Looks like I might have spoken a bit prematurely last month when I said that the end was in sight. Since the contractor has been negligent in watering the new sod that they laid down in our backyard, most of it has turned brown, and I’m not sure it will come back from that. I called MSD about it on Monday when it first appeared, and they sent two rubes out to water the dead grass. They then proceeded to leave our gate open when they left. So MSD got another call about that. I really don’t see why treating your customer with respect is so difficult.

There was a brief period of Internet history after bandwidth was sufficiently plentiful, but before YouTube came along, when email servers everywhere were bludgeoned by the weight of funny video traffic. You remember these, right? Enormous attachments that clogged your inbox, most of which you didn’t have the proper codecs to even watch, and of the ones you did, most were not funny? Yeah, those.

But among the chaff, there were a few classics. One of which I just referenced in my entry about Linux. But hunting that one down (on YouTube, of course) made me remember another one that used to make me laugh. Who remembers Intellitoast!?! It’s STREAMING!! Classic.

I’ve discovered fellow St. Louis blogger Brian J. Noggle appears to share my sentiments where John Haasis is concerned. I’m glad I’m not the only one who recognized his statement as being outrageous. Hi Brian, I’m looking forward to reading more of your stuff. I certainly wish I had the free time to read and write that you apparently do.

In October of last year, I wrote about St. Louis County’s plan to create a series of monopolies, where previously we had a free market. They provided a list of reasons they were doing this, none of which made any logical or financial sense, all of which were beyond the scope of the government’s authority.

Today I read an excellent article in St. Louis Magazine. I was completely flabbergasted by a comment made by John Haasis, who is the manager of the Solid Waste Management Program for St. Louis County, so I wrote him the following letter:

If I receive a response, I will post it here.

Look, I’m a software guy, okay? I’ve been banging around on computers since my first TRS-80 that my dad bought in 1982. I’m a software engineer for the world’s largest aerospace company. And I’m here to tell you that as far as computer operating systems go, we as a civilization peaked with DOS. Microsoft Windows sucks. We all somehow intuitively know this, but we’ve been in denial for twenty years because until recently there just weren’t that many alternatives.

I have a little bit of experience with Unix/Linux. I had a Silicon Graphics workstation on my desk for a few years. I played around with an early version of Red Hat. I even downloaded the original Ubuntu and loaded it on an old Toshiba laptop just for kicks. My opinion back then was that a lot of progress had been made, but that we still weren’t there yet. The Windows-like GUIs were pretty good, but the application software support still wasn’t there.

So recently, after seeing the slick Xandros load on my Eee, I decided to give Linux another shot and tried to install the latest versions of both Ubuntu and Kubuntu on a home server that I’m setting up. You know what? Linux sucks too, albeit for different reasons.

It’s an extremely difficult operating system to configure right out of the box. There, I said it. We all know it’s true, but everybody seems to be in denial about this too. But the complexity of Linux is a well known punchline, as you can see here. That video is several years old, but nothing has really changed. Despite the open source community’s best efforts, Linux is still cumbersome, buggy, and frankly, not ready for primetime. Or at least not ready to expand their market much past the legions of nerds who have nothing better to do than “check your version dependencies.”

Now I know that many of the Linux faithful will attack me for saying this, so I’m going to offer this little challenge. Point me to a Linux distro that 1) installs from a single disc (either CD or DVD), 2) includes both VNC and Samba right out of the box, and 3) won’t take me to “sudo pico” hell trying to “config it” and I’ll take back everything I just said. Any takers?

I spent today catching up. Catching up on work around the house. Catching up on writing. But most importantly, catching up on some serious play time with my little man. He is a bundle of energy, and always ready to play catch or play cars, but today it was Stomp Rockets. Simply put, it was a good day.

We took Noah and Josie to the circus today. Noah got the biggest kick out of it, he was so charged up during the show. He kept clapping and bouncing up and down in his seat. Josie, of course, slept through it.

The circus has really gone high-tech. The lighting and sound was really excellent, and the special effects (pyrotechnics and big screen TVs) were more than I expected. It is definitely more than just elephants walking around in a circle these days. But the animals are still a central part of the show, as are the acrobats and daredevils. It really is an impressive show. I’d recommend it, and you’ll especially enjoy it through your kids’ eyes.

