See SPOT fail. Fail, SPOT, fail...

See SPOT fail.  Fail, SPOT, fail...  Reason's J. D. Tuccille tears into it.  The bureaucracy is like a living being.  TSA is doing its best to keep this worthless program, despite the utter lack of evidence that it actually, like, accomplishes anything...

The GSA study referred to can be found here; it's an interesting read.  Here's it's conclusion (in its entirety):

TSA has taken several positive steps to validate the scientific basis and strengthen program management of BDA and the SPOT program, which has been in place for over 6 years at a total cost of approximately $900 million since 2007. Nevertheless, TSA has not demonstrated that BDOs can consistently interpret the SPOT behavioral indicators, a fact that may contribute to varying passenger referral rates for additional screening.  The subjectivity of the SPOT behavioral indicators and variation in BDO referral rates raise questions about the continued use of behavior indicators for detecting passengers who might pose a risk to aviation security. Furthermore, decades of peer-reviewed, published research on the complexities associated with detecting deception through human observation also draw into question the scientific underpinnings of TSA's behavior detection activities. While DHS commissioned a 2011 study to help demonstrate the validity of its approach, the study's findings cannot be used to demonstrate the effectiveness of SPOT because of methodological limitations in the study’s design and data collection.

While TSA has several efforts under way to assess the behavioral indicators and expand its collection of data to develop performance metrics for its behavioral detection activities, these efforts are not expected to be completed for several years, and TSA has indicated that additional resources are needed to complete them. Consequently, after 10 years of implementing and testing the SPOT program, TSA cannot demonstrate that the agency's behavior detection activities can reliably an d effectively identify high-risk passengers who may pose a threat to the U.S. aviation system.

Ouch...

Bullshit!

Bullshit!  Penn & Teller on the war on drugs...

ObamaCare debacle update...

ObamaCare debacle update...  Because just once a day isn't enough to keep up with the churning cascade of debacle debullition...

The three burials of ObamaCare.  Twice before we've tried to kill it.  This time, let's use a silver bullet!

ObamaCare costs more if you're married.  Oh, isn't this just lovely!  Now we've got the bureaucrats providing incentives for people to get divorced...

ObamaCare, deconstructed (video at right).  And a fine job they did, too!

Oops, there goes another ObamaCare promise...  Dave Carter at Ricochet speaks to the Obama voter.  His lede:

By chance, have you had enough yet?  Many of you have either lost your jobs or you've had your hours reduced.  Millions of you are seeing your insurance policies go up in a fireball before your very eyes, like a KISS concert only instead of singing, "I Stole Your Love," the front man now sings, "I Stole Your Heath Care."

But I don't want you to feel gullible.  I think, under the circumstances, something approaching totally bamboozled would be understandable, ... or snookered, or hoodwinked, or hornswoggled, swindled, fleeced, scammed, deluded, stung, bent, folded, spindled and mutilated perhaps, broken into tiny dehumanized pieces to be redesigned into an academic's experimental idea of a perfect society certainly, … but not gullible.

In what became the longest instance of political foreplay in contemporary American history, the President whispered utopian nothings in your ear, caressing your hopes while dreamily promising  that millions of people would get something for nothing and you wouldn't have to pay for it.  You could say he was being coy, but that would be on the order of saying that the Titanic took on just a little added moisture.

If you set the bar low enough ... even the government can make it over.   We find out now that the administration's goal for healthcare.gov is for 80% of people attempting to buy insurance to actually make it through.  Worse, we find out that this goal has just been set – before that, there were no goals.  As I read this piece, I was trying to imagine Jeff Bezos' reaction upon discovering that someone working at Amazon had set the bar that low...

ObamaCare may wreak havoc on liberal agenda: Shields and Brooks.  Oh, dang, I'm completely out of popcorn!

Toe the line, you shlubs!  The Washington, D.C. insurance commissioner questioned the viability of Obama's proposed “fix”.  One day later, he's out of a job.  Don't you dare question The One!

“We all knew.”  Those are the words of Senator Gillibrand, D NY (at right), upon being asked if she was misled by Obama's “If you likeyour plan...”  promise.  We all knew.

   Rope.
   Tree.
   Congresscritter.
   Some assembly required.

ObamaCare debacle update...

ObamaCare debacle update...  Because Sunday morning just wouldn't be the same without it...

“Modified rapture” is how Neo-Neocon describes her reaction to recent events in ObamaCare-land.  She makes some interesting, and sobering, points...

Will Liberalism implode?  I don't know, but the simple fact that someone is asking that question out loud puts a big grin on my face!

Game over?  So asks Dana Milbank, ordinarily a reliable lefty writer.  It's clear from the piece that he believes the answer is “yes, game over”.  If this is actually all a dream I'm having, then please let me sleep some more...

Stop digging.  Start over.  That's the headline on an unsigned editorial by The Chicago Tribune.  Yes, that newspaper – the Obama hometown that has previously worshiped every single move of The One, and defended him from all comers.  That newspaper.  Here's there conclusion:

But in this country we don't change bad laws by presidential fiat. We change them by having Congress rewrite them or by starting from scratch. Obama doesn't want to reopen this law for fear that Republicans and some Democrats will substantially rewrite it. But that's what has to happen.

We understand why the president and leaders of his party want to rescue whatever they can of Obamacare. On their watch, official Washington has blown the launch of a new entitlement program ... under the schedule they alone set in early 2010.

What we don't understand is their reluctance to give that failure more than lip service. Many of the Americans who heard their president say Thursday that "we fumbled the rollout of this health care law" would have been pleased to hear him add: So we're admitting it. This law is a bust. We're starting over.

Wow.  Just wow!

Hold them accountable.  That's the theme of yesterday's weekly Republican radio address (video at right).  Obviously the Republicans see political advantage for themselves in this mess, and of course they're going to exploit it.  My problem with the Republicans is that I've only heard a few of them propose healthcare reform that I could support, so I'm not sure that what they come up with would be substantially better than ObamaCare.  But if repealing ObamaCare is the first step, then I'm all for it!  The conclusion of their address:

Throughout the health care debate, Republicans have proposed dozens of solutions designed to help control costs and improve quality – without surrendering control of your personal health care decisions to nameless bureaucrats in Washington. Now is the time to enact those common sense ideas.

But none of this will occur unless the American people hold those who supported ObamaCare accountable – and do so with a very loud voice. Democrat Senators must help Republicans pass legislation to limit the damage of ObamaCare. If not, those who choose to ignore the plight of millions of Americans should be replaced next November by those who will act.

150 million year old seawater...

150 million year old seawater...  Now that's an ancient aquifer!

It's amazing what a little prosperity can do!

