Archive: 2007

267 entries. 63,411 words.

January, 2007

Year End Loose Ends: Haditha. 2007-01-01 3:06 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time, since it was a story I was following with some interest throughout the year. I read recently that four Marines involved in the alleged killing of 24 civilians at Haditha are now being charged with murder. 348 words.
Year End Loose Ends: Somalia. 2007-01-01 3:11 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Somalia seems to confirm that Iraq is the model for warfare of the future. 407 words.
Silly Microsoft Clipart Doodle Comics!. 2007-01-01 5:30 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Ripped from the Virginia blogosphere headlines. 23 words.
Migrated To New Blogger. 2007-01-02 3:01 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Administrative note: If you haven’t noticed, I migrated The Krehbiel Strikes Back over to the “new and improved” Blogger service, and I have no idea what impact that might have on the reader’s experience. I do know that it has made it much more difficult and tedious for me to post, though, since they completely changed the Atom interface without warning me ahead of time. 82 words.
New Years Blogging Resolutions. 2007-01-02 11:51 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Here’s a few of my news years blogging resolutions so I can refer to them later. 124 words.
On I’m Not Emeril’s Religion Of Peace. 2007-01-03 3:08 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Old Dominion Blog Alliance member I’m Not Emeril recently wrote a defense of Virgil Goode’s suspicions about the religion of Islam. Fellow ODBA member SWAC Girl wrote that it was a “well-researched article on the subject that needs to be read.” 569 words.
When Bloggers Attack Keith Ellison. 2007-01-03 11:01 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
From the SWAC Pack 230 words.
Layout Changes Ahead. 2007-01-04 1:41 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Administrative Note: I am currently playing with new Blogger layout templates so the appearance of the blog will undoubtedly change randomly and without warning. Hopefully I won’t destroy any of the content in the process. 52 words.
Henrico County Government For Dummies. 2007-01-04 3:46 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve written this cheat sheet to learn more about my local government. 375 words.
The SWAC Defenders Of Freedom And Goode. 2007-01-04 11:12 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m continuing to monitor communications from the SWAC bloggers, because it’s fun, and, you know, Waldo censored them, so there’s no possible way for you guys to see their blogs anymore. Anyway, it’s pretty informative stuff. Pat Robertson revealed that God will allow a major terrorist attack on a U.S. city later this year–what revelations will come from the SWAC Pack? 501 words.
The Goode Position. 2007-01-06 12:53 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Virgil Goode and his supporters apparently want to keep the immigration debate on the front burner. So let’s take a peek at it. 561 words.
I’m Somebody!. 2007-01-06 1:27 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m somebody! Who would have thought I would ever appear alongside such giants of Virginia blogging as Not Larry Sabato, Waldo Jaquith, and Vivian Paige! 41 words.
Iraq versus Highways. 2007-01-08 5:24 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I keep telling people that serving in Iraq is probably safer than driving to work on Interstate 95 every day, but nobody seems to believe me. 56 words.
Of Canadian Sharia And Tolerance. 2007-01-08 5:34 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Elle at In-Politically Correct, one of the Virginia SWAC Bloggers, wrote this surprisingly good post: Sharia Law in Canada? 773 words.
Virginia Bills Under Consideration. 2007-01-09 2:37 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
In my effort to learn more about local and state politics, I’ve been perusing some of the new bills that the Virginia General Assembly will be discussing, and I came across this interesting gem: From our good friend and Catholic police state advocate Bob Marshall, of the recent Marshall/Newman Amendment fame, comes a new bill proposing to automatically make abortion illegal in Virginia if Roe v. Wade is overturned federally. Does he know something we don’t or is he just being optimistic? 161 words.
A Post-Mortem On Discussion. 2007-01-10 3:50 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
There comes a time when “discussion” is no longer fruitful. I tried to challenge some of the beliefs of the SWAC Bloggers on In-Politically Correct today, but I guess I’m wasting my time. I tried to be polite on their blog but I don’t need to do that so much here. 809 words.
On Indonesia And The 10% That Support Suicide Bombings. 2007-01-10 6:20 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I mentioned in my last post that I didn’t know much about the state of terrorism in Indonesia, so I did a little web research. 694 words.
A Small Clarification. 2007-01-10 6:58 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I just noticed that I had written yesterday, “Religion is just a hook used to recruit people who would otherwise be common criminals.” I didn’t mean to say religious people are common criminals, obviously. :) I meant that common criminals can be drawn into terrorist groups through the use of, say, radical Islam. 70 words.
Wherein I Shut Down The Debate Again. 2007-01-10 10:56 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
It’s really tempting to make up a cute graphic and a cheesy slogan to put at the top of my posts regarding the SWAC Bloggers. 377 words.
Something Less Confrontational: The Speech. 2007-01-11 8:53 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I was sick of hearing about the President’s stinkin’ speech several days before it was even delivered, and the speech blogstorm is mostly over by now anyway (that speech was soooo 12 hours ago!), so I’m not going to add much more about it. 367 words.
An Excuse For A Silly Sketch Comic. 2007-01-12 3:44 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Now that I’ve exposed the SWAC Propaganda campaign, it should come as no surprise that this post from In-Politically Correct condemning the Democrat’s stem cell research bill and supporting amniotic stem cell research is missing a few key facts that would help an objective reader make an informed decision on the stem cell issue. 95 words.
Twelve A Day?. 2007-01-12 5:56 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Sheesh. I can’t hardly get through one misleading SWAC Blogger post before another misleading SWAC Blogger post shows up in my reader: Political Correctness Will Kill Us … Part 8. I can’t keep up! 675 words.
How To Cherry-Pick From A Reagan Speech. 2007-01-13 1:31 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
“Tonight, I want to speak to the people of the Soviet Union, to tell them it’s true that our governments have had serious differences, but our sons and daughters have never fought each other in war. And if we Americans have our way, they never will. 159 words.
Theories About Bush’s New Way Forward. 2007-01-13 1:41 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
The pundit shows have been hammering the same message over and over again, which is basically, “Bush must be insane to threaten Iran and Syria.” Democrats and even some Republicans appear to be conveying the same message. 627 words.
This Just In: Olbermann Is Annoying. 2007-01-13 3:20 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I don’t just hate Leftophobic propaganda from Staunton. For example, I also find Olbermann’s “special commentaries,” which should more accurately be described as, “angry, personal attacks against President Bush to get ratings,” really annoying. One expects those kind of rants from Rightophobic bloggers, but from the host of what is advertised as a “news” show? 391 words.
Nancy Pelosi and Big Tuna?. 2007-01-16 3:58 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually saw something interesting on RightsideVA (one of the SWAC blogs) over the weekend: Congress starting to smell “Fishy” already… I’m surprised this issue isn’t getting more attention, but I guess “the surge” is eclipsing everything else right now. Not to mention the new season of 24. 531 words.
What’s In A Label?. 2007-01-16 11:24 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
A SWAC Blogger implied in a comment on his blog that I was “throwing out” words like bigot, xenophobe, and Islamophobe, perhaps suggesting that I was “smearing” them or had no sense of what the words meant. Vince mentioned something similar in a comment here. So I want to go back to my earlier post for a minute, where I wrote, referring to the SWAC bloggers: ‘Just about every word out of their mouths offers further proof that they are quite deserving of the harsh labels “bigot,” “Islamophobic,” and/or “xenophobic.”’ 514 words.
Frank Hargrove Defense Watch. 2007-01-17 7:05 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Hanover Delegate Frank Hargrove’s embarrassing remarks are well-documented. Supposedly they even made national news. I won’t repeat what he said because I wouldn’t want to be accused of “macacing” anyone, but I thought they were hilarious. 387 words.
I’m Not Emeril’s Religion Of Peace, Part 2. 2007-01-18 6:29 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
For those that missed it, Alton Foley (“I’m Not Emeril”) left a comment responding to I’m Not Emeril’s Religion Of Peace on my creaky old home page last night. My response follows his comment. 520 words.
Frank Hargrove Defense Watch, Part 2. 2007-01-18 7:52 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Barticles, a blog which for some reason is now appearing as an opinion column on the Richmond Times-Dispatch web site (did I miss something?), wrote that “most responses support him [Hargrove].” I don’t know where he’s getting that information from, because so far I’ve only counted four clear Hargrove-supporting posts going through the BlogNetNews aggregator for the Virginia blogosphere. 128 words.
Oh My, A Chinese Satellite Killer. 2007-01-19 1:03 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Wow, I just saw this: U.S. official: Chinese test missile obliterates satellite. That’s some scary stuff right there. The only consolation is that it only has a 25% success rate so far. 126 words.
When Google AdWords Fail. 2007-01-19 2:03 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
While browsing the blogosphere, I came across this hilariously ironic sight at the top of West of Shockoe, a left-wing blog in Virginia. 40 words.
uvBlog. 2007-01-19 2:28 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve started working on a more streamlined PHP blogging platform, which I’m creatively dubbing “uvBlog.” You might be wondering why I don’t just get one of the millions of free, open source blog platforms out there. It’s mainly because I’m really, really picky, and frankly it’s more fun and instructional to develop my own. Also I don’t want to lose any of my content. 355 words.
CAIR Tries To Pull An AFA Trick. 2007-01-19 8:12 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I agree with Squeaky Wheel’s thoughts about CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim lobbyist group with suspected ties to terrorism) being upset about the new season of 24: Islamic PC Police Attack ‘24’ While Continuing To Ignore The Cause and Focus On The Symptoms. CAIR should get over it. Offended Muslims should watch something else. 287 words.
Semantics Over Candles And Signs. 2007-01-20 11:20 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve criticized the CASTLE bloggers (aka. oasis + launchpad) a lot lately so I figure it’s only fair that I also say I approve of their campaign to use candles and signs to show support for the troops, as reported in the Staunton News Leader: Candles support troops; signs call for victory. There’s not a thing wrong with it, and I applaud their conviction. 428 words.
Silly Sketch Comic: Delegate Hargrove Mends Fences. 2007-01-21 5:55 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
[…] 31 words.
Thoughts On The Next President. 2007-01-22 8:45 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
With the presidential race “heating up”–or, as I like to think of it, “just barely getting started”–I figured I should take some time to ponder what kind of president appeals to me. 588 words.
Joe Blackburn Challenges Walter Stosch In The 12th. 2007-01-23 2:12 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Continuing my effort to pay more attention to local politics, I see Not Larry Sabato is reporting that 12th District Virginia State Senate incumbent Walter Stosch will be challenged in the Republican primary by one Joe Blackburn. I don’t know anything about this Blackburn guy, but here is his campaign website, such as it is: www.joeblackburnforsenate.com. He says he’s a “commonsense conservative,” whatever that means. 89 words.
Modern Secession. 2007-01-23 8:54 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I sometimes wonder what kind of political situation would be so divisive that states might try to secede from the Union again. This came to mind again recently when Virginia legislators proposed that the Commonwealth acknowledge the wrongs of slavery, and a flood of pro-Confederacy people bubbled up to the surface here in the Virginia blogosphere. I have to admit I was a little shocked and awed at the vehement, almost violent reactions of some of these Virginians. 396 words.
Hard-Hitting SOTU 2007 Observations. 2007-01-24 2:36 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Here are some hard-hitting SOTU observations you won’t find anywhere else! (Mrs. Krehbiel also contributed to this list, though she probably doesn’t realize she was doing so.) 253 words.
Civilian Reserve Corps?. 2007-01-25 3:50 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
One other part of the State of the Union address that jumped out at me was the president’s call for a Civilian Reserve Corps. 365 words.
Virginia Guardsmen Fall. 2007-01-25 6:56 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
It’s been reported in the local news a lot, but it’s well worth noting again that two of the twelve soldiers who died in the Black Hawk helicopter crash near Baghdad this past weekend were Virginia Guardsmen: Va. copter-crash victims recalled. 145 words.
Virgil Goode: Cervical Savior. 2007-01-25 11:16 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
RICHMOND, VA - Pregnant women of America can sleep sounder knowing that Virgil Goode is the only Congressman willing to take a stand against the growing problem of Muslims slapping gynecologists. As reported by Spank That Donkey, a wave of Muslim violence directed at male gynecologists has recently spread across the country of France, with nearly a single incident being reported in one Paris hospital. In that incident, an enraged Muslim, upset that his wife was treated after childbirth by a male doctor instead of the female doctor that he requested, attacked his wife’s gynecologist, hurling verbal insults, and viciously slapping and shoving him. 223 words.
Walter Stosch and PayDay Loans. 2007-01-26 10:06 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Continuing my observations of local politics, I perked up this morning when I heard Virginia 12th District General Assembly Senator Walter Stosch talking on the radio about his bill to repeal the Payday Loan Act here in Virginia. Apparently it’s not going so well; he didn’t seem optimistic about the bill’s passage. 316 words.
BlogAd Revenue Revisited. 2007-01-29 2:42 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Last year I looked at how much the big name bloggers make in advertising. I thought it would be fun to revisit that subject to see how things might have changed in the new year, so I went back over to BlogAds and looked through their price list. 341 words.
Moving .NET Web Projects. 2007-01-30 8:54 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve had some annoying problems opening other people’s ASP.NET web projects from Visual SourceSafe. By default, it sets up the local IIS directory in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot regardless of the location of the solution directory. I prefer setting up a virtual directory that points to the actual project location, which for me is on the D: drive. 636 words.
Olbermann Rhetoric Busting. 2007-01-31 11:59 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I saw another of Olbermann’s “Special Commentaries” last night. This time he tried to fact check the president’s SOTU claims of foiling four terrorist plots. One could almost imagine Olbermann’s outrage at the very idea of the president taking credit for any positive steps in the global war on terror, and his single-minded conviction to overturn those claims of counterterrorism success, no matter how far he had to stretch for evidence. 1,211 words.

