Roasting Like a Burger Under a Heat Lamp

I thought today would be a slow day, but I ended up hauling my sister around, getting groceries and prescriptions. Her doctor phoned a prescription in to a pharmacy about five miles away, and in Miami, five miles is like fifty because of the horrible traffic. We got to the pharmacy, and the Miami-bilingual (fluent Spanish, four words of English) pharmacist said she hadn’t filled the prescription because she had not been able to understand the doctor. So we came home, my sister called the doctor, the doctor excoriated the pharmacist, and then we went back. Two and a half hours of baking, roasting road time under the Miami sun, interrupted by an hour-long break, during which we had to search for my sister’s lost car keys.

We are seeing side effects, but we don’t know what caused them. They injected dye into her on Tuesday, and the iodine in the dye makes some people sick. They didn’t hydrate her after chemo on Monday, and that makes some people sick. Her radiation oncologist was contracting a bug when she saw him, so she is worried that he might have given it to her.

I should have some semblance of a life next week, but I am not setting my heart on it.

I have a little free time before dinner. I wish I had a long enough layover to support a nap.

I See no Mention of Mother’s Virginity

Sondra K. linked to something hilarious yesterday. California attorney/dentist Orly Taitz has produced a document which she claims is a Kenyan birth certificate indicating that Barack Obama was born in Mombasa.

I really don’t know what to make of this. There are kooks on both sides of the political spectrum (on the left, they are called “moderates”), and the air is always full of BS. On the other hand, I have no respect for liberal claims that the Obama birth kerfuffle has been thoroughly debunked or that it was never anything more than a hoax. They say the same sort of things about respectable scientists and statesmen who doubt the global warming religion, which is losing credibility week by week. Moreover, this type of attack often indicates an underlying fear and an awareness on the part of the attacker that he can’t produce facts sufficient to support his argument. Remember how Dan Rather took this path. Then Les Moonves moved Dan’s desk into the men’s room, and now Dan’s retirement plan consists of shaky lawsuits against CBS.

Hawaii produced an electronic birth certificate, and some official or other stated that he or she had seen the original. The Republican governor of Hawaii said Obama was a US citizen. I was happy to accept that. I’m not all that eager to hear the phrase “President Biden.” But it never occurred to me to think about Kenyan records. I don’t know if Ms. Taitz is the one who came up with this idea, but whoever it was is very sharp. This is the kind of thinking that makes a thorough and effective litigator. People have ridiculed her as incompetent and embarrassing, and for all I know, if I looked at her record as a whole, I would draw the same conclusion. But looking for the Kenyan certificate was a great idea.

Lou Dobbs has taken a beating over this. As he has pointed out, people are openly lying about him. He has made it clear that he doesn’t buy into the “birther” view, but frantic leftists all over the airwaves and the web are falsely claiming he questions Obama’s citizenship. The hysteria on the left does not suggest confidence. Quite the opposite. And as Dobbs has pointed out, the main thing driving the story is Obama’s unwillingness to take the quick, inexpensive steps required to end it.

I didn’t realize until today that the Obama response has been expensive. According to various sources, it has cost seven figures. That is incredible. Can it be true? If someone questioned my citizenship, and I thought stonewalling would cost me FIFTY dollars, I’d run for my birth certificate immediately. And like most halfway responsible American adults, I do have a copy of my birth certificate. It’s odd that Obama does not. You would think a pampered kid raised by doting grandparents would have a fairly orderly life.

Some Kos nut says the Kenyan certificate is a fake, because it says something like “Republic of Kenya,” and it was issued in February of 1964, and Kenya (according to a digital image of a newspaper clipping) was not a republic until later that year.

Here:

1. Kos nut
2. Unverified clipping
3. No other evidence, in spite of leftist panic and concerted effort
4. No proof that Kenya was not using the word “Republic” in official documents in February of 1964, regardless of whether the term was correct
5. World Net Daily says it looks like other Kenyan certificates they have unearthed, although they have not given dates.

The debunkers will have to do better.

