26 February 06 - 10:34The Titanic Sinks Again

Tonight I will be watching the History Channel. At 9:00 EST, 8:00 CST for me, there is another new story of how the ship sank. It seems so simple, the Titanic was driving too fast, too north, in iceberg conditions. They hit a big one and damaged the ship. The ship sank. Ah, but the devil is in the details. More information for us Titanic junkies as to just exactly what failed and what failed when as the big ship sank. There are some news bits out there if you want to see what's what, but tonight at 8 o'clock, I will be watching the History Channel. FYI, here is a related news story.

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25 February 06 - 17:29The beeping Bag

Here's another little feature of the airport trip. While sitting in the palatial baggage pickup area waiting for the arriving sister in law I was noting how well airports cater to their customers who are picking up their friends and relatives. They have thrown around a few crappy seats which are seemingly thrown here and there and, of course, the occasional person who looks like they work there thrown in for a feeling the place is a business. I would call the decor "Early Greyhound Bus Station." Beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep, beep. . . . . . This beeping noise starts going off. At first I thought it was coming from outside. however, upon getting up from my coveted seated position, I noticed it was coming from a pile of baggage. A blue backpack to be exact. Careful inspection noted that the backpack was marked with a piece of tape stating "Passed Dubai Security." By now several persons that I was suspicious were actually working there had walked by the bag without even so much as a look. Undoubtedly it is because the bags are from Dubai. Since I had been hearing so much about Dubai lately, I took a look at the website for their airport. Frankly, it looks a whole lot nicer than DFW airport. It looks better funded, better run, and a nicer place to be. Bring them on. If our DFW "Terminal E" airport personnel have no worries about a beeping bag from the United Arab Emirates, and after looking at how they maintain and run their airports, I say let them run our seaports. They would obviously do a better job than we do. As usual, you decide.

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25 February 06 - 08:59Perception is Reality

Sometimes a seemingly routine task can turn out to be much more entertaining than expected. Last might my sister in law was flying in to DFW airport. Since American airports have not figured out how to mix passengers, their loved ones, and security, we were sitting in the baggage claim area waiting for the arrival. Naturally there were others there. To my right was a woman, probably in her forties, that farms south of Fort Worth. To my left is the arrival screen saying the plane was "In Range." The woman and I were discussing the meaning of this when a young fellow in a yellow jacket with the lable "Airport Valet" walks up and enters into the conversation. In his early twenties, it turns out he was born and raised in the city of Dallas, The conversaton turns to the weather. Airport Valet, "I hate this rain, I wish it would quit." "We need this rain, it is so dry I just had to buy hay for my cattle. If this rain hadn't come I might have to sell the cattle. We need more!" says the farmlady. "Don't they have Burger King where you live?" asks the youngster. "Why?" raising an eybrow and looking suspiciously at the boy. "You said you raise your own cattle. You could eat at Burger King until you get enough rain to raise cattle." Draw your own conclusions.

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23 February 06 - 01:31Prohibited Words

I was amused today when I paid extra money to get a "Gold Membership" at Classmates.com and had trouble with "dirty words." I thought I would enter a short announcement saying I wanted to hear from people and put in the address of this blog. Classmates dot Com indicated that I was using inappropriate words. It turned out the inappropriate word was WWW. I will never read their terms and conditions, but I suppose it is in there someplace what their reasoning is. Based on the spamming this site receives I think I know. I'll tell you about the spam hits on this site every day and how web robots try to post spam comments which are trying to peddle drugs (prescription) and gambling options. The two articles they like to hit are "Up the Poopchute" and "You Decide." For some reason this triggers the spammy little robots. Hang loose. More later.

