Come and Get It

A rather large scandal has hit Rupert Murdoch over in the United Kingdom. While there might be those like The Wall Street Journal who think this can be downplayed, it is bad. Very bad. In a nutshell, employees of one of News Corporations tabloids, News of the World, was found to have hacked cellphones of various people including politicians. Check out the Daily Telegraph’s live page for all the latest details.

I despise tabloids for they are utter trash and the embodiment of the worst aspects of yellow journalism. Sleaze merchants publish them and I’ve always disliked Rupert Murdoch for making his money from them. Far too many conservatives defend him simply because he owns Fox News with the rather uncomplicated view that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But the truth is the man doesn’t appear to have any values other than the desire for money and took advantage of the need for a “conservative” alternative to the monolithic news media in the States. Those quotation marks are there for a reason. Most employees at Fox News are Democrats, no joke – the donation records make that clear.

The scandal has been a classic example of how they happen in England, with things rapidly spiraling out of control when fed by a tabloid based news system. That means people who don’t deserve blame will get it too. But the heads of those responsible are guaranteed to fall, unlike here where you can tough it out much more easily. Already arrested and out on bail is Murdoch’s number two in the corporation, Rebekah Brooks. One of his sons has been implicated as well.

Sadly, this sordid tale of breaking into cellphones for information has also led to the discovery of police officials being bribed for information by News Corporation’s rags. Sometimes I think the thing bringing the world down today isn’t massive debt, but pervasive corruption through all walks of life. Not a cheery thought, is it?

As scandals go, it isn’t impressive in the damage done in reality. The gun walking scandal here in North America has resulted in multiple deaths, for contrast. But it is already having a bigger political effect, proving that perception is reality for far too many people.

I’m trying not to enjoy seeing Murdoch’s tabloid empire coming apart. It helps that there is concern over whether Fox News will end up in trouble of some kind due to a ripple effect. While I’m not a huge fan of the channel, it is needed as a counter to an extremely leftist media. There must always be countering views available to the populace for them to be able to make decisions on serious issues. Though with television, I have to wonder just how much depth can be given on anything.

At least News of the World is no more.

Can’t Think of a Title

After a barely functioning Saturday, today turned out better. Even the daily crossword puzzle was solved in just over 12 minutes. Still feeling puny but got out to church and to a birthday part for a child of friends. Scored leftovers, so it was a good day.

It probably helped I went to bed at 9:20 PM last night.

Today I learned something new. A person can hit the snooze button every ten minutes and still fall into a deep enough sleep to dream during each interval.

It is so humid my eyeballs fogged over. This is going to be a rough week with mid to high 90’s predicted and heat indexes well above 100 F. But the media it playing it up like it is some amazing heat wave when I remember stretches of true 100+ weather in previous decades.

I’ve figured out what movies I’ll review next and it will be nice getting back to a more traditionally vague format.  The Battle of Britain will be followed by Thirteen Days.

Speaking of movies, Netflix has changed their fees and I was looking at a 60% increase for the package I had subscribed to. With low bandwidth, I went to the two DVDs for $12 option instead. Not happy with this, but the streaming revolution isn’t really happening thanks to the movie studios. I’m beginning to wonder if it ever will.

At least I’m slowly catching up on popular movies I had no interest in seeing at the theater. So far, most have not impressed me.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was bad. It came off as a parody of the previous films and Harrison Ford is way too old for this kind of thing.

Quantum of Solace destroyed all the momentum from the reboot, Casino Royale. Not content to fumble things, it turned into a poorly written and edited left wing conspiracy fantasy. Ian Fleming must be rolling in his grave. It is just a very bad film on many levels, despite having a good cast. A true waste of talent.

Inception has cemented my being a fan of Chris Nolan. He is what we hoped M. Night Shyamalan would become as a director. I knew it would be heavy on special effects and that didn’t interest me. The idea of manipulating dreams did, however. What surprised me was how sentimental the film was. Well worth watching.

I’m bemused by how my evaluations of films and TV series confuse my friends. There is no question that I dance to a different drummer and employ criteria that aren’t the norm. But if I manage to annoy everyone at some point, I’ve done my job. Or just had fun annoying them. It’s a tossup.

Oh before I forget, I have an animated film out of Ireland to recommend. It is called The Secret of Kells and is a lovely piece of work. The animation style is unique and fits the minimalist story very well. In places it was absolutely haunting and I really liked the ending. Good for older children and up, younger children could be frightened by the violence.

Dueling Banjos

Sometimes it seems like politics is all about who shouts the loudest, but the reality is that the winner is often the one allowed to shout the longest. There is a limit to how effective such tactics can be and woe be onto the ones who try to base strategy on it. Here in Minnesota, Governor Dayton found out that lesson the hard way with a state shutdown calculated to catapult the DFL into retaking the state houses in 2012.

Instead of getting widespread support from the public, he got an earful from the proles in a tour the last week. It is no surprise even union members wanted a deal done and the budget passed now. Why?  Most union members are public employees these days, that’s why. They were the ones suffering the most. While a cutoff of beer to Minnesota may have been a factor, this is what most likely caused Dayton to blink.

Now there will be a passing of the last negotiated budget, which is still the largest increase in state history. A victory, but how much of one?

Meanwhile, President Obama continues to demagogue the debt ceiling and threaten the disabled, seniors, and military veterans with cutting off their August checks. Will he blink or is he bluffing? If he isn’t bluffing, the country will begin tearing apart very quickly. Take advantage of every crisis is the motto of this administration, but there is that pesky 2012 presidential election coming up. So who knows what will happen?