February, 2007

Biden Announces, Shoots Foot. 2007-02-01 2:16 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Sen. Joseph Biden announced his official intention to run for president in 2008 and simultaneously ensured he will lose every Democratic primary all in one fell swoop: Biden Says He’s In…Again. 280 words.
Times-Dispatch Discusses Virginia Diocese Split. 2007-02-02 7:22 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Mrs. Krehbiel pointed me to these two Richmond Times-Dispatch articles with opposing viewpoints on the recent Episcopal Church split here in Virginia: . . . 443 words.
Obligatory Football Post. 2007-02-05 2:19 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Two quick, off-topic football notes in honor of the Super Bowl: 1) The Super Bowl MVP voting process is hopelessly broken. The real MVP was Kelvin Hayden, who intercepted an errant pass from Grossman and ran it back for the final Colts touchdown, putting the game away. Before that interception, the Bears were (amazingly) still one big, lucky play away from winning the game, and even had some momentum following their last field goal. 153 words.
Global Warming Beliefs. 2007-02-05 4:26 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m concerned that some people still misunderstand my position on global warming. I think the misunderstanding is a result of black-and-white thinking on the subject – that is, that one must either believe global warming is a myth or one must believe that humanity will be extinct in the next ten years. My position is somewhere in the middle of a continuum between those two extremes. 490 words.
John O’Bannon’s Vote On Life. 2007-02-06 5:01 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
In local politics: Vivian Paige reported that Bob “Virginia Is For Catholics” Marshall’s bill HB2797 defining that “life begins at the moment of fertilization” was defeated 53-43. I was glad to see that my Virginia representative John O’Bannon was among those voting against the bill. 62 words.
Accuracy In Media Not So Accurate. 2007-02-06 6:37 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
My conscience dictates that I post this small retraction: Last week when I was rambling about Keith Olbermann, I linked to what I called an “interesting article” on Accuracy in Media (AIM) which suggested a link between the post-9/11 anthrax mailings and al Qaeda. 209 words.
As The Virginia Blogosphere Turns. 2007-02-07 11:23 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
For those interested in blog operas (did I just coin a phrase?), another sophomoric effort to discredit well-known Virginia blogger Waldo Jaquith is taking place, courtesy of the more volatile members of Virginia’s Republican blogosphere (which, unfortunately these days, is almost all of them). Instead of a boring, chronological linkfest, I’ll try to document the saga with funny and representative quotations from the participants. 729 words.
Henrico County Tidbits. 2007-02-09 10:22 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
It’s been a rather busy few days at work, but I wanted to quickly mention a couple of things I heard today about Henrico County. 128 words.
Eric Cantor: Not My Fault. 2007-02-13 12:52 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Still in a busy work cycle, so not much time for blogging. I know it’s a bit late for this, but since Eric Cantor is my representative, I should probably make a comment about his antics on Hardball last week. My comment is: Don’t blame me – I voted for the other guy. 162 words.
CASTLE Jumps The Shark (UPDATED). 2007-02-20 5:50 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Starting to get back to normal here at work, so I can actually keep up with my news reader again. 144 words.
Confederacy Museum Name Change. 2007-02-20 5:54 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This should get the Virginia neo-Confederates riled up: I heard on the radio this morning that the Museum of the Confederacy here in Richmond is thinking about removing the word “Confederacy” from its name after it moves. Apparently they’ve found there is some sort of negative connotation in continuing to glorify the Confederacy 140 years after the rest of us noticed the war was over. Who could have guessed? 87 words.
Virginia Marine Falls: Lance Cpl. Daniel Morris. 2007-02-22 1:09 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m embarrassed at how late I am to mention this, but here goes: This year I’m trying to do what little I can to honor fallen soldiers from Virginia by making a brief note about their passing. It’s not nearly as much as they deserve. 158 words.
Let’s Trade. 2007-02-22 11:11 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Not surprisingly, Virginia Republican bloggers (eg. Virginia Virtucon and Bearing Drift) don’t like Jim Webb (D-VA) very much. I personally don’t like or dislike him: As long as he doesn’t screw anything up before the next election cycle, he’s doing a good-enough job for me. 106 words.
What Happened To The Virginia Blog Carnival? (UPDATED). 2007-02-26 2:57 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Is it just me, or has the Virginia Blog Carnival had a decidedly right-wing slant to it lately? The last four especially have been awfully heavy with conservative snark and propaganda. I always thought the Carnivals were supposed to be non-political… maybe that rule only applies when Republicans are in power. 95 words.
An ActBlue Day For Virginians (UPDATED). 2007-02-26 5:43 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Ugh. Looks like RK is bringing ActBlue and the sordid world of partisan Internet fundraising into Virginia politics: Time to Act Blue in Virginia! Woe be unto those Democrats who fall out of favor with the almighty Lowell Feld, because he will undoubtedly only let voters insta-donate funds to the candidates he approves of. 157 words.

