Advice for future Presidents

Now this is how you declare war:

How To Declare War (Anno Domini, 1429)

by Kenneth Anderson

Jhesus-Maria, King of England, and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the Kingdom of France, you, Guillaume de la Poule, count of Suffort, Jean, sire of Talbot, and you, Thomas, sire of Scales, who call yourselves lieutenants of the Duke of Bedford, acknowledge the summons of the King of Heaven.  Render to the Maid here sent by God the King of Heaven, the keys of all the good towns which you have taken and violated in France.  She is here come by God’s will to reclaim the blood royal.  She is very ready to make peace, if you will acknowledge her to be right, provided that France you render, and pay for having held it.  And you, archers, companions of war, men-at-arms and others who are before the town of Orleans, go away into your own country, by God.  And if so be not done, expect news of the Maid who will come to see you shortly, to your very great injury.  King of England, if you do not so, I am chief-in-war and in whatever place I attain your people in France, I will make them quit it willy-nilly.  And if they will not obey, I will have them all slain; I am here sent by God, the King of Heaven, body for body, to drive you out of all France … (Written this Tuesday of Holy Week, March 22, 1429.)

Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, sends a formal letter of summons to the English upon the siege of Orleans.

Thanks to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit for linking this and Kenneth Anderson over at Lawfare for posting it.

How about them speechwriters

President Reagan used to take a lot of flack from the left, who claimed that he was an ignorant buffoon whose only skill was the ability to effectively deliver a speech that was written by someone else.  The lie was put to that claim when his personal documents were released, showing the copious hand written modifications he made to his speeches before giving them, as well as communications he had with his speechwriters.  Turns our he wrote or edited most speeches he gave, in each case making them better.

Now we have the current president, who has been hailed as a brilliant motivator and speaker.  This short video suggests otherwise.

Here are the highlights

1) __________ (insert country name) punches above their weight.  (Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, Philippine)

2) No stronger ally than _______________ (insert country name).  (Netherlands, Australia, Poland, Great Britain, Germany, Republic of Korea, Israel, France, Italy, Japan)

Really too bad that this brilliant communicator can only come up with one metaphor and one way to describe our friends and allies.  And for you lefties out there who still rant about what an idiot Reagan was, maybe it's time to read some of the writings he left behind.  You might be surprised.

I'd start with Dear Americans, which contains many of the letters he wrote in response to personal communications he received as President.  Did you know that this warmongering idiot took the time to personally respond to dozens of letters that he received each week from private citizens?  Probably not.  Well worth the read though.

NHTSA wants you to have a paper map unfolded on your lap while you drive

Remember how much safer you were trying to read that giant, fold-up, paper map while you drove, before all these dangerous navigation systems were installed in cars?  Neither does NHTSA.  They seem to have forgotten how bad it was and are focusing on how bad it is.  They have recently issued new Driver Distraction Guidelines which propose that "Dynamic, continuously moving maps are not recommended."  Apparently moving things distract you while you drive.  So, no more navigation systems.

Fortunately for now, it's just "guidelines".  These are recommendations that you can voluntarily follow.  Or that manufacturers should voluntarily follow.  Unfortunately, as we all should know by now, voluntary suggestions by the federal government which are not adopted by everyone soon become burdensome regulations.  After all, the cry of "we asked them to be reasonable, but they refused, so now we have to force the issue" is regularly heard in the halls of the bureaucracies.

Was just browsing through some links looking for some information I wanted to add to this article, and stumbled across this interesting analysis.  Richard Wilhelm, over at Mondaq, a website devoted to " legal, accounting, regulatory and commercial issues", suggests that NHTSA has no authority to issue defacto safety standards under the guise of "voluntary guidelines". Wilhelm may not have been paying attention.  Those of us who have been fighting for motorcycle rights for the past twenty years are very familiar with the folks over at NHTSA and their propensity to do whatever they want, regardless of their mandate or the law.

Want to read the guideline yourself?  Go to this page and do a search for the word "map".  It will take you right there.  It's Section V.5.b.

Employers who want your Facebook passwork

I haven't had to interview for a new job in the past few years, but apparently there is a recent trend where prospective employers are asking for Facebook passwords during interviews.  I would hope that most people would tell them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine, but the reality in many cases is that the job seeker really needs a job and can't afford to take a hard stance on privacy.

