Blog type

Your Blogging Type is Artistic and Passionate

You see your blog as the ultimate personal expression - and work hard to make it great.One moment you may be working on a new dramatic design for your blog...And the next, you're passionately writing about your pet causes.Your blog is very important - and you're careful about who you share it with.

What's" Your Blogging Personality?

They got it half right. I haven't changed the design of this thing since day one, other than to condense the entries. And I'm not careful who I share it with. I'd share it with Hannibal The Cannibal to keep the hit counter rolling.

These online "tests" (much like mind readers, palm readers, and faith healers) use vague universal statements like the ones above to establish credibility without taking any risk. They're vague enough to apply to everyone, and everyone tends to overlook the portions of the statements that don't directly apply to them.

If you're a blogger, or a writer, or now that I think about it, a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker, try it out with the link below the picture. It won't matter. You'll agree with about half of the computer "analysis" says about you, and you'll be tempted to ignore the rest. Regardless of which analysis they send you.

Liberals, Progressives, and New, Improved Words

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2007/11/political-divide.html#links

There is no Oral Roberts, Jr. ....His name is Richard Roberts. But thanks for the links to my site

Someone, somewhere, has linked this site to the phrase "Oral Roberts, Jr." There is no such person. But people come in here and wander around anyway, and for that I am grateful.

It's hard to believe that anyone would name a child "Oral". The odds against consecutive generations making the same mistake are massive. Oral's son is named Richard. My previous posts on these two con-artists can be found here and here, should you need any background.

Senator Charles Grassley (Republican of Iowa) is conducting an investigation into Televangelist Ministries. 3 of his 6 targets are on the Board of Regents at Oral Roberts University.

Here's the latest on the sorta related mess at ORU....

TULSA, Okla. -- A former senior accountant for Oral Roberts University claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that he was ordered to help school President Richard Roberts and his wife "cook the books" by hiding financial wrongdoing from authorities and the public.

Most of the accusations of financial misdeeds are generic - plane trips for the kids, clothing purchases. But it's never the crime that gets us into trouble, it's the cover-up.

Two students also sued Wednesday in district court. Cornell Cross II and David Brown claim the wrongful termination of the three professors ruined the reputation of their degrees.

As Andrew Sullivan has commented elsewhere, it's not like a degree from Oral Roberts University has much of a reputation to begin with. Yale, Harvard, and The Devry School of Air Conditioning and Refrigerator repair all carry more clout....

Gratitude

Well, let's see...There's family: Fran, Mary, Mama, Amy, Darrell, Shelby, Lexie, Jill, Mark, Jake, Henry ALLEN, Steven, Nancy, Baby Dean, Denny, Iona, Scottie, all the remaining Mississippians, and all The Carolina People.

And then there's work: Pat, Cheryl, Greg, Peau, Carl, Mike, Brad, Mikey, Justin, The Two Steves, Fast Eddie, Travis, Curtis, The Daniel/Libby Godley team, Carmen, Fane (who I need to mend some fences with), Don, Adrian, Robert, Vanessa, Tanya, RJ, Andre,and let's go ahead and be grateful for Craig, Danny Ray, Igor, Randy, Ellen, Rick, Andrea, Yesenia, Damon, Bel, all the other office folks, Darin, Ray, Joe, Jim, Randy B., Rita, Gary, Doug, Brent, Tanya, Barbara, DeAnne, Marsha, Vicky, Mr. Chen, Nancy, Wendy, Hubert, and let's throw in the salespeople too.

And I couldn't possibly forget everyone in the Heresy class: the three Davids, Don, Donella, J.C., M.M., Ginny, Rod, Lisa, James, Brenda, Elaine, Elizabeth, Scott, Cinda, Peter, Beth, the incredibly detailed Charles, Darla, Julie, Mark, Stephanie, Bob, Bob, and Glennella.

The wonderful neighbors we have, Amy Don and Cheryl in particular. I couldn't ask to live by a better pair of lesbians.

Couldn't possibly forget the guitarists: Jason, Kirk, Jeff, and let's throw in Tom, who doesn't play but acts like it.

Gotta mention Bob, Rick, All The Starbucks People, Henry E., John T., Tracey with C., and Robert.

Let's get to the critters: Humphrey, Mandy, Chauncey Billups, Tigger, Sammy Sosa, and Ciabatta.

Also thanks to the good folks at Samizdata, quite possibly the best site in the world, and therefore one of the best things in the universe. One day I'm going to write something, and they're going to link to it.

Good health. Good job. Good truck. Plenty to do. Barack is gaining on Hillary. My glass is at least half full.

Photo lifted from troylaplante.blogspot.com/, who is grateful to be separated from The Psycho B-witch from hell.

Justices Will Decide if Handgun Kept at Home Is Individual Right - New York Times

Justices Will Decide if Handgun Kept at Home Is Individual Right - New York Times

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private use, plunging the justices headlong into a divisive and long-running debate over how to interpret the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.”

