Monthly Archives: December 2013

Adios, Mack

Posted on December 31, 2013 | 3 comments

It’s probably just as well that Longhorns football coach Mack Brown resigned. After watching last night’s 30-7 debacle in San Antonio, it’s pretty clear the exalted Coach February has lost a lot of his shine in the recruiting department.

Texas hasn’t had a dynamic quarterback since Colt McCoy and this year they barely had an offense. Their good defense held Oregon to one touchdown and three field goals. It was the offense’s game to lose, which they did, with two free touchdown-interceptions and a lot of dropped passes.

So, yes, I agree it’s time for a change. Four years of mediocre play is enough. Brown can only go so far on his “class act” reputation and we’ve reached the end. I just hope his replacement is a proven winner instead of merely a great-potential guy. And that he has an outstanding QB in his back pocket.

3 Comments

Posted in Texana, Texas Football, The Culture

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Rule 5: Topless beaches

Posted on December 31, 2013 | 3 comments

almost-topless

An anonymouse to warm us up on this frigid New Year’s Eve in CenTex land, courtesy of Planck’s Constant way back in 2008. More at the link. Racier, too.

3 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Rule 5

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Officer Friendly is out of control

Posted on December 30, 2013 | 1 comment

“Forced anal cavity searches have replaced pepper spraying and tasering as the most popular [police] form of degrading human beings…”

Texas has had some of these, too.

At least it’s preferable to being murdered like Miriam Carey.

Via Instapundit.

1 Comment

Posted in Blogosphere, Guns, The Culture

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Emilie Parker and the butterflies

Posted on December 30, 2013 | 2 comments

If ever there was a poster child for armed security in elementary schools, this little one (lower right) is she. Murdered in her first grade classroom by the Newtown maniac.

I’m a firm proponent of armed security like the good guy whose prompt response stopped the latest school shooting. I would personally tear down all those “gun free campus” invitations to the insane currently posted oh-so-righteously by self-centered idiots whose vision stops at the ends of their noses.

For all I know, though, the kiddo’s mother disagrees with me. Lots of people do. But she writes a simple, poignant essay about her lost child that’s worth reading. I’d quote from it but it’s under all-rights-reserved copyright. So click the link, please.

The badge gang, of course, was johnny-on-the-scene-at-Newtown—as always, just in time to clean up the blood and fill out the forms. And strut around in their version of security theater. I’m sure they  felt just like the fools they looked. Armed security in the school is the only way to stop these travesties.

UPDATE:  Instead, the good guys in Connecticut have to register their guns. Criminals, of course, will not obey the law and the insane? You can imagine.

2 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Guns, Obituaries, War Without End

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Where is the environmental benefit?

Posted on December 29, 2013 | 1 comment

So ask Native American groups angry at the White House’s continued push for more wind turbines which despoil natural beauty and kill millions of bats and birds.

“Wind farms must be located where the wind blows fairly constantly, and such locations are prime travel routes for migratory birds, including protected species such as bald eagles and golden eagles. Exacerbating the problem, wind farms act as both bait and executioner—rodents taking shelter at the base of turbines multiply with the protection from raptors, and their greater numbers then attract more raptors to the turbines.”

Meanwhile the turbines are a political shuck, providing only small amounts of intermittent electricity, generally at times when a utility doesn’t need it. Ah, but they fill the pockets of lobbyists, politicians, and wind turbine companies with subsidies, i.e. tax money. That’s the “environmental benefit” the White House really is interested in.

“Wind cannot satisfy the demand requirements of a utility unless it is backed up with fossil fuel plants and/or energy storage projects. This results in duplication of resources and additional costs, with little, if any, carbon mitigation. Further, the steep increases and declines in power delivery of wind put the reliability of the grid in question.”

All in the name of another, bigger shuck: stopping so-called man-made global warming, the warming which hasn’t been occurring for 17 years now. Except in federal press releases. Health insurance isn’t the only thing they lie about.

It’s lose-lose, all around, unless you’re one of Wormtongue’s cronies with your paw in the trough.

1 Comment

Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Obsessions, Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate

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Goodbye instant-on 100 watt blubs

Posted on December 28, 2013 | 2 comments

“Lasts 11 years!” saving “$202 in energy costs” because its 23 watts deliver the same brightness as a 100 watt incandescent bulb. (The kind to be outlawed Jan. 1 for manufacture by our political overseers, the very best ones that money can buy, you can be sure.)

So says the box of two Sylvania Super Saver, CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp), micro-mini, Soft White, Mrs. Charm bought the other day. The promise is classic sleight-of-hand. Quick, look over here!

Ah, but the fine print on the side of the box says the 11 years is based on just three hours use a day for seven days a week. I can triple that usage even in the daytime in a room with only one (north-facing) window and no skylight.

Howsomeever. The brightness is, indeed, comparable to a 100 watt incandescent. And the light is no harsher than an incandescent. (Soft was in the eye of the copy writer, apparently.)

But it does take a while to get that bright. “Instant On” the box says in big green letters. Most of the box is green. Of course. But “instant on”? That’s no truer than “If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.”

The light comes on surprisingly dim. Takes about 30 seconds to get bright. Not a big problem unless you need the bright light for something important in a hurry. Then you’d be SOL. Maybe you could carry a flashlight, eh?

Don’t bother calling the politicians. They’re busy cashing their checks from Sylvania.

UPDATE: Shoot. I was wrong. It’s not just manufacture of 100-watt bulbs that ends on Wednesday (Jan. 1, 2014) but 60- and 40-watt bulbs, too. There are still some around, of course. And if manufacturers in Mexico are smart (and I’m sure they are) they’ll keep making them for sale here.

2 Comments

Posted in Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, The Economy

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Rule 5: Anita Ekberg

Posted on December 27, 2013 | 3 comments

anita-ekberg-072

A famous, sometimes nude model of the 1950s, “Sylvia” in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, and one of my pubescent fantasies. Some things we never forget. And, now, thanks to the magic of the Internet, we can’t.

UPDATE: Little story about her. I had a paper route at 13, delivering tabloids. In those days (1957) even tabloids didn’t run cheesecake so they had to deliver in words (carefully) what they couldn’t show. I remember being mesmerized by an item on how Ekberg supposedly lost her decolletage, flung her arms about herself to hold the dress up and flew to the ladies room. Concluded the copywriter: “Underneath Anita’s dress was just Anita.” I still get chills reading it.

MORE:  Sex Goddess Dies at 83. Adios, Anita.

3 Comments

Posted in Obsessions, Rule 5

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