The Captain wrote about this the other day which is what brought it to my attention.

He linked to this AP article which talked about the recent trend. (BTW, what "steadily improving job market" are they talking about?)

 So here's a suggestion from Nancy P via Clarissa's Blog that I pirated because it is so excellent.

I will consider your request when you have gathered original copies of privacy releases from the “friends” and from any others who may have been seen in a photo on my private Facebook page. I also require you to obtain from Facebook’s general counsel a specifically worded consent for you to access my private Facebook page via password. The action of giving a password to some person other than the registered user is considered a violation of terms of service, and may be illegal. Furthermore, I suspect that you would like to prevent your company from being banned or sued by Facebook. Lawyers in most civil suits take a scattershot method of naming defendents, and any sloppiness on your part in obtaining all consents from “friends” and any people present in photos on the private site may expose you to lawsuits from these individuals, and possibly lawsuits by Facebook corporate defendant in any countersuit. Needless to say, I would be a target of all lawsuits as well, but generally plaintiffs’ lawyers pursue corporate deep pockets, and individuals with relatively few assets are assigned minimal responsibility.

Not only is this an excellent response that covers you with the employer, but there is no way they get everything needed to comply.

Thanks to the Captain, Nancy, and Clarissa for this tidbit.  Good to have quality bloggers out there that I can pirate to keep my few readers (and myself mostly) entertained and informed.

In retrospect

Mowing the lawn might not have been the best idea while sick.  Only took half an hour (I only had half the lawn to do) but now I'm exhausted.  The combination of boredom, sore back from the soft couch, and boredom drove me to it.

OTOH, the lawn is mowed.  So I've got that going for me.

On the Effectiveness of Various Supplements and Health "Remedies"

How do we know that cold "remedies" work?  My sister swears by Zicam.  "Our colds are gone so much faster when we use it".  What exactly does that mean?  Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm not knocking my sister here.  She's pretty darn smart but...

How long does a cold last?  Not like that is a precise measurement.  Think about it.

There is no precise measurement.  "My colds lasted 33.5 hours, but with Zicam they last 21.4".  Laboratory tested.  Colds last different lengths of time for all sorts of different reasons.  Maybe the positive energy created in your brain by applying Zicam regularly causes your body to generate more antibodies and kick the cold quicker.  Maybe if you were convinced that vodka tonics with lime were the trick, they also would do it.

So let's extend that.  I take a variety of supplements.  Glucosamine/condroitin for my joints.  I have crappy knees, I'll blame rugby but it's most likely just that I have crappy knees.  I take a supplement.  If I stop taking the supplement I think that my knees start to hurt more.  Do they actually?  I don't know. Maybe I just notice it and blame it on the lack of supplement.  The rest of what I take I take because I have been told it is healthy.  Vitamin C, Omega 3 oils, multivitamin, stuff for my eyes because my family has a history of AMD.  Does any of it do any good?  Beats the heck out of me. But I (semi)faithfully shovel it into myself (almost every morning and hope that I am going to live longer and better because of it.  Sort of like my sister's Zicam.

Sick Blogging

Well, woke up Tuesday morning with a splitting headache, barely slept Tuesday night due to waking up feeling like I was choking to death, slept better last night but woke up with the most heinous sore throat, so thought I'd share some of the plus side of the whole experience.

Thing 1: Ears were clogged yesterday so I could barely hear.  Told my students they'd have to be patient with me and speak up when they were talking.  Helping out a group of students with a problem and I hear "He's probably faking it so he has an excuse to ignore us".  Turn around and one of my students is looking at me with a HUGE grin on her face.  Must have said it pretty loudly for me to have heard.  Well done.

Thing 2: Browsing around and found Captain Capitalism, a new blog for my list.  Providentially there was an article a few days ago about how to most effectively milk illness for pampering from the women in your life.  Unfortunately there are none, so I'm on my own.  Or just not working it right.

Thing 3: Really good new chicken noodle soup recipe.  Created by me by accident as I flung things into a pot through my head-achy, stuffy haze.

Thing 4: Testing my theory that because citrus has Vitamin C, my vodka and diet tonic with lime should help me kick my cold faster.