March, 2007

CNN Is Fast. 2007-03-01 10:54 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
It’s nice to know that CNN is on top of the news. They are so good, in fact, that they can pose a thought-provoking question and then answer it for you all in the span of 10 minutes. 55 words.
Dueling Virginia Blog Carnivals. 2007-03-04 10:09 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
SWAC Girl has the latest Virginia Blog Carnival up. Lest anyone think I bowed to peer pressure or something, I actually didn’t submit that post of mine you see on there, but thanks for the mention anyway. I’m somebody! 108 words.
Virginia Is For Ann Coulter Lovers. 2007-03-05 2:01 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This just screamed out for a quick post. Going completely against her character, Ann Coulter said something controversial, and some liberal bloggers are trying to organize a letter-writing campaign to her advertisers. 197 words.
Webb’s Bill And Iran. 2007-03-05 11:41 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I heard on the radio this morning that Sen. Webb (D-VA) introduced a bill that will prevent the President from going to war without Congressional approval. Of course, as the story unfolded throughout the day, it turned out that Webb’s bill will just prevent the President from using the 2002 Iraq authorization for action against Iran “in some cases,” which is quite a bit less bold than the 2-second morning radio sound bite led me to believe. (FOX News has more on the story.) I don’t disagree with the idea, though I have my doubts about it passing in the current political climate. 321 words.
Aggregators Galore. 2007-03-06 11:16 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
A couple of Virginia conservative aggregators popped up recently: Conservativa and the Old Dominion Blog Alliance (ODBA) Aggregator. These are now competing with the more non-partisan Waldo’s Virginia Political Blogroll and BlogNetNews. 165 words.
Virginia Fallen: Staff Sgt. Robert Stanley and Sgt. Michael C. Peek. 2007-03-08 5:53 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m continuing to briefly mention fallen soldiers from Virginia as my own personal homage. I heard about these on the radio this morning. 146 words.
Those Infernal Blog Carnivals Again. 2007-03-09 12:20 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
If you’ve been paying attention to the Virginia blogosphere, you know that my thoughts a while back on the Virginia Blog Carnival have been mischaracterized as an attack, a complaint, and even “whinage” by various blogs in the last week or so. None of that bothered me–that’s the nature of partisan bloggers, after all. But then I stumbled upon this exchange in the comments of The Richmond Democrat. 525 words.
Stosch To Debate Blackburn. 2007-03-13 4:43 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Quick note: Not Larry Sabato is reporting on a brewing catfight (aka. debate) between Virginia General Assembly 12th District Senator Walter Stosch and primary challenger Joe Blackburn at the James River Republican Women’s Club. 139 words.
uvBlog March Update. 2007-03-13 11:01 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I thought it would be good to sit down and evaluate where I am with uvBlog in comparison to my stated goals. Points in italics below were my original goals. 331 words.
On General Pace’s Comments. 2007-03-14 10:33 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Quick Observation: I completely disagree with General Pace’s recent remarks, but I respect him for standing behind his morals and not caving in to the apology witch hunt. One should never have to apologize for one’s beliefs (even if they’re misguided :). Pace did acknowledge that he shouldn’t have brought his personal feelings into a policy discussion, which I thought was an appropriate response. 109 words.
Slashdot Advises Future Criminals. 2007-03-15 11:42 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This caught my eye: Don’t Google “How To Commit Murder” Before Killing. Slashdot makes it sound like The Powers That Be can call up Google and Microsoft and get a list of your searches to use against you in a court case, but that’s not what happened. The police seized the defendant’s computers and simply looked at their search history, which is usually recorded by default where anyone can look at it. 109 words.
No Redirection For Data Destination Errors?. 2007-03-16 12:07 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I had the “opportunity” to fix someone else’s SSIS package that was failing because of a data overflow on a date column at one of the data destination components. 261 words.
Roggio’s Daily Reports. 2007-03-16 8:49 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve always enjoyed Bill Roggio’s counterterrorism blogging efforts–he’s one of the very few bloggers I would actually consider calling a journalist. He’s now writing daily Iraq reports for The Weekly Standard blog. I recommend reading them; his reports are always full of good nuts-and-bolts information that you hardly ever hear from the more sensationalistic, sound-bite-oriented news outlets. 157 words.
Mystery Date Crisis Solved. 2007-03-16 8:59 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
To follow up on yesterday’s mystery date problem: It turned out that one of the incoming dates had been erroneously entered with the year “1007” instead of “2007.” The date was valid on the Oracle data source, and it was valid within the SSIS data flow. However, SQL Server 2000 can’t store a date prior to the year 1753, so the data destination failed. I put in a script component to test for dates earlier than 1753, set them to “1/1/1753”, and flagged the row with an error. 98 words.
Another Embarassment For The U.S. Patent Office. 2007-03-19 2:02 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I just saw this on Slashdot: Linked List Patented in 2006. It prompted me to write this knee-jerk reaction: Oh my god! It’s widely known that the U.S. patent office is completely retarded when it comes to giving out software patents, but this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. 139 words.
Light Blogging. 2007-03-23 12:00 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I apologize for the paucity of blogging from me lately. Recently expanded duties at work has left me with precious little time to read the news during the day, let alone comment on it. I’ve got a huge backlog of topics I want to write about, but I’m having a hard time finding the energy to sit down at home during the evenings and write about them. 84 words.
Counter-Protesters Gone Wild. 2007-03-23 6:48 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I had set a personal goal not to dissect SWAC propaganda anymore, but I stumbled on this post while pruning down my news reader last night: Anti-war protester complains about D.C. march. I can understand the desire to counter-protest and show support for troops, and I can even understand distaste for the more violent, corporate pacifists out there. 122 words.
Moving .NET Web Projects. 2007-03-23 11:26 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve had some annoying problems opening other people’s ASP.NET web projects from Visual SourceSafe. By default, it sets up the local IIS directory in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot regardless of the location of the solution directory. I prefer setting up a virtual directory that points to the actual project location, which for me is on the D: drive. 664 words.
Blog Test Weekend. 2007-03-24 4:18 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I am conducting a test this weekend. I’m replacing the old uvPortal software with the new uvBlog software to see what happens. Mainly I am testing to see if I can divert traffic that used to go to the portal to the new site. 68 words.
Blog Test Weekend Results. 2007-03-26 2:01 AM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
As of 10:00 PM on Sunday, I’ve received 2,286 hits on the new blog from Yahoo’s and Google’s search engines. Kind of amazing that my little ol’ domain gets that much traffic. 65 words.
Bush Scandals Need Help. 2007-03-26 6:03 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve been meaning to write about this for ages. As dramatic political scandals go, I have to say that the Bush administration is falling far short of the entertainment goals established by the Clinton administration. 423 words.
Don’t Forget About Iran. 2007-03-26 7:48 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Seemingly lost in the midst of Gonzales-gate is the recent abduction of 15 British sailors by Iran. Iran claims the British were in Iranian territory, while the British and Iraq claim they were in Iraqi waters. (Not to scare anyone, but the incident sounds vaguely reminiscent of the impressment of American sailors by the British which eventually led to the War of 1812. 213 words.
Has Windows Jumped The Shark?. 2007-03-27 3:04 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I used to be the kind of person to upgrade software immediately as soon as new versions were available, because it used to be true that upgrades meant there would be some kind of improvement. But lately Microsoft has been working to redefine the term “software upgrade” to mean “an entirely different application rewritten from the ground up without any quality control.” First there was Visual Studio 2005, which is definitely quirkier and slower than Visual Studio 2003. Then, in the same vein, there’s SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio, which I’ve had the pleasure of using for a year now. 257 words.
Only In Virginia. 2007-03-27 5:12 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Only in Virginia will you find Republican bloggers criticizing a Democratic senator for carrying a loaded weapon around Capitol Hill… 20 words.
Looking Back: PopFuncs. 2007-03-28 1:47 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I thought it might be fun to review some of my earlier programming projects on this blog. 1,275 words.
Escaping {{Braces}} For String.Format. 2007-03-28 9:33 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Amazingly enough, I hadn’t run across this situation before. I was writing a quick utility to generate a C# class from a database table today, and I discovered that the following code failed. 153 words.
The Chocolate Jesus. 2007-03-30 7:54 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I hope all the people who keep saying that Muslims are the only ones who freak out when people offend their religion are taking note of incidents like this. Oh, but there weren’t any riots, burnings, or killings, people will say. The end result is the same, though: Intimidation of minorities and stifling free thought. 73 words.
The DTEXEC /DECRYPT option. 2007-03-31 9:50 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Today’s lesson is about how to avoid those annoying messages that SSIS gives you about being unable to decrypt sensitive data in a package. 421 words.

April, 2007

Bill Richardson Handicaps His Own Campaign. 2007-04-03 7:18 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
So far, I like the second-tier 2008 presidential candidates a lot more than the first-tier candidates. One of them, Bill Richardson, has just signed a bill allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes in New Mexico, according to CNN. At the risk of sounding cynical, this sounds like something that will probably doom him to remain in the second tier. 61 words.
Dennis Miller’s New Radio Show. 2007-04-03 8:08 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Out of curiosity I listened to Dennis Miller’s first radio show over the weekend. I’ve always been a fan of his comedy, but I think he jumped the shark somewhere during the Dennis Miller Live show on HBO. (It was hip and edgy at first, but by the end he was doing that high-pitched giggling thing way too much.) 413 words.
Nancy Pelosi Talking To Syria??. 2007-04-04 4:08 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve tried to give Nancy Pelosi the benefit of the doubt, since she’s the first woman speaker and all. I didn’t make much of a fuss over that Big Tuna incident where she allegedly exempted one of her constituents from having to pay the federal minimum wage. I didn’t say anything about her demanding a huge, expensive, gas-guzzling military jet for her and her entourage to fly around the country in. 178 words.
Hacknot Is Cool. 2007-04-04 10:08 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve been trying to fill my news reader with good blogs on software development, both to expand my knowledge and to peek at the state-of-the-art in programmer blogging. Most of the blogs I see are not interesting, not informative, and/or not focused. But today I came across Hacknot, which hits it out of the park, as far as I’m concerned. 170 words.
Please Don’t Do This. 2007-04-04 10:52 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Over the last couple weeks I’ve been enjoying a lovely little application that repeatedly polls for xml data from a web service. The main loop of this application looks something like this. 307 words.
UvMoney: Home Banking For Mad Scientists. 2007-04-09 2:04 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
My latest mad-scientist software project idea involves home banking. 596 words.
Virginia Fallen: Staff Sgt. Jason Arnette. 2007-04-09 7:44 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
As usual, I’m very late on this, but I wanted to briefly mention: Amelia County native Staff Sgt. Jason Arnette was killed by an improved explosive device in Iraq on Sunday, April 1, 2007. From the Times-Dispatch: ‘“He not only gave his life for his country, he died doing what he wanted to do,” his mother, Michelle Arnette, said last night from her home in Amelia.’ 90 words.
Followup On Nancy Pelosi In Syria. 2007-04-10 8:02 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I wanted to follow up real quick on Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Syria. I took Alice’s advice and read a little bit from Media Matters on this subject and did indeed find that Republicans and talk radio/talk blogs were (imo) blowing things way out of proportion. They probably still would be if it weren’t for the Don Imus “controversy.” 199 words.
Site Unblocked. 2007-04-17 3:36 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Oops. I was trying to block a spammer IP but due to a bug, nobody was able to access the site for the last few days. I should probably test things now and then. 38 words.
After Virginia Tech: Who To Blame?. 2007-04-17 4:06 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
There are a lot of jumbled thoughts in my head after the Virginia Tech shooting yesterday. One infuriating aspect of the media coverage has been the almost constant attempts to shift blame away from the shooter. “What went wrong?” they ask, as if the shooter was just another victim. 235 words.
After Virginia Tech: Professor Liviu Librescu. 2007-04-17 4:26 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I first heard about this man on the radio this morning, and have subsequently seen many blog posts about him. This is one blog meme that I’m happy to keep propagating, though. 104 words.
After Virginia Tech: Media Death Toll Obsession. 2007-04-18 9:47 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
There are a lot of jumbled thoughts in my head after the Virginia Tech shooting on Monday. One of them is about the media’s grisly obsession with record-breaking death tolls. 369 words.
After Virginia Tech: Self-Defense. 2007-04-24 7:51 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
There are a lot of jumbled thoughts in my head after the Virginia Tech shooting last Monday. One of them is about personal self-defense. 317 words.
V Beach At Gallipoli. 2007-04-25 7:24 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Sometimes I like to go to Wikipedia and click random links until I find an interesting historical article. That probably sounds boring, but keep in mind that I’m easily entertained (especially when I’m at work behind a firewall that won’t let you browse anywhere fun). 394 words.
Joe Blackburn Endorsed. 2007-04-26 1:30 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Here are some things I saw today about our very own Virginia Senate 12th District Republican primary coming up on June 12. 98 words.
World Intellectual Property Day. 2007-04-26 2:01 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Happy World Intellectual Property Day! The theme this year is “Encouraging Creativity,” so I’m celebrating by creating the intellectual property you are reading right now. By the way, if you think America is going overboard celebrating World Intellectual Property Day, check out Uzbekistan: They have activities planned for an entire month! 51 words.
Krehbiel Award. 2007-04-27 3:25 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This is funny… There’s a “Krehbiel Award” at the University of Arkansas: 5 UA Fort Smith Employees to Receive Awards. “Dr. William Huskison of Fort Smith is the recipient of the Luella M. Krehbiel Teaching Excellence Award. … The Krehbiel Award recognizes contributions of UA Fort Smith’s part-time faculty. 68 words.
A Brief Look At SourceGrid 4.x. 2007-04-28 5:44 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
To implement an interface that somewhat resembles a check register for UvMoney, I’m going to need a list or grid control. I wrote a semi-usable grid control for .NET 1.1 a few years back, but I wanted to test drive a more mature grid for this project. 686 words.
Oblivion Redux. 2007-04-29 11:09 PM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve been woefully negligent in reporting my gaming activities here. Not that anyone reads this anyway. :) 578 words.
A Good Meme. 2007-04-30 1:59 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
[…] 0 words.

