Majority rules?  Not so much.

And no, this is not an electoral college rant... this is the subversion of a vote in which a simple majority is supposed to decide an issue.

A county in Montana recently put a measure up for vote which would not legalize marijuana, but it would officially make marijuana-related crime a low priority for whatever local police force they have.

The measure got more than the 50.1% of the vote required to pass, but then the county commissioners overturned the vote on the excuse, "... that a “gut feeling” led him to conclude Missoula's electorate misinterpreted the ballot language"

He didn't like the results of the election, so he just pretended that it must have been too obfuscated in the language put before the poor, stupid Montanans.  Ignore that later in the article it explains that the electorate understood perfectly, and the supposedly "liberal" city centers (in Montana???) were in favor of the "pro" drug measure, and the "more conservative" rural areas were opposed.  It sounds like the people understood the measure perfectly.

Do I really feel any righteous indignation over the results of a county election in Montana?  Not at all.  But I feel this sort of thing should be put into a spotlight.  Revolutions have begun over less than this.

If you care to share your thoughts on this subject with the Missoula County government:

Strangely, there's a note there from May, 2006:  "As of Monday, May 22, 2006, the City of Missoula moved to their own telephone system.  This means that if you call 406-258-4700 or 406-721-5700 you will reach the Missoula County Switchboard.  To reach the City of Missoula you will need to call their new phone number at 406-552-6000."

Subdivision paints target on itself.

Homeowner association declares "no private ownership of guns."

Maybe only the homeowner association is allowed to assemble a standing army?

Now, I hate to say it, but a homeowners association is, for the most part, a local government that you volunteer to live in. I'd rather have a local government making the rules rather than a federal.  But these people voluntarily signed a contract and entered a pact that gave the homeowner association the right to make the rules on how they can live.

So these people can suck it. They didn't have to move there.

I'll still direct all thieves to their neighborhood, though. I want to see robbery statistics in that neighborhood go waaaaaaay up.  Short of rape/murder, of course.  But I bet they wish they had a gun, then.

On a side note, I'd like to see someone formally "secede" from one of these de facto local governments.  See what happens.

Liberals still suck, in case you wondered.

It's been a very long time since I addressed this particular issue and wrote anything that could be considered very opinionated, judgmental, and possibly controversial.  I'm curious; let's see if I can still produce anything like that:

++++++++++

It seems to me there are three types of hippies/liberals/progressives/whatever running around these days:

1.  The ones who see themselves as so enlightened and above the general populace that they can not conceive of the possibility that there is an entire culture out there that wants them dead.  These are the blind.

2.  The ones who see the possibility of an enemy who plots their demise, but live in a bubble of incredulity and prefer to fool themselves with thoughts that their own culture is the real problem.  These are the fools.

3.  The ones who know exactly what the world situation is, but so loath themselves and their own people that they actively go out of their way to undermine the very people attempting to keep them free, and in every way except picking up a weapon, aid the enemy.  These are the traitors, and in all other ways, the active enemy.

Since the shock of 9/11 wore off I've seen one person after another claim that the evil Bush regime was establishing a "neocon" theocracy, was eroding liberties at home, and starting illegal wars of aggression.  Yet, I can't think of a single example of any of these things happening.  Can anyone name one?  And don't just throw out generalities like "domestic wiretapping!"  One might as well call an airline flight from Raleigh, NC to Paris, France a "domestic" flight, since one end of it was in the United States.

There has also been a hugely successful war in the middle east that toppled a dictator and established the only democracy in the middle east outside of Israel.  And yet half the people in the United States think we lost the war?  Why do they think this?

If you could go back in time and stop Hitler before the Holocaust with an assassin's bullet, would you be morally justified?  Could you at least recognize the ambiguity of the situation?  If you were alive 100 years from now and historians gave "bias in the media" as a leading factor of the decline of America, would it be OK to go back in time to the year 2004 and attempt to repeal laws protecting a free press?  Can you see any ambiguity there, or is that strictly a verboten subject?

I fear that the United States is truly in decline, and considering her historic role as a beacon of civilization, knowledge, advancement, liberty, and freedom in the world, is it a good or bad thing that there is no obvious replacement beacon waiting in the wings?  The economic power is still there, but our leaders, though technically competent, have completely failed to inspire any of us of anything but indifference at best, and apathy at worst.  I lay most of the blame on the media, though, as they seem to have more power to influence popular perception than I ever expected.  Clinton fled to England and later committed perjury, but got a pass.  Bush joined the National Guard, and is crucified.  I thought the general person was smarter than that... and look where they have my opinion, now.  I know they are influencing me, but I can only take so much negative drumbeat bombardment before even my enthusiasm flags.

Pardon me, I have to go check in with my local Religious Minder before the government-enforced curfew begins.

+++++++++

How did I do?  Feels kind of weak, to me, but I'm very out of practice in caring about acerbic opinion pieces.

Movie Review: Jarhead.

Yeah, but I only recently saw it for the first time.

Review: it fucking sucked.

Qualification: I was a Marine, and in the Corps at pretty much the exact same time as the author who wrote the book upon which this movie is based.  The movie is supposed to be autobiographical, so I should be allowed to address the author as the "protagonist" of this movie, directly.

