The Safer Sex Page

Activist Me

It's very strange but this summer has provided a number of folks approaching me about my activist tendencies. I have not considered myself an activist for well over a decade. And even then I was definately not a very good one. But it turns out I have been doing the work of an activist for well over 6 years now. In all I have paid well over $2500 out of my pocket. Today an associate has pointed me towards a forum where my "voice" is needed. Next month I have been asked to give a talk at a national conference. At this point I can't see doing so but it's pretty amazing to see how things are shaping up. And to think I specifically left politics behind me in 1990.

The Coming Gay Season

It seems rather obvious now, after Bush's comments yesterday about gay marriage, that Rove feels Howard Dean is the most dangerous of the potential democratic candidates. If the Massachusetts SC rules in any similar fashion to the way SCOTUS did recently in Lawrence vs. Texas I'd say we are going to be in for a political season which in some fashion will resolve around us queers. What a change this is from my childhood when we were the invisible minority. The only time gays were mentioned when I was a child was when they were killed. (Or lame jokes about hairdressers) But now we are increasingly in the center of American life and a touchstone on the campaign for the next president.

I suspect that Bush's coming down on the side of a Constitutional Amendment in favor of second class citizenship status for queers will cause huge amounts of money to be raised among gays to bring down Bush. I can't help but wonder what this going to do to Andrew Sullivan and the Log Cabin Republicans. On a regular basis I approach them at Pride events. I wonder how many of them will be left by the time this all shakes out. I would have thought 1996 would have effectively ended LCR. But apparently Bush will have to draw blood before the extent of his party's scorn will have an effect on some of these people.

These are interesting times we live in, to be sure.

Georgy Russell For California Governor

I'm pretty sure, at this point, that Georgy is my pick.

Glenn Reynolds Pokes at Turds

Sometimes Glenn Reynolds is dumber than a homeless lady's turd on the sidewalk outside. Get this: it is a regular occurence for media outlets to use pictures, video, and copy which have nothing whatsoever to do with the content of the story. It seems that 9 out of 10 stories which you see on tv or in the newspaper have some kind of pic which comes from stock footage or which some editor has decided "fits" the story in question. Some of my regular readers can perhaps explain the actual term for this. Very little of what you see as representative in the media is actually that: representative. I have been watching this my whole life. Is it right? NO! Is sheer nonsense? YES! Is it bias? Surely not. Poke at your own turds Glenn. No doubt you'll have something more cogent to say about them. Instead of picking on the BBC perhaps you can point out this behavior in all media and ask for it to be changed. That would do all of us some good. (I would be extremely happy if all stock footage were to be removed from news reporting) Pointing at the BBC just makes you look like the simp with his finger in the poo.

George A. Akerlof Takes on Bush

George A. Akerlof in Der Spiegel: I think this is the worst government the US has ever had in its more than 200 years of history. It has engaged in extraordinarily irresponsible policies not only in foreign and economic but also in social and environmental policy. This is not normal government policy. Now is the time for people to engage in civil disobedience.

I whole heartedly agree.

The Volokh Conspiracy Does Liberia

Liberia's wounds are an ongoing result of the state's creation as a haven for resettled American former slaves-- on territory that was already inhabited. The conflict between an Americo-Liberian ruling class and the semi-colonized inhabitants is a major cause of that country's almost-perpetual civil war.

Emphasis mine, it sounds as though Jacob were describing Israel.

Hummerdinger

The Sierra Club did a good job on this. I wonder what the price of gasoline was when the Hummer was originally designed?

Tapped's new favorite thing is

Tapped's new favorite thing is the Federal Election Commission database where you can type in anyone's name and see if he or she has donated money to political candidates or parties. (Tapped's old favorite thing was The Washington Post's home buyer database, where you could learn how much your neighbors spent for their apartments.) So check out this nifty little listing (go here and search for "Steinhardt, Michael") that we discovered while trying to see which big-shot New Democrats were supporting which Democratic presidential candidates: According to this list, Michael Steinhardt, former Democratc Leadership Council stalwart and part-owner of The New Republic, gave $2,000 to Bush-Cheney '04 Inc. on June 20, 2003.