My sense of this thing is that the Kenyan document will turn out to have some kind of problem. I doubt that it’s a rank fake, as Karl Rove suggested, because Ms. Taitz would be crucified, impoverished, disbarred, and if possible, burned at the stake, should leftists discover that she knowingly submitted a phony document to a federal court. At least, they’ll try to inflict these punishments on her. Maybe she’s as crazy as liberals say she is, but you would have to be nearly insane to throw your career away on a bogus document which would cause you great harm and benefit your enemies. I don’t know what other flaws could invalidate the certificate, but they will likely turn up as leftists work themselves into a frenzy, investigating it. It may be that there is a way to get a Kenyan certificate issued retroactively, based on weak affidavits or some such.

Taitz’s effort has been referred to as “a fishing expedition.” That’s not accurate. Here’s what that term means. I’ll give an example. You sue someone for negligence because you stepped in a hole in their backyard. To prove they knew there was a hole, you ask for every email they’ve sent for the last twenty years, plus all of their letters and phone records, plus all the emails and phone records of everyone they know. That’s a fishing expedition. You have no legitimate reason to believe a certain fact, yet you unreasonably seek tons of evidence which could conceivably tend to prove that fact. Here, Ms. Taitz has a facially credible document on which to base her suspicions. And if she is demanding the right to compel the production of additional evidence (the essence of a fishing expedition), I am not aware of it.

I would be surprised if this fuss amounts to anything. And I am hoping it won’t be necessary to attack Obama in this manner. He is incompetent and immature, and he has an off-putting, tyrannical, condescending personality, and he keeps betraying his supporters and breaking promises, so I’m hoping the American people will continue to reduce their support for him. He shafted the Jews, his grandmother, doctors, the UAW, Caucasians in general, and the police unions. He can’t keep sawing away at his support without consequences. It’s starting to look like the “Carter II” predictions are coming true. I sure hope so.

I can’t believe the Cash for Clunkers program. I looked into it this weekend, because my dad was considering getting rid of his Explorer and getting a pickup. Here’s how it works. If you own a really awful car which is worth considerably less than $4500 as a trade-in, you can take it to a dealer and get $4500 toward the price of a new car. It jacks up the value of your trade-in. The dealer will generally succeed in getting most of this money (or more) from you when you negotiate the purchase and financing. And while you can’t buy whatever you want, you don’t have to buy a high-mileage car. Depending on the mileage your old car gets, you may be able to buy something that gets as few as 20 miles per gallon, combined. Where does the money come from? Ultimately, taxes. In the short term, from debt financed by the Chinese and other fine friends of America, at disturbing interest rates. Which you and I will have to cover. Where do the old cars go? Do they go to charities and poor people who need transportation? Are they sold to junkyards so the parts will go back into the stream of commerce? No, they get crushed, in a ridiculous and obscene destruction of wealth.

So, to recap:

1. Dealers get lots and lots of money from buyers who can’t negotiate and do not understand how interest works.
2. Many buyers end up with cars that get lackluster mileage.
3. Energy and wealth are wasted in the destruction of perfectly good cars the poor could use.
4. We pay for it later, with interest.

It took energy to build the cars we’re crushing and the cars that will replace them. No one seems to think about that. I think it’s safe to guess that building and selling a car require energy equivalent to several years’ worth of gas. And think of all the plastic in cars. That’s oil.

Isn’t this really just another carmaker bailout?

This boondoggle will cost billions. Meanwhile, Obama has decided we can’t affort three hundred million dollars for the best fighter plane available. Remember that years from now when our flying “clunkers” are raining down in pieces (along with the limbs and intestines of our pilots) after superior enemy aircraft blow them to bits. We have cash for clunkers, but not for self-defense. Odd priorities. Defense is expensive, but it’s very cheap compared to defeat.

I better go to Thoseshirts.com and buy my “Welcome back, Carter” shirt before they sell out.

“Does it Come With its Own Wall Wart?”

I blogged Mike’s visit to Miami, but I don’t know if I mentioned his car. He drove a Prius down from DC. This is his SECOND Prius, so he can’t claim it was a first offense.

I will admit that it seems like a practical, comfortable car. However, I came up with a number of useful things you may wish to use if you ever converse with a Prius owner.

1. “Where do you add the detergent?”

2. “I prefer a top-loader.”

3. When they tell you how long it took to drive somewhere, say, “And that was on SPIN CYCLE.”

4. “Your car just made a noise. I think the toast is done.”

You can also refer to the car as “the Maytag” and pretend to look for the agitator.

Hope this is helpful.

