What Me Worry?

The hoax about the Little Red Book and the DHS grilling over it is annoying yes and yes people did jump the gun without proper verification first but I find this quote particularly annoying.

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(...) ''It's unbelievable that this student is not being suspended for a semester," wrote Barrow, who said he does not know the student's identity. ''It's even more unbelievable that the faculty who jumped the gun on this story and actively promoted it on campus, the Internet, and blogs will walk away from their misconduct without any consequences."

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You know what I find unbelievable Mr Barrow? Is that you don't realize that the president and addict's administration has done the same thing several times and there have been no consequences for their actions, this student has learned from the addict's example, and in America if you aren't to try to be more like the president who are you supposed to look up to?

DC Dan Link of the Week

Rick Gervais, from The Office, podcasts.

LUV BUSH

F'em By a Fan
Originally uploaded by dcdan.

As anyone who has walked with me or ridden in the car with me knows that people with pro-Bush sticker on their car get the finger from me. Well to today while on the GW Parkway I saw a car with the Virginia license plate, "LUV BUSH" now normally I would agree I love bush too, but the Jesus fish on the back of the car makes this wasn't the same bush I love and instead that they meant they love the Addict and President Bush, so I took the unprecedented of honking to get their attention and then flip them off. F'em.

Year In Review

When I think back to 2005 there are a few things that stick out.
1) The Dirty Thirty :: Where in Tom and I celebrated our thirtieth birthdays, like rock stars both in New Orleans and DC.
2) Met a great woman (who will kill me for posting this picture)
3) Saw some great concerts De La Soul, Atmosphere, The Decemberists, Gang of Four.
4) Started a new job with great people that I still like. (sorry no links here)
5) Finally figured out how to get my washer/dryer to mostly work.
6) Got to host some great parties.
7) Went to NOLA the weekend before it disappeared.
8) Made it a whole year with out having TV or Cable in my house.

Thank You Onion

CIA Chief Admits To Torture After Six-Hour Beating, Electrocution

Mounts and More

w00t! My projector mount just shipped from Mounts and More This coupled with realizing there will be a bunch of cool concerts coming up makes for a very cool Jan/Feb coming up! Less Than Jake, Rjd2 and the fucking Wu-Tang Clan! The Wu-Tang Clan at the 9:30!

Word

Chiming in on the MTA strike in NYC

Comparisons

"This obstruction is inexcusable," President Bush said at the White House in the latest of a series of attacks on critics blocking renewal of the measure. "The senators obstructing the Patriot Act need to understand that the expiration of this vital law will endanger America and will leave us in a weaker position in the fight against brutal killers."

made me think of this quote

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”" -- William Pitt, House of Commons, 11/18/1783

Naked with God

via Boing Boing:

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Natura, a Christian nudist camp, is slated to open next year north of Tampa, Florida. From the Sunday Times:
(Founder Bill Martin is) confident that Christians will flock to Natura to experience the spiritual benefits of a lifestyle “free from body shame”. He is spending more than $2m on a nudist recreational complex that will also feature a hotel, campsites and a children’s water park.

“As evidenced by Adam and Eve, we believe that when God’s children are in the right relationship to Him, they will be naked and unashamed,” explains one of Natura’s brochures...

Martin and his supporters argue that nudism is unhealthy, especially for children, unless it occurs in a proper Christian context. He has criticised non- religious nudist camps for encouraging alcohol and sensuality. “We are going after a totally different group, a group that doesn’t want a sexual atmosphere,” he said. “There is absolutely no relationship between nudity and sex.”

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If being in "a proper Christian context" means there is "absolutely no relationship between nudity and sex"
Then I am surely a heretic.

ANWR

What bothers me about an ANWR becoming a drilling ground is two fold.
One it won't make a dent in the price of oil or help to significantly curb foreign oil dependance.
Two it is less than 5% of the area of Alaska, can those fuckers find some where else to drill in the other 95% of the fucking state?

Caling Out Republican Voters

I'm calling out those who claim to vote Republican because they are "fiscal conservatives" first off every time there is a Republican in the White House, we hit a recession and we overspend and end up with a deficit and out of hand spending on large pork projects.

I'm also calling out those who claim to vote Republican because they hate "big government" if they hate BIG government so much, why do they support the government acting like BIG brother and expanding the government into the everyday lives citizens?

Blogger Blog Search?

I'm a not impressed with the "search this blog" box in the upper left hand corner. I've tried to use it a few times but it never seems to find the posts. Don't believe me search for "Jackson" from the previous post or "idontworkwell" from this post, my bet is that you won't get the posts as a search result. Does anyone know why?

Ms Jackson if You're Nasty (and My 200th Post)

If you are going to listen to your CD player loud enough for everyone to hear it, you better be listening to something a little more hardcore than Janet Jackson's "Nasty Boys"

Midcity Bitch Stick

Midcity Bitch Stick
Originally uploaded by dcdan.

This link on BoingBoing about a table that turns into a bat and shield reminded me of the Midcity Bitch Stick that my boy thos used for self defense in NOLA.

