Windows 7 fail

I've had an interesting run with the old laptop over the past month or so. First the hard drive became corrupted. Rather than buy a new laptop and incur that expense, I decided to install a new solid-state hard drive.

The new drive is awesome. REALLY awesome. Breathtakingly fast.

However, because my OEM install for Windows Vista was so old, there were literally hundreds of updates that had to be applied post-install. Okay, not an issue, right? Wrong! One of the updates kept breaking Vista and throwing a blue screen of death on boot up.

Again, undaunted I was. I purchased an OEM copy of Windows 7 64-bit to install on the old laptop. Everything was ducky. The software installed, outstanding updates applied quickly, and I was ready to rock and roll.

Or so I thought.

I began to notice that my wireless connection would drop at random intervals. Oh sure, it's easy enough to fix using the troubleshooter's drop-and-reset functionality. But not having a reliable wireless connection makes large downloads an adventure, and makes maintaining a consistent system backup (you know, like the one that saved my bacon when the hard drive became corrupted) impossible.

I made the rounds all over the Interwebs and discovered that I wasn't alone. No, far from it. It turns out that literally hundreds of Windows 7 users have had this issue, and Microsoft refuses to acknowledge that it's their problem. They blame the ISPs, the routers, the router firmware, the wireless cards, the wireless drivers...everything except the position of the moon and the stars. But they will not acknowledge that their operating system might have anything to do with it.

Listen up, Redmond! It IS your operating system that is causing the issue. There are too many people from too many walks of life with too much prior OS experience having the exact same problem regardless of laptop manufacturer, router manufacturer, wireless card make and model, or ISP. In my home alone the following operating systems are actively running without any wireless connectivity issues:

Windows XP
Windows Vista
Ubuntu (Linux)
Mac OS X
iOS 4 (iPhone and iPad)
Android (3 different phones running Gingerbread, Honeycomb, AND Ice Cream Sandwich)

The driver software on my laptop is current. The router firmware is current. The ISP is a national carrier.

My sons and I have over 50 years of experience with computers between us, including 10+ years building custom PCs. I think we know what we're doing here. I think we know how to diagnose and troubleshoot.

The problem is Windows 7, Redmond! Fix the problem. Now. Because you're making Linux look like a more attractive solution with every dropped connection.

New Tizona Post

Weiner pulls out.

The schadenfreude has been beyond blissful. A creepy libtard is caught flashing his namesake. Caught lying about it. Accused of asking a former prØn star to lie for him.

New Tizona Post

Some guys just never learn. Sean Salisbury. Brett Favre. And now aptly-named Congress-critter Anthony “wanna see my” Weiner.

Read the complete post here.

Mark Williams is a clueless moron

In the wake of the NAACP controversy resulting from their failed effort to condemn the Tea Party as racist (like, what ISN'T racist to this patently racist organization?), up steps professional assclown Mark Williams to prove them right.

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Colored People have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

It goes on (and on) like that. Williams uses the phrase "colored people" repeatedly throughout his alleged parody.

Thank you, Mr. Williams, for giving the professional race-bait industry added life.  Thank you for providing even more ammunition to the Tea Party haters to dismiss that movement.  Thank you for making it possible for progressives to make the claim that "conservative = racist".

You sir, are a tool of the first order.  You need to just go away.  Now.

Congratulations, Mark Williams!  You've earned a Wiener Award!  Now please choke on it. Asshat!

Harry Reid is a retard

I apologize to all retards out there right off the bat for my post title.  It is an insult to retards to equate them with Harry Reid.  They're much smarter than he.

Why the shot at Nevada's pox on our nation?  It is the result of this pin-headed statement.

“The most important thing we've done for the country and the world is health care,” he said.

The most important thing.  Not entering WWII and defeating the march of Fascism.  Not staring down the great Soviet Bear.  Not the achievement of our Founders in creating this country from a ragtag group of colonies.  Nope.  It was health care.

How did Nevada ever elect this mentally deficient product of inbreeding?  I just don't get it.  I just plain don't get it.

Congrats, Harry! You just won a Wiener Award!

Just go to Wikipedia and search for 'bigoted egomaniac'

Just when I thought I'd put the Caput a Palos in my rear view mirror, blogging compatriot Hugh McBride called my attention to this monument to egomania run amok.  Yes, it seems that anonymity is no obstacle when it comes to bald-faced self-promotion.