[This is the first article in a series.]

A bloodless revolution is not without pain. Any time you take something away that people have grown accustomed to they will suffer as a result. Just how much will be determined by each individual’s ability to adapt to change. But, assuming that a revolution can be achieved peacefully, the goal should be to gradually transition systems from old to new to minimize the suffering as much as possible. During this phase, this goal will be paramount, as it is well understood that treating people humanely is more likely to result in success.

All so-called “entitlement” spending by the federal government will be halted at the end of this phase. Families on welfare, or using food stamps, AFDC, etc. will have roughly one generation to ween themselves and their children from the government teat, and find jobs for themselves. Those people within 20 years of death (generally, anyone over the age of 60) need do nothing as their benefits will continue until the end of this period, but those who are just beginning a life of dependency would do well to find other sources of income during this period. Government employees who have made a career of administering this wealth redistribution will also need to seek employment elsewhere. Their jobs will disappear at the end of this period.

Much of this phase will also be devoted to educating the people about the upcoming changes in Phases II and III. Private schools and home-schooling organizations will start preparing the public for closing of all public schools in Phase II. Private organizations such as JPFO would begin a massive campaign to inform and convince Americans that they are responsible for their own safety and security, in preparation for Phase III. This education is necessary to couteract the effects of decades of indoctrination that most people have received as part of the standard public education curriculum.

In 1776, one of the self-evident truths that Thomas Jefferson included in the unanimous Declaration was “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Friends and neighbors, the time has come for the Second American Revolution.

It should be obvious to anyone paying attention that the train that is our government left the tracks a long time ago. For those who have not been paying attention, God bless you. We will allow you to go on living your lives blissfully unaware of the travesty of self-governance all around you. All we ask in return is please, for your own safety, do not get in our way as we begin this important work, for who among us could read Jefferson’s long list of usurpations and not find in today’s government a parallel for virtually every one of them?

Some will read these words and think them folly. For you I have only the words of Samuel Adams: “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom — go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”

Others will hear the truth of these words ringing in their ears, but despair at the daunting task of slaughtering a 230-year-old beast, with a litter of millions suckling at her grotesque teats, and believe themselves unequal to the task. For you I have only Jefferson’s words: “It behooves our citizens to be on their guard, to be firm in their principles, and full of confidence in themselves. We are able to preserve our self-government if we will but think so.”

Still others are ready to join the fray, but cannot see a path forward that will assure success. For even if we were to succeed at abolishing the current government, we might not achieve our ultimate goal if in instituting a new government we fail to make things better than they are now. A revolution without a plan for new government is a hollow victory indeed.

Furthermore, a revolution that sacrifices lives is of little value if the same ends could have been achieved without the spilling of blood. So a worthy plan should assume that it can be executed within the constraints of the current government, resulting in bloodshed only as a means of last resort, when all lesser means have failed. However, Jefferson understood that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” so there is certainly a time for bloodshed. Let us all pray that we have not yet surpassed that point of no return.

In short, overthrowing a government is easy. Replacing it with something better is the hard part. In honor of Flag Day this weekend, and all of the things that our flag used to stand for, this is the first in a series of essays outlining a modest plan for accomplishing the latter.

Phase I – Dismantling the Welfare State (2008-2025)

Phase II – The End of Public Property (2025 – 2045)

Phase III – Homeland Security (2045 – 2075)

If you’ve seen my story archive, you know that I collect stories documenting the misconduct of police officers. While this story doesn’t really qualify as misconduct, it does serve to illustrate another potential reason why cops suck.

It seems the New London, Connecticut, police department doesn’t like their officers to be too smart. They give all of their applicants a standardized IQ test, and if you score too high, like Robert Jordan, you are rejected. Now IQ tests are not a terribly accurate predictor of a given person’s mental faculties, but if they are going to go to the trouble of administering the test, you would think they would set a minimum score criteria, not a maximum score.

I can only speculate on the reasons behind this policy: smart people ask too many questions. If you want someone to blindly follow your orders, you are better off hiring less intelligent folk. And if you know that your department is, from time to time, engaged in activities that raise certain legal and/or ethical questions, you don’t want a precinct full of geniuses second-guessing your command. Perhaps my bias in this area is showing, but I really can’t think of any other explanation, can you?