Pious Agnostic

The message here is....

...they're taking over, so get on their side early.

posted at 6:45 PM Feb 8, 2010 by Rob Ritchie

Thanks a lot, dip-shit.

posted at 8:45 PM Jan 24, 2010 by Rob Ritchie

Jeeze, he's just not that into you....

posted at 9:14 PM Jan 23, 2010 by Rob Ritchie

Fact: Conservatives have been saying for 8 years that the McCain-Feingold “Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002" was unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.

Fact: This week, the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that the McCain-Feingold “Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002? was unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.

Fact: Democrats / Liberals / Leftists from Obama on down are screaming bloody murder.

posted at 10:36 AM Jan 23, 2010 by Rob Ritchie

Glenn Reynolds links to this Conrad Black post about Obama, and quotes:

He is increasingly perceived as having credibility problems and of being cold, cocksure, narcissistic and intoxicated by what he modestly called ‘the gift’ of his own articulation. And as president, he has been quite, and quite surprisingly, incompetent. . . . It has been a year of fecklessness, amateurism, and posturing. Less that is useful has been accomplished by this president in his first year than by any president since Herbert Hoover.

See, here's the thing: this comes as no surprise to me, nor to most people who voted against him in '08. This characterization is exactly what I perceived and is one reason I didn't vote for him.

I wonder if any people who didn't see it before are seeing it now.

posted at 10:20 AM Jan 23, 2010 by Rob Ritchie

Mark Steyn: Obama can't say who we're at war with

The election of Barack Obama was a fundamentally unserious act by the U.S. electorate, and you can't blame the world's mischief-makers, from Putin to Ahmadinejad to the many Gitmo recidivists now running around Yemen, from drawing the correct conclusion.

Regardless of his successes or failures, Obama will enter history like FDR: those who loved him can see no wrong, and those who didn't can see no right.

posted at 11:00 AM Jan 10, 2010 by Rob Ritchie

Where are the WMD's?

Interesting.

Recently neutered Christmas panty-bomber has been indicted:

A six-count indictment handed down Wednesday charges Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder and other charges.

Six counts, huh? That seems like a lot, so like liberal critics of Bush's reasons to go to war against Iraq, I think I'll just ignore five of them and concentrate on WMDs.

If the investigation doesn't find fully-staffed and funded WMD labs and turn-key delivery systems in Abdulmutallab's underwear, then the entire case will fail and I'll have to march in the streets proclaiming his innocence.

posted at 10:03 AM Jan 9, 2010 by Rob Ritchie

Slightly On The Grid

Oh, I'm back, but there are still about 1,145 things I still need to install on my home computer before it's fully functional. And I'd do it, too, except I keep getting distracted by things, like this perfect example of the lawyers art:

[Yansane's] attorney said “[o]ther people could have had access to the apartment, so maybe if a rocket launcher was located there, as is stated in the offense report, maybe it belonged to somebody else.”

Love it! Lawyer dude knows full well that the rocket-launcher belongs to his client. Hey, I should have tried this when I was a kid.

"Mom, other people might have access to my underwear drawer, so maybe if the stack of Playboys you mention really was found under my tighty-whities, then they were placed there by somebody else."

Nah, Mom would have seen through that in a second.

posted at 9:48 AM Jan 3, 2010 by Rob Ritchie

Slightly Off The Grid

Grrrr.....

I was loading Vista SP 2 on my home computer, and it crashed. Hard. As in, it's become a brick and not a computer.

So, I'm busy climbing back out of this hole, reinstalling the OS and everything else.

I really, really hate this.

posted at 2:08 PM Dec 29, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

posted at 10:48 AM Dec 24, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Mark Steyn sums up Copenhagenmas.

posted at 8:55 AM Dec 20, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

The Known Universe

Simply amazing....

posted at 4:26 PM Dec 19, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Evil both personal and industrial: Why One Auschwitz Survivor Avoided Doctors for 65 Years

posted at 4:19 PM Dec 11, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Steven Den Beste writes about Government by Wishful Thinking.

It's well worth reading.

posted at 4:39 PM Dec 7, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

More on Climategate

I admire expertise, and scientific expertise especially; like any intelligent citizen I am willing to defer to it. But that puts a great obligation on science. The people whose instinct is to respect and admire science should be the ones most disturbed by these revelations. The scientists have let them down, and made the anti-science crowd look wise. That is outrageous.

posted at 6:04 PM Nov 30, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

This is absolutely correct.

