Modern Conservatism (and the pundits who define it)

Let me start this by saying that anyone who wants to read one of the absolute BEST political opinion pieces I've ever read, then read Andrew Sullivan's endorsement of Barak Obama. Simply amazing: I've never read a piece that puts into words the approximate nature of American polarization as well as this one does.

Additionally, Sullivan does a more than decent job of articulating why he believes Ron Paul is the best choice for the GOP nomination.

Dumb Conservatism
But enough of all this optimistic parade of brilliant political opinion. Let's look at something completely retarded. Here's a guy who thinks that the best thing for the safety of this country is to allow we, the consumers, to be the guinnea pigs for everything we buy. From the lead in our toys, to the presence of e-coli in our burgers - let the market sort out the baddies! Because the alternative is ... oh no!!! More government regulation!!! The horror!!! Seriously though, I'm not a fan of excessive regulation, but this guy is off the chain (likely a heavily-leaded one) if he thinks I want me and mine to be in the forefront of the wild west consumer-scape. And I have to wonder if he even believes his own monologue. After all, the best recent example of free-market jurisprudence was the government mandated recall of Topps beef. How, exactly, is the prospect that a company of 80+ people going out of business supposed secure my trust that the frozen beef burgers I buy aren't going to cause food poisoning? I could go on and on (and indeed, already have) about this, but his liaise fair approach to ingesting toxic substances is manifestly absurd enough.

Smart Conservatism
Lest I stray too far from my conservative/libertarian leanings, let's remind ourselves of when and why government interventionism is a really, really dumb idea. Specifically, in the sub-prime mortgage area. Rumor has it that some folks in this country took out ARM's and now must start paying much higher monthly mortgage rates as their initial teaser rates are set to expire. Now, I know that some of you in my tiny blog audience may have been duped into buying (yes, you bought it - a mortgage is a product) an ARM, so please feel free to be offended. Why is Bush bailing these people out? Oh, right - because it will actually protect the "predatory" lenders (read: lenders) from the risk they knew they ran when they first wrote the ARM in the first place. Oh wait, my younger-self is tugging at my shirt sleeve, asking a question. What's that younger-self? Aren't the usary rates of post-adjustment ARMs supposed to offset the foreclosure risk posed by those very rates? I'm not sure - but I think it's similar to credit card offers, isn't it? Well, at any rate, at least Bush is doing something to help the Little Man. Just in time too. Like after that hurricane in Louisiana: Compassionate Conservatism at its selective best!

That's a lot of reading, huh? I wonder if anyone will actually read all four articles? Good thing I don't email people this tripe anymore ...

Peltor Earmuffs

I bought these earmuffs last week for use at work, at the suggestion of a thread found on addexecutive.com. They arrived last night and had their first taste of aural combat this morning. Two programmers came into the contractor bull pen to chat up their latest issues with Patrick, a fellow tech contractor. The programmers are not typically loud, and today was probably no exception. I can't say with certainty though, as the earmuffs fended off the distracting chatter better than I could have hoped. I had the privilege of remaining ignorant to any knowledge of which program was at issue, which server required Patrick's attention, what the possible causes might be, and the meandering requests of the programmers to the man with the admin rights on the box. The only thing I could really hear was the ringing in my ears. But even that went away, or stopped noticing, over time.

Event ID not found

Why does MS have so few events that it can directly account for from Event Viewer????!!! Rarely do I ever click the "more information" link and come up with an actual result. And even when I do, it's typically vague and unhelpful. Surely they have documented all of their Event ID's - why can't they just link to that documentation?

Spam Funny

I just got a spam email with the subject line "Superlative Education".

Hillary is not so scary

Here is an article by the venerable Charles Krauthammer that well-expresses my own personal feelings about a Hillary presidency: that it wouldn't really be so bad.

Click here for the article.

