Political Follies

Sometimes I wonder about the intelligence of humanity in general. But if there is one segment that has a disproportionate number of members who seem to be willing to do the stupidest thing possible in any given situation, it has to be politicians. They have gotten to be so much like the Hollywood/celebrity set in their peccadillos that they are indistinguishable -- except one group has control of our lives.

The latest wave of stupidity has hit both the Republican and Democratic parties. In Missouri, U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin said what has to be the most ill informed, if not mentally ill, statement about pregnancies and rape. Endorsed by Mike Huckabee and indirectly by his opponent, Claire McCaskill, the moron refuses to step aside even though it is obvious it cost him the election. By all accounts he was the weakest candidate, which is why McCaskill dropped over a million in ads calling him the most conservative candidate in a successful effort to influence the GOP primary.

Meanwhile, the state of Minnesota has produced yet another winner in State Representative Kerry Gauthier of Duluth. That moron was caught having oral sex with a seventeen year old boy at a rest stop. It was arranged through Craigslist so there is no doubt what was going on. His party leadership has called on him to go too.

It is said absolute power corrupts absolutely, but even a little power seems to do the trick for some. But it seems to lower the IQ as well. How can anyone be so stupid?

I have met intelligent and diligent elected officials and candidates many times, so this is not meant to tar and feather everyone involved in politics. It just seems more idiots have gotten involved and are having success in their endeavors. That is a scary concept and I hope I am simply being more aware of this kind of idiocy. If not, oh boy.

BTW, Joe Biden was not mentioned, simply because he is in a class by himself.

Another Blogger Referral Spammer: Pnarp

Yep, another one that has been around for awhile but keeps changing servers and countries. If you see any referrals from pnarp . com please do not click on them, there have been some reports of malware being automatically downloaded. Flicker users have also had problems with it in the past and other social media sites (Digg, Twitter, other blog services) have seen this joker show up too.

UPDATE 8-26-2012: 

Found another spammer, pregolom . com out of Russia. It does not appear to be related to pnarp, but it seems like there is a big uptick in referral spam lately.  It along with filmhill . com have been showing up in large numbers the past week.

Odd and Ends 8-20-2012

Despite Monday being the toughest day of the week for my health, I felt inspired to head to Winona, MN to get some ammo and maybe a cheapish phone. My eight year old Motorola cordless runs through replacement batteries at a faster clip than it used to, while acting strangely of late. At Amazon, I had wish listed a well reviewed AT&T corded and cordless DECT 6.0 combo, something I had never dreamed existed and perfect for rural life. But the price went up and I was reluctant to pull the trigger.

So it is much to my surprise that I have the AT&T phone charging at the moment in the living room while the corded base keeps watch in my room. It turns out they had a couple in stock at Mills Fleet Farm where I got my cheap Russian .223 ammo! Now I am penniless until my next Social Security check, but I am very relieved to have a working telephone. The extra range of the phone should be very helpful since the Samsung barely worked at the other end of the not very big house.

Why Tablets are Not the Future of Computing

Just a short post to relay the story of an Apple user who ran into an old man who does not like the company. Why? Because they are killing creativity by pushing iPads. I love his reasoning and even more that he has bona fides that cannot be looked down upon. While I love using my 7” Android based tablet as a glorified book reader, I do not approve of the bigger ones for the same reasons given by the old man.

The other moral to the story is that you can run into the most interesting people if you are willing to have conversations with strangers. So go read the story already!

Five Years Ago: The Rushford Flood

It is hard to believe that it has been so long since the August 18, 2007 flood that filled Rushford and the accompanying rains that heavily damaged much of Houston County. I just ate at The Creamery in Rushford and was explaining to a younger couple that the restaurant had been filled with four feet of water. Much of life has returned to normal in that small town, thankfully.

As part of my renovating the blog, I have been going back and properly tagging posts. This week happened to be the one assigned to that, so I have been looking at those posts and reliving what happened. I’ll let my words and photos from back then tell the story:

• The Flood Disaster of 2007
• A Wider Disaster
• A Town Drowned
• A Town Drowned Part Two
• A Town Drowned Part Three
• A Town Drowned – Photos, Part 1
• A Town Drowned – Photos, Part 2
• A Town Under Threat
• A Town Spared
• Hokah Hammered

Little did I know that less than a year later there would be more flooding locally and across the border in Wisconsin. Soldiers Grove took the hit during that one, but it was surreal to see such damage again is so short a time. There is nothing quite like the feeling of helplessness when faced with a natural disaster.

I really hope I never feel it again.

Squid Girl OVA Mini Episodes, Season 1

UPDATE September 4, 2018

More DMCA take downs have hit the blog despite screen captures long being considered fair use. Due to my not being able to afford a lawyer, I have no choice but to remove them or have the blog suspended. Only the words will be left.

TVTokyo is proving to be foolishly draconian in targeting posts meant to get people interested in seeing the Squid Girl anime and perhaps even purchasing it on DVD or Blu-ray. Being anti-piracy myself this is infuriating that they are targeting posts I wrote hoping to encourage people to try out a delightful show.

Having struck pay dirt with the appearance of Mini-Squid Girl in episode five, the crew behind the show decided to make a couple of shorts that were bundled with the Blu-rays released in Japan. Over four minutes of concentrated cuteness  contained in each will leave you smiling.

OVA 1

When Eiko goes off to school, her pet Mini-Squid Girl plans to get some extra sleep. To her deep surprise, another version of her is already sleeping in her bed! We will call her Dark Mini-Squid Girl, for her clothing and cap are black instead of white.

Apparently evil, the mirror images end up fighting very quickly with the interloper having the upper hand.

The animators make full use of the small girls interacting with a world of giant items. Who knew a remote control truck could be so terrifying?

Eventually the fight goes too far and a dangerous situation develops.

OVA 2

Shimmering waves of heat rise from the desert sand while Mini-Ika trudges along. The smell of shrimp cooking gets her attention and we find it was the beach, not the Sahara.

A tiny creature, Mini-Squid Girl finds herself in constant peril while trying to obtain that delicious shrimp. Many are the terrors she braves in her quest for crustacean.

Then the ultimate boss appears and she is a terrifying foe indeed. It will require divine intervention to save Mini-Ika!

Thoughts

The two direct to video mini episodes are incredibly cute and recall the best shorts put out by Disney and Warner Brothers during the mid-20th Century. For some reason, cartoons do a better job at depicting small people dealing with giants than any other format. Each episode is a delight, with the second being funnier and the first more charming.

Little kids would absolutely love these videos. Adults will find them amusing and oh so cute.

One technical comment and it has to do with a spelling error on the DVD menu – episodes is spelled “EPISDES”!

Trust

A post in which I ramble about trust, lies, and forgiveness.

Inspired by a post by Hanny, I have been pondering the topic of trust for the past day. While he writes about his personal issues with trust, the decline of trust in our society is what has dominated my thinking. There have been two eras in my life where trust has disintegrated within our society with the first being the Watergate fallout. The second is harder for me to figure out when it started and for good reason. I will get back to that in a bit.

It would be good for me to write a disclaimer of sorts.

A year and half ago, I went through a pain therapy course involving meditation to relieve chronic pain. In order to join the course, I had to take the multiphasic personality test that professionals belief reveal all about you. According to it, I trust too easily.

Anybody who knows me in any kind of depth knows I do not trust people one whit. My favorite mental phrase is “I don’t trust them any further than I can shoot them.” Seriously, I am not joking. When I was very young, I was trusting. It was interactions with other humans that completely destroyed that. Betrayal is something I learned about early and repeatedly.