Monday, March 31, 2008

Additional FITNA link

You can also see the movie FITNA over at google video. It seems that the nature of "viral video" is working in the favor of truth. The movie has been downloaded and posted by enough people that it will be on the internet, somewhere, for a long time.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

The Fury over "FITNA"

Some days I surf the net and find some harmless fluff to post for a laugh. Today was not one of those days. This is a serious post about the war. No, not the war in Iraq or Afghanistan - I'm talking about the larger War Of Terror that is being waged world wide by Muslim extremists.

A Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, released the film Fitna on the internet just two days ago. So far the reaction has been de facto censorship by intimidation.

As of right now, the film is available in English at the official website http://www.themoviefitna.com/ It is posted there as a March 28th entry. This is despite the fact that Network Solutions suspended the original domain. The reason given:
This site has been suspended while Network Solutions is investigating whether the site's content is in violation of the Network Solutions Acceptable Use Policy. Network Solutions has received a number of complaints regarding this site that are under investigation.

See the movie here.
The movie is graphic.
Truth is like that.


It was available on LiveLeak.com for a very short time, however they felt forced to remove the film. In a recent statement (posted in red at the top of the LiveLeak web site)
“Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill-informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.”
"This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else."

See the movie here.
The movie is graphic.
Truth is like that.


The video can be found on YouTube but it is behind the warning
This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube's user community.
To view this video or group, please verify you are 18 or older by logging in or signing up.


Interestingly enough there are literally hundreds of videos on YouTube and LiveLeak of IED's being detonated against coalition forces. Most of these have NOT been flagged by either site or place behind any type of "age shield".

See the movie here.
The movie is graphic.
Truth is like that.


Don't misunderstand me - I have no objection to graphic material being behind a shield of some kind but I think it is completely rational to ask Network Solutions, LiveLeak and YouTube to be consistent. A quick "whois" search reveals that YouTube is registered through Network Solutions (LiveLeak is registered with godaddy.com)
Registrant:
YouTube, Inc.
ATTN: YOUTUBE.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447


Since YouTube is registered with Network Solutions and Network Solutions has not suspended youtube.com for being "in violation of the Network Solutions Acceptable Use Policy.", their suspension of fitnathemovie.com is disingenuous, insincere and dishonest.

Since Google now owns YouTube, this means that Google, YouTube, LiveLeak and Network Solutions have, by their selective enforcements of usage policies, communicated that they would rather spend their resources giving "aid and comfort" to Iraqi insurgents rather than to those who would expose the truth about radical Muslims extremists.

See the movie here.
The movie is graphic.
Truth is like that.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Sir Arthur C Clarke, dead at 90

Here is a link to the March 19th entry of TimesOnline blog. It has a YouTube video of Sir Arthur C Clarke on the occassion of his 90th birthday (December 2007) and a lot of good links to stories about his death.

Here's a good article about his life. By the way, if you've never read his 1953 book Childhood's End, you should.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

I Lost My PG Rating !

Just for giggles I checked my "rating". After the post "Supreme Court Majority Appears To Back Gun Rights" now the widget gives me a rating of R !

Before (with the PG rating) the warning was "Some Material May Not Be Suitable For Children". I can live with that. Now the R rating warns "Under 17 Requires Accompanying Parent or Adult Guardian" and the "What's My Blog Rated?" widget tells me:

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
gun (8x)
murder (5x)
dead (3x)
shoot (1x)


This makes me wonder. If talking about the murder rate in the nation's capitol gets me an "R" rating then what should we rate Washington D. C. itself? That's a scary thought.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Toward A Simpler EULA

So I'm dragging my heels again (technology wise) and just finally getting around to installing a webcam on my wife's computer. I have ZERO excuse here because the webcam was a Christmas gift (sorry Moose).

It occurs to me that we could really simplify the "End User License Agreement" (EULA). I am apparently among the 2% of computer users that actually read the EULA (have you ever read one) and they all seem to be very similiar to me in essense. So why not save some words, simplify things for the consumer and raise the percentage of people that actually read these things all in one fell swoop?

It would be a short, simple four point document.

1. This software can only be used on this one machine. If you want to install the software on other machines, buy more software.

2. This software can only be used for the purpose stated on the package. You're forbidden from using it to write you own code, you're forbidden from taking the software apart or anything of the like.

3. If you should choose to install this software, you can't blame us for any run of bad luck. If your machine bursts into flame, if your significant other leaves you, if you get fired or if you run your car into the ditch, you can't blame us. Sucks to be you.

4. Any dispute over this EULA will taken care of in a jurisdiction that is most favorable to us and least favorable to you. (Just like your credit card)

I'm just saying...

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Supreme Court Majority Appears To Back Gun Rights

According to this Washington Post article, the United States Supreme Court is currently reviewing a case that tests the constitutionality of a Washington D. C. gun ban passed in 1976. This law's requirements essentially amounted to "a prohibition on the use of firearms for self-defense in the home" according to Senior Circuit Judge Silberman (reference #3). While private legal ownership of handguns in the nation's capitol wasn't technically banned, it was banned for all practical purposes.

