Finally, a politician who keeps their promises

Now, when this guy promises to arise from his watery grave and devour the world, I'll bet that's a campaign promise he'll keep. No flip-flopping here.

Much more here.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day!

May you all celebrate your own freedom to live your life the way you see fit, free from the interference from Government or neighbors who need to find a life for themselves beyond bitching about what others do.

Gods... I can just hear the "good luck with that" in the background.

Basments flood... with salad dressing?

From 10tv.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Storms and heavy rain usually flood basements with water, but some homeowners on the city's north side are dealing with flooding of a different kind on Wednesday.

At least 10 residents in Clintonville are cleaning up after a combination of storm water and ranch salad dressing seeped into their basements.

According to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, rain from last week's storms combined with sewage from the T. Marzetti. Co. -- a salad dressing producer located on Indianola Avenue.

Sewage and storm water overwhelmed the city's storm sewer system, resulting in flooding at nearby homes.

"It's creamy-ranch- dressing-looking crap," resident Steven Maiken told the Columbus Dispatch. "It's not toxic waste, but we did have to throw away a lot of stuff. We tried to wash it off over and over again."

Damn. You know, sewage would be bad enough, but sewage with ranch dressing?

Tech Support

So... how's that war on drugs going?

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana and cocaine despite strict drug laws, World Health Organization researchers said on Tuesday.

Countries with looser drug laws have lower rates of abuse, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine.

The survey of 54,000 people in 17 countries found that 16 percent of people in the United States had used cocaine in their lifetimes -- far higher than the next highest rate, found in New Zealand, where 4.3 percent of people reported having used cocaine.

More than 42 percent of Americans admitted to having tried cannabis, closely followed by 41 percent in New Zealand, Dr. Louisa Degenhardt of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and an international team of colleagues found.

Great. We've got very strict laws on drug use, entire agencies devoted to enforcement of drug laws... and the highest rate of marijuana and cocaine in the world.

Marvelous.

Don Davis, AKA General Hammond, has died

For Fans of Stargate SG-1, today is a sad day.

Don Davis, the actor who played General Hammond has died.

From Gateworld:

With great sadness we must report that veteran actor Don S. Davis passed away on June 29, 2008. He was 65 years old.

Don co-starred on Stargate SG-1 for the show's first seven years, helping to launch the enduring science fiction franchise. Davis played Major General George Hammond, base commander and a father figure to many of the show's characters.

He is also well-known for his portrayal of Major Garland Briggs in Twin Peaks.

Off-screen, Don was beloved by the show's cast and crew. He departed the show in 2003 due to a medical condition that restricted his workload, but returned for several guest appearances on SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis in the following years. Don worked hard to improve his health, and continued to work both on screen and off until his death.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family asks for donations to the American Heart Association.

Sexes split over one night stands

This bit of wisdom comes from the BBC:

Many women are left unhappy in the aftermath of casual sexual encounters, a survey has revealed.

Just under half of women who answered the internet poll, published in the journal "Human Nature", said they felt it had been a bad idea.

Four out of five men, in contrast, said they were happy with a brief fling.

French Army fires into crowd... on accident

As seen on Reuters:

TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - Sixteen people including four children were wounded after a soldier fired live ammunition during a military show in the southern French town of Carcassonne, a local official said on Sunday.

The accident occurred during a combat demonstration by the Third Marine Parachute regiment in which a soldier used live ammunition instead of blanks, said Bernard Lemaire, the prefect of the southwestern region of L'Aude.

Praise Cthulhu... how the frak does that happen? No blank firing adapter in the rifle? Who issued live ammo for a military show?

LA Times: WTF?

So, in reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on the 2nd Amendment the LA Times has an opinion piece, with this tidbit:

This year, about 12,000 Americans will be shot to death. It's a staggering figure, and even though lawmakers have continued to pass gun-control laws to try to bring the number down, they have not significantly reduced the murder rate. Indeed, for the last decade, guns have steadily remained the cause of about two-thirds of all homicides.

Gun manufacturers insist that these deaths are not their fault, preferring to pin the blame on criminals and irresponsible dealers.

Say what? The manufacturer of a legal machine is responsible for it's use?

So... Ford and Honda are responsible for drunks who use their cars to kill people?

Spoons are responsible for people eating too much ice cream?

This is the sort of idiocy those of us who support the right to keep an bear arms just scratch our heads at. Firearms are machines, not demon infested imps which act independent of human will.

Blaming the tool for the user's actions just leads to the same action being performed with a different tool.

Happy Caturday

Drunken driver gets 43 years for killing mom, kids

Apparently, Ohio can do something right.