The Globalization of Gaza

There are many stateless Muslims; the Chechens in Russia, the Kurds in the Middle East, the Uighurs in Eastern China, and the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Opinion leaders tsk-tsk the Russians, but no one holds demonstrations for the liberation of Chechnya. The Kurds are good people and they deserve their own state, but nearly everyone agrees it would only make trouble. Few even know the Uighurs exist. Meanwhile, as the Palestinians continue the jihad, the number of their supporters isn't declining. It's rising. The lesson for extremists is clear: the squeaky wheel gets greased.

There should be states for all these groups. Nation states only have so much utility. The idea should be ~ long term independence for more "peoples" in the world is a good thing. We do not want the reverse if we hope for peace.

Jenna Jameson

The young lady Jenna Jameson was raised by a single father.

So, why is this little

So, why is this little matter of the uranium statements such a big deal? Because it is a concrete, demonstrable example of the administration's bad faith in how it led the country to war. To date that bad-faith has been all too apparent on many fronts. But the administration has cowed much of the press into remaining silent or simply not scrutinizing various of the administration's arguments for the war. And success makes up for many sins. No doubt it's painful for the president's partisans to see this stuff dug into. And it produces glee for Democrats who think -- rightly or wrongly -- that it gives them a potent issue to use against the president in the 2004 elections. But quite apart from partisan considerations on either side, we're never going to figure out what we're doing in Iraq, do it well, or accomplish anything good for the future security of the United States unless and until we start talking straight about why we're there, what we need to accomplish, and how we're going to do it.

Sex & Old Age

I'd really like to see Sex & the City go on for another decade.

In A Perfect Posting Environment

I would be able to seamlessly make note of clever pieces such as this.

Concerned Citizens

It should be noticed that I often will redact a post in such a way to make it meaner and more cutting. Some make them less so, some more. Take your pick.

I Quit, I Think

In the first year of the last decade of the twentieth century during my thirtieth year as a school teacher in Community School District 3, Manhattan, after teaching in all five secondary schools in the district, crossing swords with one professional administration after another as they strove to rid themselves of me, after having my license suspended twice for insubordination and terminated covertly once while I was on medical leave of absence, after the City University of New York borrowed me for a five-year stint as a lecturer in the Education Department (and the faculty rating handbook published by the Student Council gave me the highest ratings in the department my last three years), after planning and bringing about the most successful permanent school fund-raiser in New York City history, after placing a single eighth-grade class into 30,000 hours of volunteer community service, after organizing and financing a student-run food cooperative, after securing over a thousand apprenticeships, directing the collection of tens of thousands of books for the construction of private student libraries, after producing four talking job dictionaries for the blind, writing two original student musicals, and launching an armada of other initiatives to reintegrate students within a larger human reality, I quit.

Drop'n Science from Yesteryear

The White House
For Immediate Release
September 26, 2002

Global Message

# The security of our country is the commitment of both political parties, and the responsibility of both elected branches of government.

# Elected officials are working for a strong Congressional resolution that sends a clear message: UN Security Council demands must be followed and the Iraqi dictator must be disarmed. These requirements will be met, or they will be enforced.

# The danger is grave and growing. The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons and is rebuilding facilities to make more. It could launch a biological or chemical attack 45 minutes after the order is given. The regime is seeking a nuclear bomb -- and, with fissile material, could build one within a year.

# Iraq's regime has longstanding and continuing ties to terrorist groups -- there are al-Qaida terrorists inside Iraq. The regime also practices the rape of women and the torture of dissenters and their children as methods of intimidation.

# The President has made it clear: we refuse to live in a future of fear. We are determined to build a future of security and peace for the world.

Don't Bother Me, II

I'm looking for pictures of George Bush at military hospitals consoling the recently amputeed. I know there's one here somewhere. Oh maybe there's one of Rumsfeld, no maybe, Cheney, no...hhhhhmmm

In the 80's there was a demonstration at the University of New Mexico. It involved something that seemed important to me at the time. Now it's only memorable because of something I did. In the midst of this swirling demonstration on the quad Senator Bingaman was holding a talk of some kind in some conference room off the student union building. It struck me as so very wrong, for this man to be holding a conference on an unrelated topic while a demonstration directly involving votes he had or was about to make was taking over the campus outside. I thought, to show you how naive I was, that the good Senator must not be aware of what is happening. So I informed him. I was brimming over with expectation. I jumped the line in my eagerness and was speaking quickly and loudly as my turn to speak came. The Senator looked at me for just a split second as though I were the most naive person on the planet. I was unable to hold his eye and looked away to see the look of shock on the assembled at my rash manner.

