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4.30.2006
CNN.com - Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks - Apr 27, 2006: "'Our plan would give taxpayers a hundred dollar gas tax holiday rebate check to help ease the pain that they're feeling at the pump,' Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced Thursday." The Outstanding Public Debt as of 01 May 2006 at 03:03:52 AM GMT is: $ 8,371,021,715,751.79 | 4.27.2006
Guardian Unlimited Film | News | Tears and reflection at 9/11 film premiere: "United 93, by the British director Paul Greengrass, opened the Tribeca Film Festival, and the evening began like any other premiere, with a red-carpet procession of celebrities - including Robert De Niro, Steve Buscemi and Gabriel Byrne - and attendant TV cameras and gawking passersby. I'm uncomfortable with the idea that we can fictionalize history for the sake of "healing", or to feed an emotional need. I think that the tendency would be to cater to the narrative of least resistence. What happened on that plane is mostly speculation with little bits of evidence to lead to some assumptions. But the truth of the matter is that we have no witness to the actually event, to what happened, who did what, who said what. The film is a documentary-style re-creation of what Mr Greengrass calls a "believable truth" about what might have happened on the plane and in air-traffic control centres - from the moment a controller hears the first indications of the hijacks to when the Flight 93 passengers storm the cockpit and try to seize control. Its too early to deal with the events of 9-11 in this way. While its true that almost five years have past, we are still in the midst of the political fallout of that day. We are still using that event to guide our decision as a nation. There is no way that we could take an objective look at the tragedy of that day. There are too many forces pushing us to draw the right conclusions. There is a halo of political correctness that keeps us from thinking clearly about 9-11. Its what led us into the war in Iraq, where we were unable to question the emotionally driven narrative that "something needed to be done", even if it was completely unrelated. "This movie puts a face on the enemy and demonstrates accurately the extent to which the enemy will go to destroy us," David Beamer, the father of passenger Todd Beamer, told the Guardian before the premiere. Like I said, narrative. | 4.25.2006
I never really though that right-of-way rules were all that hard to understand. But I might have to reconsider that assumption based on the amount of evidence to the contrary. And... Every day, at about the same time, we get a recorded message on our machine that requests that we call someone about a matter of business. The machine that robo-calls this message out every day repeats the message twice so that we hear the last bit on the answering machine. We do not know this person for whom the message was intended and because we have a new phone number we can safely assume that this message is not for us. The safe assumption might be that after several months of leaving robo-messages on an answering machine, this person, who is so anxious to talk to someone else, might actually try calling in person to find out why they never get called back. Or we might assume that we live in a world full of stupidity and that some computer somewhere is programmed to call every day and it will continue to do so until the same stupid people that told it to do so, decide it can stop. It reminds of the time I got a new number and Blockbuster video would call every few weeks to remind someone I've never heard of to return their videos. I explained to the person making the calls that I did not know this person, I had never heard of them and there was no way that I would be able to tell them to return their videos. But, as we have learned, once stupidity is set in motion, it can only be stopped by an equal and opposite act of rational thinking, which, last I checked, was in short supply. So it was that I would get a call from Blockbuster every couple of weeks. | 4.17.2006
Orcinus: "Listening to the reconquista theories, I am taken back, back, back -- back to those halcyon days when conspiracy theories were the entire raison d'etre of the far right of America's conservative movement. Which is to say, every day of the past half-century. Neiwert goes on to talk about a few of the historical scapegoats of the right. It seems to me that there always seems to be just another group of boogeyman lurking in the shadows to lay their hands on some pretty white girl flesh, and to take all our money. Paranoia. - Jews - Communists - Athiests - Japanese - Muslims - Blacks - Feminists - The ACLU - Bill Clinton - The New World Order ...and evolution. (I saw this in Michael Shermer's - Why People Believe Weird Things. "This monkey mythology of Darwin is the cause of permissiveness, promiscuity, pills, prophylactics, perversions, pregnancies, abortions, pornography, pollution, poisioning, and proliferation of crimes of all types." But if you listen to the right wing hate mongers these past few weeks you would think that all these problems came from illegil immigrants. But, in fact, all these "problems" have existed for much longer than that. They