End the War on Freedom

I received a wonderful message in a dream early this morning. I recorded it at brighter-world.org/joy.html.

Here's the message:

Obviously, I'm not living this message. Yet. I've been using this blog as a place to express anger. So much anger that some of it has turned to hate. Not good. So I'm going to try to live this message. If I'm successful, the tone of this blog will change radically. I'll report good news, instead of ranting about bad news.

Wish me luck.

Note that this in no way invalidates the Zero Aggression Principle. Nor does it disallow self defense. The former is still correct, and the latter is still unfortunately necessary.

When we moved into this house, in October of 1991, we bought new appliances: refrigerator, oven/stove, and washer & dryer. We've since replaced the washer and dryer. The refrigerator was getting quite rusty on the outside, and the door seals were shot, but it still worked, until 10 days ago, when the refrigerator stopped getting cold. The freezer still worked, but we decided that fixing an 18-year-old refrigerator wasn't worth the effort or expense, so we traipsed over to Sears and bought a new Kenmore. They delivered it today. Three Jamaican gentlemen carried out the old frig, and, with some effort, squeezed in the slightly larger (22.1 cubic feet) new one. Obligatory photos below.

I've been meaning to go to the local pipe store for a long time. Finally did it today. Bought a cheap pipe, an extendible-neck butane lighter, and some tobacco. Had a couple of bowls today. Satisfying.

I'm new at this. If you've got tobacco to recommend, please do.

A few weeks back, I stopped in at Eddie's gun shop. Bought some ammo, but also found a nice summer-weight cowboy hat. Eddie sold it to me for $5. Yow!

I've been wearing the same pair of Birkenstock sandals as slippers for at least 18 years. They were about to fall apart, so I bought another pair. Unfortunately, they no longer make the wool felt upper, so I had to settle for suede leather. Got them mail-order from Footprints. Looking forward to the next 18 years.

A couple of weeks ago, I reported on the CRAAK! of a tree breaking across my driveway. It's been suspended there until this afternoon, when my neighbor came over with his rope and chainsaw, helped it to fall, then cut it up, and dragged it away with a tractor.

Notch was insufficient


Final Cut


Timber!


Run Away!


Chainsaw still running


Tree down


Rings

The section of road on which I usually take the dogs for their daily walk was being worked on today, so I went the other direction. I noticed a stripped tree, stuck in the ground as if to be the pole for a sign. Just beyond it was a rock announcing the "Orchard of the Prophets". I'd guess that it was planted last summer or fall, but somehow I missed it until now. Cool. May it bear much fruit.

I was sitting at my computer around noon today, minding my own business, when I heard a loud CRAACK! I went to the window to see what it was, and saw that a large tree had cracked about 15 feet above the ground, and the upper part had fallen away from the house, and was being supported by some other trees, suspending it above our driveway. I went out and moved my Civic right away, out of the path of its fall. The tree is still there at 5:30pm. It's a windy day, but the wind hasn't convinced it to fall. So we'll be parking our cars out in the turn-around, instead of next to the house, until my neighbor comes over, helps it to fall, and cuts it up and carries it away, to use for firewood for his maple syrup operation.

Our three Hondas, out of range

The tree stayed suspended for two weeks, until my neighbor came over and helped it to fall. Pictures of that here.

I went to Boston Monday through Wednesday to attend the 2009 International Lisp Conference. I stayed in the Cambridge Hyatt Regency, and the conference was in the MIT Stata Center. I walked across campus, from the hotel, near the BU Bridge, each day. Here are some photos taken on my travels.

My iMac on my hotel room desk


Sunday dinner and breakfast granola from Trader Joe's
(click on photo for high-res version)


View across the Charles River

More photos after the break.

Well, I got my scooter. It took over an hour at the dealer. Got my insurance ID cards on his computer. Packed it into the back of our van, and drove the hour to the registry. Lady there told me that insurance was dated tomorrow, the earliest that Geico would give me, so I couldn't register until tomorrow. So now I get to spend another 2.5 hours to pay the state its filthy lucre. Oh, joy! Bike's fun, though. Drags my 250 pounds up my fairly steep hill, just barely.