Thank You Bedazzled

Fuck Christmas
"Christmas isn’t fucking Christian. Ok, now we’re talking."

Scott McClellan vs Minister Muhammed Saeed al-Saha

Okay, so listening to White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan avoid questions or spin the war in Iraq as going well, it brought to mind another spokesperson who would paint the exact opposite picture of what was going on to the press core, and people seemed to love him, that person is Minister Muhammed Saeed al-Saha also known as the Iraq Information Minister

All I'm saying is that what they report to press shares about the same amount of reality.

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No Wonder it Smells Like Shit

The New Scientist reports Spiral arm of Milky Way looms closer than thought and has the above picture



My prediction is that future measurements will actually show that it looks like the above illustration of an asshole from Kurt Vonnegut's "Breakfast of Champions"

More On The War Against Xmas

From The Talent Show

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Quote:
The unending wave of inclusion and good-will that O'Reilly is attacking isn't the fault of secular progressivism, but good ol' fashioned capitalism. At some point, retailers noticed that the shameless orgy of consumption we experience between Thanksgiving and New Year's was only sucking in Christians. Rich Uncle Pennybags figured out that a simple semantic change from "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays" (which, until recently, was considered a kind thing to say) would broaden the base of consumers to include the 20% or so of Americans that don't celebrate the pagan celebration that was turned into Jesus' birthday. It's not an attempt to diminish Christianity or make the country more inclusive, it's just an attempt to make more money."

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There are some good lines about the Daily Show and Canadians.

Torture

"As a matter of U.S. policy," Rice said the United Nations Convention against Torture "extends to U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the U.S. or outside the U.S."

What exactly does U.S. personnel mean? Does that also cover contractors? Can the U.S. outsource torture to locals? (ie the "non-existant" prison sites?) Are these things covered? Rumsfeld stated that U.S. troops weren't required to stop abuse, until corrected by Gen. Myers, but if the Sec of Defense thinks that U.S. personnel doesn't have to stop it, it fits in very well that he feels it can be done and hence very well could be without the direct involvement of U.S. personnel, but certain at the wishes of the U.S. and "no one will get in trouble."

Why Does Bush Hate Christmas?

From Crooks and Liars-

Why does Bush hate Christmas?

The wingnuts respond to the White House "Holiday" card:

"This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture," said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

"Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it."

Did Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson get their Holiday cards?

Link

Follow Up To "Get'em Young"

In a past post I mentioned "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" I don't have beef with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." and I can't judge the book or movie as I haven't read it or watched it. My beef is with the American Family Ass using it to push religion on kids. I even think the Bible may have some great stories that could be made into good movies look at the "Ten Commandments" but I just wanted to point out the fact that stories are only stories and that you should explain to kids at a young age the difference between make believe and the difference between reality, otherwise they grow up believing stuff that isn't real is.

Why Should I Tolerate?

Why should I tolerate the Religious Right when they don't tolerate me? From today's American Family Ass.

-----snip-----
Target Backing Off Ban, May Use Christmas In Ads Later This Year

Dear DC Dan,

Your efforts are having a powerful effect! Our boycott of Target is working! According to the New York Times, a spokeswoman for Target said it did not intend to ban Christmas and might use Christmas in advertisements later this year! In addition, Sears is adding "Merry Christmas" signs in their stores.

And here is new evidence of anti-Christian bias: A survey done by AFA shows that 91% of TV ads ban Christmas from their advertising. We want you to help us stop this banning of Christmas. The survey included one night (Dec. 1) of prime time programming on the four major networks.

As Bill O'Reilly of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel said, "There is an anti-Christian bias in this country, and it is more on display at Christmas season than any other time."

AFA found that the "holiday" theme was used in 105 commercials while Christmas was the theme in only 11. This follows the pattern in print advertising where "holiday" was used 25 times more often than Christmas.

These companies don't want to offend a handful of atheists and agnostics, but they don't mind offending millions of Christians who celebrate the Reason for the season. They find Christmas an offensive word.

We have prepared a letter to 24 companies which banned Christmas in their TV ads and chose "holiday" instead. Your one click of the button will send a letter to all 24 of these national advertisers. We know it is probably too late to change their ads this year, but we must let them know that next year we expect them to include Christmas in their TV commercials! Click Here to see the list.

Click Here To Email TV Advertisers Now!


Sincerely,

Don

Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association

P.S. Please forward this e-mail message to your family and friends!

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Is Christmas not a holiday? Then how is "happy holidays" offensive? These fuckers would be going ape shit if Target said Happy Chanukah in their ads. The would be calling for a boycott if Sears ran a Ramadan sale. I'd also like to point out that atheists like myself are not offended that Christmas stuff is everywhere, at worst we are annoyed. People who subscribe to Christ are should be far more offended than people like me, because it is all a marketing ploy to expand consumption and consumerism using their religion as a tool.
The "reason for the season" line is what is probably the most annoying as the "Reason for the season" would be to celebrate the birth of Jesus and not advertise sales for gifts that you are bullied into buying people this month to "show that your care." Were the reason for the season really important to Don, he would be out there getting charities to use Christmas in their ads and not giving a shit about Target, Sears or other department stores because they don't do the work Christ, unless Christ manages God's mutual fund and has a large investment in these companies. Buying Christmas gifts only makes the baby Jesus cry and doesn't anything for the reason for the season.

