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So my younger Brother shows up and doesn’t have a dial-up account. His solution is to go out and buy a wireless router for me to install on my system so he can use his laptop at my Mother’s house.

You have to convert your broadband modem from router mode to bridge mode. If you don’t know what that means, you had better have someone available who does know before you start messing with cables.

You have to know how to use ancient tools like telnet if you can’t access equipment with a browser.

You had better know something about electromagnetic wave propagation forms around antennae if you are working at the edge of reception.

You may have to give up programs that you have used for years to make this work.

Oh, did I mention that the first thing you have to do when you’ve got this new equipment installed is download the drivers and patches that have accumulated while the equipment was sitting on the shelf.

This has certainly been a learning experience, sort of like using the Braille method to find poison ivy.

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Peter of Lone Tree on Blonde Sense noted with concern a move by some Republicans to repeal the 22^nd Amendment so Dubya can run again.

If the amendment was repealed, Bush could indeed run for a third term, but so could Bill Clinton. Anyone betting on George W. Bush winning against the last President to balance the budget is waiting to get fleeced. George might find a definite absence of funding when going against the “Big Dog”.

The 22^nd Amendment was passed by Republicans to prevent another Democratic President from wiping up the floor with them, like FDR did. Bill Clinton was extremely popular with the “mythical center”, and the NASCAR Dads know that a beer with Bill would be a hell of a lot more fun than anything George might do.

Based on reports, I not sure that Dubya’s daddy would vote for him rather than Bill.

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Back when Microsoft started their blogging service in conjunction with MSN, I had objections to their terms of use. What I didn’t see mentioned was the caveat that if your government were oppressing you, Microsoft wouldn’t allow you to complain about it on a blog hosted in “Spaces”.

The Beeb reports that Microsoft censors Chinese blogs. A Microsoft spokeweasel says that the company is merely complying with the laws of the countries in which it operates. Of course, that compliance doesn’t extend to monopoly or intellectual property laws that interfere with the world dominance of Windows.

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Uggabugga has an Iraq Decision Timeline that puts things in order.

The only thing that was missing was the act of Congress that authorized an attack, so I pulled one from the CNN archives: Senate approves Iraq war resolution

Friday, October 11, 2002 Posted: 12:35 PM EDT (1635 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) — In a major victory for the White House, the Senate early Friday voted 77-23 to authorize President Bush to attack Iraq if Saddam Hussein refuses to give up weapons of mass destruction as required by U.N. resolutions.

Hours earlier, the House approved an identical resolution, 296-133.

[My emphasis]

Notice the part I emphasized. Nothing is mentioned except the WMDs. The act authorized an attack for that single reason. Saddam had no WMDs. Saddam had given them up. Saddam had complied with the UN Resolution. Bush had no authorization to go to war. The war was illegal.

There was one, and only one reason for the war. That reason was stated in the Congressional resolution. That reason was reported at the time. None of the “other reasons” that have been trotted out by the Bushevikis since the start of the war have any relevance.

I never supported an attack on Iraq because we controlled the skies and could destroy Saddam at will. There was no point in moving in troops to die. We needed those troops to secure Afghanistan and capture Osama bin Laden, the man who was responsible for an attack on the United States. You don’t “fight terrorism” by allowing terrorists to wander free and issue press releases.

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August J. Pollak shows them how to do it.

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Adopted as the flag of the United States of America by the Flag Resolution of 1777 enacted on 14 June, 1777.

An official flag has a rise to run ratio of 1 to 1.9 [the flag should be 1.9 times as long as it is high] with the canton [the dark blue part] that rises over the top seven stripes with a run of 40% of the flag’s run.

The only time you will see a “correct” US Flag is if you see the official colors of a military unit. Most flags are 3’X5′ or 4’X6′ instead of 3’X5.7′ or 4’X7.6′.

[Edit: There is supposed to be a flag up there, but, for some reason, my ISP can’t handle the File Transfer Protocol at the moment. It may be related to the changes made when I installed the wireless router. I’m awaiting a response from India.]

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