This blog is off to Dreamflicks

So with my great love for all things wordpress (yeah pretty much all of my blogs are running on it now) I have just launched Dreamflicks.com. Ostensibly it’s a site for movie lovers to signup for a wordpress driven blog (courtesy of wpmu the open source system that wordpress.com runs on) but in reality anyone can sign up for one.

Anyhow since as of right now there is no stable way for me to autoupdate my blog here while posting new posts on dreamflicks you can head over there and check out my humble idea of a blogging site.

See ya there

Great news for Freedom and justice. Republicans get slapdown from voters.

In a very sleepless night (I kept getting up to check the results online) I was quite happy to see that the Dems were winning across the board. On top of that Comedy Central’s Indecider blog managed to scoop ALL the rest of the news by revealing a scoop that would normally be the biggest story around: Rumsfeld is resigning. This means that there is now just maybe possibly a chance for our troops to not get the pointy end of the stick from our own leaders.

Back to my thoughts about the elections:

1. People in florida are idiots. Well not all of them, just the ones who voted for pedophile Mark Foley. It’s ok to be stupid but when you vote stupid you elect stupid. Thank god they were in the minority and Foley lost.

2. Santorum goes down like a ……well let’s just say I’m sure Foley would console him.

3. Hastert stepping down as leader. So in one short tiny day we’ve no longer got to deal with; Santorum, Hastert, Rumsfeld and Frist?! Can’t wait for 08 (hey that rhymes).
4. Duckworth lost?! What the fuck is wrong with you idiots in illinois? You let a fat sack of shit like Roskam con you into thinking the woman who LOST HER FUCKING LEGS IN IRAQ DEFENDING YOUR OIL PRICES wasn’t a patriot?! I hope Roskam gets outed as a Scatologist.

5. Oregon voters defeat the idiocy of the parental notification measure (which would affect a whole 300 people a year.)

6. Oregon voters also kept Kulongoski in office in a decisive victory.

7. So “much hated/loathed” Hillary Clinton (at least that’s what Fox News Pundits insist, of course the insist that everyone in America hates Dems..oops) “narrowly ” defeated her opponent by a margin of 67% to 31%. I think yet again Fox confused fact with fiction.

Henceforth in this blog I will refer to Fox as the Fiction Faction news channel. It has a nice ring to it.

8. Tennessee voters allowed racist ads by a racist candidate to sway them into voting for the republican asshat.

What pisses me off in the few races the Republicans won is that they don’t even TRY to hide their corruption anymore. Plus with the advent of the internet and easily verified facts (Freedom of Information Act anyone?!) you can see who the most corrupt senators are at any given time. Luckily Frist was one of the worst and he wasn’t even trying to get re-elected.

I’m terribly shocked and awed (yeah that phrase is now beloved by Democrats and Liberals everywhere for being a key moment in how the Republicans lost) that anyone who votes Republican can possibly sleep at night?

Oh before I forget, kudos to nearly 50% of Nevada voting to legalize marijuana. In a country where over 50% of television commercials are for new wonder drugs it’s amazing that only one state came close to ending the hypocrisy.

Oh and as of 2:30 pm Virginia is still undecided. That one race is going to decide if the Senate is Dem or Rep. So much tension.

Firefox 2 outshines IE7

Firefox 2 has been released!

For those of you completely bored with the so called “next gen” browser IE7 news, go get Firefox 2. Just released today (to capitalize on Microsoft’s “patch Tuesday” perhaps?) Firefox 2 has even better anti-phishing technology and a much more verbose stable of stability and function than ever before.

I’ve been running the beta for about 2 months now and each update and bugfix released as gotten me more and more excited. If you’re sick of the tired Internet Explorer and want the best browser go get it. It’s a dream come true (again).

My absolute favorite new feature is the spell check. Finally I can type these blog posts in wordpress proper without needing to use other means to spell check. I suppose the next version of WordPress likely won’t even need a spell check function. I digress however. This is everything a browser should be and in many ways everything IE is not.