But I’d like somebody to ask the President if he’ll keep paying federal employees while he’s starving the elderly and disabled. Not very likely to be asked, is it?

I don’t think the disconnect between the ruling political class and the masses has ever been bigger. With the political class isolated from the day to day reality that the average citizen experience, they have no way of understanding what is at stake. A complicit and equally distant media aren’t helping when they should be bridging the gap. That’s a disaster.

Then there are Europe’s economic analysts, mad at the GOP because they want the debt limit raised in order for countries to buy more U.S. debt. They insist the issue of default be kicked down the road while acknowledging it is a problem. Why is that so important to them?  They want a safe haven for money to move to and apparently have no real faith in the European Union despite what they say publicly. In other words, the political class there wants someplace to stash money before the Euro collapses. Talk about a twisted mess!

It is little wonder that the people are losing faith in government and trust no one. That’s the biggest danger to maintaining order there is. The political class appears to be oblivious to this, especially on the Left. People compare Obama to Carter or Hoover, but perhaps we should be thinking about Nero.

Health 7-16-2011

Back problems have been affecting my sleep and now I’m dealing with a “tickle” in my chest that first showed up Thursday night. Had to suppress the need to cough and had problems breathing at times in the movie theater. Was coughing part of yesterday and the chest is tight. Not in the mood for another bout of bronchitis.

Crossword puzzle took an hour yesterday and a half hour today, well off my 15 minute average. Beginnings of a dull headache and high fatigue are keeping me away from Audiosurf for the moment.

Had to cancel going on the ward youth Temple Trip and am not happy about that since we were short handed to begin with. Not sure if I’ll be able to go into La Crosse for the weekly gaming session tonight too. Tomorrow is going to be a maximum effort day and I have to prioritize.

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 (2011)

The Harry Potter films come to an end with a movie filled with action, death, and 3D effects but curiously devoid of genuine emotion. Those disappointed with the previous film will find much to like and it stays fairly faithful to the book.

The movie starts out with the ending of Part 1, but this time processed into 3D. This means an even murkier and darker experience in the theater, but those who view it in 2D won’t  have much of a brighter experience. Most of it is set at night or indoors with reduced lighting with a bleached out palette.

Following the death of Dobby at the end of the last movie, Harry and company gather some more intel on what Bellatrix Lestrange was up to. Critical information comes into their hands thanks to a kidnapped goblin and so they decide to stage another infiltration of a highly guarded institution. I have to say Helena Bonham Carter did a great job of mimicking Emma Watson’s mannerisms while playing the polyjuiced Hermione masquerading as Bellatrix. Oddly enough, that was one of the highlights of the film for me.

The raid goes disastrously like all their plans do, which is actually mentioned by the characters later in the movie. But it does give us, the audience, some fun with a very well rendered dragon and I always give extra credit for well done dragons. From there things move to infiltrating Hogwarts, which has become something run like a concentration camp or gulag. This is where all the real action takes place and things morph into a war movie, but with magic instead of guns.

The preparations for combat and Voldemort’s assault on Hogwarts are quite well executed. Chaotic battles, heroic sacrifices, and deaths of characters we’ve gotten to know fill the second half. But the deaths failed to have emotional impact for me, unlike the book. I suspect that is due to them being rushed, despite splitting the book into two movies. Some key dramatic moments suffer from it, especially near the end.

With little character development in this half of the book, The Deathly Hallows Part 2 suffers the same problem. Aside from Snape (Alan Richter) and Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), only Helena Ravenclaw (Kelly Macdonald) seemed to get anything meaty and she is a new character only briefly seen. Most of the supporting characters get what amounts to cameos despite their importance in the past. Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione get their expected moments, with Ron delivering comic relief.

While I was pleased with how Neville (Matthew Lewis) got his moments to shine, the last one was not handled well. It was played more for laughs than drama and it rang the wrong note. Likewise, Mrs. Weasely’s (Julie Walters) big moment was laughed at in the theater due to a lack of setup and once again being played for laughs. That was just criminal as it should have been something of great intensity. Those who have read the book will understand why I’m complaining.

The big duel was also disappointing and things kind of trail off after that. But the epilogue was nice and the CGI aging looked good. It seemed like a lot of the film was so geared at the 3D effects that they lost sight of effective pacing.

On the topic of the 3D experience, I thought it was a mixed bag. Anything involving spells and magic looked really good, especially the barrier put up around Hogwarts. But crowd scenes appeared jumpy, for a lack of a better word. Something wasn’t working effectively there and it was distracting. From that, I assume the 3D was done in post production rather than filmed with 3D cameras. Another film out this year that was done in post was Thor and it had a better feeling of depth, for comparison.

I didn’t go into seeing The Deathly Hallows Part 2 with any particular expectations or reservations. Though I could have used a reservation to get a better seat. Please forgive me, it is after 3 AM here as I’m writing this and things are getting stupidly amusing. Back on topic, the local small town theater got the movie for a midnight showing with little warning, so of course I had to take advantage of the opportunity to see the end of the Harry Potter film era.

So what is my final take on the flick? It was okay, but something of a disappointment. Most fans will like it better than the last, but I preferred the previous one. It had more heart and this one was strangely flat to me. The crowd at the theater applauded at the end, so that’s good enough. A big box office haul awaits it no matter what.

Speaking of the crowd, they skewed younger with teens predominating. All age groups were represented and I actually had to stand in line for tickets. Amazing for a midnight showing in a small town with a population of 1200 or so. Everyone was in a good mood and generally well behaved.

Harry Potter Midnight Showing in Spring Grove

Just a heads up in case anyone from my neck of the woods lands on the blog: the final Harry Potter film will have a midnight showing in 3D at the Spring Grove Cinema in Spring Grove, MN.