Now I realize that my words were merely a symptom of the regime. I was too young and dumb to be having my own thoughts in that situation. The urge to action was a derivation of the situation I was in. My appearance was simply a marker for evaluating the level of public interest. A further escalated marker could be, for instance, that of a group of young folks, instead of just like myself, to show up and make the same complaint.

Obviously the President, the pseudo-potus, cannot attend to every soldier who has lost a limb. The President, pseudo-potus, has a responsibility to wage the world wide campaign against Islamo-fascism and other such terrorists. De-limbed American soldiers are merely a marker to the President, the pseudo-potus, in this war. Today the Washington Post begins exploring the lives of the soldiers who are slowly returning to American life after giving up their limbs for God and Country. This is a marker for the Bush Regime in the same way I was a marker for Bingaman. In the coming months these men will start encountering the VA. They will show up on Opra, reality tv shows, & in the lives of countless Americans. When there are speaking after they have healed physically that will be another marker for the administration. Any reasonable success in the initial plan for the war had it wrapped up and everything calm on the ground by the time these young soldiers had healed and started re-integrating into society.

Now, that aside, we have not seen much in the way of administration photo-ops with maimed soldiers. A brave and forthright man at the helm of the mightiest country on the planet could do enormous good both to the soldiers who have been maimed and to the country at large by showing up at the side of soldiers, like Pfc. Garth Stewart, and thanking them for their service. Obviously it would be difficult not to come across as condescending and self serving by doing such a thing. Such is the price required of leadership.

TypePad Beta & Archives

Typepad has allowed me to organize, so far, over 2600 posts extending back to July of 2000. I have approximately, I believe, about 1000 more which will eventually be imported. This is the first time that all of these posts have been together and directly manageable. I am really happy.

Sticks & Stones

I love how all the folks involved in the RSS spats go on and on about how one person abuses the other. Dave abuses me, Mark abuses Dave. Dave abuses Bill. Bill abuses Dave.

These people are all children. Let's say it again, you know the words you learned in kindergarden, "Sticks & stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

So pathetic. (Look at me I'm heaping on the abuse) Every time one of these folk start writing about how abused one of them is or how abusive the other is I reach for my sticks and my stones. At least that way I know someone is actually hurt and not whining like a child who's been called names on the playground.

Orwell's Children

And so when there's intelligence in a speech, the President is not responsible for that?

16 Questions Asked of the President

1) Mr. President, beyond the NSC and CIA officials who have been identified, we need to know who else at the White House was involved in the decision to include the discredited Niger uranium evidence in your speech, and, if they knew it was false, why did they permit it to be included in the speech.

2) Mr. President, we need to know why anyone in your Administration would have contemplated using the Niger evidence in the State of the Union after George Tenet personally intervened in October 2002, to have the same evidence removed from the President’s October 7th speech. (The Washington Post, Walter Pincus and Mike Allen, 7/13/2003)

3) Mr. President, we need to know why you claimed this very week that the CIA objected to the Niger uranium sentence “subsequent” to the State of the Union address, contradicting everything else we have heard from your administration and the intelligence community on the matter. (Washington Post, Priest, Dana and Dana Milbank, 7/15/2003)

4) Mr. President, we urgently need an explanation about the very serious charge that senior officials in your Administration may have retaliated against Ambassador Joseph Wilson by illegally disclosing that his wife is an undercover CIA officer. (The Nation, Corn, David, 7/16/2003)

5) Mr. President, we need to know why your Administration persisted in using the intercepted aluminum tubes to show that Iraq was pursuing a nuclear program and why your National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, claimed categorically that the tubes were “only really suited for nuclear weapons programs,” when in fact our own government experts flatly rejected such claims. (CNN, 9/08/2002, Knight Ridder News Service, 10/04/2002)

