Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

Hey Capt Owen Honors can solve this problem…

Posted: January 3, 2011 by datechguy in oddities, opinion/news, war
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…all he has to do is apply for a NEA grant for his videos and then it will be considered art and all will be well.

I haven’t seen the full videos yet so I don’t know how far over lines he crossed but if this has been out for 5 years and the crews didn’t have an issue with it who am I to say otherwise? I’m inclined to give a bunch of folks trying to keep loose while deployed far from home a bit of a pass but I reserve the right to change my mind once I’ve seen the full videos.

Update: No one of any import asks if this is the start of a purge:

My gut feeling is, this guy was trying to connect with his crew in a positive way. He was trying to help sailors have fun. He was purposefully ignoring all manner of political correctness.

For that, I salute Captain Owen P. Honors.

We all know what political correctness gets us, anyway.

It gets us children who can’t call dogs “Nazis.”

It gets us children who can’t play Cowboys and Indians.

Goodness knows, it gets us Season’s Greetings instead of Christmas.

Oh, by the way. The USS Enterprise is scheduled to deploy soon. Are they going to replace its CO because of these four-year-old video clips? After the hard work that Captain Honors has successfully seen the ship through?

I hope not. We’ll see.

Captain Honors’ job is high-profile. This controversy comes two weeks after the repeal of DADT. Coincidence? The beginning of a purge? Or simply a disgruntled sailor, looking for revenge?

Her perspective is superior to mine on this issue.

Ignorance of the Tax law is no excuse

Posted: January 2, 2011 by datechguy in economy, opinion/news
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After recovering from the biggest Christmas open house ever I called my brother who had missed the party and inadvertently found out that I have some work to do ASAP.

Back when I owned a business decades ago I paid what was called quarterly wages, basically estimated tax payments.

Well I don’t remember how it came up (then again after a party that started at 2 p.m. and ended at 4 a.m. anything I remember today is a big bonus) but this also applies to individuals, that is: if you haven’t paid the vast majority of tax due the previous year by Jan 15th or so you pay an additional penalty.

Given the California IOU’s business (and just being broke) I suspect a lot of people didn’t have taxes deducted from unemployment. Given the massive amount of unemployment in the country, there are likely going to be millions upon millions of people getting a nasty tax penalty at the time they can least afford it.

For those who considered their unemployment “fun-employment” the party is about to end.

Christmas Open House today UPDATE: Guest count begins!

Posted: January 1, 2011 by datechguy in personal, special events
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4:00 a.m. The 70th guest left at this time and the party officially ended. Wow!

7:44 p.m. 63 and counting

5:40 p.m. 52 the record is broken

4:11 49 people already 3 shy of the record Wow!

42 at it’s not even 4 p.m. !

31 after 90 min holy guacamole!

Up to 28 and it’s only an hour in!

17

Update 3: 13 down 39 to go

Update: Two guys have come early, current guest count 2

Update 2: count now 11 41 to go for the record

My annual Christmas Open house is today from 2 p.m. till the last person leaves.

The rules are: turn up any time, stay as long as you want, leave any time. The party end when the last person leaves.

There is a VERY limited amount of beer and some booze but there is Lasagna, Ham, braciole, wings, sauce, meatballs, some sausage, deserts etc etc etc.

The only beer is a sixpack of Wachusett Country Ale (even though they aren’t advertising with me HINT HINT) so if you have a favorite you might want to bring it.

One note, due to today’s show I’ll be leaving around 8:15 p.m. to go to the studio, do the show and then come back, likely around 11:15 or so.

Remember the party ends when the last person leaves, the latest its gone is 2 a.m. and the earliest 10:45 but since DaScienceGuy will be in the car the last guest will be here till 11:15 at least.

There will be game systems set up in two rooms and many types of board games to choose from Apples to apples to Cave Troll to the munchkin games to chess.

So eat drink and be Merry and celebrate the 8th day of Christmas with us!

And if you want to know what to bring:

  • Your favorite Booze or beer in case we don’t have it (we have vodka, stoli, Rum and raspberry stoli, a little Lambrusco and some Chivas)
  • Ice
  • Or any dish you wish if you wish.

but mainly bring yourself.

And not to be a party popper but don’t be bringing drugs, if you do we will kick you out and call the cops on you.  And if you are under age I don’t care if your 21st birthday is tomorrow don’t even think of touching a drop of booze here or you will be kicked out and the cops called on you.

I regret talking about those death panels that aren’t really there

Posted: December 31, 2010 by datechguy in congress, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , ,

Remember that old death panel debate that the MSM called a lie when Sarah Palin brought it up, but then was suddenly pulled from the legislation? Well guess what:

And now they’re able to accomplish through regulatory fiat what they couldn’t get through Congress, even with a playing field tilted steeply in their favor.

Now the author of a memo on the subject being a representative of the people elected in an open election decided to of course be totally open about this…or not

“While we are very happy with the result, we won’t be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren’t out of the woods yet,” Mr. Blumenauer’s office said in an e-mail in early November to people working with him on the issue. “This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the ‘death panel’ myth.”

So according to Representative Blumenauer they shouldn’t talk about this “good thing” that they are doing because Republicans will know about. There’s open government for you.

Well now that the cat is out of the bad suddenly we hear a different tune from Representative Blumenauer

Blumenauer now says he regrets the letter’s secretive language, which has only bolstered conservatives’ claims that the Obama administration tried to sneak the provision in under the radar.

Yeah why would the idea that you said you didn’t want to let this be public make people think that you are doing something sneaky?

Weasel Zippers describes him best:

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Shhhh)

yet these same democrats from the land of Shhhh are accusing Republicans of a “lack of transparency”

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