I was at the last one and plan to go to this one as well.

Health 7-13-2011

The temperatures are in the 70’s, the sun is shining, the humidity is down, and my daily test of playing Audiosurf went well so I went off for my first walk since the last one I posted about. It went better than the previous one, but still was disappointing in how hard it was. Ah well. Hopefully there will be more progress instead of bronchitis as the year continues.

Had a bad night, back pain was pretty impressive and a dull constant headache has been present since getting up. Sinuses aren’t great, but they’ve been much worse.

The weekend is going to be an extreme endurance run with a youth trip to the Temple on top of the usual. I will definitely stay low key on Friday.

Bad Moon Rising

There are those who actually believe we emerged out of the recession and are worried we are going into another. Well, we aren’t. We never got out of the first one and it isn’t a recession, but the early stages of another Great Depression. While we have more social safety nets in place, they aren’t going to last very long at this rate.

One myth on the Left is that Social Security is a “lockbox” and all the funds are safe there to pay it out. If that were true, how could President Obama threaten to not send checks out next month? Note that this is a threat in political speak and his verbal tones suggest he was eager to issue it.  While it is a despicable thing to do, it does unmask the fallacy of the lockbox.  Another Democrat President ended that isolation of Social Security funds from the general fund back in the 1960’s – Lyndon Baines Johnson. They are now controlled at the whim of our government and are not guaranteed.

But the most interesting thing about this is that there will be money to spend on Social Security and other needed things even if we can’t borrow money. It means drastic cuts elsewhere, but that is at the discretion of the Treasury. Which means it is at the discretion of the President. In other words, Obama is threatening to cut off benefits for political gain in the 2012 elections. Some servant of the people he is.

Being on Social Security Disability, this hits me directly. Loss of Social Security means no food, no shelter, no Internet, and the loss of everything I have.  I can’t say I’m surprised how cavalier the President is about the people who will be affected as he is part of the Chicago Machine which is all about thuggery. The willingness to hurt the elderly and disabled just to damage the Republicans shows the quality of Obama’s character.

Sadly, that is only the beginning of our problems. The debt ceiling will mean nothing in the near future because an economic catastrophe has already begun across the globe. Large things tend to be slow moving and people don’t notice the changes until they hit critical mass. And much like an avalanche, they can’t be avoided.

The jobs report for June in the United States is an unmitigated disaster. 18,000 jobs were purportedly created when we need 150,000 new jobs created each month just to match population growth. Notice I used the word “purportedly.” At The NY Post it is revealed that 131,000 jobs were estimated out of thin air to pad the number upwards. In the United Kingdom, their latest report on employment isn’t quite as grim, but it isn’t good.

Meanwhile, the PIIGS crisis in the European Union continues unabated. Ireland just got relegated to junk bond status and Greece continues to be a bottomless sink hole despite hundreds of billions of Euros dumped into it. I don’t even want to discuss the problems China is having with inflation and bad loans. Two ballyhooed stimulus packages have failed to do anything positive at all and now they are talking about another one, QE3. Throwing money that doesn’t exist at something caused by spending money that doesn’t exist is not a sign of intelligent or even sapient behavior.

What will the second Great Depression look like? That’s hard to tell, since there has been so much wealth generated worldwide since the end of World War II. As mentioned before, there are safety nets in place that weren’t previously in developed countries. But there has never been so much debt in place as we have today. It will hit slower than in the 1920’s and 30’s and it has already begun.

We have much more to lose, so the possibility of it being more dramatic and catastrophic increases due to the simple fact the masses aren’t acquainted with real hardship anymore. What happens when food supplies become permanently disrupted? What happens when fuel is too expensive to allow easy migration to better places? What happens when electricity becomes unreliable with rolling blackouts the norm? What happens when groups begin hoarding resources? Those are all questions the world is going to have to face very soon.

Here in the U.S., we have a cultural divide that is now unbridgeable. The Left have gone so far away from common ground with the middle and right that the political frictions we see now are going to look quaint by comparison when the real crisis hits fully.  Though the truth is the middle will do whatever the group in charge tells them to do, so really they don’t matter. It is a sad thing, but the result of apathy/fence sitting is the loss of any real say in things.

My prediction is greater division and rising violence, both of which have already begun. Frustrations will continue to grow and the political class will continue to play games as long as they are comfortable. By the time anything will be attempted seriously, it will be too late.

So where does that leave the little guy? Up a creek without a paddle in most cases.

All we can do is prepare ourselves for the worst outcome and pray for the best. Storing food for more than threes days of supplies is a beginning. Having the ability to protect yourself wherever you are means exercising your 2nd Amendment rights here in the States, no matter how you feel about firearms. Most of all, you need to be spiritually prepared.

In God you can trust, but not man. I wish people would remember that whenever the latest demagogue of any political persuasion shows up.

Turn, Turn, Turn

One thing is constant in life and that is change. That scares a lot of people but it is like death and taxes in that it is unavoidable. To me, it keeps life interesting or at least not boring.

Yesterday, the La Crosse Ward saw a change in leadership. Bishop Steven Sorensen was released after four years and having to manage the incredibly difficult task of merging two units. That is an unusual place to be put in, to say the least. Hopefully life will be a little easier for Bishop Sorensen and his wife – they have earned it.

Matt Baker was called to be the new bishop and he will do a good job. I had the pleasure of working alongside him in the La Crosse 2nd Branch presidency and he is a standup guy. Things will be different as they always are with a bishopric changeover, so it will be interesting to see the changes. My prayers and best wishes go to Bishop Baker and his wife.

