Yes, I know that the situation is much more complicated but ponder this anyway...

$35,000,000 to six countries thus far and the southeast Asia region in general. I'm sure that will grow and we already put out a great deal of foreign aid as it is. The disparity just strikes me as ironic. Awwww hell, what does it matter? We're borrowing much of the money that we spend anyway.

In happier news, I'm going to Chicago next week to see VNV Nation.

Sometimes I'm too greedy for my own good. Our scheduler was asking about overtime this morning and I agreed without hesitating (or thinking about it). I agreed to work Friday night (11-7). When I got home this evening, I told Suzanne. There are two things about those hours. Yes, it's New Year's Eve. That sucks but we're both normally asleep before midnight anyway. The worst part of it is that I'm already working the day shift on Friday. Love of money?

Blawhg humbug....

No, I don't really mean that! I suppose it might look like I'm slacking here. Yep! I'm slacking...

I haven't lost my skeptical/cynical view of the powers that be. In fact, I'm more down on Shrubbie and company than ever before. Rummy needs to go. The arguments of people like John Warner and Richard Lugar that ousting Rummy would be "too disruptive" can be rebutted by reminding them that the position would be changing hands if John Kerry had been victorious in November. Our system is supposed to be able to deal with change. Want another reason for my continued skepticism? Dan Senor was yapping on one of those Fox News prime-time shows the other night. He reiterated the recurrent mantra of how freedom and democracy in the Middle East should lead to a drop in terrorism. And here I thought that the terrorists (and perhaps the base of people from which they are recruited) hated our freedom...

I think I might be growing slightly cynical of my cynicism. There's more where that came from and I'm sure that I'll have plenty to bitch about in the coming years.

One other reason for my temporary disappearance was that I wasn't feeling absolutely well for the past week. I am feeling much better now. Now I just have to work three more shifts over the next couple of days.

On to other things...

There are some big things in the works for my company.

Looking for some unique music?

The Neshama Alma Band, with Zzaj

Jesters of Yestermorrow

Hello again, world!

I suppose it's been a little while since I've blogged. Oh well, there's other stuff to take care of.

What have I missed? I didn't say happy birthday to Suzanne online the other day (the 11th). Don't worry, I told her happy birthday in real life. I also missed sending a birthday "Wazzup?" to Debbie. Happy birthday (late)! Since it's the 14th, I can also send a birthday greeting on to my grandmother. Happy Birthday!

It's also good to see Rummy being forced to defend himself.

Speaking of cool Google tools...

Google announced their "Google Suggest" tool the other day. I hadn't heard about it, but it's fairly interesting. I like the most recent thing that Google announced. Google will soon become a repository for some books. I love the innovation that Google is showing.

I suppose that it was inevitable...

One of the drug companies that markets a treatment for influenza has made a "Desktop Flu Tracker" available. You could always visit here but the flu tracker is a nice centralized tool with somewhat of a spiffy (if not a bit cutesy) interface.

Art's not here man! Yeah, you might think I'm here, but between work and sleep and spending the little bit of time I have left (between those two alternatives) with Suzanne today and tomorrow I don't really have time to answer any e-mails or anything. Sorry!

I did renew my childrenofacid.com membership last night. I've been on there for a long time. Suzanne thinks I'm crazy. She may be right!

With a lot of attention focused directly on the current UN Secretary General...

I figured I'd look a little more into the post. Is it strange that there hasn't been a North American Secretary General? I'm not necessarily very supportive of the UN anyway. Here are five reasons.

We were talking about a number of topics at work the other day. Iraq, Vietnam, the French, Shrubbie, etc...

One topic that arose was the Vietnamese language. Following my usual surfing habits, I followed a link of interest from that page to this page. I enjoy language studies but don't follow up too much. One other thing I discovered a few months ago was a web-based trainer called the "Basics of Iraqi Arabic". Back when I first joined the Navy, I was given the choice between being a nuke and a language specialist. I'm happy with the choice I made. To that end, I should probably be getting ready for the civilian continuation of nine years as a Navy nuke. Yep, more vamp hours tonight...

Sometimes I'm forgetful and I don't remember if I put this link up...

Press the assorted buttons to hear a variety of Dubya phrases. Here's another Dubya soundboard.

Speaking of entertaining online Shrubbie stuff, view the Quick Time video here.

As Suzanne mentioned, we did end up hitting this place tonight. I had a damn flavorful filet mignon and a couple of glasses of their locally brewed stout beer. Damn fine food!

I find it amusing that this assclown calls for Kofi Annan to step down from his position at the UN partially because Annan was in charge while activities were going on during Annan's period of leadership that could have fueled and funded the current Iraqi insurgency. Does that mean that Donald Rumsfeld should step down, Norm? Some insurgency-fueling/support-stirring activities have occurred within the DoD under Rummy's watch. "But, but, but... that's different!" If this guy wrote an editorial asking for Rummy's two-week notice, I'd be satisfied and apologize for being a skeptical ass. Until then... For the record, Coleman voted "Yea" on the pork-filled $388 billion appropriations measure and "Yea" on the bill to raise the deficit ceiling from $7,384,000,000,000 to $8,184,000,000,000. I thank you and your Congressional pals for using American taxpayer money wisely.

The DoD sent an early Christmas/New Year's message to a number of troops very recently. "Four more years... four more years..." I hope the electorate majority is satisfied with their ballot choice by 2008. The Senator from Massachusetts wouldn't have been much different.

We were going to go out to eat tonight...

However, our driveway looked like this:



We're hoping that tomorrow night will be a better night to go out. I'm not too worried about driving in the tiny amount of snow that we received, but the conditions are too much like those from two years ago right around this time. That's when we were hit on the I-74 bridge and the woman (the one who inspired my "Art giving the net the bird" picture) who did the hitting took off from the scene.

Our kitty sat at the door checking out the weird white stuff falling out of the sky for much of the night. See?



Check out my myspace.com profile. Just another diversion...

The word of the day is free...

Here are the numerous definitions of free from the Yahoo! education reference pages. When talking about the "free market", I think I like the fourth or fifth definition. Demoncrats and neo-Republicons seem to support the principles of organizations like the UN and WTO and other international bodies. Just today, Dubya talked about attempting to create more compliance (through Congress) with the WTO regulations. This is the same Republicon majority Congress that is supposed to be helping the Shrub lower the deficit. And yet they still find plenty of pork to throw into the mix. Back to free trade and the WTO, I don't see a chance for free trade to work when many thousands of pages of documents bind it. Check out the WTO "panel reports" for trade issues against the United States. The market should regulate the market. Instead, we have a plethora of committees that believe that they can outsmart all of the forces that go into making goods flow equitably to and from all of the countries of the world. Free my ass...

This Ukraine thing...

George, one of the best ways to lead is by example. Our elections should have been 100% transparent. I know that 100% can't be achieved, but we can and should aim high. Hell, the Air Force does. I'm sure that our elections were fairer than the ones stirring up so much crap. However, let the people there sort it out. Why are we so interested in seeing the opposition win? Are we driving a dangerous wedge between potentially strong allies like Putin and America by being so adamant about the outcome and possible fixes? Is the desired Ukrainian leadership worth that possible rift? I'm sure (as sure as John Kerry was about an $87,000,000,000 vote) that our brilliant leaders are asking these questions of themselves. Maybe we should let the natural forces of freedom work for once. We might not have as much "support" in the short term, but we wouldn't be viewed as attempting to meddle in the affairs of other countries. Before we go and "fix" any more countries, we need to rewire that "beacon light" that "guides freedom-loving people everywhere". Fix this place first.

