Flip cup

Winners

First They Came...

First They Came

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Go Badgers!

The Top Ten College Pranks of All Time
#4: Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota (U Wisconsin-Madison)
"Lady Liberty poked her head above the icy waters of Lake Mendota"

Reading List

[note to self setup some Amazon or Buy.com thing so I can make some cheddar off of this]

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith was a very interesting read and I recommend it to people who grew up in a family of means so that they will think twice about the poor people are poor because they are lazy concept. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, which suffered from "Pretty Woman" syndrome.

"Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris builds on his previous work from "End of Faith" is a short read, when it comes out in paperback I may consider buying in bulk to hand out to misguided friends. My only beefs with the book are that the sometimes very good arguments are followed with snide comments (not they I don't think they are warranted, but they make it easy for people to think that this book is based on argumentum ad hominem and hence itself a logical fallacy,) additionally Harris also seems to bring up Islamic fundamentalism often, which I believe sometimes makes him sway from the main focus of the book. Overall though it is nice short read that helps to formulate the right questions to ask when dealing with people of faith.

Lastly the "Pat Robertson & Friends Coloring Book" illustrated by Kevin Stone
with additional commentary by Mackie Blanton is also a fun short read and you can even use crayons to color it in later if you so desire, also see the The George W. Bush Coloring Book for more coloring fun.

I Was Taking Some Time Off From This But

I was going to avoid blogging about the sad decay of morality, but I feel this one merits a few minutes. For those who are in favor of torture, I think you should ask yourself the following question.

Would you feel comfortable if all of the prescribed methods of interrogation that the administration is asking for, could be done you?

Think about it for a minute, if you were stopped by the local police for speeding and they thought you were hiding something, would you be okay with being water boarded or put in stress positions or forced to stand in your cell naked save for a pair of women's underwear on your head? If you don't think that these things are fair to be used on you then why should they be okay to use on others?

Icing on the Cake

Hit Google for DC Dan yet another reason this post rings true.

K790a, T-Mobile and Textdrive

Since it took me a while to figure this all out I thought I'd share how I got email to work a combination of the Sony Ericsson K790a, T-Mobile and Textdrive

I have the T-MobileWeb ($5.99 a month) add-on.
An unlocked k790a (though this should work for the K800 series as well as the K790i)
An email account hosted with Textdrive

First off I configured my phone to work with T-Mobile via this tool

Next I set the following
* fields are ones were that you can customize to your own tastes
Account name:* dc dan
Email Alert:* Message Alert 2
Connect Using: T-Zones
Email Address:* dan@dcdan.com
Connection Type: IMAP4
Incoming Server:* yourHostAtTextdrive.textdrive.com
Username:* yourEmailUserName
Password: *******
Outgoing Server:* yourHostAtTextdrive.textdrive.com

Next Click on Advanced Settings, it is never fun unless you get to use the advanced settings :-)
Your name:* Dan
Signature: ----
Download S&R:* Up To Size Limit
Check Interval:* Off
Push Email:
Allow Connection: Home Network
Copy Outgoing:* Off
Encryption: TLS/SSL [Set it for both incoming and outgoing]
Outgoing Username:* yourEmailUserName
Outgoing Password: ********
Incoming Port: 993
Outgoing Port: 465 [it doesn't seem to like port 25]

With all of those settings you are almost done.
When you send/receive you will likely get errors about the server being found or
"TLS/SSL Server certificate not authorized by known authority"
To fix this you should go to GeoTrust and get the Root 5 - Equifax Secure Global eBusiness CA-1 cert. I got the Base-64 encoded X.509. I then sent it to my phone via BlueTooth accepted the cert. and I'm good to go.

Section 538

We have red shirts let's sit together.

There Are Those Among Us

Fan#2
Originally uploaded by dcdan.

Last weekend at the mid-seseason kickball party, my girlfriend was wearing a I <3 DC Dan shirt. There were a few Dans there who thought they were DC Dan. So I'm going to set the record straight.
1) I live in DC proper, my name is Dan [game]
2) My initials are DC [set]
3) DCDan.com bitches [match]

Friday Night Plans

I'll be at Red and Black to see the show.




and the requisite My Space link www.myspace.com/projectapplesauce

President of the Day

A list of quotes from President Eisenhower

A few of my favorites:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Peace and Justice are two sides of the same coin

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.