It's amazing what a little prosperity can do!  Somehow the progressives always miss this solution to the ills they purport to want to cure...

Pahoehoe...

Pahoehoe...  The Hawaiians call this slow, thick, viscous form of lava “pahoehoe”.  It leaves a characteristic pattern of “feet and toes” that are very easy to walk on – after the lava has cooled, of course!

You'll want to watch this one full screen... 

Big ball of mud...

Big ball of mud...  What's the most common, most successful software architecture in the world?  Why, it's the big ball of mud (also known by many other less polite names)!  Every experienced software engineer knows the truth of this.  It is the de facto standard of software architecture.  Every single commercially successful software product I've ever had the privilege to look closely at is, under the covers, one gigantic ball of mud.  It's as if you looked under a bridge and found that it was held up by enormous piles of twigs tied together with shoelaces, duct tape, and used chewing gum.  Every such software product has dark corners in its code where people fear to change anything, because nobody knows how it works.  Or areas where the complexity is so high that it would take days to acquire an understanding deep enough to successfully extend or repair it.  Every one contains layers and layers of software that works around problems in other layers, or covers up the problems of a lower layer while making new problems of its own. 

The one thing I have never seen is a commercially successful software product whose code is pristine and beautiful.

Why is this?  Why are all these software products such a disaster under the covers, in their code?  This fascinating and entertaining paper (at least, if you're a programmer) by Brian Foote and Joseph Yoder delves into exactly that question.  It jibes nicely with my own experiences, where the big ball of mud emerges from the tension between the business need to make the software do something useful as quickly as possible, and the engineering need to make something beautiful, fast, and reliable.  This tension leads to innumerable small decisions in favor of expediency and against the engineer's better judgment.

One of the reasons I'm enjoying the programming I'm doing now, in my retirement, is that this tension is completely removed.  I am free to make the best code I know how to make, no matter how long it takes me.  In my current project, for example, I've already spent a month on a problem that I don't imagine any company I've ever worked for would have allowed me more than a day or two – and I'm not nearly done!  But I'm also not making a big ball of mud.  I'm making something much more beautiful than that.  At least to me :)

But wait, there's more!

But wait, there's more!  ObamaCare debacle, I mean:

The sinking ship of ObamaCare.  Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post, piles on.  I'm running out of popcorn, dammit!

If you like your monster, you can keep it.  Rick Wilson is feeling the power:

Republicans should let the creature rage. Strategic patience takes discipline, because the natural instinct is to stop the monster from tearing down the village. I know you're repulsed by the idea of doing nothing. You feel for the millions of Americans losing their coverage. You want to do something, anything to put points on the board. Most of all, you all want repeal. You sense that it's close.

But I want something else, and so should you. I'd like repeal served in the ruins of the Obama Administration and the Democrats' 2014 hopes. I'd like the Democrats and the media to be stuck talking about this disaster for a year, instead of being able to move on to immigration or ENDA or whatever is bugging Sandra Fluke this week.

Little Miss Out-of-touch.  I speak of the Pelosi, of course.

It begins.  Democratic politicians are feeling the heat, and are hitting the panic button.  Senator Kay Hagan (D, North Carolina) has big problems.  She's dropping in the polls like a GBU-43/B out of a C-130.  Dana Milbank knows why:

Well, her problem begins with Obamacare, ends with Obamacare and has a whole lot of Obamacare in between.

I don't know how much of this I can stand.  But I'll try hard...

The great prevaricator.  Paul Rahe, writing at Ricochet, has a cheery conclusion:

Obamacare may be remembered as a turning point in American history. It may be remembered as the time when Americans woke up, saw to the heart of the administrative entitlement state, and began the process of dismantling it and restoring limited government.

What's this feeling I have?  Could it be ... hope?  That feels a little dangerous.  But Richard Fernandez at The Belmont Club is having similar thoughts.  Neo-Neocon, too, though with a bit less optimism.  Must calm down...

If schadenfreude had calories, I'd weight 300 pounds.  Hah!

Put a smile on your face!

Put a smile on your face!  Visit PowerLine and check out their collection of Obama posters ... like the little sample at right.  But don't make the same mistake I did – put down your drink, swallow, and sit firmly in your chair before clicking through...

Damn, dude...

Damn, dude...  I never heard of this guy before, but I'm told he's something of a celebrity.  My jaw was on the floor after watching this ad.  The truck were pretty impressive, too...

A teaser/“making of” video...

ObamaCare debacle update...

ObamaCare debacle update...  The multiple eruptions of disaster-soaked news this past week seem to be settling into the enfeebled minds of our political class.  It will be most interesting to see what emerges as the disasters percolate through those porous cranial cavities...

Obama's creative, or illegal, rule-making.  Megan McArdle finds a few problems with The One's assumptions of executive privilege.  I love the smell of imminent lawsuits in the morning!

Thus spake Obama.  Mark Steyn wades in, and once again makes me wish that American journalistic culture could give us a whole crop of wits like him:

On Thursday, he passed a new law at a press conference. George III never did that. But, having ordered America’s insurance companies to comply with Obamacare, the president announced that he is now ordering them not to comply with Obamacare. The legislative branch (as it’s still quaintly known) passed a law purporting to grandfather your existing health plan. The regulatory bureaucracy then interpreted the law so as to un-grandfather your health plan. So His Most Excellent Majesty has commanded that your health plan be de-un-grandfathered. That seems likely to work. The insurance industry had three years to prepare for the introduction of Obamacare. Now the King has given them six weeks to de-introduce Obamacare.

Obama's stumbling, bumbling, fumbling news conference.  David Harsanyi was even less impressed than I was.  His conclusion:

Finally, near the end of the news conference, the president made an interesting claim: Obamacare was really a choice driven by an incentive for stability, not disruption. "We chose a path that was the least disruptive," he said. Though pollsters rarely measure the importance of "stability" in American life, I think it's probably one of the most vital factors driving hostility toward Obamacare from independents and moderates. Everything about Obamacare implementation has created the perception of anarchy -- the arbitrary implementation of laws, people losing the plans they have, the way it was passed and the problems it has caused in Washington -- and this news conference only reinforced that perception.

39 Democrats defy Obama.  Democrat support of ObamaCare has been of crystalline purity for over three years.  A defection like this was unthinkable just a couple of weeks ago ... and it could well be just the beginnings of a stampede.  Oh, pass the popcorn, will ya?

Will tomorrow's medical innovations be there?  Dr. Paul Hsieh is worried.  So am I, because I can't think of a single government services organization that is any good at driving innovation.  Post Office?  Uh, no.  DMV?  Hell, no.  How about Medicare?  Not so much.  But, the proponents say, DARPA brought us the Internet!  Well, that's not really a good example - DARPA isn't a services organization, and it doesn't have a huge bureaucracy dedicated to keeping the status quo.  Services organizations grow such bureaucracies intrinsically, and government bureaucracies end up running the joint (unlike private industry, where the shareholders always retain control)...