Is Martha Stewart so damn out of touch with real people that she failed to consider the fallout (and double entendre) that would accompany revelation of her choice of smuggling methods?

I was glancing at John C. Dvorak's blog this evening.

It's old news by now, but he posted about a website where people are apologizing to the world for Shrubbie's victory. I found that mildly funny. In fact, I find that almost as funny as the people who vowed to leave the country for four years. I wonder if the one-way airline ticket sales to foreign countries reflect the many vows that were being made. I doubt it.

There was a nice, short speech given in the House last week about moral values and the morality of allowing the national debt to grow to 69% of the GDP of the United States. The speech is in the center column of this .pdf file from the GPO. Democrat solution = tax more. Republican solution = tax less, spend more and we'll just make more money or something. Something is wrong with both of those.

Check out the latest issue of Secrecy News from the Federation of American Scientists. The large version of the satellite picture of Fallujah is amazing.

Anyway, back to the sorryeverybody.com thing... I won't apologize but I will vow to fight the dumbest legislation/policy that comes out of our government over the next four years through all civil methods available. Unless things get totally out of hand, there won't be any revolutions or anything. Sorry!

Attempt #3...

I started contemplating this post at around 8:30 P.M. Central Standard Time. In the meantime, my laptop spontaneously rebooted and then blogger.com decided to be a beeeyaatch. It's a totally slow night and I'm sitting around veggin' with a piña colada. Yeah, so it' smy fourth one...

It all started while we were kickin' back watching the 1986 movie version of Little Shop of Horrors. An hour into that, Suzanne went back to watch one of her daily soaps. I'm not the soapy type so I sat in the living room watching the umpteenth repeat of The Matrix on one of the movie channels. That was only until something else came on.

As much time as I spend using the computer (right beside Suzy), you might find it odd that I haven't checked my main e-mail account for close to a week. When I logged on this evening, there was an invite to join myspace.com from my dad that was close to a week old. I had seen MySpace before so I figured "What the hell?" I went on over and signed up. We'll see how that works out...

Where in the hell is this dude? One would think that his incarceration would stay in the news. Instead, we are force-fed the elections, the Peterson case, and last week's basketbrawl. Speaking of old news, what in the hell ever happened to the case of the bomb-collared pizza guy?

One of the movies I glanced at after growing slightly bored with The Matrix was 8 Mile. One interesting thing came to mind... 8 Mile has overtones of a young individual trying to find himself. One of my favorite recent sci-fi flicks is Star Trek: Nemesis. The thing that came to mind is the question of what Marshall Mathers would have turned out to be if he had been an average suburban white kid. We frequently have discussions at work about morality and upbringing and genetics and environment. Very few things are certain. Somehow, the discussion always degrades to a "God's about to call us back" vs. "alien teenager is about to press Ctrl-Alt-Del on his Universe Sims game" match. That's a certainty.

SO is piña colada number five...

At work the other night, one of the control room operators said he had visited this blog...

He said, "You're an angry young man." The link he used to get here had the following picture...





He followed the link from Achim's site. I took that picture after being on the receiving end of a hit-and-run.

I tried to reason that I wasn't really so angry. Thinking more about it, I realized that I probably am angry. I received a publication from the union I belong to the other day. They presented their editorial view of how they wished that the election results had been different. Of course, they were coming from a "labor-friendly" angle. John Kerry, friend of labor, one of the senators who voted yea on NAFTA. The union presents a grandiose vision of an attempt to figure out why 33% of its membership voted for Dubya. If they haven't figured that out yet...

I'm often pissed at the people who won the election, too. I won't dredge up all that negativity right now. I'll have four more years that should provide ample opportunity to present my jaded view of the world's power brokers. I will bring this up, though. If the administration wants to do something about Iran, our "street cred" has been damaged in the eyes of many of those who are in a position to bring diplomatic power to bear.

Additionally, this was quite a sickening report... More par for the course I suppose.

During the campaign, my candidate was on a Faux News daytime television show. Linda Vester asked Michael Badnarik about his view on Iraq. He provided his answer and she asked him, "Have you been there?" Hey, I don't think she's been there either so she has to rely on Fox News for info... I can tell you I haven't been there. There ARE good things going on there. There are bad things going on as well. Bad things also happened when the megalomaniac was in charge. One thing that I'll continue to find funny is that we deemed those actions not war-worthy when the megalomaniac was fighting against the Iranians. One of several future dangers that I see is that we are providing a training and breeding ground for future jihadists. For a decidedly non-Faux News view of events in Iraq, click here. I'm rambling... Sorry!

Anger isn't always a bad thing. If you utilize anger to attempt to bring change through the peaceful channels we have in place in this country, you've done a damn fine thing. I don't think I'm there yet, but I've got four more years.

Suzanne and I just returned from Coralville, IA.

I wanted to check out the membership of Mensa's local chapter. We tried to see if they were going to be at Old Chicago last week, but that didn't materialize. No biggie! Some of my cohorts from work were there and Suzanne and I had great pizza and great beer (I had the beer and Suzanne refrained) and I got to be my usual geeky self. The restaurant we met at this evening was called Saigon to Bangkok. It was a fairly small place but it had a pleasant atmosphere and great food. We don't frequently drive an hour to dine out but I'm glad we did. I've been telling Suzanne (probably since we got married) that I was going to join Mensa.

The "phishing" spam craze must be growing insanely out of control. The local Iowa NBC affiliate ran segments about phishing yesterday. When the local media in the corn wilds of Iowa/Illinois starts doing phishing scam stories, you know that something's out of control. I always go one step further with phishing scams. I report them to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center and the bank that is being targeted. Ignoring this crap won't make it stop. Fighting it probably won't make it stop either, but the odds of someone being hammered for fraud perpetration are better if people report it.

I just noticed a link to a new Google feature I haven't seen before.... See the Google Scholar. I'll have to see what that's all about later.

Why later? Well, unfortunately (or fortunately considering the monetary value), I signed up to do some overtime this evening. See y'all tomorrow! Suzanne is about to crash and I'm not far from heading out the door.

I forgot to talk about the daily phish...

One BIG HINT that the suspicious e-mail you've received might be a phishing scam...

When you hold your mouse pointer over the link/graphic that points you to a web site and the address that displays in your status bar isn't that which you would visit to access your bank, you've probably received a scam. The common thing I've seen in the "phishing" e-mails lately is an address like this (the series of four numbers (218, 158, 230, and 101) commonly called the dotted quad and the page and directory will likely be different):

http://218.158.230.101:87/b/index.htm

I received one e-mail today (the web site was closed down by the time I started checking) that had an address that looked like this:

http://%32%31%38%2e%31%35%38%2e%32%33%30%2e%31%30%31:%38%37/%62/%69%6E%64%65%78%2E%68%74%6D

If you wanted to figure out what in the hell that URL would actually point to (the easy way), visit here and enter the URL in the form.

