tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-112699952012-01-16T15:46:03.231-06:00But the truth is, -- I am not a wise man ; ---- and besides am a mortal of so little consequence in the world, it is not much matter what I do ; so I seldom fret or fume at all about it. -- Tristam ShandyKen Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.comBlogger18101100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-82497713329921879692012-01-16T15:37:00.008-06:002012-01-16T15:46:03.240-06:00

It is, quite simply, psychologically impossible for Froma Harrod to imagine the possibility that her own behavior might be inappropriate. I have rarely seen anything that amused me this much. Of course, I have a special interest in the psychology of self-deception; so maybe this won't be as funny to my General Readers as it is to me. But I think it ought to be pretty funny to just about anybody

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-24319670252214016182012-01-16T13:00:00.004-06:002012-01-16T13:02:46.536-06:00

So the kids and I are in the car as I take the girls back to Katy for today's custody swap, and the Josh Groban version of "You Lift Me Up" is rolling along through the minivan's sound system. He swings into the high notes of the chorus, and I start singing along. And after about one phrase of the duet, Merry observes, "I just love Josh Groban's voice..."

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-4469209138435731372012-01-16T12:58:00.002-06:002012-01-16T13:00:28.153-06:00

I'm not working in the office today, even though MLK Day is not an official BG holiday. That's because I was able to finagle an extra day off of school for Merry and Sally. It was pretty east to talk the school into excusing them for MLK Day, after all -- I just convinced the school that Merry and Sally are African-American. They bought it straight away for Merry, but I had a heckuva time

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-51125731680676399202012-01-16T11:01:00.002-06:002012-01-16T13:04:08.217-06:00

I have to go to London next week on business, which will be my first time to visit the BG Group offices in Reading. Naturally I'm renting a car, which means that I will spend a week making full use of the UK's "roundabouts," which are a very highly efficient way to process as many drivers as possible through an intersection without having anybody have to slow down very much, without traffic

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-14864209377061951282012-01-12T12:51:00.006-06:002012-01-12T13:10:42.706-06:00

If one is engaged in the act of robbing of a bank, and one is about to hand over the swag bag to the teller so that said teller can put money in it, then it is best to remember which hand is holding the swag bag and which hand is holding the gun.And you know what's even stupider? The clerk let him have it back!And then, having gotten his gun back...the robber fled empty-handed, speeding away in

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-70716970962241450532012-01-12T12:45:00.002-06:002012-01-12T12:47:23.901-06:00

So what do you think you, Gentle Reader, would choose to wear to your trial on charges of drug trafficking?As Dave (or in this case actually Judi) put it, "He probably came straight from work."

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-67562038029283838672011-12-29T13:14:00.001-06:002011-12-29T13:15:22.234-06:00

Of course you've seen this by now, but another 100 times won't hurt...

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-36367196595511089032011-12-29T12:38:00.004-06:002011-12-29T12:46:59.175-06:00

From VeryDemotivational, but be careful in visiting as that is a frequently non-family-safe, NSFW site. (Yes, I know that I just made some of my Gentle Readers triple-click...)

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-69828315580645744872011-12-28T10:29:00.001-06:002011-12-28T11:26:34.658-06:00

Rusty was impressed when I managed to walk down the stairs holding his lidless cup of coffee, and so when we got into the car I started to explain to him how it was done. I took the cup of coffee back and held it in my right hand as I drove with my left, and commenced to larn ’im thusly:“See, you use your hand as a shock absorber. If you set the cup in the cupholder, or you hold it in your hand

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-12456340349466596182011-12-27T22:33:00.003-06:002011-12-27T22:37:46.191-06:00

...I ran across an anecdote the other day I hadn't heard before. It seems a young woman of advancing, though not yet unduly advanced, age started up the following conversation with her long-term boyfriend one evening..."Dear," she begins, "I had the strangest dream last night.""Really?" her beau responds. "What happened that was so strange?""Well, for some reason, you gave me a present -- the

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-53496453655181961882011-12-27T21:40:00.003-06:002011-12-27T21:49:12.464-06:00

I rather frequently have those dreams where you're out in public and suddenly realize you forgot to put on your pants. And I had one last night...but it turned out to be more fun than usual. I was apparently helping out with P.E. at Kai's school, and the principal came in and suddenly started glaring at me and lecturing me, and I realized that somehow my pants had disappeared even though I had

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-7389581209049922332011-12-26T15:12:00.004-06:002011-12-28T16:05:43.692-06:00