Now here's an unusual hobby!

Now here's an unusual hobby!  Evan Booth's hobby (or perhaps, his obsession) starts with this question:

Can common items sold in airports after the security screening be used to build lethal weapons?

The answer, it turns out, is most emphatically “yes”.  And Booth has the YouTube videos to prove it, like the one at right.

It's a little weird, perhaps, but it is an effective demonstration of the essential pointlessness of the TSA “security theater” style airport security...

Stratocaching...

Stratocaching...  I never heard of this before, which really isn't surprising as they have basically just invented this game, or sport, or insanity.  I'm not at all sure how to categorize it :)

Odds Lot: Statisticians Party Like It's 2.013 x 10 Cubed...

Odds Lot: Statisticians Party Like It's 2.013 x 10 Cubed...  That's a headline in the Wall Street Journal, on today's front page no less.  It's an interesting piece, too – basically saying that statisticians are more in demand now than ever, and that public awareness of statistics is growing...

Web image censorship in China...

Web image censorship in China...  Pro Publica has put together an interactive graphic showing the kinds of images that get deleted by Chinese web sensors, and many examples of the specific deleted images (like the one at right).  The backstory is just as interesting.

Kudos to the folks at Pro Publica for shining a light on this affront to freedom...

How I felt after reading all the ObamaCare news yesterday...

How I felt after reading all the ObamaCare news yesterday...  And I'm still feeling pretty darned good!

Justice Clarence Thomas...

Justice Clarence Thomas...  He's my favorite Supreme Court Justice, and here's an “off-duty”  peek at him.  My introduction to the man was through reading Supreme Court rulings – he and one other Justice (Scalia) have a writing style that I find quite accessible.  Roberts' writing isn't too bad, either – but some of the others might as well be writing in encrypted Thai, translated into English. 

I've since read Thomas' book My Grandfather's Son, which I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend...

Cat meets theremin...

Cat meets theremin...  The results are inconclusive, but amusing.  If you're not familiar with theremins, here's an explanation.

I built a primitive theremin as one of my earliest electronics projects, back in the mid-'60s.  I don't remember much about it, other than it used vacuum tubes for the oscillators and amplifiers.  I do remember it's fate, however: while I was using it, perhaps 10 minutes after completing it and being delighted to find that it worked, an electrolytic capacitor suddenly swelled up and split open.  It emitted a cloud of nasty-smelling smoke and a little blue flame.  That theremin never worked again :)

Coming home from the ISS...

Coming home from the ISS...  The 20 minute video at right is a mini-documentary about how astronauts on the ISS return to Earth.  It's narrated by astronauts who have actually done it, and it's chock-a-block full of actual mission footage and well-done animations.  Highly recommended, and you'll want to go full-screen for it...

Climate science is settled?

Climate science is settled?  Ronald Bailey takes a look at just how unsettled the science appears to be, in a post full of links to recent developments.  Good stuff...

On the meaning of language...

On the meaning of language...  Jeff Goldstein, writing at Protein Wisdom, has a ponder-worthy post about the importance of understanding an author's intentions when analyzing a piece of writing – and most especially, when judges are analyzing laws.  It's a long post, but written in a way that anyone can understand – and full of interesting ideas and views...

Geek determination...

Geek determination...  I was down at the Jamul Post Office yesterday, picking up a package, and overheard this:

Irritated mom: “What is a geek, anyway?  How do you know if someone's a geek?”

Calm mom: “If they think Dilbert is funny, they’re a geek.” 

Hah!

I'm definitely a geek!

Geek: the string “null” causes problems...

Geek: the string “null” causes problems...  This StackOverflow post reminded me of a crazy problem we had at my last company (ServiceNow).  I don't know if they ever fixed this...

The problem started with a special feature built into the database layer that the entire product is built upon.  The database layer has a feature that allows the values of fields of any type to be set with a string value.  Thus, the string “54” could be used to put the integer value 54 into a numeric field.  The challenge came with the SQL value “null”.  If you know anything at all about SQL, you know that value is rather important.  But how do you square the database layer's “all values can be represented with a string”  notion with the value “null”?  The solution chosen was to make the string “NULL” special: if the database layer saw that string, it would translate it into a SQL “null”, and vice versa.  This seemed to work quite well.

Now fast-forward a couple of years.  I was working with a large financial customer, directly with their IT lead, Gary S., who called me one day to complain about a peculiar problem they were having.  They had two employees who simply could not be entered into their system – they'd type the name in, click “Submit”, and the record never showed up in the database.  Gary noted, however, that there was one interesting thing in common between these two employees: their last names were “Null”.  I knew that Gary's company had an internal standard that called for all names to be entered in all upper-case, so they were entering those names as “NULL” – and of course, that would trigger the special behavior described above.

Gary “fixed” their problem by putting an asterisk after the employee's name, and distributing a note to the system's users to alert them to the problem.  Over the years I worked there, I heard of several other customers who had the same exact problem.  Changing that special behavior would be very difficult for ServiceNow at this point, as that special string (“NULL”) is buried in innumerable scripts, including many written by their customers...

What happens to Google maps when tectonic plates move?

What happens to Google maps when tectonic plates move?  Fascinating article in Scientific American.  Maps are way more complicated than most people are aware of...

See SPOT ... what, exactly?

See SPOT ... what, exactly?  Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) is the TSA's program that attempts to spot terrorists by observing people's behavior.  They look for “tells” that a terrorist would unconsciously display.  Anyone who's traveled to (especially) Israel or (to a lesser extent) the U.K. is familiar with how those countries have implemented this idea.  They have a trained interrogator asking you questions like “Where are you staying?” and “What do you hope will happen when you meet with Mr. X?”  The questions sound innocent enough, and generally are – the agents are watching how you react to them.  The TSA's implementation is quite different – they just have passive observers who have been trained to spot alleged “tells”.

The GSA just completed a study of SPOT, and said: “TSA has not demonstrated that [behavior-detection officers] can consistently interpret the SPOT behavioral indicators.  The subjectivity of the SPOT behavioral indicators and variation in BDO referral rates raise questions about the continued use of behavior indicators for detecting passengers who might pose a risk to aviation security.”

The TSA, naturally, defends SPOT.  They've so far spent over $100 million taxpayer dollars on it, and it employs 2,800 people.  The TSA refuses to day what the results from SPOT have been.  We don't know if SPOT has ever identified even a single terrorist.

