This is just a marker for a future article. I haven’t finished my latest book yet, why no one has seen of heard much from me.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.A family of seven, who remain unnamed, are about to lose four of their children for no other reason than that they are too fat.
The couple have not committed any crime and are not accused of deliberate cruelty or abuse. Their solicitor, Joe Myles, said there was ‘nothing sinister lurking in the background’ and accused social workers of failing to act in the family’s best interests.
Actually, nowhere in the article or subsequent research can I find any hint that these people have been convicted of any crime at all. The children are being taken strictly on Council Authority and without any detectable Due Process at all.
The couple and their children also had to adhere to a strict 11pm curfew. This involved ‘clocking’ in and out by filling in a sheet held by an employee who lived on site.
Basically, the family was placed into custody in a Council home. The only thing missing was the barbed wire but it is still a prison with live-in guards. They have still not been charged with any crime.
Her solicitor said he planned to use independent experts to prove that the children want to live with their parents and have been damaged by the social workers’ intervention. He added: ‘We may ultimately look towards human rights laws.’
No shit! Human rights my ass, this is a civil rights issue here! However, they obviously have no civil rights in the UK. The UK is not a free country. Those of you anglophiles who think that the UK does things right, take heed. No country that behaves like this can call themselves free.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.I just found out has died. I am so sad. BB2 and I had many debates and I’ve always respected him.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.Zhinn Lao Tzu, our brown tabby, moved in with us exactly two years ago (20Jul2009). At the time, we already thought that he was fully grown. The size of his paws should have told us otherwise. He was barely 4kg (8.8#) when he moved in and grew to his present 5.5kg (12.1#), of lean and healthy tomcat, in less than 6 months.
I don’t talk about it much but at the time I had already been on anti-depressants for a few months. Having Zhinn around helped me to get off them. Cats are good companions and Zhinn watches me like a hawk. He will not let me collapse in the computer chair without getting a loud “meow” directly in the ear. This pleases SG to no end because, since my stroke (May, 2007), she worries about me constantly. She worries less with my buddy Zhinn around.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.I’m looking into this. My problem with this is that my body has always been extremely resistant to weight changes. As I got older the weight increased but not by that much. In my 20’s, it was 170# (77Kg) and it gradually increased to 185#(83.9Kg) and I am 57 now. There is very little that I can do to change it. In the past, I’ve tried fasting for days at a time and it will not change.
The folks in this study averaged 220# (98Kg), much higher than my present weight. I am 5’8” (1.73m) tall. I wouldn’t mind getting back down to 170#, if it is possible.
Taylor reported Saturday at a San Diego meeting of the American Diabetes Assn. and in the journal Diabetologia that, after one week on the diet, each of the patients’ fasting blood sugar, taken before breakfast, had returned to normal. At the end of the eight weeks, the patients had lost an average of 33 pounds and had no signs of diabetes. Three months after returning to a normal diet, seven of them remained free of the disease. Average weight gain in that three months was 6.5 pounds.
It sounds promising and I will have to talk to my doctor about it.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.Ref: Explanation of Green House Gases, by William Happer, Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics at Princeton University.
The “climate crusade” is one characterized by true believers, opportunists, cynics, money-hungry governments, manipulators of various types—even children’s crusades—all based on contested science and dubious claims.
I can agree with this statement. This article shows extensive research into the [lack of] science in the Global Warming debate. He properly mentions the Medieval Warming period (1000AD), which was promptly followed by Little Ice Age. He makes a credible argument for the cause/effect relation to be the opposite of what the church of global warming claims. That changes in global temperature lead changes on atmospheric CO2. This is backed up by ice core data that includes approximately the last million years.
The existence of the little ice age and the medieval warm period were an embarrassment to the global-warming establishment, because they showed that the current warming is almost indistinguishable from previous warmings and coolings that had nothing to do with burning fossil fuel. The organization charged with producing scientific support for the climate change crusade, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), finally found a solution. They rewrote the climate history of the past 1000 years with the celebrated “hockey stick” temperature record.
In law, this is known as a Smoking Gun and it is well documented. It is basically rewriting the data to fit the desired outcome. The report that documents this is A. W. Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion.
