markets rather than central planning. I particularly liked:

IÂm not against all taxation. I recognize that you donÂt get something for nothing. The protection of my rights as a citizen, and our national sovereignty, is worth a lot to me. And IÂm willing to pay for that. But IÂm not willing to pay for everything else anybody wants that they canÂt afford to pay for themselves. If you want something of value, you have to provide value in return. Just because you canÂt afford something, doesnÂt give you the right to take it out of my pocket. Nobody owes you anything, except what you earn.

Well said, Peggi. Obamunisti non carborundum. I don't think I've ever met anyone whose views align so well with mine.

The socialism of Barack Hussein Obama III

Political ·Sunday June 22, 2008 @ 18:22 EDT (link)

Economy: Let me quote from Obama's page: "I believe that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. … We are all in this together… we all have a stake in each other's success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers." And there's the socialist coming out: reading between the lines, he's justifying the type of taking that take not from the rich, but from the working, and give to the indolent, to the illegal alien, to the couple that has children they cannot afford, all of whom who expect the government, that is, people that work to subsidize them. Whenever a politician says "we", keep a good grip on your wallet. Let's enumerate how he plans to rob from the useful and give to the useless, shall we?

One of the problems with Socialism is that if everyone is paid the same, there's no incentive to work harder, no incentive to develop new more efficient methods and technology. Pandering and theft are Obama's two actual campaign planks.

Let me just rant a bit about the term middle-class Americans, which Barack really likes to throw around—he wants to give them their cake and let them eat it alongside a chicken in every pot and a Hummer in every garage. Here's a secret: everyone thinks they're middle class, including people on welfare. Here's how they arrive at it: to most people, there are three divisions: poor, middle class, and rich. They aren't poor, they reason (let's face it, if you're in the United States legally, are able-bodied and of sound mind, haven't crapped out kids you can't afford, and are willing to go where the jobs are, it's pretty hard to be poor), but they aren't rich—they've seen how Donald Trump lives on T.V., and they aren't drinking champagne and getting whisked around in limousines. So, by the middle ground fallacy they believe they're middle class; and perhaps they are, by their definitions of rich and poor, but then by that so is 99% of the country, so the distinction ceases to have much meaning. It's just a phrase used to pander, to say "We're here for you, we're not trying to give anything to the evil rich." Don't buy it. Pretend the words aren't there.