What to do about airport security?  I have a plan, but I know it would never fly politically.  I bet it would work, though :)  My plan: fire everyone in the TSA, dismantle the agency completely, and outsource the whole thing to the Israelis.  They have said, publicly, that the TSA costs more than 20 times what it would cost them to do it – and you'll note that even though El Al (the Israeli airline) is a highly desirable target of just about every terrorist group, they have an extremely good record of safety.  Better than U.S. airlines, post 9/11...

A sailor's dying wish...

A sailor's dying wish...  This is a beautiful story, and it took place in San Diego.

Can you draw a map of the U.S. from memory?

Can you draw a map of the U.S. from memory?  This article has a bunch of examples (like the one at right), but the backstory is missing.  Some of the comments are quite funny, too.

I once asked a few friends and colleagues (all Americans) to try making a list of all 50 U.S. states.  The results were better than I expected – the average was something like 40 states, and several people got them all.  There was only one non-state listed amongst all the lists: one person (a San Diego resident!) listed Los Angeles as a state.

Another time, I did something quite close to the example.  This was back in the mid-90s, at a time when I was working closely with a group of Estonians.  I discovered that they had all learned a lot about U.S. history, and also about U.S. geography.  So I challenged them to draw a map of the U.S. with political boundaries (states), large cities, and major natural features on it.  I got about ten submissions from a room with 15 or so people in it; the others just gave up.  The submissions had 6 or 7 maps that were actually quite impressive – better, I think, than anything I could have done.  I noticed a pattern, too: they knew where the major natural features were (Great Lakes, Grand Canyon, Zion, Rainier, etc.) better than they knew the cities, and the cities better than they knew the states.  But at least three of them got all 50 states with recognizable outlines and correct relative placement.  And these were Estonians, educated under the old Soviet Union!  I was, and remain, astonished at the difference in accomplishment between them and the average American of a similar age...

Steve McIntyre amuses himself...

Steve McIntyre amuses himself...  And the rest of us.  By grinding Lewandowsky into the dirt...

ObamaCare debacle update...

ObamaCare debacle update...  Jonah Goldberg has today's intro.  It's time to slurp from a great, overflowing stein of schadenfreude:

If you can’t take some joy, some modicum of relief and mirth, in the unprecedentedly spectacular beclowning of the president, his administration, its enablers, and, to no small degree, liberalism itself, then you need to ask yourself why you’re following politics in the first place. Because, frankly, this has been one of the most enjoyable political moments of my lifetime. I wake up in the morning and rush to find my just-delivered newspaper with a joyful expectation of worsening news so intense, I feel like Morgan Freeman should be narrating my trek to the front lawn. Indeed, not since Dan Rather handcuffed himself to a fraudulent typewriter, hurled it into the abyss, and saw his career plummet like Ted Kennedy was behind the wheel have I enjoyed a story more.

Alas, the English language is not well equipped to capture the sensation I’m describing, which is why we must all thank the Germans for giving us the term “schadenfreude” — the joy one feels at the misfortune or failure of others. The primary wellspring of schadenfreude can be attributed to Barack Obama’s hubris — another immigrant word, which means a sinful pride or arrogance that causes someone to believe he has a godlike immunity to the rules of life.

I know I'm enjoying mine, and it looks like there's at least a couple of barrels to go around! 

It's too late for Obama's “fix”, and he knows it.

ObamaCare is in much more trouble than it was just one week ago.  Why isn't there dancing in the streets?  There was dancing in my driveway this morning!!

Consumers discover yet another hidden tax funding ObamaCare.  I think the progressives are honestly puzzled that people aren't cheering their new taxes...

'Fairy Tale' continues as Obama proposes extralegal ObamaCare fix.  “Fairy tale”  Doesn't that have a nice ring to it, when used in the same sentence with “ObamaCare”?

How to read the evasive ObamaCare enrollment numbers.  It's actually quite easy – just assume they're lying.

ObamaCare is generational theft.  The old folks hired Obama to steal all the monies from the youngsters...

Insurance industry: the 'fix' is not workable.  Why would you expect a fix designed by a man with zero business (or real job) experience to actually work?  I don't think that's the point, anyway - it was really designed to feel good, not to actually accomplish anything.  Accomplishment is for the little people...

A dissenting view: Here comes the real government takeover of health care.  Oh, noz!  This is a real downer swimming in the schadenfreude sea...

Obama admits: ObamaCare isn't working.  Did you see that speech yesterday?  I think the poor fellow is coming off the rails...

Megan McArdle: there's no sign of ObamaCare Plan B, and that's not good.  I understand her point, and on some level, I agree with it.  But I also think that if the cost of destroying (or at least significantly dinging) progressivism is some transient national pain on healthcare, it's worth it.

New York Times: parallels between ObamaCare rollout and G. W. Bush.  Oh, the schadenfreude is strong with this one!

ObamaCare's approval ratings slump.  Ya think?

Bipartisan agreement: Obama's 'fix' isn't legal.  Surely The One, being the great Constitutional scholar he claims to be, would, like, know this?

DNC chairwoman repeats, with emphasis: We're running on ObamaCare in 2014!  Ya know, she may well be right – it may be completely impossible for any Democrat to ignore ObamaCare in next year's elections...

You know who predicted exactly how ObamaCare would fail?  Mitt Romney.  We could have had a good man at the helm, instead of a schmuck...

Insurers furious about the ObamaCare fix.  Did someone actually expect them to like a plan that was going to cost them a whole lot of money, and throw away all the work they did in the past three years getting ready for ObamaCare?

Some thoughts on those substandard plans that had to be canceled.  My translation: ObamaCare infringes on our freedoms.  But do read this, it's an excellent piece...

Obama lied.  Now what do we do?  Should libertarians and conservatives let the ObamaCare crisis go to waste?  Hell, no!

Progressives face a crisis of faith.  “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the tears of progressives.”  Awesome!

Washington state on Obama's 'fix': No way, dude!  Just a week ago, support for ObamaCare amongst Democrats was reflexive; today it's fading fast – and the rate of erosion seems to be accelerating.  We're watching a political cascade in progress, almost in real time...

Five big questions about Obama's health law tweak.  A fine summary of things to focus on watching for the next few days (at least)...

It isn't pretty when a progressive starts backtracking on ObamaCare.  But it sure is fun to watch!

Some alternatives to ObamaCare.  Oh, yes, please – let's start having a serious conversation about these!

“This is a new insanity.”  The NJ Association of Underwriter's thoughts on Obama's 'fix'.  Right away you can tell they're really impressed with his leadership...

Why does anyone thing Obama is good at politics?  I never did.  He's good at celebrity, which is quite a bit different.  For one thing, politics has more actual content...

