I cannot despair for my country so long as it keeps producing kickass arrest photos like this one…

Courtesy of The Morning Call.  This is why I never took up a life of crime.  I have no fashion sense.

Well Chemistry.Com turned out to be a dud.  Maybe I should have tried these instead…

For the lover man who wants to get lucky. With a 60’s swing feel these chocolate cookies come equipped with pickup lines as fortunes. Box contains 8 chocolate fortune cookies.

$7.95

Ohhh…a Pink Dodge Charger!  Bet it’s got shag carpeting too.  See…I never think of things like that.

Or maybe I should just fiddle with my diet a tad…

Dang.  Why wasn’t I told about this?

So I’m out strolling around the neighborhood, cigar in hand, still trying to burn off some nervous energy from my holiday adventures, when I happen across a neighbor packing his car for a little trip.  We chat for a brief moment, and it leads to this short exchange…

Me: Yeah…I’m still trying to de-stress from my holiday trip.  My path took me past two of the great loves of my life…

He: I can see where that would lead to stressful times…

Me: Yeah.  My Ex down in Hilton Head just Had to show me the house he’s living in now…with the guy he dumped me for.  I tried to explain…but he insisted and I just can’t say no to him…  (shakes head)  He just had to show me.  Arrgh…

He: (Grins) 

Me: And then I drove through Florida, where my first love lives now…  So basically about half my vacation amounted to taking a tour past the lives they’ve both made for themselves… (shrug…puff…)

He: Yes.  But you survived.

Actually…that’s still an open question.

One of my D.C. friends asked me why I fucking did that to myself.  I told him I didn’t know.  And, really, I don’t.  Except it’s just the way I am.  I had to know.  It’s why I was never able to just sit in my church pews and passively accept what I was being told about life, morality, evolution, creation, and my relationship to my creator.  Ever since I was old enough to lay on my back at night and look up at the stars and wonder what they were, I’ve always had to know what is. 

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
-Ecclesiastes (ch. I, v. 18)

That’s not really true.  Knowledge is broadening.  Both the joys and the sorrows increase.  But there’s a point you reach where you find you can’t cope anymore.  Understanding nature as it really is, has provided me with very great joy.  But there’s only one joy that can ease the sorrow I’ve lived with most of my life, and I don’t see it coming.  And that one great sorrow just really drags me down lately.  I don’t think anyone who knows me really sees how bad it is.

I wish I could draw.  If I could just draw it might help a little. 

Just…  Damn!

[Update…] Apparently initial autopsy results were inconclusive.  But…look at this from Raw Story…

The actor’s personal strife was accompanied by professional anxiety.

Ledger said in an interview in November that "Dark Knight" and last year’s "I’m Not There," took a heavy toll. He said he "stressed out a little too much" during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."

"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told The New York Times. "I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he took two Ambien pills, which only worked for an hour.

Holy Crap!  I had a prescription of Ambien once and just one of those things would slam me down flat all night and halfway into the next morning.  And those things are horribly addictive (it took me a month and a half of slowly cutting the pills down smaller and smaller every night to ween myself off the stuff) and I swore afterward that I’d never touch the stuff again.  And he was downing two at a time and they weren’t doing anything for him???  Wow.  Just…  Wow.

I don’t think most of us who only watch their performances up on the silver screen really appreciate how incredibly stressful that life is.  They make it look easy and it isn’t.

The new Mercedes-Benz ‘C’ class got a big award back in its homeland the other day…

ADAC award "Yellow Angel 2008": Mercedes-Benz C-Class is Germany’s Favorite Car

Stuttgart – Jan 17, 2008 — Stuttgart – The Mercedes-Benz C-Class has emerged the winner of Germany’s largest vote for the most popular car by a wide margin. Accordingly the motoring organisation ADAC has presented its sought-after "Yellow Angel 2008" award to this Stuttgart-made public favourite.

The "Yellow Angel" awards, which the ADAC presents annually for outstanding performance, are named after the nickname given to the ADAC’s friendly breakdown service personnel and are among Europe’s most sought-after motoring awards. Consumers find them a valuable decision-making guide, as criteria such as price/performance ratio, practicality, economy, safety and environmental compatibility also play a part in the selection process.

The vote was between 36 vehicles which newly entered the market in 2007. Around 340,000 people cast their votes and awarded first place to the Mercedes-Benz C-Class by a wide margin over the runner-up. Europe’s largest motoring association – it has around 16 million members – rewarded this clear-cut result with the "Yellow Angel 2008" award for Germany’s favourite car.