Banks don't send out e-mails that have links like that. Plus, a bank shouldn't be sending you e-mails asking you for your personal info. It just doesn't work like that...

So, there we were...

When Suzanne got home from work this afternoon, she didn't feel like making dinner. Hey, that was cool. The question we had was what we should do about it. We ended up going to Steak 'n Shake. Not bad... It had been a while since we visited there.

Afterwards, I got a wild hair up my arse and wanted to run by Best Buy. I haven't had any problems with Best Buy, but I know some people who really hate that place. Unfortunately, it's the only electronics-store-in-a-box around these parts. Suzanne and I both wanted a new cable modem. We figured that the rental from the cable company seems like it's old and possibly, well, "busted". Besides, why pay more money to the cable company? Oh yeah, I broke down and did something I never figured I would do. I bought Eminem's new release.

I hooked the modem up as soon as we returned home. It took the usual fifteen minutes (probably a little more because I wasn't really counting) waiting on the phone to talk to a customer service rep just to answer a very simple question about our account. Beyond that, there were NO problems. I was a little surprised because our modem wasn't on the list of approved or compatible hardware. Hey, what the hell, it works. Hopefully it will solve a little problem we've been having.

I really should be in the arms of Morpheus, but damn it all, I'm just not tired enough and the last of the Star Trek: The Next Generation vintage of movies is on one of the movie channels.

And then there were six....

Six people who have decided to vacate their positions in Dubya's administration. How many more people will Dubya drive away (OK, maybe it's not that bad)? The dynamics of Powell's resignation have appeared especially interesting. Hey, maybe I'm reading more into the situation than there really is. It'll be interesting to see how Condoleezza Rice (assuming she's confirmed) makes the transition from National Security Advisor to Secretary of State. It'll also be interesting to see who is picked as the National Security Advisor. What we really need are more hawks in the halls of power....

We just finished watching this show on the Discovery Times channel. Truthfully, I only half-heartedly watched it and Suzanne barely glanced up from her laptop. What I did see of it seemed like a brief but informative synopsis of U.S.-Saudi relations before and after 9/11.

Back when I started this blog, I had just discovered the CIA World Factbook and started linking "a country a day" for a while. While surfing through the State Department's website tonight, I found this. From there, I moved on to the various country studies available from the Library of Congress. Hey, I may not always like our government, but I'll always love this country. Besides, our tax money is funding this stuff so we might as well access it.

It's immensely sad (Advance warning: This post contains profanity. If you don't like that, contact the FCC and/or read no further.)...

That Saving Private Ryan has fallen prey to the "values war" that started coming to its height after the Super Bowl this year. Nearly 30% of ABC's 225 affiliate stations wouldn't air the movie for fear of indecency accusations. I didn't watch Saving Private Ryan when it aired several nights ago. However, I have seen it and I thought very highly of it. Yes, there was graphic violence. There was also profanity. From what I understand, ABC went to great pains to remind the viewers of that fact. Reminiscing on the "wardrobe malfunction", there were no such warnings. I'm not bothered by profanity OR nipple-shielded breasts. If I had children and I wasn't warned beforehand (e.g. the Super Bowl halftime show), I might be slightly miffed but the world wouldn't be at an end. However, the uproar about Saving Private Ryan is uproariously sickening to me.

I've never been in the thick of battle. However, I happen to believe that even the saintliest of individuals might find a swear word or two escaping from their lips when they were taking fire. Hell, we should test that theory. Let's strap up Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Franklin Graham with M-16s to go defend Iraqi freedom and record every second of their encounters. I'm sure that the only words leaving their mouths would invoke G-d and Jesus and how wonderful the two figures are. Falwell would probably condemn the yellow Teletubby as a jihadist at the same time.

Pardon me in advance for saying this, but you people need to LIGHTEN THE FUCK UP! Go watch Sky Angel or something...

I expect that John Ashcroft will be very vocal right up until the moment that his replacement takes over...

He gave a speech on Friday that railed against "activist" judges who have differed from the views of the executive branch concerning treatment of prisoners in our ongoing "war on terror". I'm sorry, but if the President decided that American safety would be best implemented by micro-chipping everyone, I would hope that the courts would step in (and I wouldn't play along anyway). The courts play an important role in that whole checks-and-balances thing, Ashcroft. I hope that your replacement is thoroughly grilled about matters like this during his confirmation hearings.

Is Real Genius becoming real? The "first light" of the future airborne laser was conducted on Friday. Now we just need a big tin of popcorn...

Damn, this relatively young individual known better as "Ol' Dirty Bastard" died today. Only 35... I'm not far from that. Eat, drink, and be merry! You never know when the reaper might be coming for you...

If there's one thing, we don't need right now, it's discontent and in-fighting at the CIA (free nytimes.com registration required (or use bugmenot.com)).

First and foremost, props to all the veterans out there...

Much sacrifice has been made on your part and it appears as if much more will continue to be requested. In some parts of the world, a "wardrobe malfunction" would likely be followed by at least one public beheading. In some parts of the world, an individual working for the government would not have the freedom to tell the rest of his countrymen how the government is screwing things up.

Speaking of this individual, he is resigning from the CIA. The govexec.com article doesn't mention the effective "ban" on media appearances imposed on him since by the CIA roughly August.

Yasser Arafat...

With Arafat's passing, there should be renewed hope for work towards the stalled "roadmap". I hate to sound cynical, but I'll believe it when I see it. I would love to see freedom maintained in Afghanistan, Iraq, and a Palestinian state. Unfortunately, in the first two instances, it appears as if our military might be the ones doing the maintenance for a while. We might need to change the "military oath" to something like this:

“I, [state your name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and all other countries in the path of America's march of freedom against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

Na-na..na-na-na-na..hey-ey-ey..go-odbye....

Hasta la vista, John Ashcroft. I meant to say this last night, but I was having a helluva time getting it posted before I had to shower and get to work. I don't blame you for all of the questionable legislation. However, we have pursued some avenues in this "war on terror" that seem highly questionable and you've seemed to want to tirelessly defend things like Patriot without openly addressing concerns by advocacy groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Instead, you've remained combative and said things like, "To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens; to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty; my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists—for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil." One consistent theme in your resignation is that there haven't been any attacks in this country since 9/11. Many people in the government remind us that the question about the next attack should be more of a "when, not if" kind of thing. So, when (and if) another attack occurs, does that mean that you've partially failed? Will that mean that Patriot isn't worth the paper it's written on? As far as I'm aware, law enforcement never needed more legislation to tell them they could perform probable cause searches sans a warrant. For what it's worth, I don't think the next guy will be much better...

We were discussing global warming at work last night. Considering where I work, I'm not an ultra-green activist. However, we have the technology to do better assessments of how human activities affect the environment. Someone brought up the point that nature can change the environment far more than we can. That's true. However, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to get better. Using that line of reasoning, we should club all baby seals and get as much ivory as we can because most animals will probably die off in the end anyway. Hell, the Sun will eventually consume the Earth, so we should nuke our enemies NOW, right? It won't matter in the long run. I call BS.

Suzanne was mentioning that the local Panera bread has wi-fi...

