CleverDonkey.com …Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel

The 2008 US Presidential Election is a month away.  We are approaching the end of nearly two years of constant campaigning by a dwindling pool of potential candidates, and we are down to the final two.  And I have to say, if these two represent the absolute best that America has to offer, we are in a sorry state indeed.

One is a self-described “maverick” who nonetheless has decided to pander to the most intolerant and extreme elements of his constituency, whom he had previously ignored.  The other is a self-described agent of change who picked at 6-term Senator as his running mate and who has professional lobbyists working on his campaign delivering his message of “no lobbyists”.

These are our choices?  Obama or McCain?  One’s too old, the other’s too inexperienced, and neither are natural born leaders.  Obama is certainly articulate, McCain can be folksy, but neither of them come across as speaking from the heart, and neither appears to be able to inspire the American people with their “greatness”.  Say what you will about Bill Clinton, but the man could connect with and inspire people in his sleep (and often did).

Now, they’re both Senatorial material, but that’s it.  Presidential?  Not in the least.  Great leaders?  No.  Bad people?  No, not bad.  Both are politicians, which means they are professional liars, but within the realm of “politicians”, they are two of the least repugnant.

But if our primary criterion for Presidential candidates is lack of repugnancy, then we’re doing it wrong.  We, the people, have allowed the political process to devolve into a game of “gotcha”.  Your grandparents prayed to the wrong god?  Gotcha.  Traded in your first wife for a newer model?  Gotcha.  Didn’t wear a lapel pin?  Gotcha.  Have an occasional hot temper?  Gotcha.

We hold our candidates to superficial standards that don’t allow them to be human beings, and we ignore their actual character and leadership abilities.  Real people are imperfect, but in order to become president one must hide imperfections and appear angelically pure.  That means that, to become president, one has to lie about one’s self.  And we, the people, eat it up with a spoon and end up electing the best liar.  Is it any wonder that things continue to go downhill?

It would be easy to blame the media, because acting as the fourth estate is supposed to be their job, and they are woefully, laughably lacking in the area of serious political journalism.  However, it’s we the people who have allowed the press to become infotainers, and it’s we the people who flock to 24 hour news channels that have to drum up SOMETHING exciting each and every day to hold onto our eyeballs.  And it’s we the people who are happy to be lazy, hypnotized consumers of pre-processed opinions.

We, the people.  The people of the United States of America.  *We* control the government of this country, not vice-versa.  We could vote all of these bums out in one round of elections, and elect real Americans who are real patriots with real ideas to solve real problems. 

Really.  All it will take is for the apathetic majority to rise up and take action.  I’m one of those guilty of apathy and inaction.  For years I recused myself from the process, because that process rarely, if ever, produces worthy candidates.  So I sat smugly in my ivory tower and looked down upon the hoi polloi as they listened to tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, and congratulated myself for not playing in a crooked, broken game.

But that time is over.  We, the apathetic majority, need to rise up and once again demand accountability from our government, and if they won’t give it and the press won’t ferret it out, we need to *take* it with the power of our votes.

Aren’t you tired of this endless game of political bullshit?  Wouldn’t you love to be inspired by true patriots and leaders, even if you didn’t agree with 100% of their positions?  Don’t you want to have our adversarial system set up so that the “other side” are our opposition, not our enemies?

Well, I do, and I intend to use the tiny, almost imperceptible power of my lone vote to do what I think is right.  I encourage you to do the same, because together we, the apathetic majority, can change things for the better. 

And remember, step one is to clean house, to change the litter box of democracy, to throw the bums out and start fresh with different candidates with diverse ideas and creative solutions, who actually care about America and Americans, not just about re-election and lining their pockets and those of their cronies.

I’m prepared to feel like I’m wasting my vote, but I can no longer do nothing, and I cannot bring myself to acknowledge that either of the two current candidates should be my president.  So I’ll vote for whomever I think is the correct person, and I encourage you to do the same. 

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, let’s take it together.

• Leave a comment... (0)

I have a theory that John McCain picked Sarah Palin with the express purpose of losing the election.  There can be no other explanation.  This is a woman that he had met only once before naming her as his running mate.  Nobody in the lower 48 had ever heard of her, and as we learn more about her the choice by McCain seems more and more insane.

This is a woman who can’t name a Supreme Court decision, or name a newspaper or magazine that she’s read regularly, and I’m beginning to doubt she can see Russia from her house.  She is so unequivocally unqualified to be Vice President that it’s like we’ve entered an alternate dimension where they’re holding a bizarro-election.

