For those of you against "gay marriage"...

...that think a popular vote is the way to determine who gets that right...

Understand that interracial marriage has only been legal, in every state of the US, since 1967. That is less than 40 years ago. It is also quite probable that, if left up to popular opinion, "The South" would have never desegregated its society. There are just some things that cannot, and should not, be decided by popular vote.

I have no horse in this race, but it seems rather silly for people to get so upset about it. Absolutely no one has made a sound case that same-gender marriage causes any harm to any person, nor how any non-consenting adults might end up being forced into one.

From Wikipedia...

In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th century, many American states passed anti-miscegenation laws, often based on interpretations of the Bible, particularly the story of Phinehas. Typically a felony, these laws prohibited the solemnization of weddings between persons of different races and prohibited the officiating of such ceremonies. Sometimes the individuals attempting to marry would not be held guilty of miscegenation itself, but felony charges of adultery or fornication would brought against them instead (Vermont was the only state to never introduce such legislation). The constitutionality of anti-miscegenation laws was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1883 case Pace v. Alabama. In 1965, Virginia trial court judge Leon Bazile sentenced to jail an interracial couple who got married in Washington, D.C., writing:

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

This decision was eventually overturned in 1967, 84 years after Pace v. Alabama, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Loving v. Virginia that

Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law.

At the time that anti-miscegenation laws were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, 16 states still had laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Those laws were not completely repealed until November 2000, when Alabama became the last state to repeal its law. According to Salon.com:

...after a statewide vote in a special election, Alabama became the last state to overturn a law that was an ugly reminder of America's past, a ban on interracial marriage. The one-time home of George Wallace and Martin Luther King Jr. had held onto the provision for 33 years after the Supreme Court declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. Yet as the election revealed -- 40 percent of Alabamans voted to keep the ban -- many people still see the necessity for a law that prohibits blacks and whites from mixing blood.

The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, also known as Hays Code, explicitly stated that the depiction of "miscegenation... is forbidden."

A Year at WDW...

You can click on the title above to go to the website.

The basic premise is that this 19 year old saved up $100k and is going to spend 6 days out of every week at WDW for a year. I love the idea and wish I had done it when I was younger myself!

Legal rights for uncredentialed photographers...

If anyone happens to see this, by chance, do you know an expert on the legal rights for photographers at sporting events? Specifically non-credentialed photographers at NHL games?

Just looking for a little help with some questions.

Paint your own house, offshore outsourcing asshole!

I was listening to NPR this morning and heard a story about a surfboard maker who has the foam core for his boards made in China. When confronted that he is a part of the problem, which forces entire industries to go entirely offshore (well, except for the US-based executive team), he makes the (probably trademarked by now) excuse "I am just following global trends."

To make matters worse, he says anybody put out of work by this sort of activity should spend their "unplanned vacation" by "painting their house" or better yet "go surfing."

How about...make your boards entirely in the United States if you are only selling them here. Don't have work done in other countries that you do not sell your service or product in. It really is not that hard, is it?

SPAM STOCK TRACKER

Ever received some of those spams that are promoting a particular stock? This guy, Joshua, started running a stock tracker as if he had purchased the stocks pumped in the spams. As you will be able to see, if you go to the site, there is very little money to be made on these pump and dump campaigns...even in the immediate short term (unless you had a huge amount of money). The only chance is if you could sell them short, but I have little idea if such a brokerage exists that would allow you to do such a thing. This is actually discussed at the site as well. Take a look.

It would be worth checking every week or two...

http://www.spamstocktracker.com/

Baltimore arrests record number of people...

Hmmm. Our government is clearly out of control.

No, asshole driver, you are not entitled to this lane...

Just because your lane is ending, and you choose to ignore the multiple warnings provided to you by the roadside signs, does not mean you are entitled to simply slide into my lane without looking or using your signal. Face it, asshole. A car headed towards a wall with no signal looks like a car that wants to drive straight into the wall.

NHL takes their games to OLN...

ESPN has decided not to match the offer from OLN to broadcast NHL games for the next couple of years (and up to the next 5 years). This is a great thing. ESPN was no longer actually interested in the NHL. They would do anything they could to bore or turn off their viewers. The entire broadcast was poor right from the start, starting with the choice of games to cover. The camera work was below par. The commentary was lacking. Why they were never able to watch a TSN or, even better, a Hockey Night In Canada show, is simply beyond me. Hockey Night In Canada is the best and I would just about watch any teams play on HNIC. The game becomes a REAL EVENT on HNIC, where on ESPN it seemed like it was filler. Gary Thorne was always trying to worship any "superstar" player in a particular game. Hopefully he will be staying with ESPN to do baseball games. OLN does not need him.

The only concern I may have will be getting games in HD. HDNet has not announced a deal to carry NHL games this season. There is a significant chance that any HD games on OLN will not be seen anywhere except on Comcast cable systems, which won't help me with my DirecTV service. Even our local Comcast cable does not yet have an HD package, so we would be out in the cold there as well. Nevermind that the system does not yet offer the NHL Center Ice package as well.