Wi-fi seems to be slowly creeping up in a lot of places. I'd personally like to see wi-fi in ALL hotels, but that's probably not going to happen any time immediately. When we're traveling, that's one of our considerations for where we'll stay.

We were at Old Chicago Pizza up in Bettendorf the other night. In addition to having good food, they have good beer and an old favorite of mine. Yeah, I suppose it's kind of geeky, but I like to play the NTN Network's trivial entertainment games. Suzanne has always told me I was geeky. I told her we should go there this Friday night. We don't normally go out to eat on Friday nights, but I discovered that the local Mensa chapter is supposed to meet there.

It's sad that 38% of teens polled didn't know the title of our country's official song. Hopefully, I can contribute to this "grassroots" effort in some small way just by getting the word out. Here's the official site for the "National Anthem Project". I say we should have an "old school" national anthem and a "new school" national anthem. Perhaps we could have a metal anthem. I don't see the little ditty from Team America: World Police as a contender. Warning: Don't click that link if you'll be offended by extreme lyrical obscenity!

While we were out and about yesterday, we were listening to what the local country station had to offer...

There's a "new-ish" song out by Tim McGraw called Back When. Just so you have some background info, I'm not a big fan of country music. This is another song that I'm not fond of. The sentiment expressed in this song hearkens back to older and simpler times. I don't like it much because this same kind of sentimentality has existed ever since mankind could record history. Life is flux. Get over it...

On at least one part of the internets...

I saw some yakking along the lines of "Art doesn't take enough pictures with the digital camera". My history of taking pictures (digital or otherwise) isn't great. I will note that I've taken more pictures with the digital camera than with any other camera that we've owned previously. I always tell Suzanne that she needs to learn to pick up the camera and take pictures herself. For some reason, she doesn't think she should. Y'all should go tell her to be part of the solution.

There's one interesting thing that I haven't considered about the reappearance of Osama in a recent video...

After a tape that appeared to show Osama discussing his "victory" was released in the closing weeks of 2001, the world was abuzz with conspiracy theories of how the US altered the tape. Why haven't those conspiracy theories been revisited in the news after the latest Osama media appearance? For those who doubted that Osama was responsible for Manhattan, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, what do you say now? Is this latest tape another fake?

Mandate schmandate... There are still fifty-six million people who didn't vote for you George. You will still have to work to earn the trust of those of us who didn't vote for you. Guess what? Those of us who didn't vote for you (and perhaps even some of those who did) will still exercise our free American voices if we feel that you're doing screwed up things.

Although I rant against the Prez frequently, I have nothing but respect for our troops. To that end... Happy 229th, USMC!

Well, I suppose....

John Kerry gave a pretty good fight and George W. Bush and friends are shrewd politicians. Congrats, Dubya. I just hope you'll be more of the uniter invoked in your victory speech today during this term. Hey, I guess not all is lost. As I've mentioned before, Kerry wouldn't have changed much anyway. More importantly, dubyaspeak.com will have four more years of fresh verbal fodder.

I think that a big thanks and good job should go to Michael Badnarik and the other alternative candidates who worked a long time doing the thankless job of getting their word out as much as possible without much assistance or coverage. Check out Michael's book! The Libertarian Presidential vote (percentage and tally) went up by more than double in our county this year.

Suzanne sent me an e-mail earlier this evening. It was a parody of the simple task of ordering a pizza under the Patriot Act. She just got it as a forward today. I figured that I'd try to find out how old it was. The link above is the earliest version that I've been able to find on the internets. I only bring it up because of the recent high profile political events. Renewal and refinement of Patriot is one of Bush's thrusts over the next four years.

I frequently gripe about Patriot here. People sometimes ask me, "If you haven't done anything, why are you worried about it?" Up until just now (really, just now), I haven't had a simple answer. To me the key lies in "haven't done anything". If I haven't done anything, I shouldn't have to worry about my library records being checked because I'm researching the history of jihad as an Islamic concept or DCS-1000 looking at what websites I visit. The worst part to me is that finding out if either of those things happened would approach impossibility unless the government released that type of info out of the goodness of their hearts. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. We'll see what happens...

Poll closing times (so you'll know when to get ready to weep or leap)?

Check out this site. Everything seems to be breaking as it's been predicted thus far....

This morning, NPR was talking about the electoral college possibilities...

Near the end of the segment (you can listen in Real or WMP format), they brought up a recent Washington Post study that found 33 possibilities for an electoral college tie. Hell, it might just be better to go ask the Magic Eight Ball if your choice will win. As a brief aside, they were actually talking about the Constitution Party at one point this morning. I knew that NPR had interviewed Michael Badnarik recently. It's nice to hear even a little bit of coverage given to the alternative candidates. Check out the platform of the Constitution Party. It's not completely for me, but I know people who would likely agree with almost every single plank.

In the past year or so, there's been all sorts of media coverage given to the WTC Memorial. I haven't heard much of anything about the Pentagon Memorial. Pictures and other info are available at that website.

I've had the chance to partake in a couple of online Zogby polls this year...

I took one a week or so ago. After the polls, they give a few links to a brief analysis of a couple of their recent products. The last one I took led me to an analysis of an August poll that Zogby did. One thing that struck me was that 90% of undecideds weren't satisfied with their choices this year. The time is so absolutely right for protest. A news report that I read today mentioned that 98% of the people asked have emphatically made up their mind. The vine was ripe for the picking in August. It will be very interesting to see if Nader, the Greens, the Libertarians, the Constitution Party, or any of the other alternative choices have any impact on tomorrow's results. I would say "May the best man win!", but I don't believe in either of the likely victors. Sorry!

Fiscal policies of Bush or Kerry...

There are some people who have significant government experience and have poor opinions of the fiscal policies of either of the two big-ticket candidates. What are the potential pitfalls of the way our "leaders" are spending? Read on...

I suppose that we're damned if we do and damned if we don't.

Two quick notes....

I was just doing some browsing and found two things.

If you thought about seeing Fahrenheit 9/11 but couldn't stomach paying the bucks that would eventually end up in Michael Moore's pocket, you can get it free. Click it (only until Nov. 2)!

Eminem's new video (Mosh) can be downloaded from here.

I don't keep up with "popular" music...

I gave up on MTV a long time ago (save for The Osbournes). I guess that my definition of cool is different now. Hey, that's fine because life is flux. Anyway, I caught a little bit of SNL last night. Eminem happened to be the musical guest. I had heard a small segment of his latest song encouraging people to get out and vote (presumably against the Shrub). It's called Mosh. For a long time, I didn't like Marshall Mathers very much. Thanks to Ric, I was actually exposed to some of Eminem's work. Yes, it's brash and vulgar at times. However, it comes from somewhere. We checked out 8 Mile not too long after that. Suzanne still has a low opinion of the music. The point of this whole thing is to say that I like Eminem's latest piece. Hell, it can't be too bad. Even Moby likes it. Check it out at mtv.com or Yahoo! Launch.

I'm not a sports fan by any stretch of the imagination, but "Go Packers"!

Election stuff...