During the 1990's Washington D. C. had the dubious honor of being known as "the murder capitol of the United States" with a murder rate of 81 per 100,000.

It has been postulated that Baghdad is statistically safer than Washington D. C. when you take into account :
1) The number of American casaulties in Baghdad since the invasion
2) The amount of time that we have been in Baghdad and compare it to
3) Washington D. C.'s record murder rate of 81 per 100,000 in one year.

This particular statistic was not my idea and math is not my strong suit so I won't make that claim. (Also I am good friends with two philosophy professors would might just cry "Foul" at the logic of such an analogy.) I'm just saying...

Either way, they've been going at this lawsuit for a while now and I'm just hoping that the citizens of our capitol are finally afforded the same right to defend themselves, their property and their loved ones that most of the citizens of the US enjoy.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Oy Vey!!!

Is anybody else SICK of this election already? I know I am.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Resolved - Words Matter.

This first video (made by an Obama supporter) uses the words of FDR, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, JFK and Ronald Reagan to take digs at Hillary and make the point that "Words Matter".

Okay. Point taken. Words Matter.

And words are powerful. On the subject of "The Power of Words", let's consider this next video.

The second video (added to YouTube today) shows excerpts from a sermon by Rev Jeremiah Wright cut together with excerpts from a speech by Barack Hussein Obama. In this sermon Rev Wright says (among other things) "...Jesus was a poor black man..." and "...I am so glad that I have a God that knows what it is to be a poor black man in a country run by rich white people!".

I won't post the really offensive videos here but you can search YouTube for Jeremiah Wright and easily find plenty of hate speech and Mr Wright (literally) cursing America.

You may or may not know that Jesse Jackson Jr (son of the Rev Jesse Jackson) is the Co-Chairman of Barack Hussein Obama's campaign. The third video helps to publicize comments by Barack's campaign Co-Chairman. These comments were plainly racist and BHO has done nothing to distance himself from them.

The fourth video gives a little on the Obama-Wright-Farrakhan connection. In a nutshell Barack (and family) has been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1988. They donated (according to one source) over $20,000 to TUCC in 2006. Rev Jeremiah Wright gave a "Lifetime Achievement Award" to Louis Farrakhan. Louis Farrakhan is a piece of work.

The last video is a U.S. Senator (and Barack Hussein Obama supporter) unable to name ONE of Obama's accomplishments when asked by Chris Matthews. Priceless.










Sunday, March 09, 2008

The Middle name is NOT the issue

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.

Its the name of one of the Democrat presidential hopefuls (in case you've been in a cave the last few months) but the question has become - Is his middle name "too hot"? Slate has an interesting article about the whole ordeal and mentions a possible midlash against the Republicans. The title of this article asks if his middle name is "taboo".

Taboo. Now there is an interesting idea. Lets run with that. Barack himself started all this. It was his choice to drop the "H" before he ran for the Senate. This effectively changed his initials from BHO to just BO. (I don't think I would have gone that route)

See if you recognize any of these famous middle names.

Quincy
Henry
Fitzgerald
Milhous
Baines
Delano
S (just S)
Jefferson
Woodrow
Rodham

And names like F Murray Abraham, G Gordon Liddy, Booker T Washington, Francis Scott Key (not to mention F Scott Fitzgerald), W Somerset Maugham, J R R Tolkien, C S Lewis and George Washington Carver just wouldn't have the same "ring" if the middle name was "off limits".

And infamous characters such as serial killers John Wayne Gacy, H H Holmes and John Allen Muhammed wouldn't be nearly so memorable without middle names or initials. We call memorable people by their full names now. (Personally, I will probably never forget Gene Leroy Hart - but I digress...)

I was going to include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in that list of "names that need the middle one to have punch" but upon reflection, I have to admit that just plain Wolfgang Mozart is not too shabby. And he was baptized with five names. Plus any given name that easily allows your lover to come up with a racy pet name is kinda cool (in the movie she calls him "Wolfie" but might be just Hollywood exercising artistic license).

Despite RNC (Republican National Committee) memorandums to the contrary, Obama's middle name is an issue. He (and the RNC) make it an issue by pretending that it doesn't exist. Here is the analogy - you go to Egypt and, like a lot of tourists, you decide to ride a camel. You are on the camel and, as the camel stands, you ask the tour guide "Is there anything else that I should know?" and the tour guide says "Don't think about the camel's left knee!". Now honestly, what is the one thing that you will surely be thinking about during that entire camel ride? The camel's left knee.

I DON'T want to see a Democrat in the White House but honestly, it is going to be interesting to see how this whole "don't mention my middle name" deal pans out. Honestly I think Obama is using the old "any publicity is good publicity" rule and milking this for all that its worth.

Friday, March 07, 2008

Why can't Florida get their ducks in a row??

So I was surfing around YouTube, looking at videos about presidential candidates and I ran across this one "Hillary Supporter Bill Nelson: Time for Florida Revote" (below).

