| Friday, January 2 2009 |
Good stuff.
I came across a pretty good interview-- well, really it's more a collection of quotes arranged in a very odd way and called an interview-- but still, regardless of formatting, one does not ignore what Clint has to say.
We live in more of a pussy generation now, where everybody's become used to saying, "Well, how do we handle it psychologically?" In those days, you just punched the bully back and duked it out. Even if the guy was older and could push you around, at least you were respected for fighting back, and you'd be left alone from then on.
...
I remember going to a huge waterfall on a glacier in Iceland. People were there on a rock-platform overlook to see it. They had their kids. There was a place that wasn't sealed off, but it had a cable that stopped anybody from going past a certain point. I said to myself, You know, in the States they'd have that hurricane-fenced off, because they're afraid somebody's gonna fall and some lawyer's going to appear. There, the mentality was like it was in America in the old days: If you fall, you're stupid.
posted by Mr. Lion
@
16:47 EST | comments
(0)
This I need.
While the practicality issues for any kind of range, or any kind of wind, are not slight, this is just universally awesome.
posted by Mr. Lion
@
11:41 EST | comments
(0)
| Wednesday, December 17 2008 |
Yeah, that'll work.
Well, I'm sure New Jersey is all sorts of happy with this nonsense.
ALBANY - Gov. Paterson's proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods - and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, too.
Trying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap, Paterson called for 88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an "iPod tax" that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other "digitally delivered entertainment services."
"We're going to have to take some extreme measures," Paterson said Tuesday after unveiling the slash-and-burn budget.
The proposal, which needs legislative approval, did not include broad-based income tax increases, but relied on smaller ones to raise $4.1 billion from cash-strapped New Yorkers.
Movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars and massages would be taxed under Paterson's proposal. It also extends sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and removes the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110.
Perish the thought of, say,
cutting spending, or making cities reduce the size of their bloated, perpetual-job police forces, or any other sane, rational approach to balancing a budget. Nay! We'll just tax everything that moves and more things that don't. Why, that'll solve everything!
If by "everything" one assumes the bottom line of every retail store, gas station and supermarket along the northern Jersey border, yeah-- I highly doubt they'll be complaining.
Idiot.
At least someone around here gets it, though.
State Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long warned that reinstating the sales tax on clothing and shoes will drive people to New Jersey, where they will also gas up their cars and pick up their wine, spirits and soda because the prices are less due to lower taxes. "You're sending notice to the people of New York that we really don't want you here," Long said. "The governor proposed flat spending, but why not actually cut the budget before raising taxes and fees?"
Golly, y-think?
posted by Mr. Lion
@
00:28 EST | comments
(2)
| Tuesday, November 25 2008 |
Source d'inspiration.
Here's another story you're unlikely to hear on the nightly news, but it's very worth reading. A reasonable translation can be had here.
We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while - they are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy. To the common man it is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them, and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most renowned units of the US Army - one that the movies brought to the public as series showing “ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events”. Who are they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day ? Few of them belong to the Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named Echo Company, and it has become the support company.
...
We seldom hear any harsh word, and from 5 AM onwards the camp chores are performed in beautiful order and always with excellent spirit. A passing American helicopter stops near a stranded vehicle just to check that everything is alright; an American combat team will rush to support ours before even knowing how dangerous the mission is - from what we have been given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to those who liberated France and Europe.
To those who bestow us with the honor of sharing their combat outposts and who everyday give proof of their military excellence, to those who pay the daily tribute of America’s army’s deployment on Afghan soil, to those we owned this article, ourselves hoping that we will always remain worthy of them and to always continue hearing them say that we are all the same band of brothers”.
It would appear that, for some Frenchmen, the spirit of Lafayette is alive and well.
posted by Mr. Lion
@
11:49 EST | comments
(1)
| Tuesday, November 11 2008 |
A wise man.
On Veteran's Day, you can do no better than learn from great men such as this guy.
Henry Allingham is one of a tiny number of people left to tell the story of the moment the Great War ended.
He was on active duty with the Royal Navy Air Service in Flanders when World War I ended on 11 November 1918.
...
Aged 112 he is now Britain's oldest person and, despite limited hearing and sight, he has dedicated his last years to telling the story of what he saw as a young man.
...
He cannot explain the secrets behind his long life - but has said it could have something to do with "whisky, and wild, wild women".
posted by Mr. Lion
@
11:54 EST | comments
(0)
What a shock.
Really didn't take the bastards long, but an AWB ban is once again in the works:
Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008 - Amends the federal criminal code to reinstate, for 10 years, the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act's assault weapons ban to prohibit the manufacture, transfer, or possession of a semiautomatic assault weapon or a large capacity ammunition feeding device. Specifies models and features of banned weapons.
My favorite part, of course, is this laughable bit:
Directs the Attorney General to study and report to Congress on the effects of this Act on violent and drug trafficking crime.
Hey, idiots, newsflash: It was studied the
last time we did it, and it had jack all of an effect on crime. All it did, as you damn pinheads know, is erode yet another Constitutionally protected right.
The fact that the usual RINO suspects put this mess together do little to illustrate that the real ones have learned a damn thing lately.
posted by Mr. Lion
@
11:40 EST | comments
(0)
| Monday, November 10 2008 |
Huh.
Just a rumor at the moment, but I've heard it from several sources now, and here's another:
According to 9to5Mac’s “hunch”, which we would hope to mean anonymous reliable source, Sony BMG will soon become the second major label to get on board with Apple’s iTunes Plus offering. iTunes Plus, for those not keeping score at home, is Apple’s name for higher quality DRM-free tracks offered through its store. If this rumor pans out, Sony BMG will join EMI in making 256kbit DRM-free tracks available through iTunes.
Sweet. Not that I care about the DRM-less part, as FairPlay has yet to stop me from doing anything I want to do with my music, but more relevant to my interest is the big bump in bitrate.
My guess would be that if Sony does do this, other majors will follow suit in relatively short order.
posted by Mr. Lion
@
01:31 EST | comments
(0)
| Friday, November 7 2008 |
Well on his way.
He's months away from being sworn into office, and already Obama is winning 2010 elections for Republicans. To wit, at the chaaaaaange propaganda site (as Collier aptly puts it), the following goodness.
The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.
There goes the youth vote for the next decade and change. And
then:
As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn't have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.
There goes the big red button that lost Clinton the house and senate in '94.
Change!
UPDATE: Well, that was quick. More change!
posted by Mr. Lion
@
23:57 EST | comments
(1)
CopyRight © 2002-2004 CapitalistLion.com All Rights
Reserved
Syndicated news: RSS 2.0 - RSS 1.0
