"We will not be terrorized"

Tony and the Gang of 8 are not amused: "We will not be terrorized."

The tin-eared Jihadists have done it again.  Just as a lot of well meaning but clueless folks here and abroad had become all too humanly forgetful about the meaning of 9/11 (we would never, of course), those prideful fools go and rouse the sleeping giant just in time to get us back on track.  A stalwart show of unity and will at Gleneagles, Scotland, with Tony first, then GW, then Tony flanked by his fellow G8 leaders, again telling the death merchants of terrorism that we stand for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and we shall prevail. GW noted that even as the G8 were meeting to develop plans for helping the poorest and improving the environment for all, the Jihadists were plotting and carrying out all-about-me attacks on innocent citizens going about their daily lives. Shepard Smith on FOXNews this afternoon:

It was the worst attack on Britain since World War II, and one of the worst in the War on Terror.

Shep's guest, leftist-mugged-by-reality Christopher Hitchens, is pointing out that some -- he cites the reliably anti-American George "fiction is truth" Galloway -- are pushing the Bush Lied, People Died narrative that the attacks were "caused" by GW's presence in Britain and Tony Blair's support of the Iraq phase of the War on Terror. Natch.  We heard something like that from Charles Gibson's guest on ABC this morning (we never watch network news at home, of course, but were out making breakfast and had only the network stations on our little kitchen set). He had on the disgraced Richard "it was all Bush's fault" Clarke of 9/11 Committee grandstanding fame, saying mostly sensible things but being sure to throw in something to the effect that just the other day some important types were meeting and pointing out -- shaking their heads sadly -- that Iraq was proving to be a training ground in urban guerilla warfare for the terrorists.  Never mind that Iraq has no subway, and long before Iraq, Osama & Company had figured out how to bomb our embassies, ram a boat of explosives into one of our warships and fly airliners into our buildings. Not to mention the "flypaper" theory of drawing the terrorists to a place of our choosing, not theirs.

Gomer's place is empty now.  He's gone off to Geek Housecalls to have his organs removed.

Meanwhile, on the home front -- in case you've been wondering where we've been for the last 24 hours plus -- our computer of 5 1/2 years finally bit the dust yesterday morning. Joe from Geek Housecalls stopped by, looked under Gomer's hood and sighed gravely "It doesn't look good."  All may be lost, but he's taken Gomer's entire brain in to the shop, where they'll hook him up to a machine that may or may not be able to retrieve all those priceless photographs of cats and kings that are stored in his memory. As for the carcass, it's headed for the great computer network in the sky.

An Althouse moment records some of Gomer's effects -- a thick file documenting the ups and downs of a long and rewarding relationship with the machine, with the original custom order form on top, dated 11/29/99.

Thanks, Mark, for holding our hand back then.  The above photo features disks containing the two operating systems that took us on many a wild ride -- Windows NT, left, and our current system, Windows XP. We laughed, we cried, we tore our hair out. The on-call geeks at Dell walked us back from the edge more than once during long therapy sessions by phone. An excellent product with a great support system.

After the geek had left today, we turned off the home LAN and switched over to Tuck's computer, Adele -- the venerable lady who was our first serious computer in graduate school days.  Windows 95 was hot when we started our journey together.  Now she's still plugging away with Windows 98. They don't make 'em like they used to, huh?  Or maybe the faster, more robust Gomer went first because we rode him so much harder than Tuck does Adele.

Now it's 3:45 p.m., we've finally got a computer that runs and accesses the internet, and we haven't read one single blog.  A strange day, out of joint, with all-London-tube-bombings all the time on TV.  Gomer is gone.  We're ready for a shiny new computer to do our bidding.  The geek recommends a top-of-the-line Dell.  What say you, Susan of Mind of Mog (as if we didn't know)?

Comments

[goomp]

The IM's still don't get it but they have to learn that their choice is to become a devout Muslim or be dead unless they eliminate the terrorists.

[Teresa]

I was reading a blurb on Instapundit that had a link to a map - showing that the attacks all took place near heavily Muslim areas of the city. This could be coincidence... or maybe not. Or it could just be that the Muslims planting the bombs wouldn't be so noticeable among many like them. *sigh*

As for the computer - Unless you do heavy graphic work or very intense processor work - go for as much memory as you can afford - and step down in price on the processor. No less than 512 of RAM and up to 1 Gig if you can manage.

Processor speeds looking like something out of an extreme racing guide... don't make a hill of beans difference in the general use world. Most programs in use don't even approach using half the speed offered - even on lesser machines. It's the RAM that counts and the cache. The video RAM being higher is nice too but not absolutely necessary if you don't game.

[Mr.Kurtz]

It's amazing and horrifying what some people will "sleep" through, or ignore. How many have to die beore they get it?

I thought maybe TypePad ate your morning as it did mine-for the third day in a row.

Their response was; "Uh, maybe we were er, like, oh, working on the um, server, or something."

Gosh, for us in grad school, Fortran was the shiny new toy.

Teresa nails it for most folks. Unfortunately (or not) I run 3D modeling and animation apps and regularly process 1Gb PShop files. Always compelled to "keep up with the Lucases".

[Donna B.]

"We will not be terrorized" is the perfect antidote to terrorism. To render any activity ineffective is the best way to end it. It is not necessarily easy.

My only suggestion for a new computer is get a dual monitor video card.

[The Prop]

Friends don't let friends buy PCs. Get a Mac and you'll never have a problem downloading a photo again!

[Sissy Willis]

Check my latest post. I followed your advice pre-emptively. :)

[mog]

Michael Dell sells cheap PC's but the top of the line are ok from what I read. Of course I prefer a Mac although there are times and programs that are PC only. For a PC, I prefer Alienware or do it yourself. I've researched it and will make my own.

If Tuck can hold out, expect Apple to release a MacTel laptop next year which should be awesome.

[Christina]

Oops! I double pinged. Sorry.

; )

[Christina]

Fixed the link, my bad!

; )