Singing the Blues...

Oh, how blue we got this time, folks... The graphic at right (click to expand) is courtesy of the New York Times. It shows the election results, county-by-county – but not in terms of the vote this year, but rather in terms of the change in the vote since the 2004 election (in percentages). The blue counties are those that voted more Democratic than in 2004; the red counties more Republican.

Yikes!

I think the Republican leadership better pay attention – the electorate just sent them a message of the spanking kind...

Quote of the Day...

From the Lakes Entertainment announcment of 2008Q3 results (my emphasis):

...partially offset by unrealized losses associated with a decrease in probability of opening the casino project for the Jamul Indian Village due to issues associated with site access.

That's the most pessimistic thing I've seen yet in their financial reports. The next step would be for them to write the whole investment down...

The Morning After...

Some quick post-election thoughts...

• President Obama. Those two words fill me with both fear and amazement. Fear...that Obama will not defend my country against fundamentalist Islamic terrorists, that instead he will accommodate them. Fear...of the Supreme Court judges that we're likely to see him nominate. Fear...of what his socialist inclinations will do the U.S. economy in general, and to my family's fortunes in particular. Amazement...primarily that within the span of my life, America went from segregation and overt discrimination against blacks to the point where we have elected a black man to be President.
  
  
• Senate races. The Democrats did not get their 60-vote filibuster-busting super-majority. Under current Senate rules, this means that the Republican minority can (with a concerted, near-unanimous action) block any bill or appointment. The possibility remains that they will repeal the filibuster rule, so that their simple majority can run over the Republican minority. I suspect Obama will ask the Senate to do exactly this – but I hope not.
  
  
• Proposition 8 (ban on gay marriage): as I write, it is leading – but just barely. 9% of the vote remains to be counted, and it has a 1.5% lead. If it wins, it seems like an out-of-context victory for sanity in California.
  
  
• Wacky state-wide propositions: alternative fuels, high-speed trains, free electric cars for everyone, etc., etc. These propositions all look like they're failing.
  
  
• San Diego City Attorney: this race doesn't affect me personally, but still I was interested to see that the man I'll call the “candidate of rationality” has handily beat Mike Aguirre – the incumbent who seems more like a circus clown and posturing mayoral wannabe than an attorney (much less the City's attorney!).

Somehow this morning I am not all filled with hopeyness and changitude. Rather the opposite.

Monday Morning...

Some random Monday morning thoughts...

The photo at right is not mine. It's in this post only because it made me laugh...

Yesterday I answered emails from several friends in Europe, and prepared a package to mail to one of them. This was unreasonably pleasurable, taking a couple of hours to enjoy “talking” with my friends. All but one of my European friends has expressed a preference for Obama to be elected. I'm not surprised by this, actually – Obama would fit into European politics quite easily, while McCain looks (to them) like a typical American cowboy. Of course, my European friends don't have personal consequences (like higher taxes) to worry about if Obama is elected. The one exception? An Estonian friend who is afraid that Putin has a goal of reincorporating the Baltics into Russia – and who is convinced that Obama would just let it happen, while McCain would honor our treaty obligations (Estonia is a NATO member).

Our body clocks don't know about Daylight Saving time, so we woke up at our usual hour – which is now 2 am. The dogs don't know about Daylight Saving time, so they thought we went for our morning walk at the usual time. The stars don't know about Daylight Saving time, so they were in their usual, familiar places. Orion, Castor, Pollux, and the Pleiadies are now all high overhead at that early hour, and Sirius is well above the horizon.

This morning is cold and humid – 46°F (8°C) and 100% relative humidity. The humidity brings up the intensity of the piney smell from our trees to the point where we can smell it intensely...ahhhh... The forecast calls for “likely rain showers”. From our point of view out here in the fire-prone chaparral, there is no better forecast than that!

In 48 hours we'll know the result of the election. Maybe – or maybe we'll all be learning about hanging chads again. Our local (and very liberal) TV station is reporting a last-minute McCain surge – is this on the level, or are they trying to scare more liberal-leaning folks into voting?