Suddenly something occured to me (I should have thought of this a long time ago). Florida had quite a bit of trouble with their presidential elections in 2000 ("irregularities") and again in 2004 ("controversies"). So then Why In The World did Senator Jeremy Ring think that moving the primary date to earlier in the year was a good idea?

I'm guessing the conversation went something along the lines of "Well all our past elections have gone off without a hitch and nobody ever pays any attention to Florida so, this year, let's shake things up a bit."

In defense of the Florida politicians, their claim is that the DNC broke it's own rules. No matter how this shakes down, it will continue to be interesting.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Is this the best the GOP can do? (Part 1)

John Sidney McCain III.


Today the average price for gasoline is $3.18 a gallon. And for all the talk of "Global Warming" and "green technologies", the truth is that America's consumption is increasing. So if demand is increasing (and it is) then the only way to lower prices is to increase supply.

How do we do increase supply without increasing our dependence on foreign oil? Well, according to a 1998 United States Geological Service (USGS) survey, there is anywhere from 4.3 to 11.8 BILLION (with a "b") recoverable barrels of oil and gas in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). [First paragraph at the top of page 4] And according to this source: 2005 USGS update states modern technology will increase 1998 figures and lessen any impact on environment.

Consider this: During the 1973 oil crisis, the U.S. imported only 35% of its oil. The crisis was caused by a decline of only 3%. Currently we import over 60% of our oil.

(Take your time, read that last paragraph again and then you do the math.)

We went from importing an average of 5,861 barrels a month in 1990 to importing approximately 10,158.5 barrels of oil a month in 2007. You can crunch the numbers yourself from the charts here.

Years ago, the Bush Administration proposed (then pushed again in 2004 and again in 2005)that we make the investment to retrieve this (domestic) oil. In 2002 the McDowell Group of Anchorage Alaska conducted an Economic Impact Assessment and they concluded that ANWR development would create 11,000 new jobs for Alaska (just during the construction phase) and that retreival, etc. of the oil "would create between 17,000 – 38,000 jobs depending on the price per barrel at that time." And that it was possible that "peak performance" could show close to $800 million dollars a year for the state of Alaska.

Jobs, man. John Sidney McCain III has to be for creating jobs and decreasing our dependence on foreign oil, right? Wrong.

John Sidney McCain III (JSM3) has said As far as ANWR is concerned, I don’t want to drill in the Grand Canyon, and I don’t want to drill in the Everglades. This is one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the world.

No. No. NO.

The Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is NOT the Grand Canyon, ANWR is NOT the Everglades and ANWR is NOT "pristine". But you know what? That's not important. Because even if ANWR *was* "pristine" it just - doesn't - matter.

Look at this picture.


You get it?


Not yet?


Okay. Go here and look at slides 3, 4 & 5. If that link doesn't work copy and paste this http://www.anwr.org/features/pdfs/ANWR_Powerpoint_8-11-06.pdf into your "Address" bar and seriously, look at slides 3, 4 & 5. If you have time, check out all 27 slides.

If you still don't understand why we really should drill in ANWR then congratulations - you're as smart as a Senator!

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Rush Limbaugh says Vote Hillary

From NewsMax

The influential conservative Rush Limbaugh has urged Republicans in Texas and Ohio to "pimp themselves" for just one day vote by voting for Hillary to keep the Democratic Party "at war with itself."

On Friday night he told Laura Ingraham, who was filling in for Bill O'Reilly, "I want Hillary to stay in this, Laura. This is too good a soap opera. We need Barack Obama bloodied up politically, and it's obvious that the Republicans are not going to do it and don't have the stomach for it.
"As you probably know, we're getting all kinds of memos from the [Republican National Committee], saying not to be critical there. Mark MacKinnon of McCain's campaign says he'll quit if they get critical over Obama.


"This is the presidency of the United States you're talking about. I want our party to win. I want the Democrats to lose. They're in the midst of tearing themselves apart right now. It is fascinating to watch. And it's all going to stop if Hillary loses. So yes, I'm asking to cross over, if they can stomach it. I know it's a difficult thing to do to vote for a Clinton, but it will sustain this soap opera, and it's something I think we need. It would be fun, too."


No thanks, Rush. As I see it, today is probably the last chance that I'm going to have to vote for a conservative Republican presidential candidate in 2008.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

I have a Dream

I have a Dream and in this dream John McCain actually left the GOP in 2001. Rudy Guiliani's 2008 campaign was sidetracked by his odd behaviours and the GOP actually had two or three solid conservative candidates to choose from.


Then I wake up.


I know who I will be voting for on March 4th in the Texas primary and I'm leaning towards voting Constitution party in November. It would be interesting to see what would happen if everybody completely disregarded party affiliations and just voted their conscience.

I am not comfortable with just "sitting out" the presidential election - I have always felt that if you don't vote, you forfeit your right to complain. "Third party" candidates have made a difference in elections and have even won elecotoral college votes fairly recently.

I don't agree that it's a good idea for us to just take the next four years and "throw it under the bus" in the hopes that it will shock conservatives in action. I believe that we deserve whatever government we elect.