My son just got his driver's license, and we're planning on him driving himself the 25 miles to school and back starting in September. Time to add him to the insurance. Well, insuring a young male is expensive. And when we add a third car in a couple of months, it gets even more expensive, with everybody we looked at but Geico. The others charge extra because the young male becomes a "primary driver". Because he's taken a driving course, and has good grades, Geico considers him a low risk. They give us a third car discount. $800 to $1000 twice a year for the third car from the other guys. More like $400 for Geico. Of course it won't mean anything if they don't handle our claims with a minimum of fuss, or jack up our rates if we file one. We'll see how it turns out.

I very rarely smoke, and I even more rarely drink. But my next door neighbor died suddenly yesterday, of cancer, and her husband held a wake for her. I had three beers and a cigarette. Someone there who had never seen me smoke was so amazed that she wanted a photo to commemerate the occasion. So I gave her my iPhone, and she snapped this picture.

I spent the last two weeks in Montana and Wyoming.

Flew from Hartford, Connecticut to Bozeman, Montana, and from Denver back to Hartford. Took my Cold Steel African Walking stick with me on the airplane. Canes are allowed by the Taking Scissors Away goons. Traveling with a cane has some benefits. I asked the TSA guy in Hartford whether my wife could accompany me to the gate. On seeing my cane, he said that we could ask the airline for a pass to allow that. The airline lady said that usually TSA gives them grief for passes. She was surprised that one of them had recommended it. They looked hard at my plastic cane, trying to take it apart to reveal an imagined sword inside, but let it through. And they let my wife through with her pass.

Went to Montana to meet in the flesh some formerly cyberspace-only friends. Met Elias Alias, the owner of The Mental Militia Forums, Iloilo Jones (pronounced: ee-low ee-low), the director of FIJA, Doug Buchanan, the mind behind think.ws, Kirsten, the owner of Get Your Hands Dirty!, and a number of others. Ate red meat and drank real wine for the first time in twenty-five years, and took a liking to Backwoods Wild 'n Mild Cigars, the "sweet aromatic" flavor.

Learned that Montana has very nearly Alaska carry. Outside the cities, you can carry any way you please. No permit required. Many of the cities require permits to carry concealed, but "concealed" is defined as "covered by clothing". It's OK to carry in a fanny pack without a permit, or to open carry, though most city dwellers carry concealed with a permit. I didn't see any open carry there, or in Wyoming, except by police.

I drove the 600 miles from Bozeman to Cheyenne, where I grew up, and where my mother still lives, in a rental car, which was cheaper, and not a lot slower, than flying. Drove I-90 east, which heads south after passing through Billings. The mountains dropped away and I found myself, though still in Montana, in country very similar to my Cheyenne home. I wept tears of joy, while driving and drinking in the scenery. Wyoming is truly my home. "Like no place on Earth". I hope to return there permanently one day.

Went to the Libertarian Party's national convention in Denver last Friday to meet L. Neil Smith and Scott Bieser, who were there to sell books. Sat with Scott for a couple of hours while Neil was upstairs nursing a cold. Interjected a few comments in a video interview of Scott by V Magazine. Thirty seconds of fame? Maybe. Went to lunch with Neil and Scott at a nice burger joint. Neil's cold made it hard for him to talk. Snapped the photo below of Neil with my iPhone. Forgot to get one of Scott. Duh.

Before going to Denver, I called the hotel where the conference was held, said I had a question about hotel policy, and asked whether the wearing of sidearms was allowed in the hotel. The lady who answered the phone said that she thought not, but wasn't sure, so she connected me to the front desk. The lady who answered there assured me that it was OK, even when I asked whether Denver had a "law" prohibiting it. Well, Denver DOES have such a "law", and their override of state law allowing open carry everywhere, and forbidding local override, was approved on 5 November, 2004 by the District Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado, whose decision was affirmed (PDF) on June 5, 2006, by the Colorado Supreme Court, in a vote of three to three with one justice not participating. I guess some animals really ARE more equal than others, at least the pigs in Denver.

Did some shooting, both in Montana, on a state-owned parcel with a hill as a backstop, and in Wyoming, at the Pine Bluffs Sportsman's Club, about 30 miles east of Cheyenne, on the Nebraska border. Their pistol range has steel targets at 25 yards that you can knock down and pull back up with a rope from the firing line. Good fun!