Stop listening to me gush praise at the Mozilla folks and go get it.

Rebuttal to John Keegan at Telegraph.co.uk

John Keegan recently wrote how Bush is wrong in stating that Iraq is similar to Vietnam. While on the face of it the death tolls definitely show that they are not that similar. He then goes on to state how it was the evil media distorting the truth to millions of Americans.

You can read his story here:
Bush is wrong: Iraq is not Vietnam
My response to him was as follows:

While your prose is quite well written, I’d wager that the Vietnam War (conflict) was lost by badly inexperienced micromanagement by unqualified people in Washington. Many of whom had never actually been in combat. Those unqualified folks set Rules of Engagement that were not only a virtual guarantee of injury or death for the US servicemen but also highly demoralizing.

Of course now that I’ve written that it’s rather obvious that Bush is even more accurate in stating the comparison is fair, since our troops are frequently under supplied, rarely have enough armor and are regularly being demoralized by having forced extensions to their time of service. All of these mistreatments to our troops are being managed by Mr. Bush (a man with no combat experience and woefully unqualified for the job) & Donald Rumsfeld (also with no military experience). While I assume you meant well with this column, it came off as far more of a puff piece on how Bush is an ok guy and the media is a great evil.

Bush contradiction singularity…

Found this on the AP Wire:

With regards to “signing statements” Bush said he’d disregard a requirement that the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency must have at least five years experience and “demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security.”

His rationale was that it “rules out a large portion of those persons best qualified by experience and knowledge to fill the office.”

Of course. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. Only by doing the exact opposite of what we say can we save the US from the terrists. Coming soon, a line by line comparison of the things Clinton was accused of (even those with no proof) versus all the things Bush has done (with proof in all cases). Also coming soon I post on craigslist vancouver bc for a job so Zoe and I can leave the madhouse before it gets any weirder.

Apple heals old wounds and I get a macbook pro.

About 5 weeks ago I wrote about how my gorgeous powerbook had overheated and burned my pregnant fiance Zoe. Well after two months of red tape and quite a bit of runaround between the local Apple store’s “genius” in charge of my problem and the tech support line I finally managed to get a solution that worked out well.

The entire issue started with it overheating enough to cause a small burn on Zoe’s hand. After 3 trips to the apple store and being told “there’s nothing wrong with it”, Apple recalled the batteries of an additional 1.5 million units. I went back to the store and let them know yet again that an injury had taken place and was told to “call tech support” again.

Well knowing full well that I had a planned trip to San Jose I realized that I could just drop by the Apple campus and plunk myself down in the lobby until the issue was resolved. Initially I was put on the phone with someone from the “office of the CEO” named Melissa who said that my only recourse was to call tech support. I gave her my number to have someone call me that day and then went back to the lobby desk and asked for someone to meet with me face to face. About 20 minutes later I was called by Nathan Phillips with Corporate Executive Relations who came straight down to the lobby once he discovered I was still in the building.

I explained the entire story to him and gave him the paperwork and reports I had regarding the initial overheating problem, the response from the Genius bar at my local store as well as showed him the red area on Zoe’s hand (2 months after the burn). He let me know that Apple was not happy with the way I was treated and contrary to protocol took my powebook in order to get in the hands of engineers as quickly as possible.

He let me know that in the event it could be repaired that I would get a new machine. With a quick handshake and a promise to get to the bottom of why an injury claim was processed in an expedited manner we went home.

The next morning around 9am I got a call from Nathan asking if I would mind going through the very lengthy checklist of questions regarding the battery issue and the injury as well as letting me know that it would take Apple’s engineers 2-3 weeks to start examining the unit, so would I be ok with waiting that long to get some sort of resolution. I made sure to tell him that since I hadn’t been able to use the powerbook for two months waiting another month was unacceptable. I said having a working machine as soon as possible would be necessary. He promised to try and figure out a solution and would call me back.

