Nom de plume: Rivrdog

OWS Manual of How to do it right...

...how to do it correctly, I guess they would be offended at just the mention of the word "right". This is a free offer to the OWS. No, I don't want to join OR lead your Movement, but it could become a valued stakeholder in our political process if it matures, so here's how to mature it.

OK, to analyze what this movement has done wrong so far:

• They've tried to pull us all into their political web with the "1% vs 99%" ploy. Nice try, but it's bee-ess and they can't sell it. Out here in the real world, we're not moved.
• They have decided to park their movement in town squares, etc, so as to be visible to town leaders and TeeVee cameras, I guess. Problem is in the details. They have created eyesores with their camps. Eyesores don't impress anyone except eye doctors.
• The movement welcomes all, even some they should be rejecting, such as criminals and raving lunatics. Once again, drags the movement down.
• They have decided, likely for reasons of ducking fiscal responsibility for damages caused by the movement, to not have visible leaders. They have spokesmouths instead. Bad idea. The camps are crying out for leadership, and there is none.
• The "general assembly" way of deciding movement objectives, etc, has failed (like it's model, the United Nations). Sitting around for hours in a circle debating, with no time limits, and allowing deranged people to join in with dis-jointed rants to confuse the issues, doesn't substitute for leadership.
• The adoption of marxism as the underlying flavor of the movement is wrong, wrong, wrong. Marxism is STILL an enemy, and most of we "99%-ers" still believe it is.

OK, then, R-dog, what have they done correctly so far? Glad you asked, because there IS grist here to feed into a political mill:

• We HAVE been bent over the table by global corporate hegemony usurping both individual and government rights, and it's beginning to get nasty to the point that something, like this movement, had to arise to counter it. The right beef at the right time.
• The super-rich DO lead lives of excess, and here in the USA, they tend to separate themselves from general society to a greater degree, making themselves into a separate class. That form of classism is morally repugnant to the rest of us, and needs to be countered with the doctrine of inclusion. Giving the movement the benefit of the doubt, I think that it would LIKE to project inclusion as a solution. 

So, with the plusses and minues on the table, how do we coach this movement back to both sanity and effectiveness? The movement spokemouths are correct, the movement's NOT going away. It will be around in some form, probably for decades, so, despite this bad start, it needs a makeover, and should get one.

This pundit's advice for the movement, in order of necessity to implement:

1. Lose the "Flea Party" image. Lose it now! Declare the "occupation" a success and close the camps. Raise money to fix the damages and/or offer your people's strong backs to do the job.
2. Elect leaders. Real leaders, leading via a real Committee, out in the open, with real addresses and websites, not just Facebook and Twitter. The Earth First! and eco-terror tactics of "no visible leadership" has to go. We, the bulk of the "99%", want to see your leaders, listen to them, have a chance to respect what they have to say.
3. Lose the Marxist ideals. The "1%" is NOT going to sit still and turn over all their wealth for re-distribution, Communist-style. They have great power, and know how to use it to prevent such robbery. While you're at it, your new leaders should sit down with the two major political parties and offer your services to whichever of the parties can come up with the best and most workable plan for supporting the idea of de-fanging and de-clawing the corporate giants. The Democrats will, of course, court you immediately, but don't be surprised if the GOP sends a serious envoy bearing a nice offer as well.
4. Lose the anarchists you have allied yourselves with. You're not likely to succeed with the lukewarm support of the anarchists that you have now, and if that support were to get warmer, so will the opposition to it. Most of us in the "99%" don't like the anarchists, their methods or their nihilistic way of thinking, and it's us you have to impress, not the Black Hood Brigades.
5. Lose the crazies and the thugs. You have attracted, to every camp, a number of high-profile emotionally-disturbed individuals and criminals. Show them the door, however you must. Crazies can't be trusted to follow orders, but CAN be trusted to give you a very bad image. The local TeeVee stations, who should be showing inspiring sound bites from your bright and articulate leaders, are instead showing shots of ugly whackos and felons the po-po has culled out of your camps. You've had the good sense not to oppose the police in these arrests, so go the extra mile and ask the cops how you can keep them out of your outfit. They will have ideas for you to try.