The nice thing about the Clintons is that they are happy to yield to public pressure if it serves their political goals. This self-preserving tendency served a few conservative causes well; Krauthammer reminds us, in the form of Welfare reform and NAFTA. What Krauthammer doesn't mention, at least not here, is that when the Clintons are at their most stubborn, conservatives still win. At least they did in 1994. With the their heels dug in the mud, unrelentingly seeking universal healthcare, midnight basketball (remember that??!!), and a budget that increased taxes; the Clintons delivered unto us the 1994 Republican congressional route.

Of course, as comforting as it is to see the Clinton-future in the rosy shades of hopeful cynicism, reality mottles the view with the certainty of poorly chosen judgeships, DA's, and at least some form of Hillary-care.

I think the moral of the story is ... vote Ron Paul.

McD has a monopoly on my waking thoughts ...

Woo-hoo, Monopoly at McDonald's is here. I don't know why I always get sucked into this "gambling for the retarded AND obese", but have ever since I was eleven or twelve. So far the investment in my eventual triple bypass has paid off: I've won two video games from Real Arcade and a free small coffee. As Patrick would say, I'm "Living the dream".

To be fair to Ronald & Co., the Monopoly "Here and Now" video game that I won is actually a lot of fun. It forces you to auction or buy every property you land on, making the game quick, and forces a strategic plan. Having said this, it is unsurprising that I lost my first game. I haven't yet played another. I made a couple of stupid moves: one being choosing to bid on a property that I could have just bought, and thereby blocked the computer's ownership of that color-block. I won that battle, but ended up spending about 75% over what I could have just bought it for out-right.

Well, back to work. I must work - to make money - to buy more McDonald's ... Viva Monopoli!!

Child Roland to the Dark Tower came.

I just finished a seventeen year journey through Stephen King’s imagination. It actually took King much longer to write his … what is it? Opus? Ben would know. In fact, he used a Latin word to describe what the seven-novel Dark Tower series is to King’s career. Magna-something, I think.

Back to my point: King started writing the first Dark Tower novel in the 1970’s, and completed the seventh and final in 2004. I read the first book as a sophomore in high school, and I’ll always associate that reading with Carlos, who shared my affection for the book. It was one of few, and perhaps the first of King’s non-horror novels. Not that the series is devoid of horror. At seven full-size (and a few over-sized) novels, there are few fictional sub-genres left untouched, and horror is expectedly not one of them.

Well, I am not going to critique the novel, or even use it as an excuse for not blogging. It’s just on my mind a lot these last few days as I just finished reading the book. And what else is a blog for, if not just this sort of thing? Anyhow, critique or no critique, the novels were really excellent. The ending was not a shock, but still a surprise. And it was a fantastic ending: it answered many questions, but in doing so, created many more questions.

I have to thank Ben for encouraging me to pick the series up again some months ago. He’s right here, actually. There, I just told him.

8/7/07

I know, I know - it's been a little while ... OK, a really long while since I've last blogged.

On to the blogging. Some people were out on safari and captured an interesting exchange between lions, buffalo, and a crocodile. http://www.aolvideoblog.com/2007/08/08/battle-at-kruger It's the typical "lion pride gets buffalo calf, calf falls in water, crocodile fights to get calf, lions pull calf out, herd comes back and beats up on the lions, calf is saved, lions and crocodile go hungry" story. I haven't spoiled the plot, btw - it's all up on the link.

6/18/07

A couple funny things happened to me today. One didn't actually happen to me, per se, but it was a joke funny enough to pass on.

First, I was at "Tokyo", a restaurant near the airport and work. Yes, it's Japanese. Patrick had an upset stomach and Ben, being master curer of all things stomach related suggested a bowl of miso. This of course lead to banter about 2liveCrew, Full Metal Jacket, Francis Ford Coppola, his talentless nephew, and on and on. It also led to a second bowl of miso, because, unsurprisingly, Ben was right and Patrick was feeling much better thanks to the first.

