Axinar's

What If I Never Find Another Job?

2009-01-27T13:26:00.003-05:00

One distinct disadvantage of having an overactive imagination is a tendency to dwell on "worst case scenarios".

Now, don't get me wrong - there are some REALLY ugly worst case scenarios out there - for instance the Yellowstone caldera blowing it's stack and pretty much completely destroying the human race as we know it.

But, no, with SO many people getting laid off the last few months I am beginning to wonder just exactly what "end-stage economic disease" might look like for someone who exhausts all his resources.

People keep telling me that there are safety nets in place out there and no one need be homeless who doesn't want to be, but sometimes I find myself wondering.

There is unemployment insurance to be sure - if I understand it the better part of a year of at least some money coming in to attempt to pay rent and keep some modest food on the table, but once that, savings, and the generousity of friends and neighbors is exhausted, what then?

I've heard that the next stop is a place in Over-The-Rhine called The Drop Inn. I find myself wondering what one's first trip down there might be like. Does the last friend or relative to throw you out take you down there? Do you have to hike miles there yourself? Are there other facilities like it in the area?

And then - what do they do with you there? I understand all the shelters are pretty much intended to be temporary. With absolutely nothing but the clothes on your back how do you climb back towards independence? I've heard a great many stories that it can be done, but sometimes I find myself wondering intensely about the details.

Perhaps it's all ultimately just a bad dream. Perhaps in most cases long before one loses one's last shelter the economy will turn around and some sort of employment and continuation as an independent member of society can be arranged.

One can only hope ...

Lifestyle Downsizing

2009-01-01T15:26:00.003-05:00

There's a fascinating article running on CNN talking about the various folks who have taken huge pay decreases in the recent economic downturn.

Being a long-time computer hobbyist I tend to look at things in terms of breaking them down to discrete components and asking myself, "How does this work?"

Of course if one has had a certain salary, particularly for a couple of years, I would tend to think that many aspects of their lifestyle would be based upon that salary. For instance, if you're making $200,000/yr you could handle - what? - a $300,000 house and maybe a $400/mo. car payment?

Now suppose you lose this $200,000 job and can only get one that pays $50,000. How in the WORLD do you "unwind" the "positions" you had in housing and transportation that was more appropriate for the $200,000/yr salary.

Well, this article isn't painting a very rosy picture on that topic. They are talking about people getting their houses foreclosed on and vehicles repossessed - and these are people with children.

However, this article makes mention that this one particular family was able to find rental property.

I suppose that is a good sign because I've always been under the impression that landlords really didn't want to work with you if you had a recent foreclosure or eviction.

Of course I guess times have changed.

But, I suppose the theme that is coming through this article and other similar ones is that life goes on - not in the way you were used to at higher salary levels, but life does indeed go on.

Of course I suppose it begs the next question though - suppose you were starting out at $35,000/yr. or some such and can only find a job that pays $10/hr or so? Where do you end up THEN?

12 Indian Days Of Christmas

2008-12-21T11:05:00.001-05:00

As it is that time of year again ...

Who Moved My Channels?

2008-12-19T21:16:00.002-05:00

John Matarese got me all psyched up at the bottom of an article talking about recent changed to the Time Warner lineup.

Yes ... a couple of days ago I noticed static on Channel 55 on the one TV that I have hooked up to analog service. Apparently this is due to CNN Headline News being moved to Channel 10 so that "basic" cable subscribers can now pick it up.

However, what got me all excited is that WCPO's actual over-the-air HD signal is supposed to be on cable now on "Channel 9.1".

Uh ... well "9.1" is just the "marketing name" on HD. WCPO actually transmits on the old VHF channel 10, making it very difficult to pick up at Camp Axinar over rabbit ears.

Cable usually does carry channels on the same frequency as their over-the-air versions due to the possibility of interference and, guess what, they just moved CNN Headline to the Channel 10 frequency.

I cross-connected my analog cable lines into my converter box and - guess what? - nothing.

Nada, zip, zero.

Although I suppose as some point cable will start carrying over-the-air HDTV channels as more and more people get HD tuners, but there sure doesn't seem to be anything there now.

Bummer - I was looking forward to seeing some HD channels on cable without the need for a converter box at some point ...

Obama: Black? White? Both? Neither?

2008-12-14T12:26:00.004-05:00

Well, believe it or not, the Dean of Cincinnati's issue about whether or not it is appropriate to call Obama "Black" or "African-American" has made the mainstream media. An AP story made it to the Axinar news desk via AOL of all places asking Is Obama Black, White, Both, or Neither?

Now probably the most pertinent fact on the subject is Obama's own opinion of his identity - he has been quoted as saying, "I identify as African-American — that's how I'm treated and that's how I'm viewed. I'm proud of it."

That should probably be the end of the story.

However, the AP story goes on to say, "The entire issue balances precariously on the 'one-drop' rule ..." referring to a time when a person with any African ancestry at all could never be a full citizen.

The "one-drop" rule has nothing to do, IMHO, with the ethnic identity of Barack Obama or the Haap boys.

Now the Dean himself chimes in with "Of course it's not offensive to be called 'black' But is it accurate?". But of course it's quite impossible to discuss whether or not someone is "accurately" designated as Black because the designation itself, at least in early 21st century Cincinnati, is utterly subjective.

Of course we have Dr. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates of Harvard who discovered that one actually can discover a quite accurate analysis of one's ancestry through something as simple as a cheek swab. Among a considerable A-list of African-American celebrities, Gates himself is probably the most surprising - both sex-linked genetic markers are European, and his nuclear DNA is 50% African, 50% European. And yet, quite clearly by upbringing and cultural association Skip Gates is a "garden variety Black dude".

As he tested celebrity after celebrity, each that would be culturally associated as a "garden variety Black person", a similar story was told. For instance Oprah Winfrey had considerable Native American ancestry, Mae Jemison had considerable far east Asian ancestry, but most had something on the order of 25 - 35% European ancestry.

In particular there was a conversation that Gates had with Maya Angelou when he revealed to her the percentage of European blood coursing through her veins and he asked her if she found this disturbing in any way. She said, "Why? It's who I am. Why should I have a problem with it?"

And from the Malaysian contingent, the one place we might have some hope of objectivity we have "Why call him Black when he isn't fully Black, but half-White and half-Black?".

Again, we have a problem from the "Gates Gang" - every single one of these individuals who clearly have a Black identity and area often considered leaders of the African-American community have CONSIDERABLE European ancestry and often considerable Asian ancestry.

In fact, IMHO, having heard some of the discussions of the interactions between the American African-American community and recent African immigrants, I'd almost have to say in order to comfortably BE "African-American" you almost have to have some considerable non-African ancestry.

This whole thing should NOT be that big of an issue. Of course the Dean if perfectly welcome to raise his children any way he wants, but that we have a Black man moving into the White House January 20th just doesn't seem to me to be that much subject to debate.

Catch The Frak Up - What's Happened On Battlestar Galactica Up Until Now

2008-12-10T19:24:00.000-05:00

The Dean Of Cincinnati Makes Mainstream Media With "Multiracial" Rant

2008-12-09T18:57:00.007-05:00

The Dean of Cincinnati, as mere mortal "Jason Haap", had an op-ed piece run in The Cincinnati Enquirer about Obama and his own children being "multiracial" rather than "Black" or "African-American".

First of all, his writing cleans up pretty well for something serious I've noticed, and I certainly understand where he's coming from.

On Friday night at Mensa I saw the fascinating one-woman performance of Non-Vertical Girl by Renee Alper. It starts out with a review of all the terms used over the last couple of centuries to refer to someone with limited use of their limbs. These terms have tended to change over time because each and every one of them eventually came to have a distinctly negative connotation - crippled, invalid, and even "handicapped" and "disabled".

Of course the terms used to refer to the descendants of African slaves (and those who physically and culturally identify with them) have a remarkably similar history.

Two that now tend to cause offense are "Negro" and "colored" - despite the fact that the one is merely the Latin name for the color black, and another version of the other can be a term of considerable pride - "of color".

The two terms that tend not to be offensive currently are "Black" and "African-American" - despite the fact that my grandmother (God rest her soul) used to tell me that in the early 20th century "Black" was sufficiently offensive to start a fist fight.

Now why in the world would someone go to such effort to make sure such terms would not be applied to one's children and one's President?

The only explanation I can figure out is that to The Dean, the terms "Black" and "African-American" must somehow be offensive.

As I've tried to explain to my poor, misguided friend over and over again, the topic is HIDEOUSLY complicated. How complicated I had no idea until I showed a photograph of my wife to a friend of mine from Puerto Rico and my Puerto Rican friend said, "Oh, no ... she's not Black ... she's Cuban."

