Iron Man trailer

While, Get Smart has the potential to be the funniest movie of the summer. I believe that Iron Man will definitely be the coolest movie of the summer. This decision is based entirely on how my testosterone level rises when I watch this trailer. mmm.....arm mounted rockets.
Iron Man Exclusive Trailer

Good Job CBS

CBSSportsline did a courageous thing with publishing on the front of their spots section an article on NFL draft prospect Darren McFadden. They were courageous because the article wasn't about his football talent (which is immense), but is about him probably fathering 3 children out of wedlock before his 22nd birthday. The author of the article rightly argues that NFL teams should be careful before giving lots of responsibility and lots of cash to players who have not shown that they have matured enough. Kudos to CBS for publishing an article that doesn't pull any punches.

The other interesting thing in the article is that the author argues that the next big sports scandal will be about players having children out of wedlock. Wilt Chamberlain used to brag that he slept with 10,000 women in his lifetime. NFL star Travis Henry has a bunch of children all by different women as well.

Will Farrell vs Bill Walton

Yeah, I know it is just basically an extended commercial for the new movie, but I still think Shadowmoma and CRChair will enjoy this.

Your PIN Is Not So Secret

The University of Cambridge has discovered some scary vulnerabilities to the "chip and PIN" system that is used for debit cards. As best I can tell, this is the same (or at least very similar) system to what those of us in the U.S. use for our debit card purchases. An interview with one of the certifying agencies is a must see. I would say protect yourself, but it appears there is no way to. Slashdot discussion here. I hope that I am overreacting and that this is only a UK problem, but my guess is that it is not.

GetSmart Trailer 2

OK, time to cue the skeptics: "Worst movie ever. Nomad has the worst taste imaginable in movies." Good to get that out of the way. I am still VERY ready for a silly mindless movie. Reality is dramatic enough.

DO NOT buy a Blu-Ray player yet

I know a lot of our Mod-Blog readers personally, and know that now now HD-DVD is "officially" dead I suspect a lot of us are looking for the excuse to upgrade to Blu-Ray now. But Gizmondo notes that now is NOT a good time to make the jump.

The place to be is spec 2.0, referred to as "full profile." Suddenly, it's Sony who is looking the best here, with not only the amazingly upgradeable PS3 but two new players announced this week, the BDP-S350 and S550. For $400 and $500 respectively, they are set to deliver all of the features promised in the Blu-ray palette, including both picture-in-picture and BD-Live internet connectivity (with USB storage for downloaded content). Nobody else, with the possible exception of Daewoo, has even muttered about a 2.0 spec player.

The only player that makes sense to buy now is the Playstation 3, because Sony is already committed to make it fully software-upgradeable to the new Spec 2.0 Otherwise, any player you buy today may be incompatible with disks released 6 months from now.

Are Evangelicals swinging to the Left?

This is not the first time this topic has been raised here at Mod-Blog, but I believe it is the first time it has been raised at Salon.Com. It is certainly no shock to most Evangelicals that there are Evangelical Democrats. We all know them, and generally don't think any less of them even if we disagree. I think of the woman who walked out on a Sunday school lesson when a teacher talked about "wives submitting to their husbands," because she felt even though it was Biblical, that it was misleading in a day and age where wives beat their husbands. I think this is the most interesting quote.

You suggest that Democrats should really emphasize this desire to keep abortions rare. But do you think these efforts will appease evangelical voters who firmly believe abortion is wrong?

You're never going to win over all evangelicals, and I don't think anyone has suggested that. But 40 percent of evangelical voters are politically moderate, and when you dig deeper into that, you find that abortion is not their key issue. They're very willing to vote for a candidate who differs with them on abortion. We did a poll at Time in November on this and we found that when we asked people that very question -- would it be possible for them to vote for a candidate who didn't support their view on abortion? -- very high percentages said not only that they could but that they did vote for these candidates.

Those who are long-time readers know that most of us here are SOLIDLY Pro-life. We believe abortion is killing a baby. Some of us are willing to accept exceptions for the hard cases - rape, incest, life of the mother - and some of us are even willing to vote for a Pro-Choice candidate who otherwise reflects our views.

But I still find that Pro-Choice Democrats (and Pro-Choice Republicans) underestimate the importance of this issue, and don't understand why for so many of us it is a deal-breaker. "Abortion: legal but rare" is a nice slogan. But we are reminded of the surveys which show so many women (and men, unfortunately) view abortion as birth control, when they don't want to bother with a condom or a cold shower. Until the Pro-Choice community is willing to face this fact and deal with it, I do not see the Democratic party really cracking the Evangelical vote.

If the Earth Is Warming, Why Am I So Cold?

If things continue, those who militantly support the theory of global warming may have egg on their face.

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

Snow in Baghdad??? Global warming proponents are quick to mention that with global warming it means a overall warming of the earth and some parts of the earth will get colder, but it appears that the past twelve months have counteracted all of the warming over the last 100 years.

And the ice that was melting in the arctic?

Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year.

As the author of a second article point out though, "OK, so one winter does not a climate make. It would be premature to claim an Ice Age is looming just because we have had one of our most brutal winters in decades. But if environmentalists and environment reporters can run around shrieking about the manmade destruction of the natural order every time a robin shows up on Georgian Bay two weeks early, then it is at least fair game to use this winter's weather stories to wonder whether the alarmist are being a tad premature."

Wiliam F Buckley dead at 82

A moment of silence, please, to mark the passing away of William F Buckley. The true maverick Conservative icon and intellectual died today in his Conecticut home. One wonders if Mod-Blog - a place where we try to see both sides of the issues - would have been possible without such a champion of the Right to balance the voices on the Left before the rise of Rush Limbaugh, Talk Radio, and the Internet.

The OLPC Has Some Competition

There are now 5 reliable sup-laptops available for a decent price. Not too shabby.

Safari 3 = Garbage?

I have to confess, I am a bit of a Mac snob. However, my experience thus far with Safari 3 is making me waver a bit. It is, hands down, the worst piece of software I've ever had the displeasure to have to use. I am curious, how other users of the new Safari are faring?

This piece of garbage browser fails on me daily, especially at certain sites like CNN, Mod-Blog, Blogger, and Yahoo Mail. It will be a small miracle if I am able to post this piece, that's how bad it is. In addition, I also find that the browser seems to lose the connection, simply hanging in mid load for a page. I haven't even noticed any increase in speed over the previous version of Safari either. I have never encountered such a bug-filled and unpleasant program on a Mac and it is very disappointing to me. So disappointing that I had to use the bold function to express it...

Darth Nader and the Democratic Party

Many are obsessing over how to tell Hillary Clinton that she can't win and it is time to drop out. Isn't there one Nader supporter brave enough to tell him he has nothing to gain from this run?

Dodd endorses Obama

It is not a shock that another major Democratic candidate is endorsing Barack Obama. What is surprising is that as close a Clinton ally as Christopher Dodd is about to do so. And it appears he plans on more than an endorsement, but active campaigning for the Illinois Senator.

It's unclear what Dodd's task will be with the campaign or whether he'll be hitting those last two New England states still awaiting primaries next week. But if Obama eventually gets the nomination, Connecticut's two senators will be in opposing campaigns. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman is one of Republican Sen. John McCain's staunchest allies.

Of course, what is most likely going on here is a carefully orchestrated signal from Centrist Democrats to Senator Clinton that it may be time to wave the white flag and drop out. How long until someone does so in a more clear and public way?