Somehow, we got on the topic of someone who used to work with us. They were glad to see him gone, and were remarking on his shoes. I never noticed them before. Ben exclaimed in disbelief "You never saw his cheap-ass shoes??!! They looked awful, like he had bought them in 1993." Patrick chimes in with "Yeah, those are the kind of shoes they write Christmas songs about! I can't believe you never noticed them!" So there's the first funny thing. "They write Christmas songs about those kinds of shoes." Or something like that. Ben and I cracked up. Hell, Patrick couldn't even keep a straight face. Hope I did it justice.

OK, next thing was tonight I go to install a new blade on my lawn mower. I had purchased a mulching blade last year, or maybe it was the year before. It never did a very good job - I always had to move over the area I had just gone over. I tried sharpening the blades, but they felt quite sharp as it was. When I finally decided to replace the blades I noticed the paint on the blade was warn on the rear-edge of the blade. Yes, apparently I had been mowing with the blunt side of the blade for at least a year.

If you're curious, yes, the lawn was MUCH easier to cut once I turned the blades around. In fact, it was down-right enjoyable.

6.12.07

This "news" item from the onion is funny, but darkly so. Apparently we are well past the "It's too soon" mark for 9/11. Well, I don't think it is. But a sardonic take on Al Qaeda's hopes for the construction of future terrorist landmarks shouldn't offend too many people. Truth be told, I think I'm more offended by the suite this guy is wearing. It makes me wonder if people (in this case, the authors of this skit) understand the ideology of Islamicism and Wahabism. Some people do, some don't, I suppose. Anyhow, here is the clip:

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/al_qaeda_also_fed_up_with_ground

5-29-07

Good thing I used the date for this entry. Today is my older sister's birthday and I almost forgot to call her. She's 36 today. It used to be that our four year difference made her seem so much older ... Not anymore. 36 and 32 seem to be pretty much the same age, at this point.

Anyhow, that's not why I decided to post. It's because Liam's picture looks terrible! He's a handsome boy and that picture does NOT do him justice. But despite my assurances to master Liam that I would post the best pictures we had of him, he felt the need to respond. What follows is a photographic recording of the interview.

Daddy: Good morning Mr. Liam, how are you today? I understand you are not pleased with the photo of you posted on this blog.

Liam:


Daddy: Son, I do not appreciate, nor will I tolerate such disrespect. I understand you are not happy with the photo, but you can't just go around flipping people off when you're not happy about something!

Liam:


Daddy: You were just sucking your fingers? Sure you were.

Liam:

Daddy: Right, right - you're innocent and have no idea what I am talking about. Fine then. Let's move on, shall we?

Liam:


Daddy: I was thinking about posting the picture of you when you first born - fresh from the womb, birthday suite and ...

Liam:


Daddy: ... perhaps ... yeah - you don't seem very interested in going that way. Well, there is this one picture that shows you looking like an "old soul", if you will ...

Liam:

Daddy: Yes! That's the look! What do you think about that one?

Liam:


Daddy: Oh come on now, you needn't be shy! I think your "old man" look is a good one - it showcases your intelligence, your wit, your ... what's that? You have another pose to highlight your intellectual capabilities? Fantastic I can't wait to ...

Liam:


Daddy: Oh nice. Very funny. That could come back to haunt you someday, you know. What if you ever decide to run for state office, or even the presidency? What's that? Who is the president now? Bush. No, no - W. - the son, why?

Liam:


Daddy: You think he's asshole too, huh? Yeah - I voted for him twice ... go figure.

Liam:


Daddy: Don't looked so shocked. Who was I supposed to vote for, Gore? Kerry? OK, well you're probably right, Kerry probably would have been better. No, no - Gore would have bored the country to death with slide-shows. Well, yes, he knows a thing or two about global warming but he has no spine, he himself didn't know where he stood on most things. Anyhow, what if I just post our interview on my blog? Does that work for you? Liam? Liiiiiaaaam?

