MacRaven

False Hope for Homeowners

Wanna get a firsthand taste of hope? Go to this link in a new window or tab - it's a HUD site for Indiana on avoiding foreclosure. Once there, click on the link that says "HUD Approved Counseling Agencies".

Well, that didn't work so well, eh? OK, try the link that says "How to avoid foreclosure", which is a redirect to an Indiana State government site. You'll get the redirect page (unlike on the first link), select 'Go to the requested page'.

404

There is no hope. Just a cesspool into which the taxpayers toss cash.

State Can Dump Non-Sex Offenders Into Registry

You wanna know why the law gets no respect these days? Because apparently Humpty Dumpty is making the law, where a word means exactly what he says it means, and not whatever everybody else thinks it means. In Georgia (under Federal mandate) they've defined criminal confinement as a sex offense. And the Georgia courts have upheld this definition:

�Rainer�s belief that the term �sexual offender� may only apply to offenders who commit sexual offenses against minors does not change the fact that the definition provided in the statute, and not the definition that Rainer wishes to impose upon the statute, controls,� the court�s majority said.

Basically, they're saying that the legislature could define jaywalking as a sex offense, and thereafter all jaywalkers would be placed on what essentially amounts to lifelong probation, with residency restrictions. I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes (from Malcolm X) - "You can put a shoe in an oven, but that doesn't make it a biscuit."

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean � neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master� that's all."

Welcome to Wonderland.

Georgia�s Supreme Court is upholding the government�s right to put non-sex offenders on the state�s sex-offender registry, highlighting a little-noticed (but growing) nationwide practice.

(link) [Wired]

Some Blog Housekeeping

Don't know if anybody else's noticed but there's been a bit of an attack going on here for the past few days: comment spam. I have had some pretty sneaky measures in place to prevent this - basically, they stop robots dead in their tracks. If you're going to spam MacRaven, you'll have to be a human, with a keyboard and a browser. To date this has stopped most attacks - but the most recent spate has gotten through. Why? Because they are people, with keyboards and browsers. Captchas wouldn't stop this, so I've had to take other, more severe (and technical) measures. We'll see if they work - if you notice any problems getting through with legitimate writebacks, by all means drop me a line.

Shearing Started

Well, I normally like to wait until April to start shearing, but the weather's been so warm, and is predicted to stay that way, that we've made an exception this year. Chunky Buns went first as she's one of those whose fleece is already sold. If the weather holds out, we might be done shearing by April. Which, I must admit, would be kinda nice.

Culture of Corpulence

I'm calling bullshit. The only American innovation that's led to 65% of us being classed as overweight or obese is an innovation in measurement ... calculate your own BMI here.

American innovations in food, transportation, and technology are threatening to supersize us all.

(link) [Newsweek]

Wait! Daylight Saving Time will cost me money?

Hey, Mitch! I want my $10 back (for three years of this idiocy). Somehow, the state doesn't seem to be giving out rebates for this... wonder why? Of all the moronic things our current governor has done, and he's got a whopper of a list going, daylight savings time has to be the one that galls me the most. This seemingly trivial thing has huge implications well beyond energy waste. Look up accident statistics for the week after "springing forward" to see exactly what I'm talking about.

The move to Daylight Saving actually used 1 percent more electricity than if people stuck to Standard Time, according to a 2008 study of residents in Indiana. In other areas of the United States, the time change could cost people even more.

(link) [Christian Science Monitor]

Update:I forget to mention heart attacks...
via Masson's Blog

Bring Back the Robber Barons

Nothing really boils my blood more than a "vulgar libertarian" misreading history and giving thieves far more credit than they deserve. Look at the list of Robber Barons this guy praises, and tell me how they're any different from the "political entrepreneurs" of today that he roundly condemns ...

The truth is, we don't need to "bring back" the Robber Barons - they never left. For an antidote to this tripe, may I suggest The Triumph of Conservatism. Real history.