May, 2007

Partisan Bickering Stinks. 2007-05-02 8:57 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m weary of all the partisan games over the Iraq “war” funding bill. Both Republican and Democratic legislators alike are acting thoroughly childish, imho. 154 words.
Exploring Scraping Methods. 2007-05-03 11:16 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve got a working prototype of the UvMoney system now. It’s pretty rough around the edges (especially in the user-interface department), but it works. I’m at a natural stopping point, so this seems like a good time to take a step back and ruminate on it. 557 words.
Hax0rs Sighted. 2007-05-06 3:20 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Wow, I should check my logs more often. 25 words.
Vanity Watch. 2007-05-06 3:27 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Periodically I go to Google and search for my name, just to see what comes up. Partly out of curiosity and partly to find out what other people (aka. potential employers) would see about me if they did the same search. 73 words.
Not Larry Sabato vs. BlogNetNews. 2007-05-07 9:59 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This is interesting (to me, at least): I see that Not Larry Sabato turned off his RSS feed to keep BlogNetNews, an aggregator, from syndicating his content. NLS, ever the self-promotional salesman, has been a long-time critic of BNN’s new “influence” ranking, undoubtedly because it does not always rank him #1. Apparently NLS tried to remove his feed from BNN’s aggregator, but BNN refused to remove him, and that led to the drastic step of turning off the feed. 204 words.
More On The Hax0r. 2007-05-07 10:19 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
A quick Googling of some of the usernames that the would-be hax0r bot is attempting to login with – Ganjaboy, Ganry, and Wolf – suggests that I am not the first site to be hit by this particular bot. It has left its calling card (ie. spam) on bazillions of bulletin boards around the Internet. 55 words.
Easy Bot Blocking. 2007-05-07 10:34 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m sure this is well-documented already – in fact I’m almost positive I’ve read this somewhere else, and I’m completely positive that I’ve seen web sites using this technique – but here is a quick and easy way to keep simple bots from posting data to your web site: Add a Javascript “onclick” event to your submit button which sets a hidden form field. Verify that the hidden form field is set correctly and viola, you have a simple test for human vs. bot. 131 words.
America’s Funniest Home Jihadists. 2007-05-10 5:29 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Is it really necessary to be scared of home-grown terrorist cells when part of their strategy is making copies of their jihadist videos at the local video store? I choose to point and laugh at them instead: Look at the silly amateur jihadists! Is that the best you can do? 50 words.
I’m On The List!. 2007-05-11 12:03 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Holy crap! I’m on Richmond Democrat’s list of the top 98 Virginia political blogs! Only 12 blogs did better than me! 42 words.
Hey Orange. 2007-05-11 1:18 PM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Hey Orange, Red is looking for your email! 8 words.
The Stosch Sentinel Arrives. 2007-05-12 2:31 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Quick notes from the Virginia Senate 12th District Republican primary race (which is effectively the election, since I seriously doubt if there’s going to be a Democratic challenger from this area): VCAP wrote a nice summary of the Walter Stosch v. Joe Blackburn debate. 83 words.
Virginia Influence = Comments?. 2007-05-13 12:18 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Looks like Daily Whackjob exposed the secret to gaming the BNN Influence rankings this past week – SWAC flame wars! :) It pretty much confirms that comments weigh heavily in the Influence formula. (But only comments SOME blogs’ comments – Too Conservative, for example, had 53 comments on a recent post but is nowhere to be found on the Influence list. 95 words.
Endorsement Minus Accountability. 2007-05-14 10:46 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Doesn’t it somewhat devalue the meaning of the phrase “Endorsed by Raising Kaine” when you have the readership vote on who to endorse? It seems to lack a certain amount of accountability. 32 words.
Already?. 2007-05-15 6:37 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
An important and influential figure in society dies, and the defensive battle lines are drawn mere minutes after the news: “It will be interesting to see how the left and the MSM will treat this.” 35 words.
Hanger v. Sayre Highlights Why Politics Is Depressing. 2007-05-15 8:01 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Since seemingly half of the Virginia political blogosphere resides in the Shenandoah Valley, a lot of bloggers are talking (aka. bickering) about the upcoming Republican primary between incumbent Emmett Hanger and challenger Scott Sayre for the 24th District Virginia Senate seat. The CASTLE bloggers in particular are working hard to get Scott Sayre elected. 316 words.
Avoid People Powered Machines. 2007-05-16 3:07 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
A quick consumer report: Mrs. Krehbiel and I are so mad at a company called People Powered Machines right now that we can’t even enjoy today’s death of Jerry Falwell.* We bought a reel mower from these people just to try one out, but it didn’t work on our yard, so we sent it back, and they charged us some kind of restocking fee in addition to all the shipping costs. So it cost us some $60+ to try to be more environmentally friendly. What a total rip-off. 189 words.
Virginia Fallen: PFC Murphy, SSG Kiernan, SGT Cauthorn, SGT Frazier. 2007-05-16 2:19 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I heard on the radio this morning that a soldier from Lynchburg, Private 1st Class Chris Murphy, was killed in the ambush that also resulted in 3 kidnapped American soldiers. From the Times-Dispatch: “He was very dedicated to this,” she said. “He said he had made the right decision and was thinking of making a career of [the military].” 229 words.
Falwell’s Legacy. 2007-05-16 2:22 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
To clarify my previous comments on Jerry Falwell: I’ll give him credit for being a great businessman, a great politician, and a great propagandist, but I will give him no credit whatsoever as a moral authority or Christian ambassador. I think he and Pat Robertson and James Dobson and Don Wildmon and all their ilk, like the Roman emperors of old, have hijacked Christianity in a quest for money and power and influence, and in the process sullied the reputation of all well-meaning Christians around the world. The saddest part about Falwell’s death for me is that his empire probably won’t be diminished one bit. 185 words.
Ron Paul Challenges People’s Thinking. 2007-05-16 3:17 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I watched the second Republican “debate” last night (I’ve seen all the debates so far), and a couple things jumped out at me. (I put debate in quotes, of course, because they are not debates at all in the traditional sense. I’m not sure what you’d call them. 339 words.
Upcoming Primary Debates. 2007-05-16 8:01 PM.
- Personal
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Upcoming Primary Debates 191 words.
Coulter and Falwell BFF. 2007-05-17 2:48 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Hey, Ann Coulter stood up for Jerry Falwell. 16 words.
That VT Shooting Game. 2007-05-18 12:17 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Two quick thoughts on the Virginia Tech shooting game that’s been in the news here almost constantly. First, based on the snippet of footage I saw on the local news last night (I have not visited or even looked for the actual site), it is an outrageous affront to the video game industry to call it a “video game.” What I saw might have been impressive back in 1979. Even putting aside the emotional blackmail component, the guy should not be paid anything because the game clearly sucks. 140 words.
Redefining Amnesty Again. 2007-05-18 2:28 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Words are funny, especially in politics. They rarely mean what Webster intended them to mean. For example, to Republicans, a “timetable” is an un-American, troop-hating, defeatist surrender plan. 313 words.
1/2 Hour Train Wreck. 2007-05-21 4:59 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Has anyone else seen that 1/2 Hour News Hour on FOX? We stumbled onto another episode last night. It’s obviously targeted toward the loyal Rush Limbaugh fan who also owns signed, dog-eared copies of every Ann Coulter book, but I can’t even imagine a diehard dittohead laughing at any of the jokes. 145 words.
DOM Manipulation Woes In Firefox and IE. 2007-05-21 11:57 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I realize that most programmers like puzzles, but I, for one, am growing very tired of the continual “find the code combination that works” puzzles that occur when trying to write cross-browser compatible Javascript. I mean, this kind of thing has been going on since the mid-1990s. Are we EVER going to get any standards?? 361 words.
Wiki Password. 2007-05-22 12:59 PM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I just added an edit password to the Crayola Clan Wiki since I’ve had to undo spam bot damage every day for like the past week. The password is “crayola”. 30 words.
Is Taxation a Purchase or Extortion?. 2007-05-22 10:05 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Today’s random zen government thought involves taxes. I’ve observed – on blogs and in real life – that a lot of people seem to think that paying taxes also implies receiving some kind of preferential treatment or getting a say in how the government does business. They equate paying taxes with, for example, buying shares of stock in a company. 141 words.
Parsing Date Strings. 2007-05-23 2:16 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Very handy information if you ever need to go beyond DateTime.Parse(): Parsing Dates and Times in .NET. 17 words.
Virginia Fallen: PFC Gautier, CWO Moore. 2007-05-25 6:01 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m not quite sure why I keep doing this. It’s actually quite depressing, but it feels wrong not to make an effort to shine a little bit of light on the people getting killed over there in Iraq, regardless of one’s political views about the situation. 248 words.
Blog Humility Lesson. 2007-05-25 6:10 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Today’s lesson in blog humility: Don’t forget that real, flesh-and-blood human beings can read your blog, even long after you’ve completely forgotten what you’ve written. If, for example, you hastily whip off a snarky personal criticism about someone from another state that you read about somewhere in the news, there is a distinct possibility that a year or so later they will read what you wrote and not be very happy about it. Then you’ll be really embarrassed about your callous insensitivity to their plight. 95 words.
Stosch/Blackburn Roundup. 2007-05-26 2:31 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
The Hanger/Spammer…er…Sayre race in the 24th District is getting all the blog press here in Virginia, but there’s also a thrilling Republican primary race going on here in the 12th Senate District. (Thrilling in the sense that nobody seems particularly interested in it.) 157 words.
Operation: Mindcrime II. 2007-05-29 7:43 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I was interested to see that Queensrÿche released a sequel to Operation: Mindcrime a few years ago. I just got it last week. I had very low expectations, because I think Queensrÿche peaked in the mid- to late-90s, and their last couple of albums have been occasionally good, but overall nothing to write home about. 407 words.
Early Retirement. 2007-05-30 1:16 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Cindy Sheehan has “resigned” as the face of the anti-war movement, two days after announcing that she left the Democratic Party. 190 words.
Ringside In The 24th District Primary. 2007-05-31 2:42 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Grab the soda and popcorn, it’s getting ugly in the Virginia 24th district primary race! Republitarian just reported that candidate Scott Sayre’s wife has been charged with driving while intoxicated – not once but twice. SWAC Girl called the report “slanderous,” although I think she is using a different dictionary than mine, because that word sort of implies “false,” which would require some sort of contradictory evidence to the DWI claims. 98 words.
CAPTCHA Enabled. 2007-05-31 1:07 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m sorry to say that I just turned on Blogspot’s “word verification” for comments. 33 words.
Adventures With The Virginia Courts Case Information System. 2007-05-31 11:55 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Regarding the DWI charges against Mrs. Sayre, Republitarian cited: “Case # for first offense GV03000972-00. Case # for second offense GT063034-00.” I don’t live in the 24th, but I thought it might be fun to do a little fact-checking on this today. (I applaud Republitarian for giving voters the means to independently verify these claims.) I fired up the Virginia Courts Case Information system and started looking. 323 words.