The lawlessness of ObamaCare.  If you read any history, this is very reminiscent of FDR's sweeping power grabs...

Megan McArdle: ObamaCare is ... whatever Obama says it is.  Her final question: “How many acts does this play have left?”  At the rate things are proceeding, we may not have long to wait.  Which will make me very happy, except for the sudden drought of schadenfreude that will ensue...

The day the Obama magic died:

Rule by personal charisma has met its proper fate. The spell has been broken, and the magician stands exposed. We need no pollsters to tell us of the loss of faith in Mr. Obama's policies—and, more significantly, in the man himself. Charisma is like that. Crowds come together and they project their needs onto an imagined redeemer. The redeemer leaves the crowd to its imagination: For as long as the charismatic moment lasts—a year, an era—the redeemer is above and beyond judgment. He glides through crises, he knits together groups of varied, often clashing, interests. Always there is that magical moment, and its beauty, as a reference point.

ObamaCare disaster recovery.  Is it possible to overdose on schadenfreude?  Nah...

Congress right now has a historic chance—really, it could wind up in the history books next to the stopping of FDR's court-packing scheme in 1937—to hold back ObamaCare. Congress can delay it, or pass a law mandating or allowing insurance companies to continue insuring everyone they just threw off coverage. Heck, they could try to vote now, under new conditions and with the American people behind them, to repeal the whole thing. 

And who knows, they just might.

ObamaCare's non-fix.  It's all about the cover.  Political cover.  But it's not enough, not by a long shot...

Obama's insurance fix is unconstitutional.  I suspect that doesn't enter into his calculus at all – he's The One!

Accidental scientific discoveries...

Accidental scientific discoveries...

Mike's Metal Works is relocating to Jamul...

Mike's Metal Works is relocating to Jamul...  The company is currently located in El Cajon, but according to this story in SD Metro they are planning to relocate into this facility in Jamul:

JAMUL — A 59.85-acre site at 3552 Fowler Canyon Road in Jamul, which includes a 38,000-square-foot industrial building where airplane parts were made during World War II, has been sold for $1.7 million. The buyer was Property Evolution LLC with Michael and Jacqueline Hancock of Jamul as managing partners. The Hancock family operates Mike’s Metal Works, a steel fabrication firm operating in El Cajon. The company plans to relocate to Jamul. The company specializes in stainless steel and aluminum fabrication, including structural steel architectural railings and stairs.

The seller of the property was Fowler Canyon Limited Partnership, with James and Judith Asbury of El Cajon as managing partners. About 25.79 acres of the site will remain as open space.

Pacific Coast Commercial represented both the seller and buyer.

In the 1940s, the property was the site of airplane parts manufactured by the Fowler Aircraft Co., founded by Harlan D. Fowler (1895-1982). An adobe house where the Fowler family lived still stands on the property.

Here's a map to the site, which is not far from the golf course:


View Larger Map
I had no idea that such a site or building existed in Jamul, and I've driven on Fowler Canyon Road, so I've been quite close to it.  You would think this would bring some jobs to Jamul, and perhaps even some new residents if some current employees want to relocate closer to work...

Why won't the State Department tell us who these hundred-or-so “special” people are?

Why won't the State Department tell us who these hundred-or-so “special” people are?  After all, this is the most transparent administration evah!  Why would they hide something so innocent?  That might just make someone think there's something fishy or corrupt going on!  Hmm....

NGC 1097...

NGC 1097...  From APOD, of course.  Hi-resolution version.

Geek: the Josephus Problem...

Geek: the Josephus Problem...  Nick Berry does his usual entertaining and accessible explanation, this time of the classic Josephus Problem.  This time it involves a monster with a peculiar cooking ritual.  I especially liked the little bit-twiddling hack at the end...

ObamaCare debacle update...

ObamaCare debacle update...  You just can't make this stuff up...

The web site was the easy part.  That doesn't bode well...

House Democrats in swing districts are furious - and panicking.  They don't want to “own” ObamaCare any more...

No wonder they didn't want to release enrollment numbers!  The ObamaCare implementers already looked like fools.  Now they look worse.

The ObamaCare girl: not a citizen, didn't sign up for ObamaCare, and wasn't even paid.  Sheesh...

Kristen Powers is really, really unhappy about losing her cheaper, better policy.  Oh, it's so much fun when a progressive policy ends up biting a progressive in the butt!

There is the potential for amusement in ObamaCare.  Taranto is most definitely amused...

A sober writer (Jacob Sullum) reminds us that there's no such thing as a free healthcare lunch.  Not even if The One promised it.  Make that especially if...

The Krauthammer thinks that the ObamaCare debacle could be the beginning of the oft-predicted collapse of American progressivism.  Oh, please – pretty please with truffle sauce on it!

The most trusted source for information on ObamaCare amongst the American public is ... Fox News.  Oh, my.  That's gonna leave a mark...

“Pre-effectuated enrollment.” The Wall Street Journal's editorial board is not impressed.  Nobody else is, either...

Some serious talk about conservative alternatives.  Haven't seen much of this in the mainstream press, so it's nice to see something, even if there are many points I don't agree with.  Face it – at this point, damn near anything would look a lot better than ObamaCare...

“The Affordable Care Act appears to be misfiring in every imaginable way, and Democrats are having second thoughts about serving as human shields for White House ineptitude.”   Pass the popcorn, please...

An encounter of the elk kind...

An encounter of the elk kind...  Were I in that fellow's position, I'd have been a lot more worried about my physical safety than he appears to have been – elk are powerful animals, and they know how to use those antlers...

Is this what's coming next?

Is this what's coming next?

Foreigners experiencing America...

Foreigners experiencing America...  Here's another great collection of the impressions that foreigners have upon living in America.  For some of them I have a personal flip side:

A Bangladeshi: “America is literally HUGE. My home country is roughly the size of Florida, one of the fifty states.”  The flip side: sometimes I've been amazed just how small an entire country can be.  One can drive across the entire country of Estonia – anywhere – in just a few hours, often on terrible roads.

A Russian: “President doesn’t automatically become the richest person in the country.”  This is a great reflection of the assumption of corruption that every Russian I know has.  Not just Russians, either – people from many countries are like this, because it's what they're used to: Indians, Mexicans, Saudis, and many more...

An American, on his South Pacific friends: “They also assumed that you could run into ultra famous people.”  When I was first exploring Estonia, in the early 1990s, this happened to me repeatedly.  The typical experience was that I'd walk into a small-town shop, the clerk would figure out I was American, and would immediately start asking questions about movie stars with the assumption being that I knew them personally.  When I tried to make them understand that I couldn't possibly know them, the most common reaction was disbelief.

