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Bible Quiz

2011-12-11T10:53:00.001-05:00

My posting of this is not meant to disparage the Bible in any way, but rather to point out the care we must take while reading it to understand through what is written to what is intended. I did not write this quiz, but received it in e-mail from my father, and did not find it in a web search just now.

Bible Quiz

Test your knowledge of the Bible

(Warning: ALL are trick questions!)

1. Jesus told Peter that he would deny him three times before the cock crowed (A. once, B. twice, C. thrice).
2. Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple near the (A. beginning, B. middle, C. end) of his ministry.
3. When the women go to Jesus’ tomb to anoint the body for burial they find there (A. one man, B. two men, C one angel).
4. How many miracles had Jesus already performed before he healed the son of a centurion? (A. none B. one, C. many)
5. At the Last Supper, how many times did the disciples inquire of Jesus where he was going?
(A. never, B. once C. twice)
6. How many pairs of each animal species did Noah take onto the ark? (A. 1, B. 2, C. 3, D. 7)
7. Did God introduce himself to Abraham as “the Lord”? (A. yes, B. no, C. maybe)
8. Which of the ten plagues sent by God to persuade Pharaoh to let Moses’ people go destroyed all of the Egyptians’ livestock? (A. the first, B. the fifth, C the seventh).
9. Jesus was crucified (A. before, B. during, C. after) celebrating Passover.
10. Jesus was crucified on a Friday (A. morning, B. afternoon, C. evening).
11. Joseph and Mary resided in (A. Nazareth, B. Bethlehem, C. Jerusalem).
12. At the baptism of Jesus, the voice from heaven spoke to (A. John the Baptist, B. Jesus, C. the crowd assembled).
13. On the day following his baptism, Jesus encountered (A. the devil, B. John the Baptist, C. his disciples).
14. When Gyrus asked Jesus to heal his daughter, she was (A. sick, B. dead).
15. The opponents of Jesus were (A. anyone who was not for him, B. only those who were against him).
16. Jesus’ ministry lasted (A. less than one year, B. three years, C. five years).
17. (A. The Romans, B. The Jews) were primarily responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.
18. Judas betrayed Jesus because (A. of greed for money, B. the devil made him do it, C. he was himself a devil).
19. After Judas betrayed Jesus he (A. fell and burst open, B. hanged himself, C. took a cruise).
20. (A. The priests, B. Judas, C. Jesus, D. Peter) purchased the “Field of Blood” cemetery where foreigners might be buried.
21. The field was called “the field of blood” because (A. it was purchased with “blood money”, i.e., the money paid for giving up Jesus, B. Judas’ bled on the field when he burst open, C. duels were fought there).
22. Who accompanied Mary Magdalene as she visited Jesus’ tomb three days following his crucifixion? (A. no one, B. another Mary, C. Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, C. Joanna and other women from Galilee).
23. The stone was rolled away from Jesus’ tomb (A. before, B. after) the women arrived.
24. At Jesus’ tomb the women saw (A. an angel, B. one man, C. two men, D. nothing nor anyone).
25. The women were instructed to (A. go to Galilee, B. remember something Jesus had said in Galilee, C. replace the stone before departing).
26. The women told (A. the disciples, B. no one, C. their husbands) what they had heard at the tomb of Jesus.
27. Following Jesus’ resurrection the disciples (A. went to Galilee, B. remained in Jerusalem, C. went to Bethany).
28. The Ascension of Jesus to heaven occurred in (A. Galilee, B. Jerusalem, C. Bethany).
29. The curtain concealing the holy of holies was rent (A. before, B. after) Jesus died.
30. In order to be saved Christians (A. must, B. need not ) observe the old Jewish Law.
31. Jesus died (A. to atone for the sins of others, B. to cause people to repent of their sins and turn to God asking for forgiveness).
32. Jesus became begotten of God when he was (A. crucified, B. resurrected, C. baptized, D. conceived).
33. God (A. forgives pagans for worshiping idols because they do so in ignorance, B. condemns pagans for worshiping idols because they know well and yet reject the truth of Christ).
34. Christian should (A. respect and obey, B. condemn and oppose) the state and civil authority.

Answers

1. Matthew 26:34 says A; Mark 14:30 says B.
2. Mark, Chapter 11, says C , John, Chapter 2, says A.
3. Mark 16;5, says A, Luke 24:4 says B, Matthew 28:2 says C.
4. John says both B and C.
John 2:11 says his first miracle was the turning of water into wine in Jerusalem.
,John 4:54 says healing the son of a centurion later in Galilee was his second miracle.
John 2:23 says Jesus performed many miracles in Jerusalem.
5. Jesus says A (John 16:5); Peter and Thomas say C (John 13:36 and 14:5).
6. B (Genesis 7:9-10) and D (Genesis 7:2).
7. A (Genesis 15:7) and B (Exodus 6:3).
8. B (Exodus 9:5) and C (Exodus 9:21-22).
9. A and C;
John, Chapter 19, says that Jesus was crucified during the time of preparation for
the Passover meal.
Mark, Chapter 14, says that Jesus was crucified after celebrating Passover.
10. A and B;
Mark, Chapter 14, says that Jesus was crucified on a Friday morning.
John, Chapter 19, says that Jesus was crucified on a Friday afternoon.
11. A and B;
Luke, Chapter 2, says they were from Nazareth; Matthew, Chapter 2, implies they
were from Bethlehem. (e.g., in verse 11, Matthew says the wise men came to
worship the Christ child in his house in Bethlehem . No Inn; no manger.)
12. A and/or C and B
Matthew 3:17 “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.”
Mark 1:11 “You are my son in whom I am well pleased.”
Luke 3:22 “You are my son. Today I have begotten you.”
13. A and B
Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:13 & Luke 4:2 say A; John says B.
14. A and B;
Mark 5:21-43 says she was sick; Matthew 9:18-26 says she was already dead.
15. A and B;
Matthew 12:30 “Whoever is not with me is against me.”
Mark 9:40 “Whoever is not against us is for us.”
16. A and B;
Mark suggests a few months with Jesus celebrating a single Passover feast.
John suggests three years with Jesus celebrating three Passover feasts.
17. A and B;
Mark implicates the Romans; John implicates the Jews.
18. A and B and C;
Mark (14:10-11) and Matthew (26:14) say he did it for money, Luke (22:3) says
the devil made him do it. John (6:70-71) says Judas was himself a devil. 19. A and B;
Luke (writing in Acts, 1:18-19) says he fell headlong and burst open in the
middle.
Matthew 27:3-10 says that Judas hanged himself after returning the money to the
chief priests.
20. A and B;
Matthew says that the chief priests used the “blood money” returned by Judas to
purchase the field.
Luke (in Acts 1:18-19 says that Judas himself purchased the field (cemetery)
using the 30 pieces of silver.
21. Matthew says A; Luke, (writing in Acts), say B.
22. All of the above.
John 20:1 mentions only Mary Magdalene.
Matthew 28:1 says Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary (mother of
James?)
Mark 16:1 lists Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salomé.
Luke 24:1 (See also 23:55) lists Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James,
Joanna, and possibly other women from Galilee as well.
23. A and B;
Mark 16:4 says that the stone had already been rolled away when the women
arrived.
Matthew 28:2 says that the stone was rolled away by an angel while the women
were present.
24. Each of the above;
Matthew 28:5 says they saw an angel.
Mark 16:5 says they saw a young man.
Luke 22:4 says they saw two men.
John mentions neither an angel nor any men.
25. A and B;
Mark 16:7 says they were instructed to go to Galilee where they would be met by
Jesus.
Luke 24:7 says they were enjoined to remember that Jesus had told them in
Galilee that he must die and rise again.
26. A and B;
Matthew 28:8 says they told the disciples.
Mark 16:8 says they told no one.
27. A and B;
Matthew says the women told the disciples to go to Galilee where they would
meet Jesus, and that they went immediately.
Luke says the disciples were never told to go to Galilee and that they never left
Jerusalem.
28. A and B;
Matthew says Galilee.
Luke (writing in Acts) says Jerusalem. 29. Both A and B;
Mark 15:38 says after.
Luke 23:45-46 says before.
(Perhaps it was rent twice, once before and again after the death of Jesus.)
30. A and B;
Matthew says they must.
Paul (in Galatians) says that salvation comes only by believing in Christ, and that observing Jewish law is neither necessary nor sufficient for salvation.
31. A and B;
Mark 10:45 says A. Jesus’ death pays off the debt owed to God by sinners.
Luke (writing in Acts 2:36-38, 3:17-19) says B. Jesus’ death leads to God’s forgiving the debt owed by sinners rather than paying it off.
32. B, C, and D;
Luke (writing in Acts 13:32-33 and quoting Paul) says it occured at the time of his resurrection.
Luke 3:22 says it occurred when Jesus was baptized.
Luke 1:35 says it occurred at the time of his conception by Mary.
33. A and B;
Luke (writing in Acts, Chapter 17 and quoting Paul) says A.
Paul, writing in Romans Chapter 1 says B.
34. A and B;
Paul (writing in Romans,13:1-4) says that state authority comes from God and is to be obeyed.
Revelation Chapter 17 say the earthly governing powers are supremely wicked.

Holy Trinity

2011-11-08T22:02:00.001-05:00

Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 06:47:56 -0500
On Sunday June 15 2003 22:24, Jim Scarborough wrote:
> Today is Fathers' Day and Trinity Sunday at once. The sermon this morning
> was on John 3:1-17, wherein Nicodemus just doesn't get it, and the crux of
> the sermon was "the Trinity is a mystery." So I set about to understand a
> little more. Not being a theologean, I don't purport to know, but
> thought you might appreciate my sharing the results of my exploration of
> the topic this morning.
> The Holy Trinity is the basic idea that God is one in three - the Father,
> the Son, and the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit). God is many things to many
> people, and none of us can fully appreciate the wonder, but that shouldn't
> stop exploration!
> The Holy Spirit might be thought of as an Ether of Love. That is, the
> Spirit fills the universe with a medium through which love may be conveyed,
> sprinkles some love in, and it blows like the wind. Jesus mentioned the
> wind (using a word that also means "spirit" according to this morning's
> sermon) in John 3:5-8: "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom
> of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to
> flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You should not be surprised
> at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it
> pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or
> where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
> The Son is easy to understand and tricky at the same time. It's easy to
> recall the man who walked the earth 2000 years ago, was crucified, died,
> and buried, and on the third day he arose from the dead, ascended into
> heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. But
> doesn't that mean he's dead or no longer with us? No, we are all a part of
> the body of Christ. First, in Mark 14:22-24 Jesus explains of bread, "Take
> it; this is my body," and of wine, "This is my blood of the covenant which
> is poured out for many." He goes on to foreshadow his death - and perhaps
> continual communion as we take our daily bread, "I will not drink again of
> the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the Kingdom of
> God." In 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Paul writes a clear explanation that
> everyone is important to the Church, that each person is a genuine member
> of the body of Christ, and in verse 27 he writes, "Now you are the body of
> Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." We are all a part of Christ,
> and we share in the wonder, mystery, and responsibility of leading a good
> life. When we love, as members of the body of Christ, we add to the ether -

> the Spirit.
> The Father is our Shepherd. We consult with the Father for advice. He
> guides us daily and helps us find our way. Psalm 23:1-4 explains the
> Father: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie
> down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my
> soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even
> though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
> evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."
> "God in three persons, blessed Trinity," says the closing hymn from today's
> service. Yes, truly wonderful, that all our corporeal and spiritual needs
> can be met by God alone. God is all of these things and plenty more that I
> don't know about. Keep exploring, learning about God in your own way, and
> pray that your exploration leads you on a fantastic journey.
> Shalom,
> Jim
I tried to go to the Men's Bible Study class at 6:30 this morning, but come to find out 1 didn't know the location, so I'll write down the pillow talk from last night during the same time period in hopes that my sharing it will inspire you or otherwise help along your journey.

The implications of all of us people being part part of the body of Christ are profound and wonderful. It puts us on the Trinity triangle and bestows upon us the privileges and responsibilities of being Christ directly ourselves.

Triangles appear frequently in architecture because of their strength. Push on one side of the triangle, and it shares its burden with the other two sides. Likewise with the Trinity. When the Father finds his sheep running astray, he can call upon the body of Christ to guide them. When the body of Christ encounters tribulations on Earth, the Father and the Spirit are there to relieve the pressures. Should the Spirit run short on love, the other two step in to fill the gap.

