Yes, I'm a Philogynist
MDF
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Homepage: http://www.mdfisher.com
Posts by MDF
ANOTHER Update…
Sep 8th
Updated Photo Gallery ‘Frank’s New House’ with pictures of the progress he’s made this last week. Will have another update this coming Monday or so for the work we’ll do this weekend.
Enjoy!
Frank’s New House
Sep 5th
The race to beat the weather rages on. The siding is almost completed and Frank has been staining the installed siding to weatherize it and the staining announces the finishing of that side of the house. It looks pretty cool. I’ve added the latest images to the Gallery – go take a look!
I also updated the sort order of the Gallery. A lot of the images were out of order. Some might still be; it’s kinda tough to look at 255 images AND make sense of the order looking at thumbnails that are only 1/2 inch in size. Maybe someday I’ll get it down…
Big Changes Here At My Little Corner Of The InterWebs
Aug 31st
I’ll be switching from Qwest to Comcast next week. Qwest was AWESOME in the last ten years, but their technology has lagged and now is almost unusable. I’ve had way too many instances of the Net just screeching to a halt in the afternoons and weekends due to way too many people being served out of the old technology. [SIGH] So, for a while, the camera and weather systems might be offline.
I’ve also updated the Photo Gallery with some new collections. Enjoy!
So, you get your political talking points from a cartoon, eh?
Aug 1st
Here’s the cartoon that got me thinking: CLICK ME
I guess the point was that religion is bad; Atheism is good.
First, let me point out that this is typical of anybody wanting to make a point about THEIR beliefs being better than another person beliefs. They compare apples and oranges and completely bury you in statistics and rankings. They could just as well have said Norway is better than California because they get more snow. Hell, go all out and say that the USA is the most evil country in the world because we have more rednecks than Norway. Yep, we ARE evil!
But more to the point, it is easy to spout your stats as fact. Very easy. So, that being said, I went and checked a few of the ‘facts’ in this ‘cartoon’ out. It’s not as cut and dry as they would have you believe.
Point #1. Atheism. The cartoon suggests 70% of Norway identifies as Atheist. The closest I could find was that Norway ranks #4 world-wide as a percentage of population (Zuckerman, 2005). No biggy, I’m atheist and really don’t care if anybody else is.
Point #2. Number 1 in Global Peace Index. True. (www.visionofhumanity.org)
Point #3. Second Highest GDP per capita. Well, the CIA Fact Book ranks Norway as #5 as of 2009. Close, but no cigar.
Point #4. Unemployment rate below 2%. False. The same CIA Fact Book ranks Norway #23, with an unemployment rate of 3.2%. I didn’t make the claim, the cartoon author did.
Point #5. Average Hourly wages ‘among the world’s highest’. I’ll give them a ‘True’ on this one. The one source I looked at rated them #1.
Point #6. Ranked first in the world in life expectancy at birth, literacy, education and standard of living. Okay, true on this one if you use the United Nations Human Development Index. However, I looked at the CIA Fact Book and saw Norway as #23 in Life Expectancy at birth. In literacy, Norway came in tied for 21st. But, here the facts are a little misleading as the PERCENTAGE of literacy was 99%. The TOP 46 countries ALL came in at 99% or higher. Standard of living. #1 again, according to the UN’s HDI.
MY point? Comparing all of these rankings to be attributed to Norway’s high Atheism rate? A non-sequitur. We might as easily said Norway is so high in these areas because they don’t speak Chinese. Or maybe they don’t have a lot of cows. Maybe it’s because Norway’s population is similar to Alabama’s. WHATEVER.
I’m just getting more and more worn out on these ‘Progressives’ beating the Anti-Religious drum to prove their points. I have some VERY spiritual people in my family that wouldn’t hurt a fly AND are as opposed to ‘Right-wing’ politics as anybody. The two are NOT inclusive!
Get a life, people. At least argue your points rationally, instead of through a cartoon.
Site updated and cleaned up
Jul 30th
SO, I changed the look and feel of the little web site. Tell me what you think!
I’ve also checked most of the links to make sure they’re still relevant. Tell me if I missed one, would you?
Enjoy!
ArborRemodeling.com
Jul 5th
We had to laugh a bit.. we received a mailer card from the builder of our house this weekend. We’ve been dealing with issues related to these idiots since 2002. I even put up a web site (ArborSucks.com – now gone) to illustrate to these schmucks what crappy construction quality they had (have?). CLICK HERE to see a copy of the web site I kept stashed away. Anyways, here’s the text of an Email I sent back to them today:
“We just received your mailer advising us about ‘ArborRemodeling.com’
and the associated services you offer.