“Stupidly”

What is it with Barack Obama and his junior high attitude? Why does a sitting President do Jay Leno, let his daughter wear a leftist peace symbol on a visit to Russia, and attack private citizens? Next he’ll be judging American Idol. “Uh, your singing isn’t very good. Uh, I would go so far as to say, ‘No, you can’t.'”

I was amazed when he stooped to bad-mouth Rush Limbaugh. Is this Presidential conduct? Maybe Obama should start a blog and post at Democratic Underground. Now he’s sullying his office by making wild accusations against the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police. He says they acted “stupidly” when they arrested Professor Henry Gates. And in the same breath, Obama admits HE DOESN’T KNOW THE FACTS.

Forget the Presidency. Let’s pretend Obama is just a lawyer, acting in his professional capacity, on television. No lawyer who deserves a license offers legal opinions without doing his homework. It’s fine, if you’re blathering on a blog or ranting in a bar with your beer buddies, but when you put on your suit and go to work, that kind of thing is supposed to cease.

Look at the result. We have a lowly Massachusetts police sergeant at the mercy of the liberal press, and their newest ally is the President of the United States. And Obama admits he’s going after Crowley BEFORE determining whether Crowley did anything wrong.

Imagine how that feels. Imagine being accused of screwing up at your job, and going home, and turning on the tube, and seeing Barack Obama flapping his lips about what a bad employee you are.

Instead of saying, “I am the President, and it is not my job to investigate, or comment on, trivial arrrests made by local peace officers,” he convicted the entire Cambridge PD without hesitation, and he used very harsh language while doing it. He didn’t even allow for the possibility of an honest mistake.

I would hate to be fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan right now, depending on this immature, approval-craving pop idol to back me up when I do my job.

Newsbusters put the police report up. Predictably and credibly, it says Gates acted like a jerk. He essentially dared the police to arrest him. If the facts alleged in the report are true, Crowley showed up to prevent Gates’s home from being burglarized, asked to see some identification, and tried to leave. Gates pursued him into the yard and berated him in front of the public. I find that very believable. The police can be obnoxious and tyrannical, but it’s pretty unusual for them to fabricate a reason for an arrest, in front of a gawking crowd.

Gates was cited for disorderly conduct. I don’t know what the elements of disorderly conduct are, under the controlling law in Cambridge. I would guess that wearing a McCain button would suffice. Before Obama pronounced judgment, he should have had one of his lackeys check the law and read the arrest report, and he should have spent fifteen or twenty seconds performing an analysis. Some law professor.

Obama went on to convict the entire American law enforcement establishment. He said this:

“What I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.”

What he didn’t point out is that we also have a long history of insincere minority activists slandering the police. Maybe that’s what happened here. But why wait to find out? President “I Won” doesn’t have to check the facts. He rules by prejudice, assumption, and fiat.

We also have a long history of cops showing up when people break into houses, as Professor Gates did. Maybe that’s relevant here.

The cops are hard on minorities. No question. The other day, someone told me someone he knew had been pulled over for having a light out on his car, and I interrupted and said, “That HAS to be a black person.” And sure enough, it was. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. I know a lot of cops look for reasons to pull black people over. But if I were President, would I go on TV and indict millions of workers who constitute the front-line troops in the domestic part of my own branch of government? Uh–as Barack would say–NO.

I might say, “We need to continue working to treat minorities as well as the majority under the law.” I might say, “There is a continuing effort in our police departments to prevent disparate treatment of minorities.” I would not turn on the cops as a whole, sapping their morale and giving the green light to race-card players all over the nation.

Imagine if Obama had said this before the Simpson murders. O.J. was already spoiled by police (white and black) who refused to follow up on his transgressions against his wife. Think how happy he would have been, knowing the cops were intimidated by a kneejerk pronouncement from a President who doesn’t think. Ask yourself whether prosecutors would have been as likely to prosecute Simpson. From now on, every cop who has a legitimate reason to arrest a prominent black person will think twice before doing his duty.

This is a man with no maturity and no understanding. He’s like a green piece of fruit. The words “class” and “grace” are beyond his comprehension. His Presidency is coming to resemble the Jerry Springer Show.

How can anyone be surprised? This is a man who turned on the white grandmother who raised him, while penning a book in praise of a black man who abandoned him. What kind of treachery can be beyond a person like that?

