It's Dot Com

From the waaaayback machine: http://www.homestarrunner.com/firsttime.html

It's Homestar Runner. Stuff so dumb, it makes you laugh. Click the link, you know you want to.

God's Blueprint For Fathers

Been studying over at Scott Hahn's site, SalvationHistory.com, and came across this snippet, where Hahn lays out God's blueprint for being a father (even to a wayward child).

God in Exodus truly reveals himself to be the divine Father of Israel (see too Deuteronomy 32:6). He saves His children (see Exodus 12:29-31), clothes them (see Exodus 12:35-36), guides them (see Exodus 13:21-22), feeds them (see Exodus 16:1-17:7) protects them (see Exodus 14:10-29; 17:8-16), teaches them (see Exodus 20:1-17; 21:1-23:33), and lives with them (see Exodus 25:8; 40:34-38).

Food for thought.

The Drunk Train

Earlier in the month I had the opportunity to ride the Drunk Train.

I hadn't intended to do that, but that's how it worked out. We had gone into DC to celebrate my brother's birthday at RFD (Regional Food and Drink). RFD bills themselves as:

RFD is code for B-E-E-R and no place in town has a beer list quite like it. In fact, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER proclaimed RFD’s tap lineup the "Best Draft Beer Selection" in all of DC.

RFD is the sister bar to DC’s legendary 53 year old Brickskeller and offers over 30 beers on tap, including a cask-conditioned ale and constantly rotating selection of rare beers and specialty handcrafts. That extensive list is further expanded by RFD's 300-plus inventory of bottled beers from around the world. At the full-service bar, premium liquors and wines are also available, including an impressive list of single-malts and small-batch bourbons.

It was the cask-conditioned ale and rare beers we were after. My brothers and I have developed a wide (read eclectic) taste in beer, so going to a place where there was hard to get varieties was an enticement indeed. The show we went to didn't end until after 9:00pm so we didn't get to RFD until closer to 10:00pm. A couple of taste tests and a lot of yakkity-yak later, and next thing we know we're closing the joint. So we trundled off to catch the Metro homeward.

Apparently the show was just beginning.

There were several knots of people sprinkled about the train, huddling themselves against obviously too much drink. Some looked green, some were giggly, and others were nearly oblivious; we were amused.

Suddenly the Metro operator starts blathering over the intercom keeping up a steady patter of chatter and sound effects.

If you feel you are about to throw up, please wait until you exit the train to do so. I don't feel so good ... Bleeaaachh!

Did he just pretend to ralph over the microphone?!

I'm a train engineer, not a janitor!

Yup. We were regaled with impressions of Yoda, rappers, Englishmen, Aussies, and similar inanities. I think the guy was enjoying his job a little too much. It was certainly ... different.

Once was funny, but I don't think I'd want Mr. Toad's Wild Ride as a regular thing.

Health Care Bill - Geek Style 2

"U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills."

So how can there be a Senate version of the proposed Health Care (insurance) Reform Bill? Because they are playing games with parliamentary rules, that's why. They just take an existing House bill, gut it, and insert whatever they want into it. This trick is as old as the country probably. Just one of many beefs that I have with the process; and yes, I do have a degree in this.

Here is the text in the current Senate bill where this shell game gets played:

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES—111th Cong., 1st Sess.

H. R. 3590

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify
the first-time homebuyers credit in the case of members
of the Armed Forces and certain other Federal employees,
and for other purposes.

Referred to the Committee on ____ and ordered to be printed

Ordered to lie on the table and to be printed

AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE intended
to be proposed by Mr. REID (for himself, Mr. BAUCUS,
Mr. DODD, and Mr. HARKIN) _____

Viz:
1 Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following:
[text of bill]

Now I don't know what is so hard about reading these things, assuming that this is the actual bill and not the "plain text version" touted by Sen. Thomas Carper (D.-Del.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, who claimed that he wouldn't (or couldn't) read the bill before voting on it.

