The blessings of a downed server
Bookworm on Jun 05 2010 at 9:14 am | Filed under: Open Threads
As many of you discovered yesterday, my server was down for some time. I thought I’d lapse into a deep funk, but I was actually somewhat grateful. The news about the economy and Israel was so deeply depressing, I needed a break from thinking about it.
To be honest with myself, “needed” isn’t the right word. The Israelis need a break too, but they’re not getting one. If you have to, you soldier on. But sitting ensconced in my comfortable American suburban home, I am fortunate in that I don’t have to soldier on every minute of every day. And sometimes the reminder that I am allowed to walk away for a little while comes in the form of a server that simply refuses to make itself available to me.
Today is also a “no blog” day, although for less technical reasons. In a very little while, I leave for an all day swim meet. When it ends, I race home, make myself gorgeous (we can dream), and dash into the City for a commemoration of the Battle of Midway. The guest speaker will be Admiral Eric T. Olson. As an added pleasure, I’ll be seeing SJBill and his lovely family (no dreams necessary there; they are gorgeous, one and all).
Fortunately, even when I don’t blog, others do. As I’ve mentioned before, my blogroll isn’t just a polite sop to people who ask to be on it. Every entry on my blogroll is one I value, so please consider it a resource. Also, my friends have been blogging hard in the past 24 hours and I’ve got some great links for you:
Zombie has developed beautifully a theme I’ve messed around with myself: the fact that our culture has grown to be one that hates winners. I touched lightly upon that same subject here, in the context of the Marxist obsession with victim status, which gives losers carte blanche.
AJ Strata looks at the incompetence that characterizes every aspect of the Obama administration. My take is that they are incompetent, not because they are incapable, but because incompetence furthers their ultimate goal. Why do things well when doing things badly is the ultimate means to your end?
Both The Anchoress and Kim Priestap take a stab at dealing with Obama’s malevolent incompetence, not to mention his rank dishonesty, when it comes to the oil spill.
On an entirely different subject, Irving Berlin escaped Russia’s virulent pogroms, he survived growing up in the Lower East Side, he witnessed America make its way through two world wars and one major depression. And he was able to write this song:
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26 Responses to “The blessings of a downed server”
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his rank dishonesty
What a polite choice of words, Book, while he lied by omission. The Plug the damn hole hue and cry must have been a directive to the MSM, which didn’t work either.
I love this bumper sticker. (from an Instapundit link)
http://www.zazzle.com/im_old_youre_young_you_gotta_pay_for_my_hea_bumper_sticker-128216801702831868
I bet 10 years ago you would have never imagined yourself saying “my server was down”. The blessings and curses of our new internet based society! Sorry about that. – Trip
I went to AJ Strat’s site and watched & listened to the youtube clip of Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver. Now I am past appalled, stumbling into the precinct of retch. The emptiness of the Empty Suit is now revealed in all its emptiness and conceit and evasion and lack of real empathy.
Do you suppose that liberals and conservatives could agree on one thing?
No more candidates from either party that don’t have a track record of accomplishments to gauge their competence?
Please!!!
File this in the too bizarre to be fiction department:
“This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today. Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work.”
This disclaimer by publisher Wilder Publications is on their paperback book, “The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation”.
http://chicksontheright.com/2010/06/05/the-us-constitution-now-has-a-warning-label-you-guys/
You just can’t make this stuff up!
What can you think about this?? Is there a difference between “never forget” and “always remember”?
http://www.improvedclinch.com/index.php/weblog/not_meant_to_honor_-_what_are_they_thinking/
Here’s yet another of interest – though different topic:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/06/final-straw.html
comment: BrianE #6
Caught that item a few days ago and thought this is the upending of the very foundation of the country. Expect to see a rewrite of sorts entitled:
“The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation for Dummies”. Parents should check with their local unions, representatives and all social justice programs before making any rash, biased or personal decisions.
Is there a difference between “never forget” and “always remember”?
A thought provoking question with or without the link.
Never forget evokes from me that something bad happened and was caused by evil and
always remember are the words we use to mitigate the suffering and to honor those who have gone before us.
Back to you suek with this final straw.
