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Chris Knight's avatar

A friend of mine named Jason French had this to say on Facebok…

“Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn’t work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ’s. We just figured it out.”

I remember my Nintendo Entertainment system, and after a couple years’ use something messed up inside that kept the cartridges’ contacts from meeting those of the console when you pushed it down. I put in some cartridges and noticed that after inserting them fully they were coming back up very slightly. Just enough, I figured, to keep the console and cartridge from connecting with each other.

So I took some springy wire from a spiral notebook, and ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

I try not to speak ill of the dearly departed. Regardless of that, some things demand saying…

If it were not for his last name and his family, Ted Kennedy would have gone nowhere. The choices that he made as a person and that he continued to make would have been too grave a taint.

And then, to have held the same elected position since 1962 is way too much. I’ve known of some people who had been in office for just as long and even longer, but I’m hard pressed to think of any that came to think of their post as something they were entitled to. Ted Kennedy did however, and it thoroughly corrupted his character as a supposed public servant.

The only other thing that I can add is that I sincerely hope he made peace with God before passing away. I don’t think that’s impossible for ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

There’s some tragic news out of Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania this weekend: a 19-year old woman is dead following an automobile accident. And apparently the motorist was distracted by the iPod she was trying to work while driving the car.

Before writing anything else, two things need to be said: I have no idea what model of iPod the driver was using. And I’ll be the first to admit that I also use my iPod while driving. I might as well come clean on that much because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to share these thoughts to begin with…

Normally, I don’t think it’s much of a problem to talk on a cellphone or work an iPod while driving. It’s not much different an effort than messing around with the radio trying to find a good station (and it’s pretty darned rare to hear of any crash being caused by ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

So the House Republican Conference has just started up a new website dedicated to helping “the public and the press keep track of the billions of taxpayer dollars spent each year on government projects”.

Who the hell do these people think they’re kidding?

WHERE was this kind of concern from the Republicans about “billions of taxpayer dollars” between the years 2001 and early 2009, when they had the White House and for most of that time control of the House and Senate?

George W. Bush and his allies misspent more money from the public treasury than any other presidential administration in modern American history. Thus far the fiscal practices of Barack Obama have not been intrinsically different or substantially more wasteful than those of his predecessor. And it could be readily argued that Bush and his Republican colleagues certainly paved the way for whatever Obama will be doing for the ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

…if the next American civil war might begin over, of all things, health care.

No, really.

I’ve openly mused on this blog before about what issue it would take for this country to begin tearing itself apart. Previously I thought it would be about illegal immigration (which is still a huge problem and one that very few elected officials seem inclined to address).

But now, having seen numerous videos coming from “town hall” meetings between members of Congress and their constituents, and seeing the very real disdain that too many politicians obviously have toward the people they have sworn an oath to serve…

No, I don’t think this is “partisan” very much at all now. I do however believe that the disconnect which has been growing for many years between regular citizens and their elected representatives – during times in which both major parties have been “in power”, it should ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

“…and I’m going to give it to them.”

Right now the Intertubes are burning up with heated controversy about this poster appearing around Los Angeles depicting President Barack Obama in Joker-style makeup as Heath Ledger portrayed Batman’s nemesis in last year’s The Dark Knight.

What particularly makes me chuckle are remarks made by Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable (whatever the hell that is) president Earl Ofari Hutchinson: “Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery. It is mean-spirited and dangerous. We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama.”

So let me get this straight: it’s now considered a dire offense, if not an outright sin, to criticize Obama?

I don’t think this is “mean-spirited” at all. Most longtime readers of ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

So today is opening day for the eagerly-awaited film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I haven’t seen it yet but advance word from friends who have is that it’s a pretty good movie. I’ll probably go check it out this afternoon (and write a review for this blog ‘course).

Something that I have found rather intriguing about the Harry Potter phenomenon over the last few years: Where the heck has all the “Christian” opposition to these books gone to? I mean, I remember when the movie of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was coming out, and the local TV news showed these overly-righteous “Bible-beating” types marching outside of a nearby theater about how the Harry Potter books were “evil”, “witchcraft” and “leading children astray”. I’ll never forget this one particularly stern-faced young woman in an outfit like something out of Old Salem (or perhaps olden ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

The greatest curmudgeon of the Internet – and probably the modern world – has returned.

Actually, Fred Reed has been back at it for over a month now from the looks of it. He announced in February that he was retiring… but nature does abhor a vacuum, right?

So Reed is at it again, and in his latest work he offers his unique insight regarding the death of the journalism industry.

Here’s an excerpt…

A story once might have begun, “At midafternoon Thursday a house burned down at 112 Maples Street. Three children left unaccompanied inside escaped unhurt.” In the sensitive new journalism, the lead became, “Sally Harpooner, a single mother of three, saw a towering plume of smoke rising from her home as she returned from a community-sponsored drug-rehabilitation center. Her heart beat faster….” Before, a reporter would have said forget her heart, beat sally for being

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