Sure there are a bunch of cross-references to other laws (but that's what libraries are for -- you look them up) and a bunch of self references (paragraph ii, part b), but it's no harder than a programming language where you first:

1) define the variables and functions, and then
2) reference the variables from the main program or sub.

I mean, honestly, if you're not smart enough to read and understand the laws you're voting on, then maybe we need to vote in somebody who can. I'm reading it, and other than needing a few clarifications on what the impact of

‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—The following provisions of
this title shall apply to a grant made under this section to the same extent and in the same manner as such provisions apply to allotments made under section 502(c):"

means, I don't think it's too hard to follow. You just have to follow each thought to its logical extension (that's the real work). I know what the words mean, the question is what would that really DO to people, markets, actual services in the real world?

Bottom line: if you can program (or read) in any G3 or G4 language, scripting language, or macro language, then you are probably smarter than your average Congressman.

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival #32

This week on Sunday Snippets WBN presents: Catholic All Over - A Geographic Spread. We know that the word Catholic means universal, so it's no surprise to find Catholic goings-on all over.

• First stop: check the map. What's the difference between a heretic and a politician? Sometimes it can be hard to tell.
• Next -- Go West old fart. Two aging Texas Rangers try to figure out the differences between love and responsibility in A Little Lonesome Dove.
• Back East, Catholics in D.C. defend the ancient faith from the encroachment on conscience and traditional marriage.
• In the Old World, the aggressively secular EU insist on electing a Catholic as their first President. Perversity or Providence?
  

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Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share your best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community. To participate, create a post highlighting posts that would be of interest to Catholics and link to the host blog at http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com. Go to the host blog and leave a comment giving a link to your post.

Still Life With Cameraphone: Caged

Spent the week at a co-location facility in a cage with the fans and the cold. Looks cool. Nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there.

Health Care Bill - Geek Style

There are some things that only a geek could love about the proposed Senate Health Care Bill -- maybe the only things to love about it.

My U.S. Senator, Jim Webb, alerted me to the health care proposal linked from his Web site. I give him credit for that since I have sent him more than one email stating my opinion (not that he actually read it).

My first attempt to download and read this massive omnibus bill resulted in this error. My default reader couldn't open it, so I was forced to download Adobe Reader.

Sigh. Doesn't bode well.

• From the graphic you can tell that the file is a healthy size: 2.5 MB and 2,074 pages.
• According to the properties, the creating program is ACOMP.exe version 2.0, Nov 24 2008 on Windows-- possibly a custom typesetting system or even an AutoLISP compiler.

UPDATE (h/t kalendello) : ACOMP.exe appears to be the "creator" part of Adobe Distiller (a compiler) as seen in this similar code: /Producer (Acrobat Distiller 5.0.5 \(Windows\)) /Creator (ACOMP.exe WinVer 2.0 Nov 24 2008)

• The original file name is Merge2.lc; LC files may be Textbridge Classic bin file (aka Optical Software Recognition (OCR) scanner software).
• The PDF software used is Adobe Acrobat Distiller 9.2.0 (Windows)
• The PDF is secured by Password Encryption using 128-bit RC4
  
• The operating system used to create the file is Windows XP or later, as evidenced by the directory name DOCUME~1 (Documents and Settings) and confirmed by the lack of 8 dot 3 restrictions and long file name: patient-protection-affordable-care-act.pdf
• The user name and home directory of the person who created the final file is "bai".

Opening the file you can immediately see that the file was converted and merged from 9 separate XML files. The header on each page has the following line or similar:

O:\BAI\BAI09M01.xml [file 1 of 9] S.L.C.

• I have no idea what S.L.C. means.
• User BAI has a Windows networked mapped drive O: (home or shared drive?) that has a folder called BAI; the file name is BAI09M01.xml. BAI (user's name) 09 (2009?) M01 (no idea)
  

File 2 of 9 has this header:

O:\ERN\ERN09C11.xml [file 2 of 9] S.L.C.