No One Peer-Reviews Scientific Software

Just about everyone in business has had the experience of having to puzzle out a spreadsheet created by someone else who left the company unexpectedly. Although we seldom think of them this way, in reality each individual spreadsheet is a custom piece of computer software written in language of the spreadsheet program. (Technically, all spreadsheets are scripts.) Everybody else knows that you can’t trust the output of a spreadsheet just because the person who made it tells you, “It’s done in Excel.” To trust the output, you either have to compare it against known good data or you have to look at the individual spreadsheet itself to find any places it might go wrong. People create very complex spreadsheets and then leave and some poor schmuck gets stuck trying to figure out what the %$#@! the creator of the spreadsheet was trying to do.

Custom-written scientific programs are much, much larger and much, much more complex than any spreadsheet. It would take a huge amount of time for a peer reviewer to go through the code line by line to see if the software had any faults. Normally, peer reviewers work for only a token payment and they work in isolation. They don’t have the time or resources to actually check out a complex piece of software. Further, there is no guarantee that a peer reviewer in a particular field is competent to judge software. That is like assuming that a biologist who understands everything about the Humboldt squid can also rebuild any automotive transmission.

posted at 11:18 AM Nov 30, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Any Way the Wind Blows....

posted at 7:56 PM Nov 24, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Wow, all those doubts about the legitimacy of the Global Warming science have been settled: it's a hoax!

The Fix is In

The picture that emerges is simple. In any discussion of global warming, either in the scientific literature or in the mainstream media, the outcome is always predetermined. Just as the temperature graphs produced by the CRU are always tricked out to show an upward-sloping "hockey stick," every discussion of global warming has to show that it is occurring and that humans are responsible. And any data or any scientific paper that tends to disprove that conclusion is smeared as "unscientific" precisely because it threatens the established dogma.

posted at 10:07 AM Nov 24, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

It Wasn’t a “Tragedy”

If a bus had hit a patch of ice and skidded off a highway, resulting in the death of 13 people and injuries to dozens more, that would have been a “tragedy” as the term was once commonly understood.

But when a member of the enemy, even after revealing unmistakably his sympathies with those forces with which our nation is now at war, is allowed to infiltrate the Army and then use his position of trust as a means to murder unarmed soldiers, that is most emphatically not a tragedy.

That is malevolence on the part of the murderer and incompetence on the part of those who allowed it to occur.

posted at 5:34 PM Nov 10, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Adam Baldwin ("Jayne") beats up on Liberal sock puppets here.

posted at 2:05 PM Nov 9, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

At least he didn't go to war against his own nation....

posted at 9:13 AM Nov 8, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Heh...

posted at 3:30 PM Nov 1, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Halloween 2009

We had our annual Halloween party last night, and it was a blast. I've posted some pictures here.

Didn't get one of me and Mrs. Agnostic, though. When one surfaces, I'll post it.

Update: Here's a picture of our scary crew.

posted at 12:56 PM Nov 1, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Amateurishness, Wrapped in Naivete, Inside Credulity

Charles Krauthammer

posted at 4:26 PM Oct 16, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Darwin never raised my taxes!

My central argument is that there is no crisis. Certainly nothing which would justify the massive government intrusions which are being demanded by a political consensus which masquerades as "science." Furthermore, I am against government solutions to "crises" -- whether the crises are real or not.

Whether people agree with me or not, how does my position in any way "look and work so much like" an argument against evolution?

Has Darwinian theory (natural selection, and gradual species changes that accompany survival of the fittest over time) ever been posited as a "crisis" which requires a massive government response? While it is true that Nazis and Marxists have attempted to invoke Darwin as justification for their discredited theories, this was pure demagoguery, and there's nothing in evolutionary theory which posits the need for the state to force evolution upon people by doing something. The idea that evolution is an urgent problem that needs solving right now is absurd on its face. I suppose that because the power to tax is the power to destroy, one could argue that the strong will tax the weak to death, but that's hardly an argument in favor of high taxes.

I see no resemblance at all between evolution and global warming, and I resent the attempted linkage.

Sheesh.

Sheesh, indeed. Read the rest.

posted at 8:48 PM Oct 14, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Happy Sunday!

Pious Gratitude to wRitErsbLock

posted at 9:43 AM Oct 11, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Classical Values is talking about banking deregulation.

So, what made these stuffy uptight guys decide they could get away with ditching the old uptight unfair standards that said (among other things) that some people are more worthy of getting loans than others?