Along with direct membership in the Holy Support Network, we find ourselves with the responsibility of carrying ourselves in a manner consistent with Christ - as we are a part of the body of Christ. (No, we don't have to perform a miracle a day, but we must love our neighbors and be good people.) The responsibility is not a difficult one, because through the mystery of communion, He brings us into the Holy Support Network.

What about "the holy catholic church"? We profess believe in it frequently on Sunday, and the asterisk says "catholic" means "universal." The church is the body of Christ and the people make up the church, so the collection of all believers is the holy catholic church. And WOW what a church it is - full of caring people who will take care of you when you need it. And it's your personal junction with the Holy Trinity.

In Titus 3:3-7 an aged Paul writes to a rough-and-tumble group of people, "At one time we were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."

My (recent) story reads like Paul's from Titus. Things were difficult in 1998-99. Elizabeth (a part of the body of Christ) showed up and introduced me to the Holy Spirit, who poured out His Love on me such that I might be convinced, and I married her and the Church at the same time. Today, I attempt to explore more the Trinity and God, and I'm amazed by what I find.

When I was about 6 years old, I saw a man on TV tell me Jesus was knocking at the door to my heart, and I should invite Him in. As a literalist (which I still am, though I can now appreciate a good metaphor) I had considerable trouble even finding the door on my heart, let alone noticing the knock or understanding how to invite Him in. But today, with my imperfect understanding of the Trinity, I gladly rise to the challenge of being a part of the body of Christ, to go forth and share the love (which does not mean to badger through recruiting tactics).

Is God my /personal/ Savior? "For God so loved [Jim] that he gave His only Son, that [if Jim] should believe in Him, [he] shall not perish but have everlasting life." Suppose God knows all - the number of hairs on my head, and the fact that I'd be here today. Then God knew when Jesus died that would be saved by that action. Pretty neat. It's also impressive to think that by dying, Jesus became the savior for whomever shall believe in Him.

Rejoice as you eat bread today. Find some grape juice, too; Paul Harvey tells me it's good for your heart. :-)

What is this everlasting life thing, and where is Heaven? I was talking to Elizabeth last week, before the Trinity made any sense, and I said to die and go to heaven is to merge with the ether (a.k.a. Holy Spirit). It makes good sense still, as you can join the remainder of Jesus who ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Live on through the love. Fantastic!

Make yours a magnificent week this week, and remember to share every day with God - lean on the Trinity as you need to, and remember, you're always connected!

Love,
Jim

Cold today

2010-12-16T14:15:00.000-05:00

We have some icy winter weather today, so I'm working from home. Some people came in to the office and they're reporting that it's significantly cooler than usual, which reminds me of this story:

I was in high school, working on a PDP-11/44. It was about the same temp outside that day as it is now - 20-30°F (-7 to -1°C), perhaps a little colder than today. The PDP wouldn't tolerate temperatures over about 75°F (24°C), above which any job running was subject to terminate with the dreaded "ODD ADDRESS OR OTHER TRAP FOUR" message after a few seconds of execution. So that day, the air conditioner froze over, and the program was due at the end of the day. We set up two box fans blowing outside air into the terminal room and blowing terminal room air into the PDP room. I sat in the terminal room (of course), gloves off so I could type, wearing a coat, scarf, and hat. Brrr...

I think to post it here because a search for "ODD ADDRESS OR OTHER TRAP FOUR" turns up a bunch of flummoxed people, but nobody mentions checking the thermostat. From my experience, that message always came when the computer was overheated.

My Love-Hate Relationship with the new Tea Party Movement

2010-09-29T19:58:00.002-05:00

I shared Tim Rutten's op-ed The GOP/'tea' party radicalism, which I thought summed up my feelings about the radical Tea Party movement calling Obama extremist and some serious problems with denial of global warming and the like, to which my friend replies:

Oh, we evil Tea Party People!

Please, do tell what is wrong with these beliefs:

Illegal Aliens Are Here illegally.
Pro-Domestic Employment Is Indispensable.
Stronger Military Is Essential.
Special Interests Must Be Eliminated.
Gun Ownership Is Sacred.
Government Must Be Downsized.
National Budget Must Be Balanced.
Deficit Spending Must End.
Bail-out And Stimulus Plans Are Illegal.
Reduced Personal Income Taxes Are A Must.
Reduced Business Income Taxes Is Mandatory.
Political Offices Should Be Available To Average Citizens.
Intrusive Government Must Be Stopped.
English As Core Language Is Required.
Traditional Family Values Are Encouraged.

And don't ever start with the claim that the Tea Party a racist organization!

The hate speech of the left is at a fevered pitch! Elections are right around the corner! We're in for a couple nice years of gridlock, after a couple years of "Change You Can Believe In."

We agree on many points, but bumper stickers only catch a part of the story.

On aliens, yes, they're here illegally, but if we could magically make the people all go "home," it would make a horrible mess. I wrote about it four years ago. Have you ever driven over the speed limit? That was illegal, too. Just how bad is illegal immigration? I'm pretty sure it's somewhere between speeding and murder, but as a society, we have yet to agree on the severity of the crime or what to do about it. Further, how do you reconcile smaller government with resolving the immigration problem through enforcement?

On the pro-domestic employment front, we agree. In fact, I fold that in with the reduced personal income taxes and reduced business income taxes. Let's repeal those taxes for all but the wealthy (because wide income disparity within a culture breeds all kinds of chaos [1][2]) and mostly replace them with a value-added tax. A national sales tax, if you will. We'd still wind up paying 28% of our income as taxes, but consumption would be disincentivized and employment encouraged. That would help to balance the trade deficit, employ more people, and possibly make the tax code more fair. It would be important to have an exemption for groceries so as not to make the tax especially regressive. For comparison, European VAT is about 19%, but it's folded into the sticker price at the store.

I don't understand why we need a stronger military. That sounds like military-industrial complex propaganda, and I consider the war in Iraq a result of the propaganda. Our military already has enough nukes to blow up the world several times over, and has demonstrated great capacity over the last decade. However, using our finest to carry out such missions of contractor enrichment is an abuse of our troops. I wrote about that three years ago. We have a choice: guns or butter. I prefer butter.

Special interests must be eliminated. Mostly. Where do you draw the line? Shall the federal government build no highways in Alaska or Hawaii because they don't connect to other states? Where will you put the military bases? Where will you put NASA facilities? Or will you cancel NASA because it's a special interest? Sadly, my fundamental effort (National Institutes of Health, for example) becomes your "special interest" (research into some obscure disease). It's really hard to eliminate it if we can't define it. But can we get rid of lobbyists while we're at it? :)

I support gun ownership, too. Again, where to draw the line? I think we're agreed that individuals should not own nuclear warheads and ICBMs... I think we're agreed that Ted Kaczynski shouldn't have a gun. Who else? We've struck a compromise to protect society from the extremes.

I would like to downsize the government, but I don't know how it's practical in a cost-effective sense without having serious negative implications on our society. We want roads, sewer, water, clean air to breathe, and so on. As a society, we have agreed that children are entitled to an education. We want to be protected from the Red Menace. On the other hand, there are quite a few things the government could do to be less intrusive in our personal affairs: quit with the income tax thing (as before, for all but the exceptionally well-to-do), get out of the religious discussion about who can marry, legalize marijuana (not that I want it, but I know folks who would benefit from it medicinally), no more warrant wiretapping without warrants, and so forth. But I would not go as far as a pure Libertarian. We still need the FCC, FAA, EPA, and somebody to watch out for the Gulf of Mexico. TSA is a good candidate for elimination!

Balancing the budget fortunately spells zero deficit spending unless some emergency thing comes up. I was tickled when the budget was actually balanced for the first time in my lifetime for the last few years of the Clinton administration. Alas, Republicans actually cut taxes and keep on spending. The Bush tax cuts unraveled that situation almost immediately. I am irritated with the Republican Party for claiming the high road on fiscal policy and demonstrating substantially the opposite. There is no track record to differentiate Tea Partiers from Republicans, but given the current rhetoric, I fear we'd be in much worse shape with the bare minimum spending during a recession.

Bailout and stimulus plans are illegal? If Congress can pass a law consistent with the Constitution, it's legal. Remember TARP was under Bush, and I'm happy to report that it's largely been repaid. Unless the country should plunge into financial ruin on the heels of a massive bubble collapse such as we just saw, the government needs to provide some stimulus to keep the economy moving forward. With unemployment persistently high, the government is justified in borrowing money to spur things (infrastructure, real estate deals, or whatever) along until the private sector can pick up the tab again. These last two years are a time I would have hated to see the alternative.

Political offices should be available to average people. Absolutely. Now how do we make it happen? Clean elections? Limit private contributions to campaigns? Citizens United certainly pushes the system in the wrong direction. Another problem with elections is that they are popularity contests. One must be eloquent and armed with the right turns of phrase for any moment during the campaign, and during office, possess great character to avoid corruption. The election process is also flawed. I would like to see us switch to approval voting to balance the field for multiple parties and long-shot candidates.

How do you require English? Some states have passed official language laws, simplifying the number of languages in which various documents may be prepared, but others have not. In this melting-pot country, we have immigrants from all over. They generally need to learn English, but there are large communities in which a citizen can function perfectly well without uttering a word of English. Take any Chinatown for example. In my experience, most immigrants don't resist learning English; it just takes time, more if they're in a tight community of folks speaking their own language.

Whose traditional family values? In my family, we have love and respect. There is substantial bigotry in my extended family, and it always strikes me as against the teachings of Christ, though the same people would tell you they are devout Christians. My father wrote, "Choices, a Cautionary Tale" to explain how society ruined him. I don't wish that course on anyone. Boy Scouts of America, a focal point of my life from age 12 to 18 and a few years beyond, has alienated me and many others with their exclusion of a class of people because of who they are. Another family value I espouse is that of long-term relationships. I'm happy to see that the divorce rate has declined over the last decade. My family values time together at the dinner table. We also value a particular schedule, weekend time together, and our worship time. Keep the government out of religious affairs is the gist of a piece I wrote three years back.

There are good reasons people disagree on things, and I have a great respect for many people with whom I disagree on these issues and others. I especially appreciate civil discourse on the matters because, though it probably won't resolve our differences, it will help engender mutual respect and undo some of the polarization that has a grip on this country today.

Civic runs rough

2010-08-03T11:41:00.000-05:00

I don't mean to turn this into an automotive blog, but I had a bizarre problem with my 1998 Honda Civic and figured it warranted public documentation.

The car would run rough at 20-30 mph (~17% throttle) when the ambient air temperature was 78°-83°F. There was the occasional backfire when it was really bad. There was no "check engine" light or other indication that the computer observed trouble. Diagnostic showed that the secondary O₂ sensor voltage dropped to 0V when the problem manifested itself. The ultimate fix was to replace the secondary O₂ sensor.

Things I tried, in order:

Change plugs and wires
Clean throttle body and idle air control valve
Change idle air control valve (IACV) ($450)
Change the secondary O₂ sensor. ($300)
Change the primary O₂ sensor. ($300)

Now I celebrate the car being repaired!

Global warming has slowed only briefly

2010-03-09T21:02:00.001-05:00

Science starts with a hypothesis. The hypothesis I would take from Lorne Gunter's article Gore v. Gunter (which I will not give the honor of a link from here) is that global warming has stopped. This is a testable hypothesis. If it is true, we will see several indicators: earth's albedo (the amount of light reflected into space) should be increasing. Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane (which is several times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere) should also be on the decline. There are other indicators, but these will suffice to make my point.

1. Albedo is decreasing because glaciers are melting for the first time in thousands of years.

2. Albedo is increasing because contrails reflect light.

Experimentation has shown that 1 is more significant than 2.

3. Carbon dioxide emissions continue.

4. Carbon dioxide sinks (algae in the ocean, for example) are becoming saturated

5. Glaciers, as they melt, are releasing methane.

Given these facts, unless you have found some magical stash of planetary coolant, I'd say our Toyota may have run out of gas, but I see a cliff right ahead, so it's liable to pick up speed on the way down. An argument I heard against global warming 15 years ago was, "The Earth will take care of itself." It will, but it doesn't have any special concern for humans.

Before you go bashing science in the media, best check with a real scientist or two to find out how science is really done.

Panoramic pictures

2010-01-01T14:56:00.003-05:00

I used Hugin to make a couple of panoramas from my summer trip to New Mexico. It needed to know optical properties of my camera, so I measured after the fact. For a BlackBerry Perl 8330, the HFOV is about 49.2°, so the focal length works out to about 37.8 mm. Then I plug in the various pictures and I get some pretty cool results :)

Free speech or espousing religion?

