RIP

The Tax Eaters

You know what I mean. Did anyone think Arnie would really be different.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/
cal/la-me-gov29sep29,1,1782394.story
?coll=la-news-politics-california&ctrack=1&cset=true

SACRAMENTO — A tax-exempt group set up to create jobs is being used by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to bankroll a pair of splashy bill-signing events designed to attract publicity as he runs for reelection.

Unlike contributions to Schwarzenegger's campaign account, donations to the nonprofit are not subject to caps or disclosure requirements.

.....
Part of the cost is being picked up by the Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth, a nonprofit panel that Schwarzenegger launched in 2004 to lure business to California. The commission is planning to raise about $25,000 to help pay for the events, according to executive director Mark Mosher.

Among the commission's donors are major California companies with business before the state, including PG&E and Southern California Edison.

.....
PG&E spokeswoman Jann Taber said the company donated $100,000 to the governor's nonprofit group in March. Although a Schwarzenegger aide raised the subject of an additional contribution to help cover bill-signing costs, the company has not given more, she said.

Another company official, explaining PG&E's support for the new law, said the company already has relatively clean emissions and is committed to reducing global warming.

Both PG&E and Southern California Edison maintain an active lobbying presence in Sacramento and are regulated by the state Public Utilities Commission. A majority of the PUC's five commissioners have been appointed by Schwarzenegger.

Fuckers! That's the ratepayers' money. That $600 check I just wrote to PG&E is paying that (yes one month). If they don't get it directly they get through some bogus bullshit they set up.

Howard Jarvis where are you?

Comparing Zealotry

Two post over on Andrew Sullivan yesterday.

This from a Muslim writer.
http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/09/a_muslim_writer.html

In the House of Islam, you cannot have a principle other than that of the community. Every thing you do is referred to Islam. The mantra is "that's stupid BUT ... But we cannot do this because we are Muslims." One hears this expression ad nauseam. In the Islamic world you cease to be a human being. You become only a Muslim, whatever that entails.

You are not allowed to be a person with vices and virtues, you cannot follow your own reasoning, and you cannot be unpopular or defend an unpopular idea. You cannot go out of the circle. To express yourself freely means to risk death. And death indeed if you change your faith. Invention itself is considered as an act of blasphemy.

and this from someone writing about a Family/American Family Association "Values Voters" summit they attended.
http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/09/christianism_wa_3.html

There is no room for disagreement, because it is tantamount to evil. Dissent is the same as blasphemy, and everything is approached in orthodox terms. I've always been a conservative because I believe that there is such a think as good and evil and that moral relativism is a crazy road on which logic can rarely stick. I believe in limited government and individual liberty. I know I can do things better than any bureaucracy ever will. But what conservatism has become with these people is horrifying. They'd trade liberty for a handshake from W., compassion for power. And they've got one amazing plan in place to make sure that future generations have a tighter, more limited, and clearly more hostile worldview. I went there hoping to prove myself wrong about what I thought was happening, but I just couldn't do it.

Hmmmmmmm........

Move To The Front of The Line

Why wait in line when you can just eat a cockroach? That's the question Six Flags Great America is asking its thrill seekers during its Halloween-themed FrightFest. The amusement park is daring customers to eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach in exchange for unlimited line-jumping privileges.

The promotion, which has Lake County Health Department officials shaking their heads, starts Oct. 7.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/
2006/09/21/national/a052439D04.DTL&type=bondage

Data Recovery

*** Geek Alert ***

An article in today's El Reg tilted The Cat Peed on My Laptop relates Disklabs top ten data recovery disasters.

• It fell off the roof of the car - A salesperson in a hurry placed his laptop on the roof of his car, while he placed all his demo products into the vehicle. He forgot the laptop on the roof and drove off. He stated: "I was doing about 40mph when I saw it in the rear view mirror".
• I accidentally threw it out of a window - A student claimed he was 'messing around' with his roommate's laptop. But instead of pretending to throw the laptop out of the window, he chucked it for real – much to the dismay of his roommate.
• We just sacked the IT manager and he started kicking the server - The IT manager wasn't up to the job so he was fired. The man in question threw a wobbler, deciding the server had to go before he did. He achieved this by kicking the server until it stopped working, causing data corruption and hardware damage to the hard drives.

Love that last one.

Read it all
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/20/data_recovery_disasters/

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Avast le lily liver'd lubbers. Tuesday Sept 19th be Talk Like A Pirate Day. Y'all all be practicin', arrrrrr.....

Poisoning Pigeons

One of the reasons I like The Bob & Tom shows is the comedy music.
It's never as good as Dr. Demento was in the 70s. Four hours every Sunday night on KMET. It was the live show and the syndicated show was created out of it. Alas I date myself, no KMET, no Dr. Demento.