Liam:


Daddy: All of this talk about Al Gore put you to sleep, huh? Yeah, he has that effect on people. Night-night Liam! We love you :-) *kiss*

And that concludes our interview. Off camera, Liam remarked that I should post more often, even though I blog in a 'very simple, hackish sort of way.' He also wanted to note that he digs his brother and sister and that mommy is 'the coolest'. Then he spit up on me.

The Newdle is born :-)

9lb, 11.7 oz
9:23pm
5/11/07

Monsters

I am on Book 2 of Koontz' Frankenstein. Not a bad set of books, but they in no way rival the classic original. At least not in execution. But in the way of social commentary ...

I just got to a part of the book today where one of the head monsters has a conversation with Victor's newest wife: Erica 5. She is the fifth such wife, all hand-crafted by Victor Frankenstein. Anyhow, the monsters are starting to off themselves and Erica, fresh from her creation, doesn't understand why. The head of the household service monster (Christine) explains to her that their programming: which is to serve the greater good the greater good, as defined by Victor the creator, leads inevitably to despair. Despair because as Victor's monsters they are subject to hard coded rules that prevent them, not from MAKING decisions, but being able to act upon them. The monsters are ruled absolutely by Victor, yet they are thinking, sentient beings. And no matter how much programming he has coded into them, true understanding comes only through experience. What the monsters' experiences teach them vary from monster to monster. Some wish to murder, other to procreate, others to delve into art, etc. But since none of these endeavors always fit into Victor's plans, the monsters are coded with the inability to act upon them. In other words, they lack free will.

That is some pretty weighty stuff. These Koontz novels inform the reader's conscience of what value free will is. While Koontz makes no explicit parallels to any religions, ideologies, or forms of government, one cannot help but see them.

If anyone decides to read these books, let me know what your conclusions are. I personally can't help but read this as an indictment of rigid, dogmatic ideologies and theologies. Without the free will of the individual, the individual is nothing more than a machine made of meat. A machine whose purpose is that "greater good" as defined by your maker.

What's interesting about humans is that many of us willfully allow ourselves to be programmed in just such a way. The monsters at least have an excuse: they were made that way. What excuse do the radicals and extremists have?

3/5/07

Here is an interesting commentary on nominee successions in presidential politics. By successions I mean who is "next in line" to have a shot at the presidency, from a party-perspective. I won't bother to re-hash the content of the article, but I think most of you would find it interesting even if politics aren't much your thing. Will is a traditional conservative, but this article has no Right-Left vitriol. In fact, most of his columns do not and its one of the reasons I like him so much.

Speaking of columnists, Coulter is going back up on the links. I saw her tonight on Vanity and Colmes and I now get the joke: it was a reference to the actor who went into rehab for using the same word. OK, so her joke was off-color and not funny but it was not some off-the-cuff bigoted remark like I had first thought.

And now for something completely different. Here are some pictures from the cell phone Tina got me. It's a fancy-schmancy camera-phone. Pictures aren't great, but that's OK. It's handy to capture moments that would normally go un-pictorially-chronicled.

Here is my desk at work. Pretty dull, huh?


Here is Elaina at Eagle park back in November









My neighbor got a paddle boat and this was taken from the uh... "lake"... canal... turnpike runoff-catcher... whatever you want to call it. The picture came out very well though. At dusk on a cool November night I can think of no place better than out on a paddle boat with your neighbor, hoping you don't see the alligator.


Here are a couple shots of some of the servers at my work. Now scroll back up and look at my desk. OK, scroll back down again.
Who is serving who here? These servers get windows, air-conditioned floors, extra space, and they don't have to sit in front of a chronically flatuating sexagenarian.

Change in Links

The ridiculous remark made by Coulter yesterday has led me to remove her link. I know, its not much of a statement, but I can't condone such bigotry and stupidity.

On the bright side I've made room for two more links: "The Religion of Peace" dot com and the Fair Tax homepage.