Indeed, the computer programs that produce climate change models have been “tuned” to get the desired answer. The values of various parameters like clouds and the concentrations of anthropogenic aerosols are adjusted to get the best fit to observations. And—perhaps partly because of that—they have been unsuccessful in predicting future climate, even over periods as short as fifteen years. In fact, the real values of most parameters, and the physics of how they affect the earth’s climate, are in most cases only roughly known, too roughly to supply accurate enough data for computer predictions.
I’m only a Computer Engineer but I know computers, their software, and what they can do, very well. If a simulation cannot predict near-term trends with any reliability then it certainly cannot be trusted to predict long-term trends. At best, it indicates a fault in either the systems, the heuristics, or the algorithms. In this case, the claim is made that the models were “tuned” to fit the desired answer. This is something that I have long suspected.
A key systemic fact is that all computers are deterministic in nature. Once input A is given then output B will always result. The same input data will always get the same result. If it doesn’t then there is a fault with the system or there exists some randomized input values, which indicates modified inputs. The key point is that current data processing systems, no matter how complex, have to be predictable or the result cannot be trusted.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.My first article that isn’t on my own blog 
I am thrilled! I have never considered submitting anywhere before. They took the article substantially as written, with some minor grammar changes. Considering that I only wrote it in two days, that is significant, I feel.
Now, what to do about the next article?
theglen
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.I am posting to the thread on the recent DEA statement on marijuana not having an acceptable medical use. It quickly morphed into a drug legalization debate. The entry I like best is
Slamlander at 05:58 AM July 12, 2011
Dihydrogen Monoxide has no acceptable medical use either and it is not on any drug schedule. It is highly addictive and has withdrawal symptoms that always result in death. Taken in excess, it can also result in death, more certain than marijuana. In fact, iut is 1000 times deadlier than heroine. Its potential for abuse is enormous.
Dihydrogen Monoxide is also known as a Universal Solvent and can dilute and carry in solution almost any other substance, both organic an inorganic. An overdose of Dihydrogen Monoxide kills by dissolving and leeching out the minerals in the body. The sufferer enters a coma and dies. there is no known treatment for massive Dihydrogen Monoxide overdose.
Why isn’t it on the DEA’s Schedule I?
By comparison Marijuana is relatively benign.
I wonder if any of them will catch it 
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.Last Saturday Salegamine
1
We went to Migros Home Center and found a cheap 7,000 BTU/2,000 watt unit that is good for at least one room. Since that is also the hottest room in the flat, it will go a long ways towards keeping the rest of the apartment cooler as well. Right now, it is 27C outside and I read 22C in here, with the office door wide open to the rest of the apartment.
The brand is a model Fresco 70, from Sonnenkönig of Switzerland, for 300CHF.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.Last Saturday Salegamine
1
We went to Migros Home Center and found a cheap 7,000 BTU/2,000 watt unit that is good for at least one room. Since that is also the hottest room in the flat, it will go a long ways towards keeping the rest of the apartment cooler as well. Right now, it is 27C outside and I read 22C in here, with the office door wide open to the rest of the apartment.
The brand is a model Fresco 70, from Sonnenkönig of Switzerland.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.It’s a Texan , magazine called The Red Pub. I got there via recommendation of ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nightwind292, thanks Nightwind 
.
Prior to this, I had never considered submitting to publications, only to my own blog. They wanted a conservative author and Nightwind nudged me over there. I wrote an article, about 1,200 words, over the course of two days. I submitted it yesterday. Now to see if they accept it. If they don’t, I can always post it here
The main thing is that they are definitely a Houston rag and their main thing is Houston and Texas. I know Houston fairly well as my second wife (~10 years) is a Texas Cajun from Nederland, Texas. I also have a nephew in Austin, TX. I am not a reporter and I think that the article that I submitted will make that clear. It is an Op-Ed piece.
Oh well, if they accept it it’ll be all good. I had never planned on taking the Slamlander to print before so this is a new horizon of possibilities. Frankly, I could use the experience. I have never really had to Feed the Beast before, writing to a schedule. Well, I’ve always set internal schedules, you have to if you ever want to finish a novel and I can easily drop 2,000 words per day and print articles are usually 1,000-1,500 words. However, that isn’t the same thing as meeting publication deadlines. I hope that they will take me on
Note: If this shows up twice it means that I still cannot edit and resubmit articles to LJ.
Note2: It looks like edits are once more possible When did I fix that? 
*sigh* I’m feeling OLD. 