existed back in the days when people from parts of Europe where the scapegoats as well. It existed even back in the days when it was just a bunch of white europeans killing each other for sport. But hey, whats not to like about a good scapegroup? It keeps the blood boiling and it keeps you from realizing the real problem stems from the fact that we're human, and human beings are a flawed animal. | cbs4denver.com - Free Wi-Fi Becomes Available On 16th St. Mall: "The downtown Wi-Fi network is accessible along 16th St. pedestrian mall and around Skyline Park which runs along Arapahoe from 15th St. to 18th St." I wonder if this will be allowed since its seen as a commercial venture, as opposed to government trying to give needy people free access to the internet. After Katrina ravaged the Big Easy six months ago, Greg Meffert, the city’s chief information officer, got downtown businesses back online by opening the city’s wireless mesh network—originally deployed to link surveillance cameras—to anyone who needed it. For free. But, if the government offers service to people as a way to make their city safer, or in case of emergencies, that service will get in the way of big telecommunications companies that wish to sell that service. “The vendors, the BellSouths of this world, are not only going to force us back, making our existing Wi-Fi illegal, but also they want to close a loophole for emergencies so that we would not do this again,” said Mr. Meffert. I'm still a little unclear how this doesn't effect any service that the government provides? How can business veto what would be the will of the people? If we vote to use our tax dollars to provide a universal service to everyone then can that we shut down as well? | 4.13.2006
Media Matters - Cavuto guest Hoenig: If Moussaoui is not executed, stock market will suffer I consider the Media Matters website a comedy site, only because it takes the most hilarious spew coming from the right wing and distills it to the point where we don't have to wade through a newscycle of stupidity just to catch the gems. Take this example: On the issue of whether Moussaoui is put to death and the impact that will have on the market. HOENIG: I think if -- well, he should be put to death. To be honest, I'm surprised we're giving him the courtesy of the trial, Neil. If I had my way, you'd bring him out back, put a bullet in his head, and toss him in the dumpster. This is an evil monster, and I just don't see how society can prosper or the economy can prosper, if this guy lives. First off... a right to fair trail and fair sentencing is a right. To deny anyone a right is to say that that right is conditional. That's a pretty slippery path to be headed down. That's why we should stick to our principles and not let the knuckle-draggers run the country. Second... Rights trump the market. When we start to say that we should make concessions on the way things ought to be done because doing otherwise might have a negative effect on the stock market then we essentially give our souls over to the stock market. To an extent I think we've done that already. I hear this man's statement as it was intended, as a threat. We should do what the market (i.e. this little man) demands or else face its wrath. Too often I think little men with god complexes see the military, the church, the media, the federal government or the stock market as an extension of their own egos, talking about them as if they are part of their own selves. Historically, white men with money could rely on these institutions to do their bidding. But people get uppity and want to be part of the society in which they live. So the white men with money (or would have had money in the old days) get spooked and... poof, we get conservatism. Remember kiddies! The stock market is an all knowing, all powerful entity that will smite thee if thou should anger it. To which I say "Greeeaaat!!! Like we needed another one of THOSE!!" | 4.12.2006
Bush Says He Declassified Pre-War Intel - Yahoo! News: "You're not supposed to talk about classified information, and so I declassified the document" umm, yeah. I don't like to tell secrets, so I make them unsecrets first. Then its ok. | 4.10.2006
People in the rich parts of the country where housing prices have skyrocketed are having troubles finding people to serve as volunteer firefighters and who will work relatively low wage jobs, like teachers in their communities. Homes Too Rich for Firefighters Who Save Them - New York Times: "'All these people have heart attacks, strokes and fires at the same rate as everybody else, but they don't volunteer at the same rate,' said Jay Leon, the mayor of Ardsley." This amuses me. Because we are having this debate about immigration where right wing yahoos on the radio are advocating murder on the borders and at the same time we're seeing the downsides of white flight. The mega-rich suburbanites who have fled out of the cities to be away from the undesirables are now realizing that they can't get labor to come out to their enclaves without providing them with affordable housing and transportation. "But, but... then we'll have to live next to 'them'!" "Waitaminit - Nobody remembered to bring an inexaustible labor force of ROBOTS???" So, the other day I watched an episode of Oprah (and I swear I don't normally watch her show!) where she was amazed at the levels of poverty located just a few miles outside of a major city like Chicago. She seemed oblivious to the fact that the same rules, the same distorted priorities that were making her obscenely rich were also at play in keeping these people extremely poor. I recognize that she's trying to become more aware, but at the same time I have to wonder if the extremely wealthy, who are making money through the shuffling of paperwork, real estate ponzi schemes and the exploitation of cheap labor here and abroad realize how isolated they have become. | 4.09.2006
