Mostly Harmless

Mostly about my amusement

Tag: Just Stupid (page 1 of 3)

April 19, 2011

Oompa Loompa for President?

I’m finding it really amazing that this extremely talented con-artist talks about running for the office of the POTUS and the press just eat it up. What next, Howard Stern for office?

And don’t think I’m being negative by referring to someone as a con-artist; except for banks (who likes them anyway?) I don’t think he’s ever needed to pilfer from old ladies. It’s not easy on him going on a press road show while pimping his television program.

What does this character have that qualifies him for office? He appeals to the racist birthers, he’s a to-big-to-fail business man, and he has a show on TV. Oh, and he see hatred coming from the eyes of Bill Crosby.

Except for demonizing President Obama, does this bad comb-over qualify get Tea Party branding? I thought they were for smaller government and debt, not “let’s make a deal because I can’t pay my loans”. It is true that he is wealthy and gets away with a lot, but does the “Tax Enough Already” crowd see this man as their candidate?

The only good thing for the GOP is that the other nuts in the field are beginning to look rational and sane. I can easily see Rudy starting his new campaign with “Hey, at least I’m not that guy!”

December 31, 2009

HP Nagware (DO NOT WANT)

I have not yet found where to turn off this annoying HP nagware. Anyone know where it lives? You’ll note that the two options are

  1. Bug me to death later.
  2. Activate the trial that you don’t want.

Seriously HP and Norton, can’t you just get the hint? I am fine with losing all my data.

Update: After bugging me a couple more times, it puts an option to stop asking me.  Thanks HP, you get an E for effort.

November 28, 2009

These people need to get arrested

Honestly, some people do need to be made into an object lesson.

The couple’s lawyer, Paul W. Gardner of Baltimore, asserts that the Salahis had been “cleared, by the White House,” to be at the event, and so were not really “crashing.” Mr. Gardner declined a request to elaborate on his assertion.

But a Secret Service spokesman, James Mackin, said he had no idea how Mr. Gardner could make such a claim.

via Salahis, White House Dinner Crashers, Met the Obamas – NYTimes.com.

When the Balloon Boy’s dad pulled off his stunt, it was clearly because he wanted to get back onto TV. His need for publicity outweighed his need to not make a spectacle of his family. I do not know what the parents punishment will be, but I guarantee that they’ll claim the state is hurting their children. It’s just what you would expect from two people who have abdicated their own responsibility for raising their children.

Now we have these two try-outs for the Real Housewives of DC (which one is the housewife?) who sneaked into a state dinner under false pretenses. Apparently they took the Bravo film crew up to the gates of the Whitehouse.

Since I have no reason to doubt the now embarrassed Secret Service I can only conclude one thing: they lied and maneuvered their way in. They did not have an invitation, period. Whatever that comes under, trespassing, giving misleading information to a federal official, etc. these two need to spend some time in jail if only to discourage other fame wannabes.

November 4, 2009

The most important election was decided last night

This morning I heard the results of an election I was following: NY-23 went to Bill Owens.

Just to be clear, NY-23 is a district that is on the Canadian border and except for it being a special election it was no big deal. What made it a big deal is that when a moderate was selected to be the Republican candidate, prominent national Republican groups went ape. So the other Republican candidate ran on the conservative ticket and trashed Dede Scozzafava. And of course these prominent national figures played the “Purge the Party! Get rid of all the RINOs!” song.

Toss in President Obama’s name and you get people around the country weighing in just for the press (yes I do mean that Alaskan Quitter and professional public speaker).

So now Bill Owens is going to represent NY-23. The Republicans will keep going after their loyalty oath and any moderates in the national spotlight will have to change their spots or lose any hope of getting re-elected. Any chance of these geniuses getting it is out the window.

This is not a gun totting white-christian only country. Most people I know are moderates. It’s just that the radicals on both side of the aisle get most of the press. I don’t want a radical government from either side, I want one that will actually solve problems without violating the law or sacrifice the constitution for security. This name calling and purging of people in the middle is just plain stupid.

September 22, 2009

Don’t look at the clock, just go to sleep

You know how when you can’t sleep, your eyes sometimes wander to the digital clock on the night table? At some point everyone does that. It’s no good since you are not going to sleep, you are just watching the clock countdown. The whole night can go by that way repeating that same counter productive routine.

Last night I was trying to sleep along those lines. But being an overachiever, I was much more counter productive than that.