Nationality not identified, but Scottish name: “In Nordstrom, when a sales assistant says 'Can I help you?' s/he actually means 'Can I help you?' and not, say, 'You’re distracting me from my phone. Can you please leave?'”  The flip side: as an American I've often been shocked at the poor service I've received in other countries when visiting shops and restaurants.  My thoughts, upon being the victim of this, are always “How the heck do they stay in business, with help like this?”   But it's so prevalent that you have to accept it's the norm...

A Swede: “Bank checks are still used and mailed in envelopes.”  The flip side: I was astonished, when first doing business in Estonia, that our employees would actually travel to a bank with their bills in hand, and work face-to-face with a teller to transfer money (what we would call electronic funds transfer, or wiring) to pay them.  Checks existed, but were something rare and completely inaccessible to ordinary people.  There were many differences in how our financial systems worked – leases, rentals, checks, credit cards, consumer credit, etc., etc., to the point where I found it was safer to assume that nothing worked the same way there as in the U.S...

Three months of work went into this ...

Three months of work went into this ... which pretty much leaves me speechless.  Two people, far apart, made this “screenlink” dominoes video.  It looks like it's all one giant domino trick, but it's actually a number of smaller tricks carefully edited to look like one big one.  In this case, two different people made the smaller clips, building on each other's work sequentially...

To Breathe as One...

To Breathe as One...  Longtime readers know that I have visited the little Baltic nation of Estonia many times, and that I have quite a few friends there.  I'd call myself an “estoniaphile”, but that word just looks too awkward.  You get the idea.

One of things about Estonia that I cherish is the key role that song – people singing – played in their most recent revolution, when they gained their freedom and independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Now there's a new film (To Breathe as One), about the song festival (the “Laulupidu”) held every 5 years since 1869 in Tallinn, Estonia.  The most recent Laulupidu was in 2009, and included an American children's choir from San Francisco.  The video at above and right is the official trailer.  I ordered the DVD, and I can hardly wait to receive it...

Not a comforting thought...

Not a comforting thought...  Via my mom...

Wow!

Wow!  Full screen for this one.  You know the drill...

ObamaCare debacle update...

ObamaCare debacle update...  Now, don't worry.  I didn't forget you!  There's just a lot to talk about today:

ObamaCare website development manager clueless about security risks.  Somebody is hiding something – but who and what is not so clear...

Introversion isn’t Obama’s problem, his inability to tell the truth is. Well, that's part of his problem, to be sure...

Project Veritas uncovers (in the video at right) corruption and fraud in the ObamaCare “Navigator” program.  It ain't purty...

72 of the mandates that are key reasons why ObamaCare-compliant insurance policies are so much more expensive than those available previously...

ObamaCare's enrollment numbers aren't real enrollment numbers.  Because honest, transparent reporting is for the little people, and certainly not for the most transparent administration evah...

Will shitty ObamaCare ads get young people to buy insurance?  These are amongst the ads being discussed.  Seriously.  I'm not kidding...

California leads the way ... in policies being canceled due to ObamaCare.  Awesome...

When you've lost Feinstein...

You think ObamaCare looks bad now?  Just wait until you see what January brings...

NSA blowback on NIST having an effect...

NSA blowback on NIST having an effect...  One of the sideshows in the larger NSA scandal is the revelation that NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) had apparently cooperated with NSA in deliberately weakening the cryptographic standards that NIST produced.  This cooperation by NIST was quite shocking to many people, in many fields, myself included.  NIST produces an amazing array of standards, in things from metrics (the measurement of things) to cryptography to railroad gauges.  Until these recent revelations, most people I knew (including me) thought of NIST as an above-the-fray, apolitical, transparent, and honest institution.

Not so much any more.  I've worked directly with NIST on two occasions during my career.  One involved time standards supporting electronic trading applications, the other involved electronic metrics for calibrating instruments.  I can't offhand think of any reason the NSA would be interested in perverting either of those things – but these days, I'd take the possibility of that into account.  Others I know who work with NIST on a more frequent basis are feeling downright paranoid about them now.  So this news is welcome, though NIST is going to have a difficult time recovering its reputation entirely, I think.  But it's a start...

The future USS Zumwalt, DDG 1000...

The future USS Zumwalt, DDG 1000 ... the first ship of a new class.  To anyone who served in the Navy before about 2000, as I did, this is one very odd looking ship.  The super-structure is angled (for stealth), the bow is raked backwards (apparently to reduce pitching in rough seas), it has stabilizers (passive only, I think), and the entire design is very sleek and streamlined looking.

Contributing to the interest for me is that this ship is named after Admiral Elmo Zumwalt – who was the Chief of Naval Operations when I joined the Navy.  He introduced all sorts of reforms that our local commanders hated.  Most of these occurred while I was in training at Mare Island, in Vallejo, California.  His “Z-grams” (memos) went out to all sailors, and rolled back restrictions on things like haircuts, beards, and the wearing of civilian clothes on base.  That latter rollback destroyed an entire industry: the sailor's “clubs” that formerly could be found just outside the gates of any Navy base.  Prior to Zumwalt's rollback, sailors were only allowed to wear uniforms on base – no civilian attire allowed.  Worse, on some bases (including Mare Island), you could only leave or enter the base if you were wearing certain kinds of uniforms – and these never included ordinary working clothes.  So to go on or off base, you had to change clothes, typically into “undress blues” or “undress whites” back in those days.  It was a hassle, and unnecessarily so.  Worse, in those days late in the Vietnam War, any sailor caught outside the base in uniform was sure to be harassed by anti-war civilians (the vast majority of them).  The sailor's clubs were the solution.  These clubs would rent you a tiny locker, and provided a place to change your clothes.  Sometimes they had showers, too.  So when you wanted to go somewhere for the weekend, you'd work all day Friday in your working uniform, then change into (say) undress whites, exit the base, go into the sailor's club, rent a locker, change into your civilian clothes, and go about your weekend.  Jeez, what a pain in the neck!  But when “Zoomie” rolled back those rules, all that disappeared, and virtually overnight.  He was the enlisted guy's hero, for this reason, and many others.  We expected bad things to happen when he left the role in 1974, but in fact, most of his reforms stayed in place...

Another power-grab by The One's administration...

Another power-grab by The One's administration...  This time, through the EPA: all the waters are ours!

IKEA...

IKEA...  If you've ever been in an IKEA store, you'll be able to identify with this :)

The curmudgeon's guide to The Sound of Music...

The curmudgeon's guide to The Sound of Music...  Put your drink down first, then go read.  A sample:

The "Lonely Goatherd" puppet show is all about coerced mountain marriages, including coerced goat marriages, which send a bad message to children and anthropomorphized goats.