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.I wish all my fellow Americans a good show but do remember to reflect on the meaning of it all. Liberty and freedom, what we give up in exchange for those two. TANSSTAAFL. Liberty and freedom come at a price; security! As Americans, we really need to reflect on that. As Americans, we really need to keep an eye on what our fellow Americans are willing to give away for us. How much of our freedoms are our fellow Americans willing to give away just to feel secure?
I have lately been involved in discussions on the LA Times website. I am amazed at some of the posters. In many, ignorance of the fundamentals is rampant. To any of you whom are parents, get a copy of the US Constitution and read it. Then make your kids read it. Make sure that they understand it, That is the only way that they will ever see it. It will not happen in school, that much is certain.
Then, while you are watching that firework show, reflect on what it means. Remember the men and women that died for what freedom you have left and whether you are willing to lose even more. When will you say “Enough!” Where is the line that you will not cross? Will you even be able to stop crossing it as your fellow Americans stampede you over it in panic? The past 15 years saw more loss of freedoms and liberty in the US than the entire time since the Revolutionary war. Where is that line?
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.I’ve been on the discussion board of the LA Times.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.This is actually a major defeat for the Religious Right. 
This is also a major victory for Constitutional Conservatives 
During the debates on the LA Times forum one commenter mentioned how the US was, as a nation, turning away from God. I have news for them and every other religious nutjob out there; The US turned away from God, as a Nation, the moment that the First Amendment was ratified. The US is a Secular Nation, by law and NOT by God!
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.In the US there is no true difference between a Conservative and a Liberal. In the US, a la Webster’s, a conservative is simply one who resists change. Do NOT apply this equally to political and moral conservatism. The are NOT the same, however much the Religious Right likes to conflate the two.
A political conservative is someone, like myself, that seeks to resist changes to the US Constitution, which is still the single most liberal political document ever written and enacted.
The Religious Right seeks to change the US Constitution, or it’s interpretation, to suit Puritan moral values. That makes them radicals, by definition. Radical is not Conservatism. To a true Constitutional Conservative, the Radical Social-Religious Right is anti-Liberty and therefore anathema. We must defend our holy document from such heresy as DOMA and Prohibition1 . The War on Drugs is a tool of the Puritanical Religious Right.
I am Constitutionally an extreme conservative but socially, I am also a bit of a Liberal because the US Constitution is. Puritan moral values and social mores are incompatible with the US Constitution. In short, you cannot be both an American and a religious moralist.
Too many call themselves conservative when they are actually religious moralists. We cannot fight the enemy as long as our terms are confused. Allowing the Religious Right to also call themselves the Political Right is conceding the war to the enemy, let alone the battle. It’s allowing wolves to call themselves sheep dogs. This is what has been happening to the GOP for years now. Palin and the Tea Party would like nothing more than to shred a document that they do not understand and do not even want to read, the US Constitution.
Remember during this election that the Political Right is NOT the same as the Moral or Religious Right and they will be trying to confuse us all by conflating the two.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation and the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis conclude that these retirement planning programs will cost the federal government about $600 billion in lost revenue over the next five years.
Yes, that’s correct and if they succeed, that comes directly from YOUR retirement fund. With the housing crunch, where many people had their retirement1 , the only thing that they have left is the remainder of their 401(k) . Now the Congress-critters want to take chunks of that as well. They want to reneg on the deal that they made when they fixed Social Security the last time.
A separate study by the Stanford University Graduate School of Business says that the introduction of 401(k)s has had an enormous impact on how people invest in stocks and bonds. At the end of World War II, individual citizens owned 90 percent of the stock market; by 2006, they owned only 30 percent. The other 70 percent was held by institutions, including mutual funds, insurance companies and pension funds.
Okay, so what? Most folks don’t have the temperament to own stock directly. This is why they are using an Institution.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.Amid increasing political pressure and turbulent financial conditions in the world economy, the Federal Reserve is letting its massive bond-buying stimulus program expire in the next few days without a new initiative to prop up the weak American recovery.
Why we can’t afford more war.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday the "explosive path" of the nation’s public debt would exceed 100% of GDP by 2021, even with expected policy changes.
On the Tea Party’s move towards austerity
On the U.S. budget, Bernanke said he didn’t think that sharp, immediate cuts in the deficit would create more jobs, as some Republican and other advocates for belt-tightening have argued.