This shouldn't be difficult.

The Second Amendment's guarantee....

That means that it's in our Bill of Rights,

of the "right of the people...."

That's you, me, people you like, and people you don't like.

To keep....

That means to own. I can keep a gun, along with the other things I can keep. And the great majority of the other things I keep are in my house. Along with my guns.

And bear....

That means to use. A basic right that may seem unnecessary to those living in Gated Communities, Fenced Enclaves, and White-Flight Suburbs, but a right that is curiously comforting to those of us living in Fort Worth's/Funkytown East Side. I love my neighborhood and neighbors. They seem to like me ok. We're one of those extremely diverse groups that "Progressives" get hot and moist just thinking about. Wait a minute....where did all the "Progressives" on the East Side go? I sure don't know any. Could it be that their desire for safety clashed with their distaste for gun ownership, so they moved away?

arms.

That means guns. Equalizers. Fire sticks. To expand on Robert Frost's Mending Wall, "Good Fences and 20-gauge single shots make Good Neighbors."

Any time the Supreme Court needs help with these difficult issues, I'm available for consultation at reasonable rates, and can be contacted through this site.

Al Gore, Our Richest Vice-President?

Cover your wallets, lock up your daughters, bury the family silver in the back yard. Al Gore is about to cool off the planet, and it won't be cheap. It's all coming together now....

Following His Green Dream Newsweek Project Green Newsweek.com

Here's the full text of the Newsweek article, along with some helpful comments....

Al Gore just won a Nobel Prize for teaching the world to think green,

as predicted here, and the Nobel wasn't for teaching the world anything. The Nobel was for Political Correctness, and was a great opportunity for the Nobel committee to embarass Bush (as if Republicans have needed help in that area....)

but he's also showing he knows a thing or two about another kind of green: money.

Ok, get the smelling salts ready. Prepare the ammonia capsules to wave under the noses of anyone who might feel faint. Children should leave the room. Move the sharp objects away from your computer. Startling revelations are on the way....

Since 2000, according to published reports, the former veep has transformed himself from a public servant with around $1 million in the bank....

Are they trying to tell us that Al Gore, who has a house with a larger carbon footprint than The Concorde, was only worth a million? ? ?

....to a sparkling private consultant with a net worth estimated to be north of $100 million.

How the heck did that happen? By growing organic vegetables and selling them at Whole Foods? Walking from city to city holding a "Will Work For Farm Subsidies" sign? By Thinking Globally, Acting Locally? There can't possibly be an earth-friendly way for Saint Albert The Goracle of Music City to be worth $100 million, can there?

He's a senior adviser to Google, a board member at Apple....

Good companies, both of them. But they aren't going to pay Saint Albert $100 million. Unless they had a massive lobbying project, and I haven't read about any, they merely wanted his picture in their newsletters. Saint Albert was probably rewarded with a favorable position in the Google Search Rankings and a free iPod Nano. (Put the words "House" "Carbon" and "Footprint" into Google and see whose residence is mentioned prominently. Tipper must be proud !)
Back to the point: Flacking for Google and Apple won't get you anywhere near $100 million.

....and now a newly minted general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Silicon Valley venture-capital firm that made billions investing early in Netscape, Amazon and Google.

But wait....Saint Al has a bachelor's degree in Government, doesn't he? What does he know about finance, investments, venture-capital, or even counting petty cash accurately? Shouldn't he feel guilty about accepting anything at all for lending his Government expertise to a venture-capital firm? Or was this like John Edwards making a fortune working at the Hedge Fund just to learn more about poverty and how poverty relates to the financial markets?

Gore has pledged to hand over his KP "salary" to Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit he chairs.

Thank God. I was scared he was going to spend it on a gas-guzzling SUV and some more wings for his house.

But the gift is more symbolic than material.

Symbolic money?

Gore's salary—his cut of the 2 percent "management fee" that KP partners get on all investments—is typically a sliver of the total compensation that VCs receive. If Gore's profit-sharing deal is anything like the firm's other 23 partners, he's also in line to collect tens of millions of dollars a year.

Let's assume that Saint Albert's take is exactly 20 million (the lowest possible number he could drag back to The Carbon Footprint in Nashville and still have "tens" of millions in a year.) What the hell could Albert have done for these guys that's worth TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS? (Typed in capital letters because of respect, fear, and awe.)

That's because partners carve up 30 percent of the profits if and when the alternative-energy start-ups that KP supports go public or are sold. (Kleiner Perkins declined to comment on Gore's compensation, but his communications director, Kalee Kreider, confirmed that he plans to donate only his "guaranteed income" to charity.)

