We continue to approach a point of irreconcilable differences.  This one is the reverse problem of federalism, when the laws of one state to another are so diametrically opposed that national continuity becomes a major issue.  Of course, the dramatic expansion of power from the Judiciary via the 14th ammendment should have at least fixed these kinds of situations.  According to that decision, a citizen of the United States has rights that are universal at the State level, as reaffirmed recenty by the Supreme Court.  So, you are permitted to own firearms as a federal citizen, no matter what State you live in, but apparently not in the manner you carry it.

This should at a minimum be a huge warning and caution for everyone buying firearms in states neighboring those with draconian gun laws, given at time of purchase.  There should also be some leeway built into NJ law for the obvious, inevitable, and predictable case of people accidentally crossing the invisible line of a State boundary.  Frankly, if this kind of thing stands, then we really ought to have immigration and customs checkpoints entering NJ to explain the rules of the State, or most common rules, etc (like California does with its Fruit inspection checkpoints).  Also, it would really drive home the atmosphere law abiding citizens live under in NJ.

And last but not least, it's also a good lesson in what you do and do not need to state to a police officer at a traffic stop.  He had no probable cause for inspecting her vehicle for a firearm, and she had no obligation to answer any questions about it.  Whether she had an obligation to offer it up morally is another Post.

http://www.my9nj.com/story/25996007/nj-gun-permit-problems

A Fundamental Divide: Innocent Until Proven Guilty

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/04/06/MSNBC-Children-Are-Not-Yours-They-Belong-To-The-Community

This video gets at the root of a fundamental divide:  "innocent until proven guilty", or "guilty until proven innocent".  Your answer as to which philosophy you hold, and the degree to which you hold it, will greatly influence your political position.  Progressives seem to basically hold to the latter, as it applies to individuals, and to the former as it applies to government.  Conservatives hold to the former for individuals, and to the latter as it applies to government.

Libya, the Other Good War?

I must admit to being confused on several points about the “conclusion” of the Libyan conflict / war. In the first place, the confusion begins with what to call it. Since the Iraq conflict was labeled a War, it seems only right to label Libya a War as well.

The next point of confusion comes from my experiences in the early 2000’s, when I was brow beaten, and savaged, for daring to defend the President at that time, and his conduct of the Iraq War. At the time, Afghanistan was still considered a Good War, since Al Qaeda was directly acknowledged to be supported by the government there. I was told Iraq was secondary, and that there was no national interest, and that if we had stop every mad man dictator in the world we’d have to attack half the world’s countries, etc. But now it seems that for even less justification than was used for Iraq, we allowed, supported, and participated in the efforts to remove Qaddafi, dead or alive, from rule of Libya. Hilary Clinton says “we came, we saw, he died” with a smile on her face (put a cowboy hat on her, and she’d have a good likeness to the parody of George Bush, no?).

I also remember when Pat Robertson was condemned for suggesting that the way to deal with a South America Communist dictator involved possible assassination. But now have we not done precisely that in Libya? Are we not in fact going after the world’s bad actors, as it was painfully and exhaustively declaimed to me that we should not? But that’s the problem, isn’t it? Which leaders do we get to call bad actors and strong men? Which ones are deserving of death? The left complained when George Bush was making what they considered to be arbitrary judgments on this matter. But is it now okay to make those same arbitrary judgments with Obama at the helm?

I write this not to argue with the death of the mad man Qaddafi. I was in Liberia, and saw and heard first hand the destruction wrought by his meddling in the affairs of his continent (he financed and supplied many an insurrection in his day). Good riddance. But I cannot believe I am seeing this come from the same people who so vigorously attacked George Bush for essentially the same activity. If everyone is going to try to take credit here and say it is a good thing, then I want an apology (tongue in cheek), or at least an acknowledgement that there’s some serious soul searching that needs to be done in figuring out exactly what our role is in the world today, and the extent and use of our armed forces and diplomatic service in carrying that out.

(Re) Building a PC (part II)

Video Cards

So, I bought a new video card. Why? Well, I never could get the drivers on the old card to work right with Vista. And after digging into it and fiddling around enough I decided hacking Vista to make it work wasn't worth the effort (and did I mention Civ5 is a real video hog?). Also, my backup computer (thanks cousin Keith!) turns out to have a PCI-express slot, so I can re-use my current card. No brainer, buy a new card, move the old one, done!

wait

(time passes)

wait

(time passes)

the sword from the junction appears in your hand!

Sorry, old Zork joke. So the new card arrives, and while I'm waiting an eternity for Vista to shutdown, I pop the side off my old computer. That's when I notice that the proprietary Dell configured 305 measly Watt power supply does not have any extra PCI-e power adapters! Darn, well, I'll pick up another supply later and suffer for now. Right, Vista finishes shutting down, so pull out the old card, and... That's when I notice the new card requires not ONE but TWO extra PCI-e power adapters! ...Aaaaaggghhhh!!!!

So, back to TigerDirect to pick up a new supply with two adapters, and because I'm in a bad mood I pick up a copy of Windows7, since it's the only thing that supports DirectX11, and if I don't use a DirectX11 video card with a DirectX11 OS, than what's the point, right? RIGHT?!?

(from the vault of the Idiot Build-it-yourself Computer Geeks)

Quote of the Day

I'm not worried about the things I don't understand, these are confusing and someday I may understand them, or I may not. If I'm worried about anything, it's the things I think I understand, that tomorrow I may consider confusing. Fortunately, I have successfully arrived at the knowledge that nearly everything is confusing to me, and so I worry about very little.

