Old Misery Guts

Another Music Great Gone

2013-05-22T15:33:00.001+10:00

I know that each generation thinks it had the best music. I sound like my dad but I can't stand 99% of what passes for popular music nowadays. Anyway Ray Manzarek is gone. I think The Doors overdid the organ a bit but this is one of the all time great songs. Beautiful song combined with Morrisons amazing voice, it was magic.

Kirsten Dunst is Turning Japanese

2013-05-19T08:53:00.000+10:00

Great version of a wonderful song. I didn't realise how hot Kirsten Dunst is.

How to Ruin a Yamaha XS650

2013-05-09T21:21:00.002+10:00

The Yamaha XS650 was one of the prettiest bikes made. A copy of the traditional British upright twin, Yamaha made their version beautiful and reliable. Good condition ones are fetching good money on the secondhand market. This is what they looked like.

I prefer the gold colour but the green is good. Over the years these bikes have been popular among those who like to think they can "Improve" a bike. I can understand this when the bikes were about 10 years old. They were cheap and plentiful. But like all machinery time takes its toll and the original ones become far and few between.

I found this on ebay today. The blonk who built it took what he claims was a mint condition XS650 and "Improved" it by turning it into this.

He must be stuffed in the head, beside being unbelievably ugly is also utterly impractical. If it was mint condition it was probably worth in the $5000 to $7000 bracket. That lump of shit that he has turned it into wouldn't be worth $500. I wonder what the hell went through his head when he conceived the project. He must have smoked dope, speedballed and got drunk all at the same time. Then he must have stayed stoned long enough to do the damage he did and then he must have doubled all the drugs and advertised it for sale. He expects someone to part with $9000 for it. Talk about off your face. The only value left in the abortion would be a few parts and the the engine, if that.

I just don't understand.

Taxation For The Public Moral Good.

2013-04-18T13:29:00.000+10:00

“M. Joseph Prudhomme – I am in favour of moralising taxation; I would tax alcohol and absinthe so heavily that no one would drink them.

M. Faubert – In that case, your taxation would merely encourage smuggling.

M. Joseph Prudhomme – Smugglers will be prosecuted.

M. Faubert – A premium on smuggling manufactures criminals; that would be a certain result of moralising taxation.

M. Joseph Prudhomme – But I should be doing something to check the curse of alcoholism.

M. Faubert – Not at all; you would only be adding one evil to another. You cannot prevent a man from drinking, if he wants to drink. The only thing is, you make him pay dearer for it, and the dearer you make him pay, the more you deprive him of the money needed for board and food and clothes, both for himself and his family.”

Abortion, it's a slippery slope.

2013-04-16T20:21:00.002+10:00

There is a trial in progress in the US that has received little publicity there and none here in Australia, yet it is critical to the abortion debate everywhere. A doctor known as Kermit Gosnell has been charged with eight murders. I don't have the time or talent to go into detail a pretty good precis is here - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324030704578422883948238160.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

To me the point is that abortion like euthanasia seems always to lead to results which the original proponents thought would never happen. Well it has happened, read what Gosnell called 'Snipping'. Moral questions are always difficult and none more so than abortion. Never underestimate the ability of humans to act in an inhumane manner. People wonder how ordinary people became Nazis and ran the Death Camps. How did the Rwandans and Tutsis get to stage of wholesale massacre? Well how does a well educated person do what Dr Gosnell is charged with? It happens by degree, every little step leads to another and another further. Suddenly what seemed unimaginable becomes commonplace.

I feel sick

Everything Old is New Again (Even in Rocketry)

2013-04-16T06:19:00.003+10:00

Funny how skills and knowledge are constantly lost as new and (at the time) better ways of doing things are invented. Still there are often ideas and technologies in the past that can be repurposed for use today. There were many amazing automotive engine ideas a hundred years ago, they just didn't have the technology at the time to make the practical.

Well some extremely clever people have revisited the rocket engines used to take man to the moon, their use was discontinued decades ago for what were good reasons at the time. However the changing requirements of the space travel made some brilliant engineers have another look at them.

