Did you know that if you need one stamp after the Post Office closes and you use the new automated kiosk in the lobby, the following conditions apply:

• You cannot just buy one stamp.  You must buy 3.  I don’t need 3 stamps, I need one.  I already lost the book of stamps I bought the last time I needed to mail something, so I don’t need two more stamps to lose.
• You can’t pay with cash.  I had change to buy the stamp in my pocket, even enough to buy 3 44 cent stamps.  But the machine doesn’t take cash.  You have to pay with a card.  So my bank paid the company that processes the transaction a rather large percentage of the $1.32 it takes to buy three stamps.  Funny, I’m doing business with the .gov, the money in my pocket was minted by the .gov, and it says right on it “all debts, public and private” right on it.  
• You don’t get a real stamp.  You get a pre-printed sticker that has a computer code on it, so it’s sure to be mixed in with all of the other white paper with printing on it and lost.

Grumble, grumble, government, grumble.

Don’t you Remember,
The Fifth of November,
‘Twas Gunpowder Treason Day,
I let off my gun,
And made’em all run.
And Stole all their Bonfire away.

For my fellow citizens that are wearing Guy Fawkes masks in the public square today, remember, V for Vendetta was a fictional movie.  The real Guy Fawkes failed, was arrested, tortured, and executed.   People still burn him in effigy after a couple of centuries.  I doubt that you’ll be treated as roughly, but I also doubt that anyone will remember y’all in 4 years, much less 4 centuries.

Those of you using Tricare, the health insurance plan for military personnel, retirees, and their families, will be getting another free year of identity theft protection for Christmas, thanks to another security breach at a contractor.

What’s this, three? four? breaches of Tricare information in the past few years.  Hopefully, this time it wasn’t someone getting their car broken into while transporting unencrypted backup tapes.  That’s so 2008.

Here’s hoping that no-one is adversely impacted by this latest ‘aw crap’ moment in computer security.

I’ve seen a lot of new faces in comments and such around here lately, thanks to everyone who linked to some of my brain droppings.  That’s much appreciated, and very humbling.

I try to blogroll everyone who blogrolls me or comments here.  If you want to be on the list, but I haven’t gotten to you yet, please drop me a comment here and I’ll rectify the situation.

Again, thanks!

Irish Woman, reading the latest flyer from a gubernatorial candidate:  I’ve decided that I’m not taking the abortion issue into account in politics anymore.
DaddyBear:  OK
Irish Woman:  Why is abortion a political issue anyway?  If men were the ones having the babies, it wouldn’t be a political issue.
DaddyBear:  Yes dear, but only because we would have figured out how to do it with something from Black and Decker, complete with remote.

Matt G has some more information on how the family of William the Coroner would like for his memory to be honored.  They’re asking that in lieu of flowers and such that a small donation be made to Heifer International.  Basically, this charity provides livestock and poultry to the poor so that they can become more self sufficient. 

Matt G kicked in $25, and I had an extra bit of cash in the budget that seemed to need a home, so I threw that in the pot.  Anyone else care to join us?

One of the local funky little music stores, Ear Xtacy, went out of business this week.  It’s in the Highlands, which is about as hippie as you get in Louisville.  I’ve been in there a few times, and it was a throwback to the days when you had to go somewhere off the beaten path to get good music.

One of the few upshots of moving to California during high school was being able to go to Berkeley* and spend a few hours at Rasputin Records.  It was the first place I heard Nirvana, Green Day, and a bunch of other music that you don’t get in suburbia, both new and old.  The guys who worked there usually looked like they’d stepped right out of Woodstock.  I think they made as much money on tee-shirt and poster sales as they did on selling vinyl, but it was one of my favorite places as a teenager.  There’s something about just flipping through albums to find something that you haven’t heard before that you just don’t get from iTunes.

Of course, with the advent of digital music, these places are starting to become rarer and rarer.  One good thing is that a lot of music that never got past these little places is accessible to a wider audience.  The bad thing is that there are fewer places for small bands to get a toehold.

If you all will excuse me, I’m going to go see if I can find the turntable and listen to that old Hendrix album I’ve got around here somewhere.

*What can I say?  Telegraph Avenue was a lot of fun back then once you got past the politics.

Apparently, the Occupy Wall Street crowd in New York is really having an impact.  Unfortunately, it’s impacting the small businesses around their little people’s paradise and the people who are employed in them.

Marc Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall Street in lower Manhattan, said he had to cut 21 of the 97 members of his staff on Thursday and Friday after seeing sales plummet by 30 percent in the six weeks since the protests began. He’s also been forced to slash the restaurant operating hours, moving up his closing time from 9 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays

So a protest movement that’s supposed to be sticking it to the man has taken food off the tables of 21 families, and made it likely that 78 more will be poorer by the time they’re through.  


Way to go guys!  Nothing takes down capitalism like making sure that people who are hustling to keep a roof over their heads can’t keep their jobs.  Hey, if you work really hard, maybe you can drive all of the small businesses in the area out and then you’ll have a place to crash this winter.


Update – Looks like the folks out in Oakland are bracing for a general strike on Wednesday.  I’m sure all of the hourly employees of the small businesses that are staying closed out of concern for security and safety will enjoy being short a day’s pay.  

I saw the news today of the passing of William the Coroner.  I met him at the NRA convention in Pittsburg this spring, and have enjoyed reading his writings ever since.

William, thank you for your humor, your insight, and for the happiness you brought with you wherever you went.  We are diminished by your absence.

I’m letting Boo and Girlie Bear play with my Nerf six shot single action revolvers.  I’ve been a target of opportunity several times now.  On the bright side, the cats are getting a much needed workout, and from the squeals coming out of the back of the house, so is Irish Woman.

But here’s the thing that keeps going through my head:

“How can you shoot your poor old father?”
“Easy, you don’t lead him as much!”