You've timed it right, OWS-movement. The one thing you've done PERFECTLY so far is get your timing right. Build on that by adopting the above suggestions, and you will see your movement flourish.

Or, ignore this manual of proper operations, continue your bone-headed ways, and the movement will not rate a historical graffitti on a public lavatory wall.

Flourish or perish. It's up to you, OWS Movement.

Holiday Season starts...

You may object, but it's the reality of the New Culture, as pushed by Mammon, the God of all things pecuniary.

So, if Mammon can declare the Holiday Season starting now, I can put on a Holiday show, so here it is. This is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen, and it will definitely drive the aetheists nuts.

Yes, we are decorating here at Schloss Rivrdog. The Halloween decorations are up...

H/T to the Coyote Kid, who did get snowed upon already, so he has kicked off his Holiday season.

Five Bean Stew

I may have posted this recipe before, if so, excuuuuuuse me!

It's Bambi season, and if you're in camp reading this, you're not far enough from civilization, but the good news is, Bambi has gotten used to civilization, so you have as good a chance at Bambi in the nearby woods as you do in the Far Mountains. Internet in Camp, my, how we have advanced (or not).

But, I digress!

You have to eat in camp, and you want to fill up on whatever will keep you going from one big meal per day, since you're likely to have to skip a few meals, or eat out of your hunting coat pocket when you're stalking/standing for Bambi.

So, for all you hunters, may I present Five Bean Stew.

Into your provision tubs to go out to camp go (each time you make it is one recipe, but it feeds about 8 or so)

Fifteen ounce cans of: Pork and Beans, Lima Beans, Butter Beans, Pinto Beans and either Great Northern Beans or Black Beans, your choice. You'll need some Garlic and some dried, Chopped Onion. The Garlic can be dried, minced garlic.

Into your cooler goes: one 2# package of Bacon Ends and one, 1# chub of Ground Beef (Chuck is preferred).

To cook it in, you'll need a Large (6-qt) Slow Cooker if your camp is electrified, or your Big Pot if it isn't.

Open all the cans, and dump into the Big Pot or Slow Cooker. Get to heating those 75 oz of beany goodness. Smash up some Garlic and put in there. Put in about 1/3 cup of dried Onions. Stir, have the Junior Camper keep stirring every few minutes. Beans WILL stick to the bottom of most pots if left un-stirred or the pot too hot.

Fry half the Bacon ends, or if you're REALLY into bacon, fry the whole thing. Scoop out the fried bacon pieces and drain on paper towels. In the grease, fry up the Ground Beef, chopping it with your spatula as fine as you can in the pan, while you fry. When it's done, just a few minutes, scoop it out and drain it on paper towels. Add the bacon and beef to the beans, stir. When the beans are hot enough, serve. Goes well with Biscuits. You can make Gravy for those Biscuits out of the fat from the fried meat and some of the bean juice from the bean pot. Just get your fry pan hot, dump flour into the grease, brown it and stir (whisk) well to a paste, then dribble in the bean juice until you get the right consistency for your gravy. Some call that a "roux".

We don't count calories in the woods, so fugged about THAT. You NEED that fat to keep you going in the cold.

Some variations. You notice I didn't specify Pepper Sauce, but you add that to your taste at each serving. I also didn't specify it, but you CAN ladle off most of the bean juice (or drain the cans as you open them), and substitute a stout Ale for the liquid. The base created from the ale won't be thick enough, so you might have to thicken it. The fastest way to do that is with dried, powdered Mashed Potatoes, and you probably have some of THAT around camp, as well. Note there's no tomato ANYTHING in this recipe (except for a minor bit in the Pork and Beans). That's on purpose. Tommy-toes ruin it. Clash of acids, or somesuch.

Eat hearty!

Can a gun-registration scheme ever be dismantled?

Interesting discussion over at Joe's place.

The Canadians, led (for the moment) by their party-on-the-right, the Conservative Party, is attempting to dismantle the Long Gun Registration of the last century.