There is no way that her selection has helped the McCain campaign or the Republican party.  It smacks of the Bush administration tactic of breaking any and every law of the land with impunity, right out in the open, and not only not hiding it, but flaunting it and claiming that it’s not only not wrong, but it is in fact right.  And that’s the spin they’re putting on her selection – that she speaks to the everyday Americans, the Joe Sixpacks and Hockey Moms out there who need representin’.  And we all know that if there’s one demographic that is near and dear to the heart of the Republican party, it’s the lower middle-class.

There is simply no way the choice of Palin was made for the purposes of winning the election.  The only explanation I am left with is that John McCain does not want to win this election.  That begs the larger question of…why?  Why wouldn’t he want to win?  I’ve found his campaign to be disappointing, because he seems to have eschewed his actual maverick credibility and become a pandering nincompoop.  He does not appear to be the John McCain that I expected in this race.

Well, what if what he’s doing is falling on his sword in order to protect us from another Republican administration?  What if he got into the Republican primaries without any expectation of winning, but only to stir things up and bring his actual true maverick sensibilities to the party platform?  And then, oops, he won – now what?  He may even know, or at least feel, that he’s too old at this point to be President.  If that were the case, he’d need to make sure that his VP selection was someone not only qualified to be the veep, but also qualified to be President, given the increased probability that his age/health will render him incapable of serving his full term.

Did he do that?  No, he did the exact opposite.  He picked someone who doesn’t even appear to be qualified for the job she has, much less qualified enough to leapfrog to a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

In fact, he picked someone who will almost certainly ensure that he does not win in November.  Maybe this will turn out to be his final heroic, maverick act – thumbing his nose at the Republican party by sabotaging his campaign and their quest for a permanent Republican majority. 

Bless you, John McCain.

• Leave a comment... (0)

Idiocracy is the latest film by Mike Judge, who also created Office Space.  It was released in 2006, playing in only a handful of theaters with no advance publicity of any kind, and it quickly made the jump to DVD.  However, if there is any movie in recent memory that SHOULD have played endlessly at the multiplexes of America, it was Idiocracy.

As we here in the United States drown in a downward spiral of reality TV, processed foods, bombastic advertising, mindlessly large corporations, zombified workforces, and borderline retarded elected leaders, Idiocracy perfectly describes the water with devastatingly funny, sadly accurate satire and wit.

The story revolves around Joe (Luke Wilson), a current-day soldier who is selected, along with Rita (Maya Rudolph), to participate in a year-long human hibernation study.  However, while they are in stasis, the people in charge of the super-secret study are arrested for unrelated reasons, and Joe and Rita are forgotten about – for 500 years.

When they awaken they are greeted with a future where Joe, initially selected for his averageness, is now the smartest person in the world.  You see, as the movie explains, with no natural predators man has not evolved to favor the most intelligent problem solvers, man has instead evolved to favor promiscuity and dumbness, because that combination leads to the most babies, and the absence of poverty, disease, hunger, or hardship means that those offspring continue to survive and reproduce, causing human intelligence levels to decrease with each passing generation until mankind has reached the point where it can no longer maintain the technology of society, and the collapse of civilization is imminent.

One example of this devolution is that a huge company has signed an exclusive agreement to replace the water in the nation’s water supply with their sports-drink, called Brawndo.  So, everywhere you go the water fountains and faucets supply Brawndo instead of water.  Unfortunately, even the portions of the water supply used for agriculture are replaced with Brawndo, and nobody in the dumbass future understands that plants need water to grow, so there is a looming food crisis.  All this is fostered by ubiquitous advertising which claims that Brawndo’s got electrolytes, which is what plants crave.  Joe, of course, is confused by the ubiquity of Brawndo, and the future-doofuses simply mock him for wanting to drink “toilet water”, as apparently the only place water is still used is for flushing. 

It actually takes a while for Joe to figure out how long he’s been frozen.  When he first wakes up he’s confused and doesn’t feel well, so he stumbles into a hospital for help.  After a reasonably revolting medical test, he meets with a doctor who gives him his diagnosis that:  “…it says here on your chart that you’re all fucked up, you talk like a fag, and your shit’s all retarded.”  Indeed.