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21 February 06 - 22:47To Kill a Rapist (In California)

Doctors cannot support the requirements of society. Or are they just a bunch of California nuts. I am learning this from California. It has something to do with either doctors or people from California. I am uncertain of which at this time. California doctors are saying they cannot help punish rapists. In the balance of things, life for trash is more important than women and their dignity. Get a life, doctors, get a life the rest of you who cannot see life and death for what it is. In the case of the perversion and indignity of rape, California says you must die. California doctors are not up to the task. People from California. You have to love them. Totally disconnected from reality, yet convinced they are on the bleeding edge. Thank you California doctors for yet another proof of the ridiculous nature of residents of your state. The more out of touch you are, the more Californian you are. Movie stars? Now there is a bunch of normal folks. Somehow living close to the world of fantasy makes doctors think that rapists are people, too. I disagree. They left the human race when they decided their tactile and ego needs were more important than the dignified existence of their victim(s). Maybe they need to force themselves on one of these doctor's daughters so the doctors can understand the indelicate balance here. Bah, Humbug, California doctors. Grow up. Live in the real world, not the California world.....

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19 February 06 - 13:22Nigerian Muslims Kill Forty Five

Here are two (maybe three) interesting things that go together, Before I start, let me say that I have been taught to always be respectful of others and their views. However, being respectful does not mean agreement. While I respect religious beliefs of others, I do not believe that the Muslims who are killing and burning over Danish cartoons are being respectful, responsible, credible, reasonable, let alone holy. I have heard that Muslims believe that you can be the most scummy person in the world, but if you give your life for Gihad you are going to heaven. I have also heard that Palestinians and ceratin Arab groups teach children from a young age that Israel and the United States are the greatest of evils in our mortal world. Interestingly, My website took a hit from a Nigerian IP address yesterday searching for the Danish cartoons. Here is the log entry (I replaced the IP address with XXX): [02/18/06 05:53 PM] [XXX.X.XX.X] A search was performed for "danish muslim cartoon" (0 matches) It looks like these folks are not merely "outraged" but looking for ways to "enrage" themselves. Likely certain of them are searching blogsites doing these searches so they can threaten and terrorize as well as incite and enrage themselves...... Remember that the Muslims believe those who are killed for the cause of Allah (in a Holy War), are not to be considered dead, but living with their Lord and receiving his blessing. Yesterday 45 people were killed and buildings burned in Nigeria in "Cartoon Riots." Draw your own conclusions.

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18 February 06 - 14:32Those Doggy Licks

One of the nice things about having a pet is the concern they have over your feelings for them. Of course they like to coax your love and affection with nice slobbery licks and sticking their bad breath mouth in your face. It was so nice today when Anabel the Dog became sick and barfed on the carpet followed by an episode of slurping, breathing, and licking to signify she was sorry. Yeeww. This is in addition to her trouble sleeping which had me up at 4:00 AM two nights ago. Here's to hoping Anabel gets well soon.

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18 February 06 - 02:50Linux is on the Way

I have loaded Xandros Linux on my system. I am investigating a total change to Linux. I am fed up with security issues with Windows and find the cost structures of Linux far more reasonable than Windows. I will update you on my progress. Currently I am looking for CD burning software, Checkbook Software, and Graphics Software. "Office" style software is covered. More Later.

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12 February 06 - 15:23Black History Month

It is Black History Month. As you may suspect, early black leaders in the United States focused on the abolition of slavery. Here is a photo of one of the earliest abolitionist leaders. Fully educated, fluent, a powerful speaker, and an excellent writer, Frederick Douglass was famous in his own time. He promoted abolitionist philosophy as a lecturer as well as through his autobiography on the horrors of slavery published in 1845, "My Bondage and My Freedom." Mr. Douglass shares February as his birth month with Abraham Lincoln. In fact, Mr. Douglass was sought out and became a consultant on abilitionism to Abraham Lincoln. Another strong voice for abolitionism was Abraham Lincoln, the second presidential candidate of the Republican Party. Founded in 1854, Republicans opposed the expansion of slavery and held a Hamiltonian vision for modernizing the nation. As an aside, modern Republicans might be surprised to know Alexander Hamilton advocated the principles of a strong centralized federal government, although his belief in strong national defense and strong business institutions would be familiar to modern Republicans. As you may also surmise, Black History Month (Originally Black History Week) was timed to coincide with the February birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. If you are unfamiliar with black History, you might want to read about the legal situation even free African Americans had to deal with in the days leading up to the civil war. A good concise beginning source on the web is "Wikopedia." Here is a link to a pertinant Wikopedia article on "Black Codes in the Northern USA." You will find that the North was not exactly the bastion of ethnic freedom many think it was at that time in history.