…

Germany’s favourite car is also very much a bestseller. With 261,500 examples sold in 2007, unit sales of the saloon increased by 57 percent.

The C-Class has already collected several awards for its exceptional status in the mid-range segment. The readers of AUTO BILD voted it the most attractive saloon, the motoring magazine "auto, motor und sport" declared it the most appealing medium-sized car and 350,000 participants in Europe’s largest internet survey voted it Europe’s favourite car with the 2007 "Carolina" Internet Auto Award.

I’ll say this…as soon as I sat down in one at the Mercedes dealership in Hunt Valley back in September, I just knew deep down inside that this is the One.  But it’s great to know they’re enthusiastic about this new Mercedes back in Germany because I think it means the company really does have its grove back now.  Mine was made at a factory just outside of Stuttgart.

I’ve put about 7500 miles on Traveler since I took delivery back in October, drove it down to Disneyworld and Key West last month, and I haven’t had problem one.  It’s been absolutely reliable and solid in the way that I’d always admired Mercedes-Benz autos for, back when I was a kid.  And…it’s a beautiful car…in that straightforward, understated Mercedes-Benz way because when you’re engineered like that you don’t have to shout.  You just Are. 

This isn’t bragging…I’m obviously still in new car love.  Your mileage will of course, vary.   Some folks want the Corvette.  Some just gotta have that big truck or SUV.  Some want the Mini Cooper.  Some would rather have the Harley.  This car is me.  Absolutely me.

Hahahahaha….

Ralph Nader…
Posted by Dan Savage on January 22 at 11:34 AM

…plans to “decide in about a month” on another third-party run at the White House. In addition to having done enough damage to our country already, Ralph is 74 years old—three years older than ancient ol’ John McCain—and really ought to be thinking about retirement.

C’mon, Ralph. Don’t you want to enjoy your golden years? Kick back—you’ve earned it. Don’t you wanna travel a bit, see the country…

Tell you what, Ralph, if you don’t run for president I’ll head up a fundraising drive to purchase you a nice car—perhaps a bitchin’ vintage ‘62 Corvair—for you to tour the country in. Whatdaya say, Ralph?

I’m in…

…not heterosexuals, mostly…but us.  This is what they never wanted us to know…

Same-sex pairs ‘equally committed’

Same-sex couples are just as committed in their romantic relationships as heterosexual couples, according to a report.

The finding disputes the stereotype that couples in same-sex relationships are not as committed as their heterosexual counterparts and therefore not as psychologically healthy.

The study examined whether committed same-sex couples differed from engaged and married opposite-sex couples in how well they interacted and how satisfied they were with their partners.

Researchers from the University of Illinois compared 30 committed gay male and 30 committed lesbian couples with 50 engaged heterosexual couples and 40 older married heterosexual couples, as well as with dating heterosexual couples.

Results of a questionnaire and a laboratory task showed that same-sex relationships were similar to those of opposite-sex couples in many ways.

All had positive views of their relationships but those in the more committed relationships (gay and straight) resolved conflict better than the heterosexual dating couples.

The notion that committed same-sex relationships are "atypical, psychologically immature, or malevolent contexts of development was not supported by our findings," said lead author Glenn I. Roisman.

"Compared with married individuals, committed gay males and lesbians were not less satisfied with their relationships."

And he added: "Gay males and lesbians in this study were generally not different from their committed heterosexual counterparts on how well they interacted with one another, although some evidence emerged the lesbian couples were especially effective at resolving conflict."

Yeah…male ego…  But still.  It’s possible.  It can happen.  To us too.  That’s what they never wanted us to know…

The study features in the January issue of Developmental Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.

Via Slashdot…one poor lonely heterosexual geek is looking for love…

"Craiglist offers an interesting approach to finding a life partner , summmary: "There is a sad truth to the world today. I am part of a dying breed of people known as "shell users." … Because there are fewer and fewer of us, I must help keep our lineage alive. I am looking for someone to help me do this. I need a woman (obviously) who is willing to raise a child with me in the method of Unix."."

Oh that poor kid…

Look…I’ve been a computer geek since microcomputers first started appearing on the shelves.  I earn my living coding, and designing somewhat complex software systems.  I didn’t start out in Unix, but DOS, and I spent many years before Windows wielding a command prompt, thinking nothing of jamming complex dos commands together in order to do something I needed doing.  These days with Linux I can #!/bin/sh to my heart’s content. but trust me, you just plain don’t want to know what I know about DOS batch file programming.  And I really don’t think I need more geekiness in my life, thank you.  Two of us under the same roof would be too much.