June, 2007

Meanwhile, Back In The 12th. 2007-06-02 10:04 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Back here in the relatively uninteresting 12th Senate District, the Republican primary is all about taxes and spending. Stosch claims he’s an “effective cost-cutter”, while Blackburn claims Stosch is telling “one old fairy tale after another.” I have not done any fact-checking on either claim, because frankly I find the subject of taxes and spending incredibly dull. 202 words.
24 Season 4 Synopsis. 2007-06-03 2:57 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
A writing exercise by Thomas Krehbiel. 839 words.
A Point Of Commonality. 2007-06-05 10:29 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I don’t care for much of anything I see From On High, but I have to admit this is pretty funny, and I agree: On Those Waterless Urinals. 28 words.
Tom’s Top Eight, May 16, 2007. 2007-06-06 11:24 AM.
- Personal
- thomaskrehbiel.com
For historical reference. 40 words.
Top Eight Following CNN Debates. 2007-06-06 11:46 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m trying a silly little experiment this presidential election. I’m keeping scorecards on the mainstream presidential candidates and numerically rating each one in a variety of categories. This allows me to select the next president mathematically. 107 words.
Virginia Blog Presidential Endorsements. 2007-06-08 8:11 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m updating from time to time. See notes below. 183 words.
There Was Sarcasm? Really?. 2007-06-09 2:57 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Sometimes it’s impossible to refrain from pointing out the ironies found on Bloggers 4 Sayre. Here’s an amusing self-contradictory quote from Yankee Phillip. 107 words.
Stosch v. Blackburn 12th Senate District Updates. 2007-06-10 7:21 PM.
- Commentary
Elephant Ears reports on campaign fundraising in the 12th Senate District. Not surprisingly, incumbent Walter Stosch is leading in this department. The Virginian Federalist reports that Stosch’s latest mailer accuses Blackburn of “mud slinging and sleaze.” * I received a mailing from a place called Leadership for Virginia which is endorsing Walter Stosch and pushing hard for anyone and everyone to vote in the primaries. “There will be no Democratic candidate,” it reads. “The outcome will determine your Virginia State Senator for the next four years.” (emphasis theirs) 107 words.
From Equality Virginia. 2007-06-11 5:28 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
For anyone who might still be making up their mind about Stosch v. Blackburn and is wondering about their position on social issues as opposed to taxes, Mrs. Krehbiel received this bit of information in an email from Equality Virginia (who is endorsing Walter Stosch). 97 words.
Vote Rocked (Updated). 2007-06-12 1:03 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Well, I participated in American Democracy this morning. Somehow it doesn’t leave me feeling as patriotic as it probably should. I think it has something to do with the creepy old lady that’s always there handing out the “I voted” stickers when you leave. 254 words.
Uh Oh. 2007-06-12 11:23 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
[…] 0 words.
Post-Primary Observations. 2007-06-13 1:48 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m not a political expert, but here’s some of my observations about the 12th District and 24th District primaries. (I didn’t pay much attention to any other primaries.) 200 words.
Great Reference. 2007-06-14 9:42 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
750 Volts has compiled a very nice summary of Virginia Senate races coming up this November. Check it out, it’s a great reference. 23 words.
Ann, Elle, The Flu and The Dog. 2007-06-14 10:31 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
A while back, pseudonymous blogger “Teddy Roosevelt” popped up* in the Virginia blogosphere to oppose the rhetoric from Bloggers 4 Sayre. He delivered a shocking bombshell (superfluous writing used for dramatic effect): On June 2, Teddy alleged that “Elle” of In-Politically Correct is really Ann Taetzsch, Staunton Republican Committee Chairperson, and “General Grievous’ Dog” is really Augusta County Chairman Kurt Michael. Several other Virginia bloggers picked up on the news and repeated it, and it now seems to be regarded as established lore. 604 words.
Promotion Obtained. 2007-06-15 1:17 AM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I hardly ever mention anything about my life anymore. To rectify that, I will quickly mention that I recently received a promotion and payraise. Since February, after the lead programmer/database administrator left for another job, I’ve been the only .NET developer on my team, which has somewhat elevated my importance to the company. 54 words.
Immigration Reform Not Quite Dead Yet. 2007-06-15 10:14 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Some time ago, I theorized that immigration might be a spark that causes another group of states to try to secede from the Union. Now, with all the continuing uproar over the latest attempt at immigration reform, I’m starting to wonder if I might have been onto something. Republicans here in Virginia are seriously ticked off at politicians in Washington for even hinting at thinking about talking about “comprehensive” immigration reform again. 211 words.
Did The News Leader Spurn Sayre Or Vice Versa?. 2007-06-16 2:46 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
(I’m trying something new here. It’s loosely modeled after various media watchdog blogs like Media Matters and NewsBusters.) 231 words.
So Much For The Hamas Government. 2007-06-19 7:48 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve been focused a lot on Virginia lately, so I haven’t paid much attention to anything going on in the rest of the world. However, I did note that the Fatah-Hamas Palestinian government imploded, to the surprise of, um, nobody. For reasons that are not terribly clear to this writer, Hamas started taking over Fatah government buildings in Gaza, then Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency and dissolved the Hamas government. 124 words.
Did Bloggers 4 Sayre beat the ODBA?. 2007-06-20 2:20 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
In a June 19 comment on The Virginia Federalist, Spank That Donkey claimed that 18 Virginia conservative bloggers came together for Bloggers 4 Sayre, topping even the Old Dominion Blogging Alliance. In fact, as of June 20, 2007, the ODBA aggregator contained a total of 44 blogs. Furthermore, a closer examination of Bloggers 4 Sayre through June 11, 2007 reveals that only 10 of the 18 bloggers listed posted more than once, and the majority of all posts were written by just 3 bloggers. 261 words.
Easy As Pi To Refute. 2007-06-21 9:13 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Here’s something I’ve never seen before: I saw a link on Waldo’s blog to a post showing that the Bible says Pi is 3.0. 406 words.
Matrix. 2007-06-23 4:18 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This past week we signed a paper and made a deposit on a 2008 Toyota Matrix, which should be available in the Fall. This will replace Cynthia’s aging 1992 Corolla. We had to order a 2008 model because there weren’t any 5-speed 2007 models within 300 miles. 57 words.
Has Jim Webb flopped?. 2007-06-23 4:37 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Summary 197 words.
Brace For More Negative Ads. 2007-06-25 10:48 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I see that the Supreme Court has allowed political “issue ads” again. Personally I don’t see how those sorts of ads are helpful to society, but I guess it’s free speech (assuming you’ve got enough money to buy the ad time, that is). I suppose we’ll be bombarded by even more negative advertising from the big money lobbyists now. 123 words.
Cynthia’s Mom’s Knee Replacement Successful. 2007-06-26 12:54 AM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Cynthia’s mom underwent knee replacement surgery this morning (on both knees) and is now recuperating. The technology is pretty amazing – they literally replace all the cartilage and junk with some kind of synthetic stuff that bonds to the ends of the bone thingys. (As you can see, I am an expert on this subject.) Anyway, once she finishes healing, her previously always-on-the-go lifestyle will be but a snail’s walk compared to the terrifying speed-runner pace she will now be able to maintain. 83 words.
Are illegal immigrants safe from civil remedial fees?. 2007-06-26 10:20 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
(This was inspired by a bit of information in a blog post or perhaps a comment I saw somewhere in the Virginia blogosphere recently, but unfortunately I can’t find it anymore to give that person credit. Sorry.) 647 words.
Immigration Frenzy. 2007-06-28 3:22 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m late on this, but I guess the big national story is the dreaded immigration bill living to fight yet another day. Here in Virginia, where the conservative blogosphere has been pleading on a daily basis for people to call their senators and oppose the bill, the initial response seems to be stunned disbelief. (Both Virginia senators voted for cloture the other day.) 278 words.
Name Change. 2007-06-28 7:07 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m officially changing the name of this blog to “Krehbiel Commentary.” I’ve long disliked “Krehbiel Strikes Back” because 1) I’ve been trying to evolve away from needless sniping, and 2) it was pretty nerdy-sounding. 34 words.
SQL Server 2005 Migration. 2007-06-30 5:34 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
We recently completed a migration from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005 at work. Here are some of the issues I’ve had to deal with from an application perspective. 369 words.
Home Network Upgraded. 2007-06-30 5:45 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This past week I upgraded my home network hardware for the first time since about 1997. I had been using a Linksys 5-port Workgroup Hub all this time, but I finally got tired of the near-constant red “collision” light activity, so I bought a Netgear 8-port Gigabit switch. I also bought a Netgear router to replace the Windows XP connection sharing, which freed up one entire computer on the network. 102 words.

