Ronald Reagan’s 1964 speech, A Time for Choosing,” in support of Barry Goldwater, where he speaks of a rendezvous with destiny.

And, from the 1980 Carter-Reagan Debate:

And just for perspective, how different to most politicians was Reagan’s response to sly, underhanded attempts to insert stealth personal attacks:

Gotta love him. Even Mondale appreciated the comeback.

Originally posted at thirdworldcounty.us

“Good fences make good neighbors.”

In several posts over the years here at twc, I’ve invoked the principles of Classicism. Usually these invocations are in aid of addressing the artistic merits–or more often lack thereof–of different expressions claiming artistic merit, but I think the principles have a broader application to society at large, as well. For review, here they are…

third world county.

Just read it.

Emphasis added:

“Yes, she once supported the project: But after witnessing the problems created by earmarks for her state and for the nation’s budget, she did what others like me have done: She changed her position and saved taxpayers millions. Even the Alaska Democratic Party credits her with killing the bridge.

“When the Senate had its chance to stop the Bridge to Nowhere and transfer the money to Katrina rebuilding, Messrs. Obama and Biden voted for the $223 million earmark, siding with the old boys’ club in the Senate. And to date, they still have not publicly renounced their support for the infamous earmark.”

Enough said.

X-Posted from third world county

No, this blog has not become a single-issue blog for Sarah Palin, but…

If Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Golda Meir and Winston Churchill had been easier on the eyes…

*heh*

Yeh, easy on the eyes makes it easier to pay attention. She’s not just another bland (yeh, even The Obamassiah’s bland by comparison) artificial political construct.

And then there’s her voice. While Ye Olde Voice Coache *heh* in me would like to have a couple of months to work with her voice (which sounds like a nice basic instrument), another part of me, the part that hears my wife’s “north country” relatives’ vowels and is comforted thereby, just relaxes and smiles at hearing a genuine voice, untainted by East and Left coast mass media manufactured diction.

And then, easy on the eyes face, comforting to the ears/soul voice making it easier to hear the smart and true and telling words she utters: very powerful. (Simply making paying attention easier is a powerful, powerful tool for political persuasion.)

Couple that with a record that is a compelling testimony to good works–and yes, I have read her detractors, and frankly, so far, all the shrill and angry voices serve as an endorsement of Palin; one can tell a lot about a person by looking at who chooses to be their enemy, you know–and the Palin addition to the ticket truly validates Bill Dyer’s campaign slogan for the McCain/Palin ticket:

I look forward to 2012 and 2016–or even 2016 and 2020, should I make it that far–*heh*–when we might anticipate a Palin/Jindal ticket to vote for…

 From a post at the real third world county–newly moved to new hosting and feeling… pretty much OK about it.

That’s me: staying warm n toasty and “pigging out” on Bryn Terfel while enjoying some home brewed wheat beer (yeh, yeh: from a kit ).

*heh*

This kinda stuff can easily carry me through New Year’s Day.

Bryn Terfel – We’ll Keep a Welcome

and

Mr. Beer Whispering Wheat Weizenbier Refill Brew Pack

…of a sort.

A couple of months have passed since my ”Fatcow sucks dead bunnies through a straw” post, and I can finally say (I think) that I’ve managed the move to a better hosting service.

BlueHost seems to be pretty darned good. I needed help with a few issues (like getting the sql file(s) imported, since the exported files were… a tad large *heh* causing myPhpAdmin to “pharte” and hicough no end) and the guys at BlueHost were right on it.

Nice. Seems the “service economy” has some life in it yet.

[Note: this is x-posted from THE third world county, as may be quite some few until I find other hosting. *sigh*]

As a few folks have commented while commiserating with me via email about the crappy service I’ve been experiencing with my hosting service recently (the hosting service shall go unnamed, but its initials are F-a-t-c-o-w) to the effect that, as one person put it, “Seems there’s no such thing as ‘customer service’ in any realm, anymore.”

Well, duh.

What my hosting-service-that-shall-not-be-named substitutes for customer service is front end “warm voices” that can effect no substantive changes themselves but are merely “cover” allowing crappy service to continue on the back end.

See my post here for the scant info I had up earlier today at a WordPress.com blog where I had to redirect my domain because of stupid, irresponsible, dumbass actions taken by the hosting-service-that-shall-not-be-named (with the initials, “F-a-t-c-o-w”).

All along, I’ve been able to talk to warm personalities who promise to “do all I can” to rectify the situation (but who, when pressed, admit they can do nothing). Meanwhile, I get emails from people claiming to be “Technical Specialists” indicating

a. They have not read the trouble ticket
b. They have not read my email answers to their queries/emails
c. They are idiots simply playing CYA games.

And the backend problems caused by the hosting-service-that-shall-not-be-named (with the initials, “F-a-t-c-o-w”) continue.

Back last January, I switched this blog from a hosting account generously provided by a benefactor to the hosting account I’m using now. The old hosting account was on Fatcow, so methought, “Hmm, should be easiest to just get my own hosting account with the same service and switch it over.”

