November 28, 2003
woods and diamonds?
From the news:
Swedish model accepts marriage proposal from Tiger Woods
Very nice, she's pretty, he's rich, they look happy. But the following line in the story got to me:
The proposal came during a walk at sunset Tuesday, he said, adding that when the couple left Friday aboard a private jet, Nordegren had a "huge diamond on her finger."
It strikes me as surprizing and sad that on a trip in Africa, Tiger Woods, a black man, would give his girlfriend a diamond. It's easy enough to forget where most diamonds come from when you're in the US or Europe, but you'd think you'd think a little bit about it when in the continent (and country) where Debeers was founded. Maybe the diamond is a lab-created synthetic, or comes from some other company or place. Neither of those is very likely, though.
buy nothing day
Today is Buy Nothing Day. I'll be participating. Will you?
November 27, 2003
November 26, 2003
Cinematech
I've never watched G4tv before today - it's basically an all video game channel. My first expirience with it was a show called Cinematech - it's like a music video show, but composed entirely of video game intros, cinematics and trailers. Very cool, and very weird.
November 24, 2003
graduation pic
How weird - while searching the internet for the name of the person who spoke at my college graduation (Martha Mendoza), I went looking at the Kresge College page at the UC Santa Cruz site. Stumbling upon the graduation page, I find a single picture:
That's from the 2000 Kresge graduation, picturing (clockwise from bottom left) are Dan Walters, Michael Doss (that's me!), Tori Porter, someone who looks like Heather, someone who might be Rene, and Gilbert Velasquez. I didn't know this picture existed until a few moments ago - it must have been sitting in one of the offices at Kresge where we all worked, and someone (perhaps Ginger, our former Program Coordinator) thought it would look good one the page. As noted before, it's very weird and very cool to find pictures of yourself online that you didn't know existed.
patriot act expansion
What was that? You heard that "Patriot II", the expanded version of the rights-stealing Patriot Act was dead? Think again.
Patriot II caused so much uproar that it was effectively killed early. However, in order to get around pesky little things like debate and public comment, the provisions were added to an intelligence spending bill, meaning it was effectively drafted in private.
What's this mean to you? To start, the Patrot act allowed the FBI to acquire bank records and Internet or phone logs by issuing a "National Security Letter", which claims the information is needed for a terrorism investigation. The FBI doesn't need to show proof, probable cause, or get any sort of permission from a judge. Under the new provisions, all sorts of new organizations are subject to these requests, explicitly including insurance companies, real estate agents, the U.S. Postal Service, travel agencies, casinos, pawn shops, ISPs, car dealers and any other business whose "cash transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax or regulatory matters."
On top of all that, when a group has information requested of them, they're under a gag order not to disclose what information was given, or even that they were contacted at all. As the bumper sticker says, "It's ok, I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway".
What can you do?
It's bad enough that laws like this are voted in at all, it's worse when they're voted on secretly. If some liberal cause was floating on a spending bill, Fox News and other conservative pundits would be all over it. I'll let you know when this has been reported on enough.
November 23, 2003
November 20, 2003
November 18, 2003
stolen blog answers
Zak just dropped me a comment to let me know that his site, betablog.com is the model from which Jenniferblog.com (which I mentioned here) was copied. He talks about it here (and here).
He agrees with me - it sucks to be copied, and it's explotive, but it's a well thought out hack. Appearently Joz reads Zak's site, and let him know about my writing about him. Small world.
radio station stupid
An Austrailian news site (among others) has a story about WCHR, a radio station that decided to stop playing Jethro Tull's music after frontman Ian Anderson said the following:
"I hate to see the American flag hanging out of every bloody station wagon, out of every SUV, every little Midwestern house in some residential area. It's easy to confuse patriotism with nationalism. Flag waving ain't gonna do it."
The listeners of WCHR "The Free Beer & Hot Wings Morning Show" decided that those remarks were enough to have the station stop playing all Jethro Tull music "forever".
I find it amusing that some people take one man's remarks about rampant nationalism as a personal insult. He didn't insult them, he made a comment based on observation and the brainwashed shut him down because they've been told to associate any and all remarks not praising patriotism as an attack on American ideals and freedom.
It saddens me that some of the millions of Americans that fly the flag and say the pledge do so because they've been programmed to do so. Those aren't things I do, but I know plenty of people who do it out of a love or respect for country, either in a patriotic sense or a "it makes me feel good" sense. It's much easier for the government to pull the wool over our eyes when we follow their lead and demonize all dissenters. A radio station not playing a band isn't censorship, nor is it important national news, but it is a scary sign about the state of rampant, controling patriotism.
gay marriage legalized in mass
From the Washington Post: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday that same-sex couples are legally entitled to wed under the state constitution thereby striking down a state ban on same-sex marriages. The court said the state was violating its own state constitution by denying the "legal, financial and social benefits of marriage" to people of the same sex who wish to marry.
