Month: June 2005

If there is one thing I could have changed about today, I would have been quite happy to not witness my cat toss its cookies.

Sometimes we never know just how many lifes we touch.

Dear Alberto Gonzales, US Attorney General:

Morality is taught to our children by their parents and cannot be dictated by the government. A government of the people takes the views of all the people and if a person standing to my left has opinions, beliefs and morals differing from the person on my right it is neither the right nor the place of the government to force the views of one of those people upon the other as long as a person’s stand does not cause harm to another person. Mr. Gonzales will argue that 18 USC 2257 is protecting our children from harm and I strongly disagree.

18 USC 2257 is blatant censorship. It is electronic bookburning stiffling a creative outlet as sited in the Boing Boing article "Rotten.com: our gapingmaw.com and other sites shut in anticipation of 2257"

We might mention that the material here isn’t even pornography as you normally think of it — this site is just adult humor, in essay format, with some illustrations. The government is mandating that we meet certain bookkeeping requirements, ones impossible to meet for this site. Never mind that those requirements do not actually gain the public anything. This is the strongest attack on free speech since the passage of the CDA, and oddly, the media seems to have hardly noticed. The penalty for not abiding by these bookkeeping requirements is five years prison.

Because the nature of their site is user submissions of adult humor they will receive pictures for which they cannot document the person in the picture therefore their site must cease to exist.

I am not advocating child pornography but I do put the onus of protection of children on the parents. Parents must protect their children from from the evils of the world through education and involvement. Children will see hardcore magazines at their friends houses; children will experience horrific things (death, the twin towers, etc); children will see things on their friend’s Internet connection. You can cleanse your house but you cannot blindfold your children when they leave the house. Parents must protect their children from exploitation through supervision and education. If the parent is an abuser, the parent must seek help.

18 USC 2257 is the equivalent to Prohibition.

Prohibition also presented lucrative opportunities for organized crime to take over the importation (“bootlegging”), manufacture, and distribution of alcoholic beverages. Al Capone, one of the most famous bootleggers of them all, built his criminal empire largely on profits from illegal alcohol. [ source ]

You are attacking inadvertant distributors who would happily pull the content if it was suspect. You have not protected a child. Shutting down a site that showed a child depicting a sexual act has not stopped the adult from abusing that child. If anything, shutting down the site removes a digital footprint to finding the adult that should prosecuted. 18 USC 2257 will drive child pornographers into more ingenious distribution methods that may be more elusive to prosecution.

Where does this stop? Will Blogger shut down because they have no control over what I post? Will that picture of my naked newborn scare them enough to erase my writings?

A powerful, thought provoking statement from the gapingmaw.com statement: "No nation has freedom when it is run by religious zealots."

Sincerely,
A parent who wants his children to grow up in a free society.

Now Christians can leave their message while they walk. Of course, this may not have the desired affect in Cancun. 

Excellent article on when products expire.

Contacting your senator does help!

You know, when I think of The Pyramids I imagine a horizon to horizon expanse of sand with perhaps a couple of camels carrying a handful of people wrapped in bed sheets. Squeaky horn music plays eeriely from the heavens, the air is still and no one speaks. Somewhere over a sand dune 8 guys are trying to rebuild an airplane to fly and a bunch of World War II gold is buried beneath a rusted tank. Google Maps now ruins my impressions given to me by National Geographic and Hollywood. Have a look at The Real Egypt. Looks noisy.

(wow!)

I’m an observant person. I watched the traffic cams get installed by TDOT. For a long I have intended to call TDOT and ask, "are those cameras available to the public?" Ironically, being a web guy, I never bothered looking online until one of the local news stations mentioned the 75 cameras are online (though by my count I only see 66). Have a look at a picture of a TDOT SmartWay camera.

Additional information about the TDOT $20 million SmaryWay system is available including cameras statewide and information about Tennessee 511 a service that provides traffic information from any phone. TDOT is also in Alabama.

From the Smartway FAQ:

Other benefits include:

• Providing live video to local television stations that is used during their rush hour traffic reports
• Website access to current construction and incident information.
• Shorter crash response time by emergency response agencies including TDOT HELP trucks
• Using the system to assist in AMBER ALERTS
• Radio reports of current construction and incident information available on the highway advisory radio (HAR) system.
• Use of the system to complement Homeland Security evacuation plans

Now when you want to leave the house you can check to see if I-40 is jammed or not!