I knew guys like the author, when I was in.  In fact, I believe he and I were actually in the exact same regiment at the exact same time on the exact same Marine Base.  There is a guy like him in every 30-odd man platoon: a complete fuckup.  Not necessarily physically weak or uncoordinated; but the type of person who can, and does, fuck up even the simplest orders.  You tell them not to drink and drive under penalty of having the career ruined, and they go out and drink and drive.  You tell them to shower at least once a week, and they wont shower that week.  You tell them drug usage will result in brig time and a dishonorable discharge, and they pop on a surprise piss test after a 96 (a 4-day weekend, usually for a holiday).  Or you tell them they have a simple guard duty on Christmas Eve, and they blow it off and get shit faced on home made liquor and something burns down, and then they whine about POOR ME, THE MILITARY IS JUST TOO HARD AND I CAN'T TAKE IT, like in this movie.

And that is what this entire movie was; the account of a fuckup who twists the entire Marine Corps into something I didn't even recognize on the big screen in order to make himself, and other fuckups, look sympathetic.  There were so many inaccuracies of Marine life displayed that I lost count of them about 20 minutes in, and it remained stupid the entire way through.

By 1990 nobody was getting physically abused in basic training, anymore... even if they should have been.  The Marines in my Regiment did not panic and shit themselves during the artillery bombardment at the beginning of the ground war, with only our poor, abused protagonist keeping his head and staying on-mission, as he'd have us believe.  In fact, the story I heard time and again (I joined that unit 45 days after they returned from Iraq) was that while being shelled, the entire 3000-man regiment spontaneously busted out singing The Marines Hymm.  Nobody was ever forced to try to sleep in a puddle of oil while it was raining oil.  No Marines were burning desert camies and firing weapons in the air and dancing around the bonfire like savages at the end of the war.  Rounds and uniforms have to be accounted for and no Marine wants the hassle, if for no other reason.  I don't remember any of the homoerotic bullshit that the author injected into the story, either, but then I guess he can only write what he knows.

"There's no standard operating procedure when you are losing your mind."  Boo fucking hoo.  Nothing pissed me off more in the Marines than a crybaby volunteer who signed the enlistment papers all on his own.  Not everyone is created equal, and not everyone is man enough to serve in the Marines.  

I really wish there had been more physical abuse in basic, because I guarantee the shitbird author of this book could have been screened out right then, gotten an administrative discharge (which is NOT a dishonorable), and saved all of us, himself and those of us whom he besmirched, a lot of sorrow.

He can go fuck himself, for all I care.  I hated his lie of a movie.

Windows Vista.

Hey, remember when I used to post about incoming hurricanes?

Yeah, that was awesome.

Now I've got this:

I'm not sure which I prefer.

But here's a cheerleader:

Update: 1228 20070214 - Welcome to Hoth.

The Gordon Family Truckster surrounded to the hood by feral drifts.

Forced perspective makes the snowblower look bigger.  The drift was actually a foot taller than the tallest point of the machine.

And this is like a 6 foot guy walking through the snow valley.  Look out for Wampas, dood!

Newspapers are scientists, now.

So the MSM now claims that the underlying motivation behind most of the Superbowl commercials is a culture of violence influenced by the war in Iraq.

Well I'd like to go ahead and "theorize" that people who see WAR in anything and everything, no matter how disconnected, have problems for which they should probably seek counseling.  My bullshit "theory," as they call it, is just as valid as theirs.  Neither one of us started with a hypothesis nor did any experimentation or testing nor came up with any reproducible experiments to officially claim to have a theory.  We just made an observation and skipped about 4 steps and called it a theory.  They just happened to have a huge media outlet with which to distribute their idiocy.  I only have dtman.com  read by tens of people a month who get here by accident while surfing for cheerleader pictures.

The liberals are right about one thing... approximately half the population of this country really is stupid, it's just not the half they think it is.

And here's one of those cheerleader pics you were looking for:

Thanks for trying.

Yes Virginia, there is a DTMan Music Page.

Heads up... I made one of my rare album reviews just now, on Leaves' Eyes album Vinland Saga.  Check it out. 

Global Warming.

Just to keep everyone on the same page, I aint saying that the Earth's climate is not warmer now than it was, say, a decade/century ago.  I've argued that any scientist and/or environmental dilettante who claimed as fact that man is causing it is a crackpot.  Every unbiased person with even a rudimentary understanding of the scientific method can see that.  The above linked forum thread provides many if not all of my arguments supporting that claim, so I'll not rehash, here.

That said, MAN, I love this North Carolinian weather in northern Ohio.  Moving from NC to OH was a bummer for me on many levels, the frigid (used to be) winters on Lake Erie was one of them.  I actually remember the Blizzard of '78.  I used to play pond hockey all winter as a teenager.  But now?  Advance forecast on weather.com has us getting above freezing every day as far through January as they dare predict.  I love this.  May have to plant some palm trees in the yard this spring.

I bought a pretty expensive snow blower last month... it wouldn't upset me at all if I never had to use it.

Global Warming?  Please sir, I want some more.  Bring on the sun spots.