At least Obamaniacs are creative

RIP Larry Norman

Most of the writers on this blog grew up around the glow of the Christian music industry. Whether it was Petra, Steve Taylor or Geoff Moore and the Distance we were all fans of some Christian singer or group. On Sunday Larry Norman, the man most responsible for the development of what we now know of as the Christian music industry, died. While I never listened to a Larry Norman album and only heard him sing on a couple of occasions, I know of his impact because of the way those who grew up in his era remember him. Larry was a culturally relevant singer that had no qualms in singing or talking about Jesus to anyone or singing about the torture of seduction and yet his music was as good or even better than a lot of what was coming out in the 1970s. It's too bad his legacy, the Christian music industry, has become so culturally irrelevant and generally not as good as their mainstream counterparts.

Apple Releases New Macbook Pros and Macbooks

Apple today upgraded both their MacBook and MacBook Pro lines of laptops. Both now feature faster processors, more standard RAM and bigger hard drives. The MacBook Pro now features a Multi-Touch trackpad like the Macbook Air. The thing that most excites me is that you can either th 15" or 17" MacBook Pros with 512MB of VRAM built in now. Also, the 17" model comes with an LED backlit display which is very nice.

Cute Rebuttal of the McCain vs NYTimes Kerfuffle

Well done in the model of the UPS ads. And, as Shadowmom would notE, this girl has MUCH better hair than the UPS ads guy does. Check it out. I have a feeling that the media doesn't yet realize with McCain vs Obama, they have two tigers by the tail. Both will be fun to cover, but will not necessarily be predictable or vulnerable to the usual tactics of newscasting that sell papers/tv ads/magazine/web banner ads.

Life is a car ride...

Star Wars according to a 3 year old

This is a viral video and you may have seen it elsewhere, but I had to post it here. Simply the cutest thing ever.

Gas prices

Gas prices
Originally uploaded by nomad7674.

Happy Birthday Bowhunter

Huckabee on SNL

Don't worry, friends. Even if Mike Huckabee gets the point and drops out of the race, I am sure Alan Keyes and Mike Gravel will stick around.

Funny Steroid Commentary

The Return of Darth Nader

In what is sure to infuriate the Obamaniacs, Ralph Nader has announced another run for President. Denouncing all of the front-runners as too close to big business, he will be running as a third-party candidate.

"You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized and disrespected," he said. "You go from Iraq, to Palestine to Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bumbling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts."

While I do think the country is open to a protest candidate, I do not think Ralph Nader is the man for that job. Of course, the one upside is John McCain is no longer the oldest candidate running.

Is Happiness a lack of options?

Time Magazine has up an interesting article on a recent study about happiness. The cusp of the story is that people are HORRIBLE at predicting what will make them happy, and that happier people are those who do not dwell upon the "what-ifs" of what could have been.

Envisioning what life would have been like with an alternate spouse becomes difficult and increasingly irrelevant as you settle into the life you've selected. "Once you make a choice in life, the unchosen alternatives evaporate," he says. According to Gilbert's earlier research, which he featured in his 2006 book, Stumbling on Happiness, when faced with an irrevocable decision, people are happier with the outcome than when they have the opportunity to change their minds. "It's a very powerful phenomenon," he says. "This is really the difference between dating and marriage."

I have a number of friends who are against the concept of "dating" because they feel it encourages lack of commitment. They prefer "courting" where you only "date" one person at a time, and only begin if you believe the process will end in marriage. This study may be an argument in their favor.

You Know Your Dog Is Spoiled Rotten When...

they get a deep dead sea mud spa. I actually saw this store a while back (I think it was at the mall) and had to chuckle.

Did you know you can OPT OUT of pre-approved Credit Offers?

I am a big fan of the Federal DO-NO-CALL list to keep telemarketers away from your landline. But I was not aware that there is also an Opt Out list for Pre-Approved Credit Cards which could save you thousands of pounds of junk mail every year. As well as the likelihood of becoming a slave to the debt-cycle.

Updated 2:34 PM: Please be aware that this site does ask for your social security number - which causes many people to question its veracity. As indicated by this anti-fraud site, it is legit AND does NOT require you to give the SSN. If you are concerned, just don't give that info.

True Bipartisanship?

I wonder if this is what Obama has in mind when he talks about "changing the dialogue in Washington". It certainly isn't poltics-as-usual.

FOUND: The Ark of the Covenant?

Make of this what you will. An archeologist has claimed to have found the Ark of the Covenant in an ancient town in Zimbabwe. he is unsure if it is the original ark, or a replica made during the Diaspora to replace a destroyed original, but he believes he has discovered it.

Parfitt's final hunt for the ngoma, which dropped from sight in the 1940s, landed him in sometimes-hostile territory ("Bullets shattered the rear screen," of his car, he writes). Ark leads had guided him to Egypt, Ethiopia and even New Guinea, until one day last fall his clues led him to a storeroom of the Harare Museum of Human Science in Zimbabwe. There, amidst nesting mice, was an old drum with an uncharacteristic burnt-black bottom hole ("As if it had been used like a cannon," Parfitt notes), the remains of carrying rings on its corners; and a raised relief of crossed reeds that Parfitt thinks reflects an Old Testament detail. "I felt a shiver go down my spine," he writes.

Honestly, I think this is really Time Magazine's attempt to capitalize on the new Indiana Jones movie to sell magazines. But it is interesting to see the search for the Lost Ark is still ongoing.

Foreign Policy at Work

Snow day!

Kosovo Declaring Independence a Bad Thing

Most American would probably say they support Kosovo's declaration of independence. But I have changed my mind since originally reading about it. Although we believe in the rights of individuals for self government, we have to be careful how we handle these situations. I would liken Kosovo declaring independence to if the Kurdish region of Iraq declared independence. Both can site oppression and ethnic cleansing by a former government. Both are ethnically different than the rest of their country. But we would not support the Kurdish part of Iraq from declaring its independence. Both situations would cause less stability in their regions.

Would the Serbs be justified in using force to keep Kosovo part of Serbia? Yes. The United States used force in the civil war to keep the South as part of the United States. We justified our use of force on the basic principle that a Nation State has the right to do what is necessary to keep itself together.

The other problem is that if Kosovo is allowed to become independent without the approval of Serbia, then what will happen in other parts of the world? Will Chechnya follow suit? What about areas in Europe that are ethnically one nationality, but their territory is in another country? (Anyone remember how Hitler justified annexing territories in France and Poland because the people living there were Germanic?)

Although we love to see people fighting for their rights and throwing off other peoples control, as a nation, we need to do what is the right thing for the world. We must not encourage independence in this situation

Welcome to SpaceWar I

There is a lot of talk about the shooting down of a U.S. spy satellite by the U.S. Military, most of it speculating on what spy technology we did not want to fall into the wrong hands. But I think the real reason is that the Pentagon has been looking for an excuse to show off the successful Missile Shield technology, before it becomes an issue in the Presidential Campaign. Now, it will be hard for a Democratic President to talk about defunding the program, because it has shown concrete results.

Unfortunately, it may also encourage China to step up its own SpaceWar efforts, which the USA had previously criticized strongly.

Clinton/Obama Debate: 2 Moments

Honestly, I missed the Obama/Clinton debate last night because... well... I was tired and went to bed early. But reading the post-debate analysis, it seems to come down to two moments. The first was when Hillary tried to go after Obama again for the "plagiarism" charge (which is funny considering how much of her political life is "borrowed" from her husband) and the crowd booed her loudly...



And then at the end, Mrs. Clinton made it clear that she would NOT try to overturn the decision of the voters through Superdelegates, if she loses Texas and/or Ohio. This is a huge concession from a woman who formerly was obviously considering pulling out EVERY gun to defeat the young upstart. (I tried to find it on YouTube, but was unable.)