Category	Costs	Who Pays	Who Benefits
Economy
Tax cut for working families	Pure pandering. Taxes are a percentage; that percentage even increases the more one makes, which people have the gall to call progressive (it may be a technical term, but it's certainly a loaded one). Where are these $500 and $1000 gifts to "middle-class Americans" going to come from? That's right, other "middle-class Americans"—the ones that are working just a bit harder. (Also, why for "families" and not singles? Does he count childless couples as "families"?)	"Middle-class Americans" that work and/or provide jobs (capitalists).	"Middle-class Americans" that don't work (dedicated communists, or "Obamunists").
Simplify tax filings	This is is something I believe I can support, if it doesn't cost an inordinate amount. I personally don't find it all that complicated: we always file paper taxes and it takes us about half an hour with a calculator each year to put everything together; presumably filing online is even easier. Barack wants to make tax filing easier for ~~middle-class Americans~~people that don't pay capital gains tax, by "using information from banks and employers." The only issue I see is privacy, but since banks and employers are already reporting information to the IRS, I see no harm in correlating it: why should I have to submit W-2s and 1099s to the IRS when they already have the information? I'd pay, say, $10 to save a half-hour a year in filing time.	Everybody. Accountants? People that like their privacy?	Everybody, I hope.
Fight for fair trade	Sounds good: even protectionism is a good thing for Americans if it keeps jobs and enriches the nation; screw the global economy, support your country. So far so good; although I doubt the WTO will be as cooperative as he thinks and we'd probably do better to get out from under than unelected body. I'm also behind amending NAFTA to be more in our favor; the U.S. should not maintain agreements that are not in our interest (and canceling or amending isn't reneging; we are not refusing to stand by the terms of the agreement, just offering to either renegotiate in good faith, or to let everyone walk away).	Sellouts to China, India, the European Union, etc.	Everyone else (patriots?)
Transition assistance	Weaselly, though—it looks like more free (or tax-free) money. I support education, I support retraining, but I don't think I should have to pay for someone else's education or training.	Taxpayers.	Freeloaders.
Support job creation	More wolves and sheep luncheons: the government has never been efficient at creating jobs; it just sucks more money from the tax-paying. Private industry has always been much better at creating jobs and directing research.	Taxpayers.	Freeloaders.
Invest in U.S. manufacturing, create "green" jobs	The first is fine; but let the market decide if it wants it or not, and how best to make it happen.	Taxpayers.	US industry, environmentalists.
Next-generation broadband	Extremely high, if taxpayers are forced to pay to get broadband Internet to areas which aren't profitable for existing companies.	Taxpayers; non-users.	Very rural areas.
"Open Internet" (network neutrality)	Somewhat sound in principle, but I also think it's fair that if a company pays for infrastructure, it should get to control it. However, since usually companies that lay network infrastructure are highly subsidized (in costs and in use of public land), I think a feasible compromise would be to let a company be able to control these subsidized networks for a limited non-renewable period (one to five years, depending on the network), and then it reverts to common carrier status.	Customers of and companies that build infrastructure.	Internet users.
Support unions, protect strikers	There's too little support for employees to choose not to unionize; will his proposals force unionization on workers that don't want it? Our freedom to associate already implies unions, since a union is just an association of like-minded people, exercising their rights. No government intervention is needed, unless other laws (assault, intimidation) are being broken.	Taxpayers.	Lazy workers.
Raise minimum wage.	Sure, raise it to $100/hour. That'll help everyone! Wait, it won't? Price caps (floors) aren't magic? You don't say. He also wants to "increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs": why should I pay for someone else's bad decision to have kids they can't afford?	Workers: companies may want to hire someone at $5/hour, but not at $10/hour, so they just get by with fewer employees.	Research, perhaps—technology will evolve to eliminate even more labor-intensive jobs. Unemployment service workers.
Universal mortgage credit	Restructuring of tax law will fall on everyone (presumably renters will be hit hardest since they won't get the credit). If you have a mortgage, itemize, you lazy idiots.	Renters.	Poorer homeowners.
Home loan bills	I agree with some of the fraud prevention ideas in principle, but what constitutes fraud? If someone signs a contract without reading and understanding it, the fault is theirs, not the mortgage broker's. As it is their fault, nobody should be helping them avoid foreclosure: it is their just desserts.	Responsible owners/renters.	Irresponsible homeowners.
Credit card bill of rights	Mostly a bad idea. Currently, credit card companies must disclose changes to the agreement and cardholders can cancel their card if they want to; nobody forces them to keep it. Applying interest rate increases only to future debt makes credit card companies pay the difference; that and any rate ceilings will make it impossible for lower-income people or those with lower credit scores to get credit; the risk to the companies is higher than the return.	Not the credit card companies, that's for sure. People with poor credit, taxpayers.	Government bureaucracy.
Cap payday loan interest	See credit card caps, above.
Reform bankruptcy laws for medical crises	Are you kidding? If I as a taxpayer have to end up footing the bill for someone's medical procedure, damn skippy they'd better end up bankrupt and have to pay back whatever they got.	Taxpayers.	The indolent and those that don't plan ahead; a very few true hard-luck cases.
Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)	He wants to bring coverage to businesses with 25+ employees, instead of the current 50+. Either those businesses will have to fire a lot of people, or go under due to their new costs.	Small businesses; taxpayers; people that want to work.	Nobody, really; maybe a few baby factories.
More child freebies	More of my taxes to people with kids, discriminatory flex-time for parents, more "free" after-school programs. Repeat after me: if you can't afford to have children without government help, you cannot afford children: DO NOT HAVE THEM and we'll all be happier.	Me, and others like me without children; responsible parents.	Irresponsible parents.

I'm tired; I need to take a break. Education is next; I think you can see the trend: don't work, get free stuff from those that do. Where, oh where, is the community of producers like in The Fountainhead, and when can we leave the indolent thieves behind? Parts 1 2 3 4 5.

Books finished: Welcome To the Monkey House, Pawn of Prophecy.

DVDs finished: The Fast and the Furious, The Pelican Brief, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Basic Instinct 2, Double Jeopardy.

Snoqualmie Valley Rifle Club orientation

News, Guns ·Saturday June 14, 2008 @ 19:36 EDT (link)

20080607: Chip Dusseau (of Coldwell Banker Bain's Redmond Ridge office) here to talk about selling the house; may be able to get it on the market for July. We'd like to move back to Redmond or thereabouts, so I'm closer to work and Honey's closer to school; also, it makes us more mobile.

20080608: Got GRE analytical writing score back (and others, but I knew them since they were computer-scored: perfect 800 on the quantitative (math), 700 on the qualitative (verbal), top 3%). Perfect 6.0, despite my gun metaphors, and claiming the semi-automatic handgun as a positive (personal defense) technology in my issue paper (this is surprising because schools lean liberal, as, presumably, do the grad students who do a lot of the GRE grading, and liberals are anti-gun).

