The last month I have spent most of my time downloading files
for The Philosophy of Liberty. (84 of them )And finally
got the last of them just before writing this. I’ll start uploading
and posting them in the next few days.

Fourteen languages in six different formats. It was a lot of work
getting all them since they were hosted on a free file hosting
service but I think they were worth the effort.

At current, I do have all of them available as XOOPS modules
at the XMD sub site. I also got a chance to convert All your base
are belong to us to a XOOPS module as well.

XMD

I haven’t had much time to write any new blog entries myself
but our special guest blogger Dick McPlenty has taken the time
to post a few more of his rants.

I have also decided to abridge the monthly news letter into a
link to the current site news blog entry.

Why? Call it natural laziness or call it using a sneaky way to
get people to read the monthly site news.

At any rate…

Happy Trails until next month…

Why?

Did all of them suddenly decide that our new President Elect’s
message a hope and change were suddenly no longer valid? I have
noticed that a lot of the so called financial “experts” keep making
dire predictions that only seem to turn into self fulfilling
prophecies as soon as the Wall Street crowd hears what they have
said.

Maybe they have a point and are correct but I do not think it is
necessary for them to continually tell people “We’re f*cked!” so
loud and so bluntly. One thing I have learned over the years is
that the Wall Street crowd are basically a brainless mob when an
“expert” tells them things are one way or the other. And telling
them that the market is about to crash is a great way to get them
help make sure it happens!

I am not saying that they should lie about it. Anyone that buys
food or has bills to pay can pretty much add the numbers up and
figure out that something is rotten in Denmark. Or more correctly
on Wall Street and at The Fed.

What I am saying is that they need to remember that most of the
people on Wall Street are much like small children when it comes
to what the “experts” say. They tend to believe them without
question and will act accordingly. Meaning of course that they’ll
politely piss their knickers and start selling off shares so fast
it makes the market drop like a rock.

I doubt any of these “experts” will ever actually read this blog
but I feel the need to say this anyway…

For heaven’s sake people, think before you go spouting your dire
predictions and try to not make a bad situation worse than it has
to be!

Most of the time they are no talent hacks that are trying to
impress people with their alleged skills. On a rare occasion
they are talented people that never heard of the word humility
before. Quite often they will refer to themselves as authors, poets,
or artists and are usually just talented enough to make a ten
year old feel bad about themselves.

If they produce any of their “art” they usually tell you all
about how high the quality of the materials and workmanship
are. Quite frequently they will hang a price tag on it that would
make a Rodeo Drive boutique blush with shame. They’ll also
make claims about their clientèle that deep down you know
are just pure high grade bullshit.

If they write they usually produce gibberish that makes you
have to read it several times before you decide they handed
their keyboard over to an insane chimpanzee on meth. Good
writers are easy to spot. Bad writers make you want to gouge
out both eyes and refuse to learn Braille.

What amuses me on the internet is seeing these jerks claim
they ignore hate mail and flames. If they ever stopped to
consider that they are utter pricks they might realize why
they have to ignore hate mail and flames.

Yours Truly,

Dick McPlenty P.I. (pissed indefinitely)

What’s my point? Many people falsely assume that someone who
has “earned” a degree from a university is somehow smarter than
themselves by default. For example, take a look at high level
politicians in the world today. Many of them hold degrees from
very prestigious universities and some of them are quite insightful.
But on balance most of them are people we routinely call dumbass,
idiot, or moron because of their policies. Policies that more often
than not leave us worse off than we were to begin with.

So, with that in mind, you have to ask yourself, Are all of these
Doctors and Professors really as intelligent as we give them credit
for? Or have we deluded ourselves into thinking that a piece of paper
with elegant calligraphy on it makes someone smart? It might have
worked for the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz but in the real world,
not so much.

Yours Truly,

Dick McPlenty P.I. (pissed indefinitely)

I am happy for anyone that has managed to drop some personal
vice that they felt was controlling their lives. However, what I
choose to do is my own affair. I don’t need these people to point
out medical studies I am already aware of. Nor do I need someone
that was smoking two packs a day only three months ago telling
me that I should quit.

Personally, I feel these people are compelled by a modern form of
puritanism* more than they are compelled by any great concern
for a stranger’s health and well being.

*Puritanism: The innate fear that somewhere, someone
is having fun.

Yours Truly,

Dick McPlenty P.I. (pissed indefinitely)

That may be so but the media is the problem here. Historically
speaking, gun grabs have only come after someone has gone nuts
and it made national news; Pearl,MS, Colombime,CO. I won’t say
that there isn’t a chance Obama may decide to try his hand at
gun control but right now some of the media are acting like this
is a key issue in the grand scheme of things. Usually gun grabs
are knee jerk crap designed to make soccer moms feel ’safe” instead
of actually deterring crime.

Personally, I have a hunch that more than a few people are buying
guns because right now, things look like crap from a financial
point of view for most of us. And thus some of them are buying
guns to ensure that they have a chance to retain what they have
from people that are desperate and stupid enough to try stealing
food and other essentials from their neighbors.