Coram Non Judice, is a legal blog that primarily focuses on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and the various legal actions involving them in Texas, Arizona, and Utah.

[...]

The blog, authored by an anonymous blogger known as "TxBluesMan" has consistently supported the law enforcement side of the issues involved.

"Supported the law enforcement side of the issues?" What a load of horse hockey! Try "supported the pro-bigotry side of the issues"!

Unless one of the Caput a Palos' sycophantic followers created the Wiki page, what we have here is one of the all-time great examples of egomania.  "Look at me!  Look at me!  Look at me!"

Yeah, this has to be a Wiener Award winner.  Can you think of anyone more deserving?  I might just have to name the award after the guy.

Law abuse

This is exactly the sort of story that makes it clear why people despise lawyers.

The 62-year-old Ogletree, you see, was headed to Las Vegas on December 30 when he stopped at a pizza place in the Houston airport. Upon departing the food court in Terminal C, Ogletree somehow forgot to take his "expensive black leather coat," an XL Polo model (with a fashionable plaid lining) worth $800. Not surprisingly, the coat subsequently disappeared. Now Ogletree is threatening to sue the City of Houston, Continental Airlines, and the food court's management company for failing to have "collected the coat, kept it in a secure place and held it for a reasonable time" until he was able to reunite with the garment. These prospective defendants, Ogletree reasoned, "breached their duty" in connection with how they "manage lost and found items for which they are responsible." In his January 18 litigation threat letter, a copy of which you'll find below, Ogletree, pictured at right, noted that "further legal action" could be avoided if he simply was paid $800 "for the cost of the coat."

To summarize:

• Lawyer enters airport


• All parties in the airport are immediately libel for any damage or loss involving his person and possessions

And to think! Once upon a time it was understood that personal responsibility requires one to be RESPONSIBLE for one's PERSON. By extension, one is also to be responsible for one's PERSONAL EFFECTS.

Mr. Ogletree, you're the recipient of the Wiener Award.

There is one lingering question, however. Could this possibly be the Caput a Palos, TxBluesMan himself?

Something in the water?

What is up with South Carolina politicians? First Governor Mark Sanford "went on a hike" that turned out to be a 10,000 mile flight to Argentina to see his mistress. Then the Assistant Attorney General got nabbed in a cemetery with an 18-year-old stripper, a sack of sex toys and Viagra.

Now it's the Lieutenant Governor, Andre Bauer, who's wandered off the reservation.

Last Thursday, Andre Bauer commented at a town hall meeting, "My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that.” Mr. Bauer was referring to govt. programs that assist the poor and disadvantaged.

Someone check the water in Columbia...I think someone's putting nutjob juice in it.

Are you serious? "Don't feed the strays"? That comment goes WAAAAAAY beyond any of the so-called "racist" comments made by other politicians that has caused them to get driven from office. It's even worse than Harry Reid's "light skinned" and "no negro dialect" comments. Dude! Are you frickin' serious?

I've seen some ass-headed politicians in my day, but this bozo takes the cake. And, not coincidentally, he also takes a well-deserved Wiener Award.

Doofuses in the news (Wiener Award)

Are there two stupider people on the planet than Pat Robertson and Danny Glover? No, really! I'm not asking a rhetorical question here!

Robertson, who apparently can't let any disaster pass without providing aid and comfort to the anti-Christianity community, had this to say about the Haiti earthquake.

"They were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal."

Uh huh. I guess if the devil said it, Pat Robertson, false prophet, would know.

Just by way of a little factual intervention, the apocryphal tale of Haiti's "deal with the devil" dates back to the 1790's. It was France's way of explaining away their mighty army's defeat at the hands of revolting slaves.

But Robertson isn't the only one making an ass of himself opining on the Haitian earthquake. Take it away, Mr. Glover.

We have to mount a much larger effort in the US. It's going to be a defining moment for this administration. Other countries in the region, they are Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, and other countries have already stepped to the plate. What happened to Haiti is a threat that could happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations, you know, because of global warming, because of climate change and all this. And we need to find -- we did what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen. This is the response. This is what happens, you know what I'm saying? But we have to act now.