Read and Enjoy - http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-monstrous-f-1-moon-rocket-back-to-life/

"At the time, the F-1 was the largest and most powerful liquid-fueled engine ever constructed; even today, its design remains unmatched (though see the sidebar, "The Soviets," for more information on engines that have rivaled the F-1). The power generated by five of these engines was best conceptualized by author David Woods in his book How Apollo Flew to the Moon—"[T]he power output of the Saturn first stage was 60 gigawatts. This happens to be very similar to the peak electricity demand of the United Kingdom."

If Only The Government Would Take Over Food Supply

2013-04-16T05:35:00.002+10:00

This is a great read. A satire and a funny one at that, it goes a long way to explaining why the less government does the better off most people are. Take five minutes and enjoy, then think.

An excerpt.
"In May 2008, James Dapper graduated from Yale College and moved to New York City with a mission: To guarantee the people of the city universal access to food. While writing his senior thesis, James had discovered that there was not a single agency in the whole city devoted to providing food to all of the city’s residents. Nobody was in control of the provision of food to New York City residents! Why, for all we knew, people could be starving in the streets right now, James realized."

http://yourbrainonecon.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/universal-access-to-food-a-bitter-satire/

Boat

2013-04-15T08:58:00.003+10:00

I probably shouldn't have but I bought a boat. It's a mid eighties Savage with a late seventies Mercury engine. Needs a bit of work and a good clean.

Truck Drivers Support Unit

2013-04-05T19:34:00.000+11:00

Observed at the local shops the other day. The Truck Drivers Support Unit. I don't know what sort of support they offer to truck drivers but I hope that teaching how to park isn't one of those things.

Happy Easter

2013-03-29T12:54:00.003+11:00

I hope the Easter Bunny comes to me.

Penn Jillette. Why Tolerance is for Kids

2013-03-29T08:00:00.004+11:00

I like Penn and Teller as a magic act However Penn is great in his own way as an exposer of bullshit. In the following short video he talks about free speech and why it's the most important thing. Via Kids Prefer Cheese.

Munger on Love, Money, Profits, and Non-profits

2013-03-23T19:33:00.001+11:00

If you want to know why governments can do bad things for what seem to be good reasons listen to this. It may change the way you think the world works.

Munger on Love, Money, Profits, and Non-profits

Autumn Riding Weather

2013-03-18T15:42:00.001+11:00

Such a nice day so rode up to the Tawonga Gap and Sullivans Lookout.

Mark Steyn on Europe and We Are Not Far Behind

2013-03-16T06:36:00.001+11:00

Strewth that Mark Steyn can write, have a look at this sentence.

"As I said, Lars is 70. But I would rather have him fighting my corner than the young, self-neutered eunuch-men of a cowed media, watching the lights go out on free speech and slipping easily and painlessly into the accomplices of thuggery."

It is about Islam and Europe but take a minute and read the whole thing here http://www.steynonline.com/5465/the-racist-and-the-unknown-man

There is a big Islamic conference at the Melbourne Showground this week. They did try and get a mad Imam from Mekkah to attend but he declined. Pity, I'm sure the local media would have presented his views on people who follow the Jewish faith.

A Concrete Tent / Building?

2013-03-12T12:56:00.000+11:00

A great idea, I don't know if it will sell but I like it.

Remeber the 1970's? The Government and Media Don't

2013-03-02T07:57:00.000+11:00

From Popular Technology

Read the whole thing here. It's good to remember.

Baillieu The Blonk

2013-02-27T08:26:00.001+11:00

Ted Baillieu and the Libs managed to get themselves elected in Victoria. This had nothing to do with their policies or suitability to govern. It was just that the state had had enough of an incumbent Labor government that spent more than it earned and spent much effort in attempting to change the society. So there they were with Ted in charge and his clueless mates with him. They had policies or philosophical position, just a desire for power and privilege.

Ted the Clueless could have given something to his supporter base, such as getting rid of the charter of human rights, or dropping grants to leftie arty types, or any number of things. But Ted the Dill chose to do nothing, probably because as a silver tailed toff who mixes with the arty leftie types he had no idea of who his supporter base is.