Stephen Bloom has finally achieved nationwide recognition. Alas, he has done so by writing one of the year's truly pathetic (on several different levels), unintentionally self-revealing articles for The Atlantic. A good parody has been done by Iowahawk, who focuses primarily on the supercilious tone by which Bloom makes himself look far worse than those whom he wishes to ridicule; and a brisk

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-82709881927555954672011-12-26T12:34:00.000-06:002011-12-27T21:22:01.358-06:00

Looks like he's having the time of his life. (smiling) You, young man, are a true redneck in spirit...and this blog has no higher compliment to offer.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-3803167175117014512011-12-26T11:27:00.000-06:002011-12-27T21:21:40.937-06:00

The title of the Christmas morning sermon at Houston Chinese Church this year was, "How Much Does It Cost?", the point being to challenge us as to whether we were really making the self-sacrifices that the true spirit of Christmas requires. So as the sermon started, the audiovisual staff had prepared a slide, which they popped up onto the projection screen above the pastor's head, to give us the

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-47058952737241425172011-12-26T09:50:00.000-06:002011-12-27T21:20:53.792-06:00

The Christmas pageant is over and done with; so I can stop singing the same five songs all the way to work and back every morning and go back to Pimsleur's "Mandarin III." And overall it went very well -- most importantly, eighteen people were moved enough to decide to make some fundamental changes in their lives, which is after all what matters.The ensembleBut not all went perfectly smoothly; so

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-1279656099217962292011-12-22T13:21:00.003-06:002011-12-22T13:26:50.653-06:00

Remember the Chinese gentlemen who slept through a videoconference on the importance of stamping out laziness at work, and got themselves suspended? Well, this unnamed Denver cop is going to have plenty of time on her hands to keep them company. Key paragraph:The Denver police officer who left the cruiser running unattended in front of her home Monday morning is now the subject of an internal

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-3768252687811007852011-12-22T11:16:00.002-06:002011-12-22T11:19:17.389-06:00

Seriously, this is too suicidal to be admirable, even for highly-skilled mountain-bikers.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-90579765517810571412011-12-21T23:18:00.001-06:002011-12-21T23:18:40.683-06:00

...the Rickshaw Challenge.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-8556718556482826592011-12-21T22:52:00.002-06:002011-12-21T23:08:40.823-06:00

I'm all for trying to establish healthy habits in your small children, but...Wait, I'll start at the beginning. Helen had a dentist's appointment, and Kai and I had dropped her off and then gone out for some father/son breakfast time. When we came back, there was a mom sitting in the waiting room with a small daughter -- I'd guess maybe five years old or so -- and a slightly older son.I stepped

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-18563192588045010992011-12-20T12:09:00.001-06:002011-12-20T12:11:00.133-06:00

Observes Dave (to my mind unanswerably): "I'll tell you this: If I were taking care of a newborn baby, and somebody came around whacking on a drum, that person would find himself at the emergency room having his drumsticks surgically removed from his rum-pa-pa-pum, if you know what I mean."

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-15835699237284283652011-12-20T12:03:00.003-06:002011-12-20T12:09:52.391-06:00

Kim Jong-Il has diedHe was short, weird and evilYou are caught up nowWell done, Twitter user "pourmecoffee"!

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-54129484202022768042011-12-20T11:35:00.002-06:002011-12-20T11:38:22.468-06:00

One of my contractor friends was recently suffering at a client site -- the building air conditioning was broken, and the temporary units that had been brought in to hold the fort were, frankly, not doing the job. So Dan wandered over to one of the temporary units to try to see if he could figure out why it was leaving so much air unconditioned, and discovered that what we had here, was an

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-37725264864123659972011-12-20T10:06:00.003-06:002011-12-20T10:16:36.175-06:00

[The Peril and his better half Helen -- this blog is strenuously resisting the urge to dub her "Yellow Peril" -- have gone to the mechanic's shop to pick up Helen's car, which has been spruced up to where she will be willing to drive it and safetied up to where her husband will be willing to let her. Helen is going to have to drive her car back to the apartment, since the Peril himself has to

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-79259656976076020452011-12-20T09:54:00.001-06:002011-12-20T09:57:03.984-06:00

The second crime for which he was booked probably has a lot to do with the ease with which he was detected after committing his first crime.No hat tip; I found this one myself.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-64481772456366282882011-12-20T09:33:00.002-06:002011-12-20T09:45:14.637-06:00

