Walter In Denver

Frightening

Earlier this evening I ventured to East Colfax Avenue, a busy street, and which in Denver passes for a bad part of town.

Eh, I know what you're thinking. But I was just there to pick up some Chinese takeout.

As I walked back out to my jeep, parked curbside, I'm assaulted. It's a warm evening, and a car passes by with the windows down. As it nears me a woman leans out of the passenger side and yells something unintelligible. I turn my head to her in time to see her hurl something toward me. I flinch and duck. The missile arcs over my head and thumps against the jeep's canvas top. The car and the woman continue down Colfax, she still yelling and gesturing at me.

What did I do to provoke this? I look down to the pavement to find whatever weapon I've narrowly avoided.

It's... WOO! MARDI GRAS BEADS!

I didn't even have to show my boobies.

How Ironical

Tbogg lays into a Vodkapundit post, and then the commenters have at it.

The really fun part is how several of them call VPundit Steve an idiot, represented thusly -

This is rich...

the Thirty Years War. That war lasted so long, and killed so many people (the population of Germany was reduced by a third), that Christendom lost its bloodlust.

And for the next four hundred years up through today, European Christians have never again fought another war...right?

Wingnut History - it's craptacular.

Or -

Vodka is not exactly the brightest fellow in blogs, though, is he?

He's the only blogger I've read who turned out to be far stupider than his average commenter.

Steve's point sailed directly over their little noggins. Commenter Ardsgaine points out -

I think you've misconstrued his point. I take him to be saying that after the Thirty-Year's War is when Christianity began to rethink the whole idea of having a state religion and making war solely for the purpose of converting people. I mean, WWI wasn't about converting people to a particular religious viewpoint, right? Same with WWII? Not that religious warfare went totally out of style, but if you had to pick a point at which it started to not be so popular, that would be a good pick, I think.

But we all like to think we're smarter than our ideological opponents, no?

Cloud

That's the word cloud for this here blog. Feel free to purchase the tee shirt here.*

^{*unpaid endorsement, so feel free to buy me a shirt too.}

So

Heard any good stories lately?

A Bleg!

I'm trying to set up a Linux box with a copy of Linspire 4.5 I came across. My first impressions are good. It's quick to install, easy to undersand so far.

One problem - my Ricochet GS modem isn't communicating with it yet. Is anyone out there using one with a Linux system and can help a tech illiterate like me?

Just A Quick 20 Step Process

Over at Coyote Blog you can see the steps necessary to open a business in Colorado. It makes me ill just to read it.

He should thankfull he isn't trying to open a business in Denver, where a few extra steps are added.

I don't know how many people are really familiar with the regulatory torture business owners are subjected to. It's part of the reason I no longer am involved in owning a business. It's much easier to be an employee. From that statement you can gather how this sort of bureaucratic rigamorole hurts the economy. Furthermore, scale matters. Small operators are at a serious disadvantage. A larger business can afford accountants and lawyers to deal with these things, but if you don't have a lot of start-up money you have to deal with it all yourself, and if you're not experienced it's very easy to make errors. Errors which lead to fines and more hassles.

Do I sound bitter?

On a larger scale, this is a reason being a libertarian is frustrating. Each one of those registration and taxing requirements started as someones 'good idea,' as in wouldn't it be good idea if we taxed this, or had safety inspections for that? Taken one at a time, each bit of regulation seems innocuous. But in aggregate it's a serious problem.

Ski Bumming

Ski bum type jobs have long been a favorite for foreign workers from Australia and New Zealand. So why is it a problem now when more of the workers are from Latin America?

RM Blogger Bash V. (x.x)

Will be held Feb 18th at Breckenridge brewery - not the cool BBQ serving place on Kalamath, but the more (ahem) mainstream place by Coors Field.

RSVP here, and yes, you, specifically you, are invited.

Been There

Finally got out to see Glory Road a few days ago. It was an unusual experience, seeing events I've known about, people I've known and watched for a long time, portrayed by actors onscreen.

The movie itself has earned mixed reviews, and I'd grade it a B. Not bad for a sports movie. There were a few nice touches to the story, such as Coach Haskins himself making a cameo early in the film as a gas station attendant.

Some annoying hollywood touches were there, too. Warning: spoilers beyond the break.

Bruckheimer and crew don't trust the actual story to carry the movie, and add a violent racist incident for dramatic tension. The games themselves were altered to the point of almost pure fiction as well. UTEP Texas Western played very few close games that year, even the championship game against Kentucky wasn't very close. You might notice, too, that there is no semi-final game in the movie. The Miners go straight from beating Kansas to playing in the final game. Of course in the movie version the Kentucky game is a cliffhanger, and the Miners' accomplishment is somewhat cheapened by it. The reality is they showed themselves to be the dominant team in that game. As for my earlier fear of dumbing down the players, there was some of that, too.

One nice feature at the end of the movie was a 'where are they now' sequence, showing the players as successful businessmen and community leaders later in life. If you go, be sure to stay for the credits, when the actual players, including Don Haskins and Pat Riley, add some comments.

Bush Calls For Massive Medicare Spending Increase

You might never know how Bush plans to increase Medicare spending if you were to read your newspaper. The NY Times headline - Bush's $2.77 Trillion Budget Plan Calls for Medicare Cuts - simultaneously seeming to chide Bush for spending too much and too little. But if I hadn't looked for actual numbers, I might guess from that Medicare might actually by cut. Silly me.

It didn't take much time with Google News to find the truth, from a UPI analysis itself titled Bush budget cuts Medicare, more:

Leavitt said the cuts would serve to slow Medicare's long-term growth from a rate of 8.1 percent per year to 7.7 percent per year. He said the slowing was key to sustain the program as millions of baby boomers reach retirement.

7.7 % per annum growth? If a large corporation were to expand revenues like that you would say it is growing nicely. Certainly well beyond the rate of inflation.

I'll be looking for some newspaper, any major paper, to point out in its news coverage, that Medicare spending is growing rapidly and will continue to do so under the Bush plan. You can decide for yourself the nature of news reporting in the US - biased or just poorly informed?

h/t to Mr. Green for pointing out the Times headline.

Another Short Quote

This time from Colorado Pols, "The word is slowly leaking out: Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper will run for governor."

Update: Well, that didn't last long. Never mind.

"We Are Governed By Idiots"

Sez Andy. See if you can disagree.