2009-11-26T15:37:00.003-05:00

http://www.earnedmedia.org/iampr1125.htm tells us that one creationist film was shown last night at the United States Space and Rocket Center, a facility operated by the State of Alabama. Yes, there are "two sides" to the issue, but so are there "two sides" to other issues, like whether or not I went to work yesterday. A preponderance of evidence suggests one answer is correct, and investigation without bias will reveal the most plausible answer. So if you show a movie that says I did not go to work yesterday, and you fervently believe I did go to work because a book with lots of good hints for life suggests that I did, should you also be allowed to show that movie in a government-funded theater? I suppose that depends in part if you pay enough money to offset the entire cost of showing the film.

If you have doubts about evolution, don't take the banana example (which is horribly flawed because all Cavendish bananas are genetically identical and they were selectively bred to fit our hands and be the right size for eating and sweet) or any other counter-example given by other evolution doubters, but check with people who have been researching these things with an open mind. I doubt God created a geologic and fossil record with intent to deceive us.

SOAP is not a transport protocol!

2009-10-27T20:09:00.003-05:00

Repeat with me: SOAP is not a transport layer protocol. I have now seen two implementations that use SOAP with dummy methods to pass XML through an authenticated channel. The XML messages that you can generate for these two implementations are really quite simple and their entire functionality could quite easily have been exposed on the WSDL. SOAP uses XML to convey its messages! So in these bogus implementations, there is XML wrapped in XML! If you find yourself implementing a web service, please take care and expose your API.

Choices: A Cautionary Tale

2009-09-02T16:42:00.002-05:00

The year was 1966. It was the year that James Meredith was shot in Mississippi and the year the sniper in the University of Texas tower in Austin shot forty-three people, killing twelve. It was also the year that I chose my sexual orientation.

Not that I had no sexual orientation prior to that time; at age thirty I had had one for years, but it was certainly not one I had chosen nor one I ever would have chosen for myself. After all, what rational individual freely chooses to be a pariah — to be ridiculed, ostracized, and discriminated against? Since the age of fifteen — throughout high school, college, graduate school, and three years of employment — I had known beyond any doubt that I was one hundred percent, red-blooded, all-American "queer" (the slur of choice in 1966), this despite the fact that I remained sexually inexperienced until the age of twenty-eight. From the moment I became aware of my unorthodox affectional orientation, my soul recoiled before the flame-thrower of society's condemnation of homosexuals, and I plunged deep into the closet. I felt much as I imagine a Jewish kid growing up in Nazi Germany might have felt had he attempted to pass himself off as non-Jewish.

In 1966 in Huntsville, Alabama no one was openly gay. No TV talk show featured gay guests, and no TV sitcom featured a gay character. No medical research results had yet been published to suggest that sexual orientation is probably determined at birth or soon thereafter. The Stonewall rebellion would not take place for another three years, and no gays marched before network television news cameras proclaiming their pride. The notion that homosexual persons might have human and civil rights that were being abridged was yet to be articulated.

In the Huntsville of 1966, no bookstore carried gay titles, and no newsstand displayed gay newspapers or magazines. However, the mainstream press carried reports of heinous crimes committed by "sex perverts", "moral degenerates", or "sexual deviates". Occasionally a hapless soul was convicted of the infamous "crime against nature".

The literature of the day on homosexuality was limited primarily to obscure academic treatises on abnormal psychology wherein I might read what a truly diseased wretch I was. (In 1966 homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness.) Oh, I could be cured, to be sure, but the accepted treatments for homosexuality in those days — including prefrontal lobotomy, electroshock, hormone injection, and castration — seemed to belong more to the realm of horror movies than to that of clinics and hospitals dedicated to healing. In any case, the treatment seemed to mefinitely worse than the disease which, truth to tell, felt quite pleasant except for the terror I felt at the prospect of having my secret longings discovered by friends and relatives who, I expected, would then fall upon me like a pack of ravenous wolves.

Although I felt neither sick nor sinful, it was inevitable that I should acquire much of the prevailing attitude towards homosexuals and homosexuality. Indeed, it is extraordinarily difficult to convince oneself entirely that one is right and the rest of the world is consummately wrong.

And so, in 1966, I faced what seemed to me a cruel choice: I could have the love and respect of friends, family, and coworkers, a career with prestige, financial security, and the myriad material goods our society offer a reasonably conscientious heterosexual male WASP. Or I could have a love life, but to have both appeared to me utterly impossible.

Thus it was that I came to choose a heterosexual orientation, that is to say, in much the same manner as one being robbed at gunpoint "chooses" to surrender one's valuables.

Determined to make myself acceptable to society, I vowed silently that, if it were humanly possible, I would "cure" myself of this terrible "sickness" and become heterosexual. I undertook nothing less that the total reconstruction of my personality from the ground up.

Systematically I set about effecting the required metamorphosis. I purchased a new car, a house, and a boat. I had myself fitted with contact lenses and had my hair styled. I bought stylish new clothes and signed up for lessons in ballroom dancing. I joined a singles club and subscribed to a computer dating service. Relentlessly suppressing all insecurities and every impulse to turn and flee, I drove myself by sheer force of will to date women. With dogged determination I repressed all homosexual fantasies. The Rev. Jerry Falwell would have been proud of me.

And so it was that I set out to cross an emotional desert, a trackless wasteland of unknown, perhaps infinite, extent Medical science and religious leaders of the day assured me that good health and salvation lay beyond, and on their counsel I wagered my future.

Fast-forward through twenty years to 1986. At age fifty I have been scrupulously faithful to my wife of seventeen years, and we have two fine children together, but the noble experiment has failed. Although my behavior since the wedding has been exclusively heterosexual, at no time have I ever been able to regard myself as anything other than gay. In my own mind I have simply been a gay man masquerading as a straight man, albeit quite successfully to all outward appearances. In effect I have created a fictional straight character and lived his life rather than my own.

Eros is dead, the victim of slow starvation. My wife and children find me remote and unfeeling. Like the Cheshire cat, I have vanished except for the smile I show to the world. In a state of deep depression, I have no sense of personal worth or identity, being neither man nor woman, neither gay nor straight. A nonentity — at most an object, a thing. A robot perhaps, or a zombie? From my vantage point somewhere beyond the orbit of Saturn, I observe the vain struggles of humankind, its members — male and female alike — appearing to me as cardboard cutouts or department store manikins. Suicidal thoughts occur with increasing frequency.

I am obsessed with the idea that I shall die never having made intimate contact with another human being — that none will ever know who I truly was nor what my life was all about. Like the ephemeral neutrino, I should have transited Earth, leaving behind no trace of my passing. Another fearful choice looms. In desperation I confide in the person nearest me; I tell my wife that I am gay.

Fast-forward again, this time through five years to 1991. Divorced for two years, I now face the third grim choice of my life. Quite simply, the fictional straight character I have created has no future. (Shall I have him remarry? Never! Then what?) No, clearly the straight character must die. The only question remaining is whether I shall die along with him. At age fifty-five, like one parachuting from a burning aircraft, I close my eyes, hold my breath, and leap — out of the closet.

I summon my children to me and explain to them that their father is gay. At the office the following day I inform my supervisor that I am gay. In church the following Sunday I announce to the congregation that I am gay. All these I do with full awareness that my words are being misunderstood by many as a confession of sexual misconduct, or an admission of guilt, or weakness, or moral turpitude, but I am not deterred; for the first time in my life, I am simply declaring to the world my true identity — not what I do or have done, but who and what I am.

Fast-forward one last time, through three years to the present. Clearly the wager I made so long ago is lost. The medical and religious authorities of that time to whom I had entrusted my fate are proven by time to have been woefully mistaken, and the desert I once set out to cross has taken a terrible toll.
The romantic dreams which formerly warmed my youthful heart have turned, every one, to ashes. The sweet, warm wine of life that once coursed through my veins has turned to cold, sour vinegar. Despair has robbed my heart of its once-great capacity to give and receive human love, so that my affectional orientation is now largely moot. Perpetual celibacy and alienation appear to be my fate.

I am today filled with bitter resentment toward a benighted society that has denied me the only life I might actually have lived, bullying and coercing me to pursue another's vision of happiness rather than my own. My chief regret is not that I was born homosexual, but rather that I was born into a nest of vipers. Had I but been born into a more enlightened society such as that of ancient Greece, I might have lived my own life and still have enjoyed the respect of friends, family, and coworkers. In a misguided effort to comply with the cruel and perverse demands of an ignorant and uncaring society, I have neglected entirely my own imperative emotional needs with uniformly disastrous results.

Despite everything, I still feel an impulse to live. In a sense, I feel that my life has only just begun. Only now am I free to speak the truth as I know it, and I feel compelled to bear witness to the folly of attempting to deny one's own basic and immutable nature. With the love and support of my two loyal sons, I shall do whatever I can to promote truth and justice with respect to homosexuals and homosexuality.

In setting down these reflections, it is my hope that they may stand as a warning of the dangers inherent in forced choices and in false choices. At worst, this chronicle can serve as an object lesson to others who mightbe tempted to venture onto that pitiless wasteland.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Reinhold Niebuhr

My filing system

2009-02-09T21:58:00.001-05:00

I have a straightforward filing system that took me a few years to figure out. Here are the goals:

1. Maintain most records for at least 3 years, but not much longer

2. Keep tax records for 7 years, and other special records indefinitely

3. Have current-year records readily accessible

4. Make it quick to go through the mail

5. Make it easy to file papers and easy enough to find a particular filed piece of paper in the comparatively rare occasion you need to

6. And for gravy, track receipts in the financial software, hang on to them for returns if needed

7. File for flexible spending account expenses

And here is how they are accomplished:

For the first and third goals, we have 3 file drawers and 1 file box, each for a year. The file box is for the current year and it lives near the bill-paying area. In January, empty the oldest drawer, take the contents (except taxes) to a commercial shredder, and put the contents of the file box in the empty drawer. The rest are in a secluded file cabinet.

For the second goal, there is a drawer of permanent files. It contains medical reports, instructions in the event of various peoples' deaths, career notes, older tax records, and so forth.

For the fourth goal, we have a set of 3 paper sorters: bills, things to file, and recycling. Junk mail goes straight in recycling. Explanations of Benefits from the insurance and other "notices" go straight in the place to file. I think you already know where the bills go when they come in. After they are paid, they get stamped "PAID" and move to the "to file" area.

For the fifth goal, we have a simple set of folders. Here's a sampling of the titles: Automotive, Cats, Child Care, Credit Cards, Court (this is where you put the class action stuff), Health Insurance (for EOBs and other notes), Health (one for each person), Home Maintenance, Investments, Keepsakes (greeting cards, letters), Loans, Utilties, Tax, Work (for each worker). These titles are deliberately broad. The busiest folder is probably "Utilities," but it has never been a problem to find the appropriate cable bill or cell phone bill in the pile, because the pile is pretty small and the need to find it is infrequent. When these broad folders don't hold a particular piece of paper, we'll make a new broad folder to hold it and other things like it.

For the sixth goal, there are three shoe boxes. The first box collects receipts out of pocket and purse. They are then entered weekly (or perhaps bi-weekly, but no longer than that) in the financial software and stamped "entered." The next two boxes are for even and odd months. Receipts generated in an even month go in the even box, and from an odd month into the odd box. At the start of each month, dump its shoe box into the shredder.

For the seventh goal, insert a step special for FSA-applicable receipts between the receipts being entered and their being filed in their appropriate month shoe box. Put them in a folder, and take that folder to work to file the claims. Stamp all receipts filed "faxed," then bring them back home and put them in the monthly shoe box.

I have lately taken to scanning my tax data so as not to have it take so much space in the file cabinet. I also figure I can retain it indefinitely in digital form because storage capacity increases faster than the digital footprint of my tax information. I expect to scan medical reports to keep them likewise.

Security theater

2008-10-21T12:50:00.001-05:00

This guy does what I would do if I weren't chicken. He tests and routinely skirts airport security to demonstrate that it is flawed. Now when can we go back to the days of easier flying?

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/airport-security

A shattering moment in America's fall from power

2008-10-02T12:23:00.004-05:00

The global financial crisis will see the US falter in the same way the Soviet Union did when the Berlin Wall came down. The era of American dominance is over. [more...]

So says John Gray of the Observer. It reminds me plainly of words I heard from a Mexican friend living in Taxco, Gro. shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. "Your empire will fall," he said. I pondered those words. Empire? Yes, and nothing could be more demonstrative of our hubris than our invasion of Iraq on false pretenses without global support.