Open Source and Web Based Services

good
Originally uploaded by dcdan.

One of the major tenets of the Open Source Software movement is that you can say "I'm only running code where I can see the source" and there are many within that movement who stick with that through thick and thin, but what happens when people start relying more on web based services. There are a lot of OSS people who use web based services accounts and the recent fix from Google got me thinking about it. Sure Google Desktop and IE aren't OSS but say they were, you would have still been able to see the all of the source but still would have been screwed in the long wrong despite having all of the code "running on your computer"

Get'em While They Are Young

From this weeks American Family Ass "Action Alert" They are encouraging you buy Lessons from the Lion: Your Family's Guide to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." I must admit at first I was a bit shocked that the American Family Ass would endorse something with talking animals and as such because surely it must be related to witchcraft. Instead I found this quote.

"There's no better time for someone to learn about Christ than when he's young and more open to Christ's teachings," says Pritchard, a former youth worker at Bellevue Baptist Church of which the late Dr. Adrian Rogers was pastor for 32 years.

Which pretty much says indoctrinate your young impressionable children to the myth you want them to believe their whole life while they are young and watching fantasy movies. Get them while they are young and they will believe anything even crazy stories like the world was created in seven days and that there was forty day flood and a pair of EVERY animal on the planet was gathered and saved in an ark.

This is NOT a Conspiracy

O'Reilly: "War" on Christmas part of "secular progressive agenda" that includes "legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage"

If these will be the results of a "War on Christmas", then I say "Happy Holidays" to you all.

Bowling in the Disctrict

Bowling comes to DC
But it is too expensive and there is a dress code. :-(
I'd be willing to bet that they don't even have cup holders down by the lanes.

Thank you NW DC for ruining bowling.

New Setup

New Setup
Originally uploaded by dcdan.

I spent a little bit of time with a new setup at home, first off I did a firmware upgrade to all four of the Airport expresses giving them proper names like Office, Bathroom, Bed Room, and Living room instead of the seven deadly sins names. They now also support WPA2 Personal and mesh using WDS. Then I figured I'd recommission the old school, 21 inch monitor, so it hooked up to the Powerbook, but my desk doesn't really have enough space to have both keyboards in use so I installed Synergy which allows me to seamlessly move the mouse between the eMac and the laptop.

These Guys Are The DC Dan Heros of the Week

Smut for Smut This is a work safe link.

Lamar Advertising

Lamar Advertising has refused to run ads What would be great is for share holders of the company to complain because not accepting these ads fucks up the primary purpose of the corporation which is to make the most profit for share holders. Would one Lamar share holder please stand up and point out that Lamar Advertising isn't being true to their mission and better yet sue them, if you think this doesn't have precedent "Dodge Corp" started b/c Henry Ford didn't make as much profit as possible (he wanted everyone to be able to afford a car) and got sued by his brother in law (Dodge) and won.
Thanks,
dan

Canon Service

I have a Canon SD400 camera and a month or so ago the lens stopped coming out when I powered up the camera this of course is no good as it means that I couldn't take any pictures, it was less than a year old so I went to Canon's website to see how to ship it back. I filled out some info and they determined that since it was less than a year old they would fix it at no cost (except for the shipping via FedEx or UPS) so I put it in a box and shipped it. They emailed me when they got the package and then again when it was fixed. The whole process took less than two weeks and I now have my camera back in working order, they even replaced a screw that had fallen out of the side a while back. Good job Canon! Usually warranty repairs are a pain in the ass to deal with and the last time I had to do it was with LaCie, which to this day still hasn't replied. Canon thanks for actually following though even after my purchase.

Working From Home

I've discovered that for me working from home is a real productivity booster. First off, I don't have to spend time looking for work acceptable clothes to wear nor do I have to spend thirty-five minutes getting to work. I like the coffee I make at home much more than what I can buy at the client site and it doesn't take as long to prepare breakfast. This allows for me to start my work day at 8:00 AM rather than 9:15. This also allows for me to eat a healthier breakfast and cut out the cost of taking the Metro.

Additionally, when at home I grab something out of the fridge to eat for lunch, this cuts down on the time it takes to find something decent and inexpensive to eat and gets me back to work much sooner.

The only downside of working from home is that I miss some of the exercise I get by walking home from work and that clients often feel that you are slacking when working from home.

Does anyone else have any opinions on telecommuting?

Well Wishing

Just a shout out to Jess, who is getting a pre-owned ankle today (do those come with warranties?) Hopefully everything will go well. I've been looking for three virgins to sacrifice to ensure the gods are happy.