Then of course when I found out my wife's family on her father's side actually WAS from Cuba I almost fell over.

But it brings up an interesting illustration. Same person - in Cincinnati, she's Black; in Puerto Rico, she's Cuban; and I have a strong suspicion in Cuba - she's White. Go figure that one out.

Same with Obama. In Chicago, he's "Black". In Kenya, I have a strong suspicion he's "Arab".

In any event, I think the whole thing boils down to the "charming negress" line from Star Trek when Uhura says, "But why should I object to that term, sir? In our century, we've learned not to fear words. We've each learned to be delighted with what we are."

But I think what we could really used here is The Dean doing the cheek swab bit on his older boy and sending it off to FamilyTreeDNA for mitochondrial and Y-chromosome analysis and AncestryByDNA for nuclear DNA analysis. It's my guess The Dean would get the shock of his life off that set of data.

I Think We Need To Convert The Dean Of Cincinnati

2008-11-30T17:40:00.004-05:00

The Dean of Cincinnati of course is a man of many quests - handicapped accessibility for Fountain Square Garage patrons; open, accountable government; and a number of other goals of IMPORT.

However, his latest endeavor is beginning to crack me up. Apparently he's lit about the fact that the media refers to Obama as "Black" or "African-American". He's even writing letters to noted linguist Noam Chomsky on the subject for the love of God.

You see, according to the Dean, because Obama had a mother that most people would have considered "White", Obama would only properly be referred to as "multi-racial".

Now, despite my lecturing him a number of times about the extensive work of Henry Louis "Skip" Gates of Harvard University (European-linked Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA PLUS 50% European-linked nuclear DNA but clearly part of the "African-American" community), the Dean still insists that, for starters, his own children shouldn't be considered "Black" and I am somehow being a bad parent by calling my children "Black" despite the fact I don't even have any - well - yet anyway.

I got to thinking about this a little bit and I think maybe the Jews discovered a solution to this problem thousands of years ago.

Historically it has been called "conversion". Yes - traditionally, and currently in the Orthodox community, if you decide you want to be Jewish you accost a rabbi three times, study with that rabbi for at least a year, and then undergo rituals involving dunking naked in spring water before three witnesses and - voila! - with no genetic tests or other chaos you're every bit as Jewish as Moses.

I think it is high time there is a conversion ritual for turning Black.

And of course I think the first person who needs to undergo this ritual is The Dean of Cincinnati.

I believe he should present himself to General Nikki X, Denmark Vesey, and Barack Obama, and, if they deem him worthy, declare him Black retroactively to conception. Therefore his children would have two Black parents and the issue would hopefully be put to rest so he can go back to ranting and raving about something else of IMPORT every now and again ...

Parminder Nagra PREGNANT!

2008-11-29T18:51:00.012-05:00

Also several days late is a report from The National Enquirer that Parminder Nagra is PREGNANT.

Apparently Parminder Nagra's boyfriend and baby daddy is a photographer named James Stenson.

The National Enquirer article describes Parminder's family as "Orthodox Sikh" and I'm counting on the Malaysian Indian contingent to leave comments on this entry to explain precisely how upset her family might be by this turn of events.

Of course by American standards this is hardly even news.

The story goes on to report that the pregnancy will not be passed on to Parminder Nagra's ER character, Dr. Neela Rasgotra. Apparently the DP is going to be using techniques first mastered during The Cosby Show when Phylicia Rashad's pregnancy was hidden from the camera so as to - I presume - prevent the Huxtable family from taking on a formation significantly different from the real-life family of Bill Cosby.

Not mentioned in this article is when Parminder Nagra's baby is due nor any mention if The Dean of Cincinnati will be petitioning the media about not referring to the baby as Punjabi, British, or anything else of ethnic IMPORT ...

UPDATE: A Daily Mail article reports Parminder Nagra is four months pregnant, and plans to marry baby daddy James Stenson before the baby is born.

That would make the baby due - what? - tail end of April? Guess poor Minder is going to miss some of the ER series-end festivities.

Related:
James Stenson Photography
ER Star Parminder Nagra Pregnant With First Child - US Magazine

Now There Really Is A WKRP In Cincinnati

2008-11-29T17:14:00.004-05:00

Well, it looks like our local low-power TV station has changed to a digital transmitter and to mark the occasion they apparently have applied to change their callsign to WKRP.

Back in the '70's there was a sitcom on CBS about a fictional radio station called WKRP In Cincinnati, which was one of my favorite TV series from that era.

For the Malaysian contingent, I don't know if they have this blocked outside the US, but it looks like they have a live streaming feed if you'd care to see the kind of stuff filling the airwaves in this neck of the woods.

Actually I had been a little concerned about getting my digital converter boxes so early that they didn't have analog pass-thru, but now it looks like our low-power station has gone digital before the deadline so the boxes I did get should work out just fine - I hope ...

Okay ... I just took a look with my converter box. They are running 4 separate channels - all with BAD audio problems. The legal call sign looks to be "WOTH" for now. It definitely looks to have potential after they iron out the audio problems though.

The Incredible Hulk - "Homecoming"

2008-11-29T16:41:00.003-05:00

A few days late but this time of year always puts me in mind of this one ...

Crying shame the Malaysian crowd can't watch it ...

New Version Of Star Trek Trailer (With Leonard Nimoy)

2008-11-25T19:27:00.001-05:00

Sarah Palin Interview With Turkeys Being Slaughtered In Background

2008-11-22T10:40:00.003-05:00

Some people just don't pay alot of attention I guess ...

Star Trek Trailer - Clean Transfer

2008-11-22T09:42:00.000-05:00

Star Trek Trailer - Bootleg

2008-11-15T09:47:00.002-05:00

Here's a smuggled copy of the Star Trek trailer playing with the Bond flick ...

Yes, I'm thinking that "re-imagined" label is beginning to apply ...

I Think Julia Sweeney's About To Have An Accident

2008-11-09T13:39:00.004-05:00

Former Saturday Night Live performer Julia Sweeney has a blog that I have on my RSS feeds. She doesn't post very often but she has one that apparently she posted sometime this morning saying that she is breathing again over Obama getting elected.

Now, it's a foregone conclusion that I was an Obama supporter and have also been embarrassed to live in a country that TWICE elected George W. Bush to office, but some of these Obama-gasms still going on five days after the election are tripping me out.

Julia Sweeney was one of my favorite SNL performers though, so I'll cut her some slack that maybe she has been working on this piece for a few days and it captures some of the virtually indescribable elation that swept the nation - yes - let's say it this way - at 10pm Central Standard Time, 4 November, Year of the Common Era Two-Thousand-Eight.

Actually, on the subject, there was another scene that somehow came to mind that night, although I'm having difficulty translating it to this particular event - it was the scene in the original Battlestar Galactica episode "War of the Gods" when Count Iblis promised to deliver their enemy, Baltar and, as the promise was fulfilled Lorne Greene's Adama said, "This is an event unlike any we've experienced since the destruction of our civilization. Baltar's ship is reaching our quadrant and is being intercepted by an elite squadron which will escort the treasonous instrument of our holocaust directly into our hands. Word is spreading like sunbursts through every corner of the fleet. It is a jubilation unprecedented as Baltar is brought before the Council of Twelve. It is just as Count Iblis promised. Our enemy has been delivered."

Yes, if you can make the stretch, based on reports of many Bush executive orders about to be reversed, our enemy has been delivered ...

President-Elect Barack Obama on Election Night

2008-11-08T20:44:00.001-05:00

Well produced piece of Barack Obama's election night speech ...

Obama Birth Certificate Controversy STILL Not Going Away

2008-11-08T10:11:00.005-05:00

I just got word that there is a movement afoot to contact the Electors from each state to insist that a "forensic team" be put together to examine the "vault copy" of Barack Obama's birth certificate in Hawaii to verify it's authenticity.

Oh dear.

There's one thing you haven't considered, gang - even if you verify the authenticity of the "vault copy" of the birth certificate you have no way of proving that it is connected to the individual speaking from "The Office of the President-Elect" about being a "mutt" and whatnot.

Although I have been giving this topic some thought vis a vis the "Hillary" angle.

Now, Obama of course mentioned yesterday that he is not privy to some intelligence he hadn't been up until now, but, did he have access to Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret intelligence even as a Senator?

In another article I read something about the fact that the military is scrambling to get clearances run on members of the Transition team so that they can get up to speed as much as possible, but where in this process would Obama himself have been cleared?