The pundits are pretty much united in their reactions. Hillary won this debate and improved her image, but did not change the tone or course of the campaign and probably lost the nomination tonight. We shall see.

What do our Mod-Blog readers think? Did Obama win it all tonight? Did Clinton turn things around? Will we see any significant changes in the polls or the campaigns?

NFL Reverses Decision and Allows Churches to Show SuperBowl

The NFL has decided to reverse its decision to enforce its copyright laws against Churches that show the superbowl. It will now be alright for religious organizations to show the superbowl, regardless of screen size, as long as they don't charge a fee and do it in a space that is regularly used by the organization. This seems like a good decision to me. The more people who can build good memories of watching the Super Bowl with friends, the more people will be more likely to watch the game in the future.

Score One for Airport Security

With all the bad press that airport screeners have gotten, we should applaud them when they get it right. A carry-on screener at the airport in Tampa Florida noticed something in the shape of a boxcutter when he was looking at the X-Ray of a backpack. He opened the backpack and found a boxcutter in a hollowed out book. The person who was going through security said they "forgot it was there". The man was arrested and charged with multiple crimes including carrying a concealed weapon. Good Job Tampa International Airport security. Keep up the good work.

Masters Student invents "Gravity Lamp"

I am a big fan of crank radios and other devices which harness renewable energy in practical ways. So, I was thrilled to see a masters student who harnessed the power of gravity to produce light.

The LED lamp, named Gravia, is an acrylic column a little more than 4 feet high. The entire column glows when activated by electricity generated by the slow, silent fall of a mass that spins a rotor.

The light output of 600-800 lumens lasts about four hours.

To "turn on" the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp and into a mass sled near the top. The sled begins its gentle glide down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs are illuminated.

Here is hoping this invention is snapped up by the third world as a cheap and renewable way to produce light without oil or toxic batteries.

FelonSpy.Com: Hoax!!!

Thanks to both BowHunter and Sandra for bringing to our attention that FelonSpy.Com is a hoax. I have removed the original post, and apologize for being gullible enough to be taken in.

Legos vs "Social Justice"

I am not sure what exactly disturbs me about this posting from a teacher (warning, long article), but I think it is the explicitly anti-capitalist and commuitarian bias. (I am avoiding saying communist, because of the Marxian overtones which are mostly absent.) Read thru it and let me know what you think.

We also discussed our beliefs about our role as teachers in raising political issues with young children. We recognized that children are political beings, actively shaping their social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity — whether we interceded or not. We agreed that we want to take part in shaping the children's understandings from a perspective of social justice. So we decided to take the Legos out of the classroom...
From this framework, the children made a number of specific proposals for rules about Legos, engaged in some collegial debate about those proposals, and worked through their differing suggestions until they reached consensus about three core agreements:

- All structures are public structures. Everyone can use all the Lego structures. But only the builder or people who have her or his permission are allowed to change a structure.

- Lego people can be saved only by a "team" of kids, not by individuals.

- All structures will be standard sizes.

With these three agreements — which distilled months of social justice exploration into a few simple tenets of community use of resources — we returned the Legos to their place of honor in the classroom.

Am I being too sensitive here, or are you also concerned by the explicit values being taught to these children?

Obama wins again

Senator Barack Obama won all of the contests on Tuesday handing Senator Clinton another set of defeats and further deflating her presidential dreams. I would say that Mrs. Clinton is now at the same place Mitt Romney was prior to his "suspending of the campaign." The writing is on the wall, but she has a chance to play spoiler or attempts to wrest control by other-than-democratic means. If she is smart, I think she will start writing her concession speech, but will NOT drop out so that she retains power at the Convention.

But no one ever accused the Clintons of choosing intelligence over ambition. We'll have to wait and see.

Busting the Myths of the Democratic Nominating Process

Mark Ambinder has up a good piece analyzing the myths and truths regarding the Democratic Party's process of nominating their presidential candidate. It cuts through many of the strange arguments coming from each side.

Myth: The Democratic primary process is supposed to be democratic.

Fact: With its mix of caucuses and primaries, proportional allocation and at-large bonus delegates, its racial and gender quotas, and its layer of superdelegates, the process is anything but democratic.
And that's the point of it, actually.
In cameral terms, the superdelegates are the Senate; the other delegates are the House. The supers exist to preserve the power of the party itself by taming the passions of the pledged delegates
Since the McGovern-Frasier reforms, the Democratic Party has cautiously backed away from the principle of deference to the majority and toward the countervailing principle of protecting the rights of the minority (who were, in many cases, ethnic minorities).
The nomination process is designed to ensure that the majority does not prevail without a fight in the event that the minority of the party objects. The downside risk is obvious: in the event that there is no consensus, there is no objective way to determine who the nominee should be.

Elmo enters the "Uncanny Valley"

There is a theory in robotics that humans feel more and more empathy toward a robot, until it reaches a certain level of humanness and then suddenly the robot is not "empathetic" or "cute" but just creepy. It appears that Sesame Street has managed to deposit Elmo deep into the Uncanny Valley with their prototype for a new toy called "Elmo Live".

Can't Afford the Patent? Have Congress Write You an Exception

Big businesses have been known recently for patenting anything and everything. Individuals have patented obvious things only to wait in hiding until some company uses the idea from their patent and then sues them to "get rich quick". It would seem that we need to do something to reform the patent system so that it gets back to what it was designed for, getting ideas out in the open for the benefit of the general public while still providing a small time of economic advantage to the inventor. So, what happens when you're a big business and you can't afford (or don't want to) license somebody's patent? Have a Senator write you an exception. A company named DataTreasury has a patent on a system "for digitally scanning, sending and archiving checks." Some banks have licensed the idea while others have used their influence in Washington, D.C. to try to get the government to use eminent domain to buy the patent at a cost of $1 billion over 10 years and then give the banks a pass on paying for it. This is just wrong. First, my tax dollars should not be spent so that the banks have a better bottom line. (Though to be fair, the banks have said that they are working to make it so that the government wouldn't have to spend money.) Second, this is a wrong use of eminent domain. Eminent domain should not be used by the government to shuffle private property. Banks need to either license the technology like everybody else or do without it.

Review: Home of the Brave

I just got done watching Home of the Brave starring Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Biel, Brian Presley, and Curtis Jackson. Upon renting it, I was not sure whether it would be a story with more of a sad focus or more of an action movie like The Kingdom. While there are battle scenes, most of the movie is a follow up at home with four reservists who have come back from Iraq and are trying to integrate back into their civilian lives. While I do not know anyone well enough who has struggled making the adjustment back, I suspect that Home of the Brave does a decent job of showing the struggle. With Iraq being a hot issue right now, it would be easy for a movie like this to be overly anti-war. While it is not pro-war, I think it does a fair job of not leaning either way with the anti-war leanings mostly being due to keeping the characters true to their role. Be forewarned, this movie has a bunch of language. See the Kids In Mind review here. While I wouldn't purchase this movie, it was definitely worth seeing.

Not Profound, But It Made Me Laugh

Shocking!!!

I found this article on why you get shocked when you exit your car and what you can do about it. They tie the shocking to the build up of static electricity when you move against the fabric of the seats. This seems logical as I get shocked much less frequently since I got a car with leather seats. They have some suggested methods for avoiding getting shocked as well.

Is Hillary facing a glass ceiling?

