Storm of Lies in the Forecast

As others have said elsewhere more eloquently than I, the major media and the mainstream information sources serve only one purpose: deception. While they may feel they are serving their own bottom line, that simply explains why they have no interest in truth or facts, except as shaped by decades of academic philosophical assumption building, [...]

Paths to Tyranny

Someone very close to me took some FEMA courses a decade ago. They were stunned by the very obvious euphemisms for treating the population like cattle. While it did not figure large in the materials, there was an obvious assumption those taking the course were preparing to subvert rights and liberties, and by any means [...]

On the March

My body simply refused to cooperate any longer with significant jogging. It’s just as well, since my personal interests are moving in another direction. Perhaps the number one survival skill is what the military calls “road marching.”
Aside from jogging, hard running, biking and race walking, I find the military style fast hiking is the most [...]

Linux Migration for the Home PC User, Part 8

The ultimate step in DIY Linux for the home PC user is building a piece of software for yourself.
In essence, that is what we will do here, but we will take some shortcuts to make it as painless and simple as possible. This means instead of simply building something directly from source, with all the [...]

Let’s Clarify Torture

Update: See below.
You can ramble on for days about official definitions, provisions, and every other semantic weaseling you like, but we all know what torture is. Any honest definition includes using fear, repulsion, hatred, pain and other highly emotional manipulations of captured or detained people.
As always, I don’t apologize for basing such declarations on my [...]

Linux Migration for the Home PC User, Part 7

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Making Adjustments
Even if you were quite active in reconfiguring the ways Windows looked and acted, you’ll probably be surprised at the number of things Linux allows you to configure. Our first item is something under the hood, as it were, which should make the system automate things you need, [...]

Linux Migration for the Home PC User, Part 6

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Let’s add another repo.
I’m going to choose for you the one I have found most likely to offer what you want or need, with the least amount of difficulty, particularly in matching the packages to the basic system. That repo is called RPMForge. This is relatively easy, if you happen [...]

Torture: Dental Disregard

Now, don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m about to tell you how important it is you take good care of your teeth. You already know that. No, I’m referring to the total disregard most dentists have for poor people.
First, let’s make sure you understand, in my vast travels in life, I’ve met only three [...]

Linux Migration for the Home PC User, Part 5

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Be careful using the Linux command line — it can be very addictive. You don’t have to be a hobby fanatic to enjoy the power of what’s often called “pure computing.”
But assuming you have no intention of using it any more than absolutely necessary, we continue our work in it just [...]

We Have Found the Enemy

For those of you living in the US, and perhaps to some degree in the UK, let us digest some of the latest news in terms of what it means on a broader scale. Frankly, if you need a bunch of links and references, you haven’t been paying attention anyway.

If you are the sort of [...]