6) Mr. President, we need to know why Secretary Rumsfeld created a secret intelligence unit at the Pentagon that selectively identified questionable intelligence to support the case for war - including the supposed link to al-Qaeda - while ignoring, burying or rejecting any evidence to the contrary. (New Yorker, Seymour Hersh, 5/12/03)

7) Mr. President, we need to know what the basis was for Secretary Rumsfeld's assertion that the US had bulletproof evidence linking Al Qaeda to Iraq, despite the fact that U.S. intelligence analysts have consistently agreed that Saddam did not have a "meaningful connection" to Al Qaeda. (NY Times, Schmitt, Eric, 9/28/2002, NY Times, Krugman, Paul, 7/15/2003)

8) Mr. President, we need to know why Vice President Cheney claimed last September to have “irrefutable evidence” that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, an assertion he repeated in March, on the eve of war. (AP, 9/20/2002, NBC 3/16/2003)

9) Mr. President, we need to know why Secretary Powell claimed with confidence and virtual certainty in February before the UN Security Council that, “Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough agent to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets.” (UN Address, 2/05/2003)

10) Mr. President, we need to know why Secretary Rumsfeld claimed on March 30th in reference to weapons of mass destruction, "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." (The Guardian, Whitaker, Brian and Rory McCarthy, 5/30/2003)

11) Mr. President, we need an explanation of the unconfirmed report that your Administration is dishonoring the life of a soldier who died in Iraq as a result of hostile action by misclassifying his death as an accident. (Time, Gibbs, Nancy and Mark Thompson, 7/13/2003)

12) Mr. President, we need to know why your Administration has never told the truth about the costs and long-term commitment of the war, has consistently downplayed what those would be, and now continues to try keep the projected costs hidden from the American people.

13) Mr. President, we need to know why you said on May 1, 2003 , that the war was over, when US troops have fought and one or two have died nearly every day since then and your generals have admitted that we are fighting a guerrilla war in Iraq. (Abizaid, Gen. John, 7/16/2003)

14) Mr. President, we need to know why your Administration had no plan to build the peace in post-war Iraq and seems to be resisting calls to include NATO, the United Nations and our allies in the stabilization and reconstruction effort.

15) Mr. President, we need to know what you were referring to in Poland on May 30, 2003, when you said, “For those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them.” (Washington Post, Mike Allen, 5/31/2003)

16) Mr. President, we need to know why you incorrectly claimed this very week that the war began because Iraq would not admit UN inspectors, when in fact Iraq had admitted the inspectors and you opposed extending their work. (Washington Post, Priest, Dana and Dana Milbank, 7/15/2003)

If you can’t or won’t answer these 16 questions, Mr. President, I call on the Republicans in Congress to stop blocking efforts to create an independent, bipartisan committee to investigate what is a matter of the highest importance: whether your decision to go to war was sound and just.

The American public deserves answers to all of these questions. I urge you to lead with the honor and integrity that you promised as a candidate.

That's Not Odd, It's Butter

You know, it's odd that no one is accusing Bush of lying about how brutal and vicious Saddam was.

No it's not. Why would anybody do that? It has been common knowledge for decades that SH is a butcher. Are there actually folks who believe SH was not a butcher? It's only productive to accuse Bush of his actual lies, of which there are many.

There's at least one indisputable fact about the situation: the mass torture and summary executions in Iraq have stopped.

I fear when all is said and done that will be the only good thing to come of all of this madness.

Fear of Sleeping

After I got my daughter she slept in bed with me for 6 months. It was extremely stressful for me at first as her mother had projected what her dad had done to her onto me and accused me of sexually molesting our daughter when it was actually she who had been molesting our daughter.

It was in K's best interest the she be allowed to cuddle with me and seek comfort after what she had gone through. I encouraged her to do what felt right. But I told her that at some point I would want my bed back. I suffered a great deal at first as I had become very sick from the abuse my ex wife had laid on me. I woke in the darkness suddenly afraid that what her mother had said was true. I would tense up and replay all the events that led up to that point laying in my bed with K and I wept for fear that I was the monster that L had said I was.

After about 6 months of stability she seemed to be regaining her composure and I announced that I wanted to have my bed back. I knew that her mother would come back in a few months after she had worked her way out of the hospitals and my lawyer told me that it was in my best interest legally for Kassia to sleep again by herself. We had a single apartment with a bunk bed. She slept in the bottom bunk and when she went to sleep I would drape heavy blankets over the bottom bunk so she had complete silence and dark at bedtime.