This article, in which a disgruntled bar customer rams her car into the tavern to express her outrage over the fact that somebody at the bar stole her cell phone, is one of the most fun stories I've seen in a while. Key sentences:"I didn't honestly believe that someone would try to drive through a cement building," [tavern owner Brenda Phillips] said.And:"I went to see if she was OK, but I didn't

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-91006498014310139982011-12-20T09:20:00.003-06:002011-12-20T10:01:54.631-06:00

It would be fun enough to note that these two masterminds chose to shoplift their $25 worth of batteries and candybars in the sort of neighborhood where dishonest persons can raid your truck for a $60 car stereo. But what really sets them apart is the mugshot:UPDATE: Sorry, guys, you have been bumped from the top spot.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-1772072272267619512011-12-20T09:10:00.003-06:002011-12-20T11:42:16.350-06:00

There are the kinds of thieves who steal Ferraris, and then there are Jerry Depalma and (we're not making this name up) Irvin Turpitt. Key sentence: "The forklift, which can reach 25 mph, was chased Sunday morning from Oakdale to Modesto [i.e., about 15 miles]."HT: Dave, as usual.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-51128327388331916952011-12-20T09:05:00.001-06:002011-12-20T09:09:57.283-06:00

She's a real knockout.HT: Dave.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-38196672800300091972011-12-18T10:25:00.000-06:002011-12-20T10:29:30.841-06:00

Helen made a very important decision today. In future, oh my self, please remember the superiority of prayer to persuasion.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-36156885817405408062011-12-17T12:40:00.004-06:002011-12-20T09:10:26.973-06:00

...then you can find here an exceptionally entertaining story about the travails of a long-suffering Chinese wife whose husband wants to take her to his fancy company Christmas party. Alas, said husband's airheadedness makes it all rather needlessly difficult.In all seriousness, I keep hearing what a wonderful writer Helen is from native Mandarin speakers who read her blog; so if you can read

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-2447144008220198402011-12-16T08:10:00.003-06:002011-12-16T08:21:08.960-06:00

(To the tune of Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight", from lyrics rewritten by yours truly.)The belle of the ballroomNo other girl half so fairShe’s dressed all in starlightI can’t help but stand and stareAnd then she asks me, “Do you feel all right?”And I say, “Yes, I feel wonderful tonight.”Actually, the office Christmas party is a good excuse to repost my version of "Wonderful Tonight" in its

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-63650921033390926682011-12-14T15:46:00.002-06:002011-12-14T15:50:12.258-06:00

One of the very few drawbacks to having a Chinese wife, is that she does not like to see her country lose face, and therefore I am afraid I have had to institute a strict policy that now makes it impossible for me to link to stories like this one. (Dave Barry, fortunately, has no such strict policy. I mean, he certainly has a notoriously strict policy, just not this one.)

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-58463903198424167912011-12-13T15:52:00.004-06:002011-12-16T09:33:29.600-06:00

If you're going to be in Houston on the night of the 23rd (or the 24th, but you probably have Christmas Eve plans already), you really should go check out Houston Chinese Church's Christmas pageant, which is a very unusual example of the genre -- it's a half-Mandarin, half-English, fully-subtitled, live-action-plus-filmed-drama multimedia event not quite like anything else I've ever seen (you can

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-26658025358864247522011-12-13T15:48:00.001-06:002011-12-13T15:49:29.260-06:00

Jonah Goldberg may have found the winner.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-38577904047544329042011-12-13T15:22:00.003-06:002011-12-13T15:48:02.150-06:00

What's my favorite part of Mike's letter to Lauren? Oh, I don't know, there's so much to choose from. Could it be the deliciously phrased, "Things that happened during our date include, but are not limited to, the following:"? Or the equally elegant, "On a per-minute basis, I've never had as much eye contact during a date as I did with you"? Is it the bit where he complains that she led him on by

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-91373933628280036572011-12-13T15:13:00.002-06:002011-12-13T15:17:26.255-06:00

Well, that's one way to try to get out of a marriage.HT: Surely you have guessed.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-32785410072331269382011-12-13T15:00:00.002-06:002011-12-13T15:06:39.268-06:00

A co-worker mentioned this to me a couple of days ago, and then Dave reminded me...Norway is out of butter, thanks to some diet craze or other. But without butter, how will all those Nordic women stay shapely and blonde? Perhaps we should send them care packages...such as, say, this:

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-44597500967064668182011-12-13T14:40:00.003-06:002011-12-13T14:57:50.076-06:00

Apparently San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini couldn't get God to agree to hang a star in the sky above el Museo de Vida Silvestre in his home town in Puerto Rico. So he decided it was up to him to attract the multitudes...which he did using the greatest...um, the most creative...well, anyway, here's the Santini family Christmas card this year:I don't know about you, but mis sueños de Navided have

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-79458545780249307152011-12-13T14:35:00.002-06:002011-12-13T14:39:02.208-06:00

As Dave puts it, "Always read the t-shirt." This refers to the key sentence in this story about skinhead Daren Abbey's attempt to intimidate a black stranger:Abbey apparently was unaware of the writing on the back of the black man's T-shirt: "Spokane Boxing Club Champion."

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-55223516884937975292011-12-13T14:26:00.002-06:002011-12-13T14:29:25.428-06:00

Somebody call the police! There's a guy trapped on my neighbor's roof!HT: Dave Barry, whom I haven't read in far too long (meaning you're probably about to get a bunch of links showing up on this blog in the next few minutes)

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-58132998551624884072011-12-13T10:36:00.007-06:002011-12-13T11:30:16.272-06:00

I was asked to fill in for one of the pastors at Church this past Sunday in his Sunday School class, as he was scheduled to be out of town. The topic was the reliability of Scripture, which I knew a whole lot about...twenty-five years ago, that is. But I went ahead and filled in, and because I have a mother I taped it, and except for (to adapt a Facebook meme) "the awkward moment when you check

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-65622010444814948342011-12-07T11:47:00.004-06:002011-12-07T11:57:34.961-06:00

In re atheism, I just ran across an old note that I intended to expand upon and never did...It’s a commonplace that you can’t understand what something means if you take it out of context.You can’t understand what accurately what somebody is telling you, if you take it out of context.You can’t pass judgment on the morality of somebody’s actions, if you take them out of context.You can’t pass

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-58980859336268234192011-12-07T11:37:00.005-06:002011-12-07T11:59:34.595-06:00

So it comes to this: our three choices for Leader of the Free World next year will be:1. Barack Obama.2. Mitt Romney, who appears to have only two real convictions: (1) He wants to be President about ten times worse than Romeo wanted to shtup Juliet, and (2) Romneycare was a brilliant idea, genius I say! On any other subject, so far as I can tell, he will say what the polls tell him he has to say

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-65418735789872316262011-12-06T14:29:00.002-06:002011-12-06T14:30:51.763-06:00

Tired of those incriminating photos of you at a party showing up on frenemies' Facebook pages? You're just not using the right beerholder.HT: Insty.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-86206300916560745862011-12-03T09:37:00.002-06:002011-12-03T09:55:30.859-06:00

James Taranto put out a fascinating theory yesterday about the "diversity" industry on campuses -- namely, that the "diversity" game is driven by the marketplace. Here's his idea summed up in bullet points; but in case I've misrepresented it, you should go read the original.A smart employee is, ceteris paribus, a better employee.Standard tests for intelligence score Asians on average higher than

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-31048005126155857552011-12-03T09:31:00.005-06:002011-12-03T10:01:18.791-06:00

There are, after all, lots of ways to skin a cat, and Jessica Sporty (a.k.a. "Minerva McGonagall") has come up with a much better way to redress the income disparity between herself and the 1% than freezing her presumably shapely butt off in a toiletless park surrounded by the uptwinkling unwashed. (HT: Best of the Web.)

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-7679938206282447632011-11-26T13:16:00.005-06:002011-12-13T11:14:21.281-06:00

A very, very long time ago -- before I graduated from high school, in fact -- I grew disgusted with the prevailing idea in redneck culture that "I was drunk" was some sort of excuse for bad behavior. Are you kidding me? This always seemed to me absolutely insane, as the very obvious rejoinder was, "A person who can't hold his liquor has no business drinking." One of my very deep-level criticisms

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-17246596409077305262011-11-26T13:09:00.003-06:002011-11-26T13:14:07.032-06:00

I was trying earlier, I think rather unsuccessfully, to explain to Helen the insanity that is American Black Friday. I think I just found the perfect illustration: Man Dies On Black Friday; Shoppers Unfazed.HT: Ace's sidebar (not a permalink).