You are PRECISELY the people we would NOT have work on our home. We are
still dealing (8 years later) with the craptastic construction ‘effort’
you put into the structure in the first place. Extremely poor paint
quality. Structure issues. Poor HVAC ducting. Inefficient heater/AC
unit. I could go on, but you get the idea.
Again, thanks, but no thanks.
With ALL sincerity,
Michael Fisher”
I’ve also spammed this text to all the residents in our little neighborhood that I know. The reactions should be worthy of a good outdoor BBQ and drinking binge!
I hope to hear from Arbor soon.
Is Your Browser Too Old For The MODERN Internet?
Feb 5th
Some people are STILL using Internet Explorer 6. It is possibly the worst example of software out there. It has more holes than a beer can near a Redneck campground. It allows more viruses to infect people’s computers than actually installing them yourself. And it’s programmed horribly. If you still use IE6, you should be caned.
Here’s an example of how terrible it is. If you use IE6, click the link. If you don’t, thank you for being modern enough to update every now and then.
Enjoy!
MDF
A Letter To Macmillan Part Deux
Feb 5th
Amazon has caved to Macmillan’s demands to RAISE E-book prices to consumers. So, what’s the bottom line? Macmillan makes oodles of money from books, whether they are E-book or paper. Amazon gets 30% of each book sold. You and I get to pay whatever Macmillan wants for each E-book. Why all the screaming?
Before this row, Amazon PAID MACMILLAN FULL WHOLESALE PRICE PER BOOK. Amazon sold it to you and me AT A LOSS TO AMAZON, NOT Macmillan. Macmillan objected because ‘..it cheapened it’s books..’ WTF? Macmillan makes every penny it wanted to, Amazon lost money per book but made up for it other purchases book buyers made while at Amazon and you and I got E-books for less than we would have paid for the paper version. A Win-Win in my ‘book’, yes? Evidently not. Macmillan bent Amazon over to ram home the fact that the 800-lb. gorilla of publishing wanted TOTAL CONTROL. And Macmillan isn’t the only publisher squirming … There will be more, too. As far as I can see, three publishers are bitching: Hachette, Macmillan and HarperCollins. And now Rupert Murdock’s getting into the act.
So, you and I lose and a big, fat corporation wins. Again. Still.
My shout out to those publishers fighting Amazon? Watch what happens next. You modern-day buggy whip manufacturers days are numbered.
A Letter To Macmillan
Feb 5th
[In response to this news article]
“I am a huge customer of Amazon. As such, I buy four to five books a month from them. I have found no other retailer with the breadth and depth of their offerings, certainly not a ‘brick and mortar’ bookseller.
I find your policy of not selling your books at Amazon to be sadly short-sighted and a bit disingenuous.
[EDIT - I was grossly mistaken on this part. AMAZON pulled Macmillan's books off of AMAZON'S shelves, not vice-versa. My apologies to all on that one]
I’m no genius, but I suspect your profit margin was the limiting factor, not the pablum spouted by your CEO. Customer service certainly wasn’t a factor as you’ve removed the largest bookseller in the world from access to your books. Ask any author out there and they’ll tell you that publishers are basically hoarding the profits from the authors due to their ‘long tail’ of people, all getting their bite from the revenue the books bring in. By the time the author gets paid, there’s not much left.
So, bottom line, I aint buying it. I’m sure I’ll be dismissed as a crank by you, but the reality of the situation is this – I’m not buying Macmillan books because Amazon doesn’t sell them.
Corporations need to start focusing on people like me, the little guy, in your spats with each other. Get over yourselves and give us access to your books at a price people like me can afford.
Mike Fisher”
If every Amazon customer did this, ESPECIALLY Kindle users, I betcha we’d get some fast responses and actions from the publishers.
California vs. Arizona
Aug 8th
Posted by MDF in Commentary
No comments
California:
The Arnold is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A
coyote jumps out, bites the Governor and attacks his dog.
1. The Arnold starts to intervene but reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and
then realizes he should stop; the coyote is only doing what is natural.
2. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures coyote and bills the
State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.
3. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the
State $200 testing it for diseases.
4. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for
diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.
5. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game
conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is free of dangerous animals.
6. The Arnold spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a “coyote
awareness” program for residents of the area.
7. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat
rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.
8. The Governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack
somehow and for letting the Governor attempt to intervene.
9. Additional cost to State of California: $75,000 to hire and train a new
security agent with additional special training with regards to the nature
of coyotes.
10. PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files suit against the State.
Arizona:
The Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona is jogging with her dog along a nature
trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks her dog.
1. She shoots the coyote with her State-issued pistol and keeps
jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.
2. The buzzards eat the dead coyote.
And that’s why California is broke.