Meanwhile, we continue to get thunderstorms tromping through on a nearly daily basis. This morning had another one I was vaguely aware of; too much weekend wore me out and not even an earthquake could have gotten me up. A little change in the weather pattern would be nice.

I’m planning to get a Blu-ray drive before the year ends. Not having a lot of money and the unexpected expense of a new backup drive has derailed discretionary spending for the month. Reviewing TRON: Legacy made me really want the extra resolution since some of the screen captures would make great desktop wallpaper. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. With Blu-ray’s getting much cheaper and dual packs with DVD more common, it is a step I need to take.

This week is the anniversary of the opening stages of the Battle of Britain, so I think I’ll watch the film of the same name again and review it. While I love the series Fractale, I’m getting burned out reviewing science fiction and fantasy. Time to dig out some old favorites for a change of pace.

Fly Like an Eagle

In the night sky of 1957’s Autumn, people could see the glowing dot of man’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. It was a colossal embarrassment for the U.S. government and a great achievement for the Soviet Union. But America rallied and made it all the way to the Moon the year I was born.

So earlier today, the last space shuttle launch happened and the last mission for the program got underway.  I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand, the United States has abandoned manned space missions and likely will never return to government ones in my lifetime. On the other hand, one of the biggest wastes of time, energy, and money by our government is finally coming to an end. This is not a knock on the astronauts, but on the NASA bureaucrats who designed the program and ran it.

The space shuttle never lived up to a fraction of what it promised to do. Regular spaceflight is still an elusive goal as is doing it cheaply. Two spectacular and preventable accidents killed fourteen astronauts along the way. Did we get the big space stations and labs in the sky we should have had by now? I’m sorry to say the International Space Station is nothing to be excited about. About the only real gain out of all this was the Hubble being refurbished and its achievements in astronomy.

For those of us who grew up in the 1970’s or before, there was promise of great things just around the corner in space exploration. Large space stations, moon colonization, manned missions to Mars, and further exploration into the unknown. None of those things have happened and it is decades later with every attempt to do so shot down before it goes anywhere.  As an American, I find it tragic that we will now have to hitch rides with the Russians to even get to the I.S.S.!

Maybe the mistake was relying on the federal government to do something so important. Maybe the comfortable laziness spawned by too much material wealth stripped us of any daring. That promised future which gleamed so brightly in the night sky looks lost right now.

Our only hope is now with private firms going into space.

Don’t Bring Me Down

It looks like rain again. The sky is overcast and the weather service predictions changed from a clear weak to chances of thunderstorms every day. What is this, Seattle?

Yesterday, I went outside to tag damaged and “junk” trees with spray paint for the eventual purpose of having them cut down by a neighbor. To my dismay, I found the mini wind break of asian elms is in dire shape but not due to the wind damage. The large one on the South end contracted wet wood years ago and I’ve been lobbying to get it cut down. Sadly, it is too late and every tree in the line is now showing symptoms – including a very large cotton wood.

The entire line of trees has to be cut down before the disease spreads to the oak, maples, and willow. Sigh.

Originally, the line of trees planted by my late mother was supposed to be kept at shrub height and be decorative. But it was too much for me to maintain and I let it go. Personally, I thought it turned out better looking that way and it served as a nice windbreak. In the end, the little trees took the brunt of the wind damage last Friday along with the back yard maple that always gets damaged. So they did their duty, but I’m not happy losing them.

At least my external back up hard drive has already been replaced. I ordered it on Tuesday and received it yesterday to my shock. Buy.com came through and I didn’t even pay for shipping. All I can figure is that the warehouse must be in Minnesota for the drive to make it that quickly.

So now equipped with a Maxell 1 TB drive, I was able to image the boot drive – a big improvement over simply backing up critical personal files. It also has a rocker switch for turning on and off, not a pushbutton like the Western Digital. That drive would turn itself on every time the power went out and came back on, which is what I suspect killed it.

Oh good, the sun is peeking out. It would be nice to get the garden and yard dried out but I’m not holding my breath. Speaking of the garden, I had to do a second round of planting peas since only a few plants came up. It will be interesting to see if we produce much given the weather.

More tired than usual today, but got some needed things done the last couple of days including a Home Teaching visit, grocery shopping, and cleaning and maintenance work on the Mini-14. it shouldn’t have the misfeeds and odd lock opens now.

The sun is hiding again, time to wrap this up and get to work on the long delayed TRON: Legacy review.

Testing Is a Good Thing

Nope, I’m not writing about the scandal of Atlanta teachers cheating on test scores to make themselves and their classes look better. What I’m writing about is about personal testing of one’s limits. All too often we skate by through life without seeing where we are and what we can really achieve.

That’s actually quite a broad topic, so for the sake of brevity it will be narrowed down to one example. A personal one at that.

In a recent post, I mentioned how my times in Yahoo crossword puzzles had been doubled while I had the respiratory infection. While the puzzles are being used to sharpen my rusty word skills, they serve another purpose as well. That is to see how well my brain is functioning that day. Cognition is something heavily affected by CFS and while I can usually tell how well I’m doing there, it isn’t always the case. So a more objective test on a daily basis is helpful to see how I’m doing and assist me when I’m waffling about how alert I’m being.

Previously, I’d been using a game called Audiosurf on the Steam game service to judge how well my physical reflexes (and to a lesser degree, alertness) were doing on a given day. Having fallen out of that habit, today is the first day of reinstituting that test alongside the crossword puzzles. It is a fun game, especially since I only play on Mono Pro setting to avoid real aggravation. Since it also uses music from the player’s personal collection to generate the “roads”, the soundtrack is always good.