I’m not looking for a Luddite by any means.  But a boyfriend who knows there is life somewhere offline too, and who would rather spend his time there, would be helpful.  In friendship you want your reflection.  In love you want your complement.

Looks like the new ‘E’ class is going to look a bit like the new ‘C’ class…

Look familiar?  I did a double-take when I saw this and thought for a moment that the image had been mislabeled an ‘E’ when it should have been labeled a ‘C’.  Then I looked closer.  From the back it looks different enough though…

The trunk curves in a nicer way then my ‘C’, although I think the rear end look of my ‘C’ is pretty nice too.  But it looks to my eye like the rear passenger doors on this new ‘E’ slope down a bit too much at the back.  But if it’s got a longer wheelbase then the ‘C’ then that slope probably isn’t as bad as it looks.  The tailpipes could have come right off my ‘C’.  And for that matter, so could the front grille.  Here’s what the new interior looks like…

The door panels are almost identical to my ‘C’.  They have the seat adjustment buttons on them and mine has them on the side of the seat, but that’s a fluke of the U.S. ‘C’ version only.  Note the trapdoor for the nav system video display above the center air vents…just like in my ‘C’ class, only a tad wider.  The controls on the console below it are almost identical to my ‘C’, except for their color scheme.  It looks like there is an extra button next to the seat warmer buttons and that’s all. The instrument cluster is arranged a bit differently, and it looks like they’re all digital displays, whereas mine are real gauges, with a digital display in the center of the speedometer gauge.  The steering wheel is identical to mine, again except for the color scheme.  There’s more wood on the dash, but less on the center console.  I’ll assume some center console wood can be added optionally.  Otherwise, this new ‘E’ is only about as sumptuous on the inside as my ‘C’ and that can’t be right.

By the way…I really Like the fact that my video display can be tucked away while I’m driving.  It’s distracting otherwise.  When I need to see a detailed map or something it’s nice to bring it out.  But once I have what I need off of it I like being able to tuck it back away.

It’s nine degrees at BWI airport as I write this.  You can really tell how poorly insulated a 1950s brick house is when it gets this cold.  The two exterior walls here at Casa del Garrett, front and back, are just radiating coldness.  It’s days like this I don’t mind that I didn’t buy an end-of-group unit.

Ironically enough, the previous owners installed really nice double-pane glass windows.  The concrete block and brick veneer exterior walls probably loose way more heat then the windows in them do. 

Via Pam’s House Blend…  This from The Opine Editorials…which bills itself as "Defending marriage on the firm ground of reason and respect for human dignity". 

Inspirational

I was reading an article on National Review Online recently and ran across an inspirational passage that made me realize the tremendous contributions of so many of our fellow defenders of the institution of marriage.

The article’s author is David French, a soldier in America’s Army Reserve fighting in Iraq, as well as a soldier in the war to protect traditional marriage!

“As a bit of background, I’m a mobilized reservist (in my civilian life, I’m a senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund and regularly contribute to NRO’s “Phi Beta Cons” blog) supporting 2nd (Sabre) Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, one of the Army’s most storied units. I serve as the squadron’s judge advocate (lawyer), and I’ve been pushed forward as part of “Operation Raider Harvest.””

Alliance Defense Fund is on the forefront of the battle against same-sex “marriage”.

I found the specter of a man who spends half his time fighting America’s enemies within & the other half fighting Americas enemies abroad to be truly inspirational!

American’s enemies within.  Which was  promptly followed up in comments by …

 You are degrading the TRUE freedoms of America.

"Freedom of Speech" carries the obligation to speak THE Truth, with the implication that righteous Americans also have a right to freedom from from untruths.

There are no such words in the constitution as "Freedom of Thought". Righteous Americans, however, do have the right to be free from having untruths shoved in their face and down their throats, and they do have the right to protect innocents’ freedom from exposure to these untruths.

"Making a case for change" is not the same thing as petitioning for a redress of grievances. "Grievances" connotes that there is something that is immoral that must be corrected in order to bring this country closer to the ideal of the moral straight, true and narrow. "Change" can be whatever you like even if it is immoral. There is no ‘freedom’ to make a case for allowing paedophelia, but a freedom FROM such immorality.

