The Peaceful Gnome

Remember, keep the MASS in Christ Mass! Go to church today! Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Enjoy the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord! Due to Lora and Mike being in the choir we went to two services last night and are going again this morning, when we get done that will be 2 full masses and one Service of Lessons and Carols, about 6 hours worth of church in less than 24 hours :-) Love it! Serenity spent the night at Mike and Maryann's with Topanga last night. After church we'll all go over there and open presents and have a ham and crab feast. After the first of the year our house is going full veggie and pretty close to vegan, though not totally... honey? Really? Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Been raining most of the day but it's clear above Livermore right now as the eclipse begins... Cool :-) Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Oddly they don't ever use the word anarchy, though it really is what they are talking about here: Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Check out this blog post by a now-grown unschooler, great stuff: I'm Unschooled. Yes, I Can Write. The life and times of an unschooling vegetarian animistic green anarchist hippie child. Unschooling is Not Relaxed Homeschooling

From Father Hollywood , best Lutheran Pastor's Blog around :-) A Tale of Two Political Propagandas Here is an amusing little photo essay contrasting Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin with the American president Barack Obama. Now, obviously, this is humor.  The pictures are true enough, but individual photos do not tell the whole story.  Certainly (at least hopefully!), someone can find equally virile pictures of a lantern-jawed Obama looking (as they say) "presidential" even as one can likely find illustrations of Putin being gentle or silly with his family or with a goofy look on his face as well.  The choices are almost without limit as to what one could wish to portray about anyone in the public eye. I don't know either one of these guys - and to be honest, I'm not really interested in knowing anything about them.  They are politicians.  They are pampered and coddled.  They are handled and treated by the public as demigods.  I...

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Mike and I went to Mitchell Katz release party for the Crackerbox Sangiovese and to 1st Street Wine for their grand opening. Winter in California :-) You snow bound east coasters can just, well continue to shiver :-) See and download the full gallery on posterous Posted via email from Our Family Blog

You don't have to read about it in sci-fi any more, it's happening now in front of us. You can even participate in it if you want to. http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/08/the-push-button-tool.html Here is a video from Anonymous who are undertaking a counterattack against the enemies of freedom in GovCo who are trying to stop information by attacking Wikileaks, information wants to be free, information will be free... Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

I really like this wallpaper I found on the wikileaks.org site today :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Minimalist Holiday: Gifting Kindle Books By miss minimalist | 3 comments Good news for minimalists this holiday season: you can now gift Kindle books on Amazon.com. Woo-hoo! As most of you know, I’m a huge fan of ebooks . They save trees, they save energy, and they save space in our homes. You can imagine, then, how excited I was to learn about this feature. I come from a family of readers, and we’ve always enjoyed giving each other books. However, most of us have given up physical books in favor of digital ones, so our book gifting days had drawn to a close…until now. Here’s how it works: 1. Click the “Give as a Gift” button (pictured above) on the book’s Kindle page. 2. Enter the email address of the recipient. (You can also include a gift message, if you’d like.) 3. Click the “Place your order” button to pay. The recipient will receive a gift notification at the email address you provide, and instructio...

Great post, be sure and read his linked article in the 2nd paragraph as well, I'll resist re-posting that in it's entirety here as well if you do :-) Libertarians, Power, and the Message of Freedom by William L. Anderson by William L. Anderson Recently by William L. Anderson: WikiLeaks and National Insecurity People who believe in liberty are in a minority, and it is a minority that few of us really can comprehend, as for the most part, libertarians cannot grasp the real costs that they will be facing in the coming years. Those of us who have spoken out against the abuses committed by those in power no longer will be ignored by those who control the police and "justice" apparatus, and we will be on the radar screens of those who believe they have the power to silence us. In response to the call for a boycott of Amazon because it gave in to pressure from Sen. Joe Lieberman, I had this post on Lew Rockwell’s blog. The post was a brief compilation o...

Recently someone I know posted to their Facebook page that they were bored (Hi JH!). How is this possible? Adults should not be bored, well unless they are at work doing something don't like much, but even then if it's really that boring to you a job change is in order. But to be at home and bored, that is inexcusable. Children are often bored in school where they are held against their will and force fed information they don't need and don't care about, that is understandable. But bored grown ups? What's with that? If you are bored your opportunities are endless! You can go to the library. You can visit a nursing home, you can volunteer for a soup kitchen, you can take a walk or start a new hobby. Being bored means you have FREE TIME to do things in! Being bored shows lack of imagination and ambition. Boredom is a CHOICE, not an inevitable consequence of some outside force. Write a poem. Write your congress-critter and tell them what you think the government should...