July, 2007

North Korea Tardy. 2007-07-02 9:58 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I saw this last week: Back in February, North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear reactor within 60 days in exchange for economic aid. It’s now June and the reactor is still running, though it should be turned off “within a few weeks.” Government operations are not known for promptness, but surely they should have found the “off” button by now? Okay, it’s probably more complicated than that, and granted, there was some kind of hold-up with some North Korean money being frozen by the U.S. (I hope we didn’t give them any counterfeit $100 bills by mistake, hyuk, hyuk). 136 words.
DUI Woman Helps Roads. 2007-07-03 12:28 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I drove past the jackknifed tractor trailer that had shut down all lanes of 95 North in Richmond this morning; I heard on the radio that the woman who caused the accident was charged with DUI. 61 words.
Holiday Reminder. 2007-07-03 10:23 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
With National Pyromania Appreciation Day… I mean… the 4th of July coming up tomorrow during a particularly dry summer, I’d like to urge everyone to please point their primitive explosive devices away from my yard. Thank you. 37 words.
Media Accidentally Reports Fiction In Iraq. 2007-07-03 10:34 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
QandO has an important observation about terrorist propaganda and the news media. A few days back there was a story about 20 beheaded men found near Baghdad. QandO reports that the MNF-I (Multi-National Forces in Iraq – that’s the good guys) investigated and found the story was completely false, yet several news outlets reported it anyway (including CNN, as you can see from the link). 170 words.
Contrasting Story Titles. 2007-07-05 9:04 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This unintentional pairing of story titles from a CNN news feed made me chuckle. 55 words.
Glasgow Terrorists Worth A Good Laugh. 2007-07-05 9:39 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m of the opinion that the vast majority of terrorists are cowards and imbeciles, and we need not fear them. I know it doesn’t fit the administration’s talking points, but I happen to think that when I go about my daily business, I’m much more likely to die in a car crash than from a terrorist bomb. So I hope the government will forgive me for being more vigilant about watching my fellow drivers on 95 than watching for terrorist activity. 316 words.
Bolling’s Op-Ed On Immigration. 2007-07-09 10:30 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Much of Virginia Lt. Governor Bill Bolling’s recent op-ed on immigration makes sense. There’s a couple of things I disagree with, though. 389 words.
Aggravator Exposed. 2007-07-11 2:26 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I was surprised to discover this evening that Cobalt6 has a link to my “UvAggravator” on their front page. I guess they got it from a referrer link. Anyway, it’s a feed aggregator I’ve been working on which currently collects some 150+ feeds from the Virginia blogosphere. 112 words.
Shameless BlogNark Plug. 2007-07-11 10:37 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I just added two more posts to my new pet blogging project “Virginia BlogNark.” One examines spin from SWAC Girl, and the other examines rumors from The Conservative VOICE. 29 words.
ABC World News Last Night. 2007-07-12 11:31 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Last night’s ABC World News was annoying. The top story was about Michael Chertoff’s infamously irresponsible “gut feeling” about an impending terror strike this summer and the super scary “elevated chatter” going on. I couldn’t help but recall that the government and the media has informed us about this same “elevated chatter” every summer since 9/11. 206 words.
Lingamfelter Op-Ed On Driver Fees. 2007-07-13 11:15 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Interestingly, I noticed that Black Velvet Bruce Li copied an editorial from the Manassas Journal-Messenger written by Virginia Del. Scott Lingamfelter (R-31st), and actually praised his efforts. Lingamfelter did make a pretty reasonable argument to try to calm down some of the hysteria over the new civil remedial fees for Virginia drivers. 263 words.
A Quick Wag Of My Finger. 2007-07-13 11:27 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I disagree with SWAC Girl on most things. But I also can’t condone the rantings of Cobalt6 writers, especially when they rail against her personally. I certainly understand that it’s infuriating to see grown adults writing things that seem deceptive or counter-intuitive, but childish name-calling is not the way to win over an audience to your point of view. 92 words.
Now Where Will They Go?. 2007-07-14 3:01 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m sure everyone knows by now that BlogNetNews has a new look. If you look up in the corner you’ll find something rather ironic. Maybe it was there before but I just noticed it today. 155 words.
I Could Have Been Famous!. 2007-07-14 9:34 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Curses! When I was studying HB 3202 back in June (by, you know, reading it) I noticed where the Governor had struck the part that had out-of-state drivers paying the same fees, but I didn’t think anything of it because I was more interested in debunking how the bill would affect illegal immigrants. If I’d known it was going to be a “MAJOR KAINE SCANDAL!!!” (with three whole exclamation points!!!) I would have mentioned it back then. 78 words.
New on BlogNark. 2007-07-17 12:51 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I added a new post to BlogNark tonight about GoodbyeKen’s fictitious Centreville bomber (where I lived as a kid, coincidentally). I’ve also added several new candidates and endorsements, most puzzling of which is Not Larry Sabato endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. (Btw, an NLS commenter was asking Ben for a list of Virginia endorsements – I gots all yer dataz at BlogNark, dude.) You can now subscribe to an RSS feed of new endorsements as I find them, and I’ve started a del.icio.us feed of “Nark-worthy” posts I encounter in the Virginia blogosphere (that is, posts that scream out for a closer examination of spin and misinformation). 120 words.
Retractable Emails. 2007-07-17 10:28 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This is not strictly political but I suspect partisans and politicians would be very interested in this. :) I heard about a free email service on WRVA (that is perhaps the longest, ugliest url I have ever seen) this morning called “BigString.” Basically it allows you to change or retract emails after you’ve sent them. (The name comes from yanking back your embarrassing drunken emails with a “big string.”) I haven’t investigated exactly how they do this (ie. 178 words.
de.icio.us links added. 2007-07-18 1:47 AM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve just added my del.icio.us links to the left sidebar. Yes, believe it or not, I’m such an Internet dinosaur that I’ve only just signed up for del.icio.us this past week, even though it’s been around since the ancient days of 2003. (But hey, I know people that still don’t turn to Google first thing… go figure.) Anyway, if you’ve ever wondered about the fascinating diversity of subjects I read about on the Internet, now you’ll be able to see it firsthand. 82 words.
Haditha Testimony. 2007-07-18 10:06 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I saw a post go through the Virginia blogosphere yesterday declaring that the “Haditha hoax is falling apart.” It turns out this was actually the declaration of noted journalist Rush Limbaugh, after having read some opinion column at a newspaper nobody has ever heard of. I have also seen several reports this year from a place called “NewsMax” repeatedly stating that the Haditha Marines will be exonerated any minute now, but I haven’t given them much credence since the NewsMax organization has a very clear bias in this case. At any rate, the accumulation of conservative-themed rumors finally inspired me to investigate what we really know about the Haditha case. 480 words.
Cosmetic Changes. 2007-07-24 10:45 PM.
- Personal
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve created this feed to note changes in the aggregator. You’ve probably noticed the cosmetic changes (the reflective Web 2.0-ey logo, the angry red-faced dude I got from Microsoft clipart, the new fonts, etc.). Behind the scenes, I’ve made more attempts to handle ancient, broken HTML in feeds. 86 words.
The Torturous CNN YouTube Debate. 2007-07-25 2:39 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
We only watched about 45 minutes of the YouTube “debate” Monday night in the Krehbiel household before giving up. I tried to watch a little bit more of it tonight on the DVR, thinking I should at least make an effort to watch the entire thing before commenting on it, but I just couldn’t take it seriously. It was incredibly inane. 202 words.
UvMoney Goes AJAX. 2007-07-27 12:45 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
It’s time for an exciting update on my UvMoney home accounting project. 641 words.
Harvester Running Again. 2007-07-27 8:50 PM.
- Personal
- thomaskrehbiel.com
For the two people who might be affected by this, the harvester was down most of the day today. 22 words.