After that call I went back to packing up all of the gifts Zoe received at the baby shower we were in San Jose to attend. About 10:15 in the morning Nathan called yet again to ask if it would be acceptable to get a 17″ machine in lieu of a 15″ macbook pro since I had an 8x superdrive and the 15″ macbooks did not have that feature. I of course said “that would be fine” and after asking a few other questions said he’d call me back.

A few hours later while out at lunch he called to let me know that a 17″ Macbook Pro with all of the options would be waiting for me at the Santa Clara Apple store. I then asked him about getting a new case since my old case liner was for 15″ powerbooks or smaller. He said that it would be unlikely and he was already at the limits of what he could do. I got to the Apple store and identified myself to the manager Ron and he handed me my new Macbook as well as asked if I needed a case to go with it. I said that would be great.

So after all was said and done I did manage to get the issue resolved, Zoe’s hand is fine and I have a brand new $3000 piece of gorgeous dual booting (yay base camp + vista) Macbook Pro as well as a neoprene case to transport it in. Yesterday I received a call from the store manager from the local Apple store to ask me who I dealt with at the store that dropped the ball. I received a very heartfelt apology from her as well as a free year of .Mac service plus Apple Pro Care for a year as well. I’m still waiting though to discover if any data can be recovered from my powerbook and the 2000+ photos in iphoto I hadn’t had a chance to backup once it died.

Thanks to Terry @ the Portland Apple Stores, Nathan Phillips at Apple and the 3 folks at tech support I spoke to. in resolving this, now if you’ll excuse me I have older backups to restore as well as my ipod to connect to the new machine.

Here’s one of the “unboxing” shots I took while opening it:

Crazy Christian performs an act of terrorism on US soil. Not charged as a terrorist.

Found this someplace on the web:

Man rams car into women’s clinic in Davenport

ASSOCIATED PRESS

September 12, 2006

Davenport, Ia. — A man accused of ramming his car into a women’s clinic and then setting his car on fire thought it was an abortion clinic, police said Tuesday.

“He was using his car to torch the building,” Davenport police Detective Mike Bowers said.

David Robert McMenemy, 45, of Sterling Heights, Mich., is charged with second-degree arson. He’s accused of driving his car into the Edgerton Women’s Health Center about 4:30 a.m. on Monday.

The center does not perform abortions and does not provide abortion referrals, said Tom Fedje, the president of the clinic. He said the clinic does advise pregnant women on the various options available to them.

Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa is monitoring the incident, spokeswoman Kathi Di Nicola said. Planned Parenthood is the only agency to provide abortions in the Quad Cities, performing the procedure at its center in Bettendorf.

Bowers said McMenemy apparently thought the Edgerton center performed abortions.

“He drove into the clinic and set his car on fire using an accelerant. He knew what he was doing. He planned it. It wasn’t an accident,” Bowers said.

Bowers said McMenemy has no ties to the Davenport area, and has been driving around the Midwest since August.

“He has admitted looking them (abortion clinics) up in phone books and online,” Bowers said. “I have no idea why Iowa.”

The small car traveled through a parking lot, over the center’s driveway and through the glass double-doors at the entrance to the lobby.

The driver walked out of the building and approached firefighters, saying he wanted to talk, officials said.

Bowers estimated damage to the building at more than $20,000. No one was in the building at the time, and McMenemy was not injured.

McMenemy remained in the Scott County jail on Tuesday. No bond was set, officials said.

Since the original story was published the charges have been upped to “committing arson against a business affecting interstate commerce”. Which carries a charge of between 5 and 20 years as well as a fine

I’m pretty sure that if you’re trying to bomb a legally allowed business due to religious conviction or to sow terror that makes you a terrorist. It was supposed to be a suicide bombing. Granted it was just a small women’s clinic and not a giant skyscraper. So apparently size matters? Way to go folks for raising the profile of hypocrisy to even greater level. Of course what do I know, I exist on logic and trying to do the right thing because it’s the right thing. Not because some imaginary superfriend that died hundreds of years ago tells me to.

relevant links:

Man rams car into women’s clinic in Davenport

Clinic crash moves to federal court

TSA says: Free Speech is not allowed.