The Fair Tax, for those who don't yet know, is kind of like the Flat Tax in as much as it is a proposal for dramatic tax reform. Simply, the way it would work is there would no longer be an income tax, as it would be replaced with a large sales tax. A fuller explanation can found by clicking here: About the Fair Tax. I know tax policy is not exactly exciting, but you have to consider what would happen to the world of American politics if politicians could no longer manipulate the tax code to buy votes. Additionally, taxing consumption encourages savings and investment while discouraging consumerism. I can't think of a single issue that could unite the Left and the Right like this one.

3/1/07

I shouldn't have to come up with a title everytime I want to post something - so this one contains only today's date. And this is a multi-topic post anyhow.

First, there is this fantastic interview with everyone's favorite right-wing zealot, Ann Coulter:
http://www.jambands.com/Features/content_2006_06_23.06.phtml
You will note in the interview the lament that the Dead never played "Pride of Cucamonga", as well as listing it as one of her favorite songs. If this doesn't absolutely prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, her utter wisdom then nothing does.

Secondly, but along similar psychedelic lines, Andrew looked thoughtfully at Mommy while at the store today and made the uncanny proclamation that he "really likes gravity". Elaina immediately chimed in with a chorus of "I wike it; I wike gwavity too!!" An appreciation for celestial cohesion is something we as parents have tried hard to imbue within our children, and our efforts are clearly paying off. We can only hope that they grow to have a similar enthusiasm and fondness for inertia, conservation of energy, and everyone's favorite: entropy.

And so now it is time to "close the loop": Andrew, in addition to being a fan of the Beetles quirkier and more psychedelic efforts, he has now taken to dancing to "Mexicali Blues" and various live renditions of "The Promised Land". I wonder if he likes them as much as gravity itself?

Kafka on the Shore

You should all read this. Better yet, listen to the audio book, because the two guys who do the narration are fantastic actors and they really add depth and consistency to the characters. Here is why you, faithful blog reader, should read Kafka on the Shore:
1) It's better than Atlas Shrugged.
2) It's not Atlas Shrugged.
3) It wasn't written by Ayn Rand.
4) It takes place in modern-day (as in 2006) Japan and is written by a Japanese author. Admit it - you hardly read anything translated from Japanese now a days. Oh, that reminds me. Go here: http://www.engrish.com
5) Because it takes place in Japan, miso and sushi are ubiquitous. While not as good as actually consuming miso and/or sushi, its nice to imagine yourself in japan doing just that.
6) It's a "fantasy" type book, but only marginally. Kind of like a Stephen King novel; but having to do with identity and destiny and not so much horror or the supernatural. It's hard to say why a semi-fantasy book is a "reason" to read the book, but it is.
7) As I mentioned above, the narrators are really fantastic.
8) One of the main characters is very Forest Gump-ish. "Not too bright" as he refers to himself; but purely moral and benevolent.
9) It deals with lofty, romantic notions; philosophy, and even offers some allusions and nods to literature and music. It touches all of these areas without pretense or condescension. In fact, come to think of it, the author seems almost unaware that he even does this, making these themes all the more genuine and accessible.
10) It's amazing to see how the Japanese live these days. Amazing because it sounds so "American". There are all kinds of references made (without any derision, I might add) toward American pop-culture and European "classical" (for lack of a better word) culture.

I am sure there are other good reasons to read/listen to the book. But the best reason is that I asked you to.

No bias here...

This was the lead story tonight as I log onto my email:



The AP has apparently moved up its "Free Campaigning for Democrats" program several months in advance of the 2008 elections in comparison to years prior.

Was what Cheney said worthy of ridicule? Obviously. But Obama is not the only one making such criticisms. BUT - he is apparently the AP favorite for the primaries, and so we see this lovely photo of him and his oh-so-insightful commentary as the leading news story. So - we have heard the call: vote Obama for Democratic Presidential Nomination! And since the call came in the form of a news story (OK, many news stories, this one is hardly unique), we get to pretend like it was our own idea!

