Category: Rants

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Dumb, Dumb, Dumb

[doug][nuke]It seems that today I have come across a number of headlines that reflect individual, societal, or corporate stupidity. Let me share a few:

Individual: Not getting enough attention with your body piercings? Have your tongue split!

Reuters Oddly Enough news simply titled this article, “Aaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! ” Enough said, da?

Societal: Let’s boost tourism by catering to marijuana-smokers!

A little history:

Last month, the Canadian government introduced legislation to end criminal penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Under the bill, people caught with 15 grams (half an ounce, or enough for about 15 to 30 joints) or less of cannabis would only be fined, and criminal penalties would be reduced on those growing up to 25 marijuana plants.

I won’t even begin to list the stupidity of moving toward the legalization of marijuana (but, hey, it’s Canada—the people who brought you the best argument against Socialized Medicine in North America), but check out these statements, made by “Prince of Pot” Mark Emery:

”Marijuana—that means fun times, parties, a cool city and an enlightened state of mind,” Emery told a crowd gathered in front of Toronto's police headquarters.

Cradling a marijuana plant in the crook of his arm, and a pipe in one hand, Emery said: “Believe me, marijuana people don’t create problems like alcohol people. You want those kinds of tourists who are laughing, having a good time, and eating a whole lot in Toronto restaurants.”

See the full article here at Reuters.

¡Qué bárbaro! (What an idiot!) Apparently, slowed thinking and reaction time, confusion, impaired balance and coordination, cough, frequent respiratory infections, permanently impaired memory and learning, increased heart rate, anxiety, panic attacks, drug tolerance, and addiction are not problems. You might want to wander over to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America® site.

Corporate: USB Whah?

Confused about USB standards? You will be.

In December [the USB Forum] announced that henceforth USB 1.1 would be called USB 2 and USB 2 would continue to be called USB 2. To help the public grasp this subtle distinction USB 2, which was the old USB 1.1, would have “Full Speed” added to its title and USB 2, which was USB 2, would have “Hi-Speed” added.

See the full article here at the Bangkok Post.

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Yeah, right!

According to the Hobbes’ Internet Timeline, CERN didn’t release the WWW until 1991. So, you can imagine my surprise when I saw this AdWords link on Google, of a Web developer boasting of 20 years’ experience.

Judging by the view through his Webcam (overlooking a private harbor of some sort), he hasn’t exactly done too badly for himself, even if his site is a bit overdesigned and hyperactive.

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Cuba: The Forgotten Oppressed

Mallard Filmore, from April 29, 2003

[nuke][doug]It angered me when I heard (a few years ago) that former President Bill Clinton shook hands with Fidel Castro at the United Nations. Were I President, I would have relished the opportunity to speak with Castro, but I would not have shaken his hand, and my conversation would have opened with, “¿Por que odias tu propio gente?” (Why do you hate your own people?)

One of the first Cuban exiles I ever met, Pastor Elmer Fernandez, has a lovely final memory of Cuba—he was able to flee to America to be with relatives when he was 8 years old—his last significant memory is his mother saying to him, “Do you hear that noise? Those are gunshots. They [Castro’s revolutionaries] are executing our pastor.”

Modern-day Cuba should be a paradise. It has amazing agricultural and tourist potential, yet in all but a few areas it clearly demonstrates the absolute failure of Totalitarian Communism. We know a number of people who have visited Cuba, some on covert missions trips, who are able to provide a better picture than our media. Would you like to live in a large city that has running water only two hours a week? How about visiting a hospital emergency room with your infant, to find nothing but squalor and crying? Would you enjoy being part of a population that cannot buy aspirin? Or books? The people there don’t even mention Castro’s name—they merely make a sign with their fist like a beard.

It is a pity Castro has lived so long.

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Now This Is Just Plain Wrong

In Denver, a judge overturned a convicted murderer’s death sentence because jurors consulted Biblical passages such as “an eye for an eye” while they were sequestered during death-penalty deliberations.

For the record, Robert Harlan was convicted in 1995 for murdering Rhonda Maloney, a waitress who was driving home from work, and shooting and paralyzing good Samaritan Jaquie Creazzo who tried to come to the woman’s aid.

The full article is available at Reuters.

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The Matrix Reloaded

[doug]Note: I have tried to keep this as spoiler-free as possible. In the first 15 minutes of the film, I wasn’t actually sure I was going to like it. Although the opening featured quite a good look at the long-mysterious city of Zion, it was mixed with a somewhat drawn-out combination of scenes of a mass dance ritual in the “Temple,” (a bit reminiscent of some parts of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy) intermixed with an uncomfortably erotic scene with Neo and Trinity. After that, though, things really took off.

