Happy Halloween

We will worship great Cthulhu

I know I do I hope You do

He will eat us last if we do

and that's good enough for me.

UPDATE 11/1: Great Cthulhu has enough leftover small candy bars to keep him sleeping until next year. At least.

Fun With Headlines - Impeachment

From the WaPo:

A divided House passes resolution on impeachment inquiry, setting stage for televised hearings and release of witness testimony. The resolution allows participation by the minority party only upon approval by the majority and you know that won't happen. This just codifies what's been going on all along. Bottom line is that the Dems got nothing but as long as the media avoid mentioning this, they keep the noise up to distract from the actual criminal investigations.

In Court For A Crime Not Yet Committed

This belongs in the Florida Man file, but since it's happening in Great Britain, it rises above that. Since the defendant is PM, it rises a bit higher. Since the court agreed to hear the case one might begin to wonder just how high the plaintiff and Judge might actually be. Since it's the Scottish High Court, you gotta read this.

The upshot is that a sitting politician is being hauled into court for a crime that, even though he hasn't committed it yet, the plaintiff thinks he will and should therefore be sanctioned in advance. An interesting concept which if applied here would make it possible to jail our elected officials as soon as they take their respective oaths of office. One supposes that the legislatures could meet in the exercise yard for one hour each day to take care of business as long as state laws allow interred legislators to vote from their cells.

Building A Wall In Colorado

Let me state up front that I think this is a great idea. Let me also state that it's about 20-30 years too late. The damage has been done and there's probably no recovering from the massive influx of Californians fleeing their failed state and coming here only to vote for the same people and policies that destroyed California.

We're building our own wall. Here it is under construction:

hat'll slow them down.

How Real Is The Sci Fi?

Found this in the comments at Insty:



In light of the science fiction convention this weekend, I found it especially amusing.

Robots That Say No

A couple of professors from Oz with seemingly little useful to do are advancing the notion that sex bots include a module that makes them refuse their owners advances. This, they say will promote better human interactions.

Sure it will. The owners probably didn't spend $10K+ on a sex bot to have it turn them down from time to time for no reason or even maybe to demand an oil change or something.

Owner: "Look, dear, I got you Mobil 1 Synthetic!"
Robot: "Oh darling, you shouldn't have!"

 You don't buy a car that refuses to take you to the store if it hasn't been washed recently or want's it's stereo upgraded. Nor would you buy a refrigerator that might randomly decide not to keep your food cold.

They suggest that these randomly refusing robots be installed on college campuses where the socially inept might check one out from the library to get some tips on interacting with women. Sure, and then take your homework back to the dorm with you and hope your studies don't bother your roommate too much.

There is also an American law professor demanding that the congress begin writing regulations for sex bots. He has already gotten laws written that make the states part of the tobacco industry, so don't discount him.

Next up: Industrial robots that go on strike shut down for no reason every 2 years or so until the owner pays the AFL-CIO ransom to get the program un-encrypted so the machine can go back to work.

California Politics

Normally I wouldn't get involved as Cali is beyond human comprehension already but 2 days ago I saw Scott Adams of Dilbert fame announce in no uncertain terms that Cali needed a new governor. My reaction: You just now noticed?

Anyway today James Dellengpole published a piece on  Mike Shellenberger which he describes as the worlds only sensible Greenie. Mr S is one of the inventors of the Green Nude Eel but unlike the rest of the mob, he actually found time to sit down and do some math. Admittedly he may well be the only Greenie capable of adding 2+2 and getting 4, but there he is, noting that most of the green/renewable power proposals don't work. In addition they are more expensive and dirtier than this new invention, nuclear.

Mr S has expressed an interest in running for governor and has fully endorsed the use of Gen 4 nukes as a complete replacement for pretty much everything else which should get him the Scott Adams endorsement as long as he doesn't also endorse anything too far out, like say human sacrifice.

There's A Word For This

I'm pretty sure. When you neglect your states energy infrastructure in order to be seen as "Green", then announce rolling blackouts in order to prevent wildfires due to neglected energy infrastructure upkeep, then note that some people may not be able to escape the wildfires that start for this very reason anyway as they have been unable to keep their "green" electric vehicles fully charged due to the rolling blackouts.....

Sometimes the green movement can turn out to be a self-correcting problem.

There was a strip in the Wizard of Id which describes a combination of problems starting with a drought that impacted the peasant farmers coupled with the monsters in the kings moat starving due to a food shortage. The King observed that sometimes problems can be self-correcting.

Gun Laws And The Next Election

The next election is upon us like the locusts of Egypt, and the Dems are trying not to identify as such in the locals. Keep 'em jumping up and down with fun bumper stickers you can print out in landscape format, fold in thirds, and tape to a window until after the brouhaha is over.

Here's one now:

I've not yet seen a gun law that ultimately didn't redound to the benefit of the criminal class.

Bill Gates, Scott Adams, and Clean Power

When I can, I listen to Scott Adams Periscopes which appear at 8AM Mountain time Here. There's supposed to be a way to get notifications of when he starts one of these but Google hates him so the notifications don't seem to work, at least not on my desktop. Thus the link will send you to the right page for the article I'm talking about here, but you will likely have to select the current periscope when it comes up as live to catch them on a daily basis.

