Once in awhile it's nice to be read to

My daughter insists that she knows when I am writing about her so I'll keep this short. After an interesting bout exploring Adobe Illustrator, she decided she wants to read to me from her current book, Fablehaven. It's not a bad book and much better for her reading it instead of me.

Some treasures are utterly ordinary. Some are extraordinary. This is both.

The White Ghetto

Pope Francis' indictment of welfare applies to the US. For me the takeaway line from Kevin D Williamson's The White Ghetto is “The government gives people checks, but nobody teaches them how to live” and a sad takeaway indeed.

There is no cure for the sort of hopelessness this article shows that does not start with love and caring for individuals and creating a plan to get them out of the welfare and cultural trap that they are in.

VMX kickstarter

I'm quite interested in a kickstarter from VMX which is advertised as computer vision for everyone. Having a simple way for computers to identify objects in video streams is a huge game changer in a lot of fields.

Personally, I could probably use an alarm that reminds me that it's time to take out the garbage cans and only runs if nobody's done it by 8pm the night before they pick it up at 6am in the morning. I've said hello to the garbage guys a bit too often as I haul out the cans as they turn the corner. I mean they're nice guys and all but I'm just not very social at that hour of the day.

I'm going to cover my business interest in this technology tomorrow over at the citizen intelligence blog, God willing and I can stave off writer's block.

Kids are home

Being without your kids is supposed to be a relief. that might be true the first 12 hours. The relief when they come back home is a great deal better.

scheduled posting in wordpress works nicely.

I experimented for the first time posting ahead on my business blog today and it went off without a hitch. It's actually interesting splitting up my writing to two different blogs and I think it was a wise move to choose two different platforms. It makes it more difficult for inappropriate subjects to bleed over, as nonsensical as that may sound. Having a different set of tools puts my mind in a different mood.

Mitt Romney's grandchild

I just put this up in comments over at Instapundit.

I understand Romney. He no doubt wanted to get his grandchild out of the news cycle as soon as possible. This is a normal reaction. I cannot condemn him for acting in the best interests of this newest addition to his clan. This really is something that we ought to take care of without involving innocent hostages like that newly adopted infant. 

Love happens. It is a wonderful thing. Occasionally it crosses all sorts of unusual group lines. Once in awhile you get an interracial love where one of the members is a white conservative and the other is a different racial grouping. Love is no less wonderful because of the conservatism of one of the partners. To attack a case of interracial love based on the political conservatism of one of the loved is hateful, bigoted, and an exercise in dehumanization based on political ideology. That also makes it un-American.  

People who do this are haters and intolerant. 

This is the start and end of what I think about the whole MSNBC mockery of Mitt Romney's family photo complete with his new adopted grandchild. I wish the Romney family the best and hope nobody else is ever as ugly with them again. I'm not holding my breath though. Good luck Romney clan.

It's cold outside

I'm going in and out trying to not lose body parts to the brutal cold in these parts while shoveling out the driveway so my wife can make rounds. Right now I'm warming up but today marks a first. My glasses got fogged and then ice crystals formed on the lenses to the point where it was clear that my body temp wasn't going to resolve the problem anytime soon and I was functionally blind with them on.

I have never seen cold like this before, though I have an image of readers in Alaska, Canada, and the high plains states trying to stifle their laughter upon reading this. Well it's new to me anyway.

Stay warm people.