Watched "The Chronicles of Narnia: Price Caspian" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" with my mother. Enjoyed both.

No problems getting through security on the way home, except they wouldn't let me take a bottle of water. Sheesh. Yes, you too can fly on Sheep-Are-Us Airlines.

"Another consideration is that the process of radicalization — to the point that a person undertakes a terrorist attack — rarely occurs in a solitary setting. Many individuals require the feedback and encouragement of like-minded individuals to help them reach that point."

The idea that a lone individual will appear seemingly out of nowhere to launch a horrific terrorist attack sends shivers down the spines of public security planners and law enforcement officers — not to mention average citizens. Because of their unique traits, “lone wolves” present very real challenges to the law enforcement and security professionals charged with guarding against such threats.

However, with the road from desire to actual destruction fraught with obstacles, the lone-wolf terrorist — one capable of causing mass casualties — is a rare individual indeed.

Continue Reading....

We bought a brand new washer & dryer shortly before my son was born, over sixteen years ago. Sears Kenmore brand. They both served us well until recently, when the dryer motor died, and the washer bin stopped turning around. I decided it wasn't worth the money to replace the dryer motor, and didn't feel competent to work on the washer myself, so rather than pay Sears $100 for a repair guy to come out and possibly tell us the washer cost nearly as much as a new one to repair, we bought new ones.

I saw a new style of washing machine in Sears a few years back. Top loading, but with no agitator inside, just a little bump in the middle, and water jet holes. Well, we got one of those. Whirlpool brand name, though apparently Whirlpool makes Kenmore stuff. They were delivered today, after a two week wait from our purchase. And they're nice. Washed a long week's worth of clothes today. Quite satisfied.

I can't afford to buy major appliances very often, so it's nice when I can. Wish I could afford a new refrigerator.

Click the "read more" link for pictures.

At the end of March, I wrote about my first coffee lobotomy. I completely lost my forebrain, and my physical energy, from drinking two large cups of strong coffee a day. It took four full days of coffee fast for my brain to come back and another three days for my energy to fully return. Well, it happened again. This time I had been drinking mostly decaffeinated coffee, which made the experience different. I wasn't nearly as physically exhausted, but my frontal lobes were again completely paralyzed. Couldn't think my way out of a paper bag. I tried to work last Monday, but found it impossible. So I called in sick, "mentally exhausted", and took the rest of the week off. On Friday morning, I awoke with a brain, but still shell-shocked, so I didn't work over the weekend either. It feels like I'll be able to work today. Time will tell.

Once again, besides not being able to think, near panic was one of the symptoms. Worry that the condition was permanent, hence I'd never be able to write software again. Fortunately, all I needed to do was stop drinking coffee for a week.

Bottom line: I'm going to have to stop drinking coffee. Black tea, too, since it affects me pretty much the same way. Not sure about green tea. Hot chocolate will remain OK, I hope.

I was headed outside to give the dogs a walk at about 4pm this afternoon. Got their radio fence collars off and their leashes on, went to open the door, and, it wouldn't open. No amount of turning or pulling would make it budge. Screwdriver time. Took off the inner door handle, pushed the outer door handle out. Still wouldn't budge. Half an hour later, I'd managed to break apart the mechanism and convince the bolt to move, so I could open the door. I guess 25 years is a long time for what was likely a used part when the house was built. Off to Home Depot for a brand new Schlage locking handle set. Just $22. But it needed a little deeper hole than the old set, and I couldn't find my little hand saw, so it was chisel time. Finally got it to fit, and now we can lock our front door. Yay!

Well, the girls in my family did it. They bought a second cockatiel to keep Sunshine company. So far, the new bird has been absolutely silent. She won't be out of her cage for a little while, so that's where I took this photo. My daughter hasn't named her yet (nor are we sure that's she's not a he).

Found outside my house this morning:

I got a new hat at Agway yesterday. Made in China for Carhartt. I've been wearing a knit pull-over hat in the winter time for as long as I remember. Switched to a baseball cap when I bought my hoodless rain coat. Now I wanted a brimmed hat with some winter warmth.

I thought I'd never put the new hat's flaps down over my ears, but today the thermometer said 7 degrees, so I did.

Do I look like a hick, or what?