Good luck to them.

I say data is forever, and I explain why in my comment over at Joe's post.

I also say that the Conservatives AREN'T forever in Canada.

Canada is flush with oil revenues right now, so the Conservatives are riding that wave. What happens if global deflation occurs, as has been suggested that it might? Will the Canadians still be able to sell that spendy-to-produce oil they get from their Oil Sands?

Maybe not, and if not, then the Gov't has to pull in it's welfare horns, and when THAT happens, the government will change back to Labour-led (leftist). If Labour gets entrenched again, they will probably re-introduce all the old gun-registration crap again. Then, out of some hidden hole will spring the "old list", which was supposed to be destroyed back in the conservative regime. It will be re-instated, and no one will be prosecuted for copying it "illegally", back in that day.

Data is forever. Just ask Google.

Now, what are the lessons for us here in the USA?

• Never let a Federal gun-registration scheme get started. No data, no threat of re-establishment of the data.
• We need far better oversight on the BATFE and their forms 4473 and 4. Those forms pre-date the use of "instant check", and are not needed now, and their use should be suspended, and some method devised to make sure they are destroyed (but, again, can we EVER be sure?).
• We need to better sell the Civil Rights aspect of the 2A, and get it up there in our society with the First Amendment, the Fifth, etc. (No, we don't do that by toting guns openly everywhere, we do that by EDUCATION). When the first generation of kids grows up which is NOT taught to be afraid of guns, then we will have won, and not one moment sooner.

PDX-xtra: The Flea Party declares war

This ayem, whilst the Oregonian was delivering it's daily fishwrap with it's lead editorial warning the Flea Party that they'd made their point, now it was time to leave, the scruffians attacked.

Suprise attack, masked individual (more on the masks in a moment), flung a bucket of poo onto the Courthouse front door and fled. Cops there within seconds, couldn't find him, probably because all he had to do to escape was cross the street and disappear into the camp, from whence the poo came (obvious, it has a dyed deodorizer in it which is used in the too-few loos at the pigsty).

Okayyyy, so the Flea Party goes to war. When they went to war, they went right to NBC (Nuke-Bio-Chem) Warfare. They chose Biological warfare, and if we are going to have a measured response in kind, which is certainly called for, let's put a decent face on it and leave radiation out, going to Chemical Warfare to dislodge the filthy mob. CS or CN (Cry Sooner or Cry Now) are the choices in tear gas. There's also pepper spray, which doesn't count in the chemical arsenal, but it's available.

No need for a 0330 Charge of the Riot Brigade such as the Oakland, CA po-po used. Just surround the camp and prevent ingress of supplies and re-inforcements. Turn off the water at the street (you don't want them cleaning their faces when the gas goes in). Tell them all to leave, now, and no one leaving by a time certain will be detained (but photograph and identify EVERYONE leaving, no masks. That's allowable as part of a Field Interrogation, permitted in such circumstances. Most will probably leave, and only the hard core which wants to fight will remain.

Give that hard core their fight, show them the riot batons and demonstrate their use. Forget all the glitzy projectile weapons. On this one, let's use knuckles and sticks. Arrest everyone. Charge everyone with the maximum crimes which can be charged, Riot (C-Felony) and Criminal Mischief 1 (C-Felony). Extract cash bail, since all the scruffians are a Flight Risk.

The press MUST be invited to film the entire operation. It is IMPERATIVE that the cops use only that level of force which is sufficient to gain compliance to arrest. Show the faces of the arrested on Cable Access TeeVee, and show the video of the arrest procedures. Invite the press to accompany the clean-up crews in the twin parks, so as to give the taxpayers an idea of the damage which the Flea party "occupation" has caused.

Trials and sentencing. The trials shouldn't take long, the charges of Riot and Criminal Mischief are proven by video of the arrests in the damaged area, and there's little defense to be offered to those charges. A plea of Rioting while Stupid doesn't get you off, boneheads. Everyone sentenced must have monetary damages to pay, no letting anyone off on an excuse of "indigency". Community Service in the clean-up and re-planting of the parks might be in order, but for the obstructionists, and there will be a few, State Prison is appropriate upon conviction of those felonies. If they think that the Flea Party camp was ugly, wait until they get a glimpse of life inside the Walls.