It has been interesting to be an observer of the Democratic nominating process from the outside. You have in Hillary Clinton a woman who desperately desires to be the first female president, and you have in Barack Obama a man who desperately desires to be the first "black" president. The former hardly has a speech without mentioning her gender, the latter seems to go to all lengths to DEFUSE race as an issue. And Obama is clearly in the lead. This has lead feminists to ask whether there is still a glass ceiling for women in politics, despite so many gains in business and elsewhere.

My own feeling is Hillary's biggest weakness is America's sense of historical order. Americans are ready for a female president, a black president, a latino president, etc. But they feel that the color barrier should be broken before the gender barrier. I suspect if Obama is the nominee in 2008, that another woman will have NO problem becoming the nominee in 2012 or 2016. But at the moment, Hillary is facing a barrier in voter attitudes who first want to see Martin Luther King Jr's dream realized, before they see the dreams of the Feminist movement realized.

But, as always, it is hard to be patient and let history play itself out.

Almost True

Reminds me of the quote about anyone who has what it takes to become president doesn't deserve the job.

Castro Retires

Fidel Castro has announced that he will not seek another 5 year term as leader of Cuba. His likely successor is either his brother Raul Castro or Vice President Carlos Large.

iPhone: The Band

The future is here, and apparently it sounds vaguely like Final Fantasy.

Sometimes e-mail is all you need to surf the Web

I have always loved Flickr's e-mail upload process for photos, as it is the way I can upload my gas prices pictures from the road. This article reminds us that Flickr is not the only one who provides an e-mail tool to eliminate the need for web access.

10. pdf@koolwire.com - You have an Office document or a picture on your computer or mobile phone that you wish to convert into a PDF file. Just email that file an email attachment to the above address and it will soon return to your Inbox as a PDF file.
...
1. wsmith@wordsmith.org - Get the dictionary definition and synonyms of any word by sending a blank email to this email address. Make the subject line as: define myword

Click on thru for the full set. You can be sure a number of these will be added to MY iPhone address book!

Superman Slam Dunk!

I am not a big sports guy, but I have to admit the NBA is the sport I watch the most. Partially because CRChair and Shadowmom make me, and partially because these guys really understand SHOWMANSHIP.

This is pretty much how I see the endorsement

Kosovo declares independence

As Hillary Clinton makes the case for the return of a Clinton presidency, we are seeing echoes of one of the legacies of the first President Clinton. A decade after the end of the war in Bosnia, Kosovo has declared independence from Serbia. So far, the Serbians are angry, but vowing to oppose the move only diplomatically. But in the Powder Keg of Europe, can we ever be sure we are far from war?

Bye-Bye HD-DVD

It is unofficially official. Toshiba has decided to shut down its HD-DVD operations and end support for the format altogether. It appears the last nail in the coffin was Wal-Mart's decision to stop stocking the format. If you were one of the millions (?) who bought an HD-DVD player when prices began to plummet before Christmas, all hope is not lost. We are hearing that Wal-Mart, Target, and other retailers will be having blowout sales soon to clear their inventories and you may wind up picking up some titles for a few dollars that won't be out on Blu-Ray for years and even then may cost $40 and up.

If you have not yet invested, and do not plan to buy a Playstation 3, my advice is still to wait. Holographic discs, iTunes HD downloads, and other options are still out there, so the "next generation format war" may not truly end with this move.

All I know about history I learned on the Simpsons: "He died in 40 days."

Iran releases their own "Jesus Movie"

There are many who claim most of the problems in the world are caused by a lack of understanding between peoples. Such thinkers claim that what we need to promote peace and good feeling between peoples is a genuine dialogue between disparate groups. These types must be thrilled by a new movie being released in Iran as the "answer" to Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. This new film attempts to portray Jesus from a Islamic perspective, taking source material from the Koran.

American Christians, I respect them very much. I think these Christians, the born-again Christians, especially, are a very interesting group that Iran is not aware of, because a whole generation of Iranians haven't been able to travel to America. And those who do move to America, stay in America. So, how to create serious communication, not at the political, but at the religious level? I thought this would be a shortcut.

Sounds very nice, doesn't it. But consider the parts that the director felt were best to leave out.

We are talking about the same beautiful man, the same beautiful prophet, the same divine person sent from heaven. In the Koran, it emphasizes maybe three main points: about the birth, about the fact that he was not the son of God, and then, that he was not crucified. The rest is [the same] Jesus ... the sermons, and the miracles, and the political situation.

So, Jesus is exactly who the Christians say he is... except he is not the son of God, he was not crucified, and therefore not resurrected. Sigh. These three points ARE the core of Christianity, and what makes it separate from simply being another sect of Judaism.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
1 Corinthians 15:17-19

It will be interesting to see if this film really does promote a "useful dialogue" or if it simply drives Muslims and Christians farther apart. I tend to think the latter.

How MULTI is the iPhone Multitouch functionality?

Slow Mo Shot of a Karate Chop!

Martial artists like to talk about "hands of steel" breaking thru board and bricks and solid blocks of ice, but this interesting video shows that "hands of jello" are just a spowerful.

Analog Cell Phone Networks to Close Monday

Do you have a relative who bought a cell phone in the early 90s and has refused to upgrade again and again? Do you live somewhere that only analog cell phones reach? Well, to the chagrin of upgrade-phobics and farmers alike, AT&T and Verizon are ending their analog networks on Monday. Other major providers like T-Mobile and Sprint never had analog networks/

The biggest U.S. mobile operators, AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless, will close down their analog networks that day. At the same time, AT&T will turn off its first digital network, which uses TDMA (Time-Division Multiple Access) technology. (Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA don't have analog networks.) Calls to some small, rural mobile operators indicated that most of them plan to shut down AMPS, too.

There aren't many mobile phones out there that will go dark after the analog sunset, according to the big carriers, which have been warning subscribers about the change for months and offering them incentives to switch over.

"We're talking about a very, very small number of customers here," said AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel. He estimated that 99.9 percent of AT&T's traffic is carried on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications). Verizon spokeswoman Debra Lewis estimated that less than 1 percent of that carrier's subscribers were on analog even before it started a big effort to reach them last year. Neither gave exact numbers of subscribers. But given that those operators have about 60 million subscribers each, the number might still be in the hundreds of thousands.

It will be interesting to see what the actual outcry is, especially since those most likely to be impacted are the old and poor. Exactly those least able to deal with change or spring for a new phone.

XBox360 Failure Rates over 16%

The company that runs "extended warranty" services for Microsoft has revealed that the failure rate for XBox 360 is over 16%. Compare that to 2% for Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. One must wonder how users put up with that kind of horrible service, even though it is familiar to anyone who has worked with Windows. I believe our own failure rate here on Mod-Blog reflects that as well, as I know at least one Mod-Blogger has gotten the red-circle-of-death.

Is this how Microsoft plans to enforce an upgrade cycle?

Has anyone thought about just turning down the heat?

The Wall Street Journal has up a piece noting the strange phenomenon of people fainting during some of Senator Obama's big speeches. It is being reported in the media as evidence of his popularity. Now, some are wondering if it is a more ominous sign.

What exactly are we to make of this? A cynic might wonder if the whole thing isn't staged, given how often it happens and how well-honed and self-serving Obama's standard response seems to be.

But if it's spontaneous, that's in a way even more unsettling. At the New Hampshire rally, Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" fame quipped, "Sinatra had the same effect on people." Sinatra made girls swoon by singing romantic songs. But America isn't electing a crooner in chief.

