Insignifica

BOR SOS 1

It's time for the first edition of "Bill O'Reilly is a lying sack of shit", where we insult the man and explain why there's so much spin in his "no spin zone".

Today's entry is from his Wednesday, July 30th Talking Points Memo, regarding boycotting of the French:

The French government puts the decrease at 30 percent and says the weak dollar is the reason.

Of course that's nonsense. American anger at the French government is the reason.

Actually, Bill, we don't know it's nonsense. You think it's nonsense. It's fine to have an opinion, but stating opinions as facts is spinning.

Now whether you supported the war or not, there's no question that Saddam was an evil man and promoted terrorism throughout the Mid East.

Here you go again. I think he was an evil man, and you think he was an evil man. But to say "there's no question" implies truth, and since "evil" is subjective and both of us are exposed daily to American propaganda saying Saddam is Evil, it's hard to take that as a "balanced" statement.

There's no question the French government doesn't like the way the USA is waging the war on terror and that's fine. They're entitled to their opinion. But when they actively try to undermine us, that's not fine.

See above about "there's no question". As to your second statement, why is it fine when we try to undermine them, but not visa versa? There's spin when you don't explain yourself. Of course, that's never stopped you before.

That's today's edition of "Bill O'Reilly is a lying sack of shit". I hope you enjoyed. Remember, my policy of insults and calling Bill out are fair because I don't claim to be unbiased or not "spinning". O'reilly is entitled to his opinion, but as long as he says he comes from a "No Spin Zone", he's gonna hear it from me.

bush marriage

From CNN, and reported all over: Bush wants marriage reserved for heterosexuals.

My feelings on marriage are pretty well established, yet I still can't understand why the government hasn't separated religious marriage from state-sponsored marriage. If a Baptist or Catholic church wants to say "no gay marriages here!", that's absolutely their right. But when the US government gets involved in your personal relationship, they should probably walk a broader line. Why don't we allow gays to get married civilly, and let individual churches decide if they want to allow gay marriage within their walls? By combining the two, the Christian Church is effectively saying "our definition of marriage is the only way, and if you don't like it, you don't get to say you're married." And, as usual, the US Government bends over and takes it from the church like an alter boy on Sunday.

Besides the tax benefit, why do YOU want the government involved in your relationship, and telling you how it should work? Why should Christian ideals of sin be factored into my tax relationship with the government? Why is my 66 month, unmarried relationship with my g/f, or a relationship between 2 gay men LESS legitimate than $55 and 20 minutes in a Vegas chapel?

The US Government needs to get out of the marriage business entirely. You should be able to register as an "economic unit" and get taxed based on how much the unit makes. Leave marriage to groups, religious and otherwise, that you feel can improve your relationship. The two need to be separated.

governor donation

Holy hot buttered Christ! Colleen, a dear friend (and someone I was thinking about earlier today) is the first person to donate to the Michael Doss for Governor campaign, with a sizable gift. Now it's a reality - Michael Doss can run for Governor, with just a small donation from you. Look for updates, news, and the campaign website, coming very soon!

How about helping the cause? Donate now, and if we raise the funds, your donation will go toward the campaign. If we don't, you'll get your money back. What have you got to lose?

We're also going to turn this thing into a blogging expiriment. Do you have a website? Link to me, the campaign website at http://www.michaeldoss.com, and to the Paypal link, and spread the word, quickly. The network is strong; tens of thousands could know about the campaign in a few days. If we're going to do this, we have to do it now.

poker night

If I know you (or have met you, or talked to you online), and you're local to Southern California, it's about time for the First Quasi-annual Low Buy In/High Fun Poker Tournament.

Ideally, I'd like to get 8-12 people playing, buying in at $10, therefore allowing for a nice sized payoff for the winner but no big losses for anyone playing. It would likely take place on a weekend afternoon/evening.