Also, in the future most people have at least one brand name as part of their full name – for example the diagnosis above is given by a Dr. Lexus, and Joe meets and befriends a “lawyer” named Frito Pendejo.  Also, current actual brand names are used throughout the movie, in some cases with surprisingly unexpected evolutions of their primary products and/or advertising.  For example, Carl’s Jr.’s slogan is “Fuck you, I’m eating”, an idiocratic evolution of their current slogan of “Don’t bother me, I’m eating”, Costco stores have grown to the size of cities and a greeter greets each customer by saying “Welcome to Costco, I love you”, and the Fuddruckers chain’s name has evolved from Fuddruckers to Futtbuckers to Buttruckers to, finally, Buttfuckers.

Joe’s relative hyper-intelligence is finally recognized, and he is tasked with “saving the world” by President Dwayne Elizando Mountain Dew Hector Camacho, who makes him Secretary of the Interior.  Joe is reluctant to take on the task, as in his own mind he’s no genius, so at the first opportunity he slips away to try and find the rumored “Time Masheen” that will let him go back to his original time and place, and back to his safe, ordinary, averageness.

In restrospect, it’s easy to see why the studio didn’t put much effort into promoting this film.  First of all, so many huge name-brands are skewered here that any revenues could have easily been lost to lawsuits (Starbucks giving handjobs?!).  Also, the target demographic for major Hollwood movies are the typical dumbasses in the typical multiplex, and this movie would have insulted them (if they could even have understood it) by pointing out to them that they are the seeds of the downfall of humanity, if for no other reason than the fact that their lack of discriminating taste put “300”, “Shrek the Third”, and “Alvin and the Chipmunks” in the top 10 highest grossing films for 2007 (really).

It’s also easy to see that this film was released by the wrong studio – Fox, to be exact.  If it weren’t for slack-jawed dumbasses who are slavishly influenced by advertising, who are hypnotized by slapstick violence, and who lack the ability to think critically, the Fox empire wouldn’t exist.  Even Fox is smart enough to know that you don’t make money by insulting your constituency.

And this brings us to the drivers that prompted this review, two years after the release of the film.  First and foremost, the film is incredibly well done and funny as hell.  But second, and more importantly, I think that this film has precisely described what is going on in America today, and shows us the logical (if exaggerated) conclusion if things keep going the way they are.  At the risk of sounding elitist, I have a reasonably high IQ and am reasonably well-read and knowledgable about the world, and while this movie made me laugh, it also, upon reflection, scared the hell out of me.

In my lifetime I’ve seen a lot of progress by mankind and I’ve always had an optimistic view of the future – not that I expected things to become perfect, just that overall, bottom-line, after factoring in all the successes and failures, we as a society would tend to make progress towards a more enlightened, safe, and enjoyable future. 

However, it’s beginning to feel that we’ve peaked, and are now starting a downward slide.  Superstition, dogma, and ignorance are not only supplanting logic and reason, but are being embraced and promoted as positive values.  Our political process has become such a farce that it feels more like a reality show competition than a quest to find the greatest possible leaders.  Seriously, I can’t think of a single political leader in my lifetime worthy of respect and awe.  In fact, I can’t think of one who wasn’t wildly deserving of scorn and derision.  Even the ones who come close to being true leaders are obscured by the fact that the political machine marginalizes them into impotence, and they wave their tiny fists in the air and squeak like caged mice, all with the best of intentions, but all for naught.

In the end, We the People are to blame for our situation.  We could, in one single election year, throw out each and every bum currently in office and replace them with true thinkers and leaders.  But we don’t.  We could, with only a little effort, choose to live within our means and spend our hard-earned money on quality products from ethical companies.  But we don’t.  We could, with just a little backbone, ensure that each and every child in this country gets a rich, full, well-rounded education.  But we don’t.  We could, with a little introspection, choose to idolize great thinkers, great artists, great writers, great inventors, and people of great character instead of the constant stream of vapid, artificial celebrities-du-jour.  But we don’t.

And we could choose to stave off the coming Idiocracy, by fighting against the encroachment of ignorance and complacency into the realm of reason and ambition.  I try to do that, each and every day, and although sometimes it feels like a lonely task, I know that there are others out there doing the same thing.  Know that you are not alone.

Oh, and watch Idiocracy, it’s fucking hilarious, scro!

• Leave a comment... (0)

Today, the US House of Representatives voted against the proposed government bailout of US financial institutions.  Good.  We have a mostly free marketplace, and the less government intervention the better.  Yes, the government should set the rules, and perhaps even adjust them every great once in a while.  What the government should NOT be doing is constantly tweaking the rules and then bailing out the losers simply because they happen to be large.