Still, turning their back on ESPN is a great move. ESPN has become more about style over substance. They even thought the NBA deal was going to be a big winner for them, but they have seen their NBA ratings continually come in lower than TNT's NBA ratings. ESPN needs to learn that viewers will go to the competition if they do not put on a good show. The only time ESPN wins is when they have paid their way into a monopoly...and even then it does not always work.

Operation Northwoods

Today I have read something quite interesting, which I am somewhat ashamed to admit I was previously ignorant of. It is a proposed covert operation from 1962 known as "Operation Northwoods."

This did not come through the CIA as you might expect, but rather from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was a plan to stage terrorist attacks against American citizens in Cuba in order to stir up support for an invasion of Cuba and the deposing of Fidel Castro. Long regarded as a "conspiracy theory", this has actually been verified since the Freedom of Information Act. The one portion of the plan that was presented to the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, involved the crashing of a "drone airliner." To his credit, McNamara rejected the plan. President John F. Kennedy then re-assigned the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lyman Lemnitzer, to a different position. He also fired the CIA Director, Allen Dulles (who would later serve on the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of Kennedy).

The most troubling parts to me so far are the somewhat obvious connections to other events since 1962. For starters, why is a man that was fired by President Kennedy, the previous year, selected to be on the Warren Commission investigating his assassination? This is a man who was the CIA Director when they were planning and assassinating heads of state, lost face when Kennedy withdrew support for the Bay of Pigs invasion late in the game, had recruited Mafia members to aid his CIA assassination attempts, oversaw the CIA mind control experiments known as Mk-Ultra, as well as overseeing Operation Mockingbird which was about exerting influence on American media companies. All of this regarding Allen Dulles is known fact at this point. I have intentionally avoided unverified conspiracist claims.

Dulles was a friend of Prescott Bush, the father of George H. W. Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush. It is interesting to note that George H. W. Bush ascends to be the CIA Director as well. So, there are some connections between Dulles and Bush, although they may not mean much (at least that is known to be true at this point).

Another troubling point is the crashing of a drone airliner to instigate support for war, given the events of September 11, 2001. There has been no shortage of conspiracy theories about the events of that day. It is disturbing to know that there had already been a proposal to stage terrorist attacks against US citizens to instigate a war/invasion of another nation specifically involving an airliner. Roughly 39 years later they may have finally pulled it off. I don't actually believe that this was a staged event by the US government, but it certainly seems a little more plausible knowing that "Operation Northwoods" actually exists. I'm more inclined to think they allowed it to happen, rather than having a hand in the implementation. It would then do what "Northwoods" was supposed to do, which was gain support for war and invasions of foreign nations. Cuba was not the boogeyman. It was Afghanistan that had been taunting us for a while, and then of course Iraq that had been taunting us for more than a decade. The loss of a few thousand people is a minor detail stacked up against the chance to funnel record revenues and profits to companies that profit from war (with direct ties to the current administration) and an opportunity to settle the score with a Bush Family enemy (Saddam Hussein). Whether a conspiracy exists or not, there is enough verified evidence available to suggest it is possible.

The actual approved portion of "Operation Northwoods", involving the drone airliner, called for the claim to be that the 'airliner' was full of "college students off on a holiday."

Out-of-pocket maximum...?

So, apparently, when someone tells you about an "out-of-pocket maximum", it does not actually mean the maximum amount of money that could come out of your pocket. It means something different, depending on who is telling you and what they are holding back. For instance, my health insurance provider, Blue Cross of California (they must be a bad one), defines it as such:

"Out-of-Pocket Maximum: Refers to the maximum amount that a covered person will have to pay for expenses covered under the plan. It is a sum of deductible and coinsurance amounts."

However, although my insurance is with them, my employer opted for a plan that has a different definition of "out-of-pocket maximum." This NEW definition of the phrase says that it is not the sum of deductible and coinsurance amounts, but rather just the total of coinsurance payments.

When it comes to words, I expect them to mean the same thing when dealing with the same material. Up means up, and down means down. An out-of-pocket maximum at $1,000 should always mean an out-of-pocket maximum of $1,000. Instead, sometimes it means $1,000 plus your $400 deductible...which is clearly an out-of-pocket maximum of $1,400.

Nomic

This is something really cool that people should take a look at...

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

Basically, you start out with a default set of rules and the game involves making changes to the rules and proposing new rules. It is really interesting how different things happen in different games, as people learn from previous games. I've contemplated using the Nomic style of rules for multiple things, including sports simulation leagues, household rules, homeowner associations, and local governments.

After 13+ years as a Wachovia customer...

...it is time to move on, it seems.

-----
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Wachovia Corp. expects to generate savings of up to 30 percent by moving some of its technology work to India, chief information officer Martin Davis said.
-----

I hope they enjoy the savings and it does them a whole lot of good. I can't look at myself in the mirror and continue doing business with a company like that. It is bad enough that I work for a company that has engaged in that sort of activity, but I'm not going to spend my little bit of money financing something like that. Not that it will matter, but I will do my part to educate the executives that what they are doing is considered wrong and dishonest. They have no bank branches in India, so shipping off the bank's work to India is unethical, regardless of the savings they think they can realise. It is time for people in America to take a stand on things instead of just going with the flow while we are sold out by corporations AND our government.