Since I got over my Amazon snit I put my wish list back. I want e-books for kindle, as I heard a rumor I'm getting a Kindle plus I have the Kindle software on my Blackberry already anyway... so here tis: http://amzn.com/w/3QJM083PFT0J3 Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

I'm over my anti-Amazon.com snit now. I am disappointed that they caved to pressure from some in the government and kicked Wikileaks off their system, but really it's not a surprise. Amazon is in business to make money, they are not a revolutionary organization seeking to reform the governments of the world. That's not what they are about really. So, never mind about my boycott :-/ Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

and go to hell GovCo! http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9JSHKUG0.htm Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

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Review: John Adams conducts his Christmas oratorio at San Francisco Symphony By Richard Scheinin rscheinin@mercurynews.com Posted: 12/03/2010 10:56:54 AM PST Updated: 12/03/2010 11:05:24 AM PST Click photo to enlarge Mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung in Thursday's semi-staged San Francisco... ( Kristen Loken) « 1 » SAN FRANCISCO -- From its opening moments, with its crisp, piping rhythms, Thursday's performance of "El Niño" at Davies Symphony Hall was something extraordinary. All the performers in composer John Adam's Christmas oratorio -- and by night's end, more than 200 were involved -- seemed infected by the music's strange and startling beauties and by the clean, visceral energy that Adams brought to the performance as its conductor. Adams' unique setting of the Nativity story -- drawing on texts from the Bible, the Apocrypha, medieval mystery plays and modern Latin American poetry -- was co-commissioned by...

Serenity and I agree on John Adams El Nino. It was fantastic! Sort of a strange take on the Nativity but very nice. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Not the usual stage at the symphony tonight. I'll post my impressions later. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Serenity and I are on our way to the Symphony. Isn't she just the cutest? Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

...Why would anyone with a lick of sense read the media when they can read original material from WikiLeaks?  The average American reporter and editor must be very angry that his/her own cowardice is so clearly exposed by Julian Assange. The American media is a whore, whereas the courageous blood of warriors runs through WikiLeaks’ veins. Just as American politicians want Bradley Manning executed because he revealed crimes of the US government, they want Julian Assange executed. In the past few days the more notorious of the dumbshits that sit in the US Congress have denounced Assange as a "traitor to America." What total ignorance. Assange is an Australian, not an American citizen. To be a traitor to America, one has to be of the nationality. An Australian cannot be a traitor to America any more than an American can be a traitor to Australia. But don’t expect the morons who represent the lobbyists to know this much...  ...Mike Huckabee, the redneck bapti...

I've also deleted my Amazon Wish List, I'd rather no one purchase anything from Amazon for me for the time being, at least until they stop kow-towing to Lieberman and the rest of GovCo. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

I'm not saying I will never again buy from Amazon, but I am saying I'm going to, right this very second, cancel my subscription to Amazon Prime.  I will also first search everywhere else before buying anything from them and if I can get the same thing for at least a similar price, even if it's a little higher, I'm not going to use Amazon any more.  From Anti-War.com Amazon Ousts WikiLeaks at Officials’ Behest Growing Consumer Backlash as Amazon Move Shuts Down Whistleblower for Hours by Jason Ditz, December 01, 2010 Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum Major Internet retailer Amazon.com is facing a growing public backlash and a call for boycotts, including a call by Antiwar.com, following its decision this morning to oust WikiLeaks.org from its cloud server hosting service. The move came following pressure from a number of top officials, including Sen. Joe Lieberman (I – CT), who slammed Amazon’s decision in allowing th...