Testing my capabilities each day helps me assess and allocate my energy for the day. Energy management is a must with CFS. Overextending causes lengthy setbacks which require far too much down time to recover from. While unavoidable in general, limiting the severity increases what you can do in the long term.

Today was a fairly good day on both tests with the mind sharp enough and the reflexes at my normal level. Those mistakes were rust from not playing in a long time, I tell you!

The Sounds of Silence

“He’s dead, Jim.”

That was what flashed through my mind around 9 PM last night as it became clear that my external backup hard drive hadn’t just failed, but had done so in spectacular fashion. Despite an array of utilities I have, the thing won’t cough up any data whatsoever. Not even a low level format is possible.

I’ve had drives fail over the years in every possible way except bursting into flames or exploding. But none so completely. It looks like the power outages on Friday night killed it, since I suffered a BIOS corruption on our media center PC too. That was easily fixed.

So the hard drive I rely on to protect my most important data has shuffled off the mortal coil. Oh the irony. At the moment, I can’t afford a new one so I’ll have to buy a refurbished one at this rate. Of course, it was well out of warranty. Irritating.

Oh and for the record, it was a Western Digital 500 MB MyBook. WD drives and I have had an excessive failure rate compared to other brands. Perhaps I should find another brand.

Happy Independence Day!

It is a good thing to remember how this country was founded and the immense sacrifices made by our founding fathers. Many who signed the Declaration of Independence ended up losing everything during the Revolutionary War and I wonder how many today would take that kind of risk. Sadly, this is not a time of optimism or hope in the United States with the future looking quite bleak. But at least for a day, we should set aside our differences and despair to celebrate the grand experiment that began in the late 1700’s.

On a more local note, I was glad to see a lot of people turn out for the annual La Crosse Ward “picnic”/cherry pit spitting contest. No, I didn’t compete because I was out of spit, as usual. Elder Tataipu won convincingly with a 42 foot spit, easily outdistancing everyone else. Score one for the full time missionary from Hawaii!

I’m wobbly from the weekend, it has been an endurance run. Saturday night I ended up in charge of the fireworks again and that was exhausting, though fun. We probably spooked every critter in the Yucatan valley with our light and sound show. There are leftovers, so we’ll be well prepared for next year.

A Mighty Wind

With the 100 degree weather yesterday came a break from the misery late in the evening. The only problem is the break also broke trees. The National Weather Service summary has a list of all the damage reported from the high winds that swept through. The animations show a faint bow echo ahead of the rain and that’s where the worst of the winds were for us. When it hit, I thought the air conditioner was going to be shoved into my room it was shaking so much. In fact, it has never shaken during any storm. Power was out for several hours starting at 10:30 PM. With the heat and humidity in the house it made for uncomfortable sleeping.

Things were far worse in other places in Minnesota and Wisconsin, so I can’t complain. Not exactly a good start to the Independence Day celebrations.

Photos of our rather unimpressive damage:

Scattered branches and twigs litter nearly all of the West  and front yards.

How these branches missed the antenna, I don’t know. Not that it made much difference when the power went out.

The maple tree out back has taken a beating this year. The big limb drooping is damage from the earlier storm that spawned a tornado in La Crosse.

Biggest damage was to this Asian Elm which was slated for being cut down anyway. While a lovely tree, it has wet wood, a bacterial infection that can spread to other trees. That dark stain on the right side is from water continuously being pushed out through its vascular system.

Amazingly, most of the branches in the East yard came from trees in the West yard. The cottenwood and oak trees were the main victims.

Health 7-1-2011

We are having a mini heat wave, it will be 100 F with a heat index of 106 or better.  I’m trying to both clean and take it easy, which isn’t working out too well. I wonder why?

Still dizzy and congested, but ever so slowly improving. Only had to get up once last night during a coughing fit, which was short and productive. At least I can breath again!

Lately, I’ve been doing crossword puzzles on Yahoo games to keep my mind going and to gauge how well it is working on a given day. Normal time is 11-15 minutes for me but during the worst of this bug it has been 20-35 minutes – roughly double. I wish to note that these crossword puzzles are not exactly the most challenging out there and I’m appalled by even my best times.

Did not sleep well last night due to the coughing fit and back pain. The pain flare up surprised me and it wasn’t until thunder and lightning showed up that I understood the cause. Nothing quite like being a human barometer.

The Shutdown

The big news in Minnesota is the state government shutdown due to an inability to get a budget passed. As I expected, the media is backing Governor Dayton and one of the main line of attacks is hammering on incessantly about the closure of state parks during the popular camping season of the 4th of July weekend. All very predictable and probably very effective in swaying public sentiment. Portraying the Republicans as only cutting spending when they actually presented an increase in spending is all part of the dishonest game.

I have to give credit to the state Republican leadership who didn’t cave in despite knowing this was exactly what Dayton wanted, contrary to his protestations to reporters. The surprising thing is how many Republicans I know who didn’t think the shutdown would happen. When a reversed version of this happened while Pawlenty was in office in 2005, the Democrats used it to great advantage to vilify the Republican party and it was believed it contributed to the rout of the GOP in 2006. Of course Dayton was going to return to that playbook!

In the end, there is a high probability that doing the right thing on holding back spending will damage Republican chances statewide in 2012. The power of the media is still great and that can’t be ignored. For all the talk of how the new methods of communication like Twitter and Facebook have changed things, the old partisan media is still where most people get their information. However, there is a lot going on nationally that will effect the local races, especially the economy. That keeps things unpredictable for the moment.