Found this on boingboing. Glad to see that even the First Amendment isn’t safe from “protecting us from terrorists”.

From Flyertalk: “I was detained for about 25 minutes today after passing though the TSA checkpoint at MKE terminal E.

I thought about posting this in the other treads devoted to their experience today under the new new liquids-are-okay-in-a-quart bag rule, but I decided it needed its own thread.

Yesterday, while discussing the new rules a fellow Flyertalker suggested we write “Kip Hawley is an Idiot” on the outside of our clear plastic quart bags. So I did just that.

At the MKE “E” checkpoint I placed my laptop in one bin, and my shoes, cell phone and quart bag in a second bin. The TSA guy who was pushing bags and bins into the X-ray machine took a good hard look, and then as the bag when though the X-ray I think he told the X-ray operator to call for a bag check/explosive swab on my roller bag to slow me down. He went strait to the TSA Supervisor on duty and boy did he come marching over to the checkpoint with fire in his eyes!

He grabbed the baggie as it came out of the X-ray and asked if it was mine. After responding yes, he pointed at my comment and demanded to know “What is this supposed to mean?” “It could me a lot of things, it happens to be an opinion on mine.” “You can’t write things like this” he said, “You mean my First Amendment right to freedom of speech doesn’t apply here?” “Out there (pointing pass the id checkers) not while in here (pointing down) was his response.”

At this point I chuckled, just looking at him wondering if he just realized how foolish that comment was, but I think my laugh pushed him over the edge as he got really angry at this point. A Milwaukee County Sheriffs deputy was summoned - I would have left at this point, but he had my quart bag with my toothpaste and hair gel.

When the deputy got over the TSA supervisor showed him the bag and told him what had happened to that point. After he had finished I started to remind him he had left out his statement that my First Amendment rights didn’t apply “here” but was cut off by the deputy who demanding my ID. I asked if I was under arrest, and his response was “Right now you are not under arrest, you are being detained.” I produced my passport and he walked off with it and called in my name to see if I had any outstanding warrants, etc. The TSA supervisor picked up the phone about 20 feet away and called someone? At this point two more officers were near by and I struck up a conversation with the female officer who was making sure I kept put. I explained to her who Kip Hawley was, why I though he was an idiot, and my surprise that the TSA Supervisor felt my First Amendment rights didn’t’ apply at the TSA checkpoint. She didn’t say much.

After he was assured I didn’t have any warrants out the first office came back and I had my first chance to really speak, I explained that I was just expressing my opinion and my writing should be protected my by First Amendment rights. When he didn’t respond, I then repeated that the TSA Supervisor stated my First Amendment rights didn’t apply at the TSA check point and I asked if he (the deputy) agreed that was the case. He responded by saying “You can’t yell fire in a crowed theater, there are limits to your rights.

At this point I chucked again

I asked how this was even remotely like shouting “Fire” in a crowd, and his answer was “Perhaps your comments made them feel threatened.”

At about this point the TSA Supervisor finished up his phone call, and summoned the officer back over. They talked for about 2 minutes, and then both came back over. The officer pulled out his pad and asked for my address and I asked why he needed it. “For the report I have to file since I was summoned here” I started to give it, when I noticed the TSA Supervisor was writing it down as well, so I stopped and asked why he needed it. He said he needed to file an incident report too, and I took the opportunity to ask what the resolution of the incident was, did I do anything wrong? Are you going to ask the officer to arrest me? He said no, I was free to go, but he was going to confiscate my bag. I asked “If I did nothing wrong, why would you take my bag” He pointed to a posted sign that said something about reusing plastic bags (the MKE TSA was providing quart sized zipper bags to pax today) I let him know that I had brought my bag from home and would not be letting him take it. He then asked for permission of photograph it, which I agreed too.