From the AP:

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A Michigan man was sentenced to 43 years in prison Friday for driving the wrong way on an interstate and slamming his pickup truck into a minivan, killing a Maryland mother and four children who were returning home from a Christmas trip. Michael Gagnon of Adrian, Mich., had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit and marijuana in his system, authorities said.

Lucas County Judge Linda Jennings called Gagnon a dangerous person. "You have a drinking problem and you don't even know it," she said.

Gagnon, 24, had pleaded no contest to five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and two counts of aggravated vehicular assault.

2nd Amendment: An Individual right

BooYah!!

The Supreme Court has ruled that the second amendment is an individual right.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Silent on central questions of gun control for two centuries, the Supreme Court found its voice Thursday in a decision affirming the right to have guns for self-defense in the home and addressing a constitutional riddle almost as old as the republic over what it means to say the people may keep and bear arms.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's ban on handguns and imperiled similar prohibitions in other cities, Chicago and San Francisco among them. Federal gun restrictions, however, were expected to remain largely intact.

You can read the full decision here. Note that it's a 157 page .pdf. While large in size, it's also an interesting read.

From my reading of it, the Court seems to be saying that:

• The Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to own firearms.
• People have a right to defend themselves.
• Handguns are a valid tool for self defense, and banning handguns violates the Constitution.
• Some restrictions, such as those preventing felons and the insane from own firearms, are legal.

Note that I'm not a lawyer. I don't even play one on the internet.

The 5-4 margin worries me, but overall it's a good decision.

Congrats America!

Change! .... wait, is that a monkey???

What the...



Have to wonder if they meant to portray Obama, or if the word "Change" is just that closely identified with Obama's message.

What the...

George Carlin has died

From MSNBC

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - George Carlin, the frenzied performer whose routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television” led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. He was 71.

Old and busted: Global Warming. New.. erm... hotness: Global Cooling

Yeah, really.

From the News busters blog:

Investor's Business Daily is reporting something we haven't seen much of in the media since the 1970s: concerns about global cooling. You read that correctly: cooling.

Kenneth Tapping, a researcher at Canada's National Research Council, wants to look for evidence of increased sunspot activity, according to IBD. "The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century."

A "solar hibernation" in the 17th Century "corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715," IBD reported. "Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe."

Tapping's concerns fly in the face of the current media drumbeat about global warming, which would have Americans believe the Earth is on course for catastrophic climate changes unless the federal government (i.e. taxpayers) steps in to save the day.

The Investors Business Daily article mentioned above is here.

Happy Caturday

Britain is the world's biggest arms dealer

From the UK Times Online:

London Britain was the world’s biggest arms seller last year, accounting for a third of global arms exports, the Government’s trade promotion organisation said.

UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) said that arms exporters had added £9.7 billion in new business last year, giving them a larger share of global arms exports than the United States.

“As demonstrated by this outstanding export performance, the UK has a first-class defence industry, with some of the world’s most technologically sophisticated companies,” Digby Jones, the Minister for Trade and Investment, said.

UKTI said that the figures were boosted by orders for Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest arms buyer, which has imported $31 billion (£16 million) in weapons over the past five years. There were also orders from Oman and Trinidad and Tobago for offshore patrol vessels.

The US is still the world’s biggest exporter over the past five years, with $63 billion in total arms exports. Britain was second with $53 billion and Russia third with $33 billion.

Interesting... especially considering the UK attitude towards civilian firearms ownership.

GNUPG Howto

Recently, I was talking to someone about using GPG. The question came up: How do I use this?

I humbly offer the GPG Mini Howto. It's got everything from Installation to Key Management and a section on front ends and email clients.

As good as that is, I'd also recommend Gmail users check out the firegpg plugin. It helps a lot with the GPG / Gmail combination by adding some useful buttons to the Gmail interface. Doesn't get much easier than that.

More on the Upper Arlington threat

On May 13th there was a report that the FBI thwarted a terror threat at an Upper Arlington school. The next day it seemed like the story might be a tempest in a teapot.

Well, today there's this from WTTE:

Teen not being charged over Ohio school threat
June 17, 2008 11:20 EDT

UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio (AP) -- Authorities have decided not to charge a 15-year-old for an online threat that closed his Columbus area high school one day last month.

An Upper Arlington police spokeswoman says the boy has been referred instead to a program that typically provides juveniles with counseling, community service and supervision. Officer Heather Galli also says the teen and his family have cooperated with investigators.

Upper Arlington High School canceled classes May 14 after police learned of the threat from the FBI. An agent in Tampa, Fla., had seen a Web posting in which the student wrote he would lock school doors that day and fire at students in hopes of killing a number "in the upper 60s."

Authorities say the boy told them he wasn't serious.

So that's that, I suppose. Seems like a kid was acting out and got some attention. Possibly more attention than he was looking for.