Ha!  Even the folks at NPR can be funny sometimes...

Ranger 7 lunar impact crater...

Ranger 7 lunar impact crater...  If you're ancient enough, like me, you might remember this series of early robotic exploration missions.  Ranger 4, part of the series, was the first man-made object ever to strike another body in the solar system. 

Ranger 7 was the first to return high-quality photos.  The Ranger series wasn't intended to actually land safely on the moon – instead, they were aimed straight at the moon and intentionally slammed into it at very high velocities.  On their final approach, they took photos and other measurements and beamed them back to Earth in real time (these images were turned into the video at left).  Then the Rangers struck the moon, making small craters because of the kinetic energy of their impact – and of course there were no more pictures after that.  This was part of the preparatory work leading up to the Apollo landing missions.

The Ranger series were tremendously exciting for me as a kid.  I knew enough science and math to understand what was being attempted and just how difficult it was.  By today's standards, the technology employed in the Rangers was laughably primitive – but at that time, it was real bleeding-edge stuff.  The very idea of getting something made by mankind to another world sounded to us like something straight out of science fiction, an impossible feat.  Remember, this was less than 40 years after Lindbergh's pioneering trans-Atlantic flight!

California leads the way...

California leads the way ... in pornography star protection!  No, I'm not talking about requiring condoms for the “performers” – the new requirement being proposed is for goggles.  And more.  Seriously.  Details here (including some explicit descriptions)...

I like it!

I like it!

Settled science?

Settled science?  You know that incessantly repeated claim by warmists that 97% of climate scientists agree about AGW?  Well, turns out that it's simply not true.  According to a newly published, peer-reviewed study, it's actually more like (wait for it!)... 0.3%.  Article, study...

Over 200 strangers...

Over 200 strangers ... attended this veteran's funeral in Lancashire, England.  It's a beautiful story, and one that I'd like to think might happen here, as well...

Where the wealthy Americans live...

Where the wealthy Americans live...  On the map at right (a snapshot of this interactive map), the more yellow an area is, the more wealthy its inhabitants.  Most of these areas are associated with a general population concentration, and thriving businesses: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc.

Another stands out for its association with a large number of people who make their living by taking from their fellow Americans: Washington, D.C.  It's the largest concentration of wealthy areas in the entire country.

That pretty much sums up my problems with our government right there...

Progressive bubble in action...

Progressive bubble in action...  Yesterday I drove “down the hill” to have lunch with a couple of friends (at Siam Nara, most excellent!).  On the way there, I listened to NPR for a while, until I heard this: an interview with a business reporter for NPR in Texas, opining on why businesses were starting to relocate from China to Texas – in particular, why Texas more than any other state.

That report twisted himself into pretzels to avoid giving the real reasons: Texas' business-friendly regulatory environment, low taxes, and large number of well-educated and willing workers.  Instead he cited things like climate (and he lives there!), the Houston seaport, and proximity of natural gas production.  It's clear that the reporter had either never talked with an actual business decision maker, or had ignored everything he heard.  Doesn't fit the narrative, you know...

I turned off the radio.

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...  The Wall Street Journal gets it today, for this, the first sentence in an opinion piece called “California’s Green Reality Check”:

Governor Jerry Brown ought to be canonized as the patron saint of hopeless environmental causes.

Hah!

Iran's nuclear marathon...

Iran's nuclear marathon...  Bret Stephens, writing at the Wall Street Journal, on why the French had to be the adults at the bargaining table with Iran (an excerpt):

... But it's mainly an example of failing up—the Washingtonian phenomenon of promotion to ever-higher positions of authority and prestige irrespective of past performance.

This administration in particular is stuffed with fail-uppers—the president, the vice president, the secretary of state and the national security adviser, to name a few—and every now and then it shows. Like, for instance, when people for whom the test of real-world results has never meant very much meet people for whom that test means everything.

That's my read on last weekend's scuttled effort in Geneva to strike a nuclear bargain with Iran. The talks unexpectedly fell apart at the last minute when French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius publicly objected to what he called a "sucker's deal," meaning the U.S. was prepared to begin lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange for tentative Iranian promises that they would slow their multiple nuclear programs.

Not stop or suspend them, mind you, much less dismantle them, but merely reduce their pace from run to jog when they're on Mile 23 of their nuclear marathon. It says something about the administration that they so wanted a deal that they would have been prepared to take this one. This is how people for whom consequences are abstractions operate. It's what happens when the line between politics as a game of perception and policy as the pursuit of national objectives dissolves.

The French are not such people, believe it or not, at least when it comes to foreign policy. ...

2016 sure seems like a long way away, doesn't it?

Not only inane, but willfully fraudulent...

Not only inane, but willfully fraudulent...  Steve McIntyre notes a scientist's scathing indictment of nutrition research.  Much of what that scientist (Edward Archer) has to say about nutrition science applies directly to climate science, which I'm sure is Steve's unstated point.  From Archer's editorial in The Scientist:

Perhaps more importantly, to waste finite health research resources on pseudo-quantitative methods and then attempt to base public health policy on these anecdotal “data” is not only inane, it is willfully fraudulent… The fact that nutrition researchers have known for decades that these techniques are invalid implies that the field has been perpetrating fraud against the US taxpayers for more than 40 years—far greater than any fraud perpetrated in the private sector (e.g., the Enron and Madoff scandals).

Ouch.  Certainly that applies just as well to climate science.

Don't miss Steve's last line – it's a hoot!

Faster than Legolas!

Faster than Legolas!  Danish archer Lars Andersen has rediscovered the ancient martial skill of shooting arrows rapid-fire, one after the other – while still being accurate.  Watch this video of him, and then imagine an army full of archers with his skills, as history tells us there were.  Scary!

ObamaCare debacle update...

ObamaCare debacle update...  Because what would your morning be without it?

26 year old Katrina figures out ObamaCare is screwing her.

Surprise!  Obama administration stonewalls investigation into ObamaCare web site disaster.

Time to start considering ObamaCare's worst-case scenarios.  Because, you know, those are starting to look like the likely scenarios...

3% - that's how close not-so-close the state ObamaCare exchanges came to their enrollment target numbers.  Sheesh.

Hope is all that ObamaCare has left.  So says Megan McArdle, as she lays out some of the possible scenarios over the next few months.  It ain't purty...

I just enrolled for COBRA extension through next July, when my eligibility for it runs out.  That means I have great health insurance (my former employer's plan) through that time.  At this point I have no idea what comes after that ... but I'm hoping that something will have settled out of this mess before then...

Facing the reality of stage 4 colon cancer...

