Snowflakes in Hell is now running on a new server. I am in the process of consolidating down to a single machine running 24/7 in my house. You will notice there was no down time involved in the switch over. That is because, unlike the Pennsylvania State Police, I know how to upgrade a database without disruption.
Author: Sebastian
Places I Hate: Best Buy
I needed two things. I needed electronic blow off cleaner, and a USB hub.  I go to Best Buy.  The only USB hub they have is 30 dollars. In addition, the very small can of blow off they have, is more than 8 dollars. I can get a big can two pack for 16 dollars, but that’s more than I want.  So I think “Screw Best Buy and their prices!” and I go to Wal Mart, where I get an extra jumbo size blow off cleaner for 4.99, and get my USB hub for 9.99, and they didn’t even try to sell me an overpriced extended warranty.  Capitalism at work.
Best Buy’s prices for computer peripherals, particularly cabling, are way way higher than they ought to be. If you can get it at Wal Mart, or even Radio Shack, do it. Best Buy as a last resort, because they are typically everything except the Best Buy.
WHO Ranking for Health Care
Megan McArdle, writing at her blog’s new location over at the Atlantic, explains why she thinks WHO rankings of health care system quality are off. I’ve always been a fan of her health plan.
Favorite Things Pennsylvania
Tyler Cowen has his list. I would have to add Tastykakes, particularly Butterscotch and Jelly Krimpets. Not the Lemon or Creme filled Krimpets though; those are an abomination in the eyes of god.  It’s a great way to get your morning dose of yummy, Mayor Bloomberg approved trans-fat!
A New Deception
Bryan Miller has a new post up, and makes this claim:
These and other Newark initiatives are important because, although the bulk of illegal handguns traced from crime in the city and across the state were originally purchased out-of-state and trafficked to the Garden State (a conclusion reinforced by data published Monday by ATF, which I will analyze more closely in an upcoming entry, see [URL], it is the case that a significant portion of crime guns recovered in Newark were part of multiple sales made by in-state gun dealers.
No doubt Bryan wishes the data linked to by the ATF supported this, because he’s currently trying to get one-gun-a-month passed in New Jersey (and Pennsylvania too, by the way). But the data does not mention anything about multiple firearms sales. Multiple firearms sales are something that has to be reported to ATF currently (he won’t tell you that part), but they don’t combine that data with the trace request data.
This is an outrage …
… another example of how we shouldn’t worry too much about losing our civil liberties because of the war on terror, because we’ve already lost them fighting the war on drugs. Also, the ACLU draws a lot of people’s ire from time to time, including mine, but they do good work a lot of the time. This is one of those times.
You Know The Government is Testing our Poop Doncha?
If someone were to say that, you might think that they were a paranoid psychotic. Well, it turns out they wouldn’t be.
She plans to start a survey for drugs in the wastewater of at least 40 Oregon communities.
The science behind the testing is simple. Nearly every drug — legal and illicit — that people take leaves the body. That waste goes into toilets and then into wastewater treatment plants.
“Wastewater facilities are wonderful places to understand what humans consume and excrete,” Field said.
I’ll bet guys are lining up to take her on a date! When people are storing urine and feces in jars in their basement, because they really are out to get you, things certainly will have taken a turn for the surreal.
Days and Weeks?
I noticed this NRA press release that was put out Friday:
So, what can you do to counter this PR stunt? Of course, any type of pro-gun counter protest would be covered with the media’s typical anti-gun bias, if it was covered at all. But there is a way we can speak directly to the American people to set the record straight on gun bans, gun rationing, and other anti-gun proposals.
Through a massive and coordinated blitz of letters to the editor of our local newspapers in the days and weeks leading up to the August 28 demonstrations, we can speak directly to American citizens and our elected officials with the facts straight from the mouths of voting constituents.
This isn’t a bad idea, really, in the days and weeks leading up to the protests on August 24th, except for one thing. The date on the release says:
Friday, August 24, 2007
It’s a little late to get letters into the editor out for inclusion by next Tuesday. This release should have gone out weeks ago. Then there would have been time.
Gun Sales May be Up
But the Pittman-Robertson funds that Uncle talks about here, aren’t necessarily an indicator, since they are a percentage excise tax on both guns and ammunition. The increase could be partly, or mostly accounted for by the spike in ammunition prices.
The Drug War
This started out as a response to a comment by BadIdeaGuy, but I decided to turn it into a separate post. BadIdeaGuys pointed out:
There were more overdoses in Philly last year than gun homicides. Anyone seen an article on the drug problem facing Philly youth? My observation is that gun homicides occur largely in the “dealer class,†while the overdoses occur in the “user classâ€.
As much as I might recognize the drugs and violence are fairly intertwined, I think the drug war has hurt these communities more than the drugs themselves. I favor ending the drug war for this reason. Remove the black market incentive for drugs, and the violent black market in drugs will end.
You’ll still have the addict problem, but if you took all the money that goes into enforcing our drug laws (and it’s sizable), and put it into education and treatment, I think you’d find it money much better spent. It will help not having drug dealers shooting it out on the street corner, and it will also help not to send the message to young poor kids, with no hope and no opportunity, that the only way they can escape the poverty they live in is by joining a gang and selling drugs.
The drugs war, in my view, is a prime example of wealthy suburbanites supporting laws, under the illusion that it makes their kids safer from drugs, because they don’t live in the communities that are paying the price for maintaining that illusion. No doubt you’ll find support for keeping drugs illegal in virtually all communities, but the people I’ve encounterd who argue most passionately for it are middle class parents.