Gray says, "Meltdowns on the scale we are seeing are not slow-motion events," particularly regarding the financial sector falling apart, but as he points out, this meltdown has been in development for the last two decades as regulation has become unfashionable and the corporations have bought the government.

What a McCain Victory Would Mean

2008-08-27T18:19:00.004-05:00

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/082608.html

"In judging the shape of a future John McCain presidency, there are already plenty of dots that are easy to connect. They reveal an image of a war-like Empire so full of hubris that it could take the world into a cascade of crises, while extinguishing what is left of the noble American Republic."

"...[W]hile Bush and McCain rushed off to war against Iraq over the distant possibility that Iraq might some day have the capacity to build a nuclear bomb, they allowed disorder to spread in Pakistan, a country that already possesses nuclear weapons."

Ready for King McCain? Let him appoint a few justices to the Supreme Court who will agree with the right-wing justices already there who are of the opinion that the President should have unchecked powers in wartime and wartime will never end.

This nonsense must stop!

The Reagan Legacy

2008-08-14T10:20:00.002-05:00

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/c/a/2004/06/09/BUGBI72U8Q1.DTL

Deficit spending with a smile, and it all works out... for a while. Bush is going by the same play book (as been for 8 years), and it will be our undoing unless we're very clever about fixing things.

McCain: More wars

2008-08-12T14:01:00.001-05:00

Can we afford anything but an Obama vote?

Can we afford anything but an Obama vote?

Color-coded threats

2008-06-26T19:28:00.000-05:00

Israel to bomb Iran

2008-06-18T17:52:00.005-05:00

Word by way of Pakistan is that Israel (blue on the map at left) is very interested in attacking Iran (red) to stop the latter's nuclear ambitions. Writes the Daily Times, "...time is running out and ... if Israel is to attack Iran, it should be now when Bush is in office. [Isreal's war hawks] stress that there is now a 'favorable window of opportunity' that will close with the US presidential election in November, and that Israel can only depend on American support for as long as current US President George W. Bush is still in charge in Washington."

Now forgive me, but this actually makes a modicum of sense. Israel is literally up in arms over the Iranian nuclear ambitions, and Israel has some guns to make an assault. The United States has little motivation to embark on such a mission unilaterally, even with the precedent of attacking Iraq to stave off the fictitious WMD, but if Israel does it with the backing of the United States, well then we have a war on our hands! And what a conflagration it can be. Israel can use the United States' precedent of a preemptive strike as justification for their strike against Iran, and Iran will take up arms against Isreal. If this should somehow become a land war, guess who's in between! When will the insanity end? Once again, bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity.

Time to impeach.

Microbes making petrolium

2008-06-16T11:04:00.003-05:00

A Silicon Valley company called LS9 is fermenting waste plant matter and getting petroleum out of it. "Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol," says The Times Online. This goes quite nicely with I, Cringley's column calling for a change of our "platform" for energy. October 2007 National Geographic Magazine suggested such a breakthrough wasn't far away.

Impeach!

2008-06-11T19:56:00.002-05:00

Impeachment is imperative for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is exercise of the authority of the legislative branch which has heretofore been usurped by the White House and a litany of signing statements, wiretapping, and other violations of the will of the people as expressed by Congress. This is a test of our Constitution, and if we fail to impeach in this case, we have demonstrated that the chief executive must do something truly extraordinary - far worse than a regular citizen's felony, to be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors."

I will be the first to agree that impeachment of Clinton was a mistake. He was impeached for lying under oath about a tawdry affair. Bush's crimes have had a much larger impact on our nation, our world, our economy, and our general well being than a tabloid sex scandal and they deserve to be investigated. That is the purpose of impeachment. Do not delay. Do your utmost to get Bush out as soon as possible so that he may not wage war against Iran or make other horrendous mistakes.

Sign the latest petition to support Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment!

War with Iran or no?

2008-06-11T14:00:00.003-05:00

The Times reports on Bush: "President Bush has admitted to The Times that his gun-slinging rhetoric made the world believe that he was a “guy really anxious for war” in Iraq. He said that his aim now was to leave his successor a legacy of international diplomacy for tackling Iran."

And then there's this from The Guardian: "President Bush on Wednesday raised unprompted the possibility of a military strike against Tehran's presumed nuclear weapons ambitions, speaking bullishly on Iran even as he admitted having been unwise to do so previously about Iraq."

The Guardian goes on to point out that an attack on Iran is tactically "extremely difficult", but one might point out that maintaining peace on the ground in Iraq with a force far less than 20 per thousand Iraqis is tactically "extremely difficult," too.

Is it me, or is this guy a politician in the extreme, saber rattling on one hand and claiming to be less than really anxious for war on the other.

I say we should impeach him before he has an opportunity to order an Iran strike in late October. Sign up at WexlerWantsHearings.

Bush Did His Best

2008-06-06T20:23:00.006-05:00

I'm reasonably certain that George W. Bush has done what he though was best for the country at most if not all opportunities. I just don't think he was very smart about quite a few huge items on the domestic and international stages. I imagine this is for a variety of reasons: 1) I don't think he is very accepting of opinions differing from his once he's made up his mind. 2) I suspect several of his advisers are acting in self-interest (consider the Cheney-Haliburton connection, for one, and see the amount of money being funneled into political campaigns and lobbying in Washington for another source of corruption) 3) I expect he gets much of his input from those advisers before making up his mind and 4) I'm not convinced that he is especially smart, given his C grades at Yale. None of this says he's a bad person or in any way unpatriotic, just misinformed, resolute, and ill-suited to his present job.

Domestically, the only complaints I have with him are regarding logging old-growth forests that had previously been protected and an energy policy that focuses on increased consumption of non-renewable resources and research into inefficient renewables like ethanol and hydrogen fuel cells to the exclusion of other, more urgent needs like improving vehicle fuel efficiency and our railroad system. I also don't like his warrantless wiretapping on U.S. citizens, which you might say is justified, but I would point out that there is a court in place to authorize such things, and the court was not consulted. "No Child Left Behind" has proven to be aimed at getting students out of public schools and into private ones, because its requirements are impossible to meet. How are English as a second language (ESL) students going to improve their test scores as a group when the group is always rotating because they are the ones who are new to the country? I'm also disappointed in various political appointments, such as Michael Brown as FEMA head, who had no relevant experience when he took the job. There are a few other issues, but those are the biggest in my mind today.

Politicians favoring cronies has cost many countries much livelihood. I imagine it is mostly corruption that Mexicans have to thank for their present economic state. In every administration, and especially in the most recent, we have a fine example of our President returning political favors by making appointments of unqualified people to various positions and then wondering why things didn't work out. If I were President, I would hire a staffing firm to find some qualified cabinet members!

Internationally, Bush got off on the wrong foot at the start of his administration when he as much as said, "The Middle East is not my problem. Let the Middle Easterners sort it out." It didn't take him long to change his tune. The war with Iraq was a colossal blunder and should not have been undertaken. It was a presented as a conflation of two events that were unrelated (9/11 hijackings were clearly linked to Al Quida and Afghanistan, but not to Iraq). The Iraq reconstruction was undertaken with all the foresight of a fifth grader. We learned much in the reconstruction of Japan and West Germany that could have been useful in Iraq, but history was disregarded because we supposedly had new methods that would make troops more efficient. When Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki suggested in a Congressional Briefing that it might take "several hundred thousand soldiers," more troops than the White House wanted, he was sidelined within four months of that accurate assessment because it was not politically expedient. Guantanamo Bay is a national disgrace. How can we claim to be fighting terrorism when we take innocent civilians off the streets in foreign countries and imprison them halfway around the globe? Ah, "But they're not innocent", you might say. And I ask how you would know that, since they haven't been tried in 5 years, they haven't had access to courts, and everything related to the camp has been a fiasco. These people have been held against their will and without any recourse whatsoever. What's more, a number of them have been tortured. It is only this White House that would try to coerce information from a prisoner who hasn't been in the loop for 5 years. Imagine the furious families those political prisoners left behind. Unfortunately, the nearly solo invasion and continued occupation of Iraq has cost this country dearly in terms of international clout. (If you doubt this, try discussing our President with any foreigner, or better yet, travel abroad and discuss our politics.) You don't have to take my word for it, either. Just look at the performance of the U.S. Dollar for his term. It has been on a steady decline.

In summary, I suppose if Bush had been specifically determined to ruin our country, he would have been more efficient about it, but he has fairly effectively ruined the economy by spending money we didn't have for a war we didn't need, taken our freedoms by listening to our communications, spent our international political capital to zero, and done his best to see that the public school system is ineffective. In all, he has done a fantastic job of wrecking things in spite of his best efforts.

U.S. Dollar at Record Lows

2008-06-06T19:55:00.005-05:00

The U.S. Dollar has been going down against other currencies since April, 2002. Whomever touts parity with the Canadian Dollar as news hasn't been watching as we got ourselves into this mess. You have to go back more than 35 years to find a time when the Dollar was worth less than it is now.

Now we need to turn it around and make the greenback worth something. One way to do help is by not spending so much overseas. Just a thought.

Source: Federal Reserve

Resist in March

2008-03-05T07:03:00.000-05:00

Resist in March

March 19 marks the 5th Anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Peace and justice organizations will hold actions around the country and in Washington, DC to demand an end to the funding of the occupation, along with the impeachment of the president and vice president who launched it. For the full range of activities, see http://resistinmarch.org

The timing of these efforts could not be better, with Congress considering another $105 billion for the occupation of Iraq, with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz putting the true costs of the occupation over $3 trillion, and with awareness growing that Congress can simply stop voting on additional funds. Here's what we want our Representatives to do:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/31397

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MARCH 10-12 in Washington DC: Stop-Loss Congress

While Congress plans a vacation from March 15th to 30th, Bush's stop-loss policy requires soldiers to involuntarily extend their tours and prolong the occupation. It is time to Stop-Loss Congress!

On Monday March 10, and Tuesday March 11, we will deliver "official" stop-loss notices to all members of Congress to notify them that all of their LEAVES, VACATIONS and HOME VISITS HAVE BEEN CANCELLED until every soldier and mercenary is home from Iraq. On Wednesday March 12, we will take nonviolent action on Capitol Hill.

http://www.stop-losscongress.org

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MARCH 13-16, 2008 (Thursday-Sunday): Winter Soldier

Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War will testify in Silver Spring, Maryland to crimes witnessed and committed in Iraq. Audio and video of panels will be available live online, on satelite TV, and on Pacifica radio.

http://www.ivaw.org/wintersoldier

Local events supporting Winter Soldier, and other events for peace, justice, and impeachment:

http://www.5yearstoomany.org

_______

MARCH 16 to 18, 2008 (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday) in Washington, D.C.: Training, Lobbying, Restoring the Constitution

March 17th and 18th All day trainings & workshop at the Warehouse Theatre in preparation for March 19th

March 18th, Tuesday: CODEPINK Action Day to Take Back the Constitution:
http://www.codepinkalert.org/section.php?id=347

Events are also planned around the country on March 17-18, including events in support of impeachment and demanding an end to funding the occupation. See: http://resistinmarch.org

Impeachment advocates are using this opportunity to advance a new strategy modeled on what achieved the resignation of Richard Nixon: http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/31481

A reborn Students for a Democratic Society has planned campus events on March 17 to 21.

_______

MARCH 19, 2008 (Wednesday) Nonviolent Civil Resistance in All 435 Congressional Districts and in the Nation's Capital on the Fifth Anniversary of the Occupation of Iraq

Locations in each congressional district, to be determined locally, will include congressional offices (Congress Members and Senators will be in their districts on this day), federal buildings, military recruiters, weapons makers, war profiteers, or corporate media outlets. In Washington, with Congress out of town, the focus will be on war profiteers in the military industrial disaster-capitalism complex. Events will include roles for people not wanting to risk arrest.

http://www.5yearstoomany.org

LOCAL EVENTS: Post Yours! Update it.

FIND LOCAL EVENTS AT http://5yearstoomany.org AND IN A SEPARATE LIST AT http://worldagainstwar.org

WASHINGTON DC EVENTS: Join us!

Resources for nonviolent activism: HERE.
Resources for promoting your event in the media: HERE.
Flyers and posters with room for local info: HERE.
Ideas for local actions: HERE.