20080611, 12: Had some yard maintenance done by Scott's Landscape Service: pruning, weeding, trimming, and replacing some of the outdoor lights that got topped when the tree fell (or by the construction workers).

20080612: Bob sent in his letter of recommendation for my graduate school (PMP) application. Finished some more of the online PMP application (courses, recommendations) and had it send an email to EB, my other reference. Still need to finish personal statement and upload a resume.

20080614: Went to SVRC orientation, handed in application and (½-yearly) payment, got a temporary badge (real one will be mailed); I can start using the range July 1 (I could probably start earlier; nobody would know, but it'd be morally wrong since I only paid their ½-year rate).

In general orientation didn't tell me much that was new, just a few things about the gate combination, opening the first aid/telephone room, and clarified a few things: cease-fire on the rifle range extends to the pistol range, but not vice versa, and (aluminum) cans can be shot at at either range (even though the web site says otherwise, or perhaps implies steel cans; steel targets aren't allowed because of the possibility of ricochets, and paint/oil cans aren't allowed because of toxicity; glass is out because it gets everywhere; plastic bottles are fine).

Books finished: Waterdeep.

DVDs finished: Basic Instinct, My Cousin Vinny.

The socialism of Barack Hussein Obama II

Political ·Monday June 9, 2008 @ 21:33 EDT (link)

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

—James Bovard

Continuing on with a freedom-and-cost-based analysis of B. Hussein's issues, since I couldn't find one, and needed to set out clearly why Obama is bad for (working) America.

Regarding voting, I'd actually prefer to enforce an ID to ensure that non-citizens aren't voting; in fact, I'd even suggest that if one doesn't work one doesn't vote (it would help the "vote to get more free stuff" trend), or perhaps that only people that are net taxpayers (vs. tax receivers) can vote, modulo certain disabilities etc. Voting elects politicians, politicians control tax dollars, so if you're not contributing to the pile, why should you have any say in what's done with it?

(This entry used to be in prose form, but then I realized there'd be a whole lot of duplication, given that socialism isn't all that creative: workers pay taxes, non-workers collect free stuff—at least they get marks for consistency.)

Category	Costs	Who Pays	Who Benefits
Civil Rights
Hate crimes	Justice: crimes against so-called minorities will get harsher punishment than the same crime against a non-minority; freedom of speech: people will fear to express their opinions (e.g. against homosexuality) because those opinions are now "hate crimes".	Anyone with anti-establishment or anti-popular views (this would legitimize juror bias). Hate crime laws are bogus: they give license for witch-hunts against thoughtcrime, no matter who controls the government. It is the act, not the thought, that should be punished.	Minorities; liberals; dictators.
End deceptive voting practice	Probably code to spend federal money to print voting pamphlets in more languages (learn English!)	English-speaking taxpayers.	Illegal voters and anchor babies, or legal immigrants that refuse to learn English (and this would be a disincentive).
End racial profiling	Security. Over-sensitive political correctness will stop police and airport security from doing their work. A dilapidated car cruising an expensive neighborhood driven by someone out of the demographic probably is up to no good, but now stopping them to ask a few questions will no longer be allowed. I'll trust that police who have been patrolling a neighborhood for decades have good instincts about who shouldn't be there, and not tie their hands. Furthermore, it's not white grandmothers that are trying to blow up airplanes; it's middle-aged Arab men, and profiling saves lives.	Travellers, law-abiding citizens.	Terrorists.
Reduce drug sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.	Security. I have it on good authority that crack is a worse drug: so why shouldn't worse be punished more?	Law-abiding citizens.	Illegal drug users. If minorities are the ones using crack cocaine, as Barack alleges, wouldn't the better solution be for them to stop using it?
Expand drug courts	More drug offenders on the streets. The heading sounds good, but he actually means that he wants to keep drug offenders out of jail and on the streets. Oh boy, can we?	"	Illegal drug users.
Affirmative action	Businesses will have to hire minorities over qualified applicants; this is simple racism/sexism. Didn't someone famous once wish that "[his] children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character"?	Businesses, qualified applicants.	Minorities.
Disabilities
Provide Americans with disabilities with the educational opportunities they need to succeed.	Probably weasel words meaning he wants other people to pay for said education. I'm not against giving some help to those that truly need it, but the help should be (a) voluntary, which means that (b) I (or an organization that I trust and give money to) can judge need, not some government bureaucrat with too many applications and too little time.	Taxpayers.	Disabled people—and anyone who can trick the government, which isn't known for its discernment.
Support independent, community-based living for Americans with disabilities.	Although he doesn't say it explicitly, I'd imagine what he means is to pay for this "community living" using my taxes. It's expensive enough to pay for my own housing, let alone everyone else's.	"	"
Increase the employment rate of workers with disabilities.	Unless he just means to go and encourage them to apply for jobs rather than relying on government handouts (which would be great), it hints of affirmative action, for which see above, substituting disability for race.	Qualified workers, businesses.	Unqualified workers.