Having the government artifically control the marketplace is…well…communism.  And we all know how well that has worked, historically.  It’s easy to understand why the government feels the need to do something – if they don’t, and the natural market corrections occur, many people will feel a lot of pain.  And most of those people will also be voters, and injured voters tend to react by throwing out whoever is holding the hot potato when the music stops.

And the music is definitely stopping.  After years and years of reckless financial policies, major institutions are finding that their worth is now based on undercapitalized loans to unqualified borrowers on overpriced assets.  Historically, we had regulations that prevented our large financial institutions from leveraging themselves so unwisely, but those regulations have been eroded over the last decade or so, and now the bill has come due.

And the bill must be paid, no doubt about it.  However, the bill should be paid now, by virtue of natural market corrections (with the associated, short-term pain) rather than through government bailout money, which can only lead to a solution that is, at best, inefficient, and, at worst, rigged to benefit the politically powerfully.  Personally, I trust the capitalist marketplace more than I trust the Federal government when it comes to the free market.  The government’s job is to set up a level playing field, but then not interfere in the game.

Can you imagine the outrage if, with four minutes to go in the Super Bowl, the NFL announced a bunch of rule changes, applicable immediately and designed to impact the outcome of the game in progress, simply because the team they preferred wasn’t winning?  Say it was the Dallas Cowboys versus the Baltimore Ravens, and the NFL desperately wanted Dallas to win because it would mean much higher fan interest and revenues for the following seasons, and Dallas is behind with 4 minutes to play.  So, the NFL announces that the Cowboys can immediately gain access to the Ravens full playbook, and listen in on all their called plays and headset communications.  Oh, and the Ravens have to bench their top offensive and defensive players, and their head coach has to spend the last four minutes of the game in a sound-proof isolation booth and can’t communicate with any of his players or coaches.

That would be outrageous.  But that’s what they’re trying to do with this bailout.  Every financial transaction is like a bet, at some level.  Every time you hear of a sell-off of shares, remember that there are exactly the same number of shares being bought as are being sold.  And when a person with some spare capital chooses to invest it via an investment bank instead of stuffing it in their mattress or buying government-backed T-bills, that investor has made a bet that the risk of losing that money is worth the potential for a higher return.  Well, those investors have lost their bets, and the government is coming in and trying to rig the game at the last minute.

Now, if the story is actually that the financial institutions (perhaps in cahoots with our elected officials) perpetuated some kind of criminal fraud on the American people, and the government is trying to redress that crime, that’s a different story.  But, first, announce that it is a crime, indict and arrest the criminals, put them in jail (not minimum-security country clubs), and then work to redress the victims. 

However, if this is simply a matter of greedy investors and ignorant loan-signers, then I say let the (blue) chips fall where they may.

• Leave a comment... (2)

To see the Power Rankings for the 2012 Games, click here!

Forget medal count – who cares if countries with hundreds of millions (or even billions) of people win a lot of medals?  They should win a lot of medals, right?  The big question is, which country is kicking ass in their weight class?  The answer is in the table below.

This table creates a weighted medal score by giving each country three points for each gold medal, two points for each silver, and one point for each bronze.  The country’s Power Rating is calculated by determining how many weighted medal points each country wins per 10,000,000 in population.  And to factor in economics, the population only includes those living above the poverty level (according to CIA poverty estimates).

As of this final update (Sunday, 8/24/2008, 10:00am CDT), the Jamaicans have maintained their position and taken first place in the Power Rankings – all fruits ripe, mon!  The Bahamians held on for second place, and Iceland snuck into third place in the last day of competition.  Mongolia and Slovenia rounded out the top five.

Congratulations to all, and we’ll see you again in four years!

To see the Power Rankings for the 2012 Games, click here!

[Table=8]

Don’t forget to come back in four years – we’ll be tracking the medal races again!!

• Leave a comment... (0)

If you live in, visit, or travel through Brenham, TX, be sure to put Mo’s BBQ on your itinerary.  Mo cooks up some of the tenderest, juiciest, tastiest barbeque I’ve ever had, and, brother, I’ve had a LOT of barbeque.  Click here for a map, phone number, and directions. 

Mo’s is tucked in back from the street in a cedar shingled building with a front porch, between a carniceria and a gas station.  Most days Mo will greet you herself, and she and her friendly, efficient staff are always a pleasure to interact with.  The restaurant is always spotlessly clean, and the food is always, ALWAYS excellent, with generous portions.

