Newt: Honest Honey, It Was Patriotism!

Apparently hiding behind a bible has become an acceptable means of pardon:

"The twice-divorced former U.S. House speaker has admitted he had an affair with Callista, a former congressional aide, while married to his second wife. It happened at the same time he was attacking President Bill Clinton for his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-ap-us-newt-gingrich-2012,0,624356.story

How appropriate on Barbie's 52nd birthday.

Not Pretty

Looks like the money-grab has gotten particularly blatant this year - the people who created the financial crisis are squeezing the last juice out...

Paul Krugman - Shock Doctrine USA

"If this sounds to you like a perfect setup for cronyism and profiteering — remember those missing billions in Iraq? — you’re not alone. Indeed, there are enough suspicious minds out there that Koch Industries, owned by the billionaire brothers who are playing such a large role in Mr. Walker’s anti-union push, felt compelled to issue a denial that it’s interested in purchasing any of those power plants. Are you reassured?"

What would Feynman do?

Long read, but finally worth it for the last paragraph. From the "Fabulous Adventures in Coding" blog. 

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2011/02/14/what-would-feynman-do.aspx

This won't turn out well

People presume I'm some kind of communist when I talk about income disparity.  I just have a good sense of what hacienda economies finally turn into.

Rant: Say Goodbye...

To product safety, child labor laws, travel, safe medicine, free speech (you'll see more of this),  that second amendment thing , the renaissance or at least some hope of neural activity in the media ... I digress

Milo Minderbinder would be proud...

"...Instead, the investigators ... uncovered one of the darker truths of the war: the vast armies of private gunmen paid to protect American supply convoys frequently use American money to bribe Taliban fighters to stand back. These bribes are believed by officials in Kabul and in Washington to be one of the main sources of the Taliban’s income. The Americans, it turns out, are funding both sides of the war."

New Yorker:  The Afghan Bank Heist

Why do I get the feeling that the ghost of  Nguyễn Văn Thiệu is still with us?

This is an argument I get into from time to time - pretty fucking pathetic that we continue to consider ourselves the best in the world based on a maldistributed GDP per capita and a big army.  Lowering infant mortality, reducing hunger and not locking people up for trivial offenses would be a better start.

Source: NYT:  Empire at the End of Decadence

This place is so flat, the weather usually avoids it.

I'm not kidding -- I've watched on radar as storms split in half and dodge the area completely. Of course there are also things like tornadoes, the dissipated ends of hurricanes that occasionally wash up the Mississippi valley as if they're trying to cool off by going to Minneapolis and inexplicable 100 knot straight line winds on nearly clear days.

Even the odd earthquake as the Madrid Fault that underlies St. Louis rumbles and shakes and everyone pretends that it won't lay waste to the place when it all finally cuts loose:

( http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/missouri/history.php ).

Still...all in all...pretty unremarkable (at least to a midwesterner).

But why mess around? This is a fucking weather report: http://en.vedur.is/#tab=skjalftar

---

Welcome to Terra Blanda

Here we go. Various tech goodies, musings and wishful thinking.