November Elections

With the elections coming up you will often hear about the how a politician created a law to protect your from something. Remember kids laws don't protect you from anything, they simply setup a structure by which people may or may not be punished for certain actions.

New Flight Protocol

greenass
Originally uploaded by Djuliet.

My brother flew out last weekend to visit me and came up with the following idea to speed up security processes, he will now fly wearing ONLY a green thong and flip-flops and when he gets to the gate he'll clap his hands above his head and say "okay, let's do this"

Flip cup

Something's Gotta Give

I'm crying uncle, the pervasiveness of ignorance astonishes me, it persists beyond what I thought was possible. It makes me think of the Roosevelt Franklin line from "Something's Gotta Give":
"I'm way too smart to fall for this bullshit, but I'm way too stupid to stop it."
And as such I'm hanging up my cleats. I'll sit and listen and bite my tongue when I hear the insane shit that comes out of people's mouths. I'll just smile and nod when they spout idiocy, support asinine leaders and promote policy that has no semblance of logic or rational thought. The idiots have taken over the asylum or at least the country for now and I'm too tired to fight it, it's draining and depressing and the stack keeps getting deeper and deeper and the bed in the rubber room looks mighty cozy.

Uncle!

When before I would have said:
What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

From now on a simple "wrong" will have to suffice.

Super Mario Style

Yesterday when walking to the Metro I saw and old school Nintendo cartridge holder and it made me smile.

Feeding Time

A motorcade for someone from the addict's administration suckling on the tit of corporate america at the heritage foundation propaganda feeding center

Test

From my phone!

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

What I respect about Rev Phelps is that he is true to the word of the Bible, to a fault some might say, but he also proves why I think "people of faith" and who believe in the Bible as a the word of God are scary, there are several facets to this, but the text of the "word of God" should be enough to make people realize believers are silly. Those who speak of the benevolence of religion have NOT delved deep into the scriptures as they will find God is an angry and vengeful mother fucker. Phelps shows this in the following clip.
Rev Phelps speaks

Now I don't think that people like Rev Phelps should be censored, even idiots are protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution, but just because you have right to speak does NOT mean that your words warrant respect. If you say something that justifies being mocked the rest of the people have a moral obligation to mock it.

And now I'll end with two quotes that appeared on the Jane's Addiction cover to censored version of "Ritual de lo Habitual"

Hitler's syphilis-ridden dreams almost came true.
How could it HAPPEN? By taking control of the media.
An entire country was led by a lunatic...
We must protect out First Amendment,
before sick dreams become law.
Nobody made fun of Hitler??!
[boy is this quote relevant in the US today]

and finally

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Liberal University Professors

I read David Horowitz's Double and it lead me to ponder: Are so many liberals in academia because the more educated you become the more likely you are to be liberal?

Darwin R-Evolution PJs

Twins Goat Stan & Monkey Alex
Originally uploaded by Drake LeLane.

After seeing the Armor of God PJs. I've come to the following two conclusions.
1. I'm going to squeeze into a size six boys and my halloween costume is complete.
2. There needs to be a set of evolution PJs for kids, that as you go up in size you gain evolutionary advantages. Perhaps opposable thumbs, less fur and tools. There could even be a few series, one from ape to man and perhaps a set of people through the ages like the stone age to bronze age to the iron age.

New Post, New Direction, Maybe an Erection

File under movies:

Joe vs the Volcano
This movie was okay if not a bit cheesy, it had potential of being a great movie about workers uniting against the man and only loosing their chains (especially around Labor Day)

Date Movie
This movie was exactly what I expected it to be goofy comedy with a lot of easy jokes and references to a bunch of movies I hadn't seen, it is a good thing my girlfriend was there to explain the references to all of the romantic comedies I've neglected(?) to see over the years.

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic
My favorite foul mouthed hottie. Show is a great piece of work, though she is often compared to Lenny Bruce after people view this I would disagree with that level of impact, she isn't facing jail time for her humor, she does cross lines that aren't usually crossed.

Beerfest
Again another venture into sophomoric humor, this movie was enjoyable and I'm sure will be watched over and over again by a bunch of college kids when it hits DVD.