Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Joshua Christ?

Turn's out that "Jesus" is probably a mis-translation. The Savior's name is Josh.

Something I've been trying to get my brother to do.

Quit smoking and dip. It's not pretty, but you'll live longer.

Matt Labash asks...

Saturday, March 27, 2004

Colors

I'm not crazy about the colors, but I'm out of time to play with them. I'll probably update on monday.

Matt Story: Sometime last week Matt was staying with his grandparents. Matt's speech is still indistinct, and he has always called his grandparents both "Grandpa." So last week he was calling for "Grandpa" with "Grandma" right in the room. Realizing that he was calling for his grandfather, my mom asked him, "which Grandpa?" "The older one," was my sons reply. Made Mom's day.

Friday, March 26, 2004

Norman Borlaug

Is an admirable fellow. Nothing left to say. read.


Okay, one thing left to say. I generally don't like Jimmy Carter. A Democrat who can't find anything bad to say about a 40 year dictator like Castro, but I think his support of Borlaug's work semi-redeems him.

An Interesting Defense of Bush

is offered up here at Reason. This is unusual, since the Reason staff as been predominantly anti-war.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

I think the phrase rhymes with "Clucking Bell"

Accidentally left my laptop at home this morning, and didn't realize it until I reached work. I had to go back home and get it, which took about 90 minutes. Now I'm working orders as fast as I can to get them done before lunch, so I can get this suspend program finished, and offload that chore.

On the positive side, I just replaced the front brake pads, and this morning's traffic fun showed that they seem to work okay.

UPDATE: I couldn't get the video software to compile, but it didn't matter since the I found some binary ports available. I still haven't had time to actually use the software, but I'll keep working on it.

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Gay whatever

Thanks to the recent ruling by the Massachusetts supreme court, the "Gay marriage" issue has now become a primary issue of this year's election. Andrew Sullivan is the Conservative-Pro-Gay-Marriage standard bearer(not surprising, since he's gay), and Stanley Kurtz has been the most ardent Anti-Gay-Marriage guy I've read. Conservatives are currently wasting their time trying to push an amendment(the FMA) to enshrine marriage permanently as one man one woman. Their is already a federal law on the books(the DMA) signed by Bill Clinton, that essentially does just this. There is, However, a possibility that the law could be struck down, which is why some are calling for the amendment.

Now, the only issue I have with this is how this is pursued. If ballot initiatives are passed, or legislatures create laws that allow for gay marriage, then I don't have any real objections(OK, I have one objection, and it is BLAAUUGH!, but that's no basis for system of government). But it appears that the method being pursued at the moment is the same one that got us "ROE v. WADE" via court imposed dictation. I know lots of people love the outcome of ROE, but does anyone suggest, with a straight face, that a right to abortion exists in the text of the constitution. The same goes for gay marriage. I don't know this for sure, but I'm fairly certain marriage has been a one-man one-woman or one-man many-women arrangement throughout all of recorded history. I know that it has been for American and English law. If democracy and representative government mean anything, then please let this one issue actually follow the correct process.

It probably won't, but I can hope.


In a related story, a study has been published showing a biological difference between straight and gay sheep. I think this is the money quote:

They would also like to know whether sexual preferences can be altered by manipulating the prenatal hormone environment, such as by using drugs to prevent the actions of androgen in the fetal sheep brain.

You see where this is going don't you? If the biological cause for homosexuality can be isolated, and a method for preventing homosexuality determined, then how many people won't choose to take such precautions. How many heterosexuals, no matter how enlightened, want to have gay children? Not many, I'd imagine. What about the ability to "cure" a homosexual later in life. I'm sure it will be possible, and some may choose that path. More on this here.

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

SCO vs. Linux

I haven't blogged about this before, but this case get's a lot of noise on my newsfeeds, so I thought I'd throw in my two cents. Essentially, SCO contends that they have rights to a portion of the software included in linux, and therefore all linux users should pay them a license fee. They are suing IBM, who uses linux on some of its servers. They have also filed suit against a couple of companies that use Linux.

Personally, I don't think they are going to get very far. The Linux OS was built, more-or-less, from the ground up. The pieces of code in question were included from code that IBM developed and wrote and added to their version of UNIX. I don't see how they can claim damages when the situation can be remedied by removing the offending code in question.

Bruce Perens agrees with me.

The Deficit

Dave Barry has a good article on the deficit, and here's Jonah Goldberg's take.