 We all live by our own "code", a set of rules that we feel all normal people should abide by. For instance, some of us would never think about jumping in front of a single mom with three screaming kids at the grocery store when a new lane opens up, others wouldn't have a problem with that. And I guess that I find it amusing when people lean over to me and point out a "unforgivable" sin just committed by another that I hadn't even noticed. Its hard to live by other people's rules, especially when they are unknown. And I find that I stand behind both sides of the fence in this matter. Like today for instance, I was taking the dogs out for a walk in the middle of the day. We go down a trail outside of the apartment complex that leads through a grassy gulley. I keep the dogs on leashes because I know that I am likely to come across runners, bicyclists and other dog walkers. Having the dogs on leashes makes these encounters more managable. Plus, while I know that our dogs would never bite or harm another person or animal I cannot gaurantee this, and other people have no way of knowing how our dogs will react. As the dogs and I walk out through the gate I look down the trail and I see a guy that has his dog off a leash, in fact, a leash does not seem to be at his disposal at all, and I realize that if I were to take the dogs down there I would be facing a situation that I have little control over. I have no idea whether his dog will react friendly or not to the presence of other dogs. I could just naturally assume that his dog is friendly by assuming that the owner would not let a dangerous dog run around unleashed. But, and here's the kicker; I have a hard time trusting other people's judgement. Because you see we all have different standards of what we consider "acceptable" behavior and those standards are wide ranging. We have little way of knowing what a stranger might consider acceptable, and its folly to assume that everyone shares your same feelings about issues and situations. Sometimes, how well we get along with people in everyday interactions in our most personal relationships can depend on how well we can understand people that are different than us, or how well can can find people that share the same set of "rules". Behaviors that I might find rude or abusive may be overlooked as normal by another. On the other hand, I may do things that others consider beyond the pale. Its always suprising to learn that you've unknowingly stepped beyond someone's limits of good behavior. How much of our decision to like or dislike a person can be based on how much that person conforms to our own standards of behavior? 
| 4.06.2006
Andrew Jackson's Fifth Annual Message :: Tracking Westward Expansion; the Trail of Tears: "It is to be hoped that those portions of two of the Southern tribes, which in that event will present the only remaining difficulties, will realize the necessity of emigration, and will speedily resort to it. My original convictions upon this subject have been confirmed by the course of events for several years, and experience is every day adding to their strength. That those tribes can not exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizens is certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear." Emphasis mine. Its always the same presumption, that when a culture fails to subscribe to "our way of life" they are deemed inferior for not choosing to live the way we do and can thus be dismissed and conquered. Its inevitable that the requirements that are given are impossible to meet. I suspect the immigration bills coming out of our government will be much like the treaties made with the indigenous peoples. It will be a way to control them, make rules for them to comply with, raise the bar ever higher and declare defeat for them when they fail. Thus we will be "empowered" by our own superiority to take stronger matters. | 4.05.2006
Just yesterday I got a chance to see a new 10 dollar bill for the first time. I think it might be the ugliest of the new bills, with the "stained" orange on the back and the mysterious oval on the back left side. Its fascinating... | While I think that self-improvement, on the whole, is a laudable goal for all people, I fear that we would never agree on what would constitute "improvement". These days I see so many task oriented people, who, in my opinion, confuse micromanaging their lives with real control. While I can see how filling one's days with small tasks might feel empowering, I can't help but get past the fact that many of us spend so much of our lives turning the trivial into the vital. | |
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