Disqus - Latest Comments for JonGal

Re: Going Over The Top

JonGal — Sun, 15 Jul 2018 11:23:38 -0000

I love tv.youtube.com with one proviso: the "DVR" capabilities are constrained by the broadcaster so instead of being able to watch something you recorded (and fast-forward through the commercials), you are diverted to the broadcaster's video-on-demand (VOD) channel, and you have to sit through short ads. Which, because you are captured, can be really repetitive and thus *stupendously* annoying (that damn Volvo commercial with the Hasselblad, secret smiles, and vapid music ... GAH!)

Re: Breaking the fourth wall: theater as human rights activism

JonGal — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 13:17:46 -0000

Stepping out of the English canon, how about Fuente Ovejuna (http://www.outofthewings.or... ? It works beautifully as an exploration of resistance and (unfortunately at times) the cynicism/exhaustion that accumulates with long-term oppression and protest.

Re: The Corner | National Review Online

JonGal — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 15:58:07 -0000

Umm, let's see here. You are driving a ~2 ton vehicle that you admittedly are reckless with; you are speeding.

Whatever the rate of death or injury due to guns may be (we cannot be sure since the CDC is prevented from collecting such statistics), we know that traffic fatalities in 2014 totaled at least 32,675 (see http://www.iihs.org/iihs/to.... So you are admittedly heedless of the need to drive safely.

This tells us what about your use of firearms? A case could be made that using a possibly more lethal tool, a motor vehicle, you are heedless of the dangers and unwilling to take safety precautions.

Let's just say I'm glad you're not on the range with me.

Re: The Return of Birtherism

JonGal — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 14:28:38 -0000

"...Trump’s line of attack against the president — and media coverage of the issue — proved effective.

At the time, in April of 2011, 37 percent of Republicans told Fox News they did not think the president was born in the United States. The subject of Obama’s birth has since receded from the headlines, and in September of last year, just 19 percent of Republicans told CNN they think the president was born somewhere other than the United States. (Thanks to Chris Stirewalt at Fox News for flagging those polls.)"

Wow, Trump got polls to prove that some people who *say* they are Republican were willing to say they believed something that is absolutely bat-crap crazy. And "19%" are still bat crap crazy.

"Effective" is not the word I would use.

Almost forgot: Trump's "effective" campaign pretty much ended with this:

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

meanwhile the helicopters had already taken off ...

Re: Notes from Around: Points and Observations about Multiple Destinations by Jay Nordlinger

JonGal — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 16:47:02 -0000

Re: "retard cone"

Discussions of why you went first to the slang use of retard aside, the "retard cone" is the cone that initially deflects or retards traffic. In other words, the initial cone that serves as the tip of the wedge to deflect traffic.

You want to get that one out first since it is the farthest from the work site and traffic has an opportunity to merge away from your valuable people and equipment. BTW, this should a two person job. One person is waving a warning light or sign, and the other is putting down the cones. It's best (most safely) done from a truck with a special side car. The truck runs its flashers to slow traffic, and the person placing the cones does so from the side car.

Re: "Earthquake button"

This engages equipment to safely move the elevator cage to the point where it will not crash to bottom of the shaft should power be interrupted, or the shaft integrity be compromised. A good thing to have in earthquake country.

Re: When Minimum-Wage Hikes Hit a San Francisco Comic-Book Store

JonGal — Fri, 01 May 2015 15:23:54 -0000

Thanks for publicizing this. The comic book marketplace is profoundly dysfunctional, and I think that Comix Experience has a good idea with the Graphic Novel of the Month. I now have a year's subscription, money much better spent than on a over-priced Wine of the Month club.

Re: Senator Coburn Loses His Oncologist

JonGal — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 14:25:35 -0000

The Health Exchanges are meant to provide insurance for people who did not have access or could not afford other market-based insurance plans. In order to be affordable they do not have as wide a network as some employer-based plans.

Choosing to drop a plan, go into the exchanges and lose coverage with your oncologist (but have the means to pay out of pocket), then complain about it is a small-minded political stunt. Which of course is the only contribution either Senator from Oklahoma has made to the United States of America.

Re: No Horse-Drawn Carriages in a City Missing Baby Carriages

JonGal — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 17:42:48 -0000

KLO said: But I think we can at least agree that if you care about cruelty to horses outside Central Park, let’s have a discussion about numbers like: for every 1,000 black babies born in New York in 2011, 1,448 were aborted.