Reloaded is significantly more complex than The Matrix. Obviously, the war against The System is not over, the machines have improved themselves somewhat, and much is revealed about how various programs operate within the system, and about the world of the Matrix in general. We are also given a much better understanding of how Morpheus and his crew fit in (or fail to fit in) against the backdrop of Zion’s culture and its military and political leaders. The origins or reasons for existence of some key charactes and “programs” are explained, but without the horribly unfitting and disappointing treatment Lucas gave to the Force with his Midichlorian explanation in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

There were a few disappointments, but not many: One of my favorite characters is not there—although his absence is explained. The background music is not as fitting (or as good) in several places, and sound effects were not quite as good as before, although I have been spoiled by viewing The Matrix in Dolby 5.1 surround at home where every bullet shell casing hitting the ground can be heard, and my son John [john inline] complains that the bass rattles stuff off his desk upstairs. To a certain extent, mostly due to the film’s larger scope and greater number of both protagonists and antagonists, the film, at times, feels to have been run by a different director.

The combat scenes (and we’ve all been jaded by knock-offs in everything from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Shrek) were astonishingly well done, intense, and wonderfully choreographed—truly beyond anything I’ve seen on film. It was not the “same old, same old.” The depth of plot and concept far exceed the first film, and overall it requires far more thought cycles to process. Ultimately, this is an amazing film.

Coming in November, The Matrix Revolutions (and if you are patient enough to sit through the credits and music that reminds me of Erci’s cube at MediVation, you’ll be treated to a preview of what is to come).

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Clean Up America, Anyone?

Tonight I pulled into Wal*Mart to grab a few essentials, and watched the woman in the opposite space power down her window, and dump trash into the parking lot.

It really made me angry, although I didn’t say anything to her. (I can envision being less restrained as I age.) What I should have done (but didn’t think of at the time) is grab a spare bag from my car, and go over and pick up the trash. Of course, someone who isn’t ashamed to dump trash out of her car might not be shamed by having to watch a volunteer pick it up, but it would have been worth a try. Next time â€¦

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Do we tend to act too soon or too late?

[I]t was the United States—under Bill Clinton, for those of you keeping score at home—that worked hardest to prevent UN intervention or even from saying the word “genocide” in any official documents.

Read Samantha Powers’ prize-winning account of this, A Problem from Hell, if you doubt this. It is just this kind of combination of ignorance and arrogance that gives rise to anti-Americanism, and no wonder. (And by the way, the Rwanda episode is by far the most shameful act undertaken by Clinton and company.

—Eric Alterman, MSNBC

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People Will Believe Anything, 2

I’m going to try to stay out of trouble today, after yesterday’s fiasco of pointing to an extremely inaccurate and anti-semitic conspiracy page.

I have always found the Urban Legends section of about.com (formerly The Mining Company) immensely entertaining. It’s also extremely useful in debunking the ever-present hoax virus warnings and too-good-to-be-true “Forward This to Everyone on Your List” e-mails.

Why are anti-NWO conspiracy theorists typically anti-semitic?

This may fall under the unanswerable questions category, like “Why did The Man in the High Castle win a Hugo award?” but ki pointed out that many global conspiracy theorists and their organizations are strongly anti-semitic. This makes little sense to me, as this future New World Order is, according to Scripture, going to be anti-semitic itself—attempting (and failing) to destroy Israel. Ki suggested that I am looking for logic and reason where none exist.

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Why does the weekend end so quickly?

Quite a bit going on this weekend. The primary task was to get a project for CenterWatch finished, including using a combination of MS Word's Table of Contents feature and some Excel formulae to generate an index of Companies by Therapeutic Specialty. I discovered a goof on my part; I needed to have one specific named style for the therapeutic specialties on each page, but not use that style for anything else on the page. Every time I would do a search-and-replace to fix this, Word would crash. Finally I gave up, created a second copy of the file, and deleted everything but the therapeutic specialties that was in the style I was trying to index. The section was, of course, 350 pages long! I'm making a list of notes for next year.

We had some good family time for a change (with Nichelle sick/me overworked for the past couple of months). We watched the newly remastered Chitty-Chitty, Bang-Bang, which should have been in Widescreen, but has not been issued that way (except for the opening race scene and credits and closing credits). The sound and picture quality are superb, and the DVD features a cool “sing along” feature for the musical numbers. I need to start a Web petition going about the widescreen/pan-and-scan issue … I’ve e-mailed MGM’s customer support several times, but not once received an answer.

Sunday afternoon we watched the new Veggie Tales Jonah film. I should add that Nichelle and I both fell asleep partway through. The kids liked it. Big Idea did a good job of explaining what the job of an Old Testament prophet was. David, after his class on Sunday night, presented me with his coloring sheet of the 10 Commandments, and said, “This is a message from the Lord.”

Sunday night I jumped over to Shine! to make a quick edit (remarking out a live performance that had past). When I went to check my work, I discovered that the site had been defaced by some juvenile crackers with an obscene anti-war message. Apparent Interland had a little security problem sometime early Saturday morning. Other evidence indicates their mail server was commandeered as well. Just what John Harris needs—his site defaced on a day when people were likely to be visiting the site to get directions to the performance Saturday evening.

The war news was negative for the first time so far. We have six people from our church on active military duty, plus another moved-away friend (he started riding our bus to church when he was in fourth grade—right now his neice is in Nichelle’s and my 4th grade Sunday school class.