"In the very short run," he said, "the fiscal tightening is … at best neutral, but probably somewhat negative for job creation."
So, that’s one hit.
Neither side reported an alignment in positions about raising the nation’s debt ceiling, an unsettled issue that could force the government to default on its obligations by early August.
This is Repugnicans and Demorats playing chicken with our lives and economy. Strangely, neither side is pointing out that it was GW Bush’s policies that got us here. However, it is the ignorant yokels from the Tea Party that is keeping the rest of the GOP from helping to find the brakes. Some of them are even considering letting the US default for 30 days or so, as a tactical play. What fools we elect to congress these days!
Some Republican lawmakers have said a brief default, which would be inevitable in August if lawmakers fail to raise the nation’s $14.3-trillion debt ceiling, might be acceptable if it forces the White House to deal with large budget deficits.
The problem with that plan is that it isn’t Obama that sets the budget. According to the US Constitution, the budget is set in the US House of Representative and nowhere else. The US House is in Republican hands at the moment.
In 2003, when I came here to Switzerland, it cost about 1.20 CHF to buy a dollar. That same dollar now only costs 84 centimes, or 0.842CHF! The mighty are falling as I write this.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.I only have to say that we do not need yet another trillion dollar war. Current expenses are at 700 million USD, that’s only 300M$ shy of a billion. I say to stop it there and padlock our wallet.
The cost of U.S. involvement in Libya has been estimated at $700 million so far, and comes at a time of growing impatience with wars and deficit spending.
This is regardless of how I feel about the Libyan people or how much I dislike Kaddafi. Truth be told, the EuroZone can’t afford it either and I would tell them the same. The Libyan people will buy their freedom with their own blood, just like everyone else. No need to add our own or our cash. Let’s put people to work at home first.
"It is time to authorize the president’s use of force, whether he thinks he needs it or not," said McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Libyan rebellion will succeed or not on its own. We (the US and Europe) really cannot afford to get involved.
The House ban, if approved by both chambers, would represent a further repudiation of President Obama‘s policy and would force the U.S. to limit its role to search, rescue, refueling and intelligence. It would stop short of a funding cutoff, as an unusual alliance of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans have sought.
What I can’t understand is why Obama wants in on this fracas. If he does, it will be the one war that we can lay at his feet. After all, regardless what his opponents say, Iraq and Afghanistan were both Bush’s wars, at a Trillion Dollars each. At 14TUSD in the hole, we can’t afford yet another one of those.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.On the LA Times re: Gay judge wasn’t required to remove himself from same-sex marriage case, U.S. judge rules
A commenter named Ann Common said: “What we hate is sexual perversion.”
This is my response:
And now the truth is revealed! You are a hater. It may interest you to know that Victorian modes and culture [should have] died with Queen Victoria, the Hannover Queen. Wrapping yourself in a time-bubble will not change that.
I am not gay but I am a product of the 60′s, when my generation rejected puritan rules and the senseless taboos of the prohibitionistas who were in power at that time. Remember the California Communes?
"Signs, signs, everywhere there’re signs. blocking up the scenery, blowing my mind. Don’t do this or that, can’t you read the signs?"
Perversion is in the eye of the beholder, or not, as the case may be. Some think that a woman simply showing her face in public is a perversion. They even think that it causes earthquakes.
I am perfectly willing to let you believe in whatever you want but it is un-American to let you impose those beliefs on everyone else. We are NOT a Christian country, we are a Secular one, as evidenced by the First Amendment to the Constitution, and I reject the Religious Right, with fervor!
I relegate your Christian God to the same dark pit with the Muslim Allah; may they fondle each other forever, while humans get on with the business of humans, without their interference. I reject your rules that judge what is perversion and I reject your values as being un-American!
Families are supposed to love and support each other. Rejecting and oppressing such families simply because of your warped sense of perversion is the hallmark of a religiously repressive regime and not that of a free country. The only thing that we should be intolerant of is intolerance.
BTW, I have probably been a Republican longer than you’ve been alive and I reject the Religious Right/Moral Majority of Buchannan, Ford, and Quayle.
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You can comment here or there. This is also mirrored on Dreamwidth and Facebook.Gone with only a laptop, smart phone, iPaq PPC. No servers at destination but will have Inet access.
This is the geek version of “roughing it” 
I will have VPN access to my servers should I need it 
… back on Tuesday … maybe.
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branchandroot