• Again a mapped O: network drive, this time folder ERN (home or shared drive), ERN may be the user's initials.
• File 2 file name: ERN09C11.xml; ERN (user initials) 09 (2009) C11 (no idea)

The rest is just the same:

O:\MAL\MAL09863.xml [file 3 of 9]
O:\BAI\BAI09M04.xml [file 4 of 9]
O:\KER\KER09924.xml [file 5 of 9]
O:\MAL\MAL09852.xml [file 6 of 9]
O:\KER\KER09925.xml [file 7 of 9]
O:\ERN\ERN09B60.xml [file 8 of 9]
O:\OTT\OTT09505.xml [file 9 of 9]

So BAI, MAL, KER, ERN, and OTT put this document together. Interesting.

Other miscellany:

• Fonts: DeVinne, New Century Schoolbook, Times-Roman, Symbol, Gpospec5
• PDF version 1.5 (Acrobat 6.x), can be opened by Acrobat 6.0 or greater
• 8.5 x 11.0 paper
  

And we determined all that without any special tools at all. Remember to clean up your metadata!

EU President Is A Catholic

Well, the waiting is over and the EU has picked its first President -- and it's not Tony Blair. Sorry, Tony, that's gotta smart. (But then again, we weren't pulling for you.)

[WSJ] BRUSSELS -- European Union leaders picked the low-key prime minister of Belgium and a British trade representative who has never held elected office as the bloc's first president and foreign minister.

Reuters

Herman Van Rompuy became prime minister after a tenuous coalition between Belgium's French and Dutch speakers fell apart.

There had been weeks of horse trading, but the heads of the 27 EU nations settled quickly and unanimously on Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton over dinner here Thursday after former British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- who had been hoping for a political revival -- lost the backing of his government.

Mr. Van Rompuy, a Christian Democrat from Belgium's Dutch-speaking north, belongs to the largest party in Belgium's fragmented politics. A devout Catholic and a conservative, he has a graduate degree in economics and spent several years as Belgium's budget minister.

He is seen as a quiet figure but a forceful negotiator and a keen seeker of compromise.

I wish them all the best of luck; but as regards the EU as currently constituted, the saying applies, "this can only end in tears".

Real World Crypto

Compare this:

[Slashdot] "It seems that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center, known as C3, has replaced its '$8,000 Tableau/Dell server combination' with more efficient and much cheaper $300 PS3s. Each PS3 is capable of 4 million passwords per second, and C3 currently has 20 PS3s with plans to buy 40 more. Naturally this is only being used to break encryption on computers seized with a warrant and suspected of harboring child pornography."

With this:

Catholics In DC Act Like Catholics

People are shocked, shocked, to find out that Catholics are behaving like Christians.

The very idea that a religion would have deeply held beliefs and tenets, and that its members and affiliated groups would actually act on those beliefs is, well, shocking.

The histrionics that permanently characterize Washington D.C. politics are on display again as the D.C. Council imposed its Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 on its residents without submitting it to a popular vote. This effort was championed (surprise) by David Catania, one of the two openly gay members of the legislature. Proponents of this measure are all in a huff that Catholic archdiocese leaders found that there are not enough exemptions to this social engineering law for them to practice their religion.

As usual, the aggressors blame the victim and the progressive media has predictably piled on. (We would remind our readers that progressive refers to an attitude in time, rather than a transcendent truth.)

However, there are voices of reason. Jonetta Rose Barras writes a column in the Washington Examiner where she says that the church should keep the faith by choosing God over Government.

[Washington Examiner] Threat. Demand. Blackmail. Childish. Ultimatum. Those were a few of the words used last week in the media and elsewhere to describe the Archdiocese of Washington's stated intention of ending its contractual relationship with the city, if the D.C. Council doesn't amend its homosexual marriage legislation to provide additional protections to religious organizations.

Currently, the archdiocese, through its social services arm, Catholic Charities, cares for about 68,000 people in the District. Its counseling, homeless shelter and adoption programs are funded with a combination of about $20 million in government contracts and about $10 million of its own money. Those services are now in jeopardy.

Church leaders took heat last week as they made it clear they would not abandon fundamental tenets of their religious doctrine, which among other things asserts that homosexual relations is a sin. They have said they cannot provide certain services, including employee benefits, to gay couples. Those declarations came after a legislative committee approved the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009.