Of course, again, we're talking about a process that requires only U.S. Citizenship and not natural born citizenship, but if Obama has a DOD clearance then that at least means that the "Indonesia angle" did not deprive Obama of his citizenship.

Also, there were stories floating around that Obama's relatives in Kenya wouldn't be granting interviews until after the election. Well, it's after the election - what do THEY have to say?

Related:
Andy Martin triggers new Electoral College opposition to Barack Obama - Andy Martin: Contrarian Commentary

"The Right To Be A Man ... To Be A Human Being ..."

2008-11-05T19:42:00.006-05:00

I went to an urban high school in the mid 1980's that was about 60% Black at the time.

I would never claim to be "down" to 100% understanding what it means to be Black in America, but there was one incident that always stuck with me.

There was a particularly articulate brother in my "Public Affairs" class my Senior year who got into a MONUMENTAL argument with the teacher one day.

This teacher was saying something along the lines, "I can certainly imagine circumstances where I might end up on welfare - possibly for the rest of my life, but I would spend ever single day telling my children, 'It's not supposed to be this way.'"

This brother in the class said something to the effect, "How in the WORLD do you expect me to have a positive attitude when I have to get up every morning, look in the mirror, and be faced with the fact that my ancestors were slaves?"

There were various points that went back and forth between this brother and the teacher. Eventually this brother got so upset he left the classroom.

Like I said - I would never claim to be "down", but one thing I did pick up was that due to four centuries or more of "bad blood", there were African-Americans who entertained the notion on a way too frequent basis that they might be somehow less than human or at least hopelessly a notch below "the white folks".

I once knew another brother who told me he'd never pledge allegiance to the United States because of the 3/5 clause. Again I see this theme that I presume goes something like this, "the document that created the United States made me 3/5 of a person".

Then of course there is the classic Malcolm X quote, "We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."

There was an evening I spent listening to a lecture by the Rev. Fred Price. It took him over three hours to explain that his own mentor had hopelessly offended him when he said he didn't believe in interracial dating. Fred Price said, "Mrs. Price and I have been married for over 50 years. I'm not looking for a date. But if you're saying you wouldn't want to see my son dating your daughter you're saying you're better than me and that I DO have a problem with."

I had African-American neighbors growing up and I remember the first time I visited them with my then Black girlfriend. I was quite surprised by the reaction. With some Whites, if a Black neighbor young man brought home a White girlfriend there would be an attempted murder before the end of the evening. My neighbors were delighted. I couldn't figure out why. Perhaps it was the opposite of what Fred Price was trying to say - if the neighbor, who looks very different from you, brings home a date who DOES look like you, maybe that somehow communicates that the neighbor thinks you're okay.

So what happened last night.

I have to admit I was somewhat overcome with emotion when 11pm hit and they called the West Coast, and the election, for Obama.

I found myself struggling to even form the thoughts of what had just happened. The foreign press keeps tossing around the simple, "First Black President", but it seems something much bigger happened.

In fact I was reminded of a conversation I once had with Buzz Aldrin when he explained to me that he gave himself communion just after he touched down on the moon because he felt something appropriate needed to be done to mark the occasion but he never figured out exactly what that would be so he borrowed something from his Presbyterian background.

What exactly DO you do to commemorate the fact that several tens of millions of White people just FINALLY granted the humanity back to the entire Black race?

And what exactly do you to do commemorate the fact that these snotty White shits FINALLY gave a tiny flash of inspiration that they ARE a race worth saving?

But, perhaps I'm getting overly emotional as I'm prone to do.

Probably the MOST appropriate analogy is what happened after President Franklin Roosevelt died in office of a massive stroke.

The story goes that Harry Truman comes up to Eleanor Roosevelt and says, "Is there anything we can do for you?" Eleanor Roosevelt says, "Is there anything we can do for YOU? YOU'RE the one in trouble NOW."

Yes ... is there anything we can do for you, President-elect Obama? You most certainly are the one in trouble now ...

President-Elect Barack Obama - November 4, 2008 - Chicago, Illinois

2008-11-05T18:30:00.000-05:00

Battlestar Religion

2008-11-05T18:00:00.000-05:00

Oh Number One is going to kill me for this one ... :)

"Been A Long Way ... But We're Here"

2008-11-05T07:53:00.004-05:00

Barack Hussein Obama II, 47-year-old African American, heading for the Oval Office ...

Yes we did.

Oh, yes we did ...

On that note:
The Blackest Man On The Planet & President of The United States - Denmark Vesey
Barack Obama elected 44th president - MSNBC
Obama Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls - The New York Times

John McCain And Tina Fey's Sarah Palin On Saturday Night Live

2008-11-03T07:35:00.001-05:00

Ben Affleck's Impression Of Keith Olberman On Saturday Night Live

2008-11-02T21:34:00.001-05:00

Another Obama Birth Certificate Suit Thrown Out

2008-11-01T11:59:00.000-04:00

An Ohio-based Obama birth certificate suit was thrown out on Friday.

Warren County magistrate Andrew Hasselbach ruled against David M. Neal saying in part that Neal relied too heavily on Internet rumor to bring forth his complaint.

In other words David M. Neal hasn't been able to produce any more reliable information that Obama was born anywhere other than Hawaii than anyone else has.

However, what is beginning to blow my mind is that the arguments in favor of the Hawaii hypothesis tend to be just as shallow.

I think the main one goes something like this: Obama is a natural born American citizen because Hillary Clinton would have exposed him if he wasn't.

Wrong, people.

As I've pointed out in this blog quite recently, the closest "every day" analogy to the Barack Obama birth certificate issue is starting a new job.

Under penalty of fines and various other nastiness, US employers are required to ask for and examine 1 - 2 documents to verify that an applicant is authorized to work in the United States.

The most common combination of documents is the state-issued driver's license, which establishes identity, and the Social Security card, which establishes US work eligibility.

The second most common document is the US Passport, which establishes both identity and US work authorization.

Now, according to the US Constitution, in order to be qualified to serve as President, an even higher standard is required - that the person be a natural born citizen of the United States.

What the Constitution is not very clear on is who's job it is to examine available evidence to prove that the person is actually a natural born citizen.

Until we figure that out, all this other chaos going on is completely irrelevant ...

"Anything For You" - Gloria Estefan

2008-11-01T11:38:00.001-04:00

Gloria Estefan |MTV Music

Conspiracy Nut - You'll have to pardon my flashbacks to my DJ days until I make it through the whole database ... :)

Besides ... there are some who, for cultural-historial reasons might actually consider these videos to be of some IMPORT ...

"Straight Up" - Paula Abdul

2008-11-01T11:37:00.000-04:00

Paula Abdul |MTV Music

"Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" - Gloria Estefan

2008-11-01T11:36:00.000-04:00

Gloria Estefan |MTV Music

"Get On Your Feet" - Gloria Estefan

2008-11-01T11:35:00.001-04:00

Gloria Estefan |MTV Music

"My Prerogative" - Bobby Brown

2008-11-01T11:34:00.001-04:00

Bobby Brown |MTV Music

"Un-Break My Heart" - Toni Braxton

2008-11-01T11:33:00.001-04:00

Toni Braxton |MTV Music

"Conga" - Gloria Estefan

2008-11-01T11:32:00.001-04:00

Gloria Estefan |MTV Music

Obama Campaign On The DHL Move And Economic Destruction Of Wilimgton, Ohio

2008-10-31T20:09:00.002-04:00

For those of you from outside the area - about an hour northeast of Cincinnati is a town called Wilmington, Ohio facing the closing of a DHL facility and impending economic destruction.

It's so bad an out of state casino operator has taken advantage of the situation and has ads running with at least one DHL worker just saying flat out that the casino is her "only hope".

The whole situation is so sad I'm pretty much beyond words ...

But if I wasn't, those words wouldn't be very good I'll tell you that right now ...

Ayn Rand on Faith vs. Reason

2008-10-31T19:46:00.003-04:00

The Spanish subtitles are a bit distracting, but an interesting clip ...

"Shock the Monkey" - Peter Gabriel

2008-10-29T08:19:00.002-04:00

Peter Gabriel |MTV Music

"Beautiful Liar" - Beyonce / Shakira

2008-10-29T08:16:00.002-04:00

Beyonce |MTV Music

"All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You" - Heart

2008-10-29T08:09:00.001-04:00

Heart |MTV Music

Bad Reputation - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

2008-10-29T08:08:00.001-04:00

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts |MTV Music

"I Love Rock N' Roll" - Joan Jett

2008-10-28T20:23:00.001-04:00

Joan Jett |MTV Music

"Never Gonna Give You Up" - Rick Astley

2008-10-28T20:21:00.001-04:00

Rick Astley |MTV Music

"There's A Tear In My Beer" - Hank Williams Jr.