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-32051879057539919562011-11-21T16:03:00.006-06:002011-11-26T13:13:18.441-06:00

Two commandments so utterly despised by liberals such as Lee Siegel that their existence never even crosses Siegel's intellectually and ethically impoverished mind:When the head of a household of four, who is earning $60,000 a year, cannot be convinced that people making several million dollars a year should pay more money in taxes so that he can afford health care for himself and his family,

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-86413190985535237212011-10-31T14:52:00.002-05:002011-10-31T14:55:11.963-05:00

Thanks to...someone policy forbids me to mention.Two guys walk into a bar. The first guy says, "I'll have some H20." The second guy says, "I'll have some H20, too."The second guy died.[H2O2 is hydrogen peroxide.]---------Then there's this oldie but goodie:Little Johnny was a chemistLittle Johnny is no moreFor what he thought was HO2Was H2SO4.[H2SO4 is sulfuric acid.]

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-44537050793426446532011-10-26T10:40:00.003-05:002011-10-26T10:43:18.201-05:00

Buy today and you can get this Gas Trading Manual for $1,055.35 off the list price! (I'm not making this up.)As the price will probably change, here's a screenshot:

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-36529938638271582042011-10-05T22:03:00.001-05:002011-10-05T22:04:58.241-05:00

Now this is a piece of seriously cool interior design.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-53396266256103397702011-10-05T21:50:00.001-05:002011-10-05T21:54:37.810-05:00

HT: VeryDemotivational.com.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-40126171393829340962011-09-30T11:39:00.001-05:002011-09-30T11:40:40.863-05:00

New Scandal at DOJ as Illegal Guitars End Up in Hands of Mexican Drug Lords.The indispensable Iowahawk reports.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-40533418176280637142011-09-26T07:04:00.001-05:002011-09-26T07:08:09.475-05:00

That's a pretty entertaining job of channelling, that is.My favorite line is addressed to Rick Perry: “If you’re a Tea Partyer, I’m a ballet dancer.”By the way, I keep forgetting to make a Note to Self: you know the airheaded nutcase that Sarah-haters so desperately want to convince themselves Gov. Palin is? Well, she turns out not to be a myth after all, only her name is Michelle Bachmann.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-60945658761727230392011-09-26T06:17:00.002-05:002011-09-26T06:52:23.951-05:00

As opposed, that is, to some cult-member babbling about how "the science is settled" on the basis of computer models that consistently fail to produce accurate predictions.Michio Kaku (HT: Insty) on the news that an experiment at CERN might -- emphasis on might -- have disproved Einstein's declaration that nothing can move faster than the speed of light:Reputations may rise and fall. But in the

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-55304213099046414172011-09-21T14:36:00.005-05:002011-09-21T15:04:13.524-05:00

This is a magnificent example of good communicating skills. There has been lots of discussion about why the United States had its credit downgraded, and whether it should have, and whose fault it is. And you all, Gentle Readers, have heard the numbers being tossed around about the debt, the deficit, budget cuts, etc. -- and it probably hasn't made much impact because all the discussion is in

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-12788771512731460032011-09-17T21:42:00.001-05:002011-09-21T15:41:52.086-05:00

I'm seeing a Landry interception coming here...UPDATE, a couple of days later: Well, it wasn't an interception from the endzone, just an incompletion, which (given my low expectations) earned a huge sigh of relief from yours truly. And of course in the end OU survived Florida, and there was a lot of stuff on the web about how Landry Jones had come up big in the fourth quarter. I give him full

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-5498848486200938882011-09-16T18:09:00.002-05:002011-09-16T18:20:30.497-05:00

Now this was an English professor whose classes might actually have been worth attending. Or, well, considering that MSNBC adds a critical piece of information omitted by the Irish Times, maybe not: "[Dr. Barbarian's] stated classroom policy is to crucify students who cheat or show weakness."The full text from the picture:Long Room Hub Associate Professor in Hyborian Studies and Tyrant Slaying.Dr

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-15757228456901668422011-09-15T23:45:00.001-05:002011-09-15T23:47:25.441-05:00

This is brilliant!HT: Failblog.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-25882321448563491552011-09-15T22:35:00.002-05:002011-09-15T22:54:41.316-05:00

...it's hard to beat Bernie Marcus's ad-lib line from an MSNBC interview last year, when he was explaining why Team Obama's optimism about the economy was catastrophically misguided: "Geithner does to small business people what Debbie did to Dallas."A year later, back on MSNBC and reminiscing about the aftermath of that ad-lib, he muses ruefully, "I got a lot of heat for that. My wife said, 'When

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-45018309728059760462011-09-14T18:14:00.003-05:002011-09-14T18:16:51.806-05:00

...one can only conclude that Obama is an ass, which is my private opinion, and which I now take the liberty of making public.(The only point of this post is so that I can go nominate myself on President Healing and Civility's "AttackWatch.com" website.)

