Posts from — July 2007

In commenting on the OBAMA vs. CLINTON spat, Kevin Drum asks the obvious question:

…Basically, do you think the United States should, as a routine part of its foreign policy, say that it’s willing to talk to any country that’s willing to talk to us? That the mere act of talking isn’t a tacit capitulation to a rogue regime’s demands?

I sure think so, and not just for the obvious reason that talking can sometimes lead to actual results. The bigger reason is that if you talk routinely, then the mere act of talking isn’t a tacit capitulation to a rogue regime’s demands and can’t possibly be spun that way. It’s just something we do.

He’s right, this isn’t high school or a monarchy where deigning to notice someone’s existence is a boon. Nations should be talking to each other. That was the big lesson from the Cuban missile crisis and the reason the hot line was installed. Not talking is a good deal more dangerous than talking.

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This is what they get for being annoying enough to make me change: Symantec’s first-quarter income falls to $95.2 million.

If they had even provided a minimum of service they would have received my annual subscription fee which was almost total profit. But, no they had to be miserable CPU wasting jerks.

You should never, ever mess with your “cash cow.” They never learned the lesson of “New Coke.” Just like the DLC they assume their base will stay while they make changes to attract new customers. I would like a cite where that strategy has worked. Newspapers and television do the same thing, make changes that will supposedly draw new people, and end up losing old customers.

Jack at the Grumpy Forester has a piece about libertarians in his neck of the woods dealing with the realities of this administration. They have most of what they feared would happen under Democrats brought to reality. Many now have “buyer’s remorse” about the people they have been voting for to protect their right to be left alone.

It isn’t just in the Pacific Northwest. The mayor of New York City is at it again, with the never ending assault on individual rights. CNet’s Social blog is reporting on Photo, video freedom under fire in NYC. Apparently they want you to get a permit and register if you are planning to take pictures or videos in New York City. This isn’t about film companies, this covers two or more people, and using a tripod to take pictures. Apparently they’ve never encountered an Asian group tour. Get in their line of sight and you are apt to be washed in the light of so many xenon flashes as to alter your genetic make-up.

They did this in the Soviet Union.

CBS is offering a gallery of starlets who are not on their way, or just out of jail.

Oh, yeah, the stock market plunged a couple of hundred points as the result of the people who thought Alan Greenspan must know what he was talking about and are now in foreclosure.

And apparently a few more members of our government are having a hard time remembering what that “truth-thing” is all about.  Of course, it’s the famous Democratic “perjury trap,” i.e. asking questions while people are under oath.

Something wicked this way comes?

The kid with the scar would never suspect a cute kitten of being a horcrux.

[Editor: Excise’s eyes are definitely weird in this camera mode.]

Friday Ark

Susie of Suburban Guerrilla reminds everyone of a time when members of Congress had spines.

My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total; and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.

Barbara Charline Jordan

If you are too young, or have never heard Barbara Jordan speak, go to the link and listen, because they have the recording as well as the transcripts. She was a Congresswoman from Houston, Texas, and one of the greatest American speakers ever.

I can’t believe that I left out Scaramouche spilling a glass of wine into his keyboard and Michael at Musing’s musings returning to find the blue screen of death on his office machine.

The Associated Press reports: Democratic Hopefuls Snub Party Moderates

Not a single one of the eight presidential candidates plans to attend the Democratic Leadership Council’s summer meeting, a snub that says less about the centrist DLC than it does about a nomination process that rewards candidates who pander to their parties’ hardened cores while ignoring everybody else.

There is no magical center of independents. It has been shown by numerous polls to have vanished. The DLC wants to give away core values in exchange for nothing. Giving away a principled stand that might gain 1% on the Right, makes no sense when it costs you 2% on the Left.

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If you have a great comment for a blog using HaloScan comments, park in the comments here so you can come back and get it later.

Okay, that’s not very nice, but seriously, over the years I have seen so many great ideas die because people went one step too far and had their system crash and burn.  “Good enough” is just that, and that’s the sweet spot.  That one extra feature that very few people care about could be the final straw.

From the Associated Press: Documents Contradict Gonzales Testimony

(AP) Documents indicate eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration’s terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The documents, obtained by The Associated Press, come as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.

Of course, the ever witty Ms Mad Kane condenses the all of the testimony in a limerick.

UPDATE: FBI director appears to contradict Gonzales’ testimony. Also Arlen Specter reverses himself when it looks like people might actually do something about it.

What do you do if you are criticized for not providing money for 8,000 emergency loans approved after the 2005 hurricane season? According to Sue Sturgis of Facing South, if you’re the Shrubbery’s Small Business Administration, you cancel them.

That’s right, don’t hire extra people to speed up processing or get your computer system fixed, just stamped “cancelled” on all of those loans to people who need the money to get their lives back on track after a major natural disaster, and make it look like the people didn’t want the loans.

While Badtux is always mucking about with his equipment, Robert at Interstate 4 Jamming has been down with computer problems, Melanie at Just a Bump in the Beltway is in the middle of moving to a new machine, Shakesville was hit again, Natasha at Pacific Views is totally frustrated with Vista, and HaloScan is being a PITA.

At periods like this some of us in the field think we should be getting combat pay because the users are getting restless.

CNN has a political piece that really ticks me off: Democratic candidates trying to reach religious voters.

This is insulting on so many levels. First off, the only “religious voters” that anyone seems to be concerned with are evangelicals who are wildly over represented in the media and politics. There are huge numbers of religious people who vote for Democratic candidates, and no one wants to recognize they exist.

Adherents.com has the numbers for religion in the US and if you look at them carefully you will notice that the groups that Amy Sullivan and others keep insisting that Democrats pander to, are the groups in decline.

The largest Christian denomination in the US is the Catholic Church. Where is the specialized outreach to Catholics, if you are targeting religious voters?

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At Ars Technica Nate Anderson has a nice little article: Harry Potter and the Serial Number of Doom.

It would appear that an individual got their hands on an early copy of The Deathly Hallows and decided to spread it around by taking a digital photograph of every page and putting it out over BitTorrent. No doubt s/he will be asked about their motive when this gets to court, as the publisher, Scholastic, is seriously annoyed.

Nate explains why it was a incredibly stupid thing to do and provides the warning that all of your equipment will rat you out. Digital cameras include their make, model, and serial number in the file with the picture. The individual who did this is one subpoena to Canon away from a very major law suit.

If you didn’t know it, all Microsoft products include more information than anyone should know about you computer with every file you save. That’s how the contractor who was working at ATT when he spread the Melissa virus was found – the information was contained in the file.

Anonymity is not an easy thing to achieve these days. It takes work and knowledge.