Wrong. Those of y’all who were around then may recall that it took a week for the backend guys to stop screwing around.

*sigh*

Let’s see if this posts. If it does, maybe I’ll continue to be hosted on hosting-service-that-shall-not-be-named (with the initials, “F-a-t-c-o-w”)…  for about a week or so more.

When things settle down, I’ll get back to regular curmudgeonry.

Oh! The latest offer from hosting-service-that-shall-not-be-named (with the initials, “F-a-t-c-o-w”) was to restore the data NUKED by some idiot techie–material destroyed from Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Of course, when (IF) they actually do that, they’ll destroy everything (you can bet on it!) that’s come in since that conversation… and more.

( Note: I was right. They “restored” data, nuking everything that’d bee done since they screwed it up to begin with. Of course. Idiots. Cretins. Irresponsible boobs.)

Bet on it.

Idiots.

Please join me in spreading the word: avoid the hosting-service-that-shall-not-be-named (whose initials are, “F-a-t-c-o-w”). If already using the hosting-service-that-shall-not-be-named (whose initials are, “F-a-t-c-o-w”), seek other service, quickly.

[pre-posting update: I had just finished this post and was ready to CLICK "Publish" at twc when... yep. "Error establishing a database connection". Yep, the hosting-service-that-shall-not-be-named (with the initials, "F-a-t-c-o-w") has still not done anything useful to correct the problems caused by its server "upgrades". Took a 30 minute wait, with multiple tries reloading, to get back this far. WTG, hosting-service-that-shall-not-be-named (with the initials, "F-a-t-c-o-w")!]

OTOH, there are a few companies left that combine at least minimal competence and customer service. One of my broadband company’s nodes went down, affecting my service yesterday. I called. Was told, “We’re working on it,” and… they were. Back in service within 30 minutes. There are a few companies like that. A few.

*sigh*

Regular visitors may notice that this page looks strange. That’s because my hosting

“service” has screwed up royally.

After ”upgrading” servers, suddenly! my index.php file that’s worked well for nearly two years is “overloading our CGI performance”.

Of course it is! Worked fine for nearly two years, so of course it’s “overloading” Fat(headed)Cow’s CGI performance as soon as  Fat(headed)Cow’s “Tech” crew “upgrades” servers! Of course!

Stupid, incompetent, dumbasses.

So, until I get some action, this is all there is. This is NOT thirdworldcounty.us but a different, older, “tryout” WordPress blog @ WordPress.com that I’ve had to redirect the thirdworldcunty.us domain to, for now.

Do keep this in mind: if you aconsidering hosting with Fatcow–DON’T. If you are currently hosted with Fatcow, just wait. They’ll screw your site up, too, no doubt (as they have with others, right, Diane?)

Just sayin’.

…to talk among yourselves.

The topic is:

Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy.

…in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

Also stated as,

Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy is that in any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control, so that those dedicated to the goals the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.

*heh*

X-posted from third world county.us

N.B.—this post is an X-post from third world county.us, and all the stats mentioned in this post refer to that site.

Although stats are a concern running way toward the back of the pack, my “once-in-a-while” check of TTLB earlier this week has turned into a once-a-day thing because of the weird discrepancies displayed on its pages relating to twc. Since this is definitely not a general interest topic for readers of these pages (after all, most of y’all care deeply about google page rankings, TTLB and Technorati rankings and such… as deeply as I do, which is not much at all ), so if you’re at all interested…

OK, now that both of y’all who are at all interested are still with me, here’s the fun part. Short Stats (a WordPress plugin) reports about 250 “unique visitors” today so far. Kinda low even for a Saturday, in my experi3ence, especially when my two “visits” are subtracted along with the 42% of “visits” by web crawlers, leaving only about 142 unique visitors this a.m.

Sitemeter reports 44 visitors so far today. Huh?

Statcounter reports 148 (more in line with my ShortStats report, since it automatically excludes web crawlers and my visits).

The daily averages from my hosting service show

Jun 2006 5775 (hits) 1050 (visits)

When one subtracts the fairly consistent 42% of “visits” by web crawlers, the 609 daily visits average (which includes folks who view more than one page and my multiple views switching between things in the WordPress Dashboard) comes out much more in line with Statcounter and ShortStats than with Sitemeter.

I wonder why?

Not gonna lose any sleep over it. I’m still blogging primarily to silence the voices in my head.

BTW, do click on the link above. It’s to my fav clip found on Vimeo when I went on my Vimeo viewing spree the other day. Classic. Or at least it will be if I have anything to say about it.

One last thing—a bright, hopeful light in the stats fog—is that Internet Exploder readers of this blog are exactly matched in number by readers using “other” browsers. I hope that trend continues in favor of extinguishing Internet Exploder use.

Stats at this incarnation of twc are pathetic, but I don’t care. I think I’ll begin duplicating ALL my twc.us posts here, just to give folks I link to more links. *heh* Why not?