I don't need to mention again that I'm voting for Michael Badnarik (oops, I guess I just did). It just occurred to me that I've failed to mention a local (Illinois at least) alternative. We have Obama and we have Keyes. On Tuesday, I'm voting to try to put Jerry Kohn in the US Senate. The other alternative candidate for the US Senate is Albert J. Franzen. I have some family members (immediate and extended) who think we should vote to keep the Shrub. Some even go as far as saying that our vote will be wasted and that this is no time for a protest vote. There are some "libertarians" voting for Bush this year on those grounds. I wholeheartedly disagree. My take on things is that a protest vote is needed now more than ever. But hey, opinions are like.....

Thoughts on failed strategery....

With the arrival of the latest bin Laden video, the spinmeisters from both sides of the aisle have predictably started... well, spinning away. Bush accuses Kerry of "Monday-morning quarterbacking" and Kerry accuses Shrubby of "outsourcing the job of getting Osama".

Now for my two cents...

Osama and company are killers. They are probably among some of the best in the world. Hell, a lot of them were called freedom fighters in the 80s and armed and funded (whether directly or indirectly) by the good old US of A. Responsibility for 9/11 lies solely at the feet of Al Qaeda and the nineteen men who took over the aircraft. However...

Bush and Kerry still don't appear to get the whole picture. Clinton should be put away for life for neglecting to even have a semblance of a plan for dealing with Osama on his home turf. We were right to go after Osama. We didn't do it the right way, but we can't change what's already been done. Bush wanted Osama "dead or alive" but failed to deploy anywhere near the number of troops necessary to achieve an overwhelming victory. I realize that Bush was left in kind of a crappy position after Slick Willy's time in office, but we could have done better. We were able to get over 100,000 troops into Iraq. Again, we can't change what's been done, but Bush isn't the right man for the job. Kerry is no better...

Neither Kerry nor Bush will even give the consideration necessary to the foreign policy changes that might be of assistance in the "war on terror".

Now, since the media likes to give short and sweet versions of things (and I detest link-rot), I've copied the transcript of Osama's entire speech from the English site of AlJazeera. Thank you AlJazeera!

"Transcript of bin Ladin's speech by Saturday 30 October 2004 11:28 AM GMT

Following is the English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech in a videotape aired by Aljazeera on Friday 29 October. In the interests of authenticity the transcript, which appeared as subtitles at the foot of the screen, has been left unedited.


To begin: Peace be upon he who follow the Guidance.

People of United States, this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent another Manhattan and deals with the war and its causes and results.

Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar in human life and that free men do not forfeit their security contrary to Bush's claims that we hate freedom.

If so, then let him explain why did not strike - for example - Sweden.

And we know that freedom haters do not possess defiant spirits like those of the 19 may Allah have mercy on them.

No, we fight because we are free men who do not sleep under oppression.

We want to restore freedom to our Nation and just as you lay waste to our Nation so shall we lay waste to yours.

But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth year after the events of September 11, Bush is still engaged in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real cause and thus the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred.

So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and I shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the decision was taken for you to consider.

I say to you Allah knows that it had never occurred to us to strike towers.

But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the America/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.

The events that affected my soul in a difficult way started in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon and the American 6th fleet helped them in that.

And the whole world saw and heard but did not respond.

In those difficult moments many hard to describe ideas bubbled in my soul but in the end they produced intense feelings of rejection of tyranny and gave birth to a strong resolve to punish the oppressors.

And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressors in kind and that we destroy towers in America in order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that they be deterred from killing our women and children.

We have not found it difficult to deal with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half of which are ruled by the sons of kings and presidents.

Our experience with them is lengthy and both types are replete with those who are characterised by pride, arrogance, greed and misappropriation of wealth.

This resemblance began after the visits of Bush Senior to the region at a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by America and hoping that these visits would have an effect on our countries. All of a sudden he was affected by these monarchies and military regimes and became jealous of their remaining decades in their position to embezzle the public wealth of the Nation without supervision or accounting.

So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his son and they named it the Patriot Act under the pretences of fighting terrorism.

In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing of sons as state governors and did not forget to import expertise in election fraud from the regions presidents to Florida to be made use of in moments of difficulty.

All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke and bait this administration.

And for the record, we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes before Bush and his administration notice.

It never occurred to us that the Commander in Chief of the armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone at a time when they most needed him.

But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers we were given three times the period required to execute the operations. All praise is due to Allah.


Aljazeera
By

You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm"

Make of it what you will...

I'm continuing to consider the apparent blocking of georgewbush.com from foreign IPs...

The more I think about this, the more I get pissed off. The Libertarian in me realizes that, as private property (though for one of the biggest issues in the public's eye right now), the owner/admin of Dubya's re-election campaign site is free to do whatever he/she chooses with the site. However, the purpose of the site is to inform people about one of their choices for the President of the United States. Believe it or not, chuck@georgewbush.com, there could be Americans in other countries who want info about your candidate.

In the interest of maintaining some amount of freedom for public discourse and decision-making, click this link to access the georgewbush.com website from around the world. Hopefully that will work! If that link doesn't work, try one of the other free proxy servers listed here. Not all of the links listed there will work and since some are overseas, some of them will be blocked. However, give it your best shot. To borrow a line from Dubya...

"There ought to be limits to freedom."

-George W. Bush, 1999 (Hint: It's near the bottom)

NIPC's daily report site might not be updated anymore, but...

If you're interested in security related matters, DHS still creates a daily report of information culled from the public media about security matters. You can receive the daily report (Monday-Friday) by sending a subscription request e-mail to:

dhsdailyadmin -at- mail.dhs.osis.gov

It's just easier to have someone else gather the info. Hell, my tax money is helping create this info, so I might as well check it out. The reason I bring this up...

Today's report had a link to a press report about geocaching causing a bomb scare in Indiana. Paranoia KICKS ASS! I especially love the Blackford County Sheriff's statement about geocaching:

“People have to understand that I've been to three FBI and CIA briefings in the last two weeks, getting briefed on terrorists and terrorism. They need to find another game.”

Are you going to hold a scavenger hunt? You'd better contact the FBI, DHS, CIA, FEMA, RCMP, NSA, and any other organization that might be interested.

Those of you who might be traveling to foreign countries (or those who live there) might find this spot interesting. Ooooooooohhhhh, I just noticed this on the site. Warning: The OSAC website (the first link) can be painfully slow.

I've rethought part of my stance on Roy Moore...

You still can't tell me that he wasn't trying to espouse one narrow view of religion over all others, but...

Why do I now support the stance that Roy Moore took? Locally, someone put a very graphic poster showing an aborted fetus in his front yard. People were quite offended by this individual's sign. I am staunchly pro-life. My pro-life attitude isn't driven by any religious values. I'm still agnostic. I'm just bothered by the fact that many people still say that we don't know when life begins but we aren't willing to err on the side of caution. Before a convict is sent to death row, they have to have passed the test of innocent until proven guilty and often the jury must be unanimous. Why are we willing to grant so much latitude to adults and unwilling to save the lives of the innocent unborn? Anyway, I'm all for this dude being able to have his sign in his front yard. He is just reminding the world of what happens in the clinic. He's taking a stand against what he views as a gruesome violation of rights. Roy Moore was doing the same thing. I also happen to feel that the right thing happened to Roy Moore. His peers put the smack down on him.