Democrats Called Anti-Christian Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state! Separation of church and state!

“Like a moth to a flame, Democrats can’t help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians,” said Rep. John Hostettler.

Hostettler’s picture just screams, “Hey. Don’t ya’ll get it? GW came into office and government went out the window. It’s all about God now. The Apocalypse is coming tomorrow anyway and ya’ll won’t be around to complain then.”

Of course, we find irony in the article:

The Democratic proposal on the Air Force Academy was defeated. The House instead approved by voice vote a Republican plan requiring an Air Force report to Congress on the steps it was taking to promote religious tolerance.

I scored 4 out of 10 on this. (safe for work)

Wife barking at 9 year old to find missing dog that I let out and forgot.
14 year old sleeping; refusing to get up.
3 year old crying that she is hurt.
Me, unable to move, listening to hold music on an ear piece wired to the phone base.

Stress rising.

This from Boing Boing:

We’ve heard rumors that the Broadcast Flag that Cory, the EFF, and a coalition of pressure groups have fought so hard against (and beat in the courts) will be sneaked back via an amendment to the giant Senate Appropriations Bill in a sub-committee at 2PM EST on Tuesday 21st. This week is Hollywood’s last chance to ram the flag past Congress, and they’re working hard to get it under the radar.

There’s no time to write letters or start a media campaign: but folk in the states below have just enough time to warn their senators, who are all on the sub-committee. People of Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin – it’s up to you!

There’s a sample script after the phone list. Remember: be cool, collected and polite. Most of these senators won’t know a thing about the flag, until one of them makes it a throwaway amendment tomorrow. Make sure their ears twitch when they hear “broadcast flag” today.

ALABAMA Senator Richard Shelby (202) 224-5744
ALASKA Senator Ted Stevens (202) 224-3004
HAWAII Senator Daniel Inouye (202) 224-3934
IOWA Senator Tom Harkin (202) 224-3254
KANSAS Senator Sam Brownback (202) 224-6521
KENTUCKY Senator Mitch McConnell (202) 224-2541
MARYLAND Senator Barbara Mikulski (202) 224-4654
MISSOURI Senator Christopher Bond (202) 224-5721
NEW HAMPSHIRE Senator Judd Gregg (202) 224-3324
NEW MEXICO Senator Pete Domenici (202) 224-6621
NORTH DAKOTA Senator Byron Dorgan (202) 224-2551
TEXAS Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (202) 224-5922
VERMONT Senator Patrick Leahy (202) 224-4242
WASHINGTON Senator Patty Murray (202) 224-2621
WISCONSIN Senator Herb Kohl (202) 224-5653

“Hello, Senator _________’s office”

“Hi, I’m a constituent. [Remember: Only say ‘I’m a constituent’ if you really are — if you’re calling the Senator from _your own state_] I’m registering my opposition to the broadcast flag amendment being introduced in the Senate Commerce Justice and Science Appropriations subcommittee mark-up on Tuesday, and in full committee on Thursday.”

(*** You can give your own reasons for opposing the flag here. Here’s a sample: ***)

“The Broadcast Flag cripples any device capable of receiving over-the-air digital broadcasts.”

“It give Hollywood movie studios a permanent veto over how members of the American public use our televisions.”

“It forces American innovators to beg the FCC for permission before adding new features to TV.”

“It will prevent fair use of copyrighted works: critical review, and use of material in distance learning”

“This is an important issue which will affect all Americans, and should not be inserted in a large bill, at the last moment, with no debate.”

“Please oppose the broadcast flag amendment. My name and address are ___________________.”

“Thank you for your time.”

Good luck!

Then the update:

You can now fax and email appropriation committee members for free at the EFF’s action center. Do it tonight, or live with the consequences of a Hollywood veto over your PC forever.

I really enjoy programming! I wish I could do it in these wee hours without feeling so tired.

Student: I don’t make enough.
Master: Perhaps you spend too much.

I’m so tired. So much to be done before the morn.