The answer, as most of us know, is the government. It wasn't as if these guys just stripped off their pinstripes and dove into the economic orgy room; they did something that's really perfectly in character for stuffy uptight guys -- they did as they were told. And they were told not to ever under any circumstances do anything that might in any way be interpreted by anyone at ACORN to have so much as a smidgen of an appearance of anything resembling discrimination. (A word denoting pure, unmitigated evil.)

Denounced as racist. Move on.

posted at 1:51 PM Oct 7, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

posted at 8:11 PM Sep 27, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

In light of his arrest, it might be useful to remember that Roman Polanski raped a little girl:

In the girl's grand jury testimony, which is slightly sickening to read, she also said that she had repeatedly told Polanski no, but that she was too afraid of him to resist.

I don't care how old he is, or how long ago this occurred. I don't care if he's the most talented director every to lift a camera.

His behavior was indefensible.

posted at 4:05 PM Sep 27, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

The difference between a moral and a legal choice.

posted at 8:20 PM Sep 26, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

PC Lady

I swear, none of my sisters are like this person. None of them.

posted at 7:36 PM Sep 25, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Damn right!

If a year later we still can’t correct the record about a simple factual statement Sarah Palin made about the geographic location of her home state, how the hell can the truth win any argument?!

posted at 5:17 PM Sep 24, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Cheap Laughs by Christopher Hitchens

posted at 9:57 AM Sep 20, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

A terrific post over at Patterico's by Karl:

Our paranoid, race-baiting media

Facts, figures, and rigorous logic: three things the Left cannot abide.

posted at 9:13 AM Sep 19, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

posted at 8:53 AM Sep 19, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

MISSOURAH.com's Obama Criticism Flow Chart

Pious gratitude to: Power Line

posted at 8:38 AM Sep 19, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Awkard Family Photos

Click and enjoy.

posted at 8:06 AM Sep 19, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Cool NASA Simulation

Found at High Powered Rocketry blog

posted at 7:40 PM Sep 17, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

A Ring of Truth(ers)

Johah Goldberg writes on two conspiracy theories, and opines:

Politicians lie to advance their careers. You can look it up.

posted at 1:54 PM Sep 11, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Hear, hear!

Treatment of Alan Turing was “appalling” - PM

The Prime Minister has released a statement on the Second World War code-breaker, Alan Turing, recognising the “appalling” way he was treated for being gay.

Alan Turing, a mathematician most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes, was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ in 1952 and sentenced to chemical castration.

Turing was also a founder of Computer Science and a hero to many of us. He was treated shamefully by the small-minded bigots of his day.

The PM's statement includes this:

While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted under homophobic laws were treated terribly.

Hear, hear.

posted at 7:46 PM Sep 10, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

No American Should Have to Choose Between Health Insurance and Getting Drunk

posted at 1:18 PM Sep 10, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

I am no longer going to describe Van Jones as a "communist."

Instead, I'm describing him as a member of a group dedicated to the destruction of the American Constitutional government.

He may be a Nazi, I'm not sure.

All those authoritarian, mechanized collectivists are the same.

posted at 8:10 PM Sep 8, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Krauthammer on Obama, the Mortal:

After a disastrous summer -- mistaking his mandate, believing his press, centralizing power, governing left, disdaining citizens for (of all things) organizing -- Obama is in trouble.

Let's be clear: This is a fall, not a collapse. He's not been repudiated or even defeated. He will likely regroup and pass some version of health insurance reform that will restore some of his clout and popularity.

But what has occurred -- irreversibly -- is this: He's become ordinary. The spell is broken. The charismatic conjurer of 2008 has shed his magic. He's regressed to the mean, tellingly expressed in poll numbers hovering at 50 percent.

For a man who only recently bred a cult, ordinariness is a great burden, and for his acolytes, a crushing disappointment.

My heart bleeds.

posted at 10:15 AM Sep 4, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Beautiful!

Thanks to AM

posted at 8:30 PM Sep 1, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Camille Paglia teeters on the verge of a clue about Obama

posted at 7:05 PM Aug 13, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

A terrific column:

The Gates Arrest: Sgt. Crowley’s Nightmare Is All Too Real

The first question to be asked about Sgt. Crowley’s initial response is, was it lawful and reasonable? Clearly it was both. A cornerstone U.S. Supreme Court decision, Terry v. Ohio, held that an officer may stop and detain a person he reasonably believes to be involved in criminal activity. Here, Sgt. Crowley answered a citizen’s report of a possible burglary. Such reports are granted a presumption of reliability under the law, so Sgt. Crowley was on solid ground in approaching the home and, upon seeing a man inside who matched the description provided by the witness, asking him for his identification. A police officer responding to such a report must, for his own safety, assume the report to be accurate until he can satisfy himself that it isn’t. The cop who blithely handles every call assuming it to be a false alarm will likely not survive to handle many of them. In fact, many police officers faced with the identical facts would likely have ordered Henry Gates out of the home at gunpoint.

