Patrick’s Rants

I like cats ok… we had cats growing up. But I really didn’t want to get cats for our apartment. Never the less we have two cats - this was a longer process whereby a few died in the meantime; different illnesses.

One day my wife decided the shelf in the window shouldn’t be off limits to the cats anymore. I had been fighting with them for some time trying to keep them off the shelf and out of my plants. Suddenly I’m looking at the shelf with plants moved “just so” where the cats can sit looking out the window. I really didn’t think they should be in the window with the plants, but I was kind of overruled. Besides the cats need roughage, at least that’s what the chew marks on the plants seem to indicate. They also seem to need to stare out the window at whatever might be happening outside. Of course they sometimes need to stick their heads through the blinds to do this. Scratching at the screen seems to be required now too as they have been caught doing that as well.

In just the past week though, their behavior has gotten worse. I came home from work during the day to see the screen hanging out the second story window. I can only imagine that one of these precious pets decided to scratch at the screen, or even tried to see something else outside, and the screen fell out breaking the tabs near the bottom so the frame is worthless but somehow it managed to stay in the window hanging by the bottom rail. And I can just envision the poor cat hanging there, climbing back in afraid for all its nine lives. This hasn’t stopped them hanging out in the window though. Last night they were wrestling (if you have cats you know what I mean) on the shelf, knocking a full potted plant (don’t for one second imagine this was the first such plant mishap) right onto the floor.

Now my wife has decided to start making this off limits again to the cats by spraying them with water when they get up there.

It’s all her fault and she knows it.

I don’t normally push my politics on others (although I’m more than happy to discuss my views if asked), but the potential for this legislation to make the U.S. a technological third world is extremely high. If you thought outsourcing labor was a bad idea think what will happen when there are no internet sites to access in or from the U.S. because the content providers simply cannot afford to do business on a pay-per-view basis.

The internet was designed to be nuetral. Everyone gets best effort network availability. To change this the the way AT&T and others have suggested will effectively kill the internet making a toll road out of a freeway. Should Google have to pay Qwest (or whatever your baby bell happens to be) anytime someone does an online search? Only if you want to push the United States even further behind the rest of the world technologically speaking. Should the local newspaper be required to pay a toll when someone looks for a car to buy? Sure, if you want the paper to close up its web presence. What about the company that decides that telecommuting is in the best interest of its workers? That company is now being hampered by having to pay a toll to the local phone company.
The idea behind network neutrality is that no one group can control the internet or the content. Allowing companies to charge a toll (to do the job they are already paid *by you* to do) is ludicrous, will force locatilities that use the internet to provide service to their constituents to close up their web sites, and leave the U.S. as a rapidly fading spot in the rear view mirror of the rest of the world. Furthermore the sites that do survive the toll will end up looking more and more like the grotesque http://milliondollarhomepage.com

Sign this petition today. http://www.charleswsanders.org/petitions/pnum261.php

On a regular basis there are idiots out on the road. A digital camera would let me take photos of these morons who can’t seem to see my bus with the flashing red lights and the stop sign that sticks out on the driver’s side. I can then post the photos on the internet complete with the wave that I sometimes get when I lean on the horn.
The other idea that I like - but we would not be allowed to do it - is hand out paint ball guns to drivers so they can “mark” cars that just drive right on by like they own the whole danged road.

I modified my spam filtering software for the mail server running on this machine to try to reduce the load. Previously it ran after email was accepted and queued for the users. Now it runs when the initial connection is made to the mail server using Spamassassin’s milter¹ called spamass-milter. I made the change so that, in theory, spam wouldn’t run through the virus filter creating unnecessary work for the antivirus program. Spamass-milter rejects mail when it reaches a certain level of spaminess and it never gets to the users. This works fairly well, there are over 2000 rejected emails from last week alone and as of this morning there are almost 200 rejected. The problem is that spammers seem to have adapted (again) somewhat to the rejects. I am still seeing close to 200/day that slip in. And that’s just my email - which includes the “catchall” address. I guess I should just take comfort in the fact that more is rejected than accepted.