Those were hard times.

Practicing for Empire (All War, All the Time)

Still, he and other Pentagon officials said, they are studying the lessons of Iraq closely — to ensure that the next U.S. takeover of a foreign country goes more smoothly.

"We're going to get better over time," promised Lawrence Di Rita, a special assistant to Rumsfeld. "We've always thought of post-hostilities as a phase" distinct from combat, he said. "The future of war is that these things are going to be much more of a continuum.

"This is the future for the world we're in at the moment," he said. "We'll get better as we do it more often."

The Tide Has Turned

Andrew Sullivan apparently thinks Tony Blair is a fine American president.

The problem is the average man in Idaho or Albuquerque doesn't care about anything Tony Blair has to say. Andrew does and he obviously places great importance on it. But Andrew is uniquely & singularly qualified to care and is also naive as can be if he thinks that what Mr. Blair says changes the facts on the ground out here in the hinterland. Or on the ground in Iraq.

How I Tried to Kill Myself (And Live to Tell)

I woke in a ditch covered in my vomit. My head hurt and the sun was just glassing over the night in the east above the Sandia mountains. At first I wasn't clear on why I was in this position. The vomit stank. I puked. I turned over and knocked a bottle against my arm.

I staggered home while it was still dark shedding my clothes as I walked. Crawled back into my room in my underwear through the open window and struggled to cleanse myself of the dirt and stink without waking the house.

Years later I would marry a beautiful girl who had tried to kill herself 3 times before our paths crossed. For years we had traveled in the same circles neither of us ever meeting each other or ever knowing of the other. It was like we both orbited directly across from each other. Only able to see the blinding sun between us.

She told me that I gave her her first orgasm. She was raped in a stairwell when we first began to date. I never knew until our marriage had imploded. She told me that as he pushed into her into the wall he hurt her and she came in great urgency. I can feel that wall as I write this.

We danced to the Happy Mondays Bob's Yer Uncle when our relationship was young. She rode my cock to that song as though she were Sunny Garcia surfing down a steep tube. We danced, laughed, and screamed
"He's gonna step on you again man he's gonna step on you!" as we came. There was a stain on the wall that I remember; I want that to be where he fucked her, in silence. Her cries stifled.

When I decided to kill myself it was late at night. I was 14. I was watching NightLine. The story was about a national convention of suicide doctors. My dad and I did not get along. He came home from Vietnam a stranger and although we walked in the same house we did not introduced until I was in my 20's. When he walked in and screamed at me and the tv that night I snapped inside. After it was quiet in the house I stopped crying.

When she went after me with the knife I moved my arm without a thought and knocked it from her hands. Afterwards when she screamed at me that I was dirty little faggot and that I would surely die before God would allow me to spoil my child I fell into an asthma attack and lay there helpless on my back. She is a great rending wound in my eye. When I look that way pain takes my breath even now.

For months I went in and out of the hospital with a mysterious illness. Some sort of unidentified virus ravaged my system. My ears were ravished and from my swoon I often could not walk. I spent weeks in wheelchairs finding myself a stranger in my school and a novelty among my friends. I never stopped doubting that I somehow was making this happen. I began to mistrust my mind, my instincts. School was never the same after that.

When the police came to take her away it took several hours to talk her down out of her delusions but in the end she shed her clothes, her wild unbrushed mane sticking straight into the air, screaming and running through the apartment while our daughter sat on the couch and watched and I listened through the phone. As we sat on the concrete patio at the neuro-psychiatric ward several weeks later she told me she was unhappy. She said she loved me and wanted us to try again. I said no.

When he was 7 Ben Kerschberg knew he'd someday attempt suicide.

More On Santa Monica Crash

This morning on the radio I heard it said that the man who killed those folks yesterday had twice in the past few weeks driven his car into the garage and plowed into the back wall of the building because he failed to stop.

Last night the helicopters flew overhead all night long. When the police are called they say well they are enabled to do this by the first amendment. If we were to intervene it would be against their rights. Which I assume means, if I were to walk the streets at night with a loudspeaker hooked up to a recording of a helicopter, that my first amendment rights would be protected as well no matter how much my neighbors can't sleep.

