Monthly Archives: June 2006

More from America’s misguided war on drugs

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In spite of more important issues like same-sex marriage and flag burning, the politicians of this country still have an unhealthy obsession with their war on drugs. People are being locked in prison and fired from jobs for smoking or possessing some marijuana. Meanwhile people are losing their health insurance and retirement savings while corporate executives drive their companies into the ground and then take multi-million golden parachutes as all the workers lose everything.

A few months ago Bausch and Lomb announced a recall of their ReNu contact lens cleaning fluid, because it was causing a dangerous fungus to grow on users eyes that could cause blindness. Now the congress is pushing the spraying of Fusarium keratitis on the crops “of a major drug producing country” namely Colombia. Oddly enough the Colombian government is not too happy about the idea of spraying a fungus that can cause permanent blindness on a large portion of the country. Neither are most parts of the government that have actually had to deal with drug enforcement.

The Colombian government has come out against it. And those entities of the U.S. government that have studied the use of Fusarium for more than 30 years don’t recommend it either: The Office of National Drug Control Policy, also known as the Drug Czar’s office, CIA, DEA, the State Department and the USDA have all concluded that the fungus is unsafe for humans and the environment.

The only ones who actually seem to like the idea are the fascist republicans in congress like Dan Burton (R-Ind). These guys have no problem poisoning Colombian farmers or sending troops off to die in the middle east. But everyone who actually knows anything about the reality of the situation is against it. It’s no wonder that the longer republicans stay in power the more people around the world hate the United States.

With leaders like this…

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… It’s no wonder that situation in Iraq is such a cluster-fuck!. Today three prisoners committed suicide at the illegal prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. These guys after being imprisoned and “interrogated” there for almost 4 years with no hope of ever being tried or released, these guys had enough. So the commander of the prison had this to say:

Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of Guantanamo, told a news conference the suicides were an act of warfare.

“They are smart. They are creative, they are committed. They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us,” Harris said.

I have a question. How does tying your clothes and bedsheets together and hanging yourself in your cell qualify as an act of warfare against your captors? Maybe officers like Adm. Harris should keep their mouths shut and let the professional idiots like Bush and Rumsfeld do the talking. How can a soldier hear these words from their commander and still have any respect for them and be able to take orders from them?

New project 1

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I spent a good part of this afternoon soon out on my deck in the gazebo with a soldering iron and screw driver as Max, MacKenzie and Maggie splashed in the pool. A couple of months ago I stumbled across this article on Engadget. It describes how to re-wire a hot-air corn popper into a coffee roaster. After an extended search for a suitable popper, I finally found one this week. If you haven’t bought a hot-air corn popper lately, you might be surprised by how hard they are to find. Evidently most people are going the microwave route these days. Personally I find that incredibly wasteful, since a box of six bags of microwave popcorn costs about the same as a big jar of Newman’s own popcorn that can make a lot bowls of popcorn.

Anyway the point of this was re-wire a popper into a coffee roaster. Evidently coffee beans begin to get stale and lose their flavor about five to six days after being roasted. And they degrade even faster after being ground. For several years now we have had a coffee maker with a built-in grinder and we buy whole bean coffee. I put the beans and water in, and the machine grinds the beans and then immediately brews the coffee. The difference compared to coffee that may have been ground days or weeks before is striking. Green beans can stay fresher for a lot longer and can also be bought for quite a bit less. As a coffee junkie, I love a good rich cup of coffee, and I drink it straight, no cream, no sugar, fully caffeinated. So I sacrificed a brand new popper to an experiment. So far it seems to be functioning correctly. Now I just need to get some beans and try some roasting. If I could grow my own coffee hear in Michigan I might try that next. I’ll let you know how the roasting turns out.

Max’s First Podcast

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My son Max recorded his first podcast night and I just finished posting it. It’s called the MewzikCast and as you might have guessed it’s a music show. Go check it out and subscribe to the feed if you like it. He picked out all the music himself, came up with the name and did all the talking. I just helped with the technical side. This was just his first attempt and I’m sure they will get better as he goes along. Mewzik is Music

pledge of allegience

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We went to the 5th grade awards ceremony at Max’s school the other day and they did the pledge of allegiance. This revived a thought I had previously and got me thinking again. A flag is just a banner, a piece of fabric ( or metal, paper whatever) that represents some place, country, team whatever. It has no meaning in and of itself. The US flag is just a banner with 13 stripes representing the original 13 states and a field of stars representing each of the current states. It is a graphical representation and nothing more. If you burn one or where it on your lapel or fly it from a pole it makes no real difference. Nothing changes except for getting a bunch of poseur patriots riled up. A flag doesn’t stop oppression, it doesn’t protect freedom, it doesn’t keep you safe. So why on earth would anyone pledge allegiance to a banner? If someone burns a flag does it affect you? And I’m not even going to get into the whole “Under God” issue. Just keep in mind that the supreme court punted on this whole issue. They did not even rule on whether that line is legal. They overturned the lower court on the grounds that the guy who filed the suit did not have standing to bring the suit.