2008-10-28T20:18:00.001-04:00

Hank Williams Jr. |MTV Music

This is the ONLY country song I like, BTW ...

"Remember the Time" - Michael Jackson

2008-10-28T20:16:00.001-04:00

Michael Jackson |MTV Music

"Man in the Mirror" - Michael Jackson

2008-10-28T20:14:00.000-04:00

Michael Jackson |MTV Music

"Thriller" - Michael Jackson

2008-10-28T20:05:00.001-04:00

Michael Jackson |MTV Music

"Like a Prayer" - Madonna

2008-10-28T20:03:00.001-04:00

Madonna |MTV Music

"Orinoco Flow" - Enya

2008-10-28T19:59:00.003-04:00

Enya |MTV Music

And this one actually appears to be LEGAL from MTV Music ...

Andy Martin vs. Barack Obama

2008-10-25T20:44:00.005-04:00

It would appear there is ANOTHER gentleman filing various lawsuits to attempt to prove Barack Obama ineligible to serve as President due to no suitable birth certificate being available.

That gentleman is Andy Martin, and, amongst other things, he's claiming Barack Obama's biological father is someone named Frank Marshall Davis.

Nevermind the fact that there doesn't seem to be any conceivable motive that, even if it were true, that Barack Obama, Sr. would have agreed to taking "credit" for the indiscretion of Frank Marshall Davis.

Now, for a gratuitous application of Occam's razor, I suppose it is remotely possible that Ann Dunham could have been involved with both Barack Obama, Sr., and Frank Marshall Davis at the same time, but something of course POSSIBLE does not make a good conspiracy story.

Now of course what is interesting about ALL this action is that apparently there is no way to enforce Article II of the Constitution.

When you start a job in this country, under penalty of confiscatory fines and other nastiness, employers are beholden to request and authenticate passports, driver's licenses, social security cards, birth certificates, and other similar documents to verify your eligibility to legally work in the United States.

No matter what Obama's actual story turns out to be, what we're discovering quite rapidly here is that THERE IS NO I-9 FORM FOR RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT.

There apparently is no authority in charge of setting standards for verifying the Article II requirements for running for President.

Now THAT has me a little concerned ...

Philip J. Berg - Obama Birth Certificate Suit DISMISSED

2008-10-25T16:31:00.004-04:00

Looks like word has just come down that U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick on Friday night rejected the suit by attorney Philip J. Berg, who alleged that Obama was not a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible for the presidency.

Surrick ruled that Berg lacked standing to bring the case, saying any harm from an allegedly ineligible candidate was "too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any and all voters."

Holy cow.

Judge Surrick may have just repealed the Constitution of the United States.

Who's responsibility IS it then to enforce the qualification clauses of Article II?

I'm presuming Philip J. Berg is going to appeal.

I'll let you know as soon as I find any chatter about the details on that ...

Related:
Berg lawsuit on Obama birth certificate reportedly dismissed - Free Republic
Judge rejects Montco lawyer's bid to have Obama removed from ballot - Philadelphia Daily News

Philip J. Berg Interview On Michael Savage (Obama Birth Certificate Controversy)

2008-10-24T21:22:00.002-04:00

Philip J. Berg - Obama Birth Certificate Suit Makes Mainstream Media

2008-10-24T21:07:00.003-04:00

The Toledo Fox affiliate is running a story about Philip J. Berg's lawsuit claiming Barack Obama is ineligible to serve as President due to not being a natural born United States citizen.

I still say we haven't seen any really solid information on this subject, although now Mr. Berg is at least claiming that Obama's step-grandmother in Kenya is claiming to have been present in the delivery room in Kenya when he was born.

Hardly admissible testimony I admit, but at least SOMEONE has produced some testimony that Obama was born in Kenya.

A more interesting point that he makes is that at one time Barack Obama was registered in school in Indonesia as "Barry Soetoro" and as an Indonesian citizen through his step-father.

Now, according to Philip Berg, Indonesia didn't recognize dual citizenship at that time, but of course the important question is whether not not THE UNITED STATES would recognize Barack Obama as having surrendered his US Citizenship by declaring Indonesian citizenship.

If Philip Berg's Indonesia citizenship theory holds up, however, Barack Obama would not only be ineligible to serve as President, but in fact would be an illegal alien.

Probably the biggest boatload of Bravo Sierra that anyone has come up with in a while, but interesting to contemplate ...

Paul Johnson Of Walton, KY Takes A Phone Call From GOD

2008-10-23T18:15:00.003-04:00

For those of you who just missed it, Paul Johnson was just on 55KRC with his nightly diatribe.

This one was particularly hilarious. He actually sent me a rough cut of the YouTube video of this one a few days ago and I've been shaking my head ever since.

He claims to have gotten a phone call from God.

Now, certainly many people claim to be acting on orders from God - Sarah Palin and George W. Bush come to mind of course, but I always envisioned that they experienced communication from The Almighty via a dream or a "gut feel" of some sort.

Paul Johnson seems to think God is in the habit of ringing people up. Perhaps God is even a Verizon Wireless customer or something of the sort.

In any event, if I understand him correctly, God seems to be ordering Paul Johnson to vote for the anti-abortion candidates in the upcoming election.

In fact, God tells him that He will be in the voting booth on November 4th.

I swear to you I am not making this stuff up.

Paul Johnson also claims that God has already scheduled a time for Paul Johnson to appear before him and, well - I imagine being held accountable for spending such staggering sums on these radio ads.

"Pegasus" - Bear McCreary - Battlestar Galactica Season 2

2008-10-21T18:53:00.001-04:00

And this one I still think is the best original piece from the series so far ...

"Colonial Anthem" - Bear McCreary - Battlestar Galactica Season 2

2008-10-21T18:49:00.002-04:00

I swear to you I tear up every time I hear this ...

"... because I don't wear a uniform ... most of us don't ... most of us never will ..."

"Surfin' Bird" - The Trashmen - 1963

2008-10-21T18:44:00.001-04:00

Someone just HAD to upload this, didn't they???

The Racists Of Greater Cincinnati

2008-10-18T20:15:00.001-04:00

Actually I have been told there are people in some other countries who won't even VISIT this area due to attitudes like these ...

New Batch Of Star Trek Photos At Entertainment Weekly

2008-10-18T11:04:00.003-04:00

Looks like Entertainment Weekly just got hold of a new batch of photos from the Star Trek movie coming out in May, 2009.

I just REALLY hope this movies doesn't severely suck ...

"Governor Palin, I Should Have A Choice About THIS ..."

2008-10-18T10:55:00.000-04:00

Judaism 2.0

2008-10-04T19:30:00.001-04:00

Occasionally I take a little stroll through my traffic logs to find out what brings my rag-tag, fugitive readership to Axinar's, and occasionally there seems to be an uptick in traffic related to people looking for information about Congregation Beth Adam.

Of late, specifically a few folks seem to be looking for such things as "Beth Adam streaming", so I presume they are looking for Rabbi Robert Barr's famous podcasts.

Actually, I got to thinking about it - it is probably only because Bob Barr has more than your average rabbi's interest in technology that he even caught my attention.

I think it was something like 1995 - he was giving a talk to the local Libertarian educational group and I remember part of the talk went something like, "Are you familiar with the Internet? You better get familiar with it. Certainly the enemies of freedom are familiar with it," and then he proceeded to pass around what I remember to be a stack of 50-some pages of print-outs of neo-Nazi sites.

For those of you who for whatever reason might never have the opportunity to hear Rabbi Barr speak, he has been doing podcasts for quite some time that are usually quite fascinating.

Bob Barr and Beth Adam are no strangers to controversy. Beth Adam is a Jewish congregation that doesn't mention God specifically in its liturgy.

Now, I once had a conversation with an überfrum Jew at Mensa who said to me, "Why of course, this is a very Jewish thing to do." He explained that if there is a concept that the "YHVH" that appears in the Bible as a name of God is never to be uttered, and even "Adonai" ("The Lord") is not to be said except in serious prayer (substituted with "Adoshem"), and "Elohim" is never to be said except in serious prayer (substituted with "Elokim"), then perhaps there is a perfectly valid point to be made here that referring to God AT ALL (even with "HaShem" - "The Name"), itself is hopelessly blasphemous and perhaps ONLY Beth Adam shows the proper respect to God.