Sgt. Crowley did not go so far as that (imagine the furor if he had), but he exercised a measure of caution by following Gates into the home as Gates retrieved his identification. Gates insists Crowley needed a warrant to enter the home but he is mistaken, as even the most liberal judge would find that Crowley was faced with sufficiently exigent circumstances, viz. a possible burglar who may have attempted to arm himself or flee, to justify a warrantless entry.

Mr. Gates, who admits he asked his limo driver to force open a stuck door, is surely accustomed to a certain amount of bowing and scraping in the circles in which he travels, and it must have come as a shock when he was surprised by a cop who neither knew nor cared that he occupied such an exalted position. He apparently never stopped to consider that he and his driver may have been seen by someone who would misinterpret their actions and report them to the police. No, to Mr. Gates the first and only explanation for the sudden appearance of a white police officer at his doorstep was that the cops had come to hassle him because he’s black.

Read the whole thing.

posted at 4:38 PM Jul 25, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

I've said it before; for me, she runs hot and cold. When Ann's hot, though, she's also right:

DEMS TO GOP NOMINEES: WILL THE DEFENDANT PLEASE RISE?

posted at 7:57 AM Jul 18, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

An amazing column by Dr. Zero over at Hot Air:

A Seemingly Very Nice Middle-Class Girl

Peggy Noonan used her Friday column in the Wall Street Journal to throw some dirt on Sarah Palin’s grave. It’s vintage Noonan: airheaded, dripping with condescension, and completely missing the point. No serious conservative needs to hear anything from Noonan except her groveling apology for being so horribly wrong about Barack Obama, who she energetically supported for president. However, it’s worth picking through the flotsam and jetsam of this embarrassing column, to appreciate the kind of intellectual fat that conservatives need to trim from the Republican Party.

"Worth it" indeed. Read the whole thing, but be careful following the links.

posted at 12:15 PM Jul 11, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

The story here.

posted at 5:25 PM Jul 8, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Lunchblogging

Pan-seared tuna salad with sesame dressing.

Update: I removed the picture because it was making me sick to my stomach!

posted at 1:04 PM Jul 3, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

posted at 4:59 PM Jun 20, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

It's sad because it's true:

Why I Walked Out of ‘Year One’ Crying

posted at 4:57 PM Jun 20, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Rethinking Autism

posted at 2:35 PM Jun 20, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Here's an awesome video of a young Belgian soccer player being revived by his implantable cardiac defibrillator:

Dr Wes writes:

In this video, Van Loo is seen walking from the field and then collapsing at 7 seconds, his legs are seen twitching at 15 seconds as his automatic defibrillator fires to restore his heart rhythm to normal, and then by 21 seconds after the event he regains conciousness and sits up....

Despite all of the press out there, this is NOT a heart attack, but rather the result of a life-threatenting heart rhythm disorder like ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. In young people, the cause of these life-threatening arrhythmias include right ventricular dysplasia, catecholamine-induced ventricular tachycardia, idiopathic cardiomyopathy, and long QT syndrome (to name just a few). At maximum output, a defibrillator can deliver about 830 volts in a tenth of a second to restore the heart rhythm back to normal.

This is quite different from my complaint, which is Atrial fibrillation

posted at 7:13 PM Jun 13, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

US museum shooter son slams father's 'cowardice'

"I cannot express enough how deeply sorry I am it was Mr Johns, and not my father who lost their life," the shooter's Florida-based son said.

You know, you've got to be a pretty rotten guy to have your son say this about you in a prepared statement.

"For the extremists who believe my father is a hero: it is imperative you understand what he did was an act of cowardice," he said.

"To physically force your beliefs onto others with violence is not brave, but bullying. Doing so only serves to prove how weak those beliefs are. It is simply desperation, reminiscent of a temper tantrum when a child cannot get his way."

posted at 4:01 PM Jun 13, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Maura Flynn lays out The Republican Case for Gay Marriage

Read it, even if you don't agree with it.

posted at 7:50 PM Jun 11, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

The National Debt Road Trip

Hat tip: mkhammer

posted at 3:15 PM Jun 9, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Obamanation

Cool! A girl I knew in college got an opinion piece published.