I won’t say that there are some that aren’t worried that their
rights to own firearms will be trimmed by the next administration.
Every new president poses that possibility. And it would be there
whether it is a “conservative” or a “liberal”. Under the current
(Conservative!) administration we saw a huge blow to our rights
and freedoms thanks to the U.S.A. PATRIOT act and other laws that
came to pass after 9/11/2001.

So if you watch TV news, take it with a huge grain of salt and
try to see through their load of biased crap.

I decided to move the new XOOPS modules I made to a new section
of the site…

XOOPS Module Development

Why another XOOPS installed on the site? Easy, The Bastion proper
has a wide enough range of topic matter now without trying to
incorporate XOOPS module development into it as well.

Just check the XMD Project FAQ for the full explanation.
At the time of this writing I have 16 XOOPS modules made.

New in The Repository Eclectica

Quick one bowl meal

Beans and Rice

We also have a new blogger, Dick McPlenty P.I., Rants about
everything.

Welcome to Hell… (an introduction)

Forum Follies

Long Winded Idiots

Religious Hypocrisy

Inquiring minds that want to know everything about you

I’ve been a little too busy getting the XMD sub site going to do
much in the way of blogging myself but I did get a couple written.

In Bastion Blogs…

The Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin

In the Bastion Special Projects blog…

Barter Boards

NOTE: Ok, this one has nothing to with webmaster stuff. It’s just
an unabashed plug for V’s (Halo’s) new barter forum.

SMF Global Moderators Permissions

New module on the Main Menu…

The Philosophy of Liberty

If you haven’t seen it, WATCH IT! If you have seen it, WATCH IT
AGAIN!

A new page primarily for the store…

Examples of hand crafted items by Frank Mills

It’s just a small sampler of some of my work. I’ll be updating
later as it still a little on the rough side.

The Free Downloads section has had a new section added…

E-Books

I’m just now getting this category started so it may take a while
before there are more major additions to it.

I’ve also been doing some cleaning in the Web Links Directory.
Mostly tidying things up and clearing out dead and outdated
links. And adding a few new ones I have found.

Th th th th th That’s all folks!

None. Period.

These are usually the same turd brains that expect you to give
them a fucking dossier on yourself but always neglect to post a
single detail of their own. Or that have posted trivial details about
themselves and act as though they have posted some great
revelations about themselves. If we are posting on a forum or in
a chat room and we have known each other for less than a week
we are acquaintances not life long friends. This applies to the
real world as well. If we just bumped into each other at a party
I have no plans to share more than casual conversation with you.

Personally, If I haven’t known you for at least a year online I don’t
feel you have any need to know my personal details. And the only
time you have any need to know where I live is if you are doing
business with me and need a mailing address to send a check or
money order to pay me.

My favorite argument from these dicks is always the classic line,
“What are you hiding?”. It’s called privacy, morons. It comes
from same part of human nature that makes us want those lovely
drapes in our homes or a lock on the desk drawer. Once on a forum
one of these inquiring minds informed me that they didn’t feel the
need for anonymity. Oh, really? Then why use a screen name, why
not use your real name instead? Instead of a cute little avatar, why
not use your own picture instead? Because we’re online. Some of us
view the internet as being at least in part escapism from our normal
lives, most of which are spectacularly boring.

Yours Truly,

Dick McPlenty P.I. (pissed indefinitely)

All organized religions, even the ones that claim they aren’t
organized, are pretty much full of shit in my honest opinion.
I will point out now that for all of the hypocrites I have seen,
I have seen a few that earned my respect for actually practicing
what they preached and were willing to allow others their beliefs
without giving them some moronic sermon about how they were
praying the wrong way.

Let me make it clear now before I go any farther, I am not
going to single out any one group. In the ten or so years I
have been online, I have taken the opportunity to read as
much as can to learn as many points of view as I could and
spent enough time in libraries reading enough religious books
that I have been asked what my major was! On the surface
all religions look good. It’s when you get under the hood you
begin to see what’s what and that all of them are about the
same when you get to the heart of the matter.

I’ve seen my share of people quoting one version or another
of the golden rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you’, ‘An’ harm to none, do as ye will’ and several others
that are less well known. Of course not long after I see them
quoting these things, I see them doing unto others in a way that
would make a divorce lawyer proud.

To the people that are true to their beliefs, my hat’s off to you.
To the hypocrites, kindly STFU and take the time to read that
book you’re thumping!

Yours Truly,

Dick McPlenty P.I. (pissed indefinitely)

You’ll see them posting blogs or posting on forums. Usually they
are the ones that you tend to skim over what they posted in the
faint (read: infinitesimal) hope that somewhere in their meandering
text are the few pieces of information you are looking for. More
often than not you have to wade through their pointless tripe only
to discover that they haven’t got a fucking clue as to what they are
talking about.

As a rule, I try to be concise in what I post on the internet. I
learned from long experience and lots of wading through crap
that no one wants to read fifteen pointless paragraphs of bullshit
when all they need is one paragraph that gives them the facts.

Yours Truly,

Dick McPlenty P.I. (pissed indefinitely)