Now, I don't think that's the the thought process that led Beth Adam to omit any overt references to God from its liturgy. Agnosticism and Atheism are very important aspects of Judaism - a thought that blows away a great many people with a Christian background and is too lengthy even for me to get into right at this moment.

While going over the various search links, I discovered that the controversy involving Beth Adam even made it all the way to the New York Times.

You see, somewhere along the way Beth Adam decided they wanted to join the UAHC - the "Union of American Hebrew Congregations", the national organization for Jewish congregations affiliated with the "Reform" movement.

There's actually a fair amount that has been written about Beth Adam's rejection from the UAHC, but probably the most coherent description I've heard came from a local Reform Temple-goer who said to me something to the effect, "Yes, we sat down and decided that Beth Adam was most definitely JEWISH, but it was not REFORM Jewish."

Beth Adam has continued to survive and prosper, constructing its own building in Loveland, and continuing to have a healthy, productive relationship with the Reform movement - hiring interns from Hebrew Union College and participating in other functions associated with the Reform movement.

However, since Mrs. Axinar's mother doesn't approve of the Unitarian Church's lack of a specific theology, I'm assuming she would be UTTERLY disappointed in Beth Adam, so I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to drag Mrs. Axinar over there or not.

Oh, speaking of the Unitarian Church and Bob Barr's penchant for controversy - check this one out - he gave the Chrismas Eve sermon at the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati (mp3) last year (December 24, 2007).

Yes, in the world of Liberal Theology, strange, strange things can happen ...

A Mother's Promise: The Biography of Barack Obama

2008-10-04T11:11:00.002-04:00

There are pics of Barack's parents in this video I have never seen before ...

Google Main Page Ten-Year Time Lapse

2008-10-02T15:49:00.002-04:00

And if I'm not mistaken the lyrics are the same as the track "To Kiss Or Not To Kiss" from the soundtrack of the Battlestar Galactica 2003 mini-series.

The tune is somewhat different of course ...

"Reborn" Baby Dolls

2008-10-01T11:48:00.002-04:00

Highly disturbing ...

"Verizon Wireless PR Guy" Promising Text Message "Ping" Today Or Tomorrow

2008-10-01T10:12:00.004-04:00

Of course as we know from many years of experience, absolutely anyone can claim to be absolutely anything on Axinar's, and the general standard I use for such claims is, "Who would bother to make such a thing up?"

So, we have someone using the handle JNels who claims to be a "Verizon Wireless PR guy" saying, we should have a "nice 'Message Sent' ping" after pushing the "Send" button on a text message today or tomorrow.

What in the HELL is a "Message Sent ping"?

Well, I just sent a text message to someone also on Verizon and I got the usual little "Check D" indicator within 30 seconds or so of sending a text message, so either they haven't turned off delivery confirmation yet, or the delivery confirmations are coming through the Blackberry PIN network somehow, or there's something going on I am unaware of at the moment.

Speaking of Verizon Wireless, I had The Old Man in the ER last night until 1 in the bless-ed A of M because he ripped his arm open and it wouldn't stop bleeding and only the 1X network penetrates into the treatment rooms down at Good Sam.

That was PAINFUL - slower than EDGE on AT&T, but the voice network was there, boys and girls.

Okay, now back to this SMS delivery confirmation thing - since we switched, almost all of Mrs. Axinar's text messaging traffic is on the Verizon network, but she says on her Samsung Flipshot that she doesn't get delivery confirmations at all.

What do these delivery confirmations look like on other Verizon phones? Are they entirely separate text messages or what do they look like?

How Banks Create Money From Debt

2008-09-28T20:36:00.000-04:00

Jack Cafferty: "If Sarah Palin Being A Heartbeat From The Oval Office Doesn't Scare You, It Should."

2008-09-28T20:29:00.002-04:00

Tina Fey And Amy Poehler As Sarah Palin And Katie Couric On Saturday Night Live

2008-09-28T15:08:00.002-04:00

I nearly coughed up a lung on this one.

Background On Credit Default Swaps

2008-09-28T14:46:00.003-04:00

There's a really great article running on Newsweek on the history of the credit default swap, the instrument that ultimately got us into the fiscal calamity that has us teetering on your actual brink.

They even cover that "tranche" is the French word for "slice".

There are two thoughts that have crossed my mind about this whole mess.

One - maybe the Muslims are right that lending money for interest is inherently evil. Not for the reasons that they think, but, say, for the sake of simplicity, if you lend someone $100 and ask for $110 at the end of the year, where is that $10 going to come from?

Yes, pretty much, no matter how you slice and dice it, you're going to have to print that $10, so now $110 is worth the same as $100 was a year ago so you didn't make anything anyway.

My great-great grandfather was right - the credit system is a curse - not only to the buyer but to the seller as well.

The second thing is that no one can predict the future. Oh, you can try - you can come up with huge actuarial tables based on the past experiences of thousands or millions of people and make a good ATTEMPT at pricing risk, but, guess what - just about every time if you wait long enough some new variable will enter the situation and all your old statistics will end up utterly worthless.

Yep ... we're in bad, bad trouble, boys and girls ...

General Nikki X Pays A Visit To Axinar's

2008-09-27T21:24:00.008-04:00

There's a very old story that starts, "First they came for the Jews, but I wasn't a Jew, so I didn't speak up." That story ends with, "And finally, they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up."

Perhaps some of that sort of sentiment is why I followed General Kabaka Oba in his radio call-in days. In fact, I remember one day seeing his Mustang exiting South 75 onto Paddock Rd. There was a young lady in the car with him and I remember mentioning to the person with me, "I wonder if that's General Nikki X".

Axinar of course is many things, and one of them is an "art critic" of sorts, so, as the closest I ever came to General Nikki X was two car lengths on south 75 on a Saturday afternoon, of course I do not speak of her as a person, but rather as a web artist, and, yes, generally speaking, quite frequently I do question the "grace and dignity" of her RSS feed.

In fact, one need do no more than turn to the Blogger profile of General Nikki X and find her "occupation" listed as "Black Militant Hardcore Guerilla Soldier".

Yes, such a phrase SCREAMS "grace and dignity", don't you think?

Now, I do not mean to defend Joy Rolland in this, nor would I support the "feud" theory.

I think Nikki X was trying to make the point in her comment on my blog that her grace and dignity is not questioned by the law as it is in the case of Joy Rolland.

Absolutely correct. Nikki X's chosen form of expression is the occasional over-the-top blog entry. Joy Rolland's is attempted homicide.

Nikki X continues, "This is not just cyberspace entertainment and blogger chatroom folly. THIS IS REAL LIFE. THIS IS MY LIFE."

Yes, I have to admit, so far as I have been able to make out, and it is certainly the case that I'm not privy to all the details, Nikki X is certain not the appropriate target for Joy Rolland's frustration.

However, as is generally the case with most ongoing court action, it is generally the advice of counsel to not speak of such matters publicly AT ALL. If I remember correctly, Joy's baby daddy also nearly took a dirt nap at Joy's hands and, so far as I know, he has no blog.

Once the blog is up, it's subject to Axinarian analysis as a work of art, my friends.

Now, the real subject matter for my talents as a drama critic is the details of Joy's September 24, 2008 courtroom outburst, but it sounds as though General Nikki X has been enjoined by counsel from recounting those events.

Bummer. I suppose we'll just have to figure it was PRETTY BAD to get her locked up for SIX MONTHS.

I do find myself wondering what's going on with Joy. It used to be that the reports back from the courtroom were such things as, "Oh, she's all fire and brimstone on cable, but quiet as a church mouse in front of the judge." Now she's lost it in front of the judge.

I do wonder if Joy will ever get the help she needs. One thing is certain - if the energy she directs towards human destruction could ever be channeled into something constructive, she could accomplish a great deal. Without appropriate assistance I do believe the path of destruction she will leave in her wake will make Hurricane Ike look like a gentle breeze.

Yes, It Still Disturbs Me: "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Theme By The Ohio State University Marching Band

2008-09-27T10:45:00.002-04:00

Star Trek Theme - Ohio State University Marching Band

Verizon Wireless Discontinuing SMS Delivery Confirmation September 30, 2008

2008-09-27T09:51:00.004-04:00

Well, it's official, gang.

I just saw a "Tweet" from the official Verizon Wireless account that they are discontinuing SMS confirmation messages effective September 30, 2008.

Oh, now that's a bummer.

We just switched TO Verizon Wireless about a month ago and I thought it was really neat that you got a confirmation when you sent a text message to someone within the Verizon network.

I guess now - or so the story goes - they've acquired so many subscribers that the confirmation messages are jamming up the network.