August, 2007

Barack and Pakistan. 2007-08-02 11:08 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Note: I think it’s about time for me to declare blogging bankruptcy. I am defining this somewhat like email bankruptcy, except it is a declaration that I will never, ever be able to find time to write polished blog posts on the subjects running around in my head. So I’m going to revert to a more stream-of-consciousness format. 164 words.
Information Overload. 2007-08-07 8:57 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m not really dead, but I’ve been suffering from information overload, so I reduced my news intake for a little while. This past weekend, in fact, I didn’t watch any news or read any blogs. It was surprisingly refreshing. 104 words.
Regarding The Surge. 2007-08-07 9:02 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Regarding the recent surge in good news about the surge that I keep hearing about, how will we know it was the surge that worked and not simply the passage of time? The answer, I suspect, is that politicians and pundits will tell us so, which is not much of an answer. But if that will allow us to finally declare victory in the “war” that we decisively won over four years ago, I’m all for it. 106 words.
Missed Debates. 2007-08-09 11:24 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve missed several presidential debates in the past week. 22 words.
Karl Rove Resigned. 2007-08-15 12:51 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I took a couple days off from work so I missed Karl Rove’s resignation. (He’s one of the reasons why I think presidents are mainly just figureheads.) It’s hard to get really excited about his resignation because even a casual examination of the political landscape at any level shows that there is an army of Karl Rove disciples from both parties waiting and hoping to replace him. 186 words.
Half-Life 2: Episode 1. 2007-08-15 12:52 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I downloaded Half-Life 2: Episode 1 from Steam a couple weeks ago for 9.95. Overall it was a quality game and I enjoyed playing it, but I’m glad I got it when it was on sale, because it was really, really short. It only took me a couple of days to go through the entire game. 152 words.
Painkiller. 2007-08-15 1:00 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I also downloaded Painkiller from Steam the other day for 9.95. I hear a lot of people complaining about the Steam platform, but I have to say that the concept of impulse buying quality games without even leaving your chair is pretty cool. :) I’ve never had any problems with Steam, although admitedly I haven’t used it all that extensively. 289 words.
Fun With Word Parsing. 2007-08-15 11:07 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I don’t think Riley (Not O’Reilly) meant it this way, but it sure sounds like he’s saying in this post that a comparison between the mentally retarded and Rush Limbaugh’s audience is “belittling” to the mentally retarded – which is a roundabout way of saying that the condition of mental retardation is actually an improvement over the condition of a Rush Limbaugh listener. That logic probably needs to be tweaked a little bit before it goes into any Republican newsletters. Yes, I used the words “mental retardation” in a sentence, so I am by definition making fun of them. 99 words.
GhostDoc. 2007-08-15 11:11 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve been experimenting with GhostDoc for a while at work. I saw it mentioned somewhere on CodeBetter.com, and I figured if the cool kids were using it, it must be cool. At first I thought it was really cool to be able to drop comments into my source code with one click. 282 words.
Run Away! From WRVA. 2007-08-22 12:18 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’m back from another mini-vacation, which will probably be my last until Christmas time. Next time I’ll have to aim for a job in the Iraqi Parliament. Har har. 78 words.
Free Speech Is Such A Pain. 2007-08-23 2:02 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Saw an interesting post on Just a Bump in the Beltway about how Bush choreographs all of his appearances so there are no dissenters in the crowd. That’s not really news, but it’s good to be reminded of how unreliable television is. Obviously I disagree with elected leaders constructing their own cult of personality, but allow me to play devil’s advocate for a moment. 163 words.
Why Renewing Your Domain Name Matters *. 2007-08-26 10:23 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Say, I wonder if anything interesting is happening in the Virginia political blogosphere? Guess not. 113 words.
What If The Surge Is Working?. 2007-08-28 11:23 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I didn’t think the surge would do much good, but there is growing momentum for thinking that it is. And believe it or not that’s a Good Thing. Whether it’s real progress or just the media saying it’s progress, the results are basically the same (for us): We win the information war, America looks good, the terrorists look bad, our soldiers are winners instead of losers, etc., etc. I have little doubt that Petraeus’ September report will show that the surge is working, because really, what other report would he give? 236 words.
Everything Old Is New Again. 2007-08-30 12:37 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I simply could not resist pointing out and chuckling about this article on Web Worker Daily: Offline Applications: A Brighter Future Than You Think. (I am not precisely sure why I still have Web Worker Daily in my feed reader; it seems to be geared more toward those people who think they are IT consultants because they use Gmail and Instant Messaging and setup their church’s web site.) 252 words.
An Alternate Viewpoint On Miss S.C.. 2007-08-30 12:53 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Okay here’s an intellectual challenge for you. Everyone in the blogosphere, television, and radio jumped – no, leaped – no, sprinted full speed and dived headlong – onto the bandwagon of calling that South Carolina teen pageant contestant all kinds of stupid for her awkward answer to what should have been a straightforward question. 166 words.
Harvester Timeouts. 2007-08-30 11:34 PM.
- Personal
- thomaskrehbiel.com
The harvester has been “sticking” lately; ie. it would get stuck indefinitely on a particular feed, resulting in long periods without any aggregator updates, which has been annoying me because I can’t unstick it until I get home. Anyway I believe I’ve fixed this with some very aggressive timeout values. 59 words.

September, 2007

The Larry Craig Irony. 2007-09-01 3:03 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Life is filled with irony. It is rather ironic that mere days after the untimely death of Richard Jewell, a man whose reputation was destroyed by the collective incompetence of the media after the Atlanta Olympics bombing in 1996 – a man whose untimely death was recently reported widely by the media almost as if they were trying to seek atonement for their previous misdeed – we now see Sen. Larry Craig’s reputation and career being destroyed by the exact same media. 168 words.
Riley Now Writing For The New Dominion?. 2007-09-01 3:50 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
A quick story: Back in the 1990s when I was writing Amiga software, we sent our products to magazines for reviews. Most of the time, we basically told the reviewer what to write, because the reviewers were usually too lazy or too rushed to really look at the software. You may be surprised to learn that we usually got good reviews. 465 words.
Harvester Fetching Revised. 2007-09-02 2:41 PM.
- Personal
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Fyi, I got a complaint about the UvHarvester fetch frequency last week so I’ve revised it (UvHarvester is the program that collects feed data for the aggregator). Previously it visited each feed once an hour, but now it derives how often to check a feed from the frequency of posts on the feed. So, for example, a feed that gets updated on average once a day will now get 4 visits a day. 132 words.
Redacted. 2007-09-06 1:02 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I have mixed feelings about this upcoming Brian De Palma movie Redacted that everyone’s talking about (by everyone I mean some pro-war activists, who are raving about how De Palma should be locked up for treason). The film supposedly dramatizes the real-life incident of former Pfc. Steven Green planning the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. 386 words.
Can Bloggers Attack Without Question Marks?. 2007-09-06 1:03 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Who knows? I certainly don’t. But you never know. 17 words.
Turning Them Loose In Herndon. 2007-09-07 12:17 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Am I the only one that wonders about the wisdom of shutting down that Herndon Day Labor Center where (supposedly) illegal immigrants hang out? I mean, I would think it’d be better to keep the lawless Mexicans out in the open where you could see them, as opposed to wandering around the neighborhood with no money and no job looking for houses burglarize. (‘Cause Mexicans are criminals, ya know.) Not to mention losing the ability to keep tabs on all the people that hire the lawless Mexicans. 116 words.
A Different Viewpoint On The Missing Nukes. 2007-09-07 12:28 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Having worked with federal employees, I have a slightly different take on that story about the B52 and the missing nukes: You mean they found out they were missing in ONLY 4 hours?? Congratulations on a job well done! 44 words.
New Matrix. 2007-09-09 9:22 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
We got a 2008 Toyota Matrix yesterday for Cynthia. We had ordered it earlier in the summer (because there were no 5-speed 2007 models left in the area) and it finally came in. Cynthia really loves it! 37 words.
MySQL charset parameter. 2007-09-10 10:36 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Just in case you don’t know, in order to store UTF8 characters in a MySQL database, you have to add a “charset=utf8;” parameter to the connection string when using the MySQL .NET Connector. Otherwise you will get very frustrated. Also don’t forget to set the field’s character set and collation to utf8 too. 53 words.
On That MoveOn.org Ad. 2007-09-11 1:41 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Just for the record, I don’t like MoveOn.org. But seriously, how is their attack ad against General Petraeus any different from any number of other attack ads from any number of other lobbying organizations? Isn’t this the free political speech we wanted in the U.S.? 211 words.
U.S. News Needs More Gravitas. 2007-09-11 9:29 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I forgot to post this yesterday. Sometimes the top news coming out of the United States is a little embarrassing when compared to the rest of the world… 28 words.
Against The Grain. 2007-09-11 9:57 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
As I did last year, I’ve got to go against the grain today. Along with all the somber “we won’t forget” posts, and the partisan “we’re still at war” posts, consider this: We should take time, especially on this media-sensationalized day, to remember the victims of all terrorist attacks around the world, both foreign and domestic. And while you’re “always remembering,” don’t forget that lots of Americans have died in terrorist attacks that didn’t occur on 9/11, and those families deserve every bit as much sensationalized attention as the 9/11 families, and you and I are largely ignoring their unintended and almost certainly undesired sacrifices. 105 words.
Software Entropy. 2007-09-25 1:31 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I learned a new gimmicky programming phrase today: Software Entropy. 71 words.
Expressing 10.Seconds. 2007-09-25 1:36 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Regarding Extension Method Practices. The author wrote, “I can use this method [C# 3.0 extension methods] to express 10.Seconds.” I’m all for improving a programming language, but I’m sorry – if you need to write “10.Seconds” in a C# program, you are in the wrong language. Go back to Ruby, you damn hippy. 61 words.
On Ahmadinejad Speaking at Columbia. 2007-09-25 10:22 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
President Ahmadinejad Delivers Remarks at Columbia University 228 words.
Well I Bombed The Civics Quiz. 2007-09-26 1:51 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I missed 14 of the 60 questions on this “simple” civics quiz (spotted on United Conservatives of Virginia), which would have barely gotten me a D back when I was in high school (which is roughly the grade I typically got in government classes, come to think of it). I got killed on the topics of philosophers and economics. (“Keynesian economists”? 85 words.
Suntrust On Notice. 2007-09-27 2:22 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I would just like to state for the record that Suntrust’s web developers SUCK. They’ve added a “Please wait while we validate your sign-on information” page that comes up after the login form. It advances from there to the main page only after some kind of mysterious Javascript redirect (yes, Javascript is apparently now required to login to Suntrust banking) that is buried in a series of hopelessly convoluted spaghetti libraries. 102 words.
Company of Heroes. 2007-09-29 6:35 PM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Company of Heroes 310 words.
Steam Update Fuxored Company of Heroes. 2007-09-29 6:35 PM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Okay well now I can join the ranks of people who have had problems with Steam. Apparently there was a Steam update to Company of Heroes on Sep 27. For some reason, the update didn’t work properly (in my case, it may have failed because I ran out of disk space), and since then I’ve been getting those unhelpful “game is unavailable, try again later” messages whenever I try to launch the game. 200 words.