Disgraced Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff has a message for his victims from prison — ‘F*** you’ — the New York Post revealed Sunday citing a report in New York magazine.
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpps/news/brazen-bernie-madoff%27s-offensive-jail-message-dpgonc-km-20100606_7943831
Just goes to show…he’s just a common criminal like all the others with whom he shares space. He just had a slightly different talent.
On his side, though…there’s an old saying …something about not being able to con an honest man… Something about the fact that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is, and the fact that he was promising return rates that were obviously well above any others around. Which leads to the conclusion that there was a bit of larceny in those who invested with him. He was simply the cleverer fox.
And now we all support him in a comfortable retirement. 3 hots and a cot. Makes you want to reconsider the death penalty for some of these guys, doesn’t it!
…bit of larceny in those who invested with him
Not the entire list. I don’t believe that all the victims and the subsequent victims had larceny in mind; he decimated charities and foundations.
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/st_madoff_victims_20081215.html
Death penalty would be too merciful for Madoff – quartering the SOB has a better ring to it.
Neo-neocon nails it in her latest post, on the Helen Thomas “apology”. Book, with her love and respect for language, will love this too I think:
From neoneocom.com:
Well, at least Helen Thomas…
…didn’t tell the Israelis to “go back to Auschwitz,” like a passenger on the Mavi Marmara told an Israeli Navy radio operator initially contacting the Turkish ship. The speaker was one of those gentle “peace activists,” no doubt.
And by the way, when did the words “I regret” come to constitute an apology? Here’s the full statement Helen Thomas released in an attempt to absolve herself after her initial offensive remarks—and remember, this woman is a writer, so we can assume she is choosing her phrases carefully here:
Are these words of apology? Where is any indication that Thomas acknowledges her moral transgression? And to whom is she “apologizing?” There is no object of this so-called apology.
Translation of Thomas’s statement:
I wish I hadn’t said it, and I especially wish I hadn’t gotten caught on camera saying it.
But I don’t take it back, I won’t apologize to those evil Israelis/Jews. Instead, I’ll put out some cover words that indicate I want peace to come to the Middle East. Of course, my idea of “peace” in the Middle East is for the illegitimate Israelis to leave the area and make it Judenrein, as I made crystal clear in my previous, more spontaneous, statement.
And then I’ll speak in some general moral equivalency terms about respect and tolerance on both sides—a respect and tolerance I completely failed to show towards the Israelis. That sort of non-apology ought to do the trick and get me off the hook with the idiots who don’t think too deeply.
Whatever has happened to words, and our understanding of what they mean?
One more (apologies for many posts).
This video was produced sometime before May 28th, and highighted at hotair.com on May 28.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVehAAwh0gY
My oh my, what an effective and powerful video. By the time it ends, you’ve gotten sick sick sick. And angry angry angry.
More than a week has gone by since then. The Obama Administration looks even more idiotic, incompetent, and even nefarious. I’m definitely beginning to believe that in their complete shallowness, they thought for weeks that an oil spill was a good thing. Given that kind of crazed partisan ideological blindness, they couldn’t see the seriousness until it was too late. And I’m convinced many in this sickening Obama Administration still believe the oil spill is a good thing (Their take: Let’s not move too fast on this silly oil spill thing, because it is exposing the hateful things that evil Man is doing to Gentle Mother Earth, just like evil Imperialist America is doing to all the Peaceful People Of Color around the world.)
The Anchoress post – highlighting that the Obama Administration released its “timeline of knowledge” that revealed they knew how bad this was going to be within 24 hours of the platform blowing up – is very very good as well.
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/theanchoress/2010/06/05/obama-knew-spill-scope-from-day-1/
How to characterize this Adminstration?
Incompetence? Nefariousness? Or some ridiculous, ideology-driven combination of the two?
Actively malevolent towards America, because their agenda usually – at best – doesn’t include any consideration for benefits to America. In fact, often in their drive to “reduce the effects of American imperialism throughout the World”, they actually *are* doing *active* harm to American interests, abroad and at home. Perhaps they *are* deliberately driving our debt up to cause a massive collapse in the near future, as that is guaranteed to put us into severe, unrecoverable economic crisis, and thus guarantee to weaken our “imperialist presence in the world”… AND put in place many beloved socialist programs that can never be paid for, to boot.