Thing 5: Almost through The Mentalist, Season 1.  I hate how hard it is to find some shows online until after the season is over.  I am waiting for Blue Bloods and White Collar to finish their current season so that I can keep watching and soon The Mentalist will be added to the list.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I had to stay after school late to write up substitute plans just in case I feel so even more rotten tomorrow I can call in sick with a clear conscience.  (I'm amazed at some of the stories from friends who are substitute teachers about the complete lack of planning that they find when showing up.  Don't those teachers give a cr&p about their students?)   Anyway, if I don't call in sick that was all wasted time as I already knew what I was going to do, just had to put it into terms that a fifth grade social studies teacher could understand (just in case I got a fifth grade social studies teacher as my sub).  You just never know.

Yay for property rights

Sackett vs EPA has been decided.  Unanimous decision by the SCOTUS in favor of private property owners.

Here was the situation.  The Sacketts owned some property and tried to build a house.  The EPA declared it a wetland and issued a compliance order.  Violation of the compliance order (ie not restoring the property to its original condition) results in a $75,000 per day fine.  To make matters worse, under current law the Sacketts couldn't take the EPA to court until the EPA filed suit.  Since the EPA has no time limit on when to file a suit (in fact my reading of the opinion suggests that they never have to file suit, they get to choose between a compliance order and a judicial proceeding) and since the fines keep adding up daily until they do, well, you can probably see where this is going.

Volokh has a writeup here

Actual SCOTUS opinion here.

On a more personal note

I'm not really much of a TV watcher.  Used to be an avid sports fan, but that's sort of died off.  I still put games on, but they tend to be background.  No hockey on American television to speak of anyway.  There's a few shows that I try to catch each week, or am watching on Netflix, or am waiting for them to add new seasons on Netflix as I don't have a DVR .

The Mentalist (just started)


Suits


Psych


Doctor Who


In Plain Sight


Justified


Blue Bloods


Grimm


How I Met Your Mother (slowly losing interest)


Covert Affairs (slowly losing interest)


White Collar (just started)


Burn Notice

Top Gear (the British version)

Hmm.  By my standards, once I type out the whole list, I have become a TV person.  I suspect that based on the average North American, I can still claim to not be much of a TV watcher.

Obama seizes control of the whole country

Or not.  As Ed Morrissey points out, this is a routine update of an Executive Order that dates back about eighty years.  It's been updated every few years for at least the last fifty.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/03/18/national-defense-resources-preparedness-executive-order-power-grab-or-update/

Hasn't stopped the tinfoil hat crowd from claiming that this is the EOTWAWKI.

Enjoy that hotel pool on your last vacation?

It may be your last.  The Americans With Disabilities Act requires that hotel owners install lifts (for disabled people, in case you hadn't figured that out).  If they don't, $55,000 fine.  If they do, $10,000 to $20,000 for the lift and installation.  Which, of course, will be rarely used.  So what will most likely happen?  Hotels will close their pools.

Maybe be you should have the right, in your own hotel, to decide who your clientele is likely to be, and make business decisions based on that.  At least in a free country.

Cato Institute has more.

Happy Pi (3.14) Day

I Am Weak

Over the years you may have tuned into this blog in eager anticipation of the next tidbit on antique waffle irons.  You may have followed my serial posts on the acquisition and restoration of old waffle irons.  Or you may have stumbled on this post by accident and are wondering what this crazy person is raving about.  Stop right now and read the two previous posts.  If you love waffles.  AIKYD.  Everyone does.

So yesterday I stop by an estate sale.  Older gentleman headed for a home from what I overheard.  There it is.  The fifth waffle iron that I don't need.  Seriously, I have four, I am single, and even if I wasn't, what kind of person needs five waffle irons.

Oh.  That would be me.  After all, it is a really clean Dominion, made in the late thirties or so.  Apparently it became a fad for a few years to have two small irons to make dessert sized or smaller appetite sized waffles, until the customers found out that it took longer to clean up and just wasn't worth effort.  Well, if you have a waffle iron collection, this is the coolest addition and will come out when the nieces and nephews are over for waffles.  Just right. 

Current TV lineup

Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

In the Service of the King by Naomi Novik


The Measure of the Magic by Terry Brooks

The Flight of the Patriot by Yadollah Sharifirad

Oh, that's right.  They're all books.  Ordered the first four from the library cause I had nothing to read and they all had long waiting lists.  Figured by the time the next one came in I would have read whichever I got first, and so on.  Nope.  All four arrived within three days of each other.  And they aren't short books.  And they can't be renewed because there are waiting lists.  Good thing I love reading.