While he walked away to get the camera I finished giving my address to the deputy, and he told my “You’re free to go” Total time, about 25 minutes

After the TSA Supervisor took the photo I followed him back to his desk - he had a pretty shocked look on his face when he turned around and saw me there, and we talked for about 5 minutes, but when he rolled his eyes at me I quickly realized that he wasn’t going to listen to anything I said.”

At last we can all rest easily knowing that those damnable evil insurgency minded terrorists can’t use harsh language on us. I don’t know Kip Hawley but based on the rules of items allowed/disallowed over the last 5 years I’m totally in agreement that he’s an idiot. NO metal utensils on flights (unless you fly first class, then you get the little nail kit and silverware) NO bottled drinks on flights (unless you buy them at a 500% markup from the shops past security. Ahhh commerce.

Is it me or are all of us normal average Americans now getting a taste of what military perks have become under Halliburton ($10/hour internet access, $100 to wash a bag of clothes etc). Remember folks it’s patriotic to be forced to pay a premium in order to get the same product from a government contractor. Your safety matters.

Apple has “issues” with batteries.

So two weeks ago I took my Powerbook into my local Apple store since it had been running extremely hot and unstable as well. It had even caused a small burn on Zoe’s hand when she went to pick it up. The best part is it had been unplugged when it did it. I figured it was a battery issue and took it in. They kept the laptop for 2 days and then returned it saying it “had no problems and worked fine”.

Today while perusing <a href=”http://boingboing.net”>Boingboing.net</a> with my morning coffee in hand I discovered that joy of joys my powerbook has a battery that may cause overheating a possibility of burns and even of exploding. Now mind you as a typical male I do have a normal fondness for things exploding. $2500 notebook computers however do not fall into that category.

It really pisses me off that this recall (which had to have taken longer than a few weeks for apple to prepare for/announce) is likely the cause for my exact issue with my powerbook. The fact that they didn’t automatically call me about this from the local store (there is a nice database that allows them to look that stuff up quite easily) and also dismissed my issue as being “nonexistant” (did I mention the fact there is a slight bulge in the battery itself near the pins?)

I doubt Apple will make good on it but since I’ve had a prior to this recall report of impaired performance from my powerbook as well as a minor injury from it I think I’m entitled to something more than just a replacement battery. This seems like a case for warranty exchange of the entire system.

<a href=”http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/24/yabr_yet_another_bat.html”>YABR (Yet another battery recall): Apple recalls 1.8M Sony units</a>
<a href=”https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange/index.html”>Battery Exchange Program iBook G4 and PowerBook G4</a>

David Byrne writes of US “Madrasses” (fundie craziness)

Former Talking Heads frontman/musician/artist/all around intelligent conversationalist turned excellent blogger David Byrne wrote about a film he recently watched on his blog.

The film documentary titled “Jesus Camp” shows that in our own country the same sort of religious indoctrination and brainwashing is going on as in Iraq/Afghanistan. Not only are these kids being taught that might makes moral right but that Bush is worthy of adulation and worship.

The children are also taught that anything that goes against the church is wrong (apparently this includes global warming??) and that learning anything other than the agenda of these so called Christians (and I use that term loosely) is suspect and most likely a sin.

Apparently the “grownups” (another loosely used term) in the film are quick to separate themselves from the islamic brand of zealot/fanatic/whacko. Killing or a being a martyr for God is not the same as killing and being a martyr for Muhammed. Apparently according to these “christian” “grownups” they aren’t fanatical zealots because… they’re right (yeah it doesn’t make a lick of sense to me either, but then I tend to enjoy logic in my day to day world).

It’s a shame that there is no place in America for logic or even common sense. Long live hypocrisy…

Grrr..