When I was in high school at a National Youth Conference, a similar phenomenon was observed, but people did not immediately assume it was a sign of enthusiasm or "a movement of the Spirit". Instead, they handed out bottles of water, and made sure people did all they could to keep cool. Maybe after 8 years of having no one more exciting than John Kerry or Al Gore to vote for, Democrats are reveling in a charismatic leader. But then again, maybe they need to look at themselves and wonder whether there is not a more banal reason for all this.

When Stealing Copper, Make Sure It Doesn't Have Power Running Through It

Apparently, China is buying so much copper that the price has doubled in the last four years. This has caused some to think that stealing copper is a good idea. Seems that for one person, that was all the thinking they did as they attempted to cut a power cable using a hacksaw. A search of local hospitals has not been successful in finding the person responsible.

Indy teaser trailer released

It's been almost two decades in coming, but it's finally here. The first trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie has arrived. The best part is that it looks like it'll be as fun as it always has been.

New Star Wars Movie Announced

A new Star Wars movie was announced today with a theatrical release of August 15, 2008. How can this be you ask? Well it will be an animated movie taking place during the periods between Star Wars Episode II & III. It will be part of a run up to a new animated series that will run on the Cartoon Network & TNT which will also take place during the clone wars portion of the Star Wars time line. No title was given to the new movie yet. George Lucas will be the executive producer, but it will be distributed by Warner Brothers which is also distributing the TV show.

Update 4:22 PM EST: Nomad added trailer

Hillary has already sold her donor lists for cash

There are a LOT of reasons why I have chosen not to give any money to the Hillary Clinton Campaign. (Primary being, I do NOT want her to be president.) But even if I did not have those reasons this story would keep me from giving her any money.

Reports from Clinton's campaign show that on Dec. 3, it collected payment for renting out three mailing lists, the sale of which netted them $8,225.

It was an unusual transaction, according to Roger Craver, a liberal guru of the political direct-mail industry.

"As a general rule, a campaign will not let its donor list out into the markets until the campaign is over," he said. "This is the mother's milk of small-gift fundraising, and they use these lists frequently."

There are no records that any other presidential candidates rented out mailing lists last year.

I know that it is not unusual for campaigns to give their lists to the national party, and I guess it makes sense for future fundraising. But in general this really seems like a bad idea, and an easy way to make donations dry up quickly. I can't help wondering if these revelations might wind up being the last nail in the coffin for Hillary's presidential hopes.

New Kung Fu Panda Trailer

I am SO ready for a mindlessly fun (but clean) movie.

Funny Line from James Carville

From here.

"For both you Democrats out there, I got good news for you. We have to literally talk our way out of wining this election.

For the Republicans, being a lifelong member of the Democratic party, I can assure you we are perfectly capable of doing that."

A Valerie Plame movie...really?

There is a growing trend in Hollywood of making movies that try to prosecute President Bush but then fail miserably. Well, they're up to it again with of all things a biopic about Valerie Plame. It's been well noted that Ms. Plame couldn't have been that important of a person in the CIA if she is able to be as public as she has been, but a movie about her? Movies about people who haven't died yet are generally bad unless it's an extraordinary personality. I don't believe that Ms. Plame falls into the category of extraordinary personality. Aside that the topic is probably destined to fail, if it needed another sign of failure, Nicole Kidman will be playing the lead. I hope they don't plan on making any money here. Ugh!

Is Obama really all he appears?

He has the sense of history about him, but then Hillary Clinton was once proclaimed by all as the "inevitable nominee".

UPDATE 8:45 AM EST: In the interest of "equal time", here is Obama's victory speech from last night.

WGA Strike is over.

The rank and file have voted to return to work. And the vote was overwhelming. Even writers like to get paid now and then.

On Tuesday, members of the Writers Guilds East and West voted by a 92.5% margin to lift the restraining order that was invoked on November 5th. The strike is over.

Writing can resume immediately. If you were employed when the strike began, you should plan to report to work on Wednesday.

Welcome back, Hollywood!

Obama wins VA, MD, DC big; McCain squeaks by

Obama appears to have won big in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C., dealing another blow to Senator Clinton's hopes to be the nominee. And it appears the wins are big, 2 or 3 to one over the former First Lady.

McCain also won, but in narrower margins, showing his continuing weakness with Conservatives in his own party

If the government asks you to break a law, should you get immunity?

The case of telecommunications companies who assented to government wiretaps without warrants is a hard case. On the one hand, it is reprehensible that telecoms agreed so readily to give up their customer's privacy without a court order. On the other hand, in the shadow of 9/11, is it surprising that people erred on the side of hurting the cause of the terrorist? Congress has been in an ongoing battle over whether the companies that went along with warrantless wiretaps should be offered retroactive immunity. Now, the Senate has passed a bill giving immunity. The House Bill lacks this language, but it is expected to eventually pass both houses.

Approval of the amendment would have exposed the companies to privacy lawsuits for helping the administration monitor the calls of suspected terrorists without warrants from a special court following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The amendment was one of a series the Senate is considering today to modify legislation that would extend the government's authority to carry out electronic surveillance against targets outside the United States.

President Bush has called on Congress to rapidly renew the surveillance authority granted to the federal government in the Protect America Act approved last year. But he has vowed to veto any bill that does not shield the companies that helped the government carry out the warrantless wiretapping program he ordered after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Two questions immediately come to mind. First, how does this act pass the Constitutional ban on ex-post-facto laws? Second, how could Congress have done anything else? The telecoms were essentially drawn in under an Entrapment situation.

Blackberry E-mail Service is Down

Apparently, the popular BlackBerry devices from RIM are 100% dead in the second major outage in a year. With many people in business, politics, and government reliant on these devices for day-to-day operations, it may encourage more people to jump ship to Apple's iPhone, Danger's Sidekick, or Microsoft's Windows Mobile devices.

UPDATE 2:42 PM: I an reading that the outage has been resolved.

Snail Mail One Step Closer to Oblivion

The Post Office announced today that the price of first class mail will go up 1 cent to 42 cents. This change occurs May 12th. The more the cost of snail mail goes up, the less cost effective it becomes. The other levels of mail will also have price increases.

The Problem with Conservatism?

A lot has been made about whether John McCain is a "true" Conservative, and most of the Republican debates so far have been largely about who was most devoted to Ronald Reagan. And yet, all of this jockeying for "true Conservative credentials" has not produced any real excitement from the base, who largely is trying to decide whether to compromise their beliefs by voting for McCain or to compromise their power by sitting out the election. A new commentary by Cal Thomas suggests the real problem is a movement which has stopped looking ahead, and is obsessed with the past in the form of Reagan.

Reagan engaged in an arms-for-hostages deal with Iran. As president, Reagan seldom went to church, unlike his evangelical base. If conservatives knew in advance these things about Reagan, would they have voted for him in such numbers?

Contemporary conservatism has mostly been about saying "no" to the liberal agenda. Suppose conservatives instead begin to circumvent liberals by applying better ideas to achieve ends liberals and conservatives claim to seek?

I tend to think that Thomas is right, and much of the problem in the air now is that Conservatives have allowed GWB and the War in Iraq to eat up all of their creative energies. Where are the people who lead the Contact With America which promised bold new ideas? Where are the people who championed school choice, true reform for Medicare, and voluntary term limits for Congressmen? It is not enough to say you are "optimistic" and stand for "change." You have to present ideas which show a forward-looking vision. Obama, at least, can always fall back on the fact that his very election is forward-looking, by apparently realizing Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream.

Microsoft to buy Danger (Maker of T-Mobile Sidekick)

In an apparent attempt to end the iPhone's dominance over Windows Mobile, Microsoft has announced they will be buying out Danger the maker of the Sidekick line of phones. Long-time Mod-Bloggers are aware that once upon a time I was a HUGE fan of the Sidekick devices, which were great for doing e-mail and text messaging. However, when the iPhone appeared, I quickly made the switch.