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07 February 06 - 12:48Web Beacons and Cookies

I'm headiing out of town and I promised to tell you how Web Beacons (clear gifs) work. First of all you need to know that a gif file is a form of picture or image file. It has the ability to be transparent, hence the name, clear gif. You can make it clear or little or both. You can even call it "clear.gif," but even that is not important. Next you need to know that internet file servers log all kinds of things. Log, log, log. They will log pages visited for sure and they also will log various file downloads, even those files that usually download automatically such as gifs, jpegs, etc. which are merely scattered about the page. Through the use of cookies (previously described) information about you can be stored. IP address is common, but if the website asks you for your name or other information anywhere you can bet that the information you fill in goes into a cookie. That does it. The image file is marked to include cookie information when reporting back image downloads. Now as you go from page to page this information is transmitted back to the server. If the site you are visiting uses tracking systems developed by various web marketing companies, before you know it the ads on the pages you visit are targeted to your tastes. Why? Because the cookie is shared by many websites. So the cookie goes hand in hand with logging features and image "downloads." This is also the reason mail programs will limit downloading of images from emails. They put the images in the email to track you. I might install some cookie-beacon code on the website and let you see how it is logged. Whats a little spying amoung friends.

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05 February 06 - 22:44Are you a terrorist at Heart?

Multiple Choice 1. A man you hardly know insults you by calling you a name which includes adjectives related to your religious faith. As an American and a person of faith you should, (a) Burn his house down. (b) Chop his head off with a dull axe. (d) Cut his lips off and tape them to his stomach. (d) All of the above. (e) Politely, but firmly tell the man you are offended. 2. You are a republican and your next door neighbor puts a cross on his front lawn with a George Bush effigy hanging from it. This calls for you to, (a) Soak his house with gas. (b) Throw a grenade in his house. (c) Respond with an effigy of Hillary in a pillary. (d) All of the above. (e) None of the above. 3. You are annoyed with the way your neighborhood association handles measurement of lawn height. To get their attention you should, (a) Rig yourself with dyanamite and explode yourself at the swimming pool. (b) Rig an enemy with dyanamite and explode the enemy at the swimming pool. (c) Burn down the clubhouse. (d) Burn the association flag. (e) None of the above. 4. The local police department is siding with the Republicans and you are a Democrat. To set things straight you should, (a) Set a roadside bomb near the local "Dunkin Donuts." (b) Sprinkle anthrax dust in the powdered sugar at "Krispy Kreme." (c) Wait for a police Crown Victoria to stop in front of you and ram it from the rear. (d) Steal the police chief's personal car, run several camera equipped red lights, then put the car back where you found it. (e) None of the above. If you answered anything other than (e) for these questions, you might be a terrorist. It does not matter how offensive something is to you personally, it is not rational or productive to respond in an irrational manner. There is no excuse in a civilized world for any of the other responses no matter what your religion or nationality.

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04 February 06 - 23:55Neither Jesus or Mohammed would be Proud