Has anyone out there ever done one of these? Am I breaking laws by announcing it?

governor

Does anyone want to give me $3000? I'd like to run for Governor. There's a Paypal link over to the left, or you could click here. Thanks!

atheists meetup

We're looking to make the next Atheists Meetup the biggest we've had so far in Orange County. If you're an Atheist (or skeptic or agnostic), sign up and join us in August! More information and discussion over at Atheistweb...

bush and flag

For your enjoyment, here's a picture of George W. Bush desecrating the American Flag:

(borrowed from the fine folks at Yahoo! News, and linked from Anil's page.)

advertising, some changes

I purchased my first ad for Insignifica tonight, from Wil Wheaton dot net. First time I visited after being approved, my ad was rotated to the front:

That's awesome. I get some very inexpensive exposure (2500 views for $10) and get to help out Wil at the same time. Very cool.

I've also made some slight changes around here, revamped (to some extent) the works page (read "I am an American", I'm very proud of it), changed some headers, added some blogs, and made a couple things easier on the backend. Enjoy, especially all you new readers!

Quote of the day comes from cool geek and "Guy I Met Once" Wil Wheaton, refering to a Born Again Christian wearing a shirt saying "Not Perfect, Just Saved":

I'm not perfect or saved, baby. So suck it.

That's awesome.

Toby Keith

The more I read about Toby Keith, the more I realize he's a jackass. Check out this entry from The Other Side Of Country about Keith, his lyrics, and how he's unclear on various concepts of what it means to be an American.

happy monday!

Hello and happy Monday to you. Another busy weekend packing and moving, both my stuff and my mom's. Two weeks till we're outta there.

I saw a very cool bumper sticker yesterday, and it made me think - "God Bless everyone in the world, no exceptions". I've always detested the phrase "God Bless America", especially in the last 2 years since it's been plastered all over everything. But the sticker I saw yesterday made me realize just how selfish and blind it is, especially for people who do believe in God, to say "God Bless America" when there's so much crap going on everywhere else. To me, it's as if many of them are saying "Screw everyone else, God is ours and the rest of the world can go fuck themselves". I know many people who say it don't mean it like that, but I know many that do. However, even "God Bless America" is better than "America, Bless God"...that one doesn't even make sense.

Aww, poor Bush's approval rating is dropping. Polls need to be taken with a grain of salt, but I think there are a lot of Americans have been afraid to say Bush is doing a bad job, and now that some people are saying so, the rest of the people are finally coming out and admitting it also. Maybe it's herd mentality, but I think his rating will continue to drop unless he starts another war, or he or someone else bombs something in the United States. I'm hoping for criminal charges, but I seriously doubt that will happen, unfortunately.

Speaking of criminal charges, I'm hoping there is a lot of good evidence (either way) in the Kobe matter. But his press conference pissed me off - sitting there, with his wife, apologizing for adultery. Something about it set off my "Creepy guilty guy" alarm. Like I said, I hope this case has a lot of good evidence.

happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Adam! Welcome to the 25 club.

Chris is next, then Marek, then Gary. One birthday a month!

defend american rights!

Defend American rights by giving up some of them!

Yes, I know I'm oversimplifing the issue of the command structure of military service and criticism of superior officers...but doesn't it seem weird that you lose rights in your drive to "defend" them? (for as much defending of American rights as the military can be said to do these days).

I wouldn't last 5 minutes in the military, thank goodness.

pat robertson and apartments and bush, oh my!

This is the first day I've felt "normal" in a week. Friggin' summer chest colds.

I'm cutting way back on dairy, just to see how my body reacts. I'm not cutting it out totally, or going on a vegan diet, just cutting back the big servings. We'll see how it works.

Wow, it's coming out that Bush presented evidence that may not have been from a good source, all to justify war. I don't find that hard to believe, in the least. Man, imagine if Clinton had done something like this, instead of just lying about blowjobs. Fox News would be all over it. But because it's Bush, they're defending him. "Fair and Balanced", my ass. In other "Fair and Balanced" news, I'll soon be presenting an occasional feature called "Bill O'Reilly is a lying sack of shit", all about his "no spin" lies.

Moving day is coming soon - the lady and I might be moving in with a friend to radically cut down costs. The apartment is 2 bedroom/2 bath anyway, so space won't be a big issue, except that I won't have an office. The benefits will likely outweigh that aspect, however.

Pat Robertson has taken it upon himself to pray for (and have you pray for) the removal of 3 supreme court justices so that more conservitive judges can replace them. How about getting with the times, Pat, and realizing that your beliefs are outdated and wrong? How about spending that time praying actually doing something worthwhile?