DETAILS ON DC EVENTS: http://www.5yearstoomany.org

World Can't Wait Events in DC on 19th

Join in acts of creative non-violent civil resistance: http://resistinmarch.org

_______

Sick of It Day

Something else that anyone anywhere can do on the 19th:

_______

Student Involvement and Leadership

http://www.ourspringbreak.org

March 20 SDS Campus Protests

Students for a Democratic Society Campus Events

http://www.newsds.org/march20

March 22 Teach In at American University in Washington DC

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March 20-23 Split This Rock Poetry Festival

Stick around to TALK about what you've been doing, with Split This Rock in Washington, D.C.

FISA and Protecting America from enemies within

2008-02-15T19:02:00.002-05:00

President Bush said today, "At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make September 11 pale by comparison."

First, why should we believe this President? He has lied to us on a number of counts, especially drumming up fear when there was nothing to fear.

Second, should we sacrifice our privacy to gain security? I think not.

Third, the FISA courts have been established to allow for surveillance. If, as the President claims, it is necessary to watch every bit of information as it travels the globe, then let the President subject the program to judicial monitoring. If a judge hasn't approved of it, it is illegal.

Fourth, if we would quit making a mess of our international affairs, terrorists would not be so eager to destroy our country. Remind me again why we invaded Iraq?

The Senate offered immunity to the telecom companies. The House has stood firm that we might retain our rights. Tell the House of Representatives: "Keep standing up to the fear-mongering!"

Why I Believe Bush Must Go

2008-01-07T12:58:00.000-05:00

George McGovern writes an editorial in Sunday's Washington Post: Why I Believe Bush Must Go. I appreciate his pragmatism and his thorough enumeration of the faults of this administration. I appreciate the comparison with the Nixon administration.

FCC Lost its way - Big media consolidation win

2007-12-19T15:22:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/business/media/19fcc.html

Hi, For those of us who don't want a few big companies deciding what we see, hear, and read in the news, it's a bad day.
The Bush-appointed FCC just voted to loosen media ownership rules so media titans like Rupert Murdoch can swallow up more local news outlets. They did this despite a huge public outcry--when the FCC asked for public comments, 99% opposed media consolidation!

The last thing our democracy needs is fewer independent media voices and more news outlets like FOX. Congress has the power to reverse this rule change, and I just signed this petition asking Congress to do that. This issue is very important. Can you join me at the link below?

http://civ.moveon.org/mediaconsolidation/?r_by=11825-655709-acRcAm&rc=paste

Thanks!

Lies, Damn Lies, and Bushisms

2007-12-06T13:39:00.000-05:00

Crooks and Liars » George Bush says he got the new NIE report last week: Oh, really?

When did he see that NIE report? A couple of weeks ago? Um, no. October 17 at the latest. How many lies does it take to impeach the man?

Creation Museum tour

2007-11-19T08:36:00.000-05:00

If you're still scratching your head about what might be in that Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (which I mentioned earlier), you can read all about it. If that leaves you sour because it tramples on your firmly-held beliefs, many people have been making observations and testing hypotheses to answer just that question. Read up on that at http://www.talkorigins.org/, where many of your lingering questions will be answered in the FAQ.

Today's call for Impeachment #3

2007-11-11T09:18:00.000-05:00

Put Impeachment ON The Table of the House Judiciary Committee

This week Dennis Kucinich led an heroic effort to put the impeachment of Dick Cheney ON the table by requesting a floor vote on H.Res. 333. As expected, BushDemocrat Steny Hoyer moved to table the bill. And then all hell broke loose as 165 Republicans voted with Kucinich and 85 brave Democrats to force a debate on impeachment over the objections of Nancy Pelosi. To block that debate, Hoyer moved to send H.Res. 333 back to the Judiciary Committee, and this motion passed. Watch David Swanson explain the events to Paul Jay of The Real News.

Kucinich is urging Judiciary Chairman John Conyers to start hearings immediately because Cheney is desperately manipulating the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran to justify a U.S. attack, just as he did with the pre-war NIE on Iraq. But Judiciary Democrats are deeply divided on impeachment, with Robert Wexler (FL-19) calling for immediate impeachment hearings, while fellow Palm Beacher Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20), who is close to Speaker Pelosi, told Ed Sc! hultz she adamantly opposes hearings.

So what do we do next to move impeachment forward?

1. Email all of the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee:
http://www.democrats.com/topelosiandjudiciary
and call them:
http://www.democrats.com/house-judiciary-democrats

2. If you live in the district of a House Judiciary Committee member, call their office and tell them you're a constituent and you want immediate hearings on H.Res. 333. Then join your Congressional District Impeachment Committee http://democrats.com/cdic-find
and organize a HonkToImpeach rally http://www.democrats.com/honktoimpeach
in front of your Representative's district office. Then keep up the pressure on your Representative every way you can, including letters to the editor, op-eds, calls to local talk shows, protests at local media offices, and pointed questions at every community forum attended by your Representative.

3. If your Congress Member is not on Judiciary, ask them to cosponsor H Res 333:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/73

4. Ask pollsters to poll the public on impeachment, especially of Cheney: http://www.democrats.com/impeachment-poll-petition
and promote impeachment through media activism:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/748

5. Watch for updates and notice of a national conference call with Rep. Dennis Kucinich at http://impeachcheney.org

Today's call for Impeachment (#2)

2007-10-26T09:15:00.000-05:00

Special to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi:

I understand that you may be concerned that impeaching President and Vice President would be unprecedented and put you in the untenable role of President over a quagmire, and one who had a substantial political role in getting yourself to that position. I must remind you of your prerogative to resign, leaving the position to Senator Byrd, who may also resign to leave the position to our Secretary of State, who is of the same party as the current President, and making her President would put to rest any concerns about partisan motivations for the impeachment.

Dear readers: take action!

Wondering about the Presidential line of succession?

Today's call for impeachment

2007-10-25T20:39:00.000-05:00

To preserve any meaningful authority on Capitol Hill, Congress must impeach the President for his multitudinous crimes against our country. These offenses are far worse than lying under oath about philandering, worse even than breaking into political opponents' offices and political espionage. Congress must impeach this President and his Vice President so that it may exercise its supervisory authority over the Executive Branch under future administrations. The liberties taken by this administration for itself from the Congress and the People are far too great.

This impeachment is imperative, not only for the citizens of the United Sates and the continued democracy we enjoy, but also for the citizens of the world, as it is likely that without impeachment, this President will rush to war with Iran completely de-stabilizing the Middle East and advancing the cause of terror around the globe through the indiscriminate use of military force.

I do not make these statements lightly, and I consider myself a political centrist. I have taken the time to understand the issues and attempt to reconcile the situation with the possible courses of action, and, as I have explained in a previous letter, impeachment is the only reasonable course of action.

We cannot wait for the next election for a change in administration. Iraq will not wait. Iran will not wait. Our freedom will not wait. The Congress must not wait, or by inaction condone these unacceptable actions.

Dear reader, take action now.

"It sucks to see your friends blown up."

2007-10-22T09:47:00.001-05:00

So said the private security contractor who sat next to me on the plane from Atlanta to Raleigh-Durham. He was on leave for a week to see his father who was in intensive care in the hospital, and tomorrow, he'll be back on the tarmac at 0400 to fly back to Afghanistan. He also said, "I'm almost starting to get used to it." This seemed like a perfectly decent fellow, but who has been under too much pressure for too long. And I take that as a symptom of the never-ending conflict.

Read a Good Book

2007-10-09T09:45:00.000-05:00

Ok, so we know about The Good Book - and the American Library Association has compiled lists of other good books. So good these books are that some people are afraid of them!

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

The Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris

Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz

Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey

Forever by Judy Blume

I get that some folks don't want their tax dollars going to fund filth, but one person's filth is another person's treasure. In our society, we must respect our diversity while simultaneously guarding our individual character, but we cannot impose our own individual character upon everyone.

Google has a great page on banned books, too.

Stop Banging Those Drums!

2007-10-01T12:01:00.000-05:00

The drumbeat for war against Iran continues. A couple of sources sum things up very well:

The best U.S. weapon against Iran is diplomacy -- Newsday.com

2007-09-27T15:42:00.000-05:00

The best U.S. weapon against Iran is diplomacy -- Newsday.com

Iran War: Casus Belli Mapped

2007-09-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

Cheney has spelled out the casus belli: Isreal will attack one of Iran's nuclear facilities. Iran will retaliate against Isreal, and the United States will "have no choice but to defend itself."[1] Iran, on the other hand, thinks it's not such a good idea: "They will regret it, as they are regretting it in Iraq." [2]

A glimmer of hope for Iran

2007-09-20T18:36:00.000-05:00

It's still to early to tell if Bush is as mad as Hitler, but at least some people think diplomacy might prevail.

Dear Congress: We must not invade Iran; Impeach now.

2007-09-15T19:12:00.000-05:00

Dear Congress:

I have written you several times on various topics. This is my most important message by far. War against Iran is unconscionable and must be avoided. While some of the ideas I present here may be different from your thinking, I urge you to give them very serious consideration because the consequences of taking the wrong path are dire. I have included references with further reading on each point to assist you in your careful consideration.

The military is readying for war against Iran.[1] “All the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.”[2] Six nuclear missiles moved from North Dakota to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana last week.[3] “Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations.”[4] I suspect the mistake was not the movement of missiles but in our hearing of it.

War against Iran is fraught with negative aspects that far outweigh any perceived gains.[5] Perhaps engaging in such a war would delay Iranian nuclear capabilities, and that would be a desirable goal, but at what cost? Iran has allies in Russia[6] and China[7], both nuclear powers. Europe has not been a strong supporter of our invasion of Iraq and would likely be even less supportive of our invasion of Iran, even if the attack were limited to strategic dismantling of their nuclear capabilities. In fact, considered from the point of view of an uninvolved country, the United States invading yet another sovereign country would look like the expansion of the German empire at the onset of World War II.[8] Furthermore, there are not enough troops to support additional military action, beyond today’s commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.[9] The attacks would fuel the fire of hatred against the United States for extending its military might to the Middle East resulting in increased terrorism.[10] Nations which disapproved of the U.S. invasion of Iraq would rightly have a stronger reaction against an unauthorized attack on Iran. Invading Iran now would invite a draft to defend our homeland against attacks from terrorists and civilized nations alike.[11]

The Executive Branch has demonstrated a propensity to stretch its authority beyond that granted by Congress and the Constitution.[12] This President has used more signing statements than all previous Presidents combined. He has used them as a line-item veto that cannot be overridden.[13] He has taken the concept of unitary executive to a new level.[14] He has imprisoned innocent people at Guantánamo Bay with no opportunity to contest their detention.[15] He has ordered the torture of prisoners.[16] He has instituted programs to spy on citizens without authorization[17]. He has declared that he has the authority to open anyone’s mail.[18] Through these actions, Bush has violated laws that were enacted specifically to prevent these sorts of abuses of executive authority.

Guns and bombs cannot rid the world of the evil scourge of terrorism.[19] The exercise of military might will promote terrorism, anger targets, deliberate or accidental, and even disable some terrorists, but, “For every terrorist killed, two more are created to take his place. The terror never goes away until the political conditions that create it go away.”[20] I support a “war on terror,” but it must not be waged with bombs, guns, and missiles, but rather by allowing the rule of law to run its course, thereby demonstrating that the system actually works - to the benefit of all those who are frustrated because of their unfortunate situations.

The war on terror is not justification for expanding executive authority beyond the will of the Congress and the people.[21] The threat is real, but it is small. “As political scientist John Mueller notes, in most years allergic reactions to peanuts, deer in the road and lightning have all killed about the same number of Americans as terrorism. In 2001, their banner year, terrorists killed one twelfth as many Americans as the flu and one fifteenth the number killed by car accidents.”[22] For this we should give up our liberties? Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”[23]

Something will happen to agitate the relationship, and that will be used as a pretense for going to war.[24] For Vietnam, it was the Gulf of Tonkin incident. For World War I, it was the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand. For the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was Saddam Hussein’s resistance to IAEA inspections. Bush may seize on any casus belli, and when he does, we must remember the consequences of our actions and choose restraint rather than race into a quagmire much worse than what we have seen in Iraq.

Congressional authority for the use of military force against Iran should not be obtainable. As your voting constituent, I urge you to oppose any such measure. As a member of Congress, it is your responsibility to consider the measure and act appropriately. Perhaps if Iran were to sustain an attack against the United States on U.S. soil, it could be worthwhile taking the battle to their country. With any less provocation, an attack will be much more like United States imperial expansion[25] and will likely destabilize the region, if not the world, further.