If it wasn't for brave souls bucking the system, the civil rights movement might not have gotten off the ground. Roy Moore would have never allowed an acknowledgement of other divine sources of law and that's my biggest problem with him. However, he fought with principled strength for what he believed. Sometimes you just have to take a stand. Perhaps it's just my anarchist side speaking....

Hey, I may bitch a lot but the world WON'T end when the next Republicrat is elected next week...

Actually, who knows? It might!

A new report (.pdf file) bolsters my belief that humans are and will remain the weakest link in a connected world. In many cases, there are cheap and fairly easy solutions to prevent many of the problems discussed in this report. The word needs to get out. I liked the idea that someone at Gnomedex brought up about making Windows Update CDs as ubiquitous as those AOL CDs at electronics stores.

I'd like to see a Bush campaign commercial where Bush says the following at the end...

"I'm George Bush and I approve this message. If you don't approve, Dick Cheney sends along a hearty "Fuck you!""

At least that would be a funny campaign ad.

My candidate for Prez was on Fox News today. The inevitable Iraq question came up. I know what Badnarik believes and I believe roughly the same thing. Linda Vester asked him a question along the lines of destabilization in Iraq after our forces leave. I believe that Michael knows the answer but I think the answer that was given could have been much more inspired and have historic examples. When our forces are asked to leave in the future, we won't be able to guarantee Iraqi security. We can't even guarantee a level of security comparable to that which we enjoy in the United States although we currently have 100,000+ troops on the ground. Obviously, the British couldn't guarantee security when they withdrew from their Palestinian Mandate. As long as we have troops on the ground in Arab countries, they will be targets and potentially stir MORE hatred of the U.S. (and draw more recruits for jihadist organizations) by the population. Even George Bush and friends realize this. Compare the numbers of our military in Saudi Arabia between now and four years ago. We've made a fairly quiet (although I have heard it mentioned a few times) withdrawal of our troops from Saudi Arabia. However, most of the forces have just been moved from one country to another in the region. Maybe they don't get it completely...

One of the recent rhetorical campaign swings by John Kerry cracks me up...

Kerry's rhetorical stance talks about the Bush campaign relying upon fear as a basis for Dubya's re-election. What the hell do you call talk of a draft being reinstated, railing against the impending privatization of social security, and chicken little/sky is falling/flu vaccine shortage apocalypse is coming talk? Kerry says that he just views a better America. Kerry likes to talk about a vision of hope. Well, Dubya has hopes too. Dubya desires a certain amendment to the Constitution, "renewal of key portions of the "Patriot Act"" (and if you believe it, potential expansion of those "tools"), freedom marching around the world (freedom will have to stay on the march for a long time if Dubya and friends think we will be God's tool on Earth to secure freedom for repressed societies), and more. Both candidates are just different sides of the same coin. They are ideologically different and yet they support (or supported) many of the same things. I like this chart for comparison. T-9 days and counting...

Awwwwwww, poor "spam king". My Bulk box was full of crap again today. Why should I believe that a spammer will comply with the law when the information contained in some of the spam proves beyond a doubt (to me at least) that a spammer is using bogus information for my e-mail address in the first place? Note to spammers: You have never received an opt-in from me from AOL because I've never HAD AOL.

I was stoked at work while watching Fox News last night (for a short period of time)...

The Libertarian Party (and the Badnarik/Campagna campaign) has raised enough dough to start doing nationwide ads. I caught one on Fox News last night. I'm sure it won't sway the race much, but hopefully it might stir some of Fox's conservative viewers to think about Dubya's brand of conservatism. A lot of conservatives often wonder about the Libertarian stance on the "war on drugs" and support for things like gay marriage. They view that as liberal. I beg to differ. The Libertarian stance is ultra-conservative. If it doesn't violate someone else's right to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, there's a lot of activity that's protected by the Constitution. I suppose the "pursuit of happiness" part of things has a lot of wiggle-room.

Locally, some members of the QC Badnarik in 2004 meetup group did some banner-waving action at a busy QC intersection this morning. I believe they are planning on doing it next weekend. I'm glad to hear it because there was not a chance in hell that I could make it this morning. Honk if you love liberty!

Suzanne might want to kick my butt for saying it, but it's a rousing song from that new satirical movie...

"America! Fuck Yeah!"

Yes, we went and saw the latest sacrilege from the guys who brought South Park into the world. This movie is extraordinarily vulgar (surprise), so if that's not your cup of tea, you're best served by skipping it. If you can look past the raunchy side of things, this movie approaches hilarity defined. I've gathered that a lot of people don't think this made as much fun of "right wing nut jobs" as it poked "liberal wieners" in the eye. I see it differently. The over-the-top absurdity of the "heroes" in this flick is the finger pointed at the neo-con types. Again, if you can look past the "naughty" parts of this movie (and there are plenty), you might get a laugh.

Now for raunchiness of a different sort...

I checked my Yahoo! mail right before I went to sleep this morning and the Bulk box was empty. When we got home a little after five, there were 23 new junk messages. See? What a crock of crap!

Surprise, surprise!

11 days! Don't forget to go vote!

What's new and exciting here?

To be bluntly honest, not a whole lot! Suzanne's working for a bit tomorrow and I'm prepping myself for the vamp shift. I actually like working the midnight hours because I frequently find myself (especially when I'm off for six days) staying up at night anyway. Perhaps I'm a vampire...nahh!

I'm hoping that Suzanne will find out that she'll be able to return to a Monday-Friday shift tomorrow. That way, we'll be able to go see Team America: World Police. Seeing it while I'm working nights will be too much of a pain in the arse.

There is some exciting stuff going on in Bamaland. Congratulations!

I like to know things in the context in which they happened...

One reason is that the politicians of the world seem to like to distort things a little. The earliest reference I can find to this year's flu vaccine issues is from late August. Chiron said there were issues but they expected to be able to make up for it by early October. I'm willing to bet that our government took that announcement at face value. This issue isn't quite as easy as certain candidates for President are trying to make it seem. Anything to raise the Nov. 2 tally...

The contamination (I'm sure that you well-read people out there already know this) in this batch of vaccine was Serratia marcescens. I find it interesting that our government used it for bio-weapons research and presumably caused a drastic increase in pneumonia and urinary tract infections in and around the San Fran Bay Area in the 1950s. More on that can be found here.

Our bank offers downloadable account transaction records in three different formats. One of them is Excel. I don't have Excel on my laptop (I do have Open Office). Every time I was attempting to download a spreadsheet, IE crashed. I figured Open Office might automatically take care of it. I forgot to tell Windows to use Open Office to open .xls files. Another way to go about things is to download one (or more) of the MS Office file viewers from here. I downloaded the viewer and changed all associations to use Open Office. It's not that the viewers don't work. I just want to be able to manipulate the data and the viewers only let you look.

Addition to earlier gack...

We can also support our military men and women while asking the idiot politicians here at home what the hell they are doing sending troops to a hotbed like Iraq without enough vital equipment. Take that to heart, Henry Hyde. Yes, I am on one side. I call it the American side. I don't know what these buffoons are thinking when they suggest that criticism of the war or policies that led to it are unpatriotic or that the criticism gives the enemy aid and comfort. I actually do know what they are thinking, but they are wrong. Henry Hyde... you and your ilk can kindly kiss my ass.