On the other hand, we have a constitution. The US Constitution is the fundamental law of the United States. It defines the structure of the federal government it’s powers, responsibilities and limits. All other laws passed by the government must conform to the limits set forth in the constitution. If a law does something that is prohibited by the constitution it can and should be struck down by the supreme court. The constitution protects the people of the United States from oppression by the government. It ensures that people in this country cannot be arbitrarily searched or detained at the whim of the government. It protects us from being required to practice any specific religion. The constitution provides a means for dealing with president’s who ignore the laws of the land and who act against the best interests of the nation.

The constitution is what made the United States special in the first place. Without that document, there would be foundation for the nation that has achieved so much and garnered so much respect around the worlds over the last two centuries. We all need to respect and defend the fundamental principles that made America great. No one should be pledging allegiance to a banner. Children should be taught the bill of rights and pledge allegiance to the constitution.

pledge allegiance to the constitution not the flag

Grand Opening of the Corner Brewery

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The Corner Brewery opened up last week but I just got this in my inbox:

Please join us Saturday, June 17 from 3-7 for a Grand Opening Celebration at Ypsilanti’s new Corner Brewery.

Taste the beer, tour the brewery, watch the slideshow of the renovations and brewery installation, check out our new 6 pack designs (coming soon to a store near you!), lounge in our new beer garden, and help us make merry!

There will be a special reception and short program at 4:00 with Congressman Dingell and local dignitaries (TBA) on hand to toast the new brewery.

We are located at 720 Norris – at the corner of Forest and Norris Streets – 2 blocks North of Depot Town between Huron and River.

We’re doing a “soft opening” now and are open daily from 11-11 and Sunday from noon – 11.

Cheers!

Rene

See you all there!

Deadwood 1

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I don’t watch much TV and almost none on the traditional broadcast networks. I find the vast majority of what is put on to be tiresome, repetitive, predictable and worst of all manipulative. I find most so-called reality programming to be especially loathsome. There is nothing particularly real about reality programming. The producers pick pick a selection of stereotypical characters and put them into situations specifically designed to produce something vaguely corresponding to drama. They may not provide a full script, abut they do produce an outline and then cut together the resulting footage into some kind of narrative, that appeals to viewers voyeuristic tendencies. The television networks have largely given up on producing original scripted dramas and most of what passes for those now are the 16 Law and Order and 14 CSI variations.

The exception to this has been HBO. While HBO has produced some stinkers like Entourage and Mind of the Married Man, and head scratchers like Carnivale they have also produced some of the most amazing original series ever, including the old Larry Sanders Show, the first few seasons of The Sopranos, The Wire and Six Feet Under. This spring has unfortunately produced a couple of duds , with the latest installment of the Sopranos and Big Love. While the Sopranos has shown flashes of the old brilliance this year, it has largely been a confused mess as though the writers weren’t really sure how to wrap the thing up. Maybe the last eight episodes next winter will tie it all together. Big Love on the other hand had some interesting possibilities, the subject being a polygamist family in Utah, it seemed to be largely a pretty conventional soap type show.

By far the most brilliant show on HBO in the last few years has been Deadwood. Deadwood was a gold mining camp in the Dakota Territory in the 1870’s. The series was created by David Milch who wrote for the amazing Hill Street Blues, and later co-created NYPD Blue. Deadwood is a western unlike any before. The scripts are all written in iambic pentameter which is a rhythm in poetry. All of Shakespeare’s work was in iambic pentameter. It makes for a very distinctive sound. The characters are unbelievably rich complex. All people are multi-dimensional, almost no-one is all good or all bad. People have internal conflicts over what to do and so do these characters. These characters clearly have some kind of back story that makes them who they are just like you and I. From the tormented Dr. Cochran (who must have seen a lot a soldiers that he couldn’t save die during the civil war) to sheriff Seth Bullock torn between the woman he loves, Alma Garrett and the woman to whom he is married, to owner of the Gem Saloon Al Swearengen played by the great Ian McShane. There is also no shortage of great full fledged female characters including Trixie the whore, Calamity Jane and the aforementioned Alma Garrett. The show is definitely not for the faint of heart and those opposed to profanity. The language is real and raw, but the patterns of speech are nonetheless eloquent and complex. The dialog and monologues (of which there are quite a few) extremely well written. The photography on the show is amazing, from the lighting to the angles and framing. The whole show has a very Shakespearean flavor to it even though it is set in the wild west, a place where even the heroes are villains, where no one is perfect and no one is all bad.