Honestly, this may be good for Danger, whose phones were being quickly marginalized by the growing smartphone market. Their phones were always popular with teens, but never figured out how to sell to adults. If they can marry Microsoft's business savvy with the Sidekick form factor and web-savvy nature, it could work.

You Have No Right to Vote in a Primary

I think what everyone forgets about when talking about the Michigan and Florida delegates not getting seated at conventions is that this is a Party Primary. There is nothing in the Constitution about voting in a party's primary or caucus. It is a privilege we get for identifying ourselves as part of a political party. If political parties wanted to do away with this, they could. The national government and state governments should not interfere.

That being said, it is in each party's best interest to appear as fair as possible as to not alienate potential voters in the November elections.

What happened at the Washington State Republican Caucuses?

A lot of the so-called scandals this year in voting have really been people looking hard for the first time at procedures that have been in place for decades. For example, some were accusing the New Hampshire voting authorities of malicious intent for storing votes in reused boxes from fish packing and the like. The reality is, that is how it had been done for a long time, and no one had questioned the penny-pinching practice before.

But then, there are a few cases that make you wonder how serious election officials really are about accuracy. Consider this case from Washington State.

For probably the first time in all the primaries and elections I've ever watched, the folks running the election decided to stop counting the votes with 13% of the votes uncounted. And this wasn't a 70-30 blow out, but a tight race where the two top vote getters were separated by less than 2% of the vote. Then this morning, state party chair Luke Esser decided to declare McCain the winner...

But state party chair Luke Esser said that he just thought it was the right thing to do. According to Esser, sometime overnight Esser did some sort of back of the envelope statistical analysis of the the margin of McCain's lead (1.8%) and the number votes left uncounted (13%) and decided that Huckabee didn't have a chance and he'd shut the thing down and declare McCain the winner.

Apparently, the Huckabee campaign is furious and trying to get access to see the rest of the votes counted. Have any of our Mod-Bloggers on-site in Washington heard anything more about this?

Obama wins Maine, too

I don't think this one is unexpected, but Obama's win in Maine completes the clean sweep of this weekend. Next question, does this mean unstoppable momentum or allow Clinton to claim "underdog" in order to win sympathy votes?

If the Strike ends, will your favorite show return?

It is now looking more and more like the WGA will accept the new deal, returning television and big screen writers to their jobs. The big question up in the air now is, will *MY* favorite show return to the air this year, or simply wait until next season. This list lays out what television studios have revealed to date.

Here's hoping NBC will come to their senses, too, and return to iTunes, so we have choices about where to get our shows.

At Hillary Clinton Rally, WHO is the next president?

This one has got to hurt

The candidate was more than an hour late, and the crowd, stuck in a stuffy high school gym in Arlington, was getting antsy. A campaign staffer took the stage with a big pile of T-shirts to give to those who answered trivia questions about Hillary Clinton.

Her birthplace? Got it. Her law school? Piece of cake. How much of the country would Clinton's health plan cover? "All," came the answer. Okay, final question: "This person is the next president of the United States . . ."

Suddenly, all around me, the bleachers in the Washington-Lee High School gym shook with shouts of "Obama!"

One must wonder if hope is lost, when a crowd ostensibly of your supporters is actually pulling for the other guy.

Obama's victory speech belies statesmanship

If you compare this to the speech Barack Obama gave after South Carolina, the difference is striking. The latter was EXTREMELY presidential and dealt with high-minded themes and philosophy. This speech is simply a laundrylist of programs which transforms Obama from "statesman" to "policy wonk". I predict this speech will cause a lot of his crossover supporters to rethink their decision.

Of course, you can't remain the candidate of vague philosophies forever. Obama eventually needed to bring it down to brass tacks. The question is, now that he has begun to actually talk about his plans, will it hurt his vote totals?

Vocabulary is fun

Obama wins every state on Saturday

Pundits have been saying that the remaining primary and caucus states favor Obama, but I am not sure any of them truly expected him to sweep every state awarding delegates this weekend! This has got to be scary for Senator Clinton who has spent every waking moment since leaving the White House, trying to prepare her party for a return.

Obama's winning margins ranged from substantial to crushing.

He won roughly two-thirds of the vote in Washington state and Nebraska, and almost 90 percent in the Virgin Islands.

Nearly complete Louisiana returns showed Obama with 57 percent of the vote, to 36 percent for the former first lady. As in his earlier Southern triumphs in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, Obama, a black man, rode a wave of African-American support to victory in Louisiana. Clinton won the white vote overwhelmingly.

In all, the Democrats scrapped for 161 delegates in the night's contests.

In incomplete allocations, Obama won 72, Clinton 40.

On the GOP side, Huckabee took Kansas and Lousiana (though he won no delates from LA, since he did not cross the 50% threshhold). The battle for the nomination may be essentially over, but the battle for the heart of the Party of Lincoln is just heating up.

Sullivan on Huckabee's Win

Kansas' Christianists do not seem aware that the race is over. This is not the Republican party that falls in line. It's a Republican party into very discreet factions.

No, Andrew. This is the Republican party who is seeing a contest about what we want our future to be. Neither of these candidates is ideal, but there are considerable differences between the two and the race is not "over" even if the delegate count says it is. There are important messages to be sent still, regardless if McCain has a lock or not. Our vote is the only way we can truly make that known, and so we will continue to do so.

But, at least Sullivan has stopped even trying to pretend to be a conservative. His faux-conservative shell cracked a long time ago, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he has no clue what is going on in the Republican party. After all, he still thinks McCain is the candidate of positive change for the party, the "future" even. I can only pray that McCain will be the end of certain elements within the conservative camp.

Has Ron Paul dropped out?

Ron Paul's "revolution" has been money-rich, but delegate-poor in this election cycle. Dr. Paul has cast himself as the "true conservative" of the G.O.P, and has suffered for standing against many of the ideas that the so-called "neoconservatives". He had pledged to fight to the very end, but recently sent a letter to his supporters that appears to indicate he is ending his presidential bid in order to defend his Congressional seat.

But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties — just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.

I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen.

Of course, with Dr. Paul winning only 14 delegates nationally, one must wonder if that itself was not a rejection of his ideas on some level. Or at least a rejection of his personality. Then again, it was nice having someone on the platform forcing the other candidates to defend the Iraq War. It sharpened and clarified their differences. And that was a useful thing to everyone.

It is official: Writers strike tenative deal

It has been officially announced now that the WGA has reached a tenative deal to end the strike, and bring back scripted TV and movies. The details can be found here. Now, it just remains to be seen if shows that were interrupted by the strike (HEROES, etc.) will be continued for a full season, or if networks will start work on the next season instead.

Polaroid: R.I.P. Instant Camera

Long before the first digital camera had an integrated LCD, Polaroid pioneered taking instant pictures at parties and family events. Their invention was so game-changing that it took the world by storm, and it is likely not many of us born before 1980 did NOT own a Polaroid at some point. But now, facing the Perfect Storm of the digital revolution Polaroid has announced the end of the instant camera along with over 450 jobs.

Global sales of traditional camera film have been dropping about 25 percent to 30 percent per year, "and I've got to believe instant film has been falling as fast if not faster," said Ed Lee, a digital photography analyst at the research firm InfoTrends Inc.

"At some point in time, it had to reach the point where it was going to be uneconomical to keep producing instant film," Lee said.

Privately held Polaroid doesn't disclose financial details about its instant film business.