Andrew's favorite holidays

A few minutes ago Andrew declared to his Mommy that he has five favorite holidays. Here is the list, as provided by Andrew:

1. Christmas
2. Valentines Day
3. Halloween
4. Valentines Day
5. Groundhogs Day - Because they have peanut butter cookies at school.

I don't think he really put a lot of thought into this list, but its kind of funny. At least in my opinion.

You know what else is funny? Mary L. Baldwin, an employee at the Fund was married and her new name is Mary L. Lamb. No, the L does not stand for Little. But Lea. Pretty close. I found it rather amusing. No one else did. And no one but Tina and I are likely to find Andrew's unsolicited list funny either. But that's OK. It's my dumb blog and I will fill it with any manner of inanity I deem suitable.

Orange County Public Library

We have the best Library system here in Orange County. I say this beacause they ship books to you for free! How great is that? You just go online to their site, find the book you want and specify how long you're willing to wait for it, and it arrives at your door, usually in a few days :-) And what's neat is that you can choose any book from any branch and return it to whatever branch is closest to you. And they have a drive through, after-hours drop off slot as well.

Maybe its a bit silly for a grown-man to be so excited by a library, but I have been able to "read" so many more books because of it. I think I will try to comment on all of them at some point, but here is the list since August - note they are all audio books:
1) Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins
2) Frankenstein - Mary Shelly
3) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
4) Whale Season - N.M. Kelby
5) Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
6) JPod - Douglas Coupland
7) Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
8) Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakama
9) Terrorist - John Updike

I am not yet done with numbers eight and nine, but I can say already that all of these books are are excellent, and Frankenstein is just amazing - probably a classic among classics. My praise for all of these books does not extend to Rand's work, as you might have guessed.

I do have a point to all of this: each of you should go to your local library's website and see what services they offer - they too might offer home delivery. And even if they don't, who cares? I stopped using it after Hitchhiker anyway, and am glad I did. All of the books after that one were picked up by just browsing, and I am really glad to have done so. Surely no online search would have yielded Murakama or Pratchett - two authors whose works I intend to delve into more deeply.

How about all two or three of you out there? Any recommendations. Yes, Dan - they have Hemingway in audio book: but you have to finish "Unveiled" first.

Confessions of a styrafoam safe-T helmeted Hitman

Upon the encouragement of a friend, I am posting a blog entry. Well, why not. After all, I need a little break. I'm reading "Learn ASP.net 2.0 in 24 hours" by SAMS. It consists of twenty-four hour-long lessons. I am nearing the conclusion of hour four, and have just built a mortgage calculator. Nothing fancy or complicated, and the book walks you through making it while explaining most of what goes into it.

Anyhow, speaking of books - I am very much into Audio books lately. I listened to my first this past August: "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by Edward McWackenjob (or something like that). It was actually a fairly interesting book; which surprised me since it came upon the recommendation (insistence, really) of my friend Dan. He was supposed to read "Islam Unveiled" in exchange for subjecting me to the made-up-world of John Perkins ('Confessions' actual author), but he never completely read it. I could speculate for a while as to why he chose to go against his promise to me to complete the book, but I think the most likely reason of all was that his brain was two sizes too small (got to start reading the kids less Seuss). Well, if I am going to bring up Confessions, I may as well critique it a bit:

John Perkins was an engineer who worked for a big evil corporation. An electrical engineer, and not too-talented by his own description. His job was to jet around the world to forecast load requirements on the electrical grids his company was about to burden the host nation with. He was encouraged to inflate the numbers so that the evil corporation could build the biggest possible grids (we need to that here in the States!!!) and thereby maximize their evil profits, earned evilly and to be used toward all sorts of evil purposes; most notably the Guild of Evil Evil-Doers, the Rotary Club, Girl Scouts, Bechtel, Halliburton, Halliburton, Halliburton, etc. So this is why the book is entitled "Confessions"... because he would dupe all of those dumb world leaders into buying more electrical capacity than they really needed. In some countries, he even tricked them into getting the undercoating and over-charged for the scotch-guard too. And just where did these benevolent, if naive, Third-World leaders get the scratch to build such a fancy-schmancy electrification system? The US: by way of the World Bank and the IMF.

