Congrats My Fellow Americans! Rejoice! The War on Terror is over!

How about that! The Long War /GWOT must have been one because it it no longer exists. The terrorist threat (really the threat to American way from the Global Islamofascist Movement with assistance from the hardcore Leftists enablers and useless idiots such as Transnational Progressives). While it is true, that the US may face a [...]

“Excellent. Okay, question one… Are you or have you ever been a member of the Taliban?”

Mike Baker speculates on where VP Biden got his numbers: Date: 24 February 2009 Call Center Employee: Redacted Subject: Call #4, Call recipient: Commander Mullah Omar and wife Judy Audio Transcript Dialing… ringtone… connection established: “Yes?” “Yes, good morning… is this Mr or Mrs Commander Mullah Omar?” “Who is this?” “Hi there, I’m calling from [...]

“TONIGHT AT 8:30, CELEBRATE HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT HOUR”

That works for me. I care nothing of the opposition and its nonsense.

Education X 5

Some education related links and thoughts here today: 1. Geolounge points to Carlton College using Google Earth to aid in teaching. 2. Econlog has a post on economics education where Kling asks for suggestions. I think concentrating on basic concepts (with broad applicability is a good idea. Kling also brings in entrepaunerlism by having his [...]

“Put it in me, Scott”

When I saw the commercial on TV I LOL’d: Kudos to Quizno’s. I think it has now been edited down to be safer for young viewers.

I want to believe, I want to consume

Yes I do! Source: http://nozama.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54ed05fc288330112798040b228a4-pi

“Douchebag spreadsheet manipulation is not in high demand right now…”

There is an interesting discussion of the merits/value of an MBA at Business Insider. As a MBA holder, there is much I regret about the time and effort that went into it. The cost was partially on me, partially on my employers. I had already devoured my company’s business library and was reading/practicing other stuff [...]

“Milwaukee County headed for huge deficits, study says” (Fixing Milwaukee series)

As reported in JSOnline.com: Despite repeated warnings, Milwaukee County has failed to fix deep-rooted budget problems that could blow up in a few years, says a study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Forum released Tuesday. The county’s long-term solvency may require state or other intervention unless Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and the County Board [...]

Fakery: “Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. Paul Ryan officially unveiled their proposal for a line-item veto…”

From JSOnline.com: Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. Paul Ryan officially unveiled their proposal for a line-item veto that would allow the president to trim earmarks from spending bills. How brave and courageous of them…except, its a fake out. A line-item veto is not constitutional. Authority for a President to have a line-item veto can only [...]

Found On You Tube: A Complete “Intro to Computer Networking” Class

You can watch the courses in turn here. Here is the first lecture: They have lots of engineering classes here.

One Way Investment Banks looted their customer: The IPO Process

I am just capturing my comment at TDAXP: One area in which Investment Bankers did great harm to the US Economy was in the area of handling IPOs. Investment Bankers essentially used the process as a means of looting wealth from the entrepreneurial firms going public for the benefit of the investment bank and some [...]

5GW Thinking Snippet from Nikita Khrushchev

From the The Wednesday Report: Nikita Khrushchev once said, “We cannot expect the American people to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism until they awaken one day to find they have Communism”. That sounds familiar.

“What will be a great surprise to the American people is that the GRU and KGB had a larger budget for antiwar propaganda in the United States that it did for economic and military support of the Vietnamese”

A great example in Influence Warfare (and it is 5GW-ish too) from USNAVYVET2002: The GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad. Funding was provided via undercover operatives or front organizations. These would fund another group that in turn would fund student organizations. The GRU [...]

Protectionism Rising?

I am troubled by the by the anti-free trade signals being made by USGOV toward Mexico as documented by TDAXP. I think the default view of many Americans (maybe all humans) is that of protectionism. I think our brains evolved in a zero-sum economic world, and while we are still evolving this is still la [...]

Silver Spoon Socialist Example

Via LGF: Here we see the current head of AIG Financial Products and former vice chairman of Morgan Stanley, Gerry Pasciucco, at an event called “Fiesta Cuba,” wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt. I don’t think I could come up with a better photo example of a Silver Spoon Socialist then the above – unless his [...]

“Nearly one-fifth of local streets – 193 miles – are now beyond their intended life spans, some by as many as 60 years.” (Fixing Milwaukee)

An interesting Milwaukee Journal report documented that Milwaukee CityGov can’t even manage the basic of street repair: But decaying roads can be found throughout the city’s 1,025-mile network – from the inner city to more affluent neighborhoods. The analysis also shows: • More than half of city streets have gone four decades or more without repaving. [...]

Wisconsin’s New Brand Logo is…”Live Like You Mean It”

Jeez. They might as well has chosen: – “Beyond Cheese” – “The taxes are not quite as high as you think. Really.” – “More Lakes then Minnesota and without the funny accents” – “We suck less then Michigan” – “The Clean-Air Suburb of Chicago”

USAv3 – Not getting closer

I came across this that I wrote at TDAXP in 2006: Canadian provinces will be free join when/if if the Canadian Union breaks apart (I assume Quebec will go it alone). The Western provinces would be a nice addition. Anyways, unless federalism is strong at the time they might not want to join. A free [...]

Entrepanuerial Solutions to the Bailout (On the Baliout aka The Great Looting)

How about new banks? Let Wal-Mart get into banking like they hinted at a few years ago. I could give a fuck if current bankers and their lackeys in congress are opposes. Wal-Mart would have a customer focus and would optimize. Hey, I’d even let the US Postal Service get back into banking. Let them [...]

Out-of-the-Box thinking on Pension and Social Security reform

From that Instapundit guy: But even much more modest progress–extending healthy middle age from 60 to, say, 80–would permit significant shifts in retirement ages and allow for a longevity dividend that could go a long way toward preventing the looming pension meltdown. Greater progress might make the problem go away entirely. So perhaps it would [...]

(Russian) Cyber Militia example

At Danger Room: A pro-Kremlin youth group has taken responsibility for the network attacks. And that group has a track record of conducting operations on Moscow’s behalf. Nashi (“Ours”) is the “largest of a handful of youth movements created by Mr. Putin’s Kremlin to fight for the hearts and minds of Russia’s young people in [...]

A reminder of why companies need to block outbound SSH

Noted in a comment at SlashDot: One day, I set up a PPP over SSH tunnel between my home computer, and my desktop at work. Transferring large binary files from my office network to my home computer was much closer to the original 3Mb/s speeds. There is no legitimate reason for the above. I t [...]

Social Engineer Caught? Security violation uncovered? Not.

A person called into my organization’s Help Desk from a remote facility. It got flagged as a social engineering attempt. Notes: – Caller was asking for a password reset – They knew the user’s name – They do not know the user’s userid – When repeatedly asked to spell the name, they continually made 2 [...]

“Long relegated to the portion of consumers that were interested in blue animals, dolphins have finally made their move to take over the other half of the Cetacean market share…”

Read about it at the always funny blog Fuck You Penguin. Read the comments too.

“More than one out of every five dollars of the $126 million Massachusetts is receiving in earmarks…is going to help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys”

Disgusting. The budget and the stimulus are a joke.