Next, add up the total costs, then file a civil lawsuit against all the arrestees to recover the damages and the costs of everything. File that lawsuit immediately, since it can have a bearing on release agreements, etc.

Then start the recall petition against Hizzoner. He went on a ChiCom-paid boondoggle to China while his city center was under attack. Desertion in the face of the enemy is NEVER to be tolerated in the leadership.

OK, about those masks. A little history, Students. Where do you see terrorists mask up, strike the first blows when there is an accord to avoid conflict in place, and use a weapon of mass destruction in that first-strike attack?

Let's see, the PaleSwinian and other Islamist terrorists do that, various Marxists have done that ("Shining Path", or the Tamil Tigers come to mind). Yep, this group has, at it's hard core, trained terrorists. The eco-terrorists Earth First! and the Animal/Earth Liberation Fronts also mask up and strike first.

And YOU thought it was all about financial inequity?

Silly you.

Project complete

The Garage Project From Hell is complete. The Dr.Dau sports car may now rest comfortably in peace during her overseas deployment, and the Little Black Truck will stay warm and dry over the winter as well.

All the re-configured storage is properly accessible, and the only thing left to do, after cutting the lawn one more time today, is mothball the lawn mower for the Winter and take it to the Storage Unit.

We celebrated the project's completion last night, here, at this most excellent Italian joint in Troutdale, at the mouth of the windy Columbia River Gorge.

Contempt of Congress

...is just another in the stack of crimes piling up against the Obama Administration in re: Operation Fast and Furious, aka, "Gunwalker".

PawPaw has it nailed here.

Wish PawPaw luck, he's going after Bambi tomorrow...I'll hoist a stirrup cup to his success.

Logo needed

Is there a flag you can fly to indicate to the gimme world that you're self reliant?

If not, some of you enterprising graphic designers need to take mouse in hand and whip one up out of your CAD computers.

In fact, let's make this a bleg.

I'll post the entries and we'll have a vote as to the best one.

Thursday Thuds the Eighth

I'm Henery the Eighth, I am....GAAAAAH! Now I have that earworm going, one of the most persistent.

But, it's time for some Thuds.

Thud the First: Obama! Yep, speaking to students yesterday, he actually raised the concept of self-reliance as a bogeyman! This might be his Big Gaffe, the moment everyone will point to in years to come, after his defeat, and say, "Yep, he let his complete ignorance slip out there, and never recovered from it." As I see it, this is a "TEA-Party-ish" moment. The point at which the opposition to his election really gets galvanized. On the one hand, those who follow Obama are now certified as NOT self-reliant, but reliant on the Gummint for their welfare and being. On the other hand, the REAL self-reliant ones. There's NO middle ground in such a division, because you're either self-reliant or you're not, and what's more, you probably KNOW which one you are. Politics, you see, doesn't work well when guessing games are locked out of it's repertoire. Obama has now set the terms of the debate, and if the GOP candidates, to the last one of them, don't pick up on this, well, let's just say THEY don't deserve election, either.

Thud the Second: The Flea Party has the liberls who run most cities over a barrel. The solid citizens and most of the merchants want their filthy camps gone from the city centers, but most of the libtard Mayors feel they owe these fellow-libs something, so they have tied the hands of their Police Chiefs, at least those who actually have the spine to enforce the various city laws against the camping. Portland is one of those cities. The taxpayers are fed up with the filth, the craziness (the "movement" has attracted every crazy not locked down in an asylum somewhere), the vandalism, the theft, the huge and ever-mounting cost. See Thud the First, above. We are the self-reliant and we want them GONE! A local poll had Flea Party support at 39% here last night, and we live in a VERY liberal City!