Wait, what? So you are saying that for every 1,000 live births to African-American women, there were corresponding pregnancies to 1,448 additional African-American women?

Let's look at some data. Here's the birthrate in NYC for 2007 (it's easy to grab this data so I'm not diving deeper. Educating K-Lo is like teaching some things to sing ...) https://a816-healthpsi.nyc....

You'll see that the birthrate for black women is 14.8 per 1000, ahead of white births by 1.4 live births per 1000. The top rate is Hispanic at 17.9. Assuming all things being equal (nutrition, access to pre-natal care, etc.) we might be able to discern some socio-economic trends among the data, but I really don't see a huge difference in fertility (number of live births to women) here.

If we assumed that the pregnancy rate to African-American women is actually actually 244.8% higher than the birth rate (Did you know that's what you're saying K-Lo?), then the potential birthrate goes to 36.23! Wow. And the potential actual live births goes to 71,648. Um, really? A fertility rate that has *never* been achieved in US history?

So, K-Lo why should we believe anything in this article, given that you can't get simple numbers right?

Re: A $10.10 Minimum Wage is Historically Unprecedented

JonGal — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 18:27:59 -0000

A quick look at your graph would leave one to believe that the peak in 1968 would be $8.28 in today's dollars. But since the minimum wage (MW) in 1968 was $1.60, and inflation has occurred since then, using the BLS calculator show that the 1968 peak was actually $10.74 in today's dollars.

In fact examining the increases in the MW from 1960 until the mid-1980's, each increase seems to have occurred around the time when the purchasing power was about to break through the $8.00/hour level (2013 $), and led to the purchasing power being increased to above the $10/hour (2013 $) level. The nadir for the MW was 2006, when the purchasing power dropped to $6.01 (2013 $). Previously the bottom had been 1989, at $6.31.

So the demand to increase to $10.10 is not only *not* unprecedented, but entirely consistent with the history of the minimum wage.

Also, given the level of quality of "research" this article reveals, one hopes that Heritage paid absolutely the minimum required by law for its, um, formation.

Re: Why the Cloud Is a Complete Waste of Money (Sometimes)

JonGal — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 13:50:35 -0000

I've run self-built data centers, colos, in-house systems, fully blown-out AWS systems, and blended hybrid systems. You know what the answer for your company is? It depends. That's the only answer you should get from someone who know what they are doing.

As I tell clients, friends, and random strangers, if a carpenter only carries a hammer, he or she is a hammerer not a carpenter. Someone who automatically insists that data centers, the cloud, hybrids, or anything else is the only way to go needs to be avoided.

You need to engineer your infrastructure as much as (or more than) you need to engineer your application.

Re: Pro-Life Commentary in the <i>New York Times</i>

JonGal — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 18:21:27 -0000

Some people do not share their health crises in part to avoid misguided advice and sometimes even advocacy (go ahead, mention your kid might be autistic). There are groups of people who have such strident opinions about abortion that it would be uncomfortable for many women to share such a deep personal experience.

Given that there have been acts of vandalism, bombings, physical confrontations, and even murders by people who hold those same strident opinions, the discomfort conspires with personal safety to inhibit polite conversation.

Re: On the Wrong Side of History: Further Thoughts on an Iconic Civil Rights Photograph

JonGal — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:14:24 -0000

Speaking if the wrong side of history ...

You went to LewRockwell.com for research on civil rights history? You need to research Lew Rockwell a bit before you cite anything coming from him. Of particular note is that the author of the article you link to, Gail Jarvis, describes himself as

"an advocate of the voluntary union of states established by the founders" (at the bottom of your link)

and a lot of his other articles on the site (see http://www.lewrockwell.com/... seem to complain about "PC" and lack of respect for the confederate flag.

So, as big a dog-lover as I am, I seriously doubt Leo suffered as badly as Gail posits.

Re: Safety-Netting Our Citizens to Death

JonGal — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:00:01 -0000

David,

"Rob" sounds like a person with a serious and possibly crippling case of depression, that could have been brought on by the stress of losing his job and exacerbated by gaining all this weight. So here's a question for you, David. Are you:

1) A liar who invented this story to feel superior to liberals?