America is built on the metaphor of ‘Family’. Thus, that which mocks the moral wholesomeness of the family which is the bedrock of America’s moral superiority is an EMEMY of America.

Dig it.  According to this true blue American patriot, there is no such thing as freedom of thought, let alone freedom of speech.  And he was promptly followed up by this…

Anyone pushing such an agenda acts against the family and the dignity of the human being, and as such is not merely an enemy of America but an enemy of humanity itself, because the acts that he/she wants society to affirm and condone are clearly “acts of grave depravity.”

Human dignity anyone?  There is no freedom of thought.  Homosexuals are the enemy within.  Homosexuals are the enemies of America.  Homosexuals are the enemies of humanity.  Some days I wonder if this was how it felt to be a Jew in Europe during the late 1920s.  Oh…don’t worry about them…they’re just a bunch of fringe lunatics.  Crazies.  Nobody takes them seriously…

[Update…]  Another commenter adds:

It appears to me that the vast majority of LGBT folks have a selfish and single-minded "what’s in it for me" attitude towards the +/- 5% of LGBT folks who are actiist and actively working to undermine the family, religion, and the institution of marriage.

So long as they are promised their "special rights", the vast majority is perfectly willing to let the nihilists run the larger agenda of evil.

…so in addition to all of the above, homosexuals are also part of a larger agenda of evil.

Fourteen cigar boxes full of the loose change I’d taken out of my pockets every night as I undressed for bed for the past fifteen years, came to just under three-thousand dollars the other day.  You should have seen the looks I got from the folks waiting for a teller in my bank as I wheeled all those cigar boxes in.

My bank, let it be said, was very cool about it.  I asked ahead of time, and they didn’t demand I wrap up all those coins, and they didn’t charge me for counting them.  The branch customer service manager cheerfully took the cart I’d loaded with all those cigar boxes around behind the teller windows to the coin counting machine and then gave me a deposit slip afterward with the yield amount on it.  She was all smiles, and so was the young teller who ran it all through the machine.  I guess I made their day.

Of course the drawback to all of this is that if I’d bought savings bonds with that money it would have been earning interest all this time.  I have a little wooden box on my dresser that resembles an old pirate treasure chest and that’s where I toss my loose change at the end of my day.  Whenever it filled up I’d transfer some of it to a cigar box and put it away.  I think from now on I’ll go buy a savings bond with it instead.

Wow…

I can only smile ruefully when I consider how prepared I was for the adventure that awaited me.  I was not prepared at all.  I had no skills in boxing or jujitsu, not to mention smuggling, crossing boarders illegally, using secret codes, and so on:  skills that would have stood me in good stead in the coming years.  My spiritual preparation for what was ahead was almost equally inadequate.  Is it not said in peacetime the chiefs of staff always prepare their armies as well as possible – for the previous war?  I cannot judge the truth of that, but it is certainly true that conscientious parents always educate their sons for the era that is just over.

–Sebastian Haffner, "Defying Hitler – A Memoir"

Via Brad DeLong…  Paul Krugman asks a good question…

Signs of the Apocalypse

Via Elizabeth Warren: William F. Buckley discovers the virtues of regulation and calls for government intervention to help fix the mortgage crisis.

If conservative principles are abandoned so easily in the face of a bad economic situation, what was the whole thing about in the first place?

Microsoft takes the next logical step in its ongoing betrayal of the revolution…

Microsoft seeks patent for office ‘spy’ software

Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.

The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer’s assessment of their physiological state.

Technology allowing constant monitoring of workers was previously limited to pilots, firefighters and Nasa astronauts. This is believed to be the first time a company has proposed developing such software for mainstream workplaces.

Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a “unique monitoring system” that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure”, the application states.

The system could also “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker’s weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.

Can’t you just see how Microsoft is going to market this?  Oh…we’re just trying to Help make your office experience more enjoyable… 

The saving grace of it is that any technology capable of producing tiny devices to monitor your every breath with is also capable of producing tiny devices to fuck with the monitoring devices.  But still…this is beyond sad.  It’s disgusting.  Next time Bill, or anyone in the Microsoft boardroom is testifying before congress about something, someone should ask them if they plan to sell this technology to totalitarian states.  Because of course, if a U.S. company doesn’t sell police state technology to police states, someone else will and that’s money out of our pockets isn’t it?

I sure hope nobody asks me to work on the software for crap like this.  I’ll work on it alright…