Perkin's assertion is that the US grants loans to third world countries so that it can call in favors from these countries when the US wants to flex its Empirical muscle. The US also insists that the country uses US firms to complete the work (no way, really???!!!). This brazen selfishness of lending money with a few strings attached is of course why 9/11 happened, according to the author. You see, in his mind the world is just so tired of the US bullying small helpless countries, that it was only inevitable that we would be attacked in the name of Allah. Now, the ignorant among us might perceive a slight disconnect between Islamic Terrorism and how the World Bank and IMF loans money to impoverished nations. If you are one of these people, you might just be lacking the colorful imagination required to fully grasp the nuances here.

Huh... this blogging stuff really is cathartic...

In all fairness to Perkins, he brings up VERY important points:

1) Politicians, using our tax dollars, loan money to countries and then that money immediately gets used by huge corporations. In turn, these corporations make big donations to campaign coffers, and surely influence legislation that directly affects their own business.
2) Even though we ARE helping the third world, they often don't appreciate this. I mean, Perkins himself didn't even see the value in what he was doing. He spoke about how he arrived in country and saw men using a small river as their "bathroom", while another person bathed in it down stream a bit, and yet another drank from it. First of all... like many parts of this novel, Perkin's experiences are too obviously allegory or metaphor to be taken seriously as actual experiences. Anyhow, what do you suppose his thoughts were upon seeing the river being used in such a way? He felt pity for the people having to use a single body water as bathroom/shower/tap, but he thought about how he was being so evil by "exploiting" them by burdening them with the loans... which would be used to do such awful things such as provide indoor plumbing, electricity, jobs... oh, the humanity of it all!! OK, I digress. The point is that there are many out there who think in Perkins stupid fashion. So why should we, the taxpayers, foot the bill?
3) We use our power for the sake of "Global Empire", is Perkin's assertion. But I can't say that he is wrong about this. I for one believe we need to be much more isolationist, at least from a political-perspective, than we have been.

In conclusion, I actually do recommend the book. Too often in this day and age we are not subjected to how other people think, despite or perhaps because of the fact that we have so many more choices in media, we end up consuming only that which affirms our already-established beliefs. Perkin's did open up my eyes to the need for democracies such as ours to be better stewards of where our money goes. And just how much we are dumping into endeavors that just have no place being funded by a government. But unfortunately, too many people - from the left and the right - don't understand that government needs to be extremely limited and controlled. It's just not in the zeitgeist of modern thinking like it once was.

Well, enough of that. There, I posted. Are you all happy now?...

(crickets chirping)

Netsh diag gui

Click Start, Run, type in Netsh diag gui and press enter. Run the system scan. Pretty neat, huh? You can get some of this information in other ways, but I can't think of an alternative that is this comprehensive and well-ordered.

You know what else is neat? If you save the results you'll get an HTML doc on your desktop. When run in your browser, you can click the + and - signs and still get the same information - handy if you need to share the system scan results with a tech.

But what I really liked about it was found in the source code of the saved file. Probably because I am relatively new to HTML and javascript, I am impressed at how the collection and formatting of the data is handled by a minimum amount of well-explained javascript and a style sheet. It amounts to 150 lines of initial code (much of it comments and brackets) to generate about 300 lines of html.

Perhaps this code could be useful in displaying any kind of hierarchical data, so it's kind of re-usable. If I were to change one thing though, it would be the use of ascii + and -. I would try to use a little gray and black gif, or maybe even better would be just clicking on the parent to expand/collapse the tree.