That Danny Glover! What a hoot!

To summarize, Pat Robertson posits that the earthquake and Haiti's poverty are God's punishment for Haiti's "deal with the devil". And Danny Glover posits that the earthquake is Gaia's punishment for the "failure" of the Hopenhagen summit. The Vulture posits that the earthquake was caused by the sudden movement of tectonic plates, as are ALL earthquakes.

What a pair of clowns!

Congratulations, clowns! You're Wiener Award winners!

A pox on baseball

The cartel known as Major League Baseball makes me want to puke. I grew up the hugest of baseball fans from around my 11th birthday right up until the 1994 season (and World Series) was flushed as billionaires and millionaires fought for more loot. That was it for me. Baseball just wasn't fun any more.

And for a couple of years after that, you couldn't pay me to watch a baseball game. Once my youngest son became a baseball fan around 1996, I would watch games with him. But that was it. Baseball was dead to me.

A lot of baseball fans shared these feelings with me. A lot. And then everything changed. Why? Because Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa staged a home run race for the ages in 1998. Suddenly I was reading the box scores again, just like in the old days. I was back. A lot of fans were back. That historic home run race saved baseball's bacon.

McGwire had been one of my favorite players on the A's during their late-80's heyday, and I always liked how he was the anti-Canseco. So naturally I rooted him on. He was my favorite player of the late 90's, and when he retired, so did I. I reverted to my pre-1998 form; baseball was again dead to me.

When McGwire retired, it was obvious that he had played a Hall of Fame-worthy career. 583 career home runs tend to get noticed by Hall voters.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Hall of Fame. The steroids scandal broke. Players suspected of being "users" were paraded before Congress in yet another of their "try to make tonight's media soundbite" useless hearings.

McGwire came away from the hearings damaged. It was said that he was evasive and didn't answer questions posed to him by the crooks in Congress, making him look guilty. McGwire became the poster child for the steroids era. Mind you, there is no legitimate proof anywhere that McGwire ever purchased or used any illegal or banned product during the course of his career. No matter. The lazy a-holes who write sports columns for a living had their sacrificial lamb, and they flogged him relentlessly in their columns.

These are the same writers, mind you, who RAVED about how McGwire and Sosa saved baseball in '98. Hypocrisy anyone?

You might say, "So? Who gives a rat's posterior what those mouth-breathers think?" The problem is - those mouth-breathers are the voters for the Hall of Fame!

McGwire has been dissed on every vote since he became Hall-eligible about 4 years ago. The most votes he has received has been 128. It takes 405 votes (75%) to enter the Hall. So, out of 539 Hall of Fame voters, less than 25% will vote for a player who ranks 8th on the all-time home runs list, just because of the STILL UNPROVEN taint of steroids associated with him.

Since McGwire became Hall-eligible, these are the players elected to the Hall.

2007 - Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken
2008 - Goose Gossage
2009 - Ricky Henderson, Jim Rice
2010 - Andre Dawson

Gwynn, Ripken, Gossage, and Henderson are legitimate Hall of Fame players. But Rice and Dawson? Are you effin kidding me? Neither of those guys could hold McGwire's jock!

To add insult to injury, Bowie Kuhn, the Commissioner who nearly killed baseball in the 70's, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2008. Bowie Kuhn???? WTF?!?!?!

Those who vote against McGwire say he cheated. Excuse me, but Gaylord Perry admitted in his tell-all book that he threw an illegal vaseline ball for most of his career! That's cheating...but Perry is in the Hall.

They counter that by saying that McGwire set a bad example for our youth by using steroids. You want bad examples? Babe Ruth was a drunken womanizer, as were Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb were virulent racists. Each of those individuals is in the Hall.

The latest bit of idiocy put forth as a valid reason for denying McGwire the Hall is priceless. A talking head on some stupid ESPN show (is that redundant?) said that McGwire wasn't Hall-worthy because "he only really had 6 exceptional seasons." Really? Sandy Koufax had 4. He's in the Hall. It could be argued that Jim Rice only had 5. He's in the Hall.

Hall voters, your idiotic and flimsy excuses for excluding McGwire are growing tired. Baseball is tired. Both of you should go away.

Congratulations, Hall voters! You're the recipient of the newly unveiled Wiener Award!