Random Rambles

Random post about nothing in particular

Spam Comments on my Blog

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I get about 15-20 spam comments on my blog every day.   Most are the “Thanks for that Awesome posting, it saved MUCH time” variety.   They usually have a link in them to anything from Viagra ads, penis enlargement, cheap homeloans, to how to get student aid.   I am currently doing an experiment to see many of the “thanks for that Awesome posting spam I get as a percentage of all the spam I get.   My gut tells me that the “awesome posting” spam is about 50% of all the spam I get.   I have recieved 31 spam comments in the past two days and 18 … More after the Jump…

The God Clause

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I ran across a piece in Bloomberg Businessweek that is very interesting. The God Clause and the Reinsurance Industry It is a fairly long story but the gist of it is that reinsurer’s, companies that essentially insure insurance companies, have some very sophisticated models for assessing risk but even they are not omniscient when it comes to natural events. The way these companies caegorize risk is interesting in the extreme. Lloyds of London has an entire section of their website devoted to analyzing risk and they annually put out a list of Realistic Disaster Scenarios.   What I found most interesting were the examples in the story of the way … More after the Jump…

The Fall of Qaddafi and the future of the “Arab Spring”

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I wrote about the war/action/conflict/kinetic what have you in Libya when it kicked off in March, April, and again in June. With the rebels now storming Tripoli itself and being on the verge of success under the cover of NATO, the question now becomes what will the successor regime look like. I will guess here and say that it will be a notional democracy wit an oligarchy of strongmen in power. They will also make all the right noises to placate the soft-heads in the west and make them feel good about their policy of R2P. It will probably not be long before the new regime starts hunting down Qaddafis … More after the Jump…

A Great One from the WSJ

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The First Rule of Liberalism: Government failure always justifies more government. That is one of the best lines I have seen in a while. Thanks to the Best of the Web Team at the Wall Street Journal for coming up with it. It is just about as good as Reagan’s famous nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’

Germany’s Current Strategic Position

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At the present time, Germany is in a strategic position unparalleled in its history.   The German state shares no borders with any potential enemies in the near future.   Historically Germany has had to contend with one or more enemies sharing contiguous borders with it and rarely has Germany been able to count on outside help in combating these enemies.   As a continental as opposed to maritime power this situation is unprecedented for Germany with her short coastline and long land borders.   Historically Germany has always shared a border with at least one enemy whether at peace with them or not. The list of historical enemies is … More after the Jump…

WOW, What more can you say to a story like this?

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Education officials break down Stockton man’s door I don’t even know what to think about this. Surprise that the DOE has cops or shock that they would use a SWAT team to go after a student loan defaulter. Maybe those guys over at Prison Planet really are onto something. Of course, this could lead to all sorts of jokes about DOE cops toting rulers and detention slips too.

Herman Cain Has Officially Announced His Candidacy for President

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Herman Cain is the one real person running for president, not a career politician. He is probably the best candidate out there and I am waiting for the left-wing Smear Machine to go into overdrive on him. Here s a pretty good piece in The American that talks about how can the Tea Party be racist since most of us love Herman Cain.

Beef with Google Books

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Dr Beachcombing over at strange history sent me this post of his through email a few days ago and I decided to link to it. It regards the quality of the scans available for books in the Google Books service.  He takes particular umbrage with the poor quality of some of the Google scans of books they have up and also with the way they use IP mapping to determine if a user can even access the scan in the first place based on the geographic location of their IP Address.  Read his post first, my reply to his email is below: Beach, Sorry, it has taken me a couple … More after the Jump…

I hate Citigroup

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I dabble in the stock market and one of the stocks I owned until recently was 5 shares of Citigroup stock.   I picked it up in late 2008 at $6 a share hoping to vulture-like profit share.   In the interests of full disclosure, I bought it before they got any TARP money.   It has since declined even further and sat in my stock portfolio like unwanted cheesecake consistently valued at less than I paid for it.   I decided about a year ago that as soon as it broke even I would sell it and wash my hands of the company I dislike anyway. I dislike Citigroup … More after the Jump…

The Lack of New Posts Lately

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I was in the hospital last week after undergoing surgery to fix a herniated disk in my lower back so I have not posted anything until today. I injured my back almost 17 years ago in a Bradley rollover at NTC and it finally got bad enough that surgery was called for, I sincerely hope this fixes it.   Back pain sucks big-time as anyone who has experienced it can no doubt tell you. I did have the chance to get some pretty good drafts written while in the hospital though and I will be polishing those and putting them up over the next few weeks.   Anyway, I will … More after the Jump…

Justin Bieber stop spamming my webpage!!!!

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I have gotten at least 500 spam comments from Justin Bieber in the last week.   They look like this(hyperlinks removed): Justin Bieber 0 approved justinbieber24.pl Plomma14372@gmail.com 94.41.92.26 Submitted on 2011/05/01 at 08:57 Kanadyjski wokalista http://www.justinbieber24.pl justin bieber justin bieber – [url=http://www.justinbieber24.pl]justin bieber[/url] – justin bieber justin bieber justin bieber – [url=http://www.justinbieber24.pl]justin bieber[/url] – justin bieber justin bieber justin bieber – [url=http://www.justinbieber24.pl]justin bieber[/url] – justin bieber Kanadyjski wokalista http://www.justinbieber24.pl I just want him to quit spamming my site, his music is bad enough, does he have to be a spammer too?

Courtesy Patrols Outside Fort Benning

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Drudge has a link up to this story about the military instituting Courtesy Patrols (CP) in downtown Columbus, Georgia just outside the gates of Fort Benning. The story itself is very balanced and explains what a CP is what they will be doing quite well I think. I personally am in the military and have both seen and had to act as a CP during my time in the military. They are nothing remarkable. As the story makes clear, the CPs have no legal standing with regards to people who are not in the military. They do have however, and can execute, command authority over members of the military who … More after the Jump…

UPDATE: Saint John of Nepomuk

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I wrote a post about Saint John of Nepomuk a week or so ago and at the time I wanted to post a picture of the statue near my house but had been too lazy to stop on my way to work and take picture. I fixed that yesterday and here are the photos. The first one is a full-length photo of the statue and the second is a close-up of the inscription. The statue stands on the bridge over one branch of the creek that flows behind my house. The stream’s name is the Flötbach (Flute Stream), but of course it is the Shrierbach where it is adjacent to … More after the Jump…

Can’t Play Online Poker Anymore :(

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I don’t play poker online but I Think it is kind of stupid that the Feds would waste so much time and effort stopping it, They should probably regulate it and tax it, that might even help with the Deficit. I do think the banner they put up when shutting down Poker sites is quite amusing. Full story here It is only a matter of time before there is some kind of internet policing for speech as well s amusement. Net Neutrality indeed.

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