I hope all the union-brainwashed cops who voted for Obama understand that their throats have been cut. I hope they realize they have been betrayed, and I hope they won’t be stupid enough to let their unions choose their candidates in the future. He sandbagged the Jews by putting the screws to Israel. Now he’s turning on the police unions. I wonder whose back will feel the knife next.

HI is Back

Here is good news. Moxie has re-opened The Humor Institute. Learn about Sonia Sotomayor’s new musical!

Not sure what Moxie’s plans are for the site, but at least she’s writing again.

Brilliant!

I guess I am getting serious about motorcycles again (i.e., I plan to ride more than once a month), because I just bought a new garage-door remote. I am tired of taking the other one out of the car and putting it back later.

I took the Moto Guzzi out yesterday. And finally, I remembered to bring ear plugs. I got a little ways up the street, and as I got up to about 40 miles per hour, I started hearing all sorts of strange high-pitched noises. Like something on the engine had come loose. I stopped and started several times, trying to figure out what the problem was. Finally, I decided to take the plugs out so I could hear better. And the noise disappeared.

Looks like I was hearing the wind as it passed over my helmet. The plugs made the engine harder to hear, but they let the higher-pitched sounds through. Another problem solved by Amateur Motorcycle Genius.

I should probably get the tires changed on both bikes. They’re in good shape, but they’re old. In the past, tire age wasn’t something people talked about a lot. Last year, I found out that tires deteriorate with time, so you shouldn’t keep them longer than around six years. I have read that the tire industry kept this quiet because they didn’t want to have to rotate their stock. Pun, if any, not intended.

I wonder where you go to get a motorcycle tire. I’m sure the local Harley dealer will do it, for five times what it should cost. I’ll bet I have to go to Hollywood or Fort Lauderdale to get it done right, at a fair price. There are a lot of services you just can’t get done correctly in Miami.

I should also get some stuff to get me back on the road if I have a flat. It looks like there’s a motorcycle equivalent to Fix-a-Flat. I should put some kind of bag on the Guzzi and keep a few tools and so on with both bikes.

If you have old tires on your car or bike, do something about it. Don’t wait until the sidewalls give out.

Life Imitates Star Wars

Am I the only one who sees a creepy kinship between Michael Jackson and Darth Vader?

It just occurred to me. They both appeared godlike to their minions, and both made use of impressive costumes. But underneath…pale, sickly, grotesque bodies with lots of scars and damage.

Now I’ll be thinking about this all weekend.

I never understood the Jackson phenomenon. “Beat It” was a pretty good pop song, but his other stuff was awful. “Thriller” was just plain stupid. And although he danced well, he didn’t do his own choreography.

Some pop giants make sense. Sinatra was amazing. Elvis was overrated, but pretty good. I always thought the Beatles sounded like a bunch of tipsy middle-aged British spinsters singing along with the telly, but I realize they were talented. But Michael Jackson is like Madonna. A craze in search of an explanation.

It’s funny; some people who are truly talented never achieve great success. Other people become huge stars and then, in retrospect, appear mediocre. If you become a popular idol, and then afterward, when viewed objectively, your work seems forgettable, haven’t you traded your life for nothing? Didn’t you chase a mirage? Weren’t you cheated?

The end of a thing is better than the beginning. The Bible says that. Unless it was Shakespeare. I forget. But it’s true. No matter how good your life seems while you’re caught up in it, if it’s not based on something solid, it can turn sour in an instant. Faster than you could imagine, you could come to the realization that you traded your life for a bill of goods. On the other hand, a change for the better is always worth it, as long as you have breath in you.

At the store yesterday, I saw the gossip rags. Half of it is about Jackson. It’s as if human maggots are coming out to feast on him. To destroy whatever it was that he built up during his life. As if to spite him. To make sure that wherever he is, he realizes he got nothing in exchange for his years.

Someone help me understand all the news anchors I’ve seen, claiming they have Ipods full of Michael Jackson music. I didn’t realize people actually listened to that stuff. I thought they just watched the videos and built shrines to him and had plastic surgery so they could look like him. It’s hard for me to believe that relatively normal people were Jackson fans. I always thought his fans were more like the alienated kids who dress up for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Fringe nuts. But I guess that can’t be true, given the number of albums he sold.

I wonder when I’ll be able to wear black loafers again, without people thinking it’s some kind of tribute.