Either that or - it would be my guess - they are going to wait until the users start demanding their confirmations back and they start charging - you guessed it - a bare minimum of something like $2.99/mo. to bring the confirmations back.

Although - question - do any of the other wireless carriers have this SMS confirmation feature?

And, hey ... why don't Verizon Tweets have links to longer press releases??

Joy Rolland Gets Six Months For Court Outburst

2008-09-25T20:11:00.005-04:00

It took me a while to find this, but apparently Joy Rolland lost it in court yesterday and got slapped with six contempt charges that will throw her in the hoosgow for six months.

Apparently she was in court on charges of stalking Nicole Davis, BKA "Nikki X".

Contributing to Joy Rolland's charges were segments of one of her infamous cable TV shows where apparently she threatened Nikki X.

According to the Enquirer story, Joy Rolland made a couple of inappropriate comments, got hit with at least two contempt charges and then "erupted, spewing vitriol".

Oh, come now, you can't just leave it at THAT.

Does anyone have a good play-by-play of that part of the action?

The story then goes on to make references to Joy Rolland being subdued and handcuffed, but, much to my shock, dismay and horror, it doesn't say anything about her getting TASED.

Absolutely impressive that they were able to take her down without the use of tasers or firearms.

I just hope someone can get Joy the help she obviously needs before she does end up causing herself or someone else some damage that can't be repaired ...

(September 27, 2008 Update)
The person who runs TheConsciousLife on YouTube is trying to get in touch with Joy if anyone wants to pass this information on.

Reference Materials:
Sample of Joy Rolland's cable show
Nikki X's report of Joy Rolland's courtroom outburst

Endorsement From Barack's Sister

2008-09-25T19:14:00.001-04:00

Let me tell you ... you gotta give him some kind of record for the most ethnicities represented by half-brothers and sisters in the history of Presidential politics ...

T-Mobile G1 (Google Android) Demonstrated

2008-09-23T22:50:00.002-04:00

Now here's a nice demo of the upcoming T-Mobile G1, which runs the Google Android mobile OS.

Looks like they are making a NICE stab at mixing the Blackberry and iPhone qualities - a touch screen interface where you can do many of the things you can do with a iPhone, BUT it also has a full slide-out keyboard.

The phone is expected out October 22.

Yes, I will be at SOME T-Mobile retail location shortly after that to torture the thing and see if I can get some sort of substantive answer to the question when T-Mobile will be rolling out their 3G network to the Cincinnati area.

Radio Announcer Keeps Talking Through Studio Fire

2008-09-23T21:45:00.000-04:00

Yes ... I think I've seen it all now ...

Blackberry Storm 9530 (Blackberry "Thunder"?) Coming Soon From Verizon Wireless

2008-09-23T21:16:00.006-04:00

Yes, it looks like the Blackberry Storm 9530 is now official as I got an email from Verizon Wireless directing me to their - I presume - official Verizon Wireless Blackberry Storm 9530 site and gave me the opportunity to give them my email address and sign up for even MORE pseudo-spam about this little item.

Now, apparently this is what became of the "Blackberry Thunder" project. It's, yes, what many people have been waiting for - part Blackberry, part iPhone.

From the Blackberry we have the familiar Call, Menu, Back, and Hang-Up buttons.

From the iPhone we have - yes - a ginormous touch screen.

Yes, I am going to be descending upon Verizon Wireless retail locations as soon as they release this thing to see if Blackberry has come up with a touch screen that I can actually USE.

Some great mysteries remain though - will the Blackberry have an iPhone-type browser that you can zoom in and out with two fingers?

Even more mysterious is some copy from this "official" site that that that the Blackberry Storm will have "global capabilities". Perhaps this will be similar to the 8830 with the SIM card so you can switch over to GSM when you're traveling in Europe and whatnot.

Yes, gang, this could be a REALLY big deal.

I'm presuming it has a user-replaceable battery and, well, a camera better than what's on either the Curve or the iPhone?

I guess we will just have to anxiously await the pseudo-spam announcing its arrival at the actual stores so that the ever-ready Verizon Wireless retail reps can accost me the moment I open the door to the store ...

Related:
First Live Pics of the BlackBerry Thunder! - Crackberry
Blackberry Storm 9530 Shipping Box - Crackberry
BrewNinja demonstrates Blackberry Thunder prototype - Engadget

Uncle Jay Explains: The Financial Meltdown

2008-09-23T07:59:00.000-04:00

Jill Haney - The Hyper-Neurotypical?

2008-09-20T10:35:00.005-04:00

For those of you who have long ago given up on the print edition of The Cincinnati Enquirer, you've missed out on a fascinating new column the last few months in the Sunday paper by a young lady named Jill Haney, a "certified image consultant".

Whoa.

Now let's think about this for a moment.

We're talking about someone hypothetically SO neurotypical that not only does she excel herself at "social graces" - particularly in workplace settings - but people PAY HER to convey her wisdom on such matters to others.

The first article that really caught my attention was about what attire was appropriate for the office gym. Now think about the irony of this situation. You're in a place that, oh, maybe is supposed to be selling stocks or insurance or something of the sort and they provide a facility intended for building up and showing off rippling muscles and then someone might get OFFENDED if someone exposes too much skin?

Then there was an article about people getting irritated by co-workers clipping nails.

Actually not "irritated".

"Grossed out".

Presumably nauseated.

By someone clipping nails.

Neurotypicals crack me up.

Now come on - if you're going to tackle office behavior that is both psychologically irritating and damaging to productivity, you ought to do some columns on back-stabbing, rumor-mongering, clique-forming, tire-slashing, butt kissing, inappropriate intrigue, and the ever-popular business practices in dire need of whistle blowing.

No ... if you can't handle seeing a little skin, don't build a gym in the office.

And, depending on who it is, I'd LIKE to hear some nail clipping. If the person in question, say, is a sales rep with a meeting in an hour for a $100 million deal, I want to hear nail clipping, shoe shining, and pretty much an entire salon working in that cubicle. It ought to sound like a CONSTRUCTION SITE until that rep is so polished that he or she out-shines the SUN.

Now, let's see what Jill Haney has to gripe about tomorrow ... :)

Previous words of wisdom from Jill Haney:
Undershirts essential for crisp, fresh look - Cincinnati Enquirer July 13, 2008
On 'casual Friday,' leave the T-shirts, Crocs in the closet - Style & Influence March 1, 2008

The Yaesu VX-8R: Ham Radio Is Not Dead Yet

2008-09-17T19:30:00.003-04:00

So I'm looking through my latest QST that I saved from the jaws of one of Mrs. Axinar's cleaning endeavors and on the inside back cover what did I discover to my surprise but a full page ad for the first new Yaesu HT I've seen in years - the VX-8R.

Now of late I've found myself wondering if Amateur Radio is just about dead. There is a little activity on 2m that I can pick up from Camp Axinar from time to time - enough that I got a couple of new batteries and a new antenna for my last remaining transmitter - my old Yaesu VX-7R.

However, the buildings are so dense here that I can't pick up much of anything on the HF bands with a portable radio. I can hear a few shortwave broadcasters from time to time, but even that is dicey.

Of course so much of what we used to do on the ham radio bands we do now with other technologies. Cell phone calls were $0.50/minute back in 1985 so we had something called the "autopatch" where we could make phone calls from the local repeaters.

In 1993 the commercial Internet had not really started and "online services" charged $6/hr and up, so there were elaborate RF networks using a technology called "packet" where, in a day or so, you could get a message forwarded from Cincinnati through SE Indiana, and then via HF to Phoenix, then New England, then Ireland, then Israel, then Russia (much like the Internet now, sometimes packet email took STRANGE routing paths).

Of course now broadband is reasonably affordable as well as cell phones - up to and including "push-to-talk" systems that work very much like Amateur Radio HT's, so what's left on the ham bands are stuff that still doesn't have commercial equivalents ... easy-to-set-up places to "rag chew" as well as a really awesome emergency communication capability.

Anyone who has ever been in a significant emergency (locally, the Blue Ash tornado of April, 1999 comes to mind) knows that, in such situations the cell phone networks are overwhelmed almost IMMEDIATELY. When I got blown up in 1999, the old Ameritech analog network worked for a grand total of perhaps 15 minutes before being hopelessly overloaded ...

(9/17 Update)

That's where I stopped when the cable went out Sunday afternoon.

Needless to say this ought to be a lesson to everyone - GET YOUR AMATEUR RADIO LICENSE.

Get at least a 2m HT, have your batteries charged at all times and be familiar with what repeaters you can hit and how to pass traffic.