2) The kind of person who would exploit a friend's illness to feel superior to liberals, and do nothing to help that friend?

As a liberal I know I have a moral duty to help the people in my life. What moral code guides you David?

Re: alicublog

JonGal — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:51:07 -0000

"Rob" if he exists, sounds like a classic case of deep, crippling depression, which his ole buddy Dave helps with by criticizing "Rob"'s every move.

Neat.

Re: Dems Smear Mourdock In Ad

JonGal — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:29:58 -0000

Sometimes only satire can get at the horrible truth of how humans being treat each other. In the spirit of "A Modest Proposal": http://whatever.scalzi.com/...

Re: Markos weighs in on Prop 8

JonGal — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:40:00 -0000

As far as the ground game goes, I phone-banked, volunteer hunted and swung signs on street corners fro the San Diego effort and I was very impressed. In the first phone banking we got quick, efficient training, were sat down to make calls and when it turned out that there were more volunteers than seats they adapted. Walking in on election eve expecting to make calls I was instead was put on a high traffic street corner with literature in my pocket and a big sign to show to drivers.

I didn't have time to see if things were disorganized, I got put to ork too quickly. Which to me says, at least for San Diego, they had their stuff together. I think the numbers for San Diego, given our demographics, bear me out.

(BTW, if I wasn't already married it would have been a great way to meet intelligent, politically committed, attractive women. :-} }

Re: Who’s to blame?

JonGal — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:59:58 -0000

Building on mumon's comment, there is nothing so dangerous as people who completely and totally know they are right, but don't really know what they are talking about.

These are the ones that try to use "science" to justify oppressing people (think eugenics, lysenkoism or other psuedo-science), or more recently ignore the words of a man who demand that his followers turn cheeks and pray in private while advocating global wars and prayer in the public square.

The "war" raging in today's society is the usual one, knowledge versus ignorance. I'm not saying that religious people who advocate creationism or intelligent design are stupid, just ignorant. Same goes for anyone thinks that science is causing a collapse of civilization in Europe. Ignorance is easy, which is why it's so popular.

Re: Long live the evil empire

JonGal — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 17:40:23 -0000

Kids these days ...
Microsoft has always been a FU company, ever since the original BASIC system. Richard, both you and I went through God knows how many hoops making Microsoft C work, and we all learned the lesson back then to never buy the first release of any Microsoft product.
Meanwhile Google has been pretty much playing a straight up game. I don't know how many pages I've linked to google maps, with driving instructions, custom labels and other artifacts. The API for searching is easy and fast, and none of it has cost me a dime. I hand out GMail account to folks while showing them what a fully searchable email system means for project management, phone lists, etc.. And I lauch at people who worry about their privacy as they check their email over POP3 in a Starbucks.
Sure, there's stuff other people do better. A9's address plus photo system is stunning and I use it all the time to give people directions downtown. But that's the thing, I've got a choice, because everyone is competing using standards, not embrace and extend and breaking the standards. I've been through generations of technology with Microsoft, and I know how it works, keeping up with the technology means paying more license fees. Well, not for the systems I've deployed on web platforms.
Listening to people whine about Google being the new Microsoft does me the favor of cutting down the number I have to take seriously, a good thing in today's cacaphony.

Re: Real crap

JonGal — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 17:26:23 -0000

Jimmy Buffett Explained It All

Back on one of his live albums he proposed loadng up B-52s with $5 bills, then dumping the loads over our enemies, then the next week dump loads of Victoria's Secret, Sporty's Pilot Shop and Abercrombie and Fitch catalogs. The backwards folks get the idea that capitalism is a *good* thing, our economy gets a jumpstart, and our enemies are so busy figuring out VFR maps and trying our crotchless panties that peace overwhelms the land.

Of course he then broke into a rendition of "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw?", so it's good to know Reverend Jimmy practices what he preaches.

Any honest man will tell you that there's nothing like a good romp in the hay to make you forget what you were so pissed off about.

Re: San Diego Soliloquies

JonGal — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 21:11:52 -0000

Woah, thanks for the plug.

And for those of you who may not know it, you've stumbled onto the blog of a cranky, bellicose Texan (but I repeat myself) who has no peer as a someone you would want to share a technical faxhole with (and the other kind too, come to this of it)

Marian says hi, and to give the big galoot a hug. Consider y'self hugged