Nice to know.

Eight People Dead

Old man loses control and runs people over in my local farmers market. I was walking through there just yesterday. Folks on the scene are saying he drove 60mph through the market. This is amazing. There isn't enough room to go that fast unless you intend to do what the man did.

The radio is now saying that the man stopped at the barricade which demarks the beginning of the market. He spun out and plowed through 3 blocks at full speed. 8 dead. 14 critically wounded. The rain has started.

They are transferring injured folks to Harbor in helicopters because the local hospital reachable by ambulance is overrun with wounded. Arizona & Wilshire are shut down. Santa Monica must be as well. Doctors wearing scrubs have driven up and are beginning to help. The rain is getting worse.

Lots of reports coming in. Very confusing noone seems to know exactly what happened. When he stopped after 3 blocks there was a woman crushed under the car. Standers by picked the car up to remove it from the woman.

A witness said the man said, "If you saw me coming how come you didn't get out of the way?"

Praying With Pat

God grant Pat Robertson the serenity to accept the things he cannot change; courage to change the things he can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as Pat Robertson would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if Pat Robertson surrenders to His Will; That Pat Robertson may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.

Hunting Goobers

If this were reversed.

How To Have Your Yellow Cake & Eat It Too

Dear Mister Gaorge Bush:

Please keep this in the strictest confidense. You do not know me, but my name is Umbuto Johnson, and I am the grandson of Ashtari P. Johnson, in charge of the nuclear programme of the African country of Niger.

For severale years, my grandfather had been secretly selling radoactiv materiels to the little known country of Iraqe. He was given the sum of twenty million dollars by Saddem Hussan, of Iraqe, for this materiels. When my grandfather was discovered, two years ago, he was shot by the government. The money from those sales however remained hidden to all.

Before he was caoght, my grandfather shared with me his secret, and gave me instructions on how to move the moneys out of the country. In order to do this, I need the help of a trustworthy American friend and this is why I am seeking to write to you today.

In order to recieve the moneys I must pay a fee bribe of twenty thousand American dollars. I do not have this moneys. If you can send to me these moneys, I will split my grandfathers moneys with you.

Please tell nobody of this message, for I fear I will be in grave danger if it is known. I am relying on you, George Bush, to keep my secret. Respond to me and I will tell you how to send the moneys to me.

Your frend,
Umbuto Johnson

Error Will Robinson

huh?

This Page

cannot get laid.

Invasion 3, version .721

US to invade North Korea, film at 11pm. But now a word from our sponsor -
"Bush Cheney 2004, Restoring Dignity to the Whitehouse since 2000."

The Truth Is,

I'll never write a letter to Angelina Joli.

Matterform Media

Uh oh, it looks like I'm a tattle tale. Perhaps it has something to do with my overwhelming desire to do this.

Zempt

This is my first attempt to post through Zempt. Thanks Xian! Now if I could find a similar client for Mac OS X I think I'd be in love. Could this be it?...

CMS Decisions

I vowed to do it over again in MovableType..more...

Important

=======================================================

Unfortunately, less than 5 people voted on a venue, so the

Santa Monica-West LA Atheists Meetup is cancelled this month.

=======================================================

Meetup is growing very fast, so please be patient while more
Atheists around Santa Monica-West LA (and everywhere) discover
International Atheists Meetup Day

roflmao

Necho

I have been giving a lot of thought to Necho. It strikes me that if the project comes to fruition it will do a great deal of destruction to the tool vendors. If posts themselves, the basic unit of a blog, become a commidity then I could move my posts from vendor to vendor with no penalty. When that happens Moveable Type, Userland, Blogger, Diaryland, Live Journal, and the others will have to compete much more on price and user functionality to differentiate themselves. This will be good for me, the user, as prices will fall (precipitiously) but it may end up acting against the best interests of the parties now developing Necho (why don't they just call it Necho?)

I just can't help but wonder what the result of all this will be with commoditized posts and AOL & Microsoft the big blog tool vendors on the block.

Voting Machine Security

You realize some teenager halfway around the world will hack into our voting system just for fun, and no one will notice until Eminem gets elected president.

