Things are moving along like crazy on my new house! Contracts are signed. The home inspector is lined up for Monday. Roofers should be trooping by and giving estimates any day now. By Tuesday I expect to know whether it’s a go. In any case, I’ll be packing and very shortly heading off on a cross-country trip. The very same Leslie who found the house and is handling most of the chaos also found me a Plan B — a super dog-friendly rental I can take if the sale falls through. So no matter what happens, I’m out of here…
17 CommentsMonth: July 2010
Now, that’s some valedictorian. High school girl uses her moment at the podium to slam the philosophy and practice of government schooling — and even cites John Taylor Gatto. And Mencken. Maybe there’s hope yet.
7 Comments(I’m not sure what all this means. But it seemed like a good idea when I wrote it.) For the first time in a sad number of years, I opened the email file I labeled “RebelFire Futurestuff” and read. I’ve longed to go back and further the tale of Jeremy, Cedra, Rey, and the band RebelFire. I had (and to my surprise still have) notes for a sequel and at least one more. Unusual. Plotting is my weak point and I’m not good at thinking ahead. I also had links to articles on privacy and technology, philosophical concepts, etc. —…
12 CommentsHaving already posted my whoo-hoo news, I’ll keep today’s miscellany short. More on the ringing declaration on the failure of the drug war from those most authoritative medical and public-health sources. Some insights into why such a vital statement is being resoundingly ignored. Still … there’s progress. For the first time, a federal agency is condoning medical cannabis. Well. Kinda, sorta. (Via Freedom’s Phoenix.) Speaking of progress … Over how many years and how many times has somebody announced that encrypting our phone calls would soon be as easy and cheap as encrypting our emails? Maybe it’s finally happening. “Thinking…
6 CommentsCould it be? After 2-1/2 maddening months of trying to make a deal on a house, could I possibly have one??? Wednesday night, my friend Leslie called. She’d spotted a real estate ad: 3 bedrooms, sun porch, privacy plantings, all appliances (including fridge, washer, and dryer — very unusual) — bargain priced and with owner financing. The latter is a huge deal for me. It’s either that or straight cash. And limited cash has caused my house-bidding frustrations. By Friday afternoon, before my offer was even typed, the seller had verbally accepted the terms. I’ve never laid eyes on the…
23 CommentsVIENNA — Some of the world’s top AIDS experts issued a radical manifesto this week at the 18th International AIDS Conference: They declared the war on drugs a 50-year-old failure and called for it to be abandoned. No one heard. Story here. (NYTimes free registration required; sorry.)
1 CommentLet me tell you about the people in this high desert gulch — and the people connected to it, though they may be far away. Neighbor M. needed the footer space dug for some retaining walls. Though M. is a tireless worker, this was clearly a job for a backhoe, not muscles. Neighbor Joel also needed backhoe work for the septic system on his Secret Lair. Without a word to Joel, M. arranged to have both jobs done at his own expense last Saturday. The work was done by our neighbor L. If you read Joel’s blog, you’ve heard about…
5 CommentsThe Michael Bellesiles saga continues. The Chronicle of Higher Education (which first printed the latest Bellesiles baloney) investigated and discovered (no surprise) that the tale of the sad student and his soldier brother is false. But it’s the student’s fault. Um … aren’t historians responsible for checking their “facts”? I mean, isn’t that what they supposedly do for a living? And that tale Bellesiles retailed to the gullible was so obviously too good to be true. It just begged for the half hour it would have required to check it. (Tip o’ hat once again to J.F.) Kudos to jellydonut…
3 CommentsWhere you might live if you wait long enough, then leave the U.S. Okay … where your great grandkids might live. Not enough trees for me, though. Imported trees don’t count. (Tip o’ hat to Pat.) Poor, poor pot growers! They just barely, almost, kinda-sorta get their business legal and … governments start to Wal-Martize them — that is, shut the little guys out and make alliances with monied collaborators — license, tax, hand out exclusive deals — all the usual. And then the hapless growers might get ordered to give their valuable product to the poor. Can’t win, can…
5 CommentsIf you read tech blogs — and only if you read tech blogs (or a handful of online techzines) — you already know that, on July 9, some unnamed government agency, for unnamed reasons, ordered BurstNET to take 73,000 blogs permanently offline. All were part of the same WordPress platform called Blogetery. A week later, a forum-creating service was shut down just as mysteriously. If you rely on mainstream sources for your news — or even online mainstream alternatives — you haven’t heard a peep about any of this. Why did some unnamed government agency order the death of 73,000…
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