If this is true, I might be screwed...

Is it bad to drink nearly a gallon of coffee every day?

I haven't talked much about the unit in Iraq that refused to perform a mission. Sometimes, risk just comes with the territory. However, I find it appalling that three years into the "war on terror" and a year and a half into the Iraqi excursion, troops aren't supplied with the best equipment. When does it become obvious that something more drastic needs to be done because even the leaders on the ground (and the people in Congress) know that things could be made safer? Families (or the soldiers guarding privately contracted individuals who make significantly more than they do) shouldn't have to buy their own body armor. Granted, John Kerry could have voted for the 87 billion after he voted for it, but we can't afford to be half-ass supporting our troops when they are fighting for the freedom of other countries. I'm still of the opinion that it isn't the job of our soldiers be freeing other countries.

Some blame must be placed on Kerry and all the others who voted yes (and are now bitching about the war) and essentially gave away their Constitutionally mandated power to declare war.

Rather than believe that the sky is falling because of a flu vaccine shortage, get the facts. It is bullshit that our supply is low but it's not the end of the world and it's not necessarily the fault of either of the two biggest BSers in this campaign. This whole flu thing did lead to John Edwards asking a funny rhetorical question... "And he couldn’t even manage this latest flu vaccine crisis. How can we trust him to deal with anthrax?" Nice. You still don't have my vote John Edwards, but that was hilarious. The Kerry-Edwards ticket couldn't do much better.

Sellam Ismail was on The Screen Savers this evening. He's responsible for this and this. That inspired me to seek out vintage public access systems accessible via the net. First and foremost, I can't say how cool SDF is. There are others. I just found the Deathrow OpenVMS cluster. Interesting...

Damn, I just thought about something...

I won't have much to bitch about after this campaign season is over. PSYCH! That's poppycock. Old Ron Northcutt stated it better. He would've said, "Auwww hell, that's horsesheeit!" Either of the two likely victors of November 2nd should keep my bitch session in progress for at least four more years.

What do we have here (PDF document)? Yes, it's another victory for free speech and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. I have a feeling that the more controversial portions of the Patriot Act will be dying a slow death over the next couple of years. Of course, there will be people trying to convince us that everything about Patriot is benign.

Perusing through a few blogs this evening (actually found at one in particular), I found this political test. Yeah, it's a front for a dating site, but I figured what the hell! Care to hear how I was described? I did take it a second time because I didn't think to mention how it described me earlier. Oddly enough, it said that I was a Libertarian the first time. The second time....

"You are a

Social Liberal
(88% permissive)

and an...

Economic Conservative
(93% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Anarchist

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness."

Hmmmmm.....

Gotta love those 12-hour days...

Actually, I like them and I hate them. I adore them because they afford me and my homies at work the chance to have a six-day stretch off. When I'm working them, I am sometimes less than fond of them because Suzanne works during the day and I don't get home until around 7 PM. At least the 12-hour days beat the 12-hour nights.

We just had time to eat dinner this evening and go fetch some ice. While we were eating (and when we got back from fetching), I saw one of the scariest reminders that we are indeed growing older. I tried to avert my eyes from Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers as much as possible.

The election season is nearly over and I'm tired of it. I'm also tired of the latest controversy (Kerry's example using Darth Cheney's daughter). Yes, it was a politically inspired barb. It may or may not have been planned. However, if the Grand Uniter and friends weren't so hell-bent on passing an amendment designed to deny a certain group of people freedom to live as they choose (at no harm to others), we wouldn't be having this little problem. My marriage isn't threatened by this. What's next, a federal marriage license?

Hahaha! Save for traveling, I currently have no use for a cell phone. Suzanne has one and we use it when we are traveling. The only problem I could see with this is if someone had an emergency call or was waiting for an important call. However, don't most modern cell phones have a "vibrate" feature? Our father...[ring-ring-ring], who art in Heaven, [opening chords of Beethoven's Fifth]...hallowed be thy [insert your own ring tone here] name...

I don't get spyware on my home machines. I can't say the same about some of our machines at work. I don't know if it's just irresponsible clicking, lack of attention, or stupid downloading habits, but one machine was swamped. Fortunately, I was able to de-louse the 'puter in question. I'm sure it will be bogged down again soon. The odd thing is that the AV solution that my company uses says it protects against some of the programs that were present. I firmly believe that in most cases, the user will remain the weakest link. Tech will be part of the solution, but there are clever folks out there who will figure away around the tech. The easiest way around the tech is often right through the user.

Well, I should probably skedaddle. Suzanne works way too early and I'll be off on a merry 12-hour adventure. Nighty-night!

Ivan Shamiakin died today...

I had no idea who that was either. I just wanted to see if any notable deaths had occurred today. There's a limited selection of Shamiakin stories here (one German, one English, three Russian). I'm going to read the English one.

Yahoo! appears to have recently made more of their news content available via RSS. The speaker at Gnomedex said they would be increasing the amount of RSS material available. We also received Yahoo! Search mousepads as schwag in Tahoe. To see the shortcuts to use with Yahoo!'s search instead of that other one (which I totally dig), click here.

We caught wind of this at work today via e-mail. This is a prime example of what we'd call a teamwork failure. Nuclear operators work long and weird hours at times. We're supposed to help each other and make sure that we keep doing it right (e.g. staying awake). Nuclear worker fatigue is not a new issue by any means (as can be ascertained here). I just hope that the actions of one sleepy individual don't get the proposed working hour restrictions being suggested by this group rushed into place. We try our utmost to keep each other out of trouble where I work.

Ever in the mood to try something new, I downloaded this cool THING.

Thank you Thing.

What is this thing, you ask?

I've downloaded the Google Desktop search tool.

Oh yeah... one other cool thing I've downloaded recently is IZArc. Why do I like it? Here's one part of the answer:

"IZArc is the ultimate archive utility suports many archive formats like: 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARC, ARJ, B64, BH, BZ2, BZA, CAB, CPIO, DEB, ENC, GCA, GZ, GZA, HA, JAR, LHA, LIB, LZH, MBF, MIM, PAK, PK3, RAR, RPM, TAR, TAZ, TBZ, TGZ, TZ, UUE, WAR, XXE, YZ1, Z, ZIP, ZOO."

The price is right (free, although I'll strongly consider supporting their work monetarily), the install was quick and easy, and from what I can tell, IZArc can decompress most anything. Very cool!

Perhaps more later...

I do NOT support John Kerry. I do NOT support George Bush.

However, hearing Dubya and Bill Frist (post-debate) say that John Kerry has done nothing in 20 years is getting slightly shallow, old, and seemingly misleading. I don't know how Kerry's record compares to that of any other Senator. However, he has sponsored bills and amendments to bills. Click on the links below to see the list of bills, amendments, and/or resolutions that Kerry has sponsored since 1985:

99th Congress (1985-1986)
100th Congress (1987-1988)
101st Congress (1989-1990)
102nd Congress (1991-1992)
103rd Congress (1993-1994)
104th Congress (1995-1996)
105th Congress (1997-1998)
106th Congress (1999-2000)
107th Congress (2001-2002)
108th Congress (2003-2004)

In order to maintain a hint of objectivity, I must note that I can't think of a bill with Kerry's name on it as I can with McCain-Feingold, Sarbanes-Oxley, or Nunn-Lugar-Domenici. However, that doesn't mean he's been windsurfing for 20 years...