Savage Lives Up to His Name -- and That's All for Him at MSNBC

NBC was not without its sense of humor about Savage. On several occasions during his program, it ran one of its lame "The More You Know" public service announcements -- the one in which Eric McCormack (who plays gay attorney Will Truman on the sitcom "Will & Grace") sniffs at viewers that "hate" is a four-letter word.

3rd Anniversary

today, be there. On this day 3 years ago I began using a CMS, Blogger, to manage this log. Before that I had been rolling my own. Now Blogger won't publish my archives. Where's the anniversary in that I ask you?

Sharks sighted in Santa Monica Bay

and of course I swam quite a bit outside of the breakers this past weekend.

The Principle of Sufficient Irritation

Let's hope the Echo project leads into a similar happy ending.

Ignorant Little Fuck

Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig.

For What It's Worth

[email protected] has been deprecated for 6 years. I do not spam people nor do I ever use that address for any purpose whatsoever. So if you are somehow stung by what appears to be a huge spam attack by some folks called Max-Girth who simply want to enlarge your penis, well I am sorry but I have nothing to do with it and there is nothing whatsoever I can do to stop it.

And no my penis is quite large enough, thanks!

Dennis Prager - Are You a Liberal

It is my belief that about half of the Americans who call themselves liberal do not hold the great majority of positions held by mainstream liberal institutions such as the New York Times editorial page, People for the American Way, and the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. So here is a test of this thesis to be given to anyone who believes he or she is a liberal. If you feel I have omitted a liberal position or have unfairly characterized any of them here, please e-mail me. This is still a work in progress.

Thank you,

Dennis Prager

You say you are a liberal.

Actually Dennis I do not say I am a liberal. It is just that so called Conservatives are more often than not so supremely stupid that I am commonly considered to be liberal. Don't believe it. In fact I consider myself to be very conservative. So conservative in fact that I would never ever vote for a Republican as the Republican party doesn't have the first clue what conservatism actually means. I'm going to take your quiz for the jollies of it though!

Do you believe the following?

1. Standards for admissions to universities, fire departments, etc. should be lowered for people of color.

Absolutely not. The way you phrase this seems to entail that a sole criteria for lowering standards of admission by that of color. That is silly. Every person, read potential employee/student/supplicant, is unique just as the needs of every position/program are.

As an example I consider one of the pre-requisites of adulthood is being a waiter. If someone has not actually waited tables in their lives I am highly unlikely to trust that person to understand what it is like to swallow one's pride and take it up the ass by the average priggish resturant client [this is not to say the average client is priggish but rather that those who are need to vicitimize every adult at some point in their lives]. In my experience most horrid folk I meet have never worked in a situation like a restuarant. Some say the shrub is doofus and untrustworthy because he didn't live up to his commitments and went AWOL. I say he's a doofus and untrustworthy because he's never had to bus a 12 top.

Dennis you left out physical charactistics as well. Most people are pretty smart and given the right environment can rise to about the same level as their peers. So if one person who got score X on a standardized test gets the job instead of someone who got X+Y on the standardized test I'm not too worried about it. On the other hand if firefighter (female, 4'8" 100lbs) A is going to pull me out of a burning building I'd better hope she has to meet or beat the tests which firefighter (male, 6'8", 200lbs) B had to take to become a firefighter.

My point: your question is bullshit and takes a very complicated question: Who is best for the job? and tries to fit it into a silly little piss ant yes/no question. That might fly on the brave world of high reason and intellect that passes for radio these days but it doesn't get out of the gate here. 'kaaaayyy!

2. Bilingual education for children of immigrants, rather than immersion in English, is good for them and for America.

more after my exercise

TypePad

I have just become a beta tester for the new TypePad system by sixapart. Unfortunately I am unable to make any comments about the system itself. But I can point you to the blog I will operate at TypePad. Not sure yet what I am going to do there but I am sure I'll figure it out.

Happy America's Anniversary!

Oh great people, our great military, children of our great country, we are now on June 14, 2003.

"We (the regime) fulfilled our obligations to you and sacrificed what we had to, except our values, which are based on our deep faith and honor. We did not stab our people or our nation in the back. No to surrender and no to cooperation and we thank God for everything."