Our executives may stretch their authority to engaging Iran in a conflict based on that casus belli without Congressional authority. The Executive Branch has demonstrated disregard for the will of Congress and may do so again by ordering a strike against Iran even without authorization from Congress. They may hold up some obscure authorization or Article II of the Constitution, which, when read backwards through red glasses seems to say the President has a power never before exercised, and the document, through their distorted view, authorizes the action.

The President and Vice President must be impeached immediately – before the President orders an attack against Iran.[26] The consequences of an attack on Iran are dire. The consequences of another President who exercises so much unchecked authority are dire.[27] The consequences of failure to impeach may be so severe as the end of our Constitutional democracy, be that at the hands of our adversaries or by our own hands for failure to observe our liberties slipping through our fingers.

As your constituent, I urge you to defend our country. Defend the liberties we fought to achieve. Defend the Constitution our soldiers have died to protect. Defend the freedoms we hold dear. Defend us from a President who would shred the Constitution[28] and lead us into a magnificent death spiral.

Sincerely,

James E. Scarborough

[1] Rosen, James. “U.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan.” Fox News, September 12, 2007. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296450,00.html

[2] “We Are Going To Hit Iran...Bigtime.” September 2, 2007. http://rense.com/general78/we.htm

[3] Jelinek, Pauline. “Nuclear Bombs Mistakenly Flown Over US.” Associated Press, September 5, 2007 http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/09/05/ap4086085.html

[4] Johnson, Larry. “Staging Nuke for Iran?” September 5, 2007. http://tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/sep/05/staging_nuke_for_iran

[5] Salama, Sammy and Karen Ruster. “A Preemptive Attack on Iran's Nuclear Facilities: Possible Consequences.” Monterey Institute of International Studies, Center for Nonproliferation Studies, September 9, 2004. http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/040812.htm

[6] Beehner, Lionel. “Russia-Iran Arms Trade.” Council on Foreign Relations, November 1, 2006. http://www.cfr.org/publication/11869/

[7] Deen, Thalif. “How to Curb China's Arms Trade.” Asia Times Online, June 14, 2006. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HF14Ad01.html

[8] Jayne, Edward. “31 Similarities Between Hitler and President Bush.” Dissident Voice, August 29, 2004. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles3/Jayne_Hitler-Bush.htm

[9] Associated Press. “Study: Army stretched to breaking point.” USA Today, January 24, 2006. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-01-24-army-study_x.htm

[10] Priest, Dana. “Attacking Iran May Trigger Terrorism: U.S. Experts Wary of Military Action Over Nuclear Program.” Washington Post, April 2, 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/01/AR2006040100981.html

[11] Harkin, Tom. “LETTER: Bush has no choice but to reinstate draft” Iowa State Daily, October 26, 2004. http://media.www.iowastatedaily.com/media/storage/paper818/news/2004/10/26/HotTopics/Letter.Bush.Has.No.Choice.But.To.Reinstate.Draft-1101799.shtml

[12] Van Bergen, Jennifer. “The Unitary Executive: Is The Doctrine Behind the Bush Presidency Consistent with a Democratic State?” FindLaw, January 9, 2006. http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20060109_bergen.html

[13] Feinstein, Dianne. Address to the Queen’s Bench Bar Association, May 30, 2006. http://feinstein.senate.gov/06releases/r-queens-bench0601.htm

[14] Mayer, Jane. “The Hidden Power: The legal mind behind the White House’s war on terror.” New Yorker, July 3, 2006. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/07/03/060703fa_fact1

[15] “Innocent, but in limbo at Guantánamo.” Christian Science Monitor, February 13, 2006. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0213/p03s03-usju.html

[16] “Guantanamo Tactics 'Tantamount to Torture' -NY Times” Reuters, November 30, 2004. http://web.archive.org/web/20041208194345/http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6951969

[17] Risen, James and Eric Lichtblau. “Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts.” New York Times, December 16, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html?ex=1292389200&en=e32070e08c623ac1&ei=5089

[18] Baram, Marcus, et al. “Bush: Government Can Open Your Mail.” ABC News, January 4, 2007. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2770381&page=1

[19] Chomsky, Noam. “Distorted Morality: America's War on Terror?” Harvard University, February 6, 2002. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13936.htm

[20] Rockwell, Lew, quoted in Gorka Erostarbe. “Lew Rockwell Interviewed for the Basque Daily, Euskaldunon Egunkaria” Lew Rockwell, October 24, 2001. http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/basque.html

[21] Eland, Ivan. “An Imperial Presidency Based on Constitutional Quicksand.” The Independent Institute, January 9, 2006. http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1651

[22] Friedman, Ben. “The War on Hype: Risk to U.S. of Withering Terrorist Hit is Overblown.” San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2006. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/19/INGDDH8E2T1.DTL&type=printable

[23] Franklin, Benjamin. Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, November 11, 1755.—The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree, vol. 6, p. 242 (1963). http://www.bartleby.com/73/1056.html

[24] Atcheson, John. “Casus Belli, Anyone?: Prediction: This nation will go to war with Iran, and it will do so with the full consent of Congress.” http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0219-26.htm

[25] Grichar, Jim. “The Axis of Deceit – Still Pushing for U.S. Imperial Expansion!” Lew Rockwell, May 23, 2003. http://www.lewrockwell.com/grichar/grichar18.html

[26] Roberts, Paul Craig. “Impeach Now Or Face the End of Constitutional Democracy.” Counterpunch, July 16, 2007 http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts07162007.html

[27] Holtzman, Elizabeth. “The Impeachment of George W. Bush” The Nation, January 11, 2006. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060130/holtzman

[28] Thompson, Doug. “Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper’” Capitol Hill Blue, December 5, 2005. http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml

"We Are Going To Hit Iran... Bigtime"

2007-09-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.

I asked her why she is telling me this.

Read on...

War with Iran Imminent

2007-09-12T12:47:00.000-05:00

It looks like war with Iran is imminent. Faux News reports that the Bush administration is just about fed up with Iran and officials are gathering bombing strategies[1]. This is supposedly because Iran with nuclear ambitions poses a threat to the United States, but I'd say the United States poses a much greater threat to Iran. [Heck, if I were running Iran, I would bend over backward to make it clear I wasn't developing nuclear bombs... ] Too bad this threat posed by Iran has been brought on by the U.S. invasion of Iraq destabilizing the region and removing a valuable counterweight to Iran's extremism[2]. Since Russia and Iran seem to cooperate on arms regularly [3], what would you say if Iran decides to buy one of the new Russian bombs [4] and with it bring the war to the States?

Links: Under attack

2007-09-11T07:48:00.000-05:00

Free assembly & speech: Police break up anti-war meeting in Washington
The American Dream: Forgotten man: Steve Tucker served a 10-year prison sentence for selling light bulbs. Is America's drug war worth it?
The American Economy: Economy In Crisis

War with Iran

2007-09-06T08:28:00.000-05:00

Fox News has been beating the Iran War Drums for some time now. Yesterday, a B-52 flew from Minot, North Dakota to Barksdale, Louisiana - with six nuclear missiles on board, supposedly a "mistake." How do you make a mistake with nuclear warheads? Um... these things are under pretty tight security. I think the "mistake" was that we heard about it. But why would they go to Barksdale, Louisiana? An ex-CIA agent blogs: "Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations." There is no need for them in Iraq. It must be to attack Iran. So our illustrious Commander in Chief will drag us into yet another war we cannot win and let the nuclear genie out of the bottle while other countries have The Bomb?

Let's follow the logic here: The war in Iraq is failing, and Congress is getting skittish about funding it. Petraeus is scheduled to make his report, and a number of the benchmarks for success of the troop surge have not been met. Things aren't looking good for the Bush/Pentagon/Haliburton administration. How to fix that? Let's see how they've handled disappointment in the past:

"Instead of reaching out to Congress and the courts for support, which would have strengthened its legal hand, the administration asserted what [former head of Justice Department Office of Legal Council Jack] Goldsmith considers an unnecessarily broad, “go-it-alone” view of executive power," reports Jeffrey Rosen in New York Times magazine. (It's an excellent article.) What would happen if they dream up a threat (ala Gulf of Tonkin) in Iran and respond in "self defense?" Instant quagmire, and years more funding for the military-industrial complex.

What would stop this from happening? Bush is a lame duck now. He doesn't need to be re-elected. There has even been talk that impeachment proceedings would carry on to the end of his term if they were undertaken. He's afraid of Iran, sees a threat, and wants to take preemptive action against it. He sees that it is easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.

Of course, I'm not the first with the notion of an imminent attack on Iran. The Raw Story outlines preparations for a massive attack on the country.

Political links

2007-08-23T12:39:00.000-05:00

I have so far resisted the temptation to post just a few links because I imagine I should be collecting information from various sources and putting the pieces together here. Alas, today, the articles speak quite well for themselves:

Now who flip-flops?

2007-08-17T21:22:00.000-05:00

Ok, so when we have a President who listens to the people and adjusts his position, he gets called a "flip-flop." When we have one who takes a stand, regardless of how wrong it is, he's hailed as a great leader. Greatness requires smarts, not just resolve. Honesty helps, too.

Cheney: Deposing Saddam would make quagmire

2007-08-17T11:38:00.000-05:00

Q: Do you think US or UN forces should have moved into Baghdad?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: Because if we'd gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. It would have been a US occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.

Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. Part of it the Syrians would like to have in the west; part of Eastern Iraq the Iranians would like to claim - faught over [it] for eight years. In the north you've got the Kurds. The Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you've threatened the terratorial integrity of Turkey. It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over.

Another thing is casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact that we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had, but for the 146 Americans killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap war. And the question for the President in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad and took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein was, "How many additional dead americans is Saddam worth?", and our judgement was not very many, and I think we got it right.

Do you feel secure?

2007-08-17T09:33:00.001-05:00

DHS is making strides in measuring risk and spending money where it will do the most good. But what happens when the next terrorist attack comes? Will we wildly spend money on whatever sort of thing gets attacked, without regard to effectiveness? How much money are we spending on ineffective measures - like shoe inspections at airports, the prohibition on water over 3 oz., and the 13 oz. rule for stamped parcels in the mail. Richard Reid and Ted Kaczynski are in jail, and I think most of us would agree that they are fringe lunatics, anyway. Yes, there are oddballs, but the worse crime is that we give up liberties for a false sense of security. Note that anyone can wreak havoc in an airport security line. Fortunately TSA has the SPOT program which is on the lookout for nervous folk. But most of the rest of it is knee-jerk security. Not very helpful for security but very harmful for time and freedom.

Where do you live?

2007-08-16T11:43:00.000-05:00

I used to think I lived in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Now, I'm not so sure. The City of Washington, D.C. has taken action against ANSWER - fining them $10k for using an inappropriate adhesive on anti-war protest posters announcing the event planned for September 15, 2007. Selective enforcement?

And then there's the bit about search and seizure. Congress authorized the President to wiretap every man, woman, and child talking on the phone so long as the Attorney General "reasonably believes" that one end of the conversation is abroad. What happened to the FISA courts? What happened to the idea of having judicial oversight? Now, all of wiretapping is in the hands of the President. What if he doesn't like my political views? What if he doesn't like some reporter? What if someone can expose him for doing something he shouldn't have? Will he have blackmail material on hand? This lack of oversight cannot be a good thing.

Oh, and representation of the will of the people. Now they're going to build a MegaMall a mile from my house at an intersection ill-suited for the traffic and far from any suitable highways. The Town Council approved the zoning change in the face of scores of protesters, and after hundreds turned out for a Planning and Zoning meeting to protest. How many people need to protest something to get it to not happen?

First Paris, now Scooter. Who's next?

2007-07-02T18:52:00.000-05:00

Paris Hilton got plenty of publicity for her cushy treatment in jail (and particularly for being let out after just a few days). Now, the one scapegoat for the entire Bush administration got off easy - instead of 36 months in prison and a $250k fine, Bush commutes his sentence so he only has to pay the fine - and what do you want to bet it won't come from his personal checking account. I would say it reminds me of Ford's pardon of Nixon, but in that case, the pardon really did just silence the worthless hullabaloo whereas this just demonstrates that the administration is acting above the law. Disgusting. When can we impeach these jokers?