Frankly, I don’t think the public has the intestinal fortitude to deal with the extensive cuts that are really required and we will see Minnesota and the nation collapse into economic ruins. Cynical pandering and class warfare are already being used to buttress the Left’s insane devotion to Keynesian economics. Spending when you have no savings will never get a person, a state, or a nation out of debt. So all of that stimulus into the economy just made things worse and yes, both political parties are to blame for it. You would have thought the lessons of the 1970’s would have been remembered.

Dark times are ahead, far darker than most expect because it is a systemic problem with how our government “works.” People look to the demonstrations and riots in Europe while wondering if it can happen here. It can and could get much worse with the Left’s history of violence.

I would like to be wrong about this.

C–Control Anime

Found another thinking person’s anime that just wrapped up.  C – Control: The Money of Soul and Possibility is something I was going to avoid, but checked out on a whim. At first blush it appeared to be a Pokemon style fighting show, but turned out to be an exploration of economic and philosophical theories instead. Oh there are fights, called “deals,” in it but they aren’t always shown and aren’t the main focus. Instead, expect a lot of dialogue and character development combined with moral dilemmas.

The plot is about an impoverished and miserly college student in Japan who is sucked into participating in a parallel world called the Financial District. Fights are fought on a regular basis and the money from there can be used in the real world. It is a slow starting show but once he gets his “asset”, Mashu, things really pick up. I will note the show confused quite a few otaku’s online who managed to completely misinterpret the finale and what happened.

The fight moves being named after economic jargon has to be one of the most amusing things about the series. Not for kids at all, it is another TV-14 due to violence and one unnecessary bit of fan service in episode 8 that is censored. If this ever gets licensed in the U.S., I’ll be buying it and rare is the anime I’m willing to buy.

Check out  C-Control at Hulu.com.

A Day in the Life

It looks like this post will be made up of bits and pieces of random thoughts, as I’m a bit fuzzy today.
Finally, a good night’s sleep indicates I’m finally getting over the respiratory infection. Still not recovered from it, but it is fading out and the coughing has subsided.

By making myself post regularly, it is helping with being able to write even when impaired by illness. So I’m pleased with the results of prioritizing writing and hope to get started on some fiction.

My sister, her husband and step kids are arriving tomorrow and the place is a wreck. The two weeks of being sicker than usual were supposed to be devoted to cleaning which isn’t going to happen. Irritating. And messy.

The weather is nice and I want to see if the new Hogue grips I put on my Ruger pistol will help with accuracy. It has helped other owners of the same model. But I’m way too shaky at the moment and need to use my energy for other tasks. If I don’t get the improvement I’m hoping for, I’ll probably have to do some trigger work to lighten the pull. While I love a military style pull on a rifle, it appears to give me problems on pistols.

Why does iTunes importing CD’s default to 128 bitrate AAC when their store doesn’t sell anything less than 256?  I’m glad I moved to Media Monkey Pro a long time ago. FLAC is the best way to go if you have decent speaker or headphones, but 256 AAC isn’t bad at all. I do most of my purchasing at Amazon MP3 these days and take advantage of the cloud storage.

Having become a fan of Jack Wall’s soundtracks for video games, I was happy to score the Jade Empire Soundtrack for $1 from a vendor on Amazon. I wish his soundtracks Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 had been put out on CD as well. But the CD is in trouble and digital delivery is the future.  And yes, I did buy them digitally and burned CD’s, but I’d like the higher quality.

I got a bicycle pump to modify for cleaning electronics. A spring around the hose base is needed to guarantee air flow and so far the basketball needle adapter has worked well. The setup will be a lot cheaper than buying duster cans.

Democrats arguing that having a debt ceiling violates the Constitution shows what amazing hypocrites they are. All of the talk coming out of them lately is how the Constitution isn’t really law, is out of date, and was only meant to be a rough guideline. Two faced doesn’t begin to describe them, especially since there was a default on federal bonds under Roosevelt in 1933. I have no faith in anyone dealing with the economic calamity that is upon us.

Was John Lennon a closet Republican?  Maybe, but I doubt Yoko was.

Mystery Science 3000 is an excellent medication when ill. Watched Werewolf and Laser Blast among other bad movies with Mike, Joel, and the Bots the last couple of weeks on Netflix streaming.  The new settings allowing lower quality streams has been very helpful on our measly 1 MB DSL.

Also saw John Wycliffe, the biography on John Wycliffe, the man who laid the foundation for the Protestant Reformation. Classic early 1980’s video quality but very good. Many Christians know who Martin Luther was, but how many know the man who first translated the Holy Bible into English in the late 1200’s?

Collateral Damage from the Cyberwars

Given how little people venture out from the big headlines in the news, I don’t know if most are aware of the increased “hacking” going on.  So far this week, I’ve had to change two passwords on accounts that were compromised or suspected of being compromised.  LulzSec were responsible for the data breach over at Bioware’s old Neverwinter Nights forums and that spilled over to some EA accounts, mine included. I was hoping EA was being overly paranoid when they reset my password, but another account just made me do the same thing.

That just shows how you can have problems even if you avoid the dark side of the Internet. If you ever have an account anywhere, it can be compromised due to no fault of your own. But you still have to be vigilant since the weakest points in computer security are the users themselves. Don’t even get me started about how easy it is to get infected on Facebook through third party apps.

Meanwhile, the shut-ins who make up groups like LulzSec and Anonymous have been on a tear this month, gleefully hacking databases and exposing information in them in the name of opposing censorship. Targets included credit card companies, law enforcement, gaming communities, and government agencies. For all their posturing about being liberal avengers fighting against fascist government, LulzSec have proven to be a bunch of immature script kiddies who don’t care if anyone is hurt. Exposing personal information of Arizona law enforcement agents is simply asking for drug gangs to kill those agents and their families.