And, oh baby, the barbeque is to die for.  Tender, juicy, tasty, hot, fresh…perfect.  It doesn’t even need sauce, but if you choose to use it Mo’s sauce is tangy and sweet, not vinegary and harsh.

Our only complaint is actually a compliment – we wish that Mo’s would stay open later and be open on Sundays, too.  Monday-Thursday she closes at 3pm, Friday-Saturday she closes at 5pm, and she’s not open on Sundays.  Now, I understand completely – she’s a sole proprietess and can’t work 7×365 – but there are times in the evenings or on Sundays when we get a big old craving for her food and we simply have to wait.  Hmph.

So do us a favor and go to Mo’s – if enough of us become regulars maybe she’ll be able to stay open more so we can always get her great BBQ!!

• Leave a comment... (1)

Through my web meanderings recently I came across The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.  I read them and laughed, thinking they were a joke, as the 48 laws seem to describe virtually everything that one should not be or do in order to have a happy life.  However, I did a bit more research and found that this guy appears to be serious about these “laws”. 

I cannot speak to whether or not following them will result in the attainment of power, however I can state unequivocally that unless one is truly a megalomaniac, the attainment of power does not lead to happiness.  This is the same truth that holds that the attainment of money does not lead to happiness.  One can have money and power and happiness, but happiness derives from who you are and what you do, not from what you have.

So, for any of you who have read the 48 Laws of Power and found them to be…misguided?…here is a counterpoint:

The 48 Laws of Happiness

Law #1:  Always Do Your Best

Law #2:  Develop Friends You Know You Can Trust

Law #3:  Keep Your Own Counsel, But if You Share Your Intentions, Be Honest and Forthright

Law #4:  Strive For An Economy of Words, But Always Say Enough

Law #5:  Always Do What You Know Is Right and Fair, and Your Reputation Will Remain Untarnished

Law #6:  Unless You Are An Entertainer, Do Not Seek the Limelight

Law #7:  Always Work Your Hardest, and Share Credit Where Credit Is Due

Law #8:  Only A Coward Is Afraid To Lose Home Field Advantage

Law #9:  Know When a Consensus Is Necessary

Law #10:  Helping Those Who Need Help Is Mankind’s Highest Aspiration

Law #11:  Teach People To Fish and They Eat Forever

Law #12:  Fake Sincerity Poisons Your Soul

Law #13:  If A Win/Win Scenario Is Possible, Go For It; If Not, Be Honest

Law #14:  If You Fake Friendship To Gain Advantage You Are, At Best, A Hooter’s Waitress and At Worst, A Prostitute

Law #15:  Show Mercy, But Do Not Ask For It

Law #16:  If Your Absence Makes People Happy Then You’re Doing It Wrong

Law #17:  Terrorism In Any Form Is Reprehensible

Law #18:  Make Your Home A Sanctuary From Trouble For All Who Dwell There Or Who Visit In Good Faith

Law #19:  If You Intimidate the Weak While Hiding from the Strong, You Are a Bully and a Coward

Law #20:  Love Your Family Unconditionally

Law #21:  Only the Fool Plays the Fool Expecting Profit

Law #22:  If You Surrender Freedom to Achieve Safety, You Deserve Neither

Law #23:  All Who Wander Are Not Lost

Law #24:  The Sycophant Dies A Thousand Deaths

Law #25:  Attention Does Not Equal Respect, Particularly For the Clown

Law #26:  Take Responsibility for Your Own Actions

Law #27:  If You Are Worthy to Lead It Will Happen Naturally

Law #28:  Never Dive Head First Into Dark Waters

Law #29:  Luck Favors the Prepared

Law #30:  A Stage Magician Fools No One But Fools

Law #31:  In A Crooked Card Game, It’s the Dealer Who Gets Shot First

Law #32:  Honesty Is the Best Policy

Law #33:  Live By The Sword, Die By The Sword

Law #34:  Don’t Be A Dick

Law #35:  If You Wait Too Long For the Perfect Moment, the Opportunity May Be Lost

Law #36:  Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Law #37:  Don’t Play the Fool Simply to Gain Attention

Law #38:  Be True To Yourself

Law #39:  If You Spread Evil, You Must First Have It Within Yourself to Give

Law #40:  There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, But Be Able To Spot the Truly Generous Gesture

Law #41:  Take Your Lessons From Great Men and Women, Whoever They May Be

Law #42:  If You Convince the General to See Things Your Way, You Won’t Have a Battle

Law #44:  Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Law #45:  If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It, But if It’s Broke, Then Fix It

Law #46:  Pretension Is For The Weak-Minded

Law #47:  When You Win, Don’t Gloat

Law #48:  Stick To Your Beliefs, But Always Be Open To New Information

So, there you go, 48 Laws of Happiness.  Feel free to add more in the comments below!