Outrage is one possible word

$770 million dollars spent by the US State Department to refurbish mosques in the middle east.  What do you suppose the response would be if they spent fifty cents on a church here in the US.

 

HT: Small Dead Animals

Blogging from Behind

Been so busy that I haven't posted anything in almost ten days. That's what working two jobs and having a death in the family will do to you, I guess. The less important things in life, like entertaining a few friends on the internet, go by the wayside.

My nephew Malcolm passed away.  He was twenty one, severe disabilities, not really supposed to make it this long, but my saint of a sister kept him in such good health that he outlived the predictions by quite a bit.  He was a wonderful kid, always laughing at stuff we couldn't see or hear, but the last two years of his life were quite painful, both for him and the family, and hopefully he is in a better place now.

It seems to be coming on for motorcycle season.  I worked Friday night, Saturday, AND Sunday this weekend.  I hate doing that but it was worth it when I got the text message from the owner RAVING about how much she liked riding her bike with the changes I made (front lowering kit and Carlini pullback ape hanger handlebars). Plus the $$ are always nice.

Thought about blogging a bunch of times but it was almost always when I was in the car.

Sandra Fluke:  What can I say?  I don't agree with Limbaugh's comments, they were over the top but seriously folks...  $1,000 a year for birth control?  Condom are what, less than a buck each?  The pill is $15 to $50 a month and Planned Parenthood gives discounts for low income (Attn: students!).  Canadian news this morning announced that Limbaugh lost another advertising account for the comments he made about a woman who testified "in favor of birth control."  Seriously, that's how they reported it.  She testified in favor of birth control.  Not "in favor of forcing a Catholic university in which she enrolled knowing full well that they wouldn't pay for it to pay for it".  And you wonder why Canadians seem to be so ignorant about what really happens down here.  I have serious issues with the fake moral outrage by the left on this anyway.  Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin a "t**t" and a "c**t", Ed Schultz calls Laura Ingraham a "s**t", do a Google search for Deneen Borelli, a black female conservative and supporter of the Tea Party Movement, and the fourth result calls her a "black, teaba**ing, n*****", and the racial epithets hurled at Michelle Malkin are obscene.  President Obama has never called any of these women and the mainstream media has never gone on a crusade to restore civility in our society or get any of the above commentators fired.  Pure hypocricy. Want to read more, check out Kirsten Powers' article.

What else has happened?  Well, the Canucks are stumbling along with the second best record in hockey, winning (and losing) what must be a record number of games in overtime and shootouts.  I guess a win is a win and points is points, but I worry that when the playoffs start, all it takes is a few lucky bounces the other way and you are out.  It is just surreal that it seems like they aren't very good yet they keep beating the best teams in hockey and continue to win.  Maybe I'm just still reliving thirty years of frustration.  Oh yeah,  Versus hasn't played a damn hockey game all year.  The only time there is a hockey game on my TV is on Saturday when the Stinking Leafs play on Hockey Night in Toronto Canada. WTF?  Why did they even buy the contract this year?

Update: Not sure who has the rights.  There aren't any hockey games on.  If I want to watch hockey (and if I didn't live right by Canada) I'd have to subscribe to the NHL Network.  Who is in charge of this crap?

Speaking of WTF, one of the slogans reportedly bandied around for Obama's reelection campaign was the short lived and much made-fun-of Win The Future.  Apparently someone didn't get the memo that everyone outside of Obama's office knows what the initials stand for, and it isn't a winner in politics. LOL.

Debating internet dating.  It just feels wrong to me.  I struggle with talking to complete (female) strangers in person, how could it be better to sit and type at them.  I am bound to type something really stupid that my social filter might catch if I were sitting there.  Plus there's the whole facial expression, context thing.  Plus it just seems weird to meet people on the internet.

If I were Frank J. I would call this Random Thoughts but he beat me to the good name by several years.  Thanks, Frank.

Listening to Lake Wobegon (BY ACCIDENT, jeez, give me a break) and heard a funny one.  Where do all those blond jokes come from?  Brunette's sitting around on Saturday night.

Bye now.