Yeah, today was (and still is) pretty mundane...

Well, at least it was mundane once I woke up. I'm ready to go back to work. Excepting the 12 hours of OT I worked on Sunday night, I've been off since last Friday morning. Today is the beginning of Suzanne's weekend.

Can you imagine what life will be like for Lynndie's baby if she gets hammered at her court martial?

Speaking of the Iraqi abuse...

The RAND Corporation released a paper earlier this year titled Public Diplomacy: How to Think About and Improve It (.pdf file). I'm sure that Lynndie and her compadres didn't do much for America's image. The paper brings up some of the works of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela. There are some great online repositories that include some of their respective works here and here.

I was considering watching the debates this evening, but we're not going to. First, Suzanne says she would be bored to tears. Second, most of the things we'll hear have been said repeatedly for at least the past ten months. Third, I've lost interest...

I haven't lost interest in seeing that Mike gets votes. Unfortunately, I won't be able to take part in the activities of the QC Badnarik Meetup group this weekend. This happens to be the weekend when they plan to hit the streets waving Badnarik signs. However, duty calls and seeing that I recently returned from vacation, I can't justify taking the time off this weekend. Drat!

I'm glad to hear that the US Supreme Court will tackle "Ten Commandments" issues. That could get interesting.

Well, I've gotta run. Suzanne's jonesing to get to Outback.

Suzanne was telling me that our niece called my in-laws today...

Our niece and her family had just returned from visiting Mickey Mouse. Olivia was telling my parents-in-law that today was a day off from school. I had no idea that today was a holiday (or at least local students had the day off). I suppose that the shiftwork addles my sense of time. 512 years... Damn, time flies!

Speaking of Christophers...

Go easy Kal-El!

Sean Penn... piss off! I really don't think that Trey and Matt are trying to encourage people not to vote. They might say something along those lines, but they are trying to be funny. That's what they do. Participating in the 2000 vote must have been a frustration to the 500,000 more people who voted for Gore over Dubya. The issue is even worse when you consider the usual complaints about "wishing for different options" and "voting for the lesser of two evils".

I love this picture. I was checking out Yahoo! news and I noticed that the lead picture in their news slideshow was a lioness carrying her cub from the Aalborg Zoo. That led me to the Aalborg Zoo website. I don't believe that I've ever gone to zoo sites looking for great animal pix. I love well-taken pictures of animals. I think it comes from having had a multi-volume animal encyclopedia set when I was younger. The pictures were gorgeous and the information about the animals was substantial for my age at the time.

I have to apologize...

I realize that I might sometimes come off as a raving lunatic bastard when I post here (particularly when talking about those who are in charge). I'm not a raving mad individual. I'm just frustrated by the political duopoly machine at times. I love this place and I wouldn't live anywhere else. That being said, I feel it necessary to spread the word that there ARE alternatives. Yeah, I won't change anything. Not by myself. I've heard catchphrases like "I wish there was an alternative choice" so many times. There are alternatives. I have mine, but there are others. However, when an alternative is presented, many people often seem to stick with one of the big parties for fear of a wasted vote. I don't see it changing anytime soon.

Here's why I feel that's dangerous. Bush says he believes in the concepts embodied in the UN. He also says that we won't ask them for permission to defend our country. He is right there. At one time, Kerry said that our troops wouldn't be deployed without the blessing of the UN. More recently, he mentioned the "global test". That's BS! However, my take on things is that Bush's war on terror (and the one in Iraq) have the potential to (and are) leading us down a slippery slope of interventionist foreign policy. When I speak about my choice, one of the biggest complaints I hear invokes the demon of isolationism. It's true (somewhat). If my choice became reality, we would try as much as possible to extricate ourselves from the governmental affairs of the rest of the world. I don't feel that that's a bad thing. We've opened and rubbed wounds in the interest of the US for the past one hundred years. Stepping back wouldn't end terrorism, but it would allow us to focus better and let us stop rubbing SOME of the wounds that, while not causing terrorism, aggravate the situation.

Is Gnomedex 5 in the works already? If we can make it next year, we will.

Well, I don't know what happened to the DHS Daily Reports culled from the news media at www.nipc.gov. If you're interested in those types of matters, there was some interesting info culled from the news and put all in one place. This source has reports that appear to be maintained.

The mainstream news won't talk about alternative events that happened outside of tonight's debate so I will...

The candidates of the Libertarian and Green parties were arrested while attempting to gain access to the Presidential debate this evening. These two men are Constitutionally eligible and have sufficient ballot access to be theoretically capable of winning. The catch-22 experienced by these alternatives is extraordinary. They won't be admitted to the debates as run by the Commission on Presidential Debates because they don't poll at an arbitrary 15% in national polls. They will never get there unless the Libertarians (or Greens) get a candidate who is filthy rich or ultra-famous. This is sad. Voices are being squashed.

For the Libertarian account, read here.

For the account from the Green Party, read here.

Intel bonanza doesn't lend a great deal of credibility to Dubya and company...

The past two days have seen some interesting information come to light. The first was the news about a CIA report that found no conclusive evidence of ties between Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Saddam Hussein. The second is the massive report about Saddam's WMD. I haven't read any of the material I am linking to yet because I have the pleasure of going in to work soon. The prepared testimony of Charles Duelfer and Brigadier General Joseph J. McMenamin, USMC before the Senate Armed Services Committee can be downloaded here.

We truly have a great country. Information like this is frequently available in near real-time when it's not being subjected to highly restrictive secrecy barriers. Sometimes those barriers are necessary.

The CIA has a wealth of useful information available on its website.

Although we don't hear much about the Mars Rovers anymore, they are still alive and kickin'. I almost forgot that our names are in the cosmos. Here's my proof. Here's Suzanne's.

Well, I have to run. Bye!

As I've noted before, the cable news channel we typically stick with is MSNBC...

However, like every other news channel, as soon as the candidate debates are over, they analyze them to death in search of the elusive answer to the question of who won. What follows here is only my opinion, so please take it as such. I feel that the American voter has lost. There are a few undecideds left out there. They have probably waited for these debates as part of their decision-making process. What they are getting is a sanitized, scripted, and lackluster rewording of the stump speeches that we've all been hearing for close to a year now. Hell, check out the Memorandum of Understanding for this year's farce. The candidates can't directly question each other or participate in any alternative debates. I won't even mention what I think of the fact that Constitutionally qualified candidates with sufficient ballot access are excluded.

The Nobels for Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology/Medicine have been announced. The awards for Literature, Peace, and the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel are due to be announced on October 7th, 8th, and 11th respectively. The Nobel site has some excellent material (or links to material) on Nobel winners.

The ACLU has a great portion of their website devoted to the Patriot Act and FOIA material they have obtained regarding Patriot. Searching through some of it, I found this chart of what the government can and can't do and under what circumstances. You've got to love the net!