Thud the Third: The Christian Science Monitor, trying to evaluate the relative "fairness" of the various taxing schemes put forth by some GOP candidates. The sound you heard was the "thud" of their concept of evaluation hitting the deck. Taxation isn't about "fairness". It never has been. It's about providing the funds to operate a government. HOW that government operates determines HOW MUCH taxation is required, and YES, some taxation IS required. The CSM misses the point of a tax plan. First, the political point: politicians, of all stripes, simply HAVE to have a tax system that they can tinker with (deductions, etc) so as to bribe their constituents into voting for them. As far as EFFECTIVENESS goes, a system that CAN'T be tinkered with will be far more efficient to administer. It's hard to tinker with a flat tax, no deductions. That's the true "fair" tax: make "x" dollars in wages or other compensation, send in a percentage of it as tax. No deductions for any reason, just send it in. If the Gummint wants to send you some back as welfare, well, that's another issue, but EVERYONE gets taxed the same percentage.

Thud the Fourth: Rick Perry and HIS "flat" tax plan. First of all, it's anything but flat. He would grant the same deductions (read: political bribes) that are in place today, in fact, all his system does is remove all the different tax brackets and substitute one - 20%. I have slightly over $100K of taxable income, from a number of different sources. I should be in a 25% or so bracket, but I maintain the 20% bracket due to careful use of the legal deductions. Without deductions, my tax under the Perry plan remains about the same. Secondly, a Word for Perry: quit waving that postcard around, it's bullshit. No more people would be able to use the postcard than now are able to use the one-page 1040S short-form, and the reason for THAT is deductions. You have to use the forms, schedules and worksheets to use deductions. That costs me $600/year to do, because it's so complex that I have to hire a CPA, and no, Turbo-Tax does NOT get it all straight. If Perry REALLY wanted to "flatten" the tax, he would lower his Flat Tax to 15-18%, dump the deductions, and THEN his postcard would work. But then, he'd be Newt, wouldn't he?

Thud the Fifth: Home appliances. Why the HELL does something simple to build like an electric oven have to cost well over $1,000, and that's for an inexpensive one? The "good" ones can cost over $3,000. Look, it's a steel box, fer Christ's sake, with a calrod and a thermostat, and now, some fancy little computer (probably costs $10 to manufacture). It doesn't even need moving parts (my new one, a Frigidaire, has a convection-fan, though). Jeebus! In India, they can make a CAR for that moolah! Oh, well, at least the cookies and pies and pastries that the gudwife will bake now won't have burned bottoms on them. I suppose THAT'S worth the price of a good 1/2 MOA rifle with decent tactical glass...

Thud the Sixth: Is the sound of McDonald's PR Veep getting the boot after allowing this jack-booted reaction to a PHX-area mom who wants some more public health precautions in the Play Areas. Next will probably come a boycott, no doubt lead by one of the "meat is murder" outfits, and this time, it will be effective, and Mickey Dee's will lose millions as a result. How much simpler it would have been to turn this around, hire a couple more minimum-wage employees per store, keep the Play Areas clean, and make some POSITIVE PR instead of taking the hit they're going to take. This is what ALWAYS happens when you let lawyers make management decisions. Lawyers in a company should ALWAYS be restricted to checking the legality of things like contracts, etc. They should have NO OTHER role, because when they get this far afield, the results are ALWAYS FUBAR.

Perry's Tax Gambit

Reviewed by Rivrdog: it sucks.

Look, Governor Perry, just waving a postcard around doesn't cut it, especially since few of us could use that postcard form under your "system", anyway.

OK, twenty-percent flat tax, no progressivity. Good start, but you left in most deductions (damn good thing, since without them, and at 20%, I'd pay more tax on my pension income than I do now. Despite your pledge that everyone pays less, I probably wouldn't.)

But, with all those deductions left in, just how can this be called "reform"? Are all the 50% who pay no tax now going to get taxed? Probably not (they would under "9-9-9"). How about leaning out the tax code? Fuggeddabboudditt! With all the deductions left in and some adjustment for the 'po folks, the tax code will probably get more complex with this idea.

