Superbowl Halftime 2002

This is awesome.







thanks to the anchoress for the reminder

New website

Well, I just set up a web server on my laptop.

www.EntropyAtWork.BoldlyGoingNowhere.org

My new website. Dont ask questions about the domain name... it was free and I liked it. that is all.

Anyway, there is nothing ON the website yet except for the default Apache page. And the site will only be available when my laptop is turned on... but i still think it is pretty cool.

This was just an exercise to learn more about networks and the nuts and bolts of the internet. I will make an actual web page eventually...

there's Josh! although I contest that this quiz is grossly simplistic and incomplete...

what a family of political diversity...

This is mom:

This is me:

Libertarian!

But I ain't votin' fer Dr. Paul...that's fer sher...

What's your score?

Thanks to Anchoress

The Invasion of the Nanny State

If you needed more evidence that environmentalism is the new fascism, and that environmentalists' goal is more control of your life (thinly disguised as "concern for the environment"), then look no further than the proposed revisions to Title 24 in the state of California. Title 24 is the manual of standards that governs the construction industry with respect to matters of energy efficiency. It provides the standards needed for calculating the size of your windows, capacities of your air conditioner and heater, and how much insulation needs to be in your walls and attic. Ever wonder why your new toilet clogs so much, or why it takes 2 flushes to coax the load down? You can probably blame your state's construction standards and the water-conservationists who forced through those water-usage limits.

On January 30 the California Energy Commission will consider recommended revisions to their building standards that include the requirement for what is called a "programmable thermostat control", or PCT.

Every new home and every change to existing homes' central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision. Each PCT will be fitted with a "non-removable " FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose. During "price events" those changes are limited to +/- four degrees F and you would be able to manually override the changes. During "emergency events" the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them. -Joseph Samsel

Temperature disagreements between husband and wife are bad enough - but who do you think will win the battle between the homeowner and the nanny state? Is there any question with regard to where we are headed with this proposal? With their foot in the door, it won't be long before there are state-controlled settings for your thermostat. You can bank on that.

This is scary stuff, kiddos. And don't believe it's not occurring nation-wide. I think the toilet water usage standard is federal. Incandescent light bulbs is another more recent example. Auto fuel efficiency standards are also in this category. Once we sign away our right to make our own decisions, we will not get that right back without a fight. What ever you do, don't let them take away your guns...


**UPDATE**

The NCTimes is reporting:

The California Energy Commission will remove a proposed mandatory control feature from thermostats required in new homes, Claudia Chandler, the commission’s assistant executive director, said Friday.

The control feature, specified in an upcoming revision to building codes, would have required so-called Programmable Communicating Thermostats to be installed with the air conditioning systems of new homes. These thermostats would have deferred in emergencies to a radio signal broadcast by utilities, removing control from customers.

After public protests, Chandler said, the commission decided to remove the mandatory provision from the proposal for the “Title 24″ energy efficiency standards. Staff will make the recommendation at the energy commission’s Jan. 30 meeting, and the new proposal would be taken up at a later meeting.

Sources: American Thinker; NC Times
Thanks to Patterico for the tip

I suppose it's Ron Paul for America...

I'm reading Atlas Shrugged over my last week of break, and was doing some reading on Ayn Rand when I came across this, and found it interesting:

Both [conservatives and liberals] hold the same premise—the mind-body dichotomy—but choose opposite sides of this lethal fallacy.

The conservatives want freedom to act in the material realm; they tend to oppose government control of production, of industry, of trade, of business, of physical goods, of material wealth. But they advocate government control of man's spirit, i.e., man's consciousness; they advocate the State's right to impose censorship, to determine moral values, to create and enforce a governmental establishment of morality, to rule the intellect. The liberals want freedom to act in the spiritual realm; they oppose censorship, they oppose government control of ideas, of the arts, of the press, of education (note their concern with "academic freedom"). But they advocate government control of material production, of business, of employment, of wages, of profits, of all physical property—they advocate it all the way down to total expropriation.

The conservatives see man as a body freely roaming the earth, building sand piles or factories—with an electronic computer inside his skull, controlled from Washington. The liberals see man as a soul freewheeling to the farthest reaches of the universe—but wearing chains from nose to toes when he crosses the street to buy a loaf of bread.

Yet it is the conservatives who are predominantly religionists, who proclaim the superiority of the soul over the body, who represent what I call the "mystics of spirit." And it is the liberals who are predominantly materialists, who regard man as an aggregate of meat, and who represent what I call the "mystics of muscle."

This is merely a paradox, not a contradiction: each camp wants to control the realm it regards as metaphysically important; each grants freedom only to the activities it despises. Observe that the conservatives insult and demean the rich or those who succeed in material production, regarding them as morally inferior—and that the liberals treat ideas as a cynical con game. "Control," to both camps, means the power to rule by physical force. Neither camp holds freedom as a value. The conservatives want to rule man's consciousness; the liberals, his body.