What classic SF novel would you like to see on the big screen?
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress would be timely.
Who Is Barack Obama?
Now they want to know?
Maybe these Washington reporters should have found out who Obama was before they foisted him upon us. Instead anyone digging around trying to find out about his past were called racist. Yet now four and a half years into his term suddenly they want to know who the guy is? Thanks for asking, folks.
Some of us had him figured out in 2008.
Why The Government Hates Conservatives
Frank J. explains:
You have to remember that the bureaucrats in government are a fiercely tribal people who base all their beliefs on an extreme ideology of government power. How did we think they’d react when we threatened to tear down all they know over some concept they’ve never even heard of — math? Did we think they’d really welcome us as liberators when we tossed them all out into the private sector — a scary world that demands things they can’t even understand, like productivity? No, of course not. Instead they did what seems logical to them: Fight against the invaders threatening them while rallying behind their supreme religious figure, President Obama.
Clearly they had it coming.
The IRS Scandal
Why it’s worse than the others.
And the others are pretty bad.
Wear An NRA Tee Shirt
…and win a year in jail.
For a fourteen year old. Words fail. As Glenn says, tar and feathers.
XFCE
Is there a doctor in the house? I decided to just go to Fedora 19 beta, since it’s going to be released in a few days anyway. It’s fine so far, except I’m running XFCE, and it refuses to give me a monitor size any larger than 1280×1040, so I’m losing about an inch on all sides with my 21″ LG.
I’ve changed the configuration in the settings editor to 1600×900, and the same in the display.xml file. But when I log out and back in again, it resets them to 1280×1040. I can’t find where in the system it’s getting this information, despite lots of grepping (is it misreading the signal from the monitor?), but it’s driving me nuts. And there doesn’t seem to be a configuration file for X any more.
Any ideas?
[Update a couple minutes later]
OK, it’s probably getting it from xrandr:
[simberg@linux-station ~]$ xrandr
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 640 x 480, current 1280 x 1024, maximum 1280 x 1024
default connected 1280×1024+0+0 0mm x 0mm
1280×1024 0.0*
1280×720 0.0
1024×768 0.0
800×600 0.0
640×480 0.0
So how do I force a change?
[Late evening update]
Yes, the problem is likely some driver or new version of X or something inf F19 foxtrotting things up, because Fedora 18 recognized my monitor no problem. Just not sure what to do about it.
[Sunday morning update]
OK, I installed the latest Nvidia drivers from RPMFusion, and all is now well. It’s a beautiful screen, in fact.
ObamaCare Support
It’s in a death spiral.
Let’s hope.
I think that the two big issues in the election next year will be ObamaCare repeal (and it will be much more sharply defined without Romney muddying the issue), and government corruption.
If Palin Had Been President
Things would have been quite different.
I’m not sure about this one, though:
Palin’s IRS would not ask groups seeking 501(c)4 status about their prayer life.
These are all careerists, and have been with the agency through Republican and Democrat governments. I can easily imagine that they’d try to do it. But in a Palin presidency, when she heard complaints, she wouldn’t ignore them, and would at least try to rein in the bureaucracy, instead of encouraging it, as Obama has. And of course, in a Palin presidency, there would have have been a need for the Tea Party to arise.
One Ring To Rule Them All
Regardless of what one thinks about the legality of the NSA surveillance, it has gotten peoples’ attention in a way that none of the other abuses of power have.
Student Loans
When students have little hope of completing an academic program, subsidies are not just a waste of taxpayers’ money, but a waste of these young people’s time and effort at a crucial age. Too often, they drop out with a sense of failure, poor work habits, and perhaps a sizeable debt.
In an era of scarce resources, ending pure need scholarships may cause low-income students to make wiser choices about their futures. It would be far better if, instead of floundering in an academic institution, they learned a trade, entered the military, or gained work experience. If they really wish to pursue a bachelors’ degree, they can prove themselves worthy of scholarship money by taking classes at low-cost community colleges first.
Like most well-intentioned government programs, this is a disaster.