Liberty's Blog

Beware of What You Ask for

This video that is being circulated by KickThemAllOut.com

Funny how the one person they highlight speaking out against such excesses. Is one of those darn Congress critters that they want to get rid of. They should realize some are keepers even if most are not.

posted by Liberty @ 9:05 AM 0 comments.
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Google to Assist developing Openoffice.org

It looks like Openoffice.org is going to get some manpower support from Google

Google plans to hire programmers to improve OpenOffice.org, a demonstration of its affinity for open source initiatives and one the company believes also shows sound practical sense.

OpenOffice has its roots in Sun Microsystems' StarOffice suite of programs. Five years ago, Sun turned its proprietary software into an open-source project. Only recently, however, has the competitor to Microsoft's Office attracted serious attention.

Now Google believes it can help OpenOffice--perhaps working to pare down the software's memory requirements or its mammoth 80MB download size, said Chris DiBona, manager for open-source programs at the search company.

"We want to hire a couple of folks to help make OpenOffice better," DiBona said.

While this is good news, I believe that Open office could use a little more support from the more traditional open source supporters, from the educational and volunteer communitity.

posted by Liberty @ 11:17 AM 0 comments.
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The Obama Man Can

Well Done!

Labels: Politics

posted by Liberty @ 7:13 AM 1 comments.
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Going Galt

Maryland increases income taxes on the rich. The rich leave. Maryland collects fewer taxes on the Rich. Students of Reaganomics an Ayne Rand aren't surprised.

Maryland couldn't balance its budget last year, so the state tried to close the shortfall by fleecing the wealthy. Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%. And because cities such as Baltimore and Bethesda also impose income taxes, the state-local tax rate can go as high as 9.45%. Governor Martin O'Malley, a dedicated class warrior, declared that these richest 0.3% of filers were "willing and able to pay their fair share." The Baltimore Sun predicted the rich would "grin and bear it."

One year later, nobody's grinning. One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller's office concedes is a "substantial decline." On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year -- even at higher rates.

Could this happen on a national level?

Labels: News, Politics

posted by Liberty @ 6:00 PM 0 comments.
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Congress Goes After Hostile Bloggers

They would like to toss into the clink for a couple of years any of us who “coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person.” Isn't that the whole idea of those who political blog, or blog on social commentary. Wired expounds:

Proposed congressional legislation would demand up to two years in prison for those whose electronic speech is meant to “coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person.”

Instead of prison, perhaps we should say gulag.

The proposal by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Los Angeles, would never pass First Amendment muster, unless the U.S. Constitution was altered without us knowing. So Sanchez, and the 14 other lawmakers who signed on to the proposal, are grandstanding to show the public they care about children and are opposed to cyberbullying.

The meaasure, H.R. 1966, is labeled the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act. It’s designed to target the behavior that led to last year’s suicide of the 13-year-old Meier.

Yeah, it was wrong what they did to Megan Mier, but it is traitorous what Linda Sanchez is attempting to do with the first amendment

Labels: News, Politics

posted by Liberty @ 6:45 AM 0 comments.
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RKBA and theTexas Legislative session.

Its not all that clear to me, but it looks like we have made some progress in forwarding gun rights in Texas.

Parking lot bill, will allow us to keep guns locked up in our cars at our workplaces. Hunters should be able to appreciate this also. Won't be able to keep them in schools or Oil and Chemical plants, though maybe in 2011. We can fix this.

Knife laws got clarified. Some courts had mudied the water calling assisted knives switchblades.

Campus carry git kiled. Was pretty devious wasn't allowed to come to vote cause they knew it would pass.


Nothing is certain yet but at least these seem to be likely.

posted by Liberty @ 6:59 AM 0 comments.
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Open Ofice 3.1 Released

OpenOffice.org 3.1 is released and seems to be rock solid. I am using the Language Tools extentions with it. Pretty kewl Language Tools adds some grammar checking. Its pretty crude, but it can help find errors. I believe it isn't just as good as MS Office but actually better.

posted by Liberty @ 6:52 AM 0 comments.
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What's Up

Been pretty busy lately. Went to El Paso last week and I like it there. Interesitng at the dry land border.
Haven't done much shooting recently. Ammo is pretty hard to find. Need more Ammo.

House is comming along nicely. We will be moving in a few weeks.


I have a Facebook account under name Liberty Spirit. I use it to keep track of friends and family. Haven't quite figured out what I will do with it in the long run. I will be posting house pictures there.

Anyone use dropbox ? The neatest cloud appliction I've found. If your looking for a way to share or move data around, this is pretty kewl.

posted by Liberty @ 6:39 AM 0 comments.
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Galveston Pelicans Return in Smaller Numbers

Ike took its toll on on the bird population, so the Brown Pelicans numbers too a bit of a beating The Galveston Daily News has a story about the return of our favorite bird.

The island’s famous brown pelicans returned to nest after Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc on their habitats, but they are arriving in fewer numbers than last year, bird watchers said.

Pelican habitats took a beating during Hurricane Ike. North Deer Island, once home to 40,000 birds of 17 species, lost one-third of its vegetation in the storm. It is still covered in debris, said Winnie Burkett, Houston Audubon Society’s sanctuary manager.

Despite the devastated habitat, pelicans have returned to roost there, with some building nests among the debris, she said.

At last count, there were 800 to 1,000 pelicans nesting on the 144-acre North Deer Island, down from 2,400 last year, she said.

Still, the return of brown pelicans is a hopeful sign to Burkett.

“It makes you feel very good,” she said. “We know the system repairs itself. It’s good to see that it’s doing that. Somehow or another, all those pelicans survived that storm, which I think is truly amazing.”

There’s not much humans can do to entice more pelicans to return, Burkett said. The natural vegetation will return, but it will take time — probably longer than expected due to the ongoing drought, she said.

posted by Liberty @ 6:50 AM 0 comments.
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OpenOffice 3.1 RC1 Torrent

OpenOffice 3.1 RC1 got dcistributed yesterday, but unfortunatly it can be rather difficult to find. I got a copy of it but am not quite sure of the best way to help distribute it. I have the torrent here I am, not sure just how well this will work. I will post a drop box address later today after its had a chance to sync. I will keep this file active at least until a newer version is released.

posted by Liberty @ 8:56 AM 0 comments.
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