Season three of Deadwood starts this Sunday at 9 on HBO. Unfortunately it appears that this may be the last season of the show, as the ratings have apparently not been great and production costs are high. If you have HBO please be sure to check it out and if you missed the first two seasons, they are replaying them regularly on all the HBO channels. If you don’t have HBO you can find Deadwood on the torrent sites. It is well worth the download.

More from the annals of dumb ideas

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Back the late 1970’s the US Army began looking for a replacement for Jeep utility vehicles that they had been using since world war 2. Out of this was born the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (aka HMMWV or Humvee). In the late 80’s Humvee builder AM General developed a civilian version dubbed the Hummer for those with more money than brains. As it turned out, not that many people actually needed or wanted a really large, heavy, fuel hungry vehicle with only 4 seats, and a four foot wide tunnel between the seats. In the 90’s General Motors decided they wanted an off-road brand to compete with Jeep (owned by Chrysler). AM General was apparently more than happy to sell them the rights to market the Hummer brand. The original Hummer became known as the H1 and GM proceeded to develop somewhat smaller, cheaper Hummer. They took a Chevy Tahoe chassis and put a on new body with H1 styling cues (if you can call it styling). Thus was born the H2. They sold like hot-cakes. For about 6 months anyway until all the poseurs had one. at which point the sales of H2s went into a steady decline that continues to this day.

So GM went back to the parts bin and took the Chevy Colorado compact pickup truck platform and added a Hummer-like body. The result is the Hummer H3, perfect for the wannabe poseur (you know the guys who don’t quite come up to the level of poseur). Rumor has it that an even smaller H4 is currently in development. Back to the H3, this vehicle is a little bigger on the outside and smaller on the inside than a Ford Escape or Jeep Liberty. If you know these vehicles, you will understand that the H3 is not a particularly large vehicle.

I drive past a place that rents limos on my way to work every day. Typically stretch limousines are built up from larger vehicles as the base such as big Lincolns, Cadillacs or Suburbans. Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago when I saw the latest addition to their fleet. A stretched Hummer H3! Here are a couple of pics I found on-line. h3 limoh3 limoThe H3 is not particularly wide so it doesn’t really seem like it would be very suitable as a limo. Check out the interior shot to see how narrow the seat cushions are. Sign me up for one of these!

Open source voting 1

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Voting, what could be simpler? You get some choices and you pick one. Then you add up all the votes for each choice. A voting system doesn’t have to do much. Present a list of choices, and tally the number of votes cast for each choice. In the past this was done by printing the names of the candidates on a paper ballot, then people would mark their choice and put the ballot in a box. People would them read each ballot and tally the results. Pretty simple Huh? So step into the twenty-first century where everything must use computer technology. The requirements have not changed. Present a list of choices, select one from the list, tally the results. A computer program to do that is really very simple. So what could one possibly add to such a program that meets those requirements that could require protecting trade secrets? Frankly , I don’t believe anything that requires secrecy should be added to such a system. Secrecy like that is inherently dangerous to a democratic system. There is nothing innovative required to be added to a voting system to meet the requirements. Since a reliable voting system is a necessary to the proper functioning of a democracy all such systems should be open and accessible for complete review and auditing. Manufacturers of electronic voting systems such as Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia have absolutely no justifiable excuse for keeping there code secret. These systems are bought and paid for by taxpayer dollars. They are used for a public purpose. Anyone and I mean anyone should be able to look at and evaluate the code. If a company is not willing to provide all source code they should not be allowed to provide systems. No arguments. These are the rules, follow them or walk away. Manufacturers of voting systems should be nothing more than systems integrators. Get a pile of computer components, assemble them and install the same software.

The software that comprises a voting system should be completely open source and owned by the public. No private company should be controlling anything so critical as voting system software. Especially a company like Diebold that was until recently run by a corrupt republican political hack like Walden O’Dell. There is only one thing about voting that should be kept secret and that is who any individual voted for. Other than that everything should be completely open and transparent. If it had been in 2004, we might have already consigned George Bush to the history books. To read more on the subject of electronic voting go to Black Box Voting.