This is awesome for many reasons. First, it's a landmark case for gay rights, giving gays the right to marry, not just have civil unions. Second, it's a court ruling on the state constitution, not just law, so the only way it can be overturned is if the legislature passes a constitutional amendment (which takes a few years), or for the US Supreme Court to find gay marriage to be against the federal constitution. Thirdly, it rules only on Civil marriage, so no religious groups are forced to recognize gay marriage within their own walls.
The only possible drawback I can see is the potential backlash, which may, in the short term, force conserative legislatures to pass stricter anti-gay laws. I think in the long term, however, that most everyone will come around. It's interesting to see the parallels to Loving v. Virginia from 1967, where the state of Virginia tried to keep interracial marriage illegal. It doesn't surprise me that the same states who were anti-interracial marriage are the same that are anti-gay marriage.
November 17, 2003
fake blogs?
For a few months now, I've been getting hit scores to hundreds of times daily from http://www.gdough.com. It's a gambling links site, and while the refer says "gdough.com", there's no links to my page from there. When searching for the site online, I find it appears all over in other people's refer logs. Annoying, but not a big problem, though it looks like i'm super popular there if you read the logs.
A new one I noticed today when going through the logs were the occasional refer containing a website that appears to be a blog - multiple entries, "personal" look, themed topics, comments and "posted at" times...but all the sites I found today don't have any personal information of the author (very rare in blogging), the comments don't work, there aren't any archives listed (for the most part), each has multiple posts, all from today, and each one has a "hidden" image (same color as the background) in the lower left-hand corner that takes you to an "adult webcam" page (I'm at work and have yet to click). The pages I've found so far:
I predict we're going to see more and more of these, because they're smart. By showing up like blogs, showing up in refers, and having topical, up-to-date content, they're going to throw google for a loop. The search engine will read them as "real" pages as opposed to advertising, and without knowing blogging well, there's no good way for humans to even tell the difference. It'll be interesting to see what they do and how they turn up in the coming weeks and months.
November 13, 2003
ray moore removed
CNN (among others) is reporting that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, the man at the center of the Ten Commandments monument controversy this summer, has been removed from office for defying a federal judge's order to remove the monument.
Regardless what you feel about the issue of religious depictions in government places, this goes beyond that into an issue of a judge defying the law, which is clearly unacceptable. I'm glad Alabama's judicial ethics panel did as they did. This entry is also posted over at AtheistWeb - feel free to start discussion there, we've been a little light lately.
November 11, 2003
Tim Wise article
Tim Wise has a great article called "Persecuting the Truth", about the falacy of persecution that many conserative Christians believe they are subject to in their daily lives. It makes good points about there being some heavy-handedness in regard to some teachers and people in positions of authority, but how that's nothing compared to being a member of a minority class like "non-Christian" in the United States. Good read.
November 10, 2003
holidays acomin'
Good day and happy Monday. Busy weekend - got a bunch of errands done on Saturday, including cleaning most of the house, went out on Friday and Saturday, was finally officially eliminated from this season's strato playoffs on Sunday, then went to Corona to help my mom move stuff from two storage spaces to one. Even though it passed by quickly, and even though I love big events, it was nice not to have a weekend with a party or a trip.
It's now pretty much the "holiday season"...Christmas trees up at stores, shopping season already begun. I'm looking to do more "personal" gifts this year - there's only so much stuff I need and only so many I want to give. I'd much rather take all my friends out to great dinners and have awesome conversations/discussions than trade white elephants. If I could draw, I'd do what Chris does with his art - I did give most of my friends their own websites a couple years back - those are gifts that keep on giving.
Upcoming events include a poker tournament sometime soon (this weekend, next weekend, and the weekend afterward are all busy, and then it's December - not sure exactly when it's going to happen); Eric's birthday, my lady's birthday, a Christmas party and a New Year's party are also all coming up. Busy, happy times.
November 06, 2003
o'reilly can't form logical arguments
More fun and idiocy from my friend and yours Bill O'Reilly. On his Talking Points segment last night, O'Reilly goes off on the ACLU, as he is prone to do, discussion their defense of a student and his perception of the glee the ACLU must be feeling over judges blocking abortion laws.