You missed the point, Perry. A "flat tax" isn't just about the flat percentage you will pay, it's also about KILLING the slimy tax industry, DEAD. Wooden stake and silver bullet. Dumping that industry also dumps the largest component of political-influence buying, the biggest opportunity for political corruption. Cain's proposal does that, and your's doesn't. More of the same ruling-class crap, Perry.

Cain wants to revolutionize revenue, and Perry is satisfied with putting lipstick on a pig.

You KNOW who you want to vote for.

Detritus from the camera - photo potpourri

Just read out the digital camera's chip, and the old Minolta Dimage XT had some pix on it I had intended to post, but never got a roundtuit.

Remember the old Knife Meme a couple months ago? I had just bought a new knife to replace my old Almar Eagle Ultralight Talon which now graces the bottom of Portland Harbor (WAAAAAAH!). This one is not half the knife the Almar was, but it serves. It's a Gerber Paraframe, a skeletonized liner-lock folder, no assist other than the thumb stud.

It DOES have the pocket-clip from HELL though, and will never get bumped out of the pocket, like the Almar did while climbing around on the gunwale of my boat. It was on sale for $26, not a bad price for a Gerber.

**********************************

OK, all y'all can read, but be honest now, how many of you have seen motor oil in THIS form of container? Hint, they've been using plastic bottles exclusively for about 25 years now.

I don't maintain an automotive museum here, but I'll keep this can of oil, since it's unopened, and 20-weight is a decent medium-weight shop oil. I probably paid 70 cents for that can of oil when I bought it, 49 cents if it was on sale. Motor oil now is not found below $3 per quart, and the better oils run up to $6. Lemme see, am I making 9 times the salary I did back 25 years ago? Noooooooooo....

First Frost

...at Schloss Rivrdog.

Looking out the Guest Room window to the southeast. The lawn is white. Winter's here. Good thing I exercised my furnace yesterday, because it didn't start until the 6th complete reboot of it's computer, and last night would have been chilly in here if it hadn't run.

The back-up heating system is two 40KBTU natural gas Heatilator fireplaces, and they do work well, but they are either on or off, and their only modulation is by varying the speed of the fan. They HAVE kept this house comfortable in the absence of the furnace before, down to 12 degrees outside, and that was back before the decent windows I retrofitted a few years back.

The 95% AFUE furnace is so much nicer, though...

Here's the frost pic:

Leaf-fall has just begun around here. Everything was late this year by a month.

Boneheaded analysts = failing economy

...not the other way around.

Netflix is a good example. Some of my family members subscribed, so I know this to be true: for $9/mo, you got great access to content via DVD and snailmail. When streaming content was added, it got even better, and many new customers signed up.

Then netflix committed the boneheaded play of the decade, and tried to split the streaming and the DVD business off into separate outfits, each with it's own subscription. It would have cost more than double to stay with all the content available from the two companies. That cost, near $20/mo, would have been roughly equal to a nice upgrade package from the Satellite outfits or cable TeeVee.

So, Netflix gave up it's price and market niche. It was really only ever about price for content, but somehow, the boneheaded analyst who wrote this doesn't see the forest for the trees.

Is there REALLY any question why our economy is in such bad shape, when the so-called experts can't fathom the main factor in a sea-change in a market?

The Caliphate expands...

...and (D) President Obama enabled it, through his military liaisons with NATO.

Remember that next year, when you get ready to choose (D) or (R).

The Sharia Law you enable today will kill or enslave your sons and daughters tomorrow, Mister and Mrs. America, but don't believe ME, ask any devout Muslim.

You DIDN'T read it here first...

AssPress FUBAR #2 (for this ayem)

The B53 Special Weapon is NOT the "most powerful". That title goes to the B41, which had twice the mega-tonnage of the B53 (which your blogger used to sit on nuclear alert with back in the 1960's, a pair of them in the B-52 C or D bomb bay). BTW, the B53 design was also used on the Titan Missile as it's single-warhead, in the pre-MIRV days.

Get your shit straight, AssPress. You might have found an older Air Force bomber puke or missile-man to interview, instead of some young shavetail engineer who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.