1 - a “milter” is a mail filter.

In a strange concoction of gasoline, kerosene, and “magical powders” a pallet of cooking oil is turned into a diesel substitute. It’s not one of the formulas¹ that I have read, but it’s a non-heat process that claims a $0.42 cost. The resulting “bio” - in quotes due to the use of gasoline and kerosene - has been tested in one bus so far. The result is that the bus smells like cooking oil. The driver, Gary (erm… last name escapes me at the moment), reports no adverse effects on driving and keeps his fingers crossed that the resulting fumes will be gentler on his special needs riders.

In theory, the Flagstaff Unified School District will be moving to a fully recycled product (when one excludes the gasoline and kerosene) collecting waste oil from local businesses. Despite the use of refined petroleum products in the process this is a move in the right direction - independence from foreign oil sources and serious cost savings.

1 - http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_mike.html
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_aleks.html
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_aleksnew.html

Ben Stein is a self proclaimed genius (Win Ben Stein’s Money) who has commented on many a subject including the story on credit cards where he says he is the worst customer for the credit card companies because he pays his cards off each month. The thing that got me bent is that he recently commented on the record profits that oil companies have posted recently. Basically he stated that oil companies aren’t to blame for the high price of gasoline, that they are victims of the oil markets. If that’s the case why the hell are they posting record profits? If they are profitting a fixed dollar amount per barrel then I might be able to follow his argument, but since they don’t his barrel is empty.

This has been making the rounds, I actually heard about it from one of the guys at work and had to search for it.

Dear President Bush:

I’m about to plan a little trip with my family and extended family, and I would like to ask you to assist me. I’m going to walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico, and I need to make a few arrangements. I know you can help with this.

I plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. I’m sure they handle those things the same way you do here.

So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Vicente Fox, that I’m on my way over? Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:

1. Free medical care for my entire family.

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.

3. All government forms need to be printed in English.

4. I want my kids to be taught by English-speaking teachers.

5. Schools need to include classes on American culture and history.

6. I want my kids to see the American flag flying on the top of the flag pole at their school with the Mexican flag flying lower down.

7. Please plan to feed my kids at school for both breakfast and lunch.

8. I will need a local Mexican driver’s license so I can get easy access to government services.

9. I do not plan to have any car insurance, and I won’t make any effort to learn local traffic laws.

10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from Pres. Fox to leave me alone, please be sure that all police officers speak English.

11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.

12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, and don’t enforce any labor laws or tax laws.

13. Please tell all the people in the country to be extremely nice and never say a critical word about me, or about the strain I might place on the economy.

I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all the people who come to the U.S. from Mexico. I am sure that Pres. Fox won’t mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.

However, if he gives you any trouble, just invite him to go quail hunting with your V.P.

Thank you so much for your kind help.

Sincerely,

David M. Bresnahan

(A tongue-in-cheek commentary.)

So, according to Entertainment Tonight, there is a bounty of about $1 million for the first photos of the “TomKat” baby. Have you seen Tom? I mean with that oversized honker the photo will probably look like this

I recently posted that there is a bio diesel move here in Flagstaff. Well, the first steps have been taken. There is a pallet of cooking oil, a 55 gallon drum of kerosene, some pumps, filters, a water-diesel separator (a type of water filter for diesel fuel), a ~50 gallon “garbage” can with a spigot tapped into the bottom and a yellow area painted off for the eventual filter/processing platform.

I understand that the first test batch should be done whenever they get all of the setup figured out. The process doesn’t seem like one that I have read about, but supposedly there is a company that is more than willing to supply the base chemicals needed for the process.

Stayed tuned….

Crazy Bill’s is at it again. They had a few strange ones:

Who put the noodle in the poodle?

showed up eerily close to a news article about a woman whose dog was allegedly molested.

Eatin aint cheatin

I guess this could mean that going to dinner with someone is not cheating on your spouse or significant other - or something a little less “innocent”.
Today they weigh in with

Illegals quietly working

or something like that…. I’ll have to check it again in the morning.
It’s:

Quiet Illegals at Work