They declared an end to their activities but word comes today of them merging with Anonymous and more cyber terror is to follow.  Especially since they have inspired others to become “hacktivists.” Their lack of understanding of the concepts of cause and effect is going to bite everyone on their rears, sadly.

Governments worldwide have proven to be not amused at these “funny” antics. I expect to see a tightening and increase in laws related to cybercrimes because of these actions. In other words, the exact opposite of what LulzSec’s purported goals were. More censorship, more government oversight of the Net, and easier access to data by law enforcement are sure to come.

Brilliant job there, hackers.

Home Is Where the Heart Is

One of the best things about the lay ministry that is at the heart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is something that is called Home Teaching. For the worthy men in the Church holding the priesthood, it is their duty to look in on and minister to households they are assigned to. Since our bishops and branch presidents (akin to a minister or priest in other denominations) hold full time jobs and have families, there is a need to spread the weight of taking care of the flock.

While there are many different callings (unpaid jobs) in every congregation, Home Teaching is the one every priesthood holder must do. It is the one calling you never get released from. That alone shows how important it is. You have different families you are assigned to over the years, but you are never to stop carrying out your teaching.

I vividly remember the first Priesthood Sunday school meeting I went to while investigating the Church. Guess what the lesson was on?  You got it.  Right away I was excited because I knew that this was the way things should be. God wants his children to learn to love each other and there is no better way to learn than to do.

So what exactly is Home Teaching then?

By the book, it is a once a month visit to a household by two priesthood holding men in the Church to teach a short lesson about the Gospel. You have to get in the door for it to officially count. Now some will consider any kind of visit to count and it is up to the individual home teacher and the priesthood leadership to determine that. Me, I’m a stickler for getting in the door and it has everything to do with the real reasons we have Home Teaching.

What it is really about is looking out for the well being of those we visit. Not just the spiritual well being, but the emotional and economic as well. Latter-day Saints are often fiercely independent, which has a lot to do with the emphasis on self reliance taught in the Church. But that can be taken too far and people in need of help will either feel afraid or too proud to ask for help once in a crisis. Unlike a full time paid clergy, our leaders can’t visit everyone in a large congregation on a regular basis. Combine that with a natural human tendency by some to be afraid of anyone in authority and needs can be overlooked. That’s where our home teachers come in.

If they have built up a good relationship with the people they look after, the home teachers are able to see what things are most needed for those people. It also means being someone they can call in a crisis, someone to provide a shoulder to lean or cry on, and someone who will be their friend. In some cases, it also means being the only contact with the Church for those who have fallen away from attending or are unable to attend due to health.

In order to minister properly to others, you need to know the hearts of those you teach. It is said that “home is where the heart is” and in my experience visiting people in their homes brings a totally different spirit. There you see people as they really are and which enables you to talk freely in ways I sometimes think our culture has forgotten in the States. Personally, I love to visit the families I’ve been assigned to.

In the end, Home Teaching is about loving and serving others, giving of your time and energy to be there for them. In order to live a Christ-like life, we must follow in the footsteps of the Savior, no matter how large or small they appear to us. Home Teaching isn’t a sacrifice to me, for I get a lot back out of it too. In doing service for others, I find myself comforted by the Spirit and closer to Christ as I try to emulate his actions. I’ve also gotten to know a lot of wonderful people  this way that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

I think Paul summed up what I feel about Home Teaching when he wrote to the Corinthians:

What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. 1 Cor. 9:18-19

It has definitely made me a better man and hopefully a better priesthood holder.

Oh and lest I get in trouble with the sisters of the Church, I better point out that they have their own version called Visiting Teaching. In this case, they visit the women members. It isn’t surprising they are better at doing this than the brothers. I have no end to my admiration of Relief Society, which also happens to be the oldest women’s organization in the country.

Health 6-26-2011

Still sick with the upper respiratory infection. As a result, I had to skip out on weekly socializing last night and church today.  A trip out for groceries as a passenger turned into a very nasty test of will last afternoon.  Extreme dizziness and nausea made it a surreal experience – amazing what a sinus infection can do to the inner ear. If I’d tried to drive, I would have been in a ditch because it hit me as soon as the car started moving.

A rough night followed as I’m still a little dizzy from the local expedition. So far, so good on avoiding full blown bronchitis though the right bronchial is still being a bit congested. Since I’ve had it twice this year, I’d really like to avoid the hat trick. Upper respiratory infections are so common with CFS sufferers and I’m no exception to that.

Dad it determined that I eat at least 30g of protein for breakfast to assist in losing weight.  That’s a piece of advice he got somewhere and I’m having a hard time justifying the expense. Not to mention the stomach space, that’s a huge amount to consume in one sitting for me. Don’t know if it will be feasible at all to implement into my diet, which has been showing modest results from cutting even more simple carbs out.

Started taking 1000 units a day of vitamin D several weeks ago to boost the immune system, since it is the latest fad. Or repeat of one, as is more likely the case. While too early to tell the results (six weeks is my minimum on trying something), I’m not impressed so far.

I hope I improve quickly, the house needs cleaning this week and I’d like to get the guts of the media center PC transplanted into the newer case. Range time for shooting is desired, but that will have to wait until after the visit. Not that I could hit the broad side of a barn as dizzy as I am at the moment.

When the Levy Breaks

Watching the Berlin Wall being attacked with sledgehammers as East and West Germany spontaneously reunited left an indelible impression on me in the early 1990’s. The following Russian revolution that took down the Soviet Union had memorable images as well, especially of Boris Yeltsin leading the rebellion. But the unexpected fall of the Soviet Union was a surprise to all and even today it is somewhat of a mystery of why it happened. Leon Aron has written an intriguing theory over at Foreign Policy.