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-64960433392788120692011-09-10T13:58:00.002-05:002011-09-10T14:16:46.018-05:00

Instapundit addresses the President..."Message to the Obama Administration: Atlas Shrugged was meant as a cautionary tale, not a freaking how-to manual."

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-57885216149690422352011-09-10T13:30:00.004-05:002011-09-10T13:40:16.642-05:00

It's a bad thing when cops are both incompetent and armed -- the wrong people die. "What is notable is that, as nytimes.com reports, eight officers firing 73 bullets at one shooter managed to hit him only twice." (HT: Insty.)I'm irresistibly reminded of Ron White's rant about the incompetence of Los Angeles police officers (the following is profanity-edited for family blogging purposes):...

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-87175341115130537982011-09-10T12:55:00.008-05:002011-09-10T13:16:42.991-05:00

Apparently he was a poor black child.Seriously, Hugh Laurie has released an album of New Orleans blues on which he is the lead vocalist, pianist, and musical visionary -- and Let Them Talk turns out to be a blast. Now, Laurie has no business singing opera or adult contemporary, because his voice has a very definite rasp to it that all the vocal training in the world is unlikely to smooth out. But

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-18308108726868840432011-09-10T10:24:00.005-05:002011-09-10T12:06:40.579-05:00

Because you have to put up with conversations such as these two:----[Helen is trying to convince me to learn mah jongg, which my friend Duane is also trying to talk me into playing with him]HELEN: And it's a good way to learn lots of Chinese zi [Chinese characters].ME: Well, I have a head start, because I already know what má jiàng means.HELEN: [surprised] Really? What?ME: It means, "Take the

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-50768364679527033182011-09-08T16:11:00.003-05:002011-09-10T12:06:14.586-05:00

Because Lileks can come up with lines like this: "[Obama's] oratorical panache now consists of looking from one teleprompter screen to the other with the enthusiasm of a man watching someone else's kids play tennins." (HT: Michael Greenspan.)Observe how much more pithily and forcefully Lileks expresses a point I made back in 2009 in this long-winded manner, and you'll see why people will pay to

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-80118578627388391252011-09-07T13:04:00.001-05:002011-09-07T13:06:13.293-05:00

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-57575157867230080952011-09-04T15:19:00.007-05:002011-09-04T17:38:35.614-05:00

The irrepressible Dr. Tony Copperfield, in his hilarious book Sick Notes, has a chapter complaining of how counterproductive "[fill in disease here] Awareness Weeks" are, and of how addicted (naturally) Britain's National Health Service is to filling the entire calendar with one "[Disease de la Semaine] Awareness Week" after another. And in the middle of his rant he passes on this tidbit: "Not

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-84278447566715236082011-09-04T15:14:00.003-05:002011-09-04T15:18:48.502-05:00

It's 3:00 in the afternoon, and I'm about to do some work at Panera Bread while Helen's off on her church retreat and the kids are in youth group. As is my wont, I order a mug of coffee, and then stride over to the counter where four large coffee containers stand proudly, each with a sign showing what time they were last refreshed. I note that the urn for the decaffeinated coffee still shows "9:

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-30245841807378904802011-09-02T19:01:00.004-05:002011-09-02T19:04:38.024-05:00

I'd like to have Phil Ray Gage for a neighbor. I'd certainly not like to have whoever the rectal-cranially inverted jerk who called the cops is, for a neighbor. And as for the cop who actually wrote him a citation...if she has a husband, I pity the fool.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-43210037007526325402011-09-01T16:17:00.002-05:002011-09-01T16:20:27.523-05:00

From Theodore Dalrymple, reviewing Virginia Woolfe's Three Guineas:The Cambridge guide to English Literature describes Three Guineas as an established classic -- but a classic of what genre exactly? Of political philosophy? Contemporary history? Sociological analysis? No: it is a locus classicus of self-pity and victimhood as a genre in itself. In this, it was certainly ahead of its time, and it

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-54659484575823704842011-08-31T07:48:00.004-05:002011-08-31T07:58:11.313-05:00

Thomas Hobbes, in Leviathan, describing the misery of life in a state of primal anarchy: "In such condition...the life of man [is] solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short." Theodore Dalrymple, in an essay on how widespread malnutrition is among the welfare poor of Britain in the aftermath of the disintegration of the nuclear family, family dinners and therefore the very art of cooking itself

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-54688618726637452662011-08-26T09:20:00.003-05:002011-08-26T09:21:45.278-05:00

...but scientist just found a very large diamond. HT: Ace's sidebar. (If you come back in a month you won't see the link because it will have been pushed off the sidebar by more recent fun stuff.)