VP calls the shots

2007-06-24T20:56:00.000-05:00

You may recall that Cheney recently asserted that the Vice President's office is not part of the executive branch, and I read with delight that Democrats are talking of cutting funding to that appendage of government to which rules apparently do not apply. The Washington Post tells how Cheney suspended habeas corpus with hardly any review and gives a detailed look into the workings of the Cheney branch of government. (Wash Post part 2)

Vicious Cycle

2007-06-22T21:24:00.000-05:00

(The conversation started here.) Is it a "sick picture?" Not so much as a sad one. It's a shame the coffins were there. It's telling that Haliburton sold weapons to Iran and Iran arms Iraq and Haliburton supports counter-insurgence in Iraq. Maybe they're not directly connected, but it's certainly enough to make it look like a war machine.

What's really interesting about the picture is it comes from a German blog. What does that say about our international cachet? The former State Department head of media affairs opines.

Nationwide Wi-Fi?

2007-05-30T12:03:00.000-05:00

We have a national electric grid. Most locales also have water and sewer through community resources. Lafayette, Louisiana has now prevailed in its court case against the local telephone and cable companies to provide fiber to the home as a utility. See the Bill Moyers special "The Net at Risk" for background on that and other projects. Lafayette is not stopping at fiber. They will also be running wi-fi to the town. Should we have Internet accessible to the masses nationwide, or is that solely the domain of private enterprise? Such is the question before the court of public opinion. Some of the big telcos want to license spectrum which might otherwise be used for this nationwide network. Of course, there's a petition.

Bush Signs Ultimate Authority

2007-05-29T15:24:00.000-05:00

The Progressive (via Dvorak) reports that in the event of a catastrophic emergency, Bush has ordered that he has supreme authority. The only trouble is: he determines "catastrophic emergency," defined within the document as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."[1] Perhaps global warming is the catastrophic emergency he has in mind?

Creation Museum now open!

2007-05-29T15:11:00.000-05:00

Have you ever met a Biblical scholar who was a biblical literalist? I haven't. Mostly, those folks understand that the documents were written tens of centuries ago by people who had a much different understanding of the world. They didn't have cars, airplanes, trains, or even printing presses. It was before the industrial revolution. Woodblock printing was high-tech, and the spinning wheel was 500 years in the future.[1] Yet some people maintain that the Bible is the ultimate authority on all things. (Excuse me - would the people of that day have been able to understand modern physics even if it had been presented reasonably?) Which Bible? Oh, yeah, it has changed over the ages as well, and then there are those extra books the Catholics use.[2]

Enter the Creation Museum where you can go and learn that man and dinosaurs roamed the earth together. (Oh, yeah, there's a petition against it, too.) I'm all for folks standing firm in their beliefs and free speech, but do these people ever think? Lest there be some confusion, let's also link straight to the source: Genesis 1-2. (Sorry, I don't have a link to the Hebrew.)

What he said

2007-05-08T09:46:00.000-05:00

"You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17- in 1976." British papers had a fit. Bush shattered the solemnity and ceremony with a dumb joke at the Queen's expense. But what were the people expecting when they elected a clown to the White House because he uses the language of the people?

A friend of mine laments the anti-U.S. vitriol found abroad. Why don't we travel more? Perhaps there's room enough for all 300 million of us. Perhaps we just have too much to think about - like what's coming on TV this week. Perhaps we should get out and broaden our horizons a bit.

Up-sell on your cell phone

2007-03-28T12:33:00.000-05:00

"Would you like fries with that?" "Can I interest you in the extended service plan?" How about $5/month more for text messaging, or $15/month for internet access on your spiffy new cell phone? Don't like that? How about 15¢ per text message and 3¢ per kilobyte for data transfer - which means it costs about $1 to get a frigging picture off my camera phone? That's the price of FILM! Oh, right the plan only covers the minutes I use for talking. Does it also cover the button-presses for dialing the numbers? Does it cover the time I listen, too, or is that 50¢/min? John C. Dvorak rants about the phones themselves - gadgetry, fashion, and rudeness in one bundle. Remember the olden days when you had to lease a phone from AT&T? How cool was that? It took a court case to allow someone to make an answering machine. Then the FCC ruled that as long as you don't harm the network, you can plug in anything you want. Thus the inventions of all sorts of cool telephonic devices including modems that first brought the internet into homes. Now Skype, purveyor of internet calls, has petitioned the FCC (docket# RM-11361) to apply that previous ruling to the cellular networks. You can e-mail your own comment in support of the petition. ~~(Any volunteers to set up a web form for comment submission?)~~ Consumers' Union has a web form for comments.

Save the planet: fuel economy gauge

2007-03-21T16:15:00.000-05:00

Here's an idea: mandate a fuel economy gauge next to the speedometer for all cars. The display on a gasoline car would show mpg, while the display on an electric car would show mi/kJ or some such. With fuel efficiency staring people in the face while they drive, they might be more keen to shut off an idling car and drive less aggressively! [DIY]

From Environmental Defense:

Check out our list of facts on cars and global warming.
Then, take action in support of national global warming action!

232 million - Number of registered vehicles in the U.S. That's almost one per person!

600 gallons - Average amount of gasoline consumed by one U.S. car each year.

12,000 pounds - Amount of carbon dioxide emitted from one U.S. car each year.

240 - Number of trees needed to absorb the 12,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emitted from one U.S. car each year.

2.7 trillion - Number of miles U.S. cars and light trucks traveled in 2004. That's the equivalent of taking 10 million trips to the moon.

5 - Percent U.S. population is of the world population.

30 - Percent of world's automobiles in the United States.

45 - Percent that the United States contributes to the world's automotive carbon dioxide emissions.

4 - Number of car companies that support a national cap on global warming emissions. They are Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Toyota.

0 - Number of bills passed by Congress to cut global warming pollution.

Tell Congress to do something about fuel economy.

Liars

2007-03-20T14:23:00.000-05:00

The White House will allow key presidential aide Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed by committees probing the firings of U.S. attorneys, but they will not testify under oath, Rep. Chris Canno n says. -- CNN Breaking News

So they say, "Trust me?" And we fall for it this time? Right.

Abusing our soldiers

2007-03-20T11:57:00.000-05:00

Some thoughts for starters:

The President is abusing our great military by sending them on a fool's errand for cronies.
The abuse of our military must stop.
A noble force requires a noble mission.

What nemesis, what evil force would compel a government to war? Genocide against other races and an effort to take over all of Europe was not enough to engage this country in World War 2. It took a direct attack on American soil to engage our forces. Now, we see this country engaged in a battle over an imagined threat in which victory has proven elusive - the mission far from accomplished.

In his farewell address, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us of the dangers of allowing these forces of evil to persuade us that war is a Good Thing:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. [1]

For the military-industrial complex war is a business frenzy. It is government consumerism run amok. We buy, they grow, and their stockholders are happy. People die. Life in Baghdad sucks. Life in Walter Reed Army Hospital sucks. We could spend more money to improve those things, but we're already strapped for cash paying it to those cronies.

The cronies benefiting in this ignoble mission in which our President has most successfully thrust our country are contractors: Blackwater, Haliburton, and the likes. [2] They, and the gun and plane makers, are to blame for this conflict and for the lives lost because of its undertaking.

Go capitalism! Mission accomplished!

World War 3?

2007-03-14T15:14:00.000-05:00

Dems abandon war authority provision, says the AP headline. When Bush ordered the attack on Iraq, I said he might have just started World War 3. I hoped, and still hope, that I was wrong, but so far, all my worst predictions for this administration have come true. Attack Iran, destabilize the region further, and then what? Exactly what is the plan here? Enrich U.S. contractors (Haliburton) for the short term while ratcheting the global threat up to heretofore unknown levels?

Another of my predictions: after the 2004 election, I predicted that Roe v. Wade would be reversed in 6 years.

It's All Too Much

2007-03-10T20:03:00.000-05:00

Stop the Insanity!* What's with the consumerism? Buy, buy, buy. It will make you happy. More is better. Buy one, get one free! Right. John Dvorak describes his woes with the computer industry's continually churning out new gadgets that make the ones from last month obsolete. Peter Walsh does the same for the run-of-the-mill pack rat in his book It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff. Mr. Walsh came to my attention by way of the Feb. 7, 2007 Oprah program, "Conquering Clutter." Other professional organizers were watching, too, and Carolyn offers her feedback.

In my life, there's more to clutter than the physical objects that get in the way. Sure, there are plenty of physical objects, and I found Mr. Walsh's assessment of materialism inspirational in my efforts to de-clutter, but my clutter is also temporal - I have too many things to do. So I made a list. I put it in a Google spreadsheet to share online with my wife, prioritized the items and sorted them according to priority and ballpark guess of how long they'd take. Then I added another sheet to record what we plan to do for each week in the forseeable future among several categories of activity. It gives us a process for handling the things we must do, the things we'd like to do, and the things that would be nice to do if time permits. Now we see how it works!

* My apology to Susan Powter for co-opting her dieting catch-phrase here... but the situation is no less nutty!

Terror alert! FBI on spying rampage!

2007-03-09T15:07:00.000-05:00

Those of us who dare to question authority thought it was quite fishy that the FBI would be given powers to demand information without a warrant and to suppress discussion of the inquiry - it made the headlines relating to library records more than once. Quite a few libraries posted signs saying something like, "The FBI has not been here to search through our records," so that when the FBI did come, they could take down the sign as an indication that the FBI had come and thereby skirt the law forbidding their telling that they had been asked for information. [1] Much hoopla has come from the provisions. [2][3]

Now, shocker of shockers, the FBI has been found to have improperly used the Patriot Act in a number of cases, but the report suggests agent error and shoddy documentation rather than criminal intent. Yes, but if we're not allowed to keep tabs on the Bureau, then who will?

Duh: "White House Opposes War Authority Limits"

2007-02-23T19:50:00.000-05:00

The Houston Chronicle provides today's no-brainer headline. King George doesn't want to let go of his ultimate authority as "the decider." (Do follow that decider link - it's absolutely priceless!) It was interesting to hear "Fair & Balanced®" Fox News radio's report on it: they led in with Tony Fratto saying, "I think what's clear is that there's a lot of shifting sands in the Democrats' positions right now. It's hard to say exactly what their position is." It didn't get much better from that. Their internet article on the same topic offers some balance in the second half, but the first half is Republican propaganda. Yech. And the tile on the front page? "Dems Want a Do-Over on Bush War Authority." It was particularly interesting looking over the news there because it had a clear us (Fox & Republicans) vs. them (Looney Democrats) theme. And people actually watch this junk? Would you believe Nevada Democrats agreed to let Fox News host a debate amongst their primary candidates? Sign the petition against that.

Black & Decker: Power Tools for Our State

2007-02-21T08:49:00.000-05:00

Jim Black has been all over the newspapers of North Carolina for the last several months. He was the Speaker of the North Carolina House and recently plead guilty to a charge of public corruption for accepting bribes to advance legislation through the House.

Enter Michael Decker, a conservative Republican representative of the people of North Carolina. He met with Jim Black and struck a deal in 2003 whereby Decker would change parties to Democrat and vote for Black as speaker - for $50,000.[1]

Whose $50k? BellSouth, optometrists, video poker companies, lottery advocates, and Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice, among others, presented as checks to Black with the name and date omitted.

Hooray for the SBI finding some of the corruption. What else is left?

Church and State

2007-02-20T20:13:00.000-05:00

Portugal voted to legalize abortion but less than half the populous bothered to show up at the polls, so the vote doesn't really count. Abortion is one of the most difficult subjects so far as the discussion of the boundary between church and state is concerned because we confront the question of exactly when a person (or person-to-be) is entitled to the protections of the state. I offer that God entrusted the care of the pre-birth child entirely to the mother and as such, the state should not attempt to wrest control from her because to do so could interfere in her relationship with God. Each contemplated abortion is an opportunity for a woman to come closer to God, to learn ways to discern His will, and to wrestle with a challenging question given the particular circumstances. If a law curtails abortion, it also curtails that conversation with God, interposes itself between the mother and God, and robs her of an opportunity to experience God's grace without interference.

The same problem crops up any time we attempt to legislate morality - the law gets between the would-be criminal and God. Do we require moral legislation to have a righteous country? Then is the country righteous if it is filled with law-abiding citizens? Does obeying that law of morality make one more righteous? No, one should obey because of a reverence to God and because of an understanding of morality. Different people have different understandings of morality, and so long as there is no harm to another person (which points out the crux of the abortion problem), the law should not interfere.

