Brian Gets Scared of the Camera
How great is this picture? Brian didn’t like the camera yesterday for some reason… as soon as I put it away, he was fine.
From Juan Cole, a great analysis of what’s happened since 9/11, and our response to Al Qaeda.
I, of course, have nothing to say.
This one’s for Reid.
Can’t decide who to vote for? Can’t pick between Bush or Kerry? Need more choices? You need to go check out the real list of who’s running for president. Personally, I’m drawn to the Anti-Hipocrasy Party’s candidate. That’s a party name I can get behind. There’s always Mike’s Party, or the Turtles.
As I’ve said before, I know who I’m voting for. But, if you don’t, and the two choices you’ve been given don’t work for you, then you gotta make your own.
I love Jon Morris in ways that should be illegal (and in Alabama, they are!). To prove my point, today he teaches us that some of the best things in life end in ‘tee’, among other Pirate Wisdom. Trust me, you’ll love it.
In other news, I’ve decided that I need to get more of my pals to blog. To that end, I’ve set up a new site just for them (my friends who want to try blogging): Scibbles Here. Melissa is the first, sure to be followed by others.
Relatedly, this makes me really happy that I have Dreamhost, and that I got in on that crazy anniversary sale last year. I have all sorts of flexibility, bandwidth and options, so setting up a new site is a lot easier than it should be, and they keep lowering prices on domain registration, which makes them even better! All hail Dreamhost! (and yes, that link up there will get me cool stuff if you end up signing up with them, but I really do love them).
On the recommendation of a coworker, I tried out Oxygen last week, and I love it. It’s a great XML/XSL editor and debugger, with in-place validation and transformation, and useful error messages. So, if you need to write some XML or XSL, check it out. Best part… it runs on OS X, Windows or Linux, and it’s got the smoothest Java GUI I’ve ever seen. Very well done!
It’s Fantasy Football time!! We had our draft last night, and for having the last pick, I think I did OK. It’s a fairly risky team, but I think I’ll do well. Here are my guys:
I had to pick up Boller because Harrington and Hasselbeck have the same bye week (stupid, should have looked at that when I drafted them). Duckett and Booker may move up to the starting lineup, but we’ll have to see. I think I’ll be in the hunt again… Yay, Fantasy Football!
And being the commissioner of a league where the commissioner sets the time limit on draft picks, and the draft is really “live” is a pain in the butt.
“The politics of tax and spend are the politics of the past.” — George W. Bush
Ummm, Mr. President, isn’t it better to pay for what you get instead of running up huge debts? Like, oh, six trillion dollars with no end in sight? Yeah, i thought so.
I’ve never liked wikis. I didn’t like wiki syntax, and I thought they always looked really slapdash and ugly. But, I’ve seen the light. I’ve seen Instiki (found via a whole lotta nothing. It’s painfully easy to install, and even easier to use. You can use Textile, Markdown or RDoc with it, and it gives you basic formatting tips right next to the editing window, so there’s no chance of getting confused. In OS X, it even gives you a Wiki menu item, which makes using it for random meeting notes and to-do lists REALLY easy.
If you’re looking for a personal note-taking app, or a wiki for your team, Instiki’s the way to go, really.
The dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good… What worries you masters you. — John Locke
I found that quote in an article in the Post Magazine called Fear Itself, by Gene Weingarten. It’s an excellent review of terror, and our reaction to it, as human beings, Americans and how it compares to a country completely besieged by terror.
Life is fleeting, and death is always too close. As a country, we’ve collectively been faced with our own mortality in a shocking way. It’s been almost three years now, and that realization of our own possible end is always there, whether it’s a vague terror warning, or an airline flying just a little too low near work.
I was thinking about John Mohammed this morning, and the terror he created around here. I remember standing at the gas station around the corner in the middle of the spree, and looking into the face of an older woman and seeing terror. She was just getting gas, something we’ve all done a thousand times or more. But, the simple act of filling up our tanks had been turned into a gauntlet.
Well, I give up. I’m not going to live my life concerned about the evil some nebulous, undefined and vague threat may carry out. In most cases, those who are victims of terror couldn’t have done anything to prepare differently that would have saved them. They were just doing every day things, like getting gas, going to work, getting food or meeting friends,when their lives were taken from them.
We should fight terror. But, “terror” is an emotion. The only way you can fight it is by not being afraid anymore. The only way our government can fight it is by not frightening us anymore with vague warnings we can’t do anything about. The only way our government can really fight terror is to fight the sources of terror, not the emotion. To fight terror, we have to provide hope to the hopeless, help to the helpless,and freedom to the enslaved. And by freedom, I don’t mean dropping bombs on them.