Polaroid instant film will be available in stores through next year, the company said - after which, Lee said, Japan's Fujifilm will be the only major maker of instant film.

I will miss the simplicity and utility of the Polaroid cameras, but with LCD previews and portable printers, it definitely is time to say goodbye.

John McCain's Speech to CPAC

I was surprised that I could not find this speech yesterday on CPAC's website or find the Ron Paul speech live on C-SPAN or CPAC.

Dobson endorses Huckabee

The story here. I have to wonder if this a true "endorsement" or merely Dobson trying to find ANY way to stop McCain. I strongly believe it is the latter.

Random Thought

If the race is down to McCain vs Huckabee, and Huckabee appears to be ready to accept a VP position in a McCain cabinet, will we see any more Republican debates? Or will the only real debate left be between Hillary and Obama?

Writers Strike Ends?

Mike Eisner is now claiming a deal has been reached and the Writers Strike is at an end. The deal was allegedly negotiated last Friday and will be presented to the rank-and-file writers guild members tomorrrow.

"A deal has been made, and they'll be back to work very soon," Eisner said, adding, "I know a deal's been made. I know it's over."

Eisner did not elaborate on terms of the agreement. He said he expects most of the media companies affected by the strike to have "small" write-downs as a result of the deal. Eisner said the deal was struck last Friday.

If true, this should be very good news for television especially. While it has been interesting to see the level of creativity on THE DAILY SHOW and other shows, it will be nice to see some NEW content for a change. Of course, even if the deal is agreed to immediately, it will still be a few months before we see the results of new writing and filming, except on the daily comedy shows.

Romney to drop out today!

So says Time. Seems a bit premature to me, but then if he believes he can not win, why not give the party more time to heal and prepare for the November run?

Update: 1:15 PM Mitt Romney has dropped out of the race.

I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

This is an interesting strategy, and essentially sets up the key issue for the next campaign to be the War on Terror. Up until now, the Democrats were comfortable that their supporters were against the War in Iraq, so they have been running on Universal Health Care and other Economic issues. Now, they will have to return to the debate. And the American people have not made up their mind yet.

The one good thing to say: I think we can say with confidence that Mitt Romney did NOT lose because of his Mormon faith. In the end, nearly everyone I knew who decided not to vote for him had a real different with his political positions or his character.

We All Hate Robocallers

After last weekend, when our house was deluged by early-morning robocallers, I am not beginning to suspect the Evil Robots from The Matrix and The Terminator movies did not come from military hardware after all, but political phone banks. I was amused to find this piece today from a political reporter.

The setting: the Green household, Washington, D.C. The scene: late morning, my baby daughter is dosing off after having read “Good Dog, Carl” for the 432 time today. The phone rings. It’s Hillary Clinton--actually, a pre-recorded tape of Hillary Clinton, soliciting our vote.
Baby’s nap abruptly ends.
An hour later, the phone rings. It’s Bill Clinton this time. Same drill, same ruined nap. An hour later: sobbing hysterics have finally yielded to sweet sleep.
The phone rings. The baby wakes up.
It’s Jack Nicholson (!?) calling on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

I am almost at the point of canceling our landline phone, in order to stop being bothered by these calls. The problem is, I know as soon as we do that, politicos will start calling cell phones, sending text messages, or sending out androids to knock on doors in the dead of the night to "get the message out."

John McCain, if you want REAL campaign finance reform, how about banning robocallers? Then, we can also solve the Recession by giving jobs to thousands of HUMANS being paid to make these calls instead. There you go, Campaign Finance Reform and a Stimulus Package in one easy bill.

Why are Republicans facing minority status in all branches of government?

George Will believes it all comes back to ethics and earmarks, and the fact that the Republican majority failed to control its more pork-hungry impulses.

In his State of the Union address, the president vowed to veto any appropriation bill "that does not cut the number and cost of earmarks in half." Coburn tartly notes that although Congress hardly needs 5,500 earmarks -- half of last year's total -- the president's goal would be met if Republicans themselves quit earmarking. That fact goes far to explain the Republicans' current and future minority status.

I think this sums up the fears of most Conservatives

Comic crash course

Ever since comic books started making good movies again (around the time of the most recent Spiderman or X-Men series), I've been somewhat interested in what comic books hold for literary entertainment. It would also be nice to have a clue as the mythology that surrounds certain stories when they hit the big screen. And while Nomad is my own personal comics guru, sometimes it's nice to just know something. The problem is to know which comics to read and where to start. That is what makes the discovery of a four part comics crash course so very interesting to me. The author knows a good deal about comics, she was a judge for the Eisner Awards in 2007. If you're interested in comics, this may be a good place to start.

The Feelings of Many Patriot Haters

McCain wins big, Clinton/Obama essentially tied

In a reversal of the expectations of a few weeks back, John McCain appears to be headed towaed a clear nomination, but Clinton and Obama are tied and may be heading to a brokered convention after Super Tuesday failed to crown a Democratic front-runner. And California now becomes the big state for Conspiracy Theorists to focus on, after widespread reports of problems with ballots and/or the ability to find a place to even vote.

An Expose of Sweeden's "Successful" National Recycling Program

In the debate over government-run Health Care, the question is often asked "What has the government ever run that worked, besides the military?" The first answer is usually "The Post Office" until people realize how often things get lost in the mail. The second answer is often the Sweedish recycling program, which is trumpeted as a profitable enterprise. At least one Swede strongly disagrees. And if this is the model for government-run Health Care, God help us all if it is ever enacted.

The authorities have established trash collection centers in most neighborhoods where you get to throw away your trash. These "centers" offer numerous containers where you can throw away your trash — there is one container dedicated for each and every kind of trash and they are all neatly color-coded to help you find the right one. But this means you better have separated your aluminum from your other metals and your newspapers from your soft and hard papers before you get here. You wouldn't want to throw away dirty milk cartons or unsorted paper, would you?

But it seems people do just that: they cheat if they believe they are better off doing so. So the authorities have responded by making it more difficult to cheat. Their first measure was to redesign all containers so that it is more difficult throwing the "wrong" trash in them. For instance, containers for glass have only small, round holes where you put your bottles, and containers for hard paper and carton materials have only letter-slit shaped holes (you need to flatten all boxes before recycling — that's the law).

Well, that didn't do the trick. People kept on cheating. And the more difficult the authorities made it to cheat, the more difficult it was to get rid of the trash even if you intended to put it in the right place. So people went to these centers and simply put everything next to the containers instead — why bother? The authorities responded by appointing salaried "trash collection center spies" (!) to document who was cheating so that they could be brought to justice. (There have actually been a few court cases where people have been tried for not following recycling laws.)

Are we really ready to face these kinds of central planning issues when we go to our doctors? I'd say no, but I will admit I have friends who would claim they already do in dealing with their health insurance provider.

James Dobson Comes Out Against McCain

Quickie: 16 GB iPhone released

If you are eager for non-political news, Apple has announced 16 GB iPhones for $499. No 3G networking as of this time.

Happy Birthday Muse!!!!

Welcome to Super Tuesday!

Get Out and Vote!!!
Originally uploaded by Chase Davis.

If you are registered with a Political Party and are in a Super Tuesday state, as I am, get out and vote today. And remember, the only wasted vote is the one not cast.

If you're unsure who to vote for, consider this good advice from Dennis Prager: "I humbly but strongly suggest to Democrats and Republicans alike that they not vote today on the basis of who they think will win in November, but on which candidate they think will make the better president."