• Leave a comment... (2)

We are a pet-intensive household.  Currently we have three dogs and a cat, but we used to have two dogs and three cats.  Having three cats teaches you that maintaining a litter box is an endless, thankless, hopeless, gross, stinky, unhealthy, unending chore.  We used to use the LitterMaid, and went through three of them over the course of five years.  They worked…okay.  However, they had some significant engineering flaws, such as the fact that the rakes became caked with kitty poo, the receptacle filled up super quick when three cats were on the job, and they simply wore out after a year or so.

When we moved to our current house we decided to forego yet another LitterMaid and search for a newer, and hopefully better, solution.  The search led us to the Litter-Robot, pictured to the right.  It’s kind of space-age looking, and looks kind of big, and looks like it might freak out a cat or something, and maybe, just maybe, might refuse to open the pod bay doors.

The good news is that the Litter-Robot works, and it works extremely well.  It’s hard to describe the mechanics of it, but the large, round part on the top is simply sitting in place by virtue of gravity, it’s not attached or connected to the base in any way.  The orb has a couple of windows on the side (you can see one of them in the picture, it’s the black blotch on the side), and when in the normal position those windows are blocked by panels from the inside. 

The orb sits on the base, and the base beneath the orb is open to the drawer below.  Sensors in the unit determine when your cat has used the litter box, and seven minutes later little wheels (hidden from view underneath the orb) start turning and spin the orb counter-clockwise.  Inside the orb is a mesh grate and retaining pocket for the litter, and as the orb rotates the litter flows through the mesh grate and into the retaining pocket.  Anything a little bit bigger than a couple grains of litter can’t go through the mesh, so continue to roll along the inside of the orb as it rotates.

After the orb passes the rotation point where all the litter is contained in the pocket, the movement of the orb engages a lever that starts opening the panels that block the windows.  When the orb is fully rotated, the windows are completely unblocked allowing free access for any dropping droppings to fall into the drawer below.  After a short pause, the orb rotates back clockwise, the panels close the windows, and it eventually returns to the fully upright and locked position. 

Note that on this return turn, it over-rotates by about 15-20 degrees, then comes back to completely vertical.  This movement leaves the inside with perfectly level litter, but the first time it happens it doesn’t make sense and, if you’re like me, you might think the thing has slipped the chain and gone into rotational hell.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I guess that means a video must be worth a million, so here’s a video of what I just tried to describe:

It’s not nearly as noisy as the LitterMaids were, and there is zero, and I mean *zero*, smell of litterbox in our house.  With two cats we had to empty the drawer twice a week, with one cat we empty it once a week.  Standard garbage bags can be used as a liner for the drawer to make cleanup even easier.  And it only uses a tiny bit of litter each changing, because you only have to replace the litter that falls out clinging to the refuse.

Some caveats – the floor must be level, and it works best on a hard floor as opposed to carpeting.  Also, don’t overfill it with litter – the whole system works by sensing a cat’s weight stepping into and out of the litter box, and the whole unit rocks forward and back about a 1/2 inch during ingress/egress.  If there’s too much litter it can falsely trigger the sensors, and carpeting can dampen the rocking motion and make the unit not sense usage.

Also, the people at Litter-Robot are very nice and their support is very helpful.  When we first got ours I had a lot of trouble getting it working (due to unlevel floors and overfilling!), so I stuck it in the garage for a year.  When I pulled it back out I realized I had lost a part of it that I had loosened while tinkering, and the Litter-Robot folks were happy to replace it, free of charge, even!

Our cats took the the Litter-Robot within a couple of minutes, no hassle at all.  It takes up about as much floor space as a large litter box, but it’s about 2′ tall and requires the freedom to rotate, so you can’t smash it up against the wall or pull the drapes over it or anything.

The bottom line is that the Litter-Robot works great, it has a fabulous design, it’s easy to clean, our cats love it, there’s no smell, and it’s actually a conversation piece instead of being a sh*tbox.  What’s not to like!??

