Is Chuck Norris attacking your router?

Sad but true story via PC World.

If you haven’t changed the default password on your home router, you may be in for an unwanted visit from Chuck Norris — the Chuck Norris botnet, that is.

Discovered by Czech researchers, the botnet has been spreading by taking advantage of poorly configured routers and DSL modems, according to Jan Vykopal, the head of the network security department with Masaryk University’s Institute of Computer Science in Brno, Czech Republic.

Unlike most viruses which attack Windows based machines, this one affects most all of us.

The South Carolina Franchise

Well, state’s rights got trumped by the federal government a long time ago.

This we know. From now on, I think I’ll refer to the individual states simply as a “franchise” of the federal government because for all intents and purposes, thats precisely what they are.

This story was sent to me by a co-writer via CBS News.

It seems that South Carolina would rather use “real” money rather than federal reserve notes. South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts is leading the charge and introduced legislation this month to ban the “illegal” notes and also goes on to call the federal reserve note system “unconstitutional.”

The Germans felt their system wouldn’t collapse, but it took a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread in the 1930s,” he said. “The Soviet Union didn’t think their system would collapse, but it did. Ours is capable of collapsing also.

I have to give Rep. Pitts credit. He’s doing what he feels is right.

Looking at the federal government and its hold over individual states much like Domino Pizza’s headquarters and its franchise stores would show us that when the corporate office tells you to use a certain type of cheese, you’ll do what they say if you want to keep your franchise.

Imagine if you were sitting in on a conversation taking place in the 1700s. I could see the person bringing up the idea of a federal reserve system being laughed out of the room. He would also probably be the butt of many jokes to come.

Today. That joke has become a reality.

Missing the Point: Palin and Tea Partiers

To the folks who are Sarah Palin robots, this post is not for you.

I like Sarah Palin but I seriously do not agree with everything the woman says.

Case in point. Exhibit A.

Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party,” Palin said. “Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’.

Telling the Tea Party movement that they need to pick a party solely because we only have a two party system is ludicrous. It completely discounts the many reasons that the tea party movement exists. The tea party movement (the real one) is party neutral. So, I suppose that it’s ok to pick the lesser of two evils? Isn’t that what the McCain campaign was all about for the true grass roots conservative types who, on several occasions, denied McCain a presidential bid?

Yes.

Thinking that you absolutely must pick sides is part of the problem here.

The Democrat candidate sucks. The Republican candidate sucks.

If a tea party candidate who believes in everything I do runs, why shouldn’t I vote for them? What’s more important? Is it more important that the candidate have an R after their name or is it more important to vote for someone who actually represents me and my views?

Telling someone that they absolutely positively MUST pick sides is the problem.

I’m also afraid that the person who said that has absolutely no idea what she’s talking about.

RIP: Cinder

I woke up this morning to some terrible news.

The oldest cat here at “mini-Google” is an older cat named Cinder. He’s dark gray in color hence the name.

Cinder began to breathe irratically this past week. So much so that we all took notice to it.

Cinder’s owner took him to the vet yesterday where they initially found a torn thorax “something or other” and needed to drain fluid out of him. They drained about 350 cc which seems a bit much. Cinder stayed over last night for observation and so that further testing could be done.

Cinder passed away last night.

He will be sorely missed.

I am an idiot

It’s true.

I was trying to clean up one of my websites on Friday before rushing to work and the unthinkable happened.

I deleted the entire website.

I am thinking to myself “gee, that’s an awful lot of files listed there” and still managed to press the “ok sure” button without questioning the action.

Oops.

Now, I need to spend the weekend re-writing a shit ton of code.

“Did you have everything backed up Mister computer expert” my daughter asks.

“Ah, no.”

“You ever see a Mozy commercial?” She asks.

“Shut up.” I says.

Internet Unconnectivity

Drive by commentary.

Internet Connectivity has become an official oxymoron in this establishment.

When our internet works it works very well.

When it doesn’t it’s ass.

Thank you to the Verizon mobile internet hotspot thingie for allowing me to post about the internet being down.

Quote of the Issue: “Well, when you first noticed that the internet was down, you should have sent me an email.”

Right.

Quote of the Week

This quote was from one of the many shows we produce each week – The Right Doctor with Melissa Clouthier. The guest is Andrew Malcolm from the LA Times blog site “Top of the Ticket.”

(sic) “The numbers that Washington are throwing around right now are so big that they don’t even fit in my calculator. That’s how out of touch Congress is with the American people.”

The link to the exact Take That! podcast is above.

The show was so interesting that I forgot to check on how much time Melissa had left to record. Oops. #producerfail

Tasteless Joke of the Day

via email…

A little girl wrote to Sarah Palin and asked; ‘How did the human race start?’ Sarah Palin answered, ‘God made Adam and Eve; They had children; and so was all mankind made.’