Smith: No Force, No Fraud

Anyone who happens to come along and see this blog, should definitely check out the following site:

http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/bsmith/

His writings are generally spot on and shed some light on events that really should be on the radar of every individual in the United States. In particular, his response to the U.S. Supreme Court giving away our property rights this week is worth your time.

China begins their takeover of the US...

No, they aren't invading. That wouldn't really work. How are they doing it then?

They have made a bid to buy UNOCAL, a significant oil company. This would give them control of oil and natural gas reserves in Texas, as well as in other places around the world. No doubt they feel empowered by their role in making the flags that fly over most government buildings in the US, as well as being a major supplier to Walmart. I would be willing to bet that most households have a few items in it that were made in China. Let's not forget that China is a communist nation that not-too-long-ago was running over some of its population with tanks.

We've already willingly stood by and watched our manufacturing sectors go overseas. If we were to go to war with a major enemy, we would be hard-pressed to meet its demands on our own soil. If we sell our own oil reserves on our own land to a communist government on the other side of the planet, we might as well start counting our days. It is time to find out if this board of directors and shareholders have any sense of patriotism in their bodies, or if they are beholden only to the dollar bill. Is it ok to sell critical resources to the Chinese government just because they offer more cash than another company? What good would that cash do when the Chinese government cut us off from our own oil?

Michael Jackson is found not guilty!

I never felt like writing about this until I heard a lengthy discussion on the radio this morning. I don't really understand all the outrage about it. The people in the jury found him not guilty. Not everything goes the way you want it to. I wish everyone had voted for Michael Badnarik for President of the United States of America, but I'm not saying that everyone who didn't is stupid, or out to screw everyone. It's the way that the system works. It's not the JURY who messed up. It sounds like a lot of people should be upset with a DA who could not, beyond a reasonable doubt, prove their case.

This is the way things have worked for a long time in this country. I just keep thinking that people may finally understand the system, but they never do. Even supposedly educated people act like children when things happen that they do not agree with. It is really getting old. Grow up and suck it up.

And Bill O'Reilly, if you think cash settlements are equivalent to guilt, you should look in the mirror. Remember your cash settlement in a sexual harrassment matter recently? I guess you did it too!

KPMG only has to say they're sorry...

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/06/17/kpmg_offers_apology_over_illegal_tax_shelters/

Ah, apparently, if you are a major corporation providing a vital service to other major corporations you can break the law and won't be indicted. That's a brilliant idea. What is the incentive for any corporation in a similar sort of role to stay clean, then? If one of the Big Four is allowed to make up their own rules, why should the other three play by the rules? The attitude here is that the Big Four accounting firms are far too important to indict, so all they need do is apologise and let people resign everytime they get their hands dirty. Sounds like a brilliant scam to me.

Terri Schiavo's parents disbelieve in all science...

So, now that the ultimate truth has come out about the state of Terri Schiavo's brain, her parents simply refuse to believe it. It is as if medical science is now the same as religion, and that it is simply a matter of belief or faith that determines whether it is true or not. They choose to not believe in medical examiners, autopsies, and the weight of brains. This is not really surprising. All along they knew they were throwing out the truth. They made a decision a long time ago to argue based on emotion and not on the facts. They made allegations that they knew were false, with the hope that it would drive them to victory. Unfortunately this is a trait that too many people share with them. The ends justify the means. It doesn't matter what it takes, and whether it is even true or not. You should do whatever you think it takes to win at any cost.

Their opinions and views on the subject are worthless. All along they have shown a complete disregard for the facts and even as more facts stack up against them, they refuse to believe. This is like someone who has an undying belief in some deity. You cannot sway them with any arguments because their belief is not based on any fact. It is not based on any truth. It is an emotional bond to some myths that they cannot shake. Their entire sense of being is attached to this belief, so arguing the matter is pointless. They will never change that because to do so would shatter them.

So, how do you hire a midget?

I know someone who wants to hire a midget for a night out on the town in Manhattan, NY. Anyone know how you might go about doing that?

Just out of general curiosity, don't you think midgets should have a yellow pages listing? Don't they need the work?

:)

Patriot Act dies at the end of this year... Oh wait, we found some terrorists!

How surprising is it that the US government found some terrorists right about the time that Bush has started campaigning for the extension of 16 or so provisions of the Patriot Act? Very convenient, I'd say. Despite the FBI stating this fellow was on the verge of carrying out his jihad here on a mission from Al-Qaeda, he has only been charged with making a false statement. Go figure. Let's extend the Patriot Act simply because some Arab in California made a false statement.

The KLF...

What a brilliant piece of work those guys were...

Well, it's not all over yet. Years after having huge hits, and then burning a million pounds sterling in protest of their success...

Bill Drummond has some interesting websites that everyone should check out and explore...

http://www.penkiln-burn.com/
http://www.youwhores.com/
http://www.mydeath.net/index.html

And Jimmy Cauty, the other half of the famous duo, is busy here...

http://www.blacksmoke.org/