Consider Jerusalem public transit. Haredi Jews have taken it upon themselves to enforce a dress code and seating assignments on certain bus routes. This is so that the men can concentrate on their work rather than being distracted by the hot chicks on the bus. Being a man, I understand the distraction point and I have occasionally thought that the Taliban, amidst all their faults, had one thing going right in the dress code, but what business is it of mine (or the Taliban's) to insist on certain modes of dress? No, we cannot insist on other people behaving in a way that we deem right and proper, regardless of the circumstance, and Jerusalem women are right to protest the discriminatory treatment they are receiving at the hands of religious zealots.
Speaking of zealots, Pat Robertson comes to mind. He's the worst thing for Christianity's public image since the Crusades. He gets on the television and spouts his exclusionary hate-speak, such as, "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist." And then there are the lunatic statements where he claims that hurricanes are the wrath of God inflicted upon sinners.

But don't take my word for it - not any of it. Go read the Bible or another Holy Book and don't just pull out the quote, but study the message. Understand it in the context in which it was written, and come to your own Truth. Truth cannot be found from a televangelist. Truth is between you and God.

Truthiness

2007-02-20T19:38:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine explained the way of things to me in 1998 - that reality is not what's important, but rather people's perception of reality.

Kudos to Grist for bringing the Truthiness of the AmeriCone Dream ice cream flavor to my attention. And kudos to HornDozer for the following piece on truthiness and history since the 1970s. It is my pleasure to introduce him by way of this piece. He's a retired history teacher, and one who stays up on current events. I enjoy discussions with him from time to time about our current events. His piece follows.

Of course it is our need for drugs that pays for all the drug lord operations. And our need of cheap dependable labor that causes the flood of illegals. If we really want to stop both drug related violence and the flow northward of illegal aliens, then we stop buying Mexican drugs and hiring Mexican illegals.

Although I despise the lawlessness of the whole border scene, and the Mexican government and the drug cartel, I equally despise the illegal hirers and drug users. (And I might add the lawlessness of Enron, Tom Delay and all the other corrupt bigwigs in today's America including the Bush Administration. and its Neocon thugs/idiots.)

But as to Mexico and our border: before I would move to a position of alarm concerning the dangerous and dastardly things going on currently, I would have to see stats to help me understand that it is worse than the last decade--or even century. Is it worse than the Mexican Revolution? Or the murder 10 years ago of Luis Donaldo Colosio, the leading presidential candidate in Tijuana. Or the drug wars that killed no one knows how many in Juarez 15 years ago? Etc etc.

What I am thankful for is that they want to kill each other--and not me nor other turistas. That way I can still travel/live down there in relative safety. Granted I am more secure in my hometown than in Nuevo Laredo. But I have no desire to go to NL. And I refuse to live my life in fear of being killed by situations in which I am so statistically secure. (I don't have the figures, but I would wager that the number of gringos killed in Mexico by drug lords or their violence is minimal.) Find me statistics. I don't want to deal with "truthiness."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness

Read this whole article on truthiness. It is my new favorite word. It so definitively describes the way Republicans have operated in this country since before the Reagan Administration and the Republican Party conspiracy with the retard, reactionary, fundamentalist Christian right. The Republican Party at that time set up "think tanks" to arrive at truthinesses that "prove" that what the Retard Right fears, and feels in their gut is the absolute truth, and that they (the Republicans) are the ones to set up programs to allay the fears and strive for the things that the RRs believe "in their gut" to be true.

Unfortunately, a whole lot of what they feel or fear in their gut is not the truth. Just truthiness.

And this is what we have spent our tax dollars on since the Reagan Administration. That and on making the Republicans richest patrons more wealthy.

That is my History 101 since the late 1970s--with the exception of the Clinton Administration when we paid off the debt, improved governmental service to citizens and avoided overwhelming wars.

Of course my History 101 was predicted to a great extent by George Orwell in 1984.

What is terrorism?

2007-02-15T12:31:00.000-05:00

The United States Department of Defense defines terrorism as "calculated use of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." Isn't that exactly what Bush did in invading Iraq under false pretenses?

Spin it up!

2007-02-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

Get those facts dry! There have been a couple of examples of spin running wild in the news lately. Let's begin in Spain the environment minister proposed finishing off the bull after a bullfight in a slaughterhouse rather than by sword in the middle of the arena. [1] The reaction was more along the lines of, "She wants to ban bullfighting outright!" "This will destroy our national culture!" "We should not be importing other culture's values and adulterating our own!" [2] Um... right.

And then we're off to Spin City, Washington, DC for the next story. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is third in line to be President. As such, she is entitled to some special protection. The custom now is for the Speaker to take a military plane. Pelosi, having her district in San Francisco, asked if it would be possible to use a plane that could make the trip without stopping to re-fuel. [3] Republicans quickly spun that up into family junkets. [4, 5, 6, 7] Um... right.

Duke Lacrosse Justice

2007-02-06T21:53:00.000-05:00

"Group raises $750K to help pay $3M cost of Duke lacrosse defense," says the Durham Herald-Sun headline. Perhaps Mike Nifong should pay the rest of it himself.

NASA: Hotbed of Sin

2007-02-06T09:51:00.000-05:00

Back in the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo days, NASA only had a few men to keep tabs on. They worked hard to put on the appropriate public image as family men (or the occasional bachelor enjoying his free time). NASA has carefully cultivated the image of the magical space traveler, and with so many applicants from which to choose, one would think they would get the best of the best. Now the astronaut corps includes 97 of both genders. Humans being humans, we get the occasional glimpse behind the veneer. It takes people who are driven to become astronauts, and when you're driven, sometimes you get driven the wrong direction - like for that hot co-worker.

Murder, she wrote, says the prosecutor. Why didn't she just push the other astronaut out the airlock?

The Smoking Gun, of course, has the actual charges.

Free speech salvo

2007-02-05T15:49:00.000-05:00

On Friday, Arizona police arrested a 64-year-old man — a fugitive since 2001 in a bizarre war that mixes free speech, copyright law, and the Church of Scientology.

So this guy gets on a conversation group on the internet and acts like he wants to procure a "Tom Cruise Missile" in a verbal slight against the Church of Scientology. He's charged with interfering with a church. Excuse me? Maybe picketing the street in front of a church would be interfering, but online banter?

Funny - he did picket, and follow members. But still, where do you draw the line? "Odd behavior," as folks in that article keep harping on, must be tolerated until it infringes on the rights of others, otherwise we're legislating conformity.

Save the planet - ride a bus

2007-02-03T08:03:00.000-05:00

In the words of yesterday's N&O headline, "Panel Blames Warming on Man." Well arrest him, already! Seriously - we have known for years that there was some dramatic climate change underway, and the primary controversy has been due to corporate-funded disinformation campaigns. ($16 million in financing for the campaigns and Exxon Mobil is frequently mentioned among the perpetrators.) But what kind of change is it?

2006 was one of the hottest years on record, state by state[1]. Man is responsible for the change[2]. If you shut down the Gulf Stream by melting the Greenland ice sheets, the whole North Atlantic area (England and Europe come to mind) suddenly drops 9 degrees C[3]. Melt all that ice and where does it go? Into the ocean, of course, raising the sea level and changing the coastline dramatically[4]. Is it any wonder I don't live on today's coast?

We need to undertake a coordinated effort to address our greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol is one such effort, to which most countries agreed, with Australia and the United States the most notable shirks and among the worst polluters, too. The United States is 17th in the world in per-capita oil consumption [5] and first in oil consumption as a country [6]. We need to figure out how to conserve. Hint: not by using hydrogen fuel cells. They are hopelessly inefficient, especially when charged by electricity from a coal or oil generating plant.[7] We need to genuinely conserve, and one of the best ways we can do that is by public transit.

I had an interesting conversation with a staunch Republican friend of mine not too long ago about the price of gas. My premise, for the sake of the discussion, was that gasoline should be taxed to a cost of $5/gallon (brought there gradually), and the revenue generated should be put into establishing usable public transit systems. Her argument was that it was a regressive tax unfairly targeting the poor. (That and taxes and government are bad in the first place.) What if the public transit were genuinely efficient? Then the automobile would become a rich man's convenience and the train, bus, and other transit would be for the common folk. A subway ride in Mexico City costs 15 cents. Why not have bargains like that here?

When I lived and worked on a bus route, I took the bus to work. With my present job location, it would turn a 15 minute commute into a 1-hour ordeal to take the bus, so I drive or ride my bicycle. Biking and public transit is my personal answer to the climate change problem, that and NC Green Power to offset CO2 emissions from my electricity usage. What do you do?

Most bus systems have their schedules online for easy reference. Some, like TTA, even have door-to-door routing. You tell it when and where you want to go, and it tells you which buses, which changes, and even how long you'll spend walking. TTA's routing system even includes routing with the various city transit systems in the area. Very convenient.

Count the votes

2007-02-02T23:47:00.000-05:00

Finally someone with authority has gotten the message that unless you can actually re-count the vote, there's no sense in having fancy voting machines. In the two counties where I've lived, I've been fortunate to have mark-sense ballots - mark a sheet of paper to fill in the box or connect the arrow. Alas, not everyone is so fortunate, and were I to have to vote on an ATM, I would be complaining to the elections board at every opportunity. Rebecca Mercuri was one of the first electronic voting experts on the news after the 2000 election heist, and she has steadfastly recommended the Mercuri method of voting: regardless of the means by which the voter expresses intent, have them verify it on a piece of paper that goes into the ballot box for re-counting should that become necessary. BlackBoxVoting.org is a repository of related information.

Fun & Games

2007-02-02T19:33:00.000-05:00

My neighbor, at my request, offers instructions on how to configure the ThinkPad to use the built-in 2D accelerometer for gaming, like tilting the table in NeverBall, at left, instead of the simple boring hard drive protection system. Amit Singh gives the instructions for a MacBook Pro. Props to abaxter for putting it all together.

Drug dealers

2007-02-02T13:03:00.000-05:00

I count among my friends people who pay the mortgage courtesy of the pharmaceutical industry. That said, I still have to wonder where this world is headed.

Wired News offers a Requiem for the Silver Bullet, explaining that private pharmas won't make new antibiotics because there's no money in it, and this leads to thousands of needless deaths annually. Too bad people don't have to take antibiotics for the rest of their lives.

Consumer Reports suggests that you can save money with generic drugs (duh), even as pharmas push new medicines that do essentially the same thing as the older drugs. What would you do with $4 billion? They market directly to the patient. It's true that one medicine may work better than another of the same class based on a particular patient's quirks, but when I go to the doctor and tell him the generic drug works great and he offers me scrips for brand-name alternatives and lectures me on the benefits of brand-name drugs, I switch doctors. I want a doctor who puts my health above that of the drug companies.

Indian culture on the IMAX screen

2007-02-02T10:44:00.000-05:00

Independent Weekly has a review of Mystic India, a new IMAX film showing at Exploris in Raleigh. They say the narration is corny, the typical IMAX swooping is missing, but there are some fantastic views of architecture. "Unity in diversity" sounds like what I've encountered so far working with folks on that side of the globe.

Immigration 2006

2006-07-03T15:49:00.000-05:00

From a 2006 e-mail I wrote:

How is it we have so many illegal immigrants in this country? We have a powerful jobs magnet - people are lured to the States by low-wage jobs that pay better than anything they might get back home. It's easy to get a job here because people either don't ask for documentation or they forge such high-security documents as a Social Security card.

With the powerful magnet, we then have a large population of immigrants. I didn't really notice the immigrant population in Huntsville, AL in 1999, but I noticed when i was there in 2005. The population is growing, and it frightens (oh... the search for the right word... uneducated - simple - monolingual - hmm...) some folk to be in the company of people with different background. The fear can be a call to action.

On the other side of the same coin, there are many new citizens or 2nd generation immigrants who will vote for a candidate because he says he will do something for immigration, regardless of what ludicrous foreign policy and gross mass deceptions he might implement or have implemented prior to his re-election. Helping immigrants is good for the ballot box.

Why is it so powerful at the ballot box? Because the department formerly known as INS is woefully understaffed, hopelessly inefficient, and only barely tolerated within the legal immigrant community. It takes years for any kind of application to wind its way through the system. Just last month, they were working on green card applications from the Philippines from 1984! People put their lives on hold for these things! The base of citizen immigrants is ready to do whatever they can to improve the system, and the naturalized fraction of them are very likely to vote because they have worked hard to earn the right to vote.

Yes, it's broken. It's broken because there are 11 million people violating the law in this country. But the law is out of step with reality, and the system for enforcing the law and allowing legal immigration is just as badly out of step. People are reacting to the discord, and whatever resolution comes of it won't be a very tidy one because the problem has gotten so far out of kilter before anyone bothered to pay it any attention.