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-63755275445344049072011-08-20T18:54:00.002-05:002011-08-20T18:58:33.654-05:00

And as a bonus, here's Extreme Motorhome Racing:

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-84136410568615506952011-08-20T18:51:00.003-05:002011-08-20T18:53:15.429-05:00

HT: Vodkapundit.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-37937763284249881582011-08-20T18:37:00.005-05:002011-08-20T18:59:01.367-05:00

Here are some of the latest stamps to be released by the competent folks at your U.S. Postal Service (customers' motto: "If it isn't the snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night holding up the mail, what is it?"): The observant -- such as, for example, Tuesday Morning Quarterback -- will note that the stamp on the left is a picture of the Statue of Liberty...that stands in front of the New York

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-31506010165588891192011-08-18T13:50:00.002-05:002011-08-18T13:56:24.661-05:00

David French provided a quote and a link that led me to the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. I like the lines French originally quoted enough to have seriously considered bumping Tristam Shandy from the top of this blog: I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I woke and saw that life was duty. I acted, and behold, duty was joy.Which pretty much directly echoes conversations I've been having

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-53915426445783910242011-08-18T12:12:00.004-05:002011-08-18T12:25:54.121-05:00

State Rep. Michael Sturla (D) of Pennsylvania is concerned that natural gas drillers in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale field aren't really doing much for the locals:Also, aside from building roads so their trucks can get to drill sites and doing a little stream work to mitigate damage from their road building, exactly what are all those things the drillers are doing for the local communities?

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-37670574805796423752011-08-17T16:46:00.003-05:002011-08-17T16:56:16.903-05:00

I have long considered it self-evidently evil for governments to "borrow" money that could only be repaid, in the future, by people too young to have had any say whatsoever in the decision to borrow. "Don't talk to me about taxation without representation," I'd say, "if you support Social Security promises that can only be kept by confiscating money thirty years from now for people who can't vote

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-84229522276645691722011-08-17T16:00:00.003-05:002011-08-17T16:08:15.755-05:00

The Top Gear boys get pretty serious about it: Part I (from the fact that there is a Part II and a Part III, you'll guess that at first they didn't succeed. But these are persistent fellows, so: Part II: Time to go for a gravity ride. Part III: Farewell to a legend.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-78865080445300525932011-08-17T14:45:00.004-05:002011-08-17T16:23:00.948-05:00

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Look, I make no apologies for being reasonable... THE PERIL: Look, I make no apologies for my movie-star good looks and six-pack abs... I'd like to be able to join in on making fun of Rick Perry, but so far it seems to be mostly his accent that's getting made fun of, and I'm not well-positioned for making fun of that. On the other hand, while Michele Bachmann hasn't quite

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-37835964937695750242011-08-17T14:35:00.003-05:002011-08-17T14:39:11.919-05:00

Saw this on a t-shirt today (and, despite the blogpost title, I freely admit this shirt smacks even more of Louisiana than it does of Texas): ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND FIREARMS should be a convenience store, not a government agency

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-13359007172898272402011-08-17T14:20:00.002-05:002011-08-17T14:24:16.758-05:00

...I'm considering this for my new wallpaper.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-75550687036758540652011-08-14T14:24:00.003-05:002011-08-14T14:26:54.582-05:00

From (not at all family-safe) VeryDemotivational.com.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-63524875924687062282011-08-04T19:47:00.002-05:002011-08-04T19:57:54.757-05:00

As is this explanation of Barack Obama's reelection dilemma:"The only way for Obama to stimulate the enormous private sector job growth needed to ensure Obama’s reelection is for Obama to announce he is not running for reelection, which would unleash a wave of investment and economic activity not seen since the Great Depression."More specifically, not since private investment exploded in the U.S.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-43685232203004525172011-08-04T10:31:00.003-05:002011-08-04T10:36:57.293-05:00