In it, he puts forth the idea that it was a desire to morally reform the Soviet Union that led to its downfall. This is a fascinating idea given the events in Arab countries right now. Economics is usually cited as a causal factor in revolutions by our liberal media and intelligentsia, which reflects their Marx influenced thinking. But what if it is something else entirely?

Lately, I’ve come to the conclusion that governments and businesses are supported by faith in them, or confidence, rather than actual merit or results. As long as confidence remains in them, they stay afloat. But once that is lost, the beginning of the end is soon to be seen. Parliamentary systems of government illustrate this rather well, but it applies to all forms of government.

The money quote of the article:

"Dignity Before Bread!" was the slogan of the Tunisian revolution. The Tunisian economy had grown between 2 and 8 percent a year in the two decades preceding the revolt. With high oil prices, Libya on the brink of uprising also enjoyed an economic boom of sorts. Both are reminders that in the modern world, economic progress is not a substitute for the pride and self-respect of citizenship. Unless we remember this well, we will continue to be surprised -- by the "color revolutions" in the post-Soviet world, the Arab Spring, and, sooner or later, an inevitable democratic upheaval in China -- just as we were in Soviet Russia. "The Almighty provided us with such a powerful sense of dignity that we cannot tolerate the denial of our inalienable rights and freedoms, no matter what real or supposed benefits are provided by 'stable' authoritarian regimes," the president of Kyrgyzstan, Roza Otunbayeva, wrote this March. "It is the magic of people, young and old, men and women of different religions and political beliefs, who come together in city squares and announce that enough is enough."

I would submit that the United States is not immune to this. With the rise of the Tea Parties, a direct challenge to the current system is being made. A large number of people feel that the wheels are coming off of our society and that corruption feeds the growth of the government. Even discounting the vocal protesters, I’ve run into many of the apathetic middle who no longer trust the government to do anything right. This isn’t the “malaise” that Jimmy Carter spoke of around 35 years ago. Instead, it is a feeling of resigned resentment.

Technically, we have a system designed for easy change. Unfortunately, sprawling bureaucracy and Obama’s attempts at an imperial presidency have done too much damage to the system. The system of checks and balances between the branches of government have been compromised to the point of no return.

Nobody saw the fall of the Soviet Union coming until it happened. Are we ignoring the same signs in their infancy here? I wonder.

There is also the problem of revolutions rarely delivering on what was promised. They are glamorized by historians and the media, but tend to unleash the darkest aspects of the human soul with oppression and bloodletting being the end result. In Russia, Putin is poised to openly rule again as an elected dictator. Not exactly what was hoped for when the Soviet system was dismantled.

I can’t say if Aron is correct, but his ideas are very interesting to say the least. We need to be looking around and re-evaluating events like this to find lessons. While we always live in uncertain times, things seem to be more unstable than usual and I have the impression that the world is about to be plunged into great turmoil. Being a history buff, this is exciting but I can’t say I’m looking forward to it!

The Real Stealth Involves Politics with Japan’s ATD-X

Over at The Diplomat, David Axe has written an interesting article speculating on Japan’s stealth fighter project. Read the whole thing to get an idea of the aerial arms race going on in Asia – it is even bigger than the article makes out.  Even the smaller countries have been pouring money into advanced versions of older aircraft such as the F-15 Strike Eagle, F-16 two seat attack variants, and Su-30 multirole fighters.

But back to Japan’s stealth fighter. My belief is that it is a bargaining chip with the bonus of getting some good experience with cutting edge designs and materials. The F-2 was a fiasco of epic proportions and they just lost 18 of them to the tsunami earlier this year. It will be about $73 million to repair each one if they make that decision. You can buy a better brand new plane for that! So I really don’t see Japan building a new fighter on their own unless forced to by circumstances.

The F-35 Lightning II is the best fit for their multirole needs even if it will be produced later than they want. Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t go with an advanced F-15 Strike Eagle variant like South Korea and Singapore did. After all, Japan already flies their own variant of the Eagle, the F-15J Kai, for air superiority.

With all their economic problems, I think the ATD-X really is a stealthy bargaining chip to get better terms on F-35 production. Its size limitations render it useless for combat but it sure looks pretty and evokes national pride. The F-35 will be a match for the J-20 at worst and most likely superior to the Chinese fighter. Looks and aerodynamics tell only a part of the story on a modern warplane. Instead, the avionics, radar, and weapon systems fill most of the narrative – and cost.  There is where the Lightning II is going to be revolutionary. Once people see how the incredibly integrated sensors on the plane function in the real world, I predict they will be very surprised.

Meanwhile, it amuses me so many people quote Carlo Kopp. That just proves you don’t need to know anything to be considered an expert. Calling Australian Air Power a think tank is very generous indeed.

Health 6-24-2011

Time to stop complaining about writing these journal entries on health and just do them. While I’d toyed with the idea of a separate blog just for them, I’ve had enough trouble maintaining one blog as it is.

Yesterday whatever bug I have got worse and made straight for the chest. It has gotten to be an old pattern and one I’m well sick of. Figuratively speaking, though literally works of course.

Last night was a difficult one with coughing enhancing the experience delightfully. Sarcasm alert.

This morning, I can breathe a little easier and the small amount of wheezing seems to be gone. As usual, the right bronchial is the main culprit. It always goes bad first and if I can head things off by doing essentially nothing it can be contained there. So far, so good.

Looks like a sunny day out; wish I could enjoy it.