My New Mini-Bike

My phone is annoying.

I had received some requests for photos of the Moto Guzzi, so tonight after a ride, I took a quick snapshot.

Here it is. Full size.

When I put the phone in my pocket, the buttons push themselves, and apparently, they managed to push themselves in just the right order to shrink the photo size.

So get out your magnifying glass. This is the best I could do.

Get Out Your Credit Card

I did something really dumb the other day. I installed Windows Defender. Have you tried this program? Microsoft released it to try to keep malware at bay. I’m not sure, but I think it may be the same basic thing Vista has, which drives users out of their minds.

Or not. It doesn’t say “Cancel or Allow.” But it does slow down the computer. For days, I’ve been suffering with slow website loading. This morning I finally realized I still had Windows Defender running, after installing real security software. So I dumped Defender, and now all is well. More or less. Some sites still stink. Northern Tool installed something called “liveperson,” which takes about a week to load, every time you go from one page to another. They ought to call it “deadwebsite.”

I Googled to find that Mac ad. Mac people are really annoying; they’re the vegetarians of the computer world. Often literally. But the commercials are great, and Microsoft deserves them. I have lots of software, but when I have a problem, it’s almost always caused by Office or Windows. Funny, how tiny startup companies can make software that works, while big, bloated Microsoft can’t.

“Bloated Microsoft.” Hmm…

These guys need to do a buddy movie.

I’m probably wrong, but my advice is, get rid of Windows Defender, be a man, and spend $30 on actual software made by people who care whether it works.

“Gnocchi, Gnocchi, Gnocchi…”

WHOO HOO! I took the Guzzi out for a spin. Nothing seems to stop that bike. The Harley always requires a new slow jet after I let it sit without fuel stabilizer. The Guzzi will run on sludge. And it has a huge battery that holds a charge way longer than the Harley.

I love both of these bikes. The Harley–people won’t believe this–is refined, ergonomically perfect, and extremely comfortable. The Guzzi is coarse, snarls like a leopard when you hit the throttle, and responds like it’s made of air. When you throw it around, you don’t even feel the weight. And unlike the Harley, it has no footboards to dig into the pavement when you try to turn.

I need new side covers. The ones Guzzi makes are just no good. They press against the underside of the seat, and in time, the pressure tears the plastic, and they fall off. There’s a guy who makes sturdy fiberglass replacements. I need to email him and get it over with. Right now, I have only one cover. Tacky.

I’m still using my old helmet. The visor won’t open, but other than that, it’s as good as it ever was. I guess I can take my time waiting for a deal on a new one.

I have a cover and a disk alarm now, so theoretically, I could keep one bike outside, ready to go. It’s hard to choose. The Harley is a more expensive bike. But the Guzzi is a classic; all Guzzis are, as soon as they’re made.

It occurred to me that I might be able to machine parts for these things. Stuff like foot pegs. Something to think about. Stainless is not expensive, if you look in the right places.

Wish I had more time to ride. You can’t ride in the daytime here and enjoy it unless it’s cool, and in July, that isn’t going to happen. August is worse. I prefer to ride at night, but I get to bed very early these days.

I think I’m going to start riding to church. It’s an evening ride, most of it is highway mileage, and it sure beats quick trips to the grocery. I guess it’s okay. They seem pretty casual up there.

Time for dinner.

I’m Back

Here’s a post that will help explain why it’s hard for computer nerds to get women. The boredom may actually stop your heart.

I got my new hard drive installed. I can’t believe it. I’ll put the information here in case some Googler needs it.

I tried to use Acronis Migrate Easy to move my old stuff to a new 500 GB drive (cheap!), but Acronis could not find the new drive when I tried to run it from Windows. With this program, you provide your instructions in Windows, and then it reboots your PC and moves the files, possibly in Linux or some other OS. Nerds can fill in the blanks here. When I rebooted, Acronis could not find the drive.

The remedy for this is to make a boot CD using Acronis, and do it from there. Sadly, Migrate Easy refused to cooperate, saying I had to get the pay version in order to do this.

The answer? Lifeguard Tools from Western Digital. It’s free, and you can find it online. I hooked the new drive up, told the program what to do, and in a few hours, I had a clone of my boot drive.

