Seems appropriate today

For Cynthia

IF COMPUTERS WERE WORLDS...

Apple's would be vaguely roundish with a bite taken out, and would be called "iPlanet". Lots of people would say they wanted to live there, because it was so pretty and there was no crime or violence, but very few people would actually do so, hence the lack of crime and violence. The majority of people who say they wanted to live there cite the high prices of real estate, high landing fees, and generally complain that iPlanet is far too expensive for the average person.

LINUX would be shaped essentially like a pear, with slight protuberances on the sides. Laws would change any time a citizen submitted a suggestion. The name would occasionally change, too, and different areas of the planet would disagree as to which name was best.
The planet would be generally self-governing, freewheeling, and have a fairly low population.
It would be free to land here, and in fact free to live here, but each person has to support themselves. In fact, they customize and terraform the land to suit their needs...or sometimes, just their whims. Eventually, they'll probably change it to something else altogether. Maybe paint it chartreuse.
People not living here mutter vague things about how difficult it is to live there, and how they'd be too afraid to do so.

MICROSOFT would be densely populated, have the highest rate of crime of any of the three planets, and would advertise that it was open to everyone. However, to land on the planet, you'd have to buy a docking interface that only Microsoft supplies, and you'd have to present paperwork proving that it wasn't a copy.
First-time visitors to the planet are struck by how green and lovely things are, but residents have long since discovered that at least some of the green is painted on.
The planet routinely suffers from violent earthquakes. The government calls this "planet rebooting" and insist that the planet will not function properly without the quakes.
Immigrating to, and living on, planet Microsoft is easy, and the government is working to make things easier for you all the time. Long-time residents will complain about this constantly, saying how much BETTER Microsoft Planet XP was. Well, after the Government issued a couple updates so that they would stop getting randomly burgled and made ill. So I guess it was really Planet XP, Service Pack 2 that was the better Planet. These in turn will be mocked by the even LONGER term residents, who say that nothing beats Planet 3.0.
Then there's the people in charge of City Planning and Infrastructure, who insist that no, really, Planet NT was superior.
Everyone agrees, however, that Planet 98 and Planet ME were just BIG mistakes, as they eagerly await the next Planetary Makeover.
Nobody is quite sure what to make of Planet Vista, although rumor has it that Planet 7 is coming out soon, and it should fix all the problems that Planet Vista had.

I'm Proud to be a Hoosier.

Yep, I said it. Our poor state has been the butt of many jokes - for not being asinine enough to follow the crowd and switch our clocks every year, then when our government gave in to peer pressure, for doing the logical thing and allowing each area to have their time zone coincide with the time zone of their largest / most influential economic area.
And, lately, for having a State Treasurer who stands up to the United States Government.
And because of Richard Mourdock, never have I been more proud to claim I'm from the same state.

EVERYONE has heard by now of the upstart State of Indiana and the State Treasurer's foolish, silly, outrageous bid to stop the Chrysler bankruptcy. He was painted as an idiot, a man who would Stop The Progress Of Capitalism And A Free Market Society. If this doesn't go through then Chrysler would go under, and then you won't get anything, you silly silly man.

That's the spin we heard from the media, who got it from the United States Government. And now...The rrrrrrRRRREST Of The Story.

First, a little explanation. There are two types of creditors for companies, just like there are two types of creditors for people. "Secured Creditors" and "Unsecured Creditors". Secured Creditors are exactly what you'd expect - just as with individuals, the Secured Creditors are the ones who are "buying" part of your debt with the understanding that they will get paid first should you declare bankruptcy, and that they'll get close to 100% of your outstanding debt to them. Only after the Secured Creditors are paid does any leftover money go to the "Unsecured Creditors". That's the way it's been for over 150 years. That's the way Bankruptcy works, and that's the way the Bankruptcy laws are written.

The State of Indiana, along with several other small investors, were Secured Creditors for Chrysler. They had purchased BONDS in Chrysler, not stock. These small investors were owed approximately $300 million when Chrysler wanted to declare Bankruptcy. There were also several LARGE banks that were Secured Creditors, to the tune of a few billion dollars. All the rest of Chrysler's Creditors were UNSECURED Investors. This is important.