Two days later the girl wrote to Michelle Obama and asked the same question. Michelle Obama answered, ‘Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved.’

The confused girl went to her father and said, ‘Dad, how is it possible that Sarah Palin told me the Human race was created by God, and Michelle Obama said they evolved from monkeys.’

The father answered, ‘Well, Dear, it is very simple, apparently Sarah Palin told you about her ancestors and Michelle Obama told you about hers.’

Dumb Ass Spaniards

Global Warming is the one issue that I can honestly say that I saw right through from day one. It NEVER made any sense. I don’t need to be a scientist to see the bullshit. I feel vindicated.

In my on going “common sense is dead” series…

This level of dumb is amazing.

PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) – Commonwealth leaders will lobby for an international climate deal that includes $10 billion for next year to help poor and vulnerable states fight the effects of global warming, the Maldives president said on Saturday.

Mohamed Nasheed, whose small Indian Ocean state risks being swamped by rising sea levels caused by climate change, said the proposal for such funding was part of a draft climate statement to be issued on Saturday by Commonwealth leaders meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.

The entire article is here.

In case you’ve missed it, man made global warming has been publicly shown to be a fraud. You can get started on all of the reading here.

Dumb Ass Logic: 101

The feel good deed: By extending benefits, the government will help you get back on your feet and keep you and your family from starvation.

The unintended consequences: Keeping you out of a job will make you more dependent on the government and absolutely do irreparable damage to the economy by preventing people from getting up off of their asses and actually working and doing stuff. No start up companies. Only consumers doing what they do best. Consuming. Seems to me that if you are starving, you’d be more inclined to get out there and hunt for food. Why hunt when the government is paying you to sit on your ass?

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to offer up to 20 more weeks of unemployment benefits to those who have been out of work a long time, after weeks of delay in which hundreds of thousands of Americans exhausted their government aid.

The measure will increase to 99 weeks, or nearly two years, the maximum length of time that a jobless worker can get benefits in some states.

99 weeks? Who would have thought that being laid off could be considered a “career choice?”

Thanks uncle Sam. Read the whole story here.

Saving a government job?

While perusing around this morning, I happened on this headline from Reuters. “White House says stimulus saving education jobs”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration said on Monday its economic stimulus had saved or created 250,000 education jobs, as it sought to push back against Republicans who contend the package was wasteful and had not worked.

The Republicans are saying that it isn’t working because it isn’t working. I guess cause the Republicans are focusing on the private sector where it really matters and not the government where it doesn’t. The quarter of a million jobs we are now losing on a monthly basis are private sector jobs not public ones.

It’s like getting shot in the arm and bandaging your leg. Like that.

I had to read the headline once again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming or perhaps read this incorrectly.

School teachers outside of the public system were excluded in this story. The stimulus didn’t save the private sector jobs just the public ones that you already pay for anyway. I mean “saved or created.”

School teachers are on the public payroll. You pay them. You the taxpayer. In theory, school districts are funded for the most part by local school taxes which then pay for school teachers. Federal money is given in the form of a supplement to existing programs and so on.

Let’s assume that the federal money is paying for the teacher’s salaries (it’s really not but play along). What this headline says is that the federal government isn’t cutting jobs that it wasn’t going to cut anyway and that the stimulus has everything to do with that.

Complete and utter nonsense.

Infrequent Blogging

Folks,

I know there are serious gaps in my posts but I have a really good reason for that…

…2 full time jobs.

I get up and work for 4 hours on Take That! Radio.

I go to my day time job for 8 hours.

I come home and record podcasts and edit for an additional 4 hours.

I also have to squeeze in writing, designing websites, artwork, and…

…eating and sleeping.

I think Melissa’s schedule is even worse.

All the folks who are working on projects and podcasts at Take That! are doing so because we all believe that we make a difference.

I had a friend of mine ask me if I felt that I was doing enough to advance my conservative values. At the time, I thought “no.”

When I went to Washington 2 weeks ago, I helped Melissa and Tabitha interview over a dozen key players in the conservative movement. My moment of Zen came when I looked up from my laptop as Melissa was conducting an interview and realizing that United States Senator Jim DeMint was sitting 2 feet away from me talking to Melissa to appear on a show I produce.

Did I feel like I was doing enough?

Did I mention that Jim DeMint was 2 feet away from me?

The Trip to Washington

*** Updated: 10/04/09 ***

Well. We missed the meet-up in Washington because we didn’t arrive until about 1:00 am. Went straight to bed.