October, 2007

Project Complete. 2007-10-21 9:03 PM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Late September, I was assigned to help a colleague at work finish his project on time. 32 words.
Computer Upgrades. 2007-10-21 9:06 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Parts for my new computer came in last Monday (the 8th). I had a micro ATX case sitting around from a year ago which I was going to put my motherboard in (because I wanted front USB connectors, which my current case doesn’t have), but it turned out my current motherboard wouldn’t fit. So to avoid wasting the case, I was finally forced to buy a new motherboard. 180 words.
My First Look At Vista. 2007-10-21 9:15 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I installed Windows Vista on the new development computer I’m building. This is the first time I’ve even seen Vista running. I figured that with the impending release of the first Vista Service Pack, now was as good a time as any to jump into it. 787 words.
Perplexing Internet Explorer Problem. 2007-10-21 9:18 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I recently ran into one of the most perplexing computer problems I’ve experienced in a long time. Naturally, the resolution turned out to be head-smackingly simple. 287 words.

November, 2007

Henrico County Candidates. 2007-11-01 6:06 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Haven’t seen anyone post a handy list of Henrico County candidates for November 6, so here you go. Web sites linked where known. Otherwise a Google link is provided. 176 words.
What Next?. 2007-11-04 10:26 PM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Okay I feel like it’s time to find a new PC game. Company of Heroes has gotten old. I finished the single player campaign and I’ve played enough skirmishes to have a pretty good record against the AI. 488 words.
Daylight Savings. 2007-11-06 3:05 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I just want to go on record saying that I greatly prefer the “spring forward” clock change to the “fall back” clock change. 62 words.
Well, That Explains It. 2007-11-06 3:20 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Oh, now I see why Enemy Territory: Quake Wars seems so similar to Return to Castle Wolfenstein: It’s an upgraded version of a free RtCW mod called “Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory,” made by basically the same people, ported to the Doom 3 engine (aka. “id Tech 4”). 682 words.
Know Your Candidate Names. 2007-11-06 2:54 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Fyi, to anyone voting in the Brookland district: Make sure you know who you’re voting for by name before you get to the voting booth. They just list the names on the screen, not the party affiliations or incumbency. Ie. 79 words.
String Comparison. 2007-11-22 8:58 PM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
There are a bunch of different ways to compare two strings in .NET. Periodically I ponder which one is “the best.” As with most things in programming, it’s largely a personal preference. 437 words.
CoD4. 2007-11-28 1:54 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve been playing Call of Duty 4 for a few days. I played Call of Duty 2, but did not play Call of Duty 3 (since it was only available for consoles). 810 words.

December, 2007

CoD4 Multiplayer. 2007-12-07 5:56 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I have to admit that Call of Duty 4 multiplayer is fun. It’s way better than Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, IMO, which got pretty dull fast. 1,027 words.
NIE About Face. 2007-12-07 6:03 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I haven’t read that NIE report, but it seems awfully strange that our intelligence community has made a complete 180-degree reversal of their findings about Iran. Also, I can’t help but recall that the intelligence community was duped by Sadaam into thinking Iraq had WMD… it seems possible that Iran is duping the same intelligence community into thinking they shut down their nuclear weapons program. 65 words.
Exceptions. 2007-12-07 6:03 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
This short article on Devlicio.us about the wrong way to catch exceptions is pretty funny. 52 words.
Reviewers. 2007-12-07 6:05 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Slashdot had an article about a game reviewer who was allegedly fired for giving a bad review of a game. This does not surprise me… I have always been skeptical of magazine reviewers because of my Amiga experience in the 1990s, and additionally I have always heard rumors and speculation about “corrupt” game reviewers. 148 words.
Build Scripts. 2007-12-07 6:06 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Coding Horror advises, “So, if you don’t have a build script on your project, what are you waiting for?” 251 words.
Too Much Death. 2007-12-07 6:06 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Here’s one thing I don’t like about Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. You die a lot. Walk around a corner into a rocket and bam, you’re dead. 212 words.
CoD4 Compromised. 2007-12-07 6:31 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Well, so much for PunkBuster*. I just got off a pub server where a rather obvious bot named “nC punkbuster” was winning every map. It was incredibly obvious on the KillCam. 195 words.
Named Pipes. 2007-12-08 5:15 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
At work we have a Windows Service that runs continuously, doing important stuff. I wanted to write a lightweight WinForm monitor that I could run independently from the service (on the same machine) to watch what it’s doing in real time, without the hassle of continually re-loading a plain text log file. Performance Monitor was not sufficient because I wanted actual text messages. 682 words.
UvMoney Status Report. 2007-12-08 5:16 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
When I last reported on UvMoney, I had just created a web interface for entering transactions. Since then, I’m pleased to report that all five of my bank readers now use direct HTML access instead of AutoHotKey scripts, and they have been working more-or-less happily for months. (Every now and then banks will upgrade their web sites, though, which is a pain.) The system works pretty well, but now I’m starting to make some more changes. 725 words.
Software Review. 2007-12-08 5:17 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Each time I setup a new computer with a fresh operating system, I re-evaluate the software I install on it. 361 words.
Sub-prime Buyout. 2007-12-08 5:20 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
A lot of talk radio people are complaining about the government helping people out of their subprime mortgage woes, saying it’s not fair to people who took out responsible loans. Well, that’s true. But I look at it more in terms of a government trying to keep the country’s overall economy running smoothly, which seems like a more important concern for the whole population. 97 words.
The Blogs Are Back In Town. 2007-12-08 5:59 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I see that many of the same Virginia bloggers that brought us the entertaining and divisive Bloggers 4 Sayre are back for an encore performance with Bloggers 4 Jim Gilmore. I wonder if they’ll write anything about their candidate this time. Hyuk, hyuk. 56 words.
U.S. Intelligence Pwned?. 2007-12-11 3:00 AM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
It seems that Great Britian shares my concern that Iranian counter-intelligence pwned U.S. intelligence when the NIE declared that Iran stopped their nuclear weapons program in 2003. This quote is funny: “[A British source said,] ‘It’s not as if the American intelligence agencies are regarded as brilliant performers in that region. They got badly burned over Iraq.’” 57 words.
COD4 Grinding and Suspicions. 2007-12-17 11:01 PM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Still grinding my way up the ranks in COD4 multiplayer. (It is just like grinding in an MMO… with all the hacks and snipers and campers, it’s getting pretty tedious, but I’m determined to get to rank 55 before I quit.) I’m playing mostly Domination and Headquarters games now, which are kind of refreshing twists on the Capture-The-Flag genre. 654 words.
So That’s What Christmas Is. 2007-12-17 11:03 PM.
- Commentary
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I see that there is much outrage amongst Republican bloggers over 9 Democrats voting no on H. Res. 847, a bill recognizing Christmas as an important holiday to Christians. 355 words.
Crash of the Choirs. 2007-12-19 12:26 AM.
- Blog
- thomaskrehbiel.com
About this Clash of the Choirs thing: First of all, it should have been called, Clash of the Pop Music Backup Singers. Calling them “choirs” is an insult to choirs everywhere. They weren’t doing anything remotely resembling the harmonic complexity of real chorale music. 108 words.
Welcome to blogNark. 2007-12-20 11:17 PM.
- Personal
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Welcome to a new blog striving for non-partisan fact-checking of the Virginia political blogosphere. 14 words.
COD4 at Rank 52. 2007-12-28 2:42 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve reached rank 52 in Call of Duty 4 (four stars!). Somehow I’ve managed to do this without getting anywhere near the top of the scoreboard in any game. (I came in second once, which I was so proud of that I took a screenshot.) The point is that anyone can climb the ranks if you just put in the time, just like an MMO. 996 words.
Wiki Changes. 2007-12-28 2:43 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I made a few changes to the wiki at http://www.crayolaclan.com. Mainly just added some of the newer games to the list. 21 words.
Player Categories. 2007-12-28 2:43 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
I’ve noticed that, since the dawn of online play, there are basically four categories of players in online shooters. They continue to persist even in recently dropped games like Quake Wars and Call of Duty 4. 406 words.
Vista Administrator Tip. 2007-12-28 2:45 AM.
- Technology
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Here’s a quick Vista tip: Make sure the built-in Administrator account is enabled with a password before you go and remove your normal login from the Administrators group. 271 words.
Yellow spotted on TribalWar.com?. 2007-12-28 9:54 PM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
Is this ]CC[-Yellow? http://www.tribalwar.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4501601#post4501601 44 words.
COD4 1.4 Patch. 2007-12-29 4:22 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
The last Call of Duty 4 patch (1.4) claimed to have made “improvements” to the server browser. I’m not sure what they consider an improvement, but clearly better pings and connections isn’t a top priority. Quite frequently when I refresh the list, I see pings on the first page of servers ranging from like a low of 500 up to around 5,000. 150 words.
Salamander Victorious. 2007-12-29 5:28 AM.
- Gaming
- thomaskrehbiel.com
[…] 39 words.