Now it's finally sinking in that there is a good chance that the Libs could lose the next election so suddenly it's a mad scramble to do something. It's too late to take on major cleanouts of the judiciary and public service or to repeal legislation . So what are they doing?

1 - A dumb idea to make all drivers found over .05 to fit interlocks to their cars. It will not do a thing to reduce death and injury on the road.

2 - Another Dumb idea to ban the use of hands free phones in cars by P Platers. Again it won't do anything. A stupid girl who recently killed herself while texting when driving is trotted out as an example to justify the law. Well texting while driving was an offence when she dies, she chose to disregard the law, why would another law make things better?

3 - Another Law to make tailgating illegal. Dumb, it's already illegal.

None of these laws will make the slightest difference to the road toll. They are just last minute poorly thought out attempts to make Ted the Useless appear to have done something.

I don't want another Labor Government but I can't see that it would be much worse than Ted the Blonk and his mates. How about a government that repeal legislation and inculcates a sense of personal responsibilty in people and let people live as they choose as long as they don't harm others?

La GILLARD and Music

2013-02-26T18:37:00.002+11:00

Via Catallaxy

The Green Philosophy Is Anti Human

2013-02-25T09:02:00.002+11:00

At it's heart all green thoughts and ideas are anti human. The greens hate people and civilization. Here is a short article from 'Next Big Future' on the subject. There are many articles available on this theme. Unfortunately the greens are feted by the media and it's rare for their beliefs to be closely examined in the media. It's a fact that the Nazis were a socialist left wing organisation that also held deep seated green ideas. In fact there was little difference between the Communists in Russia and the Socialists in Germany, after Nazi is and abbreviation for National Socialism.

On February 11, 2013, the Denver Post ran a guest commentary of great clinical interest. In the piece in question, Colorado State University philosophy professor Philip Cafaro advanced the argument that immigration needs to be sharply cut, because otherwise people from Third World nations will come to the United States and become prosperous, thereby adding to global warming.

Cafaro says “And make no mistake: Immigrants are not coming to the United States to remain poor,” warns the philosopher. “Those hundreds of millions of new citizens will want to live as well and consume energy at the same rates as other Americans. . . . What climate change mitigation measures . . . could possibly equal the increased greenhouse gas emissions we would lock in by adding 145 million more new citizens to our population?”

Robert Zubrin notes that according to Cafaro’s liberal argument, the wretched of the Earth must be kept poor wherever they reside, because otherwise they will ruin the weather for the rest of us. Following this logic, the United States should adopt the role of the world’s oppressor, enforcing the continuation of poverty around the globe.

The argument has always been the same:

1. There isn’t enough of x to go around.
2. Therefore human numbers, activities, or liberties must be severely constrained.
3. Those of us enlightened by wisdom must be empowered to do the constraining.
4. And having obtained such power, let’s make the best of it and stick it to those we despise anyway.

All these cases were frauds. Ireland never lacked the capacity to feed its people. During the entire “great famine,” the island continued to produce massive amounts of beef and grain. The Irish just couldn’t afford to buy any of it due to the enforcement of rack-renting, high taxation, and suppression of manufactures. Germany never needed additional living space. It has a bigger population now than it did under the Third Reich, on much less land, yet it has a far higher living standard. Hitler just used the Lebensraum imperative as an excuse for genocide. Contrary to Population Bomb author Paul Ehrlich, the world was not overpopulated in 1967. In fact, since that time, as world population has doubled, average GDP per capita has nearly tripled. Yet, unfortunately, that did not stop population-control advocates from obtaining billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money to help Third World regimes stop reproduction among their poor, in general, and despised national minorities, in particular. And there is certainly no moral case for limiting carbon emissions.

Paul Ehrlich wrote the population bomb and has been wrongly predicting a starvation doom since the 1960s.

Paul Ehrlich has again repeated his forecast of a food calamity and the only solution is for population control.