What happened when I tried to use the PC? You can guess. I took off the old drive, put the new one in its SATA hole, and hit the switch. “Error Loading OS.”

I figured I was toasted. But I was wrong. Here’s the answer. You boot from your XP installation DVD, go to the recovery console, locate your Windows installation, and fun FIXMBR. After that, the system worked.

Now I have to throw out the old drive. I’m not sure there’s a problem with it, but new drives are very inexpensive, so I don’t need to take a chance. I hate throwing out hard drives. You practically have to melt them in a kiln to be sure no one gets the information on them. Some idiot could raid my trash and take over my life. I’ll make sure nobody but Harry Potter could read this one. Have you ever tossed an old drive in the trash without messing it up first? I think you have to be nuts.

Whenever I travel, my hard drives come out, and I put them where no one will ever find them. The security is more than worth the aggravation.

I found some more good information. AVG is not the greatest free antivirus program. Something called Bitdefender is better. I installed it and ran it, and I found a Trojan. Irritating. The Bitdefender folks just changed their software to nail this one, and AVG can’t even find it. Same for Spybot and Ad-Aware. I also ran some cleaner programs and deleted a lot of trash, but only Bitdefender did the job.

I suspect that AVG was my problem. The PC doesn’t seem to be overheating badly enough to freeze it (it stays under the critical 60° C mark), and I haven’t read anything about this particular virus locking up computers. AVG, on the other hand, has been throwing off crash reports, and it has been taking over. They installed a ridiculous search bar and a bunch of other things I didn’t want.

The computer was on all night (virus scan), and it worked fine. Maybe I’m in the clear. Or maybe I have more viruses, which Kim Jong Il will one day use to launch DDOS attacks on the South Park guys.

I am considering taking out my motherboard and replacing the idiotic Intel plastic pins with real bolts. The CPU should have much better thermal contact with the cooling thing. Why they chose plastic, I will never understand. It was guaranteed to fail.

I managed to put off getting a Mac for maybe another year. When this thing finally croaks, I don’t know what I’ll do. I have a million programs. I can’t even remember all of them. PC Study Bible, Word, Wordperfect, image programs, Mathcad, Firefox, you name it. I’ll forget I own half of them.

I am wondering if I should set up a RAID system. I’m going to look into it. I can’t imagine a thing like that running without causing problems. Surely it has to be slower.

I was up until the ungodly hour of 12:15 last night. I got up at 9:30. I hate that. But you know how computer problems are.

Now I have to clone my storage drive. Surely Bill Gates will permit me to do that without blowing up the PC or setting the house on fire. He makes things difficult these days, but I think I won a victory last night.

New Drive the Answer?

My computer is annoying me with its incessant freezes. I don’t know if it’s a software issue or what.

I just checked, and huge hard drives (bigger than the one I have) are very cheap now. I may go buy one, clone my old drive, and see if things improve.

Of course, this may result in days of agony while my computer refuses to boot. We’ll see.

I tried to find a decent hard drive test utility, but it looks like they don’t exist.

I’ll see you if I see you.

I’m Back

I am home from the sea.

We took Val Prieto and his uncle out again today. Sadly, the only fish we hooked while trolling got away. Val thinks it was a wahoo; I only got a glimpse of it. I love wahoo steaks.

We did a little bottom fishing and caught two groupers, but they were below the legal size limit, so we threw them back to die. I caught a few disgraceful fish not worth naming.

The boat has been vibrating lately. Val volunteered to go down and look at the shafts, which is great, because I hate driving with water in my underwear. Guess what he found wrapped around the left prop shaft? Some woman’s bathing suit. I realize Miami is full of perverts, so the skinny-dipping is not a surprise. But usually, you don’t expect them to remain naked all the way home. I’m glad she wasn’t fat. If her suit had been bigger, instead of making the boat shake, it might have stopped the engines entirely.

I don’t know what a woman’s bathing suit costs, but surely it’s worth retrieving with a boathook after you’ve had your fun.

It’s a tremendous privilege to get out on the water on your own huge private boat, regardless of whether you catch anything. Val’s uncle is fighting cancer, so it’s always good to learn that he’s in good shape and able to go. Val says it’s in remission. His uncle doesn’t speak English well, but as he left, he said that with luck, he expected to be with us again next year. I sure hope so.