Yesterday evening Lily and I went swimming and we did 10 laps together. She’s a better swimmer than I am, since I don’t push myself too hard.  My muscles will not cramp up because at the first sign of warning I slow it down. Even taking it easy I still get really tired.

Just like last week, water got into my right ear and I could not hear much from that side.  We got home and eventually went to sleep.  Or Lily did, I spent the night pulling, tugging and prodding my sensitive ear.

At some point around 3 AM I went to the bathroom and poked at my ear with a q-tip.  Then in a pre-dawn state of mind, I poured some hydrogen peroxide in my ear. My thinking was that I had a build up of ear wax. This flat out did not solve my problem but my ear sure got sore.

Now, I do not know anything at all about the human ear.  If I was not so tired and had slept, then I am sure my response to my idea for treatment would have been “Wow, that’s just stupid”.  Normally I would expect that my ear would get worse from that plan but at 3 AM it seemed like a pretty good idea.

I did not get to sleep at all and when the alarm went off at 5:30 this morning I tried to go downstairs to have my coffee.  I did not make it, I was just too freaking tired. I thought that if I went to the office in my nervous state of mind, I would have a psychotic episode. So I called in sick and kept my hands off my ear.

It’s now 12 hours later and still no sleep. And my ear is only a little better. I have to do a parent-teacher meeting tonight, it’s my first one this semester. I think I will let my wife do all the talking. Next week I have a scheduled doctor’s appointment so I’ll skip any further swimming till I speak with him.

I’m really hoping I sleep like a log tonight.

September 12, 2009

Thank you Adobe, but no thanks

Update: Look before you click.  The McAfee component is optional and you are given the chance to not install it on the Abobe web page.

-Original posting below.-

So I downloaded the updated Firefox 3.5.3 and when it came up it said “Hey, your Flash player is outdated. Click here to get an upgrade”. You can read about this feature here.

I keep my software up to date so this was news to me. But what the heck, Mozilla’s rep is good and Adobe Flash and Acrobat are popular attack vectors. Why not upgrade? So I ran Adobe’s download manager extension in Firefox which promptly installed the updated Flash and McAfee System scanner.

I was not asked if I wanted the McAfee software, it installed it without my permission.

I have no problem with being provided the option, but seriously, installing third party software without getting explicit approval from the end user is just plain stupid.

Keeping up your software is a responsible thing to do especially if you want to keep the use of your PC to yourself. Why rent out your PC to a zombie army? But installing software without your permission is a tactic of the “bad guys”.

I don’t care if it’s an anti-virus company or not, don’t put software on my PC without my permission. I promptly went to my control panel and removed the McAfee software.  I already have an up to date anti-virus product on my PC and don’t need unwanted code.

August 2, 2009

Health care at it’s worst

The whole debate over health care makes me shake my head. Horror stories are told on both sides but this one has to strike a cord in anyone reading it.

In a statement issued yesterday after it had approved the transplant, the company said the procedure “was outside the scope of the plan’s coverage.” “… and despite the lack of medical evidence regarding the effectiveness of such treatment, Cigna HealthCare has decided to make an exception in this rare and unusual case, and we will provide coverage should she proceed with the requested liver transplant. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nataline and her family at this time.”

via 17-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Dies After Transplant Is Finally Approved By CIGNA – cbs2.com.

Nice job Cigna, but the horses are truly gone. I don’t really believe anyone at Cigna really did this maliciously, and really, Mark Geragos is an advocate for the health insurance downtrodden? A lawsuit might get the ball rolling but the law needs to change.

Organ transplants are not an elective surgery. If the doctors were willing to perform the operation, then the most informed people on this case said go ahead and the insurance company was the road block. When people complain that the government will take out doctors from the decision making process, they need to see what insurance companies are doing today.

September 24, 2008

He’s nuts, no way around it

Well, this is a Maverick move.  Or maybe Senator McCain is just nuts.

“We haven’t heard hide nor hair of Sen. McCain in these negotiations,” said Schumer, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. “He has not been involved except for an occasional, unhelpful statement, sort of thrown from far away, and the last thing we need in these delicate negotiations is an injection of presidential politics.”

McCain suspends campaign, Obama plans to continue

If Senator McCain was so entrenched in dealing with this corporate welfare bailout, then maybe.  But he has not been involved and Senator Obama is right.  Voters need a president who can deal with multiple problems at once. This is just another “Why do they hate America?” stunt.

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Jan Dembowski

Jan Dembowski

I am a software enthusiast who is easily amused and definitely mostly harmless.

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