Political Commentary

Any Minute Now

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James Lileks awaits the war protesters. In vain.

The anarchists aren’t up on it. Nothing from the central Green party. But it’s possible they’re just getting their blast emails out, alerting everyone to the upcoming World Can’t Wait / Protest Imperialistic Imperialism Protest, complete with giant mocking paper-mache puppets of Putin with black oil dripping from his fangs. Who here can do a Putin? C’mon people, I need a big Putin. This international cabal isn’t going to collapse on its own! It needs the sort of humiliating defeat only a large, three-dimensional effigy borne on the streets of a Western city in full view of bored policemen can bring.Yes, any day now: the streets will be filled with protestors.

Mao is denounced as well.

Administrative, Technology and Society

New Fedora Laptop Issue

6 Comments

OK, when we last left our intrepid laptop, it couldn’t install Fedora. Following advice in comments there, I tried a live version of Ubuntu, and it had no problem, other than telling me that it didn’t have an open-source driver for the WLAN. Then I tried Fedora again. It hung up as it did before, but I went away and ignored it, and when I came back after a while, it had finally booted into the installer. Apparently I just hadn’t been patient enough the last time.

Now, after selecting languages, it gives me a message saying “No driver found” It tells me that there is no driver for this installation for the device, and asks me if I want to install manually, or if I have a disk. When I try installing manually, it gives me a drop-down list of every driver for every device known to Linus. The only problem is that it doesn’t tell me what device is causing the heartburn.

Any suggestions? I’m guessing that it might be the wireless, because of the message on Ubuntu, but who knows?

[Update a few minutes later]

The exact (cryptic) message is “Unable to find device type needed for this installation type.”

Huh?

Administrative

Back To The Sunshine State

5 Comments

I’m catching a plane back to Florida in a bit, so probably no more posting until tomorrow, since I don’t get in until late tonight. I get to go through DFW, so they get (at least) two chances to lose my suitcase this time. But they apparently only need one.

[Saturday morning update]

Arrived late last night, with suitcase. Now to catch up on all the things that didn’t happen while I was out of town.

Political Commentary, Space

Nearing The End?

9 Comments

Robert Block is wondering if the Stick is dying. I liked this bit:

In the face of the latest reports of trouble, sources say that NASA leaders are looking at a possible replacement design, including one that would use the shuttle’s two four-segment solid rocket boosters, and a liquid engine with four RS-68 engines and no upper stage. While it sounds similar to a rocket called the Jupiter 120 or the Direct 2.0 concept which is being proposed by moonlighting NASA engineers, the sources insist it is not the same.

Yes. I have a literary theory that the Iliad and the Odyssey weren’t written by Homer, but by another blind poet with the same name.

Political Commentary

The New Brown Shirts

17 Comments

Glenn explains:

No doubt they all go around exchanging Obama Salutes and clicking their heels…

But don’t call them a cult!

I guess that it really is all about the “O.” Sabine Ehrenfeld is still a lot hotter, though. At this point, given the other choices on the menu, I’m ready to sign up for a Sabine/Paris ticket. Too bad she was born in Germany.

I suspect that Senator Obama’s fans may prove to be his worst enemies.

[Update a while later]

Ace has more.

Political Commentary

An Idle Thought

20 Comments

I wonder how many of the people who are giving Congress single-digit approval ratings know which party is in charge?

I think that it’s foolish for John McCain to be running against George Bush. He shouldn’t be asking whether or not you’re better off than eight or four years ago. That’s Obama’s line.

He needs to ask whether or not you’re better off than you were two years ago, when the Dems started mismanaging Congress. Point out not how much gas prices have gone up in eight years, but in how much they’ve gone up in two years (probably the biggest percentage jump in history). Never use the word “Congress” without prepending it with “Democratic.”

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!