The one I'm citing at the link has a segment in it regarding Bill Gates, China, the U.S. Bureaucracy, President Trump, and clean, cheap, safe nuclear power. All this in one segment along with a plaintive cry that Mr. Adams in apparently in a zone slated for a possible power cutoff around noon today due to wildfire dangers due to state mismanagement of various resources.

Mr Adams notes that Bill Gates has sponsored/assisted/obtained a complete set of plans for a Gen 4 nuclear power plant using "spent" nuclear fuel rod material as at least part of the fuel. These things are idiot proof*, pretty much walk-away safe, and when freed of NIMBY type interference, notably cheaper to build and operate than existing generating facilities of similar output. Gates was ready to sponsor the construction of a demonstration plant in the U.S. but couldn't get the regulatory approvals so he went to China where he got them. Of course next, a bit of a trade kerfuffle broke out so his China plant is now on indefinite hold.

In an election year (every year) it would be worthwhile to ask the candidates where they stand on the issue of making America a 3rd world country with rolling blackouts and outdated generating systems or outrageously expensive and inefficient "renewable" based stuff when the solution is ready to be implemented now.

*Yes I know, the more you try to make things fool proof, the more nature produces better fools. I used to design consumer products.

WARREN/CLINTON 2020

The two most powerful figures the Dems have got.


(Would you sell Mrs Warren a life insurance policy if this team wins?)

TEOTWAWKI - Weather

Fall and spring are when mother nature takes the switch between summer and winter and bangs it up and down a few times just to keep us on our toes. Wednesdays high is predicted at 79, Thursdays high is to be 32.

The WU report gets worse and worse every time I check it. 3 days ago it called for a trace of snow overnight. 2 days ago it called for snow overnight, yesterday it said 2-4 inches, this morning it's calling for 3-6. None of the trees have lost significant leaves so I'm going to be frantically trimming my plums today and tomorrow and shutting off the sprinklers. 32 degrees is pretty mild so 3-6 inches would be heavy, wet, stuff, the sort that generates heart attacks in people trying to shovel it.


I'm thinking widespread power outages as limbs come down, food shortages in the markets as people rush to stock up the day before (Wednesday) and uncountable traffic accidents on Thursday as people discover that prepping for global warming by leaving their summer tires on until December isn't working out well.

Not to be spreading panic or anything you understand.

Gun Sales - Still On Track

The September numbers are in and it's another 2M+ month:

Following the predictable ups and down and adding a bit every year.

Gun Safety Forum

The Dem candidates held their  2020 Gun Safety Forum co-hosted by March For Our Lives a couple days ago, and predictably the topic of actual gun safety never came up. Unsurprisingly it was all about how soon all guns could be confiscated from the public to give the criminal class a safe working environment.

I suppose the thinking here goes that if the public takes up using firearms against common criminals and finds that common crime decreases, before you know it they'll begin looking at politicians and getting ideas.

Motorcycles - Change Now Official

Two days ago I parted company with my old friend of several years:

 The 84 Honda Sabre 1100 was a real workhorse, blowing the commuting traffic away and generally being as reliable as a refrigerator. Push button = start, twist throttle = go like bat outta hell.

On the commuter trips you didn't notice the weight so much as most of that was on the freeway. For running local errands however, the weight really makes itself known and the horsepower isn't really needed. The Yamaha 535 is 225 lb lighter and several inches lower to the point that I can sit the bike with both feet flat on the ground and my knees bent. At this point I think my biggest complaint is the acoustic resonance from the intake system at certain engine speeds that whistles very annoyingly usually exactly at the posted speed limits or just before I want to shift gears.

I'm going to miss all that horsepower though.

Clinton Now Leads Harris

As far as the punters are concerned anyway. I ascribe greater credibility to them then the pollsters since the people on Predictit.org are betting their own money on the outcomes and not taking someone elses to provide a desired result.

Improvised Transportation

Walking down the Highline Canal yesterday I noticed what seems to be a home made "houseboat" made from 3 plastic barrels topped with a mattress and box springs. Accompanying were a couple of couch cushions and what might be a domestic cable box or DVD player. Hard to tell from my vantage point. All this is located in the canal about 50 ft east of the trash can at the canal at Broadway and Caley. On shore on the South bank is a red wagon, a stack of bicycle tires and tubes, and bits of an encampment. The "houseboat" is rather large to be down in the canal and may have washed down there from further up stream. Anybody missing some household electronics? Lock your cars.

Quite the contraption, no?

You Don't Need A Lawyer If...

It is said that if the government tells you you don't need a gun, then you probably need a gun.

Latest update: If the government tells you you don't need a lawyer, then you most assuredly need a lawyer. Probably a couple of them.

Happy Anniversary

It's the 70th anniversary of the Communist regime in China, so raise a glass and observe a moment of silence for the (approximately) 70 million they had to kill to establish and maintain the regime.

Tastes Great AND Less Filling

Presumably the best of all worlds and it's compatible with ALL blood types.

Read all about it!

And just in time for Halloween.