You NEVER know when something terrible is going to hit your area and the only means of communication might be ham radio.

Although - it's somewhat surprising - despite this event being MUCH more widespread than the Blue Ash Tornado of 1999, Verizon never overloaded.

On the other hand, maybe it was BECAUSE it was so widespread. I also imagine Cincinnati Bell POTS landline phones worked in many areas even where there wasn't any power. Back at the Blue Ash Tornado of 1999 there were thousands and thousands of people hitting the analog networks of Ameritech and Airtouch HARD in a relatively concentrated area. This time the cell phone traffic was more spread out - plus more people could communicate through text messages and other digital means that are easier for the networks to regulate.

Okay ... now back to the Yaesu VX-8R ... neatest thing I saw about it is that it has an internal bar antenna for better AM reception but ... oh that's right ... even WLW didn't cover the storm live ...

Related:
Yaesu Rep explains VX-8R at 2008 Dayton Hamvention
Universal Radio taking Yaesu VX-8R pre-orders

"Good Luck. We're All Counting On You."

2008-09-17T18:51:00.004-04:00

Here we are well into Day 4 of the most widespread power outage in recorded memory in the Cincinnati area and Duke Energy it looks like Duke Energy is going to miss its goal of having 85% of customers up and running by the end of today.

The outage map is still lit up like a Christmas tree, but there are only a few big, concentrated pockets of 2500+ customers out in the same area.

As the cable line to Camp Axinar was only restored last night, I have not seen what the outage map looked like on Sunday night or Monday at the height of the power crisis.

What seems to be the most deplorable behavior of the hour is that Duke Energy crews and office workers are being threatened with bodily harm apparently by certain residents of Clermont County.

Clermont County Sheriff A.J. "Tim" Rodenberg is moving deputies into place to protect the Duke Energy crews.

In northeast Hamilton county things are returning to normal as more and more stores and intersections have power restored.

One phrase making the rounds to describe this event is "Survivor Cincinnati" because more power was out even than the Blizzard of 1978 and superlatively more power was out than any single tornado event in anyone's memory.

It was quite amazing to see how many other systems are hopelessly dependent upon the power grid.

With such a large part of the area affected, gas pumps failed and then water distribution pumps failed. Many areas were on boil water advisories and water pressure in many systems got decidedly low.

Let me tell you - I'm thinking people need to REALLY start thinking about keeping 3 - 4 days of C-rations on hand for everyone in the house, a staggering amount of bottled waters and all the generators and XPower devices they can handle.

Despite Mrs. Axinar constantly accusing me of being paranoid, there can be REAL disruptions to basic services that can go on for DAYS and even WEEKS and people need to prepare for that ...

For Those Of You Who Missed Tina Fey As Sarah Palin

2008-09-17T18:51:00.003-04:00

Yes, Hurricane Ike Hit Ohio

2008-09-16T16:26:00.000-04:00

For those of you from outside the area who are wondering what's going on, remnants of Hurricane Ike hit this area as well as large parts of Ohio and surrounding states.

Apparently some freaky weather pattern forced hurricane force gusts to the surface causing the most extensive power outages in recorded history.

We also have gas shortages and numerous other problems.

Loss of life has been minimal in this area thank goodness.

I'll let you know more as soon as I have access to a computing device larger than a pack of cigarettes.

Sarah Palin Invokes Lincoln

2008-09-12T22:58:00.002-04:00

Wasn't it in 2010 where they said, "Whenever a politician invokes Lincoln they're about to get us into trouble ..."?

Charlie Gibson Catches Sarah Palin With Her Britches Down

2008-09-12T22:54:00.003-04:00

And to think there is a very real chance this woman is less than a year away from the Oval Office ...

What's a little more frightening is that this woman is running an entire state RIGHT NOW.

Lord, bless and keep this woman ... far, far away from Washington ...

McCain Can't Send An Email

2008-09-12T22:41:00.001-04:00

Of course, on the other hand some of the most successful business people I've ever heard of couldn't tell you the difference between a computer and a toaster ...

Your Opinion Needed On Leap Seconds

2008-09-08T19:22:00.002-04:00

Are you a network engineer?

Or perhaps a broadcast engineer for a radio or television station?

Is keeping track of accurate time a vital element of your responsibilities?

If so, the U.S. Naval Observatory is conducting a survey asking if you think they should continue with the "leap second" program.

For those of you not geeky enough to keep up with such matters, ever since we have had hyper-accurate, atomic-based time pieces we have had one nasty problem in the fact that, due to the tidal drag of the moon, the length of the day is slowly getting longer.

In order to keep UT1 (the time that the Earth itself keeps) in line with UTC (the time that the atomic clocks keep), a "leap second" is inserted every few years.

Some think they ought to just let UTC drift away from UT1 so less work will be required at maintaining various computer systems. I'm guessing they're thinking maybe every few centuries we should just add a "leap hour" much as we switch back and forth between "Standard" and "Daylight Savings" time.

Of course there are some issues with doing it that way - ocean-going navigators without GPS not only require 1-second accuracy but 0.1! second accuracy, so there are "double ticks" in the WWV time signal to give 0.1 second accuracy. The other problem of course is that if we wait until we need to add an entire hour, in December and January the sun will be setting at 4 in the afternoon in Cincinnati.

My vote - we keep the leap seconds.

Verizon Wireless Ranks Highest On Network Coverage In Most Regions

2008-09-08T19:09:00.002-04:00

Looks like Verizon has placed top or tied for the top rating for network coverage in many areas of the country according to a recent J.D. Power and Associates Survey.

Now, I'm guessing Cincinnati is actually is in the "North Central" region.

The article on J.D. Power's web site doesn't really say where the regions are.

For the North Central region, U.S. Cellular and Alltel rank highest. Alltel is in the process of being acquired by Verizon, but neither carrier is active in the Cincinnati region.

Neither AT&T nor T-Mobile, the two large GSM carriers, ranked highest in any reason.

Now this is no major surprise in this area.

About two years ago people started telling me, "Ax, you won't believe it - I switched to Verizon and I don't lose calls at I-275 & Reed Hartman or Montgomery & Kemper any more!"

Sure enough, having recently switched to Verizon Wireless myself recently there are no significant dead areas in any of the places I regularly go - with the notable exception of the Eastgate Lanes just outside of Milford, and I could have sworn I had a signal in there on AT&T (anyone out there still on AT&T who can verify this for me?)

The only thing that worries me a bit on Verizon is that they do seem to have a pretty locked-down data network. To use any J2ME goodies at all (Opera Mini, etc.) you pretty much have to have a Blackberry.

However, their sound quality is TREMENDOUS. When Mrs. Axinar calls me from the saloon now on her new Samsung Flipshot I can hear her over the noise almost perfectly. She cut out REALLY badly on her old phone on T-Mobile.

Yes, Verizon does have one magnificent network - let's just hope they open it up at some point.

CBS News On The Fannie / Freddie Takeover

2008-09-08T18:53:00.000-04:00

CNBC Reporting Fed Takeover Of Fannie And Freddie - All Shareholders Likely Wiped Out

2008-09-06T16:19:00.003-04:00

CNBC is reporting that top executives and board members were meeting in Washington today with regulators and that an announcement is expected tommorrow detailing the restructuring of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

ALL shareholders - common and preferred - are expected to be WIPED OUT or diluted beyond recognition.

I'm thinking I remember reading somewhere that stuff like this was what precipitated the Great Depression.

I'm also beginning to wonder if my favorite Conspiracy Nut friend might have been right.

Had the Fed not gone on that rate-cutting spree after 9/11 the conditions that led up to this may have never happened ...

Related:
Fannie Diving After Hours - CNBC Video

Agriprocessors Caught Torturing Cattle Again

2008-09-06T15:45:00.003-04:00

Despite assurances that they had changed their ways, the HUGE kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, Agriprocessors, has been caught torturing cattle again.

Now according to long-standing interpretations of the Torah, in order for an animal to be slaughtered in a kosher manner you can't stun it first - you're supposed to open up the neck in one motion with a perfectly sharpened blade. This is supposed to be the most humane slaughter method possible.

However, I don't think the Torah mentions ANYTHING about the huge wheel they invert these animals with, nor the "second cut" showed in this video and described in a recent Failed Messiah posting.

Temple Grandin, well-known autistic animal handling expert, has concluded the only possible way to keep these people from abusing these animals is to install monitoring cameras that can be audited over the Internet.

The more I read about this outfit the more disturbed I find myself.

I think it may very well be time that the Orthodox Jewish community considers the possibility that with the availability of mondern, powered tools, there may very well be other methods for slaughtering livestock than the techniques that so often lead to such cruelty inflicted upon these animals.