Facing the reality of stage 4 colon cancer... is my colleague from a former job, Mark Rizzo (at right).  He's blogging about his experiences with treatment, and he's also raising money to help find a cure for colon cancer.  He's fighting hard to expunge his cancer, and the next step for him (hopefully!) is HIPEC treatment here in San Diego.

He and his family could use the support and prayers of all of us.  A donation to his fund-raising effort would be appreciated, I'm sure...

Dog Goldberg...

Dog Goldberg...  Your morning smile, fellow dog-lover.  If you're not a dog lover, then what the hell are you doing on my blog?

What big projects has the government ever done well?

What big projects has the government ever done well?  And in less time than ObamaCare had for their website?  Here are four well-chosen examples – well-executed despite having huge bureaucracies associated with them.  Of course, these “projects” had, like real leaders associated with them...

Yay, IRS...

Yay, IRS...  Just think: the ObamaCare bureaucracy will be hundreds of times bigger than the IRS.  From Reason's Hit & Run blog.  The lede:

Here's the good news: the Internal Revenue Service believes it's not handing out quite so many billions of dollars to identity thieves as it used to. Yay, IRS. Your government at work: hectoring you about your supposed obligation (and even delight!) to cough up the goods to Uncle Sam while handing out free money to con artists. And the feds are still doing their best to prove that crime does pay. The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says the latest figures have the IRS paying out $3.6 billion in bogus tax refunds in 2011.

Oh, goody.  Every time I mentally estimate the federal bureaucracy's impact on my future healthcare ... I start wondering what other options I have for a place to live...

Mark Steyn's 2001 Veteran's Day essay...

Mark Steyn's 2001 Veteran's Day essay...  It's an excellent piece that I'd not seen before, as I didn't know about Mark Steyn in 2001.  Here's a sample:

Actually, most Americans are already "aware" of their veterans, it's the elites who need reminding — like the chaps at The New York Times and other big papers who carry (by my estimation) less than a tenth of the military obituaries Britain's Daily Telegraph does. True, NBC's star anchor, Tom Brokaw, has found himself a lucrative franchise cranking out books about "The Greatest Generation" — the World War Two generation — but Brokaw's designation is absurd and essentially self-serving. The youthful Americans who went off to war 60 years ago would have thought it ridiculous to be hailed as "the greatest". They were unexceptional: they did no more or less than their own parents and grandparents had done. Like young men across the world, they accepted soldiering as an obligation of citizenship, as men have for centuries. In 1941, it would have astonished them to be told they would be the last generation to respect that basic social compact.

They understood that there are moments in a nation's history when even being a teenager is about standing up and declaring who you are by wearing a uniform. When we — their children and grandchildren — ennoble them as "the greatest" and elevate them into something extraordinary, it's a reflection mainly of our own stunted perspective.

The end is near...

The end is near...  Being saved by French diplomacy, and the resurrection of ABBA are the indicators...  Hah!

Thank you, veterans...

Thank you, veterans...

The latest “Forever Stamp”...

The latest “Forever Stamp”...  Via my mom:

The Montana ranchers wanted to see this for themselves!

The Montana ranchers wanted to see this for themselves!  Via my mom:

Nancy Pelosi called Harry Reid into her office one day and said, "Harry, I have a plan to win back Middle America in 2014!"

"Great Nancy, but how?" asked Harry.

"We'll get some cheesy clothes and shoes, like most Middle Class Americans wear, then stop at the pound and pick up a Labrador retriever. Then, we'll go to a nice old country bar in Montana and show them how much admiration and respect we have for the hard working people living there."

So they did, and found just the place they were looking for in Bozeman, Montana with the dog in tow, they walked inside and stepped up to the bar.

The Bartender took a step back and said, "Hey! Aren't you Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi?"

"Yes we are!" said Nancy, "And what a lovely town you have here. We were passing through and Harry suggested we stop and take in some local color."

They ordered a round of bourbon for the whole bar, and started chatting up a storm with anyone who would listen.  A few minutes later, a grizzled old rancher came in, walked up to the Labrador, lifted up its tail, looked underneath, shrugged his shoulders and walked out.

A few moments later, in came another old rancher. He walked up to the dog, lifted up its tail, looked underneath, scratched his head and left the bar.

For the next hour, another dozen ranchers came in, lifted the dog's tail, and left shaking their heads.

Finally, Nancy asked, "Why did all those old ranchers come in and look under the dog's tail? Is it some sort of custom?"

"Lord no," said the bartender. "Someone's out there running around town, claiming there's a Labrador Retriever in here with two assholes!".

I think this is actually quite unrealistic.  There's no way those ranchers would have missed the real meaning...

A disabled Iraq war veteran needs a suitable home...

A disabled Iraq war veteran needs a suitable home – his town provides...

Life with animals...

Life with animals...  So this morning I was doing all my morning “animal chores”.  There are quite a few, and I'm on my own (Debbie is in Indiana helping care for her mom, who is recovering from a fall and broken leg).  We have an ancient cat that needs special care, nine other cats (some of whom also need some special care), four dogs that need walking and attention, and the hummingbirds that we feed.

As I was mixing up another batch of “hummingbird juice syrup” (concentrated sugar syrup with a little color), I heard a sound out in our hallway.  It's a sound that any cat owner knows well: that special “pre-retching” sound that immediately precedes the forcible, high-velocity ejection of either a hairball or a partially-digested meal (cats do this a lot for some reason).  I knew I had only seconds to act, and that the best I could hope to do was to move the cat to an easy-to-clean surface before the mess erupted.

So I ran into the next room, and quickly located the cat.  It was Maka Lea, our sweet little guy with psycho-motor problems, who has no idea he's handicapped.  But that's not why I located him quickly.  What gave him away was the four dogs.  All four muzzles were within an inch of Maka Lea's mouth.  The four dogs and one cat were arranged in a perfect five-pointed star, all heads at the center.  Doggie tails were wagging, and doggie faces were excited about the “treat” they knew was immediately forthcoming.

Sure enough, before I could get there, Maka Lea blew chunks (of the partially-digested cat food variety) at high velocity.  Very little of this hit the ground – four attentive dogs with their amazing tongues and gaping maws made a very efficient and hyperactive collection system.  What few tiny particles escaped and hit the carpet were soon dispatched by multiple passes of eager canine tongues. The dogs' initial expressions of pleasure and satisfaction soon turned to disappointment, when they figured out that their warm food dispenser was empty.

Maka Lea walked (to the extent that his form of locomotion can be called “walking” – it's really more like wobbling) to the water fountain and had himself a nice drink.  He looked quite happy, even pleased with himself.  The four dogs headed back to their doggie beds, happy for the unexpected treat, but disappointed that there wasn't more.

I can't even find the spot on the carpet where this happened...