Seeing the other side: Why one abortion doctor does her work

It is important in any debate to truly understand the other side, so that you can (1) properly defend against their arguments, and (2) truly understand if you are right. This morning I came across this article which lays out one Canadian doctor's reasons for being an abortion provider. Frankly, I find some of her justifications disturbing, but others make some sense and are worth considering and understanding. Warning, there are a few sections which those with a weak stomach may find difficult.

The first month of my internship was spent on Ward 41, the septic obstetrics ward. Yes, it's hard to believe now, but in those days, they had one ward dedicated exclusively to septic complications of pregnancy.

About 90% of the patients were there with complications of septic abortion. The ward had about 40 beds, in addition to extra beds which lined the halls. Each day we admitted between 10-30 septic abortion patients. We had about one death a month, usually from septic shock associated with hemorrhage...

Today, in Canada and the U.S., septic shock from illegal abortion is virtually never seen. Like smallpox, it is a "disappeared disease."

This article did not change my mind at all, honestly, but it gave me a window into the Pro-Abortion movement and its proponents. And it reminded me yet again that the crazies who attack abortion doctors or bomb clinics do nothing to end abortion, and usually wind up creating even more dedicated proponents of the practice.

This is for CRChair and Ward

"Wanna dance? Maybe later?"

The Company We Keep

There is an old saying that goes something like "They will know us by the company we keep." What do Rudy Guliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Pataki, and Christopher Shays have in common?

1. They are all considered Liberal Republicans by most in the party.
2. They are all Pro-Choice.
3. They all endorsed John McCain for President.

John McCain is making his way around the country with these and other politicians. These are all good public servants, but they are not the base or epitome of the Republican Party. Do we really want to nominate someone who who will undoubtably nominate these type of Republicans to important cabinet positions? I hope this makes you think.

Happy Birthday Sean!!!

It has begun - Republicans for Obama

As the sense grows that Obama has the force of history behind him, it was always inevitable than some Republicans would look to jump on the bandwagon. Now, many are ready to make the switch and formally endorse "the most liberal Senator in Congress.

Former GOP congressman Joe Scarborough, who anchors MSNBC's "Morning Joe," says many conservative friends—including Bush officials and evangelical Christians—sent him enthusiastic e-mails after seeing Obama's post-election speeches in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. "He doesn't attack Republicans, he doesn't attack whites and he never seems to draw these dividing lines that Bill Clinton [does]," Scarborough told NEWSWEEK.

I predict until the Convention, when the nominee can finally consolidate their supporters, we'll be seeing a lot more of this. Obama's natural charisma and style, and the attraction of the idea of realizing Dr. King's dream, will be a magnetic force that many will succumb to. Is the GOP ready? Is John McCain?

Politically Incorrect Sign

The Giants Win!!!

Giants win 17-14!!!! If you don't know what they won, then you have been under a rock. (Or making fundraising calls for a presidential candidate.)

Romney wins Maine Caucuses

The choice of many Mod-Bloggers appears to have won the Pine Tree State rather handily. Of course, not many Republicans bothered to campaign there, not because of allergies to Lobster or New England wit, but because they focussed on the lucrative Super Tuesday states. Still, this win may produce some momentum going into next week.

The only big news is that Ron Paul supporters had been pushing Maine as "the one state that Ron Paul will definitely win." Too bad for America's OB-GYN.

REMEMBER: If Microsoft buys Yahoo, they own Flickr, too

I am a huge fan and power user of Flickr, a photo site which is focussed on encouraging users to share and view each others photos. It is great because it allows posting of any of your own photos on any of your own websites, and has a huge array of partners to make better use of the photos. They also expose an API to allow other websites to share their data and produce interesting applications and mashups. Last year, they were acquired by Yahoo, who pretty much decided to not change anything about Flickr, other than integrating the usernames with Yahoo identities.

Now, Microsoft has made an offer to acquire Yahoo and by doing so they would end up owning Flickr as well. And while Flickr is famous for sharing and openness, Microsoft is famous for HATING sharing and openness. As such, a rebellion is forming among Flickr power users and many are threatening to take their business elsewhere. If you are a FLickr user, I STRONGLY recommend you consider using their QOOP service now to get backup disks, to ensure you do not lose control of your own photos.

To be fair, Microsoft would be CRAZY to change much about Flickr. It would invalidate the reason for the acquisition. The problem is, you can NEVER be sure Microsoft won't be crazy. Backup disks provide insurance. OR you may want to consider one of their competitors which allow automatic import of Flickr libraries.

Born Agains no longer favor Republicans

For the first time in many, many elections, Barna is reporting that Born Again Christians no longer favor Republicans and that his study shows if the election were held today, any Democrat would get more Born Again votes than any Republican.

If the election were held today, and all of the remaining candidates from both parties were on the ballot, the frontrunners among born again voters would be Hillary Clinton (favored by 20% of born again likely voters), Barack Obama (18%) and Mike Huckabee (12%). No other candidate reached double figures. Thirty percent of the born again likely voters said they were still undecided as to who they would choose.

I think the reasons for this turnaround are not hard to understand, and I think they are threefold:
1. George W Bush portrayed himself as a Born Again Christian who fully reflected the views of Christians. In reality, his policies were all over the map, and have turned off Born Agains.
2. The two front-runners for the Republican ticket are hardly representative of Born Agains: a Mormon, and a man who has never made much of his faith. Huckabee is a former pastor, but has failed to connect with many, many Christians.
3. We can not underestimate the dream of Born Agains to prove the American Dream that ANYONE can achieve by having a woman or black president. It is the ultimate expression of abolitionism and universal suffrage, which have always had a strong place in the hearts of Born Agains.

But again, it drives home the point that the G.O.P. has a hard row to hoe if they want even a chance to win this time around.

NFL to Churches: No Superbowl for your HD Sets

Last year, the NFL backed down after trying to enforce a ban on churches having NFL gatherings because of a ban on public showings of over 55 inches. This year they have lost any squeamishness and is forcing churchgoers into bars to watch the big game on big screns.

The NFL said, however, that the copyright law on its games is long-standing and the language read at the end of each game is well known: "This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited."

The league bans public exhibitions of its games on TV sets or screens larger than 55 inches because smaller sets limit the audience size. The section of federal copyright law giving the NFL protection over the content of its programming exempts sports bars, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

Copyright is supposed to exist to ensure that owners of creative content can benefit from their work, and thus have incentive to produce more content. This kind of action simply penalizes the public at the whim of big business. This is sure to produce a backlash at some point.

It is official: 6 more weeks of winter

PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL has spoken.

Don't Wake the Wolfman

Presidential candidates, after a long, hard week of work, your supporters often like to sleep in on Saturdays. Calling them at 9 AM and waking up the entire house to "thank you for your support" is not a way to encourage them to support you in the future.

Than again, it occurs to me that it may have been opponents looking to anger supporters of a specific candidate and keep them from the polls. Either way, you musty admit, in the future the world is best off keeping me away from Apple's PhotoBooth program. Please political operatives, won't you think of the CHILDREN?!

What is the incentive for female suicide bommers?

Today 2 women blew themselves up in a suicide attack on a pet market. In this case the women were supposedly mentally disabled, but there seems to have been a rash of female suicide attack recently. This got me to thinking, what is the incentive for women to do this type of thing. The men of course have the glory of Allah, as well as the promise of 70 virgins when they get to heaven. Women can, of course, glorify Allah by doing this sort of thing, but is there an equivalent promise to the 70 virgins for the women? I'm being serious here, no disrespect intended at all. I doubt any of our readers know the answer to this question, but it does seem vexing to me. Thoughts....?