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I have tickets to the Symphony tomorrow. It is a performance of John Adam's El Niño Oratorio. I have never heard it but I'm looking forward to it after listening to this podcast about it: http://www.sfsymphony.org/season/Event.aspx?eventid=43032# Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

About the denial of service attacks, that are ongoing even now,  that I mentioned in the last post, here is a short story about it . All Apple Business Gadgets Gaming Microsoft Open Source Science Tech Policy More Hardware Media Security Software Staff Telecom Web New Ars.TV News Guides Upgrade to a Premier Subscription Customize â–¾ Site Theme: White Black Choose body font: Arial Helvetica Layout (beta): Normal Compact OpenForum Login/Join Security Wikileaks moves to Amazon's cloud to evade massive DDoS By Ryan Paul | Last updated November 30, 2010 4:04 PM Controversial information disclosure site Wikileaks reportedly faced an intense distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack this morning. The site was temporarily disrupted by the onslaught, but is functioning again after migrating its services to Amazon's cloud. Wikileaks recent...

A couple of days before this happened, I predicted in casual conversations at work that the governments of the world, in panicked desperation before the onslaught of involuntary truth and openness being forced on them from Wikileaks, would trump up some vile morals charge; rape, molestation, murder, animal abuse, or whatever, in order to attempt to discredit the founder, Julian Assange. In a pathetically laughable and totally predictable and farcical move Interpol has done just that!   The governments of the world are in full panic mode as the common people suddenly have access the truth about just a few of their nefarious activities.  I feel sorry for Julian Assange as he will now be severely persecuted,  but it was obvious that this was going to happen.  It is how they always respond to any real threats of exposure of the truth about governments, and Wikileaks is a real threat.  They first try to ignore them and claim they are not true, then they t...

I think the folks at Wikileaks are true hero's.  Please read the about page on Wikileaks.org to find out what they are really all about.  Briefly they are about freedom of information, about transparency and honest in governments and corporations.  All of the baloney being tossed about by the US government about the "risks" presented by the leaks is just that, baloney.  What is at risk is the ability of GOVCO (Governments combined with Huge Multinational Corporations) to work with thuggish totalitarian dictators around the world for their mutual enrichment at the expense of honest hard working common people everywhere.  After all, if the people knew what their supposed "leaders" were doing they would not stand for it and the corrupt system would collapse.  I sure hope Wikileaks can survive long term, more openness in government is always "A Good Thing®"  :-) http://wikileaks.org/media/about.html BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world...

So often I am grouchy and use this space to complain and whine... Sorry about that but what did ya expect from an Angry Gnome anyway! ;-P. This morning though I'd like to say something nice. Shocking right? For the last couple of weeks I've been riding our local bus to the BART station. I resisted the idea because "I hate buses.". Well I guess that was just due to having bad experiences with San Francisco Muni drivers. Muni drivers seem to take pleasure in making your trip as miserable as possible. They especially enjoy slamming the doors in your face after you've run the block to catch the bus. Where's the "something nice" you ask? It's right here. Our little local bus service, called Wheels, is the exact opposite of Muni. The drivers are considerate, friendly and very helpful. I've seen them wait for people hurrying to catch the bus, even saw a driver get out of the bus to holler at a pedestrian he recognized as a regular rider to see if s...

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

You may recall last month when I wrote about someone calling security at our apartment when we were playing dice with mom. Well it seems it happened again and I slept through it! Lora just informed me they came Saturday night after I went to bed. The security drone said someone complained that it sounded like we were moving furniture. Ah, now we are SURE who is calling! Only a downstairs neighbor could say that. It IS the inconsiderate creep with the little yapping dog! The one that barks for hours on end morning noon and night. Now, I know there was no major noise in our apartment Saturday night. So they are being jerks and expecting US to be totally silent when they want quiet while not being willing to talk to us about it and also not caring if their annoying dog keeps us up all night! All right then, no more Mr. Nice Guy. We will now complain each and every time that dog barks for more than an hour. Plus I will no longer be moving quietly when I get up at 4AM for work. I may just d...