Give it a read.

posted at 3:05 PM Jun 9, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

If Dick Cheney really were Darth Vader

posted at 6:24 PM Jun 2, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Charles Johnson writes:

The Republican Party invariably chooses to vote against science, and in favor of atavism and young earth creationism — not just in Texas, either. What a sad state of affairs; it’s one reason why the GOP continues to lose elections, and is hemorrhaging voters.

He's right. I wish he wasn't.

posted at 4:47 PM May 29, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

She just wanted to make it snow

My heart goes out to this poor girl, she's so upset and hysterical. Unfortunately, she's also hysterically funny. NSFW language at end:

posted at 2:45 PM May 26, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Harnessing science to create the ultimate warrior

Cool!

posted at 8:15 AM May 25, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Liberals Love to Lose

When liberals lose, it enables them to feel more superior than they naturally feel. It affords them the opportunity to bitch about injustice and unfairness.

When they win, hell, it was a fair fight. They never, while basking in the glow of a victory, say, “Whew. Thank God the unfairness worked out in our favor this time!” or “The voting machines finally worked!”

posted at 5:21 PM May 23, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Heh: MY OVERWEIGHT GUINEA PIG HAS SORE FEET

posted at 4:33 PM May 16, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Mark Steyn has a good one: Fun with Dick and Nancy

posted at 3:52 PM May 16, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Orlando Scooter Rally

This morning, I participated in a Scooter Rally, which was a lot of fun. Here's some video I took of the assembled scooters before we started:

posted at 2:20 PM May 16, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Beard of Bees

posted at 7:15 PM May 15, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

XLR8 SolarCycle

If it seems like I only blog from the bar these days, it's probably true because that's where you meet the most interesting folks.

Like Larry Wexler, the creator of the XLR8 SolarCycle, a solar powered car entered in the Progressive Automotive XPrize.

Update: Interestingly, Instapundit has a story about an XPrize entrant as well.

posted at 5:30 PM May 14, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Goodbye, Krystal

Krystal has been a bartender at Orlando Brewing for two-and-a-half-years, and she's moving to Tennessee next week. Our loss is Nashville's gain.

posted at 4:26 PM May 8, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Funny!

posted at 8:59 PM May 5, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

The Sensuous Curmudgeon has penned an Open Letter to the Republican Party, that I hope they will read, consider, and take to heart.

Because I agree with every word, including these:

If a politician’s principal issues are sex and religion, and he wants to campaign with a bible in one hand and his carnal concerns in the other, that’s his choice; but he should know that this approach — although thrilling to a vocal faction of the party — isn’t attractive to a broad majority of the population. If you feel that you must campaign on those issues, please do it as a member of the other party. In most parts of the country you’re going to lose either way, but you’ll still feel good, and at least you won’t be hurting us.

Pious gratitude to: LGF

posted at 8:29 PM May 5, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

This looks cool!

Premiers May 3rd, 2008 (tomorrow!)

Related:

posted at 4:10 PM May 2, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Geeky fun

OCPS board member Nancy Robbinson calls out Kat Gordon for unseemly behavior at school closings meeting

Nancy Robbinson acknowledged that the April 15 rule development session committee on school closures was tough for everyone, but she did not agree with Kat Gordon's lecture to the community.

She asked for a workshop to review the board's ethics and civility codes.

"It is tough and uncomfortable" to listen to some of the comments at high-profile meetings, Robbinson said. "I do not agree with responding in kind."

She said she was worried Gordon violated ethics or civility codes, and she wanted to be sure everyone reviewed them.

Gordon's opinion, she said, is not the board's opinion.

Gordon stood her ground.

"I am not going to shuffle my feet, bow my head... I am going to speak up," she said. Gordon added that her community feels she had a right to say what she said -- about the hurts of past racism and other issues, including the behavior of teachers who attended the meeting.

It was the audience, not Gordon, who was abusive, Gordon said.

"I am not up here to be stepped on. I refuse to be stepped on," she said.

And she placed the blame squarely on Chairwoman Joie Cadle's shoulders.

"I feel it should have been stopped," she said about the "abusive" comments coming from the public and teachers at the meeting.

Cadle agreed to hold a workshop. She also agreed with Gordon's request to read a conduct or civility code before any of those types of emotionally charged meetings are held.

