Say Weeeeeee!
Ahhhhhh!

Alas, EMusic

Remember EMusic? For just $9.95 per month, you got unlimited downloads from their library of over 17,000 independent albums, about 250,000 MP3s. No DRM nonsense, either.

No more.

Now, for the same great price, you get... 40 downloads. 40 MP3s. Per month. Well, it's probably not the most amazingly bad offer ever made, but it's pretty damn sucky. I'm cancelling my account.

After first downloading the rest of They Might Be Giants' ouvre, that is.

And to add insult to injury:

We're sorry but our messageboards are temporarily unavailable. Stay tuned, the messageboards will available again soon.

Yeah, right.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:02 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Liberals Seethe, Whine

Surprisingly enough* many California Democrats want to recall Governor Arnold. Well, hey, it's your constitutional right to try.

But is there just a touch of hypocrisy here given that just one day ago the whole idea of a recall was "anti-democratic"? Guess things look different when you lose.**

You'd think that a party named Democrat would be in favour of democracy, wouldn't you? Truth in Advertising brings you the Democrat Only When It Suits Us And To Hell With Consistency Party.

Don't mind me, I'm just gloating. I don't know if Arnold will make a good governor. I'm just happy to see the liberals get kicked where it hurts... Wherever that might be, since they don't have any.

* That is, not surprising at all.
** Ha-ha!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:51 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Governor Arnold

Looks like.

Yep, looks like.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:53 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Newsflash: Lost Lamb Located

Bill "Scoop" Cimino of Bloviating Inanities has managed to establish contact with our lost lamb, John Collins. Unfortunately, it looks like John might not be able to blog for a while. We'll see what we can do to fix that and get "the funniest man in the Blogosphere" up and blogging again A.S.A.P.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:56 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Idiot Watch

Steven Den Beste deconstructs the Tranzis - with a chainsaw.

Worth a read, as he does a good job of explaining why the Tranzis think the way they do. Yes, it's because they're idiots, but he explains the idiot-logic that leads to the Tranzi position, step by horrible step.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Howdy, Stranger!

As many of you guessed, the new Munuvian is none other than H of Everyday Stranger. Say hello, H!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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A New Hope

Even at Fark, a site practically overrun by Democrats, they at least hate the French.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Don't Mess With Mister In-Between

There's another reason why I haven't been writing essays like my non-exsistent The State of the World: It's not what this blog is about.

Not that I'm saying that I know what this blog is about. It's just a filtered stream-of-consciousness, really. Whatever survives from the time it pops into my head to the time I sit down at the keyboard - and won't get me arrested - in it goes. Except - there's this filter thingy involved. It slaps little markers on my thoughts like whiny or pompous* and another post goes *pooft* into orange smoke before I can hit the Save button.

One of the guidelines I set myself when I started trying to work out what I was blogging about was accentuate the positive. Or it would have been, except that I hate the word accentuate and refuse to use it. In fact, I never use a five-syllable (counts) four-syllable word where a one or two syllable word will do. In writing, I strive for utmost clarity and precision, so if anyone needs a copy of my Nuclear Engineering for Grade Schoolers, just give me a yell.

And I don't set myself guidelines like that anyway; smarmy little bits of so-called wisdom set my teeth on edge.

He's got hiiiigh hopes,
He's got hiiiigh hopes,
He's got high apple pie in the
Sky hopes

If I wanted to write about all the bad and stupid things happening in the world, at least I'd have no shortage of material. But, I note, there already are people writing about the bad and the stupid, and doing a fine job at it too, and my efforts would disappear like the ripples from a pebble dropped in the ocean during a hurricane.**

So I'll write about the good, whenever I can, and wherever I find it. And when I do find that I simply must rant about something, I will endeavour to make it at least amusing if not instructive.

So any time your gettin' low,
'Stead of lettin' go,
Just remember that ant -
Oops there goes another rubber tree plant

You little bastard, that's the third one this week! Do you have any idea how much those things cost?

Um... Y'know, I think it might just be time for bed.

See you.

* Or, all too often, stupid.
** I've tried this and know whereof I speak.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:43 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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How'd That Happen?

I seem to have ended up writing half of my State of the World essay that I said I wasn't going to write. Now I might as well finish it, I guess. It's not all about idiots, either. Wolves and pooping also make an appearance.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:54 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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Academentia II: The Return Of Porphyrogenitus

Much of the value of the Blogosphere comes from its ability to absorb both facts and opinions and respond to them rapidly. For example, Porphyrogenitus has already responded to my earlier post.

A couple of points that I might have made clearer:

I do indeed see the value of liberal arts studies. History in particular I find fascinating, and it is obviously useful in putting today's world events in perspective and understanding them, and so an essential field of study for anyone going into politics. Literature - while I prefer to read for the pleasure of reading, I have no problem with those who seek to understand what makes a great book great. And so on.

As Por' notes, the problem is not with the subject matter so much as the way it is taught, which goes back, of course, to the teachers.

As I understand it, the idea behind having a liberal arts degree in the modern world is not so much the knowledge involved - what does a history degree prepare you for, apart from studying more history or teaching the same? Writing bad fantasy novels, perhaps... Not so much the knowledge gained, but being taught to think. Logic and reasoning and suchlike.

As someone recently said on this subject (possibly it was Victor David Hanson), the problem is that the teachers are no longer satisfied with teaching their students to think, but now feel it is their duty to teach them how and what to think.

My purpose in exposing arts students to mathematics and science and engineering was not intended as a slight on the arts studies themselves (though the character of this blog is to toss off all but the most serious of topics with a clever remark), but that the difference in thinking in the schools of science and engineering would expose those students to a new world of thought. Two new worlds in fact.

First, in science and engineering and mathematics and accounting, you can be wrong. It's not a matter of opinion or politics, it's just wrong. No, that bridge will not stay up. No, you can't have a double-bond with hydrogen. No, the square root of two is not a rational number. No amount of debate will change these things. The facts of science, the rigorous logic of mathematics, the application of these in engineering - this is a different world.

Second, because of this, the destructive theories of Postmodernism cannot find a foothold in any sane science or engineering faculty. Postmodernism, to an engineer, is simply and obviously wrong. So the particular leftist structure that we find built around PoMo thought today likewise finds no place. Not that there are no leftists in science or engineering - hardly that! - but there is equally a place for centrists and conservatives. As long as the equations are right, as long as the facts check out, as long as the plane flies, as the building stands, that is what matters and your politics not at all.

And that is as strong an antidote to the Idiots of Academia as I know.

Also, Porphyrogenitus wishes us all to know that he is not in fact bound for Mexico.

It's Bermuda.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:46 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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