Faced with a choice between God and government, not surprisingly the archdiocese and Catholic Charities chose God.

Far from being demanding or threatening, the Archdiocese of Washington is simply reacting to the actions of the DC Council. The Church leaders are saying that if you force them to act against their consciences, they simply won't provide those services for the City.

Although some might applaud the Church's exit from the social services scene, the real losers are the 68,000 Washingtonians who benefit from Catholic Charities' counseling, adoption, and homeless programs to which it contributes its own $10 million.

The Church will continue to care for the poor and disadvantaged in DC as far as allowed by law, but it doesn't have to do it for the city.

A Little Lonesome Dove

Found myself watching Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry again. I'm not a big Western fan but both the movie and the book are really well done. The subject matter is rather gritty and earthy (not a family movie) but it does deal with some penetrating issues.

The characters are studies in contrasts who are faced with various moral decisions and sometimes simply with survival. The main characters are Woodrow F. Call and Augustus McCrae; one is serious, a workaholic, a noble leader but out of touch with his feelings and moral responsibilities while the other is a free spirit who loves freely in body and heart, avoids work, but has true mettle underneath it all. Both of them are crusty Rangers and best of friends.



One does the right things for the wrong reasons, the other does the wrong things for the right reasons. Putting it in theological terms in the words of author Peter Kreeft, [Call] "wrongly [destroys] heretics in order rightly to destroy heresies; [Gus] wrongly loves heresies in order rightly to love heretics."

Lonesome Dove is a study in forks in the road of otherwise parallel paths.

That, and it has cool fights.

What's In A Political Spectrum?

Somebody asked (and I didn't know): What is the opposite of Libertarian? Well, according to Time magazine:

And what is the opposite of libertarianism? Libertarians would say fascism.

But in the American political context, it is something infinitely milder that calls itself communitarianism.

The term is not as familiar, and communitarians are far less organized as a movement than libertarians, ironically enough. But in general communitarians emphasize society rather than the individual and believe that group responsibilities (to family, community, nation, the globe) should trump individual rights.

Now if you believe this site at GoToQuiz.com, these are the categories:Yet another sampling from speakout.com shows this grouping:


This one is interesting for what they include (thoughtsaloud.com):

And remember, this only takes into account modern U.S. politics. Whoever gets to define the terms frames the debate and argues on their own turf.

Terms are so important.

Amazing Wins

I thought it was over with 4 minutes to go and the Patriots up 17 points. But the ever-resilient Colts (go Peyton Manning!) slugged it out to a 35-34 finish. Never say die!

Even the woeful Washington Redskins chalked up a convincing win today by 10 points over the Broncos.

Dallas lost and nearly got shut out by the Packers, and Farve led the Vikings to a comfortable win over the Lions. All in all a happy football day.

Defining Terms

Sometimes it's helpful to tell it like it is.

There has been a lot of label slinging lately. Lots of it by people who don't have much idea what the labels mean. People conflate theology, social policy, and partisan politics (is there any other kind?) with disastrous results. Their rhetoric is completely unintelligible. Unfortunately this happens on all sides.

In order to have a meaningful discussion (especially if you're going to disagree with someone or something) it's helpful to define the terms you're going to use. That's why I love this snippet from author Peter Kreeft's book, Handbook of Christian Apologetics; it has the advantage of being very clear and sharp. (h/t CL)

"Conservative", as opposed to "progressive" refers to something in time and history; not eternal truths. Right wing vs left wing has nothing to do with Christian apologetics.

The correct theological term for many who label themselves "liberal" theologians is "heretics" . Since most heretics today no longer believe in the very idea of essential doctrines, they do not accept the label.

The Spanish Inquisition wrongly destroyed heretics in order rightly to destroy heresies; modern "liberals" wrongly love heresies in order rightly to love heretics.

More on that later.

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival #31

This week on Sunday Snippets, WBN presents: Fences and Fridges. Some weeks life is just kind of ordinary, but that is where we are called to live most of our lives, so we might as well do it as well as we can.