BTW ... can anyone direct me to a video of a kosher slaughterhouse where they actually do things PROPERLY??

Sarah Palin For The Internet Perv Vote?

2008-09-02T13:08:00.003-04:00

Actually, this cartoon (from Atheist Revolution) got me to thinking something that actually crossed my mind on Friday when McCain first announced his pick.

You think they picked this one to pick up the Internet Perv vote???

Sarah Palin's Daughter's Baby Daddy

2008-09-02T12:58:00.004-04:00

Now Obama has been saying, "Hands of the families!", but fortunately the tabloid sites have been buring the midnight oil and have come up with staggering amounts of dirt on Sarah Palin's daughter's Baby Daddy.

Now of course all this got started with a really cool rumor over the weekend that Sarah Palin's youngest child was actually her granddaughter via her 17-year-old daughter Bristol. In order to dispell THAT rumor Sarah Palin released the news that Bristol is pregnant NOW.

Now isn't THAT fantastic news for an arch-conservative that your 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant.

The baby daddy is a 17-year-old hockey player named Levi Johnston. And Levi Johnston has a sister who had a MySpace page that was recently taken private, but not before most of the pictures from it were cross-posted here.

Just keep scrolling down - there's a picture of Bristol holding Trig and everything.

Yes, my friends - just remember - you better be careful what you post on MySpace, Facebook, etc.

You never know when your friend's mother might be nominated for Vice President.

Oh, that's RIGHT, she was already GOVERNOR OF ALASKA - you't think SOMEONE might have been paying attention ...

Related:
Palin Daughter Baby Daddy -- "Don't Want Kids" - TMZ

FactCheck.Org On The Obama Birth Certificate: It's Real

2008-08-30T07:41:00.002-04:00

According to FactCheck.org they have actually handled the Obama birth certificate.

They have high resolution photos of the seal, the certification stamp, the certificate number, and just about everything else that would make it appear, in the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary, that Barack Obama is actually a citizen of the United States and eligible to be elected President.

Of course with all this document scrutiny y'all have ME questioning my U.S. Citizenship and, in fact, whether or not I actually EXIST ...

Axinar's Vs. The Chicago Liberal Front

2008-08-29T07:08:00.003-04:00

Rush Limbaugh for the last little while has been talking about Obama being thoroughly a product of the Chicago Liberal establishment, so it was quite fortunate that I stumbled across that PSA in The Nation from this organization called The Chicago Abortion Fund.

First of all I found the name striking. Not, "The Chicago Choice Fund" or something of the sort. No euphamisms - flat out - in your face - '60's style - "We're collecting money to pay for poor women to get abortions."

THEN I discover they have a blog called "My Voice, My Choice, My Blog".

Well, at least the title of the blog is a little more "mild".

The first post I saw was from someone named Gaylon who said, in part, "Every human being should have the right to make their own reproductive health choices."

Now I know Gaylon probably didn't mean to say it this way, so I left a comment to the effect that if EVERY human being should have the right to make their own reproductive health choices, then presumably a man should have the right to abort a pregnancy he caused as well. And, in lieu of the Josef Mengele-esque scene that invokes, I'm thinking men should at least have the right to be absolved of the potentially crippling and incarcerating financial responsibility that comes along with producing children.

Now Gaylon responded - not with claiming to have misspoken or anything of the sort but with, "If you don't want children and you are not taking birth control then don't have sex."

Good heavens! That's a PRO-LIFE attitude.

Someone named Emelda then chimed in with, "... if you are engaged in a heterosexual relationship, you should talk about what choices you both think you would like to make if a pregnancy were to happen."

Of course that line put me in mind of a discussion I once heard about movies where sometimes, in the heat of lovemaking the woman says, "Make me pregnant!" and some have commented this is totally unrealistic, but then along comes a gay guy who says, "That's perfectly possible ... I've said that to MY partner in the 'heat of the moment'."

We'll leave that visual for another discussion of course.

Again, Emelda seems to be expressing a "Pro-Life" type of attitude - only it seems very sexist to me - that reproductive considerations stop at the sheets for men, but, I presume, at labor for women.

Then of course I flat out accused her of being sexist and THEN the high test liberal blood floated to the surface:

"Women do not have systematic power in our culture and therefore, by political definition, can not be sexist."

Horse hockey.

I once asked a very dear African-American friend of mine about this concept once. I said we would call a White person who just doesn't "sit right" with Blacks or some other "minority" words like "prejudiced" or "racist". I asked her what they would call someone from her community who just had a problem with Whites.

She didn't hesitate for a second - "ignorant".

Yes, as we learned in the Star Trek episode Court Martial, it's perfectly natural if a person or group of persons has shown hatred and disresect for you for decades, centuries, or millenia, it is perfectly natural to show hatred and disrespect for that person or group in return, but, in so doing, you have become racist, sexist, classist, etc., yourself.

Now, believe it or not, I don't have a problem with this group existing. However, if they truly believed in "reproductive freedom", they would sit with me a great deal easier if they also collected money to help PARENTS raise their children who wanted to keep them as well.

And, yes, they'd REALLY impress me if they collected money to allow men who have no business being parents move on with their lives without being hunted down by The State as if they had murdered 30 people ...

Paul A. Offit: Vaccines Do Not Cause Autism

2008-08-28T22:41:00.000-04:00

General Zod For President

2008-08-28T21:51:00.003-04:00

OMG, this General Zod 2008 site is hilarious ...

Dr. William Deagle 16-Part YouTube Conspiracist Presentation

2008-08-28T20:45:00.005-04:00

This is part one of a SIXTEEN PART YouTube video that has been making the rounds of some of the Conspiracy Nut blogs.

Now, I haven't had a chance to watch this all the way through yet. I've caught parts about super computers in top-secret installations in Colorado and various other things.

I also have heard there's something in here that's saying that the government has been DELIBERATELY contaminating vaccines in order to CAUSE autism??

Does anyone point me in the direction of a good transcript of these videos??

(And does Part 4 of the Google Video version of this put you in mind of Glen Larson or what??)

All 16 Parts (Dec. 7, 2006 Granada Forum): (YouTube)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part 14
Part 15
Part 16

The more manageable Google Video version:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

John Kerry DNC Speech - Including Obama's Uncle

2008-08-28T20:29:00.000-04:00

Michelle Obama DNC Speech

2008-08-26T18:54:00.000-04:00

Kim Kardashian Without Makeup

2008-08-25T06:44:00.002-04:00

Believe it or not, there has been yet another Kim Kardashian without makeup sighting.

This time in L.A., close up, and from someone who has a decent camera and knows what he's doing with it.

As a matter of fact, so much does this person know what they are doing with a camera that I find myself wondering if they were using a flash frame or if this picture is cropped.

In any event, without her face covered in six inches of paint, she's still a striking young lady, and she actually looks like someone you might bring home to mom or dad.

And she does bear a certain resemblance to a few people on my mother's side of the family.

I just hope she keeps herself out of trouble.

Okay ... is that a Blackberry she's holding?

As If Anyone Has The Slightest Doubt The Nursing Home System Needs Dismantled

2008-08-22T08:17:00.002-04:00

There's a really great article running on The Cincinnati Enquirer about the deplorable conditions at the Westside Health Care Center and how the inspection system has broken down almost completely.

My mother stays at a similar facility in the suburbs of Boise, Idaho and, although her conditions are not as bad as they describe in this article, there is something badly, badly broken about our nursing home system.

It's fascinating the way they mention that this current system was supposed to be an improvement over the state mental hospitals of a couple of generations ago, but really disturbing things continue to happen.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I suspect it's something along the lines of what was done in the dismantling of the orphanages and the homes for the developmentally disabled - something along the lines groups homes and/or foster care needs to be arranged for older and disabled adults who are unable to care for themselves on their own.

Not that there aren't problems with this system too - vis a vis Marcus Fiesel - but if you're too disabled to safely stay in your own home you should at least have A home instead of being treated like livestock.

Wall Street Journal Available On BlackBerry For Free

2008-08-19T19:23:00.003-04:00

Mrs. Axinar and I both have cell phone contracts running out at the end of the month and I have been feverishly attempting to figure out what my next move might be in this arena.

Of late I have been quite heavily researching the Blackberry and today I discover that the Wall Street Journal has released a mobile reader application for the Blackberry.

Apparently you can get Wall Street Journal articles for FREE. It also lets you save stories so you can read them on subways and aircraft.

Wicked cool.

Yes, I may have to make the Blackberry my primary avenue of investigation on this switch ...