This is what they're talking about:

posted at 7:44 AM Apr 30, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

TOTUS Blinks (again)

posted at 3:01 PM Apr 28, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Swine Flu Questionnaire

As you have been hearing in the news, 40 cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been reported in the U.S. Five states are currently affected, including California, Kansas, New York, Ohio and Texas. Human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection also have been identified internationally.

In order to better judge the likelihood of an outbreak of swine influenza A (H1N1), the following questionnaire has been developed to identify specific risk factors that may contribute to an emergency situation. Please consider each question carefully and answer as fully as you are able.

1. Have you, an immediate family member, or any intimate friend or acquaintance within the last two weeks engaged in any travel that included Mexico either as a destination or transit hub?
2. Have you, an immediate family member, or any intimate friend or acquaintance experienced any flu or flu-like symptoms (including but not limited to fever, cough, sore throat, headache, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea)?
3. Have you eaten any roasted, barbequed or smoked pork products that were raw, undercooked, or otherwise less than well done within the last month?
4. Have you, a spouse or significant other visited a farm or petting zoo for sexual purposes within the last two weeks?
5. Do you, an immediate family member or any intimate friend consider swine flu to be kosher and/or halal?
6. Do you hope to kiss a pig if you answered any of these questions untruthfully?

posted at 2:43 PM Apr 28, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

This post stolen virtually in it's entirety from LGF:

Charles write:

Artist Peter Funch creates mind-bending images by setting up his camera in one spot, shooting pictures for several days at a time, then using Photoshop to blend the separate photographs in thematic ways...

The results are really quite amazing!

posted at 10:47 AM Apr 26, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Michael Goldfarb asks a good question:

I wonder why the same people squealing about the alleged moral indignity to which these monsters were subjected are the same people who want the government to keep morality out of their bedrooms and doctors' offices. Why should the government be forbidden from making a moral judgment about gay marriage or abortion but compelled to make a moral judgment about the treatment of terrorists plotting to murder Americans citizens?

posted at 7:26 AM Apr 24, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

A sign of the times....

Picture taken with my new Blackberry Pearl

posted at 2:58 PM Apr 18, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

Here's something I've know for a while now: Nasal Irrigation Can Ease Allergy Symptoms

Pollen forecasters are predicting a heavy season this year, so allergy sufferers may be struggling to find relief.

For some, the neti pot, a nasal irrigator that resembles a small teapot, has become an alternative remedy. While it is not nearly as convenient as popping a pill or using a spray, several recent studies have found that nasal irrigation can reduce symptoms of allergies and other nasal problems.

One benefit is that irrigation can clear nasal passages without dryness or “rebound” congestion, which occurs when overuse of decongestants leads to dependence and irritated tissue.

Since my sinus surgery in 2007, I've found my neti very helpful.

posted at 7:46 AM Apr 17, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Happy Tax Day, everyone!

posted at 12:33 PM Apr 15, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

OK, this is pretty cool! Meet Rovio

posted at 7:06 PM Apr 9, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

posted at 6:31 AM Apr 9, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Do Ray Me!

Pious gratitude to: The Great One

posted at 6:26 PM Mar 31, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Celebrate Human Achievement Hour

posted at 5:31 PM Mar 28, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

There's rejoicing in Heaven

Anti-Evolution Bill Still A Fruitless Exercise

A bill aimed at undercutting acceptance of evolution in Florida science classes, which kicked up a fuss but didn't pass in the Florida Legislature last year, apparently is going nowhere this year.

A Senate version of the bill has yet to receive a committee hearing and has no companion bill in the House.

That means, said one proponent of the idea, that the bill has little chance of passage in this frantic session, heavily devoted to cutting and balancing the state budget.

"With no companion in the House, it doesn't have much likelihood," said Rep. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla.

Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, filed the bill in the Senate in late February. It would require that public schools "teach a thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution" in science classes.

Thank God. We don't need to waste everybody's time promoting a particular religious view in the Florida Public Schools.

I'll say it again: Republicans, drop this shit right now. It's a non-starter.

And frankly, I don't like you promoting your religion at the expense of my religion....And I don't mean Darwinism.

Pious gratitude to: LGF

posted at 5:10 PM Mar 28, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Lunchblogging!

All-You-Can-Eat Fishfry at Julie's Waterfront

posted at 12:47 PM Mar 27, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

MSNBC reporter finds way to mix business with pleasure.