The federal government stepped in a few months before Chrysler declared bankruptcy. THEY, not Chrysler's Board of Directors, decided that Chrysler would declare Bankruptcy. And when they did it, they organized it so that a Special Interest Group who was an UNSECURED Creditor would get the lion's share of the bankruptcy funds.
SECURED Creditors were being offered a mere 29% of their investment. TWENTY-NINE PERCENT. Think about that. Do you think your MORTGAGE LENDER would accept a mere TWENTY NINE PERCENT of your debt to them because you'd decided you'd rather pay off your parents who'd loaned you money?
Well. The Secured Investors set up a howl about this, because it was flying in the face of 150 years of financial precedent, and bankruptcy laws. Predictably, the loudest objectors were the Large Banks, which had most of the Secured Debt. 29% of a billion dollars is quite a lot of money, but then again, 71% of it is even MORE money, which is what they stood to LOSE. Suddenly, mysteriously, every single one of those Large Banks, who had coincidentally received Government Buyoff ... ahem ... BAILOUT Funds earlier, went quiet and dropped their lawsuits. It was left to the Smaller Creditors, the ones who had invested $300 million - the Hedge Funds, the Retirement Funds, and the local funds - to stand up and say "NO, this is WRONG."
So, they did.
And again, one by one, they mysteriously dropped their lawsuits. Mourdock says they were threatened - some with death threats - and that it's documented. However it happened, pretty soon the only one left was...Richard Mourdock. Who steadfastly refused to give up. He pressed the lawsuit on behalf of the State of Indiana, on behalf of the Indiana Teachers' Union, on behalf of the Firefighters' Retirement Funds, and incidentally, on behalf of all the people who had dropped their suits. We know what happened after that - the Governmental Spin Doctors went to work and painted Mourdock as a fool.

He lost his case, but he hasn't given up. He's still giving interviews about this issue, because it's an important one. Your government is overturning decades, and sometimes centuries of laws for their own convenience, to satisfy THEIR ideas, to forward THEIR political agenda. They're not serving the people and upholding the laws anymore.

Oh yes, and the entity that got the lion's share of Chrysler's Bankruptcy money? The UNSECURED Creditor that the United States Government decided should be paid off first? Why, it was the UAW.

You can read a May 31 interview with Mourdock here.

Here's an interview with him. The interview starts at about 2:10

(If that video doesn't show up, you can see it here.
Thanks, Mr. Mourdock. Even though you lost your case, THANK YOU for standing tall in the face of threats. THANK YOU for standing up for our country and our laws.

My Little Pony - Apocalypse Pony

This is just so wrong. Ron, here ya go - Apocalypse Ponies!

The NOM NOM NOM song!

As soon as I saw this, I thought, "dang...this is irritating as heck. I need to post it on my blog and expand its irritation radius!"

So here it is.

Monday Face

see more dog and puppy pictures

Weekly Webness Video - Cows With Guns

Mysterious manuscript?

You know...it is obvious, isn't it...

Darth Vader like you've never seen him before

This is way too weird to be believed, so of course I had to post it.
It's entirely family-friendly and safe for work and stuff.

Despair.com t-shirts

I thought this new Despair.com t-shirt was highly appropriate regarding the government's takeover...ahem...buyout....um....whatever of GM earlier this week.

Ronald Reagan on What's My Line

Instead of the normal "Weekly Webness" this week, I'm just posting a video I ran across and thought was interesting.

For those of us that only remember him as "Mr. President", here's an interesting clip of Ronald Reagan back when he was in pictures.

You can definitely see the "Reagan" features, but dang - he was pretty good-looking.

Thoughts on Job Seeking

Dear people who are seeking new jobs,

Please, for the love of all that is good and green, PROOFREAD your postings first.  If you're posting your availability as a TECHNICAL WRITER, for the cat's sake don't post that you're a "TECNIAL WRITER WITH 5+ YEARS EXPERENCE."  Nobody will hire you, trust me on this.

Similarly, don't post that you're looking for a "carrier opportunity" unless you're a long-distance trucker or a pigeon.  And somehow I don't think pigeons have over ten years experience in Software Development.

Also: Archive is not spelled with 2 "e"s.  It's A-R-C-H-I-V-E, not "ARCHIEVE".  Goodness, people.  PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU'RE WRITING!