I am still unimpressed with the lack of tolerance or respect for the view of others shown recently by certain Muslims. I recently read an article (see below) by Simon Jenkins, an English gentleman of great intellect, who indicated that those who depicted Mohammed should have realized the reaction and understood that the drawing was as bad as showing Jesus in a bad light. Oh, really. It is time for people like Simon Jenkins to wake up. While that may be true, it is off target. In fairness let me divide Simon's article into two key quotes(for balance). Simon writes, "Should a right-wing Danish newspaper have carried the derisive images of Muhammad? No. Should other newspapers have repeated them and the BBC teasingly “flashed” them to prove its free-speech virility? No. Should governments apologise for them or ban them from repeating the offence? No, but that is not the issue." Jenkins also states, "Despite Britons’ robust attitude to religion, no newspaper would let a cartoonist depict Jesus Christ dropping cluster bombs, or lampoon the Holocaust." I think Mr. Simon is decidedly off the mark in several ways. The Danish cartoon was not depicting Mohammed as a terrorist, but was depicting terrorism as having roots in the Muslim religions and the Muslim regions of the world. Political cartoons generally combine ideas to make a point. The Danish cartoonist seems to have been right on target. In general, people who are Muslim extremists are extremely intolerant. In fairness, there are those who go overboard with religious zeal in all religions. So-called Christians who kill as a result of their aberrant belief that the ends justifies the means regarding abortion, as a case in point. Christians are taught to turn the other cheek, do unto others as they would have others do unto themselves (Golden Rule), etc. It is just as unlikely that a newspaper in a predominantly Muslim country would depict Mohammed in an unfavorable light as it is that a newspaper in a predominantly Christian country would protray Jesus in an unfavorable light. The question is, which type of country would respond in a ridiculous manner. Or at least in an intolerant manner. I invite you to read the misguided thoughts of Simon Jenkins, here "UK Times on Line" and compare them with the more balanced and reasonable viewpoint of the Scottish writer, Arthur MacMillan here, "Scotsman dot Com" . If anything, this shows that it is difficult for many to admit that the Muslim driven behavior is not justifiable and should not be condoned or rationalized as Mr. Jenkins has done. The challenge is that certain Muslims do not play well with others and they use God and Mohammed as their excuse to be violent. I sincerely hope the Danes do not cave in to the Muslim goofiness like certain other self indulgent European countries have done. Intolerance for others' rights is more an issue for me than intolerance of others' beliefs. Figure that one out. A Dane, Englishman, Scotsman, American, or anyone outside of a Muslim theocracy should not have to give the publication of these cartoons a second thought. Indignation from Muslims? Fine. Intolerance? Not acceptable.

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02 February 06 - 22:32Theocratism vs the American Way

This article revolves around theocratism vs the "American Way" or perhaps better stated, the "Western Way." Here are a couple of my definitions (in no particular order) of two ways to build a society: 1) Theocratism is a societal structure that believes all power in a society is derived from abstract deities, and not from the people themselves. 2) Democratism is a societal structure based on the principles or spirit of a democracy in which common people are considered the primary source of political power. With that in mind, I don't know if the rest of you have been following the Muslim world and their reaction to 12 cartoons which were published by a Danish cartoonist, but I have a little bit. Here is the scoop. 12 cartoons were published in a Danish newspaper last September. The cartoons set off a firestorm in the Muslim world. Muslims all over the place demanded aplologies. However, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen did not intervene, insisting that the government has no say over media or what we may call freedom of speech. Meanwhile the Muslims are boycotting Danish products, threatening Danes and others who support free speech, and the whole thing is becoming a big mess. Are the Danes really bad guys? No, they are not. In August, the Danish authorities withdrew for three months, the broadcasting license of a Copenhagen radio station after it called for the extermination of Muslims. Those were real threats and the government protected Muslims. However, Muslims later condemned that same Danish government for not punishing the newspaper that published the cartoons. Specifically, in August, Fadi Abdullatif, the spokesman for the Danish branch of the militant Hizb-ut-Tahrir organization, was charged with calling for the killing of members of the Danish government. Muslims must honestly examine why there is such a huge gap between the way Islam and the prophet Mohummad are described to us by Muslims and the way both are seen by the world in general. The gap is huge based on the images I am watching on the news tonight. I remember the old saying "actions speak stronger than words," I realize that the actions of those in other countries are sometimes hard to understand based on cultural differences, but really. Many Muslims seem to support terrorism on a religious basis and that is far from my understanding of the love of Allah in which I have been told Islam means "submission to God" and the religion is based on 5 pillars which are 1) Prayer 2) Giving of alms 3) Fasting during the holy month of Ramadan 4) Pilgrimage to Mecca 5) Faith Sounds like my religious beliefs until I note the unmentioned intolerance. I get concerned about religious intolerance between denominations and religions in the US, but these folks (muslims) take the prize for intolerance. If you want to see more about this check out Media Watch (UK) . If you want to see the cartooms, see them at the web page of Groep Wilders a Dutch MP (member of parliament) who has the guts to support freedom on this issue. What a mess. These guys really make me tired.

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