Now it's 4 am, and I'm headed into work...

Obama Needs Joe...

Jim M. passes along this parable:

Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to
come and fix it.

Joe drives to Obama's house, which is located in a very nice neighborhood
and where it's clear that all the residents make more than $250,000 per
year.

Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the room that
contains the leaky pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells
Obama, who is standing near the door, that it's an easy repair that will
take less than 10 minutes.

Obama asks Joe how much it will cost.

Joe immediately says, "$9,500."

"$9,500?" Obama asks, stunned. "But you said it's an easy repair!"

"Yes, but what I do is charge a lot more to my clients who make more than
$250,000 per year so I can fix the plumbing of everybody who makes less than
that for free," explains Joe. "It's always been my philosophy. As a matter
of fact, I lobbied government to pass this philosophy as law, and it did
pass earlier this year, so now *all* plumbers have to do business this way.
It's known as 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act of 2008.' Surprised you haven't heard
of it, senator."

In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there's no way he's paying that much for a
small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves.

Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book looking for
another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have
gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe's price, Obama does nothing.

The leak under Obama's sink goes unrepaired for the next several days.

A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the
sink. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and
there's a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with
him to return.

Joe goes back to Obama's house, looks at the leaky pipe, and says "Let's see
– this will cost you about $21,000."

"A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!" Obama quickly fires back.

Joe explains the reason for the dramatic increase. "Well, because of the
'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act,' a lot of rich people are learning how to fix
their own plumbing, so there are fewer of you paying for all the free
plumbing I'm doing for the people who make less than $250,000. As a result,
the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers rises every day.

"Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work from the
group of people who get it for free has skyrocketed, and there's a long
waiting list of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow
plumbers out of business, and they're not being replaced – nobody is going
into the plumbing business because they know they won't make any money. I'm
hurting now too – all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won't pay
their fair share."

Obama tries to straighten out the plumber: "Of course you're hurting, Joe!
Don't you get it? If all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing
and you refuse to charge the poorer people for your services, you'll be
broke, and then what will you do?"

Joe immediately replies, "Run for president, apparently."

Obama Meets Joe (the Plumber)...

Ego and Mouth...

Thomas Sowell (who is black) is not an Obama fan:

After the big gamble on subprime mortgages that led to the current financial crisis, is there going to be an even bigger gamble, by putting the fate of a nation in the hands of a man whose only qualifications are ego and mouth?

Barack Obama has the kind of cocksure confidence that can only be achieved by not achieving anything else.

Anyone who has actually had to take responsibility for consequences by running any kind of enterprise-- whether economic or academic, or even just managing a sports team-- is likely at some point to be chastened by either the setbacks brought on by his own mistakes or by seeing his successes followed by negative consequences that he never anticipated.

The kind of self-righteous self-confidence that has become Obama's trademark is usually found in sophomores in Ivy League colleges-- very bright and articulate students, utterly untempered by experience in real world.

Read Ego and Mouth.

Obama Concedes...

Have heard that Obama's concession speech (drafted ahead of time just in case he loses next Tuesday) has leaked? Here's the conclusion:

“In closing, I just want to thank all of the little people, and their imaginary friends, for the $600 million in contributions. You can be sure that every penny went to a good cause. Thanks to your generosity hundreds of oppressed, downtrodden and needy political operatives are able to keep a roof over their heads that they can retract in warm weather.”

“Traditionally, politicians end their speeches by saying, ‘God bless you, and God bless the United States of America’. But since you’ve probably heard that recording of my pastor, let me just say, in the words of Scripture, that I will always remember you as ‘the least of these‘, and feel confident in knowing that I have done it unto you.”

Via ScrappleFace.

Warfare's Evolution...

Reading this article by Bill Roggio (who is one of the very best sources of information on the War on Terror) got me to pondering on the evolution of warfare. There's nothing new about that, of course – the way that wars are fought has never been a static thing. Roggio's story linked above is about a Predator attack on a compound in Warzistan.