• Leave a comment... (4)

Just over a year ago we purchased a Westinghouse 47″ LCD HDTV (Model TX-47F430S) from Best Buy.  This model is priced at the cheaper end of the spectrum, but it seemed to fit our requirements (reasonably good picture, reasonably cheap, from a trustworthy brand name).

The bottom line is that we love the picture and the features, but some of the fit, finish, and quality are lacking.  We expected this because of the lower price, and are happy (so far) with the price-performance compromise.

The Good
First, the good things.  The picture quality is excellent and sharp, and the highest resolution is 1080p, which is the highest HDTV standard resolution.  I’ve heard rumors that Westinghouse has changed to a different LCD panel for this same model number for the new sets being produced, and that the new panel isn’t quite as bright and sharp, but don’t know that for certain.

The connections are also great.  There are four HDMI connectors for HD content.  There is a PC monitor port which allows you to drive it has a super-high-resolution PC/server monitor, and also takes the sound output from the PC as well (great for PC gaming).  It has composite and component/S-video inputs as well.  You can get more technical specifications here.

We have several things hooked up to our TV, as follows:

Regular definition cable TV via TiVo: We get regular cable TV programming through a cable box, which feeds our dual-tuner TiVo, which feeds into one of the component inputs of the TV.  Movies that are broadcast in widescreen can be expanded to fill the entire screen and look really good (but not as good as true HDTV, of course).

HDTV via DirectTV: We also have DirectTV in order to get the NFL and other (selected) sports in HD.  DirectTV only goes up to 1080i, which is interlaced and not quite 1080p, but is still super sharp looking.

Computer: We have a computer hooked up which we can use with a wireless keyboard/trackball, allowing us to display anything PC-based on our television in very sharp resolution.

Wii Console: The Wii console is connected via the component interface and looks good, but not great.  This is a function of the Wii, however, not the television, as the Wii doesn’t support any native high-resolution formats nor HDTV, so it looks a little pixellated when scaled up on our 47″ TV, but still fun and playable.

Overall, the good is really good on this television.  But unfortunately it’s not all good…

The Not-So-Good
There have also been some annoyances with this set, as follows:

• The Closed-Captioning simply does not work.  It gets a few of the words/text, but it’s very jumpy and misses random parts and just doesn’t work.  We rarely used captions, but sometimes it’s nice to have the news on with the sound down and the captions up, so that you can still read what’s going on without the noise intrustion, or when watching a quiet movie that you don’t want to blast the sound way up.  This is a nagging issue, but not bad enough for us to have tried returning the unit, and we didn’t discover until about 90 days in, meaning we couldn’t just go back to Best Buy and exchange it, we would have had to have done some kind of swap with Westinghouse, and would have almost certainly gotten a refurb unit to replace our brand-spanking-new one.
• The PC input doesn’t auto-center the input.  When we switch to view our PC, the video is about 25% of the way moved to the left, leaving a fat wide black bar on the right.  We can jump into the TV’s menu and hit “Auto Adjustment” under the PC options, and it quickly centers the picture properly.  However, we have to do this EVERY SINGLE TIME WE SWITCH TO THE PC INPUT, which gets very annoying.  Again, it’s annoying but fell into the category of “to be expected at this price” for us.  Also, the audio input from the PC has a background buzz if you turn the sound up.
• The remote control doesn’t work well from 10 feet away.  You have to be really close, like 7 feet, for it to work reliably.  This tends to defeat the purpose of a big television that you sit back from to enjoy the splendiforous big picture.  It’s even worse if you’re off to the side and not dead-on center when using the remote.  Again, something to be expected on a cheaper television, but annoying.
• On the regular TV component input, the televison occasionally doesn’t sense that there is a sound channel input, and so sets the status as “no input detected” (or something like that) and won’t play the sound.  We have to switch away from the TV input and then back to get it to recognize the input correctly.  Annoying.
• The audio is two-channel stereo only, so no 5-channel surround experience.

Overall the not-so-good parts are more annoyances than anything else, and each of them individually could be expected for the low price.  However, combined together they make us unsure if the annoyance was worth any cost savings.  However, all these annoyances could be moot because we are now having a REAL problem…

The BAD
Two weeks after our warranty expired (that’s right, two weeks), our television developed a bright green line of pixels down the left hand side, which shows on all inputs and even shows when the TV is powering up.  I have been on the phone with Westinghouse and they have confirmed that it’s a repair issue, but only after first telling me that it was “pixel memory” and making me turn the TV off and unplug it for 24 hours.  A bright green line is NOT pixel burn, but they wouldn’t proceed until I tried it.  Now I’m going to have to fight with them to see if I can get a waiver to get this repaired for goodwill or something, since the it’s out of warranty.  I don’t have high hopes.  I’ll post the results back here when all is said and done.