So, what have you been up to?

google news

Google News, one of Google's new, very awesome features, gathers news from around the web and posts it centrally on their site, searchable, recent, and dynamically generated entirely by computer - human beings don't have much role in story placement. It's a very good system and works very well most of the time, though occasionally you see mislabeled or incorrect headlines, due to page changes on the news sites. Today, a story about mad cow disease on the Financial Times website was replaced with a story on obesity. The headline on Google was taken from Yahoo! News, but the image remained from Financial Times, leading to the humorous screenshot below:

a world without television

Discussion among my friends today led me to consider a chilling scenario - life without cable television. Would I be able to get by? Would I fall out of "the know"? Would my life be reduced to choosing between Survivor, or nothing at all?

I think I could live without cable, but I don't think I'd watch much television any more. Of the relatively little TV I do watch (10-15 hours a week), most is on cable. My current top shows include Star Trek (broadcast, except for cable reruns), World Poker Tour (cable), South Park/Simpsons/Family Guy (cable/broadcast/cable), and baseball (broadcast and cable). My g/f watches less television than I, and what she watches is primarily on cable channels like Animal Planet and TNT. Many of my past "top shows" were also on cable. The last broadcast television show I watched regularly, besides Enterprise, was Joe Millionaire.

So without cable, I'd be out some entertaining programming. No more World Poker Tour, Star Trek reruns, or new episodes of South Park. I'd miss about half the Angel baseball games on the air, the cute animals, the Vegas shows on Travel, late night programming on HBO, and the documentaries I happen upon on Discovery, National Geographic, and a few other stations. At the same time, I'd gain the $50 - $70 a month I'd be paying for cable, extra boxes, and any premium services. I'd gain the time not watching television, although it's usually time doing something else or spending with the woman anyway, as I rarely just sit down and watch and do nothing else.

So is it worth it? For now, I think so. I'm not a slave to my television; I use it in moderation for it's intended purpose, entertainment. I've never cared for the "kill your television" camp, it seems absurd to destroy a tool because you disagree with some of it's uses. But I think I get much more out of my television with cable - a larger variety of shows, and programming more specific to my tastes. I just wish I could pick and choose the channels I want.

I am a writer

For a long time, I didn't really consider myself a writer. I wrote well, as far I was concerned. I could express my ideas with words in a styled, witty manner and could play with the language enough to make points in an interesting way. But I never "wrote" anything. I haven't started my Great American Novel, I haven't published any short stories, and all my poetry still sits in several blank books gathering dust on my shelves.

Lately, though, I've come to realize that not only am I a writer, I'm a prolific one. I keep this blog, for one. I've typed literally tens of thousands of words in the 2 1/2 years I've been blogging, some in 10 word sentence fragments, some in near essay-length political ramblings. I've kept private journals for over 5 years, although blogging has largely replaced it lately. In college I wrote hundreds of pages of text; mostly essay but also some fiction, some poetry, and some technical offerings. High school before that offered similar assignments, though in a more limited scope. And now I have a job writing for a major newspaper. I'm not a reporter or journalist in a traditional sense, but a writer/researcher. I contribute hundreds of words to the newspaper every week, and probably find my name in the first 4 pages of the front section more often than most of the staff.

Writing In Orange has excerpts from a letter about the written word, accurately describing the phenomenon of writing in current forms of media. In all the time I thought that I wasn't really a writer, I was doing everything to become one. There was no day of transition, no epiphany, I am a writer because I write. I put pen to paper (typically fingers to keyboard, lately), I express ideas with the written word. I read, and think. These things make me a writer. Not the scope of what I've recorded, not the sales records, not the number of readers I've had. The act of writing makes me a writer.