So, how to characterize the Obama Administration? Not just incompetent, not just mistaken? Should we characterize the Obama Administration as actively malevolent towards our beloved country? Perhaps YES.
Short n Sweet: (actually not sweet at all, a real downer of a prognosis)
—–
Bond markets could get very nasty over the coming months, while stock investors could take a few months off and stop attempting to trade volatile swings in the markets, Anthony Fry, senior managing director at Evercore Partners, told CNBC Monday.
“The current problems will be with us for 5 years or more and uncertainty is very high,” Fry said.
Fry says the best we can hope for in the current environment is a soft landing, but sees little chance of this happening.
“Look at the current situation. You have Greece, now you have Hungary and huge issues surrounding Spain and Portugal,” he said.
Fry believes many European banks have yet to fess up on losses and says governments across the world are between a rock and a hard place.
“Governments need to cut spending and raise money and if they do not do so credibly will be killed by the bond market demanding higher rates,” he said.
—–
And he doesn’t even mention further Obama policies coming at us (such as Cap-n-Trade, etc. The Obama policies that increase risk, are anti-competitive and anti-business, thus ensuring bad stock market results, but even worse, continued low employment numbers, as businesses continue to fear the Obama Administration, its desire to harm businesses and rail against them, and the resulting bad economy.
One more (apologies for many posts).
I don’t accept. No need for any apology when they shed light and thought and clever rants.
The snip below caught my eye…
“The current problems will be with us for 5 years or more and uncertainty is very high,” Fry said. Fry says the best we can hope for in the current environment is a soft landing, but sees little chance of this happening.
After September 11, 2001 I was convinced that the economic effects would haunt us for 10-20 years. I have yet to see anyone connect the dots, but they’re in Iraq, Afghanistan, the cost of security in and out of the country with home grown and imported jihadists and the biggest dot – the election of our dear leader. Somewhere I either read or heard, that Obama could not have won without George Bush’s presidency, which I judge to mean that the voters with a limited capacity for understanding what a war on terror meant, opted ‘out’ of the war without blinking. Had this same mindset been in place 66 years ago, we would be pressing ’1′ to speak English.
Of course, we realize that the rotten and rotting economic policies were already in place prior to GWB and continued unabated, which gave the impetus go full throttle in 2006 in a race to catch up with the EURO (1999). Well … we see that the birth of the EURO along with it’s social justice programs are part and parcel of weak markets and add to that the reality that the we/America fund the IMF, which funds the folly in Europe and it’s clear that the future is anything but.
This wasn’t short and this wasn’t sweet, either.
“we would be pressing ‘1′ to speak English.”
Probably 3 instead of 1. 1 for German. 2 for Russian.
This is short. Not especially sweet, but funny, nevertheless…! Reminds me of “Who’s on First…”
Our enemies ought to be hated. Not because we desire revenge upon them for ourselves but because they are enemies of humanity and it is in the interest of all humans to terminate them. Those that choose to side against us, inevitably are choosing to work for themselves rather than working towards a mutual beneficial relationship with all mankind.
Mike Devx
STOP whatever you are doing and read this written in 2000 on the Euro and it’s first year.
What countries jump off this page and onto the front page of the news.
http://www.nber.org/feldstein/euro.html
suek, Bless you for today’s giggles.
comment: Ymar
Probably 3 instead of 1. 1 for German. 2 for Russian.
Except on the west coast where 3. Japanese would be added.
Sadie #21,
The link (from the year 2000) is really interesting. It comes close to predicting everything that is coming to pass with the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain). In particular:
> Most of the high unemployment in Europe now is not cyclical but structural, reflecting bad welfare policies, bad regulations, and high taxes. The ability to solve these problems should be separate from the monetary arrangement. And yet I suspect that EMU will reduce the likelihood that countries will solve these structural problems.
For me it was a real stunner. I found the link after my Euro/pe rant.
about the author…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Feldstein
Harvard again. Obviously there wasn’t any available time in Obama’s law class schedule to take any classes from this gentleman…