• Leave a comment... (3)

I just got done watching Dennis Kucinich introduce 35 Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush live on C-SPAN.  My take is that the Bush administration has run rampant, wielding Executive power as if it were a light saber, cutting and slicing through the Constitution, US Law, international law, valid treaties, common sense, human dignity, logic, reason, and morality.  That makes these Articles long, long overdue, and makes Dennis Kucinich a patriot and a hero (I never thought I’d say that about him!), in addition to being kind of a doink.

After 7 years of this administration, the US is despised around the world, and rightly so.  The good news is that if we act to show the world that this administration did not speak or act for our Republic, but instead acted against what we stand for, then we can take the first steps in the journey of a thousand miles to reclaiming our moral high ground.  We will also send a message to subsequent administrations that the US is not a monarchy, and the President is bound by the rule of law just like the rest of us.

I think the chances are slim that these Articles of Impeachment will result in the removal of Bush or any of his administration from office.  However, they need to be taken seriously by Congress.  Pelosi has stated repeatedly that the House will not attempt to impeach Bush, but I think she needs to rethink that position.  The ONLY way to heal the festering sore that is the Bush administration is to rip off the bandages, examine the wounds, scrub, clean, and disinfect.  Keeping them under wraps will simply turn it into political gangrene, slowly poisoning this great country.

Here is the full list of the Articles of Impeachment:

Article 1:  Creating a secret propaganda campaign to manufacture a false case for war against Iraq.

Article 2:  Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.

Article 3:  Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.

Article 4:  Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.

Article 5:  Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.

Article 6:  Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.

Article 7:  Invading Iraq without a declaration of war.

Article 8:  Invading Iraq in violation of the U.N. charter and international law.

Article 9:  Failing to provide troops with body armor and vehicle armor.

Article 10:  Falsifying accounts of US troop deaths.

Article 11:  Establishment of permanent bases in Iraq.

Article 12:  Initiating a war against Iraq for control of that nation’s national resources.

Article 13:  Creating a secret task force to guide our nation’s energy and military policy.

Article 14:  Misuse and exposure of classified information and obstruction of justice regarding Valerie Plame.

Article 16:  Wasting public funds on contracts to close associates, people guilty of government fraud, and awarding of no-bid contracts.

Article 17:  Unlawful detainment of prisoners indefinitely and without charge.

Article 18:  Secretly authorizing and encouraging the use of torture on prisoners in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Article 19:  Rendition, or kidnapping people and extraditing them to other countries to perform torture.

Article 20:  Imprisoning Children.

Article 21:  Misleading Congress and the American People about threats from Iran with the goal of overthrowing the Iranian Government.

Article 22:  Creating “Secret Laws.”

Article 23:  Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act (using the military as a domestic police force).

Article 24:  Warrantless spying on US citizens.

Article 25:  Having telecom companies create illegal database of email addresses and phone numbers.

Article 26:  Announcing the intent to violate laws with signing statements and then violating those laws.

Article 27:  Failing to comply with Congressional subpoenas and instructing former employees not to comply.

Article 28:  Tampering with free and fair elections.

Article 29:  Conspiracy to violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Article 30:  Misleading Congress and the American people in an attempt to destroy Medicare.

Article 31:  Failure to adequately plan for Hurrican Katrina and failure to adequately respond to the civil emergency.

Article 32:  Misleading Congress and the American people and undermining efforts to address global climate change.

Article 33:  Repeatedly ignored and failed to respond to high-level intelligence warnings of planned terrorist attacks in the US prior to 9/11.

Article 34:  Obstruction of the investigation into the attacks of 9/11.

Article 35:  Endangering the health of 9/11 first responders.

[Update 6/10/2008 at 8:30am Central time]  Unbelievably, this story has still not hit the major news outlets (CNN, Fox News, NY Times, BBC, etc).  The wire services (Reuters, AP) have the story, some smaller/local news outlets are carrying it, and the blogosphere is on fire about it.  Even if one sees Kucinich as simply a flake, he’s still a US Representative and former Presidential candidate, and he’s introduced orders of impeachment against the sitting President and provided extensive details to back up each of the 35 Articles, so this should be breaking news everywhere, even if just to mock/dismiss it.  Surreal.

• Leave a comment... (1)