Looking back, it seems the reason I never wrote longer pieces like the cookbook and the Guide To Happy Living and the Thatcher Chronicles was because I was intimidated by the idea of being a "real" writer, writing the million words necessary for a book. But I've written many millions of words. I've started hundreds of stories, and had thousands more flirt through my thoughts. What's stopping me now? Time? I sit at a computer hours a day as it is. Desire? I've wanted to for a long time. Ideas? They're all in there. Now, it's just a matter of doing it. Look for more soon.

new links

Wow! People seem to be noticing Insignifica all of a sudden. There's a page at "Orange County Blogs" linking to me, and Joel from Writing In Orange has asked if I'll link to him and he'll link to me. Check out his site, it's for/about writers in Orange County. A button, if you please:

Must be the weirdness of search engines, bringing the masses to me. Honestly, though, knowing that people are reading (I got some great comments about my "I Am An American" piece, which I'm very proud of) has inspired me to do more writing, organize my longer pieces from Insignifica into the Works section (which is awefully bare) and actually work on writing down some longer fiction works. Most of this will likely wait until after the move at the end of the month, but hopefully I'll be driven with positive new direction - as long as my ReplayTV doesn't eat my brain with Star Trek, Poker World Tour and Family Guy.

replay arrives

So what should arrive in the mail yesterday in a big white box? The ReplayTV I ordered, tried to cancel, and eventually changed my credit card number to avoid having them send it to me.

I haven't paid for it yet, they don't have any credit card information for me that works. They haven't sent me a bill, nor have they tried to contact me about it at any time, The packing slip on the box said my terms with SonicBlue were Net 30, which seems unlikely as I don't have any contracts with them.

Since it was here anyway, I opened the box and set up the ReplayTV. So far, pretty cool. It functions a lot like a cable box, with the channel guide and information browsing. I got it primarily for the recording features; I've set it up to tape Star Trek Voyager (on most nights at 3am) and Family Guy for me, and I'll probably tell it to find World Poker Tour too tonight. I like the idea of having shows I like on anytime, so I'll probably be playing with the "Zones" feature so it will seek out sci-fi programming.

Another feature I didn't even think about but really like is the ability to manipulate live TV, pausing, rewinding and replaying anything I might have missed. It's very cool to have that much control, then being able to "catch up" to live TV when the commercials come on.

The drawbacks so far are the delay (there's a 1-3 second delay in changing channels, probably because of the buffer it keeps) and the remote (it's hard to hold and the buttons are poorly placed). All in all, though, I really like the technology. We'll see if they ever get around to requesting payment.

michael doss!

Tonight's rant is on the strangeness of search engines. For a few years now, I've been competing with Michael Doss for search engine placement. By virtue of his "more famous than I am" status, he's got a lot of the top spots. I figured, however, that because Insignifica used my name on every post, as well as in several other places, that it would get ranked pretty high in Google. That's just not the case though, for whatever reason. The first page on Insignifica that comes up is at #47, which is actually a page on Joz's site (which I host). Pages come up on several other sites I host also, but there are NO results from my page at insignifica.org in the first 300 matches.

I know insignifica's in the index at google; I can search for it and find it, and I see the googlebot hitting my pages. But even typing in "insignifica" returns the site second, behind the home page for All Mod Cons, a JAM tribute band. What gives?

(The reason I'm writing about this now, although I've known for a while, is that an ego search just showed that michaeldoss.com, which has very recently acquired content, comes up #5 on google, long before insignifica.)

end marriage

An interesting take on the gay marriage arguemnt from Slate in "Abolish Marriage - Let's really get the government out of our bedrooms". Of course, I've been saying the same thing for quite a while now...

These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed

These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed

I am an American

My name is Michael Doss, and I am an American.

I didn't do anything to deserve this title and position; I don't believe in reincarnation, or in a god that would put me here for a purpose. I was born to American parents, in America, and therefore I am what I am.

As we celebrate the symbolic day of independence, I'm reminded how lucky I am to have the rights I do, and I realize the responsibilities that go along with being an American in 2003.

I have the right to free speech. I can say how much I love Michael Moore, how much I hate Pat Robertson, or how bad I think the president's actions are for the government and for the people. I have the responsibility to both listen to you and defend your right to free speech, no matter what you say.

I have the right to burn a flag, just as you have a right to fly it. The symbolism of the flag equally represents both of these rights. You have every right to believe the flag means everything as I do to believe the flag is a piece of cloth.

I have the right to freedom from religion, not just freedom of religion. I have the right to believe whatever I want, and not face undue pressure, persecution or representation from or of your religion.