But one of the best was always Tom Lehrer.

And because of this on Dvorak.org
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=7067#more-7067

I found this
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/pigeons

Voting Machines - Gone in 240 Secs

The punch card system we used here in Kern County worked just fine. The ballots were easy to handle, the punch machines worked and it was all easy to understand. If you didn't well I for one hope you weren't voting anyway. Now we have this electronic BS thanks to a bunch of retards in Florida (we also got GWB).

Now one would tend to think that since I've worked with computers for over 20 years I would be in favor of electronic voting. No, in fact because I do I'm all the more suspecious of it.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060913-7735.html

A group of Princeton computer scientists has published a study that examines flaws and vulnerabilities in Diebold's AccuVote-TS voting machines. Complete with a video that demonstrates the ease with which the electronic voting machine can be compromised, the study provides chilling insight into the serious risk of election tampering and fraud created by modern voting technology. The vote-stealing demonstration software developed by the computer scientists "can modify all of the records, audit logs, and counters kept by the voting machine, so that even careful forensic examination of these records will find nothing amiss."

The study reveals that "[m]alicious software running on a single voting machine can steal votes with little if any risk of detection," and that the software can be installed on a voting machine in only a minute by anyone that has physical access. The study also discovered that Diebold's AccuVote-TS systems can be targeted by self-propagating viruses "that can spread malicious software automatically and invisibly from machine to machine during normal pre- and post-election activity." The computer scientists conclude that defects are present in the hardware of the AccuVote-TS as well as the software. Although some issues can be mitigated by software updates, the machines themselves will have to be replaced in order to eliminate some of the problems identified by the study.

Craigslist

Well have ya seen the fun little Craigslist prank

Last Monday, a Seattle web developer named Jason Fortuny started a Craigslist experiment. The goal: “Posing as a submissive woman looking for an aggressive dom, how many responses can we get in 24 hours?”

He took the text and photo from a sexually explicit ad in another area, reposted it to Craigslist Seattle, and waited for the responses to roll in. Like Simon’s experiment, the response was immediate. He wrote, “178 responses, with 145 photos of men in various states of undress. Responses include full e-mail addresses (both personal and business addresses), names, and in some cases IM screen names and telephone numbers.”

In a staggering move, he then published every single response, unedited and uncensored, with all photos and personal information to Encyclopedia Dramatica (kinda like Wikipedia for web fads and Internet drama).

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=7035#more-7035

http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/index.blog?entry_id=1553329

Sort of reminds me of reading the personals in the underground papers back in the sixties & seventies. It was so entertaining but how stupid (or desperate) do you have to be to reply to one, especially with real pictures and emails?
http://bakersfield.craigslist.org/

(Ah - married white male looking for discreet young and willing sd & drug free nsa p&p b&b aarp & ssn. )

Sept 11th

As much as I would like too I won't make today about politics.
The media is way over doing it as usual. Sorry CNN I don't care to watch it all over again.
Do remember those who died.
Do remember who the enemy is.

Like fundamentalist Judaism and medieval Christianity, Islam is totalist. That is to say, it makes a total claim on the individual. Indeed, there is no individual; there is only the umma - the community of believers. Ayatollah Khomeini, in his copious writings, often returns to this theme. He unindulgently notes that believers in most religions appear to think that, so long as they observe all the formal pieties, then for the rest of the time they can do more or less as they please. 'Islam', as he frequently reminds us, 'isn't like that.' Islam follows you everywhere, into the kitchen, into the bedroom, into the bathroom, and beyond death into eternity. Islam means 'submission' - the surrender of independence of mind. That surrender now bears the weight of well over 60 generations, and 14 centuries.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1868732,00.html

Paris

http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/09/07/ap3000903.html

For most celebrities, getting smacked with a DUI is an instant image crisis. For Paris Hilton, it could be a career boost.

"Paris Hilton being arrested just makes her more famous," said veteran publicist Michael Levine. "She has devoted her entire adult life to appearing to be the princess of parties."

Hilton's publicist, Elliot Mintz, confirmed the star's festive nature Thursday: "She's been known to have a drink or two."

Hilton was arrested by Los Angeles police officers in Hollywood early Thursday on suspicion of driving under the influence. During the arrest she was briefly handcuffed. Hilton was booked at LAPD's Hollywood station at 1:43 a.m. and released shortly afterward, said Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for the city.......

WAIT! Who gives a rat's ass?

Mashup

Via Wil Wheaton - one of the stranger ones on youtube

One Too Many

Too bad - he was entertaining but I kind of agree with Seven.
http://sevenbates.blogspot.com/2006/09/croikey-indeed.html