I think this needs to be continued. The next section is Economy, and reading some of his policies is making it hard for me to keep down the delicious dinner that I just ate, especially when he claims to support the free market in one breath but then espouses socialist reapportionment in the next. Parts 1 2 3 4 5.

DVDs finished: The Contract, Saw IV, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Species: The Awakening, Next, Thr3e, Swimfan.

Back to co-authoring: ECMA documentation no more

News, Work, Guns ·Friday June 6, 2008 @ 21:40 EDT (link)

20080529: Emailed question re: cans at SVRC; the rules appear to conflict: "no cans" vs. directions how to set up cans as targets. The info@ guy forwarded to the club president; no answer yet. It's possible cans are allowed on the rifle range but not the pistol range, since the prohibition appears in the pistol range rules.

My HDMI cable from Amazon arrived. (Note: be not deceived: don't buy expensive HDMI and other digital cables; digital signal isn't subject to degradation in the same way (i.e. it is, but it's pretty much an all-or-nothing proposition) as analog.)

20080530: Got TruGlo Tritium Fiber Optics (TFO) sights installed; posted to the Gun Club @ Microsoft forum and someone here in Duvall replied offering to put the sights on for me. Due to a Glock slide modification in recent models, he had to mill down the front sight and screw so it fit properly.

My HDMI-DVI adapter arrived. Honey had Chelsea from school over, we got pizza for dinner. When we got back from dropping off Chelsea, I connected the Myth box to the TV via the HDMI cable and DVI-HDMI adapter (together they were under $10 from Amazon). I had to tweak my xorg.conf file a bit (searched the web, this thread was helpful, mainly the bit about not treating it as a TV; I changed the Monitor HorizSync/VertRefresh to their values, set Screen DefaultDepth to 24, Screen/Display Depth to 24, and commented out the Screen "ConnectedMonitor" and "TVOverscan" options as well as Screen/Display's Modes: defaults work fine). Wow, HD is pretty! I had a test HD episode of Grey's Anatomy saved, and it looks wow.

Pin right through the zipper! 20080603: Amazon order arrived (DVDs, range bag, pistol rug (which was defective and had to be returned, fortunately they pay return shipping), and staple gun).

20080605: Got our ECMA standards deviations shirts: green with a cream-colored sigma (sigma, for standard deviation, get it?)

20080606: Hallelujah! Free at last from ECMA documentation, and back to doing the work I signed up for: Word development in C++. C# was fun for a while, but dealing with deviations is tiring, because the whole framework was badly designed by a non-developer; kudos for doing it, sure, but I'd rather waited and had it designed right, and then much of my work would not have even been necessary. Onward to co-authoring!

Books finished: The Revolution, Tantras, In the Gravest Extreme.

DVDs finished: A Few Good Men, The Score, The Brave One.

The socialism of Barack Hussein Obama

Political ·Saturday May 31, 2008 @ 14:55 EDT (link)

Liberalism is a whimsical luxury of the very rich—and the very poor, both of whom have little stake in society.

—Ann Coulter, Slander p. 31, quoted in If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans

It seems that socialism only differs from Marxism in that Marxism requires a revolution and its rhetoric is a bit more insane; so although some call B. Hussein Obama a Marxist, we really have to withhold judgment until the revolution.

Objectivists and libertarians criticize socialism as devaluing the individual, and making people incapable of choosing their own values, as decisions are made centrally. We also reject socialism's indifference to property rights. (From Wikipedia's Criticisms of Socialism.)

Robbing from the rich and giving to the poor may be great if you're Robin Hood and the poor are peasants with no food and the rich are corrupt thieves, but when you're the government, the poor live in houses and have two cars and three televisions, and the rich are ordinary people, then it becomes just plain robbery.

With that in mind, let's take a look at Obama's issues page through the lens of freedom: do his ideas promote freedom and choice, or do they promote more government taking and control? Parts 1 2 3 4 5.

DVDs finished: Hide and Seek.