I have the right to love anyone I want, however I want, as long as they agree. It is neither the government's responsibility or in their best interest to monitor or register personal relationships.

I have a responsibility to question my government and its actions, regardless if I believe in or don't believe in what my government is doing. To be told by a representative of that government that we should not question is both insulting and suspect.

I have a responsibility to involve myself in government, though voting, learning, and discussing, and otherwise participating. No other right or responsibility is greater, because through this one the rest are born.

I have a responsibility to know my place in the world, and be aware of my position. As a middle class American, I have more wealth, rights and power than most everyone else on the planet. With this knowledge, I can choose how I represent myself, and how I choose to help.

I have a responsibility to leave my city, county, state, country and planet in a better way than when I got here. This goes back to my position of power as a middle class American, as well as my position as a human being. This means helping out people who need my help, regardless of how they got into that position, but with consideration of how it will affect me.

These, and many others, are my rights and my responsibilities. It's not the clothes I wear, the car I drive, the flags I wave, or the allegiance I pay that makes me an American, it's my rights, my responsibilities, and my actions.

My name is Michael Doss, and I am an American.

liberia

Boy, it sounds like it sucks to live in Liberia. Some demographic stats, provided by CNN:

Literacy: 15 percent

Life expectancy: 51.4 years

Unemployment: 70 percent

I remember reading about it in high school history, how it was founded as a place for freed slaves to live back in Africa. But it's history is like something out of a Harry Turtledove novel. The former slaves become the ruling class, then a member of a local ethnic group seized power in a coup, then he was killed by the descendants of the freed slave ruling class. Weird.

dean?

When I first started to follow the candidates for the 2004 democratic ticket, I was pretty sure Lieberman, Kerry or Edwards would get the nod eventually; they're well known, seem to have some backing, and just seemed to be more visual. Looking over the candidates, however, Howard Dean stuck out as someone I thought I could get behind. Very liberal, anti-war, intelligent, and using the internet effectively to campaign.

But Dean was a longshot - not well known outside of Vermont (the state he governed), no national exposure like Lieberman. A few weeks ago, however, the tide started to turn. Dean was gaining all sorts of exposure for using meetup.com to rally campaigners, and started to raise a respectable amount of money. Then he announced his candidacy first, then won the moveon.org primary, and yesterday, the last day for contributing to a campaign in the second quarter, he raised $800,000 for a total over $7 million, likely more than any other democrat running.

The coolest thing about him is that it's totally grassroots, and he's using the internet perfectly - to spread information, to encourage discussion, and to get the message out to millions of people easily. For the first time since Gore had the election taken, I'm excited about the political prospects.

various things

I've finally bothered to install blogrolling on my site - so go ahead, Blogroll Me.

Boy, Columbia House sucks. They make it amazingly difficult to cancel your account. They also have a nearly-fraudulant practice of charging you and not crediting your account when they should. Example: I was over my 3 year time limit, so, as they say they'll do in their service agreement, they charged me the cost of my remaining commitment. This came to $47, so I had a $47 credit on my account. I figured that since they'd already charged me, I'd buy some DVDs. Picked out two, and the total after everything was about $50. Perfect. When I order from the website, however, they charged my credit card AGAIN for $50, and left me with my credit in my account, with no way to get it out/charge it back. I finally found a phone number, but they keep standard hours, so I'll have to call during work tomorrow. Bitches.

In more "bitches!" news, Meat Loaf canceled his San Diego show - that's one thing. But Ticketmaster, instead of just refunding my costs to my credit card, are requiring me to send the tickets BACK to them for a refund. Why? Am I going to try to use them? That's absurd.

In the Replay TV saga, I still haven't been charged, and my order STILL shows as "processing", 21 days after placing my order. I've had my credit card number changed, so it's not impossible for them to bill me. I'm just wondering if a) they'll every get around to trying to ship/bill, and b) if they run into a problem, whether they'll ignore it and ship anyway, or actually try to contact me. We'll see...

Happy July 1. I'm finally covered medically again, and my benefits have offically begun through work.

Of my six sets of couples-friends I'm closest to, two are moving, I'm moving, and one is having a baby. It's transition time!

Ok, that's enough for now, methinks. Enjoy your day.