"Hey baby, lean down here and answer a couple questions, OK?"

posted at 3:26 PM Mar 23, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

When I was at the Orlando Tea Party last Saturday, I saw a couple of 9/11 "Truthers" who were trying to stir-up their own brand of crazy. Wish I'd had a mobile link to this: 15 Questions for Truthers

posted at 11:32 AM Mar 23, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

The Republican Party's Big 'But'

Via LGF, I find Ringo the Gringo's account of his visit to a newly-purposed dinosaur attraction:

The Lion, The Lamb, and The Velociraptor

I didn't drag my family all the way out here simply to poke fun at a goofy, creationist roadside attraction. In fact the people who were working at this place were sincerely nice folks. It was also not my intent to ridicule their religion. But still I felt compelled to photograph this place and share the pictures on my website. Why?

The reason is that there are those who would have this type of "creation science" taught in American public schools as part of the science curriculum… And most of the people pushing for this are members of the Republican Party; the party of which I am a member.

States such as Texas and Louisiana have already passed legislation which would allow this type on nonsense to be introduced in to publicly funded schools and promoted as valid "science", equal to legitimate scientific theories regarding, not only evolution, but also geology, biology, astronomy and even archeology! To me this is beyond embarrassing, it’s a travesty.

The governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, who was selected to give the Republican rebuttal to President Obama's recent speech before Congress, is a strong proponent of introducing this kind of phony science in public schools. He is also often referred to as "the future of the Republican Party"… Well, if Jindal really is the future of the Party, then it’ll have to be a Party without me.

Without me either. Get it together, Pubbies.

posted at 8:46 AM Mar 23, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what an Instalanche looks like:

I'm spent.

posted at 7:27 PM Mar 21, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Orlando Tea Party!

I just got back from the Orlando Tea Party in downtown Eola Park. Really good turn-out, several thousand people probably but it's hard to tell.

I'll have more pictures later....wait for it!

Update:  OK, the pictures are uploaded. Click here!

Update 2:  Hey! I've been Instalanched! Thanks for the link, Perfesser!

posted at 2:12 PM Mar 21, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Obamanation

Orlando Tea Party Today!

posted at 9:53 AM Mar 21, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Obamanation

Lent-blogging!

Today, we went to Five Guys for lunch before an offsite meeting.

On a Friday in Lent, I was sorely tempted, but I had one of their Grilled Cheese, and it was pretty good.

Not as good as their burgers, but not much is.

posted at 1:45 PM Mar 20, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

Lunchblogging!

Beef & Cheese Sandwich Special, Beefy King, Orlando, Florida

posted at 1:04 PM Mar 18, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

Is Obama incompetent?

Frankly, I doubt that he and his gang of socialist toadies is any more incompetent than any other Democratic Senator with no meaningful executive experience. On the other hand, you could probably fill a sock with cat shit and fling it into a Green Day concert and smack somebody who could do a better job.

Sure, our investments are losing value faster than any time in recorded history, and the Obama State Department can't even keep friggin' England happy with some fish-and-chips. Also, it appears that he picks his cabinet by going through a book of mugshots and choosing the ones with the least-noticeable tattoos.

OK, maybe he is exactly as incompetent as we feared he would be. Maybe his room-temperature IQ is fouling the gears of government to an extent that our little 10-speed is going to lose its chain.

What concerns me is that the loving, tolerant and profoundly racist Left of this country are going to sadly shake their heads, lower their expectations, move their goalposts and promote him socially to the next grade without ever examining why Obammy can't read.

And if they do that, they'll set back the cause of African-Amricans by twenty years.

Their first will be our last, and that would be sad. Because there are African-Americans who better deserve to be in the office than Barack H. Obama. And I think he's ruining the place for all of us.

posted at 6:28 PM Mar 16, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Obamanation

I'm Bad

I missed the last night shuttle launch. I am so bummed.

I just went outside and snapped this picture, which shows the last rays of the sun on the shuttle smoke trail:

As I said, I'm bummed I missed it.

posted at 7:58 PM Mar 15, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

So, while I was wasting my time looking at antique books, they were having a massive Tea Party in Cincinnati:

Is that my brother I see in that massive crowd?

Next week: Orlando!

posted at 7:14 PM Mar 15, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Antiquarian Book Fair 2009

It's March, and that means books in our area: specifically, the Antiquarian Book Fair in St. Pete, where booksellers from all over the country come and display their wares.

