Exit strategy?
Bob Morris @ Oct 20th 2006 11:55 - Category: Unfiled ;
The Bush family has apparently just bought a 98,842 acre ranch in Paraguay.
HT: BlairWatch
Archive for October 20th, 2006
The kingdom is crumbling
Bob Morris @ Oct 20th 2006 00:25 - Category: Unfiled ;
It was Vietnam then, it’s Iraq and Afghanistan now.
And call out the border guard.
The kingdom is crumbling.
The king is in the counting house,
Laughing and stumbling.
His armies are extended,
Way beyond the shore.
As he sends our lovely boys to die
In a foreign jungle war.“Great American Eagle Tragedy” by Earth Opera, late 60’s.
King George the Insane now believes he spots a “possible” parallel between Vietnam and Iraq as the family consigliere says let’s get Iran and Syria to help the U.S. Right, those you’ve deemed to be enemies will frequently render assistance, you betcha. Meanwhile, in full flight from reality, The Fixer says everything will be coming up Republicans in the November elections. Is that why all the polls says the opposite? Those pollsters must be part of the gay commie freedom-hating Saddam-loving cabal FoxNews is always shrieking about.
The pretend opposition, instead of going for the jugular on the war, mouths tepid opposition. We need, they say, a better, stronger war and to “redeploy” troops - whatever that means, like it could help. There’s not enough troops now, shuffling them around won’t help any. When some come back in body bags, maimed or PTSD’ed, hey, it’s not the kids of anyone in Congress, now is it? Then they continue to vote for more torture and the gutting of basic rights.
Sure, if the Dems take one or both Houses, it’ll be good news. Just don’t expect them to end the war(s) or not start new ones. Unless events force them, that is, something which could and probably will happen.
Bush has blown up any goodwill the U.S. had worldwide. The war is forcing massive deficit spending and the collection man will be around soon enough demanding payment. The ruling class lives in an encased bubble, clueless of the real world.
Cracks are appearing everywhere. Their wars have proved disastrous for them. The kingdom is crumbling. It won’t last.
“Fall mountains / Just don’t fall on me.” - Jimi Hendrix.
Apple MacBook lockups
Bob Morris @ Oct 20th 2006 00:18 - Category: Unfiled ;
Maybe 1 out of 8 current MacBooks currently has a bizarre problem where they lock up randomly. Apple isn’t dealing with it either. (Unless you consider this to be an adequate response, that is.)
The highly respected Doc Searls says, Apple better deal with it, and quickly too, before mainstream media grabs the story and runs with it. He is advising people to look at Linux instead.
Indeed. I’d been playing with the idea of getting a MacBook but after this, will get a Linux laptop, probably from RCubed. They have multiple models and install and tweak quite a lot of extra stuff too. Here’s what they do for Ubuntu.
Is Linux geeky? Sure, but it’s is easy enough to use that most any Windows user can learn to use it quickly. For web browing and email, there is no difference (if you use FireFox and Thunderbird) and OpenOffice can do most anything Microsoft Office can, including reading Word and Excel files. The GIMP image editor is quite powerful and I’ve used it to tweak photos to post here. There’s lots of other programs like that too, plus no need to worry about spyware, viruses, and the other beasties that infest Windows.
It’s interesting using Ubuntu. On one hand it’s no different from Windows; browsing, email, all that works just the same. On the other hand, once you start digging in it, wow, there’s a wealth of stuff there. Does it take time to become a guru? Sure. But it does in Windows too. That doesn’t stop average users from getting stuff done. After using Ubuntu for several weeks now, I’ve decided it’s easier to use than Windows.
Plus it’s all free and all open source.
[tags]MacBook random shutdowns,Linux,Ubuntu[/tags]
Not sustainable
Bob Morris @ Oct 20th 2006 00:09 - Category: Unfiled ;
The homeowner default rate has doubled in California while the average apartment now rents for $1413 a month.
Workers get squeezed as owners get richer. Homes prices now are flat or falling, so a homeowner can’t bail out by selling the home, as it might take too long or the house isn’t worth enough. Most defaults and foreclosures are due to people losing their job or having health problems, compounded by mortgages with baby payments in the beginning that soon balloon into something way higher.
People should be able to live in affordable housing near where they work, but quite the opposite is happening now.