Oh, how embarrassing for our Intel guys. The "Taliban leader" they've been negotiating with for months is not even a member of the Taliban and he just ran off with the cash. Oh my, just goes to show they really don't have a clue in this whole "war on terror" scam. So when they say they have need for new security measures (read "you need to submit to more violations of your God given rights) keep in mind these are the same folks who gave us the invisible weapons of mass destruction and negotiated with fake Taliban leaders... Think about it. NYTimes story: http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=69168282A4FE48130E060A812AB91A57... Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

devich.org it was fun... Many years ago I got the "devich.org" and had a web site and a sort of blog in the days before blogs were really very common. I kept it out of inertia since then. But the email service larry@devich.org and lora@devich.org and such are not very reliable. Every few months it goes out or like it's doing recently, bouncing emails or eating emails without even the courtesy of a bounce. So, in the very near future this email will cease to function at all as I'm going to shut down my unused domain and the email service that goes along with it. In the future, indeed starting today if you will, please send all emails you want me to get to ldevich@yahoo.com Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Next May I will take my last ride on an airplane :-(  I will ride even though I know it's wrong to cave in to the vile low life scum who think they can take away our rights in the name of "security" or "safety" because I said I'd go and I want to be with my family in Maui.  But it is the last time I will do it.  From now on, no matter what the event or the opportunity I will not fly.  I hope the airlines and the US Government both go bankrupt. Here is my wardrobe for this last flight, if I have the nerve :-) That, and a kilt... with nothing under it :-) Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

Very odd, I sent a few snarky anti-TSA posts out this morning then my email went down all day long. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. Bite me geTSApo! Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

So, I don't know what's with this but today it seems that everywhere I look there is a story about the vile Ge TSA po and what to do about them. Here's one from a Lutheran web site of all places: Monday, November 15, 2010 Human Dignity Update (Porno-Scanners and Felon-style Gropping) Enough already. Awhile back I encouraged the Church to rethink her passive acceptance of the State's insistence that we give up traditional modesty and walk through machines that take naked pictures of ourselves, our wives, and our children. Things have only gotten worse since that posting. Now, those who refuse to go through the pornoscanner (which also uses ionizing radiation - the sort that poses an accumulating health risk), will be subject to an "enhanced" pat down. Which is to say, will be treated as felons getting a prison transport with breasts and crotch touched by a State functionary. Read the rest here: http://gottesdienstonline.blogspot.com/201...

Well, I suppose I'm already packed for my trip at least! Yes, I'm pretty sure I'll be going and I'll be traveling minimalist style, taking pretty much nothing at all with me to Maui and leaving whatever I use there behind on the island when I leave. I'm ready to take the next step here at home toward my secession from American Consumer Society as well. I went through my room a few months ago and stripped away a lot of "stuff." There is still way more "stuff" in here than I use though, so I'm going to go through it again. And again. And again. My goal is to eventually disconnect from America altogether, to go off grid, to live in a tiny house somewhere with a few books and some paper and pens to write with :-) Even this computer and my phone are annoying to me, though while I have them I will use them. Minimalists don't contribute much to the consumer economy since they don't buy much. In fact I think that minimalist living is a sor...

I was just going to shut down my computer and nap for an hour before I have to get up for work and opened my browser, wanting to see my last post, when I saw this article on Fox, really, I read it only after my nightmare! Pilots Dismayed at Airport Scanners, Pat-Downs Published November 16, 2010 CHICAGO -- Airport security stops one airline pilot because he's carrying a butter knife. Elsewhere, crews opt for pat-down searches because they fear low-level radiation from body scanners could be harmful. And in San Diego, one traveler is told he can't fly at all when he likens an intrusive body search to sexual harassment. Annoyance at U.S. security hassles has been on the rise among airline crews and passengers for years, but the widespread use of full-body image detectors this year and the simultaneous introduction of more intrusive pat-downs seems to have ramped up the frustration. As passengers have simmered over being forced to choose scans by full-body image...

I have to decide, really soon , if I can actually go to Hawaii next May with my family.  I am writing this at 2:30 AM because I just woke from a nightmare, an actual nightmare about going to Hawaii.  There was no fear of natural disasters or plane crashes or terrorists or anything like that.  I just had a nightmare about going through the Ge TSA po Manned airport checkpoints.  I won't go into the details of the nightmare but it included being arrested and making a huge scene. I have to decide if I'm willing to give up my rights as an American,no as a human being , in order to go to Hawaii with my family.  After this dream I'm not so certain that I can pull off the quiet sheep-shuffle through the Ge TSA po checkpoint  that is required in order to travel to some states, like Hawaii, in today's Soviet Americca.  Right now I'm still thinking I can manage it.  I'll take nothing with me.  I'll buy clothes there maybe, it's only a week...

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Sometimes I'm glad I get to work at the crack of dawn :-) Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Posted via email from Our Family Blog