A Plan to Fix the Primaries

I'd like to propose a plan. I'm tired of have 9 conservatives and 1 moderate run in the primary, only to have the conservatives split the vote and the moderate get cross-over independents / democratic party votes and take all the delegates in a winner take all election. We can't have a separate primary, it would cost too much. And it's a little too much to ask the 9 conservatives to "do their duty" and just step aside for one to run (and we also wouldn't get a say in such a process, it'd be another smoke filled back room deal).

So, let's get the people we think are true conservatives to make a pact, and publicize it. For the first three Caucus / Primaries, Conservatives will vote only for these people, in a sort of parallel primary. Then, no matter what else is going on, the winner of that group will continue while the others drop out. In addition, that candidate will stay until the convention. If they win the convention, fine. If not, they will be the conservative voice there. What do you think?

Also, this applies to liberal / progressive voters as well. I'm sure they're just as sick of not having a voice at the conventions. I'll take comments from anyone!

Addendum: For clarification, this was originally in reference to the U.S. Federal Presidential election, but can apply to other elections as well.

(Re) Building a PC

My Athlon XP computer recently quit working, and in lieu of buying a replacement computer, I decided to fix it. Why? Because it was the only computer that connected to my printer. Vista and beyond will not recognize it. Why don't I buy a new printer? Because the one I have works just fine, and it has a scanner and copier feature built in. So,

1. Diagnose the broken computer - computer periodically shuts off, and temperature monitor shows very hot CPU.

2. Open up computer, and use half a can of compressed air to blow out several years of dust. Take off CPU heat sink and fan. Discover half inch cake of dust between fan and heat sink. Well, there's my CPU temperature problem.

3. Put everything back together, and turn on. Works great, temperature nice and steady! Then randomly starts shutting off (which was why I stopped using the computer for a while a year or so ago).

4. Computer turns on and shuts off after 30 seconds or so, before even leaving BIOS, so suspect motherboard.

5. Look at capacitors on board. Sure enough, several are *popped* and rusty, so they need to be replaced. Are you kidding? I have a degree in electrical engineering, not electronic repair, I haven't soldered anything in years, just looked at a computer screen for a decade. Plus, finding the "right" capacitor looks to be impossible, as there are at least 20 options on digi-key for capacitor parameters. I was hoping to just boost some of a random piece of broken electronics in the garage. Plus, by the time I order new ones, de-solder the old ones (without a solder pump, or braid because that damages the board), and solder them back in without burning a hole in the board, I'll probably have spent as much time and effort as buying a new cheap board from the internet.

6. Go to find a cheap board, search for Socket A board on PriceWatch. Oh, cool, $25 for the first item listed! Buy it, and sit back and wait for the magic to happen.

7. The magic is, a trick, as it turns out. Board arrives, but it's *not* a Socket A board. I have no idea why it showed up in the Socket A search. Okay, fine, processors are cheap too. What socket is it? Hmmm, 754. Let's see, .... Hey, wait a minute, there don't seem to be *any* vendors except one sketchy looking website dealing in probably second hand chips for socket 754. Arghh!!

8. About this time, as I'm searching for all this on my Vista-non-printer-compliant-but-other-wise-decent-machine, it shuts off inexplicably.

9. Diagnose, take cover off. Blow out several years of dust with the second half of compressed air can.

10. ....

11. (sigh)

12. Heatsink falls right the heck off my board, just missing my video card, and lands out side the computer. The plastic nub that holds the 'sink onto the CPU has just snapped right off. I don't even know what to call the part, let alone find a new one. Oh, and I can't search for it, since my computer is now sans heat sink.

13. Set up *good* computer on its side and set heat sink on top of CPU, and declare no one is to touch the case. Get online, and finally find a "Heat sink retention bracket" for my socket type (AM2+ for those keeping track).

14. While going through this process, I finally answer another nagging question I had about the replacement motherboard I bought. There didn't seem to be any place to hook a heat sink on... Ah. Well, now I know I need a "heat sink retention bracket" for a 754 socket board. This turns out to be very difficult to find as well, but I locate one on e-bay, in England.

15. I also settle on a *new* Sempron 3100 chip for the re-build computer, which comes with fan, since I was also ch0king on finding, buying, and shipping a fan for the *new* CPU.

16. Get both retention brackets, and new socket 754 CPU w/ fan. Fix up *good* computer with new retention bracket so I can actually set it back up and use the DVD drive again, and not worry about the heat sink falling off.

17. Install retention bracket in old re-build computer (which by the way is a pain, since you have to take everything off and remove the mother board to screw in a back plate for it).

18. Install *new* CPU. Plug everything back in, and turn on.

19. Okay, what is that Horrible noise? I think this *new* CPU has been in its box for about a decade, and the fan sounds like its bearings (I didn't think CPU fans *had* bearings) are about to fail.

20. BIOS comes up. Gateway. Gateway? Did I just see *Gateway* on my Bios? I have a good feeling some one ripped this board out of some office computer being tossed in the junk.

21. Nothing else happening. Oh, okay, forgot to plug the hard drive back in. Restart.

22. Yay! Windows XP boot screen. And it says: "You need to activate this copy of Windows." Darn it , I forgot Windows freaks out when you change the hardware, it thinks I've pirated the OS. And the wireless USB mouse doesn't work until I install all the right drivers. And the Fan is STILL really loud!

I'm SO glad I decided to repair my computer.