The Future For Free Speech in Australia

2013-02-15T16:56:00.001+11:00

More Gillard/Rudd Incompetence

2013-02-05T07:04:00.004+11:00

Another example of the current governments inability to do anything well. However it should be kept in mind that governments anywhere rarely do things well, it's just that Juliar and her crew are spectacularly incompetent. Via Bolt.

"The first train line in Sydney to be paid for and built under the Rudd and Gillard governments opened on Monday, $700 million over budget and three years after it was promised to be finished…

The final cost was about $1 billion. When Mr Albanese announced the start of construction in February 2009, he put a figure of $309 million on the project and a completion date of early 2010."

THREE YEARS LATE AND 700 MILLION MORE THAN THE ORIGINAL BUDGET!! If this lot were home builders they would have been deregistered and fines years ago.

Obama and Putin, What's the Difference

2013-02-04T07:41:00.001+11:00

What do Obama and Russian President Putin have in common? They both like to have photos published which show them engaging in 'manly' activities, they also both like to display their upper bodies.

Putin likes to walk around sans shirt holding a rifle.

Obama likes to pretend that he can shoot skeet.

The trouble is I reckon that the Obama photo is fake. If he were really shooting skeet he would have to aim higher, he would have to lean much harder into the gun to absorb the recoil and what's with the smoke coming out at two angles? I reckon he's just standing there holding a gun and the smoke has been added afterwards and poorly at that. He can't even fake a photo properly. Like everything else associated with him and his presidency it's all sham. Smoke, mirrors and feel good. He's just a flimflam man who sucked people into voting for him and his bunch of crooks.

More Labor Waste

2013-02-04T07:25:00.002+11:00

This time from 'The Age' and they love Juliar. It seems that Labor dumb promise to give every secondary student their own laptop has turned to shit, who would of that would happen. It seems that after spending $2.4 BILLION that's right BILLION dollars on student computers there isn't enough money left for other education expenses.

This site - Catallaxy has an excellent short post on the purchasing of these laptops. The government paid about $2505 per laptop and that was buying them in bulk. God knows how much they would have paid if they had bought them in small quantities. From Catallaxy - "Harvey Norman, which is rarely the cheapest place in town, is selling Toshiba Satellite C850/05D Laptops for $698 each. If Garrett had gone to the Harvey Norman website clicked “add to cart” and selected 957,805 computers it comes up with $668,547,890 (try it – it works!) with free pick up at the store or delivery “usually shipping within 2 days”."

That's right even Harvey Norman could have sold them delivery for $698. What a bunch of incompetent idiots.

I thought RUDD was bad. This lot under that liar GILLARD are by any measure the worst government that this country has had the misfortune to suffer. I suppose that it wasn't technically misfortune as they nearly won a majority of the house. To think that there are still people out there who would vote for them next time. I just don't get it.

More Government Rules, More Stuff Ups

2013-02-03T16:52:00.001+11:00

The trouble with rule making is that the makers only see what they think the results of their rule will be. They rarely if ever consider the unseen results. Here is a classic example.

What's wrong with protecting families from floods?

Recent Hot Weather in Australia Nothing New

2013-01-28T07:12:00.001+11:00

The morons who make good money out of the global warming scam, Tim Flannery, Robin Williams, Malcom Turnbull and all the other carpetbaggers would have you believe that the recent spell of hot weather was something that had never happened before.

Well that's crap, they lie, they can't help themselves. Have a look at the table below.

It's from Jo Novas site and I quote - "Jan 2013 is not over, but so far:

Sydney‘s highest 5-day average in 2013 is 30.5 (ending on 8th Jan).
Melbourne‘s highest 5 day average is 32 (ending on 7th Jan). (It’s not even on the chart!)"

Why do they lie and why does the media let them get away with it? There seems to be no questioning of these people who want you to believe something that is not true. I can see why they do it, they either have some form of religious belief in global warming or make or stand to make money out of it. But the media? I guess they have the religious belief although doomsday stories do sell papers.

So sad. I'll develop some respect for Flannery when he sells his waterfront property, that may demonstrate that he believes that the oceans will rise dramatically in the foreseeable future (they won't)