Burglery

I was woken this morning at 7am by a report of a burglery in the office. I've been here working on three hours now. The special investigations unit is dusting the place for prints as I write this. I never thought I would ever use that phrase. Feels like I'm an actor in Law & Order. Of course I don't have a hot female sidekick. I did however develop a nasty little crush on the reporting officer. She was very cute. This sucks.

Mr. Pastor Foster

apparently lives the life of a href="http://rcs.salon.com/rcsComments/comments?link=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.salon.com%2F0001116%2F2003%2F07%2F01.html%23a222&p;=222&u;=1116"
>criminal. Please Mr. Pastor Foster give up your life of crime and come back into the folds of the Lord.

Anniversary Astern

The three year anniversary for this log is coming up in just 3 days. In preperation for the big fun and parties we'll be having here at filchyboy central I am trying to bring the archives up to current coding standards but Blogger is not cooperating. I can post sure but I cannot seem to republish the archives.

But all is well to be sure. I am the only one here today at filchyboy central because of the 4th of July holiday. And to be sure it is hot hot hot as it is just me and the racks of boxes giving off their oh so wonderful "we're hot boxes and we don't care how uncomfortable you feel around us, we're computers bitch!" attitude. So I'm naked. I'm still sweating but at least it's better than doing it in a tuxedo. (Sweating that is - geesh do you have a nasty mind or what)

Speaking of bitches, I am now Marc Barrot's bitch. The man has got to be one of the coolest folks around. I have been trying to make the target function work in activeRenderer and after spending quite a while working on it yesterday I gave up and dropped Marc a note. So this morning he replies with his phone number and asks me to call him up so we can work out the issue live. What a mensch!

Okay so I admit it I just mooned the folks at iFilm. What's a boy to do? Because you like to watch Indeed!

BlogShares - Movable Type

LBO fun!

NetNewsWire

I apparently purchased NetNewsWire quite a while ago and had completely forgotten it. I had stopped using it for posting because of some weird tag soup it added to my posts (I think this was before it actually moved to version 1.)

Now I see it is working correctly. Sweet!

Okay I see I had not purchased this. It is simply running under a 30 day 'get you hooked' license. I may have to buy this app. It has improved a whole lot.

Do The Clintons Have An Open Marriage?

Gay men have the same questions as heterosexuals: What did Hillary know and when did she know it? Did she throw a hissy fit or was she calm, cool and collected? Was Bill Clinton sufficiently apologetic? Did she forgive him? Did she stick by him because she's a "feminist doormat" or a forgiving Christian? Is their marriage a monument to political expediency or a testament to the resiliency of love?

That's because their readers -- mainstream America -- do not believe it's possible to be in a deeply loving, committed relationship and still have sex with other people.

Is It Worth While to Name Names

when you are furious at an IPP?

Search Engine

I need to find a way to search for html documents within a group of folders on a W2K server and make interface available through html.

Local html > searches folder > retrieves local html

Any ideas?

Doonesbury

does Dean.

Breast Reduction Surgery

Debbie, to the left, is featured on a website which allows those seeking breast reduction surgery to find a local surgeon. I would think the lady to the right would be a better model for such a firm. Or is Debbie supposed to be the "after" of the equation? Why is it that advertisers always choose beautiful & symmetrical women to portray those who are not quite so beautiful or symmetrical?

Leave Me Alone

I'm rethinking my force structure in Iraq.

He Recalled How

seeing Dylan and Joan Baez perform in 1964 was a transformational experience. It opened his eyes to everything that was phony and uptight and unjust in the world--and made him want to change the world. And there is a part of him that believes he has done just that in his own small way. But as the hippie party of the '60s devolved into the post-Vietnam hangover of the '70s, it must have occurred to him that idealism--like the length of your hair or the cut of your clothes or rebellion itself--was nothing more than fashion. And fashion is a commodity to be bought and sold for a profit.

Funny How Often Traffic Is Mentioned

Willis stated previously that "over 21,000 individuals contributed to the Dean campaign." According to opensecrets.org, George W. Bush raised money from 119,213 donors during the 2000 campaign. Some of those were corporate, but at least 101,301 people gave personal donations of $200 or less. Assuming that Bush's supporters consist entirely of Thomas Nast cartoons was Willis's first mistake - his second was assuming that "the masses" consist of 21,000 people.