There's a big difference between entrepreneurs who make a fortune in the market, and those who do so by gaming the government.

(link) [Wall Street Journal Online]

Yesterday

Mucked out part of barn stalls to get doors operating.
Sorted sheep - got breeding flock into back paddock.
Moved fleece flock to front pasture.
Moved goats to sheep stalls for cleanout
Washed eggs
Fixed heater on back porch.
Rigged brooder box, built heat lamp stand
Cleaned out back porch
Bagged trash from porch and garage
Did laundry
Purchased 6 pullet chicks
Purchased regular critter feed
Went grocery shopping for mom
Went grocery shopping for us
Set up back porch brooder
Unloaded feed
Fixed dinner
Moved fleece flock back to barn
Fed sheep, goats, chickens - gathered eggs
Ate dinner
Went to bed

That's what we did yesterday between the two of us. No wonder I was too tired to blog.

Too Tired to Blog Tonight

sometimes a title says it all...

Meeting Day

Today was the annual meeting of SWIFT - Spinners and Weavers of Indiana Fibers and Textiles. Lorraine, of course, had to be there. It's essentially a large "spin in", with more wool and spinnings wheels than you can imagine.

She had a blast, and since it was held at Connor Prairie, I got to visit a bit with my good friend Kevyn. He's got a fine yearling Horned Dorset ram that I'd like to stand to my Blackie girls later this year - we just might get something worked out.

I also got a chance to putz about in the city for a bit, a rarity for me, and went window shopping at a couple of electronics stores and browsed a used book emporium. The only purchase I made was at the book store: The Definitive Guide to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, which shows exactly how far sucked in I've gotten...

All in all, a very pleasant, very spring like day. It's about time.

Human Culture, an Evolutionary Force

Nice to find some scientific support for my holdings on the whole folkish-universalist argument.

It's not nature vs. nurture, it's nature and nurture.

Culture has become a force of natural selection, and if it should prove to be a major one, then human evolution may be accelerating as people adapt to pressures of their own creation.

(link) [New York Times]

The Internet? Bah!

A lot has changed in 15 years, eh?

The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

(link) [Newsweek]

Rumors of Spring

The temperature climbed above 40°F today for the first time this year. It's supposed to hit 57°F Sunday - I'll believe it when I feel it. We still have about 30 inches of snow (down from over 48) drifting the driveway shut, but we can no longer drive through the yard as it's become a mud pit. So we're parking by the outer gate - not a bad walk, really, but it sure will be good to get my driveway back.

I haven't seen the record books, but would be willing to bet that this was the snowiest winter in at least two decades, and probably back to the blizzard years of '78 and '79.

Maybe the winter really is ending, after all, and spring is on the horizon. Or perhaps that's just wishful thinking on my part.

The Future of Money

I have a bit of experience in this arena, and I can tell you right now, these folks only have half the equation. Take a look at the conversion chart with it's multiplicity of online "currencies" and ask yourself how conversions between them, much less handling processing of payments, can ever possibly be free...

The short answer is they can't. The real answer is another question: free to whom?

A generation ago, when people made the choice to switch to plastic, credit cards did not just replicate cash; they fundamentally changed how we used money. The ease with which people could make purchases encouraged them to buy much more than they had in the past. Entrepreneurs suddenly had access to easy � though high-interest � loans, providing a spark to the economy. Now, while it may be hard to predict what innovations PayPal�s platform will enable, it�s safe to say that the payment industry is going to change dramatically. As money becomes completely digitized, infinitely transferable, and friction-free, it will again revolutionize how we think about our economy.

(link) [Wired]

America, the Fragile Empire

Very interesting read ...

It is historians who retrospectively portray the process of imperial dissolution as slow-acting. Rather, empires behave like all complex adaptive systems. They function in apparent equilibrium for some unknowable period. And then, quite abruptly, they collapse.

(link) [Los Angles Times]