*** SATURDAY 10/03 ***

Steve Schippert and I met up for coffee and registration for the conference. Got to meet E. Telford while fielding malicious text messages from Dr. Clouthier.

Internet connectivity problems seem to plague the conference room where the bloggers are. I finally got connected but poor Steve’s eyes are bleeding…

Ok. We’re connected and waiting for Melissa…

Melissa made it.

*** Take That! Radio on Radio Row ***

After deciding that Blogger’s Row would be too noisy to record interviews, we landed a spot on Radio Row thanks to Melissa.

Due to the location and setup of our equipment (big thanks to Steve for bringing the pro microphone. We couldn’t have had the great audio without it!), we landed a whole slew of great interviews including:

Bob Weeks
Phil Kerpin
Dan Gainor
Senator Jim DeMint
Steve Moore
Hugh Hewitt
Tracy Walsh
Phelim McAleer
Ed Morrissey
Mark Kelly
Diana Cohen
Erik Telford
Emily Zanotti
John Hawkins
Mary Katherine Ham

We wrapped up taping around 6:30 as the bloggers went to the “bloggers dinner.”

We have tremendously talented people who work very hard to put out a quality show in their own right but they also play very hard as well.

The last bar we ended up in was the one where we heard “last call.”

I’d like to thank Melissa for helping to get Tabitha “smashed” which in turn provided the entertainment for the long walk back to the Marriot and Sheridan.

Thanks to Elizabeth for getting Tabitha home.

Where in the World

This weekend, a bunch of the Take That! staff is heading to the Americans for Prosperity conference in Washington, DC.

Steve Schippert and I will be joining Dr. Melissa Clothier and Tabitha Hale this evening (if we can get to DC in time) for a Twitter Meetup at Bailey’s in Arlington, VA.

Throughout the weekend I’ll be posting pictures and taping as much audio as possible.

Take That! Radio is taking on Washington, DC.

Watch it.

The Star Trek Universe

I’m always humbled to write a script idea and Star Trek Repulse is no exception.

I was able to write most of the story line today and it’s a real tear jerker to Star Trek fans.

Fueled by a need for revenge, a technology we haven’t seen before, and a death count in the billions, Starfleet faces an enemy that will stop at nothing until they are destroyed.

The Qutarians start a conflict that Captain John Burton hopes to bring to an end. He’s lost his parents and is now forced to return to the planetary system where they died. Unfortunately, his new ship now bares the name of Repulse. The same ship that had been destroyed along with his parents all those years ago.

Lansu won’t forget. He won’t forget about a wayward nacelle crashing into his settlement on Delvian 2 and taking the life of his beloved wife Kara. The Qutarians want revenge. They build a massive ship to fulfill that purpose.

Armed with a “phase based” technology Lansu begins a crusade of destruction. Destroying whole worlds, he begins to make the Federation pay for what they have done.

When Lansu destroys Captain John Burton’s home world and his aunt and uncle, the need for revenge becomes the “pulse” of John Burton’s command decisions.

Armed with a small Federation Starship, John Burton has a score to settle.

The battle for Earth’s survival begins with…

U.S.S. Repulse

Amazing Robbery

These folks are thinkers and doers…

STOCKHOLM – Masked gunmen used a stolen helicopter and explosives to engineer a spectacular raid on a cash depot in Stockholm on Wednesday, breaking into the building through the roof and flying off with bags of cash, police and officials said.
The daring pre-dawn heist stunned police in the Swedish capital, who were unable to deploy their own helicopters to the scene because suspected explosives had been placed at their hangar.
The security company that owns the facility, G4S PLC, said the thieves had made off with “an unconfirmed sum of money” and added it would offer a large reward for information leading to their arrest and the return of the loot. The company did not give an exact amount for the reward.

I suggest you click here and read the whole article. I’m not advocating robbing a bank but just pointing out how well thought out this was.

If robbers can do this just imagine what terrorists could do?

Joke of the Month

Sent to me via my buddy Rich…

Guy goes into a bar, there’s a robot bartender.

The robot says, “What will you have?”

The guy says, “Martini.”

The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, “What?s your IQ?”

The guy says, “168”.

Th e robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology.

The guy leaves, but he is curious, so he goes back into the bar.

The robot bartender says, “What will you have?”

The guy says, “Martini”.

Again, the robot makes a great martini, gives it to the man and says, “What?s your IQ?

The guy says, “100.”

The robot then starts to talk about NASCAR, Budweiser and John Deere tractors.

The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it one more time. He goes back into the bar.

The robot says, “What will you have?”

The guy says, “Martini”, and the robot brings him another great martini.

The robot then says, “What?s your IQ”

The guy says, “Uh, about 50.”

The robot leans in real close and says, “So, you people still happy you voted for Obama?”