Back to real life. My computer is acting up. I think it’s overheating. Intel supplies very cheesy plastic pins to connect this type of chip to the heatsink, and mine are so messed up, if you breathe on them hard, you have to take the computer apart and put everything back in thermal contact. I assume I knocked something loose when I installed the new burner. Let’s see what the CPU temperature is. It should be under 40° C.

Of course it’s 50. Time to yank a bunch of cables and clear space on the kitchen table. I swear, if I could get a C clamp onto the motherboard, I’d do it. Anything to hold that stupid heatsink on.

I smell, I need water, and my computer is probably about to conk out again. So goodbye.

Harley in Fine Shape

I got the Harley out today and took a ride. Down to Cutler Ridge, up to South Beach, through South Miami, and home. South Beach is a real minefield for a Christian. Everywhere I looked, there were young black women wearing what appeared to be paint. I guess they wear actually wearing shorts, but the difference was negligible.

I have missed riding. And now that the bike is running flawlessly, it’s more of a pleasure than ever. It was like flying. Every time I get on that thing, I wonder how people can complain about Harley seats. My behind has never been so pampered. I always compare it to riding a motorized couch. It’s an ergonomic masterpiece.

Because I used to ride so little, I had minimal insurance on the bikes. I called up today to get a quote on an increase. A while back I bit the bullet and got a nice medical policy, and today I asked what it would save me to dump uninsured motorist coverage. The answer? Only about TWO THIRDS of the cost of my policy. I had no idea it was so much. Insurance is utterly mysterious to me; I just figure out what I need, get the best quote I can, and pay. I generally don’t know what each component costs. If I switch companies and lose the unneeded coverage, I can get much, much higher coverage for a third of what I used to pay.

I think I should get rid of it. It pays for things like pain and suffering, IF you can prove them, and IF you can show the other driver caused the accident. Guess who will spend tons of money and time trying to prove you have no pain and suffering, and that you caused the accident? Your insurance company. Do I know that for a fact? No, but I know this for a fact: I was not born yesterday.

It also pays for lost wages. I can imagine how much fun that would be to prove, as a writer. No, I don’t think uninsured motorist coverage is for me. My regular policy covers my car, the other guy’s car, and the other guy’s medical costs. My medical insurance covers my injuries. Uninsured motorist sounds like a black hole I will never get my money out of. It made a little sense when it was a cheap alternative to a medical policy, but now it’s not so good. Correct me if I’m wrong.

The “pain and suffering” and “mental anguish” angle is not appealing to me. Opportunistic tort litigation makes me vomit, even when I stand to benefit from it. And payment for whiny, nebulous reasons like suffering doesn’t really make sense to me. I don’t want to be part of our country’s disgusting litigation burden, just so I can get a few more pennies to rub together and fondle and worship. My self-respect is worth more than that.

When my mother died, we suspected her death was hastened by a nasty technician who intentionally burned her esophagus because she complained. After her treatment, she couldn’t eat, and she starved. Did I have any interest in suing? Uh…no. We weren’t sure this guy burned her on purpose or even negligently. And regardless, a lawsuit would have prolonged the pain of losing her. We would have relived it every day for years. And litigation is a shabby, sleazy business. Better to count on God to balance the books. Suing for wrongful death or torts resulting in death is morally questionable, anyway. You take a loved one’s death, which is supposedly a source of pain for you, and you try to turn it into a pinata party.

I also had an opportunity to cash in on the cigarette lawsuits. As the son of a woman killed by lung cancer, I was entitled to thousands. I did not want that money polluting my bank account and my soul. I would have felt like a vulture. And I don’t really blame the tobacco companies for my mother’s death. She made a bad choice when she was young, disobeying her parents and becoming addicted. The people who sold tobacco at that time did not fully understand its addictive and carcinogenic nature. My own family grew tons of it. We don’t have clean hands, and it won’t bring my mother back, and I’m not the one who died of cancer, and I don’t want to be part of the tort system. How can I criticize it if my greedy, unworthy snout is in the trough? And Christians are expected to be merciful and forgiving, if they want God to be merciful and forgiving to them.

Speaking of my snout and troughs, I have to get food before church. Adios.

Pass the Salt

I never thought I’d be saying this, but I am really sorry for making fun of audiophiles. One look at this site, and you’ll be a high-end believer, too.

http://www.nathanmarciniak.com/elemental