The combination of modern technology and quality intelligence is turning out to be a very effective tool for us. It seems to me that it is restoring some of the symmetry to what would otherwise be called asymmetrical warfare (or guerilla warfare).

Prior to the last few years, an enemy's leadership in a guerilla war would be relatively invulnerable to direct, personal attack. Even if we had intelligence on the location of someone in a leadership role, the only means we had for attacking that person would involve boots-on-the-ground Special Forces. Such a mission would be risky, costly, and would take precious time to organize and execute. Thus they didn't happen very often, and when they succeeded were occasion for much celebration. Some of the most memorable stories from earlier wars are exactly of that nature – Yamamoto in WWII, the several failed attempts on Hitler, the failed rescues of POWs in Viet Nam, etc.

Fast forward to today. I read stories like the one linked above every day or two. The common thread on all of them: actionable intelligence about the location of someone in the chain of command for Al Qaeda (etc.), and a missile delivered by a remote-controlled aircraft (usually a Hellfire missile delivered by a Predator). The location isn't necessarily in (or even near) a place where we have boots on the ground. The remote-controlled aircraft was generally on station nearby, ready to be used for such an occasion – this is possible because of the long “hover times” these aircraft have, and the fact that the “crew” (who are generally in the U.S.) can be switched out in seconds, so missions can last for days.

Think what this combination must be like for the Al Qaeda leadership. It's pretty much impossible for any effective leader to be invisible to his troops. Therefore lots of people have some idea where any given leader is. If you're the leader, you know that any one of those people could rat you out – and if they do, no matter where you are, no matter what time of day it is, no matter how many of your guys you're protected by, and no matter how fervently you pray as you kneel on your mat, a Hellfire missile might be the last thing you ever see.

That can't be good for morale.

Quote of the Day...

From Tim Blair:

The biggest story of the past few weeks: Sarah Palin’s massive CLOTHES budget. I join with political observers of all persuasions in demanding that the attractive Alaska governor wear far fewer clothes.

Read the whole thing.

The Three Stooges...

Consequences of Obama...

Instapundit is running one of my favorite quotes from Robert Heinlein:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as "bad luck."

Glenn didn't say this, but I'll observe that taking outrageously high taxes from those who had the gumption and creativity to improve the lot of their fellow man (and thereby make a profit) is one of the most certain ways to drive those same people away...

You Know This Is Real, Don't You?

OMG!!!

Your Morning Groans...

Don't blame me, blame Simi L. for sending these along:

The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.

A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.

No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a head.'

I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.'

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

It's not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn't have the balls to do it.

The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

A backward poet writes inverse.

In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

Inside Leak?

A fascinating post by someone who claims to be a former Hillary staffer, now transplanted into the Obama campaign. You really need to read the whole thing to get the full effect, but here's a little teaser:

Being in a position to know these things, I will rate what the Obama campaign already knows are their weak links from the most important on down.

1 – Hillary voters. [...]

2 – Sarah Palin. [...]

3 – Obama’s radical connections. [...]

4 – The Bradley Effect. [...]

I said “claims” above because the author could be anyone at all – you just can't tell with an anonymous blog post. But I must say that it reads like something real...

I Learned Something About My Readers...

...but I'm not sure what it is.

The post “Motivational (?) Posters” below broke all my blog's records for page views, in just 24 hours. Each time someone clicks on a picture to get a larger version, that counts as a page view.

Care to guess which poster got the most clicks? Hint: it wins by a factor of five.

Now the important question: what did I just learn about my readers?

Another Blog...

For the past week or so I've been posting on another blog, one of several work-related blogs Service-now (my employer) hosts. My posts there are all about the Discovery product that I work on, and to most of my readers on this blog they are likely to be, er, mind-numbingly boring.

But if you're a closet masochist, stop on over there and learn about our products. At least until management realizes they've let a nutcase publish stuff under their name...

Motivational (?) Posters...

Jim M. sends along this politically-incorrect collection.

As always, click to enlarge...

Huh?

What in the world is that photograph showing?

You'll have to go over here to find out...