I had to kill some time making a couple of comments to some tripe on CNN.

Congressman Chaffetz:

I'm greatly amused by the Democrats posting negative comments to Congressman Chaffetz's report. Are they the very same Democrats who claim that Republicans are so negative in regard to proposals from their own party? As typical, hypocrisy abounds on the left. And don't these guys know that "Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit"? Since they can't make a constructive argument, they're reduced to ridicule, which requires no intellectual activity.

I'm encouraged that this freshman did the right thing and voted 'no' to the bailout provisions. He's already more responsible than most of Congress.

Good luck, Congressman Chaffetz.

Congressman Polis:

Well, Congressman Jared, I hope you'll settle in quickly and not spend too much time playing around. Your constituents should be eager to hear about real progress in place of frivolity. That's what you're paid for -- out of taxpayers' dollars!

Also, hopefully you'll uphold your oath of office and support the Constitution. Too many Democrats feel it necessary to violate it with asinine legislation, particularly the 2nd Amendment.

Obama Inauguration

Some links so I can close them out of my browser:

Obama's inaugural speech
Inauguration in Legoland
The balance of power
Retaking the oath of office (But he didn't use a Bible this time! What are the conspiracy theorists going to say?!)

Concussions

I'm reading too many CNN articles today. It's bad for my brain. However, the concussion I had as a kid might've been worse, according to an article on a CSTE study: "Symptoms can include depression, sleep disorders, headaches"—uh-oh.

Republican Negativity

I don't like this guy's political bent, but he's right about Republicans being too negative. People seem to detest negativity or criticism in general even if the arguments are completely warranted. That's a tough one because the Democrats are always blue-sky irrationals, but they're upbeat about it.

Zelizer is correct in asserting that Republicans can't be too negative. People are irrational and seem to disdain criticism even if it's logical and correct. In that regard, the Republicans will have to appear to be "building" something to appeal to the emotional populists who don't have the faculty to comprehend the reasons behind saying "no."

However, that FDR "saved" the country in the '30s is highly inaccurate. The country was no better for all the socialist programs FDR perpetuated. Let me remind the FDR champions that WWII was what "saved" the US's economy. (And FDR robbed the American public with gold confiscation and devaluing the dollar via EO6102.) This time, even if there were such a horrific world war, we wouldn't have the manufacturing capacity to win it!

NSF funds "connect-the-dots"

This is pretty freaky, although not unexpected. I guess I'd better watch out what I post on here. Not! If I don't call things out, that's one less person perceived to be in the opposition.

Democrats are the root of all that's gone wrong in America! "Expel the socialist liberals, revere the Constitution!"

Rare illness deaths in Minnesota?!

Now that I have a kid, this sort of thing scares the shit out of me. The CDC has a page on this so-called Hib disease.

Japan's Birth Rate

Yet another wonderful CNN article, which I had to comment on:

The low birth rate is a big problem because Japan, like the U.S., has a Ponzi scheme for a retirement system: future generations pay for retired previous generations through their taxes. If Japan doesn't have the young workers to support the system, it will collapse under its own weight. Social Security in the U.S. is similar, except we don't have a low birth rate and many people don't rely exclusively on SS for retirement.

Also, many Japanese people do work 12 hr days or more. To my perception, from having lived and worked there for several years, in general the Japanese work harder than we do in the U.S. If they had more natural resources, the power balance in the world would probably be very different.

Also, what's up with these racists criticizing Japan for trying to maintain their population? Perhaps they should be clamoring for population control in their own country!

Coinage

I had never been clear on which coins had valuable metals, e.g. silver. A site called Coinflation has all the pertinent info. Furthermore, I found a coin chart that lists dates and composition of the valuable U.S. coins.

AR-15 Builder

Brownells rules! The AR-15 Builder site they have also rules!

...too bad AR-15 lowers are sold out everywhere. That's a message for ya, new administration!

The Emperor's Chair

Russ found this somehow. What the smoke?! All they need is an IV and a catheter and you'd never have to get up!

Random Before Reboot

Some tabs in Firefox that I have open before needing to reboot:
The Cost of Raising Children
Failing Hard Drive Sounds
生命力テスト　変なことに、俺は「生命力は満タン！　ヤル気全開なあなた」って出てきた。うそだろと思うよな。ぎりぎり生きてる位じゃないか！

6.8 SPC FAQ

Meant to post this a while ago but it kept slipping down the list of things to do. 6.8 SPC looks to be pretty cool. Still, it's another caliber to stock in addition to 7.62x51mm, 5.56x45mm, 6.5x55mm, .45 ACP, 9x19mm, .22 LR, 12 ga, and 20 ga. And I have at least one more cartridge to add....

Feedkiller

I was trying to merge RSS feeds for a couple blogs into a single feed that I could import into Facebook. This site Feedkiller supposedly will do that, so I tried it. Not sure yet if it works. My feed is #1509.