Friday, November 17, 2006

Saving My Past


Between my wife and I, we must have over 300 vinyl records, LP's. We haven't had a decent turntable to play them on in about 10 years. I have now undertaken the task of trying to digitalize our musical past.

One of the major decisions I have to make on every recording, is do I keep those clicks and pops that were a feature of this medium. To me that was how I remember listening to these songs. Without that little pop at that certain point, sometimes it just doesn't seem the same.

The crystal clear sound of the CD makes sure that you always get the same sound every time you hear it, but after a needle has drug through the grooves of a LP a few hundred times, that particular album becomes part of your personal history and all it's little flaws actually become endearing.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Just Stupid

I'm still catching up from my being away, but this is amazing. Go watch and come back, I'll wait. From Hot Air.

The idea of stereotyping another ethic group, even if you are supporting them, while making fun of another guy for stereotyping an ethic group, even if he was trying to make a point (badly) about supporting them is just stupid. I wouldn't expect anything less from the likes of O'Donnell (I don't think that's an Italian surname) who, according to librul laws, may have the right to bring up "Potato Eaters" but not "macaca", except for that corollary of librul's cannot be held to the same rules as everyone else.

Minimum Wage...Again

I heard on the news the other day that 2% of the work force make minimum wage. A majority of these people making minimum wage were either students or retired people looking to supplement their income.

Every company that has a work force in the U.S. pays more that the Federally mandated rate, even above the California state mandated rate.

For many years now, I have thought that this was just a ploy by the Unions to drive up the wages of their members, but being Union employees make much, much, much more that this wage there had to be something else.

TAXES

In the society where all people are entitled to the same level of prosperity as everyone else, regardless of your contribution, you have to have a base line to delineate what is excessive. This is the level of income that can be taxed at an exorbitant rate (think 75%) because you don't deserve to earn that much more than your fellow man, you should be required to help the less fortunate, regardless of whether they are an addict or have had 5+ children without getting their HS diploma or bothering to marry one of the men who got them pregnant.

I am amazed, that in the United States, that the government would have the balls to tell me that I have worked to much and that that I don't deserve credit for the hours and commitment that I have put in to make my life better than the ones who just show up for their job and don't bother to take the responsibilities to advance in their job.

One thing that has always stuck with me was that one of the biggest spokespersons of my generation, for equal opportunity and reward for all people was John Lennon. Where did he decided to live? In the United States. Why? I wasn't that he loved the U.S. more than his home country, as he bitched constantly that we never did enough for the poor, but in that period Britain's tax rate was around 75%, and this hero of the common people didn't want the government to take his money. Basically he was doing what the leftards accuse big corporations of doing and putting his earnings into off-shore accounts to protect them from excessive taxation.

This taxation level will not be enacted in the next 2 years. It can't be done without controlling the President's office and having a larger majority in both houses, but enacting this feel good proposal is just the groundwork for the next step.

Time Flying By

I can't believe the amount of time since my last post. Life just got kinda busy and flew by.

At work we actually got the OK to start up the site this week, but because of a shortcut taken, wee had a big problem, so now we have a work-over rig back in the yard to fix what we wasn't checked for a week and a half ago.

My Raiders have reverted back to form and are again in the run to position themselves for next years draft. Walter was sacked 7 time in the first quarter, the Seattle defense were past the offensive line and in the backfield waiting for Walters to get there.

The GOP got it's butt kicked in the election, but in what could be considered a minor victory, the Dems that were elected ran mostly on a conservative platform, so now it's a wait and see if they really were advocating what they said, or where just lying till they got in office.

The worst part of the election is Pelosi becoming Chairman of the House. The word is that most Americans don't know who Pelosi is, man are they in for a shock. I live in California and have watched this woman's policies enacted around the San Francisco area and I don't believe her assertion of bi-partisanship. I remember when Bush put out his hand in bi-partisanship to Ted "the Swimmer" Kennedy on the "No Child Left Behind" program, and *hic* Kennedy *hic* had stabbed Bush in the back before he had made it to the corner liquor store for his daily restock.

Well, I got something down, now I have to work harder to get back in the habit of scribbling something more often.