We set out, and along the way I snapped a picture out the driver's side window:

Not a good picture, I know, but it's not easy to get a picture of the Airstream Ranch

Next, through Tampa and on towards the Tampa Bay bridge:

Finally, on to the Coliseum to the book Fair.

posted at 4:59 PM Mar 15, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

posted at 3:20 PM Mar 14, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Rorschach Doesn't Shrug

The Watchmen's hero as Objectivist saint

posted at 10:14 AM Mar 8, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

"A prayer wouldn't hurt."

posted at 4:53 PM Mar 7, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Out and About

posted at 4:25 PM Mar 7, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

My Fellow Conservatives, Let’s Be Bad Guys!

A few years back, television writer/producer/director/visionary Joss Whedon made a little libertarian-themed science fiction movie called Serenity. In it, our ragtag band of heroes make their way around the ‘verse by trading freely when they can and by stealing from the corrupt, oppressive central government when they must. Before launching a minor raid on a government stash of ill-gotten gold, Jayne, the hired muscle (played with an endearingly ignorant malice by Adam Baldwin), cocks his shotgun menacingly — is there any other way? — and suggests, “Let’s be bad guys.”

Yes. Exactly. Let’s.

posted at 10:03 AM Mar 7, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

I don't link to Ann Coulter very much since she came out with Godless and supported the teaching of Intelligent Design.

But, fair is fair, and funny is funny:

Fortunately, we have Keith Olbermann to point out that Rush Limbaugh did not accurately quote the preamble to the Constitution in his CPAC speech last weekend. I'm not sure what scam Olbermann imagined Rush was trying to put over on the American people by saying conservatives believed in the "preamble to the Constitution" and then quoting words from the Declaration of Independence -- but Olbermann put an end to that cruel deception!

These small-time opportunities to show off by correcting someone else's teeny-tiny mistakes are the lifeblood of Olbermann's MSNBC show, "Countdown." Olbermann is no more capable of not correcting Rep. Charlie Rangel when he said "inferred," but meant "implied," than an obsessive compulsive could pass a sink without washing his hands.

There is utterly no purpose to these lame "gotchas," except that Olbermann is so desperately insecure that he is willing to waste valuable airtime in order to convince other status-conscious idiots that he is, like, scary-smart.

Olbermann relentlessly attacked low-level Bush administration employee Monica Goodling for not going to a name-dropping college, saying -- approximately 1 million times -- that she got her law degree "by sending 100 box tops to Religious Lunatic University."

I would venture to say that the students at Goodling's law school at Regent University are far more impressive than those at the Cornell agriculture school -- the land-grant, non-Ivy League school Keith attended.

I wouldn't mention it, except that Olbermann savages anyone who didn't go to an impressive college. As it happens, he didn't go to an impressive college, either.

No? Read the rest.

Tweet tip: Jim Treacher

posted at 11:39 AM Mar 5, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Ombudsmen

I was a big fan of the Watchmen comics when they came out in the 80s, and I am excited to see the movie tomorrow night.

PVP has been doing a very funny spoof called "Ombudsmen".

Start here.

(I should point out that it will make no sense if you haven't read the book or seen the movie.)

posted at 8:46 AM Mar 5, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Fearful Symmetry

posted at 12:34 PM Feb 28, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Photojournal

More of this, please...

U.S. pulling out of racism conference

White House aides told Jewish leaders on a conference call today that the United States will boycott the United Nations' World Conference on Racism over hostility to Israel in draft documents prepared for the April conference.

The aides, including an advisor to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, Jennifer Simon, and longtime Obama advisor Samantha Power, said the administration will not participate in further negotiations on the current text or participate in a conference based on the text, sources on the call said.

As Charles Johnson comments, this is good news. It also marks a path in foreign policy I would love to see followed by the Obama Administration.

posted at 9:50 AM Feb 28, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Aw---wait for it!

---SOME!

posted at 9:08 PM Feb 26, 2009 by Rob Ritchie

Interior Decision on Oil Shale Locks Away American Energy Resource Larger than Total Reserves of Middle East

Earlier this week, Secretary Salazar suggested America’s massive and homegrown reserves of oil shale held ‘great potential.’ Unfortunately, the Interior Department’s decision today may help ensure that potential never becomes reality – in the process, locking-away an American energy resource larger than the total reserves of the entire Middle East.

Well, it's not like it isn't exactly what we expected an Obama Department of the Interior to do.

posted at 8:24 PM Feb 26, 2009 by Rob Ritchie
Category : Obamanation