That's all fine and good. O'Reilly has strong opinions and is entitled to express them. What surprises me, however is his inability to recognize cause-and-effect relationships or logical argument. After his discussion about the student, who was suspended for comments made about a school administrator, Bill has the following comment:
This, of course, is insane and will lead to more challenges when unruly students verbally assault teachers across the country, just what the ACLU wants.
Bill, I find it hard to believe, nor do I find a logical progression in your argument, that the ACLU wants students to assault teachers. The ACLU is fighting for the student's right to free speech, and sometimes free speech includes insulting things. The argument that the ACLU is somehow desiring "verbal assaults" is entirely baseless.
Bill then immediately follows that with "Again, this advocacy group is determined to impose a secular agenda on the USA. That is, they don't want any judgments made about private actions". It may have been a mis-spoken word, but "secular" is typically used in this context to refer to something being "non-religious", and a "secular agenda" (harder to misspeak that) is one, in O'Reilly's terms, where the acting group seeks to remove religion, in this case from society.
The only problem with this language is that there is absolutely no religious discussion up until this point. The student's case wasn't religious as far as O'Reilly told, nor was the rest of his discussion. It was thrown in either on accident or on purpose, and if deliberate, in an attempt to associate the ACLU with the "secular agenda" perceived by many of liberal groups. In Bills world, this is called spin.
He goes on to lambaste the ACLU for not appearing on his show, then lets loose with the stupidest thing I've seen him say in a long time:
Hey, if you don't get it by now, you're never going to get it. The ACLU is the most dangerous organization currently operating in America.
More dangerous than Al Qaeda, more dangerous than the Klan, and more dangerous than NAMBLA. While I don't know definition Bill uses for "dangerous", one can only assume it's not based on a body count or potential for mass murder or abuse.
In the end, Bill, the ACLU is a funding group for litigation. They provide lawyers to defend constitutional rights of people on all sides of arguments. They don't pass laws, they don't write laws, and they don't enforce laws. They argue cases. The decisions in the thousands of cases won by the ACLU are made by judges with a history and intimate knowledge of the topic at hand - not by this group you claim is the biggest threat in America. All they're doing is providing funding for groups and individuals who may not be able to afford the funding themselves, and they're following the law by logically presenting their cases to judges. If defending the constitution and allowing people to have their day in court is "dangerous", Bill, then it appears that you're the one on the wrong side of the argument here.
November 05, 2003
webcam is back
After more than 5 months offline, the livecam is back live and updating regularly. I took it down orginally when I packed up my server machine for my most recent move, and I never bothered to set it up here in the new place. It uses one of my "cheap" cams, so the picture quality doesn't match the "real" Livecam (which uses a PV DV 100 digital camcorder), but it gets the job done and gives you a peek inside my office. I don't currently have plans to bring back the other 3 cams, but since the Livecam was the only one on the main page, I figure this one should do for now. Enjoy!
November 04, 2003
fall has fallen
Man, it's beautiful outside this week. The fires are contained, the smoke is gone, the ash has washed away, and rain has fallen a few times. It's been crisp and cloudy, very cold (for southern California) at night, and generally a feeling of fall has fallen over the area.
I won't say this is my favorite time of the year, but I love it. I tend to get tired of a particular pattern of weather after 3-4 months, which is just fine, as that's when the weather tends to change. I'll miss the sunshine until 8pm, and the clear skies, but I won't miss the 85 degree evenings or the inability to spend the day outside without plastering myself with sunscreen.
November 03, 2003
halloween pics
You asked for them, here they are - Three of Mike's roles over the past week. One wedding, one halloween party, and one halloween night wandering around Las Vegas. Enjoy.
Mike at the wedding with Chris and Jen
Mike as Avenging Angel
Mike as Cigar Smokin' Priest
post halloween
Happy Monday and welcome to November - it's even started to cool down in southern California. We're into the end of the year holiday season - Halloween is past, Thanksgiving is in four weeks, Christmas is less than two months away, and New Years is just a week later. Hope you enjoy your Christmas decorations - you won't see anything else in the stores for a long time.
Had a great time this weekend. Traveled to Las Vegas to perform the marriage of my good friend Jenniffer and her husband Chris - great ceremony, no problems, and nice cool desert weather. We also had some great meals, saw the Smothers Brothers (very funny live), Went to Red Square at Mandalay Bay, and spent Halloween evening on Fremont Street, walking around as a cigar smoking priest with a beer in hand - It was my first halloween I've ever traveled, and it was very cool seeing other people's costumes en mass. Some pictures (of the wedding, last week's angel costume, and this weekend's priest costume) all coming soon.