• The Dump Is Fun -- you can find quality time in unlikely places
• Fridge Psychology -- what does your fridge say about your family?
• Good Fences Make Good Neighbors Part 2 -- or what I got for my birthday
  

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Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share your best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community. To participate, create a post highlighting posts that would be of interest to Catholics and link to the host blog at http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com. Go to the host blog and leave a comment giving a link to your post.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors Part 2

I posted before about my neighbor putting up a fence with her money to keep her dogs out of my yard. The workmen finally came and put it up. The small fence to the left belongs to my other back yard neighbor. Yes, my yard is that big.


She came over and was very apologetic that they put it up backwards (i.e., with the frame facing my yard instead of the smooth side). She offered to have them re-do it, but it was cold and raining, so I said no. Plus, having the frame on my side will give my kids something to climb on if that should become necessary. Also, when the fence shrinks as it dries, I can always put lumber on my side to "plug the holes" if the dog continues to be a problem.

So, for $85 dollars worth of taking the old deck wood to the dump, I got a new fence at no additional cost to me.

Bonus.

It's The Thought That Counts

Saw this in the bottom of the open Pentagon City Mall parking garage: Disaster Refuge Area. It was sitting in front of a 2 foot square locked storage shed. Brilliant, eh?


But they thought of having one. That counts for something, right?

Just saying.

Saving It For Later?

I come home, open the fridge and see this empty plate with a tiny pizza crust on it.

Now, since I'm not home every minute of every day I don't know every detail of everything that goes on. But my fridge is a microcosm of daily life that tells strange half-stories: yogurt with the spoon left in, open cups with a swallow left at the bottom, dinner plates with unidentifiable contents, condiments that travel from shelf to shelf, leftovers in oversized containers.

These things mystify me almost as much as the motivations behind them. I'm not a particularly organized person -- except for the refrigerator. I like to see my food and know where and how much of it there is. I like for my food to stay in the kitchen. I like to put something down and know that it'll be there when I return for it (this never happens).

I've taken to buying food that nobody likes: strong flavors, stinky food. Olives and ginger and hot sauce; pickles and okra and smelly cheese; mushrooms and spinach and asparagus; sushi and kimchi and wasabi; garlic and onions and mole sauce and exotic fruit.

The Nodlings are catching up, however -- they are starting to like my stuff. Already the olives, pickles, okra, cheese, mushrooms, spinach, and even the mole sauce are "gone" by one or another of the cohort.

Pretty soon all that will be left is an empty plate with a crust on it. Oops, too late.

The Dump Is Fun?

My kids like the dump; I don't know why.

They compete with each other to see who gets to go with Dad whenever we have a big load to get rid of. Nod-girl won the toss this time. I use it as one-on-one time with the Nodlings, so it seems special to them. As anybody in a big family knows, one-on-one time is better than gold.

The dump is a fascinating place: there's lots of big machines; people going in all directions; and, er, interesting smells. Our dump is not the real dump, but a Waste Transfer Station, where they collect the trash in huge dumpsters and then truck it to the landfill.

They recently redesigned the place, making it wide open and easy to navigate. Instead of going to the covered "Big House" you now back up to railings that you pitch your stuff into the below giant dumpsters.

For really heavy stuff you have to get weighed on the way in and then again on the way out. With all this old deck wood in my truck I dumped an even ton (2000 lbs)!

I don't think they would have picked that up from my curb.

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival #30

This week on Sunday Snippets, WBN presents All in the family: a jam-packed week of posts that cover the gamut of our Christian family, including the Saints, reuniting with our separated bretheren, field trips to great church architectures, some Shroud trivia, a dash of theology, and a rant against society's bias against big families.

• Upside Down Theology
• All Saints Are Family
• Anglicans Opt For Rome
• Sugar Coated Shroud
• National City Christian Church
  
• No Respect For Big Families
  

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Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival is a weekly opportunity to share your best posts with the wider Catholic blogging community. To participate, create a post highlighting posts that would be of interest to Catholics and link to the host blog at http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com. Go to the host blog and leave a comment giving a link to your post.