Month: August 2005

Blogs have many uses. Kathleen and Eric got married in a blog ceremony…

bq.
I promise to love, honor, and obey cherish you, in sickness and in health, in poverty and wealth, in times of sorrow and times of joy. I will be your friend, your lover, your confidant. I promise to never stop trying to become the patient, understanding man you deserve.

Love,
Your husband
Eric

The happy couple explains:

bq.
The state of Texas has a little known law governing “informal marriage”. For a marriage to be legal, we must publicly declare that we consider each other as spouses and this fact be known to other residents of the state of Texas. We got our certificate this afternoon and have now fulfilled the requirements as there’s bound to be a Texas resident or two amongst our joint readership. Feel free to witness our marriage here. [BloggerdyDoc]

Some months ago I read a discussion of whether a marriage ceremony taking place in an online RPG could be a valid marriage in the real world (assuming those involved wanted it to be, of course). It would appear that if the couple live in Texas, and there are other Texas residents present in the game, it could be.

Lucky You, George. In explaining why he refuses to meet Cindy Sheehan, George Bush let out one of his frequent verbal gaffes- but this one was more damaging than all of the others that merely showed his poor syntax. While he understood that there are citizens ‘who have got something to say,’ the president added,

“…I think it’s also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life.”

Exactly, George. The fact that hundreds of protesters are currently waiting outside your door… [Antiwar.com Blog]

bq. Wrapped up in its own rhetoric and dark pathologies, the government can no longer imagine spontaneity, sincerity, heart, and a desire for justice as motivating factors in human behavior. The ordinary citizens amassed in Crawford now are showing them that the old American values still exist. And that’s something for these cowardly hypocrites to be afraid of.

For some reason the battery life of my Newton has gone way down since the photographic trip two weeks ago. I had recharged it right before I left, and normally I would only now need to charge it again. Instead, I’ve recharged four times since then.

Since I left the Newton in my hotel room the whole time, I can’t imagine what the trip could have had to do with my battery life dropping. It may have just been a coincidence, and the battery just happened to naturally wear out at this time.

Clean Up After Your GlobalWarmingMobile. For those worried about the carbon dioxide emitted by their global warming machines (aka automobiles), Terrapass offers guilt free driving…. [Hit and Run]

It’s pretty funny that some ecofreaks are adding the sale of indulgences to their religion.

Drugs, Antitrust, and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Karen Tandy, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, has been criticized for her recent remarks announcing the arrest of Canadian publisher Marc Emery, a pro-marijuana activist, on drug trafficking charges. Tandy said Emery’s arrestbq. is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery’s illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on.The implication here, as Cato’s Radley Balko noted, is that “Emery’s bust was more because of his political activism than because of his law-breaking.” [Mises Economics Blog]

Well of course it was. What’s unusual is how open the Feds are about admitting it.

Keeping up with the Web. On RSS Tool, J Nathan Mattias has a rundown on tools for keeping up with lots and lots of blogs. [Mark Bernstein]

Strangely, “Radio” is only mentioned indirectly–there’s a reference to something being a clone of it.

I discovered a set of printed Frontier manuals in the CM area here at Symantec. There is a User Guide and a User Talk Reference Guide, both marked “First Edition: January, 1992.” I didn’t see a reference to which version of Frontier they were for, but they mention System 7, and I believe the earlier versions of Frontier predated that OS version. I suspect they came with Frontier 4, or perhaps Frontier 3.

Both books have “Configuration Management Document–Do not remove from CM” written on the inside cover in big letters. Evidently Symantec CM must have been using Frontier at one time, although I couldn’t find any indication of what that use might have been. That’s not surprising, as (so far as I know) nobody who was in CM back then is still with the company.

#
Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk –

Immigration and the Welfare State – defend the borders. Eliminate
welfare. Sounds pretty much in-line with the Constitution, defending
the borders being one of the few powers given to the fedreal
government. I don’t see welfare mentioned anywhere. [End the War on Freedom]

Actually the Constitution only gives the Feds the power to “establish a uniform rule of naturalization,” or in modern terms, to set up the rules for becoming a citizen. It does not have the power to prevent non-white people from entering the country, although a sufficienty bigoted State government certainly could try.

This kind of anti-immigrant bigotry is one of the very few areas where I disagree with Ron Paul.

I LOVE THIS GUY. In a totally Platonic, intellectual compatriot kind of way:

I am getting a great deal of angry email because I scorned religion in a few posts this weekend. Some people seem to be surprised to learn that I don’t share any of their religious beliefs. Allow me to clarify and pass on a few suggestions if […] [The Light Of Reason]

bq. Let me add one further thought: religion is not an intellectual pass, or a “get out of cognitive deadends” free card. If you want to believe in myths and fables that are not supported by any evidence whatsoever, that’s okay (in the sense that you’re free to believe whatever nonsense you choose)–but it doesn’t guarantee you the intellectual respect to which many believers seem to think they’re automatically entitled. (By divine right, perhaps?)

If I start writing long essays about my absolute faith in the reality of the Easter Bunny, I wouldn’t expect anyone to take me seriously. Just because you call the Easter Bunny “God,” that doesn’t make your faith more serious, more genuinely philosophical, more complex, more legitimate, or more deserving of respect. It does, however, make it infinitely more common and entirely socially acceptable, if not socially demanded. And none of this is altered one teeny tiny microscopic bit because you really, really, really mean it and believe it down to the tips of your precious little toes.

Well said.

More Travelers Face Searches on Way to City – New York Times. Hundreds of suburban commuters, from central New Jersey to Rockland
County, N.Y., were asked for the first time yesterday to submit their
bags for inspection by the police, as two major transit carriers in the
region joined New York City authorities trying to buffer their train,
subway and bus systems against a terror attack.

New Jersey Transit’s police officers conducted more than 1,100
searches at commuter rail stations in Trenton and Secaucus and a
light-rail station in Hoboken, among other transit hubs. Around 5:30
p.m., a 21-year-old man was arrested and charged with possession of
illegal fireworks, a misdemeanor, as he tried to board a light-rail
train in Hoboken, the transit agency said. He was given a court date
and released.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey searched bags at
several Manhattan stations on the PATH commuter railroad, including the
33rd Street and World Trade Center site stations, and at the Port
Authority Bus Terminal, which is the busiest in the United States, and
is used for long-distance travel as well as for daily commuting.

The expansion of searches occurred against a backdrop of anxiety in
New York City, where the police continued to conduct widespread bag
inspections in the subways under a policy authorized by Mayor Michael
R. Bloomberg last week. Searches on the Long Island Rail Road and the
Metro-North Railroad began on Friday. [Privacy Digest: Privacy News (Civil Rights, Encryption, Free Speech, Cryptography)]

Just say no to warrantless searches.