Alternative-Energy Start-Ups? Do you know anything about Alternative-Energy Start-Ups? I haven't seen any Alternative-Energy Start-Ups ! ! Who needs Alternative Energy? I haven't asked for any. Wouldn't you need a really good reason to switch your home/vehicle/business to Alternative-Energy? Especially if you were a Global Warming Skeptic? Someone would have to go over your head to The Government and lobby for these Alternative-Energy startups, wouldn't they? The Government would have to make you pay for it. So who better for that dirty work than the dude who announced the "crisis" resulting from the use of Traditional Energy?

Should Gore's prospecting unearth a clean-energy gold mine the size of Google—which earned billions for KP partners—his share of the loot could make him U.S. history's richest ex-veep.

Richer than Nelson Freakin' Rockefeller? Good Lord in Heaven ! ! ! (Nelson Rockefeller, by the way, supposedly died in an extreme exercise of Traditional Energy.)

Emphasis on "ex": Gore's relationship with KP is perhaps the strongest signal yet that his days in politics are over.

Heck no, Saint Albert's days in politics aren't over. He'll be seen again, lobbying for the expensive artificial cure for the artificial crisis that he helped create. Just hide and watch. It's brilliant.

The firm is notoriously secretive about its finances, and it's unlikely that KP would strike a deal with Gore if the association could subject the firm to public scrutiny. And anyway, with the kind of money Gore stands to make, why run for president?

The only way Al Gore can make a cent off this scam is if you let him. When you see the Kleiner Perkins Start-Ups get their Government Subsidies, remember that you read about it here first. When you see Saint Albert testifying before Congress that we need to have deadlines in place for Alternative-Energy use, remember you read it here first. Look to the east, like in The Book of Revelation, and if you see Al Gore coming over the horizon on a 3-headed horse, prepare for the End Times.

Get mad. Run out into the streets and bang pots and pans together. Call your Senator, and tell him to return his Kleiner Perkins campaign contributions.

The guys who wrote the Newsweek article above, Tony Dokoupil and David A. Kaplan, wrote their entire piece without a smattering of outrage, curiosity, or skepticism. How is that possible?

(addition from 1-1-2008....I have a follow-up rant here, resulting from Gore almost getting "Person of The Year" from Time magazine. He receives similar reverent treatment from someone named Bryan Walsh. No one is wanting to question Gore's financial motives for spreading the current panic.)

Rudy Giuliani, Pat Robertson, Selling Divine Indulgences

Daily Toon for November 9, 2007 Newsweek.com

Here's Salon's take on why Rudy might have screwed up by allowing Pat Robertson to endorse his campaign for President.

Or maybe not.

Mitt Romney had Bob Jones III in the bag.

John McCain received a divine rebuke when Jerry Falwell died before placing the hand of God's Favor on a McCain presidency as McCain had hoped.

Having a tame Evangelist inside a campaign inoculates the candidate from major religious criticism when the primaries are over and the candidate inevitably reaches out to the other side to People Who Ain't Like Us.

But Senator Charles Grassley had effectively muted at least half a dozen leading televangelists, as noted here, because of possible misuse of ministry money. Anyone associated with The Oral Roberts mess was also radioactive.

The whorefest was great, but the laborers were few. (Please forgive me for that pun.)

Rudy immediately needed to get at least one of the remaining Free Range TV Preachers into the corral. Therefore, Pat Robertson got one more moment of political relevance.

Salon's best point is as follows: Endorsements do give voters a permission slip to do what they otherwise want to do. Loyal viewers of Robertson's "700 Club" who militantly oppose abortion and recoil at libertine lifestyles are unlikely to switch to the Catholic thrice-married, publicly cross-dressing, pro-abortion rights Giuliani. But conservatives already strongly attracted to the former New York mayor's toughness and 9/11 allure might put their qualms about abortion aside because of Robertson's imprimatur.

In other words, some of Pat's followers might admire Rudy's performance record in cleaning up New York City, love his post 9/11 image, and like his odds of defeating the Hilldebeest next November. But they worry that he doesn't hate other people enough.

They can relax.

Pat Robertson says he's ok.

Why The Gun Is Civilization

the munchkin wrangler.: why the gun is civilization. is the best I've ever read on the subject of gun control.
Here's a sample....There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Thanks to Samizdata for bringing The Munchkin Wrangler (from the wilds of Tennessee) to everyone's attention.

Procrastination

Carnival of The Libertarians

This should be fun.

I'll be hosting something called "Carnival of The Libertarians" on this site.

A Blog Carnival is a group of posts from multiple writers on a particular topic. The "Carnival" name is derived from the writers moving from Weblog to Weblog with each new edition, much like a traditional carnival moves from city to city. This gains exposure for the general topic, generates more links and hits for each blog, and introduces readers to points of view they might miss otherwise.

The "Carnival of The Libertarians" is looking for submissions from a "Free Minds, Free Markets" point of view, much like those espoused by "Reason" magazine.

Click here to go to the Blog Carnival submission site, and follow the instructions. It's easy.

Deadline - December 15th, 2007
Publication Date - December 17th, 2007