A while back the lesbian bloggers A Gay Girl in Damascus and the even-more-ironically-titled Lez Get Real both turned out to actually be straight men. James Taranto seized the opportunity by writing a short bit about how much this annoys genuinely lesbian bloggers, ending the bit with the golden sentence:"And that is why it is so very important to encourage more women to get into traditionally

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-73279347409879177362011-07-31T11:08:00.002-05:002011-07-31T11:14:28.961-05:00

It could have been way worse, Ferris:Also, here, as promised, is the trailer for the horror flick Mary Poppins (sorry, I can't remember where I saw this and can't do a proper hat tip):

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-76240413130026825762011-07-31T09:16:00.016-05:002011-08-08T16:20:12.483-05:00

Well, I haven’t done a travelogue in a long time; but I found myself in Singapore for an extra weekend, having worked without taking a day off for the previous eleven days. So on the Friday I decided to rent a car and drive through Malaysia. But it turns out that you have to plan your car rentals in Singapore further than the day ahead, because Hertz and Avis and Hawk and all the other on-line

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-18193924908999180422011-07-30T00:31:00.002-05:002011-07-30T00:36:28.743-05:00

Very fun road coming up here. Now it's off to take a taxi to Mount Brinchang, 6500 feet or so of hairpin two-lane road above sea level.Just as soon as I finish my Starbucks mocha, that is. (Yes, of COURSE there's a Starbucks.)

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-77907194263234923632011-07-28T21:01:00.001-05:002011-07-28T21:05:48.792-05:00

...as you can see from these pictures taken on our day out at the family ranch in Oklahoma.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-4233763332258829382011-07-26T09:33:00.005-05:002011-07-26T10:28:52.235-05:00

Enjoy!By the way, Jeremy is responsible for one of the all-time great television lines, when in discussing the virtues of the Porsche 911, he listed as one of its advantages the fact that (unlike other supercars) it has a back seat and therefore can claim to be a family vehicle. Now, the leg room in the back seat of the Porsche 911 is -- and I am being generous here -- approximately three

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-36772259159601722182011-07-25T19:51:00.006-05:002011-07-25T20:00:40.628-05:00

Thanks to Alden Cruz for this awesome videoclip, which, I feel compelled to warn my Liberal General Readers, includes a preacher with a deep Southern accent and Baptist intonations, and NASCAR. But at least no deer get shot in the clip; so you might be able to make it all the way to the end...I note that there were people in the YouTube comments who considered it blasphemous. Nonsense. If you

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-12165805485083077572011-07-24T19:33:00.001-05:002011-07-24T19:33:47.322-05:00

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-26502859578396059172011-07-24T19:04:00.002-05:002011-07-24T19:06:56.213-05:00

You know how triskaidekaphobia renders it fiscally unwise for hotels in the United States to even have a thirteenth floor?Well, apparently folks in mostly-Chinese Singapore have never heard of that particular superstition, as my room number here at the St. Regis is 1313.'Course, there's probably no hotel room in town numbered 4444...

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-4718233068179962672011-07-24T03:30:00.018-05:002011-07-24T20:12:16.767-05:00

Of course I now want to make sure I drive on every one of these roads before I die. The pictures, and descriptions... [sighs despondently at the thought of more years spent in Houston].When I saw the title, "World's Scariest Roads: Most Wonderful Mountain Passes," I thought two things: (1) "This is going to be awesome," and (2) "I'm going to say they don't know what they're talking about if they

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-65348861456824341702011-07-23T19:51:00.006-05:002011-07-23T20:10:18.071-05:00

NOTICESEXUAL HARASSMENTIN THIS AREAWILL NOT BE REPORTEDBUT IT WILL BE GRADED

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-43505794129763841402011-07-23T19:42:00.005-05:002011-07-23T19:50:33.153-05:00

This hotel totally rocks. You know who I ran into in the lobby today? Beyonce! No lie, dude! And she was, like, all upset, and she had all the concierge staff and everybody scrambling around looking for something. So I ask her, like, can I help, right? And she goes, "I've lost my phone. It's a pink one with a Bubblicious cover on it. You haven't seen it, have you?" I'm like, "No, sorry. Have you

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-85392232785732845622011-07-22T22:53:00.001-05:002011-07-22T22:54:24.852-05:00

My favorite is this one:But you should go check all of them out.

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11269995.post-67239232457165937542011-07-21T17:31:00.002-05:002011-07-21T17:32:31.686-05:00

...I should get my answers way faster than this guy:

Ken Piercehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12831972319944212102noreply@blogger.com0